Akobo Minerals Ab

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the first half year 2024 presentation. And happy Mesko to all our Ethiopian friends. We are a bit spread today. To meet me, we have Helge Rochefort, head of operations on the mining and processing side, and also Dr. Matt Jackson, who will take us through some of the exploration slides to us today. I'm sorry for my voice. I hope it will take me through the whole presentation. Just been out traveling and caught a small bug. So let's start. So a lot has happened during this first half year. Many milestones achieved and probably the most important thing is that we have now reached but I would say a long-awaiting stage of daily mining, stockpiling, and also batch processing from the Segella ore body. This is what we've been working towards for the last couple of years. And I would say, happy to say that we're finally there. And we've successfully commissioned the processing plant. We have produced the first gold from the Segella ore body. Again, we achieve daily mining operations and consistently moving ore from the mine to the processing plant. And this is mostly what it's all about going forward. It's about taking the ore out of the mine and bringing it to the processing plant and producing gold out of it. It might seem like a very easy operation and it's not the most complicated either, but we are working underground. We are working in a mine and there's a lot of, of course, safety and other health issues that we need to take into consideration when doing this. I have to say that we have also applied for a new large exploration license. We have to start looking forward, ensuring the future growth and sustainability of the company. Of course, as Matt will guide you through, we have many, many interesting targets in our existing license area. But we have to look to the future. And this is a very, very exciting area for us to start exploring. As you might have noticed, the gold price is record high. Of course, that has an impact on our profits and our revenues. It will significantly boost our future mine cash flow. However, as we all know, gold prices can be volatile, but right now it looks like the trend is favorable to us and that it will stay at these levels going forward. We've also started engaging in discussions with both financial, industrial and strategic partners to investigate potential corporations. A key A very big event in Ethiopia was the successful launch of financial reform that came together with agreements with IMF and the World Bank, which meant that the local currency has been floated in Ethiopia. So far, it looks like this has been a very successful reform. And for us as a mining company, a national company, This looks to be very interesting, and I hope this will be a bit of a restart of the Ethiopian economy. Key events. Dr. Matt Jackson, or Matt as I like to call him, he will unfortunately move on to a new role outside of the cobalt minerals. He's been with us for several years, working hard in a very challenging environment. We have worked closely on all different aspects of developing this company. He will certainly be missed, but he will not be gone. He will continue as our competent person and also help us a lot on strategic directions and some of the work on the exploration side. So we're happy to still have him with us but in a smaller presence than today. So, next slide. For those not familiar with the company, I'll go through some of the more standard slides. As you can see here, we are located in Oslo, Norway. We're listed on the Euronext Growth Exchange, trading on the OTCQX. are a gold exploration mining company our only asset is in ethiopia so we are a pure play ethiopia mining and exploration company our only asset so far is the sagela mine we have our exploration and mining licenses in the gambela region we've been there now for more than 14 years have a very good relationship with all all communities and everyone in the area so developed a strong local foothold. We have to do it the right way and we're doing it the right way. So we've been there and have really developed ourselves as part of the community. And given the nature of the Ethiopian mining sector, still a few players in there, but with a great potential. We think that we're uniquely positioned to become a major player in this industry over the years. And we think that this region and our project has a significant gold production potential. You can see from the map that we're located all the way to the border of South Sudan. It's a very nice quiet area. We've never had any major or minor almost incidents since we started there. We have 182 square kilometer exploration license. We have a 16 square kilometer mining license. We have plants and machines and equipment, some state of the art. And really some of the best, I think, available processing plants out there today that will be efficient in producing our gold going forward. As you can see here, the Segele mineral resource estimated by SRK. It's not the biggest resource out there. But the grade, as you can see, is fantastic, some of the highest grade in the world. It's a 68,000, 69,000 ounces gold deposit of an average of 22.7 gram per ton. The indicated part of this that sits closest to the surface is 41,000 ounces with an average grade of 40.6 gram per ton. So this is some of the highest grade you'll find in the world, which is why we see that there is a great potential to really do high margin gold production. And to refine our gold, finally, once it's been produced at site, we will ship it to MKS PAMP in Switzerland, one of the few LBMA-approved refineries in the world, where it will be processed into LBMA-approved gold bars and sold at the London Bullion Market Stock Exchange. Next slide, yes. So we can't operate in an area like Gambela doing mining, looking for gold without having a strong ESG policy. And we worked hard on this and we've been recognized for all the hard work and good work we've been doing by receiving different awards, working also with some of the best in the industry. So we're really happy to have a a sound and solid ESG policy in place. And to me, it's all about doing it right. And that's what we're doing. There is no other way. And the financial impact on this, you can see by the fact that we have been able to reach an agreement or become a partner and client of MKS PAMP. Had we had not done this, We would not have been a client of them and we would not have been able to sell our gold at a spot price in the market. We would have been forced to sell it into a different market with a significant discount to it. So this all makes sense, first of all, because it's the right thing to do, but also it has a financial impact that is really considerable. And they've been hard at work the last six months, especially working on the operational readiness and compliance side since we're now starting production. But also followed up on the sustainable natural resource management plan and health and sustainability schools program and continuous community engagement. So we are active and we're doing it right. And going back to what I said earlier, the record, the gold price is record high. It's now, I think, maybe also above $2,600 per ounce. And as you can see from the numbers here, that has a significant impact on the cash flow and also the value of the Segele resource. So if you look at the value of the Segele resource based upon the gold price when we started out this project to build the mine right now with the current gold price it's closer to 180 million dollars and same goes for the operational cash flow from Segele. So you see the value here it's based upon the financial model that we had in the share issue earlier this year. And if you look at the different gold price scenarios with that same model, we have just the value of the cash flow from beginning of the year has increased by close to $30 million. So of course, the gold price has a significant effect

