Gruvaktiebolaget Viscaria

Welcome to Direkt Studios. Today we are going to talk to Viscaria and see the whole of 2024 in their final communiqué. We are delighted to have Jörgen Olsson, CEO, with us from Kiruna. Welcome.

Thank you very much Erik.

You have had a very eventful Q4. What are the highlights?

It's hard to mention any highlights. I'll try to do that later in my presentation, Erik. But it hasn't been just an eventful quarter. It has been an extremely eventful year, which I hope can be summarized in a structured way here today.

And we are very happy to meet not only you, but a large part of your team. So, a warm welcome!

Thank you very much, Erik. I will jump right into our presentation. With me here today, you will be able to meet Thomas Normark, our infrastructure and logistics manager. You have heard of him before. You will also be able to meet Ross Armstrong, who you have also heard of before. Ross is also our new geological manager since February 1st. And finally, Frida, our CFO, will also be able to present. Yes, as most of you know what we are, we are a slow and persistent group that has been working for five years since May 2020 with this project. We have invested a little over 1.5 billion and also took in a shareholder loan this fall at 315 million kronor, which I will come to. So we are a well-capitalized company that has invested incredible money in this project. We will come to that later. Both Q4 and the whole of 2024 has been a fantastic, intense year. And I think it's on its way with a little repetition of everything that has happened. Last year, it started with a four-week negotiation with Markomiljödomstolen, which pretty quickly led to a positive environmental decision on May 6th. Already the day after, on May 7th, we announced that we had changed the name of the company from Copperslån Resources AB to Gruvaktiebolaget Viskaria. And we did that to mark that now we have actually got our status. We want to leave the prospecting flag behind us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with prospecting. You will hear that later today. That is what the future is. But we are so much more than just a prospecting company. We are now actually a mining development company on the way to becoming a mining company. The name change to Viscaria is also to honor the old company called Viscaria AB, which operated copper mining between 1983 and 1996. Viscaria itself comes from the flower Viscaria alpina, which grows on copper-rich soil. In the summer, we made a new emission of 440 million kronor, which was followed by a shareholder loan in the fall with 315 million kronor. A little later in the fall, we had a fantastic news when we were told that we could get Mark Johnson to nominate to our board. Mark with over 40 years of experience from the copper mine industry. He is in charge of the American Freeport McMoran, one of the world's largest copper mine producers. He is nominated to be elected to the board of directors on the 8th of May here in Kiruna. But due to his network, expertise and experience, the board of directors decided this autumn to add him to the board of directors. We have had Mark up twice in Kiruna and he really contributes to our work. framåt här. Inte minst viktigt i valideringsarbetet av vår lönsamhetsstudie, som jag också kommer kommentera lite senare här. En otroligt hög aktivitet i allting vi gör här uppe, och det kommer Thomas att berätta om alldeles strax. Och sen naturligtvis hade vi ju fantastiska nya resultat ifrån vår prospektering som vi publicerade både den 24 september, och som vi följde upp med sen i vår Q3. Och oss kommer det verkligen att Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

I'm going to start by showing you an illustration of our planned industry and mining area with the facilities and functions that will be built there. As you remember, we started last year with stage 1 of the industry area. It was with the support of our project management, which we had from Miljödomstolen, that we started to build our water cleaning and start to empty the mine. Under the period of August and even October, we started with land work. We made the soil for the water cleaning, we built transport roads, we built some storage areas so we could receive incoming building materials, an area for the entrepreneur's establishment, Vi krossade upp 170 000 ton byggnadsmaterial från vårt gråbärsupplag. Vi gjorde en del andra saker med utbyggnad av elkraften och den biten. Under förutsättning att miljötillståndet vinner lagarkraft så planerar vi att börja med etapp två. And there is a lot of land work that needs to be done there. As you can see in the pictures, irrigation plants, mulch, electricity, roads, shell protection and so on. We need to, for example, seal in our entire mine area and make sure that we have a shell protection that is functional. If we go Fram till vattenreningen, VTP 1000 som vi kallar water treatment, 1000 kubik i timmen, så är det en förutsättning för att få tumma gruvan och komma igång med gruvbrytningen eftersom vi får inte släppa ut vatten från gruvan ut till recipienten utan att rena det här. Det var det svenska byggföretaget SSEA som tilldelades kontraktet att uppföra själva byggnaden i oktober 2024. SSEA is not new here in Kiruna, but they have built Kiruna's new gymnasium here in the new center, which was built one and a half years ago. We ourselves are responsible for the purchase and operation of all this process equipment, all these tanks, all these processes, as you can see in the picture at the bottom. And we do that together with the Finnish specialist company on just cleaning of groundwater. Tellis Udden WC. In this project, it is also included that the first part of the pump chain is built down to 300 meters deep, so that we plow the mine through the borehole. The planned operation for this water cleaning facility and the pump chain is for the autumn now. It takes about a year to plow the whole mine down to 700 meters deep. I'm going to show you a short video that shows our work with building our water treatment plant and what it has looked like so far.

