I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Mark Zeptner, CEO and Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning everyone. Thank you for taking the time to dial in this morning. In addition to the full quarterly report, we've also released a presentation that we will speak to during this call. Both documents have been uploaded on the ASX platform and will also be available on our website shortly. I am joined today for the first time by our COO Tim Hewitt and as always our CFO Darren Millman. Tim and Darren will provide some more detail on the operations and financials after I run through the highlights. While the presentation as a whole will focus on the highlights, I do know that there is a lot more detail that can be found within the quarterly report itself. As usual, there will be an opportunity for listeners to ask questions at the end.
Before I start on the presentation and the quarter, I'd like to highlight a couple of important points. First, one thing that will be noted from our releases today is the absence of full year production and cost guidance for FY 2026 which we would normally release around this time. Given the timing of the Spartan transaction, we have deferred providing guidance to the market until we have completed the Ramelius Spartan integration work. We have several options available to us for the processing of Dalgaranga ore and are diligently considering these to ensure the best return for our shareholders. The integrated study outcome will include five year production, cost and capital guidance at the Mount Magnet hub covering FY 2026 to FY 2030, demonstrating our preferred pathway to 500,000 ounces per annum by FY 2030.
This new extended guidance is due to be released in the December 2025 quarter if not earlier if we're able to. Secondly, we are very excited to be introducing the exploration DNA of Spartan into our business. With baseload feed secured for the foreseeable future from existing stockpiles, particularly at Mount Magnet and the planned Eridanus cutback, we are aggressively targeting high grade opportunities at the new enlarged Mount Magnet hub. We are very encouraged by what we have seen over the second half of FY 2025 from our own exploration drilling and have therefore guided for AUD 80 million - AUD 100 million of expenditure and exploration in FY 2026 which is effectively double that of FY 2025. For those who have downloaded the presentation deck, I'll be initially speaking to slide three. Both operationally and financially, Q4 was exceptionally strong which further built on an incredible year for Ramelius .
Our strategy of focusing on high grade ore sources such as Penny, Cue, and soon Dalgaranga is proving its worth and what has differentiated us from our peers as is evidenced by a low cost base and record cash flows. The fourth quarter saw 73,454 ounces at a very low all-in sustaining cost of AUD 13.39 an ounce, generating AUD 229 million in operating cash flow. Production exceeded our upgraded guidance for the quarter with the continued outperformance of the Cue resource, namely positive reconciliation noted at Break of Day continued over at the White Heat pit. Whilst this is encouraging, at some point we still expect the Cue pits to perform more in line with the resource models going forward as mining progresses into the fresh rock.
The closing cash and gold balance for the quarter was AUD 809.7 million, which was after paying our maiden fully franked interim dividend for FY 2025 of AUD 0.03 per share and prepayments by way of tax installments on the FY 2025 income tax. The Board will consider the final dividend for FY 2025 at the time of finalizing the FY 2025 financial reports later next month. Our exploration for the quarter focused on following up the promising results seen in the March quarter at Penny. Drilling was focused on extending the mine life beyond FY 2026, whilst drilling at Perseverance South, formerly known as Séítah East, and Hesperus continued to further target and define the banded iron mineralization. Tim will talk a little more detail on this shortly. Work on the Rebecca DFS continued throughout the quarter as planned with completion scheduled later this quarter, followed by an FID consideration by the Board.
Our transformational combination with Spartan Resources has progressed seamlessly and I wanted to express my thanks to the team at Spartan for working with Ramelius to progress studies and integration alongside the shareholder and court approval process. While the transaction is to be implemented later this week, we are already well advanced on studies and integration of the two companies and this would not have been possible without the cooperation of Spartan. Our aim was to hit the ground running both operationally and from an exploration perspective and I feel we've set ourselves up well to do that. Upon implementation, based on current share price, the combined Ramelius and Spartan Co.
Will have a market capitalization well in excess of the original pro forma we quoted back in March when the deal was first announced, which could well see Ramelius enter the ASX100 index in the coming months, all things being equal. In addition to this, despite recent speculation about being withdrawn from the VanEck GDX Index, the combined Ramelius and Spartan could well actually be included in this newly named Market Vectors Global Gold Index as our understanding is the previous assessment was completed on Ramelius as a standalone basis as opposed to the merged cut at the time. Also, at the time of announcing this Spartan transaction, we noted a pro forma cash position of just over AUD 500 million.