on the cash flow from the Segele gold mine.

So the financial development of the year, we've... Of course, we're still not making... We haven't made any money so far in the first six months. We are in the process of... Helge will talk more about running the second batch from the mine through the... through the processing plants. It'll be interesting to see if we can get a small gold bar out of that. But the financial development during the year has been the same as previously. So looking at what we've done this year is We did the financial restructuring and completed that earlier in the year. We raised additional equity. We converted all convertible debt to equity and we restructured the gold loan that we had with monetary metals. So right now we have only monetary metals as our only external debt provider. Everything else is converted to equity. And of course, the production and revenues from gold production going forward will impact our financial situation. We have produced the first small batch of very low grade. The ramp-up phase is ongoing. As I said, the second batch is in production. It's still difficult to estimate how much gold we will produce in this current ramp-up phase. But we will get back to that when we have more knowledge and understanding from the first batches that we run and see what comes out. We do have a lower burn rate than previously anticipated. And with every day we are stockpiling and mining, we're getting closer to break even. As I mentioned earlier, we have had ongoing and we have ongoing discussions with financial and industrial and strategic partners. Again, to investigate potential cooperation and also including short-term capital requirements which will increase our liquidity buffer. Some of these conversations have been ongoing for a very long time. They are mature and we will get back with more information once once we have more information to share with the market. But these are exciting and very interesting dialogues that we're working on.

Thank you. So, Helge, up to you.

Do some operational updates. Start with the mining.

