Speaker 1: Kyota. Welcome to Shared Lunch, brought to you by Sarsy's.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan Brunskill. Today on Shared Lunch, we're
Speaker 1: joined by Damien Spring, CEO of Santana Minerals, to talk
Speaker 1: about their new listing on the Inside X, the new
Speaker 1: gold mine near Queenstown, and the government's fast tracked legislation
Speaker 1: and more. But before we get started, here's some important information.
Speaker 2: Investing involves risk. You might lose the money you start with.
Speaker 2: We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor. We also
Speaker 2: recommend reading product of Schlosure documents before deciding to invest.
Speaker 2: Everything you're about to see and here is current at
Speaker 2: the time of recording.
Speaker 1: Damien, thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 3: Glad to be here.
Speaker 1: Busy week for you. Absolutely did you you just newly
Speaker 1: listed on the Inside X So did you get to
Speaker 1: ring the bell?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, actually, our founding director of Matakanai Gold and his
Speaker 4: ZEEM subsidiary Combunting, got that privilege. Here's the guy who
Speaker 4: drove the discovery, so he rang it first and then
Speaker 4: the whole team got their hands on there.
Speaker 1: I wanted to I wanted to ask you about the
Speaker 1: discoveries because because they have interesting names. I think the
Speaker 1: one we're talking about is called Raise and Shine. Another
Speaker 1: one's called common Time, and there's Shrek and Shrek East,
Speaker 1: which I don't know why it wasn't Shrek too, my
Speaker 1: personal favorite. But where do you cut with his names?
Speaker 4: Well, the first two historic names, they're from the eighteen
Speaker 4: sixties through the nineteen twenties though mind so yeah, Rise
Speaker 4: and Shine just good old prospectors' names from that era.
Speaker 4: And I guess Shrek's is acknowledgment of the big wooly
Speaker 4: sheep that was found twenty years ago this year.
Speaker 1: Got it is that from the same region.
Speaker 4: From Benego Station, were one of half the land that
Speaker 4: were lyon has been to go and the other half
Speaker 4: out here.
Speaker 1: Are you still looking for new discoveries?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, it's a very prospective area and continue to explore.
Speaker 1: Tell us what is this discovery, what have you found?
Speaker 1: Why are you excited about it?
Speaker 4: Look, it's a half million ounces at a grade of
Speaker 4: two point one grands per ton or parts per million.
Speaker 3: It's on the.
Speaker 4: World scale, that is right up there. There's not many
Speaker 4: other undeveloped new discoveries of that order in the world
Speaker 4: right now. And it's we're really excited about it. You know,
Speaker 4: I was working in the area or living in the
Speaker 4: area really, and when the opportunity came on board came up,
Speaker 4: I knew about the project and took the opportunity with
Speaker 4: both ham.
Speaker 1: So how long have you been looking at this? You
Speaker 1: said it's a sort of historical gold gold area.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's how we find things, look where the
Speaker 4: old timers were. But really the discovery hole was made
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty one, where after prospecting in the valley's
Speaker 4: Sentana Mineral bought the project off. Metacnoy Gold funded seven
Speaker 4: million dollars of expiration and James Bond whole Double O
Speaker 4: seven drilled forty meters at two grands per ton. So
Speaker 4: they followed it up with obviously a lot more drilling.
Speaker 4: We've drawed over three hundred holes now across the project
Speaker 4: and it's just turned into a world class deposit.
Speaker 1: So Double A seven the seventh hole you dug, correct,
Speaker 1: hit gold. Yes, that's good. That's good, okay, And the
Speaker 1: technical terms about how how much gold there is in
Speaker 1: the ground may be lost on me and listeners, but
Speaker 1: it's a.
Speaker 4: Good oh, absolutely, And I guess the reason we put
Speaker 4: out our scoping study earliest earlier this year was to
Speaker 4: actually put some more palatable metrics around it, in particularly
Speaker 4: on the financial side of things. So yeah, it's a
Speaker 4: fantastic project. It's going to deliver four point four billion
Speaker 4: dollars over ten years on what we know at that
Speaker 4: point in time was half the resource, and deliver potentially
Speaker 4: six percent of that value in the ground to New
Speaker 4: Zealanders either through taxes, royalties or dividends to our current
Speaker 4: existing forty percent New Zealand based shareholders. But we hope
Speaker 4: to grow with our recent listening yesterday, of.
