Anglo Asian Mining (LSE:AAZ) — Interim Results

0:01 Good morning, and welcome to the ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC Interim Results Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and they can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And I would now like to hand you over to the management team. Stephen, good morning. Good morning. Thank you very much for the introduction. Good morning, afternoon, evening, everybody who's joined depending where you are around the world. Thank you all. Appreciate your time and your interest in ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC and the development and future growth of the company.

0:48 This presentation will focus on the interim results while also looking at how that fits into the overall transition for Anglo Asian transition to mid tier copper and gold production status. So moving forward. K. First of all, I'd just like to present some of the highlights. A key thing here is record production of copper, which has really been driving a step change in earnings and cash generation for the company. Group production significantly increased following the first six months period as a multi asset producer.

1:38 As I mentioned, it's record copper production of over 8,800 tons of copper metal, gold production over 12,300 ounces, and silver production nearly 93,000 ounces. On the slide as well, you can actually see the h one figures. So you can see a significant increase as compared to h one of this year as compared to 2025, albeit those figures are slightly not a true reflection of each other because quite clearly, have more mining operations in full production for this current h one period. These financials or production has has enabled a strong financial performance.

2:26 Revenues increased to a $141,200,000, and a profit before tax rose to $68,500,000. We continue to develop our growth projects, And quite clearly, having the the the technical and financial performances that we've been able to develop, we are able to really focus on our growth projects as well. We have consultants appointed for the and Garadag copper projects for the feasibility studies, and we have a significant core drilling program in place that has already commenced. And I'll be speaking about those later on in the presentation. Clearly, a strong balance sheet and a commitment to the shareholder returns.

3:12 So net net cash generated, $78,500,000. Net cash position as of the June 30, the end of h 1, $57,700,000. And an interim dividend was declared for the financial year 2026 of US 6¢ per share. How are we going to become a mid tier copper and gold producer? We've got a five year plan targeting in the order of around about 50,000 tons of copper metal per annum. So we we we're going to actually target the development of sequential opening of new mines.

4:02 Last year, we opened two new mines, the Gilar Underground Mine in the Getabet contract area and the startup of the Damirli copper mine in the Agderre region of Central Western Azerbaijan. Khafar and Garadaga targeted to enter production in 2028 and 2030 respectively, but I'll be talking about that a little bit further as we move through the presentation. Future projects, they're progressing well or in line with the expectations. We've now appointed Worley Europe Limited, part of the the global Worley Group engineering excellence for feasibility studies to complete the and Garadag feasibility and design studies.

4:49 Core drilling is nearing completion at That's of the planned 10,000 meters for infill geotechnical, hydrogeological, hydrology, and metallurgical test work, and that's for the mine design and production optimization. So that work is all ongoing. It's part of the early stages of the feasibility studies. The group has planned more than 90,000 meters of drilling, and that's core drilling for exploration mineral resource estimates, up and project development. And the split you can see is about 55,000 meters for exploration to increase and look at the resources at Garradag, Getabec, and Dumiri areas, and around about 35,000 meters for for the feasibility study.

5:38 So we'll undertake the exploration as well to increase the resources under Jawke's standard. We will be providing updated MREs for and Garadag. And the key thing about these two projects is they host in combination over 1,000,000 tons of copper metal, so a significant part of our portfolio for growth. Our operations. Our operations are exclusively, hosted within Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a favorable business market. It's it's strategically a very strong position, between the East and the West.

6:24 We operate in Azerbaijan under a production sharing agreement, otherwise known as the PSA. That that PSA provides, the framework of the financial taxation, customs clearance, and is essentially a framework and a guideline for the requirements of both parties, those being the ANGLO ASIAN MINING Group and the government of Azerbaijan in terms of responsibilities going forward. What that does provide for us is a very predictable and forecastable business framework. And so that is something that is absolutely fundamental to our strategies going forward because when we develop our financial models and we develop our strategic planning, it's within a within a robust framework.

7:20 The other thing I'd like to just mention as well is that the PSA itself is law. It's not like a typical license or or contract area license for for the mining sector. It is actually law itself. So therefore, it provides a lot of protection for both parties within the terms of the framework document itself. In terms of the contract areas, we currently have eight contract areas, which we sort of divide into three blocks, a northern block, a Central West, and a southern block. The northern block hosts the Getabek contract area, which which also then in turn hosts the Getabec mining operation, the Gilar underground mining operation, as well as a project that I'll reference that we targeted some time before and was previously mining a project called Ugur.

8:21 In Central West Azerbaijan, the blue sector, you can see Damirli and Gizobulak. That's where the Damirli copper mine is is is operating. The southern block are exploration areas of Vegenali and Autobahn. So, you know, the the company at the moment is very much production focused, and so that's where really it's the Demirli and and Getapac areas that we're focusing on to work on our production strategy. But you can see contract areas numbers one and three to the north of of the Getabek contract area is the position of Harha and Garadag. So we're able to use a lot of shared infrastructure, you know, and the business framework of us having operated in that region of Azerbaijan for so long.

