Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, and esteemed guests. My name is Dawne Hickton, and I'm the Chair of Elevra Lithium Limited. I'm honored to chair today's annual general meeting, being the first annual general meeting of Elevra Lithium Limited. On behalf of my fellow directors, it's my pleasure to welcome you to this year's meeting, and I would like to introduce your other directors that are both present in person as well as online. Joining me here in Brisbane are Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Lucas Dow, our Non-Executive Director, Mr. James Brown, Non-Executive Director, Ms. Laurie Lefcourt, Non-Executive Director, Mr. Allan Buckler, and Non-Executive Director, Mr. Jorge M. Beristain. Joining us online, we have our Non-Executive Director, Mr. Jeffrey Armstrong, and our other Non-Executive Director, Ms. Christina Alvord.
This is an important event where we reflect on the achievements and challenges of the past year, and we discuss the future direction of the company, and we provide a forum for you, our valued shareholders, to voice your thoughts and to ask questions. Today's AGM is a hybrid meeting, being that we're holding this both in person at the Capri here by Fraser in Brisbane and online via the Computershare Online meeting platform. Online attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting, and they have the ability to ask questions and submit votes online via the Computershare Online virtual meeting platform. I will note that if technical issues arise with the webcast, and in my opinion, I don't believe it's reasonable in the circumstances to proceed with the meeting, I will adjourn the meeting until the problem is fixed.
Where the meeting is adjourned for a prolonged period of time, we will upload notification of the adjournment into the ASX platform and into the Elevra website. We will also provide details on those sites about when the adjourned meeting will be reconvened. Let's hope that doesn't happen. I now call this meeting to order. I confirm that a quorum is present and now formally declare the meeting open. Our Group CFO, Christian Cortez, and our Company Secretary, Dylan Roberts, are also in attendance, as well as the Company's External Auditor, Ernst & Young, represented today by Andrew Carrick. Our Share Registry, Computershare, is represented today by Jesse Yerma, who is appointed as our Returning Officer. To enable shareholders to consider the business of today's meeting, a Notice of Meeting was made available to all shareholders via Elevra's website and the ASX announcement platform.
I will take the Notice of Meeting as being read. The signed minutes of last year's AGM are with the Company Secretary and are available for inspection if required. Before proceeding further, I advise that 645 proxies, totaling just over 52.9 million votes, have been received for this meeting. Where an available proxy has been given to the Chair of the meeting without instructions, I will vote in favor of Resolutions one to nine. Looking at the slide today, let me outline the structure of today's meeting. First, you'll hear the Chair's address. Then I'll run through the formal meeting procedures. We will then deal with the resolutions, proxies, and voting. You will be able to ask questions on each resolution put to the meeting. The questions, however, must be relevant to the resolutions being considered.
Any other questions can be put forward after the formal proceedings are closed. At the conclusion of the formal part of the meeting, our Managing Director, Mr. Lucas Dow, will present an update on the Company's financial performance and operations. Following that, we will then open the floor for general questions. To ensure everyone's voice is heard, we request that your questions remain concise and are relevant to Elevra and its operations. If the questions have already been appropriately addressed, we will move to the next topic or question. Please note that the Board and Management will also make ourselves available at the refreshment session after the meeting to address any additional questions you may have. Moving on to the Chair's address.
Before we move to the discussion about our 2025 results and our outlook, I'd like to take a moment to introduce Elevra Lithium. Elevra was formed through the merger of Piedmont Lithium and Sayona Mining, creating a larger, stronger, and simpler business. We now have the scale, resources, and operational capabilities required to compete in a rapidly expanding lithium market. Today, we are the largest operating hard rock lithium producer in North America, and we have the right assets to become a global leader. We assembled a board to support that ambition, bringing operational and financial experience, as well as deep knowledge of the lithium sector. The Elevra board today reflects the combined strengths of both companies to ensure continuity and to provide a new perspective.
Our management team also represents a combination of Piedmont and Sayona, and this group brings together complementary capabilities and experience across project management, mining operations, commercial strategy, sustainability, corporate governance, and commercial markets. Most importantly, the Board and Management team share the common goal of building a resilient lithium business that creates long-term value for you, our shareholders. Now let me touch on some of our key achievements. Operationally, we delivered a strong performance at North American Lithium with record production. We set out targets for financial year 2025 for production, sales, unit operating costs, and capital and exploration expenditure, and I am pleased to report that we delivered within the expected range for every metric, and we saw a 31% increase in tons produced with a 9% reduction in operating costs. Importantly, we also made significant strides in improving our safety and our sustainability performance.
The well-being of our employees and the communities where we operate, as well as the environment, are critical to the success of our business. For the year, we set ambitious safety goals for reduction in our total recordable injury frequency rate and for safety compliance. We performed well against those goals, and we are going to look forward to continuing to build upon that success. We also recorded a 14% reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions for the year despite the 31% increase in tons produced. When compared to 2024, this means we saw a 33% decrease in emissions per ton of LCE produced. We have made considerable investments into process improvements at NAL, and the result is that we have a solid foundation to build upon as we continue to optimize production and as we advance our growth plans.
On the merger, we're proud to see the transaction receive overwhelming support from the shareholders of both Sayona and Piedmont. Our mission was to create a North American Lithium champion, and our focus has turned now from planning to execution. As a board, we looked at the merger as an opportunity to review our governance practices and take specific actions to improve those. We've implemented many changes, but I'd like to focus on a couple that are most notable. First, as obvious from my introductions, we had a major refresh of the board and placed an emphasis on increasing the percentage of independent directors, as well as improving gender diversity and representation with the appointment of a female chair.
