Well, good morning and thank you everyone for joining today. This morning's price move aside, it's a fabulous time to be in the gold industry, and I'm going to use this presentation today to share with you some of the three key themes that drive us at OceanaGold. The value that we've delivered across our portfolio, the returns that we're generating for our shareholders, and the growth that we see in our portfolio and we're in the process of delivering. Before I begin, just draw your attention to the cautionary statements, particularly in relation to forward-looking statements, and a reminder that every time I mention a dollar, it's a U.S. dollar. OceanaGold, a global intermediate gold and copper producer with four operating mines in good jurisdictions. We're focused on safely and responsibly maximizing the generation of free cash flow from our assets and delivering strong returns from our shareholders.
At the end of last year, we had gold reserves of close to 6 Moz and gold resources of nearly 9 Moz. We expect to add to both through successful exploration and through the acquisition of Ausgold, which I'll talk about later. For over 35 years, we have successfully explored, developed, acquired, and operated gold mines, and we have an excellent suite of organic growth opportunities in progress at each of our operations, as well as that which comes from the acquisition of Ausgold. We're listed on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and, as of April this year, the New York Stock Exchange, which had the benefit of meaningfully increasing our trading volumes and liquidity.
We have four producing assets presently in three countries, and following the expected addition of Ausgold in December of this year, we'll be adding a fifth asset in a Tier 1 jurisdiction, being the Katanning Gold Project in Western Australia. This year, we're guiding towards production of between 520,000 and 590,000 ounces of gold, the midpoint of which is a 12% increase on our 2025 actual production. Our largest producer is the Haile Gold Mine, located here in the United States. It's producing around 45% of our production in 2026. Didipio in the Philippines produces around 17% of our 2026 gold production and all of our copper production. In New Zealand, we have the Macraes operation, which is the foundation asset of the company, 36 years young and contributing over 25% of our production this year. And also in New Zealand is our Waihi Gold Mine.
Presently our smallest producer at around 12% of production, but it is core to our major organic growth project, being the Waihi North Project. The Waihi North Project will scale up and extend the production from Waihi for decades, and that is all enabled by unlocking access to the truly exceptional high-grade Wharekirauponga ore body. Each of these assets has attractive organic growth potential that we're in the process of executing, and we believe this will generate enormous value for our shareholders. Turning to our per-share metrics and return on capital, you can see how our strong operational and financial performance has translated directly to the bottom line for shareholders over recent years. Free cash flow and operating cash flow per share have grown significantly, reflecting strong cost control, good capital allocation, and the fact that we take all of the gain in gold prices to the bottom line.
Unlike other producers, we have no gold hedges, no gold prepays, and we have no gold royalty financings. Over the 12 months to 30 June this year, we generated $739 million of free cash flow. This represents a free cash flow yield of approximately 12% of our market cap. Over the same period, our return on capital employed, which is EBITDA over our net asset position, sat at 29% for the 12-month period. All of these graphs show the benefit of being fully exposed to the gold price and good management of costs and capital. On the topic of capital management, we have a very clear capital allocation framework. It deploys our operating cash flow in a balanced and predictable way that allows us to sustain the business, to grow the business, to return capital to shareholders, and keep the balance sheet strong.
On the left-hand side of this graph, you can see how we allocated capital in 2025, and on the right, how we have done so in 2026, maintaining much the same balance, although in 2026 with a much greater emphasis on growth. Our sustaining capital expenditures include mine development, investments in site infrastructure, and improving the integrity of our plant and mobile fleet, which is all about ensuring that we can produce the most gold we can in a year in times of good gold prices. Our growth expenditures this year and last are overwhelmingly on the Waihi North Project, and in this year, to a lesser extent, the development of a new mine underground at Haile called the Palomino Underground Mine. Our exploration expenditures are growing a lot this year, in addition to what was a record expenditure program last year.
That's because, A, we have the financial wherewithal, but B, we have a tremendously exciting land package and have a wonderful history of adding value through the drill bit. Our capital allocation framework is very shareholder return oriented. In 2025, we returned over $200 million directly to our shareholders. At the halfway mark of this year, we've returned $174 million, representing around 26% of our operating cash flow in the form of buybacks or dividends. Subsequent to that date in the third quarter, we've obviously paid another dividend and continued the buyback program. After all this, we've still been able to add cash to the balance sheet. Our cash position is up 37% from the December to $655 million at the half year. Our capital allocation is working as designed. Sustaining the business, growing the business, returning capital to the shareholders, and strengthening the balance sheet.
