Good morning to all of you, and Welcome to our 2025 Interim Results Presentation. Thank you very much for taking time out of your schedules to join us today. We will keep the presentation fairly brief, with an opportunity for questions afterwards. Joining me in presenting today will be Marileen Kok, our Financial Director, who took over the reins from Dion in October last year. You are welcome to refer to our SENS and RNS announcements and to the supplementary information available on the Pan African website should you require detail not dealt with in today's presentation. Please note the disclaimers and information on forward-looking statements on slides two and three. So, as a gold mining CEO, I'm often asked about my view on the gold price.
As we present today, the US dollar gold price is again hitting all-time highs, with a very bullish view in the markets on the metal's short and medium-term prospects. As producers, our job is not to forecast the gold price, but to focus on providing our investors with the best possible sustainable returns from our business and maximize the margin achieved from these gold prices. Reflecting on the last six months, I believe Pan African has made good progress in our ongoing strategy to position ourselves as a safe and sustainable, high-margin and long-life gold producer. Some of the highlights include bringing MTR into production ahead of schedule and below budget. This is an asset with a life of more than 20 years, producing some 50,000 ounces per annum at a world-class all-in sustaining cost, with further growth potential in the near term.
We also concluded the acquisition of TCMG in Australia. This project is again tracking on budget and ahead of schedule, similar to MTR. It will be producing gold much earlier than previously communicated, with a full year of production in our 2026 financial year. I'm pleased that our Consort Mine at Barberton has turned the corner, producing more gold and contributing cash flows in the last months. The reporting period, unfortunately, also has not been without challenges. I would like to extend my condolences to the family and friends of our colleague who passed away following a mud rush accident at Evander 7 Shaft on 30 December. We will continue to work towards our goal of zero harm.
The delay in commissioning the Sub-vertical Shaft for hoisting at Evander cost us dearly in terms of gold production at that operation and also inflated unit costs, both for the mine and for the group. This shaft is now commissioned, with production ramp-up in progress, and we look forward to a much improved performance going forward. We have also decided to restructure our Sheba Mine at Barberton and further reduce related overheads to ensure the sustainability of this operation into the future. This restructuring will be complete by financial year-end. In such a high gold price environment, the synthetic forward sale that we entered into to part-fund MTR's construction weighed heavily on the set of results. I'm happy that at the end of February, the group will be materially unhedged and able to provide our investors with full exposure to the excellent gold price.
We have also impaired our Sudanese exploration venture, with our focus shifting to Australia and to further expansions of our surface business, where we have ample scope to grow further. I believe Pan African is now incredibly well-positioned to capitalize from current gold prices and our increasing production profile, and I look forward to sharing some thoughts and further detail on many of our initiatives and plans in the following slides. On slide four, an overview of the presentation. We will start with Pan African's health and safety performance, which is obviously critical in our business, and then provide an overview of the group and our operating environment, some key features from the last six months, including our new operations at MTR and TCMG, with detail on asset performance, as well as our cost and capital outlook.
We will then spend a couple of minutes on ESG before allowing Marilyn the opportunity to highlight elements of the group's financial performance for the half year. The presentation will then conclude by outlining focus areas for the year ahead. If we then proceed to slide number six, our safety performance and our journey to zero harm. We continue to focus on safety initiatives and interventions and on maintaining an industry-leading record. We can also celebrate a number of safety milestones achieved during the period, while reflecting on the recent very sad setback at Evander. In terms of safety during construction, you will have to look long and hard to find a more successful project than MTR, with only one lost time injury during all the construction phase, 1,600 employees on site during construction, and 1.8 million man-hours worked.
Slide number eight, a high-level representation of our unique portfolio of surface remining and underground assets. The addition of MTR and now TCMG means that we now have three large mining complexes in South Africa and one in Australia, all contributing towards a material increase in gold production in the year ahead. Surface operations reduce unit costs and turn legacy liabilities into profits, while the underground provides long life of mines, solid returns on investment as a result of a large sunk capital base, and also attractive optionality, which we are bringing to account in a circumspect and considered manner, always thinking about the best way to allocate our capital. Slide nine, production was slightly down from the last six months for the reasons we will discuss under the performance by asset.
Importantly, the coming year will see us moving towards an even more balanced portfolio of low-cost and stable surface remining and high-grade, long-life underground assets, now with geographical diversification into Australia. This asset mix should also reduce our group all-in sustaining cost profile, with the output of BTRP, MTR, and TCMG producing at all-in sustaining costs that are very competitive globally. If there is one takeaway from the slide, it is that we are growing profitable production very materially in the year ahead. We expect to be well north of 200,000 ounces of annual production in 2025, with both MTR and TCMG coming online earlier than expected. Pan African might not be the biggest gold producer, but that is also opportunity. None of the majors can grow their production by almost 50% in such a short space of time.
This is what we are doing in the year ahead. Slide 10, a bit more detail on our current asset mix. I think what is very helpful is that our assets now have extended lives, with the shortest life being the BTRP at seven years, which is still quite a while. If we compare ourselves with the rest of the global sector, many producers are running out of life on their assets or have to spend significant capital for future production, not the case for Pan African. We do not have to go and acquire more assets to maintain and grow production, and we have pretty much spent all of our significant growth capital. Slide number 12, our operating environment. We continuously seek ways of making our business less susceptible to adverse external impacts in South Africa.
We have seen an extended period now without any load shedding, and we are rapidly expanding our renewable energy footprint. Our mining rights are long-dated, and we have multi-year wage agreements in place. Pan African's track record demonstrates we can operate and grow in South Africa and do so very successfully. Our experienced Australian colleagues will ensure the same success in that jurisdiction. If we then proceed to key production, cost, and financial features from the half-year past, on slide 14, we produced just under 85,000 ounces of gold. Production was down due to delays with the commissioning of the sub-vertical hoisting shaft at Evander and Eskom transformer failures at Barberton. Early production from MTR to some extent compensated for this. However, underground costs are mostly fixed, so lower production meant a large increase in unit all-in sustaining cost for the half.
