Right. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to welcome you to Hastings annual general meeting. It is very good to see you guys again. My name is Charles Lew. I am the Executive Chairman of the company. I would like to, or rather we wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land upon which we operate and pay our respect to the elders past, present, and future for their holy memories, the traditions, the culture, the hopes of Aboriginal Australia. We are also pleased to welcome all the online participants to this AGM. We will start with the formalities of the meeting, and that is laid out in the notice of meeting that was sent out. After the formalities of the meeting, we will have a presentation by our CEO, Vince Catania, and also our exiting COO, Tim Gilbert, who will talk about the gold project.
The company secretary has confirmed that the notice of meeting was duly given to shareholders and all other persons entitled to receive it, and the meeting has been properly convened. The company secretary has confirmed a quorum of members are present, and I declare the meeting open at 11:00 A.M. First of all, let me start by introducing my fellow directors. On the far end there is Jean-Claude Steinmetz.
Good morning.
Jean-Claude has been a Director of Hastings since 2016. Next to him is Mal Randall. Mal Randall has been a Director of Hastings since 2018. Vince Catania, here seated next to me, he has been recently, in June, appointed CEO of the company. Vince has been associated with the Yangibana project for many years while he was the MP and has been with Hastings since the beginning of 2018, apart from politics. I also like to introduce Tim Gilbert. Tim Gilbert has taken a back seat there, but his temporary back seat, he'll come to the front seat in a different guise. Tim has been our CEO for about three years. He joined Hastings in the beginning of 2023, and he's now appointed the CEO of Metal Bank.
As you all know, we will be doing an in-distribution species of the Metal Bank shares that we own, and shareholders will all end up with shareholding in Metal Bank. Tim will move over from Hastings into Metal Bank as the CEO. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tim for his invaluable contribution to Hastings in the last three years he has been here. I also want to wish him all the best as he works on the Metal Bank project. At the end of this AGM, we will have a presentation on not just the Yangibana project, but also the Metal Bank and gold interest. We will now go through the formalities of the meeting, and I will take questions as we progress in this AGM with every one of those resolutions. There are 13 resolutions that we have to go through.
Voting on the resolutions will be conducted by poll. Upon a poll, every person who is present in person or by proxy, corporate representative, or attorney will have one vote for each share held by that person. If you have not voted and wish to vote, please obtain a voting card or voting form from the company secretary. The company secretary is not physically here, but there are colleagues here in the office that will be able to hand you a voting form if you do need one. As outlined in the notice of meeting, there is no facility to vote online. Voting on all resolutions will close at the end of the formal items of the business.
I will provide you with notice prior to closure of voting at the end of the formal part of the meeting and ask you to raise your hand for your voting forms to be collected. The votes received for each item of business will be calculated following the meeting and the results released to the ASX. All undirected proxies or open votes that have nominated the Chairman of the meeting as their proxy will be cast in favor of each resolution of the notice of meeting. Questions may be submitted at any time. For those who wish to ask questions online, please use the Q&A icon on the bottom of your screen. Those questions will be managed by Guy. I presume Guy is back online already. [Adrian]?
Charles, I am.
All right. Okay. Your camera is still not working. Okay. So proxies have been appointed for the purposes of this meeting in respect of approximately 61 million shares being 28% of issued capital. I will be voting all discretionary proxies that I have received in favor of the resolutions as set out in the notice of meeting. I'm holding approximately 1.2 million undirected proxies for the resolutions. The results of the proxies will be announced to the ASX following the meeting. Any further questions can be dealt with under other business. All resolutions except Resolution 11 are ordinary resolutions and are approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution. Resolution 11 is a special resolution requiring 75% of shareholders voting to vote in favor in order to pass.
Resolution 13, which is the capital reduction and in-species distribution resolution, requires 20% of all shares in issue to pass. I will take the notice of meeting as read and do not propose to explain the resolutions, but will accept questions as we proceed. Item one on the business of meeting is to receive and consider annual report for the year ended 30th of June 2025, together with the remuneration report and the auditor's report. We have Anthony Hodge here who is our audit partner from PricewaterhouseCoopers, who conducted the audit with us today. Would anyone have any questions for the auditor online as well as physically present? Okay. Seems like there are no questions. If there are no questions, then we move on straight to the resolution number one. [Adrian], can you please put up the vote count? Thank you. Is the font size correct? Okay. All right.
Thank you. Okay. Resolution one, adoption of remuneration report. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. That for the purpose of Section 250R(2) of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, approval is given for the adoption of the remuneration report. I note that the vote on resolution one is advisory only and does not bind the directors or the company. Are there any questions on this resolution online as well as those present? Okay. If there are no questions on this matter from shareholders, the proxy count on proxies received today is 44 million, 4.5 million against, and 10.1 million abstain. I will now move on to the next item, which is resolution number two. Re-election of Director Mr. Mal Randall to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution.
