I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Brendan Harris, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our December quarterly call. It's great to have the chance to reconnect, and we have our executive team here with me today for the all-important Q&A. Before we start, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians on the land on which we stand, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation, as well as the First Nations peoples of the lands of which Sandfire conducts its business. We pay our respects to their elders and leaders, past, present, and emerging. Starting with safety, we closed the quarter with a TRIF of 1.6, a decrease from the 1.8 reported at 30 September, 2024. The work we're doing to embed the Sandfire Way is a multi-year process that starts with policies, standards, and procedures, and when successful, permeates culture, and of course, we must believe it's possible to have a workplace free of all injuries.
It's this focus that will further embed our company as a valued member of our communities and enhance our license to operate. This is critically important when it comes to the longevity of our operations and the myriad of approvals we rely on. And that's why it was so pleasing to receive the Mining Authority approval for our new tailings facility at MATSA. It's a particularly important milestone as the new facility provides the footprint to support mining beyond 2040 and will enable the complex to remain an important contributor to the Andalusian regional economy in southern Spain. At an operating level, our steady start to the year ensures we are well- positioned to deliver on the commitments we've made to you for FY 2025. We increased group copper-equivalent production by another 5% in the half to 75.1 thousand tonnes to finish the period at 49% of full-year guidance.
Very much aligned to the update I provided in early December. At Motheo, admittedly, we're slightly behind where we expected to be at the start of the year, having achieved copper-equivalent production of 28.6 thousand tonnes across the six-month period. Somewhat ironically, however, our level of confidence in the outlook has only improved. That's because we've shown we can operate Motheo at a 5.6 million-tonne per annum rate across the six-month period, well beyond its design capacity, and we now expect this to be a sustainable rate on average for the foreseeable future, and as we discussed in December at our exploration day, we've also confirmed our new interpretation of the geological controls of mineralization at both T3 and A4 and are adapting our plans accordingly.
Collectively, we expect this work and our annual life-of-asset planning cycle, underway now, to confirm an incremental increase in forecast copper-equivalent production in FY 2026 from the circa 58,000-tonne estimated previously and a smoothing of the production profile into FY 2027, bringing forward yet more free cash flow and creating tangible value for our shareholders. Turning to MATSA, it's so pleasing to see our Spanish mining complex sustain an annualized mining and processing rate in excess of 4.6 million tonnes per annum again in the quarter for copper-equivalent production of 22.8 thousand tonnes to sit at 49% of annual guidance at the halfway point of the year. Our continued investment underground is really paying dividends as we've created much more resilience in the mine plan, and this will only improve as we ramp up activity at San Pedro and Olivo in future periods.
Arguably, I think you've seen we're doing even better on costs, particularly at Motheo, where we're realizing greater economies of scale such that we've reduced annual guidance by 7% to $39 per tonne of ore processed. At a C1 unit cost level, we see a similar 7% reduction to $1.41 per pound as a result of lower expected treatment and refining charges. We've also retained underlying operating cost guidance at MATSA at $75 per tonne of ore processed for FY 2025, given the level of improvement observed in the quarter and recent weakness in the USD/EUR rate.
And of course, we're converting when and where it counts, as our steady start operationally and healthy prices for our commodities combine to deliver unaudited group sales revenue of $290 million and underlying EBITDA of $134 million during the quarter for a further $57 million reduction in net debt to $288 million at 31 December 2024. The cumulative $193 million reduction in net debt that has occurred in as little as nine months illustrates the cash-generating capacity of our high-quality and low-cost operations and the rapid progress we are making towards our targeted net cash position. We're also well advanced in our efforts to further modernize our debt facilities, and rest assured, we will maintain strict capital discipline as our targeted exploration program gathers momentum and primarily focuses on our MATSA and Motheo hubs.
So, as I said at the beginning, we're on track to deliver on the commitments we've made to you, and our simple strategy is unchanged because it's the right strategy for our shareholders. Thank you. Let's go to 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 Levi Spry with UBS. Please go ahead.
