Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Jubilee Metals Group full year results investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab that's just situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and will publish those responses where it is appropriate to do so.
Before we begin, we would just like to submit the following poll, and if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. I would now like to hand you over to CEO Leon Coetzer. Good morning, sir.
Good morning and welcome everybody for joining this presentation. Thank you for taking the time to dial in and giving us the opportunity to talk you through our financial results for the period ending June 2024. Also reflecting on the year that lies ahead for our company. I'm joined this morning on the right-hand side by Bertus van der Merwe, who is our Managing Director of our South African operation and the driving force behind another year of exceptional operational results. On my left, I'm joined by our Acting CFO for our group, Riaan Smit, who will talk us through some of the financial numbers and also discuss what lies ahead for our group.
We have on standby our Ricus Grimbeek, who's our Managing Director from Zambia, dialing in from Lusaka, and I trust the signal from Lusaka will allow him to dial in at the start of the copper review. How we're going to run this morning is we're gonna run through a slide full presentation and try and keep it as short and precise as possible, so we can really spend some time on the quality questions we've received from so many of you that have dialed in. I see we have an exceptionally large number of people that have taken the time this morning, and I'm really looking forward to the debate and answering the questions that you have sent to us.
In this presentation, I hope that if nothing else, following this presentation, what you'll see is a company that has come through a capitalization phase to deliver in South Africa over the past four years. A company that's grown from 40,000 tons of chrome, where today Bertus van der Merwe and his team speaks of north of 1.5-1.6 million tons of product per year as they march towards that 2 million tons target we set ourselves, to achieve. On the other hand, in our copper business, which we entered on the back of the success of our South African operations to replicate that strategy, which is a strategy driven by processing excellence, where we implement a processing capability in Zambia.
Overcoming the challenges which there have been numerous in Zambia to deliver a world-class processing capability, allowing us to operationalize the resources we have secured in Zambia. Without wasting any further time, I'm gonna hand over to Riaan, and maybe just allow Riaan to reflect on the results that we delivered and announced. Then after the presentation, we'll delve into some of the questions we received specifically on these results. Riaan, over to you.
Thank you. Dial one slide further there. Good. Thank you very much, Leon. I think Leon has actually given us a good introduction of our current business, and I think for me it's just to report on the financial numbers. Good revenue of $205 million. The EBITDA is solid on $27 million, and the capital investment. I think if you can go to the next slide, Leon, I can break that out in a little more detail. Again, if you look at the group revenue, a very solid 20% increase on last year driven by the good growth in especially chrome revenue.
On the copper side, we did increase volumes, but most of that was more on the concentrate side, which have a smaller profitability, and that led to the slight decrease in volumes there. On the PGM side, it's very much a pricing side where prices dropped significantly from 1,700 an ounce to around 1,300 an ounce. That hit that revenue quite hard. Again, a solid EBITDA performance in line with the growth in revenues there. On the capital side, you'll see the capital has actually matured from going down 65% from the previous year.
there we've further capitalized on the copper side to make sure we have the capacity there for the production as well as on the chrome side, we've expanded on most of the South African operations, the production capacity to ensure further sustainability in our production levels.
Thank you, Riaan. I mean, maybe just to add to Riaan's points, what these numbers really are demonstrating is as we informed the market, very mature South African business, organically growing its business. It's capitalization of the business coming to fruition, as Riaan says, over the past year and past two years, we've not only expanded our PGM operations to take up the additional PGMs. Bertus and his team have driven hard as we continuously roll out our modular chrome plants to expand and take up an opportunity.
Maybe interesting fact that Bertus no doubt will address this side is the fact that this chrome business that has grown to this north of 1.5 million tons being one of the world's biggest chrome concentrate producers, is producing chrome from reefs, which the industry had thought was either too low, too complex, or not viable to process. The operational efficiencies and the partnerships Bertus has driven, in that business. On the copper side, also nice to look at the balance of our revenues and our earnings coming through. We're a company now where three metal classes are adding positive earnings to our group during volatile markets. On the right, you can see a wheel of revenues, chrome absolutely dominating revenues with its constant significant growth coming through.
More importantly, also, is that growth comes through from chrome products that more and more are market-facing rather than fixed toll agreements, which is where we started our business at the time. And copper is starting to play a role, even with the sharp increase in chrome, still showing its 9% component, which comparative to the growth in chrome is, shows how copper is starting to also count within our company. Maybe just there, Riaan, as Riaan said, on the operational side, copper increasing. Totally understand that many shareholders was hoping that that number would be much higher in Zambia.
I think still what Ricus and the team has delivered, facing the challenges they had to face in Zambia, which we'll speak of during the copper presentation, exceptional to yet again show growth while we are building, implementing and commissioning our processing capacity. Bertus' side, impressive, where we now speak of a company north of 1.5 billion tons and seeking to exceed that into 1.6 million tons for the coming year. Of course, with the operational capacities that is currently in construction and coming online, and Bertus will share a quick video, for people to see that construction of this capacity coming online towards the end of this year, just for people to get the sense of the sheer magnitude of this operation, that has been built by the team.
