East Star Resources (LSE:EST) — Company Update

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the ESTAR RESOURCES PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded meeting, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions can be submitted at any time by the q and a tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your question and press send. The The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself, but the company can review all questions submitted there and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. And now let's hand you over to Alex Walker. So, yeah, good afternoon, sir. Thanks very much, Paul, and, thank you very much to everyone for, for taking the time to join us on this webinar today. As always, I'll try and keep it, quick because I know everyone's quite busy and look very much forward to, answering your questions as well and and, obviously, for your reaching out directly to the company or or via our, investor relations team.

0:49 Today's gonna be a complete run through. There's obviously been a lot, for those following the stock, that's been announced in the last month or two. And so I'd like to give an overarching view of ESTAR, what we've achieved and and what we hope to achieve in the coming, months and and years. So reminder, ESTAR is a is a Kazakhstan focused copper and gold explorer, with a with a specific attention to Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan. We've been operating in there, in that country for more than five years and and coming up to four years as a as a listed company. What we've managed to achieve in that time is is not insignificant by any stretch of the imagination. We've gone from having four exploration licenses in Kazakhstan and without diluting shareholders via, you know, the acquisition of new projects and issuing shares through that acquisition. We've achieved a jock inferred resource in the COBRA at 20,300,000 tons at around 1.1% copper, which very recently we've announced is now fully funded through to production by a global EPCM, which is engineering procurement construction and management contractor who've achieved over 500 of those projects globally.

2:04 We've got an exploration target in the Rulekhar deposit, which is how Vekoba started before we were able to drill and verify the historic results, and that's nearly double the size of Rulekhar. It's a similar tonnage, but twice the grade at 23,000,000 tonnes at 2.4% copper equivalent. We very recently signed a plus 25,000,000 exploration joint venture with Endeavour Mining, which is a global top 10 producer and one explorer of the year this year. And we have been progressing our other strategies in exploration under which we've applied for and received three porphyry and epithermal gold and copper licenses in the Caraganda region, which I'll take you through. Fully diluted well, sorry, not fully diluted. We we recently undertook a placement with Endeavour Mining, which involved a convertible loan note.

2:57 The reason for the convertible loan note was because ESTAR didn't have the full overhead to be able to issue all of those shares at once, and we also had some warrants that we wanted to keep our available overhead to allow, shareholders to convert those warrants. And so, with the convertible loan note converted, which we expect to happen at the end of January, our shares on issue is 520 about 524,000,000 shares. Just a quick summary there, we do have some warrants and options just in in very short. We've got about 3% at five p, so, you know, significant premium to the share price today and about 7% at three p for which are the ones expiring in the December 31. And and certainly, I hope that we'll see a lot of those exercised and and hopefully, when that has washed through, and some more share price appreciation in the in the new year.

3:52 On conversion, Endeavour Mining will be our largest shareholder with 15%, and the board will be the third largest shareholder with about 12% of which I'm now 11%. I this is the first capital raising which I wasn't able to participate in since we listed. Just a reminder on Kazakhstan and why they're there. The the country's only 2,700,000 square kilometers and is a a geological gem and powerhouse. It has not had a significant amount of exploration realistically for over fifty years and really in the last four or five years is the first time it's opened up with a new mineral code, which is modeled on Western Australia's, which allows groups like EAST STAR to come in and take advantage of that.

4:37 It's already an existing major producer of of copper, uranium, and gold, the largest in the world for gold, sorry, for uranium, and it has multiple top tier deposits of of different deposit styles. Jessica's Ghana said hosted copper, 22,000,000 tonnes of contained. Actagay is a porphyry, which is 12,000,000 tonnes of contained. Vasyl Kovskoye is is orogenic or or intrusive related gold, depending on who you ask, and that's about 15,000,000 ounces of gold. And it's some of those deposit styles which we're targeting as an operating company. And with all that, it remains to be one of the cheapest places to operate in the world. Three of three operations in Kazakhstan are in the lowest c one cash cost of all copper mines globally, which is very, very telling. And as I like to say, it's the cheapest place in the world to dig a hole.

5:29 It's also a critical transport route. You know, it takes a third of the amount of time to transport goods from China to Europe through Kazakhstan than it does by sea, which makes it the the beating heart of the one belt, one road initiative. So we've seen China investing heavily in Kazakhstan. We've seen Europe in the last five plus years investing heavily through groups like, EBRD, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. And very recently, we've seen The USA come in with Donald Trump's administration writing a check for $900,000,000 for the development of a tungsten project, and I think we're gonna see a lot more of that into next year. It's also we've seen a lot of majors come into the country. Fortescue came in about the same time as us, first Quantum in the last few years, Ivanhoe Mines recently, and and now, thankfully, we can add Endeavour Mining to this list as well.

6:22 So just a reminder as to the the various belts and and why we're focusing on this. On the EAST RAIN in the Ladies and gentlemen, do you bear with me one second just while we reconnect, Alex? Nextiva with me one second. I'm just trying to reconnect you now. And I've already Ladies and gentlemen, do please bear with me just while we connect Alex back to the call. Is that that, Kazakhstan mines should take trade at a premium, and Kazakhstan companies should trade at a premium to other ones because you can get projects into production faster and cheaper than just about anywhere else, and that's due to a supportive government and due to a supportive population.

