Boss Energy Limited

If you have additional questions, you're welcome to rejoin the queue and we'll be able to ask further questions if time permits. If we run out of time and you do not have time for your question, we ask that you please call our office on 0862634494 or email boss at bossenergy.com and speak to our team. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Duncan Crabe, Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Ashley. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to dial into our second quarterly call. During the previous January quarterly presentation, we recognised a milestone event for the company when we declared commercial production and we published our first cost guidance. This quarter, we are proud to declare that we've started generating free cash flow from Honeymoon. which is the culmination of a highly successful ramp-up where we saw drummed production of uranium doubling from the previous quarter to just shy of 300,000 pounds and associated C1 costs outperforming our guidance at 21 US per pound. So to be generating robust margins at current prices and delivering free cash flow within one year of starting production is a respectable outcome for any mining operation, particularly uranium where the pool of talent and expertise is more limited than other sectors. Our team has worked tirelessly to ensure that we meet our undertaking to the market and results such as today is testament to the skills and commitment of our people. As I stated in our announcement, we're achieving exactly what we said we will do. Joining me on today's call is our CFO, Justin Laird, and our COO, Matt Doocy. So I'll now walk you through key achievements of the March quarter, as well as providing an update on our investment in the Alta Mesa mining operation in Texas and our disciplined deployment of capital, representing about 3% of our market cap, into strategic uranium opportunities to generate future growth. At the end of the call, Justin, Matt and I are readily available to take your questions. So if we turn to the presentation to slide two, as mentioned, it was a really positive quarter, pivotal in fact, where we delivered outstanding operational and financial results. In summary, Honeymoon continued to deliver on our round-up plan. For the quarter, we produced 296,000 pounds of uranium, which represented a 116% increase from the prior quarter. The NIMS 6 columns were brought into production, the column 3, as well as Wellfield 3. C1 costs were at Australian dollars, 33 US a pound, or 21 US, which is below our guidance. And globally, a C1 cost of 21 US per pound is an enviable position to be in. We, as mentioned, generated our first free cash flow quarter for Honeymoon, and that's in the history of Honeymoon's production, given the robust margins. We also finished the quarter with $229 million in liquid assets, being cash, physical uranium and investments. And that, we also sold 268,000 pounds in uranium at a realised price of US$84 a pound. So the best news of all is that we now remain on track to deliver our £850,000 production guidance and cost guidance for the full year 25. And this was coupled with the continued growth of the company, with construction of columns 4 to 6 underway, and we also during the quarter acquired a strategic investment of 19.7% in Laramud Resources. So really pleasing quarter, a great quarter, and we'd like to go into those highlights in more detail. So turning to slide four of the presentation, really the March quarter was characterised by those strong production results, with 296,000 pounds of drummed uranium, 249,000 of uranium production, representing a 116% increase and 15% increase from the prior quarter. The graph on this slide shows the quarter-on-quarter growth of production as we continue to ramp up at honeymoon. During the back end of the quarter, Columns 3 and Wellfield 3 were brought into production as planned. We did, however, encounter some commissioning challenges, which we raised in previous announcements, with the second kiln and baghouse resulting in some unplanned downtime. But despite these challenges, they're above surface in an operating plant. And we achieved a monthly record production rate in February of 123,000 pounds of uranium. And that, if you annualise it, represents a run rate of 1.5 million pounds. So bearing in mind our full year 26 production guidance next year is 1.6 million pounds. So we're well on track to meet next year's guidance as well. The focus for the coming quarter is to now increase flow rates and resolve any associated bottlenecks, improving runtime of the kilns and evolving the precipitation circuit from a batch to a continuous operation as intended. Construction activities on columns four to six