We're online. First of all, it's my pleasure to welcome you all to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Northern Minerals shareholders, and thank you all for attending, both here and online, so my name's Shane Hartwig. I'm the Managing Director, and as I said, thank you. I really appreciate everybody turning out to these events, to the AGM, and it's an important forum, so thank you to those out there. Thank you to those that are registered online as well. It may seem a little bit strange that I'm here. Unfortunately, our Chairman Adam Handley has had an incident at home this morning, which has rendered him unable to attend today's meeting and is currently seeking medical treatment, so he sends his apologies.
But on the basis of health and safety, we've recommended that the Chairman is going to get himself checked out. So we certainly wish you all the best on that. And I'll step in as today's chair. So just excuse me if I refer to myself as a third person. I'm sure that's fine. So I know that there are some representatives from the media present here in West Perth and online, and we welcome you to the meeting. But please, we would remind you that no photography or recording of the meeting is permitted. So thank you. And as is customary, I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate, the East Kimberley, Jaru, the Tuna Lulu, the Tjurabalan, and the Malarngowem people.
Also, obviously, as well as the traditional owners of the land on which we're meeting today, which I'm sure many of you will be aware that it's the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. So we recognize certainly from accompanying them as individuals, their unique cultural heritages, beliefs, and connections to the land, the waters, and the communities, and recognize their role as part of the present community. So as I said, I'm MD/CEO. To my left, I have non-executive director Mr. Bin Cai, who's traveled down from Beijing. So not only first time in Australia, so first time in Perth. So thank you for your attendance. And I think many of you will know Mr. Bin's background in terms of a long-term involvement with the company and another executive director. Within the crowd, we have other members of the Northern Minerals team, and some new, some old.
And so thank you, and thanks for everybody for the year, and thanks to everybody for coming this morning. Now, we had another slight issue, but this was a slightly delayed one. Our company's auditor, Nexia Perth, they will be in attendance. And partner Ms. Muranda Janse Van Nieuwenhuizen will be attending shortly. She's just stuck in traffic. But if there's any issues from a financial report, etc., while she's not here, I'll have to tackle those. So I'll provide a brief chairman's address, which has been released to the ASX before formally opening the 2024 Annual General Meeting and attending to the business of the meeting as set out in the notice of the meeting that you all received. And that was circulated to the shareholders on the 28th of October, 2024. I will then close the meeting while our Automic share registry service completes the poll.
The results of the poll will be announced to the ASX later this afternoon. So that's the process. So I'll go through now and walk through the chairman's address. So acknowledge that we held the postponed 2023 AGM only in June of this year. So even though we're today signing off on the full financial year to 30 June 2024, I'll focus the address on events since we last met five months ago. So pleasingly, it's been a busy and successful period for your company as we advanced work at our Browns Range Heavy Rare Earths project in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. There have been multiple work streams running in parallel as the team focused on delivering value from its world-class deposit of dysprosium material.
Your board remains fully committed to executing a fairly anticipated strategy to become a key Australian producer of heavy rare earths concentrate. Browns Range presents an excellent opportunity for Northern Minerals to establish itself as a safe, reliable, and strategically important supplier of some of the key materials required for a cleaner, greener real world. An updated mineral resource estimate for the Browns Range has been finalized. Dale and the team are working hard on that and will feed into the refreshed definitive feasibility study, which we'll talk through more a bit later. And that's obviously looking to achieve that commercial scale mining operation. So the DFS, that's due for completion in March quarter. So that's March quarter of 2025.
Significantly, all key approvals for the Browns Range are in place, and we retain a first production target date of late 2027, subject to obviously all important funding and getting to a final investment decision next year to keep that. So following strong shareholder support earlier this month with completion of a AUD 43 million capital raising, we're well funded for all our work streams through this FID decision next year. The capital raising, which also introduced a number of new institutional sophisticated investors to our register, was completed, was complemented, I should say, with just over, we're just under AUD 4 million SPP from existing shareholders. And we really look up, thank the shareholders for their support in that in terms of the capital raising, both from placement and the SPP. It was a great success for the company, in particular in a difficult market, a difficult market for everyone.
