Nicholas, are you there?
We are at the 11:00 A.M. start time. Let's proceed, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Thanks very much, and it is great to see so many people here today. Shareholders, members of the Board, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the 2026 General Meeting of Yancoal Australia Limited. I have already been introduced. I am pleased to chair today's meeting and welcome those shareholders, interested parties, Directors, and staff in attendance, and those participating online. I begin today's meeting by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, and pay our respects to their Elders, past and present. I extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today. In 2025, Yancoal delivered an annual production record for the company and set two world records with our Liebherr 9800 excavators.
The company holds interest in six producing mines and is the second largest coal producer in Australia, a position we will advance with the completion of the Kestrel Coal Group acquisition later this year. I've been informed by the share registry that a quorum is present, and I declare the annual general meeting open. Let me introduce you to my fellow directors attending in person or by telephone. Firstly, in the room we have Ning Yue, Vice Chair, and Peter Smith. Online, we have Chairman Ru, Mr. Wang, Mr. Huang, Mr. Li, and Debra Bakker. Unfortunately, Mr. Zhao is traveling and leaves an apology. I'd also like to introduce my executive here to my right, Sharif Burra, the CEO of Yancoal since September 2025, Kevin Su, Chief Financial Officer, Mark Salem, Head of Marketing and Logistics, and Mark Jacobs, environmental matters and other things associated with the community.
As many of you are aware, we appointed Sharif as Chief Executive in September. Sharif will present the 2025 company review during this meeting as well. I will now formally commence today's proceedings. Commentary provided today includes forward-looking statements. The notices and disclaimers on slides three and four pertain to those topics. This year, we have again encouraged shareholders to participate in the AGM via webcast. In addition, we have done our best to ensure that all shareholders and proxy holders will have the opportunity to participate in the meeting, including, for those entitled, the ability to ask questions. We have undertaken efforts to ensure that the meeting proceeds smoothly today. Being a dual-listed company, the relevant documents have been disseminated on both the ASX and Hong Kong stock exchanges in accordance with the applicable requirements of both exchanges.
Today's meeting can be observed online via Computershare virtual meeting services platform, which allows shareholders, proxy holders, and guests to observe the meeting virtually. In addition, shareholders and proxy holders can submit written questions in real time using this platform. If you have joined us through the Computershare virtual meeting services platform, you can start submitting your written questions now and we will address them later in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or amalgamated if we receive multiple questions which deal with the same topic. I would now like to invite our Chief Executive Officer, Sharif Burra, to provide the 2025 company review.
Thank you, Mr. Fletcher. I join Greg in welcoming our shareholders, interested parties, directors, and staff to this year's annual general meeting. This is my first opportunity to speak with some of you, and although relatively new to the role of CEO, my history with Yancoal reaches back to 2005 at the company's first asset, the Austar Coal Mine, where I became the mine manager. Throughout my career, I believe keeping our workforce safe should be our first priority. The TRIFR statistic improved in 2025 and remains below the industry average, but we continue to aim to reduce it even further. Safe mines are productive mines. Our push towards a strong operational outcome this year is underpinned by our commitment to continually improve our safety performance. As part of our 2025 financial results, we published our inaugural climate-related disclosures under the Australian AASB S2 mandatory reporting requirements.
This work included identification and assessment of climate-related risks and opportunities. To strengthen climate resilience and support the Yancoal P4 sustainability Strategy.
HVO will produce eight times the amount of emissions of the entire state of New South Wales. How dare you go ahead with this project? You are taking my future and the future of millions of other young people.
Sit down and shut up.
You are risking-
Sit down and shut up.
families' lives. You are responsible for the increase.
Sit down.
climate disasters, bushfires.
Sit down.
floods, and droughts.
Sit down.
Blood is on your hands. How can you sit here and say?
Sit down.
... you care about climate.
... actions, you're risking my future. Families' lives are being torn apart by climate disasters and natural disasters that you are responsible for. This is the largest coal project in New South Wales history. You are looking at approving this.
Point of order.
How dare you? Shut up.
Take a seat. Hello.
Get out.
Take a breath. Hello.
You idiot.
Hello.
Get out.
Thank you. Hello. Members of the audience.
Hello.
I apologize to everybody for that. We thank you for your patience. Sorry, Sharif.
