I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Shaun Day, Managing Director. Please proceed.
Thank you, Ashley. Welcome to the December 2025 Greatland Quarterly Results Call. Joining me on the call today is our CFO, Monique Connolly, and our Chief Development Officer, Rowan Krasnoff. Just turning to slide 5, which provides the December Quarterly Results Summary. We produced over 86,000 ounces of gold, plus 3,500 tons of copper for the quarter. Full-year production guidance of 260,000-310,000 ounces remains unchanged. It was another really strong quarter for us just past, but we also expect there could be a slight weighting towards the first half of the year. That said, we're well placed to achieve towards the upper end of production guidance, and with that, towards the lower end of cost guidance. Pleasingly, all in sustaining costs came in at AUD 2,196 per ounce.
This is a really good outcome, and as we continue to focus on cost control while participating in the strong gold market pricing. The operating cash flow was a highlight for the quarter, with AUD 406 million generated. At around 12 months post-acquisition, we now have AUD 940 million of cash at bank, debt-free, which is a tremendous balance sheet strength. The outcomes post-acquisition have been extraordinary, both in terms of achieving a five-month cash payback, and from the AUD 540 million acquisition price, we've added over half a billion of shareholder value for each month since that acquisition. During the quarter, on 1 December 2025, we released the Havieron Feasibility Study, confirming the exceptional quality of Havieron as a world-class, long-life, and lowest quartile cost asset. Rowan will speak to the study outcomes later in the presentation deck. Our record Telfer drilling program continues. We now have 10 active rigs at site.
During the December quarter, we completed over 54,000 meters of drilling as the program continues to ramp up. In particular, the results from the West Dome underground were outstanding, and although we shared a specific West Dome underground update earlier in the quarter, last week, as part of our quarterly exploration update, we included 10 new drill holes, including a couple which are our best gram meter intercepts yet in that West Dome underground. Turning to slide seven, we'll unpack some of the key drivers of the quarter's strong results. The key chart for me is the middle chart with total material mined. This is up again this quarter to 6.6 million tons. It's the fourth consecutive quarter of increasing for a total increase of 49% growth in material mined in the four quarters since Greatland took over at Telfer.
So we're really pleased with that improvement in the productivity in that open pit. The open pit feed grade dipped by just 0.02 of 1 gram to 0.58 grams per tonne. We increased the proportion of partially costed material or lower grade ore that we direct tipped into the crushers. This has the dual advantages of, one, avoiding rehandling costs of putting down and picking up again ore or stockpiles, and secondly, it's preserved the high-grade stockpiles. In terms of Stage 7, growth stripping continues with 3.6 million tons of waste mined for the quarter at a strip ratio of 4.3 times. This was down from around 7.2 times in the last quarter as we continue to advance the Stage 7 towards the overall design strip ratio of 1.1 times. Grades reconciled as expected in the December quarter, which was a really pleasing and positive sign.
This is all part of us having pivoted to a new grade control system where traditionally Telfer relied on utilizing blast hole sampling. We now undertake dedicated grade control drilling on a 12.5 m grid, which is effectively offset to the 25 m grid that we have for resource definition drilling, which again was bored in significantly from the previous approach of 50 m spacing. So it's just a much better level of drill density. And as we continue to implement this system, but we're really pleased with the early indications, which are positive around the approach we're taking. Turning to the underground, the Main Dome underground, there was approximately 240,000 tons of ore mined, mostly from A Reefs, the Eastern Stockworks, the ESC, and the High Grade Reef stopes. Underground development is progressing strongly with just under 1,400 m of development, including around 800 m of growth capital development during the quarter.
The second development drive out to the West Dome underground advanced 372 meters, so that's around 68% complete at quarter end. Moving to slide 8 on processing, we milled 4.5 million tons at 0.65 gram head grade, which was 12% higher than the previous quarter in terms of head grade. Recoveries were tremendous again. In the September quarter, we achieved the highest quarterly gold recovery at Telfer since 2010 at 88.6%, and we delivered this again in the December quarter at 88.4%. The consistency of this recovery is really encouraging for us as we move into the second half. Onto stockpiles. This quarter, we processed 1.7 million tons of ROM stockpiles, and we have an estimated 2.5 million tons of high-grade stockpiles remaining at the quarter end. The preservation of those stockpiles reflects that increased use of direct tipping the partially oxidized material out of the open pits.
