Kodal Minerals (LSE:KOD) — Post-AGM Presentation and Shareholder Q&A

0:00 Morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the KODAL MINERALS PLC Post AGM Presentation and Shareholder Q and A. Throughout this recording meeting online, attendees will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand of your screen. Just simply type in your questions at any time and press send. So the attendees in the room, of course, the company will open the floor to questions after the presentation. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives today. However, the company will review your questions submitted online and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit

0:31 the following poll for those online and your participation will be greatly appreciated. I'd now like to hand over to the management team from KODAL MINERALS. Good morning to you all. Good morning. Thank you, Mark. And, I'd like to welcome investors online who are joining us with several investors in the room who attended the AGM today. And, very happy to announce that all resolutions were passed on a show of hands and earlier by proxy vote. So, everything's moving ahead for the company, and we'd like just to run through a brief presentation today to give you an update. And we're open for questions from the floor here with us and also online. And I note that there's a few pre submitted questions, so I'd like to move through quite quickly on, I think, what a lot of you will have seen before.

1:19 But a few bits of new information in regards to our study on the DNS DNS processing for Begoonie, which we think is a great opportunity for the company. So a disclaimer there that basically sets out to be aware of what we're saying in this presentation and speak to the company at all times. As we've been clear for a long time, Burgundy is our focus. We're looking really to become the first lithium mine in Mali. We set out today with the announcement regarding the BMS processing plant at the Angwilana prospect that we see an avenue to move very quickly to DMS and production. And following that, we are also very clear to the flotation plant represents a big picture for the project and the opportunity to expand to over 350,000 tons of production within a few years from commencing the DMS.

2:19 So a great opportunity for the company. And as you can see on the slide here and again in the announcement today, what really came out of our review was when we first did the feasibility study back in 2019 and completed in January 2020, we're obviously in a very different market environment. Price of lithium was low. The actual interest in the commodity was significantly lower than it is today, and you will have noted over the last two years a a great increase in the price of the spodumene concentrate that we intend to process as well as significant interest in the commodity and a recognition of that growing gap between supply and demand.

3:05 And you'll see that this study that, Steve again has led, has demonstrated at as we knew early on that the Enguilana vein performed very well with the dense media separation. Some of our earlier test work demonstrated up to 71% recovery. A box sample treated through the China refood plant at Ishui recorded a total recovery of over 80%, which involved DMS up to high sixties and flotation to re to re to recover that at eighty four percent. So we know this is a very good prospect for us to commence that. Again, clearly, lower capital required. 65,000,000 gets us up and running.

3:52 All infrastructure for that will be in place. Reflection of how good the prices that we see at the moment that it's a payback of two months from commencement of operation delivers us approximately an NPV of 557,000,000 just from our Invalana vein. We expect Before tax credits, Yeah. Just so we're clear. We all love we all love tax. It's a 1,000,000 ton per annum PMS plant producing a 130,000 ton per annum of production. Obviously, very high cash flow. We're looking at we've taken into account and you know we've all been very conservative with our estimates earlier. We've taken into account a higher broker consensus given that we expect to be in production late next year, using an average price of $2,080 a ton for the four years of the DMS plant. So, really reflecting some very strong fundamentals of the project. Angulana, high grade, great strike length, perfect for DMS, and you can see here that we've modeled it, again, reasonably conservatively.

5:09 These details are all available in our RNS today. I don't think there's much point in me just reading out numbers to you all, but you can see it's a very, very good way for us to commence the operation. Spent a fair bit of time or or Steve spent a lot of time looking at the proposed layout. Some changes have to be approved by the Mali government in terms of where we're locating the DMS plant, the tailings and waste dump, but that's in progress. We're proposing a new haul road to take us to the highway to avoid completely the township. So pluses and, again, this kind of early moving operation gets a lot of support from the Mali government, and they can recognize clearly the value of us moving quickly.

