All right, hello everyone, and thank you for continuing to join us throughout the day here at the Lytham Partners Fall 2025 Investor Conference. Once again, my name is Robert Blum, Managing Partner here at Lytham. Our next presentation today will come from Solaris Resources, and presenting will be Matthew Rowlinson, the company's Chief Executive Officer. As a reminder, the company trades under the ticker SLSR on the NYSE and SLS on the TSX. Matthew, thanks so much for your participation. The floor is all yours.
Thank you very much, Robert, and good morning to everyone, and thanks for the introduction again. It gives me great pleasure to introduce you or reintroduce you to the Solaris story today. This is a copper growth story that is globally significant. However, before I begin, I would like to pose a few questions to this audience here today. Can you find long-life, large-scale copper projects and opportunities in the world today? Where are these opportunities located, and are they in investable jurisdictions? Where are they positioned on this cash curve, and will they be able to navigate the downward cycles? Do you have the social license to operate? Is the management team competent? What does the balance sheet look like? Just looking at the forward-looking and cautionary statements, I take them as being read.
Just to introduce you to the Warintza story and the Warintza Project, the Solaris flagship project is a tier one, global scale, near-term, multi-generational copper porphyry deposit with no attachment of a major in the equity stack, which provides strategic flexibility going forward. It has a global scale resource, and we are located, as I said, in the southeastern corridor of Ecuador. We are talking about 4.3 billion tons of resource in the mineral resource update of 2024. That will expand in 2025 when we do put out our mineral resource estimate during quarter four alongside the PFS. It has high grade at surface and a very low strip ratio profile throughout the life of mine. Accessing the ore body is very easy.
The strip ratio profile is prolific, and we've got to look at this project from a strip-adjusted grade perspective, which ranks as a standout in the world of copper today. It's a robust economic opportunity that combines both scale and grade in a low capital-intensive mining geography and jurisdiction. It's located in the quartile one of the cash cost curve. It has great revenue diversification coming from molybdenum as well as gold. About 18% of the revenues come from our byproduct credits, which is a great diversification of the revenue flows, as well as a plus 50-year life of mine, which does give a significant scale and sees through multiple different cycles. If you look at a cycle that's being seven to eight years long, I will touch on the capital intensity in a few slides further. There's no attachments to a major in the equity stack.
This is one of the very few projects in copper that does not have an attachment to a major, which is fundamental from a strategic perspective and partnering perspective when the timing is potentially right for this project. We are fully funded to an FID decision. We recently raised $200 million, a finance package of $200 million from Royal Gold, which provides funding all the way through to an FID decision at the back end of 2026. This is fundamental because there's no dilution from a shareholder perspective all the way through to 2026, and this encompasses all the value accretive activities that the company needs to complete to get to that timing. Ecuador is a very favorable mining jurisdiction. It's an open economy and one of the lowest combined tax and royalty rates in Latin America. We also do have the social license to operate.
We've signed multiple impacts and benefits agreements with the communities and the host communities up until today. The most recent of those have been signed in 2024. We have municipal, provincial, and federal government endorsements, and just last week we published an updated press release where we signed an influential agreement with the , one of the Shuar federations in the area, which is located in the area of interest. We have a very experienced team with diverse skill sets covering all the critical elements required at this stage of the Solaris Resources. project, and this is a fundamental point in terms of investing in companies and seeing through the next phase of development and taking the project forward to accrete value for shareholders.
Just touching on the management team, again, the skill sets are covered in terms of where we are staged at a project, and certainly as we move the project forward, these skill sets will be utilized to ensure that development path and runway and de-risking activities are all completed. There's a proven track record of success in mining projects globally. We have extensive operational experience in Latin America. We have expertise in corporate structuring and financing, and also many of the people around the table have known the Solaris story and been part of the Solaris story for a very long period of time, and certainly that wealth of information and knowledge is very influential in taking this project forward. Just to recap, and as Robert said, we do trade on the TSX as well as the New York Stock Exchange.
We have a market capitalization of about $900 million, and certainly we, as investors and insiders, have invested over $200 million since the start of the project. The management has deep alignment with the shareholders, and we have a culture of ownership within the management team. Recently, as I mentioned before, the $200 million of Royal Gold financing comprised both the gold stream and a NSR royalty. It did not provide any encumbrance on this project, but gives it long-term liquidity all the way through to a final investment decision, and all the next phase of de-risking activities all the way to the end of 2026 is covered by that financing. Non-dilutionary in all respects. From a share distribution perspective, we have managers and insiders accounting for approximately 41% of the shareholding today, institutions holding about 40%, and retail at about 19%.