7:22 And in the East Region, for example, the mine nearest Us us, Nikolovskoye, started operating in in was discovered in 1749, which was before the first flake came to Australia. And so, you know, we're really happy to be operating in this country and and, you know, we we see a a bright, bright future for Kazakhstan. I've gone through a few of these, but just, to summarize our strategies. Traditionally, we've been gone going for the volcanogenic massive sulfides, which is what we consider to be infrastructure led and a low economic threshold for development, the sort of projects which juniors can fund into production if they need to in in a in a reasonable market. And so that's been our our primary focus, and we've done a a very good job of developing one resource, one exploration target, and a couple of other really exciting, what we consider to be exciting geochemical and and geophysical anomalies, which we'll talk through.

8:20 And then the second strategy was developed in the last few years principally when we started with the BHP explore program in 2024, and we could do the real grassroots work, you know, right back down to to breaking down belts and looking at hundreds and hundreds of of litho caps and their proximity defaults and the alteration signatures. It takes a lot of time and effort to do this sort of work and and often a bit of money, so we were very fortunate to be part of that BHP explore program and be able to develop out that strategy, which is starting to reap the rewards today. So focusing in on the EAST strategy number one, our VMS. As I mentioned, we've got the two areas, for crude by 20,000,000 tons at 1.2% and Ruleika with an exploration target up to 23,000,000 tons at about 2.4%.

9:11 Now that's I'll I'll through that in a little bit more detail, but combined, if we were able to convert Ruleika to an exploration target sorry, from an exploration target to a jolt resource, we'd have over 650,000 tons of contained copper in a jolt resource, which is nothing to be sniffed at. I mean, that is an absolutely significant, especially at the grades approaching 1.8 to 2% on average that we'd be achieving with those two deposits. So, you know, you you're staring down the barrel of of equivalent companies that are permitted to get into operation, in the in the hundreds of millions to billions of dollars range with with those sorts of converted resources. So we already have the assets in play, I believe, that can see us into that level, but we don't wanna stop there and we'd like to make more discoveries. And and and so that's what we're setting up to achieve.

10:05 So two Soviet deposits, additional potential for discoveries, but in an infrastructure rich region where you have smelters, you have underfed concentrators, you have railway lines and roads that service these operations and have been for hundreds of years. So it's it's a fantastic place to operate, and you've got a population that's been working in mining, you know, for decades or or hundreds of years as a see through back to history. And so as I said, they're very, very supportive. And an example of that is the fact that our Ruleka deposit, which is, in very close proximity to to the village, the village has already given us approval to drill on that location despite the fact that we were still waiting for, environmental approvals. So that just goes to show you how supportive, the population can be.

10:52 Quick summary on on Vancouver. So the global e c EPCM contractor is a group called Hong Kong Shanghai Mining Services Limited. As I said before, they've built over 500 plants globally, and they have had a history in in the past of operating gold mines in house, and they've just in the last few years started to re sequester mines. Maybe not sequester, but reinvest in mines themselves. So they have one or two of their own, operating gold mines in Africa. And this year, they've signed at least six, I believe, agreements with groups like ESTAR to, not only invest in those companies, but also invest in the developments development of the assets, bringing their expertise and, and bringing their financial, capacity, their balance sheet to to progressing these projects. So we're absolutely delighted to be working with them. We've signed a binding, heads of agreement, and the process now is to convert that as quickly as possible into a full, joint venture agreement. We have a hundred and eighty days to do that, but I would expect to execute that considerably faster.

12:00 After which point, they'll be investing, around a million US dollars into additional drilling, into the Vekuba project, and that will inform the feasibility studies, which will be completed in house. And then, follow on from that, assuming a positive result, they'll fully fund it through to development. So speaking with Shanghai, they expect to be able to build the operation in the mine for around 65,000,000 US dollars. You know, that's a phenomenal result. That level of investment, if it was the same asset in gas in in Australia, for example, you know, it certainly, my view, it would be very difficult to build a million ton per annum plant for anything less than a 150 or a 180,000,000 US dollars. So that's another real indication both of the quality of the Chinese as the operator, but, of Kazakhstan as a jurisdiction and how we certainly believe we can we can progress this into production. So that's hugely exciting for us to take that forward, and and, you know, it's very arguable to say that within three years, EAST STAR will be a copper producer and have, a not not insignificant cash flow.

13:05 If we were at these prices based on future cash flow, discount to future cash flow, I'd I'd suggest we're we're trading at a very, very significant discount to what that that would likely be. The next project is, is the Ruleka deposit. Again, we've just released a a jock exploration target. It's not a spurious exploration target as as some are with a few rock chips and and and an extrapolated trend. This is historic, Soviet drilling that's been digitized, handed to a third party. We've, used, sensible cutoff grades, done modeled pit shells, over this, and we've restricted the exploration target to those results. And the results are are absolutely outstanding. There's obviously copper oxide and and and sulfides at surface, which I was able to pick up in my last site visit when I was meeting with the local mayors.

