Ramelius Resources Limited (RMS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
September 20, 2026
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorThank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ramelius Resources Full Year Outlook and FY '27 Guidance. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mark Zeptner, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Mark Zeptner
executiveThank you, Ash. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to dial in for the presentation of Ramelius' full year outlook and FY '27 guidance. In addition to the ASX release, we have also released a presentation that we'll largely speak to during this call that outlines our pathway to 600,000 ounces of gold in FY '30. Both documents have been uploaded onto the ASX platform and will also be available on our website shortly. I am joined today by members of the executive team, our COO, Tim Hewitt; and our Chief Development Officer, Alan Thom, who are both in the room; and our CFO, Darren Millman, who is online from the U.S. Initially, I'll be speaking to the highlights included in the outlook, and then I'll pass on to Tim to discuss operations and exploration. Alan will touch on the Mt Magnet hub expansion progress and associated execution, and then Darren will speak to the balance sheet and capital allocation. Before I close with enough time for some detailed Q&A. For those who have the presentation deck in front of you, I'll initially be speaking to Slide 3. We can move that on. Thank you. As many of you know, our business is built around two high-quality hubs, Mt Magnet and Rebecca-Roe. Underpinning both is a large long-life resource base, 14 million ounces of mineral resources and 4.3 million ounces of ore reserves as reported in our August R&R statement. We'll note that, that resource figure does include Edna May, which we completed the sale of earlier this month. For this financial year, FY '27, production will be between 205,000 and 225,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of between AUD 2,150 and AUD 2,350 an ounce. That continues to put Ramelius in a peer-leading cost position. And our full year outlook takes production to between 560,000 and 610,000 ounces by FY '30. Importantly, we expect to do that with an all-in sustaining cost of between AUD 2,100 and AUD 2,400 an ounce, holding our low-cost position while the business grows nearly 3x. The Ramelius business is underpinned by scale, growth and margin. It is also worth mentioning that we have well over $200 million in listed investments, by way of our 10% holding in Ben Mining, and also 9.5% holding in Forrestania Resources. On to Slide 4. Ramelius is a high-margin Tier 1 producer that is growing strongly with both the balance sheet and the track record to deliver it. We are delivering a 205% increase in production from FY '26 levels through to FY '30, and we're doing it without margin dilution. Secondly, we will generate significant free cash flow. At gold prices between AUD 5,500 and AUD 6,000 an ounce by FY '30, we will be a business generating more than $1.5 billion of free cash flow a year. And we'll do this through maintaining a leading position on cost. We currently sit in the first 1/3 of the cost curve, and all of our assets are in Western Australia, a low-risk Tier 1 jurisdiction. While we grow, we'll continue to generate capital returns. It should be noted that in FY '26, we returned 65% of our cash flow back to shareholders, while at the same time, funding one of the strongest growth pipelines in the sector. We don't see these as competing priorities. We've shown that we can do both. We have the resource quality, and it is getting better through execution of our Exploration program. Our resource and reserve inventory provides a high-grade, long-life base to support 600,000 ounces a year well into the 2030s. And last but not least, on shareholder returns. Over the last 10 years, we've delivered total shareholder returns of around 25% a year, initially by way of fully franked dividends alone, but supplemented more recently with a comprehensive share buyback program. On to Slide 5, we have what we believe is a world-class gold portfolio. On the left is the Mt Magnet hub, which will produce more than 200,000 ounces this year, in line with our group guidance. This hub alone has a mineral resource of 157 million tonnes at 1.9 grams per tonne for 10 million ounces. The mill at Mt Magnet is currently running at just around 2 million tonnes per annum. And our focus is on upgrading this to 4.3 million tonnes initially, but being capable of doing up to 5 million tonnes a year by FY '30, when we expect this hub alone to produce between 420,000 and 460,000 ounces. On the right is Rebecca-Roe, 150 kilometers east of Kalgoorlie. This is our greenfield development project with a mineral resource of 60 million -- 67 million tonnes at 1.5 grams, for 3 million ounces and a planned 3.25 million tonne a year plant at that site. The DFS is complete. The Native Title mining agreement is signed, and we have a final investment decision in place. Rebecca has all of its approvals, both environmental and mining, and we expect the environmental approval for Roe to come through in the December 2026 quarter. That is next quarter. So in summary, we expect to be fully permitted within 6 months and actually planning more