Fortescue Ltd

Welcome all. It's great to be back with you again. And with me today is Mark Hutchinson, Energy CEO and Apple Paget Acting CFO. We're joining you from Gabon in Central Africa. And it's been a really productive visit spending time with the team, the government and a variety of stakeholders around this beautiful country. We're out at the Linga site early this week, and I continue to be amazed by the energy of the team, the potential of the project and the support we have in country. Onto the results. Last month, we presented our quarterly production results, which included our second highest first half shipments of 94.6 million tonnes. We achieved this while standing by our absolute commitment to safety and keeping costs low to drive performance and ensure we set the business up for future success. We achieved a C1 cost of less than $18 per tonne in the half, and I promise you we remain laser-focused on maintaining our industry-leading cost position. That strong operating performance in the first half underpins the outstanding financial results we reported today, including underlying EBITDA of $5.9 billion, up 36%, and net profit after tax of $3.3 billion, up 41%. Reflecting these results, the board today declared a fully frank interim dividend of one Australian dollar and eight cents per share, representing a 65% payout of first half net profit after tax and a return of 3.3 billion Aussie dollars to shareholders. There were many highlights during the half. We shipped our two billion tonne of ore in September and achieved record shipments in December. Through the flexibility of our supply chain and use of innovation and technology, including AI, This has improved our rail capacity, which has helped to buffer against supply chain variability. You can see this in action through our recovery plan, which has positioned us to mitigate the impacts of the derailment that occurred in December. We are laying the foundations for our longer-term success through consistent progress and innovation. Our decarbonisation plan continues to gain momentum with the deployment of our 240-tonne battery electric haul truck, Roadrunner, and commissioning of Australia's first Electric Excavator. Our Pilbara Energy Connect project is progressing well with the completion of 320 kilometres of transmission lines to connect Solomon to Iron Bridge and through to Port Hedlands. And we've commenced on-site testing of our prototype mobile hydrogen power unit, which provides renewable energy for mining equipment in remote areas. We also have an exciting exploration pipeline with programs underway in the Pilbara, as well as globally here in Gabon and South America, including Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The strong first half of FY24 positions Fortescue well to deliver on guidance for the full year. And before handing over to Hutch, I'd love to give a big shout out to the entire Fortescue team and all our partners for their huge effort in the first half. On that note, Hutch, over to you.

Thanks very much, Dino, and welcome. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank the Fortescue team for an amazing result and all the efforts they put into achieving this. It's been a big first year, half year for the energy business as well. We took three projects to FID. We're progressing our global project pipeline with more to come. We've doubled down on our battery systems and manufacturing with Fortescue WAE. Our in-house electrolyzer technology was verified and will underpin our Gladstone PEM 50 green hydrogen project. And we launched Fortescue Capital. I think about the energy business in four parts. Firstly, green energy, that's electrons and molecule production. Secondly, battery technology development. Next, hydrogen systems. And lastly, capital. These four parts see us developing complementary capabilities across the green energy value chain. This means we can maximize efficiencies, improve innovation, and competitive advantage through the whole vertical integration. We have the knowledge base, adaptability, and optionality to quickly respond to shifts, as well as capitalize on emerging opportunities we see. There is just no one else doing what we are doing. And as you can see from our achievements, Over the first half, we're making really solid progress. I'm very happy to take some questions, but first I'd like to hand over to Apple, who will take us through the financials. Apple.

