Possibly in the most prospective and the most desirable jurisdictions. With our first quarter results, a great start to the year, we are well-positioned to reiterate our production, costs, and CapEx guidance for FY 2025. The business is in good shape to deliver for our shareholders significant leverage to the increased gold prices, translating to increasing cash flows. Financially, Northern Star is in an exceptional position, with an investment-grade balance sheet that remains net cash at the end of the quarter. I'm pleased with our prudent and measured approach to our returns-focused capital investment program in the fourth of our five-year strategy, strategic plan to deliver 2 million ozs in FY 2026. At KCGM, our mill expansion work is on track, and the project to deliver ore feed and infrastructure for the expanded Fimiston Mill is progressing well.
At Jundee, underground mine development commenced at Cook-Griffin, while the ramp-up of mill feed sources continued at Thunderbox. And at Pogo, major mill works were performed successfully to enable us to continue delivering high-margin ounces and above the quarterly guidance provided to the market. I will now hand over to Ryan Gurner, our Chief Financial Officer.
Thanks, Stu. Good morning, all. As demonstrated in today's results, the company is in a great financial position. Firstly, our balance sheet remains strong in a net cash position of AUD 148 million, with cash and bullion of AUD 1 billion at 30 September. Secondly, free cash generation across the business is strong, with our capital investment program fully funded. We expect free cash to increase over the year as production lifts. And finally, we are focused on capital management, dividends, and buy back, so our shareholders can benefit from increased gold prices. The company has been a regular dividend payer since 2012, and it underpins our company purpose of delivering returns to shareholders. And now to the details. On a net mine cash flow basis, the business generated AUD 122 million, thanks to higher gold prices and operational performance.
Figure eight on page nine sets out the company's cash and bullion movements for the quarter, with key elements being the company recording AUD 585 million of operational cash flow. Looking ahead, this is forecast [audio distortion]. At Jundee, continued throughput increases and recovery at Thunderbox, with increasing grade planned and increasing throughput at Pogo. After deducting CapEx of AUD 423 million relating to plant and equipment and mine development, AUD 60 million in exploration, and AUD 50 million in equipment leases, quarterly free cash generation was AUD 52 million. Also, during the quarter, the company paid its FY 2024 final dividend, totaling AUD 280 million to shareholders. Quarterly investment in sustaining capital, growth capital, and exploration are tracking to plan.
Growth capital investment includes a KCGM open pit development at Great Boulder and the East Wall, which will give us full access to Golden Pike North, and underground development at Fimiston and Mount Charlotte, which is enabling us to lift production in those areas. At Jundee, underground development and infrastructure at the Cook-Griffin mine and our renewables project, which will be fully commissioned in Q2. At Thunderbox, development of the high-grade Wonder Underground and open pit development at Orelia. The KCGM expansion project remains on track, with spend of AUD 130 million during the quarter. This included work performed and commitments in respect of engineering and design, on-site construction, including bulk earthworks and major concrete pours, and the major equipment package.
While operational free cash flow is expected to increase in Q2, the company will pay its semi-annual coupon payment on the US notes and the FY 2025 annual group insurance premiums. As previously mentioned, the company is not expected to begin paying corporate tax on its Australian operations until Q3. On other financial matters, depreciation and amortisation are slightly under the low end of guidance range at approximately AUD 710 per ounce sold, and for the quarter, non-cash inventory charges for the group are a credit of AUD 11 million. After the quarter end, the company converted its debenture with Osisko Mining for 38.5 million common shares. Shareholder approval for the plan of arrangement was obtained on the 17th of October and is expected to become effective 25th of October.
Shortly after, Northern Star is expecting to receive proceeds of CAD 189 million, resulting in a AUD 32 million pre-tax gain during Q2. Lastly, in respect of hedging, table four, page nine, sets out the company's committed hedge position at 30 September, with the overall book being 1.8 million ounces at an average price just over AUD 3,200. The company replaced the 120,000 ounces of volume delivered during the quarter at an average price above AUD 4,000 per ounce. These commitments were prominently placed across calendar year 2026, aligning to the final period of capital investment for the KCGM plant expansion and commissioning start. I'll now hand back to Stu to cover the operations.
Thanks, Ryan. Today, I will be covering the operations section as Simon Jessop is traveling. As you can see in our results, we delivered strong operational and cost performance. Starting with the Kalgoorlie Production Centre, which includes KCGM, Carosue Dam, and Kalgoorlie operations, and accounts for 52% of the group gold sales and 56% of mine operating cashflow. Net mine cash was an outflow of AUD 11 million due to the major planned works and AUD 304 million of capital spend, largely at the KCGM mill expansion. At KCGM, the East Wall remediation works were temporarily paused to build a platform for the new Croesus underground portal locations, which have been fired subsequent to the quarter. Full access to the Golden Pike high-grade zone is delivered from the second half of FY 2025, growing production at KCGM.
