Okay, good morning everyone. Welcome to Mount Gibson's 2025 Annual General Meeting. I'm Brett Smith. I'm the Chairman, or the new Chairman, of the company, and I welcome you all to this meeting. We've elected to hold this as a hybrid, which enables shareholders who can't attend in person to dial in on the Computershare platform. Firstly, I'd like to introduce my fellow non-executive directors: Simon, put your hand up, mate, Alan, Paul, and Evian, and our executive team, Peter, Gill, and David here, Kotek. Yep. Okay, a copy of our 2024 Annual General Meeting is available for inspection at the entrance to the room, so if you want to grab one, grab one. Okay, moving for slide two.
I'm advised that we have a quorum, and therefore I formally declare the meeting open, and I'll begin with my Chairman's address, followed by the formal business, and then the CEO's address. Following that, all of the shareholders are invited to ask any questions they wish, and to have a cup of tea and have a cup of coffee with us afterwards. Okay, I'm Brett, new Chairman. I'm glad to be able to speak to you guys for the first time as Chairman. The recent incident at Koolyanobbing has changed what we were probably going to say to you, but it's a significant rock fall, and we've had to suspend the mining in the main pit. It's a significant safety risk and a little story from my past.
Once upon a time, I was a young engineer up at Mount Isa and doing a shutdown of the lead smelter, and a load separated and fell and killed a rigger, and I had to go in and see his 23-year-old wife with a couple of young kids and tell her that her husband had been killed at work. I never want to see that in a work environment again. Safety to me is paramount. As well as, you know, the economic considerations, the safety of everybody in the operation and the safety of their workplace is an important factor in the board's decision to suspend the mining at the pit.
The wet season is coming, and we are doing a lot of geotechnical work to sort of continue to assess what could or could not be done on the rock wall, but for the time being, it is suspended, and unfortunately, we are having to lay off people because it is just not economic to hold people until we have greater clarity as to what can and cannot be done in the pit. It is bad news, but we are making the best of it. We are looking at selling off our stockpiles, and Peter and his team have done a lot of work looking at how they can continue to process the low-grade stockpiles on the surface and gain additional revenue from selling that material as we go forward. The other exciting thing is the 50% stake in the Central Tanami Gold Project. That is one of the, I think, best undeveloped gold projects in Australia.
Both Tanami and Mount Gibson have just updated the resource and reserve statements there, and you can see there's a significant amount of gold in that project with the added benefit of having significant infrastructure already in place. Associated with the acquisition of the gold project and just showing our shift in focus to be a more generalised metals company, we're changing our name to MGX Resources Limited. It doesn't mean that we will never look at iron ore again. It just means that we want to acknowledge that our future growth strategy can involve other minerals other than iron ore. If we look at last year's financial performance, in spite of the challenges, we've significantly grown the cash balance and at the end of the year have AUD 485 million in the bank and with no bank debt.
That's a significant war chest to allow us to look for acquisitions and to grow and develop other projects in the future. This strong balance sheet is fundamental to our ability to continue to grow. On the wider capital management side, we've extended our on-market buyback for another year, and to date, we've bought about 3.2% of shares, and the board will continue to review the buyback policy as part of our wider capital management strategy. That's a quick—I don't want to talk too much. I would like to thank particularly the management, all of the employees, particularly those on the island and their contractors for the hard work they've done over the past year, and I'd also like to recognize the contribution of the board and my predecessor, Seng-Hui, and our recently retired director from our other major shareholder, Mr. Ding. Finally, thank you to all our shareholders.
It's your company, not ours, so we acknowledge that and look forward, hopefully, to having some optimistic news for you as to our growth in the following years. Okay. Okay, so we'll now move on to the formal business of the meeting. This meeting is held in person and online via the Computershare platform. All online attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting. Shareholders and proxies attending in person or online both have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. In today's meeting, we'll table the financial accounts and resolutions one to four first, then answer any shareholders' questions submitted on the financial accounts and the resolutions from those online and those attending in person. Once this has occurred, we'll invite Peter, our CEO, to provide an operational update presentation. Okay. Wind slide four. Yep. Okay, I'll now explain the process for asking questions and voting today.
For online shareholders, please use your Q&A icon to ask questions about a resolution prior to voting. You may also ask a verbal question using the online instructions. The Company Secretary will manage any questions received and remove any duplication. For attendees here in the room, at the time of registration, those entitled to vote would have been given green cards, which include voting instructions on the back. If there is anyone who believes they are entitled to vote but has not received a—or is not registered to vote and/or has not received a card, please raise your hand and let us know. Please ensure you print your name on the box where indicated and sign the voting paper and lodge in the ballot box. If you need any help again, please raise your hand.
For this meeting and all resolutions, they will be decided by poll and announced on the ASX immediately after the meeting. The Computershare Investor Services will act as the returning officer for the poll, and I confirm that polling is now open. Okay. I haven't got that over. It's on my page, mate. A summary of the proxy votes for the meeting are presented on the screen behind me. I confirm I'm holding the undirected proxies in my capacity as chair and my intention to vote on all proxies in favor of resolution one to four. Any directed proxies that are not voted at the meeting will be also defaulted to me as chairman, and I'm required to vote on these proxies as directed. Okay, so we can see the results of the poll on the screen. Okay. Thanks.
