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Regis Resources Ltd
ASX:RRL

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Regis Resources Ltd
ASX:RRL
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Price: 2.05 AUD -1.91% Market Closed
Updated: May 6, 2024

Earnings Call Analysis

Q2-2024 Analysis
Regis Resources Ltd

Regis Resources Hits Gold Production Targets, Strengthens Cash Flow

Regis Resources achieved a solid December 2023 quarter, producing 109,000 ounces of gold at AUD 2,133 per ounce, in line with its targets. By closing its hedge book, the company predicts a stronger cash flow for the rest of FY '24, now fully exposed to gold's price potential. The Duketon operation delivered 70,413 ounces at AUD 2,276 per ounce, while Tropicana produced 38,794 ounces at AUD 1,795 per ounce. A new 9-megawatt solar farm at Duketon South is cutting power costs and carbon emissions, having saved around AUD 900,000 in fuel and 2,500 tonnes of CO2 in the quarter. Sales revenue was AUD 279 million from just over 104,000 ounces sold at an average price of AUD 2,671 each. Operating cash flows reached AUD 97 million, with cash and bullion holdings of AUD 155 million at the end of the quarter. A significant one-off cost was the buyout of the hedge position for AUD 98 million. The company has also extended its AUD 300 million loan facility due date to 30 June 2025.

Noteworthy Performance and Future Strength

Regis experienced a satisfactory quarter, with its safety frequency rate significantly lower than the industry average, cementing its commitment to a safe workplace. The company produced over 109,000 ounces of gold, adhering to their cost and production guidance, highlighting efficiency and predictability. With the strategic move of closing out its hedge book, Regis stands in a stronger cash flow position, fully benefiting from current gold price levels. The company expects to build substantial cash throughout FY '24, fueled by its operations transitioning to a 'cash harvest' phase. Regis is now poised to capitalize on the gold market's upside potential, providing a robust outlook for investors.

Operational Highlights and Cost Efficiencies

Regis displayed solid performance in its operations, with Duketon's production at 70,413 ounces and Tropicana contributing 38,794 ounces. Although all-in sustaining costs at Duketon were affected by non-cash adjustments, operations maintained a strong position. Notably, the company is reviewing growth capital spending against conserving cash, indicating a strategic evaluation of resource allocation to optimize operational efficiency and costs.

Strong Financial Backbone and Unhedged Future

The financial results showcase a consistent performance, with notable operating cash flows of $97 million. With $279 million in sales revenue from over 104,000 ounces of gold, Regis confirms its financial strength. Importantly, after buying out the remaining hedge book for $98 million, the company is fully exposed to gold price movements, enhancing its capacity to generate unshackled cash flows. With extended debt maturity dates to June 2025, the company assures a solid funding strategy for upcoming projects.

Exploration Fuels Growth with High-Grade Discoveries

In the exploration arena, Regis reported promising results, with high-grade intercepts at Garden Well and Rosemont suggesting significant reserve growth potential. At Tropicana, progress on the Havana Underground project continues, promising to add years of production capacity. Initial results from deep drilling reinforce the long-term potential and underline Regis's position as a key player with more than 400,000 ounces of annual gold production in an advantageous market environment.

