Allkem Limited

Thank you, Gavin. Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining us for Orkham's September quarterly results briefing. As usual, I will be providing an update on our business, and Christian Bavier, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, will be providing us with a market update. Also joining us for the Q&A are James Connolly, our Chief Technical Officer, and Liam Franklin, Head of Moncatling Operations, and Christian Cortez, our CFO. We have delivered yet another very strong quarter, particularly from an operational perspective. Mount Katling achieved quarterly record production and record revenue. Olaros achieved above-budget lithium carbonate production and record sales volume. We have also made solid advancements in project execution across the portfolio in line with our growth strategy. In Argentina, we are proud to have successfully achieved the milestone of first wet production at Olaros Stage 2, with commissioning activities currently underway. Ramp-up remains on track to be completed in the next 15 months. We also continue to advance the construction of Sal de Vida Stage 1 with the first two strings of ponds complete and work now underway on the carbonation plant. In Canada, we have advanced engineering and procurement at James Bay and commenced a drilling campaign to further delineate mineralization. In Japan, Naraha has demonstrated capability to run at 100% capacity and battery grade qualification with customers has commenced. Looking at the portfolio, we recently updated our projects in line with current conditions and confirmed material growth underpinned by our group resource of 40 million tons of LCE. We plan to also deliver 179,000 tons of LCE production capacity by financial year 28 across the assets. Our capital development costs, operating costs, and project schedule have been updated to reflect industry-wide inflationary conditions and in-country specific conditions. Results confirm robust economics and the Tier 1 nature of our assets and growth portfolio. We continue to be in a very strong financial position. This quarter, we generated group revenue of approximately $327 million. Group cash-operated margins remained robust at 72%. Group net cash at the end of the quarter was approximately $671 million. We continue to focus on our long-term strategy to deliver scale and product flexibility to customers and remain fully committed to the delivery and execution of our growth pipelines. The proposed merger with Livent helps us accelerate and de-risk our growth profile while driving higher vertical integration into the EV value chain. We have advanced the transaction and we're still currently targeting completion around the end of calendar year 2023. All Kemen Livent have agreed that the name of the combined company will be Arcadium Lithium PLC upon a successful merger of equals. From a sustainability perspective and starting with safety, we recorded a 12-month moving average total recordable injury frequency rate of 2.03, slightly higher than the financial year 23 result. Three recordable injuries occurred during the quarter with one resulting in a lost time injury. Investigations have subsequently been carried out with corrective options implemented. Community engagement and shared value projects continue across all our operations and regions in which we operate. Some highlights include a new physiotherapy room at Susquehanna Hospital near Oloros, following a collaborative effort with the community and the Ministry of Health. We also continue to deliver health and well-being programs to local communities at Sal de Vida. Moving to our operations at Olaros, we achieved above-budget quarterly production of 4,453 tons of lithium carbonate. 42% of this was battery grade, which was higher than the previous quarter in line with customer requirements. Strong operational performance continues with excellent plant reliability, low downtime, and high brine feedstock concentration. As previously stated, September quarter sales were expected to be higher, and we achieved record quarterly sales volume of over 4,500 tons, up 33% from the prior quarter. Sales generated a total revenue of $123 million in the quarter. Sales were completed at $25,981 per ton on an FOB basis, and cash cost of goods sold was $6,088 per tonne, up 4% quarter-on-quarter. Gross cash margins remain robust at 77%. Cost of sales over the last year have increased due to the elimination of export incentives, the rise of material costs including soda ash, lime, labour and energy, which have been impacted by inflation. However, these impacts have been in large part mitigated by improved operational performance, brain concentration, and higher recoveries. Over time, unit costs will be offset as we progressively increase production volumes from stage two, where we will focus on achieving product volumes and quality specifications over the next 15 months of the ramp-up period. Production achieved a quarterly record with over 72,500 tons of spodumene concentrate produced at 5.3% lithium oxide grade. This was a 25% increase from prior quarter and in line with the financial year 24 production forecast of 210 to 230,000 tons. We shipped over 76,600 tons of spodumene concentrate, a generated record quarterly revenue of $201 million at an average price of $2,625 per dry metric ton on a CIS basis. The gross cash margin remained robust at 69% and was based on low cost of production of $636 per ton for the quarter. Costs were lower due to higher production volumes and recoveries compared to the previous quarters. Positively, we have also received regulatory approval for stage 4 cutback and mining commenced in early October. At Naraha, the scheduled maintenance shutdown was complete during the quarter and planned performance demonstrated capability to run at 100% capacity. 526 tons of lithium hydroxide were sold and we also commenced the battery grade hydroxide qualification process with customers. At Sal de Vida, we have completed construction of the first two strings of ponds. The brine distribution system is complete, and the booster stations have also been commissioned. The third string of ponds is well advanced and over 63% complete. Engineering of the process plant is at 66% completion, procurement is at 70%, and construction is approximately at 13%. After a rigorous review of our cost and schedule, we gained a better understanding of our execution plans, factoring in the ongoing import challenges and delays experienced in country and regional productivity factors. We released our first project update since early 2022 with revised SOPEX for stage one and the combined stage one and two, which both remain highly competitive. CAPEX for stage one and stage two also increase in line with inflationary condition with stage two benefiting from stage one. Substantial mechanical completion, pre-commissioning and commissioning activities are expected by the first half of calendar 2025 with first production expected in the second half of 2025 and ramp up expected to take one year. Stage two construction is anticipated to commence upon receipt of applicable permit and substantial mechanical completion of stage one, with stage two first production approximately two and a half to three years thereafter. Similarly, we updated James Day mineral resources and all reserves, project cost, and project economics. This is the first update since late 2021. The total mineral resource increased by 173% from the previous estimate to 110.2 million tons at 1.3% lithium oxide grade. CAPEX and OPEX have increased in line with inflationary conditions, but overall remain very competitive, supporting a very attractive economic result. Engineering and procurement advanced to 84% completion by the end of the quarter, with a process plant package at 87% completion. Stakeholder and community engagement remains very positive, The IBA with the Cree First Nations remains in progress and has resumed after the recent state of emergency arising from the forest fires. The environmental and social impact approval draft report was completed in September by the Quebec government personnel and submitted to COMEX for review and final evaluation. A 40,000 meters drilling campaign commenced in late September. 30,000 of which will target further definition of the ore body. The remainder of the program will target possible extensions to the mineralization and newly identified targets. We also released our first project update to Cautiari since 2019, supporting a base case of 25,000 tons per annum production capacity coming online in the second half of calendar year 27. The study demonstrates the value of the project on a standalone basis. We do see substantial opportunities to integrate this asset into our Olaroth complex, and these opportunities would likely to reduce capital and operating costs. We are investigating this as part of our Olaroth Stage 3 expansion studies. I will now hand over to Christian Barbier, who will provide us with a market update.