This will normalize in the second half of the financial year. We expect an H2 cost performance of between $1,450 to $1,500 per ounce, which is very much in line with the industry. For the next financial year, FY26, with full years of production from MTR and TCMG and increased production from Evander 8 Shaft, we can expect unit costs to decrease further in real terms. Net debt increased as a result of all of the gross capital invested. However, liquidity remains healthy. Marilyn will deal further with this, but the opportunity cost of the synthetic gold forward sale of some $18 million weighed heavily. The last delivery on this instrument will be at the end of this month, and it cannot come soon enough. And despite all of the growth and capital reinvestment, we were able to maintain our sector-leading dividends to shareholders.
After year-end, our board will again review our dividend policy. Given the gold price and anticipated degearing, we will also consider an interim dividend in the next year. Slide 15 should be an interesting one for our investors, demonstrating how nicely we've expanded margins in recent years, and this excludes any meaningful contribution from MTR and TCMG. If we then move on to more detail on the performance per operation, starting with Elikhulu on slide 17, this really is a flagship asset for the group. Just under nine years of production remaining, producing at just over $1,100 per ounce. Gold production remained stable in the half. We look forward to another year of more than 50,000 ounces of production and clearly excellent cash flow generation in the current gold price environment. The asset generated $26 million of EBITDA for the half year.
Phases three and four of the Kinross TSF, the final expansion, were delivered on budget and on schedule. We carried all of the learnings on building and operating Elikhulu over to MTR to ensure construction and commissioning went as smoothly and safely as possible. Slide 18, the BTRP, another stunning performance from our first gold tailings retreatment plant, commissioned in 2013 and the lowest cost producer in the group. As we flagged during our previous results, very exciting news for the BTRP is that we have now managed to extend the life of this operation from surface remining only to seven years. The capital requirements for this new initiative are also relatively modest, some $4 million for a new pump station and then a new tailings storage facility for all of the Barberton complex.
BTRP will therefore continue to form an integral part of Pan African's tailings retreatment story for many more years. MTR on slide 19, we commissioned the plant in October last year ahead of schedule and with savings of approximately $8 million to upfront capital. We have built all of the plant and infrastructure in only 14 months, a testament to Pan African's ability to secure, conceptualize, fund, and execute world-class mining projects. In December, we already exceeded the plant's manpower capacity by 11%, with a throughput of almost 900,000 tons. In the current gold price environment, payback on this $130 million initial capital investment should be approximately two years, with a project life of more than. Was one of the last Australian major gold fields to be discovered. Even today, it holds the title of the nation's highest-grade gold field, with deposits exceeding.
The highland cluster at Mintails, the life is 13 years, with total gold recovered of more than 600,000 ounces. On slide 20, the Soweto cluster consists of more than 130 million tons of tailings, currently containing a mineral reserve of more than 500,000 ounces of recoverable gold. This mineral reserve will extend MTR's life of mine from 13 years to 21 years. Total gold recovered will increase to 1.1 million ounces. It is also important to note that we believe we have enough gold reserves at the Soweto cluster to sustain a standalone operation, 21 million tons per month, over an approximate 10-year life of mine. The feasibility on this option should be concluded by September this year. Given our presence in the area, there's definitely also scope for the consolidation of tailings facilities we do not already own.
On slide 21, we cannot say enough about the socio-economic and environmental benefits of this project. Concurrent rehabilitation is in progress. We are uplifting local communities, providing much-needed economic and employment opportunities, and working with law enforcement to eradicate illegal mining. Slide 22, I think it is fair to say that Pan African is a record second to none in terms of the construction and operation of tailings retreatment projects. These long-life assets now form the cornerstone of our business, and I believe we have further room to grow in this space, which should be very attractive for our investors. Slide 23, I think that the acquisition of TCMG caught most of our shareholders by surprise, given the jurisdiction. But by the time we concluded the acquisition, we had spent more than a year assessing the assets and working with the local management team.
The investment in TCMG ticked all of Pan African's boxes in terms of deploying capital for growth, with the following brief points worth emphasizing: low project construction and execution risk in a tier-one jurisdiction, quick payback on our investment. We secured a dominant position in the gold field with the largest ever processing facility to be operated there, very exciting exploration potential, with an experienced management team taking ownership of project delivery. Talking about our management team, I'm now very pleased to introduce Peter Main, the Managing Director of our Australian business, to talk to the next slides, which provides some more context to the assets and the excellent progress being made with plant commissioning. Peter, over to you.
Hi, my name is Peter Main, Managing Director of Pan African's Tennant mining operations.
Before I provide an update on the Tennant Creek assets, I'd like to share a brief background on myself. I'm a mining and finance professional with over 35 years of experience. Over the last 13 years, I've held various leadership roles in the gold mining industry, more recently as Managing Director of TCMG, leading the company from conception to execution. Prior to my executive leadership roles, I spent 20 years in the mining finance, including 11 years managing the Royal Bank of Canada's Asian Australian equity sales and trading business. Now let's turn to Tennant Creek. In advance of going through the slides, I'd like to give you a glimpse into Tennant Creek's remarkable history. Tennant Creek was one of the last Australian major gold fields to be discovered. Even today, it holds the title of the nation's highest-grade gold field, with deposits exceeding 50 grams per tonne.
This legacy was primarily driven by the three iconic mines which Pan African now owns 100%. Warrego produced 1.4 million ounces of gold and 128,000 tonnes of copper over 17 years. Nobles yielded 1.1 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 17 grams per tonne. Juno produced an extraordinary 815,000 ounces at an astounding average of 56 grams per tonne. Despite its remoteness, Tennant Creek benefits from an excellent infrastructure, mainly due to history. I will now walk through the key points of the Tennant operations. Slide 24, transaction highlights. Total acquisition cost, $54.2 million, with expected payback less than three years. Acquisition cost for PAR was less than 6% of the current market capitalization, while at the same time, the project has a material impact on the group's production, increasing it by 20% to well over 250,000 ounces a year.
