Sibanye Stillwater Limited

To cater for our international audiences, good morning and good afternoon. Welcome to our H1 2021 results presentation and very importantly to me a group strategic update which I believe you will enjoy and in fact hopefully find class leading. I'll be assisted by Richard Stewart, our Chief Operating Officer, who will provide operating results, an update for the quarter and for the first half of 2021. And then Charles Carter, our CFO, will provide the financial results for the same period. Post the presentation, there will be a Q&A session where you will have full access to the corporate executive. And for those of you who may be wondering what is Johnny Five, and obviously those of you that have visited our operations in Montana, will know that Johnny Five is a robotic arm that is part of our world class recycling business which we will be talking more about later. So let me get on with the highlights of the presentation but of course our safe harbour statement I would ask you to take note of. Starting with people, and people are clearly the most important asset in our business and their safety and health of our people and workforce is absolutely the first priority. We did see a regression in safety and Richard will talk you through that in more detail but I'm really pleased to say that we've re-energized our safety strategies, implemented new strategies and we've actually already seen a reversal in this Regressions. So I hope that continues. We've made really good progress with the COVID-19 vaccination rollout. We've vaccinated more than 40,000 of our employees and we look forward to extending that to a significant number more and of course in conjunction with the Department of Health rolling that out into our communities as well. Another highlight and I will talk more about this in the strategic update but we have now taken our ESG focus areas and developed them into a comprehensive sustainable strategy and in fact that sustainability strategy drives the entire corporation strategy and you will see that unfolding. At the last presentation we did make a commitment to achieving net carbon zero by 2040 and internally by a significant amount earlier than that. I'm really pleased to say we've made good progress on that. Obviously it's progress on strategy and planning and it revolves mainly around renewable energy projects and that is another area that I will focus on because it is critically important. Operational excellence. You would have seen from the releases earlier today that we've delivered record financial results. That's off a solid operating base, especially within our South African PGM segment, which delivered exceptional results. and other than the safety stockages which hindered our delivery in the US and to some extent in South African Gulf, they also delivered positive results. As I said, we delivered exceptional and actually record results from a financial point of view. Our adjusted EBITDA was US$40.5 billion or US$2.8 billion. Themba George Nkosi Great results. Discipline capital allocation. We shared with you some time back our capital allocation framework. I think you've seen significant commitment to that framework. The key areas where we have adhered to that framework without any variation is we redeemed our 2022 bonds that happened post the H1 hub update, but that was in August of 2021. We have declared an interim dividend of 292 SA cents. We've implemented a 5% share buyback. of which we've brought back 1.92% or around 3.4 billion rands worth of shares. In share numbers that's 56.6 million shares and of course Morgan Stanley is mandated to complete that process as announced. Despite all these commitments and returns back to shareholders, we have a robust balance sheet position with a net cash position of 10.2 billion Rand or $702 million. In terms of precious metals markets, we're not going to spend a lot of time on this today. We will spend more time on this at our investor days in September. But suffice to say, strong long-term PGM fundamentals remain. There is some short-term volatility due to things like trip shortages and so on. In our view, the gold market is stable. Very importantly, again, there's been many requests for us to expand on our battery metal strategy. Of course, within the limits of not revealing our competitive position, we will do that today. But you have seen within this period two steps in terms of the acquisition of the Caliber Lithium Hydroxide Project and the We have also done more work on what we call our green metal strategy and I will share more of that I'll be with you later on in the presentation, but that really is complementing the battery metal strategy. So let's just talk a little bit about the history, diversification and the growth that has underpinned our record earnings and cash flow. The graph that you see up now has the history of how we've grown our PGM exposure both in South Africa and the US and as you can see from that, The very significant and material contribution made by the South African PGM sector. Gold is reasonably stable and the US continues with its bulldoze. You can also see from that how the The leveraging of the company has happened and in fact on a net cash to EBITDA metric we've doubled that ratio from 0.06 last year to 0.14 this year. So very nice trajectory and very pleasing to see the diversification strategy creating such value. From a production percentage point of view, a couple of key points to note. The pie chart on the right is production in ounces, not in value. You can see the very significant number of ounces again out of the South African PGM sector. Important to note on this graph, and for the first time, We are segmenting the recycling business as a business unit and I'll talk more about that a bit later on in the presentation. But we will be providing in future more data around the recycling business as we grow it. But you can see 17% of our ounces come out of recycling. Very, very significant. I do believe that our investment and moving from a single commodity to a multi commodity business has been very very successful and something we are very pleased with. With that very brief introduction I am now going to hand over to Richard to do the operational updates and results and post that Richard will hand over to Charles to do the financial results. Thank you Richard.

Thank you very much Neil. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and good morning to you as colleagues. I think it's a real pleasure to be able to present to you today an update of our operational performance. for the first half of 2021. As is customary at Subanya Stillwater, we start all of our engagements with a safety moment. It is disappointing that during the first half of this year we have seen a continued regression in our safety statistics. A trend that started after the COVID lockdown impacts we experienced last year, and our deepest condolences go to the friends and families of eight of our colleagues who we have lost during 2021. We have a safety strategy that has proven its success in the past. It is underpinned by a cultural transformation program, a program that drives the culture of values-based decision-making and is complemented by real risk reduction initiatives. Following the continued safety regression that we experienced into 2021, in June we rolled out our Rules of Life campaign. A campaign that targets addressing high risk behaviours through a zero tolerance approach. This initiative underpins our zero harm safety strategy, a strategy that includes the pillars of empowered people, an enabling environment and fit for purpose systems. It is extremely pleasing that we've seen a significant improvement in all of our safety statistics across the board since we rolled out this initiative and during the third quarter today. Our South African PGM operations have delivered a stellar performance over the last six months. Compared to the same period last year, we've seen a 42% increase in production at just under 900,000 ounces. Equally pleasing is that we've managed our costs well and seen a 10% reduction year-on-year in our all-in sustaining cost, maintaining it at below R17,000 per 40 ounces. This production delivery, combined with a 60% higher 4E PGM basket price, led to 14 billion rands worth of free cash flow generated from these operations during the first six months, or equating to a 66% adjusted EBITDA margin. Equally pleasing is the successful integration of the Morricana operations. where we have managed to retain costs and reduce them in fact by 13% over the last two years despite a reduction in volume output and despite two years worth of inflation. We have now truly embedded the synergies that were realized through this transaction. We have also realised value from the spare capacity we had at our processing facilities and during the last six months have processed an increased 35,000 ounces of third-party material through these facilities. Our Stillwater operations were on track to deliver a record six months performance. Unfortunately however, due to a tragic safety incident at Stillwater West that resulted in a 21-day safety shutdown, Our output for the first half ended up being flat year on year. The ongoing effect of this unfortunate incident will continue to impact the Stillwater operations for the remainder of this year. Pleasingly, however, the continued ramp-up of the Blitz project has exceeded planned for the year and will partially offset this temporary negative impact at Stillwater West. As a result of the reduced production, and a combined with a 24% increase in our 2e basket price that impacts royalties and taxes payable, we have seen our all-in sustaining costs at this operation increase by 12% to $973 per ounce. Despite these operational disruptions, however, the underground operation still delivered an adjusted EBITDA of $437 million for the first six months of this year. or the equivalent of a 65% EBITDA margin just on the underground operations. Stillwater also hosts one of the largest recycling facilities globally and during the last six months the output from this facility has delivered just over 400,000 ounces. That in turn has resulted in a $50 million adjusted EBITDA from our recycling operations, which when combined with a $12 million net interest income that was derived from short-term advances to our recycling customers, produces an EBITDA margin of 5%. Considering that our working capital is turned roughly four times a year or once a quarter, that 5% equates to a 20% return on that working capital investment. I dare say that this recycling business, besides for being a low risk business with very attractive returns, recycling is also an absolutely critical part of the demand and supply balance globally. Our recycled ounces have a significantly lower emission and waste footprint and therefore this green fingerprint is highly complementary to our primary production base and forms a solid base for future growth in this area. Our South African gold operations delivered a steady and solid performance, and compared to the same period last year that was disrupted by COVID, we saw 29% higher production of just over half a million ounces. DRD Gold delivered about 88,000 ounces of that, while the balance of just over 430,000 ounces came from Kerf, Beatrix and Dreyfontein. As a group, our oil and sustaining cost was just below R800,000 per kilogram and largely stable year-on-year. And despite the 3% lower average gold price, the increased production supported a 40% increase in EBITDA to just under R2.5 billion. When we look at our forecast for the balance of the year, we are forecasting A slight downturn of about 40,000 ounces at our US PGM operations or about 6% compared to previous guidance as a result of the ongoing impact of the safety incident experienced at Stillwater West. This reduced production output also has resulted in an increase in all its sustaining costs combined with a forecast higher 2E basket price which increased taxes and royalties means that we are now forecasting an all-in sustaining cost of between $910 and $940 per ounce or approximately 8% higher than previous guidance. There is a corresponding reduction in capital of also between 6% and 7%. Our US recycling business remains steady, forecasting approximately 800,000 ounces for the full year. There is no change to our guidance, our production or cost guidance at our South African PGM operations, although we are forecasting a reduction of about R350 million in capital, driven partially by real cost savings, as well as a delay to some of our project capital partially required due to permit requirements that were obtained later than expected. At our South African gold operations, Our production remains flat and we have not changed any guidance. However, due to higher than expected inflationary costs, particularly associated with steel and associated products, as well as electricity increases well above inflation, we are forecasting a 5% increase in oil and sustaining costs to between R815,000 and R840,000 per kilogram. We've increased our capital outlook at our gold operations by 300 million rand to cater for the Burnstone project capital that was approved by our board towards the end of the first quarter. Thank you very much and I will now hand over to Charles. Thank you.

