Kodal Minerals (LSE:KOD) — Investor Presentation

0:00 Good afternoon, and welcome to the KODAL MINERALS PLC 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 hand 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 it receives in the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Bernard Delwood CEO. Good afternoon to you, sir.

0:32 Good afternoon, Alessandro. Thank you very much, and thank you very much for all shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, attending today. And I'm pleased to say with me is Steve Zanitovich, our executive director for development. And Steve is actually joining us from Bamako Mali today where he is on-site working with the team for the development. What we'd like to do initially is give a quick presentation, and I know some of this will be a bit repetitive to our regular followers, but it is important that we lay out the activities of the company and give a guidance to what we intend to do over the next period, bringing us to production by the end of this year.

1:19 So let's proceed. You're all aware that we're targeting production by the end of this year. And really, we feel that we are in a bit of a race to become the next lithium producer in Africa. You know, perhaps in some ways, it's a meaningless race because the most important thing for us is actually to get our project into development. And in doing our transaction last year with the Hainan Group, I think we really secured our future. We've had more than enough funding. We're fully funded for development. We're fully funded for the capital build of the stage one DMS development at Ngulana. And in addition, we have we have further funds for additional drilling targeting increased in our resource base.

2:09 We have funds for further engineering targeting the optimization of our phase two flotation plant and further funds to allow us to fully develop the Boonie Lithium Project, which we think is a fantastic project, will be a long life mine and will be a great opportunity for us to leverage into other projects. I think this has been a really critical time for us in the lithium sector, and we'll have a few comments later in the presentation about the state of the market. We see it has been in a lull over the last twelve months or so, but really starting to pick up and may well be in our favor come the end of the year when I think we'll be producing into a rising and strong lithium market.

2:56 So the three points we really like to make is, number one, our project in Bavuni, we have a solid joint venture partnership with the Hainan and Fosun Group. They're very supportive. They're very keen for the development. As you would have seen today with our announcement, we're looking to secure as much of the product from the site for them, for their development plans, and it's really critical for us that we've secured a 100% offtake, no lower than market price for our product, really secures our our cash flow and production from Bugoni. We're already underway. One of the key things obviously is ensuring that we have access and the road constructed to site is pretty much an all weather road, fully ready for the mining fleet to mobilize to site and will be well and truly useful for us over the life of the mine.

3:53 Secondly, our project is a very good project that's expected to generate strong free cash flow. We are looking at production commencing before the end of twenty twenty four based on our stage one DMS development at the Yengrilana prospect. Higher grade, coarser mineralization, low CapEx and low cost production should deliver us substantial cash flows. And finally, as we've as I mentioned in the preamble, we believe we have significant upside still remaining at Burgoonie. We have a large area under the mining license of over 97 square kilometers within a larger 300 square kilometer landhold.

4:39 We increased our resource this year to 31 just under 32,000,000 tonnes, increased that by 40% with one drilling program. We will be drilling again next week at Burgoonie, again targeting extensions to Boumou, which is looking like a fantastic prospect, considerable opportunity to again expand that resource consistent with open pit mining and flotation recovery. That means that our Sogolabale and Boumou prospects will underpin the flotation plant for many years. And as we've alluded to in our announcements, we are looking to possibly bring forward the flotation plant just on the opportunity that these increased resources bring us.

5:28 Where we are, and you would have seen the announcement we put out this week that gave as much of a detailed update as we as we can. And I would like to make shareholders aware that, unfortunately, in a development phase, there's often periods where lots of activity is happening on-site and through contract negotiations and through engineering work that actually doesn't lead to times when we can have useful announcements that actually mean a lot to our shareholders. What we did announce this week was actually some very significant end results of long work. Importantly, we were able to confirm that our capital estimate of $65,000,000 remains solid. We stress tested it a few times during our work as KODAL individually.

6:23 And now with the joint venture, we're still confident to say $65,000,000 will build us a 1,000,000 tonne per annum DMS plant at Inguilana. We've ordered the long lead items, the DMS units and the crushing system with fabrication already commenced in China. The groups we selected for this work have extensive experience in a, DMS units for the Haiwam group, working on plants currently in Namibia, Nigeria, and throughout China. So a very positive group to work with. And Beijing High Dynamic for the crushing circuit, an excellent group with a long pedigree of crushing.

7:09 Mining contractor, we're very happy to have announced that we're employing a local Malian contractor, the EGTF, in consortium with an explosive manufacturing, Oshin, who were able to provide not only support on the drill and blast, they're able to supply capital and trucking and financial support. That means that we will get the best service out of both groups. You would have seen we were very happy again to have announced that the Mali environment minister visited our site. In fact, I believe it's his second or third visit directly to our Burgundy lithium project. And each time, we get a very positive reaction and feedback on our progress and on our plans for the development.