The board currently stands at eight members, with a majority being independent, including myself, and we have a succession plan to reduce the size of the board to six directors while we maintain a minimum of at least four independent directors. On remuneration, we refined the scorecard used to measure performance to ensure that outcomes were measurable and increasingly tied to the operational and financial success of the business, which, as you can imagine, should also align with increased shareholder value. Remuneration is now fully performance-based, independently benchmarked, and transparently disclosed. We have also transitioned to a more mature company where our governance framework is fully aligned with ASX principles. I am pleased with the progress we have made, but as always, there is still more work to be done, and we will ensure we continue to do that. One specific area is sustainability.
We've embedded sustainability metrics into our remuneration framework, and we're seeing success, but our focus on sustainability and reporting remains a priority. In 2026, we plan to stand up an ESG committee and report under towards sustaining mining and international financial reporting standards frameworks. As we look ahead, the opportunity in front of Elevra is significant. The world needs more reliable, sustainable sources of lithium, and our assets, our team, and our strategy place us in a strong position to meet that challenge. Now let me turn to the formal matters to be considered today. Voting on all resolutions today will be conducted by way of a poll, and shortly I'll outline the procedure for the poll and then run through each of the resolutions to be voted on today.
The wording of each resolution and the proxy votes which have been submitted for each resolution will be shown on the screen as each of them is being considered. As a reminder, I will take questions on each resolution from shareholders or their authorized representatives, and questions should relate to the resolution being presented and voted upon at that time. When voting on all resolutions is complete, we'll close the meeting, and the results of the poll will be published via a release made to the ASX, and it will also be made available on the Company's website. I appoint Ms. Jesse Yerma from Computershare as Returning Officer. Let me now take a moment to explain the procedure that's going to be conducted. Online attendees can submit questions at any time. As the screen is showing, to ask a question, select the Q&A icon.
Type your question in the text box. Once you finish typing, please hit the send button. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please note that your questions may be moderated, so if we receive multiple questions on one topic, these will be amalgamated together. To ask a verbal question, please follow the instructions written below the broadcast. If you're eligible to vote, once voting opens, please press the vote icon, and all resolutions will be activated with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There's no need to hit a submit or enter button as the vote is automatically tabulated. You'll receive a vote confirmation notification on your screen. You can change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed.
For shareholders and proxy holders who are attending today in person, you would have received a blue voting card. Please complete the reverse of your voting card, and the member of the Computershare team will collect your card at the end of the poll. I now declare voting open on all items of business. For those attending online, I will give you a warning before I move to close voting. Now let's move to the business of the meeting, and the first item of business deals with the financial statements and reports. These have been provided to our shareholders and are now presented to the meeting. These financial statements and reports are for the Company's financial year ended June 30th, 2025. I should note that this is not a resolution.
As I have advised, representatives from the Company's external auditors are present today to answer any questions shareholders may wish to direct to them in relation to the conduct of their audit in relation to the preparation of the financial statements. I can confirm that neither the Company nor its current auditors have received any written questions about the content of the auditor's report or the conduct of the audit prior to this meeting. I now invite questions and comments on the financial statements and the reports. It's hard for me to see with the bright lights. Are there any questions, firstly, from shareholders in the room? Okay. Moderator, are there any questions online?
We don't have any questions online at the moment.
Okay. As there are no questions, I will now move to the resolutions to be considered. Resolution one, Adoption of the Remuneration Report. This resolution relates to the adoption of the Company's remuneration report for the financial year ended June 30th, 2025. The remuneration report is contained in the Company's 2025 annual report, which was made available to shareholders. I refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. As a reminder, this resolution is advisory in nature and does not bind the Company or its directors. I note that a voting exclusion statement applies to this resolution as set out in the notice of the meeting. Are there any questions from the shareholders present in the room? Seeing none, let me move to the moderator. Do we have any online?
There are no questions related to this resolution.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. There being no further questions, I put the resolution to the meeting. If you haven't already done so, please now cast your vote online for this item. Okay. I will now hand over to my fellow director, James Brown, to deal with resolution number two.
Thank you, Dawn. The next resolution is the election of Dawn Hickton as director. Details of Ms. Hickton's qualifications and experience are set out in the notice of meeting. I refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. Are there any questions, firstly, from shareholders in the room? It is quite bright up here. Moderator, any questions online?
There are no questions related to this resolution.
Okay. There being no further questions, I'll put the resolution to the meeting. If you haven't already done so, please cast your vote now online for this item.
Okay. Thank you, James. Let me refer to resolution number three, and this is the election of Director Jeffrey Armstrong. Details of Mr. Armstrong's qualifications and experience are set out in the notice of meeting. I refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. Any questions from the room? Seeing none, Mr. Moderator, any questions?
There are no questions for this resolution.
Great. There being no further questions, I put this resolution to the meeting. The next resolution is the election of Jorge Berenstein as a director. Details of Mr. Berenstein's qualifications and experience are also set out in the notice of meeting. I refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room? Seeing no hand raised, Mr. Moderator?
No questions for this resolution either.
Okay. There being no further questions, I put the resolution to the meeting, and we will move to resolution number five. This next resolution is the election of Christina Alvord as a director. Details of Ms. Alvord's qualifications and experience are set out in the notice of meeting. I also refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution and ask if there are any questions first from shareholders in the room. Seeing none, Mr. Moderator, any questions online?
There are no questions for this one either.
