Nickel Asia Corporation

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Nickel Asia Corporation's briefing for our financial and operational results for 2025. My name is Miran Pato, Nickel Asia Corporation Senior Manager for Investor Relations. Joining me today are our Group President and CEO, Mr. Dennis Zamora, our Chief Commercial Officer for Nickel Asia's mining business, Mr. Koichi Ishihara, our Weekly Group Finance and WBCFO, Mr. Andre Dix, Director of our geothermal business, Mr. Joseph Novos, and President of Cortellera Exploration Company, Dr. Jimmy Jimmel. I'd like to remind everyone to kindly keep your microphones and cameras off during the duration of the presentation. This video will be recorded and the presentation materials will be available on our website. Okay, so let's begin with our financial highlights. The leftmost set of bar charts here indicates our top-line performance for the period and historically over the last three years. For 2025, our revenues, which are comprised of the sale of ore and other services, increased by 33% year-on-year to $29.6 billion from $22.3 billion in 2024. Last year saw a marked increase in nickel ore prices for saprolyte ore exports. The set of bar charts in the center showcases our consolidated EBITDA for the period, which totals $13.7 billion, 56% growth from the $8.8 billion reported in 2024. The rightmost set of bar charts shows our attributable net income for 2025, And this surged to 6.3 billion or a 91% increase from the 2024 net income figure here of 3.3 billion. It should be noted, however, that the 3.3 billion here is representative of core net income and not attributable net income. Improvement in our bottom line performance was primarily due to two things. The first is the higher direct shipping war prices, which were up by 32%.

And the second is the one-time income of 800 million generated from the sale of our state in Coral Bay HVAL earlier this year.

If you refer to the table below, the rightmost column indicates additional metrics on our performance for the year. The first row summarizes our gross profit margins, which stood at 63% for 2025. We get the margins also in 46%. Despite operating expenses increasing by about 24%, operating income grew by about 69% year-on-year. We'll provide more details on the revenue and cost and expense variances in the subsequent slides.

Next slide.

So moving on to the mining highlights for this period, the first set of bar charts that we have on the left shows us nickel ore sales volume sold for the period in millions of wealth metric tons. The green portion represents saprolite ore exports while the orange portion represents limonite ore deposits. So for 2025, our mining sales volumes increased by 9%, totaling 18.56 million wealth metric tons. Four exports, which comprised nearly 60% of total mining sales volumes, amounted to 10.93 wet metric tons, up 13% from 2024. HVAC deliveries, on the other hand, totaled 7.64 million wet metric tons, or an increase of 4% from 2020. In the middle set of bar charts, we see the movement in average ore prices for the period in U.S. dollars per wet metric ton. For ore exports, which is seen in green, the average prices registered a higher value of $36.14 per wet metric ton, for a 32% increase from last year's average price of $27.34 per wet metric ton. For limonite H5 prices, there was a marginal increase of 2%, The $10.66 per wet metric bond from 2024 is $10.60 per wet metric bond. So due to these more favorable sacralite export prices, we can see in the rightmost bar chart that combined or revenue rose by 39%, to $27.25 billion from $19.66 billion. If you place your attention to the table below, this will give us additional context on nickel prices. The first column indicates average nickel LME price per pound in US dollars. So for 2025, this amounted to $6.86 per WMT, lower compared to $7.66 per WMT in 2024. The chart also gives us a summary of the nickel pay factor of our ore exports in each file deliveries. So nickel payability for ore exports was notably higher in 2025 at 26.93% from last year's 18.03%. So despite the weaker nickel LME price, the payability for raw nickel ore exports was quite high. So the reasons for this are the tightness in nickel supply from Indonesia due to mining quota permit issues while the demand or for processing, still continues to be strong from Indonesia and China. Nickel paint factor for HPA deliveries, however, increased from 9.87% from 9.24% last year. The reason for this is for the renegotiated prices of the metal mining.

Next slide, please. This slide shows us the revenue variance analysis.