We thank all of those involved. I'll also provide a more detailed update on key work programs at the end of the meeting for the Browns Range, so you can get a feel for what has been done, what's going to happen. That's certainly since I took on the role of MD and CEO in May of this year. Since that time, we've set about reorienting some of our team at Northern Minerals so that we have the necessary in-house capability to deliver on the Browns Range potential. Again, delighted with the caliber of the team that we've put together at Northern Minerals. We thank them for their ongoing dedication and support.
will address market conditions for various companies like Northern Minerals remain challenging because of the soft commodity prices. I'm sure you're all aware, and including an uncertain growth outlook in economies that are key to driving the global decarbonization push. This month's election in the U.S. has contributed to short-term uncertainty. However, we do remain convinced that decarbonization is the future and will therefore underpin long-term demand for a reliable supply of Dy and Tb, which are essential in the manufacture of high-performance permanent magnets used for propulsion of electric vehicles, wind turbines, and specialist applications. We should also note robotics is also an increasing use case for magnets. And that's going to be, if you've seen the news and you've watched the famous Mr. Musk in terms of their success. A pathway is maybe something you need to call it.
Look, Adam, since taking on the role of Executive Chairman in May, he spent a lot of time meeting with shareholders to ensure alignment with the board. People will be aware there's been significant change to our share register since the 2023 AGM five months ago. These meetings that have been had between Adam and the shareholders and myself have been important and informative. They've also been overwhelmingly positive and productive and allowed us to explain our strategy and listen to shareholders and understand what matters to them. Retaining our core focus on the Browns Range is clearly important to our shareholders, and your board remains very focused on that. The board has also appointed an independent remuneration consultant to undertake a benchmarking exercise in the company's remuneration policy, structure, and compensation levels.
This was a commitment that Adam's Chair gave five months ago at the last AGM, and we look forward to updating shareholders on the results of the review once the consultants have completed their work. That review will complement the board's ongoing review of our governance, including board structure. We will update shareholders on the results of that review early in the new calendar year, so early 2025. We haven't been sitting idle while we wait for the consultant's review, cognizant of feedback from shareholders earlier this year. Even though it's only been five months since the shareholders last voted on our remuneration practices, we've begun to make changes to the way we remunerate our people to reflect shareholder views. These changes include deferring the short-term rewards for members of the senior leadership team until a positive final investment decision is made for Browns Range.
It's also worth noting the 2024 remuneration report, which is being put to shareholders today, includes one-off contractual obligations that were triggered by the board and changes announced in May, which included the resignation of our former executive chair, and we acknowledge that for some shareholders, the pace of change to our remuneration practices is not fast enough, which you'll see is reflected in proxy votes received for today's non-binding vote on the remuneration report, but I do want to collectively as a board, we just assure shareholders that we take that feedback very seriously and we will act on it. The board, as always, respects the diversity of shareholders' views. They want to make clear that we do welcome and encourage shareholders' feedback. That's part of our normal report. But we do operate in a highly competitive and strategically important sector for the Australian resources sector.
The board is committed to the company's remuneration practices and levels, aligning with industry standards at all times without jeopardizing our ability to deliver positive outcomes for shareholders. The board will continue our engagement with shareholders, particularly some of our newer top 20 investors, to fully understand their views and expectations of our company. This includes discussing with them the board makeup and the skills necessary to drive Northern Minerals' board, so as Adam outlined when he took the role on in May, Northern Minerals, we are progressing a refresh of the board to inject the relevant expertise and experience as Browns Range moves into the next stage of development. We recognize that we need to improve our board diversity and the composition as we move into the next stages for our project.
We do look forward to providing an update on this as we do a refresh program early in the year coming year. And so it's just really restating that Northern Minerals is, we are going to remember that we're placed to become a significant supplier of ethically sourced heavy rare earths for the global decarbonization push. So the outlook for Northern Minerals and our Browns Range project is positive, remains positive, and we look forward to the company providing updates to shareholders as we advance our vision. So again, thanks all to our shareholders for continued support and interest in Northern Minerals. Your board is fully aligned with you in pursuit of sustained shareholder value. So thank you. So I'll now move to the formal parts of today's meeting. Thanks, Ben. So the time for the commencement of the meeting is now past.
