Investor update

Jan 17, 2025

Good morning, and welcome to the Metals Exploration plc investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged, and they can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab situated in the right-hand corner of your screen. 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 the questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to CEO Darren Bowden. Good morning to you, sir. Good morning. Thank you, Alessandro. Good morning, everybody, and well, afternoon, depending on what part of the world you're in. I'm here just to talk through the recent acquisition of Condor Gold by Metals Exploration. I've got a small presentation I will take you through. We are going to cover a little bit of information that we covered in December, but we're trying to keep the presentation short so that we can spend some time answering questions, which we weren't able to do in December. I look forward to hearing from you guys. We will try and get through as many questions as we can as we go. Without further ado, I'll move to the presentation, and we'll start. I think you've seen the RNSs come out in the last couple of days, and I think most people know who Metals Exploration are. We're a gold company listed on AIM. We're operating in the Philippines and we currently produce circa 80,000 ounces a year. We've got a proven track record over the last 5 years. We've grown the company to what it is today. The Condor M&A activity is a clear example of the board's willingness to expand this company into other jurisdictions as we go forward. In 2024, there's 2 acquisitions. A small acquisition of YMC, which is a small exploration company which has tenements in Abra. You'll hear me talk about the Abra projects or YMC interlaced, and most recent acquisition, as everybody's aware, on the 15th of January was Condor Gold, which has assets in Nicaragua and gold assets in Nicaragua. We passed, this year, 25 million man-hours LTI free. It's an amazing record, and it speaks volumes about the team and their commitment to safety and commitment to the operation of the company. A very good result for us all way around. I will talk about the financial results for the company as we go into the slides. We have set ourselves strategies, and I've been talking, in most presentations, I talk about the four pillars that we work to. Those pillars have not changed, but we've been flexible about some of the outcomes of how we've achieved those pillars as we're moving through the years, and to the future, and we'll talk through that. Just looking at how we've delivered on our strategy. We have talked about having cash flow at the end of Runruno. The Condor acquisition definitely helps us achieve that. We've had very good cash flow over the last two years. Assisted by the share price, but also assisted by the performance of operations. Sorry, the gold price, but assisted by the performance of operations as well, which has set our balance sheet up for a very strong future and it helps us look at the self-funding of the Condor construction and operation going into operation in Nicaragua. The acquisition of Abra gives us a long-term future in the exploration play. There's some significant potential there, as we've talked about previously, with what we see as some opportunities for Tier 1 assets to be developed into the future through those exploration tenements. We will continue, in the future, looking at M&A when it makes sense to us, when the value creation for the shareholders works. The strategy we've set forward, we're moving through and we're working through with the goal and with the board absolute behind the management, moving in that single direction to try and grow this company into the future. Our four-pillar strategy is simple. The first pillar was always the performance of the existing asset. We can't move past and on if we can't perform in what we already have and own. 2024 saw us achieve all of the metrics, 90% recoveries, a 20% increase in throughput in the plant, 80,000 ounces produced. That would be guidance in all cases. It's been a great year from a performance, from an operating, from a community, and from a safety point of view at Runruno. I believe pillar one has been solidly put in place, and over the next 2 years, we'll deliver that performance we require to keep growing this company and building this company. The 2- to 4-year plan, we were looking, and it has been mentioned in some of the questions which I will answer later, about maybe that a small-scale mining strategy within the country, that is still part of our overall long-term vision. But at this stage, we haven't been able to solidify that. The approval processes and the time frames to do that are outside of what we needed to get a second operation up and running. Then Condor Gold made complete sense to meet that second pillar, to have a cash flow generative project onstream prior to the closure of Runruno. Now, our 3-5-year growth strategy is basically the transformation of the Runruno assets in the Philippines, whether they move somewhere else and are repurposed, or we can actually find something close by and extend the life of Runruno using the existing assets repurposed on-site. The project strategy there, and I think Dupax is probably something we will talk about to an extent. It was mentioned in the last presentation, and that fits that strategy very well. There is work to do there, but it definitely has all the hallmarks of something that can give us an extension of life at Runruno. Then the 10-year strategy is looking out to those tier one assets, growing this company, finding that large deposit that puts this company on a very sure footing, two operating assets. If we haven't done further M&A beyond those assets, then we have the opportunity to look and to grow this through organic growth internally with the exploration targets that we have in our portfolio at this stage. That strategy, that four-pillar strategy, I'll keep talking to it