PGM is coming down, which is an intentional decision, as we prioritize chrome during this year, to rather focus on the increased market valuation of chrome. PGM, as Riaan spoke of, decreased significantly in the basket values, and we had the flexibility within our process because Bertus drove the modular approach for our facility, so it's not one large big facility where we have no flexibility as some other of our competitors might face. We have a modular approach allowing us to accelerate chrome production to react to the market, in some of our modules, to prioritize chrome earnings to PGM earnings, and that is why we're able as a group to still deliver nearly touching $28 million of EBITDA, showing a very marginal drop in overall EBITDA when PGM crashed by nearly 70%, during the year.
Ability to buffer these volatile markets by having that flexibility within our processing design and partnership agreements. Looking at the operational review of Zambia, while we wait for Zambia's link to be established, I'll talk us through that until Ricus can join. Maybe I thought just to start off with, Zambia has gone through an evolution in Zambia as we entered Zambia end of 2019 to acquire an old decommissioned refinery that we set out to recapitalize and bring into operation. What this slide unpacks for us, we'll talk through, is just the simplicity of that strategy and maturity of the Zambian strategy that we are now rolling out to ensure there's clarity in the market. The top three blocks on that slide speaks to the key resources, ore resources that we went and secure.
As I start the slide, Ricus Grimbeek has just joined from Lusaka. Ricus, we've just started the discussion on the strategy of how we are pursuing Zambia and the maturity of it. I'm so glad that I can hand over to Ricus, who's our Managing Director of Zambia, dialing in from Ndola from our Roan concentrator. Ricus, over to you.
Yeah, thanks. Can you guys hear me?
Yes.
Okay, cool. That's good. Yeah. Sorry I'm a bit late but, yeah, we had some more than normal issues in Zambia, but we are back online. Yes, I'll just jump in with the strategy, Leon. As you can see on the screen we've pivoted our business a bit. The main thing is that we've got amazing operational plants in Kabwe and in Ndola.
The key is how do we fill those plants with material that will produce us the most cost-effective, and most revenue accretive, profit. If you look at what we've landed on is that we'll be feeding these two operations that we currently have with open-pit mining material. I'll talk about that a little bit in more depth. The other part that we'll be filling this with is previously mined material, and then also previously processed material. In terms of open-pit mining, you would have seen that we bought the Munkoyo. That is, it is now 42 kilometers away from Kafue, from our Sable Refinery.
Because we are finally completing the road, the direct road from the mine to the refinery. It was the previously mined operation that we've been able to take over and turn into more of a world-class type of open pit mine. We're currently at about 12-15 meters deep, and we are working on opening up 100 meters of strike. The total mine currently is about 300 meters of strike that can be accessed pretty quickly. That is the key focus now.
We've announced that we have acquired Project G that is in the Mumbwa area, and that is also an open pit mine currently being mined with a shaking table and also another plant that we can get into operation pretty quickly. The shaking table plant is currently up and running. I think I'll just step in there. It seems like unfortunately, Ricus, as you were going through it, your signal were lost. Ricus, I'll just hand over back to you as the signal lasts and then please continue. No, thank you. Ricus sorry, I'll step in. Unfortunately, it seems like from Zambia our signal is just too weak. What Ricus was really going through for everybody is, of course, on the open pit mining resource strategy.
We've announced our exciting acquisition of Project Munkoyo that Ricus touched on. That followed with Project G, which we announced earlier this week. Another exciting open-pit operation that Ricus spoke of. We'll show a quick video clip in the next two, three slides, just so people have a sense of the sheer size of these operations that Ricus and his team is bringing on stream. I think the fundamental components we look at these three classes. You'll see under the heading of each of the three classes, it also gives you a sense of the copper content or the copper grade per group. Therefore, one can understand why the priority to secure such a large portion of this opportunity on offer in Zambia is in that open-pit area.
It contains reefs that are particularly complex. It speaks to the processing capability of our team to unlock that copper. At 3% copper, clearly it's something that we should pursue. As we discussed even on the Sunday broadcast, if you look at the sheer number of licenses in Zambia, it is estimated by the department that this area of Zambia has the potential to carry up to 300,000 tons of copper per annum. Now, clearly, that's not all gonna be secured by Jubilee. We don't have that kind of ability. That gives a sense of the size of the prize and the reason why we are so aggressively pursuing with Ricus and his team more and more of these opportunities.
The exciting part is that both Munkoyo, that has been acquired in June, is already operational and delivering material to Sable. It is currently being expanded, as Ricus explained, where the strike area or that's the area of the reef that is exposed that can be reclaimed and sent to our refinery is being increased as Munkoyo goes through that phase. Project G following the decision to acquire it and through the intervention of the team negotiating a better transaction, where we're taking 65% of that project via Jubilee. That project will come into operation this year. It means that within this period both Munkoyo and Project G will be processing material at Sable. The next group of material, which we call previously mined material.
