Earnings Call: H1 2026

Feb 25, 2026

Good afternoon and welcome to the Sylvania Platinum Limited Interim Results Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged, and they can be submitted at any time using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll, and I would now like to hand you over to CEO Jaco Prinsloo. Good afternoon to you, sir. Good afternoon, Alex, and good afternoon to everyone online, and thanks for the opportunity to take you through our results for the past six months. Myself and Ronel Bosman, our CFO, will take you through the highlights of this period. I think maybe just also to welcome Ronel officially. It's her first official reporting period after taking over as CFO on the 1st of December from Lou-Anne, who stepped down at that time. But Ronel is not new to the company. She's been with us for more than five years already in the senior finance positions, so more than able to take us through the financial results. We'll take you through it in a moment. Just before we get into the detail of the presentation, please just take note of the standard disclaimer, and if you make any investment decisions on the company, you shouldn't make it solely on the information contained in this presentation, just as a standard. Thank you very much. Okay. Just briefly, I think as an overview for those of you who don't or not maybe so familiar with the company, Sylvania is a low-cost cash generator, PGM, and chrome producer. We have at the moment, all the revenue and profits you would see from the current presentation has been generated from our existing Sylvania Dump Operations as well as the newly commissioned Thaba JV. We have six of these beneficiation plants with an SDO located on the eastern and western limb of the Bushveld Complex, respectively. They treat a combination of run-of-mine, characterizing, and historical chrome tailings at the respective sites. Then, as part of our growth profile, the Thaba JV has just been commissioned in quarter one of this financial year. It's currently in the ramp-up phase, but I'll deal with a bit more of the Thaba JV specific progress later in the presentation. I think if we just look at the summary of the results for this first half-year. As an overview, I'm very pleased to have a very strong set of production and financial results for the half-year. I'm very proud that we were able to propose that 25% improvement year-on-year in terms of the 4E ounce production, and during a period where all six of our SDO plants have exceeded their business plan for the period. Really a remarkable performance. I think this, supported by a 55% improvement in the PGM basket price, where we currently, the average reported for the year was $2,162 per ounce. That certainly assists us to boast very attractive net revenue EBITDA figures. Our net revenue have increased 110% to almost 100 million, $99.8 million. Our adjusted EBITDA have increased to $51 million, which was a 414% year-on-year improvement. While we managed to still control our cash costs very well, in fact, our cash cost was slightly down period on period, primarily driven by the increased ounce production and bringing down our unit cost. Overall, this enabled us to still maintain a healthy cash balance and also in line with our commitment to distribute our capital allocation to shareholders. I'm very pleased to announce that our board have approved an interim dividend of 2 pence per ordinary share that we will pay in this period, as well as an additional $2.5 million that we have allocated for share buybacks based on our valuation and opportunity. All in all, I think a very pleasing set of production and financial results. I think we are not just focusing on the financial and production per se, but it's also important for us that we return value to our employees and the communities where we operate. To that extent, I'm very proud of our safety performance as always. I think maybe just highlighting some of the key features, I'm very happy that we've managed to maintain our fatality-free record since the inception of the first operation almost 18 years ago now. We also have a remarkable achievement. Doornbosch was still 13 years lost-time injury-free, and Doornbosch, Lannex, and Mooinooi were all injury-free for 4, 3, and 1 year respectively. Certainly, a remarkable and industry-leading performance from safety on these operations. If we focus for a moment just on the operations and what enabled that 25% PGM production increase for the past six months or the first half of the year, we were fortunate that we've managed to increase our PGM feed tons by about 9%, and that was on the back of improved stability and utilization on all our Sylvania Dump Operations, while the Thaba operation is still ramping up. In combination with the higher tons, we also carried on the momentum from the higher feed grades that we saw from about the latter half of the previous financial year, and that carried on, and we had a 10% higher PGM feed grade. Primarily the contributors there is higher grade material received from the host mine at Tweefontein, Mooinooi, and Aweresedi projects. As you can see, there are contributions in the bars at the bottom. Finally, also very pleasing that the recovery efficiency has increased to 83%. It's quite a bit improvement on our long-term outlook of about 54%-56% recovery. It's very pleasing that all three of the levers that we are able to pull to increase production in terms of tons, grade, and recovery were all improving period on period. That's all good. If we look just ahead in terms of what's to come in the forecast. We obviously communicated in March earlier that the Thaba JV ramped up slightly slower than what we anticipated originally, and as I said, I'm going to talk more about that later in the presentation, but you can see how the Thaba contributions are starting to come through on the green bars at the top of the profile. That certainly helps us to maintaining our profile as some of the other plants might see lower grades going forward. We will obviously assess, during our new business planning cycle between April and June, how the current grades are performing and if there are potential upside in 2027 and 2028 going forward. While we haven't talked much about chrome, both in the results or in these graphs at this stage, we've shipped the first chrome concentrate from Thaba during the