Jupiter Mines Limited

Good morning and good afternoon to all investors and analysts, and welcome to all other participants who have joined the Jupiter Mines quarterly call today. As you'll be aware, I've taken over from Brad Rogers as the interim chief executive at Jupiter Mines. Brad will remain as managing director until the Jupiter AGM later next month, and thereafter he will continue to advise on strategic initiatives for a period of time. I personally have been involved with Jupiter since 2022, and joined the company on a full-time basis in 24. I do have a long-standing history in mining, ostensibly with De Beers, BHU Billiton and South32 and have been extensively involved in the manganese industry for over 16 years. QB Entry Mine, as you know, is the world's single largest manganese mine globally, one of the single largest globally rather, and consistently produces around 3.4 million tonnes of direct ship manganese ore annually. For those of you who had the opportunity to review the quarterly report released this morning, we'll see that the first quarter of FY27 financial year has again proven to be a solid period of production and performance for TP, as well as Jupiter. However, I would like to take the opportunity to summarize some of the key outcomes and highlights contained in the report for the period ending 30 September 2026, after which we will provide the opportunity, as mentioned, for some questions and answers that you may require or have. On the safety side, CP recorded two minor lost time injuries due to injuries sustained during isolated storm events at the mine. These were minor lacerations that did, however, result in some medical attention and time off work being required. However, the nature of these incidents did not materially impact the overall total recordable injury free rate, which is an industry standard measure of the total number of recordable injuries per million man hours worked. It remains stable at a low of 0.37. On the production front, for the first quarter, approximately 238,000 cubic metres or roughly 875,000 tonnes of graded ore was mined from the pit. Although this was about 9% below the prior quarter, it was above expectations and 19% higher than the previous corresponding period quarter. This enables operations to continue to build on the run of mine and product stockpiles, which are strategically important and kept to ensure both smooth and continuous processing, blending, and shipments of ore, and continued processing in the event of unforeseen disruptions at the mine, such as prolonged or extreme weather events. This positions the mine strongly going into the next quarter. From that processing perspective, the mine produced 820,000 tons of predominantly high-grade ore for the quarter. which was a little lower than the previous quarter fall, but in line with the prior corresponding period, quarter one or FY26. It is important to highlight that quarterly production, however, and sales forecasts will vary on a quarter-to-quarter basis in line with operational planning. It takes into consideration key aspects such as mine and plant maintenance schedules, seasonal and weather expectations, and in-customer demand patterns, etc., and the oil processing was well ahead of the plan and enabled CP to continue to utilize and benefit from the additional available low-cost rail export capacity we had. To this end, 880,000 tons of transported ports utilizing the oil processed as well as excess product stock at the mine. This is in line with the previous quarter and 2% higher than the prior corresponding period quarter. and again a well-developed plan where cheaply capitalized on available excess rail capacity not utilized by other industry participants. Approximately three-quarters of our ore was transported to and shipped from South African ports and one-quarter to our Luderitz export channel in Namibia.

Again, no roading hauling was required for this quarter to any South African ports. To that end,

850,000 tons of high-grade oil was sold, which was 1.3% higher than the prior corresponding period, but 10% lower than the previous quarter, and again, well over expectations. From an operating cost perspective, unit costs were slightly higher on a quarter-on-quarter basis at $2.51 per dry metric ton unit on a free-on-board basis. This, however, was driven largely by weakness in the U.S. dollar over the time. Over that period, the South African rand strengthened over 5%, from around 16.40 at the start of the quarter to below 16 rand per dollar during the quarter, but averaging 2% stronger at around 16.25 over the period. Other impacts on costs were generally inflationary in nature, and with direct mining costs per tonne being 1.7% lower than the prior corresponding period, in line with the FI26 unit costs we saw last financial year. TP remains well positioned from a cost perspective and is optimally designed with streamlined operations and processing as well as rapid rail loadout facilities. This enables TP to continue to produce consistently and efficiently throughout the year, which helps ensure operating costs remain well controlled. Where input costs are largely outside the management's control, including areas such as logistics and freight, TP management ensure that broad logistics optionality is maintained as far as practically possible, and that the most optimal logistic routes are favoured and utilised to derive the maximum value from these channels.