Now, given the cash generation of Ramelius over the last two quarters, this is now expected to be well north of this figure, even after accounting for the AUD 270 million payment to be made to Spartan shareholders later this week. This leaves Ramelius in a position of financial strength ahead of ongoing mine development of Never and Pepper, the Mount Magnet mill upgrades which are pending the completion of integration studies, and the development of Rebecca. All of these growth projects can and will be funded entirely from existing cash reserves.
Referring to slide four, get on the right slide and before handing over to Tim to discuss the operations in more detail, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the year for Ramelius and what has been delivered and achieved: record gold production of just over 301,000 ounces at a peer-leading all-in sustaining cost of AUD 15.51 per ounce. This is the fifth year in a row we've achieved both production and cost guidance. Our company values delivering on our promises and this is embedded in every part of our business and this track record shows just that. Record operating cash flow of AUD 771 million and underlying free cash flow of just under AUD 700 million and as mentioned cash and gold of over AUD 800 million. During the year we released a 17-year mine plan at Mount Magnet putting to bed the myth that Ramelius does not have mine life.
This mine plan will be superseded by the upcoming studies into the integration of Dalgaranga. Completion of the PFS at Rebecca was completed last December demonstrating strong economic returns with a DFS to be completed later this quarter. Lastly, a total of AUD 0.08 per share returned to shareholders by way of the AUD 0.05 FY 2024 final dividend and the AUD 0.03 maiden interim dividend for FY 2025, both fully franked on slide five. Lastly, from me I could draw your attention to the chart on the left which breaks down the quarterly production for the year. What is evident here is Mount Magnet filling the gap left by Edna May as that operation progressed to care and maintenance and is in care and maintenance as we speak.
Mount Magnet alone had its best quarter of the year on the back of improved grades at Penny which saw a record of 72,575 ounces of production and this resulted in a full year production from Mount Magnet of 248,108 ounces, which also not surprisingly is a record for the hub. With that I'll now hand over to Tim to discuss the operations in more data.
Thanks Mark. Pleasure to join for the first time and always good to join on such an impressive quarter for Ramelius. I'll take over from slide six of the presentation and take you through the mining production in more detail. The June quarter saw us mine 347,000 tons of ore, an increase of 20% on the prior quarter at a grade of 6.87 grams per ton. At the 12% increase, both increases were driven by improvements at Cue open pits and Penny underground. As a result, we mined 76,707 of contained gold ounces, up 34% on the March quarter. Total tons processed were down for the quarter with the completion of processing at Edna May in the previous quarter. However, the combination of higher mine grades and throughput at Mount Magnet fill part of this gap, the total of 73,454 ounces of gold being produced. Moving on to slide seven.
This has the same layout as the previous slide, but represents the full year and for comparison the last three years of information. On the mining side, all mining took place at the Mount Magnet hub with a focus on accessing high grade ore. tons mined were down in the prior year given mining ceased at Edna May and Eridanus, but noting that the mine grades more than doubled. Processing, a very similar story to the quarter with the transition to Magnet only with the higher grades available from the mine inventory in the year resulted in the record gold production for the group which total a fantastic result of 301,664 ounces. Moving on to slide eight. Some more details here on Mount Magnet for the quarter. Firstly on safety, we did have a disappointing quarter, saw one LTI and four RWIs.
Statistically this is a reversal of our previous TRIFR trend recorded in the first half of the year. During the quarter we did place some significant actions in place to focus on our safety leadership, both with our own employees and through our business partners. We continue this safety focus into FY 2026. The higher mine grade in the quarter when compared to the prior quarter was attributable to higher grades at Penny as multiple stoping areas came into production within the high grade areas of Penny North. At Cue, the White Heat pit saw a repeat of the over performance that was noted at Break of Day. In the prior quarter the positive reconciliation resulted in an additional 13,000 ounces across Cue for the quarter and 28,000 ounces for the year. There are some reconciliation tables in the quarterly for those who want some more detail on this.
