Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Sue-Ann Higgins, the Executive Chair of Andromeda Metals Limited, and will be chairing today's meeting. I want to welcome you all to our 2025 Annual General Meeting. Before commencing proceedings, I would like to make an acknowledgment of country. Andromeda recognizes both the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and the Wurrungu people of South Australia's Eyre Peninsula as the traditional owners and custodians of the lands on which we operate. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and recognize their cultural heritage, beliefs, and relationships with the land, waterways, and sky. We also extend that respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are present here today. Today's meeting is being held both in person and online, with shareholders and proxies able to ask questions and submit votes during the course of the meeting.
I've been advised that we have a quorum present, and it now being past 2:30 P.M. in Adelaide, I declare the meeting properly constituted and open. Mindful of Andromeda's focus on minimizing costs, my fellow directors are attending virtually. They are Non-Executive Director Mick Wilkes, Non-Executive Director Jean-Dominique Sorel, or JD, and Non-Executive Director Miguel Galindo. Joining me at the front of the room is Sarah Clarke, the company's Acting CEO, General Counsel, and Company Secretary. Also in attendance are our CFO, Pascal Alexander Bossi, who's attending virtually as well. Our COO, Joe Ranford, who's in the room, and Darren Hall and Matt Long from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, our auditors. Before moving to the ordinary business of the meeting, I will shortly go through the emergency and voting procedures. After the closure of voting, Acting CEO Sarah Clarke will provide an operational update.
Following that, refreshments will be served in the room, and I invite all of you present to make yourselves known to Sarah and myself if you have not already done so. If any shareholder here today in the room has not already registered with Computershare, please do so now so that you may vote during today's proceedings. Before we get underway, in the event of an emergency, please make your way to the evacuation point, which is in the car park in front of the Hotel Motel, immediately behind me. If directed, exit through the glass doors to my left at the end of the room. In the event of a fire, there will be fire wardens to assist with ushering guests to the evacuation point. Please report any suspicious behavior or safety hazards to hotel staff as soon as possible.
Could everyone in the room please ensure that your mobile phones are now switched to silent? Please also note that today's proceedings will be filmed and that any unauthorized recording or photography during the meeting is prohibited. The Notice of Meeting and Explanatory Memorandum was made available to shareholders and lodged with ASX on the 17th of October 2025, within the time provided for in the Corporations Act. Consequently, unless there are any objections, I propose that the notice be taken as read. The approved minutes of the last two meetings of shareholders, which were last year's Annual General Meeting and the General Meeting held on 30th June this year, are available for inspection. For shareholders and proxy holders attending the meeting virtually, you can submit questions at any time during today's meeting, as displayed on your screen.
To ask a question, you press the Q&A icon at the top right-hand corner on the virtual meeting platform. You select the resolution number or topic that your question relates to, and then you type your question into the text box at the bottom of the screen before pressing the Send button. While you can submit questions from now on, your questions will only be addressed at the relevant time in the meeting. Also note that your questions may be moderated, or if there are multiple questions on one topic, amalgamated together. Whilst we may not be able to deal with all your questions, I will ensure that you have a reasonable opportunity to ask questions. I will check after all resolutions have been put to the meeting and before I close the poll to see if there are any other questions that have not been addressed, time permitting.
For those shareholders attending virtually who wish to ask a verbal question, please follow the instructions written below the online broadcast. It's up on the screen. Our Manager of Investor Relations, Patrick Sinclair, will act as moderator for the meeting and, as such, will receive any questions raised by shareholders via the virtual meeting platform. Patrick will read out questions received during today's meeting, and I will hand over to him at the appropriate times. Now, for shareholders attending in person, you should have been provided with a blue or a pink card at registration. For each resolution, I'll invite questions from you at the appropriate time, and those wishing to ask a question can do so by raising your blue or pink card.
Please wait until I acknowledge you before asking your question, and a microphone will be made available for your question to be heard by those in the room and our virtual attendees. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions of a more general nature regarding the company's performance following Sarah's presentation as Acting CEO. For those attendees issued with a white visitor's card, you are observers at this meeting and therefore unable to speak or vote here today. I apologize for all this, but there's a lot of procedures that we have to get through, and there's more. Voting procedures. Voting will be conducted by way of a poll. To provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open voting for all resolutions.
If you're eligible to vote at this meeting, once the poll is open, and this is for virtual attendees, press the vote icon at the top of your screen, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options, for, against, or abstain. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button, as your vote is automatically recorded. A vote confirmation message should appear at the bottom of your screen. To change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed, you select Click here to change your vote and press a different option to override your previous selection. I now declare voting open on all items of business. The vote icon will soon be updated, allowing you to submit your votes at any time.
