Good morning, everybody, and thanks very much for taking the time to dial into our March 2025 Quarterly Production Report. I've got the team here with me this morning, with Kevin and Ian, both in attendance ready to answer questions, and of course supported by the IR team as well. I know everybody's had a busy time and continue to have a busy week, with the preceding weeks being shorter ones. I know there's lots of reporting and people with pressure to get to other calls. We'll try and get through our report quickly and onto the Q&A. Broadly, we've had a very, very decent quarter, in fact. We're very pleased with the results that we've been able to produce, despite the up-and-down weather that everybody well understands that's occurred across the beginning of FY25 calendar.
I'll go through the numbers, and obviously there'll be lots of commentary about the impacts of that weather, and I'm sure the Q&A will feature there as well. From a TRIF perspective, a solid result, 4.9 for the quarter. Not our best work, but certainly more work to be done there. We'll continue to focus this and make sure we can drive this down lower with the enlarged footprint. Our Managed on production at 9.2 was actually a pretty good result, and the 5% down in December, but December was good. Quarter on quarter, we've actually done very well despite the weather. The equity sales, I'll talk a little bit more about that, at 6.3 was a decent outcome. Again, December was big, so that movement looks a little bit more dramatic.
That was where the weather impacts were most obvious on the coast and at the port, and I'll get onto that a little bit further. The revenue mix for the quarter at 61% Met, 39% Thermal. Overall, our net cash balance obviously has changed a little bit here, and we'll get to that a little bit later as well. $0.3 billion, so $300 million, sorry, on a net cash balance as opposed to $1 billion net debt for the previous quarter, following the receipt of the proceeds from the JV formation at Blackwater. Of course, we've made the first payment just past the cutoff point for the quarter of the $500 million US first deferred payment to BMA as a result of the deferred settlement of payments. Again, we'll come back to that a little bit later.
I'd say Queensland's done a really good job in terms of managing the weather impacts. Pretty pleased with the way the teams managed themselves there. ROM production there, 4.5 million tons. Queensland had a good result considering the weather impacts. Sales 3.4. Again, down, looks dramatic, but actually when you look at it, December was a good period for us. The impacts have been well managed from our perspective. Average coal sales at AUD 221 per tonne is a decent result. The FY2025 realizations there are in the 79% range that we've spoken about repeatedly. We are on track to deliver our savings targets for the year, so that's very positive. We'll continue to drive that hard in this last quarter of the year. New South Wales has had a solid quarter.
Also, they have had weather, but had a solid quarter with all our open cuts doing well and Narrabri coming to the end of panel 203. Managed on production 4.7, good result, 7% different from December quarter. The equity sales at 2.9 were down 10% on the quarter. The average coal price realised in AUD terms 182 achieved for New South Wales. With a March quarter realisation for thermal coal of 108% of the GC Newc average for that same period. Solid on production across the sites, with the exception of Narrabri, which is labored to get to the end of the 203 panel, which it has done now. I'm sure we'll have a question or two about that a little bit later. Just over the page, we've got the production totals there for you.
I'm not going to go through those at great length for you. You can see that. I'll move on to the commentary about the results themselves. The Queensland operators are saying very solid. We're happy with the performance of the Queensland team during what has been quite a volatile period. I mean, it's been reported ad nauseam already by various players about the weather impacts that have played out over the last three months. Everybody's well aware of the big rain periods and obviously Tropical Cyclone Alfred and its impacts on Queensland. Terribly up there for the people and inhabitants there is affected by flooding. The positive of all of that is our team have managed them very well, sells very well. They're used to making the contingency plans necessary to manage this and have been able to keep production at a regional level.
Now, the major impacts that you see flowing through the quarter itself are actually on the sales side of things because we did have quite a few periods of disruption at the ports, more so DBCT than you would have seen at Gladstone. Mackay was much more affected by that. It's been well reported by others that the rainfall season has a compare to various other previous periods. I think you had records, you'd have to go back at least 10 years to find more rainfall in that period, at Moranbah say for instance. Big impacts there. Overall happy, 4.5 million ROM tonnes, 3.4 million in sales is a good result given all of that change. The stocks are decent, not huge, but decent at 1.5 million in Queensland.