Total revenues for 2024, this is also inclusive of our renewable energy performance, amounted to approximately 29.6 billion, which represents a 33% increase from 2024. So as you can see here, the primary driver of top-line growth was the increase in realized nickel prices. Higher subrelate or export prices gave us about a $5.6 billion more in revenues versus 2024. So apart from this, there was an improved nickel payability for our Rituba mine for HPAL sales due to renegotiated prices. So nickel sales volumes grew by approximately $2.2 billion in 2025. This was largely due to an unfavorable to an increase in off-season shipments that we had from our mine in Rio Tuba and Palawan, increased exports from our Cajanal mine, and added shipments from our U.S. mines in Manitoba and Eastern Samar. These additional shipments offset the operational impacts of certain weather disruptions we had at the beginning of last year. Foreign exchange rates also had a modest impact on our revenues. The average exchange rate in 2020 declined to 57.22 pesos per US dollar from 57.36 pesos in the previous year resulting in a revenue reduction of approximately 62 million pesos. Apart from this, lower Western spot prices also had a marginal effect on our top line figures which resulted in an increase of

about 51 million versus 20.4. Next slide. So this slide now summarizes our cost and operating expenses in 2025 versus 2024.

Cost and expenses increased by approximately 17%, so 18.1 billion pesos from 15.5 billion in 2024. The increase was primarily driven by mining costs, which grew by 1.5 billion pesos in 2025. Specifically, mining costs in this case pertains to spending related to higher volume movement of nickel ore. Second would be the preparation of new mining areas, like in our Manikali mine. And the third was due to longer hauling distances and increased road maintenance activities due to certain weather conditions in seasonal parts of last year. The next major contributor to the year-on-year increase in costs was the excise tax in royalties, reflecting the impact of higher realized ore prices. So this was higher by $666 million versus 2024. Additional costs also stemmed from the ramp-up of operations at our new Manitani mine, which completed 11 shipments at the end of 2025 versus only four shipments in 2020. So finally, another contributor to the higher expenses was depreciation, primarily due to newly acquired equipment following any capital expenditure reprises. So this slide essentially showcases updates on HPAL. So in February of last year, we completed the sale of our 15% stake in Coral Bay to Sumitomo Mining, with the goal to strengthen our financial position and focus on resources for core projects. Year-on-year results indicate that the strategic decision to divest has reduced the drag significantly, and as shown in this slide, total losses from our equity investments have decreased by 72% year-on-year, and it's now down to 249.

So let me walk you through our balance sheet highlights for 2025.

As of December 21, 2025, total assets reached $72.2 billion, up to $61.7 billion in from December 31, 2024, or a 14% increase. So the increase was driven by higher and improved collections from operations. And the general increase in non-current assets was driven by our renewable energy projects, particularly in San Isidro-Leite and Subicawa. With respect to our liabilities, Total liabilities increased by 30% to $22.3 billion from $78.2 billion in 2024. Short-term debts declined by 28% to $5 billion in 2025 from $6.9 billion in 2024. Rent liabilities in general decreased primarily due to payments on short-term loans or after accounting for any loan availments or drawdowns during the year. Long-term debt, as seen here, however, rose notably up 285% from 2.43 billion to 9.36 billion. So the rise here is largely due to project financing of PPI, our renewable energy arm, particularly also for the construction of the solar projects in Subic, Tawag, and Senesi-related. So regarding the updates to our renewable energy business and future rollout plans, we will provide a more detailed discussion of this later in the presentation. Equity at the end of 2025 remains solid, increasing 8% year-on-year. Equity net of non-manual interest grew to $39.7 billion, an 8% increase from $36.6 billion influenced by our earnings, dividend payments, and reduction in cumulative translation adjustments. So, as of the end of 2025, our balance sheet remained healthy and effectively conservatively managed. Our debt ratio increased monthly to 0.32 times from 0.28 times in 2024, reflecting much reduced leverage to support ongoing operational and growth initiatives. So, despite this, our debt-to-equity ratio remains comfortable at 0.47 times, up from 0.89 times in the prior year. indicating that we continue to operate to the strong equity base relative to our borrowings. That best equity ratio as seen here is 0.05 times compared to 0.07 times in 2020.

Next slide please.