increased during the quarter. The focus currently is on the steelworks for the foundations, along with pipe spooling and assembly. Construction activities will largely be complete by the end of the June financial year, so in the coming months, with commissioning and production of columns four and five in the first quarter of the next financial year. Looking at the cost update on slide five, coupled with the strong production performance, we also had a good control on costs. C1 costs, as mentioned, were an enviable US$21 a pound or AU$33 a pound, which is below that second half 25 guidance. That implies a C1 margin of 68% to 71% based on the current term uranium price. Such results as these demonstrate the quality of the honeymoon asset and the technical advancements we have made to the processing plant and optimising wellfield operations since taking control of the asset. We are forecasting an increase in C1 costs next quarter to finish the second half at the lower end of our C1 cost guidance. Wellfield capital for the quarter totalled $8 million Australian dollars as we progress the wellfield development. This included $3.5 million for the first full cost of wellfields 1, 2 and 3 and $4.9 million for wellfields development of 4 to 9. The construction capital for columns 4 to 6 totaled $4 million Australian dollars for the quarter. That expenditure will significantly increase during the coming quarter, which is aligned with construction activities and an increase in man hours with construction. We, having given all that and sort of explained that background, we really do remain confident that we'll achieve both our full year 25 production and cost guidance for Honeymoon. When we look at our investment in Alta Mesa on the following slide, production for the quarter on a 100% basis totaled £98,000. So the next slide, please. This includes 50,000 pounds of uranium captured between March 6 to March 31. A total of 29,126 pounds was delivered to BOSS's account in the quarter to sell as our own inventory as per the JV agreement. So by that, it's unencumbered. We can sell into our own sales mix. As reported during the quarter, the ramp-up to achieve 1.5 million pounds of uranium per year was impacted by Wellfield's development. In turn, Encore, as the manager of the project, has taken a number of steps to accelerate Wellfield development and improve Wellfield planning during the quarter. The second IEX circuit at Alta Mesa also commenced operations during the back end of the quarter, and that effectively is doubling the project's total flow capacity. The combination of the second IEX circuit and Wellfield's expansion effectively utilised 75% of the current processing capacity. On the following slide, slide eight, BOSS continues to add to its growth pipeline. So we're really pursuing organic and inorganic opportunities whilst remaining disciplined on capital allocation. Several of those opportunities that BOSS progressed during the quarter on the slide before you are our satellite deposits on the honeymoon tenements, being Jason's and Gould's Damned, Having completed the infill drilling on those deposits in previous quarters, we formally engaged consultants, AMC consultants in Perth, Australia, to update the York Mineral Resource, which we expect to be done towards the end of Q3, Q4 this year. We also entered into an earning agreement with Eclipse Group, whereby our minimal commitment is $250,000 in the first year, with gated options to go forward at BOSS's election to increase its ownership if technical due diligence proves positive. So it's a very strictly disciplined approach to proving up that potential asset. Heading that is Penny Sinclair and Andy Wild, our chief geologist, but notably Penny was Cameco's lead geologist in Australia during the previous cycle and Cameco owned these tenements for two years from 2006 to 2008, so we're already head deep in reviewing all those old files. We also increased our stake in Laramide resources to 19.7%. So this is a really exciting project. We believe there's a lot of opportunity here and a lot of potential to develop Laramide further. And their flagship asset of particular attention to us is the Westmoreland Uranium Project in Queensland, which has a total JORC resource of £65 million that contains uranium. We believe our investment so far in telaramide, representing only 3% of our market cap, provides us with asymmetric upside should the monitorium in Queensland be lifted. Onto the market, and it's been some interesting developments, particularly overnight. We found that Bloomberg is now reporting that China has now committed to a further 10 nuclear power plants, which is wonderful news and really shows that the depth of the industry continues to grow. That