Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Evolution Mining March twenty twenty one Quarter Results Conference Call. All participants are in a listen only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Brian O'Hara, General Manager, Investor Relations.
Please go ahead.
Thanks, Kelly. Good morning, and welcome to the Evolution Mining March twenty twenty one quarterly conference call. This morning on the call, we have Jake Klein, Executive Chairman Lori Conway, CFO and Finance Director Bob Fooker, COO and Glen Masman, VP, Discovery and Business Development. It's been an incredible start to the year with central banks doing everything in their power to stimulate growth following the hit to their economies in 2020. Interest rates are at or near zero, and record amounts of monetary and fiscal stimulus has been impacted.
Inflation remains low, and many economies around the world are now booming with asset prices
with prices of numerous asset classes shooting
moon, including crypto, tech stocks, commodities and real estate. Not surprisingly, with all this excitement, gold has taken a backseat as real yields have risen and appetite for safe haven assets has waned. However, at the current spot price of AUD2300 per ounce, producers are still enjoying exceptionally high gold prices. And with surging expectations for future inflation and continued global currency devaluation, gold will continue to play an important role as an asset class as it has for thousands of years. Thanks, and I'll hand you over to Jack.
Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking the time to join us on the call today. We do appreciate it. Starting with maybe the biggest news in the quarterly release today. Whilst I knew this day was likely to arrive after eight years in the role of Heading up Investor Relations at Evolution, Brian has decided to pursue a career in funds management.
Unfortunately, I've run out of ways to convince him to stay. During his time at Evolution, Brian has undoubtedly been instrumental in improving our reputation in the market for providing high quality and transparent information to all stakeholders, I'd like to personally thank him for his efforts, dedication and contribution and wish him all the very best for his future endeavors. We at Evolution will certainly miss him. I'm pleased to announce that Martin Cummings will move into Brian's role as the General Manager, Investor Relations effective 01/2021. Martin has extensive experience including the last seven years at Evolution in a number of senior roles including General Manager Commercial that involved in leading all banking procurement and insurance relationships.
In supporting this transition, Brian will remain with Evolution until the September and ensure a smooth handover to Martin. So turning to the quarterly, on the safety front, we ended March with a trip of 8.6. Red Lake and Mungari are where most of our recordable injuries are occurring and are getting the most attention. Across the company, we are focused on our critical risks and ensuring any actions are closed out quickly. From a production perspective, the March was planned and budgeted to be a lower production quarter.
But the impact of heavy rains at Mt. Gordon, which restricted access to ore at the base of the pit resulted in the quarter being softer than planned. Notwithstanding this, all our other operations performed largely in line with plans, and we are pleased that today we are in a position to reduce our FY 'twenty one all in sustaining cost guidance from the original AUD $12.40 to AUD 1,300 an ounce to significantly improve AUD $11.90 to AUD $12.20 an ounce. In an environment where investors are appropriately becoming increasingly concerned about cost inflation as the Australian resources industry heats up, this is a very pleasing outcome. Underlying this and something I am very proud of is our very strong employee retention rates, which are close to 90%.
The upcoming June will be our strongest quarter for the year with Mt Rawdon recovering and Red Lake continuing to ramp up its production. So we've also taken the opportunity to narrow the production guidance range from that to 695,000 to 710,000 ounces, which is well within the original guidance of 670,000 to 730,000 ounces. Overall FY 'twenty one is proving to be a very strong year for Evolution. Year to date net mine cash flow is $459,000,000 The Cowal underground feasibility study that will enable Cowal to grow its production base to 350,000 ounces of low cost gold a year has progressed well and engagement with the New South Wales government for the approvals has been constructive and positive. Red Lake delivered production ahead of plan and delivered a record quarter under Evolution's ownership.
With the restart of the Red Lake mill, we expect the June to be materially better. On the March 15, we announced an agreement to acquire Battle North for cash consideration of approximately CAD $343,000,000. Transaction has the full support of the Battle North Board and has been well received by both Battle North and Evolution shareholders. Both groups understand the compelling synergies that exist. The Battle North tenements are almost the same size as our Red Lake ground position and are contiguous to ours.
