Igo Ltd

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the IGO December 2025 Quarterly Activities Report. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr Ivan Vela, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you. Good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I know it's a super busy day, lots and lots of So I appreciate you dialling in, taking the time to catch up with our results. I won't spend too long as usual just trying to highlight, pick up the financials as we get further through and then we can dive into some Q&A. Just to sort of touch the headlines first before I run through a few areas in more depth, I think safety again, continued improvement. I've talked about this since I started on the roll-off two years ago and I'm really We're making steady improvement every quarter. Teams working really hard at it. They absolutely treat this as their first priority. And the results are flowing through, which we're really pleased about. Naturally, it's never done. That focus on a good, mature culture is something that we keep working at. But I think it ties back into performance in the mine as well. And obviously, these results are largely focused around NOVA. And you'll see the results from Nova were really, really strong through the last quarter. Production, cost, teams doing a great job, and I've reinforced obviously a few quarterlies now, how difficult it is when you get to the end of an all-body like this, when you're approaching the end of line life. It is challenging. Teams are dealing with that extremely well, and we start to see where focus on good safety I do recognise, of course, the benefit of the by-product credits from copper, which is nice. It's another piece of the pie. And obviously, the legal markets have been fantastic for the last 12 months as mine, but as you can see, it all starts with what we control and those basics are running well. a better quarter than the first quarter of this financial year, which was impacted by rain and spray. We've seen that grade improve. That's continuing to flow through. We'll see that lift through the second half of this financial year. So, improved production, sales, off which is its shipment, which, to be honest, is with a very rapidly rising market, not the end of the world. We're just seeing some improved financials on the back of that. And, you know, a lot of work is happening to get CGP up and going, CGP3 at least. That's, as we've announced already, fit first door and a reduced first concentrate this month. There was a huge focus on that ramp up and that's what brought that in due course. Hunana built another quarter that's sort of in line with the prior quarters, I think, really did pull out and was impacted by a shutdown that took out some of the available days for production. The team did finish the last month at about 50%, which is two of the best that we've seen from a refinery for any sustained period. And, you know, I guess we, much as low as the prices are, we continue to take the view that this has got a very challenged future. So that's, I think, the quick highlights. Our financial capital begins to look further, but as you can see, it generates positive free cash. If I drop down and move further into NOVA and I've touched on it in previous points, it's a really good operational quarter delivering cash to the business. I talked about a scope misfiring in Q1 which has been addressed and mitigated and again that's the sort of thing that the team naturally doesn't want to happen. They had to work really hard to deal with it safely. and it's now in the revision era, looking forward with the mine at this point. So close to closure, we don't have the ability to flex our schedule, and so we have to deal with these things very attentively. Sales a bit lower, just in line with the shipping plan, so one less quarter that'll roll through. There's nothing really material in that. And overall, tracking really well against our end-of-life mine guidance. and said the performance from production was really good and they continue to lead through this quarter. So we're up. We've got some strong confidence there right through to the end of this year. And, of course, costs are a function of that performance. All that said, the team are working really hard to manage our costs as this line breaks down. We're certainly not looking to carry anything that we don't need to as we move towards closure. We're tracking, you know, pretty much in line with our guidance as we set out for the financial year. The costs are up and, you know, that's a function the production through the quarter. We did take a bit out of the maintenance stuff that was done and some other modifications that were done to the farm. The next slide is dropping the green bushes. So look, it's a good quarter, lived on Q1 in production. Costs are still running high relative and that's obviously because I see production related. As the sums ramp up, we'll see that come back in. The realised price lifted to $8.50, which I think reflects this very close connection with the PRAs or the spot price in the market, and we'll talk more of that on the next slide. I think it's something that's very favourable, particularly in this lifting market, a very buoyant market now. And the big news was obviously getting first-order CDP3 late last year, just before Christmas. The team did find some issues as they started to run it up. They stopped and they fixed those early in January and then got back into it. As I said, we've just seen first concentrate starting to come through. So, yes, it's working. I think they took the time when it was down to go and check a few more things, hopefully avoid any more surprises. We're going to know more by our half-year results in a few weeks' time or three weeks' later. So I think that'll be a place where I can give you a more substantive update. At this point, it's a bit early really to say too much until we see a few more results that have come through. I have a couple of extra slides on greenbushes. I wanted to start, as we talked about in the last quarter, just feeding more information to the extent I can about both the life of mine optimisation or the strategic review that we're doing and the focus on productivity. The first thing I did want to touch on first, though, was just on the price status, which I'm sure everyone is following closely in the market. It's certainly moving very, very quickly. I would say a lot of the expectations that I've had are who wants to do the downshift with GFX and others. And I think we certainly expect to see some of the catalogue supply out there start to be reintroduced. And I think in Red's morning message, they were looking at that. I expect to see more of that, which might pay for it. But really the takeaway from this slide is the way that that translates for reimburses. And as you know, when we take the average of the PRRs, but it's pretty much a very close connection to the spot price that's out there. It does give us a very good real life surprise as