Ramelius Resources Limited (RMS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ramelius Resources Half Year Accounts Conference Call.[Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Mark Zeptner, Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Cameron. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to dial in to our half year results call. Joining me this morning is CFO, Darren Millman; and also General Manager of Finance, Ben Ringrose. We have uploaded to the ASX platform, along with the website shortly, a number of documents this morning, including our H1 FY '25 financial results summary, a presentation that we'll largely be speaking to this morning and of course, our half year financial report. To start, I'll briefly recap the operational performance that underpins these results before handing over to Ben and Darren to dive into more detail around the numbers. Once we've done that, as always, there will be an opportunity for listeners to ask questions. In the presentation and our discussion today, percentage variances and movements are compared to the prior corresponding period being the 6 months to the end of December 2023. So if you have the presentation handy, I'll start on Slide 3 with our mining and production highlights. It should be not surprising that our tonnes mined have reduced with the completion of mining activities at Edna May and the focus for much of the half year on the development of Cue. But what's really important to us is the grade of what we have mined. Our mine grade for the period was 4.9 grams per tonne, which is more than double the prior period and directly attributable to the introduction of Cue ore, which had an average grade of 6.8 grams for the period and also improved grades from Penny at 14.3 grams per tonne. All in all, our contained gold mines was slightly less than the December 2023 period, but we achieved this by mining only 1/3 of the tonnes we mined in the prior period. At the end of the day, this is more profitable mining and even more so at the prevailing gold prices. With our stockpiles on hand, we were able to optimize our mill feed, ensuring our mill throughput was comparable period-on-period despite lower tonnes being mined with preferential treatment to obviously higher grade material. The mill grade for the period was 2.5 grams per tonne, a 24% increase on December 2023, which was achieved despite lower grades coming through from Edna May as low-grade stockpiles came into the blend at that operation. Looking at Mt Magnet in isolation, the mill grade was an average of 4 grams per tonne, a 73% increase on the prior period with Cue reporting a milled grade of 15.8 grams per tonne and Penny at 15.1 grams per tonne, an almost 30% increase on the prior period. Haulage from Cue commenced in mid-November following completion of the intersection upgrades on the Great Northern Highway. Accordingly, these gold production and earning results we are talking to today only include 6 weeks of Cue production. At Edna May, we are processing low-grade stockpiles that were initially outside of our plan. Whilst this production does increase the reported group all-in sustaining costs at prevailing gold prices does generate positive cash flows. Overall gold production for the period was 148,000 ounces, up 19% at an all-in sustaining cost of just under $1,700 an ounce, down some 11%. The achieved gold price was AUD 3,541 per ounce as we benefited like everyone from the rising spot gold price, but also the reducing hedge book commitments. Indeed, the A dollar gold price has increased approximately 30% from 1 July 2024 to today, a great time to be a gold miner. From a safety point of view, we recorded, unfortunately, our first LTI for the group since May 2023 in the period. Whilst this is disappointing, as pointed out in the quarterly report, the incident itself was not of a serious nature. We do strive to ensure all employees and contractors remain safe and healthy under our watch. It is pleasing to see that our TRIFR rate has reduced to 8.33 at the end of December compared to 9.24 back in June 2024. Before I hand over to Ben and Darren, I'd like to highlight that almost all of our financial and production metrics reported today are a record for Ramelius and that we are continuing the theme of reporting an improvement on the prior period. Importantly, these results have not only been driven by the A dollar gold price, but also our low cost base, which I believe distinguishes us from our peers and that we anticipate these type of results will continue through the second half of FY '25 and into FY '26. Over to you, Ben.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning to you all. Before moving on to the financials, we have for reference in the presentation provided a few appendices, which reconcile the earnings and cash flows to the statutory results for the financial statements. I trust you'll find these useful. Starting on Slide 4 and the earnings for the year -- for the period, sorry. We generated revenue of $508 million, which was 46% up on the prior period. These revenues came from gold sales of 143,000 ounces at a price of $3,541 per an ounce, a 26% increase on the prior period. Based on our FY '25 guidance and the current spot price, we are on track for revenue to exceed $1 billion in FY '25. The increased revenue in the period was not only due to the higher gold price, which added $105 million, but also increased gold production, which added $54 million when compared to H1 of FY '24. The resulted EBITDA of $307.6 million was more than double that of the prior corresponding period, representing a margin of 61% or in other words, $2,151 per ounce sold. On both metrics, we continue to be at the top of our peer group. The reported NPAT of $170.4 million was 313% up on the prior period and was positively impacted by the improving grades, a lower cost of production per ounce and the A dollar gold price. To put this NPAT in perspective, the underlying NPAT for FY '24 was $200 million. So we are 85% of the way there already in FY '25, with still 6 months remaining. Statutory basic earnings per share of $0.148 was 287% up on the prior period. Further analysis on the EBITDA can be found on Slide 5, which shows the improving margins by operation when compared to December '23. Our 2 operations are in very different phases as can be clearly seen. At Edna May, where operations are winding down, margins are lower with the processing of the remaining low-grade stockpiles, whereas at Mt Magnet, the operations are benefiting from prior period investments in high-grade ore sources at Penny and Cue. Looking at our engine room, Mt Magnet on Slide 6. The reported EBITDA margin for the first half was $2,656 per an ounce or 78%. Those numbers speak for themselves, and we believe leave the operation well poised for growth and cash flow generation, both of which will be detailed in our updated Mt Magnet mine plan schedule for release later this quarter. Moving on to cash, the single most important financial measure for any business on Slide 7 and 8, where you will see our key cash metrics. Our operating cash flow for the half year was $320.9 million or $2,224 per ounce sold. From these operating cash flows, our investment -- capital investment totaled $247.9 million, which includes investments into our existing business for plant and equipment, mine development and exploration of $81.4 million and the increase in our strategic investment in Spartan to 19.9%, which at a further cost of $165.6 million. The free cash flow for the period being the net of operating and investing cash flow was $81.2 million. And after returning $43.4 million to shareholders via our FY '24 dividend, total cash and gold increased $55.1 million over the period. Our high-grade, low-cost production, coupled with the strong A dollar gold price resulted in Ramelius generating $264.1 million in underlying free cash flow for the half year. The resulting cash and gold at the end of December was $501.7 million. Turning now to Slide 9 and our balance sheet, which we consider to be one of our key strengths. Our net assets have increased to over $1.5 billion, and our working capital position of $410 million remains strong even after the cash investment in Spartan. The financial report released today shows income tax payable of $113 million. In addition to this, we expect to commence making income tax installments on FY '25 earnings in this March '25 quarter. As part of the FY '25 guidance released in July last year, we noted that income tax payments for FY '25 will be in the range of $80 million to $100 million. This guidance remains in place, and we expect to be within that range based on current gold prices and production guidance. On the bottom left of Slide 9, you'll see a snapshot of our historic hedge book positions. As is clearly evident, we have continued winding this down and our position at 31 December stood at 98,500 ounces at an average price of $3,183. With that, I will now hand over to Darren.

