Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Kazatomprom's 2024 full year results conference call. My name is Botagoz Muldagaliyeva, and I am the Director of Investor Relations at Kazatomprom. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. Participating in today's call, we have Meirzhan Yussupov, Chief Executive Officer; Marat Tulebayev, First Deputy and Chief Financial Officer; Vladislav Baiguzhin, Chief Commercial Officer; and Dastan Kosherbayev, Chief Strategy and International Development Officer. Please note that all the materials, including 2024 financial statements, the company's operating and financial review, are now available on our website. The call is open to all stakeholders with a question and answer portion intended to be an opportunity for members of the investment community to engage with the management team and ask their questions through the phone lines in English. Corresponding instructions will be provided at this time.
At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. The simultaneous translation of the call, including the Q&A, will be available for Russian-speaking lines. All participants can also submit questions on the webcast page using the Ask a Question button. If you joined through the Kazatomprom website or through our company page on the London Stock Exchange website, note that during the CEO remarks, there will be slides displayed. Please note that this conference call may include forward-looking statements, which include all matters that are not historical facts, involve risks and uncertainties, and are not guarantees of future performance. The company does not make any representation, warranty, or prediction that the results anticipated by such forward-looking statements will be achieved. Now, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Yussupov.
Thank you, Botagoz. I am pleased to welcome and thank everyone for joining our conference call today. I am delighted to present our 2024 financial results, released earlier today, which remain to be outstandingly strong. Our performance demonstrates the company's strong fundamentals and global leadership backed by a long-awaited nuclear renaissance. I think it is now doubtful that nuclear energy is an integral part of global green energy policies. Firstly, the necessity to achieve net zero. Nuclear energy is being increasingly adopted as a base load power source by many countries. This bolsters the uranium market fundamentals. Kazatomprom appreciates its strategic importance in helping the world transition away from a reliance on fossil fuels and is steadfast in delivering long-term value for all stakeholders. Worldwide, many countries are building new nuclear plants. Countries like China, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates are expanding their nuclear capacity.
Kazakhstan, a home to roughly 30% of the world's uranium production, and IAEA's strategic low-enriched uranium bank, also has plans to introduce nuclear in its energy mix. Kazakhstan plans to build three nuclear power plants, and assuming that each has two reactors consuming an estimated 400 tons of uranium annually, this will create significant domestic demand. As a result, Kazakhstan might need to reserve a portion of its future production for the country's energy needs, slightly limiting the available material. Some nations are also extending lifespans of existing reactors, while others planning expansions or even restarting mothballed plants. A notable example is the cancellation of the decision to restart Three Mile Island, supported by a 20-year agreement with Microsoft. Japan is also working to restart reactors shut down after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. At COP28 in 2023, more than 20 countries committed to tripling nuclear power by 2050.
This pledge was reinforced at COP29 last year, where six more countries, including Kazakhstan, joined the initiative. This highlights nuclear energy's growing role in providing carbon-free electricity. Support extends beyond governments. 14 major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, are backing nuclear energy, and leading tech companies are also investing in nuclear to power data centers. As recently as a week ago, tech giants Amazon, Google, and Meta signed a pledge supporting nuclear energy's role in creating energy resilience amid increased adoption of artificial intelligence. No matter what reactor design is or will be used, it will need uranium for fueling. Therefore, the role of Kazatomprom with 21% of the world's attributable annual production is absolutely crucial in providing fuel for the global energy needs.
We are willing to continue playing an active role in providing a secure and reliable source of uranium for nuclear power plants across the globe. Continuing our discussion, let me proceed with the uranium market picture. Having referred to this slide many times over the last past years, today, the industry is seeing real signs of a significantly growing supply gap, not covered by the production volumes of coming online in the foreseeable future. Supply deficit expected in 2029 is projected to grow to more than 60 million pounds of U3O8 in 2035, rising sharply to more than 130 million pounds of U3O8 by 2040. Although some of the producers made decisions to restart idle capacity and launch new production, including ourselves, it will not be sufficient to cover uranium requirements post-2030, especially amid current geopolitical uncertainties, inflationary pressures, and supply chain challenges worldwide.
