The 2024 Q4 Catch up.
Greatland Gold’s Momentum: Shaun Day Talks Telfer, Havieron & What’s Next
The latest Aim On-Air interview with Greatland Gold CEO Shaun Day is here! In this deep dive conversation, we cover Greatland’s impressive first month of production at Telfer, ongoing developments at Havieron, financial strength, exploration outlook, and what’s ahead as the company gears up for ASX cross-listing.
🚀 Kicking Off 2025 with a Strong Start at Telfer
It’s been a huge first month under Greatland’s ownership, with 33,882 ounces of gold equivalent produced in just 27 days. Shaun described this as a testament to the team and the effort that went into a seamless operational transition, despite the challenges of integrating a major asset like Telfer.
🎙️ Shaun’s Take:
“Whenever you start a new train, there’s challenges and difficulties. And this was no exception. But the team handled it masterfully.”
Notably, both processing trains at Telfer were running just 15 minutes after the deal was completed—talk about hitting the ground running!
🔎 Reflections on the Acquisition: Expectations vs Reality
Looking back at the October 2024 acquisition, Shaun remained excited about the opportunity that Telfer and Havieron bring. While Telfer is producing strong free cash flow, the real jewel in the crown is Havieron, which remains the company’s long-term strategic focus.
🎙️ Shaun on the Bigger Picture:
“We love the exploration footprint around Telfer. We think there’s multiple opportunities for ore sources to feed into the mill. This is a major gold hub, and we believe there’s more to be found.”
💰 Strong Financial Position & Hedging Strategy
With A$145M in cash, no debt, and additional financial flexibility from a $100M syndicated facility, Greatland is in a strong position to fund its growth and development pipeline.
Shaun also discussed hedging, explaining how put options were used to provide downside protection without limiting upside potential, ensuring the company can maximize returns in a record-high gold price environment.
🎙️ Shaun on Hedging:
“Put options are insurance—you don’t have to use them, but they’re there to protect against volatility. Right now, we’re fully participating in the market price, and that’s good for shareholders.”
🏗️ Havieron Feasibility Study: What’s Next?
While Telfer is generating strong cash flow, Havieron remains the real game-changer. The feasibility study is well underway, and Shaun emphasized the optimizations Greatland is considering, especially given the company’s large-scale processing capability at Telfer.
🎙️ Shaun’s Key Insight:
“This is the first time Greatland can describe how we think about Havieron. We’ve had years to think through this opportunity, and we’re excited to share our vision with the market.”
🌏 ASX Cross-Listing & Future Growth
With an ASX cross-listing targeted for Q2 2025, Shaun confirmed that Australian institutions already took significant positions during the equity raise for the Telfer-Havieron acquisition. This further validates Greatland’s growing presence in the Australian market.
Addressing speculation on the timing of announcements, Shaun was clear:
🎙️ “If anything, the ASX will increase transparency and communication. We want to communicate regularly and ensure shareholders get meaningful updates.”
⏩ Looking Ahead: 2025 & Beyond
With JORC resource and reserve updates, quarterly production figures, and the ASX cross-listing all ahead, 2025 is shaping up to be a year of major milestones for Greatland Gold.
🎙️ Shaun’s Final Words:
“We’ve built a strong financial base, we have an incredible team, and we’re focused on operational performance. If we deliver on that, the share price will take care of itself.”
📺 Watch the Full Interview
The full Aim On-Air interview with Shaun Day is now available.
☕ Enjoy the content? If this interview left you with the same buzz it gave me, you can buy me a coffee here: https://buymeacoffee.com/aimonair
As always, thanks for watching, supporting, and keeping the Greatland conversation alive! 🚀
Transcript
Liam (00:12)
You’re watching Aim On Air, where specialising in connecting companies with their shareholders is what we do best.
Welcome to the show. Today I’m thrilled to be joined by Shuan Day, CEO of Greatland Gold. Greatland is making waves as it transitions into a major operator. And there’s so much to discuss from their impressive first month of production at Telfer to what’s next for Havieron and beyond. Shuan, it’s great to have you back. Thanks for joining us.
Shaun (00:44)
Hi Liam, always good to catch up. Thanks for having me on the program again.
Liam (00:48)
It genuinely is always a pleasure. Listen, before we dive into the numbers and strategy, I’ve got to ask, with all the exciting developments at Greatland, do you ever catch yourself mentally mapping out your next gold find while walking the dog or enjoying some downtime? Or do you make strict effort to switch off?
