Thank you very much, Brett. Good morning, and thanks to the Diggers team for inviting Capricorn to present again this year. Capricorn is building a high margin, multi-decade gold business in Western Australia. We are a company with a simple story, that of high margins and higher growth. Capricorn is a pure Western Australian gold company. We have a proven high margin operation at Karlawinda in the Pilbara and an exceptional development project in Mount Gibson, much closer to Perth in the South Murchison. Following recent announcements, our group ore reserves now stand at 5.24 million ounces, up 33%. These figures use a deliberately conservative gold price between AUD 2,200 and AUD 2,600. Karlawinda is our operating cornerstone. It has been in production now for five years and has returned over AUD 1 billion in cash from 600,000 oz of production.
It holds a decade of reserves at an expanded 150,000 oz per annum. Mount Gibson is a growth engine. It has rapidly grown to 3.7 million ounces of reserves, a 19-year mine life, and a steady state production target of 260,000 oz per annum. Together, these two assets give us a fully funded pathway beyond 400,000 oz per annum as we continue to strive towards our Range 500 aspiration. The company is in a strong financial position. The projects are fully funded through a strong balance sheet with over AUD 507 million of cash and gold in hand at the end of last quarter, no hedging, no debt, and a consistent cash build. The register has an excellent institutional representation with a significant portion of the remainder being held by board and management, and we are well covered by the Australian broking community.
The board and management of Capricorn have a long and successful history of building and running gold mining companies. This chart shows Australian producing gold-only projects with more than 1 million ounces of ore reserves. You can see Mount Gibson once in production and Karlawinda sitting comfortably among these larger assets. Mount Gibson, with further drilling still ahead of it, is clearly emerging as a tier 1 scale opportunity. Our projects are comparatively young, the ounces are close to the mill, and we continue to use conservative gold price assumptions driving industry-leading returns. To Karlawinda, an asset with five years of consistent delivery and is now expanding for the decade ahead. Karlawinda has been a reliable, high margin cash generator, a credit to our operations team. In FY 2026, we produced the record 124,000 oz.
The June quarter delivered a metronomic 30,000 oz of production at a consistent grade and recovery. We finished the year with AUD 507 million in cash and gold in hand and underlying cash build of AUD 68 million for the quarter. We were also pleased to return our maiden dividend. The expansion is well advanced and on track for commissioning completion later this quarter. Reserve growth has been consistent with biannual updates growing the ore reserve to 1.57 million ounces, maintaining a 10-year mine life at the now expanded 150,000 oz per annum. The ore body remains consistent and strong and open at depth. At current gold price assumptions, multiple additional targets begin to warrant further investigation. The main game remains the Bibra open pit and has plenty more growth to come. The processing expansion to a nameplate 6.5 million tonnes per annum is now in commissioning.
Our construction team has quietly delivered an outstanding result in what remains a very tight labor market. To be at this point after only 12 months, almost to the day from receiving final approvals is a significant achievement. We are looking forward to the full quarter of production at the expanded run rate in the period ahead. Now to Mount Gibson, robust and ready to execute, offering both scale and compelling growth. The updated prefeasibility study has delivered an outstanding result. With the time taken on permitting rather than sulking, we got on with the drilling and designing a better project with higher returns. Steady state production of 260,000 oz a year, a 19-year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost at an enviable AUD 1,870 an ounce.
Pre-production capital AUD 474 million, at a AUD 5,500 gold price and a 7.5% discount rate, a return of pre-tax NPV of AUD 6.1 billion, more than our current market cap. AUD 12 billion in free cash flow. Who thought we would ever be saying those types of numbers? Subject to state permits, we are targeting a start of on-site development in Q2 and commissioning 15 months thereafter. Reserve growth at Mount Gibson has been both rapid and of exceptional quality. In just three years, the ore reserve has increased two and a half times to 3.7 million ounces, including our maiden underground reserve. After 560 km of drilling post-acquisition, Mount Gibson is fast approaching tier 1 scale. The work at Orion South was particularly successful. We added significant open pit ounces at the same conservative AUD 2,200 gold price assumption used previously.
In fact, the drilling was so impressive that it absorbs a large portion of the earlier underground study. Three-quarters of the project now sits within those AUD 2,200 gold price assumption shells, with the remainder still a conservative AUD 2,600 gold price. The ore body remains open, both in depth and along strike, and still constrained only at the drill bit, not by economics. Mount Gibson is a straightforward operation that has been scaled and scheduled to deliver consistent productivity at an industry-leading cost base. With 8 km of strike bits across the open pits, the project gives substantial scheduling flexibility. That allows us to maintain a relatively consistent strip ratio of around 5:1 throughout the project life. The underground contributes in a similarly efficient manner.
Its long, continuous strike supports up to 1.5 million tonnes of annual production. We only need to develop a couple of levels per annum to achieve that. The clear opportunity now is to grow the underground inventory and with it, the steady state production profile. We have strong confidence in this pathway, underpinned by reliable conversion rates we have already seen in recent drilling programs. The PFS has delivered an exceptional cost profile. We have updated the plant design to one that fully respects the multi-decade mine life and further addition of underground ore. The circuit is deliberately simple, familiar, and robust. A tertiary crush ball mill and CIL configuration we have built and operated many times before. That design discipline, combined with a flow sheet built for the multiple feed streams, is what underpins the low processing costs. Orion South is comparatively simple and productive.