It's important to note that these positive reconciliations have been seen in the weathered upper sections of the ore body above the fresh rock. With these mines now progressing into the fresh rock, we believe that both White Heat and Break of Day will still perform in line with the model predictions. What I will add though is given the high grade of these open pits, the ore body is treated with the utmost respect. Very diligent modeling of the mineralization and some very strict ore control practices in the pit resulting in very little ore loss and dilution. These techniques are also applied to our underground mines too. Processing at Mount Magnet recorded the highest throughput quarter for the year.
This is a combination of excellent mill utilization, a balanced blend program, and the change to a more aggressive mill liner to improve tons per operating hour with the harder Eridanus ore. This, coupled with a higher mine grade, resulted in gold production of 72,575 ounces, an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of AUD 13.10 per ounce, arguably one of the lowest cost production centers in Australia. Before we move on, I just want to highlight the continuous improvement mindset from the Mount Magnet processing team. The real benefit of these technical modifications, whilst minimal in this quarter, will have some real long-term benefits when Eridanus becomes a prominent ore source of ore feed to the Checkers mill. Moving on to slide nine, a reflection of the year at Mount Magnet, which was the engine room for Ramelius for FY 2025.
The start of the year saw completion of mining at the current Eridanus pit before the open pit fleet transitioned to Cue again. Another highlight with the open pit mining team pivoting from one style of mining to setting up and establishing the Cue pits in a safe and timely manner. Underground mining continued to focus on Galaxy at Mount Magnet. Across the year, a total of 1.8 million tons were processed at 4.48 grams per ton for record gold production of 248,108 ounces at all-in sustaining costs of AUD 13.40 per ounce, with the costs being largely comparable to the prior year. The production and low cost profile generated an operating cash flow of AUD 661 million for the year. Slide 10 now talking about Penny.
A very solid quarter for Penny mine, grade just under 18 grams a ton, which resulted in a production of 26,241 ounces of gold, all-in sustaining cost of AUD 809 per ounce, and generated AUD 93 million in free cash flow for the year. Penny processed 169,000 tons at a grade of 14.4 grams per ton for 18,418 ounces. Production was achieved at all-in sustaining costs of AUD 1,003 per ounce and generated AUD 221 million in cash flow for the year. Slide 11 is discussing exploration at Penny. Obviously, our focus at Penny is to continue to find the next ore body there and we're defining a target down plunge of the Penny North Lode with the aim to extend the mine life beyond FY2026. We've seen some significant results as can be seen on the slide: 0.6 meters at 33.1, 1.24 meters at 7.8, and 0.6 at 8.34.
We are seeing promising potential to extend the mine life here, very similar to what we saw at Vivian. Given the time horizon for Penny, this is a priority one from an exploration perspective. For this coming year, up to AUD 12 million has been allowed for exploration activities across Europe.
Penny.
The underground platform development is well underway, as is the follow-up surface drilling. Moving on to slide 12, Cue. A total of 204,000 tons was mined across Cue in the quarter at a grade of 6.55. All tons were 22% up on the prior quarter as the strip ratio decreased, and we saw some improvements in our productivity, again with a continuous improvement mindset at the site. Selective stockpiling allowed us to mill 149,000 tons at a grade of 8.19, which, whilst down on the prior quarter, is still a remarkable grade for any gold mine, let alone a shallow open pit. Gold production totaled 36,490 ounces, all-in sustaining costs of AUD 942, producing a cash flow of AUD 125 million. For FY 2025, Cue processed 295,000 tons at a grade of 10.66 for 96,720 ounces, all-in sustaining costs AUD 794 per ounce, generated cash flow of an impressive AUD 288 million.
Slides 13 and 14 show some of our exploration highlights for Mount Magnet, which includes Perseverance South as Mark touched on, and Hesperus Perseverance South. We're following up some encouraging results from the March quarter, again focusing on the BIF which is immediately east of the Galaxy Underground mine. Significant results include 13.2 meters at 6.95, 4.2 meters at 4.36, 8.9 meters at 13.45, and 8 meters at 7.6. On slide 14, we have the Hesperus Pit, which sits a few hundred meters from Saturn and was historically mined solely on the granite diorite geology. We continue to test the granite diorite but also targeting a BIF located below that. Results include 18 meters at 5.35, 18 meters at 2.86, and 1.44 meters at 8.4, and we continue to see significant potential below the existing pit.
