Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Michael O'Keeffe, and I am the Executive Chairman of Champion Iron Limited. I will be serving as the chair of today's meeting. It is now 7:00 A.M. in Sydney and 5:00 P.M. in Montreal, and I welcome you to the 2026 annual general meeting of the company. I am advised that we have a quorum being two registered shareholders, and as such, I now declare the annual general meeting open. Joining me today are other directors attending in person, Mr. David Cataford, our Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Michelle Cormier, and Ms. Louise Grondin. Also, other directors are joining via phone from Australia and I think in Europe.
Other members of management also joining us today, Mr. Steve Boucratie, Chief Legal and Strategy Officer and Corporate Secretary, Mr. Michael Marcotte, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. François Lavoie, Senior Vice-President, Sales, Technical Marketing, and Product Development, and Ms. Angela Kourouklis, Senior Vice-President, Human Resources. Mr. Patrick Bernard Daou, a partner from Ernst & Young and company auditors, is also present at the meeting to take the questions you may have in relation to the conduct of the audit, the preparation of the content and auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company for the preparation of the financial statements, and the auditor's independence in relation to the conduct of the audit. It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to the annual general meeting. I will now let Steve Boucratie briefly explain certain formalities regarding the conduct of this meeting.
On my behalf, Mr. Boucratie will then deal with the formal business of the meeting as outlined in the meeting materials that you all received, including voting on resolutions. Steve.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Steve Boucratie, and I am the Chief Legal and Strategy Officer and Corporate Secretary of Champion Iron Limited. The chair has exercised his right under Rule 17.2 of the company's constitution to call a voting by ballot on all resolution. As a result, all voting will be conducted by ballot so that all proxy votes can be recorded. Any shareholder who has not received voting papers, please raise your hand so that the scrutineers can provide you with those. Mr. Steve Gilbert and Mr. Vlad Telibasa of Computershare Investor Services, the company's transfer agent, will organize the distribution of voting papers and can provide guidance on the completion of those voting papers if required.
We will move through the agenda items of the meeting, which we are considering today while the voting by ballot is being conducted, meaning that shareholders with voting papers may vote at any time during the meeting. When voting closes, we will ask shareholders to raise their hands to return the ballots to the scrutineers, which will then be counted by Computershare. As a reminder, as with any in-person meeting, only registered shareholders and duly appointed registered shareholders are permitted to vote or ask questions at this meeting. I would now like to outline the format of today's meeting. First, I will deal with the formal business of the meeting as outlined in the meeting materials that all of you received, including voting on resolutions.
After we conclude the formal portion of the meeting, we will be pleased to answer questions you may have or respond to your comments regarding the matters addressed during the formal part of the meeting. Second, after the Q&A period is concluded, David Cataford, our CEO, will provide a brief corporate overview of activities in our recently completed 2026 financial year and Q1 of financial 2027. Upon the request of the chair, I will also act as secretary of the meeting, and Mr. Steve Gilbert and Mr. Vlad Telibasa of Computershare will act as scrutineers. The notice of meeting and the management information circular were dispatched to shareholders, filed electronically with the ASX and on SEDAR+ and placed on our website.
The financial statements for the year ended March 31st, 2026, and the annual report for the year ended March 31st, 2026, which include the remuneration report at pages 68 through 115, have also been filed with the ASX and on SEDAR+ and placed on our website. These materials are taken as read. The formal business of the meeting consists of, one, receiving and considering the company's financial report together with the director's report and auditor's report for the financial year ended March 31st, 2026. Two, adopting the remuneration report as set out in the annual report of the company for the financial year ended March 31st, 2026. Three, in the event that the remuneration report is adopted by shareholders but has at least 25% of the votes cast against, then under the Australian Corporations Act 2001, the company is required to put before the meeting the conditional spill resolution.