9:12 We're very familiar with the way business has to be carried out to achieve our targets. So just looking at Getabec itself, again, strong production of Getabec. The first six months of production at the Gilal mine are referenced with a with a big underground copper gold mine. Robust production overall from Getabec. You can see over 12,000 ounces of gold, 17,000 tons of of copper concentrate containing over 3,300 tons of copper metal. Gila is performing in line with expectations.

9:57 So far, we've actually carried out over 8,000 meters of access tunneling spiral development, ventilation, and operational tunneling. Included in that figure is an exploration tunnel development that has come off the main drive where we're actually then looking to chase extensions of the the lower high grade zone four as well as the upper zones known as one and two. So there's upside potential as well beyond what's already in our production plans. Investments in our infrastructure. The image on the right, you can see, new flotation cells. In addition to that, we've also put in a new flotation control room. And so effectively, that has been able to allow us to increase throughput and look at flexibility, importantly, of being able to manage the the copper feed as we go forward.

10:57 This system as well, in line with our current operating cells, would also give us flexibility in the event in the future that possibly we would need to produce an alternative concentrate such as zinc from a project that we've previously carried out in Amarion named Zafar, which is also in the Gettybek contract area. We have a tea a heap leach test pad being constructed in a pilot solvent extract and electro winning plant being designed and constructed. And the importance of that is really because we will be looking at that process for the and projects that I'll talk a little bit about later.

11:44 The final wall of the Tailings Dam Number 1 was completed in April, and that's providing us an additional two to three years of capacity during which time we'd be in a position to start to develop and construct our second tailings dam, which has already been fully designed, and the the documentation is currently with government for final approval And continue our brownfield exploration. This is important. Quite clearly, we've got production hubs where where the company is actually producing and monetizing the the metal in the ground. And historically, we did mine a deposit known as Ugur by open pit, which at the time, there was a block of mineralization at the the back of that particular open pit that was marginal.

12:37 But given today's metal prices, we're actually revisiting a lot of this type of project, and we're starting to to do a pushback on that mine. And the intention would really be to put that material onto our gold heap leach circuits. Moving forward to look at the Merle, the ramp up is in line with expectations. Steady state production is getting there. We our ramp up was progressing all in line with our expectation. It was quite a a a challenging project to actually to bring to fruition. You know, we've mobilized many, many contractors and staff, etcetera.

13:27 But what we've now done is we've now processed over one and a half million tons of ore, grading at nearly half percent copper and produced 28,000 tons of concentrate containing around about five and a half tons of copper metal during the period. Ongoing refinement of the processing operations, we did have a a ball mill gear shaft issue during q one, and we had to replace that. We have then further planned investments where we will be replacing all of the SAG mill liner to improve the production there, and that work is likely to be taking place during October month.

14:19 Continued review of the tailings. The tailings dam has been buttressed with 20,000,000 tons of rock and a further 10 meter wall raise of the dam is planned. We've been working closely with all our external independent contractors and the government in relation to those particular aspects of the project development. So the technical specifications to obtain approval for the construction of a new tailings facility, that's tailings number two, has also been submitted to the government. The tailings two locations been identified. We have conducted geotechnical drilling, hydrogeological drilling. We've put in various hydrology pump tests, etcetera, and all of that is now sat with the government along with the the design documentation from the independent parties.

15:16 In addition to the flotation plant, which really caters for processing the sulfide copper mineralization, We've also been mining oxide material, and that that is not really suitable for flotation, but could be suitable for copper heap leach. So we've been currently stockpiling that oxide as well as lower grade flotation material separately. And the company is currently constructing a test heap leach pad for leaching of this oxide and low grade ore. It's it's been constructed and it's being finalized, and we've now got the designs and the layouts for the pilot solvent extraction electro winning plant that'll be constructed.

16:08 The important aspect of that is it's going to be providing education and business experience in terms of operating our copper heap leaches and SXEW plants as they're known for the upcoming and Garadag project. So we're really looking at how we're developing our our personnel and providing the necessary resources to ensure they are skilled and supported enough to be able to develop our operational capabilities going forward. Given the mining so far, we have around about 2,500,000 tons of oxide material on stockpile and around about one point around about a million ton of the lower grade flotation material. So we have that on stockpile.

17:03 The initial copper heap leach test pad will be for 100,000 tons, and that will allow us then to really test different ways of managing that copper heap leach with possibly the introduction of bacterial leaching as well, hence the low grade flotation material. So growth projects. This is essentially the and Garadag projects, which as I referenced before, we have over 1,000,000 tons of copper metal in the ground. So Worley has been appointed as the contractor for the feasibility studies for the development.

17:50 We've been having very regular meetings. They've had consultants visiting our project sites as well, And we're ensuring that we're not really working as a client contractor with a a wall between us. We're very much a group working together with a with a common name. So it's it's working very well. Worley as well have offices here in Azerbaijan, so the government are also familiar with Worley. And so going forward, you know, we're anticipating, you know, high quality assessment of the opportunities that we have. I would like to just mention as well that this feasibility study is not really a feasibility study from the viewpoint of is it a go, no go project?