They are highly prospective with an existing reserve and resource base that would have underpinned a smaller standalone operation producing 74,000 around 74,000 ounces a year at less than US900 dollars per ounce all in sustaining cost. The plant is approximately 12 kilometers away by road from our mining operations and our due diligence supported the Battle North view that it is expandable from its existing 650,000 tonnes per annum to 900,000 tonnes per annum capacity at a low capital cost. They also have material tax losses, a large portion of which should be able to be utilized by merged operation. Timing was right. Vaternalt had secured bank funding to commence their standalone development and there was a window in which to make an offer.
I commend and thank their CEO, George Ogilby, his team and the Battle North Board of Directors being open to engagements acting commercially and in the best interest of their shareholders. The Battle North shareholder meeting is scheduled for the May 11. With that, I'll hand over to Bob to provide some further detail on the operations.
Thanks, Jake, and good morning, everybody. I'd like to start with safety. As Jake mentioned, we have slightly increased our TRIF by 2% for last quarter. Mt Rawdon continues its exceptional run of injury free production with four fifty three days injury free as of today. March production was 161,000 ounces produced.
This was due to the group wide lower planned mill feed grade and Mt Rawdon's unplanned stockpile treatment, realizing a net quarter on quarter reduction in mill feed grade of 8%. All in sustaining costs of $12.63 dollars resulted in a $101,000,000 of net mine cash flow. Mt Rawdon's production was down due to heavy rain requiring removal remediation. This affected the planned mill feed as we substituted low grade stockpiles for high grade pit food. This remediation is now completed and as previously stated, the fourth quarter was planned for higher ounce production due to a full quarter of production from both Red Lake mills.
This is now combined with an improved Mt Rawdon quarter due to delayed high grade feed. Cowal delivered 52,000 ounces at an all in sustaining cost of $10.78 dollars an ounce, with an operating mine cash flow of $56,900,000 Pleasingly, their spend on major growth projects has continued with $36,000,000 in completed works for the quarter. The Cowal underground achieved another significant milestone in February with the commencement of the Galway Decline. This will provide additional underground drilling platforms, with drilling commencing in the June quarter. June quarter will also see the completion of the feasibility study, while the regulatory approval process continues in line with our expectations.
During the quarter, TEL operation experienced a one-one hundred year rain event. While this resulted in higher than planned weather delays and some geotechnical issues, John and the site team responded extremely well and consequently the mine remains on track to deliver the full year. Ernest Henry once again made a significant financial contribution to the group, producing 22,400 ounces at an all in sustaining cost of negative $10.27 dollars per ounce, whilst generating net mine cash flow for Evolution of CAD74.8 million. Red Lake produced 36,000 ounces at an all in sustaining cost of CAD966 per ounce, with a net mine cash flow of CAD1.3 million. Noting the operation has sold 3,000 ounces less than it produced.
Working on our transformation of the Red Lake operation continues to plan with several highlights achieved during the quarter. We are starting to see consistency in mine development, successfully restarting the Red Lake mill, and the milling team achieved the second consecutive record throughput month at Red Lake, processing 56,200 tonnes for the month of March. With the Board approving the CYD decline expenditure, work commenced on the box cut. The next key milestone being the underground development contract mobilization. The decline project remains on track to deliver ore within twelve months.
With the Battle North potential acquisition, the Red Lake technical team has been working to include this exciting opportunity into the Red Lake planning cycle. Integration is well underway and the team are looking forward to the opportunity to bring the entire field together under the one leadership team within the next couple of months. Mungari delivered 27,000 ounces in the quarter at an all in sustaining cost of $15.61 dollars an ounce and net mine cash flow of CAD10.9 million. On the production front, seismicity impacted the underground mining sequence and high grade delivery during the quarter. However, the underground production from other sources remained consistent.