Apologies, everyone. As part of our 2025 financial results, we published our inaugural climate-related disclosures under the Australian AASB S2 mandatory reporting requirements. This work included identification and assessment of climate-related risks and opportunities. To strengthen climate resilience and support the Yancoal P4 sustainability strategy, we intend to develop a climate transition plan this year.
Coal mines like your HVO project cause the climate crisis, and the climate crisis is a health crisis.
Hello.
I'm an ICU nurse, and I see how heat kills people silently.
Hello.
I looked after a patient in ICU this past January who had had a cardiac arrest on the 42 degree day in Sydney this January.
Hello.
Heat and dehydration cause multi-organ-
How are you?
... function, cardiac failure, kidney failure, and the leaking of inflammatory toxins from the gut into the blood. Heat worsens neurological injury. Heat causes fatigue, and this is how heat almost killed my patient. Coal mines like HVO cause unsafe air and cause respiratory illness. Coal mines like the HVO project steal-
How are you?
... our water from our drinking supply-
Hello.
... causing water insecurity. Burning coal destabilizes global weather patterns needed for agriculture, causing food insecurity and malnutrition. Burning coal causes global heating, which turns our planet into a Petri dish for bacteria and viruses and new pandemics.
Hello.
Deadly illnesses that we are not immune for, and that we do not have the resilience for. The climate crisis is a health crisis.
Rubbish.
Coal mines and burning coal are a climate crisis.
Rubbish.
A health crisis.
It's not catastrophizing.
The climate crisis is a health crisis.
Get out. Get out.
I am an ICU nurse.
Shut up.
I looked after a patient in January who had had a cardiac arrest-
How are you?
... on a 42 degree day in Sydney.
I think you've-
As these 42 degree days become more common, more severe, more frequent, how many more people are going to die? How many people are going to die and become disabled and become ill directly from the-
Hello. How are you?
... operations and coal productions from your HVO Continuation Project?
I think we've given you good coverage.
The climate crisis is a healthcare crisis.
It's catastrophizing.
As an ICU nurse-
You've finished.
... I will not be silent. This is my duty as a healthcare professional.
How are you?
The International Code for Nursing Ethics stipulates that nurses-
Hello.
... under the international code must advocate for the climate-
Oh.
... for planetary health.
How are you?
Planetary health is human health. Human health is animal health.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I'm an ICU nurse, and I will not be silent.
Order. Go in the next order.
While coal is destroying-
The Poms.
... our health.
The Poms in the Tour de France.
Coal is destroying our future.
You're misguided. You really are.
I have medical training.
You have no training. You're an idiot.
On with the Tour de France. Thank you, everyone. I'll continue. Our recently published P4 report provides an annual update on sustainability activities beyond the AASB S2 requirements, including the company's P4 Sustainability Strategy. During 2025-
Can't you see? No one even wants your coal. All of our-
Rubbish.
... all of Australia's export partners plan to end their use of coal by 2035.
Turn it off. Turn it off.
Get out.
Turn it off.
Get out.
You're going to send-
Turn it off.
You're going to send the Hunter into a ghost town.
Can I have a five-minute break?
The HVO project.
Thank you.
That cost billions of AUD and make no money because no one wants your coal anymore. Everyone that we sell coal to is planning to phase it out.
How are you? Can I just have a five-minute break? Thank you.
Ignore any climate impacts. No one wants it. You're just going to-
For those in attendance.
I think it's about to resume, Sharif?
Yep. We are back live.
Thanks, Nicholas. We'll move on to our highlights. During 2025, we delivered a great operational performance. Our attributable saleable coal production was 38.6 million tonnes. This was a production record for Yancoal and close to the top of our guidance range. Our cash costs were AUD 92 per tonne, AUD 1 per tonne lower than our 2024 costs. Lowering our cost was a great outcome, given inflationary pressures in the current industry setting. We achieved revenue of almost AUD 6 billion and an operating EBITDA of over AUD 1.4 billion. Delivering 24% EBITDA margin during a period of weak coal prices is a testament to the quality of our assets and our ability to operate them effectively and efficiently. Our profit after tax was AUD 440 million or AUD 0.33 per share. In accordance with our dividend policy, the Board elected to pay AUD 0.122 per share as a fully franked final dividend.