A drawdown of 1.7 million tons stockpile was down significantly from the 2.5 million tons in the September quarter. We retained the low-grade stockpile of just under 21 million tons at 0.33 grams, which provides tons without mining cost flexibility and contingency going forward. We expect some of this stockpile to be incorporated into the FY27 mine plan. Then just a brief update on the tailings storage facilities. TSF8 Stage 3 lift construction is progressing to schedule, and we expect that to be completed in the current March 2026 quarter, providing tailings capacity out to at least March 2027. When we acquired Telfer, you might recall that we described that we had less than six weeks in float in the schedule to complete the TSF8 Stage 2 lift.
So getting ahead now, more than 12 months ahead in terms of our TSF capacity, has been a really important de-risking event for our operations. TSF8 Stage 4 construction is scheduled to commence in the June 2026 quarter. With that, I'll hand across to Monique to speak to costs.
Thanks, Shaun. As Shaun outlined earlier, we achieved an All-In Sustaining Cost of AUD 2,196. This is a great outcome driven by strong ounce production, good cost control, and stronger-than-budgeted copper byproduct credits from the favorable current copper price. The first half performance positions us very well on an FY26 basis. We expect production to trend towards the upper end of guidance range and All-In Sustaining Cost to trend towards the lower end. Our All-In Sustaining Cost margin for the quarter was AUD 4,105, up 67% since the March 2025 quarter. Looking at the key operating cost items, mining costs of AUD 77 million increased as planned due to higher overall ore mined, higher total material moved, and lower capitalized production stripping.
Processing costs of AUD 92 million were higher than the prior quarter due to higher surface maintenance costs incurred during the planned November mill shutdown and processing more Stage 2 material, which required more reagents and consumables. Given the operational strength, we are utilizing planned shutdowns to do more preventative and proactive maintenance, which was a little behind prior to our acquisition. Sustaining capital of AUD 25 million was higher than the previous quarter due to advancement of the Telfer Village upgrade and higher spend on underground development. Site services costs of AUD 25 million were marginally lower than the previous quarter. Now turning to cash flow and finance, we generated revenue of AUD 507 million from sales of 72,000 ounces of gold and 3,300 tons of copper. Noting that we began loading a shipment in late December, which only completed loading in early January, containing 17,000 ounces of gold.
This was in the ordinary course of business, so the sales ounces and revenue will be recognized in January for accounting purposes for ounces that were produced during the December quarter. You're seeing the AUD 119 million cash received in our operating cash flow and cash balance at December 2025. Gold sales were achieved at an average realized price of AUD 6,300 per ounce, over 1,000 per ounce less than the current spot price. This resulted in Telfer's operating cash flow of AUD 406 million and AUD 198 million cash build, which is after a once-off AUD 46 million stamp duty payment associated with the Telfer-Havieron acquisition. We closed the quarter with AUD 948 million of cash and no debt, and we remained fully exposed to any upside in the gold price with downside protection via gold put options out to June 2027 at an average strike price of AUD 4,500.
In regards to non-cash movements, we had inventory movements resulting in a credit to the P&L of AUD 5.8 million, depreciation amortization for the quarter of AUD 24.6 million, and we've guided four-year depreciation amortization of approximately AUD 140 million weighted towards the second half of FY26. From a tax perspective, and also just to remind everyone, as reported in our FY25 annual report, we accrued a tax liability of AUD 76 million to be paid in the March quarter. This results in Greatland commencing a tax payment position, and post-March 2026, we expect to make monthly corporate tax installments. Overall, the December quarter highlights the strong cash-generating capacity of the business, further de-risking and providing flexibility in funding Havieron's development. Turning to gross capital, as you know, FY26 is a significant year of investment at Telfer with a view of multi-life extension.