The Nobles project largely de-risked, with construction now at plus 80% complete and plant commissioning and first gold expected by Q4 FY2025. Forecast production over the first four years budgeted to average 50,000 ounces a year, mainly coming from Tennant's 100% owned assets, while life of mine average production per annum is expected to be around 65,000 ounces a year. The project NPV is $130 million and has a real ungeared internal rate of return of 144%, including current mineral reserves only, with all in sustaining costs, $1,300 an ounce, life of mine free cash flow of $420 million. All financials are based on a gold price of $2,600 an ounce. Slide 24, strategic rationale.
Understanding Tennant Creek's history and the existing untapped potential of the field helps understand Pan African's acquisition decision, as the field complements Pan African's portfolio, providing long-life, near-term, and low-risk ounces with significant returns for shareholders. Key drivers behind the strategic rationale include tier-one mining jurisdiction, attractive production growth at Nobles project, minimum initial eight-year life of mine inclusive of five years in the current mineral reserves, access to attractive asset portfolio in one of Australia's highest-grade mineral fields, underexplored region with less than 8% of all drilling below 150 meters depth, potential to expand life of mine beyond 15 years, dominant player in the region, fast-tracking the project into production with a land holding in excess of 1,700 square kilometers, utilizes a hub-and-spoke growth strategy to process multiple deposits, experienced in-country management team. Slide 25, key projects map.
Prior to outlining the delivery drivers of stage one, Nobles project, I thought it important to share Tennant mining's consolidation strategy, while at the same time developing a largely de-risked business model. Tennant mining's consolidation strategy began in late 2020 and includes 100% acquisition of the three largest historical producing assets, which we spoke about earlier, Warrego, Juno, and Nobles, an earning joint venture acquiring 75% for a $6.5 million spend over five years, $1.24 million remaining and should be completed by June 2025, acquisition of a transportable Como engineered processing plant from Cloncurry in Queensland, originally constructed to operate at 800,000 tonnes per annum in 2019. TCMG paid less than $700,000 for this asset, which is remarkable given the age and the quality of the asset.
Purchase of an 85-room hotel in Tennant Creek, ensuring readily available workforce accommodation at a fraction of the cost and timeline of building a new camp. Tennant mining's development strategy follows a two-staged approach. To date, we have invested $55 million since 2020, underpinning stage one, Nobles gold project, and the commencement of work at stage two from a feasibility study perspective, which is the Warrego copper gold project.
Slide 26, stage one, Nobles project, current status focusing on delivery. Construction ahead of schedule and within budget. Commissioning and first gold pour planned for Q4 FY2025. FY2025 production range between seven and 10,000 ounces. First full year production FY2026 expected to be between 48,000 and 60,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,250 an ounce. Debt strategy, $32 million construction debt, capacity to repay well within 12 months. Local employment impact over 60 workers during construction with 30 from the Northern Territory, mainly the Barkly region. Crown Pillar stockpile and its open pits drive a minimum of the first two years' production.
Slide 27, stage two, Warrego gold copper project, targeting 100,000 ounces a year of gold and 10-15,000 tonnes of copper, project extension targeting a minimum of 10 years plus, adding a copper circuit targeting plus a million tonnes per annum throughput, producing copper concentrate of around 20% copper, complete definitive feasibility study by mid-2026 at a cost of $2 million, indicating build capital of circa $40-$45 million, targeting funding from cash flow and debt finance, opportunity to grow via regional gold and copper deposits. Finally, to sum up, the acquisition of TCMG by Pan African has been a game changer for all stakeholders. Shared values, efficient management, and a strong financial foundation have enabled seamless integration, fast tracking of exploration, and unlocking of growth opportunities.
With Tennant Mining's vision and Pan African's backing, we are poised to create long-term value for our shareholders and the region. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Peter. Very exciting times for Pan African in Australia. Slide 29, the Evander Underground, a disappointing performance in the half. The delay in commissioning of a Sub-vertical shaft for hoisting impacted us severely. Thankfully, this project is now completed. The new infrastructure then pretty much doubles our hoisting capacity. No more cumbersome conveyors. These are to be decommissioned in the next months. Lower costs with a higher mine call factor. We are now ramping up, so expect a much better performance going forward. 50,000 ounces or more for the next financial year with a long life of mine. All in sustaining unit costs will obviously reduce commensurately with the ramp-up.
It is tempting to gloss over the delay in commissioning, but to be honest, this has been the most challenging large capital project that Pan African has undertaken. We were rushed due to the accelerated pillar extraction and made some choices and decisions that we will not repeat a number of learnings from this project. If we proceed to slide 30, dealing with Fairview, our flagship underground operation at the Barberton Mines Complex, we would have performed much better if it wasn't for multiple Eskom transformer failures in November, which we estimate cost us at least 2,500 ounces of production. This is incredibly frustrating as third-party infrastructure is largely out of our control.
We have, however, consulted extensively with Eskom, our power utility, and have now established additional engagement mechanisms and a program to ensure that their system has adequate redundancies in future to cater for equipment failures. At Fairview, we continue to source the bulk of our ore from the MRC and Rossiter ore bodies with development to the 26 Level platform on track. Rehabilitation of existing ramp infrastructure from 38 Level downwards is progressing according to schedule also. This decline will be used to transport personnel and material to the working phases on the 3 Shaft section and will further alleviate logistical pressures on 3 Shaft, which will then mainly be used for rock wasting and improving logistics. The smaller underground operations at Barberton on slide 31.
