We shareholders present in person and to those observing online, I declare this extraordinary general meeting of Alligator Energy Ltd open. My name is Andrea Marsland-Smith, your CEO. Paul Dickson, the Chairman of Alligator Energy, is online and has asked me to chair the meeting as it will be easier being in the room. I'm satisfied that in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution, a quorum is present. If anyone did not sign the attendee register when entering, could they please do so now? I would like to introduce the company's other directors, being Greg Hall in the room with me here, Peter McIntyre, Fiona Nichols, who are attending online also, and also present with me is Mike Meintjes, the CFO, in the Company Secretary . Mike, do we have any apologies?
No, we don't have any apologies.
I'd like to make a few opening comments before we get to the business of the meeting. Firstly, the Board and Management would like to thank shareholders who supported the June 2025 capital raise. The funds raised have provided the company with a runway to progress the Sandfire project from exploration to early development, to progress further exploration resource drilling at both the Sandfire and Big Lake, and to cover future working capital and business development initiatives. Today's EGM is being held to consider two matters that pertain to that capital raise, namely, that's refreshing the company's 15% placement capacity under Listing Rule 7.1.
The passing of this resolution will provide the company with the flexibility to issue additional equity securities into the future for matters including capitalizing on minor business development opportunities in the uranium sector, enhancing work efforts on the Sandfire project development, assessment and approval processes, and expanding exploration drilling programs without having to call a further general meeting of shareholders, and also then to be able to issue one option for every two shares subscribed for by unrelated institutional and sophisticated investors in the June 2025 capital raise, as these were not covered by the company's 15% placement capacity. We now move to the formal part of the meeting. A copy of the company's Constitution and share register are available at the registration desk should any member wish to refer to them. I will now go to the notice of meeting.
You will have received the notice of meeting detailing the business to be dealt with today. I would now, with your concurrence, move that the notice of meeting be taken as read. Could I have a second? Thank you. Motion carried. Those in favor?
Yep.
Thank you. The proxies received by the cut-off time, as set out in a summary you were provided when registering, are now tabled. I declare the proxies valid in accordance with the Constitution. I advise that the proxies represent 931 million shares, or 21% of the company's issued capital. I'll refer to the proxy voting as set out in the summary prior to moving the motion on each resolution. Mike, for those observing online, can you please provide an overview of the proxies?
I will do that, Chair. The first resolution, which is the ratification of the prior share placement, proxy votes cast in favor, 95.48% in favor, and 4.28% against, discretionary 0.24%. In relation to the second resolution, which was the approval to issue options under the placement, the votes cast, proxy votes cast in favor, 95.31%, votes against 4.45%, and discretionary 0.24%.
Thank you, Mike. The voting intention of the Chair, as set out in the notice of meeting, any undirected proxies given to the Chair will be cast in favor of the proposed resolution. Poll, in accordance with the ASX Guidance Note 35, all resolutions will be put to the vote by poll. I intend to read and take questions on each resolution before calling the poll and asking those shareholders present who have been issued with a voting card to complete and lodge their votes with the returning officer at the time of calling the poll. I now move to the matters of ordinary business. Resolution one, the first item of notified ordinary business concerns the ratification of share placement completed on June 30, 2025, and reads as follows.
That for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes, shareholders ratify the issue of 556,451,620 shares at an issue price of AUD 0.031 per share to unrelated institutional, sophisticated, or otherwise exempt investors, that is, placement shareholders that fall within one or more of the classes of exemptions specified in section 708 of the Corporations Act, meaning placement on the terms set out in the explanatory memorandum. A voting restriction on this resolution applies to persons who participated in the placement, any person who is expected to obtain a material benefit as a result of the issue, and their associates. Proxies lodged by the deadline are set out in the summary sheet provided at the time of registration. Are there any questions in relation to this resolution?
Chair, we have two questions from a shareholder, Stephen Main, who's online. Thank you, Stephen. The first, if I just summarise it, is a concern as to why there wasn't an offer to retail shareholders in the form of an STP on the same terms. The second part of this, and noting that with an STP, there is no broker commission that's payable, really goes to the cost of the fees that are paid to our joint lead managers and indicating that, you know, the 6% is that questioning whether that's a cost-effective way to raise capital. I know between Andrea and Greg, who really ran that process, Chair, I suspect you maybe make some comments and then Greg, who dealt with the JLMs.
