My name's Mactier, and I'm chairman of your company. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land in which we're meeting today, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation, and also acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the lands in which we're operating. We recognize their ongoing connections to the land and the waterways and community, and we pay our respects to their elders, past and present. Today's agenda, I'll give a short chair address, which was published on the ASX this morning, and then we'll move to the formal meeting and do the administration of the resolutions and voting. Shareholders will have an opportunity to ask questions. We'll then vote. We'll close the meeting, and then I'll invite Jim to go through a presentation.
I'd like to introduce my fellow directors, Jim Beyer, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Scudamore, Fiona Morgan, Linda Burnet, Paul Arndt, our Chief Financial Officer, Anthony Rechichi, our Chief Operating Officer, Michael Holmes, and our Company Secretary and General Counsel, Elena Macrides. It is with great satisfaction that I report on Regis' standout performance in 2025. Our outstanding year wasn't just due to the significant increase in the gold price and our excellent operating performance this year, but also to the sustained efforts and the planning, the patience, and the discipline by our team over the prior years. The closeout of our hedge book in the prior year finally revealed the true cash-generating capacity of our assets and contributed to the record financial metrics this year.
Operationally, we again delivered within cost and production guidance, and as detailed in our most recent quarterly, that consistency has continued into the new year. With our very strong cash flows and cash position, we decided to repay our AUD 300 million bank debt in February, leaving us debt-free and unhedged for the first time since we began production in 2012. We are very well positioned to continue to invest in value-accretive growth and to pay dividends. Regarding dividends, the board declared a fully franked dividend of AUD 0.05 per share for the year ended 3rd of June 2025. This took cumulative dividends paid by Regis since 2013 to some AUD 585 million, which is a fact I think is often overlooked by the market.
Given the current outlook, we expect to continue to pay fully franked dividends and intend to provide future payout guidance with our half-year results early in the new year. One of the most significant events of the last financial year was, of course, the Federal Minister for Environment and Water's declaration over part of our McPhillamys project under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act. Regis has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court, and that as to the validity of the Minister's decision, and a court hearing is set for down for early in December. In the meantime, we are continuing to investigate alternative project configurations, and whilst initial studies appear favourable, there is no certainty of a viable alternative being realised.
That said, the project is so significant in its potential that we're not giving up, and we will continue to invest time and a relatively modest amount of expenditure to see it through to a development. Despite the uncertainty over McPhillamys, Regis is a business with scale and growth potential, with an excellent team and an impressive balance sheet. We are consistently producing more than 350,000 ounces per annum and continue to extend our mine life, utilizing our existing underground development and surface infrastructure. At Duketon, we're progressing the development of a third underground mine at Havana. Sorry, at Tropicana, we're progressing the development of a third underground mine at Havana, and are very encouraged by ongoing exploration results in other areas.
At Duketon, we continue to develop underground extensions of Rosemont and Garden Well, and as you will have read in our announcement last week, we've now committed to extending open-pit mining and milling at Duketon North into the early 2030s. What started in 2012 as a modest open-pit operation still has a very bright future. With many exciting exploration targets, we completed over 345 km of drilling during the year, 171 km of those at Duketon and 174 km at Tropicana. This significant investment demonstrates our confidence in increasing the life of our existing projects. Importantly, we were able to achieve all of this while maintaining an impressive safety record, with our lost-time injury frequency rate of 0.4, well below the industry average.
The physical and psychological safety of our people remains not just a priority, but it's central to everything we do, and we continue to implement initiatives and improvements in this area. We also continue to make significant progress in relation to environmental sustainability. A standout initiative was the completion of the Tropicana Renewables project, creating one of the largest hybrid power systems in the Australian mining sector. Do not forget, Tropicana is 300 km east of Kalgoorlie, so it was quite a feat. We have also rehabilitated over 200 hectares of disturbed land across Duketon and further reduced our borefield water use there. I encourage all stakeholders to read our annual report for more details on our progress, plans, and priorities in the area of sustainability.
In relation to board refreshment and renewal, I'm pleased to advise that Linda Burnet will assume the role of Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee from the 1st of December. I'd like to thank Steve Scudamore for his excellent contribution as Chair of this committee over the last six and a half years. Thank you, Steve. Steve will continue as Chair of the Audit Committee. After nearly 10 years, both Fiona Morgan and I intend to retire from the board within the next 12 months, and we'll commence the search for a suitable replacement shortly. Finally, our outstanding performance in FY 2025 would not have been possible without the dedication of our people and the ongoing support of our stakeholders.