On to our flagship organic growth project, where we are making a substantial investment and tremendous progress. The project centers on the high-grade Wharekirauponga ore body, also known as WKP, which is located 10 km to the north of our existing Waihi operation. At the end of last year, and this is on a reserve that we booked in December 2024, we had a reserve of 1.2 Moz at 9.2 g/t , which we expect will grow with further exploration done since its reserve was booked. The project was fully permitted in December 2025, and 2026 has been a year of incredible progress. We commenced the decline development in May and have advanced over 350 m to date.
Construction of the first ventilation shaft is underway, and we expect to be down at that level where we can begin the development of the twin decline towards WKP in the first half of 2027. All surface construction, infrastructure, services, underground tunneling activities are progressing to plan, with the project remaining on track for first ore to be delivered in 2032. Last week, we put out an update to the market on both exploration and the project. As it related to the project, we flagged that we're also evaluating the expansion of the Waihi Mill, which would allow us to continue milling ore from the Waihi Mine, the existing mine, as well as the additional high-grade ore that will come from WKP in 2032.
The effect of that mill expansion would be to increase and extend Waihi's production from the volumes that we had had in the last technical report. We plan to update the technical report and reflect both that thinking as it relates to mill sizing, but also exploration results in the past 18 months, and update and release that technical report in January 2027. I mentioned that last week we released an update on WKP. What we showed was just the phenomenal drill results that we get from this exceptional ore body. The drill results show that we have exceptional grade and continuity of the EG vein. That's the only vein that we're drilling. It's one of three identified vein zones. We got some of the highest-grade intercepts reported to date, such as the headline result of 6.3 m at 97 g/t .
This confirms the continuity and up-dip extension of the southern zone that we identified earlier this year. All of these drill holes, and you can see with the dotted line outside of the solid line, is extensions out and from the reserve. The reserve is in the solid line. The areas are surrounded by the dotted line outside of reported reserve. Watch this space for the update in January. You can see from the diagram, the area is highly mineralized, open to the north and south, with outstanding growth and conversion potential. We've recently increased the number of active drill rigs in this year and look forward to further drilling and an updated technical report to daylight the exceptional value of this phenomenal ore body. From one phenomenal part of New Zealand to another, Macraes. It's been the foundation asset of the company, as I said.
It's operated continuously for 35 years and in July produced its 6 millionth ounce of gold. It mines from open pits as well as underground. From its open pit, it has an industry-leading low cost of material moved of $1.70 per ton and from a processing perspective is technically outstanding. Its current reserve life in the reserve report that we released in March of this year has it running to 2032. A few weeks ago, we released a summary of our updated application to the authorities in New Zealand that will extend the mine life until the late 2030s. We call this the Macraes Phase 4 Project. It has the ability to show Macraes can produce at 100,000+ ounces of gold per annum into the late 2030s. Beyond that, we see a real opportunity to extend its life into the 2040s.
That would be unlocked by further exploration success, but also the resolution of certain technical studies and further mine permitting. For an asset that started life in 1990 with a seven-year reserve life, you can see why we think it has the potential to deliver more for longer than what was shown in its most recent technical report. I mentioned Ausgold a few times. We've spoken a lot about how we would approach inorganic growth in OceanaGold. In Ausgold, we found an asset that was exactly what we were looking for. We announced in August that we would be acquiring Ausgold, which is the owner of the Katanning Gold Project in Western Australia for $549 million. It will add a high-quality fifth asset to our portfolio in a Tier 1 jurisdiction.
It's a conventional, relatively low capital open pit development project with the potential for more than 100,000 ounces of gold production annually over an initial 10-year mine life, with first gold expected in 2029. It also excitingly comes with district-scale exploration upside, providing a growth platform to continue to add value for many years to come. Our largest office in the company is actually in Brisbane. That's where we house our exploration and technical team with permitting expertise. I think the Ausgold team have done a stellar job with the Katanning Gold Project, and we think their great work will be supplemented by the team that we have there in Australia to realize full value for this project.
