NexGen Energy Ltd.

Good morning. My name is Elvis, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to NextGen Energy's Q3 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session at the end. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the pound key. Mr. Lee Currier, CEO and Director of NextGen Energy, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, Elvis. Welcome, and thank you all for joining NextGen Energy's Q3 2024 update and financial call. I'm Lee Currier, Chief Executive Officer of NextGen. I'm joined on today's call by Travis McPherson, Chief Commercial Officer, and Benjamin Salter, Chief financial officer. During this call, I will review our key achievements this quarter, including the latest updates from the nuclear industry, as NextGen is witnessing tremendous broad-based support on the demand side with respect to the offtake of our future production. Further, we will provide updates on the regulatory approval process for the ROOC 1 project, which is advancing well and nearing conclusion, financial highlights, and our ongoing exploration success at Paterson Corridor East announced this morning. Additionally, I'll provide an update on our sustainability and community initiatives, which remain at the core of our operations, as well as the progress made on project development and project construction financing. Following this, we encourage questions and provide open lines for all participants on today's call. We will make forward-looking statements throughout the call, So please visit our website for the relevant disclaimers. This quarter marked a transformative shift in how technology leaders view nuclear energy, particularly driven by AI's unprecedented and insatiable power demands. The industry reached a pivotal moment this quarter with major tech leaders including Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle publicly recognising nuclear energy as critical to their future operations and initiating significant financial deals at a premium to secure long-term power supply. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Hung, whose company is at the forefront of AI development, has been especially vocal about the energy challenges ahead. He emphasised that AI workloads are now demanding power equivalence to that of small nations, creating unprecedented strain on traditional power grids and requiring nuclear energy to supply this growth. This new and exponential growth in demand is on top of the growing demand globally for baseload energy as the world electrifies more broadly. Further, this demand growth is in the face of tremendous fragility of existing uranium supply, which is currently exhibiting significant sovereign risk. with 70% of the world's mine supply hosted by countries or influenced by countries in military conflict. The consequence being it is incumbent on Western world countries and their governments to immediately focus and develop multiple new mines into production, incorporating the high regulatory standards to service this demand. Otherwise, it's simple. Lights will turn off. Industry and domestic power users, families, will experience power shortages. Reliable, cost-effective power is the primary element in the standard of living, and the need for action is now. For multiple new mines to be brought online this decade, the current and enlarging demand and supply gap for uranium will result well into the next decade, and most likely at materially higher prices than currently marketed. The broader nuclear landscape continues to evolve favourably. Switzerland reversed its ban on new nuclear bills. Japan continued to revive its nuclear fleet. South Korea has returned to pro-nuclear policies, while India and China are aggressively advancing their nuclear expansion plans with a combined 41 gigawatt under construction between these two nations alone. September's world nuclear synopsis saw unprecedented interest and records sold out attendees. Discussion centred on surging demand, with utilities highlighting power grids at maximum capacity and facing exponential growth from electrification, data centres and artificial intelligence. Multiple utilities alluded to the forthcoming nuclear supply agreements, underscoring the urgency to secure their uranium supplies and support new mines to diversify the high concentration of in the two incumbents. Turning to the RUC1 project, we continue to make substantial progress on all fronts of our business, which includes detailed engineering, procurement, training and development, uranium marketing, exploration and permitting. With respect to permitting, the most critical step in unlocking the generational opportunities for all of our stakeholders, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is the federal nuclear regulator, continues to finalise and conclude the remaining aspects. We are very confident, based on our submissions, which have been 100% formalised support from our project's local Indigenous communities and leaders, the Environmental Impact Statement will be deemed final and the scheduling of the Commission hearing and subsequent licence decision immediately thereafter. Our Indigenous Nation partners are eagerly awaiting the finalisation of the Federal EIS. and the Commission hearing as this enables the project to advance through construction which will unlock game-changing opportunities for our local communities. Project development activities continue to advance with strategic focus on critical path items. The mine hoist has been ordered and commencement of fabrication. The shaft award is progressing and the advancement of detailed engineering and procurement. This ensures optimisation of the project's critical path and capital spend efficiency to maintain a ready state for construction on receipt of the final CMSC approvals. This quarter saw the installation and commissioning of a solar power plant at our existing camp, demonstrating one of our commitments to sustainable operations. The summer site activity, including our gravel crushing program, has been extended. And we've completed the majority of our 2024 geotechnical field verification program in support of continued detailed engineering activities. As reported this morning, our PCE drilling, Patterson Corridor East, has delivered exceptional results again, with the completion of our 2024 drilling campaign of more than 34,000 metres across a total of 46 holes. Upon initial discovery of the intense mineralisation at PCE, as reported on March 11, 2024, we redirected all drilling activity to focus exclusively on PCE, whereby 19 of 30 holes have now intersected mineralisation. Bold and systematic spacing of drill hole intercepts have quickly grown the discovery from a single hole to a broad and continuous new uranium discovery. Real-time evaluation of results throughout the duration of the program focus on determining