Speaker 1: Course, congratulate. Talk to me about that because you're an
Speaker 1: Australian registered company ASX listed. You know, people on cheersa's
Speaker 1: and professional traders can buy and sell on the AX.
Speaker 1: What made you want to come over to the inzid
Speaker 1: X and set up a secondary listing here? What's the
Speaker 1: what's the benefit of doing so?
Speaker 3: Oh, look at it.
Speaker 4: It's demonstrating our intent, you know it as a New
Speaker 4: Zealand discovery. It will be developed in mind predominantly by
Speaker 4: New Zealanders for themselves and for their families and the community.
Speaker 4: I guess in terms of why specifically on the inziet X.
Speaker 4: It is a given the ability for those investors, whether
Speaker 4: retail or institutional, to trade in New Zealand currency without
Speaker 4: worrying about that forts issue. And ultimately, when we do
Speaker 4: start declaring dividends that hopefully we can do it in
Speaker 4: New Zealand dollars and get whatever franking credits are available
Speaker 4: at that point in time.
Speaker 1: You said about forty percent of your register on New Zealanders.
Speaker 1: Do you expect that to change and shift and grow potentially?
Speaker 4: Oh, look at there is that expectation. Ultimately, it gives
Speaker 4: us two platforms in which to grow the company here
Speaker 4: in New Zealand. Then of course the A six and
Speaker 4: we'll be looking for a final investment decision sometime next year,
Speaker 4: which will also be looking to capital raise to build
Speaker 4: the mine.
Speaker 1: Of course, how much do you think you will need
Speaker 1: to raise?
Speaker 4: Scope and study indicated about two and fifty million dollars
Speaker 4: in New Zealand and we're looking at a number of
Speaker 4: options as you expect, over a coming months to see
Speaker 4: how we're going to raise that money.
Speaker 1: And when you see options, you mean maybe a mix
Speaker 1: of reason capital.
Speaker 3: Debt, debt and equity predominant.
Speaker 1: Yes, have you taken on any sort of obviously on
Speaker 1: the sheer markets, you investors can come along. Have you
Speaker 1: taken on any big institutional investors for this project or
Speaker 1: it's been.
Speaker 4: Through them attacking of gold. They were well backed originally
Speaker 4: by High Networks in New Zealand never remained loyal to
Speaker 4: the company through the Santana acquiring a Takenery Gold. So
Speaker 4: right now, in terms of the A six, we really
Speaker 4: only have one institutional investor that's Regal They're number one,
Speaker 4: and the rest are helped still held bi predominantly by
Speaker 4: High Networks. So look as we definitely move into that
Speaker 4: construction phase, we expect that institutional buying will be there.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like Santana is quite focused on New
Speaker 1: Zealand and this project in particular. Do you have other
Speaker 1: projects going on? Is this one of many minds? What
Speaker 1: else does do you do?
Speaker 4: No, So, Santana is essentially an expiration company now looking
Speaker 4: to be a development company and ultimately a gold producer.
Speaker 4: So yes, we do have a couple of projects, one
Speaker 4: in Mexico that we're divesting and also a one in
Speaker 4: Cambodia which we're just earning. Have a partner there who's
Speaker 4: earning an interest in that doing all the work, so
Speaker 4: we'll just sit there quietly and let them do the
Speaker 4: work and hopefully grow that project on its own right.
Speaker 4: But so yeah, we're really focused on the bend to
Speaker 4: go over goal project that toownnumber one focus.
Speaker 1: So you've previously been exploration. Is this your first foray
Speaker 1: into actually pulling the gold out of.
Speaker 4: The ground In terms of the company, Santana absolutely, but
Speaker 4: it was spun out of a previous deal about ten
Speaker 4: years ago in Mexico, so the assets that were not
Speaker 4: required for that transaction were put into Santana. And as
Speaker 4: the way of our industry, you know, we have these
Speaker 4: junior explorers who are out there looking at the ground
Speaker 4: first on the ground to see if they can make
Speaker 4: a discovery, and ultimately, if they do make a discovery,
Speaker 4: transition to a developer or get picked up by existing producer.
