Good morning, everyone, and welcome. I'm David Boshoff, and with me is our CFO, Steve Fewster. We're pleased to be joining you today for our September 2026 quarterly update. Before we begin, please note that this presentation should be read together with our September quarterly report, which is now available on our website. If you have any questions, please type those into the live Q&A tab that will be on the right-hand side of your screen, and we will answer those questions at the end of the session.
Our values define who we are, and they guide every decision we make. This quarter, our values of win as one team, and we do what we say, were again on full display. This was led by our projects team. We have completed the dredging and the marine packages for the Mardie Port on time and on budget, as promised. This is a massive milestone that significantly de-risks the construction schedule and the cost of delivering Mardie Salt business.
It has been achieved through collaboration with BCI and with our contractors across all the teams. I do want to thank everyone involved in making that happen. That values-driven approach supports the business we are building at Mardie. Mardie is on its way to becoming Australia's largest solar salt operation and the third largest in the world. After years of construction, we are now just months away from completing that work. Despite much of the heavy lifting being done so far, we remain laser-focused on delivering the construction of Mardie Salt business on budget and on schedule.
With salt now crystallizing, our priority is on a safe and efficient ramp-up. Product quality sits at the center of this ramp-up. Our customers are relying on us, and we are determined to deliver exactly what we said we would. We also see KTMS bitterns from our production of high-quality industrial salt as a valuable opportunity to add new products over time. This is why our sulfate of potash trial is so important. It is a key step towards proving that potential as a future revenue stream. With its scale, its coastal location, and our own port, Mardie is well-placed to meet the growing demand across Asia.
Safety remains our first priority, and I am pleased to report good progress this quarter. Our 12-month rolling total recordable injury frequency rate has improved to 2.7. That is down from 4.4 last quarter. That improvement reflects the continued work our teams are doing to strengthen safety across the site. We completed 316 critical control verifications and 620 field leadership interactions. Our verifications are aligned with the key risks on-site, fitness for work, mobile plant and equipment, and vehicles and traffic management. We use what we learn in these verifications to close any gaps in our controls and to target coaching where it is needed.
In the September quarter, we delivered continued progress across the Mardie production system. Through the winter months, our team prepared the system carefully for the summer season ahead. These cooler months are when salt forms a bit more slowly ahead of an expected warm summer. We made deliberate decisions to accelerate the movement of brine to maximize surface area and to prepare the pond system ahead of the summer months. By the end of September, around 266,000 tons of salt had crystallized in these crystallisers. That is an increase of 217,000 tons on the 49,000 tons we reported in June.
At the end of the quarter, we had 12 crystallisers lined, up from eight at the end of June. Since then, a further two crystallisers have been lined. The remaining 14 crystallizer cells will be lined progressively through to the final quarter of FY 2027 as we ramp up toward our nameplate capacity. As the filling continues, our attention is turning to how well the crystallizer system is performing. This quarter, we continued testing our salt internally, and those samples are being provided to customers for their own independent assessment. The results continue to meet the specifications in our offtake agreements, which supports our customers' confidence as commissioning progresses.
Looking ahead, this summer is critical for Mardie. Our goal is to enter the summer evaporation period with as much brine in the system as possible. The summer brings the strongest evaporation. That should support further salt growth in our crystallisers. The summer heat also makes the system move faster, and our team will be closely managing pond heights and brine densities while we continue to fill the newly lined crystallisers. The path to first salt is driven by nature, by the evaporation process that produces high-quality industrial salt.
As you can see from this sliced view on the slide, the layers of the crystallisers is what make safe harvesting possible. Once a crystallizer is lined, the permanent pavement must form around 200 millimeters before we can start harvesting. That pavement becomes a stable operating base and allow safe harvesting of future salt crops. Everything that grows above pavement is what we harvest, wash, and ship to our customers.
As more crystallizer ponds are commissioned and evaporation increases through the warmer months, we expect the rate of salt crystallization to keep building. As we said previously, the timing of first salt on ship remains subject to weather and evaporation conditions in the next remaining months.
Turning now to construction. At the end of the quarter, our construction was at 90% complete. We are only a few months away from completing construction for the salt project. The project team continues to deliver as they promise, to construct the Mardie Salt on time and on budget. With 10% to go, our focus is on disciplined closeout and successful commissioning. That is why we have detailed commissioning plans in place and remain laser focused on budget and on schedule. For the Salt Wash Plant, stockyard, and the port, the last pieces of the major infrastructure to be completed. I will now provide more detail on these assets.