Open pit mining rates have increased by 20% quarter on quarter as Cutters Ridge infrastructure setup is completed. As mentioned, Mt Rawdon's production was seriously affected by rain and the subsequent geotechnical issues on the east wall. The team has remediated the pit wall and regained access to the pit bottom. They've also completed the work and increased stability factors that were concerned during the late wet season. The mining schedule has been reforecast, taking the remediation timing and the bench positioning into consideration to significantly increase ore production during Q4 from the northern end of the pit.
Depressurization holes have been installed in both the east and west walls to mitigate the effect of further rain events. And the destocking of the eastern ramp will be deferred until surface high grade stocks have been built. It's been a tough quarter for the team, but the focus on safety and the determination to work through the issues has been back into the high grade zones in the pit base. We have reestablished access to the fresh ore on the negative 30 RL and this is grading 0.9 grams per tonne compared to the 0.5 stockpile material processed in the March. Mt Cotton delivered to plan.
The quarter cash flow was affected by timing of the concentrate shipments and this is expected to turn around in the coming quarter. In the June, Mt Tartan underground will be concentrating on the Western Zone and the A-thirty 9 decline. In summary, our operations are in a great position to deliver a strong June and the delivery of our yearly guidance for ounces and our pleasingly reduction in guidance on cost. Thank you for your time, and I'll hand it over to Glen.
Thank you, Bob, and good morning, everyone. Drilling was ongoing during the quarter at Red Lake, Cowal, Mungari and Kew, where we completed over 14,000 meters of resource definition drilling and 22,000 meters of discovery drilling. At Red Lake, up to nine rigs were active with six in the underground and three on surface. A number of high grade results from infill holes confirmed continuity of higher grades in the deep sulphide ore body as well as Red Lake, which are expected to convert from resources to reserves. Encouraging step outs at Cochina, outlined on Page 11, will be followed up in the June.
The holes are planned beneath the upper main zone with aggressive step outs to explore the full extent of mineralization beyond the deepest levels of planned development. Discovery drilling continued underground on structural and stratigraphic targets in the
hanging wall of the Kogola Fault.
This fault had an important influence on the geometry of the historically mined high grade zone and may potentially link to new mineralization in adjacent domains. We're currently following up the promising results highlighted on Page 12 to determine potential scale and grade mineralization intersected in this hole. The three surface rigs were positioned on targets outside the mining infrastructure footprint. One of the rigs was set up on the ice and provided our first experience of lake drilling Canadian style, which as you can imagine is a little different to what we are normally accustomed to when we drill on salt lakes in Western Australia. Results from the program on the East Bay Trend, the Western Stratigraphy and the SR Zone will be known during the June.
Locations of the three prospects are shown in Figure two on Page 13. At Cowal, the single surface rig completed eight holes in the GRE46 underground. Strong results continued to improve ore body definition at Delmini and extend the resource down plunge. Late in the quarter, the rig moved into the pit at E42 to complete geotechnical drilling before setting up on the Southwest Crest to drill four deep step out holes. The drilling is targeting high grade extensions and mineralization beneath the ultimate pit design, where historic high grade intercepts are associated with the central fault.
At Mungari, drilling underground at Bulk Leg aimed to incrementally extend mineralization at the rocket ore body beneath the deepest development in the mine. The drilling is intended to delineate how far the mineralized vein structure can fill into an untested space that is ultimately closed off by a panel of drilling deeper down. Visual results have been encouraging, albeit the structure appears
to narrow down deep.
Results, which we expect will be available later in the June, will guide further drill planning to potentially extend mine life in the underground. At Kew in Western Australia, our joint venture partner, Musgrave Minerals, commenced a seven hole diamond drilling program. The objective of the drilling is to identify high grade bedrock origins at the five kilometer long gold and anchor anomaly at Lake Austin. Results are expected to be available in the June. Lastly, at Crush Creek, drilling is planned to commence early this quarter to continue drilling on the 126,000 ounce maiden mineral resource released back in February.
Drilling will be focused on growing the resource base and following up on positive results reported last quarter from Gamma and Delta. Several new targets were developed over the summer wet season, which will be added to the work program in this quarter. With that, I'll hand over to Laurie.