As advised, the quorum is present. They therefore call the meeting to order and declare that the meeting is open to business. As I mentioned, the virtual component of this meeting is being held via Automic's online meeting platform. This platform enables shareholders and proxy holders to participate in the live webcast of the meeting as well as ask questions and submit votes. So we'll now hand over to our company secretary, Ms. Belinda Pearce, and she will take those participating online through the process of submitting questions online. And she will walk you through it first, so bear with me.
Questions can be submitted at any time. To ask a question, press on the Q&A icon and it will swipe to the new screen. At the bottom of that screen, there is a section for you to type your question.
Please start your question by typing your shareholding SRN or HIN, and this will allow the moderator to identify you as a shareholder. If you would like to ask your question verbally, type your SRN or HIN, and then type "I'd like to speak." Once you've finished typing, please hit enter on your keyboard to send. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, the chairman will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Kindly include the agenda item number to which your question relates. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or, if the company received multiple questions on one topic, amalgamated. Due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all your questions. If this happens, the company will answer appropriate questions in due course via email, if not already addressed in the meeting.
All questions should be addressed to the chairman, who will either deal with the question personally or ask someone he considers may be a better place to respond. We will do our best to answer any relevant question raised. I ask that you keep your question short and to the point so that as many shareholders as possible have a chance to ask a question.
Thanks, Ben. I hope that's all clear. So when we reach the formal business of the meeting, I've determined that voting on all resolutions will be conducted by poll, as is standard these days. Shareholders attending virtually and wishing to vote on the resolution that's put to the meeting can do so through Automic's investor portal. If you are not already logged into the investor portal, instructions on how to do so can be found in the notice of meeting.
Summary of these instructions can also be seen on the screen. So let's start now. You're already lodged a proxy. Please note that you do not need to vote again through the online voting portal. Your votes will already be counted in a poll on each resolution as per your proxy instruction. So let's go to the second slide. Thank you. So if you have any problems registering your shareholding with Automic, please call the support number shown on the screen. And to allow shareholders time to log in, I now declare the poll open. So online voting is now open and will remain open until I declare it closed at the end of the formal business. Your votes must have been submitted prior to the portal being closed and then to count. So now we move to proxies for the meeting.
I'll ask Belinda, the company secretary, to advise the meeting how many proxies have been received for the meeting.
Thank you, Shane. I advise that 362 valid proxies have been received, representing a total of 6,031,702,904 shares, or 72.64% of the issued share capital of the company. The proxy votes to be cast in the manner for each of the resolutions as shown on the screen. The chairman intends to vote the proxies open to him in favor of each of the resolutions put forward at today's annual general meeting, except for resolutions three and five. Question.
Okay. So I advise that the notice of meeting and explanatory memorandum for the AGM was made available to all registered members in time to provide sufficient notice of the meeting. Unless there are any objections, I'll take the notice of meeting as read. Thank you.
Is there any objection? I now take that notice of meeting as being read. Proxies that were disclosed in the notice of meeting. I advise that the company has not received notice of any shareholders' resolutions for today's meeting. Therefore, I declare that the only matters of business for today's meeting that can be dealt with are those that are set out in the notice of meeting. I'd like to point out that I intend to deal with all resolutions in the notice of meeting at today's meeting in the order that they are set out in the notice of meeting. The notice for today's meeting contains voting prohibitions and exclusions for certain resolutions to be put to shareholders today.
I request those shareholders who are prevented from voting on a resolution by the voting prohibitions and exclusions contained in the notice of meeting do not vote on the relevant resolution. Shareholders will have an opportunity to ask questions on each resolution, but I remind shareholders that any question must be strictly related to a particular resolution being considered by the meeting. If you have a question, please state your name and then put your question to me as chairman. I may ask someone I consider more appropriate for a particular question to respond to your question. I will now commence the formal business set out in the notice of this meeting. In terms of the explanatory memorandum, with respect to each resolution, I'll refer shareholders to the relevant section of the explanatory memorandum attached to the notice of meeting. I will not provide any further commentary on each resolution.
However, if any shareholder requires any further explanation, please do not hesitate to ask at the time we consider each resolution. All resolutions to be put to shareholders at the meeting today will be cast by way of poll. Accordingly, there will be a vote on any of the sorry, there will not be a vote on any of the resolutions by show of hands. All of the proxy positions for the resolutions are shown on the screen. Because we are calling a poll on each resolution, I will read out each resolution and ask if shareholders have any questions on the resolution. Once I finish reading out all resolutions, I'll ask the Automic representative to facilitate the poll. Shareholders in attendance virtually that have already submitted a vote by proxy should note that your votes have already been counted towards the poll.