commitment by China is significant, up to $27 billion, and it represents the third year in succession of committing to that growth. So worldwide, we are seeing, from a medium to long-term perspective, that fundamental supply and demand forecast looking very positive, as it has been for decades. And that's really reflected in the term price, which in the March quarter actually reached an all-time high in Australian dollars of $127 per pound. So if you think that Boss Energy's operating expenditure is 95% linked to Australian dollars, then we're in a very good place earning the US revenue. We see this underlying strength on a day-to-day basis with utilities continuing to invite BOS to tender for the supply of uranium from 2026 onwards. From a short-term perspective, we continue to also see geopolitically uncertainty regarding Russian sanctions and the potential for US tariffs as having an adverse impact on spot uranium price, which is a measure of the current sentiment and in fact worldwide affecting all markets. But positively, following the recent declines in spot price, we've started to see an increase in buyer interest in the short to mid-term. And that can be seen in the spot price, which has recently stabilised at a mid-65, 60 US per pound, to today's spot price of 67.5 US a pound. So it's risen two and a half US dollars in the past week. Notably, in the past two weeks as well, we've received two substantial RFPs from globally significant fuel buyers. So what I would explain is the market is beginning to thaw. Fuel buyers are now beginning to come back to the market. They've been able to rely on their own inventories. but they do need to keep acquiring new inventory. So the large strategic utilities with strong cash balances and strong buying power and savvy teams are now entering the market, seeing the prices are reasonable to contract out. When we look at our financial position on the following slide, BOSS remains in a very strong position, sorry, the following slide, with a robust balance sheet that is supported by $229 million in cash and liquid assets on hand as at 31 March 25. This represents a decrease of $22 million from the prior quarter, but please do keep in mind this was primarily driven by marked-to-market movements in inventory and listed investments. Revalued today, one would see that balance increase. During the quarter, BOSS also received cash for £268,000 at an average realized price of US$83.5 per pound. That price was higher than the prevailing spot price, which was also supported by 118,000 of those pounds reflecting a repayment of a loan to Encore at 100 US a pound, the prevailing price at which the loan agreement was entered into just over a year ago. Positively, as mentioned, this quarter represents the first quarter that Honeymoon in its history has recorded positive free cash flow. Given that Honeymoon is still only in its first year of ramp up, we believe this reinforces the decision to bring the mine online when we did. The following slides really just to summarise how honeymoon is placed. And really becoming free cash flow positive in the first year ramp up, we're really chuffed about. And it's a full credit to the team, particularly on site, for achieving these healthy C1 margins. Production and costs remain on track to meet production guidance. We continue to invest in honeymoon development of oil fields. Columns 4 to 6 are underway, and you can see pictorially in the announcement today of the steel structure that provide the foundations. And again, it's the same installation teams that built the first three, so we're getting quicker at rolling these out. And column 4 is scheduled to be in production in the first quarter of the next financial year. We are also developing a strong asset portfolio, but remaining very disciplined on capital allocation, and I can't emphasise that enough. Our focus to date, and it still continues to be, Honeymoon, and now we're supporting Altamesa with their ramp-up. The company has a strong balance sheet of $229 million in cash and liquid assets. So with that, I would like to take this opportunity to really, again, acknowledge the BOSS team, particularly on site. Throughout the organisation, there has been a considerable work and effort in getting the company to this point. It's a great result to see today's announcement come through, highlighting the continued success of the ramp-up at Honeymoon. The team's current focus is now hitting guidance for the year at £850,000 in this coming quarter of produced uranium, and we're doing our best to achieve that. So with that, it concludes the presentation and we can now turn to Q&A. Thanks, Ashley.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Branko Skosik with E&P. Please go ahead.

