Kodal Minerals (LSE:KOD) — Investor Presentation

0:01 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the KODAL MINERALS PLC investor presentation. Throughout this presentation, investors are being in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and could be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Just click q and a, scroll to the bottom, type your question, and press send. Company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company review all questions submitted today, we'll publish responses where appropriate to do so. These will be available via investment company dashboard, you'll and be notified once they're ready for your review. I'd also like to remind you this presentation is being recorded.

0:33 Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Bernard Elwood, CEO of KODAL MINERALS PLC. Good morning. Good morning, Paul. Thank you very much for having me today, and I welcome all attendees. And, as this is a we're a new company to this investor meets, company platform, I'd just like to introduce KODAL MINERALS. So we're an AIM listed exploration company. We have projects in West Africa with our principal project, the Buguni Lithium Project in Mali, and you'll hear a lot more about that during my presentation. And we also have a suite of gold projects throughout Mali and Cote D'Ivoire, which are an excellent series of projects that give investors an opportunity to have exposure to both the lithium and battery metal sector as well as the traditional gold exploration and development that West Africa is famous for. So I'm the CEO, as as you mentioned, Paul, and, I've been involved with KODAL since 2016.

1:36 I think quite a successful time. We've certainly changed the company. Our lithium project looks fantastic and prime for development, and we're a company that's looking forward to moving to the next stage. So what I'd like to do now is run through our run through our presentation. I'm happy to take all questions, as Paul mentioned, at the end. And, actually, we already have a range of questions to answer. So a lot of interest in KODAL, and I hope you'll be suitably encouraged from this presentation. So as I said, we are a West African focused exploration and development company. We have a near term development lithium project in Mali and a highly prospective portfolio of gold assets in West Africa. And traditionally, West Africa is a famous region. The Burmian Sequence hosts multiple million ounce gold deposits, many active and producing gold deposits as well as high high priority exploration targets.

2:40 But the key for us over the last few years has been our lithium project in Mali. And what we are focusing on is to advance our Boonie lithium project to the investment decision and full financing. And principally, this has been our aim since 2016 so that we can capitalize on the increase in lithium demand, the increasing interest in the battery metal sector as well as the increasing, regulation that's driving the development of electric vehicles and also multiple other uses for our our product. So we think we are in the prime position. So what we have at Burgoonie is we have a project located approximately a 180 kilometers south of the capital Bamako in a very peaceful part of the country.

3:33 It's dominated by primary industry. We have a government that supports mining extensively. It's been a prime industry for the government for for Mali and its development and will continue to be so for a long time. We're very, lucky that for us, the lithium project offers an opportunity for Mali to develop a new industry, away from the traditional gold mining, of course, and become involved in a newly, developing industry. And so our project, we've received a lot of support from the government since we commenced the work. And now as we you would have noted in November this year, we now are a fully permitted project for development with the approval of our mining license.

4:20 So now we are looking to accelerate towards development. We have a project that at this stage has 21,000,000 tonnes. We're looking to develop a 2,000,000 tonne per annum plant. We are expecting to produce in excess of 200,000 tonne of concentrate a year at a low cash cost. We have a life of mine that currently is around about nine years and looking to extend that well beyond that range given our extensive exploration prospects within the Burgoonie project already identified through drilling, already identified through return of mineralized intersections. So we're very confident that this is a great project to start and will continue to expand.

5:09 So the capital requirements on our preliminary feasibility study, excuse me, on that, we forecast a we forecast approximately $120,000,000 of capital required. Now, of course, we're looking to update that feasibility to two thousand and twenty one, twenty two prices given that this was completed in late two thousand and nineteen. We expect that will increase, but some of our recent work that we've been doing with some potential groups in China in terms of developing the project indicates that perhaps we're not too far off the money with our initial estimate in terms of the plant and in terms of the capital required on that score. We're looking further, of course, into improving the plant design, improving the open pit optimization. So there's still a long way to go, but we're well advanced, and we think we'll be moving very quickly here. I think that capital cost will increase, but not so significantly.

6:13 Moving on, as I said, we have already defined a resource of over 21,000,000 tonnes at 1.1 lithium oxide, very, very much amenable to open pit mining at outcrops. We have extensive strike length that remains open at depth. We have multiple prospects already defined to expand that. Our main one, Sogolabale with the largest tonnage there, extensive strike length over a kilometer long, width up to 50 to 70 meters wide in places, continuing at depth, and we we will be looking to expand that. Boumou, we got on too late. It's currently the baby, but as I say, it's open multiple pegmatite veins, great possibility to extend that.