I remind attendees that your board strongly recommends that you vote for all resolutions. All undirected proxies that have nominated the chair as their proxy will be voted for the resolutions. I appoint Nigel Bulling of Computershare Investor Services to be returning officer and to conduct the poll. Mr. Bulling has power to co-opt, as do his agents, members of his staff, and staff of the company. For the shareholders and proxy holders here in person, a blue attendee card, if you have a blue card, on the reverse is your voting paper and instructions. Proxy holders have attached to their admission card a summary of proxy votes, which details their voting instructions on the documents in your favor. By completing the voting paper when instructed to vote on a particular matter, you are determined to have voted in accordance with those instructions.
In respect of any open votes, a proxy holder is entitled to cast. You need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate whether you vote for, against, or abstain. Proxy holders should refer to the summary of proxy votes form attached to your voting paper for further information. Shareholders need to mark a box beside each resolution to indicate how you wish to cast your vote. Please ensure that you print your name where indicated. When you have finished filling in your voting paper, please lodge it in a ballot box, which we circulated after all resolutions have been put to the meeting, to ensure your votes are counted. If you require any assistance, please raise your hand. I shall now keep talking and give the chair's address.
I am very proud to be speaking with you today to reflect on the significant achievements of the Andromeda team during the past year. Your company's primary focus has been on securing the funding required for a final investment decision for the Great White Project. The past year has seen a number of significant milestones achieved. In July 2024, a binding offtake agreement was signed with Traxys, which, with the other three offtake agreements, provides the offtake support for our Stage 1A+ development and also provided us with a basis for commencing financing discussions. These agreements also validated the high quality of our products and premium pricing achieved and reinforced the growing global demand for secure sources of high quality kaolin.
In addition to providing the basis for Stage 1A+ project funding, future expansions and the project's long-term economics are underpinned by Traxys's binding commitment to purchase 50% of future processing capacity, up to a total of 130,000 wet metric tonnes per annum. The securing of these agreements enabled your company to re-engage capital market financiers and pursue financing for the project. In March 2025, we entered into exclusive negotiations with Merricks Capital for an AUD 75 million debt facility, which was credit- approved in June 2025. Final approvals and execution of an agreement with Merricks remain subject to finalisation of the balance of funding. To that end, we progressed discussions with capital financiers during the year, undertaking a range of engagements and due diligence processes with potential investors.
This culminated in our recent announcement that ongoing discussions are now centred on a Cornerstone Equity Investor for potential asset- level investments for both a Great White Project and a HPA Project. Finalization of this process remains subject to due diligence and agreement on terms, and we look forward to updating you on this process in due course. Operationally, we progressed with a range of project readiness activities, including procurement of the long lead items, with all key items now fabricated and warehoused ahead of being shipped to Australia. Plant optimization and advanced detailed plant design and engineering was progressed, and project and resource planning was undertaken.
To support the company while these activities were being pursued, we raised a total of over AUD 17.8 million before costs, including AUD 3.82 million before costs in late 2025 by way of a share placement and a 1 for 13 pro rata non-announceable entitlement offer, and the placement of the shortfall from that offer to eligible shareholders and other investors. AUD 13 million before costs was raised at our recent share placement in October 2025, and almost AUD 1 million before costs was raised by our share purchase plan, which just closed last week. Additionally, the free attaching options under these offers, if exercised, will provide a further AUD 12.5 million in working capital. Following the closure of our most recent share placement, we announced our intention to pay a total of AUD 4.55 million in environmental and rehabilitation bond payments in order to enable the commencement of pre-construction early works.
The bond payments are currently in progress. The early works will include site preparation activities, including construction of the mine access roads and bulk earthworks for the Stage 1A+ processing plant, geotechnical and grade control drilling to refine our understanding of the land and refine our initial pit design. Our team have been on the ground actively communicating with our local stakeholders, with the local community made aware and invited to information sessions which are happening with locals next week. In addition to the key lead items I mentioned earlier, which are fabricated and being warehoused overseas, these will be shipped to Australia to be closer to the mine site ahead of construction starting. We look forward to being able to provide you with updates as the early works activities progress.
In addition to these Great White Project achievements completed during the year, we have also had significant success with our HPA Project. In May, we made an exciting breakthrough by producing High-P urity Alumina, otherwise known as HPA, to 99.9985% purity using our refined Great White Kaolin product and our proprietary process. In September, we completed a scoping study which demonstrated market-leading economics, including a post-tax net present value of over $1 billion and an IRR of 69%. This shows a strong economic potential for Andromeda to become a leading global producer of low-cost, low-carbon HPA. Based on these exciting results, in October, we progressed to the next stage of commercialisation. We have initiated pilot-scale test work for the continuous production of commercial 4N HPA, and we expect to commence having samples for evaluation by potential customers in early 2026. We've also started to look at funding for HPA.
In addition to the ongoing Cornerstone equity discussions, which include the potential for an asset investment at asset level investment for the HPA Project, we've engaged with various government and government funding bodies, both domestic and offshore. Going forward, Andromeda's primary focus will remain on progressing the development of Stage 1A+ of the Great White Project. While doing this, we will continue to look at future opportunities that can contribute meaningfully to the future growth of the company. These opportunities include our HPA Project. It also includes expansion beyond Stage 1A+ of the Great White Project and future development of the significant additional kaolin resources we have in the surrounding region. Throughout the financial year, your board remained focused on prudently managing costs and conserving cash. This saw a number of cost-saving and cash conservation measures implemented.