Okay. There being no further questions, I put the resolution to the meeting, and we will move to number six. This is the ratification of the agreement to issue options to Resource Capital Fund VIII. The next resolution seeks shareholder approval for the ratification of the agreement to issue options to Resource Capital Fund VIII LP on the terms set out in the notice of meeting. I refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. I note that a voting exclusion statement applies to this resolution as set out in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room? Seeing none, Mr. Moderator, do we have any?
No questions on this one.
Okay. Thank you, sir. All right. Moving right along, there being no further questions, I put that resolution to the meeting. We will turn to resolution number seven. This is the approval of the equity incentive plan and issues of securities under it. This next resolution seeks shareholder approval to adopt a new equity incentive plan for the combined group and to issue the issuance of up to 8,422,942 equity securities under it over the next three years. I do want to note that the figure I just read is not an indication of the actual number of equity securities that will be issued under the executive equity incentive plan, but it is rather a ceiling, and that is 5% of Elevra issued capital at the date of the notice of the meeting for purposes, pardon me, of the ASX listing rules.
A summary of the rules of the new equity incentive plan is set out in schedule one to the notice of meeting. I note that a voting exclusion statement applies to this resolution as set out in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions from the shareholders in the room? Seeing none, Mr. Moderator.
There are none for this resolution.
Okay. Thank you. There being no further questions, I put this resolution to the meeting, and we'll move on to resolution number eight, which is the grant of STI short-term incentive performance rights to the CEO and Managing Director. The next resolution seeks shareholder approval for the grant of 108,088 STI performance rights, those are short-term incentive performance rights to the Managing Director and CEO under the Company's equity incentive plan. These performance rights constitute the equity component of the Managing Director and CEO's fiscal year 2026 short-term incentive award. The performance criteria applicable to the proposed issue of these STI performance rights, which are set out in the notice of meeting, have been selected by the board to firmly align the MD CEO's remuneration with the achievement of outcomes, which will positively enhance the company as well as enhance shareholder returns.
These deferred STI performance rights are also subject to a further 12-month employment condition, and they're expected to vest no later than the 30th of September 2027. I refer to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution to date, and I note that a voting exclusion statement applies to the resolution as set out in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions from shareholders in the room? Mr. Moderator, any questions?
We do have a couple. Firstly, how do the performance metrics chosen for both the STI and LTI drive value for shareholders, and how does this include the NAL expansion or Moblan?
Okay. Great question. The remuneration committee and then ultimately the full board worked very diligently on performance metrics that tied the performance of not only the CEO, but the entire management team based upon metrics including things like safety, operating performance, and production, as well as metrics for the overall running of the company, and basing this upon the opportunity to also enhance shareholder value representing total shareholder return.
Thank you. Next question. Investors need a two-to-five-year plan with defined timelines and KPIs. When will Elevra publish a roadmap that includes production targets, expansion milestones, Moblan timelines, downstream plans, and partnership objectives? How are the LTI and STI incentives currently measured without these?
I would answer that by saying, firstly, we actually have provided to our shareholders significant pieces of information about the plan and the company moving forward. As you read the performance metrics, these are tied to that plan, and this will indeed enhance the performance going forward as well as shareholder value. Lucas, is there any additional comment you want to make?
Thanks, Dawn. I think as we've discussed in a broad number of engagements with shareholders and the market more broadly, we've laid out essentially our strategy as being an upstream hard rock spodumene concentrate producer, and we've given those three pillars and focus over the next 18 months. They are really directly driving towards operational improvement, our growth opportunities, so advancing the NAL Brownfield expansion, Moblan, and so forth. The third piece is integrating with downstream developers with a view of being able to integrate a leveraged spodumene concentrate into those downstream projects, but in the capacity as a partner more than a developer in the downstream capacity.
Okay. Thank you, Lucas. Any other questions?
One more. How can shareholders be assured that remuneration reflects performance? Will the board tie incentives more strongly to share price, cost reductions, and partnership milestones?
As I indicated, I think we have tied them to all of those, particularly as you see the tie to total shareholder return. So as our shareholders do well, so does our management team and vice versa.
There are no further questions.
Okay. Thank you. With that, there being no further questions, I'll put the resolution to the meeting, and we'll move on to the next resolution. This is the grant of the long-term incentives performance rights to the CEO and Managing Director. The next resolution seeks shareholder approval for the grant of 226,470 LTI performance rights to Managing Director and CEO under the Company's equity incentive plan. These LTI performance rights constitute the long-term incentive component of the Managing Director and the CEO's FY 2026 remuneration package discussed in the previous resolution. The performance criteria applicable to the proposed issue of these LTI performance rights are set out in some detail in the notice of meeting. Subject to the satisfaction of these relevant performance criteria, they are expected to vest no later than August 31st, 2028.
I refer you to the screen. I refer you to the screen for details of the proxies received for this resolution. I also note that a voting exclusion statement applies to this resolution as set out in the notice of meeting. Any questions from the room? Mr. Moderator, any questions online?
We do have one. When disclosing the outcome of all resolutions today, including this proposed LTI grant, will you advise the ASX on how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to a scheme of arrangement?
Following the meeting, we will be following the ASX listing rules to announce what those votes are. However, we don't do that by individual shareholder, as that would be misleading, as some of the nominees will vote in favor of for a group. Consistent with ASX listing rules, we will be providing the results online.
Thank you. That's all the questions for this resolution.
Okay. That is the last resolution. As outlined at the outset of this meeting, I will now put resolutions one through nine to a poll. Computershare, will you now come around and collect the voting cards? For those of you online, I would encourage you to vote as they are collecting the cards around the room now. As all the voting cards have been collected here, I now declare both the poll and the formal part of the meeting closed. In conclusion, as I noted earlier, detail of the final results will be posted on both the company's website and on the ASX Company Announcement platform later today. At this point, the most exciting part of the day, I would like to introduce our Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Lucas Dow, and give him an opportunity for you to ask some more questions.
