Good afternoon, and welcome to the Atalaya Mining Plc Q2 and H1 2023 financial results investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time by the Q&A tab situated in the right corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press Send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. The company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Alberto Lavandeira, CEO. Good afternoon to you, sir.
Going to go through the present. You have seen the results in the press release. At the end, to summarize, we had a good quarter. I would say a quarter with 14,200 tons of copper. Basically, it's setting us in the right target to get to our plans for around 53,000-55,000 tons of copper at the end of the year. All-in costs, All-in sustaining costs have been good. Have been much lower than we have had in the first quarter, and much lower, of course, than the equivalent quarter last year.
So far, it looks like we are fully on track to get to this production of around 54,000 tons of copper, with All-in sustaining costs between EUR 3 and EUR 3.20, likely in the low end of these costs, if things continue like they were. EBITDA this quarter has been around EUR 60 million, with a little bit lower than the first quarter, with better cash costs, and there were some known cash adjustments due to go to the QP quotational periods of previous quarters that have impacted the EBITDA. Even so, the EBITDA, the half of the year, around EUR 40 million, is quite a healthy one. One of the reasons of this is that the electricity prices have substantially lower than previous year, around 60% lower, and they continue to trend lower.
Right now in August, though, is still slightly higher than the previous months due to the holiday season in Spain and the lack of wind, but still much lower, substantially lower than they, they were in the, in the previous year. We continued to do some investments in, in the 2 main projects, which are the solar plant in, in our operation and the construction of the phase 1 of the E-LIX. Even so, after this, investment, so we could and paying back debt of around EUR 30 million, we continue to have a strong net cash position of close to EUR 70 million.
This was one of the reasons why after the meeting at the board, the board decided to declare an interim dividend for the first part of 2023, consistent with our policy between 30% and 50% of the free cash flow, and we decided to give another EUR 0.05 per share, and I will go over the details of payment a little bit later. Another important thing of this quarter was we finally delisted from Toronto. It was a unnecessary expense cost that we decided to, to remove because really it was not giving us any liquidity. From the assets point of view, from the construction point of view, we continued to, to construct, as I said before, E-LIX and the solar plant, and we have been giving some announcements, which were interesting. The first interesting.
The first ones were we, we announced the results of the APA of, of Rio Tinto. We also got some authorizations of projects, of Masa Valverde project, the environmental authorization, and also the environmental authorization to continue expansions of Rio Tinto, including Tenements Pond. The work in Touro is slow, it's continuing, permitting-wise. Related to, to Touro, we continue working with the water treatment at Touro, and the rivers are clean, and the news coming from that side, from that project, from the society and our stakeholders are always all very, very positive. Going a little bit into the details of this to the quarter, plant behaved normally at a, at a rate of close to 15.5 million tons per year.
Good recoveries of 87%, which were higher than previous quarters and getting back to our levels of 87%-88%. Copper production, as I said before, with decent concentrate grades, were around 14,000 tons. Even if we had a slightly grade, which was 0.4, which is probably slightly lower than we had expected, but this was compensated by the high recovery. As a result of that, the slightly lower sales, obviously, due to the lower copper prices. EBITDA I mentioned before, slightly lower due to this non-cash adjustments, but good operating cash flow of around EUR 20 million and left us with a net cash position, which was better than the previous quarter.
Of course, this results in a good cash position and good balance sheet, which you will see in the slide, slide 9. We had a cash position of around EUR 113 million and a net cash of around EUR 70 million, with a nice working capital surplus of EUR 81 million, even after these investments that we have been doing in E-LIX, in solar, plus exploration and plus the permit in October. Overall, I would say that we had a very good performance, and we continue to deliver in our plans. Part of this improvement came as a result of the decrease, the decrease of the electricity prices.
You will note, in slide 10, the decrease of the equivalent quarter of around EUR 300 per megawatt hour back in 2022, in the third quarter. We are now a little bit less than EUR 100 per megawatt hour. It's a huge decrease. This is one of the reasons why the results are better, the operating results are better, the financial results are better. Of course, the gas prices also have a reflection in other things like lime production and even explosives prices, where explosive prices have been decreasing from around EUR 150 to around EUR 1 per kilo. This is reflected in the detailed breakdown of cash costs that we see in slide 11.