The first item of business is the financial statements and reports. The first item is to receive and consider the financial report, the directors' report, and the auditor's report for the year ending 30th of June 2025. These reports are all included in the company's annual report and are available on the company's website. Jemma Newton from the company's auditors, Ernst & Young, is here. Raise your hand. Is here and is able to answer any questions on the audit if required. We'll respond to questions on the financial statements and reports at the end of resolution four at the end of the meeting. Okay. Okay, ordinary resolutions. The move to put the resolutions to be put before the shareholders. For governance purposes, I'll ask Simon to act as chair for the first resolution, which is the election of myself.
Thank you, Brett. I'll just confirm things like that.
Do you need a mic?
Can everybody hear me?
Yep.
Yep.
Resolution one relates to the election of Brett Smith. We move to consider the first resolution relates to his election. Mr. Smith is currently Chair of the Board and was appointed as a director of the Board on the 17th of April 2025. Mr. Smith has not yet stood for election by shareholders. Mr. Smith, being eligible, presents himself for election as a director, and the Board, in the absence of Mr. Smith, unanimously supports his election. I move that the election of Mr. Smith as a director of the company be supported by shareholders. The proxy results are on the screen for all to see, and you can respond to any questions on this resolution after resolution four of this meeting. Thank you, and I'll now hand back to the Chair.
Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay, resolution two is the adoption of the remuneration report. We'll move to consider this next resolution, which is the adoption of the company's remuneration report. The Corporations Act requires that at the AGM, a resolution that the remuneration report is adopted is to be put to vote. The remuneration report details the company's policies on the remuneration of non-executive directors and senior executives. The vote is advisory only and does not bind the company or directors. I move that the adoption of the—I move that the adoption of the company's remuneration report. The proxy results for this resolution are detailed on the screen and support the approval of the remuneration report. Again, we'd respond to any questions on this resolution at the end of the meeting. Okay.
Resolution 3A, 3B, and 3C is approval of the potential termination benefits to executives under the company's loan share scheme. Okay. We will move to consider the next three resolutions, 3A, 3B, and 3C, which relate to the approvals of a potential termination benefit to the senior executives, Mr. Peter Kerr, Ms. Gill Dobson, and Mr. David Stokes under the company's loan share plan. The resolution relates to the company's loan share plan established in August 2016 for the named executives as part of their long-term incentive plan. The board is seeking approval from shareholders to have the discretion where it considers the circumstances appropriate to waive vesting and disposal restrictions under this plan. The board currently only envisages exercising such discretion when the employees have left office without fault or their part, such as in the event of redundancy.
The need for requesting shareholder approval is because under the Corporations Act and ASX listing rules, there are restrictions on the level of termination benefits which may be granted to employees without shareholder approval. The resolution seeks to obtain shareholder approval so that the board may exercise its discretion in compliance with requirements of the Corporations Act and ASX listing rules with respect to the planned shares issued in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Further shareholder approval will be required for any termination benefits that may be granted to employees in future years. I move the approval of the potential termination benefits under the company's loan share plan is accepted. The resolution and the summary of the proxy votes received before the meeting appear on the screen behind me, and I'll ask the company secretary to scroll through each individual resolution. These are three identical resolutions.
That's just showing them for good order for each person. Okay, thank you. Resolution four is the company's name change, and we'll move to consider the next resolution, which is a special resolution to approve the name change to MGX Resources Limited and related changes to the company's resolution. I think I spoke in the beginning about how this reflects our strategy for growth in the future, a movement away from iron ore to other resources. It's no more complicated than that. The proxy results for the resolution are detailed on the screen in support of the approval of resolution four. Okay, thanks. Okay, I'll now invite questions on items of business today, including the financial accounts or any of the resolutions one to four, and I'll ask our company secretary to please read out any written online questions relating to today's resolution. Okay. Any questions, please?
We do have a few.
The online ones first.
Sure.
Yeah.
Okay. For the financial reports, this question is from a shareholder. When was the external audit last tendered, and when is it next likely to be audited?
When is it—when is the—likely to be audited, or when is it next likely to be tendered?
When was the external audit last tended, and when is it next likely to be audited?
I can answer that.
Sure.
It was last tendered some years ago. I don't have the specific year, but quite some time, and the board is looking at re-tendering next year. At this point in time for fiscal 2026, the audit is with Ernst & Young or EY, who are here today, but that will be reviewed next year in the context.
EY have acknowledged our change of business and I believe have reduced their potential fees for next year.
Great. Thanks. The next one is in respect of the remuneration report, and the question is, which of the proxy advisors covered—I am going to summarise this—which of the proxy advisors covered Mount Gibson this year? Did any recommend against a vote against today's resolutions, including this remuneration report? If so, what were the reasons that they gave in respect of those?
You can answer.
Sure. One of the proxy advisor groups, ISS, who may be familiar or you may be familiar with, does follow us, and in relation to the remuneration report, recommended support for that. Okay. In respect of the election of directors, so in respect of the resolution relating to Brett, was a recruitment firm used to find Brett as our new chair, and did the board consider any other alternatives? Which of our existing directors did Brett know before engaging with the recruitment process?