that flows through. We don't have any of that lag or impact from contracts that might carry discounts or other frictions from a lower end in the cycle. So I expect we're going to see obviously some very effective lifts in our realised price over the coming months. The next slide then, I guess, brings to life how that translates into margin, which is one of the things, again, I've called out before. I think pre-bushes is one of those few mines at any point in the world that generates extremely high margins. at the absolute bottom of the cycle but the thing that's really unique is it also drives fantastic cash conversion and translates it into returns that flow out of the business. They don't have to be reinvested to make land production and this chart speaks to what that looks like if you take 1.5 million tonnes, so current production level roughly at 2,000 tonne and then with the lift in combustion that's coming through CGP3, you know, the sort of amount of cash that's generated through that step up. Just helps to visualise that. The next slide talks a bit to the optimisation where we're going. Slides I've referred to before. Just to reorient everyone, we've got the overall review of the entire mine, which is, I guess, the last of mine up to the basin. I'm going to talk to one example of the kind of work that's happening there in a minute. That is significant. It's got a lot of expertise, external expertise, hot links with it. It basically goes right back to the ore body, the sensors, the ore characterization, the design of the mine, how we manage waste tailings, and reset that in an optimum way. In doing so, obviously, I lost a lot of value. In parallel with that, we were also focusing on productivity. These things are naturally linked. Productivity work is happening now anyway, and that's focused across a number of different streams. All of that together brings us to, I guess, our goal, which is achieving the full potential of Greenbushes. The CEO there at Taliesin is doing a great job. He's got a lot to work through and it's the team he's put together are working through it. They are finding a whole range of issues, challenges and changes they need to make and that's part of the shift but we've seen Nova in a short space of time make this shift and this steady focus on production, stability and safety. I don't share the safety results with Taliesin but there is some challenges there as well. I think these things are linked and whilst we've got a really good set of programs and changes in place, step by step to support the team, to shift that culture and focus on safety, on production reliability and stability and also the productivity, it will drive out more tons and obviously the less cost as well. The example I want to refer to for all asset review really looks at the So steeping pit walls is something that naturally has risk or threat and opportunity, both ways, on the upside. It means a lot lower strip ratio and in this case, you can see, and I'll talk to the line in a minute, it starts to expose more metal or more material, valuable material that otherwise might not have been accessible. On the downside, if you get it wrong, you have a defect. or a failure in the wall that can sterilise them all. So it means a lot of careful work and thought. The team have brought in experts to help them with that. They are ensuring there's new technical management processes and activities. They're doing all the right work to make sure that we control those risks but ultimately unlock a lot of value. And if you look through this chart, you'll see Some little dotted lines have run out into the grey patch on the right-hand side. And so that sort of pitch shell, the 2023 resource shell and the 2021 resource shell, shows what the overall resource would be. And you can imagine if you actually did all that strip, it's a huge amount of work and cost. The other point to note, though, is on top of that grey shaded area there on the left side of that slide, tips are pumped. So it would require us moving a lot of these. But that's not very desirable. So the other way to tackle this is if you take those little dotted lines that run into the grave and if you draw them straight up to the edge of the grave and you steepen that wall significantly, you can start to access that high-grade floor. You can loggage to a grade step significantly, so you can expose more metal, lower the strip, much lower cost, and ultimately drive a large amount of extra value out of the mine. That's the kind of example of work that's happening at the moment. And I wanted to do this to try and just illustrate it so when you start to see more of these results and the information coming through, as we get through the decision, finalise our plans, and we can present that back to the market, you'll understand where that's come from. It just helps to give you a sense of the work that's happening. Equally, the care that we're facing to make sure that this is done properly. As many of you know, this mine is 135 years old. The last slide on Greenbush is to speak to the productivity strain that I mentioned earlier. We put in the sort of major areas of focus, mining being naturally a big one early and I put a couple of little charts in there to illustrate the list in productivity from the mining fleet. And that takes us to what we believe is industry average. So we're not outperforming yet, but I want to give credit to the team to Rob Adam and his mining team. They've made a lot of focus on this. They have a lot of issues and barriers at working through different challenges, but I think we're starting to see some results come through now, and that will play out in our costs, obviously our waste movement, and... The second area I want to talk about is in production and plant performance and that's a mix of utilisation through better asset management and reliability so we get that throughput but also recovery so more stability will drive recovery and then work on to optimise recovery. As part of that we're also looking at value and use which means what is the grade that we're selling to our customers? Is that optimum for them? What level of impurities? How much are we throttling the assets, the processing allowance to achieve that? And what's the cost of adding trailers? So we're asking those kind of questions as part of this to make sure that we've really optimised this, recognising the customer's interest and their costs, but equally what's the best we can do with the plant. The business has run on producing SC6 and I think it's great on impurities for a very long time We haven't really asked the question and so we are, we're at least testing it and we'll see what makes sense. No decisions yet, but again, it shows you the kind of work that's happening and the impact on productivity from these different streams is quite significant. So that's a quick round up on the operations, a bit more on rain bushes. We'll turn it over to Kat and sort of highlight some of the financials and then we can get into some Q&A.