Thank you Richard and good afternoon and good morning to all participants on this call. It again gives me great pleasure to share our financial results for half one 2021 with you. If we start with revenue, revenue increased 63% to just under R90 billion compared to the corresponding period in 2020. The improvement stems from very solid operational performance and strong commodity prices. Costs increased by 28% period on period and this was mainly due to the normalisation of the cost base following containment measures implemented during the hard lockdown period in 2020. We also saw an increase in recycling material treated, remembering that the costs of our recycling business are directly proportionate to changes in platinum, palladium and rhodium prices. The basket price for our recycling business averaged $3,200 per 3oz for half on 2021, We reported record adjusted EBITDA of $40.5 billion compared to $16.5 billion in half one 2020, which at the time was also a record. The $40.5 billion represents a 45% margin. Moving on to finance expenses. Net finance expenses reduced from 1.2 billion rand in half one 2020 to 640 million in half one 2021. And this was due to lower outstanding debt and higher cash balances. And following the early settlement of the 2022 bonds, we expect this number to decrease even further. Share of results of equity accounted investees after tax increased from 484 million rand to 1.4 billion rand and this was driven mainly by the performance of Mimosa following the strong commodity prices that we experienced during half one 2021. Royalties was up fourfold to 1.6 billion rand and mining and income tax up four and a half times to 9 billion rand and this was driven largely by the increase in profitability for the business. Profit for the period was 25.3 billion rand, up from 9.7 billion rand in half one 2020. And this equates to an earnings per share of 843 cents per share. Moving on to the next slide. In line with our dividend policy, we declared an interim dividend of 292 cents per share, or 35% of normalised earnings. Normalised earnings for the period was R24.4 billion, and this resulted in an industry-leading dividend of about R8.5 billion, or a yield of 10%. This slide also highlights the track record since the resumption of dividend payments in H1 2020. Since H1 2020, we have returned R19.3 billion in dividends. Overlay on this, the approximately 9.6 billion rand in share buybacks. This is a return of almost 30 billion rand. Turning to cash generation, the significant cash generation has continued into half one 2020. Cash generated by the operations was 59.7 billion rand. Working capital increased by 4.5 billion rand, mainly at our recycling business due to the increase in the 3e basket price up from $2,200 per 3 e-ounce to $3,200 per 3 e-ounce. Capital expenditure was 5.6 billion rand. Royalties and taxes amounted to an eye-watering 10.3 billion rand for the half year and I'm sure the incoming Minister of Finance and the Commissioner of Revenue Services welcomed this contribution to the fiscus. The final dividend for 2020 as well as dividends due in terms of our employee ownership plans was paid during this reporting period and amounted to 9.7 billion rand. The deferred payment of 2.3 billion rand related to the deferred purchase consideration of the Rustenburg assets that we acquired from Anglo Platinum in 2016. During this period we also repaid loans of 750 million rand and the share buyback up to the end of June amounted to 750 million rand. The net result of this is that cash increased from 20 billion rand to 26 billion rand. In terms of our capital allocation framework, we continued with our strict and disciplined approach. Looking at project capital, the project set up and administration of the K4 project, Burnstone and Chetfontaine started during this period An estimated expenditure for 2021 is approximately 845 million rand. Cash reserves for half one 2021 was 26 billion rand, which is well above our targeted level of 20 billion rand. Just as a reminder, the 20 billion rand consists of a debt buffer of 15 billion rand and a cash liquidity buffer of 5 billion rand. Returns to shareholders in the form of dividends for half one is 8.5 billion rand, which is at the top end of our dividend policy. And as highlighted earlier, dividends since the start of 2020 amount to 19.3 billion rand. We have further reduced our debt with approximately $350 million post half one 2021 through the early settlement of the 2022 bonds. and we are still on track to refinance the 2025 bonds with a $500 million issuance towards Q4 and as highlighted this is to ensure that we have access to the debt capital markets but also to take advantage of the low interest rate scenario. We committed when we have excess cash to consider share buybacks and the buyback of 5% of our issued share capital started in June. The estimated quantum of the buyback is 9.6 billion rand. Lastly, and to wrap up, we will continue to allocate capital in a prudent and responsible manner to ensure value is created for all stakeholders and to ensure that the sustainability of our operations are preserved. I will now hand back to Neil who will take us through the final part of the presentation. Thank you Neil.