Maybe I'll answer the first part, and then you can do the second. Brett is an appointee of our major shareholder. A major shareholder is entitled to appoint one member, and that's APAC Resources, and Brett is that appointee, and that was accepted by the board. In relation to who Brett knew beforehand?
I think I knew most of the board beforehand. I think it's also important to note I was the alternate of the previous chairman, so I had had experience in dealing with the company on an ongoing basis.
Okay. One more on Brett's election. There was a 19.45% protest vote against the re-election of Director Paul Dougas at last year's AGM. What caused that? How did we respond to the protest vote? Have there been any protest votes against Brett Smith, the only director up for election today?
I'm not sure how you class it as protest, but they may have been the numbers last year. From the board perspective, obviously Brett is recently appointed Chairman, so he wasn't around during that time, but we moved on focusing on the company and what we're trying to do with the business, which is what you see in front of you now, unfortunately with the issue at Koolyanobbing recently, and we'll talk about that in a minute. In relation to protest votes this year, I'm not aware of one.
There's always someone who doesn't vote for you. If you look at the poll numbers, there's always someone who doesn't vote for you, but I don't think it's a significant percentage.
Okay. We've got a question on the termination benefits on 3A. There was a 10% proxy protest vote on Peter Kerr's termination payment resolution. Did one of the proxy advisors recommend against it, and if so, what was their rationale? Do you know which shareholders voted against and why they were concerned? Corporate voting is not a secret ballot in Australia, so you're able to interrogate this issue to better understand shareholder sentiment and concerns.
Can I answer? That's about me.
Do you want to answer?
I'm part of the termination benefits, so I probably can't.
Okay. I think to ask us to have analyzed what the votes are at this shorter time when the polls only open today is not a realistic question to ask. Yep.
I think also the votes were 90% as well.
You should say that ISS recommendation was against.
Yeah, that's true. ISS recommendation was for the remuneration report, but it was against the termination benefits. Okay, I think we've got one last one. This is to do with the company name change, and the question is, why is an iron ore company getting into the gold business? Can you cite any other listed mining companies which are in both gold and iron ore? Surely a bulk commodity miner like Mount Gibson has different skills to those in the precious metals business like gold. Are we just opportunistically pivoting because of the gold boom? Shouldn't we just return our surplus cash to shareholders rather than going off and pursuing this risky gold frolic?
Okay. It's not a risky gold frolic. For some time now, we have been talking to our shareholders and explaining that Koolyanobbing was coming to an end. Koolyanobbing itself is, as we've seen, a challenging open-pit operation with many characteristics of an underground mine. We do have people in the business who are skilled at underground mining and open-pit mining in the gold business, including some from the processing side as well. We've been talking for several years about the move from iron ore into precious and base metals. Precious metals to some might have been quite a sudden change, but actually we've been looking at it in the context of a change in hard rock mining and precious and base metals were there. If we can find another project to add to the Central Tanami Gold Project, then we will.
This doesn't mean we're just focusing on the single one at the moment, but this has been a well-communicated plan for some time now.
I think it's also important to add that the Central Tanami Project has about 30 old open pits associated with it. As well as the underground mine there, there's a number of remnant pits where the open-pit mining experience from Koolyanobbing will be valuable.
Okay. I'll just ask Computershare to confirm if there are any online verbals. No? Okay. Okay. Can I invite any shareholders here today who may have some questions that they would like to ask? No? Okay.
Hi.
It's just the microphone coming to you.
Good morning. Harry Anstey, shareholder. Given the current state of mining, do we agree or does the board believe that the number of members is warranted, particularly before you get into operation and start getting some return on funds? It's going to be a lean time for shareholders, and it seems rather generous to increase or have a board of such a size. Thank you very much.
I think the present board side is somewhat a requirement of a FERB regulation in terms of the number of independent directors we have. In fact, in the board meeting yesterday, we discussed this. What is our sensible board makeup for the future? We also agreed as a board to take a 20% cut in all our remuneration and to end any fees for the associated committees. It is something we're considering, the look and mix of the board going forward as we move to different commodities and different skill sets.
Brett's right with a closet.
Sure. Unless there's any other—no, any other questions? We can also have a chat over coffee, everyone, so it doesn't have to be—I'm scared of mics. If it's easier to talk when you're just having a cup of coffee, that's fine. Yep.
Okay. So just on behalf of Brett here, if all online shareholders, if you would like, if you've not yet already, could you please cast your votes on resolutions one to four? Also, if anyone in the room, if they could please complete their green card and raise their hand if it hasn't been collected already. Thanks, Rod. Okay. Great. That seems like the voting process is complete. Results for this meeting will be published on the ASX this afternoon, so that concludes the formal proceedings. Now, Peter will give his CEO presentation, and then after that, you'll have an opportunity to ask any questions that you've got, and otherwise join us for coffee and tea and biscuits afterwards. Thanks.
