Cora Gold (LSE:CORA) — Investor Presentation

0:01 Good afternoon, and welcome to the CORA GOLD LIMITED 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. I would now like to hand you over to CEO, Bert Monroe. Good good afternoon. Brilliant. Thank you very much, and thank you everyone who's been able to join this morning. Looking forward to giving you an update on CORA's progress and, obviously, plans for the future as well. For those of you who don't know me or the story, I'm obviously the CEO of CORA. I've been running CORA for the last six and a half years or so as CORA has obviously progressed from a sort of preresource exploration company through maiden resource ex...

0:46 Scoping studies, feasibility studies, and obviously where we stand today where, you know, we're progressing through sort of final permitting before we look to move into construction as soon as we can. So that's a brief bit about me. Obviously, I'm here to talk about CORA and predominantly our San And Cora Gold project in Mali, in Southern Mali today. I'll just get us into it. Hope everyone can see the slides. So just an overview. CORA GOLD's an aim listed company. As I mentioned, our focus is the San and CORA GOLD project, which is a million ounce plus project in Southern Mali. Additionally, we've got a really interesting looking exploration asset called Medina Fulbe in Eastern Senegal in the KKI, arguably the most prolific sort of gold exploration corridor in West Africa of late. So very much focused in Francophone West Africa.

1:33 We've got a great team on the ground, which has been with us and very, very little staff turnover through through the years as we developed up those projects and obviously progressed forward. So I'm gonna start. I'll obviously focus on on San Ancorro and obviously background on the project and then talk about, obviously, permitting as well and, obviously, the next steps to take the project forward. Then I'll also touch, obviously, on Manila and in Senegal and then a little bit on sort of corporate side of things. And then, obviously, there'll be q and a at the end as well. So I'll just start with Saint Correus. Obviously, as I said, it's in... Since Southern Mali, quite near the border with Guinea. It's about a four hour drive south of Bamako. For context, you're driving about four hours. So you're driving for most of the way on a tarmac road up until about 25, 30 kilometers short of the project, then you're on a on a dirt road. So logistically, it's in a good spot.

2:34 Of... The benefit of that is, obviously, it's a free digging material, which obviously has very high recoveries, obviously, helps to keep your operating cost as low as possible because you don't need to drill and blast. You're in ore from surface. Then when you move into the process as well, you don't need to go through multiple stages of crushing. It can go through, in our case, you know, a scrubber and straight into a... Like, through a mill for some of it and then straight to CIL tank. So we'll talk a little bit more about that later, but the project is is really positive in that respect. When you look at those numbers, I mean, at a $3,500 gold price, so a decent chunk below where are where we are now, you'll... Yeah. A 98% IRR point seven years payback period is is obviously fantastic. At the moment, we stand at a ten year reserve life. We're obviously looking to expand that in the later years.

3:19 You know, the production profile drops a little bit, and, obviously, we're doing some drilling now again. I'll touch on later, but, obviously, looking to expand the reserve life in the future. CapEx of 124,000,000. Again, we'll talk about the financing previously, but obviously signed up various financings this year, both equity financing, but also Stream as well, which obviously fully funds the projects. So for us, the project is in a great location in Southern Mali to operate from. The project itself is a really fantastic open pit oxide project with ore from surface, which is great, delivering, you know, very strong free cash flow, you know, quick payback period, you know, and managing... A manageable CapEx, which we have, you know, fully funded through various financing arrangements we'll touch on a little bit more in the future. So straight into, obviously, the funding of it.

4:08 Yeah. As you saw on the last slide, it's got a $124,000,000 project CapEx to get it into positive cash flow. You know, we're currently doing the feed of the project, which is obviously your first phase, know, before you move into construction, but the fee forms part of your CapEx. We're actually currently spending some of our equity, some of our cash on on the feed, which obviously forms part of a $124,000,000 CapEx. Earlier this year, we brought in a new significant shareholder called Eagle Eye Asset Holdings. It's actually put out an announcement this morning where they're just doing an internal restructuring, and, obviously, their shareholding will be will be moving to an a a two m p, which is not the group company. But, in fact, we we took some equity off EagleEye early this year. They became our largest shareholder, a significant shareholder at 29% as part of a nearly £16,000,000 fundraiser, which was supported by other existing shareholders and and other new shareholders as well.