Thank you Richard and Sean. I will now proceed with the strategic update. I think as the slide headed Our Role in a Greener Future is on your screen, very important for us to acknowledge that we take this Our Role in a Greener Future very very seriously and I think you will see that from the next few slides. As I mentioned in the highlights section we have done a lot of work on our ESG focus areas and that work has resulted in us developing a sustainability strategy and in my mind this is the higher level of ESG commitment. These are now the actual themes and plans. Thank you very much. Firstly, developing a climate change resilient business and you will see how that unfolds in the next few slides. And essentially that's based on building a green metals business. We are not going to become involved in commodities and metals business. that are not environmentally friendly or produced in an environmentally friendly way. And as I also said in the whole live section, our operations need to be carbon neutral and we have a very granular plan now in terms of how we're going to get there. The second element, just to complete the themes, is in changing long-term economic stability in the areas in which we operate and the underlying plans highlighted by the bullet points in that area that have underpins. embedding human rights and ethics absolutely critical in terms of sustainability and you can see the focus areas there and then of course you can only make proper decisions if you are data driven and this data has to be granular and accurate and of course that underpins Any good business decision. But those are the key sustainability themes and as I said, I'm ready in this next part of the presentation. who focus on building a green metals business and on the road to carbon neutrality. So let's start with carbon neutrality. I personally was very pleased and I made it very public that the increase in generation licenses to 100 megawatts was a very important step in reforming The energy sector. I have on various occasions shared with our Minister the risks associated with uncertain processes and uncertain timelines which leads to discount factors being higher than they have to be and I'm very pleased that these changes in licensing have reduced Thank you for joining us. On the next slide, where we talk about progress on our path to carbon neutrality, you will notice, starting on the left-hand side, that renewable energy forms our strongest decarbonisation lever at 88%. of our greenhouse gas emissions stem from electricity. So we are fortunate that we really have one area we can focus on that can make such a big difference to our carbon footprint. And that's exactly what we have done. So there are several renewable energy projects that are approved for execution within our South African operations. which contribute 97% of our scope 2 emissions. So of that 88% we can address 97% of that 88%. We've always had the planning in place for a renewable energy project in our Gold Division. As you know, we held back on that until we had the clarity that we now have. And so that part is secured and fully permitted and the last few processes for approval are now underway and we expect a commercial operational date late in 2023. We have also identified 250 megawatts of South African wind energy. We have put out requests for quotes and we are targeting a commercial operation date late in 2024. And then in our South African PGM sector, we are looking at 175 megawatts of solar energy project. and the site permitting is now underway and we are targeting a commercial operation date as early as 2025. Now, these projects in their own right are important in terms of reducing our carbon footprint. But as you will see, they will also be done in a way where our infrastructure for impact programmes will seek to maximise broad-based economic empowerment, utilise local skills and develop them and make a positive social and economic impact in these areas. That is a very significant step forward and should provide investors and stakeholders with some clarity around our reduction or our process to get to carbon neutral as we've promised. Let's move on now to building a green metals business. And a green metals business is essentially underpinned by our current exposure to PGMs. and currently we all know that they remove noxious gases from the air but in the future will certainly form an instrumental role in the hydrogen economy and hence in a much greener future and that will be predominantly through fuel cells. Recycling, I will again highlight some information that shows the importance of recycling and the circular economy, but we do intend to leverage our existing businesses by growing it, looking at inventory management and unlocking logistical challenges. Tailings Retreatment, our exposure to that part of the business produces the greenest metals, and in this case it's gold at the moment, but there's no reason why some of the greenest copper, PGMs, etc. can also be produced through tailings retreatment. Importantly, it speeds up the environment at the same time, so a great business to have exposure to and complements our green metals strategy. Battery metals, as you know, has been something we've been working on for at least the last two years, and Kelliber and Sandoval make the first few steps into this space. and more specifically you can see that we are targeting the European market from a battery electric point of view and you can expect more in that area and I'll discuss it in a bit more detail in the next few slides. Many analysts have noticed the rising importance of uranium and we will look forward to creating value out of our existing assets. Nuclear energy is clearly going to play a part in the future energy mix because of its carbon friendliness. and you would remember that the acquisition of Cook was predominantly based on the uranium exposure many years ago which we have retained and I will discuss that in more detail as well going forward. So those are essentially the building blocks that I'm now going to expand on. I don't think there's a need to talk too much about PGMs. I think the last few years there's been a lot of focus on PGMs, what they do, the fact they are considered green metals that are important for the environment. In terms of current uses, removing noxious gases from internal combustion engines, environmental legislation is stringent and increasing, driving higher PGM loadings which underpin their current use, and of course there's ongoing industrial and jewellery demand which complements that. I think in terms of looking forward and the sustainability in terms of the use of these metals, the hydrogen economy will certainly, as I said earlier, underpin future demand. Platinum is clearly an effective catalyst in PM electrolysers and fuel cells, iridium is the same in terms of electrolyzers and of course ruthenium is utilised in this area as well. So I certainly have little concern around the PGMs. The one that is probably at the highest risk is palladium and hence why we have also been driving substitution research in terms of using palladium The PGM fundamentals are well understood and I really don't think I can add much to that at this stage. Just in terms of the PGM market, I think it's appropriate just to provide a very brief update. I think the market is currently quite volatile, but in terms of the medium and long term, I think the demand and supply fundamentals are good. These supply disruptions from the first quarter of this year eased in the second quarter. Restyping because of the elevated prices is in our view going to increase by approximately 15% year on year. Demand recovery is certainly impacted by the Delta variant and of course the chip shortages. But I think we will see a move to normality in 2022 and certainly automotive manufacturing will rebound we believe in 2022. Despite all of the above, the overall DE PGM market remains in deficit in 2021 and that's really the key message. There's a lot more granular detail that again will be presented at our investor day in September, but for the purposes of this presentation, I think the fundamentals in the longer term are robust. Just moving on to the next slide regarding recycling of PGMs and clearly recycling is part of the circular economy in having multiple utilisation of these very unique elements. Important to note that our US recycling business is one of the largest recyclers of PGMs from spent order caps. This is the most environmentally friendly way of producing PGMs. Through this process we emit six times less tons of CO2 than from an underground 63 times less water is consumed in recycling compared to underground. 90 times less waste is produced from recycling than occurs in underground mining. As such we have decided to create a dedicated business unit and as I said earlier on, that's reflected in the fact that we are now segmenting the recycling business accounts. The recycling business unit will be led by Justin Freneman out of the US and the existing Stillwater recycling team which he is part of and it will be complemented with technical capacity from South Africa. The growth strategy that we have developed for this business will be implemented and you will see, I hope, progress even within the next six months. We will use our acumen and technical capacity for process enhancement. and margin accretion of key focus areas in this business. As you can see from the diagram on the left, we understand this business well, we know where the margins are made and certainly we look forward to building up a very substantially and larger PGM recycling business. The acquisition of Standable in our mind is also key for our entry into the European space. Just talking about tailings re-treatment and DRD Gold is an investment we made fully acknowledging the importance of this part of production of gold. and as you can see from this slide we believe it produces the greenest gold in the industry and it also serves in terms of removing environmental legacies specifically in the South African gold mining space where hundreds of hectares have been cleared for social and industrial development. Those tailings dams that remain have been vegetated, reducing dust and improving the environment. Profits from this business have been ploughed into social investment in youth education and urban farming. It's a business we really like. As we have said publicly before we would certainly want to see it being built into other commodities which will result in them also being green commodities produced from tail injury treatment and we certainly back DRD to do that. Right, moving on to battery metals, and as I said in the beginning, we can't lay out our exact strategy to the market because it will reduce our competitive edge, but what we can do is, as it evolves, we can share with you our thinking which I think you will find class-y. Building on what we've said before and remember we've been working on this for more than two years post the acquisition of SSA Oxford. The penetration of battery electric vehicles has accelerated and the graph on the right hand side shows you how projections are changing. And again, I want to highlight, we don't see this as a threat to PGMs, we see this as complementary to PGMs and you will see that as we build the building blocks of our green energy and metals strategy. The Chinese and the European markets are at the forefront, but in the not too distant future, especially with President Biden's initiatives, you will see North America following suit. And what we are noting is increasing regionalization of battery metal supply chains, and hence Our need to make sure we are well positioned in Europe and we're going to be well positioned in North America to complement those supply chains. Lithium is the key metal, we have raised that before and I think to us it's clear that demand is going to dwarf current production volumes so we look forward to building our lithium exposure in this sector and that's because deficits will loom in the not too distant future without substantial supply initiatives. The cathode chemistry is moving to high nickel compositions and hence our interest in nickel and nickel processing. We believe that's going to be instrumental and hence the acquisition of Sandoval Nickel Refining Facility in France. Security of Responsible Supply is an increasing focus area which is a problem for Cobalt and of course