Yeah, I can start off. Look, institutional interest was there at the time, and we had to move quickly at the time. We will continue to look for opportunities in the future for participation, and we're always aware of that and looking for that opportunity for shareholders to participate. Greg, you might like to put a few more flavors.
Yeah, look, we have in the past tried to have an STP where we could, but as Andrea said, the timing of this needed to be fairly quick. The market was quite fickle, and we deemed as a board at this time it was a better practice to just do a straight placement. In terms of the fee, 6% is now a standard fee for a company of our size in terms of market cap and risk profile. As a company gets larger into the billions of dollars, et cetera, in market cap, they would have a lower fee, perhaps 5% or 4%. A company with our risk profile, 6% is a standard fee across broker groups.
Greg, perhaps you'd like to comment on the quality of the institutional investors that the brokers were able to secure.
In this instance, we have the six or seven long-only funds come into us, six of them for the first time. One includes one of the biggest Australian super funds, also two Asian long-only funds who have come in because we're at the phase of heading into development status now where these funds are starting to look at us. That's been very, very valuable for us in terms of getting them on board. We're now talking, being able to talk to them directly going forward as major shareholders too.
Great.
Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any other questions?
Okay, thank you. Resolution two. The next item of notified ordinary business concerns the approval to issue options under the placement completed on the 30th of June and reads as follows. For the purposes of Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of up to 278,225,810 options, each with an exercise price of AUD 0.047 and expiring on the date that is two years from their issue. Upon exercise of those options, the issue of shares to participants in the placement finalized on 30th of June , 2025, that meaning the placement shareholders, on the terms and conditions as set out in the explanatory memorandum. As a voting restriction on this resolution applies to persons who participated in the placement, any person who is expected to obtain a material benefit as a result of the issue, and their associates.
Proxies lodged by the deadline are set out in the summary sheet provided at the time of registration. Are there any other questions in regards to this resolution?
No.
Thank you, Mike.
We have a further question from Stephen Main, which is, do the recipients have to individually apply for the options, or are they automatically granted with the stock? Are they transferable if the shares are sold? Does our share registry charge more for this? I'm happy to take that question.
Yes, thanks, Mike, if you could. Thank you.
Okay. Just for those present in the meeting, the process from here where we secure approval from shareholders is that we will need to issue a prospectus to those participants in the placement, which has a heightened continuous disclosure requirement. We can't cleanse ourselves through the normal cleansing notice process. There is a prospectus and an offer and acceptance process for those options. Once we've been through that, and that's a prospectus we're targeting to release tomorrow with a close of the offer and acceptance on the 8th of September, in that following week, the intention as disclosed in the announcements on the 23rd and 30th of June is to apply to the stock exchange to have those options listed. That requires compliance with the guidance that the ASX has set out for that application.
Probably the most important aspect is having a spread of at least 50 holders that are unrelated. We do have to go through a process of providing details of each of the individual applicants, their residency, and to enable the ASX to make that determination. Where they approve that, the options will then be issued as listed options, and they'll be listed for trading on the ASX. Where we're unable to satisfy the ASX, they will then be unlisted options. In relation to the final part of your question, Stephen, the share registry does charge for the issue of the options. It's a fairly nominal amount given that whether it's listed or unlisted, there's no differentiation. The largest or the most significant charge, and hopefully a benefit for shareholders, is the listing fee.
The ASX does have a fee schedule for initial listings and subsequent listings, and where we obtain the approvals, then that listing fee is likely to be in the range of AUD 20,000.
Thanks, Mike. There being no further questions, I put the resolutions to the vote by way of a poll. I appoint the Company Secretary as the returning officer for the poll and ask all shareholders who received a voting card at registration to complete their voting on the resolutions being put to the meeting. I'll adjourn the meeting now to allow shareholders to complete their voting cards and to allow the returning officer to tally the final votes. Thank you.
Thank you, Andrea. We didn't hand out any, just one on. Okay.
Thanks.
Thank you, mate. That's great.
