Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Greatland Resources September 2026 quarter investor call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during Q&A time, simply press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press the star one again. For operator assistance throughout the call, please press star zero. Finally, I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. I would now like to welcome Shaun Day, managing director, to begin the conference. Shaun, over to you.
Thanks, Paulie, for leading us in there, and welcome everyone. Thanks for dialing in to Greatland's September 2026 quarterly results. With me on the call is pretty much a full house of the executive team. We have Andrew Bowler, Rowan Krasnoff, Otto Richter, Monique Connolly, also Nick Strong, our new Chief Operating Officer, is joining us on the call. What I will do is I will start by turning to slide five. With just a really solid quarter we saw from an operational outcome. Beat the street, both in terms of gold production and also all-in sustaining costs with both being better than planned. That was really driven particularly by strong processing performance. That was particularly encouraging given we had the planned major shutdown for the year, 15 days. That ran like a Swiss watch. The guys on site did a great job to bring that back online.
A really significant de-risking as part of the year. In terms of production, doing just over 70,000 oz of gold we thought was very strong, particularly the copper production as well, just over 2,900 tonnes of copper we thought was really encouraging. This just puts us very comfortable in terms of that guidance range of 260,000 - 300,000 oz for FY 2027. All-in sustaining cost, I thought that outcome was particularly strong coming in at AUD 2,925. That is right at the bottom of our all-in sustaining cost guidance for the year. When you look at that, this all delivered an operating cash flow of AUD 289 million. We saw a net cash build, and that net cash build was notwithstanding we actually paid five months of tax during the quarter as we transitioned from a quarterly payment system to a monthly installment system.
Notwithstanding that extra tax burden to this quarter, it was still a strong cash build performance. Plus, of course, we got the full permitting on Havieron, so we started increased spending there. We still closed the quarter with over AUD 1.3 billion cash at bank, debt-free. Together with the undrawn AUD 500 million debt facility, it means we have AUD 1.8 billion liquidity available.
What is really important about that is it de-risks. It gives us a clear pathway for delivering the organic growth profile we have at Havieron, but also across Telfer, which we will talk to a little bit more through these slides. The core highlights for this quarter, to my mind, was the permitting coming through on Havieron. That has been a journey, but we are delighted to have received that. Now we are in a position to go into the construction phase on our flagship Havieron development.
The team's done a great job at spinning up in the weeks since that approval. You've seen work, particularly at surface around setting up those evaporation pond construction and also clearing the pads for the ventilation blind bores. With that summary of the quarter, I'll pass across to Otto Richter.
Thank you, Shaun. If we turn to slide seven, we'll now look at the key drivers of this good start to the financial year. If we firstly look at the open pit, West Dome. The open pit total material mined, again, saw an increase quarter-on-quarter to just under 8 million tonnes, 7.9. This is our seventh consecutive quarter-on-quarter increase in total material mined since Greatland took ownership and represents a 79% uplift in productivity since our March quarter last year. The continued growth is the result of higher trucking availability from our new and rebuilt trucks, consistent digger productivity, and an ongoing focus to improve bench turnover and opening up those larger, more productive working fronts in stage seven.
The open pit ore mined was also a record under Greatland ownership at 4 million tonnes for the quarter, while grade was consistent quarter-to-quarter on our mid 0.4, 0.45 g/ tonne. Stage seven growth stripping continues with 2.8-million-ton waste mined for the quarter at a strip ratio of approximately 1.7, down again from the 2.3 strip ratio we had last quarter. The stage seven strip ratio is expected to be around that 1.4, 1.5 for the remainder of FY 2027. If we now turn our focus to the Main Dome underground, we can see that the underground ore mined was also a record under Greatland's ownership at 0.4 million tonnes for the quarter. Up 19% quarter-on-quarter. The underground grade is at 1.33 g/ tonne gold, and this is in line with our plan for the quarter.
Underground development, saw a seventh consecutive quarter of record development meters with just over 2 km achieved. A good focus there, or highlight, is the second development drive to West Dome Underground, which is now complete with the breakthrough occurring just after the quarter end. The big benefit here is this extends that primary ventilation circuit to the West Dome Underground drill platform location and now allows us to open up more headings on that West Dome front. If we then turn to slide eight, we can see the processing outcomes from the quarter. We milled 4.9 million tonnes at a 0.5 g/ tonne gold head grade, with milled tonnes being a key area of strength while having successfully executed the planned 15-day mill shut, as Shaun highlighted.
