Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Regis Resources quarterly briefing. [Operator Instructions] And finally, I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd now like to welcome Jim Beyer, Managing Director and CEO, to begin the conference. Jim, over to you.
Jim Beyer: Thanks, Paul. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us for the Regis Resources December quarter FY '26 results. Joining me on the call today is our CFO, Anthony Rechichi, also our COO, Michael Holmes and Head of Investor Relations, Jeff Sansom. We'll refer at times to figures -- some figures and tables in the quarterly report that we released earlier today. So you may find it useful to have that document at hand when we refer to them. All right. So look, I'll start with safety. During the quarter, our operations continued to perform strongly from a safety perspective. The 12-month average lost time injury frequency rate finished the quarter at about -- at 0.34, which remains well below the Western Australian gold industry average. Our objective remains unchanged in this area to provide a workplace free from serious injury. We continue to focus on leadership, discipline and continuous improvement to support safe and reliable operations across the business. Turning now to our production performance. Over the quarter and in fact, across the last several quarters, the team has continued to deliver the plan. The message we have consistently communicated to the market has not changed. Regis operates quality assets with strong leverage to the gold price. And when combined with the rolling life extension potential of our underground mines that we continue to see, this positions the business extremely well to deliver consistent ounces and cash flows well into the future. Operationally, the quarter group gold production for the period was 96,600 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $2,839 an ounce. And that, by the way, includes $179 an ounce of noncash stockpile inventory movement unit cost. This consistent delivery across both Duketon and Tropicana again demonstrates the reliability of our operating base and the strength of our margins. The performance translated directly into strong financial outcomes and further balance sheet strength. During the quarter, we generated $419 million of operating cash flow and increased our cash and bullion by $255 million, leaving us with an end of December balance of $930 million in gold -- in cash and gold. Also during the quarter, after taking into account our strong balance sheet and great outlook, we resumed dividend payments, declaring and paying a fully franked dividend of $0.05 a share, returning $38 million to our shareholders. Now this was underpinned by strong financial performance delivered in FY '25. This brings the total amount of dividends paid by Regis to $580 million since 2013. It reflects -- the restart of dividends, reflects our confidence in the sustainability of our cash flows and the strong position the business is now in and also in our fundamental understanding the value growth and returns to our shareholders are a fundamental objective of our business. To that end, Regis is unhedged and continues to be. We continue to invest in underground growth and exploration. And thanks to the strong operational performance, now has the capacity to balance this disciplined reinvestment with returns to shareholders. And with that, I'll now hand over to Michael and then Anthony, who will provide more detail on operations and financial performance. Thanks, Michael.
Michael Harvy Holmes: Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Operationally, the December quarter was in line with expectations, both across Duketon and Tropicana, and the teams to continue to deliver its plan and the consistency of execution across the business remains a key strength for Regis. At Duketon, open pit on underground operations produced 57,600 ounces. Open pit mining continued at King of Creation, Gloster and Ben Hur, delivering 13,600 ounces at an average grade of 0.82 gram per tonne. Mining conditions were stable and performance was in line with plan. Our underground operations at Garden Well and Rosemont continue to perform reliably producing 32,000 ounces at 1.8 grams per tonne. Development rates across both undergrounds were pleasing and supported steady ore delivery through the quarter. Total underground development at Duketon was 3,896 meters with approximately 40% classified as capital development, reflecting the ongoing investment in Garden Well Main and Rosemont Stage 3. Both projects continue to schedule and are progressing as planned towards commercial production. The Duketon Mills performed to expectations and throughput was supported by planned stockpile feed. During the quarter, we also progressed activities associated with the BuckWell open pit at Duketon North. Following the reserve upgrade announced during the quarter -- during the period, early establishment and pre-strip works commenced to position the operation for first ore later in FY '26. BuckWell is a capital-efficient near-term opportunity that leverages existing infrastructure, approvals and available mill capacity at Moolart Well. From an operational perspective, it provides a flexible source of ore to support the Moolart Well once low-grade stockpile processing concludes while fitting well within the broader Duketon mining sequence. Turning now to Tropicana. At Tropicana, Regis' attributable production for the quarter was 39,000 ounces, representing another solid quarter of delivery. Open pit operations delivered 18,800 ounces at an average grade of 1.96 grams per tonne, with performance in line with expectations. Underground operations delivered 17,400 ounces at 3.14 gram per tonne, again, consistent with plan. Overall, both Duketon and Tropicana continued to perform reliably during the quarter, delivering consistent production while progressing key underground and near-term growth projects. With that, I'll now hand over to Anthony to take you through the financials.
