Good afternoon, and welcome to the KEFI Gold and Copper PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted any time by the Q&A tab situated in the right-hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives in the meeting itself. However, the company can review all the questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Harry Anagnostaras-Adams. Good afternoon to you, sir.
Good afternoon, and thank you for attending the webinar. To my left is Eddy Solbrandt, the Chief Operating Officer of KEFI Gold and Copper. Eddy joined us a couple of years ago to start focusing on systems and organizational building amongst a plethora of other things as we prepare for construction, production. In short, we sort of stand back-to-back, him looking inside, me looking outside. That's a sort of simplistic summary of the role, division. I've prepared a very short quarterly slideshow. I'll just launch into it. I'm only gonna take a very few minutes to skip through it. It sort of cuts to the chase of where we're at and where we're heading.
Between Eddie and I, we'll answer a bunch of questions we've received ahead of the webinar. Alessandro, in the time remaining, will ask us any more questions that have you know popped up during the webinar. Without any further ado. For those of you, perhaps the minority of you but just for good order, just to say that we focus on a part of the world which is set geologically, defined geologically as the Arabian Nubian Shield, more or less the two sides of the Red Sea, known for millennia for its minerals bequest. Also known within the mining industry as having been sort of off-limits until very recently for modern exploration and modern development.
We got involved 15 years ago, exploring in Saudi and 10 years ago in Ethiopia. We now have three projects with development plans around each one. The first one being the Ethiopian one, which we'll talk about extensively today. The other two coming along behind are in Saudi Arabia. We also have exploration assets around both sets of development assets. We're in two countries, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia. We're, if not first mover, we're amongst the first movers in those jurisdictions. Just in the last couple of years the crowd has arrived by the busload or planeload too. All very excited about Saudi Arabia which opened its doors open and wide and pronounced all sorts of incentives for the mining sector to be developed in Saudi.
In the last few months, it's started to happen in Ethiopia as well. Those of you who are familiar with the mining industry would recognize at least some of the names up on the board there, which are really just a list of names of people who've come into this space recently. Including the largest gold producers in the world and perhaps the largest profile explorer developer, Ivanhoe and many other, you know, very decent people. This slide, I won't break down into nitty-gritty, but if those of you who are interested in what are the valuation parameters and comparatives within the industry and how do values change as projects de-risk, I recommend you have a look at a report that's on our website, which was published only in the last week by Oriole Capital.
The guy who runs that used to be the head of metals and mining at Macquarie Bank. Probably has one of the larger mining desks in the world of banking and equity, stockbroking, Australian group. He now does it for clients, his team for clients that he's interested in, that he can see, you know, are interesting and have a lot of potential. We commissioned him a couple of years ago to start tracking the sector, Africa, comparables, benchmarks. He started off with about 25 companies you could compare us with in terms, stock market terms. It's now halved because of acquisitions. Consolidation in the industry has picked up a lot in Africa the last couple of years. The story has remained the same. KEFI's remained very...
Three of those graphs show KEFI at the bottom of the graph, basically saying it's cheap. The other graph is about grade compared to others and shows that basically our grade is quite high. If you are interested in how do companies like KEFI go up that curve as they move forward through different steps in their process, I do recommend you read that report. It's a bit long but I do think it's a sincere attempt to describe the de-risking process and the potential of this company, as well as a whole bunch of statistics about other companies including asset transactions in the industry where you can see what people pay at different stages of the project's, you know, maturity.
This very busy slide is really essentially saying that here we are capped where we are around GBP 40 million and under 1p share. If the average of the industry applies of the shares trading around NPV, usually a little bit over. NPV at 5% is the industry sort of measuring stick but usually trades a bit over based on some other measures which drive the share price. That current market cap, if we just follow the industry trend would be around 10p when we're in production. Ignoring whatever else we have in the company which those of you who follow us know we have Saudi assets as well. Also on that slide, we give some numbers and projections of the cash flows and so on based on today's spot.
You know, in our quarterly, we gave a table showing the numbers and projections at a range of prices going from a spot, taking $300 an ounce off it and knocking off another $300 an ounce or $400 an ounce rather and knocking it back to, I think, $1,550. We gave a range there, depending upon whether you feel like a banker or you feel like an optimistic equity investor. You can pick whichever price bracket you like to measure the company in and apply your numbers accordingly. We've set that all out in the quarterly for you to make your own judgments. Expected milestones for this year for Ethiopia. We've been...
