Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Bannerman's annual general meeting. As you can see, we're in bigger and brighter premises. For many of you who've been long-time supporters, like John and Greg and Murray and others, you know that normally we've been putting everyone into our little boardroom down the road at our office on Churchill Avenue. Now, with the growth of the company, we thought it was a good opportunity to start expanding our ability to accept good showing and turn out from shareholders. This event's also being webcast as well. Welcome. I'd like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the country of the Wadjuk people of the Noongar Nation and like to extend our respects to elders past, present, and emerging.
Before we go any further, it is 10:00 A.M., so we can start the meeting, but I'd like to make some introductions. Bruce McFadzean is our Non-Executive Director of the company and joined us towards the end of last year. Bruce brings really very extensive and deep knowledge on the mining side, but across project development, operations, financing, and really the full suite of key challenges and objectives that we're facing as a company going forward. Felicity Gooding, we were delighted that Felicity joined us at the beginning of this year. Felicity brings very deep and dynamic financing experience, and she is quite literally at the cutting edge at the moment of some of the most innovative and important green financing initiatives being undertaken in the country and arguably in the world. And she's obtaining that experience as a finance director for Vulcan Green Steel in Germany. Mr.
Clive Jones is, in many respects, our founding director. He's been with us for 18 years, an absolutely staunch supporter of the company. Clive was there pegging the ground when it all started. He was there for the discovery holes and has been a great supporter of me personally as chairman. Alison Terry is our Deputy Chair and lead independent director. Alison's been with us for about three years now.
Three years, yep.
Alison brings a wealth of experience across legal, across operating, across public affairs and public relations, and is now a very prominent independent director. We were very lucky to secure Alison as her very first NED role after leaving an exco role with a AUD 50 billion resources company. Gavin Chamberlain is our CEO. I'm very proud as a company as to how we have managed the transition from my eight years of tenure as a CEO to executive chair. A very large part of that has been Gavin's experience, his performance in the role, and also his extensive networks and capability in Southern Africa. We are lucky to have Gavin today. He's joined us from Cape Town, where he's based. There are daily direct flights from Cape Town to about a 20-minute drive from our project.
It is actually the perfect place for us as a company to have our CEO. It means that he has got direct access to the project, direct access to government. He can be there almost at the drop of a hat. He maintains, obviously, a very close connection with the investor market through his road shows. That is largely the purpose as to how he could join us for today's HR. Steve Hurley, he is our CFO. Steve brings really deep operating experience both at the top end of town and at smaller, more dynamic mining and consulting enterprises. It is very, very important as we move into this next phase of our company's development that we have a finance team and a finance function that has done this before, that has been able to learn at a much bigger, riskier scale.
We all feel very comfortable that what we now need to set out to do, that whole side of the business, is just so deeply within Steve and his team's capability. Karen Logan is our joint Company Secretary, joint with Steve as well. Karen's joined us relatively recently, but Karen brings really deep governance experience. As we've grown as a company, we're now experiencing more of the external affairs and external pressures of governance. Karen, apart from being a deeply experienced Company Secretary, sat on the board of Governance Australia and done all sorts of other wonderful things.
I hope you can appreciate, together with the team members that are in the room, that we are geared up now as the board and the team who can deliver this project and manage all of the execution risks and deliver what we're setting out to do for shareholders. I should finish by saying my name's Brandon Munro, and these days I'm the executive chair of Bannerman. As I said, we do have a quorum. We are being webcast. I'd also like to acknowledge Wendy Turner from Computershare at the back. Thank you, Wendy, as always. Jemma Newton is a partner at Ernst & Young. Ernst & Young are our auditors, and we've got an excellent working relationship with Ernst & Young through Jemma. Thank you, as always, for your support, Jemma.
We haven't received any apologies for the meeting, so I think we can now start. We're probably all getting familiar now with the new format for annual general meetings, where everything's conducted by a poll. If you've registered your attendance, you should have received a voting and admission card. If you haven't received that and you're a shareholder, please see Wendy at the back, and she'll be able to look after you with that. We'll attend to the items of business. Welcome. Please come in. Hey, Pete. We'll attend to the items of business as laid out in the agenda. To streamline the meetings, we will show the details of the resolutions and the proxies on that screen. We do have a number of resolutions, and that's not really what you're here for. You're here to provide your votes and then hear about the update for the business.