6:01 But as I said at the start, really for us, the big picture is the whole project and looking to develop the flotation plant. And one of the reasons that we've looked so closely and have spoken to several parties about this DMS operation is the fact that the cash flow generated from this higher lithium price is enough for us to support the development of the flotation plant. And that then changes the whole dynamic of our project from producing a 130,000 tons per annum out of the DMS, adding in the approximate 230,000 tons we expect to get out of the flotation plant. And for a few years, we'll be able to run them in parallel. So we're looking at a much more significant project.

6:49 With the updated feasibility study that we put out for the whole project earlier this year, that changes again, and it changes because of the lithium market, because of the work we continue to do, but also with this potential to run them in parallel means that overall, we've probably been really conservative with our view of the project. And on top of that, we've clearly demonstrated through our early work the multiple pegmatite veins that we haven't drilled to any great depth yet that we know we can add to resource in the future following successful drilling, giving us the opportunity for a much longer term operation.

7:37 As we've said, we started off Puigiri in 2016, our first drilling program December 2016. First results came in in February 2017. Following that time, we defined maiden resource, expanded that to over 21,000,000 tons. We've completed our environmental study. We completed the initial feasibility study that supported our mining license application, and we resulted in a fully permitted project, probably coming to market at the right time given the strong interest and the strong support we're receiving from people talking to us about potential development. And as I say, the market has changed significantly from when we started. And I think KODL as a company took the view back in 2016 that there was a great opportunity for us in Mali. We recognized the opportunity to acquire a large landholding with identified pegmatite veins that we were readily able to demonstrate were economic.

8:44 What's coming out of the whole market dynamic at the moment and what we show on this slide is actually some work from Benchmark who have been closely monitoring the lithium sector for a long time. And they're not the only ones saying this, but really, there's a supply gap that's now present and currently expanding and expected to continue to expand over the next few years. And you can see some of the comments here that, basically, the number of new mines required to meet demand is over 74 new mines, each producing approximately 315,000 ton per annum of concentrate. And as you all know, there's not a lot of project ready lithium operations and that making it really interesting for us in our discussions and a great opportunity for us to move ahead quickly.

9:41 I think you're all aware of the dynamics of the lithium market and the dynamics of the push for, green energy, government support, population support to develop, electric vehicles and making sure that the reduction of the carbon in the environment is is followed and government incentive and tax support for the development of electric infrastructure is increasing. And that's that's a real great underpinning of us and our sort of potential development.

10:17 As I say, and and it will remain so that the lithium is our focus. What you've seen today with our RNS and what we expect to be able to demonstrate over the next few months is that we've got a lot of support to move into development. That is our principal focus. We'll be spending drilling dollars on geotechnical, metallurgical, and, a range of engineering support drilling as well as expansion of resource and definition work at our Burgundy project. But, of course, you're all aware, I know a lot of you here today are long term shareholders. You're aware of our gold projects both in Mali and Cote D'Ivoire, both all all located in really premium areas for gold exploration.

11:06 And we've maintained that portfolio, and we continue to maintain that portfolio. And we'll be doing some exploration work at our FATU gold project in Mali, which is located quite close really to KODAL sorry, to Boghoonie, and we'll be able to utilize our team and our experience for further work at FATU. And what I can say is our guys on in Mali have been doing an excellent job of fully putting that project together. You're probably aware that we acquired it earlier last year, that it was a project that had been subject to significant exploration historically, had identified two resources within our ground, but hadn't really put the project together well geologically.

11:58 Our first work confirmed the presence of economic gold mineralization remains open along strike, But further to that, our detailed geological review is highlighting significant opportunities for us and we'll be following those up. And secondly, the only gold pro other gold project I mentioned specifically is our Nile project in Cote D'Ivoire. Again, you're aware that we had that in JV for a number of years with with Resolute Mining. They made a a good discovery. Unfortunately, they were unable to continue in the JV or we were unable to approve their request to continue in the JV on terms that they put forward, and we're very happy to be working on that project.