G'day, Brendan. Happy New Year to everyone there. Thanks for the call. And nice news at Motheo. Can you just talk me through what the other implications are from running at 5.6? So maybe, I guess, mining, increased mining rates, how you're prepared there, and also the grade profile in how we should think about that as opposed to just eating it faster, basically.
Yeah, great question, Levi, and happy New Year to you and everyone else on the call as well. I think maybe I'll make a couple of very quick remarks and then pass to Jason to talk about perhaps the medium and longer term. I think one of the critical elements in our guidance, and I talked about this confidence we have. Obviously, we've now run the facility consistently at rates well above design capacity. It's a new mine. Every day we can achieve that. The confidence grows. The amount of work that Richard, his team, combined with the local exploration and mine geological teams, the work they've done to reinterpret the genesis of mineralization and the structural controls, all of these things just are additive to our knowledge. Again, at a business that it's not long ago we were talking about first production.
And so that really starts feeding into that long-term planning process. And I mentioned that LOA process is very much underway now. But as we look to the second half, one great thing is not only is the facility performing well, but the mine plan is to a large degree de-risked as we look to the second six months because we're ore-bound . We're all but ore-bound now. So we've really removed any of that potential risk around execution from a mining perspective. And so we have a high degree of confidence in the projections that we've provided for you. Of course, we need to continue to execute well, but this is a team that we've got a very high degree of confidence in.
But maybe, Jason, if you can talk to some of the nuances around how grade has sort of evolved, how things have varied a little in the first half, and why we have that growing confidence for the future.
That's right. Thanks, Brendan, and thanks, Levi. So firstly, if I might just start with a higher level. And look, if you cast your mind back, we had previously given an indication to the market that we were preparing and making sure that we were prepared if the Motheo plant was able to be operated at a higher-than-nameplate throughput rate, which, now we are very confident that we can take that forward and be able to sustain that 5.6. We had previously indicated that our mine plan had been designed particularly over the first two years, so FY 2025 and FY 2026, to be able to largely cope with a higher processing rate to give us that optionality should we be able to realize that upside. So that strategy has continued.
To firstly answer your question in terms of mining rates and what does that mean for us, if you look at it with reference to Appendix A, overall, we're still planning on doing the same TMM overall for the year. But coming back to Brendan's point there as well, what we've seen, particularly in conjunction with the higher processing rate at 5.6 and the recent updates that we've done on the understanding of our geological interpretation, we've shifted a bit of metal around. And what we've done, particularly in Q2, and that strategy will continue throughout half two FY 2025, where we've actually accelerated mining in stage two, right, and we've slowed down stage one, and we're maintaining our overall throughput rate or our TMM over at A4 there as well.
So what that will do is make sure that we deliver the tonnes that we require for the year at a slightly lower grade. And once again, I refer to Appendix A, where we've provided updated information in there in terms of ore mined, ore processed, ore grades for the year, and our recoveries as well. So given that we are doing slightly lower grade, which is going from 1.1% copper all year to 1%, and that's driven by those two factors, we've got a slightly lower recovery rate there for both, or mainly for copper. So overall, I think that supports a really robust year and, as Brendan said, definitely sets up Motheo for a really strong longer term.
Yeah. And maybe, Levi, those of you who know Jason know he's an incredibly humble individual. I'd just stress that from the day I walked into the organization, Jason was talking to me about the fact that there was the possibility and potential for us to extract greater performance out of Motheo. And so from that moment, they were already planning and making sure that the mine was configured in a way that it could respond. So it's not anything other than, I'd say, the team is well ahead of the challenge that running at a faster rate presents, and they're doing it in a way, therefore, that's very well planned, very measured, and very much focused on value, which I think is very pleasing. And I think the only other element I'd add is it goes back to the exploration day that we obviously discussed back in December.
