Thank you. Good morning, all. Thanks for joining our call today. I'm Rob Bishop, Chief Executive Officer of New Hope Group. I'm joined here by Rebecca Rinaldi, our CFO, and Dom O'Brien, our Executive GM and Company Secretary. This morning, we released our quarterly report for the third quarter of the 2025 financial year. Hopefully, you've had a chance to go through it, but in any case, I'll briefly step you through our key highlights before we open up the line for Q&A session. The third quarter of the 2025 financial year was another solid performance in what has been a rather volatile market. Firstly, looking at our safety, our 12-month rolling average TRIFR was 3.65 at the end of the quarter, reflecting an 11% improvement compared to the previous quarter. Safety will always be a key focus for us, and it's positive to see those metrics continue to improve.
During the quarter, we moved 16.3 million BCM of prime overburden, a 10% increase on the previous quarter, driven by strong mining performance and favorable conditions, especially in the Hunter Valley. Group run-of-mine production was 4 million tons, slightly lower than the previous quarter at Bengalla Mine, cycled through a high strip ratio section of the resource. This was partially offset by a 13% step-up in ROM coal production at our New Acland Mine, which continues to increase volumes. Saleable coal production of 2.8 million tons was in line with the previous quarter, as Bengalla Mine unwound its ROM inventory that was built in the previous quarter to maintain consistent feed to the prep plant. Coal sales, which totaled 2.7 million tons, were 3% higher than the previous quarter.
In terms of financials, the group achieved an underlying EBITDA of AUD 155 million for the quarter, down 27% on the previous quarter, largely due to a softening of coal price. Our average realized price was AUD 148 per ton, excluding domestic sales, which was a 7% decrease on the previous quarter. Whilst the coal price has declined in recent months, we continue to remain disciplined with our unit cost control, with Bengalla Mine achieving an FOB cash cost, excluding royalties, of AUD 75 per sales ton, comfortably within our guidance range and a 2% improvement on the previous quarter. The group finished the quarter with an available cash balance of AUD 659 million post the payment of our fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.19 per share for a total of AUD 161 million.
Our strong level of liquidity continues to support our on-market share buyback of up to AUD 100 million, which we announced during the quarter, and, of course, also supports our focus on rewarding shareholders with fully franked dividends. Turning to our guidance, at New Acland Mine, we have experienced constraints with rail capacity, which has resulted in our product stockpile nearing maximum capacity. As a result, we've taken the step to revise New Acland Mine's FY2025 physical volumes, with all the details outlined on page nine of the quarterly report. Overall, in light of the volatile global market and local challenges, we are pleased with our ability to remain a resilient, low-cost producer and continue to provide further shareholder returns. I'll now hand over to the operator to start the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question via the phones, you will need to press the star key, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type your question into the Ask a Question box. Your first question today is a phone question from Paul Young with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, Rob, Rebecca, and Dom. Hope you're all well. Good to connect, and thanks for doing the call. Rob, the first question's on Bengalla and just where we are in the mine plan and how the mine's tracking to achieve consistently the 13.5 million tons of run-of-mine production. Can you just step through, please, just how the mining fleet's performing and the wash plants and what's left remaining to actually consistently achieve the target of 13.5?
Thanks, Paul. I think on the whole, Bengalla's been achieving the required throughput at the mine for some time now, both in the pit and the prep plant. All kits, all bit delivered. There's a few ancillary infrastructure capital which needs to be executed. Prep plant is performing well. Probably our biggest impediment to consistently performing is downstream rail logistics and port logistics. Recently, we've had significant rains in the area, and that's caused congestion in the port due to fresh water and ships not being able to come in. Rail's certainly been a point of concern. If you recall, at the end of our fourth quarter last year, we had issues, and it's looking like there could be some more protester activity in this upcoming quarter. All in all, everything we can control is going well on site.
Currently, the dragline is in its planned shut, which is going well. With regards to, I guess, life of mine performance and strip ratios, etc., you've probably seen in the quarter we had slightly higher strip ratio for the quarter just been. That's really just a function of where the dragline was in that quarter and also just geology. We expect that strip ratio to come down in this quarter coming, and be at sort of that 4-4.5 to 5 strip ratio for the life of the pit.
Okay. Thanks, Rob. Good news on Bengalla that you're achieving that 13.5, and it's all done there, so that's great. Just maybe moving to New Acland and just noting that you've increased your run-of-mine guidance but reduced the saleable, and that's all due to the rail issues. Wondering if you could just expand that a little bit as far as adding consists and rail paths or what actually do you need to see there from the provider to achieve that? Also just the commentary on, if you can add, just on coal yields. They seem to be pretty low still. Are we going to be sitting at current yields for sort of life of mine? Or do you expect that coal yields will actually improve as you move into new pits?