5:02 Then a month or so later, we signed a $120,000,000 binding stream agreement with Eagle Eye, which fully funded the project. Additionally and significantly, we we we have the right to replace we have the right to replace 50% of that stream with traditional senior debt as well. We're currently working through a debt process for that 50% replacement of the stream. That's going very positively. Had lots of lots of interest in in looking to to replace 50% of the stream with that, and and really good to see that we're, you know, we've got a number of banks in the data room, and and we're obviously working through that progress... That process. So, hopefully, more to follow on that in the near future. But I think for for investors or or potential investors, I think, obviously, significant that we've, you know, we've got commitments for the money we need to build the project, which is obviously a great position to be in.

5:51 In terms of the strategy and the timeline, clearly, it's to develop as quickly as we can and deliver GOLD LIMITED as soon as we can. That's been our focus. We've been working with SENET, South African engineering firm. They did both our feasibility study in 2022 and also the feasibility study we updated at the end of last year. As I said, Senate's part of the DRA group based out of Johannesburg. They've built a number of mines in West Africa and, importantly, in Mali as well. They've also been involved in other expansion projects in Mali. So Senate have got a great track record of delivering in Mali, we've obviously worked with them for a long time now, which is great. In terms of what we're planning to build, it's it's a straightforward gravity CIL processing plant.

6:37 This is the type of plant that's been built for a couple of decades now in West Africa, so we aren't bringing any forms of new technology. You know, we've got a straightforward metallurgy for our project as well, so we get very good recoveries into the mid 90 percents, which is obviously fantastic. The only difference probably from our plant from some other West African plants is we're looking to take maximum advantage of this oxide ore and and obviously have incorporated a scrubber circuit, which reduces the size of the ball mill you need, which obviously then reduces the power requirement you need to drive your ball mill. So looking over the sort of life of mine, you know, our view was if you can reduce your life of mine power requirement, it should help maintain as low an OpEx as possible. I think particularly in a period that we're going through now with sort of uncertain times around diesel pricing, I think having both side... Say the hybrid power and having a lower power bonds, obviously, it was a good transition we made between the two between the two feasibility studies.

7:28 But, like, this is just taking through the timeline... Development timeline. And, obviously, you know, sixteen to eighteen months before... From when you commence to to getting into into GOLD POR and and really kicking off. So it's it's a relatively good process, which is good. So where we're at now with the project, we obviously delivered an updated feasibility study at the end of last year, and I'm gonna talk about permitting in a minute, which obviously comes into the timeline on it. But, obviously, you know, the government opened up after a period of permit moratorium and opened up the permitting process again. We saw, obviously, operating miners transition onto the new mining code. Obviously, we've seen ourselves receive our first permit renewal, which is obviously the first phase of of getting the mining permit. With that sort of confidence and with that progress happening in country, we've obviously committed to to get on with the FEED. The number of benefits of doing that, obviously, you know, it should expedite our transition into production when we get a mining permit. Obviously, by getting the FEED out the way, we can hopefully transition as quickly as we can into full scale construction rather than having a three month... Three to four month period of sort of... Before we can sort of break ground. So by getting on with the feed, you know, it's obviously speeding up the prices of our transition. It obviously, you know, locks in another... A lot of other elements of the project as well. So that's been good to get on with that and obviously been working on that with SENET.

8:48 We've also been doing work around the TSF as well, not only from a fee perspective, but also land compensation for for this. There was a smallish farm on on an aspect of the TSS, so we had to effectively acquire that land off the farmer. Then other technical work as well, we did a big a big improvement project on the on the existing exploration camp as well. So that's a much better shape now, which is great. So it's ready for the commencement of construction, that exploration camp. There'll be a a purpose built mine camp built as well, but certainly in the first phase of construction, you'll be using... You know, the construction teams will be using the exploration camp. So that was upgraded to make sure it was it was fit for purpose, which was great. So the work over the last few months has gone really well. Team's done a really good job, and, obviously, we're just working through the final phase of the feed, obviously, as we as we stand right now.