That for the purpose of clause 10.3 of the Constitution and for all other purposes, Mr. Malcolm Randall, who retires by rotation and being eligible, is re-elected as a director. Are there any questions on this resolution online?
Charles, no questions online.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received today is 58.6 million, 4,723,000 against, and 63,000 abstain. I will now move on to the next item, resolution number three. Rectification of issue of shares to July placement participants. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Listing Rules 7.4 and for all other purposes, shareholders rectify the issue of 13,824,000 shares to the July placement participants on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Are there any questions to this resolution?
No questions online, Charles.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received today is 56,320,000 against and 3.9 million abstaining. I will now move on to rectification of issue of shares to the September placement participants. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Listing Rules 7.4 and for all other purposes, shareholders rectify the issue of 1,562,000 shares to the September placement participants on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Are there any questions on this resolution?
No questions online, Charles.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received today is 59.6 million, 4,319,000 against and 14. Right. I will now move on to the next item. Given the nature of the next resolution relating to myself, I will pass the chair to Mal. Resolution five.
Thank you, Charles.
Resolution five, approval to issue shares to Charles Lew to enable his participation in the July placement. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purpose of Listing Rule 10.11 and for all other purposes, approval is given for the company to issue up to 800,000 shares to Charles Lew or his nominee on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Are there any questions on this resolution?
Mal, there are no questions online.
Okay. Thanks, Guy. We'll move on to Resolution 6. I'll hand the chair back to Charles.
Thank you, Mal.
Right. Resolution 6, rectification of issue of shares to Alpha Investment Partners. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.4 and for all other purposes, shareholders rectify the issue of 7.85 million shares to Alpha Investment Partners on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Are there any questions on this resolution?
Who are they?
Alpha Investment Partners.
What do they do?
They're basically asset managers, right, that will look for the potential investors who would want to invest in Hastings or whatever other company that they have a mandate to act for. The way they do it, unlike a typical broker in a capital raising exercise, is that they will go into the market to sell the shares as they see what is the right price that we set for them. If the share price is trading at AUD 0.70 and we say that we'd like you to raise some money for us and the minimum price is AUD 0.70, that is what they'll do. They will only sell shares over a period of time. It's not in one day. Let's say we say, here's 2 million shares, AUD 0.70 being the minimum price.
Do what you have to do to achieve that objective of 2 million shares at AUD 0.70. On this occasion, we had a little bit over 3 million shares, and they executed their mandate over a two-week or two-and-a-half-week period. As set out in the explanatory notes in your notice of meeting, the price achieved was AUD 0.711. Okay. Any other questions?
No questions online, Charles.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received to date is 58.9 million for, 464,000 against, and 555,000 abstain. Right. Given the nature of the next resolution relating to myself, I will pass the chair over to Mal again. This is with respect to resolution seven, which is the approval of issue of shares to myself.
Charles, resolution seven, approval of issue of shares to Executive Director Charles Lew. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 10.11 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of 217,259 shares to Charles Lew or his nominee on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Are there any questions on this resolution?
No.
No questions online, Mal.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies as you can probably see received today is 45 million for, 5 million against, and 10.8 million abstain. Back to Charles.
Thank you.
Right. We now move on to resolution number eight. Here, it is a grant of options to a related party, Mr. Jean Claude Steinmetz , one of our non-executive directors, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Section 195(4) of the Corporations Act 2001, ASX Listing Rule 10.11 and for all other purposes, approval is given for the company to issue up to 500,000 options to Mr. Jean Claude Steinmetz or his nominee on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Are there any questions on this resolution?
No questions online, Charles.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received today is 45 million for, 2.4 million against, and 12.5 million abstain. Resolution nine, grant of options to a related party, Mr. Malcolm Randall, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Section 195(4) of the Corporations Act 2001, ASX Listing Rule 10.11, and for all other purposes, approval is given to the company—sorry, given for the company to issue up to 500,000 options to Mr. Malcolm Randall or his nominee on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Are there any questions on this resolution?
No questions online, Charles.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received today is 45 million for and 2.4 million against and 12.5 million abstain. Now we move on to resolution number ten, grant of options to a related party, Mr. Guy Robertson, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Section 194(4) of the Corporations Act 2001, ASX Listing Rule 10.11 and for all other purposes, approval is given for the company to issue up to 500,000 options to Mr. Guy Robertson or his nominee on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Any questions on this resolution?
No questions online, Charles.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received today is 45 million for and 2.5 million against and 12.5 million abstain. Approval—sorry, resolution number 11, approval of 7.1A mandate. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as a special resolution. That for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.1A and for all other purposes, approval is given for the company to issue up to that number of equity securities equal to 10% of the issued capital of the company at the time of issue, calculated in accordance with the formula prescribed in Listing Rule 7.1A.2 and otherwise on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. Are there any questions on this resolution?
