Good morning. Welcome to the Orica Annual General Meeting 2025. On behalf of the Board, thank you for joining us. Thank you for your support and ongoing engagement as shareholders. Your commitment is central to our continued success. My name is Malcolm Broomhead. I am your Chairman. As today's meeting is held in a hybrid format, which means half remotely, half here, I'd also like to extend a warm welcome to those shareholders who've chosen to join us online or by phone today. We do have a quorum present, so I declare the meeting open. With your permission, I propose to take the notice of the meeting as read. I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of and custodians of the land on which this meeting is being held, as well as those who've come to Australia in more recent times, Australians all.
I also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands and waters on which Orica operates throughout the world. For your safety, I'd like to draw your attention to the emergency procedure. Should an emergency arise, which hopefully won't, it requires evacuation from the floor, a whooping evacuation sound will be sounded. I've never heard one, but I presume it goes whoop, whoop. If that happens, then the evacuation will be directed by the RACV City Club fire wardens. Please follow their instructions. They'll direct you through the doors which you came in. You have to go down via the stairs to the lift lobby where you entered the floor, or to the lift lobby to the rear of the stage. Note that the lifts may not be used.
If you do have a mobile phone, please make sure it's turned off to silent for the duration of the meeting. I'd now like to highlight that the meeting is being recorded and will be made available on the Orica website. I'd like to introduce my fellow Directors and your Company Secretary. Seated on my immediate right is Sanjeev Gandhi, your Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, who will be presenting to you later today during this meeting. Next to Sanjeev is Vik Bansal, who I'm pleased to welcome as our new Non-executive Director elect, who will be standing for election today. He's also our Chair elect. Next to Vik is Karen Moses and Gordon Naylor. Both of those will be seeking re-election as your Directors today. On my far left is John Beevers. Next to John is Vanessa Guthrie. Next to her, Mark Garrett.
On my immediate left is Krista Stewart, our Group General Counsel and Company Secretary. Members of the Executive Committee are sitting here in the front row. They will be available at the end of the meeting to take any of your questions that you'd like to ask them. Our auditor, KPMG, is also in attendance. They are represented by Mr. Gordon Sangster and Maritza Araneda. Before I begin my address, I'd just like to confirm that, as indicated in the notice of meeting, each resolution will be put to shareholders at today's meeting and will be declared on a poll. To allow everyone attending the meeting ample time to cast their votes, I now open the polls in respect of all resolutions that shareholders will vote on today.
If you are attending the meeting online, please submit your vote at any time during the meeting by clicking a get a voting card button. Written questions can also be submitted at any time. To help with the efficient running of the meeting, I encourage you to get on and do this as soon as it is convenient for you. Please click the ask a question button to follow the instruction if you have questions. If you wish to submit a question or comment, please ensure that they are relevant to the matters before the shareholders today and to shareholders as a whole. Thank you for this opportunity to address you as your chairman. I'd now like to cover some of the topics that are important to Orica and to you, our valued shareholders. Starting with safety, which is our most important priority in Orica.
It's with extreme sadness that we report that late in November, one of our employees, Mr. Lee Pratt, was involved in a vehicle-related accident at a customer site in Canada and unfortunately was killed. No other injuries were sustained during that event. Look, a thorough investigation is underway, and we're cooperating, obviously, with the regulatory authorities. We've already given assistance to the family of Lee, and we'll do all we can to help them through this very difficult time, as well as the whole team who worked with him for many years and have been affected by this. All the learnings will be shared around the group. Vehicles, as many of you will know, are a particularly challenging issue for us because of all the miles we drive in remote areas.
On behalf of the Orica board, I'd like to extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of those affected by this tragedy. Our people are the foundation of our business. Without people, nothing happens in this company. We remain committed to keeping them safe and supporting their physical and psychosocial well-being wherever we can. Moving now to performance. Orica in 2025 achieved its highest earnings before interest and tax in over 13 years at AUD 992 million. That represents a 23% increase in the result from prior year. It's a remarkable result, and the whole team can be proud of what they've done, Sanjeev and the executive committee and everyone within Orica. It reflects the dedication and the expertise and the consistent performance of our people across every region. It is our continued focus on delivering value to you, our shareholders.
Orica's evolved into a world-leading provider of solutions across mining and infrastructure. Through the disciplined execution of our strategic priorities and a strong focus on commercial excellence and innovation, we continue to meet a rising global demand for our advanced technologies, in which we are well and truly the industry leader, and across our three business segments of Blasting Solutions, which is the traditional business; Digital Solutions, which you'll hear is going very well; and Specialty Mining Chemicals. This year, we also introduced a refreshed capital management program and framework to clarify how we deploy capital across the business in order to maximize the total shareholders' returns over time. Our balance sheet remains resilient and strong. We continued our measured approach to investment, funding growth priorities, and returning cash to shareholders, either through dividends or buybacks of some sort.
The ordinary dividend of AUD 0.32 per ordinary share unfranked delivers a total dividend payout of 50% of full-year earnings. Of course, remember, there was a share buyback as well, which hopefully all shareholders benefit from in terms of earnings per share growth and share price appreciation. In addition to our strong financial performance, we've recorded another year of significant sustainability target progress. As we enter the next phase of our decarbonization strategy, our gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions are 51% below 2019 levels. We're firmly on track to achieve a 45% reduction by 2030 and advance towards our long-term ambition of being net zero by 2050. Sustainability is a strategic imperative for us in the sort of business that we're in and for the environment generally. It's an opportunity also for us to innovate with our customers and our partners.
The board continues to oversee climate-related risks and opportunities, ensuring that the capital is allocated to the right initiatives to improve efficiency and strengthen our competitiveness. Sanjeev will talk more about business and sustainability performance shortly. Moving now to board renewal and succession planning, which is critical obviously to developing and supporting the business, enables us to discharge our strategy and our responsibilities and support management in terms of delivering long-term sustainable shareholder value. I step down from my role as chairman at the conclusion of this meeting, we welcome Vik Bansal to the Orica board and as an independent non-executive director and our chair elect, subject to your vote today. He will be appointed chair at the end of this meeting.
With over 30 years of experience leading complex global industrial organizations, Vik has a strong track record in driving growth, innovation, and operational excellence and performance improvements. His strategic expertise in engineering, global supply chain, sustainability, and technology bring valued insights to the Orica board and to our growth strategy and manufacturing operations. I'm confident that Vic's experience will complement the board's skills and capabilities and contribute significantly to shaping Orica's next chapter of growth and innovation. You'll hear a little bit more from Vik shortly. Before I close, I'd just like to take a moment to share some broader, more personal reflections with you. Australia's a truly fortunate country. We've been blessed with abundant natural resources, a highly educated population, and a long-standing history of peace.
Australia has the potential to be the next leading democracy in the world stage if we have the collective will to do so. Yet, from time to time, it seems as though we want to undermine our own success, I'm wondering whether we feel some kind of undeserving feeling about all of our great achievements as a nation. Look, a recent example is the senseless attack in Bondi at the weekend, that just demonstrates the erosion of our multicultural harmony and the outbreaks that have occurred recently of racism, antisemitism, and violence. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of those who were innocently killed in this violent attack. It's just so unusual for our country. I just urge our government to demonstrate leadership and put an end to such behavior.