12:46 So we think we've got two advanced gold projects with potential for resource definition, and our guys will work on that. But as I say, the priority is clearly Pagoonie, the opportunity for generating a great return out of the development of the DMS plant is is a great is a great result for KODL, I think, and would be the best way to spend our money and our time. So just in summary, what you can see, we're planning to do, obviously, more work on the DMS option. We have collected metallurgical samples. They're on their way to Perth now. Just a range of check and verification sampling, finalizing our plant design,

13:33 moving to detailed engineering design, infill drilling, and so on. A lot of work again with the community. And you all know that for a long time, we've maintained a very good relationship with Mali government, with Mali bureaucrat officials, as well as our local community. We're very well supported there. We expect to continue that relationship and work closely with the community for the development. And we're receiving, again, a lot of support. So we we look to maintain those relationships as they're very important to us. And I guess we're all aware of some recent news flow. So I think I'd like to leave it there as a finalization of the presentation and allow as much time for questions as we can from the floor here as well as from people online. So Mark, if you could come back. Yes, of course. Thank you. And thank you for your presentation this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions. Just like

14:38 to remind you that the recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A, will be available via your Investor Meet company dashboard. Bernard, as you can see, there's a considerable number of attendees online this morning. You have a number of questions that have been submitted during this presentation, and there were a few that were pre submitted. So if I may hand back to you and maybe if you would like to start with questions from the room and then perhaps time permitting, take what you can from the q and a tab, that would be brilliant. Thank you very much indeed. Sure. Absolutely. So anyone here with a question about our plans and what we've been doing? Last question. Sure. You're looking to raise 65,000,000 Yep. To fund the the site. Have you got more you've got several options in terms of raising that 65,000,000, I take it. So there's several options.

15:27 At the present time, what is your cash burn? So how much cash are you burning each month, and how much liquidity have you got going into 2023? Will you have to do another rights issue or another issue of shares to raise cash in that interim period? Will the 65,000,000 actually suffice and see you through to the development stage? Okay. Just just I'll probably just need to quickly paraphrase that question to make sure people online heard it properly. The question basically is about KODL's current cash position and spend and the raising of 65,000,000 for the development of the plant and what that gets us. So, yes, KODAL currently has over 2,800,000 pounds. We have a low burn at the moment given the given the wet season.

16:14 And unfortunately, I was in sight not unfortunately, was on-site. But earlier this month, we tried to go to our site. Part of it was still inaccessible due to the rainy season. We've had our guys visit recently and they're informing us that access is becoming clearer. So we're expecting to obtain a drill rig to commence drilling next month. That will increase our current burn rate. Also, engineering work, we have further studies going on managed by Steve and with consultants DRA who've been working with all our feasibility studies, and we're expecting to spend approximately 250 odd So thousand Australian I would say that our burn rate is low. We have enough cash to get us to the position to finalize the discussions regarding the funding of development of the DMS plant.

17:16 And the 65,000,000 that we'd be looking to raise to get that operating is enough to get us with a completed plant in production.

17:28 The capital that we quote, and you'll see in the announcement, includes contingency, but it fully includes a full capital required for that development. Talking about the engineering, we've we've done quite a bit leading up to the at this point in the RNS. We're using the same companies for our mine design, so there's there's no learning curve for anyone. So that that's been good. They're still interested in the project. The modular design basically means that we don't have to do bespoke design, so it's a it's a cost effective way to get us up and running. And you might have seen in the RNS that it's a little bit of a premium to pay, but we've basically got two streams of crushing and two streams of DMS. So we take advantage of existing designs and already cost it up. So looking to firm that up, but as far as spend on purchases, funding first, but using our funds in a in an economic fashion to progress the studies we can and be ready to push the button when we get the funding sorted.