Speaker 4: So I guess really as a company we're new, but
Speaker 4: as a team, as a people, we're very experienced. Peter
Speaker 4: Cook our non executive chairman, he's a very successful builder
Speaker 4: of minds and mining companies and one of note was
Speaker 4: west Gold. There's now well in excess of a billion
Speaker 4: dollars market cap, and a number of others in my
Speaker 4: team that I've selected over the last six months to
Speaker 4: be on the ground down there. I've all got their
Speaker 4: extensive careers in mining, both in Australia and New Zealand,
Speaker 4: and particularly with their own experiences in New Zealand, they've
Speaker 4: already got that in New Zealand context.
Speaker 1: Co goo back to something you said earlier. You said
Speaker 1: the way to find gold is look where the old
Speaker 1: time has looked. What has changed between now and then,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing it's technological advance that means you can get
Speaker 1: the goal that they maybe knew was there but didn't
Speaker 1: pull up.
Speaker 4: Well, there's a couple of things. Is the grade. You know,
Speaker 4: they are mining thirty grams per ton as a moniment
Speaker 4: that outstir it, as we call it. So we're mining
Speaker 4: potentially two and a half, probably a little bit higher initially,
Speaker 4: maybe up to five grands.
Speaker 1: It's how much gold is in each bit of dirt.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very much of the rock that actually contains the goal.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of rock that we have to move
Speaker 4: to expose that rock, and then we process it.
Speaker 3: So there's a.
Speaker 4: Grade, and then there's knowledge and science that's developed over
Speaker 4: the one hundred and fifty years and then probably longer actually,
Speaker 4: But the point now that we really understart to understand
Speaker 4: the little bit of clues that the ground gives us.
Speaker 4: And of course we've got the experience of McCrae's mccray's
Speaker 4: gold mine near Dunedin, owned by Oceana Gold. They've been
Speaker 4: operating for now thirty four years and produce over five
Speaker 4: million ounces. Very similar geometry and geology, slight differences in
Speaker 4: grade and metallurgy to our advantage. But there's a lot
Speaker 4: of learnings and that one of them was that had
Speaker 4: these northerly trends on their deposits which helped drive that
Speaker 4: discovery whole double seven.
Speaker 1: So that gives you some confidence about what you found
Speaker 1: in tap.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah, that's our bread and butter.
Speaker 1: Your pitch to investors say this project could produce between
Speaker 1: your one point one million of ounces of gold and
Speaker 1: that could mean one point one billion to two billion
Speaker 1: dollars of net profits over ten years. But a lot
Speaker 1: of that depends on the gold price. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about the outlook for the gold price. How do you
Speaker 1: think about that, because it's quite high at the.
Speaker 4: Moment right it is quite high ourscoping study was actually
Speaker 4: done on a conservative long term goal price of sixteen
Speaker 4: fifty US or twenty seven hundred. Key, we even on
Speaker 4: that metric produce that, as you say, one billion dollars
Speaker 4: net profit after tax. But going forward, yes, we're definitely
Speaker 4: at record pricing right now for gold. It obviously has
Speaker 4: a gold mine. It's pleasing to see and definitely drives
Speaker 4: a lot of interest. Where it ends up is beyond
Speaker 4: our control. Definitely say that because it's an international commodity
Speaker 4: that's well traded. What we have to do is we
Speaker 4: get our project up, get our capital, get our project up,
Speaker 4: manage our bottom line, our costs, and ensure that there
Speaker 4: is a margin there. And look at almost two and
Speaker 4: a half thousand dollars key, we announce there's plenty of margin.
Speaker 1: And yeah, got goal process tend to Yeah, what is
Speaker 1: the lowest it can go before you have to pull
Speaker 1: the plug on the project? Do you have do you
Speaker 1: have a goal price in your head that if it
Speaker 1: gets to that you're in trouble.
Speaker 4: Oh, look it's well below two thousand, seven hundred. See
Speaker 4: that was a conservative pricing and we still made a profit.
Speaker 1: What is it now?
Speaker 3: Through thirty nine I think it was.
Speaker 4: Over four thousand week back over over that price. So
Speaker 4: it's I guess it's it's a commodity that is complex,
Speaker 4: it's well traded. It goes up when it goes up,
Speaker 4: and it goes down when it goes down. And you
Speaker 4: can pick the drivers for that, I guess right now
Speaker 4: at central bank buying, but also a little bit uncertainty
Speaker 4: and international geopolitical scene as well as financials. But we'll
Speaker 4: take whatever the price is at the time we start producing,
Speaker 4: and that's what it will be.