the recycling business unit we've just announced and described It'll be their job to move into battery metal recycling as well once they've grown the PGM side of that business. And we see that being material from 2025 and most analysts will will probably say that you're not going to have batteries ready for supply. There are many batteries that do not make it into production because they are faulty or so optimal that need to be recycled. So we see sufficient supply in the not too distant future from a recycling point of view. Our initial battery metal steps I've described a few times now and I'm not going to go through the reasons for calibre. It's been well explained and it's listed again on this slide. But I do want to talk a little bit about standable. and of course we have many times said what we are not going to become is a contract miner for any particular party. We do intend to be involved in supply chains and build on our existing relationships with the OEMs, which are the same OEMs in the PGM space. We have announced a strategic partnership with Johnson Matthews and that partnership is to drive more efficient use of PGMs and metals used in battery technology. So we're well placed in that area. Just a little bit on Sandoval. It's a nickel processing facility in France. The structure of the transaction may look a little bit strange. but we have a put option to acquire 100% from Eremit and you can't conclude a transaction like this in France until the Works Council consultation process is complete and that will be at certainly around the end of 2021 when we will be able to exercise the put so this is not a put option in the normal sense of the word where you keep your options open We have bought this facility and we are intent on closing the transaction. It's in an absolutely prime location in the industrial heart of Europe at Le Havre, at France's second largest industrial port. with significant logistical infrastructure. It's a polyvalent facility which is already zoned for heavy industrial purposes. We have a scalable plant for nickel, cobalt and lithium battery grade products. and you can see the capacities that are produced. I'm not going to go through that in detail but it also is a footprint where we can start our European resiting business. So a great acquisition which complements Caliber and certainly complements our strategic focus on Europe. So let's put the puzzle pieces together and you can see the puzzle being built. It's a combination of the base of palladium, platinum, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium complemented by recycling which predominantly now is in PGMs but will expand into other metals. Uranium is an important building block. and I'm going to talk about uranium shortly. Tailings retreatment, if conducted in the right way, also produces green metals and then of course the battery metals or the green energy metals are listed at the top of the puzzle and I know that graphite is not a metal but it's part of those suites of elements that are necessary for So that is the green metals strategy and you can see how it's all coming together. So, moving on to uranium, as I said, we see new horizons for uranium and it is going to be a significant element in our green metals portfolio. Nuclear has emerged as a zero carbon base load generation option, essential for global decarbonisation, although it has been a big proponent of nuclear energy. You're going to see growth, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, and there's 125 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity being planned. We see the uranium market moving into deficit over 5 to 10 years, and we see long-term price forecasts exceeding US$60 per pound. In terms of our own portfolio of uranium assets, we have 100 million pounds essentially of shallow and surface uranium resources at Beatrix West and Cook. Those of you who know the South African mining landscape Beatrix West, was originally Beatrix Foreshark which was originally the visor uranium mine and not a lot of uranium mining was done and so there's still substantial reserves that will be mined and we will be looking to do that and if you complement that with Cook which as I said earlier we purchased predominantly for its uranium potential and its uranium processing infrastructure puts us in a really good place to kick-start our uranium business and from a value perspective we get zero value for these assets in any type of valuation. I'm really pleased to say that a long time associate and advisor to us, Dennis Tucker, will be leading this initiative and just in general a comment. If you want to move an initiative forward you have to do two things. You have to develop a strategy and you have to put people in place to make it happen. and that's exactly what we've done with restarting and with this initiative. I want to make one last comment on Beatrix. As we know Beatrix only has about five years of life as a gold production area. Moving into uranium is going to create further sustainability which is important from a sustainability point of view as we move into uranium mining. So many benefits from this initiative and again you will see it evolve over the next few months. So if we talk about ongoing strategic value creation, I think you can see the strategy of pivoting into green metals through the combination of PGMs, recycling, tailings, retreatment, battery metals. and Duranian. We have, we believe, first mover advantage in terms of the entire package of assets. You have focused lithium producers, you have focused nickel producers, but you really have very few metals producers that have the combination of these metals in their business. And again, I want to say that this is not just because it's become popular. We started this process some two years back through the acquisition of SFA Oxford and you can now see it evolving and I think you will see it moving at an accelerated pace. and if you see the evolvement of the sigmoid curve you can see the green energy metals strategy unfolding in the fourth sigmoid curve. and just to confirm the strategic focus areas of our business remain the same and the strategy of green energy metals has been encapsulated in the orange segment of our Our strategic focus area pie chart and that's building an operating portfolio of green metals and related technologies. So that complements the existing strategy. Let me briefly conclude and I would be amiss not to express my disappointment with the valuations that we receive in the market and again I think this is just one aspect I note Many analysts have us at about one times NAV. That does not concur with our NAV assessments and of course I'll point four fingers back at our company for perhaps not assisting in the understanding of the waterfall graph here. in terms of the segmental net asset value. Now clearly that's a process of making sure there's a good understanding of each one of these business areas and the value they contribute and that will be presented in the sort of detail that will assist and I hope result in analysts looking at their valuations. You can see our 2021 investor days on the 9th of September and 22nd of September. On the 9th of September we will go into more detail on embedding ESG and the way we do business. That's the core strategic focus area. On the same day we will do the South African Gold Operations. On the 26th of September we will focus in on the solid fundamentals of the PGM market. On the same day we will cover the PGM operations both in South Africa and the US. So I really hope you will take the time and the opportunity to understand our company better and afford us a better rating. Just in terms of superior value creation, current and for the future, Important to always look where you've come from. If you talk about improved profitability, I think we can give this a tick. Our 2013 to 2019 cumulative normalised earnings were 9.9 billion Rand or US$806 million. In H1 2021 we generated $24.4 billion or $1.68 billion of earnings. That's 85% of the 2020 full year earnings and multiples more than the preceding years. So no question about improved profitability. In terms of dividends, we can paint a very similar picture. 2013 to 2017 cumulative dividends of 4.1 billion Rand or $327 million from our South African Gold business. In H1 2021 we have declared a dividend of 8.5 billion or 565 million US dollars and an implied 9.7% annualized dividend yield. So very significant growth in dividends. When we listed in Sibania, we had 13.5 million ounces of gold reserves in South Africa with a limited life and questionable sustainability. We've transformed this company into a substantial diversified mining and processing company with long life assets. We still have more than 10 years of life in some of our gold divisions. We have 30 years plus of life in our South African PGM business. and we have more than 35 years of life in our US PDM business. A huge difference in sustainability compared to when we started. I will be amiss not to note the 5% buyback of shares and as we've always said we will be opportunistic in terms of share buybacks and we certainly do that because some of our shareholders believe it's important. as well. Our market cap appreciation since 2013, a very significant increase in market capitalization in 8 years of 163 billion rand or 10.8 billion US dollars. Very, very significant. The last point on this slide is we believe we will do more of the same through advancing the complementary green metals to our current PGM portfolio. Last slide is also about making real changes to transform and create value for all stakeholders. Let's just work through this. We have restructured the Morricone Empowerment Structure. The previous structure was badly broken. It was non-beneficial, had a substantial debt burden. The new sustainable financing structure There was a win-win from both sides, providing immediate access to distributable cash flow and ongoing transfer of real tangible value. And of course, by doing that, we secured our license to operate all these operations. And what do we mean by that? Let's move to the block on the right-hand side at the top. Just have a look at the social relief that we have provided through our VE structures and employee profit share schemes. 145 million rand was paid to the Rustenburg VE structures and 64 million to employees via a profit share scheme since the acquisition of those assets. 91 million was paid to the Morricone Empowerment Structures and 521 million was paid to the Morricone Employees Trust for the 2020 year. This year it should be even greater. 294 million rand has been paid to the South African Gold employees via the Tusana Trust since 2013. And then of course we've been able to invest in ongoing projects paid for Clifton Tain and Burnstone which are also going to create 7,000 jobs. Let me move on to the block below that, contributing to the fiscus and social imperative which is critical not just in South Africa but in the rest of the world as well. We pay royalties and taxes in this half of 2021 alone of 10.3 billion rand. We are delivering on our social and labour plans for each one of our mining licenses. We have instituted an employee voluntary contribution scheme where an employee can make a contribution and the company will back it as well so it doubles the value of that contribution and we look forward to growing that and ploughing that back into the communities in which we operate and then we've made very substantial sponsorships and contributions to universities, bursaries and learnership programs and one was announced recently in the last week or so was a 52 million rand contribution to Wits University. In terms and last but definitely not least is our progress on women in mining and we have made a commitment to ensure that we have 30% of females in the workforce by 2025 and of course that will not happen unless you see that type of ratio being implemented in terms of grocery. in terms of promotions and you can see both of those are 30% contribution. 31% of new recruits in 2020 in South Africa were female and very pleased to say that 31% of directors are currently female. So very serious and sincere attempts to improve the participation of women in our business. So with that I'd like to say thank you for your time. I hope you found that interesting and at this stage I will hand over to James to facilitate the Q&A. Thank you very much.