Shareholders and their proxies and corporate representatives will have the opportunity to ask questions. We will do that at each resolution. Following Gavin Chamberlain's presentation on the business, there will be a further opportunity to ask questions either from the room or from the webcasted question function. When you do ask a question, if you can just extend us the courtesy of raising your hand and stating your name. Moving on to the minutes of the previous meeting, they have been accepted and approved by the board and signed by Alison Terry, who was chair of the last extraordinary general meeting, and myself as chair of the previous annual general meeting. As I have said, votes will be conducted by a poll, and the polls will be conducted by Computershare at the end of the meeting. Any undirected proxies that are given to the chair, I will be voting as chair in favor of all resolutions. I think we can now move on to the formal business. The first item is the financial statements and reports. That's, of course, the audited financial statements for the year ending 30th June 2025. Can I ask if there's any questions? Okay. Doesn't seem like it. Well done to the team and Ernst & Young for leaving no possible query unresolved. As there's no questions and we don't require a vote, I think we'll move on to the next resolution. The first resolution is the adoption of the remuneration report. As displayed, it's to adopt the remuneration report for the year ended 30th June 2025. As I think we're all familiar with, a vote on a remuneration report is advisory only.
However, the Corporations Act does provide the potential for a two-strikes rule. As we'll see from the proxies, that's not a rule that we're going to be concerned with today, fortunately. As we know, if the board receives two no votes of 25% or more over two consecutive years, then there's a rule requiring a board spill. We didn't get any such no votes last year. For that reason, we'll be able to proceed with that poll. No member of Bannerman's key management personnel or their closely related parties is permitted to vote on the resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution? Thank you. Since there's no questions and we're conducting polls at the end of the meeting, we'll now move on to the next item of business. Item three is the re-election of Miss Felicity Gooding.
As I said at the outset, Felicity was appointed to fill a casual vacancy. I might add, after an extensive external process undertaken by a specialist recruitment advisor who specialized in this area. As I said, we were absolutely delighted that Felicity agreed to join us. The notice meeting does contain details on Felicity's background. I'd invite you to read that. The board, with the exception of Felicity, of course, recommends heartily and strongly that all shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Can I ask for any questions? Okay. Since there aren't any further questions and we're conducting a poll at the end, we'll move to the next resolution. The next resolution is the re-election of Bruce McFadzean. Bruce was also appointed to fill a casual vacancy and also after an extensive external process run through specialist recruitment advisors.
I mentioned the value that Bruce brings to the board at the outset. You can also read more about his very deep and varied experience in the notice of general meeting. Are there any questions? Thank you. If there's no questions, we'll move on to the next resolution. Resolution four is the re-election of Clive Jones. I would add to that, other than the very significant contribution that Clive's made over 18 years, Clive's background is to be found in the notice of general meeting. Clive and the board have stated in the notice of general meeting that after Clive's extensive tenure with the company, that he doesn't intend to stand for re-election at the end of this three-year re-election period. If I can speak on your behalf, Clive, we expect to be through financing well into construction.
As a geologist, that's where Clive gets his opportunity to consider his job done and step away from the board after that extended tenure. Can I ask if there's any questions? Thank you. If there's no questions, we'll move on to the next item of business. Resolution five is the approval of the employee incentive plan. You can read all about it at the notice of meeting documentation. Are there any questions? Okay. Thank you. In that case, we'll move on to the next resolution. Resolution six is the issue of securities to Felicity Gooding as a non-executive director. In case anyone's curious as to why Felicity's numbers are slightly different to the other non-executive directors, it's because in both Felicity and Bruce's case, they joined the board outside of the Financial Year Period in which we issue incentives to directors.