over the years, and hopefully each one of those time frames, when we get to those time frames, we can clearly show that we've met those requirements and that credibility that we've built over time can keep growing with further results. The highlights for 2024, I mentioned some of them, focused on growth, the acquisition of Condor and YMC, a clear path forward on our forward future strategy. Runruno production, 83,900, or close enough, 83,900 ounces, exceeding guidance at the top end of where we wanted to see it. We had targeted recoveries around the 86% mark, achieved over 90%. The team performed very well, and the asset is performing where we want it and now is at that performance level where it's meeting design, and the next couple of years are going to deliver on that performance as we go forward as well. Record revenues, $190 million. Free cash, nearly $97 million. It puts us in a very good position to move the needle with regards to the construction and internal funding of the Nicaraguan project, La India. We were debt-free by Q1 2024. Amazing result. That is nearly $160 million of debt paid down over the three years of growth and reperformance of the Runruno assets. We've said, our safety record is second to none. 25 million man-hours without a lost time injury. Runruno, the team, and the performance have been exactly where we want them to be for setting ourselves up for the future. The acquisition of Condor Gold. We'll talk through why, and we'll talk through what we see and our internal studies that have been done to date of how we see that going forward. The rationale, really, we were looking for a near construction or a producing asset to bring into our portfolio so that we could replace the cash flow of Runruno when Runruno's life finished. Condor met all of those requirements. It's a high-grade, open cut, underground resource. We clearly see the potential there that was recognized by the previous management. Without the funding to fully realize that potential, it gave us a lot of value creation that we can see for the future and for the project going forward. It is fully permitted. We've already started the process of re-engineering to the design that we want. We have a Spanish-speaking team that's already agreed to come on board to move that project into construction as soon as possible. What we're focused on is financing that construction phase with internal cash flow so there's no further financing required in the company, or we won't be making an equity call for anything in the future as well. We'll get to the key metrics, but we're targeting 145,000 average ounce production a year over. We've got our base case is 10 years, but we're looking up to 14 years with the existing resource we can see now. Now, we have to do a lot of definition drilling over the next 2 years to bring that resource into reserve and to have the confidence level that we wish to for the full 10-14 years. The starting nucleus of the project is there. It's at a reserve-ready stage, and we will build on that as we go forward. We're building the plant and designing the plant for that future production and for where we want to see that mine and the numbers we want to come out of that mine. We currently got 2.3 million ounces in the resources there. We agree with the Condor take on that project and that total tenement package, that it is a 5-million-ounce project. There's no doubt about that. It just needs the work put into all of the secondary targets that are already identified, and we will start that work immediately. Part of the deal with Condor is they wanted some benefit of that future in the CVR, which is an additional ounces that gets put on the books to grow that resource, which benefits us and benefits the shareholders of Condor under the CVR, is something we're very focused on doing over the next 5 years. We want to see those 5 million ounces, and we want to see the benefit to all shareholders. La India is the heart of the project. There are a number of other deposits around La India, Cacao, Mestiza, Las Americas, that will all come into play and all come into the production schedule. There are many more to that actually that we have seen, that will require work over the next 5 to 10 years to just keep that plant operating into the future. I think there will be a long-established mine life once we start running there, as we go forward with the work that'll go into exploration. Right now, the M&I sits at a 3.6 gold equivalent. It's significant. We're looking at the La India initial feasibility that was done because they were looking for bankable. It was based on just the reserve numbers that could come through those reserves, not looking at the expansive numbers within the resources at 80,000 ounces. We feel that the 1.4 million tonnes production a year with a 140-150-ounce production profile is absolutely doable, and we're very confident that that's achievable over a 10-year time frame, if not out to the 15 or 20 years as we go forward. If we look at those resources, the underground is where really the significant extension's required and we'll grow the resource. The underground is marginally higher grade to the open pit. As you get deeper, we're seeing the grade pick up, which means we're getting closer and closer to the boiling zone in an epithermal gold-type deposit. Which really does speak that the more we drill, the better it's going to get. That's what we're seeing from the way the trends we're seeing in the drilling that's already existing. The solid open pit within La India and the other operations from Mestiza and America, there's probably extensions on those that'll happen once we do the drilling to those extension zones as well. Looking at an underground, sorry, an open pit, 9.7 million at this stage at 3.6. 