Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today for the presentation of the African Rainbow Minerals, ARM, results for the financial year ended 30 June 2022. All participants are joining via webcast today, and please note that there is a question dialog box that is provided. Should you have any questions, please feel free to type them into the dialog box and they will be read and answered as part of the question and answer session at the end of the presentation. Without any further delay, I'd now like to hand over to the ARM Executive Chairman, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, to take us through the results. Thank you, sir.
Yeah. Thank you, Jongisa, and good to see Mike and Sue, Philip, Andre, Thando, and the rest of the ARM executives and staff who are the tens of thousands of employees who are the heartbeat of African Rainbow Minerals, and the reason behind the growth and success of the company. A special welcome to the media. I'm just gonna make a few quick remarks, and Mike will deal with some of the questions and will be available to deal with whatever questions that may be available afterwards. ARM's quality diversified portfolio enabled us to improve our financial position despite lower prices for iron ore and platinum group metals. Net cash increased from ZAR 8.2 billion-ZAR 11.2 billion, and we declared a final dividend of ZAR 20 per share.
The declaration of a dividend and the growth in qualitative growth of the assets we have, as well as acquisitions, is an essential part of ARM's global competitiveness. Disclaimer. Where is this? What a beautiful pic-
Modikwa.
Is that Modikwa? Okay. It looks like Two Rivers. It can't be anywhere else. Very soon it'll be Bokoni. Okay, headline earnings decreased by 13%. Again, once more, it's during these challenging times that having a world-class, quality diverse, diversified portfolio is of great benefit. ARM Ferrous headline earnings decreased by 16% to ZAR 6.7 billion from ZAR 7.9 billion for the 2021 financial year. ARM Platinum headline earnings decreased by 34% as the PGM metal price, precious metal prices decreased to ZAR 3.1 billion. ARM Coal headline earnings increased by ZAR 2.1 billion- ZAR 928 million. Now, the whole issue of coal is part of this transition, part of this responsible, committed transition that we have as a company.
We are committed to climate change. We are seriously in line and believe in the challenges that faces our environment and mankind. We're part of ICMM, which is the most outstanding organization of the largest mining companies in the world, with world-class commitments to the environment, to climate change, and we're very happy of the progress that's been made there. The whole coal transition is part of a responsible and a really focused transition to clean energy, to conservation of the environment, to zero emissions, and to make the world a better place. Dividends per share, you can see that we're very happy that overall we have increased the dividend this year in relation to the same period last year, despite all the challenges.
We are committed to paying dividends while pursuing quality growth and maintaining a robust financial position. The dividends received went up by 38% to ZAR 5.5 billion from Assmang. 13% decrease in dividends from Two Rivers because of the platinum PGM diminution in the prices, as well as the dividends we received from Modikwa. Modikwa many years ago was experiencing big challenges, but we knew that the measures we were implementing and the steps that we're taking would benefit in the medium to long term, and the results are very pleasing. The dividends declared, if you look at over the last two years in particular, we declared dividend as a percentage of dividends received from the underlying operations. The current financial year or the previous one, 88% of the dividends we received from the underlying companies.
In 2021, it was 113%. Safety and health is an essential part of our operations and the deep commitment and duty we have to all our employees. Lost time injury frequency rate decreased by 24% to 0.31. Total recordable injury frequency rate also decreased by 15% to 0.69. We are saddened and pass our condolences to the friends and to our relatives of the colleagues that we lost. We lost one employee at Two Rivers and one at Modikwa. We can never do enough in terms of creating a safe and healthier environment as possible. The safety highlights that Black Rock achieved 10 million fatality-free shifts over the last 13 years. Beeshoek mine achieved 5 million fatality-free shifts over the last 18 years.
The ARM strategy, the bottom line, for African Rainbow Minerals is if those developments, circumstances, issues that are under our control, we've got to be world-class and those factors like pricing of our metals and minerals that are outside our control, we've got to make sure that irrespective of what happens to the prices of the commodities we mine, that we are very competitive and as I said previously, continue to declare competitive dividends and pursue quality growth. Our growth strategy, competitive strategy, is to deliver returns and create sustainable value for all stakeholders. Our primary obligation, of course, is to the people, who own the company and whose money we use to grow the company.
We also have huge obligation to each and every one of the employees in African Rainbow Minerals, as well as to the communities that live near us and neighbor our operations. Of course, we've got obligations to the country and in relation to climate change and those other climate obligations we have. We have a global obligation. Owner operated entrepreneurial management is an essential part of how we run our operations. We are pursuing technology because technology is a differentiator, and we keep in touch with the latest development in technology to see how we can use technology to make improve and increase productivity, efficiency, but also profitability.
Segmental EBITDA, this slide is self-explanatory, ZAR 17 billion, and you see that PGMs, if you look historically over the years, iron ore and manganese to a large extent, and there were times in the past when iron ore primarily was a disproportionate contributor. The investments we've made in PGMs, and we will continue to invest in other minerals that we are pursuing that are part of the future economy, whether it's copper or nickel or various other minerals that are attractive from a climate change commitment to zero emissions and a commitment to protecting the environment and nature. Those minerals that will be needed in the medium to long term are the ones that we are looking at on the continent and elsewhere.