With a strong balance sheet and healthy equity position, we're in a good phase to return value to our shareholders. This slide indicates our most recent cash dividend declaration. Yesterday, our board of directors approved the declaration of a cash dividend of 0.14 pesos per share of Commerce Stock. The dividend is payable on March 25, 2026 to shareholders of record as of March 12, 2026.

Next slide.

So for the renewable energy updates and outlook, our director for geothermal business, Mr. Joseph Nolkos, will be taking over.

Thank you, Miriam. Good afternoon, everyone. Moving on to our renewable energy business, this first slide is a visual of our fully operational solar power plant in Mount Santa Rita, situated within a three-port zone in Zambales. It is run by our main operating asset, JSI. Santa Rita has an installed capacity and operational capacity of 172 megawatts, making it one of the largest in the country. coming from a single solar power generation plant. The table indicates the current optic profile of Santa Rita. As of the end of 2025, 86% of the energy sales mix was from power supply agreements or PSAs, with the remaining 14% from exposure to the WESM. Moving forward, the direction is to fully contract energy via PSAs. Next slide, please. Here are the comparative financial highlights from JSI for 2025 as against 2024. Generation for 2025 was relatively flat, only increasing 1% versus the previous year at 226,897 NWh. EBITDA for 2025 was down 16% to 788 million due to lower effective time freaks. However, because JSI sales are predominantly secured through PSAs, the decline in weather prices during the period was mitigated by these contracts. Next slide, please. Moving on to our renewable energy pipeline, let us go through the projects we have first. First, under Greenlight, Renewable Head Holdings Incorporated, our joint venture with Shell Overseas Investments, BD. Next slide, please. San Ysidro project is our first project under GRHI, which is divided into two phases. Each phase will contribute an additional 120 megawatts peak or an attributable 70 megawatts peak as a fee to EPI's portfolio.

This project is already fully contracted.

Phase 1 of San Ysidro's latest solar project achieved energization in October 2020, adding 120 MW peak or an attributable 72 MW peak to EPI's installed capacity. Commercial operations are targeted for the second quarter of 2026. For fourth quarter 2025, Phase 1 of the late-day project already generated 15,172 megawatt hours, which translated to 66.9 million in revenues for the quarter. We anticipate that this will contribute more revenues for the renewable energy business moving forward. For later Phase 2, construction of 129-watt speed is ongoing, with testing and commissioning targeted for the second quarter of 2026. Next slide, please. San Juan Motonan is another project which we have at a joint venture with Shell, with a total adding capacity of 59 MWp, or an attributable capacity of 35.4 MWp for Phase 1 and 2. As seen in the photo, the Motonan project is in its early stages. Pre-development activities have already been completed, and post-story rights have been secured. Last October, the Notice to Proceed was issued. We are targeting energization for both phases to be by the fourth quarter of 2026. And the Notice to Proceed for Phase 2 to be issued by the second half of this year. Moving on to projects under our own subsidiaries. So here's a visual of our solar project in Lubic, Tawad. Here we are developing a 145 MW peak facility. Divided into two phases. For phase 1, 70 megawatts peak, construction is currently underway. The testing and commissioning timeline for phase 1 of Subicabot has moved to the first half of 2027. Phase 2 of this project is scheduled to begin construction in the first quarter of 2026. Next slide. Finally, we have our project located in Nazareno, Bataan. This is a 15-megawatt project that is currently under pre-development activities with land-based tar guides already executed and the EPC bidding completed.

Construction is targeted to commence by the third quarter of this year.

In the next slide, we will see a summary of the previous updates and outlines the expected progression of our renewable energy projects over the next few years. In the past, we have disclosed that we wanted to reach a gross installed capacity of 1GW by 2027. If you can compare this updated bar chart from our last briefing, there is a notable decrease in the targeted gross installed capacity for 2027 and 2028, which stood at 1,109 MWp and 1,289 MWp respectively. Our primary message regarding the future of our renewable energy business is that we are transitioning from volume-driven to value-focused expansion. This is in response to the changing market dynamics and to optimize its pipeline of solar power. Our plan is to integrate factory energy storage systems, or BES, across our portfolio, particularly for the JSI facility, tower phase 2, and the surrounding projects to enhance operational efficiency. Our renewable energy business is broadening its development strategy to include run-of-river hydropower projects, hybrid diesel, solar, and battery systems tailored for island grid operations. These efforts are focused on flexible generation solutions capable of delivering good marriage supply to meet the market demand.