9:40 Diving into the the CapEx on the project and obviously the flow sheet. I think I've I've sort of touched on it briefly, but I appreciate on a on a presentation, it's always quite hard to see on your screen. But, effectively, it's it's a traditional or conventional gravity CIL circuit, which we've obviously done a lot of work around to make sure it's as as optimized what we need as what... As what we need. So we've incorporated the benefit of of a scrubber circuit. Effectively, what the scrubber does is it obviously reduces the amount of material that needs to go through our ball mill. And, obviously, some of the material can go straight from the scrubber directly to your CIL. The impact that has is by having a smaller ball mill is you need less power, and, obviously, the benefit of having less power is you don't need as many generators which burn through an awful lot of diesel.

10:26 So I think, you know, that's that's obviously the massive win for our flow sheet. It didn't make a... Really any change to the CapEx, to be honest. That wasn't a CapEx It wasn't a CapEx decision. It was really about maintaining make... Maintaining its lower OpEx or its lower requirement to to need a lot of diesel as possible. Obviously, on the left hand side, there's just the the breakdown of of the CapEx. And the necessary jump into each line item. Obviously, as part of the feed, we're we're obviously firming up those CapEx numbers where they can closely, you know, build build out from there. So, I mean, like, I think I think the numbers all may... Are are all tied in. Obviously, we've done two feasibility studies now. I'm working with existing existing engineering firms and and, obviously, construction partners who have been building these projects in in Mali and in West Africa. So I'm happy with those numbers.

11:15 Excuse me. Just click on. So, yeah, just a bit around operating cost. I think I've probably talked enough about the ball mill and and the scrubbing circuit. I mean, obviously, another thing we've obviously brought into this project is is is a hybrid... Well, we are planning to bring in as obviously a hybrid power solution, obviously, incorporating solar as well as diesel gensets. On the current ten year life of mine, obviously, has the benefit of, you know, a a significant reduction in in diesel usage as you can see that. Obviously, our anticipation is the mine life will get longer and longer. And, obviously, that that that benefit will will increase as as I'm sure everyone's aware. You know, the the cost of solar panels has come down massively over the last five, ten years. I think, obviously, the cost of batteries and the the integration of batteries is is obviously still something which is being... It still has plenty of room for improvement. So, you know, as it stands, it will be solar, you know, predominantly in the day and then obviously using your diesel gensets overnight is effectively how it will how will operate.

12:21 If you're looking at the production profile now, and I think, you know, obviously about to touch on it, but one of the reasons we're, you know, we're still drilling and every company needs to keep drilling is, frankly, every year you... Every year of production, you've got a year's left mine life. It goes without saying. But if you look at our production profile, you know, towards the end of the mine life, you're, you know, you're processing low grade tails, and your production is really dropping off at the end. So for us, you know, our belief is this will will be able to maintain your sort of average production levels in the first four years for a significantly longer period of time rather than seeing that dip off from year seven like like you can see in front of you now. It's a case of being under drilled. I mean, we've got about seven kilometers of strike length in MRE in resources, but we've got probably 25 kilometers or more of mineralized strike length on our permit area. So not guaranteed to get the same ounces per kilometer we currently already got, but what I'm saying is, you know, all of our deposits are currently open. Yeah. We're drilling them at the moment, and our belief is, you know, we will continue to grow our resources. And, obviously, we'll be looking to translate this into reserves as well in the future.

13:28 So, yeah, obviously, we've got a million ounces of resources, but we've got about just over half of that has been converted into reserves. So we've got 530,000 pounds reserve at stable 1.1 grams a ton, you know, with a sub five to one strip ratio. It's a really good starting point. A really good basis point for for the project. Obviously, it gives us that ten years of reserve life. We... We've also done an exercise where we effectively pit optimize inferred resources, which obviously you need an indicated resource to be converted to a reserve. So we we pit optimize inferred resources using the same mining parameters as our reserves, and it gave us on our existing million ounce resource another 170,000 ounces of sort of minable ore, which I guess one would expect with further drilling would be converted into reserves. So obvious, you know, we can see very clearly line of sight to expanding the ten year reserve life.

