Kefi Gold and Copper (LSE:KEFI) — Post AGM Investor Presentation

0:00 Good morning and welcome to the KEFI GOLD AND COPPER PLC post AGM investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time by the Q and A tab situated in the right corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received in the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll.

0:28 And I'd now like to hand you over to Harry Agnistarios Adams, founder and executive chair. Good morning to you. Good morning, and thank you for taking the trouble to join us today. Good afternoon here in Cyprus now, but good morning in in London. I I should commence by just explaining the timing and the circumstances before launching into a presentation and webinar. We ordinarily have a webinar which is open to the public, not just shareholders on a quarterly basis. And this time, we we thought we'd do it straight after the annual general meeting.

1:18 We're we're very happy to have another webinar in the not too distant future if it's warranted, but but we just thought we'd do that today because we received results from a poll that shareholders overwhelmingly voted for interaction like this rather than, you know, being expected to turn up to to meetings physically. So we we have had the annual general meeting, the formal meeting, and there there are still a number of people here in the room from that meeting. And that meeting the results of that meeting were released to the market reported to the market a little while ago whereby all the resolutions were passed.

2:13 So having having had the annual general meeting, we're now having an open webinar for people who may or may not be shareholders also. And hopefully, that satisfies the whole spectrum of people who are following the company. Into in doing so, the format we've adopted is that given that the directors of the company are here, we're we're we're in multiple day meetings across a range of issues on the company, but we've also timed it around the annual general meeting so that everybody's here. So the first thing I may may do is actually just introduce you because you don't often get the opportunity to see all the directors. But, immediately, to my right, we've got Mark Tyler, non executive director, and, you know, an African man of African mining banking expertise and speciality over a lifetime of work for major financial institutions and in the mining industry before that.

3:21 Then then we've got Alastair Clark, a social environmental expert who literally joins the board tomorrow. Yep. I've taken the liberty to have Alastair on the table just to introduce him, but Alastair, if I may say, is quite well known internationally in the social and environmental speciality area, which is obviously now on more people's lips than it has been for the mining industry all my life. But now everybody talks about it, and Alastair is a prominent person in that area and very important to KEFI because we're about to start focusing very much on those physical activities interfacing with the community. And and further to to my right is Rich Robinson, another African gentleman who's spent his lifetime in the mining industry, running companies that have developed and operated perhaps more mines that we admit to today.

4:20 I don't know. That's the non executive directors of the board. Also in the room, you can't see them, are the executive directors. Pardon me. My screen just went dead. Can have I got the wrong screen on now, Alessandro? How does it work? So let me just move that on, please, sir. Okay. Can you control the slide so that I don't muck it up? Yeah. Of course. Let's go back onto the cover, please, still. Thank you. Executive directors in the room are John Leach, finance director, who spent a lifetime in mining finance and hydrocarbons finance in this industry.

5:06 And Eddie Solbrand, who's director of the main holding company of these subsidiaries, and the chief operating officer appointed about about about two years ago, Eddie, something like that. Two years ago. Yeah. Eighteen months. And carrying more and more load as we go live on the ground, so to speak. We also have other friends and and people in the audience, including from Ethiopia, from Cyprus, and the head office financial team is here as well.

5:45 I think I've covered the introductions I should cover today. Now what I might do is just to do a very short presentation so that most of the time can be allocated to questions. The introduction, it it will only take perhaps fifteen minutes, but just present an update as I see it of the main points. That's Tulakapi. When I arrived, I loved visiting there. Quiet place, beautiful place. Beautiful people, easy to get on with. My daughter worked out there for four years in that area, never worried about her safety. And then it changed a few years later, and we all know the consequences of that change as the county country overwhelmingly moved to introduce democracy.

6:38 It caused an incredible social upheaval, internal conflict, and even a civil war that has all abated. But there was a period of years, I'd say between twenty seventeen and eighteen months ago, that was unpredictable, turbulent, and it took took a lot of hard

7:00 work to protect ourselves. Should you turn the slide now, Alexandra? Thank you. Now why did we go there? Because of the geological legacy or bequest of mother nature on this part of the world. There's been mining for millennia, but modern man hasn't applied modern techniques and technology and knowledge to open it up. And that in the area known as the Arabian Nubian Shield spans from North Sudan over and straddles Saudi Arabia on the other side of the Red Sea.

7:48 We went there in 2008, and we made we've made two discoveries. We've made an acquisition, which we then overhauled. So we've assembled three advanced projects, and we have a what we call a leadership position. We're amongst the leaders, if not the leader, in both Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. And the crowd has started to arrive. I mean, what we try to do in this game, if I can put it that way, is to be ahead of the pack. Being ahead of the pack means you go into areas that are regarded or labeled as frontier markets for mining. Otherwise, it will already be there. So you go in first or early, you take a position, you work hard, and you're betting on yourself, and you're betting on the turning of the tide.