Thank you, Glen, and good morning, everyone. A summary of our financial performance for the March is outlined on Pages ten and eleven of the report. A few key points I want to highlight today are as follows. Our cash generation and margin are good despite a lower gold price. The outlook for the June is sound, which allows us to improve our cost guidance and our balance sheet strength demonstrates we're able to prosper through the cycle.
We generated $100,000,000 of net mine cash flow and $40,000,000 of group cash flow in the quarter. Operationally, as outlined by Bob, the main drivers to production and unit costs were mostly planned lower grades, which were down 8% quarter on quarter and the flow on effect to recoveries, which were down 2%. However, biggest impact on our cash flow was metal prices. The achieved gold price was 8% or $200 per ounce lower. We did benefit from a 20% higher copper price, which meant the overall net price impact was around 5% lower.
However, against this lower price, we still delivered an all in cost margin of four sixty seven dollars per ounce, which is the equivalent of 21% of revenue. Year to date, our all in cost margin is $731 an ounce or just over 30%. With an improved performance expected in the June, this margin will increase. Looking to the June where we are on track for higher production and lower costs. The utilization of the Red Lake mill for the full quarter and access to higher grades in the pit at Mt Rawdon will be the main drivers to the June.
The other operations will be similar with some minor increases or decreases. This will see the average group grade and recovery move back up towards the December levels. This has allowed us to tighten our guidance range to between six hundred and ninety five thousand and seven and ten thousand ounces. On the back of this plan for the June and the consistent cost profile across the business as well as a higher achieved copper price, we have lowered our all in sustaining cost guidance to $11.90 dollars to $12.20 dollars per ounce.
The real positive though is that in
the area where we have the most influence is being very well controlled. That is in the area of costs. Our operating expenditure has been at the $225,000,000 mark for each of the first three quarters this year. We will see a slight increase in the June, but this is being driven mainly by the Red Lake and Mt Rawdon activities mentioned earlier. Our sustaining capital has also been consistent at 23,000,000 to $25,000,000 for each quarter.
And based on the forecast for the June, we will finish the year at 100,000,000 to $110,000,000 which is down from our original guidance of 113,000,000 to 138,000,000 From an all in cost perspective, our major projects are tracking to plan, which has an increasing spend profile as these projects advance. We are on track to finish the year within the original guidance range of $2.62 $90,000,000 With year to date net mine cash flow and group cash flow of $455,000,000 and $258,000,000 respectively, the balance sheet is in excellent shape. Net bank is $167,000,000 after we paid a record interim dividend amount of $120,000,000 during the quarter. Our unordered gearing is 6% and we are heading to a net cash position by the end of the year prior to completion of the Battle North transaction. We plan to fund the Battle North transaction from existing cash and credit facility.
Our revolver facility of $360,000,000 remains undrawn, which provides us with adequate liquidity going forward. Thank you for your time this morning. And Kaylee, please open the lines for questions.
Thank you. Your first question comes from Nick Abert with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Good day, guys.
It is you, Nick. It is me. I thought that was me. This is Paul.
I'd like to start on Red Light, please, just to clarify a few details about Upper Campbell. But just wondering what the ramp up profile is post that first ore in twelve months and what sustainable extraction rate that gets to? Also, just interested in the grade continuity that we should just be assuming that reserve grade 7.4, whether that's sort of some variability there when you sort of start from that top down? Thanks. I've got a couple of others to follow.
Thanks, Nick. I'll pass over to Bob.
Thanks, Nick. The grade is your assumptions are up. The ramp up, we're expecting it to be over an extended or not extended, but it's not going to be instantaneous. That's going to take a bit of time to ramp up to a full production tonnage regime. And it will be post the twelve month time frame.
So we're expecting maybe to get some development ore in that first twelve months, but nothing major else. Post that, we're using pretty broad numbers at the moment, but most underground decline mines, that second year would be some sort of half rate and then moving into full rate for that sort of third and subsequent years. We are planning for the areas to have a couple of mining front. And as we said last time, full production is around about I don't know.
