PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Northern Star Resources’ focus would shift to capital management in the next quarter, MD Bill Beament said in a conference call on Thursday.

Beament pointed out that bank debt had decreased to A$35-million at the end of the December quarter, with Northern Star planning to fully extinguish this debt early in the June quarter.

“Capital management is the question the company will turn its mind to in the coming months. I’ll not speculate on the outcome, other than saying we are already spending A$50-million on exploration and by way of observation, the board is keen to see the company maintain its track record of paying fully franked dividends to shareholders.”

Beament said that the company’s considerable cash flows could be attributed to the performance of its Western Australian operations, which delivered 142 556 oz of gold during the quarter under review.

The Jundee gold operation delivered 55 060 oz of gold during the quarter, with Kundana delivering 29 566 oz, Kanowna Bell 21 820 oz and the Plutonic mine 17 381 oz.

The flagship Paulsens mine delivered 17 225 oz of gold during the quarter under review.

“We took the perfect hat-trick in December. Our strong production and low cost base averaged across our assets underpinned the outstanding cash flow, which, in turn, enables us to fund an aggressive exploration programme which is already generating results that will lead to increased mine lives.”

The company achieved an average realised price of A$1 417/oz, generating a free cash flow of A$52.5-million during the quarter, raising the interim free cash flow to A$103.5-million from the sale of 292 840 oz.

“We are also set to enjoy the benefits of a gold price which has increased A$200/oz since the end of the December quarter,” Beament said, looking ahead at the remainder of the 2015 financial year.