Hello, and welcome to the annual general meeting of Shareholders of Perpetua Resources Corp. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. If you participate in today's meeting and disclose personal information, you will be deemed to consent to the recording, transfer, and use of same.
If you disclose personal information of another person in today's meeting, you will be deemed to represent and warrant to Computershare and the corporation that you first obtained all required consents for the disclosure, recording, transfer, and use of such personal information from all appropriate persons before your disclosure. During the meeting, we'll have a question and answer session. You can submit questions or comments at any time by clicking on the Q&A icon. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Marcelo Kim. The floor is yours.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Perpetua Resources Corp annual general meeting of Shareholders. My name is Marcelo Kim, and I'm the Chair of the Board. I'm speaking to you from New York. With me at their respective locations in Washington, D.C., and Vancouver, Canada, are Jon Cherry, our President and CEO, and Lisa Thompson, our Corporate Secretary.
Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining today. My name is Jon Cherry, and I'm the President and CEO of Perpetua. I look forward to providing an update on the company at the end of the meeting today.
Instructions on how to ask questions and the voting procedure will appear on your screen. As with any technology, unexpected glitches may occur, but our service providers for this platform at Computershare are very experienced at running this type of meeting and will be helping us out as needed.
I will now call the meeting to order. I will act as chairman of this meeting, and I have asked Lisa Thompson, Corporate Secretary of the company, to act as secretary of this meeting, and Pam Hosfield of Computershare Investor Services to act as Scrutineer. Will the secretary please advise us as to the notices relative to the meeting?
I have a copy of the Advance Notice of Meeting and record date filed on SEDAR on February 22nd, 2024 , and the Notice of Meeting, Definitive Proxy Statement, and Instrument of Proxy relating to the meeting and proof as to them being mailed to shareholders on or about April 11th, 2024 . These documents are available for any shareholder to read, and I now ask the chairman to table these documents.
I will now table a copy of the Advance Notice, Notice, Definitive Proxy Statement, Instrument of Proxy, and the proof of mailing, and direct that they be kept by the secretary with the records of this meeting. Registered shareholders and proxy holders may address the meeting when there is a call to discuss a motion before the meeting. Should you like to address the chair on any motion, please type in your question or comment in the message section. If there is any discussion or question, the secretary will read the question aloud. I will now ask the secretary to read the Scrutineer's report.
The Scrutineer's interim report has been received. It shows that there are a total of 1 shareholder present online via Computershare's virtual meeting platform, representing 1,667 shares. 95 shareholders represented by proxy, representing 47,340,686 shares. Therefore, there are a total of 96 shareholders holding 47,342,353 shares represented at the meeting. This represents approximately 73.83% of the issued and outstanding share capital of Perpetua Resources Corp, which was 64,123,456 common shares on the record date.
A quorum for the transaction of business at a meeting of shareholders of the company is two shareholders present in person, virtually registered and logged into Computershare, or represented by proxy, representing at least 33 1/3% of the shares entitled to be voted. The report of the Scrutineer indicates that a quorum is present. As notice has been given in the proper manner, I declare this meeting regularly and duly called and constituted for the transaction of business. Only shareholders as of the record date of March 22, 2024, are entitled to vote at this meeting.
We will conduct the votes on the matters before us by a poll. On a poll, every shareholder entitled to vote on the matter has one vote in respect of each share entitled to be voted on the matter and held by that shareholder. For today's meeting, only registered shareholders who have not voted will need to vote via the polling system. Any registered shareholder who has submitted their proxy will already have their vote included in the proxy count. We will be concluding on the motions at the end of the meeting, once we have been through all of the agenda items.
Voting polls on the agenda items for today's meeting will be closed altogether at the end of the formal proceedings of this meeting. The first item of business is a presentation of the financial statements of the company and the report of the auditor thereon for the financial year ended December 31, 2023. The financial statements, auditor's report, and related Management's Discussion and Analysis were filed on SEDAR and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission through our annual report on Form 10-K on March 26th, 2024.