Thank you, Sir Joseph. Moving on to updates regarding our gold and copper exploration projects, I give the floor to Dr. Judy Mora, President of Coidelera Exploration Company.

Coidelera Exploration Company Incorporated, or SEXI, a joint venture with Sumitomo Mining, continues to receive significant copper-gold mineralization assay results in its drilling program at the Gordon Project in Isabela. This slide is a summary of the work undertaken in 2025, as well as forward-looking plans regarding our gold and copper exploration efforts.

This is a drilling campaign that was consistent of 21 drill holes last year.

So the results essentially delineated a mineralized zone. And for our 2026 plans, essentially the goal is to build upon this. So in the first part of the year, from Jan to April, it's to complete 4,000 meters of drilling. And from May to December, to have an additional 6,000 meters to upgrade on these.

So next slide, please. So with respect to our CapEx updates,

So from performance and project details, we're giving you now a high-level view of last year's capital expenditures and initial guidance that we have for 2026. The figures are categorized into three key areas of our business, namely mining operations, renewable energy projects, and exploration activities under Cordillera Exploration Company. So for CapEx Mining, particularly, We spent approximately 1.5 billion in 2025. Last year's mining topics was primarily focused on three main things, which are, firstly, the refeeding or replacing and upgrading of equipment in our Lutuba mine. Second is the build-out and expansion of Erling Mine in Manikani. And third is the construction of a new tollway in Erling Apigay Mine in Isabel, which supported better logistics and operational efficiency. Looking ahead to the rest of the year with respect to CAPEX expenditure, we anticipate spending less than last year, approximately 300 million less, or 1.2 billion, with the bulk of this again being earmarked for replacement CAPEX and additional fleet for Manigat. With respect to CAPEX for renewable energy, CAPEX last year was approximately 7.7 billion, The bulk of renewable energy capex last year was from spent in Subicawag and San Isidro de Ateco. And so to break this down, for Subicawag, about $4 billion out of the $7.7 billion includes milestone payments for Kawag Phase 1, offshore and onshore contracts, and milestone payments for Kawag Phase 2. For San Isidro de Ate, approximately about $2.8 billion. out of the 7.7 billion was for milestone payments of native phase one and other development costs such as right-of-way acquisitions, project permits, et cetera. For renewable energy capex guidelines in 2026, expected spend is about 10.3 billion. So this is multi-spread throughout the San Ysidro, Subicawag, as well as Nazareno and Batualan projects. So I'll give you an initial breakdown of what the $10.3 billion is going to be. So about $3.8 billion for cap expense for this year and partly for the San Isidro Native Project. So this is largely coming from milestone payments for Phase 2 and any retention fees we have for Phase 1 of NETE. About $2.5 billion out of the $10.3 billion will be for the Subicawag Project. Mostly for... Any other unpaid costs we have for Phase 1 and any other development and construction overhead might need. Additionally to this, about $3 billion out of the $10.3 billion will be allocated for Nazareno and Bacola. So, both of the payments will come in this year for those projects while for Nazareno, we plan to issue an NPP by more or less in each year, 20 months. So with respect to CAPEX for our, for the Yaya Explorations, last year we had 19 exploration costs. CAPEX set up at about 159 million.

So for this year, we've allocated about 221 million per gold and copper expert. So, Next slide. So this concludes our formal presentation for today.

We'll now open the floor for questions. But before we entertain live questions from the audience, we'd like to go through the questions sent in by our registration form. Feel free to check in your questions while we're doing this. And then after we go through the registration form questions, we can unmute you. You can just raise your hand. So the first question that we have is from Chris. client on Regis. So our question is, how are sales volumes and ASPs trending so far in 2026?