18:42 We know we will be producing out of these projects, but we're sort of looking at how best to optimize these projects from a technical viewpoint and operational viewpoint to provide the best financial returns that we can for our shareholder cohort. The Worley Group, as I've mentioned, is a global leader in engineering project and asset management solutions in the mineral sector, as well as on the sectors such as energy for which they've been working in Azerbaijan. The target completion dates for the feasibility studies are sort of h two twenty twenty seven for and h one twenty twenty eight for Garadag, albeit we would like to try to accelerate the Garadag one in line with The reason for that is their shared infrastructure.

19:35 So the processing facilities, the copper heap leach, all of the the the comminution circuits, so the the the crushing circuits, agglomerators, if that's what's finally decided, heap leach, and the SXEW will all be co shared. So significantly optimizing the the capital requirement by being able to have a hub and spoke scenario where we were able to feed material from multi deposits into a central processing unit. And that's where we also need to take into consideration our upside long term where I've previously presented the fact that there's a a 10 kilometer belt of known copper mineralization of which and Garatag are two of the properties along that belt.

20:27 Our drilling program, we've agreed to round about a 90,000 meter core drilling program split between exploration and feasibility studies. 55,000 meters on exploration, 35 for project development work. And then our exploration will continue. We're very much at the moment focused more on the brownfield aspects. Obviously, we've got our production hubs, which given the sort of financial situation that we're in at the moment is actually delivering a good financial basis for developing for the future. So our key focus areas, extension of the and Garadag and surrounding areas, hence that 10 kilometer Garadag Copper Belt, as well as follow-up drilling work in the Getabek contract area for the various projects that we have, Getabek itself, Gilar, and Zafar, as well as extensions of the Damirli mine and the South Damirli target area. So that's they're really the areas that we're we're focusing on at the moment.

21:33 So that's really an overview of of where we are from the project side and this the the strategic development side of things. Now I'd just like to hand across to our CFO, Bill Morgan, to discuss the financial performance. Okay. Next slide, Steve. Okay. Well, good day, everybody, and very many thanks for your interest in our company. As Steve mentioned in his introduction, we've had an excellent half year. Revenues increased to a 141,200,000. This was due to a full six months of production at Gilar and Damirli and a higher average selling price of gold and copper.

22:20 This high revenue flows through to our profit before taxation, which was 68,500,000. Cash generation was also excellent. Net cash generated by operating activities was 78,500,000, and we ended the period with a net cash of 57,700,000. So that is all a very, very good performance, and we've declared a interim dividend in respect of the year of $06 per share. This will be payable in November. It will be payable in sterling, which will be a dividend of roundabout 4.5p. Okay. That's a brief overview. So next slide, Steve. K.

23:07 One thing I would like to say about these results this year or this half year is that they are very, very clean results. And as a result of this, they're much easier to interpret than we've had in previous years. Because if you look at our results in the last few years, we've either had mines start up halfway through the year like Demirli or Gilar, or we've had a lot of write offs in respect of things like exploration expense. We had a period during the shutdown when we was only doing partial production. So all of those effects on the business of of the business, they've actually flowed through to our accounts and made the accounts actually quite difficult to interpret.

23:52 But this half year is actually different. We've now got a nice, almost steady state. Obviously, Demerle is ramping up a bit of two mines in production, everything operating normally, no unusual items, no funny write offs or everything. So this actually gives you a much better guide this period to actually what the financial performance of the business is and what the business is capable of doing. So as I said, the revenues were 141,200,000. I've analyzed them two ways both by site, which is Getherbay and Damiri, and by product, which is gold and silver bullion and copper concentrate. You can see that the Getherbay revenue was 78,800,000, which was slightly bigger than Damiri. So at the moment, Getaway is actually producing more revenue than Damiri, although not by much.

24:47 But the interesting analysis is by product because you will see that the copper concentrate revenue was 107,200,000, which is 75% of our total revenue. So effectively, we are now very much a copper company, you know, producing 75% of our revenues from from copper. I've given you a breakdown of the cost of sales, Getaway and Demirli. And if you get your calculator out, you can work out what the gross margin is, the gross profits of both of those sites, and you will see that they're both very profitable. Gedobe made a a gross profit of 60%, and Damiri made a gross profit of 50%. So, you know, these are both very profitable sites that we're operating here in in Azerbaijan.

25:37 Other things of interest is we had a net finance cost of 2,600,000, but half of that was actually only a notional finance cost in respect to the Demiri lease, and we had a taxation charge of 22,400,000. Now one thing to note is that we ended up last year with no taxable losses brought forward in RBIG, which is the local operating group. We had for a number of years been racking up taxable losses because of the fact that the business had been in the state that it was in. But last year, we actually utilized all of those losses, and we actually ended up with a very small tax charge. This year, we will have no losses to offset against the taxation, so we are actually gonna have a fairly sizable tax charge, which is the 32 percent.

26:29 So if you would look at that tax charge, you'll see that 23,100,000 of it is current tax. And the reason this is important is I'll explain to you when we come on to the to the cash flow. The other thing on this slide is the all in sustaining cost. The all in sustaining cost came in at $122.04 for get sorry, for gold and $515.08 for copper on a group basis. This was much lower than we had forecast, which is obviously very good news, and there are a couple of reasons for this. The first reason is that this calculation has become quite a complicated calculation to do.