In the current pricing environment, another Kazatomprom-sized supply source will be needed to cover future needs. One significant oversight in the market may be the assumption that the new uranium supplies can be added quickly and cost efficiently. Although geological surveys show that there are enough resources overall, a significant portion of these resources is becoming more expensive to access. This means that uranium prices need to be higher than they are now in order to make development worthwhile. For instance, during the last decade, total global known uranium resources increased by 21%, but resources in the low-cost category decreased by 48%. A typical 15-year lag from discovery to production means that even near-ready projects face hard hurdles like permitting, financing, environmental approvals, and technical ramp-ups.
All these factors point to a slower-than-expected supply response at precisely the time when utilities concerned about geopolitical supply risk are restarting to look into longer term contracts and conversions that may drive prices higher than many forecasts suggest. Both term and spot purchase activity by utilities has dropped in 2024 compared to 2023 numbers, signaling that they are comfortable with the coverage of their requirements in the near term. However, coming down to availability of supply, it is becoming more apparent that utilities are concerned with long-term supply, as contract duration for both U.S. and non-U.S. utilities increased in 2024 compared to 2023. This is also clear from rising long-term prices, which have increased by 20% last year. Spot market volume is small, with about 47 million pounds in 2024, compared to term market's 116 million pounds during the same period.
While only 15% of spot purchase came from utilities, the entirety of long-term market purchases contributed to them. Speaking about the spot market, I would also like to use this opportunity to address that some speculations in relation to ANU funds activity are not accurate. As you know, Kazatomprom is not involved in fund operations as the fund is managed independently, but our commercial team can shed some light on this matter later today if needed. It is important to reiterate another important factor leading to the market structural shift, production and sales discipline of major uranium producers. Kazatomprom alone removed 125 million pounds natural uranium production starting from 2017- 2024, reinforcing the strategy of creating long-term value for our shareholders. Taking into account our unique position occupying the whole first quartile of the global cost curve, we could continue generating profits even under the low pricing environment.
Despite some challenges, the company managed to meet all of its 2024 operational targets. Production volumes on both 100% and an attributed basis were within the guided ranges with a slight increase compared to 2023. None of these plans could have been achieved without our most important resource, a team of over 20,000 dedicated employees. Kazatomprom ensures that they have the skills, access to training, and equipment needed to work safely, and HSE remains to be one of our key priorities. The HSE measures taken in 2024 made it possible to prevent significant industrial accidents. In 2024, both group and KAP scale volumes slightly exceeded guidance due to an increase in physical deliveries associated with the additional requests from customers to flex up their annual delivery quantities within the frame of existing contracts, as well as due to prior period adjustments associated with conversion facility certification and weighing procedures.
Kazatomprom was successful to add Switzerland as a new geography to its customer base in 2024 and made the first-ever delivery to the customer from the United Arab Emirates. The group's average realized price in 2024 equals to $69.48 per pound, an increase of 26% compared to 2023, mostly due to an increase in uranium spot price. A common question is about the structure of our contract portfolio, specifically regarding the ratio of spot linked to fixed-term price sales. As we do not reveal any details beyond the sensitivity analysis, you can see an updated table on this slide. Our average realized price continues to chase the stock price, and our contract book shows one of the closest correlation with the uranium stock price in the industry, reflecting our optimistic outlook on uranium pricing while recognizing the potential for volatility.
With that, you can see how higher average realized price reflects in our financial results for 2024, which were very strong. On the back of strong growth in uranium price throughout the year, our 2024 revenue grew by 26%, exceeding KZT 1.8 trillion. Both gross and operating profits also demonstrated an almost 20% year-on-year increase. Adjusted net profit was 44% higher compared to the previous year's results, amounting to almost KZT 820 billion net of one-time gain effects. Much of this was to the company adjusted net profit amounting to KZT 577 billion. These impressive results reflect the growth of the average annual uranium spot price over the past year, the toughness of long-term price dynamics, and of course, the company's strong position of the lowest cost producer and largest seller globally.
As you know, Kazatomprom is also present in other stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, producing uranium dioxide, fuel pellets, and fuel assemblies. In 2024, Ulba Fuel Assembly plant reached its nameplate capacity of 200 tons per year of low enriched uranium equivalent. As anticipated, C1 and all-in sustaining cash costs showed a year-on-year increase by 25% and 29%, respectively, aligning with the lower end of corresponding 2024 guidance expectations. The increase in C1 cash costs was primarily due to an increase in spot prices affecting mineral extraction tax, a top item category comprising 30% of C1, as well as increasing inflationary pressure on materials and supplies, including sulfuric acid. Capital expenditures of the mining entity increased by 58% compared to the previous period, slightly exceeding the guided range.