Thanks, Arden. We'll turn it over to everybody. Sales revenue, excuse me, sales revenue of 82 million, and as I've indicated, it was lower due to the shipment timing for NOVA. NOVA's EBITDA was up 42 mil, which included some value adjustments with the increasing price in the month of September. The share of net profits from KLA rounded to zero. Positive profit at Greenbush has been offset by losses at Tanana, and this includes our share of cash I also wanted to call out again that we're in on one from slag, big pricing or sludging, the next quarter we'll see the benefit of the higher pricing. Underlying any that are in approved 30mm, and supported by NOVA and some mark to mark investments that we have. We remain on a base that's focused on cost control, but you'll note or I'd like to note to have a one-off payment for our insurance in there as well, so that's inflated in the quarter. Free of cash flow was positive at $13,000 and our balance sheet continues to script them with our net cash increasing to $299 million, so that's a really good place to be. I think that summarises that.

Thanks, Kath. We'll turn it over to Q&A. I'm trying a different mic. Hopefully the sound quality is better for you. But, yeah, we can open up and start asking some questions.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key for the buzzer number one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. And if you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Rahul Anand from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Oh, hi, good morning. Thanks for the call. Just the first one for me is related to CGP3. Obviously, you've started commissioning and ramp up there. What is the rough timeline if you're achieving that nameplate, please, just so that we can test our numbers going forward on that one? And I'll come back with a second, thanks.

Yeah, it's in simple terms, five months, so the end of the calendar year.

Got it. Okay, perfect. And then just on the pricing, we basically had you achieve the price during this quarter for, I guess, the months of September, October, and November. And even if I apply about a 5% discount, I'm still getting to a higher price. Now, obviously, I acknowledge that the shipment timings might have been a key impact here, but is that the right way to think about pricing? You know, September, October, November, and then based on when the ships basically are loaded and leave the port, basically you're selling, the timing is FOB basis, is that right?

Yeah, it is. We can double check it and clarify. Yep, that's your, this understanding is absolutely correct.

Yeah, just because looking at our numbers for the price and also for consensus, the pricing was a tad bit weaker. So I just wanted to understand if we're kind of modelling that correctly.

Yeah, we'll double check. I mean, we obviously do reconcile that, but we'll just make sure if there's something that's in there, whether or it's tied to the shipment, possibly. I'm not sure, but we'll get back to you to make sure we've got the right inputs for your model.