If this is not contained, we run the risk of other communities suffering racial hatred, and in fact, we already see that. That is something which really affects the very fabric of our country. The world's vastly different to what it was a few years ago. Some of our decisions, and Sanjeev makes quite a bit about this, is rather perplexing. None more so than our energy policy, where the world's largest energy reserves, which we have, and our huge exports, with all of those benefits, we still pay some of the highest energy costs in the world. That just damages our manufacturing and places enormous strain on the cost of living. For example, gas prices here are at least five times what we pay in the U.S. That's five times. Where are you going to put your dollars?
Fortunately, your company, Orica, is well-positioned because we have global diversification. We operate in over 100 countries. We're able to offset some of these impediments. While I'm having a whinge, the responsibilities of management and boards, which have only grown more complex over time. Much of our focus is now so consumed in navigating bureaucratic processes that address important social and governance issues, by the way. I'm sometimes nostalgic for the times when business' role was the creation of wealth, and it was the role of governments to take that wealth and distribute it through the community as they saw fit on defense, infrastructure, health, and welfare. Our standard of living, of course, depends on that wealth generation, and we can disregard that at our own risk.
Finally, looking ahead, we're entering a post-truth world, and I think in due course, that's going to be a big challenge for rational companies like us, almost on the same level as cybersecurity is now. Dealing with reality as we see it, compared with what's perceived, is important. This dynamic allows bad actors who can be organized with the intent to cause us harm to sway public opinion. We're a company, our business depends on support from the public. That will be something of a challenge, I think, going forward. This is my last day in corporate life. I began my journey with Orica as CEO in 2001 and returned in 2015, becoming Chairman in 2016. One of the hallmarks of Orica is the culture and depth of our talent, and throughout the world, wherever you go.
The sense of pride and ownership among our people enables us to outperform the market. Our financial resilience and our ability to navigate macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges reflect the strength and the caliber of our people. It's been a privilege to work alongside Sanjeev and all of our executive team. On behalf of the Board, I thank you, our shareholders, our customers, and above all, our extraordinary people for the way in which you have an unwavering commitment to safety, performance, and innovation. On a personal note, thank you, our shareholders, our owners, for the great privilege of guiding this wonderful company. It's in good hands, and I wish you and all the employees of Orica a successful and prosperous future. I now invite our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sanjeev Gandhi, to address the meeting. Sanjeev.
Thank you, Chair, and thank you to all our shareholders for joining us today. Let me also start by expressing my condolences for the very sad and tragic events that happened in Sydney on the weekend. Safety in Orica, because we are in a dangerous business, is very close to our heart. We've had this unfortunate tragedy where we've lost a mate on the workbench. My thoughts and sympathies go out to the loved ones and friends and family and colleagues of our mate that we've lost. No other individuals were injured as a result of the incident. A full investigation is underway. We are fully committed to learn from this tragic event so that it doesn't ever occur again, this unfortunate accident. We're doing all we can to support our North American team and the wider Orica community during this very difficult time.
Safety, as I said, is our highest priority. The well-being of our people comes before everything else. Our people are, as Malcolm said, central to Orica's success. We have a global team of more than 14,000, which represents over 95 nationalities and comprises engineers, scientists, technologists, business specialists, and those in the frontline operation and offices. We work across time zones and geographies. We all remain connected by the Orica Charter and aligned in our purpose, vision, strategy, and values. This year, we continue to implement our people strategy, focusing on building capability, driving efficiency, supporting career growth, and strengthening our safe, inclusive workplace culture. We continue to empower our teams, helping our people thrive and continue delivering leading performance on a global scale. Let's move now quickly to our performance.
We delivered our highest earnings in 13 years, reflecting disciplined execution of our strategy and strong demand for our advanced technologies, premium products across Blasting Solutions, Digital Solutions and Specialty Mining Chemicals. We continue to develop and invest in innovative technologies and solutions for our customers to help them with their most critical challenges, from ore body intelligence and blast optimization to downstream processing and emission reduction at the mine site. These advancements and the successful integration of the two major acquisitions we did last year, Terra Insights and Cyanco, reinforce Orica's position as a global leader in each of our business segments and has strengthened our end-to-end offering as we transform and optimize operations to reduce emissions, minimize waste, and accelerate the global transition to a low carbon future.
We have expanded our commodities and customer portfolios as we continue to increase our global footprint and geographical reach, diversify our business and revenue streams, and capture new opportunities amongst new and existing customers and industries. We continue to optimize our global manufacturing and supply network to ensure reliable customer support. This is the most comprehensive manufacturing and supply network in the world in our industry. Major planned maintenance and safety upgrades were completed safely and successfully at our Winnemucca site in the United States and the Kooragang Island site here in Australia, reinforcing asset integrity and security of supply for our customers. As a result, this year we achieved earnings of AUD 992 million, a 23% increase on the prior year.
Net profit after tax reached AUD 162 million, which included significant items of AUD 379 million relating primarily to impairment and restructuring costs in Latin America, and litigation costs incurred for intellectual property and commercial disputes. Earnings per share before significant items of AUD 1.118 is up AUD 0.254 on the prior year. Our Blasting Solutions business delivered earnings of AUD 869 million, up 15%, reflecting our global leadership and underpinned by commercial discipline, advanced technologies, and our robust global supply chain driving sustainable growth. Earnings in our Digital Solutions business had a significant uplift this year, contributing AUD 92 million of earnings, supported by improved exploration activity, higher customer adoption rates and recurring revenue. The very robust gold market fundamentals and service excellence supported record sodium cyanide sales in our Specialty Mining Chemicals business, contributing AUD 101 million of earnings.
Our Specialty Mining Chemicals business now represents the largest mining dedicated producer of sodium cyanide in the world. In 2025, we refreshed our capital management framework to provide greater clarity around how we allocate capital. For the first time in 10 years, Orica successfully launched and substantially completed an AUD 400 million on-market share buyback program, and this program has been increased by up to an additional AUD 100 million, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to delivering value for you, our shareholders. We delivered strong net operating cash flow of AUD 949 million, reflecting our continued focus on cash generation and trade working capital management. We also adopted a new key balance sheet target this financial year, with leverage excluding lease liabilities at 1.39 times at the lower end of our target range of 1.25 to 2 times.
Return on net operating assets of 13.8% reflects consistent asset performance, disciplined year-on-year capital management, and improved earnings, underscoring our commitment to continuous improvements. Our disciplined approach to capital management and prudent balance sheet are structured to withstand external volatility. We continue to deliver on our strategy in a very dynamic operating environment, where shifting market conditions and evolving societal expectations create new opportunities for innovation, adaptation, and global growth, strengthening Orica's position and supporting long-term value creation for our customers and our shareholders. Moving now to sustainability. As we begin the next phase of our decarbonization strategy, our gross operational Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions are 51% below our 2019 levels. This is very material. We remain on track to achieve our net emissions target of 45% reduction by 2030 and continue to advance towards a long-term ambition of net zero emissions by 2050.
We are exploring emerging technologies such as renewable hydrogen and other low carbon feedstocks, carbon capture and utilization through our partnership with MCi Carbon and renewable energy procurement to drive decarbonization and future business opportunities. Renewable electricity procurement in Australia and Canada is supporting our goal of achieving 100% renewable electricity by 2040. With a 60% target by 2030. Renewable hydrogen is a potentially significant enabler of industrial decarbonization and the transition to a low carbon economy, we continue to evaluate a commercial scale renewable hydrogen supply chain, the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub, in the industrial and port zone of Newcastle, New South Wales, in Australia. Moving now to the outlook for 2026 and beyond. Building on the strong performance of 2025, we have started the 2026 financial year with strong momentum. Safety continues to be our number one priority, underpinning every aspect of our operations and decision making.