period, but it will only become a more significant contributor during the next period. We have a target of between 60,000-90,000 tonnes of attributable chrome for this period that we communicated. Just in terms of operational focus areas, it's not surprising. Obviously, if we look at the potential improvement we can have once Thaba is reaching steady state or there's nameplate capacity, our primary focus for both our operational and technical teams are to make sure we continue to improve the plant throughput rate and stability at Thaba so that we can get the plant to nameplate capacity and also focusing on the ROM quality feeding the plant. I'll deal a bit more about the implications and plans there. Besides that, it's pretty much focusing on the existing dump operations to make sure we maintain the same momentum and discipline that we have seen over basically the last 12 months. That were all record performances for the company and to ensure that we continue to add accretive value from these operations. I'm going to hand over to Ronel now to just take us through the key financial aspects of the presentation and the results. Thank you, Jaco, and good afternoon to everyone on the call as well. Not only that Sibanye had an exceptional six months performance operationally and in the safety space, as Jaco mentioned, but looking at the profit statement for our half year results, it is evident that the six months ending 31st December 2025 has been a very successful period for the company financially as well. The improvement of the 4E PGM basket price during quarter two had a significant impact on the profitability of the company and was further supported by the record ounce production for the period from the SDO. Net revenue, which includes byproducts and sales adjustments as a result of the provisional pricing period, increased by 110% compared to the comparative period. I will explain in the next slide some of the underlying drivers of this revenue increase. Cost of sales includes direct and indirect operating costs and increased by 31% period-on-period, including the mineral royalty tax, of which approximately 4% relates to the rand/dollar exchange rate fluctuation. I will also expand in more detail on the cost drivers later on in the presentation. The mineral royalty tax on the attributable ounces increased by $3.7 million. This increase relates mainly to the increase in applied mineral royalty tax rate driven by the mentioned increase in revenue. Additionally, there was less qualifying deductible capital expenses available during the period. The impairment of exploration and evaluation assets of $12.3 million relates to the Hacra project located in the northern limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex. During the reporting period, a decision was made not to commit any further additional capital to this project, which resulted in a non-cash impairment loss of $12.3 million. Hacra also forms part of an exploration portfolio acquired historically, where approximately $10.1 million of the purchase price was apportioned to the Hacra project, with an additional exploration spend of approximately $2.2 million to date. Income tax is incurred at the corporate income tax rate in South Africa of 27% on taxable income generated in South Africa. The income tax expense increased from $2.6 million to $13.5 million, and this increase in income tax is mainly as a result of the higher revenue realized with a proportionate increase in taxable profits. Also included in the income tax expense is deferred tax recognized mainly on capital assets and unredeemed CapEx. Looking more closely at the revenue for the period, as shown in the revenue graph on the top left-hand side, the net revenue increased half year on half year by 110%, equating to $52.3 million. 85% of the increase is due to the increase in the average 4E PGM gross basket price, which increased by 55% period-on-period. 24% of the increase in revenue is due to the record ounce production during the period, which increased by 25%. Lastly, the first chrome revenue was realized through the Thaba JV during the period of $639,000. The pie graph on the top right-hand side indicates that platinum is still the largest contributor to the current 6E PGM revenue stream at 43%, followed by rhodium contributing 33% and palladium contributing 13%. The bottom graph details the increase in the EBITDA from H1 FY 2025 to H1 FY 2026, amounting to $41.12 million. This increase is attributable mainly to the 110% increase in net revenue as mentioned, driven by the 55% increase in metal prices and 25% increase in ounce production. On the cost side, and despite increased revenue as discussed, we continue to focus on disciplined cost and capital management as well. The SDO cash cost per 4E PGM ounce amounted to $726 per ounce, which equates to approximately $570 per 6E PGM ounce. Although the total operating costs were higher than the prior period, the total cost per ounce decreased due to the higher ounce production during the period. The graph on the top right-hand side reflects the chrome cost per ton relating to the Thaba JV. As indicated by the blue bars on the graph, the unit cost calculated on the base case is estimated at $114 per ton for the full year, and then continued to decrease towards 2027 and 2028. Due to a potential adverse impact via lower raw feed quality from the current pit, a conservative cost per ton was calculated and is indicated by the gray line on the graph, indicating a potential marginal increase in dollars per ton. A detailed mining review and optimization studies are currently underway, but Jaco will expand on the detail thereof later in the presentation. As reflected in the pie graph at the right bottom corner, as well as in the table on the left, labor cost, electricity and power costs, the buy-in of third-party material, as well as consumables are the top four contributors to direct cost. Labor cost remains the highest cost for the operations, and the annual salary increases were effected in July 2025, aligned with prior periods. Power and electricity increased at a rate higher than the South African inflation rate during the period. Although the third-party material constitutes a large portion of the overall cost, it continues to contribute positively and strategically to the group as a whole. This cost is calculated on a price matrix, which