Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ramelius Resources quarterly conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you'll need to press the star key followed by one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Mark Zeptner, Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to dial into Ramelius's June 2023 quarterly conference call. Alongside me once again is Chief Financial Officer, Tim Manners. I will follow the usual course of events. I'll run through some highlights from the quarter, referencing the activities report released earlier this morning, before handing over to Tim, who will go into the numbers in more detail. We will then open the line to answer any questions you may have, before finishing off with some closing remarks. We provided the headline production numbers for the June quarter, and the operational update released at the same time as we announced our recommended offer for Musgrave Minerals at the start of July.
To recap, we delivered our strongest quarter of gold production for the year in the three months to the end of June, producing 68,752 ounces at an All-In Sustaining Cost of AUD 1,648 an ounce. Production was 27% higher than in the March quarter, and costs improved some 12%, as we were able to treat larger volumes of the high-grade ore from Penny, including stockpile material that had built up on site as we awaited haulage approvals. The approval came through on the 11th of May, which allowed us to convert from double to quad road train. The excellent June quarter ensured that we're able to meet full-year guidance, albeit at the lower end, producing 240,996 ounces at an All-In Sustaining Cost of AUD 1,895 an ounce over the 12-month period.
It also showcased the cash generating capacity of the business as Penny moves into full production. As we have said previously, in the current inflationary environment, having an asset like Penny, one of the highest grade gold operations going around, offers a real point of difference from our peers. Stockpiles at Penny have now been reduced to nominal levels, and haulage from the mine to Mt Magnet is matching mined tons. Positive cash flow impact from the increased production from Penny was apparent in the AUD 42.6 million generated from operating activities in the quarter, and this was after investing AUD 20.5 million back into capital growth projects. Those mainly being the development of the Galaxy underground at Mt Magnet, and our exploration expenditure.
With a further AUD 75.1 million in cash added through the takeover of Breaker Resources, which completed without fuss in May, we finished the period in a very strong financial position with just over AUD 272 million in cash in hand. Moving on to guidance for financial year FY24, we are forecasting production of 250,000-275,000 ounces at an All-In Sustaining Cost, ranging between AUD 1,550 and AUD 1,750 an ounce. At this point, I will point out that there is an error in Table 4 of this morning's release, which we will look to rectify post this conference call.
There will again be a weighting to the second half of the reporting period, largely due to mine sequencing at Penny and the development schedule for the Symes open pit, which will feed into the Edna May hub more strongly later in the year. At Penny, FY23 development activities have continued into this quarter, We're expected to result in a slightly lower mined grade than anticipated over the following 3 quarters. Now, this is nothing more than a function of mine sequencing, in which lower grade development stoping areas just happen to be accessed more so this quarter than for the remainder of the year.
Mining of Symes, a shallow, low-strip, high-grade open pit in relatively close trucking distance to Edna May, should also create significant cash flows at a pretty competitive All-In Sustaining Cost, which will also be in full swing come the second half of the year. As a result, we expect overall gold production to be approximately 10%-15% higher than in the first half. We are forecasting growth capital of between AUD 50 million and AUD 60 million for the year, lower than the AUD 71 million spent on growth projects in FY23, which again points to stronger cash flows in FY24. The majority of this investment will go towards the Galaxy underground again, and this initial setup of the Symes open pit, which is... I've just talked about.
On the exploration front, we anticipate expenditure increasing as the company invests into expanding its geological knowledge around known targets at Mt Magnet and Penny, but also at the more recently acquired Roe and Rebecca projects, where work is continuing as part of a combined PFS, now scheduled for completion in the March quarter next year. Among the highlights, I won't read them all out, from the exploration resource, different definition, drilling activities completed in the June quarter. We once again achieved some high-grade results from Penny North, indicating strong mineralization and extension of the quartz vein up to 90 meters south of the existing resource, including 6.1 meters at 44.5 grams and 4.5 meters at 75.2 grams.
We also have received some new results since these pre-released results I just referred to, which include 3.5 meters at 7.6 and 5 meters at 10.8, a little further to the south, which is obviously encouraging. At Penny West, assays, returns have also indicated economic mineralization. We're getting the high-grade tones as predicted by our grade control models, with better results, including 1.3 meters at 57.5 grams and 3.9 meters at 8.5. Resource definition and exploration diamond drilling is continuing at Bartus at Mount Magnet, testing the mineralized granodiorite intrusions beneath and adjacent to historical open pits. Bartus East returns some decent results, including 24.9 meters at 8.9 grams and 11.1 meters at 7.3.