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2024-Q2

from 0
Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Regis Resources Limited quarterly briefing. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Jim Beyer, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Thanks, Lexi. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the December quarter -- December 2023 quarterly update. I'm joined this morning by our CFO, joined this morning with our CFO, Anthony Rechichi; and also with our new Chief Operating Officer, Michael Holmes, I'm very pleased to say has joined our team. Welcome, Michael. It's been a very satisfying quarter across a number of areas in our business. First up on key safety frequency rate remains well below the industry average as reported by the MERS in WA at -- with an LTIFR, Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate of 0.66. And we've continued on with consistent operating performance. Gold production and all-in sustaining costs are right on guidance. For the December quarter overall, we hit plan and produced just over 109,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $2,133 per ounce [indiscernible], in fact all dollars that we talk about today will be Australian dollars. It was another quarter that clearly demonstrates the cash-generating capacity of our operating assets as they continue to transition to a cash harvest phase. This, combined with a very significant step of closing out our hedge book in December means Regis is now very clearly moved into a much stronger state of cash flow generating at current gold price levels and is also fully exposed to the upside potential that exists for the price of gold. With this major change to our revenue, we're expecting a strong cash build for the remainder of FY '24. Progress on our growth plans continued, and last month, we released our biannual exploration report, which does a fine job illustrating the substantial potential for resources and ultimately reserves growing. On the ESG front, we saw more than just safety. The 9-megawatt solar farm at Duketon South, which is now delivering direct reduction in our power costs and carbon emissions for the quarter is online. We saved about $900,000 in fuel and also about 2,500 tonnes of carbon emissions for the quarter. So all up over the year, we expect 10,000 tonnes at least there, all of which are important fuel savings, but also keeping us below our safeguard mechanism threshold, which is another key cost saver. At Tropicana, work on site is well underway with the 62-megawatt wind solar battery facility that's being installed there. And based on progress, we're expecting that to be completed early in the 2025 year. I'd like to now hand over to Michael Holmes, our COO, who's joined our team at the beginning of November. Michael will go through our operational performance in a little bit more detail. Over to you, Michael.

U
Unknown Executive

Thanks, Jim. Good morning, everybody. It's great to be on the call today, and I'm really excited to join the Regis team. Looking more closely at the operational performance through the quarter. Duketon gold production was at 70,413 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $2,276 per ounce. And our share of the Tropicana gold production was 38,794 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,795. It is important to keep in mind that the Duketon all-in sustaining cost includes $140 per ounce of noncash inventory adjustments. In more detail, for the Duketon site, Duketon North's gold production was at 9,651 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $2,441 an ounce. The open mid mining at Duketon North continued in the Moolart and Gloster Pits for the quarter, and we will see mining continue in these areas in the second half of FY '24. All open pit mining at Duketon North will cease at the end of FY '24. And as the mill feed from the open pits reduces the low-grade stockpiles at Moolart will be used to supplement the tonnage to maintain the throughput rates. Down south -- Duketon South, gold production was at 60,763 ounces at a $2,250 per ounce all-in sustaining cost. Underground mining development and production stoping from both underground mines performed well, with development rates lower than last quarter's performance impacted by equipment availability and some water management issues. An action plan was implemented to resolve these issues and performance will increase over the coming months. Open pit mining continued at Garden Well, Russell Find's and Ben Hur the quarter, Garden Well Stage 6 pit-destacking was completed during the quarter, opening up the main ore zone. The Ben Hur and Russell Find's, the main ore zones were also accessed following a period of development. The mining of these pits will continue for the remainder of FY '24. Growth capital spend is ahead of plan due to advancing the mining schedules in the underground and open pits, along with some one-off unplanned drilling blasting costs at Ben Hur and Russell Find's open pits. Growth capital spend rates and mining development performance are currently under review, as the company assesses the options of continuing the improved mining schedules versus conserving cash to come in on the original plan. Tropicana delivered an improved quarter at 38,794 ounces and all-in sustaining cost of $1,795 per ounce. The open pits delivered more ounces than the previous quarter as per plan, and the underground mines were slightly up on tonnes and grade, quarter-on-quarter. Underground development did realize some issues with grade control interactions and ventilation restrictions with limited face availability and development meterage performance. Work is underway to address these issues. Mill-throughput was consistent quarter-on-quarter and grade and recovery was improved due to the mill feed grades improving. Forecasted production remains on track with guidance, noting a lower March quarter and a stronger June quarter. I'll now hand over to Anthony for the financials.