No questions online, Charles.
The proxy count on proxies received to date is 57.2 million for, 519,000 against, and 2.2 million abstaining. Now we come to resolution 12, rectification of issue of shares to Alpha Investment Partners. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.4 and for all other purposes, shareholders rectify the issue of 3,150,000 shares to Alpha Investment Partners on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded. This is the 3.15 million shares that Alpha sold at AUD 0.71. Any questions from shareholders?
No questions online, Charles.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received to date is 59 million for, 410,000 against, and 612,000 abstaining. Right. We come to the last resolution, resolution number 13, approval of an equal capital reduction and in-species distribution. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Section 256B and 256C(1) of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, approval is given for the company to reduce its share capital by the company making a pro-rata in-species distribution of up to 160,022,264 Metal Bank shares and MBK shares to shareholders registered on the record day on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement. I note that voting exclusions apply to this resolution. Any votes cast in respect of this resolution by or on behalf of excluded persons will be disregarded.
Are there any questions on this resolution?
What's the percentage figure of that reduction?
The percentage figure?
You're getting a number. Something says—
160 million MBK shares will be distributed to shareholders. That represents 0.76 MBK shares for every one Hastings shares that you hold. It is, in percentage, 76%.
Charles, the percentage of the total MBK shares on issue once that distribution has been made is going to sit on around 19%.
Yeah. Okay. Are there any more questions on this resolution 13?
No questions online, Charles.
Okay. The proxy count on proxies received to date is 58.9 million for, 410,000 against, and 643,000 abstaining. Are there any other questions with respect to these resolutions that we have been through? If there is none, we will proceed on to the presentation. Any questions from online or from the floor?
No further questions online. Charles, you're going to close the formal meeting and then proceed with the presentation.
Okay. I will now close the AGM and would hand over the presentation to Vince with respect to Yangibana and Rare Earth and to Tim with respect to Metal Bank and our gold business. Thank you very much for coming.
Good morning and welcome again. It's great to have you all here at the AGM, which is now formally being closed. With this presentation, there is no new information that's not incorporated in previous announcements by Hastings. I'll give you a quick overview of, if I can get this working, [Adrian], the JV update, the Energy Management Venture update, but also the opportunities that Hastings and the joint venture has moving forward.
As you will all be aware, it's been a long road when it's come to completing the joint venture, which we completed all the conditions precedents on the 21st of September this year, which has been an exciting new partnership that's been developed between Hastings and Wyloo. As you can see the structure there, Hastings now has a 40% interest into Yangibana and the 60% interest by Wyloo, which is the joint venture manager and operator. When it comes to the decision-making of the joint venture, we have a management committee which has equal representation from both companies, as well as a marketing committee which has equal representation from both committees.
The management committee, the representatives from Hastings is myself as CEO and Charles Lew as Chairman, and the marketing committee is myself as CEO and Neil Hackett, who has got a long understanding about the marketing when it comes to Rare Earth, who is based in our Singapore office. Of course, we've got the project management team, which we have got a lot of personnel from Hastings that has been transferred into the Wyloo team, who is leading the project management for the Yangibana joint venture as we move forward. Next slide there. Just to recap, you probably would have seen some of these photos, but the $103 million U.S. investment that has already occurred at the Yangibana site, as you can see, which is about AUD 160 million.
The Kurrbili Village, which is 294 beds, fully commissioned, which has got, you can see the sports court there and, of course, the medical facilities and wet and dry mess. We have got the airstrip there that can land a seven-seater jet. We landed that, not jet, turboprop, which was, that is a picture of that plane landing there mid-last year, as well as the access roads, boardfields, and, of course, all the equipment that is needed to complete the construction of our beneficiation plant. I will show you, as you can see, our warehouses that we have here in Perth, Henderson, and in Carnarvon has the equipment for the beneficiation plant, but also all the long lead items needed for our second-stage hydromet plant. When it comes to Yangibana, we are still a world-class asset compared to our peers.
Interesting, having just returned from the U.S. and a lot of these companies who were presenting, we far outrank, as you can see, with an NdPr ratio of 37%. We are one of the highest, if not the highest, again, when we compare ourselves to the peers. When you've got Mount Pass there, who has been the beneficiary of a Pentagon deal, just shows you the difference between Yangibana and the company MP Materials on the difference when it comes to the quality of our rare earth. We are still the leader when it comes to the quality that we've got, world-class, unique tier one asset we have. [Adrian], you can move that. Just to recap the opportunity that we have, of course, with our Yangibana stage one, we are fully permitted. We are shovel ready.