3.5 grams per tonne in underground right now is already identified at 8.6 million at 4.3 grams. Nice numbers to have in our portfolio. We're very much looking forward to getting into operation as we go forward. The next phase of the exploration drilling program, my team was on site earlier this month working with the Condor team in country, and they've already defined and identified how the next two years of drilling is going to start to evolve. We will start that program immediately as we've committed to do so. We're looking at least two drills coming on board. Firstly, some geotechnical drilling to build out the mine plan and ensure that the geotechnical aspects of the plan are well catered for. From that point, we'll be looking at definition and extension drilling in La India South and La India North, once we can get into those areas. We have Cacao, which is, I think, a significant prospect, which has been identified, has some drilling in it, some drill meters available there. We will be doing some drilling in Cacao within the next two years as well to try and do some extension to those resources so we can bring them into reserves as well. All of that speaks volumes to the project and to the value creation that exists within that tenement area and within that holding that has now come into MTL through the Condor acquisition. We look at just the metrics. These metrics come out in the RNS this morning, so everybody's seen them. Basically, our studies and what we see, we believe we can bring with the underground resources, which will require definition and confirmation. There's enough there to say that the continuity exists, and there's just work to do to bring it all together. We see a plant of about 1.4 million a year. We see the time frame, 10-14 years, making sense to us over that. We're currently planning on a 1.8 million life of mine in those numbers, which we're hoping once the extension drilling starts on La India South, Cacao, and other areas, we can start extending that planning. We've put together an initial capital budget of $122 million. There's work to do there. That's an initial estimate. That will be updated as we go. We've worked quite hard on that. At this stage, the engineering needs to be put in place to get a final number around that. We did use all the feasibility engineering, the PEA work that was done to give ourselves some scope on that. We've looked at the purchase of a secondhand plant to meet the 1.4 million tonnes. We're able to bring that plant on at a reasonable price. We're already looking at the components of that secondhand plant in the engineering phase that we're down to two engineering companies. We'll be choosing one of those engineering companies in the next four weeks to start that engineering work. The secondhand plant that we're looking to purchase will be moving on within that same time frame. What does that do for us? There's always risk associated with bringing on secondhand plants into these type of environments. What it does for us is time. The issue is, in all construction, the benefit of achieving an early startup makes extreme sense, especially in this case where we have a two-year timeframe. We want to guarantee that timeframe and the purchase of that second-hand plant makes that achievable, especially at the 1.4 million tons a year that we're trying to achieve. It has the right crushing and milling components. It has the back end in terms of gold. It has gravity separation. It has all the assay labs, all of the MCCs, the transformers, all of the things that can take time, especially long lead items in terms of purchase. Once you've had to redesign to meet that, and then you've got to go out and look at the purchase strategies. They slow that construction phase down. All of the long lead items come with this second-hand plant, which it gives us about a 6-month window where we can reduce that schedule to 2 years, and hopefully we can reduce it to less than 2 years. It gives us more confidence and a higher level of achievement or confidence we'll be able to achieve that 2-year timeframe for delivery of that project. That was critical for us in the decision-making on, one, the tons we needed and the opportunity to take on that second-hand plant. As we've said, we're looking to be in production before the end of 2026. Construction drawings will start in February. We'll have those construction drawings, construction-ready by May for the initial civil works. We'll start civil works in May. We see 2 key areas where we've looked at change to the original design. The tailings storage facility. It didn't meet what we saw as international guidelines, the new Church of England standard and parameters around those in terms of how you manage communities with regards to tailings facilities. We've already found a new location for that. We've got the design parameters around that new location, and we're starting the baseline environmental and engineering to ensure that the tailings facility can be delivered in time. That was one of the key risks. The second key risk is power and the power transmission to the site. It wasn't sufficient for what we were trying to achieve, even in the original plan, if you're going to go underground. We're working with the government, and we've started those discussions with the government on making sure that the power facilities, the transmission that can be brought to site, and the facilities that are on-site will meet all of our needs, not just now, but into the future as well. For me, they were really the two key areas which we've had to focus. We've still got some work and some discussions to move forward with the government. We're well in hand, and we know where we need to go, and those risks are being mitigated as we speak. As I said, we're looking to start the definition and extension drilling in April, and that work's already in train with the plan in place to move that forward. Really, that's Condor. You've seen all the announcements on the structure of the deal. The shares have been issued. They're now trading. It has brought our market cap up to, I think on Thursday, GBP 155 million. Good to see that the shareholders have seen that dilution as positive. We've