7:02 We have a 350 square kilometer project area in total, and a 100 kilometers of that is contained within our newly granted mining license. So everything within that area will immediately add to the, immediately add to the life of mine. We have, infill drilling and extension drilling and exploration drilling planned to commence during 2022. Of course, our priority is to make sure that all our work leads to, the development phase, but, fantastic opportunities here to expand this resource base. Of course, that resource has to be mined, and we've got a mine development program here. We just see the first draft of the proposed mine layout, three open pits, Ngualana, Sogolobale and Boumou initially.

7:53 We're working with a range of expert consultants who have been able to work with us on the engineering, the metallurgy and the environmental work to make sure that we're doing the best possible practice we can. As I said, the work that we have ongoing at the moment will be continued metallurgical studies, will be additional drilling, will be additional exploration, and all of those will lead to an updated feasibility study that will commence with the reoptimization of the resources to confirm the open pits that we will look to mine as well as finalizing the recovery, which the feasibility is actually quite sensitive to and small improvements in our processing plant and overall recovery lead to significant increases in our spodumene recovery and, hence, significant increases in our revenue. So very positive result possibilities for us and actually a very key time for us to be finalizing this work as we're looking to capitalize on this strong lithium market.

9:02 We have a couple of comments here. And I think, in general, shareholders and investors will be well aware of the interest in the lithium market and the drivers towards what's this push behind the price increase, what's the push behind governments getting involved in regulating and assisting development. And we look at it in a quite a simple breakdown of product that we will be looking to produce, so the spodumene versus brine and how we expect that there's an increasing focus on purchasing and an increasing interest in the spodumene product due to its ability to be converted quickly and easily to carbonate or lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide product and the fact that there's a great range of refineries ready to take our products. Secondly, we look at the utilization, and we see the predicted well, the current as well as the predicted great increase in the uptake, firstly, of electric vehicles, but secondly, in terms of a range of other products. It will mean that the demand for the spodumene that we're producing to be used in converting to batteries will be continuing decreasing incrementally.

10:19 And as we're currently seeing, the demand is outstripping the previous estimates, and the indications are that the current supply and the known companies moving into the market will still not be enough to meet that demand. So we're very positive that our project is while it's coming into a hot market, we'll actually be coming into a market that's poised to continue to grow very strongly. And then we see the economics aspect of it. And as we're noting that, yes, there's a lot of take up, but actually there's also a lot of take up of people utilizing the product, wanting to improve the end product, wanting to improve the batteries that are developed. And hence, we're seeing that the economics of the EVs in particular are becoming far more efficient, far more cost effective, and the take up, hence, is increasing dramatically there as well. So we see it's quite a very positive cycle for us in that our product is in high demand, that the utilization of that product is expected to be continue that economic exponential growth and the economies of scale of that product mean that the market also will continue to expand. So I feel that for us, the Boonie lithium project and our potential development there is a major milestone for KODAL. It's a fantastic potential for us to move into developing and mining a key commodity.

11:52 So just in further on that, you can see that the outlook for electric vehicle take up is continuing to grow. We're seeing that, as I mentioned earlier, we're we're actually seeing evidence that that take up is actually exceeding predicted demand quite strongly. And again, we know that the drivers for this, of course, are government regulation, public interest, and there's a huge amount of public interest in being able to generate power, to store power in batteries, to use it at their at people's own, behest, to have an electric vehicle that limits the environmental impact that people are having. And finally, we're seeing a a vast improvement in reliability and performance of batteries, again, giving significant confidence to consumers to take it up. So this is all a cycle that we're seeing that increases a market increasing, an interest increasing, a demand increasing, and hence, a price increasing for our product.

12:55 And again, just to reinforce, I guess I guess I'm quite confident in saying that this graph is a extremely interesting one for a company like us looking to move into a spodumene producing mine. Fantastic increase. Two years ago, the lithium sector was in in a in a doldrums, obviously affected by COVID, obviously affected by market conditions. And there was previously an expectation that supply would continue to rise beyond demand. Clearly, that didn't happen. Clearly, the changes occurred.