Thanks, Hutch, and a big hello to everyone. The team has delivered another set of clean and transparent financial results, and it's a pleasure to share some of the details. Starting on the P&L, revenue of $9.5 billion. was up 21% on the first half of FY23, driven by an increase in the realized price. This revenue, combined with strong cost management, contributed to underlying EBITDA of $5.9 billion, up 36% on the year, year on year. The high EBITDA flow through to NPAT, up 41% to US $3.3 billion. The EBITDA margin increased to 62%, and this equates to an EBITDA margin of $73 per tonne for the metal segment. For those following the webcast, you can see on this slide that Fortescue has continued to generate strong margins through the cycle and the average EBITDA in the past five years is over $60 per tonne. Moving to cash flow, this slide demonstrates that the business continues to generate strong operating and free cash flow. Net operating cash flow increased to $4.2 billion in the half and free cash flow was up 69% to $2.7 billion. This was after capital expenditure of $1.5 billion, comprising $1.3 billion in the metal segment and $165 million in the energy segment. In terms of our full year capex guidance, this is unchanged from the quarter. $2.8 to $3.2 billion in metals and $500 million in energy, with spend phased to the second half. Fortescue's balance sheets further strengthened in the period, with net debt of $0.6 billion at 31 December, inclusive of the $4.7 billion of cash on hand. Approximately $2.2 billion of this cash has been allocated for the payment of the interim dividend next month. For those on the webcast, you can see Fortescue's credit metrics on this slide. Debt to EBITDA of 0.5 times and growth gearing of 22%. We are committed to maintaining strong credit metrics through the cycle. Our capital allocation framework also prioritises returning capital to shareholders based on our dividend policy to pay out 50% to 80% of underlying impact. As you've heard, the fully franked interim dividend declared by the board today of $1.08 per share represents a 65% payout ratio. In closing, we have delivered a very strong set of financial results in the first half and are really well positioned heading into the second half. We're pleased to take your questions and I'll hand over to the Q&A part of the call. Back to the operator.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask a question. A reminder to please limit your questions to two per person. If you would like to ask further questions, please rejoin the queue. Your first question comes from Paul Young with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, Dino Appelmark. Impressive of you dialing in from Gabon. I hope you're all well. First question, Dino, is this on the performance out of the Pilbara in January and February? I see shipments have been a little weak. I presume you're still recovering from the derailment in Lake December. Can you just talk through how shipments are tracking recently and how you're going to make up the potential shortfall of those lost tonnes?

Thanks, Paul, and you're correct. The impact late December of the derailment has flowed on into January, which we were expecting. Good news is we've finished all the recovery works in record time. We've been able to do some proactive work. I'd also call out that during H1, we're able to deep bottleneck some of our rail system and add a little bit more capacity, which has helped recover the shortfall in tons, which we use that capacity for the remainder of the year. In addition to that, we've utilized the ability for our supply chain to shift product strategy slightly. So we've... Sorry, we're... We're growing more of our tonnes through the Chichester system, less out of the Western hub area. So from a supply input perspective, we're going well. The remaining four and a half months are big months for us. We acknowledge that, but nothing that we haven't achieved before. So we're pretty confident around making a guidance of 192 to 197 tonnes per tonne. Okay.

Thanks, Dino. That's great. And second question is on the $6.2 billion Pilbara decar program. I haven't really received an update for a little while. I see your CapEx guidance of 0.3 to 0.5 bills. The run rate there is a little bit behind the CapEx profile that you put out there to the market back in 2022 when you approved that project. Just curious around why that's the case and how that project's tracking overall to plan things.

Hi, Paul. Mark here. I'll hand over to Christian. He's in the boardroom in Perth, and he can answer this.

Hi, Christian Heining here, DCARP in Perth. Thanks for the question, Paul. The run rate in the first half of the year is going to be exceeded in the second half of the year. As you know, DCARP is ramping up. The next couple of quarters. Sorry, it was a bit of a funny noise. Are we still online? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The ramp up is the overall decar spend for the full year still within the guidance as given earlier in the year. In terms of your broader question of where are we compared to September 26, I think first of all, I'm really excited about all the wonderful stuff that we've been able to achieve. Dino mentioned a few. I think it should not be underestimated how important it is to have a number of zero emission mining equipment operating on site now. which actually spills out into things like retraining operators and getting used to things like cable handling. So we are making a lot of progress there. And those are the financials. Of course, we will update the market as soon as we have a reason to do so, which up to date we haven't really had. Prices continue to change, of course. The good news is that solar and batteries specifically are getting quite financially attractive at the moment. So there's quite a few headwinds that are compensated by chill winds also.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Rob Steen with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity. Just a quick one on capital allocation and the various projects that you've got going on at the moment, including Gabon. How should we think about the capital spend of the business over the next few years in terms of dividends? Iron ore prices are obviously exceedingly high, which is providing a windfall for you from a cash point of view. How should we think about returns back to shareholders in the context of the hydrogen pipeline and the fact that we're still not seeing many FIDs, material FIDs come through?

