The management board of KJ and POSKA Mirches, last December presented its updated strategy for 2019, 2023. This is a response to the changing macroeconomic environment and the geopolitical situation, which considerably affect mining industry after the analysis of key trends across the world. We developed 4 strategic directions of development: Ability Ecology Industry, that is something that we are putting into practice, and we are successes, thanks to the involvement of the management and employees. Thanks to the start of our new furnace or a program of deposit exploitation, we succeed in maintaining our production levels. In Sierra Gorda.
We were the first time successful in getting positive results. In Poland, we pursue a program of are developing our own energy sources by 2026. Half of the demand for energy in KJGEM will be from our own results, including renewable ones. We have already opened our first photovoltaic plant. And abroad, we focus on efficiency and financial results.
Our mine, Sierra Gorda, after modifications, is now obtaining better results, is more effective. We are achieving those results also thanks to digitization, improved administration and support of production. We achieved more than EUR 2,500,000,000 net profit. EUR 2 billion PLN was also our result in the increase. Thanks to the increased external funding.
We implemented a model of Research and Development Management. E Industry is our priority. We are successful in pursuing our KJGEM 4.0 program, and that covers all strategic areas, including and Logistics. As a result, we will have consistent management of production, including data management. We implemented schemes for our employees, including work Lowe and recruitment for internships.
Our strategy is pursued based on the ambitious idea of sustainable development and security as well as enhancing social responsibility. We significantly improved security indicators in Poland and abroad. We carried out a series of social actions to support our neighbors, families, children and seniors. COVID-nineteen has not changed our strategy. Humans remain at the very heart of it.
And we support our community. Netroerg, which is a company then our group launched production of disinfectants, which we were then able to provide all those in need of those Mirche disinfectants. We are flexible, we are efficient and ecological. Thanks to our strategy, we are successful in developing e industry 3 and Driving the Economy. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, we are meeting at a conference on financial results Mirche, KJ Jam Company and the Group.
This meeting is not a direct one. We rely on a video conference. This is the 2nd time again on our annual results will be commented on without the participation of the audience. Nevertheless, we have no doubts. Bearing in mind the interest of our stakeholders and all employees, we have to opt for this choice, where transmission is our means of communication, we decided not to postpone the date of publication, and we can boast that we provided our annual reports to the Financial Supervision Committee in a new format, and that was a successful submission even here in the studio to appear in front of you without protective masks.
We implemented the necessary Cija, financial security for all participants of the event. Today, we will present the results for the Q4 2020 and for whole year 2020, the effects of our work will be commented by our management board, Martin Kruzynski, President of the Management Board Professor Katarzyna Kretschmayskaya Gindo and Vice President of the Management Board for Finances Mircadam Bugalcuk, Vice President of the Management Board for Development Pavel Grouza, Vice President of the Management Board for Foreign Assets Radoslav Staff, Vice President of the Management Board for Production. We will start traditionally with comments of our management board regarding last year's events. Then we will proceed to Q and A session. Let me announce it right away.
If there are any questions that we won't be able to transmit today, you will find them all with full transcript on our website. I would also like to invite you to ask questions. Traditionally, you know our e mail address. Ladies and gentlemen, let's start our conference, Mr. Marcin Kluginski, President of the Management Board.
The floor is yours. Ladies and gentlemen, do you remember March 2020? That was not a very long time ago, just a year ago, empty shelves and shops when people stockpiled and queues that had never been seen by the younger generation. Do you remember searching for even a single pair of protective gloves or exorbitant prices of disinfectants. A few months before, rumors appeared about a mysterious virus in Wuhan in China.
But nobody thought then that we were facing the greatest crisis of the modern world, the pandemic which would paralyzed the functioning of the world. Nobody was prepared for that, neither Poland nor anyone in the world. All Contingency Management Programs were insufficient, and none of those programs envisaged disaster on that scale, office buildings, health centers became empty overnight. Polish people return on a mass scale to Poland within the safe return home program. Nobody knows what will happen in the future.
Nobody makes long term forecasts. Well known analysts refrain from making comments. Some enterprises also in our industry dramatically reduced their operations or discontinued them altogether. Our activities dominated by 2 themes: security of our employees and security of production. Large part of business in Poland now operates in a remote mode.
