I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Stuart Tonkin, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.
Good morning, thank you for joining us on the call today. With me on the call is Chief Financial Officer Ryan Gurner , Chief Technical Officer Steve McClare, and Acting Chief Operating Officer Jim Coxon, whilst Simon Jessop is out of country. I'd like to begin with the most significant highlight for the company in the recent period. The Fimiston Expansion project is complete. Commissioning is underway, with planned tie-in and ramp up to follow in the coming months. I can't understate how important this milestone is to the business at this time, and I'd like to acknowledge and thank our people and contracting partners who have completed this project on time and to a very high quality over the past three years.
The KCGM, as the cornerstone asset of Northern Star, now set with production increasing, capital spend decreasing, coupled with a reducing hedge book, all point to significant cash generation in the near term, driving increased shareholder returns. During the June quarter, we sold 433,000 oz of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,651 an ounce, contributing to annual gold sales of 1.543 million ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,698 an ounce. All three production centers generated positive net mine cash flow, delivering more than AUD 1.1 billion for the year. Pleasingly, operational improvements were evident across the portfolio, with record mining rates at KCGM, stronger milling performance at Jundee, record quarterly sales at Thunderbox, and another outstanding cash flow performance from Pogo.
At KCGM, we achieved record mining volumes with open pit material movement of 88 million tonnes per annum and underground mining of 3.2 million tonnes per annum, both demonstrating the caliber of our owner teams and the intensity of activity growing this premium asset. We are looking forward to showcasing this operation this Sunday prior to the Diggers and Dealers conference next week. The June quarter marked an important milestone for Northern Star, with KCGM mill expansion completed and entering commissioning on schedule. This represents the transition from project delivery to operations and is a defining step in positioning this business for the next phase of growth. This is a tremendous achievement by our project team over the last three years.
Importantly, our operations team have also safely maintained the aged plan to deliver 10.3 million tonnes in FY 2026 and will be as pleased as anyone to migrate from this aged and unreliable infrastructure to the new processing facility established for future decades of efficient gold production. Reaching the commissioning phase of stage 1 at KCGM is a significant achievement, and stage 2 remains on track for completion in the first half of FY 2027, creating an integrated processing hub with improved gold recovery and a simpler and cheaper operating model there. At the remaining Kalgoorlie operations, Carosue Dam transitions to underground mining and processing of stockpiles as open pit activity concludes at Wallbrook. The South Kalgoorlie and Kanowna Belle operations consistently deliver and continue to contribute strong cash flow to the group.
Yandal delivered stronger production at both Jundee and Thunderbox in the quarter, with Jundee now operating under a more optimized mining schedule focused on near-term cash flow generation. I credit both Northern Star team and Barminco on the pace at which they have implemented these changes for the benefit of the operation. At Thunderbox, improved milling throughput at a rate of 6.5 million tonnes per annum and great uplift from Orelia and Bannockburn delivered 67,000 oz of gold sold. Pogo operation closed out the year very strong, with June quarter sales of 82,000 oz, generating mine operating cash flow of $177 million in the quarter. Our Alaskan team continues to improve the consistency and quality of this operation. Now with decades of life ahead, Pogo offers significant opportunities to self-fund growth.
At Hemi, the project also continues to progress as planned, with managed aquifer recharge trials commencing during the September quarter and final investment decision remaining targeted for late FY 2027. During the quarter, the company released its annual mineral resource and ore reserve update as at 31st of March. We delivered 26% growth in resources to 88.9 million ounces at an impressive discovery cost of AUD 23 an ounce, and delivered a 27% increase in reserves to 28.4 million ounces, underpinning significant mine life. Importantly, our most significant discovery growth is centered on the large scale, low-cost assets of KCGM, Pogo and Hemi. We've outlined this morning, we intend to provide FY 2027 group guidance together with our FY 2026 financial results in August. The KCGM ore commissioning during August will provide meaningful operating data from the expanded processing plant.