Thanks, David. Okay. Good morning, all. No, I'm good. Thanks. Morning, all. Thank you very much for coming to this morning's annual general meeting. What I'd like to do—this is a fairly short and sweet presentation. Obviously, it's different to what we expected to be saying to you from a few weeks ago, unfortunately. My name is Peter Kerr. I'm the CEO and have been for the last six or so years. Welcome to you all, and just a quick acknowledgement of traditional owners on Koolyanobbing, the Dambima ngari people. We do work closely with them, and so I just want to make sure that they are acknowledged. From the perspective of the company at this point in time, we have corporately substantial cash and investment reserves, and I'll talk in more detail about that in a minute.
We have no debt, so the company in which you hold shares and you own is strong, and that has been very fortunate for the recent issues we have had at Koolyanobbing, which are very disappointing to us, obviously. We do have the recently announced acquisition of 50% of the Central Tanami Gold Project, which we think is really exciting, and I am going to spend the second half of this presentation just giving you an update on that project, but we think we have an attractive entry price into something that could be terrific for this company going forward. In addition to that, as I mentioned before in response to one of those questions, we are not stopping there.
We are looking at other investments, and we do have an investment portfolio which we do move in and out of from time to time, but that is designed to try and build positions, and they might be small. They might be under the 5% threshold of many companies, but we build positions and we build relationships and look at financing and joint venturing and acquisition opportunities in them. Sometimes we've done that, and those opportunities haven't come forth as we'd hoped, so we sell out. Other times, we've held on to those positions, and we've disclosed some of them where we were over the substantial shareholder limit, but at this point in time, we're still actively looking at a number of those. At Koolyanobbing, of course, it's the highest-grade direct shipping ore export operation, or it was until recently.
It was scheduled to close mid to late next year, so sometime in the September quarter, but unfortunately, as Brett has mentioned, the safety concerns there following this large rock fall, which was completely unexpected, and we were very fortunate that we didn't hurt someone, but the systems on the island enabled us to actually walk away from that end of the rock fall. That is obviously causing us to rethink what we do there. For the moment, mining is suspended in the main pit. Workforce reductions are occurring, but we are continuing to reclaim, process, and ship low-grade stockpiles, which will help us defray some costs, perhaps more than we'd initially thought. See how we go with the market, and I'll talk to you a bit about that.
Corporately, overall, the position of the company is AUD 440 million odd market cap, which is obviously below our last reported cash balance. That was changing quite considerably as we started to move ahead with the Central Tanami Gold Project, and we were having good success with Koolyanobbing in its final 12 months. Share prices have fallen as a result of the recent rock fall event, but that's what we accept. We now move ahead with transitioning from Koolyanobbing, looking at the use of the assets for non-mining purposes there, and there may be some opportunity for us to transact on that front, but ultimately, our focus will be now accelerated into the Central Tanami Gold Project. In terms of the makeup of the company, very little's changed for the major shareholders.
APAC Resources in Hong Kong still has 38%, and retail Australian—sorry, bigger pardon—institutional Australian shareholders are still sitting at around the 15%-20% range. Shougang Fushan, which was a shareholder of ours, a larger shareholder and over time has diluted, sitting at 13.9% now, is still there. They did have a director on our board, Mr. Ding Rucai, and as Brett mentioned, Mr. Ding retired recently, and they have not renominated someone. They sit there, though, interested to know what we are doing next. In relation to Koolyanobbing, the picture on the right is the rehabilitation work that has been done very well and progressing actively. This was occurring well before the rock fall of a few weeks ago.
The incident occurred late at night, in the evening of the 16th of October, and you will know that we put the shares into a halt and then suspension as we dealt with the consequences of that. Further monitoring will now occur. The pit is still sitting there. We are allowed to enter the pit, and we're comfortable to do so under strict safety protocols for servicing of pumps and removal of equipment. Basically, the pit is still there. It's being evaluated. That rock fall, despite all of the installed ground support and the monitoring radars that we have all over it, was unexpected, and we were fortunate to pick up the issues and pick it up sufficiently early to move people out, but we're also very lucky. There were some people there that were quite close because of the size of it.
It was unexpected. That has caused us to re-question even more so some of the installations in this mine globally, right up there in terms of quantity and quality, but it has caused us to just reassess and step back and have a look at just the safety aspects. We were not prepared to put people in there and to push ahead straight away, but we will monitor that and we will see. The focus is now on the island, a methodical workforce reduction, which the team has done, and looking at the reclaim of the low-grade stockpiles. Now, by low grade, I mean some of these cargoes that we are selling between now and December are in the 55%-58% area FE, so they are nothing like the high-grade cargoes we had.
We have a range of other lower-grade stockpiles where we may still be able to, because these things have been mined and stockpiled over many years, and originally would have been blended with the high-grade cargoes, but we may well be able to sell those as standalone cargoes. That would see us run into early 2026, the first half of next calendar year. If we can achieve that, and there is a lot of work going on to try and do that, we help defray and offset quite a bit of our cost on the island, and that would be a good outcome. As I mentioned, we would be looking for opportunities for the use of the airstrip, the camp, and the port facility there for non-mining activities when we finish. No change there.