14:22 Notwithstanding, obviously, we're also doing drilling now to look to expand our our existing MRE. So, yeah, 530,000 ounces is a great start. Gives us a basis point for a project with, you know, an unbelievably quick payback period and and obviously significant free cash flow generation, but we certainly believe that we'll expand significantly in the future. Again, touched on this already. You obviously got a million ounces at just over a gram a ton of MRE. As you can see from the tables, the vast proportion of our resources are in oxide, obviously, with some additional ounces in transition and and really... You know, nothing really in fresh. That doesn't mean there isn't fresh resources to be found in the future. You know, our average draw hole depth is probably only a 120, hundred thirty thirty meters deep.

15:08 We've done a couple of deeper holes into the fresh. We've obviously got a couple more coming in this drill program. We're we're looking to finish very soon this time around as well. So, you know, I'm sure in a decade's time or more, there will be, you know, the ability for a fresh rock mine to be opened up at Santa Clara. I think our focus is on maximizing the oxide material. It's your lowest hanging fruit. You know, you can you can mine it and process it, you know, on a really good OpEx basis, maintaining a lower sustaining capital on on the basis that it's it's easy, free digging material, and can be processed right in a relatively straightforward manner. So, obviously, very robust starter resource. Obviously, currently drilling, which we'll touch on some drill results, I think, on the next slide, but as a basis of, you know, very strong position to be in this stage.

15:57 We're currently drilling. At the moment, we're just coming to the end of a of a 12 plus thousand meter drill program. I think on the back of the success of of some of the holes we've already released, look, we're looking to obviously maximize the meetings we... Meters we can get within the the allocated budget we gave to the GO team for the program. So the program's gonna be more than 12,000 meters, which is which is great. And and, obviously, the early results have been extremely positive. Think if I just jump straight, look. It was 89% complete, this drilling at the end of September. We're obviously now in the middle of October, and, you know, we're we're very close to finishing all the drill holes, so that's that's good to have seen. Touching on some of the results we've released today, I think what's important to say is these results are basically all outside of the MRE picture. So the purpose of this drilling, because all of our deposits was open, was to try and look to see if we can optimize those deposits by by effectively drilling, you know, around the edges, up and down strike, and and obviously underneath the design, try and make sure we maximize the existing deposit pit shells.

16:58 So the first set of results we released was from Zone B. It had some absolutely phenomenal holes outside of the existing, you know, pit shell, you know, 22 meters at 2.2, 34 meters at 6.7. Yeah. These are these are really, really good drill holes, like 50 meters at a gram a ton. So those are some really nice holes to see coming out of zone b initially. And then, obviously, just this morning, we announced the results from selling these were just consistently very good in line with the MRE, which is what you wanna see. I think, you know, Murray, always says that, you know, that, you know, the key to good mining operations is to have nice consistent ore bodies. I think just seeing so many consistent holes, which reinforce the existing resource is obviously really good to see. Again, these holes are basically all outside of the existing MRE model.

17:45 I think there's... The other important or interesting thing to see is this Western zone, which you can see referenced there. I think was effectively a bit of a blind... Looks to be a bit of a blind mineralization in this new Western zone. The the the gold wasn't sort of outcropping from surface, hence why it's been called a blind zone. But we we put a few holes in there to test this Western zone, which could become either, you know, part of the sell in deposit, hopefully, in the future, part of the future sell in MRE growth story, but but effectively a new Western zone to the to the main sell in deposit. That was nice to see coming out of those results as well. I mean, exploration is obviously something which which goes on through your life of mine. You know, we've obviously got a strategy around it. You know, as we say there, we firmly believe this will be, you know, a bigger than 2,000,000 ounce deposit in time, hopefully, you know, hopefully significantly bigger.

18:34 Drilling is expensive, and, obviously, our focus is on building a mine and getting into positive cash flow. So, yeah, the drilling we're doing is always on a sort of managed basis, and, therefore, I don't want people to think the results mean that you've you've you've stopped the ability to grow further. Certainly, you know, the drilling we've done now is is, you know, we've been expanding, and the results are looking good. And, clearly, you've gotta give your geologists a a sort of a budget to to work to. But when you're in when you're in production, obviously, hopefully, these budgets can expand, and you can really look to drill out a lot more or really maximize the size of the the deposit potential. Yeah. As I've touched on, you've got ten years of reserves already. So everything is is incrementally positive, but, like, there's a there's a strategy. We build up a pipeline. Excitingly, we are drilling currently three of those sort of pipeline targets as part of this drill program. So we're drilling into three new areas, which have really not been explored before much apart from from sort of surface surface exploration. So when we get the results back and get them out, if we can get some some nice drill hits on on one of those three target zones, that could be, you know, the starting of a new a new resource, a new deposit, you know, with an easy trucking distance of our of our planned processing plants.

