Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for joining at such short notice in what is an amazing day for your company. We're gonna start today by running through why, what, where, and how. Why we've done this, how we've done this, what it's gonna do for your company. I'll get Zac to go to that first slide. We were presented with an opportunity about six months ago to look at this acquisition here in Kazakhstan. It was a deal backed by the Kazakhstan government, as you can see by their comment in this announcement. You know, we've been dealing with them quite extensively. We've done our DD, and we've got to this point in time. Roughly we're gonna have an in-country partner that'll have 49%.
We will have management rights, offtake rights, and pretty much all oversight on what goes on at site. All in all, we've got an amazing deal for an amazing price. I'll start with a number of questions. I was gonna talk to what you see on your screen, but I think it's best I answer a couple of questions first, because everybody's phone's been running off the hook, and it's predominantly been about this. The deal, $15 million, everybody's saying, "Why is it $15 million?" It would cost over half a billion dollars to build one and probably take you 10 years of permitting and balance sheet risk and all the things that go with that. As I said before, we were approached by the government six months ago. We've been working with them extensively.
This was built by Sumitomo a while back and then a joint venture with Kazatomprom. Basically they were processing uranium waste, which was very high in uranium and hard to do, and they've run out of feedstock. Basically this was a stranded asset that needed feedstock to get going again. Obviously you all know the Kangankunde story and how good our feedstock is there, being low uranium, low thorium, easy to transport around and easy to process. We've been to site, we've done all the DD to a certain degree. We've processed our concentrate through there to 10 kls to produce MREC products. We're very comfortable with that. Basically when it come down to it, we were able to negotiate this price for a number of reasons.
Kazakhstan government support, in-country partner support, the fact that it was a stranded asset that wasn't gonna go anywhere unless it had a feedstock. Now, you know, there was a lot of talk around rare earth companies coming on shortly and doing this, that, and the other, and we wish them all the best, so I don't mean anything derogatory here. A lot of them are a long way off producing and getting into production. We're not. We're gonna be producing a concentrate November, December this year. That allows us to work in to feed this plant. The reason that, you know, 15 million number is there is because the Kazakhstan government want to work with the U.S. government, hence the announcement. You can see that in there. They currently supply 34 out of the 60 critical minerals to the U.S.
China only supply 50 of those 60. Once our plant comes online, they'll be supplying 40. We had extensive negotiations with them. We will basically produce a concentrate. They will also give us some freight subsidies, so people worry about freight. And a number of other things, environmental approvals, all this kind of stuff. Basically your $15 million isn't pie in the sky. We haven't bought a lemon. We haven't wasted $15 million on something that's not operational. It's fully operational now, and it just needs the feedstock. Everybody else is talking about freight. I've had a number of calls about freight, so I'll touch on that. Our all-in sustaining cost is in the first quartile. That includes our freight. We have a number of freight options into that area.
One being through the Suez Canal, the Black Sea, Caspian Sea. The Kazakh government has a bonded port in China, which we haven't used at this stage for obvious reasons. All in all, it's about $0.50 a kilo to ship it to there. On the back of that, we are in negotiations with the government for freight subsidies, which was one of the first things we brought up with them. Look, we should be able to stay in that lowest cost quartile. Freight is not an issue getting in and out of there. We have a rail line directly to site. As far as those questions go, I would not be worried about freight, and I would not be worried that we have paid a small amount of money for this.
It was through negotiations that we got to do that because we had the bargaining chip. We had Kangankunde, which is what they need, which is what they wanted, which is how we got management control of this. Just touching on that, I wanted to get that out of the way because my phone has run hot and so has everybody else's around that. We will bring it up again later in this presentation. I'll run through this slide you can see on the screen there. It's previously produced MREC through a joint venture with Kazatomprom and Sumitomo. They were processing, like I say, highly radioactive material. We do have access to those ponds. It is already fully permitted. They're already up and running.
There's no issues with that, albeit that our feedstock is very low in uranium and thorium. There's some other things we're looking at there that I won't go into detail on at the moment. It transforms our business from just a concentrate producer to an MREC producer, which is amazing to do that within 12 months. It opens the global markets. In fact, I've had two of the main purchasers of MREC product message me already this morning. It opens up our optionality around, you know, payabilities, client base, the next move downstream, all those things. This is a perfect move at very little capital risk into an area that would normally take 10 years to get up and running and permitted and, you know, all those things that go along with it.