Yes. Thank you, Jörgen. It's a lot of exciting things happening now on the mine side and the most recent and a very important milestone for us has been that the first crosscut between the eastern and the western winces, basically the eastern and the western parts of the mine was completed on September 18. um that is a major milestone for us for both for the safety of the mine because it means that we have a second exit for wherever wherever you are in the mine it also increases ventilation and and logistics is getting better and it also most importantly is the start of the stoping We have also then worked on the lengths of the winces. But now the main focus would be to start trial stoping. We are currently just making safe the new crosscut that has been blasted through. And when that is finished, we will start the first trial stopping from this prospect drive. During the working with the crosscut, we encountered several very rich areas of ore with visible gold. So we are very optimistic about the first trial stopping now and what it can produce. We have had some challenges this time around also. What I would like to say first is that the development has been very good, even with these challenges. But there has still been some delays, specifically in customs. Our procurement operation has been improved a lot, but there's still some delays from time to time in customs, a little bit random when and which equipment it is, and that is something we are working with the government on. We have had a few extreme rain events again, and before that kind of almost crippled us, but now it is much less of a problem than before. It's the worst rain we had, which was really a very hard rain event. It just caused us like one day of delays due to extra pumping. So we have been able to sort out that problem relatively good, and we'll even improve it further from here. Next. This is basically how it looks like now with the winces. If you can see the green parts is what we have been already mining. So the western winds and the eastern winds are now connected with this green crosscut at the bottom. And as you can see, the crosscut goes very close to what we call the trial stop and stop zero one. We are now able to mine both of these or start mining both of these stopes from this crosscut. And the trial stop is something we would like to start up with because it has a little bit lower grade, but it's very good for testing out the newly commissioned plant. You don't want to run your best ore the first time you have started a plant because you want your optimization of the plant to be done and the recovery rate to be high. Yeah, so the key mine metrics is the resource that we have talked about before and we have a conservative 81% extraction rate for the mine with the current model. Yes, we'd also like to point out that our mineralization is open at depth. So what happens in the future when we have mined out what we have now in the model, that is something of an interesting upside in the in the future. Yeah, next. So this is how it looks like on the ground exactly when they blasted through this crosscut from the eastern winds and then through to the western winds. So this is the first time somebody walks through and it's psychologically and physically it's a major milestone and it really increases the safety and the logistics of the mine also. Okay, so over to the processing plant. I really like this picture showing the plant at dusk with all the lights on and everything installed. Basically now we have reached a state where the commissioning of the current setup is completed. The first gold is produced and we are now moving on to improving processing and recovery at every stage of the process. So a little bit more in detail here, you can see the mill turning and now it is in this picture, it's actually not only moving around, but it's also milling gold ore. So what we have done recently is that all the five generators that we have on site has been commissioned and connected together for high load capability and also redundancy. So if one generator goes down, the four others will step up and take that. The plant commissioning is completed. And the facility has also been adapted to batch running. The reason why we adapted it to batch running instead of continuous running is that we see that it will take some time before we can get enough ore out of the mine to feed it continuously. It will make it much better or the plant much more available for us if we can start with this batch running. So that is what we are doing now. So we have already run the first ore batch through the plant, including all the way to smelting. So this is what we will do going forward. We will also complete the laboratory building and the functionality of the lab, which is something that has been lagging a little bit behind, but we are now on the way to increasing the what we can do there and all the tests we are going to take and samples from both mine and from the plant. Okay, so first gold produced. You can see on the picture that the ore how it looks like when it's before it's dumped into the crusher circuit and down to the milling and then it goes to gravity. into ILR and then electrowinning and smelting, which you can see on the bottom left picture. And the first result is what you see there. That was from the first batch. It's a relatively low-grade ore, so then hence it's only some gold, call it pearls or droplets. and not a full bar. But it is a proof of concept, which is very important to see that all stages and all steps of the process actually works. So this is the first trial batch. And I have been working in the mining industry for more than 20 years, and I have been starting up several plants. And I'm actually amazed at how much worked the first time around on this plant. So wherever in the world you are, it's always some problems when starting up something new like this, but it's actually very few issues that we have had on site. And we have been able to solve things quickly with local competence and local people. Yeah, so what we're doing now, yes, as we said, we have commissioned the current process setup. We run the first trial batch. The first gold has been produced all the way to smelting. And going forward now, we are already producing now a larger batch with richer ore. and we have produced that and we are waiting to run that through the what we call the ILR which is a cyanide process and then further on to electro winning and smelting so in not very long time now we will have the the next result from that one which is will be very exciting to see What our plan is, is that going forward, we will increase the batch sizes with the corresponding to the increased output from the mine when they start trial stopping. The trial stopping is, we believe that that would increase the amount of ore considerably compared to what we have done now, which is more like development going through ore. We are also optimizing each stage of the plant to make it more efficient, so the overall recovery will increase how much gold we are able to take out. We also have an approach that we will develop the organization continuously to fit the needs of the plant. So as the plant grows bigger and the batches larger, then we will also increase the organization. So we have the key people that we need. We just have to add on to that as we progress forward. Yes. Then I think it's over to Matt.