A
Anthony Rechichi
executive

Thanks, Michael. On to the financials for the quarter, which are quite consistent with the prior quarter, except for the hedge book, which I'll come to a bit later on. On revenue, we sold just over 104,000 ounces of gold at an average price of $2,671 an ounce, which includes the effect of the hedges. This delivered $279 million of sales revenue. Operating cash flows have been very strong again. Overall, we generated $97 million in operating cash flows, which includes the delivery of 27,000 ounces of gold into the hedge program. Approximately $47 million of the operating cash flows came from Duketon with Tropicana tipping in a solid quarter with $50 million. I'll now point [indiscernible] of our release, which outlines the quarter's cash flows. Cash and bullion closed at $155 million at 31 December. And you can see that operating cash flow before any hedging was actually $136 million. Partly offsetting this, we spent $60 million on CapEx, $15 million on exploration, $6 million on McPhillamys and corporate and finance costs were $13 million. This time, those corporate and finance costs had some once annual and one-off type costs included in them. Now the hedge book impacts for the quarter. And might I say, I look forward to talking about this in the next quarterly report. You can see the hedge book impacts over to the right of our waterfall chart that I was just talking about, [indiscernible] Firstly, there were $40 million in hedge losses owing to the delivery of the 27,000 ounces that we delivered into during the quarter. And secondly, the big one-off was the buyout of the remaining 63,000 ounces in December at a cost of $98 million. Regarding our debt, as announced earlier in the quarter, we extended the maturity date of the existing $300 million loan facility from 31 May '24 to 30 June 2025. The extension forms part of the broader funding strategy for the company's McPhillamys' Gold Project, which we spoke about in December -- in the September quarterly report call. That's all for me, and thanks over to you, Jim.