Our gold recoveries of 85% were in line with the plan and our prior guidance commentary at 85%, while our copper recoveries at 83% was definitely a standout for the quarter. Onto our stockpiling. This quarter, we processed about 0.4 million tonnes of stockpile material, significantly down from the 1.3 million tonnes in the prior quarter. This is due to the record tonnes directly from the open pit and lower processing volumes during the planned shut in the quarter. While we note that stockpile will remain an important contributor to our mill feed in FY 2027, we remind our listeners that our 1.4 million tonne of remaining high-grade stockpile will be blended into the mill feed evenly through the rest of the year.
Our stockpile balances at the end of the quarter total 21 million tonnes, containing about 236,000 oz of gold and another 10,000 tonnes of copper, which significantly de-risk the remainder of the year. On projects, if we look at the TSF stage, TSF8 stage four construction, this remains on schedule for completion in our third quarter of FY 2027, and this will provide us capacity for processing out to the second half of FY 2028. I will now hand over to Monique to talk to the costs.
Thanks, Otto. We will now move to slide nine. As Shaun outlined earlier, we achieved an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,925 for the quarter, comfortably within the FY 2027 guidance range of AUD 2,900-AUD 3,330 per ounce. The strong all-in sustaining outcome was supported by good cost control, strong copper production and pricing, and gold production being ahead of plan. Our all-in sustaining cost margin for the quarter was a little over AUD 3,000 per ounce, resulting in an all-in sustaining cost margin of over 100%. Looking at the key operating items, mining costs of AUD 88 million were lower than the previous quarter despite higher total material moved, largely due to improved productivity aided by a higher proportion of mining volumes from the more productive stage seven mining areas.
Processing costs of AUD 90 million were in line with plan, but higher quarter-on-quarter, primarily from the costs associated with the planned major maintenance shutdown in July. Sustaining CapEx of AUD 37 million was in line with plan, though higher than the previous quarter due to increased underground development activity. Finally, site services cost of AUD 42 million was in line with plan and prior quarters performance.
Turning to cash flow and finance on slide 10. We generated net revenue of AUD 485 million from sales of 72,000 oz of gold and 2,700 tonnes of copper. Gold sales were achieved at an average realized price of just less than AUD 6,000 per ounce. This resulted in Telfer's operating cash flows of AUD 289 million and a AUD 25 million cash build, which was after a tax payment of AUD 100 million and a step-up in growth investment following formal project commencement at Havieron.
We closed the quarter with AUD 1.3 billion of cash, no debt, and available liquidity of AUD 1.8 billion. As a reminder, Greatland remains fully exposed to any upside in the gold price, with downside protection via gold put options out to September 2027 at an average strike price of AUD 4,850. From a tax perspective, the AUD 100 million paid in the September quarter comprised of June's quarterly tax installments of AUD 64 million and an additional AUD 36 million in tax payments for July and August as we moved from quarterly to monthly installments in the quarter. Effectively, five months of tax paid in September's quarter. Looking forward, ongoing monthly tax installments will be made for the rest of FY 2027, based on an assessed rate of approximately 12% of revenue from the ATO.
In addition, a catch-up payment that relates to FY 2026 of AUD 155 million is anticipated in the December quarter, given tax installments hadn't commenced until the June 2026 quarter. Finally, depreciation and amortization was AUD 73 million. Full-year depreciation and amortization is expected to be AUD 280 million-AUD 320 million, weighted towards the second half of FY 2027. The increase in depreciation from FY 2026 to FY 2027 results from the increased capital base established at Telfer following significant investment made since acquisition, particularly from the underground development, stage seven stripping, and the TSF construction lift. I'll now hand back to Shaun for the remainder of the presentation.
Thanks, Monique. If we jump across to slide 12, I'll just speak to CapEx briefly. We invested north of AUD 37 million into Telfer growth capital during the period. This is just this ongoing investment in mine life extension at Telfer.
