One of the things I did say is, there's a delay to what you see. If you say, "Advanced slide," it will have advanced even though it might not look like it has. There's a delay to what you see.
Bruno seems to be losing contact on and off. You might want to step in.
It will have advanced even though.
Just so we seem to be having problems.
Roy, why can't you see the first slide at all? I need the slide to be able to do what I need to do.
Why can't you step in and just have a chance at it?
The slide is up, Bruno. It's the introduction slide.
Roy, why can't you see the first slide? I can't see it, mate. You need the slide to be able to do what I need to do.
You can't see it on the website? The slide is up, mate.
I cannot see it on the website.
The introduction slide?
Okay. I can't see it, mate.
You can't see it on the website?
I cannot see it on the website.
I'm Mia, this is the operator. Please hold, and the AGM will resume shortly. I'm Mia, this is the operator. Please hold, and the AGM will resume shortly.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Quantum Graphite Limited for 2025. My name is Bruno Ruggiero, and I am the Chairman of the company. I'm joined today by my fellow Directors, David Trimboli and Michael Wyer, the Company's Managing Director, Sal Catalano, and Company Secretary, Rochelle Pattison. I would also like to welcome Mr. Deepak Keshavamurthy , and Mr. Rafael Morillo Maldonado, representatives of our auditors, RSM Partners, also by video link.
I refer you to the notice of meeting and the proxy form. All resolutions will be decided by poll. The persons entitled to voting on the poll, including shareholders, proxy holders, and corporate representatives of shareholders, will have been directed to the registry's online voting site.
Once all business has been dealt with, a poll will be conducted on all resolutions, and the results will be announced to the market. Any shareholders wanting to ask a question with respect to any of the resolutions will be given the opportunity to put these questions to the board. All questions in the first instance will be directed to the chair. The online platform is open for shareholder questions, which I encourage you to submit as early as possible. To ask a written question, please follow the instructions as displayed on the screen. I will now move to the meeting's items of business. Page four, James, please follow the instructions as displayed on the screen. I'm informed by the Company Secretary that a quorum is present, and accordingly, I declare this meeting open.
The Notice of Meeting has been available to shareholders electronically on the ASX platform since the 28th of October, 2025. The meeting is held in accordance with the Corporations Act, specifically provisions permitting the holding of virtual meetings. I shall take the Notice of this Meeting and attached the Explanatory Statement sent to Shareholders as read. At today's meeting, we will have six items of business and 10 resolutions to consider, which will all be decided by way of a poll. The total number of valid proxy votes received and the manner in which the proxies will be directed will be displayed with each resolution considered. On behalf of the Board, Sal Catalano, our MD, will provide an overview of the past year's operations and achievements. The meeting formalities will follow this presentation. Slide five and over to you, Sal.
Thanks, Bruno. Next slide, please.
Slide five and over to you, Sal.
Thanks, Bruno. I introduce the board and key management. There have been no changes during the year. I don't propose to go through people's CVs, but I do note our key technical partners. During the year, we added Swerim AB in our high-temperature research area. Next slide. The focus clearly in the 2025 year is the development of our project, Project UTILE. In the prior year, the focus clearly Project UTILE was defined as building a China-independent Western Hemisphere global supply chain. For Uley graphite, especially Uley graphite product, that qualifies as our precursor material. In that year, we successfully built an end-to-end supply chain. In 2025, the shift moved to the integration of the processing facility that will take place on the Eyre Peninsula and the refining facility that will be located offshore.
This included two key elements. The first is fine-tuning and concentrate production to ensure that the specification delivered to the refining facility is purpose-built for that facility. This is critical to ensure that we have a low-cost operation. The second is more infrastructure-focused, and this is the Quantum- Sunlands Eyre Peninsula Graphite Hub, which I'll detail a little later. During the year, further work was done on the financing arrangements, which, of course, extend well beyond year two to cover this whole supply chain, including processing and refining and the infrastructure. During this year, two further parties were admitted to the data room to conduct due diligence, and more on that later. The second area of focus was exploration activities.