Speaker 1: So you've scoped the project at a price of two thousand,
Speaker 1: seven hundred US, so it's profitable at seven thousand, two thousand, seven.
Speaker 3: Hundred absolutely one billion dollars.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's the one billion, and then the two billion
Speaker 1: dollars is at the current price at.
Speaker 3: Three nine hundred actuals. Is spot back in April when
Speaker 3: we release that report.
Speaker 1: Very interesting in terms of what drives the price. You
Speaker 1: just referenced central bank buying there, What about just things
Speaker 1: like in tech components and jewelry and what would call
Speaker 1: it practical uses? Is z drove the price much? Is
Speaker 1: it all about the store of value?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 4: Look, no doubt, I'm not much of a student on
Speaker 4: that goal, pricing on the mining engineer by trade, but
Speaker 4: absolutely I think the technological applications are a big part
Speaker 4: of it. I think, you know, there's a little bit
Speaker 4: of gold and everybody's smartphone a very small amount, I think,
Speaker 4: less than ten bucks, but it is something. I don't
Speaker 4: know how many smartphones are in the world, but I
Speaker 4: think there was a lot.
Speaker 1: A respect tore the not the gold experting. We ask
Speaker 1: one more question because as a retail investor show, and
Speaker 1: that is gold suddenly has a competitor in being store
Speaker 1: of value bitcoin, which people love and call it digital gold.
Speaker 1: How do you think about that? Are you worried that that,
Speaker 1: you know, bitcoin is going to displace gold?
Speaker 4: Not really really, I don't know much about cryptocurrencies. I
Speaker 4: think people like the idea of a physical store of wealth,
Speaker 4: and of course it does create its own physical industry.
Speaker 4: You know, we're going to have two hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: direct jobs at our operation down in Central Otaga. That
Speaker 4: will spawn at least three other jobs through free full
Speaker 4: time jobs, so be close to a thousand new jobs
Speaker 4: in the Central Otago region. So that's I guess widespread
Speaker 4: real economic driving activity versus yes, sorry crypto again, don't
Speaker 4: know anything about it.
Speaker 1: Don't want to pick a fight today. I guess one's
Speaker 1: one's one's one has a longer history. I suppose it's exactly.
Speaker 3: I love Millennia long. Hey.
Speaker 1: You mentioned earlier that the people working on this Maine
Speaker 1: will be New Zealanders. I've also heard that our workforce
Speaker 1: is limited there and people who have been involved in
Speaker 1: mining have gone overseas. Present me that many projects talk
Speaker 1: to me about the workforce as available, and where do
Speaker 1: you think it will come from.
Speaker 3: Look, there's three Q areas.
Speaker 4: I think our workforce will come from there. They'll be
Speaker 4: like me, They've been there a long time. They've chosen
Speaker 4: to live in central Otago maintain their links to the industry.
Speaker 4: I was lucky enough to work predominantly remote. How a
Speaker 4: cell phone had international airport. It's I can jump on
Speaker 4: the plane or drive drive to any of my client's mines.
Speaker 4: There'll be others who are fly and fly out for
Speaker 4: actually going to operate at mines rather than work remote
Speaker 4: out of that area. There'll be Kiwis and others who
Speaker 4: are working fly and fly out in Western Australia enjoying
Speaker 4: the money. But two weeks or one week away from
Speaker 4: their family for three weeks puts a toll on things.
Speaker 4: So they may be looking to change their lifestyle, staying
Speaker 4: the game that they love being a part of, and
Speaker 4: look to relocate. And of course there'll be people want
Speaker 4: to get a bit of this new industry called gold
Speaker 4: mining in Central Otago who again are already there and
Speaker 4: just want to change jobs and join us.
Speaker 1: So you could imagine some of the Kiwis who are
Speaker 1: mining in Australia coming back to work on a new
Speaker 1: Zealand project.
Speaker 3: Aolutely.
Speaker 4: I know people are who are aware of this project
Speaker 4: and aware of their mates already in the industry over there.
Speaker 4: To the text them say when you're coming back.
Speaker 1: Your mind is not yet consented, correct, And you're hoping
Speaker 1: to be part of this new government fast tracked legislation
Speaker 1: that could speed up that whole process. It's currently making
Speaker 1: its way through parliament. Do you expect to be one
Speaker 1: of the projects that is listed in the Schedule A
Speaker 1: Schedule B that is automatically included in the legislation.