I think that for me, the highlight of the quarter was we completed the second drive out to the West Dome Underground. That completes the ventilation circuit out to West Dome Underground. I think that really sets us up for what we can achieve out there on the balance of the year. You're seeing that ongoing investment in the open pit mining fleet that enabled that 7.8 million tonnes of total material moved during the quarter, which is now an increase of 79% over the productivity of that open pit measured by TMM when we first took over. It's just an outstanding result by the team. Moving across to slide 13.
I think the narrative here is really that, we're going through this investment phase, and you are going to see the real benefits of this investment phase ringing in future years, but you are just starting to see the benefit of that open pit fleet renewal, in FY 2027. You will see that consistently across FY 2028 and beyond, also things like the power station upgrade. This is a de-risking event as we upgrade that power station and the switch room, and we think this just gives us a basis to be, again, more de-risked, more consistent as we move forward. Then of course you have Havieron spinning up. We have done the evaporation, clearing for the evaporation ponds, also clearing for the blind bores, which is an important part of the ventilation circuit there. You have seen us start tendering and so far that tendering has been encouraging.
We continue to walk that forward, but we are early in this Havieron process. I will now just jump across to slide 15. Really, you can see our guidance metrics for FY 2027. We were ahead in terms of, or slightly ahead in terms of gold production, for the quarter and also we are right at the bottom end of that all-in sustaining cost guidance. We still believe we are modestly second half weighted in terms of ounce production. Getting behind us the largest of the planned shutdowns for the year, I think was really positive. Again, the team did a good job and it is a de-risking for us. Overall, our guidance is unchanged both in terms of gold production, all-in sustaining costs, but also for CapEx as well.
I will now turn to slide 16, and this is where for the last two quarters or so, it has been around just executing that initial growth phase out of Telfer. Really as we go into the balance of this financial year, we feel there is a lot of catalysts coming up. Firstly, the West Dome Underground drilling. That Pinnacles step out, that took the strike length of West Dome Underground from 600 m to potentially 1.2 km.
We are excited about that. You have seen we have completed about 12,000 m of underground drilling into that West Dome Underground area. That is that core area. That is where we have actually driven out to. Then we also have we have got to move from one surface rig to three surface rigs as we better understand that 1.2 km of additional strike length, which potentially takes West Dome Underground to a 1.8-km strike length.
Still open, in both directions, plus vertically up and down and further out to the west. But we are really excited just about the expansion opportunity there. Then we move into updating the JORC resource. That is a really significant update for us. We have presently got 12 rigs on site, and they have really been spinning for most of the last 12 months. The drill cut-off for our last JORC resource update was December 31, 2025. We think this is a substantial update. A lot of focus on targeting conversion, but you are also going to see that growth, particularly in the West Dome Underground, West Dome Open Pit, but we would also like to put a maiden resource around that Main Dome Open Pit.
That is important because, again, we love the fact that we have this life extension availability at West Dome Open Pit, but to have the contingency, the flexibility, the resilience of also having a mine plan around that Main Dome Open Pit, I think would be really encouraging for us. Plus, historically, that was a notch higher grade, so again, might give us some flexibility about how we approach that. We then go into the studies. The West Dome Underground, that should be the first cab off the rank. It is really a phase one study because we are just going to be looking where that 12,000 m of underground drilling has gone into that first 600 m of strike length.
With the two drives out there, we have already started work on the third drive, being the haulage drive back directly to the underground crusher and close to surface. That has a lot of latent capacity in that. It is rated for 6 million tonnes per year. Presently, we use it for 1.25 million tonnes a year. So it is really encouraging to have this high grade opportunity. Then we look at the Vertical Stockwork study. This sits below the old sublevel cave. Again, we think there is an opportunity to potentially bring this online. There is about 35 million tonnes of material in that VSC over at Stirling Well North of 1.2 million ounces there. Again, we could bring it up that latent infrastructure in terms of the underground crusher and hoist. So those studies I think are really encouraging. Then we should complete our JORC reserve.
That sets us up to really start describing how a long-term integrated Telfer and Havieron together. Then finally, obviously, we have this world-class O'Callaghans tungsten deposit. We are looking at multiple ways to unlock value, but it is certainly a focus for us to unpack this during the course of FY 2027. With that, I will now just turn to the summary slide, which really just talks about this being a strong quarter in terms of north of 70,000 oz of gold production, plus the outperformance on copper and a bit of a de-risking event in terms of the processing infrastructure. Havieron is now underway. We got those secondary permit approval. So really we are just spinning up now, but we are really pleased and tremendous hardworking team.