Our gross capital program at Telfer is progressing well and in line with plan at AUD 61 million spent during the December quarter across Stage 3 lift, which is now substantially complete and providing our tailings capacity into 2027. West Dome Stage 7 open pit gross stripping continued, as did our underground development across A-Reefs, ESC, and West Dome underground, and the open pit mining plate renewal program. Telfer's gross spend is tracking to our four-year guidance of AUD 230 million-AUD 260 million. In terms of resource development and exploration, we spent approximately AUD 15 million during the quarter, the results of which Shaun will speak to later. At Havieron, we spent AUD 19 million for feasibility study costs and early works, which resulted in widening of the boxcut and portal works to enclose the boxcut and connect to surface via a reinforced concrete tunnel.
Mining recommenced with extensions to the ventilation drives and access progressing towards the conveyor decline, and mining is currently being undertaken on a single shaft to take advantage of the existing machinery and people on site to allow progressing critical path development ahead of approvals being obtained, which are on target for FY 2026. I'll now hand over to Rowan to discuss the Havieron feasibility study.
Thanks, Monique. As you will have seen, we released the Havieron feasibility study on the 1st of December and confirmed the pathway to a world-class, long-life, lowest quartile cost Australian gold copper mine leveraging our existing Telfer infrastructure. Key highlights included life of mine production of 4 million ounces gold equivalent, an updated ore reserve of 3.7 million ounces gold equivalent, which is the third largest underground gold reserve in Australia, integration with Telfer with Havieron ore to be trucked to Telfer and processed at the Telfer mill, de-risking Havieron's delivery and underwriting the longevity of Telfer. An initial mine life of 17 years, including a nine-year steady state period where production averages 266,000 ounces a year at lowest quartile all-in sustaining cost of AUD 1,610 per ounce, and with the potential for that to be lower if Telfer extends and Havieron ore is co-processed with it.
Our pre-production CapEx of AUD 1.065 billion is expected to be fully funded from existing cash reserves of AUD 948 million at the end of December and our AUD 500 million debt commitment with our tier one lending syndicate. Turning to the next slide, here we see the really robust financial outcomes of the study under our base case Havieron standalone processing scenario. At the base case, Australian 4,500 per ounce long-term gold price, which is almost 40% lower than today's spot gold price, Havieron generates free cash flow of AUD 5.4 billion, an NPV of AUD 2.9 billion, an IRR of 22.5%, and a payback period of 4.2 years. When we released the study on the 1st of December, the spot gold price that we ran was Australian 6,250 per ounce, which generated free cash flow of AUD 9.6 billion, NPV of AUD 5.4 billion, an IRR of 31.5%, and a payback period of 3.2 years.
The spot gold price today is more than $1,000 higher than the spot case that we ran in December. Let's turn to a few comps of Havieron. First, on this slide, you see our updated Havieron ore reserve of 38.5 million tons for 3.7 million ounces contained gold equivalent, and we compare it to current Australian underground gold reserves of more than 500,000 ounces contained. You can see we're in great company here behind Newmont's tier one Cadia and Tanami assets in terms of reserve size. We used a very conservative Australian AUD 2,500 gold price for the ore reserve, which demonstrates the quality of Havieron and its ability to work through the cycle. It's a really unique asset in the Australian mid-cap space.
The next slide just shows where Havieron steady state production and costs would sit relative to ASX primary listed Australian gold mines based on their current year guidance. Our conservative Havieron standalone base case would be the second lowest cost mine with substantial annual production of 266,000 ounces per year. In the scenario we are targeting, where we're able to fully utilize the Telfer milling capacity with Telfer ROM, there is further downside opportunity for Havieron operating costs. You can also see Telfer on this chart shown based on the midpoint of our guidance for this year, 285,000 ounces at $2,600 all-in sustaining cost. Overall, this slide conveys the opportunity we see really well. If you can extend Telfer and run it alongside Havieron, there's a pathway to very substantial production, and Havieron's cost profile would see our group all-in sustaining cost materially lower.
I'll hand over to Shaun to speak to our Telfer resource development for the quarter.