On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Jim Beyer, our senior leadership team, employees, contractors, joint venture partner, Anglo Gold Ashanti, and the communities in which we operate. I'd also like to thank my fellow directors for their efforts, insight, and advice during the year. Thank you. We will now move to the formal part of the meeting. I advise that the meeting has been properly constituted with a quorum of shareholders present, and I declare the meeting open. The notice of meeting dated 22nd of October 2025 has been provided to all Regis shareholders on the company's website in accordance with the Corporations Act, and I therefore take that notice as read. For this meeting, we will table each resolution and then answer any shareholder questions after each resolution is read to the meeting.
There'll be an invitation at the relevant times during the meeting to come forward to the microphone to ask a question. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business, and Mr. Rod Simms from Computershare is present and will act as a returning officer for the poll. If shareholders in the room can vote using green voting cards provided to you at the registration, please. I'll now declare voting open on all items of business, and it will remain open until questions relating to the resolutions have been answered. I'll give you a warning before I move to close the voting. Proxies have been received. The total number of valid proxies and the manner in which proxies are to vote will be displayed before each resolution is considered and voted upon.
Where a proxy has been given to the chairman without voting instructions, in all cases, the chairman intends to vote in favor of the resolution. First item of business of the meeting, which is to receive and consider the financial report, the director's report, and auditor's report for the year ended 3rd of June 2025. These reports are all included in the company's annual report and are also available on the company's website. Mr. Rob Gambitta from the company's auditors, KPMG, is here today and is able to ask any questions on the audit if needed. Are there any questions on this item? All right, thank you. I'll move to the resolutions. Resolution one is the adoption of the Remuneration Report. We will now move to consider the first resolution, which is the company's Remuneration Report.
The Corporations Act requires that at the annual general meeting, a resolution that the Remuneration Report is adopted be put to a vote of shareholders. The Remuneration Report details the company's policy on the remuneration of directors and senior executives. This vote is advisory only and does not bind the company or directors. For the purpose of today's annual general meeting, I ask the shareholders to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution: that the Remuneration Report for the year ended 3rd of June 2025 as set out in the 2025 annual report be adopted. I note the proxy votes have been received and shown on the slide. I now move the adoption of the company's Remuneration Report. Call in any questions. No questions. If you'd like to vote on that item now on your voting card.
Resolution two is the re-election of Fiona Morgan. Fiona is due to retire from office and, being eligible, presents herself for re-election. The board, in the absence of Mrs. Morgan, unanimously supports her re-election. I ask the shareholders to consider, and if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution: that Mrs. Morgan, who retires in accordance with Rule 12.7A of the Constitution and listing Rule 14.4, and, being eligible for re-election, be re-elected as a director. I note the proxy votes have been received and are shown on the slide. I move the re-election of Mrs. Morgan as director of the company. Are there any questions? Thank you. You can now mark your voting card. Resolution three is approval of the incentive plan.
Staff incentive plans such as this one require approval of the shareholders every three years, and the current plan was last approved in 2022. An overview of the plan is detailed in the notice of meeting. The board, in the absence of Mr. Beyer, unanimously supports the approval of the incentive plan. Please note there is a voting exclusion on this resolution as detailed in the notice of meeting.
I ask that shareholders to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution: that for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.2, Exception 13B, and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the Incentive Plan, a summary of the rules of which are set out in Extra A to the explanatory memorandum, and the issue of up to a maximum of AUD 37 million incentives under the Incentive Plan for eligible participants on the terms and conditions described in the explanatory memorandum. I note the proxy votes have been received and are shown on the slide. I move the approval of the Incentive Plan in accordance with the resolution detailed in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions? If you'd now like to vote on that resolution. Resolution four, the grant of short-term incentive performance rights to Mr. Jim Beyer.
Consider that which relates to the approval of 58,582 short-term performance rights to Jim Beyer as detailed in the notice of meeting. The performance rights proposed to be issued to Mr. Beyer represent 50% of the short-term incentive component of Mr. Beyer's remuneration package. The other 50% is paid in cash. These short-term incentive rights will vest on the 1st of July 2026 if Mr. Beyer is still an employee of the company at that time. The board, in the absence of Mr. Beyer, unanimously supports the award of the short-term incentive performance rights. Please note there is a voting exclusion on this resolution as detailed in the notice of meeting. I'll ask shareholders to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution.