early works this financial year than we previously planned as we gain increasing confidence in the permitting time frames. Mill construction is scheduled to start in the December quarter of 2027 with first gold remaining in the December quarter of 2028. So let's get into a bit more detail. We'll go to Slide 7. The transformational high-grade growth at Mt Magnet Hub underpins our near-term production and cash generation that supports both shareholder returns and the expansion itself. Rebecca-Roe adds a second leg of growth. It brings further scale and extends our overall mine life. As I mentioned, gold production goes from 205,000 to 225,000 ounces this year to between 560,000 and 610,000 ounces in FY '30, on a midpoint basis from FY '27, that's still 172% increase. At the same time, all-in sustaining costs are essentially flat, $2,150 to $2,350 an ounce this year and between $2,100 and $2,400 an ounce in FY '30. And milling capacity goes from 2 million tonnes a year to 8.25 million tonnes a year across both hubs over the same time period, which is a 300% increase. The result is a high-quality, long-life portfolio that positions the group for reliable delivery while maintaining high margins. And because near-term production generates strong cash flow, the expansion is fully funded with the balance sheet remaining strong across the gold price scenarios that we've modeled. On to Slide 8, we see the profile. Dark blue is the Mt Magnet Hub with the lighter bars being Rebecca-Roe and the all-in sustaining cost is the gold line. Mt Magnet grows steadily from a little over 200,000 ounces in FY '27 to around 260,000 ounces in FY '28 and 350,000 ounces in FY '29. In FY '30, after the expanded plant is fully operational and the Never Never underground mine is at full production, Mt Magnet will produce approximately 440,000 ounces. Rebecca-Roe comes in from FY '29, contributing around 80,000 ounces in its first year and closer to 150,000 ounces in FY '30. Three key points to note on the production outlook. Firstly, we're leveraging existing infrastructure at our primary production asset, Mt Magnet, and execution is already underway. Expanding from an operating hub is lower risk and lower cost than starting from scratch. Secondly, the two processing plant builds a sequence rather than built at the same time. We believe this reduces execution risk and gives us continuity of production and in time, will mean that we're not reliant on a single asset. Third, our costs are disciplined. All-in sustaining costs sit around $2,150 to $2,250 an ounce in most years with the temporary lift you see in FY '29 as Rebecca-Roe kicks off with higher strip ratios in the first year, although it is worth noting that the Mt Magnet Hub continues to operate at an all-in sustaining cost around AUD 2,300 an ounce in FY '29. More ounces at leading all-in sustaining cost levels mean more cash generation and more capacity for returns. You'll be getting fantastic growth without erosion of margins at Ramelius. On to Slide 9. The believability of any plan, we believe, should be confirmed by the ability to deliver historically. And as we can see on the left-hand chart, we have met or beaten production guidance range for the last 6 years running. When we put a number out there, it is not done likely and always with the expectation that we will deliver and we'll do it safely, which is one of our company's core values. In terms of all-in sustaining costs, it is a similar story in many ways with guidance achieved up until the year just completed, where if you adjust the all-in sustaining cost range to account for the positive situation around early commercial production at Dalgaranga, we again were within the guidance range. To be clear, early commercial production meant that Dalgaranga was cash flow positive, that is after all costs 3 months earlier than we expected when guidance was set at the start of the year. And this outperformance actually increased our all-in sustaining costs for FY '26 to the tune of some $130 an ounce. I suppose that's accounting for you. On to Slide 10, this compares our all-in sustaining costs with the peer group average and also against the [ $8 ] gold price. You'll see there that from FY '23 to FY '26, Ramelius averaged an all-in sustaining cost margin of around 50%. Over the outlook period, FY '27 to FY '30, that average rises to around 62%, roughly 12 points higher despite the cost inflation the whole industry has experienced. Based on consensus estimates, our peer group sits around $2,900 to $3,100 an ounce, so let's call it $3,000, while Ramelius sits between $2,150 and $2,550 an ounce. This is between $400 and $900 an ounce lower than the peer average in each year. And this is consistent with historical performance. Ramelius has generally outperformed peers on an all-in sustaining cost margin over time, and we expect to maintain a meaningful margin premium all the way through FY '30. That means we can execute on our growth projects without compromising the quality of the business. And it also means that more of every dollar of the gold price flows through to cash, which gives us flexibility on both reinvestment and returns. In short, we're growing, and we're remaining one of the highest margin gold producers in the sector while we do it. I'll now hand over to Tim to talk through our exploration success.