You do not need to lodge another vote unless you wish to change the proxy instruction. Shareholders in attendance virtually that have not submitted a vote by proxy and wish to vote on the resolutions being put to the meeting today can do so by registering your shareholding with Automic. Instructions on how to register your holdings were provided in the notice of meeting. Please note that the online voting is now open and we will remain until the poll is declared closed. Your votes must have been submitted prior to the poll being closed and counted. Now, we'll consider the annual accounts for the year ended 30th of June 2024. So the first item of business is the financial reports and accounts. Under the Corporations Act, the company is obliged by law before this meeting to present the last audited financial statements and reports.
There is no need to put a formal resolution to the meeting, but I invite discussion on the annual accounts. I note that the company will not receive any written questions from shareholders to be submitted to our auditors in relation to the company's annual accounts. So are there any questions on the accounts, or do shareholders have any questions that they wish to put to the company's auditors relative to the conduct of their audit, the preparation and content of the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company in relation to the preparation of financial statements, and the independence of the audit in relation to the conduct of quality audits? Any questions in relation to that? Okay, thank you. So we don't have any questions in relation to the annual accounts. I will now proceed on the basis of the meeting has received the accounts.
There's a question from Mr. Stephen May. Thanks for the question, Stephen. Has the auditor arrived yet? Yes, the answer is yes. The question is, when did we last tender the audit, and when do we plan to tender the audit? We are now, how many years are we into it next year?
Yeah, so we're. I'll have to double-check that. I can come back with an answer. It has been, I would say, approximately 12 years. We've stuck to the rotation rules, and that means that I am also rotating out now as the auditor. So I won't be signing off from the next financial year. There will be another colleague at 10:30 A.M., but it has already been announced to the company. So yeah, we are already in accordance with the independence rules.
Thank you.
So just in case that was a bit overheated, thank you, Muranda. So again, this has been the appointed audit for approximately 12 years. Of course, the company's adhering to the implemented rules of rotation partners. Muranda has signed off this year, but we have a new partner coming in for the next financial year. The company then will undertake its usual process of assessing the appropriateness of its audit in due course. Thank you for your question. Any more there? Okay, thank you. So if there are no more questions in relation to the annual accounts, I'll now proceed on the basis of the meeting has received the accounts and move on to resolutions to be put before shareholders today. So resolution one is adoption of the remuneration report. I remind those in attendance that it's a non-binding resolution.
It is to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. For the purposes of section 250R(2) of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, the remuneration report contained in the annual report be adopted. If any shareholders wish to ask any questions or make any comments on the resolution, again, another question from Mr. Stephen May. The question is: Have there been any material protest votes against the board's recommendation on today's resolution? If so, which shareholders are taking issue with the performance and leadership of the board and how we're managing this? I think in terms of that, if you take that question in relation to Resolution 1 only, I refer Mr. May to the proxy resolution results, which I presume can be seen online.
And so you can see that those votes for just over 3.5 billion against 2.4 billion. And so I can't make comment on individual shareholders and how they voted, but they have the results of the resolution itself. Some questions in relation to the individual and specifics of the shareholders themselves that have delivered that is inappropriate for me to comment in relation to individual shareholders voting. So I'll move on from that question. Thank you. There being no further questions on that resolution, I'll move to resolution two. Resolution two is the re-election of Mr. Bin Cai to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. Mr.
Cai, who retires by rotation in accordance with rule 5.1 of the company's constitution, Listing Rule 14.5, and for all other purposes, and being eligible, being re-elected as a director on the terms and conditions of the explanatory memorandum with effect from the close of this meeting. Do I have any questions? Do any shareholders have questions about resolution two? There being no questions, I'll move on to resolution three. Resolution three, which was a non-board endorsed election of Mr. Yingtian Fu, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. Mr. Yingtian Fu be elected as a director with effect from close of the meeting. Do any shareholders have questions about resolution three?
Yeah, just I see that it's got 48%. So if it's that popular, why is it not endorsed by the board?