As many people on the call know, Mount Magnet still has untapped potential, and our commitment to this is reflected in our increased exploration guidance for FY 2026 of AUD 80 million to AUD 100 million. Last but not least, I'll talk to Edna May on slide 15. For the quarter, Edna May produced just under 1,000 ounces, all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,892. This production was sourced solely from stripping the remaining gold in the circuit and the processing of the final carbon from the site. For the year, gold production at Edna May totaled 53,556 ounces at a respectable all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,600.80 per ounce. It was highly cash generative with a total operating cash flow of AUD 109 million. For the year, gold production was above guidance while all-in sustaining cost was at the lower end of guidance.
Edna May has now transitioned into care and maintenance with a small team on site maintaining the asset. With that, I'll now hand over to Darren.
Thanks Tim and good morning all. I will be initially speaking to slide 16 of the deck. This slide is a regular in our presentation deck and is an important tool for us to assess our M & A track record. The figures in the square brackets represent the cash and gold generated by our operations over the quarter with the standouts being Penny and Cue. Cue is a remarkable investment for Ramelius with the acquisition having been fully recouped within nine months of commencement of mining. At the end of this week we'll add Dalgaranga onto the scorecard with the same philosophy applied. We must ensure that what we spend on the acquisition in cash and scrip, we must get returns and create the black diamonds above the line.
It might take a little longer to recoup our investment on Dalgaranga than that of Cue, but our five year guidance is to be released in the December quarter and we'll demonstrate this plan. On slide 17 we show financial highlights for the quarter. From a financial point of view, it was another exceptionally strong quarter for Ramelius on the back of strong gold production with AUD 208 million of free cash flow generated, being generated only marginally down on our second consecutive record on the metric noted last quarter. What needs to be highlighted here is the fact we pre-delivered 7,000 ounces. This reduced our Q4 cash generation and closing position to the tune of AUD 13.4 million. This demonstrates the increasing margins of our business not only due to the gold price but also lower operating cost across the Mount Magnet hub.
During the quarter we sold 76,000 ounces of gold at an average realized price of AUD 4,442 per ounce. This includes a mix of spot, pre-delivered, and committed forward sales, resulting in total sales revenue for the quarter of AUD 336 million. The Au gold price was fairly flat over the quarter with the strengthening U.S. price being offset by weakening U.S. dollar. The all-in sustaining cost for the quarter was AUD 1,339 per ounce, which was 10% down on the prior quarter with only negligible production from the higher cost Edna May in the quarter. The resulting all-in sustaining cost margin, which is the average realized price less the all-in sustaining cost, was AUD 3,103 per ounce, representing an all-in sustaining cost margin of 70%.
Looking at Mount Magnet in isolation, the all-in sustaining cost was AUD 1,310 per ounce, which was 7% up on the prior quarter with the operation now bearing almost all of the corporate costs. On slide 18 we show a breakdown of free cash flow metrics for the quarter. The gold sales of 76,000 ounces generated cash flow of AUD 228.9 million with AUD 224.8 million coming from Mount Magnet and AUD 4.1 million from Edna May. A total of AUD 16.8 million was reinvested in mine development, resource definition and exploration in the quarter which focused on Mount Magnet, Cue and Penny. During the quarter we also paid AUD 4.1 million for the care and maintenance of Edna May. This cost includes the employee redundancy cost and other costs relating to the transition into care and maintenance. It is not considered to be reflective of the ongoing care and maintenance cost for the site.
Details of expected care and maintenance costs will be detailed in our five-year guidance to be released in the December quarter. The resulting free cash flow for the quarter was AUD 207.8 million. During the quarter we paid prepaid income tax by way of installments for FY 2025 totaling AUD 28.3 million. We expect to be able to materially reduce this rate at which we pay income tax in FY 2026 with the introduction of Spartan tax losses to the group and also higher depreciable asset value. These expected tax synergies will be detailed in the integration study to be released in the December quarter. We also paid our maiden fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.03 per share to shareholders in the quarter which, net of dividend reinvestments, resulted in a AUD 26.9 million cash outflow. The resulting cash and gold position was AUD 809.7 million.