Clearly, it is the right time for us to be accelerating the drilling activity, the drilling activity that's needed to discover those new ore sources. We've literally, in recent weeks, we've just commenced drilling the fold repetition at A4. We're drilling out A1 through the infill program to obviously look to bring it into the mine plan. And of course, we're really accelerating the work regionally to identify not only those new targets, but hopefully identify those new discoveries that we can then work very hard on to also add to the future mine plan for Motheo.
Yeah, great. Thank you. Thanks for the detail. Thank you.
Thanks, Levi.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Ben Lyons with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, Brendan, Jason, everyone else on the call. Yeah, I'd like to extend Levi's questioning, if I may, please, and possibly push it out into fiscal 2026. Again, just looking at the interplay between the TMM and the grade profile, and obviously, as the second ore body becomes more prevalent in the ore makeup. Brendan or Jason, you're talking to the same TMM for fiscal 2025, but as you're looking to fiscal 2026, is there any opportunity to accelerate the mining rates here? Obviously, the outperformance of the mill is putting pressure on the mining sequence. So is it as simple as the contractor throwing a bit more yellow gear at it, or does it just not justify the additional costs that would come from those kind of changes? Thanks.
Yeah, look, I'll pass to Jason in a moment, but I think a couple of things, Ben. We've been very mindful of the fact that this is still a new facility. We want to make sure we're running it in what we think is a very sustainable way, thinking for the long term. As we've said, we've been working in the background, reconfiguring where we can, pit shells, and so on. And we've been, I guess, describing that along the journey, which is, I think we've just described, sets us up very well. Part of the reason we're not getting that higher volume metal production, if you like, contained metal this year, is somewhat of an artifact of that first six-month period. And we're really well- positioned as we move forward.
Now, we've always said, however, that as we run at a faster rate, before that A4 pit sequence really gets into gear, we're going to need to rely to some extent on lower-grade stocks to supplement the, if you like, the ROM production that you're referring to. And that is why we use the words very carefully, and we're very pleased with this, by the way, that we think there is incremental upside to the 26 number we provided previously of 58,000 tonnes. And when we say incremental, you're talking 59,000, 60,000 tonnes is probably how we see it, which is consistent with what we talked about before.
The other thing, though, Ben, that I think not only that we're doing that in a way, and I'm sure it's not lost on a lot of you, we're achieving that high throughput rate at the same absolute operating cost, which is what's delivering the significant reduction in the units cost basis, so we're really realizing those economies of scale, and then as you look into FY2027, we'd always said the challenge is how do we make sure we bring forward metal production through re-sequencing such that we smooth that production profile, and we're still not quite certain exactly how that's going to look, but certainly we'd envisage that FY2027 will also show improvement and important improvement when we come back and talk to you at the full year. Jason, I don't know if there's any things you want to add to that.
Look, I think you've covered it well. I think the key point here is that this work is still in progress, but we're well advanced enough to know that, look, if we look at the final pit design, we don't expect that to vary greatly. There's slight changes here and there. With the new geological interpretation, however, it has shifted metal around in terms of location spatially. So we have been doing a lot of work, particularly on staging designs and using this new and much better geological interpretation, right, to really refine that life of mine plan and set us up for even further success. So I think, Brendan, it's captured at this stage, particularly in FY 2026, we expect incremental improvement, confident, as we've indicated before, that we'll fill that gap or that reduction that we saw in later years in the original mine plan.
We expect to finalize that work during this quarter and support that with an updated ore reserve as part of an annual update sometime in Q4.
Okay. [Thanks, Bren]. Thanks very much. So I can just squeeze another one if possible, please. Maybe just turning to North America, possibly a bit of hidden value in the portfolio. Yeah, clearly, there's a rapidly changing environment over there under the new administration, which maybe it's putting a bit more value on North American copper units. So in that context, great to see the potential incremental capital being directed at Black Butte later this year. Just wondering if you can just broadly talk through the scope of the updates that you're looking at for the feasibility study and similarly working towards that timeline for a potential FID at the end of next fiscal year. Thank you.