8:43 And you could say now, given the number of names and the quality of the names on that map, that the tide has turned. The world's two biggest gold miners, Barrick and Newmont, perhaps the highest profile explorer, developer in the world, Ivanhoe, and a number of of other very decent organizations have all pegged and entered the space over the last few years. So you might say the industry is waking up to what we bet on in 2008, and maybe you'll say that they were smart enough not to come in too early, maybe we did go in too early. It's your opinion.

9:33 But at least we're there and we'll be the first off the rank in Ethiopia and the first cab off the rank since Saudi Arabia opened up. So the regulatory regimes of both countries and the political atmosphere and support from both countries towards mining has radically changed for the better in the last eighteen months. And we're, you know, we're now a beneficiary of that having already been in this region for all these years. I'm sorry. Alexandra, can you turn it? Right? I won't dwell on this because I suspect everybody on the webinar would would know these things, but just to touch on the fact that the first project to actually start development is the Ethiopian project, a fairly classic Australian style open pit underground CIL gold project. There are scores of them in Australia.

10:31 There are many of them in Africa as well, but I know the ones in Australia because that's where I grew up. And nothing unusual about it. Healthy grade, fairly straightforward technically. It's all about social and regulatory license. That's what it's about. Community integration so that the community protects and supports government regulations so that we can apply modern mining finance and modern mining practices in a country that hasn't done it for thirty years. And over in Saudi Arabia, less advanced projects that are coming on through their feasibility study phases at various stages along that pathway.

11:21 We're confident they'll come to fruition, but it's very early days still. And on the map, you can see the two sides of the Red Sea and the brown blobs sort of where the geology surfaces that we were chasing. Next slide please, Alexandra. NPVs. One can spend a whole evening debating the relevance of NPVs and how to calculate it and discount rates, whatever. The bottom line is it's just an indicator. And what happens in this business in which I've been for some decades, everybody always calculates NPVs to get some measuring stick about whether what they're doing is worthwhile.

12:11 And the the stock market capitalization starts as a very, you know, heavily discounted percentage of NPV like we are today, you know, 10% of NPV or something like that. And as you derisk the projects as they, you know, work through financing and permitting financing, construction and so on production, they they derisk and they get closer and closer to reflecting NPVs. When we put up NPVs, we're not saying the company should be valued at the NPV today, we've never said that and nor should we. But what we're saying is it's it's one measuring stick that probably is the most commonly used that indicates where where you're heading if you completely de risk and you get into production.

13:03 And that's that's the bet. That's why we do it, to create value and wealth for all the stakeholders. Next slide, please, Alexandra.

13:18 I won't dwell on the the nuances of this slide, but in essence, all it's saying is that, you know, in a in a sector that has very weak stock markets, which this sector has had for a decade or more, it's particularly important not to take on projects that rely on the stock market to be developed. You know, there are 4,000 pre production exploration and development companies in the world that are listed, and either they're wasting their time or they have to adopt this approach because the stock markets will not support today hundreds of millions of dollars of development capital for a young company. It's just too weak for this sector for a whole bunch of global reasons, nothing to do with us or our company or our region, just global factors.

14:13 So what we do is we finance at the project or subsidiary level by using very highly well understood internationally practices that have never been done before in Ethiopia, and are now being applied for this time in Saudi. And it's say modern mining project finance, but there's a whole bunch of things that that implies to the to the, you know, to the industry professional that that in Ethiopia, in particular, just hadn't been applied before, and regulations and laws had to be changed to accommodate it. That took negotiation. At the same time as our people in the country, we had to renegotiate a whole range of things with the government in order for that to go forward.

15:07 And as a result of which, the capital that we've assembled for the development of Tula KEFI will deploy, subject to documentation and and the fine print reflecting what was agreed with the government. And otherwise, they would not have deployed. They simply will not deploy capital for the first mover in a country that's just been through civil war without the protection of modern project finance conventions, and now they will. So as frustrating as it is, that's the reality. And as committed and as optimistic as I've always been and the team's always been, otherwise, we've been wasting our time.

15:53 We've always known it could be worked out. We've been confident of that, and we knew we would get there. But we could you know, the reality is we couldn't start the project until it was safe to do so, and until the regulations permitted it in in the way in which the syndicate demanded. And that way, these different entities can come in in different positions, sharing risk, sharing financial commitment and putting up the development capital. Next slide, please, Alexandra. Because of Tulakapi's grade in particular, I can see these graphs have maxed out at the top here, there mustn't be a straight line like that, but it's maxed out on the top.

16:40 But it's basically showing the cash flow available for debt service at different gold prices compared with the cash flow required for debt service. And as you can see, there's at these gold prices that have been modeled, are that are shown on the screen, it's, you know, it's a very healthy coverage. So we're whilst we're on development finance at the project level, I suppose what I'm saying is we feel that it's being done at a at a, you know, at a reasonable level from the point of view of reliance on debt and a reasonable ratio of equity to debt so that there's adequate, you know, protection and coverage for debt service. Next slide, please.