Shaun (01:04)
No, think part of this role, particularly with the journey we’ve had over the last three years has been a lot of thinking time, a lot of tactical and strategic thinking. So, yeah, there’s less time turning off. find jogging actually quite therapeutic in that way. I find that that’s kind when I do kind of turn off. But if I’m walking the dog or doing something like that, I’m definitely thinking about kind of what is next for Greatland and what we should be thinking about.
Liam (01:33)
Thank you. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. So congratulations on the strong first month of production at Telfer and the Greatlands ownership producing 33,882 ounces of gold equivalent in just 27 days is a really impressive milestone. How does this achievement reflect Greatlands capabilities and what does it mean for the company as it transitions into becoming a major operator?
Shaun (01:55)
Yeah, Liam, it’s a great question and a great start for us at Telfer. I think in terms of the team that we have together, I think this is just you know, testament to that team. Integrations are hard. This was the hardest month, the first month of integration. As people would be aware, we completed the transaction on the 4th of December. We completed in London time, so that was 4 p.m. Australian Western Standard Time.
we’d flown into the site the day before and we restarted that second train at 4.15 p.m. So 15 minutes after the transaction, we had both processing trains running at Telfer. Whenever you start a new train, there’s challenges and difficulties. And this was no exception, but the team we had in place, I think, handled that masterfully.
I think the in situ team there were obviously a huge part of that, but I think where we’ve augmented them around safety, processing, underground, mine planning, I think it’s just really added to the equation there and helped propel that outcome. 27 days, there’s no relax, there’s still a lot more work to do, but it’s certainly great to start effectively ahead of the curve than have our first month and explain to people why.
Hey, it’s a rough start, but we’ll catch up. We’re actually the opposite. We were saying it was good, so good. Just temper your expectations because that was a cracking first month.
Liam (03:31)
Indeed, it was. It’s fantastic. Thank you. Back in October 2024, as the Havieron and Telfer acquisition process was underway, you expressed significant optimism about the future opportunities these assets could bring to Greatland. Reflecting on that period, how do you feel about the progress so far and have the challenges and opportunities aligned with your expectations?
Shaun (03:53)
Yeah, look, I think we are excited about the opportunity that we have with the asset base. And Telfer to start with is a world-class asset, very large production as you got to see from the December outcome. At this gold price, particularly, we think there’s some strong free cash flow generation and Greatland never in its
history has really earned revenue before or run out of profit. We do now. So that’s a huge milestone in addition to becoming an operator. It’s easy to focus on Havieron and Telfer, but the real prize here, the jewel in the crown is Havieron So getting that underway again, getting that into production and then augmenting Telfer with Havieron is the real prize.
And then we love that Exploration footprint around it as well, which we think can add. And ultimately we think there’s multiple opportunities for ore sources to feed into this Telfer mill. So we have a monopoly infrastructure position in the Patterson and leveraging that across a 20 million ounce Telfer and a 10 million ounce Havieron, albeit Telfer has been mine for over 20 years through some of that endowment.
But this is a major gold hub and we’re excited and we think there’s more to be found.
Liam (05:24)
During this period, you transitioned from managing director to chief executive officer, a significant shift. How has your role changed as Greatland takes its new identity as a producer?
Shaun (05:35)
Just to clarify on that, and I think it’s good that you asked the question, because I think often the genesis of a lot of these questions is from shareholder queries and what you’ve seen in discussion boards. But look, my role is unchanged. I’m probably managing director and chief executive officer and always have been. We tend to use the terms a little bit interchangeably. I’m a managing director because I am one of the board of directors, so I sit on the board.
but I also feel that chief executive officer role. So I know certain platforms refer to me as the CEO and certain platforms refer to me as managing director, but my role is unchanged and I typically just tend to use the phrase managing director. think calling myself manager director and chief executive officer is just a bit of a mouthful. So I tend to just simplify the title and I’m not too worked up about titles, but I think that’s good clarification to people that
This is just continuity of the same
Liam (06:36)
That’s good. Thank you. The dual train processing operations resumed on day one, as you’ve alluded to. Post acquisition, how critical is this set up to maintain an operational momentum, especially at this early stage?
Shaun (06:47)
Yeah, well, restarting the second train, it was a really substantial milestone for us. We have the benefit of mining that open pit, continuing to mine that underground, plus these high grade stockpiles at surface. There’s over 500,000 ounces of gold at surface in those stockpiles, plus 20,000 tons of copper.