Joining the board during the year were JD Sorel, and Miguel Galindo as Non-Exec Directors. The depth of their experience in industrial minerals and global markets strengthens our governance and broadens our strategic capabilities. Together, they have the right mix of skills and experience in industrial minerals across the company's target markets, which have been invaluable for the company. In summary, the Great White Project is development-ready, with funding in the process of being secured and early works commencing next week. Funding discussions with the aim of securing the finance required for Stage 1A+ are progressing with a Cornerstone Equity Investor interested in potential asset- level investments for both the Great White Project and the HPA Project.
Your board and management remain focused and committed to delivering on the full potential of the Great White Project and the HPA Projects, which in turn will deliver long-term value for all of our shareholders. We will now move on to the formal business of the meeting. The wording of each resolution will be displayed on the screen to view as we deal with that resolution. The proxy results relevant to the resolution will also be displayed. The first item on the agenda is to receive and consider the financial report and the reports of the Directors and Auditor for the year ended 30 June 2025. Are there any questions that relate specifically to these documents that any shareholder would like to ask of the Directors or our audit partner, Darren Hall from Deloitte? Any questions, Patrick?
There are no questions online.
Thank you.
Anyone present in person, you just have to raise your blue or pink card. All good. We'll now move on to resolution one. The company offers shareholders an opportunity to vote on the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2025. The remuneration report details how the board approaches remuneration. The company regularly reviews its remuneration practices and disclosures to ensure we meet shareholder expectations on remuneration strategy, policies, frameworks, and practices and outcomes. While a vote on this item is advisory only and not binding, the Directors will take the outcome of the vote into consideration when reviewing remuneration policies and practices. The resolution is displayed on the screen together with the relevant proxy results. Are there any questions on this resolution? Don't forget to hold up your card if you've got a question. Patrick?
There are no questions online for this question for this resolution.
Voting exclusions apply for this resolution, and these were outlined in the notice of meeting. You're invited to vote for resolution one by using the vote icon for online attendees or for those here in person by marking a box beside the resolution in your voting paper. Resolution two relates to the re-election of Mick Wilkes as the director. The resolution is displayed on the screen together with the relevant proxy results. Details of Mr. Wilkes' qualifications, skills, and experience can be found in the notice of meeting. Mick is an experienced mining executive and company director with more than 35 years of broad international mining experience, coupled with a successful track record of leading the development and operation of Greenfield Mines.
The Directors, excluding Mick, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolution two, with myself as Chair also intending to vote any undirected proxies in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution?
We do have an online question. The question is, last year, Mick said he would stay on board until FID. Is this still the case?
Yes, Mick's still on board. I don't even know if I think he might still be with us after FID as well.
I think that was a reference to Mick not taking any salary, perhaps till FID.
Yes, that's exactly the case. Yes.
There are no other questions.
Great. You're invited to vote for resolution two by using your vote icon or, if you're in person, by marking your voting papers. Resolution three relates to the re-election of Jean-Dominique Sorel, JD, as the Director.
The resolution is displayed on the screen together with relevant proxy results. Details of JD's qualifications, skills, and experience can be found in the notice of meeting. JD is a senior executive in the mining and mineral sector with over 45 years of experience across company leadership, operations, commerce, and marketing, and has extensive experience in global metals and industrial minerals markets. The Directors, excluding Mr. Sorel, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolution three. As Chair, I will also vote any undirected proxies in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution? Any online? No.
There are no questions online.
You're invited to vote for resolution three by using your voting icon or marking your box. Resolution four relates to the re-election of Miguel Galindo as Director. The resolution is displayed on screen together with the relevant proxy results.
Details of Miguel's qualifications, skills, and experience can be found in the notice of meeting. Miguel is the founder and executive director of Glass Consultants CSL, a business consultancy specializing in industrial raw materials for the ceramics, glass, fertilizers, and electric battery sector, with clients across Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. The Directors, excluding Mr. Galindo, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolution three. As Chair, I also intend to vote any undirected proxies in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution?
There are no questions online for this resolution either.
Y ou're invited to vote for resolution four in the same manner as previously. Resolution five is a resolution to approve the issue of service fee options to JD Sorel in lieu of the payment of director's fees owed to him for the period 1 July to 31 December this year.
JD was appointed to the board on the 23rd of December last year. As a Non-Exec Director, he is entitled to director's fees of AUD 116,000 per annum, inclusive of superannuation. As previously announced, he agreed to defer the payment of his director fees from his appointment to 30 June 2025 in return for service fee options. JD has now agreed to extend this arrangement for the period from 1 July 2025 until the earlier of FID for the Great White Project or 31 December 2025 on the term set out in an extra one in the notice of meeting. The resolution is displayed on the screen together with the relevant proxy results.