Yeah, good one, Ben. And I think you've described it well, and it's something that we've been talking about is, I guess, some of the winds that are blowing in the external environment would potentially suggest that copper units in America, as you've described, potentially are more valuable. The way I see that is it just really further emphasizes why we need to move forward with discipline but with real intent. And that's what the toll gate that we expect Sandfire America to come back to us as their major shareholder imminently is to seek approval to move through into that toll gate to basically complete the work required to go to FID in the time horizon that you've talked to. We've said we think that program's going to require around $20 million.
Part of that is still drilling the lower zone to extend the lateral area of that high grade, or that is, we know now, is very much more critical to the economics of the project given the current cost environment that we see in North America. I think from there, we've always said that as the major shareholder, we retain all options. The main job for us is maximizing the value of that, as you called it, embedded option, and I think the environment that you've just described externally, just, if you like, increases the options that we have, and that's something that we're going to work through very closely. I think the most important thing that needs to happen is that a new mine is developed in the White Sulphur Springs District because it's going to bring valuable jobs.
We think it's going to be a very attractive boutique copper mine. But again, we'll continue to assess all of our options in terms of longer-term participation with a focus on our own shareholders and value.
Okay. Thanks very much, Brendan. I'll pass it on. Thank you.
Thank you, Ben.
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 Kaan Peker with RBC. Please go ahead.
Hi, Brendan and team. Just another follow-up question on Motheo. Just if you can give an indication of that initial A4 ore feed, how's that gone through the plant? My understanding was that essentially A4 feed would increase into FY 2026, and that was a higher grade. So is the approach now to have a consistent feed of 1%-1.5%, 1%-1.1% copper into Motheo at that increased rate?
Yeah, look, so Jason can give you the detail, but I think the answer is broadly yes and yes what you're saying. So A4 is now in that position feeding first ore, but it's really incremental. And we've said that it won't be a meaningful contributor this year. It's really ramping up into next year, and it does bring that grade benefit. But of course, as we've said, with re-sequence T3, we've got the two stages operating, and it's that blend of A4 bringing higher grade combined with T3, which will give the average outcome at, we believe, a 5.6 million tonne per annum rate is what we'll be targeting to get you somewhere in the high 50s and hopefully 60,000 tonnes of copper equivalent. And that's probably the way you should think about it. But Jason, anything?
Look, our strategy there is, particularly for this year, largely the same as for next year. We're still forecasting just over 200,000 tonnes of ore mined from A4. We have completed the grade control on the upper levels of the upper tip of the ore body, and it's looking good. We're getting some very good high-grade material coming out there. Now, I do note that in Q2, we only mined just below 14,000 tonnes of ore. In terms of performance through the mill, at a 5.8 million tonne per annum rate, it's really too early to tell, but everything's looking good. Particularly when we look at acid-soluble copper, which is our indicator of level of oxidation and in turn translates through to recovery in the mill, it's all looking as expected.
And maybe Kaan, just to make sure we avoid any doubt. Same ore bodies, slightly higher grade, bornite, chalcopyrite, very coarse sulfides, same characteristics of T3, just slightly higher grade. We expect it to perform at a larger scale in exactly the same way where we get a very high level of recovery in the very early stages of the flotation circuit. I mean, these are very, very nice rocks to process.
No, understood very clearly. Secondly, on MATSA, just wondering what was causing the fluctuations in copper recoveries on the polymetallic.
Yeah, look, Jason can give you the detail, but as we've talked about in the past, as we move through different areas and you get different metal grade ore combinations, that immediately feeds through into recovery. I think what you've seen over a number of periods now is we are delivering on average that growth in recovery. And what you'll see into the guidance is that we expect that that's very much on track. And obviously, the grade variability will work in our favor coming into the second half overall, which again means that we're not getting surprised. We've got that resilience in the plan, but from quarter to quarter, underground polymetallic open stoping operation, you're going to see a degree of variability, just like we do at any other mine like in the industry. But maybe Jason, anything specific?