That subject to resolution three being approved for the purposes of listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of up to 58,582 short-term incentive performance rights for no cash consideration, each with a nil exercise price and expiry date of 5th of November 2026 to Mr. Jim Beyer, Managing Director of the company, or his nominee under the Incentive Plan on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum, including annexes A and B to the explanatory memorandum. I note the proxy votes being received. I move the award of short-term performance rights to Mr. Beyer in accordance with the resolution detailed in the notice of meeting. Call for any questions. Please mark your voting card. Resolution five is a grant of long-term incentive performance rights to Jim Beyer. Which relates to the approval of 363,454 long-term performance rights to Mr.
Jim Beyer, as detailed in the notice of meeting. The performance rights proposed to be issued to Mr. Beyer represent the long-term incentive component of Mr. Beyer's remuneration package, and the performance rights will only vest if he achieves his respective threshold and target levels of performance during the performance period. The board, in the absence of Mr. Beyer, unanimously supports the award of the long-term performance rights. Please note there's a voting exclusion on this resolution. I ask the shareholders to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. That subject to resolution three being approved for the purposes of listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of up to 363,454 long-term incentive performance rights for no cash consideration, each with a nil exercise price and expiry date of 2nd November 2028 to Mr.
Jim Beyer, Managing Director of the company or his nominee under the Incentive Plan on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum, including annexes A and C to that memorandum. I note the proxy votes have been received. I move the award of long-term Performance Rights to Mr. Beyer in accordance with that resolution in the notice of meeting. I now call for any questions. Yes, Mr. Brooks, Australian Shareholders Association.
Thank you, James, for announcing my association. Thank you. Our policy is that these incentives, long-term incentives, should be over four years, and Northern Star has actually taken that view. Why do you actually continue? I mean, we agree with LTIs, no problem on that. It's just that we feel that a longer period is what's required, and that's our objection. Have you got any views on that?
Yeah, look, we consider all aspects of the remuneration. We consider how long performance rights should vest over. Our view is that three years is appropriate. That's an appropriate incentive. It gives them enough time to make long-term decisions and see the benefit of those for shareholders. It's not too short-term in nature. Still, the overall market, our market peers, will be three years.
I guess we'll have to disagree over that. Thank you, James.
Thank you. Any other questions? Thanks, David. Please mark your voting card for that. The next three resolutions are for approval of the termination benefits under the Incentive Plan for executives Mr. Jim Beyer, Anthony Rechichi, and Michael Holmes. These resolutions are required by the Corporation's law to allow the board, in the circumstance of an executive ceasing employment, to have the discretion to determine that any unvested incentives do not lapse or to waive conditions of unvested incentives in whole or in part. Please note there are voting exclusions on these three resolutions in the notice of meeting. Resolution six is the approval of potential termination benefits in relation to performance rights to be issued to Mr. Jim Beyer, his nominee. I will ask the shareholders to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution.
That's subject to one or both resolution four and resolution five being approved for the purposes of sections 200B and 200E of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, the potential termination benefits in relation to the performance rights described in the explanatory memorandum, which may become payable to Mr. Jim Beyer, his nominee, be approved. I'll note the proxy votes received. I now move the adoption of this resolution. Are there any questions? Okay, please vote on those. Resolution seven is potential termination benefits in relation to performance rights to be issued to Mr. Anthony Rechichi or his nominee. We now move to the I ask shareholders to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution.
That for the purposes of sections 200B, 200E of the Corporation's Act and for all other purposes, the potential termination benefits in relation to performance rights on the same terms as those described in the explanatory memorandum, which may become payable to Mr. Anthony Rechichi or his nominee, be approved. I notice the proxy's received. Are there any questions? I now move adoption of the resolution, and please mark your voting cards. Resolution eight is the approval of potential termination benefits in relation to performance rights to be issued to Mr. Michael Holmes or his nominee. I ask the shareholders to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of sections 200B and 200E, you can join in if you like. You all know this now.