We have de-risked the project by ensuring that key infrastructure needed to be able to build the beneficiation plant is there, as you saw the photos of the camp, airstrip, access roads, and so forth. We have all the equipment to be able to complete the beneficiation plant, which makes us one of the leaders still here in Australia to become a Rare Earth producer in the near-term future. With no debt associated now with Hastings and the Yangibana mine, we are in a fully really permitted, but more importantly, de-risked project moving forward with the AUD 160 million of money that has been spent to date at site. Also, with stage two, our hydromet plant, where we are in deep discussions with the opportunities to advance the second stage when it comes to Onslow here in Western Australia, but also the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Most recently, our heads of agreement with Ucore in Canada at the G7 has also given us the opportunity to look at the U.S. as an option to be able to build our downstream processing there. Of course, which leads to the opportunities of further downstream opportunities that we have in being able to develop our second stage, leads to a separation of rare earth oxides and ultimately moving towards the manufacture of permanent magnets in due course. We are focused on getting stage one right and the opportunities that stage one brings with stage two is looking at how is the stage two going to benefit our shareholders in making the right decision where it's best suited to be able to build a plant. Like I said, Onslow here in Western Australia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. for those plant locations.
Recapping these opportunities, which are all being worked on and have been worked on for some time now, but with the closure of the joint venture on the 21st of September has now given the focus of the Yangibana joint venture to look at what these opportunities can bring and what's the best pathway forward to construction and production for the joint venture project. When it comes to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2024, Chairman Charles Lew and Jean-Claude Steinmetz were in Saudi Arabia, which secured a MOU with the Ministry of Investment there, which made Hastings one of nine companies being selected by the Kingdom to look at ways in which they can diversify their economy by 2030.
In diversifying their economy by 2030, they're looking at how they can develop these rare earth opportunities that we've got in terms of the downstream processing to be based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and move towards producing magnets, which can lead to diversifying that economy not only through the manufacturing of permanent magnets into the future, but also what that manufacturing brings in terms of humanoid robotics, wind turbines being produced, as well as car manufacturing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Sorry, Vince, when you say one of nine, is that worldwide nine or just strictly nine?
Worldwide nine.
Yeah. Very historical, but very beneficial to obviously Hastings being part of that one of nine. We have been in deep discussions with various companies in the Kingdom for some time now, and they are progressing. We look forward to being able to share that with shareholders in due course. Of course, here in Australia, with the federal government's initiative, which they announced prior to the federal election to establish a strategic stockpile reserve policy, Hastings and Wyloo have been part of the working group with the Australian government to develop the policy around this announcement. The Australian government is working on that policy as we speak and it will be announced before June next year, where those opportunities, this is another pathway that Hastings has been able to be supported by the federal government in terms of what this policy will bring.
The discussions have been around how can government provide that certainty when it becomes, and we've seen what the U.S. government has done through creating a floor price for MP Materials, which has set the benchmark when it comes to governments providing that support for rare earth companies, which the federal government is considering as one of those options is to provide that financial support to ensure that the project from a mine to hydromet to oxide separation can be supported by a price mechanism, which will be, like I said, be announced prior to June next year, which also with that support that the Australian government is looking to provide rare earth producers, they have those low-interest loans through Export Finance Australia, Northern Infrastructure Fund being NAIF, those opportunities which still are open to the Yangibana joint venture as we move forward to be able to get the benefit of the low-interest loans to be able to develop our Yangibana mine site.
We'll get there. As I touched on, the U.S. government and Australian alliance, which has been strengthened by the agreement reached between our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Prior to that, Hastings was chosen as one of 24 companies to be part of a delegation chosen by the U.S. government and led by the Australian government and former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who's now the Ambassador to the United States, led the delegation with various high-level meetings with the Trump administration and other government agencies in the U.S. to explain how they would like to secure their critical mineral supply chain, in particular, Rare Earth.
This was a very informative delegation, which has led to many opportunities that Australian companies have been able to secure support from the U.S. government, of which we've started those discussions to see how we can benefit from the U.S.-Australian alliance with Australian companies providing the material needed for not only just the U.S. needs, but needs of countries that are like-minded who want to ensure that we've got our critical mineral supply secured for anything that may happen in the future. This is a really exciting opportunity, I think, for our company, Hastings, and the Yangibana joint venture to continue those discussions moving forward with the U.S. government.
Off the back of that delegation, we have been in discussions with Ucore, which is a Canadian-based company that has got financial support from the Canadian government, but as well as the U.S. government to develop their oxide separation plant, which is new technology, technology that have proven up, like I said, being supported by the U.S. to build their oxide separation plant in Louisiana. With that, we've now got a heads of agreement, which we signed at the G7 in Toronto last month, which has given this another opportunity to play into the agreement reached by both the Australian government and U.S. government in line with a Canadian company that is backed by the Canadian government and U.S. government to develop downstream processing in the U.S..