We've talked about that at previous AGMs, and that's still well and truly an opportunity for us. People have asked us whether the incident is insured, and what I can say at this point is we do have insurance policies, and preliminary discussions are underway with the insurers, their loss adjusters, and our brokers. We, unfortunately, have a lot of experience with insurance claims from prior years, but we have good relationships with them, with our insurers, and are working through that now. That will be an information flow coming up in the next while. These matters do not get determined super quickly, and there's quite a bit of negotiation in them sometimes, but we will work with our insurers to assess that potential claim. Finally, on Koolyanobbing here, just a picture of what we're doing.
This is a fairly recent picture with the low-grade stockpiles that we've been reclaiming, putting onto the ROM Pad processing with the lower workforce numbers on the island as we sit. Something in the form of a measured process on this low-grade program would be good for the whole island. Overall, what does it mean for our cash balances? This is a chart that you may have seen before, and what it shows is in the orange columns by quarter, the cash and investment balances of the company as it's been built up over the last few years. Now, the black line is the approximate value of that cash and investment balance per share, so expressed as a cash backing type number.
You can see in the last year or so, we've incrementally added, but that's been a function of what we've had to do at Koolyanobbing on our waste movement program and also the iron ore price, which has actually come down a fair way from where it was, say, a couple of years ago. We've still maintained that balance and looking to try and maximize that through what we're doing at Koolyanobbing with the low-grade program. What it means, though, in terms of Mount Gibson, is it's financially robust. It's obviously conservatively run in the financial side and what's occurred with the cash reserves, and it means we're now well positioned to really accelerate what we want to do with the Central Tanami Gold Project. This is a picture. I'm moving on to this now.
This is a picture, and I should say I welcome any questions at the end of this. This is a picture from the air of the Central Tanami Gold Project joint venture area. You can see in it a gravel airstrip, a camp, and a process plant site. As Brett mentioned, there are multiple deposits all through a line of strike, which is about 60 km in length, roughly north to south, and they are deposits where there is an extensive amount of gold, and we, as a party coming into this joint venture, have an opportunity to really accelerate and drive, with the other JV partner, the growth of the project. Just to refresh you maybe, if you have not seen what is in this project, it is a 50/50 joint venture between Northern Star Resources and Tanami Gold.
Northern Star is selling its stake to us, and as I mentioned before, the reason for that is because Northern Star has gone on and made very large acquisitions, and this project, while they very much like it, is small, too small for that size company. Former Northern Star management team members who are no longer with that company would very much still like to be involved with this project, so we've been talking with people about what their views are, and that was part of our due diligence process, and we feel that we've got a successful entry into a project. There is extensive mining and exploration tenure, so 2,100 sq km within the joint venture, and outside that, at Mount Gibson, or MGX Resources, as we will be rebadged shortly, we will have an extensive holding of wholly owned exploration tenure as well.
That having been said, our focus will be on the mineral resources and the component of those resources, which is free milling and amenable to standard gold processing, and particularly the Groundrush gold deposit. Now, recently, Tanami Gold, this is last Friday, published an updated resource estimate for the joint venture. It meant that quite a few older resource numbers that were under the previous JORC Code now all sit under the new JORC Code. So we've got a figure of 2.8 million oz for being the total content of the gold within the Central Tanami joint venture, so it's 100% of it. The vast majority of those resources are on granted mining leases, and the infrastructure there is extensive but old. It requires a lot of work to get it up to a standard for a go-forward decision.
There is a 1.2 million tonne per annum old processing plant. Part of it has been scavenged, and it has obviously sat there and not operated for 20 years, so there is a fair bit of work required in it, which we are able to do, and we are looking at that at the moment with engineering firms. There is also an airstrip, a sealed haul road up to the Groundrush deposit between the plant and Groundrush, and a whole range of other things to do with water bore fields and a camp. The camp requires a fair bit of work, and maybe some of the units we have at Koolyanobbing can be used here as a short lead time and cheap entry point for that camp upgrade.
In terms of the acquisition, the deal we signed with Northern Star has a period until 31 March next year for us to settle the key conditions. The three key conditions, which we're well on the way to either having done or settling, are Tanami Gold's waiver of its preemptive right, and that was done in August, FIRB approval, and we've received good indications from FIRB and are waiting for the next instalment update from them this month. The other one is from the Central Land Council. It's a traditional owner approval relating to historic mining infrastructure and obligations around that infrastructure. That last one is a condition that we can waive. We don't have to wait for it to be accepted, and we may choose to do that, but we will assess that with the board in the coming month or two.
I think we're well on the way. We're not expecting any issues from FIRB, and certainly, we'd like to close that transaction as soon as we can and get in the keys and get in to work with Tanami Gold, our partner. The numbers here, you may not be able to see, but I'm just going to highlight a few key ones. In the map on the left, the Tanami Road is the road that runs from the left-hand mid-side of the map down towards the bottom right-hand corner, and towards the bottom is Newmont's Tanami operation, which is a large gold operation producing 400,000 oz of gold per year currently. The Central Tanami Project and plant site is labelled. You can see it with the arrow in the middle.
Basically, the line of strike for the deposits we're focusing on run from Groundrush, which is the dashed red rectangle on the top right, down to Gems, which is the dashed smaller red rectangle on the bottom left. It is through those deposits that we now have the total resource estimate of 2.8 million oz, and the average grade of that is, you might be able to see it there, 2.8 g per tonne. It is very attractive relative to other projects in Australia. These are all 100% numbers, I should say. We are buying into 50%, but this is 100%. The key deposit is Groundrush, 11 million tonnes at 3.3 for 1.2 million oz. We would expect in due course further work in the optimization and the mine planning of that deposit.
