1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,360
Speaker 1: Joining us now is Tristan Pascal, our first Quantum CEO.

2
00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:06,000
Speaker 1: He joins Guy in the London studio. Tristan, it's really

3
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,440
Speaker 1: good to speak with you. What is the update on

4
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,280
Speaker 1: the closure of the mind in terms of your efforts

5
00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:14,800
Speaker 1: to try and convince Panama to let you reopen it.

6
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:18,560
Speaker 2: Hi, Alex, it's a pleasure to be here.

7
00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:18,960
Speaker 3: Thank you.

8
00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:21,880
Speaker 4: Look, we're going through that and the Supreme Court decision

9
00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:25,759
Speaker 4: came out only very recently. From here, our focus is

10
00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:29,200
Speaker 4: on the new term and really that's around the welfare

11
00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:32,040
Speaker 4: of our employees and they certainly be affected by this,

12
00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:36,639
Speaker 4: but also around the environmental realities of a closure that's

13
00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:38,760
Speaker 4: happened so quickly, and there's a lot of questions that

14
00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:42,680
Speaker 4: are unanswered about that, and we're seeking that conversation with government.

15
00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:44,000
Speaker 4: We want to be part of that solution.

16
00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:44,520
Speaker 5: Yep.

17
00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:47,640
Speaker 4: But that's emerging and we're in conversation at the moment.

18
00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:50,280
Speaker 5: If I'm an investor, what are you telling me, Guy?

19
00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:53,440
Speaker 4: We focus on that new term resolution at the moment

20
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:57,360
Speaker 4: around how we resolve this in terms of the near

21
00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:02,600
Speaker 4: term impacts on environment for employees and over the longer term.

22
00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,240
Speaker 4: Our commitment to Panama is absolutely We've put ten billion

23
00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,480
Speaker 4: dollars into the acid in the country and our commitment

24
00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:09,600
Speaker 4: is absolute.

25
00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:14,880
Speaker 1: So are you looking at things like higher royalties or

26
00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,039
Speaker 1: tax regimes like you're going to the government being like, look,

27
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,080
Speaker 1: we will give you a super big cut of this

28
00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:21,080
Speaker 1: mine because the country is going to be losing a

29
00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:23,640
Speaker 1: lot of revenue from this. Are you making some offers

30
00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:28,960
Speaker 1: along these lines that can help move the process along, Alex.

31
00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:31,479
Speaker 4: We've recently heard from government just in the last twenty

32
00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:33,800
Speaker 4: four hours in terms of putting in place of framework

33
00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:39,679
Speaker 4: of conversation dealing with the immediate issues around the force

34
00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:43,520
Speaker 4: stoff and closure, the environmental and the employee issues.

35
00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:45,800
Speaker 2: I think over the long term, we've just been in

36
00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:46,960
Speaker 2: a resolution period.

37
00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:49,680
Speaker 4: We took two years to negotiate a new contract that

38
00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,640
Speaker 4: did include higher revenues for governments.

39
00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:55,600
Speaker 2: But where to from here will come through.

40
00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,320
Speaker 4: I think in the government's framework about the next conversation,

41
00:01:58,400 --> 00:01:58,800
Speaker 4: do you think a.

42
00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:01,280
Speaker 5: Different owner would have a different result with this government?

43
00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:05,000
Speaker 4: So, guy, we're committed to the project. A lot of

44
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,800
Speaker 4: the questions around the future of Cobra Panama not unique

45
00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,080
Speaker 4: to First Quantum. They resolve on you know, there's been

46
00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:15,320
Speaker 4: a moratory input on mining in the country.

47
00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:17,120
Speaker 2: Overall, So how does that resolve.

48
00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:20,640
Speaker 4: And that clarity needs to come to bear. And again

49
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:24,440
Speaker 4: we focus on these immediate issues around employees, security on

50
00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,560
Speaker 4: the site and the environment because those do need to

51
00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:29,840
Speaker 4: be addressed even if we go.

52
00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,280
Speaker 3: Down that pathway over the longer term in Panama.

53
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:34,799
Speaker 1: Tristan, no matter what, this is going to take a while.