We will disregard any votes cast in favor of this resolution by or on behalf of any of the Directors who are eligible to participate in the company's employee share plan or any of our associates, unless they are cast as proxy or attorney for a person who is entitled to vote on this resolution in accordance with the directions given to vote in the resolution. There are also certain restrictions that apply to voting as a proxy by key management personnel or the closely related parties, as set out in the notice of meeting. The Directors consider that approval of resolution five is beneficial for the company, as it allows the company to satisfy the accrued director's fees for JD through the issue of service fee options. The Directors, other than Mr.
Sorel unanimously recommend shareholders vote in favor of resolution five, and I intend to vote undirected proxies as Chair in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution? Please proceed with voting either online or in person as discussed before. Similar to resolution five, resolution six is to approve the issue of service fee options to Miguel Galindo in lieu of payment of director's fees owed to him for the same period of 1 July to 31 December 2025. Miguel was appointed to the board on the 16th of January this year. As a Non-Executive Director, he's entitled to director's fees of AUD 116,000 per annum, inclusive of super. As previously announced, he's agreed to defer his fees from his appointment until 30 June this year in exchange for service fee options.
Miguel has also agreed to extend this arrangement until the earlier of a financial investment decision for the Great White Project or 31 December this year, on the terms set out in an extra one to the notice of meeting. The resolution is displayed on the screen together with the relevant proxy voting results. As with the last resolution, we will disregard any votes cast by directors and their associates unless cast as proxy or attorney, and we will also be mindful of the restrictions applying to key management personnel. We consider that the approval of resolution is beneficial for the company as it allows us to satisfy accrued directors' fees for the issue of service fee options. We recommend, unanimously recommend, other than Miguel, that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution, and as Chair, I will be voting on direct proxies in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions?
No online questions.
Please proceed with voting on resolution six, either using the vote icon or marking your voting forms. Move on to resolution seven. It's a special resolution which requires approval by at least 75% of votes cast by shareholders present and eligible to vote. The resolution is displayed on screen together with the relevant proxy votes. ASX Listing Rule 7.1A enables eligible entities to issue equity securities up to 10% of its issued share capital through placements over a 12-month period. This is in addition to the company's 15% placement capacity under Listing Rule 7.1. The company is seeking shareholder approval to have the ability to issue equity securities under the additional 10% placement facility to give the company maximum flexibility to secure additional funding.
If resolution is not passed, we'll be limited to the 15% limit on issuing equity securities without shareholder approval set out in Listing Rule 7.1. It's also important to note that if approval is given under Listing Rule 7.1A, there are some protections. If approved, the placement facility is only valid for 12 months. Any equities issued must be at least 75% of the volume-weighted average share price over the 15 trading days prior to the issuing or agreement to issue the shares. Our intention is for any funds received under this placement facility, these funds will be primarily used to continue to advance the Great White Project and its other assets and supplement working capital requirements. In order to give the company maximum flexibility, the Directors have resolved to seek shareholder approval for this placement facility for a 12-month period from the date of this meeting.
Approving this resolution better enables the company in securing funding from, for instance, Cornerstone or strategic investors. As of today, I can confirm we have no specific plans to use the extra 10% placement facility. However, we consider it beneficial for resolution seven to be approved, as it provides that funding flexibility should it be required. Your board unanimously recommends that you vote for this resolution, and as Chair, I intend to vote all undirected proxies in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions? No?
No questions online either.
Please proceed with voting for resolution seven online or by marking your boxes. I think this is the last one. You must be sick of the sound of my voice by now. Resolution eight is another special resolution requiring approval by at least 75% of the votes cast by shareholders present and eligible to vote.
Currently, the company's constitution stipulates a minimum number of four directors. To ensure the requirements of the constitution are aligned with the Corporations Act and to give the board more flexibility, it's proposed that the minimum number of directors is reduced to three. Reducing the minimum number of directors from four to three is the only effect of this resolution. We unanimously recommend that shareholders vote for this resolution eight, and I will vote any undirected proxies in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution?
No questions online either.
You're invited to vote for resolution eight by using the vote icon or marking your box on your voting paper. Patrick, are there any online questions that have not been put to the meeting in relation to the agenda items?
Not in relation to the agenda items.
Other general questions which we'll hold over until later in the meeting.
Great. Okay. That concludes the discussion on the resolutions to be voted on today. I'll shortly be declaring voting closed, so please ensure that you've either pressed your buttons or ticked your boxes. Shareholders are reminded that your board recommends that you vote for all resolutions. For those shareholders and proxy holders attending in person that have completed a voting card, make sure you've marked all eight resolutions and put your name on the card, and put it in the ballot box which these lovely people are holding for you. Right. Anyone need any more time? At this point, I now declare the poll closed and formally charge Nigel Bulling of Computershare as returning officer to count the votes. The results of today's poll will be released to ASX and displayed on our website.