is directly linked to the basket price, and therefore, in times of elevated basket prices, the cost of third-party material increases proportionally. Work in progress relates to PGM ounces and chrome tons produced in the current period, which will only be delivered in the coming periods. Although the all-in sustaining cost and all-in cost increased by 23% and 10% respectively, of which again, approximately 4% relates to the rand's appreciation against the dollar, the company remains well within the lower quartile of the cost curve. There has been no major changes in the forecasted capital spend up to FY 2028, and estimates are in line with previous communication. Capital spend for the first six months of the financial period amounts to $12.3 million. This excludes attributable stripping cost of approximately $3.7 million, as well as attributable cost capitalized from the Thaba JV during the ramp-up phase of approximately $1.3 million. Capital spend estimated for the full year equates to $30 million and is in line with previous communication. The tailings dams and related infrastructure remains the largest portion of the capital spend, with a remainder of $11.4 million forecasted for H2 FY 2026. Attributable capital spend at the Thaba JV for H2 FY 2026 is estimated at $1.9 million and included in the exploration asset capital estimated for the remainder of the period is the planned drilling program at Hacra project of approximately $1.1 million, following the geochemical and geophysical surveys already completed. We also continue to exercise disciplined cash management, ensuring optimal capital allocation and balance sheet resilience. Cash inflow from operations during the period amounted to $25.75 million. Net income tax paid across the portfolio to the local tax authority amounted to $6.87 million. Capital cash outflow amounted to $15.72 million, and dividends paid during the period amounted to $6.85 million. We closed off the period with a healthy cash balance of $54 million. Our capital allocation approach is underpinned by strong cash generation and disciplined cost control, enabling us to reinvest in our operations, advance growth initiatives, and deliver sustainable returns to the shareholders. Following Sylvania's strong performance for the period ended 31st December 2025, and in line with the capital allocation framework, we are pleased to declare an interim dividend of 2 pence per ordinary share, which is aligned with our dividend policy. As Jaco mentioned in the introduction, we have also earmarked approximately $2.5 million for potential share buybacks during the course of Q3. Our history of paying consistent, uninterrupted dividends, as well as the aforementioned additional capital allocation, emphasizes the company's commitment to return value to shareholders through both regular dividends and opportunistic share buybacks. Further, there has been no capital raising in the market since December 2009, and we continue to fund our capital expansion and optimization projects from our cash reserves. Thank you, Jaco. Okay. Thank you, Ronel. Now that we have discussed the overview of the past period's performance and demonstrating how we're adding value, I think it's also important to look at just what is in terms of our growth pipeline. From a growth perspective for the company, we have a two-pronged approach. Firstly, we continuously look at how we can unlock further potential of value from our existing suite of assets, which now also include the Thaba operation that has been just commissioned. Secondly, we are looking how do we create value from external growth opportunities where we can replicate our proven operating model and leverage our successful track record and experience. Before I talk to some of the future opportunities we are exploring, first, let me start off by giving you an overview of the current progress on Thaba to date and what our primary focus areas are. I think what is encouraging is that we have now successfully commissioned the Thaba project during quarter one of 2026 financial year. We've had our first chrome and PGM concentrate product dispatched during the past quarter, and that's an important aspect transition from commissioning into commercial production. We are continuing with the ramp-up phase and aiming to reach nameplate processing capacity by the end of Q4. I think we had some challenges during the project. I think it is not unexpected for a project this size and complexity, but we certainly thought we would have a faster ramp-up than we've had. There's primarily two areas that contributed to the current ramp-up plan. Firstly, from a physical ramp-up perspective, the capacity in the plant has been slower than we anticipated, and this was primarily impacted by teething issues with some of the equipment and related to the processing circuit integration as we started up. We also had, starting a new plant up with new people and a new circuit, we had to look at how do we improve the experience quickly. Then some early-stage plant configuration optimization also impacted on physical throughput and availability in the plant. As I said, our technical teams and operational teams have made very good progress and good strides during the past two to three months. I'm very positive with the progress, and that's why I'm confident that we should be able to get to that nameplate processing capacity towards the end of quarter four. The second aspect that had an impact on our current ramp-up and also has an impact, as I'll illustrate on the next slide, just on the production going forward, is that we've had initial lower ore feed quality and variability from the host mine. A lot of that's primarily linked to the early development of a new open pit mine and higher-than-planned waste dilution that we've experienced than we planned. We're currently engaging with also our JV partner who is managing the mining, owning the mine, and also managing the mining operations, as well as technical mining and geological specialist team that we've appointed to assist with review of the resources, the mining plan, and models, and as well as the scheduling procedures so that we can ensure we optimize the feed to the plant in the period to come. That we both maximize short-term profits as well as optimize the NPV over the life of the project. We've commissioned the mining study already in the past