Yeah, morning, guys. Thanks for your time. Just on the unit costs, they look very encouraging. So just keen to understand first why they're expected to rise next quarter, and perhaps more importantly, whether the 33 Aussie per pound number is a good reference point for us over the coming six to 12 months.

Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Franco. So primarily, as you say, it's a great result in terms of that C1 cost, and it is slightly below guidance for the first quarter of the half. The expectation that costs are going to increase is more to do with the quarter that we've just had, that we've had some one-off cost savings during the quarter, which we don't expect to be repeated in the following quarter. So that would get us to the bottom end of guidance for the full half.

And in terms of how you're thinking about 33 per pound moving forward, is that a good reference point? I'm thinking FY26.

Yeah, yeah. We expect that guidance range of 37 to 41 AUD to be a good range for FY26 at this stage, but we'll be coming out with full year cost guidance as part of our June quarterly.

That makes sense. And just a final question just on the inventory bill that we saw this quarter. Just how you guys are thinking about uranium sales versus further inventory builds over the coming quarters, given what the spot price is?

Yeah, thanks, Frank. I think it's really important to keep a healthy inventory level for a producer, certainly to cover working capital outflow. But really three months on average is a good sort of balance to keep. So if you think annual production ramped up is about 2.45 million pounds, well, take three months of that or a quarter of or a third of that, you're probably looking at, say, a minimum of £800,000 at any given time. So that's what we'd like to keep. And you keep that on hand in case there are any logistical problems with shipping. What you don't want to do is find yourself in a position where suddenly you're contractually obliged to deliver pounds but you're unable to because you don't have the pounds in the right conversion facility or you can't book transfer to the right conversion facility. And in that case, and we're seeing this with some other companies, that they're then forced to go into the market and either borrow uranium or buy uranium off the market. So we don't want to find ourselves in that position. So it makes sense to have commercial sense to have some of your own inventory on hand at all times. And for the differential between that 800,000 pounds and where we are now with 1.1 million pounds, we fundamentally believe the uranium price is going higher. So for us, it makes financial sense to hold on to those pounds and wait for an increase in the spot price. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

Your next question comes from Alastair Rankin with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Oh, good morning, Duncan, Justin, Matt, and congrats on the solid results. I might just dial in on the first fill cost that you mentioned. You said that for Wellfields 1 to 3, they were roughly $3.5 million, which implies about $1.2 million per field. And then you've got an estimate for Wellfields 49 is a bit lower at around $0.8 million per field. So can you just touch on what's driving that lower cost per fill going forward?

Yeah, Alastair. So in terms of the well-filled costs, part of the well-filled cost for one to three was included in the project capital. So potentially there was some additional cost for those well-filled projects. For future wellfields, we are currently seeing some potential opportunities for savings. Some of the specific initiatives that we're doing, probably one of the biggest is looking to construct the wellhouses off-site. And so essentially a well house is a containerised unit and we're kind of working through the engineering design but believe that we can get those constructed offsite, which means that we don't have to pay that higher rate for contractors and flights and accommodation costs for those contracts. That's one of the key opportunities that we believe for reduced wellfield costs for future wellfields. And then also just to note that Around a third of the well-filled capex can be reused. So given that those wellhouses are a kind of containerised module, we can just pick those up and move them to future wellfields once we've got those constructed.

Alastair, it's Matt here too. The other driver there too is also utilising that first fill too, so how we can utilise the first fill that we put into those well fields, including ferric, and recycle that back into additional well fields.

Okay, understood. That's really clear. And then I just might ask around uranium price exposure coming into the second half of this year. you realise a pretty solid price at around $84 with some benefit from that on-call loan pricing as well. But can you just give some colour around your price exposure in the second half of this year and your strategy around it at the moment?

We've got the second half of the on-call loan also being repaid by the end of June this year, so that'll... be the complete repayment of that loan. But yeah, in terms of pricing, we are contractually, we have entered into contracts. We did so about a year ago with market-related contracts with healthy floors. So I suspect that you'll see realised price above the current spot price, certainly, going into this quarter. But yeah, it's one that we've been quite savvy with how we are contracting. Having entered into, I think we're about 18% contracted by the life of mine, predominantly that's in these initial next three to four years. But we're also able to take advantage of more so near-term, short-term type contracting ability with utilities. So It's not just simply fixed price contracts or market-related contracts. You can also take advantage of the near term. So we're being very savvy. We've got a very strong marketing team, as I think you're aware, with Sachi Davies. We work closely with Scott Lawrence as well behind Numerco and some others that we've got around the world. So, yeah, we feel that we're walking in tandem with the market. We feel that we're... more nimble and flexible than some of the other larger producers that have to find homes for their pounds, and we can afford that sort of flexibility.

Perfect. Very clear. Thank you, all three.

Your next question comes from Regan Burrows with Bell Potter. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my questions. Congratulations, Duncan and team. First question just on capacity of the well fields. and also capacity for column number three. How, I guess, what is the capacity currently that you're running it at? And how sort of hard can you push that flow rate over the fourth quarter?

Hey, Regan, it's Matt here. So in terms of capacity, what we're trying to do this quarter is push flow. We've had head grade come through stronger on the previous quarters. Now with column three and well-filled three, it's all about pushing flow through this quarter. Part of that is so that we can continue to look at any sort of commissioning challenges, shifting to a focus on that flow.