Yeah, thanks, Rob. I'll kick it off and invite Apple and Hutch to add any comments. From the outset, our steely fiscal discipline is absolutely critical and will be unwavering through this period of change. Dividend policy of 50% to 80% will remain unchanged. In terms of the big capital licks for the metals group, as we've indicated before, we've got a pretty healthy pipeline of projects to, I would call them mid-capital projects, to support the hematite operations out of the Pilbara. We've got a couple of exciting projects that we've been able to kick the can down the road in Nithinu, as I've mentioned before. The big one for us will be Gabon. And as I've said before, the project is at a very early stage. We've got a lot of work to do. We'll be expensing I would say immaterial amounts on the study over the next couple of years, and then we'll make an announcement should the project proceed into the future. Just on energy.

Yeah, so look, Rob, thanks. And I think the important thing is here, we're going to maintain our financial discipline around what we're going to do on the capital allocation side. Now that the 10% MPAT has gone away, we're very much focused on competing for the same capital. So, yes, we've got some projects through the system. We have other ones in the pipeline which are looking good and, you know, we'll come to the market when we're ready on those. Oh, Apple, anything else to add here?

Oh, no, just to confirm, Rob, that our capital allocation framework continues to prioritise return of capital to shareholders. As Dino mentioned, 50% to 80%. and also a commitment to maintaining our strong balance sheet.

Thank you. And maybe just a quick follow-up on the hydrogen pipeline. Hutch, are we seeing any further FRDs in the not-too-distant future?

Yeah, thanks. We have a great pipeline, actually, over the next two years. We're accelerating a couple of very important projects, one in Norway and one in Brazil. I think the next cab off the ranks is going to be Norway. We have Firm Power, it's Hydro Power from Statcraft. We have the site. We have a grant from the European Commission. So that one's looking really good and I think you'll see that one come next. But again, we're taking our time to make sure that we have the right financial discipline around all our projects before we announce them. So that'll be next.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Manav Shah with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon. Rahul Anand here from Morgan Stanley. Thanks for the call. Look, I've got two on INOR, perhaps starting with the Pilbara first. In your presentation today, and I think you did mention that to Paul's question as well, you've mentioned rail capacity uplifts and de-bottlenecking. Could you perhaps remind us, you know, after this exercise, where do you sit in terms of rail capacity, port capacity, and is this going to feed into perhaps a bit more going forward into next year? That's the first one. I'll come back with a second thing.

Yeah, good question, Raoul. I'm expecting this one to come up. So I'm not going to indicate, you know, future capacity just at this stage, but we're probably one or two million tonne up on the improvements that we've been able to make in the first half. We balance that with our ongoing investment in our assets, sustaining capital and ensuring this asset runs for another 20 to 30 years, which is our projection. Just reminding everyone that the bottleneck actually goes into shipping once Ironbridge ramps up. their rail bottleneck will stay there until we get that crossover point. So from your modelling perspective, I'd look at, you know, the target we've put out there is the hematite production of the Pilbara Prus, the upside we get in magnetite, going to our total licence limit of 210 million tonnes.

Got it. OK. And then, I guess, considering you are in Gabon at the moment, it's fair to ask one on that one. Yeah, a couple of things there. Obviously, firstly, government interactions, what's the level of support you're seeing? But more importantly, last year, you talked about how you can blend Pilbara ore and Gabon ore together in the blast furnace, and you get the best of both worlds. So you've obviously done a shipment or some shipments out of Gabon. What has the customer feedback been so far? And especially, have you done any sort of work on the combination of the ores?