We might see some changes in the grade, but these resources currently have been estimated using a price for gold in the assessment of potential economic extraction of AUD 3,500 an oz. The price is currently sitting somewhere around AUD 6,000 an oz. There's a fair difference in there, but we'll be looking at the opportunity in due course to see what that could do to the mine plan and the resources there. Gems down the bottom is a potential open pit and possibly underground minable deposit at the southern end, and that currently sits at about 220,000 oz in resource. There's a lot of work cut out, a lot of good people at that site in terms of a small geological team, but with good knowledge of what's happening there, and we'll be working to looking to work with them as best we can.
Groundrush itself looks like this. This is a long section looking to the west, and what you can see is the open pit that was mined 20 years ago by Newmont, relatively shallow at the top, that's the brown color, and then underneath that, we have the mineral resource wireframes in blue. So that's the actual modeling of the ore body or the deposit that's sitting there, and then wrapped around that in this resource estimate is an indicative mine plan showing the underground stopes in green, and that's where this resource estimate of 1.2 million oz comes from. Relation to where this project sits, and here's some indicative comparable data, and you may have seen some of this, but we've updated it now for the latest resource update from last week.
These are projects in Australia owned by a range of different companies, and you may recognize some of them on the bottom, showing in the column size the contained resource ounces on the left-hand side, and in the black diamond shapes, the average grade of those resource estimates on the right-hand side. What you can see here is the Central Tanami Gold Project clearly is something that looks attractive relative to a range of other gold projects. There was a question before about, are we just jumping on the bandwagon and trying to ride the gold boom? The answer is no for that. In actual fact, the discussions we have been having with Northern Star have been going on some time.
The rise in the gold price, we didn't anticipate to this level, but we felt earlier this year and late last year that gold as an opportunity for commodity investment made a lot of sense given what was happening in the world. That has come to fruition, and we hope that the commodity price for us stays up at suitable levels for quite some time yet so we can get this project into production.
In relation to our acquisition cost, you may have seen this chart, a simple comparison again against other acquisitions that have occurred, and on average, and there are outliers here and there are different reasons for the price paid on these projects, but just as a high level, based on the latest resource update, we're looking at about our entry price for our attributable share of those resources is sitting at a very competitive level, AUD 36, so that's an attractive entry price for us. It leaves us with a lot of scope in terms of looking at capital and operating and what we can do for this project. Just before we close, in terms of finally other growth opportunities, and I did mention and talk about this at the start, we have built an investment portfolio.
Shown in the bullet points there are a handful of the names of the key companies in that portfolio. Despite what others might be saying, there is no conspiracy behind how we're holding these investments or what we're doing with them, right? That's all a fallacy. What we're doing here is we're looking at opportunities to enter companies where we think there's really good opportunity for either financing or JV or some other corporate approach from us. Clearly, holding smaller stakes can be a start of that, but it's not something you want to advertise widely for obvious reason. We hold shares in AIC Mines, which is a copper producer in Northern Queensland, and Morella Metals, which is a developer of what looks like quite an attractive lead silver project with a copper gold resource attached to it.
We also hold just under 10% of Fenix Resources, which is a Midwest-based miner of iron ore plus logistics company effectively. That stake was part of the divestment we made two years ago of our Midwest remaining assets to Fenix, and we obtained cash consideration and shares, and those are those shares. We are looking at those, and we obviously constantly monitor what's going on there and have regular discussions with parties about it.
We also have a small exploration team, so the last point for you is that there's some regional exploration work where we picked up prospective areas where we like, or we came across during our due diligence activities on a range of companies, and in particular in the Eromanga Basin, which is inland from Shark Bay, a fairly remote area, not very widely explored, but there is occurrence of various mines to the south, and that's a particular example, for instance, of what we're doing on the regional work site. With that, brings us to a close. In summary, as you all know, we're an established miner. We'd expect it to be going for another year or so at Koolyanobbing. It's really disappointing that we've had to slow and suspend mining at the moment while we look at it.
In all reality, we'll see what the near term brings, but we focus on the monetisation of the stockpiles and the work we're doing with our offtake customers on that. The strategy is to utilise our people to the extent we can, the knowledge, and maybe some of the equipment items in actually looking at the Central Tanami Gold Project and bringing some advantages to that project. In the meantime, building a multi-commodity business is our objective. The Central Tanami Gold Project I talked about, I think, is the first one. It's an attractive opportunity, and you'll see more information flows on this as we complete that transaction. With that, I bring it to a close, and I'm happy to take any questions from the floor, or if you prefer, over coffee afterwards. By the way, this is one of the dingoes in the Central Tanami Gold Project. Please do.