We will supply our concentrate into this facility on an arm's length basis starting in November and December this year. There are stockpiles of ore there that we haven't mentioned, quite large stockpiles. We are doing the work to see how they react with the blending of our ore from site. Obviously we'll update the market on that when we know more. Alls I can say if it works, and it looks like it will, you know, we're talking north of 30,000 tons of product there, so it's extremely valuable. We're working very fast to see how that goes. What else can I tell you? Yeah, purchase price. We will own 51%, so we'll only pay $7.65 million. We'll be fully funded out of operating cash.
Obviously the payment terms are three months after we produce a saleable MREC is we have to pay that money. We'll be well and truly producing from Kangankunde and from here before any large sums of money need to go out the door and I think we'll have no issue with paying that from free cash. As I said, it costs north of half a billion dollars and probably 10 years to get one of these up and running. You know, for us to be able to secure it in the same timeframe as being able to mine Kangankunde is exceptional. That goes to show the hard work the team's put in.
We've spent a lot of time out of country and in other countries getting this done. I think shareholders over the next 12 months will see the real benefits of what we do now that we have the optionality around both concentrate and an MREC or a carbonate. It is located in a very industrial precinct in Kazakhstan, in Stepnogorsk. It's got power, gas, water, tailings, ready supply of sulfuric acid, which is one of your biggest cost inputs and it is cheap, which is good. There are rail networks right into site, actually right up to our door, which is even better. We will be one of the lowest cost producers on the planet from our working so far, so that'll be quite good.
As I said, we'll retain the operational oversight, management, and the marketing rights to all the MREC. Another bonus, and thank you to our in-country partner, who's a true gentleman. He understands that that's not his field. He's happy for us to do that. If we go to the second slide there, Zac, you'll look at, you know, the supply chain. You'll look at who's currently operational. MP Materials, who are listed, multi-billion, $15 billion-$20 billion market cap. Lynas, $15 billion-$20 billion market cap. Cerberus, who are private, and don't really publish a lot. Lindian's into that area now, or will be at the end of the year for a concentrate. We will now also be into the next slide, which is...
or the next graph there, which is the same again. Only MP Materials, Cerberus and Lynas are producing this outside of China. Lindian will move into that field. We will also be in that graph in people's bowl charts going forward. We have moved into that and we've moved into it very quickly. We are still ex-China-centric. We have nothing to do with China at the moment and we're not buying our plant from there. We haven't got any supply agreements with there. It's not to say we won't, but we don't at the moment. I know a lot of shareholders have been ringing and asking, "Where's the offtake agreement? Where's the offtake agreements?" Trust me, there is multiple parties on the table to take feedstock and probably more now that we're doing MREC.
We were doing this deal in Kazakhstan, which was way more important than trying to kind of get a bit of a sugar hit for an offtake agreement when we had a more strategic approach to the long-term growth of the business. I think this, as you can see by that chart, puts us into a fairly esteemed playing field as far as producers outside of China. There's not a lot of them and we're now one of them, so you should be pretty proud of that. There are a number of strategic advantages for us, on the next slide, Zac. You know, this facility is already fully operational. We have done some deep dives on what we need to do to run it. It's a negligible amount of CapEx.
It's just to replace some valves. All that kind of things that goes on with these things.
Mm-hmm
Just to make sure they run smoothly. Absolutely no issues with that whatsoever. It is fully operational, it's fully permitted, and it's ready to go. The markets that open up now to MREC, and I'll let Teck touch on them a little bit later on 'cause he's had a lot of experience in those markets going, you know, over the years, it is exponential. It's a lot easier to move an MREC product. Not that it's not hard to move a concentrate either, but it's just, you know, better payabilities, easier markets, more money really. You know, this has all been underpinned by our test work. If you look at the test work that ANSTO has done, and this dovetails back into the freight, we don't have any radionuclide. We're not a DG7.
We're not worried about, you know, having to have special cargo, which is why we can keep the freight costs down. When we process this through Stepnogorsk and through SARECO there, you know, we don't have that uranium by-product. We don't have to deal with that uranium through that process. I'll let Zac talk about that when we get there. It's putting us in that lowest quartile of cost. We'll have not only Kangankunde, which would probably be the lowest operating cost on the planet, even inside of China, to produce a concentrate. This is gonna be in the first quartile to produce MREC, which will mean our profits and payabilities and everything are gonna be exceptional. We've done test work on 10 kls. I'll let Zac talk on that very shortly.