You're getting a little bit ahead of yourself, Rahul. The shipment was, I wouldn't read too much into that. It was very, very early days and the concept was to prove the logistics process and also to demonstrate to our stakeholders here, which leads us into the first question. How serious are we as a partner? Can we get this done? This ore body has been around since the 1960s and no one's been able to get any ore out. We did it in about six months. However, we won't be ramping up that particular supply chain through the road network here. We've actually already detuned that. We gave guidance to 2 million tonnes, but that will be low tonnes in the thousands rather than millions of tonnes going forward. Our focus is on the exploration activities now and the logistics study. In terms of the government interaction, it's been overwhelmingly positive here. We met a few times actually with the President and senior ministers here and the words directly out of the President's mouth was, this is a green light and we're leaving here with a set of shared values as a country and as an organisation. The potential here is pretty overwhelming. As we spoke last time, if you can get the tonnage out of Gabon with our existing highest grade product out of Gabon, out of Ironbridge and our base load of 190 million tonnes plus out of hematite operations, it does really cater for the short-term market as well as what we believe is a really exciting future around green iron opening up towards the latter part of this decade.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Lyndon Fagan with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. Look, there was a Reuters article about Fortescue experiencing custom clearance delays in China. I'm just wondering if you're able to discuss what those issues were.

G'day, Lyndon. Look, had a high level, nothing really to see here. We deal with quarantine issues all the time at all of our ports. It's quite topical. In this particular case, a couple of cargoes went through the process. Look, and the reality is we're not having any problems and we continue to flow.

No worries. Okay, I guess the next one is... And apologies if I missed the discussion. With Fortescue Energy, there does appear to be a slowdown in deployment of projects, if I'm reading that correctly. Is there any kind of pivot here in strategy to perhaps go a bit more slowly? I'm just trying to sort of read the tea leaves a bit. I mean, we had 70 projects in the pipeline and 15 million tons of hydrogen by 2030, but I guess we haven't really been seeing much in the way of project approvals. Just be good to sort of flesh that one out.

Yeah, thanks, Lyndon. So look, just to put it into perspective, nobody's ever done these projects before, so they're hard, right? But we are 100% committed to showing the world there's an alternative to fossil fuel, and So we've got three projects in FID. We have a great pipeline of projects behind us. So the way we're thinking about these is these kind of prime the pump. We're going to learn a ton from the early projects as we go into execution about not just about the technology, but also dealing with these globally. We have two projects with fast tracking, one in Brazil and one in Norway. And there's a really good pipeline behind this scale, actually. So really what we're looking at is projects we can do around the world which are scalable. Now, the market's developing. It's dynamic. It changes every day. We learn every day. And there's plenty of discussion around the world about where green hydrogen's at, particularly with government support. But look, that's not stopping us at all. Nothing's changed. We still have very ambitious plans over the next few years to develop this. It's progressing well.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Gu-Ang Xu with Geng with Gutai Junan Futures. Please go ahead.

Okay. Good afternoon, Dina and Tim. In the half-year report, it's mentioned that the ore mine decrease and strip ratio went up, and such change reflect life cycle of operations at Chichester and Western Hub. So my question is, does it mean it will continue for mining volume to slide lower and street ratio to go higher in the coming years? For example, in financial year 25, or maybe just elaborate more on the life cycles of these operations and where we are in the current stage of this life cycle. Thank you.

Sure. Great, great question. And the benefit of... Fortescue's portfolio, we've got quite a lot of options. The first comment I'd make is we're progressing with our exploration activities aggressively to fill the long-term pipeline of resources and then the conversion to reserves. In terms of the strict ratio comment, we have indicated in the past that you'll see an uplift in the next few years as our travel distances, particularly around the Western Hub in Chichester, get a little bit higher. That's pretty normal as we work through our mine plan. Our focus right now is our brownfields exploration, so our near-mine exploration has yielded some successes and we expect that to come in. Just as a note, the whole hub project, which is one of the smaller new mines in our pipeline is about to kick off in addition to the flying fish announcement we made at Western Hub not too long ago. Good question, thanks.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Lachlan Shaw with UBS. Please go ahead.