Thanks, Rowan. It's a great Havieron summary, and you can see why we love what it potentially does to the Greatland Group. Turning to slide 18, we'll come back to Telfer and the resource development, starting with the West Dome open pit. Just another strong quarter in terms of this record drilling program with 54,000 meters drilled. Our expectation is all that drilling completed up to 31 December should be incorporated into our March 2026 Telfer mineral resource update. In terms of that MRE update, just remind everyone, the focus for our first half drilling, particularly in the open pit, has been around infill resource conversion rather than just growth drilling. So while we still expect to see some growth, you should also be looking for conversion of inferred to indicated categories.
A lot of this drilling has been infill drilling for this, particularly around Stage 7, taking that Stage 7 extension into that tighter 25 by 25 meter spacing. This was really a priority for us as we expect this to be our base load open pit feed into FY27 plus the FY28. With the Stage 7 drilling now complete, a little ahead of schedule for the second half, the rigs will focus on the Stage 2 extension. This is a really large area that we're targeting for extension beyond FY28. On the slide, it demonstrates this really well. It helpfully shows that current shell of drilling to date and the sheer volume of the opportunity that we're drilling stands out for that large Stage 2 extension. Turning the slide to slide 19, this is the Main Dome underground.
The Main Dome underground drilling in the quarter included both resource conversion and resource growth. In the first half, four new mine extensions have been passed across to the ops team, which is A-Reefs, Tarkin, the High Grade Reef, plus part of that Eastern Stockworks, the ESC. Growth drilling for the quarter focused on the Kilo target, located to the west of the A-Reefs, and included some really positive results. You can see summarized on the slide, but there's also an ongoing focus on drilling out that Eastern Stockworks as well. Just turning across to the west, a couple of final slides on the West Dome underground, which is a genuinely exciting brownfields opportunity sitting adjacent to existing underground infrastructure.
The cross-section on slide 20 is a good visualization of the three mineralized domains identified in the West Dome underground, that large subvertical Western Stockworks corridor, and the high-grade western and eastern limbs. Encouraging, as we've drilled to the south, you've seen the 2 highest-grade intercepts that we've had in that West Dome underground, and that just demonstrated that the system continues to stay open as we drill it out. Slide 21, still on West Dome underground, there's a plan view schematic of the West Dome underground, and it's worth casting your mind back to slide 19, view of the Main Dome underground, and you can see geologically the same mineralized structure with the vertical stockwork and that lower Lima unit lenses have been identified in the West Dome underground, which are repeating structures from that Main Dome underground, which has operated for more than 20 years.
In November, we provided a standalone update on the West Dome underground that included drilling results from October and November. Exploration quarterly update last week included assays for a further 10 drill holes into West Dome underground, and a couple of standout intercepts there on the page, including that 411 gram meter and a 205 meter, 251 gram meter intercept, both from that same hole or that southern extension. We continue to be encouraged by the drill results we're getting in the West Dome underground, and we've allocated a third rig to the West Dome underground to accelerate drilling in the second half of the year following completion of that second drill drive.
We continue to target a maiden mineral resource estimate for the West Dome underground in the March quarter, and this will help provide an initial understanding and should be able to capture that drilling up to 31 December again. So just finally, turning to slide 23, in summary on Greatland, December quarter was really successful for us operationally with a great credit to the whole site team with just over 167,000 ounces of gold delivered at AUD 2,000, sorry, for the half, and that set an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,176. We continue to have full participation in the gold price, and this delivered that operating cash flow of AUD 406 million, roughly a gross margin of 80% for the quarter, and that's driven a cash balance of over AUD 948 million, which also goes to de-risking the delivery of Havieron.
In terms of guidance, based on that first half performance, we're currently expecting full year production to tend towards the upper end of guidance and all-in sustaining costs to trend towards the lower end. We delivered a key milestone in the Havieron feasibility study, and as Rowan described, it confirms that world-class, long-life, and lowest quartile Australian gold copper mine leveraging our existing Telfer infrastructure. Then finally, we continue our ambitious Telfer drill program with a view to delivering an updated Telfer JORC resource at the end of the March 2026 quarter, which has the potential to capture some of the opportunities for Telfer mine life. In summary, we feel we have a rare confluence of immediate strong cash flow generation, a pathway to Telfer life extension, and all this in combination with the strongest organic growth profile in our peer group with the impending Havieron development.