People work from home. But of course, we cannot allow miners work from home. It is technically not feasible. And every single day with production, with sales accounts. In this situation we are facing, a dramatic shortage of information, and we have to manage risk in this turbulent, unpredictable environment.
We set as our priority the safety and security of our employees. We made bold decisions. Mirche, we were the first to implement thermal of this well temperature measurements. And in Troelerik, we also introduced our new sanitary procedures, which were then deployed in other plants. And most importantly, we gave security to our team that we will make every effort to keep jobs.
Copper prices are dropping to record low prices. Such prices had not been recorded for a decade. Keeping those prices for a longer time would mean production below the breakeven level. Transport is slower. We have delays in deliveries.
While the government is considering how to cope with remote education that was introduced all of SADEN, we are trying to cope with the falling prices of copper, problems with logistics, problems with deliveries. So what are we doing in this situation? First of all, our effective strategy. Back in 2018, we assumed that a time of stability across the world was coming to an end. And the roller coaster future was ahead of us, unpredictable developments in and business environment and in the market.
Our response to those consideration was assuming great flexibility and adjusting for new conditions and a greater flexibility in business. That is helping us extremely in combating the virus. We have a record high security level, and we maintain jobs for 1,000 of our people. Secondly, communication. Above all, communication to our employees.
We use all effective communication channels. We know that getting through to sanitary information line is hard. That is why we have information line, which is available around the clock. We respond to doubts of our minors and their families, we explain to them our procedures and the point of following them. We use intranet, extranet Tranet, another special short message text, a special TV and company newspaper.
We inform them, educate them. We combat fake news. When POSEGAM, POSEGAM, Mieci, and STAS are no longer effective. We have mobile billboards. When we're unable to meet our managers face to face, we prepare daily weekly bulletins for them with issues that are of greatest concern to our employees.
And we make every effort to be concrete, honest and specific in this communication, specific to the point to which almost complete uncertainty of the future allows us to secondly, we or thirdly, we dramatically improved security of our employees. Right from the beginning of the pandemic, we have been equipping our people with protective measures. We disinfect our facilities regularly, machines. We introduced a series of minor but significant initiatives. We have a shift Mirche to work in offices to allow staggered presence of people.
We keep nerves of steel to allow Taggart, presence of people. We keep nerves of steel that is in the DNA of the mining culture. We have this professional ethics that forces us to conduct rescue operations. And even in this situation, even the toughest miners and situations of emergency and threat lose their regular control. But we also have on Ethos across the organization throughout Poland.
In March, which was the most difficult month, we distributed 20,000 liters of disinfectants. We organized temporary hospitals in Lower Silesia In our center for months, we have Center For COVID Patients. We donate funds in our through our foundation to health centers. A long time ago, there were widespread shortages of even the basic devices in hospitals. We provide hospitals and health centers with protective equipment.
We take care of families and of our neighbors, our volunteers prepare meals, help people in doing shopping. We know that those activities can increase wellness of entire social group. We organize psychological assistance 2 of the most vulnerable groups. We planned that 120 telephone consultations would be
more or
less the average in a week, but that was the number of calls within an hour. We take measures to reduce the impact of possible depression. We ensure Gj, and Poshka, Mirche, psychological assistance, emotional assistance to those who are completely exhausted by the situation. Some sources say that post traumatic stress disorder will be one of the consequences of the pandemic, and it can affect as matches 70% of the population.
2020 was a dramatic year. GDP fell drastically in the EU and in the world. Virus literally infected key global economies concerning alarming levels Of occupancy in hospitals and precariousness. As one of very few companies, we keep our plants running without one day of downtime. The production in the group comes to 907 1,000,000 tons of copper, which wasn't achieved by accident.
It is a result of our crisis management, Solidarity, prudent decisions, fast response and translate a year later after March 20 20. I am proud to report that this has been working, and we are working achieving A grades For A plus grades, a record EBITDA for 2020 came to SEK 6 79,000,000,000. The leverage fell from 1.5% to 0.9%. And the cash flow increased by more than PLN 1,500,000,000. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you, President, for this comment. Now over to Jarl Stavstad. And let's hear about our production performance. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, while I am Moving to discuss the production performance of the Capital Group. A very good level of 7 9,000 of tons of copper and an extremely Robust performance in the Serra Gorda mine, which increased its output versus 2019 silver production and Precious Metals and Molybdenum, both domestically and internationally, will be discussed in Later slides.
