Stephen Westhead
Vice President at ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC
Replay available
Investor Presentation hosted by Anglo Asian Mining (LSE:AAZ) on Investor Meet Company, held 2025-10-16.

On 6ix: 6ix.com/event/anglo-asian-mining-plc-aaz-investor-presentation
Automated transcript · Written by software from the replay's audio. It can mishear names and figures; the replay is the record.
0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout the quarter presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged, they can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated in the right corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received in the meeting itself, and the company can view the questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to make the following poll. Today, the presenting team, we have Steven Weshead, VP and Bill Morgan, CFO. And I'd like to
0:31 hand you over to Bill to start the presentation. Good morning to you, sir. Okay. Good morning, everybody. I'm going to quickly present a few slides as an introduction to the company for those who do not know us. I will then give you a few key takeaways from our recently released interim results and our q three update, which is released today. I will then hand over to Steve who will take you through our strategy and give you an update on our operations.
1:01 K. We only operate in Azerbaijan as a company where we have been for over twenty five years. The group has recently entered a new phase of growth with the opening of two new mines this year, Gila and Damirli. We also have a large resource base to support our growth in the coming years. We are very experienced in Azerbaijan, which is a low cost country in which to operate.
1:27 We are a long established and extremely experienced and tight knit team. Resu is a businessman in Azerbaijan who together with governor Sununu founded the business in the late nineteen nineties. Together, the directors and management own approximately 40% of the group, which obviously very much aligns our interest with that of our fellow shareholders.
1:52 Azerbaijan is very much a comer. It's potent politically very stable with a fast developing and growing economy. It's very different from the rest of the stands and feels much closer to Europe. Baku feels like a southern European city. There are some interesting political changes happening in the region, which we feel will benefit the country and us. This is fundamentally the Southern Caucasus region increasingly exerting its independence.
2:25 We have eight licenses or contract areas as we call them in Azerbaijan. The two active ones are Gederbai, which has historically been our center of operations and the Meli, where we have just started production. We also have two very well defined mineral resources in the and Gauravac contract areas. The rest are exploration plays with the exception of Gosha, where there is a small narrow vein mine.
2:54 Okay. We released our interim results last month. The first half includes a full six months of our legacy mining operations with only two months contribution from Gilar. We started production in May. As you can see, revenues grew to almost 41,000,000, which are flowing through to profits and cash generation, both of which were excellent. We also invested 8,400,000 in the period, which was mostly Damirli and Gilar.
3:25 Q3 has obviously seen a dramatic increase in production due to a full quarter production from Gilar and Damirli, which started in July. We produced over 6,700 ounces of gold, which is over 50% more than produced in the previous six months. Copper production started to take off with 2,287 tonnes produced compared to eleven eighty eight tonnes in the previous six months. We've done a lot more this quarter. We also made good operational progress on projects such as upgrading and expanding the flotation plant
4:01 and other schemes. Net debt remains modest with an increase of only 1,200,000. This is despite receiving no revenue from Damiri in the quarter. The Damiri inventory at the end of September will generate over $6,000,000 of current copper prices. Well, that's a very short introduction from me, and I now hand you over to Steve, who's going to talk about our strategy and current operations. Okay. Thank you everybody for joining wherever you are around the world. Good morning, evening, afternoon. Appreciate your time, looking at this webinar, and, thanks to the host as well for organizing it. Going forward. Okay. Our strategy, to become a mid tier copper and gold producer, multi asset mid tier copper gold producer. We've got a five year objective to effectively be in a position of producing in the order of 36,000 tons of copper metal per annum.
5:04 How are we going to do that? You know, it's through a sequential opening of new mining mining operations. This year, we've opened two new mining operations, Gilar Underground in the Gettybek contract area and the Dmerli Open Pit in the Dmerli contract area. We'll talk as well a little bit more in detail about those as we go forward and then the future projects as well. So the future projects are progressing in line with expectation, and we'll talk about the and and Garadag copper projects, which are scheduled and planned to enter production at 2027, '28, and 2930 respectively. Those deposits both have job classified mineral resources with hosting 119,000 tons of copper and, Garadag over 900,000 tons of copper. So clearly, they're they're different, scale projects, but I'll understand how they'll dovetail together going forward in the presentation.