13:57 Multiple payable metals, excellent infrastructure, you know, near surface, and a long mineralized trend, as well with with potential exploration upside. So a very, very exciting project. I I I do wanna, taper expectations to, to ourselves and to the market that, the the proximity of the village is something that we are very much in consideration of. And so we'll be working closely with the local community and also federally to help advance our permissions here. But I don't expect that to happen overnight, but I certainly do, think that it's feasible in speaking with the local politicians and the local residents that they would support such a move. And so we feel that it's perfect. We're perfectly able to talk about this as a as a potential future asset for us.

14:52 And the pipeline is is no less exciting. Obviously, de risked largely because of the fact that we have, two deposits. But nonetheless, we've got, the Taloskoye historical deposit, which, ran was quite small, ran about 4,000,000 tons, and we have an IP anomaly over that. And we have the Ruleka North area, and you can see both of those we drilled in 2025, and we're expecting to update the market on those results in the very near future. But what we have is is very, very large, very, very strong induced polarization signatures, which is the indication of disseminated sulfides. And what we hope to be able to do is use that as a as a targeting tool to find the massive sulfide source. And so that information along with the the geological information from the drilling, we we are really excited to to extend that work program next year and hopefully, deliver some some exciting new discoveries onto the balance sheet as well.

15:58 A little bit about the the exploration joint venture with Endeavor Mining. You can see the two areas highlighted there, the two areas of interest that that we've basically signed on to explore with Endeavor. In in the South, we have, the Caraganda region, which is, further to that has been extended out to to the West. It's a very, very interesting area out to the West, very, very under explored and and and misunderstood. You know, we've got a lot of data on that that region, and we believe that we are well ahead of the pack in terms of doing new exploration in that area. So we're really excited by that, but it's a very, very significant land package. And so we're gonna be working closely with the team at Endeavour to try and shrink those areas and and and find areas of focus within these large land packages.

16:46 In the North, have the Stepanogorsk region where the biggest mines are Vasylkovskoye. Other ones include, Bestevae, Ragaduradok, which is very interesting. That was, owned until recently by a western private equity firm called PLC Capital Fund. And, recently, Zijing purchased that for about $1,200,000,000. So you can see that the interest, foreign interest in Kazakhstan is is is certainly ramping up, and and that's really exciting. Initially, we intend on spending $5,000,000 over two years with Endeavor. I was just in London, we've approved the first year's, work program and budget. So we'll be working through that with them, from from now onwards. And then on the assumption that we find something to invest further into over those two years, then that stage two will be $20,000,000, and they will move to a 70% ownership of that joint venture.

17:41 The third stage is they need to carry the deposit or deposits through the feasibility study. And to be clear, if there's two or three deposits that warrant further investing and to be carried through, then each of those will be carried through the feasibility. And then when the first one hits feasibility, they get to 80% of of of that, that project. ESTAR will be managing the this for the first two years until 51%, and after that, Endeavor will have an option to take over the management. We receive a fee for that management. And there's also, bonus payments based on the, resources that are converted both at the initial maiden resource stage, which we expect to be stage two, and then on the prefeasibility stage, a top up payment, if you will, on stage three.

18:29 So what we hope to achieve, obviously, is is 20% of at least one, you know, plus two, plus 3,000,000 ounce gold deposit, of which ESTAR will receive bonus payments along the way. And then with any luck, we'll have some operating mines that, that help, pay for our 20% allocation to to build, a significant operation with such a fantastic operator. The three additional licenses we have in that belt is Pickett Snowy and, Jundsa. Pickett and Jundsa are a bit more recent, and and Snowy we've had for, over twelve months now. We picked up as part of the BHP explore program. Very, very exciting prospects. Very, very big, alteration footprints that we're now breaking down and doing a little bit more work on.

19:18 Snowy people should be more familiar with. We did IP and some geochem throughout 2025. We are expecting to advance that through 2026. I know, we indicated previously that we would consider drilling it earlier on this year. The reason that didn't go ahead was ultimately because we were in conversations with Endeavor, and in fact, we had interest from another party on the Snowy. And so instead of progressing the project, at our own expense, we decided to wait to see how those conversations would go. So we would like to take that forward in in 2026 either by ourselves or or with another prospective partner. But it's a very, very large anomaly, nearly four kilometers long, both alteration and geochemical signature.

20:09 We've got gold in veins at surface. And importantly, we have two gold mines on the one on the West and one on the East. In particular, the one on the East was running at 15 that's about five zero when it was operating back in the late nineteen sixties. And so we are certainly in an area where we know has gold deposits and and now with any luck, can find one on our on our significant license package. A little bit about Pickett and Juntzer, and I think this is probably more for for the geological boffins, but ultimately, these are two incredibly large advanced argelic alteration footprints. It's a similar agent setting to the Macquarie Arc in Australia, which has some some very significant both in scale and grade, copper, gold, porphyry, and epithermal deposits.