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Thanks, Anthony, and good to see that you didn't get stuck on the lift for this quarterly report. On the growth front, look, we're turning back to the growth section. Our work on the future plans, and I just want to talk through the work on our across all our assets. The Garden Well exploration decline is now finished, and we're feverishly drilling away. If you look at Figure 5 in the release, just to -- I'll refer to that in a couple of the points. In fact, if you have the quarterly release, handy, I'll refer to a couple of more drawings -- figures in that a little bit later on. The drill results are confirming -- this is at Garden Well. The drill results are confirming our belief that a continuous mineralization system does extend from the existing Garden Well South mine, for at least 1 kilometer to the north underneath the existing Garden Well open pit. This work and the results that we're doing continues to reinforce our exploration target in the area, which is 800,000 to 1.3 million ounces in potential. The initial drilling program has already delivered some early success immediately to the north of the current reserve, so immediately to the north of the Garden Well South area, we're drilling off the decline. And if you can zoom in, you'll see that the DP 1, which is a Drilling Point 1 on the figure. We did some drilling from there, and we've been able to add some stopes already into the mine plan for Garden Well South. So getting some returns there already. But just covering off on some of the 2 or 3 of the highlight drilling intercepts to point out in that drawing. We've got intercepts of 36 meters at 5 grams, 10 meters at 3.7 grams, 24 meters at 3.7 grams. Now these are all good intercepts that put us in good standing for that area, both immediately to the north of the south area, bit confusing there, but also over right up in the main area, which was our primary target. Moving on to Rosemont and Figure 6. This illustrates some of the recent high-grade drill hole intercepts from significant grade -- gold grades that we've been achieving -- drilling up to 700 meters below the southernmost currently planned underground area. The drilling continues to infill and extend the high-grade load that we've been -- or loads that we've been pursuing. Examples of intercept's, 7.4 meters at 6.7, 3.4 meters at 45, 1.3 meters at 30. 1.4 meters at 40, some pretty impressive intercepts that we've been hitting there. And while we're still waiting on all of the results, all the holes that we put into this target area of intersected mineralized ports [indiscernible], with 5 disseminated sulfides, [indiscernible] and [indiscernible] sericite alteration, it's occurring in multiple meter scale zones, common feature of the Rosemont gold-bearing geology. Now for the non-geo that are on the core, all of that's technical -- highly technical speak of what from my perspective is this is the really juicy stuff. So I'm very excited about some of the results and the drilling that we're getting in this area as well. Resource modeling and economic evaluation of both the Garden Well and the Rosemont Underground is underway with this new information that we're getting and still coming in with an update expected to be provided of the FY '24 June quarter resource and reserve statement. At Tropicana work continues at the Havana Underground project with more drilling and as can be seen in Figure 6, some good supportive intercepts we had as we move to increase the confidence category there. A feasibility study focusing on operational readiness and detailed designs is now underway. The Havana Underground has the potential to add a new production zone for 6 -- 7 years on top of the existing plans. We're very excited about the progress of this project. I'd add here that the Havana deposit is following the same maturity curve as its predecessors at Boston Shaker and Tropicana in the Undergrounds and really reinforces why the entire asset is one of a genuine Tier 1 -- one of the few genuine Tier 1 assets going around. The value of the underground continues to grow well beyond the reserves -- as they -- as they were or the reserves that they were 2.5 years ago when we bought the thing. Can I draw your attention now to Figures 7 and 8, and how exciting are these pictures. Figure 7 is a long section that shows all of the mineralization across the Tropicana site in gray. And the joint venture is -- we have a view that significant potential exists for confirming extensions to mineralization down plunge of the existing resource areas. To test this potential, drilling has begun consisting of a series of deep diamond drill holes, as marked in figure 7. Testing of these deep holes is looking at high-grade plunge extensions at Boston Shaker fold offset locations for Havana Underground and northern and repeats of the Havana Underground, beneath the [indiscernible]. Our first results -- and these are the first results in that the down plunge of Boston Shaker, and they're pretty exciting because it shows or indicates that mineralization extends another 650 meters down plunge from the existing in mineral resource. So further infill drilling has high potential down that bunch to add significant resource. Now I think you can see that it's illustrated in what I think is figure in that diagram. Just how much further down plunge those intercepts are hitting. [indiscernible] can see the potential that exists here for a long underground life. How can you not be pleased that we acquired this asset. At McPhillamys, we await a response on the Federal Section 10 application. We remain confident this will clear but are just growing increasingly frustrated with the process. And in addition, we're working on completion of the DFS, which we expect to be done by the end of the March quarter. Things are pretty busy on that front, and it is type of timing, we should be there [indiscernible] no delays in some of the external information we're chasing. Now our decision on the timing for FID will be in the following quarter, which will, of course, follow the release of the DFS. So in summary, the December quarter for Regis has been quite a significant one for the company. Another quarter of safe, consistent production, production of on-cost, a cash flow that is now free of the hedging shackles. I can actually hold a glass of water and talk about hedging without shaking. And we've been 3 of the hedging now, which we've had for nearly -- we've been dealing with for now for nearly 4 years. This will clearly drive a strengthening of our balance sheet from here. So Regis is a producer of well over 400,000 ounces of gold a year, a great outlook fully unhedged all in a global economic environment that just continues to point to a higher gold price scenario. Along with that, plenty of future reserve growth potential exists across all our assets. What a great foundation for the future. And the team here is really looking forward to doing more of the same. So with that, I'll hand it back to you, Lexi, and we're happy to take any questions that may come.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Alex Papaioanou from Citi.

A
Alexander Papaioanou
analyst

For Duketon South Underground, can you remind me again, when do you expect to be at a run rate closer towards the 1.5 million tonnes per annum?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Across both the assets, we're probably sitting in close to that. We're probably sitting reasonably close to that now, maybe between 1.2 million, 1.5 million. That's the range that we'll run in. Some quarters, it will be strong. Some quarters, it will be weak just because of the cyclical nature of the assets. This is why we'd like to get more production zones in so we can be more consistent.

A
Alexander Papaioanou
analyst

And can you remind me again, is there a planned 1H FY '24 tax refund?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Anthony?

A
Anthony Rechichi
executive

Yes. We mentioned it -- [indiscernible] twice, I think, Alex, and we mentioned at the AGM as well. Expectation won't be as big as last year. Last year was 67 million. We mentioned that the -- AGM that could be up to around $20 million in cash this year.

A
Alexander Papaioanou
analyst

And just one final question. On Duketon North, the negative sustaining CapEx of 3.1, can you give a bit more color on that?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

What -- the negative sustaining CapEx, did you say?