You can see, as I said earlier, the contribution and the benefit of being diversified is reflected in our results. Current and future growth projects, more than 90%, if you look at Black Rock and Gloria, more than 90% complete. We invested a lot of money over the years. We see a bright future for manganese. Bokoni Platinum Mine, very exciting. Definitive feasibility study, you know, but we also see opportunities for significant growth. Targeted steady-state production of 300,000 6E PGM oz, and the focus is 2026. Mike will talk about what are some of the plans we have in the short term to generate revenue. Two Rivers plant expansion, we successfully commissioned an additional 40,000 tons per month milling capacity at Two Rivers.
At Two Rivers, in relation to the Merensky project, plant commissioning in Q2, financial year 2024, additional 182,000 6E PGM oz, 1,600 tons of nickel and 1,300 tons of copper per annum. Bokoni is a significant value creating opportunity for ARM. We've released lots of documents to indicate why we are so excited about Bokoni, and we see this as an exciting opportunity in terms of creating value for our shareholders in the medium to long term. It's part of the eastern limb and substantially increased our resource base by 135,000- 266 million oz. Significant improvement to the portfolio mineral resource grade by 0.8 g per ton to 5.3 g per ton. An attractive UG2/4E prill split.
I mean, you know, when I first heard the word many, many years ago, prill split, I said, "Guys, what does it mean?" They explained, and you ask it again, and they explain, but it's quite attractive. Bokoni is an attractive UG2/4E prill split. It lowers ARM's cost curve position. It's crucial for us, as we've said over the last 15, 20, 25 years, that we significantly in relation to the quartile, the cost quartile globally, that we are at the lowest possible quartile. Part of our growth strategy is to significantly ensure that our cost of production is as low as possible but very competitive. It enhances ARM's attributable production base by 137% to 636 kg oz of 4E PGMs. Strong PGM growth, 1,000 oz 6E attributable to ARM.
If you look at where we are now in 2023 to 2024, the acquisition and development of Bokoni Platinum Mine, as well as the development of the Two Rivers Merensky project, provides over 100% growth in ARM's attributable PGM 6E ounce profile over the next five years. This is an investment in the future of African Rainbow Minerals in relation to PGMs, and to ensure that in the medium to long term, we remain a globally competitive company. Creating multi-stakeholder value through Bokoni Mine. We have over the many decades, partnered with various stakeholders to create value and benefit all stakeholders. We've got a clear understanding in terms of what our primary obligations are. Create value for all stakeholders, particularly make sure that in relation to ARM, deliver competitive dividends and consistent growth in the share price.
As I said earlier, the communities that neighbor our mines, employees, the heart and soul of African Rainbow Minerals is the tens of thousands of employees who are the engine, who are the foundation of this company. The development of Bokoni will allow ARM to create sustainable value for the broad range and stakeholders, including we've made equity available to the local communities, to employees, and the broad obligation that we have to ensure that black industrialists are part of the growth of the economy. We will build 5,000 jobs. That excites me immensely.
That as part of the construction and building of Bokoni, there'll be 2,500 permanent jobs, as well as 2,500 jobs that will be created over the next two to three years as part of the growth of the and the development of Bokoni. The acquisition and development of Bokoni Mine will enable us to scale our PGM portfolio, improve ARM's global competitiveness, and allow us to pursue further value accretive growth opportunities. If you look at the structure, it's self-explanatory.
As I said, we're excited that we can ensure that the communities that neighbor our mines don't just benefit by way of the employees, the thousands of employees that'll be employed by the mine, but also there's a equity set aside through a trust for the communities as well as for the employees, and 5% equity that's put aside for the black industrialists. Community investment. In all of our ARM over the last year or so, community associated investment, we've invested about ZAR 151 million. In all of our operations, we've created 1,792 jobs and sustained them. We support approximately 192 SMMEs. We've created permanent jobs at operations of close to 372 or 380 jobs were created.
The ARM Mining Consortium in Modikwa declared a dividend of ZAR 255 million to the communities neighboring the Modikwa Mine. That money is supposed to be used for schools, for health facilities, to help with libraries, laboratories, and to educate and provide skills among our young people there so that they are the future employees of Modikwa Mine and can provide skills and expertise at the highest level of the company. Modikwa communities have an effective 8.5% equity in our mining consortium. Responsible environment. Our carbon emissions decreased by 8% to 0.9 million tons carbon, CO2 equivalent.
Water withdrawn, this is a terminology that's used in the ICMM in relation to the broader ICMM, the International Council on Mining and Metals, the global commitment we have in terms of our responsible utilization and how we function and how we employ water in our operations, and that has gone down by 13% to 17.3 million cu meters. Progress on decarbonization and agreement signed to build 100-MW solar plant to power ARM's platinum operation. The management of tailings storage, you saw what happened in Brazil a few years ago. Tailings operations and tailings facilities, we have to operate them in line with global best practices. Responsible environmental, social, and governance management are an integral part of ARM's strategy and priorities to operate safely and responsibly.
I'm gonna hand over to our Chief Executive, Mike Schmidt, and we'll all be available afterwards for questions. Mike usually after his presentation does interviews and for those who want to contact Jongisa and Sue and Phillip and Andre and Thando, we're a telephone call away. Thank you so much. Mike. Thank you.
Thank you, Patrice.
Let me just take my mic off. Thank you.