We get excellent recoveries, 97%, 92%-97%, which is really good. Once again, Zac will talk on that. You would have seen from the quote from the Kazakh minister that there are other opportunities for us. This is just a start. Getting this up and running will open up further doors for the company to expand and expand rapidly. It's capital efficient. I mean, $7 million? People in the mining game, probably on this call, I can't see you, have probably spent more on tenements. It's a cracking deal, and it really is. You know, it's not capital intensive. We're not gonna run out and have to raise $200 million to get this thing running. It's a great deal. For the reasons I said before, it's government backed.
The in-country partner was good to deal with. Most importantly is it doesn't work without Kangankunde's feedstock, so which is good because we're the only ones coming online. There's by-product that's gonna generate, you know, $5 million or $6 million or $7 million a year in profits, which would nearly run the plant. I'll let Zac touch on that as well. As I said, it's fully permitted, fully operational, and we'll do a bit of tidy up 'cause we're really waiting on our feedstock. As I said, we'll do the work on the stockpiles that are there to see how our feedstock blends with that and how that produces and what we can get out the other end.
At the moment, we produce, you've seen it on the announcement sort of, we produced a very nice clean MREC product from our Kangankunde ore. All in all, it is transformational. It is something that doesn't come along very often. I can understand a lot of questions around, "Jesus, why is this only $15 million?" It's for those reasons. First and foremost is the Kazakh government wanted it in country. Kazakh government wanted it done, and they needed our feedstock. That allowed us to negotiate such a good deal. Because without either one, it doesn't work. And there was more strategic, as I said, with the Kazakh government wanting to supply the U.S. all critical minerals, you know, than the 34 that they already do. They want to get on par with China.
This helps. So there was a bigger picture involved. There's also a bigger picture involved with further downstream, but I won't go on into it at the moment. Freight, which is everybody's question, and understandably, AUD 0.50 a kilo, guys, is and it's a high-value product. We're not shipping iron ore. It's a very high-value product, and AUD 0.50 is negligible. The strategic value for us now when we negotiate offtake agreements. We'll have a concentrate and a carbonate now. There's a lot of people gonna reach out for one or the other. We may be able to make them take a bit of both. We may be able to get a better price. We will produce a very clean product and we will be an ex-China supplier.
You know, the Kazakh government have been approached about supplying stuff out of there at a premium. Hopefully we can get that as well. We'll work on that. I'll pass over to Zac, and I'll close out at the end with a few more questions. I just wanted to touch on freight and why it was cheap at the start, because it has been the main question. I think there is no issues with that. That's the best way to put it. Zac?
Thanks, Rob. This is the strategic core, Kangankunde from Stage 1. In Malawi, we'll be producing 18,000-20,000 tons per annum of monazite concentrate. We'll be sending 12,500 tons per annum of monazite concentrate to the SARECO facility. Based on the ANSTO test work, as well as the site test work we've done in SARECO, we're achieving 92.6% overall rare earth recovery, with 97% in NdPr. That ends up equating to producing 11,800 tons per annum of MREC at 54% TREO. We are converting concentrate into a chemical upgraded intermediate, product that goes into oxides and improves, payabilities, expands our customer base, and more importantly, Lindian retains operational oversight and exclusive marketing rights on that product, and strengthens our commercial leverage in those discussions.
We have a COA in place for our MREC product, and we are in discussions with offtake parties downstream on our MREC. The site layout. This slide is important because it shows the plant is real, it's operational. Installed infrastructure includes sulfuric acid tanks, neutralization circuits, precipitation systems, MREC bagging and dispatch system, and a dedicated rail spur. Rail access simplifies concentrate deliveries to site, as well as MREC export. It's a fully integrated industrial infrastructure close to the town of Stepnogorsk, which is just down the road. And very cheap sulfuric acid and power, which ends up bringing our unit cost in MREC production to $4 a kilogram, which includes freight. I guess just touching on Rob's comment as the chairman, comments captured the strategic shift well.
From an executive standpoint, I could add that the value here is not just capital arbitrage, it's time arbitrage as well. We're not, it's speed to market and to own that market share as quickly as possible. We are compressing years of downstream development and acquiring an operational facility that preserves first-mover advantage. The U.S. and Kazakh cooperation. This acquisition occurs within the broader geopolitical shift that Rob touched on. In November of 2025, the U.S. and Kazakh government formalized a critical mineral cooperation. This signaled policy alignment, development, finance engagement, supply chain diversification on the critical minerals. Kazakhstan is already a global uranium powerhouse with Kazatomprom, and is now positioning itself in the rare earth sector to provide that Western supply chain.