Demand for Blasting Solutions, Specialty Mining Chemicals, and Digital Solutions remain very strong, our disciplined approach to execution and capital allocation positions us to navigate inflationary pressures, energy costs, and geopolitical uncertainty. Looking forward, Orica is well-positioned to continue to deliver profitable growth across all three business segments globally and create enduring value for our customers and our shareholders. On a personal note, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Malcolm for his exceptional leadership and unwavering commitment as Chairman. It is because of you, Malcolm, that I came to Australia five years back, and he convinced me to come and take over this amazing company, and I can tell you, we've been having a real blast. Malcolm's guidance and strategic insight have been instrumental in shaping Orica's journey, particularly as we achieve significant milestones in sustainability, innovation, and growth.
Under Malcolm's stewardship, Orica has achieved key decarbonization targets, built strong partnerships, and maintained a constant focus on safety and value creation for all stakeholders. Malcolm's dedication leaves a lasting legacy, we wish him all the very best for the future. I'd also like to thank Lillian for allowing us Malcolm's time and letting him continue to work and support myself and the team in Orica. Thank you, Lillian. Thank you for being here. I would now very warmly welcome Vik as our incoming Chair. Vik, as you know, brings extensive experience and a very visionary approach, together with the board, we will continue to successfully deliver Orica's growth strategy, navigate an evolving business landscape, and deliver enduring innovation and value for all of our stakeholders.
On behalf of our board and the executive committee, we thank the entire Orica team for their ongoing commitment to excellence, their dedication to delivering on our purpose and on our strategy. We thank all of you, dear shareholders, our customers, and our industry partners for your ongoing trust, and we look forward to continuing our collaborative partnership with you and remain in a very strong position to continue our momentum and deliver on our strategy for growth and for profitable returns. I now invite the Chair to begin the formal items of business.
Thank you, Sanjeev, thanks for your very kind words. Let's not kid ourselves. You and your team do all the work. We just take the glory. It's been wonderful working with you and with all of the executive committee. Before commencing the formal part of the meeting, I want to cover some important procedural and technical matters. This is a shareholders meeting, therefore, only shareholders and their proxies, attorneys, and authorized corporate representatives may participate in the voting and so on in this meeting. If you wish to submit a question or comment, please ensure they're relevant to the matters before the meeting and for shareholders as a whole.
If a shareholder has a detailed question about the operations of the company or a question which appears to be more relevant to the shareholder's own circumstances, please feel free to ask the management who will be available here afterwards, following the meeting. In terms of how questions will be managed today, I'll introduce each item of business then invite questions on all items of business together after all the items have been introduced. I'll invite questions from the floor, followed by written questions which will be relayed to me by Delphine Cassidy, Orica's Chief Communications Officer. For those in the room here today, there are two fixed microphones on either side of the auditorium. When I've invited questions later in the meeting, please make your way to those microphones and give your name to the microphone attendant.
If you're attending the meeting online, written questions may be submitted at any time. I encourage you to do so as soon as possible. Please click the Ask a Question button and follow the instructions. Questions submitted online may be moderated or summarized if there are many questions on the same topic. We will make sure that we answer all of the questions during the Q&A. Any question or comment submitted that we consider to be defamatory or contains offensive language will not be read out as responded to. If your question is on behalf of a particular group or organization, we just ask that you'd make that known and include that in your question. For shareholders joining us online, please follow the online meeting guide, which is available both on the Orica website and includes all of the information that you'll need to participate in today's meeting.
If you have any trouble using the online platform, please refer to the guide or call the telephone number, which should be shown on the screen for assistance. Thank you for adhering to these procedures in advance. Finally, in the event that we experience any technological or technical difficulties during the meeting, we might need to take a short break. We've never had to do that yet. There's always a first time. If any online attendees encounter technical difficulties, the webcast will be available on our website after the meeting. As indicated in the notice of the meeting, each resolution will be decided on a poll. A number of our shareholders not able to join our meeting have already taken the time to send us their votes in advance of the meeting.
To ensure that all shareholders who have voted directly or lodged proxy votes in advance of the meeting have their views known, the number of direct and proxy votes received will be shown on the screen as I present each item of business. You can see how institutions and others that aren't here have voted already. In relation to open proxies received for the chairman, they've all been voted in favor of all of the resolutions. I appoint Chris Healy of MUFG Corporate Markets Australia Limited, the company's share register, who have examined and prepared summaries of the direct and proxy votes received to act as returning officer for the poll. Please also note that if you're a proxyholder or an attorney or nominee and your appointer has directed how you should vote, you clearly must follow their instructions.
If you're attending in person, you should have registered your attendance as you came in today. If any shareholder or proxyholder is not registered and would like to do so, you can do that at the door now. I'll now move to the formal business of the meeting. The first item is to receive and consider the financial report, directors' reports, and auditors' reports for the year ended September 2025. As noted earlier, I'll defer the discussion on that until we've got through all of the resolutions. The second of which is the re-election of the directors under Resolution 2A in the notice of meeting, which seeks also the election of Vik Bansal as director.
Vik was appointed an independent and non-executive director and chair-elect in August of this year. Subject to election by shareholders at today's meeting, he'll be appointed as chair, replacing me at the conclusion of this meeting. In accordance with the company constitution, Vik retires. Being eligible, offers himself for election. I now invite Vik to say a few words in support of his election.
Thank you, Malcolm, Sanjeev, fellow directors, and valued shareholders. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today as I stand for election to the Orica board. It is both an honor and a responsibility to seek your support to serve this iconic Australian company, a company with a proud history and a very compelling future. Since joining Orica in August, I've been genuinely impressed by the company's unwavering commitment to safety, innovation, and sustainable growth. Orica's role in enabling responsible mining and resources extraction is critical, not only to our customers and communities, but to the broader global transition to a more sustainable future. My professional path, spanning three decades across Asia, Australia, and U.S., has taken me through diverse leadership roles across industrials, manufacturing, and global logistics.
I also currently serve as a non-executive director of Brambles Limited and Washington H. Soul Pattinson. I'm a chair of LGI Limited. These experiences have shaped my belief that enduring value is built on operational discipline, strategic foresight, and a culture of accountability. I appreciate that some shareholders have asked questions regarding my existing workload. I fully understand the significant responsibilities required to be a successful chair at Orica. I've assured the board and shareholders of my capacity to meet all duties and provide the leadership and commitment expected by our shareholders. My planned retirement from CEO at Boral in early 2026 is already in the public domain. I'm committed to lighten some other aspects of my portfolio in the new year to ensure my ongoing commitment to Orica.
If elected, I will bring an industrial operator's mindset, a global outlook, and a deep commitment to culture, good governance, and sustainability. Orica's strengths are clear: a global footprint, deep technical expertise, and a strong reputation for reliability and partnership. Its recent financial results confirm the solid platform on which the organization stands today. What also excites me is what lies ahead for Orica. In spite of its impressive footprint and recent financial performance, Orica is not short of growth and improvement opportunities. While I remain highly sensitive and alert to Orica's 150 years of strong and rich legacy, I'm also ambitious for Orica. Orica must remain a global leader by adapting, innovating, and continuing to deliver for all its stakeholders, its shareholders, customers, employees, and communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Vik. The board, with Vik abstaining, supports his election, and results of direct proxy votes received in respect of resolution 2A are now displayed on the screen. Resolution 2B in the notice of meeting seeks the re-election of Karen Moses as a director. Karen was appointed an independent non-executive director in July 2016, and is a member of the People and Remuneration Committee, the Nominations Committee, and the Board Audit and Risk Committee. In accordance with the constitution, Karen retires, and being eligible, offers herself for re-election. I would like to hear some words now, and I invite Karen to say some words on behalf of her re-election.