Excellent. And if I can just slip in one more just around sort of green bushes going forward, obviously a strong lithium price environment and you've got a downstream partner there at the mine as well. You've talked about the age of the mine and then also you're ramping up CGP3. And if I look at your sensitivity chart in terms of the sales volumes, you've obviously got about 2 million tonnes, which is what your current plans are. Have any conversation started as yet in terms of any future expansions at the mine and how they might look like in terms of underground, above ground? What type of hurdles you guys need to cross in terms of thinking about further expansions? Anything related to growth, I guess, in the green bushes space?

Yeah, there's a lot going in there, but that's included in that broader mine optimisation. The existing assets, so Cdp1 and 2, we believe can offer up a lot more productivity and throughput and production. So optimising them, naturally bringing Cdp3 up to its full potential as well. So that's using the existing suite of capital that we've deployed. The Tarn-Untree treatment facility, we're working through that study presently so we know what to do there as well. So there is a lot happening in that space to recognise and grow from the existing capital base and make sure we've got the best from it. CGP4 is in the mix. It's one of those things that sits in the schedule and we've got to find where the optimum place for that is. We don't have that answer yet. There's a lot of moving parts in the review that we're doing. It's very significant. But as I get more detail... I guess I'm just as eager as you are, of course, to have that finished, because it gives us a really clear new baseline to work against. And Rob and the team are working really hard. I think we'll see some of that come through in the reserve resource update we do later in February. And, you know, you just mentioned underground, so we're certainly looking at where that fits. And as we think about the overall resource, I've talked about people seeking as one lever that, you know, obviously drives a lot of value, but equally understanding which part of the resource we want to target through the open pit versus underground, and then what the schedule and sequence of that is, again, work that's underway currently.

Got it. That's very comprehensive. Thank you for that. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Levi Spry from UBS. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good day. Thanks, Ivan and the team. Thanks for your time. So do we have an updated expected date for the Life of Mine optimization?

No, no. Sorry, Levi. I would love that too. I'm pressing regularly. Rob's probably getting annoyed with me. But look, they're working hard. They're making progress. I think there are some areas where they dig in. They find things that they just have to do more work on. technically to make sure that we're going to make the right decisions. So I will share a clear plan or at least a target once we have one, but I just don't have that to offer up on this one.

Yeah, okay, thanks. So in the absence of that, so can you maybe, you know, you need a big second half as CGP threw your amps up. Can you just remind us of its operating parameters, maybe, tonnes grade, recovery, so full speed by the end of the year? What does that actually mean?

Yeah. I mean, you're talking about the whole grade curve and so on. I mean, giving you the nominal tonnes, half a million tonnes, it will run at, I guess, design feed grade. It's the same as CTV2, which is about 1.8%. You know, it will run to, I guess, test recoveries. We are targeting higher than that. So you've seen the results of CTP2 starting to rise. The team do more work on it. You know, our goal naturally from the ramp-up is that we don't have to go through that process, that we actually are hitting our grade curve from the outset and then beating it. But, you know, I'm not going to promise that at this point. That's where the team's focused. I don't know, is that what you're looking for? I mean, all those numbers we've shared previously, I'm just not sure. There's nothing new at this stage that's going to change things until we get further into the ramp-up.

Yep, okay, thank you. So just pushing a bit further on that. So just confirming on page 7 of the PREZO, the 2 million tonne rate. So do we take that as being the calendar year 27 run rate?

No. That was an indication of margin at that volume. It's a capacity. It's not a mine plan that we've issued as guidance yet.

Yep. Okay. And so the next round of meetings with TLEA and the TNG for guidance, so when is the 26 budgets? expect to be set?

We've been through that now. They're getting signed off as we speak. So that's the 26th calendar year for Taliesin. Yep. And we'll then take that and build our guidance for the 27th financial year, obviously a bit closer to the time.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Hugo Nicolacci from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Morning, Ivan and Kath. Thanks for the update this morning. First one, your comments around Greenwich's guidance, production sort of tracking slightly below, CapEx also below. If I try and triangulate those two comments, is that just in terms of stripping at the mine, is that running a little bit behind and that's why your strip ratio has sort of fallen in the last quarter and why both production and CapEx might be lower for the year?