In the previous two years, large-scale tenement-wide geophysics were conducted, and a huge amount of data was secured as part of a plan to look at the mineralization model of not just the Uley region, but the whole of that Hutchison formation, which comprises much of the southern Eyre Peninsula. This year, we developed the revised model for the Uley region, and as I've said, there'll be more on that later. The final area is our R&D facilities with our joint venture partner, Sunlands Energy Co. The three-year program ended last year, where we successfully completed a number of projects associated with the purification of Uley flake graphite.
In 2025, this now moved to the next phase, where a new workstream or series of workstreams has been developed, and this will be the basis for a further application to our industry to allow us to claim the concession for some of the foreign-based R&D. Note that one of the challenges we've faced with these technologies, not so much the purification technology, but more connected with the thermal energy storage technology, is the lack of suitable laboratories, research facilities in Australia, and consequently, we've had to use foreign-based facilities. This has been a huge advantage in advancing the program, and a new application to use those foreign services and, of course, claim the rebate will be made shortly. Next slide. To use those foreign services and, of course, claim the rebate will be made shortly. Next slide.
In the first half of the year—sorry, turning now to financing the project—in the first half of the year, the company completed the formal detailed application to US EXIM Bank. The application was based on a letter of interest and term sheet issued in July of the previous year. Under that letter of interest and term sheet, a debt facility of $300 million was proposed under a particular initiative known as the Make More in America Initiative. The application launched, including quite detailed submissions relating to the development of the end-to-end supply chain strategy. In fact, one of the benefits of being part of quite a lengthy submission process was the refining of the supply chain strategy. That process continues. The diligence of that agency continues. In the second half, there were some further developments with interest from two government agencies to participate in the financing of Project UTILE.
Access to the data room and some of the extensive materials that have been prepared for US EXIM Bank were granted to them at year-end, and diligence started by the end of the 2025 fiscal year and continues today. The company expects to make an announcement in relation to our preferred funding partners by the end of the first quarter in calendar 2026. Next slide. One of the significant developments during the year was the Eyre Peninsula Graphite Hub's crafted Major Project Status from the Commonwealth Government. This is a very, very significant development. In order to support the supply chain strategy proposed by Quantum and its partners, there is a level of supply chain integration of facilities essential to its success. This was recognized by the Minister for Industry and Science at that time, Minister Ed Husic.
He recognized the national significance of the hub's operations and, of course, its alignment with the Commonwealth's own critical mineral strategy and their battery storage strategy. One thing to note about the hub is it is a multifunction facility. It will include not just storage facilities, but there will be some low-level screening and processing required to ensure it meets customers' needs, including for the refinery. Perhaps as important, it is a facility that will be open to all southern Eyre Peninsula Uley graphite producers. Now, clearly, the objective of Quantum and its partners is that this become the major facility for export of all southern peninsular material. Next slide. As I mentioned in the opening slide, 2024 saw the completion of our exploration activities relating to the reworking of our model for the region, of course, especially the Uley region.
Figure two in the presentation of this slide shows the historical and accepted view of the geological structure, which technically is recognized as a series of upward folds or antiforms. Essentially, for the non-lay person, it's a wave-like structure of mineralization. This structure does not appear to be consistent at all with the extensive drilling undertaken by the company, including historical drilling. Moreover, it was not at all consistent with the geophysics. Now, I should mention something about the geophysics. We had the very rare luxury of doing geophysics at two separate levels. The first was geophysics over Uley 2, where we already had very, very extensive drill data. In fact, we had diamond drill core at 25-50 m centers. And we were able to reconcile that with the geophysics data, which was then used for the aerial geophysics data across the whole region.
In any case, I won't go into too much more detail, but the data we secured supports an alternative model of mineralization. This is certainly preferred by our team, our geology team. This model is based on a series of layered mineralization as indicated in figure three. The alternative interpretation is clearly a significant deviation from the historical view of the structure, and it offers the potential for a material increase in the Uley region's graphite resources. Next slide. I will change tack now and give a brief overview of the market, especially current market conditions. Graphite, as many of you will be well aware, is completely utterly controlled by China. During the year, quite weak EV demand, challenging economic conditions in China contributed to prices being down 40%-50% from their peaks in late 2021 and 2022.