6:09 Obviously, to achieve any growth like this, one has to have its its base foundation, I. E. The mineral resources in the ground. We have that. Okay? So we've we've been able to demonstrate that. And, again, I'll talk about the figures a little bit further going forward. But even beyond that then, our exploration potential is huge. So we have the resources. We have the team that have delivered technical projects before. And lastly, then it's okay. We have the people. We have the resources, but the financing. So, you know, we need to ensure that financing is available to develop these mines and processing facilities. And over the last few years, the company's really put ourselves in in a fairly strong position with local banks being supportive.
6:55 We also have preliminary, ongoing discussions with EBRD and other, major western banks. We've also set up various communications for prepayment of copper concentrate from our offtakers. They're in place. And the the the copper offtakers as well, were in discussions about the opportunities for further project finance. Many of the audience will be aware that we purchased some Caterpillar equipment for underground Keelar. And for that, we actually achieved cat finance out of The USA. We're the first company in the Caucasus region to do that. So there was quite an extensive due diligence and recent meetings with Caterpillar reaffirmed that availability of equipment. So going forward again, that's gonna be fairly critical, and we can talk about that as we go forward.
7:52 Our ESG, environment social governance, has been strengthened, ensuring best practice. We've developed our teams for sustainability and environmental, and, we now have a certification by, an independent group, Digby. And on the back of that as well, there's also possible future financing opportunities. So we're we're well positioned to achieve this growth strategy. But one thing to underline, that's the the last line of the slide. ANGLO ASIAN MINING has never diluted shareholders to fund new projects. And right now, given what I've just spoken about about the financing, that's the continued thinking. Okay. Moving forward. Okay. So I spoke about the resources of some of the projects that we have.
8:43 We have over 1,000,000 tons of copper in the ground and over 400,000 ounces of gold with exploration projects working in parallel to that. So, you know, we have our legacy projects, I. E. At Getterbeck, which is our operating quarter in the Northwestern part of the country, which hosts Gilar and Zafar. To the north of that, then we have the and Garadag contract areas. And in there, you can see sort of the total measured and indicated category, mineral resources for copper and gold. So, again, you know, high level confidence that the material is there, and that is something then that, is fundamental for us. But beyond this, quite clearly, our exploration portfolio is is really quite significant.
9:36 Looking at the the project by project, Gilar entered production in in May of this year and commenced a new underground mine that's in the Getabek contract area. The the project itself is located about six kilometers from the Getabek processing facilities. And as such, there was no requirement to construct new processing facilities specifically for this project. We're able to use the current processing facilities. The project is now delivering 2,000 tons of oil per day in excess of that, actually, following, entering its production in, in May of this year. And so, basically, it's then delivering sort of that 50 to 60,000 ton target plus stockpile material as well, and that's gonna be the target going forward for next year. Sort of that 60 to 65,000 tons is where we're looking at. The current Jawke mineral resource estimate, shows that the deposit hosts, 54,000 tons of copper and, over a quarter of a million ounces of gold.
10:42 The deposit itself is split into a number of zones, zone one and two in the upper levels, zone three medium, and zone four is the lower zone. It's zone four that we've targeted first. That one's carrying the the highest combined grade of nearly two and a half million tons at 1.5% copper and 1.8 grams per ton gold. So following on from the start of the operation as well, in addition to what has been processed, we actually now have over 70,000 tons of ore on stockpile grading at 3.8% copper and two grams gold. And that was at as at the end of September of of this year. Now why did we have that?
11:29 It was it was to do effectively with the the processing facilities, and the copper grade was extremely high. And we've had to upgrade the filter press, but we can talk about that a little bit later in the future projects. In terms of production tunneling and and mine development, the team's done a phenomenal job since since May. You know, we've got over 2,900 meters of access tunneling, spiral ramp development, and ventilation tunneling. And then once we've been there, we've got 2,300 meters of mining operation tunneling. So that's football drives, cross cuts, etcetera. So it's it's a phenomenal achievement to what we've done in in quite a short space of time. And, now with the development, of the mine itself, there's ongoing underground, construction of various, aspects of infrastructure.