Just to recap very, very briefly, I'm not boring you with history, but basically we were with this syndicate preparing to finance and launch some years ago, and it faltered in a sense because following the introduction of democratic reform in Ethiopia at a pace which was incredible really in hindsight, the country stalled and it went into internal conflicts. We lost five years. Perhaps for good reason in the long term of democratic reform but for us, it stalled us. Anyhow, a couple of years ago, it was calming down and we gathered as a syndicate and reactivated the launch process. We laid out a number of conditions precedent. Big unusual preconditions precedent for us to be able to really crack on.
One was exchange control exemptions. Two was safety procedures and apparatus to be installed around us as if we're a permanent high-risk red zone. Notwithstanding that our area is not but treating it as that from the police forces. Thirdly, country membership to one of our banks. It's a risk protective umbrella that the bank required. They were spelled out very clearly a couple of years ago and we achieved them finally. To cut a long story short, the fine print matched the promises in October last year. What was not quite right yet was the policing b ecause we hadn't got going yet, the security forces kept being redeployed elsewhere and problems would pop up in our area. When they'd come back, it would all be calm again.
We need permanent protection. Anyhow, as of October, the three conditions precedent were either locked in, achieved or were clearly capable of being achieved by making sure the police forces were permanent. The lead bank went to credit for final approval and granted it. It took a couple of months to issue a piece of paper for formal ratification by its shareholders. Nevertheless, it was achieved in December. Right on the back of formality, the other people cracked on in the syndicate, the second bank. The Equity Risk Note investors, which we'll discuss shortly, and the share investors from the government in the subsidiary. The other day, we announced that we've triggered the project schedule for production. The first chapter is early works.
Early works is, I'll call it a de-risking phase. It's summarized on that slide and Eddie will describe it in a bit more detail. We get lots of questions about how does all this work, and Eddie will describe that in a bit more detail shortly. Our answer will be up. You don't have to write it down. It'll be up in our Q&A, documented in our Q&A on the website as well. It'll be recorded on this video so hopefully it clarifies to everybody how this process is designed. Basically say that the early works de-risk position everybody in at to the stage where they can sign formally, they're fully committed.
The best part of $1 billion worth of contracts, both CapEx and OpEx, can be formally committed to launch the large numbers of people and the, as I say, nearly $1 billion of CapEx plus OpEx commitments. Early works is there to demonstrate to each other, to the community and the community to us that we're ready. Then we trigger into major works. I won't dwell on these slides because I've given you the outline already b ut Eddie will summarize more expansively in a moment. Over in Saudi Arabia, where we're actually sitting at the moment, we have a couple of discoveries in the pressure cooker of feasibility study mode. They haven't emerged from that pressure cooker yet but they will.
We've got a large pipeline of exploration around them as well. The first 13 years in Saudi Arabia were frustrating, I suppose, is the simplest word. Now it's really quite the opposite because the government will provide whatever support it can reasonably do. You know, the walk-up drill targets are there particularly for people who know their way around like we do. It's very unusual, you know. People in this industry crave for this moment to not only have record metal prices and have assembled a pipeline, a healthy pipeline of projects from the shovel-ready down to grassroots. Also to have two countries that we were brave enough to enter into ahead of the pack, actually come good at last and very strongly so.
This is an unusual moment and it's a pleasure to be part of this positive atmosphere at last. I will stop there. I know I skipped through that. I just wanted to give you a sort of a very brief overview. On that note, we're happy to now take the questions that were inserted to us or sent to us ahead of the webinar and then any others that we have time to address. Alessandro?
Perfect. Harry, thank you very much for your presentation. We received some 46 questions, and in order to get through all of them today, we've removed any duplication. Perhaps we'll start with the ones around Tulu Kapi. The first one here. Congratulations on Tulu Kapi project launch. When will funds arrive on CapEx accounts and what needs to happen to make this happen? Plus, you mentioned in every RNS that conditions need to be met before approval. What conditions are still waiting to be met and how does the overall closing and project launch sequence flow so that we can achieve mid-2026 production?
