KEFI Gold and Copper Plc (AIM:KEFI)
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Oct 16, 2026, 4:35 PM GMT
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Investor update

Jun 17, 2026

Summary

Tulu Kapi's development is on schedule, with construction and financing progressing as planned. Expansion and exploration efforts are underway, while shareholder dilution has been minimized and institutional support is growing. Key milestones ahead include debt drawdown and a move to the main LSE market.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Good afternoon, welcome to the KEFI Investor webinar. Today's event is going to take the form of a question and answer session. I'd first like to thank all of those who've taken the time and effort to submit questions ahead of the event. We've had a lot of questions through and done our best to try and group those into various sections. Apologies in advance if some of it's a bit disjointed, but we do want to answer all of your questions as far as we can this afternoon. With me, I've got Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Executive Chairman of KEFI. KEFI's Chief Operating Officer, Eddy Solbrandt. Head of Exploration, Jeff Rayner. One of KEFI's Non-Executive Directors, Addis Alemayehou. Each of them are going to be available to answer questions. We'll try and put the appropriate questions to the appropriate people.

Without further ado, I'll kick off on the first set of questions, we'll start with you, Harry. A lot of people have been asking questions about the share issuance in March, and I'll read a question that's been submitted. The questioner says, "The share issuance in March was huge and seemed a knee-jerk reaction to the Middle East war. It's clearly affected the share price. Do you have any regrets in undertaking the placing?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

No, none at all, really. Even with the benefit of hindsight. Here we are, what? Three and a bit months since the outbreak of the Middle East war, with the whole world being thrown into a spin and just only now beginning to recover itself. I think we can say that notwithstanding the instability of the last few months globally, the launch of our main project in Ethiopia didn't skip a beat. I think in retrospect, I think it was exactly the right thing to have done. From the share market point of view, how would I put it in terms of share price movements? I had it actually charted the other day. All we've done is track the sectoral index.

If you take the GDXJ index, which is typically of much bigger companies, nevertheless, it's the gold sector, so-called Junior Mining Index globally. Track us against it, we're almost identical against the index, where we were then versus where we are now. A, we were able to launch the project without interruption. B, all we've done is track the index. I see no reason to, in any way, regret it and not be pleased.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, thank you, Harry. You mentioned the launch of, obviously, the Tulu Kapi Project. I understand you're now in month four of a 27-month development schedule. A question for Eddy. Could you provide a little bit more information where you are on that schedule? Where you're ahead, where you're behind, and where we stand overall?

Eddy Solbrandt
COO, KEFI Gold and Copper

Yeah, thanks, Tim. Good question. Look, projects like this, schedules are typically 1,000 more item lines. What we really track in this is the golden path that goes through it, the critical path. Right now, that critical path hasn't been breached. When we review the schedule, which we do pretty much on a daily basis and summarize weekly, we look at those items that are encroaching the schedule that may have an impact on critical path. By and large, we're on track.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Okay. Thank you. Within that schedule, when does the physical construction start?

Eddy Solbrandt
COO, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, actually, we've started construction. We're currently phase 1 of the housing for the relocation. That's 110 houses out of 360. Bulk earthworks start in about middle of August. That's when the big yellow machines arrive.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

Eddy, just sorry to interrupt, there's also the big machinery that's being fabricated internationally now.

Eddy Solbrandt
COO, KEFI Gold and Copper

That as well.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

You don't see it on site, there's huge machinery being fabricated for delivery.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Excellent. Obviously, there's been a very large finance package put in place for the Tulu Kapi Project. Probably one for you, Harry. Can you provide us an update on the remaining conditions precedent? What remains to be completed before the first debt drawdown? Is the project really fully funded through to production? This is a question that's been asked by many people.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

Yes, the whole package stands intact and solid as presented a couple of months ago in the most recent share equity issue presentations. In respect of conditions precedent, to put it into context, the deal is, if you like, that equity goes in first and debt gets drawn down subsequently. That's conventional. In that respect, what happens is sort of three sets of conditions precedent for the lenders to release funds. The lenders have already signed a facility agreement. They're fully committed. It's a fully underwritten facility. They're not doing this for anything other than absolute serious commitment. One has to comply with the conditions of drawdown, as you say. There's three sets.