17:26 In terms of milestones ahead, this slide, here we are in the middle of the middle section, q two, q three. We've we've just cleared what we regarded as the three critical hurdles with the government for the money to flow.

17:52 Far reaching negotiations because they weren't just about this project. The first one was about the admission of a particular bank, country membership with Ethiopia goes way beyond just this transaction required, parliament and, you know, corporate structure of a major development bank to resolve negotiations between the two of them as a backdrop for this project and other things in the future. That was achieved in March. Secondly, we needed to we needed to keep our word that we would treat this area as a red zone area from a security point of view even though it's not a red zone area nearly all of the time. It's usually green or amber, I can put it that way, in terms of security risk to melt it down into sort of a lay lay, you know, description.

18:54 But we gave our word that we treated at a as a red zone area to protect people and property and capital in order for the syndicate to deploy its people and its capital. And and the security services of the country were deployed from the prime ministry instruction in in April, and that blanketed the whole district and provided the correct foundation for us to go forward. Not to say that we've done all the jobs, not to say that there isn't a thousand things to do to set up the system and so on, protocols, but that was the foundation that was needed to to get the ball rolling. The last one was capital controls.

19:41 It's a closed economy by and large, setting about opening itself up, but we required we required sorry, Alexandra. Could you put it back?

19:56 Just trying to keep my screen alive and it pushes the slides around when I try to do it when it doesn't. But we we needed we needed the right to pay our obligations internationally without restriction and so on, and we weren't prepared to weren't able to go ahead really until that was resolved. You know, major initiatives by the central bank of the country to allow that to proceed, and that was achieved, and the fine print is being checked by the lawyers of the central bank and financiers as we speak. And and that allows us now to trigger submissions for final board approvals and credit approvals, so that's now happening. And that that lead that leads on to getting on the ground and opening up the hundreds of household discussions, briefings, updates, resolutions of their particular compensation package.

20:55 All of it has been prepared for, but we have not morally been prepared to trigger that and trigger the angst and and anticipation of thousands of people in the community through those hundreds of households without ensuring that the three principal conditions that were required were satisfied, and rather ensuring that we had board and committee approvals of all the syndicate before we opened our mouths to the individual household. We didn't think it was morally correct to do that until this moment, and I'm still comfortable with that disposition as being an appropriate disposition morally. And I suspect the man sitting, you know, two to my right would would have counseled against doing anything earlier than that.

21:48 But, you know, we're on, you know, in terms of, you know, there there are there's millions of dollars being spent on legal preparations, all sorts of meetings taking place, 20 people flying into Addus for meetings every couple of weeks to make this happen. So but it has to happen properly, particularly in a country that was in such turmoil recently, but it's a beautiful country. It's still the same people that I treasured visiting when I first arrived in the country. It's still the same people. It's just that the country's been through some turmoil in the interim, and it's put its back behind us or it's put its efforts behind us, however you describe it, to to support us to get going because it's a critically important project.

22:41 So the milestones are that we're going we're now into final board and credit approval processes, and we've got our hands full mobilizing into the field and all sorts of other things just trigger the funds drawdown early in the fourth quarter if everything goes according to plan. Next slide, please. Over in Saudi Arabia, we've got these two less advanced projects. They're not ready to put shovels into the ground. They're still sort of jumping around in terms of concept definition on exactly how to set them out. There's a myriad of choices and nuances that one can that one needs to finesse during this visit feasibility study processes.

23:31 And we we haven't got to the end of it. We haven't we haven't settled the definition of either project yet. But it's clear to us that the that the metal in the ground and the scale of the the projects and the expected growth as we expand the resources is such that we will be developing them, but we haven't yet worked it all out and you can dive into the detail as we report mineral resource estimates and studies and so on as we go through the process. This is what we do. It's what we've been doing for decades. We're surrounded by specialists, consultants, and experts that we draw on for the different elements, and we're working through it. Very important in Saudi Arabia, which is really taking off from an exploration point of view.

24:26 Next slide, please. Thank you. I hope I didn't take too long, but I didn't want to. I wanted to leave time for questions. I know that there are there there are questions submitted before, you know, before today, and I know there's probably more being added whilst I was speaking. But I'll hand now back to Alessandro to discuss through them in in the order that they've been received, please. Harry, perfect. And thank you very much for presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab which is situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. Harry, as mentioned, we have received a number of pre submitted questions from investors, and I want to start off the q and a session with these. The first one reads as follows.