Thank you, Malcolm, and good morning, everybody. I'm very pleased to be with you today, and thank you so much for joining us. I also give my warm thanks to Malcolm for his contribution to Orica and to the business community, and wish him all the best for the future. It's been a real honor to serve with you on the Orica board, Malcolm. Thank you. I'd also like to recognize and thank Sanjeev and the executive team and all of the staff of Orica for their commitment and their insight. I've served as a director, as Malcolm said, for nine years, including most recently in Audit and People and Rem, which are a real focus for me.
As a director, it's important to do what we can to support creating an environment where everybody goes home safely, where everyone has the opportunity to be their best, and where we learn and grow, and the space is created for the best decisions to be made. The continuing progress that Orica has made in reducing our carbon footprint is a real credit to the people at Orica, deliver a meaningful change in establishing the path to meet our sustainability commitments and aspirations, and working actively with our suppliers and our customers. I currently serve as a director across the industrial, energy, education, and art sectors, and have served on listed boards, government boards, and not-for-profit boards for over 20 years.
I've got a breadth of experience as a senior executive, with over 30 years operational experience in the energy sector, spanning all of the operational aspects, major development projects, and finance corporate functions as a COO and a CFO. I believe that my operational and management experience and my board experience allow me to contribute across a wide range of important issues and complement the skills and deep experience of the other directors, and look forward to supporting Vik as the new chair in the transition. I'm asking and hoping today for your support to be re-elected as a director. Thank you.
Thank you, Karen. The board, with Karen abstaining, supports her re-election. The votes received by direct and proxy voters in respect of resolution 2B are shown also on the screen. Resolution 2C in the notice of meeting concerns the re-election of Gordon Naylor as a director. Gordon was appointed a non-executive director of your company in April 2022, and he's chair of the Board and Audit Committee. The Nominations Committee, and he's on the Nominations Committee as well as the sustainability committee. In accordance with the constitution of the company, Gordon retires, and being eligible, offers himself for re-election. I now invite Gordon to speak in support of his election. Gordon.
Thank you, Malcolm, and good morning, everyone. As you've heard, I wish to formally offer myself for re-election as a director to the Orica Board. In the last three years, I've continued to be impressed by the depth of the company, the technical substance which goes well beyond what I expected, and with a genuine commitment to company values. The strategic planning system of the company is now stronger, and progress towards sustainability goals positive and real. Noting Malcolm's retirement from the Board, I would also like to offer him my personal thanks for his leadership. I've learned a great deal from Malcolm and respect him enormously. I'm also very much looking forward to working with Vik as the company moves to its next growth phase.
Most of my working life was with CSL, starting in Australia and then working in numerous international assignments as CSL grew rapidly to a global leader in biological pharmaceuticals. I've had numerous functional responsibilities ranging from engineering, supply chain, IT, M&A, and finance, through to business leadership. I'm now returning to CSL as a director as well as chair elect of Seqirus, CSL's influenza vaccine business. I've resigned from two other boards to allow me to focus on these and Orica. As a business leader, I've executed several transformations of international businesses into global leadership. I'm very familiar with the challenges of running an innovative, global Australian-based listed company to produce profitable growth while managing the risks appropriately. I'm also an active angel investor and help run my family's philanthropic trust. I believe I can continue to make a difference to Orica and offer myself for re-election. Thank you.
Thank you, Gordon. The board, with Gordon abstaining, supports his re-election, results of direct and proxy votes received in respect of Resolution 2C are now displayed on the screen. Resolution three in the notice of meeting is to adopt the remuneration report for the year ended 30th of September 2025. As you will be aware, this vote is advisory only and does not bind the company or the directors who remain responsible for the remuneration policy of the group. However, the board does take into account feedback from shareholders, including discussion and vote on this resolution when considering future remuneration strategy. The board sets the remuneration strategy with a view to ensuring our market framework can attract, retain, and motivate talent that we need and the outcomes for executives which are aligned with shareholder returns. There's three elements to the remuneration at Orica.
There is a fixed remuneration, there's a bonus for the achievement of short-term objectives, and there's a long-term incentive plan. Full details of Orica's executive remuneration framework and a summary of the company's performance for the 2025 financial year can be found in the remuneration report. By casting your vote in favor of the remuneration report, you'll be indicating your support for the remuneration strategy that the board's adopted for its most senior executives, including the CEO. I wish to highlight that none of your directors nor any of the senior executives who are named in the remuneration report may vote on their own shares in relation to this resolution. Results of the direct and proxy votes received in respect of Resolution three are now displayed on the screen.
We now come to the proposed grant of performance rights to the managing director and CEO under the long-term incentive plan as the long-term element of Sanjeev's remuneration for the 2026 financial year. The number of actual rights to be granted will be calculated as set out in the explanatory notes of the notice of meeting. Under the Australian Stock Exchange Listing Rule 10.14, Shareholder approval is required for a director to be issued securities under an employee incentive scheme. Any votes cast in favor of this resolution by the CEO or his associates will be disregarded in accordance with the ASX Listing Rules. Results of the direct and proxy votes received in respect of Resolution number 4 are now displayed on the screens.
Resolution five in the notice of meeting relates to the reinstatement of the proportional takeover provisions, as required under Rule 86 of the company's constitution. Details of the effect of this rule and its advantages and disadvantages are also set out in the notice of meeting. If renewed, this rule will be operative for another three years from the date of this meeting. This is a regular event for us to bring this resolution forward. Results of direct and proxy votes received in respect of Resolution five are now displayed on the screen. As mentioned earlier, I'll now take questions on all items of business. We'll start by taking questions from each microphone in turn.
If you wish to ask a question or a second question, rather, or a further question, please take your place at the end of the queue so that everyone can have a go, and everyone will have an equal opportunity to be heard. I ask that shareholders be courteous and respectful to all those attending the meeting and keep your questions to a reasonable length. Are there any questions from the floor?
Chairman, our first question is from Peter Aird from the Australian Shareholders' Association.
Hello, Peter.
Hi. Good morning. I note the recent fatality that you've had and that you have, in fact, previously identified transport incidents as a key area for your safety training. My question really was about the reported serious injury case rate, which is a somewhat different safety measure than is used commonly across the ASX companies, such as total recordable injury frequency rate. Do you benchmark against similar businesses, and will you publish the benchmarks results? Also, would you consider reporting TRIFR?
Peter, thanks for that. We use serious injury case rate because we think it's the best indicator of things that can really seriously hurt or indeed kill people. It's a very important indicator for us and how we run the business. I do understand what you're saying in relation to being able to compare our safety performance with other companies and the move away from TRIFR and so on is something that we'll probably address and put those numbers out so that you can see, so that everyone can compare us across the group. Thanks for that.