Open pit material movement achieved an annualized rate of 80 million tonnes per annum, in line with the guidance, above 80 million tonnes. Pleasingly, the underground mines delivered a second consecutive quarter of increased activity, realizing the benefit of increased resourcing. Underground ore mined was 20% higher compared to the June quarter, due to the increased production from Mt Charlotte and ongoing development ore from the Fimiston underground, with the first stopes fired during the quarter. Development meters increased 50% for the quarter to 6.3 km versus 4.2 km in the previous quarter. Mill ore volumes were lower than the June quarter due to planned major maintenance shutdown activity, with mined grades reflective of the greater proportion of stockpile material processed. And gold volumes and grades are scheduled to increase, along with recoveries in the following quarters.
At Carosue Dam, gold sales were lower, given a planned mill shut and lower gold grades from the underground mining sequence. And at Kalgoorlie operations, it continues to perform very well with strong milling performance at the Kanowna Belle Mill. The KCGM mill expansion spent AUD 130 million over the quarter and remains on track with on-site construction slightly ahead of schedule. Stage one engineering and design is now 71% complete, with minimal changes to the original design, and major concrete pours are on track, with 39% of total concrete poured to date. Shipping of all bulk steel has commenced, and all major equipment has been fabricated and is being progressively freighted to site. We expect to receive all the major equipment by early calendar year 2025.
Turning now to Yandal Production Centre, which includes Jundee and Thunderbox, where the quarterly highlight was the Thunderbox mill delivering nameplate throughput of 6 million tons per annum run rate for two good consecutive quarters. A fantastic outcome by the team, and I thank them for their efforts. Yandal delivered positive net mine cash flow of AUD 86 million, a record since the beginning of our profitable growth strategy commenced in FY 2022, demonstrating our returns-focused approach for this production center. At Jundee, Northern Star Mining Services mobilized and commenced mining at Jundee's newest underground mine, the Cook-Griffin, a recent exploration success. Gold sales benefited from a drawdown in gold-in-circuit, offsetting lower milled grades and longer than planned mill shutdown. Milling performance has significantly improved so far this quarter, with grades expected to modestly increase throughout.
And as I mentioned previously, Thunderbox was a standout, delivering a record mill throughput, including a planned mill shut. And pleasingly, at our new satellite mine, Wonder Underground, production stoping commenced, while our NSMS team continued to deliver industry-leading development rates there. We are continuing to work on improving the reliability of the processing plant, and work focusing on milling and crushing circuits in the December quarter will continue. This work is expected to deliver targeted, stable mill performance there at Thunderbox and a lower cost base from the second half of this year. And finally, to Pogo. A fantastic achievement by our Alaskan team to deliver 60,000 ounces for the quarter, while also delivering the planned major mill works that were significant there, and above our previous guidance of 50,000 ounces for the quarter.
During the quarter, the underground mine operated at a 1.3 million tonne per annum rate, and it was constrained by stockpiling capacity, but certainly ahead of the total milled volumes in the quarter. That underground stockpiled ore now provides future contingency and increased confidence to deliver our annual guidance at Pogo. The Pogo Mill continues to operate at very good rates this quarter, on the outset of the completed mill works, and we have established our guidance for the plant to operate at a targeted throughput now above 1.4 million metric tonne per annum. That concludes our operational highlights, and I would now like to hand over to the moderator, Ashley, for Q&A. Thank you.
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 comes from Daniel Morgan with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Stu and team. Simple question, with regard to your operational performance. Like, could you just do a quick around the grounds as a simple snapshot of where your businesses, various businesses were, versus your expectations in the quarter? Like, with, you know, each business, was it ahead or behind? And just to give us an overall sense of how we're tracking. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Daniel. Look, largely, we delivered as a group, you know, right in line. I think that's probably reflected in consensus view as well. We'd already flagged early that there was a significant amount of major works across all our plants within the quarter, and we explained that, you know, on the onset of the guidance, so I think that was anticipated. Pleasingly, Pogo really came out the gate strong. You know, we pulled out that mill motor, fully rewound it. We did a lot of other major works at Pogo on the ore bin, of course, and a lot of other circuit upgrades that were done in that sort of five-week major project. And pleasingly came out very strong whilst the mine still continued to operate there.
So that delivered 60,000 ounces, and we, we'd forecast 50 for the quarter, so very pleased with where Pogo's positioned, and it's continued run right into this quarter, generating really good U.S. cash flow. I said in my opening remarks around the pause of the movement of the material to the bottom of Golden Pike at KCGM. Essentially, we've got that large big platform built with waste, where the new Croesus portals have been cut, and that's the new access into that OBH cutback area. This new portal's been established and developed there. It gives us neutral platforms and access to Fimiston.
