MGX Resources Limited (MGX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for joining today's teleconference for the release of Mount Gibson Iron's financial results for 2020/2021. Mount Gibson Chief Executive Officer, Peter Kerr, will be leading the discussion and is joined by Chief Financial Officer, Gill Dobson; and External Relations Manager, John Phaceas. Mr. Kerr will provide a brief overview. After which, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Due to time constraints, only institutional participants will be invited to ask questions at that time. A recording of the call will also be available via the Mount Gibson website shortly after completion of today's teleconference. Please go ahead, Peter. Thank you.

Thanks very much, Bethany. Good morning, all, and thanks for joining us to discuss Mount Gibson's results for the 2021 financial year. As usual, I'll give a brief overview and then hand back to Bethany for any questions. So at a headline level, we delivered a steady financial result for the year given the investment phase that's occurring in the existing business. Gross profit totaled $121 million from sales revenue of $312 million FOB and on total ore sales of 3 million tonnes, and that was consistent with our guidance through the year. Net profit after tax totaled $64 million. Cash flow from operations totaled $165 million compared to $160 million in the prior year, and that was before $6.9 million in interest. The combined mine development expenditure at both Koolan and Shine of $185 million, plant and equipment purchases of $30 million, and we also paid the cash component of last year's final dividend of $16.3 million. So our cash and liquid investments at the year-end totaled just under $365 million, and we have no borrowings. From a sales and earnings perspective, the year was very much 1 of 2 halves. In the first half, we enjoyed the benefit of good prices and volumes of high-grade fines from Koolan Island, and we had relatively minimal disruption from adverse weather until the onset of the -- a northern wet season in December. We also enjoyed above-budget sales from the final 6 months of our successful low-grade program to sell went remnant material from Extension Hill in the Mid-West. The second half, of course, was focused on the waste stripping program at Koolan Island and the investments at both that site and at the start-up of the Shine operation. Higher iron ore prices did assist during the period as they did moderate the financial impacts of the investments we were making based on the sales that did occur. So reflecting the status of the company's investment programs at Koolan and Shine and the anticipated increases in sales and cash flows from the end of this year, that's the end of this calendar year. The Board has approved a fully franked final dividend of $0.02 per share payable in October. And this may be accepted in cash or shares under the company's dividend reinvestment plan, and the payment of this dividend takes the payment of total fully franked dividend distributions made by Mount Gibson since 2011 to just over $332 million. So just turning to Koolan Island in a bit more detail. Our sales for the year totaled 1.8 million wet metric tonnes, which was at the bottom end of our guidance. The advanced waste stripping program in the Main pit progressed. And the total material movement, so that's waste and ore that we moved, increased by approximately 1/3 to just over 20 million tonnes. And this waste program remains on track for substantial completion in the current half. Mining and particularly iron ore production was, however, impacted by 2 main challenges. The first were the substantial interruptions from the heaviest wet season that we had since we've acquired the mine in 2007. And the second was the restricted mining access to high-grade ore in the western end and central part of the Main Pit after we had a rockfall on the upper footwall in late 2020. And this rockfall has required us to temporarily suspend mining access in that part of the pit floor until we have a way to safely resume mining with the ground support work we're doing in the footwall. We've engaged a specialist contractor to undertake that work on the upper footwall, and that's designed to basically pin the surface rock in certain zones and avert the potential for future rockfalls, and therefore, allow high-grade production to safely resume in the western end of the Main Pit. The program to drill the upper part of that footwall, which were mined many years ago, will cost about $20 million based on current estimates, and work is well underway. However, it has taken longer than initially expected to implement due to the specialized nature of the work and the impact of the skilled labor shortages that are really biting now in Western Australia as a result of the states' COVID-19 border restrictions. So production in the last 6 months at Koolan has consequently been limited to the medium and lower-grade material from the upper western end of the Main Pit and the Acacia East satellite pit on the northern side of the island. The average grade of products sold during the year was 58% in the June half compared with 63% in the first half. So that means the blended average was about 61% Fe. The areas that we're currently accessing will continue to be the Main ore source for the next few months until those footwall ground support works have progressed sufficiently so we can have access to the western end of the Main Pit and to the significant quantities of high-grade ore that exist there. As we've indicated, we expect to start regaining access to that material in the December quarter. At the same time as the footwall work is occurring, we're undertaking upgrade of the crushing plant, and that's expected to cost in the order of $20 million to $25 million, as we've previously disclosed. And the purpose of this is to ensure the plant can cope with the significantly increased of high-grade iron ore production that we expect from early next year onwards. From an earnings perspective, over the year, Koolan generated earnings before interest and tax of $104 million. And then just over $138 million was invested in advanced waste stripping and $22 million was invested in various capital improvement works, including the first stage of the crusher upgrade that I