actually seen some buying into the shares. With the balance sheet we have with the new assets, we're looking at being cash generative and definite value creation in putting these two companies together, de-risking both geopolitical situations which are happening in the Philippines or in Nicaragua. We de-risk that by bringing the two companies together. The future looks bright and I appreciate the fact that the shareholders have seen that it works for them as well. We haven't seen any movement in the share price in the wrong direction, which is great. Runruno turnaround story. I'll talk to the numbers now. Our upper end of guidance was 82,500 ounces. We beat that at 83,900, 90% recovery, which was where the majority of that come from. The actual head grade was delivered as per the budget. It was really a recovery and a small increase in performance through the plant. About 100,000 tons extra was put through the plant for the year. Those two aspects of the performance was where the incremental ounces come from, above budget. A record gold recovery, as I've just talked about. Looking at strong production, strong cash flows, and that's going to keep going in the future. Now, we do see in 2025/26, the head grade is dropping off as we go to the back end of mine life. The guidance numbers are coming down as we go forward, but still very strong production and cash flow numbers coming out of the mine, which meet our requirements to fund the La India project as it goes forward as well. As I said, I always feel proud that the team are doing such a good job in the area of safety, communities. This year, we won the President's Award again, and I'll speak to that as we went forward. That's the third year in a row. It seems like we're probably the only company that's done that. Very good results from a community environment and safety performance aspects. Five years of operating, these numbers speak for themselves, all-in sustaining. When we first started, we got the numbers down by the end of 2020. 2019 was significantly higher, and then the years before that were over 2,000. Driving the all-in sustaining cost down against a rising cost base. Being able to maintain a cost structure within a couple of percentage points of where we started to now is testament to the team's focus on costs. The revenue has been driven by that performance and by the gold price as well, and cash flows have followed. Great numbers for the business, and look forward to the next couple of years as we finalize and move Runruno forward. We work with building the La India tenement and La India project. Yeah, look, I can't speak enough about the team that work with the communities. All companies, especially in developing nations, have to work and have strong community spirit, a strong community engagement. We've always done an exceptional job here. Again, the team are still delivering on that. $1.4 million community expenditure. We delivered 98% of our community projects. Our employees, 98% of the employees are Filipino. Nearly 30% of that is female. We have a very strong female contingent on-site, driving equipment, operating in the plant, in our technical and administration areas as well. We're very proud of the diversity that we have been able to bring into the company and that exists within the Runruno operations. That's it for me, guys. The presentation, I was hoping just to have a quick presentation. I didn't want to talk too much to stuff that you'd seen before. I'll start with the questions that were pre-submitted. I'll go through those, and then any new questions that have come in that we're going to get to, we'll try and get to as we go forward. One of the first questions was that a couple of years ago, it was actually last year in Davao. I was talking with Matt from Crux, and I mentioned the opportunity of talking about doing small-scale mining and how that benefits the community, and the company, and it actually has a very positive impact. I still absolutely believe in this. It's one of my mantras. I think small and large-scale mining should work together. I think there's always opportunity to do so. There's always a resource we can find that doesn't meet our economic requirements but can meet small-scale requirements. We are still very focused on having that as part of our overall strategy as we move forward. However, the timeframe around that, it is slower than I'd like it to be, but it is what it is. There's a lot of government hurdles you have to jump over, which we're working through. The communities themselves, the engagement with the communities, really the whole model is new for them and bringing that on board quickly. We're going to take our time. We're going to do it right. We're going to make it work. I think structurally, the benefit, not just for company, but community. You look at our policies around children at risk. Where are children at risk? One of the key areas where they're most at risk is illegal mining. Bringing that into responsible mining, even at small scale, we can protect children better. We can protect the environment. We can increase the benefit to communities. I really like small-scale mining. I think it's a very big part of something I want to take forward as the CEO of this company. It might take a little longer than I'd like. That's always the case. We'd love to do things tomorrow that we can't do. I've got to say, it's still part of our strategy, and it's not off the radar. Once the right project comes up in the right community and the environment to make that happen, we will be doing so. The next question I've got is, "How much management time will be allocated to the new acquisition?" I've gone through my existing team. My existing team, by the way, a lot of them actually followed me from somewhere else, coming to Runruno. What we've done is we've backfilled some of those slots in the existing team, and they're going to be moved to the La India project in Nicaragua. Xiaofeng Zheng, our Chief Metallurgist, the man