Yeah, thanks for the question, client. To answer that, the market prices on a dollar per metric ton have remained elevated. I would say it's still on an uptrend given the tightness in ore that's in Indonesia. The approved quotas have still been limited. So that's still driving a lot of concern on the supply end. And then the Philippines as a country is now still closed in terms of mining. There are only a few mines. So supply is quite tight from the Philippines. And with limited quotas, we expect the ore prices to remain elevated. So ASPs so far are still trending upward. For volumes, we cannot comment on that yet because, as I mentioned, most of the Philippine mines will open by April. So we'll have a better feel of where volumes are once second quarter is in. But 1Q is too early to tell in terms of the volume trends.

The next question is from Robert of PEP.

He asks, can you discuss the project? the progress of renewable energy projects in terms of how it is connected to the grid and what project needs to be the best?

Thanks for the question, Philip. So we have two projects that are under active right now. So starting with Recovered Phase 1, work on the substation and interconnection facilities have commenced. So this is now clearly going to be connected to the grid in time for it. here. For the San Ysidro projects, we are also connected. In fact, we've conducted our preliminary testing and commissioning for this project. And we hope to be able to finalize the connection of the NGCP as soon as we reach our fee maximum. We're just waiting for better weather to achieve that. Now, I see your question on which project generally most solar power projects now would really have to start seriously considering the integration of energy storage for them to be more marketable. So for the EPI projects, we are Phase 2, as well as GSI and Cowen Phase 1. The projects in Leyte, specifically San Ysidro, they are currently fully contracted as pure solar and will remain as such until the expiration of the contracts.

So, our next question is from Carl DeSena of S&P Global. How will Nickel Asia respond to the expected surge in demand from Indonesia following the nation's nickel ore production cuts?

Carl, thank you for the question. Given that Indonesia is cutting nickel ore production for 2026, smelters are really relying on external suppliers coming from the Philippines. to be able to fill the gap. Of course, New Caledonia would also play a role, but production from New Caledonia is quite limited also, but being able to ramp up and supply to China will provide some relief. But overall, even the Philippines and New Caledonia tried to fill the gap. are quite daunting, but Philippine miners and Nickel Asia will be ready to try to take advantage of that opportunity. So we continue to focus on how we will be able to increase the tonnage that we've guided by wrapping up our Malikani and Dinapige mines. And again, trying to just do it at a more efficient manner

so we will be ready to be able to take advantage of this opportunity next question is from franco fernandez of travel price securities given indonesia's production cuts and the recent recovery in nickel prices how should we think about the growth and sustainability of dividends over the next year yeah thank you for that question franco uh if you've seen um our recent declaration

At the minimum, our policy is 30% of previous year's earnings. And the earnings is largely driven by the average selling price of the ore and the volumes that we generate. That being said, that prices are on the uptrend. I would expect that we would be able to continue to fulfill shareholders' return. by rewarding them with that 30 percent payout but it's also uh common for us to declare special dividends and if you've seen in the previous years we've we've been able to declare special dividends also uh more often than not so i would think given the situation of asps and our ramp up of the new mines one would expect that we will continue to be in a position to reward shareholders both for the regular and special dividends in the upcoming quarters.

Is the company's income and production outlook for 2026?

And perhaps the company can disclose new investments in mining or renewable energy, if any?

Jordine, for Nickel Asia, we do not give guidance for our earnings. But what we do is we give an indication of our target tonnage. And for this full year, we're targeting 20 million metric tons. We don't have any specific investments to report as of now with respect to the mining business.

Thank you for the question, Jardine. But for the renewable energy business, we are in the process of well-managed generation mix that would be targeting big beverage supply as well as base load supply. So, frankly, the focus of the company is to undertake all the preliminary development activities with a view of rolling out these projects progressively later this year and next year within our five-year development timeframe.

So the next question is from Jed.

We cannot share its projected total megawatt capacity of its power generation by the end of 2026. It will share updates on ongoing energy budget developments. As seen in the renewable energy growth capacity summary slide that we had earlier, Jed, the projected operational capacity for the end of 2026 is 450,000. I'm not sure if Sir Joseph had more. The ACP wanted to share.