So we think we just have a tremendous opportunity right now to continue mining, augment that mining rate with the high grade stockpile and demonstrate really good production profile. And of course at today’s gold price, we think that gives us the opportunity to be a free cashflow generating business.
Liam (07:37)
Which leads me to the next question with the stockpiles that you’ve just spoken about and the all-time highs in the gold price. What’s the strategy for leveraging the inventory whilst optimizing costs? Is it something you can discuss?
Shaun (07:51)
Yeah, look, let me try to unpack that for you. But right now, I think if you just have a look at what we achieved during the December month, we actually drew down around 600,000 tonnes of high grade, but we added some 300,000 tonnes of low grade material to that stockpile. So we will typically prioritise the higher grade through the mill, again, at today’s gold price.
that’s really, we think, profitable, all because the mining cost has already been incurred on this ore. So no mining costs, a couple of dollars of re-handling. Obviously, you still apply recoveries and still apply processing costs, but this is high-margin material for us. So look, we will prioritise putting that through, but I think you might actually see the opportunity for us to build those stockpiles in terms of the low-grade stockpiles, and it’s good to think about it as two stockpiles.
how we think about the high grade is slightly different to how we think about low grade. But we love not just the economics of this, but the flexibility it gives our mining and our processing teams for months and indeed years to come. So it’s a hugely advantageous position. And to my mind, I cannot think of another operator, particularly in the mid cap space that would have 500,000 ounces at surface.
plus 20,000 tonnes of copper and the processing facilities, the operating processing facilities to process that and convert it into gold and ultimately a financial outcome. it’s unique and I think shareholders should really appreciate that opportunity that we have.
Liam (09:32)
Indeed, thank you. We noticed that the all in sustained costs haven’t been factored into numbers yet, with plans to release them at the end of the quarter. Could you explain the rationale behind this timing and how it fits into your broader financial reporting strategy, please?
Shaun (09:47)
Yeah, look, we were not required to do quarterly reporting in London. It is a feature of the Australian market and we want to adopt that because I think it just shares more information with our shareholders and we want to be understood together with that peer group of Australian producers. As part of that, this first 27 days or 27.3 days was a tough period to tackle in terms of how we presented.
I think the final quarterly report we put together was expansive, which is what we were trying to do. Equally though, the first 27 days from a cash flow point of view, and it was a really good outcome. We ended up with $145 million Australian in the bank, no debt, an undrawn $75 million Telfer working capital facility. So we have $220 million of cash available.
to pursue our objectives and invest in the business. In addition to that, with our ounce profile, we expect to be cashflow generative in the March quarter. So this December was meant to be the lowest, the nadir of our cash balance, and it’s a superb outcome. know, December went really well. Having said that, it’s a bit of a complex period from an accounting and bank balance point of view, because…
There’s this transition period as we cut over from Newmont ownership to Greatland ownership. Some suppliers may have sent invoices to Newmont who will then either pay them and will reimburse them or send them back to us. So although it was a good month, we didn’t want to necessarily, with all that complexity and noise, we didn’t want to come out with some suggestions on what we didn’t think was necessarily a super representative 27 days and then create
you know, an expectation different to what we had in that SRK review, Telfer, mine plan in our readmission document. But I think March, when we have a relatively steady state period for 90 odd days, those accounting transition flows and early acquisition accounting issues have kind of been dealt with in December. We get a pretty representative view of that in the March quarter, a more representative sample of 90 days.
And then what we’re also going to do is give guidance for the next quarter out to the end of FY25, because we’re a June financial end. And then in the presumably around June quarter, which I guess comes out in July 2025, this will just get us into this routine kind of reporting and transparency for shareholders.
Liam (12:32)
Thank you. Moving down the road now towards Havieron could you share an update on the Havieron feasibility study? How is the timeline shaping up? For our new shareholders that maybe haven’t tuned in and seen the show before, what excites you most about Havieron’s potential?
Shaun (12:49)
Look,
the team is already in place, led by David Fielder, who’s a super capable and well credentialed project director. So he’ll lead that development of Havieron. Equally, our COO, Simon Tyrell, has that background in project delivery. So we think we have some really good leadership and bank strength around delivering this project.
