Welcome to the December 2025 Greatland Resources Town Hall meeting, hosted by Ticker TV, where we collect your questions and put them to Shaun Day, Managing Director of Greatland Resources. 2025 has been a simply extraordinary year for Greatland. The man sitting beside me has always had a bold strategic vision for the group. This year he and the Greatland team have delivered that vision in spectacular fashion. I'm going to keep my introduction brief, as you already know what an amazing year 2025 has been for the group, which leaves more time for Shaun to unpack your questions. Before we get there, Shaun is going to deliver the Havieron feasibility study presentation. So do enjoy that, and we'll come back to you in a few minutes' time. Shaun, over to you.
Thanks very much, Donald. And thanks to Ticker TV for providing the platform to connect us with our shareholder base. It's really appreciated. As Donald said, what I'll try to do is go through the Havieron project feasibility study presentation quite briefly. We'll try to keep it under 20 minutes, and that will leave more time to go through the questions with Donald, which have come from shareholders, which I think is what people most enjoy on this platform. So with that, let me just start with the...
Overview of Havieron, which we very much see as a foundation asset for us at Greatland. It's long life - over 17 years - the third-longest underground reserve life in Australia, and that sits behind the assets of the majors in Australia. So in the mid-cap space it really is quite unique. And then we also have a lowest-quartile cost, which we think is exceptional and talks to the quality of the asset. It's over 4 million ounces in that 17-year mine plan. Of course, the ore will come back to the existing Telfer mill, and we're also fully funded for it, both with cash at bank - which has been, you've seen an extraordinary build of cash at bank, with $750 million generated over the last 10 months - plus the $500 million debt facility from tier-one banks.
So how does this translate in terms of the life of mine? The life of mine that we've gone to the market with is over 50 million tonnes, delivering that 17 years. Nine of that is steady state, and you'll see we ramp up to hit that steady-state production, and we include the ramp down within that 17-year period. But we'll talk to some slides later - there's a huge opportunity to extend that mine life, both to extend that steady state but indeed extend Havieron well beyond the current 17 years. We produce around 266,000 ounces of gold per annum plus almost 10,000 tonnes of copper, and as part of this updated feasibility study we increased the reserve by 55% by tonnes or over 36% by ounces. So we now have over 38.5 million tonnes in reserve.
To deliver the project, it's around 1 billion 65 million Australian dollars to deliver the project to free cash flow. And as I said, with $750 million in the bank, we have almost three-quarters of that already in place. And of course we're partway through. That's our cash balance at 30 September 2025.
And you've seen over the last few quarters us continue to generate free cash flow, and we're optimistic we can continue to do that into this December quarter that we're presently in. And then finally, we're delivering a steady-state $1,610 Australian dollar all-in sustaining cost, which translates to just over $1,000 US all-in sustaining cost, which is exceptional. Again, puts it in that lowest quartile, certainly within Australia but also globally. We generate over $5.4 billion of free cash flow from Havieron. That's at a, we think, somewhat conservative long-term gold price of 4,500.
We've used that not because that's our belief that the gold price will come off to that number, but we felt that would resonate in the market and show the quality of the asset at a very reasonable gold price. But when you take that up to spot, which incidentally today is trading around 6,350, it's getting very close to $10 billion of free cash flow. NPV that would translate to around 5.4 billion, or 2.9 billion at that lower gold price, and that delivers 22% or 22.5% IRR, or over 31% at spot price, and a payback there of four years, or even three years at spot. So the financial metrics of this Havieron study are tremendous.
And really what we're delivering here is a project you normally see in a major. The second-largest project in Australia, and the third largest gold processing in Australia.
And when you look at that reserve, you know, we sit behind the two Newmont assets - Cadia and Tanami - the world's largest global major. Next is Havieron in terms of that underground reserve. This is a good slide. This just breaks up the Australian gold sector into quartiles. And I think what's fantastic about Greatland is we actually have two assets, both our assets, in that ideal quartile of this map, which is the intersection of low all-in sustaining cost and good production volumes. And with the life-extension opportunities we think we have at both Havieron and Telfer, the bubble size, the size of the market there, I think we have a lot of opportunity to increase in time. And this is where we sit in terms of all-in sustaining costs.