In terms of Consort, the rehabilitation of the PC Shaft has been completed and now enables the contractor to recommence mining on the high-grade 41-45 level mining sections. Additional development is ongoing on the MRC and the PC Shaft to access mineral reserve blocks, which will give us access to more ground to mine. I'm pleased that all of the work on Consort is paying off. In both December and January, we produced 25 kilograms of gold, which means this operation is cash flow positive and sustainable. As far as our Sheba Mine is concerned, the additional benefits from continuous operations have unfortunately reduced in the period under review. We have now taken another hard look at the operation, and our board has decided to engage with all stakeholders on a possible restructure. A Section 189 notice has been issued under South African Labor Law.
We have a number of attractive ore bodies at Sheba. However, productivity at current levels is unacceptable. Let me reassure you that the intent is not to shut Sheba, but to rather ensure sustainability into the future. This will include right-sizing, additional capital development, and a project to combine some of the infrastructure of Sheba and Fairview. As I've said, we intend to have the restructuring complete by financial year-end. On slide 33, a section dealing with all-in sustaining costs, almost 85% of our portfolio produced at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,466 per ounce, impacted by the lower underground production, some one-off items, and a stronger rand exchange rate. Slide 34 illustrates that our cost performance continues to be very much in line and better than the average for the global sector, with most producers having experienced significant cost pressures in the last couple of years.
For the group, we expect all-in sustaining costs to improve in the second half of the financial year to between $1,450-$1,500 per ounce. As I mentioned earlier in the presentation, the next financial year should see further improvements with full years of production from MTR and TCMG. On slide 36, group capital projects, we continue to invest into our assets and into growth with all of MTR's upfront capital now spent. With most of our growth capital now done, we expect a material reduction in capital spend going forward. For FY2026, sustaining capital for the group should be between $50-$60 million. ESG, on slide 38, very proud of our achievements on this front, particularly on progress with renewable energy, water retreatment, and social projects. We really do make a positive difference where we operate.
To elaborate further on our renewable energy roadmap on Slide 39, the Barberton solar facility is now fully ramped up. We still anticipate first power from our 40-megawatt Sturdee Energy power purchase agreement also in 2026. You can also expect other announcements on renewables from Pan African who will add even more capacity. I will now hand over to Marilyn, who will provide an overview of the financial results for the half year.
Thank you, Cobus. Slide 41 provides a high-level overview of the financial results for the reporting period. You will note that revenue is fairly flat for the current period compared to the prior period. This is as a result of a decrease in production offset by the increase in the gold price.
The group did not fully benefit from the increased gold price, which was 31% higher in US dollar terms as a result of the synthetic pool transaction. The synthetic pool transaction was used to fund the construction of the MTR operation and resulted in an opportunity cost of approximately $17.8 million for the current reporting period. We are pleased to advise that this transaction will now be completed at the end of February, and the group will now fully benefit from the impact of the higher gold price going forward. Production costs were well contained in absolute terms, with only a 12% increase in US dollar terms and a 5.5% increase in rand terms in direct operational production costs.
The cost increase is attributable to the inclusion of the MTR operational costs for a three-month period, as well as a 4% appreciation of the rand relative to the U.S. dollar and other inflationary increases. Unit cost of production was negatively impacted by lower gold production, given our cost price, which is materially fixed, but is expected to reduce in the second half of the financial year as we have guided. Adjusted EBITDA and headline earnings were lower compared to the prior year as a result of lower profitability due to the lower number of ounces produced. The main adjustment between headline earnings and attributable earnings is the gain on the acquisition of TCMG of $25 million, which is excluded from headline earnings. Earnings per share and headline earnings per share were also marginally impacted by the issue of the new shares during December 2024 to acquire TCMG.
The 47.3% decline in operating cash flow to $29 million is mainly as a result of working capital changes, increased finance costs associated with the peak debt levels, increased depreciation charge risk mainly related to the MTR and Evander Underground operations, and once-off long-term share option costs resulting from the increased share price. $92 million was spent on capital during the six months, the bulk of which related to the MTR project. The net movement in borrowings was $86 million, resulting in net debt increasing by $165 million to $229 million, inclusive of the $31 million of debt acquired as part of the TCMG transaction, resulting in peak debt levels for the group.
Given the positive cash flow generation outlook for the group going forward, capital allocation and maintaining a balance between investing in our near-term growth projects, returning funds to shareholders, and degearing will remain priority focus areas for the group. Slide 42 demonstrates the group's contractual and anticipated debt redemption profile. The group has now reached peak debt levels with the MTR project construction completed and the term line facility for this project fully drawn. The TCMG project is also fully debt funded, and this debt of $31 million is included in the group debt profile with the project being close to completion. The group's current debt constitutes a debt-to-equity ratio of approximately 49%, still well within the senior debt covenant of 1 to 1.
The group's debt facilities consist of the revolving credit facility and general banking facilities, Mintails term line facility, the three domestic medium-term note bond tranches, Greenland facility, and the TCMG debt facility. The Greenland facility also provides for an embedded accordion option of $40 million for future funding requirements of this nature, which is crucial to the group's renewable energy strategy. The group's liquidity is robust, with cash and undrawn facilities of $32 million available as of 31st of December 2024. The group's attractive cash flow generation going forward is underpinned by the current gold prices, increased production of high margin ounces from our operations, resulting in the group's debt being repaid faster than contractually required. It's likely that the RCF will again be extended, as has been the case in the past, as it constitutes a key component of our core finance facilities.
As mentioned in the past, our funding approach to projects of illiquidity and MTR scale and nature is to fully fund the project's upfront capital with a debt redemption profile sculpted to its cash flow profile, leaving the rest of the group's cash flow largely unencumbered for other capital expenditure programs and returning cash to shareholders. The TCMG funding also aligns with this principle, with the debt repayment sculpted to the cash flow profile of the operation, with early redemption likely at current gold prices. Once the synthetic forward sale transaction is completed at the end of February 2025, the group is materially unhedged, with the last zero cost collars expiring in June 2025. Slide 43 demonstrates the group's ability to return cash to shareholders in the form of dividends.