It is a long, continuous site strike, competent ground, and a consistent 70-degree geometry. Those attributes allow for a highly productive and low-dilution, long-hole, open stoping operation. The upper levels delivering around 4,000 oz per vertical meter with average widths of 5 - 10 m supporting efficient mining. We have designed a simple operation because the ore body allows it. That simplicity is the primary driver of industry-leading cost profile across all facets of the project. The uplift in grade and production from the Orion South underground is material. That said, the underground inventory at Orion South is still very much in its infancy. Extensions of this system from both parallel structures and at depth remain to be delivered by our brilliant geology team. Other prospects, such as Lexington, shown here, immediately adjacent, are likely to keep delivering excess high-grade mill feed from Mount Gibson for years to come.
There is a practical limit, however, to how much open pit material we can displace with high-grade underground before we start to affect what is now a tightly optimized and contracted mine plan. That constraint creates the opportunity. How to best optimize our assets in the future when high-grade ore feed is in abundance. I will speak more to this position later when we come to our Range 500 growth strategy. It's no surprise one of those future high-grade sources, we hope, is Lexington. Here, the results continue to reinforce the quality of an exceptional system. We are seeing impressive width and tenor with mineralization dipping steeply at around 80 degrees. It sits only 600 m to the north of the Orion South resource and remains open in all directions.
We have tested to date more than 900 m of prospective north-plunging strike. The system is that of a distinct high-grade orogenic style. This is the first target tested along strike from the existing reserves. It gives us great confidence that high-grade underground feed will continue to grow through the Mount Gibson corridor for years to come. With the Karlawinda expansion in commissioning and progressing to 150,000 oz per year, Stage 1 of Mount Gibson already so compelling with underground inventory growing and a clear high-grade potential still being defined along the corridor. The focus now shifts to how best position the business for the next phase of growth and our Range 500 strategy. Building a high-margin, multi-decade business in a premier jurisdiction. The Range 500 aspiration contemplates a steady state Mount Gibson with a surplus of high-grade underground material.
Coupled with the exciting Golden Range opportunities, we believe there is justification to explore a second processing hub to optimize this position and maximize the value of the full region. Our current outlook already has more than 400,000 oz a year within two and a half years of Mount Gibson starting. It is clear to see, though, we are still just getting started. Range 500 sets out our aspiration to reach 500,000 oz a year within five years. It is a sensible step-up from an already near-term production profile of more than 400,000 oz per annum, a profile that is firmly underpinned by reliable reserves and well-planned project execution. Over the five years, Capricorn has operated Karlawinda at an industry-leading cost base whilst preserving a 10-year mine life. That continues now at elevated production rate of 150,000 oz per annum going forward.
In the same period, Mount Gibson has grown materially year -on -year into the substantial production profile defined in the PFS. The aspiration outlined here is the next layer of upside. Yes, still to be fully defined, but one that we have tremendous confidence in. At the macro scale, the Yalgoo-Singleton Belt still holds significant untapped potential. Mount Gibson is unlikely to be the only major deposit of its type in the region. Guided by this view, we consolidated more than 4,500 sq km across the belt, capped by the strategically important Waratah acquisition. Existing roads, water licenses, and infrastructure from Golden Range give Capricorn belt-scale optionality. High-grade endowment at Mount Gibson, combined with Waratah's 1.4 million ounces of resource, provides a solid base load. Importantly, even modest discoveries now can be incrementally accretive.
With the Mount Gibson mine life extending towards two decades and beyond, this camp-scale tenure is a key pillar of our medium-term growth. The early concept for a second production center is a 1.5 to 2.5 million tonne per annum hub, similar in scale to the Karlawinda expansion, which is nearing completion at AUD 140 million of capital. This is a straightforward project that we can pursue aggressively. It would treat Golden Range open pit resource plus surplus high-grade underground material trucks from Mount Gibson. The site is already very well-positioned: established haul roads, bore fields, water licenses, permitted plant and tailings facility with no identified federal permitting issues. It sits under an active mine development and closure plan, and it's permittable and buildable. Extensive drilling is underway at Golden Range and Mount Gibson to continue to grow inventories.
This work will support a study in the half one of FY 2027 targeting FID in calendar 2027. Putting the path together, Karlawinda expands to 150,000 oz and keeps delivering for more than a decade. Mount Gibson Stage 1 delivers 260,000 oz a year with a proven 19-year mine life. Stage 2 at Golden Range and further underground growth provide the next leg of growth. All of this internally funded from a strong, debt-free, hedge-free balance sheet. I hope I've conveyed why Capricorn is a compelling story of growing inventory, production, and returns. We have two regionally significant assets with genuine scale and organic growth, 5.24 million ounces of quality reserves estimated at conservative gold prices, multi-decade mine lives, a clear, fully funded pathway to more than 400,000 oz per annum, and our Range 500 aspiration still in front of us.
A growing, high-margin, long-life gold business in the hands of a team who knows how to execute. Capricorn Metals, high margins, higher growth, and higher returns. Thank you.
Thank you, Shane. We actually do have a few minutes of time here. If anyone wants to ask a question out there, maybe just raise your hand. Because we do have a little bit of time here, if you have some follow-up questions post that presentation. Just looking out there now. Any questions? Looks like you're off the hook.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.