Of the Corporation's Act and for all other purposes, the potential termination benefits in relation to performance rights on the same terms as those described in the explanatory memorandum, which may become payable to Mr. Michael Holmes or his nominee, be approved. I notice the proxy votes received. Are there any questions? Very well. You mark your voting card on that. Having moved now through all the resolutions, we'll call for are there any final questions on any of the resolutions? Okay, please ensure you've cast your vote on all resolutions, and I'll now allow time for these votes to be finalized. Mr. Rod Simms from Computershare will walk around the room and collect the green voting cards, and if you require any assistance, please raise your hand. If you know the cricket score, that'd be good too.
3 for 46.
3 for 46. All right. Both teams are performing well. Regis and the Aussies. Any more green voting cards? Okay, I can confirm they've all been collected and now formally declare the poll closed. Once counted and reviewed, the results of the poll will be announced on the ASX via later today. This concludes the formal proceedings of today's AGM. I'd now like to invite Jim to present on our operational financial performance, and Jim or others will be happy to take other questions.
Thanks, James.
All right, thank you, James, for that, and also some good news on the cricket score by the sounds of it. All right, look, I'll run through the presentation, actually, when you have a look at it, is not really terribly different from ones that we've done in the past, certainly over the last year or so. I guess one of the reasons that I bring that up is I'd just like to point out that actually we're a business that just is now doing what we said we were going to do. We've been consistently delivering, and it's great to be able, as James mentioned in his speech, that the fact that we're in such a strong position has not happened by chance. There's been an enormous amount of, what did I say? Anyway, look, you'll have a look and see.
Of course, for those that are following online, I'll try and remember to say which page we're on, but we're on the cautionary statements for now, and there's a couple of pages of those because we have forward-looking statements and also an exploration target. Just briefly stopping on the first page here, the corporate snapshot, I think it's worth just having a look at this. First up, James introduced Anthony and Michael, Anthony, our CFO, and Michael Holmes, our COO. I also want to introduce a couple of, and Elena, but I want to introduce a couple of the other members of the executive team, and I think all I can do is actually introduce one because the others aren't here. Over here on my left is Jeff Sansom. Jeff is head of investor relations.
Absent today is Wade Evans, who's our Executive General Manager in charge of growth. Growth is looking after exploration and business development. Unfortunately, he couldn't be with us because he had a funeral of a close family member that he had to attend in Sydney. Also missing is Yvette Gledhill- Powell, who is our AGM of people or people and culture. Yvette this week was over at McPhillamys, and in a true spirit of East West Flights, the flight was delayed, and she hasn't been able to get here in time. They're the teams, and there's a couple of other people that I'll mention as we go through here, but please, at the end of this, feel free to wander up and have a chat with them and ask them any questions. All right, so what did we deliver in 2025?
In FY 2025, it was a strong year all around. From a safety point of view, we kept our lost-time injury frequency rate at 0.4, which was well below the industry average of 2.2, a great outcome. Of course, we always want zero. That is the objective. We're never happy if anybody gets injured as we go about our business. Still, to see the trend and to also know that we're below the industry average is certainly encouraging and telling us that we're on the right track. As I say, you can never rest on your laurels. We have to keep pushing there. From other aspects of ESG performance, you can see our female representation across our business is 23%, which is around about middle of the pack for the industry. Of course, our board is 33%, as you would have seen from the maths sitting up front.
Rehabilitation, we did just over 200 hectares, which was slightly above our target, and it's great to see that the business is starting to catch back up with some of the rehab work that we needed to do over the last few years. Our scope one and two emissions were down as well year- on- year, due in no small part to the installation of our solar farm, which does two things. It saves us money on diesel, but at the same time, it's also reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, which is certainly one of the favorable and ideal situations you can get with the implementation of renewable energy. As I mentioned in there on the side, Duketon now we have 9 MW of installed capacity and a huge 61 MW at Tropicana.
Now, the other part of our performance, which was records, was all around the financial performance. Record revenue, record cash and bullion at the end of the year, record operating cash flow, record EBITDA, record net profit after tax, and it is great to see that we are back into a position where even after we paid off our AUD 300 million in debt at the beginning of this calendar year, we were in a position where we could restart dividend payments, a key element of why business exists. As James said, we are looking at that, and we will be pulling together a more structured, formal approach to that and be talking to the market and shareholders about that in the new year.