What's the reason it's not board-endorsed? If it's so, I've got a poll with 48%, that's rather high.
Yeah, I would agree with that comment that that's a high poll. The gentleman that was put forward for the proposed position as a non-executive director is unknown to the board. And so we have not met, not aware of the skill set other than what was provided on a brief resume. So from a board's perspective, we don't have sufficient information to actually recommend that person as a board director. If any questions again, Mr. Stephen May, timely access to the share register and these platforms published in the notice of meeting without editing the full notice of meeting and distributing to shareholders.
I'm not quite sure on the question, but I think in terms of the nature of the question in relation to the details of the actual proposed board director, they were outlined in the notice of meeting as provided. The notice of meeting has been circulated to all shareholders according to the Corporations Act, and everybody has access to the share register as is able to be done under the Corporations Act. Thank you. There are no other questions on resolution three. I'll move on to resolution three. I'll move on to resolution four. Resolution four is the approval of additional 10% placement facility to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as a special resolution.
That pursuant to and according to listing rule 7.1(a) for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of or the agreement to issue equity securities representing up to 10% of the issued capital of the company, calculated in accordance with the formula prescribed in listing rule 7.1(a)(2) on the terms set out in the explanatory memorandum. Do any shareholders have questions about resolution four? Question just in relation to, again, from Mr. Stephen May in relation to generally about the use of the 15%, the additional 10% placement capacity and querying the board in relation to looking at shareholders having the ability to participate in capital raisings and suggesting why not look at pro-rata renounced raisings in the future.
response to questions that the board undertook an SPP to give all shareholders the ability to subscribe to capital, and the board will undertake decisions in relation to capital raising in the future according to the ASX listing rules and the Corporations Act as they determine these are the best interests for shareholders. Thank you. We have no other questions on resolution four.
I'll move to resolution five, which is the spill resolution to consider and, if thought fit, to pass without amendment as an ordinary resolution that in accordance with section 250V(1) of the Corporations Act for all other purposes, shareholders approve the following: the company holding another meeting with shareholders within 90 days of this meeting, the spill meeting, and B, all vacating directors ceasing to hold office immediately before the end of the spill meeting, and resolutions to appoint persons to office as to the vacancies are to be put to the vote at the spill meeting. Do any shareholders have any questions about resolution five?
Questions there? Thank y ou.
So thank you. We will now arrange for the votes to be cast by way of a poll. I note that the poll is already open. Can all shareholders voting online please now ensure that they have submitted their votes.
If you have any questions in relation to the submission of online votes, please send them through the Q&A function now. As mentioned earlier, the poll will be facilitated by the company's share registry Automic Group, and I will now invite the representative to read out the instructions for voting by way of a poll for those in attendance.
The persons entitled to vote are called today shareholders and proxy holders to hold a yellow voting card. If you wish to record a vote in the poll, you must mark it as for against or abstain proxy resolution. If you can please complete your voting cards now, I'll come around and get them. Okay, so as all voting cards have been collected, I'll now declare the poll closed.
As I mentioned earlier, the results of t he poll will be released to the ASX as soon as they are available.
So there being no further business being brought to the meeting, I would like to thank all shareholders and visitors for their attendance and formally declare the meeting closed. I'll now move on to a brief MD update just to give you a bit more color in relation to the project and some work activities that have happened and that are going to occur. And then at the conclusion of that, I'll have to take the questions on the company strategy or operations. And look, just again, we really do thank you for the interest in the company. We look forward to updating you as we progress down the road of advancing the company itself. So I'll just move on to the presentation.
Yeah, right. Thank you.
Thank you. All right.
So look, I think just worth reminding while we're all here, we're reminding everybody about Northern Minerals and just reminding ourselves in relation to we really do have a globally significant heavy rare earths project here. And I think we're all aware of the requirement for decarbonization, electrification, what's happening in the world from a climate change perspective. And this project really has the ability to contribute to that. So I think we should remember that we're in that all-important space for the world at the moment. We have a great deposit that's had a lot of work done on it over the years, and particularly in the heavy space of the rare earths, the Dy Tb. And obviously, we've done a lot of work on this project and remind ourselves that we do have a very good project ready to be developed.