7:59 The ESIA that was completed by our team has been approved, and the phase one DMS development has been approved by the government and fully supported. Importantly, for us, it's always about maintaining strong relationships with our local community at the at the village level, the people who work around us and live around us, at the community levels through Boone and the governor and the region, as well as into Bannocko. And that's part of when we look at things like paying the compensation, developing a community development plan, and working with the with the people around us to make sure that we can develop our project and work well with the local community.

8:44 And finally, clearly, we reiterated and still confident to say we expect to be in production in the quarter four twenty four. So this this calendar year, we'll be intending to ship out spodumene from our project. Bit of a construction schedule. And, again, a lot of this is similar to the work that was put together by KODAL. And now in conjunction with our joint venture partners, we are confident to say that this schedule working with the Chinese manufacturers and our team, we expect to be commissioning and product and producing in December 2024. As you can see back there in March, DMS units, crushers ordered, site work commencing in April, civil designs, mining fleet mobilized, etcetera.

9:40 It's a well thought out and busy schedule. As I mentioned, Steve is actually on-site in Mali at the moment working with the team and guiding with his experience and our team's experience to make sure that we can make this schedule. Project team is obviously, we've mentioned many times, strong point for us, but also a critical thing for any operation and starting with our country manager there, Mohammed Nyare, instrumental in making sure that we've maintained our licenses throughout our exploration and development work and now working with us to make sure that the licenses and transfers happen as soon as possible. We've been very pleased to welcome Yuxing Chai and Jerry Gao.

10:29 Yuxing as our general manager for the operation and Jerry Gao is the vice president for the processing and deeply involved in the development process, both experienced in Africa, both with experience in open pit mining and a great understanding of the mining industry. Steve, you would have heard me say many times his extensive experience in West Africa, multiple developments,

11:02 and immediately before joining us was actually working with the development of the Bald Hill lithium mine in Western Australia. So immediate practical experience as well as long history in West Africa. And finally, our chief financial officer, Paul Reeves, who has, again, worked in Mali in West Africa, understands intimately the requirements of the Ohara and ECOWAS and all sorts of accounting things that probably are a bit beyond me, but we're very confident and comfortable with our team that we will know we'll be able to bring our project to development in budget and on time. And just in some of that, I'd actually like Steve now to have a few words about what we're actually doing on-site and a brief summary of some actual financials for the Burgundy project.

11:59 Thank you, Bernard. The summary of the stage one DMS production figures are there. It was announced some time ago. We've seen some questions about asking for an update, which we'll do in in the course of the next quarter or so, but still very robust. Our average life of mine concentrate price was $2,080 for our cash flow forecasts which gives you very high end PV and a lot of cash flow. So we're very confident still that we're going to meet our CapEx, 65,000,000 cap. On the OpEx side, our mining contractor costs are in line and in fact, just under the allowances in our OpEx from that announcement.

12:53 So moving forward, we'll continue to provide updates when things of significance do happen. In the near term, our mining contractor is gearing up to mobilize on-site and they'll start clearing the site very quickly. Just to reiterate, we've had discussion ourselves internally about the timeline. The schedule is tight and when you look at the potential for rain interrupting the middle of our construction period, we've taken that into account in our design and also in the footprint. It's actually quite a small footprint when you consider other projects in the region. It's a robust design.

13:40 The design that DRA provided was then forwarded to our Chinese partners and we're very confident with the crushing system that BHD are providing for us and also the DMS plant and equipment from Haiwang. As Bernard said, both very experienced Chinese suppliers and we have assistance from the Hainan mining team in China who are domiciled one in each of the offices of those suppliers to make sure that things are done on time. And we're hoping at this stage, we've been told that all of our simple design work will be completed by the end of next month, which will see us looking to get into our concrete construction pretty quickly, gives us a couple of months before the rain starts in July. So it's tight.

14:33 We know the area well. We know what how to work in this environment rain, hail or shine. But getting out of the ground quickly, getting our concrete started before the wet season comes will underpin our success

14:48 to complete this project on time. We did see a question about what the end of the year means that is the calendar year end of 2024 to be in production. A little bit about our JV partner, the Hainan Group. There's 100% offtake is secured with JV partner. They're a subsidiary of the Flosun International Group, which is a large conglomerate. The benefit to the project is that all of the offtake is in demand direct from Hainan so that they can send so we can send that concentrate to the Hainan Island where the Hainan Group are building their own hydroxide plant. So secured offtake, which is very important for us at market rates.

15:41 And we'll supply those feedstocks to Hainan in China. They've started building their hydroxide plant. And as we've said there, 1,056,000,000 investment for an annual throughput of 20,000 tonnes of battery grade lithium.

16:05 I'm going to revert back to Bernard for lithium fundamentals. Thank you, sir. Thanks, Steve. Well, I guess as investors and interested shareholders in KODAL, we've all been following the lithium market for a long time. As you will all be aware, KODAL first acquired the lithium projects in Mali in 2016. And through that time, we've seen some ups, some downs, up down, and now we seem to be coming in another progress of process of an upward cycle. This is clearly driven by the recognition that the demand for lithium is constantly increasing, and the supply has failed to match that increasing demand.