A
Alexander Papaioanou
analyst

Yes.

A
Anthony Rechichi
executive

Yes. So just working to it now on the table actually.

J
Jim Beyer
executive

I think that's stock movement.

A
Anthony Rechichi
executive

Are you looking at -- we've just got to -- no, we've just got a year-to-date adjustment coming through in this quarter, but we just do want to make a change to the corresponding quarter there, Alex.

Operator

Your next question comes from Andrew Bowler from Macquarie.

A
Andrew Bowler
analyst

Just continuing on with Duketon North, obviously, due to close at the end this financial year. Is there anything more we should know about that in terms of environmental liabilities that you'll be undertaking sort of in the near term? And also if you have any plans of that process plant, whether there's any sort of used parts, scrap value or something you can get from that plan? Or are you happy to keep it [indiscernible]?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Yes. Look, Andrew, it's a good question. I think to be fair, you've probably taken that a little bit further than what we will. Our plan is not to close it. Our plan is to put it on care and maintenance. And -- because we're still highly confident that we'll find more. Our exploration will deliver some additional material in that space that we can process. So we have no plans of putting it into closure. We're just put it on care and maintenance and same with the [indiscernible] we don't plan to do anything with that. Obviously, we're looking for other opportunities as to what we might do with that more corporately is there a deposit somewhere where we can move it. But I think right now, it would want to be pretty, pretty very clear good value opportunity for us to decide to decommission that and move it somewhere else because we think that area has still got potential, significant exploration potential. It's just that the timing hasn't worked out for us with the cost of processing a lot of those low-grade stockpiles that we've had there for quite some time, but in current cost environment, it's just not worth it. So I hope that answers your question.

A
Andrew Bowler
analyst

Yes. And on those low-grade stockpiles, I mean, clearly quite sensitive to the cost environment also that the current gold price what would the gold price have to be to keep that mill spinning and processing those stockpiles. Is that -- it well above where we are now, spotpiles?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Well above where we are now, yes. I mean the grades are sitting in 23-ish, something like that. So it's not conducive.

A
Andrew Bowler
analyst

All right. And last one for me, I have to ask about the McPhillamys. Can you just remind us sort of when this section 10 needs to come through to not impact your current time line? Are you still thinking you can get things done to the old timeline or deciding to push things down a little bit?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Look, we think that we can still meet the time line. It might have a little bit of an impact on it, but we think that we can keep delivering into the -- completing the DFS by the end of March. What it may mean is that there's a couple of things in there that in terms of cost estimate accuracy, it might have a little bit more of a wider confidence range on it. So we have to make a slightly higher provision because we haven't been able to do some extra geotech drilling that we wanted to do. But we've made a decision to keep moving with that. And we just keep responding to the queries coming from the Feds and doing what we can now to try and get this to closure. It's -- so short answer to your question is, no, I don't see anything immediate. It just has an impact on the confidence level on this. Therefore, maybe some -- on some -- in some areas, not a lot, but in some areas, we just need to make sure we take that into account when we make confidence, predictions or contingency.

Operator

Your next question comes from Alex Barkley from RBC.

A
Alexander Barkley
analyst

Just a question on Duketon South open pits. You've called out what you're expecting to be producing in the second half this year. Are those the same pits that will be running FY '25? And sort of what's the production trajectory over that year?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Yes, we'll give guidance on FY '25 later on this year at the moment. We're just working through the details to make sure that we don't over or under promise.

A
Alexander Barkley
analyst

And maybe like -- so what's the life of those 3 pits? Or is there a kind of one next cab off the rank that might be replacing? And that's sort of my question.

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Yes. Look, we've got a multitude of options there. That's part of what we're working on now is which pits will we bring in. Ben Hur obviously continues running. Garden Well continues running. And we've got a few other options actually that we're chasing now, which with a little bit of -- it's quite interesting, some alternative thinking in our approach around the -- some of our past pits as well that we're happy to look at. So there's -- the reason I'm being evasive on it is for 2 reasons: one, we'll give guidance for next year in due course. But also, there's actually a few moving parts for us that we're looking to optimize at the moment. So we're just not in a position to say too much more than what we've really indicated that in the past that what Duketon is capable of providing in the near term over the next couple of years, 3 or 4 years.