19:42 That could be a really exciting addition to the story as opposed to just expanding existing known resources. The team's strong, and the team's been together now for quite a few years. Think, you know, we brought on Lawrence three years or so ago. You know, he's got a really good West African construction experience. He's he's worked for a long time before joining us with both Resolute Mining and Perseus Mining who have both got, you know, operations across Frankfurt and West Africa, you know, sort of mid tier companies. You know, Murray's been with with, you know, CORA for a long time now, and Fricki's been doing all the reserve work as well. So really pleased with the the senior team, you know, our country manager,, and our two senior geologists on the ground. Fode and Troy have been with us as well for... You know, since the inception of CORA. So really pleased to have had a really strong loyalty. We've got lots of extensive track record of of success. And, also, we managed to hire in and bring in sort of new talent, senior talent who who wanted to to join the join the company and join the project and and help us deliver it.

20:45 Obviously, I mentioned before Senate, who obviously we've been working with on the feed and obviously deliver our feasibility study. We've got a strong track record of of delivering these projects in in West Africa. I guess the big one, which I think probably a lot people probably joined to hear an update on, I know there was a few early questions coming through as well in the sort of the q and a around permitting. So what I'll do is probably do my best here to say everything I can about permitting, and and I'll probably then won't be able to answer any more questions in the q and a on permitting. So I'll try and tell you everything I can tell you now. And and, obviously, hopefully, that's... Everyone can understand that. Just to go through a little bit of background on the permitting, I think everyone knows there was a moratorium in Mali for for three years whilst the government put in place a new mining code, which which, I guess, lines up the Malian mining code with some of the other countries, the neighboring countries around West Africa.

21:38 That process concluded, then the government's focus was probably... Was was really around transitioning existing operating miners onto the new mining code for obvious reasons, obviously, with with the high royalty rate and and other factors. So you can understand why they did that. Then, obviously, now the focus is on, you know, companies with projects which are nearest to development, trying to get their projects permitted. The way the permitting system works in Mali is effectively you have an expiration permit which lasts for nine years. And within the nine years, every three years, you have to do interim renewals. So due to the length of the moratorium, effectively, expiration permit in Mali needed to be renewed. So you have a you have a situation where the entire country's expiration permits need to be renewed, which obviously creates, you know, a massive backlog the government needs to work through.

22:24 That's obviously the same for us. Yeah. Our San Ankoro gold project is made up of five contiguous permits. You have the San Ankoro two permit, which has just been renewed in August, and then neighboring that. And that has the vast majority of our resource on it. It really has 98% of our resource on the San Ankara two permit. Then we have a CODIO permit to the North that has some of the selling deposit dipping into it. Then you have a Bacoro two permit to the East. That's significant for CORA because it is gonna have some of the infrastructure for the mine, tailings, camp, and other things, waste dumps. Then we've got further to the East, and then you then you have as well to the South. So we have these five contiguous permits. All of them needed renewals. We've we've got significantly the project with nearly all of our resources on it renewed at the end of August.

23:14 For our process now, we need to have the CODIO permit and the CORA two permit renewed. We're obviously working very closely with the government on a day to day basis to have... Happen as quickly as possible. Then we have to go through a reshaping exercise where effectively you are allowed to have a 100 square kilometer mining permit area.

23:34 San Incoro 2 is an 84 square kilometer permit. So effectively, we're looking to take 16 kilometers... Square kilometers of ground from Pacoro 2 and from Kodio and cut that into a U shaped permit, which is predominantly San Incoro 2, but obviously parts of the Coro 2 in Kodio. So you have 100 square kilometer area, which is then issued your mining permit. This is not an unusual process. It's it's fairly standard. Understandably, mines don't stay within permit boundaries, so you have to, you know, get things changed around. We didn't lose any ground. The ground, which isn't falling within the 100 square kilometer mining permit, will then remain as an exploration permit. So as a company, we're not losing ground. We just need to reshape the license. You know, we've been working with the government, you know, various ministerial departments as well as, you know, ministerial legal teams as well around the permitting process.

