Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us today. I am Emma Culver, Investor Relations and Communications Manager at Bannerman Energy, and we are pleased to report on the September 2026 quarter. I am joined today by our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Gavin Chamberlain, who will talk through the highlights from what was a company-defining quarter. There was a lot of news, and we are very happy to be on this side reporting on it. Following this, we will answer Q&A. At the bottom of your screen on Zoom, you will see the toolbar with the option of Q&A. Please write your questions there, and we will move through them at the end. For now, I will hand over to Gavin and share my screen. Good morning, Gavin. Thank you very much for joining us.
Morning, Emma, and good morning to everyone on the call. It is great to have you here. As Emma said, this has been a fantastic quarter for us and one that will probably go down in the history of the company as being extremely important.
Great. You can see my screen there, Gavin?
I can.
Should be through now.
Great. It is through. I trust that everyone can see that. Emma, if you are happy, I will just jump into the presentation. What you are seeing in front of you, on the heading slide, is just the slight celebration that we had with the Minister of Mines last week to celebrate our FID. I thought it was a really good slide to start because I know this is post-quarter, but as you can see from all the happy faces there, this was an extremely important occasion for us and celebrated in style with both the mining minister and the commissioner of mines. In terms of the quarter and the reason why we are so pleased is, you often have a plan, but when a plan comes together, it always really makes things feel just that much better.
What we have managed to achieve this quarter is, first and foremost, we completed the CNOL strategic investment, which was worth AUD 320 million. On the back of that as well, we also had a successful AUD 124 million institutional equity placement. The combination of these has been what has been behind our FID decision. I think you will remember, we have always said that the FID decision for Bannerman has really been around making sure that we understand how we are going to fund the project all the way through to production. The combination of the deal and the successful fundraise is what has allowed us to make the FID decision. We have a very strong liquidity position as at the end of September. Bannerman itself has approximately AUD 175 million in the bank, but that excludes the cash that sits in Etango JV and other investments.
The Etango JV cash balance is 295 US dollars, but that also excludes additional cash that is currently being held in the Namibian subsidiaries. Also, obviously on-site, as you know, I am always extremely excited around what is happening on-site, but I am very pleased to see that we are still tracking on budget and schedule in terms of our early works program. I think another pleasing thing has been that the long-term price for uranium has stuck consistently at 97. That obviously is a positive for the industry moving forward, even though I do believe it is going to move even higher. Post-quarter and the end of the highlights, I did touch on that a little bit earlier, but really the positive FID which was taken on the basis of the Etango design.
We allowed a ±10% capex estimate, and we are still forecasting 3.5 million pounds with first production in 2028. Another highlight for us as well was the appointment of Danie van Aswegen. Danie has been in the mining industry in Southern Africa for a number of years, originally working on the platinum mines in South Africa, both underground and as a project manager, and then moving across to Debmarine, where he had an EXCO position and also ran projects and development work for Debmarine. Danie has been with us for a while now and originally joined as a COO, and we are really pleased to announce his promotion to CEO of Bannerman Mining Resources.
He has a strong technical background, a strong project background, but most importantly, Danie is a people person that loves to make points by telling stories, and this really has managed to pull the team together on the back of the change from one MD to another. We are very happy with the results and the decision to appoint Danie. Then obviously the culmination of that was a celebration with the honorable Modestus Amutse, Namibia's Minister of Industries, Mines and Energy, who came out to site, did a visit, joined the ceremony and the flag-raising ceremony. The Etango flag has now been raised on the mine, and we will continue to deliver Etango as we have been doing to date. We are now 100% ready for full-scale construction. I have just got a couple of slides following this which show where we were at the end of September.
As you can see, these are the bulk earthworks, which are now 99% complete. What you are looking at there are the solution dams for the pregnant liquor. This one here was the first structure that we started on-site, which is the primary crusher. As you can see, the actual structure for the crusher is now completed, and the earthworks wall, which creates the access berm behind the crusher, is progressing at reasonable speed and is currently tracking on schedule. We have also completed the ore stockpile tunnel, which sits underneath the stockpile. What you are looking at here, to give you an idea of the size, that is the exit for the conveyor as it comes out from underneath the stockpile. Those are the wing walls to ensure that the stockpile does not start falling onto the conveyor.
The fine ore silo is moving ahead in line with schedule, and as you can see, starting to get significantly higher. It still has a couple more raises to go, but we should have this completed in early new year. Then the secondary and tertiary crushing facility. We are one concrete pour away from the point where we will start installing our structural steel work, and we are very pleased once again with both of the quality and the progress on this building. Then the permanent water supply line has also been a really positive local contractor once again, installing the pumps and the pipeline from the main supply at the Swakopmund NamWater facility, heading towards the mine. What we did have post-quarter as well is we actually did the bridge installation as well. That is effectively the quarter in a summary.
As you can see, there's an awful lot that has happened in the quarter, but we are extremely pleased to see the way the team has pulled together to achieve these results. I am more than happy at this point, Emma, to take any questions.
Great. Thanks, Gavin. Yeah, it certainly has been a big quarter and a lot of progress on site. I think we will start with, there's been early works that's been happening on site for the last few years. What changes now that FID has been taken, and what can people expect over these coming months?