The increase is primarily attributable to increase in capital investments for the wells' construction and building infrastructure for new facilities commissioned at JV, KATCO, Ortalyk, and Budenovskoye. Preparation of well fields for 2025 production increase has also contributed to the CapEx growth. As you can see on this slide, the major contributor to the growth in CapEx and all-in sustaining costs is greenfield and expansion costs related to commencement of new deposits and expansions of existing producing mines. Just to remind, the ISR production method that we utilize at all our mines necessitates work preparation and capital investments to be made 6- 12 months prior to the anticipated increase in production capacity. Capital costs are then hectic to smooth out when production stabilizes. Another hallmark is us being the best dividend story in the uranium space.
As of end of the last year, our total shareholder return since IPO amounted to over 300%. Almost half of this return was in the form of dividends. In June 2024, Kazatomprom distributed almost KZT 316 billion , a record high since IPO. Since the time of approval of the current dividend policy, the group's structure has changed with Ortalyk's 49% share being sold and Budenovskoye entering the full consolidation perimeter starting January 1st, 2024. Anticipated significant ramp-up of production at JV Budenovskoye will materially affect the controlling share of Kazatomprom in the group's consolidated free cash flow. These changes affected the non-controlling interest, which is a part of net income and cash flows of line-by-line consolidated subsidiaries attributable to partner participants.
To ensure fair and straight free cash flow calculation approach and to address the above-mentioned discrepancy, the company is proposing to refine the free cash flow formula in order to adjust for non-controlling interest. Simply put, the transition from consolidated to attributable free cash flow at the purpose of calculation of dividend payments subject to the approval in the upcoming EGM. If approved, this change will be applicable to dividend payments in 2026 for the results of 2025, not affecting this year's dividend payments for the results of 2024. Our dividend policy's core strength remains the same. We will continue to pay 75% of free cash flow as long as net debt to EBITDA is below one, which is currently the case. Now, let's talk about our guidance for 2025.
Kazatomprom's 2025 uranium production guidance is expected to be slightly higher than the previous year's actual production, but still below 100% levels compared to contractual agreements. Adjustments to the initial production intentions are due to challenges related to the availability of sulfuric acid and construction delays at the newly developed deposits, as indicated previously. Our long-term outlook for production is market-oriented and goes hand in hand with our responsibilities relating to the long-term sustainable development of regions where we operate. While sulfuric acid constraints persist in the short to medium term, we expect the existing deficit to alleviate with the construction of new sulfuric acid plants in Kazakhstan, including Kazatomprom's TQ Z plant, launching of which will enhance the company's in-house sulfuric acid production capacity. Currently, construction works are expected to commence in 2025 and to be completed by 2027, according to the schedule.
One shall always bear in mind that any production and construction processes are associated with operational and supply chain risks, as we are seeing materialize at our JV Inkai operation. The JV is expected to revise its production plans for 2025 downwards as a result of not achieving its target production in 2024 and the temporary suspension of production in January 2025. This development may lead to Kazatomprom's 2025 production resulting at a lower range of today's guidance subject to stability and timeliness of sulfuric acid supplies. The group's sales volumes are expected at a range of 17.5- 18.5 thousand tons of uranium, including Kazatomprom sales of 14,000- 15,000 tons of uranium.
Increase in 2025 sales guidance in comparison to 2024 at both the group and KAP level is attributed to the growth of U3O8 sales commitments under existing contracts, along with the pipeline of discussions for the new U3O8 sales contracts underway. As was disclosed today, Kazatomprom's 2024 year-end inventories are at the level of 5.4 thousand tons. This volume is comparable to about 9% of world's primary supply in 2024, and definitely helps us to stay confident in executing our 2025 contractual commitments. In the medium term, we target to maintain optimal inventory level that ensures adequate safety stock, enabling us to fulfill our future commitments seamlessly and reliably. 2025 revenue expectations are ranging at KZT 1.6 trillion- KZT 1.7 trillion, a more conservative forecast compared to 2024, reflecting current market conditions.