The Salt Wash Plant is now 70% complete. Key milestones last quarter included the delivery of major equipment, that included screw classifiers, centrifuges, dewatering screens, and elutriators. All of the fabricated steelwork of the wash plant is also on site. Site work continues with installation of structural steel to level one, as well as the product conveyor and the screw classifiers. This quarter, our structural, mechanical, and piping contractor will be completing the erection of steelwork, as well as installing the centrifuges, dewatering screens, and the elutriators. Our electrical contractors will also be busy installing switch rooms, cabling, and instrumentation ahead of commissioning. Our current project schedule has construction completed to be done by the end of December, with dry commissioning commencing ahead of wet commissioning when the salt is available to run through the plant.
This quarter, construction of the port continued to progress strongly, and this has reached 98% completion at the end of the quarter. Through September 2026 quarter, the dredging of the berthing pocket for our transhipper and the channel to the oceangoing vessels anchorage area was completed. The remaining marine works, including catwalks, navigation aids, and dolphins, were all installed as well. Both the dredging and marine works were now complete, marking the end of the marine campaign and eliminating any major timeline or project risk for the port. During the next quarter, we will be installing the conveyor belt on the jetty, which is already well advanced. The stockyard conveyor and the belt will also be installed, and the switchroom and cabling to the stockyard, and then we'll commence with dry commissioning.
The CSL Osprey, which will support our first shipments, is currently being converted and is on schedule to arrive at Mardie ahead of the wet commissioning of the jetty. Construction in our new transhipping vessel, the Mardie Spirit, is also progressing well through the design closeout, production design, and hull fabrication. Together, these milestones significantly reduces the risk in our remaining port scope and gives us a solid foundation to close out construction and commence commissioning. I'll now hand over to Steve to talk through our financial position and the salt market.
Yeah, thanks, David. Total construction costs now stand at AUD 1.265 billion, following spending AUD 80 million during this quarter. That leaves around AUD 178 million to spend to complete construction. The largest packages of work remaining include the balance of the crystalliser lining, finishing off the Salt Wash Plant, the stockyard conveyor, and the PPA Road. With almost all of our costs now committed, along with progress on these final construction areas, we remain confident that we will complete construction on budget.
During the quarter, we drew AUD 119 million from our syndicated debt facility. We've now completed 13 drawdowns, taking the total amount drawn to AUD 706 million to the end of September. The drawdown process continues to run smoothly, and at quarter end, BCI had total available liquidity of AUD 316 million.
Including our pre-revenue operating expenditure of AUD 321 million, BCI has now invested AUD 1.586 billion in the Mardie Salt operation. With available liquidity of AUD 316 million and approximately AUD 178 million to spend on the construction, BCI has ample working capital funding of AUD 138 million for the ramp-up of the salt business.
In terms of the market, BCI remains positive about the outlook for salt prices in our region over the medium term. With the forecast 27 million tons per annum shortfall in supply through the Asian region continuing to be forecast by Wood Mackenzie. We continued to engage with all of our offtake partners during the quarter, and they remain both engaged and supportive.
A highlight for the quarter was hosting a delegation from Sojitz together with a Japanese salt customer. Both parties are extremely impressed with the progress being made at our operations. They were able to see firsthand our commitment to salt quality and how we're focused on delivering to a high standard. That matters to us because delivering on our promises to our customers is how we build lasting relationships.
We are also broadening our engagement with chemical companies that are positioning for growth in major megatrends, including the new energy market. In particular, the growth of battery storage is driving investment in new caustic soda plants. The caustic soda is needed to process the critical minerals used in rechargeable batteries.
During the quarter, our team also visited new regions within China, which we see as strategic growth precincts. We are also monitoring closely new energy projects that continue to shape the industrial growth across the country. Thank you. I will now pass you back to David.
Thanks, Steve. Sulfate of potash, or SOP, is a key value add to our salt operation and important revenue stream for BCI. in August, we awarded the construction contract of 150 kg per hour SOP pilot plant to Bluestar Lehigh Engineering Institute. SOP is a premium chloride-free fertilizer used in high-value crops in Australia and internationally. This pilot plant is an important step towards confirming whether SOP can be produced at a commercial scale from the Mardie feedstock. Bluestar was the principal designer for the world's largest brine-based SOP plant. They will design, supply, assemble and install the pilot plant, which will be built and delivered to Mardie in containerized modules.