54
00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:37,720
Speaker 1: So are you going to have to divert funding or

55
00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,400
Speaker 1: pull funding from other projects as you manage this?

56
00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,760
Speaker 4: So Alex, yeah, I mean the situation is we have

57
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:47,160
Speaker 4: strong liquidity.

58
00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:48,720
Speaker 3: We came out at the back.

59
00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:50,720
Speaker 4: End of Q three with around two point three billion

60
00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:54,760
Speaker 4: dollars and liquidity going into this situation and that sets

61
00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:56,799
Speaker 4: it up as well in the short and medium term.

62
00:02:57,160 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 4: We will come back in the new term, early in

63
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,360
Speaker 4: the new year around the plan from here what that

64
00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,000
Speaker 4: looks like in terms of a balance sheet.

65
00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:07,440
Speaker 3: Part of that will be around.

66
00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,280
Speaker 4: Our other projects, but we were focused on Zambia. Zambia

67
00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,160
Speaker 4: is a great place to be and were investing at

68
00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,480
Speaker 4: Consanchi in renewing another twenty years of.

69
00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:17,880
Speaker 2: That asset as a world class asset.

70
00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:21,800
Speaker 4: That capital project is part of the explanations will provide

71
00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:25,280
Speaker 4: early in the new year around our capital expenditure there.

72
00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:26,680
Speaker 5: Did this cause a surprise?

73
00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:30,839
Speaker 4: So there's been a lot of protests in Panama. Last

74
00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:33,639
Speaker 4: year that was around pharmaceuticals and the price of medicine,

75
00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:36,920
Speaker 4: and this year it's been around mining. The relief foul

76
00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:40,080
Speaker 4: for that was the Supreme Court decision. I think we

77
00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:42,920
Speaker 4: knew that the relief oul would have a degree around

78
00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:45,920
Speaker 4: on constitutionality and that would be the ruling. But the

79
00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:49,080
Speaker 4: degree to which Panama has gone to in this ruling

80
00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:53,800
Speaker 4: was a surprise from here how that's resolved because it

81
00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:55,280
Speaker 4: throws up a whole lot of questions.

82
00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:57,840
Speaker 3: We acknowledge the court ruling, but.

83
00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:00,960
Speaker 4: The questions are there around what happens right now to

84
00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,600
Speaker 4: close a mine in the days you know it has

85
00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,680
Speaker 4: never been attempted. It's a very challenging situation at the moment.

86
00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:09,960
Speaker 1: List and I appreciate that you're going to update the

87
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,640
Speaker 1: market on your capex and that you did have a

88
00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:14,120
Speaker 1: lot of cash. Do have a lot of cash in

89
00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,640
Speaker 1: your balance sheet, but your credit reading has been cut

90
00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:22,640
Speaker 1: by multiple agencies. Are there on credit negative watch? Your

91
00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:25,400
Speaker 1: star prase has fallen sixty percent since all this happened.

92
00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:27,880
Speaker 1: Because how do you raise money? Though, like what is

93
00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:29,600
Speaker 1: your cost of capital going to be if you need

94
00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:30,599
Speaker 1: to go back to the market.

95
00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:35,240
Speaker 4: Sure, Alex, we're looking through all those options, and as

96
00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:38,840
Speaker 4: I said coming out in January, we'll put together that

97
00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:42,320
Speaker 4: plan and you know that will cover all of those areas,

98
00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:46,320
Speaker 4: and we'll come back and explain that early in the

99
00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:46,800
Speaker 4: new year.

100
00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,039
Speaker 5: I asked the question earlier on about whether or not

101
00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:52,880
Speaker 5: another owner would have a different results. Have you had

102
00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,960
Speaker 5: discussions with other big mining groups. Alex brings up the

103
00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,920
Speaker 5: issue of liquidity and the issue of finite thing going forward.

104
00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:03,760
Speaker 5: Is anybody reaching out to you? Are you reaching out

105
00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:06,240
Speaker 5: to anybody else twork a barrack, talking to anybody else

106
00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:10,280
Speaker 5: about about a potential kind of future that could involve

107
00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:13,840
Speaker 5: them in this project or your assets with them. I'm

108
00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,799
Speaker 5: just kind of wondering if there are any intra industry

109
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,080
Speaker 5: conversations happening with you and you and others.