It's typically low-grade copper stockpiles that have been discarded by mining activities at the time because of its complexity or because of its grade. Roughly, runs at half the grade to slightly less of the grade of the open-pit operations. This is the material currently targeted towards our Roan plant, where the new front end had been commissioned. That material is currently being processed through Roan, where it takes that low-grade material, upgrades it significantly north of 10% copper, which allows us to then directly refine that material. Roan, of course, we'll speak of later, it's got two components to it because there's the third material group, which is the lowest containing copper value. This is material that's been mined and previously processed and discarded either because of the type of process that was run or the type of material that was fed.
Roan currently processes through its flotation and milling circuit, which are two separate circuits at Roan. It's very unique. The Roan concentrator, it's got both the ability to process simultaneously previously mined material through its front end, which then produces products which are directly refined or further processed. And then you've got the previously processed material or tailings that is coming through. What we're working towards is that as the Munkoyo and the Project G's are expanding, it rapidly gets to a position where Sable is fully occupied or utilized by open-pit material. We've been able to step up our operation.
We have completed the Roan construction of the two components, the front end and the back end, as we've discussed, where we've delivered 13,000 tons of copper capacity, which we are now filling with both the previously mined material or the low-grade stockpiles, as well as the tailings component of Roan. A very exciting plant to have available to us. Our last component of our processing upgrade to reach that initial target of 25,000 tons per annum of copper capacity is Sable. Sable's expansion very simplistically means that we're adding a second tank house to Sable, so that Sable can consistently refine and produce north of 15,000-16,000 tons of copper per annum.
We have the combination of both Roan at its 13,000 and Sable at its 16,000 as a processing footprint and capability in Zambia. Taking up that capacity now comes through with the commissioning of Munkoyo, Project G, set to commission within this calendar year before December. Of course, Roan stepping up its operation by processing both its previously mined material and waste. On the safety side, even though all of this construction activity was happening, and we were running and constructing on the plants, the team delivered an exceptional safety performance, and congratulations to them. As we discussed, the third component of project, which is very exciting, that the team is unpacking, with Ricus and his team, is this large waste rock project we told the market about.
It's a project where we secured an exclusive right to it. It consists of nearly 260 million tons of copper, and that 260 million tons of copper is what we seek to bring into operation. How are we doing it? The front end of Roan is an example of the modules that will be placed onto this material, and we are currently commencing with that trial, where we're looking to process 15,000 tons of material through Roan of this material as that final review of the design of those facilities to ensure that the upgrade from our labs to our pilot facilities into commercial is accurate. It needs that accuracy because this is a massive mountain of material that's been created over time. It therefore has enormous variability.
In that 260 million tons, it contains all of the history of that area of mining, which consists of waste rock, low-grade rock, copper oxide, copper sulfide, all mixed together in that. Therefore, this trial is a great opportunity for us to model out that variability as part of our design. As we've said, very short, if I therefore summarize our strategy in Zambia and what you can look forward to seeing coming out of Zambia as we now roll it out, is on the one hand, to expand Sable to be able to operate consistently at a 16,000 ton per annum of copper refinery by adding that second tank house. It takes roughly about 10 months to bring in all the various components into Sable to be able to do that.
It does mean we are continuing to run Sable during this process while we integrate these components into the integrated refinery. Sable is an old refinery, and therefore, as part of this upgrade to the 16,000 tons, we are also replacing certain of the older technologies with more modern processing solutions. In Roan's side, as we discussed, Roan with the 30,000 tons of copper capacity, key driver now is fully utilizing both components of Roan, both this front-end part of Roan able to process those low-grade waste rock stockpiles, which there is mountains of in Zambia, together with simultaneously running its flotation circuit to process the previously processed ore tailings material. At the same time, what you can expect to see coming out of our company is how we progress with our open-pit mining operations.
We've got two under our belt. We certainly look forward to add far more than two to our operational strategy.
I think the only exciting, if I can chip in there. I'm excited to see that the focus is on the right places, where if you look at our previous sheets, where we're using the 0.3s, the 1.5s, and the 3%s, that's upstream feed grade. If you look at it from the 0.3s, you'd have to have 6-7 times the feed. On a 1.5, you need to have 2-4 times the feed. On the open pit, you have 1 time the feed to make the same amount of tons, which is exactly what we're driving in South Africa as well, which your primary cost, your biggest expense is your primary feed, what is rule number one.
That's great to see that Zambia is able to go upwards. The reason I think they're upwards is processing ability and then proper drive by management to look at the primary feed, which is in all these instances, we all know that the good feeds are gone. The bigger companies have got all the good feeds, and this is where Jubilee demonstrates its expertise in processing ability to actually go after the inferior feeds and work its way up to the better feeds.
Very good point, Bertus. When putting that in perspective, if you were to process 0.3% copper versus 3% copper, it means that you have to process 10 times more.
Mm-hmm.
material to make the same amount of copper. That, of course, is a massive cost driver.