21:00 And so that's ultimately what we're looking for. Just to remind the market, we started off with over 200 targets, and we visited about nearly 30 of them this year. And these are two that came out for us as as quite interesting that require additional work. And so the field teams have been out there in the last few months conducting a little bit of extra field mapping and and and some rock chips. And so we hope to be releasing results to that sometime early next year as well. So there we go. It was a a quick presentation. I really appreciate everyone's time. You know, 2025, it felt like a little bit of a slow burn for investors, and and I really appreciate everyone's patience who are shareholders on this front.

21:46 We were working incredibly hard, as you can all see now throughout the year to to try and achieve the results we've been able to deliver at the end of the year. And so we're absolutely delighted to be able to have these partnerships with with, with such significant players as as Endeavor and as as with Shanghai, to take us forward through 2026 and beyond. So what we hope to deliver in 2026 is is a significant amount more news flow. We've got what we consider to be over $3,000,000 already secured in funding for exploration. That's a million dollars into Vancouver and over $2,000,000 into the Endeavor joint venture. And that's non dilutive at company level to EST shareholders. For the assets that remain completely in control by us, we'll we'll manage the exploration programs accordingly and and the risk reward of each of those programs.

22:40 We expect to advance the permitting on the Ruleka deposit, advance the work on the two VMS geophysical targets that we have on that same license, Teloskoye and Ruleka North, and advance the three lithocaps as well in terms of additional work that we'll undertake there. We may well be doing additional partnerships. Please don't hold me to that. I think we've achieved quite a lot in that front already, but we have had some interest, and and I certainly don't mind the strategy which we're following through with at the moment. And and we'll continue to do business development looking for assets which if we feel have a significant value add to the portfolio. And if we can do something at the right price, then then we'd like to bring that into the ESTAR portfolio as well.

23:31 So very, very busy 2025, even busier 2026, and we're really, really excited to be able to deliver for shareholders. So thank you all for your time, and, and I am ready to answer questions. Fantastic, Alex. Thanks indeed for the presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, do please continue to submit your questions just using the q and a tab situated in the right hand corner of the screen. Just while Alex takes a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I'd like to remind you that a copy of the presentation along with access to the Q and A will be available post the meeting. And Alex, as you can see, we had a number of questions both pre submitted throughout today's presentation. Thank you to all the investors for submitting those. If I may just ask you to click on that q and a tab, start at the top, read out the question where appropriate to do so, give you a response, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Thanks, Paul. As always, I'll be reading out every question and answering every question.

24:21 And so I'll start with the first one, of course. First, congratulations on your recent success. Thank you very much. Your strategy is clearly paying off, and I believe we'll continue to do so. From an investor's perspective, part of me hopes this remains a hidden gem a little longer so I can add more shares in the near term. At the same time, I'd prefer the discount not to be too steep as steep as it is now. Do you think, this significant undervaluation could be partly addressed by pursuing a draw listing on the Australian stock exchange? There is no doubt that this topic has been, discussed at board level, and I've undertaken fairly significant due diligence on, on the process, understanding the timing and the process and and how it would work. And, also, I've looked at at, comparisons to our EASTARP peers.

25:16 The I don't have an up to date, sorry. Not our EASTARP peers, our ASX peers. I don't have an up to date one. Mine's a few weeks old, and and obviously our share price has increased significantly in the last few weeks. But certainly at that time, we were trading at about what I consider to be 20¢ in the dollar on an enterprise value per resource ton basis, and that was only for Vancouver. If you if we were able to convert Woolicka to a jolt resource, we would have been trading at about 7¢ in the dollar. So as you can imagine, you know, a a close to 10 times rerate, for an ASX listing potentially if we were able to convert that is a pretty serious, discount and something worth considering considering. ESTAR has not committed, to that process at this stage, and, I, you know, I I can't say if we will intend to commit to it just yet.

26:11 But what I will do is is continue to look at it. And if it feels like the right thing to do for EAST STAR shareholders, then we'll be certainly having that conversation at board level and and making that decision. But we're acutely aware of of how to undertake the process, who we would use as advisers, the timing, the constraints, and the cost. And so if it's the right thing to do, we'll certainly be pulling that trigger, and it's something which I will I will be reviewing again in early two thousand and twenty six. Do you agree with the 35,000,000 warrants that expire before this year end? 74,000,000 shares convertible at 2.3 p from Endeavor within twelve months and other warrants options are more beneficial on strengthening the balance sheet than the single digit, percentage dilution effect?

26:57 Yes. Absolutely. You know, the the board of ESTAR has has always been tried to be pragmatic about raising capital. Unfortunately, it hasn't always played the exact way which we we wanted or anticipated and and which is why we've ended up raising funds, you know, between one and two p a few times. But, you know, our job is is is to ex is to spend money as efficiently and effectively as possible for what we feel is an outsized, return on that invested capital because we are spending shareholders funds. The endeavor raising at the time was at a premium, I think, six or 7% to the market. So that, you know, by definition is less dilutive, based on on on the pricing.

