Financing partner at Speewah, potentially in Central Australia at some point. Graham's about to make some words, introduce himself, Louise, and ETFS Capital in terms of their rationale for stepping in and playing such an instrumental role at Tivan. Perhaps you can explain for everyone the importance of that relationship as it unfolded through the course of this year. Thanks.
Obviously, during the first couple of years after we came in, there were difficult times around financing the organization. What you always hope to be able to get is a trusted partner in what we're doing. I remember the first phone call that I got from Grant after he'd spoken with Graham, and this opportunity started to emerge. What were my feelings on this? What I expressed at that time was, if we can get ourselves a partner who has the wherewithal to be able to partner with us all the way through this journey, and that is a partner with integrity, then that person becomes the preferred partner to work with going forward. I can sit here now and say, you know, that emerged at the same time as we were building out the incorporated joint venture with Sumitomo.
I have to say, in terms of what we're doing, what we have with the Japanese is—we talked about this this afternoon when we were just getting together as part of the company—that they act with so much integrity and so much desire to do the right thing. They have been true to their word all of the way through that journey. Now we have a local Australian financing partner with massive wherewithal and the same integrity and the same desire to pursue an unquestionably good outcome. I am lost for words in describing how good it is to be in that situation.
I think you did pretty well. Thank you. Without further ado, I'd like to invite Graham Tuckwell up to the stage. I think we can stay here for a little bit because there'll be a little—we're going to do a formal old-school signing ceremony to mark this moment. First of all, we wanted to hear from Graham. Thank you.
Will you thank me after I finish speaking? I'm a boomer, so I've got to use notes. Our scholarship by loan—we're a philanthropist, but this is not one of our philanthropic efforts—is no ordinary scholarship. From our perspective, we are no ordinary investor. I don't think there's a single family office that's invested in a project in this way. Let me explain, give you perhaps a little bit of background for those of you interested. I was responsible for launching the world's first gold ETF, which is why the gold premiums are very low, because that act caused all gold companies to more than halve in value. I launched the gold ETF, and it went global. I was asked by the World Gold Council to do the same in London.
Off the back of that, I decided to launch other commodities such as oil in conjunction with Shell. Within six years—and that was a company called ETF Securities. We had an Australian operation, but really all the action was overseas. For about 15 years, we went overseas and built, within six years, a company that had $37 billion US under management. It was the seventh largest at the time ETF company in the world, and it was valued at about a billion and a half dollars. I kept that for a while. I then sold the operations.
I kept the Australia for a little while, sold all the overseas operations, bought back the minority shareholders that had come in, and then we renamed the company ETFS Capital because we now had a mission of investing in private equity and, of course, ETFs, because that's what our business was. Hence the name ETFS Capital, which is owned jointly by me and my wife. We are the only owners and only directors. That is who you are dealing with. No outside money, nobody to tell us how we should be doing. If we want to do something and if we believe in a vision, that is it from us. That is what we will do. You would say, how did you get in if you are an ETF guy? Because I have been doing that for 20-odd years. How did you know anything about mining?
I started in investment banking, but soon got involved in transactions in the mining industry. After a number of years, I in fact started my own company that specialised in corporate finance and technical advice wrapped up into one. In fact, it was a company called Investor Resources Limited, and I was privileged to have Newcrest's number two, a gentleman called Courtney Chamberlain. I had a couple of geologists working for us. When we went and did some business, I obviously led the financing side. These guys led the technical side. I learned a hell of a lot about geology, metallurgy, construction of mines, etc., etc. That was a space I sort of left and thought I would never, ever go back to again. In the same way, when I left ANU, I never thought I'd go back again.
That's a different story. How did this work? I've got a CFO. I've got a CFO here too, CIO Craig Dandurand. He's our Chief Investment Officer, brought out by the Future Fund because of his expertise to help Australia run its Future Fund. We're looking at private equity. That's all we're doing. I said to Craig, the only listed equities I'm going to buy are ETFs, obviously. One day he said to me, "Graham, look, there's a company I've bought shares in, and I'd like perhaps you to buy some shares in it." I thought, hang on, isn't this a conflict of interest? He's just wanting me to buy. He said, "No, no, you've got to meet this guy. He's interesting." That was Graham. He is interesting, as we know. He came to our office.
I'm sitting there with my wife on the couch. Craig's there too. The four of us, the three of us with Graham. He talks about, "Oh, Graham, I'm thinking of doing a placement, and you might want to buy some." I'm thinking, "No, I don't want to buy any shares. I've told Craig this. I'm only taking this meeting out of politeness." He talks on and on. He said, "By the way," and I started to think, "I'm going to finish this meeting soon." He started to tell me, "Oh, and by the way, I've got relationships. I'm building a company where I've got dealing with a major corporation." Basically, this is an individual at this stage, really. I mean, Tivan wasn't much other than Grant at this stage, with all due respect.
He'd locked up a deal with one of the biggest companies in the world. Not only that, he had presented to me that if he got this hedge fund over the line, he was fully financed. There is no such thing I've ever seen where a small mining company in Australia has ever fully financed a project, in principle, before feasibility study. I've never seen it. I thought, "This guy's clever. This is really interesting." After 20 minutes, I just sat there and said nothing. I think the three of you will remember that. Lou and Craig did not know whether I was going to ask Grant to leave or whatever. I said, "Graham, I'm not interested in buying equity in your company. I'd actually like to buy into the project." It was an AUD 50 million-odd ticket at that stage.