Four, electing seven directors under seven separate resolutions. To expedite the formal part of the meeting, I will briefly describe or discuss each agenda item in the same sequential order in which they appear in the notice of meeting. I do not propose to read aloud each proposed resolution. These are contained in a notice of meeting which has been taken as read. While this procedure will facilitate the handling of the formal resolutions, registered shareholders or duly appointed and registered proxyholders may raise comments or questions during the Q&A session. Under the Australian Corporations Act 2001, the company is obligated to present before this meeting the last audited financial statements and reports for the financial year ended March 31st, 2026.
The tabled copy of the audited financial statements and reports, including the director's report and the auditor's report, are available for review by registered shareholders or duly appointed and registered proxyholder at this meeting. The reports are tabled but are not the subject of a resolution. However, we will be pleased to receive any comments or questions concerning the financial statements or the reports at the general Q&A session. Questions may also be asked of the auditors in relation to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and content of the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company for the preparation of the financial statements, and the auditor's independence in relation to the conduct of the audit.
The second item of business is a Corporations Act requirement to consider a non-binding or advisory vote on Champion Iron's remuneration report, as set out in the annual report for the financial year ending March 31st, 2026. The chair has authorized me to open voting on this resolution, and I now do so. We ask you to please vote on your ballot. The tabled copy of the annual report is available for review by registered shareholders or duly appointed and registered proxy holder at this meeting. The remuneration report can be found at pages 68 to 115 of the annual report. The reading of such report will be dispensed with. I would like to remind shareholders that the vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the company or its directors.
However, if at least 25% of votes validly cast are against the adoption of the remuneration report, a conditional spill resolution will be put to the meeting. The conditional spill resolution is a resolution which, if passed by more than 50% of votes validly cast on that resolution, would require the company to hold an extraordinary meeting of shareholders within 90 days of this meeting, at which all directors who approved the directors report for 2026 and remain on the board cease to hold office, other than the CEO, and resolutions to appoint or reappoint directors will be put to the meeting. Acknowledging that all directors have an interest in the outcome of this item of business, the directors recommend voting in favor of the adoption of the remuneration report.
Based on the proxies received prior to the meeting, more than 25% of the votes validly cast on the resolution to adopt the remuneration report have been cast against the adoption of the remuneration report. According to the Australian Corporations Act, the company has received a second strike on the remuneration report. The Australian Corporations Act now requires the meeting to proceed to the third item of business and to put the spill resolution to the meeting. The conditional spill resolution requires an ordinary majority of more than 50% of votes validly cast to be passed. Acknowledging that all directors have an interest in the outcome of this item of business, the directors recommend voting against the spill resolution. The chair has authorized me to open the voting on the spill resolution, and I now do so. We ask you to please vote on your ballot.
The next item of business, as contained in resolutions three through nine in the notice of meeting, is the appointment of directors for the current year. The chair has authorized me to open the voting on these resolutions, and I now do so. We ask you to please vote on your ballot for each resolution. Under the company's constitution, for such time as the company's shares are listed for trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, all directors must retire annually and may offer themselves for reelection at the annual general meeting. Each of the directors standing for reelection at this meeting was appointed at the last annual general meeting of the company.
The notice of meeting and related materials contain the names and details of the proposed nominees to the board of directors, who are Michael O'Keeffe, David Cataford, Gary Lawler, Ms. Michelle Cormier, Ms. Louise Grondin, Jyothish George, and Ronnie Beevor. The directors recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolutions three through nine to appoint the respective nominees as directors of the company, except that each director does not make any recommendation as to how shareholders should vote on the respective resolutions related to his or her appointment. As previously mentioned, voting today is conducted by ballot. The ballot will close shortly. We would ask everyone who has not voted on the ballot to finish voting. We ask that all shareholders raise their hand to return ballots to the scrutineers. I now declare the ballots closed.
We will proceed to the Q&A session while the scrutineers tally the results of the ballots on each resolution. Any questions? As there are no questions, I will now provide the voting results on each resolution that was put before this meeting. The scrutineers, Computershare and Vista Services, have provided me with preliminary results of their tabulation of the votes with respect to each of the resolution considered at today's meeting. The scrutineers confirmed the following preliminary voting results. The remuneration report to the financial year ending March 31, 2026, has been adopted by approximately 63% of votes cast. But as more than 25% of the votes cast were against the resolution, this means that the company has received its second strike. The conditional spill resolution was not carried, and each of the seven director nominees received required percentage of votes for.