It I help you or mean, I think what we're doing is a lot of strategic planning around how to integrate the Bateman facilities and projects as well. And we'll update the market post the shareholder vote over there. But we were going to be mill constrained with just the Campbell and Red Lake mill. We now have the Bateman mill potentially available and the Bateman deposit. So we'll be updating the market once the Bateman shareholder vote is complete as to more detail around ramp ups and source of ore and grades.
Okay, great. Thank you. That leads nicely into my next question. Just interested in how you're thinking around that Bateman acquisition and whether that changes your long term view on that 300 to 500,000 ounces that you put out there as a target? Or is it more really around sort of the flexibility that gives you in terms of sort of that available mill capacity?
And then just by an extension, where that sort of fits into your thinking given that it's a new mill and potentially lower cost. If you can sort of offer any comment on that. Yes.
So it doesn't change our profile on 300 to 500,000 ounces. Because one of the constraints that we are confronting was with only the Campbell and Red Lake Mills, we were going to be mill constrained once the Upper Campbell area ramps up and the lower areas reach full production. So now we've shifted the sort of the constraint back to the mining area. What does it do in terms of how things it's not more than 300 to 500,000 ounces, but it gives us opportunity to get there potentially sooner. The challenge is going to be which mill to fill, how do we get the highest grade to the mills earliest.
And that work is ongoing and I think should wait until we get the shareholder through the shareholder votes with Battle North to really give you a sense as to what our thinking is in detail around that. But the highest grade to the lowest cost mills will be the strategy.
Thank you. Then And sorry,
the abatement mill is a lower cost mill than the other mills.
Understood. And then on team room, are you able to give a bit of an update on how that deep drilling from below that 1,200 meters is progressing? And then just a reminder of when a resource update is due there, please.
Good morning, Nick. The program's running to schedule. We've doubled the budget this year in calendar year with Glencore and Ernest Henry to allow us to do an update in the 2022. They expect to move to a concept study middle of this calendar year to inform what happens below the 1,200. But all drilling and the programs are tracking on plan.
Okay, great. Thanks, Laurie. And then finally, just Brian, thanks for all your help over the years. It's been good working for you and all the best for your next venture.
Nick. I didn't know if worked
for me, but that's a nice
thing to say. I really enjoyed all the engagement with the broader market over the years and obviously, thanks.
My concern is that as Brian moves into the fund management area, he may be on one of these calls asking the difficult questions. Thanks, Nick.
Your next question comes from Hayden Bairstow with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Also, Brian, you're well done, mate. We hope to see if you get a final swap at the gold on your way out. So we're all done there. Well, just a couple of things, James.
I just sort of understand, because obviously, got a big transaction in gold just completed, you sort of talked about with Brian's comments around the gold outlook. I mean, how are thinking about the structure of the portfolio and some of the smaller assets, obviously, going step up capital in Canada and sort of where you're thinking on that front? And then also a bit of management of the hedge book, I mean, is it an opportunity to close a bit more and squeeze sort of out of the money hedges out, probably the price is a bit softer? You can get that fixed.
Lloyd, do you want to comment on the hedge book first? Yes, sure.
Hayden, our position is, we've had the hedging in place for specific reasons, be they developments of cutbacks or Red Lake for example was just to make sure over this first two years of transformation of the asset to ensure that they could fund their own capital. And our position remains that we'll deliver the hedge books as they fall due. We're not going to take a speculation on what the gold price will do. We want the assets to produce at their lowest possible cost and we still end up with a benefit of 85 to 90% of our production and sales going into the spot market. So we're comfortable where it sits at the moment.
On the portfolio Hayden, no change to the strategy. Continue to look through things through the lens of will it improve the quality of our portfolio and will it be accretive to our shareholders and that relates to investments or divestments.
Okay, great. And just on the Canadian acquisition, is that which is going to be a discussion about how quickly to ramp up mine development given the surface capacity is now already in place?
Yes, it is. I mean, it's the spotlight is firmly on Bob now to get the mining productivity up and get the mills filled.
Okay, great. Thanks guys. Thanks.