As I mentioned to you, with this global scale and strategic flexibility, this is one of the very unique projects in the world today when you're talking about the size, quantum, and life of this project. It boasts a large-scale resource with no cornerstone attachment to a major. I'll reflect on that in 2024, which is about 4.3 billion tons. The strip ratio profile is prolific. We've got to look at this project from a strip-adjusted grade perspective, and that is standout in terms of what this does represent and the flexibility it provides in mine planning and sequencing. Pushing towards that capital intensity and that low capital intensity, the access to the ore body is also fundamental. We are updating the mineral resource estimate, as I mentioned, in quarter three of 2025.
The drilling program will encompass the 82,000 meters of drilling that we curtailed in 2024 and into 2025, and certainly that will bolster that resource base, as well as include some of the portions of the western area of the deposit. The annual copper production, as you will see on that slide, we do not have Warintza here, but what is very important to note is that there are only eight of the top 40 greenfield projects of scale and size that have no attachment to a major. Warintza, when we do put out the PFS in quarter four of this year, you will note that we do sit right at the top of that annual copper production curve.
It is highly accretive from the perspective of tons to market, and as I said, from a copper equivalent standpoint, both the molybdenum as well as the gold credits bolster that copper equivalent production very favorably. From a strategic perspective, we do have great optionality having no attachment to a major in that equity stack. Again, touching on the overburden and the strip ratio profile, the Warintza ore body sits very close to surface, driving potential cost savings and environmental benefits. There's minimal overburden, which reduces the potential costs. The access to the ore body, this pre-stripping, we can access the ore body at a very low cost. The ore body sits very close to the surface. Again, phase one of this ore body is very high grade, as you'll see down on the bottom right-hand chart. The pink color within the ore body is very high grade.
That resembles the phase I, and the large flow of cash that will be coming out of the ore body immediately is optimization for mine plans due to the homogeneous ore body that runs throughout the life of the mine. As you can see on the strip ratio benchmarking, the median strip ratio is two times. We do sit well within the lower part of that graph on the left-hand side, and that is, as I said, runs throughout the life of mine, and that certainly provides a significant amount of flexibility for mine planning, reduction in costs, and the ability to accrete value and drive flexibility throughout. Just from a capital intensity perspective, again, this is one of the lowest capital intensity jurisdictions and projects in the world today.
As you will see, the median capital intensity of projects around the world is around about $21,000 per ton of copper. This project sits again right on the left-hand side of that chart, the lower end of that chart, and is extremely well positioned from a capital intensity benchmarking perspective. There's substantial infrastructure in country, and I'll talk to the infrastructure in a few slides, but access to water, rail, etc., and road is fundamental to these large development projects. It sits at low elevation. It's got fresh water, unlike many of the Chilean projects in the world today. It's got a low cost of labor, low cost of power, and low cost of diesel. These are all major contributors to the low capital intensity that we do see within the country.
Ecuador is the next large export-based and U.S.-denominated country, ultimately, and that does assist in terms of the infrastructure that is being built for the projects of the future. We are very, very light on the capital intensity from a benchmarking perspective globally. Ecuador, just as a mining destination and jurisdiction, is a very investable country. You've seen 10 years of continuous pro-mining policy. Both the left, right, and centralist governments have all supported mining through their periods of power. You've got tier one deposits located very close to ourselves. Fruta del Norte, as well as Mirador, entered into production in 2019. They have been producing for a long period of time. We, as located, are very close to both those projects, and that is very favorable from our perspective in the understanding of mining in that geography. There's rapid permitting.
Major projects have been permitted within a year, and two new permits were issued last year. Primary infrastructure is fundamental, as I mentioned. Highways to ports, power grids, low elevation, water, and low cost of labor all drive these efficiencies forward and allow for these large-scale projects of the future to seek capital because they are the projects that will be built in the future. The investment protection agreements that we do have intact, we've got large tax and regulatory freezes until 2066. We've got international security guarantees, international arbitration rights, which are fundamental to the investor audience looking in and investing in Solaris and the Warintza Project, ultimately. It's a U.S.-denominated exchange and a large raw materials export country. We have three trade agreements with China, U.S., and Canada in progress. There's strong community support. We have multiple impacts and benefits agreements agreed with the host communities.