And really, what we're looking to do through this project is look to support an independent Australian-based supply chain, obviously with our tie with Iluka in relation to their processing facility at Eneabba. We're really looking to diversify that rare earth supply chain and be one of the first ones in the world to be able to provide those key oxides outside of China into this market. The project's been had a lot of work done on it, as you're aware of, for those longer-term shareholders. We've got all the key approvals in place, which are very important. A lot of times, projects are waiting for key environmental approvals. We've got all those approvals in place. There's been extensive work done in relation to understanding the process flowsheet, particularly through the pilot plant. And obviously, we have a long-term supply agreement in place with Iluka.
That was back in 2022, and we've been working with Iluka over the period since in relation to them getting a better understanding of that project itself. Again, this decarbonization is on us, and it's coming, and it's going to grow. The permanent magnets play such an important part of that. The DY, our rare earth elements play a particular part of that, particularly as they allow those magnets to operate at high temperature in our wind turbines and other applications, and obviously also in defense. It's not only the project as it is at the moment. From a perspective of developing that, we're also looking to expand. We've got a very, very company's a master of a large tenure position throughout WA and the Northern Territory.
Certainly, I'll get into this in a minute, but certainly in the last six months, we've been really looking at having a review of that tenure portfolio and what we can do about that and how we can grow the actual size of the deposit, grow it and grow the resource back. So we've been doing a lot of work on that.
Thank you.
A picture tells a thousand words, and you'll be aware of where the project is. We're just up about 160 km east of Halls Creek. Our proposal is that we will mine and beneficiate to produce concentrate and then put that concentrate on a truck down to Eneabba. That ends up being on the logistics basis. That's about. I think it's three trucks every two days. I think is what it ends up being.
We've done a lot of drilling, which we'll get into again in the presentation. We've done a lot of drilling this year at 16,000 meters. That was a pretty challenging drill program. While we've sworn we'll never drill again, we'll never drill in the wet season. Again, after having helicopter fueling and all sorts of things to get around logistics issues, we're obviously keen to get going and get drilling again earlier in the new year. I mentioned we have a pilot plant that was run for three years. Again, we've got bond guarantees with carry maintenance obligations with that, which we obviously abide by. Iluka, working with them and clearly the project has already proved in place with that.
So if we have a look at what's been done over the last sort of five, certainly the last four or five months, and then certainly the year before, again, 16,000 meters of drilling, that really was targeted at looking to improve our resource base to mature a lot of the footwall material up into the Indicated. It was a successful campaign. We ended up with lots more high-grade intersection in the actual deposit itself. And what happens there is you drill, do the 16,000 meters drilling, take all that information, take all that data, add that into your database. And then what we will look to do, and we are doing, is looking to update our Mineral Resource Estimate.
Dale and the team are hard at work at that at the moment, and we have said to the market that that will be released by the end of this year. That remains the case. We're very close to having our third-party peer review, which is a process we undertook to be updated mineral resource estimate peer reviewed. We're close to having that process finalized, so we'll be excited about releasing that. The definitive feasibility study, the DFS, and it's been a lot of work getting that document to where it is at the moment. I just remind shareholders that, yes, we have spent a lot of time and a lot of money on this, but it's an important document. The DFS becomes the body of the technical aspect of the project and the commercial aspect of the project.
We then have, from a funding perspective, we have independent experts come in, review that DFS, and do an ITE, an independent technical engineer's report on the project itself, so it really is that chapter and verse of the whole project, both technically and commercially. It's a very important document. I'm pleased to say that a lot of work's been done on that. We've completed pretty much all the chapters on that and had them reviewed by SRK, which I'll get to, but what we need to do and what the board's decision is doing is to make sure we produce the DFS knowing the output of that drilling campaign, so again, that drilling campaign finished in May of this year. We're doing the work to update that mineral resource estimate, and then we'll feed that back into the DFS, and what does that actually mean?
What that actually means is that once you've got your updated mineral resource estimate, then you're looking to make sure you reshape your mine plan and your production schedule to get the shape of what that mine's going to look like once it's funded and built, and so that work is being undertaken now, and that's the last piece to get done in relation to finalizing that DFS in March of next year, so along the way, and given we've had that time to do that, we're in a challenging cost environment, I'm sure we're all aware, both from an OpEx and CapEx perspective, so we are currently undertaking programs to look to see how we can reduce that CapEx expenditure on the project and reduce that operating expenditure.