We're on track for $100 million cost reduction by the end of this financial 2025 year. Daunia's production at 1.2 million tonnes was lower, but certainly dealing with the weather there has been a battle with this higher than average historic rainfall. Like I say, you'd have to go at least 10 years to find higher rainfalls during this period at Moranbah. Blackwater, I think, managed itself well in terms of having other options to move around in the pit, given all the opportunities and options you have. Our decision to accelerate the blasted inventory recovery there ahead of the wet season certainly has paid some dividends there, but it has curtailed our opportunity to address the build-up in pre-strip inventories that we're focused on. The balance of this calendar year will be spent doing that.
We're happy with 3.2 in terms of ROM. Certainly compares well to December, and the sales of 2.6 was a decent outcome also. New South Wales operations have said that the summary there is that the open cuts did well. Narrabri did certainly labour towards the end of 2023. It has been done. We are in the change-out process, which is good. 4.7 million tonnes for the quarter leaves us in a decent position with one quarter remaining to square away the year. All mines have done pretty well. Narrabri, as I say, has now finished its panel, so that's good. The relocation is occurring as we speak. There's an eight-week period rather than the six-week we normally take. We've added two weeks just to remind everybody, just because there's a little bit more maintenance that we want to get done during this period.
This relocation has been extended by an extra two weeks, which is consistent with what we've been saying since the beginning of the year. Overall, Maules at 2.8, 4% down in December, but a solid result. Sales at 2.3, good sales performance there. Gunnedah ops. You've got Tarrawonga delivering a reasonable outcome and Vickery starting to ramp up, which is nice. Overall, New South Wales, I think, has put in a good quarter and leaves us well positioned for the final quarter for the year. The markets themselves and pricing, just to go through that quickly for you, at 6.3 million in overall sales, 3.4 to 2.9 being the split between Queensland and New South Wales respectively. We're down on the December quarter, but as I mentioned earlier, December was a very strong quarter.
Part of that difference is just the comparison between a very strong period versus one that's been weather affected. The sales mix of revenue, as I mentioned, 61% to 39%. I think that's predictable in terms of where it went overall. Queensland operations, AUD 221. I think that's a decent outcome as well. The average of Platts for the PLV hard coke was AUD 185 for the period. We achieved AUD 142. Everyone can do the math in terms of the realisations. We've given you the splits there just between the primary and secondary coking products there for your information. 59% in terms of the primary products, 38% in the secondary products. There was a balancing thermal component that came out during the course of the quarter, which was quite small. New South Wales operations achieved an average of AUD 182 for sales during the quarter.
The average for the index across that period was $105, and we achieved $113 for the same period. Decent result. Year-to-date average there, New South Wales about $130, which is again reasonable outcomes. Market backdrop, I do not think there is too much that we can say here that is new news to anyone here. I mean, of course, there is the uncertainty with various trade and geopolitical things going on at the moment. In both thermal and the met coal markets, we are sort of characterised by well-supplied markets at the moment. We are seeing a little bit more of emerging interest in the hard coke side of the business, I have to say. That is nice to be able to see that. Obviously, there have been a number of different supply side events which have kind of caused to tighten that market.
I know that in Queensland, our team are receiving quite a few inbound calls about coal. That obviously is driving the recent firming, if I can say that, of the hard coke price, now poking its head above the $190 mark, which is good. I think this weather impacts are going to continue to draw that even tighter. We do think that there's, with the supply side issues associated with other events, non-weather related, and the weather overlay now that people have had a series of months now here, which have caused difficulties from a production perspective in some pits, you're going to see that the hard coke index continue to improve, which would be positive. On the thermal side of things, we are seeing that market well supplied.
Not particular movement there, but we do see strong support around the $90 mark and a little bit more. That's a positive thing. Our customers are taking all their contracted volumes, so we sit well positioned and very well sold. Just to add, there's nothing to sell in the balance of this year, of course. We're well sold out into the next year. We don't have a big spot exposure, and therefore we don't really bear much of a brunt of seasonal changes in that regard in terms of the supply demand side of things. The fundamentals for both of our markets remain the same. Our belief is that both these markets, met and thermal, are supply constrained, and our view on that hasn't changed at all.