Just ladies in the back. Hi. Long-term shareholders have actually had the share price has not recovered from the initial rock fall at Koolyanobbing back in 2014, where a similar thing happened. The wall fell, complete disaster. Everything came to a halt. Now we've got the share price that was slowly getting vaguely near where it was at that point, and it's collapsed. Another wall has collapsed, and the whole thing's gone out the window. I'm just wondering, given you're sitting on so much cash, I'd quite like the idea of maybe giving some of it back to us long-serving shareholders. Because you seem to have sort of morphed into a bit of a managed fund because you're investing in all these different companies. That's very lovely, but we're actually investing in a mining company, not a managed fund. It's a little bit strange.
Also, as a Northern Star shareholder as well, they're a very savvy company, and they don't get rid of gold stocks that are performing well because they're very good at that. Their share price, as everyone knows, has actually skyrocketed. Basically, that's the point, whether you're considered returning some money to shareholders because we seriously have not recovered from that initial rock fall. In terms of insurance, I'm surprised that you can get insurance for a rock fall that occurred 10 years later, given that that seems to be what happens on Koolyanobbing. It's not new. No, okay. You have covered about eight items there. I'll see if I can break them down for you, and please speak up if I've missed something.
In terms of the cash in the company and returns for shareholders over the longer term, we're actually all shareholders as well and have put money in ourselves. From that perspective, we know the pressures that that brings. What we have chosen to do is, and I should just step back, the discussion about capital returns and dividends is a live one with the board. We had been progressing towards Koolyanobbing's final year. That was expected to be a very strong year, as you would know. Now we have a different scenario, so we'll need to reassess what happens, but the capital management side of things is still on the table. In terms of where we go next, is it a mining fund or is it an operating company? I guess what we're dealing with right now is quite a sudden change.
We're an operating company, but in this intervening period, we will be doing the best we can with the operations at Koolyanobbing, but trying to accelerate into the next project in the Tanami. If in the future there's a view that, look, you turn more into an investment company if this comes to fruition, if that's how you want to sort of think about it, then everything's on the table from what are those investments to what's the cash in the business. At this point in time, the focus is on dealing with Koolyanobbing and the Central Tanami Gold Project, and then we can better understand what the cash in the business looks like and going forward, what are the objectives. I think, Peter, also it's important that Peter mentioned shareholdings in a number of small companies. That is not as an investment fund.
That is part of the due diligence process of establishing what other projects we could buy into to develop as a mining company. The shareholdings are relatively small, not like a fund which buys a significant shareholding. The companies that Peter mentioned are also companies, and Peter mentioned the strategy where it allows us to get in, have a look under the sheets and see, is this a company that we think we could develop into a mining company where we could play a specific part in it? They're not passive investments. If they are a company which Peter and his team think there isn't a future in, they would sell those shares. It is part of that strategy of finding new opportunities for us to diversify our mining operations. It's not a fund. Yeah? Yeah. Northern Star was another point you had.
Why is Northern Star selling? That is an obvious one. Northern Star produces 1.6 million oz per year currently as a pure gold producer. This project, we have not studied what the production output would be, but when it was studied a number of years ago, is sitting in the order of 100,000-150,000 oz per annum. It is a small component of what Northern Star is nowadays. When Northern Star first got involved in this project, it actually made a very strong effort to get it in production, did a lot of drilling, and has actually been investing in it quite substantially.
We took the opportunity earlier this year when Northern Star was transacting with De Grey Mining in that transaction, big transaction, to actually approach Northern Star and say, "Well, what are you doing with this smaller thing, and would you consider selling it?" That is the approach we took. I do not think it is reflective of their views on the project, certainly not in what we hear and what consultants hear as well. Is there anything that is obvious? It is a very long way from anywhere, that location. It is Koolyanobbing. We do have a bit of experience with remote management, and that was one of our objectives. Yes, it is a long way from anywhere, but you can also have aircraft. Both the Northern Territory Government and the Western Australian Government are looking at sealing the Tanami Road.
That'll significantly reduce the sort of isolation costs of the development of that project. Yeah. And then last point, insurance. You asked about it. Yes, we did have an insurance claim too in the past, one related to the 2014 seawall failure, which I think is the one you're referring to, and then one relating to actually a fire in part of the processing plant a number of years ago. It is true that you generally can't insure pit walls and underground mine workings and the like, so I think you were sort of expressing some surprise at that. At the same time, we do have insurance that is specific for Koolyanobbing features, and so that's what we're discussing with the insurers now.
We're very careful about what we say because there's quite a way of piece of work to go through with the insurers to understand what a potential claim could look like. Thank you. Hopefully, you'll see a re-rating of our stock as that gold. You spoke about Northern Star's share price. We're hoping to see a re-rating of the stock value as we move this project into production. As we were on the track to receiving before this rock fall. Yeah. I'm hopeful I've covered everything there. Okay, great. Yes, please. I've been a long-term shareholder of Mount Gibson. I went into my file today because I thought I'd come to the meeting. This letter I wrote on 20th of February 2014, it still applies even more so today. This is Mr. Jeff Hill, who was the former chairman. "Dear Mr.