27:15 If you look in the financial review of our interims, you will see I've actually set it out in detail because you've got a lot of cost to allocate to using different bases for Damiri and Gedaby. So it is actually quite a substantial calculation. It's not easy. And because this was the first time that we've done this calculation, we were actually doing it on a very, very conservative basis just because of the fact that, you know, we were a little bit feeling our way through as to how this would work. So it was done on a very conservative basis, but we have actually seen some better outcomes in terms of budgeted against actual costs, in particular, in flotation and agitation leaching. So we have actually had a positive outcome that we are finding that our processing costs are actually better than we were budgeting for.

28:11 I think that's it. So on to the next slide, Steve. Okay. On the balance sheet, there's really not that much to say. I'll make a couple of points. The leased assets were 28,300,000. This was substantially the Demiri lease. Our inventories have gone up by almost 10,000,000, of which over 9,000,000 of that was the oxide ore stockpiles at the Miri, which Steve mentioned. We are stockpiling ore for the heap leach project. And as I say, we've had to include $10,000,000 worth of inventory in respect of that ore. Cash position was very good. We landed up with $70,000,000 worth of cash and net cash of 57,700,000.

29:09 That really is all there is to say. Our borrowings are 12,300,000, and we will get 8,600,000 of those paid in the remainder of the year. So we'll land up at the end of the year with a very small debt of 3,700,000, almost debt free. Obviously, we've not made any new borrowings in the year, and we're not planning to make any new borrowings. One question we get asked a lot is why don't we just pay all of these loans off? It's gotta be cheaper than actually just maintaining them till the end of their term. Well, that is very much done as part of maintaining the relationship with the borrowers. We could actually do that. We're always very careful that we do have the right to repay borrowings early without any penalty.

29:59 But these guys, in particularly the AAZARI banks, have actually stuck with us. And as part of the relationship we have with them, we're not actually gonna repay them early. I think that's it. So next slide, Steve. Okay. Here is our here is our cash flow, and it's pretty straightforward. We had little working capital movement because of the fact that as the business is growing, I mean, our debtors are and the inventory is increasing. We're obviously having increasing creditors. So that is a wash, and we're expecting that hopefully to continue into the future. We're not expecting to have any very big working capital movements at the end of any half year or full year.

30:52 We only paid income tax of $2,600,000 which again is fairly small and inventory was 9.6 The question that, again, we've been asked a lot is how can we normalize this cash flow in terms of looking at the second half of the year. And we can do that. We're expecting that the underlying cash flow will be roughly the same in the second half as the first half, but with a couple of exceptions. The first exception is that because we extinguished our tax losses at the end of last year, we now have to start making payments on account for corporation tax.

31:42 And they actually fall in the second half of the year mostly rather than the first half of the year. So in the second half of the year, we will be making significant payments of corporation tax. Also, again, as we've said in our releases, we will be moving from the minimum production share for the Geta Bay site, which is the 12.75% to something approaching, we think, round about 18%. So, again, that would affect our cash flow because that will affect the amount of metal we'd like to sell. And we have estimated that the additional profit tax payments plus the increased production share will probably cost us an additional $20,000,000 in the second half of the year. So if you're comparing the first half to what you think we can expect in the second half, as I say, you've got these two figures, which is going to be at $20,000,000 down.

32:41 Also, we've got the two dividend payments in the second half, and that's gonna be around about another $12,000,000 as well. So that is the cash flow. So that's over to you, Steve. Okay. So if we move forward now and just have a a quick look at the outlook, essentially, it's been another step change year for, Anglo Asian and, our group of companies, with the full, you know, the the full production period from three mines, being Getabec, Gilar, and Demery.

33:29 So, again, you know, it's showing as well our copper production is is due to significantly increase as compared to the previous years. I won't go over the h one performance figures again. I referenced those earlier on. But suffice to say, it's been able to provide us with a a good financial and technical base to continue to grow the project and become a a copper focused producer. And just to reiterate what Bill mentioned there, you know, a $107,000,000 of the $141,000,000 in terms of sales was attributable to to the copper. So for the first year, we've actually become a a copper revenue earner as opposed to purely gold.

34:16 So that's also in line with, you know, the strategic development plans that we we have in place. So our guidance, we're gonna maintain the the the copper and silver production. There was a small decrease that was reported recently in the public domain with regards to the gold. So with due to slightly lower recoveries of the gold products from the Gila ore, and that was due to various metallurgical situations where we've moved into a slightly different zone. We don't think it's gonna be full on in terms of continuing, but we've been drilling it. We've carried out metallurgical sampling test work, and so the the the technical team will be addressing that situation.

35:04 And then quite clearly, we've reduced our AISC copper guidance, you know, and with the figure around about sort of the $5,500 mark, you know, for us, a a relatively small and junior copper producers such as ourselves, that's pretty much in line with some of the the major copper producers from South America. So, you know, we're quite proud of what we've been able to achieve here. And, you know, as we go forward and we we start to develop our projects as well, we could be in a situation of of obviously trying to better that all the time, especially as we start to bring in our future copper heap leaches and solvent extraction electro winning where the final product is is is cathode copper. So it's copper metal.