Winter work for us is completely natural up here in Gävleland. Hi, my name is Peter Fredriksson and I work as a project manager at SSEA here in Kiruna. The project we have at Visgaria is a water treatment plant called VTP 1000. Our mission as a main entrepreneur started on November 11th. The work we started with here was to cover the surface and get started with juggling before the basic work. After that, it has been shaped and molded. I have come quite far in my basic work. In order to facilitate the winter work that we are going to do, a planning is required before we start, and that is quite simply that we try to leave the fields untouched, we isolate the land there, in order to then be able to take over on a non-fertilized surface. This preparatory work means that construction work can proceed throughout the winter period without any stop in production. This applies to almost every project we carry out that has some dignity with a little longer construction time. This is something that we feel safe with.

Ja, där fick ni en liten inblick i hur det är att bygga ett vattenreningsverk vintertid här i Kiruna. Om ni tittar på den här bilden här så ingår ju också som jag sa att vi skulle borra fyra stycken hål ner till 300 meter kjup och sänka ner så kallade borrhålspumpar som då kommer pumpa upp vattnet fram till vattenreningsverket då. And this Kiruna company, Orfields, is a specialist in this type of drilling that we have introduced. And the diameter of these holes, as you can see in the middle here, is 380 millimeters. And the drill crown is the one you see up to the left there. And to the right, at the top, is the drilling itself when it occurs. And the drilling gate, as you can see there, down to the left and right in the picture. So the work is ongoing right now and we have built three holes. What has also happened is that we at the end of last year put up a large geotent of 1,800 square meters there and it is for storage of all peat kernels that come from the prospecting and it was 60,000 meters with seedlings under 2024 and something like that will be sowed under 2025. So we need the space to be able to store these. And as you can see, it has started to be filled up. A bit that we are quite proud of and unique about is that Viskaria made a decision to only use fossil-free fuel in our mining area. What we know is that we are the only mining company in Sweden that uses HVO to 100%. And if we look at the consumption during 2024, then it went to 177,000 liters, which then means a saving for the climate and the environment for the world on 500 tons of reduced CO2. And we want to contribute to a more sustainable future and a reduced impact on our mining operations. That's why we do it. In the picture, you can see the gas station that we have in the mine area. If we move on to energy supply, which is also an important part of the infrastructure, we have taken over four of these wind power plants. There are six wind power plants that have been there at Berget på Uravara since 2001. We have taken over four of them and put them in the Viskaria Vind AB company. The last two will be taken over during the year. The energy they produce corresponds to about 10 gigawatt hours per year. This is a welcome addition to us here at Viskaria for our mining operations. Sen har vi diskussioner med vattenfall, eldiskussion för den tekniska lösningen att den riktiga elkraftsförsörjningen är på upp till 50 megawatts krafter att levera in det. Där är vi i slutskedet av att vara överens. Men som sagt, anslutningsavtalet kan vi först skriva på när vårt miljötillstånd har börjat laga kraft. Men det här är också The electricity from the waterfall comes from the hydropower, so it is also a step towards a more sustainable future and low climate impact from our energy supply. As for the railway and railways and the transports there, we have an agreement with the Trafikverket. and they are working on designing, trading and installing technology houses and transitions and the new digital signal security system ERTMS. The timeline for this is that the transitions from Malmbanen to our kindergarten will be connected in week 24, 2026. Det här är fasta tider som man måste ansöka om i två år i förväg. Den här planen ligger kvar. Vi kommer att få inkoppling 2026. Själva barngården och den här lastningshallen som ni ser på bild, där både kopparkoncentratet kommer att lagras innan det lastas på tågen. Den kommer vi att bygga i egen regid. Min sista bild här för den här presentationen är en illustration över det vi kallar för Vizcaria Village. Alltså entreprenörsmoduler med kontor, omklädning, fikarum och så vidare som de företag som kommer hjälpa oss att bygga upp våra anläggningar här kommer att använda under byggperioden. Vi har lämnat in en bygglåsansökan till Kiruna kommun som vi väntar på svar där. This will be established in stages. Some of these buildings will be in place by the summer, while the remaining will be in place by the next summer. The idea is also that when the entrepreneurial construction phase is over, the local people will be taken over by the production people, that is, those who will run our facilities here, both the irrigation plant and the mine. We have tried to make it a little nice, för att få en bra handa och trivsel på vår arbetsplats. Med de orden överlämnar jag till nästa talare, Ross Armstrong, som ska prata om geologin och vad vi har i backen.

