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Edna May over the past 18 months and Penny will be added to
the Mt Magnet mine plan later this half.
Zeptner said the growth potential alone at Lake Rebecca was
enough for Ramelius to pursue the project in the manner it did.
“It’s not your obvious bolt-on and we were mindful of that, but
given our desire to build on our portfolio quality, which really
values mine life, if we didn’t see a potential 10-year project, we
wouldn’t have gone after it like we have,” he said.
“We’d like to think we can grow the resource such that at the end
of the day we will have at least 1 moz mineable, which is your
basic proxy for reserves. A high percentage of the resource is
indicated, so you will get a fairly good conversion, but we like to
think we’re going to add resources and the recent updates that
Apollo have put out show the orebodies at Lake Rebecca do
continue down dip.
“The thing that we really like is the exploration potential, we
Mark Zeptner
certainly think Lake Rebecca fits within our portfolio and is
probably going to rival Mt Magnet for having the most targets,
the most opportunities and the most exploration upside, which “In a good year, everything going well with Penny up and
is no mean feat given Mt Magnet’s lengthy production history running, you could maybe push close to it, but to be going above
and ongoing production record of plus-6 moz.” that sustainably you really need that third asset. The fact we’re
Following an impressive 2020 which saw the company claim the going close with two assets shows how well we’re operating and
prestigious Digger of the Year crown at the annual Kalgoorlie how much we’re maximising grade.
talkfest, Ramelius backed up those accomplishments last “Notionally, they’re both 100,000 ozpa assets so that’s where
year. To that end, records were achieved on almost every three assets and that 300,000 ozpa target is derived. We’re
performance metric, including revenue of $634.3 million from going to be close, but we believe that a third asset is what will
gold sales totalling 277,450oz, EBITDA of $341 million, NPAT put us firmly into that next tier.”
of $126.8 million and net cash and bullion of $234 million (as of Zeptner also insisted the company would not rush on an
June 30). acquisition if there was any doubt over whether it would bring
Since implementing a formal dividend policy in 2019, Ramelius value to shareholders.
has now returned $43.1 million to shareholders. Over that “There’s no such thing as a bargain buy anymore,” he said.
period, the company’s market value has also grown from circa “You’re not going to be able to buy a Vivien for $10 million like
$300 million to more than $1.5 billion. we did back in 2014. That same project has now made us $100
Zeptner expects the company to deliver another record year of million in return, so the bargain buys aren’t there but that doesn’t
production in FY2022 but conceded group output was unlikely mean there aren’t still opportunities you can make money on.
to reach the desired milestone of 300,000oz in the absence of “The gold price and the market has required a little bit of a reset
a third mining centre. in your thinking. You just have to look a little harder and be a
“We’ve long targeted that as the production level which puts you little patient, which we’ve had to be over the last 12 months or
into that next tier, and to be able to go sustainably above that,” so. And we’ll continue to do that to get the right deal that works
he said. for us and for our shareholders.”

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