So there was a prorated proportion of the year that then accumulated for their offer of incentives. Are there any other questions? Thank you. Welcome. In that case, we'll move on to the next item of business. That's resolution six. I think, pardon, resolution seven, issued securities to Bruce McFadzean. Again, with Felicity, it was a slightly different number to other directors because of that prorated entitlement. Are there any other questions? Thank you. In that case, we'll move on to item nine, which is resolution eight. And that's the issue of securities to Alison Terry. Do we have any questions? Thank you. Moving on to item ten, issued securities to Clive Jones. Do we have any questions? Thank you. Now, for the next item, just to mix things up, I'm going to hand over to Alison, our Deputy Chair and lead independent director.
That's because the next item of business concerns myself personally. Alison.
Thank you, Brandon. This is item 11, resolution 10, issue of securities to Mr. Brandon Munro, Executive Chair and Managing Director. Resolution 10, as set out in the notice of meeting and displayed, seeks approval for the issue of 81,693 ZEPOs to Mr. Brandon Munro or his nominee under the employee incentive plan. Are there any questions on the resolution? Thank you. I'll now hand the chair back to Brandon.
Thank you, Alison. Item 12 and resolution 11 is the approval of the EIP, which stands for employee incentive plan, and NEDSIP, which stands for non-executive director incentive plan. This is for the purposes of section 260C(4) of the Corporations Act. That relates to the provision of financial assistance to related parties, in this case, the board and employees.
In that respect, the board has formed the view that these are arm's length incentives, but nonetheless, we've sought shareholder approval. Can I ask if there's any questions on this resolution? Thank you. In that case, we'll move on to the next resolution. This is a special resolution because it relates to the replacement of our constitution. Resolution 12 seeks replacement of the company's constitution. The current constitution dates back to 25th July 2016. It is the opportunity to refresh the constitution and ensure that it's current with the latest contemporary law on the matter and also ensures that such matters as technology changes are catered for adequately. Are there any questions on resolution 12? Thank you. Moving on then to resolution 13. The next two resolutions are dependent on the outcome of resolution 12. Because we're undertaken by a poll, we don't know that.
In the old days, we would have known if it was carried or not and known which resolution to scratch. We will put both resolutions to the board. Both of these resolutions seek to strengthen shareholder control over proportional takeover bids. If the constitution is replaced, and we learned that from the poll, then resolution 13 will be effective. If the constitution is not replaced, and if that was voted down, and as you have seen from the proxies, that would seem unlikely, then resolution 14 would incorporate proportionate takeover provisions into our existing unreplaced constitution. Can I ask if there are any questions on resolution 13? Thank you. That will go through to the poll. Can I ask if there are any questions on resolution 14? Thank you. That is the formal resolutions part of the business undertaken. We can move to the poll.
I declare the polls on resolutions 1 to 14 open. We appoint Wendy Turner from Computershare to act as the returning officer. Thank you, Wendy. Wendy will conduct the poll and report to me the results. The poll procedures are as follows. People entitled to vote on this poll are all shareholders, proxy holders, and corporate representatives of shareholders. To be eligible to vote, you should have your admission and voting card. If there is anyone who believes that they're entitled to vote but does not have that voting card, please speak to Wendy immediately so that we can undertake the poll. You're entitled to one vote for every share held by the member that's either present in person, represented by a proxy, or by a Corporate representative. Please record your vote on the reverse of your card by indicating the for or against.
Of course, you can abstain, and there's a box for that. Please note your name on the bottom of the card. As I've said, as Chair of the meeting, I'll be voting all of the undirected proxies in favor. Once you've finished, Wendy will be able to assist you with that. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to cast their vote in the poll? Great. I now declare the poll closed. Wendy as returning officer will take the voting cards back to Computershare office. Effectively, we're holding the meeting over whilst those voting cards are completed, collated, and the poll results are determined. The results, we will then formally announce them to the ASX. That concludes the formal business of the meeting. I declare the meeting closed, Karen, at 10:20 A.M.
The good news is that leaves us with plenty of time to hear what I'm sure you're mainly here for, which is the opportunity to hear from our CEO, Gavin Chamberlain. Since he's here from Cape Town, it's an excellent chance to get an update on the business. What I'm going to suggest is that board members, we can now take our seat in the audience. That means that we can reposition the TV screen, and Gavin will be able to give his presentation. As I say, there will be the opportunity either through the webcast or in the room to ask questions at the conclusion of Gavin's presentation. I declare the formal part of the meeting closed. Thank you.