who's pretty well single-handedly responsible for turning around the Runruno plant. He is going to be the lead designer on the new plant. He's already finished the PDC, which is the performance design criteria for the engineering. He's the one who's written the scope, and he's working with the engineers to start that process immediately. We've backfilled a slot in our maintenance team, so key maintenance personnel can step out as well. On top of that, the team that I've had in 15, 17 years myself in South America, I've called on a lot of the people I trust, a lot of the people I've worked with. Nearly all of them have said yes, and they're all coming back on board to work the La India project with myself and the team. We have a management-ready team over there. We're backfilling some slots here for some key people I want to have in that construction and that performance team to ensure we can deliver the plant on time. It's really my time between here and Nicaragua that I'll be traveling there more than most. I'm lucky. We've built Runruno. It's operating effectively. We've hired recently an in-country manager who has environmental and community technical background. He's running all of the subsidiary projects to Runruno. My time is freed up by those aspects. I'll be doing a lot more of this, of the IR, the investor relations work, because I do want to get the story out there. I think it's time for us to get on the radar and make sure people understand who we are and what opportunity they have to be invested in Metals Exploration. I think the resources are there. The team's being built. The team has accepted to come on board. The country manager for Nicaragua has already started. He actually worked with us here in the Philippines, and he's got more experience in South America than I do. He actually has Nicaraguan experience through the Canadian Embassy and through other work that he's done within the private sector in South America. The team's there, and I think the allocation of those resources is definitely where it needs to be and in hand. On completion of the third question I've got here is, on completion of the takeover, we've got about 3 billion shares. Actually, it's more like 2.6, but yeah, I get your point. There is a lot of shares and is there going to be consolidation at some point? We'll definitely look at that. It's something we're not considering right now. We're not considering an equity raise, that if we do, then I think there might be an opportunity to think about that. Right now, we're not looking to consolidate or go back to the market or do anything fancy. We're going to sit where we are. We're going to work on building the credibility and getting the assets up and running, and we're going to try and move forward that way. Yes, something that can be thought of in the future, but it's not on our agenda at this time. Can you please provide an update on extending the mine life at Runruno? I did talk in a presentation in December of a tenement that we picked up a while back. It's an old tenement that used to be part of Metals X. It's an old mining lease that we're picking it up, starting an exploration lease over it again. We're still working through the exploration permit. There's a couple of hurdles we're jumping through with the Environment Department to finalize that. I very much like it. It's a drill-ready target. We've got some amazing grades out of there. It's a VMS. Normally, VMSs are higher grade, but they're polymetallic. The current plant would be repurposed to suit if it turns out that it has the opportunity to build the resource large enough to work. VMSs, the guys are currently considering the size of it. They're working through those numbers, and we'll bring that out in our RNSs in the very near future. Just estimates and ideas, because we haven't started the drilling program yet. There is an old mining tenement there. There is an old mined area. We could see what scale they had and where that sits. We have ideas of what we think it's going to be, and I definitely am very confident that it has the opportunity to do an extension. Even if it's five years to the Runruno asset, leaving it where it is while we build other opportunities as we go forward. Watch this space. We're hoping to start drilling there in the next three to four months. If so, we'll be bringing more news flow out about that. It is a VMS, and there are some spectacular grades we're seeing in the rock samples we are taking out of that area as we speak. What else have we got here? The next question I've got is, "Can you confirm how soon the mine build will begin and a timeline for completion?" I think I've talked to that question. I don't know if I need to talk to it again. Yes, in 2026, we are targeting to be in operation in La India. We're running, not walking to make that happen. "How you might convince the current Condor shareholders to stay with you after the acquisition." Well, actually, I think this is an interesting question. I would have thought that the Condor shareholders got into Condor to see an operating mine. I don't think they got into it for an exploration play. Now, I could be wrong, and I think the majority of them would probably want to stick around themselves just to see what they've been seeing, and especially the longer-term Condor shareholders for 10 or 12 years. Are we ever going to get an operating mine? Well, stick around. You'll see it happen. I think that's how we convince them. We show the credibility that we will deliver on an operating mine. I think we will see the Condor shareholders, and not only the Condor shareholders, but more people wanting to come into a company that is growing with the potential that that asset has. I don't think I'll have to convince them. I think this is what they've wanted for a while, and now there's money available to make this happen. I think they'll be very happy to see it as we go forward. What is the planned timing of the potential impact drilling for copper in