I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Mark Zeptner, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Well, thank you, Harmony. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to dial into our FY 2026 results conference call. Alongside me this morning is our General Manager of Finance, Ben Ringrose, who will drill down into the numbers after I have covered off on the highlights. Darren Millman, our CFO, and Tim Hewitt, our COO, are also both in the room for any Q&A that might come up after our initial comments. We have uploaded to the ASX platform, along with our website, a number of documents this morning, including our FY 2026 financial results summary, our audited statutory financial report, and a presentation that we will be speaking to today.
If we start on slide three and look back at the year for Ramelius, in which we increased returns to shareholders, and also focused on consolidating our asset base to achieve production of + 500,000 ounces per annum by FY 2030. We made a commitment to shareholders in December to maintain our returns through this period of investment into the business. Pleasingly, we were not only able to maintain these returns in FY 2026, but grew them with our AUD 250 million share buyback program. I will touch more on our shareholder returns later in the call. From an asset point of view, we continue with our focus on the high-grade, high-margin projects with the acquisition of the Dalgaranga gold mine early in the financial year.
We also entered into an agreement for the sale of our non-core Edna May hub for AUD 300 million, which we expect to complete in September. It was a very busy year again in FY 2026, with the obvious focus being on the world-class Dalgaranga asset, where we announced a maiden Never Never underground ore reserve of 1.6 million ounces at 7.3 grams per ton, and completed a PFS with an NPV of AUD 3.5 billion at a base case of AUD 4,500. At AUD 6,000 per ounce, closer to today's price, the NPV increases to AUD 6.4 billion. Along with the PFS, we selected a preferred milling option for the Dalgaranga ore, with a single processing plant at Mt Magnet with a capacity of up to 5 million tons per annum.
We look forward to updating the market with a four-year production outlook to FY 2030, including full FY 2027 guidance details in September, once we have finalized the EPC contract for stage two of the Mt Magnet mill upgrade, and also settled on new life of mines at our Mt Magnet assets. At Rebecca- Roe, we completed the DFS in October 2025, which showed an NPV of AUD 692 million, noting that at AUD 6,000 per ounce gold price, this increases to AUD 2.1 billion. On the back of the DFS and the compelling economics, the board made an FID on the project subject only to Roe environmental approvals. Before we get to the financials, I wanted to touch on our track record of delivering on guidance on slide four.
FY 2026 was the sixth consecutive year we have met our production and cost guidance, which is something the team here is very proud of and is front of mind whenever we consider our commitments we make to the market. As I said earlier, we will be providing an updated four-year production outlook. At this stage, we are targeting the week commencing 21 September. This outlook will include full production and cost guidance for FY 2027. But what we are seeing here, like our peers, is inflationary pressure on costs, higher royalty charges from higher gold prices, and higher fuel costs with the ongoing Iran conflict. In addition to this, and as a direct result of exploration success during the year, we have extended the life of mine at our Galaxy operation out to 2032, noting that this was previously only out to 2028.
Also with a planned production rate looking to increase to 800,000 tons per annum compared to 600,000 tons per annum in the previous plan. It is expected the additional development required in FY 2027 will add approximately AUD 30 million to all in sustaining costs, which is equivalent to around AUD 130 an ounce. I will note that we have already provided exploration guidance of between AUD 90 million and AUD 110 million for the FY 2027 year. With that, I'll now hand over to Ben.
Thank you, Mark, and good morning to you all. For those following on the presentation, I will initially be speaking to slide five and our financial highlights for the year. The business generated an underlying EBITDA of AUD 765 million from the sale of 192,000 ounces at a record 74% margin, which is exceptionally strong in this year of consolidation and transformation. As we've said throughout the year, it's a fantastic time to be a gold miner, and that is evidenced with the EBITDA per ounce of over AUD 4,000. Now, whilst we have seen a drop in production with the completion of operations at Edna May in the prior year, what is really pleasing to see is the increase in the EBITDA margin.
With further high grades to come from Never Never in the following years, it is going to be exciting to see Mt Magnet fulfill its potential, becoming a top five production hub in Australia. The underlying NPAT for the year was just shy of AUD 320 million, with higher D&A charge being incurred with increased challenges mined, particularly at Dalgaranga, Penny, and Cue, which are mines that have a related acquisition cost being amortized. We have today announced a AUD 0.03 per share fully franked final dividend for FY 2026, taking the total for the year to AUD 0.06. Mark Zeptner will discuss the dividend and shareholder returns in more detail shortly, but what I will highlight is that the paid and declared dividends for FY 2026, along with our share buybacks, results in AUD 256 million being returned to shareholders for the year.