That information will allow us to better assess throughput, recovery, and plant availability, which will be incorporated into establishing FY 2027 guidance. We're entering FY 2027 from a position of strength. The portfolio continues to generate strong cash flow. We've successfully transitioned KCGM expansion project into commissioning, we're focused on delivering a safe and disciplined ramp-up of what will become cornerstone processing hub within our portfolio.
I'd like to thank our 10,000 employees and contractors who, despite the operational challenges faced in FY 2026, delivered sector-leading safety performance and further underpinned the quality platform that Northern Star is today. You are the true contributors to value creation. Keep your sense of humor, and thanks very much. I'll now hand over to Ryan.
Thanks, Stu. Good morning, everyone. As demonstrated in today's results, Northern Star remains in a strong financial position as we enter FY 2027. Our portfolio continues to generate significant cash flow while we invest in the next phase of growth across the business. At 30 June, the company held cash and bullion of AUD 1.2 billion, and importantly, we achieved this while continuing to invest in our growth projects and returning capital to shareholders through our on-market share buyback program, with AUD 129 million of shares purchased during the quarter. In addition, we had AUD 1.75 billion of undrawn corporate facilities available at year-end, providing liquidity and flexibility to support our growth objectives. Our operating assets continued to perform strongly from a cash generation perspective. For FY 2026, all three production centers generated positive net mine cash flow, contributing approximately AUD 1.2 billion for the year.
As Stu mentioned, Pogo again delivered an outstanding result, generating a record annual net mine cash flow of AUD 609 million, demonstrating the value created through the transformation of the asset over the recent years. The company generated significant cash earnings also during FY 2026, and we expect the final figure to be in the range of AUD 2.86 billion to AUD 2.9 billion. Turning now to the June quarterly cash movements shown on figure eight. The business generated underlying free cash flow of AUD 206 million during the quarter, supported by improved operational performance across the portfolio. As Stu discussed earlier, the key milestone during the quarter was the commencement of the commissioning of stage 1 at KCGM Mill Expansion Project. Stage 1 of the project entered commissioning on schedule, marking a significant achievement after more than three years of engineering, construction, and execution.
During FY 2026, capital expenditure on the project totaled AUD 713 million, while operational readiness expenditure totaled AUD 322 million, as we prepared the operation for expanded throughput rates. As we move into FY 2027, our focus is firmly on safe, disciplined commissioning and ramp up. The existing processing plant will continue operating through July and August, with tie-in to the expanded processing facilities scheduled for September. Commissioning will follow a measured approach designed to ensure safe, reliable, and consistent operating performance before progressively ramping up throughput.
While our immediate priority is the successful commissioning and ramp-up of KCGM, we continue to progress the next stage of growth at Hemi, where we are focused on advancing permitting, engineering, and project development activities. During FY 2026, expenditure totaled AUD 104 million, with final investment decision anticipated late in FY 2027. The project remains an important component of Northern Star's long-term growth strategy.
Exploration also remained a priority, with FY 2026 expenditure of AUD 217 million, supporting resource growth, as Stu mentioned, and mine life extensions across the portfolio. More broadly, we enter FY 2027 with a strong balance sheet, a portfolio generating significant cash flow, and a clear pathway to future growth through both KCGM and Hemi. Thank you. I'll hand back now to Harmony for Q&A.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone, wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two, and if you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Daniel Morgan from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Stu. Huge milestone with the plant beginning its commissioning. I guess my question is just how does the following few months sort of track conceptually? Gold production, it sounds like it's from the old plant for July, August, then you tie in the new plant. I presume that's going to be a minimal interruption period or planned to be, and then you would ramp up using low-grade ores through the first few months to make sure gold doesn't end up in the tailings dam. Is that a fair summation of what you'd expect in the months ahead?
Thanks, Dan. I'll just let Steve McClare give you a picture of that. Thanks.