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Thank you.
You bring that.
Yeah.
This is back to order.
I'll call the meeting back to order and ask the Returning Officer to read out the results of the poll.
Right. Thank you, Chair. The results of the poll in relation to the first resolution, which is the ratification of the prior share placement, we have 889.478 million shares voting in favor of that resolution, which is 95.72% in favor and 39.779730 million against.
Thank you, Mike.
In relation to the second one then, Chair, which is the approval of the issue of the options, the votes cast in favor 888,627,410 in favor, which is 95.54% in favor, and against 41,456,830 shares voted against that resolution.
Thank you, Mike. I declare all resolutions passed and the final proxy votes will be released to the ASX today. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the formal part of the meeting. There being no further business, I declare the formal part of the meeting closed. I'll now have a brief update, do a brief update to you all on the status of the Sandfire project. We'll just get the presentation off.
Sure.
Turn it off.
Okay,
I think that should be sharing.
Great.
Let me make sure it is. Oh, let me wait.
Sorry?
Let me try.
Just getting the technology working.
Let me try again. Hold on.
Yep, that's working.
Thank you very much. Greg, you can go to the next slide.
Okay.
Thank you very much. Okay. As most shareholders would have heard this week, our Program for Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation, which is the operational document for the pathway to start our field recovery trial, was approved. We are just putting in place the usual things such as the rehabilitation bonds and the like, such that we can start turning ground and turning soil on ground. This week, we have instructed the construction company, Ahrens, to start mobilizing to site. They have various subcontractors from the local area in Wylie and Port Augusta that they need to mobilize. All of those groups are now organizing themselves to get to site. The maximum up to six weeks is expected for that mobilization, but we're working with all the teams to see if we can shorten that up and start ahead of time.
We've also got Watson Drilling and the Down Hole Logging Crews mobilizing to site in the coming days. This will be the first activity that we'll announce happening next week, and that's specifically to start installing the field recovery trial wells. We've got the team in place ready to go as they've been ready and waiting for some months now. They're very keen to start getting this project going. All of the management documents are in place and we're really ready to construct, commission, and start the operation of the trial.
The key objectives of the trial really are to confirm some key economic and infield parameters that will feed into the definitive feasibility study, particularly items like the in-situ chemistry, hydrogeological factors, and more importantly, the uranium recovery from the wells themselves, as that is the key to everything else that hangs off of that in terms of economics of the project. For example, if we have fast recovery, then the wells that we put in don't need to be so close together, meaning you have fewer wells versus more wells if the recovery is a bit slower. It all has a knock-on effect to the mine design and the ongoing capital of the project. It's very important to get this right, and that's why we're undertaking this field recovery trial. We see it as a major milestone in de-risking all of our forward activities.
It took us nearly three years to get here, and I'm very proud of the team here that has got us here, and we hope now that we're on a real springboard to going through to a pathway now to a mining lease application. We'll start looking at all of that activity in parallel over the coming months, starting with a federal government approval, which is called the EPBC Act approval, which all uranium mines need to go through. We'll start commencing that approval probably in the next month or two. The next steps really on ground will start the civil works, roads, and the like. As I said, the installation of the wells will start commencing in the next couple of days. We have the placement of the plant, construction, and commissioning.
We start the wellfield operations, which will then lead to a news flow throughout the course of the field recovery trial, starting with, and we'll keep the market updated on all of these steps along the way, including preliminary results as they come out and reporting on the status of the field trial itself. As I said, in parallel to the wellfield operations, we will start firming up a definitive feasibility study likely to be delivered later next year and also concurrent mining lease applications. That's where we are, and we're really looking forward to getting on ground and getting some news to the market around the progress of this trial. Next slide, thanks. We also intend to go back to the Big Lake project.
We're now planning, as we speak, to have a reconnaissance trip up there to have a look at the flood waters that have affected our drilling program earlier in the year. We really want to get out there again to look at this site 10. We returned some very good uranium intercepts over significant thicknesses. We're expecting to do another drilling program around October, November, depending on this trip that we're planning now. We're looking forward to some very good results, a good news flow through Q4 and ongoingly into the coming year. Thank you, everyone, and look forward to keeping you updated.