Right. Morning, everyone. I'm aware that I need to speak really loudly because we're also doing this online. Is that loud enough, Emma? A bit louder.
A bit louder. Okay. Anyway, if I do appear like I'm shouting, I'm not actually. I'm just talking to the greater audience. It really gives me great pleasure to be here today. It's the first AGM in three years that I've managed to attend. The last Financial Year has shown significant progress. I would really like to share that with all of you. It really gives me a lot of joy to see how well the team has come together and how well they're currently performing. I would like to share that with all of you and also willing to take any questions related to the progress of the project and the way forward. Next slide. Is it not working? Sorry. We can go through this. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Right. The highlights for the year, I think we need to start with safety.
We have set a really good foundation for this project to move into the future. The highlight for us this year was achieving 16 years without a lost time injury. A really good achievement for what is effectively now a mature site management team. We also set out a target, and I have spoken to this on many occasions, around wanting to appoint 100% Namibian contractors wherever possible. To date, we have achieved that target. In all the contracts that we have placed, for both commercial and for the good of Namibia, we have managed to place Namibian contractors for the work that we are doing on site. They are performing to normal international standards and on schedule, which is really, really critical for the project as we move forward.
Over and above that, we did announce earlier in September that we had signed our first two off-take contracts, which was a real good milestone for us because effectively, it is a rubber-stamping process whereby big international U.S.-based utilities have said to the world, "We are happy to contract with Bannerman. We take them seriously, and we understand they are a project that are going to move forward." Once again, a really big highlight for us. They set us up nicely to be able to now start building a contract book. The other one is the institutional diversity that we managed to improve on during the year. We have brought on new people into the team. Matt Horgan joined us. Him and Emma have done a lot of work trying to improve our institutional shareholding, which we see as a big success as we move forward.
The coverage that we've managed to get recently as well has been a major milestone for us as well. Every time we get new coverage, obviously, it's a step forward in the right direction. Thank you to all those who have supported us in that way. I think when it comes to the match fit of the construction team, when you see the photographs of the progress, you'll realize that you don't achieve what we've achieved without actually getting a team that really understands construction in the Namibian environment. We are really match fit. You'll see some numbers later in terms of how we've increased the numbers of people on site and all of that without any incidents on site, which is really pleasing.
In that match fit as well, what I've managed to do as well is utilizing both my network and the local MD's network. It's bringing people that understand uranium, understand Namibia, and understand the African construction process, which is extremely pleasing for us. I believe that with all of these advantages, we've actually moved ourselves to the front runner in terms of the greenfields projects coming into production in the uranium field moving forward. I think the one thing that I do need to compliment the entire team on is the stability of our board and the stability of my exco team, which is extremely pleasing for me. We are working extremely well together as teams. The stability and the way forward in terms of those people staying on my team is really, really pleasing.
The commitment that I'm seeing from them as individuals is fantastic. Sorry, we're still having a problem with the mouse. Right. This is just to give you an idea. What I really liked about this photograph, look at the number of people who are smiling in that photograph. Effectively, this is celebrating 16 years of work on site without a single lost time injury to anyone on site. That is the current complement of people on site. A lot of happy faces there, which is always pleasing to visit a site. Next slide. This is just to give you an idea of our build-up. At the beginning of the financial year, we had about 120 people working on site, predominantly in the bulk earthworks field. By the end of this year, we will actually be at 400 people.
The team on my own management team on site is now well placed to actually grow that 400 to our estimated 1,000 people on site. Our own office, our permanent people in Namibia, has grown from 11 to 14, also 100% Namibian, which is another big plus for us moving forward. We have 62 engineers on contract to us in Johannesburg working for Wood, and you have myself in Cape Town. That is effectively our team. I cannot speak about this slide enough, but I probably do not need to say too much because a lot of you will know a lot of the players on that slide.