Anthony Rechichi: Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everybody. As Jim outlined earlier, the December quarter again demonstrated the strength of Regis' financial position with consistent operational delivery translating directly into strong margins and cash generation. Gold sales for the quarter were for just under 100,000 ounces for an average realized price of $6,436 an ounce, generating $641 million in revenue. Operating cash flow for the quarter was $419 million, with $231 million generated at Duketon and $188 million coming from Tropicana. Also in cash and bullion and referring to Figure 2 in this morning's ASX release, the coppers increased by $255 million during the quarter, taking the total balance to $930 million as at 31 December. Importantly, this increase was achieved after the payment of a fully franked dividend of $0.05 per share which totaled $38 million, while continuing to invest across the business and at McPhillamys. On the capital expenditure front, we spent $115 million in the quarter. At Duketon, this included underground development, preproduction mining activities and waste removal as well as investment in plant and equipment. A significant portion of this spend related to the continued advancement of Garden Well Main, Rosemont Stage 3 and early works at BuckWell. At Tropicana, expenditure related to underground development at Boston Shaker and Tropicana underground, preproduction costs at the Havana Underground and sustaining capital across the operation. Exploration expenditure during the quarter was $19 million, reflecting the strong level of activity across both Duketon and Tropicana and $5 million were spent during the quarter on McPhillamys. As previously outlined, following the Section 10 declaration, all McPhillamys expenditure is expensed through the profit and loss account. To close out and to also remind everybody, because of what has been strong profitability for a while now, Regis will return to a cash tax payment position, starting with the FY '25 tax payable of approximately $100 million, which will be paid in March next month. Well, month after, I guess. Going forward, we expect to make monthly corporate tax installment payments since the long period of tax loss benefits that we've enjoyed has come to a close. Overall, the December quarter highlights the magnificent cash generating capacity of the business with strong operating margins and disciplined capital allocation supporting balance sheet strength and shareholder returns. With that, I'll hand back to Jim.
Jim Beyer: Thanks, Anthony. Look, now I want to talk through some of the broader corporate areas, and I'll start or return back to capital allocation. I'll repeat myself earlier that during the quarter, we resumed the dividend payments and a $0.05 fully franked share, returning $38 million to shareholders. The resumption of dividends is not expected to be a one-off decision. It reflects a clear shift in how we now view our business and the outlook of gold price, which then leads to the question of capital management. We are generating strong reliable cash flows. We have a robust balance sheet, and we're able to invest in the business while maintaining financial flexibility, a great position. Now in relation to looking ahead, we're in the process of finalizing a formal capital allocation policy as our Chairman mentioned at the last year's Annual General Meeting 2025, which we expect to release in February with the half year results. So that's discussing the ultimate outcome of our business, i.e., returns to shareholders. I'd now like to go right back up to the front of the business and talk about exploration. During the quarter, we released our biannual exploration update, which highlighted several very exciting opportunities that are popping up across both our underground and our open pits. Now as a result of these pleasing results and the resulting confidence to continue, we've actually increased our forecast spend on exploration this year. So we're continuing with our budgeted drilling program plans that we already have laid out for the rest of the year. But we're also adding to the program by basically maintaining the range at one of the -- at the projects that we drilled earlier in the year that have proved successful and warrant continuing. This increased our FY '26 exploration forecast and hence our guidance by about $20 million to result in the new guidance range for exploration of $70 million to $80 million. At Tropicana, the good news keeps on coming as drilling consistently delivers extensions to our known mineralization, increased confidence in underground growth opportunities and identify new targets to continue to build the underground pipeline. So our increase in exploration spend this year is deliberate, disciplined and pleasingly driven by results. It reflects the quality of the opportunities we're seeing and our confidence in converting exploration success into future production and ultimately, cash flow, particularly where it leverages off our existing infrastructure. On McPhillamys, as previously flagged, the judicial review for the Section 10 was heard in the federal court in Sydney last month in December, and the judge has reserved this decision and we sit and wait for the outcome. Now as we've mentioned before, in parallel, we continue to progress work on alternative pathways to return McPhillamys to an approvable position, and that includes ongoing assessment of an integrated waste landform solution for the tails. This work is progressing methodically and over a longer-term time frame, it takes time for us to work on these alternatives. Now finally, I'd like to touch on the Buckingham Wellington pits was -- and Michael has talked on these before and as we call them now, BuckWell. BuckWell