29Metals Limited

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. James Palmer, CEO. Please go ahead.

Good morning all. James Palmer here and thanks for joining this 29 Metals update for the December quarter 2024. Today we'll be speaking to the presentation released this morning alongside our December quarter report and joining me are Ed Cooney, our Chief Operating Officer, Peter Herbert, our Chief Financial Officer and Christian Steller, our Group Executive, Corporate Development. So it's great to be speaking with you all again today on what was another great quarter, meeting full year production and cost guidance and so delivering on our commitments and setting our guidance for 2025 that is a step up from 2024. So stretching but achievable through the same focus on delivery. Importantly, during the December quarter, we fixed the balance sheet, providing us with the depth of liquidity to pursue our strategic objectives for 2025 and beyond. The first of those being to trigger a compelling project in Gotham Valley, so a big quarter. Briefly decide three before getting into the quarter results. The 29 Metals investment thesis remains strong, with the group having large copper resources across Golden Grove and Capricorn Copper. Both assets have long life potential, significant geological upside. Both have lots of copper, which is a critical metal as the world transitions further towards electrification. With the balance sheet now recapitalised, we are looking forward to unlocking this embedded value within the portfolio for the benefit of all stakeholders. Slide four lays out our key priorities. They remain the same as when I spoke to you three months ago. Health and safety first, always, and across the group discipline in productivity and cost improvements, which remains a key focus. At Golden Grove, it's all about the drumbeat of delivery to maximise free cash flow and delivering Gossam Valley, with the significant milestone of the final investment decision made during the quarter. At Capricorn Copper, it's all about the imperatives for a successful and sustainable restart, with water reduction the immediate focus, with the wet season now upon us. Slide 5 shows a summary of the December quarter. on safety our triff down over the quarter so improving and we remain focused on safety always operationally it was another strong quarter delivered by the team at golden grove producing 5.3 kilotons of copper and 17.6 kilotons of zinc putting us at the top end of guidance for copper and firmly in the guidance range for zinc in addition the asset continues to generate cash with 48 million dollars of operating cash flow and $18 million of free cash flow post-capital expenditure, including spend on TSF4, which is on track for completion in the March quarter, and will set the asset up for the long term from a tailings perspective. So overall, another great quarter at Golden Grove. At Capricorn Copper, progress continued to be made towards our immediate term focus of reducing water levels on site, with the team progressing those things within our control to position the asset for optimal water reduction through the wet season. We saw the first flows in Gunpowder Creek during the quarter and the team utilised this opportunity to release 72 megalitres of treated water during the quarter. The team remains prepared for further release opportunities which typically present in the March quarter. Importantly, the $180 million equity raising and senior debt refinancing provides 29 medals with the balance sheet to pursue our strategic objectives, specifically the development of Gossam Valley to extend and optimise the Golden Grove mine plan and the progression of restart imperatives at Capricorn Copper. So I'll now pass to Ed to talk through Golden Grove in some additional detail. I'll then provide an update on Capricorn Copper prior to Peter then providing a corporate and finance update for the quarter. So over to you, Ed.

