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Super plans set for July

ill Beament called it and the results Yandal belt and Alaska. since March and had about 60-odd done
Bdidn’t disappoint. All the company’s projects are situated at site which we are administering our-
During Northern Star Resources Ltd’s near infrastructure and the inventory being selves.
March quarterly presentation, executive developed is ample to deliver a production FY2022 will be a year of continuing to
chairman Beament indicated the blue sky profile of 2 mozpa gold by 2027. build the Pogo mine, while trying to miti-
forecast when merging with Saracen Min- For the nine months to March 31, North- gate and manage COVID. Nevertheless,
erals was already starting to be seen. ern Star reported gold sold totalling 1.15 Tonkin said development advancements
Following the quarterly call – the first moz at AISC of $1,497/oz, with the compa- of about 1,500m in March proved that
one since merger completion with Sara- ny expected to hit FY2021 proforma pro- Northern Star could overcome the difficul-
cen – Northern Star released an update duction guidance of 1.5-1.7 moz at AISC ties at the Alaskan operation.
on the company’s reserves/resources and of $1,370-1,470/oz from its Australian op- “We are capable of doing it, we need
exploration progress. erations and $US1,200-1,400/oz at Pogo. that as an average to set up the develop-
The announce- Despite the chal- ment stocks to then feed into the produc-
ment was headlined lenges at Pogo, tion to meet the 1.3 mtpa,” Tonkin said.
by an increase in where over 290 Helping the company deal with the chal-
reserves of 8% to COVID cases (as of lenges in North America has been the
21 moz gold and April 21) had been smooth three-way integration of Northern
resources of 56.5 reported at the op- Star, Saracen and KCGM under the one
moz (up 15%), with eration, Northern umbrella, effective February 15.
reserve growth led Star remains on Northern Star managing director Ra-
by a 20% increase track to meet the leigh Finlayson thanked everyone involved
at KCGM’s Super Pit 300,000 ozpa gold for a “seamless” transition and looked for-
to 11.6 moz and re- production mark in ward to providing a more fulsome insight
sources up 38% to FY2023. into the corporate strategy in July.
26.3 moz. “We are at about As at March 31, Northern Star was an
“We are very 800,000 tpa of the ASX100 company and top 10 global gold
pleased with what producer boasting li-
the drilling rigs – all quidity of $1.1 billion,
plus-40 of them – including $345 million
have turned up, par- in undrawn revolving
ticularly at KCGM. facilities, $712 million
The exploration and cash and equivalents,
resource and reserve $658 million bank
push at KCGM is one debt, $325 million of
area where we can free cash flow (De-
already see massive Raleigh Finlayson cember 2020 half)
benefits flowing from and a hedge book
the merger. It is simply easier, more effi- 1 mtpa capacity of 844,000oz gold at
cient and far more effective to drive an ex- at the moment, so $2,203/oz.
tensive drilling and exploration campaign obviously we are “It is a testament to
of this nature from one company rather expanding the mill the professionalism
than two,” Beament said. to 1.3 mtpa to meet and can-do attitude
“We said at the time of the merger that that by FY2023 to of our 3,500-strong
the upside at KCGM was immense and deliver the 300,000 employees and 3,000
everything we are seeing so far says we ozpa,” Northern contract partner
were right, and then some. This is truly Star chief executive employees for mak-
a stunning world-class asset. This is just Stuart Tonkin said. ing this transition as
one example of the evidence that we are “That has always seamless as possi-
seeing that shows our strategy is on track. been the underlying ble,” Finlayson said.
That strategy revolves around our ongoing goal of the opera- Bill Beament “If anything, we
commitment to being a business first and tion with what we see further upside
a mining company second. see with the resources [6.9 moz @ 9.4 g/t] opportunities across both corporate and
“It is aimed at growing our most profita- and reserves [1.5moz @ 8 g/t]. That still ab- operational synergies, including procure-
ble production the most, and driving finan- solutely remains the target. Give massive ment stages tracking ahead of schedule
cial returns through organic growth and credit to the team for how they’re currently with over 35 supply agreements contracts
synergies and delivering genuine profit- managing through the current strains. We signed set to deliver over $25 million p.a. of
able production scale based solely on Tier have had over 290 COVID cases at the savings in FY2022 and beyond.
1 assets.” operation which has absolutely impacted
Northern Star’s suite of Tier 1 assets availability of people at site. – Mark Andrews
comprise operations in Kalgoorlie, the “We have been rolling out vaccines

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