Great, thank you Helge. Thank you. Great, it's a pleasure to be here again. This is just a very quick slide talking about what has happened in the first half of 2020 to 2024 with exploration. As you will have seen from the previous slides, there's been a hell of a lot of work happening at the mine and the vast majority of the company's resources has been directed towards developing the mine and getting to the position that we are in now. And as a result of that, the exploration, the focus on exploration has been minimized. However, there has been some work happening and I'm really proud of the exploration team and what they've achieved in this period. They've been trenching around West Segele. They've been drilling holes, quite exciting drill holes, in fact, close to the Segele gold mine. And they've also completed 70 line kilometers of magnetic surveying. All of this work we're talking about here has the potential to open up new mineralized areas near the Segele gold mine, which we're very excited about and obviously will make a significant difference to the economics of the company and the growth potential for the company. So the work that was done in the first half of the year and in Q2 has been really excellent and we're really pleased with it. And it lays the foundations for some excellent discoveries in the future. So, but most of this presentation will be discussing why we are excited about the exploration in the area. And Jürgen hinted towards, Jürgen spoke about a license application that we have submitted that solidifies our growth intentions in the future. So just as a background for anybody who hasn't seen these presentations before, the Segele Gold Mine and our exploration areas are focused as part of the Arabian Nubian Shield. There's a lot of exploration happening in the Arabian Nubian Shield. Most of it is in Saudi Arabia and parts of North and East Africa that we're not involved with. There are some huge companies operating there. There's Marden in Saudi Arabia that has very large gold production. They also collaborate with the major gold miner Barik to produce copper in those areas. There's also the prolific Sukkari mine owned by Centamin in Egypt, which has a reserve, which has resources and reserves of over 15 million ounces and almost half a million ounces of gold produced every year in those areas. And there are not many parts of the world which are this perspective that have not been really investigated by large mining companies. So we're very lucky and very proud to be one of the most exciting companies working in this area. Now, if we zoom into, going back to the previous slide, you can see that we're working in the area in the yellow box. which is Western Ethiopia. And this slide here shows the dark green area in the north where Allied Gold are about to commit hundreds of millions of dollars for developing the Kermuk project. And Kefi Minerals are also working very hard towards committing a similar amount of capital expenditure for their Tulu Kapi project. So the northern parts of this slide, there's been a decent amount of work. And I was, you know, many years ago now, 20 years ago now, I completed my PhD in this area. So I have a good understanding of the geology. And there's been, you know, around the Allied Gold Project and the Kefi Minerals Project, there's been a good amount of exploration. There is still more to discover in those areas. But In the Gambela region of the same set of rocks in the same area of the Arabian Nubian Shield, I know for a fact there's been very, very little investigation. In fact, almost nothing. There's been a little bit of regional work that's been done, a little bit of regional mapping, which really tells you very, very little about the geology. But we know that the gold potentially in that area is very exciting because we are operating the Segele gold mine that has some of the highest grades in the world. in addition to the other exploration targets that we have specifically in the Segele gold mine. And our Ethiopian team led by Bazaba took the lead to put in an application for an exploration license that we're calling GELO. And this is a real credit to our Ethiopian team because they've shown the initiative here. They found an open area that is prospective. And exactly the same structures from the Segele gold mine in the south go all the way north into the Gelo license and they go right past the Tulukapi gold mine where there's 1.7 million ounces. And that region, this entire region here in the yellow circle, like I said before, we've hardly looked in those areas. So we're in a really fantastic position to be able to use our first mover advantage in the Gambela region, having been working there for 14 years, to open up this area of the Arabian Nubian Shield for exploration. There's been only one drilling program by another company in this entire region that we know of. And that company had to stop for logistics reasons, but we're able to continue operating. We have connections, very good connections with the Gambela region authorities. So we're very confident of our ability to explore here. And we're very excited about the discoveries that can be made because we know it hasn't been looked at before and it has all the right structures. So looking closer at the GLO licence itself, this slide is just intended to indicate to you the sort of general location of the licence. This is still an application. It's not been awarded yet, but obviously the news will come out as soon as it's awarded. It has one road that goes through it. It has a river that comes through it. So we can access the area, we can get to there, we can use the river and the road for exploration to open up the area to have a look. It's uninhabited savannah grassland. There is, from what I can see, there are no settlements there. Maybe there are very few settlements. but it still can be accessed because of this road. And so it's 1,220 kilometres squared of unexplored greenstone belt. There is, when I say the word greenstone belt, this is a term that geologists use for the particular suite of rocks and the type of alteration that regional areas have that are prospective for gold and other minerals to explore for. And there are very, very few places in the world where there is genuinely unexplored greenstone belt. If you were to look at other junior mining companies, they might say that they have unexplored or underexplored areas of greenstone belt. But in reality, there may have been two or three companies before them that would have previously had those licenses. When we start work here, we're confident we're going to be the first people to have ever explored this area. So this is extremely exciting. And now that the Segele mine is on the point of breaking even, we're confident that we will have the resources needed to really open up this area and make the discoveries that we're confident are there. This slide just talks briefly about the potential of the ACOBO licence. From now on, we're going to be talking about the ACOBO licence, exploration in the ACOBO licence and exploration in the GELO licence. If we go back to the ACOBO licence, we're still very excited about this area. Even last week, I visited the Gingerbill area and other targets in the licence with an independent international expert. And we're very excited about the area around Gingerbill and Kolarima and Mitmita because these are essentially bulk targets, what we're referring to as bulk targets, which are unlike Segele. These are big quartz veins that have much lower concentrations of gold than Segele, but nevertheless, the kind of concentrations that can be mined by open pit. So there are very simple, straightforward, and cheap exploration methods that can be used to uncover the potential of these areas. So we're very excited to start doing that work as soon as the priority of the company changes, and that will happen very soon. And also, we still have fantastic results from Jodoo Central, where drilling was done before. There are high-grade intersections there. There's also high-grade potential in Jodoo South and other places around the project. So we have our own drill rig. We can do exploration cheaply. We have the logistics set up. As many of our shareholders will already know, this has been paused for some time now in order to get the Segele mine going. But it's very clear from this presentation that we are at the point now whereby the Segele gold mine is in a very good place and production will be making a huge difference to our financial situation. So we're very excited to continue exploring here and to discover what we are referring to as bulk targets. This slide is an indication of what sets us apart from other junior mining companies. Many junior mining companies, like I said earlier, could be exploring areas where companies have already made discoveries or they've explored before. Each of these dots here indicates a target that we believe has the potential to turn into a mine. Not all of these targets will turn into a mine, but the really good explorers are ones that have plenty of dots in this funnel. This is the same as a sales funnel, as you might see for for other types of companies that are listed. And our intention is to take as many of these projects forward through advanced resource definition drilling, feasibility studies, and infrastructure development. And that's a matter of careful prioritization of these targets. But in addition to that, to sort of really ramp up the probability of success, we need to get plenty of plenty more dots into this funnel. We are really excited about discovering 1.5 to 2 million ounces specifically in the ECOBO licence. But in order to really take advantage of our first mover position in Gambela, a completely unexplored area, we intend to put many more dots into the concept side from the GELO licence and also other Arabian Nubian Shield targets outside of the ECOBO and GELO licences. Over the coming period, we'll be advancing them to desktop and target generation. And once the finances allow us, lots of these targets can be prioritised and drilled. We have the right people, the right equipment and the right logistics set up to do this. And the expert review that we had last week confirmed our excitement about this. So the move that we have during the last few months to put in an application for the GLO licence just shows our intention to do that and our plans to move this forward. So just looking strategically in the next few years, How are we going to do this? What are the plans? Needless to say, we'll be working at the Segele gold mine for some time now. Our exploration team have been developing near mine targets for growing the production that can go into the process plant as much as we possibly can. So that drilling will continue. It's happening now and it will continue. We'll also be, many of our shareholders will have heard the terms, Gingerbill and Jodhu and Mitmita and Karima and Waleta. We've decided that all these targets will be explored together. There are some very effective exploration geophysics methods that can be used. And then we'll carry on doing the shallow drilling that we have done before. We'll even do trial mining of the surface of the loose, gold-bearing rocks at the surface. Once we get the mining license extended, that can be put into the Segele gold mine as well. Obviously, there's some technical studies that need to be done around this. And we're very optimistic that the Ecobo license bulk targets can really give us something that will drive the value of the company in a fantastic way in the years coming forward. And then also, once the Gelo license is approved, we will actually continue looking for license acquisition in the area. We'll also be kicking off with airborne geophysical surveys and reconnaissance exploration using all the methods that our fantastic Ethiopian team used to discover the Segele mine. And we'll be advancing that in the next few years and move it towards resource drilling. We're excited about discovering 1.5 to 2 million ounces in the ECOBO bulk targets area. And also, in the coming months, we'll be expanding towards Gelo. And we're very optimistic and very go ahead about the opportunities to really drive the value in the company. And so this is the last quarterly presentation from me. I will still be involved with the company, providing strategic direction for exactly what we're looking at here in order to guide the Ethiopian team to advance these projects and grow the value in the company. I'll always be a Kobo Minerals number one fan, and I'll definitely be closely involved with the project going forward. But now that we see that the Segele mine is the success that we always thought it would be, it's time for me to move on and take another role in another company. But nevertheless, like I said, I still have the capacity to remain involved with this and provide the strategic direction needed for achieving what we see on this slide. So thank you very much. And I'll hand back to Jürgen for the last slide.

