FY2021
Sconi process development
Work on precursor and mixed-hydroxide routes continued. The LG agreement and later A$6.5m placement were announced after the June year-end.
ASX: AUZ · Five-year financial review
(ASX: AUZ) Australian Mines Financial Review - FY2021~25
Australian Mines retained substantial exploration assets while its cash buffer narrowed. The five-year story is one of financing an unbuilt Sconi project, changing technical and portfolio priorities, and balancing smaller spending programmes against the need for fresh funding.
Reading the figures: Units are stated above each table or beside the metric. Brackets denote negative amounts. Supported nil is shown as zero; unlike reporting bases remain separately labelled.
FY2025 cash
A$1.452m
Rounded statement balance.
FY2025 net loss
A$1.881m
Accrual result, not total project cash spend.
Exploration assets
A$43.483m
Carrying value at June 2025.
FY2025 financing
Nil
No net financing cash inflow recorded.
Five years in context
The historical LG Energy Solution offtake related to future Sconi production and depended on project financing. Later technical review shifted the planned product mix toward nickel sulphate, cobalt sulphate and scandium oxide. These agreements and changes are development milestones, not sales.
By FY2025 the board described Sconi financing as challenging under subdued nickel and cobalt prices, and construction had not commenced. Flemington resource work and Brazilian exploration broadened the portfolio, but neither removes the distinction between project potential and near-term cash availability.
Events behind the numbers
FY2022
Offtake depends on financing
The August 2021 LG agreement was followed by an amended financing deadline. The August 2022 proposed ASIC settlement was subject to court approval, with a provision in the annual accounts.
FY2023
Product-route review and legal settlement
Sconi’s product strategy was reviewed and partner discussions continued. In January 2023 the court approved the ASIC settlement, including the stated penalty and costs.
FY2024
Brazil exploration and financing clean-up
Brazilian tenements added REE and tin-related targets. A February placement partly settled obligations under the share-subscription agreement.
FY2025
Flemington update; Sconi still unbuilt
The January 2025 Flemington resource update increased the high-grade inventory. The board still considered Sconi financing challenging. Boa Vista’s foreign estimate was disclosed in July, after June.
FINANCIAL REVIEW / 01
Lower losses did not prevent a cash drawdown
Losses and exploration payments were lower in FY2025, but operating and investing outflows continued with no new financing cash. The cash decline therefore reflects funding and expenditure together, not an inconsistency with the smaller reported loss.
Year-end cash
A$ million
Closing cash
AI-generated presentation · values from Five-year financial record; no missing values plotted as zero.
Operating and investing cash
A$ million
Operating cash flowInvesting cash flow
AI-generated presentation · values from Five-year financial record; no missing values plotted as zero.
Five-year financial record
A$ million
| Metric | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss after tax | (4.493) | (5.788) | (4.105) | (3.799) | (1.881) |
| Operating cash flow | (1.766) | (4.254) | (2.402) | (1.476) | (1.709) |
| Investing cash flow | (3.173) | (5.405) | (3.482) | (2.422) | (1.297) |
| Financing cash flow | 5.338 | 10.012 | 6.523 | 3.757 | 0.000 |
| Closing cash | 3.641 | 3.994 | 4.633 | 4.492 | 1.452 |
AUD millions converted from statement A$000. FY2022 operating/investing classifications use the later FY2023 comparative.
The original FY2022 statement allocated A$0.409m differently between operating and investing; aggregate cash use and closing cash are unchanged.
Source: Annual-report extractions; report editions are listed once in the consolidated source registry.
FINANCIAL REVIEW / 02
Most assets were not readily spendable
Exploration and evaluation dominated the latest asset base. Recoverability depends on development or other realisation, while daily work requires liquid funds. The company disclosed a material uncertainty related to going concern despite using the going-concern basis.
Exploration carrying value and total equity
A$ million
Exploration and evaluation assetsTotal equity
AI-generated presentation · values from Exploration assets and liquid resources; no missing values plotted as zero.
Exploration assets and liquid resources
A$ million
| Metric | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total assets | 37.227 | 42.249 | 45.315 | 46.978 | 45.104 |
| Total equity | 36.379 | 40.971 | 41.469 | 46.720 | 44.926 |
| Exploration and evaluation assets | 33.091 | 37.791 | 40.508 | 42.331 | 43.483 |
| Current assets | 3.673 | 4.170 | 4.681 | 4.500 | 1.474 |
| Current liabilities | 0.667 | 1.278 | 3.846 | 0.258 | 0.178 |
Later FY2022 statement comparatives used where available; they increase both assets and current liabilities by A$0.034m without changing equity.