Again, at all times, projects like ours, like all others, should be looking to reduce that CapEx and OpEx because it's the best chance of getting funded. So we've certainly undertaken that. I mentioned the SRK review. That's an important piece for the company and an important piece of work to get done. Again, as we approach NAIF, EFA, and other potential funders, an independent technical engineer's report is effectively the bible that they look to from a technical perspective to understand and assess the project. Rather than waiting for the updated DFS to be completed in March of next year, we engaged SRK in November of last year and have worked with them and provided chapters as they've been ready and reviewed. Pleased to say that they've finished to date the initial review of the project, and that report itself will be used for ongoing DD.
Again, just speaking of our partner, you'll be aware that Iluka also not only are our offtake partner, but they're also one of our funding partners. And so they have the ability, subject to a number of conditions, diligence being one of them, to contribute further funding at FID. And we've been working again with Iluka on our project and providing similar information from a technical perspective to get them across the line with our project. Clearly, throughout the year, we had much discussed further issues, etc. I think they're well publicized.
Unfortunately, like a lot of other companies, we were the subject of a cyber attack this year as well, which I must say, like they do, took the team by surprise, but very proud of the work the team did to effectively handle that, improving systems and reporting and other things and make sure that we're in a much safer position. For those that can see that presentation, one of the outputs of the SRK report is a number of recommendations. If you've ever read a technical report, there's a number of recommendations. Some of them we've chosen from a diligence perspective to actually undertake and look to address some of the recommendations. One of them is that we've done some updated metallurgical test work on the actual deposit itself. On the bottom right-hand side, it looks like a sort of bunch of pink sludge.
That's actually the concentrate being produced at the lab, so lab scale, but effectively, that's the concentrate on the bottom right, and so we're pleased to say that's all gone well, and we're waiting for the final reports and results of that to come out, so that's also been a busy part. Thanks, Ryan, so in terms of from an ESG perspective, certainly from a native title perspective and from a native title partner's perspective, we've been working with our native title partners for many, many years, and that relationship is strong and continues to be. Nick down from Brew & Mopper Seed has a lot on a day-to-day basis with our native title groups, and he does a great job up there in maintaining that relationship and listening and understanding where their concerns may be.
And given the East Kimberley, it's a challenging environment to operate, and it's a challenging environment for community. And we really think that this project will bring lots of opportunities for community in the region, and they're certainly keen for us to get going there. During the year, we undertook a number of archaeological, heritage, and ethnographic surveys broadly for the project development. We also applied for and received updated environmental approvals. We've got all the primary approvals from an environmental perspective, but from a footprint perspective, there is some certain development. Some of our development is going to be outside those approved areas. So we were able to apply and were approved for those additional environmental approvals that are required. People are key, obviously, in relation to the company itself.
So Ali and the team have done a great job in terms of making sure that we're looking after our people, both from a health and safety perspective, but also through surveys, etc., pulse surveys, making sure you understand aggressively, like sort of re-onboarding. We undertake sort of what we think is best practice to make sure that our people are being looked after. Thanks, Ryan. I think you mentioned the equity raise. Again, it was a successful capital raise. Again, I want to thank everybody that contributed to that, attracting new shareholders. Certainly, that funding will allow us to undertake these key work programs in terms of finalizing that DFS, working on obtaining that all-important project funding, which is key, obviously, to getting into FID.
Certainly, in relation to the exploration programs, and I'll get to those in a moment, but we certainly recognize the company has this large portfolio. We would like to expand the resource base itself, and the way of doing that is one key way of doing that is through further exploration. And certainly, a lot of that funding will be used to apply to that. Clearly, we've got ongoing obligations, keeping tenements and assets in good standing, people, infrastructure, etc. And that's certainly where that capital will be able to be applied to. Here's one for the technical people in the room. So this is, again, we've spent the last six months reviewing the tenement portfolio, undertaking systematic, a real process-driven systematic program, systematic process to develop exploration programs. So a real targeted approach to identifying exploration targets.