Thank you, Matt.

Yes, I don't think it will be the last we see of you. So just to sum it all up, the strategy is still clear. We are delivering on the short-term strategy, getting the Segele mine up and running, which is happening these days as we speak. getting the gold production into the ramp up phase and establishing the regular daily production that we're seeing happening right now, but also at an increased scale. Then going back to what Matt said, really the potential still in this company is all the upside that we see in the license area and also the new license that we have applied for. We see there is definitely potential of establishing an attractive resource base here of a significant scale. So that's still really the plan now and something we want to focus hard on getting back on track with the exploration. Again, the long-term vision, we still see the opportunity and the possibility to become the leading mining company in Ethiopia. There are a few other players, as you saw from the map that Matt had, Allied Gold and Kefi Minerals. They are in process of establishing their mines. That will, of course, take a few years before they're up and running. But the area and the potential in Ethiopia as such tells me that this is not, this has nothing to do with competition. This has to do with competence and the fact that you know how to work in Ethiopia and have been through all the phases that we have been through. That's really the value here. And there's plenty of land and there's plenty of opportunity in Ethiopia. It's completely unexplored. And when you compare Ethiopia to other countries, African countries nearby, its potential hasn't been tapped at all. So we are really Looking forward to getting back on track with exploration and let the mine do what it's supposed to do with producing gold and cash flow for us. Okay, I think that's it for that. On the financial side, it's not much to say. We're still in the process of The first half year of developing the mine, we've had only cost, no revenue. You can see here, of course, there's some change in the operating costs. There was some higher cost in Q2 compared to Q1 that has to do with the activity level. and finalizing of the plant, we see, as I said earlier, that the cash burn in general is lower than what we expect. And especially now that we see that the company getting into a more steady state production, then it'll be easier for us to make better estimates on on the cash flow going forward once we're in a more steady state production. The equity debt side, this reflects the latest restructuring we did. We were left with only the monetary metals loan. There is on a group level a negative equity that has no impact as such or not any consequences. So that's nothing to worry about, of course. We're aiming for that to be positive, but there's nothing we have to do with regards to that. But for someone that... So on the corporate structure, we're still listed on Unix growth in Oslo and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. We're trading on the OTC market platform in New York. Again, the company is backed by a strong group of active Norwegian shareholders. They've been with us mostly since inception. It doesn't change much on the top 20 shareholders. In fact, it doesn't change. They are with us and supportive. Apart from that, we have some 3,000 retail shareholders in Norway and in Sweden. The gold loan from Monetary Metals is now 7,300 ounces. And that's, again, the Monetary Metals US-based investor that has lended us... This is back from the start of the Segele mine that was part of the financial package that got the project going.