As you can see, sitting there right at the left end of this chart, so actually second-lowest in Australia. But this study is based on it being a completely standalone Havieron. If you believe that we continue to extend the life of Telfer, then you'd see cost sharing with Telfer, which would actually really put us in a league of our own at Havieron. And then you see the Telfer cost. This is based on the FY26 guidance. It was lower than this in FY25, and certainly the first quarter of this year again lower. But even at that higher guidance range, we're still sitting around mid-pack, which we think for an asset that we inherited that was seen as highest quartile, the direction of heading at Telfer I think is really positive for Greatland.
This is just an overview of the asset itself. We drive down into that Havieron ore body. It's an underground ore body. The main decline is already 75% almost in place. It's already over 300 metres vertical progressed. But then you can see that straight decline, that second conveyor decline that we'll be bringing down from surface. That will take a little bit longer because, as I said, that main decline has a big head start. Newcrest did a lot of work taking that decline down over almost three years. So we'll start with the main decline truck haulage, but then we'll bring in that second decline, the conveyor decline, to ramp it up. And you want that to be a straight line because conveyors like moving in straight lines rather than around corners.
This is again just a cross-section of that ore body. You can really see the in-mine infrastructure that we put in place here, and that conveyor decline coming in to a point where we have an underground crusher, where we'll feed all our ore into that underground crusher and then it will be conveyed to surface. The ore plan right now is really focused on that southeast portion, that blue shaded area, but you can see the broader expanse of this ore body, particularly as you start spinning it around. So there's a huge opportunity once we're in Havieron and once we're in that underground and we have all that infrastructure in its place just to drive out to the right of screen and take the rest of that ore body. So this is where we feel a 17-year mine life is an exceptional start, but Havieron even gets better.
This is just the surface. As people are aware, Havieron's already partly built. So a lot of the infrastructure is already there, but we'll be adding to it as we build a second new entry point, but also add some evaporation ponds and the second decline entry. And also fully costed within the feasibility study is we're actually doing some modifications to the Telfer plant on train one that will deliver those higher recoveries at Havieron, but also again if we're extending the Telfer life, Telfer will also get the benefits of that additional infrastructure - a tails leach circuit and a new CIP carbon-in-pulp circuit, which we think has the opportunity to notch up Telfer recoveries as well on that train one.
This is a good schematic on this side in terms of the life of mine plan. I mentioned before the stages in the ramp up, and you can see the yellow trucks where we start with, where we ramp up, where we're just doing truck haulage up that main decline, and then around year four we turn on the conveyor and we ramp up to that steady state. Also on this slide you can see post year 12 there's a bit of a ramp down. Again, very confident that we can bring - there's over 3.1 million ounces already delineated to JORC standard sitting outside that mine plan. So we're really confident in the opportunity to extend that. And then below those gold lines effectively show you the ounce profile, which averages around 266,000 ounces per annum plus that 9.6 or 10,000 tonnes of copper through that core steady-state period.
This slide, I'll just be brief too, but this just shows the cash generation and below the line you see the capex expenditure. So a couple of years where we're developing the mine, then it rapidly moves to free cash flow, although we continue to spend capex as we put in that second decline. And then you get to a mine that's generating over $800 million per annum, and at spot even higher than that potentially. So what this sets us up - the platform at Greatland in the long run - is exceptional. Remembering we bought the assets with a less than 18-month life, we've already delineated it less than 12 months later to be 17 years.
This is just a chart of the capex, and I won't spend a lot of time on this slide other than to say, look, the real emphasis here is in ground, a couple of hundred million dollars on plant, but really a lot of what's happening at Havieron is developing that in-ground infrastructure: the decline down, the conveyor, the ventilation, both in that initial phase but particularly in that expansion phase. So it's very much leveraging the existing surface infrastructure, and we just need to put in the underground to bring up that ore in terms of the quality of this asset.