Speaker 4: Look, we have applied for a Schedule two A. We
Speaker 4: haven't made a much deal about it because, as you say,
Speaker 4: the bill is still going through Parliament. It's actually at
Speaker 4: the Environment Select Committee stage and they're due to report
Speaker 4: back in a few months time. On the back of that,
Speaker 4: the second reading, the bill will have it second reading
Speaker 4: in Parliament and we'll hopefully see what happens with that
Speaker 4: Scheduled two A or Schedule two B.
Speaker 1: Right, the bill's relatively controversial, one of the most controversial
Speaker 1: things the government's doing at the moment. Do you have
Speaker 1: a backup plan for if it doesn't make it or
Speaker 1: if it gets ubstantially changed.
Speaker 4: Well, Fast Track Approval Bill is actually my Plan B,
Speaker 4: my Plan AA, given my background working for another ASX
Speaker 4: company that is one hundred percent New Zealand Bathist Resources,
Speaker 4: was to follow the Resource Management Act and submit our
Speaker 4: applications at the end of this year. So we've been
Speaker 4: working since I've joined the company that started last year
Speaker 4: to gather the information, particularly around the environmental baseline overlay
Speaker 4: that with our mining plans, come up with a mitigation
Speaker 4: or offseting conversations allowed for under the RMA, and put
Speaker 4: the application at the end of this year. So look,
Speaker 4: this Plan B that I've called it, the Fast Track
Speaker 4: Approvals Bill as popped up, would certainly take full advantage
Speaker 4: of it. As you know, it's an over arching piece
Speaker 4: of legislation, palls and six acts, including the ROMA. The
Speaker 4: requirements under those individual six acts I think of which
Speaker 4: four we need permissions from those requirements still stand, so
Speaker 4: we still have to follow the processes under the ROMA
Speaker 4: to mitigate our effects and continue consultation, which is a
Speaker 4: big part of what we do, talking to our community,
Speaker 4: talking to our neighbors, talking to Manifenoa, and we expect
Speaker 4: that when we do put our application at the end
Speaker 4: of this year or early next year, that we've done
Speaker 4: it with the best of our ability at that point
Speaker 4: in time.
Speaker 1: So am I understanding there that the application you're submitting
Speaker 1: and the requirements you will face are the same under
Speaker 1: each process, just ones faster.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess Fast Track Approvals Bill is really a
Speaker 4: one stop shop. You know, it's those six acts. We
Speaker 4: put one application to cover all the permissions under those
Speaker 4: six acts, four of the six acts that we need
Speaker 4: those permissions. As we understand it, with the current version,
Speaker 4: the expert Panel have six months to make a recommendation
Speaker 4: to the Minister and then the Minister has that decision
Speaker 4: to grant or otherwise those conditions.
Speaker 1: So what's the timeline under Plan A.
Speaker 4: Oh, look at part of our submission to the Environment
Speaker 4: Select Committee was that the the Plan A through the
Speaker 4: normal RMA process, that's what we call a two step process.
Speaker 4: We put your application, it all your consultation, put your
Speaker 4: application in publicly notified. Sometime months after that, you get
Speaker 4: a public hearing, lots of public anyone in the public
Speaker 4: can make a submission on it. The commissioners reveal the
Speaker 4: evidence and then confirm or otherwise the conditions of the
Speaker 4: consent or decline it for whatever reason. Then because of
Speaker 4: the way it works for the last eighty years of
Speaker 4: the Act thirty three years of the Act is there's
Speaker 4: options to go to the Environment Court to appeal aspects
Speaker 4: where we all start again.
Speaker 3: So that does.
Speaker 4: Push the timeline out and I guess it is a
Speaker 4: rest for us. You know, we can't we don't want
Speaker 4: to be sitting around fighting things out in court where
Speaker 4: my goal always do a very good job on the
Speaker 4: science first, and then the consultation, understanding people's issues and
Speaker 4: at least giving them the opportunity to review our science
Speaker 4: and our mitigation before we that application.
Speaker 1: The Resources Minister Shane Jones has said that one of
Speaker 1: the big poems mining industry faces in New Zealand is
Speaker 1: social license, this idea that maybe the New Zealand public
Speaker 1: doesn't trust you necessarily. How do you go about winning
Speaker 1: the trust of New Zealanders to say we can be
Speaker 1: trusted with this piece of the environment, we'll look after it,
Speaker 1: will look after our neighbors can convince us.