18:37 Just ask one other question. Obviously, KODL at the moment is an exploration company, and you're gonna be a production company. Do you feel you've got the management expertise and the diversity of skills to take this company into production successfully? Right now, we're a small exploration cum development company, and that's quite correct. Both well, Steve, obviously, has broad experience in West Africa, developed several mines in West Africa. I've been working in West Africa for the last ten years or more. We've both been involved in development and operation of mines. Obviously, our group in Mali are highly experienced and well connected and we've been able to operate successfully over the whole time we've been there. But the question's correct because as we move to development, we need a lot more people. And I can tell you that we've had discussions already with further engineering people, geological people, and so on to make sure that we've got the best people we can get at the time to make sure that we can move quickly through this process.

19:47 And I think it's a really interesting question because right now, the market for experienced people is very tight. Steve is calling it a lot of favors. I'm calling it a lot of favors. We've worked with lots of people over time, and we have a lot of people who would like to have the opportunity to work with us. So we think, again,

20:10 there's no promise on any of these things, but we're making the best we can. And we've got a lot of a lot of feelers out. We've got a lot of interest in coming to the project. And, you know, I would say that working in Mali, developing a lithium project is a good opportunity for a lot of people. So I think it's it's okay to say that we've had interviews for key people on the ground, including an environmental and social responsibility manager. The change in application we have to do to get the approval to proceed with the DMS through the the DNGM, the mining department in Mali, is an existing process, and it's not a big burden if you like from a technical perspective, but they want to understand that we've got people on the ground, social and environmental.

21:01 And I think we're close to making an offer to someone that's got twenty years experience in there, a Malian fellow. And as far as favors, I've got a few people just asking us when, and that'll be subject to the funding people. What they're doing until we secure that, and we're having been working since '96 in West Africa.

21:26 That's actually few people that we know. And it's a valid question about how do you go from being an exploration to go in development. I've been lucky. Is that the right word? Fortunate? Maybe not. Experienced in through a number of projects just going from this stage working with them and through into development and the operational readiness side of things. You're building a business, and that's the way we look at it. But just one more thing, and I'll shut up. It's okay. Feedback. Can the management team give more news flow out into the into the marketplace? Because it does seem that we get an indication that something's gonna happen, and then we have a twelve week gap without any flow of information at all. My man sat next to me gets really upset about that. Oh, yeah. Very upset. Don't worry. We we receive a lot of feedback and, a lot of advice.

22:17 But, really, what what I guess what restricts us with a lot of, news that we can supply to the market is that a lot of where we are at the moment is in discussions that aren't final, that are in discussions that may actually end up going nowhere. And we I mean, you would have seen, obviously, with a lot of our RNSs, with a lot of our background to our feasibility study that we're we're quite conservative. We don't want to give a misleading information to the market. So we're we're careful with what we supply. And when we supply information, it's correct. In terms of some of the speculation that I've seen going around, that's pure speculation, you know, and and we've been very careful with how we correspond with shareholders so that what we what we put out is is correct.

23:15 I do think that we could be looking at some more information clearly over the next few months and as well as when we're able to start more drilling and activity on the ground, then there's more information to come. We're not trying to hide anything from our shareholders. It's just that some of our discussions we we can't put out. And I think that's fair to you as well as to us. And to the anything else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In your podcast in August, you said you were tantalizingly close to Did you actually trace a minute question there? No. It's not you. Oh, okay. Face to face. And,

23:58 obviously, eight weeks have passed. I mean, how long is I can't say I regret the words because I really like tantalizing. Yeah. But tantalizing a lot of people. You can ask your definition of tantalizing. Yeah. That's right. You know, you gotta make it finger. Yeah. But, look, I think the I think the answer is to say, well, clearly, you would see today with an RNS that came out with a lot of detail on the engineering, on the review that we've put in place that we've actually been really busy. And we've also been maintaining a lot of discussions with interested parties.