We have been starting to give the breakdown of these costs, during the last few quarters, and you can see, comparing, with previous quarter and comparing with the full year, how the mining has been reduced, significantly, almost 10 cents per pound from equivalent quarter of last year, and that was due to the high diesel price, high explosives price. In the processing, that's plant treatment, is really where you can see the big difference. The cost of 0.82, it's significantly lower than what we had at 1.31 in the last year, and even lower than what we had in the first quarter. This is mainly due to the reduction in prices, slight reduction in prices in lime, but mainly, the reduction in the electricity price.
The rest have been other site, which is health and safety, administration, purchases, all these things, laboratory, the auxiliary services, water, are more or less constant, same, slightly lower than they used to be in the last year. Other, other than that, we, we can see that overall, we, we have a reduction in site operating costs of almost $0.50 per pound compared to previous year. Just to give you an idea, we are producing more or less 120 million pounds per year. This is equivalent to around $60 million, just this reduction in operating costs. Freight has also reduced a little bit due to the reduction in freight charges, $0.05. Overall, overall, all, all cash costs are $2.60, which are in the low end of our guidance.
I would remind those listening, that these cash costs, specifically in mining, include the capital cost of replacement of the mining fleet, which is taken care of by the mining contractor. This is something that not very often, and that mining companies have their own. Normally, mining companies have their own mining fleet, and they have to replace the fleet once in a while. We don't have that case. That normally, that's included in All-in sustaining costs, which also were substantially lower, again, around $0.50 per pound than previous year. Again, how this compare with others? Well, normally, we have this slide in the back end of the presentation. In this slide, we put All-in sustaining costs of peers, companies, based on public information on all of it.
In the left side of each of the columns is the quarter by quarter. So basically, more recent quarters are on the left side of each of the piles. One of the things you will notice is in the last 6 quarters, our all-in costs have been going down constantly. Unlike lots of other peers, where you can see that costs have been continuing to go higher, for whatever it is, for whatever reasons. This is something that we like to make some emphasis, because often, Atalaya is considered a high-cost producer, and we don't think we are not a low-cost producer, obviously, but we do wonderful things with what we have. This is a good comparison to see what you have in the market. How does it look this year?
Well, it looks normal, I would say. I won't say boring normal, but I would say normal. The copper grade, we're right now in the low end of the, of our guidance, but anyway, we are in the high end of the copper recovery, so at the end, these things are compensating one each other. We believe we are in the low end of cash costs. Cash cost will be closer to $2.60 and all-in cost, $3 or under, per pound. In theory, consistently under, under the, under our guidance, and the guidance of production will be around 54,000 tons of copper. Obviously, this is assuming that the electricity prices continue as they are.
It looks like the tendency is going down once the summer is out, except the recent days where, where the gas prices in Europe have jumped a little bit due to, to some uncertainty of, of supplies, the reality is that it looks like Europe, and specifically Spain, is, is already not reliant at all in the gas prices coming from Russia, and the, the stores are over 80% well before they were supposed to be before the, the, the winter. It looks like we're in a, in a good position. We will continue to, to, to invest in E-LIX and in exploration and in solar.
It looks like the capital costs of E-LIX is going higher due to several reasons, but mainly, being a new technology and being done in a very, I would say, in a way that's not fast-tracked due to being the technology being applied for the first time. We have a slight delay, which obviously, it means that we have a slightly higher, higher capital costs. Besides all this, as I said, the behavior of the company has been going quite well, so the board decided to give a dividend of EUR 0.05 per share, around 4 pence per share. The record date will be 25th of August, so a couple of weeks, and the payment will be more or less at the end of September.
We, we realize that, this is. We have just paid, the first part of the, of the- the last part of the, of the dividend of last year, just, just, days ago, weeks ago. We wanted to be consistent with what we did last year. The reason of this is that by Cyprus law, the dividend, the final dividend has to be approved by, by the AGM, which sets the date of this, this final payment, at the June approval. By the time you pay, you end up paying in, in August. We decided to, to declare interim dividend each 6 months, and then have the final dividend once we, once we know the, the final results of 2023. We continue to.
We continue with our policy, as we stated, of paying 30%-50% of the cash flow generated during the, the year. Unless there's investment in needed at certain time and short notice, we will continue with this, with this policy, of course. For 2023, I think for 2023, we have two things that we have to finish. First, finish with E-LIX. It's advancing. All the equipment is on site. They are assembling pipes, cable, lots of activity in the ground. Our target is to have some feed of concentrate before the end of the year. So likely to be in the Q4, and we are pushing and trying to Lain Technologies as much as we can.