There is a more in-depth summary of exploration that can be found in the quarterly itself. Lastly, before I hand over to Tim, on the couple of pieces of corporate activity we've been involved in recently, I mentioned earlier that we wrapped up the takeover of Breaker in May after moving to compulsory acquisition. Our recommended offer from Musgrave Minerals is still open and now beginning to gain some traction. As of yesterday, we had secured 71.7% acceptances. I noted earlier this week that the Musgrave board reiterated that shareholders should accept the Ramelius bid without delay. With that, I'm going to hand over to Tim.
Thanks, Mark. Good morning to everyone. In the same vein as production, our gold sales for the quarter were the highest in the year, at 68,368 ounces, at an average realized price of AUD 2,753 an ounce. The revenue of approximately AUD 189 million. As Mark touched upon, the underlying cash flow from the operations was AUD 42.6 million. It was a significant improvement on the AUD eight and a half million inflow reported in the March quarter. The positive cash flow result was after investment in the development of our asset portfolio, including AUD 12.1 million on the underground development at Galaxy and AUD 7.6 million on exploration and resource definition across a number of our projects.
Given the wind down and ultimate closure of operations at Vivian and Tampia, our working capital position improved the AUD 10 million reduction in payables across the business. Our cash and bullion position, as Mark mentioned, at the end of the year, was AUD 272.1 million, bolstered by the AUD 75.1 million acquired as part of the Breaker acquisition. Just to close out on some of the M&A components, should the Musgrave transaction proceed and succeed, the cash consideration to be paid across the Musgrave shareholders would be approximately AUD 24 million, which can be more than comfortably funded by our balance sheet and operating cash flow generation. As most will know, we are debt-free.
Our approach at Ramelius is to ensure that we have access to capital through the cycle, and particularly as we continue our search for our third production center. We still have the undrawn AUD 100 million debt facility in place should we wish to access it for growth opportunities. Over the quarter, the Aussie dollar spot gold price fell around 2%, finished the year at about AUD 2,880 an ounce. On the hedging front for Ramelius, we delivered into all of our maturing contracts and added 23,000 ounces to the hedge book at an average price of AUD 3,152 an ounce.
At the end of the quarter, forward gold sales consisted of 211,000 ounces at an average price of AUD 2,772 an ounce over the period July 2023 to December 2025. The gradual reduction in our hedge book is likely to continue as we approach the maturity dates of some of our lower-priced contracts. Importantly, we start to see the benefit of contracts that have prices well in excess of spot. Indeed, some slightly longer-dated contracts have prices comfortably over AUD 3,100 an ounce.
We continued with a very modest program of fixing diesel prices during the quarter, which aligns with our strategy to focus on margins within the business, and have now fixed a total of 10.2 million liters at an average price of AUD 0.91 a liter, which excludes freight and taxes over the 18-month period to the end of 2024. We have the facilities in place to do more, if we deem this to be a prudent call. Over this and other recent reporting periods, several companies have commented that they are starting to see signs that inflation in the mining sector has peaked, or at the very least, started to plateau.
Looking at the All-In Sustaining Costs and the all-in costs, it does appear that the June quarter will be the lowest cost quarter for FY23 for some, if not all, of us, and that includes Ramelius. Whilst this points towards a possible easing in costs, I would caution against making too early a call on this. Cost per ounce may be down, this seems, to me at least, to be more a function of grade than a sustainable drop in operating costs. There is evidence in parts of the business that show a cooling in costs, which is great, but given the majority of the costs within our businesses are people costs, both direct and indirect, and with only slight signs of this market beginning to stabilize, I personally don't see costs in absolute terms coming down materially in the short to medium term.
As we approach financial results season, we may see some more information on cost trends that are moving through our industry. For now, I think the ability to withstand the current cost environment, maintain cash margins via solid operational practices, the benefits of scale where possible, and as always, a high-grade ore source or two, will help differentiate some from the rest of the pack. With that, I'll hand back to Zach to open the line for questions.
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 headset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Richard Hatch from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Look, thanks, Mark and Tim, for the time you put into this and all the work you do. As you're possibly aware, I'm always interested in your corporate maneuverings. I don't know how much you can answer this, but I'm just wondering, given the offer for Musgrave two weeks ago, with just over 12%, say, and as of yesterday, it's 70%, do you have anything you can share about the progress of the offer for Musgrave or anything else?
Hi, Richard. Tim here. Look, I can certainly give you some insight. I can share what I'm, I suppose, permitted to share. As you know, we have done a few of these. The rate of acceptances and almost the pattern, if you like, that they follow, do tend to be quite similar. We have obviously completed the mail out. I don't think it was the quickest of mail outs as far as Australia Post go. We know we had some people who were sort of only receiving their paperwork last week, so it's a little bit slow on that front. Unfortunately, that's out of our control.