Thank you, Martin. Good morning, everyone. It has been an interesting past few months. The price volatility we've observed is a function of the relative immaturity of the industry and the high degree of sentiment that influences pricing outcomes that come with this immaturity, despite strong fundamentals and the mismatches along the uniquely long battery supply chain as capacity grows. The lithium market balance remains fragile. Demand is growing at a pace that almost any other industry would envy a fraction of. Even if the increase this year has been somewhat slower than expected last year, resulting in a catch-up of supply. At the same time, delays may easily move the market back into deficit. Despite expectations of a wave of lithium supply this calendar year, it has not materialized, as projects have taken longer to commission or ramp up to name plates, and longer-to-reach production specifications. This fact is often overlooked. Initial supplies seldom meet battery-grade specs and require further processing, thus again undershooting supply expectations. We believe the electrification trend remains on track. EV sales remain on course to increase 35 percent year-on-year to 14 million unit sales in calendar year 2023. in defiance of global macroeconomic headwinds. China and the U.S. are reaching milestones in terms of EV sales and penetration rates. And ESS performance continues to grow strongly across the globe as energy storage targets are announced or expanded. During the quarter, OrCam delivered strong sales performance, reaching record sales volume across carbonates and spodumene-concentrated products. demonstrating the strength and the resilience of our customer portfolio. Production performance at Olaroff and Mount Capri remained very strong over the quarter, which meant that our carbonate inventory didn't drop as much as targeted. However, our order book for the December quarter is quite full already, and we expect another very strong sales day. Again, during the past quarter, we've been able to achieve pricing above industry average. thus maximizing value for our shareholders. It's also worth mentioning that a significant part of sales contracts is now priced subsequent to shipping dates. When six or 12 months ago, all was priced before shipment. This industry trend is quite widespread in China and significantly reduces the time lag of our average pricing compared with the main indices. And it will also provide more reactivity now that prices have likely bottomed out. Thank you. I will now hand back to Martin.

Thank you, Christian. And I will now hand back to Gavin to commence the Q&A session.