Yeah, Kaan, if you look at, particularly if you look at head grades there for polymetallic ore and particularly the copper grades. So for the quarter, we averaged 1.5 versus, I think, prior quarter of 1.8. So that's your big driver of, your immediate big driver of recovery drop. And I would note that it's the lowest grade on the poly circuit in terms of copper ore that we processed in about a year. What we are seeing at MATSA is overall those recovery trends are trending up significantly, particularly when you take into account the metallurgical variations in the ore bodies that we see, which are quite significant. So looking forward to the second half, those grades are going to go up slightly into the second half of the year. So I would expect that those recoveries do return up in conjunction with that grade.
Yeah, I think the thing that we tried to emphasize in our report is this is, I'd say, typical variability for a complex such as MATSA. And really, what I'm focused on is that when I look across periods, we're building that resilience in the mine plan that the underground investment is paying off and that we're seeing directionally the benefit of work that we're doing around things like recovery, the way we're managing feed in the process facility, and so on. And I think we can, across periods, certainly see that coming through. So the team is doing, I think, an excellent job.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Young with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good day, Brendan. I hope you're well and the broader team as well. Brendan, back on Motheo, just with the performance there with respect to mill throughput, I mean, great to see it running above nameplate. Looking at the numbers of the last couple of quarters, if you look at throughputs being going up and actually concentrate grade and actually recovery has been going up also, which you rarely see. So I think that might mean, and maybe you can answer this question, do you have sufficient residence time in the flotation or has that been over-designed? And then looking at FY 2026, if you are increasing mill throughput, do you have the ability? I know we're talking small numbers here, incremental improvements, but could you have the ability to pull a flotation circuit harder and actually try to really push your recoveries even further?
Yeah, look, and maybe Jason, he'll love this question because we talk quite a bit about this. I think you've described it well in many respects that it's still very early. And so we've been dealing with ramp-up. We've had false starts. We've obviously had to commission a ball mill. So we haven't really had, whilst it's been an incredibly successful process overall, we haven't had what you'd call steady state. And so it's fair to say that the team's focus very much is going to shift towards some of these elements. I mean, the reality is, and Ian Kerr probably won't like me saying this, the chap who designed and built the project, there are elements of the circuit that are probably over-engineered. So we haven't even turned certain elements on because we haven't needed to.
I think I've mentioned in the past, because of the coarse nature of these sulfides, the Bornite and Chalcopyrite, we're getting very high rates of recovery straight into the rougher circuit. And so that's been working very well. We did mention early on, as you'd know, that the SAG mill, we were finding that the ore was softer and therefore we were having some challenges with grind size. So all of these things we're starting to get a better handle on. Now, of course, it's only relatively recently as well, Paul, as you know, that we actually managed to put the new OEM filter press in place. And so we were also back in constraints. So that also impacted how we were managing feed and, if you like, the trade-off of recovery versus throughput.
So all of those things have played into the, I guess, how things have played out over the first, call it, close to 12 months- 18 months. But we're now starting to move into, I guess, a phase where, albeit we're bringing A4 in, the mineralogy is the same. We've got a better chance to really start focusing in on these incremental areas that can bring real value. But Jason, again, I know this is something you and I talk a lot about.
Absolutely. And look, the team over there has been doing a lot of hard work. And as you notice, not just on the throughput rate. So we have been putting a lot of effort, particularly in lifting overall metallurgical recovery. And the team's making some really good inroads. And particularly when you look at Q2 in relation to a head grade of 0.9%, achieving a 92% recovery, I was very, very happy with them and think they've done really, really well. So we're not quite where we want to be. And we think there's further improvement in recovery, and we'll be working towards that. But the one thing I will note, particularly with half two, with us accelerating ore feed out of stage two of T3 open pit, what we are going to see is that we're back up in the upper sections of that ore body.
So there's slightly higher levels of oxidation, which means our acid-soluble copper percentage does increase, which impacts our recovery negatively, and if you look at it, and particularly with reference to Appendix A, that's why we've slightly adjusted down recovery rates for the full year, which is on the back of predominantly that change.