On the production cost side of things, we continue to perform well and continue to track at the bottom of our guidance. You saw the half-year results that we posted at $137. We do have a change-up, so there is less volume in the second half, although the open cuts have got a second-half weighted performance for this year. This next quarter will be a good one volumetrically, and we think we can hold our cost at the bottom of our guidance here. We have given you the average number of royalties across the group, north and south, at $24 a tonne. Balance sheet, despite the only one paragraph referencing, the balance sheet has actually got quite a bit of attention during the course of this quarter, given that we have received the funds for the settlement of the JV at Blackwater.
As I mentioned before, immediately after the closure of the quarter, we paid our first payment to BMA. The balance sheet sits in good shape, and we're in a very positive position to work our way through whatever sort of softer market conditions we find ourselves in for the next little while. Payments to BMA, as I say, the first one paid, so that's one down, one big one to go in a year's time. $500 million US to be paid on the 2nd of April 2026. We're in a very good position to be able to deal with that. Just for the purpose of the calculation for the contingent payments, given the average pricing that we've received across this period, we're estimating we're in the $9 million-$10 million type range that's payable to BMA as a result of the contingent upside sharing arrangements.
Now, that needs to be verified over the next month or two and paid in early July, but a relatively modest sum given the pricing environment. That mechanism is working as it's intended to ensure that in a softer price environment, we're obviously not exposed to revenue sharing of any great significance. From a buyback and couple returns perspective, the quarter we paid our dividend, and of course, we reinitiated the buyback, but of course, we fell straight into a period that we were restricted with the end of the March quarter. We basically had a period between now and then where we haven't been participating in the market from a buyback perspective. Now that the results are out, then we'll be able to look at resuming that.
You can see that we've taken that 1.66 million shares during the course of the period that we were able to trade for a total of $9.3 million spent. Just for the record there, there are development expenditure across Vickery and Winchester that we've noted for you. As far as Narrabri Underground stage three goes, not much to note there other than given the pricing backdrop that we find ourselves, we are reviewing very closely the capital outlook for Narrabri, as we mentioned. We had previously said that we'd like to get out to you a revised and downward capital estimate for Narrabri stage three, which we are relooking at. We will be publishing that with our year-end results now.
We do have some compliance-related matters just to make sure our joint venture partners are happy with the revision to those numbers, lower as they are, but we'll make sure that that comes out for you with the full year numbers at the end of the year. Winchester South, not a lot to note there other than to say that we're spending a bit of money with lawyers preparing for the annoying period that is the land court reviews, which will start in July 2025. Wrapping all that up, our guidance remains unchanged, which is very good. From a ROM and sales perspective, we're firmly in the upper half of our FY2025 guidance, and on unit costs, we're certainly trending at the bottom end of our cost guidance, which is great to say. A really good position overall.
The tables that follow on for the individual splits of production for each of the sites and sales and so on, I'll leave that for you to wade your way through and then realise pricing over on the following page for everyone as well. Overall, from our perspective, a very solid quarter. Well done to the team for managing the weather impacts across both states. I'll hand back to the operator now for opening of Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Sell-side Analysts. 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 Jonathan Sharp with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, Paul and team, and congratulations on the good result given all the weather impacts you had. Just the first question on costs and with the prices down where they are, getting the costs out is going to be key. It seems like Queensland's going quite well. I am more interested in New South Wales, just how much focus is in getting costs out of New South Wales? How concerned are you with that? If you could just comment on that for my first question, thanks.
Yeah, thanks, Jonathan. Yep. Queensland, as you say, quite logically, given the recent nature of that acquisition, is getting lots of focus in reshaping that business. We are making good progress in that regard. That is not to say, as you rightly question, has New South Wales received its level of attention in that regard.
