At Havieron, a 70:30 joint venture with Greatland Gold, infill drilling within the South East Crescent Zone inferred resource extent was finalised during the period, validating geological and grade continuity.

New results included 45.1m at 6.7 grams per tonne gold and 0.06% copper from 931.1m, and 164.3m at 1.8gpt gold and 0.53% copper from 1065m, including 14.3m at 9.7gpt gold and 0.78% copper.

All eight rigs at Havieron are focused on growth outside the resource.

Growth drilling more than 250m below the resource extents returned a previously reported result of  44.7m at 7.1gpt gold and 0.17% copper from 1412m, including 20.2m at 15gpt gold and 0.29% copper from 1421m.

Drill testing of new additional geophysical targets 2km outside of the Havieron system is underway.

"At Havieron, our exploration is now totally focused on growth which has continued to demonstrate potential for resource additions outside of the existing inferred mineral resource limits," Newcrest CEO Sandeep Biswas said.

"We have eight operating rigs exploring the high-grade targets in and around the main Havieron deposit including the high-grade depth extents of the South East Crescent."

The recent Havieron prefeasibility study returned capital costs of A$529 million for a 2 million tonne per annum operation to produce 160,000oz of gold and 6900t of copper at AISC of A$990/oz over nine years, with processing to take place through Newcrest's nearby Telfer mill.

The PFS returned an internal rate of return of 16%, four-year payback period and net present value of US$228 million.

At Red Chris, a 70:30 JV with Imperial Metals, drilling continues to expand the footprint and continuity of the higher-grade mineralisation of East Ridge.

Drilling returned 366m at 0.45gpt gold and 0.57% copper from 728m, including 36m at 1.4gpt gold and 1.2% copper, extending the higher-grade mineralisation a further 100m to the east.

Another hole returned 390m at 0.63gpt gold and 0.48% copper from 1088m, including 44m at 2gpt gold and 1.3% copper.

The mineralisation at East Ridge is open to the east and at depth with ongoing drilling to define the extents.

East Ridge sits outside Red Chris' 14.9 million ounce resource.

"Drilling results at our East Ridge discovery were particularly encouraging with further expansion of the mineralisation footprint to the east," Biswas said.

"The high-grade mineralisation remains open to the east and at depth which provides exciting potential for the resource base at Red Chris to grow over time."

An October PFS into a block cave operation at Red Chris returned capital costs of $2.1 billion for a 31-year operation to produce an average 158,000oz of gold and 48,500t of copper at AISC of negative $144/oz.

The project has an IRR of 17%, NPV of $1.8 billion and payback period of 3.2 years.

Shares in Newcrest were up 0.8% to A$23.70.