In the case of the, the solar plant, we also have some delays with the final license and of, of Rio Tinto Village. Right now, there's lots of work going on on the ground, by installing the supports, the cables. We have all the equipment, all the transformer on site. Again, this solar plant is divided in two areas, the one in the north and one in the south. The one in the north is smaller, close to the plant, and we are targeting to start the connection of that at the end of the year, maybe worse, the first, first month of, of 2024. A small delay, but still advancing very well. Besides that, we continue to do all the studies and all the work, detail the work, detail permitting, to get San Ignacio into production as soon as possible.
San Ignacio, as you, you may recall, is, is basically the pushback of this pit that's seen in picture 17, in the left corner. In the bottom corner is just 1 drill rig, which we continue with, drilling with 3 rigs in Ossa Morena. Sorry, in Masa Valverde, 2 rigs in Ossa Morena and 1 rig in Rio Tinto East, and we will continue with this. A small slowdown in summer, but we will continue doing this due to the, to the effect, the, the restrictions of, of forest fires. They cannot do lots of things during this extreme heat wave that we have right now in, in Spain. Besides that, we will continue drilling normally, in the exploration sites. The right side is, is some expressions of Touro.
In Touro, the activities there are all related to engaging with the authorities. They're helping them with looking through the papers. All the papers have been presented, we are waiting to see some decision after the summer period. In summer, everything goes to sleep, at least in administration. So far, the reception of the project and the local support has been excellent, including including some public support by authorities and by associations recently in the newspapers. In summary, I've just gone through all these things. In summary, we still have a very busy year, our goal is to get our company in, on track-
to get to over 100,000 tons of copper produced, first, with the addition of production from some initial area from Rio Tinto, and second, with the addition of Touro, that can get us over 120,000 tons. We believe in the copper market. We believe that, that we are that the market will change. We know there's a slowdown in the consumption in China, from internal consumption, although the energy transition is requiring more and more copper, the stocks are low.
We see what's happening with big companies like Codelco going down, so we don't know when, but it's for sure it will happen, that there is a certain time where copper will have to go up, and significantly copper prices have to go up significantly to incentivize, new, new, new projects, either brownfield or, or, or, or greenfield. We are as, as, as part of that, we are one of the few, copper producers in, in London, and we continue with our goal to be listed in the, in the main market as soon as possible. We are doing all the work, and I believe there's a question about that at the, during the question and answer, and we will give you how that's is progressing.
For those of you that do not know much of about us, we are in Europe, stable, consistent, best practices. We have a growth pipeline, very clear. We have demonstrated that in the past years. We never stop. We have an excellent team that continue to deliver, continue to do always improvements in operation, in new installations, reduction of cost, exploring. Really, it is, it is a, a low, low-cost proposition and a low risk proposition on copper. With that, I would say that the best thing is to go to the question and answer.
Perfect. Alberto, thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab, which is situated on the top right-hand corner of your screen. Just while the company take a few minutes to review those questions submitted today, I'd like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via your investor dashboard. As you can see, we've received questions throughout today's presentation, and if I could just ask you to read out those questions and give response to where it is appropriate to do so. I'll pick up from you at the end.
If I may start reading some of the presentation we have received. What is delaying the transfer to the main FTSE exchange? I think I will pass this to Cesar, which is handling the contacts with lawyers and the sponsor bank, et cetera, and he can give you all the details.
Thank you, Alberto, and hello, everyone. I, we have no delays on, on the process. I, I think it's been very clear from the company to say that being listed in the main market, it's been or on a strategic objective for the company, a good goal to achieve. We, we had over the last year, we had some issues by migrating the company to the UK, and that's, you know, for some tax reason, and that's why we ca- call off that process. We continue with the process and to be listed in, in the main market. The people need to understand that there are some complexities on, on the different work streams that we, we need to work on. As Alberto mentioned, we are working on it.
g very hard to get it done as soon as possible, and there is some complexity that we need to work on, but I wouldn't expect any delay. Things are progressing quite well, and hopefully, we can give you a little bit more information, detailed information, once we, you know, continue our discussion with the regulator and with the different work stream that we have.