the overall outer extent of the oil body and in parallel precisely targeting high-grade subdomains. As detailed earlier today, a high-grade portion has now presented itself within the overall mineralised zone of 600 metres strike length and 600 metres of depth extent. with upgraded intensity of mineralisation in the now best hole to date, RK24222. A 17-metre wide vein with multiple occurrences of off-scale greater than 61,000 counts per second mineralisation. In addition, RK24222 220 and 223 intersect in strong mineralisation of up to 41,000 CPS and 40,000 CPS respectively, including multiple intercepts of greater than 10,000 CPS. System strength is confirmed by these zones, characterised by semi-massive to massive replacement by uraninite. The high-grade subdomain of the mineralised footprint now covers 100 metres of strike extent and 170 metres of depth extent, with potential growth in all directions. The high-grade intersection in RK24222 represents the fifth drill hole at PCE to return off-scale of greater than 61,000 counts per second. Joining previous significant intersections, in 183, 197, 202 and 207. Sustainability, a cornerstone of our operations, is reflected in our transparent engagement platforms, which continue to elevate and set a new standard within Saskatchewan and the broader community, recognised by both regulatory agencies and peer companies. Over the past quarter, we significantly expanded our community mentorship and education programs. This included engaging more summer students than ever before after receiving the highest number of applicants in history of our summer student program. Our training and certification programs also expanded with more than 365 community participants this year alone. Notably, we launched our Pathways to Your Future Career in Mining program. developed and led by the NextGen team to equip community members with the knowledge and skills to explore career paths and thrive in the uranium mining industry, which is resonating across all ages within the community. Our continued investment in the community has been further validated with our nomination of several community and industry recognition awards, including being the recipient of the prestigious 2024 ABX Community Involvement Award from the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, celebrating a business that actively contributes to the betterment of their communities and demonstrates a genuine dedication to making a positive impact in areas that extend beyond the core business function. This award is reflective of NextGen's innovative and genuine community programs that are contributing to building generational change benefits. Financially, NextGen maintains a strong position with approximately 540 million CAD in cash and another 314 million CAD in strategic uranium inventory. Interest from the financial sector has intensified following Climate Week in New York, with 14 global financial institutions signing on to the Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy, which was originally launched at COP28 last year. Since that announcement, NextGen has seen even more interest in lending discussions on what will be one of the world's elite mining projects. We are evaluating the many options we have to finance the construction capital and will determine the optimal capital stack on conclusion of the final federal approvals. NextGen has significant funding options at hand to optimally construct and operate RookOne whilst maintaining low risk and high leverage to the future prices of uranium. Development at Rook 1 for the quarter and 2024 full year focuses on advanced engineering. Note, all initial stage construction programs are fully engineered. Procurement of long lead time items, project development, exploration permitting, community programs and corporate development, whilst maintaining NextGen's industry-leading ratio of G and A spend relative to project spending. No uranium mineral resource of greater than 300 million pounds worldwide has been discovered and defined through to feasibility level and provincial environmental approval as officially in terms of time and cost on a per pound basis. A direct reflection of NextGen's board, executive and team culture of elite standards in every aspect of the business. On the contracting front, following our strategic uranium purchase in May 2024, Utility interests and activity increase materially with numerous utility site visits to Rook One over the summer of 2024. We are advancing multiple off-take contract negotiations with various global utilities who demonstrate a very strong demand for NextGen's future production. These discussions are specifically focused on the need for Western world production and diversification. The focus and long-term uranium procurement is intensifying. Furthermore, we have established an exclusive relationship with WMC, a highly experienced and successful uranium marketing firm who is now exclusively marketing only for NextGen. WMC's alignment on NextGen's unique industry positioning and correlated marketing approach will further enhance NextGen's key role in the energy transition. In order to meet demand, the market needs new discoveries. The projects known, being restarted and expanded would not be enough. In fact, multiple new ROOC one-size projects must be discovered, permitted, financed and constructed in the coming years. There are currently less than a handful of projects globally in Tier 1 jurisdictions capable of reaching any level of production within the next decade. The scarcity of new projects makes our recent exploration success at Patterson Corridor East all the more significant, with the southwestern section of the Athabasca Basin presenting itself as the epicentre of future Western world mined uranium. Looking ahead, we have several exciting and highly material catalysts on the horizon, including the finalisation of the Federal Environmental Assessment Technical Year and the Commission hearing. NextGen is exceptionally well positioned to lead the nuclear energy resurgence, with RUC1 representing the largest and highest quality environmentally sensible uranium project globally in a Tier 1 jurisdiction. Our unique position in Canada's Athabasca Basin is attracting utilities seeking to diversify supply chains and reduce geographical concentration risk, a crucial advantage in today's geopolitical climate. Our commitment to excellence in all aspects of development coupled with our robust financial position and our wavering focus on sustainability, including our people, will continue to set us apart as we work to deliver this generational project. I now hand over to the operator to answer any questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the pound key. One moment, please, for your first question. Our first question comes from Alex Pierce from BMO UK. Please go ahead.