Yeah, I'll answer that question. It's a very good question and we've got this question in various forms over and over and over again. Excuse me. It's so important I've actually made some notes and I'll read from those to explain it and I'll try to unpack this in form of a process that is easily understood. I think the first thing to understand is very simply the early works plus major works results in production commencing mid-2026. With that in mind, our early works are designed to demonstrate that we're ready for financial close, but also to commence major works. In this early works phase, we have to demonstrate that we can trigger major works within 60 days. What does that mean? A, we have to deliver final independently certified quantums for compensation and resettlement of the community.
This has to be done clearly before major works are triggered because the process is prescribed under Ethiopian law and regulation. We have 90 days once the quantum is agreed to compensate landholders. B, we also have to have final independently certified fixed price engineering and procurement agreed. This can only be done before and just before major works are triggered because contractually we have to place these orders within 60 days. As you're starting to see, there's a time sequence here. Once these two major conditions have been satisfied, we also need a final plan from our logistics and customs clearance brokers for deliveries to site and the resulting logistics. We also need a final independently certified master cash flow statement and detailed project schedule.
We need independent verification of safety performance and socio-political security. That is, can we operate safely in a safe environment. Evidence that our mining contractor has placed the orders for their equipment and also several certificates, including tax compliance certificates that are issued by the government. We then proceed to sign all of the transaction documents and these are set out in a form and substantially acceptable to our senior financiers. Once the signing is complete, we have to pay the financing fees within 60 days. We draw down the equity capital portion, followed by debt. Now, this sequence is quite logical insofar as it protects all stakeholders, including KEFI shareholders, from spending money too early without having guarantees that we can actually move on to the next phase.
Now, I know that this seems a bit frustrating to shareholders, that we shouldn't just sign all at once but I think it's reasonable. This process is reasonable and, as I said, designed to protect all shareholders. Harry or Alessandro?
Yeah, I. Let me just say that all the documents, all the plans, all the schedules, all the budgets have already been drafted. They've all been through due diligence. They've all been tabled by the syndicate members to their boards and committees to get their approvals. It doesn't mean to say all this work's being done for the first time. What it means is that all the work that has been done to get the approvals needs actually to be refreshed at the last minute, so you can go live. Going live means you're paying within 60 days or 90 days, depending upon the topic and there's no room for ifs, buts or maybes with near $1 billion.
This company, capped at GBP 40 million or $50 million or thereabout, has amassed a project which is going into its sort of, how would I put it? Verification chapter to trigger the major works, and it all adds up to production mid 2026. Okay. Alessandro?
Perfect. The next question: Has the second bank signed the deal off?
Yeah. To recap and be precise and be pedantic, you used the word "signed off." You just had an explanation of nobody signs off binding contracts until everybody signs off within 60 days of placing orders and paying the community. Now start getting a bit pedantic because I get questions every other day, "Has everyone signed off yet?" I think we've just gone to some detailed explanation, which will be in the Q&A on our websites and obviously recorded on the video. We all want to now start getting a bit more pedantic with each other and tracking more carefully. Going back to the approvals, I think I said earlier the lead bank had approved it last December, although we didn't get a piece of paper till two months.
The major shareholder or the direct shareholder into TKGM is already spending their money. It's way beyond approval. The Equity Risk Note leader already had board approval. That moment in December, formalized in February, triggered the other guys to go to their committees. Yes, we've had confirmation from all of them, including the second bank, that there are no substantive issues ahead of them. They do want to have their monitoring of, with site visits over the coming months during the early works. There will be no final signing or commitment until early works are just about finished. There's no point fretting over whether someone has approved it next week or next month. We've all agreed to proceed with early works.
We've all agreed we'll give the final sign-offs within 60 days of dispersing funds. That's the gist of it. We're away. We're up and away is the good news. I think, you know, obviously, one cannot guarantee the project is on until the project is on from the point of dispersing all those hundreds of millions of dollars. From the point of view of all the syndicate agreeing to get cracking so that we can draw down the funds, that's all been done. Next question, please.
Perfect. The next question here: In your presentation, you laid out works that need to be done before financial closure. Will this happen in wet season 2024? What items can be achieved in July, August, and September, realistically?
Yeah, good question. Look, we've been operating in this environment for many years. We're well aware of the seasonality and what impacts they have on schedule. We have a very detailed project schedule, combining a lot of the elements that I've just outlined. Yes, we've certainly taken into consideration what can realistically be achieved during the wet season. Next question.
Perfect. The next question asks if you can kind of explain how the drawdown of funds would work. Is it bound to achievement of development milestones?
