Aeris Resources Limited ($AIS)

Okay. I think let's start. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Aeris Resources quarterly presentation. I will take you through the presentation. End of the presentation, there will be time for Q&A. [Operator Instructions]. I guess to kick off, again, a strong quarter. The balance sheet are getting stronger every quarter. And really, this is sort of setting Aeris up for a very good FY '27. But quarter-on-quarter for the last 3 quarters, the business has improved quarter-on-quarter, and we're very pleased when you see the numbers that the balance sheet keeps on looking a lot better. Just sort of stepping through the presentation. We're still forecasting to achieve that 40,000 to 49,000 tonne copper equivalent as per the guidance. The development projects, they're all progressing well. You'll see when we talk through it. At Jaguar, we started the exploration drilling for the base metals in the last few weeks and Stockman feasibility study is getting closer to being able to release. On the exploration side, as we said before, we're putting a lot of effort and money into exploration this financial year, and we're targeting around that $30 million spent this financial year on exploration. And clearly, the focus is on extensions of those resources. The growth, as everyone probably on this call know, the Peel transaction is ongoing, and we'll touch on Peel a little bit in the presentation in the back end. We put this strategy up in the beginning of the financial year. And really, we're getting to a point we can tick most, if not all, of those boxes. At Tritton, as we said, it's all about the Murra Pit. The Murra Pit is now in full production and will deliver 1.5 million tonnes in the next 6 to 7 months, which means the Tritton mill will run nearly at full capacity or at full capacity for FY '27 and specifically for quarter 4. We really focus on Constellation on time. And you'll see when we talk through it, we have brought some initial capital forward, just all of that to make sure we derisk the project for early start in quarter 1, FY '27, and exploration, as I said, the clear focus. At Cracow, Golden Plateau drilling is going extremely well, and you'll see some of the results. And that was all about how do we extend the Cracow mine life through exploration. The North Queensland assets sold at Jaguar, as I said earlier, we've started the base metal drilling. We've got the care and maintenance now to the bare minimum and really we'll start to see some of those results coming through in the next quarter. We've said we'll put the Stockman feasibility study out early in FY '27, and that is progressing to plan. So as we start to work through the different areas and strategies, a lot of it has been done and a lot of it will be done in the fourth quarter. So progressing really well to deliver a stronger FY '27. The key points for FY '26, the key takeaway for us is cash and receivables sitting at $150 million. That's a significant step up quarter-on-quarter and even from $106 million to $150 million, and that is really pleasing to see the balance sheet strengthening. Cash flow from operations, really strong quarter-on-quarter, 72%, up $76 million for the quarter. And you can see the production sitting at 10,400 copper equivalent tonnes at a group level at $4.86 a pound, really a great outcome. Cost, as always, well managed across the business. We'll talk a little about diesel, and I'm sure there's questions around what is the diesel impact, and I'll deal with it perhaps right now. Currently, we had no issues with supply of diesel, and we don't see any issues with supply. It's more on pricing. The quarter was not impacted much around pricing. We expect, in quarter 4, to see a higher diesel price. Now for us at a group level, that's about $0.12 a pound additional cost, which is a 2.5% increase at a group level, but it's not a material impact, but that's sort of where we see the diesel pricing sitting for the next 6 months or so. We talked about field. Tritton, although as we discussed in the last quarter, with the delays due to the geotech issues in the mill -- in the Murrawombie Pit, we have revised the plan for Tritton as an internal plan. They fell a little bit short of that, not much, and it was mainly due to the first ore grades we got out of the pit in the transition area was lower than we expected and a little bit of dilution from underground. But overall, pretty close to the revised plan. Murrawombie Pit is now absolutely on ore. There was a stockpile at the end of the quarter. As I said earlier, there will be 1.5 million tonnes mined by November and significant stockpile buildup from open pit mining. Constellation project, early works. We have committed $10 million to $15 million, which is not in guidance, but we really thought that instead of leaving it for FY '27, bring that forward and start to derisk the business. That early works is around infrastructure and road to get that all set up and ready to go. And we'll talk