Good morning, everyone. Patrice, thank you very much. I'm not sure, with that detailed description, whether I've got a lot more to say, but
It's so nice to stand here today after three challenging years where we came through COVID, and we faced masks. Now, I'm not undervaluing or estimating the value of masks to contain diseases, but it's so nice not only to see faces, but to speak to people and that's what mining's all about. ARM. ARM is all about its people. Without our people, we're absolutely nothing. We owe everything to our organization, our people. On behalf of the ARM executive, I would just like to express my sincere appreciation to our board, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, our Executive Chairman, for their support and guidance through the year, which has been challenging in many other aspects. To our partners, the management teams.
Last but not least, to every one of our operations and its people, these results would not be possible without your commitment, your inputs. Thank you for that. A couple of opening remarks before I move away from slide eighteen. We are generally pleased with the overall performance at our operations, notwithstanding huge price volatility and certainly logistical challenge which we have experienced on most of our divisions. The logistical constraints continue to impact our volume delivery, which has resulted in lower earnings, which we could have done a lot better, and disappointingly, as a significant cost increase to our bottom line. In addition to that, we have the high cost of raw materials which we experienced, particularly diesel, explosives. These were the main drivers of our cost inflation that we have experienced over the reporting period.
In line with our commitment to paying dividends while pursuing quality growth and maintaining a robust financial position, we are once again pleased with the final dividend of ZAR 20 being ZAR 32 for the year, with a payout ratio of 83% of all our cash generated. Also 88% of the dividends we received from our underlying operations, which equates to a 13% dividend yield. You can do a lot better investing in ARM than in the bank, as you can see. Certainly last but not least, 7% up on our previous year. Notwithstanding the drop in the iron ore and PGM prices, the operations maintained strong margins, and the fundamentals for the metal we mine remain robust. We continue to assess value-enhancing growth opportunities, being both organic and M&A-focused.
With the acquisition of Bokoni, we will more than double our attributable oz over the next five years. Our commitment to ESG matters are aligned with the principles as set out with the ICMM. In terms of climate change, ARM aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We are currently busy with a number of initiatives and introducing various pathways to deliver on these commitments. Innovative and appropriate technologies are being implemented at all our operations to improve productivity and efficiencies. The ARM coal loans owed to Glencore were fully settled during the following the rally of the thermal prices, which also resulted in positive cash flows. Regrettably, we lost two of our colleagues in the reporting period. We remain absolutely resolute to eliminate all disabling injuries, and are committed to zero harm to all our people and the environment.
With that, I do wanna commend every one of our operations that have shown significant improvement on our safety stats. I have to single out maybe two, being Black Rock doing 10 million tons, which took nothing less and continues 18 years to achieve. Beeshoek, at 5 million tons, has taken 13 years and continues to be fatality-free. Although our headline earnings were down 13%, if you exclude the remeasurement losses of the coal loans, then you'll see the headline earnings were down 6%. Ferrous and Platinum division headline earnings were impacted by a drop in prices, but more than offset by a rally in coal and in the manganese and the alloy prices. The group today still maintains a healthy balance sheet and has generated strong cash flows over the period.
As part of our capital allocation, we continue to evaluate growth opportunities to grow our company, to deliver competitive returns to shareholders, and to create sustainable value for all our stakeholders. On Bokoni Mine, which is a new mine that's being developed, which will focus predominantly on the UG2 source, and will aim to employ mechanized mining methods and mine and target predominantly on reef development. We are currently evaluating early mining opportunities to capitalize on the strong PGM prices, which are still prevalent whilst ramping up the development. If I move on to slide 19, that really just underpins the impact of the platinum and ferrous prices. Quite significant drop, which if one excludes the remeasurement loss of coal, the adjusted headline earnings is down 6%, notwithstanding a significant drop in earnings from the ferrous and platinum divisions.
On the EBITDA margins, we continue to maintain strong margins on all of our divisions. While the iron ore price remains under pressure, we've realized improved margins from coal, manganese, and alloys. We move on to slide 22. If you look at that variance analysis on the top left, the significant impact in dropping iron ore prices were partly offset by manganese and alloy. The unit cost reduction, if you look at the bottom right, the alloy costs are directly related to the movement in price of the ore, manganese. Energy costs, raw materials, and particularly, reductants. There's been exponential cost increases on all of those. The iron ore was impacted by diesel and explosive costs and volume constraints due to logistical challenges. We move on to slide 23.
We see there's a 22% drop in iron ore prices and on-mine costs related to 12%. I wanna say the unit cost of sales was still single digits at eight. Sales volumes were impacted by logistical challenge, which is being addressed with the industry together with Transnet, and I'm very confident over the next 12 and 24 months we're gonna make significant inroads into some of the challenges that exist in the industry if we work together, which they've given their full cooperation. The water challenges that we do experience in the Northern Cape is serious, but improving, and we have managed to secure additional supply from neighboring operations. Slide 24 on the manganese. The market price for manganese, in line with iron ore, is coming under pressure, but as I indicated, still has extremely healthy margins.
The BlackRock operations, now you'll recall that we had two components of that capital expenditure of ZAR 10 billion being Black Rock and later introduced Gloria. The Black Rock project is by and large complete. With the commissioning of the underground belt systems, we will reduce our dependency on truckings and will continue to realize improved costs as we move on to belting. The trucking costs are disproportionately high relative to belting. Black Rock is now well-positioned to respond to all market conditions, demands and pricing, even in a depressed, and take advantage as market and prices improve. Black Rock today has the installed capacity to produce 4.5 million tons per annum. If you'll recall, it wasn't many years ago, we were at 2.9 million tons. This year we ended up just on 4 million tons, I believe, Andre.