I can tell you that the scrutiny is being placed on New South Wales in exactly the same way that you would expect. That is not just on CapEx, of course, for we are in that budget phase now of preparing for next year. There is a magnifying glass being passed over all the capital required for the business, but also the OpEx base of the business and how we are going to lift productivity and drive our costs down. We are seeing, just on this side of things, we are seeing savings coming through now with procurement on the procurement side of the business. It has been a while since I have seen that.
Now that we're actually seeing renewal of contracts and services that have been provided to the business, we are actually seeing the inflationary impacts, which were evident in our services and contract provision, starting to moderate, which is good. That's part of the puzzle. The other part of it for us is obviously the productivity. We've got to focus at all of our mines to make sure that we're actually lifting the tons in order to bring down the costs of the business. We've highlighted for you in previous quarters some of the structural costs that will change in our outlook over time. The more immediate focus at the moment is to make sure we're seeing productivity improvements at all the sites in New South Wales.
Okay, great. That's some good insight. Just a question on the Narrabri longwall move.
It's been pushed back slightly. I know you're still scheduling eight-week longwall move. And I believe you previously said that it was about 80 supports coming out to the surface for more maintenance. I know it can get a little bit tricky when longwall moves get pushed out just with scheduling that maintenance. Has anything changed there with the support maintenance? Are you still looking at doing the same amount? Are they all still coming out? Just some comments on that, please.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks, Jonathan. Yeah, look, nothing particularly changed. Look, productivity slowed during the back end of that panel. So that was a bit annoying from our perspective, just to try and get to the end of that panel and move on to a panel which we know to be less affected by these structures, which is great. The maintenance schedule itself continues, as we previously said.
The only complication of that, I might say, just at a small level, when we're talking about a day here or there, is that as it slid to the right, important pieces of that puzzle of that maintenance work did slide into the east along wing head when we have travel restrictions on us in terms of moving big equipment in and out. There are a few no-go days in there that were a bit annoying. That is the way of the world. Public holidays and events like that, you can't move big equipment around because of traffic-related interactions. That is basically otherwise it's tracking along. Yeah, no, what you say there is correct, Paul, but the team did a good job to reschedule and reprioritize. We are still targeting the 80 or 90-odd chocks.
Some of the initial ones have already gone, and they've returned, and all the key components are out from underground. Yeah, we're well on track.
Okay, thanks, and congratulations again.
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 Daniel Roden with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Good day.
Thanks, Paul and Kevin, for taking my question. I just wanted to, I guess, just get some more color on maybe some ongoing weather impacts at some of the operations, like specifically Blackwater. Are you seeing blasted inventory levels? I know the comments on that it's still a focus, but just maybe are you seeing blasted inventory levels that are still at a healthy point, or has it backtracked a little bit?
Is that going to still be a bit of a grind over the next few quarters?
Yeah, thanks, Daniel. Look, a couple of open comments, then I'll hand it to Ian to add some more. I was very pleased with the team in terms of how they prepped for all that weather and managed themselves through that period. Production, we were at the first half year, as you probably saw, we were certainly tracking well ahead of where we wanted to be when we turned the corner into the second half of the year. We've had a little bit of that back because of weather-related impacts. There's no doubt about that. We are still firmly, as we say, in the top half of our guidance, which is a nice place to be.
I did reference that before, just the blasted inventory, getting that done, because we did inherit a lot of drilled ground which had not been blasted. We thought we had better get onto that quickly and take advantage of that ahead of any rain coming. The team mobilized really well and did that. Because we have been producing a little better than what they historically have been doing, we have been chewing up the pre-strip. Whilst we have added more capacity into the pre-strip fleet to be able to get on top of this deficit, we are chasing them down, which is a high-quality problem. There is a bit of that. Ian might talk to you about some of the flexibility we have got on site to be able to manage the impacts of weather as well. Yeah, I think so.
Just building on that, we've obviously got sprint capacity with our exposures provider and other providers that we use that we have turned on before. The same with the drilling and having some flex there. As it starts to dry out, we'll just work through what we need to do there.
Okay. I might actually ask a partially follow-up, but more just on the marketing side of things. Are you seeing, I guess, New South Wales and Queensland volumes and access to labor? Are you seeing any changes on that front that are making your, I guess, operations and ability to access resources more competitive?