This represents 65% of our underlying free cash flow. Throughout the documents released today and the presentation itself, we do refer to underlying earnings to give you a better understanding of the operational performance. A reconciliation of the underlying and statutory earnings can be found in the appendix to the presentation. These adjustments do include, firstly, Spartan acquisition costs of AUD 133 million, of which AUD 131 million relates to stamp duty on the transaction. This stamp duty has now been paid but was recognized on our balance sheet as a payable at 30 June. Secondly, the Spartan private royalty obligation fair value adjustments of AUD 55 million.
This is a non-cash adjustment to the current earnings and relates to the fact we expect higher revenue in the future based on our increased confidence in the ore body with the maiden 1.6 million ounce ore reserve and higher consensus gold price forecast. Ultimately, this is a positive. However, we must recognize an expense to earnings with the future royalty payments associated with higher revenues. Lastly, during the year, we closed out our remaining FY 2027 gold forward contracts at a cost of AUD 28.4 million. We can see the positive impact this had on cash flows in Q4 when there was no hedging in place. Moving on to slide 6 and the cash performance and closing position for the year.
As you would expect with the completion of Edna May and period of capital investment, the cash metrics, while still exceptionally strong, were down on FY 2025. Business generated over AUD 700 million in operating cash flow, which after growth capital and exploration, resulted in underlying free cash flow of AUD 393 million or over AUD 2,000 an ounce. After considering the net cash to acquire Spartan income tax and hedge book management, the overall free cash flow was AUD 149 million. After shareholder returns, the closing cash and gold position was AUD 650 million, which when coupled with our undrawn credit facility, leaves us with liquidity of AUD 1.1 billion. Again, the appendices provide a reconciliation between these cash metrics and the statutory cash flow in the financial report.
Still on cash in slide seven, I want to highlight the cash return to shareholders in the year. A total of AUD 256 million of cash was returned to shareholders, a 263% increase by way of the final FY 2025 dividend, the interim FY 2026 dividend, and share buyback program. In addition to this, we have returned AUD 38 million to shareholders by way of our dividend reinvestment plan in the year. This clearly demonstrates that not only did we maintain shareholder returns in FY 2026, we grew them, which in this period of lower production and higher capital, is a testament to our balance sheet strength and confidence in our growth plan to in excess of 500,000 ounces per annum by FY 2030.
Capital investment in the business by way of growth capital exploration and the acquisition of Spartan grew 19% to AUD 390 million, making up just over 50% of our use of operating cash flow. On the chart on the bottom left of this slide, we show the quarterly cash flow across the year. What could be seen here is a notable increase in the underlying free cash flow in the second half of the financial year, particularly in Q4, with production from Never Never and no hedge book commitments. Finally, before I hand back to Mark, I want to touch on the balance sheet on slide eight, which has seen a notable change with the acquisition of Spartan.
Our working capital position remains strong after capital investment and shareholder returns at just over AUD 460 million, whilst net assets increased to AUD 3.9 billion. Importantly, our balance sheet and future production cash flow leaves our development pipeline fully funded without drawing on our credit facility. I will now hand proceedings back over to Mark, who will give a recap on our operations and projects before discussing the dividend declared today.
Thanks, Ben. I will be picking up on slide nine at the Mt Magnet hub. Starting with a recap on the year. We certainly achieved a lot, making solid progress on multiple fronts. From a projects point of view, following the Never Never PFS and integration studies, we focused on both Dalgaranga infrastructure and the Mt Magnet plant upgrade. Work on the Mt Magnet plant upgrade focused on the front-end engineering and design and commencement of stage one of the upgrades, that being the refurbishment of the existing 1.9 million ton per annum ball mill drivetrain. A major plan shutdown is due to occur in October this year, in which a lot of the new equipment will be installed and modifications made to the existing plant. Again, all associated with stage 1.
In conjunction with this, we are close to finalizing the EPC contract for stage two of the mill upgrade, which is the new 3 million ton per annum circuit and will provide an update to the market with the full year production outlook and FY 2027 guidance as mentioned earlier. At Dalgaranga itself, capital works across the site progressed well with a focus on the paste plant. You can see the picture on the top right. Refurbishment of site infrastructure, including the camp offices and workshops. Also, by the end of the year, the main underground pump station was commissioned and in use. In the coming year, we will complete the remaining capital works, including the paste plant, obviously, which is nearing commissioning and other site infrastructure, as well as commence road upgrade works on the 65 km stretch between Dalgaranga and Mt Magnet.