Yeah, morning Dino, afternoon Hutch and team. Thanks for your time. Two from me. Maybe just a small one for Hutch first. I just wanted to understand the change in scope at the Phoenix Energy Hub with NEL and the $20 million payment to them. Does that reflect a change in strategy and market positioning for that project?

No, absolutely not. So this was, we actually, remember, bought this deal off another party and they had already bought the electrolysis. So we just, when we were negotiating the deal, we did it in a number of stages to make sure we were happy with the equipment, but that's no change at all to that project.

Okay, great. Thank you. My second question then is just on, I suppose, the market, China, what you're hearing on the ground and what people are telling you, and if you can maybe elaborate a little bit, obviously low-grade discounts are pretty tight right now. How's your team seeing the outlook there? Thank you.

Yeah, look, no real change from what we've indicated before. We're still production actually very sound. Year-on-year increases, marginal increases, but still stronger on an exceptional base. placing our product, particularly the low steel margins, as you've mentioned, haven't really been an issue with almost record realisations. I think what we're seeing, particularly on the ground, is diversification of, I guess, where the product's going from the traditional property base, which is still the majority of it, remains relatively healthy. But what surprised us on the upside is the automotive industry, even some of the decarbs spend that's going on in China. So we see particularly robust demand, particularly for our product, and the disanticipation of the tsunami of scrap that hasn't really materialised. In that combination, we forecast the market to be pretty strong.

Thank you. Your next question comes from John C. Tomaso with John C. Tomaso, Very Independent Research. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I'm trying to understand the two hydrogen projects. Is the correct conversion that one ton of hydrogen is 3,731 gallons? and that the two projects, 19,000 tons, would be approximately 67 million gallons of hydrogen?

Hi, John. It's Mark here. I'm not really following you. So the Phoenix project, we have 11,000 tons of hydrogen, which will be in production.

So I'm reading a website, GenGenH2 Discover Hydrogen, that says that one ton is 3,731 gallons. And I'm trying to make an estimate like... Go ahead.

Yeah, sorry, John. I think maybe it might be equivalent probably to diesel. I'm not too sure. Without seeing the website, I can't comment. But we look at it. And then also tons of green ammonia if we're converting it to ammonia, which you kind of times by six.

Would you think a profit of $1 a gallon from manufacturing and $1 a gallon from green premium is a conceivable target profit margin?

So it's a bit difficult to follow you, John, because I think the way we look at the project is really obviously looking at the return from an IRR perspective. And it does depend on where the project is and whether we're doing ammonia or we're doing hydrogen. So in the United States, for example, where you get the $3 subsidy, theoretically, you have a very different kind of return profile than you do on doing a green ammonia project. But look, I think we've given guidance that our plan is to have all our projects with a project IRR on double digits, and that's certainly holding true.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Khan Pekka with RBC. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, Dino, Mark, Applin team. Two questions on iron ore. First one, just Going back to what Dino said with regards to the shift in product strategy, talking about more Chichester products, does that mean more Fortescue Blend versus less Pilbara Flines? Thanks.

Sorry, Khan. It's Andy Driscoll here from the Perth office. We seem to have lost connection with Libreville in Gabon. Perhaps I can take up that. They're reconnecting now. Just bear with me for 30 seconds, please. Perhaps while we're doing that, I can take that up, Khan. So look, we're considering a short-term or temporary refinement of the product strategy. The market is conducive to that at the moment, and we have some flexibility in our supply chain that Dino has talked to, which also allows us to do that. And you're right in terms of how that product mix may shift a little in this current heart. It'll be pretty minor, I think, at this stage, Khanh. Dino, are you back online? I think they're back online, Khanh, so if you wanted to go ahead with your second. Yeah, sorry about that, everybody.

Yeah, no worries. But yeah, essentially it means possibly a lower FE grade on aggregate, but just a small difference.