Well, I think we've sort of answered the question but in terms of drawdown sequencing. Just to explain the sequencing. The $100 million spent to date has all been equity funded by KEFI's shareholders. That includes the Nyota shareholders who became KEFI shareholders over the last twenty years. That's been spent between that body of investors and the KEFI body investors now all together in one company. The government has spent about half of its $20 million equity investment already. That's already flowing. They've procured what they have to procure to do their job on the ground. Going forward, the package of major works is the $220 million dollar package, excluding the mining fleet funded by the mining contractor is sequenced in the following way.
That is that, the Equity Risk Note, the equity capital is drawn down first and covers around about the first nine months. Then the mezzanine component of the secured debt is drawn, and then the senior secured component of the senior debt is drawn. Everybody signs off right at the beginning but the sequencing of drawdown is in that sequencing. The banks want to see the equities in and spent before they put their money in. That's the deal, so to speak. Early works isn't so much about money. All the big spending is in the major works. The early works is really about aligning everybody with the final certified prerequisites and sign-offs to trigger the drawdown of the funds. Alessandro?
Perfect. Thank you very much. Will KEFI need funds for any Tulu Kapi development from equity raises before the drawdown of financing can start to fund the project?
Well, the answer to the budget is no. The risk is that, no matter how skilled we've been, I don't know how many other companies have assembled a financing of this nature, covered down in the region and in the subsidiaries as we have. What we have to check is in that home stretch that Eddie declared or defined very carefully of checking the final fixed price lump sum engineering and procurement numbers. There's no change, no extra money required. The indicators are that we've perhaps covered it all or maybe even slightly over-covered it in our budget because the supply chains globally have come off the boil since we did that number. It's much better. We'll see.
On the community side, it's a bit less sort of tightly predictable. We've re-calculated those numbers umpteen times, but it's distinctly possible a little bit of extra is required. Now, where does that extra come from above the GBP 320 million? You know, maybe a bit more Equity Risk Note, maybe a bit of juggling between all of us. You know, that. The quantum will be a small fraction of the total and I think we've already demonstrated that the syndicate is effectively carrying the load from here on, compared to the load carried by KEFI shareholders for the previous 20 years. Long-winded answer. I'm just trying to make sure I convey it carefully. Again, because we get questions every week. "Oh, will you need any more money for Tulu Kapi?" Well, the
I've given you a straight answer and the final numbers will tell us the final number, and within the syndicate, we'll probably manage it as the way we've managed the rest. Thank you.
Perfect. Next question. If Tulu Kapi financing is done in the current half year, will there be a fixed timetable for the preparation and construction of the mine that the company can be measured against?
Yeah, I might answer that. The answer is yes. I alluded to the timetable in the earlier question. Clearly, we have a timetable and that timetable is rigorously monitored because we spend money against it. Next question.
Perfect. Next question is, you mentioned an additional layer of due diligence concerning security being set up by some individual syndicate parties. Will this process delay drawdown or will it happen alongside the approval process independently?
No. The extra layer is, you know, for the banks to get their own independent advice on security which is not unreasonable. This happens in parallel with our own independent security advisors and our own security people. We've already been collaborating on how that process will work. It will not be a sequential but it's a parallel process. Next question.
Perfect. The next question here reads as follows: Who will pay for the security forces which will allow for safe development and mining operations?
Security forces. Let me just unpack that a bit. We have two-
Security forces, if you want to call them that. The first security force are the Ethiopian Federal Police, who are responsible for perimeter security. That is everything up until the gate. We then have our own private security contractors that are responsible for security from the gate inside the mine license area. There is a third security contractor who controls our control rooms. That is our communication hubs and centers from Addis right through to the mine license area. Clearly, we pay for our own contractors. That's a part of their budgets and costs. There may be some small incidental costs required for policing but nothing that hasn't been accounted for in our budgets.
Thank you, sir.
Next question.
Thank you very much. Now, the Ethiopian government have made the legislative changes needed for the financing to proceed. I was wondering when the company became aware that these changes were needed, as they were not mentioned in early financing plans. Is there any chance that there are other hidden obstacles to overcome?
The assertion of the question is actually not accurate. First of all, there have been no legislative changes. There have been many regulatory approvals that we've sought and I'm not aware that they haven't been well flagged publicly. You know, all the central bank approvals of interest rates and the right to use hedging and the exchange controls and offshore banking. We've been reporting these in our RNSs for years. I don't know that we haven't been reporting them. Maybe the reader has only been following recent RNSs. I honestly don't know. There are no big issues.