A
Alexander Barkley
analyst

Yes, sure. No problem. Always good to have options.

Operator

Your next question comes from David Coates from Bell Potter Securities.

D
David Coates
analyst

A couple of questions. Just -- so at Duketon South you flagged, I think you said -- the [indiscernible] cut back and open up some new zones. Is that -- are we going to see production a bit more weighted to the second half or increase in the second half as a result of the open pit at Duketon South?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

No, we're maintaining our guidance where it is. And if you look at the first half, I think, has been about 221,000 ounces thereabouts.

D
David Coates
analyst

[indiscernible] saying in the middle. Congratulations on that, by the way. [indiscernible] quarter, good to see. On contrary to that, you mentioned maybe give me the same [indiscernible], you flagged style development rates at Tropicana, where we see the underground production there sort of potentially impact and therefore, it's gotten some [indiscernible] by higher production from the Tropicana [indiscernible] Tropicana in the second half [indiscernible].

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Yes, it's not a great phone connection there, Dave. I think were you asking -- can you just ask that question?

D
David Coates
analyst

Yes. Sorry, I was just asked you flagged the slow development rates at Tropicana. Are they going to impact production underground where in the second half of '24?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

No, we're not anticipating anything like that. I mean, the team there have worked out what they need to do to address it and getting -- have got on with it. So not to -- short answer is, no. Not at this point.

D
David Coates
analyst

And then [indiscernible] you've mentioned this time on McPhillamys. Obviously, we you mentioned that once the BFS is finished, you will then announce the timing of a final investment decision. So if you perhaps give us a bit of insight into how you guys are thinking about pushing the button on the McPhillamys, what factors are going to drive the timing of that [indiscernible]?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Yes. It's a good question, [indiscernible]. I think one of the things that we recognize and I think a lot of people do, but I'll say it is that as a company, Regis is not a 1-1 project company. McPhillamys is a very important part of our future, but we have other operating assets and other potentials. So we really look at understanding how we can use the optionality and the timing of McPhillamys is something that we can dictate. If we were a one asset company and our meeting to be was all hanging off this one project. Then of course, you really don't have too much of a choice otherwise apart from just pushing on and developing the project.

We, on the other hand, have got the opportunity. And in accordance with that, you got to figure out how you're going to fund it based on the time that you've stuck with, if you like. We, on the other hand, have got a business that is now generating a significant amount of free cash flow now that we've removed the hedges. We'll see a balance sheet that continues to strengthen. When we look and file -- we're looking at the McPhillamys as a project, all right. Well, how -- what's the sensible timing for us to make a decision to build it. We might be in a position, for example, to make a final investment decision in the middle of this year. But is that the sensible thing to do in terms of being able to finance it? What happens -- pardon me, what happens if we push that timing back 6 or 12 months? Well, the project is still there. Our balance sheet gets stronger. It means that maybe we don't -- things like we don't get forced to have to do an equity raising, which we definitely don't want to do for this or prefer not to. Our preference is to look and we have a strong balance sheet, funded a little bit out of debt and maybe a little bit out of our cash flows and our existing cash balances. So from that point of view, from a capital investment timing, we have the luxury, if you like, of being able to decide when is the appropriate time to develop it and not as soon as -- and that may not necessarily be as soon as we possibly can. It might make sense for us to delay that. Now it's important that people understand not to interpret that as the [indiscernible] on the project and trying to talk it down far from it. What we're trying to do is, we're just trying to let people understand that if they're looking at how we how do you plan to fund it? We've got options and time isn't going to force our hand. We have time on -- we have a business that's very strong as it stands. So that's basically what I'm saying by we'll make a decision on the timing as opposed to making the decision by June. That explains the situation.

Operator

Your next question comes from Daniel Morgan from Barrenjoey.