Thank you, Dawn. Financial year 2025 marked meaningful progress at North American Lithium from a safety, production, and cost standpoint. From a safety perspective, we saw our total recordable injury frequency rate reduced by 27% as compared to the previous reporting period. Production averaged over 50,000 tons per quarter, with full-year production increasing by more than 30% from 2024. We also saw a significant improvement in unit operating costs on a ton sold and a ton produced basis, reflecting the operational stability and process improvements put in place by Sylvain Collard, our Chief Operating Officer, and our team at North American Lithium. Financially, we generated $223 million in revenue for the year. While lithium prices softened during the year, we increased sales volumes and worked with trading partners to secure commercially attractive terms while also allocating capital to high-priority initiatives.
While operating in a difficult macro environment, we also completed the merger with Sayona Mining and Piedmont Lithium to form Elevra Lithium. We believe the structure of the company provides benefits to a global shareholder base with a primary listing on the ASX and secondary on the NASDAQ. This dual-listing approach ensures we are visible and investable across two of the deepest global capital markets for lithium producers. Importantly, shares can be converted between the two listings, and shareholders who previously invested through over-the-counter or OTC instruments also have the ability to convert to a primary listing. Instructions for doing so can be found under the investors section on our website. Now that we've built a stronger platform through the merger and strengthened our financial position, we can begin to focus on creating long-term value.
Having outlined the recent success of the business, I'd like to walk through our strategy and the framework that guides our decisions. First, we're focused on optimizing our existing operations by maintaining the consistent production performance from financial year 2025 while making incremental improvements to reduce costs. Second, Elevra is focused on developing its resource base and progressing a pipeline of assets that supports expanded production. The release of the NAL Brownfield Expansion scoping study in September was a key milestone in progressing this work. Thirdly, we will look to integrate Elevra into the downstream supply chain for lithium chemicals through partnerships that provide the required technical and operational expertise.
To be clear, Elevra is a hard rock spodumene mining business, and we intend to support and ideally accelerate the development of downstream assets, but this will require partners with the requisite skills, technical competence, and also the ability to be able to bring those projects online. FY 2025 was the first full year of steady-state operations at NAL. We operated within guidance, delivered higher production and sales, and delivered our cost base, reflecting disciplined execution by Sylvain and the NAL team. The year was not without its challenges. Unseasonable weather caused unplanned downtime in early calendar year 2025. The team responded quickly, and we've implemented measures to improve operational resilience in the future.
More recently, we started financial year 2026 with production of about 52,000 tons for the quarter, unit operating costs of AUD 1,250 and approximately 26,000 tons sold to customers, while deliberately stockpiling finished goods to allow for increased sales in the December quarter to align with our commercial strategy. These results are a direct reflection of the dedication and discipline of our operational team in Québec, whose focus on safety, reliability, and continuous improvement has been critical to our success. Turning now to the resource base, we've seen significant growth in the consolidated mineral resource estimates since the 2024 annual general meeting, and we now host the largest consolidated spodumene resource base in North America at 229 million tons. At NAL, we saw a significant increase in the ore reserves.
This underpins our plans to expand production at NAL, with our scoping study highlighting a material reduction in production costs and increased annual output. For Moblan, we continue to be impressed with the resource. The mineral resource estimate now sits over 120 million tons, with 48 million tons of ore reserves with a grade of 1.3%. In our view, Moblan stands out as one of the most compelling greenfield hard rock spodumene deposits in North America, based on its scale, location, and its competitiveness within the southern portion of Québec's James Bay region. We're continuing to advance Moblan's approvals and permitting, and also considering revisiting Moblan's DFS to explore increasing annual production, given the updated resource and potential benefits to capital intensity on a per-ton basis.
Turning back to NAL, an expansion at NAL was one of the key considerations driving the merger between Sayona and Piedmont, and we see significant opportunity for near-term growth. This expansion makes NAL commercially competitive across market cycles. The study shows that we can increase annual concentrate production to 315,000 tons per year and improve unit economics substantially with C1 cash costs of approximately $560 US per ton. Our plan is to add a second milling and flotation line within the existing plant at NAL, which provides a significant cost benefit relative to developing a greenfield project. At an estimated $270 million capital cost, we plan to move this expansion forward and are in the process of evaluating potential funding structures with a preference for funding which maintains a clean balance sheet and preserves shareholder value.
This potential funding from government, strategic partners, or traditional project finances is being advanced at present. The critical path for the expansion is related to permitting, with an expected two and a half years of work prior to FID in calendar year 2027, construction to follow in 2028, with first production in late 2029. We believe this is a timeline that reflects historical precedents in the province of Québec, and we are also working on opportunities to accelerate this timeframe. Let me now take a moment to speak about the broader lithium market and how conditions are evolving as we head into 2026. Over the past several months, we've seen a noticeable shift in sentiment and fundamentals where the physical market has tightened. This has been reflected in spot activity where recent spodumene concentrate sales have been reported at prices above $1,200 US per ton on an SC6 basis.
Analysts are increasingly forecasting supply deficits to emerge over the next 12 months as demand continues to grow, particularly from the stationary storage or ESS market. EV sales remain strong with 23% year-on-year growth through to the end of October, while supply additions remain constrained after a period of underinvestment across the sector. For Elevra, this backdrop reinforces our strategy to maintain operational discipline, deliver tons into a tightening market, and advance projects to expand our resource base and grow production. We believe Elevra is well positioned to benefit as the market shifts into a deficit and the long-term fundamentals remain compelling. The last item I'd like to cover is FY 2026 guidance, which I'm pleased to say is unchanged from the figures provided in our September quarterly report.
