Westgold Resources Limited Annual Report 2020

5 Westgold Resources Limited Annual Report 2020 Westgold is fortunate, that it is in gold, as it is “in gold we trust” in times of economic calamity. We are operating in times of rising gold prices, which augurs well for the Group’s future. We live in uncertain times and the coming economic hit to global economies and forecast period of low or negative real interest rates is expected to be positive for gold prices into the future. Westgold has a large resource of 8.8 million ounces and a reserve base of 2.5 million ounces, which collectively underwrite long mine lives from our three key mining hubs in the Murchison region. We fully repaid our gold-loan debt and significantly improved our gold book, lifting its average price from $1,827/oz to $2,062/oz and reducing our hedge position to a modest 8% of its ore reserves, granting us great leverage to higher gold prices in the long term. Operationally it has been a building year for Westgold. Our Fortnum Gold Operations and Meekatharra Gold Operations delivered gold output just short of expectations but within their cost guidance. Our Cue Gold Operations failed to meet expectations in terms of output and cost guidance but those results must be tempered by delays associated with the mammoth task in re-establishing cave mining at Big Bell. The development expectations for a re-start of sub-level cave mining at Big Bell have proven to be ambitious and consequently it has taken longer to commence ore stoping/caving. These delays significantly impacted gold output and combined with a much slower ramp- up planned in the last quarter of FY2020, had a large negative impact on expected Group outputs. As much as this is disappointing to our operating teams and shareholders there has been no place for complacency and the Company is not prepared to compromise the safety of its employees nor the long-term efficacy of the Big Bell mine to achieve targets. I am pleased that these latent conditions are now vastly behind us and the ramp-up to full scale production for the initial 10-year profile is underway. From a fiscal perspective Westgold had a solid close to the year. The Group’s cash balance increased by 105% to $138 million whilst at the same time the gold pre-pay (unearned income) debt was repaid in full. Net Assets grew by 18% to $522 million and net profit after tax grew by 145% to $35 million leaving the Company in a very strong position going into the 2021 financial year. Peter Cook Executive Chairman