The liquidity and the robust treasury situation with AUD 1.3 billion of cash at bank, no debt, together with undrawn debt gives us AUD 1.8 billion to deliver that growth, that portfolio of growth projects. Highlighting as well that, not just West Dome Underground, but also we are now underway at Havieron. Then finally, look, we continue to have 12 rigs spinning at site and the opportunity to update that JORC resource, JORC reserve, and then be in a position to describe not just Havieron with a multi-decade mine life, but both Telfer and Havieron as a gold copper mining complex with multi-decade life. With that, just before I pass across, back to Paulie for questions. We do have our new COO on deck, Nick Strong. We are delighted to have Nick join us.
Joins us from Northern Star, but he's really hit the ground running since joining at the start of this month. Spent a lot of time with the team at site and really completes that executive team. I'd also like to just acknowledge Otto, who's done a magnificent job as COO over the last three quarters, and you can see the success we've had. Otto's also been very focused on our long-term mine planning, so he'll retain that Chief Technical Officer role, which will be his focus and really that link between Otto with multiple open pits, multiple underground production centers, bringing them into the mine planning and into the life of the mine, and then passing across to Nick for execution.
The interaction between Nick and Otto is going to be a really important element of us moving forward, and I think that's been really positive to see since Nick's joined. With that, I might just offer to just dial Nick in here and just throw to him just to your first impressions, Nick, as you've joined Greatland this month.
Yeah. Thanks, Shaun. Look, as Shaun mentioned, I recently joined Greatland about three weeks ago on the October 5th , and I've spent most of that time on site so far, getting to know our team and getting up to speed on those operations. My first impressions is that we've got a very solid, motivated team in place. The operations and infrastructure are in really good shape. It's an exciting time to be there and certainly no shortage of work as we look to significantly upgrade our mill feed by delivering multiple high grade underground growth projects. I think the key things I'll be focused on in FY 2027 are our operating discipline and our risk management as we manage multiple expansion fronts and continue to deliver into the FY 2027 plan. Havieron is an obvious growth front for us.
However, there appears to be plenty of life left in Telfer underground, and that's a very exciting place to be operating and expanding at the moment. I'd like to share my appreciation for Otto, who's done a great job leading our operations since February, which is evident in these operating results. Otto and I will be working closely together going forward as we plan and execute on the integrated Telfer-Havieron mine plan. I look forward in interacting with the investors and analysts as I get my feet on the desk. It's a great start so far. Thanks, Shaun.
Thanks, Nick, and welcome aboard. With that, Paulie, why don't we open it up for questions?
Thank you, Shaun, and as mentioned, we will now begin the Q&A session. For those listening by phone and would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. To withdraw your question, simply press star one again. When called upon, please use your handset, ensure your line is unmuted, and be ready to ask your question. Your first question is from the line of Kate McCutcheon of Bank of America. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning, Shaun, and well done on the new role, Nick. September quarter's annualizing below the CapEx ranges for the full year guide. How do we think about the cadence over the coming quarters for that Telfer growth CapEx?
Look, for Telfer, I think it will be a steady progression as we go across the year. I think it ramps up a little bit across the financial year. You'll probably see that with Havieron as well, obviously, as we go through the year. But again, we should be staying within that guidance as we see it today.
Okay. Havieron, I know that you are just getting started there, with tenders, et cetera. But compared to where you thought you would be when you made that FID, are there any key areas you are ahead of the plan there? Conversely, any areas where there needs to be some catch-up, I guess?
Look, we are three weeks in, so I am going to say we are bang on schedule, Kate. I think, give us maybe another quarter before we start trying to pick where there is any divergence. So far, look, I think what was impressive is I think we got the permitting at 10:00 on Australian Western Standard Time on a Friday, and by 3:30 that afternoon, we had started work. So, we were talking a lot to the EPA and to the national EPA. So we had a sense it was coming that week, so we spun off during the week. So we got off to a really good flying start. Probably the other key for us, I think the surface works are going to schedule.
I think the other element for me, which I think will play itself out is the tendering that we are doing presently, to get some of those EPCs squared away. So far encouraging, but again, give us a little bit of time to get them contracted before we start being too definitive.