Correct.

In terms of the product. Yeah, okay. The second one is on Ironbridge. Maybe an update on the water requirements being sourced from the Cannington Basin?

Yeah, I can take that, Khan. we're all good, essentially, is the requirements in terms of our licence. As we've indicated, though, in terms of the physical part, we've made a call to replace the first third of the current glass reinforced plastic, 65 kilometres, with steel. It's going to take about 18 months to change that out. And in the meantime, we'll continue to to use the current pipeline to support commissioning and ramp up.

Thank you. Next question comes from Glyn Lawcock with Baron Joey. Please go ahead.

Dino, good morning. Dino, just a little question on sustaining CAPEX, if I could. Your guidance is $2 billion for this year, plus or minus. The business is now, I guess, almost 20 years old, give or take. So some of the equipment's probably getting a bit long in the tooth. How should we think about that over the coming years? Thanks.

Yeah, good question. 20 years, I wouldn't necessarily say long in the tooth. It's performing at record amounts. So we'll indicate that our asset management strategies is having good success. As we've indicated before, we are entering into a fleet replacement cycle, which will see a higher than usual long-term, higher than usual sustaining capital over the next two years. That's coupled with our green fleet timing as well. But we'll give guidance as it comes through. Thanks.

And Dino, what about some of the major capital items like car dumper, shiploader? I mean, the original car dumper, original shiploader is, I guess, a 20-odd years old now. Are they still good for a little bit longer?

Yeah, they are. You're probably picking up on some of our peers in terms of their change-ups. No, we're still working through that, but our train unloaders keep going strong. That is part of the bottleneck that I talk about. around our rail network. So, obviously, it's the key focus for all our engineering teams.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Chris Drew with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Dino, Mark, and Apple. Just a quick one on the balance sheet, actually. It looks like a really, quite a significant step up in the receivables. In the half, $350 million plus another $120 or $130 million on the inventory, so a big

lift in the working capital is that sort of like or some of that tied to the derailment or what's driving that and should we expect that to sort of reverse out in the second half helping the cash that thanks i'll take that one i think your question was around working capital uh you can see that our cash balance has increased 4.3 to 4.7 no change in net debt our h1 cap expense was 1.5 billion So the movement, as you said, relates to working capital, predominantly increases in receivables, and that's reflecting the price movements or rising price environment. So it's basically a reflection of a very strong market.

Thanks. Thank you. Your next question comes from Giles Parkinson with Renew Economy. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. I've got two questions, probably both for Mark. Just a bit more about the electrolysers that you've had approved for the Gladstone facility. I'm just wondering if you could tell us a bit more about the technology and the cost output. We've seen share price of things like Bloom Energy and Plug Power both plunge because their electrolysers are not seen as competitive or as concerned about capital allocation and things like that. I'm just wondering about, are they falling victim to the problems of public markets? Really, I guess the focus is really on your technology at Gladstone.

Yes, thanks, Giles. And look, the technology we developed for the Gladstone facility is the PEM technology, which, you know, we really, the team's done an amazing job over a two-year period to develop you know, a good PEM strong-based technology. And the reason we always did this was, one, to make sure we had our own security supply, and also then to sell to the market, which we think would have a competitive product. But look, we are in the stage now where we now need to test that technology, and that's the whole idea behind the PEM50 in Gladstone, to show the world that it works at scale, and that's really the next step in developing the competitive technology. Yeah, look, others around the world are having difficulty at the moment financially. I mean, I think the lack of projects going into FID is having an impact on that. There's a lot of competition, but this technology is really at its early stage, so it's got a long way to go, and we want to be an important player in that.

Okay. The second question is on electrification. I was just kind of curious to see in the Rio Tinto presentation yesterday, they didn't expect any sort of electrification at their minds to occur in any sort of scale before 2030, yet I understand that you guys are still committed to not burning fossil fuels at all by that date. So who's right and who's wrong?