24:36 I honestly, I would have had would have liked I would have thought we could have got closer with finishing a couple of our discussions, but we're not yet. I'm a bit like all of you, tantalized and waiting for the next waiting for the next step. So I think, you know, asking that question from the floor answers probably our

24:55 first pre submitted question. So I'll, I'll tell I'll do one from the online if that's okay. If I can say from the point of view of what working in the background that we've done and and really to exploit the DMS opportunity, we've got a lot of feedback that even with our update, the concentrate prices are higher. Mhmm. $5,000 a ton, is common for for concentrate. So even averaging 2,000 over four years is still a little bit conservative. Our recoveries in there, we've been conservative about until we do confirm confirmatory work. But the work we have done, around the DMS where we're headed, has set us up so that funding's on the next day. We're moving quickly. So it's some of the feedback already from my mates in Perth saying, you can do it in twelve months? And I say, yes, because the groundwork's been done. And to take advantage of where the prices are, the DMS provides a great opportunity.

25:53 We did say in the announcement that delivery of mills, which all of these flotation plants need, and there's a lot of them in West Africa, is seventy weeks just to get it to

26:02 site, another twenty weeks to build it, commission it. You're talking two years plus these days. So I believe, and I wouldn't have pitched it to our board if if I didn't believe it, that the DMS is a is a great option for getting up and running quicker than the other competitors. And I'd like still like to be the first operator in MINERALS to send a shipment to port. Okay. Okay. Well, it's I guess we're all we're all talking and singing from the same hymn book here because the first pre submitted question or second one is, can I explain why financing talks are taking so long and what specifically needs to happen between now and announcing something? Financing is always a difficult, a difficult thing to complete.

26:53 And also from a company point of view, again, I'm very clear we've actually got multiple people we're talking to. We need to assess the best option. We're not closing off on anything yet.

27:09 We think that this is a a great opportunity for the company, and we wanna make the right choice to actually move us ahead longer term. Why can't we say anything? Well, we're not saying anything until it's final. When will we say something? It's when we've completed our necessary agreements. And in terms of timing, I'm really not sure. There's obviously a lot of due diligence and compliance that needs to be completed. But we're I think I just would say rest assured we're working as quickly as we can to finalize it.

27:53 Can I provide an update on the gold portfolio while I did it in the presentation? Gold portfolio is well maintained. We don't have any risk on our ground. We've got very good advanced projects with resource potential. We've got very good exploration projects. We'll be looking to continue work. And again, West Africa is a very dynamic place. There's a lot of companies looking for additional projects and just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons. We've also received some preliminary interest on some of our gold projects. So focus is on Boonie, but we have a very good gold gold portfolio.

28:41 We why that we're maintaining. You can probably answer this one. So the question is drill further? No. The question is again about financing. And I think, Steve, you've said, why is it taking so long? Let's just run through. Financing is difficult. That's in terms of the project, we In terms of project, we wouldn't be getting people knocking on the door if there wasn't a lot of interest in what we've released today. We've we've had preliminary discussions with our off take partner and also, like, the opportunity that presents. As in any financing, and I've been involved with a few. There's. Is that a word? Two words. Two words. Yeah. We wanna get the best fresh out of it.

29:30 It sounds like rhetoric a bit, but we're not gonna go out there and just take the first opportunity that comes, and there's a few avenues. So it takes long opportunity. Okay. Next question is about

29:43 plans to drill further at Pagoonie to enhance our resources. And simple answer is yes. We think we can expand our existing resources, particularly Boumou where we left it at an earlier stage, but at a stage where it was able to be estimated as a job compliant resource. We have multiple other pegmatite veins where we've completed preliminary drilling, which either demonstrate high grade mineralization such as at Kola and Orchard or wide zones of pegmatite veining such as at Marigold and Bagoonie South. And

30:20 both all of those represent opportunities to expand our resource and we'll be focusing on those. But initially, our drilling, again, is gonna work on the requirements for the engineering and the development of this Nguana DMS plant. We do have good data on Nguana DMS, which was done when I first joined years ago. The bulk sample we sent to refu, that data's come back very encouraging. Just wanna be sure that variability

30:50 of that recovery is secure. And also with the info, what we've seen from going from indicated is that the grade actually increases a bit with the confidence of closer space drilling. So, again, we've tried to make sure we're not over calling the mark, but there's there's upside still in Angolan from a great perspective. And one of the discussions we've had internally is that four years at Angolan at DMS,

31:19 we can find a bit more of coal or Marigot and adjacent properties that have the the DMS recoveries higher than SOGOL as we said in the RNS, that's gonna keep providing cash flow through the DMS plan, and it will fund that flotation plan.