Speaking about our costs, I have already covered the structure and main drivers of our costs as well as ISR- specific cost behavior. Same applies to 2025 cost expectations. While the company is not expecting a significant increase in C1 and all-in sustaining cash cost metrics in 2025 compared to 2024, the more than 30% increase in total capital expenditure of mining entities is foreseen in 2025. This growth is mainly attributed to the expected capital expenditures of KZT 168 billion for the development of mining infrastructure and ensuring production of JVs Budenovskoye, KATCO, and Ortalyk, as well as the higher volume of new construction and drilling works in 2025 to ensure readiness for future production periods. Let me briefly touch on the company's major corporate developments. The key milestone is the update of our long-term strategy, which reiterates the value of our volume approach as its cornerstone.
Kazatomprom's large-scale exploration program aimed at replenishment and efficient use of resource base is already yielding results. Throughout the year, our attributable reserves went down by only less than a single ton. This year alone, we have acquired a number of new exploration licenses that total estimated resource potential of roughly 170,000 tons of uranium. Our unique geology enables us to augment substantial volumes of our reserve balance at a far lower investment scale in comparison. Such an advantage reaffirms our trust in investment into exploration of new territories, appreciating any efforts to acquire additional non-attributable reserves at our existing mines. The exploration projects in our pipeline are fully attributable to Kazatomprom and are quite promising in terms of their scale, further enhancing our credibility as a reliable supplier.
In the context of growing demand for uranium, these pounds will be an important contribution to ensuring global energy security and strengthening Kazakhstan's position in the global nuclear energy market. Worth reiterating, though, that given the scale and global position, Kazatomprom can afford to keep pounds underground unless reserved by utilities for their future needs. That said, demand is definitely there, but to bring new supply online, we need to foresee real actions from utilities corresponding to forecasted market fundamentals. Kazatomprom's updated strategy continues to focus on long-term value and adapting uranium production to market conditions. Specifically, in four quarters we're on replenishing and increasing uranium reserves, developing the resource base of tantalum and beryllium, and extracting rare and rare earth metals as byproducts to ensure long-term stability and value for shareholders. The company plans to further expand geological exploration in Kazakhstan.
We are also looking for any potential international expansions. To date, preliminary discussions are being held with Mongolia, Jordan, Tajikistan, and several other geographies. It is worth reaffirming that any participation in foreign projects will be based on economic and strategic feasibility while carefully managing geopolitical risks. I'd like to confirm the company's continuous commitment to the market-centric strategy, which is one of the most important milestones on the company's development path. Kazatomprom, with its best-in-class assets, sustainable reserve base, diversified sales book, and strong contract portfolio, is best positioned to capture future market growth opportunities. The company appreciates being a part of the energy security agenda.
With the continuing geopolitical uncertainty and risks, tariff wars, and continuous pulse on the hyper rotation of the market, Kazatomprom, as an ESG compliant and low-risk jurisdiction, is fully capable of keeping its leadership position as a reliable supplier of natural uranium, and is ready to secure utilities' needs in diversifying their supply sources. With that, I will conclude my presentation. Thank you for your interest and attention. Now, we'll be happy to answer your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Please indicate yourself if you would like to at any time. If you have additional questions, you are welcome to rejoin the queue. If you have additional questions, you are welcome to rejoin the queue. As a reminder, you can also submit questions using the ask a question button on the left-hand page. To ask a question on the phone line, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. We will now wait for a moment for callers to join the queue. Our first question comes from the line of Ephrem Ravi with Citig roup. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Two questions. Firstly, on the payout ratio and the new free cash flow definition, can I just clarify that it will still be 75% under the new calculation of distributable cash flow? Or is that number also going to change with the changes in definition?
I will take that one. Marat in here. Thank you for the question. It is a very good interesting question. We proposed some adjustments to the free cash flow calculation, but as our chairman mentioned that the payout ratio will be 75%, until the debt to EBITDA ratio is less than 1. There is no changes on that side.
Thank you. On the sale and production of enriched uranium, the Ulba, I think, was kind of ramping up to the close of 2024. What kind of incremental volume are you expecting for enriched uranium in 2025 versus 2024? Thank you.
Yes. Hello, it's Dastan here. Answering the question of yours regarding the Ulba-FA , it has reached its capacity of 200 tons of low enriched uranium, and we expect it to operate at this level forward. As we have previously mentioned, it has enough off-take contracts with a Chinese company called CGN, and their off-take contract is for the forthcoming amounts of low enriched volume of 200 tons.
Okay. 200 tons in 2024. Thank you.
Once again, to ask a question on the phone line, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Alexander Pearce with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks all. Marat, you offered at the start of the call the possibility to go through a little bit more detail on ANU Energy and the updates on how much of an impact that's having on the market. Maybe you could just elaborate on that, please.