Before I start discussing the domestic production and the developments in Mines and Smelters and Unit, let me cast some more light on safety. Our priority topic in 20 20 results are impressive. 20% more safety in place as a result of initiatives and culture changing efforts in our company and the credit really goes to all our people. We have been recognized by the golden charter of safe employer, which proves that we are moving ahead in the right direction, which makes us proud going forward. With As far as our production performance in domestic units are concerned, copper and Electrolytical Copper and Silver.
This performance has been stable. No peaks and troughs, which means that we've weathered these storms in 2020. With respect to silver production, and that's 1400 tons in 2019. That was a record At that time, we wanted to carry it over to 2020. However, silver is a performance related is a performance related or output related metal, which is directly related to the amount of Mirche.
Extracted ore. Now we launched a number of efficiency projects to improve the efficiency of our Plant and Machinery and to boost our cost efficiency. I would like to highlight one of the projects that boosted our production last year, and that was a supply chain project, which integrated 3 processes: resource planning process, Supplier Procurement Process and Inventory Management. Now that integration and digitization Automation of these processes translated into enormous cost savings in real time, and we could watch the results As we rolled out the program in the Q4 of 2020 and overall in that hard year, as President mentioned in the precarious market, price wise and otherwise, our output has defended its High levels, and credit goes to strong management decision and the commitment of all our people. Thank you very much.
And now, Foreign Assets, Vice President, Pavel Kruse, I'm sorry. Good morning or good afternoon indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, 2020 will be marked as a pandemic Yes. Pandemic without borders, in fact, in our jurisdictions outside of Poland. The pandemic status It was a hard one.
It was definitely alarming. However, as a result of efforts Launched in Poland, we managed to maintain continuity of our business, which was top priority. Safety of people, discipline, these were the two labels That we could use to describe our Chilean and North American operations. Unfortunately, in our and other mines are operated by our competitors. Some of the safety measures didn't prove successful.
There were Cases of downtime and stoppage, we did not have those issues. As we gradually optimized Sierra Gorda operations, which was a low cost optimization effort, We could achieve a very robust production performance, and you can see this on the slide. And it's They are speaking for themselves in fact. KJHM International suffered from more setbacks as a result of the quality of the ore, the content of A vessel in the extracted rock and lower outputs. Lowering outputs here had not been set off in 2020.
To complete the picture of our international assets, I would like to discuss the financial performance. In the 1st 6 months of the year or in the Q1, in fact, we saw a major Risk of falling prices, we launched a number of cost efforts, both on OpEx and CapEx and we also reviewed our headcount and employment structure to bring costs down dramatically. We also Mietje. Structured KJ and Cem International. And at the end of the day, the financial performance of our international assets is Highly positive, and it contributes enormously to the entire successful results of the group.
Thank you very much. Now we've started on the financial front. Let's hear much more from Professor Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Klushinski has already mentioned that it was it is since 2018 that we have been getting ready to embrace the new developments in the world economy. And we had been anticipating Developments that can lead to poorer market performance, Slower capital performance or recession, in fact.
The bull market, which persisted for so many years, could in fact be challenged. However, we had not anticipated the crisis coming from Something that we today call a global pandemic, however, we did make provisions for a rainy day in our financial portfolio. And in fact, the 3 years of efforts that we put in to make sure that our financial performance is stable helped us enormously in 2020. Revenue from contracts Mirchen came higher by 4% visavis20 And 2019 was a good year. I would like to emphasize that 2020 was in fact A turbulent one.
And no one really knew what would happen The next day, in fact. Notably, our financial performance With respect to contract revenue is higher by PLN 909,000,000. The unit cost performance, Again, in the hard year, as it was, this cost came lower. So It was squeezed by 6% to 1,900,000 in C1 and the C1 cost, we already include the higher cost Of the copper tax of the mining and mineral extraction tax, So the cost performance would have been even higher if it wasn't for the tax charge. Furthermore, KEGHM Poskamirch S.
A, the mother company, C1 cost was reduced by 7% against 2019. At Serra Gorda, the cost declined even further by 16% In KGM International, this cost came higher and it was the highest in the segment, but that resulted from lower copper sales volumes. And partly, It was offset by higher revenue on associated metals Now let's look at EBITDA. Something that analysts are mainly looking at and it is also critical for us, EBITDA versus 2019 is higher by 27%. Note that EBITDA is higher by PLN 839,000,000 in the mother company, KJHM Poskamiecz.
