Thank you for joining today's teleconference for the release of Mount Gibson Iron's March Quarter Activities Report. Mount Gibson's Chief Executive Officer, Peter Kerr, will be leading the discussion and is joined by Chief Financial Officer, Jill Dobson and External Relations Manager, John Facius. Mr. Kerr will provide a brief overview, after which there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Due to time constraints, only institutional participants will be invited to ask questions at that time.
A recording of the call will also be available via the Mount Gibson website shortly after completion of today's teleconference. Please go ahead, Peter. Thank you.
Thanks, Bethany, and good morning all. Thanks for joining us to discuss Mount Gibson's March quarter report. As usual, I'll give a brief overview before handing back to Bethany at the end for any questions you may have. Activity in the March quarter focused on the overburdened stripping program investment at Coolman Island and the development of the shine iron ore mine in the Midwest. At Coolan Island, despite the record wet season rains, we progressed the overburden stripping program in the main pit reasonably well and that remains on track for substantial completion during the second half of this calendar year.
This program is key for our business as people know as it will set up the mine for reduced costs and significantly increased sales and cash flows for the remainder of its life. We also finalized the ground support plan for the main pits upper western end footwall and commenced the crushing plant upgrade. At Schein, we made very good progress and we're on track to commence initial shipments early in September quarter. In terms of overall iron ore sales, we shipped just over 230,000 tonnes from Coolum Island with one additional late quarter shipment actually deferred to April due to a shipping delay. So group sales for the 9 month period to the end of the quarter totaled 2,500,000 tonnes and that includes sales from Coolin of 1,300,000 tonnes.
And this is consistent with our guidance for Coolin Island for
this financial year of around 1,800,000 tonnes and
for group sales of year of around 1,800,000 tonnes and for group sales of between 2,800,000 and 3,300,000 tonnes. Sales revenue totaled AUD30 1,000,000 FOB and we report everything FOB, reflective of the lower sales volumes and grade specifications as the overburden stripping investment is undertaken at Coolin and also remembering that sales from the Midwest operation from our Extension Hill mine site were successfully completed back in late December. Sales revenue for the 9 months year to date totals $269,000,000 FOB. Reflecting the Kulin Island stripping phase and inventory build, the group's unit cash costs, so that picks up everything other than the capitalized stripping and capital project investments, averaged A135 dollars FOV per ton sold, obviously reflecting that lower sales volume. Cash and investment reserves reduced by $24,000,000 over the quarter and were A412 $1,000,000 at 31 March and the company has no borrowings.
This cash change reflected a net investment of $34,000,000 at Coolin Island, Shine development costs of $11,000,000 closure and rehabilitation spend at Extension Hill of $4,000,000 dollars the Midwest rail refund, which continues to accrue and come to us of $2,000,000 interest and other income of $2,000,000 and corporate and admin costs of $4,000,000 plus we did have a $25,000,000 positive working capital inflow just relating to the timing of receipts and payments. So turning now to Kulin Island operations in a bit more detail. For mining and production, as we've mentioned, the focus is on completing the overburden stripping phase to set up the site for significantly higher ore sales and reduced costs from later this year onwards. We remain on track to meet that target despite material movement being impacted in the quarter by extensive rainfall and associated lightning interruptions. We received over 1 meter of rain in the March quarter, which is obviously pretty extensive.
And since the start of this wet season up in the Kimberley, we have received more than 1.8 meters of rain, making it the heaviest wet season ever under Mount Gibson ownership since 2007. Total material movement was 4,400,000 tonnes. Oil production was less impacted, totaling 260,000 tonnes given production was sourced primarily from the upper western end of the main pit, which is less prone to the wet weather interruptions, although it is more variable in quality. Positively, waste stripping rates have increased in recent weeks as the weather has improved, and we expect further gains as we enter the dry season. We finalized the geotechnical ground support plan for the upper footwall in the main pit to enable us safely to access the high grade ore zone in the western floor of the main pit later this year.
So far, we've engaged specialist contractors and they've been mobilized to site this month and the program is expected to cost approximately $15,000,000 over the next 6 months. Program will progressively allow for safe mining access to the high grade western floor of the main pit to be opened up. In the near term, medium grade ore will continue to be sourced from the upper western and eastern ends of the main pit. The first phase of work on the crusher upgrade project, which is estimated to cost us $20,000,000 is progressing well with the upgrade designed to ensure efficient processing of significantly greater volumes of high grade ore from later this year. The work is being phased to ensure we retain crushing capacity as required over the coming months until commissioning of the new circuits in the September quarter.
From a cash flow perspective, Coolant generated operating cash flow of $7,000,000 in the quarter before capitalized advanced waste stripping investment of $35,000,000 dollars and the other capital projects, primarily the crusher upgrade of $6,000,000 Site cash costs reflecting the sales and not capturing the ship that was deferred at month end were A102 dollars FOB per tonne sold and that's before the waste stripping and capital upgrade projects. Unit costs were obviously, as I mentioned, skewed by that delay of shipment. Cash cost guidance for Coolum for the year of Aussie 70 to 75 per tonne sold remained in place. Turning to our Midwest operations. Our focus has been on the development of the Schein iron ore project, which is located 85 kilometers north of the now closed Extension Hill mine site.
Production from Schein is targeted at 1,500,000 tonnes per annum for an initial 2 year period, and there is the potential for a further 2 years if conditions remain supportive. Cash costs at Syne are anticipated to average between $65 $70 per tonne FOB before royalties with the average iron grade around 59 percent FE. We will have both fines and lumped products. The site seems made very good progress to date. Work has accelerated in the last couple of months and we're on target to commence sales early in the September quarter.