Thank you, Thomas, and good morning, everyone. We make a quick switch to English here. Today, I have another exciting announcement from the geology team here in Viscaria, bringing more exploration news. In September 2024, last year, we announced the first exploration results from our campaign last year, where with just a handful of scout drill holes, we managed to prove the extension of the existing D and B zones down to 1.2 kilometer depth. And on top of that, we presented the discovery of a new copper-rich horizon, the ABBA zone. These were just the initial findings, however, as since then, this has given us the motivation and the good feeling to kick on. And we've ramped up with the drilling efforts in order to continue assessing the exploration potential at depth with good speed. And that brings us to today, where we have a number of exciting drilling results to share with you today. Three from the D zone, five from the ABBA zone, and two from the B zone. And we'll look through these results zone by zone, and I'll try to guide you through the key points from each. But please bear with me. It's a lot of numbers. It's a lot of details. So I would highly recommend that you also digest these numbers a bit further by revisiting the presentation and also reading the accompanying table one. Both of these will be uploaded to our website this morning. But let's get right into it, starting with the D zone. What we see here on the screen is a longitudinal section. So this shows the ore body in length. As mentioned, we have three new drilling intersections in the D zone. The highlight of which is VDD24099B, which is located here. In 99B, we intersected 38.6 meters at 1.23% copper and 29.7% iron. And within this wider intersection was a higher grade interval of 13.5 meters at an average grade of 1.8% copper. And this really validates our findings from September last year as well. You might remember this hole, 055G. And in both of these holes, we've really outlined thick high-grade copper shoot that extends deeper and deeper beneath the D-zone. Another important aspect to mention in the D-zone is the added value of the magnetite. If we take, for example, this intersection 125, which is located here, I've also highlighted the intersection at the side of the slide. So in hole 125, We drilled 9.2 meters and average grade of 1.54% copper and 38.65% iron. Another way of looking at these metal contents is through a copper equivalent. So over the same interval, 9.2 meters, the copper equivalent was over 2%. And so this nicely illustrates the added value of the iron and as an equivalent amount of copper. The main takeaway from these latest results from the D-zone is that we've outlined a thick body of magnetite. And within that, there are high-grade portions of copper that exist both on the vertical and horizontal dimensions. Now for our new discovery, the ABBA zone. And what we see here on this longitudinal section is the A-zone in the foreground and the new drilling results from the ABBA behind. Because as a reminder, the ABBA zone sits between the A zone and the B zone. So you see here a lot of drilling results. Since the discovery hole, we've now completed nine drill holes. And out of those nine drill holes, every single one of them has hit the mineralization. So that's a 100% success rate. In terms of highlights out of all these intersections, we can look at hole 116, which is located here. In 116, we drilled 30.2 meters above 1% copper. And again, within this interval was a higher grade core of 10 meters at 2.13% copper. So really impressive values alone, but especially when you consider the location of these findings, just 200 meters beneath the existing A-zone infrastructure. So we see a really good potential here to incorporate the ABBA zone into the future mine plan. Of course, after more drilling and more exploration is carried out. You might remember as well hole 115, which is positioned here. This was really in the spotlight in September during our previous exploration update, just due to the sheer length of the intersection. And now we have the assay results back. an intersection of almost 400 meters at 0.4% copper. So really, that's a first in Viscaria's history, nothing we've really seen before. And the sheer extent of this metal enrichment across a thick part of the stratigraphy really gives us the sense that we're tapping into the true huge scale of the Viscaria system that we've not seen before. So key takeaways from the Abazon, I would say, are consistency and success in our drilling results, and a clear showcase that we can effectively develop the exploration potential from a single discovery drill