The big issues really were that this country became unstable for a few years and then the stability returned. That was the huge issue. The issue of regulatory reforms required to allow this sector to proceed around our first mover sort of, you know, proposals. I think we've reported them extensively. Now we're really in the early works program, which we've outlined is, I suppose the simplest expression might be administrative to make absolutely sure we've covered everything and there's formal bits of paper to satisfy boards and governance protocols that protect everybody, including ourselves. I'm not aware of any. There are no substantive arm wrestling negotiations to be done with anybody.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Next question. Are there licenses which have wrongfully been given to Chinese entities being returned? And why has the company resorted to the legal action against the Ethiopian government to recover the lost exploration areas in Ethiopia?
They haven't been returned. We didn't expect that already. We haven't taken legal action against the government. We have formally reserved our rights to take normal administrative actions and this is normal tenure defense posture. It's not that, not symptomatic of any weird behavior. In fact, we did the same in Saudi Arabia, where we had to stand our ground over Jibal Qutman. We had made a discovery. We lodged a mining license application in 2015-ish. I've forgotten. We had to go through the administrative procedures and into court before we proved our tenure and it was returned to us. You know, we're in the business of defending the rights of the company on behalf of shareholders when we believe there's been incorrect procedure or an injustice.
There's no antipathy with the government, if that's what's being alluded. It's quite the opposite, to be honest. I don't anticipate a problem on getting those licenses reaffirmed in our name, once we trigger major works.
Perfect. Thank you. The next question here. The most recent RNS talks of further exploration being pegged in Ethiopia. Is that on the disputed exploration areas?
No. We're doing some other pegging as well, which is premature to discuss publicly. We have said publicly that we're getting an expansionary sort of attitude with a team formed around that. Because when I said earlier, you know, we were on the defense for so long. The country was sort of shut down or suspended for these industrial initiatives for so long that a lot of the world turned its back on it. Now, we hung in there, and if you're gonna go to the trouble of hanging in there and your shareholders, you know, giving you the opportunity to hang in there for the, you know, benefit of the long term which is what has happened.
I think it's in our duty to take advantage of when the country turns for the better, which it has. Part of that is not just getting Tulu Kapi up and running but it's also look, having a good look around and positioning ourselves to seize any other opportunities that are synergistic, you know, can add value to what we do. That's what this team is doing. I think that answers the question, Alessandro.
That's great. The RNS that was released on the thirteenth of May states that Tulu Kapi project has a mineral resource estimate of 1.7 million ounces at average grade of 2.7 grams per ton. The tabulated data used 2.1 grams per ton. Should 2.1 or 2.7 be used to calculate cash flow?
Well, the distinction is, just to explain it, is that the Mineral Resource is 2.65 on 1.7 million ounces resource. Now, that 1.7 million ounces resource is partly mainly in the open pittable section and partly in the underground mineable section. When one converts it into reserve, as compared to Mineral Resource, one has to take into account you know, the dilution and other effects of the mining process. Yes, the Ore Reserve and the mine plan for the open pit is 2.1 grams a ton. Yeah, that's the short of it. It is correct. There are a few other complexities but what I said is the essential answer, I think.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Just turning to a question on Saudi. Is Saudi potential cash flow based on 80/25% ownership? Is it roughly similar, better, or worse than Tulu Kapi?
Good question, I think, Harry, that's far too early to tell. It could be a little bit less. It could be more. We're still drilling. We're still in study mode. You know, we're all pressing for that answer but far too early to make a definitive statement. Next question.
Yeah. Perfect. How confident are you that the water and energy issue will be resolved for the JQ project? Do you expect some of the difficulties arising around Hawiah projects? How long until we get an update on the new strategy around JQ?
I would say there's a new strategy around JQ. We're developing our existing strategies, looking at all our options. Will power and water be resolved? Ultimately, they will, in some way, shape, or form. Again, those are two topics that we're looking into extensively and Harry and I have literally just come out of a meeting, where we've engaged with those two topics. Again, it's a bit too early to make a definitive statement because we're still engaging with the authorities around how water and power can be secured.