No, they're not all linked. So, stripping will come down and I've talked about this example on pit walls. We'll see a material reduction we expect in our strip ratios through that and that will trend down. You know, quarterly variations is more about weather impact through View 1. You obviously have less of the pit access and availability. They're now fully open so that, you know, they're a little different. But the team are looking at where they tip waste, how they manage waste, the grade and seeping of those waste coppoles. There is a lot of changes that they're working through presently. So I don't want to try and characterise these things as just one cause for change. In terms of the production, look, it's partly grade-related, which was a bit better than... A little bit worse than we had in our plan, and that's just a normal reconciliation we're working through, FEMA getting there. And the other bigger factor is, of course, just the way that TGP3 ramps up. That's really the key unknown. And, you know, what we anticipate in our guidance in terms of that start-up, we're behind. But that's what we're going to see in the coming weeks or months, how that goes. That'll give us a gauge as to how the rest of this year looks and then obviously into the rest of the calendar year. So there's a few different moving parts. I certainly wouldn't tie them all together in terms of the production outcome for Q2.

Got it. In terms of the CapEx timing piece, I presume those are all works that will still need to happen. So maybe that's more of a shuffling some of the CapEx into FY27 rather than things no longer happen. Yeah.

I mean, as I've talked about prior quarters, I mean, Rob has got a very tight handle on CapEx. He's been very prudent and he is pushing back on it, which is good. But we're not in a place where we've printed a downstream guidance on it yet. We'll see how... Again, how that pans out now is they run up CGP3. Obviously, some of those costs are capitalised until we get to commercial production. So there's a bit more to come, but I don't think you should read into that. There's a major shift that's impacting production. Got it.

And then just the second one, I think, to tie in with Rahul's question earlier around the realised pricing piece, can you just remind us what sort of volumes are going out on the technical grade piece at the moment and if that's also a bit of a delta there in terms of that realised pricing?

It would be very small. It wouldn't be material enough to affect the realised pricing. And we're talking $50,000, $80,000 in a year, so it's a pretty small price.

Yeah, got it. Great. And then just last one if I can. sort of back on the IGO level and you've highlighted obviously the step change in potential cash generation for Greenbush as a current squadron in pricing and we're two months through your current quarter basically pricing setting. Does that then enable you to start thinking about dividends back out to IGO shareholders given you have that line of sight to cash flow when you're sort of at or above your threshold for excess returns already or is that maybe a little bit too early for February still?

Yeah, I think we've got a very clear capital framework at Winfield which we use to manage dividends and obviously the debt there and see if there are some movements in the debt. We'll work through that. We'll pay dividends out of Winfield to the shareholders on the TLIA energy costs and that will be done again based on that framework very well managed and controlled and then The key discussion will be at the OEA as to what we want to maintain there in liquidity and what shareholders might then pay out. So there's certainly no discussions or decisions on that at this point. The first step is to see that cash really starting to flow out of the windfield.

Got it. Thanks Ivan.

Thanks. Thank you. The next question comes from Khan Pekka from RBC. Please go ahead.

Hi Ivan and Kath. Just on that framework that you talked about with Winfield, 150 mil of debt paid this quarter, but no cash distribution to IGO. What's the priority now? Further de-gearing or reverse distribution? And as CGP3 ramps up, is there a set level or cash buffer that's required before distributions resume? We'll circle back with a second.

Let me pick up the last part first. There is a cash buffer we will hold. That's not tied to CGP3 or any specific part of the asset. It's just a part of our over capital framework and that's being managed. Naturally, we'll look at then dividends versus the debt and the balance on that and we'll take into account things like the US dollar and forward views on cash generation and so on. So all those decisions go through a pretty structured process with the board and the shareholders and out of that we'll let you know how that translates. Obviously the way this market behaves is going to be relevant. Obviously it's very buoyant right now and certainly all the signals are for a very strong year of demand but you can expect to So I think before we get ahead of ourselves too far, we just want to sort of see how that washes through and take a view then on how best to allocate that cash to drive maximum value for the business.

So just to confirm, it's speed gearing currently the focus?

No, it's not the focus. That was just part of... I'll see if Hostman is in. in the day-to-day sense, we will naturally want to pay dividends and think about our debt. So they're both important priorities.