Speaker 4: The idea of social license probably decades old. I've been
Speaker 4: aware of it for a long time. I've heard it
Speaker 4: being described in the Patagonia, where I've also worked for
Speaker 4: a T six listed company that we had to make
Speaker 4: it very clear, it's not a piece of paper that
Speaker 4: we get, here's our social license. It is a case
Speaker 4: of talking to people, introducing yourself if you ever met
Speaker 4: them before, let them know the background. And certainly in
Speaker 4: my case, I'm a local. I've lived in theretown twenty years.
Speaker 4: So the projects are now depending on with bad traffic
Speaker 4: up to the project. So we're here for the long term.
Speaker 4: We're not an overseas company here to take the profit.
Speaker 4: Mind take the profits and disappear again. So it's about
Speaker 4: ensuring we're firing following the leader of the law at Urma.
Speaker 4: As it stands today, and then whatever it is under
Speaker 4: the Fast Track Approval S Bill, that we're doing our
Speaker 4: work to the highest possible standard in terms of mining
Speaker 4: on the international scene, not just in New Zealand, and
Speaker 4: that we listen as best as we can and take
Speaker 4: on as best as we can those concerns for our proposal,
Speaker 4: but also highlight the benefits of our project, you know,
Speaker 4: the jobs creation, the service industry that we've built up.
Speaker 3: And what we call.
Speaker 4: The continued sustainable economic development of Otago and particular that
Speaker 4: started in eighteen sixty with the discovery of gold.
Speaker 1: Well, what are the environmental impacts of the project? Obviously
Speaker 1: you dig a big hole in the ground, what else happens?
Speaker 4: I love the main concerns. I think around water, a
Speaker 4: little bit of dust, traffic, you know, it's probably quite low,
Speaker 4: low population area, and you know, flora and fauna. So
Speaker 4: those all things that we've spent a couple of million
Speaker 4: dollars already understanding what's out there. You know, when a
Speaker 4: project of our scale comes into an area that's already
Speaker 4: sort of well known, we actually take the level of
Speaker 4: scientific understanding a couple of waters of magnitude up. You know,
Speaker 4: we've had I had one day this year where I
Speaker 4: called it the peak ecologist Day. We had about a
Speaker 4: dozen people on site and we've only got a dozen employees.
Speaker 4: A dozen ecologists on site looking at invertebrates, lizards, tatamea, pests,
Speaker 4: all sorts of things to really get a handle on
Speaker 4: what's out there. So look, it's it's one of our
Speaker 4: key things to get this project going.
Speaker 1: The actual place you're mining is farmland, correct, Yeah, so
Speaker 1: presumably not too many lizards.
Speaker 4: Look at the whole of a target's got lizards and
Speaker 4: it's well known. So look, it is cheap beef country.
Speaker 4: It's a hell country. It's not flats. So yeah, look
Speaker 4: it's I don't want to say it's degraded.
Speaker 3: It is what it is.
Speaker 4: You know, whatever remnants of the original native ecology are there.
Speaker 4: That's one of the things we've focused on trying and
Speaker 4: understand that. Also, you know, the grasses and the other
Speaker 4: introduced species into the land. We expect that part of
Speaker 4: our application under the RMA and Fast Train Bill will
Speaker 4: be to demonstrate a no net loss to the environment
Speaker 4: and potentially a net game so pest control eliminating a
Speaker 4: lot of pests over a large hundreds of hectares of land.
Speaker 4: It will be a big plus and as well trying
Speaker 4: to preserve what we do find there.
Speaker 1: How supportive for this project is having a government that
Speaker 1: is taking a more pro mining stance than it has previously.
Speaker 3: I think it's positive.
Speaker 4: I think it's the world we live in, mining in
Speaker 4: everything we have, even either growing or mine, nothing in between,
Speaker 4: all right. So I think one of the moments for
Speaker 4: me this year with the turnaround in mining was a
Speaker 4: debate I watched on Parliamentary TV between five I think
Speaker 4: of the six major parties in Parliament debating the merits
Speaker 4: or otherwise of mining. And that's something I would not
Speaker 4: have seen even a year ago. So the fact that
Speaker 4: the three leaders of the coalition party were debating it
Speaker 4: and a couple of the opposition parties we're debating it
Speaker 4: either for or against or neutral was a positive thing.