35:50 And so, you know, they will be receiving the full price of the the copper product that we produce. Interestingly from that as well, essentially, it'll well, it will make Anglo Asian a copper metal producer for the first time and indeed Azerbaijan, a copper metal producer for the first time. So that, you know, further strengthens the relationship of ourselves and the government under the under the PSA in terms of the the the the forecast growth of the mineral sector within Azerbaijan. So you can see the production guidance figures for the copper, gold, and silver, and the the sort of guidances that we've recommended for the AISC.

36:42 So outlook, we believe it's a strong growth outlook, highly cash generative. We've got a significant portfolio of projects in development as well as growth projects for the longer term development, which are in the exploration pipeline. The production figures in green, excuse me, on the left hand side of the slide, you can really see when we look at our annual copper equivalent production that that there's significant changes and the the growth of copper certainly from 2024 into '25 and now, obviously, 2026. During the presentation, I've been discussing as well the and Garibag copper projects, Dimiri expansions, etcetera. And, really, that's where we're looking at our development projects to achieve our sort of midterm target of around the round about 50,000 tons of copper metal.

37:40 But that's not it. You know? What's beyond the midterm? Well, that's where all our future plans start to come into play. You know? And we know we've got significant exploration potential, expansion of our current operations along strike and at depth. We got Dimirli regional expansion. I've already mentioned the Zafa copper gold zinc property in the Getabet contract area, Gilar expansion, and indeed the 10 kilometer Gardag Copper Belt. And that actually leads down then into the northern part of the Gettybek area where the previous helicopter ZTEM, zed tip electromagnetic survey that we carried out some years ago identified some further porphyry and epithermal mineralization centers. So there's a lot of work to be done on the areas of known extension to mineralization as well as other targets that we've identified.

38:42 So, really, what we've now done is we managed to put ourselves into a fairly robust position to create the platform group for growth. You can see the trajectory. It's very exciting. And beyond that, you know, there's the longer term future plans and development of projects, especially given that the and Garadag projects will be operating for many years to come. So it it's an exciting time to be part of a part of the ANGLO ASIAN group. So the investment case. So, you know, we're a well established multi asset mining company with extensive copper resources transitioning to mid tier status. We're a multi asset producer. We've opened two new mines last year, one underground and one open pit. And and this has significantly significantly grown our production base in line with our strategies to ultimately become a a copper producer underpinned by precious metals.

39:43 And that's been seen in the presentation with the the the sales situation. We've got an exciting development of of the assets. We've got two and a half thousand square kilometers. And at Jawke classification, mineral resources stand at over 400,000 ounces of gold and over a million tons of copper. That's all well and good, but one needs to be able to then monetize that. And the company has a long term track record. We've we've we've had discoveries of mineral deposits and built and constructed mines and processing facilities, and we brought six of those production six mines into production.

40:30 And importantly, we've done that without any shareholder dilution. So it's all been conducted out of internal cash flow and and debt financing. During that period, the team has has has really strengthened. So we got a highly experienced team now, proven ability to operate in Azerbaijan, and all of that is in alignment, obviously, with the the shareholder interests in terms of being able to grow the company. We've got a very disciplined approach to the funding. And as as I mentioned, there's been no dilution. And so here as well, we've got very good relationships going forward with Azerbaijan banks, various vendors, and offtake partners.

41:20 For example, you know, the the copper offtake companies, they've been working with us and prepared to provide finance for the future copper sales, etcetera. And when we built the Gila mine, actually, we were the first company in the Caucasus region to actually receive Caterpillar Finance. So CAT Finance out of The USA. That was a extensive due diligence, but we've gone through that now. So as we require then further machinery and equipment for the likes of the project at and Garadag, we we should be able to then rekindle the cat finance side of things for the Caterpillar fleet for the operations there. So, again, you know, we would like to really look at how we can advance these projects out of internal cash flow, local debt, as well as vendor vendor and offtake financing options.

42:16 But that's not to say we're not looking at international financing options as well. We are. So multinational options. And this is partially why as well we're going through the feasibility study and the associated ASIAN, the environmental social impact assessment reports to ensure that we're in a good place for securing the future finance for the and Garradab projects. And historically, you know, we we we've been a a very low cost operator, strong cost and cash controls, and have traditionally operated in sort of the lowest cost sectors of the industry. So I just like to sort of say on on on on that that, you know, we're we're quite a well rounded group. We have a wide range of disciplines to be able to look at the whole value chain of the mining sector really from early stage exploration to to monetizing our projects.

43:19 Okay. That's great. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I would like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed by our investor dashboard. And, Steven, if I may now hand back to and kindly ask you to read out the questions where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Certainly. Thank you very much. Okay. Just start to run through some of these questions. What I'll do is read out the questions for for the audience, and either myself will answer them if they're technical, strategic, or if they're financial, I hand them across to Bill.

