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REFINING THE GOLD STANDARD abcrefinery.com

Regis has also ramped up exploration
on the Duketon belt with a budget of
$23.5 million for FY2022 compared to
$5-7 million p.a. historically.
“We picked up a huge amount of
additional ground on the Duketon belt,
expanding our position from 1,000sq km
to 3,000sq km,” Beyer said. “We have a
lot of IP and geological understanding
of the belt and we are applying that to
the new, as well as existing ground.”
Most mature operations focus on
incremental growth from satellite
orebodies but Regis is confident of
turning up further multimillion ounce
deposits in the style of Garden Well,
Rosemont and Moolart Well.
The Boston Shaker underground mine, part of the Tropicana “Our exploration team fights very hard
operation, has a new 30% owner in the form of Regis Resources to add ounces but want to make things easier by finding that big
one, another Garden Well or Rosemont,” Beyer said. “We will
to its 450-500,000 ozpa production profile and have a 10-year take the smaller ones as we come across them but a 1-2 moz
mine life.” orebody gives us that much larger mine life extension in one go.
A 30% share of those numbers would mean 135-150,000 ozpa, But it hasn’t received the effort and focus required for that so it
significantly lower than 355-380,000 ozpa being produced from will take time.”
Regis’ existing Duketon operations, also in WA. Tropicana’s contribution to group mine life is a boost given
Beyer said the introduction of Tropicana would provide a solid investors are currently assessing long-term performance in gold
production base and cash flow for the company at a time when it equities.
is considering its next move at Duketon. “Investors, especially the generalists, don’t appreciate that WA
“We saw it as a real cornerstone asset for the company,” he said. gold mines have 4-5 years of mine life for 15 years or more,”
“Duketon continues to be the sports car of the portfolio, it can go Beyer said. “They just look at current reserves and say: ‘you’re
fast but takes a lot of effort and continuous tuning. Tropicana will not going to be around for long’. Adding Tropicana allows us to
sit like a diesel engine, giving us solid free cash flow margins for build up the long-term portfolio.”
many years to come.” Further ounces will be added once the company’s McPhillamys
Beyer dismissed any suggestion the Tropicana purchase meant project (2.02 moz reserve, 2.29 moz resource) in New South
the company had gone cold on Duketon. The operation has Wales passes through the regulator.
undergone several challenging reporting periods and a dwindling “When you combine Tropicana with a McPhillamys when it is up
reserve profile but Beyer is confident the asset is returning to its and running, that is a further plus-300,000 ozpa and a 10-year
best shape. production profile,” he said.
“Duketon has been a very solid performer and continues to be,” Regis has been frustrated by the drawn-out NSW approvals
he said. “It went through a dip a few years ago but we kicked off process, but Beyer remains patient.
exploration again two years ago and we are back extending mine “The key is getting the surface water licence resolved,” he said.
life year-on-year. “We are working with the different departments on that and
“This year Duketon has been challenged. We started to crank believe it is a question of when, not if, but it is out of our hands.
up the Rosemont underground and rely on it to contribute to the We won’t push too hard, water is a sensitive issue in New South
overall ounces but in the early stages it wasn’t performing as well Wales and we want to make sure they get it right.”
as we wanted. It needed more grade control drilling underground The arrival of Tropicana and the revitalisation of Duketon mean
and to get development to the main zone. The team has done Regis can afford to wait on McPhillamys but the company is also
a great job in the last three months to get back on track, but it
prepared to pull the M&A trigger again if the opportunity arises.
probably took a few more months than we were hoping.
“We continue to look for other opportunities on which we can
“We are out of the other side of that now and are more confident leverage the business model we’ve been building,” Beyer said.
in performance. We have also taken learnings from Rosemont “Opportunities are out there but you have to be disciplined.”
and will improve on them in the start-up of the Garden Well
underground later this financial year.”

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