13:40 Clearly, the recognition that the product that we will be producing is extremely valuable and, hence, that increase in price. We think that there's been quite a lot of commentary recently that due to that reduction in the potential supply that people are now and purchasers are now looking to take a product that is less than what we consider the standard 6% lithium oxide spodumene concentrate. We we take the view that our project produces a fantastic product, a 6% lithium lithium oxide spodumene concentrate with very low impurities that has the potential to be a premium in the market.

14:29 And our feasibility study and our proposal for the development of the project is all heading towards us producing a 6% concentrate, which we think will also mean that we remain in a good position if there is a correction, if there is further companies coming into the market, that our product will still be in demand and still be selling quite well for us.

14:55 So just to summarize that, we have a fantastic project in Bagoonie. We have already a defined resource. We have a fully permitted mining project. We have potential to expand that project, and our product is a product that's in huge demand and increasing demand and in a rising price environment. So for us, we look at Boonie as our prime project. The focus of our company for this coming year is to move that rapidly into a development phase. And, obviously, the keys for that will be for us to secure financing and to secure the support to complete the construction of our proposed mine. In addition, we need to quickly do the additional test work in terms of further metallurgical studies as well as increased drilling and drilling to increase the confidence of the resource in the known areas, expand those known areas and continue the exploration to deliver further resource.

15:59 In the meantime, as I said at the start, we also will be looking to push quickly our gold exploration projects in Mali and Cote D'Ivoire. As a company, we've maintained a suite of portfolio of gold assets over several years. We've been slowly working these to improve them while we concentrated on our lithium. We're currently well funded to undertake significant exploration. We're looking to move a lot of our time and effort into the gold projects while our engineering and development work is happening at Burgoonie. So we we have had some fantastic ground projects for a long time. We're applying proven techniques to advance these gold gold discoveries and looking to prove up significant resources. And what we'll talk about today is our Fattu project in Mali where we acquired this early in 2021.

17:03 Historically, it was explored and had to find a forty three one zero one gold resource over 350,000 ounces. Personally, I think we can significantly improve that. The work that we will be building on was preliminary, and I think we can do a lot better these days than what was done formally. Secondly, I'll be talking about our Nile project in Cote D'Ivoire and our Dabakala exploration project also in Kotivwa. As I said, Fattu in Mali, it's close to our existing operations. It's actually only about 100 odd kilometers Southeast of Burgoonie project.

17:49 It's 300 square kilometers of very prospective ground. As I mentioned in earlier, resource estimate of over 350,000 ounces of gold. We expect to significantly improve that. We've just completed an initial RC drilling program, extensive artisanal workings in the area, our drillings intersecting very prospective geology wide zones of shearing, alteration and veining. We're very excited to get these results back. In addition to that, we have an extensive strike length that's been previously undrilled, has surface geochemical anomalism and also indicate and also artisanal workings. So we're very confident that this also will continue to expand.

18:38 We have a 100% ownership of sorry, we're in an option to earn up to 80% of the FATU project, and I expect we'll complete that by late this year 2022. And finally, in Cote D'Ivoire, we own 100% of the projects projects down there. We have four granted licenses and we have two further application licenses, giving us an area of over 1,200 square kilometers to explore. We have high grade mineralization at our Nile project in Northern Cote D'Ivoire, where we initially had a joint venture partner in Resolute Mining, who had the project for quite a long time, had done a significant amount of work and had and actually had made the initial discovery at Nile and had come to us with the request to further that joint venture.

19:33 However, our view was that we could more put more focus on that project, expand it more quickly. And consequently, we refused the extension and took the project back 100%. And as we announced to shareholders, we continued that work of drilling and earlier this year announced again wide zones of high grade mineralization. The Dabakala project in Central Cote D'Ivoire is an example of our very early stage exploration where the only work to date has been surface geochemical sampling, and we've defined a fantastic gold surface anomaly there with results up to six grams per tonne, an extensive surface anomalism extending for over eight kilometers in strike and up to three kilometers in width.

20:21 We're really keen to get in and drill this prospect. We've been delayed, unfortunately, last year, and we're hoping to get in early this year and get that program underway. Our geologists are very excited about our prospects in Cote D'Ivoire as well as Fartu on the gold front. And, of course, we're all very keen to see the Boonie develop. So in as a quick review in Cote D'Ivoire, the Nile project located in the north of the country, the prospect that's been defined so far is called the Ngalope prospect, and you'll see on this picture here that we have a strike length extending for well over a kilometer of known mineralization.