Should the results of the poll be finalized before we leave today, or provide them to shareholders following Sarah's presentation? This concludes the items to be discussed at today's meeting. I thank you all for your attendance, and I now declare the meeting closed. A nd I will now get Sarah to provide her presentation as Acting CEO. Sarah, over to you.
Thank you. Sorry. Thank you, Sue-Ann, and it's great to be here today and see so many shareholders in the room as well as being online. Sue-Ann has given us a little bit of an overview of both of these projects that I'm going to talk about today, and I'm sure our shareholders in the room are very familiar, firstly, with our Great White Project. That is, of course, our Bright White Kaolin clay located over on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia.
We have done a lot of work to de-risk this project to get it ready for development in terms of getting all of our approvals in place to commence the construction with our mining lease and our PEPR, and our EPA works approvals. We've completed our feasibility studies, which really demonstrate strong, profitable economics at each stage of development of the project. We are starting with that 100,000 tons, our stage 1A plus initially, and we have got all of our offtakes in place to underpin that first initial stage of production. By year three, we have 100% under binding offtake agreements, sort of broadly matching our ramp-up profile there, which is fantastic. We have, of course, been in this funding process now.
We have received the credit approval from Merricks facility for that AUD 75 million debt facility, and we have those Cornerstone discussions that are progressing that Sue-Ann mentioned. That project we really regard as development- ready. We are targeting that high-end, premium ceramic kaolin product for that first part of the project. The second project, which I'm going to go into a little bit more detail today, is our high-purity alumina project. This project is really exciting. It is at an earlier stage. We're at scoping study stage, but what we will be doing is taking our Great White Kaolin, using a novel process that we have developed after seven years of R&D within the company, and producing a high-purity alumina. We're aiming for 4N or above. That's a 99.99% purity or above product.
As Sue-Ann mentioned, we had some really great success with this earlier in the year in May. We took our kaolin, we used our process at lab scale, and we produced the high-purity alumina to a 99.9985% purity. That was a fantastic result. We have then followed that up with the scoping study, and that further demonstrates really strong economics, really justifying us moving this project forward. That is exactly what we have done. We have taken the next steps there. We have initiated that pilot-scale test work. Not only will that be designed to optimize our flowsheet, but we will also be producing sample that we can start to engage with customers. With this HPA, it is quite a technical-specific field. You really have to tailor products to individual customers' needs.
We want to be building those customer relationships now and really understanding those technical requirements at this stage, so we can develop our process accordingly. A little bit more detail on our Great White Project. As I mentioned, we are targeting that high-end ceramics market as part of our initial products that we're selling into, thinking your large-format porcelain tiles. That's something that can be used to, say, replace a tabletop. With the manufactured stone ban coming in, that is an area that is growing that we can sell our products into. There's also the high Bright White and Super- White tiles, which our product is really well suited for, and the high-end porcelain tableware. You can see the kaolin market. It is a big market. It is a very versatile mineral.
It can be used in a variety of different applications, but we will be focusing in on that ceramics market. That is the largest segment of the kaolin market. In that high-quality end, which is where we will be targeting our product, it is growing. We have done a lot of work with independent technical test work, the Institute of Ceramic over in Spain, who have tested our product. We've recently released some hotelware test work as well, and that has shown that our product is really highly competitive with the incumbent kaolins in the market, which we have always thought as a company because of the quality of our clay. We've had the independent test work done, and we've actually secured the binding offtakes as well. The customers have tested our products. We have four offtake partners here. You can see the ramp-up there.
As I mentioned, by year three, we have 100% of our production under binding offtakes. Our largest offtake partner is Traxys. They're a global industrial minerals trader, and they are taking 50% of our production. Not only that, but as Sue-Ann mentioned, they will grow with us as we grow. They will take 50% as we move into our stage 1B, all the way up to 130,000 tons per annum when we hit stage three. That is fantastic support from Traxys. We also have Abiro Clays. They are a leading Spanish formulator. They will be taking our clay and blending it or putting it into a recipe with other things to make things like a tile body and selling into the Spanish and Italian markets. Planta Yamada is a multi-generational Japanese company. They'll be taking our product and focusing on the high-end porcelain tableware market.
Foshan Guming is our Chinese offtake partner. They're actually involved end- to- end. They also produce the equipment that's used in the kaolin processing industry as well. Now, the Great White Project, as I mentioned, we've done our feasibility studies. This demonstrates that we have really strong economics at each stage of the project. We'll be starting at stage 1A plus. It is profitable there. As we increase through our stages, we do get economies of scale. Those economics do improve as we increase as well. Now, our funding process. We do need AUD 90 million for the capital expenditure and the working capital requirements. We have got the credit-approved debt facility that we are negotiating the documentation on at the moment.