With that, I'll now ask the moderator, Ashley, to open up to any questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question today comes from Hugo Nicolaci with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, Shaun and Rowan. Belated Happy New Year and good to see you strong into the quarter. Look, first one for me just on the guidance ranges, obviously good to see production towards the top end and costs a little lower. Apologies if I missed it, but can you just confirm what gold and copper pricing you're using in guidance now and if that's changed versus your prior all-in sustaining guidance?
Look, thanks, Hugo. Happy New Year. In terms of guidance on pricing, as in, I'm not sure we actually kind of went out to the market with a view on what the gold price would be for the year. In fact, it's probably exceeded our expectations. Copper price, which maybe goes into our All-In Sustaining Cost, which might be kind of where you're driving at, that we were using around AUD 14,000 copper. So the market price is a little bit above that now, but it's not dramatically different.
Got it. So just to confirm your guidance at the lower end, is this still using around AUD 14,000 for copper?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Yeah. Got it. That's helpful. And then on the production piece, just clarifying, the better gold production to date, obviously benefiting from recoveries and things like that. But from a mining perspective, as some of that high-grade material sort of coming off the stockpiles and things, in terms of timing, does that borrow a little bit from FY27, or should we see some upside risk maybe to FY27 if you're able to maintain mining rates and grade from a ROM perspective?
Yeah. I think when we started the year, we thought we were going to get through those high-grade stockpiles by December. What you've seen is the ability of us to kind of push them out to the right. I think that's pleasing. And I mentioned kind of probably my favorite chart in this deck was that total material mined. We've just increased the productivity of that open pit by 49% over the last 12 months. Just a great job by the team to deliver that. That's brought in more fresh ore, which has helped us push out that stockpile. And I think that's been really important in terms of the outcomes we've got this quarter, and I think sets us up strongly for the second half. And of course, to de-risk FY27, we want to open up that Stage 7.
The fact that we're kind of getting through the overburden there, I think, is really positive. You're starting to see that strip ratio walk down quarter by quarter. Ultimately, we want to take that down to the kind of life of mine 1.1 times on Stage 7 extension.
Thanks, Shaun. Then just maybe one for Monique, just on the payment timings, that AUD 119 million that came in, can you just remind us what the provisional pricing terms on your shipments are? And should we expect a positive true-up on that shipment or also future shipments to come through as the copper and gold prices continue to run higher?
Yeah. The original invoices are based on month of scheduled shipment, and then any true-ups that come in will be on the relevant spot price in that particular month.
Got it. So that 119 is probably a top-up to come this quarter then?
Yes. Correct.
Great. And then sort of cheeky last one if I can, just on puts, just noticing you've put a few more puts at the tail end. In terms of risk management, should we expect that to continue until you end up covering sort of the expected construction period for Havieron, or does the corporate debt facility and your current cash and liquidity set you up now from a risk management perspective where maybe you don't need to keep adding puts?
Look, our strategy is really around risk management. So it's something that we assess every quarter. We've entered into them up to June 2027, so 18 months in advance, likely to continue that, but it is something that we will assess based on the cost of the strike price that we're entering into at the time.
If I can add to that, Hugo, I appreciate you understanding this, but puts are the path of least regret. We fully participate in the gold price. We like this protection. We're not mandated to have it. It's just our risk management strategy, as Monique described, but it's a little bit like taking out home insurance. My house has never burned down. I actually don't even know someone who's had that happen to them, but I still take out home insurance. So we like it.
Got it. That's clear, guys. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Adam Baker with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Morning, Shaun and team, and congrats on the solid quarter. Just back on guidance, I mean, you're obviously tracking quite well with production representing 59% of the midpoint, and even at the upper ends, tracking at 54% versus FY26 production guidance, and likewise with costs sitting below. Just thoughts on potential revisions to guidance and why you've elected to just maintain upper end of production, lower end of costs? Could you identify any upside here, or is this what you're comfortable with at that stage?