Thank you Neil and welcome everybody. I'm just going to ask a few questions from the webcast first. The first one being from Warren Riley at Batchelor Capital. How, oh sorry, let me just take this off for this section please. Have auto manufacturers continued to buy PGMs despite the semiconductor shortages, e.g. i.e. have they been stockpiling?

They have continued to buy. Uh-huh. But I would say that there's been a reduction in purchases so I don't see it as a stockpiling event and again despite the chip shortages The differences in vehicles that are being manufactured is really a few percentage points. So no, I wouldn't suggest that you're going to see ongoing demand disruption due to this. Certainly the chip shortages will go on into next year, but I don't see it as the stockpiling. Thanks James.

Thanks Neil. The next one is from Catherine Cunningham at JP Morgan. Thanks for the presentation. First question, on the FA Gold cost revisions, how much of this is electricity driven and how much is the other costs? And then secondly, what other costs are seeing above inflationary increases?

Okay, thanks James. Richard, why don't you field that question?

Thank you very much, Neil, and good afternoon and good morning, everybody. In terms of that question, probably about 25% of the increase that we have changed our guidance by, or forecast increase, is due to electricity, and then the balance really due to other inflation factors. The key other inflation or above inflation increases we've been seeing, commodities driven, so anything that relates to steel, support structures, drill rods, etc., that's definitely gone up quite significantly. and then other industrial chemicals etc. that we are using in our plants. Those would be the three big drivers. Thank you.

Thanks Richard. The third question is from Arnold van Graan at Nedbank. How long would it take to get full flexibility back at Stillwater and could the issues there continue to impact 2022 production levels?

Thanks James, and again I think that's best answered by the Chief Operating Officer. So go ahead Richard.

Thank you Neil. Yes, so Arnold, essentially what has happened at Stillwater is we have a series of stoves that will be operating at less than normal capacity for a period of time. That will continue for this year. We can catch that up and at the moment the forecast we're looking at to get back to a normal level of faces is about 18 months, 18 to 24 months. So for a period of time we'll be operating at slightly less flexibility than what we would ideally be operating at.

Thanks Richard. The next question is from Steve Shepherd, shareholder. Well done for the excellent results and the substantial returns to shareholders. Thank you Steve. Looking at the valuation of the shares, which remain strangely inexpensive in my view, Do you think it may make sense to back the gold operations into DRD for new DRD shares and then bundle these shares and ADRs to current shareholders? The name Sabanier Future Metals has a nice ring to it.

I would suggest though that we would probably want to keep DRD, let's say, clean as far as the tail injury treatment business. I think it may compromise that strategy were we to reverse underground assets into it and we've certainly said to DRD we do not want them to grow their underground portfolio at all. It's really about growing their tail injury treatment portfolio based on exactly what I presented in the green metals strategy. But we will give your suggestions some consideration. I like the ring of Savonia Future Metals. We'll also give that some consideration. Thanks Steve.

Thanks Neil. The next one is from Campbell Perry at Investec Wealth and Investment. Very concerned about the fatalities we've experienced at Sabania since 2016. What real changes are you making to alter this unfortunate record and to what extent are the improvements baked into compensation?

Yeah, Perry thanks and a very appropriate and good question. I can assure you that safety and health and specifically safe production is our first, second and third priority. So it features before anything else in our discussions, in our business, in our considerations. I think it's important to note a few things and it's very important to me not to make safety a statistic but our safety strategy that we introduced More recently has been very successful. As you know, we've also a record number of fatality free ships in our ultra deep level gold mining environment, which is our highest risk environment. So our strategy does work, I think. We have noticed that COVID-19 and the return to work has created a major disruption with respect to safety performance. And the link is really that a lot of our initiatives to achieve those record fatality free shifts were based on getting teams to work together, getting members of teams to associate with their team members and look after their team members including themselves. Unfortunately, in bringing people back to work post-COVID, We had to bring people back to work based on where they lived, not based on the original team. So we've had to rebuild those team dynamics and you don't do that overnight. So that's been the primary driver. I also need to point out that if you look at absolute numbers, you're probably... In a way, treating us very harshly, although you have to look at absolute deaths and fatalities, but we do employ 85,000 people and when we look at rates, we are certainly performing We have made commitments to get down to industry levels related to the ICMM group, which really includes a lot of open pit mining operations in jurisdictions that are a lot less risky. So we've taken on that challenge. and we are working towards that and we have a strategy that takes us there. It is incorporated into our remuneration, both short term and long term remuneration is impacted by these very unfortunate events. Again, just to summarise, it's our key focus and it's our most important priority. Thank you.

Thanks Neil. The next question is from Shepherd Moyana. He asks, good day, thanks a lot for a great initiative on renewable energy. Any plans to share the energy with the public if the capacity allows or if it's all focused on the business?

Absolutely. I think the way it's being designed now, it would certainly be mostly focused on the business, but certainly if there was spare capacity and our plans could include doing more on the renewable energy side with the view to supplying the public because that could go away at some rate to assisting us in getting to carbon neutrality as well. So if there is fair capacity and we do amend our strategy, certainly we would look to do that.

Yes. Thanks, Neil. Next one again from Steve Shepherd. On PGM markets, do you see increasingly rampant autocatalyst theft Impacting supply from this recycling source, given the recyclers ESG imperatives. In brackets, can they risk buying stolen PGMs?

Steve, it's a major concern of ours and we have commitments and we are bound by assurances we give to various regulatory bodies in this regard and I'm going to ask Justin to comment in more detail but I specifically undertook a visit to a number of recyclers in the US and at each visit I asked exactly this question and I was comfortable with the amount of effort that goes into the regulatory controls that are in place and the absolute, let's say, sincerity with which these collectors and other recyclers look at cactus. Justin, do you want to add to that? Thank you very much and Steve, good question. I think as Neil's mentioned, it is a critical focus area for us. We are subject to obviously good delivery requirements by Johnson, Mathey and the LBMA and LPPM, which obviously requires us to source catalysts responsibly and we have various subcommittees internally that obviously monitor this. We also are part of the IPMA with regards to their initiatives on catalysts and catalyst theft and avoiding, obviously, those being processed. As part of our KYC process, we only deal with sizable, obviously, collectors. As Niels mentioned, we do undertake regular site visits to understand their processes and we do push down those responsible sourcing requirements to our collectors and that is part of our contractual agreements as well as part of our KYC process. and then finally we also undertake a variety of, we are looking at technology really around the blockchain area to trace and track catalysts. It's in its infancy but it's certainly an area that we keep a lot of attention on and the entire industry is in fact focused on this. As Niels mentioned it is a critical area for us to manage and mitigate so hopefully that's enough.