hole. That's now, with all these drill holes completed, over 550 meters along strike that we've managed to prove the mineralization extends. And as previously mentioned, we haven't found the edge of this. The ABBA zone remains completely open. Now finally, the B-zone. In the B-zone, or this deep part of the B-zone, we have a total of three drill holes, two of which are new for presentation today. And these results are equally as impressive in their own right. In fact, this deep part of the B-zone, this is where we're finding the highest copper grades out of all of our exploration target areas. We see here in hole 115, 13 meters at 2.35% copper. In hole 116, 13 meters at 1.94% copper. And you'll recognize the ID of these drill holes as you saw them on the previous slide as well. These are actually long drill holes designed to pass through the A zone, the ABBA zone, and the B zone all in one. So that's a lot of bang for your buck in terms of drilling meters for the number of intersections in return. I would say the takeaway from the B zone is not just the grade, however, it's also the exploration space that's been opened up. We can see where these deep drilling intersections have been made. This is 500 meters down dip of the existing B zone resource. And so this is an obvious and completely natural target for us as we continue our exploration drilling. And just like our other target areas, the B zone also remains open at depth and a long strike. Now to bring this all together and put these fantastic results into context. Here, we're not seeing a longitudinal section, but rather a cross section of the entire Viscaria deposit. So basically a slice through all of the ore bodies. In the dark orange color, we see the existing mineral resources as of our 2022 mineral resource estimate. The A zone here, the B zone, and the D zone. And above we see noted the average copper grade associated with each of these ore bodies. However, if we look deeper on some of the highlight drill holes from our exploration campaign, we can see that we're really finding a totally new potential, high grading direction for the deposit as we go deeper. In the ABBA zone, 10 meters over 2%. Beneath the B zone, 13 meters at 2.35% copper. And beneath the D zone, 13.5 meters at 1.8% copper, plus the magnetite. These latest findings really show that we're beginning to unravel the true potential at Viscaria. High-grade copper at depth that can support a deeper underground mining operation beyond the initially planned life of mine period. So that was a lot of fantastic results already, but the drilling hasn't stopped there. We've continued with full speed into the new year, and we already have further intersections to show. On the left, you see the latest hit in the ABBA zone, and on the right, the latest hit from the D zone. And this drill core has already been logged by the geology team here, some of whom you can see working behind me here in the core shed. And this drill core has been sent for analysis already, so we're expecting the results back within Q1. So that's already some more exciting news to follow up on in the near future. But finally, let's finish by looking ahead. Currently, we have six drilling rigs in operation, and we're expected to drill a total of 10,000 meters through the duration of Q1 2025. Of these 10,000 meters, the bulk majority will be drilled in the D zone, the B zone, and the ABBA zone. where we're utilizing directional drilling in order to assure accuracy and efficiency when drilling at these kind of depths. Additionally, these exciting exploration results are expected to feed directly into a new mineral resource estimate, which will be released in conjunction with the feasibility study for the project. And this is super exciting for us because really this marks the first step in developing these discoveries into impactful and meaningful tons that we hope sometime down the line will be fed through our very own processing plant. Which of course, that's the ultimate goal for us through exploration. So of course, today we've been focused mainly on the Viscaria mining area. We have also been continuing to implement our Grand Viscaria strategy as well. Already, we have geophysical studies and drilling underway. in some of our exploration permit areas, which you see on the map to the right here. And this is something we will continue to do to assess the mineral potential in the surrounding region, as well as at depth within the Viscari area. So that's it for me today. A lot of exciting results and a new mineral resource estimate to look forward to in the future. So thank you. And on that note, I pass back over to Juergen.