quarter, and the review is underway. Some of the initial findings are communicated and implemented as we progress, while the final findings from the optimization studies and detailed reviews is expected during this current period, and probably in the next two to three months. We will continue to keep the market abreast of developments in that regard. I think overall, while the initial production was adversely impacted, we still believe that the overall project is key to the long-term future and growth of the group and will still continue to add attractive revenue and profits over the life of the project. If we just look at trying to illustrate the impact of the slower ramp-up. There's a slightly more dilute run-of-mine. We've included some graphs and sensitivities just to guide investors on that. I think, and we turned to this graph, so you would see this, we talk about the conservative assumptions or the average life-of-mine assumptions. Average life of mine is what we've previously planned and had in the investment case, and the current conservative form is taking into consideration roughly 10%-15% additional grade dilution over the years to come. That obviously have a knock-on impact on chrome production and also PGM production as we continue. I think what we can see is that while there is a slight impact, we would, through optimization efforts, end up somewhere between the two lines and still considering that the project still would add between 10%-14% EBITDA increase of about 20%-30% of our overall group material, which is significant and as I said, we'll probably be 10%-14% lower on chrome product, about 15% lower on PGM ounces for the period. As I've mentioned earlier, despite this ramp-up, we still believe it's an attractive project and will contribute to attractive diversified revenue and EBITDA as we continue. I think what's encouraging is that we understand where the challenges, what the challenges are, what some of the levers are we are able to pull, and I believe that the team would be able to resolve it as we go forward. This is just an update for people to illustrate what the site looked like since the commissioning. We have the run-of-mine stockpile and milling circuit up-front hydro mining station, also the PGM flotation and the milling circuits and some of the chrome stockpiles with the material dispatched. If we look at the growth outlook, and so I've mentioned already Thaba, and certainly that big part of our growth in 2026 is optimizing and stabilizing the Thaba operation that will continue to contribute. I want to focus here maybe on the two most significant short to medium-term opportunities we are working on. The first one is pre-feasibility study that's currently underway in terms of a potential new treatment chrome dump and ROM treatment facility on the Eastern Limb. That's currently in the pre-feasibility stage, and it's a project that will be probably very similar in nature to what we have done at Thaba, where we would share in both the chrome and PGM revenue stream and probably the same kind of capital requirement as Thaba. The pre-feasibility study results is expected probably to be complete during Q4, and we should be able to update the market on our strategy and the outcome during our full-year results later in the year. We will, at that stage, decide do we have enough confidence in the pre-feasibility study accuracies and also is the investment case robust enough that one could consider going straight to execution, or does it warrant us to go first complete a full feasibility study? The difference between the two would mean that there's about a year in delay if we would do a full feasibility study first. The second project that we're doing pre-feasibility on at the moment is looking at potential fine chrome recovery from dormant chrome tailings facilities, where there's still significant potential value in some of the final tailings dams at our respective mine sites. That could potentially generate both additional chrome revenue stream as well as a life extension. We are still engaging with the host mines in terms of potential terms of that and the outcome of the pre-feasibility, which is also probably due in the next 3-6 months, would again guide us in terms of what the best decision is. I think barring these specific projects, then we also continue to look for opportunities that further diversify our commodity profile and operational presence by considering alternative commodities and jurisdictions where we can replicate our proven operating model and leverage our successful track record and expertise. We frequently perform technical and commercial due diligences on such complementary projects and opportunities that come across our desk. We'll continue to do so going forward to see how we can best grow the company. I think if we look at the opportunities, also important maybe to consider the market outlook, and I just want to take us through some of the parameters. I think firstly, you have seen in our results already that we've had a significant increase in the PGM price during the previous half year, and I think you can see it on how the individual metal price increased. Obviously, the rally was led by rhodium and platinum. Platinum increased 59% over the past six months or half year, and rhodium about 57%, and palladium also holding up nicely, increasing by about 33%. I think if you consider our prill split where we have 65%, or call it 66% platinum and about 11% rhodium, certainly those increases assisted greatly to boost our revenues as Ronelle has illustrated. I think also from a chrome point of view at that bottom graph is just showing that while you normally have the chrome and PGM prices quite counter cyclical, we're fortunate at the moment they both are at a fairly attractive level, at the same time. The chrome has maintained its momentum in a range between $260-$280 for the past six months and still remains robust. If we look just before going into the specific supply-demand fundamentals for both PGM and chrome, it's probably worth pausing for a moment to consider the most recent and updated PGM industry cost curve as compiled by Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking. I think what we can see here is that there's been a much-needed relief for PGM producers over the past 6-12 months, where basically every one of the producers at the moment is