Good morning everybody, and welcome to the Westgold Resources Third Quarter Quarterly Conference C all. Your speakers for today are Wayne Bramwell, Managing Director and CEO; Aaron Rankin, COO; and Tommy Heng, CFO. I'll turn you over now to Wayne Bramwell, Managing Director.
Thank you, Shane, and to everyone who's joined today's call. Let's jump straight in, slide four. In Q3, Westgold produced 80,107 ounces of gold in line with production from Q2 at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD 2,829 per ounce. We generated AUD 363 million in revenue at a realized price of AUD 4,630 per ounce. This is a great time to be a fully unhedged gold producer in Australia. Westgold generated a record operational cash build of AUD 107 million before investing AUD 74 million in growth and exploration. Post-merger, it took two quarters to stabilize our much larger business, and it's great to see us build cash as planned. We ended the quarter with our cash, bullion, and liquids position being AUD 232 million, AUD 80 million higher than the prior quarter.
Consistent with our strategy to simplify our business and focus on our larger and more efficient mines and mills, we divested the high-cost Lakewood Mill for a total consideration of AUD 85 million during the quarter. This deal comprised AUD 70 million in cash and AUD 15 million in scrip. Slide five. Before we go further, I want to highlight the great work done by our teams in the safety space. We have consistently delivered a downward trajectory in our Total Injury Frequency Rate, this quarter dropping by 8% to 6.27 injuries per million hours worked. It's a credit to every individual and every team across our business that go out there every day and choose safety, a key value across our business. Slide six. Post the Southern Goldfields transaction, we are following the same successful process Westgold undertook in FY 2023.
We have taken two quarters, Q1 and Q2 of FY 2025, to recalibrate the new larger business for greater simplicity, efficiency, and cash flow generation. In Q3 FY 2025, we have delivered a record quarter-on-quarter cash build, and through the execution of our growth strategy, we are set to further expand margins into the future. Slide seven. The key takeaway from these slides include consistent production quarter-on-quarter for the group and increasing margins, albeit offset by a temporary quarter-on-quarter increase in cost. Pleasingly, production continues to increase from the Southern Goldfields on the back of higher grades at our Beta Hunt and Two Boys underground mines. On the flip side, and disappointingly, the Murchision continues to underperform, driven predominantly by lower output at our Fortnum project. Aaron can speak to some of the detail later on here. Being unhedged, we are taking full value of the gold price at the moment.
As a result, we benefited from a strong AUD 1,800 per ounce, all-in sustaining cost margin. As we move into Q4, we expect to see significant improvements in our outputs, both production and cost, due to the completion of infrastructure projects in the Southern Goldfields and increased outputs from the Murchison. Slide eight, FY 2025 guidance maintained. I'm pleased to reaffirm today that Westgold maintains its FY 2025 guidance and that we envisage a substantial increase in production in Q4 FY 2025, predicated on the ramp-up of our two growth engines, Beta Hunt and Bluebird South Junction. With that, I'll pass the mic back to Aaron to discuss the operations.
Thank you, Wayne, and welcome to all on the call today. Slide 10. As a high-level summary of our operations, we produced 1 million tons of ore from our mines, slightly lower than the prior quarter. This was offset by higher grade, driven predominantly by Beta Hunt, Fender, and Two Boys. We processed 1.3 million tons of ore in the quarter, in line with our prior quarter, with stockpiles being used to supplement mined ore feed. Grade has been consistent at the group level as a result of the blending of stockpiles. This resulted in consistent production quarter-on-quarter at a group level, but as we saw back in slide seven, the production split between the Murchison and Southern Goldfields has been changing, and that's what I'll discuss in the following few slides. Slide 11. In the Murchison, we saw quarter-on-quarter reduction, mainly as a result of lower production from Fortnum.
Starlight, the underground feed for Fortnum, has been a strong performer, especially in the last few quarters, but had several issues in this quarter with illness in the workforce in February, lower haulage fleet availability with an aging fleet, and a focus on setting up access to the higher grade Galaxy loads, leading to a higher rate of low-grade stockpiles in the blend. Initial access to Galaxy is complete, and haulage fleet replacements have commenced in April. Starlight production is expected to improve in Q4. Lower production from Big Bill, as we establish remnant mining areas, was offset by increased production out of Fender. The Fender ore was split between Tucker Biana and Bluebird Mills. Bluebird Mine produced more ore with increasing access to South Junction during the quarter, but at a lower grade, so contained gold ounces mined was consistent quarter-on-quarter.