Thanks, Daniel. Where we're at at the moment is basically we're ore commissioning from the primary crusher through to the coarse ore stockpile. We have that coarse ore stockpile with crushed rock on it, we've been very pleased with the front end of the plant. We're in wet commissioning for the remainder of the plant, from the mills right through to the tailings thickener is in wet commissioning. The tails line post that has already been commissioned and is in full operation. As we progress, we will work through that wet commissioning. We switch to ore commissioning early next month when we are comfortable, once we are on ore commissioning of the low-grade material, we will start to produce gold from that area.
Thank you. Whilst prior to Gidji coming on, you're selling gold concentrate or it will be a larger proportion of the sales. Can you just explain to us what impact that has, if anything, on the financials? Obviously, you would have lower realized revenue. Is that significant or not?
Hey, Dan. It's Ryan. Good question. As you would have seen, we've been selling concentrate material this financial year. I think in the end it was totaling about 75,000 oz in the financial year and about 30 in this quarter. Those sales will continue. We've built out that capacity in our business to do that. The intention is additional concentrate material once the plant, the new circuit, is running well, that additional concentrate material, the excess, if you like, will be sold similar to how we're doing it now. Equally, concentrate will still be going to Gidji and we will still be pouring gold bars. It's more of the same really. It's just that we will have more concentrate between the time that Gidji comes back to the footprint at Fim. We will be selling some additional concentrate on the market. That's right.
Just in terms of your question on revenue and payability. Payability is excellent, I will say. We don't anticipate any derating in revenue or performance on cash flows because we're selling concentrate. They are good commercial terms. There's no derate of revenue, if you like, on that front.
Thank you. Maybe just a conceptual question on the mines that feed expanded capacity at the Super Pit mill. Is there anything you'd call out on how productivity and ramp-up is going? Is there any frustrations, any unforeseen issues accessing Golden Pike? Thank you.
No, not at all, Dan. You can see by the volumes of the year, 88 million tonne rate for the year of the pit and over 3 million, 3.2 million for the underground growth. Those are ramping very well. I'll remind us that the mill expansion was primarily based on the incremental throughput was based on that 140 million tonne stockpile that's there. Primary ore will be half of the feed of the new plant from pits and undergrounds, and then the remaining part of the throughput will come from that low-grade stockpile to get that ounce profile. Yeah, very pleased with the ramp-ups. Very pleased with the commencement of our Northern Star surface mining team with a new excavator, another one coming in November. The productivities they're getting out of that fleet and the Ivanhoe cutback is outstanding.
Again, great to demonstrate the caliber of the team and the efficiency and productivity they're getting at the Super Pit. We'll showcase some of that on Sunday, so a lot of the team will see that firsthand.
Okay. Stuart and team, thank you for your perspectives.
Thanks, Dan.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Kate McCutcheon from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Pardon me, Kate, your line is now live.
Sorry. Good morning, Stu. Well done on the commissioning. I just wanted to check, you've noted no medium-term guidance this calendar year for KCGM. Does this mean that we shouldn't rely on the previous targets that were given in August last year? How do we think about what the mine plan assumes in terms of through the mill this coming FY? I appreciate that you just gave us some comments around the feed grade, any information would be great.
Yeah. Thanks, Kate. Look, it's important to wait for that complete picture, I think we've explained we'll provide that with the full year accounts in August. Yeah, I'd say just watch this space and you'll be provided all of those details you require in the next few weeks. Yeah, further to Sunday and next week's presentation will be focused as well on KCGM. They'll be important messages from the group on how the ramp up, how we see it, and where all those feeds and the grades and all that are coming from to deliver that ounce profile over the coming years.
Okay. One-year outlook in August and then medium-term a bit later.
Yeah. We've spoken in the quarterly to reiterate that that medium-term guidance won't be this calendar year. Expect that broader outlook will be ready when we've got that broader picture and support with the Board's outlook over a multi-year near-term guidance for the group.