Yeah. Thank you. Just another one. I was going to acknowledge your leadership when I first started, I got a bit confused. Please accept our acknowledgments of your leadership for Orica over the last 10 years. You've had a very successful year, you're quoting the highest EBIT for 13 years. Your statutory reporting is rather spoiled by the significant items, particularly from Latin America. I just wondered, there's discussion of goodwill, fair enough, property, plant, and equipment at AUD 94 million. I don't believe you have a plant in this region. Can you clarify how these asset valuations arose and what becomes of the property and equipment that has now been written off? Also, what's the prospects for recovery in the Latin American market?
Look, significant items are always difficult. We'd love to have a report with no significant items, we're required to under accounting standards, KPMG are particularly vigilant in making sure stuff doesn't get stuck below the line that shouldn't be there. We would love to be able to eliminate them. Latin America has been a challenging jurisdiction for us for a while. We need to fix it going forward. We understand that, the company is looking at various options to do so because it's a great market, one that Orica should do well in given it's primarily hard rock underground. In terms of how the actual Treatment of plant and equipment, which has been written off. I'll just ask Sanjeev to add to the comments.
Yeah, I'm happy to take that, Peter. We did an acquisition in Peru called Exsa in 2019. We do have goodwill and the asset value of that on the books. During 2025 in Peru, we lost a major contract to a domestic competitor who has been extremely aggressive with their pricing models, we decided to walk away from that business because for us it did not justify continuing to serve the customer based on the price and margin profile of that business. As we did that, obviously that impacted the headroom we had in terms of the asset value of that acquisition. We had to do a non-cash, predominantly a non-cash write-down. The asset still operates.
It's a strategic asset for us at the Lurín site in Peru. When we acquired that business in 2019, it was catering to the domestic market in Peru. Today, it's become a global hub. We are able to obviously manufacture very cost competitive and high tech products out of Peru, and they are being exported all over the world, not just in Latin America, but also in North America and elsewhere. The asset is still functioning at very high loads and is very valuable to us. It was just the accounting treatment because of the loss of the contract and obviously our auditor, KPMG, has been taken on that journey, and they are aligned with the treatment.
Okay, thank you. I have a couple of director questions. Would you like me to go through those now?
Yeah, you might as well finish off, Peter, yes, while you're up.
Mr. Bansal was appointed to the board in August and has been elected to become chair on your retirement. He's a well-qualified candidate for a directorship with Orica, and we have no issue with his appointment, and we'll vote for his election. Given that at the time of his appointment, he was a CEO of a major Australian company in Boral, although his retirement from that position in 2026 had been announced, what was the process involved in his appointment, and what commitments did he make regarding the workload prior to his appointment as chair elect? Given that he continues in his role as the CEO of Boral, are you confident that he has the capacity to fulfill the roles of chair in Orica in the immediate future?
We certainly went into this in some detail with Vik before appointing him. He is stepping down very shortly at Boral. That's been already announced publicly. I also rang the chair of Boral to confirm all that and to make sure that transition all occurred seamlessly. As Vik said, he will be addressing a couple of his other directorships so that these things don't all occur at once. He will certainly be very quickly There's a five-point rule, I think, that proxy advisors use for recommending directors, and Vik will easily make that when he gets into full swing here at Orica. That's how the process worked. When he was first appointed, he was over that five-point limit, and that caused a number of questions from people like yourself and others. We have addressed that.
Yes. Thank you. I was going to ask whether Mr. Bansal wanted to make any further comment, I do acknowledge.
Sure
You made comment in your own presentation. My only follow-up to that is that SGH is going to appoint you as a director when you retire from your CEO role. What does the medium term look like for your workload and for your directorships?
Thank you for asking the question, we've had that discussion before. As Malcolm said, I'm very clear on the five-point rule, I think we'll get there. A couple of things. One, as you would appreciate, these transitions are not binary. They are a glide path in and glide path out. You have to work through that as you would appreciate. Also, as you're doing that, you also want to make sure the commitments on all parts are honored. All my transitions are public. I finish on SGH at Boral early 2026. Post that, I'll join the SGH board, not the Boral board. I'll adjust the portfolio next year. I think we should be fine. By the time of this next AGM, we'll be in a pretty good shape.
We hope so. Last question.
I'm sure.
My final question was to Ms. Moses, who's seeking re-election after nine years. Paragraph 410 in your corporate governance statement states that directors generally do not serve more than 10 years. Noting the significance of Ms. Moses' board committee commitments, what are her plans for the following few years?
So, do you want to comment on that?
Yes. I'm obviously very conscious of that commitment, and I'm very conscious of the benefit of having a transition when you've got lots of people changing, not to have too much all happening at once. I'm here to serve the board for as long as the board wants me to serve.
That's great. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thanks, Peter. Sorry, number 2, you've been waiting for a fair while.
Chairman, the next question is from Crystal Childs.
How much time? No, that's all right. Good afternoon, Chair and Board. I have two questions I'd like to ask on behalf of Market Forces. My question relates to the decarbonization of Orica's operations at the Kooragang Island ammonia production facility and its recent Memorandum of Understanding with the gas company, Santos. Orica recently announced it has reduced 1 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions from its nitric acid plant at Kooragang Island. It also has plans to invest in the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub to create green hydrogen to displace gas in its production of ammonia at Kooragang. Orica said the first phase of this project will reduce gas consumption by 7.5%. Your vice president also recently remarked that fossil fuel majors have no interest in investing in the transition, that relying on these companies to get us to net zero will mean it won't happen.
Despite all these steps in the right direction, I am confused as to why Orica signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Santos for the highly controversial Narrabri gas project, which will see Santos supplying Orica with gas for up to 10 years from a new gas field. This MoU is completely at odds with both Orica's rhetoric and positive actions to reduce its gas consumption and transition to renewable space alternatives. I am wondering how Orica justified this MoU in light of its decarbonization efforts.
Sanjeev?
Thank you for that question. As a bit of context and background, Orica is one of the largest consumers of natural gas in this country. In the Hunter Valley alone, we consume more than 15 petajoules of gas, we've got other manufacturing sites. There's one big difference between Orica and the rest of the gas-consuming industry. We do not use gas to make energy. More than 95% of the gas that we consume is used to make products and services that go into very critical industries in Australia, including the mining industry, civil infrastructure industry. We do cater to the pharmaceutical industry from those products. We cater to the beverage industry. There is a big, massive ecosystem of consuming industries around the Hunter Valley, where we produce and consume natural gas.
That's why we are called hard-to-abate because it's not easy to replace what we call raw material or feedstock, which is natural gas, overnight. That's why the word transition is extremely important. A transition will take time, that's why our ambitions to decarbonize go up to 2050 because at the moment, we do not have the possibility of replacing natural gas with an alternate feedstock. To give us the opportunity to investigate and invest into new technologies, we have decided to build a hydrogen hub, which will be 7% of our gas demands, we still need the balance 93% to come from the gas industry in Australia. We are a baseload customer for the gas industry. We work with all gas companies.
When Santos approached us and asked us to sign this non-binding MoU to express our interest for future supply of gas, we were happy to do that. Once again, it's non-binding. It's not yet fully committed. It depends on whether the project gets realized. We will always appreciate getting gas supply from Australian gas producers so that we can consume and convert that gas into very valuable and critical products for sovereign manufacturing. You do not want the products we make to be imported into the country and have no local domestic manufacturing because that would be a very challenging situation. That's why I've always said that you should not be deindustrializing to decarbonize because that hurts manufacturing jobs and it hurts supply security of the resource industries, which is so critical to the Australian economy.