Thank you, Cesar. There's another question saying: How much production should we expect from E-LIX in 2023 minimal, and 2024, will it be mostly zinc or some copper, too? I think, to be fair, in 2023, I will be very happy if we simply start treating concentrates and get on top of my table some ingots of zinc or cathodes of copper. Initially, we will start with zinc. We'll start treating, we have already identified some areas with zinc and copper, where we will be floating and producing a global concentrate. From this global concentrate, copper zinc, we will leach out the zinc without touching the copper or minimal touching the copper, and that copper will be sold, and the zinc will be sold as a by-product. In 2023, due to the delays that they have, I think minimal.
In 2024, in 2024, I would say that depends on how they, when they start full steam. I would say that mostly will be zinc, maybe some copper, but mostly will be zinc, because that's where we will concentrate. I would be happy if we get to the, to the range of 70% of the, say, 7,000 tons, 8,000 tons of zinc. I would be very happy with that. At the end, where this value, the value of this plant comes from, is to be able to recover zinc that otherwise is not recoverable. When we have zinc, copper, we're able to have much higher recoveries of both in places where we have very complex metallurgy.
Specifically, the there are some deposits in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, some of them owned by us, where the grain is very fine, and when you, when you have to grind to down to 20 micros or less in order to recover copper, and sometimes even the copper, you can only get 70% or si- 60% of copper. Using E-LIX, we have demonstrated it can be done. This is the main goal of, of it. By the way, this, this plant that we are, we are building, it's, it's it has the capacity to treat, 3,000 tons of copper and 10,000 tons of, of, of zinc. The reality is with minimum, minimum additions, we'll be able to treat double than that.
The space, the building, the CCMs, the transformers, the electrolysis, everything except the tanks and, well, filters, like the plantation tanks, are all oversized to almost double. With a minimal investment, we will be able to produce more, treat more. Initially, answering the question will be mostly zinc, copper. If we do copper, it will be only to test it and demonstrate it. Another thing is, what are your latest thoughts on potential for regional consolidation in a very Iberian Pyrite Belt? Well, my latest thoughts. My latest thoughts have always been the same. It's not latest, it's really what I believe it should happen in some way.
There are several projects going on and several companies going on. I think eventually, we will have to see what are the synergies of each part. We have a couple of companies in Portugal. We have 2 or 3 producing projects in Huelva, in Spain and in Sevilla, another 2 that can come. Eventually, I think it will probably just be doing something together. I think 2024 will be interesting year, especially if we get the technology of E-LIX working as we expect, because certainly that will open. Let's say that will open the doors on doing something together, with neighbors. There's one question here, that there has been some press that there can be a situation where too hot can be bad for solar. Any risk here for us? It is true.
It is true that when it's too hot, the performance of the solar panels is lower than in clear spring days or. Simply a smaller performance. For example, in Spain right now, if you look at the anyone looks at the charts, Spain will probably be producing during sunny days, around 70% from solar. There's no risk, simply the performance is lower when it's very hot. That depends a lot on the wind and depends on the situation. So far, Spain is producing normally and quite well. What impact will weak US dollar have on the company in the future? Well, it. Our operating costs are around 70% denominated in euros. The exchange rate of dollar in euros has a direct influence with us.
Depending on how is, how is the, the, the exchange rate euro to dollar, a weak euro is better for us in 70% of the cases. That will, whatever the iteration of the US dollar, will probably mean higher operating costs for us. Having said that, we also have to look at what would happen with the metal prices, because normally, there is a correlation with that, with the metal prices. Normally, metal prices go up when those things happen. Another question is, our debt situation is very strong. There is a chance that some of our competitors may struggle. Any talks advancing with possible targets, who may not have as a strong balance sheet?
Well, we, we, we continue to, to look at targets in Spain, in Europe, and in other places of the world, provided it makes sense. We have not only we have a balance, cash, a strong balance sheet, we have especially, we have a healthy position from a debt point of view, because we don't have a project debt, and we don't have royalties or streams. This, yes, it's an advantage, and when discussing with potential acquisition targets, this, together with our demonstrated capability to get things done with minimum capital cost, has been a plus, and we will try to, to continue using that for an to our advantage. So far, we have not closed anything, but we continue having talks always, always with targets. Provided the, the right, the right price.
We, we don't like to overpay. Another question is, can you give us a split of CapEx spending during the quarter on the E-LIX and solar projects? Cesar, do you have the details there, in front of you? I have it also, but I have to open them.
Yes, I do. For the solar plant, we spent around EUR 2.8 million during the quarter, and for E-LIX, EUR 2.1 million. These are the amount that we spent during the quarter on solar and E-LIX.