Okay, thanks.
Your next question comes from the line of Levi Spry of UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good day, Shaun and team. Yeah, maybe could you just talk through the next steps at Havieron a little more. Just confirming on the permits, what is outstanding? Is there anything outstanding in terms of activities? What's happening over the course of the remainder of the year? Then just you mentioned the EPC for the tendering. What are the big ones coming up?
Yeah, thanks, Levi. Look, let me start with the permitting. All the secondary permits are now in place. So effectively, we are actively working both at surface and in the underground there. Indeed doing starting the process for the upgrading the haul road back from Telfer to Havieron, and indeed doing the plant modifications at Telfer. So everything is spinning up. What you've seen initially, the focus for us were the evaporation ponds at surface. You might recall we're just sitting above that low confined aquifer. We wanted additional evaporation pond capacity so that we could punch through that LCA. So that's effectively been the focus for us. With that clearing, we've also been doing the blind bore pads. Those blind bores are also on the critical path in terms of getting that ventilation down into that underground before we do stoping. So that's encouraging.
In terms of the underground decline itself, just to remind people, we are 340 m vertical, because this is already effectively half built. So, we've started moving that forward, but again, it's very measured progress until we actually have those evaporation ponds or at least evaporation pond four online, which is still more the end of October before we'll have that actually online. Then in terms of tendering, that's underway. We have the EPCM tender, which is complete. We have the haul road. We have the mill modifications, the power line, and the blind bores. Those are probably the five main kind of contracts that spring to mind as the kind of under the 80/20 rule. We have the blind bores in place with Abergeldie. Again, that's largely consistent with the study.
Abergeldie's an Australian group, one of probably the four world-leading blind bore organizations in the world. They do a lot of work in that Hunter Valley. We think they're really well-placed to team up with us. Remember, we already have blind bore VR1 in place, then this is effectively putting in VR2 and VR3. The power line, the haul road, and indeed the mill modifications are all live tenders. We're positive about where we are. But as I said to Kate, just give us weeks and months to actually get the outcomes of those before I'm more definitive. Hopefully that gives you some pretty good color on where we are, Levi.
Yeah, thanks for the extra detail. Thanks, Shaun.
Your next question comes from the line of Adam Baker of Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Shaun. Welcome, Nick. Thanks for the update. Just maybe touching on the underground volumes. I mean, pretty solid performance during the quarter, 378,000 tonnes.
Looks like it has been your best performance underground in three years there. You have also noted that you have had record development meters over the course of the quarter, over 2,000 m. Just wondering, could this flow through to higher stope volumes in the upcoming quarters and what are we expecting from underground volumes for the rest of the financial year? Thank you.
Otto here, I will take that one. For the rest of the quarter, we are looking at a fairly similar trend to what we currently have, especially in terms of our ounce production. The Telfer underground does offer quite a range of mineralization, ranging between narrower, lower tonnes and higher grade versus more multi-stockworks at lower grade. Where we are currently, while we are opening up that West Dome Underground, the focus is expanding those current areas, but also we have put some focus on the ESC over the last few quarters, and that is currently one of our main production areas. So from an ounce profile point of view for the remainder of the year, we are looking at remaining consistent on that profile.
That will be a mix, as I said, between higher tonnage, lower grade and lower tonnage higher grade, depending on which areas we are mining in the sequence through the year.
If I just augment that, Adam, I think where we see the real step change is when we bring on that West Dome Underground. Obviously Otto is leading the study on that. That is this beautiful confluence of really high grade, the highest grade you have seen at Telfer since 2005 or highest average grade, and an independent mining area, which I think will allow us to lift tonnes. That is why that latent infrastructure, having an underground crusher, underground hoist rated for 6 million tonnes, we are using about 25% of that.
So the capital intensity of bringing West Dome Underground online we think is really attractive. Right now we plan to see that in FY 2028. But we are being really encouraged by the development we are getting out there. Then of course, with Nick’s background and pedigree, we are really keen to unleash him on that underground as well.
Sounds good. I will jump back in the queue. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of David Radclyffe of GMR. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning, Shaun and team. First question was just a follow-up on Kate's question about the Telfer growth CapEx. It is obviously quite a way below the pace of the guidance, and you would need to average probably close to AUD 100 million for the balance of the three quarters to get to that level. If I could push you a little bit more to just understand what is happening there. Is the spend behind schedule? If so, what is driving it?