Timothy Hewitt
executiveThanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. On Slide 11, this slide demonstrates a key part of our strategy in action. That is displacing low-grade material in the mill feed with high-grade material discovered from our FY '26 Exploration Program. The chart compares Mt Magnet's planned FY '30 mill feed in our October 2025, 5-year plan with today's full year plan, noting that the mill tonnage is consistent in both columns. What has changed is the quality of that feed. Our FY '26 Exploration success has displaced around 1.3 million tonnes of low-grade ore with high-grade ore. As a result, the average head grade rises from 2.9 grams to 3.4 grams, a 16% uplift. This flows directly to production with FY '30 Mt Magnet output moving from 380,000 ounces to 440,000 ounces, an additional 60,000 ounces. The benefit from our Exploration expansion has started, and we currently see this from FY '29 onwards. Moving on to Slide 12, and the next three slides demonstrate that return on our exploration investment. Firstly, let us review Galaxy, a great example of our strategy at work. At Galaxy, our closest active mine to the Mt Magnet mill, we have significantly extended the planned mine life after a successful 12 months of drilling with two underground drill rigs. With these results, we have taken the mine life from around 3 years to well out beyond FY '30 and also have the potential for additional ounces per vertical meter for both Hesperus, which you can see on the left-hand side of the screen and also from Perseverance South. Perseverance South, that sits out of the page, around 250 meters from the Saturn, Mars area, and that is one of our exploration targets. Our total inventory at Galaxy is now 36 million tonnes at 1.7 grams per tonne to 2 million ounces, noting that of our total resource, we have over 9.2 million tonnes with grades above 2.5 grams per tonne. It is also important to note that the apparent reduction in strike length at Saturn is merely related to drilling locations, and we expect an increase in strike as we widen the drill pattern with some purpose drill drives that we're developing this year. Our exploration targets are 400,000 to 600,000 ounces at Galaxy and 200,000 to 400,000 ounces at Perseverance South. On to Slide 13, Cue, which, as we know, has been a real success from an open pit space, also continues to impress in the underground area, too. Not only extensions at the Break of Day underground, but also adding the Lena underground to the north, which will combine into a significant underground operation. This was not envisaged at the time the 5-year plan was put together last October. The deepest results at Lena, 19.7 meters at 5.7 grams per tonne and 9 meters at 12.9 grams per tonne are only 400 meters below surface, but importantly, below our conceptual underground design, which suggests significant upside still remains. There is a budget of [ $16 million ] in this financial year to determine this. On to Slide 14. So out of Dalgaranga, very similar to Galaxy, we have had two drill rigs drilling away underground for the bulk of the year. These have primarily been drilling at the Gilbey’'s underground area below the pit. But periodically, we swing one of the rigs back to Never Never to do some infill drilling ahead of the mining front. Often, we intersect a series of excellent results at Never Never. Too many to talk through on the left-hand side of the slide, but these do include 3.6 meters at 996 grams per tonne and 13 meters at 34 grams per tonne. And just quietly, we can't wait to mine these two areas in the next 18 months. At Gilbey's’, with almost 600,000 ounces of resources, we can see a sizable underground operation developing that will be an excellent incremental addition to the main game at Never Never and further evidence of the depth of opportunity across the Mt Magnet Hub. On to Slide 15. This slide sets out how the Mt Magnet expansion comes together over the next 4 years. This is an update of a similar slide in the 5-year plan from October. The key message from this slide is that the plan is appropriately sequenced and planned so it is achievable. And it's not a plan on paper. Work is well underway and our projects owner team is in place. The mill expansion to 4.3 million tonnes per annum is progressing with an optimization phase in FY '28, where we can test optimal mill throughput, grind size and recovery to maximize ounce production, noting that the mill expansion supports the mill throughput moving to 5 million tonnes per annum at a course of grind in time. Supporting infrastructure is delivered in parallel, the camp at Mt Magnet a paste plant at Dalgaranga, the haul road between Mt Magnet and Dalgaranga and a power upgrade that includes a 14-megawatt wind farm. Target exploration also continues with annual resource and reserves updates feeding back into the plan, looking for additional high-grade material. On the mining front, Dalgaranga is ramping up to 1 million tonnes a year. Galaxy, based on this year's drilling begins to build production to 800,000 tonnes per year and Cue now extends to FY '31 with an estimated 600,000 tonnes a year. And Eridanus, which we are currently mobilizing to begin the Stage 3 cutback ramps up to 1.8 million tonnes a year of ore by FY '30, providing our long-term baseload feed. Each of these pieces is timed so that ore supply, plant capacity and infrastructure all come together as the expanded mill ramps up. I'll now hand over to Alan.