We have significant amounts of good rapport within the province in the area of influence and with the Shuar federations. As I mentioned, PSHA, we put out that press release last week. That is fundamental in terms of moving the project forward and ensuring that we do have the social license to operate this project moving forward. I think we have great endorsement from the government. This is the largest project in country. That endorsement and that reputation is fundamental. It's fundamental to myself and the team, and we make sure that that reputation is withheld throughout. It's a favorable tax and royalty regime, one of the lowest in the open economy and one of the lowest combined tax rates in Latin America today. Certainly, from an Ecuadorian perspective, it's very favorable in terms of mining and in terms of investment into the country.
Just from a district-level perspective, what the Warintza cluster and the district opportunities do resemble for the investor audience. As you will see, the solid lines around the Warintza cluster are our own properties today. The mineral resource estimate of 2025 will just merely encompass the west, central, and east deposits within the Warintza cluster. That cluster, as well as Clemente in the northwest, has around about 260 sq km of land that we own. It's a significant and prolific amount of land, and there are many targets within that cluster itself. Further to that, we do have Solaris option properties. As you will see, the dotted lines, those are agreements that we do have with the government in Amin, and there are very, very prosperous prospecting targets within those concessions too that we are working our way on.
Certainly, as we continue our de-risking activities, there is a focus on looking at the greenfield activities, and hopefully we do have some very interesting results around some of the greenfield exploration opportunities towards the end of the year. You'll also note that San Carlos and Pananza, those two deposits on the western side of our perimeter, are owned by the Ecuador Inte Group. As we know here today, we have a cluster of large-scale porphyries that is very, very influential in the future decarbonization of the world and in terms of large-scale porphyry mining for copper going forward. This is very prolific in terms of what it does represent for the world today. Just from a transactional overview with Royal Gold, as I mentioned before, we entered into a $200 million non-dilutive financing package with Royal Gold.
This was fundamental when I stepped into the company at the end of last year. The company obviously needed liquidity all the way through to an FID decision at the back end of 2026. The byproduct credits that came through, obviously from a gold and molybdenum perspective, looked fantastic in terms of what could be done from a streaming and royalty standpoint. We undertook a process in early January this year to look at what could be done in raising capital from that gold stream and potential royalty. As I mentioned, the $200 million of non-dilutive financing agreements came through, of which $100 million was paid upon closing of the transaction. It was extremely competitive in terms of a process, a significant amount of due diligence work that had been done around the Warintza Project itself.
It certainly validates the substantial amount of work that has been done both from a technical ESG perspective and from a financial perspective on this project to date. Solaris has long-term liquidity all the way through to a final investment decision. What we did was we repaid the expense of Orion Debt Facility that was yielding approximately 14%. All the value-accretive de-risking activities, as I'll mention now, will be part of that funding. That will be the completion of the PFS, the completion of the feasibility study, the permitting activities, drilling and regional exploration, early infrastructure, and development. Those are really encapsulated in that funding, as well as all the G&A costs. The financing aligns very much with Solaris' strategy of maximizing shareholder value through non-dilutive, competitively priced capital. This capital today at spot prices accounts for approximately 7% in terms of a cost of capital.
Very, very competitively priced capital and non-dilutionary in terms of what it represents. It also gives the management team, and it gave the management team the ability to understand the project end to end and ensure where we were as an organization, substantiated the aggressive nature of the audience that turned out and undertook this due diligence process at the beginning of the year. Just to highlight in terms of some of the key transactional terms, the $200 million, as I mentioned, $100 million is paid on closing. $50 million is available upon the publication of the PFS on Warintza and receipt of the EIA technical approval. The last tranche of $50 million is upon the first anniversary of closing and completion of all the filings necessary to permit the purchase security in country. The stream percentage is equivalent to 20 oz of gold per 1 million lbs of copper.
It's a very small percentage of our life of mine gold that we will produce. It's very, very tiny in terms of that. It represents around about 12.8% of the gold production going forward. The transfer price, ultimately, the price that Royal Gold pays us is very important. We have great exposure to the prevailing market price where we've only priced approximately 50% of the prevailing market price on that small quantum of gold. The NSR royalty, again, it's a very small royalty. It's a 0.3% royalty, so a very small component of royalty that we've placed on the property. The flexibility in this agreement is fundamental. In a change of control situation, either party may elect within five years of closing the transaction, either party may elect to terminate the stream agreement and return all advanced payments without penalty.