I'll go into more detail about Bluebird and Big Bill in the next slide. All-in sustaining costs were higher than the previous quarter as a result of increased stockpile consumption, increased sustaining capital expenditure, and from added haulage costs of stockpiles being processed, predominantly at Bluebird. These elevated costs are temporary and will reduce with ramp-up at Bluebird South Junction, remnant rehab reduction to normal levels at Big Bill, ramp-up to higher grade tons from Great Fingal and Starlight, and the reduction in processing stockpiles. We continued to invest in these growth projects at Bluebird South Junction, Great Fingal, and Starlight mines during the quarter. The Murchison notionally generated AUD 21 million in cash flow to the business after growth expenditure. Slide 12. This slide highlights the key opportunity for future growth: excess milling capacity at Bluebird and ramp-up of mining output.
We have invested to better understand the ground and have a clear plan. The ramp-up is slower than we had expected, but the accesses are being built, and the ramp-up plans are sound once the accesses are in. Filling the excess capacity with higher grade from Bluebird and other feed sources is key. Big Bill's reduced quarter was driven by lower cave accesses becoming restricted, but will be offset once we open up remnant work areas, which will be the primary feed source from Q4. At Starlight, accesses to the Galaxy loads are in, mobile fleet is landing, and we expect to see this displace the lower grade blend quarter-on-quarter. Slide 13. Moving to the Southern Goldfields, where we are making inroads. We had increased grade coming from Beta Hunt and Two Boys. Cost and productivity initiatives are taking effect, with all-in sustaining costs going down.
The Lakewood Mill performed as expected prior to its shutdown, and clean-out at the end of the month was successful. With our higher cost production at Lakewood ceasing from Q4, we expect further cost reduction for the Southern Goldfields. Pleasingly, we generated a notional AUD 66 million in net mine cash flow after growth and exploration spend from the Southern Goldfields. Whilst we are making progress, mining rates at Beta Hunt continue to be impacted by infrastructure in the mine. Slide 14. The three key infrastructure projects at Beta Hunt are progressing and due for completion by the end of the quarter. These projects are key to unlocking productivity at Beta Hunt, and we're ready to go. Slide 15. Westgold's overarching strategy for growth is to simplify our business with larger mines and larger mills.
The single mill in the south allows us to fully utilize and optimize Higginsville, reducing operating costs and de-risking monthly production with adequate ROM stocks. We are working on de-bottlenecking Higginsville through low-capital process changes and the blending of soft oxide open-pit material, which we have commenced mining at Lake Cowan. We've also recently released a scoping study for the expansion of Higginsville to 2.6 million tons per annum. This expansion will unlock value in the region. Slide 16. I'll quickly talk about Great Fingal on the next slide before handing over to Wayne so he can talk about res dev. The decline development at Great Fingal continued to make progress during the quarter and has now descended below the level of the uppermost planned virgin stopes. Life- of- mine infrastructure work continued as planned, with primary ventilation installation being completed during the quarter.
De-watering of historical mine workings is continuing and remains a critical path for first ore in virgin stopes at Great Fingal. The previously highlighted Great Fingal flats' early underground mining opportunity at the base of the Great Fingal open pit has also progressed, with first ore expected in Q4. On this image, I'd also like to highlight some of the great drill results we've encountered, with intercepts like 5.7m at 8.25g per ton, highlighting the awesome potential of this operation. With that, I'll hand over to Wayne to talk more generally about our drilling.
Slide 18. Thanks, Aaron. I'm going to be brief here and just highlight some key points. We have released a comprehensive exploration report today, and I encourage you all to look through this for further detail on our exploration and resource development activities during the quarter. I won't read out the drill hits here, but as you can see, the drilling at Nightfall is outside the mine plan. We are really excited about the future of Starlight and the opportunities to expand this project. Slide 19. The Fletcher zone within Beta Hunt is a key focus and continues to deliver width and grade in our drilling. We are nearing completion of the resource definition program and are on track to produce a maiden resource for Fletcher during this quarter. I'll now hand back over to Tommy to go through the financials.
Thank you, Wayne. Slide 21. This quarter, we sold seventy-eight thousand ounces of gold at a strong realized price of AUD 4,630 an ounce, for a total revenue of AUD 363 million. Westgold is completely free of any gold price hedging, so the company continues to offer shareholders full exposure to the current record gold prices. Our costs have increased quarter-on-quarter, albeit temporarily, due to increased stockpile consumption, sustaining capital, and increased haulage, particularly for the Bluebird Mill. Importantly, these cost escalations we see are, as said before, temporary. The growth in production we expect in Q4 should also reduce our costs per ounce as we reduce the need for haulage and more effectively consume our processing capacity with higher grade ore.