We are totally right. We're going to make sure we are real zero by 2030, and we're on track to do that.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Avery Chen with S&P Global Commodity Insights. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity. Just one question. I'm wondering whether you expect to continue iron ore growth in Pilbara unhindered in coming decades given run-out of African iron ore projects like Simando as well as the falling China steel demand in the longer term?

Yeah, thanks, Avery. I'll take that one. Obviously, our exploration team, on the back of truly amazing results, we have lots of options in the Pilbara, so we continue to explore that. And every year we look at whether or not that would justify the additional capital for our rail and shipping. That's really the next big challenge. a tranche of capital that needs to be invested to get to, you know, say 250 tonnes out of the Pilbara.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Nick Evans with The Australian. Please go ahead.

G'day, Dana. G'day, Matt. G'day to everyone else. I've got a couple. The first one, just the last couple of times we've asked questions about executive movements The responses included a reference to the one Fortescue model. I just wonder whether you can give us some colour on what's actually happening there and whether there's been any significant headcount reduction of Fortescue over the last year and if there's some idea of what that is. And then I have a second question on Gabon. Thanks.

Yeah. Hi, Nick. Always a pleasure to talk to you. Mark here. Look, I think over the last six months, particularly with Dino coming into the metal side, We really made a lot of progress on the one Fortescue. Being one company, not two, that was always a concern that you had two businesses. We're one business. We're one Fortescue. We have the same values. And we're making a lot of progress on consolidating all the back office and the shared services. And it's been the way that myself and Dino are working together, having Shelley Robertson coming on board to help us build to really combine all the functions has been very, very positive. Having Apple come in to be the CFO for both of the businesses is significant as well, and she's doing a great job. But look, we're doing this to make sure that we operate better. We're not doing this to actually take a lot of headcount out, and we'll have some deficiencies, which we always do as we try and do what we do better. But I'd say the 140-skill model is working extremely well.

I'm tempted to follow up by asking whether you'll still have two CEOs by this time next year, but I'll instead ask about Gabon. I just saw a report today, the new US ambassador to Gabon earlier, or sort of overnight, said that the US had no intention of withdrawing its sanctions on the crew leaders. Given Dino's comments that you mentioned, have met with the president, who I assume is General Bryce, who led the coup. Is there any risk to Fortescue's plans to raise money in the US because of any relationship with that government, given the sanctions in place? And has Fortescue had any discussions with the US Department of State over its operations in Gabon?

Yeah, good question, Nick, and I look forward to a long partnership with Mark Hutchinson, CEO of Energy here. Look, I think it's a little bit early yet to talk about financing arrangements. Obviously, it would be a key consideration for us if we move the project on to the next phase.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Peter Kerr with the Australian Financial Review. Please go ahead.

G'day, everyone. Thanks for your time. Just wondering, are you guys having any talks with the Australian Renewable Energy Hub, the AREH, about offtake from that project for your iron ore mines or any part of your business up there? And perhaps as a bit of a connected question, the Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, was up in the Pilbara announcing $140 million for a hydrogen hub project. it sort of wasn't clear whether that was going to a particular company at all. So I came to get your reaction to that money and whether you think there's anything in it for Fortescue.

Look, Mark here. Just on the first question, actually, we're talking to many parties, including the BP Intercontinental team, and we'll continue to do so. This is one ecosystem. which we want to make sure gets developed in Australia. And we want to make sure we also have the most efficient energy for our own uses. So we'll continue to have discussions with a number of different parties. On the Chris Bowen announcement, I don't have any specific detail on that. That's not something I have visibility to at the moment. No probes.

So with the BP one, Mark, like, are they close enough to be, you know, a theoretically viable supplier of either electricity or hydrogen to you guys? Or sort of, is it the case that you've got so much of your own land holdings up there that you'd sort of be more capable of doing it yourself if you wanted to?

I think we always just, you know, at the moment, everything's a bit early stage. We always keep our options open.

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

Thank you everyone for the call and what an amazing half year it's been. And again, thanks to the entire Fortescue family for rolling together.