This is very unusual in the industry today in terms of the penalization. Usually, you will see large penalizations in terms of change of control transaction. This is a very flexible agreement in terms of what came out. That flexibility is inherent in terms of the quality of the asset and the quality of the work that has been done from a technical, social, and environment perspective today. Certainly, we're on the pathway through some significant steps on the de-risking path all the way through to an FID decision at the back end of 2026. Just to talk through the growth and de-risking timelines and for those audience to understand what the key catalysts are in the upcoming period of time, that's fundamental to what's going to transpire in 2025 and 2026.
Apart from the greenfield step-out opportunities, we have significant and prolific grounds, which are highly prospective in terms of the step-out opportunities, and that will continue in terms of small allocations of capital there. We do have the technical approval of the EIA, which we hope to receive in the middle of 2025 or the back end of 2025, in the last quarter of 2025. In the press release that we provided last week, we have provided all the, we've submitted all the documents to the authorities. Our first submission of the EIA was on the 24th of August of 2024. We've worked with the Ministry of Environment over a period of time, educating them on the project, answering all their questions, and the final submission was around about two months ago. We are waiting now for the government to approve the EIA.
They're working through that at the moment, and we hope to have that approved in short order, which is a monumental step forward from an environmental perspective for this project and the permitting regimes. We will have an updated MRE, mineral resource estimate, which encompasses the 82,000 meters of drilling, again, which will be published alongside the PFS during quarter four of 2025, in the next couple of months. This is extremely exciting. What you will see now is a project that has a fantastic MRE, but now we are encompassing the social license to operate, the studies, as well as the permits. This is fundamental in terms of driving the project forward into the next phase of its life and phase of its chapter in terms of where we get to from the perspective of de-risking.
We also have the exploitation agreements, hopefully all in hand by the middle of 2026. The large focus around exploitation agreements is focused on water, energy, and tailings. Those work streams are very well progressed already and certainly have made great grounds on those and developing those work streams all the way through. Early works have begun already. However, we will start earnest in the back half of 2026, and the feasibility study will be published in quarter three, quarter four of 2026. Once we have updated or published the PFS in the back end of 2025, we will start the bankable feasibility study with an FID coming at the back end of 2026. All of these activities are funded ultimately by the Royal Gold funding package. That's fundamental to any investor looking in. We've got long-term, long-life liquidity at a very cheap cost of capital.
This project is one of the near-term opportunities from a global standpoint perspective. It resembles significant scale, significant life from an investor perspective. That revenue diversification coming from gold, molybdenum, as well as copper is fundamental in the multiple cycles that you do see in terms of its life. As I mentioned, the 4.3 billion tons of disclosed resource is prolific in terms of what that looks like. It's an investable target. Ecuador is open to and receptive to investments. We've got the investor protection agreements in place today, and that's fundamental to looking in. Certainly, we are well positioned on that cash curve from a life of mine perspective to see through those downward cycles. We've got the management team ultimately to take it forward into the next stage of its life. As I mentioned, this is a very rare opportunity in the world of copper.
It's very rare in terms of a globally significant hub that people can invest in. Certainly, we as management, the management team believe in terms of where we trade today is at a substantial discount in terms of where we should trade relative to our NAV. As we start to accrete and as we start to deliver upon these promises to management, to the investor audience, we will start to see that accrete to the relevant NAV accordingly, and strategic decisions can be made at the appropriate time. With that, I would like to hand back to Robert, and I thank you very much for listening today. Thank you very much.
All right, Matthew, thank you so much for the presentation here. Thank you as well to everybody for watching, certainly. If you do have any questions for our management, certainly reach out to the company or the heads of investor relations there. Similarly, if you'd like to coordinate a meeting rather, and I can help in that way, reach out to me. That's Blum, blum@ lithiumpartners.com. Further, to learn more about Lithium Partners, make sure to visit our website or stay connected with us on LinkedIn for future presentations such as the one here from Matthew. Thank you all so much for your participation in the event. Matthew, thank you for your time. Have a great rest of the conference here.
Thank you, Rem.