I think for the question I will try to answer. Vladislav Baiguzhin. As an subsidiary group of [SCB holder], Kazatomprom is not involved in the operation as a fund, and it's managed by its own board. From what we know, ARMZ material did not, and is not expected to appear in the market anytime soon. Although the spot market in 2024 was about 47 million pounds, and the ANU Energy's volume was just small part of that. Thus, it should not have a long-term effect on the spot market. That was it for me.
Okay, thank you. Maybe I can start the second question on Budenovskoye 6. I think the last time we spoke, you were waiting for the license for the processing plant. Maybe you can just provide an update on the situation there. Thanks.
The current status of sulfuric acid plant is that we're absolutely-
Budenovskoye.
Budenovskoye. Oh, sorry. You're absolutely right. There were some problems previously on Budenovskoye, and now the problem is solved. Moreover, we have attracted debt financing for the project and w e don't expect any more delays on this project, and it will be managed in full capacity in 2027.
Okay, thank you.
Once again, if you would like to ask a question in the phone line, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Alex with Canaccord Genuity . Please go ahead.
Thank you. Just two questions from me. The first one is, has the TQZ plant for 2027 received all of the requisite permits from the environmental side or any other permit required?
Well, good question. We are working now on the project documentation. We are still reviewing and preparing all the necessary documentation. In parallel, we are working on financial closure. We are very close to sign the debt agreement with the local bank on very good conditions. Also, we have raised the share capital. I think everything is on track now. We don't expect any delays there. It's not our first security asset plant, so we have experience in building, construction, and getting all the needed improvements.
Okay, thank you. Just on the second question, if there is a resolution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, what is Kazatomprom's view on the impact across the broader fuel contracts and what that changes?
Hi, Dastan here . Well, in general, as you know, we've not been affected by the overall situation except we were hoping for the overheating, but it never happened. With regards to the current situation and the way it's unraveling right now, we would just expect that perhaps there will be more demand from U.S. utilities towards Russian services, towards conversion and enrichment, and perhaps this may result in some additional uranium demand. But as you can probably notice in the past couple of quarters, I'd say the market itself has been behaving irrationally. But all in all, as already said, this is not going to affect us directly, for we're not involved in any sort of anything apart from HALEU uranium.
Okay. Thank you, guys, appreciate the answers.
Once again, if you would like to ask a question on the phone line, that is press one. As there are no further questions on the phone line, operators, to secure any questions on the line, I will now pass the call back to for any other questions from the press. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Yes, we have several questions coming in from the webcast page. The first is coming from Boria, retail investor. Good afternoon. First of all, congratulations on the Kazatomprom results. We see once again that Kazatomprom continues to generate a very large cash flow at current spot prices when the vast majority of mining companies are crushing cash at the same level. I have two questions. The first one, how does Kazatomprom view the current spot market and its price closely linked to half sales with respect to the long-term market as well as the gap between the two prices?
Yeah, thanks for the question. As we see, spot demand interest has declined significantly over the past couple of weeks, resulting in a decline in spot price. On top of that, recent news about U.S. trade policy, geopolitical uncertainty, and AI model consuming less energy than previously assumed, also influenced by activity to decrease. All these events influenced the market and spot prices fell from $76 at the beginning of the year to $63 this week. However, long-term prices are stable at the level of $50, indicating that market participants expect future supply deficit. These low spot prices today are just the short-term event, not a long-term trend. And historically, we have been focusing on long-term contracting. And because of this strategy, we are fully committed for 2025. As for any ongoing negotiations, if they do not meet Kazatomprom interest will not result in additional construction for this year.
Thank you, Mr. Baiguzhin. The next question is also from Boria. This is a question to Dastan. A few months ago, Dastan stated that for Kazatomprom to let any partner into a future JV, it must offer the moon. We have seen how Inkai 3 has been transferred to Kazatomprom-SaUran LLP, 100% owned by Kazatomprom, and the next on the list looks like it could be Inkai 2. This moon, as Dastan referred to, could be the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan, and if that's open to future deposits being shared with external partners.