Yeah, very pleased with that work, and we'll essentially catch up the material movements throughout the next couple of quarters, and really go hard into KCGM lower part of that mine for the second half of the year. So I'd say that was short in ounces in the quarter at KCGM. But across the rest of the sites, Jundee had a great sequencing delay, but the rest are pretty much bang on where we expected them to be this time of the year.
So just following up a little bit on Thunderbox. Surprised to see it at nameplate despite the big rectifications. I know it's early, but have you got a sense for how much you might be able to push that nameplate for the rest of the year, and do you have confidence in that the rectifications now mean that the mill can deliver?
Yeah. So if you recall, we spoke about on the onset of that expansion, it was really mechanical availability of the plant. So yeah, the issue was we absolutely could deliver at the 6 million tonne rate, but the availability was sort of in the 70s, low 70s%. We've got that up mid-80s%, and that's what's giving us the 6 million run rate, which says that if we get it in line with, you know, most plants around Australia and our other plants at sort of low 90%, utilization availability, we will get in excess of 6 million tonnes. So we're just very pleased that, you know, that's the minimum, and, you know, we've got a lot of material in and around Thunderbox that can feed, you know, that's stockpiled, and can feed that in excess.
We're not mine-constrained there or source-constrained. So if we can operate above 6 million tonnes, that's an opportunity and upside for us.
And then, I mean, just pivoting over to Pogo. Again, the operation seemed to deal very well with a big mill rectification during the period. You built some stockpiles. You're talking about operating at 1.4 million tonnes or above. Does that mean potentially this asset could deliver, you know, towards the upper end of your guidance? Or could you just unpick what the rest of the year looks like and your confidence from here?
Look, yes, that's what we see. And we know that the mill can operate at that 1.5 million tonne rate. It's really around the planned shuts and the, you know, unplanned shuts, I guess, that impact away from that. Hence, why we've said now that the floor is not 1.3, it's 1.4 million tonnes through the plant, and we're obviously mining to match that. You'll see the difference in the quarter table there showing that we were. We mined 60,000 ore tonnes more than we milled during the quarter, which is stockpiled effectively to be buffer. We won't necessarily be able to maintain that level underground because we're pretty snowed in with real estate. But it is a good.
You know, something we've never been able to do is create a lot of stockpile between mine and mill, and allows us, you know, through thinking and planning, to disconnect the two so we can work independently. So it's, yeah, pleasing with the outlook at Pogo. Pleasing where they've started in quarter two, on all things throughput, through consistency through the mill, head grade, and mining matching those volumes. And obviously, the development's been always ahead of schedule, so we're opening up new areas underground. So it is. Yeah, it's watch this space with Pogo. You've seen great U.S. cash flow generation. You've seen great, you know, resource outlook at that deposit and exploration upside. So I think people will start to really cast their eye to the valuation on.
Thank you so much, Stu and Sim.
Thanks, Dan.
Your next question comes from Mitch Ryan with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Morning, all. So just wanted some commentary at Yandal. You've called out that satellite feed sources are expected to double to four million tonnes in FY 2026. In light of that, I'm just wondering if you can sort of help us think about growth CapEx into FY 2026. I know the guidance for this year is AUD 285 million-AUD 307 million. Do we sort of expect that to be maintained given the capital that will have to go into the infrastructure to maintain that satellite feed?
Yeah. Thanks, Mitch. Look, it's capital related to building undergrounds, taking them to commercial production, which include things like Wonder, and it will also be, you know, the pit capital that went into things like Orelia. It's now being trucked, its ore sourced, and that down. So yeah, that capital, you know, Bannockburn is probably the only next future pit in a number of years, but ultimately, it's pretty flat to reducing across the southern part of Yandal, 'cause we've already started those mines, spent that capital, bringing them to commercial production and then building stockpiles. So it's really whether, back to Dan's question, whether we increase throughput through Thunderbox, whether we need to accelerate any capital to match that extra milling throughput.
But we won't give that capital guidance out till next year, because there's still decisions to be made on whether that is or isn't. The thing at the moment is, you know, the Wonder Underground is in production, and we've got, you know, it's an underground mine that's been developed and that's really been fed in as that high-grade material. And then to the north, the Cook-Griffin portals have been cut, so there's capital this year. And essentially, that will be ready for commercial production in FY 2026, with limited other major capital at Jundee region in the north part of Yandal. So yeah, I think it's relatively flat to reducing into 2026. But you've always got some capital in turning on satellite operations in the Yandal.
Yeah. Thank you for that commentary. My second question just relates to, you've called out the Pogo's going from two to three shutdowns a year. You may have given timings, but I've missed it if you have. Can you just give some commentary around sort of which quarters we should expect those to fall in? And will it be the same quarters every financial year?