This is a fantastic opportunity for the Yangibana joint venture to supply our ore or our concentrate and also look at the potential of building a hydromet plant in the U.S.. There are multiple pathways that our company is now looking at to secure what is the best direction to get the best value for our shareholders. Of course, not to mention our Brockman Niobium and Heavy Rare Earth Project. This is a project which is probably the original project of Hastings, where back in 2012, 2013, a study was conducted into this tenement that we've got, which is in the northwest of Western Australia, in the Kimberley region, about 100 km south of Halls Creek, where this is an opportunity that we in 2026 would like to develop.
As you can see there, the summary has the potential of 2,630 tons of niobium oxide, which is exciting that we want to look at refreshing this scoping study to see what value that could bring to shareholders into the future. Our highlights over the last year is, and I think very important point, de-risk global lead up when it comes to being able to supply rare earth to the world with a fully permitted stage one and all the equipment for the beneficiation plant really still puts Hastings in a very good position to be Australia's next rare earth producer into the future.
Of course, when you have a look at the 17-year mine life we've got, and we all know that this is a multi-generational mine that presents huge opportunity, especially with those three pathways that we're working on to be able to move the project forward, it really does set us apart from other rare earth companies here in Australia and overseas. Of course, we want to be able to capture the downstream value, which is critical in being able to provide our shareholders with the best value in ensuring that we can develop downstream processing off the back of our Yangibana rare earth mine.
Of course, as I said earlier, the near-term opportunity when it comes to Brockman is to redo that scoping study into 2026 to really see what that value is that we can bring to shareholders with our niobium and heavy rare earth tenements that we have in the Kimberley region. Before I introduce Tim Gilbert, who is our COO and a retiring CIO of Hastings, and is going into his new venture as CEO of Metal Bank MBK. Tim and I both started at Hastings at the same time, I think it was Tim, in 2023. Tim has been a pillar for Hastings as we moved across the last three years to be able to not only provide the opportunities for Hastings in terms of being the Chief Operating Officer and what he's done in terms of getting Yangibana to the point that he's got it to.
I just want to wish him well and thank him for all the work, but wish him well on his next venture as CEO of Metal Bank. Tim's background is gold, so he's perfectly positioned to take this great opportunity for shareholders in MBK forward, and we look forward to success in the future. Thank you, Tim.
Thanks, Vince. Just on that, I'd like to thank everybody in Hastings for the journey that I've been on. It's not about me, it's about Hastings, but it's been an incredible three years since I joined the company, and I do thank Hastings for every opportunity it's given me. Here is one of those opportunities, and shareholders, many of you are shareholders now of Metal Bank. I'm sure you're going to be very, very interested to see what we've actually got in store.
When we take this little journey back, when the Yangibana JV was formed with Wyloo and Hastings with its 40%, we were looking, Charles and Vince and the team were looking at saying, what do we want to get into, which is outside of purely the rare earth element opportunities that we had? We were in WA, we're in a gold region, and we started to look at gold opportunities to say, where could we go and add some value to Hastings from that point of view? As we went through that process, we looked at many, many different opportunities. Some were way out of our reach just in terms of too much money to buy into, too far away from anywhere. As you'll see on that slide, we looked for opportunities with the right size for us, the right price for Hastings.
We didn't have a lot of cash to buy, and it had to be in the right location for Hastings. What I mean by the right location is we wanted it somewhere close to a center where we didn't have to build an airport, we didn't have to build a village, we didn't have to build a concentrator, we didn't have to build a tail stand. When you look at all of those things, this opportunity came up for us at Whiteheads, and as we'll see from the map, the Whiteheads is close to Kalgoorlie. It's an 80 km drive. It's half an hour up the Yarry Road, if you know that area. It's close to processing facilities. It's got good infrastructure there. You'll see all of those process plants that are in and around the area.
Black Swan, when it becomes gold, Cananabel, Lakewood, Paddington, they're all gold processing plants. That was the opportunity. Importantly for us, as we say in there, it's low CapEx, and it's a fast startup. It's in that sort of situation that we can get into this ground very quickly, very economically, and start mining gold. We will have some information as we've done our latest drill program up at Whiteheads, and we drilled something in the order of 1,300 meters to confirm historical data there. It did confirm that as we put out an ASX update not so long ago. Some of that gold intercepts that we got were from surface. When we actually start mining, we know that we're going to be into gold, and it's not huge, don't get me wrong.