The dividend declared for the 2024 financial year represented a payout ratio of approximately 53% of cash flow, as defined by the dividend policy, and is an increase of 22% in ramp terms and 26.5% in dollar terms relative to the prior year, the highest dividend paid to date. Thank you. I will now hand back to Cobus Loots to conclude on today's presentation.
Thank you, Marilyn. Before we conclude on slide 45, I want to again reinforce some key points. The market clearly had some concerns when we released our headline earnings, but please remember we effectively only had two months of production from MTR. That increased finance costs and depreciation at an $18 million opportunity cost from the synthetic forward in these numbers. We now have tailwinds from the highest gold prices in history, and the group is materially unhedged.
Even with slightly lower gold prices and much higher dividends, the group should be pretty much ungeared in the next 12 to 18 months. We have just commissioned and ramped up arguably the most successful gold tailings retreatment project in South Africa's history, below budget and ahead of schedule, and we will grow this operation further in the near term. Our Elikhulu and BTRP operations are performing really well and generating fantastic returns and cash flows, and will continue to do so for many more years. TCMG was acquired with limited dilution to shareholders, less than 6% of our market capitalization at the time. We will be producing from this tier one asset within six months of acquisition, having constructed the largest processing plant to ever operate in this gold field by a factor of three.
We are growing gold production very materially in the year ahead, with almost 60% of these ounces from surface. Consort Mine turns the corner, and Fairview will continue to tick along as it has for many years. We will have to take some pain at Sheba, but it will emerge as a lean and profitable operation by financial year end. We have started hoisting from the Evander sub-vertical shaft. Earlier this week, we achieved our run rate, demonstrating hoisting capacity of 700 tons per day, and the ramp-up continues. Thank you very much for your time this morning. We look forward to continuing mining for the future in the year ahead. Thank you. We will take any questions from our conference call line, Chorus Call.
Thank you. We have a question from Richard Hatch of Berenberg. Please go ahead. Richard, your line is live. You may go ahead.
Hi, sorry. Yeah, can you hear me now?
Yes, we can. Let's go ahead.
Yeah, great. Okay. Right. Thanks, team. I've got quite a few questions. Hopefully, we can just bang through them. Okay. So just on the assets, so Barberton, I just note that recovery is dipped to 84%, so a bit softer than where you've previously been, and then DNA has also picked up. So can we just unpack the reasons for that? And then also just on the costs, I mean, what is a sensible long-term cost for Barberton? I see the guidance is steering to kind of, yeah, I mean, is below $1,900 a sensible sort of all-in sustaining cost for Barberton, or is $1,900-$2,000 the new normal? Thanks. The first one. Yeah.
To get back to first the costs, as we've said, Richard, I mean, there's definitely some savings that we need to realize in terms of the operations and then also some of the overheads. That'll be in a restructure that we're working with the Barberton management team. But as you know, with underground mines, most of the costs are fixed. It's a product of how much you can produce. And definitely, the costs from Consort will assist on a unit basis. These will reduce. And then also Fairview, if we produce more ounces, I mean, you have those costs go down. So I think sort of obviously, it's also exchange rate dependent, but a $1,900 odd number for the next year, I think, is reasonable. And then in terms of recoveries, I mean, normally the recoveries that we achieve on BIOX is excellent.
It's 98-odd%, and it's, I think, a product of some other material that we've put through and surface sources, etc. But generally, the recoveries are quite stable as far as Barberton's concerned.
Okay. Thanks, Cobus. And then just, can I ask a second question just on cost guidance? So on page one of the release, it says that H2 guidance is $1,450-$1,500. And then on page nine of the release, it says that full year guidance is $1,450-$1,500. I'm just trying to clarify, and I've had a couple of questions on this as well. So what is the H2? Is it H2 guidance $1,450-$1,500, or is it full year?
Thanks, Richard. So for H2, the cost will come in at the lower end of the $1,450 guidance. And then because the H2 production will be more weighted, the full year guidance should also come in at approximately $1,500 per ounce.
Okay. Right. Thanks, Marilyn. Okay. On Evander, the H1 cost, I understand, was high because of the softer volumes pushed through. But again, I can't seem to get my numbers to $1,800-$1,900 for H2. I'd really have to kind of push the cost up. I mean, is there some CapEx numbers, CapEx that goes that slips into there to push that up? And what is, again, the right kind of long-term all-in sustaining cost to think about for Evander? Because my numbers sort of hover around sort of $1,300-$1,400 dollar an ounce range, but we're currently sitting north of sort of $1,700-$1,800. So what's the right place to be?
So I mean, again, it's very much dependent on ounces, and we're trying to be fairly conservative as far as the second half is concerned given the performance. The subvertical is ramping up, but obviously in the later years, so sort of FY 26, 27, when you are starting to mine on 25 level, things are stabilized, your sustaining CapEx goes down, very limited growth CapEx, then the cost will come down. So historically, we've looked at a sort of a longer-term all-in sustaining cost for the Evander underground of, I'd say, conservatively at this point, about $1,450-$1,500. And I think we should sort of stay at those levels.
Okay. Thanks, Cobus. Okay. Cool. And then on Elikhulu, I'm just trying to also just get a handle on the cost base. I mean, that's been pretty stable on an all-in sustaining cost basis. So again, sort of keeping that one at about 1,000-1,100 is the right place to be in your opinion?
Yeah. That's right. Over the last couple of years, we've seen we obviously have the increases in electricity that's in excess of South African inflation. The next one will be about 12%-13% again. And then reagents have reacted quite dramatically throughout the industry. So reagents have gone up. The current indications are that those sort of increases have stabilized. So if that is the case, then yeah, I mean, 1,100-1,150 where we are currently, that's a reasonable assumption. I mean, the Elikhulu team is doing fantastic work, I have to say. Stable, really low cost. It's a great asset.