Alan Philip MacKenzie Thom
executiveThanks, Tim, and thanks, everyone, for joining the call. As announced previously, the Mt Magnet upgrade will result in the operation getting both an upgraded existing circuit, Circuit 1 and a new circuit Circuit 2. The rended schematic of the new Circuit 2 is shown on the slide with a common back end with Circuit 1 and Circuit 2 combined. The new circuit honors the metallurgical parameters of the existing Mt Magnet plant, which was constructed many years ago and which Ramelius has been successfully operating for the last 14 years. The new Circuit 2 design takes cues from this plant and benefits from the wine-ranging feed sources and various blends, which we have treated for years and know well. The upgrades to the existing processing facility are relatively simple and are well progressed. The need to grind the Never Never finer to get improved recovery only requires refurbishing the existing third ball mill, along with some other enhancements such as the installation of a new leach feed thickener and providing some additional CIL residence time. If and when the finer grind is no longer required, we can ramp it back up to the current 2 million tonne per annum runway. There is also nothing unusual about our Circuit 2. We have gone down a very conventional proven flow sheet typical of the gold industry and is currently being used on the Mt Magnet feed blends. It is designed as a 3 million tonne per annum circuit with enhancements in line with the long life of the hub to improve flexibility to a range of feed types and allow for future increases in throughput for the combined Mt Magnet plant potentially 5 million tonnes per annum or relaxing the Circuit 1 grind size, as I mentioned earlier. With this in mind, we've also considered future downstream debottlenecking and also any low-cost equipment sizing opportunities have been incorporated into the design where it has made sense to do so. This includes CIL tankage and thickeners. Since completing the PFS, we've had a chance -- a second chance at optimizing the design. One key change was the installation of new shared leach and CIL tanks of a larger single size rather than reusing the smaller Dalgaranga tanks for the plant circuit. This reduced the footprint, improved the layout operability and maintainability and achieved savings in top of tank steel while improving oxygen addition capability, optimizing the distribution of leach absorption and resonance times and ensures a more robust and flexible design to cover a range of feed types. In taking this hub approach with two grinding circuits and a largely shared back end, we feel we have achieved the right balance of a conventional gold processing plant with a robust, well-proven design and flexibility in grind size leach residence time and gravity circuits that allow us to not just treat any free milling ore that comes our way, but to optimize recoveries on different blends. That is the right feed for the right mill. At the same time, we also do we have applied the right mix to repurposing the Dalgaranga plant to reduce predevelopment capital without compromising the integrity of the new 3 million tonne per annum plant. This leaves the Dalgaranga plant largely intact and provide future near-term milling capacity at that location should we choose to use it. Slide 17. This slide outlines the capital spend for the project. The PFS estimate was $223 million, including contingency. Our current estimate when comparing similar parameters of work is approximately $280 million to $298 million, with the difference reflecting contingency as shown in the table on Slide 16, under Mt Magnet processing expansion. The variance in estimates reflects the maturity of engineering in the current market. Like everyone in the sector, we've seen inflation since the PFS. We also moved from a PFS level estimate to now an EPC pricing for Circuit 2 and a more detailed engineering and refined estimates for processing infrastructure and Circuit 1 refurbishment. The other variance in growth capital is scope enhancement. That is increased scope, not just higher cost. This is also shown in the table on Slide 16 on the mine infrastructure upgrades. It includes extended sealed and upgraded haul roads, high capacity power and water infrastructure plus camp and other enabling works. These are deliberate choices with better roads, water security and a robust power network, maintenance will be reduced, haulage efficiency is improved and operational uptime strengthened. It's investment today enabling future upside and resilience to the Mt Magnet hub. This is shown on the slide with a current