Hill, I've been a shareholder of MGX since September 2004 when the company was called Aztec Resources. I cannot believe your current strategy of not paying dividends each six months, which is mainly responsible for the price dropping from AUD 1.20 to AUD 0.97 over the last two days. Since you became chairman on the 20th of the 5th, 2011, following is the MGX performance compared with its peers. MGX price on the 3rd of June 2011, AUD 1.80. Price 20th of February 2014 is AUD 0.97, - 46.1%. I've got here another one. I can't read this to you all. BCI, AUD 3 on the 3rd of the 6th, 2011. 20th of the 2nd, 2014 is AUD 5.24, which is + 75%. There you've got MGX - 46.1% over the same period. BCI + 75. Another one I've got here is FMG.
Now, I have MGX in my charitable trust and my small business self-managed super fund. Assuming MGX pays a final dividend, the franking credits will not be available until the financial year 2016. I'll be paying extra interest on my margin account in the meantime. A company should be run for the benefit of its owners, the shareholders, not just a plaything of the directors, some of whom may have a conflict of interest. I ask that in view of your disastrous chairmanship of MGX and in the interest of the majority of the shareholders that you stand down from the board immediately. Don't get too worried about it. I've only put that in my file. I haven't seen this letter for about 10 years or more, 20 years. Okay. I'm closed as an article which I haven't got.
That's the problem I've got is I'm in my 80s now, and I would like to see a dividend from MGX before I die. Right. Understood. It's very worrying when board and see today you're giving yourself retirement benefits and all this. It's a very happy board up here, but I have not received one cent from MGX in the last 10-20 years. I don't know. I've also got shares in Newmont and also Northern Star. Those companies pay dividends. I don't know if you're aware that companies do pay dividends, but they pay dividends. I don't want you going off and pretending you're good investors in that and going ahead for the next, say, 10 years when I'll be in my 90s and not receive a dividend. Understood. Okay. Maybe just a few points since that letter.
The company hasn't paid a dividend in the last two or three years, but up until then, from 2014 up until when it last did in 2021, 2022, AUD 330 million was paid in dividends. Some of those had the opportunity to be taken as discounted shares, and the rest was cash. You would have had dividends since that time. You got your wish, Jeff Hill stepped down. I have forgotten the last dividend I got from him. That's so long ago, I've forgotten. Understood. Your point is about, I take your point being more about the cash reserves in the company and what's going to happen to those. All I can say is it's a live issue for the board. We don't have any franking credits at this point. We have some opportunities with the Central Tanami Gold Project and other projects potentially in the future.
We have to weigh up the needs of what's the capital need of those and what can be the return. Because we don't have the franking credits, a lot of our holders said, "Well, put the money to better use within the business." That's been the focus. Dividends haven't been drawn out, as in haven't been struck through. There's still an opportunity. We are going into a period now where this event has only happened in the last few weeks, and we've just got to reassess how we actually manage and what we do with those returns. The idea of what we're doing with the Central Tanami Gold Project is to go about it in a disciplined way and get in there.
Maybe there are some consolidation opportunities inside that region as well and drive something so we can be like a Newmont or a Northern Star and pay those dividends. That could be some time away. I hope your health is good because we'll see how we go, but it'd be very good to think about some form of return or dividends. It's a live issue on the table now. I don't have any news or commitment for you on that front right now. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Anything online? All right. Okay. Thanks for asking those questions. I don't think John's just allowed them to. You might need the microphone, mate. Just. Yeah. Okay. Some time. Okay. Does 13% shareholder Shougang have automatic board representation rights to the extent that they could legally or contractually nominate someone to succeed Mr. Ding if they wanted to?
Are they now just like any other shareholder? Any other nomination would be a matter for the board or shareholders. Also, does FERB have veto rights on who Shougang Fushan nominates based on past experience? Does FERB take a view on whether nominee directors of APAC and Shougang Fushan should be either Australian citizens or Australian residents? Okay. On the first point, Shougang Fushan has about 13.9% of the company. It does have the right to appoint a nominee director. That person obviously needs to be registered in Australia with director ID and the likes, and the board here would need to be assured that that person is a fit person to be a board member. At this point in time, Shougang Fushan has not re-nominated a director following the retirement of Mr. Ding. As we have said in our announcement, that position is potentially there.
If Shougang Fushan is looking to do that, then they would come and discuss that with the board. At this point in time, that has not occurred. The board then sits at five members. FERB does not have a veto on whether that person sits as whether they are a foreign national or an Australian person. Indeed, Mr. Ding and his predecessors, who have all been contributors to the board, have not been Australian nationals. Okay. Final one. Thank you for offering a hybrid AGM today and using the excellent Computershare online AGM platform, which enables the East Coast to participate through questions inviting live.
Best AGM practice would also have included early disclosure of the proxy position to the ASX, along with the formal addresses, the CEO delivering his address at the start of the meeting, not the end, and following the agenda by dealing with questions on each resolution as you work through the agenda rather than as one job at the end. Any chance you might be able to make those changes next year while also sticking with the transparent hybrid format? Also, hopefully, we could see a copy of the AGM webcast on your website after the meeting for the benefit of shareholders who were not able to participate live today. Okay. I'll take all those things on notice, and we'll look at them and consider them for next year. Okay. That's it. Okay. All right. Look, that's the end of proceedings, everyone.
Please do join us for tea or coffee, and please come and have a chat with everyone around here from the company. Amongst the area that you're sitting in, there are people from Mount Gibson who've been with us a long time, so feel free to reach out. Okay. Thank you.