Bathurst Resources Limited

website and we'll attempt to get those answered straight after again thanks very much for attending uh usual disclosures we have had an update to the resource and reserves which was put out on the 31st of october so any reference to resource and reserves will be related to to that recent announcement not a lot's changed in our shareholding Base in particular, since the last time I spoke to you, share price has been sort of bouncing between 70 cents to 80 cents. And again, we've got about the same amount of cash in the bank. So just under 140 million New Zealand dollars in the bank and still no debt. And we'll sort of talk about that more as we go through. For anyone who's not familiar with Bathurst, we are a coal mining operator. We're based all of our operations in New Zealand, but we've also got two projects in Canada. So we've got four operating mines, two in the North Island, Maumaroa, Rotowara, principally supplying a thermal coal to a steel making process. The only steel mill in New Zealand, which is about 60 odd percent of New Zealand's cladding and structural steel. Stockton is our export mine on the West Coast of the South Island, which is about 1.2 million tonnes of high quality coking coal for the export market. We've got offices in Wellington and Christchurch. We've got a distribution route in Timaru. And our fourth operating mine, 100% owned by Bathurst, is Takatimu in the Deep South, which produces coal for Pro CSE, Valleyware to New Zealand Prime Production. We're a medium-sized business within New Zealand. We employ directly about 675 people. Quite a bit of money going out of those operations into the particularly regional areas, west coast, centre of the North Island and the deep south, the southern area. We're in a growth phase at the present time in terms of we've got additional cutbacks going on at Rotowara, Maumaroa and at Stockton. So our staff numbers are elevated on where they were 12 months ago. So just looking at the results, we'll just go across each of the sort of major operating areas. Export, which is Senator and obviously the Stockton mine. Key thing here is we're moving a little more dirt than we were a quarter ago. And sorry. Oh, I apologize. I'm not sharing the screen. I've just been informed. Apologies for that. So let me go back to the beginning. I'll just have to fix that up. Missed the one important step. OK. So the slides I've been dealing with so far, I'll just flick through these. So again, the corporate structure, the operations in New Zealand with the North Island and the South Island. Our contribution to New Zealand, yes, 675 people and quite a considerable amount of money flowing into the New Zealand economy. Right, so trying to keep this back on track. Yeah, so at Stockton, we have been moving additional dirt from where we were 12 months ago. A little bit in front of where we anticipated we'd be. Again, same as with production and sales. We're pretty much equal sales, a little bit ahead in production, but obviously quite a way behind where we were for the same time last year. And that's all to do with logistics. So a tunnel collapse, which again, we've got another slide as we move further forward, occurred in mid-June earlier this year. We've been trucking coal around that from directly from the mine to another rail loadout, and then carrying on with rail from that point, which is called Ikematua through to Lyttelton. In terms of revenue, obviously there's a couple of impacts on that with the reduced volume, but also we've had reduced pricing from where we were last year. With Rotowaro, considerably more dirt being moved, well over a million BCM more for the quarter from where we were 12 months ago. And that's really in relation to the Waipuna West extension cutback. Sales are a little bit in front and by that EBITDA is a little bit in front as well. With Maumarua, again, pretty much where we were 12 months ago. We are a little bit behind what we were forecasting, mainly due to the slow work during the wintertime getting into the M1 extension. So that'll be where the major coal comes over the next couple of three years. Sales are pretty much in line and EBITDA is pretty much in line. Takatimu, we've actually moved more dirt in the last quarter than we did 12 months ago. Sales are up and consequently revenue and EBITDA is quite considerably up from where we were, again, anticipating, but we're about the same level as we were last year. So in terms of revenue, we're slightly behind, again, mainly due to the impact of the Tawhai tunnel on the export. Ebitda is, again, slightly in front of where we anticipated being in terms of forecast, but quite a way behind where we were last year, really just around the, again, the impact of the tunnel, the additional costs. So in terms of Bathurst, we've got $140 million Kiwi dollars in the bank. We've got zero debt on, apart from about $1.2 million in lease finance. And we're anticipating we're going to make somewhere between 55 and 65 million EBITDA at Bathurst level for FY25. Again, that's down on where we were last year. We ended up with 91 million for the FY24. Most of it is in the export business. Again, the double impact of the export pricing coming off from what were record highs in 2023-24 down to... Probably not as far dipped as we've been. We've got down to $180. We're back up to around $200 now. And then increases in overheads at BT and BRL level, mainly around upskilling and upsizing to meet the growth aspirations of the company. And we'll talk about that when we get into the projects. And for Bathurst, obviously, we've got, this is going to be the first full year with the Telco project, which we took over in January. earlier this year. So just looking at the tunnel, again, the incident occurred on the 15th of June. We put in a trucking plan immediately. We've trucked a considerable amount of coal around this issue. It's