Thank you very much, Ross. And as you understand, not least of this activity, you get energy in a real patience test project, because that's what it is. I'm just going to make some short comments before I let in Frida. But I know that there is a big demand on our afterstudy, and I can promise you that the demand exists here internally as well. On the other hand, I have said several quarters in a row that it is extremely important when you release such an afterstudy, especially as a junior mining company, that it should be robust, it should be validated, it should be turned out, washed, second opinions, third opinions, fourth opinions. If you don't keep it fast, you don't have many shots on you, again as a junior mining company. There are, both in our region, in Europe and internationally, FFs reports out there that have never been to any financing. We should not get there. That is why it is so important that we take this time to do these validations. Now we will release our FFs report in connection with Q1 on May 8, as I mentioned earlier. Vi kommer att göra det live och ha en bra extensiv frågestund också så folk kan verkligen få ställa frågor. På bilden här så ser ni en av de många arbetsrömmar i valideringsarbetet. Vi hade en workshop 27-29 januari. 40 deltagare. Koppargruvexperter från Australien, flera från USA, från Europa. Våra största huvudägare var med. Återigen för att kunna the devil's advocate. What can go wrong? What are weaknesses? What are challenges? How can we mitigate these challenges? And after a three-day workshop, there will be an additional amount of work streams. All this because when we present our report again, it should be robust. It should be consistent in all aspects. We look forward to something in May, I can tell you, which I think you also do. And for you shareholders, you are of course very welcome to Kiruna at the company headquarters. And for those of you who are not shareholders, we will also hold an expo the same day before the company headquarters, so you are very welcome to Kiruna. And in connection with this, we will also release a very detailed resource update. And the resource update is of course to be able to give a clear and clear picture of the size and expansion of the resource, but also assessment of the potential in depth. And really show the strong expectations for Vizcaria. With that, Frida, excuse me, I had a timeline. The timeline is also of course important. There are not many changes here, there are some changes. We are of course waiting for the legal power-efficient condition. We mentioned in Q3 that we expect to maintain a legal power-efficient condition mot slutet på april. Det finns ingen garanti för detta, men det är vår absoluta förväntan att det ska göras, att vi ska få det här, och att det ska vara ett positivt besked, det vill säga att man ska nekas prövningstillstånd. Det kommer alltså då därefter igångsättas en mängd fler aktiviteter än de som redan Thomas har berättat om, konstruktioner och anriktningsverk etc. som fortsätter in på 2026. So that by 2027 we will be able to finish all the facilities. We will be able to deliver our first copper concentrate to customers. And this will be done by train. Yes, that's it, Frida. Now, finally. I'll click on your picture so you can see the numbers.