about Cracow and Golden Plateau as we go through the presentation. Strong cash flows from operations. You can see there sitting at between the 2 operations, $95 million in operating cash flows. We are still invested. Growth capital of around $20 million in the Murrawombie Pit and the closing balance, as you can see from a cash point of view, sitting at $119 million. When you look at the year-to-date, $232 million operating cash, significant investment that was -- most of that capital was for the Murrawombie pre-strip. Now that's done. There will be no more growth capital for Tritton in the next quarter or very little, but now it would go into operating costs. And you can see the proceeds of the equity raise and closing balance, so very strong operating cash flows while we're still investing significantly in the business. Looking at the different operations at Tritton specific, significant increase in ore tonnes, and that is on the back of the Murrawombie Pit starting to deliver ore, but it's also good ore tonnes from underground, with this focus on keeping the mill running at maximum capacity. So the mill capacity is 1.8 million tonnes. At some days, we're running it above that level, but we're targeting that 1.8 million tonnes. And you can see the March quarter starting to deliver an increase in that production, both from a mine and processing point of view. We have said in the last quarter already that due to the delay of the Murra Pit, we are targeting towards the bottom end of the guidance, but we're still targeting within guidance for Tritton and delivery on production. This is just a few images. That's the open pit, but you can see the significant work in the bottom image of what was done on the old heap leach pads. Now those are closure costs, which is part of the environmental bonds. And we use the waste from the pit to close those old heap leach pads, and that will be a material change from a cost saving point of view to close those old pads, but also will have an impact on the bonding requirements for those pits over time. The Murrawombie Pit, as I said earlier, we will do about 1.5 million tonnes in the next -- till November and the growth capital is now done in the pit. So it's all on ore and delivery to the plant. This is -- as we all know, this is the future of the business. Constellation, we've done a lot of work. We've now settled on a smaller open pit mine, so it's a 2-stage pit, which will then go underground. And you can see there's some really good high grades early up in the underground. We've committed to spend that additional capital early, and that was to set it up so that when we get on ground, we can start to move fast. And all the capital currently is planned to be funded from operating cash flows at Tritton into the future. And remember, this ore body starts literally 8 meters below surface. So it's not a massive pre-strip to get on ore. It's about 6 months, and you should see some ore coming out of Constellation. On the permitting side, that's all on track. We're expecting a mining lease to be granted in quarter 4. And as we said before that in quarter 1, we will kick off constellation development and processes. A lot of money into exploration. We're focusing on all these resource extensions across the Tritton portfolio, currently focusing on Avoca Tank. And we've seen some really great results coming Avoca Tank. We now believe that the amount of holes we drilled to a separate structure outside of the current known structure that is building up really nicely. And we will come out with a market update in the next month to really give everyone a feel for what we've seen. So Avoca Tank, it continues at depth. We perhaps found another ore body. We're drilling a lot of [indiscernible] on Budgerygar. What we're seeing at Budgerygar, thick and better extensions than what we expected originally, and we're also drilling South Wing and Tritton at depth. So a lot of effort is about extending those resources to 2 to 3 years ahead of our [indiscernible] and really good results. So current drill rigs, all running and we'll keep running into FY '27 to keep extensions. At Constellation, we are planning to start a drill program there, which will be a great control drill program, but also looking at further extensions at Constellation and the ability to bring a reserve update out in the next 2 to 3 months for Constellation as well. The Cracow results, as we've said before, Cracow is and has been delivering for the business for a long time now on target, on plan. And once again, they've done exactly the same, 10,000 ounces, $3,400 an ounce cost on budget and well managed. And we remain that they would end up around the midpoint of guidance. Golden Plateau is, of course, what we've been saying for a while now is where we think the future additional time and future can be other than the Western Vein Field, which will continue. Now we started off with a small drill campaign to start to test our theory around an open pit mine in Golden Plateau. We then expanded