Aeris Resources Limited (AIS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Aeris Resources Quarter 2 FY '26 Results Presentation. We'll go through the presentation, and then at the end we will allow some questions as we normally do. And please feel free to either send it on the chat or we'll have the option, you can put up your hand and we'll open it up for questions. This is just the normal disclaimer. But I guess, what an opportunity with gold hitting USD 5,500 an ounce, copper sitting close to USD 6 a pound. And really, when I looked at it, and don't forget about silver sitting at $120-plus, this is an opportunity for us to be in copper and gold. As you all know, we've got 2 producing mines. Tritton is copper, Cracow is gold, and Tritton do copper and so gold and silver byproducts. And really, we see it as an opportunity. This is a time to be in production, use these price scenarios to set yourself up, derisk the business and really look at how do you grow the business organically or otherwise and take opportunities. As you would have known, most of you on the call, we've got the 2 operating mines forecasting between 40,000 and 49,000 tonnes copper equivalent. We've got 3 development projects. We've got Jaguar and Stockman. And then at Tritton, we've got Constellation, and we'll talk a bit about the other assets. Substantial copper inventory, also gold and it really is an excellent platform, especially in this environment to really make a big difference and inroads into the future of the business. We talked about this slide quite a bit, but it's probably worth touching on it because a lot of progress has been made in the last 3 months since we last spoke. At Tritton, the Murrawombie Pit is ongoing. We'll see first production in this quarter. Constellation, you might have seen in December, we've announced that we got a development consent. That was a big step forward. And as we've always said, Constellation, looking at a timing to start it in quarter 1 and FY '27 to start the construction. Big focus, a lot of money, over $20 million will go into resource expenses and exploration across the business. And you'll see some really great successes we've seen so far at Tritton and then started to kick it off at Cracow. And a lot of focuses and the big challenge has always been for the business, we've always had -- around 4 years life, but we've had it for the last 12, is now actually saying how do we secure that long-term life for both these assets. So clearly, Cracow, I don't think people understand the potential value for Golden Plateau, but over the time, as we drill it out, I think it will become clear. And as we have been saying, the North Queensland assets, which we've sold, we now received government approvals for those transfers. It's now in the final stages, and it should complete in this quarter where we're currently in. The Jaguar strategy stay at focus on 10 years life. The base metal drilling will start this quarter and actually reducing that care and maintenance to the bare minimum has been what we've said, and we're busy executing on that. At Stockman, we're busy -- we finalized the test work. We've settled down on a path, feasibility study will be updated. And we have done a high-level concept study on asset, but the clear focus is not on the asset. It would be on developing a simple process flow sheet for Stockman. On the balance sheet, everyone know, we've raised $80 million. We also did an SPP, and thank you to shareholders who is online who supported that share purchase plan. We've raised over $20 million. We said we want to repay the debt. We've done that. So we're out of the Soul Patt's debt. And really, we have put in some gold hedging, although at the current prices, you would have thought about it differently, but it still was done at very good pricing. Just touching on the points for the quarter, strong operating performance or solid operating performance with very good strong cash balance at the end of the quarter, the highest it's ever been in my view, in the business. Copper equivalent production of 10,100 tonnes. Costs, as always, across the group, both in operating costs and capital, well managed, and we closed the quarter with cash and receivables of over $106 million. One of the things which we talk about quite a bit is we couldn't sell the last concentrate at Tritton worth about $18 million due to rail infrastructure, which has been burned down. There was still a wood bridge on the rail line, which burned, and we couldn't -- just couldn't get all the con to the port that we could have. So it could have been another $18 million on that if we managed to get the con. Currently, we should be back on track by the end of February, March or by the end of this quarter on getting all the con to port. I talked about the placement. I talked about the repayment of facility. The production at Tritton quarter-on-quarter was lower, but the 5,000 tonnes was on budget or our internal forecast. The reason being the lower production was twofold. One, in the first quarter, we had quite a bit of overflow tonnes from the Murra Pit Stage 1, which were processed. And then in the second quarter, we had a 10-day shutdown where we -- at the plant, we've actually done some major infrastructure replacements in the quarter. As I said in the strategy slide, really good intersections and resource extensions from both Avoca Tank and Budgerygar. We'll talk in a bit more detail. And once again, as Cracow has done over the last few years, consistently good gold production that was above the internal plans at a good rate and it's actually generating good cash for us. And we have spent some capital to build -- to lift, do another tailings dam lift as part of the capital profile. Drilling commenced in Golden Plateau for that open pit target. There's a slide, we talk a bit more. That is really exciting. And if that comes off, it's significant value for the business. And we talked about the North Queensland sale process already. Going into the different assets or looking at the cash flows. So for the quarter, you can see Tritton and Cracow did generate good operating cash flows. We spent about $40 million -- $41 million in capital and exploration. A big part of that capital, $23 million of that $41 million is actually the pre-strip of the Murra Pit. Now that should finish off in -- the pre-strip should be finished in this quarter, which will then get into ore production. You