16:55 We have seen periods where there such as '21, two thousand and twenty one, two thousand and early two thousand and twenty two where there was an amazing price increase, where it went from around $600 a ton to well in excess of $6,000 a ton. Well, clearly, in our view, when you when you comment when we comment that we were only prepared to use an average of $2,080 a ton over a four year period, which at the end of that four years, were estimating possibly somewhere closer to 1,200, indicates that there was a little bit of discrepancy in the market. What we're seeing now is a more steady, more regular increase in the price reflecting that increasing shortage.

17:47 You may have seen news recently of auctions of spodumene product in Australia, both from Pilbara Minerals and Albemarle, and recently as well from MINERALS PLC, all achieving in excess of what has been accepted published price for spodumene concentrate. This is a very good thing for us. Right now, in the down market, we're having access to excellent quality people to work with us. Clearly, we're having access to, consultants and construction groups who are able to come and work for us at our request, and that's obviously positive for us in our timing for building the project as well as when we anticipate first production at the end of this year, looking at an increase in rising market.

18:38 Just some some simple facts here. You know, the the growing demand for lithium expected to reach over 4,500 gigawatt hours by 2030. Yeah. Another estimate from a bunch of analysts. We see that there's strong in increase for demand for batteries to reach over 95% of the market now compared to what it was in 2015. And again, some of the basic things I used to reference why we see support for this strong increase in lithium, it's driven by government regulations. And recently, we saw the news from the president of The United States commenting and looking to put into law the support for increasing EV purchases, looking to work to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

19:33 This is what drives lithium demand. We see that the spot price for spodumene has fallen, but clearly, there's a bottom for that as the demand is always there. Anecdotally, we're hearing here in Australia and we're hearing from our Chinese partners and other groups we talk to regularly in China of the increased difficulty in being able to source significant supplies of spodumene for their plants to operate. All of those are positive for us, and that's why we're still very comfortable with developing a lithium project in Mali, while we're very comfortable that this will support a long life profitable mining operation.

20:19 Again, for further slides, I think we're all familiar with these things really, Electric vehicles, increasing demand. You know, personally, I actually own one, given one this year. Great little car. And once you're driving one, you tend to look around and notice a lot more on the road. It certainly is increasing. Countries with the largest reserves reflect actually countries more that have spent money on their exploration than on their development. Chile and Argentina, long history with the brines. Australia, long history with green bushes, Wodgina, the Pilbara Minerals in the Pilbara region as well as the Yukon of Australia, all reflecting

21:04 equity for a long period. We see Mali, and at the moment, we know of only two companies that are advanced enough to have resources to find, and that's us and Leo Lithium, an increasing interest in exploration in Mali will drive that increase in lithium reserves.

21:23 So I think just to finish on that, lithium is a great product to be. Our project at Pagoonie will be a profitable mining operation, and we are looking to position KODAL to take advantage of our strong position at the moment to increase our exposure to the lithium market. We're as I mentioned earlier, the way we operate and the way we've always operated is to make sure we work with the local community. We're very proactive in maintaining strong relations. We've always looked to employ locally and, advance the communities we work with. As I said, Mali's minister of mines minister for the environment has visited our site several times.

22:13 Very positive feedback to us, approval of all our proposed activities. We have a community consultation program established, and you should as a comment, that's about 80 people regularly meeting to discuss opportunities that we can bring to the community with our development. It creates quite a headache for our ESR manager, but he's an excellent guy and doing a great job for us. You can see a couple of pictures here. We've recently upgraded a school. I'm sure those kids are very happy to be in school, but we've supplied teacher equipment and intend to do so for lots of other villages in the community.

22:59 We've also supplied farming equipment to the community to improve their ability to generate a great return from their work, and we'd be looking to help and assist with further improvements in the farming in the region. I think that's about all I want to say as a summary for where we are and I think we're very happy. I can see lots of questions coming through, and I think we'll start off with some of the pre submitted. But before we do, I'd just like to thank everyone for their attention through the presentation and just hand briefly back to Alessandro. Perfect. Bernard and Steve, thanks very much for your 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.

23:48 But just for the company take a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via your investor dashboard. As you can see we have received a number of questions both pre submitted and throughout today's presentation. So thank you to all the investors for submitting those. Bernard, at this point if I could just hand back to you just to chat the Q and A and give responses where it is appropriate to do so. I'll pick up from you at the end. Okay. Thanks, Alexandra. And, again, thanks, everyone, for their interest in our project. Obviously, Steve and I have lived and breathed this for a number of years, and we can talk about it till the cows come home. But we have some specific questions, and I do note that a lot of these are quite repetitive.