Your next question comes from Sophie Spartalis with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, team. I just wanted to ask two questions, if I can. First one, just in terms of the improved cost guidance. Laurie, can you just break down how much of that was copper related versus other, please? Copper price related?
Yes. Sophie, mean, we probably see that the second half of the year we're averaging AUD11500 a tonne against AUD8400. So we would see that probably AUD50 an ounce likely is the full year impact. You're then going to have an impact of probably, I'd say, dollars 5 an ounce is on sustaining capital and the balance is going to be on a mix of OpEx and production mix for the portfolio.
Okay, that's great. And then just a second question probably more for either Bob or Jake. Just in terms of CAL, can you talk through how sustainable the plan is of going to 350,000 ounces? What do you need to further shore up to see those rates being sustained for life of mine?
Sophie, good question. I think it's sustainability is linked to the underground development and getting the higher grade ore through the mill. And then it's that combination of the stock feed of open pit feed and the underground giving us the grade to lift the production. And the underground, as we said, the feasibility has come to conclusion and it will be finished like this sort of quarter, fourth quarter. So we'll come back after that's finished as well.
But that's how I see the stability there. Underground will give the grade kick that we need.
And the next real catalyst there is government approvals, which is engagement has been good and constructive. We've answered all the questions which have been asked. Public support has been good and it's going through the normal process.
Okay. So just in terms of that underground development for that grade kick, are you confident that that grade kick is there? Do you need to further explore for higher grade material to sustain it, or you're quite comfortable given what you found to date?
Yes, so if we look at we're pretty confident. Yes, we are confident. Definition drilling, the stuff that we've done so far, the stuff that Remedy's team from the geological perspective have done, they've actually been showing that as we put those holes in closer, we get better definition as we go down to the stope size as opposed to the regional block model. Over time, we're expecting that to continue.
Yes. So I'll
just add that the underground resource, which is well, the reserve based on an indicated classification is a pretty
good we're confident
it's a good global estimate of tonnes and grade in the model. The next phase for us is as that development gets into positions where we can start to sort of move from sort of indicated in the measured classification with more infill drilling to improve or increase the drilling density and then eventually into grade control. And that's going to give us a better understanding for the site design of grade and three d station or locally.
Your
next question comes from Kate McCutcheon with Citi. Hi, Jake and Bob. Two questions at Red Lake, please. Those unit processing costs have trended right down since you've had the asset. Is that something that we can expect moving forward?
And secondly, the seismic issues that you called out at Red Lake, is that transient or related to the specific mining area? Any comments there?
Yes, the cost, Kate, our plan is to continue to reduce our costs at Red Lake right across the board from mining to processing to G and A. It's a long and as we said when we did the original acquisition, it's a three year process, so we're halfway through that. The actual seismicity at Red Lake is predominantly in the Lower Red Lake zones. We don't seem to have it or we don't have it in the Cochina or some of the upper levels of Red Lake. But that's something that we work with and it's something that they've got a good management plan around.
The comment was really around seismicity at Mungari from a production perspective for last quarter. And that's something that we're dealing with and the guys actually know about it and they've got planes and geotechnical sequences that they follow to make sure that it actually can be continued.
Okay, I'll just add that we are making improvements and cost reductions at Red Lake, which is great. The Bateman mill does operate at materially lower cost than the Red Lake and Campbell mills. So that provides us an opportunity as we get into feed into that mill to get it down even further than the sort of the improvements that we're making from a productivity and efficiency perspective at Red Lake.
Yeah. Okay. And then assuming that Battle North all goes through, are you able to just remind me again that the permitting process to be able to truck ore from Upper Campbell and also to lift the permanent capacity of the Bateman mill?
Yes, so you need a permit, it's a provincial permit to be able to track the material. It needs some testing of the material to ensure that there is no issues associated with the deposition of that material into that tailings dam. We don't anticipate that to be a difficult permit to obtain. It's really a matter of timing. And then a similar process to ramp up the development or the limit on capacity from 450,000 tons to 900,000 tons per annum.
So we don't see those as roadblocks in terms of the ramp up to over 2,000,000 tonnes of throughput at Red Oak.
Yes. Okay. So they're both provincial permits?