that to a 14,000-meter drill program, and you can see some of those results we're getting. The key for us was to confirm what we expected and what we've seen so far with the 32 holes drilled, they all intersected what we expected. So if that keeps going the way we think it is, we will -- we're getting more and more confidence that there will be a future open pit opportunity for Cracow around Golden Plateau. Now the size of that, we will all define, but that can be a material increase in mine life for Cracow on top of what you'll get out of the Western Vein Field at Cracow. On the project side, I'll just touch at a high level. We've said we want to do test the 8 base metal targets at Jag, and you can see each one of those yellow blocks. That's the target. We've already drilled the [ Panther ] target and there has been some good results or encouraging results. We've already started the second hole, and we will drill all of those targets within the next 2 months and then see where we go from there. But some encouraging results going through Jag. For those who hasn't sort of been on this before, we have made the clear decision that we would start Jag with a 10-plus year mine life. And part of developing that 10-year mine life is these 8 base metal targets. So we will drill them out and then see how do we progress with that further. As I said earlier, the Stockman updated feasibility study will be released early in FY '27. And as part of the simplification and looking at noncore assets, North Queensland has been divested. We got $5 million cash for it and with release of cash back bonds. Those cash back bonds are still restricted within the Washington Soul Pattinson facility for the bonding, which we've got in place. At a corporate level, you look at the closing cash quarter-on-quarter improvements, although September to December was on the back of an equity raise, but December to March was purely driven by operating cash flows and good results from the operation. At the receivables, it's $20 million in receivables. Now if you try to split that out, $20 million of that is just final payments for concentrates, which has already been sold and $10 million is for stock on hand and invoiced at the port. So that is money which will come in within the next month, the $20 million at least as payments for receivables. The operating cash flow from operations at $75 million, that's a 72% increase. So from where we sit, strong support, obviously, higher commodity prices, but it's also delivered through ongoing production achievements at the 2 operations. We'll just touch a little on the Peel transaction for those who hasn't been in these presentations. So clearly, for us, we looked at Peel as a strategic transaction on how do we get Tritton to a 10-year 30,000 tonne mine with 2 strong resource or reserve back projects. Now we have already talked about Constellation. Constellation is the next 10 years. It will do about 750,000 ounces annually at around 2% copper plus gold. And one of the key other assets, which we always thought made sense was Mallee Bull, which is in the field portfolio. Mallee Bull is already a 6 million to 7 million tonne resource, also around 2%. Now as soon as we can put a home for it for processing, we can turn that into reserve. And between Mallee Bull and Constellation, for once they're both up and running, you're looking at 1.5 million tonnes at that 2% copper target plus then all the other assets at Tritton. So for us it was strategic. The logic makes sense. That's a 63% increase in resource for Tritton with Mallee Bull, obviously, the bigger resource. And most of that 122,000 tonnes of copper metal will convert into a reserve within a few months after the deal is closed. So clearly, for us, how do we pull Tritton to that 30,000 tonnes, the key deliverables will be Mallee Bull and Constellation, which you can see on that slide. And then we've got Wirlong and other Tritton assets, which we showed you earlier in the drilling results, all of those extending. So for us, within the next 3 years, we are targeting that as a group level around that 55,000 to 60,000 copper equivalent tonnes and that taking Tritton to 30,000 plus Cracow and then obviously, post that with the projects we have available. This is sort of an indicative time line. Everything so far is on target. We have the court hearing next week, and that will then progress further into a closing of the transaction by late June, early July. That's the current thought process. So look, that's sort of the summary. Obviously, we're on target for what we want to do. It's very pleasing to see the balance sheet improving, cash at hand improving. And we can invest where we need to invest to set the business up for FY '27 going forward into the next 3 to 5 years by setting it up and starting up these long-life projects and focusing on delivering longer life operations at both Cracow and Tritton. That is sort of the presentation. I'm happy to take questions if there's any questions from people on the call.