31:38 Okay. Next question is regarding Boone West, and you'll all be aware that we have two concessions about 25 kilometers to the west of our main Boone project, the Maffele and Khamenei concessions. And the question regards do we own or will we need to purchase the land for Boonie West? Obviously, Boonie is our main focus, but are we looking to do a resource estimate estimate at Boonie West? So the answer to that is we have completed all our obligations under the option agreement for Boonie West. We are the 80% holder of those concessions. In terms of drilling an initial resource estimate of Burgoonie, we need to be very clear that this is at a much earlier stage of exploration.

32:28 It's quite different from our main Burgoonie project in that there's a significant cover, lateral right cover that's masking the geology. We've done some preliminary work and reconnaissance work back when we first acquired the project. Again, probably some delays, unfortunately, due to COVID and our prioritization of spending money at Bokoone where we see the first development happening means that Bokoone West is a bit of a second priority for us, and we'll assess that project in the near term.

33:09 That's another question. Question. Sure. Yep. Has the board considered selling the Goony at all? Had a nice big Goony project, project? Yes. Yep. And is that a feasible option, or is that it's obviously been discounted because you're looking at finance, but is it still on the table, or is it being renewed?

33:27 We think we think we've got a valuation of the Goony that's obviously way ahead of our market capitalization. We have had people approach us about buying a KODAL. I think my view, and I think the board agrees with this, that we are able to provide a better opportunity for shareholders through participating in the development of the project. We think right now that the benefit longer term to shareholders is more viable through the development. And while you might get an immediate bit of a sugar rush through a dividend from a sale, of course, there'd be tax implications and ensuring that we were able to get that approved by the Mali government.

34:21 I think that would delay us more than moving to a development. Interesting. If someone if someone logged a really great number on as well. But it is interesting because you are a development exploration company, gonna become a development company. What you're not is a speculator on the lithium market. No. So there is volatility in those markets. So therefore, when you perceive future valuation, it's always a little bit up in the air. That's right. So that's why the the sale could become Well, look, I I think that's I think that's a fair analogy. But what I would say is and and say it again, you will see that in all our feasibility studies, we've been very conservative. No. I I

34:59 agree. You never once have seen us use 5,000, not even 3,000 really as a as anything reliable. Our first work was done on $680 a ton. We have a robust project. We think we've got a good project that is really development ready. This DMS option that we announced today highlights the fact that with a minimum well, not minimum, you know, it's still $65,000,000. But with a smaller amount of capital investment, we can generate a project that returns $557,000,000 in four years, then it has a payback of two months. And, you know, out of that $5.57, there's tax. Thank you. The only other project that I've seen that is quick to develop low capital cost

35:51 straight DMS Two, one, was involved with Ball Hill in Western Australia that was commissioned before we saw the lithium prices drop and and basically change of hands. It's up and running again. And the core lithium project in the Northern Territory, which is also a low cost, less than ours actually, development and get a lot of interest. I think also when you talk about the potential buyer, if you like, of a project, get up and running, show you can produce cash flow, then people will really stand up and take a look. Nice. You guys thought of selling the gold assets to help fund the lithium projects? You might have you might recall that last year, we had raised the idea of saying we wanna crystallize some value, and of course, that means reviewing opportunities for sale. We haven't advanced that idea.

36:52 I like the personally, I like the idea where we can remain with some upside in the projects. So as I as I mentioned, we have had some approaches about our gold projects, and we'll see what we can what we can do with those. I mean, we're very clear. We're a small company. We have a focus. Our focus is Boonie. We're continuing with the gold projects, but they're probably, a, lost in not getting value in our company, and, b, not getting the full work that they deserve in my view. Our Dabbacala project really looks like a great exploration project. I'd love to move that along, but the resource potential at Fattu and Nilea would be where the gold money gets spent as well.