All right, the next slide is the one that when I'm out talking to our shareholders and our fund managers, this is the slide that I use to say, and this is what we have delivered. This is a great reflection of how the business has been able to turn all the physical performance improvements into financial benefits. Back in December 2020, which was what now nearly two years ago, we were in a deficit of AUD 145 million. Our net cash and bullion, we were - AUD 145 million, and we just got rid of the hedge book. As you roll forward over the next year and three quarters, because the number there is the end of September, you can see we've added AUD 820 million to our business. We took off that AUD 300 million because we paid down the debt, of course, and we ended up at AUD 675 million.
I can tell you that in the current price environment, I think in the last, in the September quarter, the average price that we received for gold was about AUD 5,400 an ounce, thereabouts, and it is very pleasing to see gold sitting at AUD 6,300 an ounce or AUD 6,330 this morning when I had a look. This is a strong business, and it is performing well. The reason it is performing well is because the gold price is up, but also because the team has done an excellent job in positioning us where we are today. Looking a little bit more forward, what is our strategy and what is our plan to deliver more value beyond this year? This is a reasonably simple slide, but it provides quite a bit of information on how we are thinking about the business.
Clearly, from an operating point of view, we're split into two parts. There is Tropicana, and there is Duketon. We see, certainly out over the next three or four years, that Tropicana will be generating for us, it's around about 125,000-145,000 ounces per annum, and that comes from a combination of the open pits and the undergrounds. Once you get out beyond that, at the moment, it starts to drop down and just be a pure underground operation. I expect the underground will probably be producing more than it is today as we build up to that. You can see in the near term, the next three or four years, this is still a very solid producer for us, excellent cash flow generation.
I think if you look at Tropicana and think about we paid circa AUD 900 million for it, to date, pre-tax, it's earned something of the order of AUD 630 million in cash back. Considering how much life is left in the old thing, it's not a bad investment, and it's got quite a few years left to run for us yet. In terms of Duketon, we see Duketon producing in this range of 200,000-250,000 ounces per annum. For the next few years, that's off the balance of some open pits and also our undergrounds. Critically, what we're looking at with our underground is for long-term longevity of Duketon into next century, into next decade, is to really get ourselves established to have four underground mines, and that's a core part of our strategy at Duketon.
Now, we will chase other opportunities, and I'll talk about that a little bit later on, but that's really what our team there is driving to do, to give it a sense of longevity and life. How's that turning out? At Duketon, it's a pretty good story. We started with our undergrounds. We declared a maiden reserve of 123,000 ounces back in 2019, or probably 2018, actually, and that represented probably about two years of mine life. You jump forward six years, five or six years, and our underground reserves are now sitting at 441,000 ounces, and during that time, we have produced nearly 360,000 ounces. When we went underground with this small little idea of something that could produce maybe 120,000 ounces, we've continued to grow it. Not all of those reserves, of course, are sitting at Rosemont.
They're shared across three of our underground mines. One of them is yet to come into production. The point is that we started off with two years of life, and five or six years later, we've still got two or three years of life, and we've produced 360,000 ounces of gold. That's a great outcome. Now, the slides on the overheads that you're looking at, and this is on page 33. I've just remembered to people that are online. You can see Rosemont on the top and Garden Well, and there's two areas of Garden Well, Garden Well South, which is the yellow box to the left of the dashed box. That's the mine that we've been operating from now for three years or so.
The area in the yellow squared box is Garden Well Main, and that's the new mine that we've been developing for the last, we kicked that off back in May last year. Now, both Rosemont, the big extension at Rosemont in stage three and Garden Well Main are both, we've actually started production. We fired our first stokes there, so we've kicked that off, but we won't be in commercial production there until later next year, both of which are running essentially on track. We've got these three mines, two running, one about to be commissioned or get into commercial production next year. We really want the fourth one. We think that with four mines, we can consistently produce 200,000-250,000 ounces a year consistently, well out into next decade. Off the basis of this, we mine it, we find it, we replace it.
The question is, where do we get our fourth mine from? We've got plenty of opportunities. We look at underneath every old open pit, basically, where the ore body keeps on going down, that's got potential for a new underground mine. Now, what could the fourth one be? We think Ben- Hur might be shaping up for that. We're not fully across the line with it. You've still got a bit of work to do. You can see the scale that we're chasing there, another 300,000-550,000 ounces of potential exploration target in it. There's a possible fourth mine. I've got a slide here. The next one, I'll just touch on this. This is a pretty interesting one because this one will show why we're so confident that when we go underground, that life continues on beyond what we first thought.