Operationally for FY 2027, we will further increase mining rates at Never Never as we ramp up towards our targeted 1 million tons per annum at that mine. At Mt Magnet, we will commence the Eridanus stage three open pit in November, whilst at the same time increase mining rates at Galaxy and extending its mine life. There is also a promising underground potential at Cue, specifically at Break of Day and Lena, which we will explore further in FY 2027. Again, details will follow later this quarter. Just also noting that our 2026 resources and reserve statement will be released next week, which will form the underlying basis or underpin our new Mt Magnet hub life of mine. Moving to slide 10 on Rebecca- Roe. Our next processing hub, we have made great progress in bringing this exciting new project to fruition.
In addition to the DFS and FID mentioned, we did reach a native title mining agreement with the Kakarra Part B Native Title holders. Also late in the financial year, we had confirmation from the EPA that the Roe environmental approval pathway will be streamlined through the established Part V process. Looking forward at Rebecca- Roe, we will work to obtain the Part V works approvals and relevant licenses, further optimize the mining schedule upon Roe approval, but also continue exploration down deep of the current open pits to extend project life and also commence early work such as access roads, camp, airstrip, and bore fields. Lastly, before we open up the presentation, we are on slide 11 now. We have the final dividend for FY 2026.
We are proud of our track record on dividends and shareholder returns. Today we are declaring an eighth consecutive final dividend, this time AUD 0.03 per share, fully franked. This, coupled with our interim dividend paid in April, takes the total dividends for FY 2026 to AUD 0.06 per share. We announced our shareholder returns in FY 2026 to include share buybacks, which for the year totaled AUD 142 million of our AUD 250 million program. With earnings now reported and our resources and reserve statement to follow shortly, our blackout period will soon be lifted, and we will look to recommence this buyback program. Shareholder returns, including buybacks, interim dividend, and declared final dividend, as Ben mentioned, totaled some AUD 256 million or 65% of our underlying free cash flow.
The total dividend represents a yield of 2.1% based on the 30 June 2026 share price and a total shareholder return over the last five years of 13.1% per annum and over AUD 1,300 per ounce sold. More than three times the AUD 430 per ounce we noted last year. The final dividend will be paid in October. In closing, I would like to highlight the investment case for Ramelius on slide 12. Consistently pay dividends and have done so for the past eight years and have enhanced the shareholder returns with the introduction of our AUD 250 million share buyback program. Our focus on high margin production leaves us with sector-leading cash flows, along with now long life assets at both Mt Magnet and Rebecca Roe. We have a credible pathway to 170% production growth to +500,000 ounces per annum, underpinned by the world-class Never Never underground mine.
We have doubled down on exploration, repeating our budget from FY 2026 and FY 2027 of a midpoint of AUD 100 million, focusing on quality high-grade targets. As mentioned, we are a reliable operator doing what we say we will do, having met production guidance for the last six years. Lastly, we also offer the benefits of both scale and liquidity with inclusion of the key indexes, the ASX100 and the GDX. That concludes the presentation. I will now hand back to you, Harmony, if you can open the line for audio questions, please.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question via the phones, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please enter it into the ask a question box and click submit. Your first question comes from Jonathan Sharp from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. Just the first question, I just want to clear something up. When you say the FY 2027 cost of trend being 8% higher, does that refer to the absolute costs before the benefit of higher production or to just the all-in sustaining cost per ounce?
Absolute. So that 8% also factors in where we put out the October 2025 five-year outlook, using an AUD 4,500 gold price. So it factors in both the step-up, probably leaning towards an AUD 5,500 assumption as we go forward into FY 2027. We used a AUD 1 diesel price, in our FY 2025 five-year outlook plan. We are now probably trending to around AUD 1.25. So those two factors also incorporated into that sort of 8%.
Number. With the other piece, which I am sure you might touch on the next question, was the sustaining capital important to flag. This is a real positive. We are looking to extend the Galaxy mine from FY 2028 at this stage alone to FY 2032. So we are making this investment in FY 2027. When you think about an AUD 30 million sustaining capital investment in FY 2027 and Galaxy alone in FY 2026 generated just under AUD 90 million in free cash flow. So real capital intensity, amazing result I think we will see. We are not done yet. We think about Galaxy, investing another AUD 25 million-AUD 30 million in Galaxy alone, given what we are seeing and looking to share those results on exploration, next Tuesday is probably what we are targeting on that reserves and resource update.