Sure. Thank you for your question. This is Dastan speaking. I was actually referring to the spaceship, but moon would have been better, actually. Nonetheless, first of all, with regards to the nuclear power plant, that is not our call. We as a national operator were not involved in any capacity in the selection of the vendor or any other actions associated with that. When I referred, in terms of someone has to give us something very lucrative, given the high rate of return and our own expertise, experience, and the way we have been handling business in the past decade, we are in no need of any foreign investment or any foreign partnership with regards to our own assets.
I referred, anyone who is willing to entertain an option of entering a business with us needs to come up with something on such a big and financially beneficial and attractive scale that we started. I made a joke with reference to the spaceship. Then again, as I said, it needs to be very lucrative and very nice in terms of scale and technological advancement and development.
One more thing is Meirzhan Yussupov is online. As Dastan said, we are not involved in the selection process. Plus we do not mix issue of mines with issue of selection of vendor for our power plants. Basically, in this regard, you can assume that Inkai 2 or Inkai 3 could be solely done by ourselves.
Long story short, it is our own strategy to develop all the green fields by ourselves. In order for us to adjust the strategy, something very dramatic needs to happen.
Thank you, gentlemen. The next question is, can you please discuss your comfort with current inventory levels? Historically, the company has targeted 6- 7 months of production. Current inventories are below this level. Do you plan on increasing those inventories in 2025 to match the long-term targets, or is it changing now?
Yes, thanks for the question. The inventories is very important for us, and we always control very carefully. Decrease in reserves compared to 2023 is not critical. Production is increasing, and sales are also at a high level. Low inventory allows us to easily cover the needs of our customers according to the concluded contract.
Thank you, Mr. Baiguzhin. The next question is, does CapEx guidance include costs associated with the new sulfuric acid plant being built? If so, can you give us some more detail on the portion of CapEx requirements related to sulfuric acid plant spend?
Well, as you know that we are going to develop this sulfuric acid plant through TQZ company where we have 30% share. So in this context, in our CapEx guidance, we have only the amount of money that we are going to put in the share capital, and the CapEx for the building, the sulfuric acid plant itself, is not included in the CapEx calculation here.
Thank you. The next question is, as of December 31, 2024, the group's VAT receivable amount is KZT 219,672 million. Do you have issues with the VAT refunding?
There was some delay in schedule of refunding, but now we are working with the Ministry of Finance, and we are on track now to start in the end of the last year, and this year we start refunds of VAT.
Thank you, Mr. Tulebayev. The next question is, when do you expect to announce the 2025 dividend amount? Historically, the dividend has been announced in April or May. Do you have guidance on this for 2025? What is the expected dividend per share for 2024?
Well, we are going to announce the dividend in April, and I cannot provide the number, but I would like to mention that our primary goal is to keep the dividend yield as it is in the USD terms. We are not going to totally be in line with our previous practice in dividend yield.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tulebayev. There was another question in relation to dividends from Anna Antonova at J.P. Morgan. Based on reported 2024 numbers, could you please provide an illustrative free cash flow calculation for dividend purposes based on current versus new proposed formula? Would the free cash flow number be higher or lower under the new proposed formula? Any details would be much appreciated.
First of all, we have made a special disclosure in our financial statement, 2024, in consolidated financial statements, where we disclose the non-NCI to make it easy to calculate for investors. As our CEO just mentioned, these changes, we proposed them because our corporate structure have changed materially because of the and we need to take into account that in 2025, those entities, cash flow of those entities will increase due to higher production volumes. It seems that NCI share will be higher not only because of the structure changes but also because of increased volume of production. I think it's not fair and adequate or correct to compare these two cash flow calculation methods based on 2024. I should say again, we don't expect any change in absolute terms for dividend yield. We will keep dividend yield as it is.
Thank you, Mr. Tulebayev. The next question is coming from Craig Hutchison at TD Securities. Can you please provide an update on the status of sulfuric acid plant build as it received its permits to begin construction, and what is the timing to being online? This has been already covered.
Just a quick, let me add that on CapEx. Very important question. Again, as I said, we attract external financing for this sulfuric acid plant, plus it will be built by a company where we have only 40% share. This CapEx of this sulfuric acid plant, we do not include it in our CapEx calculation for 2025. Only share we put into share capital. That's all.
Thank you, Mr. Tulebayev. The next question is two more questions. In the results, it mentions Inkai disruption, which can result in lower range of current guidance. When will we have more color on the exact impact and new guidance range? The second question, have we secured sufficient assets to reach 2025 production guidance? Where will we have an updated DPR production profile?