Yeah. Great. Okay. Helpful. And then I know on Tennant, you've brought forward some volumes, which is great to see, 7-10 thousand ounces for the second half. What kind of costs do we need to be thinking about that?
Probably $1,300-$1,400. We're building a stockpile right next to the plant. And I mean, I don't think people appreciate the fact, I mean, we bought this asset in December, and we'll be producing gold in Q4 of this financial year. I think that's an excellent achievement. And I mean, really, we were out there a couple of weeks ago. The plant's looking great, nearing final stages of completion and then commissioning. As we've said in the release, we're building a fairly high-grade stockpile sort of 1.5-1.8 grams per ton right next to the plant to make sure that we can achieve those targets.
So I mean, it's very exciting for us. And obviously, then as we ramp up, again, as we saw with Mintails the first couple of months, your costs are a bit higher. But in terms of the release, I think we guided $1,250 for next year, which is that's US, which is very attractive for Tennant.
Yeah. Agree. Okay. Last couple. Just on the cost of restructuring at Barberton, can you just clarify, or is there a steer as to how much that's going to cost and where it's going to be accounted for? Is that going to sit in the mine costs, or is that going to sit as a separate line item?
So we've started the engagement process now with our unions and other stakeholders. I mean, of course, in the group context of the restructuring, it's not going to be material. But definitely, as we've said, it should align things and make sure that Sheba does what it's supposed to do. We said the productivity is unacceptable. The fact that so many of our employees are stealing from us. I mean, in the last six months, there were 60 people that we've caught, and we think there's way more. So we're drawing a line in the sand. I mean, we have the flexibility now as far as sort of really nice long-term low-cost and stable production is concerned. So this gives us the opportunity of right-sizing and making sure this is a sustainable business.
Yeah. Okay. And is the cost going to sit on the All-in Sustaining Cost line for Barberton, or is that going to sit on the things that's exceptional?
Richard, it will be one sort of cost. So we will clearly disclose that to the market, but it will be below all-in sustaining cost because it would be a one sort of item.
Yeah. Clear. Okay. And then last one, look, Cobus, you kind of touched on it. I mean, I think that you've got some amazing assets which are really low cost. And then you've got some more challenging assets which give you volume, but clearly less margin created than Elikhulu, MTR, some of the Tennant operations. Does Barberton and Evander still have a place to play in this group, or is it a case of you have to give them a couple of years, see how they go? If you can't get the cost down, then they remain. And if not, then you perhaps have to take a strategic decision, or do they remain core even at these sort of prices?
I mean, at these prices, obviously, these assets should generate decent returns and cash flows. I mean, we have to acknowledge the fact that underground mining in South Africa is increasingly difficult. Luckily, we only have a couple of these mines, which means we can give them proper TLC and make sure they perform. If you look at the group, say, 2018, I mean, those really are the only assets we had. Now, 60% of our production going forward, long life, stable, and high margin from surface. So we've invested a lot of effort capital into certainly Evander. It has to now perform as does Barberton. I mean, Barberton, these are the assets that the group was initially based on. It was the genesis of Pan African. We think there's a lot more potential, and we'll give them the necessary care to make sure they deliver.
Okay. Understood. And then, sorry, Marilyn, last one. Just on that one line item for the Barberton restructuring, any quantum steer or guidance that we should just nudge into our numbers like 100 million round, a couple of hundred million, and you're able to give us a guide?
Richard, it still early days. We've just started the Section 189 process, so we can't give an accurate estimate on that yet.
But again, in a group context, it won't be material. No.
Okay. Helpful. All right. Thanks, guys, for your time. Much appreciated.
Thanks.
The next question we have is from Arnold van Graan of Nedbank CIB. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you very much. Can I just confirm you can hear me? Yes. Thanks, Arnold. We can hear you. Yes. Okay. Couple from my side, mostly follow-ons from Richard. Just on Tennant, you give a big explanation on the earn-in. So the way to simplify that, and is there any financial obligation over the next couple of years to actually execute those, and does that form part of the mine plan as it stands? We can also take this offline, but I just want to go through it. Don't get it.
I mean, to simplify, it's quite a complicated structure. The amount that still needs to be spent by ourselves/TCMG is not material in a group context, maximum one and a half, one million. That'll be spent this year. Then we would have fulfilled our obligations. Then it depends on sort of how we go forward. I mean, the beauty with Tennant Creek is, Arnold, I mean, by April or May, we're going to have a 70,000 ton per month plant, and we have significant deposits on our own ground that we can treat here.
So it's really about optimizing the value here, which is we don't believe the mine plan currently for the later years is optimal, which is why also I think one of the reasons we were able to acquire this asset for the amount that we did. But yes, I mean, in terms of obligations going forward, as far as the JV is concerned, they're not material in a bigger group.
Thanks for that. And I'm sorry if I missed it, but what's the CapEx for this plant?
It's about $35 million, the total construction CapEx.
So the guys went and did an incredibly good job in terms of sourcing a plant that was on care and maintenance for, I think, about $1 million. And that significantly, I mean, that's one of the huge competitive advantages here.
That plant normally would be in the order of $30-$40, and they picked it up for $1 million. That was sort of a great coup from their perspective.
Okay. No, thanks for that. And then just onto Barberton, I know there's been lots of discussion. So my question is just, is there a risk that at some point you start losing critical mass? So Consort, you've restructured, seems okay. Let's see whether that's sustainable. Now, you've got issues at Sheba, which is fairly new because maybe the focus was always Consort. So I get the restructuring, it's probably long overdue. It's never nice doing this. We understand all that. But just from a critical mass and scale perspective, are you not running up against a big risk going forward?