Thank you for that. Just a follow-up question on that. I understand that Orica has committed AUD 430 million to the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub project with ARENA. I'm just wondering what specific metric or timeline would trigger Orica to walk away from the Santos deal. How sufficient would this hydrogen hub would need to be for you guys to consider that it's sufficient to-
The plan to build the first hydrolyzer is 50 MW. This is 7.5% roughly of our gas needs. This, by the way, once commercialized, would be one of the largest green hydrogen facilities, not just in Australia, but in the world. It sounds small, but this is a brave step, a very innovative step. We are doing this together with the state and the federal government support because Orica would not do it alone. Obviously, it's new technology. There are some risks involved here. We are an operator. We have been producing hydrogen for several years, decades, in the Hunter Valley. This helps us to start on that journey of decarbonizing a hard-to-abate and a very expensive-to-abate industry. When will we reach zero consumption of natural gas?
Not in my lifetime because you need to be competitive because you've got imports, you've got other competitors not doing what we are doing, and we need to stay competitive so that we are able to continue to earn a profit and satisfy our shareholders. It'll be a long journey, and our target obviously is 2050 net zero, and it'll be a long way till we reduce our dependence on gas.
Got it. It's my understanding that the Narrabri will take five to seven years to develop, as Santos has stated. I'm wondering why Orica would need to commit today to the MoU rather than doing it in a couple of years' time when hydrogen performance is clearer.
Again, it's a non-binding commitment. Santos has been a partner for us, as has every other gas company. When they requested us to support onshore gas, in-country gas for domestic manufacturing, we were happy to do that.
Thank you. My second question relates to the potential reputational damage to Orica from its partnership with Santos. Santos has made a catastrophic decision more than a decade ago to double the size of its export LNG plant at Gladstone, despite not having sufficient gas reserves. That decision has seen the Gladstone LNG and Santos become a net drain on the domestic market, with the ABC recently reporting that since 2017, Santos has pulled about two years of gas supply from the domestic market to meet its export contract obligations. This has contributed to higher and more volatile prices for domestic users, including Orica, that are now under pressure from rising gas costs. Is Orica concerned that its MoU with Santos is simply rewarding the company for poor decision-making, which has significantly contributed to skyrocketing gas prices?
I'm not in a position to comment on Santos and their strategy and policy. My view on gas supply is that genuine gas consumers like Orica need support from the domestic gas industry. You know that a lot of our gas is exported overseas. As a result, we are suffering from higher prices here and not enough supply. My interest is to ensure that the manufacturing of Orica stays sustainable. We will continue to decarbonize as we have done in the last five years. We'd like to see adequate supply and reasonable pricing of gas in this country.
Can you confirm whether the MoU includes explicit net zero alignment clauses or climate-triggered exit provisions?
No. It is just a very holistic, non-binding MoU. It does not go into any of those details at all.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Another question, microphone two.
Chairman, the next question is from Emily Cross.
That was Cross, by the way. I know it doesn't come across.
Cross. Ms. Cross.
Okay. First, I want to thank Mr. Broomhead for being such a good leader. Welcome Mr. Bansal. Sorry.
Bansal. Yeah.
If I put my glasses on, I can't read. If I put my glasses in to see your name, then I can't read my notes. I've got a problem. Okay. Another person I want to thank that I know never gets thanked, or seldom, is the secretary. Being a most important year for a Jane Austen commemoration, I want to say that it is universally acknowledged that women do all the hard work.
No question about that.
I had a simple question, although the gentleman who spoke before me probably covered it, but I didn't understand most of it. My question was, Mr. Gandhi, you mentioned that Orica technology is in demand. Can I ask which countries demand it? Can you elaborate a little bit more on what the technology innovation actually is? Because as a company that makes explosives, apart from safety, I don't understand what else is involved. Thank you.
Thank you. That's a question close to my heart. I'd talk the next five hours about our wonderful technology and innovation. We've been on the journey of using technology and digitizing what we call our workflows. You know, we operate every day on nearly 500 mine sites globally. We are the largest in the world. We operate in more than 100 countries globally. The mining process can be a very manual process, and this means that people are in the line of fire. We have seen opportunities with technology to de-risk the mining process, to ensure that people are not directly in the line of fire. Over the last five to six years, we've got this wonderful track record of innovation and launching products and services that customers all over the world are using today.
Some examples of these great innovations in the blasting space, which you are familiar with, is blasting without wires. If you watch old movies and you see Hollywood movies with people tying wires down and then pressing the plunger, that is literally how blasting happened several decades back. Today, we've got blasting without wires. You drop a detonator and you walk away, and then you blast it remotely. There are no people. There are no wires. The safety, the productivity of these kind of technologies, is just amazing. Customers love it. These are premium products. We've invested a lot of capital and R&D resources in building these technologies. We are world first in bringing a wireless detonator into the market. Today, we are selling the product all over the world. Every major and minor consumer today would love to get a hand on these very innovative products.
That's in the blasting space. In the Digital Technology space, we are using data, and what we are doing is mining data. We are mining resources for our customers, but we generate a lot of data, more than 150 years of experience. All of that data is then put into the cloud, and then we've got technology and sensors and tools to monetize that data and come with better outcomes for our customers. This could be productivity, this could be cost, this could be safety. The focus here is on very attractive industries like the gold industry. You've seen where the gold price is. It's a very attractive industry. Copper. Copper is mission-critical for the energy transition. You need copper for electricity transmission. We are also supporting the iron ore industry, and then critical minerals and rare earths.
All of these digital technology suites that we have, we are the first ones to integrate digital technology into the blasting space. We are creating what we call workflows, without going into too much technical detail. These workflows are basically adapted to a customer's need. We can customize a solution for you and give you the outcome as a customer and solve a problem that you have. The problem might be safety, license to operate, cost, productivity, efficiency. These products are just flying off the shelf. Customers love this, and you see that translate into the results that we are delivering for our shareholders. Thank you for that question.
Thank you. Ms. Cross.
Chairman, the next question is from Rex McKenzie.
Mr. McKenzie.
Mr. Chairman, I have two short questions. The first one is a bit related to the last question that was answered. The gold price is very high at the moment. Outrageously high, some people would say. What would happen if it halved or if it went down to a quarter of that? I actually come from Bendigo, which used to produce the largest amount of gold in the world. It strikes me that the factories that produce cyanide would suffer greatly if the price fell, and so would Blasting Solutions. That's the question.
Orica is well-positioned in the mining sector because we depend on volume rather than price. You make a very good point. If the gold price went to, let's say, a quarter of where it is, the high-cost mines would probably shut or go on care and maintenance. There would be an impact of some sort. It's fairly muted.
Great.
Where we make our money in the gold sector is actually in the technology part. We do make money, obviously, in the blasting, particularly in underground mines. It would have an impact. If you look at total volumes in Orica's business, the gold sector is important. It's not crucial to our business. Do you want to add anything to that?
First of all, thank you for the question, Mr. McKenzie. Gold has a very interesting dynamic, which is different to other commodities. The ore that is available today on Earth for gold is quite rare. That's why the gold price is so high. As a data point, if you break a ton of rock and if you get two grams of gold out of it, from a ton of rock, that's a good mine. That's a good yield. That's the reason why there's not enough ore and there's not enough ore in nature which has been discovered and not yet exploited. The demand is still good because gold is counter-cyclical. It's something that most central banks like to keep in inventory to protect against external forces. We see gold demand continuing to increase. There's not enough supply.