The construction activities on-site are well advanced and mining commenced during March ahead of our schedule. We've so far spent approximately $12,000,000 Aussie of the estimated $17,000,000 to $20,000,000 capital cost and of that $12,000,000 $11,000,000 was spent during the March quarter. That's obviously when activities accelerated. We'll be investing about $15,000,000 in pre production and inventory build in the current June quarter. And in the last week, we've commenced the extraction of the initial ore from the crest of the deposit.
In parallel with the site work, we continue to progress the key commercial arrangements, including potential alternatives to the base case transport plan, which is to truck ore by road to our existing storage facilities at Geraldton Port. And if you recall, we made a living for many years in the Midwest of trucking and using rail through to the Geraldton Port facilities. Meanwhile, rehab of the closed extension hillside is advancing in line with the closure plan and redeployment of personnel and equipment to shine has been undertaken as appropriate. We expect a reasonable proportion of the existing $9,000,000 closure provision and that was the provision at 31 December to be incurred over the next 12 months. While most sales were recorded in the Midwest business in the quarter, we did accrue $2,000,000 for the ongoing rail refund credit that I mentioned before.
Regarding prices, I wanted to say a few words, which obviously continues to be quite incredibly strong. The average Plat 62 CFR Index fines was US167 per dry metric ton for the quarter, and that was up from 134 in the prior quarter. The cool and medium grade fines, and we're obviously selling lower grade material whilst the overburden program is done, achieved an average realized price of US106 dollars FOB after penalties and that reflect that lower grade of 60% average in the quarter, which is a function of the stripping program as I mentioned. Despite the currently reduced shipment volumes, these iron ore prices do continue to have a significant benefit in reducing the net investment that we're required to complete required to make rather to complete the Kulin Island overburden stripping program, as well as indicating for us in respect of Shine a much stronger economic outcome from that operation. In relation to guidance for the 2021 financial year, we've maintained group ore sales at 2,800,000 to 3,300,000 tonnes.
And Kulin Island, as we've mentioned, is expected to contribute somewhere around 1,800,000 tonnes to fine products. Group cash cost guidance for the financial year remains at $65 to $70 per tonne FOB, and that's before the investments we're making at Shine for the development of that project and for the Kulin Island overburden stripping and capital improvement projects that lastly primarily being the crusher upgrade. At Kulin Island site cash costs are anticipated to average A70 dollars to A75 dollars per ton sold FOB, excluding the capital investments I just mentioned. So in closing, while the quarter presented quite a few challenges, particularly with the heavy wet season in the Kimberley region, we progressed the scheduled overburden and capital upgrade programs and we're now moving ahead rapidly with the development of the Shine project out in the Midwest. This progress has maintained our position for significantly improved financial performance in the second half of this calendar year and that's obviously a real focus as our investments in the first half enable strong sales and cash flows to be achieved.
So on that note, Bethany, I hand back to you for any questions that anyone may have.
Thank you, Peter. Institutional Our first
I'm really trying to get a sense of how confident you are that it's only going to be $15,000,000 and whether we're going to see any kind of impacts or disruptions to mining as a result of that work in the course of the period here because it's a shame. Obviously, we've got this window while iron ore prices are very high. So maybe if you can just give us a sense on exactly what's going to happen there.
Sure. Look, Paul, as you know, that the football work we're doing is all about safety and future of the operation in that part of the pit. So it arose from the rock fall that we had in the upper part of that football in late October, early November last year. We've made estimates and we've obviously built those estimates in conjunction with a specialist contractor who's now on-site for what we think that work will be given the design of where the bolting needs to occur on that footwall. So it's difficult to precisely estimate because of course as we go through and we get experienced with that bolting program, which of course we've done for many years from the base of the pit floor.
So there's nothing new about the way that work's done, but upper work higher up on the pit floor may take a little bit of time to become efficient with. But we are using a very good contractor who does this in a whole range of applications, including mining. So that's our best estimate for the moment. Of course, if we could do it, bigger part, if it takes longer, it will become more expensive. We're not sure it will become majorly more expensive.
The main issue for us is moving through that program over the priority areas on the footwall, so that in a phased way we can access the area underneath that Western end levels.
Okay. Thank you, Peter.
Thank you, Paul. Our next question is from John Scholes from Macquarie. Please go ahead, John.
Hi, guys. Just looking at the satellite options around Coolin Island, could you give us a bit more color on that and what works going in there around the satellite bits?
Sure. So John, as you know, there are some deposits that we've mined previously and there are 1 or 2 that we are looking at the potential to reaccess. One of those is called Acacia East. And if that's the case, we'll be able to blend that material in with the material from the mine pit, which is what we did many years ago. In relation to satellite deposits that have not been mined at this point, there's one in particular called Mangrove, which sits along the strike to the east of the main pit.
And we have worked with the traditional owners in the last few months for heritage clearance and ground clearance of that area. Even though it hasn't been cleared before, we've taken a pretty robust approach with the traditional owners to make sure that there are no issues and that appears to be the case. So that is scheduled for some drilling this dry season. In addition, there are other deposits and there's one of which called coral trout where we're doing the same with the traditional owners and seeking through the heritage clearance process to be able to do some drilling there. Both of those areas do have historic drilling.
So we do know a little bit about the mineralization, but for mine planning purposes, we would be needing to put an additional program in this year.
Excellent. Thanks guys. And just over at Schein, I'm just wondering just for clarity, is the rail refund impacted by the development of Schein at all or coming out to Schein or is that completely separate?
Completely separate, John. So the rail refund relates to the arrangements we previously had at Extension Hill. They don't get impacted by Schein. Okay, excellent. Thanks,
Thank you, John. Thank you, Peter. It seems we have no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to you. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, Bethany, and thanks all for listening in. If anyone does have additional queries, then you know where to reach out to us at Mount Gibson. Have a good day. Thank