25:15 I'm obviously I'm obviously wondering what it takes for shares to take off. Metal prices are good, and you seem to have broken the back of financing at the project level instead of stock market sources. I've read your comments that the junior gold miners index have dropped from two hundred and fourteen two thousand eleven to less than zero currently compared with it starting at zero in 2004. That looks even worse than KEFI's share price pattern. Can you give us your perspective on when the share price should increase? Yeah. Obviously, I have no crystal ball, like none of you have a crystal ball. I would I would say it is unusual for metal prices to be relatively buoyant.

26:05 Gold is not too far off at all time high. It is unusual for that to happen and for the mining indexes to be so weak. And I and I I suppose that's because of the liquidity squeeze in the world with interest rates starting to pop up again after a long time and fears of geopolitical risk amongst the major countries with liquidity being sucked out of the stock market, particularly the riskier end, I suppose. I'm a contrarian. If I wasn't a contrarian and a natural optimist, I wouldn't do what I do.

26:51 So we go into a frontier market before well, when it's a frontier market, before the world wakes up, and we've succeeded. After all these years, we can say that it's taking off for the first time, really, over the last year or so. First time we can say that after fifteen years. And the metal prices are running with us. So that's timing is good. We've got them, I think, more or less financed. So we're away. We've got a bucket load of work to do, but we're away. What happens in the stock market? I think the sector, there's a good chance that it will cyclically turn. I don't think sectors are used to being on the net downside for more than a decade.

27:45 That's not a natural cycle. I do think it'll turn, and I think there are some green shoots on the Australian. There's more statistics available in Australia than in England. There's many more companies. And there are some, you know, turnarounds in the in the junior space. So that that's a green shoot to my mind just recently. But, you know, share investors have much more to do with the share price and predictions than I do. I don't pretend to be a share market animal in any way. But but my view is that if you're a pessimist about the world and a pessimist about geopolitics, don't touch it. And if you believe that the world belongs to the brave who stick it out for fifteen years and then create wealth for all stakeholders, you should dive into it. And that's purely your choice.

28:45 Next question, Alexandra. Perfect. Thank you very much. The next question asks if you could tell us how the team has changed and how it's changing. Well, I I think at the beginning, introduced Eddie without moving the camera. He's just sitting over there. But Eddie Eddie is taking how would I put it? Eddie is mister internal, and I've become mister external as the operation comes live. So systems, policies, organizational development, team building, I'm not saying that I have anything to do with it, but that's that that changed. Eighteen months ago, being handed to Eddie, he's been doing it all his life for big and small companies in this industry.

29:38 And underneath Eddie, there's been a number of appointments on the ground in in both Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. And, Alexander, is it still on your screen? Because my Yeah. The slide's still on on the screen, sir. Okay. Because mine's going to sleep. I won't touch it if it's on your screen, Alexander. And and we've been changing the team out from planning and permitting people to hands on drivers of developments and operations. A handful of people in a handful of leaders in both jurisdictions. That's really the essence of the board table.

30:25 You can see Alice is just joining. Things will keep changing as the the company moves into development and production. That's what's already happening. That was under Perfect. Thank you very much. And the next question asked, what if KEFI shareholders do not provide the funding to keep up with the take off in Saudi Arabia? Yeah. Well, the the the challenge for KEFI is to keep up with a wonderful take off. If KEFI and its shareholders don't have the desire or wherewithal to keep up, we're not gonna slow down that venture. It's our duty to not retard the natural scheme of things.

31:13 If it deserves charging ahead, it should charge ahead. And if KEFI or its shareholders don't wanna keep up, that's up to KEFI and its shareholders. The consequence of that is that if if you paint the worst picture, is that it would trigger a take out at fair value, and we'd we'd walk away being paid out for our interest under the arrangements of the joint venture. That's not our plan, but that's I would've put up the worst case. I don't plan for us not to keep up. I would like to think that KEFI shareholders will support us to keep up, but, you know, it's it's up it's up to us as a as a company and with our shareholders to elect whether we wanna be taken out or wanna keep up. That's that's our decision, and that's what we'll have to do.

32:04 Perfect. And Harry, if I could just ask you just to move the mouse slightly just to make sure we don't lose you. The the next question here is, is the $20,000,000 mentioned in the previous q and a included in financial closure? What is the money earmarked for, and what will it buy the investors? Is this an equity component at the subsidiary level? And if so, roughly what percentage would this represent? What role does the $20,000,000 play in financial closure? Is it unrelated to the rest of the process coming after as the final piece of funding, or can full closure not compete without it? Will it hold up release of funds if delayed? A few parts to that one there. Yeah. You're you're honing in. The question is honing in on the finishing off jobs we've got now. The the most critical the most critical jobs we've had have been to, number one, protect our people and our project from attacks physically, regulatory, whatever.

33:08 We've done that. We protected the company, the projects from attacks in the past by people wanting to run away with our assets. The next job was to preserve next priority was to preserve the interest and commitment of first year banks, contractors, investors to support these groundbreaking developments, and we've done that. And and, you know, the public public domain will see that as we move through these milestones of, you know, credit approvals and so on that we have in the chairman statement this morning and in the slideshow that I just showed you over the next only few months as we work through these things.