Okay. Thank you. We haven't spoken about Hemi since the resource update that we had in May. We had that grade grow from 1.5 g/t to 1.2 g/t, and it looks like you've changed the kriging methodology there, plus the dilution assumptions. I get that there's more tonnes, but you've got less contained gold, net less production, I guess, average. How do we think about that going forward and upside opportunities?
Yeah. Thanks, Kate. It's one piece of the story, and resource remained sound with good rigor and review of what that resource was going to be. Same sort of scale and quality. We absolutely put some stronger mining factors on the reserve. Fundamentally, that's not the final plan either. It's a consideration of a published reserve to bring it onto Northern Star's books. Ultimately, we need the full feasibility inputs into this asset of everything, including the flow sheet, obviously CapEx, OpEx, and the ounce profile as we ramp that up. Work is underway with the team to advance that. I appreciate you saw one piece of the information with the resource reserve update. It was important we brought that off the De Grey declared R&R onto Northern Star's books, which underpins our overall R&R.
Okay, more details with the FID before the end of next FY or this FY?
Yeah, which we've said that late FY 2027 is the target at this stage.
Cool. Thank you, Stu.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Levi Spry from UBS. Please go ahead.
Morning, Stu and team. Thanks for your time. Looking forward to the site visit on Sunday. Can you just remind us, so maybe Steve, how long do you expect the tie-in to take? Just in terms of when you call out lower grade feed, I assume that means just the 0.6 g/t from the stockpiles or a little bit lower for the first few months. Am I on the wrong train there?
No, you're right, Levi. Thanks for the question. While we go through that ore commissioning early on, there's a number of checks we have to do. These are big mills. We have warranties, we have guarantees, et cetera, and we go through a stage on/off, stepping up and making sure we're comfortable before we proceed. We don't want to be putting through that choppy period. We don't want to be putting higher grade material through because recoveries and everything will be a bit up and down through that period, as you would normally expect in a commissioning of this scale. The intent is to stabilize the plant before we start to move off of that lower grade material and feed. It's really about testing reagents and everything else and a live system and tuning it and getting it stable.
The beauty is, at the moment, is we continue to make gold through the existing circuit. When we are comfortable running the new circuit, we can actually then switch in the Fimiston SAG. That's the front-end primary crusher, Fimiston SAG mill, and basically it's a pipe connection into the new plant. We do that over a number of days, when we're comfortable, and normally, in that period, that will be sometime in early September.
Got it. Thanks for the extra color, Steve. Just moving to Jundee, sounds like you're a bit happier with the way things are going. Is there still an operational type review ongoing? Is there a timeline for that? What's the sort of milestone, I guess, for us?
No. That would be incorporated and articulated in the group guidance that we provide at the full year accounts. I think as I made in remarks, we're very pleased with the actions and the rapid speed at which Northern Star and Barminco adjusted to that in the June quarter. They're now working under that plan, so pleased with how Jundee's positioned, and that'll be provided with the full year outlook.
Yeah. Great. Thanks, Stu. Thank you.
Yes. Your next question comes from Hugo Nicolaci from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Oh, morning, Stu and team. Look, maybe just picking up on that question on the outlook. Look, obviously appreciate not wanting to give KCGM, just given scale of that project and some of the near-term uncertainties. Are you able to provide some directional commentary, at least, across the broader portfolio in terms of production and maybe the moving pieces into next year?
No, I'm not, Hugo. We'll provide all that together with the full year accounts. It's important that decisions related to KCGM do knock on the decisions with the other operations. Yes, you've isolated and said, look, knowledge around KCGM and ramp up and performance is one element, but how we allocate our resources across the group, focus, start new stuff, there is a contagion kind of knock-on effect in our overall risk profile in that regard. The two do go hand in hand. We can't just isolate the non-KCGM assets and give you some color on that today. Thank you.
Yep. Fair enough. Thought I'd try anyway. Maybe just on Hemi. Obviously the FID targeted late FY 2027. Can you just talk us through what that critical path is looking like at the moment and the driver of that timeline? Is it still federal permitting, native title? Is engineering maybe taking a little bit longer or maybe it's sort of timing around the procurement pieces and the timelines you've been given there? Any extra color would be helpful. Thanks.