Let me take this one. Yes, again, so now we are reviewing the production volumes, and together with Cameco, we are now discussing which blocks we will develop this year, taking into account the consent suspension in January. I think that we have enough sulfuric acid. There is no issue with sulfuric acid on Inkai. But I think a bit later we will find out what will be the decrease in production volume from initially planned volumes.
Thank you. In relation to the question about the DPR report, I will just add that in our disclosure, in both the OFR and the press release, we have mentioned that the full DPR report is now being updated and finalized. We do expect it to be completed by the end of the first half of 2025. So hopefully we will have an updated DPR fully disclosed in summer. The next question is from Mark Wiseman at Macquarie. Thank you for the update. You mentioned interest in opportunities abroad in Jordan, Mongolia and Tajikistan. Could you please elaborate on this? Should we assume these will be all sandstone in-situ recovery opportunities where you can leverage your deep expertise? Or will you look at various geological structures and play types?
Yes, thank you for your question. We are at the early stages of exploring our options. It needs to be noted that we have been invited by our partners from these two countries, given that our brand name, expertise, and the things you have already mentioned, yes, exactly. But we are also entertaining an option of entering a potential collaboration with a third party with regards to these projects. We are holding discussions with several stakeholders across the globe to see how to proceed further. An announcement will follow due course once we reach an agreement or we capture the design of how we are going to proceed with the project.
Thank you, Mr. Kosherbayev. The next question is also about the JV Inkai operation. It is coming from [inaudible] . Thank you for your presentation. How are you working through potential scenarios for JV Inkai with respect to updating the market on 2025 production guidance? Should we anticipate that lower JV Inkai will be made up from other operations? Is the JV impact likely to be immaterial?
Well, again, now we are in discussion with Cameco on which scenario we will go. It depends on which blocks we are going to develop each year. Anyway, we do not expect that our production guidance. We expect that we will still be in production guidance this year, which means from 25,000 up to 26.5. So the decrease on production volume in Inkai will not be that material to change these guidance.
Thank you, Mr. Tulebayev. The next question is coming from Quattro Securities. The question is, wondering what is the assumption behind the 2025 revenue guidance. Revenue guidance for 2025 is a decline in USD year- on- year, while sales guidance is flat year- on- year. Is that because of spot price exposure or non-uranium revenue or exchange rate? Any details would be much appreciated.
Yes. This is a very good question, and actually all the mentioned factors, they affect the guidance on revenue. Probably the most material one is the spot price.
Thank you, Mr. Tulebayev. There is one more question coming in from Anna Antonova at J.P. Morgan. When do you plan to share more details about the data development strategy for 2025-2034?
If you have anything in particular, feel free to address us via email. We will give you the breakdown. With regards to overall description, I think it has been posted on our website, and we are always happy to answer and give any details during our non-deal roadshows or any other investor conferences we attend. But in general, I would say the value over volume remains as the cornerstone of our strategy, as it proved itself useful since our IPO. In a certain sense, it is safe to say that it is not a new strategy, but rather an adapted one. Uranium business remains our core priority and our core business.
Also, given the rising opportunities in the nuclear fuel cycle, we would like to expand our footprint in this segment, as well as give more attention to rare earths and rare metal segments, and increase and enhance our trading capacity through our trading arm in Switzerland. As with regards to ESG, I think we have an excellent track record that proves our commitment to ESG principles, and we would like to keep on implementing them in all our business operations going on forward. Thank you.
Thank you. There is one more question which just arrived. Given the volatility in stock markets, will we consider to benchmark more on term price assets? This question is from George Young.
Yes, as I mentioned before, we have something that is influencing on the stock market, and about the benchmark, I mean, the price, of course, we included in the table. You can read them in there.
Thank you. I think we do not have any written questions at this point. Operator, do you want to check if there are any questions that are coming from the conference line?
At the moment, there are also no further questions on the conference line.
Thank you. Well, if there is no question, I think we will be wrapping up our call. As always, if there are any additional questions that might come up, please feel free to email IR inbox at ir@kazatomprom.kz. As of now, I guess we will be closing this call.
Thank you, everyone, who spent time joining this call today. Of course, as my colleague said today, if there are any additional questions, we will be happy to have them. Then at the earliest, our convenience, we can set up another maybe call just to explain in a more detailed fashion the issues or the issues you would like to raise. Basically, that is it. Thank you, everyone, and have a good day.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for joining the call.