Perfect. Thank you very much. The next question here. Could you please comment about the mentioned interested parties who possibly seek a joint venture? At what stage would they be willing to join the venture? Are they major miners? Would you believe this is a viable strategy going forward? If you could just give some color around that'd be great.
Yeah, I think it's a really good question. What I mean by that is not so much digging for a scoop or inside secret or something. I think it teases out what's the strategy and the vision of the company, and that's an important question. I think there are a number of points that I should make which are important in terms of describing where are we taking this company and how, and with whom, and on whose behalf. You know, when the company was floated, run by an explorer to go into frontier markets, we had to fund it. I mean, we collectively, shareholders, the board. You know, we were on day one in jurisdictions where modern mining just simply didn't exist.
We had an idea but we had to prove the idea. We did take an initial step that gave a guide to our long-term strategy, and that is to be in JV in Saudi Arabia fairly early with a strong local partner who could help wrap their presence in the country around our company and protect our company and add value in other ways. Then when we were advanced enough in Ethiopia, we wrapped our company there with the strongest local partner which is the government. You can see a common thread there. Whether it's 75% ownership or 95% ownership or 25% ownership, the thread is strong local partnerships to protect the newbies in the country. We're the technical guys.
We can bring excellence in our areas of expertise but we need strong local partners to protect us. Now, over the longer term, we're also making commitments to naturalize the organization. We as KEFI are building succession as individuals within the teams of local people. You will see, you know, people from those countries join the different boards, including the PLC. You will see senior executives already emerging in the two countries from local recruits. That's another part of our vision to maximize our depth of opportunity for us as investors and managers by naturalizing and making the country proud, so to speak, of what we do. That might even take us into local listings to admit the public into local entities. We're being asked and encouraged to consider that in both countries.
Not suggesting it's gonna happen tomorrow. Don't think that we're gonna make an announcement in the short term but it's a serious invitation which will be addressed seriously, you know, in due course when we've got a bit momentum under our belt and some performance on the ground. The interesting thing that's happened in the last little while in Ethiopia, just months, and the last couple of years in Saudi Arabia, is that the rest of the mining industry sort of jumped on board. They're all turning up, knocking on the door. I think at least once a month, our partners in Saudi or ourselves here or in Ethiopia are getting knocks on the door. Everybody wants to now start sort of getting involved in the country or at least having a look at it.
Some of them jumping in, some of them just, kissing frogs, whatever you wanna call it. It's just the natural process of a crowd waking up and some crowd psychology starting to occur. That's the point I'm making. When we said in that RNS, you know, people are approaching us with ideas, the key thing is that there are people around who want to deal in the assets or JV in or partner us, whatever, or JV another asset with us. That's a very comforting thing. I'm not gonna talk publicly about what we may or may not do. Whatever we do is consistent with our vision. Two years ago, we had none of those choices. We had nobody knocking on doors. That was a really lonely existence.
Shareholders who were frustrated as hell, countries that were really not making it easy to get anything done. Now, nobody sort of knocking on the door wanting to have a chat about it, you know. In fact, looking the other way when you raised the name Saudi Arabia three years ago. The really important thing is that not only have we got these projects moving, not only is the metal prices at all-time record highs, not only are the countries turned and supportive but we've got so many choices. They're coming out of our ears going forward. That's a very strong position to be in from a risk mitigation viewpoint, knowing that you've got choices to protect shareholders' interests. That's very comforting to me.
That's the point we were trying to communicate to people who live with us. You know, those who want to short trade for three months perhaps don't care, but those who are investing for the long term should know that because it is something that's relevant, I think, from a risk mitigation viewpoint. Thank you. Sorry about the long answer, but it tapped all sorts of aspects that I thought I should answer.
Perfect. Harry, the next question: Would KEFI consider selling a minority stake in Tulu Kapi to strengthen the balance sheet going forward?
Everything's on the table from the point of view of doing the best thing from the company's interest, as long as it doesn't compromise our integrity, our values, our vision, our commitment to deliver. You know, everything's on the table within that framework.
Perfect. The next question here: When would KEFI consider moving from AIM to an LSE full listing?
I would take that on advice. I would assume that's a natural thing to look at when we're a bigger market cap and perhaps when we're up in production. I'm assuming that. Thank you.
Next question: How do you plan to protect shareholder value?
Sorry, could you repeat that?
Sorry. The question was, how do you plan to protect shareholder value?