34:06 So, you know, one can see them happen rather than talking or listening about them. And and so we're in we're in what I would call the the home stretch of of signing off and going forward. The the hardest stuff has been done, protecting people and property, preserving a syndicate. Yeah. We we've done the hard stuff. And so now the question is saying, oh, yeah. But now you've to put in the last $20,000,000 out of $400,000,000. When we get to that point, the questioner or a questioner will say, yeah, but what about in four years time when how we have to get financed? He's gonna put up that other last $30,000,000. You know, if you really don't like this game, I'm not trying to be, how to put it, flippant or arrogant, but if you really don't like this game, don't play. I mean, really, it's a serious point.

34:59 This is an exploration company that's changing into a development company. It has arranged 95% of the finance for developments, and it's gonna be the last piece when we close it. I can't promise you exactly how it'll be structured, but we have people at the table who want it, who are not in the public domain and not in the stock market, and we'll raise part of it the stock market if we need to. I can't promise we won't, but it is less than 5% of the total package. And if you're uncomfortable with that, please do not play seriously, you know, because you will never be comfortable with a developer at that point if you're not comfortable with that risk.

35:49 And I say that very seriously. If you're not comfortable with someone who's withstood all of those things in the last few years and preserved the syndicate for over 95% of the capital, then how the hell can I convince you that you shouldn't be worried about the last 5%? Now the last five percent, if it comes in from warrants, fine. But if it does come in from warrants and they're not needed because we raised it down in the subsidiary, Fine. We'll use it for for cheap equipment and how we you know, we we cannot guarantee all the outcomes. We can only tell you that we've managed to preserve our optionality to this point, so that we can play it one way or another.

36:35 I have a gentleman in the room here today, one of our strong supporters in Ethiopia, strong adviser to the company. And, you know, the Ethiopian business community is is very, supportive and is right on to this, and this the news the other day of the central bank granting exemptions for the first time for international banking is is hot news in the investment community of Ethiopia, which is much larger than we appreciate. In fact, I was staggered the other day that the total project finance package for Tula KEFI that we've raised in Ethiopia for Ethiopia is is bigger than the total fundraisings on AIM stock market in the last twelve, twelve months. I mean, I was quite flabbergasted.

37:28 So I know I'm sounding a little bit bossy or something, but it's a serious point. You know, I can't change the character of the company. The company is an explorer developer. It is done it has done what it's done. It's been delayed and it's been disappointed at times because of where it is. And now it is where it is, and it's going into putting together the last 5% of its capital. And and I would be deluding you to predict to you exactly how we're gonna structure it, but we have a number of choices and we'll optimize them, and it's it's it's an easy job to do. Easy compared to the first 95%, I can guarantee. Alessandro? Perfect. Thank you very much. The next question is really around shareholder engagement and ask, as the company will be very busy with in the news period over the next few weeks and months, could the company not provide a weekly or fortnightly update on what has been achieved in the previous time frame to keep the shareholders aware of all steps forward?

38:29 The problem with the problem with weekly or fortnightly updates to the public at large, which is what it becomes, is I'll be reporting to you the ebb and flow of communication with the boards of banks, governments, investors. And frankly, they don't they have absolutely zero interest in their internal workings being broadcast to the world at large. In fact, quite the opposite. Reputational management disciplines of major corporations and governments prohibits us from broadcasting what they're up to internally. So that's the restriction we have. Plus, you know, it creates noise and distraction from the main game. The main game is to do the job.

39:20 But, you know, having said that, in all sincerity, I think we're if anything, we're over transparent. I think I'm often criticized for perhaps being over transparent and and, you know, then having to explain why that didn't happen or this didn't happen per expectation. I accept that criticism. And and what you're asking for is not just more transparency on our own business, but more transparency on the business of partners and bankers. And it's very difficult, to be honest. But what I can say is that today, in the in the statement that we published and in the slideshow that we, I guess, presented, There are half a dozen or 10 milestones there, all of them for the next four months. I mean, that works out to one every half month anyway.

40:20 So material news, we have to, you know, report. So it probably works out to roughly what you're looking for, but it's not it's not reasonable to to request or to commit to a fortnightly report by the date whereby I'll be telling you what, you know, bank x said to their directors or whatever on that date. I I can't do that. I can only report as news occurs, so to speak, Alexandra. Perfect. Thank you. Now we are nearing the end of TK financing. Is it possible that a chart be produced showing clearly all steps needed to achieve full financing, giving long suffering shareholders the chance to follow the progress achieved and hopefully build some share price momentum? With a comment that follows, I think if we did this and met the timelines, it would transform the share price.

