Liontown Resources Limited

Welcome to the Liontown September quarter results call. Following the formal presentation, there will be a Q&A session for investors and analysts. Participants can ask both text and live audio questions during today's call. To ask a text question, select the messaging icon, type your question in the box towards the top of the screen and press the send button. To ask a live audio question, press the request to speak button at the top of the broadcast window. The broadcast will be replaced by the audio question screen. Use the dial in number and access pin provided to ask your questions via the phone. Alternatively, for those on a home or personal network, you can ask your questions via the web by pressing join queue. If prompted, select allow in the pop up to grant access to your microphone. If you have any issues using the platform, dial in details can also be found on the homepage under asking audio questions. Text questions can be submitted at any time and the audio queue is now open. I'll now hand you over to Tony Ottaviano, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Liontown.

Thanks, Oliver. Good morning and thank you for joining us at Liontown's September quarter results. With me this morning are Ryan Hair, our Chief Operating Officer, and Greg Jason, our Chief Financial Officer. Over the next short while, I will set out the quarter's key outcomes and where we sit regarding our strategy. Ryan will take you through the safety, the underground ramp-up processing, and where the expansion has got to. Greg will cover the financials and the balance sheet. I will come back and then provide a market outlook, reinstating of our FY27 guidance and a short summary. And then we'll take questions. I'll take you to the next slide, which is our disclaimer and take it as read. And now we move into our strategy in action. We run the business on three pillars. All three move forward in the September quarter. The first is ramp up. We are safely ramping up Kathleen Valley to 2.8 million tonnes a year. Underground mining ran at 1.6 million tonnes a year rate through the quarter, consistent with our guidance in March and June. We are stepping this up to 1.9 million tonnes a year rate in the December quarter, where we expect to mine between 450 and all. And we remain on track for that 2.8 million tonne run rate exiting June 27. Ryan will expand on this further in his section. The second is delivering Kathleen Valley's full potential. In September, the board approved the final investment decision for the expansion and early works already in execution. From that point, we'll have two ore bodies operating independently, which gives us genuine operational flexibility. The third is growth. We completed the initial stage of our farming at the Centenario brine project in Argentina, our first dip into brine, and our studies in Baldania are advancing. Underpinning all three, we finished the quarter with $502 million in cash and an underlying operating cash flow of $69 million. A combination of these two helps underpin the funding If we now move to the next slide, please. As previously guided, we used the last two quarters to invest heavily in preparing the underground for the next step up in production and productivity, and the numbers reflect that. Underground development advanced 4,021 metres, a record for the operation and up 21% for the June quarter. We prioritised opening new ore access ahead of production tons. Development is what opens the new mining fronts, and new mining fronts are what lift the mining rate. We've produced 78,000 dryometric tons Thank you very much. The plant was also paced to the ramp up and the stockpiles we had available, but it ran at its best availability today at 94%. We sold 82,000 tonnes across five parcels. Sales were affected previously guided shipment timing at the port, with one shipment moving into the December quarter. Unit operating costs were $1,259 a dry metric tonne on an FOB basis, reflecting the sales timing and what we expect Thank you. Thank you. So this quarter is where we invested in the ramp up. Our guidance is unchanged and the work we did in this quarter is what delivers the rest of the year and underpins our 2.8 million tonne a year run rate. The market has moved since the quarter has closed. I will come back to that at the end when I read out and discuss the market analysis. Ryan will now take you through

So starting with safety, our total recordable injury frequency rate rose from 11 to 14 over the quarter. Each of those injuries means someone was hurt on our site and we are committed to ensuring everyone goes home safely. The recent injuries are mostly hand injuries and strains concentrated in contracted work groups at a time when we are bringing new crews and equipment onto site. We have been working closely is set up to work safely. Our key response to this is the Safety Culture Program, which started this month. It's a two-year program built on the evaluation we undertook last quarter, focused on three things, leadership in the field, critical risk management, and a strong reporting culture. Our lost time injury frequency rate held at one, and safety observations rose to just over five per thousand hours. People are reporting, which is exactly what we want to see. On power, renewable energy penetration held constant at 71%. Next slide, thank you. Next again. As Tony indicated, development is the story of the quarter again, with just over 4,000 metres developed in the quarter, a record up 21% on the prior quarter. Thank you very much. As we've noted before, this is the point of the meters. Every level we open is somewhere we can mine from. Our investment in development is opening up the mine to support the ongoing ramp up in production. Next slide, thanks, Oliver. We've presented a version of this slide previously. Getting from 1.5 to 2.8 million tonnes per annum comes down to two things, more places to mine and more equipment to mine with. On work areas, we are unlocking seven new mining levels over the course of the FY. The lower levels, which are being developed now, carry somewhere between two and five million tonnes of ore each, with room for several work areas on a level. By the end of the quarter, we had grown from four work areas to 14, setting the mine up well for the rest of the year. On equipment, we added two jumbos, two loaders and three trucks in the quarter, taking the fleet from 21 to 28. We're bringing equipment on in stages, growing to a fleet of 41 by the end of the financial year. More places to mine and more equipment is what underpins the step up from here.