21:07 We have multiple surface anomalism from auger drilling. We have anomalism from aircore drilling that define the target for initial RC drilling. And then you'll see wide intersections with grade up to 38 and a half grams per ton gold. And you'll see there some some fantastic intersections, 13 meters at five grams from 12 meters deep,

21:33 five meters at 15 grams from seven meters deep. So obviously very shallow, but then we also have nine meters at 4.33 that confirms the depth extension of these zones. And given the wide spaced nature of this first pass drilling, there's a great opportunity for us to continue to chase the mineralization at depth to try and understand the controls on that plunge and the dip and the extensions of that mineralization, all key information for us as we look to build on a maiden resource here and to confirm the economic potential of a future development. We're looking to get back in there. We were hoping to get back in there recently, but given that a later wet season had meant to a bit of a later harvest of crops, we have been delayed till probably early January, but we're very keen to get back and follow-up and follow-up and extend these results. Our initial work actually, while it did confirm the resolute work, actually identified new parallel zones, identified extensions both north and south and highlighted the potential for us to continue to delineate new zones within this prospect.

22:55 This is Dabacala prospect that we're looking at now, so located in Central Cote D'Ivoire. And you'll see the main interest for us is here on the eastern side of the project.

23:09 Fantastic. As I as I've said, I I think this is a fantastic surface anomaly. A few key points to to make about this anomaly are, number one, the apparent relationship of geology to the surface anomaly is really encouraging for us. The potential for contact related shear zones for contact related structures as well as the zone trending to the Northeast there that may be more shear related. And then also, of course, we have the potential for the intersection of structures and cross structures that give rise to multiple opportunities for discovery within this project area. As I said, it's never been drilled before. It's a new discovery by KODAL MINERALS.

23:57 Surface results up to six grams per tonne really get us very excited about being in here to drill this prospect. And you'll note that it's an extensive area. In the south portion, there's a large zone of artisanal workings. And throughout the region, we have potential for discoveries related to what looks to me to be vain and wide zones of alteration and sulfide mineralization that confirm that the surface anomaly we're seeing does relate to potential bedrock mineralization. So a very positive project for us to get our teeth into.

24:44 So finally, I'd like to just give a brief summary on where we are. So the Boonie lithium project, we're fully permitted now for development with our environmental approval granted in 2019, our mining license granted this year. Our feasibility study indicates a very robust project with strong economic fundamentals right now based on 2019 estimates, late twenty nineteen. And as an example, the price we used for the sale in that estimate in that feasibility study was $680 a ton, and we can all compare that immediately to some of the latest reported prices of over $2,300 a ton. So a significant potential improvement in revenue.

25:36 As we know, costs have risen, but what we're finding out with our ongoing study now is perhaps they haven't risen quite as high as we expected. We're still looking to finalize our updated feasibility study, and the work we're doing at the moment continues to demonstrate a very robust project. As I say and have said several times, and I see that there's been a few questions on this as well, that we expect that our project and given the market, our project is attracting interest from potential partners and potential groups looking to work with us. And of course, you would expect us as a company to be looking to discuss those projects with partners and achieve the best result for us and our shareholders.

26:26 Our gold assets, obviously, located in the Burmian sequence of West Africa, so a famous gold district, abundant gold mineralization. We acquired the project, the Fattu project in Mali earlier this year. It has a historic resource. We're looking to expand that. We think it's a fantastic opportunity. And in Cote D'Ivoire, which is previously historically an underexplored region of West Africa, we think we've got a great chance to make discoveries at our Nile project, where our next phase of drilling will be looking to provide the basis for an initial resource estimate and then at Dabakala, where we think that surface gold anomaly has a great opportunity to define a new gold resource.

27:15 So in summary, KODAL MINERALS, we offer our shareholders an opportunity and exposure to an advanced lithium project poised for development in a fantastic lithium market as well as a suite of highly prospective gold projects that have potential to deliver new gold resources. So I'd like to thank everyone for their attendance and look forward to answering some questions. So I'll hand back to you Fantastic, Bernard. Thank you indeed for the presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, do please continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. I'm sure Bernard takes a few months to review those investor questions submitted already. I'd like to remind you the recording of the presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via investor dashboard on the Investor Meet company platform.