I will grab that one. Effectively, our first quarter was always going to be a little bit slower in terms of CapEx spend for growth at Telfer, purely because there are some long lead items that we were looking to place. It is definitely a ramp up that was planned for the rest of the three quarters of FY 2027. I would also highlight we have around AUD 25 million of CapEx spend on the mining open pit fleet that we have spent but has not yet been converted into CapEx. Purely from an accounting perspective, we treat that as a prepayment until it is delivered to site. Those long lead items, while we are progressing them, they just have not actually hit CapEx yet. I think very much on track to meet the guidance for FY 2027 with a slower Q1.
Importantly, to Monique point, we've spent the cash, but it doesn't appear in CapEx, it appears in prepayments.
Yeah, no, understood. That's very helpful. There maybe is a follow-up there. You mentioned the ventilation's now done for West Dome. The plan's for 2028, but it certainly feels like it could come in a lot earlier. So what has to happen at West Dome before we see some production this financial year rather than next?
Look, let me answer that in two parts. Firstly, we're doing this third drive out. That will be a dedicated haul drive. That's about 1,500 m of development, and that will bring ore directly back to that underground crusher and hoist, which we think is a long-term, really eloquent, elegant tramming solution. Right now with that ventilation in with the two drives, that gives us access. I think we're going to get four headings in there, which we think can be productive. We stand off around 280 m from that ore body. So what's most important for us right now is the drilling we're doing to make sure we put that infrastructure in the optimal position to deliver West Dome Underground efficiently over the medium to long term.
We probably could drive in there a little bit quicker if we wanted to, but right now it's about doing it well. This is potentially transformational in terms of grade and volume to that Telfer underground. It's just we're not about doing record quarters. We're about consistent delivery. So although right now we're kind of really happy with where we are, and we probably could look at accelerating it, perhaps there's a little bit of development ore in that June quarter, which is not in our budget or plan. But that's certainly the opportunity for us. But right now it's about getting it right.
From a study point of view, if I can jump in there. That infill drilling is planned to run through to roughly the end of the year. That will then give us our resource update. If you look at our previous resource that was released for West Dome Underground, there is a significant resource that needs conversion into reserves. As Shaun Day said, we are just waiting for that drilling to be finished, getting the assays back, updating the resource model, and then finishing the study in this phase one process, to get the reserve done and placement of that major infrastructure, and then waiting in serious anticipation for the remainder of the Pinnacles totals to come in.
Yeah. Brilliant. Thank you. That is very clear. Cheers.
Your next question is from the line of Daniel Morgan of Barrenjoey. Your line is open.
Hi, Shaun and Team. Do you plan to produce more in the December quarter? Just in thinking through it, you do not have a mill shut, well, not a major mill shut. Mining productivity has clearly been improving, so I guess it comes down to grade and recovery expectations. Can you just talk about the December quarter?
I will answer that in two ways. Obviously, as you said, we do not have the mill shut, so we are not looking at the downtime from the mill time. That is getting into the start of our wet season, which we have to take into account. We are currently planning a slight uptick in throughput based on the first quarter. As what we have said previously, we are slightly weighted towards the second half of the year. At a high level, I think we will see a slight uptick from the first quarter, but largely in line from an ounce production profile.
Yeah, look, just to add to that, Daniel, I think that the real tick up comes in the second half of the year. In Q2, depending on, look, we have probably exceeded where we forecast and budget our mining productivity, particularly in that open pit, which is again, a great credit to the team. But right now, we assume there is a little bit more stockpile feed in that second quarter, in terms of our forecast. What you saw in this September quarter, I think we only used 300,000, just shy of 300,000 tonnes of stockpile feed. You saw the high-grade stockpile effectively remain unchanged at 1.4 million tonnes. Now, we do use it as working capital, so to speak, so there are tonnes on and tonnes off that stockpile.
But we are happy with how things are going, but equally, we probably formally see that tick up really happening in the second half rather than in the December quarter. But if we can maintain the productivity of this first quarter, we put ourselves in a strong position.
Thank you. Just on that piece regarding mining productivity versus filling the mill. Obviously, this is a big year of investment to get new ore sources up and running. I am just wondering, when do you think conceptually you might be able to fill the mill from fresh ore? Is that FY 2028? Thank you.