Let me answer that in two parts. Adam, thanks for the question. Look, of course, we'd love to exceed guidance, and we'll put a lot of effort into trying to optimize the site every day, every week, every month. But I think, as you said, that top end of guidance, we're sitting there at about 54%. We kind of flagged that the second half is probably a little less weighted, and that reflects that we've had more of that high-grade stockpile to put forward in the first half to the second half. So we feel the kind of guide towards the top end of the market feels about right, and we'll give an update if we need to, but right now, we think that's achievable.
Okay. Recovery's clearly tracking really well, second quarter in a row, over 88%. Your commentary sounds quite positive given the work completed at the processing plant. Just wondering on recovery rates moving forward, can we expect run rates like this moving forward, or can we expect a little bit more variability depending on grades being pushed through the processing plant?
Yeah. I think what we've both commented before is we're really trying to target 85%+ recoveries. I think the last two quarters, we think 88%, 88.6%, and 88.4% are tremendous. And again, we aspire to kind of do the best we can with those recoveries. But even when we're thinking about guidance, we're not necessarily using 88% for every quarter. What we're trying to do is just be consistently north of that 85%. And so I think the fact that we've had two quarters like that is really encouraging though in that regard, and I love the consistency we've seen over the last six months.
Okay. Thank you. I'll hand it on.
Your next question comes from Daniel Morgan with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Shaun. Monique and Rowan. Just on the Telfer resource update for March, can you just provide a little bit more clarity? I think you're saying December 25 is when the drilling is ruled off to be formally considered in that resource. And then can you just highlight what areas of Telfer are in scope for resource update, like the pit, the various areas of the underground, and does that include West Dome as well? I presume it does.
Yeah. Hi, Daniel. Thanks for the question. So firstly, your understanding and interpretation was correct. So drill cutoff will effectively be 31 December. Obviously, assays will continue to flow in, and we'll be trying to capture all of them. But there's really three main areas we're trying to capture in this mineral resource estimate. Firstly, that Main Dome, sorry, the West Dome open pit. The West Dome open pit is probably the, obviously, for us, that open pit is the largest volumes.
The focus for us in the first half of this year has been drilling out that Stage 7 extension because that has proximity to our mine plan. But there's also been some extension drilling as well into that larger kind of Stage 2 extension if we go back to the slide. Then, as we turn into the underground, the Main Dome underground continues to be a focus for us.
We like the drilling results we're getting there, and we think we continue to walk that forward. And then the third domain, which we do expect to be able to bring into the MRE, is that West Dome underground. And that's probably exceeded our expectations in terms of the consistency of the intercepts we're getting there. Similar structures to Main Dome, but so far high grade. So we really like that, and it's sitting kind of around 2 kilometers lateral hole off the existing underground crusher and hoist. So we love the location of that as well. So those three areas will all come in. I don't want to overbuild the expectation on West Dome underground. It's a relatively small number of intercepts that we've had there, but I think it will give you a flavor as to what we're kind of piecing together.
Okay. Thank you, Shaun. And just pivoting over to the mining physicals. So good job getting material movements to consistently rise. Just wondering, what does the future look like future quarters? Should we expect this level of material movements to be sustained, lift a little bit more? Is the split of waste to ore going to be moving towards more ore? And also, is the underground ore contribution, is that expected to be pretty stable at these levels as it has been, or could that lift? Thank you.
Okay. Well, Daniel, yeah, firstly, look, we're really pleased with the open pit team. To deliver a 49% increase in TMM moved over 12 months, I think, is an extraordinary achievement. So yeah, really glad that we've been able to do that. In terms of how we see that moving forward, what I like about what we've done is we've largely done that with the existing fleet. We have a meaningful amount of fleet renewal. I think we've really just got one refurb truck back in the first half. A couple more, we'll have half a dozen of those refurb trucks into the second half, plus the new Cat 6060 shovel. So we feel the fleet renewal should de-risk continued productivity into that second half.
Having said that, every time we set a high watermark, we can't necessarily call that our average, but I think we've got a basis to believe we're well placed to continue to see or at least maintain those productivity gains. And that's what we're going to endeavor to do. In terms of that mining physicals and the split between ore and waste, what you've been seeing in the first six months is very much us opening up that Stage 7. I think what we had 4.2x strip ratio, maybe 4, and then we had about 7x strip ratio, 7.2 in the previous quarter. Ultimately, the strip ratio for that Stage 7 comes down to an average of 1.1. So you can see we're slowly getting through that kind of overburden and getting down towards ore.