is a capital-efficient near-term opportunity that, as Michael said, leverages existing infrastructure approvals and our available milling capacity. It is a cracker of incremental value. We're going to get 221,000 ounces out of it at an average all-in sustaining cost of $3,524 an ounce. And this is all in the release we put out last quarter. Now at consensus average price of 5,387 an ounce, it has a pretax NPV of $270 million and an internal rate of return of 127%. Now that's a 5,387 spot today. I don't know what it is right this very minute, but earlier this morning, it was 7,125. If we run that through it, the math is pretty simple. Pretax NPV would be more than double. This is a great project, and it's a great example of the work that our team is doing. With a bit of a fresh look at our old assets, sometimes a little bit of extra drilling. And in this case, we've been able to add significant annual production to Duketon by now being able to keep the Duketon North operation in production until early FY '32. That's 5 or so more years delivering a total of 221,000 ounces recovered. What a great project. And the great part about it is that it's a -- the stage nature of the development provides flexibility in sequencing and timing. It enables us to adjust the pace and the extent of the mining to reflect the prevailing gold price. This is not a commitment to start mining now and get ounces in 2 or 3 years' time, hoping that the gold price is where it is, not that it's going to draw, but it gives us flexibility in the unlikely circumstances that the gold price did go down. This allows the company to advance profitable ounces in a higher gold price environment while retaining discretion to defer later stages, if required. The plan is consistent with our disciplined capital management approach and demonstrates the ability to respond decisively to favorable market movements. So wrapping up, to summarize, the team delivered another quarter of consistent operational performance. This performance translated into strong cash generation and further balance sheet strength. We resumed the dividend payment and are progressing a formal capital allocation framework to guide future shareholder returns. We're increasing exploration investment supported by a strong track record of success and reflected by our increase -- as is reflected in this increased expenditure and really driven by successful early-stage outcomes. At McPhillamys, we continue to pursue all available pathways while awaiting the outcome of the court process. The addition of BuckWell pit to our production outlook means Duketon North will now be in operation to produce gold through to the end at least FY '31. The Regis team has delivered a strong result over the quarter, and we believe the business is well positioned to continue delivering long-term value for shareholders. Thank you. And I'll now hand back the call to you, Paul.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Levi Spry of UBS.
Levi Spry: Happy New Year. Very good one for you. I guess, two questions, please. Firstly, on the exploration front, so nice to see that increase in the budget there. Can you just give us a bit of context around the activities that are involved there. So how many rigs you got running, sort of roughly where they are, what sort of meters that converts to and I guess, how that sits with your internal capacity in terms of your going full tilt at that? Or could you spend some more?
Jim Beyer: Look, I can't -- I haven't got the exact details of the additional meters close at hand. What I can say is in addition to what we had already planned. So there will be additional activity that will need to be -- well, it's actually already underway to where we were either decommissioning rigs to move on to somewhere else. We've now kept them and brought in other rigs to go to the previously planned locations elsewhere. So there's quite a bit of activity on that. I mean we've got Beamish. Beamish South is an area that we've seen some particularly interesting results that are keeping us there. But also there's some very early indications in -- across our greenfields exploration areas that we want to put some more money in. But certainly, a key 1 is Beamish, which we're getting quite excited about. And -- but the basic answer to your question is, are we sort of shifting gear around? Or are we mobilizing more equipment we'll be mobilizing more equipment. We'll certainly be running more equipment, more people than we were planning to do in the second half. NCX for $20 million.
Levi Spry: Yes. I guess sort of partly where I'm going. Are they easy to get? What -- how is the capacity in the WA drilling industry? And are they charging more? Like everyone's drilling lot meters. Just trying to understand. Yes. Talk a little bit about the [indiscernible].
Jim Beyer: Yes, I don't think there's any issues for us in sourcing that extra gear in equipment. So haven't seen that, I mean our commitments. The team believes that they can get the work done, the additional work done that we have planned. So we're not seeing that. And in terms of access, access is always the usual issue nothing expanded. Nothing has got worse, I should say.
Levi Spry: Got it. Okay. And then going back to shareholders' returns sort of pace with the result, can you just flesh out the competing interest there a little bit and that balance sheet, $930 million, what is potentially a comfortable sort of number? What other competing interest do you have? So you've got that tax piece? Do we expect CapEx to be similar to this year plus the BuckWell, sort of CapEx and exploration sort of running at those sort of levels? Is that -- are they some of the goalposts that you're working to? Can you just sort of flesh out some of those parameters?