We have an exceptionally strong financial position and that together with the cash flows that we are generating presently allow us to complete the transaction, fund the development of Katanning, continue developing all of our organic growth options, still invest significantly in exploration, and continue to return capital to shareholders. This, we believe, will be taken to the Ausgold shareholders in late November, and we expect this transaction to close in early December. Pulling all these themes together, you have a fabulous story of lower risk and largely organic growth.
What this graph shows in the solid bars are the production profiles from our latest technical reports using reserve-only cases, together with the additions that we see from Macraes that I spoke about, that extra 100,000 oz from 2032 onwards, with the permit extension and Katanning at 100,000 oz, starting with 50,000 oz in 2029 for illustrative purposes. What you see here is a pathway to us increasing production by 30% to 650,000 oz. What this doesn't include is the benefit of that mill expansion at Waihi that I spoke about, which would further uplift the contribution of Waihi and WKP to this profile. All of this 30% growth in production is expected to be fully self-funded from our operating cash flow or cash on hand in line with our capital allocation framework. To wrap it all up, OceanaGold has built real value across a diversified portfolio.
We've delivered strong returns, and we have a really attractive organic growth pipeline. As we look ahead, we're going to advance the Waihi North project, advance the Palomino Underground, and advance soon the Katanning Gold Project. We'll continue to unlock further organic growth opportunities that sit at each of our assets. We'll continue to fund exploration and value creation through the drill bit, given our strong track record. We'll continue to generate strong returns for our shareholders, and we'll do all of this safely and responsibly. Thank you for your time, and I'll now hand over to Ovais to take any questions.
Yeah, we do have a couple of minutes for questions. Anyone in the audience? Okay, I have a couple, Gerard. Just starting off, you had a great first half. Second half is supposed to get better. There's obviously going to be some operational as well as free cash flow momentum going into the end of the year. You've got a great cash position right now, and you've got a great capital allocation policy as well. Is there an opportunity, the fact that you are increasing that cash position to increase that share buybacks and dividends right now? Or is that a consideration? Or are you keeping that cash position for the Katanning project that you're going to be building?
Yeah. Well, I point to the fact that we did most of our buybacks in the fourth quarter of last year, and year- to- date, I think we'll have done just under $200 million of the target, up to $350 million. So if that cash does materialize, which is a combination of both operating performance and gold prices, there always is the potential to increase that. But we are, with the closure of the Ausgold project, sorry, the Ausgold acquisition, having an up to $137 million of cash going out of the door for the 25% of the consideration that could be taken in cash. So that could be good news. It's great having cash for our business. It does unlock the opportunity to access other development projects should we find one that meets our criteria.
With the announcement of the Ausgold acquisition, the Katanning project now really kind of fits in well between now and when WKP comes in. Is there additional M&A that you're looking at? Or you're going to, okay, M&A is now on the back burner, now we're going to focus inwards?
Well, never say never, but we certainly with the acquisition of Ausgold have, I think, removed the overhang of uncertainty that was potentially looming on the company about what were we going to do. We had a clear strategy for growth. We were very clear about the regions that we were looking at. We were clear about the criteria that we were looking at. And Ausgold fit those. We do have a very small, although one of the guys is much taller than me, business development team. Their job is to look for opportunities. They will continue to look for opportunities. But we certainly do not have a compulsion to do anything.
Okay, one more, maybe final question from me. We saw some great results coming out from WKP. Obviously, you have started the portal kind of going towards WKP from Waihi. Is there an opportunity to start setting up drill station along the 10 km drift where you can start testing out the whole entire area between WKP and Waihi?
Yeah, look, short answer is yes. We have 10 permitted drill pads, and we have to site those very wisely. So we certainly focus on the EG vein because that is where the known mineralization is greater. But in about the middle of next year, we go right past some known epithermal veins. That is literally right past where we are taking the twin decline to. We look forward to just putting a drill cutting off to the left or right of those, Ovais. And it would be really exciting, too, in what is a really geologically prospective area to find some gold along the way. That would be free ore. And yeah, watch this space.
Good stuff. We are out of time now. But thank you very much, Gerard. Really great update. Thank you.