Your ability to get more cathodes out with open-pit mining will come forward, and then your graph starts picking up. That first graph we showed you on the copper cathode, which explains you working forward with the same amount of effort, you can make more tons.
Absolutely correct. In short, we've touched on this. Maybe the pictures there just gives you a sense of the sheer upgradability that the team is securing. On that little picture, in that block, you'll see little blue blocks. All those blue blocks are what we call open cast or potential open castable opportunities. It just gives the sheer sense of the magnitude of this overlooked opportunity within the Zambian copper space. Outlooks going forward for Zambia, we've given a guidance range between 5,000 and 7,500 tons. Why did we give a range? Well, because our guidance links into the delivery of projects. This is not a company that's organically expanding.
This is a company delivering on a strategy which is a bit like a Lego set where the various components now come together. The processing capacity coming to its fruition, the resource being brought into operation. There are, as we've seen in Zambia, a number of factors that impact directly Ricus' ability and his team's ability to deliver. Power has been a potential significant threat to our operations in Zambia as Zambia faces and continue to face a significant power crisis and the availability of power. We are very fortunate in that Ricus and the team was able to negotiate fully privatized power supply agreements to ensure that as of the middle, end of September and going into October, we have uninterrupted power to all of our operations in Zambia.
It is a fundamental de-risking factor that Jubilee was able to successfully negotiate and implement. It means that 100% of our current power demands are not only met by renewable power sources in hydropower and solar, but it also means that we are now not exposed to the current power instabilities within Zambia, which makes it impossible to run a refinery where the quality of your copper cathode determines the salability of your copper cathode. That already really gives that ability on how those projects are slotted in. As those projects come into fruition, we of course will provide the update to our guidance going forward. That gives you hopefully a better sense of what's happening in Zambia, how we're reacting to the challenges, and how we are driving forward the strategy in Zambia.
With that, it's nice to now shift into our South African business because as we said in the beginning, Jubilee is two parts, one copper, which is emerging and evolving and a mature growing force in South Africa. With that, let me hand over to Bertus as Managing Director of South Africa.
Thank you very much. I think you can go to the next slide, Leon. You can see there in South Africa, it's a very simplistic approach like way similar to Ricus when the biggest thing is feed. I mean, without feed, you can't process. We call it home in South Africa, all our own feed or the PGM feeds. Interesting thing to note on the initial slides, in the last three years, we've seen our feed regressing. We had an average of 30%, and now we're living with an average of 27%-28%. Our initial figures, looking there at the 1.54 million could have been up by another 5% had our feeds stayed the same in the last two, three years. Again, demonstrating the processing ability that we need to look at.
We've also been looking at that, and we've been adding capabilities to make sure that with the feed slower or lower, we're from a 30-25 range. We initially would have liked to be at 50% grams, which was previously seen as unprocessable. We are now able to look at 25%. In that instance, our processing ability and the ability to look at this basically secures more feed going forward. Everybody asks us, "Where do we get the feed?" If you look at the significance of this for last year, on average, we fed 260,000 tons per month through this processing abilities. Our processing plants of us, basically we are running now 10 individual plants. All these plants, except the newest two we're adding, are running at capacity.
Which is a nice thing we've seen till now at the end of last year, end of 2024, beginning of this year, we've pushed into maximum capabilities, which also told us it's time to step up and add the extra plants. The processing ability is there, and like we would like to call it, I mean, the ability to have a reef available and then looking at what we can extract from that reef through the Jubilee processing ability in that sense. That's been able to take us forward, and you can see there we historically had more contracted tons, the stable tons, from our primary feeder where we secured feed, we dealt with it, and we supplied that. That's given us a very stable operation, and we've managed to basically up that significantly as well.
We initially started with 60,000 tons a few years ago. We're at 240,000 tons. Looking forward, we're looking at pushing that up to 180,000 tons. That at least feeds the first 180,000 tons. The next 200,000 tons we're embarking upon now is the uncontracted, which gets us pretty close to a 50-50 split with regards to where we're running, which was the initial idea. Make sure we can operate, make sure we can sustain it, run with a fixed margin, optimize the fixed margin, and then add the market value where chrome fundamentals are showing that this year China will end up having more than 60 or the world will end up producing more than 60 million tons of stainless.
Which, to put into perspective, at the end of 2000 the world was doing 20 million tons of stainless. Basically, stainless steel has doubled in the last 20 years, which is exciting to look at that. The fundamentals show us that stainless steel growth will be sustained and basically chrome ore which we produce goes into ferrochrome, and ferrochrome makes stainless steel stainless. The chrome component make it stainless. If we look at the next slide, LTIFR, one or two smaller entries that we look at there. I mean, one of the areas we need to focus on. I think it's fair, what Rickus has said on our side, it's always about management optimization and people optimization. Safety always part of it to make sure that with our people we safely perform.
Very proud about the fact that we were able to surpass that 1.54 million tons of chrome concentrates, which is a 20% year-on-year increase. With the target going forward to see how quickly we can get to 2 million tons concentrate. As well coupled to that, in the process of extracting the chrome, we do create PGM feed material. The nice thing we are now seeing with this financial year going forward, we actually have for the first time, we are long on PGM feed material. This allows us now to optimize the PGM feed material we would like to put into a plant.