profitable and that's indicated by the gap between the green bars, which is the cost, and the staggered red line at the top, which is the revenue graph. That certainly is giving the industry a lot of breathing space, especially if you consider that just 12 months ago, and if you look at that dotted line at the bottom that says average basket price February 2025, about half the industry was underwater. Still only 6 months ago, about 20%-30% of the industry was also still loss-making. That is important to note because as we talk about the supply constraints and outlook on the next slide, the fact that a lot of the expansion and growth projects in the industry have been put on hold or delayed, at least the period actually leading up to last year this time and during that period because so many of the producers were loss-making. You can't just bring those projects back immediately because we've seen a 6-month or a 9-month relief in prices. Most of the producers would want to see a more sustained high price environment before reinvesting or committing capital to those projects. Finally, just before I move off this graph, Ronel has spoken about us being well-positioned within the bottom quartile of the cost curve, and you can just see the blue bar at the left indicating Sylvania's position. Well-positioned. What that does for us is that, when we are in a difficult price environment like the one when I explained in February last year, Sylvania is still able to continue to generate attractive cash and fund our growth aspirations when it's maybe then more difficult for some of our peers. When we're in a good market environment like we are now, we are able to return attractive value to our shareholders and generate cash to fund our aspirations. Just briefly looking at what's happening on the supply and demand. Obviously, with our prill split, as I explained earlier, and considering that more than 80% of palladium and more than 90% of rhodium is consumed in autocatalysts, vehicle sales and autocatalysts remain one of the primary focus areas from a demand point of view. I think if we consider the demand for autocatalysts and the growth in hybrid electric vehicles at a slower than initially anticipated decline in internal combustion vehicles, combined with some tighter emission standards globally, means that demand remains strong for autocatalysts. Certainly, for the near to midterm. I think we all know that the growth, while it's still growing, the pure battery electric vehicles, it is at a reduced rate. The hybrid electric vehicles still use autocatalysts, so that's good for the industry. In terms of platinum specifically, besides autocatalyst demand that's stable, we've also seen increased demand in jewelry, industrial applications, as well as some investment demand during the period. These are all positive contributors. If you look to the forward demand applications, future demand applications for platinum as well in terms of energy transition, the hydrogen economy, certainly platinum has a very strong demand outlook. In summary, we remain as a company, retain a robust outlook, from a demand perspective, in the near to midterm. When we look at supply, and I personally think, if we look at the price reaction in the previous half year, the supply is probably one of the bigger considerations because, I explained earlier that some of the growth projects have declined. If you look at the longer-term South African production outlook, we know that there's a declining production profile unless new production comes in online. That combined with very low above-ground stock levels, which are still being maintained and at record 5- to 10-year periods for respective metals, that is certainly a big consideration for the market. While secondary supply from recycling has started to see an improvement, and a slight increase as the prices increased, it was not as much as initially anticipated. It's still quite at subdued levels compared to historic levels. All in all, if we consider and looking at the graph on the right where all three metals are expected to be in deficit for at least 2026 and 2027. Rhodium is so finely traded, so it's close to balance, but just in deficit. I think once you get to 2028, many analysts still have all three metals then in deficit or maybe palladium just going in a slight surplus. Certainly that would support the overall PGM price outlook, during the next period. I think we would continue to see stronger prices for this year. Certainly as we've seen from most of the analysts that's covering our company and also doing some research that they share the same view. From a chrome perspective and point of view, it is probably a bit simpler in terms of demand than the various 4E PGM basket that, in the sense that stainless steel is by far the biggest consumer of ferrochrome production globally. As I've indicated in those graphs at the bottom, the stainless steel consumption or production have been increasing or growing at about 4%-6% annual compound growth rate over the past 10 years. It has slowed down slightly to about 3% in 2025, and again, to between 2.5%-3% expected for 2026. Even at the slightly slower growth rate, it still continues to grow while we see the chrome ore production fairly flat and the ferrochrome production even potentially marginally dropping off. From supply-demand fundamentals there, again, I think it's fair for us to remain and retain a bullish outlook on chrome going forward. You can see on the chrome prices, the trend at the bottom, both in rand and dollar terms, it has been trading in a good range for us during the past six months. I'm going to hand back to Ronel to just talk us through some of our ESG highlights before I will close off in the presentation. Thank you, Ronel. Thank you, Jaco. I think as a retreatment-focused mining company, sustainability is already inherent in our business model, but we continue to prioritize environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and the safety and well-being of our people, as well as the strong governance to deliver resilient and responsible operations. On the environmental side, the tailings facilities management remains key, and we continue to conduct regular inspections aligned with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, and no material risks were identified. Additionally, slope rehabilitation trials are in