Paul Kaner has got a question. Paul, can you hear me?

Yes, Andre. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Just quickly on Murrawombie. I just want to get a sense of how that grade is tracking. And obviously, you've sort of gone through this transitional material this quarter that you've sort of moved into the sulfide. So I just want to get a sense of how that sulfide grade is tracking? And what we should assume for the coming quarters?

So we've seen, Paul, that in the last -- this month that the grade is now reconciling a lot better, now that's been the sulfide. So the grade has gone back up. The average grade over that 1.5 million tonnes I talked about earlier is around 1% copper. That's sort of what we'll see coming out of the pit over the next 5 months.

Okay. Great. And apologies if I missed this, but just moving on to Cracow. Just how that exploration drilling is going there at Golden Plateau. When should we expect a study on that? And when could this material feasibly come into the mine plan?

So look, the drilling is going extremely well. We've got drill rigs running all the time. You can see some of the results there. The key for us was always to ensure that what we think is there, is there. And what we've seen so far is confirming what we expected. So we will cut off exploration at Golden Plateau, the results, starting to put new design around it by June and then use those numbers to do a new design. That is -- the drilling will continue, but that would be the aim to start to get approvals and approvals will take about 12 months. So the aim for us is from today, around 18 months to 2 years to have Golden Plateau in production. Thanks, Paul. There was a few online questions. I don't think anyone else has put up their hand currently. I might just go to the Q&A. We've got a question here. What is the planned use for growing cash balance noted build transaction is a scrip, not cash? The planned use for the growing cash balance is investing in these capital projects. We will develop Constellation in the next 12 to 2 years. We will then develop the Mallee Bull mine and also look at Golden Plateau. So there's a lot of use and it's all about setting -- investing in the next 3 years for the long term because once you got these big projects up and running, the investment will drop off because they will run for 10-plus years, specifically Mallee Bull and Constellation. I hope that answers the question. I've got a few questions from Jason. Jason, I might answer some of those, for the others, we'll come back to you. We talked about the grade, and I think we talked that through. We talked about the grade we expected. The question was sort of what is the grade and FY '26 brownfields growth levers. So brownfield growth levers for Tritton, Jason, is really saying these extensions, which we're drilling at all these deposits on the property is where the brownfield sits. Drilling Constellation out further and extending that life and improve that reserve -- resource to reserve, that's where we see the value for the future, specifically for Tritton.. We talked -- you asked about higher gold prices and are we focusing on getting as much tonnes to the mill? That has been the case. We have done new mine plans around cutoff grades based on the higher prices, which we've seen. And Cracow is just -- the nature of the Cracow ore body is just these narrow vein high-grade ore bodies and you keep on extending them as you mine, and that's always been the case. But we have done the work and some of those resources is now in the mine plan. We talked about the drill rigs. I think that makes sense. The drill rigs will keep going into FY '27 to drill out Budgerygar, South Wing, Avoca Tank. Avoca Tank specific with the new load we found that will take quite a bit of drilling, and we're focusing a lot of effort into drilling that out because we see some really exciting results coming out of those. I think we've dealt with some of the other stuff. So Jason, we might contact you and send you separate e-mails, but we talked about Jag, and we talked about the alterations. We'll get back to you on some of those. Just checking if there's any other questions from anyone. There's a question from Steve. Are there any workforce or technical constraints on expansion of operations? The answer, Steve, is no. We've got the technical in-house workforce, but we'll also use consultants if needed to close out some of these projects. But we have set the business up successfully for all these projects coming up. I don't see any other questions or any other hands. If that is -- I'll give another minute or so for questions, and then we'll sign off. Okay, everyone. Thank you. I don't see any questions -- any more questions. Let me just make sure that we don't have any more questions. Then if that's not -- nothing else, it's just a quick look. In that case, thank you, everyone. Appreciate your time, and we'll talk again in 3 months.