Yeah, that's great. And then I think, Brendan, you mentioned about that you haven't turned, I think you're referring to the regrinder which you haven't turned on, which you've got that flexibility to turn on if the mineralogy or the grain size gets finer, and maybe even ore gets harder. But just as far as when you're pushing the plant on those months or weeks or months where the throughput's really pushing, are there any noticeable bottlenecks in the flotation circuit? And maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse here, considering it is early days and the plant's been performing well, but is there any chat around just within the team about potentially adding additional flotation capacity down the track if required?
Yeah, look, I'll handle that one, Paul. If you look at the constraints that we see at the moment, particularly running at a high throughput rate, and particularly if you see high corresponding grades at the same time, is more around concentrate handling. We've got sufficient capacity in the flotation circuit. So your query before about opportunity to pull harder, absolutely, we have that opportunity, and we don't need to invest further in terms of capacity in that circuit. Where we will see a constraint is when we see really high throughput rates or processed tonnes in conjunction with higher grades, and that's one of the things that we are working through in the life of mine plan in terms of, is 5.6 optimum or should we invest in de-bottlenecking even further?
But at this stage, we think the right answer is going to be 5.6 and continuing at that rate on a sustainable basis.
Yeah, of course. We're really hoping we're going to have another ore source because Richard and his team are going to discover it within 70 kilometers of the hub, and that'll open up a whole lot of other opportunities. Maybe one thing, Paul, we have talked about in the past, it's too early for us to be definitive, but we'll provide a further update in March. We said that at these high rates, we might need some more tank capacity at the back end. I think we talked about potentially $6-ish million of capital for that. At this stage, that's looking potentially as though it's not required. As I said, we'll provide more of an update in March, but that would obviously be another benefit in terms of value for shareholders, albeit incremental.
But again, we're getting a lot more confidence in how the plant is performing and what that means in terms of obviously throughput grade recovery, but also capital requirements.
Okay, thanks, Brendan. Just last one, just on housekeeping, just some provisional pricing. It looks like there might have been a small impact in the quarter. Anything to call out there? Just housekeeping as far as aligning revenues are concerned.
Yeah, just I guess I'd stress, Paul, we have our hedges. So they're obviously the traditional hedges that are in place under the MATSA facility agreement. But we are slightly unusual compared to most because of the way our deals are structured. We actually put in place QP hedging. So whenever we sell a tonne of material, we actually immediately put in place a hedge based on that planned date of shipment. So we actually remove the provisional pricing impact. And that's why, unlike some of the other concentrate producers, you don't see that volatility. I think the question would be why. Well, if you think about the company that we've been and we're emerging from, was a growth company that had significant underlying debt facilities related to an acquisition and a development project in Motheo.
That didn't lend itself to wanting to have significant exposure to working capital shifts, particularly related to things like provisional pricing. And so that's why that strategy was put in place. And it's worked very, very well for us. And I think you're seeing that flow through the numbers again this period. But Megan, I don't know if there's anything you wanted to add to that.
Thanks, Brendan. You covered it well. I think the main item, as you noted, is the MATSA hedges required under the debt facility. We set out the pricing associated with those in the quarterly report. That does play through in those real-life prices for the period, Paul.
Yeah, thanks, Megan. Yeah, thank you. I've noticed that on page eight, so apologies for missing that. Thanks.
No, that's all right, mate. But yeah, the QP hedging's a bit different, and I think it's a good strategy for a company like ourselves. And so it does take away some of that volatility, Paul.
Yeah, great. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Good. Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Harris for closing remarks.
Look, thanks everyone for dialing in. I think great conversation. I think what it emphasizes is there's always more work to do, and we're very focused. We think we've had a very good first six-month period. We're well set up for the full year. I think the work that Megan's doing on the balance sheet is even further de-risking the organization. And we look forward to speaking with you in February with our full-year results, or half-year results, I should say. So thanks again for your time and good luck. Cheers.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.