The funding position is exceptional. Not only have we generated that $750 million in just over three quarters, and again we think there's an opportunity to continue that cash generation, but a group of tier-one banks - ANZ, ING, HSBC plus Westpac and NAB - have come in for a $500 million debt facility. Previously we talked about the support around a project financing facility. This is better. It's a low-cost corporate facility, so we can use those funds however we want to. But it really underlines that we are fully funded to deliver Havieron. And the fact that we can attract tier-one banks that are not imposing hedging on us, at low cost, and the flexibility, and particularly a seven-year facility, are really unique features. And it shows what these tier-one banks, how they consider the quality of Havieron and the existing Telfer mine. And again, we've talked about it being fully funded. But you can see with existing cash plus that debt, we have a comfortable margin above the funding requirement. But of course, the ongoing opportunity to mine at Telfer gives us an ability to create even more buffer and even create insulation where perhaps we're not even drawing that debt if Telfer can continue to deliver, and of course with the support of a strong gold price.
I won't go through the NPV sensitivities there. They're there for you to look at, other than to say we've actually put a bias where we've done more lower prices. And the reason we've done that - again, we're confident about the trajectory of the gold price, that's gone up since we did this slide - but we love the fact that this works through the cycle. Even if the gold price was to almost halve to $3,750 an ounce Australian, that would still have a value of around $2 billion. So we like the fact that this lowest-quartile asset works through virtually any cycle.
And just the upsides - look, we think there's a lot of upside at Havieron. It is very much a standalone study, but when you bring it as co-processing with Telfer and you share cost, you get lower cost. There's more, where there's 3.1 million ounces or 80 million tonnes outside the mine plan. We're going to continue to drill Havieron, so we believe we can add, and of course at Telfer we're really confident about the opportunity for mine-life extension. In terms of within Havieron itself, you can really see here the blue lines are what we're actually consuming as part of that mine plan. That green area, that ounces per vertical, is what sits outside of that initial Havieron mine plan. So a huge amount of ounces are still there to be taken, leveraging that infrastructure we're putting in.
And then finally, this is really just talking to Telfer. Just finish off with these final two slides. Telfer mine life has a huge amount of opportunity both at the two open pits, Main Dome and West Dome, underground Main Dome and West Dome, and we're particularly excited about that West Dome, and I know we have some questions on that. Plus we've still got over 20 million tonnes of stockpiles, and we continue to invest in the drill bit with over 240,000 metres being drilled. And then this slide just gives a bit of an illustration of what you can do with the cost structure. Right now we're producing, illustratively, at Telfer between $15 and $17 a tonne. The study assumes $37 a tonne if we're just doing that 4 million tonnes of Havieron. So if you are co-processing, again, you can start getting down that average cost. Same applies to site services, sustaining capex, and a host of values where we think we can put further downward pressure on cost. So with that, I might just pause the presentation. It's available to go through the rest, but then turn to Donald so we can go through the questions from shareholders.
Shaun, thank you very much indeed. It's fantastic and fascinating as ever. I love hearing you talk the detail of Havieron, of Telfer. It's absolutely brilliant. I just love it. Welcome back to everyone. Thanks to all those who contributed excellent questions, or certainly in terms of quality and quantity. We're always very grateful for that. We find it very useful just to find out what exactly you guys are thinking, so that we can actually then, you know, get the management to answer these things.
Let me call on Paddy Gal, who expressed our appreciation for all the things that you guys have been doing very well, I thought. And he basically - at the start, every person has written 'this is unique' at the start of their question - each and every person has said how fantastically well you guys have done. So I thought I would quote Paddy Gal. He said, 'I would like firstly to congratulate you and all the team on a very successful first year of ownership and operation of Telfer Havieron. It's amazing to see where we are now from a standing start, and all credit to you and everyone in the organization.' And I think you would appreciate everyone in the organization is a big part of this, because the whole team, not just headquarters but those folks on the ground, everyone has been working their butts off and it has just delivered. It's just amazing. Well done. Thank you.