Our strong margins, which were assisted by our full exposure to the gold price, allowed us to generate a notional net mine cash flow of AUD 87 million and add to our closing cash, bullion, and liquid position by AUD 80 million, such that we closed at AUD 232 million for the end of the quarter. With the remaining AUD 250 million of undrawn capacity in our Corporate Facility, Westgold ended the quarter with AUD 482 million of available liquidity, a strong position from which to grow. Slide 22. This picture tells the story of where our cash position at the end of the quarter sits. The key takeaway in this: our operations delivered AUD 107 million cash built, before growth and exploration, and we closed the quarter with AUD 232 million in cash, bullion, and liquid investments, growing our quarterly closing position by AUD 80 million.
We also received AUD 25 million of cash as part of the total AUD 70 million cash consideration for the sale of Lakewood. We expect a further AUD 20 million before 30 June 2025 and the AUD 25 million balance by 30 November 2025. I note that we've also paid down AUD 30 million in working capital this quarter, a function of consolidating and integrating this now larger business. We invested AUD 63 million in growth capital, predominantly in development at Bluebird South Junction and Great Fingal, and also upgrading of power, ventilation, and paste infrastructure across the portfolio. We also invested AUD 3 million into New Murchison Gold via participation in their equity raise. We are pleased to note that this quarter, all conditions precedent to the ore purchase agreement in place with New Murchison Gold have now been met or waived, which is great news for both sets of shareholders.
Lastly, on this slide, I'll mention that whilst we received AUD 15 million in Black Cat Syndicate scrip as part of the Lakewood divestment, we have not included this in our liquid investments as there is a 12-month escrow period in place. With that, we closed the quarter with AUD 232 million in cash, bullion, and Liquid Investments. Slide 23. This graph highlights our monthly cost performance. The red bars show the total all-in sustaining costs with the increase in February and March, a result of increased stockpile processing. In the earlier months of calendar year 2024, you can see that the effect of our efforts in the Murchison operations to optimize our cost base and prioritize profitability taking total AISC from the high AUD 40 million to the mid AUD 30 million mark. We intend to do this again with the Southern operations, and we are confident we can achieve this.
We have the following near-term catalysts for reducing our group all-in sustaining costs per ounce: expansion of Bluebird South Junction and Beta Hunt, which will displace stockpile and reduce haulage, whilst increasing milled grade improve processing costs in the Southern Goldfields by dispensing of high-cost milling at Lakewood; improve outputs at Starlight and application of synergies, which are already starting to take effect in the Southern Goldfields, which I'll talk to in the next slide. There is a lot to look forward to as we execute our plan. Slide 24. We have already realized AUD 32 million of our AUD 49 million of targeted pre-tax analyzed synergies since the transaction. These are listed in the table on the slide. Importantly, we are not done yet. We have identified further opportunities in the areas of accommodation services, flights, and supply chain commodities that have scope to be realized in Q4 FY 2025.
Moreover, we have AUD 100 million in active tenders at the moment, which we expect to deliver savings into FY 2026. Watch this space. With that, I'll hand back to Wayne for closing.
Slide 26. Thank you, Tommy. The plan ahead. The plan ahead is simple. In the Murchison, it's about the delivery of the Bluebird South Junction expansion. All hands are on deck, and the whole workforce is leaning into bringing on South Junction in a timely manner. This unlocks a whole raft of benefits, such as less reliance on low-grade haulage and increased feed grade to our Bluebird Mill. In the Southern Goldfields, it's about delivering the infrastructure upgrades at Beta Hunt and defining the Fletcher zone. We've managed to simplify and balance the mine and mill equation in the Southern Goldfields this quarter, so now it's about realizing the margin improvement that we know we can achieve through more Beta Hunt being processed at Higginsville. With that, I will close today's presentation and open the call to questions. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone. If you would like to ask a question, if you could enter it into the question box through the webinar software. It's the little square with the question mark. We'll just pause for a second now to take the questions. First question comes from Larry, and it is: Is the mining method at Bluebird appropriate for the ground conditions?
Thank you, Larry. This is Aaron. I'll take that question. We've done a lot of work on understanding the ground conditions surrounding the Bluebird South Junction ore body recently. Essentially, in short, the ore body ground conditions are absolutely appropriate for the mining method we've selected. The poorer ground conditions we're experiencing are in the footwall of the ore body. The ore body itself is actually quite competent and good and will support the large stope shapes. The footwall design infrastructure, we've got the engineering solutions, and we're undertaking the new designs at the moment.
Next question is from Paul. Hi, team. Can you please talk us through the ground conditions at—oh, we've just had that with Bluebird. Sorry, I'll just move on to the next question. Next question is from David. What is the life of mine of Two Boys and the new Lake Cowan opportunity?
Hi, it's Andrew McDougall speaking. Yeah, the Two Boys have had some really positive resource definition drilling results to the east in the past months. We expect to finish that program through the course of this quarter. Two Boys we're now planning to operate all through next year, and there's a period of harvest beyond that. What excites us is it gets us close to older workings 400 meters beyond that current drill position for future potential. Pretty exciting times at Two Boys. The life of mine pits at Lake Cowan we're expected to mine for five to six months, and processing will continue through next year.