Daniel, I think on the labor side of things, things have improved in a number of ways. Certainly, availability of labor, I think, has improved. That's positive.
It looks like expectations in terms of wage negotiations may also have moderated some of the high-water mark type requests that we were seeing maybe 12 months ago. That looks like that may have turned a corner, which would be positive. We are, and as a company, we've obviously changed scale significantly, and our presence in Queensland obviously is greater than it's ever been. Reputationally, the company is attracting more talent, which is good. We are finding ourselves in a fortunate position where we are getting more high-quality people wanting to have a look at coming to work for Whitehaven. That is giving us options in terms of how we manage ourselves. I think the other thing to note is that during this period of soft markets, it's not just us. Everybody is looking at other ways to actually do more with less.
That is putting more people back into the employment pool, which we're able to then choose from, which is good. Yeah, look, I think that part of things has improved, which is a positive thing for us to see.
Okay. I might stay on a more in-depth, okay? Just maybe for Kevin, just on the balance sheet, are you able to provide a bit of commentary, I guess, on what or just a reminder on what the one-off underlying payments were in the quarter? Obviously, we've got the AUD 1.08 billion of proceeds. There is a AUD 9.3 million buyback. Dividend fees on considerations, MG payments in January. Can you just give us a reminder on those one-offs, please?
I think you've nailed them. AUD 363 million. Yeah, you had the stamp duty payment in very early January. You had the dividend payment in March. AUD 72.
72 million on that. We've spent some money on a buyback for about eight or nine. We've received the proceeds on the sale, which was about $1.08 billion, which translated about 1.7, 1.77, I think. On the 2nd of April, we paid BHP the first $500 million. There has been quite a lot of movement through the cash in that period. The balance sheet remains in rude health, would be the way I'd say it. We are focused on costs and productivity improvement and maintaining that balance sheet down.
Yep. Perfect. Thanks, guys. Appreciate your answers.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Rob Stein with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Paul and Kevin. Thanks for the opportunity. Just asking a question on the Queensland thermocomics, notably up to 5%. Just a quick one.
Is that due to optimisation issues at the mine? Is it due to wet weather impacts and contingent planning? Or is it something that we're going to continue to expect to see, or is it just a one-off? Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Rob. Look, I wouldn't draw too much attention to it. You can see in previous quarters, it's relatively low compared to this one. It's low anyway, 5%. It's relatively low. It's just a timing-related matter. I mean, if you've got we're producing little bits of this around the place anyway. We just accumulate it, and then when it gets big enough, we move it. It's a little lumpy in terms of its profile sales quarter to quarter. That's the only thing to comment on. It's really around the edges, this one.
Okay. Perfect.
That was it for now. Thank you.
Thanks, Rob.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Young with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thanks, morning, Paul. Morning, Kevin. Hope you're both well. Paul, a question on CapEx and just broader sort of budgeting in light of the fact that coal prices have come down a fair way. They're still pretty good, though. Costs across the industry have obviously stepped up, but we're seeing some tailwinds in costs now. As far as just planning for uncertainty and potentially a lower coal price environment going forward, what flexibility do you have on costs, but particularly CapEx? I know you're tracking at the bottom end of the guidance range for this fiscal year. I know you're rephasing Narrabri expansion to use the current long-haul. A couple of examples there.
Just going forward, if things get a little bit tougher and Metcoal does drop further, considering the supply is sticky, as always is in down cycles, and I expect all the Queensland operators, including yourselves, to put the hammer down or push volumes harder over the dry months. What flexibility do you have on CapEx, whether it be existing projects or looking at project studies and growth? Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Paul. Yeah, look, you've answered the question for me on a couple of examples there. Narrabri certainly rephased will be lower. As I said, our apologies for that. We did not intend to get this out this quarter, but the backdrop of pricing gave us an opportunity to have another good look at that.
Because we have our good joint venture partners in tow, that all needs to make sure we go through them and give that proper ventilation there before we publish it. That will be much lower and phased in a different way, as you say, to take advantage of using this wall for longer. In terms of the rest of the business, we're looking critically at all of those things. As you say, we're tracking at the lower end of our guidance anyway, but we are critically looking at that. That doesn't mean you can spend the difference between where we're currently at today to the bottom end of guidance in this last two months just because that's where we are. We're looking very critically at all that stuff.