One is what you'd call administrative procedural certificates being issued at the last minute, licenses in good standing, key personnel are all intact, so on and so forth, for good order sort of things. Those things actually happen at the last minute. There's no reason to be concerned about that. Secondly, there's the final dates slipping into government-facing agreements. The government in Ethiopia is integrally involved in these arrangements, and there are some dates for which the final commitment for the electricity connection, which has some float built into it for safety's sake. The final connection of the new road. There are existing roads, the government's putting in another road. Those final dates go in at the last minute and have to be signed off, and that's all happening.

The third one is the lenders, technical advisors, and social and environmental advisors, and of the project team from the lenders, the people who are monitoring. They come to site and have a good look around, eyeball the team, ask questions, and make sure that everything's on track. In fact, I think it's, what? A week or so ago, they went through that sort of visit, right?

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Yeah.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

All I can say is that they're fully up to date, they're monitoring very closely, and they're ready to rock and roll. We have to go through the processes and complete, there's nothing untoward. Everyone's working very hard, very enthusiastically to get on with the show.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Excellent. A number of questions around particularly the debt package. In a scenario where regional tensions were to escalate, would a security disruption allow the banks to freeze the $240 million debt package or force further emergency funding from elsewhere?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

You're asking a financier sort of question, should I answer that, Tim?

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Yeah, I think so.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

Yeah. How would I start? Every finance agreement for any project anywhere in the world has a force majeure clause. A force majeure clause is act of God, things that are unpredictable. By definition, our facility agreements have such a force majeure clause. Literally, absolutely, under force majeure, act of God, act of war that directly affects the site. Of course, all capital would be frozen. We would never risk our people. We would never risk our property. As a fiduciary, we would freeze and have a good think about what's going on. What I would say to you also is that the reason we've launched is because we waited at the cost of frustration and testing people's patience. We waited until the country was ready.

With the benefit of hindsight, if we'd started this project in the lead up to the sort of turmoil that existed, what, four or five years ago, it would've been quite hair-raising for us all. With the benefit of hindsight, the fact that we waited and then got cracking, if you like, when the country had settled right down and everybody was ready to push forward together, I believe that's a thing of history. It's the judgment of the banks and of the government and of the senior team that that's all history now. I've given you a long answer because I don't want to mislead anybody. Of course, there are the rights to suspend a project for any force majeure event, but there's no reason to be concerned. I wouldn't waste any time worrying about that one.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Okay. Thank you. Probably a good time for Addis. You, Addis, have got extensive experience working with both the private sector and government in Ethiopia. How important do you believe Tulu Kapi is for Ethiopia's economic development, and how is the project viewed by local stakeholders?

Addis Alemayehou
Non-Executive Director, KEFI Gold and Copper

I think this is probably one of the most exciting projects to happen in Ethiopia, especially in the sector. Ethiopia is what? 130 million people. We are reinventing the economy. Ethiopia is opening up in ways that has never happened before. The mineral sector is a key sector that the government of Ethiopia has identified. Gold, for the first time, is our top export. For me, and for the local community as well as the regional government and the federal government, this is a very critical and very important project.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Good. Thank you. We've got a number of questions on expansion. Beyond the Tulu Kapi mine plan, what opportunities exist to expand resources, increase processing capacity, and extend mine life, develop basically KEFI into a multi-asset gold producer? Probably one for you, Harry, and for Jeff to comment on as well.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, I think that it's a good question because you've got to find the right balance, don't you? In the sense that on the one hand, we want to be obsessively focused on delivery of the startup, and everybody wants a nice, safe, reliable startup, and that's absolutely priority number one. At the same time, we're starting a mine to world's standards for environment, social, technical, so on, in a region which clearly has been recognized by the industry as having world-class potential to spawn many mines. We've been the people who've been adventurous enough and determined enough to get in there ahead of the pack. You then ask oneself the question, how much time and effort and capital do we put into mine number two and three and four?