Together with the AUD 0.062 per share interim dividend, the total 2025 dividend represented a 55% of net profit after tax payout ratio. Strong supply and benign demand condition persisted in the international thermal coal markets throughout 2025. Security of energy supply became a more prominent concern, and prices have improved towards the end of 2025. Commencement of the Iran conflict two months ago has exacerbated this concern, leading to market expectations for further upside in international thermal coal prices as governments and power generators focus even further on security of supply. In the metallurgical coal markets, prices were capped in 2025 by the oversupply of steel in the global market, resulting in subdued demand for the metallurgical coal used to produce steel. However, temporary supply disruptions in Queensland earlier this year and linkages to the thermal coal markets have resulted in prices improving more recently.
We included a slide on the dividend history as we believe it is important to recognize the consistent payout ratio to shareholders. Dividends to shareholders over the past eight years total more than AUD 4 per share. Yancoal has been disciplined with its capital allocation, consistently following its dividend policy while also accumulating a significant net cash position. Our disciplined approach to capital management put us in a good position to acquire 80% of the Kestrel Coal M ine in April. Kestrel is a high-quality, long life metallurgical coal mine, and we view as strategically aligned with our operating strengths. Being an established producing mine from the date of completion, Kestrel will immediately contribute to our production volumes and operating cash flows. The upfront consideration is $1.85 billion. We will fund this payment with cash on our balance sheet and a $1.2 billion acquisition facility.
We also have in place a $200 million working capital facility for additional support. The acquisition is subject to satisfaction of regulatory conditions and approvals. Provided all the conditions are met and approvals obtained, we aim to complete the transaction towards the end of the September quarter this year. We strongly believe Kestrel is a high-quality and attractive acquisition that will deliver on Yancoal's value-adding growth aspirations, and positions the business to deliver strong performance and shareholder returns in the future. This year, we aim to produce between 36.5 and 40.5 million tonnes of attributable saleable production. If we reach the top half of the guidance range, we will match the record output we achieved last year. At the start of the year, the midpoint of our 2026 cash operating cost guidance was AUD 94 per tonne, just above the cost of AUD 92 per tonne we reported last year.
We now anticipate higher diesel prices experienced throughout the industry could push 2026 costs towards the top end of the range. Global energy markets currently face a good deal of uncertainty. While we would likely incur higher diesel costs, we potentially could benefit from rising coal prices. In the current market conditions, our scale, margins, financial strength, and access to debt serve us well to be competitive in the seaborne global market. We recently utilized these advantages to grow the business by buying Kestrel, a high-margin, long-life asset. That completes the 2025 company review. I'd like to hand back now to Greg Fletcher for the remainder of the meeting. Thank you.
Thanks very much, Sharif. Is my microphone?
Doesn't sound like it.
No.
The green light.
Is it on now? On now?
Yes. Yes.
Got it. Thank you. We'll now move to the formal consideration of the business before the annual general meeting. Anyone attending in person today will have been issued an attendance card. Blue indicates a voting shareholder or proxy holder for the Yancoal Australia annual general meeting. Yellow indicates a non-voting shareholder, and white indicates a non-voting visitor. Persons holding either a blue or yellow card are entitled to speak at this meeting. However, only those persons holding a blue card are entitled to vote at this meeting. If any shareholder here is eligible to vote and does not have a blue-colored card, would you please raise your hand now? People holding a white card are only entitled to observe the meeting and are not entitled to vote or speak at this meeting. Resolutions will be decided by poll conducted at the end of the meeting.
The poll results will be available on the ASX and Hong Kong exchanges later today. The following summary outlines the items of business for today's meeting in accordance with the notice of annual general meeting for Yancoal Australia, which was published on our website and dispatched to shareholders. The notice of meeting contains the text of each resolution to be put at this meeting. With your approval, I now move that the notice of annual general meeting be taken as read, and that the text of each resolution be taken as read. All those in favor, please raise your blue attendance card. All those against, please raise your blue attendance card. The proposal is passed and notice is taken as to be read. Thank you. Item one is the receipt and consideration of the company's financial report for the year ended 31st December 2025. We'll take that report as read.
Representatives of ShineWing, Yancoal's auditors, are present and available to answer any specific questions about the preparation and content of the auditor's report. Item two is the re-election of directors. Chairman Ru and Mr. Wang are existing directors and are nominated to be re-elected as non-executive directors. Their biographical details are contained in the explanatory notes to the notice of meeting. Item three is the adoption of the remuneration report. The remuneration report is contained within the 2025 annual report. I will take the report as read. This vote is advisory only and not binding on the company or its directors. Voting exclusions apply to this resolution as outlined in the notice of meeting. Item four is the issue of STIP rights to the Co-Vice Chair under the Equity Incentive Plan.