Yeah, good questions. I'll focus on the rail piece first, and that was probably one of the points that most people would have seen in our quarterly report. We are facing challenges, it's fair to say, with ramp-up on the rail line for both Horizon and Queensland Rail. We're working very closely with them, and certainly, we've seen good feedback and response from both parties. It is challenging. We've only got a certain amount of stockpile capacity at the site, and particularly at John Dee, where our rail loadout is. We're managing that, but it has caused us to be a bit sort of conservative, I guess, with our guidance, and you would have seen that change in the quarterly. Certainly, good response from those two parties, and we expect to be able to ramp up to that 5 million product reasonably within expectation timeframes.
I think your other question was with regards to yield. Yes, it is a bit lower at the moment. That is just by virtue of the fact of we're starting up the pit. We're seeing a bit more of a high-ash product being mined at the moment relative to our low-ash gold product at the site. Yield will improve, and you will also see another improvement in yield once we get over to our Manivar West pit, which is probably about a 12-month or 12-18 months away. That really gives us the flexibility to mine from the three separate pits for the life of the mine, and yield should be roughly in line with where they were for stage two production, along with total production around that circa 5 million tons per annum.
Okay. Okay. Thanks, Rob. Just a final one on the coal market. I know you point out that the success in Kili coal market's finding a bit of a floor, and yeah, agree with that. You're also saying some Indonesian coal exports starting to decline due to functional price, but also maybe some demand nuances at the moment. Just you make a comment on the forward sales book that it's well supported and you'll sell the majority of your production forward for the next six months. Can you maybe talk through, have you locked in a price? If so, can you talk through that?
It's not so much locking in a price. Most of our contracts are term contracts, which are pegged to the indices. We have very little fixed price contracts now. We did have some on the JRP, Japanese Reference Price, in prior years. They've now moved to peg to Newcastle Index. Probably the only fixed price we really have now of a material nature would be our domestic sales out of Bengalla. We've locked in most of our volume for the next six months. More shorter-term, definitely locked in further out, sort of four to five to six months is probably about 70%, but certainly well placed. Most of our coal is pegged to that 6,000 index with relative premiums or discount depending on what spec of coal we're selling.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Rob. Understood. I'll pass it on to someone else. Thank you.
No problems.
Your next question comes from Paul McTaggart with Citi group. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rob. Just to circle back with the issue of trying to get coal from New Acland out, is that just above rail capacity issues, or is it access to slots? I mean, because you obviously go out through Brisbane, from memory. What specifically is the problem here? Is it just because it's not a dedicated line and you've got to share it with passenger traffic, etc.?
Yeah, that certainly is a big part of it. It is a bit of a mix between getting the trains, but also a big part of it is the paths. You make a correct point that it is a shared rail line, and Cross River Rail project certainly will impact us from a ramp-up perspective, as you may be aware that that project is delayed sort of circa two years at this stage, and hopefully that does not get any worse. There is a lot of shuts required for that, which impacts our ability to get paths. As I stated previously, we certainly have had good response from both QR and Horizon, but it is a bit of a juggling act. Obviously, now we have got the clear path to ramp up from an approval perspective where a little disappointment.
We are disappointed that we can't go as hard on our ramp-up, but we're certainly pushing as hard as we can to get to that 5 million product.
Okay. Thank you.
No problem.
Your next question comes from Daniel Roden with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hello. I was wondering if you could maybe just talk to a bit of the Maxwell ramp-up profile of what you're seeing there, and are you encouraged by the ramp-up to date and just a bit more color kind of around that?
Yeah, sure. I guess overall, very happy with the ramp-up at the Maxwell Mine. I've stated previously the Malabar management team and some of the major shareholders who are directors on the Board and heavily involved in the asset with a lot of experience. They've certainly not only got the approvals very quick, but ramp-up is progressing very well. Equipment to site is going well. The Longwall is all but on site. Mini build is happening as we speak. Certainly, production in the underground has improved significantly in the last few months in the board and pillar pits. That is a why-not pit. Probably the most important thing is the progress of the Woodlands Hill pit, where the Longwall will be operating for the life of the mine.
