Good morning, everyone. My name is Todd Hannigan. I'm the Executive Chair of Brazilian Rare Earths. I'll be the Chair of this meeting, which is being held as a virtual meeting. I'd like to introduce my fellow directors who are joining the meeting: Bernardo da Veiga, who is our CEO and Managing Director; Kristie Young and Camila Ramos, who are Non-Executive Directors of Brazilian Rare Earths. We also have our Company Secretary, Jonathan Hart. Doug Bell is representing BRE's Auditors, Hall Chadwick, who's available to answer any questions from the auditors. It's now 9:00 A.M. Australian Eastern Standard Time, and on behalf of the Brazilian Rare Earths Board, I would like to welcome those shareholders who have made the time to attend this meeting, which is our Annual General Meeting.
Pursuant to Rule 7.7 of the Company's Constitution, a quorum for a general meeting is two members present in person or by proxy. As we now have a quorum, I now declare the annual general meeting open. I'll now hand over to our Company Secretary, Jonathan Hart, and he'll advise you of the meeting procedures and conduct the formal business of the meeting.
Hi, everyone, and welcome today. You may submit a question at any time. To ask a question, select the messaging icon, type your question in the box towards the top of the page, and press the send button. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, they will not be addressed until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be amalgamated with other questions if we receive multiple questions on one topic. Finally, due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all your questions. If this happens, we will answer them in due course via email and posting responses on our website or by contacting you directly following the meeting.
Following completion of the formal business of the meeting, there'll be an opportunity to ask the board and management more general questions regarding the company and its operations. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll for all items of business. Shortly, I'll declare voting open on all items of business. At that time, the resolutions and voting options will appear on screen. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. Your vote is automatically recorded. There is no need to press a submit or enter button. You can change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed. I now declare voting open on all items of business. For online attendees, the resolutions will soon appear. Please submit your votes at any time. I'll give you a warning before I move to close voting.
I'll inform the meeting of the votes received by proxy for each resolution detailed in the notice of meeting at the time each resolution is being considered. If you appointed the Chair of the meeting as your proxy, the Chair will vote the proxy according to the directions on the proxy form. The Chair intends to vote undirected proxies in favor of each item of business. We now move to the formal business of the meeting. As the notice of meeting and explanatory memorandum has been circulated to all shareholders, I propose to take them as read. For procedural efficiency, I will not ask for motions to be seconded, as it is not required by the Company's Constitution. The notice of meeting also sets out the voting restrictions for each resolution.
I advise that no notice of any other item for today's agenda has been received, and I therefore advise that the only matters that can be dealt with in this meeting are the nine resolutions set out in the notice of meeting. All nine resolutions to be considered are ordinary resolutions. The first item of business on the agenda for this meeting is to consider the financial statements for the year ended 31st December 2024. The financial statements for the company, together with the director's report and auditor's report thereon, are in the 2024 annual report that has been made available to all shareholders. No resolution is required. Does any shareholder wish to raise any questions regarding the financial statements with the directors or the auditor? As there are no questions, we will now move to the resolutions to be considered.
I now move that Resolution one, as follows and as set out in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution. That in accordance with Section 250(a) of the Corporations Act, the remuneration report for the year ended 31st December 2024, as set out in pages 40 to 60 of the annual report, be adopted. The proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll. You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare voting closed. I now move that Resolution two, as follows and as set out in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution. That pursuant to and in accordance with Article 7.3 of the Constitution, General 14.4, and for all purposes, Mr.
Eric Noyerez, being an independent non-executive director who was appointed on 3rd of June 2024, retires and being eligible, is elected as a director, effective immediately upon the passing of this resolution and on the terms and conditions in this explanatory memorandum. The proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll. You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare the voting closed. I now move that Resolution three, as follows and as set out in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution. That Miss Kristie Young, who retires by rotation in accordance with Listing Rule 14.5 and Article 7.3(c) of the Constitution, and being eligible, is re-elected as a director of the company.
The proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll. You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare voting closed. I now move that Resolution four, as follows and as set out in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution.
That for the purposes of Section 1954 and Part 2D.2 of the Corporations Act, Listing Rule 10.19, and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the giving of benefits detailed in the explanatory memorandum in connection with any person who, from time to time, is or has been a member of the key management personnel or holds or has held a managerial or executive office in the company or related body corporate, ceasing to hold that managerial or executive office or ceasing to hold a subsequent office or position of employment in the company or related body corporate. This approval for such benefits is given to the relevant personnel or any other person in the period prior to the conclusion of the third annual general meeting of the company after the date on which this Resolution four is passed.
The proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll. You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare voting closed. I now move that Resolution five, as follows and as set out in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Section 1954 and Part 2D.2 of the Corporations Act, ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and 10.19, and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue and allotment of 150,000 options under the employee incentive in the explanatory memorandum which accompanies this notice of meeting. The proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll.
You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare voting closed. I now move that Resolution six., as follows and as set in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Section 1954 and Part 2D2 of the Corporations Act, ASX Listing Rules 10.14 and 10.19, and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue and allotment of an aggregate of up to 402,252 award options under the plan to Mr. Todd Hannigan, and otherwise on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum which accompanies this notice of meeting. The proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll. You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare voting closed.
I now move that Resolution 7, as follows and as set out in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Section 1954 and Part 2D.2 of the Corporations Act, Listing Rule 10.14 and 10.19, and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue and allotment of an aggregate of up to 1,004,459 award options under the plan to Dr. Bernardo da Veiga. On the terms and accompanying this notice of meeting, the proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll. You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare voting closed. I now move that Resolution eight, as follows and as set out in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution.
That for the purposes of Section 1954 of the Corporations Act, Listing Rule 10.17, and for all other purposes, the maximum amount of directors' fees available to be paid by the company to non-executive directors per annum as remuneration for their services, inclusive of superannuation, be increased by AUD 250,000 from AUD 350,000 to AUD 600,000 per annum, effective from the date that shareholders pass this resolution. The proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll. You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare voting closed. I now move that Resolution nine, as follows and as set out in the notice of meeting, be passed as an ordinary resolution.
That for the purposes of ASX Listing Rules 7.4 and for all other purposes, the shareholders ratify the allotment and prior issue of 24,242,425 places issued on 2024 and otherwise on the terms and conditions set out in this explanatory memorandum. The proxy votes eligible to be voted on this resolution are displayed on your screen. I now invite questions on this resolution. This resolution is to be decided by poll. You may submit your vote on this resolution up until the time I declare voting closed. That concludes the formal business of the meeting. I will close the voting system shortly. Please ensure that you have cast your vote on all resolutions. I will now pause to allow you time to finalize those votes. Voting is now closed. The results of these votes will be released to the ASX later today.
I will now pass back to the Chair, Todd Hannigan, to close the meeting.
Thanks, Jonathan. I'd just like to thank everyone and all shareholders for attending today's meeting and for your continued support of Brazilian Rare Earths. I declare the meeting closed. Now what we'll do is we'll take questions from shareholders that have attended today. If you wish to ask a question, please press on the Q&A icon on the bottom of your screen. This will open a new dialogue box in which you can type in your question. Once you finish typing that question, please submit and send. Please also note that your questions may be amalgamated with other questions if we receive multiple questions on one topic. Finally, due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all of your questions.
If this happens, we'll answer them in due course via email or on our website. In terms of questions that we've received, yeah, it looks like we've got some good questions here. These do appear sort of operationally focused. Bernardo, maybe you take some of these questions. The first question from shareholders is, "Exploration still appears to be a key value driver for BRE. What have been the most significant exploration achievements this year, and what areas are you focusing on now?
Thanks, Todd. Okay, so with regards to exploration, I'm very pleased with how things have gone in 2024. Of course, a lot of the work centered around Monte Alto, where we had record intercepts, some very high-grade discoveries. Some extensions were discovered around Monte Alto, which we were very excited about. We announced several possible limb extensions, including the eastern limb, which is very, very heavy—sorry, very rich in heavy rare earths, which we were excited about. Of course, the exploration doesn't stop in Monte Alto because we have a very large belt and several very promising exploration targets. I think what's been very pleasing is that we've been able to come up with an exploration methodology that seems to be working very well. During 2024, we made several confirmed discoveries at Pelé, for example. We had diamond drilling intercepts of up to 13%.