It's higher at Cerro Gorda by PLN 6,000,000, we have a lower EBITDA in other business divisions, but these divisions include companies that were vulnerable And they were strongly affected by the pandemic. And we had a lower EBITDA in KJ and M I. As I said already, this resulted from lower sales volumes and the termination of the DMC contract in the UK.
Ladies and gentlemen, as regards our net result, it was higher in 2020 by 26%. What I would like to draw your attention to is that our net result in the group was mostly affected by the change in revenues, which were higher by EUR 109,000,000. And we had better result on Joint Ventures. I would also like to mention that with regard to costs by type. We had higher costs by type, and they were high by EUR 47,000,000.
However, to a large extent, this was due to higher Mirchen. We had an increase in remuneration as a consequence of our social commitment agreements, which we follow in spite of different conditions, we had corporate tax increase by EUR 105,000,000 and higher depreciation. These were actually factors beyond our control. However, as for other activities, we saw a reduction in the 3rd party services, which declined by EUR 429,000,000. And this is, ladies and gentlemen, the result of action that we consciously took.
This has already been mentioned. 1st of all, cost discipline across the company that we maintained in spite of the difficult situation. As regards cash flows, if you look at our cash flow statement, You will see that the effect of last year is very positive. I would also like to draw your attention to one item, change in working capital. This is the effect of action that we took Starting from the moment when we announced our new strategy, we announced then that we would release cash flows in connection with the steps we were taking, and these included implementation on a large scale of factoring debt of the group and KJ and KJ, that is an indicator of which we are proud.
Net debt to EBITDA Mietje, EUR0.9 billion. That is an excellent result, especially if we bear in mind that at the end of 2019, it was EUR1.5 billion. Please also look at debt net debt. It went down by almost PLN 1,000,000,000. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, professor, for presenting details of the financial results. Now I would like to invite Vice President for Development, Adam Bugajuk, who will give us details regarding development and investment in KJ Jam. Ladies and gentlemen, before I discuss details of our results in Development and Investment. I would like to say that my area also kept pace with the rest of the company. As a result of which, we succeeded in completing all investments, both financially and substantively, which contributed to the fantastic results that were achieved by the company and that have already been presented by my colleagues.
We spent EUR 2,480,000,000. And In analytical terms, the distribution of this spending was very proportionate with very small differences. As For our key development investments, of course, we have the extension of the Ironbridge container expansion, I would like to give you some details about the stage at which we are present. Now the investment is complete in 88%. As regards the segregation station, which is an element of the expansion of the whole facility, we are at 78%.
As for the program of deposit availability, we prepared more than 40 kilometers of corridors for mining work, BG1 shaft was deepened to over 1300 meters. And after all problems that we experienced about with water, we are moving forward. In DG2, we also moving forward, we managed agree terms and conditions of the financial side of this investment, and we are proceeding with administrative efforts. As for backed conclusions and environmental efforts, EUR 161,000,000 was spent last year on this purpose. And both in Grogov And in Lagnitsa, we managed to complete all our key investments.
Now I would like to discuss briefly the depletion of our Grogu deposits, we have always talked about Zad. And you can find yourselves that we now have all key indicators at levels that Skmens, well, also key investments, although not as spectacular as Ironbridge development, on preparation of Mining Exploitation. We managed to buy a few presses, pump station in Adamovka, which is also a part of the Ironbridge program, construction of waste station and also refurbishment of Kuguf plant. This year, EUR 160 EUR 8,000,000 was spent on mining investments, EUR 160,000,000 was linked to VAT conclusions and the other elements related to ecological Ethyls are shown in detail in the graph and Materials. As for Renewable Energy Sciences, we have already completed certain investments.
We have built the 1st possible tight farm at Leggnitsa, copper mine. We are now working on other investments, which will contribute to the achievement of a target of 50% of energy are coming from our own sources. This is a target we are pursuing very consistently. And you can see in our presentation a breakdown of the areas where we will accomplish those tasks. Thank you very much.
Thank you for presenting the details of our investments. Ladies and gentlemen, we have shown you our production financial results, also the developments in our foreign assets and investments. Now I would like to ask President Kludinski, for a brief summary of our efforts. Ladies and gentlemen, we have experienced a very difficult period. It was not an easy year.