Sure, OK. Maybe secondly on Kwinana, conversion costs spike materially this quarter. How much of that reverses with utilisation versus how much reflects embedded cost issues?

No, it's been largely impacted by... because, remember, we don't capitalise anything. Everything is expense, and obviously the production volume is impacted through that period, so you've got a compounding sort of element there. You know, I think the team are working to drive our costs, and as we're looking at... We're working the 326 budget for Kwinana. There is a lot of pressure on that, as you appreciate, and CapEx as well. So the team... you know, naturally are trying to find ways to drive better reliability and better performance, but do that with less cost as well. And I would not take Q2 as the market that's sort of standing up for that run rate in the cross-border.

Well, thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Matthew Friedman from MSC Financial. Please go ahead.

Can I ask another one on the ramp up of CGP3, which I guess you called out as the biggest factor in the software guidance commentary you've given. Can you give us any more information on the specific issues that have been, I guess, faced and dealt with so far that you mentioned earlier on the call? Was there anything specific related to equipment or feed or people or anything? And then in your view, are there any sort of key risks or checkpoints now looking forward, or is it just a sort of steady improvement over the course of the year?

Thanks. Yeah, I'll share what I can, Matt. It's a good question. It's quickly related. So one of the mills needed some realignment. It's not an unusual problem. Australians, you kind of go, well, how did that not get dealt with earlier? But it happened. I've been through a few of those. We just needed some resealing. Again... not fantastic because it's painful to do it. It's not a big issue. It's just literally simple to get back in and fix some of these things. It just takes a bit of time. The good news was the team used some of that downtime when they were working through some of these issues to then just go back over motors, pumps, et cetera, and pump test and check and just really get confidence. I think they changed out a few bits and pieces so that we can get a... I've seen a next phase of the conditioning and ramp up. But for anyone who's been through these things before, there's plenty of unknowns. So you have to be very careful not to get too excited one way or the other. It's still pretty early in the process to sort of see how it behaves. I think the good news is you talked about the other things that could be affected. So fee is fine. That's all good. People and capability. We've got a great team there. Well, Paul is the Project directors, you know, got an integrated team for commissioning, strong team in place, so we feel comfortable with that. We've got great support from the vendors. We've got access to all the support and equipment that we need. So there's no big risks there that we're sitting here deeply worried about, but, you know, I just didn't think it was way too early to call or to get a better real sense. I think by the time we can get to our half, I'll get a better read on how things are going. At this point, I'm just pleased that we've got first of home. They're starting to basically run the plant and actually just start to see what the recoveries are, how it's behaving and obviously look at the tuning and the reagents and all of the normal steps you take in that first month or so from the start.

Okay, thanks for that Ivan. That's helpful. Then secondly, you've... As you called out, put some additional numbers in the presentation there around some of the recent productivity improvements of green bushes, improved truck utilization, improved material movement. And you suggested that that will flow through into the cost line over time. Obviously, there's a lot of moving parts that go into the final cash cost number. But I guess I'm wondering, in isolation, are you able to maybe put some dollars around some of those mining productivity improvements? I mean, what's the goal for where you think you can get the cost of material with some of this productivity improvement? Is it $10 a tonne? Is it $7 a tonne? Or whatever the number is from a ballpark perspective, what's the team working towards? I suspect you'll tell me that some of that will come out in the life of mine optimisation piece. But, yeah, just wondering if there's any sort of high-level thoughts around that at the moment. Thanks.

Yeah, it will. I mean, I don't want to give you a number yet. I mean, that is a conversation, of course, when we go through budgets and we're pressing the team. They're a bit... up in the first year because it's still a work in progress. But we're starting to see a profile through 26-27 which really does show some substantive improvements in unit costs on those underlying activities and I think that will naturally flow through. We're also, as every mine does, fighting rate decline. So some of it is eroded. indirectly through that or offset. But, you know, the goal is net-net. We're actually beating that both through increased throughput or production and also then these just more efficient work through stripping and so on. But we're actually continuing to strengthen our position at the lowest cost to see them drop, reduce in the world by a long shot and just keep on consolidating. So Rob's, I think I mentioned it before, you know, So put that broader goal out there to be the lowest-cost-looking units in the world. And, you know, there's still a gap to the very best brines out there, but it's in shooting range. So I think it's a good target, a good challenge for the team to think and say, you know, how could you run this line differently? What needs to be true for us to start to get that level of cost performance? And that's not going to come in a quarter or two, of course. I guess what I'm trying to do is, to the extent I can share information as we do, just feed it out step by step to give you a greater insight and picture on improvements and then also give you some of those underlying productivity and performance numbers so that you can update your view of the asset.