It is a great lead-in by Paddy, but it is a team game. So I think that's very much the emphasis there. It's built up from first principles at site, and we've really been delighted how that integration has gone, how we've brought it into Greatland, and what we've been able to deliver through that.
Which takes me very neatly to my first question. I'm going to ask you a very open question which looks backwards, which is unique - I never ask backwards-looking questions - but how would you sum up the journey that Greatland have been on over the last few years? You've gone from an AIM-listed junior in Western Australia, Tasmania, all sorts, to one of Australia's top 10 largest gold producers. Oh my lord. With much more high-grade, low-cost gold yet to come from Havieron, as you have literally just told us about. How would you summarise the journey?
Yeah, look, Donald, I think you've been an important part of that journey, and so have a lot of the shareholders dialling in today. And look, this is very much what we set out to achieve. I think, you know, my background has been at Straits, at Saracen, at Northern Star, and here at Greatland, where in each case we took a platform and we grew it from a single asset to a multi-asset, multi-billion-dollar platform. And that's what I thought was the opportunity here at Greatland. You know, the team led by Callum Baxter that discovered Havieron just did - you know, that's a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. It's a premier asset. And then we had this opportunity where it was sitting in the shadow of the headframe of Telfer to potentially bring both assets together and unlock that value. And this is somewhat, you know, that Northern Star play where you come in and you say this is not a focus for a major, but as a mid-cap, laser-focused, the opportunity can be exceptional. And that's, you know, very much the lesson I took from Northern Star, and that's the vision I brought here. So although there's been some twists and turns on the way, and no journey is linear, this is what we set out to achieve for shareholders, and yeah, we're delighted the team's been able to bring that forward.
You've had a degree of good fortune behind you as well, though. I mean, the timing of the gold price, all sorts - it's all gone your way, Shaun. It's quite extraordinary. You have some sort of, you know, lucky touch about you.
Well, the harder we work, the luckier we are. But no, look, certainly there's been a tailwind from the gold price. You know, we bought an asset for 540 million - I'm talking Australian here - and we're trading comfortably above 5.4 billion less than 12 months later. This is an exceptional outcome. But again, we saw the opportunity. We thought, you know, as when we're doing due diligence on this asset we saw the opportunities at Telfer, and in terms of Havieron, this second decline ramping up to this much bigger, much longer-life asset - that's something that we started work on in 2022. We're running our own studies and doing first-principle mine reviews as to what an unconstrained mine plan could deliver out of Havieron. And that's always been the focus: if given the opportunity, we would show what an unshackled Havieron can actually deliver.
You refused to be junior when you were playing with the majors.
Well, that's a whole interesting episode in itself, how we navigated Newcrest, but I don't think it could have worked out better. We're grateful for the opportunity and the platform they set up. And of course, the relationship with Newmont to complete that transaction was just a top-tier relationship, and we couldn't speak more highly about that new organisation.
So what might your priorities be over the next two or three years? If you had to say with your laser focus, what might those priorities be?
Look, we have a very clear focus ahead. We want to deliver Havieron, and there's no relaxing about that. This is a major, you know, plus-one-billion-dollar project, so that's a huge focus for us. But in parallel we want to continue to invest in the drill bit at Telfer, demonstrate that mine life. I think that's where there's a real opportunity to again recast how people think about that asset by demonstrating the mine life, and that's where we bring out the JORC resource in time, the reserve, and then ultimately we'll be able to describe to the market what a combined Telfer and Havieron case looks like. So that's the opportunity ahead of us, and that's our real focus right now: to walk forward both the Telfer opportunity but also deliver Havieron in parallel.
And do you have the management team in place to actually deliver across those two projects?