Our engineering consultant, eXcellerate, which has supported our SOP work since 2024, will provide independent oversight across design, risk, procurement and commissioning of the pilot plant. Commissioning is targeted for the start of the second quarter of financial year 2028, with piloting expected to run approximately 12 months. The pilot plant will be funded from our existing debt facilities, and it sits within the approved Mardie capital budget of AUD 1.443 billion.
This quarter, Bluestar completed the front-end engineering design study for the plant. We have since issued the scope for the detailed design and supply. Detailed design is expected to be finished by the end of March 2027 quarter, with procurement and modular construction starting at the same time. We also completed further test work this quarter to support the design of the SOP process. We expect the final report of that work to be available in the December quarter. Meanwhile, our trial crystallizers for the production of KTMS salts continue to operate at a steady state, and production remains on track to deliver the required volumes needed for the pilot plant trials.
Alongside safely ramping up operations and completing construction, sustainability remains a priority, and I want to share a few highlights from the quarter. On the environment, we delivered on all our key monitoring programs, working alongside specialist consultants and our traditional owners. This included our quarterly monitoring of mangroves, samphire and algal mats, which are important habitats along the coast at Mardie. We also continued our mesquite control program to manage this invasive weed across site. We completed a lighting audit to help protect marine turtles that nests on the islands, and we monitored marine water quality throughout the dredging and offshore disposal process. Together, these programs help us understand our environment and manage our impact as we move into operations.
In the community, I am proud to share that our partnership with the Karratha Senior High School has been nominated for the AMEC award in the Community Contribution category. Through this partnership, we support the school's positive behavior support program, which is helping to improve student engagement and behavior. We have also renewed our community partnerships for 2027. That includes continued support for the program at the Karratha Senior High School, scholarships through the Pilbara Kimberley University Centres and the Karratha Kangaroos Rugby Club in Karratha. These long-term partnerships reflect our commitment to building capability and supporting the communities where we operate.
As we close out this quarter, we do so by living our values and doing what we said we would do. This quarter, salt production increased, our newly lined crystallisers were filled, and our port moved to 98% completion. Construction is in its final stages, and the project remains within budget and is fully funded. This coming summer is critical for us. The final stages of construction can be the hardest, and the commissioning needs to be done with care and patience. We are prepared well and will stay focused on what we can control: safety, plant management and diligent testing of our product quality. We remain on track as we work towards first salt on ship in FY 2027 with final timing dependent on weather and evaporation conditions.
Our investment fundamentals are underpinned by the world's need for salt. It is used across a wide range of industries with a long history of predictable demand and stable pricing. It is also sustainable. Salt is a renewable resource produced from seawater, and 99% of the energy we use to produce salt comes from the natural evaporation from wind and sun. With our sulfate of potash pilot plant now underway, we are taking the next steps towards unlocking more minerals from that same process.
Thirdly, Mardie has potential to offer an annuity style return thanks to the long life of our assets, our salt and port capital cost, and our working capital requirements being fully funded. Once we ramp up to production, we expect strong free cash flow to build with low sustaining capital and surplus capital lending to annuity style returns for shareholders. This brings us to the end of our presentation. We will now move to questions. If you haven't already, please submit those questions in the live Q&A tab on the right-hand side of your screen. Thank you.
Thank you, David and Steve. Now, we've had a couple of questions that's come through. David, particularly on the timing of the first salt shipment. Can you let us know when is the first shipment of salt from Mardie now expected? What has caused the revised first salt and ship timings compared with previous guidance?
Thank you for the question. We remain confident that with the average weather conditions that we will be able to have first salt on ship in the first half of the next year, next calendar year. As we mentioned during the presentation, this is subject to weather. If we have a dry hot summer with minimal rain, I'm expecting that will be earlier in that half. If we have a very wet summer with multiple cyclones, I'm expecting that'll be later. The construction itself is still on track to be done by December, regardless of the weather. That is where the cost risks are and what we want to make sure we control in the close out of that.
Thank you, David. Another question on timing. With 12 or now 14 of the 28 crystalliser ponds lined, will the lining program limit how fast we can ramp up?
Well, at the moment it is not, and I'm not expecting that to be the case. We are currently lining ahead of our crystalliser filling process, and we are able to pull brine in at the right density through the system. During the summer months, I expect that'll become more challenging, and we'll continue to monitor that as we go. Of course, having a very hot summer is a good problem to have, and I'm looking forward to solving those things as they come.