Thanks, Ben, and good morning, everyone. So I'll be speaking to Slides 10 to 13, touching on our portfolio, guidance for FY '25 and our maiden interim dividend declared today and for outlook for the remainder of the year. The changing composition of our gold production is clear to see on Slide 10, with increasing production at Mt Magnet, offsetting the winding down of operations at Edna May. We expect to see Cue making a larger contribution as we move into H2 FY 2025. Moving on to Slide 11 and the all-in sustaining margin. We are expecting further growth over the remainder of FY '25. For the first half of the year, the all-in sustaining margin was 52%, but we expect this to expand to 61% for the full financial year on the back of current spot prices, assuming AUD 4,500 per ounce and the reducing hedge book commitments we have. I will only touch on guidance on Slide 12 briefly. There has been no change since we released this in July 2024. We have been extremely happy with how the operations have performed over the first half with positive signs in the indicative overperformance of Cue grades as well as the Edna May stockpile grade performing better than our expectations. In regards to Cue, as we flagged in the December quarterly, we will assess the ore performance across the March 2025 quarter and prepare a geological model reconciliation as more mining and milling data becomes available. At Edna May, we see no reason for the stockpile grade performance not to continue through the first half. Turning to Slide 13 and the maiden interim dividend. We are proud of our track record on dividends. And today, we are declaring a maiden fully franked interim dividend to shareholders of $0.03 per share. The management team and the Board have taken a measured approach to capital allocation and with a significant cash generation expected in the medium term, we are pleased to be in a position to reward our shareholders in the heightened gold price environment. The dividend represents a payout ratio of 43% of free cash flow based on H1 numbers. In approving the dividend, the Board considered internal growth opportunities at Eridanus, potential mill expansion at Mt Magnet and potential capital commitments for Rebecca Roe. These capital commitments remain fully funded from existing cash reserves and forecast cash flows. The dividend represents an annual yield of 2.9% based on 31 December 2024 share price and a cumulative total shareholder return over the last 5 years of 18.5% per annum. The FY '24 dividend paid in October amounted to $57.4 million in cash and reinvestments. This declared interim dividend will be returned approximately $34.7 million to shareholders, which will be paid in April 2025. I will now pass back to Mark for final comments.