Of that debt facility, there will be things such as capitalized interest during the development period, cash reserving, like our debt service reserve account, cost overrun account, plus upfront fees and equity. There will be equity fees as well. There will be a balance of funding that we need on top of this debt facility. We are actively pursuing that at the moment in discussions for that Cornerstone investment, as Sue-Ann mentioned. We have also recently completed that share placement and share purchase plan, raising almost AUD 14 million, and we do thank the shareholders that participated in that. That is really allowing us to push the Great White Project forward at the moment. We are organizing the bond payment. We do have to put a bank guarantee in place, so there is a little bit of paperwork behind that.
As soon as that bond is lodged with the department, we will then be on the ground starting this early works. There is a lot of site prep activities. We will be doing on-site survey, construction of the mine access road, bulk earthworks, installation of site facilities, and our geotechnical drilling. We will also be completing further detailed engineering design. Really importantly, we'll be transporting some of our key long lead-time items, our equipment, back to Australia. They are currently fabricated and warehoused overseas. We'll be bringing them back to Australia so that they are close to the site. They will be ready to go. I'm going to take you through a little bit of a flyover of our process plant now. Last year, we did do something similar, but it was not as detailed in terms of the design that you will see today.
We will be starting in our blunging area. We will have our rongbin feed hopper, which will have the raw ore coming from our stockpiles up through that blue piece of equipment that is on the angle there. You can see that there are some claws at the top there that will stop the oversized pieces of ore coming through, and they will then go up our conveyor there. From our conveyor, we then go into our drum washer. That is the silver cylindrical piece of equipment there. When it is in the drum washer, we add the water and we agitate this. This is designed to liberate the sand from the clay. Once we have been able to screen the sand out, it will come in through to our stockpile here. You can see that at the bottom of the screen there. That is our sand stockpile.
We will then take our product through into the thickening phase. The thickening phase is where we want to remove the water. We have added the water, liberated the sand. Now we want to remove the water, thicken it up. The thickener is the large white cylindrical tank there. We will also have some centrifuges that will help with that dewatering process as well. Once we have taken out some of the liquid, some of the water, we will then put it into the tanks at the back there. Those tanks will ensure, as part of the process, that it meets our product specifications. What we are selling under our offtakes, we will have the right product specifications in those tanks through blending. We take that product into the filter press area. We remove further water.
We press it into a filter cake. From there, we will take it into the drying phase, the noodling and the drying phase. You can also see our power generators in that picture there. We'll have two banks of five micro turbines with the LPG gas in there. Once we've dried out the noodles, they'll be coming into those bunkers there covered with the blue domes into the stockpiles, depending on the product specifications, and sealed off there, ready for shipment to our customers. You can also see the RO plant in the background there. That's where we'll be doing reverse osmosis and recycling 90% of our process plant water. We'll have that stormwater pond there as well so that we can capture any rainwater on site. That is a bit of an overview there of what that will look like.
I'll take us into our high-purity alumina project. A little bit more detail on this project. High-purity alumina is a critical mineral. It's listed as a critical mineral in Australia, in the U.S., and in Europe. It is a product that is in demand. It's used in really forward-facing industries, things like semiconductors, LEDs, high-tech ceramics, and lithium-ion battery separators. We have completed that scoping study. It does show really strong economics. It does show that we are justified in pushing this project forward. The demand for this product is really forecast to outstrip supply. You can see the demand shortfall in that graph there by 2030. This product is going to be in high demand. It's a good time for potential offtake partners to be looking to secure their long-term offtake supply. The pricing, similarly, is projected to go up.
I would point out there that we have got the forecast from both Crewe and FutureBridge in there. You can see where the price is predicted to go by 2030 in that graph. In our scoping study, we have assumed a flat price of $20 a kilo. You can see that that is a flat price. There is no price escalation throughout the life of the scoping study. There is some opportunity there as well for improved economics if the price does appreciate. Some more of the economics here. As Sue-Ann mentioned, there is the potential to deliver a post-tax NPV of over a billion dollars, a 69% internal rate of return, and that cash operating margin there of 85%. The market-leading economics are also shown on that graph. You can see Andromeda in green with the lowest costs and the lowest capital intensity.
That means that when we go into market, we're going to be really competitive because we have the lowest costs. We're going to be able to compete with those that are in the market that they can't compete at that cost level. Our technology. Why do we think our technology is going to work? It's going to be scalable. To start with, we're really lucky. We have that Great White Kaolin. It is naturally high in alumina, naturally low in the impurities that you don't want when you're trying to produce HPA, which really reduces our process complexity. We're quite lucky with that. The second point, and probably a really important point here, is that we're using established and proven commercial metallurgical units. These are things that are used in other industries. We're just using them in a different way.
We really think that that lowers our scale-up risk. Our process is different in that we do not have to use acid at high temperatures and high pressure. That means that our process is safer and it is not as costly. We do not have to have that high calcination temperature at the back end. That gives us product flexibility as well in terms of the form of the product that we produce, but it can also lower our energy requirements and our carbon footprint. The next steps, I mentioned, we have that continuous pilot scale test work that is in progress. We are looking to produce that sample that we can then use to engage with potential customers. We can understand their requirements. We can better define our target markets and our products. What are the technical specs that they are looking for?