27:44 And there's now, we're seeing a fewer warrants at at three p get exercise that expire at the end of December. I'll be very, very happy to see those funds come in, you know, not not only because I see it as a reward for for shareholders who invested at it with us at a time that the company needed capital. And and I you know, my main objective is to see shareholders make money out of our company. So I I'm really, really happy to see people exercising because that means that we've, you know, started to achieve that that job or or that role. But also, you know, what we can achieve with additional capital is is just so significant. If we've got a little bit of flexibility, you know, the stock market doesn't look at a junior company as perpetually come capitalizing, and therefore we don't achieve that that discount that comes with that stigma, then, you know, we can apply those funds efficiently. We can achieve greater exploration outcomes.

28:43 And as I said, you've got the balance sheet that maybe you can look at, at a bit more flexibility with with farm ins to other assets, and people won't say, hey. How are you gonna fund this? So, yeah, having additional capital on the balance sheet is always beneficial if not just to remove that stress from my life, but also remove the questions from from certain investors' mind that that they might be coming in the near future. So thank you for that question. And, yes, I agree. I'm very happy to see those funds come in. The next one is the dual listing on the ASX being considered. So I think I've answered that already. Thank you. Could you please provide an update on the joint venture with Geotech regarding the set hosted copper exploration? Certainly, it's not something that we've actually spent a considerable amount of time on this year, unfortunately.

29:32 The the reason behind that is unlike, not unlike, very much like, copper porphyry exploration, said hosted copper is a lot of, quite significant early stage work, which is not especially cheap, but is, is difficult to get attention from investors for. And maybe if the the share market changes or if ESTAR starts trading closer to fair value, which I'd still argue is a is a very, very significant premium to where we are today, then that is something which we could potentially approach on our own. But to do this, the SEN hosted copper exploration strategy properly, you know, my view is the company would need to commit 500,000 to a million dollars at the very least to pick up, the big a big enough license package and do the initial work and then potentially still need to attract, large investors.

30:27 In 2025, the, you know, the board decided that that was not a strategy worth pursuing, that that wasn't the best use of shareholder funds. That might change in 2026 or 2027, as I mentioned. But until, we have a partner similar to the deal that we signed with Endeavor, until we have a partner like that that's willing to help put a significant amount of capital to fund that strategy. It's something that, I'm disappointed to have on the back burner, but something that I'm not willing to, allocate that percentage of our available capital to based on the risk, based on on the risk of that, of that exploration strategy. Okay. The next question is, first of all, congratulations to Alex and the team. Absolutely fantastic news flow over the past month, endeavishing high new promising licenses. Oh, that's just a comment.

31:18 Alright. Well, that's very much appreciate. Country k. The next one is looks to me the questions. Okay. You've clearly been early in Kazakhstan and built a large digitized Soviet era dataset. As more majors and juniors enters the country, where do you think ESTAR is genuinely ahead today? In data targeting process, land position, or execution? What's the hardest part, for competitors to replicate at this point? That that's a really good question. My I would say twofold. One, it's operating efficiency and capacity, and the other one is is a dataset. I said in the in the crux interview recently, I believe how datasets are unparalleled. I I'm sure that there'll be plenty of companies that would like to jump in and argue the case on that. But, you know, we reviewed over a 150 projects before we pegged our first license in Kazakhstan.

32:13 And so from an individual project basis, we'd we'd be clearing, you know, 200,250 in our database now. Now that doesn't mean they're all good projects and we're just lining them all up. What it means is that we have datasets and examples that you can draw upon for your greater exploration strategy. So when you have the geological maps and you have the geophysics maps, which cover the entire country, and we'd have essentially the same ones that that anyone else would have, then that gives us an extra value add being able to draw down on local examples of those datasets. So there's no doubt that the dataset is is, of significant value add for our offering.

32:59 But then our operating efficiency as well, you know, we are able to pick up and drop licenses, I believe, as good as anyone, local local or foreign in in Kazakhstan, and we're able to go through the permitting processes. We have an in house team that can execute all of those things, which means that, a, we can do it efficiently by prioritizing, and we can do it cheaply because you're not paying expensive consultants to to, execute these, and you can manage them in house and prioritize your team. So I I would say both of those things are the biggest value add. I'd I'd argue that that's certainly why, we got into the BHP explore program. It's why Endeavor Mining have opted to work with us. And I I won't speak for Endeavor or Shanghai, but I certainly feel based on conversations with them, it's also why Shanghai have have opted to come into Vancouver and then indicated that they'd like to look for at other projects with us in Kazakhstan as well.

33:56 So, you know, fingers crossed, we won't, we won't be stopping at at the the two things that we've, presented today. About the Soviet area drilling data in general, can you give us some color on how that data has compared to modern drilling where you've been able to twin or validate it? Have the historic grades and data generally held up? Look. That's a really good question, and it's it's a difficult one to answer because at the moment, I would say that we don't have a big enough comparative dataset to be able to to be able to use to to do a proper geo statistical analysis. In some instances, when we've drilled close, you know, within, let's say, 10 or 15 meters, which would probably be our closest to a historic drill hole, we have had higher grades and wider intersections, and in some instances, we've had lower grades and smaller intersections.