24:39 So we've broken down some of the pre submitted into a few chunks. So excuse me if a few people who have submitted may not get exactly their wording. But to start with, we'll address a couple of questions around the timing and the schedule. And I think as we went through the presentation here, we are confident of our timing to say we will be in production by the end of twenty twenty four. Question that was submitted by the question that was submitted was asking us, do we envisage any potential delay when the seasons change, I. E, the rainy season affecting the building time scales?

25:27 One thing we have done is obviously take into account that there will be a rainy season in West Africa. We've worked there for a long time. We are looking to mobilize our fleet next month. We will be undertaking the site clearing, building the berms to river and water protection berms around our processing plant and our proposed open pit. We expect to have the civil works for the cement and construct cement and footings for the crushing and BMS units finalized and out of the ground prior to the wet season commencing. We have taken into account the possible effects of rain.

26:13 Of course, they do have impact on the timing, but we do think that we've taken that into account and still confident with our estimate of estimate of construction, commissioning, and production.

26:30 Next sort of question and and range of questions was really around the the offtake. And I hope people have seen that the RNS that we put out this morning may answer a few questions about some of the offtake arrangements and the dealings that we've had with both our former major shareholder and long term supporter, Rixin International, as well as our JV partner, Hainan and the Hainan Group. As we announced in November, when we completed the transaction in November this last year and originally signed in January 2023, we had granted the right to Hainan Mining to formalize a 20% offtake for the product that was not covered by the right of first refusal held by Rixin.

27:27 Today, we've announced that we have negotiated with Rixin to terminate that right of first refusal, and we will be looking to finalize the offtake agreement with Hainan Mining for the full production from Bagoonie, initially restricted to the first three to four year production from the DMS processing plant. We think this is a great outcome for us. It certainly secures the sale of our product. It secures the fact that we'll only be at market, no discount, and that we have a joint venture partner who is as keen as us to maximize production and work as quickly as possible.

28:14 Next lot of questions relate to the transfer of the mining license from our subsidiary company, Future Minerals, SARL, which is a company that was established as the exploration entity and is the current holder of the exploitation permit as well as the surrounding exploration licenses. What is happening in Mali at the moment is the government has a moratorium on transactions related to mining and exploration permits. We are continuing to work with the government, regularly meeting and discussing with ministerial advisers as well as the MGM in Mali regarding what we can do.

29:03 And we're very firstly, we're very confident of our license. We're very sure of its good standing, and we're very clear of our approvals to work, to build the mine, and to operate. We are looking to transfer as soon as possible. At this stage, I can't give a timeline, other than to reinforce that this is foremost in our mind, and we're working constantly with, our team and the government to try and get this done as soon as possible. It doesn't restrict any of the work we're doing at the moment. And what we are what our understanding is, it doesn't restrict us in an operation phase.

29:50 Clearly, we prefer to have everything finalized into our new mining entity, Lemindo Lithium de Buguni, and to be able to operate clearly. But at this stage, all feedback to us is we have full rights and everything is all the feedback to us is actually they want us to be going as quick as possible. Okay.

30:18 There's a question also, group of questions really, relating to a few of the comments that we've made, both in presentations as well as in our r RNSs regarding what we are alluding to with our phase two development and whether we are able to fast track that and bring it forward. As I said in the presentation, what we're seeing with our Boumou exploration drilling and now prospect and the increasing resource there, we're becoming very confident of large scale operation based on Sogola Ballet and Boumou supporting a flotation plant. We'd like to complete our drilling at Boumou as soon as possible, get a real estimate of the size of the potential open pit there,

31:14 and then optimize what a flotation plant looks like to ensure that we get best value for the for the project. So when we say we're looking to fast track that, that really means that a lot of this feasibility work, will be going, will be undertaken in conjunction with the development of the DMS plant as well as the early stages of the operation of the DMS plant. We'd like to bring that

31:44 into production as soon as possible. At the moment, we anticipate a 125,000 ton per annum phase one DMS unit. Phase two, on what we, as KODL, had, reviewed, adds another 235,000 tons production to our our Burgundy project, meaning that project producing over 350,000 tons per annum is really a significant project producing a very strong cash flow. That's the driver for, for looking to bring flotation in sooner rather than later. And finally, I think oh, no. Not finally. Another couple of presubscribed question presubmitted questions. So questioning a little bit about the groups we selected for the, DMS units and the crushing circuit and couple of comments around their experience and, skills.

32:52 Clearly, we've done a lot of work in choosing who we've, selected. These groups are both highly experienced and able to deliver a product of high standard. They offer a lot of support, and we have clear evidence of plants constructed by them, operating successfully. What we look for and why for example, with the DMS units, some minor tweaks to that design will actually result for us, we believe, in a better in a better circuit delivering possibly a higher metallurgical recovery leading to higher spodumene production and, hence, better value for the company.