total estimate of between $340 million and $360 million, including $24 million of additional contingency, which provides a reasonable buffer to completion. The EPC contract was now appointed, representing a large lump sum of the overall plant upgrade work. This structure helps mitigate further escalation risk. Finally, the plant is built with future capacity in mind, including back-end capacity to support the 5 million tonnes per annum. The incremental capital today delivers a more robust operating platform, greater certainty and better long-term value. This slide, Mt Magnet's scale and quality justifies this investment. To put it into a global context, this chart shows the top 20 primary gold mining projects in Tier 1 jurisdictions. At the top, you'll see big names, Nevada operations, D2 Lake, Boddington, Tropicana, et cetera. These are world-class assets that global gold investors know well. In FY '26, Mt Magnet produced about 192,000 ounces, placing at the far right of this chart, just outside the top 20. By FY '30, based on the midpoint of our outlook, Mt Magnet is expected to produce around 440,000 ounces. That will place it inside the top 10 producing hubs in these jurisdictions alongside operations like Tropicana, Fort Knox and Cote. That is a significant shift in scale. It moves Mt Magnet to position as a globally relevant gold producing hub. We see scale bringing operating efficiencies and cost advantages and increases Ramelius's relevance to a much broader pool of global capital, which supports both liquidity and valuation over time. That is Mt Magnet alone even before the addition and contribution from Rebecca-Roe. Thank you. I'll hand over to Darren.
Darren Millman
executiveThanks, Al, and good morning, all. I'm initially speaking to Slide 20. Just a quick recap on how the technical information detailed by Tim and Al ties back to the financials. Our FY '26 Exploration investment of $100 million has resulted in FY '29 production increasing 30,000 ounces using the midpoint and FY '30 production increasing 60,000 ounces compared to our prior plan. At AUD 6,000 gold price, this is $540 million in additional revenue at our 60% margins detailed earlier by Mark. This equates to an additional margin of $300 million, and this excludes additional revenue and margin beyond FY '30 with many of our mines updates today extending beyond this time frame. This is why we continue to focus on grade displacement with an additional $100 million exploration investment plan this year with an exploration target of 1.6 million ounces. Others detailed, our Mt Magnet expansion changes with a real focus not only what is required in the next 4 years, but for multiple decades with technical changes for all sources known today and potential new sources in the future, along with the elevated mill throughput levels beyond the nameplate 5 million tonne per annum. We have locked in the Mt Magnet schedule and importantly, locked in a lump sum price minimizing future cost inflations while still maintaining a healthy contingency. With that all being said, our balance sheet is now in amazing shape to fund our growth with cash on hand of $800 million following receipt of the Edna May proceeds and liquidity of over $1.3 billion, which takes into account our undrawn credit facility. We will also be generating significant free cash flow, which I'll touch on shortly. In FY '26, we have returned $255 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks. This equates to a 65% payout ratio. We will continue to execute on our buyback $250 million program with room to grow given our financial strength. We have a disciplined approach in our capital allocation with every dollar invested requiring high rates of return. This is demonstrated by a historical average return on investment of 270% and a historical IRR at 50% with our existing portfolio in this gold price environment, we feel we can beat historical returns and have longevity, which I'll highlight shortly. I'll be now speaking to Slide 21. This breaks down operating free cash flow and CapEx over the next 4 years. As you can see, even whilst we're investing back into the business, we have continued to generate free cash flow. In FY '27, up to $200 million in free cash flow at $6,000 gold price with a focus on the Mt Magnet mill upgrades and some early works at Rebecca-Roe . FY '28 up to $120 million as we focus on the Rebecca-Roe development, remembering in March 2028, quarter at Mt Magnet will be at the targeted 4.3 million tonne run rate and high grade Never Never at Dalgaranga will be at that 1 million tonne per annum run rate, delivering ore grade at over 6 grams per tonne, which we're very excited about. The Mt Magnet cash machine, which really kicks in for the entirety of the year in FY '29. At the mine site level, generate over $1.1 billion in free cash flow and Rebecca-Roe in its first year of contribution over $100 million. FY '30 really speaks for itself, generating over $1.5 billion in free cash flow with no significant CapEx. In our mine planning, we too have a line of