Speaker 1: With the government. They're the ones who get to decide
Speaker 1: what goes in that schedule too. A you're talking about
Speaker 1: you have you met with them and made your case.
Speaker 4: Oh, look at the processes. It's pretty remote. You fill
Speaker 4: out a form and it goes online and they need
Speaker 4: to do what they need to do to come back
Speaker 4: through official channels to us follow up questions. So that's
Speaker 4: that process where it sits with the people who run
Speaker 4: that process. Other than that, years we've had mister Jones
Speaker 4: on site to show him, give him a sense of Hey,
Speaker 4: this is what we're about and this is the scene,
Speaker 4: the area we're in, so he's got a physical experience
Speaker 4: of what we're proposing rather something that's esoteric. And of
Speaker 4: course we've hosted him in Perth. To my directors, including
Speaker 4: our chair live in Perth, so he was hosted there
Speaker 4: to understand the Australian mining scene, including a meeting with
Speaker 4: the current or former Consulate for Western Australia.
Speaker 1: And you were planning this project obviously long before the
Speaker 1: new government came in, so you obviously thought it was possible.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Look, being local, I understood the potential change in the
Speaker 4: political scene, but I didn't highlight that to the boards.
Speaker 4: You know at the time there was two Kiwis on
Speaker 4: the board anyway, So I was quite prepared to continue
Speaker 4: with the RMA under the previous government. I think this
Speaker 4: projects of such national significance that it you need to
Speaker 4: bring real primary export dollars that with the post COVID economy,
Speaker 4: that we've been left with that. It was a real
Speaker 4: chance of being part of that, even the previous government's
Speaker 4: ticket to getting back in the black.
Speaker 1: You said that you'll need to raise capital to do
Speaker 1: the development. I think you said two and fifty million,
Speaker 1: and you sort of looking at one to two billion
Speaker 1: dollars of net profit over the next ten years. What
Speaker 1: year would the development turn cash flow positive if everything
Speaker 1: goes to plan.
Speaker 4: So based on our scalping study, that's all those numbers
Speaker 4: you've quoted, and we've got a pre feasibility coming out
Speaker 4: towards the end of the year that'll update all date
Speaker 4: and hopefully grow the size of the project somewhat. But
Speaker 4: in short, the answer is one year after we start
Speaker 4: pouring gold, we've paid back all our.
Speaker 1: Capital, okay, and one year after you start pulling gold.
Speaker 1: It would be what year? And I guess it depends
Speaker 1: when you get the consent.
Speaker 3: Well, that's true.
Speaker 4: So on terms of actual calendar timelines, if we put
Speaker 4: our application and early next year after our PFS, the
Speaker 4: panel's got six months to make that recommendation, so we
Speaker 4: expect about this time next year we'll have that decision.
Speaker 4: We would have done our financing ready to push the button,
Speaker 4: so we could have buckets in the ground before the
Speaker 4: end of twenty twenty five, probably third quarter twenty twenty five,
Speaker 4: and just to be clear, that'll be just small works,
Speaker 4: just to set up the scene so that we can
Speaker 4: control our water discharge if it happens to rain. It's
Speaker 4: a very dry area, set up our rating before we
Speaker 4: get start things in anger. That's a timeline of probably
Speaker 4: at least a year, meaning that potentially end of twenty
Speaker 4: twenty six could be poor in gold. But that's detail
Speaker 4: that will come out in the PFSK cool.
Speaker 1: What are the risks facing this project? You know, what
Speaker 1: keeps you up at night? That timeline looks nice, looks good.
Speaker 1: What's your kind of what's your kind of What are
Speaker 1: the risks that investors and you should be thinking about?
Speaker 3: Risk?
Speaker 4: Yeah, everything's a risk in mining, and we're managing that
Speaker 4: every day, either financial, geological, mining, community relations, it's every day.
Speaker 4: So we're just going to make sure my people are
Speaker 4: well resourced, they're confident if they need something, that they
Speaker 4: get it, and that we respond to community concerns or
Speaker 4: anybody's concerns.
Speaker 1: So I guess in my mad I can sort of
Speaker 1: think of two fairly large risks. One would be cost blowouts.
Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of that over the past few years.
Speaker 1: Even if the goal prices ses where it is, what's
Speaker 1: the chances that the cost of pulling out the ground
Speaker 1: just ends up being more than you expect.