Yes.
Perfect. And then finally, just turning to CAL, is there anything in the feasibility study that depends on the permitting outcomes? Or can it happen completely in a separate work stream?
The start of development really depends on the permits being obtained. And then we've got to put the pace for clients and the accommodation of the big ticket items. So clearly, in terms of starting the development effectively, we need those permits to come through.
Thanks, Pat. Appreciate it.
Your next question comes from Mitch Ryan with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, I think it's sort of a random question that we asked. Just following the shareholder meeting at about on the May 11, can you just remind us then of the settlement time frame, so when you get the case to that asset if the vote is in your favor?
The vote is on the eleventh with an approval expected by the May 17 and then shortly after everything will get closed out and we'll get the case.
It's similar to I think a scheme of arrangement here where there's a it goes to the courts for confirmation or affirmation of the shareholder vote, but it's a procedural matter.
Second question and not related, but I guess hearing from those of your peers with assets in Western Australia, labor availability has been a key issue from a cost basis. You guys are lowering your costs and obviously some of that's attributable to copper. But can you give us any commentary on how you're finding labor availability on the East Coast and what cost pressures that user isn't having on your cost basis?
Yeah, Mitch, I'll reference back to the comments I made that our retention rates are high, they're close to 90%. It's been a real focus for us to try and ensure retention of people. It is higher on the East Coast than the West Coast where there is increased turnover and increased pressure. But on the East Coast particularly, our retention rates are very high. And overall as a group, very pleased with the close to 90% retention rate.
Yes, thank you. Third and last question for me, guess, comes to the issue on running a portfolio of assets is sort of well communicated. But given a lot of the soft core comes from Mt Rawdon and its negligible contribution to MVV, is the strategic review of the asset something you're considering?
I mean, I think Mt Rawdon had a soft quarter because of the rain and really it will get back on track. The only thing to overlay on today is to say that all our assets are always under review. But I don't think we should take the one quarter from Mt. Broaden as reflective of its position in the portfolio.
Fair enough. Thank you all for your time and best of luck, Brian. Thanks, Mitch.
Thanks, Mitch.
Your next question comes from Andrew Barrett with S and P Global Market Intelligence. So
just a quick question actually on the United Nations Global Compact that you announced a couple of weeks back. So just wondering whether I mean, you know, companies announced these things and they joined these initiatives, but there wasn't much said. I know that you spelled it out in your signed earlier report. I think there was a reference to that in your letter that you sent them to apply for it. But what does it actually mean?
Is there anything you'd say about what signing up to what means for you tangibly in terms of, like, you know, do you need because it's kind of a would would require you to do something which you might be see yourself as maybe being, you know, in inefficient in some way at the moment or look for new initiatives or do a particular thing better that you see that that obviously you're working on most of it, imagine that already. But I was looking for something more tangible in terms of what that means for your company.
Yes. I think we would say that we were compliant and in line with the 10 principles even before we signed up. But we did see it as an important signal to reflect our commitment to ongoing to those principles and something that hopefully the whole industry will get on board with. So it's more an initiative rather than work that needs to be done to ensure that we are compliant because we were compliant prior to this.
Just more broadly then, is there something that you say is there's something unique to the gold industry about fostering those golds that the global compacts kind of broadly working towards as opposed to other commodities, whether it be in the area of gold bar tracing or something that's kind of specific to the gold mining industry that's kind of that really needs to be brought to bear?
No, I think it's more around the 10 principles, the environmental issues, the human rights issues, the labor issues, anticorruption, those are all related. I don't think there's anything necessarily specific to gold. The issue which you raise of sort of tracking a gold bar, we will listen to shareholder and stakeholder feedback as to whether that's something that they want to see in the future. We've been pitched by a few people that blockchain is the solution to that, but I'm still learning about blockchain and that technology.
Your
next question comes from Alex Barclay with Morgan Stanley Australia.
Just one question for me on the sustaining capital guidance improvement.