I think that sets us up for what we'll be putting through the mill in FY27 and then FY28.
And then just that underground piece, Shaun.
Oh, sorry, the underground. Yeah. Look, it's been pretty consistent around that 250,000 tons of ore per month - sorry, per quarter from the underground. Look, we are looking at ways to kind of walk that up. But again, I think that's really going to be a function of this updated JORC resource, updated JORC reserve. I think we've talked about this, Daniel, when we took over the mine, the mining phase was right up next to mine planning. For us, we thought it would be kind of 12-18 months to actually get that bow wave of mine planning out in front of us. I think kind of hopefully by the end of this quarter, maybe in the June quarter, we'll have achieved that, and then we can reassess opportunities to expand that run rate. But for now, I think that's kind of our steady state.
We've got a lot of infrastructure there. That hoist can do over 6 million tons per year. So there's lots of flexibility for growth or bringing in West Dome underground. But for now, that's our run rate. But let us kind of reassess that once we've updated that JORC reserve in the June quarter.
Sure. Thank you. Just last question, just these trials of low-grade stocks, does that happen this quarter or June quarter? Can you maybe just expand on what the strategy is with the trials and what you're looking for?
Yeah. Look, well, firstly, we've been putting a lot of this partially costed material, let's call it low-grade, during the last quarter and prior to that as well. So we've got good visibility of that through the mill. But what we also want to do is just do some trials on some of those stockpiles where there's 4 or 5 stockpiles there where we'll independently run them through the mill on a trial basis just to get a handle on recoveries and everything. You've seen for the last 2 quarters what the introduction of PCM does for the recoveries, and we've been hitting +88%. So the processing team's done a great job there. Having said that, we'd like to get to grips across that full 21 million tons of stockpile. So that's what we're doing.
We just think it's prudent to understand and de-risk that moving forward into our mine plans.
Okay. Thank you so much, Shaun and team.
Your next question comes from Jack Whelan with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, Shaun and team. Congrats on the strong quarter. On the Telfer Hub two-train scenario, now that you've got some more information from drilling and the gold prices continue to rally, are you able to give any more color on the two-train scenario, including what would be required for this to play out and, if possible, what timings might look like?
Yeah, Jack. Yeah, it's a good question. Well, firstly, just to restate for everyone, look, we are currently running the two trains. The two trains are 10 million tons apiece, which gives us a total throughput of 20 million tons. That's presently the third largest gold processing center in Australia, behind the big new mine assets of Boddington and Cadia. So this is big infrastructure. One of the lovely things about Telfer is it's two 10 million-ton trains. That gives us optionality, and we really like that optionality. Ultimately, we have the high-grade Havieron coming online. We have the high-grade Telfer underground. Perhaps even you get a third underground with that West Dome underground. That gives you a lot of high-grade throughput into that train one. Train two is likely in the long run to be dominated by open pit material.
This is where that drilling program is so important to us. We think that JORC update, both the resource in March and the reserve in June, is going to kind of complete that story a little bit. It will only be a snapshot in time. That drill program continues, and I'm really confident that when you get to kind of March, June 2027, you're going to see even better numbers. But we think this kind of will start mapping out that story to give the market more confidence around the life extensions at Telfer. The history I bring to this is, I think, Northern Star, we bought four assets from Majors with a mine life of less than 12 months. Of those six assets we bought off Majors, all six are still operating a decade later.
At today's gold price, there must be some cause for optimism that we can achieve the same at Greatland.
Thanks. I'll pass it on.
Thanks, Jack.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Your next question comes from Alex Barkley with RBC. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, everyone. On the falling pit strip ratio driven by Stage 7, which is great, do you expect that to keep going into FY27, or should we expect new pit extensions coming then and making sure your total pit tonnage remains high?