Hi Jen. As I mentioned earlier, the focus of the company is to diversify its power generation portfolio. And so much of the work that we will be doing this year is to continue with execution and construction of our existing solar projects with a view of integrating solar battery energy storage systems, these sort of projects, as appropriate. And also to develop other sources of energy, such as hydro. And we have also some state energy projects to complement our energy mix with clean, non-renewable energy sources. So much of the work that we will be doing this year, Jed, is to develop in the next three to five years.

So the last four questions that were sent in from RAS, China Bank, Shandong Union Bank, from First Metro, and Alexis of Asia Securities, all have to do with critical price outlook, as well as any key catalysts to sustain the moment. So we'll try and answer that all at once.

Yeah, so for these questions on nickel price outlook, I think it's more impacted now because on the supply side. So because of the Indonesia policy and the tighter nickel ore supply, we're seeing these ASPs coming up. It started early this year, and we also saw nickel LME as a result of this. Now on the demand side, the demand for stainless steel continues to be steady. So last year it grew 2% as an industry. The growth continues to be dependent on, of course, China economy and the global economy, which we all know are also facing challenges. So we expect stainless steel to grow modestly around the low single-digit range. And then for the battery market, for battery materials, we expect this to grow modestly. There will be some stabilization and normalization in battery materials growth. So putting these together, we do expect nickel prices to remain elevated and to be on an uptrend, more impacted because of the supply side.

One question we have here is, are we expecting a continuation of the previous year's bad weather patterns for Q1, which typically results in operational slowdown?

Yes. Thank you, Jay.

That's difficult to tell. But despite the bad weather, I can tell you, Jay, that we managed to still deliver our tonnage. So that shouldn't be a thing to worry about. If you look at last year, despite the difficult weather, we were able to deliver much more exports, close to 11 million wet metric tons. so even with the same face of the same challenges we'd be able to i have no doubt that the target of 20 million tons is possible for us to do it's nothing to worry about really so from raymond uh three questions excluding the one offs what were the income figures for 2025 Okay, the one-offs for 2025 are really from the Coral Bay sale. So that amounts to around 800 million one-time gains. So if you deduct that, we'll have a NEP of around 5.4, 5.5 billion. in core so if you look at it core to core it's 5.5 against 2024's 3.3 if you add back that geothermal write-off so from a core to core basis it's still a big gain and then uh your your number two is um on ore volumes in q4 were quite high Yes, actually, what happened was there's a spillover of Q3 shipments that we delivered in Q4. So we were shipping out. We were very busy in October, November. Yes, you're right. Seasonally, we kind of slowed down by October, November. But we really had targets to reach. And, you know, like I said, the challenging weather patterns. Our company has always an opportunity to adjust. And we saw weather improved in October, November, and we took advantage. So we were able to continue our shipments all the way up to November. So you would notice that 4Q had also contributed to that. And lastly, what was the split in ore sales to China and Indonesia last year? In 2025, I don't have the exact figure. But Indonesia shipments have grown. So the demand from Indonesia has been growing. And it represents about one-third to one-fourth of our deposits. It represents about 30% of our total exports. So since exports have grown totally 9% year on year, even the share of Indonesia for 30% of that has grown on an absolute amount. Where do we see it in 2025? Well, if Indonesia is cutting permits, they really need to buy the Philippine nickel ore. That share might possibly go up. And then another question from RJ, do we have plans to build our own metal manufacturing facility? I guess for the processing plants, there's always the ambition for a miner to add value and become integrated. But at the moment, we are focused on our upstream investments, where we are good at and we specialize at. For downstream opportunities, I will leave it to our last disclosure on studying with the MCI mining. So that remains a project that is being studied.

And we have no new updates on that.

question from othea can you share your insights and feedback on the recently signed critical minerals partnership with the us and how will this benefit the philippines and what can we expect from the us and japan as partners um um i think this is a good good uh project for the philippines uh but

I think we need to see the details of what will come out of this. So, for example, if the US will favor Philippine supply of materials such as battery materials, which could mean that they will pay a higher price, then possibly it could encourage development of downstream nickel in the Philippines. But fortunately, I think this is just a framework that was signed. And I think we need to wait for the details before we can comment on whether or not it will be good for the Philippines.