Approval is sought for the issue of up to 104,250 STIP rights to Ning Yue, the Co-Vice Chairman and Executive Director of the company, under the company's Equity Incentive Plan on the terms set out in the explanatory notes to the notice of meeting. Voting exclusions apply to this resolution as outlined in the notice of meeting. Item five is the reappointment of the auditor and authorization to fix the auditor's remuneration. At each annual general meeting, the company must appoint an auditor to hold office from the conclusion of that meeting until the next annual general meeting. It provides the Board the authorization to fix the auditor's remuneration for the year ended 31st of December 2026. Items six to eight are general mandates related to issuing and repurchasing shares.
Unless the company obtains these general mandates, its ability to exercise its right to issue shares without obtaining shareholder approval is limited, and the proposed repurchase mandates gives the company the flexibility to repurchase the shares if and when appropriate. The passing of Resolution 8 is subject to the passing of resolutions numbered six and seven. The reason for this resolution is to ensure flexibility to allot and issue more shares if the proposed repurchase mandate is exercised. It is worth noting Yancoal was dual listed on the ASX and Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Unlike the ASX listing rules, the Hong Kong listing rules require companies to seek approval for general mandates to issue and repurchase shares at each AGM. The company's existing mandates were last approved by shareholders at the company's 2025 AGM. I might note they have since 2019 as well.
Unless otherwise renewed, the existing mandates will lapse at the conclusion of this year's AGM. Although Yancoal has sought the maximum mandate permissible under the Hong Kong listing rules, it still may not exceed the limit set by the ASX listing rules in relation to shares issuance, unless additional shareholder approval is obtained in compliance with the ASX listing rules. Both the ASX and Stock Exchange of Hong Kong set out clear limits and parameters on share issuance. The company seeks the full flexibility afforded under these limits and parameters in order to maximize its capacity to benefit shareholders should suitable opportunities arise. The Board recommends for all resolutions as set out in the explanatory notes to the notice of the meeting. The Board has recommended that shareholders vote in favor of all resolutions. The proxy votes received before the meeting have been counted.
The totals are shown on this slide. I'm now going to cast the votes for the proxies I hold on all resolutions in accordance with the directions provided by shareholders or otherwise as set out in the notice of meeting. As mentioned earlier, a poll will be conducted to these resolutions at the end of the meeting. We will now take questions from shareholders on any matters relevant to the business of the meeting. We'll begin with questions submitted in writing before moving on to questions from shareholders in the room, and then to questions submitted via the webcast. As a reminder, only persons holding a blue or yellow card are entitled to ask questions at the meeting. Therefore, could I request any speakers from the floor, please raise their blue or yellow card. Someone will bring a microphone to you so you may state your name before speaking.
If you are a proxy holder or representative of corporate proxy, please also state the name of the shareholder you are representing. Questions received via the webcast platform may be consolidated or summarized to facilitate the session. Without further ado.
Mr. Chairman, we had two questions submitted in writing ahead of the meeting. The first one from the Le Cornu Family Super Fund. The question asked, "Why is Yancoal not paying out the large cash surplus, assuming it is not held to pursue takeovers and acquisitions?
I'll take that one on. We had at the 31st of March, I think AUD 2 billion in the bank. We have announced the Kestrel acquisition where we'll be using between $650 million-$850 million in cash, that's going to deplete our AUD 2 billion. I must say, I think we'll also continue to be consistent in our dividend payments in the future.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The second question submitted in writing ahead of the meeting from Mr. Edmund Carew. The question asked, "How has the performance of rail been in delivering coal to New South Wales and Queensland ports?
Sharif?
Thanks, Greg. I'll take that one. Well, thank Mr. Carew for his question and asking about the infrastructure that connects our coal mines with our customers in the international markets. In contrast to the first half of last year, there's been minimal weather-related disruptions to port ROM activities. You might have noted in our first quarter report, our attributable sale production of 9 million tons was higher than our attributable sales of 8.2 million tons. Rest assured, this wasn't due to any rail constraint, it was simply a combination of rebuilding stockpiles and the timing of shipments relative to the quarterly reporting period. The 38.6 million tons we delivered last year was a production record for the company. Again, if we can deliver in the upper half of our production guidance this year, we will exceed last year's performance. Thank you.