The short, the KEFI answer to that is that the guy to my right obsessively focused on delivery and monitors it sort of continually with a full system in place. The guy to his right has come back after 10 years with major international mining companies guiding them on exploration elsewhere because we're going to start sowing the seeds for Tulu Kapi number two and three. It's a matter of striking the right balance. Not to distract capital, not to distract time, but not to ignore the fact that we're not building a mine, we're building a company in a location which is going to spawn many Tulu Kapis. That's what this is about.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Doing so at this moment in the cycle.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

Many Tulu Kapis. That's what this is about.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Is an exceptional opportunity.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

I don't want to give the impression we'll be running amok. Jeff's a great discoverer, I use the word discoverer very deliberately. Most geologists never discover a thing. Jeff has discovered many things and worthwhile developments. We're sowing the seeds for the next Tulu Kapi very carefully, very deliberately, perhaps a bit secretly, naturally. This is a company in the making, not a project in the making. I'm happy for Jeff to pick it up and add to that however he'd like to.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, thank you, Harry. Just before you do, Jeff.

Jeff Rayner
Head of Exploration, KEFI Gold and Copper

Yeah.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

If you could give a bit more color on that would be helpful. We've also had a questioner ask, KEFI's got a lot of opportunities at the moment. Could you perhaps rank the upside in the various Ethiopian and Saudi projects from KEFI's viewpoint in your answer?

Jeff Rayner
Head of Exploration, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, first of all, Ethiopia lies in the Arabian-Nubian Shield. The major phase of mineralization occurred about 550 million years ago. Exploration only really started in the 1930s with the Italian consortiums, and that went up to the Second World War. Then there was really nothing done until the 1970s when the Geological Survey of Ethiopia and United Nations carried out a decade's worth of exploration. Then a huge hiatus until late 1990s when the private companies, international companies started exploring in Ethiopia. We're looking at Precambrian Shield, and there's lots of alluvial workings, artisanal workings in Ethiopia. There's three major developments and mines. The Lega Dembi was in the south. It's 3 million ounces. We've got Tulu Kapi, just under 2 million ounces. Up against the Sudanese border, we've got Kurmak with over 3 million ounces in development.

Throughout the country, there are three parcels of Precambrian Shield, hundreds of artisanal workings, and very few hard rock sources that have been identified. At the moment, we're in project generation stage. We've got a number of targets at the moment that we're looking at, and it's exciting stage for us there. In Saudi Arabia, a very small team in KEFI. I have three geologists. In 2009, 2010, we discovered Jibal Qutman, brand-new discovery. That's under a million ounces, and that's coming into development probably at the end of this year. That's going to be exciting. At Hawiah, is one of the largest volcanic massive sulfide deposits. It's a copper zinc gold deposit that's in it currently at around about 30 million tons at 2% copper equivalent. That's in its DFS stage at the moment. They are top three priorities at the moment.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, thank you, Jeff. Just one final one. You talk about some of the historic discoveries. It's been mentioned that you left KEFI sort of a decade ago and have recently come back. What changes have you observed from KEFI today to KEFI 10 years ago?

Jeff Rayner
Head of Exploration, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, I focus on the geology and exploration, and I left in 2016. KEFI was entering that phase of engineering, feasibility studies. All a bit too boring for me, so I left.