Manikbel? Look, it's a 5-10-year plan. It really is. It's out there. As we've talked about, as we've put in our own S-curves, as we've seen, it's huge. Exploration is one of those things that can get you excited, and a lot of the time you don't see what you're drilling for and you're hoping to hit something. Well, we can see what we're drilling for. As we said, there's historical drilling that's already occurred there. We're really just working through the political environment, quite frankly, right now, so that we get all the engagement at a community level and LGU, local government units, ready so that we can start that work. We were hoping to start earlier, but we're currently in a very, I'm going to say, high-tension political environment because local elections have started. If anyone's been in developing countries, their local elections are a little bit like the Wild West. There's a lot of tension in the air. There's a lot of political maneuvering, and we want to make sure that when we do start, we can do it the right way and we can work with the people that are in the local government units and other people who are our stakeholders. Right now, we're working through that. Really 5- to 10-year plan, but we're hoping to start that drilling. The local elections finish in May, and we're hoping to start that drilling after May. We were considering trying to push to start it earlier. Just giving you the news now, we have been given the news on the ground, and the comments on the ground from the local government is that, "Please work with us. Wait, and we'll work with the community to get you started once the elections have finished." We will be doing that as per the request. The next question that has been pre-submitted is, "I see the merger of MTL's mining expertise and Condor's untapped resources as an enormous step forward for all MTL shareholders, both new and old." I agree with whoever's written this question. "I fully appreciate that the cash flow at San Ramon would be directed to the construction of La India, also used to develop other projects within the Philippines. As a long-term MTL investor, I'm interested in the board's view on what point there could be considered dividends." If I look at my cash flow over the next two years, clearly that cash flow will be directed towards the construction of La India, the exploration there, and the exploration here in the Philippines to develop that extension to San Ramon or the Abra project assets or targets that we have. For me, if I've got a crystal ball, it's definitely outside of the 2026 time frame. We will probably revisit that in 2027 once the cash flow starts coming out of La India. Just the idea of La India, it's 50% bigger in terms of production. Well, it's more, 50%-60% bigger than San Ramon. We will have more cash available. It will be very cash generative. At that stage, there's definitely consideration, I would believe, from the board to start thinking, "Well, let's just not look at growth. Let's look at giving something back to the shareholders." For the next two years, I think we'll hold our powder dry. I'll just give you that note now. Again, the board could change their minds. I do believe, where the cash has been targeted to go, that's where it'll end up. We'll look outside of that time frame before we start considering dividends. "In order to expedite ore production and revenue generation for La India ahead of establishing its own processing infrastructure, is there any short or long-term custom JV milling arrangement that we might be considering with Calibre or other mining companies within Nicaragua?" The answer's no. We wish to maintain the value creation that we've taken on with La India and the tenements that we hold there for the benefit of our shareholders. While we could bring cash flow on a little earlier, we will actually give away value by doing so. We're not interested in giving away that value, given that that cash, right now, is not specifically required to grow that asset. The answer is the board hasn't considered that. I don't believe the board will be considering that in the near future or the near term. However, anything's up for grabs depending on the value that we can generate for shareholders. At this stage, the answer to that question is no, we're not considering that or moving that forward. Next question: "How will you get a larger motor for the SAG mill straight away?" Interesting. Someone recognizes that the SAG mill motor's undersized. The interesting thing is, the secondary assets that we've targeted, the power that is in the milling circuit on that asset offsets the smaller SAG mill motor. Shenghe has done all the milling studies based on the work indexes that we have, and the combined SAG ball mill performance that we're looking for actually matches the requirements, and we can keep the motor that's there. Again, reduces that time frame from a long lead item. We can maintain the asset that we have as it is, and we can implement a strategy given the size of the ball mill that we've got coming on board to match that SAG mill. Again, a prerequisite in some of those second-hand options we're looking at. Not necessary is the answer, and it will match our performance requirements with the other assets we've bought in that milling circuit or are looking to buy for that milling circuit. Next question: "Although it is early days in you getting to understand the new project in Nic, can provide an example of how you were surprised on the upside with what you have found? And one example where required more costs than originally thought." Look, the upside potential is very clear there from an exploration point of view. Just walking the site, I spent a week there. We had a couple of geologists come in. The general manager, he spent time as part of the DD team. The new general manager spent time as part of the DD team. We all saw the extensive potential that this asset can bring in terms of resource growth. It's absolutely there. There's no