Just now speaking to slide 19 as others have done on this call, I want to take a moment to reflect on the year from Ramelius. We have detailed the key metrics for FY 2025 with further results to be released with the full year financial report in August. The business on the back of record gold production generating just under AUD 700 million of free cash flow which is more than double that of the prior year. We sold 303,000 ounces at an average realized price of AUD 3,963 per ounce which includes a mix of spot, pre-delivery and commitment forward sales. This results in total revenue for the year of AUD 1.2 billion. The Australian gold price improved significantly over the year from AUD 3,488 per ounce in June 2024 to AUD 5,020 per ounce in June 2025, a 44% increase.
The all-in sustaining cost for the year was AUD 1,551 per ounce which was 2% down on the prior year and driven up with production from high cost but cash generation from Edna May production. The resulting all-in sustaining cost margin was AUD 2,404 per ounce and represents an all-in sustaining margin of 61%. Looking at Mount Magnet in isolation, the all-in sustaining cost was AUD 1,314 per ounce, which was in line with the prior year and represents one of the lowest cost gold projects in Australia, if not the lowest. On slide 20, we show a breakdown of free cash flow metrics for the year. The gold sales of 303,000 ounces generated cash flow of AUD 771 million, with AUD 661 million coming from Mount Magnet and AUD 109 million from Edna May.
A total of AUD 73.2 million was reinvested into mine development, resource definition, and exploration in the year, which focused on Mount Magnet, Cue, and Penny, which is in line with our market guidance of AUD 60 million - AUD 80 million. The resultant free cash flow for the year was AUD 695 million. During the year, we paid AUD 166 million to increase our holding in Spartan. We also paid income tax on FY 2024 and FY 2025 earnings of AUD 96 million, which was again within our updated market guidance of AUD 90 million - AUD 100 million. We also paid a total AUD 0.08 per share to our shareholders, including an interim dividend of AUD 0.03 per share and a final FY 2024 dividend of AUD 0.05 per share in the year. Net of dividend reinvestments, the cash payments totaled AUD 70.3 million. Lastly, I just want to touch on our hedge book on slide 22.
Over the year, we have maintained our disciplined approach to managing the hedge book, including pre-delivery into committed contracts where appropriate. We unwound the hedge book from 155,000 ounces at an average of AUD 3,081 per ounce at 30 June 2024 to 56,000 ounces at an average price of AUD 3,283 per ounce at 30 June 2025. The majority of the hedge book relates to FY 2026, which covers approximately 24% of our FY 2026 production based on our 17-year Mount Magnet mine plan, with only 8,000 ounces at an average of AUD 3,664 per ounce relating to the first half of FY 2025. In addition to this, we also have zero-cost collars for FY 2027 totaling 22,500 ounces with a floor price of AUD 4,200 per ounce and a ceiling price of AUD 5,906 per ounce.
What I will say overall on our price protection approach is that we are generating peer-leading margins per ounce even without the 100% exposure to gold price.
That this is highlighted.
With that, I'll now hand it back to Mark.
Thanks Darren and Tim. Slide 23, we have summarised our key focus areas for the remainder of calendar year 2025. We will continue to work on our safety performance. We have added additional resources and look to lead from the top on that aspect. Completion of the Rebecca DFS to be delivered in the September quarter followed by an FID by the board, significantly increase exploration activities leveraging off the Spartan exploration DNA, which is evidenced by our increased exploration guidance of AUD 80 million - AUD 100 million as you've already heard, and our priorities, not surprisingly, will be almost in order of grade: Penny, Dalgaranga, the Galaxy Area, Cue, not forgetting Rebecca, and also the Eridanus mine area. We'll look to issue updated resources and reserves for Ramelius on a standalone basis and then shortly thereafter put out initial reserves for Never Never and Pepper.
The other deposits to the south at Dalgaranga, such as Applewood and West Winds, will likely come later once we've completed quite a large drilling program planned in FY 2026 at Dalgaranga. As mentioned, we'll close the Spartan transaction, which is scheduled for this Thursday the 31st, and finally complete the integration studies with Spartan, which are expected in the December 2025 quarter. This study will include our selected milling option at Mount Magnet and Dalgaranga, a five-year mine plan for Mount Magnet which includes Dalgaranga, and importantly the full detailed guidance for FY 2026. Finally, a reminder to those on the call that Ramelius will be attending the upcoming Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie, where I'm happy to say those who have looked at the program, where I'll be co-presenting with Simon Lawson for those who are wondering about what was going to happen with the combined group.