in Reefton, so it's around about an hour and a half's drive from the mine. And then the rail loadout we're using is about 15 minutes past that again. So it's about a four-hour round trip for the trucks. And we do really appreciate the patience of our local communities that we're driving these trucks through. This is not the usual way we'd like to operate, but normally all of our coal goes by rail. And obviously there's additional costs in that as well, but there's also just additional disruption. So again, we thank our local communities. So the work's been progressing well in terms of the recovery of the three fault areas within the tunnel. It's an old tunnel. It was built in the late 1800s. They've recovered one of the falls and they're working their way through the second one. Really the target now is to be back into full railing by the end of January and we've got the shipping plan aligned around that reopening. We'll also be going to seven-day logistics from that point, whereas the present time we only do five-day logistics with one train on a Saturday. Export market, I mean, it's come off quite a way from where we were back in 23, 24. We're still not at sort of record low levels, though, from where we were, say, 10 years ago. We got down to below $180. We hedge around about 35% of our overall production. And so we're actually locking in reasonable hedges even now up to 12 months out, at around that 200 to 250 US range. So... Today, we're sitting at about $204 US a tonne at around $59 to $60. So still good revenues flowing from the sales. And obviously, we are going to be behind for this first six months, but we're looking to catch up most of that tonnage in the next six months. So looking forward, New Zealand's sort of political landscape changed quite a bit. About 12 months ago, we had a change of government to a coalition between National Act and New Zealand First. They introduced a bill called the Fast Track Approvals Bill in March earlier this year. That's been through the select committee process. It's just coming out of that now. and we're looking to that bill to then go back into Parliament sometime this year and hopefully with enactment be the before Christmas or soon after. Critical thing here is the bill is centered around a fast track process number one, but mainly around a one stop shop. So you put in one application and there might be multiple regulators involved in assessing that application. It'll eventually go to a panel and the panel will actually approve or not approve the project based on a set of conditions that have been vetted by the various regulators. And the test is regional or national significant development or economic growth. So that's the sort of the underpinning part of the Act. And the idea is particularly for regions, but also nationally, New Zealand needs development and this bill is a very good attempt. So we've got two projects. that have been accepted. So the Buller Plateau Continuation Project, which is set around Stockton, and then also bringing in our 100% owned Denison assets and the Rotowara Mine Extension Project, which is a continuation of use of the existing infrastructure out to about 2029 for existing reserves within the holdings. That is covered by the existing coal mining licence. And then also we've got some areas to the north that could be added to that, utilising the existing infrastructure hub. So Bathurst has really got three parts of the business. We've got BT Mining, which is a joint venture that we formed to buy the ex-solid energy assets back in 2017, which is Stockton, Marmarua and Rotowara. And each of those have got extension projects that we've outlined. Marmarua is a smaller internal one, whereas Rotowara and Stockton are larger projects that we'll look to put through the fast track. Takatimu, we've got plans for that to go through to 26, 27. And obviously the bullet plateau is the growth project for us adding to the infrastructure or utilising infrastructure at Stockton and adding to the tunnels that will come out of Stockton. And our two Canadian projects to Nass and Crown Mountain with our joint venture with Jamieson and Crown Mountain. So with the Buller project, what we're looking to do is utilise the fast track, so get an application early next year. On the balance of things, as we know it so far, we should have an outcome of that by the end of next year, so the end of 25. We'll be looking to then construct the civils and the additional mine infrastructure that will be required to bring that on into 27. So that'll build up steadily as we open up pit room and also as capacity is available within the Stockton system to accept that cold. And this coal will ultimately or ideally be blended with the remaining coal reserve within Stockton to then get a consistent output of around about 1.2 million tonnes coming out of the complex over the next 25 to nearly 30 years. Sorry, 15 or so years. So if we combine that with the remaining reserve, which is the dark blue on the graph in the bottom here, with the Buller project, as you can see, the idea is to remain around about 1.2, 1.3 million tonnes of high quality export coal going into the international market, out to FY2039, or potentially longer, depending on what other projects we can bring on. So that's just looking really at the Denniston and the remaining reserves within Stockton, including the Upper Wying Wing, mining permit area. Now there is other coal that's available in the area and we are still assessing those, but as we move forward, the idea will be to extend it around about that same ultimate capacity. With Canada, we've now got the two projects and us, we took over in January and Crown Mountain, which was, we've been in a joint venture with Jamieson since 2018. The beauty of that project with Crown Mountain is it's allowed us to give a, basically learn the BC jurisdiction, learn about the structural geology in