34:55 So it it's very, very difficult to give a proper geostatistical analysis at this stage. I'd like to be able to do that, obviously, in in, you know, the not too distant future. But, realistically, we would need to more closely twin probably five to 10% of historic drill holes to do that. And that's not how EAST STAR had been allocating its capital. We'd largely been focused on drilling gaps in that resource model in the hope of, of growing the resource. And so the drilling the last few years has had has been more of a priority in in outlining the resource in more detail using the historic data rather than specifically validating the historic data. I know that's probably not not as clear as you'd like, but, ultimately, yeah, the review the reviews are are a little bit mixed.

35:51 What are the next milestones for h one twenty twenty six? Will the outstanding drill results help increasing the current size of the current, increasing the size of the current resource? Any drilling planned at Snowy in 2026. I won't preempt the drill results by by talking about, the expectation of effect on on for Cuba. What we hope to achieve in 2026 is, well, I I've outlined in the presentation, you know, we want to be doing applying for licenses with with Endeavor, and we wanna be doing the first pass exploration programs with those, which we expect to be things like soil sampling and geophysics. We'd like to be, drilling at least 5,000 meters at Vekuba fund funded managed by Shanghai.

36:39 And then for ESTAR proper, we we expect to progress, Ruleka Ruleka North and Teloskoye as well as a few other, anomalies that we think are are worth following up. So, you know, what we hope is to be putting out drill results, from this year's drilling in the very near future, explaining the geological context of those, and then being able to put that in in the announcement of of the following work programs in 2026. Hopefully, some of the things that we're progressing in 2026, we actually don't even know about today. Like I said, with the Endeavor joint venture and so on, they'll be ones that that we'll still be formulating over the winter break before we get on the ground next year. Snowy, yes, I I would like to see Snowy drilled in in 2026.

37:25 You know, I mentioned that we have had outside interest, so I don't know if if we will close that. I and I'm I'm not a 100% convinced we want to close that. It's something that the board will need to make a decision on. I would suggest that the results of that, it's not really a process, it's a discussion. The results of that discussion, which should comfortably close over the winter period, will dictate our work program. If it's ESTAR, then, yes, we it's likely we would run a few IP lines, and then we would if if there's an anomaly over that area that achieve achieve the rock chip result, then we'd seek to drill that ourselves. It's in the grand scheme of things relatively cheap, But, you know, we need to continue to work with our consultants on that and decide whether or not it's worth someone else coming in and conducting that work.

38:20 Do you anticipate the VMS deposits to grow in scale once you explore them further? If so, what a product size is your your target if you compare them with typical VMS deposits in the country? Look. I really like this question, Ian, so thanks very much for asking it. We've we've maintained with the Vecuba that the Vecuba is what we call a distal VMS. And what that means basically is the mineralization has traveled a little bit further from from the source from, you know, the volcanic source that that's, you know, initially come out of the eruption. And so it's it's it's traveled and it's it's settled in sediments. And what you find is different minerals travel different distances because of their weights, and so you can do you know, you can use those statistics to try and zoom in on something being closer to the source.

39:07 There's also something which I I I'll struggle to comment on because I'm not the geologist, so I I would definitely defer to my exploration manager. But in in essence, it's in reviewing the core, the shape of some of the mineralization looks like it's been turned over and has traveled as well. And so that's another indication that that, you know, we're not in the source, but we're potentially close to the source. And so for the CUBA as an example, we would like to see and we certainly will be planning EM, which is ground electromagnetics over that target. And if there's a conductor, we'd like to follow that up. Deposit size, you know, could could be anything based on the region. You know, some of the largest ones in this part of the belt got to 60 plus 70,000,000 tons.

39:55 You know, anything from 10 to to 30,000,000 tons would be pretty outstanding if we can find a massive sulfide source. So that's for Cooper as an example. Certainly, yep, you know, I could argue the same for Ruleka, both the existing deposit. It's not had a significant amount of drilling. The exploration target is primarily made up of three drill holes. So clearly, that wouldn't be enough for a jolt resource today even if we had the drill core. And so we, you know, would like to follow-up on that further and and see, you know, the potential size of what that could be, but it hasn't been closed off by that drilling. And so, you know, we don't really know the potential size of it. Taloskoye and Ruleka North, absolutely the same. You know, we haven't even found the massive sulfide source yet. So if we do manage to find that, then, know, those first draw results will dictate the potential size there. But, yeah, you know, we you know, I've I've said before, the moment the the very second we feel that we don't have a deposit which which has a a out outsized risk reward ratio for taking it further, for investing, and seeing if it could become a development asset, we will stop spending money on it. I I do not intend on spending shareholders' money on assets to try and, you know, fluff up the market or progress

41:25 something that we don't feel has economic potential. And so we will stop spending money on assets, which we don't feel have have that, have that potential outcome. Mark has asked, can you please give a sense of the interest from other mining companies in relation to the recent JVs and how that interest has affected the outcome? I'm not I'm not a 100% sure I understand the question to be perfectly honest, Mark. You know, what I guess on announcing them, what's been nice is is having a lot of, really positive conversations with other, you know, major mining companies. You know, BHP explore program, I think, put EAST STAR on the radar of a lot of these companies and and validated the team and validated Kazakhstan initially and and, validated our strategy.