Thanks Justin. Next question from Sipilele Mdudu from Excelsior. Well done on a great set of results. You mentioned that automotive manufacturing rebound is expected to satisfy pent-up demand during 2022. Are you seeing this currently from OEMs? Which metals are OEMs worried about in terms of demand? What would signal to you that we're on top of the cycle, and then when will you consider increasing the dividend payout ratio? So there's a few questions there, so maybe let's just start with the pent-up demand and what we're currently seeing from OEMs and what metals they're concerned about.

Thanks James and essentially I do believe we will get back to normality in 2022. The chip shortages are being addressed in various ways. manufacturers are moving to get vehicles out with the highest profitability so they continue to deliver. They are also delivering vehicles without chips to be retrofitted. So although it's a bit of a crisis, it will resolve itself as the COVID disruptions become something of the past and of course that becomes something of the past mainly due to vaccination. But it also becomes something of the past due to additional chip supply coming on stream. So we do see things normalising somewhere in 2022. In terms of the metals that remain critical, and again we'll give you more detail on this at our investor days, but it's the same metals that are in deficit, rhodium, and this is with respect to all the capsids, it's rhodium and palladium. I think suffice to say that even under these conditions, We see the 3E basket being in deficit even in this period. Thanks, James. The second part to that question, just repeat it again.

Yes, what would signal to you that we are at the top of the cycle? And then the next question was will you consider increasing the dividend payout ratio?

Okay. Let me get to the dividend payout ratio. I think we worked hard today to put to you and the investors that we believe and based on our track record that we can certainly create value through cash that is not earmarked for returns back to shareholders and we've laid that out in a way that shows how we can create superior value. If we are unable to deliver on that strategy, we will certainly increase our dividend payout ratio, but I think we've demonstrated and very much in line with our capital allocation framework that we've put money aside to deal with volatility around debt. and a bit of flexibility there. We've paid a dividend at the top end of our payout ratio and we've implemented a share buyback. Yes, we do have some excess cash, but I also think that shareholders will back us to continue creating value and sustainability. The top of the market question in my mind, I don't see a top of the market. I see a transition from good current fundamentals and a transition as the PGM usage moves from predominantly order caps into the hydrogen economy. The only metal that I see at some risk in that process, and it will be dependent on developing other uses, is palladium. And that's not a new view, that's a view we've held for some time, but certainly post 2025, with additional supply and the transition we're talking about from a mobility point of view, palladium could well come under pressure. And essentially what I'm saying is palladium rich projects that come into production around them are probably high risk projects. Thank you.

Thanks. Neil, I think there are a couple of questions that have come in recently on the web, but let's just go to the phone lines and pick up some questions from people holding there.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on the conference call, I would just like to remind you, if you'd like to ask a question, you're welcome to press star and then 1. We have a question from Patrick Mann of Bank of America.

Good day. Thanks very much for the update and the presentation. I just wanted to ask you on the green metal strategy. So we understand that you've started this a while ago and you incorporated SFA Oxford and you kind of have done your homework. But at the same time, there has been a kind of – it's a bit of a feeding frenzy at the moment with everybody trying to pivot towards these green metals. Thanks. Yeah.

Patrick, great question and I'm going to ask Laurent to comment briefly as well. But certainly I think it's the two years of work that puts us in a very good position to know what the future markets look like. We generally do not participate in competitive processes. and we have a very good idea of what value is based on our view of the markets, the fundamental underpins in a resource and cash flow models. Lolan, who heads up our business development, will tell you he has two rules. The first one, the most important one, is to not lose money and the second one is to make money. The fact that we've got a strategy doesn't mean we're just going to Thank you for watching this video. and we will buy assets in future probably even better numbers because a lot of mistakes are going to be made. So that's the discipline and unfortunately we can't tell you how many we turned down either but I can assure you we turned down more than what we bought, a lot more. Laurent, would you like to add to that?

Thanks Neil and I will be brief. On the two rules, just for everybody's understanding, the first one, don't lose money, is about are we the right owners for our business? How do we de-risk the integrations? What is ESG footprint? It's about being very, very disciplined with all the due diligence work. And beyond just looking at assets, it's about making sure that we are going to be able to retain the very good people who are coming alongside with these assets so that's one and when you're looking at some of these potential investments that we're considering it can be acquisitions or it can also be under the form of smart partnerships to make sure that we de-risk as much as we can the deployment of capital which were doing investing not only in assets but also in people. And there is strict financial discipline that we're also applying because it's important to be able to work towards having an investment-grade balance sheet. The second rule, once you want to be the owner of a particular asset or to invest in a partnership with a company, is about attracting the right returns. because we are very financially disciplined and we actually want to rewrite the company as opposed to getting into some difficulties with the market for making the wrong types of investments. So as Neil said accordingly, although I joined the group towards the end of last year, It is true that we have looked at a few things which we decided to pass on either because they were not the right assets or because they were the right assets but would have demanded too high a price or we could not have achieved the right returns. So we are still working very hard. There are a few opportunities available in the space of battery materials and we hope that we are going to be successful over the coming months to build a great battery material strategy. I think that if you look at who we are and how we want to internationalize our group, it's really important to be able not only to look at good assets, but to be able also to attract great people. And that's true for the first small but important acquisition of potential acquisition, because it's not closed yet, of the Ramel Sandoville.

Great, thank you very much.

Our next question is from Adrian Hammond of SBG Securities.

Good day, thanks for the opportunity and thanks Neil for a comprehensive presentation. I have a couple of questions for you and your team. I'm just curious to understand a bit more about how the European governments and OEMs will be assessing the government's attitudes of change towards battery manufacturing given the lead China has and does this offer you support in terms of funding and partnerships? And while we're on that strategy around battery metals, would you consider partnering with an OEM as part of your strategy? Second question is really for you, Neil. I mean, I'm interested to hear in your comments around your View on the valuation. It's certainly not sell-side, contrary to your comments, given the consensus target price at 92 and the share. But, you know, you've done all the right things, given improved earnings, dividends, share buybacks, debt reduction, strong ESG focus, etc., etc. So, I guess the question still remains, why do you think your stock is trading so at the discount versus peers. And the third question is for Richard around Stillwater. You know, this mine's been experiencing some annual cost inflation of 9% in dollar per tonne terms, and curious to hear Thank you Adrian and again good questions. Richard I'll do the first two and if you would then pick up on Stillwater specifically.