OK.

I think the rest of these numbers here you can look at in detail if you'd like to and send or shoot me a message if you have any specific questions to the numbers as such. But there aren't really any big changes to what we're doing. We are running the business in a very lean way. We do not have any excessive cost at all. All the money we are spending is going into Ethiopia and into the projects, trying to keep the overhead as lean as possible and really working hard towards getting into a cash flow position, a cash positive position as soon as possible. So then the Q&A. We have received some questions. Matt and Henrik, are you with me to answer?

Shall I read out the questions?

Yeah, I have one or two first that I can start with. There's been some questions around what the actual size of the resource is. We're talking about the SRK resource estimate, about 68,000 ounces. In our financial modelling, it's a bit lower. So let's address that while we're looking at some nice videos from the ongoing production at Segelle. Since I haven't seen this, now it caught my attention. I will try to answer that. Matt, maybe since you were part of the scoping study and everything we did in the beginning, maybe just explain the 68,000 ounces. It can be more, it can be... Of course less, it has to do with how we mine it and how we take it up. If you want to give a short comment.

Yeah, in the planning phase before we started construction, we took a strategic decision to be conservative in our estimates and planning with this. This is for all the reasons that you might expect. So the resource estimate from SRK in itself was reasonably conservative, but we decided that It's typical when you do mining underground that not the entire resource is extracted. So we did the scoping study. We decided that, based on comparisons with other mines, that 81% of that would be extracted. And this is, like I said, this is conservative. So we actually removed 19% of the resource from it in order to allow for some of the rocks, essentially, to be left underground for safety purposes to hold up the mine on the inside. Nevertheless, given what I don't know about the project and the technical details of the rock structures and the rock competence that I've seen, I'm very confident that we will extract at least some of the value from that 19% that's left in the ground. or maybe even all of it. But at the moment, it's best that we do our financial planning on essentially leaving that 19% in the ground. But obviously, at the end of the mine, at the end of the planned mining cycle, the company will obviously look at extracting as much value as possible from the mine before it is closed down. But nevertheless, the time when the mine is closed is a long way off because we have lots of exploration targets, it's open at depth, and there's lots of potential to continue mining. I guess that answers it.

Yes, so that was actually the follow-up question. How long will this mine keep on mining? And what is from a general perspective, once you started the mining, you know, they tend to, is it like in the oil industry that we see here in Norway that once you hit the discovery, it tends to increase and you find more mains or you find more gold in vicinity and You continue developing the mine over the years, even though this first resource estimate, very first resource estimate is, you know, we have three, four years of mining. But the question is, will this close down in four years?

So obviously we can't provide any guarantees, but the reason why we are drilling very close to the Segele mine right now is because we think there is mineralization, additional mineralization there. I mean, we know actually that there is additional mineralization there. We just don't know the actual size of it. In previous presentations, you would have seen indications that we've done sampling in artisanal pits that are very close to the mine, for example, that give really great results. No resource estimate has been done on that. We can't give numbers for how much mineralization there. We know there is something there. So there will be drilling that will be done nearby to the Segele mine that we're excited about. It is happening now. And also there's the West Segele area, which we're also seeing indications of rocks that are very similar to the ones that surround the Segele mineralization. And in previous presentations, again, you would have seen that in one of those areas, about 1.5 kilometers from the mine, we even extracted a 24 gram nugget from what we call sheared ultramafex that are really, really closely related to the Segele mineralization. So we're excited about that, and we think there are going to be more targets that will open up and become new resources, and that will extend the mine life of Segele. And then, of course, like I mentioned, there are shallow loose rocks at Gingerbill that we're calling the Ecobo bulk targets. Some of those can probably be put through the Segele plant as well. So we're very confident that the mine life will continue for some time. And in addition to the Segele mine operating, the intention is that we make a much bigger discovery that will involve a huge expansion to the mining operation in the area.

And it's worth again mentioning that it is open at death, which means that we have drilled holes that shows the mineralization at a much deeper level. Not being a mining expert, but we will then, once we reach lower into the tunnels of the Segelle mine, we will then start drilling from the tunnels instead of from surface, right, to continue developing the mine further down, right?

If at all possible, yeah.