Yeah. So I guess one thing that happens with increased throughput is you wear stuff out quicker. And we did do this sort of two shuts per annum, and the risk is you call them early and you're unplanned for it. So we've strategically gone to three. Ideally, they are more compact, and we can do other works. We can back all these other works up so that we also don't have the unplanned shuts. So we'll get to trial. We'll plan it that way, we'll run it that way. We still believe we'll have spare capacity either side of those shuts to catch up, but I guess we'll guide the market to make sure that they look at the full year, not the, you know, pick a point and draw a line.
It's there'll be lumpy points within, depending on those shuts. And then on other operations where we've tried to, you know, I've always been asked about: "Why do you do all your shuts in one period?" We usually do one major shut, you know, in quarter one, and we do a half shut in quarter three, and obviously, that's reflected in the output for the group. And then when you line all those things up across all your operations, you know, a bit of a seesaw. It's also around booking and planning that major works and labor a long way out, and once you're getting close to that, it is quite rigid to be able to move it.
We'll aim to smooth it, but I think as long as we just tell people to expect it, they're not surprised if there's a bit of a trough, and then they'll expect to see a peak that nets it off.
Okay. Thank you.
Your next question comes from David Radcliffe with Global Mining Research. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Stuart and team. So the first question is a bit of a high-level one, and just maybe if you could give us sort of your thoughts on the impact of what the sort of AUD 4,000 an ounce gold price actually means for the business day-to-day now. So really thinking about near-term opportunities, so do you consider accelerating some of the stripping or pushing some extra development, or do you think about even bringing forward some of the sustaining capital projects?
Thanks, David. I guess what it means for us right now is we are enjoying, you know, significantly improved cash flows from production we're doing today and in delivering into spot sales. So you, you'll absolutely see that in strengthening of balance sheet, and compression of payback periods on investments that we, you know, made decisions on and committed to in previous years that are on the back end of execution. These were very robust investments and returns generated from, you know, assumptions around 2,700 Aussie gold, certainly not 2,700 U.S. gold. So the thing at the moment is we don't need to change our plan. We're in our fourth year of a five-year strategic plan, delivering into 2 million ounces next financial year.
We're well positioned and ahead of that, that we don't have to scramble. What we're seeing across the gold fields is, you know, all of that thinking at these higher gold prices. What typically happens in this environment, you end up with all these pop-up shops that start, you know, new mines that are only economic at these levels. That does put a bit of pressure on resources and potentially costs at a time. But right now, we are producing, we have gold we can physically sell into these spot levels and are enjoying those improved margins. So yeah, we don't have to change behaviors.
It's really a question for when we get to March, April, when we assess our resource and reserves that are done at, you know, AUD 2,000, AUD 2,500, you know, what numbers should we be using on our resource reserve for our long-term outlook? Because the market's long-term outlook is about AUD 2,900 an ounce and consensus. But if you wanted to put forward hedges today, you can get AUD 4,500 to, you know, high AUD 4,000 an ounce. There's a massive disconnect at the moment on sentiment outlook and ability to for producers to generate cash.
Okay, thanks. Well, it's good to hear. Obviously, you're sticking to plan. But maybe to follow up on that hedging comment, could you just clarify again what the hedging strategy is? Last quarter, no hedging. This quarter, we seem to be back to hedging and rolling that forward program. Obviously, as you say, the $4,000 an ounce is a great and very attractive price, but the forward strategy hasn't worked so well in the short term, so just a bit of clarification would be good.
The forward strategy of hedging never works on a rising gold price. But if you put our mark to market, if you put that against the forward consensus, it's well and truly in the money. So we do it for purpose on our investment decisions to guarantee those returns and guarantee those paybacks, and then we tail, we fall off after that. So our hedge book does tail off, and we're not adding at the back end of it, because we are off CapEx, and we're, we have significant production, and we are generating a massive buffer of cash earnings, as well as having no debt. So we're less concerned now, on the other side of the capital hill...
and it's just the near term where we do have, you know, so 20-odd% of our production hedged, which was put in place for a prudent decision around the investments at the time. So yeah, that's what we're able to do and why we've done it. We've been pretty clear on articulating that. It's, it's worked, and I think at the moment, it's, you know, the attitude is you can get those forwards. But we will be able to deliver into these spot levels with unhedged production that is double the next, you know, producer's ounce profile and, you know, four or five times the next producer after that. Leverage to gold price, Northern Star has it in spades.
Brilliant. Thank you. I'll pass it on.