In Werner Ehrwald, our local managing director, we have someone who came out of the Rössing environment where he was the mine manager, but has been with us for over 14 years and has really managed to get a Namibian team together that has really gelled. Obviously, you were introduced to Steve earlier, invaluable in terms of support for myself at a commercial and corporate level. Really reaching out to Steve in terms of I can go to Steve with any question. Nine times out of 10, he's got an answer for me. When we're moving further down, Olga. A lot of people may not know Olga, but Olga joined us as our Marketing VP based in London. Comes out of the WNA environment where she knows all of the utilities and also all of the suppliers in the market.
She has been invaluable in actually taking what was a non-existent workstream and turning it into a mature, confident workstream in terms of moving forward with contracting. Below that, we have Matt Corgan, who I mentioned just now, who joined us and is focused on the corporate development of this company moving forward and once again brings a huge amount of knowledge to the team. I am not going to spend too much time on the right-hand side, apart from the fact saying that I have amazing support on the right-hand side. A lot of the people on the right-hand side, so Jeff and Cindy, I have worked with personally for over 35 years in the African environment. Melvin has actually worked in Namibia as our legal representative and is one of the best legal Eagles out there in terms of making sure we are addressing all of our concerns moving forward.
I'm extremely happy with the way that he performs. One of our youngsters at the bottom there, Andrey, Andrey is probably the youngest man on the team, but why he's so essential to us is he is the man who has actually operated each operation before. His knowledge that he brings to the operational side of the business is fantastic, apart from being an extremely good process engineer. Last but not least, we've just recently appointed a Chief Operating Officer in Namibia, a man who I've also worked with previously, but he's now based in Namibia, has been living in Namibia for the last nine years, and has joined the team to look specifically at the operations and the movement from construction into operations. That's where his focus will be. A really strong team and a very stable team.
Extremely, extremely positive in terms of where we're moving to in the next year and a half. To give you an idea, in 2025, what we've done is we've placed the detailed design, contracts moving ahead on schedule, going pretty much according to plan. The site access road and construction water and construction power contracts all placed and completed. Those contracts are no longer running. The bulk earthworks contract is running at the moment and will continue to run until August next year. I thought these slides would maybe give you an idea of the progress that we've made. What I've tried to do is find a slide at the beginning of the financial year and another one at the end of the financial year to basically indicate to you the progress that we've made on the project.
This is actually the physical design, and this particular area is the secondary and tertiary crushing. What you can see there on the left-hand side is where we were in October 2024 and where we are now in October 2025. The colors on the model also indicate the maturity of the actual design. The design in current stages is over 70% complete in the dry areas. Okay. Now some of the construction progress. In June 2024, we had just commissioned our access road. In September 2025, as you can see, we have now finished all the safety demarcations, turn-offs, etc., and that road is now fully operational. Construction water, and this one actually was a lot quicker. In June 2024, we had a little bit of a foundation, and we actually commissioned it in September 2024.
We have had construction water on site since September 2024 and have not lost a single day due to no water. Power in November 2024, you can see we have just started with the erection of the overhead lines. In September 2025, the full reticulation was commissioned, and we now have power on site for construction. The bulk earthworks, the reason for placing the bulk earthworks early was really to get the key construction areas completed so that we could actually move into concrete and steel construction as soon as possible. Also, to secure what we regarded as the best Namibian earthworks contractor to get ahead of other projects in terms of making sure that we stay on program, which we achieved. This here particularly shows the bulk crushing area, and you can see significant progress from November 2024 through to October 2025.
We have actually commenced the construction of concrete work in the primary crushing area as we speak. The heap leach pad, one of the reasons for this, to give an idea of size, that heap leach pad is 1 kilometre long by 300 metres wide. It is a massive piece of earthworks. Effectively, once again, this will not be completed. It will only be completed next year. It is also done to extremely tight tolerances in terms of grade. A massively important piece of construction for us, which is going according to schedule, and the local contractor has really performed well. If you look at it, what you are looking at, the closest construction to you at the bottom of the photographs are the PLS ponds, and the heap leach pad follows behind that. Right. What have we done since we placed those contracts?