We sit directly within that alignment and having those government discussions was critical. Strategic framework with the Kazakh government. This slide matters from a macro perspective. European OEMs magnet manufacturers are actively seeking diverse supply chains outside of China. The European Critical Raw Materials Act reinforces this by integrating Malawi's feedstock into the Kazakh midstream cracking. We create cross-border Western alliance supply corridors and enhances offtake optionality and strategic financing in the long- term. The SARECO sits further along the value chain, more than a concentrate. It is suitable for direct feed into separation facilities, which we are in discussions with, that typically attracts high payabilities.
In Q4 of this year or end of the year, we'll be sending our product to the cracking facility and starting ramp up of that facility and control over the operation. We have a dedicated skilled labor team all there already on site from the SARECO days, and 51% ownership by Lindian and operational rights with 49% with our Kazakh partner. Lindian appoints the chairman, the casting vote on the board for that facility. The payment is deferred, like Rob touched on. The payment of $12 million is deferred for once we do produce MREC. About SARECO. The plant initially established in 2010. The plant was originally developed by Kazatomprom 51% and Sumitomo 49%.
They were processing uranium salts from the tailings of Kazatomprom, producing an MREC, but the MREC was high in uranium and thorium. Our uranium and thorium MREC content on our COA is undetectable. It could quite easily achieve the specifications, and it just comes down to the unique geology that we have in Malawi. We have an on-site analytical laboratory with ICP machines, process control systems in place, environmental compliance, a ring-fence around the facility, a skilled workforce. This is an operating facility, and it's in a strategic industrial area of Kazakhstan. The plant is 20 km from Stepnogorsk, adjacent to a 1,345 MW power plant within an established industrial zone supported by rail logistics, cheap power, cheap gas, sulfuric acid available.
These inputs are critical when you're looking at cracking economics. It's a proven flow sheet similar to Lynas's cracking facility in Kalgoorlie. Location here is key. Location and infrastructure is key when you're looking at projects. Installed infrastructure. These are images demonstrating the existing processing capacity. The kiln, the leach tanks, filtration systems on the RO water, process pipelines. This, we are further optimizing the circuit to end up taking more of our concentrate as much as possible, and it really does come down to optimizing and then building on from what we have in Kazakhstan. ANSTO validation. This is one important slide, both with ANSTO and the site team.
We've processed 55% total rare earth oxide concentrate from Malawi to achieve 97% NdPr recovery and 92.6% overall recovery in our rare earths. Importantly, the uranium and thorium are below detection limits in our MREC. That removes the need for dedicated radionuclide circuits within the system. They're in place in the SARECO plant from the Kazatomprom Sumitomo days. We have a dedicated tailings facility there, which we don't own, but we end up feeding into. It simplifies our environmental exposure, simplifies the logistics, it broadens acceptance within the western separation facilities. Technically, the Kangankunde concentrate is a highly amenable premium grade concentrate and proven by the conventional sulfuric acid baking process. Another thing to point out is, as part of the process, we do achieve a by-product.
The by-product is a fertilizer, we'll be producing approximately 6,000 tons per annum of fertilizer from our monazite concentrate. Monazite is a phosphate-based mineral. The indicative price for that fertilizer is anywhere from $300-$700 a ton at the moment. We are in discussions with in-country fertilizer companies on offtake of that by-product. This is an incremental upside, anywhere from $5 million-$8 million of EBITDA added into that by-product. It enhances project economics, reduces waste streams, and it's core to our thesis to ensure that we make profit on all our streams as well. These are images of Rob and I at the plant during the plant inspection and the JV sign-off.
Basically meeting with the operational team and getting things in motion, really. A lot of work has gone into this, and I want to thank the team in Kazakhstan and Rob, and the team at Lindian for pulling this together. Over to you, Rob, for closing remarks.
Actually, Teck, Do you want to touch on the transaction overview just to give the high level in case there's any.
Yeah, sure.
Leading questions.
Zac, do you want to just-
Yeah.