33:37 Timing, quality, and support are some of the key things we look for in selecting these partners. Couple of questions. A quick question, and I'll I'll address this. It's regarding the sale of our Boone West projects made up of two licenses, Maffele West and Khomeini West. We did

34:02 finalize an agreement with Leo Lithium because those two licenses are immediately adjacent to Gulamina. That agreement remains on foot, but subject to the Mali mining moratorium on dealing with licenses, we have not been able to finalize the Kimini portion of that agreement. We would like to do so as soon as possible. And, yes, all our rights in regards to the royalties reinstatement for potentially future exploration success and so on remain on foot. Now we have a few questions really regarding gold assets, and I'll try and delete a few of these answer a few of these in in one go.

34:55 Essentially

34:58 essentially, we have been clearly focused on Bagoonie. It is our best asset. It's our major asset. It will be a a great mine and bring a lot of reward for the company. As we've stated previously, we do have gold assets in Mali and Kotivwa. In Mali, our lead asset is the Fattu gold project, and we intend, we have planned, and we will be doing exploration activity on Fattu this year. And certainly, we like to get in there before the rainy season and get some work done there. It does look like there's significant potential for resource to be defined around the historical drilling as well as some of the new areas that our geologists have identified through mapping and surface sampling, highlighting some additional prospects.

35:50 In Cote D'Ivoire, Nile is our most advanced prospect, and we would look we'd be looking to go back and do some drilling in Nile. But overall, our philosophy for KODAL is we believe we have a strong experience and expertise in lithium exploration and development in West Africa. And our focus will be on Burgundy and rightly so as it remains our major asset and will be will be a very intense period coming up over the next six months of Pagoonie. We'll be looking to try and expand our focus in lithium as well as do some work on the gold assets. So I think that will be I'm sorry. There's a question regarding an updated MRE for gold.

36:41 Really, at the moment, we've never published a mineral resource estimate for our gold assets. We do feel that we need some more drilling in both Neil A and FAR 2 before we're confident to report a resource estimate. We'll be looking to try and do that drilling over the course of this year. So I think I think that covers all the pre submitted and summarizes summarizes those questions. So I I hope there'll be a bit of excuse given. There was quite a number. I think we've tried to answer them as quickly as possible because during the course of the meeting, we've had a a large number of additional questions added.

37:28 And I'll just start here with Matthew Ng who has questioned how realistic is the 2,080 price assumption we used in the NPV assessment of our DMS phase one. And I would just say one thing, Matt. We did that Matthew, we did that assessment back in 2009 2021. And, of course, over the test of over the course of time, that's looked very much underpriced. Currently, it looks slightly overpriced. And I think by the end of the year, we may be very close to the mark in that in that assessment.

38:14 What I will say is that that 2080 started with a period of approximately three months of around $2,250 a ton, and in year four was down to $1,200 a ton. So, of course, we we saw a range of prices that may may develop. I I can't say how realistic it will be come December. What I will say is that at the moment, our focus is on the development. We don't need funding. We have secured funding. We don't need permitting. We're fully permitted, and we don't need any sort of anything outside to prevent us getting our operation up and running. So I think we'll see what the market does. But as you saw in our presentation, we believe that the strong demand for lithium, the increasing demand for lithium and the lower supply than market anticipated will continue to support a steady, I hope, a steady increase in the price of lithium.

39:27 I'll just I see a couple of years from shareholder Frank Jay, who I believe is one of my regular communicators. So hello, Frank. Thanks for your interest. Your question, I think we've answered a few times around the building of the plant mine and production and really questioning whether we can transfer the when we can transfer the exploitation license from future minerals to LMLB. I think we've stated that clearly in the presentation. We're working as closely as we can with the government to try and achieve the transfer. In the meantime, we've been given all indications that we're everything we're able to do, but we are able to build.

40:19 And we do say that the exploitation permit is valid. All its all its licenses and all its rights remain in the course, including potentially being able to export product if required. We really don't see this situation continuing throughout 2024, so we anticipate being able to transfer the license because we've said previously that moving to lithium mining and exploitation in Mali is a key a really key interest for the Mali government, for the Mali mining sector that opens up a new opportunity for the country to, gain access to royalties and profits from the operation as well as developing a new sector. And we think that's really important, and the government is giving us all indications that they support that and will continue to support us.

41:22 Just one other question I'll answer for you, Frank, and that's about the gold prospects. As I stated, we're currently not drilling the gold prospects. We've had our geologists doing some further mapping assessment and, field sampling, to prioritize and rank those targets. We are looking chiefly at work at FATU and MINERALS. K. Let's, look this up. I'll answer the next question from Chris l, which is querying a comment in our r and s today. And thanks, Chris, for your diligent reading of this.