28:05 I'd also like to remind you your feedback is important to the company. And immediately after the presentation has ended, you'll be redirected for the opportunity to provide feedback in order that the company can better understand your views and expectations. Bernard, before we move on to some of the live questions, as you mentioned earlier, we did have a couple of pre submitted questions. The first one reads as follows. I think you have touched on this as we've gone through the presentation, but just in case there's anything further to add. I had a number of questions which really regarding potential funding partners, joint venture partners, or other transactions. Can you provide shareholders with a comment on any corporate preference that you have? Yeah. I'm I'm thanks, Paul, and thank the investors who put those questions in early. Yes. As I said in the presentation, the lithium market is very hot, and we, as a company, are really pleased with our Boonie lithium project and the development that we've made there since we acquired it in late two thousand and sixteen.

29:04 So I I feel that we were pretty early to acquire the project. The company has had ups and downs with the project, but right now, we're in a great position. In terms of the question about do we have a preference for how it gets developed? Well, I think, ultimately, the preference that we have is to try and make sure that it makes the most sense for the company and the shareholders and achieves the maximum value that we can. We have a project that is ready to develop. As I said in the presentation, it's a project that has open pit mining and processing that are really well understood. Open pit mining in West Africa and in general has been going on for many, many years and can be undertaken very successfully.

29:56 The processing of lithium ore is newer, but it is increasingly using existing technology. So we we we have a project that we see can be developed. How we go about that is key, and we'll talk I see other questions about financing, which we'll come to. But, of course, as a company, we'd be looking to maximize the value. We see that our neighbors down the road at Gulamena have entered into a joint venture arrangement with the Chinese group That offers some positives, certainly offers some interesting upside, and we have had some approaches regarding that sort of development. We're not moving on any of those at this stage.

30:43 In terms of us being able to go it alone, I think that's a difficult proposition, but achievable, but difficult and possibly not the most effective for our shareholders, but something, of course, we're reviewing as we go ahead with our feasibility study and the opportunities to to improve the economics of Burgoonie. Obviously, there was also a question about outright sale of our project or other opportunities whether the company gets approached for a takeover. I think that the result that we'd be looking for in any of these possibilities is to maximize shareholder value. We've never said no to any approach without probably reviewing and assessing and looking at those approaches. So at the moment, we are continuing our work.

31:39 We are looking at some early stage discussions with groups who are looking to possibly, in my view, possibly being a bit opportunistic with their early approaches. But I think I should as I said at the start, the main interest for us as a board, for myself as a shareholder, is to achieve maximum value of our project. Fantastic, Bernard. Thank you. The next question we've got here is we've seen a major increase in the lithium price this year, and shareholders are questioning the impact this has on the current feasibility study and how this will drive the updated study. Yes. A good question, really, given that as we as as I highlighted in the presentation, the feasibility study that was presented to the Mali government to support our mining license application was based on costs in late two thousand and nineteen and based on a sale price of $680 a ton, which actually back in 2019 might have looked a little bit aggressive to some people, but we were very confident in the market, and we were very confident that that feasibility that we put forward at the time was very robust, was very much an early indication of the potential development of the project.

33:03 So now, of course, the environment's changed considerably. The price is the price of the spodumene product is much, much higher. The possibility that the costs are higher is also something we're looking at, improvements in recovery. So a lot of factors are going in towards our updated feasibility study. But I think it would be fair to say that the impact of the price starts off at the very base where we say, well, we can mine more from our defined resources. Our optimizations will deliver more tonnes to the processing plant. If the processing plant can continue to produce a low cost, high quality spodumene 6% concentrate and we sell that, we expect that this time will indicate a much improved feasibility study.

34:00 And hence, while I know it could be easy for us just to quickly change a revenue number and deliver a number that may please some shareholders, ultimately, that would be poor reflection on our project.

34:16 As I said during the talk, we use some the real expert consultants here in Australia, in South Africa, consultants out of China as well as some consultants out of The UK to support our feasibility study. Our team, myself, a very experienced geologist and project manager in West Africa. Our project manager for the Burgundy lithium project is our project engineer, Steve Zaninovich, who has worked on lithium projects in Australia, worked on the construction of the Bald Hill processing plant, has worked on other projects in West Africa, has considerable knowledge and expert knowledge for the feasibility and development of in West Africa. So we're very confident that we have a robust project currently.