41:10 No. I I I I just answered that question. It was the same question, really. No problem at all. There's another question here about the share price, and then it mentions, are you aware if this if if this is contractors you've recently paid via shares? And it seems odd that there is such heavy selling unless someone knows something that private investors are not aware of. I mean, if you're suggesting that there's reinsiders trading the stock, you should report that immediately to the authorities, but I can tell you that would be staggered if that was true. And if you're saying, we we didn't pay we didn't pay anyone in we didn't pay any contractors in shares. It's just only only senior people, executives who have been paid in shares rather than calling for cash from the company.

42:04 So we've been putting our money where our mouth is, so to speak, which normally people applaud. We haven't been selling our shares. So I I don't have anything to do with with people being paid in shares, to be honest. Yeah. I I I don't know. I honestly don't know what's going on in the stock market. I can't follow it day to day. No idea. There's a lot of liquidity with KEFI, and it looks to me like it's used like an ATM machine by people who've got liquidity issues for whatever reason. And KEFI has quite good liquidity, which is a good thing, but at the moment, it's certainly not working in the favor of the share price, but I don't know the reasons for Perfect. Moving to the next question. How many employees are on what might be termed gardening leave waiting on to leak happy certainty? Many jobs have been secured that relate to the mine works, etcetera. So obviously, these people are not being utilized well or on half wages.

43:02 Please explain how this all works, and is KEFI still actively recruiting? I don't know what you're talking about, to be honest. There's nobody in the company who's not working flat out, and there's nobody involved with mining operations yet. So I don't know what you're referring to. Sorry. With each with each step forward in the financing process, there seems to be other steps that appear needing to be completed that were not highlighted originally. In hindsight, were all previous deadlines of just a few months to complete financing overly optimistic? We we how would I put it? With the benefit of hindsight, yes. With the benefit of hindsight, we didn't achieve in 2018 what we thought we'd achieve when it was when it was 2015.

43:56 So if you're asking whether we had failed to predict the turmoil in the country, yes. That's all I can say, Alexander. You are now hopeful that TK development capital requirements can be financed without further funding at PLC level. Does this mean if the warrants get exercised, those funds can be used for general running costs and towards financing? Yes. That's all. With the numbers involved in resettlement, is it realistic to believe that this will be completed before construction is due to start in October? The resettle that's a that's an excellent question because all all our eyes are turning to the job list, the task list, and the challenges around that.

44:49 That is the number one priority of the company apart from the finance and legal team closing our documentation. All our focus and preoccupation is now on the social management side. We're not proposing or expecting to do all of it in one go. We we are breaking it down into phases, and those phases are around, if you like, clearing the areas that follow the sequencing of the physical works that come down the pipeline. So the first phase will be with the airstrip area and the plant area, and and, you know, only the only the households involved with with those particular areas.

45:48 And then when that whilst they're being dealt with, the next phase will be dealt with and so on and so forth. We're not we're breaking it down. You know, you're alluding to the fact that there's a lot of work to do and how could you possibly do all of that in four months, and you're absolutely right. We're breaking it down because of that. That is 100. Perfect. And Harry, if I could just ask you to hold your mouth and just move your mouse again, that'd be great. Do we still hold the exploration rights for the areas around Tule Capi? Technically, not yet confirmed. Orally and morally promised to us, but we have to tie it up with what I call procedural CPs of confirmations of tenure before we release funds.

46:37 Alexandra? Perfect. Just moving to the next question. Can you please tell us the monetary value of the drilling cost that triggered the 3.2 reduction of interest in the Saudi joint venture? And is it the true minimum share KEFI can reduce to is 25%, or we face being kicked out of the agreement? I'll start with the last bit first. We don't get kicked out of anything. We get bought out at fair value. In other words, if KEFI, with its shareholders, doesn't want to build the business the way it's growing, the other partner has a right to buy you out at fair value so that you can't block the business from developing. So perhaps some shareholders think that's a good thing, perhaps others think it's a terrible thing.

47:27 The board will have to do with it on behalf of the company as a whole. The question was how much money was spent, the drilling costs? I think we've spent around £9,000,000 or thereabouts over a fifteen year period. That's us. So you could deduce it. I I have the number off the top of my head that you've asked for, but if if £9,000,000 for someone who holds 27%, that means that the 73% is is, you know, the the parapassu equivalent of that, and you could deduce then how much money was not contributed that led to that 3% dilution.

48:18 Otherwise, we'll so write us a note on our info line and we'll answer you, but I don't know off the top of my head. I'm sorry. Alexander? Perfect. You've stated the TK project is now flying. How much of the change is due to the replacement of the previous minister of mines? It's it's very important because, clearly, the previous minister was not as aligned as he should have been with us. And the new minister, I can say is that he's an incredibly pushy person, but the government is completely aligned now, and I think the evidence is is there, given all the things that have been approved since the change of minister at the end of January, the three critical conditions precedent that have been hanging over this project, I don't know how long, we're actually, you know, traversed, you know, satisfied in the three or four months since then.