It was not an easy moment in the history of our company. And by the way, our company celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, which is quite decent age. Although we are not old yet, we are full of life and energy. And we have to Keep in mind that pandemic continues. There is continued risk to health.
And we are also combating the effects of the pandemic on our operations. Our crisis units are adjusting our procedures and does at modes of operation to what the situation brings. But It is worth saying that also the term of office of the management board is coming to an end. On the 15th April, a new term of office of the management board will start. And I would like to show you some big numbers that illustrate what happened in the past 2 years.
And a lot of activities were undertaken in various dimensions: savings, Process Efficiency, Logistics, all those projects, hundreds of projects and thousands of people who worked on those individual themes. We started in 2018, and now we are drawing to an end of the term of office in mid2ndquarter 2021 EBITDA was EUR 4,700,000,000. Now we are at over EUR 6,000,000,000. Sales plus 15%. That is on revenues and in volumes 30%.
We now cost C1, which is a very important parameter for us, had a 12% decreased in spite of higher production, but there was the higher tax, which drives discussed 12% decrease is a very significant achievement. Net debt to EBITDA, which was a difficult ratio and a lot of energy was put into improving this ratio. Also, the exchange rate of U. S. Dollar is important.
But 44% change for the better, that is to reduce this ratio from 1.6 to 0.9 is a very significant change. Copper production, that is our daily activity that we are trying to stabilize. But apart from stabilization over the past 2 years, in fact, it was a bit longer than 2 years, 2.5 years to be exact. From 634 tons, we went up by 12%, and there are thousands of people working for those results. I can say with full responsibility that this is a huge success of the entire company, KJGEM, the management board.
And I would like to thank the Management Board for the effort that has been put in. We covered a long way. We are still on the road to our ultimate targets, but we have already covered a lot of ground. I would like to thank Kasia Gigol Krejnayska for being with us. Because of her professional plans, She will end her work for KJ Jam at the end of this term of office, but I would like to extend my thanks to her for contributing to our results.
You have been a very important contribution to our results. And as for things that are still ahead of us, ladies and gentlemen, We cannot say that everything is under our control. There are a lot of challenges ahead of us apart from the pandemic. We have SG challenge and Poshka Miech Sustainable Development Carbon Footprint. This year, we are starting our work on a comprehensive development of a strategy That will determine the impact of SG and our long term activities this year.
We will also have a review of the strategy to see what needs to be changed, what needs to be rethought in the context of Global Development. We have flexibility built into our strategy, but this is the time to have a closer look at the strategy revisited. And of course, there are capital expenditures, which are always necessary. Investments are always needed to continue production, and the prospects are very good. Copper
So we want to invest as much as possible to get as much of that product, copper and silver, To continue our production, there are other business projects in the pipeline. We are strongly interested in biocide Aspects of biocidal aspects of copper or silver, there's much to be done here. We are looking out Mirche. Opportunities, and we want to certainly embark on those as we move forward. Thank you very much.
Now we have to recognize our professor, Madam Professor, to thank her cordially for her performance, which is an exceptional gesture in a financial performance conference, you will Admit, as we present our financial performance, we are also celebrating The end of 1 of our management board tenures And it's coming on 17th April. Now this is not the end of the conference. We will have a Q and A moderated by Janusz Krystashak, Head of Investor Relations at KGHM, erkghm.com is the address you may send your queries to. Timing slot is limited, so we will not be able to take and answer all questions, but We will post both the questions and answers on our websites soon. So over to Janusz Kostaszak, Head of Investor Relations.
Thank you. Good afternoon. We have quite a large number of questions and they are coming as I speak. And I'm trying to cluster them into common headings, so I will not read out all of them. So let's go.
This is a question about our Sierra Gorda mine. What are the future plans With respect to KJHM Investments in Seragorda, are we still considering divesting this asset and what is the status of the process, if appropriate? So over to our colleague responsible for international assets. Now Sierra Gorda is a strategic asset at KJHM. We are not planning to change We are focusing on what is bringing the best performance for us.
We are focusing on optimizing production processes. And it appears we still have some headroom for that with quite low Capital expenditures, so this is going to be a very economical optimization. A question from Yustina Pysztofskar, Green News PL. What is the progress In photovoltaic projects, what is the capacity that KGHM is planning to launch by year end? Large photovoltaic projects relate to huge upfront investments with respect to the foundation and the Spatial Planning and Zoning, we are going to launch some of our projects.