The way of optimizing that is by taking the direct feed, which is produced at our OBB plant directly into our PGM plant, and then looking at which other material gives us the best tons per ounce. That will allow us then to optimize that. That's also why we believe in the 36,000-40,000 ounces guidance would optimize that. The aim would be because PGM market is deflated to make the same amount of PGMs with less feed because that would have a cost implication and would create a margin for us. That's where the focus is with the low PGM feed we're creating. The next few modules, like I said, we're proud to say that we've embarked on that. I mean, like we call it the B50, a 50,000-ton module.
We expect to do 50,000 tons depending on what ore type we've got. A lot of investigation, a lot of knowledge has been going into understanding the chrome ore types. In our instance, like I said, we have found there are various ways to extract the chrome that previously wasn't extractable or previously went too far and became unextractable because it was over mined for instance. In that instance, we feel very comfortable with the work that's been done in the last 18 months, a year on chrome side as well as PGM side, that we really understand the fundamentals to extract this material and to enable us to go to the next step.
As Leon has it out there, 1.6, in excess of 1.6 million tons of mineral reserve grade, which we hopefully will exceed. I mean, the important thing is to build on the basics and have a steady climb going forward.
Absolutely. Thank you, Bertus. I think as Bertus educated and showed fundamental point that he mentioned and maybe not quite been understanding is that what drives this continuous growth in chrome when so many companies believe that to grow in chrome is so difficult because of the availability of resources, is the fact that the team consistently and continuously unlocks chrome reefs that people classify as too difficult and, or too low grade. Bertus threw out a number where if we dial back the clock for two,three, four years, we would not have processed chrome below a 32% or 33% chrome content. Today, it is normal for Bertus and the team to process chromes at 25, 26% content. These are reefs that would have been discarded into waste dumps previously.
It is what they process at the same efficiencies as what the industry thinks the norm is for the high-grade chrome. Maybe just to demonstrate the sheer magnitude of what is being built, and when we speak of modules, can I ask that the video be played? Thank you. I hope that those videos, if nothing else, gave perspective to the management. The first video, which was just a very quick sense of Munkoyo project, which shows the development and exposure of the reef as we're stepping up that production or mining rate. The second video showing and touching on our two new modules being constructed. Although we give the name modules, it doesn't mean that they're not large, that is being implemented.
These modules, as we have informed the market, are looking to be brought into full operation, operational state within this period before year-end December. Then maybe just as that last slide, as we conclude the presentation and then get into the various Q&As and the questions that are there, which I think we're really excited to get into. What we've looked at in our company and what we've presented really is the fact that our growth strategy, both on Bertus in South Africa as well as Ricus in Zambia, it's driven by innovation. It's driven by innovation and processing. We're looking at materials, questioning why certain reefs and materials are not being mined or recovered by the industry, and then solving those problems. It's so clearly demonstrated by Bertus and the team.
In all cases as you've seen, our strategy is always led by the implementation of our processing capacity, which we then, following that, bring into operation the various resources through partnerships or ownership to bring those resources into operation. I think just a point to highlight that bottom point is the ability and the absolute achievement by the team to have overcome, which was one of the biggest threats to our Zambia strategy and business, and that was power security. Without the availability of power, we cannot run. Processes are critically dependent on stability to be able to extract copper or chrome for that matter. Therefore, the ability to have now placed all of our operations onto a private power supply agreement, which kicked in, towards the end of September.
This week announced to the market that we've extended that agreement so that Roan can run both of its sections at full capacity. The private power agreement is a fundamental important step taken in Zambia. Of course, looking forward, we're looking at the waste rock project. It's going into its commercial trial this month that lies ahead. Call it 15,000 tons of material are gonna be processed through that facility. We're looking at delivering on those two operational modules through Bertus and his team as we march towards that 2 million tons of chrome concentrate that we look to produce. That concludes the formal presentation style. Really thank you for taking the time to listen to that.
I'll throw it over now, so we can go through the Q&A, the questions, and especially while I have the team around me, let's delve into the questions that we have received from so many people.
Thanks very much, Leon. Just to say that we've received quite a few questions during the presentation. We'll try and get through as many as we can, but any questions that we don't answer, we'll provide written answers to and post them on the platform after the call. Let's turn to our first question. What is the commercial arrangement on Jubilee's chrome processing partnerships? Are they JVs? And if so, what is the weight to JV ownership?
Yeah. I'm gonna hand that over to Bertus van der Merwe, as MD of South Africa to answer that specifically.
Yeah. We've got a very big drive on our side through partnerships, like I said. Also in that partnerships, same as you see with Ricus in Zambia and South Africa, is important because partnership means we're engaging. Because we engage, we actually a lot of the time get the local communities involved. We get our rail partners involved. Our partnerships entail that it's pretty much a cost-driven exercise. We made a partner and we mine with a partner. They mine at cost, we transport at cost, and we process at cost. And that gives us a common vision to make sure that we optimize the cost. Then we look at the market and see where is that margin.