So long-winded answer to your question, but I think it is worth to flag a few of those points.
Yeah, that is great. You answered a few things there that I had to follow up with. Just one other one there on the cost. What are you assuming for diesel in FY 2027?
At the moment, we're probably landing or we were landing at around AUD 1.25 a few weeks ago. That was sort of more factoring at a higher cost for the first six months and then a lower cost in the preceding six months. I guess we'll see what Mr. Trump does next week to see where that lands. That was sort of the basis of that 8% within there.
Yeah, understand it. Makes it hard with what's going on. Just second question, should we think just with Never Never production, is that materially second half weighted in FY 2027?
Yeah. Hi, John. Yes, it is. The back half of the year, we really start to see the decline that we're driving down, really expand those production areas. So, it will have further weight towards the back half of the year.
Yeah. Okay. Any ratios there you can give us?
Not off the top of my head.
Okay. That is fine. Thank you for that. I will pass it on.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Adam Baker, from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hey, Mark and Tim. Just a follow-up on Dalgaranga. I know you got the five-year plan coming out next month, so do not want to jump the gun too much here, but now that the paste plant is nearing commissioning and I know you have still got the vent upgrades to go, but are we seeing any upside to that 0.6 million ton number that you had in last year's outlook? Potentially getting to that 1.1 million ton run rate quicker?
I will grab that one, Tim. Sorry, it is a little bit hard to hear you, Adam, but your question was around whether we see upside on the 600,000 ton ramp up at Dalgaranga. Look, I think we would be looking to be in line with the ounces ton profile. Remembering we are going from zero in March to 200,000 tons, and completing FY 2026 with 200,000 tons, around 600,000 tons in 2027 and getting to 1 million. So I think that is a pretty aggressive ramp up, and I would like to think that we are in line with that. I do not think there is a lot of upside that we could be putting on the table at this point in time.
Yeah, that is clear. Thank you. It is actually just a follow-up to John's, but on that 8% higher cost year-on-year, just to clear this up, it is 8% higher on everything, or is it just 8% higher on cash operating costs? Then, if we are looking at the AISC basis, it could potentially be a bit higher than that number given the uplift at Dalgaranga. Thank you.
Yeah. We have tried to keep it simple. As I said earlier on that one, we are if you look at the 2025 guidance we have for FY 2027, looking in ballpark of the 8% on top of that, plus the sustaining capital we are talking about on Dalgaranga. Within that 8%, we are factoring in employees wages increasing around that 6%-7% range. Obviously, explosives and different elements as well. So that is the whole kit and caboodle per se, within that 8%. As I said earlier, gold price, diesel. So I think we have maintained it pretty well. We are always looking for that competitive process when we enter tenders. I think probably the thing that we will obviously get into when we issue in September the outlook.
We do see that creep moving into the capital element, if not at a higher level than that. Just be mindful of that.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Darren.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Levi Spry from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good day. Good morning. Thanks for your time, Mark, Darren, Tim. Looking forward to these updates in the next couple of weeks. Just ahead of that, I just want to make sure I have got the cash number right. Can you just confirm the stamp duty is being paid for Spartan and then, what your sort of expectations are around the net proceeds after some tax on the Edna May? I think you said completes in September.
Hi, Levi. It is Ben here, mate. So yeah, the first question on the stamp duty, yes, that has been paid in July now. The second question on the net Edna May proceeds. So AUD 210 million is the cash component of that, as you would have noticed. We are expecting the tax on Edna May to be AUD 40 million-AUD 45 million. We will settle that in around December this year. But that is also-
Awesome
reflected in our-
Thanks. Thanks, Ben.
That is reflected in our balance sheet as well, that tax payable, so you will see it there.
Roger. Okay. Thank you. Thanks.
Thanks, Levi.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Hugo Nicolaci from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Congrats on a cracking year. Look, firstly, just the Mt Magnet mill expansion. Again, I appreciate you give that guidance six months, but if I look back at the last outlook, I think your mill expansion spend was about AUD 220 million, including the water pipeline. You have touched on your operating costs going up about 8% year- on- year. With the final tenders for that EPC work for the mill in hand, what level of cost escalation are you seeing on that mill CapEx?