The installed capacity, when the market allows, we can react to that market quite comfortably. On the alloy side, Sakura was impacted by the transformer delays or failures, which have subsequently been replaced and performing very well. Cato Ridge had a number of challenges with weather, shipping constraints, increased demand, rain, you'll recall, and some of the challenges faced within the communities over the last couple of months. This is all behind us, and I'm very pleased to say that both Sakura and Cato are performing very well. The increased costs are due to the significant increase in raw materials and reductants. I alluded to that a little bit earlier. I move on to platinum. We'll see that the impact on prices has been quite material out of the platinum division. Principally, the biggest reduction came in the price of palladium, but more noticeably out of rhodium.
The unit costs at Two Rivers have been affected by grade-related challenges. I'm pleased to say that I think we're on top of the grade. We've now stabilized around 2.32 g per ton, and I'm pretty confident that we'll manage under those constraints moving forward. Two Rivers will, I believe, show improved results going forward. You also see the impact on the top left of the mark-to-market correction, which is due to a change or a drop in the PGM prices. I will take that in the next couple of slides and explain what that means. It may be interesting to note that even though there's been a significant drop in the rhodium price, it.
Rhodium only makes up 8% of our basket, but still today contributes 47% of the revenue. On the two operations, I mean, I continue to be extremely pleased about the Modikwa's performance, both on a production and a cost, and significant improvements on the safety statistics. We should and will see a continuation of that going forward. Modikwa will be one of our flagship operations going into the future. If you look at that bottom right graph, those increase in oz is purely out of Modikwa, Two Rivers. Patrice did on one of his previous slide showed the impact of Bokoni coming into the operations. This really is an explanation of provisional prices and the impact on final prices. Now it's not always negative.
Two years ago, it was massively in our favor, and these corrections are really in the market and do normalize over time. The following one is just a more detailed impact of mark-to-market adjustments, which we realize from Two Rivers and Modikwa. If I move to slide 31. A lot has already been said about Bokoni and its potential. Bokoni is undoubtedly one of the highest grade ore bodies in the industry or in South Africa. Our focus going forward will be on the UG2 seam due to its favorable grades and prill splits, as alluded to by Patrice. At the same time, we are going to maintain the Merensky infrastructure.
As thrifting occurs and will, as the carbon economy and the hydrogen economy comes into play in the next five to seven years, we again can flex and bring in the Merensky back into full production fairly seamlessly as it's well developed with good infrastructure. I did earlier make comments about looking at early ounce opportunities to generate early revenue whilst we develop the UG2 resource. One of the areas that we are looking and focusing on is to review all open cast potential and opportunities. Nkomati still remains on care and maintenance, and as partners, we are considering various options. If I move on to coal. We've seen a significant rally in prices. It's forecasted to hold for a while. It will come down. Nothing will stay high forever, but we will capitalize on that.
Pleasingly, the loans are being repaid and we see good cash, and now we need to settle partners' loans, so money coming back into ARM before we move into a dividend scenario, but we will see good cash coming. The unit costs were impacted by logistical challenges in the first place, and we do see, and as you look at the bottom right, we have significantly high stockpiles. We're hoping to get improved TFR support. We've given, as an industry, a lot of support to the TFR line, particularly around cable theft. Things are going a lot better. There's a lot more focus from government with industry collectively, and I believe we will see improved outputs this year, particularly out of the coal lines.
I did touch on that the partner loans, particularly to Glencore, have been fully settled, and we do expect very good prices going forward on our coal business. This slide really shows the impact of the remeasurement losses due to accelerated payment. I just wanna qualify, it's not cash, it's more accounting. I think this really underpins, as Patrice's opening statement, Executive Chairman, about the value of diversification to be able to capitalize on our business where some go into difficulties and we capitalize others. By and large, we've got a very good world-class portfolio, diversified portfolio. With that, I conclude my presentation. Thank you, Patrice, and I'll hand over to Tsun with your permission. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mike. We continue to exercise disciplined capital allocation in accordance with our guiding principles. This is in line with our commitment to paying dividends while pursuing growth, quality growth, and maintaining a robust financial position. When we look at how we actually do our capital allocation, it's in terms of these different buckets. We look into investing in our existing business while also looking at opportunities to pay down debt. At the same time, also actively pursuing any growth opportunities that we encounter.
Obviously, depending on whether those opportunities or those projects meet a number of our metrics, which include our hurdle rates, payback periods, as well as the ability for those investments to actually pay dividends down the line. This slide is a graphical representation of our consolidated statement of cash flows, wherein it depicts the cash flows generated by our operations and investments, as well as how that cash was then deployed or allocated throughout the business. During the financial year ended 30 June 2022, there were number of notable cash inflows, which comprise of the cash generated by operations of ZAR 8.5 billion. Then the dividends received from our operations with most or the highest contributor being the dividends received from Assmang of ZAR 5.5 billion, for which we thank you.
In terms of our notable cash outflows during the year, they included taxation paid of ZAR 2.3 billion, capital expenditure of ZAR 2.2 billion, as well as dividends paid to ARM shareholders of ZAR 6.3 billion, which brings us to our balance at the end of June 2022 of ZAR 11.6 billion. Then just to note that this amount excludes cash and cash equivalents that are attributable to ARM of Assmang, I think it's sort of around about ZAR 5.4 billion. Now, we believe that our strong balance sheet is an asset. It offers resilience as well as creates optionality. During the financial year, our financial position improved with our net cash increasing by just shy of ZAR 3 billion. There was a marked decrease in our total borrowings as the ARM Coal partner loans owing to Glencore were settled during the financial year under review.