Indefinitely it becomes a type of a JV where there's a profit split that comes to it as the scheme comes to fruition. It's a very much common goal, common drive. One is ROM, two is transport, three is operational cost. Our fourth one is our mass yield in the chrome side, so how much chrome can we extract. That is transparent. All the partners, whoever you put into this partnership, tries to have a cost awareness, which gives us the lowest possible cost. When we are on that lowest possible cost, that should give us a margin.
Maybe just to add to that question, when we speak of JV ownership side. Our JVs in South Africa are typically structured more on an earnings share model rather than ownership of the resource. We typically do provide the processing plant and facility and the resource owner provides the resources, and that then calculates to a resource and earnings allocation. Back with you, Kate.
Great. Sticking with the Chrome operations, what is the mechanism used to set the price of the ROM purchase by Jubilee?
As a ROM, where you've got a partner that you're mining with, we typically look at the fundamentals of mining, as miners do. We look at strip ratios. Because of the strip ratios, we then see what is normal cut-off. Not only is the cut-off grade, but the cut-off cost. Because of extractability, we are able to push the cut-off cost because we look at a longer-term view and say, mine a bit more, maybe slightly more expensive, but our processability allows us to do that. We've also got an alternative model because the market we understand because of the environment we play in, and since the MPRDA, the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act in South Africa is playing a bigger role, we have got multiple smaller partners.
We end up buying 1,000 tons, 5,000 tons, 10,000 tons from smaller partners as well. As we already elaborated to that's very much chrome dependent. In some instances we find that there's no market for this. We create the market, and because we create the market, we then utilize our fair share, which is our fairness aspect, where we do basically a calculation and say, "Okay, you are mining at a cost. We are gonna sustain you." We do get this material cheaper, but it's also a partnership where we basically can sustain the small enterprises to go forward. The cost is determined by what we can process. We utilize the fundamentals of strip ratio, we utilize the fundamentals of where the market is.
In essence, I don't wanna use the word opportunistic, but we are opportunistic in saying what ore is available, and with the right amount of cash available, we are then able to buy some of these ores at lower prices just because we're sustaining operation.
Sticking with that, has the company given consideration to ending toll agreements in favor of ROM partnerships?
We see the company as a bit of both. We must never forget where we came from. The reason we initiated involvement this five years ago, we partnered with the world's biggest chrome ore resource owner. There's a reason why you partner with the world's biggest chrome ore resource owner because they are the world's biggest chrome ore resource owner, and you provide that service to them. I mean, then we've grown and optimized where we can. We've also seen then through optimizing our own processing ability and having that ability, our vision would be more towards own processing and not necessarily toll treatment, but we will not let the other one go unless market dictates or something else happens on that side.
It's a bit of a joint approach, like I said previously as well, where we were pushing to go to 50/50. Mind you, we'll be in a year or two from now, hopefully 60/40, 70/30. Time will tell.
At this point, one mustn't forget the strength of having both, where you have a fixed margin toll agreement, which is not market-facing, and they're very conservative in the approach together with a more market-facing chrome contract that takes the full exposure to the chrome market. The balance between the two offers strength in our earnings.
Turning to Zambia, is the Roan front-end linked to the existing mill and flotation circuit, and if so, how are they linked?
A bit of a technical question, and I'll break it down for the listeners. The Roan's front-end module and its milling and flotation circuit are two fully independent circuits. In fact, what you're looking at on the screen is the Roan front-end module. They are independent circuits, but since that front-end module processes two or produces two products, one of its products can be directly fed into the Roan flotation and milling circuit. We're currently running it as independent circuits, but we have the ability to send one of the products of the front-end module directly to the milling and flotation circuit.
Has this mill and flotation circuit been operating at full capacity since the beginning of this financial year?
The biggest challenge now has been doing the commissioning. Post-commissioning, of course, it is very difficult to run both. There definitely was impact on the flotation and milling circuit during the commissioning of the front end. Of course, the key factor that came during September was the availability of consistent electricity and power. That was the key criteria to be able to ramp up Roan to its full capacity.
The same with Zambia. Instead of physically concentrating the copper ores, has Jubilee given consideration to concentrating the ores chemically using heap leaching and transporting that solution to Sable for refinement?
Oh, we've looked at all of that. Clearly one thing that Jubilee has is we have the luxury of an exceptional in-house technical team to look at technical and part of that review, as we've informed the market of the various tests, includes leaching. It includes various lixiviants to leach copper. It includes various physical upgrade techniques. We really look at the full range of upgrade ability, and it's very ore specific. You know, unlike many companies who apply a particular technique to all of what they have, we, because of our modular approach, for example, Munkoyo. Munkoyo gets a very specific solution compared to the design, for example, for Project G. There are commonalities in the process, but they are designed specific to the ore type.
In short, yes, we look at the full gamut of what is available, technologically.