Thanks, Hugo. I'll just let Jim give you a progress update on Hemi. Thanks.
Hugo, morning. The project's developing really well. We're still continuing with the permitting, both federal and state. That's progressing very well. We're working really well with the Kariyarra RNTBC to work with them about getting on country and working with them around the managed aquifer recharge trial. That's going to happen in the September quarter. Things are really progressing as planned for now, and obviously, as we talked about, the FID is in late FY 2027, all progressing pretty well at this stage.
Got it. That's helpful. Maybe just last one for Ryan on the hedging piece. You've obviously historically talked to letting the hedge book run its course, but gold price has pulled back. Does that potentially create an opportunity to maybe close out some of the smaller hedges in FY 2028 and bring forward that free cash flow inflection? If you closed out your FY 2028 hedges, you'd be less than 12 months away from that free cash flow inflection and the potential rerate some of your smaller peers have seen.
Thanks, Hugo. We have considered it, and I think the beauty is we can continually consider it. I'd probably be more inclined to bring forward the nearer term ones rather than the ones out, because the closer we are to understanding price discovery right now the near-term ones, you can get some certainty that the price isn't going to hurt you up or down, obviously. We do talk about it. We've got our share buyback on too. I think it's just a balance between those decisions on the additional free cash made, Hugo. Yeah.
Great. Thanks. Speak to you guys. Last one.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Adam Baker from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, morning, guys. Thanks for taking the time. Just one on the underground at KCGM. It's been running pretty consistently around that 3.2 million tonnes run and run rate. It's clearly not a bottleneck now with the mill expansion. I guess looking further field into the two years for the 27 million tonne run and run rate, you've got the five years of stockpiles worth of feed at the 153 million tonnes. My question is, I guess, what are we looking at for the ramp up to the underground here? Have we still got an aspirational goal in mind to ramp that underground up and therefore provide the mill feed once we're at that 27 million tonne run and run rate? Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Adam. We've got historics at a ramp up to this. Half this 27 million tonne per annum plant is from stockpile. We said foundation 12 million-13 million tonnes off the existing plant would've been primary ore. That's why we've justified expanding the plant. The blend of whether that's open pit or underground, we've kind of always targeted a growth between 12 million tonnes or so from primary ore. Whether that's four from underground and eight from open pit, or eight from underground and four from open pit, trying to match those two ramp ups as one winds down, and then the remainder of the feed comes from the low-grade stockpile. Yeah, year on year on year, we're growing that underground.
If you remember when we acquired KCGM, it only had a million tonnes coming from the underground or less than a million tonnes coming from our Charlotte. We've got that up over 3.2 million. We're still developing significant meters there to open up these new production fronts. Ultimately, it will be more underground feed than open pit feed in the next sort of 5-10 years. That's the approach and plan. Yeah, that'll come into the broader outlook, but those volumes will grow, and that's what we're investing that front-end development to achieve at the moment.
Okay. Thank you. Just one for the timing on the stamp duty. Thanks for the call out on the De Grey AUD 200 million, AUD 250 million. Is there a timing on that?
Adam, it's hard because we don't set the clock and the progress on it. We still think this half, perhaps late this half, but again, with no conviction because it's out of our hands around the timing.
Thanks, guys. I'll hand over.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jonathan Sharp from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Stuart and team. Thanks for taking my question. Just digging in a little bit more from Levi's question, just the tie-in, how should we think about that, the timing, and the risk there?
Yeah. Steve's just articulated it's days for the tie-in, and you've got the current plant operating throughout, and then it's days like a normal shutdown to swing the pipe across and tie it all in. You're not having a massive hiatus of downtime across the whole operation. You've got two plants operating, and then you're basically tie in and you're back to the primary plant. The important aspects there on gold production is that there's rock going through at the moment without gold. There'll be rock with limited gold, and then there'll be a ramp-up phase through September quarter. Across the whole group, as we always do, September quarter is a soft quarter because of the planned shutdowns across all of our operations to do those relines. Then you've got the magnification of KCGM, basically being fed on low grade, and ramping through that commissioning phase.