Well, look, thanks, Dan. We're pretty close, aren't we? I think of just under 5 million tonnes, 4.7 million of that was fresh ore. We've got, what is it, 21 million tonnes of stockpiles there? So when we're drawing it down at 300 tonnes a quarter, there's a plus 20-year stockpile there. So, we feel that is beautiful. Just what it does for de-risking, what it does for consistency of performance. We really like that. But again, if we can bring on the West Dome Underground, if we can continue that improvement in open pit productivity to FY 2027, we still forecast using some of the stockpiles. Then of course, in time, there's also the potential to bring on Havieron Underground and turn back on that VSC.
We think we have multiple pathways where we're not using that stockpile, it's just long-term buffer for us, and we love the idea of having it there. But there are multiple pathways where through productivity, through bringing on West Dome Underground, the VSC and Havieron, where we effectively park up those stockpiles into the more medium to long-term.
Okay. Thanks very much, Shaun.
And you guys, just a reminder that although we said the July shut was our largest shut, we do have a shut in November as well. It'll be the smaller one, but we're not going into the next quarter without any shuts.
Thank you.
Your next question is from the line of Hugo Nicolaci of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Shaun and Team. Thanks for the update. Look, firstly to the previous questions. Maybe just starting with the open pit. You've talked to the strip ratio of Stage seven. Can you just talk to more broadly how you see the overall material movements for the open pit progressing over the rest of the year?
We currently have material coming from three stages, which is Stage seven, Stage eight, and Stage two. Stage eight and Stage two are our two deeper stages, and that's where the bulk of our ore or our higher-grade ore comes from. If you look in our release that was posted in Figure one Stage seven is opening up the larger surface areas. Through the remainder of the year, the bulk of the material movement will be coming from Stage seven. But our high grade mainly comes from Stage two. Stage eight is getting towards the end of its life, and that's tied into Stage two now. The higher grade will come out of Stage two, obviously longer haul and slightly higher cost.
Our main focus will move to stage seven from a volume opening up, putting in two diggers up at the top towards the second half of the year, opening up the fronts in stage seven and bringing that down, to where the high grade in stage seven kicks off.
Got it. Thanks. That is helpful, Otto. Then similar line of questioning on the underground piece. If I go back historically, I think in your two-year outlook, your plan was for the underground material for 2026 and 2027 to be about 3.5 million tonnes. Obviously, a number of reasons in the industry in terms of productivity and availability, maybe impacting that. Can you just talk to the tonnage rates you expect to continue ramping up, the Telfer underground from here, and then what sort of exit rate you expect to end FY 2027 at?
We are expecting to ramp up probably about, off the top of my head, about 30% more than what we are doing now towards the end of the year, from the underground. Now, that depends on as we open up those underground fronts, the VSC is currently in full production, so we were putting a lot of development into that previously. Then down at the lower part of the mine, the bulk of our production comes from the A-Reefs and a little bit from the Bray area. The underground, one of the big focuses for the underground is also the copper that comes from the underground to complement that open pit copper feed from it.
We do look at areas not necessarily from just a grade point of view, a gold grade point of view, but also from the copper contribution that comes from those areas and the blend that provides to the open pit ore.
Great, that's helpful. Then just maybe on the copper piece. Look at some of your peers more recently who've reported very strong realized prices this September quarter, just around provisional pricing and things on copper. Yours probably more in line with quarter average. Do you want to just remind us what your quotational periods are on the copper con?
It's Shaun here. Look, we don't necessarily share the details of our off takes. What I will say is there's no long-term kind of off takes in place. We're able to fully participate in the market, which is hugely advantageous, and I think is actually quite a good strategic asset for us that we are producing this copper concentrate. I think it gets a little bit lost that we're also a copper producer within our peer group. The TC/RC, the pricing, the payability on it is really attractive. Having said that, there's also gold in our. It's a gold copper concentrate. So it's important for us to focus on what we get as a return to that gold as well in there. But we think the pricing continues to improve on concentrate sales.
I think if you have a look at us, we track the market pretty well, which shows you there's no unusual quotation periods in what we've got. I sold a copper con through the late 2000s where you had a big correction in the copper market. So I think I understand some of the risk profile associated with that, and I think we've got a very de-risked, copper approach to copper concentrate sales.