42:10 In in our agreement with reaching, we're looking to make it a two stage payment depending on, one, our finalizing of the agreement for the offtake with Hainan, and secondly, a time based or a shipment based, which states on the October 31, the five the second payment will be made or it may be paid earlier within ten days of the first shipment of spodumene concentrate. And the question states, does this mean the company expects the first shipment to be out before October 31? And do I think it's achievable? Look. My answer to that, Chris, is that, as you're aware, we've always taken a more conservative approach to our feasibility study, to our schedule, to our capital estimates.

43:04 I maintain our guidance that we expect to be in production before the end of twenty twenty four. I think it would be a big stretch to have it out before the October 31, but our team is working as hard as they can in Mali and in China and UK and Australia to try and make sure we can achieve that as fast as possible. So we would love it if it was before, but we're saying before the end of twenty twenty four. Cathy k is asking a similar question to, I believe, what I've just answered for Frank in regards to can we confirm the sale of lithium?

43:50 The license hasn't transferred. Well, Cassidy, again, I'll just say that the exploitation permit remains valid. It is currently held by Future Minerals SARL. We do intend to transfer it to the newly formed mining company. At this stage, we can't. The feedback that we've received and have maintained from the government is that we will be able to operate fully if the license is in future minerals. However, we're working as hard as we can to to accomplish that transfer. David m is asking us about the partnership with Hainan and how we can make it equitable and true partnership. Well, David, I think my answer to that is that we worked extensively with Hainan through the due diligence phase and through the phase of 2023 to finalize our formal agreement.

44:54 We have two Hainan two Hainan representatives who've been on-site since September last year. And as I mentioned, Chai Yusheng is our general manager for the operation. We spent a lot of time working out a shareholder agreement between us through that phase of due diligence and negotiations. It is a a fair partnership. We actually have Steve who's appointed as the deputy general manager for the operation. Steve is on-site. I'm regularly on-site. You'll see the integration of our team throughout the whole process. I think it is a fair and working partnership.

45:41 The decision making and strategic initiatives. As you'll see from the announcement earlier this week, our guideline of $65,000,000 for the DMS has been maintained. Our advice on the DMS units has been maintained and, you know, in in a way improved, and we're very pleased with that. It's a function of groups working together, and we're very happy with the with the, relationship with Hainan. A couple of questions now, from and Chris L relating to the agreement with ReiShin and what they intend to do. So first of all, ReiShin have been a long term supporter of KODAL, been a shareholder since 2017, haven't sold a share in that time.

46:40 This sale of the offtake agreement and their right first refusal over that offtake agreement is a good thing for us. And I think it reflects refus review that it wouldn't be able to beat a market price for long term offtake, and it reflects the relationship between KODAL, Reefu, Reefu, and Hainan. Successfully, we've been able to agree that. Question is about, is there a place to for their shares? I'm I am not constantly in communication with Rishin about their shareholdings.

47:31 We believe that they have a right to sell. They have a right to sell, of course, like any shareholder. We understand that they may may sell some. Indications are that there's lots of groups who may take up any shares from them. We're not actively doing anything with that, and we should have not actively approached us for the sale. And Chris' second part of that question is, are the funds readily available or will be or will we, KODAL, be raising money? Well, Chris, the funds are readily available. They're part of the KMUK project, and those funds will be coming out of that. So it's funds coming from the development. KODAL will not be looking to raise any further funds.

48:28 A question here from GC. Steve, perhaps you can give an answer to this, the 20% increase in throughput. Yeah. It's an advantage for the project. Thanks, GC, the question. We know we can get a bit more out of the Haiwong plant. Everything has to align from the pit through crushing to the plant, which at this stage, it would be premature to say, Hey, we can consistently produce more than our 125,000 to 130,000 tonnes per annum. We see that as a great opportunity, especially these plants, these pegmatites are quite hard and abrasive. So the crushers and the plant will take some wear and tear. I worked on a diamond mine very similar.

49:15 We're shutting down regularly. So what it does do is it probably underpins that we won't fall to the downside once we get up into a steady state production, but it does give us that upside. Not as Bernard said, we remain conservative. We'll get the proof out of our plant as we go from commissioning into that steady state production mode. And then we'll look to slowly debottleneck and see if we can get it up a bit higher, but it is an opportunity for us. Thanks, Steve. Another question from Chris. I can't let one shareholder hold it all, Chris, but I'll answer this one. Your comp does the company intend on any future share consolidations?

50:04 Look, Chris, we do recognize it's unusual to have 20,000,000,000 shares on issue. But at this stage, we haven't got any intention to undertake a share consolidation, and there's nothing driving that at the moment. We have a few questions here from Vaty and Kay. And I would say, Vaty and I've answered the mining license transfer, the question about reaching what the status is now. And look, I know this is probably your last question that I'll address is probably of interest to all of our shareholders, but I have nothing that I can say here. Where that Yun is asking, is Hainan planning to take over?