Started consulting. Harry asked me back, and I was very happy to come back. It's at the stage now where the team is a very strong team and about ready to crack open the mine. That's the big difference, I suppose.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Thank you. I mentioned that we've got questions on various different areas. I think we need to work to move back to talking about KEFI corporately. A number of questions around share issuance, share price, et cetera. I shall read some of those out. One for you, Harry. Many shareholders remain concerned about future dilution. What's the board doing to minimize further equity issuance in the future?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, I suppose I'd challenge anyone to find another junior mining company or name that's raised $400 million, about 10% of which is from shareholders. I'd like to think that that's facts, if you like, that proves our determination, if you like, to optimize the structure to minimize dilution. It's very, how would I put it, very difficult for an observer to perhaps say, "Well done, KEFI," and pat on the back in the context of historical dilution. That's perfectly understandable. However, it's easy to forget that in the 10 years from 2013- 2022, the average gold price was about the breakeven gold price for this project. It was not a particularly easy task to raise capital to develop a project whose breakeven was not too different to the gold price.

The world changed since then, and since the last, I suppose, 18 months or so, the gold price has been, for that previous 10 years that I quoted, it was around about just under $1,500 I think, or maybe just under $1,400. I've forgotten. Pardon me. Over the last 18 months, it's averaged about $2,500. Today, we all know that it's a lot higher than that. We can all cry on each other's shoulders about the pain and the suffering and the dilution, which was painful for all of us. I seeded this company out of my pocket. I know what it means. I wasn't oblivious or immune. I do think we have sincerely and expressly demonstrated the fact that we have minimized share dilution when the gold price actually was capable of being funded against.

We've raised, the vast majority of this capital for development has not been from shareholders. That's the essence of it, Tim.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Okay. Technical question with the forthcoming AGM around capital. The questioner asks, "Why do shareholders have to approve changes to the articles of association at the AGM for the level of borrowing?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

If we don't, the banks won't be happy. That's a simple answer. Why the banks need that? It's not for any other reason that the banks want belts and braces assurance that the company has maximum flexibility in the future as it grows and expands. To have maximum flexibility to do exactly what the previous question asked, how to raise capital in a way that doesn't require issuance of shares. It's one of the CPs to draw down, that we create a platform which is bulletproof as much as possible for the future to do exactly what the previous question was asking.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Thank you. We're writing assuming that that amendment in itself doesn't create any new borrowing. It's just a structural amendment.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

It's to provide the legal capacity for the board to have maximum flexibility.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Excellent. In terms of the share price, this is probably the last one on this. The question says, "Despite the substantial progress, share price remains significantly below many investors' expectations. What milestones do you think are going to help close that gap going forward?" Another questioner says, "Why should I invest in KEFI now rather than waiting a couple of years and you'll be in production?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

I won't give advice on people making their investment choices, because it really is up to them what their risk-return profile is, and what their portfolio is, and what their personal priorities are for their family. Far be it for me to tell an individual what to do. To answer the question in respect of how to pull at the de-risking of a company's value and how the shares should sort of adjust themselves I think what's referred to as the Lassonde Curve is a really good theoretical thought provoker. I personally like it a lot.

It doesn't mean to say it acts in perfect symmetry and you can predict the world from day to day, it's basically reflecting the fact that as one de-risks a project at key points of de-risking, one would expect ordinarily to close the gap between whatever the share market cap is and the theoretical value. In my observation, in my working life, and I started my career as an investment banker, valuing things all the time and so on. Around production time, in a positive environment, in a company that knows how to grow, that demonstrates it knows how to discover and perform, one would expect it to be trading at some premium above NPV at 5%. That's industry standard empirical statistic. It's not just a made-up number, it's just empirical fact.

Wherever you are in the stages before production, empirically, statistically, one is likely to be at a discount. Today, we've barely started construction, we've barely closed the financing, we're at a pretty big discount. That will close. Drawdown of the first debt, I'd imagine, would be a significant milestone for beginning to close the gap, so to speak. Eddy sitting at the next webinar or two or whatever and saying, "We're still on track," the dozers have turned up on site and the ball mill's half-built over there in the factory. We'll just keep closing the gap. Then when Jeff turns up and says, "Look what we found down the road," it'll jump a bit further. It's just a process as we de-risk because it's been a very hard road.