D
Daniel Morgan
analyst

On the call and then the release you called out, you were considering -- well, you talked about how development is ahead of Duketon South pits and Underground and you were spending a bit more money as a result of that higher rate of progress. But you were looking at options to slow that down to perhaps preserve cash. Can I just understand that you're thinking a bit better? I mean, usually, if productivity is ahead, you probably want to take that win while you can and use the balance sheet to handle that because you end up getting there quicker? Why would you want to slow it?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Yes. Good question. I was hoping somebody would ask that keeping it at the highest level. I mean basically -- if you look at our progress on our growth capital numbers, I think our guidance was $85 million to $95 million. If you look at how much we've spent to date. I think it's something like 70 -- low 70s -- so if we -- we -- the point is that the messaging here is the reason that it looks like -- we're [indiscernible] not the word I'd like to use. But the reason that it's looking like we're going to be high there is not because we've lost control of the costs or anything like that. The unit cost, it's because we've actually had a good performance. Now you're quite right, we could make a decision to keep running on. And obviously, if we do keep running on then there'll be maybe not to exactly the same extent, but we might see that trend push us to change our guidance off the back of some good productivities and good performance or we might -- we might look at that and say, well, if it makes sense to us, maybe we can throttle activity back. Just it's an assessment that's that we've really seen and satisfied that we understand what's driving the improved performance. Now we've just got to assess do we want to keep that going? Or do we want to utilize it and take advantage of it in a different way? And as you say, it obviously mining is an interesting game. Sometimes you do -- when you get the opportunity to get ahead, you do it -- and particularly now as we've got a stronger cash flow, it might make sense to do that. We just haven't made that decision yet. But we're pushing on at the moment, but we'll probably be able to give a clearer picture on that. We've got the half year accounts coming up in about 3 or 4 weeks' time. So I certainly expect we'd be clear there. But we plan to do what's sensible.

D
Daniel Morgan
analyst

So conceptually, I am picking out a bit more, does that mean that because you're ahead, I mean, usually, if you are ahead, you're getting into new mines or better grade earlier, does that mean it's possible at the back end of this year, so FY '24, you might have a bit better production than you might have thought? Or is FY '25 better than maybe you would have planned if you continue your current cost? What does that mean the benefits of continuing to spend?

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Yes. Look, this is growth capital. And usually, the growth capital is not for immediate production. It's for longer term. So what we're actually seeing here is we're pushing development out into areas where we hadn't originally planned because we see future growth potential. So will that deliver higher production this year, probably unlikely. I mean just by definition, of the fact that it's great capital, if it was going to bring forward production this year, it will be more like sustaining capital. So being the difference between sustaining growth, people always say that it's been -- try to understand how that's being allocated in this particular case. Growth capital is where we're looking at development in areas at least a couple of years out that aren't sitting in our plan. So it's more like future opportunity rather than this year, which is, again, part of the reason why we just need to make sure that if we're going to continue with this, we need to -- with the accelerated expenditure because really we're bringing forward spend, then it's the right thing to do this year.

D
Daniel Morgan
analyst

And just last question. Duketon North, what does production look like through the balance of FY '24? And is -- do you still plan to be producing some goals in FY '25?

A
Anthony Rechichi
executive

So the production is as per the guidance. It's going to be -- as I said, we're into the pit, but we're supplementing more lower-grade material. So you'll see softening of that production throughput. And then we're on care and maintenance after FY '24. So there'll be no goal coming out of Duketon North or maybe as we put it in the care and maintenance, we'll be cleaning up the plans and things like that. So there might be a little bit that will be producing -- we'll be presenting itself in the first quarter of FY '25.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Beyer for closing remarks.

J
Jim Beyer
executive

Thanks, Lexi. Thanks, everybody, for joining us. And thanks, Anthony and Michael, and welcome Michael, as I said before, it's great to have you on board. And if anybody's got any questions, please give us a call, and we'll do our best to answer what we can. All right. Thanks, everyone. Have a good day.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.