There's another question, interesting question: We appreciate the dividend, but with the share price so low to what you think, what do you think about, to what do you think the company is worth? Do you switch to share buybacks? This is something that we have discussed on the board, and it's, it's a really, it's a good point, because we could buy our shares back, because there's good investment. There was lots of discussion, and we thought that one of the pros would be that we will drive the limited liquidity. There is. One of the reasons why our share doesn't move is that people that hold it don't want to sell at this price. Yeah, we have thought on that, but so far we decided not to do it for the moment.
Another question say, listed in other markets, where is the thinking now? UK, Spain. Are you worried that dual listed can cause a negative effect on share price through arbitration of dual listed shares or of dual listed share class? BHP had this on a grand scale for years. Do you, Cesar, you want to get to, you know, thinking of UK and Spain, the advantage and disadvantage of each?
Yes, we're looking at all the options. As you might be aware of, we are currently a Cypriot entity now being listed in the main market as we are trying to pursue. Being incorporated in Cyprus might have some issues to be included in this, in the FTSE Russell Index. This is why we're looking to move the company to other location, where at least we're trying to understand what the options are. If we migrate the company to Spain, as an example, we will be able to be listed in the main market and be included in the FTSE Russell Index. This is only if you're not listed in Spain.
If you're dual listed in Spain and in the UK, and you are a Spanish incorporated entity, you might have some limitations to be included in the FTSE. At the end of the day, the goal, the main goal is to be listed in, in the main market, to be included in the FTSE Index, to provide more liquidity to the shares and, hopefully help the share price to go up. This is what we, you know, looking all these, options. For the time being, the project, as is currently being, progressing on, is, continuing, be listed in the main market and, looking the possibility of migrating the company to another Europe country. But yeah, but, but that, that's the, you know, the thinking about the dual listing.
You really need to be very cautious in the, in terms about being listed in another country, if you want to be included in the FTSE, which I think it will be good for the company.
Thank you. There's another question here: Can you provide some more detail on permitting status to begin mining at San Ignacio? How is the process expected to back up the production next year? Well, the time with permits, you never know. We have submitted the, the small modifications of the mining of the pit, the moving of the road, which is, is, has gone through public consultation. We believe, what are the things needed there? We need to move electric line, we need to move the road, we need to get a permit to mine, specifically there. We believe we could get into some mining for stripping even this year and, or early part of next year. How much is that going to impact the copper production of next year? I really don't know. Not much being the first year.
I would say, not much. How do you think about the timeline for total approval? Is it the next 12 months or 5 years? More like 5 years. No. Certainly will be less than 12 months, without any question. Right now, in fact, due to some changes in the laws that have happened, in theory, the mining authority should provide an environment impact statement within the next 6 months of receiving the papers. Even with delays that are created by the lots of questions by the anti-mining groups that try to slow down the process, always. For example, last time we were over 1 year in public information, when it should have been only 1 month. The way things are going, I think we'll be certainly there in the next 12 months.
What will you expect the impact of San Ignacio in 23, 24? I think, as I said before, in 23, only moving some, some waste. In 24, probably something, but I cannot tell you how much in production. I will guess a little bit. Our target will be to try to get some more high grade sooner rather than later in 24, but I cannot give you the numbers right now. On exploration activities, can you please give me the detail of the work you have been doing in H1? What will the exploration programs are going forward? Where are you seeing the most potential to add value in the business to exploration? That's an interesting question because we are not doing infill drilling at any site.
We have some good grades in Masa Valverde, copper and zinc. What we are doing is checking. This will not change the needle. What we are doing is risky exploration at Masa Valverde, checking two lateral zones, two parallel zones to Masa Valverde, which are called Campanario, another one is called Mojarra. In all of them, we have got sulfides. Some are, are better grades than others, and it's a matter of following these kind of mineralized levels. The, the good thing here is that we have proven that we have proven that the, the geophysics system, especially Fixed Loop EM ground level, works well, combined with gravity, and we are systematically testing.
Sometimes we only intersect pyrite, sometimes it's all as two spots, sometimes it's just pyrite in the, in the, in the shales, but this is the way. Potential. I think the, the, the best potential is to find another deposit like has been done in the parallel belts. I mean, there have been new discoveries. One place called Elvida, another one called Magdalena, which is a major world-class deposit, which was only few, few kilometers away from existing known deposits. It's a matter of, I would say, a little bit persistence and luck. We have EUR 10 million in exploration budget, and we've recently hired the former exploration manager that was responsible of several discoveries in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, and we will continue, that way.