Supply from Chinese producers was significant and arguably oversupplied based on the experience of many in the industry. Prices were more difficult to discern. It appeared that FOB China prices struggled to hit $600 a ton, although the company is aware that quality material was transacted at higher prices. The surface supply suggests, and again, this is anecdotal, suggests a test capacity of about 20%-30%. Bear in mind, of course, China's dominance of mine production is more than 75%. One of the challenges that the market faces is that outside of graphite, there are clearly deficiencies or shortfalls, notwithstanding what occurs within China. We still expect demand growth globally of 5%-7% at least. This is below expectations this year, but I think that's the lower limit. Battery Demand for graphite, it remains at 25% of the overall market for slate graphite.
That is certainly growing. It perhaps hasn't grown as fast as expected, but it is expected to grow to approximately 40% by 2030. Next slide, please. It is expected to grow to approximately 40% by 2030. I don't propose to spend much time on this slide, which deals with concentration risks. This data is provided by the International Energy Agency in its 2025 Global Critical Minerals Outlook. It really tells the story. Combining mine production and refined production, we have a phenomenon of not just concentration at the country level, but also concentration at the producer level. In other words, graphite is dominated by China—this is Uley graphite, sorry—for the mine production and anode production is dominated by China, and it's concentrated within a handful of producers.
This concentration creates uncertainty and is the overwhelming driver for initiatives by various Western governments, including Japan and Korea, to manage critical mineral supply by offering certain incentives. Canada, of course, recently announced floor pricing for flake and country. There is no doubt that there is a premium for supply chain security and especially supply chain security that is sought from Western suppliers. Next slide, please. This is the final slide of my presentation, although I will include in this slide presentation for release to the market a recap of various aspects of the project finalized in 2024 so that when people are reviewing this material online, they have the benefit of the technical material of the project, including the 2024 DFS. Meeting now to the joint venture. It was a busy year.
Issues of patents in the U.S., Australia, and South Africa were followed by further applications under the global treaty. Now, this is very important. Obviously, it means that this thermal energy storage technology is protected globally. The applications were directed at two things: obviously expanding the source of the technologies and, importantly, ensuring we have freedom of commercial operation once we deploy the technology. We expect further grants of U.S. patents within the next six months. Disappointingly, the European patents remain outstanding. There has been feedback that they're imminent, which, of course, has been the case for almost 12 months. Some will recall the technology or the thermal storage technology is unique in this sense. There are many thermal storage technologies that deliver heat or process heat to industry. This technology does much more than that.
It's able to deliver heat at a very high temperature and pressure sufficient to run a conventional thermal power plant, i.e., generating steam and turning a conventional turbine generator. Negotiations are continuing for the deployment of our pilot in Australia. Needless to say, it's been difficult. The major impediment remains the market obstacles associated with grid connectivity to the National Electricity Market in Australia. We expect these to be resolved in the coming year, but it had added additional complexity in deploying a pilot or a demonstrator. I received one question about the financing. Has US EXIM Bank's view changed under Trump administration? Two comments. One is Trump's view of US EXIM Bank's position is no different than under the Biden administration. Both administrations saw US EXIM Bank as playing a vital role in developing alternative supply chains for the Western Hemisphere, of course, including and especially the U.S. This is not just US EXIM Bank.
It's also a development finance corporation and so on. In that respect, it remains unchanged. There's no question there is a difference in emphasis. The administration believes that Exxon can be a little more aggressive in deploying its capital around the world. Historically, Exxon is able to fund at a global level, but the nexus to the U.S. has to remain fairly strong. What Trump has done, we saw this with literally a change to the Exxon website within two or three days of Trump being sworn in in January, there was a change that allowed Exxon now much more flexibility in going upstream away from the U.S. to ensure that some of these sources for supply chains could be dealt with. Hence, that's contributed to a focus on looking at assets on the ground in places, especially the emerging markets such as Africa.