At least 10%-15% is where the numbers are landing. Obviously, we are going through a competitive FEED process, so we have different numbers. I cannot be any more definitive than that. We are working through not only the cost side of it, the time, and the quality of the design. There is obviously more than one factor there. But if you look at what everyone else has done in terms of updating their CapEx numbers, I probably see us being not too dissimilar to that, even though the idea of having a competitive FEED process is to try to keep a lid on that as much as possible, Hugo.
Yeah. No, it makes sense, impacting everyone with the number of projects going on. Essentially that is the next couple of weeks or early to mid-September. We should expect that update then?
Yeah. I said 21 September for the full cake, if you like, the full four-year plan, and FY 2027 guidance, but obviously ahead of that, we will be looking to finalize the EPC and that is a key part of obviously that plan.
Great. Cheers, mate. Thanks for your time.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Richard Knights from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, gents. Thanks for the call. I just wanted to follow up on something you said earlier on the call, just around the potential ramp-up in volumes at Dalgaranga towards 800,000 tons per annum. Again, understanding that you have the mine plan coming out in a month, can you give us any indication of what the timing of that looks like?
Yeah. Just on Dalgaranga, we are ramping up and we should hit that sustaining level around FY 2029. There are a couple of ventilation upgrades we need to do, and also that capital investment that Darren talked about earlier, just to open up some more levels. That is probably the key thing there.
Yep. Okay. Thanks. Just one more just on the dividend. In terms of the mix of base dividend versus the buyback. Looking into next year, should we think of that base dividend as you would like to have that as a base for a progressive dividend? I mean, is that fair to think? Obviously, we have to make forecasts around dividends for next year, and there is a lot of moving parts, and it depends on what the year looks like at the end of the year. But, yeah, how should we think about that in terms of sustainability, that AUD 0.06 per share?
It is Darren. Hey, Richard. The maintain and grow was the philosophy that the board put to us back in December. We established a AUD 250 million buyback. We set that minimum AUD 0.02 per share per year, and obviously we are now at AUD 0.06. I would put forward come September, October, we will revisit what that looks like, but I think your working assumption should be AUD 0.02 is the minimum. As you know, we can pivot or the board can pivot between what we use that AUD 250 million, if not more, on between dividends and buybacks. We will react accordingly, on best use in our view for our shareholders. We saw the opportunity.
We set that AUD 250 million based on AUD 4,500 Aussie, and a lot of that upside we saw in the dividend, we have decided to push towards or in the gold price, we pushed towards the dividend. That is how we saw that. We will make another call once we set the gold price. Is it AUD 5,500 for over the next four years? That will also dictate where we go with the dividend policy. But at the moment, I think your working assumption still should be at that AUD 0.02 minimum.
Okay, brilliant. Thanks, Darren.
Thank you. Once again, to ask a question via the phones, please press star 1. To ask a question via the webcast, please enter it into the Ask a Question box and click Submit. Your next question comes from Ashley Chan, a shareholder. Please go ahead.
Hi, Mark, and hi, Ramelius team. Thank you very much again for another excellent result. I just got a question more for the longer term. If we look back the last 10 years, Ramelius has a very good capital return, at least going up eight times, so that is about AUD 0.225 per annum. Looking forward, do you see that there are, in your current assets, you have enough options there to take advantage of, if gold prices were to significantly move higher? Do you have enough indicated and inferred resources to bring into production? Do you have enough spare capacity at your existing plant or potential to expand plant? Can you call on additional labor easily to ramp up production from indicated and inferred resources if gold prices were to be significantly higher?
I will take that one, or I will attempt to. You will see next week our resources and reserve statement, and that underpins obviously a very long life. The last I saw was at Mt Magnet out to 2043. The other thing with capacity to process more tons at a higher gold price. At this stage, high gold price just essentially means we will make more cash flow. We are one of the lower cost producers. In terms of flexibility on processing, we are purposely talking about, whilst it will be targeted initially at a 4.3 million ton per annum plant at Mt Magnet. We have got the capacity to go up to 5 million tons.
Whilst we will be taking some bits and pieces from the Dalgaranga plant, we still have an approved footprint, tailings dam, and a large proportion of that plant in place, if we are to have ongoing exploration success out at Dalgaranga. I think we do have options to increase production over what we have called our base case, and you will see some of that come through. It will be flagged in the resources and reserves, but obviously, the rubber will hit the road with the four-year plan 21 September.
Thank you. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the conference back to your speakers.
Thanks, Harmony. I am not sure if it is working or not, but I do not see any questions on the webcast. We have had half a dozen questions. It does not sound like there is any more. Just want to thank everyone for their time. Have a great Friday.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.