Well, that's why we have to be quite careful. But I mean, we've been. I mean, in terms of it's not really new. If you look at, I mean, for the last four, five years, I mean, we've been spreading our portfolio in terms of lower-cost assets and then the higher cost. Consort, Sheba, for as long as I now can remember, has been sitting at high cost. There's been a number of initiatives, most recently continuous operations, which initially, I mean, certainly it's bearing fruit at Fairview. At Sheba, it sort of did a bit, but now we're running out of steam again. I mean, this is one of the things that you have to do on occasion is restructure businesses.
I mean, if you think about it, we've been preparing for it for some time. I mean, about five, six years ago even, we started the Project Ebenezer, which links Sheba and Fairview. And it's premature now to explain to you exactly what the restructure would look like. But there's a strong argument to be made that Sheba and Fairview, to some extent, should be one mining complex. And then you can reduce quite materially. So we're quite cognizant of the fact that an underground mine needs certain scale. But on a plus side also, BTRP now, I mean, we were nearing the end of life. BTRP is going to continue for many more years. So as a complex, Barberton should generate attractive returns going forward as it has for many years.
Okay. Cobus, thanks. And then last one, probably a pretty similar question on Evander. So the performance there's also always been quite erratic, right? And you've explained all the issues over time, what happens there. I guess my question is, given that history, given the complexity, I know you've put in infrastructure, but that 1,450-1,500 All-in Sustaining Cost, is that achievable? Is it not one of these assets where it runs okay for two or three quarters, and then it struggles for two or three quarters? It's a very broad question, and we can spend more time on that tomorrow. But yeah, just give us some comfort that the worst is behind. And even in your intro, you talked about you did some stuff there that in hindsight you probably wouldn't do again as a company.
Just give us a sense of how you approach this and what has changed. And is this new infrastructure the big breakthrough that's going to see a more consistent performance? Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, Arnold, as you say, it's been most of the gray hairs that you see on my head is related to Evander Underground. Let's take a step back again. I mean, I think the group's done well in terms of diversifying now to lower, less volatile ounces. We've spent the capital now. It's not the most complicated underground mine in South Africa. Currently, there's 11 or 12 mining crews. I mean, at sort of in speak, that ramps up to 15 or 18 or so. It's quite manageable. There's nothing wrong with the ore body here. The Kimberley ore body is sort of head grade, seven, eight grams per ton. I mean, in the current context, globally, it's a good ore body. The infrastructure has been challenging, as we know. We were very focused on extracting the pillar, and the guys did an excellent job.
We generated very good cash flows. I mean, it's not going to be a huge risk for the group going forward. And it's important to obviously sort of dwell on the downsides. But the break-even for this mine going forward in terms of cash costs is circa 65 odd kilograms. With capital, that increases. But I mean, most of the capital is spent. So I mean, we have it under control. It's been incredibly frustrating. But in a bigger context, I think it's something that we need to manage and that we will manage.
Chris, thank you very much. That's it from me. We'll chat more tomorrow.
Thanks.
The next question we have is from Raj Ray of BMO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Alberto. Good morning, Chris and Marilyn. Got a couple of questions on your South African portfolio and then a couple on TCMG.
First up on Barberton, following up on the questions earlier, you talk about right-sizing. I know the target was to get 80,000, but do you think that 65,000-70,000 is what you're looking at in steady state for the next little while? And the second question, it's more broad in terms of, look, the share price performance has been good. Part of that gold price, part of that, I think, is long overdue. The company has been delivering a lot of metrics. But at this point, the focus shifts to free cash flow operation. We talked about your all-in sustaining cost at these gold prices are going to generate a lot of free cash flow. But then again, on top of your all-in sustaining cost, you have all these other developments in terms of BTRP extension, the Sheba Fairview infrastructure, Egoli.
Can you give us some sense of what the capital expenditure is going to be over your sustaining capital over the next few years?
No, it's a good question. So I mean, we obviously run our models very regularly from a cash flow perspective. And I think being fairly conservative using a gold price that's lower than spot, I mean, we're going to, and this is what we've said in the announcement, we'd be including quite a very decent increase in dividends. The group will be materially ungeared in the next 12-18 months. So the beauty, Raj, is that we've spent pretty much all of the growth capital. I mean, the BTRP extension will be in the order of, the pump station is going to be sort of $4 million. It's not a huge expense.
Only in 2027, 2028, do we need to start building a new tailings facility at Barberton. And that's not going to be a massive expense. Egoli is a separate growth project, and there's been no final decision on undertaking Egoli. So our sustaining capital for FY26, which obviously then speaks to the very attractive cash flow generation for the group, we estimate currently $50-$60 million with very limited large growth to spend there.
Okay. That's good. And then on TCMG, just some clarification. So the next five years' production, that is based on 100% attributable to Pan-African. The JV is not included there. Is that correct? And secondly, also yeah, go ahead.
There's some small numbers on the JV, but again, we have lots of optionality. If you talk about cash flow generation, unless we got our numbers massively wrong, the debt that's sitting, the Australian debt that's sitting in TCMG, should be repaid. I'm trying to be fairly conservative. Let's call it 6-12 months given the open pit. Everywhere there's huge potential on reserves and resources. I mean, this is sort of part of what we will do is optimizing the value for Pan African shareholders in terms of coming up with a mine plan that we believe it works. We can run for a number of years without going to JV ground.
Then on how much do you expect to spend on exploration and studies at TCMG?
I mean, it's a five-odd million AUD per year. If we look at the exploration success up to now, $5 million goes a very long way in that gold field.
Okay. That's great, Cobus. Thanks a lot. That's it from me.
The next question we have is from Peter Mallin-Jones of Peel Hunt. Please go ahead. Peter, your line is live. Please go ahead.
Peter, we can't hear you.
At this stage, there's no response from that line, and we have no other questions.
Great. It's just some of the webcast calls.
Thank you, Cobus. We've got just a few questions on the online platform. First one is from a private investor, Dana. He asks two basic questions. Why aren't you listing on the FTSE 250 now that you qualify? And in this high gold price environment, how are you going to get your AISC back down to $1,400? The last question is, how much debt did you take on from the Tennant acquisition? Thank you.