I declare each of the resolutions considered at today's meeting in respect of those matters as carried other than the conditional spill resolution. The exact number of votes cast in respect of each matter will be publicly disseminated and announced, including on the ASX, file on SEDAR+, and made available on our website as soon as possible after the conclusion of this meeting. As there is no further business, this ends the annual general meeting of the company for 2026, which I now declare closed. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders for their continued support over the past year, as well as our employees for their commitment and their diligence, and we look forward to reporting on our ongoing progress during the current financial year.
I will now turn the floor over to our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. David Cataford, who will now begin the corporate overview of our recently completed 2026 financial year and Q1 of financial year 2027.
Thanks, Steve. Thanks, everyone, for being here today. If we look at the year that we've just passed, it was quite a big year for us. If we look at the highlights, we produced just shy of 14.2 million tons during the year. We also managed to sell over 15 million tons during the year. As you all remember, one of the big issues we had last year was a significant stockpile we had at the site. We've managed to work through a portion of this and be able to benefit from the extra tons that we sold during the year. During this challenging time and pretty big inflation time, we still managed to control our costs. Managed to finish the year at CAD 78.50 per ton delivered in the vessel.
That allowed us to have roughly about $ 1.7 billion in terms of revenues and just shy of $500 million of EBITDA. If we look at creating a positive impact, the different elements that we've achieved during the year, one of the big highlights is we continue to work with local suppliers. I think that's extremely important when you operate a mining company, and we've always worked very closely with the various groups that are closer to our mine. We managed, during the year, to be able to have roughly about $483 million of procurement from regional suppliers. Also very proud in the fact that we've managed to have another year, 100% compliant with our tailings management. The site is very well-maintained on that front.
We've invested quite a lot in the past to have the foundation that we have, and very proud that we're able to operate year after year with safe tailings management. Also proud to have one of the mining sites that has the best water reuse and recycled in the world. We have 99% of the water at Bloom Lake that's either reused or recycled. Again, a lot of investment in the past, but that allows us to be one of the leaders in that front. If we look in terms of accomplishments that we did during this year, a very big year for us. If you remember last summer, we managed to complete a $500 million senior unsecured notes offering. So our first high-yield bond that we've implemented, and that was a big success. We also formed a partnership with Japanese partners.
We managed to form a partnership with two of Japan's best companies, Nippon Steel and Sojitz, to be able to advance the Kami project in Newfoundland and Labrador. In terms of that project, we have advanced significantly in terms of the definitive feasibility study and also advanced quite significantly on the permitting process. In terms of other accomplishments, we managed to close our first operating asset acquisition. We acquired Rana Gruber, a project in Norway, so managed to complete that transaction and also to completely finance it with very good partners, including La Caisse de dépôt, which increased our position within your company, and also continued working with our good financial partners. In terms of the biggest highlight, I think for the year, is that we have executed on our strategy to be able to reduce our exposure to Asia in terms of tons.
We have been working for quite some time on a project to allow us to produce a higher grade material, to be able to redirect some tons that were going into Asia to markets that are closer to home. If I go back a few years, I remember quite a lot of people were challenging us in terms of, are we going to be able to hit the grade? I think that was one of the biggest elements. We have demonstrated in the past that we can deliver projects on time and on budget. This is another project that we have managed to deliver on time and on budget, even in these challenging times with a lot of inflation and quite a lot of competition on the construction side.
The construction was one part, but I think one of the elements that people wanted to see is, are we going to be able to hit the grade? Because I think there has been other moments from other companies that there has been people that overpromise things in terms of quality. But I am very happy to be able to say that one of the accomplishments is not only delivering the plant, but hitting the grade that we had found in the lab, that we had found in the pilot testing. But now that we have implemented in large scale, we have managed to hit that grade. Not only one time, we have managed to already, even if we delivered the plant only a few months ago, deliver our first vessel, which has left the port a few weeks ago and is now going to our first client.