I'm not suggesting it's a huge deposit, but I think it can be very profitable from the point of view from Metal Bank that it's close to surface, close to Kalgoorlie, ready to go. Then came the opportunity with Metal Bank. As we say there for Metal Bank, it's got gold opportunities in WA and Queensland. I'll show you those on the next slide. It's got a project called Millennium, which is in Queensland. It's just outside Cloncurry, if you know that area. So Man Eyes are the Cloncurry in that area, where it's a copper cobalt plus some gold plus some graphite. It's a very, very interesting opportunity there. It also has some other opportunities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which we'll look at in due course.
The opportunity for Hastings and for Metal Bank, as we said in the last point, the sum of the two was going to be bigger than the two individuals. That is where I think we have got to today with the votes we go through, that we have now got the assets, the gold assets from Hastings into Metal Bank, and that gives us a little bit more size, as you'll see on the next couple of slides, to show the path forward. Thanks, Andrew. A little bit about Metal Bank, as I said beforehand, building a gold and copper company. You'll see on the left-hand side, we have the Livingston project. Livingstone is about 160 km northwest of Meekatharra, falls into that same situation as we were talking about for Hastings. Meekatharra is a center. It's got everything we need in Meekatharra.
It's got villages, it's got camps, it's got water, it's got power, it's got airstrip, it's got all of those things. We don't have to build anything. We have the Fortnum mine, which is part of Westgold, about 80 km away from us. That's where we're looking at in terms of where we can get to from a processing point of view. Other assets, as I mentioned there beforehand, you've got the Millennium project, which is up near Cloncurry or in Queensland. We've got some Southeast Queensland projects, which are 8 Mile, Wild, and Eidsvold, which have a mineral resource at some 15,000 oz, but a lot of opportunity.
I think the clarity that we've got from here is by joining Metal Bank with Hastings gold assets, we are starting to build an opportunity for all of our shareholders. Thanks, Andrew.
This is just to get some clarity about where that opportunity is. Metal Bank acquired Hastings gold assets. We mentioned beforehand it was the equivalent value of AUD 2.3 million in MBK shares, and that's at 160 million shares that Charles mentioned beforehand. That's being returned from the following of vote there today as an in-species distribution to Hastings shareholders in that ratio of one Hastings share to 0.76 of a Metal Bank share.
Where the value to Hastings, I believe, comes from, and if we just look at some of how these numbers add up, on the 29th of August, when we started to talk about the opportunity, the MBK market cap was AUD 6.96 million, just under AUD 7 million. We signed a share purchase agreement with Metal Bank on the 29th of September. Since that time, if you look at what the share price was there on the 24th of November, just earlier this week, there are now those more shares which are in circulation because there was an entitlement offer. An entitlement offer raised AUD 2.42 million into Metal Bank, but the share price is sitting there at AUD 0.19. It was at AUD 0.18 a little earlier on today, and it has already gone to a market capitalisation of AUD 12.73 million.
Just by bringing the two teams together, the two opportunities together, we've seen that increase in the value of Metal Bank as it is, and therefore the shares that have come across from Hastings to you, who are now Metal Bank shareholders, we're starting to see the key impact on what that is going to be. As you would not be surprised, my job is to grow the resource and increase the reserves and sell the gold and see that share price go higher as we generate cash and increase the share price. The key point out of that for me is we do not just want to be an explorer. We want to be a producer and an explorer.
We want to produce gold such that we can put that money back into the ground to find more reserves, more resource, and keep growing the resource and keep cash coming in through the sale of gold, especially when we're at a gold price of $4,150 in ounces it is right now. Lots and lots of opportunity for us. When I say us, it's Metal Bank, of which Hastings shareholders, as of the vote there this morning, are part of that new group. Thank you. Thank you.
Any questions?
Yeah, MBK stands for them, the K. I know MB is Metal Bank.
It's just the ASX ticker. It's like Hastings is HAS, it's MBK.
You would have sort of choose an X as well, is it?
That's the way it goes. MBK is the ticker. It's just a ticker symbol.
Yeah, yeah.
It needs to have three symbols, yes.
Any questions online? No questions online?
No questions online, Charles.
No. Everybody's happy?
Thank you.
From 1 cent to 19, not bad, is it?
Sorry, I think it's 1.9.
0.019.
0.019.
1.9. This has been a very good acquisition because you can see that effectively you're getting the Metal Bank's shares free of charge, and it's traded around the 1.8-1.9 mark. As Tim has explained, there's a lot of work there to do, and we're going to grow that resource and reserves. We are going to bring the first deposit called Seven Leaders at Whiteheads, which is near Kalgoorlie, into production by certainly by this time next year, I would like to think.
Where are you going to process?
There's a choice of $5 million.
Four process points.
Yeah.
In or around Kalgoorlie. Eighty kilometres.
Tim, Tim, why don't you come to the front end?