sight from FY '31 to FY '35, with FY '30 being the minimum in the free cash flow generation. This is why we feel the description of a free cash flow machine is appropriate. I'll now be moving to Slide 22. For those that have followed the Ramelius story we have historically presented and look back scorecard on our cash generation from our investment. What this slide is looking to do is to give you a sense of what our portfolio looks like as we move forward. A few key takeaways. We have extended the Penny mine to December. This mine, once all said and done, will have generated close to $2 billion in cash flows post initial acquisition and the capital investments over the years. Interesting thing here Cue will be even better, which we never expected when we set out on the acquisition of the mine. The updates to that extensions of Cue underground with the addition of Lena has given its life now to over 8 years with a $60 million exploration investment planned this year to extend even further. The Galaxy mine area now has established a 10-year life with a life of mine free cash flow close to $3 billion. We will continue to invest in mine. Last year, we generated just under $90 million with 600,000 tonnes of ore. We are now targeting up to 800,000 tonnes, a high-margin mine with mineralization extending at depth and grade even getting better based on recent drill results. Rebecca-Roe remains a key new hub for us. We're expecting receipt shortly of the permits connected with Roe, which will enable us to potentially bring forward some of the higher-grade open pits, increasing production in the medium term. In FY '26 and FY '27, we see upside coming from Rebecca, so we plan on providing the reserves and resource update next year. Finally, the star of the show, Dalgaranga. Grades have outperformed and with recent infill programs, we see a 10% uptick in grade in FY '26 and FY '27. This mine will put Mt Magnet Hub as a top 10 global producer. Long-life grade and significant cash flow generation is a true rare combination, but this is what Dalgaranga is, a once-in-a-generation mine. The addition of Gilbey’'s underground mine and future optionality will also bring higher returns to this asset group. With that, I'll hand back to Mark.
Mark Zeptner
executiveThanks, Darren. Thanks, for laying out what is quite a compelling investment case. And what we've talked through so far is primarily base case. And that's the description we gave the 2025 plan also. So on Slide 23, what options are there for further growth. At Galaxy, there's growth beyond the current reserve at both Mars and Saturn, but there's also the Perseverance South and the Hesperance deposits as well nearby. At Cue, there are underground extensions both along strike and at depth, potential for improved metallurgical recoveries, particularly at Lena and also regional targets to the north. Around Mt Magnet more broadly, Eridanus remains open at depth, and we've intersected some very high-grade mineralization below the Franks Tower pit not far to the north. And our established infrastructure means any new ounces we do find, they are low cost to bring into production. At Dalgaranga, as we've mentioned a few times, Never Never will produce over 1 million tonnes per year. Gilbey's’ underground offers additional material, and there is further upside from improved recoveries and processing optionality that does remain at Dalgaranga itself. At Rebecca-Roe , once the approvals are in place, we'll optimize the mining schedule to improve FY '29 and FY '30 performance. And it is also possible that we will see underground extensions below the currently planned pits. And tying that all together is portfolio optionality. The FY outlook is now our base case, displacing low-grade ore with high-grade discoveries increases margins, this growth is capital efficient. And as the Galaxy and Cue examples show, our exploration success is already being demonstrated. Our exploration results will lift average grade, extend mine life and drive production well into the 2030s. Okay. That's been a fairly comprehensive overview of the business. So if I can just summarize on the last slide, Ramelius returns to shareholders, both dividends and buybacks position us well within our peer group producers. We have long been a high-margin free cash flow business, and this will only strengthen going forward. Our production growth profile is unmatched in the sector and as we start to demonstrate the benefits of our low-grade displacement strategy. Our Exploration upside is evident with another $100 million committed this year to replicate the strong gains made in FY '26. We are a consistent and reliable operator with a long track record of delivery, and we also sit in key gold and AISC indices, which give us the benefit of scale and liquidity. That concludes the presentation. And I'll now hand back to the operator, Ash, if you can please open the line for questions.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] Your first question on the phone line today is from Hugo Nicolaci with Goldman Sachs.