Grant turned around to me and said, "I wasn't expecting that." I said to him, "Nor was I." That is how it happened. For me, us, this is sort of like a private equity, isn't it? You've got relationships, you buy into it, you provide the capital, you provide the help you need, and then the money comes back. Yes, we did buy some shares in the company. Grant encouraged us to have the alignment. To me, it was the picture that Grant was painting. I've been used to sort of share brokers and all sorts of people spooking stuff. People who run mining companies in Australia at the small end are not the quality Grant is. He is one of the smartest guys I've ever met.
In fact, Bill Evans, who's here, who's Chief Economist of Westpac, he said he used to go over to Wall Street, talk to the Wall Street guys, and he said, "Oh, this guy, Grant Wilson, you've been talking to, he is one of the smartest guys I've ever met." That's a compliment. This is a guy who can take on Wall Street titans, but actually be a nice person, and then come from a background of Alice, and then create something from nothing, which is what's actually happened here. This company was worth basically nothing except the value of its listing a couple of years ago, as I understand it, with enormous vision. It's not just about the projects. It's how the world looks in 10 years' time or 20 years' time and how all these government policies fall into place.
With that, he's not only able to convince some big companies to deal with him, he's actually able to get a great team around him. That's a highly unusual skill set. Most of all, he really cares. He really cares deeply, not just about the different projects going on. He cares about the people. He cares about the community. He cares about a legacy. It's not about money for Grant. It's actually a bigger thing. He cares about many more things. That's why we trust him. That's why Lou and I trust him. That's why we put our money in. The model we've got is you don't need to go to the market for an equity raising to fund a company. You can simply bring in some joint venture partners who have got the capital. We've got the capital.
I'd like to see more of this. Suddenly, Tivan has got into the Speewah project with virtually no capital into it, certainly no construction capital, a little bit of it. I've never seen that done before. That's a clever model. Frankly, I'm happy to support it going forward. We're not just here to be invested in Speewah. We're here to be invested in the other projects in a similar way, subject to the board's approval, who I will buy many drinks tonight if that's what's needed. Hopefully, as shareholders, you will never see another capital raising. Danny, you're signing. Yes, which you did.
I'm almost certain the ASX is not going to sanction me because I didn't say any of that. Thank you, Graham. It's very kind. Now we're going to do this old-school signing ceremony. Great pleasure to invite Louise Tuckwell to the stage. I've got to know Louise as well. It's been a great privilege. Our board and Graham and Louise are going to countersign some documents that were actually signed on the weekend for symbolic purposes. For Graham's, the word that he used, which is very important to everything that we're doing here, legacy for legacy. Thank you.
I'm making this up. This.
One of the children to sign?
Yeah. I'll go first.
Right.
There we go. Great. Sign it off.
The last time we did this is when we got married. Yeah, these are the ones we want people. Is there another one?
It's what you might call a proof of concept.
Thanks again, Graham.
Okay. I think with that, we're going to pivot, hard pivot to the team. If I could invite a bunch of the team up. I promised our team that shareholders don't bite. We're going to prove that now as well. Steve, we'll see. I think Maddie, Jeremy, if I could trouble you. Jace, of course. Tammie, let's do it. As I said, this is just an opportunity to pass the mic around. We have others here today. George, you want to come up? We're going to give you a harness to pass. He just landed. I think it was like two weeks ago. Just an opportunity, I think, for 10 minutes to hear from the team. I'm going to clam up here, pass the mic around on impressions of working at Tivan.
I think the differences that are embodied here, some of the opportunities that I had. Feel free, guys, to talk about that. Again, mindful of ASX rules when we're talking about things that are not yet public. Maybe passing to Jace, I think first. Jace is our CCO. He was there in the day, the dark days of TNG, the campaign that got rid of them all, the cleanup job that took place for a year, and now this period of resurgence and the opportunities we have ahead. Perhaps Jace, and then we just hand it around, I think.
Thanks, Grant. Yeah, I guess in terms of what makes Tivan different, I've worked at a number of different companies over the years. Some have very low productivity, some pretty good. I guess the differentiator for Tivan is the hyper productivity that the team delivers. When we put the quarterly reports together, each quarter, you look back and you think, "Geez, we've done a lot this quarter." The next quarter comes along and you put that report together and you see the same thing again. I think that's driven by the young team that we've got. Like Grant said, the average age is probably 35, which is making me feel pretty old these days, really. They're a great energetic team. I also think that that culture is driven from Grant and the board down as well.
I guess when you do a 249D and you take over a company, there's an expectation that you're going to get in there and deliver. I think that work ethic really stems from Grant, the way he gets around things. The output's really significant. In terms of what I'm looking forward to in the next couple of years, obviously you've got the Speewah Fluorite Project, our flagship project, which would be great to get that into development and be self-sustaining from a cash flow point of view. I'm really excited about some of the exploration prospects we've got as well. I started my career 25 years ago in corporate advisory. Used to do IPOs and ASX listings for small-cap greenfield exploration companies. That's been my background.