That team is already together and is in the Greatland office working and has been for some months on that updated feasibility study. And we’re really excited about this is the first time Greatland can describe how we think about Havieron. And we’ve had three years, well, at least the three years since I’ve been at Greatland to be almost four, to be working on this and thinking through that opportunity. So…
Yeah, we think there’s a great deal we want to share with the market once we’ve done that work. The base case remains largely consistent with what Newcrest described, which is this 2.8 million tonne, 20-year mine life, lowest quartile cost, tier one jurisdiction, taking advantage of existing infrastructure. Those are all huge positives. But this is the first time Greatland can review that and say, what other
optimization that can we bring to Havieron because we have this tremendously large processing capability at Telfer. We’re already planning to connect Telfer and Havieron with a bitumen road. haul roads are not always bitumen. So we’re going to spend that extra money upfront and that’s already part of our CapEx forecast to deliver this all super highway, which
is a hugely productive piece of infrastructure and can carry more ore if there’s the opportunity to do that. So these are the kind of opportunities we think about. People should be in the paradigm of this 2.8, 3 million tonnes is what it will deliver, but Greatland is certainly working through a host of optimisations and we hope to share those optimisations we’ve studied and describe what we think is the final and best way to develop Havieron.
but it’s already half built and we’re gonna build on that. And some of the items on the critical path, which is really that ventilation, we are already contracting that. We’re already doing some prepayments around getting the cutting heads in place so that we can mobilize promptly and get that under sail with the release of that feasibility study. where it’s a huge focus for us, easy to focus on.
Telfer because it’s ounces now, it’s production and cashflow now, but Havieron is the big prize here.
Liam (15:45)
It is. I think shareholders are very excited to see that come to fruition. With $145 million Australian dollars cash and no significant debt, Greatland is in a really strong financial position. How does this financial flexibility support your future plans for growth?
Shaun (16:06)
It’s hugely supportive because we want to invest. We want to invest in the drill bit. We want to invest in the in-mine drill bit to demonstrate those life extensions. We’ve got the ability to bring in the talent we need. We actually now have the financial resources to say, look, we need a person who can focus on safety or a person who can focus on procurement, HR, IT. These are all divisions we previously did not have.
or teams we did not have that we can now put in place. And we’re seeing the fruits of that in short order. And again, I think the safety outcomes we’re getting at Telfer, you can see the improvements we’re driving there and that’s hugely important. you’re being able to reinvest in the asset and we expect that payback is a multiple, but being able to reinvest in this asset and not to have to rate limit the speed of that investment.
It’s still sensible, it’s still measured, it’s still financially disciplined, but at least having the bank balance that allows us to advance sensible opportunities is hugely advantageous, because there’s lots of mining companies out there that have good ideas, but don’t have the financial capacity to advance them. We are actually in the luxurious position of being able to advance those ideas. So hugely important. And again, it should give people confidence.
that we can continue to build this platform because we’ve set up that strong financial base.
Liam (17:36)
You have and you didn’t even mention the syndicated facility, which is going to provide additional support for operations and growth. How does that even fit into your broader financial strategy?
Shaun (17:46)
Well, there’s effectively three elements to our liquidity right now, cash liquidity. One is the $145 million at bank. And of course, as I mentioned, we like to think that we can generate free cash flow in the March quarter and indeed beyond that. So we’re optimistic we can enhance and grow that bank balance. Number two, have in the shorter term sense, we have this Telfer working capital facility of 75 million.
It just gives us additional contingency and additional financial flexibility. And then the third element with those same banks, tier one banks, ANZ, HSBC, ING, we have the $750 million Havieron project financing facility, seven year facility that is subject to the feasibility study being finalized. But when we think about the cash at bank, that’s 145 million.
plus the 750 million, we already have $900 million of financial capacity to deliver the $800 million Havieron project. Now, that is a fantastic position to be in before we’ve even finished the feasibility study. In addition, I like to think there’s an opportunity to have free cashflow generating quarters that actually further create that buffer.
of having more cash than we need. So our shareholders gain confidence that we have the financial capacity in place to deliver Havieron and that huge growth opportunity without needing to come back and do another equity raise or dilute shareholders. So we think that financial robustness of our balance sheet and presently no drawn debt should just instill confidence.
It’s only when we finalize that feasibility study and articulate that final view on CapEx that I want to use the phrase fully funded. But I think hopefully what I’ve painted there gives people a clear picture that there is a pathway to being fully funded based on the current resources of the business and the current confluence we have, which is the benefit of a world-class project development asset, the best or equal best in Australia.
that is coupled with a cashflow generating telfer, you really get that. So you’ve got telfer that can help fund and there’s probably 12 quarters of hopefully free cashflow generation before the bottom of the J curve or the nadir of how much money needs to be invested in Havieron before it starts generating cash. So 12 quarters, we think that consistent free cashflow during that time would put downward pressure on how much of that Havieron project financing facility we need, which is de-gearing the company, which is financially de-risking us. So we think this is a beautiful combination.