42:19 And, you know, a a year and a half later or not quite a year and a half, we were able to sign a joint venture with with Endeavor Mining. So I think that was, you know, largely as a result of of the publicity we got from that explore program. And I suspect that, you know, the current announcements are are are very much the same as well. We are getting, know, some inbound interest, as a company. If you're talking about as a potential takeover, then I I I certainly haven't had any approaches. So I hope, you know, I wouldn't say that that's something that would be on the cards today. But, you know, we it's very easy for us to have conversations with all the major mining companies on anything that we're doing, on any, you know, potential porphyry target or whatever the case may be. So if it we like the target, it's very likely they'll like the target.

43:09 And if there's something that that we can do there in terms of joint ventures, if it's, you know, not already promised to Endeavor or or Shanghai, then then we happen to have those conversations. How should we now think about valuing ESTAR post the joint ventures? The duration of realizing shareholder value seems considerable. How can that gap time horizon be bridged? What catalyst might, drive shareholder returns in 2026? Just trying to think about the question there, Mark, when you talk about the duration of realizing shareholder value because, you know, there are there are exploration companies with almost no assets on the London Stock Exchange that have a similar market capitalization to us.

43:58 There are companies that have a market cap 10 times our valuation and more, which have assets which I could I could tell you I don't believe will ever get into production. And so, you know, it's a hit to to to comment on the duration of realizing value really depends on on what you want as an outcome. There are other companies, that are have been operating for decades and are trading on a on a yield of 10%. And so if shareholders choose to value us as a yield play when we're in production, then that's certainly not exactly where I'd like to be as a company. But, you know, what I want is to deliver, less dilution to exploration success and Just just bear with me while we reconnect.

44:57 Alex, bear with me one second. We'll connect you. There we go. Apologies, Ollie. I was asked to do. Okay. I'm I'm not quite sure when I cut out then. So Literally missed, like, a little sentence just just discussing that. So it was a couple of seconds only. Okay. Alright. Thanks, Paul. So, yeah, basically, you know, my intention is to is to deliver shareholder returns by demonstrating value and and and trying hard, you know, not to dilute them in the meantime. And we'll look at all strategies to achieve that, whether it's listing on the ASX to get a fairer value, if if we were to get that on the ASX, whether it's putting, being a, you know, minority shareholder in an asset like the, which someone else is paying to put into production, I'll perpetually assess, and the team will perpetually assess all of those options that are presented to achieve that outcome.

45:56 So, yeah, it really depends on on what you're looking for as a shareholder. If it's a dividend to pay back your your investment, then yeah. I mean, for Koba, we'll likely be the first, you know, which which is unlikely to be until, I I would say, 2028. But if it's exploration success, well, that we could deliver that at any moment. So, yeah, that's really up to you. If you're just looking at the fact that ESTAR is trading today at a big discount to the value of one deal being the Shanghai deal, and that's only from an investment perspective, not from an NPV or or, you know, asset return perspective, well then, you know, all we have to do maybe is wait for these three pay warrants to get exercised and and, stop the selling pressure.

46:45 And then you could have a a bigger return in q one, but I've never been one to try and predict the market, so I'll leave that up to you. Would there be more JV potential in the remaining assets? Yes. Thanks, Mohammed. Sorry. Thanks, Mohammed. Anil, are the assay results which were due yes. Good point. Around September, October expected anytime soon. Is there a reason for the delay? They have undoubtedly taken significantly longer than than we wanted or expected. And I've commented in in the crux interview and recently that ESTAR has to revise its its assay strategy in Kazakhstan, you know, both the time frame that we, log and cut core and get that to the assay labs and then the the time for the assay labs to get them back to us, has been way, way longer than expected.

47:38 So that's something which we will be revising our strategy on potentially using different labs in in 2026 to diversify who who we use on that front. Yes. They are expected, and and we really hope to release those results to the market in the very near future. Previously talked about excuse me. Sorry. This is scrolling. You've previously talked about the example of how Independence Group effectively use joint ventures to build up, a billion dollar company. I think it must be 7 or 8,000,000,000 today. Actually, I haven't checked. Could you outline your hopes for EASTAR and potentially following a similar strategy as well as how the board will guard against the dangers of minority stakes in regards to a future lowball takeout.

48:25 So I suspect that's the the lowball takeout is with with regards to ESTAR proper. Just for the market, Independence Group is is a company which I quite like their strategy of how they turned into a large company. They had lots of assets. They joint ventured a series of them early, and they had success with, AngloGold on on a project which end up being the TropicanaGold, deposit. And, you know, by the time, Anglo finished, their carry on that project, Independence Group had to find a way to to fund building that asset, which was not an insignificant amount of money. I I I can't recall the specifics, but it would have been in the hundreds of millions.