I think it's good news in one respect that really hasn't changed a great deal, but certainly its scope has broadened. It sees this as really critical to underpinning the stability or longevity of supply chains. It was a welcome change. Next slide. This is one of the four slides I indicated earlier was included regarding the project plan, the recap of our project plan. Next slide. This part of the recap relates to the resource expansion plan. Next slide. The third slide relates to the resource expansion within the Uley region. Next slide. The last of the recap slides relates to expansion of that raw material supply beyond the Uley region. Many of you will recall that our project, Uley 2, sits within the Uley region, which has itself significant expansion capability.
Of course, outside of the Uley region, we have the broader exploration permits with significant mineralization. I should make one further comment, which I did not cover when we discussed our exploration activities. As a result of the geophysics work and our review of the historical data, the drilling data, we uncovered a continuation of mineralization to the west of our exploration lease 6224. The result of that is that we applied and were granted an additional exploration license to the west of the 6224. On this particular slide, you will see that, and you'll now see both 6224 and the new 7019. Significance of that now is that we now cover the whole of the southern tip of the peninsula. That's from east to west. Next slide. That's from east to west. Next slide. We will now move to the form of business of the meeting.
I won't repeat the introductory comments relating to the form of business of the meeting. I propose to read out the resolutions. I won't go into the voting of the released market clearly, but the resolution details are on this presentation. We'll start with resolution one. Next slide, please. The resolution details are on this presentation. We'll start with resolution one. Next slide, please. The first resolution for consideration is, of course, the remuneration report. That resolution is to consider and it's brought to be passed, the resolution to adopt the report for the year end of 2025, submitted as part of the director's report for that financial year pursuant to sections or paragraph 250(r)(2) and 250(r)(3) of the Corporations Act. Note that the vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors of the company.
Further, the Chairman intends to vote all open or undirected proxies in favor of the resolutions, and they number 1,043,989 in this case. Next slide. The next item of business is the re-election of directors. Resolution 2(a), specifically, is the election of Director and Chairman, Mr. Bruno Ruggiero. That resolution is to consider and support, pass a resolution and an ordinary resolution that Mr. Ruggiero is elected as a director of the company according to the company's constitution. I draw your attention to the EM, it has details, of course, of Mr. Ruggiero. On this resolution, Resolution 2(a), the Chairman intends to vote all open and undirected proxies in favor of the relevant resolution, and they number 481,160. Next slide, please. Next slide. Resolution 2(b) is the election of Director, Mr. Michael Wyer.
That resolution is to consider and, if appropriate, pass the resolution as an ordinary resolution that Mr. Wyer is elected as the director of the company in accordance with the company's constitution. Similar information about Michael is included in the explanatory memorandum. The Chairman intends to vote all open or undirected proxies in favor of the resolution, and they number 1,043,989. Next slide, please. The next item of business is the approval of the proposal to issue shares to service providers, i.e., to consider and, if appropriate, pass the resolution that for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.1A and for other purposes, approval is given for the company to issue up to 2.5 million fully paid ordinary shares on the terms and conditions set out in the Explanatory Memorandum. Again, information about this resolution is detailed in the EM, and it also includes the applicable voting exclusion statement.
The Chairman intends to vote all open and undirected proxies in favor of this resolution, and they number 1,043,989. Next slide, please. The next item is resolution 4, the approval of additional share issue capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1A . That resolution proposed, with or without amendment, as a special resolution is in accordance with Rule 7.1A and for all other purposes, the issue of fully paid ordinary shares of up to 10% of the issued capital of the company at the time of issue calculated in accordance with the formula prescribed in Rule 7.1A.2 and on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. I draw your attention to the explanatory memorandum that includes detailed calculations on the maximum number of shares to be issued under this rule and its dilution impacts.
The chairman intends to vote all open undirected proxies in favor of the relevant resolution, and they number 1,043,989 shares. I'll now turn to Bruno Ruggiero to continue with the next resolution. Next slide, please.
Resolution 5(a), which is the approval of issue of securities under the Quantum Graphite Limited Option Plan to Mr. Sal Catalano to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolutions, each as an ordinary resolution. That for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, shareholder approval is given for the company to issue to the Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company, Mr. Sal Catalano, up to 154,835 options under the Quantum Graphite Limited Option Plan on the terms set out in the Explanatory Memorandum.