With that, let's open the line up if we can, Mel, 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 handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Al Harvey with JPMorgan . Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning team. Just wanting to get a bit more on the integration studies for Dalgaranga and particularly the network that's been ongoing. Kind of wanting to get a sense of how that's framing the option that you're looking to progress to PFS and you know, is this predominantly about blending and throughput impacts or something else? Maybe just give us a bit of a refresher on the bookends of.
Scenarios that are under review.
I'll go with that one. Thanks, Al. There are eight options on processing. I suppose just to take a step back, the mining and the scheduling and the mine plan is largely finalized and largely agreed. It is really now what is the best processing solution. Met test work has largely been around the combination of, call it, Mount Magnet, which is largely Eridanus with Dalgaranga ore, recognizing that currently the Mount Magnet plant runs at a grind size of 150 micron, where based on all the test work that Spartan have performed up until now, the Dalgaranga ore will get higher recoveries when you're at a grind size at least at 75 micron, preferably even lower.
The combination of those two ore bodies and how that performs, whether there's any preferential grinding, where there's the opportunity to do a tail grind, are part of those scenarios. One scenario is everything goes through Mount Magnet as it is. Next scenario, everything goes through Mount Magnet expanded and then the options sort of expand from there. Do you look to refurb Dalgaranga and restart Dalgaranga? When do you do that? Do you potentially expand Mount Magnet? If you can be on the 3 million that we've talked about. You can see a way to get to eight, sort of eight options here. That's what we're working through. We won't be emotional or sentimental about it. We'll go over the option that provides the best value for shareholders.
It requires obviously a lot of work on capital at both plants, operating costs at both plants, road requirements in terms of capital and running costs on those. You do need to recognize that a finer grind does require more power and more steel in the mill, which will increase your operating costs and reduce your throughput. There are trade offs there. You don't just go for the highest recovery. There is a balancing act that we're working through and the guys, as always, are doing it super diligently. We've got really good consultants working with us who are very familiar with both the Dalgaranga and the Mount Magnet plant and we're confident we'll come up with the right solution when we come to market with it.
Thanks, Mark.
Just the second one maybe for Darren.
Just the pre-sales into the hedge book.
Book, I think they mainly got stripped off March quarter 2026. Just interested in why that part, that period was targeted, and I suppose just more broadly noting your comments about funding growth with the balance sheet. Any views on further early deliveries into the hedge book?
Yeah, we saw a drop in gold price briefly in the June month. We took the advantage of delivering some of those pre-delivered ones and also just looking out into FY 2026, you know, just when we had some production coming in, even though I haven't provided it, we don't think it's materially different from FY 2026. That's still subject to review. We just thought we get less production at the back end of FY 2026, so we just took the time to have that full exposure to gold price. That was the basis of timing on a go-forward basis.
When we put in place the zero-cost collars, it was basically a footstep or called AUD 100 million coverage on the Mount Magnet mill expansion from the 2 to 3. That was the underlying basis of those hedges. The 22,500 for FY 2027. One thing you might have seen in the guidance of the FY 2026 sort of some cash flow guidance pieces is that we are looking to potentially bring forward some of that into FY 2026 versus FY 2027. We've got to consider larger CapEx, continue on the development of Dalgaranga, and obviously that final option we'll have with the mill. I think once we get the broader capital program expected in the December quarter, we may add some additional potentially zero-cost collars or puts depending on if we're comfortable to do that.
Obviously, we want to ensure our shareholders have got upside available on that gold price, so it won't be at a lower level. That's sort of how we're kind of looking at it. That all being said, as we mentioned on the call, our startup position is over AUD 800 million. A little bit less than that when we do the integration, but we don't have to hedge. We have been pretty disciplined in that approach and obviously still thinking about returns. Long-winded answer, but there are several factors that we'll consider before putting something new in place.
Thanks, Darren. Appreciate the detailed answer.
Thanks Jens.
Thanks El.
Thank you 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 Richard Knights with Barrenjoey . Please go ahead.
Hi gents, thanks for the call. Just wanted to push you a little bit on one of the scenarios that you mentioned earlier, Mark, just in terms of potentially expanding Mount Magnet beyond the 3 million ton throughput rate. Just wondering what the logic of that would be considering you do have obviously the Dalgaranga plant sort of sitting there as well.