24:23 It's, you know, it's clear, you know, what we need to do and, therefore, understands the process. So we are working with the government as actively as we can do. Obviously, getting that San and CORA two renewal done was obviously a great first step. And, obviously, we're looking to push through the CORA two and the CODIO renewals as quickly as we can to allow the sort of the reshaping and the issue of the mine plan to happen as quickly as it can. I think as people will see and as some people follow, obviously, these renewals are going through the council of ministers that generally meets once a week, doesn't meet necessarily every week. And and I think what people have probably seen is the the the number of renewals has been increasing over the last month or so, which is really positive to see. I think you're seeing the backlog obviously reducing. You're seeing the government getting through more of the renewals and permitting.

25:13 And, obviously, you've seen, you know, a more steady state happening. So I think there has been lots of positive progress for us. There's also been lots of positive progress for the whole sector and for other exploration companies receiving their renewals, which is great, reducing the backlog. And I think we've seen a renewed focus, you know, from from all parties to to try and alleviate backlogs and and to push things forward. I mean, you know, for us, clearly, you know, the economic benefits for the country, you know, for the people of Mali, for our project getting built is obviously very clear. Yeah. It's gonna create an awful lot of employment. It's gonna obviously create... Generate a huge amount of revenue for the government. And, obviously, there's there's there's no reason for not to be getting pushed ahead quickly. So I think, look, everyone's on the same page, and we're we're working with the government as closely as we can to transition us into construction as quickly as we we can.

26:08 So moving away from Sam and CORA, so Medina Fulbe is our exploration asset in Senegal. It sits actually right up to the border with with Mali effectively. So it's in the Far East of Senegal in what's known as the KKI, the Kenya River Inlier, you know, arguably the most prolific bit of exploration ground in West Africa in terms of discoveries. It's got fantastic neurology. It's near a number of very significant minds globally, frankly, which people probably have heard of, which hopefully you can see sort of raised on that map there. It's been like I touched on earlier. I mean, obviously, exploration and drilling is is an expensive hobby to have, and you've always gotta manage your budget. So, you know, we've done early stage exploration, and we've done early stage drilling on it.

26:55 The results have always been very good, and there's huge potential for the permit area. But, obviously, we've been managing the budget that we can deploy into it because, ultimately, you know, we want CORA to be building a mine, and we want as much. We need all of our money ready to be to be to be put towards building that mine for CORA and delivering, and that's how we're gonna maximize return for for shareholders for for you guys. So, you know, some really exciting early stage work, but we've been really keeping our hand closely on the budgets there and not releasing huge amounts of money to to develop develop and deliver the Medina full by exploration program. So, you know, frustrating for our geologists. You can clearly see you've got, you know, a potential future resource there. You've you've had some good early exploration results. So, yeah, good good location, good good geology, and and and one for the future, hopefully.

27:50 Just touch on ESG as well. Obviously, you know, big part of the project and making sure that we've got our social license to operate. You know, we carried out Esha to international standards with the 2022 study, and, obviously, we're awarded our environmental permit on the project before the moratorium happened at the end of twenty twenty two. So that's obviously very positive all through, excuse me, all through the moratorium period. We maintain full sort of ESG teams on the ground, full coordination with local communities and have maintained our support, whether it's education, health care, you know, alternative livelihood, and other sort of more philanthropic type stuff as well. So those have always been an engagement which we've maintained and have never paused. And, obviously, from an environmental perspective, you know, obviously, the use of solar and and trying to use hybrid power and other things is obviously right on our agenda. So, yeah, certainly, it's it's a really interesting part of the project design, which, you know, I find interesting.

28:46 And and, yeah, as a team, everyone's committed to making sure we're we're delivering on the ground and are being the best corporate citizen that that we can be.