see the proceeds from the capital raise, that's the net proceeds and the other money, the debt repayment and other financing and other costs, closing the balance at $88 million, which are really, really healthy. On a year-to-date basis, I thought it was just good to show the year-to-date profile. Tritton, fairly strong operating cash flows, about $50-plus million of that capital and exploration, specifically the capital there for the Murra pit is about $50 million. The others are exploration and other general sustaining capital. And once again, you can see how it flows through to the current balance. But on an operating level, both operations doing really, really well. Looking at Tritton in a bit more detail. As you can see, production 5,000 at $3.94 per pound, all-in sustaining cost. We talked about the reasoning for the quarter-on-quarter lower production, the third-party rail infrastructure, which was the bridge, which we just couldn't get the last 5,000 tonnes of concentrate to the port, impacting the final cash balance. Strong drilling, a lot of [ meed ] has been drilled with the 4 rigs and the Constellation consent received, that is a big step. As I said, that still lines up with our time line to really get into Constellation in the first half of FY '27. We'll talk a bit more about those high-grade intersections. But clearly, as I said earlier, for us, a big focus this year is how do we create that life of mine with 5-plus years strong resource-backed tonnes. That's just a photo of the strip. One of the challenges we've had in the pit, there were some geotechnical issues high up in the oxide area in the pit. We had to do a bit of a redesign to make sure we don't -- we manage that carefully. But in the redesign using the grade control models and the new pit design, we're actually seeing 1,000 -- around 1,700 additional tonnes of metal, which will be mined in the pit, which is obviously a material potential increase in revenue without mining a lot more than what we originally planned. So Stage 2 ore will still be delivered in this quarter, although it will be slightly delayed because of those geotechnical issues, but the additional tonnes and also will come up fairly early in FY '27 in any way. The exploration side, a really exciting opportunity at Avoca Tank. You can see some of those -- the drilling, which you can see there on the slide. It's actually seen as a separate and offset to the original Avoca Tank ore body, and it's potentially a repeat of what we've had before. Really good grades, 22 meters at 3.2%, 9 meters at 1.65%. We're busy with the 13-hole program, and we already had 2 more holes, which did intersect in our view copper, we're waiting for those assays to come back. Now the program is focused on defining that so that we can keep the exploration -- the capital development going to make sure we got timely access to that potential new ore body to continue mining. At Cracow, we talked about Cracow a lot. That has been really a star performer for the business over the last probably 2, 3 years now where they consistently achieved their numbers, consistently achieved the ounce production. And this quarter, they've actually improved on our internal targets doing 11,000 ounces. As always, costs well managed. The TSF lift was ahead of schedule by quite a few months and drilling at Golden Plateau, which has started, and we'll keep the market updated on a fairly regular basis on what we see. But clearly, that drill program of 7,000 meters, the second drill rig has been mobilized this month. And clearly for us is drilling it out, defining the resource, putting a mine plan around it and been able by the first quarter in FY -- first half FY '27 to put a mine plan around it. And clearly, if that does come to what we expect to be, we'll give Cracow the life it's always needed to get to that plus 5-year mine life. And then this will make a material difference to the returns of the Cracow business in itself. On the project side, not going to spend too much time because we talked about it on the strategy slide. Jaguar is on care and maintenance, and we are in the process of dropping that maintenance cost further and the base metal exploration will kick off in this quarter. As I said before, we've got those 8 base metal targets, never been tested before, and that program will focus on drilling those 8 base metal targets in the next 2 quarters. Stockman, there's been a lot of progress on Stockman. The Albion, we've looked at Albion. We will give the market an update on Stockman within the next couple of months, but we're now focusing on a simple flotation process and doing a feasibility study and finishing it off on that basis. And as I said earlier, the North Queensland divestment is expected to finish off in the next month. We've now received approvals. It's now the final completion of the conditions to get the final deal done. At a corporate level, $106 million in cash and receivables, a very strong position, as I said earlier in my presentation, probably the highest ever. We still got $17 million in restricted cash for environmental bonds. Now once the North Queensland assets are sold, $6.5 million of that will come back to the business. So remember, we said the assets are sold for -- they would be coming back to the business or into the business, about $11 million on completion, and then there's another deferred payment, but that is -- will make another big difference. The cash flow from operations, we talked about that already, fairly, very strong. Unfortunately, we didn't get that $8 million for the last stockpile concentrate sales. The one of the big benefits. Now you look at our balance sheet, there's no debt. We're debt free. We paid the $40 million worth of Soul Patt's debt. And now with a debt-free company with $100-plus million in the bank, I think it's a really, really great position, especially in this environment where we can take advantage as a producer on these significantly high commodity prices. I guess that sort of summarize the quarterly. It's been a good quarter in our view. Although Tritton was lower quarter-on-quarter, it performed within plan and things are on track for a fairly strong final 6 months in the business as we move forward. I'll close the presentation and then we can get into if there's any questions from anyone. So please put up your hand or if you've got questions, please type it into the chat and I'll take the questions there.