50:52 And what is the minimum value that we would consider for a takeover? Look. I've no idea, Varian, what Hainan are planning. We are working as a joint venture. We have a very good relationship with Hainan, and I think that they are enjoying a good relationship with us. We have no idea of any of their intentions along that. What would I say about the value of our holding in KMUK specifically and KODAL PLC? My view is it should be much higher. Every and you'll all know every MD, every CEO will always say that, we should be higher.

51:38 We are fully funded development project with a very good lithium project to bring to market a strongly supportive JV partner, fully fully funded, fully permitted. It's a great project. So I think that's about all I wanna say to those questions, but thank you very much for your interest. Question here from Barry s. Again, thanks, Barry. Questioning whether we're saying it's a bit premature to be saying we're in production before the end of December and reference referencing us to Premier African Minerals.

52:24 And Barry is saying, realistically, you should allow quarter one twenty twenty five as factor in the delay of delivery equipment to Africa. Thanks, Barry. Look, I think that we are confident with our timeline. You will have seen that we initially, as KODL individually, did believe that a twelve month, development schedule was more than enough to bring this into production. The time we've spent reviewing and going through with Hainan, sourcing some excellent suppliers of our DMS and crushing unit, the fact that we're mobilizing the fleet to site in April, we're still very comfortable with December 2024 production by that date.

53:19 And I will say that Steve is very experienced in West Africa, and our team is very experienced in West Africa, and we've factored those issues in. So Steve, did you have any comment or are you happy with that? No further comment from me, Bernard. As you said, we've been planning on this project for a while. All of the layout designs were done in advance to give us that advantage where we could basically say to the new I call them the new Chinese suppliers that they must work within the layout that we've already prepared and must work within the earthworks design that we already prepared. So I said before, getting that dirt work done and that ability to just be constructing simple concrete structures, nothing complex, you know, with the more modular design that we had always envisaged, it means that, you know, we remain confident and we have good relationships with the contractors in country.

54:24 Yeah. I've been coming to West Africa for a while and coming to Mali now and and working closely with Jerry Gao who's a is a metallurgist background, and he's gonna be the man that operates this plant. And we're working well together, and we remain confident. So, yeah, all systems go about it. Okay. We better just looking at the time. We better keep moving on. Question GC about the gold assets and Steven W about the gold assets. I think we've answered those previously, guys, but can take those questions on notice. Question from Darren A, which I will quickly comment on.

55:11 Number one, being a three four pronged question here from Darren. Does the LEO Lithium situation concern you? I mean, I think that main task is paid out. Yes. Of course, we're always looking to understand what's happening in Mali. What we understand from their situation, it's very, very different from us. As I've stated, our communications with the government always give us a feedback that our license remains in good standing, that all our permits remain in place, that all our activity is approved. We we think we're different. When you second question, does the transport MOU with Mali lithium currently name change to LEO lithium remaining tight? Yes.

56:03 It does. We still talk with them regularly. In fact, last time I was in Mali in February and Steve, recently, we're hearing some quite positive things about potential upside with the transport. And, obviously, we're all aware it's a big impact on our operating cost, and any anything we can do to improve that will be will be a great benefit to us. I've addressed the comment about the Burgundy West sale to Leo Lithium. It remains on foot, but not yet finalized. Barry, yes. Let's put another question in. Barry, it's about the mining license transfer, and we very clear on that. It hasn't happened yet.

56:51 We're working to get that done. James h asking about where the funds for the payment to is coming from. It comes out of the money invested into the project through KMUK. Chris l another one, Chris. Does current issues in sea shipping raise any concerns for delivery? Yes, Chris, I think. But a lot of these things, obviously, are out of our hands, and we're leaving the shipping and transport to the experts. And the feedback we're having at the moment is we're still able to stick to our timeline.

57:39 Just trying to quickly move through some of these. Again, mining license, we've answered. Grade a gold, sorry. We spent a lot of time answering that. Nick M as well. I think we've answered your question on the 14,000,000 to be paid to reach in. Darren, I again, probably a little bit of a repetition, Darren, about the price, the increase in throughput, and 5.5% given today's price. Well, quickly, I've answered the question about the $20.80 per ton price. We still expect to see an increase in price over the time. Yes. We expect to have a higher throughput if the plant operates as well as we expect it to.

58:33 And, yes, it's very viable to produce a 5.5% concentrate. That's our average expected, and we, look to probably have times where we're better than that. Again Darren, again, long term future can we see a long term future mining lithium in Mali with the junta in control? Yes. We can, Darren. Currently, what we're seeing with the Mali government, they do refer to themselves as a transitional government. They have been very clear that they do intend to, undertake elections in the future. We are seeing, aside from the unfortunate moratorium on mining licenses as they review historic licenses and look to introduce an updated mining code, a government that's been operating and functioning reasonably well.

59:32 And from our point of view, we've been able to operate fully with no with no issues. Again, asking about an update on the gold operations. We've answered that throughout this presentation. John g, perhaps slightly different take on things. John here with questioning the departure of the French in the region affected the risk profile of the project. In our view, it has not affected the risk profile of the Boonie lithium project. We are located in the South Of Mali with two approximately 200 kilometers south of the capital, Pamukkuk. It's a very quiet, primary industry area.