Thank you very much, Jörgen. Yes, but then I will go through the financial development of the company in short, with focus on Q4, but also the whole year of 2024. I'm going to start by summarizing the essential events of the last quarter. First of all, the market announcement was a day of power. We also received a message from the Land and Environment Commission that they did not authorize the trial of the prosecutor. And that has now been sued by the Supreme Court as the last instance. Then, the election preparation went out and Mark Johnson, the new head of the board, suggested kommer föreslås till årsstämman och som Jörgen nämnde tidigare, han är adjungerad in i styrelsen redan nu. Om vi tittar lite närmare på finansiella siffrorna här med fokus på resultatposterna initialt, Then we see our post for activated expenses for prospecting and valuation opportunities. It is 77 million per quarter and 330 million per year in 2024. We see here that we have a higher cost cost and a higher share that is activated. All in all, we are actually approaching a start. Rörelseresultatet ligger på minus 20 miljoner på kvartalet och minus 53 miljoner på hela år. Tittar vi på periodens resultat sista raden så är det 19 miljoner minus på kvartalet och minus 48 miljoner på hela år. Det man kan nämna i periodens resultat för 2024 är att vi har en mindre nedskrivning som gäller ett par undersökningstillstånd som vi har valt att inte förlänga. If we look at the cash flow, it is minus 153 million for the quarter. Also quite a big difference when compared to 86 million in the same period last year. This is also a lead in that we are now in the construction phase, not least on permanent water cleaning, which is the first step to then be able to start dewatering the mine. If we look at the period's cash flow for the whole year, it is minus 35 million, and that is, among other things, due to the new emissions that were made in June, where we got a net of about 420 million. If we go over to the balance sheet, then it is again the large immaterial access, which is only prospecting and valuation access. which now amounts to about 1.3 billion SEK compared to about 900 million SEK at the beginning of 2023. This includes the year's active expenses, but also the first part of the revenue for upcoming post-treatment, which is also according to the environmental court at about 60 million SEK. In the post for ongoing new facilities, we have worked up to 165 million SEK. Of course, this is also the large part of the water cleaning. But it's also what Thomas talked about earlier, the connection to Malmbanan in the form of exchanges and so on, which we do together with Trafikverket, and it's the number of collaborations we have with them. If we look at liquid funds, we have a cash flow of 232 million at the end of the year. And then you have to keep in mind that we entered the shareholder loan agreement, if that's during the quarter, Men det har realiserats i januari i år. Eget kapital är ungefär 1,6 miljarder att jämföra med 1,2 då föregående år. Det är nyemissionen här som är den stora skillnaden. Här har vi ingen rad för skulder för att den är så pass liten i balansräkning. Vi har ett par konvertibla skulderbrev som är ungefär 15 miljoner. Med det sagt är vi väldigt trygg med den balansräkning vi har. Just like before, we go through a little more in detail in this post, which is our activated expenses for prospecting and evaluation access. And we have prepared it quarterly from 2021 until today. We have also called in the absolute top, which was under Q2 and Q3 this year, where we have a large amount of work in geology, drilling and analysis. So mostly we had nine drillers at the same time. And most of the work has been for the mining near the mine, to be so prepared and have done the work as well as we can to set an optimal mining plan. And it is a part of the FFSA work. If we look a little closer individually at quarter 4, 2024, it is here, just like earlier, that the individual largest post is still mining and analysis. Under kvartalet tog vi beslut om en ny prospekteringskampanj som fortfarande är pågående. Det är kopplat till det ni har hört Ross berätta om tidigare under presentationen. Parallellt med FS, det första steget av grusstarten, jobbar vi också och fokuserar på vad som kommer efter det. Ett led i det är att sätta fokus på prospekteringsförbordning. Men det är inte bara geologi vi jobbar med utan självklart jobbar vi på med inom alla andra arbeten också med det förberedande jobbet som ska göras inför återöppningen. När det gäller anrikningsverket så jobbar vi med processtester, flödesschema, allt för att kunna bygga ett anrikningsverk med så optimal och effektiv anrikningsprocess som möjligt. Inom gruva jobbar vi med att sätta detaljplanerna, göra gruvdesignen och ha en en så bra uppstart som möjligt kopplat till gruvplaneringen. På infrastruktursidan pågår det också stora jobb kopplat till projekteringsarbeten både för gruvsajt etapp 2 som kommer här nu närmast, men också för det jobb som kommer att göras med dammar och även på elsidan. Vi projekterar också barngården som vi kommer bygga själva. Det är anslutningen som görs med Trafikverket, men i övrigt görs jobbet själva. En del av aktiverade utgifterna är också självklart viss projektadministration. Med det sagt, som lite repetition, färdigställer vi vår FS i samband med att vi släpper årets första delårsrapport i början på maj. Det här är då året, om man ska sammanfatta det, lämnar att i huvudsak vara i prospekteringsfas och faktiskt gå över till en anläggande fas. Och med det så släpper jag in Jörgen igen.