49:11 Now Independence Group had other exploration success and they also conducted, m and a to get the size of the company that could either raise the capital or have the cash flow from other assets to be able to defend that development. And then ultimately, that development turned into one of the most profitable if the the most profitable operation for the company. And so I I would love to see ESTAR in that position a few years from now. If we've got exploration success with Endeavor and we have to find a way to fund our 20% to to build a mine that, someone of their quality is building, then I I can't think of a better position to be in for a junior company. And so the question is how do we get there? Well, one of them is is that, you know, we obviously announce any exploration success we have with Endeavor, and hopefully, share price goes up accordingly.

50:02 And our cost of capital is is much, much lower, because, you know, we have an asset which has a feasibility study, which is likely to be progressed by, you know, by a top 10 global producer. Another way to do that is progressing our independently owned assets such as Ruleker and such as Vercuba and seeing what cash flow we can get from those operations, how we can extend the life of those operations once they are, producing and any other exploration success we can have. So, you know, ultimately, for us, it's down it's down to the drill bit, but we've already started to to to demonstrate which, you know, that we can partner with the right companies, at relatively at the right time.

50:48 And, and I'm I'm super happy with that. I you know, for for the time being, I'd be very happy owning 20 or 30% of an asset that someone who with serious build experience that can do things faster, cheaper, and better than than we certainly know how to do, I think is a really good strategy. If ESTAR in time builds the team that can build minds, happy days. That's fantastic. I'll I'll tell you today that's not me. I don't know how to do that, but we'd have to bring in, you know, the right people to do that at the right time if if that's the, the correct way for the company to go forward. You know, all options are on the table, Oliver. For us, it's risk reward per you know, on a per asset basis, and I'm quite happy with our strategy today.

51:33 And and it I firmly believe it's the strategy which can see us, at a billion plus dollar valuation. During, your interview with Cracks Investor and today, you're casually dropping a billion dollar company. How confident are you with this comment and an aspiration that you can give a timeline and when do you expect this place? Yeah. Look. That's fair. I'm it's a very fair comment to say it's an aspiration. Alright? I'm not I wanna be quite clear. I don't value ESTAR at a billion dollars today. That that would be pretty spurious of me, but it's certainly an aspiration. And I think in in today's mining world, you know, the sorts of companies that do reach those valuations either have global tier one deposits, you know, that that end up being purchased by a major or they have production, with the ability to grow that production profile because of their exploration success, which ends up being purchased by a major or or they do it internally. You've got groups like Sandfire Resources in Australia, which achieved that valuation off one asset.

52:41 It was an exceptional asset, and they they discovered it and built it themselves. So it is an aspirational valuation, and I can't defend it today. I can say that, you know, I believe that we're sitting on assets, which if proven and if put into production, you know, could get us at least halfway, if not three quarters of the way there. But, you know, I I I I can't say that I'm sitting on an asset today, which I believe today has a billion dollar valuation. So it's aspirational, Hamid. You're welcome to join us for the ride as long as you like. Christophe, are there research notes covering ESTAR? Not not up to date ones. Cavendish covered us last year.

53:26 Since then, they've changed analysts, and, I haven't paid for any research yet, and I haven't had that conversation as yet. I've had a, a focus elsewhere for the time being, but I certainly hope now that I we don't need to worry about raising money anytime in the near future, that, that that's something I can go back to and and perhaps give some of these investment banks and other service providers a bit of a push. I I I think, you know, anyone reading anyone conducting research and reading that research will have a a c three evaluation at a at a pretty significant premium to where we are. So, yep, that's something which I will push, in early twenty twenty six. And the last comment Yeah. So thank you very much, all.

54:14 Alex, look. Thanks very much. I'm sure it's hugely appreciated. You've asked answered every single question you've had through today, so thank you for for that. Just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which is particularly important to you and the team, can I start with you just for a few closing comments, please? Certainly. Well, for firstly, thanks again for everyone for spending the time, listening to this today. I thought I thought I'd get through it a bit faster, but there were quite a lot questions. So I really appreciate the questions coming through. I hope you appreciate my candor, and transparency. You know, EAST STAR does not intended to be a fly by night company. It's a it's a company that that we are desperately trying to make good, sensible exploration and investment decisions to achieve the best outcome for shareholders.

54:59 And I really feel that we've started to deliver that outcome, you know, certainly over the last few years, but definitely over the last couple of months, with with some additional external validation. My hope is that next year we'll be spending well in excess of of, you know, 3 to $5,000,000 on exploration, at least 3,000,000 undiluted, to to ESTAR shareholders at EASTAR company level. And then we'll be making sensible decisions on our own expenditure on exploration, but for outcomes that we feel will provide, as I said, outsized returns to investors. So thank you for all your support to date. You know, 2026 is is is a really, really exciting time for ESTAR. The the journey isn't over in signing these joint ventures. It's only just begun, and and the next couple of years will be exceptional, I believe, both in terms of the copper and gold price and, and EAST STAR's leverage to that. So thank you all very much.

55:56 Alex, thanks again for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close this session? You'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order to Alex and the team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'd be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team at ESTAR RESOURCES PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That concludes today's session, and good afternoon to you.