Thanks, Richard. I think you need to, I suppose, bear in mind that Mount Magnet is, even compared to Western Australia gold plants, a very low cost plant and it benefits from low cost power. We have the gas pipeline and we're now in the process of supplementing that with renewables. On a per cost, per ton basis, it's a very low cost plant. Putting as many tons through that plant makes a lot of sense to us, and maximizing, if you're going to do an expansion, going to the maximum on that.
You do reach a point, as we've talked about before, it's not as simple as, okay, let's turn the 2 million ton plant into a 5 million ton plant, which intuitively, if you have 50 million tons, that's over 17 - 20 years, you probably want to actually have a 5 million ton plant to make that more like a 10 year mine production profile. By doing that, you will reach a limit on things like pumps, conveyors, and all of the more ancillary infrastructure. You can add ball mills and SAG mills and tanks, but you do reach a limit on that expansion capacity. We think it's very much worthwhile really testing that and making sure that if we're going to expand it, we're going to the maximum, given the long life at Mount Magnet and the low cost of that mill.
It's a combination of power and the fact that we've been running it for, what, 15 years now and really got it dialed in, and even to the point where Tim didn't really expand on it, but we've changed the liners in the SAG mill at Magnet to be able to deal with the harder Eridanus and things look really positive on that. It's relatively early days, but the guys, as Tim mentioned, have a continuous improvement mindset, and some of those tweaks, obviously on a throughput, and assuming that you still only do two shuts per year, if you can increase your throughput by 5 tons per hour over a long period of time, it makes a massive difference. That's why we're looking at expanding it. If we're going to expand it, we expand it as one of the options as far as we can, hopefully.
I've answered your question.
Yep. No, that's great. Good detail. Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Bowler with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
G'day all. Just trying to ascertain the thinking behind the reason not to provide FY 2026 guidance. I mean, obviously you gave us the Mount Magnet mine plan fairly recently. Is it more that development at Dalgaranga might bring ounces into the plan that's above that Mount Magnet plan you gave us, or is it something like a scenario where a mill expansion might see tie-ins and lower throughput than that Mount Magnet plan? I'm just trying to get an idea of why you're not so sure about the next year, particularly because I assume the assumption is that very small ounces would be coming out of Dalgaranga development over the next year.
Thanks, Andrew. I suppose there's a couple aspects to it. Typically, when there's a combination that's just on the verge of happening, we're reluctant to provide guidance right now as we would have every year for the last umpteen years and then come back and revise it a month or two months later. Our feedback is that market says, just when you're ready, give us the guidance on a combined basis. You know, whilst the production, there's not much point putting out Ramelius only and then saying, oh, here's another number with Dalgaranga in there. I think probably just as importantly, there's capital associated with Dalgaranga. That's obviously over and above what we had previously put in our Mount Magnet mine plan, which was minimal for FY 2026. We want to, as we talked about, potentially bring forward any mill expansions into FY 2026.
We just didn't want to give you half the story, essentially. I think it's not uncommon for, I think Westgold did it last year, they completed at Diggers and I think it was six weeks later came out with guidance. I think we're probably following the same playbook on that, making sure that we do it once and do it properly.
Understood. Thanks for that.
Thanks, Andrew.
Thank you once again. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. We'll now pause a moment to allow for any final questioners to register. Thank you. Your next question comes from Jarrod Lucas with ABC News. Please go ahead.
G'day, Mark team. I was just curious if you've had any interest in potentially selling Edna May, given it's been on care and maintenance since April.
Thanks for that, Jarrod. We're just about to close the call, but appreciate the question. There's been no shortage of incoming, it's fair to say, but that's not surprising given the gold price. Everyone wants a gold project, especially a permitted one with a mill being looked after by ourselves. At the moment we're happy to have it on care and maintenance for now. We have other priorities at Mount Magnet and Rebecca. We think it's great option value. We'll turn our mind to what happens with that. We could even refresh the numbers. I think when we actually made the decision, we used a AUD 3,500 an ounce Aussie gold price. We'll look at that more likely later in the year, early in the new year. It's not stopping people coming forward and asking the question.
We're basically saying, we'll add you to the list if and when we consider what we're doing with that asset.
Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Cheers, Jarrod. Good to hear from you.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Zeptner.
Nothing more to add. I think that's the longest call we've had for some time. Fair bit of detail in there, but thanks for your time this morning.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.