It will be a larger capacity volume than last year as we launched our Lagnita projects. We're still acquiring Concessions and Land as we speak. So the final result will be reflective of Mirche, how well we have concluded those Pavel, Clean Energy. At the end of 2020, debt Net debt to EBITDA came to EUR 0.9 from EUR 1.5 at the end of previous year. Are you planning to continue to reduce this ratio?
Our debt position is one of our key targets with respect to financial stability. We want our debt to be plateaued At a safe level, are we going to have lower levels of debt? Well, let me put it this way. The debt ratio is both affected by the level of debt and the level of EBITDA. €900,000,000 is an impressive level, and we want to continue below 2.0.
Thank you. Thomas Przyzinski again is asking a question about the budget of KJHM and specifically CapEx. The management is planning to spend PLN 2,900,000,000 In Polish operations and EUR 300,000,000 in international projects and Polish supporting activities. Can you give us examples of largest CapEx projects that will be implemented this year? Let me make a short introduction and then I will hand over to Adam.
The increase of our Capital expenditure is part of our philosophy, which is To improve our access to mining operations and mining capacity, Internationally, you see that Ceragoda is performing well because it is optimizing its costs And it's optimizing its production. So we are building on existing assets, and we wants to extract as much value of out of them as possible. Therefore, capital expenditures is not that high, if I may comment. So as we plan to continue extracting more value from existing assets, we are not planning to increase Mirchen. And the charter into more assets.
Yes, indeed, we are focusing on projects That are adding value to the technology process. The deposit access program will continue, of course, Where we're going to increase the number of square meters of our tunnels and the shafts and the air conditioning and the conditioning station. So this is going to be a landmark project in Cielaznimost. This obviously will be developed and the environmental and bad conclusions related Investments will continue as they have for some years already as part of our strategy. And This is a reflection of our efforts to adapt Mietje to the market opportunities and to the needs in terms of our production performance.
Mr. Jakub Skopec from Embackers asking about output in 2020. In Gwen Bocky Grogov, Deep Grogov, can this output be increased? Or will there be Can it be expected to grow in 2021 at and at what rate? Deep Gwagov is obviously about the future of KJHM, and we mentioned this project so many times in previous Conferences, we kept saying that we would like to continue growing output and we follow the deposits.
I don't want to attach any numbers to the growth rate. However, we will increase the extraction of Traction of all from this site. And Jakob is asking another question. In 2020, energy consumption in the group was higher by 8% whilst The production of dry oil fell down, which meant that the operation was energy intensive. And how are you going to plan to keep the energy efficiency ratio or energy intensity ratio.
Now we are committed to looking to such technologies and processes that Mirche decreased the use or consumption of energy. And I would have to go into Minute detail into the nitty gritty of the processes because energy is very much process related. And by the way, We have not just the mining, but also the processing and the downstream activities. So I believe that This result is very good, and the certificate that we have imposes an obligation on us to keep lowering the energy consumption. And by the way, let me add that we have launched And by the way, let me add that we have launched and commissioned major investment projects, and they are an electricity intensive, in fact.
And in fact, all of the replacement projects have helped us reduce Energy use or energy efficiency improving energy efficiency by about 10%, which is a trend that we're going to continue. Now a question about safety. I will not Indicate the author, but let me read. Whilst the pandemic is bringing restriction, has This translated into higher safety levels. So it's caused by the pandemic or some previous efforts Put forward by management earlier, I believe that safety is critical And we have always been committed to doing our utmost.
So it's not just During the pandemic, safety is part and parcel of our strategy. We wanted to bring Accidents down and to improve safety levels. So Radha, can you comment on this, Please. Yes, we have launched a number of programs. The strategic program and Thinking about the consequences or impacts, now we each year, we try to focus on a specific aspect of safety.
I don't agree that because of the pandemic and the pandemic related procedures, safety is Better. In fact, we launched our safety agenda in 2018 and we continued in 20 2019 2020. So I wouldn't make the connection here between the pandemic restrictions and safety. These are 2 different Probably add up together at the end of the day. And obviously, the pandemic related measures improved our health Mirche.
Performance, no doubt about that. But the performance and the rate of improvement, 30 percent on a year on year basis really, really comes from our hard work Mirche across the recent years. Jacek Saya Radio Plus. A question To President Adam Bogaczek, the current copper prices can be optimistic, but COVID situation. The COVID situation is precarious as it was in 2020.