I will not go through them all, but I will just look at the top slide on the left, that purple area that you can see, and I will use the pointer here. We are on slide 34, page 34. Those two purple areas, when we first went underground, that is where we thought we were going to be producing from underground. That was it. If you have a look at the slide on the right with a few more holes drilled in it, the red dots, but also you can see not only did we mine out the areas that we thought we were going to mine, but we found new areas in between. It kept on going down, and it is actually plunging down to the south.
As time goes by and we learn more and more about the geology, the team's getting more and more of an understanding of where to look and how to chase it. It's a really good story, a really good story of how you start with an idea, you get in, and after a few years, you build up the experience and knowledge, and you start to realize and see and understand, and you can chase the ore, which is what we're doing. We're seeing nothing to suggest that this will stop. At a broader level, we also are looking at exploration across the Duketon region. The Duketon Greenstone Belt is about 3,000 sq km. We hold about 90% of it, thereabouts.
The team has really, since we got acquired the 2,000 sq km now about five years ago, five or six years ago, the team has really gone back to grassroots exploration, and there are some fantastic targets. We are now getting to a point where we kind of know where to go, and we're putting holes down, and pleasingly, the team's actually finding color or gold off the back of their research and their work, which is really pleasing, a lot more pleasing than spending four or five years looking and putting a hole down, not finding anything. The team's doing really well, and we will find something there. We just have to be persistent. We're looking for open pits primarily, but we'd also be happy to take some more undergrounds beyond the four that we're chasing.
The man that's leading that is sitting at the back here, Rowan Hine. We'll get him to put his hand up if you want to have a chat with Rowan later on afterwards. He and the team are doing a great job. All right, Tropicana, it's almost like press rewind, press play because it's a very similar story, certainly from an underground perspective, as we see at Duketon. Tropicana went underground with a maiden reserve of about 317,000 ounces, and here we are six or seven years later. The underground reserves there now are 640,000 ounces. Basically doubled the underground reserves waiting to be mined. During that time, we mined nearly 650,000 ounces. What started life as something that was 320,000 ounces is now nearly 1.3 million ounces between what we've mined and what we've still got to take.
It's a great story, and it's a consistent one with world-class underground gold mines that we see across WA. They have two or three years of mine life, and 20 years later, they've still got it. You can rattle them off. Tropicana is following the same trend. There too, exploration is active, and there's certainly some opportunities where we can find some looking for satellite or open pits that we could use because, as I said, in about three or four years' time, the open pits will run down. We'd love to be able to find something else we can add into what will by then be an underutilized mill. We've got the time. We're putting in the effort. Sometimes we just have to have the luck, but good geologists make their own luck.
Okay, the other asset, which James also talked about, still makes me shake in the middle of the night for all the wrong reasons, is McPhillamys. McPhillamys is, and every now and again, I like to go through it because I sit down with some of the investors and the investment community, and they say, "Well, what are you pushing this for? You might as well give up and move on and find something else." Absolutely not. This thing is, it's a 2.3 million ounces resource. Used to be or 2.7 million ounces resources in the area. It used to have a reserve, but we took the reserve away when the minister made her declaration of the Section 10. The scope of this thing is 7 million tonnes per annum.
Sitting within it is a 10-year mine life, an average of 187,000 ounces per annum, and it peaks towards the back end. The grades get better at the bottom. The initial CapEx is, call it AUD 1 billion. Now, these are numbers from early last year, so you can put a bit of inflation on it. Still pretty good. And an average all-in sustaining cost across its life of roughly AUD 1,600 an ounce. That AUD 1,600 includes the capital that is required once it is built and operating. Now, if you want to know why we think this is worth pursuing, and we will chase whatever we can to make sure that it happens, if you sit down and do the maths and say, in an average year, if today was an average year at the gold price today, this mine would be producing more than AUD 2 million pre-tax a day.
That's a significant operation, and I firmly believe that the business needs to continue to drive this because this will be a cornerstone of our production next decade. It may well take us that long to get it there, but we will pursue the two options that we've got to make sure that this project is fulfilled. The first is the legal challenge, the judicial review, which James mentioned. How long that takes, I'm not sure. We're in the courts in December, how long it takes to get a decision and whether it's successful or not, but we will continue to pursue that. We cannot afford to leave that life for a number of reasons, not the least of which are the financial ones.