Jim Beyer: Yes. Look, the capital that we've got laid out in front of us is definitely -- it's -- we're not expecting any major jumps or leaks of where -- from where we are at the moment. Quite frankly, we've got a pretty good problem that we're sitting at and sitting on, which is we've got a good, clear and reasonable capital expenditure program sitting in front of us. Nothing unexpected. And therefore, we're in a good position to be able to be comfortable with what our dividend policy should be. I'm sort of -- it's a pretty general question that you're asking, Levi. I mean, we have big leaks of capital, probably the biggest leak of capital that we've got sitting in front of us clearly is McPhillamys, but that's at least a couple of years away, and we've got nothing else of material scale at the moment sitting in our internal or organic options. So I think it's pretty -- it's -- our ability to pay a dividend was pretty clear and our ability to potentially continue to pay that is quite clear as well. Sorry, Levi. I mean if you if your question is where else are we -- what else could impact on our ability to continue to pay a dividend? We've got -- we're making excellent margin. We don't have anything significant coming up on our capital demand. So the ability is there, of course, notwithstanding gold price, but we're confident -- I think everybody is pretty confident. We understand how the gold price is going to perform certainly in the near to medium future. So I don't see any other significant demands on our capital for now.
Levi Spry: Yes, quite the contrary. I'm trying to work out how big it might be.
Jim Beyer: Yes, that's what we're working our way through, and it really ties in with the policy. And as I mentioned in the release, and I think I said earlier on that we will -- our plan is to provide a policy on capital return with the first half profit results, which will be around about this time in a month's time.
Operator: Your next question is from the line of Adam Baker of Macquarie.
Adam Baker: Jim, just firstly on the Duketon open pit. I did notice the grades have fallen a little bit quarter-on-quarter and compared to the second half of last year, your mining grades are around 0.82 grams per tonne. What should be expecting the grades moving forward, expecting normalized levels around this? Or are you going to continue to bring forward the low-grade tonnes in regards to Buckingham and Wellington? Is that going to see a bit of an uplift in grade from those levels? Or just trying to get a feel for how you're thinking there with open pit volumes.
Michael Harvy Holmes: Yes, Adam, it's Michael here. The grades have fallen a bit. I mean it's a function of the mine sequence of where we are in the different pits. And so as we're working down there into the better grade generally at the depth of the pits and also it's a function of the stockpile fee. We have been feeding the better grade stockpiles. And as we sort of move forward, we're sort of moving into the lower grade stockpiles to supplement the feed through the mill. So expecting that sort of similar grade, but it will fluctuate depending on where we are with the fresh material. But no great fluctuations. Just the usual variation really.
Adam Baker: What was the kind of reserve grades for BuckWell, you may have already pre-disclosed this, but is that kind of in the low 1s or where are you sitting at for that project?
Michael Harvy Holmes: I don't have the number off the top of my head.
Jim Beyer: What was the question? BuckWell?
Michael Harvy Holmes: The grade of BuckWell. Yes, it's around about -- yes, just under 1, around about 0.9.
Adam Baker: Yes, makes sense. And just in addition to the capital management framework policy, you touched on dividends, but it seems that you're also considering share buybacks as you say in the announcement and/or how do you weigh that up just versus the dividend payout versus considering some buybacks like some of the peers have done over the last 12 months as well.
Jim Beyer: Yes. Look, I mean, it's a -- that is how do we weigh it up? Well, we wait and we try and work out what's going to give the best value to our shareholders. There's a number of share buyback initiatives that are in play with some of our peers. Just how much is being done is sort of one thing that we look at, what's announced and what's executed. Obviously, you got to have a view on what your share price is. But there are a number of different ways that we can return -- give returns to shareholders. There can be regular dividends that are tied to our profit and our announcement, there can be special dividends or there can be buybacks. And they are the things that we're looking at, right? We sort of got to trade them off. We've got to figure out which ones provide real benefit? Where is our share price trading? Are we -- is our value right? Are we under or over? And there's multiple things there, Adam, that we're looking at. And ultimately, we will work out and let the market know what our final view on that is. But it's pretty clear that the idea and the capacity for returns are there. So that is quite clear the form of it is probably takes a little bit of finalization, but fully franked dividends are a great way of returning our profits to shareholders.
Operator: Your next question is from the line of Hugo Nicolaci of Goldman Sachs.
Hugo Nicolaci: Jim and Anthony, congrats on another strong quarter of cash build. Just first one on McPhillamys. I appreciate the timing there is a little bit out of your control, but sort of any indications to the timing there or sort of getting outcome this quarter, that time line might have changed?
