Thanks for joining today. All right, we will kick off. Thanks for everyone joining us today. My name is Scott North. I am from Kamoa Capital. Over the last six months, Evion has transformed into a multi-commodity, multi-jurisdiction, vertically integrated, critical minerals group. Today, we have David, the Managing Director, joining us, and he will be highlighting a lot of the achievements over the past six months and the key achievements during the period. At the end, we will cover off some questions that any investors might have. Over to you, David.
Thanks, Scott. Thanks, everyone, for attending. I will try and keep this to around 15 minutes and then open up for any questions or discussions. I hope everyone can see that presentation on screen. Is that all right, Scott?
All good, David.
Okay. It is a little bit about us. There is a corporate snapshot of where the company is at today. We did a capital raising recently, which was successful. We have got that number of shares on issue, share price, where we are at today. We really are focused on our operation in Madagascar, our JV in India with support and demand for our product and projects in the E.U. and the U.S.A. Over the last few months, we have acquired the Carp Fluorspar project and some additional ground around that. That was a strategic decision made into a commodity that we believe is very similar to graphite, very short on global supply outside of China. There is a strong demand thesis for fluorspar in the future. So we believe it is a very complementary asset to our portfolio.
I'll walk through a little bit of detail around each of our projects and business units and go from there over the next 10-15 minutes. In summary, I guess, they're the parts of our business we're working on. Firstly, in India, our joint venture with Panthera Graphite Technologies, with Metachem in India is growing all the time. We had some delays with our ramp-up in production and really around effluent treatment facilities in this chemical park. Some of the government departments that take responsibility for disposing of effluent, and we've managed to work through that. We've built our own effluent treatment plant on site. We've funded that. That's working operationally now. Production's increasing, improving on a regular basis. We've had a range of buyers and people inspect our property over the last year. They all walk away saying it's the best expandable graphite plant globally by some mile.
We've got all of our product at the moment is being sold into the U.S. or EU exclusively. We've seen prices increase by about 10%-15% over the last six to nine months, which is great. There's been an increase in graphite concentrate pricing as well. So things are tracking along very well in India. I was actually due to meet some new potential buyers in India next week, but that trip may be delayed for another reason. In relation to Madagascar, look, we were delighted, a couple of weeks ago when I was in Madagascar four to five weeks ago, I met with the Mines Minister, Carl, who coincidentally used to work with us a few years ago. We were delighted to be granted mining permits in Madagascar. We're the first company granted mining permits globally under the new Malagasy mining legislation.
That's quite a significant achievement, we believe. It triggers lots of potential offtake discussions and financing discussions around our project. Needless to say, there's a lot of discussions in the background evolving at the moment around that. We're pretty delighted with where we're at. We're going to be getting a lot of support from the U.S. and EU around developing Maniry. I've been on a number of calls with them over the last week. There's a lot evolving in around that project. I have the Mines Minister for Madagascar and his team coming over to Africa Down Under in about two weeks' time. They'll be in Perth. We expect some further formal announcements around some activity at that time as well, and it's all very positive. In relation to our battery anode material project, we completed a scoping study a few years ago around that.
We've been asked to update that to a feasibility study concept by a couple of OEMs in Europe. I've got a proposal sitting on my desk. I've been looking at that with a couple of our team about progressing that. It's very early stage, but it fits well with our aspirations to be a downstream producer, apart from a concentrate producer. Having our own concentrate feeding into India, feeding into potentially a BAM plant in Europe makes a lot of economic sense for us. So we're looking carefully through that and working with an OEM group around rolling that out. As far as the Carp Fluorspar Project in Nevada goes, we're very optimistic about what that looks like and the prospect around that. Our Head of Geology, Mark Fletcher, has been on the ground for a few days now. He's sent a few photos through.
He is doing a lot of soil sampling, rock chip sampling, and other work in preparation for an extensive drill program or other testing over the next few months. We have obviously secured a lot of ground to the west of the original Carp project, and Mark is going to be on that ground over the next few days. There is potential for other acquisitions around that site that we are currently looking at, which I cannot go into any detail just yet. As far as politically looking around the EU and the U.S. around the ecosystems that exist, we are in two commodities, graphite and fluorspar, with a focus on graphite, where there is a global shortage of not just concentrate, but downstream material and products outside of China. That is a fact.