44:07 Question number one is a presubmitted question. So you have stated that that the liner of the SAG mill at DeMerrilli will be replaced in early q four. How long will that take, and what effect will it have on production there in q four, please? Okay. Yeah. The the the the mill the the sag mill liner is a is a fundamental part of the operation, obviously. And so it's something that we've had projected for some time. It's scheduled to be carried out for a period of about ten days in mid October, so in a couple of weeks' time.

44:55 So, essentially, that that liner as well will require a shutdown for that ten day period. However, because we were able to forecast that and that need, that's actually in all of our production models and our on our cash flow forecast going forward. So following that, we should then be able to ramp our production back up to the 750 tons per hour. And so and and then create a steady state of ore feed in through to the processing plant. So duration, about ten days in early second half of October. Sorry. Mid second half of October.

45:42 And quite clearly, it'll have a very positive effect on the production for q four. K? There's another question. Is there any likelihood of mining at Gosha in the near future? Okay. Gosha Gosha is one of the contract areas in the Northwest of the country. There is a small a small mining operation historically that we have worked there. In the near future, no. We will not be mining at Gosha. The the situation there is it's it's a narrow vein gold property, and as part of the the nature of the geology there requires a lot of drilling to understand the distribution of that gold, the nugget effect, the nugget effect being where within one meter you might find gold, the next meter you don't, etcetera.

46:44 And so given the sort of scale of the projects that we're dealing with at the moment with our copper assets and the polymetallics, right now, we do not have any plans for near future mining in Gosha. Okay. Next question. Are you impacted at all with the global diesel fuel shortage? No is the answer. Azerbaijan is a is a petroleum producing country. It's has a strong history in oil and gas. And so currently, we we are not impacted by any fuel shortages and the the cost of the the diesel and indeed the electricity supply, etcetera, remains very, very cost competitive for us.

47:40 On that on that note, you know, a lot of the global costs that mining companies have to deal with are in fact fuel costs, energy costs, you know, etcetera, and as well as labor and shortages of labor. But, you know, our personnel team has been built up significantly. We've been working with and developing our local contractors. And so from the viewpoint of will we be impacted by the global diesel fuel shortage? No. We're in a competitive position for both fuel, energy, and our human resource management. Okay. Okay. What's the next one?

48:40 Okay. So a question on on Demiri. Sustainable capacity and the real constraint Demiri has previously been guided to around 200 and oh, sorry. Around about 15,000 tons per annum of copper while the plant has substantially greater theoretical processing capacity. What now determines the sustainable production level, ore grade, and availability, achievable plant throughput, recovery, tailings capacity, or other constraints. And on the other current line plan and existing infrastructure is materially more than 15,000 a realistic sustainable objective without major additional CapEx? Okay. Quite a a technical question there.

49:29 As as I referenced when I was talking about the SAG mill, the throughput is in the order of around about 750 tons per hour, which will then allow a total plant throughput around about 6,000,000 tons per annum. To increase beyond that, I think, would be difficult. And so given that we're having the new signal liners put in place, you know, we should be able to maintain a fairly stable production of of around a target of 15,000 tons of copper per annum. They're also referencing here, obviously, ore grade and availability. Ore grade is variable as is the nature of the mineralization being oxide and also transition and sulfide.

50:20 So the sulfide material is currently going through to the flotation plant. And as I've referenced as well, you know, we have now three and a half million tons of material on stockpile ready for the copper heap leach. And so that this is why we're we're pushing very much the copper heap leach side of things at Damirli as well as will be the the processing technology that we wish to use at at Achaafengaradag. So that's where recoveries can be impacted depending on the mineralogy, but our on-site labs are now looking at all of the sequential copper and the total copper. So we're able to see what type of copper minerals are present and and how to best manage that through the processing facilities to maximize the flotation.

51:08 In terms of tailings capacity, currently, that's not an any constraint. As I've referenced, we buttressed the original dam. We're going to lift that 10 meters, and the the tailings too is all in in process as well. So is materially more realistic to increase from 15,000? Currently, don't think the company would feel comfortable going beyond that. We're still working on the geological block models and the mineral resources because a lot of the historical data that we've received, you know, we would like to sort of validate and check as well. And so we're still very much in a a development stage of the understanding of the project, albeit, you know, the operations teams themselves now have become very efficient in terms of the geological understanding, the mining, and the processing management.

52:03 So thank you. Moving forward, there's one here, Bill, about copper AISC. Okay? Can you see the q and a? Yeah. I've got it. Copper AISC, half one versus h H2 and what is sustainable half one copper AISC of $5,001.58 T was substantially below the original full year 2026 guidance. Yet revised full scale guidance remains 6,000 to $7,000 per tonne, even though h two copper production should be higher. What are the main reasons h one was so favorable and what will make h two more expensive and which cost improvement of structure and sustainable into full year '27.

52:55 As I mentioned in my presentation, the calculation of the ISC of both copper and gold is become quite complex, which is why we've given the calculation. The main reason being is that at the database site, copper and gold are both main products. It's not a question that we can just look at the copper AISC and take the gold as a byproduct or vice versa. And, therefore, we have to apportion all of the costs at Geta Bay in accordance with the revenues of copper and gold at Geta Bay. So this means that the ISC of copper actually can fluctuate depending upon how much gold we produce at Geta Bay. And the reason for this is is that the cost of Geta Bay are mainly fixed.