Information about this resolution, including the applicable voting exclusion statement, are set out in the explanatory memorandum. Further, the Chairman intends to vote all open undirected proxies in favor of the relevant resolutions, and these number 1,043,989. Next slide, please. Sal, that would be yourself. Thanks for taking over, please, mate.
The next Resolution under item 5 and 5(b), the approval of issue of securities under the Quantum Graphite Limited Option Plan to Mr. Bruno Ruggiero. That resolution is to consider and if thought fit, pass it as an ordinary resolution. That is for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, shareholder approval is given for the company to issue to the director of the company, Mr. Bruno Ruggiero, up to 154,835 options under the Quantum Graphite Limited Option Plan on the terms set out in the explanatory memorandum.
The Chairman intends to vote all open and undirected proxies in favor of the relevant resolution, and they number 1,043,989. Next slide, please. Resolution 5(c) is the issue of securities under the Quantum Graphite Limited Option Plan to Mr. David Trimboli. That resolution is that for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, shareholder approval is given for the company to issue to the Director of the company, David Trimboli, up to 103,225 options under the Quantum Graphite Limited Option Plan on the terms set out in the Explanatory Memorandum. On this resolution, the Chairman intends to vote all open and undirected proxies in favor of the relevant resolution, and they number 1,043,989. They number 1,043,989. Next slide, please. Continuing with item 5(d), Resolution 5(d) is the approval of issue of securities under the plan to Mr. Michael Wyer.
That resolution is that for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, shareholder approval is given for the company to issue to the director of the company, Mr. Michael Wyer, up to 103,225 options under the Quantum Graphite Limited Option Plan on the terms set out in the Explanatory Memorandum. On this resolution, the Chairman intends to vote all open and undirected proxies in favor of the relevant resolution, and those votes number 1,043,989. Next slide. The final resolution or item under 5 is the issue of securities under the Quantum Graphite Limited Option Plan to Mr. Sal Catalano. That resolution, as an ordinary resolution, is that for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.14 and for all other purposes, shareholder approval is given for the company to issue to the Company Secretary, Ms. Rochelle Pattison , up to 103,225 options under the plan on the terms set out in the Explanatory Memorandum. On this resolution, the Chairman intends to vote all open and undirected proxies in favor of the relevant resolution, and those votes number 1,043,989. Next slide, please.
Resolution 6 is the approval of proposed issue of fully paid ordinary shares to Market Nominees Pty Ltd for the Provision of Capital Market Services. To consider and if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution that for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.11 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of up to 25,385,250 fully paid ordinary shares to Market Nominees Pty Ltd on the terms and conditions set out in the Explanatory Memorandum. Information about this resolution, including the applicable voting exclusion statement, is set out in the Explanatory Memorandum.
Further, the Chairman intends to vote all open and undirected proxies in favor of the relevant resolution, which number 1,043,989. Next slide, please. That is the end of the formal business.
Thanks, Bruno. Yes. I was going to suggest that we can hold onto the line for a few minutes to deal with any questions. So far, we do not have any further questions, but we will hold for three or four minutes if people have questions.
We do not have any further questions, but we will hold for. That is good, mate. I was going to do the same thing. And we welcome them.
Yes, of course.
That is good, mate. I was going to do the same thing. And we welcome them.
Yes, of course.
Yeah, we are not receiving any at this time.
We are not? Okay. Thanks, Bruno. We might just wait a couple more minutes, I think. Thanks, Bruno. We might just wait a couple more minutes, I think.
Just want to check the question has come in, any time deadlines for US EXIM Bank?
No, there's not. They do have certain deadlines for the processing of data. In other words, they receive data within a particular time. They're then required to respond within a particular time. But these deadlines are ultimately pretty flexible because they're essentially reset every time further information is requested. There's no formal deadline imposed upon the bank. There's no formal deadline for.
Just if we could check that there's no questions from the phone operator.
Thank you. There are no questions via the phone line.
If we could check that there's no questions from the phone operator.
Thank you. There are no questions via the phone line.
I think that's right, Sal.
Okay. All right. I'll call the meeting to a close. Thank you, everyone, for attending. Thank you for the questions. I look forward to another successful year. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for attending.