We're now getting close to finalizing what that target set looks like, and that's been done by various combinations, including geophysics, airborne, on-ground, soil sampling, etc., but that real target generation and getting ready and designing what those programs will look like. We've now identified where we think they are and reminding people that as part of our resource base, we have existing deposits that we have drilled that have resources there, and we think that the best way to expand the size of the resource itself is go and have a look at some of those existing deposits that have already been drilled. We know there's mineralization, so go and drill those further to better understand what the potential for those are, so we'll look to kick that off in the early year once the program works and things like that are approved. Talk to the market.
Look, I think it's for those, it's a niche sector anyway, rare earths, and those that are aware of the rare earth industry know from a pricing perspective, while certainly the last quarter, we've seen prices improve over the last quarter, but generally, they're still sort of moving sideways. However, we remain absolutely categorical that in the medium- to long-term, the demand for these magnets is expected to grow. There's a number of analysts out there that have all got the curves broadly going up on the magnets, including a CAGR up to 9% from analysts in terms of one of the forecasts that we use. And I remind everybody in terms of that the heavy rare earths really is the key for this project.
Outside of China, there are no other projects with a number of projects that are in the development phase that we can produce the quality of heavy rare earths that we have. We really do believe that we are the rarest of them all from the perspective of having those heavy rare earths in our deposit. Our job is to go and finalize our DFS and try and unlock that value. Certainly, as we see this decarbonization process undertake, we're confident that these supply-demand constraints that you're seeing on the graphs in front will eventually. In terms of a work programs perspective, again, technical, let's get the mineral resource estimate done. Let's get the DFS done by next year. Finish off some other recommendations that came out of the report. Again, try and get that CapEx and OpEx down for the DFS.
Get going on the ground up at Browns Range and proximal to that and get some better engineering to see if we can better improve the shape of the project itself. Myself and the team are also busy with funding. Clearly, we're looking to partner up with NAIF and EFA. You've seen a lot of these projects like ours do. We've been in discussion with both those groups for some time, and we're currently continuing that process and currently continuing their due diligence on our project. As mentioned, Iluka is a potential funding partner as well doing the same, and we've got lots of ongoing discussions with other project funders, both from a debt equity.
Again, from a social and environmental perspective, it remains a key pillar of the company and maintaining those relationships and doing the right thing, which is one of our values, particularly from an ESG perspective, we continue to do. I think that sort of, I hope, gives a broad aspect without going into too much detail in relation to where the project's at and what we're doing and what the work streams are. I'd be happy to take your questions. Sorry if I ran through that quickly, but. There's no open questions.
Oh, I've just got one.
Absolutely.
The sourcing, you're talking about ethically sourced, but the end product, if it's used for defense and they have missile production, then that will actually destroy the environment. It's sort of like going around and.
So I'm just wondering, can you stipulate perhaps if we want to be an ethical company, maybe we could stipulate just for civilian use windmills, EV cars, and things like that? I'm not so keen on building missiles for.
Yeah. Well, look, that's a great question. From our perspective, you'd be aware that we have an offtake agreement with Iluka. And so Iluka effectively buys our concentrate, producing oxide, and sells those oxides. Those oxides then go into magnet manufacturing, and those magnets then are sold into those various use cases that you've outlined. I think in terms of from our perspective, from a control perspective of being able to determine the ultimate use case, it would be difficult for us because we're sort of four steps down the value chain from that perspective. So I understand your question. Thank you. Everyone, how are you?
Thanks for your time. Thank you again to the team. I note that the poll has been completed. I'll read through the results of the poll, and I note that these results will be uploaded to the ASX shortly after this meeting. The first resolution was the adoption of the remuneration report. And again, I remind shareholders of the non-binding resolution. We had just under 59.65% vote for, 40.2%, sorry, 59.82% against 40.18%. So while the resolution itself has been carried by virtue of requiring 75%, we are now to hold a Spill Resolution as it's recognized as a second strike. That's the result of that. The resolution two, the re-election of Mr. Bin Cai, has been carried. Resolution three, the non-board endorsed election of Mr. Yingtian Fu, has not been carried. Resolution four, the approval of the additional 10% placement facility, confirmed that that has not been carried.
Resolution five, a spill resolution, which is an additional item, I note that that has also not been carried. Thank you. Those results are really good for the assets. Again, thank you all for your time and to.