And were mailed to those shareholders who had previously requested to receive financial statements pursuant to National Instrument 51-102, and additional copies of the financial statements are available through the secretary and online on www.sedar.com or at www.sec.gov. Unless someone specifically requests, the auditor's report will not be read. Unless there is any discussion regarding the financial statements and auditor's report, I shall consider them received by the shareholders as submitted to the meeting.
There is no discussion at this time.
We will now proceed with the election of Directors of the company. The proxy statement contains the names of management's nominees for the Board of Directors, and those nominees are Chris Robison, Alex Sternhell, Bob Dean, Andrew Cole, Rich Haddock, Laura Dove, Jeff Malmen, Jon Cherry, Jessica Largent, and myself, Marcelo Kim. Each of the nominees is either present at the meeting or is previously consented to act as a Director of the company.
In order to be eligible for election as a Director of the company at this meeting, a person must be nominated in accordance with the procedures set forth in the company's Advance Notice Policy, which was adopted by the Board of Directors of the company and became effective on April 4, 2013, and was ratified by shareholders at the company's 2013 annual general meeting or in accordance with U.S. proxy rules.
Other than in respect of management's nominees named in the Proxy Statement for this meeting, no person has followed the procedures set out in the company's Advance Notice Policy or the U.S. proxy rules, which are required in order to entitle a person to nominate Directors at this meeting. Accordingly, no further nominations will be accepted.
The majority voting policy of the company previously adopted by the Board of Directors requires that in an uncontested election of Directors, any nominee in respect of whom a greater number of votes withheld than votes for are validly cast, will immediately tender his or her resignation to the Board of Directors of the company. Should that occur, the board's decision as to accept or reject the resignation will be disclosed to the public following the meeting. As the nominations are closed, I move that the persons nominated in the Proxy Statement be elected as the Directors of Perpetua Resources Corp. Is there any discussion on the motion?
There is no discussion at this time.
As there is no discussion, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. Would all shareholders please enter your votes in Computershare? The next item of business is the fixing of the number of Directors of the company at 10. I move that the number of Directors of the company be fixed to 10. Is there any discussion on the motion?
There is no discussion at this time.
As there is no discussion, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. Would all shareholders please enter your votes in Computershare? The next item of business is the ratification of the appointment of the auditor at a remuneration to be set by the Directors, and I move that the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent auditor for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, at a remuneration to be set by the Directors, be ratified. Is there any discussion on the motion?
There is no discussion at this time.
As there is no discussion, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. Would all shareholders please enter your votes in Computershare? The next item of business is the approval of the share increase amendment under the company's Omnibus Incentive Plan.
I move that the amendment to increase the total number of common shares issuable under the Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan by four million common shares from 4,280,530 common shares to 8,280,530 common shares, representing approximately 6.2% of the number of issued and outstanding common shares as the date of the company's proxy statement, be approved. Is there any discussion on the motion?
There is no discussion at this time.
As there is no discussion, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. Would all shareholders please enter your votes into Computershare?
If you have not already voted, please complete the electronic ballot on Computershare. We will give you one more minute. The polls are now closed.
The Scrutineer has provided their preliminary report of the results of voting at today's meeting. I'm advised by the Scrutineer that greater than the requisite majority of the votes cast have been voted in favor of all resolutions, and I therefore declare that all motions are carried and all resolutions adopted. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the business brought before the meeting.
On behalf of Perpetua Resources Corp, I wish to thank you for attending, and if there are no objections, I shall declare this meeting terminated. I will now invite Jon Cherry, President and CEO, to give you an update on Perpetua Resources and its activities.
Thank you, Marcelo, and hello, hello, everyone. Thank you again for joining us today. I was appointed Perpetua's CEO two months ago, to lead the Stibnite Gold Project in the next phase, and I believe the company... and I believe in the company's vision to develop one of the highest-grade open-pit gold mines in the U.S. while providing the country with the source of the critical mineral antimony and restoring an abandoned brownfield site. So before moving on, I'll quickly point out our disclaimer on, the next couple of slides.