The next question comes from Al Harvey with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, Stu and Ryan. Just on the Osisko convertible conversion, I guess just trying to get a sense of what the plans are for the CAD 188 million. Could that come back through the buyback? And maybe just a more general one, just how you're weighing up capital management options across growth versus capital returns at present.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Al. Yeah, that's right. So, I mean, we've got to. You know, obviously, we're expected to receive the funds later this month. So, looking forward to getting them with a small gain there. Yeah, look, it will be considered. Haven't thought through just yet what we're gonna do with it. Once we see it in the account, we'll start considering it. You know, there's AUD 125 million left on the buyback. You know, that's not a great deal left to do. That can be executed quite quickly, so there's plenty of time for us to execute that.
You know, the gain, I guess, from Osisko, we'll weigh up what to do with it, and sort of go from there. But as sort of Stu was mentioning or spoke about in the question around, you know, do you change behaviors? Obviously, we're not changing behaviors from an operational sense, so we see good returns in what we've done. We've done a lot of the hard work now, so just really looking forward to the margins and the earnings growing from here under these gold price levels.
Sure. And I suppose maybe just to follow up, I mean, I think you've kind of answered it with discipline, et cetera, but just thinking, I guess, the Osisko convertible was kind of entered in as another option as further progress into North America. I mean, how we're thinking about potential growth, M&A in that space?
Yeah, you're right. It was established as exclusivity to do DD and assess the Windfall deposit. That's where it was established. So, you know, the view and appetite is to always look. We don't need things, and we've got a great organic delivery and plan and strategy. So, and look at the exchange rate, it's difficult to see value offshore at the moment. So yeah, we'll just keep focusing on, you know, you pointed out the disciplined approach to it. Greatest returns right now in our organic delivery, and we consistently deliver into that. But yeah, over the next couple of years, you know, it's a pretty exciting position when we've built, you know, the balance sheet we've got today, and it's only improving.
There'll be options in front of us.
Yeah. Thanks, Stu. Thanks, Ryan.
Your next question comes from Matthew Frydman with MST Financial. Please go ahead.
Sure. Thanks. Morning, Stu and Ryan. Firstly, on KCGM, and I think you might have alluded to this already in your response to Dan's question, so apologies if I'm going over old ground, but I just wanted to understand the lower feed grade during the quarter. Obviously, you said more stockpiles, and that was... appears to be as a result of that lower open pit ore mined. Is that just as a result of, I guess, you know, lumpy access to those high-grade zones as a function of the mine plan? Is there anything we should be reading into there in terms of the lower open pit ore mined during the quarter and the higher stockpile feeds, obviously, despite the fact that you had a plant shut?
I guess ultimately, is the expectation that all mine volumes are going to pick up in the following quarter? Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Matt. So you're right. I think it's the, the stockpiles contribution. You know, we're still getting 13 million tonne rate through the plant. It's just the- it's just what blend and what grade. If you kind of think of last year out of KCGM, ultimately, you know, that 450-odd thousand ounces. This year, around 550-odd, and then next year, the 650 thousand. So you've got these step changes, and we've said it's, it's largely that second half when we're accessing the, the higher grade Golden Pike, sort of undisturbed.
So, you know, the rate in two years going from 450 to 650, if you kind of cut the middle year in half, which we're in at the moment, you know, we're seeing, you know, an extension of last year's rate going into quarter one, maybe quarter two, and then, the second half basically being at the run rate into FY 2026. So it's just where we're positioned at KCGM. But once we've got all of the waste from that East Wall off those bottom shelves, you know, the benches down the bottom, and open up and de-stack those levels, we'll have, you know, good access to that grade, which then comes into the feed.
Setting off a bit of that is the improved underground performance at Mount Charlotte, particularly, and the development all coming out of Fimiston, and I expect to see that continuing to improve as well, so there is a bit of a lever and buffer there that not only are we relying on the high grade from the pit, we will likely get some better material, or the same material, but more of it, from underground sources throughout the year as well.
... Yeah, understood. Thanks, Stu. And then maybe just a bit more of a fulsome update on the mill expansion. If I look at the capital spend there, I guess in terms of the, you know, the run rate relative to your guidance for the year, everything appears on track. But, you know, is there anything maybe at a more granular level that's moving around? You know, how's progress on the ground relative to your timelines and your, I guess, project expectations? And is there any sort of challenges or opportunities that are presenting themselves given the, I guess, the broader industry backdrop? You know, commentary's been that engineering services are a little bit easier to come by and maybe labor's, you know, skilled labor is a little bit easier to secure.
So is that kind of being reflected in how that project's progressing? Thanks.
Yeah. So we're very happy with its progress, and we're ahead on some of the items in the schedule. We're actually ahead of plan, which is pleasing, because we catch that up and it's... Yeah, we're de-risking it each quarter we go forward. So yeah, we're very pleased with that activity. You can appreciate it is still. There's still a lot going on, so you know, the owner's team and the contracting teams that are there. And then we start to get all of the physical items being freighted and delivered to site. So we always like to say we'd rather be looking at it than for it. So it'll all be laid out, you know, in sequence, ready to be erected.