Tack så mycket Frida. Sammanfattningen kan vi nästan hoppa över till den här extensiva rapporteringen. Jag tycker vi lämnar över ordet till studion och till dig Erik så kör vi lite frågor och svar här direkt istället.

Thank you very much, Jörgen and the team. I was going to start by talking about my frustration about not being able to see the FF results right now, but that has been taken over by the hope and interest. I want to hear more about the ABBA fund and can the market hope for more large funds in the future?

Absolutely. As Ross says here, om och som man presenterade om vi tar specifikt Abba-zonen som du nämnde Erik så har vi alltså gjort nu nio hål i Abba-zonen och det är fantastiska träffar i alla nio alltså inte ett enda svart hål nu ska man också veta om att det är inte så man borrar på må på så jag ska inte skryta allt för mycket utan för varje hål så gör man ju fysiska mätningar som man man försöker ha en sannolikhet när man borrar But like for Baskat, we have to say that our prospecting campaign that we started this fall has given us so much pain in the back so that we continue to invest all the time more than we had planned from the beginning in prospecting. It's also like Ross pointed out that The mine in Abba B and D zone is so close to the old mining zone, a few hundred meters, so it is also economically breakable, which is of course not only important but extremely relevant in the extension of this mine, how to break it.

And for us, and the market in general, we are not always patient. Do we dare to book the tickets already now, do you think, on the 8th of May? Or so that we understand the process? Will the results come then?

You should definitely do that. We would not have said these specific dates now if we had not been certain that we are so far into the validation process. We know which work streams are left. We know what confirming results we are waiting for. It's a lot. Externa experter, specialister, konsultfirma som inblandar här och så boka biljetter. Det blir en fin dag den 8 maj, ett bra expo och en bra bolagsstämma på eftermiddagen klockan fyra.

We are really looking forward to it. It is an exciting journey. You have gone from prospecting to mining development companies. And if we talk about the journey to finished mining companies, what challenges do you see in that journey?

We don't have the hours today to talk about the challenges, because they are incalculable. You should know that it is incredibly unique to take a project from A to LÖ, from prospecting to finished mining. We have now got Mark Johnson with us from Freeport McMoran. He has been engaged in the industry for over 40 years. He has never been involved in a mine opening. This means that Freeport McMoran has not opened a mine in 40 years. They have grown a lot in these 40 years, but they have always taken over something existing and built it all up. So even when you talk to Mark and his colleagues in the management group, this is kind of unique for us. At first, you start to understand the complexity and the challenges to do this. This is nothing more than a challenge. It's not a win-win project. But we are absolutely convinced, as you have understood during these five years, that we have respect and understanding of the challenges. We are really capitalized. It's a fantastic team that we have. And we are going to do this from A to Ö. But there are many challenges, Erik.

And to take you through these challenges, it's a lot about the team. I see that you still have 35 employees, but Mark Jansson, as you mentioned, joined the board as a leader. How will it be that you want to have more Mark? What are the experiences and contacts he comes with?

Freeport McMoran is one of the world's largest copper group producers. They tend to compete with the Chilean state's Cordelco. They tend to be first or second. I actually think that Freeport McMoran right now is first in the world when it comes to producing the amount of copper. And they have underground copper mines in the USA, in South America, and one of the world's largest, Grasberg, in Indonesia, which he shares with the Indonesian state. So it is clear that with the relevant experience that he has had with him throughout his life, it will be a fantastic addition. Not only in the validation work with the FF work, but also from a general perspective. It's not just Mark that we get into the board, his network of experts is also meaningful to us. You mentioned the team, Erik. We differ from many mining development companies in that we hired a production team from the beginning. We hired a mining manager five years ago without having a mine. in operation. We hired a second-in-command four years ago without any second-in-command work. We hired production personnel who in turn have to decide what their equipment should look like and how it should be ordered, so they themselves can take over the responsibility in operation. We have no project organization. Out of the 35 full-time employees, we have about 30 full-time engaged consultants. So we are a real staff force of 70 people, mostly permanent, who work on this project. And that also starts with a real and good predictable progress.

And the success has been several during the quarter. But if we look at the status, you got the environmental status in just under two years, which is very strong or fast. And most of the defendants have been dismissed after three months. I only see one left, and that is Gabna Saumeby, who is about to defend the highest court. What can you tell about that?

Yes, exactly. Gavna Samerby, the prosecutor at the High Court, sent in his developed prosecutor on December 27th. It's on our website, five pages long, so it's not that hard to access it. We have of course read this as well. We have the highest respect for all the prosecutors. Vi tycker att det är värt att försvara den principen. Vi vill ju själva ha en rätt att överklaga saker som kanske går oss emot. Så vi har inget emot den demokratiska processen i det hela. Vi väntar oss emellertid att den här överklagningen inte ska få prövningsreson. Och det baserar vi ju naturligtvis på överklagarnas innehåll. Som ni alla kan läsa då återigen på hemsidan. Och som är ett offentligt dokument. Baserat på Högsta domstolens process... calendar right now as an external observer, our assessment is that we should be able to get a message before the end of April. But we don't have all the facts from, of course, and we shouldn't have from the Supreme Court either.