Can we make them? What is the best market for us? We will use the work that we're doing for that pilot scale test work to feed into the pre-feasibility study. We will be looking at our development pathway and our funding there. The priorities going forward, of course, Great White Project is our number one focus. We want to get that project up and running. We want to get it into development. We are starting with those early works, and we are starting with the payment of the bond and the environmental payments, and looking to get on the ground as soon as we can. We are also focused on the future expansion there. You saw in the financials, economies of scale. We will be looking to secure further offtakes to support stage 1B and our other stages of that project.
Really excitingly, in the pipeline, we've got our HPA Project that we are working on. We are working on getting that sample into market, engaging with customers, and looking at really pushing that forward. Thank you, anyone. Everyone, any questions?
Thank you for an excellent presentation. My name is Philip Young, and I've been a shareholder since the beginning of 2019, so maybe I'm getting a bit excited. Just one question, and it might be a quirk of English, but you announced that you are negotiating with a potential Cornerstone or potential Cornerstone Investors. Are there still many players in the game, or have you whittled it down just to one?
We are looking at one at the moment, yes. Yeah.
All the others have dropped away, or you've pushed them away?
I'm sure there may be sitting in the wings, perhaps, but yes, I think we've looked at who we want to be focusing on at this point, yeah.
Have some of the losers come back following HPA and said, "Please give us another chance"?
Look, we have had a lot of interest with our HPA Project, yes. I think there is certain it does open up a different sort of investor, and they're looking at the critical mineral side of things. It certainly has increased the interest in the company.
Okay. It is one. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you.
A question online concerning the Cornerstone again. What level of confidence do you have that you'll get this Cornerstone Investor over the line? What sort of timeframe can you give on this? Can we expect it to be locked away before Christmas?
Yeah.
They are still doing their due diligence process. That is a process. There is a variety of different things that they are looking at through that process. I mean, we have passed that through the merits process, but individual investors may have different requirements. I would not like to give a percentage in terms of how confident we are on that at this point in time. Because it is a process with a third party, we really cannot put a timeframe on that at the moment.
Justin here. Danda Dudek. My question is, if this product is so fantastic, why have we struggled two years to raise the money for 81 Plus? You, when you came to us as CEO, you told us that you have so many possibilities to raise the money. Two years after, nearly still sitting without the money, only AUD 75,000 and whatever you raise.
The other issue is I read before I left home that the latest share purchase plan, you raise not even AUD 1 million, which, for me is showing that people are just losing patience. They do not trust so much that this project, we have to ask God to give us another 10 years.
I think with the recent share purchase plan, unfortunately, the share price was below the offer price, which I think did impact on the take-up under that offer. We were very successful with the placement, though the placement itself with the raising the AUD 13 million before that, yes. With the funding process, I do appreciate it has taken longer than we initially thought, but I do believe we are making good progress with that. Getting that credit-approved debt facility was a big tick, and we now just have to get that balance of funding in.
Traxys, who is taking 50% of our offtake agreement. Can they participate to lend us some money?
Look, it's not their core business. They are in the trading of industrial minerals rather than the providing of finance. We do have the potential there that we could perhaps get some working capital finance through that company, but that's not going to be the solution for the funding, yeah, the balance of funding.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
A question from online related to the Cornerstone. Why did the board push HPA into Cornerstone negotiations instead of sequencing Great White first? Wouldn't it have been more effective to do this? Did this delay or push any other potential investors away from investing in Great White?
I'll answer that. Patrick, we didn't push HPA into the funding process.
This particular Cornerstone Investor was interested in both the Great White Project and HPA. What was the second part?
Do you think it actually delayed getting potential funding for Great White as a consequence?
We do not know the answer to that question yet because they are only in due diligence stage, Patrick.
Question on due diligence is, when did they actually start their due diligence on both the Great White and HPA assets?
About three months ago.
We have another question here. With the excavators and transporting of the equipment and the produce, how are they going to transport it and excavate it? Because the excavators and that will be substantial costs if they buy them. Are you going to lease them, or you have not got that far around?
These will be supplied through our contractors that are coming to do the work for the excavation.
A question on early works and related to the Cornerstone. Did the Cornerstone require that ADN start early works before committing capital, or was it a strategic decision by the board to keep the project moving along, given that there were negotiations for the Cornerstone?
The latter, Patrick. It was a strategic decision by the board. We raised sufficient funds in the recent placement for us to progress payment of early payment of bond, early works, getting our long lead items back to Australia and storing them, and doing the other work that Sarah pointed out.
A question on HPA. What are the specific milestones you're expecting from HPA, and how long or what's your anticipated timeline for these?
The specific milestones for our project in the upcoming future, well, we're looking to produce product that we can then give to potential customers as samples that they can test.