Good. I also have a question which is received, which is a more general one. Why is it taking so long? It's a fair question. Of course, it has to do with maybe management of expectations from our side. But having said that, this project has actually been executed on almost record time. Helge, you mentioned, well, you've been working with processing plants almost all your life. And maybe you can say something about actually what we have done here. And this is not a small project as such that you see on Discovery Channel and other places. So maybe you want to elaborate a bit on it.

Yeah, I can do that. When you're on these discovery channels and these gold miners, they typically bring a little lorry with them with some of this small equipment and can start right off from the ground. This is something entirely different. This is a pure underground mine, which needs a full mining crew and a full mining infrastructure. It is a plant, as you can see now in this video, that is built up like a modern processing plant, capable of processing 10 tons per hour of material. So it's a completely different setup. Another thing that I would like to mention is that very often when you build a mine, for example, in Norway, Canada, South Africa, etc., you have the infrastructure and everything around you. Here we have basically built a full mine, a full processing plant in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There is no electricity in the area. There was no water. There's nothing. So that also adds to the challenge of starting up, but something that we have been able to do in a very small amount of time. And as I said previously, is that when you start up any factory anywhere in the world, there's always issues and always problems. And I'm actually amazed at how few problems it has been and how fast we were able to fix those small problems that we have had so far.

Great. I think we can also, or I can mention that just for comparison, it looks like Kefi Minerals is getting closer to their production or not production, but to the start of their project, but they received their mining license in 2015. So depending on the project, depending on where you are, depending on a lot of factors that will have an impact on how fast you can actually progress these projects. If you look at Allied and Kefi and their projects right now, if you compare it to what we've done, of course, it's a bigger operation, but still we're talking about several years of development before they will even get into any kind of production. So, of course, We all want to see this producing tons of gold every day and as soon as possible. But it is a process. But now we have all the tools and we have everything ready. It is in operation. We are mining. And to put it a bit... A simple one here. It's now about logistics from the mine to the plant. get as much ore out and produce it. Not very complicated, but still, it has to be done in a safe and efficient manner. And given the high value of the gold, you don't want to lose anything on the way here. So you have to fine tune the system. You have to make sure it's efficient so that we can get close to the 80%, 90%, or 100% recovery rate that we're looking for. Yes, I think that was some of the questions that I received, Matt. I have one more which is associated with the exploration going forward. And just if you want to touch upon the hand or the XRF system that we have in place once we start drilling now. the fact that we don't have to necessarily wait several months to see the results of shipping it to ALS or other labs to get exploration results back.

Sure. Yes, we did mention it in previous presentations. So we have a system called Detector from Portable PPB in Western Australia. This is a brand new company that's been winning innovation awards. It's one of the few, in my opinion, it's one of the few innovations in rock analysis that will change the industry. Essentially, it means that we can get really high-quality gold analysis done, completed within 24 hours at site. Previously, our shareholders that have been with us for years will know that when we've drilled core, and hit these bonanza grades, we've had to send it off to Addis Ababa to be prepared, then to Ireland to be analysed. And that takes about two months of turnaround time before we actually know the grades. With the system that we now have established and working already at site, giving us analyses, the turnaround time is, at the moment, a few days, you know, from starting that analysis to getting the number back. and it will end up being around about 24 hours. And this can give us results from soil sampling, from rock sampling, and it accelerates the time which it takes to move an exploration target through to the start of resource definition. At the moment, we still know that for resource definition, we'll still have to use the the normal laboratory process outside of Ethiopia, but to take a target through to the start of resource definition now can be many months quicker than it previously was. So we're one of the first companies in the world to be using this system and it's up and running. Our laboratory manager is using it and so far we're really happy with the system.

Right. You have some questions that we received also.

A lot of questions here, actually. And we've been exactly an hour. Shall we keep going? Yes. Okay, great. Right. There's a question here, which says, these areas are affected by civil war. How are you managing in and around these issues? I can discuss that maybe. That's something that's in my sort of area. So there are some areas in Ethiopia that are affected by civil war. The nearest one to us is hundreds of kilometers away. We've never had civil war problems in Gambela. There is crime around. We have very good security systems that I won't talk about here. We're supported very much by the Ethiopian federal police. who provide specific protection for our operation. Again, there's no civil war problem in our area. We've never had it. It is arguably the most peaceful area in Ethiopia. I myself feel very safe when I'm there. And we've never had any problems in the area. And we also keep a close watch on the security situation nationally and regionally in Ethiopia. And there's no indication that there's going to be any deterioration. So we're very happy with this. Shall I move on to the next one? Yes. How do you see to solve the gaps on gold export within Ethiopia? Correct me if I'm wrong, gold in Ethiopia can be sold to the National Bank of Ethiopia at a premium above bank rate. Does that make it feasible? Maybe Jeregun, you're the expert on this.