In terms of the borrowings that still remain on our balance sheet, these relate to the ARM BBEE Trust loans owing to Harmony, as well as the number of lease liabilities, that are a function of IFRS 16, at our Modikwa and Two Rivers mines. The increase in net cash therefore led to an improvement in our net cash to debt equity, sorry, net cash to equity ratio, which increased from 18.7% in 2021 to 22.2% at the end of the year. Please note that the cash and cash equivalents are excluded from this net cash picture here. Those amount to ZAR 5.3 billion, which is attributable to ARM.
In terms of our capital expenditure profile, during the financial year ended 30 June 2022, the segmental capital expenditure was ZAR 4.7 billion and included ZAR 1.3 billion capitalized waste stripping costs at our iron ore operations. This was higher than the prior year due to increased capital mining areas, and higher mining costs at both our Khumani and Beeshoek mines. In terms of our capital guidance going forward, we see an uptick in capital expenditure in the ARM Platinum division, and this is really with the advent of the development of the Bokoni mine as well as the Two Rivers Merensky project. In FY 2023, we expect to spend ZAR 2 billion on the Merensky project, the Two Rivers Merensky project, and ZAR 500 million on the Bokoni platinum mine as we start placing orders, for some CapEx. That will ramp up as the years go by.
You'll see there on the slide FY 2024 and 2025, those are the major projects, capital projects, that will be, you know, we'll be allocating quite a bit of our capital towards. You see Bokoni there in FY 2025, ZAR 3.3 billion, as we ramping up that development. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Tsun. We will now proceed to the Q&A session. We have received quite a couple of questions on the webcast, so thank you. I will read three or four, if that's okay, sir, and then our chairman will allocate who will address them. The first two are from Lisa Steyn, who is from News24. She says, "Regarding the ARM Coal debt, please remind us what the Xstrata Glencore loans that were made to ARM and what was the original amount.
Mike, can you the two of you?
The two of you.
Yeah.
Another part of Lisa Steyn's question is: What is ARM's view on Transnet's in-principle agreement to resolve all legal disputes with the Chinese OEM being original equipment manufacturer that has been withholding spares? How soon does ARM expect to see improvements to come through?
Okay. Mike, Andre.
Chairman's indicating that Andre will address that one. Those are the two from Lisa Steyn. I'll now move on to Tim Clark from SBG Securities. Tim says, "Good morning. Congratulations on the results. Bokoni has not historically been as low cost as you are planning it to be. Please, could you share how you will change the mine to become low-cost operation?
Mike?
The second one.
You may wanna add something later after mine. Phillip, you may after Mike. Okay.
Mike and Philip will address that. Thank you, sir. The next one says, also from Tim: Now that the ARM Coal loans are repaid, can we assume that the cash flows from coal will likely now be included in your future dividend assessments?
Yeah.
Will there be a dividend step-up next year?
Thando, you'll deal with that.
Okay.
Yeah. It's to you and Thando.
Two, and Thando will address that one.
You've got to say something, Thando.
I'm gonna read one more, and that's the first round, if that's okay, sir. Okay. The next one is from Nelson Banya from Reuters. He says: Please, can you update us with prospects of restarting the Nkomati nickel mine? What options are you pursuing? Does the sanctioning of the Norilsk Nickel chief executive, Vladimir Potanin, by the U.K. impact any plans you may have for Nkomati?
Mike, you deal with that.
Shall we move?
Okay. Thank you.
Is that okay, sir? Do you want me to read more or do you wanna take this round?
Yeah, I think let's answer those, and then we'll take more. Thanks. Thanks, Jongisa.
Thank you. All right.
Okay.
Okay.
On the question of ARM Coal. Those loans arose in 2010. The amount was ZAR 5 billion initially. Those loans arose due to the acquisition of ARM's investment in PCB and GGV. Really, those loans were used to develop GGV. That was the original amount, ZAR 5 billion, which has now been fully settled.
Okay.
Good.
Two, while you're here, if you could speak to the cash flows coming from coal and whether they'll be part of the dividend consideration.
Yes. In terms of the cash flows from ARM Coal, they will definitely form part of the dividends going forward. I mean, if you remember our dividend guiding principle, we say 40%-70% of our dividends received from underlying operations, which ARM Coal would be one of those. However, within ARM, there's still some outstanding shareholder loans. This is between ARM Coal and ARM that need to be settled before the dividends actually then flow through to ARM. Once they do, those will definitely form part of the dividend considerations going forward.
Thank you.
Thank you. Can I suggest that we speak to the Bokoni and how we're gonna make it low cost?
Yeah.
Would that be okay to do next?
Thanks. Still, I'm gonna bring, I think, what I call the four main points. I will ask Thando, and failing that, Jacques van der Bijl, if he listens. He can maybe contribute. He's been with JJ in the audience and heading it up. Predominantly, we're moving on to UG2. Your question will, so what? The extraction on Merensky has been pretty low due to pothole intensity. With the advent of moving on to UG2, which is well defined, that pothole intensity more than 1/2, Tim. We will see great extraction, higher productivity, and far higher efficiencies coming out of the UG2 environment. We also intend, as I said, where practically possible, to employ and introduce mechanization.