49:23 So that that that tells you the significance of it, I think. Can you explain any more than the £5,000,000 legal claim against the company stated in the annual accounts? Anywhere in the world, it's not just Ethiopia, but anywhere in the world, when a mining when particularly gold is mentioned and, you know, it draws the attention of of people and the mining project's about to take off, people come out of the woodwork with claims and objections and demands and all sorts of things. It's not exactly, you know, something new, and that's happened in Ethiopia from a number of quarters.

50:14 And one of those quarters has ended up in litigation. You know, in a previous life, I was running a company in Spain, and we had those issues continually. And only a couple of years ago, I was asked to go back for the prosecution and someone's gone to jail. So it happens everywhere. And all I can say is that we're dealing with one of those situations through the courts. Have to leave it at that, miss Alexandra. Perfect. There was a mention of an EGM to allow shareholders to vote on various parts of the financing in June. When is this expected? Well, to be honest, when we foreshadowed that expecting that we would have to raise a hell of a lot of capital from the stock market, and we just foreshadowed what we thought would be necessary, but it doesn't look like it'll be necessary.

51:13 If it becomes necessary, we'll call a special meeting, but at the moment, it might not be necessary, Alexander. Great. Thank you. Why have you only accepted discounted shares in the last five years in new issues and not bought in the open market to show the faith you have long claimed for KEFI's prospects? To say that I claim faith in KEFI's prospects is a little bit below the belt. I've spent most of the last ten years in Ethiopia, which I think is saying more than claiming, I believe, in KEFI's prospects. The executives, myself included, are not in the business of trading in the shares in the stock market.

52:01 In fact, we're prohibited from it most of the time, we have no interest in it. The fact that the fifteen since 2006, I've been the chairman of this company that I founded. And I think my average cash take home pay from KEFI is £75,000 over that period of time. So I don't think one could say I've ripped off the company in a cash sense. And the fact that I've accepted shares as payment in in addition to the 75,000 odd pounds of cash per annum, I I think most people would say is showing my faith in the company. So that's what my that's what my answer would be, Alexander. Perfect. Following the Hawaii RNS, it refers to independent PFS level estimates.

52:52 Please, can you tell us who did this work? Also, how are they going to process the oxide in transition? It is not made clear and it should be. Oh, you're you must be a PFS police person. I don't know what you're referring to. I'm talking about an independent party. Honestly, I don't know what you're referring to there, Unless you mean the MRE that was published under with an independent competent person involved, which it has to be, which was MSA, the independent experts for the MRE, the mineral resource estimate. But please please send to the info line what you're referring to about an independent EFS, because I I don't know what you're referring to.

53:41 And the question about metallurgical testing. I mean, it's early days on metallurgical testing at this stage of how we how we as DFS is not expected to be completed till at least, I don't know, towards the end of next year. There's gonna be a hell of a lot of metallurgical testing between now and then. But the the the the metallurgical testing done today has yielded some results which have led to what we've reported or fairly fairly standard or conventional sort of concentrate recoveries. But there's a fair bit of comfort taken as a general point, a fair bit of comfort taken from the fact that there's a very similar operation, only a couple 100 kilometers away. I'm very, very, very similar ore body at the Al Masani Mine. It's in a public company called Amak, a m a k. You could look it up and I'm not saying they're the same ore body, but they're very similar. And we visited the mine, you know, they're good neighbors in a sense.

54:56 So there's there's experience with that style of war in the country, and we've, you know, they've been kind enough to tell us what they've learned through their experience in starting up their plant. And our various specialist consultants are still, you know, refining the various concepts, but it doesn't look like it'll be anything exotic. It looks like it'll be fairly conventional concentrate approach to first the copper and then the zinc. But I I'm sorry if it didn't meet your particular standards of what you expected in the PFS, but it is what it is. Thank you, Alexandra. And Harry, we're just nearing the hour now. So what I propose, maybe just to take maybe two more questions and then what I'll do is I'll ask you for closing comments after those.

55:43 So are you able to disclose the timeline for the all weather road construction? The all weather road construction is referring to there's a bitumen highway from Addis Ababa out to the border with South Sudan. And at the moment, you turn off near a place called Gimbi, and you drive for an hour, an hour and a half depending on which particular route you take on dirt roads. And the wet season wreaks havoc with dirt roads, particularly if heavy transport goes over them. So it all has been the plan that although we don't need a new road just to get to the site and get gear to the site.

56:31 We want a new road for efficiency, convenience, safety, and that takes six months to construct within the twenty four month build process. So it's not on the critical path. It will be it would be a net it would be done between wet seasons. And as long as it's done between wet seasons during the twenty four month process, it's not a good critical path item as I said, etcetera. Perfect. And just one final question here. Is a potential potential secondary listing being considered potentially in a jurisdiction where KEFI's true value would be reflected in the market? It's been considered, and we're talking with stock exchanges in different jurisdictions.