35:06 We expect that the updated feasibility in this rising price of lithium concentrate will further confirm that. The final pre submitted question we have here is, shareholders looking to the future inquiring about possible first production and revenue from your projects in West Africa. Yes. It's a little bit of a crystal ball. I think that what I can say is that, obviously, our first project for development is Burgoonie. Our development time line is approximately eighteen months from commencement. We're looking to commence mid this year in terms of the development subject to us achieving financing and and suitable financing and support for that development.

35:55 So that means that we're looking at 2024, late twenty twenty three for first revenue possibly from Burgoonie Lithium. And of course, the gold projects, well, we hope to be able to develop a project following the successful development of Burgoonie, and we expect that will be also sometime after 2024 for that revenue. Some exciting times on our gold projects, but probably more focus and more excitement for us with Burgoonie. That's great, Bernard. That completes the presubmitted questions. We obviously, as you can see, we've had a number of questions submitted during the event. So if I may just ask you just to click on that q and a tab, just start at the top. If you could read out the question where appropriate to do so, that'd be fantastic. Thank you. Sure.

36:44 I see a question here from Zan Tee discussing the possibility of gold demerging from our lithium in the future. It's an interesting question from Zan, and it's something that we as a company had looked at earlier, and people may remember that in late two thousand and nine '19, 2020, we were talking about the fact that we felt that our gold assets were undervalued within the current structure of KODL. We felt that the lithium project was recognized as our key project, and and that's a correct recognition. It also meant that the company was seen in a lower market of lithium we were suffering on the basis of a lower expectation of our lithium project.

37:38 It didn't reflect, in my view, on the quality of the gold assets. We've improved those gold assets through the acquisition of the Fattu project earlier this year. As I've said during the talk and previously, I believe we have a fantastic suite of gold projects. The key for us, instead of saying immediately that it's a demerger or a vendor or a sale process of the gold, is actually for us to complete our planned work program as quickly as possible to expand that value base and demonstrate a value for those assets that then we can consider what the best result for our shareholders is. So I hope that answers Zan's question, but we currently are looking to do a lot more work on them ourselves.

38:33 I'll move on to another question here from Carl, Carl S. And Carl's actually asking us that well, I'll read Carl's question. Good morning, Bernard. Now that KODAL MINERALS has taken considerable risk off the table with the recent granting of the permit and with feasibility studies showing that this is no longer a speculative play, do you have desires to progress KODAL from the AIM market and to the main LSE market in the future? Well, I think I can answer that question in a few ways there, Carl. Number one, I think you're absolutely correct that the process of exploration and development that we've put in place has always been to reduce the risks associated with our project. And it's a massive exploration is a high risk game, and all the work we've done has been to continually tick the boxes to eliminate the risk to, first of all, identify the mineralization secondly, to have the drilling that confirms the extent of that mineralization to complete a resource estimate and complete a feasibility study highlights to investors, as I think Kyle points out, that this is no longer a very speculative exploration risk.

39:56 It's actually a predevelopment play. It offers opportunity for investors to come in early to what we consider to be a very robust project that's poised for development. It's fully permitted. In terms of a desire to progress from AIM to LSE, I don't think that's one of my main focus points really, Kyle. My main focus is to ensure that we develop the project as successfully as possible, that we develop the project as quickly as possible, and that we secure funding. And and there is some thought that perhaps an LSE listed company may have opportunities for acquiring better financing.

40:42 We're actually not seeing that at the moment. We're seeing strong interest in lithium projects and particularly projects that are near term development. So from a company's perspective, I don't see the need to move to the mainboard. I think KODAL is very well positioned. It's very well supported on AIM. We have a very broad shareholder base, and, we have a lot of, a lot of interest in our company as it stands. So I think interesting comments about our, move to being less risky. I don't think that automatically means we should be moving to the LSE main board. I think there's a follow-up question there from Anthony that said the same thing.