Yeah. That's a good question, given how low the value has gone in stock market terms. I assure you, we feel the pain, as shareholders as well as people on the front line, you know, dealing with the vagaries and the challenges from day to day. I can only say that it's by delivering. You know, we feel like we had our hands tied behind our back as well as our ankles strapped together up till a couple of years ago, and it was pretty hard to sort of move, let alone run, in the circumstances we had. I'm not trying to make excuses. I think it's bleedingly obvious to any objective observer. I think there are no excuses now. We have to deliver. We should deliver. We have the opportunity to deliver and deliver we will.
That's what adds value, I think, just delivery.
Yeah. I think, if I add to that, quite a lot of the management team have significantly invested in KEFI. We are shareholders and a lot of us have sacrificed our salaries for shares, and we felt the pain as shareholders as much as anybody else. Therefore, we have an enormous amount of self-interest as shareholders to raise the value of this business and to look after the interests of shareholders.
Yeah.
Next question.
Next question. The biggest worry for shareholders or potential shareholder is the number of shares in issue by the time the company is profitable. Surely, after building the amount of resources we have, there must be other funding options to keep the company solvent rather than ordinary placings. What are your thoughts on this?
Yeah. One would have thought so, yeah. I think that look at the number of stocks on AIM compared to 5 years ago and it's a pretty sorry story. Many companies have fallen by the wayside because they just can't get capital. I think the truth is that we hung on because of the support of a core group of shareholders. Notwithstanding the doldrums of AIM, we survived. Not only did we survive but we amassed this fantastic pipeline of projects, and we amassed all this capital. We've got $10 billion-$15 billion banks. We've got major contracting organizations strong in Africa, have been there over 20 years. We've got the government partner in one, a Fortune 50 family office partner in another country.
We've got Equity Risk Note investors, all of whom are multinationals, you know, of a similar scale or bigger than the banks. Look at the quality of the capital syndications we've done down in the countries as compared to what's been available on the stock market for the junior mining sector. Now, putting aside the possibility that the sector is coming alive again and there are some green shoots and whatever one thinks. I think that the questioner's comment is reasonable, that as you get closer to development, there should be alternatives. Look, you know, we always try them out, so to speak. We always try to avoid going to the market. I would say every time we've been to the market for the last few years, we've had at least three or four alternatives on the table.
We've had those alternatives on the table in March as well. People were, you know, wriggling and jiggling the deals as we're getting closer to execution, and we backed away from them because they would not have been in shareholders' interests and a s it turn out, we are not been in the shareholder's interests, and we just did a little placing yesterday, which was at a much higher price with no strings attached to deal with certain advisors. We would have paid much higher cost of capital for that if we'd wrapped that into the March issue. We're always trying and the London market is almost, you know, shrunk to nothing, but I think it'll rebound. At the moment, it's almost shrunk to nothing. We'll see. Thank you.
Perfect. We've got the final pre-submitted question here. We are approaching the hour so we will try to get through some of the live questions as well after this question. Yeah. What's the cash burn rate in Ethiopia, including what is spent by head office on the project? Importantly, how much will project launch cost in 2024?
Well, you know, when we say Ethiopia, frankly, the corporate office is really spending a lot of management's monies for Ethiopia as well, to be honest. If I wrap the two of them together, it's about GBP 400 thousand a month, call it corporate and Ethiopia. $500 thousand a month, something like that. You know, it certainly whilst we're in Saudi Arabia, 90% already in my time is on Ethiopia. That's what it is. It changes. When major works start, it changes to about $13 million a month. It obviously changes, you know, in one fell swoop with the triggering of major works. I think that answers the question.
Perfect. We'll just turn to a few of the live questions now. A question here. ARTAR appear to be an excellent partner in Saudi Arabia. When will KEFI have to pay the exploration costs that ARTAR are currently shouldering in order to accelerate developments in Saudi?
We'll have to catch up sooner or later. Yeah, I've got to say that the relationship is, you know, a testament, I suppose, to the quality of the partnership we've developed. You know, it's often been said that Arab culture is founded on one's word of dealings. I've got to say that, you know, I've never really experienced before such strength of character and fiber of integrity and loyalty to a relationship. It's testing everyone's patience that KEFI has been a laggard. There is no tension between the partners. We will have to come good one way or another and there are a number of ways to skin the cat. It may have nothing to do with the public stock markets, but we'll see.