We have a couple of really exciting prospects there, like Grant spoke about with Timor, the copper gold targets we have there, surface sampling early days, but it is in elephant country. There are lots of big copper gold deposits in that region. That is really exciting. The other one that has piqued my interest recently has been Walsh's Wall, named after the man sitting next to me. It is a really, really exciting prospect there as well, a one-kilometer outcrop in Gossan. It has all the geochemistry that you would hope to see. Again, only rock chip samples, but we will get in there and hopefully do some aeromag and get some good drilling targets out of that. Those are two things that give us really a lot of upside. Like Graham said, some of that exploration upside is quite uncapped.
Really looking forward to seeing how they play out in the next couple of years. Steve.
Yeah, thanks, Jace. Yeah, super exciting. Yeah, as Jace had mentioned, there's a lot going on. Yeah, the wall is quite exciting as well. I was saying earlier that having a target like that, if you're a junior explorer, that would be your focal point of the entire company. For us, it's just icing on the cake, which is great. Yeah, Timor is awesome, very exciting up there. Early stages, lots of good results going on. Yeah, Sandover and Molly Hill is one of the most exciting things, I think, for me at the moment as a geo. There's a lot going on out there. We're only just starting to scratch the surface, really, what we've done. Yeah, it's a great journey. It's very exciting.
I guess probably what makes Tivan different, I guess, it's been a pretty interesting ride. I started in January. Every month has been different. There's been a lot going on. I've also had the autonomy to put things in place that I needed to. That's been really good for me. That's always exciting. I guess what I'm looking forward to in the next few years is Speewah coming to fruition. We did a lot of work on that this year. It's really good to see how that's kind of playing out. Also, I'd love to see us get to that exciting stage of revenue. It's a huge achievement to have a project from start and then actually see it reach fruition. That's probably the one for me.
I guess you've got the exciting other prospects that we have in Timor and Molly Hill, Sandover going on as well. There is a lot of interesting things to kind of keep us all busy. Maddie.
Thanks, Tammie. I have loved my year at Tivan. I have been also at Tivan since January. I started the same day as Tammie. What is so unique being a part of this team is that we move fast, as you know, but carefully and with a care. As many people have said today, Grant's done a great job building out this team. The team that we work with day in and day out genuinely care, not just about results, but about the communities that we are working in, about our stakeholders, and about doing things properly. You might see us moving fast and then making rapid decisions, but there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that they are well executed.
Thanks, Maddie. Yeah, I've been here six months. I just, like Maddie, just the pace of everything is amazing. It's really every day. It's like, how much can you put in? It's just trying to bring the young energy to the team. It's really great to see that everyone else is doing the same thing. From a geological perspective, it's just jumping from project to project. As a geologist, it's all we could ever ask for, looking at heaps of rocks. I'm a simple guy. Yeah, heaps of good career development. The team's amazing. Yeah, onwards and upwards.
Thanks, mate. I'm Jeremy Simpson. I got brought in early in the year after meeting a very interesting man who sold me on a vision of a new company. Now, these guys are all rocks in finance. I'm H Tech, okay? Added a few extra letters into the title. Quite honestly, the last six months, it was straight out in the field, getting more heavily involved in environment and community than I've ever been before. Loving it. Absolutely the best experience so far. Excited to take that responsibility to make that move forward, first through the Kimberley, then out to Alice, and onwards and upwards to Timor, and from there, who knows? It has been a very steep curve for me this year, one I've loved, and hoping to keep that moving with the energy that the younger team.
I am one of the ones that pushes the age curve upwards a little. I feed off the young energy around me like a good old mining vampire and keep things moving. Over to you, Fussy.
Thanks, Jeremy. I'm Fussy. It's pretty amazing to be here and sort of reflect on the 12 months. Seeing the new four projects that we've put on the books this year is amazing. They are not the focus. The focus has been Speewah. It's always been Speewah. The amount of work we've done there this year has been phenomenal as well. Four new projects, plus keeping the focus on our priority and advancing that one as fast as we humanly can. There are the ones you don't hear about, the moon shots that we like to call it. What I love about Tivan is that nothing is off the table. You have an idea, you raise it, we run it to ground. That kind of creative thinking is encouraged. It's not stifled. It's not seen as distracting from the projects.
It's encouraged because as geologists, that's how we can add value to the business, where we see opportunities that others don't see, such as Sandover Fluoride, such as Molly Hill, these stall projects that are just sitting there. If we can investigate them, see the value, raise it with the team, we peer review it, some of them stack up and they progress as projects, others put a line through and we move on. We learn from these moon shots. It's also how we're going to fill the project pipeline going forward. 2026 is already looking very busy. I can't imagine what we're going to do for 2027, but it's going to be even busier.
Thanks. Thank you. Fussy's right. One of the many maxims I hold dear is that step changes can be driven by creative thinking. I like the way Fussy characterized the information environment and decision-making environment at Tivan. Nothing is stifled. Absolutely. We're always looking for those new sources of inspiration and value. Just a couple of apologies as well. Some of our other superstars, Brendan Nickel, everyone would have heard me talk about Brendan before and the job that he's done along with Alex in our processing team, minerals processing and metallurgy, absolutely critical skill set, done an incredible job. Elin Ladd, who's in Darwin and Chief Development Officer, has done a fantastic job. Huge amount of work now with government pressing in the door in every direction, governments.