By pretty much the calendar year, all the hardware will be there, and then we'll be you know, slowly sequencing and or just checking Q&A and making sure there's no issues with any of that. But you know, historically when things are still coming on the water or you know, they've got you know, the Suez Canal issues or all that sort of stuff, or you know, going a long way around or ports not accessing it, all those sort of things, you've just got to... You know, it's all going to plan. It's still all theory. We're really getting past those you know, really critical items or events to make sure that you know, they're not gonna hold us up. So yeah, very pleased where we're at.
I wouldn't say there's, you know, massive opportunities on savings. I think when we look at the contingency, we're probably, you know, eating into it at the rate we would expect that it was there to achieve, and it's really around this labor productivity rate going into it with our contractors. So yeah, working closely with them. We're seeing some repricing savings, but we're also seeing, you know, some small movements, but yeah, very happy it's on time and on budget, and de-risking every quarter, by the way.
That's helpful. Thanks for the commentary, Stu.
Thanks, Matt.
The next question comes from Jonathan Sharp with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, Stu and team. Just a follow-up question from Mitch's question about the Pogo shutdown. Has the maintenance strategy changed in terms of planned maintenance time over a yearly basis or over a per tonnes basis? Or has that actually stayed the same and it's just you're producing more, so more maintenance?
Yeah, so stretching it out to the two shuts, what we've looked. Even when we upgraded the plant from 1 million- 1.3 million tonnes per annum, and we essentially were still keeping to the two shuts and trying to stretch out, you know, relines and works. And what obviously everyone experienced and we saw throughout the last few years, these unplanned issues that, yeah, things just wore out at a higher rate. And so we've gone now on a bit more of a conservative side, and it's not as simple as saying, you know, two or three in a year. It's, you know, taking weeks off, gaps between, you know...
So we look at mean time between failures. We look at which items can be upgraded so that they can last, you know, aligned with a major shut, so they're not, you know, small pumps or something like that can't have to be brought down to replace or put in duty spares that can, you know, one can fail, and you have a second one there that gets you through to the next shut. So all of that overarching maintenance planning, thinking, alignment of all these things, so it's a bit more like a, you know, F1 car coming into the pit and getting everything done at once. That's the attitude, as opposed to, you know, driving with your car around Australia and fixing your car piece by piece. This is sort of a different maintenance regime.
Again, we'll see how it goes, and we still expect it to give us a better planned result over the year and absolutely deliver that consistent guidance that we've marked. So, it's a natural maturing of the view at the asset, and we've got a very long-term, multi-decade outlook there. So we're not just trying to tie it up with wire, we're certainly making sure that the investment we're making is for the longer term.
Okay, great. So could I summarize it as an increase in planned maintenance to decrease unplanned maintenance?
Absolutely and that is the eternal balance of investing, you know, capital versus operating. That's, I guess, where, you know, we may have got criticism at the time for Fimiston building a AUD 1.5 billion plant, but it was gonna be there for 50 years. You're gonna get the absolute lowest OpEx and the highest uptime and the reliability because of that investment. You could certainly have done it cheaper, and it will, it'll break along the way and not give you consistency. So it's the exact approach to whether it's building mines or, you know, running infrastructure. It is that eternal balance. These aren't aircraft you've got to keep in the air.
These are, there's a balance between OpEx, CapEx, uptime. So it is that fine line.
Yep, makes sense. And just another question on KCGM mill expansion. I mean, it appears things are going pretty well, at least on paper. But, as you know, as we all know, things, there's always issues to manage. What do you see as the key risks or challenges in the next six months?
Look, it's probably we're very pleased with the visibility on all of the elements, the quality of the work, the rate of the work, so we're very happy with that. In my view, it's really the coordination or the overlap of activities and making sure that, you know, someone's great work isn't undoing someone else's adjacent to them, and that there's not that because we're obviously. We're running a 13-million-tonne per annum plant. We've got a fence around it and building a twenty, you know, 27-million-tonne per annum plant adjacent to it, and so we've just got to make sure that those interactions don't compete. Or that if it's already in advance risk-assessed and planned ahead. So that's the only part, but, you know, we've got a large owners team really looking carefully at all this.
We've got a, you know, very highly competent, you know, contractor there in Primero, managing the build, doing great work. So yeah, very, very confident with what we're seeing at the moment, and it's being de-risked.
Okay, great. I'll pass it on.