In particular, outside of board and pillar where some of the ore body allows it, is then to move on to what we call narrow reef equipment. As you know, has been around for some time, starting in the late 1990s with Lonmin, and Anglo have persisted with that and introduced some of the operations into this type of equipment, which is a lot better developed. We also intend to do away with the historic trucking of ore underground and surface and up front replace that with conveyor belts. As you're aware, the cost implication which the logistical move is very pronounced in trucking, particularly if we look at diesel costs today, and the replacement CapEx and the OpEx thereof.
Maybe the second last point from my side is we wanna go on reef mining, and so we generate early income on reef with low-profile equipment. Last but not least, Tim, is we are re-looking at the plant configuration, and we're gonna put in what we call an MF3 circuit, which has shown us quite an enhancement to the recoveries. Thando, I'm not sure if I've missed.
To the issue of the volume, because as you all know, our operations are quite heavy on the fixed cost. We are going to target 300,000 6E oz as mentioned. With the plant, Mike highlighted that plant will be milling in the region of 200. But we've also looked and we are evaluating an opportunity to expand the plant to a full 240,000.
Tons per month. That will give us the higher output than the estimated 300,000 tons. That divisor will help us in terms of reducing the unit cost. Mike, I think you've covered the mechanization and the fact that our target reef being UG2, which is we are quite experienced and knowledgeable in mining the UG2 based on our Two Rivers and Modikwa operations. Thank you.
Do you wanna add something?
Philip?
Yes. That's the one aspect that I can add. Obviously on the mechanization, so you're looking at increasing your volumes with less workforce. If you look at where Bokoni has been historically, I mean, it was completely conventional, highly labor-intensive, so we basically stepping up that, increase the volumes through efficiency with mechanization. Thank you.
It's good.
Thanks, Philip.
Can we ask Andre to address the Transnet question? The only other one from the round that we haven't answered is the one on Nkomati. What is our thinking?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mike will come in after Andre on Nkomati.
Transnet is obviously a key partner in our business, and we're very delighted that they've actually been able to sort out this challenge that they had with the spare parts of these locos that was procured from China. It has been a thorn in their flesh and also in our flesh, and we actually wanna thank the Transnet management and executives for sorting out this problem. Unfortunately for us, it is only on the manganese line that this has had an impact. We expect to see improvements from April next year because it's quite extensive, the delays and the challenges that they had. The bottom line is we're very happy about it and we will work with Transnet and we hope and we expect to see improvement from April. Thank you.
Thank you. Mike, Nkomati.
Jongisa , can I just get the full question on Nkomati? I apologize.
Can you provide an update on prospects for restarting Nkomati Nickel Mine? What options are we pursuing? Does the sanctioning of Norilsk Nickel chief executive Vladimir Potanin by the U.K. impact any plans that we may have?
Thank you. That came from Jongisa ?
It came from Nelson Banya from Reuters.
Yeah. Thanks, Nelson. I did allude that Nkomati today remains on care and maintenance, and that we are pursuing a number of options with the partnership. The question around the partnership and sanctions, I don't believe that poses a problem. In fact, I know it doesn't in the fact that we are on care and maintenance. It is being co-funded from both partners, the care and maintenance, as we move towards ultimate closure. Remembering that NNA, that's Norilsk Nickel Africa, is domiciled in Mauritius, and there is no actual mining taking place at this stage. Now, there are a number of options being considered. One of them is whether you restart or not. The other one, do we continue with care and maintenance? I just wanna highlight what I've consistently said in the past. The remaining ore body is an underground resource.
It is still a low-grade ore body and quite expensive to mine. Those margins need to be carefully considered once we assess what the long-term sustainable price of nickel is. The nickel price today is elevated, but if you look at the long-term outlook or consensus price.
Yeah
It is not there yet. We are, together the partners, considering a number of options.
Yeah.
Let me just, I don't know. You can hear me?
Yes, we can.
Yeah. I mean, just to add to what Mike says, obviously we're part of a global community and we function within domestic as well as global legal regulatory requirements and obligations. At all times, our operations and our functioning is within those domestic and global legal restrictions. Are there other questions?
Okay. The next set of questions, sir, this is from Dileke Dileke from Mirabaud Capital Markets. He says, "Good day, chairman and your team. Many thanks for taking my question. Just on CapEx, what measures have been put in place to avoid any possible cost overruns and the timeframe on projects?" That's the first question.
Yeah. Mike, you will deal with that. Yeah.
Okay. The next one is from Martin Creamer from Mining Weekly. He says, "What percentage of your total energy needs are catered for by the 100 megawatts you mentioned today? What steps are you taking to introduce green molecules like green hydrogen to power your trucks and for general mobility in the mines?
Mike.
Okay.
Mike will deal with that as well. Yeah.
Okay.
All the difficult ones go to Mike.
We give to Mike.
I don't know.
Okay. The next one is from Shilan Modi from HSBC. He says, "Hi, team. On manganese, given the ongoing issues around Transnet, does it make sense to truck volumes to port? And is trucking profitable at the current spot prices?
Yeah, Andre will-
Okay
Deal with it.
The last one from this round is from Thabang Thlaku from SBG Securities. He says, "Has the change in nickel prices and the general market outlook impacted your view on Nkomati?" I think, Mike, you've answered that one.
Yeah, Mike has answered that one.