I got a viewer question on that. Is there any instance after the Supreme Court or is the environmental condition complete when the Supreme Court?

The environmental condition wins law enforcement at the same time as H&D potentially would reject the test condition. There is no higher instance. Then it's done. Then we have all conditions in place.

Exciting, getting closer and closer. During the quarter you got a share loan of 315 million. What is the relationship with the owners?

We are happy to have a fantastic, solid and loyal asset base, as you have understood, through these continuous financing. We drew on this loan here during the first quarter of 2015, and the four shareholders, Thomas von Kock, Jan Ståhlberg, SEB Foundation and Santedal, also announced, as you saw, an intention to convert this loan to share income in the future. On the other hand, we naturally have a close dialogue, both with existing large shareholders, both private and institutions, as well as that we get a lot of inquiries from institutional potential future investors. So we are jubilant, right? But we think that there are very good, fun, interesting discussions. And as some institution told me, here in the week was Jörgen. We are writing Swedish history. It's very fun. It's a Swedish base industry project and it will be a Swedish story.

Incredible pride from all over the country when the mine starts. Very good work there. A question about the market. Last quarter, you mentioned the copper price. You were counting with a price of around $9,000 per tonne. Then the market was at the price of $9,500. We have come down somewhat and are at just $9,000. How do you see the copper price in the future?

We don't have a stall killer, but we have made these investments. Me personally, families and friends. A very large investment group is Family and Friends to me. We have, of course, made a bet that we will get a strong copper price. We are very pleased with 9,000 dollars per ton. But we have not hesitated. We dare to believe in a higher copper price as well. There they will be able to display in the future. But we have, since we started the project in 2020, shown databases from Mindspan, from S&P, from Wood Mackenzie, etc., etc. And it's the same databases that everyone uses. And there should be an expansion, a start to diverge from the demand. The demand is going up much more than the expansion is from 2025. And we think that we are starting to see such trends on copper deposits around the world, on demand versus supply. Supply is almost constant, i.e. primary production in the world, but demand increases. We believe that it is necessary to have a more peaceful situation in the world than the geopolitical situation, because the biggest efterfrågan i världen på mineraler generellt, inte bara koppar, kommer från tillväxt av medelklass. Och så länge man krigar så blir det inte sagt mycket tillväxt på jorden. Tillväxt är ju hydda till hus, grusväg till asfalt, ingen infrastruktur till infrastruktur, utbyggd infrastruktur, mer bostäder och allt där runt omkring. Men så sent som i morse har vi ett kopparpris på 9400 dollar per ton. Vi tycker att det ser bra ut.

In our models, copper prices remain at 9,000 dollars per ton. But we follow the market and work in the model with sensitive analysis. We know how much it hits in one way or another. Even if we have 9,000 in the model, we expect an increase from there.

Thank you very much. And finally, Jörgen, you have a strong and successful group of friends who are investing right now. Why should other investors buy the Viscaria stock?

We import over 50% of all copper we consume to Europe. And unfortunately, the trend is going in the wrong direction according to all databases. So if we don't open more copper resources in Europe, we will in 5-10 years import 56-60% of all copper we consume to Europe. This means in practice that we steal copper from someone who needs it better. It's hypocrisy. To say that we want to have all this infrastructure that a modern society means here in Sweden. With roads, cars, schools, hospitals, pensions, TV studios, everything. And at the same time say that we are not going to break copper. We need to break a tradition. We have 12 or 13 mines in operation today in Sweden. Those mines take up 0.4% of Sweden's area. We are one of the world's richer mineral sources of various minerals up here in northern Scandinavia. And it is sad for us that we have not been able to become more self-sufficient in Europe. It is time to end this trend. That is one argument for participating in this. In our case, copper costs 100 times more per ton than iron ore. It is a valuable mineral. It is a profitable mineral. This will be stable. It's a great, profitable project that you will make money on, and you will also be proud to participate in an increased self-reliance of copper production.

Jörgen, a strong conclusion to this interview and a strong conclusion to 2024 for Viscaria. Thank you very much for being with us, and above all, thank you very much to all the viewers. We look forward to seeing you on May 8.