53:51 So as I said, it's quite a complicated calculation to do. There's quite a lot of unknowns, and there's quite a lot of variables. And so when we did the calculation, we did this on a very, very cautious basis. So part of the fact that we have been so much better than our guidance was the fact that we were, I think, possibly a little bit overcautious, but there also have been other areas where we have actually done better than we thought we were gonna do in terms of costs. And the main area there is processing costs, both agitation costs and flotation at both Getaway and Demirli. So that explains what happened in the six months up to the end of June.

54:37 We had a big discussion whether we should revise down the copper guidance cost. And I think given the fact that we've still got these wide range of variables and we have got some costs coming up such as the ten day shutdown during the SAG mill reline at Damiri, we feel more comfortable maintaining that guidance of what it was. So, therefore, I think we can only say that we are being cautious here. And I think once we get to the end of this year and we've got a lot more experience with these costs, we may then start revising it down. But at the moment, as I say, we are comfortable with what we're doing. And if we come in materially below our guidance, I think that's something that everybody would welcome.

55:33 K. Thank you, Bill. I have another question here in regard to heap leach SXEW scale, feedstock, and timing. Can you clarify the intended scale of the Demirli and Gedebekhar heap leach SXEW programs? In particular, what capacity are the pilot SXEW plants designed for? What all sources could feed a commercial operation beyond the initial test material, and is meaningful cathode production during 2027 realistic? Okay. Thank you very much for that question. Okay. First of all, the intended scales of production from Demerle, Getebek, and I think probably that that should be Garadag, not Getabec.

56:33 But let's work with Demerle first. You know, I've referenced that we're constructing a a cup a copper heap leach plant, and, essentially, that trial pad is for 100,000 tons. And that's really to assess the operational efficiencies and the introduction of various products to increase the recoveries. As I've referenced already, we have around about two and a half million tons of oxide material on stockpile and about 1,000,000 tons of low grade flotation material on stockpile. Now that low grade flotation material as well does contain obviously a certain amount of sulfide, so we would be looking at the possibility then of introducing the bacterial leaching as well.

57:24 In terms of target capacities for demerne, we would be looking probably in the order of around about three to 5,000,000 tons per annum, something like that. We're still needing to to work through it and finalize that from the the resource model we're developing. And Garadag, ultimately, it would be a 10,000,000 ton project per annum, but we'd have a ramp up period with at 5,000,000 tons per annum. And then as tailed off, we'd increase with Garadag and then ramp up ultimately to 10,000,000 tons. So thank you. Bill, can you do question four, cash generation?

58:12 Then maybe I've got time for one more after that or possibly two. Okay. H1 cash generation, what normalizes in h H2? H1 cash operating flow was 98.5%, but there was also significant tax government related and working capital timing items at June. Can you help shareholders distinguish between sustainable underlying cash conversion from timing effects and indicate the principal H1 balance sheet movements expected to unwind to be paid in H2? Also beyond normal sustaining and underground development expenditure, is there any major CapEx company anticipated at Getaway over the next twelve to eighteen months? Okay. I briefly touched on this during the presentation of the cash flow.

58:59 As I said at the beginning, these are a very nice clean set of accounts, and they give a good indication of what the underlying performance of the business is. And that applies both to the cash flow as well as to the profit and loss account. So most of the cash flows that you're seeing in the first half of the year, things like revenues, costs, you know, the nonsignificant capital expenditure, you can expect to project them into the second half. But as I said, you can't take the first half's cash flow and then just expect to get that in the second half because there are two one off reasons that affect that. And the first of these reasons is that we have to pay profit tax on account during the year. And because we had no tax losses brought forward from the end of last year and we are profitable this year, we will have to start paying profit tax payments on account.

1:00:03 And that is all very skewed to the second half of the year. So where in the first half of the year, paid 2,800,000, we have to pay significantly more profit tax in the second half of the year. The other effect, which is gonna impact the second half cash flow is that, as we've been saying, the Getty Bay production area is gonna use up all of its unrecovered costs, and therefore, this will increase the production share that we will be paying or the government will be taking. And as a result of this, we will not be getting as much revenue because we will not be entitled to such a big share of the production. And we estimate that these two factors is going to impact the second half cash flow to around about 20,000,000.

1:00:55 So if you wanna look at the first half cash flow and say, are we gonna do this in the second half? That is a valid thing to say, but you've got to accept the fact that, you know, there are these two impacting figures of tax and profit production share, which will by 20,000,000. The other thing, of course, you've got to take into account of is the dividends. We pay both our dividends in the second half. You know what that figure is because it's 10¢ per share, so that also has to come out the second half cash flow. That's the best way of explaining it rather than trying to get into balance sheet movements. Major CapEx currently anticipated at Getaway over the next twelve to eighteen months.