Thank you. Just a reminder, everybody, if you would like to ask a question, just enter it into the chat box. Next question is with respect to the fleet at Starlight. What is the plan for the old fleet at Starlight?
Hi, this is Aaron again. I'll take that one. Essentially, the whole fleet is what we're replacing at the moment, and four new trucks going into that mine this quarter. Essentially, the current mine life that's come out of the drilling has allowed us to invest in new equipment, which will give us lower cost, better productivity, which is in line with the work we've been doing in our broader fleet strategy overall to have less newer equipment that's more productive.
Question from Paul on R&R for Beta Hunt, and he would like to know when they would get an updated reserves and resources for Beta Hunt, and how do you think grades will change under your ownership?
Yeah, thank you. It's Andrew speaking again. We're pretty excited about the drill results we've received from the Fletcher program. Overall, the resource has about a 35% conversion, so we'll get into res dev of the greater resource. At the moment, that looks like it'll be quite an extensive outcome for Fletcher, but we haven't yet declared anything publicly. That will be announced in August with the reserves and resources statement.
Next question from Andrew. Hi, team. Could you please provide a bit of flavor around the NMG agreement and the potential effect to the efficiency of the mill and recovery rates?
I'll take that one. Thank you for that question, Andrew. Look, the New Murchison Gold agreement is a win-win for both groups of shareholders. What it does, it provides the secret sauce we're missing at Mekatharra at the moment, which is soft oxide ore. We're expecting to see that ore from Crown Prince coming in in the first half of FY 2026. What does it bring? It brings grade and soft material, which we can blend with our harder underground ore from Bluebird South Junction. We expect the throughput in the mill to go up. What that ore source effectively does means instead of bringing low-grade to Mekatharra to process, we've got an approximate ore source with a grade of circa 3g per ton, which will be substituted for the low-grade stocks we're currently milling. Overall, increased throughput, certainly increase in head grade.
Thank you. The next question is from David. It's a question on Bluebird. He's noted that there's been 109 kilotons in the March quarter with a target of approximately 300 kilotons per quarter. How quickly do you think that can ramp up?
Yeah, thank you for the question. I'll take that one. Look, essentially, the ore body can sustain the 100,000-ton run rate without a problem. The real question is around getting our infrastructure set up and the accesses into the ore body to allow us to produce at that rate. We're undertaking some updated design work as we've invested in drilling and modeling of the geotechnical conditions in the footwall. I don't have a definitive answer on that as of today, other than to say that absolutely that run rate is able to be supported by the ore body.
Just a follow-up question on Bluebird from Paul. What sort of ratio should we assume from Bluebird South Junction in the June quarter as part of your guidance?
Yeah, look, I'll take that one again. Essentially, we are continuing to increase production out of Bluebird South Junction. We are getting into South Junction proper stopes from this month, which will lift that percentage month on month, which will continue up to the 100,000 run rate.
Another question from Larry, which is on the rising main upgrade. I assume that's at Bluebird. He just wants to ask when that's expected to be completed?
Yes. The rising mine for Beta Hunt, no, the rising mine isn't required for the increase in production rate. There are a number of projects that will facilitate that increase that we'll continue to work on through this quarter, including the ventilation upgrade and the water upgrade and obviously equipment. We think that's going to be completed in the coming months on schedule, and then we'll see the increase through the course of this quarter.
Thank you. Next question comes from David. First order is expected from Great Fingal this quarter. What is the normalized quarterly throughput at Great Fingal, or rather the potential, and how quickly can you get there?
Yeah, thank you. I'll take that question. The Great Fingal mine plan, inclusive of Golden Crown ore body getting up and running, should get us to around the 40,000 ton a month mark. That will be happening later FY 2026 into FY 2027 as we open up both ore bodies.
A question from Nick, and this might be difficult as a sort of forecasting, but what can we expect when you achieve forecast production run rates of 100 kilo-ounces per quarter in terms of cash flow from operations?
Thank you, Nick. I'll take that question. Obviously, the guidance for the next upcoming financial year is in the workings. As you see from our performance this quarter and our operating margin, one can only make the assessment. Stay tuned for what will be coming in the coming months for our new FY 2026 guidance.
Apologies everyone for the background noise. It's Aaron on the terrace. We'll just pause there to allow some more questions. I'll hand you back now to Wayne for some final comments.
Thanks very much, Shane. Look, thanks for everyone patching in today for this quarterly call. It's been a busy time, and there's a lot of work happening in the background at Westgold. Anyway, it's a great time to be unhinged. Team's focused on delivering Q4, and we'll look forward to a different set of numbers at the end of Q4.
Thank you, everybody. That concludes today's webinar.