Okay, so it's sort of reasonable to expect that the flow rates on, say, a normalised full run rate are going to be higher over fourth quarter than sort of, I guess, comparatively to the second quarter, if you assume that the column number three was running at capacity or thereabouts.

Correct. So we brought the column... We didn't have to bring in wellfield three and column three straight away in that last quarter. We brought that in... We brought that in towards the end of this quarter with the idea that this quarter coming will push the three columns, three well fields on flow with head grade coming down a little bit.

Okay, great. And potentially just on sales and shipment guidance, obviously you touched on it slightly before, Dunk, but just in terms of your FY26 guidance, I mean, How much of that is covered by your contractual commitments and how does that sort of match up with shipments? Are they going to be sort of lumpy and is that going to translate to, I guess, lumpy cash flows coming through or how should we sort of think about that?

I don't think it won't be so lumpy as such. I mean, our objective, we can hold quite a bit of material on site, but really there is a maximum capacity of uranium that we can hold and then we need to ship it to a conversion facility. So our objective really is to ship as much material as we can at the moment into the US, into Confidant particularly, Cameco as well, and then looking across to Europe at Orano's facility. So, yeah, cash flow you'll see steadily flow. We're not concerned at all about the ability to sell uranium. We've managed our cash flow very well over the forthcoming years and our forecast. So, yeah, you won't see it being lumpy, but, yeah, we'll take advantage of the market when it comes. If you see uranium prices suddenly shoot up, we'll probably be in there taking advantage of it. So it's tactful. I mean, we've got a percentage that we've contracted. We're still talking to utilities. We're still engaging with fuel buyers. requests for tenders or requests for proposals, I should say, in the last few weeks. So it's one of staying actively engaged with the market, whether that be on those contractual basis or near-term type, medium-term, forward-selling type arrangements to utilities. But what we're not doing is selling into the spot market. Great. Thank you for taking my question. Thanks, Regan. Thank you.

Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Matt Hope with Ordmanet. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much. Look, I just wanted to check just a bit more on these wellfields. With the tenor of the liquor, I think you mentioned it was going to come down next quarter. I just wanted to sort of get a progress on what rate does it move from 108 PPM down to the sort of 47, I think it was 47 that you expected life of mine. What kind of rate is it going to decline at?

Hey Matt, it's Matt here again. Yeah, you won't get to that life of mine until we have the full five columns in. So, I mean, you're probably looking at a 10 or 20% decrease compared to last quarter.

Right, thanks.

Yeah, so it will take us, there's only once column five and six come in that we'll start to normalise around about that life of mine head grade.

Right. And how does the grade of wellfield three look compared to the previous two that you had currently operating?

No, very promising. It's a big wellfield. It's up to, I think it's 1.2 to 1.4 million pounds. And no, the current grades are very healthy. So it bodes well. I mean, when you look at Honeymoon, how we've started with those initial two wellfields, really they're in a good part of the ore body. But those wellfields, as you've seen on site, they were established by the previous owners, Uranium One. So it made sense to utilise that existing infrastructure during start-up. All we simply did was modernise the wells and pumps and flush those wellfields prior to leaching. So now we're stepping out and bringing in these additional wellfields. So wellfield three is new, wellfield four and five are getting prepped, but they're sort of nearly complete to bring on when we're ready. So we always try and stay at least sort of six months ahead or 12 months ahead of when these wellfields are required to bring on. But yeah, from a construction perspective on wellfields, we're well advanced for the forthcoming year, actually. So now it's one of just blending the product and bringing in those additional fields.

Right. And just finally on the uranium price, you mentioned that there's a bunch of very sort of short-term contracts that you could leap into that you wouldn't be selling on spot. These short-term contracts for near-term delivery, do they essentially have the same price as spot anyway, or how does that work?

Oh, you normally get a premium. So, for example, we sold one and the spot price was 64.5. We were able to sell it at 69.5. So, you know, you normally get a forward premium. Right.

Okay, that's it for me. Thanks very much.

Good. No, thanks, Matt.

Your next question comes from Alistair Rankin with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Oh, thanks for taking my follow-up. Actually, just a question about the head grade at Altamesa. I don't think there was anything in the pack about it. And I think the last quarter was around 65 mg per litre. Any update on that or maybe on the recovery curves as well for the new well fields there at Altamesa?