Liam (20:56)
Greatland has and thank you so much for that answer. Thank you very much for that. Greatland has previously mentioned hedging gold and copper production. Could you elaborate on this strategy, how it’s been implemented? I mean, that can only add further to everything you’ve just discussed,
Shaun (21:14)
Yeah, well, look, to start with, all intents and purposes, we are unhedged So we are participating at the current gold price, which whilst we’re talking is a $4,400 Aussie gold price. That’s extraordinary. It’s the highest it’s ever been. And I think US dollars, I think it’s a 2,700 plus gold price. Again, the highest ever seen. So this is good.
You know, being a gold producer when the price is at all time highs is good. What we have done though is with purchase and put options. Now put options are a right but not an obligation to sell. They’re the path of least regret. So they are at 3900 Aussie. That’s 500 out of the money right now. But we don’t need to deliver in them because they’re an option.
So we’re delivering into the market price. We fully participate in the market price. Put options are insurance, just like you might insure your home. You don’t need to deliver into them. You participate in the higher price. But if ever 3,900 gold price looks good, well, we get to deliver into them. And that’s like the minimum price we’ll get across that 150,000 ounces of put options. That’s across calendar 2025.
I celebrate every time those put options expire without being used because it means we’ve got a higher price. It’s like you don’t want your house to burn down and claim your insurance. this is good. But we think the protection at $3,900 Aussie is really advantageous. It’s nice to know that’s kind of the worst outcome we’ll get. It’s great that we’re getting a better outcome
But this is our first year of production. We’re doing the integration. It’s good to give ourselves confidence that we will be generating free cash flow by effectively putting in a minimum price on large, know, ballpark 50 % of the gold ounces, not gold equivalent, but the gold ounces we will generate. you know, we think that’s a really strong position to be in.
Again, I think the board supporting the management to put in place put options. It did cost a few million dollars to do it, but that was the best insurance we’ve done. Had we done the forwards for free, we would now be delivering at $3,900 and we’d all be scratching our heads why we’re not getting an extra $500 an ounce. But right now, we’re getting the highest possible price for our gold and that is good for shareholders.
Liam (24:05)
That’s fantastic. Thank you. I appreciate that. You’ve mentioned evaluating West Dome stages and drilling targets near Telfer How impactful could these opportunities be in extending Telfer’s mine life?
Shaun (24:19)
Yeah, we’re really optimistic about the mine life extensions. At West Dome you’ve got that stage eight extension plus the stage seven. They are fully drilled out. They worked in a lower gold price environment. If anything, we’ve walked down a little bit of the cost structure at Telfer. So you’ve got these positive jaws, as in your lower jaw, the cost has moved down a fraction and your upper jaw has gone up. The gold price is up meaningfully.
If they generated margin before, they should generate even better margin now. They’re fully drilled out. We’re putting that through our mine planning to understand the full size and scope and how we’re going to tackle in the block model for taking that material out. But we are really confident, particularly in this gold price environment, that that ore adds to the mine life at Telfer in that open pit. In addition, we’ve also in the main dome. We’re not currently mining in the main dome, but it’s…
It’s very close. It’s a couple of hundred meters next door where there’s also a similar area there, which is stage three. If you’re looking at slide 13 of our presentation deck, that area three is also fully drilled out. Now we don’t think we need, we’ll be mining that in the short term, but again, it’s lovely contingency to have a third area we can move into if we feel we need more ore to augment what we can pull out of that West Dome open pit.
The saddle structure there, we want to get some drill rigs on that. We think it’s mineralized. We want to understand how that looks like and hopefully can bring that into the mine plan as well. The underground we’re excited about, the Eastern stockwork, the ESC, we’re spending time drilling that out. That’s kind of a continuation of that Reef structure. We like that, that West Dome Deep, super exciting. We’ve got
rigs on that as well. We’ve done 20 years of mining under that main dome. This is the first time we’ve gone under West Dome and the grade looks really good. So that’s exciting and there’ll be challenges and we need to kind of put mine plans around that before we can speak with confidence. But it’s great to have that kind of optionality within the mining area as well. There’s a number of other areas that kind of Newcrest has identified historically that perhaps wasn’t big enough for a Newcrest.