They all affect the throughput, and the gold production for September quarter. It'll be the softest quarter for the year. Fundamentally, people would need to understand and prepare for that. It ramps up from that point. Yeah, the tie-in itself, it's not weeks and months, it shifts in days. Then that just moves away from the construction commissioning risk and starts to really allow us to refine and optimize the plant.
Okay. Thanks. Just maybe digging into the grade. I don't know how much detail you can give us there. Sounds like 0.6 g/t. Will it ramp up or, will it be for the full first half? Just maybe some more detail there would be great.
Yeah. The detail will have to come with the full year guidance. I guess what we're explaining to people was how we commission a plant. You don't want to be throwing gold out the back. While we're trying to get stability and mechanical things operating, we're throwing rock through and getting all those things, the flows and everything, the densities, all those things right without the concern of the metallurgical recovery of the most valuable product we're mining. That's sensible. That's how everyone commissions a plant. As we get comfort that those are stable, we start to introduce some of the lower-grade feeds. Then fundamentally, we start to move to the primary blend. In the meantime, the existing plant is operating. It's the existing Fimiston and Charlotte circuits are operating. Last year they just achieved 10.2 million tonnes. That's operating in parallel.
This ramp up and commissioning's occurring. At the right time, when Steve and the team are confident, they'll tie it in. You can always undo it later, but our intention is we're confident, we tie it in, then we start to bring the primary feed and start to produce gold bars from that plant. It will be better than the old plant, and it will improve and improve and improve by weeks and months and quarters.
Okay. Thanks, Jim. That's some good color. Pass it on.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ben Lyons from Jarden Securities. Please go ahead.
Oh, thank you. Good morning, Stu and team. Acknowledging once again that you haven't issued guidance for KCGM, but you'll have a number of people on site this Sunday. I'm sure you've had a chance to prepare the materials ahead of the site visit, but obviously, not everybody on the call will be able to make it out to Kal. I'm just interested in what are the key messages that you're intending to convey at site this weekend. Thanks, Stu.
I'll throw to Steve, he's going to do the presentation as well for Diggers.
Yeah. What we're going to see in Kal is a plant in active commissioning, Ben. You've just heard in terms of the underground feed and everything, the underground will work its way up to being one of four ore sources, and that ore sourcing de-risks the site. We'll see the mill tour, you'll see the open pit, you'll see the underground, and how it all fits together. This is all part of a journey of a new, simpler, cheaper processing plant, has lower electricity inputs in time, and it basically has multiple sources of ore and de-risking. Going away from any event in the open pit stopping us, we start to move into that future phase of far more robust production.
In terms of the infrastructure, what you actually see is our tailings dams have been part of this build as well, something we don't often speak of, that's fully permitted, licensed, ready to go, at Fimiston III, and that gives us a diversity of our sources as well as the existing dams, et cetera. You won't see much on terms of other stuff, in terms of the renewables, power stations, stuff like that, they are in the very final stages, we're going into that in this financial year. From other areas, I think you'd be very surprised with the performance in the southern end of the pit. Had a lot of movement up there. We're really starting to work that material, work those longer term plans, very encouraging.
Okay. Thanks Steve. I guess just tying back to Adam Baker's earlier question about the underground ramp-up. It sounds like we're probably stepping away from that aspirational 8 million tonne underground, which was always going to be a huge concept, I think we previously talked to about a 500,000 tonne annual step-up on the journey to get to that level of underground ore extraction.
No. If anything, I reinforce that that is the plan. There's 12 million primary tonnes, whether it's four from the underground and eight from the pit in the near term. It'll move towards eight from the underground and four from the pit. The remaining fill for the mill will come from the large low-grade stockpile that is over 3 million ounces in stockpile. Absolutely the future of this asset for decades to come is multiple large underground sources. No, we've not stepped away from that whatsoever.