I do not see that changing to the extent that I hear a lot of discussion with people in the EU and the U.S. that not only do they not expect China to open the gates, if you like, with future supplies. The industry and governments in those jurisdictions, particularly the EU and U.S., are moving on and securing their own supplies so there is no Chinese graphite and downstream graphite reliance in future. That is perfect for us, obviously. That is something that is really important for us. We can build on that. We are getting a lot of inquiries out of the U.S. around potential supplies as well. I have talked about our aspirations around heading from an upstream, midstream, and downstream producer around Maniry and Carp. Here is some detail around that. Our operations in India, we really hope to conclude our Stage 2 upgrade over the next six months.
A lot of the Stage 2 infrastructure is now in place. We are really just trying to secure and conclude some offtake agreements at really attractive pricing terms with the EU and U.S. before we press the button, the final installation of the Stage 2 material and CapEx in India. As far as our graphite concentrate out of Maniry is concerned, we are getting a lot of demand around supply agreements in the EU and the U.S. We have made a number of submissions to groups there over the last few weeks. I expect some of those to come into fruition in the very short term. We have been very public about our aspirations there. The Maniry Graphite Project, I know most people are aware now, we are the only graphite project endorsed by the EU Commission outside of the EU that has EU support for our project.
There has been a lot of talk about that, but we are seeing some of that activity and some really strong activity and messages coming out from the EU around that. Around support for offtake partners and funding partners, and we are progressing that fairly rapidly now. Now that we have mining licenses in place, we are getting a lot more attention and there is a lot of activity happening in the background around that. A little bit about our Maniry Graphite Project. As I mentioned, we have got permits granted, which is wonderful. We have got EU recognition there. The graphite resource that we have in place, that we have stated there, it is a strong economic project, largely because at least half of the project is a large flake graphite project, which commands pricing between $ 1,500 and over $2,000 a tonne. I can confidently say those prices are current in the market now.
Now, how I know that is because I am sourcing graphite from a multitude of buyers in Madagascar and Canada at the moment, and I am also testing pricing with a number of producers globally, including Tanzania and other parts of Madagascar. All of the large flake material is selling globally between $1,200 and $2,500 a tonne. Some of the media messaging that you see around China prices affecting global pricing, that is simply not the case. Outside of China, prices are really strong from a concentrate perspective, and all of the traders that I talk to in the EU completely endorse that theory. Our project in Maniry has a very strong CapEx. Sorry, very strong NPV with a pre-tax number well over $250 million U.S. We have only drilled and explored around 10% - 15% of the project area at Maniry.
There is substantial opportunity to expand that resource and opportunity to substantially increase the life of mine and the NPV. We are going to undertake some infill drilling into some of the really high-grade area over the next few months, and we hope that will have a flow on effect, and we believe it will, into some of the economics. We just want to increase some of the higher grade area for mining in the first few years, because it makes enormous economic benefits to us by doing that. Madagascar, the road and infrastructure area in Madagascar is expanding and developing rapidly.
When I was in Madagascar four to five weeks ago, I met with officials from the EU, the U.S. government, World Bank, and they confirmed that a lot of the infrastructure roads that you will see on that map there, particularly around the Toliara port, have substantially been improved and finished, ready for use already. Which is wonderful. By the time we are into production, we believe most of the highways around that region will be well-developed and available for use. That is going to assist our flow, if you like, of material leaving site, going to port. It should substantially reduce some of our logistics and freight costs, and we are pleased about that. This is being funded by the World Bank. It is not the World Bank in consultation with the U.S.A. There are U.S., European contractors working in country at the moment building these roads.
It is not a project being funded by other parts of the world or China. It is a project undertaken by the World Bank in consultation with the U.S. because they believe this part of Madagascar, in the southern part of Madagascar, is a hub for critical mineral development over the next few years. It really is. There is an enormous number of potential projects in this region. Flagship project in the region, obviously, is the Molo Graphite operation, not far from ours in southern Madagascar. It has been operating now for a year or so they have demonstrated capability and suitability of graphite in that region. I have talked a little bit about the graphite mine operation funding support. As far as people ask me around funding, we are in discussions with a number of groups around a debt package to help fund the development of the project.