What we have to do is, I guess, take a view, as you do with these things, is hope for the best, which is that the legal process works out and justice prevails, but plan for the worst. That is, we look for alternative ways to be able to develop and get this project going. We're doing that at the moment as well. We're looking for different ways to be able to dispose of the tailings. In the first instance, we see that as being a method that we call an integrated waste landform. Basically, it involves drying out the tailings in big presses and co-mingling or co-mixing the tails in the waste rock dump. We think it's got great potential. We think it's a viable way. It's going to take us a while to do it. We have to do the test work.
We have to do the estimations. We have to make sure that it's right. Either way, this could easily take us out to at least another two years or so before we've got something realistic there. If we run those time frames, the legal process is very difficult to be able to put a time on it, but there's several years before we're in a position, or at least a couple of years before we're in a position to make what's called FID, final investment decision, at which point in time then we'll make the call and we'll move on, whether we've been successful with the judicial review and the reconsideration, or if we've been able to develop an alternative technology to use for tailings disposal. We're working on both of those.
The good thing about McPhillamys is the opportunity there is not just about McPhillamys. Down the road, we've got Discovery Ridge, which is another 400,000 ounces of resource, and we've got some extremely attractive high-potential exploration targets in the immediate vicinity, some within a kilometer or so of the existing pit. This is a great region for us, and it's certainly, as I said, it's got the potential to be a cornerstone for our business out in the next decade. All right. I wanted to just touch on, I talked about how our plan is to get to the four undergrounds, and really that's the core of our business that we're driving to for the end of the decade.
The other thing that we've mentioned on a number of calls, and James talked about it as well, is in this high-priced environment, we need to make sure that we're looking for enhanced opportunities for value creation. It's particularly attractive to us at the moment because we have a mill that's underutilized. We will have a mill that's underutilized in a few months' time. The team has done some work, both the site team and our tech services group here have done some fantastic work and identified an opportunity that we released last week, which we colloquially in the office, we call it Buckwell, but it's a combination of the Buckingham and Wellington pit. What it's done is it's given us potential, it's given us a reserve of 250,000 ounces. It's going to run for nearly six years or 5.7 years of production.
Out of that 250 in reserves, I think we'll recover about 223,000 ounces. That is over those five and a half years, say. We have used, in the calculations you can see on the screen, which are also the ones we used in the release last week, we looked at the economic benefits of it using what is called consensus pricing. It is where you get all the price outlooks from the various brokers and wise and folk, and you look and use an average, and you apply that. The average for the next five years is about AUD 5,387. If we use those numbers, we thought they are pretty good ones to run with, the value is in NPV pre-tax is AUD 268 million. Internal rate of return of 127%. That is not bad. That is a pretty good return. Why is it so high?
All the plant, all the infrastructure's all there. All we have to do is pre-strip and get into it. The beauty of this is it's only a handful of months before we're actually starting to get good production out of the pits. I did some quick calcs this morning, which is always dangerous, but at the spot price today, which is another AUD 940 an ounce above the number that we used there, that would add another AUD 210 million to the pre-tax cash flow undiscounted. This is a really good project or addition to our existing production that the team has been able to identify and add on top. Some of it was already in our plans. It was actually right at the back end of our mine life.
We saw an opportunity, and we brought it forward and added a few more ounces for a little bit more geological interpretation. The picture on the side shows you where it is. It is those little colored swimming pool-looking things. It is in three stages, so you can turn them on and off if the gold price does not do what we would like it to do. It is not like we have made a major commitment. It is not huge, but it is pretty good, and it is quite impactful. You can see on average, it helps each year. This is the sort of thing that we really, while we are out looking for the next big whale of a deposit, be it 500,000 or 1,000,000 ounces, these sorts of things really do add incremental value. We want to keep looking for more.
It gets a little bit more challenging now, of course, because we've got all our mills are full. Whatever we do find and decide to do, we'll have to make sure that it's more economically valuable than continuing to follow the current plan. That is a pretty good position to be in. We're using everything to its max. Okay, I'll wrap it up. Our outlook, like in FY 2025, you can see, this is our outlook for FY 2026. How does it compare with 2025? Pretty much the same. Production last year was 373,000 ounces, and our all-in sustaining cost was AUD 2,531. The midpoint here is a little higher than that. You have to remember this has got 170 ounces of non-cash cost sitting in the AISC. It is quite similar. With gold price being where it is, it is more of the same, plus plus.