Once we get the permits of Touro, we also intend to start a big exploration program there, because mineralization remains open in basically all the directions. Does Atalaya have any assets outside of Spain left over the EMED days? Nothing left. We still have some shares of Kefi Mining that the previous management of EMED decided to invest, self-invest, and basically the value is asymptotically towards zero, so it's going bad. Besides that, we don't have anything. Could Cesar give some little more color on the tax issues with moving to the main market and a firmer timeline? Cesar, I think you have the responded, but I guess you can.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just to be clear, there, there are not tax issues to move to the main market. The tax issues arrived when we tried to migrate the company from Cyprus to the UK. That was basically as a result that the UK law doesn't admit to our domiciliation process, and therefore, we need to incorporate a UK entity, and that UK entity would make an offer to buy all the shares of the Cypriot entity. That offer will trigger some taxes in Spain to all the shareholders of Atalaya Mining PLC. Again, that. This is why, the reason why we call off the process of migrating the company from Cyprus to the UK. There is no question on that.
Migrating the company from Cyprus to Spain has no tax issues, and listing the move up from AIM to the main market has no tax issue. There's no tax for the company. We don't have any tax issue for the current project, and all the taxes were related to the UK migration, which is now abandoned.
Okay. What's the relationship with, with the lawyer, eco-lawyer that came to AGM once in London? We invited her to see the dams, and is she now a partner rather than a foe? Well, I think they have kind of forgotten us. They have given up. They always, they always complain. Even they complained when we were looking for the permits of Touro, of E-LIX. They always try to complain through the administrative process, not, not anymore through any environmental reason, because really there is no reasons. I think they kind of. We are not a target anymore. What is the current status regarding Touro project? What are the upcoming milestones and any change in view on the probability of receiving the permits in the project?
Look, I've been told by, personally, that we will get the permits. For me, it's a matter of when, not when. Unfortunately, the timing with politicians and civil servants is very slow. We have had elections in Spain twice, municipal and national, which create a kind of uncertainty. The municipal elections made some changes in the high level at the Xunta de Galicia, the regional government, because the former president, the former minister, equivalent to the Minister of Industry, was a candidate for one province and had to leave, and he was substituted by a young lady. This lady, we have had contacts with her, and she, she seems to be quite supportive.
Simply asked us a little bit of time to get through the file, told her that everything had heard was very positive. Milestones, we expect to receive some news in September, if to see if our project is accepted as a project of strategic interest. If this is the case, the timelines for permitting and lots of other things are reduced. If that's not accepted, it doesn't mean anything. It simply means that it goes through the normal route. What's the next milestone? Is starting the public information of the project. In theory, should be quite straightforward because in the last time we presented the papers, we had 15 reports received from administration, 13 were positive and 2 were questionable, and based on these 2, we received a negative environment and by declaration.
These two departments now are totally positive, and they have been explained the changes, and they are keen to give a, a, a positive report. I don't see any reason why it would be a no, at all. So I think the pros- the probabilities are extremely high. The timing is, is, is the difficult part because the anti-mining groups, anti-mining or anti-development or anti everything, they're also opposing, for example, windmills, even although wind is considered a very environmental friendly generation. They're opposing using the legal, the legal, the, the small corners of the law, trying to delay the installation of, of parks. They are simply people that are trying to slow things, and this is something that's worrying them, the local administration, because it's just collapsing the, collapsing the administration, the, the civil servants.
It's something we have to live with, and in the administration, they are putting in place new laws to streamline permitting and hoping that they give some push to this, all this permitting, not only to us, to all the rest of activities. I like this one. Your current target to be GBP 1 million market cap? Of course, I maintain it. That's the minimum. I don't know why we're not much more. There's another question saying: Anything management can do to increase liquidity? Trafigura, the Chinese are supportive shareholders, but lack of liquidity keeps shares undervalued. Well, as you know, the Chinese shareholder has disappeared now, and that has been placed into institutions. Now we only have Trafigura, which is 22%, and it's very passive.