But Greatland, I think is a more agile operator of Telfer and will be running even those relatively small opportunities that might just add one or two years, but that’s exciting for us. So we’re gonna take a whole of side approach, investing in mine planning, investing in the drill bit to demonstrate that mine life is hugely important for us. We expect in March, so less than two months away to update
the JORC resource at Telfer. We think that shows the size of the prize. Then late June, July, we come out with the JORC Reserve, which will further demonstrate and testify to that mine life extension at Telfer. So it’s a huge focus and a huge opportunity for us. That is certainly the area I’d most like to advance and most keen to advance.
Liam (27:34)
You’ve strengthened the leadership team with several key appointments. How critical has it been in navigating Greatland’s new role as a major operator? As the company grows, how do you ensure the leadership team remains aligned with your vision? Or have your objectives now evolved to reflect a broader, more collaborative management structure?
Shaun (27:52)
Yeah, look, I think one of the hallmarks of Greatland has been the collaborative and team approach of our management team. know, Liam, you’ve been kind of on this journey for a while and you remember the arbitration and the difficulties we had with Newcrest when around the buyback of or their attempt to buy back us out of some of Havieron. And we were able to prevail in that arbitration because I think the team
cohesion, the efforts we all put together were tremendous. And I think that’s the culture we like to think that we have and have maintained, Greatland. And as we move forward, we think that’s a really important element of what the influence Greatland has on Telfa, and indeed Havieron So, some of that leadership with…
with team we’ve put in place, Simon Tyrell, course, our CEO, who’s moved to Telfer. Not all COO go to the site. Simon’s saying, we’re a one site company, I wanna be boots on the ground, and he’ll be at site for the first 12 to 18 months to make sure that integration is successful, to make sure we set up Telfer and have run for long-term success, and to put that cultural stamp, that can do attitude into Telfer.
Shuan McLaughney joins from Northern Star as well as Simon, ten year site GM at Northern Star. He’s deputy GM there. Now he could be a GM at any site. He’s relaxed about titles and we talked about titles earlier in this recording, but we’ve worked together. We’re a team. Shuan McLaughney is an incredibly impressive person and he’ll focus on that underground and the mining contractors, health and safety.
Again, someone’s joined us out of Northern Star, although via another employer, Melissa Collins, she’s outstanding and we’ve seen the safety impact we’ve had on day one and through December and now into January and we’re really justifiably proud about that. And one of our highest callings is to make sure everyone returns safe from work every single day. And we can’t be successful in our integration unless we do it safely. So, we love that, but the…
the project team we’ve put in around Havieron, these people are excited. It’s one of Australia’s premier, if not the premier development opportunity. People want to work on Havieron. So we think putting that leadership in team and hopefully bringing the existing Telfer team along with that journey because they’ve been a bit unloved. think previously…
I’ve described Telfer as a bit the French foreign legion of Newcrest. was a bit of an unloved outpost and it wasn’t invested in. Well, now they have an owner that loves it, that we want to make it successful. We want to reinvest in it. And I think the teams at site understand that. The geologists there, the mining engineers, the processing teams, and indeed all everyone there, they know when the owner…
is reinvesting and he’s excited and engaged. And that’s what they see with Greatland. And I think you’ve seen that in reduced staff turnover, really high retention rates. Notwithstanding change is always difficult. People have wanted to stay at Greatland, wanted to stay at Telfer because this is a good opportunity. And as December indicates, it’s going well.
Liam (31:27)
It is is. Greatland plans to cross list on the ASX by Q2 2025. How many Australian companies and institutions have already taken a position in the company in readiness for this listing?
Shaun (31:41)
Well, look, I think the way I might answer that is when we did the equity raise, this is to complete the Telfer Havieron acquisition, about half of those funds came from Australia.
Liam (31:56)
That’s amazing.
Shaun (31:58)
I think that reflects the way this asset is seen in Australia. And for a lot of those funds, buying stock up in London and indeed, Aim stock is outside of their mandate. So their high conviction views when they’ve come in on that bid, or at least it’s outside of their benchmark or they’ve come under their mandate by saying, well, there’s a commitment to join the ASX within 12 months. So it was challenging to get traction.
And we didn’t get traction with all the funds up there because a lot of people said, look, you’re outside of our mandate. Sorry, we’d love to catch up. But yeah, we want to be respectful of your time and ours. We can’t invest even if we fall in love. we think the ASX listing is really important. It augments what we have in London and we’re grateful for the huge support we have here. It’s going to be an ongoing important element of us in London. But we think the ASX just adds to that.