Spodumene concentrate production and sales volumes are expected to be in the range of 195,000-210,000 tons for the year, which is in line with the performance seen in financial year 2025. Importantly, sales are expected to be weighted towards the second quarter of each half, so we expect to deliver increased sales in the second and fourth quarters. We continue to work on reducing our unit costs, and in particular, we're focused on delivering within our range on a unit cost of ton sold basis between AUD 1,175- AUD 1,275 per ton. Capital expenditure for financial year 2026 is expected to be approximately AUD 40 million, with the majority of the spend focused on sustaining capital at NAL and the remainder being selectively allocated to our growth projects. I will now invite general questions from the meeting. Are there any questions, firstly, from shareholders in the room?
If so, please raise your hand. Moderator, are there any questions online?
Yes, we have some questions. [crosstalk]
Excellent.
Elevra has one of the largest combined hard rock lithium resource bases globally with production at NAL and no net debt, yet trades at a discount to the valuation of companies like Liontown, Sigma Lithium, and Pilbara on a per-ton basis. What does management believe is the primary reason for this market disconnect, and what specific actions are being taken to address it?
Thank you for the question. I think in reality, we're closing that, if you like, that gap on that value gap quite rapidly. In reality, we only concluded the merger in September, so Elevra is still a very young company. I think if you would talk to investors previously, the tie-up or the way in which the offtake agreement that had existed between Piedmont and Sayona had really complicated it for investors, and there was some overhang there. Through the merger, we've been able to eliminate that offtake agreement. As a consequence of that, the story is much stronger. We've also been able to advance the Brownfield expansion scoping study for NAL. We have a much cleaner portfolio. In fact, the narrative is a lot cleaner. We're starting to see the stock re-rate in that space. We expect to continue to close that gap.
As we had said this time last year, one of the key elements to be able to take advantage of price recoveries, you've got to be an incumbent producer, and we've been able to sustain that. Hats off to Sylvain and the crew at NAL who've really been able to weather the storm through that lower price cycle. Now we're uniquely positioned to take advantage of the price recovery. I guess to quote some of the brokers that we've spoken to recently, they consider us the cheapest producer. We certainly expect to see continued investor interest. If evidenced by the last couple of days where we've taken, I think, in the order of 10 or 12 investor meetings, we're seeing renewed interest in Elevra, and we're very excited to continue to drive shareholder value.
Thank you. Elevra has an enormous portfolio of assets that currently have limited recognition and value in the share price. What's the plan to advance, monetize, or partner these assets so that shareholders realize their value?
A big part of that, we've spent the last really three months since we concluded the merger and marketing with investors, and that's included participating in webcasts and so forth, and really been able to enunciate the strategy and also the quality of the portfolio that we've got. We've laid out essentially the NAL timeframe for the Brownfield expansion. Moblan, we're continuing to advance. We've had significant success upgrading the mineral resource estimate, as I described earlier. Now that we've got that drilling complete, we're considering updating the DFS and contemplating a higher production capacity there and also looking at improving the capital efficiency. Historically, a greenfield project in Québec of the scale of Moblan will require federal permitting as well. That's a minimum of five years' horizon.
We're actually pushing the work along so that we minimize that critical path, but the reality is there's certain stages and steps that we need to meet under the Québec and also Canadian permitting regimes.
Thank you. You've previously mentioned about discussions with OEMs, battery manufacturers, and potential strategic partners. Can the company clarify how advanced these discussions are and what types of agreements—offtake, investment, JV, downstream processing—are realistic for the next 12 months?
Yeah. Andrew, before I take that, I'll just close out because I'd cut the rest of the portfolio short. AWOI is also a key and very interesting project. We like the project technically. It makes a lot of sense. The reality is, if you stack it up in the context of our portfolio, the way that the JV structure is currently formed with Atlantic Lithium, in short, we've got 22.5%. We've got the ability to earn up to 43.5%. The way that that's structured, Atlantic have got a capital estimate of $185 million to develop AWOI in the market. In short, we'd have to fund $70 million to be able to develop that project and then the first $70 million in and then 50-50 thereafter. The reality of that is the nature of that JV structure. We've got more attractive options with NAL and also Moblan.
Whilst we love that project from a technical perspective and we think it's very attractive, the JV structure really doesn't quite work as it's currently formed. There's a piece that we've got to do there. It'd be remiss of me not to mention the Carolina project in North Carolina, particularly with the Trump administration's desire to be able to onshore conversion capacity and so forth. The project at North Carolina, the permits have been advanced with a view of being able to have an integrated spodumene and downstream conversion facility. That's an area that has got great strategic value and that we're exploring and we've been engaging with the Trump administration on already. Now, coming back to Andrew's question or the question around offtake agreements and downstream and so forth, if I've got the thrust of that, Andrew.
That's great. What types of agreements and discussions could we expect to be realized over the next 12 months?
Yeah. As you'd expect, we're engaging with a number of parties at present. I think one of the key things to acknowledge, and often this is a little misunderstood in the market, is that often people think that if you've got an offtake agreement, that it's all milk and honey and that it's the greatest opportunity you've got. The reality is we've got two existing offtake agreements with Tesla and LG Chem, both great customers, but the reality of those commercial terms is that we're faring better in the spot market than we would under the existing commercial terms. Are we interested in offtake agreements and partnering arrangements? Absolutely, but they've got to be on the right commercial terms, and that's what we're driven by. Ultimately, as always, when we think about decisions, what's in the best interest of shareholders and what's the best commercial outcome?