Yeah, go back to the transaction overview. Okay, great. Just the opening remarks here in terms of the transaction, it is binding. It has been structured as an asset sale agreement. We did look at various structures between a SPA and an asset sale agreement. To the top there, you can see the transaction parties. The sale asset will contemplate the entire MREC cracking and leaching facility and all associated infrastructure. It is also subject to due diligence. That is more confirmatory. We're running, you know, tax, legal, accounting, due diligence at the moment, and that's more around structuring to have the right domicile and the right structure. It will be set up as a JV or incorporated joint venture between Lindian and our local partner, based on 51% and 49% respectively.
You know, as Rob mentioned, we will be JV manager, and we'll also be the JV operator of the project. Majority of the consideration will be subject to after commercial operation. You know, from a cash flow perspective, that's very favorable. The initial amount is a low amount. It will be 100% funded internally in terms of the purchase price. The completion really now is to full form agreements, documentation. We'll be drafting a full form Joint Venture Agreement, Asset Sale Agreement, which will reflect the binding terms in this term sheet. We do have exclusivity as well, 12 months for a 12-month period. That's more than sufficient time to close the transaction.
We're looking, you know, in the next couple of weeks to start, you know, accelerating with our legal counsels, both in country and in Australia, to document the transaction.
Is that it, mate? All good?
Yep. I mean, I can touch a little bit on pricing and economics as well. I think.
Yep
You touched on, Rob.
Sure. Yep.
The payabilities, as you're aware, is much higher from a concentrate to a mixed rare earth carbonate. You know, there are multiple factors. The payables increased due to the product, and also due to the product specifications, and also due to the sliding scale. With an increased NdPr oxide price, you do also attract a higher payability. If you look at some pricing structures in the market, you do see a sliding scale. The benefit is, you know, from one year ago, where NdPr oxide price was less than $50 a kilo, today it's at $136. You know, it is right timing. You know, we are gonna go into production within nine months.
From a headline number, you know, what's in the public domain, if you look at some of our sensitivity analysis, you know, if you run flat line 136 spot price for PrNd oxide, our NPV goes from $1.1 billion-$2.4 billion without including the increased payability. You do see a more of doubling of the NPV. Even on the EBITDA basis, you know, that would see it north of $200 million. Again, all these will be covered off within, you know, our previous announcement on the tornado chart. You know, you can infer it that amount, but there is significant upside, you know, as Rob mentioned, in terms of economics from the project. It is a transformational deal.
You know, the market is larger and deeper, you know, in terms of our marketing. We will have both a concentrate and MREC, as Rob and Zac mentioned. You know, if you take a step back and you look in Europe and then U.S., you know, you have La Rochelle, you know, you have Estonian oxide plant, you've got, you know, plants in Utah, White Mesa, and you can even see some of the exciting work that UCORR's doing. We are talking already to MREC and SX oxide separators. You know, there will be a marketing campaign that we will run internally and effectively do an RFP process. No, we're looking forward. I mean, this is a great catalyst to own a strategic asset.
You know, we will see a lot of increase to forecast economics. I'll pass back to you, Rob.
Thanks, Teck. We'll go back over the questions in a minute. I'd just like to say to the long-term shareholders, thank you for your patience. We've been going as fast as we can. We've, you know, we've got Stage 1 gonna come online in November and December. We're working really hard on stage two. That will be 100,000 tons per annum. We've got a good client there in Iluka, who are hopefully committed still to the 25,000 tons at stage two and some financing options. You couple that with the speed we're working to get all this done, we are working in parallel on stage two, to ensure that's coming online, you know, not long after S tage 1 comes online. Zac and the team have done a hell of a lot of work on that.
Our non-processing infrastructure on site's being built to accommodate Stage 2, which is good. It is a, it's a decent step change, but it's also a decent step change in EBITDA. You know, bringing in SARECO without any balance sheet risk and stress and out without the time frames we need to go through to build one of these or have the market believe that we could build one is the other thing. It to be able to do this deal at such a small amount is exceptional. Thanks to the rest of the team for the hard work. I know Zac and I haven't been home and Teck's been burning the midnight oil to get all this done, so we appreciate that. I think it is extremely transformational for the business.
We can look at being a miner, which is great. Don't get me wrong, there's a hell of a lot of profit to be made from digging things out of the ground and doing a small amount of processing. This, as Teck said, opens up many markets and puts us in a much better position to negotiate because we come from a position of strength being the only ones that are gonna bring this on. If you look at that chart, there's Lynas, there's MP, and there's Cerro Verde, ex-China, and then there's us. Zac and I are away for another two weeks. We're in the U.S. at the moment, then we'll be in Europe. If we can get home without airfare problems, we'll be home in a couple of weeks. We're already pounding the pavement.