Very proud of this accomplishment and very proud of the teams that have made this possible. We have got a pretty big team of dedicated people that is executing on all these different accomplishments that we managed during the year. We managed to complete the year also with a healthy balance sheet. If you look at our balance sheet as at the 30th of June 2026, still had available loans of roughly about just over $ 500 million or just shy of $ 500 million, and still a very healthy balance sheet while completing all these different projects. In terms of the foundation of our company, I think we are very happy with the development of this year. I would have preferred to be able to deliver this plant and to deliver all these accomplishments in a year that there is no conflict in the Middle East.
But we do not choose this timing. Still, I think it is important to deliver on these various elements and to be able to work to divert those tons from Asia, benefit from lower shipping costs selling to our customers, benefit from higher premiums that will come in the future as we bring those tons to the various customers and be able to have a much more stable business going forward. So very happy with the way that we have delivered this DRPF project. In terms of the Rana Gruber acquisition, in terms of the strategic rationale to acquire this asset. As we discussed, our target was to be able to reduce our exposure to Asia because it is the market that is furthest away from our ports in Sept-Îles.
To be able to align with Rana Gruber was important for us to be able to strengthen our partnerships in Europe, because that is definitely one of the target markets that we have to increase our sales. Also be able to secure an asset that has decades of resources in the high-grade iron ore space with the clients that we want. So very good partnership that we have managed to create. We are in the integration phase right now, so working very closely with the teams and very happy to say that the integration is going very well. Not only is our presence well-received over there, but we are working in ways to be able to improve the asset over the next decades. If we look at the focus for 2027 fiscal year, so obviously always continue with our environmental management.
That is definitely the priority, along with the health and safety of all of our employees and contractors that work at site. We also are working to be able to optimize our operations at Bloom Lake and Mo i Rana to make sure that we can continue working on our cost reduction initiatives. Also finalizing the client base for our DRPF project and making sure that we can sell the right tons at the right price to the right customers. Also continue positioning the company for future growth, including the evaluation of growth opportunities. We are talking about the Kami project, to be able to finalize the permitting process that we are doing there, finalize the definitive feasibility study, and continue working on this potential for us.
Finally, while diligent capital management with a balanced approach to reducing our financial leverage to make sure that we can weather any storm, regardless of what the market throws at us. Again, I would like to thank everyone for your support. I think it was a very important year for us at Champion Iron, very important year for our employees, and very proud of what we have been able to accomplish this year. Over to you, Michael.
Thanks, David. It is interesting hearing you reflect on the past because it has been over a decade now since we got that famous phone call in 2016 or 2015, said that we had this asset. We had a pretty clear plan of what we wanted to do, which was commission the plant, phase I and then phase II. As we work through the process, get into higher grade, because our location is such that we are dependent on long shipping voyages. The way to circumvent that was always the thought of the process of we need to be in higher grade into Europe and other areas closer to us. We have continued on that journey, and thank God that what has erupted in the Middle East didn't happen during the last 10 years of the process, because it really would have run us off the rails.
Our team, as good as they are, we can't control the market and how it is. We have got through that period. We are now in a bedding down stage to take advantage of the high-grade material. As Francois and his team have been doing a great job on opening those markets into the Middle East, we have got a lot of interest in the product, and it has come out of the quality that we wanted. All that is extremely positive. The future for us is that we have gone this company from what was Mamba, who had some tenements up in Schefferville, to merging with Champion Iron, acquiring the assets, then buying Bloom Lake. We have always been looking at what is the next opportunity. It would be fair to say to shareholders today that we are now looking at how we go to the next step.
To do that, we are going to need big partners, bigger pockets. We are going to look at how we grow this business in the high grade. It is very important that we are now controlling a big portion of the world's high-grade position, along with people like Vale and Anglo American, smaller. It is now at the stage for us to really think about what we do next. I will leave everyone with that thought, and you can be sure that we are going to be working hard on it. Thank you everyone in Australia and here in Canada for your support, and wish you all good morning and good evening. Thank you very much.