Speaker 4: It's record goal prices in terms of cost escalation. We've
Speaker 4: seen those costs come plateau out across most industries, but
Speaker 4: particularly in the mining industry. That's definitely happened. I guess
Speaker 4: Along those lines are obviously the workforce where they're going
Speaker 4: to come from. It's still a bit of an unknown,
Speaker 4: but again a fantastic project. It's going to attract the
Speaker 4: best and a fantastic place to live. I think these
Speaker 4: are all positives that some of those risks mitigated.
Speaker 1: So we talked about the environmental effects. There's also a
Speaker 1: community surrounding this area, local EWE people who just live there.
Speaker 1: What do they think of the mind going in next door?
Speaker 1: What consultation have you had with them?
Speaker 4: Look in terms of EWE, we've been in contact with
Speaker 4: them since it was an expiration project. Only since I joined.
Speaker 4: We've been very exhaustive in our contact, particularly through their
Speaker 4: consultancy arm for the RMA al Cajenen based in Dunedin
Speaker 4: to bring them up to speed that we've found something
Speaker 4: and it's definitely worth putting a bit of effort in here.
Speaker 4: So we have regular catch ups with that group. We
Speaker 4: have other touch points with Mana Finowa throughout the down South.
Speaker 4: In terms of the community. We've been active with the
Speaker 4: local Business South Chamber of Commerce even hosted eighty people
Speaker 4: in Cromwell last night to really allow them a chance
Speaker 4: to understand what the project is and what it means
Speaker 4: for them as both individuals, for their families but also
Speaker 4: for their businesses with that obviously commercial bent to it.
Speaker 4: And then there's the more general groups. The society is
Speaker 4: the rotoract of the lions to just let them know
Speaker 4: because they are all people who have best key to
Speaker 4: understand what that means to them and obviously to the environment.
Speaker 4: But of course there's now the people who will be
Speaker 4: directly affected by the project, whether it's through that the
Speaker 4: traffic that will access up into the mountains, or the
Speaker 4: thoughts about the water, where it's going to come on,
Speaker 4: what are we going to do with it, where is
Speaker 4: it going to go, how we're going to control our
Speaker 4: effects on the land. Those conversations are started, and as
Speaker 4: I said, we've got a lot more work to do,
Speaker 4: and ultimately we'll try and be as transparent as we
Speaker 4: can be. We've also got a certain amount of disclosure
Speaker 4: rules under the ASEX we have to be mindful of.
Speaker 4: But I hope to have up a website in the
Speaker 4: coming month or so that the public can access and understand, Hey,
Speaker 4: what are they doing for water monitoring? While there's the results,
Speaker 4: they can click on and see the results and see
Speaker 4: the certificates from the labs that have done the results.
Speaker 1: And you talked about engaging with monofena. What sort of
Speaker 1: things are they interested in? What are they worried about?
Speaker 4: I guess the flora and fauna tatami is somewhat prevalent
Speaker 4: at high altitudes. Not directly we're proposing our mind, but
Speaker 4: there they wanted to see. They protected water, you know why.
Speaker 4: It's very important as we know, and it's important to
Speaker 4: everyone right I drinking it.
Speaker 3: And of course it is a known.
Speaker 4: Pathway from the coastal communities into the Klutha or the
Speaker 4: mata al for in times, path particularly for food gathering
Speaker 4: and pathways so west coast for partonami. So those are
Speaker 4: all factors from an environment and historical point of view.
Speaker 4: But of course you know this is the opportunity for
Speaker 4: take part in mining. You know, demographically they make up
Speaker 4: a large proportion of kiwis in the mining industry or disproportionate.
Speaker 4: You know, they're sort of percent of workers in Australia.
Speaker 4: I've picked with a lot of keywiks over there, and
Speaker 4: so they want, as Nissa Jones says, they want their
Speaker 4: sons and daughters and nephews and nieces come back home
Speaker 4: and dig up New Zealand rather than Calgoley. So definitely jobs,
Speaker 4: sustainable jobs, sustainable housing and building communities for their people,
Speaker 4: just like everyone else who wants the same thing.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for coming in, appreciate your time. Congratulations on
Speaker 1: the INSIDEX listing. I hope things go well.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much. Glad to be here. It's very
Speaker 4: exciting day and looking forward to the future.
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone for tuning in. You can watch your Lunch
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Speaker 1: next time.
Speaker 4: MHM.