doubt about that. Even some of the drilling that's indicated in Cacao, for example, which hasn't got a resource around it, shows that definitely will come into a resource ready within the next 2 years. From that point of view, I don't think there's any doubt that we can see that 2.3 million growing into the future and assisting in the further life of mine production. The benefit is the basis for the start is already there. It's really, we will grow on what we have rather than, oh, we have to find something to start. No, that's not the case, and that's a good thing. Will it require more working costs? We allowed and we budgeted a $10 million exploration program. It's part of the CVR. That's what we said we were going to do. That's what we believe we need to do over the next 5 years. That should give us that growth we're looking at. We're talking, what, a 1.6 million ounce growth from the existing numbers right now based on a $10 million spend. We don't see any issues with that, and we still believe that's reasonable for what we're targeting. Sam M. "If the gold price were to fall, would you slow down the Condor CapEx plan, or would you be prepared to take on debt and fund?" We would take on debt and fund. Whether that's finance, whether that's equity, we would definitely take on debt. There's already been a number of people approach us for finance. I don't think there's any issues with us financing, especially if we're in late-stage construction. It's something we're very much watching because that is part of the issue. We will be running, construction phase has a very steep S-curve in the middle of the construction, and our cash flow will be very tight. We've run tight cash flows for the last years to ensure we drew that debt as soon as possible. We know how to manage that, and we will be watching that very closely as we go forward. No, we will not slow down production, construction. We will get that asset up and running because quite frankly, that is the end game and that is what will drive not just the generative creative value that we want in the business, but it will grow the best result. There's no better NPV, even if you take on some financing to make it work. We will be doing that for sure. With the Philippine assets plus the Nicaraguan assets, how incorporated in Metals Exploration's portfolio, is there any advantage in looking to acquire further assets over the next two years or three?" Over the next two years, I don't think so. I'm not going to say categorically no. Especially in the next year, look, I need to show you as the shareholders, the new shareholders, that I have the credibility to deliver on what I've said. There's no doubt about that. If we do deliver on what we've said, and we do see a significant uplift in the share price and it does, and the right assets, like another Condor asset comes along where there's significant create value available, then I'm sure the board will look at it. At this stage, the thought process is consolidate, get some credibility, start the construction, get it moving forward, and then think about it in the next two years. The next year I think is very unlikely. The next two years, there's probably the board might look, depending on what's going on. The next three years, I would say there's definitely opportunity for the board to start looking and thinking about it. Once cash flow is being generated, we are showing that credibility. The management team have proven themselves once again. I do believe that there will be a thought process from the board to start looking at how do we grow this company quicker. I do believe that's something that can come into the plan in the next three, or definitely five years. Jonathan, "Can you give detail on the timing and development costs of the underground at La India? And can you maintain high recoveries at Runruno into 2024?" High recoveries are into 2025, I assume, because you've already seen the recoveries for 2024. Recoveries, definitely. All we're moving into seems to be very conducive to flotation. Because we're dropping grade, the sulfur numbers are coming down. The BIOX circuit's actually performing better. I don't see a recovery issue in Runruno going into the next two years. I don't see that as being an issue. We have, in the next three years, at least one underground mine, La India South, in the plan and in the capital that we put together in the numbers you've seen. Actually, we have two undergrounds, one in three, one in five, already costed into those numbers you see. Those numbers, we didn't feel that the costs that were allowed in the previous work were sufficient. We thought the underground costs for operation weren't sufficient, which is why you see a marginal increase in the all-in sustaining cost in our numbers. The capital numbers are more significant than you see in the first two years. Construct the plant, get the open cut running. Within three years, have an underground on the back of that using cash flow to build it. Those numbers are in our plan, and we can talk to those numbers a little later once we've got more definition around them. They're significantly higher than what were previously allowed. We ensured we'd be able to offer something that we know we can achieve. Okay. What do we have? Daniel: "Have you had any dialogue yet with the mining industry in Nicaragua? Will you be leveraging off the management's relationship?" Yes, we have, and absolutely we will. Thanks to Mark and the team, they've built an amazing in-country relationship. Mark is moving on, of course, but there's no one in-country at this stage who's moving on. They're all very excited to see the project move forward. We're very happy with the team that Mark's built there, and we'll be working with them. Our in-country manager, who's started with us, James Carmichael, he worked with me here, he's worked with me in Colombia, worked with me in the DR. He will be heading up the Nicaraguan relationships, community, security teams. He will do all of