Thanks, Ben and Darren. Whilst the numbers speak for themselves, I think they sound even better when coming from an accountant. So on the last slide, I won't talk to the whole slide, Slide 14, focus areas for FY '25. I'll skip to the near-term catalysts. We've said a number of times, we're working on progressing the updated Mt Magnet mine plan, which will incorporate the Eridanus potential open pit underground study along with the Mt Magnet mill expansion. We look forward to releasing the updated plan shortly. And then also following completion of the Rebecca Roe PFS in December '24, which showed strong economic returns, we are progressing the DFS with the final investment decision targeted for the September 2025 quarter. That concludes the presentation. I'll hand back to you, Cameron, if you can open the line for questions, please.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question today comes from Alex Barkley at RBC.

A question on you reiterating guidance in that Cue study. So you've sort of stood by the original FY '25 guidance, but said that Cue pit outperformance study is still pending. Does that imply that study won't change FY '25 guidance? Or is that all still TBD when you complete that work?

Alex, thanks for the question. It's a little early to make a call. We didn't want to jump the gun and increase guidance based on a very small amount of data. We'll reassess that after March, probably at the April quarterly, see how that's tracking because there is potential expectation not being a geologist, but you can get overperformance in the oxide supergene enrichment, they call it, which then reverts more to expected grades when you hit the fresh rock, and we're sort of not far from going into that. So the guys are doing a pretty thorough assessment. Suffice to say, in the 6-week period in quarter 2 that we did process Cue, we had a stockpile, we believe, that was 10 grams per tonne, but the mill reconciled grade for that short period come back at 15. So it looked positive, but it was a very small sample size. So TBD is the summary.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Michael Scantlebury at Euroz Hartleys.

Congrats on some super strong numbers. Just a quick one for me. I hate to be that guy, but cutback, obviously, gold price is cranking to all-time highs. Has there been any thoughts there? Or is it just higher priorities elsewhere and [ which approaches ] at a later date?

I didn't quite catch that, Michael. I assume that was in relation to Edna May Stage 3. Yes, we do have higher priorities. We are going through the process of finalizing the trucking and tidying up the mill for care and maintenance, and that will be our plan. We'll reassess once we really put our plans elsewhere out to the market, which at the moment generate higher returns and are of a higher priority. But we may turn our attention to that at some point down the track.

[Operator Instructions] We're showing no further questions at this time. So I'll hand the call back for closing remarks. Thank you.

I'm surprised we didn't get more questions for the accountants and details on that. So the guys obviously did an excellent job there, not only on the call, but in the documents that we put out. So just to wrap up, 3 points, if I may. Record first half earnings and cash generation for the company in December 2024, a strong outlook for the remainder of FY '25 and into FY '26 and happy to report the maiden fully franked $0.03 interim dividend announced today, which takes total returns to $166 million to date returned to shareholders. Thank you all for tuning in. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Thank you. That concludes our conference for today. You may now disconnect your lines.