Okay, cool. Thanks for clarifying, Stu. My second question's just on the approach from the high-profile activist investor. I guess you've had some time to reflect upon that campaign now, and I assume there's been some direct engagement there. Just wondering, again, at a high level, whether it's had any material influence on the business strategy and your thoughts around portfolio optimization. Thanks.
Thanks, Ben. Thanks for your question. Look, yeah, the board's engaged Elliott and continues to engage Elliott constructively, just like all of our shareholders. That's a matter for the board, not management. We don't really have any further comments to make on the matter this morning.
Okay. Cool. Thanks, Ryan. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from David Radclyffe from Global Mining Research. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, Stu and team. I just wanted to follow up on the [Hemi] in your comments, I think we're still sort of scratching our heads a bit here. Especially the comment that it's progressing to schedule. How does that square that it just keeps appear to be slipping? Perhaps to answer it another way, my understanding was that there was circa six months of engineering ahead of the project and then a two-and-a-half year build. When we hopefully get to FID late 2027, how much of that engineering is likely to be left? On your current plans, do you still see it as a two-and-a-half year build?
Thanks, David. I guess there's parts that are out of our control, including the approvals. I guess they are progressing. There's no showstoppers in that, but it is the process we need to go through, and largely those things are out of our control. Jim highlighted we're very pleased with the engagements and progress we're making on this water reinjection trial, and the relationship with Kariyarra and the cooperation there. Really, this engineering period is to advance it to much higher accuracy to ensure that the board can make FID, by the end of FY 2027, with the really detailed accuracy on it. All of that engineering carries ahead.
You'll see the expenditure that's been occurring to date and will continue is for the aim of narrowing in what that flow sheet is, what the engineering costs are going to be, and the commitments to enable our board to make an educated, informed, returns-based decision on FID. All of those things would normally happen. We're utilizing the time effectively to get that accuracy, some of this delay is really outside of the control of the company, and we're in the process of the approvals train.
Okay. Most of the engineering will be complete, you expect, by FID. We should go back to that previous rough guidance that at FID, it should be circa two and a half years. Is that reasonable?
If it's the same build flow sheet accurately to gold bars from that point, we may actually be advanced on some of the timing, the two and a half years that had some of the engineering continuing, it should not be longer.
Okay, brilliant. Thank you. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. Once again, if you do wish to ask a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Kate McCutcheon from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Sorry, I'm on mute again. Thanks for taking my follow-up. Maybe a question for Ryan just on the CapEx for June quarter. It was probably AUD 100 million within consensus expectations for the quarter. Is there anything to call out there or anything that we should think about as being a catch-up for next year or anything with timing slips?
Thanks, Kate. You're talking about sustaining capital just generally or?
Sorry, the growth CapEx.
The growth CapEx?
That's circa AUD 577 million.
Yeah.
The groups get to AUD 600 million.
Yeah. Obviously, it's related to probably the mill expansion and all the readiness stuff. There's probably a bit of activity there. From a just CapEx perspective generally, if you took it sustaining, there's some additional capital done at Pogo because it's summer and they can do the things they need to do. There probably is a bit of a catch-up from a full-year perspective, you could say. We're still obviously looking across on the tables there on page three. You can see we're under across the board on CapEx for the full year, both growth and sustaining. Which, if you can recall, we originally guided at that AUD 750 million amount. We have had discretion on capital this year. As Jim mentioned, it's been a challenging year, so we've been discreet there.
There probably is a bit of a catch-up in the final part of the year, Kate. It's probably a good lens.
Okay. Thanks, Ryan.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Tonkin for closing remarks.
Thank you, Harmony. Yeah, been presenting Northern Star now for 50 quarters. Thanks for joining us on the call. We look forward to speaking to you again when we've reported our full-year results next month. Thanks for joining us. Cheers.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.