Will Jubilee be sharing the outcomes of the resource drilling program at Munkoyo, Project G, and the waste rock project?
Oh, we certainly will. The reason for the drill program is twofold. One is because we're constantly looking at how big these projects can become. That's the driver, and that is driven by the continuity of the reef. So it's more on the operational side, but also equally, the fact that we have opportunistically secured exceptional opportunities in Munkumpu and Project G. Therefore, we will certainly bring that out to the investment market. What is the outcome of that drill program being run at these two and of course at the large waste rock project?
Leon, on a recent podcast, you suggested the copper output of 300,000 tons, which is 50 times this year's guidance. Can you expand on this suggestion and what needs to happen to reach such a goal?
I mean, I wish we did say that. We don't target 300,000 tons. Certainly not. 300,000 tons refers to the size of the opportunity of all of Zambia, as the department looks at the full AMBIT of what they have under the AMBIT initiative. To put that in perspective, the AMBIT initiative was driven by Zambia, very progressive law, legal framework to allow the rapid implementation of opportunities to accelerate copper into production in Zambia, as the president had stated, 3 million tons of copper target. That 300,000 tons, clearly we are looking to take a significant position within that opportunity. How big that opportunity will be is dependent on speed of a transaction, our ability and funding ability to secure these transactions and bring them into operations.
Turning to a more corporate question, will Jubilee declare a dividend in the future? Is the long-term strategy purely capital growth at this stage?
It's a topic that the board often debates, and it's a balanced view between the growth the capital will deliver versus the sharing of the dividends from our earnings generated out of that capital. Certainly over the immediate future, our drive to expand on South Africa, our drive to bring into operation our copper resource to take up our processing capacity is the priority, to get into that position where this can be reviewed again.
Quite a few questions relating to the share price. With all the good news that we put out recently, the share price has not moved as expected. Is there any reason for this?
Well, as a shareholder myself, I fully share the disappointment in the share price. Markets are driven by buying and selling. One would suspect that the selling is higher than the buying at the moment, and there's a lot of speculation around that. Ultimately, the market must reflect the company's fundamentals, and therefore, what is in our control is delivery. Delivery onto what you said the strategy is in both South Africa and in copper. That has to come through in recognition and within the market. That is our focus right now to address what is, as you said, a deeply low share price.
Turning back to Zambia, can you further expand on Monday's RNS, where we referenced a targeted regional processing hub? Can you just elaborate on what this would entail and what that means?
Yeah, sure. As we explained in our strategy, when we look at our various copper resources, we look at clustering those resources. For instance, Munkumpu, which is now in operation, we are looking at a few further opportunities around that region, which combined would justify upgrading the reef further at source before transporting that reef to our refinery. Equally with Project G. When we look at a local upgrade hub, it really speaks to what you see on the screen, which is the front-end module of Roan, is where you're looking at physically upgrading or as previously asked by one of the participants around maybe more of a chemical upgrade of the material before being transported to the refinery.
It is driven by your success to cluster the area and bring in two or three opportunities to combine, therefore justifies the module that is implemented within that region, and draws in, of course, further opportunities in that region.
When do you expect to achieve 25,000 tons per annum of copper in Zambia?
As quickly as possible. The biggest drive to achieve that is the completion of the Sable upgrade. That has to be completed to be able to consistently deliver the tonnages at Sable. That is driven, as we said, that project is running over the next 10 months. Parallel to that, we'll definitely keep the market abreast of the resources coming into operation as we take up that capacity. Market can expect that kind of news flow coming out of Zambia as the resources Munkumpu, Project G, the large waste rock project, Roan steps up to take up that capacity.
Going back to South Africa, why run Inyoni at 80% and not 90%?
I'll throw that to Bertus van der Merwe, which really links into what he discussed earlier. Just maybe just technically to explain when Bertus van der Merwe gives his PGM ounce target. Inyoni's capacity as a refinery's capacity is dictated to by the amount of material that flows through it. It's not dictated by how much it produces. Therefore, if you are going to put in a 3% copper feed into the same capacity as a 0.3% copper feed, as an example, you are likely to make ten times less.
In that time.
That is the driver on Bertus van der Merwe's side.
you only feed 75,000-80,000 tons a month every month, and that's a primary drive to make sure it's full. what we work on is depending on the feeds we have, the tons per ounce. do we utilize in our array of feeds, we have feeds that can go as low as 15 ton an ounce and feeds that goes as high as 55 ton an ounce. Of course, we've got a varying ore. As we explained previously, as the current ore varies, so does the PGM component and the PGM extractability varies.
With us now being longer on current ore, we can push back and say, "Run full out and feed into the Inyoni 4." The target is for us to get to 25 tons per ounce, which gives us a typical 36,000 ounces, and then go to 20 tons per ounce, which will then give us 40,000 ounces and even might see if we can exceed that. Again, that is, then comes back to the tons per ounce of the typical ore we are processing. The front end of the chrome dictates what the tail would look like that goes into Inyoni. Depending on that's why we're only somewhere between 80%, 90%, and sometimes might even be 100% if you look at it, just depending on how many tons is required to make one ounce.