Our plans, as I said before, I won't go over this slide, but I hope I've sort of, for those that haven't heard me give the story, I hope you understand that and can put that into context a little bit more. To wrap up, if you're looking, we look and we like to identify and explain to people why we think that Regis Resources is heading into a new era. It had a great start. It had a fantastic start. It had a period where we had to recapitalise. We dealt with hedge books. During that time, we managed to do okay. I think the team did a great job in times when it was challenging. Now we've basically got rid of the hedge book. We've bought it out. The operations team have done the job to be able to position us. It's fantastic.
The gold price is going off like a cracker, and we are positioned to absolutely ride that. You can see the comments here, Regis, at the end of September, AUD 675 million cash and bullion. I can tell you now that it's more than that, pretty safely. We've got clear ongoing generating capacity. We'll continue to progress our growth strategy. What we've been doing seems to be working, so we'll continue to work on that. We'll enhance our core production by continuing to look for these opportunities, as I just mentioned. We'll progress our underground growth. As I said, I think we're extremely well positioned for this. What we're really seeing is a generational repositioning of the gold price. It's a great time to be in gold, and it's a great time to be working with the team at Regis.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank everybody in the team who's contributed to this. As always, you can never, this is a major team effort. The folks that are on site who we invited to listen to this, but I hope they're not. I hope they're making gold. They can listen to the recording later. The team back in the office, and for those that have managed to come along here, thanks very much. I think it's a job well done. I would also like to thank the board for their support. You have challenges. None of this is all slightly the duck on the water. It all looks pretty smooth, but there's always things going on underneath, and it's great to know that there's a board that's there to back you up and support you.
Thank you, James, and thanks to the rest of the board. All right, with that, thank you very much for coming along. Do I throw it back for more questions?
Questions, you could one more slide.
What if I don't want questions? Okay, we're open for questions now. If anybody would like to step up to the microphone, I'm happy to have a crack.
David Brooks, Jim, about a few weeks ago, you said that is it on?
Yep.
Okay. A few weeks ago, there was an announcement which said that there were preliminary talks going on with Anglo Gold over the other 70% of Tropicana. Can you tell us anything more on that or not?
No, we didn't put out any announcement. That was actually media speculation.
Okay.
We don't, I mean, the reality is we don't, we're always looking at lots of opportunities, but we don't comment on media speculation. Okay. Nothing yet. Yeah, no, we didn't put out anything. Yeah.
Okay. Thanks.
I mean, we love the Tropicana asset. We think it's a great asset.
Yes, it is. Clearly, as we've got a fair amount of cash now, and one wants to use it, and now you want to use it very sensibly, which I'm sure you'll do.
Yeah. Good point, David. I think we do have a lot of cash, and I think we do appreciate the follow-up comment was we do need to use it wisely.
Correct.
Yeah. I think just to follow that up, and I didn't talk about it in here, but we're part of our I talked today about all our organic growth.
In other words, all our internal opportunities for value. Of course, we continue to look for other opportunities outside.
Harry Anstey, a shareholder. I note the amount of renewable energy that is being generated now and just wondering what that represents as a percentage of the usage and what further investment is intended to be put into this area because ultimately that transfers to the bottom line as straight profit. Thank you.
Yeah, it is a good question. I think the last time I did some calcs on it, the renewable energy was contributing something like 8%. It was not a huge amount, but it was significant enough to help reduce our overall power reduction. I think the challenge for renewables is the life cycle, the investment period that you have to put them in place for them to make sure that they pay back. We have to look carefully.
We are looking at adding to that capacity. We're looking at putting potentially batteries, which makes them much more efficient and allows you to utilize the generating capacity more. We haven't made any decision yet. Of course, the decision is driven by two things. One, the drive to reduce your overall emissions in line with the safeguard mechanism legislation, but also to offset the cost of diesel. We have made no decision yet. We are looking at alternatives, but we haven't made any decision to add more capacity to it yet. All right. Looks like there's nothing on, no other questions online or anything. No. All right. Thanks everybody. Appreciate you coming along. We will be staying around for a while and happy to answer where we can any questions that you might have. Thanks for coming. Thanks for the process.
Thank you again to the board and thank you to the Regis team and our major contractors and suppliers to make the year successful. Here is to another successful year for FY 2026. Have a safe day. Thank you.