Some of those are around green bond debt funding, et cetera. We are looking at debt funding most of the CapEx requirements. There may be some equity funding as well available for us to look at in the shorter medium term, and those discussions are progressing as we work toward a final investment decision as a board over the short term. I guess this is our pathway to production in Madagascar, which everyone wants to see. We have pleasingly completed a range of initiatives, and final environmental permit is imminent for release in the short term. That really clears the way for everything to be developed. We have agreements well advanced with key buyers in Europe and the U.S., and some news flow will come from that.
There has been a bit of discussion, and I have had quite a few queries from the market about the funding of our FMISC levy, the CapEx levy in Madagascar. To address that straight up, is that we do not have any news from the Malagasy government around when that will be due and payable. I expect some sort of discussion will commence in the next month. We most certainly will not be funding it from our current cash reserves. That fund amount of around USD 2.6 million is actually part of our overall project CapEx. We have started the discussions with our funding partners in the EU and U.S. that include that FMISC levy. So it will be included in the overall group's funding package for the development of the project. It will not be a separate payment made from cash reserves.
I just wanted to emphasize that for people, and you will see some news flow coming up about that in the short term. We have done an enormous amount of work within the Madagascar community around development and economic improvement for the region. We are very proud of that. It has been the one, I guess, and the primary reason that we have worked through very closely around our relocation action plan and our community development plan with the community, and we have complete endorsement from the local community around the development of this project. It has been a priority of ours, and strategically a priority of ours for a long time. We have managed it very carefully and appropriately, and it sets us apart in a country, and that is a big part of the reason why we were the first company to be issued mining permits under the new legislation with a critical minerals project.
PGT, I have talked about a little bit. That is an older photo. When construction was completed, things have developed a little bit more around that, and I will have some new updated photos and imagery into the market soon. But we are delighted with how things are operating there at the moment. I have just got some detail through around our funding and grants that we get from the local government industry. Because we are working in a chemical park, we have availed ourselves of some substantial grant and rebate funding back to us. I will have some detail around that into the market in the short term. We are in a special economic zone which allows us to apply for very generous labor and power concessions in that region. We own the land. It is adjacent to a highway in the region.
We believe in the very short term, we'll be the largest producer of expandable graphite outside of China. We're getting strong demand out of the EU and U.S., as I've alluded to it, and we've made announcements around. We're in ongoing discussions with a number of groups in Japan and other parts of Southeast Asia. We really think we will lock up some strong offtake agreements over the balance of this year that allow us to ramp up production into Stage 2 targets of around 4,000-4,500 tonnes per annum. The uses of expandable graphite know no boundaries in many respects around the military sector. There are extensive applications around its use as military applications. That's outlined in some of the points I've made there. We're in some discussions at a high level with officials in the U.S. around supplying our material.
I can't go into detail around that. Those discussions are ongoing. There are substantial applications for our product around military. I've talked about the demand for and our aspirations for production growth. We're seeing pricing increase all the time, which is very reassuring. Pleasingly for us, we're going into supplying markets for expandable graphite into markets that are really focused on our ESG criteria. Because we're a Western producer with extremely strong ESG credentials, we're able to command a 20%-30% pricing premium above other market players where they potentially don't have a strong ESG criteria. They don't have a strong sense of governance around their operations in whichever jurisdiction they work in. That's pleasing that we're getting that market recognition. The Carp Fluorspar project, we believe there's strong prospectivity around that.
As we've alluded to in the past, it was a high-grade operation some decades ago. Fluorspar now has been historically largely exported out of China, parts of Mongolia, Russia, and Mexico. There are dwindling global supplies that we're well aware of. We believe the U.S. is funding a group in their own country to the extent of over $200 million around a plant for eventual production. We're obviously in discussions with some U.S. industry groups around how we can supply them in the future. Obviously, we've got a bit of work to do in the meantime around our exploration programs in country and what we're doing there. We've got our team on site now.
I expect some results to come through out of that program and expanding that program into adjacent permits that we're looking to acquire and expect to have some information into the market around that over the short term. The sample results that we've announced previously outlined in that map, in that slide, I won't go into that in detail. We've processed that. We've published that previously. I know there was a photo taken on social media recently of our team in the south pit area. I've had some messages this morning that they're over the rest of the site today, and they're heading into the western part of our Carp project over the next few days. We're dealing with leading consulting group based in Nevada that are very experienced in fluorspar exploration and project development, and all the feedback's very positive to date.