I saw a hand coming up, but that hand disappeared. I'll give it a bit more. I don't see any questions currently in the chat. I've got a question here from [ Alan Konan ]. What was the gold price we have -- we achieved in the last -- in the 6 months?" Alan, I don't have the answer off cuff, but, yes, I would guess it will be around AUD 6,200, AUD 6,300 an ounce. But I can come back to you on that number, but it would have been a pretty material and a good outcome. I got also a question from William. "Will Aeris ever pay a dividend?" Look, William, I would love to get to that point, depending on where we get to in the next couple of years or specifically in the next 12 months with Constellation coming up, we would develop those projects first and make sure we got enough cash for the capital investments. But clearly, when those capital investments is done and Aeris do generate enough, that would be something which would be considered. But for the short to medium term, the focus will be in developing our projects first. I got Alan saying, "When you announced the share price went up to $0.70," I was also excited, Alan. "And then it come down or is there any reason?" Look, it's hard to say why if you look at the general market in our peer groups, most of us has come down today. I think it's on the back of -- although it's high commodity prices, Aussie dollar has gone the wrong way. But I think it's just the general sentiment in the market. I don't think it's anything necessarily to do with the quarterly itself. It's just the way the market is behaving in my view. I've got a question from Harry, which is saying, "When you see Jaguar coming back online as an operating asset in earnest?" Harry, the answer would be, I don't really know, but the clear fact is if you drill the base metals and you do find a base metal target, it will take you at least 18 months to drill that out and to define the resource around it. So I would say it would be at least another 2 years before a decision will be made on a restart. Alan also asks about the gold price projecting for the full year '25-'26. Look, Alan, internally, we're just using consensus pricing for gold. We don't go beyond consensus pricing for our own planning. In fact, our internal planning is a number significantly lower than even the consensus pricing. And I kind of don't know the exact number for consensus pricing, but currently consensus would probably sit at AUD 6,200 an ounce, somewhere there, but we are using internally different pricing. If the gold price and copper price holds to the levels they currently are, there's obviously significant opportunity. We've got a question about the Stockman feasibility study. We will put a feasibility study out before the end of this financial year is the current plan. I've got a question here from about Soul Patt, and I sort of expected that. Most of you who follow the announcements would have seen that Soul Patterson is selling down. So originally, Soul Patterson was in at 31%. They're now below 20%. And look, for us, that is a good outcome because at 31%, they are a controlling shareholder. The feedback I had from them is they're basically just taking some profits like most shareholders would do at the sort of price where they came in. They don't -- at this stage, do not intend to sell out. So they will be a supportive shareholder going forward as they have been over the years has been the feedback, but, yes, I also don't control their investment decisions. Well, Alan, the silver production out of the business is around 240,000 ounces. I've got a question about how much can silver contribute to the business? Now currently, that's 240,000 ounces at $140. There's $33 million in -- is over a 12-month period at today's spot price, silver would contribute up to $30 million to the results for the business. So it is a substantial benefit. And all that silver or most of it are produced at Tritton. For gold hedging, we've got a question on gold hedging. So currently hedging, there's about 10,000 ounces outstanding. That's about another 6 months of hedging. Debt policy would review, again, if we do hedge or not. When we got big capital spend like Constellation looking forward, we do consider hedging, but it would be a decision at the time when we do it. Right now, there's no plans to hedge specific gold or copper. We have put in place a QP hedging for copper. So what that means is when you sell your copper, the buyer picks a 1- or 3-month window to finalize your settlement. And on that day they settle, that copper price gets used. So we have decided to lock in when you go in that you don't -- you protect yourself on the downside of that copper side. So that is just a smart way to ensure that with the money you think you're going to get when you sell your concentrate is locked in at least at that level because of the volatility in the copper price. We've already seen it moving $1,000 in the last 2 or 3 weeks. So look, I think that's all the questions I've had. I'll give it another 30 seconds or so if there's any more questions. Otherwise, we'll finish off. Okay. Well, thank you, everyone, and I really appreciate you dialing into the Aeris quarterly presentation. And as always, please feel free to reach out if there's anything else you would want to know. Thank you very much.