So why Perpetua? Perpetua Resources, investment thesis is stronger than ever. First and foremost, we plan to redevelop one of the largest, lowest cost and long-life gold projects in the U.S. The Stibnite Gold Project has economics with 15-year reserve life and a payback period of less than three years based on our 2020 Feasibility Study. We have a valuable byproduct in antimony, positioning the Stibnite Gold Mine as an emerging national strategic asset. Our project is in one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world, and we have strong community support.
Today, with the letter of interest from the US Export-Import Bank for up to $1.8 billion in project financing, we see multiple pathways to move the project forward, and our team is excited about the next chapter. Our competitive advantage. Gold drives the economics of our 100% owned Stibnite Gold Project, and it's the antimony that will enable the unlocking of the value for all stakeholders.
Our favorable All-In Sustaining Costs profile positions our project in the lowest quartile of the global cost curve. We'll provide the only domestic mine source of the critical mineral antimony, the market for which is dominated by Russia and China. We'll deliver net environmental benefits based on the comprehensive scientific analysis that was, that went into the Environmental Impact Statement. In the next few slides, I'll touch on our project highlights. First, on the gold reserves.
With 4.8 million ounces of reserves, the Stibnite Gold Project is the largest gold reserve in the contiguous United States, not owned by a major producer. In total, we have 6 million ounces of measured and indicated resources, with an additional 1.2 million ounces of inferred resources. Not shown on this slide are the 148 million pounds of antimony reserves and 206 million pounds of measured and indicated resources. On our costs, Stibnite will be powered by one of the lowest carbon emission grids in the nation.
Costs are expected to be in the lowest quartile of the global cost curve, driven by clean, low-cost hydropower, a low strip ratio, and an antimony byproduct credit of $70 per ounce. Life of mine, All-In Sustaining Costs will average less than $650 per ounce, and in the first four years, our All-In Sustaining Costs will be less than $450 per ounce. Our production profile, low costs, and robust cash flows, combined with our current valuation, present a compelling opportunity for new investors.
Using our base $1,600 per ounce gold price, the project has an NPV of greater than $1.3 billion, using a 5% discount rate. We have good leverage to higher gold prices, where the NPV increases to approximately $2.4 billion at $2,100 per ounce gold. Based on our current market cap, we are trading at nearly the widest discount to NAV, despite achieving significant milestones and having a clear path forward. So permitting and next steps. A significant milestone was reached when the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement was released for public comment in October 2022.
Importantly, our proposed mine plan was identified as the preferred alternative, which is a term used by agencies to let the public know which action they are leaning towards selecting as final. Now that the public comment period is over, the US Forest Service is focused on wrapping up the final EIS and draft Record of Decision, which we still expect by the end of this quarter, the second quarter of 2024, and a final ROD is anticipated by the end of this year in 2024. With the final stage of permitting ahead and various pathways to financing the project, we expect a construction decision as early as next year.
So what are some of the near-term catalysts? I've already covered several of our recent achievements. I would also highlight that we've received Department of Defense awards of over $70 million to study antimony, progress permitting, and pre-construction readiness. I also mentioned earlier the indication of up to $1.8 billion we received from the US Export-Import Bank.
It's clear that a whole government approach is being applied to secure American antimony, reduce reliance on China, and promote American jobs. It's also clear that Washington's interest in securing critical mineral supply chain, specifically antimony, is growing. Perpetua Resources and Stibnite Gold Project are ready to be part of that solution. Looking forward, we have some very exciting milestones.
We also expect a valuation re-rate. Despite all our recent achievements in near-term catalysts, we continue to be significantly undervalued relative to our peer group, with pre-permitting projects trading at a multiple above where we are trading. We expect a significant re-rating to occur as we advance through the permitting process, but also believe there's an opportunity today with investors who recognize the strategic value of our asset for its antimony and who value companies with ESG principles that are the foundation to the, their business plans.
This is a unique American opportunity. Perpetua Resources is unique because we bring solutions and have an emerging national strategic asset. We have a large, low cost and high-grade gold mine. We will offer the only domestic mine source of the critical mineral antimony, and we will use mine development to fund restoration at an abandoned mine site. We accomplished much since our last AGM, and I'm really excited for our future. Thank you for your continued support and investment in our project.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.