We're looking to get that customer feedback from them, and we are looking to start building relationships there. From there, we'll move into a pre-feasibility study down the track, yeah.
We've got another question here.
My concern is about the water and electricity because it's quite an isolated area. How are you going to handle that and how much costs us to provide enough water to do that job?
Look, we do appreciate that water is a very valuable commodity in the Eyre Peninsula. We have been working with SA Water for a very long time to secure our water needs. We have a water meter installed, so that will be we'll be trucking water initially for the first stage, and then we'll be looking to put the pipeline in to the project site. I showed you the turbines in the picture for our power.
That's how we'll be getting our power through the LPG in the turbines, yeah.
Is the water reusable? Is the water reusable?
Yes, yeah. As I mentioned in that flyover as well, we will be aiming to recycle 90% of the processed water that we use, yes. Yeah.
A shareholder just asking for confirmation on the HPA and the developments, or what's driven the excitement in HPA in terms of the development over the past year, and increased its prioritized nature. How do we feel about that? Also, secondly, about the construction manager and how's he working in terms of preparing for the early works?
On the HPA, our first priority remains the Great White Project and funding that project.
HPA has been under development for quite some time, and we have an extraordinary achievement this year of proving our novel process and making an independently tested 99.9985% HPA. It is exciting, but it's not our main focus. We are going to continue to progress HPA. We're now in the process of getting the pilot plant up and operating, and hope to have HPA out to test in the market early in the new year. The Great White Project remains our focus, hence why we're paying some of the bond. We're getting people on the ground and building the roads, and we're going to keep moving forward with that project as our primary focus. Construction manager, I'll let Sarah answer that one.
Yes, Greg, our construction manager has been very busy.
There's obviously quite a bit of work that needs to go into getting this early works done, a lot of contracts, a lot of talking to potential contractors, and things like that. He's hit the ground running, yes.
A question on HRM, which is our concrete product. Can you give us a status update on HRM product, and has it been approved in Europe?
We are still working on that product validation process for our HRM. It is being tested in Japan and Singapore. We have also sent some samples to both Traxys and Abiro Clays. It's not certified yet in Europe, but there is a bit of a process involved in getting that certification. B ut we are still working on that product validation process and the best applications for that product.
One last remaining question online at this stage. It's a funding question.
How much funding do we actually need? This is probably driven by the fact that people are taking AUD 90 million minus AUD 75 million as an indicative number of the funding gap.
Yes. As I mentioned in my presentation, of that AUD 75 million, not all of that is going towards the working capital and the CapEx requirements. Some of that will be allocated to a cost overrun account. Some of that will be allocated to debt service reserve. We will also have to pay the fees and the capitalized interest during the construction period. It is not all of that AUD 75 million that will go towards the CapEx. There still is a balance. We have not got an exact figure yet because that will ultimately depend on the form and the cost of that Cornerstone investment as well.
Once we have got all of that finalized, we will put out the final figure.
No more questions online.
Any more questions from the floor?
Just one point. I think we all agree that we've come into the pointy end. I think shareholders somehow would like more regular updates on what's happening with the Cornerstone Investor. Now, I know it's hard, but dream up some good news and get it out there. The share price yesterday, when I bought some at AUD 1.2, is ridiculously low given those numbers. The shareholders I talked to just can't believe that you can't be a little more positive. I think that's reflected in the share price. It's just waned ever since the last capital raise. What I'm asking the board to do is be innovative. Get some good news out there once a week. Put it in the Sunday mail.
I don't care how you do it, but keep us informed.
I understand that, and I understand that people would like more information. Unfortunately, in dealing with these types of investors, they require confidentiality. They don't want disclosures until we've reached agreement, and we can't really say anything because we could be misleading people. At the moment, they're in due diligence. As we found with Merricks , due diligence can take quite a while. We're doing our best. We have people working with them. We have engineers coming in to look at our work and test our work, and test the process, question the process. They go through everything. There's not a lot we can update you on until they've done their DD, then we've got the negotiation of terms, and hopefully, we can reach terms.
For me, it's just really surprised that the due diligence is taking such a long time if, let's say, Traxys already accept that it's good product and they want it. Why people are just dragging this everything like forever? That means when you're expecting to really start working, put everything together, 2030?
I hope not.
Because I have to ask for grace to keep me going such a long time, because I prepared my funeral already. [crosstalk ]. Sorry for being sarcastic, but that's my way to act, sorry.
Unfortunately, we're in the hands of third parties, so we're probably as bemused as you are.
I'm trying to lift up the spirit for laugh because everyone is like, "Oh, very long faces." Those who didn't come last time, actually, the room was full. This year, people are interested.
They didn't come because nothing new on the website, nothing new to read, nothing new.
Thank you. There's a lot of new. We've had a lot of new. Look, this isn't. W e can have these discussions later. If there's any more specific questions, please let me know.
None online.
Thank you. That brings today's proceedings to a close. Thank you all for your attendance, and please come and join us for refreshments.