Yeah, we feel we're going to continue to augment, and we want to bring in more good people whenever there's an opportunity to. But I think if you look at what we achieved this year in terms of the integration, setting up a SAP system from scratch, the Havieron study, the financing, the listing - there's just a huge list of things we achieved this year with that team. So I think we do have the calibre in place to achieve some pretty fantastic outcomes. And again, it's a team game. We kind of said that with the first question, but the strength of the team we have in place I think is a great virtue for us, and that applies to the site team. You know, when you buy an asset off a major you get all these really capable people who had careers at Newcrest and Newmont, and that's been part of our strength as well.
I've heard feedback from Telfer that the team at Telfer have never been as well treated. New gymnasiums, better food, everything's been sorted out. They're as happy as Larry. Is that how you've heard it, by feedback?
We're on a journey, and look, those values - yeah, I think it's continuous improvement. But look, again, for us, Telfer is our one operating asset. We're laser-focused on it, and we do want to deliver that for our staff. And we want to bring them along the journey of Greatland, and we want them to have long careers. And again, one of, I think one of the sea changes for people at Telfer is for a decade they've been told Telfer is going to close in two years - now it kept being shunted forward another two years - but now they're being told this mill will be spinning in 17 years. You know, that's a profound difference. You know, this isn't a transitory part of your career. You can have your complete career at Greatland and Telfer, and that I think, yeah, I think that's an exceptional opportunity for staff.
It is, because it means they're settled, their families are settled, their lives are settled. It's a big deal.
Yeah. And look, we've reintroduced family days where we fly up, you know, families and kids to see that site, so families can appreciate where they work, because, you know, even by Australian standards, Telfer is kind of in the middle of nowhere. So it's a tough place. It's great to get the families out there so they have some appreciation of the super hard work, you know, their family member is contributing.
Great. Right. I'm slightly gone off piste here, I do apologise. But on behalf of all the people who have asked these great questions, here they go. Mark Smith and Andrew Henderson ask: 'Are Greatland actively monitoring other gold exploration projects in the region? And would the board consider purchasing such projects and the relevant licences if it was thought to be in the best interests of the company and shareholders?'
Yeah. Well, look, firstly, we're really confident in our own ore. So 240,000 metres of drilling - we are by far the most active driller in the Paterson, and this is existing mine-life extension, and you see the mill is full. We think the opportunity is to maintain that mill being full - the third-largest mill in Australia - just with the existing Telfer opportunities. But look, we're also undertaking our own regional exploration, and yes, we closely monitor what else is happening in our postcode. We are a monopoly provider of infrastructure in that area. We think everything ultimately comes to our mill, and we're happy to do that in joint venture, we're happy to acquire, we're happy to treat. There's a number of ways you can solve it. But we're certainly open for business. We're spoiled for choice right now because of our own ore, but we're very comfortable to work with our neighbours, and we actually want to encourage other people to do exploration in the Paterson. It's a great postcode for exploration.
Great answer. Are you concerned about the possibility - here we go, this ties in - 'Are you concerned about the possibility of another major moving in if Greatland Resources doesn't act quickly to further consolidate the region?' But the way you always talk about the mining industry, it's almost as if you're all friends rather than enemies, which is fascinating.
Yeah, look, I do see it as a collegial sector, and yeah, I know most of the other gold CEOs and senior teams, and I think we have a camaraderie, and we all want the sector to flourish. We want our people to flourish. We want it to be safe. We want it to be successful. So I think there is a camaraderie, and we apply the same when working with junior companies in the Paterson. So, you know, we're there to support and help. We have infrastructure. We want them to be successful because ultimately we have our own interest in them being successful, because we think that ore will come into our mill at some stage.
Their success becomes your success.
Exactly. In terms of another major, look, it is elephant country. You've got Rio Tinto up there in the north with the Winu asset. Telfer and Havieron, a collective, you know, plus 30-million-ounce endowment - that is a big gold deposit by global standards. You know, this is a huge endowment, so it is elephant country. Having said that, to replicate the infrastructure we have in the Paterson, probably that mill alone would be north of $2 billion today. So our incumbent advantage I think is significant.