Jim Beyer: Yes. Good question, Hugo. No, not really. I mean there's no statutory time line for any judicial person to come back. We think that -- yes, I would like to think that we're going to hear something by the end of this quarter, but there's no certainty on that. I mean, in fact, by the time we take into account holiday and Christmas, it's probably not unreasonable to expect we won't hear anything until what is it the June quarter sometime. And even then, there's no -- as I said, there's no fixed time line on when -- how long a judge takes to come back with their decision.
Hugo Nicolaci: Fair enough. Just to double check there. And then just one more on capital returns and only because it's a nice enviable position to be in that you do have so much capital accrued. But in terms of that you'll come out with in February. I mean, is there anything that we should consider that might guide why the policy would be sort of materially different to some of your peers in that sort of 20% to 30% of operational free cash flow being paid out?
Jim Beyer: Hugo, what I can tell you is that we're working on our dividend and return policy, and we will be informing the market of what that is when we release our half year results later on in February.
Hugo Nicolaci: Fair enough. I thought I'd try that question one more way. But now, we look forward to that update in February. On the operations, then maybe just Duketon North, can you maybe just confirm what that produced this quarter? And then just give us a bit of color there on the time line through this half to ramping up the extension?
Jim Beyer: Sorry, what were -- what was the question?
Hugo Nicolaci: Sorry, Duketon North.
Michael Harvy Holmes: The question related to -- Hugo was the direction -- sorry. Keep going.
Jim Beyer: Keep going, Hugo.
Hugo Nicolaci: So I was going to say, yes, the question was just for Duketon North, so how the production from the stockpiles is tracking at the moment? And then just a bit more color on the time line through 2026 in terms of wrapping up for the extension.
Jim Beyer: Yes. So it's sort of minor. We get sort of minor improvements through the Duketon North of the stockpile. So it's sort of nothing sort of material there about ran to that 1,500 to 2,500 tonnes, depending on the ounces, depending on the grade. BuckWell sort of is not really producing grade this year and financial year and that will be ramping up next financial year.
Hugo Nicolaci: Yes. Got it. And then just lastly, on Tropicana, just looking at some of the cost components there. It looks like milling costs sort of tracking up about sort of $26, $27 a ton last couple of quarters. Is that sort of the right rate to think about going forward from here? Or are there pieces like labor cost inflation or sort of power and contracts there on the gas piece that might push those costs a little bit further or be a benefit going into next year?
Jim Beyer: I don't think there's any reason to think that those numbers should be viewed any differently going forward.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question is from the line of David Coates of Bell Potter Securities.
David Coates: Jim and team, congratulations on a strong quarter. And look, just a bit following on from the question on cost. More of just around like underlying unit costs across the board. I was sort of hearing different reports that cost inflation across the industry in general is easing or in some cases, maybe not. But just wondering what you guys are seeing in terms of your underlying unit costs and input costs.
Jim Beyer: Well, I mean, at a high level, I would say that you can see where our costs are coming in on our AISC guidance and there's nothing that we're seeing or experiencing that's going to drive that higher. But on an individual basis in specific areas, I'd sort of pass over to Anthony or Michael to make a comment on that.
Anthony Rechichi: Yes. Look, David, it's Anthony here. Look, my comment on that is except for -- so on the AISC front, as we've sort of already talked about there or in the public, we've been talking about we're purposely pursuing some of the higher cost ounces. Now that's -- they're grade related. So that's what you're seeing in AISC. In actual input costs, though, like what is things costing down at the ground for getting per gold produced unit. Look, besides general CPI increases, and they are still there, nothing standing out. What we're not seeing is in your earlier comment, yes, maybe some people are seeing it go down. We don't see that. But we're seeing, yes, just typical CPI, not necessarily more than that and not less.
David Coates: Not cool. I was seeing people saying stable, but I haven't seen going down yet. But yes, so it is unwinding.
Anthony Rechichi: Yes. I guess stable is the right way to say it. If we say stable in line with CPI, I guess, it's kind of stable, yes, if you say it that way.
Operator: And there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Jim for closing remarks.
Jim Beyer: All right. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate you joining on what is another busy day and also appreciate the questions. As usual, if there's anything to -- anything you want to follow up, give us a call. Also I'd just take the opportunity now to thank for those who aren't aware, Jeff's leaving at the end of this month and heading off to Alicanto. So good luck with the new role, Jeff. Thanks for everything. And we'll let you know who Jeff's replacement is in due course. All right. Thanks, everybody. Have a good day.
Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect.