that work. He's already been in-country. He's going back into country early February again. He will start building on those relationships that have been created by the existing team, working with the existing team to do so. We have no issues with that moving forward. We're quite comfortable. Actually, I do like the stability I see in Nicaragua. There might be issues in a geopolitical sense, whether they're human rights or other. The stability in the country right now, there's three international companies operating perfectly under their existing contracts. All we've got from a feel from the government is, "When can you start?" We see that there's definitely a positive move for the government to move us forward, and we very much like that. We see a very positive outcome there. Those relationships will just keep growing. "At Runruno, local miners were mining high-grade veins. How extensive have you found the high-grade veins?" Look, we've included a reduction in resources in our statements over the next two years for that mining. It's not significant. When we talk about local miners, there's a lot of them, but they probably move 50 kilos a day. As a small team, they don't move a lot of material. Yes, while there was some depletion in some of the areas, and we've allowed for that in our plan, it is catered for. We're pretty confident that we've caught everything we've seen. Because our definition drilling that we do, and our GC drilling, is on a very tight spacing. There's probably not much we have missed. We've actually added some small areas from that drilling into the plan, actually brought some areas back in. I think while some's gone, there's been a little bit come back in. I think we're okay for the next two years. When can we expect to receive more definitive guidance on the resource situation in the Philippines?" As I said, I think we're talking at this stage, we won't start any real work in the Abra project until May, and that's driven purely by the current political tension that exists in that area. We are really hoping to be into Dupax within the next two months. The team's ready to go, and we're just working through the last government permit to get that up and running. That's where we are with that. "Why would you consider equity dilution if the assets are cash generative and we are essentially debt-free?" Look, I don't disagree with you. If we can finance, we'd finance. There's no doubt about that. And I don't see that as an issue. But again, I'm not going to make decisions for the board at this stage. I don't have the crystal ball to see what might happen in the future. For mine, I don't disagree with your statement that if you're cash generative, why would you go for dilution? I don't think you would. If we need a short-term cash call and we can finance it, I think we definitely would. Again, I'm not going to speak for the board, and I'm not going to speak for a situation I don't know that might pop up in the future. However, I'm not saying that your comment isn't fair and reasonable. I do agree. The last question I've got here is: "What is the long-term plan with the other assets in Nicaragua?" Look, the extension drilling and the exploration drilling will keep growing. There's absolutely no doubt about it. It's why, if we look at the last two targeted productions in the plant from the work that was done by Condor earlier, they were looking at an 890,000-tonne a year plant or a 1.2. We've gone higher at 1.4. We believe that there is upside in this thing. We believe that we can generate a long-term value with a little bit larger plant. We believe places like Estrella is one of those places we'll add that value. There is a number of them, guys. There's a number of veins identified, a number of areas within the tenement holding that I believe can add value. We will go step by step through them all, prioritizing them based on the geologist's input, and work through them as we go. As we've said, I think Cacao is probably one of our primary extension targets. I also think that the extension from La India South through to Mojarra is also, probably said that wrong, but is also a key extension target. It looks like that is contiguous over a kilometer. If that is the case, those two alone will give us the answers we require to grow this business into the future without even looking beyond. Lots of potential, lots of upside, lots of targets. We will work through them diligently step by step, and we will rely on our geologists to prioritize those as we move forward. Really, being a miner, I'll be prioritizing them on who can generate the most economic value for me versus what technically looks nicest for the geologists. There's always that argument or that discussion between geologists of where they'd like to drill and what makes economic sense. We'll be working through that as we go. I really look forward to it. I'm excited about the project, and I have been for a while. If we'd had the opportunity to move earlier, we probably would have. I'm just glad that the board, once we reconfigured the business in August with the changes we made at the board level, removed some overarching agreements. Immediately the board opened the door for this acquisition, and I appreciate their confidence in us in doing so. Thank you everybody. I've come to the end of the questions that have been put forward for me. I do thank you for your time, and I hope everybody got something out of it. We'll be doing this more in the future, so please watch this space. Perfect. Darren, thank you very much for answering those questions from investors. There have been lots of questions. Of course, the company can review the questions submitted today, and we will publish those responses out on the Investor Meet Company platform. Could I please ask investors not to close the 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 and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Metals Exploration PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.