Yeah, thanks, Alex. Look, this probably comes down to view on life extension at Telfer, and I'm probably cup half full. But if you were to think that that big Stage 2 extension is available to Greatland at some stage, I imagine just like we've really kind of leaned into Stage 7 12, 18 months ahead of it actually being scheduled in our ore feed, I imagine a similar pattern would play out on the Stage 2 extension. So although I think you've got visibility on the base load ore feed on Stage 7 across 2027 and 2028, I think at some stage, hopefully, we're talking about the 2029 ore feed, and that will necessitate a cutback in that large Stage 2 volume at some stage.
So it wouldn't surprise me we're doing that work now in terms of the JORC resource, then the JORC reserve, then we'll do our budgeting process and approve a cutback, if any, in that Stage 2 extension. But if it does hold together, I think you'd see some of that cutback start in FY27 if I was to kind of crystal ball the future. But let us do our homework to be definitive on that.
Okay, sure. A question on costs. It does seem like you're having a quite strong ROM performance. Is that in some way changing the contribution to mill feed that you're expecting from the stockpiles, which don't have an all-in sustaining cost contribution? And then similarly, putting through some of the partially costed low-grade ROM material, is there a net impact on all-in sustaining costs, noting it is lower grade? Just sort of how that might have shifted versus your thoughts when you set guidance?
Yeah. Alex, so just embedding in your question is a good understanding that acquisition stockpiles don't flow into all-in sustaining cost. So yeah, I think we've tried to be transparent with people and explain that in terms of unpacking our all-in sustaining costs. And I think particularly when you saw that June 25 number, we really tried to emphasize that aspect. What you are seeing, and we did kind of try to flesh this out a little bit in the deck, is this quarter we went from last quarter 2.5 million tons of that kind of acquisition stockpile down to about 1.7 million tons of that acquisition stockpile. So the impact of that benefit was less. In fact, the smallest you've seen in this last December quarter in the all-in sustaining costs we thought was really good. So did you want to jump in there, Alex?
Yeah. I mean.
Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Yep.
Yeah. It sounds like if anything, your cost should have gone a little bit higher.
Yeah, correct. And plus, we also put through some more of that slightly lower grade partially costed material. Having said that, I think we got the benefit offsetting the stockpiles. We got the benefit of more ore direct feed coming out of that open pit. So it was kind of the balance of those two. They pretty much offset each other. I think if you look, we did, what, $2,155 in the first quarter, $2,196 in the second quarter, so an average of $2,176. They're pretty similar numbers. So I think what you've had is just an offset there, the two trends. But we think it's a really positive trend. And we also think it's been beneficial that we've kind of dragged to the right that stockpile as well. So I think overall, I think that's maybe a positive, which I'm glad you fleshed out in the question there, Alex.
Absolutely. Just a quick one on the resource update. You spoke about the importance of improving the confidence and converting the resource. Do you have any thoughts on adding some lower confidence resources that don't have the tighter 25 by 25 spacing, maybe just in inferred?
Yeah. Look, for us to bring something, historically at Telfer, they bought in the open pit, on average, 55 by 50-meter spacing was sufficient to bring into Indicated. Not just recently, but literally on acquisition. So if you go back to, I think it was a February 2025 mineral JORC update, we reclassified that material into Inferred and put in our own standard of wanting 25-meter spacing for open pit Indicated material. We think that was a prudent decision to take. In terms of the JORC update you're going to get in March, and we're still working on this. But I think there'll be the key element will be a lot of infill drilling, which is taking that old 50-meter spaced drilling, infilling it, and then us being able to bring it back from Inferred and bring it back into Indicated category.
That's been a real focus and priority for us because that's going to influence our FY27 and FY28 mine plan. You are also seeing other open pit, including that Stage 2 extension, some drilling. We're kind of pivoting to that more now, now that we've completed that Stage 7 infill. So you're going to see some of that. But the center of gravity of what we've been doing has actually been infill drilling. You'll see some both, but I also want to be transparent that a lot of it's going to be improving the categorization.
Yeah. Okay. That's very clear. Thanks very much, everyone.
There are no further phone questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Day for closing remarks.
Thanks very much, Ashley. Just really to say thank you to people for dialing in. We'll have our half-year results out next month in February, and then that March JORC resource as well, in March. So thank you again. Bye.