1:00:22 We have never had an issue in that part of Mali. The French departure was instigated by the current government and supported by the population. The current French government sorry. Current Mali government has made extensive efforts to push the jihadists and fighting in the Northeast of the country further out. They've had some success. Anecdotally, we're hearing areas of significantly lower risk than previously. So in our view, John, we're still always very aware of the risk with our partner, Hainan. We're constantly assessing it.

1:01:09 We have security manager on-site in communication with all other mines and embassies in the area to make sure we have most up to date information. PLC, asking about our website. And, Paul, probably a little bit prescient of you. We're actually looking to finalize an update shortly. It has has become a bit outdated. We agree. Kyle, questioning again shares. And, Kyle, KODAL has no intention to undertake a capital placement in the near term. We have no intention to issue any more shares to the market, and we do not intend to undertake a consolidation.

1:02:01 Ian, your question about a few videos from the site as activity increases, yes. We love we love the idea of putting up collages and videos of activities on-site, and Steve will be be there to direct some of these with the trucks and movement. We'll be looking to do that and, of course, regularly with updates on community. Where are we? Darren A, you said it seems excessive. Our funds to Rishin. Well, actually, Darren, I think that the purchase of a right of first refusal over 80% of the spodumene product from Bagoonie for only $14,000,000 is actually a very good price for us.

1:02:52 KODAL MINERALS investment is actually in excess of the 4,500,000 you quote. They've been a long term holder and a long term supporter, and they maintain their shares. I think you're I think you're joining two things together that don't don't join. Quickly through here, Chris w and Matthew n probably asking similar things. Matthew, no behind the scenes discussions. We would never entertain anything like that with Hainan. And secondly, no. There is no additional money being put in by either Hainan or ourselves. We have the funds for the routine transaction, for the termination of the offtake.

1:03:42 A question regarding the government participation in Lamingo Lithium to Buguni when we transfer the license ownership. So we have our license granted under the 2019 Mali mining code. And as with all projects, the Mali government has a right to a 10% free carry and a right to purchase an additional 10%. We believe it's likely, and we've factored into all our review, that they will take the additional 10%. The maximum will be will be a 20% holding in the project. Rob, I think you're asking a very similar question we've answered before about the recent payment.

1:04:30 Gary is asking about the Elysium's failure to reach agreement with the government. Gary, I think that what I have said earlier, they're in a very different position from us. There's other associations that possibly are affecting their negotiations with the government. You will, of course, have seen that they are continuing to advance the development of their project, and they're up to about 80% construction, I believe. We we see strong support from the Mali government for the development of a lithium industry. And while it's difficult for LEO Lithium shareholders that they're currently suspended and in this period of negotiation.

1:05:19 It doesn't impact us. I'd love it if it was cleared up and they were actually able to operate as quickly as possible. But at the moment, I see some concern, which is why we always maintain those strong relationships with the government. So just quickly roll through a couple. Nick Nick m is asking we were anticipating a buyout. Nick, I really don't know. We focused on getting our project up and running. David in, are we all invited to the opening ceremony? Everyone is welcome in Mali.

1:06:06 And if you're coming to an opening ceremony, I look forward to seeing you there. Question about Hydro. That's a partnership from many years ago, Parves. That was completed. Don't anticipate any further work. And I think John, if will be the last question we have time for today, unfortunately. John, John's question, Amy, is correct here that the gold is separate from the lithium subsidiary. All our gold assets are held in a 100% owned entities, 100% owned by owned by KODAL MINERALS.

1:06:51 So I think that'll be oops. Baseball hats. A baseball hat. You just got it in time, Ian. This is the last question we will answer. And, again, I love these hats. Where can we get KODAL baseball caps caps? But I do need to step in I do need to step in because further to the website update, we've updated our our branding as well. So we're pushing pretty hard, at our end for our Hainan partners to, support us in some investment in some new KODAL MINERALS hats. I'm doing my best, Ian. Yeah. Come to the ATM, Ian. We often have the hats available there. If you see us at conferences, we have hats available there.

1:07:42 Or perhaps you might see me in the street wearing my KODAL hat and shirt, I'll pass it on. Anyway, I think that's I think we've covered what appears to be the most general questions from shareholders, and hope we've addressed them as fully as we can. We will be looking to provide further updates over the next few months as as development proceeds. And as one of the questions require was asking about videos and probably more more online updates, we'll be looking to do that as well. So I'd like to thank everyone for the time. And, Alessandro, did you have anything else you need?

1:08:29 No. That's all, Bernard. So what I'll do now is I'll close the session off. Thank you very much for updating investors today, being very generous of your time. Could I please ask investors not to close the session as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will then take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of KODAL MINERALS PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all. Thank you. Thank you.