Yeah. Thanks, Emma. Good question. Obviously, I think people may remember, I think from months or even years ago, that we've been talking about being prepared but being patient. What people will see now is the culmination of that same strategy moving forward. In the background, in preparation for FID, we've been tendering a number of contracts, and over the next couple of weeks, there will be a number of significant contracts that will be placed. What will that do on site? Physically, what that will do on site, it will change the number of people on site, which will increase significantly. We will be expecting the structural steel contract on site in the early new year. Over and above that as well is we've placed a number of mechanical contracts. We have fabrication on various mechanical equipment happening worldwide at the moment.
You will see a significant increase in the progress on-site with structural steel, and you will also start seeing the delivery of mechanical equipment.
Thanks, Gavin. As you mentioned in the highlights, FID was taken on the Etango-8 CBE numbers of ±10%. We just have a question here around the confidence in those numbers, the CapEx and the OpEx numbers. Is there any reviews underway? Is anyone going to be expecting any changes?
Yeah. Emma, that's once again, I think very much linked to my previous answer in that because we've actually been doing tendering and preparing to place orders, we've got a good degree of comfort that all of the orders that we're currently working on are still within the original budget. We do believe that a 10% contingency on the original capital number is prudent. But right now, we're actually tracking according to budget. That's been because we've been preparing for FID and preparing to move into full-blown construction over the last six to nine months.
Great. Now that the CNOL transaction is complete, how are you thinking about the remaining 40% of the offtake? Obviously, the 60% is allocated to CNOL as part of that transaction. What's the thought processes around the 40% and strategies? Is that now moving into full swing or is management holding back on that?
No. We will definitely be holding back on that, is we do believe the closer we get to production, the stronger position we have in terms of negotiating any deals with any utilities. We are maintaining strong relationships with utilities. We are updating them on a regular basis in terms of our progress, and certainly, we will continue that process. But we will not really be looking in the market to sell additional pounds until we get closer to production, so potentially six months before production.
A question that has just come in is around the average incentive price for the mine. Has this increased or altered in any way?
Yeah. So there is definitely pressure on the incentive price worldwide, driven by effectively what we are seeing in terms of acid costs and diesel costs. So that incentive price, we believe, is probably climbing. From our own FID perspective is we looked at it from a point of view of can we fund our project? And we could, so we have moved forward. But what I do suspect is that the incentive price is definitely going to be climbing. But hand in hand with that, what you are going to be seeing is an increase in the actual uranium price. And our 60% deal with CNOL effectively protects us against that from a perspective of what our average sales price will be.
How is that working relationship with CNOL? Obviously, we have had steering committee happening over this process since February of the closing of the transaction. I believe that we have just gone through the first official board meetings of the JV. How is that relationship, and are you happy with where that is at?
We probably should put this into the highlights because the relationship with CNOL has been phenomenal and very, very positive. So we have had both our inaugural JV board meeting, and we also had our inaugural Bannerman Mining Resources Namibia board meetings, both of which have representatives from both Bannerman and CNOL. And what we have found is a continuation of what we found at the steering committee, which is positive support for the processes and thinking that we as the owners and the operators of the project have been putting to the board. So all of our requests for the board have been approved, and obviously the FID decision was also supported by CNOL and had to be taken at the JV level.
FID has now been taken on Etango-8, and I think this question is going to come up many times. Is the expansion option going to be brought forward? What is the process of looking at the expanded option of Etango-8?
Our strategy around that hasn't changed. I don't think it's going to be brought forward. We would still be looking to commission Etango-16 in the fifth year of production of Etango-8. That is still our thinking. We believe that is the optimal point to implement the change, and that is still currently the thinking. There is a bit of study work that has to happen around that, and we are now in a position to potentially kick that off. Right now, our focus remains on delivering Etango-8, so we are not going to jump in immediately and start doing study work on Etango-16. As most of the people on the call will know, the information that supports Etango-16 is well-known, and we will be able to complete the study phase for that in probably anything under 12- 18 months.
Gavin, you mentioned that Danie has been appointed as the CEO. With the project now heading into full-scale construction, can we expect more announcements around the executive team in Namibia that will ultimately lead this project forward into ramp up?
Yes, definitely, Emma. We have just been through a rigorous process of recruitment for our executive management team, which basically includes the CFO, the Chief Technical Officer, the Corporate Affairs Manager, and then obviously the CEO. We have made and ratified the decision for the CEO, and there should be announcements coming out in the next couple of weeks around the successful candidates for the other positions. Those people will probably start filtering into the organization during early next year.
Thanks, Gavin. It looks like we don't have any more questions in what has been a momentous quarter. Any final comments from yourself before we close up today?
No. Apart from, as usual, thanking the entire team. This quarter has stretched us more than we've been stretched up till now. We came out of the other side really, really strong and we're now ready for any challenge that can come our way. The focus, as I said, right now is on Etango-8.
Thank you everyone for joining us today. Please reach out with any further questions. Watch our social media. Obviously, there's going to be lots happening on-site, and we will be sharing more in our next project update in December. Gavin, thank you very much. Have a wonderful day, and we will see everyone next quarter.
Yeah. Thank you to everyone as well.
Cheers.