We don't, sorry. I mean, they got, on average, they were averaging around 65 ppm. They got up to, I think it was 120. So they were doing well. What we are doing, however, is with Alta Mesa, what held them back was the lack of wellfield development. They weren't staying in front of what their production requirements were. So they've really been focused on bringing new wellfields into production and sort of ramping up in that field. The operating plant itself is working well. very well. As mentioned, they've brought their second iron exchange circuit into production. So the focus for them is now well-filled and they've sort of parachuted in a chap called Dr. Dennis Stover, who was on their board of directors and He's like the leading ISR guru in the US and has been for decades. But our own colleagues, Matt Ducey and head geologist Andy Wild and a few others are heading across there early May so we can actually get a good view of how they're progressing. So, yeah, I think the next call we have or perhaps we can report back in a few weeks' time.

Okay, sounds good. Look forward to it. And then just on Wellfield B2 at Honeymoon, I think in that analyst pack you had, it was recovering a touch faster than expected. Have you got any update on how that's been progressing since then?

Alistair, you're right. So... B1, first wellfield was on the line and that's with that 70% recovery over that 70% volume exchange. And then B2 was we're getting higher recoveries out of B2 than we were expected. And that's why we delayed bringing B3 in. That B2 continues to outperform. It's too early to tell what B3 is doing at this point in time.

Okay, no stress at all. Thanks very much.

Your next question comes from Jim Ariasinghe with UBS. Please go ahead.

Thanks, guys. Congrats on the result. Maybe if you can just help me with the medium-term glide path again. So I guess the road to full capacity and then expanding honeymoon further, how do you think about that versus future acquisitions? you know, noting Laramide? Like, is there anything else that you're thinking about right now, maybe in the US? Or, yeah, how do you guys kind of weigh that dual mandate up? How do you think about that internally?

Yeah, sure, Tim. So the focus is very much on honeymoon as it's been. for these past few years and really getting that mine ramped up. So the actual guidance to achieve 850,000 pounds is in sight and that's to achieve by end of June this year, calendar year. The following year it's to ramp up to 1.6 million pounds and we're feeling confident that we can get there given how well we produced in February, for example. and getting that annualised run rate. And then it's on to 2.4, 2.45 million pounds. So it really is a step-by-step process, which is very much typical to how in-situ recovery projects ramp up, bringing new wellfields online. So in terms of our sort of growth within Honeymoons production, it's We've got a feasibility study, just a map of how we're going to bring those additional wellfields on, starting in Far East Kalkaroo and then drifting back towards or grafting back towards the honeymoon processing site. And then you look at organic growth in terms of our satellite deposits, so Jason's and Gould's Dam, which combined has a York resource inferred and indicated of £36 million. So we needed to get greater confidence with those before doing an economic assessment. And to that level we've done the infill drill program, handed that data really over to AMC consultants to do an independent review and block modelling. So that's with them and we hope to get that data back by the end of this current quarter or early next. But the view there is really to incorporate them into the production profile for Honeymoon. You know, there are a number of steps with that. It's completing the resource estimate. It's development of the project description, commencement of permitting and studies. So to finalise, once we've done those studies and it makes economic sense, one then needs to go through the regulatory format. So it's likely to take sort of two to three years before we can bring those satellite deposits into complementing our existing production profile. Yeah, and then the inorganic opportunities as mentioned. But I mean, the key is I've tried to emphasise earlier is just that strict disciplined approach. I mean, we've only committed 3% of our market cap and basically got our foot on a really exciting project or series of projects actually within Laramide Resources. And we're also very much focused on assisting our sort of partners with Encore Energy and their Alta Mesa project, which we still believe is one of the best projects in the US in terms of production.

Thank you. Cheers.

Thanks.

There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Crabe for closing remarks.

Well, thank you very much. Thanks for your time this morning. Our next challenge, as mentioned, is to really achieve that production guidance of £850,000 by the end of June this year. And we very much look forward to providing you with a further update in the coming months. But with that, thank you very much.

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.