57:24 I think the thing that observers noticed, that we noticed, was that part of the sort of surge of interest in Saudi Arabia in this sector is also to do with the capital markets being opened up for this sector. The the government has made various broad sweeping statements that they want to do that. So we've been discussing it there about, you know, the merits of a dual listing in Saudi Arabia. And it's fair to say that the authorities are still getting their own heads around it without, in any way, you know, wanting to be critical. They're just coming to grips with it themselves. They know what they want to do, but haven't sort of thought through all the how to do with stuff.

58:16 Clearly, gold and minerals, the the Saudi company that we're shareholders of, would be an absolute natural to be one of the first candidates for a Saudi listing of a pre production company. There are only two mining companies listed in Saudi, both of them in production. And clearly, GOLD AND MINREALS, because of its stature and its position in the country, would be would be a preeminent candidate. But that hasn't been resolved by the joint venture. But it would be an obvious candidate. KEFI is a different matter. KEFI is not a Saudi focused company. It's an Arabian Nubian Shield focused company.

59:03 And so we're still working through with the various exchanges to get our best choices, so to speak. So it's fair to say that the concept of looking at other exchanges to complement AIM is something we do do, but we're not preoccupied with it. But it's also fair to say that the Saudi market has sort of exploded with interest in this sector. We will do something in Saudi, but to be honest, it's partly a joint venture decision and partly a decision. And right here and now, the most important thing is to get the show on the road on these projects, not not to not to spend millions of dollars preparing for another stock exchange listing.

59:52 But we're we're working through it and there will be there will be an answer, but it's not today's priority. Thank you, Alexander. Harry, thank you very much for that. We have hit the hour and you've been very generous with your time and answered a lot of the questions that have come in. We have had a significant significant attendance on today's meeting, so there are some questions that we haven't covered. But the company will review all those questions submitted today, and we will publish those responses on the investor meet company platform. But just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which you know is particularly important to the company, Harry, can I just ask you for a few closing comments? Well, first of all, I I appreciate it. I I don't know whether it was an excellent decision to hold this webinar straight after the AGM or it was a clumsy timing.

1:00:38 I don't know. Just trying to find the right channel for communication when we've had annual general meetings in England. I I can't remember more than three or four shareholders ever turning up at one of them. We had more than that turn up here in Cyprus. So I think I felt, you know, we felt an obligation to reach out one way or another, but then there's a lot of people who wanted to catch up with the company who are not shareholders. So we felt better to conduct the formalities of the meeting for shareholders and then open it up to everybody in a separate session. So I hope I hope that was appropriate.

1:01:23 I'm sure you'll provide your feedback to the organizers at investor made company because I know they poll you afterwards to see whether you're happy with the format and so on. So please tell us if you thought that was worthwhile or whether you thought, you know, you'd rather just get our and this is not bother with webinars. You tell us. From our point of view, all I can say is that I I I I thank my colleague for sitting here quietly and just listening to all this. But also, I I do think it's, you know, I I take to heart the criticisms that we've been over optimistic in the past.

1:02:08 I accept the fact that we didn't predict the trials and tribulations would be put through in either country, but I also highlight that we've never said that they weren't anything other than frontier countries. And if you read every one of our RNSs, they're plastered with caveats and preconditions and subject tos. And if we take out the subject tos and preconditions, that would be inappropriate. But a lot of people don't bother reading those things. And all I can only say is that going doing what we do in frontier markets makes subject tos and caveats very important to read. And I I do mean that sincerely. It it is real risk management.

1:02:54 It's not just us covering corporate compliance statements. It's real risk management. And, you know, I feel blessed, frankly, with the loyalty and support we get internally from teams of people on the ground. I get I can't help but be a little bit miffed when I hear someone saying, are they on gardening leave? You've got no idea how hard our people work. And you'd be embarrassed if you saw how hard they work to ask such a question. And I'm very proud of them, and that's what builds a company. And we we are building a company, a serious company, in a very prospective part of the world that the whole world is waking up to finally, and we're in the you know, we're we're in a leadership position.

1:03:43 So finally, we're about to start doing the real work. So we're excited and exhilarating. We've got lots of challenges, lots of hurdles to jump, but they're nothing compared to what we've done in my opinion in the past already. So those of you who've lost the distance, I greatly appreciate your patience. Those of you who feel it's, boy, I didn't realize it was so tough or so risky, I respect your opinions also. It's very important to understand that both the upsides and the downsides of these situations, and I can only say that that we live it and we understand it, and perhaps we could do a better job communicating at a time, but we do our best. And I do thank you for all your support. Thank you. Harry, thank you for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close the session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations?

1:04:37 This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of KEFI GOLD AND COPPER PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.