It's perfectly understandable that the market's, if you like, cynical until it sees the evidence of progress. I think that's just natural, sensible human conduct. I don't think it's anything other than normal. This recent few months has been thrown, if you like, the whole index has been thrown, the whole sector's been thrown by the geopolitics of that area. Scrambling around to get diesel and to keep the show on the road. No one anticipated that four months ago, but the whole world had to scramble around to get diesel. We had to scramble a lot less than a lot of mining companies would have had to, I'm sure. Again, I was asked a question.

A major institution rang me up the other day and said the same question, "Why is your share so weak?" I said, "You're a student of the market every day. I don't stare at the shares every day. I don't pretend I'm a good share trader. It's not what I do." I said, "Would you mind just looking up the index that you use to measure the sector and just compare our share price from the 1st of March onwards?" As we were talking, this institutional guy managing well over a billion dollars looked up the index and saw, oh, you're actually the same as the index. Well, there you are. Why does the index go down for the last three months? It's nothing to do with KEFI. It's to do with geopolitics and what's happened at the gold price.

I think we'll break out when we put runs on the board, and I think the last few months, we've been following the index. It's a very depressing thing just to follow the index. I'd like to think we'd do better than the index, but there you are. That's what's happened.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, thank you, Harry. Understood. You mentioned demonstrable progress at Tulu Kapi. Eddy, hopefully, we'll be able to share some photographs and other things showing the developments at site, respecting the fact that there may be security constraints on what exactly we can share.

Eddy Solbrandt
COO, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, I'm looking forward to showing progress on housing, bulk earthworks and things like that. You're right. There are constraints around what we can and can't photograph there. You have to remember, we have a lot of security on site, and a lot of what we do is quite confidential, understandably, because it's about keeping people safe. Secondly, equipment and assets safe.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Understood. Moving on to management. We've had a number of questions on this. I'm going to start with a blunt question at the top. This one's for you, Harry. The question says, "When will you retire?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

I think that question might be from my wife.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

I believe it's anonymous. I don't know.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

I think that what's happening in the industry is a once in a lifetime, for me at least. Never has the industry been better positioned globally. Secondly, Ethiopia, for the private sector and for the gold sector in particular, has never been positioned like this, ever. It was the world's last empire, the only country in Africa never to have been colonized, and it's only just opened its doors. We're the first guys who've done it to international standards, which is why Jeff was asked to come back, because we're running around looking at things before the pack turns up.

In that environment, coupled with the fact that we've launched this very large development program based on trust that's been developed over a decade or more with the government, with the community, with major development banks, with local investors, with local leaders like Addis, with our own staff who've taken on this mission when they didn't need to. There's no way I'm walking out tomorrow. I'm going to deliver on my word, and it's both commercial and contractual and moral commitment to deliver. Having said that, we've already started building succession, and if I fell under a bus tomorrow, I don't believe you'll skip a beat.

Moreover, touch wood, I'm not falling under a bus tomorrow, and in a few years' time, having delivered on our promise, I'll be very proud of the team that's in place, and if they want to ask me any questions for any support, I'd be more than happy to turn up and give it. They'll probably push me out of the way by then. That's a long-winded answer, but it's the simple truth that one has to follow through and deliver on our word before we move on.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Thank you, Harry. You talk about the wider management team. Eddy and Jeff, maybe if you could just give us a very short overview of your roles within the company and what your focuses are.

Eddy Solbrandt
COO, KEFI Gold and Copper

Should I start, Jeff, or do you want to?

Jeff Rayner
Head of Exploration, KEFI Gold and Copper

No, no, you go ahead.

Eddy Solbrandt
COO, KEFI Gold and Copper

Eddy Solbrandt. I'm the Chief Operating Officer. I've got an interesting portfolio. I'm the project director for all my sins, I've got to deliver this project in full, I've also got to build the operating organization and get the company ready for operating and build the structures, the systems, the processes, and also the culture that underpins all of that.