That's a little bit about the historical importance of our project. It's high grade with a potential to be upgraded to a higher value product. That's something that our team's looking at at the moment. We're cognisant of exploring. The pricing for fluorspar and the advanced material fluoride products are incredibly high, and there seems to be projections for extensive price growth in the short, medium term from all of the data that we're seeing. We're pretty happy about the prospects for that. Planned activities in Nevada and around there. We're undertaking the first part, if you like, around drone-based magnetic survey and surface sampling. Stage 2 will happen over the next few months. Once we've concluded the first two stages, Mark and the team will be back probably toward the end of next week with results and some releases being made.
We'll immediately have some marker releases about our Stage 2 program, details of which you've got there. Fluorspar, as I mentioned, is classified as a critical mineral in the U.S., 100% import reliance to date, as is Europe. A lot of other parts of the world, they list it as a critical mineral. We believe we're in the right terrain, in the right environment, in a historically important region that has historically produced fluorspar. There's strong demand in the U.S. for the material. We'll just keep progressing the development of this project as rapidly as we can. The battery anode material project is obviously a business unit for us that we aspire to over the medium term. Potentially to be our own offtake partner into a battery anode project in Europe, preferably in Eastern Europe or Germany. Makes a lot of sense to us.
It adds economically a lot to us. The key is to develop a relationship with the OEM who will guarantee the acquisition of material that you'll produce. We're in discussion. We strategically have highlighted one or two OEMs in Europe who have engaged with us and have asked us to upgrade our scoping study to a feasibility study. On that basis, if the results are positive, we'll look at securing agreements with them. I can't go into the details of who those groups are. That's confidential. We're pretty excited about pressing the button on that. We believe the market for uncoated and coated spheronized purified graphite is going to be very strong in Europe. Particularly in that two-to-five-year period with the growth of EVs, and we're seeing the growth of EVs globally expanding rapidly, particularly even in Australia, we're seeing it.
I've been in Europe over the last few years and what I've seen, the take-up in Europe is extensive and obviously a much larger market than what we're seeing in Australia. We're working through the economics of updating our scoping study. It was very strong at the time we did that. These were some of the key numbers around that. We've engaged with Wave International and Dorfner Anzaplan in Germany about updating the study. I've got a submission proposal from them that's with our OEM partner at the moment for a discussion, and we're working through how we do that together. The EU are encouraging us, I must say, in our discussions with the EU Commission around us building and being involved in the manufacturing of a battery anode plant. They'd like to see a company endorsed by the commission as being part of that.
We're progressing that with discussions with them. Digressing, I should allude to the point that we appointed Arthur Sinodinos a couple of months ago now as our strategic advisor into the U.S. Not just U.S., globally. Arthur sits on the board of a number of groups in Japan and has extensive network globally. Arthur is working very strongly in the background with me. We've had a number of discussions already with officials from the Department of Defense, a number of other groups in the U.S. over the last week. In the last few days, we have an invitation to head to the U.S., so I've had to change my travel plans for Sunday and Monday.
I may not make it to India, but will be in the U.S. and specifically in Washington around the middle and back end of next week for a range of series of meetings. We're pretty excited about the prospect of what's happening there. I can't go into any detail. We haven't made any formal announcements around it. But we've previously disclosed that we've made a number of submissions to the U.S. about Maniry and about what we're doing in India. Those discussions are evolving. We're pretty excited about that. Arthur's network and his ability to cut through some ribbons and get to see the right people in the right places has been fantastic over the last few weeks. We've got an experienced board.
It's a board that's been in place with the addition of Mal over the last six months, a board that's been with the company for a few years now. We're a complementary group with a range of experience. Mal's got a very strong technical background, has shown great leadership. We've got an extensive range of consultants. We work with BurnVoir Corporate in Sydney. Got a range of consultants appointed in Europe that are assisting us with developments. Now we've got Arthur based in Washington, who's over there now. We've got a very strong array of people in our team. As I mentioned, the mines minister in Madagascar. I've got a good relationship with Carl, he previously worked for us a few years ago before he made the leap into politics in Madagascar. We've got very strong relationships, and it's very important in this world.