Answer the debt question.
Thank you. On the debt included from the Australian acquisition, it was a total of $31 million, of which $6.5 million was actually a debt facility from the Northern Territory government, and the remaining balance of the debt was provided by an Australian finance company.
Yeah. In terms of listing, yes, certainly our view is we'd qualify as FTSE 250. The AIM market up to now has worked quite well for us. There are concerns around AIM, particularly taxes and liquidity, but we understand that there is a review ongoing. As the group has grown, we continue to assess sort of where we will get best value. Most markets work well if you are able to engage with the investor base over time.
So that's what we've done in the UK, and we remain committed. There are costs involved, and that's one of the options we are looking at is potentially upgrading at some point to a Main Board listing in the UK. As far as the question on costs are concerned, you can't look at costs without looking at your production increase also. So we're moving from 200,000 ounces to 270. Much rather have 270,000 ounces at $1,500 than having 200 at $1,400. Gold is I've come to the conclusion gold is so valuable because it's so difficult to mine profitably over time. I think that's what we are able to do. The global sector has seen huge increases in costs. Most or many of our cost increases are out of our control. Reagents, we simply need cyanide. Otherwise, we can't produce.
Electricity, unfortunately, even though we've made good strides as far as renewables are concerned, we're very much still reliant on the South African power grid. So the only way to mitigate this is to be efficient. And if you look at our overall cost increases in rand, these have been very well controlled. And again, cost discipline is part of what we do as Pan African. And it's also one of the reasons we're now relooking at the Sheba Mine. So yes, I can assure you that cost control remains front of mind for Pan African despite the really good gold price at the moment.
Thanks very much, Cobus. Lebelo Mafakeng from Truffle Asset Management says, "Hey, Chris and team, thanks for the opportunity. There's four questions. Can you please guide us on guidance and AISC for FY26, the restructuring costs at some of the underground operations, guidance on the production profile for TCMG, and capital allocation given spot prices? Do you see more acquisitions at this point, or is it largely a dividends and degearing story? And please explain the mismatch between production and sales volume? Thanks.
Do you want to do the production sales first?
Thanks for the question. The only difference between the volume of gold sold and the volume of gold produced is just that the volume gold produced includes deliveries made to Rand Refinery that haven't been settled yet to the bullion banks. So we cannot credit that as sales, whereas gold sales only include the gold that has been transferred to the bullion banks yet.
So there's quite a significant number, about five odd thousand ounces in the last half year. So that did impact our performance results. As far as capital allocation is concerned, I think changes for Pan African, we're conservative. That looks if you compare, look at most of our investments, it's a two, three, four-year payback, and that won't change. We'd love to increase dividends, and at this gold price, there's every reason for us to look to and do so. And again, we can do that and degear and continue to invest in our assets in this very good gold price environment. As far as the TCMG production is concerned, I mean, I think the average is about 65,000 ounces over the initial life of mine. We've said that there's a lot of work still to be done there.
But rest assured, FY26, the guidance is 48,000-60,000 ounces, which I think, I mean, is going to generate a lot of cash and a lot of profits for this group, again, at this gold price. What was that last question, Hethen?
The capital allocation given spot prices. Do you see more acquisitions at this point, or is it largely a dividends and degearing story?
So I think in our business, you either move forward or you move backwards. That means you have to continue to look. But I mean, we now have the benefit of three large complexes in South Africa, one in Australia. There's no need for us to go buy anything else at this point to maintain and increase our production profile.
As we've demonstrated in the past, I mean, the best assets, I mean, you can wait for and oftentimes it sits in your own portfolio like Elikhulu. Mintails, we were exceptionally, I wouldn't say lucky because it took a lot of work, but Mintails, we acquired two million ounces for sort of less than $2 an ounce. Exceptional. Those are the sort of acquisitions we'd like to do. TCMG, it was also a specific set of circumstances. We were very fortunate to have picked it up. But there's such a lot of scope for growth now in our portfolio. There's no reason for us to go and scouting for assets. Certainly, I mean, the situation in the rest of Africa at this point, I mean, a lot of jurisdictions have deteriorated and very difficult to go and do long-term investments.
We're very happy now, I think, in terms of how we have positioned the group.
Thanks, Cobus. Just two more questions. Lerato Choune from Momentum Investments asked, "How do we intend reducing debt levels?"
Well, it's quite simple. I mean, we produced quite just more or less what we've said we would. At gold price, it's a bit lower. Call it R1.5-R1.55 million per kilo versus R1.7 at the moment. And in the next 12-18 months, that degearing then sort of pretty much takes care of itself.
Thanks, Cobus. And the last question from Dineo at Sunday Times. "Good morning. What is the impact of the Section 189 at Sheba on the workforce?" And the second last part is, "Can you give more color to your comments about consolidation of tailings?" I guess that would be Mogale and Soweto Cluster. Yeah.
So we're now engaging in a difficult process with our unions, and we can't yet exactly say what the impact will be. But I mean, we as Pan African and as Barberton Mines have sat back and said, "I mean, the current situation is unacceptable. The productivity per employee is unacceptable. And we now have to move to something that makes this mine sustainable to the benefit of all stakeholders." So this is a process, and we've committed to having it all done and wrapped up by the end of our financial year, which is June. As far as consolidation is concerned, the fact that we now have a world-class plant to be able to expand, you need a certain scale to actually get into the tailings business as we know.
There are stranded smaller assets in that part of the world, both Soweto and at Mogale, which we over time can consolidate. Not that we need to do so in the short term. Mogale by itself, you'd remember as a 13-year-old life, if we add Soweto, 21 years. So yes, it's just quite simply we have the infrastructure and we have the people. So that puts us in a very competitive position.
That's all for now. Thank you, everyone, for participating. And that's all for now. We'll see you at the next results.
Thank you very much.