Right. Dipsard. Where would a Q&A session be without Dipsard? He says, 'It's been an absolutely fantastic year since the acquisition, with a decent share price as a producer' - since he's the only person who mentions the share price, so we'll pause and say, have you enjoyed the share price?
No, the share price - I'm a shareholder. I think it's good for all of us and we've enjoyed that, yes. And I think there's some greater opportunity if we can deliver what we've described in terms of, yeah, in terms of life and execution on it.
I'm hearing that there's more to come. So it's been good but there's more to come. 'The market and institutional audience no doubt need to see Telfer reserves grow in H1 2026 on top of a well-received Havieron DFS to grow the market cap further.' There is a question: 'What steps do the team plan to take to help drive interest in Greatland Resources in 2026, as we are very much a growth play as an investment?' So what are you going to do in terms of marketing yourselves?
Yeah, no, it's a good question by Dipsard, and I think picking up how well the Havieron feasibility study was received is important. Look, typically when you come out with, you know, feasibility studies, it's a dip in the market. So I think, yeah, we got that right, the team, in terms of how we presented that to the market. I think people were expecting it to be a long-life, lowest-quartile, high-quality asset, and I think we put the ball down the fairway in terms of delivering that.
In terms of what we do from here as well, not just in terms of delivery, which is operationally at Telfer, but also construction, we have a very clear plan. You know, we want to come out with a JORC resource update in the March quarter, so next quarter. I think that's really significant. Look, a lot of that will be infield drilling as well. So part of it is consolidating what we already have. Then we move into a JORC reserve update the following quarter, the June quarter, and that sets us up in FY27. I'd probably like to complete studies demonstrating the opportunity at the West underground and the West, that big stage-two extension opportunity, but I think once we've got those in place - which are not going to be the same volume of study that you see with a Havieron, these are more internal studies - but once those are completed, I think it sets us up in FY27 to establish that integrated mine plan and an outlook of what Havieron and Telfer look like when operating together.
Yeah. Great. These are, I found them slightly existential questions from Carl Dawson, the really big questions. 'What's the biggest risk to executing the plan for Telfer and Havieron, and what are you doing to mitigate it?' That's one part. And the other one is, people always ask this, so inevitably someone asks it: 'Do you see a future where the company moves from London and is entirely on the ASX?' So, existential risk, what's the biggest risk, and are you ever going to move fully onto the ASX?
Yeah. No, thanks. Well, let me answer that in two parts. So look, we think that the risk-return opportunity is heavily in our favour at Greatland, but look, again, there's no relaxing. We're delivering a billion-dollar project. Yeah, there's lots to do. It's a multi-year project of execution. So that's really important to us to get that right. And similarly at Telfer...
I'm pressing you, what's the biggest risk though? He's asking you what the biggest risk is.
Look, I think it's just getting down that second decline, that conveyor decline. We've got to do that from surface. I think pleasingly, that main decline is already 321 metres vertical. We need to take it less than 100 metres down further to get into the ore body. That takes us into production, it takes us into free cash flow. But just how long it takes to get that second decline - I think people can remember that Newcrest fell behind their target development rates. We think there's some lessons learned from that. We think we'll be laser-focused. We like to think we can deliver on time, on budget.
Was it the water? I mean, what were the issues? How can you, how can you do...
Yeah, that Permian zone, I think, through those aquifers, the ground can be a little bit softer. And ironically in underground mining you actually like the ground conditions to be hard. You want it to support itself. You can actually go through it quicker the harder it is. So just where it's a little bit softer, that's where we take it slowly and we use additional ground support. Once you're in the country rock at Havieron, the ground conditions are just ideal. So it's just getting through that top layer. So I think that's important for us.