28:57 Touched on most people here, so I probably need to go into any more detail on it. But, obviously, it's there for everyone to see in terms of sort of core management team. Obviously, that'll be looking to expand significantly with the award of the permit and our transition into into construction. I think this is really just pointing out, you know, really the value creation from from the start of construction to to sort of gold pour is obviously, you know, historically being very, very positive for for junior operators transitioning into their first first production. So, yeah, we're looking forward to getting that journey really kicking off once the permitting is concluded. Look. I think we've got a good share register. Obviously, you go, I joined earlier this year, you know, to to join an existing register. I've been extremely supportive over the last decade since we IPO ed, which is, you know, which has meant we've never not had money. We've we've often done fundraisers at, you know, at a premium, and we've always had the benefit of being able to operate, which has been fantastic for shareholder support during different periods for the business. So, yeah, pleased that we've been able to deliver the growth we we have in terms of resources and studies, and obviously pleased that we've had that shareholder support. So so for everyone who's who's currently watching or listening, who's a shareholder, thank you for your continued support. I appreciate things haven't happened as quickly as we all wanted them to, but we are obviously, every day, looking to to deliver as quickly as we can.

30:20 I think I'll probably end it there and obviously move over to q and a. I think I've probably gone on for five minutes longer than I wanted. So I'll probably hand back briefly before we move into q and a if that's okay. That's great. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to view 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 via our investor dashboard. And, Bert, if I may now hand back to you to take us through the q and a session, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Great. Sure. Thank you. Seems to be quite a few questions submitted, so I'll do my best to answer them. Obviously, some of them, I'm obviously reading them sort of in lifetime, so apologies if I miss any. Obviously, if I do miss any, you want something answered, which I haven't covered or I've only partially covered by answering another similar overlapping question, you know, obviously, please feel free to email the company, and we'll do our best to to get back to you.

31:17 So apologies in advance if I do miss anything. I'll just read out the question and do my best to answer it. So construction. Question number one. If the mining permit were awarded during q four twenty twenty six, how quickly could CORA place major equipment orders and begin full construction? I guess, in brief, hopefully, very quickly. Certainly, that's our intention and and why we've committed to doing the FEED. Clearly, from the award of a permit, it's not like you can start breaking ground the following day and and ding a big hole in the ground. Clearly, you've got to award significant contracts. You've got to mobilize teams on the ground. You've obviously, you know, gotta go through... You know, whilst we've got, you know, the funding commitment there, you still gotta go through the process of, obviously, completing long form documentation and and and drawing funds as well from the stream and all the debt when we get there as well.

32:05 So, obviously, we... Hopefully, we can get this permit done as quickly as can and the time frame being proposed. But but, obviously, there isn't... It isn't gonna be the following day you're in full scale construction. But I think the fact that we've committed to the FEED, and we're obviously completing the FEED this year, I think the fact that we've already lined up, you know, significant commitment to to do the funding and obviously working with our largest shareholder who's delivering the stream to make sure we can. I think the whole... Everything we're doing this year is to make sure that we can have seamlessly and as quickly as possible transition from being, you know, a development company into a construction company once the balance awarded. But hard to give an exact timeline how long that transition will take, but, obviously, our aim is to be as ready as we can. So I think that commitment by by the board to sign off on commencing the fees, obviously, the most significant. I mean, if you look to our construction timeline, around eighteen months from commencement to to first gold pour, the first three months to four months was the feed process. So by taking the feed process and getting that done before the panel was awarded, certainly, that's straight away taking taking time off your construction timeline, which obviously a positive.

33:14 Question number two, resource expansion. Based on drilling completed so far, is management increasingly confident that the resource can expand materially beyond the 1,000,000 ounces? And when is the MRE targeted? When is the MRE update targeted? I think, definitely, I think one of the things we tried to get across in the two drilling RNSs to date is that, you know, the vast proportion of these drill holes have been outside of the existing MRE. Obviously, I can't preguess what an independent MRE consultant's gonna deliver for for for an increased resource or not. But, you know, the reality is if you're hitting consistently good drill results outside of existing MRE pitch shell, one would hope or expect the MRE pitch shell to expand to incorporate those resources, which would obviously or should then obviously lead to an increased resource. So I would say, in brief, we are extremely confident in that resource, you know, growing over time, and, obviously, these results have been have been positive.