37:42 So, you know, it's it's kinda kinda tricky. We don't wanna sell everything. No. But we we recognize where we wanna spend our money. K? Alright. Couple more online questions here. One is I'll rush through a couple of these. Can we say how close we are to a deal and who we're No. Some some aims docs pay a dividend to shareholders. Is this something we would consider doing? Yes. When we're up and running and have significant cash flow and the company's in a very viable position, of course, we would look to return some dividend to investors, especially long term supporters like myself. I'd love a dividend. Steven W is asking about the monthly cash burn. I think we've answered that one.

38:41 Steve, maybe you wanna answer this one. Question about whether we have any idea how long permitting will take for the DMS plant. We have a mining permit. This is a modification, and the mining code has provision for that. It's quite typical in in all mining projects where you find more or you expand the tailings dam, you expand your project. Because the Angolina pit and the waste dump and the access road well, the original access road option is already permitted, all we're really looking to permit is an area where we can put the DMS plant. And because it's modular, we've said to the government, once we rehabilitate, we can move that away if that's the case. So they're they're saying that under eight weeks, they can approve.

39:30 And I'm going to Bamako next week to have that initial meeting and and hand over the the concept that would come up. And I would not use the trend of the mining license period for this month. The government's functional again and very keen to hear from us. So and we're hoping that before the end of the year, everything's approved. It doesn't stop us doing the groundwork to be ready to hit the ground once we do get the approval and funding. Okay. A question about would we consider dual listing on the ASX? And our answer to that is not currently. We're quite content with the AIM market and our ability to raise equity as required.

40:20 And long term support for African projects has been proven from the AIM market over many years, and that's gonna be our focus as well. John has asked a question. Steve, do you wanna Question is whether the twelve months with the DMS development starts today. The answer is no. It's twelve months from funding. It doesn't take a while to break dirt and get things done. But I would challenge anybody in in our industry to to have a shorter time frame of development. Question from Frank j, who's asking about the location of our Orchard prospect, which he's correct in identifying as currently outside of our mining license.

41:15 However, additions to the mining license are reasonably quickly added, particularly for once a defined resource is in place and that the feasibility study and environmental work has been completed. So a lot of that a lot of those steps will already have been undertaken for if we talk about Orchard. Orchard, again, while I say it's a good prospect, it's not necessarily where we would be looking to go immediately for additional tons for the DMS, but it is a valid question. We can expand the mining license and include extra areas as required. Just looking at the time here.

42:06 I think a lot of the questions are a similar theme, don't it? Yeah. Yep. Again, regularly get a question. Well, it's not really a question, but from City Girl and the Telegram group. Hello. Again, and thanks for your long term support. And, look, I I think I'd like just to finish with one more question from Abbas here, Abbas Kay, who is asking us whether we have potential partners from The US or Europe to fund, what do you say, pilot plant? I think it means a DMS circuit.

42:52 What I what I would say to that is, yes, we've had interest from European groups, from a North American group in discussing with us. The issue that I see in benefit for KODAL shareholders is that currently, they're not as advanced in terms of their interest or in terms of what they think they can assist us with. And, also, the market for in Europe and North America is still substantially smaller than the market in China. And currently, the strongest push is from China. And I think people are well aware who our our major shareholder is, and other parties in China are all very interested in working with us.

43:44 So I can't say much more about that at the moment, but, you know, it's as I said at the start with the lithium sector at the moment, there's been a lot of interest and it's an expanding sector, and we can just we can say that, you know, our project fully permitted for development is a project that continues to get strong attraction. Surely, obvious answer is for the Chinese partners to actually fund the project against future revenue streams because they've got an 80% off take agreement underneath with us. So at the end of the day, that's the logic. It'd be the quickest. Financially, probably be the cheapest option as well. Obviously, there's a lot of a lot of work to do to finalize an agreement of that nature.