Look, these are the upcoming value drivers for us for the balance of this year and going into early next year. Carp exploration, I've touched on what we're doing there, and we expect in the short term offtake agreements around Maniry Graphite are my priority. In the short term, we're working very closely with a number of buyers and parties around that. You're seeing in the market there are offtake agreements being consummated for graphite concentrate and downstream graphite material at the moment. There are groups, there are big buyers who are entering into agreements with producers and aspiring producers. There is strong demand. Financing will come from offtake agreements. We're in discussions with groups around that. JV expansion in India is a priority. Our FID, we hope to have concluded around Maniry toward the end of this calendar year.
We're working very quickly to secure, obviously, offtakes and financing, and feed can flow from that, and the board's very cognizant of that. We're having regular discussions and moving that forward. The final string to the bow is our battery anode project development in the EU. If we can update our scoping study into a feasibility study over the next year and that be positive, which we expect it will, with the support of one or two of the OEMs, it's something that we could bring into play that's a big part of our blue sky model for our business over the more the medium term. Watch this space around our BAM project development plans. We believe we're in a pretty good strategic position to work with that. There's some of the upcoming value drivers around the company. We've got really good people in the team.
We've got a lot happening. There is strong global economic interest in graphite. Graphite concentrate prices are easily 10%-20% higher at the moment than they were this time last year and 18 months ago. I see that because I'm one of the few people exploring acquisitions of concentrate globally with people. So I know what prices are like globally around the place. They're flowing through to very strong expandable graphite pricing for us. Our pricing, I'm seeing globally aligns with our pricing for graphite concentrate in our feasibility study, which is really important. It underpins the values that we have in our feasibility study. Our basket price is expected in our feasibility study around the $1,430 mark. That's a very comfortable achievement in the current pricing regime that exists globally for graphite concentrate. That's a little bit about us.
I hope I haven't stretched the friendships around time frames. I hope that was useful. I'll go back to Scott now for any questions and welcome any questions.
Thanks, David. Exciting times, and it looks like everything's heading in the right direction. I think a few of the questions that came through before the webinar, you addressed mainly around funding of Madagascar and the payment from the FMISC. Maybe a question I'll build on here is why is the Stage 2 at Panthera upgrade taking so long? I think you did touch on that a little bit, but maybe if you want to just expand on that.
Yeah, of course. The Stage 2 development in India, it is well advanced. We really just need some modules inserted and put into place. The development, the infrastructure there is well advanced, well done. All of the building is in place at PGT, and you can see that on some of the photos, and you will see some imagery. We just need to confirm with our off-take buyers globally that there are commitments for production out for us to produce around 4,500 tonne a year. At the moment, we are just marginally short of that. That is being addressed and finalized. It should be addressed and finalized over the short term. That then allows us to finish that CapEx spend and continue that production trajectory and upgrade to meet those Stage 2 optics.
Okay, great. If anyone has any questions, there is a Q&A. You can submit your questions there. Maybe the last question I have to ask that has been emailed in is, do you have any insights in the recent selling, and has the selling been completed? I know that is always a hard question to answer, but any insights there, David?
Look, I hope the selling has been completed. I believe it has been. We have been in pretty turbulent global markets. There is no secret around that over the last six months with things happening in the Middle East, U.S., and various parts of the world. It has been a pretty turbulent global market, where we have been affected by that as a lot of companies have. Look, the upside to that, we are hoping to see these conflicts and this little bit of turbulence in the market subside in the short term. That is then going to create the opportunity for us because there is going to be a lot of replenishment around infrastructure, military applications, and things like that rely very, very heavily on graphite and expandable graphite. That is a lot of the messaging I am getting from the EU and the U.S. is that, look, there is this turbulence.
A lot of the critical mineral producers and downstream graphite producers and concentrate producers such as us are going to benefit from this industrial growth and redevelopment and expansion in the 2027 year and beyond.
Great. I will give it one more minute to see if anyone has any questions, and everyone should have myself or David's email if you have any questions after this. It does not look like anything else is coming through. Thanks everyone for joining us today. It has been a really good turnout. I hope what David has addressed has answered everyone's questions and is excited about the future for Evion. Have a wonderful afternoon.
Thanks, Scott.
Bye.