When gold customers come and approach Orica for help, they're asking for better productivity and more output. This means they need more blasting services from Orica, and they need more sodium cyanide. It's different to every other commodity we operate in because availability of gold is reducing, price is going up. They need more of our services, which is a sweet spot for Orica. That is why we have been very proud operators in the gold industry, from the gold fields in Bendigo 150 years back till today, where we are the number one service provider to the gold industry in the world.
Very reassuring. The other question was the difference between the statutory profit and the stated profit is very large. Could you just enlarge on what are the main contributors to the difference between statutory profit, which is quite large?
Thank you. The reported earnings, which we define as EBIT, was obviously a number of AUD 992 million, which was a 13-year high. The NPAT after special items was a lower number, and that's where we had basically the impairments that I talked about earlier. This was predominantly in Latin America. That was the reason why. The other impact into earnings was the legal fees that we've also called out. This was for ongoing litigation to protect our IP in Australia and globally, and also for commercial litigation that we've had in the U.S. Those are the two reasons why you see that delta between the reported earnings and then the statutory numbers that we announced.
Of course, the EBIT is earnings before interest and tax. When you take interest and tax off to get to the net profit after tax, that's a reduction. Then underneath that is the significant items that Sanjeev has taken. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any other questions from the floor?
Chairman, the next question is from Kiran Bala.
Welcome again.
Thank you to the board and for all of your efforts within the year. Malcolm, I wish you all the best in your future time.
Thank you.
Sanjeev, the results have been remarkable considering the impediments that the group has had to incur. We've had a very high gas price. Input costs are high. We're competing in an environment that's not level. We've got certain restrictions that are put onto Orica that overseas competitors are not subject to. Yet, with all of those, the results have been remarkable, to say the least. What steps would we be taking within the next few years to increase the productivity and to be able to compete better with the other companies?
Malcolm, do you want me to take it?
No.
Ajit, thank you for the question. You've been very kind. We appreciate the feedback. Look, it's been a constant battle, as you very rightly pointed out. I mean, the productivity discussion in Australia is front and center, with the labor government. Everybody understands that Australia as a place to do business, is losing cost competitiveness exactly for all the points that you mentioned. High energy costs, high costs of doing business, IR challenges, and everything else that we have going. What organizations like Orica do is, first of all, we hedge our bets. We try and diversify our revenues and earnings to different commodities like gold, copper, iron ore.
Not just focus on one commodity, but also different geographical regions, so that if there's downside in some part of the world in terms of a slowdown or a new regulation that hurts our business, we see upside somewhere else so that we are able to become more resilient. That's the key for our strategy. We'd like to see resilient and consistent earnings growth. We do not like to see the volatility and the fluctuations. We've managed to do that over the last five years and delivered consistent shareholder value. It's a constant battle. There's a lot of discussions we have, I have personally with the government. The good news is they are listening. They are happy to take feedback. Now we are waiting to see action. Gas reforms are due.
My expectation is before we close for the year or early next year, we will see an update from the ministry on gas policy so that it's a more equitable area. The other one, which is basically in our control, is managing our own costs. How can we become more effective? How can we become more efficient? How can we do things smartly? Can we use technology to become more productive, to become more efficient? You can't keep complaining to the outside shareholders. It's something that you have to do in terms of self-help. Orica's been very good at this. The last fact is that we've got a great team. They put their heads down, and every day they're operating on nearly 500 mine sites globally. They are focused on delivery for our customers, for our neighbors, for our partners, and for our shareholders.
Thank you for the feedback.
Just one more question. If you had a wish list of what you'd like the government to do to improve the operations for the company, apart from gas prices, what would those three be?
Well, I'll give you my list. You can have a different list. Look, as far as gas prices are concerned, the difference between the United States and Australia is fundamentally who owns the gas. Who owns what is below ground level. In the United States, the farmer or the individual landowner owns everything to the center of the Earth. Here, the government does. That's the first difference. Then they retire to Florida and never see a cow again. That's the first big difference. That's not going to change in Australia.
The other big impediment that we have is that all of our energy really, well, all of our resources, have for a long time been sold to the market. The market is normally China, Japan, and so on. It's offshore. They're sold into the export market, which is at a much higher price due to competitive reasons than domestic production would be. Again, in the United States, you have to meet all of the domestic demand before anyone can get an export license. That's a fundamental. The government's addressing that. The government's onto it, and they're talking about reservation of gas for domestic use. You can't, well, you could, but it'd be unwise to break existing contracts. Any new developments will have a proportion, small proportion probably, of that development will be allocated to domestic supply.
If that occurs, that will solve a big amount of the problem. That's two. You can go for three.
Look, to give credit to the state and federal governments, wherever we have engaged, we have invested, we have created jobs. We are critical to the domestic economy here. We play a very significant role in big industries, as a big consumer of gas and a service provider to mining industry. As you know, these are the two most critical industries in Australia. We will continue to support this economy, job creation, technology, innovation. We believe in working collaboratively with our neighborhoods, with our customers, with our partners, with our suppliers, and the governments. It's a good conversation to have, and it's obviously our right to state where we have the pain points, but I do have to say that the government is listening. They are very open to receiving feedback, and now we are waiting for positive action in the new year.
I am optimistic that we have gone through a very difficult time post-COVID with the economic slowdown and all the other challenges. We have recovered very strongly. We are a very resilient organization today. That's visible in our earnings, and I'm optimistic about the future and working collaboratively with our governments here. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Microphone two.
Chairman, the next question is from Marcella Braford.
How do you do?
Hello. Thank you very much for having me. I'm also from Market Forces. I have a question around climate, and I appreciate all the work that Orica's doing. We appreciate all the work Orica's doing to achieve net zero. In order to meet climate goals for net zero, we need no more new gas fields. If we curbed exports, we may not need new gas fields. Santos is continuing to expand its gas extraction and contributing to rapidly rising emissions. I wanted to ask also about the government. What do you hope will be the result of the government's gas review? Would you support a tax on LNG exports so we can reserve existing gas being extracted to supply our manufacturing, which you say is critical to our economy? Thank you.
I understand your position on gas and hydrocarbons generally, really. There is no doubt that if we're going to be net zero, you can't have both. However, to get there, at the moment, the only emissions-free technology in Australia, at least, because we don't do nuclear, is wind and solar. Given situations where the sun is not shining and wind is not blowing, you do need some kind of backup, be it batteries, which aren't yet at an industrial scale, at least, to store that energy. At the moment, the only sensible interim technology or source is gas. Much better than coal, but not perfect. We support gas for that reason. We just couldn't operate if there was no gas. I'm sure in the long term, the goal of the government, at least, is to eliminate it.
May I ask a follow-up question? I agree with you that we need gas for the transition. However, developing new gas fields is something we don't need if we stop our exports, right? Or we curb our exports.
Yeah.
I agree that manufacturing deserves to have decent gas prices.
Yeah.
I guess what I'm saying is it's the export industry that's taking our LNG that is causing this problem in the first place. I understand that you have an MoU with the company that is the cause of all of these problems. I guess I'm wondering if you have a position in supporting the curbing of exports of Australian gas so that we can have decent gas prices for us and our manufacturing.