What was
the main contribution there? And was it mainly a case of good work lowering costs? Or are we likely to see some of that deferred into FY 'twenty two and impact the 110,000,000 to $135,000,000 guidance in that year? Alex,
it was a combination there. Certainly at Red Lake with some of the improvements they've been able to achieve, don't see them spending all of that capital this year. You may see some of it flow into next year. And at the other sites, it was just a reduction overall of what they see in the sustaining capital requirements for this year. We're about five weeks away from finishing all of the life of mine plans and final budgets for next year, but we don't expect that sustaining capital next year to materially move from our three year outlook.
Okay. That's quite helpful. Thanks for that. And good luck to you, Brian.
Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Your next question comes from Paul Kaner with RBC. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, gents. Thanks for taking my question. Just touching further on those Red Lake costs. Understand that can bring down your fixed milling cost component.
Does that mean we're likely to see a change to your long term cost assumptions at Red Lake for the broader region?
We said our three year outlook without Bateman was to get to US1000 dollars an ounce at 200,000 ounces a year. We're not yet ready to formulate what the 300 to 500,000 ounces will look like. And I think that's better to wait until we have the abatement project in hand and can articulate the strategy around how we're going to fill those mills. We'll have over 2,000,000 tons of capacity at those three processing mills. As I said earlier, getting the highest grade into them as quickly as possible is going to be the priority.
Yes. No worries. Understood. Thanks for that. That's all for me.
And thanks, Brian, for your help over
the last years.
Thanks, Paul. Cheers.
Your next question comes from Stuart McKinnon with The West Australian. Please go ahead.
Good day, guys. This one
is probably for you, Jake.
I think last time, last quarter or perhaps the quarterly before that, you talked about the easing gold price possibly bringing down valuations of assets and making it more realistic and achievable to do M and A. We've just seen that you can get an asset sale in Tropicana and what some people consider the pretty high price. So was just wondering if you're seeing that lower gold price sort of translate through to lower asset valuations or if things are still pretty hot out there in terms of the M and A space?
That's a good question, Stuart. We've done one piece of M and A, the Battle North project where we saw an opportunity there. Yes, the Tropicana sale, we didn't acquire that. So you can draw your own conclusions with respect to that. Yes, mean, I think we're going to stick to the strategy of doing things which are accretive to our shareholders and continuing to look for opportunities where either there is a geological opportunity, which Glenn and his team can identify or there is some stress or motivation from the seller.
Motivated sellers in a rising gold price environment are more difficult to find. So the shift is back to Glen and his team to find geological upside.
Your
next question comes from Peter O'Connor with Shaw and Partners.
On for Bob. About Red Lake,
as the mine evolves and production starts to expand on the currently, cease to be constrained. Just thinking about how the costs evolve. So you've got some deeper complex, all the stoping areas in the current operation, you get new areas in abatement, and when you put the deep line down at Red Lake, obviously, you're kinda unencumbered by old mining areas. Stoping cost, does it matter whether it's new virgin ground in the decline or abatement or a depth that the stoping cost is the same or is there material benefit from even over the open up in the area on the surface from the decline?
Thanks, Peter. There is an ease of doing the decline which will enable access and productivity improvements because it's not constrained by the shaft. The shafts themselves, though, they've got capacity for plus 1,100,000 tonnes from the underground. The Lower Red Lake area, as I talked about before, it has issues with some seismic need, but there's a lot of areas down there that don't have any of that, and there's lot of virgin ground down there that it's quite easy to get nicely concise stopes it's locked into the area to mine productively. With clear open space between the historic openings and the new ones gives us the ability to mine cheaper and mine with less complexity.
So to answer your question, it's a bit of a combination of all of it. I do expect the stoping from underground at Red Lake down the lower levels to improve in the cost as we get better cycles and better sized stopes. But I also expect that the Upper Campbell will eventually come to its own due to the decline in the cost reductions we can get from the trucking as opposed to the hoisting.
So not a material dollar per tonne difference?
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Klein for closing remarks.
Yes. Everyone. I appreciate you listening in and looking forward to updating you once the Battle North shareholder meeting is held with announcements and more granularity around our plans at Red Lake. Thanks very much.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.