Andrew, if you could just drop back three slides, please. One more. Yeah. If you look at the map that's here, the greyed-out area top right is the tenements that are part of Whiteheads. As you follow the road down to Kalgoorlie, you'll see that there's a Black Swan, as we call that. Black Swan is currently a nickel process plant, of which the owners are turning it into a gold plant as we speak. They have taken that decision to turn that into gold. You come further to the south, you end up with Cananabel, which is the next process plant into Kalgoorlie. Then south east of Kalgoorlie, you have Lakewood, which is owned by Black Cat.
If you go up to Paddington, which is on the Goldfields Highway, you're heading back up towards Leinster and those areas, you've got the Paddington mill up there. We have another site which is off the map over here to the east, which is another fifth opportunity that we have to talk to, to look at, to say where we can find this too.
Is it a sealed road there?
From Cananabel into Kalgoorlie, it's sealed, and then from Cananabel to the north, it's unsealed.
How many grams per tonne? You said shallow.
Look, we're going to be, I'm going to hold my fire on that. We're going to be putting some data out very, very soon. There was historical drilling there. There was never a resource that had been declared. We are going to announce that resource in the next 10 days or so, something along those lines. That's with a company called NTEC, who have just been going back. They've collated all the historical data, + 1,300 m of drilling that we did, and bringing it into an updated resource model from that. If you can just bear with me on that one shortly.
You're hoping then that there's a depth there, and it's economic. It's going to have to be above sort of 4 or 5 grams, I'd imagine, to get it into another company.
Doesn't need to be something along those lines. If we're in that sort of situation where we're at 1.2 g-1.3 g of reserve, we're going to make some money out of it at today's gold price.
Yeah, but at that ratio, are you going to be able to get anyone to take you on to handle it?
I think so. We have already visited Paddington, and we have had a face-to-face discussion with Paddington. I have had discussions with Black Cat. They are the two key ones at the moment. We have spoken to Black Swan about their schedule when they expect to have that gold plant up and going. I am just not far off picking up the folks at the front country.
They would take on yours if it's only 1.2, displacement of their own.
This is the key thing around Kalgoorlie at the moment in terms of where you look at the size of the process plants, there is spare capacity from just their own ore. There is a lot of this going on, which is coal treatment in and around the Kalgoorlie area. It is definitely there, and that is the point of having those discussions early on in Paddington because they are putting a 12-month production schedule together. Our discussions with them were, when is it going to be coming online? Yes, we have got room for that amount at that amount of time. We are not in the game here of having a million tonnes of ore. We are not going to be in that game. It is going to be 150,000-200,000 tonnes, something along those lines. Small parcels, which we will be able to go.
If we can't get it into one, then maybe we can split it and have some going to one, some going to another, some going to another in specific parcels as we go through.
Is it open cut?
Yes.
Looking at it, it's a dirt road. I would say, how much does it take to make a shortcut into Paddington?
I don't have to because somebody already has done. I don't have to come all the way down from Whiteheads into Kalgoorlie and back up.
This one's fine.
There's already a road that goes across.
Oh, but you don't show it.
Oh, this is just a diagrammatic to show. I've got to keep my powder dry somewhere, this is it.
You've got to use your Google Map.
Yes, you're exactly right.
Your aim is just as long as it's profitable. You've done your sums, being a gold man, right? It's the back to the negotiations, really, how much they're going to charge to process.
What are they going to charge to process it?
The road trains that will be, right? Are they under your own management, or do you contract that out?
We'll contract that out. Contract that out. I was up in Kalgoorlie last week with a guy who builds roads for a living, and we've got to do some upgrades to actually get into the site. We've been having discussions about how quickly we can do that, who do we know, who's in the haulage transport. We're a small gold miner. We want to be nimble. I don't want to get lined up with one of the big carriers because all they're going to do is put their overhead.
This is Metal Bank.
We've got to find the cloth that suits us right now.
You say it was an existing mine in the past, was it?
Well.
They found gold there in the past.
If I take you back to the gold, historical gold, this was first mined in the gold rush of Kalgoorlie back in the late 1890s. This is one of the first opportunities we've had because it has been readily explored previously. Also on this area, but near the Seven Leaders, is a historical old underground mine. When I say historical, 1890s, for those of you who know underground mining, it was all the tunnels that are in the shape of a coffin because that's how you push a wheelbarrow. It's the widest part. These guys down there were mining and stirred. Not a lot of it, but it was an add stirred. It's over 30 grams a tonne. I haven't got anything other than historical Kalgoorlie miner data to show me that.
I'm not sitting here saying that's what it is, but that's what the Kalgoorlie Miner was telling me. Therefore, it's got to be true. When we get to that stage, we're going to go out and we're going to drill it, and we're going to find out what's there. This is the upside that this opportunity has brought to Hastings and now to Metal Bank. I believe there's a lot of gold in there.