All right. Thanks for that, Shaun. I'd just lastly like to clarify, so your integrated Telfer -Havieron study is now due in the June half next year?
If you are talking about. I think what we would need to do before we came out with an integrated study is complete the JORC reserve. That is the foundation, as you appreciate, for us developing the life of mine on Telfer. That is due in about May, June 2027, so this year. We have obviously already got the Havieron element in place with that feasibility study. At that point, we are able to add them together, but I would not say we would be racing to get that out. We would want to make sure we spent the time making sure we think through the nuances and how we present that. But I think we will have all the building blocks we need in place by May, June 2027.
All right. Thanks. That was the last one.
A reminder before we continue on to press the star one to join the queue. Your next question is from the line of Ben Lyons of Jarden. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good day, Shaun, Monique, Otto. Just a quick one on Havieron, please. Sorry if I misinterpreted your comments on the current status. Did you say you are re-tendering the underground mining contractor? At Havieron. Obviously, Barminco was up there for many years on standby for a restart of the decline. If so, just how you are weighing up the opportunity to maybe cut a few bucks on cost versus mitigating the risk of the potentially challenging ground conditions? Thanks, Shaun.
Thanks, Ben. I didn't mention Barminco is that. Barminco are there as you correctly identified. We're really confident working with Barminco. I mentioned also earlier that we're 340 m vertical. That was done with Barminco. Very much what we've tried to do with Barminco is put the band back together in terms of bringing in a lot of the team there that had been through Havieron previously. We think that history, that expertise, that experience adds to the de-risking of having been through the upper confined aquifer, having been through the middle confined aquifer, now dancing into that lower confined aquifer. We think the right balance of risk management is to do that again with Barminco.
Barminco are also at Telfer, so we have some benefits of being able to exchange people and equipment between the two sites, which has been also proven to be helpful. So for now, we're really comfortable with Barminco. I think, we get through the Permian layer and down to that beautiful rock conditions in the basement rock, then I think we can re-kind of consider this from first principles. But look, we enjoy a good relationship with Barminco. They've done a good job. We think highly of them. I think they're probably Australia's premium underground contractor. It's a good relationship, but naturally, we always want to optimize that. As you described, if there's an opportunity to save some bucks over time, I think that's something that we'd like to unpack.
Awesome. Thanks for clarifying, Shaun. Apologies for misinterpreting the comments.
Yeah, all good, mate.
Your next question is from the line of Branko Skočić of JP Morgan. Your line is open.
Yeah, morning, guys. Thanks for your time. First question on the tungsten angle. I was just interested in how progressed discussions around O'Callaghan's are. It does seem like the timeline slips a little to the back end of this financial year. Would also be interested if there's been any inbounds from governments or quasi-government representatives for the asset as well?
Yeah, thank you. I'll take that. Look, just for a reminder for people who aren't as familiar, O'Callaghan's is our tungsten deposit. Ongoing discussions. Look, I don't want to sort of name parties or talk to specifics here. I think we said on the last quarterly call that we were looking for an outcome this financial year, and that remains the case. We are really focused on it. All options are still on the table in that regard. So that ranges from a spin-out, a potential divestment, or essentially a joint venture. We're seeking to optimize and maximize value for our shareholders. We're deliberately being patient. We don't want to rush an outcome that we're not satisfied with. So look, that's kind of the update. We still target an outcome this financial year.
All right, appreciate it. Just back on the FY 2027 guidance. I was just wondering why you haven't felt comfortable upgrading or at least narrowing, should I say, the guidance ranges given that strong first quarter of the year?
Branko, I think that's a compliment. As in, it was a good first quarter. But look, we're one quarter in. Give us some time. It is an encouraging start, but I think for now, one quarter in, we're really happy in terms of, I think, de-risking delivery of that guidance, and then let us take it from there. But one step at a time.
Too easy. Much appreciated. Thank you.
This concludes today's Q&A session. I would like to turn the call back over to Shaun for closing remarks.
Thanks, Paulie. Look, just to say thank you for everyone who's dialed in. We appreciate your time, and the really high quality of questions. So, thanks for reading in, and thanks to the team here for putting this together. Thanks again, and we'll look forward to engaging again next quarter.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect.