Good morning and welcome to Gemfields' 2024 full-year results shareholder and investor webcast. Sean Gilbertson, CEO, and David Lovett, CFO, will present Gemfields' financial results and proposed rights issues announced on the 11th of April. At the end of the presentation, we'll go into Q&A, and if you'd like to ask a question, please feel free to write it in via this webcast page by clicking the Ask a Question button or by joining the conference call line to ask a live question. Before we start, please take note of the important information on our disclaimer on two, and please also note that there's a more full disclaimer relating to the proposed rights issue available at the back of this presentation on slides 27 to 29, and with that, I will pass you on to Sean to start on slide three.
Thank you very much, Ian. Good morning and welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us this morning at what is a particularly tricky time for our business and also for the wider industry, with no thanks at all going to President Trump's tariff tantrums for further complicating our road ahead. By way of overview, today's presentation will start with David Lovett, our CFO, speaking to Gemfields' full-year results and our financial position, both of which have clearly been significantly impacted by four contemporaneous, but what management believe are transient challenges arising during the second half of 2024. We will then turn to Gemfields' $30 million proposed rights issue, which was announced on the 11th of April alongside our full-year results for 2024.
And that proposed rights issue will address a near-term shortage of working capital, particularly as our key present investment, the second processing plant at the Montepuez Ruby Mine, completes. Finally, before taking questions, we'll provide an update on that vitally important project, which we also refer to as PP2 or the second processing plant, and we'll touch on the other growth drivers we have as we move through the near-term funding issues. With that brief intro, I'll pass you on to David Lovett.
Thank you, Sean, and good morning, everybody. Starting on slide five, we have our six financial KPIs set out across the past three years. Both 2022 and 2023 were strong years for Gemfields. The post-pandemic bounce does appear to have ended for us, making 2024 a more challenging year for a number of reasons, which we'll go through later in the presentation, but as touched on previously by Sean. To start at the top left of this slide, the group generated $213 million of revenue, which is materially down against the past two years and more in line with the revenues we saw pre-pandemic in 2019. Of that $213 million, Kagem contributed $79 million, $117 million, Fabergé $13 million, with the balance coming from sales of legacy cut and polished inventory.
Moving across to operating expenses, they are slightly down at $172 million, but please note this does include a number of revenue-linked drivers that mask the 6%-8% growth in mining costs we have seen in 2024, with inflation continuing to impact our operations. Of that $172 million, Kagem came in at $51 million, MRM at $78 million, Fabergé at $16 million, corporate at $19 million, and other operations at $9 million. If we combine revenue and operating expenses, we see at the top right an EBITDA figure of $41 million in 2024. That is markedly lower against 2023 and four times less than we generated back in 2022. The adjusted earnings per share saw a loss for 2024 when taking into account depreciation, interest, and taxes.
Turning to cash, 2024 saw a $58 million negative free cash flow position as the business continued to invest heavily across both primary mines and at the group's development assets. To give some context, 2024 saw CapEx of $71 million compared to $60 million in 2023 and significantly up against the figure of $34 million in 2022. Finally, at the bottom right of this slide, we see that Gemfields entered into a net debt position in 2024 as we funded our investments through debt. This gives a negative cash generated in 2024 of $80 million of net debt position at the end of 2024. Please also bear in mind that the 25 months between May 2022 and June 2024, we paid out $80 million of dividends to shareholders and did a $10 million buyback. We'll now go into our results in more detail, starting with revenue on slide six.
This sets out our long-term trend of revenues split between MRM, which is the red bar, Kagem, which is the green bar, and Fabergé, which is the gold bar at the top. You can see that the business has grown significantly since the humble beginnings in 2009, leading to a revenue of over $300 million in 2022. We started to see issues coming through at the end of 2023 with a canceled high-quality emerald auction, and 2024 represents a materially weaker year as both supply and demand issues have hit us. Moving on to slide 7, we'll have a look at what's driving this lower revenue. As a reminder, Gemfields earns over 90% of its revenue through auctions of rough emeralds and rubies. On the left-hand side of this slide, you can see Kagem auctions since 2021.
Lower revenues can clearly be seen on an individual auction level in the last 12 months. This is the first challenge we've set out as an oversupply of Zambian emeralds has impacted demand and pricing for our emeralds. In reaction, Kagem has paused all mining initially for six months to June 2025 to limit costs. We are still producing emeralds in this time by processing pre-mined stockpiles at our upgraded wash plant, but this will impact the production mix as approximately half of our emeralds are usually picked in the pit. There is a commercial quality emerald auction running presently in Jaipur, and we hope to announce those results on the 30th of April. Turning to the right-hand side for MRM, almost the opposite issue is taking place, and we are simply not producing enough premium rubies to meet with the demand.
We expect this second challenge to be materially addressed by the second processing plant, PP2, which will triple MRM's processing capacity and begin to provide additional revenue late in 2025. There is also a mini ruby auction running in Bangkok right now, with results expected on the 28th of April. The production issues at MRM can be seen quite starkly on the next slide. Premium production drives the majority of revenues at both Kagem and MRM. On the left-hand side, we have Kagem's premium emerald production, and you can see that while 2024 was just above 2023, it is still significantly lower than the heights seen in 2021 and 2022. Moving to the right-hand side on the MRM, 2024 premium ruby production has lagged considerably behind the last few years and produced less than half the premium rubies we saw in 2021.
There are no indications that this is an underlying geological issue. However, until PP2 is online later this year, there are no easy wins to improve premium ruby recovery. If we look at operating expenses on the next slide, when considering our total operating costs, it is worth flagging that this includes mineral royalties and production taxes, which are calculated as 6% and 10% of emerald and ruby auction revenues, respectively. Therefore, reductions in revenue directly lower overall costs. As the graphs show on the left-hand side, revenue in 2024 is broadly where it was in 2019, but costs are up $37 million since then. The cost of fuel and our people are higher as our key cost drivers.
Mining and production costs increased by 8% in 2024 when compared to 2023, including a material step up in fuel costs in terms of both usage and price, and overall costs at our development assets, which have significantly cut since the start of 2025. Selling general and administrative costs also grew by 6% year on year, primarily driven by MRM and partly due to a reversal of a legal provision in 2023 at MRM. Corporate costs were significantly down in 2024 compared to 2023, dampening some of the change at MRM. Looking to 2025, after taking the significant actions we've mentioned, we do expect costs to be down around 20% as we simplify our business. To have a look at CapEx on the next slide, as we've mentioned, 2024 saw the largest annual CapEx investment the group has made, focused primarily on PP2 at MRM.
We are now approaching the end of this investment cycle. CapEx at Kagem ran lower than previous years, with no new CapEx projects and lower sustaining CapEx amid the pause in mining. At MRM, we are approaching peak rolling 12-month CapEx as we look to complete the construction of PP2. In total, $71 million was spent on capital expenditure, with a further $14 million capitalized in relation to the development projects. This is expected, much like operating costs, to be significantly lower in 2025, with $21 million to be paid to Consulmet, our PP2 construction partners, alongside other mining and sustaining CapEx costs. The impact of this CapEx on free cash flow can be seen on the next slide.
Between EBITDA and free cash flow before working capital movements, which is our KPI, you can see the costs capitalized to intangible assets, primarily capitalized costs at our development assets, which will be reduced significantly in 2025, and $18.5 million of tax paid in the year. Finally, from me, on slide 12, we'll have a look at our net debt position at the end of the year. We have $101.3 million of drawn debt across overdrafts and term loans, and we expect at certain points of 2025 to be fully drawn on all our available debt, which totals $131 million. Therefore, it is likely that the group's net debt position will reach approximately $100 million during 2025 before improving in 2026 and onwards as we benefit from the additional revenues from PP2 and improved conditions at Kagem. With that, I'll pass you back to Sean starting from slide 14.
Thank you very much, David. As we've seen and heard, Gemfields has been facing multiple simultaneous challenges coinciding with our very significant investment program. So from a timing perspective, that is seriously inopportune. Importantly, we do believe that each of the four challenges which we've set out on this slide are transient in nature. David spoke to our first and second challenges, being firstly the oversupply in the Zambian emerald market by our principal competitor, and which we've responded to by pausing mining at Kagem while the market recovers, but continuing to run our processing plant using our very significant ore stockpile. And secondly, the oversupply, correction, the undersupply of premium rubies from MRM, in respect of which we're obviously building the second processing plant to triple our processing capacity.
The third challenge relates to the general luxury goods and gemstones market, which softened materially in the second half of 2024, given primarily concerns over China's economy and the arising impact of that downturn in China's economy. Finally, the fourth challenge arises from the impact of the very significant civil unrest in Mozambique post-Mozambique's disputed election in October of last year and the significant increase in the number of illegal miners accessing our license as that turbulence escalated. Although the illegal miners remain a material issue for us and our risk profile has increased in that regard, I do want to credit the MRM team for their unbelievable resilience and professionalism in navigating that civil unrest and the ensuing lawlessness between October 2024 and the end of January this year, and in ensuring that there was as little disruption as possible to mining, processing, and the construction of PP2.
And then on the 2nd of April 2025, now infamously known as Liberation Day, well after this presentation was signed off by all the parties involved in it, we were, of course, handed a fifth challenge in the form of the Trump tariffs. How those tariffs and their impact are going to play out obviously remains to be seen. If you will, our sixth and now thankfully settled challenge was, of course, the surprise introduction by the Zambian government of the 15% export duty on precious gemstones with effect from 1 January 2025. That certainly put the kibosh on our emerald exports for much of the first quarter of 2025, some of which were already sitting in Lusaka for export at the end of 2024.
That said, we must genuinely commend the Zambian government for their willingness to engage subsequently and for the swift action they took to reverse the export duty by the end of February 2025, so less than 60 days. I don't know many governments that can do that, so credit where credit is due, together, of course, with our thanks for the pretty quick fix. Combined, however, these issues have limited Gemfields' revenue take in 2024 and 2025, and thereby shaping conservative expectations for the balance of this year. On slide 15, we set out the actions Gemfields has taken to control costs and to streamline the business in light of our present reality and the arising funding shortfall given the need to complete the second processing plant at MRM, which is less than three months away.
In Mozambique, we've halted operations at a number of our development assets, including the Nairoto Gold Project to the north of MRM and the Megaruma Mining Ruby Project to the west of MRM. In Zambia, mining has been paused at Kagem, as previously mentioned, and we continue a targeted rationalization of the group's operations and businesses. We also announced earlier that we were assessing strategic options for Fabergé. We were pleased to see the level of engagement in the process we conducted, and we received a number of non-binding offers. Unfortunately, the offers that we received did not meet the level of certainty or timing deliverability that the Gemfields board rightly sought to address our funding shortfall. As such, work on Fabergé has now paused until we complete the proposed rights issue process, which remains subject to shareholder approval, of course.
The board will reconsider its position in respect of Fabergé following the conclusion of the proposed rights issue process. Now on to slide 16 for more on our proposed solution to the near-term working capital shortfall. The proposed rights issue was announced on the 11th of April and seeks gross proceeds of approximately $30 million. We're offering 10 new shares for every 21 existing shares, and the offer is obviously available to all of our qualifying shareholders. The issue price is 4.2 pence per share for those on the U.K. register via AIM and 1.068 ZAR for those that hold their shares in South Africa on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. This pricing represents a 35% discount to the 30-day volume-weighted average price in London immediately prior to the announcement on the 11th of April.
To ensure that the proposed rights issue is fully allocated, subject, of course, to our shareholders' approval, the proposed rights issue has been fully underwritten by our two largest shareholders, Assore International Holdings and Rational Expectations. The proceeds of the proposed rights issue will be used for working capital purposes and directly ensure that our PP2 project at MRM can continue towards completion by the end of June 2025, a genuinely transformational project for Gemfields. In terms of key dates, the extraordinary general meeting will be held on the 19th of May 2025 in order to seek shareholder approval for the proposed rights issue, with publication of a prospectus and commencement of the formal rights issue process kicking off immediately thereafter, followed by completion of the rights issue around mid-June.
On slide 17, as mentioned, the proposed rights issue is for general corporate purposes and working capital liquidity and aids completion of MRM's second processing plant. Our situation in Mozambique continues to pose notable challenges, but we have no doubt that pushing for completion of PP2, given how close we are, is far better in terms of outcome than pausing construction to preserve cash now and then seeking to restart construction at a later stage. The proposed rights issue means that we continue our originally intended trajectory in respect of PP2 and that we will start seeing the benefits from it during the course of the second half of this year. And I must again credit the MRM team and also our construction partner, Consulmet, for the truly remarkable work that they're doing under very challenging circumstances.
Their willingness to find solutions where many will see none genuinely deserves a salute. On slide 18, a quick reminder of PP2 and where it currently stands. Once completed, this is a genuinely transformational project for both MRM and also for the group. In terms of scale, you can see in the photo on the slide the circular blue settling tank towards the top right-hand side, which is part of the second processing plant, and also towards the left-hand side, you can see the existing plant's circular white settling tank towards the top left, and so that gives you a rough idea of the increase in scale insofar as PP2 is concerned. That second processing plant is also the Gemfields Group's largest ever investment and will be a major growth driver for us over the next 18 months.
The tripling of that processing capacity will allow us, first and foremost, to materially increase our ruby production. Secondly, to process our sizable stockpile. And we will also be able to bring new sizes and differentiated colors of rubies to the market from other pits and deposits on the MRM license. And very importantly, we'll also be able to better understand those other deposits, which are spread across our vast and untapped license area, and to start converting those resources into our life of mine. On slide 19, just to give you a rough idea, we've mapped out the scale of the MRM license. The salmon-colored camouflage is the Mugloto Central domain, and that's shown in the zoomed-out map on the right-hand side and also in the zoomed-in map on the left-hand side.
The blue overlay on the left-hand side shows the area of the Mugloto Central domain that we have mined to date, and it represents about 20% of the Mugloto Central domain. The other colored camouflage areas represent other domains where auger drilling has already established the ruby-hosting gravel bed horizon. We've only done limited mining in these areas, notably in the orange area at Maninge Nice, and that's because we have been seriously processing capacity constrained. We do also expect to find mineralization outside of what is labeled here as the auger drill outline. In other words, the areas where we have yet to do auger drilling. That's also shown by the areas that are marked unexplored, but we have seen quite a significant amount of illegal mining in those areas, indicating again that there is mineralization.
On slide 20, we've set out some of the additional areas for growth. On the left-hand side, we've completed the Kagem processing plant upgrade in 2024, and that is presently running three shifts a day with increased processing capacity and efficiency. Until we restart mining at Kagem, the processing plant is our only source of emeralds. Fortunately, we do have a significant ore stockpiled, which could keep us busy for more than a year if that's how we wish to proceed. Although, please do note that the stockpiled ore is not as rich as freshly mined ore, which is prioritized for processing when Kagem is mining normally. On the right-hand side of this slide, the aptly named Eastern Ruby Mining, or ERM for short, is situated literally to the east of MRM.
is a possibly exciting license area for us, and we have early indications of reasonable ruby deposits firmed up by the amount of illegal mining occurring there. However, the originally planned 2025 capital expenditure to build a processing plant for Eastern Ruby Mining has been delayed in light of the working capital shortfall, but the team there does continue some developmental work in terms of better understanding the geology, and early rubies are being recovered. Finally, on slide 21, as we've set out today, the proposed rights issue is of the utmost importance to the Gemfields Group in terms of addressing our near-term working capital shortfall. We therefore have two requests to our shareholders. Firstly, Gemfields' board and management request that you support all three of the interlinked resolutions that we are proposing at the EGM on the 19th of May 2025, and those three resolutions are set out on this slide.
And without favorable support from our shareholders for these resolutions, the proposed rights issue cannot proceed, and that in turn would put the investment of our shareholders in Gemfields in considerable doubt. Secondly, in order to avoid dilution, we ask that our shareholders consider taking up their pro rata rights once the rights issue opens following a favorable shareholder vote. Importantly, and as is noted in the footnote on this slide, both David Lovett and myself have given irrevocable undertakings to take up our rights in the proposed rights issue, and we invite you to do the same. With that, I'll pass you back to Ian for the Q&A session.
Thank you, Sean. If you'd like to ask a question, please write it in via the webcast Ask A Question function. We're going to start with the written questions that we've already received, and there'll be more opportunities to add in further questions if you would like later on through this Q&A session. So to start, we've received a question that is around the developmental assets and the costs spent in 2024. So can you please comment on the $18.3 million spent on developmental assets in 2024? That seems exorbitant in the context of the massive CapEx program underway and the market conditions that were clearly weakening throughout the year. Spending that much CapEx on developmental assets during the year in which a rights issue becomes a necessity becomes borderline reckless.
Thank you very much for that question, Ian. Let me comment, and then I'll check whether David wishes to add anything further. Hindsight, of course, is a wonderful thing, and for the most part of H1 2024, our reading of the roadmap was pretty healthy, and the prices that we had been seeing in our auctions remained good, and the feedback from our customers appeared to suggest that everything was going to be okay. It was really during the course of the second half of 2024 that the warning signs began to crop up, and particularly in Zambia, where we saw in rapid succession the supply of Zambian emeralds at discounted prices by our principal competitor, so that was not something that we'd seen in the first half, but which arose during the course of the second half.
So I'm afraid, with the best will in the world, bearing in mind, obviously, I'm also a shareholder in my personal capacity who will be participating in the rights issue, that we did not see the scope and scale of this combination of problems affecting Gemfields during the course of the first half of 2024. And as such, particularly during the first half of 2024, the work at the developmental assets was certainly underway full steam. David, anything you want to add there?
Yeah, so from my side, I fully agree with Sean that we didn't see this coming, and if you look back to our interim results last year, the first half was relatively strong. There are always things that you could change looking backwards, but as we saw the market shift, I think we moved relatively quickly, and just to give you an idea of where that cost comes from and the steps we've taken, the biggest cost came at Nairoto, which is the gold project. That project is now effectively suspended while we look for external options. We spent $3 million at MML, which is another ruby deposit in Mozambique. That project is effectively on suspension as well at this point. We spent $4.5 million at Eastern Ruby Mining, again, another ruby deposit in Mozambique. We think that's a very exciting project.
If we weren't in the cash position we were in, we would certainly be pushing to spend more there rather than less with everything we know about that deposit. Therefore, you are going to see a significant reduction in development project spend in 2025. Like I said, if we had the money, I would certainly be pushing for us to spend a little bit more on Eastern Ruby Mining. At this point, we have made those decisions. The cost savings are starting to come in. They don't always come in overnight, so it's taken us a while just to shut down those operations, move equipment, and do everything that relates to slowing things down. That is now underway, and those projects will not be spending any significant cash as we move forward.
Great. Thank you, Sean and David. The next question is on Kagem. Why does Kagem have such a significant stockpile of ore? Why was mining running so far ahead of processing in the past?
Thank you, Ian. That's a good question. The reason for that is something I touched on briefly during the course of the presentation, and that is that our freshly mined ore, which is richer than the ore that goes onto the stockpile, is always prioritized in terms of processing. So if we can get our mining up, then we're going to have more freshly mined ore, which is richer, which goes directly into the processing plant first, with the second-order ore effectively going onto the stockpile. That obviously is a mechanism by which we can get the revenues up and the emeralds out of the ground faster.
I hope that adequately explains why we have a considerable ore stockpile.
I think it does. Thank you, Sean. The next question is around the operating cost guidance for 2025. What is the expected split for the 2025 operating cost guidance between Kagem, MRM, and Fabergé?
Sure. I'll take that one, Ian. So Kagem is an interesting one. We're currently not mining, and therefore, the first half of the year will see much lower costs than the second half, assuming we went back to mining in July, which is the current plan. Therefore, I'd take an average for the year of around $5 million of OpEx. That would be lower half to and higher half, so second half of the year. At MRM, we do expect OpEx to be slightly lower than this year, but with everything going on there, we haven't been able to make all of the reductions that we possibly would. Again, I would see MRM sitting at around $5 million a month of OpEx. And then between Fabergé and corporate, you have around $30 million of cost, which is in line with the last couple of years of spend in those areas.
Great. Thank you, David. On the flip side of that question is, what are the revenue assumptions for the operating cost guidance, i.e., what drives the royalties?
Sure. And again, we've taken two slightly different approaches across the two mines here. In terms of Kagem, we have taken a conservative view. The numbers we've used are lower than the 2024 numbers for our forward-looking projections. We certainly hope that's not the case, but we've taken a conservative view on that. At MRM, we've used a figure much closer to the average of the last three years. So that is certainly higher than what we saw in 2024.
Great. Thank you, David. The next question is around MRM. Can you comment on the grade profile at MRM and downward year-on-year trend that you've seen?
Yes. Thank you, Ian. Happy to comment on that. It's obviously something that we are monitoring very closely. As indicated, the bulk of the revenue that we've taken to date has come from what we saw as the Mugloto Central area, where we've mined about 20% of the gravel bed horizon. And unfortunately, the deposits that we work with, both in Zambia and also in Mozambique, are very pockety in nature. So they're not homogenous deposits in the same way as one might expect from copper or gold. And whilst the two geology types are different, it is certainly true that at both mines, we have seen over more than a decade volatility, both in terms of the grade, by which I mean carats per ton of ore, and also in terms of the quality of the gemstones. And those two things are not necessarily synchronized or linked.
So sometimes you might have good quality gemstones, but very few of them, and the reverse can also be true. So there's no correlation that we have been able to discern to date. And so there is an element of being lucky in terms of hitting areas where the gemstones have either formed correctly or under optimal conditions, or indeed, in the case of MRM, where the secondary deposit has been deposited. And those areas remain very difficult to identify. So as one can imagine, our geologists have been looking at all manner of correlations, whether or not there's any correlation between, for example, the pebble size in the gravel bed. Is there any correlation in the thickness of the gravel bed that we're encountering?
Is there any correlation between the rock in the vicinity or indeed the composition of the gravel bed with the types of rubies that we are encountering? And thus far, we have not been able to discern a correlation that allows us to point our mining equipment more clearly at specific areas. And so it is a bit of a question of being out in the field, trying different areas. And certainly, during the course of 2021, 2022, we were much more fortunate than we've been in 2023 and 2024. But I do want to be clear that there is no geological reason that we or indeed the team at MRM are aware of for the declining trend in ruby grades in terms of carats per ton that we have seen from Mugloto Central over the last couple of years.
And again, I do want to repeat that there are a number of other domains on the MRM license where we know there is ruby mineralization. We have recovered small amounts of that mineralization to date. And in fact, we have quite recently picked up a rather nice secondary deposit ruby from a non-Mugloto Central domain area. And that's one of the reasons why PP2 is so important, because we need to gather ore from those other domains, put them through the processing plant, and increase the ruby production, and of course, start better understanding the geology of those other areas and adding them to our resources and reserves and life of mine.
Great. Thank you, Sean. Talking about the emerald market more generally, what is your assessment of the longer-term supply dynamics of the emerald market? Does the sharp increase in production from your Zambian competitor portend permanently increased supply and hence structurally lower prices from what we've seen in the past?
Thank you, Ian. We have no reason to believe that the current oversupply at low prices from our principal competitor in Zambia is a permanent shift. The nature of the geology, which we've just covered, means that you do go through times in which you're recovering many gemstones, sometimes good quality gemstones, and you certainly also go through periods where you don't recover sufficient gems or indeed you recover poor quality gems. And so we don't have any reason to believe that that's a permanent shift. We believe, as we've stated, that that situation is also transient and that it cannot continue indefinitely. And I don't wish to speculate too much as to what's happening with our competitor, but it's certainly not a situation that can continue indefinitely.
And therefore, in response to that question, we do believe that the medium to long-term fundamentals, both supply and demand for emeralds, remains essentially unchanged and will return to what we have seen historically. As David pointed out, we do have a commercial quality emerald auction of regular dynamics and size currently underway in Jaipur in India. That auction finishes on Tuesday. The results will be out on Wednesday morning. And that's obviously a further key test for us in terms of where the market presently stands, complicated, of course, by President Trump's tariffs.
Thank you, Sean. The final question currently, so if you'd like to ask a last-minute one, please write it in nice and quickly. What is the restart cost for mining at Kagem, and how will this be funded?
David, obviously, feel free to add anything. We've given our experience previously having to restart mining at both operations, MRM and Kagem, post-COVID. I'm pleased to say that post-COVID, the restart of Kagem was pretty straightforward and did not involve significant expenses at all. One of the reasons for that was that during the course of COVID, we did not make significant redundancies among our colleagues. As such, our colleagues were able to return to work without having to be either retrained, retested, or recertified as new employees and get the operation back up and running rapidly. The situation for us at the moment remains very similar at Kagem. We have several hundred colleagues who are presently at home on basic pay. That means that they lose some of their additional benefits, which are paid when they're actually at work.
So there is a degree of cost saving for us. But in essence, those colleagues are still receiving their basic salaries. And that does mean that when we make the decision to restart operations either partially or fully, we hope to see a repeat of what happened at the end of COVID, with the added advantage on this occasion that many of the other folks who are still on site, particularly in the engineering department, are allowed to be there, which was not the case during COVID. And therefore, all the underlying systems and procedures in terms of ongoing maintenance of that equipment, lubrication of the equipment, is obviously being undertaken. So we should be able to get going without significant cost at all and to be able to get going pretty rapidly. Anything else you want to add there?
Yeah, just the second part of the question in terms of how this will be funded. We will be bringing in revenues from the commercial quality auction. Those revenues generally come in within 60 days of the auction closing. So, if we started again in July, we should have that cash in and available. Part of the reason for the rights issue is also to help with this tricky period that we're in, and therefore, if Kagem cannot support itself for a short amount of time in the second half of the year, Gemfields would have the ability to effectively loan that cash in in order to help with that working capital shortfall.
Of course, we do still have the regularly scheduled June ruby auction.
Yeah.
Back to you, Ian.
Thank you. Well, that completes all of the questions that we have received. Thank you very much for all the questions. If you would like to ask anything else across the day, then we will all be available. Feel free to reach out to us on ir@gemfields.com. Please use that email address to contact us. And with that, we'd like to thank you for joining us and enjoy the rest of your day. We will close the call now.