Turning to more of a corporate question, what consideration has been given to gearing up the balance sheet with long-term debt?
To Riaan to answer that question. Just maybe as an introduction, we have very intentionally kept the Zambian balance sheet free of gearing it to allow it to be ready for the capitalization and expansion as we discussed. Really, Riaan, let me hand it over to you.
Thank you, Leon. As I explained, when I went through the numbers, I think the maturity of the performance in terms of EBITDA and the sort of margin actually bring us to that point where we now have the sustainable income from our operations to actually sustain funding facilities over a longer period of time. That's exactly what we are working on. We are in various discussions to work on funding to give us the capacity also on the three areas. One, to create a capacity for growth. Secondly, to give the facilities for the working capital, both in Zambia and South Africa.
Dubai, of course, there's quite a large amount of working capital associated with our business. Thirdly, it will also give us the capacity to run our business on the short-term and the longer term facilities that we have for the business.
I think the uniqueness of the business is the fact that you can tell someone you've got processing ability, you've got to prove it. You're as good as your track record. What we've seen in the few discussions I've been involved with Leon and Riaan is that now the institutions are sitting up and listening because there's a repeatability.
You're quite correct. I mean, absolutely. I mean, maybe just in simplistic terms for some people, it does mean that you can gear something when people believe there's value in it.
Yeah.
To get to the point where people believe there's value in it comes through repeatability, as Bertus says. It's proof of concept where we don't speak of our processing capability, but we're actually delivering on that capability. That's the evolution outcome that is going through the materials that you're getting at the moment.
Regarding the IRH deal, or the large waste rock project, when do you see this going ahead?
Thank you for that. I mean, for us the sixth of November, as we told the market, is a critical date we're chasing down. The large-scale trial is a fundamental step in that transaction and in that project to demonstrate for many people, for us, it's what we do day in, day out. We work with these kind of materials. But for many new investors and people getting involved in the operation that we do, this is an unknown factor and therefore to demonstrate at a scale that the trial is gonna run at 15,000 tons is a very big step in de-risking that opportunity and actually factually processing and showing the results of the potential variability in that material.
The next step is critical in concluding the transaction to go forward.
Is it possible for Sable and Roan to be further expanded or are they now maxed out? If so, how urgent is it that Jubilee sources additional processing and refining capacity?
Yeah, excellent question. Absolutely. I mean, Roan clearly offers the potential at Roan to expand it by implementing more of a refining component at Roan. Instead of just concentrating, is to actually step up concentrating into partially refined material as a natural expansion. We're fortunate in that Roan has got vast expanse of property to expand. It is. Roan certainly offers significant potential for expansion. Sable runs into a constraint on its footprint to really be able to expand past the 20,000 tons of copper. We need to then look elsewhere. The urgency at which we look is driven by the resources coming into operation. I'll pass it over to our shareholders and investors to ask their questions for themselves as you see our operations step up in their production.
We're fortunate in that Zambia, of course, offers this unique situation where there are quite a bit of refining capacity underutilized in Zambia for various reasons. Therefore, there are solutions potentially one can pursue to address your shortfall in refining capacity.
Thanks, Leon. I think we'll answer one more question. I'm conscious of time and the rest of the questions we'll provide a written answer for as I mentioned earlier. Just one last question on Zambia. For the copper production guidance that we've given for this coming year, please clarify how many tons will be cathode and how many will be concentrate?
Yeah. What you all can expect from the operations as Mombo now expands and Grosvenor project G comes in. The delivery of that material is of course all destined to Sable, not Roan. One could expect the ratio of cathode to increase compared to the previous year as the cathode component of the production steps up. Also because the oxide copper, which is soluble and therefore can be refined at Sable from Roan, will be sent to Sable up until the full capacity of Sable is reached. If one can expect the cathode production to dominate the production for this period.
Guys, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for being so generous with your time then, addressing all of those questions that came in from investors. Of course, we will give you back all of the questions that came in. We'll give you these back immediately after the presentation has ended, just for you to review, to then add any additional responses, of course, where it's appropriate to do so. We'll publish all those responses out on the platform for investors to access. Leon, perhaps before really just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company. If I could please just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, that'll be great.
Well, firstly, thank you, everybody for dialing in and taking the time to listen to us. I'm so glad that I could introduce our senior leadership team to you as well. I think if with this presentation, I hope we've clarified your view on the one hand to get the sense of the magnitude of what Bertus and the team is delivering, the maturity of that business that is being operated. On the other hand is the maturity and clarity of the strategic focus that Zambia has in delivering now its operational targets and the manner in which that team has overcome those challenges to be able to evolve and develop a strategy that is that clear path to now implement and deliver on what is so exciting under that copper side.
I hope that message came through. Of course, also the quality in the leadership and the people around me that is actually making this a reality. Thank you.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Perfect, Leon. That's great. Thank you all, once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Jubilee Metals Group PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. Good morning to you all.