If you think about where we are, very close relationships, working relationships day in, day out now with three different governments, Japan, Australia, and Timor-Leste. That is a very big role. And Michael Christ, Michael is a heartbeat. He is just an incredible guy. The amount of work that he has got through over three years is, even for me, it is shocking. Shout out to Mike. One of the features of running the company with a very young team is that Tivan's popping out a lot of babies. All those people, they do have very good reasons not being here. It is a joy to be around that sort of vitality. Thanks, everyone. In the interest of time, I think we have got to keep moving. If I can invite the board back up, we are going to take questions from the floor. All right. Where is Larry?
Come on, Larry. You've got to kick this off, mate. We have 15 minutes or so for this. To be frank, I've always viewed engagement with shareholders, everyone knows, as absolutely pivotal. It's your company. You own it. Any question, we'll answer. Larry, do you want to kick things off? Do you want to kick things off with a question? Questions are infectious once someone starts. I'm sure other people will follow.
Sorry, I know you're sort of wanting some notes and not have so much wine. Anyway, actually, it's not to the board, although they're fantastic. My grant's done. I've been a shareholder for about, what, 13 or 14 years. I can't refer to the previous company. I just can't get the words out of my mouth. It's been absolutely fantastic. I'm from New Zealand. Oh, sorry. Can you hear better? I'm from New Zealand. Over the last three years, I've introduced quite a lot of New Zealanders to come on to the register. Last year, when we were sort of hovering around that $0.05 or $0.06, all I got every time I was at the golf club is, "Oh, Larry, who the hell are you? What did you put us into?" I said, "Sit back, just wait. We've got a fantastic company, a fantastic board.
Have a look at the company and it'll turn around. Now, of course, I'm the greatest investment advisor they've ever come across. Anyway, I won't take any more time. Just my question, actually, is to Steve. Can I ask Steve a question? Not being a geologist, I just wonder, I can understand with Sandover and with Speewah that it's all flat and open. When we've got 340-odd sq km at Turiscai, how on earth are you able to, with that, find areas to deposit? Come on.
Sorry. Yeah, in terms of finding deposits in Turiscai with the challenging terrain, is that sort of where your main question is? Yeah. That has been a big factor for the team over there. We've got an amazing team, and the amount of ground they've covered over there is incredible. You might have seen the map that was shared earlier. That team, they're on an eight and six roster over there. They're continuously covering ground. They're doing fly camping, so they're camping out for days at a time, and they're hiking up mountains, up river streams. Yeah, it's incredible. That way, we're just able to cover everything initially with a baseline. Pardon me. Once that baseline is done with all the initial sampling, then we'll move on to geophysical to try and define drill targets. We're going through that, pardon me, baselining phase.
Yeah, we'll get there. It's a challenge with the terrain, but we've got it under control. All right. Any other questions? I'm sure there's questions. Where's Bruno? Here comes the mic.
Thanks, Grant and board. Also to the Chuck Wells group. That was a great, I think, comprehensive presentation. She laid out the law for Grant and his perspective on life. I think that resonates with all of us who have been in the company for a long time. It is a credit to you. We are really happy to have you on board and to Grant and the board. It is amazing. It is such a statement. A little bit, I think, to guide, just really trying to understand a little bit more around the strategic reserve and what that does mean for this company. I sort of, I suppose, conceptually understand it, but potentially what that could mean. Perhaps how far away are we from knowing what might constitute critical minerals for that purpose as well?
Yeah. As I said, my expectation is that we all know something more before the end of this year, I think almost certainly. I'd say there'll be something in the mid-year economic forecast outlook, and MYEFO comes out in early December or in December. I'm pretty sure there'll be some more information around that. I hope it's most of the information, but knowing how Canberra works, maybe it's not quite that. I'd say a fair chunk of that. I think, as I alluded to earlier, I think there's a couple of propositions. One is actually a physical reserve. I think one of the key elements is probably going to be some sort of floor price, but also potentially something where it's both a, but also more of an investment fund look at it as well.
Certainly, one of the proposals I'm involved in that is very much, which is a joint proposition along with Macquarie Bank, which is both sort of public-private fund, where it's all about providing some certainty around offtake, both in terms, particularly in terms of price and price discovery and a price which is a, let me go with real price rather than one which is subject to, I don't want to say manipulation, but let's say a fair amount of force from the, so it's determined more as much from the supply side rather than just from the demand side where someone can sit on the price whenever they feel so inclined. I think we will see more information around that. That's very much the proposal that the PM put on the table, whatever it was, a year or so ago now.
Bruno, my strong expectation is we will know more, hopefully nearly everything by the end of this year. If not, I'd say not too far into next year. As I said, there is at least $1 billion being committed across the sector. In terms of the what, the government's got its critical minerals list out there. All of the stuff we've got is on it, most obviously fluorite. I'd say there is a great prospectivity, to use that word for Tivan there.
Questions? If you just raise your hand, we'll get the mic to you.