Her second question is, "When you include Assmang cash, ARM currently sits on total net cash of ZAR 16.5 billion. Even when you consider the Bokoni acquisition, this would imply a lazy balance sheet. Is ARM looking to revisit its capital allocation model, and could we see any changes in dividend policies or payments of higher dividends as the coal dividends flow up to the group?
Yeah.
I think that's for two.
Okay.
That's it for this round, sir.
Thank you. You and Mike will deal with the last questions, okay? Mike?
Yes, sir. Can I kickstart on the capital overrun? I think it's such a good question today. If you look at the cost of doing business today, we look at imports, and particularly while I alluded COVID may not be a problem here, worldwide and internationally with supply, demand and late delivery shipping, we see significant delays in the industry in terms of delivering capital items. The costs, what was two, six months and a year ago are no longer true. We have put together what we believe the very best systems, controls and people, and banking on our partners as they, with their exposures with cost and capital overrun, is get key learnings out of that. Very mindful of the challenges faced with cost, we are then looking at other opportunities of rationalizing or improving the output from our projects.
I am reasonably confident that overruns will be managed within inflationary and within the restrictions as we are facing with them. We will, in a timely manner, address those and not ignore them. Thank you for that question.
I think you've got two questions, sir.
The trucking is gonna be handled by.
By Andre.
Andre. Okay, that's fine.
The second one, sorry, Jongisa.
I'm just check-
And when you were s-
I think that's it for you, Mike.
Power.
On the, the 100% -
The energy. The 100 MW.
Impact of energy.
Yes. How much of it is okay to-
Andre will deal with it.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, Andre?
Okay. Thank you, Chair. The question from Martin related to ARM Platinum that has signed the 100 MW supply. That will address 33% of our total electricity consumption in the next three years. We are also considering further upgrades in terms of other options to look at reducing our power supply from Eskom to renewables. I think on that note, Andre perhaps we can also comment on the progress they're making on his side to also increase the renewable power supply. Thank you. Yeah. In our operations in the Northern Cape, we've well advanced with the feasibility study in terms of also supplying our mines with solar power.
Collectively, we're looking at just over 80 MW that we're gonna do. We're currently in the process of doing our EIAs so that we can start to build our solar plants. Ours will be slightly different. It will be what we call behind the meter installation. 'Cause currently the Eskom network, distribution network in the Northern Cape does not have capacity to yield power at the moment. But we're making very good progress in that regard. Yeah. Thank you.
Just one thing, if I may. A big component what we're also looking at is to reduce our dependency on diesel. Over the next five or seven years, we will look at alternative trucking methods. Not only from the prohibitive cost of diesel, but also from a carcinogenic point of view.
Andre, sorry. Mike, if I can add to that, is that at our Black Rock mine, we've already deployed battery electric front end loaders and battery electric haul trucks. We got three of each of those already, as we speak, deployed underground. We're testing them to see how efficient they are, and they're gonna save two things. It's obviously diesel and also the heat that they generate underground, which ultimately then would require less ventilation, and through that, more energy savings as well. Thank you. Thanks, Andre.
Thank you, Andre.
Uh, at the-
There's one more from the last round, Andre, around the manganese trucking.
Yeah
... whether that is currently profitable at spot prices.
Okay. On the manganese trucking, we've contracted our manganese exports through to Transnet, and at this point in time, Transnet is doing most of our trucking. At the odd occasion, we do make adjustments to that to see if Transnet cannot fulfill our contractual commitments, then we use trucks, but it's absolutely the minimum. At this point in time, it is still profitable to use trucks to take our material to the ports. Again, I just wanna reemphasize, we do not, as a rule, have trucks exporting our material, we only use Transnet. In one instance, there's some very fine material that we export which cannot go on the Transnet railway trucks, and that one we also export, but that is still profitable at this point. We monitor continuously.
Thank you.
Okay, last round. Warren Riley from Bateleur Capital has a few questions. He says, "Good morning. A couple of questions, please. The first one, will ARM Coal begin to pay dividends going forward?" Which we've addressed and said, yes, they will. The second one is, why are we forecasting lower export coal sales in FY for the coming year despite having elevated stockpiles? Thando could maybe address that. He says, "Could you provide an update on Transnet's weekly run rates post the annual maintenance shutdown? Have we seen any improvements?" His next question is, "We have seen an increase in high-quality manganese ore used in electric vehicle battery technology.
Why does ARM not have any plans for local beneficiation of high-grade manganese sulfate for utilization in electric vehicle batteries?" Those are from Warren. The last one is.
Sorry.
Yes.
Andre, will you deal with that one, you and Mike?
Yeah.
Okay.
The last question is from Jandre Pieterse from Visio Fund Management. He says, "You mentioned that your robust financial position gives ARM the flexibility to be opportunistic about pursuing value-enhancing growth opportunities. Can you please shed some light on how you think about external growth or inorganic growth?" He says. "Assuming target assets are favorably valued, what is the maximum rand value that you might spend on acquisitions, given your strong organic growth pipeline? What are the top commodities you would target?" And that's it.
That sounds like a-
Yeah
Academic question, eh?
Yeah.
Mike, I think you and, I don't know, Thando and, Philip and Andre will deal with that, and Sue. Okay. Are those the only questions we've got?
That's the last. That was the last one.
Somebody was asking why.
Oh, yes.
We're not selling the Harmony shares.
That one was from Warren Riley. He says, "Your shares are relatively rated low. Why would you not sell your Harmony stake and use the proceeds to buy back ARM shares?
Yeah.
It's a nice vote of confidence, Warren, in ARM.
Sorry, who is he?
From Warren Riley from Bateleur Capital.
Bateleur, okay. All right.
Good.
We start with you, Mike. Mike?
Yeah. With Thando with the coal and the coal run rates. Thando.
Thank you, Mike. On the coal side, as we've been reporting and others have also reported that the export sales in the main have been impacted by the performance of TFR. TFR is currently running at just over 1.1 million tons per week. Our focus is at the back of that performance. We are quite pleased and very encouraged, as we have learned yesterday that Transnet has signed an agreement with their suppliers. Andre commented on that. We do anticipate that the performance will improve, hence our sales will improve accordingly. Thank you.
Thank you. Andre.
Yeah. I think in the manganese question, which is a very, very valid and good question, is that of course we noticed that and manganese is one of the commodities that we also see that's on the long term has got a positive price curve. We're looking forward to participate in the manganese diversification, which goes beyond the normal ore, the alloys, and then into the manganese sulfate industry. Obviously making manganese, battery-grade manganese sulfate is quite a complex process. Anybody can make it, but to make it at battery-grade purity is quite a challenge. I've got a team at the moment, and we're doing work on that.
We've been pretty successful at the laboratory scale and benchmark scale, and we stage, and we're busy with a pre-feasibility study to see if we can do that commercially. I reckon that by the end of this year we will be done with that pre-feasibility study, and then we can make a decision. Is it worthwhile, and can we do it sustainably and at a commercial scale? Certainly it's something that interests us and that we're actively pursuing. Thank you.
Thank you. Yeah. Philip.
Thank you very much, Chair. I mean, a question of the strong and robust financial position, that what can we really basically specify in terms of, you know, what range and what metals? I think it's very evident now that we're talking about the metals of the future. I mean, Mike spoke, mentioned the issue of nickel. It's one of those key metals if you look at the battery electric vehicles, and also if you look at where we're going in terms of reducing energy intensity and carbon emission. Copper is also one of those metals, you know. I think at this point in time, I mean, we can't say this is a range of what we're looking for, because when you're looking for opportunities, you know, prices fluctuate. I mean, it depend on where you are on the cycle.
Copper peaked at about $4.50 a ton. It's around $3.70 a ton at this point in time. You can't basically specify and say, "Look, I'm gonna spend so much on this thing. You know, you look at opportunities, you look at your investment criteria. What is your returns? Does it really make value? Is it value accretive to you? And what does it do? And I think the chairman did emphasize the issue of portfolio diversification. I mean, this is one thing that we continue to look at so that we can be able to sort of, you know, navigate through whatever cycles, as the metal prices increases or decreases at any point in time.
Thanks, Philip. Sue, is there anything you wanna say? Okay.
I'll just maybe the last question was around growth and capital investment. Patrice said, yeah, it's quite an academic question. Firstly, as a group, we are a young, acquisitive company focusing on growth, but it has to be value enhancing and/or value accretive growth. We always compare that against what we call our capital discipline in terms of our capital profile as to compare that by share buyback, returning money to shareholders, organic growth, and whether it meets all of our hurdle rates in a sustainable way. We also need to be mindful of the future needs of metals and outlook of commodities. We're also very mindful of new entries like battery metals, I call them sexy metals, and whether we can play a part of that going forward.
Copper is one commodity which undoubtedly is probably the foremost sought after metal of the future. The barriers to entry are very, however, pretty restrictive. Nickel falls in that class. PGM falls in that class. Elements like vanadium and rare earth, and if we can, like Andre alluded to, is bringing advanced beneficiation to add value up the value chain to see whether we have the appropriate technology and costs that can do it cost-effectively to look at enhancing the value of those commodities. Like a rare earth, which is in big demand based on wind and based on electric vehicles for magnets.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Good.
I mean, just in terms of what Mike was saying, value for shareholders. When I was a young boy, I don't know, six, seven, I used to work in the family businesses, and my father used to say to me, "The customer is always right." Now, for us, as a global mining company, the shareholder is always right. If we consistently are competitive and consistently create value for shareholders on a competitive basis, their judgment will reflect in either buying more of our shares and that's the focus. We have to. Our track record is everything. We are judged in relation to not just the current share price, but our plans, what our plans, our growth plans. Mike spoke about copper. We're investing several billion dollars over the next few years in PGMs.
One of the questions related to how many. How many has got an exciting world-class copper deposit, copper and gold deposit. We were looking for gold, but we actually found copper and gold in Papua New Guinea. Hugely exciting. Rare earth minerals and the minerals of the future. This is why having a world-class management team, I think I'm hugely privileged and ARM is hugely privileged to have some of the best executives, some of the best employees, and that's the basis of the best companies in the world. Many years ago, when I met Warren Buffett at Omaha, he's, you know, he spoke about a lot of things, but one of the things he spoke about is that I invest in management. We will be judged as a company by our results.
At the heart of our capacity to consistently be competitive is the world-class management team I spoke about. Very importantly, going back to what I said, the shareholder is always right. We have to consistently create a track record of paying competitive dividends, and the share price will take care of itself. We are a company that is pursuing growth, but quality growth. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jongisa. Thanks, Mike. Thanks to the management team. Thanks to the media, and thanks to the ARM employees. It's been a privilege and an honor to be, for all of us to be part of this presentation. See you in due course. Thank you very much.
Thank you.