That concludes all the questions submitted ahead of the meeting in writing.
Mm-hmm. Online?
Online, we have several questions coming through. I see four from Stephen Mayne. Would you like to start with those, Mr. Chairman?
Please.
The first question from Stephen Mayne, "What proportion of the coal we produce is exported to China? What proportion is used in Australia, and where else do we export our coal?
Well, Australia is about zero. In terms of China, it varies between years. Some years it's been up to 41, but down to 24%. I'll ask Mark to probably add some more color.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that question, Stephen. Look, very simply, it's our marketing strategy to always optimize our sales and our revenue based on our product mix. We're quite fortunate in that sense that we've got quite a diverse portfolio of markets that we sell our coal to. As the chairman relayed last year, in 2025, 31% of. Following that, in decreasing increments, is Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia. Quite a diverse set of Asian countries that we sell our coal to, and that's based on our product mix and optimizing the value. In contrast, Japan is our highest revenue market, because we do sell some of our more premium products into that Japanese market. That's always our objective. Thank you.
Thanks, Mark.
A second question from Mr. Stephen Mayne. The question starts, "The largest against vote at the 2025 AGM was 8.6% on the general mandate to issue shares. Based on the proxy votes this year, that level of opposition has risen to 18.1%. I don't understand this issue. Could the Chair please explain why some proxy advisors and their institutional clients vote against this proposal, and what is our response to those concerns?
It probably reflects the differences being an ASX-listed company, but we've also got Hong Kong requirements. Under Hong Kong requirements, we need to do it to give us flexibility. These have been standing items at the AGMs since 2019. We always apply the highest standard between the ASX and the Hong Kong. In that regards, the ASX, you've got a 15% limit, which would become what we'd have to apply, as versus Hong Kong, where there's a 20%. It's probably a lesson for us in terms of how we can improve this next year and make it clearer. What we're doing is providing a bit of flexibility, but I think there is room for improvement in what our resolution is there.
Thank you. The third question from Stephen Mayne. Thank you for lodging the proxies early to the ASX along with the formal addresses. There was a 9.8% vote against the re-election of Director Gang Ru. Which of the proxy advisors produced a report ahead of today's AGM, and did any of them recommend a vote against Mr. Ru? If so, what was the nature of their concern, and what is the company's response?
The proxy advisors ISS and ACSI voted against Chairman Ru's re-election. Yankuang Energy own 62%, thereabout, so just by the nature of our shareholding, we have a majority of Chinese directors from our major shareholder, including Chairman Ru. I think the vote against reflected probably two things. The level of independent directors on the Yancoal Board, where we have three out of a total of nine, and the other one is diversity, female versus male as well. I think that's the reason we had the no vote against Chairman Ru.
Thank you, Mr. Fletcher. The final question from Stephen Mayne. The New South Wales ascent to 10.8% on July 1, 2024. How much did we pay the New South Wales government in calendar 2025, and how much lower than Queensland are the New South Wales coal royalties? Does the Chair agree it would be nice if we had the same royalty regime as W.A. gold miners, who only pay a flat 2.5% royalty but pay no royalty on the first AUD 16 million worth of production at each W.A. gold mine?
It'd be nice just to have standardization right across the nation on many things. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I might ask Sharif whether you'd like to make some comments.
Thanks, Chair. I concur that comment. That is correct, though. New South Wales did raise their royalties from 8.2% to 10.8%. That's for an open cut mine. Below that you've got the open cut categories, which have also increased by similar amounts. In Queensland, royalties are based around the coal price, and as the scale in grade has been changed. It's about 7% where the coal price is under AUD 100, and it scales up. Over AUD 300 per ton, it's at 40%. We do disclose our royalties in our annual accounts. We haven't split that out by state, but suffice to say, the majority of our royalties are paid in New South Wales. I'm unfamiliar with the Western Australian gold royalties terms, so I'm unable to comment on that, thanks.
Thank you. We have three questions from Mr. Edmund Carew, who submitted one of the two written questions earlier. The first related to rail performance, so we have addressed that. I'll move on to the second. Does last Friday's tragic Liushenyu China coal mine explosion have any implications for demand for Yancoal Australia's coal product?