Okay, thanks, Ivan. We'll continue. Waiting for the study outcomes with bated breath. Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Matt.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Austin Yun from Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Morning, Ivan, Tim. Just one quick question. Yeah, most of the questions have been asked already. So just one on the base metal strategies. I think previously you were talking about, you know, outside of lithium, you were looking at, you know, other early stage opportunities. I'm just conscious that, you know, given this sense like a windfall of cash coming from the strong lithium market, how does that change your thinking of, you know, the inspiration of the other opportunities? Could we see some capital being allocated to that part in addition to shareholder returns and that repayment?

Thank you. Good question. It's great questions. No, it really doesn't change. I mean the criteria that we've applied since I started two years ago with a lot of disappointment in our path has been a big part of this, this real clarity around kind of returns that we're looking for from any growth needs to be in that ballpark around Greenwoods. We don't want to heavily dilute our business and, you know, trying to hit Greenwoods, as you can imagine, that's a very high bar. And so we can allocate capital first there and naturally that's going to be the most secretive and most sensible thing to do, which we're focused on, dealing with things that are a drag on our returns, i.e. Karnana, which we're working through. We'll be clear about that. And then to add something to it, I mean, it's difficult. Hence why we've been, you know, continuing to be very disciplined. If we saw something that we felt would deliver a rapid return, sure. The lithium price, to be honest, and the translation of that is cash, doesn't really change that decision. Because we have enough small cash available to us, we're not going to be... I'm more eager to make a decision that it will be on the same criteria regardless. Arguably, the best time to be doing things, if you saw it, was 12 months ago or eight months ago. So it comes back to, you know, our eyes value and we've got a very high bar and that's, you know, good and bad. It's an absolute privilege to be part of a stadium of green glitches and it just means that our growth has to be very, very focused. That's probably all I can say at this point, Austin, but it's more of the same. Thank you.

Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1. Your next question comes from Daniel Morgan from Baron Joey. Please go ahead.

Hi, Ivan and Tim. Just a simple one, really. Grades at Greenbushes, I think if I'm hearing correctly, they're back above 2%. And so therefore the implication is like just putting CGP3 to the side, not stripping that out from this question. We should expect a material lift in production for the next couple of quarters from the existing business, not CGP3, correct?

Yeah. Well, you'll get a lift, yes. I mean, none of that's great. Equally, interruption, we had a pretty good quarter. Weather-wise, some rain later than expected through Q2, but Q1 is always going to be a challenge. So there's naturally some of those impacts, grades of impact. And then the productivity is the other piece, which I know Adam and his team are working very hard on. I'm pushing and expecting to see, and then to deliver results through all of that hard work as well.

Thank you.

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

All right, thank you. Look, we've finished the show, which is nice, gives you guys hopefully a break before the next one. I won't say too much. We just reached out. I think NOVA was really pleased, as I said, safety, production, cost is hitting the mark. This is an operation that we've focused on. Yes, it's relatively small and simple, but, you know, it's a signpost of how we want to bring our capability to operating in mind. And I think all credit to the team. They've done a great job there and set this year up very well. So that's great. Unfortunately, it's only a year to go, not another 10. It sort of is, though. I'll manage that through. Green bushes. A better quarter, the big focus is CGP3. Naturally, we're very pleased to be ramping that up into a lifting and buoyant market. It's fantastic and there's a huge amount of focus to make sure that's smooth and ideally, we meet all of our plans. That's always going to be the target but at this stage, it's early. We just need to back the team and support them as they get through that work. All that said, I mean this is the time when green bushes really shine. This is the period of lifting price, a boy in the market when you see the very best hard rock in the world, turn it on, more production and a whole lot more margin. So we're pleased to be part of that and continue to work with the team to improve performance. Thanks for everyone's attention and support and we look forward to talking to you soon

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.