1:01:41 I Steve can answer it better than I can, but I can't see if there's anything major. We're obviously building a little solvent extraction plant there, but that's not gonna be major. You've got the intangible capital expenditure and drilling that obviously gets capitalized, but, no, I can't see if we've got any major capital expenditure getaway above. The the the only the only CapEx that actually has been scheduled there is the development of Tailings Dam Number 2. Okay. I see it's after two. I'm happy to maybe do one or two more questions if the moderator's happy with that.

1:02:31 Yes. Please go ahead. Okay. I'm just looking through. There's one related to government and another one about the the future projects. I think they're both probably important for the for the wider audience. Okay. The first one, government support. What does the new state mining program mean in practice? The new state mining program specifically refers to supporting continued operation at Damirli and helping and move into development and production. What practical support is envisaged, or what would be most use to AI and to AAZ? For example, permitting, infrastructure, power access, tax or customs investment incentives, or support for associated supply chain investment.

1:03:21 Could any of this material affect the project timing or a s AAZ's capital requirements? Okay. The exact mechanism there of how we could be supported are really not fully clearly indicated yet. Quite clearly, they've made the statement about supporting these particular projects, which is absolutely fantastic. It's expected that they will be developing an industrial zone, and it may be that these particular projects are captured within that industrial boundary, in which case then there's the possibilities for looking at, you know, competitive energy costs and various other supplies, etcetera.

1:04:13 However, when we start to look at taxation regime and the taxation structures, etcetera, obviously, as I referenced earlier, we work according to the production sharing agreement, the PSA. And so all of that financial aspect is is very well defined within our PSA. Probably, the the key thing here as well is when I referenced us being part of the the development of the minerals industry here in Azerbaijan, You know, the the the the the presidential administration of government are very much focused now in terms of assisting to develop that particular sector. And so we we will get support, you know, in terms of the development of these projects, especially working for the critical metals sectors such as copper.

1:05:07 But one key thing that we really think that they could help with, and it's likely to be there, is improving the mechanisms for reallocating the category of land use. So, you know, to for industrial purposes. So there's various processes that one has to go through to be able to develop a project. And so, obviously, as I've referenced as well with us working in that Getty Bay, Garadaga area for many years, we understand the the local structures and the business environment. And so, yes, we do expect benefit from, you know, the the government projections going forward, but, it it's still a little bit unknown at the moment exactly exactly how.

1:06:00 But they have been showing support already in terms of the project development and land access, etcetera. K? I have another one in relation to Garadag. 2029 or 2030, and what does open pit development change? The h one results state that Garadag is on track to enter production in 2029, while some previous material has appeared closer to 2030. Does 2029 mean commit commissioning our first tons or meaningful commercial production? And now that open pit mining is preferred, what does that change in terms of critical path CapEx and development complexity?

1:06:53 Okay. It's quite an interesting question. Thank you very much. Okay. Just just to clarify, obviously, we're going through the feasibility study at the moment with Wally, and those feasibility studies would be completed in h two twenty twenty seven and possibly rolling into early part of twenty twenty eight for Garadag. The plan at the moment is to commence the pre strip works in in Garadag in twenty twenty twenty twenty nine, and then probably full production in 2030. So that's really when the start would be.

1:07:38 But quite clearly, when we're looking at these types of projects, there's a lot of earthworks, prepreparation works to be done, prestripping, waste dump development, etcetera. So that's really where for Garadag, a lot of that work, the physical work on-site would be starting in 2029. Because, obviously, if we're looking to complete the feasibility study, that would then define as well the equipment so we can start to place orders, etcetera, for the various aspects of the equipment required for for the production. So we'd then be looking at startup of of production side of things probably in the latter part of 2030.

1:08:24 But in advance of that, we would we'd be looking to bring into production sooner the project. And, obviously, with a with a co shared infrastructure, as I've referenced in terms of comminution, crushing circuits, heap leach, SXEW plants, etcetera, having all that in place, it's a simple upscaling then to cater for the Garadag tonnages. So we'd be upscaling 50% from or a 100% from 5,000,000 tons to 10,000,000 tons per annum. So that's really where the scale of the operation is is currently is looking. Okay? K. I think that's fine for now.

1:09:15 I can see lots lots of other questions, but, really, I'm not sure we have the time to to go through these. But, again, I'd just like to thank the audience for the questions and hope that the answers that we've provided so far is the appropriate feedback that you were looking for and know that the answers satisfy the the the questions themselves. That's great, Steven. Bill, thank you for addressing those questions for investors today. But, Steven, before I direct investors to provide you with their feedback, which is particularly important to yourself and the company, could I please just ask you for for a few closing comments? Certainly. Well, first of all, I'd just like again to reiterate and say thank you to all of the participants who have listened to this this this interview and webinar.

1:10:08 It's much appreciated that the time, effort, and interest that you're showing in ANGLO ASIAN MINING and its group of companies. So thank you very much. We will take this interim period as a strong foundation for continued growth and, you know, our trajectory for becoming a mid tier multi asset mining group focused on copper underpinned by precious metals, we believe is well on the way. So with that, I just I'd say again, thank you all very much, and we look forward to providing continued shareholder benefits in the future. Thank you. Fantastic.

1:10:54 Thank you once again both for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to