We have now continued with our next phase of early construction. If you can move it forward. We've placed the contract for the drainage aggregate. A really important commercial aspect for us because what we did here is we're not buying commercial stone. We're actually blasting, crushing, and sizing the stone ourselves on site because commercially it made a lot of sense. Once again, with a Namibian contractor. Next one. We've also placed phase one for the concrete, also on a Namibian contractor. Once again, also ahead of the pack. We've actually secured the biggest concrete contractor in Namibia to continue with construction before any of the competing projects get near us. Next one. There should be one more. Anyway, the other one that we have also placed now as well is the permanent water infrastructure. We've placed phase one contract for that.
The importance of that was to secure the off-take point from NAM Water to ensure that we have water that comes to site. Okay. Right. Why are we moving ahead and how are we allowed to move ahead? I think this is what's really important for us is we've got a multi-development pathway, which you can see what it's achieved on site. This is not done easily. The ultimate thing for us is cash flow management and the approvals that we have to seek from the board to ensure that we can place contracts and move ahead. Before we place any contracts, we have to present to the board effectively what the risks are, what the opportunities are, and also most importantly is what the effect on cash flow is.
There is extreme cash flow control and nothing gets approved unless we have presented it to the board. The whole idea around this is making sure that we manage our money, but at the same time advance the project ahead in bite-sized chunks that make sense in terms of the schedule. Effectively, the other thing that we have done as well to assist us on cash flow management is looking at the way we place contracts. We have placed a number of mechanical contracts and we have placed them in two phases. The first phase is to secure the vendor drawings to allow the design to happen, but most importantly to secure the overall capital cost because we negotiated as part of phase one and phase two only kicks off when we actually hit the button to say start manufacturing.
That's been an important part of our capital control moving forward. I think I've discussed everything on that slide, but I'm happy to take questions later on if necessary. This is the result of that. If you look at that, this graph really reflects how we're managing our cash flow. If we look at what we were at the end of the last quarter, we had just over AUD 120 million in the bank. We had AUD 49 million committed. I think the most pleasing thing is the steady growth in expenditure has been controlled. Probably the thing we're most proud of is the small little orange line, which talks to our own corporate costs. Obviously, we're trying to control that and keep that as low as possible.
An extremely good result, I think, in terms of what investors would expect from a cash flow management perspective. Where are we? The off-take we've spoken about, we've placed our first two contracts. We now mature, ready to place additional contracts when we believe the price is right. Financing, we've advanced two streams, well advanced and mature at the moment. Construction, as I said, the initial early works contracts have been completed and we're now moving into the second phase of early works contracts. What does that all mean? That all means that based on the current planning, everything will come together and we will be commissioned by the end of 2028 with free flow of uranium into the market by 2029. That's based on the current timelines. Market playing ball with us, that's what we will achieve.
So all the contracts that we've placed to date are aligned with reaching those target dates. All right. I think that's it from me. I'm happy to take some questions. Hopefully, that'll solve any questions. Great. Thank you, everyone.
That was easy. Thank you very much, Gavin. It's been an excellent presentation. Short for those of you. Oh, we've got questions from the webcast. Great. Emma Culver at the back is our Investor Relations and Communications Manager. If you've done anything electronically with the company, you would already know Emma.
We have a question that's come through, not related to Etango, but the stake in NMI, 43%. What are the future plans given the highly political recent focus around rare earths?
We haven't made any plans with NMI, and we don't need to because it's fully funded by JOGMEC.
That's a Japanese government-owned organisation whose responsibility is to invest in global exploration projects, bring that product home to Japan and Japanese industry. We are in the privileged position with the Loftall mine and our stake in NMI that other than every so often supporting them with a little bit of corporate cost in Canada, we do not need to divert funding or attention or management attention away from our core game, which is Etango. Do you have any questions? Yes, please. Okay. It is your last chance. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much for coming. We really appreciate your support as shareholders, and we can see some of our very valued trusted advisors here as well. We appreciate your support.
What we've undertaken as a company is ambitious, but as I hope you can understand from Gavin's presentation, we are achieving what we set out to do. We're managing the execution risk exceptionally well. We're managing the cash flow. We are looking forward to reporting back in a few years' time as to how well we've executed on our vision to deliver effectively via Etango mine and then build a Uranium business from there. Please stay. We've got the usual biggies that we're all available. We're happy to chat informally. Once again, thank you for.