mentioned and the initial upper footwall ground support works. The average cash cost for the year before those capital investments was AUD 70 per wet metric tonne FOB, which was in line with our plan. We're pleased to see these multiple work streams are gathering pace. However, we're also mindful that the progress does depend on various factors not always within our complete control, and key ones at the moment relate to labor availability, in particular, and to costs here in Western Australia. The weather issues are always with us, and we will be planning for the wet season as per normal at the end of this year. We're, therefore, taking a conservative view with regard to projections for the coming 6 months as we undertake this investment phase, but we're confident that performance in terms of production, quality of iron ore and costs will see significant improvement from the end of calendar '21 onwards. The investment rationale for Koolan Island is unchanged. It has the highest-grade direct shipping iron ore reserve in Australia. And although it has its own mining and logistics challenges, it does present a considerable cash flow prize for Mount Gibson and its shareholders this coming year. And so that's our target. Turning to the Mid-West. We generated earnings before interest and tax of $19.5 million from our activities in the region, and it was underpinned by the success of the low-grade sales program at Extension Hill prior to that ending in late December. And that Extension Hill site cash flow for the period totaled $10 million. In addition to which, we had almost $8 million in proceeds from the historical rail credit refund. At the Shine project, we successfully established and commissioned our new mine within 8 months of starting site works, and I'm pleased to say that our first shipment of Shine lump ore, grading approximately 58% Fe, is due to sale from Geraldton Port today. Our total capital development and preproduction expenditure at Shine came to just under $29 million for the year, and that was in line with our guidance. And we're now working to ramp up production and to secure our longer-term transport arrangements. At the moment, we're currently trucking material from Shine, approximately 300 kilometers by road to Geraldton Port, and we are seeking to transition that journey to part truck, part rail haulage from our old Ruvidini rail siding near the town of Mullewa ideally from early next year. In relation to our outlook for the current 2021/'22 financial year, we're adopting a conservative approach given our investment activities and the recent volatility we've seen in the iron ore price. We've released our annual guidance today, and we will provide updates as the year progresses. The focus for this financial year now at Koolan Island is to complete the planned open pit waste stripping phase, the upper footwall ground support program, which is critical for us to access high-grade ore and the crusher upgrade in order to resume high-grade ore production and enable significantly increased ore shipment levels from the end of this calendar year onwards. At the Shine operation, the objective is to successfully ramp up production and sales and advance the waste stripping program in the pit there. And you may recall our initial stage for Shine is a 2-year project. That's the basis we're following at the minute. And there is the potential for a further 2 years depending upon price in due course that will be assessed. On a group basis, over this coming financial year, we are targeting total iron ore sales of 3 million to 3.2 million wet metric tonnes. Koolan is expected to contribute 2 million to 2.2 million wet metric tonnes in the year with the site cash operating costs averaging AUD 75 to AUD 80 per wet metric tonne FOB, and that's before royalties and the investments we're making in advanced waste stripping of approximately $100 million and other Koolan capital projects that I've mentioned of approximately $25 million. Sales volumes ore quality and cash flow will be heavily weighted to the second half of the financial year when iron ore is scheduled to come primarily from the high-grade components in the base of the Main Pit ore body. The Shine operation in the Mid-West is expected to contribute iron ore sales of approximately 1 million tonnes at an average site cash operating cost also of AUD 75 to AUD 80 wet metric tonne FOB once our shipment profile has ramped up. And that is before the advanced waste stripping that we will do at Shine through the year of approximately $20 million. So it's not anywhere of a scale as Koolan, a relatively small open pit, single open pit, but it is important to get that mining right. While iron ore pricing has been volatile in recent weeks, they remain at heavy -- healthy levels, and our investment in both sites predicated on actually lower longer-term pricing scenarios than we have here. We don't actually plan on any single fixed price. We move according to a range of different scenarios and look for pricing scenario as it is and look for options to deal with those scenarios. Furthermore, at this point, we see good underlying supply and demand fundamentals for iron ore, particularly for the high grade and low impurity material that we're seeking to access at Koolan, and that will increasingly come from there later this financial year. So in closing, while we expect substantial demand on our existing cash reserves in the current half year period for the investments we are choosing to make, we remain confident that the second half of the year will deliver very significant cash flows as we realize the benefits of these investments at both Koolan and Shine. So on that note, I'll now hand back to Bethany for any questions that anyone may have. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Thank you, Peter. It seems we have no questions at this time. I'll hand back to you. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Bethany, and thanks all for listening. If you do have questions, you are very welcome to call us that Mount Gibson directly. Those on the line will have the required numbers. They're on the bottom of our release. And otherwise, have a good day. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. As the host has finished the call, you may leave by disconnecting your phone lines. Thank you for attending.