All right. I wish you good luck.
Thank you.
You need that luck for yourself, your shareholder.
Just with Shin.
Any more questions on gold and Metal Bank? Okay. Good. All right. I presume no questions on Yangibana as well. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you to those online. We look forward to a very exciting year ahead for both Hastings and, of course, Metal Bank. Once again, Tim has been with us for three years, and I've worked closely with Tim in his three years here at Hastings. He's the man with all the experience to take on the CEO role at Metal Bank. I'm sure you get a chance to interact directly with Tim. Of course, Vince. Vince is somewhere at the back there. Vince joined us three years ago.
As CEO in June, he's also the right man at the right time to look at all the different interactions and initiatives we have, both in terms of Wyloo, Ucore in Canada and the Saudis, and some conglomerates out of Saudi Arabia that we are dealing with. All that is really to advance Yangibana further and further down the track. I need not say anymore that we are totally shovel-ready, and we have the equipment in the warehouse, and that's what appeals to a lot of the potential partners that we've been talking to. There is a lot of work ahead of us. Shareholders, thank you for— you have a question?
Yeah, one more then. When is the first time you start shipping products out of Yangibana?
I can't give you a date on that because we still need to work things up through with our strategic partners. I just mentioned that it's not just Wyloo, but in order to take advantage, if I may put it this way, of the critical minerals direction that different parts of the world, in terms of whether it's North America or U.S. and the Middle East with the Saudis and here in Australia, we need to make decisions that will lead us to the best value creation for shareholders. To answer your question, of course, we want to get a product to the market in terms of the Yangibana concentrate as soon as possible. As you know, we also have the Hydromet plant sitting in a warehouse.
We want to cut a deal that is advantageous to shareholders to build that Hydromet plant, whether it is in the U.S. or whether it's in Saudi Arabia or even here in Australia. It has to be the right deal that makes the right value. It gives us the right value for shareholders, right? Because it's not just about building the plant. It's about the profitability when you operate it.
Just quickly then, I don't know anything about Wyloo. Who are they?
Vince, where are you?
Wyloo is the private company for Andrew and Nicola Forrest, which is obviously Andrew is the founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals. This is his private company where they look at metals, critical minerals. They've got a large portfolio of investments, whether it be nickel, gold. They've also got large Canadian assets as well. This is just one of those investments that they've got.
Desertification from it.
Yeah, this is.
That's reassuring then, because if he invests in it.
Yeah, well, this is.
If I invest in it.
Yeah. I think the beauty about having Wyloo now involved in the Yangibana joint venture, and who knows how we progress into the future. One thing's for sure is that we're both committed to see what is the best pathway to get the best value, not only for them as Wyloo, but also shareholders of Hastings. We want to make the right decision to get the right value to the shareholders. I think that over the next early 2026 is going to be a pivotal moment for us as Hastings moving forward. I think that, yes, you're right. When are you going to finish construction and be in production? That's the question that everyone asks. We hope that we can articulate that with some certainty going forward early next year.
For me to understand it, you're ready to produce. You just don't know where the end product goes at the moment because there are many options.
No, like I showed you, we have spent $160 million in all the enabling infrastructure at Yangibana. We have the equipment to be able to build a beneficiation plant, which produces concentrate. The funds that we need to complete that is the money is needed to be able to build the beneficiation plant. We are looking at the options for the hydromet plant, of which we have the long lead equipment, which takes two to three years, if not longer.
That's more purification, right?
That turns the concentrate into a mixed rare earth carbonate.
More value-adding.
We are looking at how we can value-add to our concentrate. They are the options that I have showed you: U.S., Australia, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Is the beneficiation plant operational yet?
Not constructive.
Okay, more constructive. At current prices with construction and the price of the product, what do you expect the return on capital to be?
That's what we're working through now, is what's the most economical way, not only to build the plant, particularly the Hydromet plant, but also with the rare earth price, with what government is providing, or we hope that government will provide, as you've seen what's happened in the U.S., the Australian government developing their stockpile policy. There are the opportunities, and we see what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also wants to buy.
What's not being done, basically, after production, knowing that there might be a floor price.
Exactly right. There is a lot of moving parts at the moment, but I think each one of those pathways can present potentially financials to be able to underpin the development, not only of Yangibana, but also the downstream going forward. I think we have all seen how rare earth go back four, five months. It has been difficult. Now with the surge, with government, now really governments around the world starting to unite their policies, I think that is what you have seen, that uplift, and we have seen nearly doubling of the share price of Hastings since then. We hope to see, with identifying one of these pathways, we will hope to see that continue on into 2026.
Thank you, Vince.
All right. I think if there's no more questions, there's some late refreshments here on the table on my left. Please feel free to help yourself. Thank you very much for coming. And for those online.