41:34 I think there's a couple of questions here that are quite direct. Nigel, for example, is asking whether we've had any contact directly with Gangfang Lithium. And Nigel and other shareholders who've asked me previously, I can't I'm not really in a position to discuss any groups that we're currently talking with. We are talking with a range of groups from groups who are involved in the processing of the spodumene product. We're talking with groups who are involved with constructions of plants as well as groups who are large investors in mining companies. So specifically, I can't answer your question, Nigel, but what I can say is there's a lot of interest in in the development of our project. And I see there's one here from Gintz who I've answered your question there, I think, Gintz.

42:41 And a question here from referring actually to our share price and, some comments. And, you know, obviously obviously, shareholders will know that I've been receiving a lot of commentary about our share price. What I will say is I've been very surprised at the share price movement subsequent to the granting of our mining license. In my view, that was fantastic news for the company and something we've been working for a long time to achieve. Actually, achieving that was a fantastic milestone. Not many mining licenses are granted in West Africa. Not many are granted in Mali.

43:28 For us to achieve that was a great result. For us now to have a development ready lithium project is a great result for the company. So my expectation was that, our share price would actually have gone up. I think there may have been some speculation from parties about potential for us to be rushing out to raise money. Well, you'll see now our interim accounts have come out recently. We're well funded to do the work we're planning. We have no immediate plans, and there were no immediate plans for capital raising. As I said, there's a lot of interest in our project, and currently, we're not looking to and so hence, the share price movement was a significant surprise to me.

44:20 What I will say to shareholders, of course, as a company and as a team, we're working to continue to do the job as best we can. We finished the drilling at Fattu. We hope we will be able to announce some very good drill intersections there. There are there will be continued news flow that will support and highlight to shareholders our ongoing activity. So we, as a company, will be continuing our program that we look and expect will continue to support and hopefully increase the share price. I have a question here from Nabaran regarding how long do we think it will take to reach productivity and profitability at our lithium mine.

45:08 Well, as I said, to answer a couple of earlier questions and through the presentation, it's approximately an eighteen month development and construction phase in terms of profitability. So that means that we'll be producing after that. In terms of profitability, again, there's always a ramp up phase with new mining operations. There's always ongoing capital in the early phases and development of mine. So in terms of profitability, what I will say is that we are coming into a very strong market. Our proposed payback of the operation is around a year or less than a year.

45:54 It is a very attractive IRR for the project. And, overall, we think it's a very robust, great project for us to be being involved with. I think that also answers Tom's question who was, again, asking about how long will it take to get in. James is asking again, are we actively talking to companies? And I think, I've answered that question lots of times. What I will say is if you read and just just, you know, maybe trying to phrase this in a slightly different way.

46:45 If you read newspapers, if you follow the market, if you're looking at the mining sector, you'll see there's been a lot of activity in the Burgundy in the lithium sector recently. We are a company with a known lithium project, an advanced lithium project, a development ready lithium project in Mali. I think it would be fair to say we are talking to a number of players. We can't say anything more than that. Again, Richard here is saying timescale re the Boonie wall resource update and start of construction. They they sort of go hand in hand, Richard. We're looking to undertake that resource extension infill and extension work in this first quarter of twenty twenty two, resource update optimization.

47:43 We have already a very clear idea on the proposed processing plant. We have a very clear idea, obviously, on the mine, the infrastructure and the all the ancillary aspects. What the resource expansion and infill work is planned to do is actually just to allow us to fine tune the optimizations of the open pits. So a lot of work will be going concurrently. So we think that the time frame that we outlined of approximately six months and some of that work has already commenced in terms of the metallurgy, the plant design, the community relations, the ongoing work that we have in Boonie.

48:35 So we're still looking towards mid this year to saying that the new feasibility is complete, that the potential to move to development are almost concurrent. David P is asking me whether there's any possibility of completing that six months earlier. David, we're working as hard as we can to try and do that. Is there a possibility? Yes. Mainly on the basis that we have work that we've been doing for quite a time before the license was granted and ongoing now. I think it looks very encouraging for us. I have okay. This is really quite a simple one, from City Girl who's actually just asking if I can say hello to shareholder members group who are super excited about owning KODAL shares.

49:40 So I'm super excited that you are KODAL shareholders at CitiGirl and your group, and thanks for supporting KODAL. Another a question again from Gintz regarding our gold projects, and that question's basically asking me how many of the gold projects on current data would be worth moving, would I think well, I think really what this question is asking me is how do I rate our gold projects? What's our priority and where would we be looking to start mining?