Thanks, James, and morning, everyone. So moving on to slide seven, as James mentioned, another great quarter delivered by the team at Golden Grove, producing in excess of 5,000 tonnes of copper and 17,000 tonnes of zinc. And full-year copper production of 22,000 tonnes was at the top end of the guidance range and four-year zinc production of 57,000 tonnes firmly within the full-year guidance range. As foreshadowed in the June quarter report, high zinc production in the second half of this year was enabled by paste filling completed earlier in the year and good progress of Xantho extended development advance providing access to high-grade ore through the second half of the year. And from the chart on the top left-hand side of slide seven, you can see the proportion of Xantho extended ore has been maintained at circa 50% for the last three quarters. Development of Xantho extended continues at rates to maintain this proportion of ore from Xantho extended total ore feed with approximately 970 meters of development completed during the quarter, which is a new record. and up from approximately 700 metres the prior quarter. Moving on to slide 8, a pleasing quarter for unit costs too with C1 costs and AISC of $1.80 per pound and $3.30 per pound of copper sold respectively. Lower stockpile movement charges and higher by-product credits were the key drivers of lower quarter and quarter unit costs. partially offset by lower payable copper sold. Higher mining costs reflect higher activity levels, including ore tons mined and development, and higher capital expenditure as TSF4 construction advanced. Now moving on to slide 9, and really full credit to the site project team with momentum and associated capital expenditure on the TSF4 project continuing to ramp up throughout the quarter. leading to a significant milestone being achieved with practical completion occurring post quarter end. First deposition of tailings remains on track and is planned for the March quarter, subject to final confirmation of the construction works by the regulator. And the photos on this slide hopefully provide some context to the scale of TSF4. So for reference, the thickener you can see in the picture on the right hand side is quite large at 30 metres in diameter. and equivalent in height to a multi-storey building. The thickener has already been successfully commissioned electrically and on water and now just weights first tails. Owing to its scale and thickened tails deposition methodology, TSF-4 really is expected to enable lower tailings deposition cost over the life of mine. In addition, the upfront investment in long-term tailings capacity is expected to de-risk future tailings permitting requirements as compared to the historical incremental approach of building staged lifts on smaller tailings facilities adopted at Golden Grove in the prior years. On to slide 10 and the final investment decision for Gossam Valley during the quarter was another really fantastic milestone. It is an exciting project for 29 metals. an important next phase of investment to enhance the long-term value of the asset. Specifically, Gossan Valley will provide production flexibility as an additional independent mining front, and being relatively shallow and analogous with other ore bodies at Gossan Hill, it is expected to be relatively straightforward to mine. And importantly, it will act as a replacement higher-grade ore source for the declining ore production from scuttles The economics of the project are attractive. Our feasibility analysis supports an internal rate of return of 34%, with a $110 million initial stage NPV and an initial mine life of seven years. So keeping in mind this is an initial stage development, we do see significant potential to extend Gossam Valley resources, which remain open at depth. The resource we have today is sufficient to underpin an investment decision to commence the development. And we plan to test for extensions to the resource, predominantly from underground drill platforms as we progress the development, which will be lower cost than continuing to drill from surface. And as shown on slide 11, our two existing underground mines at Golden Grove are Scuttles and Gossan Hill. Production commenced at Scuttles in 1992 and some 32 years later is still operating, albeit depleting. Gossan Hill commenced production in 1994 and some 30 years later is still operating and home to our highest value ore source in Xantho Extended with significant mine life remaining. Now for the first time in 30 years we are preparing to add a third mining front to the Golden Grove Complex. the Gossam Valley resource, which remains open at depth. And as mentioned, we have included underground drill platforms to the mine plan, and I know the exploration team are keen to start drilling from underground to test the extents of this system. And speaking of Golden Grove's history of resource and mine life extensions, assays returned from Gossam Hill during the quarter, as shown on slide 12, highlight the ongoing potential of this mining front. Specifically, high-grade copper mineralisation intercepted approximately 100 metres below the existing Europa mineral resource estimates. Resource extension results include some incredible intercepts, such as approximately 44 metres at 3% copper, approximately 33 metres at 2.7% copper, and almost 17 metres at 4.9% copper. And in addition, resource conversion drilling results included almost 26 metres at 6.9% copper. So there is plenty more opportunity at Gossan Hill, and with extension results like these, it's really not hard to see why the exploration team are keen to get underground at Gossan Valley. So to summarise, we continue to focus on the drumbeat of delivery at Golden Grove, with the December quarter bringing home a great result in hitting full year production and cost guidance. In addition, we continue to have an eye on investment for the future, specifically TSF4, which is now ready to take tailings, and Gossam Valley. And both of these are really exciting projects expected to enhance the asset for the long term. So I'll now hand back to James to talk about Capricorn Copper.