Hi. Thanks. Thank you so much for everything. It's been fantastic what you all realized. Absolutely amazing. My question is just about the, I think you mentioned once before, Brent, about realization on this side of 2030s of the two things that you mentioned, like we probably can realize two projects. Is that still right or any views on that?
Thanks. Yeah, I'm not sure which investor briefing I said that on. Many of you will know as well, I did this sort of, I guess it's like a podcast. It was an investor chat room in the U.S. that somehow ended up on Hot Copper and went totally viral. Everyone ended up quite liking that interview, even though it wasn't meant to be public. Maybe I said it during that, that my expectation was that we'd have two projects up before 2030. Listen, I think it's definitely possible. That's certainly the aim at Speewah. We're choosing our battles very carefully.
That is to say that when we're looking at the projects that are ahead, we're not interested in those projects that have got really deep technical challenges or that may require multiple billions of dollars of financing or that might involve really complicated waste streams, for example, or that might be in really challenging environmental areas or cultural areas. We're deliberately filtering to find projects that we believe we can take from picking them up to an FID within three years. You have a couple of years to build it. Anything outside of five years, frankly, I'm not interested in. You'd be surprised if you filter along those lines what it drops out. It's not what people think. Of course, Tungsten works, particularly when it's situated right next door to a massive fluorite deposit. We have Speewah as well.
There are other prospects floating around, and there are other exploration initiatives that we're interested in. There are some other critical minerals that we're interested in. We bought or acquired or pushed through four new initiatives this past 12 months. I think shareholders should have an expectation that we're more ahead. We're not necessarily done here. We will see where that goes. In terms of delivering two things at once, Anthony can comment here, but there's definitely risks and challenges in doing that. It's really important to have a clear sequence. As I said, I think Speewah will be the proving ground. My expectation is that it will be Molly Hill that will be next. I'm very confident that we can bring together an appropriate joint finance structure. Graham's alluded to that. There are other stakeholders and very important groups interested in Molly Hill, even beyond Japan.
That is something that I hope to be able to publicize in the first three months of next year. We have that technical challenge of actually building and delivering it. We have to be so focused on proving that at Speewah. That is why Stefan LeBlanc is here. Stefan is renowned as one of the most prominent and successful project delivery engineers on the planet. I asked BHP three years ago, who's the best guy on the planet? They said Stefan. We got to know each other. Stefan has traveled all the way from Montreal to be here today. We are going up to Central Australia on Saturday and then to Speewah. We will be tested at Speewah. If we deliver there, I am confident that we will be able to deliver at Molly Hill. I think that those things can happen inside of 2030.
are other reasons why we want to push that fast as well. Those reasons are in Japan. It will be something I can talk about more next year, I think. Over to Anthony here, because I know Anthony, being an engineer as well, will be encouraging us to stay really focused on the prize and then parlaying that into the next.
Yeah. I worked in capital efficiency. I worked in business improvement. I worked in strategic initiatives. In our role as the board, our governance role of making sure that Tivan's got the greatest chance of success, we apply those same kinds of approaches to what we're doing. Now, when you have the opportunity to take on a new project, you take on projects that deliver high value and they're relatively simple. We will prioritize the simple high value projects. I was talking before we came out here this afternoon about the complexity of the Tivan flow sheet. You can contrast that with the simplicity of the Speewah flow sheet. What we have there is a very high value, very, well, relatively very simple process where we can deliver value.
Tivan, you mean the Tivan technology?
The Tivan, sorry, yes. I'm sorry, the Tivan technology, not the great company that is Tivan. That was a very, very complex flow sheet. That was very, very challenging for anybody to take on. What we have here is something that's very simple. It's very high value. You have a sequence of projects after that that allows you to take advantage of the capabilities that you've already built around exploration, around delivery, around financing, around having your own money and delivering from there. We will keep things very simple. I'll throw to Christine.
I just wanted to add a view about how fast you can get a project up. People talk about 15-17 years to go from greenfield discovery to an operation. When you talk to regulators, companies are often creating their own fate. I've been involved in projects globally. I've been involved in projects with very large companies. You de-risk them by the quality of your early data, understanding that right from the beginning, you're actually focused on getting a project up. That includes when our people are in the field, but also the relationships. A lot of the holdups are not necessarily about the mine planning.
I did a whole bunch of work with Woodside at one side because at one stage, they'd done brilliant engineering work, but not really thought about where they were plonking it on the ground, which had major cultural issues. I think for us having discipline around understanding the points of risk and understanding it in place, I truly believe you can shorten those both permitting and delivery times much faster than the industry talks about it. I mean, as an industry, we talk about it to beat up regulators, really. In that, got a 15-17 years, there are people that are moving faster. They're not that common, but it's possible.
Bill.
I'm not a mining guy.
You've got a microphone coming your way, Bill.
Yeah.
I'm not a mining guy, but I'd be interested in how the market stands at this moment. What's the marginal cost of extraction of fluorite relative to the market price?
We're working on a baseline of 50% profit margin and with upside risks to that. One of the great features that will ultimately be embedded in a successful project or projects is that our shareholders will be permanently long the call option of disruption in fluorite if and when China puts up export restrictions and we're in production, the fluorite price is practically unbounded to the top side. We're trying to get to production. Our Japanese partners, and a small shout out here, it's been such a privilege working with Sumitomo all year. The work that they do with the Japanese government almost replicates all of the work that we do with the Australian government. One of the key sort of concepts that they've brought to the table, which goes to the strategic reserve as well, is this concept of project stabilization.