British Columbia, but also, you know, interactions with First Nation groups and others. So that's really then, we believe it is the right to then go into 100% project up in Taunus, which is further north and closest to the coal port. So it's probably the closest coal reserve within BC to a port. So both projects have been through various stages of definitive feasibility studies. They're both being renewed as we speak. They're both pre-COVID, and so we've obviously had quite a significant uplift in cost, but also we've had a considerable change in paradigm for revenues around coke and coal. and also obviously, you know, changes in the capital structures across both those companies as well. So we're looking to build a business that'll, for us, deliver around about, to our account, about 2 million tonnes, a million tonnes out of Tanas, and 50% share of 2 million tonnes out of Crown Mountain. Tanas, we believe, will be an earlier project. It's a smaller spend. We're looking at spending around about 100 million Canadian to bring that on, whereas Crown Mountain is, is a larger project, 2 million tonnes for 15 plus years, but it'll be around about a $300 million build. So in terms of the environmental assessment process in British Columbia, we are in, TANAS has come out of the application development review phase. We've got a number of requests for information from the main regulator, the EAO, the EAO, We're working our way through those. We're anticipating we're going to have those completed by mid next year. And then we'll be looking to try and put a final application into the effects assessment and hopefully ultimately leading to a decision which we intend to be positive. So at the same time, we've been dealing extensively with First Nation groups, both with Jamieson at Crown Mountain, but also on our own at Tanasu. On the back of that, we brought 16 of First Nation people out to New Zealand in May this year, had a look at our operations, but probably more importantly, had interactions with First Nations groups in New Zealand that we deal with extensively. And we gained a lot out of that. We gained a lot of knowledge about what was important for them, but also more importantly, they gained a lot of knowledge about how we operate, but also how New Zealand operates in terms of dealing with issues like development within First Nation areas. So we're very comfortable with the projects up to the present time. We've got sort of cash within the business to be able to fund it and we're looking to move that forward as quickly as possible. So ultimately what we're looking to do is on a total equity basis, so this is 100% of Bathurst tons, 100% of Tanaa, 65% of BT, and 50% of Crown Mountain, build up to by 28, around about a $3 million, a 3 million tons a year export or internal use steelmaking business. So all of this coal will go into steelmaking. whether it's a domestic stewarding process in New Zealand or an international stewarding process across most of the Central Asian countries. So probably just to break down a little bit further in terms of the next three-year horizon, the joint venture is fully funded. We've got $200 million in cash sitting within that business. We've got teams that are already actively working on the existing operations, and we'll look to take those two projects through the fast track. With 100% owned Bathurst, again, we're utilising cash reserves at the moment to bring on the Buller project, and we're targeting ultimately somewhere around about 800,000 tonnes a year average. Obviously, that income will then be available 100% to Bathurst, and about a $50 million Kiwi dollar build to get onto First Coal. With British Columbia, again, we're using existing cash reserves for the funding at the present time. TANAS will ultimately, in around late 26, early 27, we'll need around $100 million capital to build that project. And we've been engaging with various institutions and financial providers over the last few months to try and shore up where that capital will come from. And it'll be a combination of debt and hopefully using our existing cash that we've already got within the joint venture, but we're not relying on that at the present time. Crown Mountain a little bit further down the track, but again, we're looking at a $300, $350 million US build. And again, we're talking to potential fund providers for that. So just really to mop all that up, we've got a strong balance sheet. We've got zero debt sitting at the present time. We've got large cash balances held within the joint venture. So we're fully funded in that way. We've got legislation and we've got a political system in New Zealand that's actually looking for further growth and looking for mining to be part of that growth. So we're looking to actually utilise that as much as possible over the next couple of three years to bring these projects forward. Leveraging the joint venture infrastructure, which is allowed for by the joint venture agreement as we stand. Projects in British Columbia, again, to us, will have a low unit cost. It's a low strip ratio, about three to one strip ratio. relatively low capital to bring it on, and then backing that up again with cash being generated out of New Zealand and out of Tenas by that time to bring forward the Crown Mountain project in combination with our joint venture partners, Jamison. So ultimately what we're looking to be able to do is then build up basically a series of cash flow generating projects that will allow us to be independent from our existing joint venture and allow that then to take forward 100% Bathurst generated cash into projects and also dividends. So thanks very much. Again, if there's any questions, send them through to our Wellington email address and we'll look to get those answered quick smart. So thanks very much for that. Sorry about the rocky start with a non-share, but we'll move past that. Thanks a lot. Bye.