That was early 2025, I think. We also had some strike extensions. We've discovered quite a bit of monazite sands. We've only really scratched the surface. There are several other areas within Pelé that are yet to be tested, and we continue to do those. Also, during 2024, we continued to work in Sulista. We have made several discoveries. There was the confirmation hole that we reassayed, so we twinned and reassayed a historic hole and confirmed high grade in the hard rock. We also continue to find quite a bit of monazite sands at surface, so we're very excited. We have several other targets. We're looking at other exploration methods that are yielding quite a bit of success.
We've had a very sophisticated drone arrive on site recently, and we look forward to putting that to work and being able to be more precise and focused with our exploration efforts. All in all, I'd say, yes, exploration remains a key value driver. It is certainly—Monte Alto is just the beginning of what we hope to be a very long and successful series of discoveries, and we're very focused on delivering on those.
Thanks, Bernardo. Second question is, "The stock rallied after the Amargosa Bauxite- Gallium transaction was announced. Which factors do you believe drove that re-rating?
Yeah, I think, first of all, I think the renegotiation of that deal was quite significant. If shareholders recall, the original iteration of the Amargosa deal contemplated a $40 million payment to Rio Tinto should we ever develop a bauxite project, which I think put a real damper on the value of that project. Now that we've managed to renegotiate that down to a very light $1 per ton of finished product, I think now the market can see real value. Also, of course, bauxite prices have rallied strongly, and the outlook for bauxite is excellent. That's all very good. I think the icing on the cake was the discovery of gallium. Gallium being one of the critical minerals that have been completely banned for exports by China means that the Western world must find credible ex-China sources of this stuff.
Our grades are well above sort of global averages and could represent a very, very secure, long-term, meaningful supply of gallium to the Western markets. I think something else that's been exciting is that there have been significant advancements in the logistical options to get that bauxite to market. There are several ports near where we are. There's a new railway line that's being completed. That has increased the market value or the market's valuation of that project.
Question three is, "Could you update us on the current cash balance and funding runway and explain how those funds will be used for the next phases of project development?
Okay. Okay, so I think at the end of the quarter, we had something in the order of $75 million at our current exploration and development rate. That sees us through to 2027, probably the first quarter of 2027. That's the current budget. The majority of that money goes into the ground and exploration as well as development of Monte Alto. Not only are we drilling several targets, looking to delineate other ultra-high-grade deposits, but we're also doing a lot of work around the processing and the development of Monte Alto into a project and the downstream processing of our material. Of course, all that work will also benefit any further satellite deposits that we find. Yeah, I think that's the current burn rate.
There's one last question, Bernardo, which is, "How would you characterize your current dialogue with Brazilian federal and state authorities? And do you anticipate any policy incentives, streamlined permitting, or other conditions that may give the company support?
Yeah, that's a good question. I've been in Brazil for just shy of 15 years now, sort of running mining companies. I'm yet to see the government display such good will towards a commodity as I'm seeing now. There are so many different sort of programs and, yeah, a few things. The Brazilian government is definitely very keen to see downstream and critical mineral projects go ahead. I think the Brazilian government understands that if they can become a leader in critical minerals, then that opens the door to become a leader in car manufacturing, drone manufacturing, robotics, and so on. For a huge industrial country like Brazil, that's obviously very relevant. We're seeing several things at the political sphere. For example, there's a new regulatory framework that's being voted through Congress.
Currently, our understanding is that that will set out the ways and means in which a company could be fast-tracked through to production. We are really hoping. We are waiting eagerly for that to come out because we feel like we will be a prime candidate for such a program. The Brazilian government recently, together with Vale, put a fund together of about BRL 1.5 billion. That fund is totally designed for critical mineral projects. Of course, we are going to be trying to get investment from that fund. There is another program called Finep, which is basically a Brazilian institution that funds sort of technological advances and sort of critical projects. They have just launched a request for expressions of interest to get funded through that. It is about a BRL 6 billion fund, and we have submitted an application. There are lots of exciting things happening.
I've been sort of telling people this anecdote that I think is quite telling. I've been in Brazil for a long time doing this. In my experience, when you log your final exploration reports, they can take up to two years to be approved. We logged our final exploration reports for Monte Alto and over 20 other areas in last week of October of last year, and they were approved by the first week of December. That has been announced. I think that just shows the sort of goodwill and incentive that the government's given these companies like ourselves to develop things quickly.
Thanks, Bernardo. There's no more questions, so we will now end this call. Again, I'd like to thank all shareholders that attended today's meeting. Please reach out if you've got any follow-up questions. Thanks.