For some of you on the call have said we're in Washington for three days this week, but it's like herding cats, but we are getting a lot of traction and there is a lot going on. In fact, we've had other meetings requested. I shared this first thing this morning and they've requested meetings already, so it's really good. We're gonna keep pushing whatever other opportunities come up that are that can dovetail into this business and make it a global powerhouse. We'll continue to look out. We will continue to work with the Kazakh government who are presenting us with some phenomenal opportunities, which I won't go into a lot on here because of this transaction. This isn't the end of it. It's the start of it.
We've got a lot of strategic hires. We already have an in-country manager in Kazakhstan. We've got some ex-Lynas staff coming to work for us. We've got other people that are coming online. All in all, we're just gonna keep pushing. You know, we're always available for a phone call if anybody wants to reach out, if they've got any questions. I just wanna stress, freight is not an issue, and the $15 million is because of those other reasons. We have the goose that laid the gold egg in Kangankunde, and this just allows us the optionality to do deals like this, and we'll continue to do them for the best interests of the shareholders. Over to you. Who's got the questions? Is it you, Zac, or Hannah?
Yeah, I think I've got them, Rob.
Teck.
Yeah.
Okay.
The first question I might direct to you, Rob. One of the questions actually, yep, that's come through. Was the Malawi government consulted when pursuing this opportunity?
We are fully permitted to export this product. They are fully aware that they have limitations in their country. They don't have gas. They don't have the best power supply, albeit that we're running our own power and we'll tie into Mozambique to make it continuous. They don't have the infrastructure or the ability to do this. They also understand that how environmentally unfriendly it is to build one of these. They're aware of it, and as I say, we're permitted to export our product. We are processing in country, we're beneficiating, we're taking... if you look at Stage 1, we take half a million tons of ore and turn it into 18,000-20,000 tons of concentrate. That's the best we can do in country. I don't see that changing anytime soon.
If it did and it was profitable to do stuff there, of course we'd look at it. At the moment it's not, and as I said, we're fully permitted to dig this up, process it and export it.
Great. Fantastic. Thanks, Rob. look, I'll combine a couple of questions because some of them there's a bit of repetitions and a couple of congratulations as well. we've got a question from our Research Analyst, David Brennan. Congratulations Lindian on a great acquisition. What are your thoughts on expanding the current capacity at SARECO, bearing in mind the exciting Stage 2 expansions at Kangankunde, which could add another 100,000 tons per annum of concentrate on top of Stage 1, 20,000 tons per annum. Would this be done potentially in parallel with Stage 2 expansion?
Yeah, I'll let Zac touch on that. I'll just say that we were approached by someone building a sulfuric plant that wants to provide us with 50,000 tons plus of sulfuric a year. There's options there. Zac, if you wanna touch on that.
Yeah, look, we are operating in a very low cost jurisdiction. The blueprint's in place for the SARECO plant. Engaging with the technical team on site, we are already discussing replication of that facility. It's in our broader strategy to look at getting into further MREC production. Stage 2 concentrate at 100,000 tons per annum. 25,000 tons is EMR for Iluka, and the rest are in strategic discussions at the moment. The DFS for Stage 2's expansion will be out at the end of the year and we'll add some color to that.
Thanks, Zac. Just a couple more. Stage 2 expansion looks like a no-brainer at this point, given the tightness of market and downstream capability. How are you thinking about funding and strategic partners/offtakes? Rob, do you want to take this one? I can help supplement as well.
Yeah. Obviously, we're in discussions with a lot of people around offtakes and prepayments and funding and, you know, you've got obviously, you know. I try not to walk across anybody. We, you know, we're talking with certain governments about very cheap finance. Iluka, our partner in supply has got a right of last refusal to take 25,000 tons of stage two and fund 50% of that as well. We will be producing significant free cash when this comes around. We're not talking, you know, billions of dollars to build stage two. It's still gonna be fairly competitive and fairly small. You know, once we're producing, I think financing, and I'll let you touch on this a bit better, Teck, that becomes a lot easier.
The ability to attract quite considerable payments for prepayments for offtake help. The fact that we'll have, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in free cash flow is gonna be a big benefit as well. Teck, do you want to elaborate on it?