When you talk to Japan, they've got this lived experience of the first couple of years of a project being extraordinarily challenging. Like Linus is an example of that. When they see floor prices and they see warehouses and they see government intervention, they're not necessarily that focused on the Australian government trying to subsidize a project. They're really interested in the Australian government trying to stabilize that project for the first couple of years. Because once you're through and you're in production, you've de-risked it, you've got all of your logistics and modalities down, then the mine does practically run itself. To answer your question, Bill, we believe the underlying fundamental of the project, even with the visibility we now have as we approach feasibility study, are really, really robust.
One of the most, I think probably the most intrinsically profitable critical minerals project in Australia with that long-term optionality to the top side. I believe as well that the risk-adjusted component of the return stream that we're working on, both Tivan and ETFS Capital, will be enhanced through government intervention of different forms, whether it's warehouses, price floors, further subsidies, the critical mineral production tax incentive. All of those things are aimed at de-risking the earning stream, which is already there and available to us. Do you want to add to that? Or that's pretty much it. That was pretty much it. Trying to speak economist there for you, Bill. There's a question at the back.
Just one side. Thank you for the work you've done. I think you might be having a report for the local market. Sensitive announcements completed this year. I'd like to ask the shareholder, not only seeing that, but also you were on Twitter. I think it's phenomenal. Keeping us all in the loop. One, do you think there might be.
Just thanks for the compliment. I appreciate that. For those watching online, it was about our transparent and active communications. Now to your question, please into the mic.
Do you think there might be some potential key man syndrome? There has been such flattery tonight. What do you think there might be the potential issues or bottlenecks going forward the next three to five years? Not to be cynic, but just as.
No, I think it's a question for the board as well. I've tried to address this concept repeatedly. I'm aware there's key man risk in the company. I'm actively trying to diffuse it. It comes with the journey that we've been on when you've got, I think, a strong vision and when you've managed a company in crisis, because we were, which required strong leadership to pull it through. We've had that active communication style naturally. There becomes that dependency. I think it's absolutely manageable. My aim is to run the company without fear or favor up until that point where I feel as though my contribution is starting to taper. I don't want to go past that point.
I think with the team that we're bringing forward and the youth and experience that they're going to gain over the years ahead, without putting a time constraint, because I'm not really sure when it'll be. I know that if I feel like I've reached that sort of second derivative where my contribution is not as valuable as it is, then yeah, I'll do the right thing by the company. It won't be like a drone shield.
Yeah. I might comment. I might comment as not the key person. I mean, as a board, we are very conscious of succession planning, of growing leadership and talent, actually for all of us, right? Because we all bring a kind of suite of experiences. We are very aware that Grant's out there. I mean, we are right behind you, mate. I mean, very actively involved. I mean, we talk all the time. I think recognizing that we are where we are, and I truly, we would not be where we are without Grant, right? You actually, that driving force and vision, but probably the skill that Graham talked about, which is a capacity to bring people together. At times, some of us have said, "Exactly why did we say yes?" Right? I mean, because it was pretty exciting.
I mean, I came on in April, right? Three months after the shareholder thing, right? It was a pretty thin kind of place to come into. It was, I think, that commitment about values and passion. We know that we're growing up. If I kind of think about growing an organization, explicitly having a leadership team, explicitly talking about the skill sets, as a board, I think we will talk about board renewal over time in addition to the key person. While I think that spotlight's very well deserved, I think Tivan's success is a sum of all the parts, right? Including our small team.
If we think of how the market kind of looks at all these small caps and go, "How do you make a judgment?" I think that quality of management and leadership and the values piece, that is really important. What we've got to do is make that sustainable.
Yeah. Thanks for putting that slide up because I was just about to ask you to put that up. When we hit this 12 months ago, this slide had about half as many faces on it, right? Now it's got those faces there. Particularly, as Christine just said, it's that line called leadership team. You saw most of them, a number of them, sorry, up here today. That's been a real focus of us, all four of us, to make sure that we have that quality leadership team that we have. They have delivered a hell of a lot over the last year. I mean, one thing, Tammie failed to mention this, but one thing she's done is pulled together. We've now got a joint venture partner called Sumitomo.
They have a strong expectation about the quality of the reporting they're getting every month. Tammie's been instrumental in putting that together from scratch. It's just one example of what has actually been delivered in a way that you don't all necessarily see on a day-to-day basis. There is a lot of depth right behind Grant there. As a number of them mentioned when they were up here earlier, they've learned a hell of a lot over the last 12 months. They're gaining a lot of experience very quickly. I suppose the final point is actually coming back to Sumitomo. One of the reasons they've signed up to us is because they got to test our leadership team firsthand. They were impressed. They were impressed with what they saw.
I think that's a testament to the quality of the team that Grant has pulled together around him.