In terms of Queensland, Queensland has some capital needs, no doubt about that, but we've already put some capital into Blackwater in particular. The majority of things up there in Queensland are really there are some end-of-life type scenarios that we need to work our way through. There's a few rebuilds that need to be conducted, whether it be on a shovel or a drag line for next year and the year after. There is the obvious maintenance where we're replacing engines and so on. All of that is up for grabs. We would like to see people use their gear for longer. That is part of the cultural change that we're bringing about with the integration of the new business in Queensland. Historically, they hadn't run their gear as long as what we would do at Whitehaven. There is a transition there.
A benefit, if you like, of pushing that out further. We are scrutinising all of that. We do have actually quite a bit of flexibility because we've just said to the team in budgeting for this new year, "Show us what the baseline is." That is, sweat the asset scenario before we start metering out capital. There is lots of different contingency planning going on in the business to make sure that we can deal with all the things we need to deal with over this next 12 months. Of course, just because we do have a healthy bank balance doesn't mean it can be spent. In fact, our commitment is not to touch any of that because that is already spoken for in terms of the commitments we have going forward. Okay, we've got flexibility. That's great.
We want to make sure that we deliver CapEx guidance at the full year, which is consistent with the times we're in.
Yep. Understood, Paul. Maybe just on waste stripping, I know you're well positioned on the cost curve across both your thermal assets and Metcoal assets, or maybe the margin curves are better looking at it. Is there any sort of rejigging of mine plans internally? You guys don't have to do that. I guess that's the point I'm saying. Is there any sort of thought around potentially high grading or changing the mine plan to maximize cash flow? Or do you think you can just plow through on the current plan as it is based on your position on cost curve?
Yeah. We think we need to get our cost position lower, Paul.
I know when we have these calls, a few of our employees dial into these things as well. Thank you for the compliment in terms of our cost positioning, but we want to drive that lower. We think we can. Productivity is the key to doing that. We are not going to resort to any short-termism in terms of changing mine plans to deal with that. That always remains, I leave in you how up your sleeve. We know that everyone pays a longer-term price for that. We do not feel we need to do that. The mines are running well, and we just need to drive more with what we have got. That is our focus for productivity, all the sides.
Yep. Okay. Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Kevin.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Chen Jiang with Bank of America.
Please go ahead. Good morning, Paul. I'm Kevin. Congrats on a strong quarter despite the weather impact. Just a follow-up on the capital allocation and the sequencing of different projects. By looking at Vickery, it's progressing very well. ROM coal production this quarter, 0.5 million tons. But I'm just wondering, what is the long-term plan for Vickery? And are you happy for Vickery just to produce at this level over the next three or four years? Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, Chen. That's a good question. Vickery is going well. We're looking at exactly what the optimal scenarios would be for that. Now, that is on the basis of the small Vickery. We have no immediate plans to deploy any capital in the full Vickery scenario. I don't think that's the right time to be looking at that. Just to confirm that that's not being considered.
How do we optimize exactly the footprint we've got and use what existing capacity is there to soak up a bit more take or pay, say, for instance? That is certainly our focus. When we initially sanctioned this, it could go five years at this level without more capital. We are into the second year, so we've got three more years that can run at this level before we need to do something different. That gives us the flexibility to consider what the right way to address investment in Vickery is. There are no immediate pressures on us. It is going well. We've not forgotten about Vickery. Vickery, at some point, we'll put that question to the board. At these pricing environments, now is not the time to do that.
Sure. Sure. That makes sense. That makes sense.
Thank you very much, Paul. I'll pass it on.
Thanks, Chen.
Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session. I'll now hand back to Mr. Flynn for closing remarks.
Thanks, everybody, for dialing in. Really appreciate it. I know everybody needs to get to their next calls and so on. If you have any questions that we didn't get to address today, please, know where to contact us. Happy to engage and walk you through whatever outstanding management may have. Thanks very much. See you soon.