I don't think I should elaborate beyond that. There is no hard and fast rule. They've demonstrated, our partner, through their conduct that, you know, there's no such thing as putting a gun to anyone's head, so to speak, metaphorically. It's a relationship that's building a very important business for the kingdom and there's trust here that KEFI will make good.
Perfect. We've got another question here and I think you did mention it a few questions ago. Could you provide more information on what the advisors that were paid in shares yesterday will be advising on regarding the early works program?
It's all reflective of the fact that one of the reasons we get by, which is probably a bit of a sort of riddle to an outsider but how does a company with so few people put together such projects in such risky jurisdictions with so many disciplines involved and so many tasks at hand? Well, you're looking at a couple of guys on the screen who've been doing this for decades. You sort of wear a number of hats yourself. One of the other things we do is we bring in people who, frankly, they're not doing it to make a salary. They're overbuilding their careers. They've built their careers. Like on our Exco, they've got Norman Green. He built Green Team International.
I can assure you, he's not on our Exco to oversee development projects because he needs the money. He's there because he enjoys mentoring and contributing and overseeing. There are so many other advisors, a number of them who accepted shares for their services. Those services cover a whole range of things, from planning the underground development to planning gold price risk optimization and price optimization as we, you know, get closer to production, to any number of assets and licenses and opportunities that have been offered to us just because we are where we are and others have not been able to get to that stage. We're looking to go front foot here, the front foot of looking forward and building value.
These guys, you might have noticed, I think, that the targeted production is not 140,000 ounces anymore. We're targeting to get it up to 200,000 ounces. The targeted ownership level has gone up a bit as well. Well, that's not just a stroke of a pen. That's the result of work, and some of it being done by these people who, as I say, have known us for decades are prepared to risk their time and they're excited by the opportunity to create something quite special here and to add their bit to it. I, to me, it's an opportunity that comes with the success of having turned the corner and starting to move forward finally.
Perfect. Perhaps time maybe just for one final question before I ask you for some closing comments and then we'll wrap up. What is the next major milestones, maybe in May or June?
The next major milestone in May. This is clearly a short-term share trader because we're about 10 days away from the end of May. You know, I'm really not gonna be in the business of feeding share traders. I really can't, you know. I get these messages from people telling me what the market did today and yesterday and I honestly can't be distracted by that. I've got to focus on running the business. If I take away the quest for May and June and just focus on the milestones, I think the key, the really critical thing I really think is important is that it's game on.
That the answers we've given to the questions, the little PowerPoint and then the answers, which as I said, we'll have written up and put onto the website Q&A as well and the Investor Meet Company, you know, will make the video available as well. We're going to make a deliberate effort to be very transparent. With the greatest of respect, if you read those answers, you look at the slides and you still don't know the answer to the question of milestones coming up, I'll fire our investor relations people. Because we've just spent the last hour defining those milestones and we'll write them up and they'll be on our websites, and we've done our best to lay them all out, you know, I think, quite transparently.
Perfect. Harry, thank you very much for answering those questions you can. Of course, the company can review all the questions for today and we'll publish our responses on the Investor Meet Company platform. Just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback which I know is particularly important for the company, Harry, could I just ask you for a few closing comments?
Well, I really do personally appreciate these webinars. I know that at times they might be disappointing if you don't hear what you'd like to hear. I know at times, you know, it's frustrating that perhaps we're on a different page to what the questioner may or may not be on. What I do enjoy is the opportunity to talk to shareholders, and this, the way of doing it with these media is a very efficient time allocation. You know, we're in Riyadh, we're doing all sorts of things. We've been busy, busy, busy. Yet here we are talking to, I'm told 750 people registered for this thing. You know, what an efficient way to communicate. I appreciate the opportunity to communicate this way.
I appreciate the fact that hundreds of people seem to think it's worthwhile. You know, I think it's all good stuff. To be honest, having done it during the down years when we had our hands tied behind our back and our ankles strapped together, it wasn't exactly the easiest task I'd ever had b ut on the other hand, you know, hopefully now we can start to enjoy it as we move forward and reap some reward of the progress that I believe we're gonna make. Thank you for joining us and hopefully we'll make these sorts of webinars all the more interesting as we progress up that value curve that we were looking at earlier on those charts. Thank you.
Perfect. If I may just thank you both for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of KEFI Gold and Copper PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation and good afternoon to you all.