Yeah. If I may, in terms of looking forward to that transition without putting a time on it, we've emerged as a company that was in crisis. We've talked about that now. We are moving into project delivery. We are building the project delivery capabilities. If you're doing project delivery, what you want to deliver is a project that operates well. Once you've delivered a project and you know how to deliver a project that operates well, you can deliver another project that operates well. Eventually, you become a company that is operating projects and knows how to get future projects into operation. At that stage, that's what I see coinciding with Grant's tapering, that you now have delivered a company that has the systems and processes and capabilities to deliver value for the long term.
I think we need to potentially wrap this up. I do want to emphasize that the mission we put together last year is quite real. It is real for me, this idea of building a transformative company across the top end, the territory especially. The territory is such a different part of Australia. It is really fundamentally important to me. To have this opportunity to build potentially multiple projects near Alice, that was the reason I did what I did at the start. It is the reason I took the risks that I did. No one should doubt the motivation and commitment that I have. You put Timor on top of that, the chance, the chance to contribute to building that nation, that nation with this very complicated history with our own nation and a unique opportunity.
These things play out next couple of years. I do not really see that point of tapering for me because the purpose is so broad and so important. I really think Tivan from here, I said it a couple of years ago, could change everything up north. I really fundamentally believe that. There is a lot to be excited about. Again, the open invitation from us all today to join us over the next three years. Okay. I think we need to get into formalities or else we are going to run and run and run. All you guys are going to forget that there are drinks and hors d'oeuvres at the back. I have to at this point rip through 15 minutes of votes and so on and so forth. Please bear with me as I do that.
In terms of the substance of the meeting, the fun stuff, we'll probably wrap it here, I think. Unless anyone else on the board has any final comments? Okay. We'll pause there. Thank you. Nick.
Nick, could I borrow you?
Okay. What we're going to do now is pull through the resolutions. I have to, for once, speak from a script, something I never like doing, and make sure the votes are all in order so that we can have an official meeting. It's Nick Ong, our COSEC. Nick, I'm just going to pull through this, correct? Okay. Where are the annual reports? These are the formalities. The annual reports of Tivan are laid out up the back, which is important. That enables me to move on to the formalities. I'm asking that shareholders ensure that they have registered their attendance with representatives of ComputerShare. I saw that happening on the way in. Shareholders invalidly appointed proxies and corporate representatives will now have received a green admission card. Looks similar to this. I'm advised that a quorum is present. Certainly is.
Officially, therefore, I declare the meeting open. I am joined at this meeting by all of my fellow board members, being Christine Charles, Anthony Robertson, and Dr. Guy Debelle, Dr. Anthony Robinson as well. We also have present Nicholas Ong, our COSEC, as well as several of our staff and technical advisory group who I have mentioned earlier today. Lorenzo of Grant Thornton Audit is attending in person. I met Lorenzo before. Please stand up and wave, Lorenzo. Now, the notice of the meeting and supplementary notice of the meeting were made available to all shareholders. I will take the notices as having been read. By agreeing to take the notices as read means that I will not read out the text of every resolution, just the header line. All items of business will be voted on via a poll.
The poll will be conducted by ComputerShare, and voting cards will be collected at the end of the formal part of the meeting. The results of the poll will be tallied and announced on the ASX platform tomorrow. I will be allowing questions from shareholders, proxy holders, invalidly appointed corporate representatives on each resolution that has been considered. I ask that you keep questions to the matter being considered. Please address all questions to me as Chair of the meeting. Please state your name before speaking and hold your green or yellow admission card so that I can see you're entitled to speak. After the poll is closed, shareholders will have an opportunity to ask questions about or make comments on the management of the company. Persons entitled to vote on the poll are all shareholders, representatives, and attorneys of shareholders and proxy holders who hold green admission cards.
On the reverse of your green admission card is your voting paper and instructions. Proxy holders have attached to their admission card a summary of proxy votes, which details the voting instructions. By completing the voting paper, you are deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions. In respect of any open votes, a proxy holder may be entitled to cast. You need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your open votes. Shareholders also need to mark a box behind the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your votes. Please ensure you print your name where indicated and sign the voting paper when you're finished. Please lodge it in a ballot box and ensure your votes are counted. I now declare the poll open and will move on to the formal business of the meeting.
I advise that a total of 1,779,557,409 valid proxies have been received for the meeting, representing a total of 48.27% of ordinary shares. I personally believe that shareholder turnout is a very, very important metric of company health, especially when it's broad such as this. The proxy votes will be set out on the screen. As such, I won't read the numbers out as we deal with the resolution. As Chair, I am voting all open proxies where I've been expressly authorized to do so in favor of the resolution. The first item of business deals with the financial statements and reports for the financial year ended 30 June 2025, which are laid before the meeting.
As previously mentioned, representatives from the company's auditors, Grant Thornton, are present today to answer any questions shareholders and proxy holders may wish to direct to them in relation to the conduct of the audit, the preparation content of the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company in relation to the preparation of financial statements, or the independence of the auditor in relation to the conduct of the audit. I now invite questions and comments on the financial statements and reports. Are there any questions or comments on the reports for Lorenzo? Okay. There are no questions. Thank you. I will move straight on to the resolutions. Resolution one deals with the adoption of the remuneration report. This is a non-binding advisory ordinary resolution. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution.