So will investments be at risk? Are you planning the photovoltaic projects? Of course, the level of uncertainty is high, but Because in 2020, we in fact succeeded in completing all the major financial or technical investments, There's no reason why we shouldn't repeat this success this year. And this is Obviously, an ambitious budget, but we are consistent and robust. So I believe that All items of the plan will be implemented, including the photo of Alltag Farms.
I have a question. And in fact, there are several questions in this thread. Dividend. One of the questions actually portrays a scenario, if not for 2020, Could we hope for a down payment down dividend payment for 2021? I'm smiling because but let me ask the President for a comment.
This has been a traditional question in our financial performance And in fact, we haven't been paying our dividend recently. I do understand This question, it's a legitimate one. Now we are Approaching the statutory time of announcing, and we're going to use that time To make this decision as prudent as possible. Kamila Vaischuk, ESP News. Will KJHM see a further reduction in the C1 cost.
I can say that this parameter of cost C1 is something that we constantly monitor and think about. We are able to prove that this cost is decreasing. Of course, it has to be said that to some extent, it is not only within our control. For example, it is driven partially by tax, but we are trying to keep it as low as possible. About a Logging 24.
I think it is going to be addressed to me. The question is to the representative of Investor Relations. What Mirche, the reason of the decline in share prices in recent weeks. The question Mietje was concise, so the answer should be concise as well. But I would like to say that we are trying to help you in understanding business.
We are trying to build business and its value build value for the company. I would just like to to draw your attention to a variable environment in which we operate in Capital Market, in the raw materials market. Recent weeks have been characterized by fluctuations in share market. And commodities market also has its additional conditions. Also, behavior of currencies are a factor here.
Prices of copper are definitely influenced by the changes in commodity Commodities Exchanges. In the recent week, we have experienced particular variability. According to recent comments and analyses, that is mainly due to pandemic, the extended lockdowns and uncertainty as to when these might lifted or extended. So the uncertainty related to the pandemic drives the prices of commodities and our primary commodity that is copper. In recent days, we have seen strengthening of the dollar, and that, in turn, also affected prices of commodities.
Again, a development from recent days. We have seen significant dynamics, both ups and downs in asset valuations. Paradoxically, also in the situation of declining profitability. The variability is so significant, so I cannot give you a straightforward answer. Let me add something to what Janusz has said.
Indeed, recently, in stock exchanges Mirches in New York and Europe, this is what has been going on, and we have to follow Lochemence. But it is also worth mentioning that last year, and this conference is about last year, our share value increased and headquarters over 200%. So our benchmark is set very high at the moment. Question from Pavel Pukharski Santander. And maybe I can combine it with another Question again from the same person.
The situation in the foreign assets, acceleration of efforts related to the launch of Victoria Mine and in general, the situation with assets in KJHM International, Paravobuza. We are investing in Victoria. Some of those investments result from our obligation to comply with environmental relations. And some of them result from our willingness to understand this deposit better, to explore it better. And I think that is it as regards Victoria.
And Regarding other assets, we have a certain procedure in place, a certain way of thinking about our foreign assets. As any company in our industry, we evaluate our assets and we qualify them as strategic or nonstrategic? And then accordingly, action is taken. One more question AGM, Posca Mietsch, why does KJ AGM not participate in offshore wind project, which would considerably modify the profile of energy consumption in the company and CO2 emissions profile as well as for offshore programs. KJ Jam doesn't have to participate in everything that is taking place around.
There are a lot of companies that are interested in those investments. We have more immediate challenges in the field of energy, also linked to the philosophy that we had adopted, namely that it would be best and most efficient for us also in terms of economic efficiency of our investments, would will be to connect green energy sources directly to our recipients, that is to our mining plants. This gives us the best economic result. This is what we are focusing on. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm looking through the questions, and most of the threads have already been mentioned. If there are questions that we have not answered, we will provide answers as soon as possible, and we will post them directly on our website. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we could spend hours talking for hours on end about KJGEM. This is our work and our passion, but we are over 1 hour in this transmission, So we do not want to tax your patience too much.
Thank you very much for your attention, for all your questions. I would like to thank you for on behalf of the whole management Mirchenov. And I invite you to the next conference next quarter. Thank you very much. Goodbye.