44:34 Some of the requirements around funding, around price of the product, and around timing need to be discussed. A lot of what we're looking to do is inherently moving into mining is exposing the company to more risk. Our view on a lot of what the opportunities we are being presented with is to try and look in ways to maximize value for KODAL while not exposing us to undue risk. And that's that's important consideration. Presumably, if you've got a US backer or even a European backer, that's not gonna sit well with the Chinese given the sort of tensions between the the two countries at the present time. So, again, you could cause more issues by having US back in if it was diagnosed further down the road or whatever than if you actually just went with the the Chinese. But, I mean, that that's obviously stuff you I mean, you're talking about you're yeah. I probably I don't really wanna be specific, but, clearly, we're talking to multiple parties.

45:43 And I just have one one last thing to finish off with, and this is a question we get quite regularly. So I'll I'll have a couple of words, and then Steve may have a couple of words. And this question relates to the political climate in Mali. And and I'll also add just to addition to this question is security and personal security for ourselves, our staff, and our community that we're working in. So my answer to this question is the political climate in Mali, as we've seen over the last few years, has demonstrated volatility. The presidential election that occurred in 2020 was subject to a lot of civic unrest, recognition of perhaps corrupt behavior, and resulted in a military coup.

46:37 Subsequent to that, the military transition government was stating that they were looking to move quickly to elections. They had put in place a a nonmilitary president and prime minister. Subsequent to that, there was a second military coup. The president is now one of the coup leaders, Mishogueta. The government is stable. The government has been performing quite well. In terms of Amali population commentary, I think that the military is actually reasonably popular given that they've made strong inroads into trying to quieten the civil unrest in the East and north of the country.

47:32 It has been subject to sanctions from the ECOWAS countries, and the military has agreed to civil elections in two years' time. But I think what I would as a caveat to all of this is that mining projects, industry, and general activity in Mali continues as normal. And from a security point of view, I was there last month. I feel safe. We traveled to our site. We've seen no evidence of insecure or security heightened security risk around our area. As we've been very clear, we're approximately 200 kilometers south of the capital.

48:20 We're in a primary industry dominated area. It's been very quiet historically and currently remains so. Steve, maybe add some comment about security for the I mean, for the operation, you know, we have budgeted to improve security, and that's security of our staff and people, but also so the community knows that there's areas they shouldn't be. Anyway, you know, I've been to Mali three times this year going again next week. So it seems business as usual, but we are keeping abreast of what's happening in our region for sure. And our security profile for the operation will reflect that. And I've worked in Burkina Faso and in those places and and say, it's just part of the puzzle.

49:13 You've got to get it right. Yeah. Okay. So thanks, Steve. Thanks, Mark. That that's very kind of you both. Thank you very much indeed, and thank you to everybody online for your questions this afternoon. Of course, we'll make all the company all the questions available to the company post today's meeting. So as I say, thank you for your time. Bernard, I know investor feedback is important to you, and I'll shortly redirect the investors on today's call to give you their thoughts and expectations. But I wonder before doing so, if I may, just ask you just for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, after which I'll disconnect you from the room and ask investors for their feedback. Thank you. Sure. Well, think in closing, as we've presented at the meeting today, we feel that KODAL is on the verge of a great opportunity with ability to commence the development of Boonie with the DMS plant.

50:08 Steve and his team have done a great job in working through this feasibility for that. It's an opportunity for the company to move into the lithium mining sector and take advantage of very high prices for a product we will be producing that's a high quality, low impurity product that's well sought after by the market. So, hopefully, by this time next year, we're well advanced into development. We look forward to presenting to you all again next year. So thank you for your time online, and thank you for the people who came today. That's great. Thank you very much indeed for updating attendees this this afternoon. Please ask attendees online not to close the session as we'll now automatically redirect you for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the board can better understand your views and expectations.

50:59 This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it be greatly appreciated by the company. On behalf of the board of KODAL MINERALS PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's annual general meeting. That now concludes today's session, and you can now, make your way in the room and continue as normal the meeting