the planning phase to expand on the positive ecological responses that we've seen during the previous trial at the Tweefontein operations as well. We are also very proud of our industry-leading safety performance, with zero fatality since commencing operations, as well as zero LTIs reporting across all operations during the current period. The communities in which we operate remain important to us, and we funded the installation of a solar power system at the Modderspruit medical community clinic to enable safe and uninterrupted medical care to the community. The table on the left-hand side indicates the various financial contributions made to employees, the local tax authority, as well as suppliers, which include suppliers from the local community in which we operate. Hand back to Jaco now to take us through the outlook. Thank you, Ronel. I think if we just look at the current year, we spoke quite a bit about what's happening at Thaba, and that certainly is going to be a big focus area for us going forward. You can see, especially as we go into the next year, the improvement or as the Thaba contributions from chrome and these PGMs come in, our EBITDA increase. Besides Thaba that we're focusing on, we will continue to focus on our SDO operations to make sure we continue the strong performance during Q2, where you have a production target of 90,000-93,000 ounces for the full financial year, which together with sustained PGM metal prices, would assist to post significantly improved EBITDA for the year. If we look at the base in our current price assumptions, that just for your information, also equate to about $2,400 per ounce is what we've used in these solid bars. We would see a full-year EBITDA increase by more than 300% to approximately $97 million for FY 2026. That would improve to a range between approximately $116 million in FY 2028 as we start getting a stable dollar contribution in it. Overall, I think we are. I said earlier we're quite bullish about the PGM prices at the moment. We're very confident with both the existing operations performance and how that has been doing over the years, and also the momentum carried into this current half year. We are happy with the efforts and the measures taken at Thaba to improve the ramp-up. Overall, a very positive outlook for the remainder of the year, and I'm hoping that we can share some exciting results with you at the end of the year when we do our full-year reporting. Just in closing, I think our shareholders would agree that Sylvania remains an attractive, low-cost, low-risk, and cash-generative business. Over the years, we've developed a track record of strong performance, and I think we've proven that we continue to deliver significant return, certainly significant value to our shareholders over the years. While we still have some significant expansion planned for this next year and a little bit in the following, as Ronel has indicated, we will continue to prioritize our capital returns to our shareholders alongside the value creation and the business sustaining requirements going forward. Yeah, that concludes our presentation, and I would hand back to Alex at this point. That's great. Thank you very much, Jaco and Ronel, for your presentation. I will now turn your cameras back on. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q&A tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to view those questions submitted today, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via your investment dashboard. Jaco, Ronel, at this point, if I may just hand back to you to take us through the Q&A session, I'll pick up from you both at the end. Thank you. Thank you, Alex. I was just looking at the side of my screen on some of the questions, and we had one of the pre-submitted questions that were asking us about some of the criteria we would use in terms of investment and when we look at capital employment and investing in projects. I think what's important, and we have communicated that through some of our previous discussions, with our big focus of being low risk, cash generative, and a low-cost operator. We obviously look at projects that meet that criteria as well. From a board perspective, we certainly try and only do projects where we have an IRR in excess of at least 20% as one of the criteria. Also considering the market fundamentals and aligning with our strategy, we'd ideally want to invest in projects that have a sort of payback of between three and five years. I think that reduces your risk significantly. Those are just some of the primary measures that we look at. One of the other questions, I think it was Preston from Ireland, said, "I came across a mineral called Osmium, which is only found when mining platinum. Price per kilo is over GBP 1 million per kilo. So does Sylvania Platinum ever find this extremely rare mineral? Thanks." I think Osmium is occurring in the basket with PGMs in the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. However, because it's in trace quantities and a low quantity, it does not typically form part of the revenue basket for junior mining companies. You would find that the majors, your Anglo, Impala, Northam, or Sylvania, might record osmium revenues because they can recover in refineries. That, and with the higher volumes they're treating, it is easier. But certainly, Sylvania does not have exposure to that. As I said, as far as I'm aware, very few or if any, of the mid-tier or junior producers would have access to that revenue. I look at the next question. It says, "On the Thaba JV." Sorry, this writing is small. I'm just going to put my glasses on. "On the Thaba JV, please can you help us understand the cash flow dynamics? How much have you invested so far in terms of CapEx, shareholder loans, and working capital support? And what should we expect in terms of further cash contributions from this point? And how should we expect cash to be returned from Thaba? Will the working capital loan be repaid in 2027? And should we expect dividends to be passed up to all the shareholder loan to be consistently repaid? How should we think about the cash conversion of Thaba? I think, and if I go just back to the Thaba slide, what we have said, and I must maybe just correct. The capital for Thaba at the moment, the overall project capital was about $58 million, is the project capital. That excludes, I think, the