That is where the most significant tons will come from to get to that sort of circa 6 million-7 million product per year. At this stage, it is expected that first year will be early in first quarter calendar year next year, so around about January, February. That is when we will see a meaningful kick-up in production, and that is when you will see that coking coal product come into play. Yeah, very happy with how it is going, working well with the management team there, and it is a pretty exciting project and pretty important part of our business now, sitting at just under 23%.
Yep. Can you remind us how the distributions from, I guess, that structure will work kind of after it hits more meaningful production and is it positioned to potentially yield dividends back to New Hope? What are your expectations, I guess, around that over the next 12-24 months?
Yeah, that's right. It'll be through dividend flows. As I said, up until now, there's obviously been cap raises, contributions to fund the project. It's essentially fully funded now to get the Longwall going, and that's when meaningful tonnage is going to come through, and obviously, positive cash flows will flow from that. There is some debt funding in there and some requirements from that perspective, but certainly, our expectation is that dividends should flow in a relatively timely fashion once that Longwall gets up and running. Particularly, it's a 145 m Longwall for the first four panels, and then that'll tick up to a 300 m Longwall. Again, there will be another significant increase in production at that point.
Yep. How are you thinking about the, I guess, the remainder of the buyback just after getting over to the next side of the business? Are you still committed to the full AUD 100 million commitments? Is there anything you like in the markets for us that you've seen that's potentially going to change, I guess, the frequency of the buyback in the near term?
Yeah, sure. I might hand over to Rebecca to respond to that one.
Thanks, Robin. Thanks, Daniel. Good question. I guess with the buyback, we still see our assets as materially undervalued when we look at the share price. I think given where the market volatility is at the moment, we probably do not see a huge amount of change in that assumption in the short to medium term. Yes, we will still be active on the buyback. We do have the AUD 100 million approved for the next 12 months. One thing to overlay that is we have just come out of blackout today, so we have to be conscious of those periods when we cannot actually buy shares on the market as well.
Awesome. Perfect. I'll hand it on. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone or type your question into the ask a question box. Your next question is a phone question from Tom Sator with Morgans Financial. Please go ahead.
Hello. G'day, Rob and team. Most of my questions have been asked, but while we've got you, your peers are talking about some austerity, so to speak, in terms of forward capital and deferring some capital to create more buffers in their balance sheets. I know you've got a much bigger fortunate buffer at the moment than your peers, but curious about how you're thinking about the market, risks in timing of it, not sort of rebalancing and recovering, balancing those thoughts around the buyback versus dividends where incentivized to pay good divs with that big franking credit balance. Just talking us through how you're feeling the market out, I guess, at the moment in terms of being a bit more prudent on capital, perhaps.
Yeah, thanks, Tom. I guess probably the key point there is we're well placed. I mean, current prices are lower than probably what you'd expect on a long-term average basis, but seeing these, we shouldn't assume that we're never going to see these prices again. An average of a long-term price average is always going to have lower and higher, and I think we're on the lower end at the moment. That's really just driven by significantly more product in the market, I think. For us, still making good cash. We are, obviously, as we always do, looking at cost control, but also capital execution and where we can defer capital if it doesn't impact safety, compliance, and ensuring production volumes or production targets. We'll look to defer what we can.
We've got a pretty good cash buffer and minimal debt on the balance sheet, as you said. That is certainly a focus. We're looking to control what we can. I think for those things that we can't control, we're well placed to weather the storm, so to speak. We always look to reward shareholders. As you said, we've got a significant franking account balance. I think it's sort of between AUD 800 million and AUD 900 million now, which I think we'll struggle to get through for the life of our assets. Certainly, we'll look to continue to pay those. Obviously, we need to take into account a prevailing market where prices are at and what the outlook is. We do have a fairly material sustaining capital execution profile for the ramp-up of New Acland and the balance for Bengalla's fleet replacement. That is obviously a priority for us.
I think when you put all those together, we can manage to execute on all of them fairly effectively. Beck's already commented on the share buyback given our relatively low valuation on the market.
Perfect. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question is a webcast question. This reads, "You revise New Acland guidance down for both saleable production and coal sales, but ROM production has been adjusted upwards. What's driving the opposite change there?
Yeah, I can take that one. I guess it's a good question. We've recently changed the way we report prime overburden and ROM coal production. Looking at our forward estimates within the geological model, essentially, there's no change in product coal numbers, but it's more just seeing the prime reduce and ROM coal increase, which is just a function of the bulk mining practice, which we're working through at the moment in our coal seams. No change overall to our product numbers, our reserves in our current approvals. It's just really a function of where we are on the geological.