Hugo Nicolaci
analystFirstly, just if I compare it to the last update, you gave life of mine metrics across the 2 hubs. And today, sort of commenting around the free cash flow machine from FY '30 to '35. Apologies if I've missed it in the pack, but can you maybe just walk us through as well what those life of mine metrics look like on the update as well?
Mark Zeptner
executiveHugo, it's Mark. I learned a couple of years ago that putting out mine plans to 2043 and 17-year mine plans and the like doesn't really help you. So I suppose we're focused on our 2030 target, which is really once Mt Magnet and Rebecca-Roe are fully up and running and CapEx really does fall off a cliff, which is a positive thing. So no, we've purposely not provided details around full life of mine plan. Suffice to say, Mt Magnet does run out plus 15 years. Production is at around that 600,000 ounces at least until FY '35. And you don't really see the benefits of additional Cue, Galaxy and Gilbey's’. But obviously, they are there beyond FY '30. But we just don't see any point in running out longer mine plans than 4 or 5 years.
Hugo Nicolaci
analystGot it. That's helpful. Obviously, you want to see that resource work come in before you put numbers around that. I guess in a similar vein then, the cost profile from '27 to '30, obviously seeing some sector cost pressures. Are you able to just comment on where you're seeing the biggest cost pressures come through in that updated all-in sustaining cost outlook?
Mark Zeptner
executiveDarren, do you want to take that one? I know you're on the line.
Darren Millman
executiveYes, sure. So as we provided with the FY '26 results update, we saw that 8% cost inflation or inflation, which also incorporated both diesel prices and the gold price we use, noting we're using $5,500 as our base case here. So that's been applied again through to FY '30. We're also having Galaxy mine being extended from the FY '28 now to FY '32. We've flagged in the changes in plan that we've got $140 million in additional sustaining capital. That's going to be spread between FY '27 through FY '29. So that sustaining capital will see that uptick in in all-in sustaining. They're probably Cue -- as we've now established the additional mine life, you'll see some sustaining capital flowing through that. We haven't sort of put out publicly those numbers. They're going to be less than Galaxy. But once again, we'll put out a new or PFS connected with Cue early next calendar year, that will give you the breakdown that you're looking for, but it's lower than Galaxy is probably my reference point for you. FY '28, the overall denominator come down slightly on our guidance range, but we're processing some more higher-grade material on an overall basis, and we've moved that initial commercial production targeted for -- from December through to the March 2028 quarter. So that will increase the all-in sustaining costs slightly. They're probably the major items. And what we've just got to work through but the opportunity is with Cue in particular, to continue to do some work on that, refine the metallurgical results so that will also some opportunity, I think more so in that FY '29, FY '30 year. So at a high level, they're probably the things I'd highlight Hugo on the all-in sustaining movements.
Hugo Nicolaci
analystAnd if I can squeeze in a third, just the Dalgaranga mine profile looks a little bit more variable on both tonnage and grade versus your last study. I just comment on what the moving pieces there are.
Mark Zeptner
executiveAre you referring to the chart in the appendices?