Maybe I'll start that. It is with a very heavy heart that we hear about these accidents that are in mining. Condolences certainly extended to those individuals, the families, and the colleagues of those involved in that accident. With regards to impact on the market, I might pass over to Mark for any relevant comments.
Yeah, thanks, Sharif. Agree with those sentiments about those people who have lost their lives. That mine in particular, we understand was producing about 1.2 million tonnes of metallurgical coal, relatively small impact in that regard to the overall metallurgical coal market. We saw some movement, short term, short lived in prices, as a result of that. There has been nothing substantial in regard to demand.
Thank you. The final question submitted via the webcast also from Mr. Edmund Carew. Nations such as Vietnam and Philippines, with their increasing populations, are seeking more thermal coal. Are there implications for Yancoal?
Mark? Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes, definitely Vietnam is a growing market as is the Philippines. In particular, we will have a growing portion of our business going to Vietnam. Again, this reflects back on our diversification strategy and our revenue and product optimization strategy. Vietnam is definitely displaying a strong interest and a willingness to ensure security of supply. Definitely you will see that come through in our annual presentations on our diversification, the growing impact of Vietnam.
That concludes all the written questions via the webcast. If any are received, I'll advise you.
Is there any questions from the floor? Sir.
Yes. I briefly have three questions. The first one regarding the, you have April first quarter update. You mentioned diesel supply. You mentioned you secured by the end of May. Can you give us some details and color, what's the rest of the year? Also the New South Wales weather, it's been very rainy. Do you think it's going to have any negative impact for the current quarter? My second question is regarding the Kestrel acquisition. You mentioned it's a high margin profit operation. Before the acquired assets, your current operation the profit margin, operating margin 24%. From your due diligence this mine, what is roughly, for the last five years, what's the operating margin? Is that going to be comparable or going to be lower? Also the contingent payment. Can you clarify the AUD 550 million?
That's on the condition of the contract price is AUD 225. What happen if the next five years the contract price is lower than AUD 225? Does that means that there will be no payment whatsoever? My last question is about the dividend. By considering when Australia going to have the new tax rules, I just want to ask your Board in the future for shareholder to receiving the capital gain or the cash income, is the Board aware of or willing to consider, instead of you return the capital by share buyback, you should consider like the return more cash through dividend because that will be for shareholder wise, that will be a lot more tax effective. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for those questions. I might ask Sharif.
Thank you for your questions. I'll cover the diesel part. Yeah, certainly in our quarterly report, we outlined security of supply, as you mentioned. As of now, we are comfortable with security of supply to the end of July, and we are becoming more comfortable with supply. We've had no material disruptions to our mines due to supply of diesel over the course of the last Well, since the Iran issues. What we do see is obviously an increase to the price and we have provided guidance in that area. Having said that, we note that diesel price has come off slightly in the last month. Diesel security of supply, good until the end of July. As we work with our major suppliers, that tends to extend out. With regards to weather in New South Wales, we've had actually a reasonably dry first quarter.
The rain at times is welcomed. At this point in time, we haven't seen any material disruptions to our assets in New South Wales. I might hand over to Kevin for the Kestrel margin acquisition questions and clarification on the dividend.
Thank you very much for the questions. Actually, I have all the past years' Kestrel numbers with me right now here. I'm not too sure it's public information or not. That's why I can just give you some general comments. First of all, Just benchmarking Kestrel against some very good mines in Yancoal. I would say that it's not public information, but generally speaking, if we put Yancoal mines together as a portfolio, they're largely comparable. We need to recognize the fact there are always some incidents impact, for example, the geotechnical issues, and then also some production issue, weather issues on the internal side. This doesn't deny the fact Kestrel is the top 35% from a margin perspective. This is stated in our presentation. Clearly, it's a very good quality mine life mine and given the 25 years life of mine left.
This is your second question. The third question is very good about the CGT. I think a lot of people are very concerned about the CGT. You mentioned the share buyback. I would very much share with all the investors over all those years since Yancoal listed, we never buy back. Yes, we have a mandate today, we could buy back. I think we also make a statement in the material, it's not something we are actively looking for. That's why back to the point you trying to make, and I think we also agree, there is a much bigger chance is the cash dividends with the franking credit to all the investors. Since I hope I answered your question. Thank you.