Are there any other questions? Would anyone like to ask a question on YouTube if you wish? Let's unmute Amos. Hi. Can you hear me? Amos.

Hi. Congrats on the earnings and thanks for the presentation. I just have three questions. My first one is if you could give a production target for Manikani this year, and do we expect to see, given the high grades of Manikani versus your other mines, any significant impact to the or expert prices? Yeah.

Okay, two questions in English now?

Yeah. Okay, for Manikani Mine, our permit, our ECC is up to 3 million tons. So we're doing our best to reach that this year, to wrap it up. So we will try to get close to 3 million tons. Now, just to give your assumptions more color, half of that shipments will be saprolite ore and half of that shipments will be limonite ore. So the ASPs would differ if you assume that. The limonite ore that we will be able to produce from Barikani will be the ones in high iron. So there's a separate pricing for that and that goes to the China market. And then while the saprolite ore can go both to Indonesia and And Chinese customers. And then the grains. The grains of the saprolyte ore in Manikani would range between 1.3 to as high as 1.5% nickel ore.

Generally higher than the other mine sites that we have today.

Got it.

Thank you.

Yeah, sorry, I still have two more questions. My second one is on the HBAL equity earnings. From my understanding, it seemed like the losses narrowed for full year versus nine months. that would imply a positive or HVAC equity income for 4Q. So should we expect equity income or earnings moving forward, especially in 2026?

Yeah, I think with the recent improvement in nickel and MAA prices, our HVAC losses, our HVAC performance should continue to improve. Plus the higher cobalt prices have been able to offset some of our costs better. So there are some drivers to, there are some opportunities for the HPAL equity earnings for this year to improve. But again, it will really depend on the market. We'll continue whether cobalt prices can stay where they are and whether nickel and lemony will stay where it is. But Our belief is that nickel MME is still not an uptrend. Even if it has risen to these levels, we think that there is still room for it to re-rate given the situation of the supply-demand in the market.

Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, and then one last question for me. So in the press release, it seems like there's some initial grades on the cordon project. I think there were some initial grades on the drill holes, like 0.71% copper, 0.34 grams per ton for gold. Would you say this would be like the general grades of the resources for this tenement area?

or like how should we um interpret these initial results yeah thank you uh thank you almost uh normally in the philippines the the average green copper green would be around 0.35.4 so for cordon i think we're doing good if you're going to compare general philippine copper green

Got it. And then, sorry, just a follow-up on that. When do we expect for you to release the research and resources for the contentment?

Ah, okay. We're still in the step-out drilling. So when we start doing the grid drilling, that's the time that we elevate our inferred to indicated. So two, three more years to go.

Okay, I see. Got it. Thank you. Those are all of my questions. I'll fall back in line. Thank you.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to ask a question live? We can unmute you.

If not, we can move on to the other questions in the chat.

We have a question from Christy. Inquiring about margin trajectory given strong shift. That is an upward trend. So I think our margins, we can keep doing better year on year, especially where ASPs are today and where they look to be headed. And then in terms of volumes, like I said, our ECC for Manigani is up to 3 million. We'll do our very best to get ourselves that figure. So margins could be in for a better year. Secondly, what has been the net effect of your effective tax rate on the new tax regime? Well, we're still waiting for the implementing rules and regulations or the IRR. So once we get that, we'll be able to file accordingly for 2027. So you're talking about full year 2026 effect. So at least for 2025, the new fiscal regime taxes or these windfall profit taxes won't be applied yet. So that may come into effect next year. And then any update on exploration, proven reserves, I think it is what Dr. Jun had told you. We're very positive about the drilling results we've had. The common copper mines would give you 0.35, but if you look at our results, it's much better than that. So give us another few more years and we'll be able to translate these infrared resources into George Standard, which will be better valued by the market. So that's for Christie's questions. And then from Francis, or export prices have decoupled from LME prices. Right now, because of the uptick in LME prices, there is some correlation, but the reasons are separate, Francis. The reasons are separate for them moving up. But I believe if you look at the raw ore prices by itself, really on the ground, there's really no supply to work with for the smelters. So that's causing very tight prices. Now for the nickel LME, there is still a global oversupply in nickel. But the market is forward looking and the market prices everything ahead. and the expectation is with the tight nickel ore supply, the global oversupply will soon vanish. So it is really a forward-looking mechanism, and at this point in time, there is some correlation in both rebound in nickel and LME price. From Christy, inquiring about evolving mix of overall limonite supply-based production. Okay. So last year, we did 18.5 million tons. We were able to ship out close to 11 million. And then the remainder, which is 7.6 million, was limonite. So that would be around a 60% to 40% split between limonite.