Timothy Hewitt
executiveYes. Hugo, Tim, I'll take that. Look, I think it's just refining the mine plan. Obviously, we're updating with the grade control drilling, getting a greater look at the ore body now. So it's just a mine plan update essentially. I think it's probably just more information, a bit more knowledge on that mine plan now. So nothing material.
Operator
operatorYour next question comes from Paul Kaner with Ord Minnett.
Paul Kaner
analystJust first one, just on Gilbey’'s and the Dalgaranga plant infrastructure. I guess, what do you need to see from the Gilbey’'s exploration front to potentially restart that plant?
Mark Zeptner
executiveThat's a bit of a hypothetical, Paul. Thanks for the question. Look, I'll throw a number out there, 20 million tonnes at 10 years at 2 million tonnes a year. As a starting point, I know we've got, what, 7 million tonnes in the Never Never -- and a decent Never Never ore body and a decent few million tonnes at Gilbey's. So there's a bit more work to do. I'd say that will take another year or two of drilling before you seriously consider that as an option. But as Al pointed out, a lot of the plan is still in place as a result of the upgrade that we're doing.
Paul Kaner
analystYes, too easy. And just on capital management. Now that you've got that cash for Edna May, on my numbers, it doesn't look like you'll need that to fund this growth. I guess, what's the plan for that cash?
Mark Zeptner
executiveAt the moment, it's sitting in the bank. And we will continue on our buyback program, and we'll be back in there continuing our $250 million. I think we have about $100 million left. That is designed to run out this financial year. We'll continue to assess along the way, but we haven't made a definitive decision one way or another with that additional cash is, I suppose, the short answer.
Operator
operatorOur next question comes from Ben Wood with UBS.
Ben Wood
analystThis one is just on a lot of in the presentation has been on margin preservation whilst growing. In your presentation on the 5-year outlook last year, you called out sort of an average AISC of AUD 1,975 per ounce over the next 5 years. Just in how that cost profile has evolved to the numbers that you've released in today's presentation, would you mind just stepping through the elements of how much of perhaps any increases is due to sustaining capital versus just cost inflation generally as you sort of continue to look to bring forward higher grade material and displace some of those lower grades?
Mark Zeptner
executiveYes. Thanks, Paul. Darren, if you're there, I believe you basically partly answered that question with the cost inflation, but is there any additional parts that you can provide Paul? We might have lost him. So I'm not sure if you heard the answer before, Paul, but we had 8% that we baked in, in terms of inflation costs, which is made up. And it includes fuel increases, which we detailed and also the increase in gold price going from AUD 4,500 in October's plan to AUR 5,500 in this plan. And then there were some sustaining cost increases, which were not insignificant. Galaxy in FY '27 is like $130 an ounce because the mine rather than being in harvest mode with no sustaining capital. Now has sustaining capital for '27, '28 and '29 to buy that life to build the mine out well into the 2030s and similar but at a lower level at Cue. So there are a few moving parts to that. Investing sustaining capital in mines that were assumed to be running out makes total sense. It just means you're paying a little bit more on an all-in sustaining cost basis in the near term, but you'll get that benefit for a number of years going forward. So the increase from $1,975, I'm not actually sure what the average number is the low 2,000s. I think it's totally within market and totally reasonable.
Timothy Hewitt
executiveProbably just worth adding to -- and Mark touched on the peer group, the peer group we look at, they've seen basically a $300 an ounce increase in consensus. We haven't seen that level that we've been under because we've continued to displace this low-grade with high-grade material. So it's just probably worth flagging as well that we're probably even below the market movements, once again, because we've got high grade and because we continue to displace. So that's something we watch and ensure we are competitive. And given what we're seeing in the numbers, we're able to do that.
Operator
operatorThere are no further questions on the phone line at this time. I'll now hand the conference back to Mark Zeptner.
Mark Zeptner
executiveThere's no questions on the webcast either. Obviously, we covered it. It's quite a comprehensive presentation. Thanks, guys, and thanks, everybody, for dialing in and your attention this morning. Bye
Operator
operatorThat does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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