What we have noticed strategically, and I'm sure most of you have seen this, is that COVID and the lockdowns, and because they didn't all happen at once, they were almost sequential, put OEMs in very difficult positions in that part of their supply chain which came out of China or Korea got severely disrupted before they even went into lockdown in the US. Right from the beginning of COVID-19, there was a move or a consideration by OEMs to regionalize their supply chains into regions that they trust and can manage. And we saw that and got that feedback and it was actually quite visible just through reading. I think the other thing that has happened is there's been a significant move around nationalism and the threat posed by the focusing of resources or production in one area of the world that has put other areas of the world adrift and China and America is a good example. So this regionalization of supply has actually resulted very fortuitously for us being able to market let's say North American palladium for North America and that resonates with OEMs, it resonates with governments and of course governments have stepped up to the plate and are providing incentives, are engaging with mining companies or certainly ourselves as to how we can assist in the national interest all over the world. Our entry into Finland was essentially with the Finnish mining group which is state owned. Our entry into France had a component of the French government who is a shareholder in Eremit and of course these all had Themba George Nkosi There are backings that can be achieved from governments in the battery metal space because they are driving it based on their belief that it's environmentally responsible. I think there's still going to be a much slower uptake by the way because of infrastructure and a shortage of metals and that's one thing I want to say in general is that existing technology will survive and prosper much longer than what people think because it will get better and there are hurdles to some of the rates of ramp up in some of these new technologies. Would we consider partnering with an OEM? Absolutely. One of the benefits, and we say, Adrian, we've actually engaged, I won't mention names, with OEMs on buying stakes in projects. So it does happen, it does get considered. The problem is with an OEM, They have a very low level of understanding of mining and a resource and the financial models that underpin it. They're not easy processes and there have been some real knee-jerk reactions by OEMs and I'm confident to say they will make some big mistakes. because some of them are going to make moves in knee-jerk reactions and you've already seen some of those have resulted in stillborn projects and wasted money. But we believe it's important to partner with OEMs. We did it with substitution. It helps get an understanding of the way we mine baskets, sustainability and so on. So yes, OEMs should be good partners and we do talk to them. On value, I think it's a number of issues. I've always said that it's going to take some time After having come out of a very highly leveraged period that the market is going to want to see three or four or maybe even five or six quarters of consistent delivery. They're going to want to see a track record of dividends. and of course re-entrepreneurial and this creates an overhang but we're not going to hide away behind that. I think we will demonstrate industry leading dividends and share buybacks. We will make smart We are entrepreneurial, it's one of the areas we can add value, and unfortunately that does create a bit of an overhand. But that doesn't mean we're going to hide away from that. I do think, and why I spoke about net asset value, and I take your point that there are much higher valuations coming out from analysts even at the levels we're trading at. But I personally believe that our net asset value or our price to NAV is probably around 0.5, 0.6. and I think that we are hitting a lead on a P2NAV because there's this perception we're at 0.9 or 1. And again, I'm not blaming the analysts. We have more work to do. As I said, there's four fingers pointing back at us. There was a lot of acquisition activity. We haven't had any investor day where we can lay out plans, we can address concerns, perhaps even misconceptions. Our gold business, our ultra deep level gold mining business is definitely a drag. But we employ 30,000 people, we can't ignore that responsibility either. I think those are all things that impact value but I also believe if we just keep on doing the right things which we are doing the value issue or the discounts will certainly change and I suppose one other aspect is of course the South African related risks but our bigger problem is not the South African related risks So with that, let me hand over to Rich if you wouldn't mind addressing Adrian's question on Stillwater, Rich.

Adrian, thanks very much man. I suppose to address your inflation question it's worth just stepping back for a second. At Stillwater over the last couple of years we've fundamentally had two objectives. The first one has been about increasing flexibility at Stillwater West. So that's more development. And the second one has been about ramping up the Blitz project. So in both cases what we've seen is an increase in the amount of capital that we've been spending year on year. Particularly, I mean, you would have noticed in our results that just over the last half year was the highest level of capital we've ever done footage-wise in terms of development, some 17% higher than we've ever done before. And that has continuously been building up. So obviously that build-up in terms of capital does reflect in the oil and sustaining cost. I think the second aspect of the oil and sustaining cost that's critically important is the fact that higher prices do lead to higher royalties and taxes. As we've stated before, as a rough guide, $100 in price change is about $5 on our cost curve, and given that that's gone up by almost $1,500 since we bought the operation, you can imagine that's also had a significant impact. If we look at it very simplistically, our cash cost today at Stillwater, in other words, excluding all of the capital, still remains in the low 500s, which in fact is better than it has been over the last two years. It still has leverage to volume, so as we ramp up, that number comes down, and not too different from where it was a few years ago. So the extra 450 that we've seen on top of that is pure capital, of which half of that is project capital. So just that without any benefits of future ramp up is where we are guided to long term costs in the region of $700 per ounce at current prices. At lower prices that number would be significantly lower and of course we would still expect the leverage on those prices from increased volumes as we deliver Stillwater East. So in terms of long term guidance there is no change to our long term guidance. The recent incidents at Stillwater West has impacted flexibility and that flexibility impact will remain for about 18 months to 24 months as mentioned earlier as we get additional places back online. But that's really the only impact. There's no change to the long term guidance or plan for the operation. Thanks Adrian. Thanks Richard. Thanks Neil.

Our next question is from Raj Ray of BMO Capital Markets.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, Neil and team. I just got a couple of questions. First one is on the gold business wage negotiation, if you can give us some color as to when we can expect any updates on that. And the second question is on the potential to leverage the uranium assets. Just wanted to get a sense of how soon can you expect those assets to be up and running? And also, does that fit within the Sibania portfolio, or do you think there's better value to Spin It Out, Bitsadani, keeping a majority portion of the finko. How are you looking at it? Thank you.

Yeah, thanks. Thanks, George. And let me ask Richard to deal with the gold wage negotiation, and then I'll pick up on the uranium question. Richard, you go ahead first.

Thank you very much. We obviously are still in the middle of gold wages. I think we still have a way to go. Fundamentally, as you would have seen from the presentations we've given, our underground operations are running on fairly thin margins given the cost today. Ultimately, all stakeholders really need to come around the table to protect those margins and make sure that those businesses survive through the tougher times so that we can all reap the value from them during the good times. Thank you. Thank you.

And Raj, on the uranium question, we haven't made a final decision on what the structure would be. We've got a couple of ideas. Our structure with DRD has worked very well where it remains a separate listed entity where we have a controlling state. We could do exactly the same with our uranium business. We certainly need to retain the credits from, let's call it the exposure to green metals. So that's under consideration. If you talk timing, I think you will see movement in terms of, let's say, more definition and perhaps even an announcement as to exactly how that will take place within the next quarter or so. In terms of actually producing uranium, that's probably still two years away. The Bayer Uranium Mine or Bluetridge foreshaft has got an operating shaft It would require some pre-development, some processing facilities. But on the West Whist we actually have those processing facilities. There's no doubt some refurbishment. And then there's the biggest challenge on the West Whist. is really their position capacity, which is where we work closely with DOD. So that's a couple of years away, but it's certainly much quicker than starting a complete new mine.

Okay, thanks, Neil. Just one last question, if I may, with respect to your SAPG and the 175 megawatt solar project. You mentioned that you had completed the physical test in Q2. Is it possible for you to give us an idea about what the capital and what the cost reduction you might see as a result of this?

Rich, would you have any idea, you or Shaul, of that? We haven't really approached it from a cost reduction point of view, but I have no doubt that it will have a positive IRR and therefore will have a cost reduction, but I don't think we've done enough definition on that. Rich or Shaul, can you add anything to that?

Neil, thanks. I don't have the exact numbers at hand. I think the only comment that I can make is obviously the financing model that we look at to approach these would be through, it will be potentially built off our balance sheet with the third party, and we ultimately sign up to a PPA. So it's not a direct capital on us, it's a long-term commitment. And what I can recall is cost parity was attained within the first year or two. So that's a number I can give. But the absolute side, I can't recall what the absolute capital number was. I can get back to you on that.

No, that's fine.

Okay, that's great.

Thank you. That's it from me. And again, congrats on the strong cash flow and the robust shareholder return that you're providing. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question is from Leroy Nguni of HSBC.

Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for the opportunity. I've got a couple of questions, but really just around two topics. So the first one is just your thinking around dividends versus buybacks, so special dividends versus buybacks. Are we to assume that you'll continue to do buybacks with the excess cash for as long as the share price is wildly low, what you think is... is fair value. And then the second topic is the growth around your US recycling business and I'm just reflecting on your comments Neil about the one PGM that may be at risk being palladium largely because of the growth of palladium rich projects that's coming online. How do you see this as different to one of those assets? I'd imagine it's also predominantly a palladium asset. And then could you maybe give us a sense of whether this growth will be limited to North America or would you look to expand capacity elsewhere? And then lastly, What are you currently running at in your recycling operations compared to your capacity?