Well, again, we have the opportunity and the possibility to export our gold. There are different ways to sell the gold. We can, of course, sell it to the National Bank. um but given the value of um or the way we are producing the gold uh it makes sense to export it and refine it at the mks uh refinery in switzerland and uh all of this is uh is part of our agreements and it's part of the setup and and there's really nothing not an issue at all with the with that. So it makes sense to, to produce this into an LBMA approved bar. So yeah, but we have the opportunity also to sell directly to the national market if we want to.

Okay, next question. Yes. Great. One here which is, who will be replacing Matt and also any info on updated AISC costs? I guess I can talk about myself briefly. So a lot of the work that I've been doing in the last few years since I came on full-time, I was actually consulting before I came on full-time, wrote the competent person's report, gave strategic advice. A lot of the work that I've done was working very closely with Jürgen to grow the company, operationalise the Segele mine, working on all the contracts and so on for all the work and sort of you know, setting up structures, managing the structures operationally with regards, and of course, helping with the exploration side. With regards to actually operationally running the company, we've already made some changes that will allow us to work, to operate very efficiently with an enhanced Ethiopian management team. And I'm very confident those systems are going to work. So with that side, there's no need to replace me in that sense. And in terms of exploration, I'm obviously still going to be carrying on giving direction remotely. Not remotely. I'm still going to be very connected with the project. Before I was full-time, I was also working as a consultant for the company. I consider it to be sort of moving more back to that kind of arrangement at the same time as my other new role. So AISC costs, do you want to talk about that yet again? Is that something that you want to talk about?

Yeah, I'll just give also a comment on what we're planning to do. We're not going to add more of that. more people outside of ethiopia we're going to strengthen the at-site competence and we have signed some contracts with some some leading consultants and experts that will that will take over a lot of the work that matt has done but now be closer to site and at site and that's where the value is being created and that's where the work is done every day. So we will strengthen the capacity in Ethiopia and at site at the mine really to make sure that we have good progress there. So that's it. Given the cost side, we've had a very low all in costs from the scoping study. In our latest financial modeling and the share issue earlier this year, we were, well, I would say a bit more on the conservative side, and it was a bit higher. We see now that the cost is lower than anticipated. It's still a bit too early to really conclude on where this will be. We need to come into a steady state. Um, but if I were to point at some, some direction, probably somewhere in between, uh, the numbers that we have released previously, it will still be a very low cost operation. Uh, that's for sure. The industry average, I think now is getting closer to $1,300 per ounce. Uh, we will, we will do far from that. Uh, so it will be a very cost efficient operation.

More questions? Yeah, we actually have a few questions here that are also related to security. So I think we should address them all together. I'll just read them out. So one says, how is the gold plan to be transported given the security situation in Ethiopia and Weliga? I'll get to that in a minute. Will you need a standard gold bar to make your first shipping and receive cash? It seems like a far way to go from small gold droplets. We can cover that as well. But also, how is the security around the storage and refined gold from storage to transport to broker? So let's cover Welliger and security and transport arrangements. So Welliger, for other people that are not aware, the person you're asking the question is asking about specifically the security situation around the Tulu Kapi gold mine. It's very different in Welliger. The security situation is very, very different to where we are now. It's also not close. You cannot drive directly. You cannot go directly from our site all the way north to Welliger. You have to go almost back to Addis and then over again. So Welliger is not close. It's not the same region. It's not the same security situation. And as I said before, we're very comfortable and very happy with how the security is organized at our site. And that has been demonstrated by the fact that we have created an operational gold mine. So we're very happy with that. Needless to say, we have the potential to ship any amount of gold that we want. It doesn't need to be some sort of standard gold bar. We can move any amount that we want. Obviously, there's a cost associated with each movement of gold. I'm not gonna talk about the specifics of how the gold is transported and our security arrangements for all of this, but it has been organized. The shipping of the gold will be conducted by a well-known internationally recognized shipping firm that operates in Ethiopia and will take the gold all the way from our processing plant all the way through to the refinery. They will be supported again by the Ethiopian federal police that are in my opinion the best the best armed security force in the country. And our security manager is well aware of the procedures. All the procedures are set up. They work. I've checked them myself. And the security manager is heavily involved. So we're completely confident of the processes. And we can ship any amount of gold from one ounce up to thousands of ounces. So that's not something that we're worried about at all. Yep, so that's a bunch of questions about security. There's one here in Norwegian about the share issue. So that's when is the next share emission and what level will it be conducted at? I guess, Jörgen, that's for you.

Well, if and when, then that will be communicated to the market to all shareholders at the same time. So there's really no speculation in that from my side.

So, yeah, I think that's it then, really. Okay.

Great. Good. We're a bit over time, but worth answering the questions.

And I hope everyone has a better idea of what we're doing and where we are. And we'll continue to follow the progress of Kobo Minnows. Thank you all for joining. Thank you, Helge. Thank you, Matt, for participating. And that's it for now. Thank you.