And it simplifies our structure. We operate in Australia. I’m based in Australia. The team is based in Australia near our Telfer Havieron asset in Western Australia. And actually just being under the Australian Corporations Act and not having to get legal advice in Australia and London, accounting advice in Australia and London will actually speed things up and simplify and take out some costs, which we think is positive. But it’s the simplicity and the…
and the efficiency of that we really like. So the ASX listing is important to us. We’ll do a scheme of arrangement in London to get shareholder approval before we do that. And I like to think we’ll get that done in the June quarter. The gating thing is we will need for the regulator the December financial statements. Typically after kind of audit or review, they’re completed in, let’s just say, end of February.
There’ll be an accounting expert report. So say another four weeks, that will be done at the end of March. So I think really we’re in the preparation phase internally, getting a ducks in a row, so to speak, around that documentation I described in the financial statements. Once that is complete, I think that’s when we’ll be able to engage with shareholders and say, okay, this is a timetable to complete. But obviously my focus in the team is operations, but
It’s a business development team. This is their task to add that ASX listing, that cross-listing. And just to remind people, we intend to, you know, it will be an Australian vehicle listed in primary listing in Australia with the secondary listing continuing here in London. As I said, that hopefully is the best of both worlds. It will be some level of share consolidation. have a…
Since I started with Greatland, we’ve always had that unusually high number of shares on the issue. I think it will be nice just to sort that out a little bit as well as part of or tidy that up a little bit as part of this listing. And I might also maybe do breaking news. My intent is we’ll probably just refer to us as Greatland rather than Greatland Gold, because we’re already gold and copper. I think the gold is kind of limiting. So I think it will just be Greatland rather than Greatland Gold as our formal name.
Liam (35:21)
That makes sense. Thank you. And just to clarify, and I have spoken to the management team about this, there was a little confusion through your recent update over how you were going to list on the ASX. Can you just confirm, clarify, and draw a line under this is going to be a cross-listing and not a dual listing, please?
Shaun (35:41)
Yeah, I’m very specific. I always use the word cross-listing. So there is one corporate vehicle that where all shareholders in regards to whether you’re Australian or UK or Czechoslovakia. So it’s just a single simple vehicle. I know the phrase dual listing, which implies I think what Rio Tinto does where they have an Australian vehicle and a London vehicle and a very complex equalization mechanism between the two. We’re doing the simple one.
we’re just doing the cross-listing, we’re all in the same boat together. I think colloquially some people just refer to things as a dual listing. That’s technically not the right phrase for it. It is a cross-listing and I can tell people we’re 100 % locked in on a cross-listing. That is the only option we’re looking at.
Liam (36:30)
Thank you. appreciate that. There’s been some speculation around timing of material announcements, like potential exploration results at West Dome Deeps Can you confirm, please, whether the upcoming ASX listing has influenced the timing of release of such updates?
Shaun (36:48)
Well, not particularly, other than what we’ve done is, for instance, the December quarterly announcement is not technically required in London, but we think shareholders would be engaged and interested by that and we mean to maintain the quarterly cadence of announcements.
We’ll probably look at a separate cadence for expiration results. And so we are mindful of making sure we continue to deliver that material to the market. But of course, in terms of the importance of announcements or the focus of announcements, you know, that quarterly is and production emphasis, we’re in a new phase where that’s probably the most influential component of what we do, although expiration is important and will be an ongoing focus.
The JORC updates I mentioned, the resource in March, the reserve in June, July, we think are really important elements to that as well. And again, just being able to share with our shareholders the work we’re doing on mine planning and life extension. And I think that JORC announcement gives us a format to do it. look, I think if anything, I don’t think there’s any, if anything, the ASX will slightly put upward pressure on our communication with shareholders.
But we want to communicate regularly. Equally, look, we’re not going to announce every time we open an envelope. We want the balance to be there where we’re material updates in a digestible format, which is about consistency and regularity and transparency of those announcements.
Liam (38:29)
Okay, looking forwards now, beyond Telfer and Havieron, when you look at the exploration team’s plan up on the wall in the office, what are they focusing on and what excites them the most?
Shaun (38:41)
This is very similar to what we’ve always said, which is around the Patterson and Ernest Giles. The Patterson obviously near that infrastructure, it’s elephant country, Telfer’s obviously discovery, Havieron’s also an obvious discovery. Cover is our friend, it’s under a cover sequence, you need geophysics to peer through that. If these were 10 million ounce deposits at surface, they were already discovered. So we like the fact that this sits under cover because it
gives us an opportunity to find these big monster deposits kind of lurking in the deep So that’s a huge focus and particularly close to infrastructure. The closer it is to infrastructure, the closer it is to Telfer the more likely it’s going to be economic oil going through that mill. So that’s focus number one for our exploration team. Focus number two, Ernest Giles is a prize.