Exploration carrying values are not project NPV, available cash or a completed mine.
Source: Annual-report extractions; report editions are listed once in the consolidated source registry.
FINANCIAL REVIEW / 03
Cash spend and expense tell different stories
A large part of exploration cash was associated with the asset-development programme rather than immediately recognised as expense. This explains why a lower expense line cannot alone measure activity and why a resource increase is not a cash inflow.
Exploration cash and expense
A$ million
Exploration and evaluation cash paymentsExploration expense in profit or loss
AI-generated presentation · values from Cash payments compared with expensed exploration; no missing values plotted as zero.
Cash payments compared with expensed exploration
A$ million
| Metric | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exploration and evaluation cash payments | (3.154) | (5.390) | (3.518) | (2.396) | (1.294) |
| Exploration expense in profit or loss | (0.349) | (1.079) | (0.122) | (1.357) | (0.158) |
The two rows have different accounting bases: payments may be capitalised, while some exploration is expensed. Do not sum them as total spending.
FY2022 cash uses the later comparative to match the cash-flow table.
Source: Annual-report extractions; report editions are listed once in the consolidated source registry.
FINANCIAL REVIEW / 04
The FY2024 subscription settlement is not ordinary operating cost
The share-subscription instrument involved financing judgements and embedded features. Its cash settlement appears in financing, not in the exploration row. The displayed statement amounts are retained without inventing a gross fundraising figure from the ambiguous net-of-costs label.
Net financing cash
A$ million
Net financing cash
AI-generated presentation · values from Latest financing presentation; no missing values plotted as zero.
Latest financing presentation
A$ million
| Metric | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Share-issue proceeds, issuer-labelled net of costs | 5.686 | 0.000 |
| Separately presented capital-raising costs | (0.441) | 0.000 |
| Share-subscription agreement cash payments | (1.488) | 0.000 |
| Net financing cash | 3.757 | 0.000 |
Labels retained as supplied. The statement separately presents costs despite labelling proceeds net of costs; no extra unreported gross-up is made.
FY2025 nil financing is an explicit statement entry, not an assumed missing value.
Source: Annual-report extractions; report editions are listed once in the consolidated source registry.
FINANCIAL REVIEW / 05
Project optionality is not a funded development decision
Flemington’s 2025 high-grade resource is reported at a 300ppm scandium cut-off. A separate lower-cut-off inventory is not added to that resource as though it were an independent deposit. Sconi’s resource and reserve figures likewise are not mine production.
The Boa Vista term sheet describes a potential earn-in of up to 80% through staged expenditure and milestones. That is not an unconditional existing 80% ownership interest. The July 2025 foreign-estimate disclosure is neither a JORC resource nor June operating output.
Reading the figures
- Only frozen annual extraction data used. No new DB query, original report, financial web research or MiniMax authoring; published primary-author review.
- Historical study targets, offtake volumes and planned production dates are not actual sales.
- FY2022 cash classifications and balance-sheet comparatives use later extracted presentation; original values remain preserved in provenance.
- No cash-runway estimate is fabricated from a single year of expenditure or from capitalised exploration assets.
Annual-report source registry
- Australian Mines - Annual Report to shareholdersFrozen annual extraction; A$000 conversion, funding conditions and fiscal cut-offs retained.
- Australian Mines - Annual Report to shareholdersFrozen annual extraction; A$000 conversion, funding conditions and fiscal cut-offs retained.
- Australian Mines - Annual Report to shareholdersFrozen annual extraction; A$000 conversion, funding conditions and fiscal cut-offs retained.
- Australian Mines - Annual Report to shareholdersFrozen annual extraction; A$000 conversion, funding conditions and fiscal cut-offs retained.
- Australian Mines - Annual Report to shareholdersFrozen annual extraction; A$000 conversion, funding conditions and fiscal cut-offs retained.
Prepared solely from the existing year-by-year extraction datasets. No raw annual-report body, PDF, new database lookup or financial web research was used. Review is against those stored extractions, not a new independent original-document audit.
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AI-led method
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