Yeah. That's right. I think stage two, effectively, we do have a backstop there. Iluka does have a right of last refusal, as Rob mentioned, to finance 50% of the CapEx. It will be a brownfield expansion. It won't be a greenfield, you know, single asset project anymore. We will get better financing terms. If you take a step back, you know, through government agencies, offtake prepayments, there is ample amount of funding that's on the table that we can look to. Similar to, you know, us being fully funded for and declaring FID for Stage 1, we will look at the right capital structure.
We will, you know, run to ground all the different funding opportunities, but we are very confident, you know, stage two, you know, could also be, you know, largely funded by internal cash flows from Stage 1 cash generated. Okay. I think we've got another question from our Research Analyst, David Brennan. Hi, team. What is your view on the U.S. Vaults Initiative? Do you see this featuring in terms of offtaking your stage two expansion plans at Kangankunde? Thanks, David.
Sorry. What was that, Teck, the first part?
What is your view on the U.S. Vaults Initiative?
Uh-
Do you just...
I'm gonna stay out of that 'cause I'm talking with them this week, so I'll stay out of that so I don't cross anybody.
I could just touch on that. Just based on the test work we've done at SARECO as well as ANSTO. Our concentrate just due to the very low uranium, thorium and actinium-227, that radionuclide doesn't decay extensively over time. We could quite easily store our concentrate and MREC up to 20 years under various conditions. It does feed nicely into sovereign stockpiling of rare earth material.
Fantastic. Thanks, Zac. Another comment that's come through. Sensational acquisition. Well done. Can you comment on the evolving rare earth customer landscape and more specifically, where you envisage the majority of your concentrate carbonate will go?
Teck, you're the best to talk about that.
Yep. Okay.
I know.
What Rob mentioned is, well, we won't walk across you. There are a lot of exciting, you know, developments and catalysts which are commercial and confidence. We are very confident, you know, in placing the product. You know, the market is going into, you know, a supply deficit. Our concentrate, 6,000 tons per annum, will go to the Eneabba Refinery, which is funded by the Australian Federal Government. The balance of that will be through an intercompany transfer into our JV company, and then we will market a mixed rare earth carbonate. As we mentioned, there is a deeper market for that with higher payabilities. You know, if you look in Europe, just in our neighbors, there is already, you know, large, significant oxide separation facilities.
We can go downstream to the OEMs as well. Both, you know, EVs, wind turbines, and magnet manufacturers, have shown you know, strong interest. Even, you know, to the sub-industry of that, you know, a lot of the motor manufacturers are showing interest. Your likes with your Schaeffler, Brose are all, you know, signing MREC agreements. That's. We're looking forward. We will be assembling a marketing team. Rob will be leading that. We're looking forward to update the market in due course.
I guess the only thing I'll add there, Teck, is the rare earth sector compound annual growth rate of 8%-9%. Our goal with Stage 1 and Stage 2 production, as well as our SARECO facility, is to capture the market share and to get 15% of the demand growth by 2030 in the sector. That's also evolving with the demand that's coming out from humanoid robotics and the magnets required there. It is really speed to market and to own that market share.
Yeah.
Correct.
I would just comment, there's obviously some very clever people listening to this, where is it coming from? Who's actually doing it? That's us. Nobody else. Yes, there's a lot of good projects out there. Yes, they require a lot of capital. Will they come online this year? No. Will they be next year? No. Will they come online? Possibly. By the time they come online, we hope to have a very strong market share of, you know, an MREC and concentrate market. We have the ability to do that if we do it right. That's why we ask for just a little bit of patience when we're doing, you know, if you're looking for offtakes or things like that, because we, you know, we're setting this business up for the next 10, 15, 20, 40 years.
We don't need to rush and make the wrong decision. We need to get it right. We need to make sure we get the best deal that benefits the shareholders and makes us the most amount of money possible. We are daily talking with people. It is out there, but we're the only ones producing and it's this year. Not in 2028, not in 2030, not in... It's this year.
That's right. Just to expand on that as well, on top of the humanoid robots, it's actually the broader e-mobility, just not EVs, so your electric buses, your bikes, your vessels and scooters. Within each, you know, even your internal combustion engine cars, your power steering, window wipers all have NdPr permanent magnets. We are very excited just around the demand thematics and, you know, that's evidenced by the CAGR that Zac mentioned earlier. I think we might just run out to one or two more questions and then, if there's any others, we can reach out directly. Rob, I think one for you, and again, we must probably can't, you know, speak to all the details. What are your thoughts on if/when an inevitable takeover bid comes in?