Okay, thanks Leroy and Justin you need to come in on the recycling numbers but let me answer both those and then Justin you can top up. In terms of dividends versus buybacks, we have always said that dividends have to be consistent, predictable and have to be industry leading. Industry leading at the moment is probably around 10%, but under normalised conditions, Anything in a 4-5% dividend yield range has been industry leading. So we have a target of even when we re-rate of trying to achieve that at least 4-5% dividend yield. Now that wasn't quite your question but buybacks are far more opportunistic and there's no doubt that the research and the work we've done and we actually got widely to help us with our capital allocation structure and positioning of our dividends and buybacks but in terms of buybacks Companies that let's say do regular buybacks and maintain good quality dividend payments traded a premium to others, that's a given. So buybacks will continue to be part of the Let's say the return of value or the creation of value for shareholders but of course if you are at high levels the decision becomes a bit more difficult. In terms of special dividends, I think we would have no problem in paying them but I would see that as failure of strategy or failure of management to create that and part of management's job is is creating value. So I can't give you an exact recipe, but even the way you framed the question, Leroy, you basically have our answer. It's going to depend on the share price and so on. But we would like to, we will not compromise on our dividends. We will try and do regular buybacks. but we'll also be opportunistic with the buybacks. In fact there was quite a lot of criticism when we launched the buyback. I can tell you it was probably the best IRR of any investment we've made recently was the buyback. So it was well considered and it will have a substantial return I have no doubt. In terms of US Recycling. I think for now our focus is the US because our recycling team is domiciled in the US and we have a very good understanding of that market. and that's where growth will occur and yes you're quite right we need to be considerate of palladium but I dare say that the cost of producing palladium from recycling is a hell of a lot lower than from primary sources so in terms of your position on the cost curve we will be at a distinct advantage there. I also want to say that the stand-able acquisition, a consideration was also that it gives us a step into Europe which gives you exposure to perhaps a slightly different make-up of recycling materials. So I think our first goal is to grow in the US. and then to grow in Europe as well. Justin, would you like to add anything that I may have missed out on there? No, thanks Neil. And Leroy, very good question. From a capacity point of view, we don't really have a volume capacity constraint per se. You would have seen in the results book, we fed about 25 long tons per day through our process. and that's pretty much where we are comfortable. Our biggest challenge in the recycling area is managing quality of feed so we could easily ramp that volume up if needs be but really we are focusing on low silica carbide, low carbon bearing material which to the point you've raised Leroy really pushes you to palladium rich catalysts over diesel catalysts. The quantity of the absolute volume that a recycling catalyst takes in our smelter in Montana is fairly small versus the concentrate. Obviously, as Stillwater East ramps up, that capacity will become potentially a constraining factor, but that's in a few years' time. So we have the ability, but it really is a quality focus for margin accretion rather than volumes, given, as I say, the silica carbide constraint that the industry is dealing with.

That's very clear. Thanks, Neil. Thanks, Justin.

Thank you. Our last question is from Tyler Broda of RBC.

Great. Thanks very much for the call today. So I just had two questions. One just on the battery metals business and the new push in this direction. How much capex do you think this will take forward? Thank you very much. As you kind of point out, there's nothing that kind of has made sense yet. Do you see potentially better returns from this battery metals business than through gold M&A? Thanks.

Thanks. And that's Tyler. Did I get your name right, Tyler?

Yes, it's Tyler. Yeah.

Yeah, sorry, man. I couldn't get it on my side. Yeah, so... Obviously the acquisition strategy is not a strategy in isolation and we have made a commitment that our acquisition strategy will not compromise dividends so our CFO Charles is heavily involved in any decision and of course we keep a A close eye on capital and those costs as they're going to come through. But we also are careful not to look at too many projects or greenfields opportunities. Of course in the portfolio there needs to be some. So we are mindful of that, it's a combination of buying and producing assets and maybe some projects. So that's how we consider capex and at this stage I can't give you a number but it's clearly considered as we focus on these. You're right, we're not focusing on gold at all. Gold's not at a place where we are going to make a gold acquisition. We said that probably, I don't know, a quarter ago plus. That doesn't mean we don't like gold and you know my views on the combination of gold and other metals. The one is industrial and the one is precious and gold is a A precious metal that when there's risk on you, you buy gold. But we're not looking at gold now. Our focus is on battery metals. Our strategy has crystallized a lot more as you've seen. and again we can't give you much more than what we've given because it gives away our competitive edge but you should have got a feeling that we see how all these blocks are going into the puzzle, so that's how we see it.

There are a couple more questions from the webcast, but some of them I think we have covered. And in the instance of time, we do have a bit of a hard cut-off at about five, which is a few minutes away. So I think the last question that I'd like to ask, and I'd just like to again inform people who do have additional questions, please feel free to email us or phone us and we'll respond. Or we will be having those investor days where we'll be dealing with all of the detailed operational and technical and other questions on the 9th of September and on the 22nd of September. So if you can wait till then, we will be covering all of these questions. Otherwise, just drop us an email or give us a call. But probably one that is probably relevant and has been asked a few times, and I'll ask from Barry Davidson in Australia. He says, well done on results, fabulous, congratulations to all. Don't forget to greet your shareholders in Australia. Hi Barry. Is the South African government likely to manage the country from here on in a manner which will achieve an economic performance which will maintain social, political and financial stability, so permitting society and business to operate viably? and that's a recurring theme. Steve Shepard asked a similar thing. How do we see the evolution of the business environment in South Africa? So I think on that question perhaps that will be our last question and then we'll obviously engage further at Investor Days. Thanks.

Yeah, thanks. Thanks, James, and very greetings. And you're right, we were missed in not considering there down under as part of the good afternoon and good morning. We won't make that mistake again. The events of the last few weeks were actually not unexpected. As you know, being a previous director of Sabania, one of the highest risks we had on our risk register was social unrest because of the various elements that feed into that. I have to say I was very unhappy that in fact that risk eventually arose. A lot of the work we had done because of that risk and the good governance that was in place meant there was actually relatively small impact on our business. Looking forward, I think that we've lost a lot of confidence in our government and I know it was low before. to do the right things. At times we see what looks like good reform coming through but it is not backed up with actions that really are tangible and underpin those reforms. So as business we continue to lobby with government to do the right things and we'll continue to do that but what is becoming very clear to us is that civil society is starting to trust business much more than they trust the and the leadership of government. And that's not just the South African thing, that is something that you're seeing in many parts of the world. I see it a lot in the US as well at the moment. And as business, we try and do things in the national interest and the lessons learned from the Anarchy, and I know that's a word that you considered and spoke of many times. The anarchy that occurred resulted in something very visible, and that was South Africans got together and made a stand that not in our name is this And the message is that if we are to ensure smooth and sustainable business operations we've got to do even more and if we can't rely on government to deliver services and the basic infrastructure. We're going to unfortunately have to do more of that and we really are in a position where we can do more of that and we've got to obviously teach communities to fish rather than give them fish in the same vein. So it's still a two-pronged approach. It's still engaging with the government, trying to get them to do the right thing. I do think they are listening more than they ever listened before. but I wouldn't be overly confident that there's a dramatic change about to happen but we will look after ourselves and we will ensure that we can operate under these conditions and in this environment which just makes it so much easier to move to other stable jurisdictions in the rest of the world. Thanks Barry and we should have a chat sometime.

Thank you. I think on that note, we'll call it a day. Thank you all for attending. We really appreciate the interest and the questions, really challenging and good questions. As I said, we will have our follow-up investor days where we will be covering the detail in September. So please join us for both of those days. Thanks very much.