Jeff Rayner
Head of Exploration, KEFI Gold and Copper

I'm a geologist, my role is to find another deposit. Simple as that. It has to be a standalone deposit. Our target is roughly a million ounces, but it could be higher or lower depending on the grade. With the current gold price, you can go down and mine some pretty low grades and make a lot of money. In Australia, for instance, there are some underground mines that are making huge profits at three grams per ton. You wouldn't have thought that years ago. At Tulu Kapi itself, we've got around about 300,000 ounces outside the pit, we need to expand the underground. We're looking at a million-ounce target for the underground at Tulu Kapi. Elsewhere, I was talking earlier about the opportunities in Ethiopia, we're looking for standalone projects.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Excellent. Thank you. Eddy, you talk about the organizational culture. Is that Australian? There seems to be an Australian bias to the team.

Eddy Solbrandt
COO, KEFI Gold and Copper

Hey, excuse me, I'm a German. You can tell by the accent. No, it's not. I think we've got one Australian in the management team, who really is an Australian Armenian. He's been living in Armenia for 25 years. We've got two Ukrainians. We've got at least half a dozen or more Ethiopians. Let me see. We've got two Namibians, a South African, probably an Englishman or two. I can't remember at the moment. It is a multicultural environment. The selling point is taking these unique experiences that everybody has from different cultures and blending them into a very vibrant, safety-conscious, resilient culture that is uniquely ours.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Thank you. Moving back to Addis. You're obviously involved with a number of significant businesses and investment initiatives across Ethiopia. What was it attracted you to join the KEFI board? What continues to give you confidence in the company's prospects and the team you're working with?

Addis Alemayehou
Non-Executive Director, KEFI Gold and Copper

I'll be honest, by heart I'm an entrepreneur myself, I would say Harry's a very convincing young man. In terms of he's tenacious in convincing people, and he looks like a teddy bear, but he's also a pit bull when he needs to be. I've learned a lot. Beyond the personality of Harry, I think his passion for the project and more so his passion for the country is actually what convinced me. Harry is very passionate about Ethiopia. He understands it in ways that I haven't seen before. I advise a lot of foreign investors coming into Ethiopia, including Aliko Dangote, which is the largest investor in the country. Harry's as passionate as they come, and that's what kept me and convinced me.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Thank you, Addis. We'll now move on to a few sort of clarification questions, and the first one does relate to what we've just been talking about. The questioner asks, "This is all well and good, but why should shareholders approve more incentive options for management at the AGM?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

We're not actually asking for anything different. The shareholders have approved it every year for the last 20 years, as that so many options can get allocated as an incentive. We're just asking for that policy to be refreshed and renewed. That's all it is. It's no different to what's been approved every year for 20 years. We pay average salaries for the industry. I get criticized occasionally by people saying, "Oh, it's much above average earnings in this country or that." Well, it's nothing to do with average earnings in a country. It's to do with an industry attracting industry-experienced people for starting up a gold mine and doing it in a country for the first time. You have to pay them average salaries and average incentives, or they simply won't turn up. Why should they? It's not a charity.

Why would they work for less than what is industry standard? We're not trying to propose anything different. It's what's always been refreshed annually, that's what we're doing now. I think probably the other point to comment on the option scheme is that, essentially, it's a reward, potentially, for the value of the company increasing significantly and sharing some of that with the people who are on the ground, away from their families much of the time, nearly all of the time, and dealing with the issues day- to- day, whether it's security or whatever, at the mine face, so to speak. As I say, they're doing it to add value. They're excited. They love their work, and they want to make some money. It's as simple as that.

For the options to have any value, I mean, the options are exercisable at GBP 0.02, which is at issuance, I think there was 60%, I think, from memory, above what the share price was. They had to add a lot of value, if you like, before their incentives could create any value for them. I hope that answers the question.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Yes. Thank you. Just going through others that have just come in. One for you, Eddy. The question says, "How do you think about the execution risk for Tulu Kapi and the over-1,000-line item plan that you're going through? Is there any particular aspects of concern until first gold pour?