I direct your attention to the screen, which displays the number of proxies for this resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as Chairperson will be voted in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions or comments in respect of resolution one? Okay. No questions or comments. As I have an interest in the next resolution, I now pass the Chair role to Christine. Thanks, Christine.
Do these mics work?
I don't think so.
Yeah. Resolution two deals with re-election of Mr. Grant Wilson as a director. I advise that the resolution is an ordinary resolution. The directors, with Mr. Wilson abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a summary of proxies for the resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments in relation to the resolution? I will now hand the chair of the meeting back to Grant.
Thanks, Christine. Resolution three deals with the ratification of issue of shares under the May 2025 placement to ETFS Capital. I advise the resolution is an ordinary resolution. The directors unanimously recommend the shareholders vote in favor. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a number of proxies for the resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution? No. I will move to the next resolution, being resolution five, which deals with a similar ratification of the issue of options to ETFS Capital in connection with the May 2025 placement. This is also an ordinary resolution. The directors also unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor.
I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a number of proxies for any open and usable proxies held by me as Chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions in relation to this resolution? Okay. Moving straight along to the next resolution, being five, which deals with the ratification of issue of shares under the September 25 placement to sophisticated and professional investors. I advise this is an ordinary resolution. The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a number of proxies for the resolution. Any open usable proxies held by me as Chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments in relation to the resolution? No. As I have an interest in the next resolution, heading back to Christine.
Thanks, Christine.
Resolution six deals with the issue of STI Performance Rights to Mr. Grant Wilson or his nominees. I advise that the resolution is an ordinary resolution. The directors, with Mr. Wilson abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a summary of proxies for the resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as Chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments in relation to the resolution? I now move to the next resolution. Resolution seven deals with the issue of LTI Performance Rights to Mr. Grant Wilson or his nominees. I advise that the resolution is an ordinary resolution. The directors, with Mr. Wilson abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution.
I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a summary of proxies for the resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as Chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments in relation to the resolution? I will now hand back the Chair of the meeting to Grant.
Thanks again, Christine. We are up to resolution eight, and we are on track to keep this within two hours. Just bear with us until we are done. I advise that resolution eight deals with the issue of NED Performance Rights to Ms. Christine Charles or her nominee. I advise that the resolution is an ordinary resolution. The directors, with Ms. Charles abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a number of proxies, for any open and usable proxies held by me as Chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments? If not, I move to a similar resolution, being eight, which deals with the issue of NED Performance Rights to Dr. Anthony Robinson or his nominees. I advise that the resolution is an ordinary resolution. The directors, with Dr.
Robinson abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a number of proxies for the resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments related to this resolution? No. I will move straight ahead to resolution ten, which deals with the issue of NED Performance Rights to Dr. Guy Debelle or his nominees. I advise that the resolution is an ordinary resolution. The directors, with Dr. Debelle abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a summary of proxy votes for the resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as chair will be voted in favor of the resolution.
Are there any questions or comments related to the resolution? No. I will move straight to resolution eleven, which deals with the approval to amend Class A FY 2024 option terms. For context, these last two resolutions are taking options that we issued right at the start and just listing them on the ASX to sit alongside the same options that were issued as bonus options to all shareholders a couple of years ago. I advise that this resolution is an ordinary resolution. With Dr. Robinson, Ms. Charles, Dr. Debelle abstaining, I recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a number of proxies for the resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as chair will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments related to this resolution? No.
As I have an interest in the next resolution, I'm going to pass the chair back to Christine for the final resolution.
Resolution twelve deals with the approval to amend the Class A Wilson options terms. I advise the resolution is an ordinary resolution. The directors, with Mr. Wilson abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution. I direct your attention to the screen, which displays a summary of proxies for the resolution. Any open and usable proxies held by me as Chairperson will be voted in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions or comments in relation to the resolution? I will now hand back the chair of the meeting to Grant.
Okay. As that was the last resolution, I now ask that you finalize your votes. In a few minutes, ComputerShare will collect all your voting cards. If you have any questions about how to fill in your voting card, please raise your hand and ComputerShare will assist. This is the moment where polls will be collected. If you have a form that looks like this, please put it in this voting ballot box such as that, and we will wrap this meeting up. Thank you. As we're going around, I do want to emphasize that I believe once the votes are tallied tomorrow, that the voting turnout will be above 50%. That's a remarkable outcome for an ASX-listed mining company. I looked at some peers the other day, and they're down in the twenties, twenty-five, low twenties, a couple of thirties.
Those are the ones where you've got perhaps a dominant majority owner. It's very unusual to have a company that's not in some sort of corporate action with a voter turnout punching 50%. I think it's a great sign, as I said before, of the health of the company. Thank you so much for your engagement, and thank you very much for the votes of support as well. Nearly there. All right. There's definitely a murmur in favor of drinks and bites before the sun goes down outside. I think we're good. One more. One to go. That's it. As all voting cards have been collected, I declare the poll closed. The votes will now be counted by ComputerShare, then we'll announce the results on the ASX platform tomorrow. No prizes. No prizes for guessing the outcome.
That therefore concludes the formal business of today's meeting. Formalities end right here, and I officially declare the meeting closed. Thank you so much.