It’s an Archean Greenstone, which is typically the host rock of the majority of Western Australian gold discoveries, such as the super pit. So you can have some globally significant deposits. We really like the fact that we’ve got this untested Archean Greenstone. It lights up in the geophysics. Again, there’s a little bit of a cover sequence less than the Patterson, but there is a cover sequence, which is why this was not identified as a Archean Greenstone earlier.
that is a high priority for us. Look, bromus and panorama. Bromus, I think, will continue to struggle to compete for expiration spend compared to those other two that I described. I like panorama. I think some of those nickel aspects to it are really attractive. Having said that, nickel’s probably not a focus for us.
So we’ll think about what we do with those assets. And then of course we added the Mount Edgerton and the Yannery. Those things need heritage access agreements. They need some top level understanding of the geology before we meaningfully spend time and spin rings on them. But they are kind of longer term opportunities within the portfolio. But I think I’ve said from day one.
And very early in my piece, we sold the Tasmanian assets and we thought there was some good elements about those Tasmanian assets, but we did sell those or divest them. We still have a stake in them and we like that. It’s Flynn Gold that owns those Tasmanian assets and we like the ongoing exposure there, but we didn’t think Greatland would focus on them. And I think that was the correct decision. Again, I’ve tried to be active in our portfolio. We want to keep the best ground.
Equally, when we think others will put more effort into ground, it makes sense to share it with them, whether we sell it or whether we have some ongoing exposure through shares or royalties or some other mechanism. But that’s how I think about that expiration portfolio. But the takeaway message there is the Patterson plus Ernest Giles is where we’re going to spend the center of gravity for us in the exploration program.
If I just add briefly to that though, but remember that in-mine exploration is a separate team, that’s a real focus for us as well. Those are things like what you asked about West Dome Open Pit, but also what I expanded into that in-mine underground as well.
Liam (42:09)
That makes sense. Thank you for clarifying that. Shuan, before we wrap up, I always like to offer my guests any final words that you’d like to share with your shareholders or anyone watching today.
Shaun (42:22)
look, know, first thing that comes to mind is just thank you for the support. Yeah, we’re hugely grateful that shareholders have been on the journey with us. And it’s a bit, it was a pretty securitous route since joining to achieving what I always kind of at least outlined as an aspiration, which was to buy back the farm, get, get control again of Havieron, plus own that Telfer infrastructure next door, because it’s not always fun.
not being in control of your own asset. So hugely grateful for the support we did. I think we did the largest equity raising in London for mining since 2017. Well, that’s pretty unique and we did that off that AIM platform. I think globally it was a top 10 resources raising last year as well. So that just shows you the amount of support we got and I’m hugely grateful and I love the engagement I get from the…
the shareholder base, which includes you, Liam, and the people watching. But also, I do want to convey a sense of excitement. We have a really meaningful asset. We’re set up, I think, to be successful from a financial balance sheet. It’s always good not having debt. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a role for debt in Greatland, but it’s a nice way to start. We’ve got record high gold prices.
watch the Aussie dollar gold price because that’s even more influential for us. And that’s outstanding, but so is the USD gold price. Copper is great. I love the diversification, but look, our job right now is to deliver a good December quarter, deliver a good March quarter, deliver a good June quarter. And if we can demonstrate that consistent cashflow generative performance, I think there’s some real opportunity for us to be considered.
and get to the ASX as well to be considered and valued the way some of our ASX peer groups are valued. I think that is the opportunity for us. We need to earn that by hard work. The best thing the company can do is perform operationally well and the share price will ultimately look after itself. But that’s where our focus is right now. And we think we have a really exciting series of catalysts this year.
around those quarterly updates, around the JORC resource and reserve, around the ASX listing, and around the first real unveiling of how we think about Havieron. So lots to do, the team in place to do it, the shareholder support to do it, but there’s no relax about the task ahead of us, but happily so.
Liam (45:07)
Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today and share your insights. It’s been fascinating to look at how Greatland is continuing to evolve and deliver for its shareholders. A special thank you to all of my supporters, especially our Silver and Gold members for making this content possible. Until next time, stay informed, stay engaged, and thank you for watching. As always, my name is Liam, and you’ve been watching Aim On Air. We’re connecting companies with shareholders. Here’s what we do best.