We're pretty confident now that everything is out there, people have the ability to accept, and I think that the profile that we've seen, we are starting to get, as Mark mentioned, a little bit of momentum, and we will see sort of peaks and troughs as various events through this process occur, as we head towards, firstly, obviously, the 50.1, as our conditional point. We're quite happy with where it is at the moment. We'll obviously keep the market informed via our change in substantial shareholder notices as they occur. We have no cause for concern, and look forward to bringing in the Musgrave shareholders to the Ramelius group.
Great. That's encouraging to hear, as someone who supports the move. Just one last question, if I could. With timelines, I should have looked this up, but with the dividend, that Ramelius, I assume, is still going to be committed by your guidelines to offer, the offer, I assume, has to be unconditional by that stage. Does that timeline fit in? Is it likely or possible that Musgrave shareholders will get the dividend that's offered?
Richard, certainly from our indication, and as I mentioned, the typical sort of rate at which we see acceptances come in on takeovers like this, whilst I obviously can't make any firm promises, it does appear to us that those who accept the offer, and we reach that state of being able to go unconditional, then yes, they would be Ramelius shareholders come record date, which gives them the entitlement to a dividend if it's declared later this year. I think we're pretty confident that anyone who comes in will be there in time. Obviously, if there are any Musgrave shareholders on the line, we'd encourage you to get in quick, just to make sure you are there for that date.
For any dividend that may or may not be approved by the board, Richard. It's possible. Obviously, we've got a history the last 4 years of paying a dividend, so you can go back and look at those record dates as a bit of an indicator. Yeah, we need acceptances, we need unconditional, and we need people to be allocated shares for that to happen. Maybe that perhaps encourages Musgrave shareholders somewhat.
Typically, Richard, as you're probably aware, that those record dates tend to be a few days after our financial results, which come end of August. Broadly speaking, a record date will be probably in that first week in September.
Just to reassure you, it doesn't affect me that much because at several AGMs, I've been known to stand up and say, "Don't give me an AUD 0.01 dividend. Please just double the share price." Having said that, thank you very much again for all the work you do.
Thanks, Richard. Appreciate it.
Your next question comes from Paul Wiggins, from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
G'day, Mark and Tim. congrats on the solid quarterly result. I just wanted some quick extra detail around Symes mine permitting and your expected timeline. If you could just elaborate for me, if you could. Cheers.
Yeah, thanks for the question, Paul. We're going through the permitting process as we speak, and effectively doing site setup works at Symes. There won't be a large contribution in quarter one. We expect to be up and running and trucking to Edna May in quarter two and obviously in full swing, quarter three and four. Thus, Symes is a contributor to the back end of the production for that reason. We've seen no issues with permitting. We're actually fair way through that, both haulage and mining approvals. We expect to get those through this quarter.
Cheers. Thanks, mate. Thanks, Paul.
Your next question comes from Paul Turner, from Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Hi, gents. Thanks for taking my question. Just a quick one from me. Usually you put out sort of 3-year guidance or a 3-year outlook in November. Obviously, this FY24 guidance is a touch softer than what you put out previously, so I presume that's sort of inflationary related. Can we expect something similar this year, sort of a 3-year outlook, which could sort of provide further details around Musgrave, et cetera?
Thanks for the question, Paul. When you say we normally put it out in November, we've done it once, so I'm not sure if that's enough to form a trend. I think you'd appreciate with us combining Roe and Rebecca, being live on Musgrave, in the process of updating the Penny resources, both North and West. Also pretty close to something on Barlass, we're just probably not at the point where we could release a longer mine plan that would have enough up-to-date information. Look, we'll look at those opportunities going forward, and obviously keep the market as informed as we can. We're probably falling in line with a lot of what others are doing, which is just 24. Yeah, it is slightly soft.
I think it's AUD 50 an ounce, higher on the All-In Sustaining Cost compared to the three-year plan, and only marginally down on production. You're being a hard marker there, Paul. I know, I think it's broadly in line with our three-year plan for FY24, I'd like to think. Thanks for the query.
Yeah, no dramas. Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We'll pause for a moment to allow participants to register their question. As there are no further questions at this time, I would like to hand the conference back to Mark for his final remarks.
Okay, thanks, Zach. Just to wrap up, I'd like to emphasize three points, if I may. Obviously, it's a very strong quarter to finish the year, which was particularly pleasing, given the delays in the buildup of the stockpiles at Penny. All things being equal, FY24 should be a significant cash-generating year for the company, albeit with production skewed towards the second half. Thirdly, the Breaker takeover is complete, and we are now, as we've discussed, looking to progress the Musgrave acquisition now that all the paperwork has been distributed. Thank you for listening in today, and enjoy the rest of your day.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.