Eddy Solbrandt
COO, KEFI Gold and Copper

I guess the biggest concern is always community. We are relocating 360-odd families. This next phase involves 1,001 parcels of land. You are always conscious that moving a community is a stressful thing for the people that are being moved. I mean, everybody's moved house, I guess, once. You know what that entails. I'm very focused on making sure that we keep community relations well, but also, as I said earlier, monitoring the critical path. That's that golden thread that if we cross that line, we're going to slip behind.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Okay. Thank you. Another one, a question of just a bit of clarity on debt drawdown. Can you give an indication of broadly when the first debt drawdown is expected, and what will those proceeds be used for?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

The disbursement schedule is a budget of X and Y and Z dollars and birr per month for 27 months. The first $100 million, approximately, is from equity, and the next $240 million, approximately, is from debt. That first $100 million takes us to around about October, perhaps early October. It depends on the flow from week- to- week. Then one draws down from thereon. The money is going off in different directions continually. Obviously, some of it for procurement of the next item for fabrication and whatever it is required for that piece of the job. As Eddy said, there's a whole package of jobs. The budget allocates month- by- month progress claims and progress payments on each package of work.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Thank you. We're now drawing to the end of the allotted time. You're all with me in London this afternoon. I know that the board have been having various meetings, discussing various topics, meeting with advisors. Presumably, one topic that has been on the agenda is the move to the main market of the London Stock Exchange. Harry, in particular, is there any comments that you can make on that process?

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, the first comment I'd make is that a couple of years ago, we had no global institutional shareholders on the parent company register. We have one of the main families of Saudi Arabia as a partner in that country. We have the government as a partner in Ethiopia. On the parent company share register, it had always effectively been supported mostly by longstanding, relatively small investors compared to the global institutional market. A couple of years ago, one or two quite large institutions joined the register. In the last six months, I think 8+ $1 billion institutions, two of them over $1 trillion institutions, joined the register. They joined the register with a view to growing their investment with progress. That's a very deliberate move on our part to strengthen and deepen the capital that's behind the company.

All the capital providers are comforted by allowing big institutional shareholders to join the table. If there's a problem, if there's an opportunity, big deep pockets are there to support the company if it needs support. That's a good risk mitigant as well as opportunity maximizer for everybody. In that context, we have to go to a main exchange. There might be that many global institutions who'd come in on AIM, the AIM Stock Exchange, but there's sort of that many who can come into a main stock exchange. We've made the decision that that would be the London Stock Exchange, even though we could go to the ASX or the TSX. We've decided to go to the London Stock Exchange.

Some of the discussions during the course of this week have been with the sponsor that's been appointed for that transition to the main exchange, the stockbroking firm Stifel, and the legal advisors at Herbert Smith, and the board and the senior executives. We've gone through that in some detail. The finance director who couldn't make this particular session is up to his eyeballs as we speak in detailed planning of what that program entails and the work that has to be carried out for it. We're getting into the detailed planning stage now. I can't tell you what the finance director has concluded with the brokers and the advisors, but they're all meeting and working through and assembling a schedule of works and timetables in order to do it as fast as is reasonably practicable and professional. It's on the table.

It's being worked on. We met in London for that reason, amongst others. We took the opportunity to have this webinar whilst we're all here, and I had a team with me which isn't always together. We're working on it and we're rolling up our sleeves on it, but it's too early to say when it can happen until we've done all the homework properly.

Tim Metcalfe
Financial PR and Investor Relations, KEFI Gold and Copper

Well, thank you, Harry. Thank you for everybody who's submitted questions in advance and during the course of this session. We've now reached the allotted time because I know you've got other things to move on to later today. Thank you very much, Harry. Thank you, Addis. Thank you, Eddy. Thank you, Jeff.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams
Executive Chairman, KEFI Gold and Copper

Thank you, everybody.

Operator

Thank you to the leadership for joining us today. That concludes the KEFI Gold and Copper live interactive discussion. Please take a moment to complete a short survey following this event. The recording of this event will be made available on Engage Investor. I hope you enjoyed today's webinar.