This might be slightly related, but maybe you could just add a little bit. Peers that are also early in production, like Liontown and Sigma, have secured major strategic investors, institutional support, and long-term offtakes. What's Elevra doing differently to attract similar high-caliber strategic backers?
I think one of the very unique positions we've got as Elevra in that we've got no secured debt on the balance sheet. We have a number of degrees of freedom, and there are opportunities that certainly Christian Cortez, our CFO, will be taking advantage of as we think about funding structures for NAL. We do not need to be rushing into offtake agreements in terms of funding strategy or for debt and so on. Really, the flexibility and the opportunity that we've got is that we can structure deals around potential offtake and so forth or strategic investment at the asset level where it is going to maximize our commercial returns rather than having to sort of be painted into a corner now.
We are uniquely positioned, and we have got a great number of degrees of freedom that we are going to be able to explore and really be able to maximize shareholder returns.
In the context of those strategic investors or debt financing that could be available for the NAL expansion, can you commit that equity dilution will be avoided unless absolutely necessary?
I've been at this game long enough to say never say never, but clearly our objective is to be able to avoid those situations. We've got a number of opportunities available to us. Clearly, the likes of government funding, government grants for things like feasibility studies are ways to be able to advance a project. We're also seeing sovereign funds available as well. Investment, bringing on a strategic partner at the asset level is clearly one pathway. We've seen the Trump administration cut a number of deals in the U.S., and Canadian projects are not excluded from that as well. We've really got a number of opportunities to be able to move in that space.
We clearly prefer to avoid moving into a dilutionary space, but it's really going to come down to what we consider to be in the best interest of shareholders as we move forward.
Thank you. Moblan's been called a beast of a deposit and is potentially the company's biggest long-term value driver. What's the timeline for a revised DFS, permitting, funding, and construction, and will Elevra consider bringing in a strategic partner to accelerate it?
Moblan, we've got 60% Investissement Québec, which is the investment arm of the Québec government. It's got the other 40%. It is a fantastic deposit. Just continues to surprise on the upside. Long life, low cost, expandable. When we put the DFS out in 2023, I think we contemplated a production level around 300,000-350,000 tons of concentrate. Reality is, with the resource base having grown, it'll probably support a much larger production rate than that. It's not to say that we'd build it in one go. We'd probably stage that, but we do want to revisit the DFS. We'd expect to do that during the course of 2026. As I mentioned earlier, the critical path for Moblan is very much around the permitting and at the federal level.
We've heard from Prime Minister Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, his desire to be able to truncate permitting timeframes. We're actively working through that, and Sylvain and the crew in Québec are exploring those opportunities to be able to fast-track that. If you think about the sequence, it's very much NAL, near-term Brownfield expansion, low technical risk, very capital efficient and modest capital required. Moblan will have a larger capital ask, and just based on historical precedence, the project's going to take a little longer to get permitted. We're going to work through that methodically, and you can rest assured the market will be updated as we're making progress.
Thank you. Have you considered spinning out non-core assets into a gold lithium exploration IPO to realize additional value?
Yeah. We have got some gold tenements in Western Australia. I think, to be clear, Elevra is a lithium company, so that's where our primary focus is, and that'll continue to be the case. I mean, clearly, if there's some opportunity to realize some value there for shareholders, we'll continue to consider that. You can rest assured these sort of things are at the forefront of the board's mind as we review the portfolio, but at this point, that wouldn't represent a pathway that we'll be looking to move on in the near term.
Thank you. Does Elevra currently have the right board mix? Are you planning to add any entrepreneurial or high-profile directors who can attract institutional capital?
I'm going to pass this to Dawn, but I can say this from a management perspective. We're ecstatic with the composition that we've got of the board. We've got an excellent blend from our perspective in terms of being able to both challenge, govern, and raise the expectations for management. But Dawn, over to you.
Sure. Now, again, another great question. As I pointed out in my opening remarks, we've upgraded the board here. We've added some additional individuals. We've taken some great directors from the Piedmont board and added them with the Elevra board, with the Sayona Mining Company folks. Together, we've gotten a great team of people that bring capital markets experience, strong financial experience, strong manufacturing and mining experience, as well as overall experience having worked on large global public companies. I think that brings a lot of talent to the board, a lot of expertise that allows us to work with management, challenge management, and really bring insights on things we've seen in the past. I mean, we've got people with lithium backgrounds, even including myself. In my past executive, most recent executive role, I worked on a lithium project with the United States with the Department of Energy.
We really bring a lot of substantive support as we go forward for this exciting new Elevra company.
Thanks, Dawn.
Thank you. Did any of the proxy advisors recommend against the remuneration report, and has there been a material protest vote?
I'm going to go ahead and take that. Yeah. We had, to our knowledge, both ISS and Glass Lewis, who are the largest proxy advisors, have both issued reports, and I'm excited to say that their recommendations were to vote in favor of all resolutions.
Chairing a merged company is no easy job. Could Dawne please comment on what she regards as the most challenging aspects of the job so far? Also, how extensive was her engagement with proxy advisors and major institutional shareholders ahead of today's AGM?
Okay. First of all, I'm excited and honored to be the chair of this company. I think it's a phenomenal and exciting opportunity. As far as my own personal experience, I've served on several large global public company boards, chairing not only major committees such as audit as well as governance committees. I'm also former vice chair and CEO of a publicly traded global metals manufacturing company. It was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. As far as chairing a board, my last chair position was actually chairing the 12 Federal Reserve Bank boards for the United States Federal Reserve. That was a challenge. Having said that, the challenge here is really working with a great team of people.