Mr. Su, there was also the clarification on the contingent payment, the AUD 550 million.
Yeah.
The price reference.
Let me clarify. The AUD 550 million is contingent payment. That price is not a benchmark against contract price. It's an index price against the hard coking coal. Let me give an example. If the hard coking coal index for the full year over 225, over and above 225 will be multiplied by a, we call it realized factor. For example, if the average realized coal price is 85% of the hard coking coal index, the difference will be applied by 85%. We call it that's the realization rate. On top of that, we apply 30% sharing. Is solid metal profit sharing scheme and up to AUD 550 million in five years. Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, sir.
Yeah, my name is John Katsanis. I've got two questions. One of them is climate change related, and you heard a good example of it here three times. I was a little bit surprised that Yancoal used their money that they had in hand to buy another coal mine rather than diversify, considering the threats of climate change. I'd like to get an opinion, what happens in the longer term because it is a threat and people are passionate, and there's lots of arguments for and against. I'd like to get a comment on that. The other one is that a company, a lot of the company's assets are in its operating people. There's a real lack of information. I see other annual reports, they have information from operating people about their operations, and they also give some key data of operating people.
I don't see it here in this AGM. I know it's probably elsewhere, but I think it's relevant. Anyway, I'd just like a reply to those. Thank you.
Well, thanks, John. We regularly review opportunities. The Kestrel opportunity does diversify us into more of the metallurgical coal. Probably increases our metallurgical coal by 6% that are about to our total portfolio. Also doubles our production in Queensland as well. We're also very confident in probably the medium to long-term future of coal as well. We are good at what we do in coal. We are looking at other commodities, and should the right commodity and the right opportunity come along, we'll certainly be looking at those opportunities as we do. In terms of the operating people, we'll take that on board. We do cover it in a number of other in terms of the annual report, but there's our P4 report, which just talks about our sustainability, our people, some of the key initiatives around diversification, our Indigenous-
If I can just interrupt. I know in quite a few other annual reports, they do have a fair bit of information on reports by key operating people.
Yes.
It gives you a sense.
We'll take that on board for this financial year in our reporting. Thank you. Any other questions? I might just make some comments in lieu of our people at the start. It's important to reflect in terms of Yancoal's history that the Chinese have invested over AUD 10 billion in this organization. A number of years ago, if they hadn't, we would've gone out backwards. We've got some of the best mines not only in Australia but the world. Okay? We employ 5,500 people. Last year we paid over AUD 1 billion in salary. We're a big contributor to the economy. We paid tax of AUD 1.3 billion last year, 2025. Okay? There's the dividends. Over since 2018, we've paid about AUD 5.3 billion in dividends. We're a big contributor, I think, to the nation, we're a big contributor to shareholders.
I think we've got to put all this in context as well. I think in terms of coal, it's well-known that Australian coal is the best coal compared to a number of overseas jurisdictions. Just some comments. Back to the meeting. In accordance with Rule 7.7(d)(1) of the company's constitution, as Chairman of the meeting, I request that each of the resolutions is decided by poll. I declare voting on all resolutions is now open. The results of the polls will be calculated with the assistance of Computershare acting as the scrutineer. If you are entitled to vote, the reverse of your blue admission card is your voting paper and instructions. Please record your vote for each poll by placing a mark in the appropriate for or against box on each card you are holding.
The sum of the votes cast for and against each resolution must not exceed your voting entitlement. If you are a proxy holder, you should have a card and a summary of votes for each shareholder that you are representing as their proxy. If a proxy holder has been directed to vote in a particular manner, then the proxy holder will be deemed to have voted per those directions by completing the voting card. 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. If you have a query concerning any of the polls, please raise your hand and a member from Computershare will assist you. Our friend will walk around and collect. This good? Thank you. Good. I see.
Thank you, brother.
All blue cards collected? Thank you. I now declare the poll closed. I will ask Computershare to collect the voting cards at the end of the meeting. The results of the poll will now not be known until after the meeting has closed. The results of the poll will be announced to the ASX and Hong Kong Exchanges later today. Having completed all items on the agenda, I now announce the formal proceedings of today's annual general meeting is closed. I want to thank those in attendance today and call an end to today's annual general meeting for Yancoal Australia Limited. I also apologize for the bad behavior of some of our people that unfortunately spoke. Thank you and have a great day.