34:09 And I... Sorry. This is moving around quickly while I was reading it. Can't give an exact timing of our update. Obviously, we're still waiting on drill results to come back. We're just finishing the drilling now. So I think we're, gosh, over 95% complete on the drilling. Obviously, then there's a lag, as you can all tell, on getting the assays back from the lab. And then, obviously, once all the assays are back, you know, it should be... Once you've got all the assays in, the actual update of the MRE should be relatively quick and straightforward. But, obviously, there is, you know, a lag on getting the assays back from the lab finishing drilling. But we are, you know, days, weeks away from finishing the actual overall drill program, and then you've got the lag on the assay results, and then the MRE turnaround should be should be relatively quick after that. Another similar question. How many meters of the planned 12,000 meter plus program have been completed?

34:58 How many asset results remain outstanding, and when are the next results expected? Obviously, I can't tell you exactly when the next results are expected. Obviously, when you receive them, they're obviously material, and, obviously, you need to announce them as quickly as you can when you've got sort of batched together, which should have made sense to RNS. So I imagine we will have another set of results relatively soon because of the nature of being drilling every day for, you know, months and, obviously, and, obviously, results coming back fairly regularly. So I imagine there will be another set of results relatively soon now we started coming. I think we always said there's gonna be a 12,000 plus meter program, obviously, trying to work within a within a fixed budget. Hopefully, we're gonna be nudging out a few more meters in 12,000 based on both good result... Good solid early results needing to sort of follow-up on some of those holes, but also the fact that we've managed to manage the budget pretty well, and we're pretty confident we can get a few few extra meters over and above 12,000 meters done. So that will be, hopefully, positive to get a few more holes out out of the system.

35:59 Right. Third question... Or fourth question, I think, is it? What kind of banks is CORA in talks with for the 50% stream replacement? These regional banks, and what kind of debt structure could CORA consider? Again, obviously, the nature of the discussions are sort of confidential, you know, at this stage. So tricky to say too much, but I think what we've said and what we sort of said today is that clearly replacing 50% of the stream with this sort of traditional debt sort of optimizes the structure. I think, you know, we've benefited, you know, we've benefited from having the fully funded nature of the stream, but also we will benefit from significantly from replacing 50 of it then with debt in terms of, you know, optimizing equity returns for investors. I think, you know, are predominantly speaking to West African banks.

36:47 You know, they're sharing the most appetite, and I think there's a good track record if you look at other, you know, financing of West Africa listed minors of those banks... Of of a number of West Africa banks being supportive of those financings. So, yeah, look, the process is is positive, and it... And it's going well. Obviously, in time, hopefully, they'll be able to say a lot more about that. Then there's the final question, which is, again, talking a bit about the structure and the nature of of the debt finance and sort of who we're talking to and what we're discussing. So, yeah, due to this slightly confidential nature, I can't say probably more than I've said. But, yeah, I'm I'm happy to say and confirm that we are having... Yeah. We've got a number of banks which are interested, and, yeah, we're talking to about about, obviously, the financing. So, you know, I'm I'm very confident we'll be able to replace 50% of the stream with debt, and I think that will be optimizing the financing structure for us CORA investors as well. So I think that will be a good result for for the company and for the development of the project.

37:55 Now I think, unless I've missed anything, are there any more questions to jump here? I appreciate there might be some which I thought I sort of tried to answer either in the... I've already answered in the presentation when I went through the slides and or I open up with other questions, but I don't know if there's any more questions coming on. But I think that's all the questions for today. So thank you very much indeed for addressing all of them. Before I direct the investors to provide you with a feedback, which is particularly important to yourself and the company, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments?

38:27 Sure. Sure. I mean, firstly, thank you very much, everyone, for joining to to hear the update today. Obviously, massive particular thanks to to the CORA investors, shareholders who are currently watching today. Thank you again for your support in this business. Thank you for, you know, your patience in in your investment. And, you know, every day, we are... You know, we're driving and pushing to to push forward the permitting as fast as we can. Obviously, concurrent with the permitting. We've made a lot of progress this year, on the ground, which has been really positive, and we are very much trying to set ourselves up to transition into execution, as quickly as we can on the permitting lands. So, yeah, look, please, thank you for the support, and, we are continuing to sort of fight and drive as quickly as we can to to move this project forward and and to deliver for everyone. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session? As you know, we'll be automatically redirected to provide you feedback, which help the company better understand your views and expectations.

39:21 On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good to you.