From the management team, when I think of Sylvain up in Québec, where I got to fly up and tour the facilities, maybe the challenge for me was doing that in the middle of winter. That could have been my worst challenge. Really allowing an opportunity for the people sitting here on my right and our two directors that are online to make sure as we enter into our board meetings, bringing that wealth of information so we have the robust discussions, and we provide that insight and our experience to Lucas and his team as we all work together to grow the company. I think it's very exciting.
Just the second part of that question, Dawne. Engagement with proxy advisors and institutional shareholders was the second part of that. [crosstalk]
I personally did not meet with any proxy advisors, but I know that the team did.
Yeah. I just want to clarify. We did offer meetings to proxy advisors, which they declined, and we did contact all major shareholders, and they were offered meetings but declined.
Yeah. In fact, I did clear my schedule for that. I was stateside in the United States at the time, but we offered the meetings. They declined. Since they voted in our favor, I think they had all the information they needed.
Will a copy of the AGM webcast be published to our website?
I'm sorry. Say again?
The question was, will a copy of the AGM webcast be published on our website?
Yes.
Yes. Okay. The question here is, the only parties that gained out of this merger were the board of directors and the institutions. What do you have to say to the retail shareholders who lost value while standing by the company?
I'm happy to take that one, Dawn, or would you like to?
Yeah.
You open up then.
Yeah. Again, as we look at this, this is an opportunity to take into the market where we are today as market conditions exist to take and bring value to all of our shareholders. Certainly, we meet with institutional shareholders, but we also provide a lot of information to our retail shareholders from just the fact that we have AGM meetings, information on our website, and continued providing available information and support as we grow the company for all shareholders and bring value for all shareholders. Lucas, you may want to follow on that.
No, I think, Dawn, you've nailed it. I mean, the other part I would make is that all the directors hold shares in the company as well. We have people with skin in the game that are making decisions in the best interests of shareholders. You can rest assured that we're focused on that as well, and we're going to continue to drive value for all shareholders.
Okay. For more than a year, the company has explained that the merger and integration would unlock value over the next 18 months. In the latest Elevra presentations, we still have an 18-month strategy. From a shareholder's perspective, that now looks like almost three years of rolling transition, pre-merger planning, a year to get the merger done, and now another 18-month execution window. Three parts to the question. What specific measurable outcomes will Elevra deliver by the end of this current 18-month window?
Yeah. I think the first piece, we'd flag merger synergies in the order of 10 million-15 million US. We're well on track on that. We expect to have an update for you at the half-year results. Just bear in mind, the merger did not complete until September. This is the first quarter that we will actually have been able to remove those costs. You can expect to see, you will expect to get an update of those recurring savings that you will see. We've already embedded those synergies, and they're starting to roll through. Logistics savings, the marketing aspects, collapsing of the JV structure, and the reporting obligations are all being ripping through. In short, we will be providing the market with an update, and you will be able to track and see exactly how we're delivering up on those elements.
I think the other component as well is that the characterization that's going to take us 18 months to realize, that I don't think is correct, and people can expect to see, as I said, at the half-year, an indicative run rate of where we're at, and we'll well and truly be delivering upon that well before 18 months.
The second part of that question was, how do those items you just mentioned differ from what was outlined at the November 2024 merger announcement?
No. We're right on track in terms of delivering upon those commitments around synergies that we've described. The NAL Brownfield scoping study, that was actually delivered ahead of time, and that was unlocked as a consequence of the merger. If you were to look at sort of where things had progressed, the reality is that both management and the boards have been working collaboratively and been able to try to get ahead of those things, obviously in line with our legal obligations, such that we've hit the ground running, and I'm looking forward at the half-year to be able to really be able to demonstrate this with our results.
If those outcomes—this is specifically to you, Lucas—if those outcomes are not delivered within that timeframe, what do you believe is a fair accountability mechanism for you and the board?
I think, as always, and I think, as Dawn outlined, our remuneration, particularly around the STI and the LTIs, all around shareholder value, and in particular, delivering upon those outcomes. In short, I'll feel it in the hip pocket as will the entire management team. We are incentivized to be able to make—to be able to push the share price forward, and that's what we are going to continue to focus on. Ultimately, that's a question for the board. Dawn, you might want to add to that about how the board thinks about performance.
No, Lucas, glad to hear you say that. No, that's exactly how we think about performance. The remuneration committee, as well as then taking that further to the full board, our focus is on paying for performance. We have really carefully thought through performance metrics, and the whole goal at the end of the day is to drive shareholder value for all of us. If you do not meet the metrics, then there are specific approaches on how you will deal with that. At the end of the day, we are all driven to support that growth for the company.
Thank you. What's being done to progress the Mirella joint venture?
We're working hand in hand with Mirella in terms of the exploration tenements that we've got in Western Australia. Probably more appropriate, given that Mirella is the major joint venture partner, to get an update from the Mirella folks. I think they've got their AGM coming up the next week or so. We're obviously excited about the work that's been happening around the rubidium discovery in those tenements in the west.
Can you comment on why Keith Phillips has disappeared since the merger?
It is necessary to say that Keith disappeared. It was always part of the transition that post-integration and completion of the merger that we would see a reduction in the corporate costs on both sides. In short, between the two companies, previously, we had two—there were two CEOs. We have one CEO, we have one CFO, one Chief Legal Counsel. They are the synergies that we are referring to in the previous question. At completion, Keith finished up, and we obviously were very appreciative of all the work that Keith had put into getting the merger complete. At that point, he had separated from the business.