And that should continue. Christine? Hello, can you hear me?

Yes. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so my first question is, so I just want to make sure that I know the entire business and your assets. Do you have other mining assets assets apart from the ones that you're mining now as well as the ones that you're exploring like Sexy. Do you have other mining assets that you could potentially explore and develop in the future?

Right. Playing in our portfolio,

For the nickel assets, that's it once we've disclosed. And then for our gold copper assets, it's all under SECC. The cordon project is the one that we're focusing on. There are pre-development activities for a couple of projects under SECC.

Can I add a bit? In In gold and copper, we have several projects under exploration, but most in this industry, it's very hard to find a very good site. So normally we don't disclose anything. And that's the reason why we started making disclosures on this cordon project, because it's something worth disclosing. So I guess that's the answer to your question. We're working on several, a handful disclosures. But you cannot say that there's a likelihood that any of them will reach the stage of development, of production.

Understood. I heard that the DNR or the government plans to privatize some idle mining assets. Have you heard the same or is there any movement that you're seeing on the government side regarding these privatizations?

I think it's always in the interest of government to maximize their assets, and they would like to give it to operators that could do it on time and not wait for decades. So we've always received inquiry or feedback on whether there are assets that Nickel Asia would like to participate in. We're very much open to that, and... We cannot confirm whether we've talked to the government about this, but yes, definitely there's interest between government and private miners to be able to develop projects together to increase government and private enterprises' revenues.

Okay, thank you. And also, last, sorry, I have another question before this. So after this, so just sticking to the same topic, I'm wondering if you've seen any, I guess, changes in the behavior of local governments, I guess, participation in mining or whatever, after the passage of the fiscal regime law, basically because they're supposed to get their royalties immediately already. Do you think that they're now more incentivized to issue more permits to miners and all that?

I think it's a bit too early.

So I personally can't say that I've witnessed any change. But your logic is correct that moving forward, it should align their interests more with the company. But I think most of the permits we need are not from the local governments. They're from the DNR, the MGB, and then the national government. But similarly, since the taxes will go up, they would be presumably more incentivized to support us.

Thank you. And my last question is on your dividend outlook. So you declared regular dividends today, but you didn't declare special dividends. So I'm wondering if there's still a chance that you could pay a special dividend later on this year.

Client, we don't guarantee the special, the regular we do. But if you look at the previous dividend declarations, we very much do so over the course of the year. So for as long as the business is doing well and the capex requirements are not that substantial, then we rationalize and we also do recognize the merits of

to the shareholders thank you um

Hardest risk would be policy regulation in Indonesia. So, while Indonesia has maintained a tight policy stance, of course, they could be flexible if the market needs some adjustments in the quota. so you need to be we need to watch out for that right now the declaration is 250 to 60 to 60 million tons while the demand is 300 to 310 so any change in policy to meet that 300 will definitely shift asp prices uh so that's something to to look out to um Other than that, for us, I don't think weather is a big disruptor. Because with the challenging weather, we were able to overcome last year. So it's really the things that are beyond our control, which is Indonesia policy on it alone.

Thank you very much for joining us this afternoon.

Feel free to send additional questions you might have when the final results of the 17A are out. We'd also appreciate, the IR team would appreciate if you answered the survey so we know best how to present. So there, thank you very much. Have a good rest of the day.

Thank you.