I think the other important piece on that is with the number of crystalliser cells lined today, that gives us ample production capacity to hit FSOS in the timing that you talked about earlier. We're very confident that it doesn't limit our ramp-up process at all.
Yeah. So 16 cells is more than enough to produce first salt and ship and the ramp up volume.
Thank you for that. Now a question on pricing, Steve. How have pricing conditions tracked over the past quarter, and what is BCI's outlook for the salt market over the next 12- 24 months?
Yeah, thanks. We talk about price, salt price being a relatively stable commodity. Looking at the price over the last 12 months, given the amount of global uncertainty and the way different commodities have moved around price-wise. That same period, salt has moved within a band of about ± 5%. There has not been a lot of movement one way or another. It has been fairly stable in what has been some pretty trying global conditions.
Our outlook or our view in the medium term continues to be that the price of salt will move in an upwards trajectory. Underpinning the reason for that really is around the supply and demand metrics. There is not a lot of supply coming into the market, but at the same time, demand within the Asian region is growing at a much faster rate. We think that shortfall in supply, probably in the next couple of years, as these new plants come online, the new caustic soda plants that I spoke about earlier. As they come online and demand steps up, then we are probably going to start to see that tension, that price tension coming in and salt prices start to rise above where they are today.
Thank you, Steve. Another question on the pricing. When is BCI expected to set the costs of pricing?
We're looking at the moment. We're working fairly actively with Japanese customers. I'd expect over the coming months, we'll start to be in a position where we set those prices. For the remaining two offtake agreements, we'll start talking to, at the moment, we're talking to one way around pricing. I expect that will probably get settled around January or February next year. Similarly, with the offtake agreement for Chandra Asri early in the next calendar year.
Thank you, Steve. David, a question here for you on conditions. What are the foreseeable effects, if any, of cyclonic conditions, extreme weather or extreme weather events on productivity and product security? Is there any mitigation strategies in place?
Well, I think I'll point to the last couple of seasons we've had. The highest risk, in my view, of a salt operation is during ramp-up period, construction, and early ramp-up stages for weather. We have had four cyclones, the last, most severe one was actually just last season. We've been thoroughly tested on whether these assets has been built to withstand these conditions. As we reported in a number of quarters so far, I'm really happy with the results and the assets, both the ponds, the pumps, the jetty and all the other constructed assets, bench included, has withstood those tests that we've been through.
During the ramp-up, the challenge with weather is not so much the wind. In fact, wind is great because wind improves evaporation, but it's more the rainfall. The effect that rain has had, in previous events is dilution. As is the same for any other salt operation. The good news for us is the amount of evaporation we've had, or the amount of dilution we've had, was exactly in line with the amount of rain we've had. What that means is we had no rainwater flowing into our ponds from other catchments. Only the water that's fallen on the ponds has created the dilution. That's just part and parcel of running a salt operation, and those assumptions has been included in our modeling and production forecasts.
Thank you, David. Now another operational question. Are you expecting to contract further salt volumes? A follow-up, what is the potential timing of further offtake?
I mentioned earlier we were in China, southern China in particular, earlier in the quarter. I think the discussions there are progressing well. We've got 2.3 million tons, about 5.3 million tons, of capacity contracted to date. We're certainly working at the moment towards putting some additional term sheets in place, that will then be a precursor to offtake agreements. We'll steadily work on those over the next coming 12 months, as we work through ramp-up.
Thank you, Steve. Now, David, I've got a question here on the crystallisers. As you mentioned, we've completed about 12 crystallisers and there's about 16 left. This would appear to leave an additional eight crystallisers unlined. Can you let us know what the plan is for these?
Yeah. There's two trains of crystallisers that we're not intending to line at this stage. Our modeling is indicating that those additional crystallisers can be used for additional capacity, and it's not required to hit nameplate capacity. That is at average weather conditions. Of course, in warmer months or hotter months, we produce more and in cooler seasons we produce less. My view is that in the future we can look to use those crystallisers as what we call pickling ponds to accelerate volume. That will be part of our debottlenecking work down the track.
Thank you, David. Now onto the port. We've previously spoken about excess port capacity. Are discussions still continuing with potential users?
Yeah. The last update we gave, we talked about the need to work through the approvals process, to be able to export iron ore through our port. That's certainly the major precursor to being able to formalize any type of agreement with a third party. Pleasingly, the work on the approvals process has continued positively. We'll get that firstly in place. We'll continue to have discussions with interested parties, but that will be a precursor. Completing that is a precursor to putting in place any agreements for access.
