The company, which is now in the ASX 100 and knocking on the door of a A$10 billion market capitalisation, yesterday announced a restructure of its executive team.

Raleigh Finlayson will move from managing director to executive chair to focus on growth, leadership development and strategy.

Chief operating officer Matthew Nixon has been appointed CEO and will take responsibility for day-to-day operations.

Finlayson said Nixon’s promotion was a reward for his performance, which had seen Genesis meet or exceed guidance every quarter since he started with the company in August 2023.

Executive director Duncan Coutts will become executive director, operations, while non-executive chair Tony Kiernan will become lead independent director.

“Now is a perfect time for this realignment of roles and responsibilities,” Finlayson said during a conference call yesterday.

Coutts, formerly the COO of Genesis’ peer Ramelius Resources, recently led the six-month underground mining contract tender, which culminated in the award of the work to Byrnecut.

“Personally, with the rail tripartite agreement, Tower Hill approvals and Native Title agreements now all in place, this affords me the opportunity to look to the future and proactively focus on strategy and kickstart important strategic initiatives, like a strategic review on our Bardoc project, and unlocking the potential of the recently acquired Focus assets within the Laverton operations, but at the same time retaining ultimate executive oversight,” Finlayson said.

“This is very much a case of business as usual – same people, same strategy, with a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities. The priorities and key objectives remain the same, and very importantly, the culture is completely maintained.”

Record quarter

At a time when some of its gold peers have under-performed, Genesis beat consensus estimates in the December quarter.

Genesis reported record quarterly production from its Leonora and Laverton operations of 74,261 ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of A$2635/oz.

Gold inventory awaiting processing at the end of December was 52,523oz at 1.2 grams per tonne.

Production for the December half was 147,139oz at AISC of A$2578/oz, putting the company slightly ahead of full-year guidance of 260,000-290,000oz at AISC of A$2500-2700/oz.

The company sold 71,346oz at an average price of A$6057/oz, generating revenue of A$432.2 million.

The half-year unaudited net profit after tax is expected to be A$235-245 million when reported next month.

Debt-free Genesis had cash and equivalents of A$403.6 million at the end of December, representing a cash build of A$216.5 million before the repayment of A$100 million of corporate debt and A$76.2 million spent on growth and exploration.

Genesis still growing

The Aussie dollar spot gold price hit an all-time high of A$7898/oz yesterday, almost A$300/oz higher than Genesis’ average realised price during the December quarter.

“It’s fair to say, these are unprecedented times in gold,” Genesis head of corporate development Troy Irvin said.

“At the current gold price, gold companies from every corner are generating soaring cashflows and have soaring share prices, so how to stand out?”

Irvin said the two main drivers for Genesis in 2026 were consistently hitting production guidance and growth.

Development of the 1Moz Tower Hill project is advancing ahead of schedule, leading the company to bring forward capital expenditure.

Its FY26 growth capital outlook has been revised to A$220-240 million from A$150-170 million.

First ore is due in FY28, though Finlayson hinted there was scope to potentially bring that forward.

Genesis also flagged at least one, potentially two, exploration updates due in coming weeks.

The company spent A$11.9 million on exploration in the December quarter, including testing for parallel mineralisation trends to the historical workings in the top 1000m of the Gwalia mine and the maiden drilling at Beasley, which was part of the new ground acquired from Focus Minerals in June.

The biggest looming catalyst for Genesis is the release of an updated 10-year plan in the current half.

Genesis published its “Aspire 400” 10-year plan nearly two years ago, which outlined a path to base case annual production of 325,000oz by FY29 and 350,000oz by FY34.

Since then, the company has acquired 4Moz of resources in Laverton and continued to have exploration success.

The plan will include the outcomes of studies into staged plant expansion(s), including the processing of Tower Hill ore at an expanded Leonora mill.

The previous plan envisaged trucking Tower Hill ore 100km to the Laverton mill.

Tower Hill is just 1km from the Leonora mill, which could save $225 million.