The next question comes from , Hugo Nicolaci with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Stuart and Ryan. Thanks for the update, and congrats to the team at Pogo for the performance there. A number of questions on the quarter have already been asked, so I wanted to try and come back to the mine grade outlook across the portfolio, particularly at Yandal. You know, I appreciate we've tried to touch on this one before, and you've historically guided to the outlook for grade across most assets being in line with reserve grade. Though, if I take Thunderbox as an example, mine grade there has been below reserve grade since 2021 . Are you able to give us a bit more color across the portfolio on how you expect grade to track over the coming years relative to reserve grade, maybe?
Also just with regard to, you know, the timing of new pits and new areas being opened up.
Yeah, I don't think it's departed too greatly there, Hugo. So I think there's a recovered grade, you know, so there's mining factors that have been applied as we've opened new mines. But I think relative to reserve grade, you know, we're, it's around sequencing. So I think we've, you know, Jundee always historically had quite a lumpy profile, because of the nugget ore body and the sequencing of higher grade that comes in. It's less of an issue down the south because you've got more consistent grades, and therefore, it's it is around, I guess, how much of that material goes into that now expanded six million tonne blend.
So I think the Thunderbox Underground originally at the higher parts or middle of the ore body was around those twos, 2.2 gm , and on the periphery, sort of gets down to 1/7, 1/8. So I don't know whether we're anchoring back to original reserve grades there, but it's certainly, you know, very productive, very profitable at those lower grades, but that is reality of that ore body. And then it's just, you know, the sequencing of Orelia or obviously Otto Bore's come in. We've really haven't seen a huge contribution from Orelia Pit to see whether it's meeting or matching reserve, but we're certainly putting very conservative numbers on that to make sure it was economic.
And then it's just the Wonder Underground coming in as well. So design's been consistent. So I don't know the reference to the set up against reserves, but you know, we're guiding essentially, you know, plus or minus but 300,000 ounces in the north at Jundee, 3 00,000 ounces in the south at Thunderbox. It'll swing around about, but ultimately, that's what we're working to give us a 600,000 ounce production center across that Yandal system, with multiple ore sources or being satellite mines being fed into those plants.
Thanks for that, color . Maybe in the near term, you know, just depending on where you are on that sequencing piece and maybe grades kind of track a bit below reserve grade and then come back up as you start to see, you know, a bit more contribution from the higher grade zones. Is that fair?
Yeah. So the two things will happen: if we're over-reserve grade, there's a time in the future we'll potentially be under it to average into it, but we will. Secondly, every year when we cut our reserves, we've been looking at our metal call factors and making sure we're reconciling those models closely. So, you know, there's either two things happen. You either downgrade, upgrade your reserve on an annualized basis with that model feedback, or you're looking at your mining factors, which obviously are being, you know, dilution that adds to your from your resource to your reserve grades. So all they're very iterative things. I would not be, you know, macro discounting any of our numbers based on a quarter outcome at any of our operations, because they have swings and roundabouts.
You just go back through all the historic quarters, there's pluses and minuses. You know, Jundee will knock out an 85,000-ounce quarter, and then it will knock out a 60,000-ounce quarter, doing exactly the same activity in very similar areas. And reliably over 10 years, it'll have this seesawing to do that.
All right. Thanks for that, color . I'll pass it on.
Your next question comes from Hayden Bairstow with Argonaut. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, guys. Just a quick one on KCGM, Stu. Just that I noticed the stage. There's a stage I and stage II engineering work, and stage II is only 30-odd% done. How much of that is the CapEx? And is there any sort of concern that that's where we might get some CapEx variability as that engineering work's tidied up?
Yeah, good question. 'Cause it was a very big project, we actually broke it into two stages. We originally worked to try to tender them separately and have them as separable portions to see if there was any benefit in breaking up the project. And it was also around the leveling of the resources. So the engineering doesn't sit there and do all this work on everything and then nothing. They do the first primary critical path elements, and then if it goes to the same route, they can then flow those resources into stage II So it's a lot of that back-end leach tanks and yeah, the back end of the flow sheet. So we're on track with it.
We don't see—you know, a lot of it is the engineering on a lot of the final design parts as far as, you know, cable trays and, and, you know, piping and, and small elements that, you know, even if it doubled, tripled in price, it makes no difference. It's the smaller capital items than that. The big, major, major works were all heavily defined, and if we— You know, we'll probably look back at how we put that contingency in place. The sort of 150-odd million contingency, it was thinking about what was still moving parts, and part of this design was considered in that review. So the... Yeah, the hardware and the final design is set. It's really around sequencing the work that happens to get it done.
And the closer they're doing it to that point, the more you see the detail. We're actually seeing some revised downward pricing for some of those elements, you know, with some of the inputs. They were tendered originally at high steel, high copper, high other elements, and then we're starting to see some reduction in cost in some of that final design work now. Or even just optimizations where we can do less work and actually get a saving there too. So I don't see it as a threat. I see it probably as a benefit in the near term.