Thank you, Steve. Then I've got a question here on the sulfate of potash plant. Assuming the SOP trial goes well and then moves into full scale production, will there be a need to raise more capital or will this be fully sourced from the existing funding?
Yeah, we've been pretty consistent on this point. Given the timing of when we're likely to make an investment decision on a commercial scale plan, the salt business itself will be generating positive operating cash flows. So that gives us the ability to make some decisions on how we apply that cash, whether it's used to pay down our debt or whether it can be directed towards the investment in SOP. We certainly have there's a lot of discussion in almost every country globally about security of supply of fertilizers.
We already have two leading government agencies in our debt facilities. So I feel confident that between the cash we generate and our very supportive lender group, that we certainly wouldn't be looking at a capital raise. That's been our position for the last two years, that we would not be raising capital, would not be issuing any new shares to fund the SOP.
Thanks, Steve. I just have a follow-up question for that. In the near term, as you go through ramp up, what's your view in terms of your working capital position and is there any risk there of a capital raise?
Yeah. We finished the quarter with AUD 316 million of available funding, and CapEx spend of around AUD 178 million. So that leaves around AUD 138 million to support the business before revenue kicks in. On the expected use of funds for operations, that probably takes us towards the back end of next year, assuming no revenue. So we feel pretty comfortable that given the sort of FSOS timing that David talked about, then we're well and truly funded from a working capital position.
Just to clarify, that is end of calendar year for that.
Yes.
It is a buffer.
Thank you, Steve. Just on that FSOS timing, David, we have got a bit of feedback here that it was difficult to hear you in that first question. Can you just reiterate when is the first shipment of salt from Mardie now expected?
Yeah, no problem. Apologies for the audio. Hopefully, you can hear me now clearer. I mentioned during the presentation that the weather drives the production process. All the indications from the bureau is that we will have a hotter than usual summer. If that turns out to be the case and we have minimal rain being the key indicator, we expect first salt on ship to be earlier in the next half of this financial year. If we have a very wet summer or multiple cyclones that dumps a lot of rain on the operations, then that will push to the right.
Modeling indicates that there is a range of plus/minus six months in that. That remains to be seen. I am very satisfied with the salt crystallization process so far, but the summer period really determines how fast we are going to grow. What we don't want to do is put our crystallisers at risk. So I mentioned during the presentation the 200 mil of pavement. We're really keen to stick to that to ensure that we can safely and productively ramp up and not incur additional costs.
Thank you, David. Now we've got time for two more questions. I've got one here. Given the current increased cost of diesel, has BCI considered installation of solar power as an alternative for its operations?
Yeah, I can answer that. Certainly, the increased diesel is something that we are carefully monitoring. And Steve can talk to, we've done some really positive or good hedging processes to ensure that we minimize the downside risk of the diesel price escalation, and I'll let Steve talk to that in a minute. Certainly, the requirement for efficient power supply is something that's been on our radar for a little while. My view is that once you have the SOP plant, which will be a key, almost half, our total power demand will be from the SOP plant. But that's the ideal timing to add a renewable source from a power station that provides a power station like supply to both the port facilities, the Salt Wash Plant, the SOP plant, and potentially also the village.
So that's still our objective, and that's in our forecast to do so. At that point in time, we expect it will improve power costs. I'll let Steve just talk about the hedging on diesel numbers.
Yeah. I might first start with, we actually don't use a lot of diesel. Yes, we've got the diesel pumps. We've got the pumps around site which rely on the use of diesel, but we don't actually consume a lot of diesel. Having said that, we did see an opportunity early this year when oil prices were much lower than what they were or what they are today. We did put a number of forward contracts, hedging contracts in place, which means our diesel price is substantially below what you would see at the pumps today. That's been a real positive strategy. It's meant our budget assumptions around diesel prices have held all the way through despite what's happened with oil prices and how that's then flowed into diesel prices.
Thank you both. Then we've got a final question here on the port, just on a follow-up on what you shared earlier, Steve. In regard to the port, when are the approvals expected to be received?
Yeah. In all likelihood, it'll be sometime during the course of the next calendar year. Approvals generally take a little bit of time. We're in active discussions with the regulators. But I think realistically, it'll be during the course of the next calendar year.
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Steve and David, and thank you to everyone who's dialed in today. That wraps this session up.
Thank you.