110
00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:24,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, guy, it's an evolving situation. We don't comment on

111
00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,000
Speaker 4: speculation as a rule. We haven't in the past, and

112
00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:30,080
Speaker 4: we're not commenting on that speculation now. What we're focused

113
00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:34,760
Speaker 4: on is working through these challenges and around the immediate

114
00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:37,600
Speaker 4: concerns we have environments and the employees.

115
00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,320
Speaker 5: Do you think you're big enough to manage the situation

116
00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:40,880
Speaker 5: on your own.

117
00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,920
Speaker 4: So we don't comment around the speculation of that or

118
00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:48,400
Speaker 4: what that could look like. We're a growth company. Our

119
00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:50,919
Speaker 4: DNA is around project execution and we have in the

120
00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:53,760
Speaker 4: portfolio a lot of opportunity to continue to grow. So

121
00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,919
Speaker 4: that is in partnership with other mining companies, so with

122
00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:02,359
Speaker 4: Rio Tinto in Peru, and that points to what I

123
00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,360
Speaker 4: think is important in the future is partnership. La Grant

124
00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:08,120
Speaker 4: has a great asset in Peru, one of the world's

125
00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,680
Speaker 4: largest undeveloped copper projects. We're not in a capital intensive phase.

126
00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:15,719
Speaker 4: It's really around study to get to the right point

127
00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:18,159
Speaker 4: in time where we could make a decision to proceed.

128
00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,080
Speaker 4: But that's an example of partnerships we are deploying in

129
00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:24,760
Speaker 4: our capabilities in terms of project execution.

130
00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:28,160
Speaker 1: Are you guys talking about selling assets, renegotiating the terms

131
00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:30,400
Speaker 1: of your loans? Like, are these all the conversations that

132
00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:31,240
Speaker 1: you're having right now?

133
00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:35,279
Speaker 4: Alex as I said, will come back to the market

134
00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:37,240
Speaker 4: early in the new year, But we're looking across the

135
00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:41,479
Speaker 4: board at options around that and how we will put

136
00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:46,120
Speaker 4: all of that in a fullsome plan for the resolution

137
00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:49,159
Speaker 4: of the balance sheet and going forward, and also how

138
00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:53,040
Speaker 4: we continue to invest in Zambia, which is a great

139
00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:55,960
Speaker 4: place to be working at the moment and really underlines

140
00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,680
Speaker 4: a lot of what our capabilities have been and continue

141
00:06:58,720 --> 00:06:58,920
Speaker 4: to be.

142
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:01,200
Speaker 5: How well supplied to the it's going to be next year.

143
00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:03,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's an interesting question, guy. I think we've seen

144
00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:06,120
Speaker 4: quite a lot of copper come off in the market.

145
00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:08,640
Speaker 4: Some six hundred thousand tons has come out of the

146
00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:11,800
Speaker 4: forecast for next year, and previously we were looking at

147
00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:15,280
Speaker 4: probably surpluses next year, but it's a fluid market. The

148
00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:19,520
Speaker 4: challenges across the industry around geopolitics of bringing new projects

149
00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:24,640
Speaker 4: into bears remain challenging. As execution people, we see it's

150
00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:26,240
Speaker 4: taking longer and longer to develop.

151
00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:26,360
Speaker 2: That.

152
00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,920
Speaker 4: Part of that is all grades declining, and that means

153
00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:31,720
Speaker 4: you need more capital and so on to build these

154
00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,880
Speaker 4: big projects such as Cobra Panama, and then the high

155
00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:38,240
Speaker 4: standards and environment and community, which is really important and

156
00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:40,240
Speaker 4: we want to play at those levels, but it takes

157
00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:43,080
Speaker 4: time to develop that and that just means new projects

158
00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:44,760
Speaker 4: take longer to come onstream.

159
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,000
Speaker 5: Communication is really important. It's really good to see you

160
00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:49,280
Speaker 5: doing it. Thanks for stopping by to talk to us

161
00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:51,560
Speaker 5: and figure out what is happening here. We'll look forward

162
00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:53,840
Speaker 5: to the further updates. Have a great holiday