Yeah, okay. And just on... I mean, there's not much in here on sort of exploration, but is there anything that the exploration guys are doing in Hercules or underground at KCGM that could actually come in and shift the five-year production outlook a bit?
Yeah. So it's probably the portals and the drill drives and the drilling happening at the moment. We would typically put out an exploration update around November, working out whether we want to do that or whether we just wait till the resource and reserves sort of March, April sequence. Yeah, at this moment, you know, the teams, we had an AUD 180 million exploration budget, and they're headlong into that. So it's really whether, you know, I can put drill holes up on a page, and it makes not much difference as around the formulation of that.
You know, as you mentioned, things like Hercules, you know, what does that look like from an overall resource and the capital, et cetera, to accelerate it into a mine? I think that's more likely to come at the after the resource reserve statement, not in the coming months.
All right. Great. Thanks for that.
I will just add, we are super excited with the exploration potential across the belts, and then in the mine at KCGM, and underground. Hence why, we'll be putting in probably six portals this year, and getting access to them, and then we will be, you know, drilling heavily to prove out that long-term plan for Fimiston Underground. And then Pogo itself as well, there's some really exciting. I was over there a month ago, there was some really exciting follow-up targets to advance on.
So, you know, seasonally, you know, being able to drill through the winter from surface is great, and then also the productivities we're getting out of the underground rigs is up, is increasing, so we may get some better results as well out at Pogo. Yeah, pretty excited about the exploration. Yeah, with extra cash flow at the moment, if there's good projects, we might even throw some more resources towards that stuff. Thanks.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Levi Spry with UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good day, Stu and team, and thanks for your time, and a lot of good questions there. Update on KCGM, and Dave's questions around, I guess, price and where we are in the cycle. Maybe can you just sort of tie that together a bit for us, Stu? So, how do you think about risks in the, I guess, the business and the sector overall? There's probably still a little bit of caution towards believing these prices from the investment community, I suspect. How do you think it plays out next?
It is hard to believe these Aussie levels, you know, above four thousand. You know, still coping with three thousand, and it's forty-one hundred. I think that comes back to some of the original questions on, do we change our behavior? And immediately, the answer's no. And in fact, we're enjoying, you know, prudent, disciplined decisions we made in previous years. We're coming out the back of that. So people who are dusting off plans or thinking about, you know, investment decisions at these levels, they've got to really look at the payback periods, and therefore, they may have to look at hedging and those sort of things to commit to it because you can only enjoy gold price when you've got gold, and, you know, we've got lots of it.
So I think there's that imbalance there of sentiment, you know, theory, developers, timelines. You know, we're gonna be coming out of our... You know, we're delivering into two million ounces next financial year, and then the following year, Fimiston turns on, you know, adding another couple hundred thousand ounces. You know, so yes, this year, next year, high capital spend, and we're still net cash, dividend paying, have our buyback active. We have surplus cash generation. So I think it just enhances what we're doing at the moment... more so than anything, and we don't have to be considering, well, what if gold price goes up? Our resource and reserves are calculated at very, very conservative numbers compared to spot.
But at the time we calculate them, we also looked at a really robust through the cycle downturn kind of attitude to say, you know, what's a, you know, with a 60+ million ounce resource, how long does it take that to come out of the ground? And how many decades ahead, and what's the cost and gold price gonna be? So I think they're all the things that we have visibility and runway to assess and consider. But I think, you know, people that suddenly look at gold price and go and look to gold producers and go, "Now, what do you do next?" We're doing this every day in, day out. You know, controlling what we can control, and the biggest ways we can create value, growing production, reducing costs, extending life.
And when you overlay gold price, all it does is magnify it up and down, but it magnifies the enhancement of that value creation. So we're sticking to the stuff that's in our control, and shareholders should benefit from being exposed to significant leverage to gold prices that we're enjoying at the moment. And I don't, you know, I don't ever speculate on gold price. We don't have to. We've got assets that will survive throughout the cycles, and we're pretty much mid-point on the global cost curve. And so there's a lot of assets above us that would struggle with a retracement. And the back quartile of the cost curve gets really steep. It's not flat throughout quarter one to quarter four quartiles. It really gets steep.
So there's a lot of things that production's being delivered into at these levels, that it doesn't take much of a shock for a lot of those things to fall off. And as you also know, you know, it's not really a simple supply-demand curve for gold. Like other commodities, it's, there's another element with currency overlay in there.
Yeah, got it. Thank you. Appreciate your time.
Thanks, Levi.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Tonkin for closing remarks.
Great. All right, thank you for joining us on the call today, and I appreciate it is a busy morning, lots of reporting. So again, thank you for joining us, and I look forward to updating you as we continue to advance our profitable growth strategy. And, go gold!
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You can now disconnect.