stripping cost that has been capitalized, but that's also getting added back as we re-mine the pit on an ongoing basis. It's about $58 million on the project side. We're still on the fundamentals, and if you look even at the conservative case, still between a three- and a four-year payback period based on the current price assumptions. I think the rules in terms of our JV agreement stipulation, we have communicated that before in the market when we announced the project, is that the loan repayment would commence on the first anniversary of the commissioning, which would be in the second quarter of the next financial year, in quarterly payments over a five-year period. So that is certainly how it would be repaid. The question in terms of if we would pass up dividends while we are waiting for this loan, certainly, I think just our current dividend declaration is illustrating our good commitment not to do that. We have, as our dividend policy says, we would pay a minimum of 40% of our adjusted free cash flow. The adjusted free cash flow would obviously take into account what we funded now in terms of Thaba. It takes into account the capital we are currently employing on our other stay-in-business and growth projects. If you would take that into account, we have the 2 pence dividend declared for the current period is well in excess of the 40% of adjusted free cash flow. That was specifically the decision of the board to do that in order not to penalize shareholders for the flow of the funds in terms of the Thaba agreement. I think that's in line with our overall capital commitment and also considering the level of cash that we need to maintain to fund both continuous shareholder returns as well as strategic growth projects. I hope that answered that question. I have a question that says, "What's the current 4E and 6E basket price, and what's the forecast budget for 2026? Previously, I believe it was about $1,800 for 4E for 2026. I think we explained that the solid bars, I said it in that last EBITDA slide, is our price assumption there is about $2,430. That was based on the December average spot price we received, so about $2,430. If I look at the various forecasts and at the back of our slide deck, and I can maybe go there on slide 38. We have included the sensitivities or some of the forecasts from both Panmure Gordon and Berenberg, who are our joint brokers, as well as, is it Nedbank? Or the company consensus pricing. You would see that is still well-aligned with that $2,400. Going into, if I look at 2027, 2028 forecast on the respective models, would range somewhere between 2,400, say 2,200 at the lower end to 2,600, almost $2,700 per ounce looking forward in that range. You can find it in the back of the slide deck. I think, if we look at what rhodium has just done this week, we currently, as it stands on our prill split, the basket price is at about $3,000 per ounce. We continue to maintain a sensible and cautious approach to the pricing and then we bear that in mind in the decisions we take. I'm looking at one of the next questions. Given the strong cash balance and likely good cash generation in 2026, please can you discuss why you are not buying shares back more aggressively, and how would you consider buybacks and dividends?" I think we, again, have mentioned, and Ronnel said in her presentation, how we maintain a balance between divi and share buybacks. I've also, maybe just important to note, as I've shown on that Nedbank curve, how we moved in a year across the industry average basket price from last year this time was just over 20,000, say 23,000 rand an ounce. Six months later, we had 32,000 rand an ounce, and by December or now at just over 43,000 rand an ounce. If you put it in rand terms, now that graph unfortunately was rand terms. You could see that the price more than doubled in just a year. We saw after 2021, 2022, the buoyant PGM price we had then, how quickly those prices dropped. You can have swings within 6-12 months in this basket price either way. The company needs to take a risk-based approach to those volatility and fluctuations and make sure that we buffer the business against that. However, our dividend and the general cash allocation scheme does take the full year into account. While we've made an estimate now of what we believe the full-year free cash flow would be when we declared the 2 pence dividend. At the end of the year, we would reassess the position based on the actual free cash flow for the year. If the metal prices then were maintained and the production levels were maintained, we by all means would adjust our allocation at that point. As I said, we have announced already that we've allocated $2.5 million for the share buyback. I think on Ronel's slide, she had the total number of shares bought back. I don't think she mentioned the figure, but over the last 10-15 years, Sylvania bought back and canceled about 10% of our issued share capital. I think certainly shows our commitment towards share buybacks. Another question is saying, "Assuming the PFS for the Eastern Limb is positive to the extent that the DFS is not required, what would you be looking at in terms of potential timelines for the construction production?" Yes. What we see there is obviously it is a greenfield site, so if we can go straight to execution and, as I said, the level of confidence is high enough that it warrants us, you can continue straight. It would be between, say, a 24-30 months timeline because the bottleneck or on the critical path there is environmental authorizations for the new tailings dam on site that would have to be there. There's some power infrastructure that we have secured but still have to be installed. I would say, our current estimate is probably about 24-30 months from when we make the decision. That final timeline will be confirmed once the PFS is published. This is the next question: "Would you consider a move to the U.K. main market and leave AIM?" I think that's the question. It's not the first time we get posed. I think, certainly we understand there are some benefits to that. I think Ronel mentioned that the last time we raised capital in the market was probably in 2009. We continue to look at growth and expansion projects. I think the right time, considering the high cost of, and the logistics of moving from the AIM to the main market, would be if there's a substantial M&A transaction or something to do that. It's not something that we don't have any immediate plans, but continuously on our radar, and we will continue to assess the merits of it as we continue. They say, just a question that says, "Pandora announced a switch from silver to platinum. Is there enough platinum in the market to support this change?" Yeah, I know that there's been significant increase in demand in platinum in the Chinese market during the course of last year because of the price differential between gold and platinum. That has taken, I think the guys have been talking about on the upside of 1 million ounces of platinum. They're benefiting from that move and that demand. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea of how much Pandora has in terms of what their typical silver consumption is. I certainly think that the supply, probably the current forecast did not take that necessarily into account, so there could be upside, but I would not be able to, unfortunately, give an opinion on exactly what that would be. I have another question here that says, "Great position on PGM pricing, but a little disappointing on slower startup and lower throughput from Thaba for chrome. The JV partner no doubt learned some lessons, but was this linked to shortcomings in the modeling? Was the drilling perhaps a bit too spaced out, and so on." I think, as I said, we're currently reviewing the model. We obviously have concluded or done a due diligence study on the mining plan, also a part of the problem. I think if I look and then the current indication probably is, we underestimated the amount of stripping dilution asset from our initial operations. If you in hindsight look at, we had a more effective profile in our planning initially, rather looking at averaging it out over a year and years, than looking at the specific ramp-up profile. I think there are some lessons learned there for us in that. I think with the engagement of the specialist mining consultants that we've employed now as well, together with the staff from our JV partner, we, I think, have a good handle now in reviewing the models to just identify where the dilution is coming from, what kind of levels is acceptable from an industry standard, and how can we optimize the current mining operation to achieve that. As I said, we at this stage, don't believe there's a fatal flaw in anything identified. I think it's probably more scheduling issue. If we look at if there's a longer-term impact of the overall dilution, the sensitivities I've provided in the graph does indicate that on the Thaba slide. As I said, still, even if you take that into account, Thaba would be attractive revenue and profit contributor to the group. There's a question that says, "Given the surge in the PGM basket, even since the reporting period end, what is SLP's strategy in terms of hedging?" I think to give me a chance to take some water, I'm gonna give that one to Ronel to answer. Yeah, I think, historically we haven't hedged. We've had quite good results just continuing without hedging. I think the feeling also is that, if we did, for example, hedge during the COVID time where rhodium had the spike and the runaway, we might have lost out if we locked in the prices there. We do continue just to keep a close eye on the prices and the volatility in the market. We also partner quite closely with treasury advisors who advise us on the movement of the market, and we continuously actually engage with them to advise us whether we should consider hedging or not. At the moment, and again, it's one of those things that we haven't written off. We continuously consider it, but at the moment, we are continuing as we are. I think. Thank you, Ronelle. Finally, just the last question, and I'm conscious of us running out of time as well. There is only one question left. It says, "Great presentation, but why not mention of the high-value loan to the Thaba JV partner? What is the value of this loan currently?" I'm again gonna hand back to Ronelle just for the values, but it is obviously included in our financials that has been included in our interim report, also released yesterday. Also maybe just mentioning that, if somebody is not aware that that loan is an interest-bearing loan at South African prime interest rate that's currently 10.25%. That is also just worth mentioning. Ronelle, you can probably just give us some indication of where the project capital loan sits at the moment. The project capital loan currently amounts to $30.5 million. As Jaco mentioned earlier, in terms of the payment terms as well, it is repayable on the first anniversary of commissioning date, which will be in quarter two, and that is inclusive of the interest as well. We have constant communication with the JV partner as well in terms of the repayment of that related loan. Thank you. Alex, I think this concludes the questions that we've had. Yeah, that is correct. Jaco, thank you for addressing those questions from investors today. Jaco, before we direct investors to provide you with their feedback, which I know is very important to you, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments? Thank you. I think, maybe just in conclusion, I'm very pleased with Sylvania's performance over this past financial period. Both from a production and financial point of view. I'm very excited about the future and the growth prospects of the company. As I said, we have a short-term disruption or slower ramp-up at Thaba, but we still remain confident that the long-term value will be realized as we ramp up. I believe that as we have continued to demonstrate both through our performance and our solid result over the years, we at Sylvania as a company and we as a group remain an attractive, reputable, stable cash generative company that I think we have illustrated that we can continue to return attractive value to shareholders, through both stable dividends and share buybacks. By also establishing ourselves as a partner of choice in the industry. I'm sure we would be able to continue doing this going forward. Thank you for all, everybody who attended the presentation, for all our shareholders for their support over time. We look forward to continue the journey with you. Thank you very much. Fantastic. Thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors now to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.