The rest are institutions, but nobody wants to sell. I think the liquidity is, is all coming from private hands, and once in a while, some higher volumes when some institution wants to buy. Well, we are doing things. We are starting to see investors, family offices in the U.K., in Europe, in Switzerland, starting in September, because I think the moment we create more buyers that are, that are able to see the value, we- the shares will move. E-LIX, obviously, is, we are very excited with this. Are there any other processes that we can consider investing in? Well, not that I am aware. This thing of E-LIX is kind of unique and especially unique for our, for our purposes and for our, our deposit.
Is the tails facility expansion that we intend to progressing as expected and on budget? For how long will the TSF have capacity? Yes, this is as progressing normally, it's totally on budget. We have, with the current permits, around 10 years of space. Having said that, we will soon start the permitting of a new tails facility, downstream of the existing one, to be able to hold more capacity, and it will be installed in a valley, in a narrow valley, which will reduce the CapEx for the future. That one will not have a rush to get permitted, but certainly will mean a lower, a higher capacity for over 150 million tons, and especially, a lower capital and operating costs.
I have two other questions that came through mail, which are normally we don't answer, but I will answer them. Touro. The commentary is the same. Just wondering what has changed in the ground in the last six months. Are we any closer to a solution, and what are indicators? Well, yes, I mentioned that the main change here is the attitude of the local population. For example, just to give you an idea, the last month, we have been given the a kind of symbolic prize, symbolic trophy of the Gold Clam by the Fishermen Association of the river mouth, of the Río Ulla, which is a river that goes under Touro, receives the water of Touro.
Due to the efforts of cleaning the water and transparency and so on. These same people were some of the people opposing in the past. Right now, we are considered friends, and we are considered doing a fantastic job of cleaning the waters of the past, and they don't see us as an enemy at all. This thing is transparent to the local authorities. We are sponsoring the football team of Santiago, and they have nice words to us, and we are asked to be in this forums of green economy and copper economy, with along with people with car factories, which are happen to be Stellantis has a big car factory in Galicia.
The fact that we are seen as a company in the for the future, including presentations with the president of the Junta and the minister, I think is good. I mean, the relation is fantastic, and simply, they tell us that simply they are overloaded with papers. That's the only reason of the delays, and nothing major. The last one is, E-LIX looks like it's taking longer and costing more. What does it, maybe approaching EUR 30 million? What will be a good result for, for the, for second part of the year? Well, for me, a good result would be to, as I say, to have some, some concentrate going through and demonstrating that the leach as well, as we have seen in the lab and in the pilot plant.
Having some ingots produced of high purity metals, of zinc and cathodes of copper produced in my office, show them, tell it, and yes, it was, it's going to cost more, as I said. Between our involvement and things that we have done, and support, and loans, and accounting for everything, probably, yes, approaching $30 million. The last question I have here: What is Atalaya ranking as a copper producer in Spain? Obviously, obviously, many are not listed, so I think, well, there are not many producing companies now because there used to be one, which was Las Cruces, which is First Quantum, but they stopped the production this year.
The, in June, I think they, they stopped total production. The next phase requires a big investment, producing around 40,000 tons of copper. The biggest producer is Sandfire, with MATSA Mining Complex, which produces around 80,000 tons of copper. Then there is a small producer in the north part of Spain, with around 10,000 tons of copper, and lots of other projects, but not big producers anyway. In Spain, yes, we are the second. Well, I think I don't, I don't see any more questions. I will pass it back to, to you.
Alberto, César, thank you very much. I think you've addressed all those questions from investors, of course, the company will review all the questions submitted today and will publish their responses on the Investor Meet Company company platform. Just before redirecting investors to provide you their feedback, which is particularly important to the company, Alberto, could I just ask you for a few closing comments?
Well, yes, thank you. As usual, thank you for your continued support. I like to see the some names in, in the questions. We continue to deliver. It's hard because, it's a little bit frustrating to see that the share price does not respond and the, this last lack of liquidity. Maybe it's, it's our fault, but I think it's eventually it will come. I think people still are thinking that the, that the, electricity prices are still high, and we will continue to having high costs, and we just demonstrate the, the opposite. We will continue to perform. We will deliver what we are doing. This year, we'll end up having some, this thing of E-LIX, which is going to be transformational for the company, and hopefully, we can also advance, Touro, very close to the production.
We're in a good path, and thank you very much for your support and being there. I mean, in one side, I hate not having liquidity. On the other side, I see, well, nobody wants to sell at this price, so everybody must be happy. Thanks a lot to all of you.
Alberto, César, thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but time should be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Atalaya Mining Plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.