50:25 If I can paraphrase that, Gintz. Look, I think, as I outlined in the presentation today, clearly, think there's three of our better projects in Fattu, Nile and Dabakala. We intend to do work on all of those. Fattu already had a resource to find. We think we will expand that and improve that. Nile, we think we're going to have a new resource there. So those two are our key. Would they be the first to be mining? Maybe. Depends how well we come back with, Dabacala. Gold projects at the moment are too early to in my view, too early to speculate which would be, the first to mine, But I like your confidence and I think reflects my own confidence that we are actually gonna be able to find resources and demonstrate economics at at within our gold portfolio.

51:24 Daniel Lee is asking about consolidation in the industry. Oh, sorry. Daniel Lee is asking about comparing the recent news items about lithium companies and consolidation in the industry and just questioning, do I think that KODL is in a position to survive the consolidation? So Daniel, the answer to that is I think we all have identified that the lithium sector is very interesting for investors currently. There has been a lot of activity. And clearly, in my well, sorry, In my view, I think a lot of that activity is driven by the recognition that the supply shortfall is gonna continue for a long time.

52:09 A lot of this a lot of this consolidation is driven by end users of the product, so Chinese based refiners, US refiners, people who really want to acquire the product. Do I think we're in a position to survive? Yes. Do I think we're in a position to be involved? Yes. Will we be trying to work the best result for our shareholders? Of course. And that's, for me, that's the real answer. I think it's a great opportunity for us in the lithium sector at the moment. I have a question here that actually is rather possibly not really a question, but a comment on my view where, perhaps, is querying that I've taken options rather than a wage.

53:19 That's that's not quite true. That's not quite true. Of course, I've been receiving a wage. The inference or the question from is saying, do I know something that I haven't told to shareholders? Then I can emphatically say no. We always report our information as quickly as possible to the market. My view, and I've made it clear, is that I think we have a great project. I'm very happy to have been involved. I'm a happy KODAL shareholder. Obviously, happier now this year than perhaps last year and looking forward to 2022 making me a lot happier. I don't know anything, well, I tell shareholders all the information that we can.

54:10 NAVA has a very simple question, DFS quality, and, I think I've stated quite enough times that our feasibility relies on recognized industry experts and that I feel that we will be producing a very high quality, very reliable DFS study. I feel the same way about our pre feasibility study, that in a lot of ways, the work that we put in in the early work actually reflected a much higher standard than we were prepared to call it. And I think we will continue to do a job to a very high standard. There's a lot of questions here about future investment and dividends, and I think I I just wanna be clear that a lot of this is, obviously clear speculation.

55:11 Future dividends and, financing and so on is is, of course, dependent on us running a successful operation. Of course, I'm confident that we can. Of course, I'm confident that we have the team to do it. So successful mining operations tend to lead to returns for shareholders. Bernard, we're just coming up towards the hour. I'm conscious. Every time you answer a question, get another couple drop through. So thanks for being so generous with your time, thanks to everyone who submitted those questions. Absolutely fantastic. I'd like to remind everyone that Bernard will be able to review all questions submitted today, we'll publish those responses where appropriate to do so on the investor meet company platform. Bernard, perhaps I could just ask you just for a few closing comments just before we redirect the attendees to give you some feedback, please.

56:00 Sure. Look. I I think, and I hope one of the takeaways investors have from today is that, I'm very positive about our Burgundy project. I think it looks great opportunity for development, and I think 2022 is really gonna be a milestone for KODAL and the development of the Burgoonie project. Secondly, of course, I think West Africa is a great opportunity for gold exploration and discovery. And KODAL, we're very well positioned with our projects there. So I'm looking forward to a very exciting 2022, a great change coming for our company. We are very focused on Boonie financing, support and looking to develop that project. So I'm very, very happy with the company, very happy with our shareholder and the interests that they have.

56:57 And, what I would like to finish off with is to say, wish everyone a very happy Christmas, safe Christmas, and a lot of fun time with family. Looking forward to 2022 and wish our shareholders a great 2022 and continued improvement from 2021. Bernard, thank you indeed for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session? It should be automatically redirected to the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that Bernard can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete and is greatly valued by the company. On behalf of Bernard and KODAL MINERALS PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. Thank you, and good morning to you all. Thank you.