Maybe I'll just add a comment. I would question the comment, "Disappeared." He's certainly reached out to me, and he's very active in supporting seeing a successful future for Elevra.
Is Elevra pursuing a role as a preferred US lithium supplier? Do your discussions with the Trump administration support this strategic positioning?
Yes.
Perfect. Could you provide a checklist of items that we need approval from the Québec government for the NAL expansion?
We'll be here for the next 45 minutes, so I'll just summarize this. In short, we need environmental permits, as would anyone approaching a brownfield expansion. In short, it requires things like environmental baseline study, air quality studies, those general run-of-the-mill emissions-type aspects, water, flora, fauna, those baseline works. Their activities, we've already completed the first round of that. We did that in the northern hemisphere summer just completed. We're in good shape there. As I said, we're working to see how we might be able to move through that approvals process a little quicker than the two and a half years that we've seen historically. We're moving through that methodically, and people should think about this just like any other project that you'd expect to get permitted in the province of Québec.
Thank you. At the end of quarter one, there was a significant amount of spodumene stockpiled. Have you added additional storage at the port to keep such a large quantity?
No. The short answer is we haven't. I mean, you've got to remember that we've got the warehousing capacity both on site. I mean, you've also got inventory that's in transit. That's on road, rail, and also at the port facility. We haven't had to add any additional stockpiling or warehousing capacity to be able to hold that inventory.
Okay. A couple of quarters ago, we produced 59,000 tons, which demonstrated the potential capacity of the plant. So far in shipping, we've been using larger vessels to control costs. Wouldn't it make sense to try and synchronize production increments of 30,000 tons and, as such, producing 60,000 tons per quarter to precisely fill two ships?
Why stop there? Make it 90,000 a quarter. I mean, the short answer is investors should rest assured we're doing everything we can to be able to maximize volume safely and drive down our unit costs. Every quarter, we're challenging ourselves, and Sylvain, that's what gets him up, and he has the team motivated every day is to continue to drive volume up and cost down. Rest assured we're doing that, and where we can maximize volume, we will certainly do it.
At the end of FY2025, a $271 million impairment was taken, and it was stated that the Piedmont offtake contract contributed most to that. Now that that offtake is gone, will this impairment be reversed? If so, when?
Christian, why don't you answer this one? It's an exciting accounting question. Please.
Thank you, Lucas and moderator. Yes. The question, I guess, partially answers itself. There was a requirement for us to assess the asset-based value for impairment at balance sheet date, which was 30 June 2025. We had to consider the facts and conditions of the company at that particular point in time. In 30 June, the merger had not completed, which meant we had to consider the key assumptions that the company had on this offtake agreement between Sayona Mining and Piedmont. As we now have completed the transaction, and we are now Elevra, that offtake does not limit our ability to effectively capture the full economic value of NAL.
Our expectation is, as we revisit again these key assumptions at the next reporting period, which will be 31st December 2025, my expectation is that we'll see some of that, if not the full amount, that net appreciated value coming back to our balance sheet. We will obviously go through the full assessment, which will be reviewed by management, by the board, and it will also be reviewed by the auditors.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The Wabouchi Mine will not be ready to provide the Bécancour refinery with spodumene, and NAL is the only North American source that can fill that need. When can we expect to hear more about the potential synergies?
That's an accurate description. North America's largest hard rock spodumene producer and really the only game in town. We are uniquely positioned to be able to help that facility at Bécancour out in terms of feedstock. Ultimately, as we mentioned earlier on, we're not rushing into any of these potential partnerships or offtake arrangements. In short, Christian and the commercial team will be focused around where we're going to get our best return. We'll work through that methodically. The moment we've got any news to update the market, obviously, we'll be doing that under our continuous disclosure obligations.
With the offtake contract with Tesla ending, are there plans to extend the agreement or sign a new agreement?
Yeah. The Tesla contract expires mid-2026. Normally, there is another seven months to go on that contract. As I referenced earlier, right now, in terms of the commercial terms of the Tesla agreement, we would be better off putting that volume elsewhere. That will be part of the negotiation. Tesla is a great company. We respect them as a customer, but it is ultimately about getting the right commercial returns and the best commercial returns for Elevra.
Do we have assay information at Moblan about potential byproducts like cesium, tantalum, rubidium that can point to additional value?
Yeah. We've certainly been following sort of trace elements where there's potential for byproducts. I think, first and foremost, both NAL and Moblan are standalone lithium deposits. They don't need byproducts to be commercially competitive. Our focus is very much on the lithium side of things. As we move through the DFS for the NAL brownfield expansion, we'll look at things like tantalum and so forth. Similarly, as Moblan continues to develop, there are some byproduct credits, but at the very core of it, we're about hard rock spodumene concentrate.
Considering the very strong spodumene prices that are being reported in the spot market at the moment, can you comment on how much of your order book is forward-sold?
Yeah. If we look across the next 12 months from December '25 through till December '26, it's less than 10% of our current book is on forward sales. In short, Christian and the team have got the flexibility to think about how they place that volume and under what pricing mechanism. As we outlined during the presentation, in short, we're uniquely positioned to be able to take advantage of this price recovery. We're very excited about it, and we certainly hope you are as well.
Thank you. There are no further questions.
Thank you very much. Dawn, did you want to close out?
Sure. I just want to thank all of our shareholders for participating today, for those of you who came in person, for those of you who came online, and for all the great questions. Thank you very much. We appreciate your support. We are looking forward to a successful next year for Elevra Lithium. Cheers.