Al, I'll be careful on this. Al, we don't have any concerns about development. We don't have any concerns about getting this into production and producing and making money. We've got some very smart people working for us now. You know, we've got these other things coming on. Our biggest concern as a group and as a board when we first started, because of our market cap was a takeover. I think, you know, I think we've got the right people in the right place now that own enough of the stock that understand the broader macro position that we won't be selling anytime soon unless it's the right price. I think that's many multiples of where we're at, and I think that would be fair value. You know, will it come? Possibly.
Do the big boys want us coming in and disrupting everything and being out there? Probably not. Do they want us being the lowest cost producer on the planet to be able to come in and, I wouldn't say dictate, because that's very arrogant, but come in and be able to do maybe things that they can't because they need certain things to make their businesses work? We don't need that. We would be very, very attractive to people. I think with our market cap growing the way it is and the support we've had from Petra and our people that have invested, that we wouldn't sell cheap.
I'd be disappointed if we weren't in the many dollars before we got that, and I think that would be fair value. Especially when we're in production and, you know, I've got to be very careful about talking about what those EBITDA numbers look like when we're in full production of 120,000 tons, but they're bloody big. You know, it's more of a B than an M on the end of it. You know, for EBITDA. We've, one of the reasons we're going as fast as we can to get as much value into this as we can so that doesn't happen, or it happens at the right price. You know, that's probably the easiest way for me to answer that.
It would need to be the right price because the value in this group, Kangankunde is a gift that keeps giving. It's a multi-generational asset worth billions of dollars. Adding this cracking facility, adding Stage 2 and some of the other things that the broader market's not aware of that we're doing is it would need to be many multiples of here before we wanna give it up, put it that way.
Fantastic. Thanks, Rob. Okay, we're gonna move back to Stage 1. There's a couple of questions around our Stage 1 concentrate, our beneficiation plant project. I'll read both out, and perhaps we can just answer them as our last question. "How is Stage 1 going? Are we gonna hit all the milestones to hit production? Any delays with vendors? Is power reliable in Malawi and/or do you have a power plant to support production?
I could take this one, Teck.
Yeah. Take it .
Go ahead .
Yep.
Yeah, yeah. All milestones are being hit. We are. The process plant team are mobilizing to site. The camp's been complete. The team are moving into the camp. All non-process infrastructure progressing well, as well as the tailings dam. Regarding power, we have a 24 km long power line to the substation in Balaka. Our rail network is only 14 km away from site, which will end up going to the port of Nacala . The power is being proven up by the interconnector between Mozambique and Malawi to provide us firm power. We do also have backup power supply on site.
Yeah. The power from Mozambique is continuous. That's why we built our own line from the substation. We don't get, excuse me, interrupted with any outages or anything like that, or any load-sharing. We'll have continuous supply for the best we can. Obviously there's always some issues, I don't envision it. What we've negotiated and put together, I think we should be perfectly fine.
Okay. That's it. Look, thanks for all the feedback. There's a lot of congratulations and appreciation. Look, we won't read all that out. You know, we will keep focused on delivering for shareholders. Yeah, at this stage, I might close the Q&A and pass back to you, Rob, for closing remarks.
No, just thank the shareholders for your support. I know it's been a long time coming for a lot of people when there was some few problems 12 months ago. Please continue to support us. We've got a lot more coming up. Zac, Teck, thanks for the hard work. What else? No, just you've heard it all there from the horse's mouth. We're just gonna continue to do what we do. Any opportunity that presents itself, we'll certainly look at. Our eyes are firmly on the prize of developing Stage 1. We haven't taken our eyes off that. As I said, we've already got in-country managers and we've got strategic hires for other things.
You know, we're going as fast as we can to be first to market or into market as quick as possible with both products, not just the concentrate, but the carbonate as well. Stick with us. We do appreciate the support. We're always here. We will always take a phone call. We're always happy to answer an email as best we can. We do apologize if we're delayed. We do travel a lot because we are a very hands-on board. We don't just sit in the office and, you know, wonder why things aren't getting done. We get out and get it done. We'll get back to you as soon as we can. Just reach out. Like I said, freight and $15 million is not an issue here.
There were reasons for it, which I've explained. Thanks for the support. Hopefully, I don't know what the share price is at today, but hopefully it's going very well for you guys. I think, there's a lot more to come and a long way to go yet. We'll continue pushing hard. Any questions, surely reach out, and we thank you for your support