But yeah, and we want to do all this safely. I think one of the record achievements we're really pleased about at Telfer, for instance, is we've taken the injury TRIFR rate from about 10 to 14 under Newcrest down to 6 to 7 after 12 months of our ownership. So in addition to all the operating and cost savings, we're doing it safer as well, and that's what we want to do there. In terms of the second limb of the question, look, we're really grateful for the support that we've had in London, and we wouldn't be in the position we are without that support in London. Just to take people's minds back to September 2024, it was the largest mining equity raise on London, on any exchange, since 2017. So the support here is wonderful, but we're having the town hall shortly and we get a great turnout, which we're really appreciative of. So I think the London listing is going to continue to be a feature of us. And I think this week you've seen the London listing on a bit of a tear, leading the Aussie exchange. You know, they're like race cars - one can outperform the other from time to time, but I think the collective strength is great. They're two of the world's premier exchanges.
You've always appreciated the London Stock Exchange, haven't you? You've always been a fan.
I've always been a bit of an Anglophile, so it's a pleasure to get up here.
No, I'm sure the LSE are very grateful to hear you say things like that. That's always good.
And the reforms of the LSE, I think, are really helpful.
They're heading in the right direction, aren't they?
I think so. Yeah, more should be done, but definitely the direction of travel is good.
Good to hear. Tibber Zinoki asks about the Havieron development schedule. Here's an interesting question: 'Is there a deliberate policy to slow the development down while stockpiling cash?'
to pay for some of it from the profitable Telford operation? Or are you in fact proposing to speed up the Havieron development to take advantage of the current high gold price? Slow it down, speed it up. We've already done a heck of a lot of stockpiling of cash. We're up to 750.
How much more does he want?
Well, yeah. So, and I'd like to think there's the opportunity at the current gold price to have another positive quarter in December. Now, that quarter is not finished. There can be twists and turns, but so I think the cash stockpiling, Telfer has almost paid for Havieron inside of 12 months. That is remarkable. We're going to get, you know, one of the top gold assets in Australia paid for inside a year by Telfer. So, I think that limb of what we need to do is well and truly achieved.
Look, I wouldn't describe the rate that we've put in there as, you know, as conservative. We've been realistic. Now, we think we can achieve it. In fact, the development rate is slightly slower than what you saw under Newcrest in terms of our assumptions, but it is a much bigger development, multiple heads. We think where we've come when you benchmark it, we think we've got the balance about right. So, I think people should expect us to deliver in line with the schedule, not thinking it's conservative.
Okay. Debt funding. From Dipsard Tour again, Steven Bridge, the subject of debt funding for Havieron always stirs passionate debate in the retail investment community. To summarize, they find it hard to work out, given that you're throwing off cash at the moment, why you would need a debt facility, why you want to be debt funded. So, given that you've, you know, you've got all good things in your hands already.
Well, as anyone who's taken out a loan knows, the best time to borrow money is when you don't need money. So, you know, we've put this $500 million facility in place. It clearly demonstrates that we're fully funded, which I think is part of the positive market reaction that we had. I don't think anyone's now worried that we have to raise equity to deliver, and that was a really important milestone. It may be if we continue to enjoy operational success coupled with a high gold price that we don't need to draw that debt, but it's a luxury to have that there. So we, and if you're going to have debt, the facility that we put in place, I think, is an exceptional one. A seven-year corporate revolver. So, flexible loan, I think, is unique in the space that we occupy. Which again, those big banks do due diligence. So, it's a little bit of verification of how the big banks think about our asset platform.
Yes. You described it as a seven-year facility, and those are quite unusual, are they?
Yeah. Look, you normally see a revolver facility up to five years, you know, three to five years. So to come out with seven years, and again, it talks to the uniqueness of having a 17-year mine life plus a JORC inventory of millions of ounces, 3.1 million ounces more. Yeah. This is not a normal asset for that space in the market.
I think they're glad to have you as a client, aren't they?
I think so. Put it this way, I don't think there were many banks that didn't reach out to us during that process.
Yeah. We got to pick the eyes out of the market, which is great.