We operate in Australia in three states, in New South Wales, in Queensland, and in Western Australia. If you compare the three states, Western Australia has domestic gas reservation for domestic consumption. That's the model that we support and encourage the government to think of for Queensland as well as for New South Wales. Having said that, I also understand the constraints of the gas industry because they are committed to long-term contracts with their customers, and these are sovereign contracts with important trading partners like Japan, Korea, China, and Southeast Asia. Our ask as Orica is not that you break those contracts and you put our trading partners into trouble. Our ask is to find sensible ways of ensuring that there's enough reservation and supply for genuine consumers of gas like ours. We do not consume gas to make electricity, as I said earlier.
We use it to make very critical products for the Australian economy, that should not be put at risk. That's our view.
It's a complex question in a way because nearly all of our gas is consumed by offshore producers of gas, be it Japan, China, and so on. They're not cutting back. If anything, they're increasing because they're reducing their reliance on coal. Do we deny them the gas that they want to buy from us? I guess we could, but we do have contracts. Your question's about new gas fields, and presumably they'd get their gas from somewhere else. The Middle East would be a classic spot. We'd just be transferring currently the gas production to the Middle East or somewhere like that. That's the philosophical question that really is for governments to grapple with.
Thank you.
Thank you. Do we have any more questions? None at 2. 1 seems to have gone dry. Delphine, do we have written questions?
Mr. Chairman, yes, we do. I'll start with the questions from Mr. Stephen Mayne. The first one is in regard to directors' fees. It goes, "Malcolm Broomhead was paid AUD 546,000 in his final full year as chair of Orica. How much have we agreed to pay Sydney-based Vik Bansal to chair Orica, and what are the arrangements in terms of whether Orica will be funding an office at the Melbourne headquarters or executives report for him to perform the chair role?
Thank you, Steven. Good to hear from you. Vik will be on the same remuneration as I have been on. He will take over my office in the Orica building next to Sanjeev.
The next question is from Mr. Mayne again. "Under our constitution, board nominations must be lodged between 45 and 90 business days before the AGM. With the rushed pre-Christmas AGM, we closed board nominations a month before revealing the full year results. Given Nuf arm and Aristocrat also have September 30 balance dates and hold their AGMs in late January or February, why don't you do the same? Is this something that Vik Bansal may look at going forward?
He might do. We have had February AGMs before. What happens then is you're at February, and people are voting on things that ended in September last year. They can't even remember what happened, and they're now much more focused on what you're going to earn and what's happening in the current year. Not only that, internally, management have to stay back often over the Christmas break, on the January break when most of Australia goes to the beach, to prepare for an AGM. There is that aspect. The big one is it's just too long. To try to get it done, and it's rushed. It's not ideal, but that's just the calendar we deal with. We've chosen to have the meetings now before Christmas, while it's still fresh in shareholders' minds.
The next question is from Stephen again. "We're a long way from AGM best practice. There's no archive available of last year's AGM webcast on our website. We failed to disclose the proxies early to the ASX along with the formal addresses, and we're not following the agenda, instead dealing with debate on all seven items of business as one job lot. You don't ignore the agenda at board meetings, so please don't do it at the AGM. Will Vik Bansal undertake to fix these issues at next year's AGM?
Well, Vik, when he gets into the chair, will obviously have a look at that. Look, we do follow the ASX rules and guidelines. That's the first thing I would say. The second thing is that in terms of we have done both methods. We've dealt with each question as they come up, and asked Q&As. It's just much more efficient, and people still get all of their questions in. I don't think anyone's missed out on a question if we do it the way that we have. That's how we've settled on this method. AGMs are long enough. The way to make them more efficient while still being completely informative to shareholders has been the way that we have chosen to go.
The next question is from Mr. Kevin Daly. "Have there been any developments in the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub?
Sanjeev.
Yep. Very positive developments. We continue to work on the pre-feasibility and the feasibility for the project. We have a project team in place. We are looking at engineering. We're looking at sourcing options. My expectation is that we, if everything works well, and we're also, by the way, engaging with the third-party external partners to come in and join us in the project. My expectation is if we get all the ducks lined up, sometime in the first calendar quarter of 2026, we will take this to the board to get their approval and sign off. Once that happens, then the project will hopefully move into execution phase. So far, challenging, a lot of issues to tackle, but I feel optimistic about the project.
Thank you. The last question is from Mr. Kevin Daly again. Did the new U.S. tariff regime have any effect on the company's operations?
Not really. It certainly caused a lot of work in the U.S. early on. We get most of our product that comes into the U.S. from both Mexico and Canada, we're exempt, under the tariff agreements, from getting those tariffs. We're very fortunate in that regard.
One more. This is from Mr. Kevin Daly. As your world map doesn't show activities in Guinea, does that mean you're not supplying explosives to the Simandou iron ore mine?
Guinea?
At the moment we are not, because Guinea requires local content and local partners. We are, at the moment, not in a position to cater to the needs of Guinea. It's something that we will consider in the new year. For the moment, we do not have operations on the ground in Guinea.
Yeah. The most important market in Africa is gold and to a certain extent, copper, but we'd love to get some iron ore as well.
Mr. Chairman, there is just one more question from Steven Main, which we've dealt with already, and that's on Vik's workload.
Okay. Well, just repeating that we have discussed this at length with Vik, and he has given us undertakings that he will reduce his workload in accordance with the guidelines that you would expect and the proxy's advisors expect. I'm very confident that he will be able to perform his duties as you would wish. Any more, Delphine?
There are no more questions. Thank you.
Shareholders, as there are no more questions, all that remains is to complete the poll by submitting your votes. If you haven't already done so, once you've completed your voting card, please place it in the ballot boxes at the exit or hand it to a member of the Orica staff or the returning officer before leaving the room. Online voting will remain open for a further five minutes. Following the close of voting, the results of the poll will be announced to the Australian Securities Exchange as soon as they're finalized. It's clear that from the direct and proxy votes received today, that all the motions will be carried.
Very good.
That concludes today's meeting, and I now formally close the meeting. Thank you for your attendance. On behalf of the board and the executive committee, I extend our thanks to you, our shareholders, for your support. A light lunch will be served outside in the foyer. Before we leave, I just understand that our new chair would like to close with a few words. Vik.
Thank you, Malcolm. I think it'll be remiss on me not to say what I'm about to say. Before we leave, I want to take a moment to recognize and celebrate the outstanding leadership of Malcolm over his decade-long tenure steering Orica. Malcolm, your dedicated stewardship and strategic guidance has strengthened Orica's position as a global leader in the AM sector. Under your guidance, Orica has navigated industry challenges, leadership changes, and expanded its international footprint. Throughout this journey, Orica has continued to deliver for its stakeholders. This is evident in people and our operations around the globe. I've heard about the trees you have planted all over the world. I'm looking forward to seeing them. Your unwavering commitment to safety, sustainability, and innovation has set the standard for the industry and established the foundation for Orica's ongoing success.
On a personal note, I'm deeply grateful for the smooth transition and the mentorship and the lunches you have provided during our anticipated handover. Your guidance has been invaluable in helping me understand the unique attributes to Orica. Thank you, Malcolm. Please be assured that we will continue to build on the strong foundation you have dedicated. I promise you that. Thank you for your dedicated service. To all our valued shareholders, I'm truly honored by the privilege to serve as your chair and look forward to working together as we shape Orica's next chapter of growth and success. Before we finish, can I ask everybody to give a standing ovation to Mr. Malcolm Broomhead.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. It's been a privilege and a pleasure. I know that you'll do a great job and take it to a new level. Thank you