12:28 Moving on to, Damirli. The Damirli project is sort of Central Western Azerbaijan, in the Agdera region of Karabakh. We started, commissioning production in July of this year. It was a previously mined asset, and did have some existing infrastructure, albeit we've had to do quite a significant amount of refurbishment work and planning work to actually bring it into production. The contract area was acquired in 2022 along with the and Garadag contract areas. And like I said, they they it hosts the open pit mine plus around about a 6,000,000 ton per annum flotation plant with a mining fleet and a Tailings Dam.
13:21 So, clearly, when we went into the area, we had to establish all of our infrastructure to allow the staff to actually be efficient in in being able to work there. But then apart from the logistical side, we've also now set up our laboratories, metallurgical test work facilities, and we've got laboratories there for various mineral analysis and further tests. So we're trying to constantly improve and upgrade and better understand the demerit deposit itself. We basically looked at a preliminary resource, but that was based on any unverified data of various classifications of resource category measured, indicated, inferred, and, in fact, unclassified.
14:13 So what we had to do when we wanted to start this operation, we needed to understand really what the upper levels of that exposed mineralization in the pit could deliver. So following on from the geological mapping and the various aspects of the field work that we were doing, structural studies, etcetera, we carried out 9,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling, and that defined a startup tonnage of around about five and a half million tons at half percent copper. Mining, we're doing conventional drill and blast. So we have a blast hole drilling, blasting, and mining contractors all in place. And we've got our own company teams now supervising all of that operations from the viewpoint of exploration, mining geology, mining engineering, and planning and survey.
15:07 So there's a lot of work going on to better understand the nature of the deposit because there there is quite a significant grade variation. There's also quite a significant variation in oxide and sulfide stars of mineral content. Now when we're looking at flotation, clearly, you know, the the grade and the the sulfide percentage or oxide levels can impact on that as well. So that's what we're further trying to understand, and we're looking now to actually start to develop our own block model on our own datasets to better understand that going forward.
15:53 Obviously, we're operational, so our water and power supply is all connected. Our control systems are all in place and operational. Key equipment has been tested. So we have the oil feeder, the various mills, flotation cells, pumps, etcetera. And the Tailings Dam has recently had some approval as well for the interim operation until we actually proceed with the construction of Tailings Dam Number 2.
16:20 And that Tailings Dam Number 2 has been fully defined. We've outlined it. We've carried out all of the various geotechnical works that are required to bring that into operation, which we plan to do as soon as possible.
16:37 Moving forward, back up towards the Gettybek area. The two future copper projects are and Garadag. We produced a maiden, York mineral resource estimate in February 24. The site is, situated very close to our operations at Geta Bay, And the contract area, in fact, abuts the northern part of our Getty Bay contract area itself. The advantages there is that we can then utilize shared infrastructure, staffing, and administrative support, etcetera.
17:14 The the mineral resource potential, you can see in the upper right image the the drilling that we did on that particular section and an underground tunnel as well, hence that horizontal line, which effectively then assisted with the development of an in situ resource of a 119,000 tons of copper. Now that's as well within an RPEE that reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction according to the, chalk code of, reporting of mineral resources. But but there is further deeper potential as well. But, in the first stage, it will be lending itself to an open pit operation, we believe, and first production then would be planned for 2728.
18:04 We've carried out hyperspectral scanning on all of the drill call from both and to assess the geometallurgy, and, really, that's to, better assess the, geology and the mineralization from a geometallurgical point of view so that we can be thinking about our processing methodologies and how we're going to be, operating that project going forward.
18:30 So we'll also be then preparing three d alteration models and preliminary mine design. We've been working with various equipment suppliers who have also offered their support in terms of optimizing mining fleets, road haulage options, cycle times, etcetera. So all of that will form part of the ongoing studies. The next phase of drilling then would define the geotechnical parameters of the rock hydrogeology and rock characteristics overall suitable for the mining design and mining plans. And identifying the land that would be needed for the process infrastructure, rock stockpiles, etcetera. So that that's really the next stage of the operation here at Beyond that, in the immediate, surroundings of there's a lot of, alteration, exploration potential.
19:26 We've been looking at various geological models of formation of this type of mineralization and have identified through the exploration department a number of other targets that potentially contribute to future production,
19:40 from this particular area. Moving on to Garadag. And Garadag are really quite close, you know, within a kilometer and a half of each other. We produced a maiden jalk mineral resource, which was published on the 09/24/2024.
20:03 This deposit was extensively explored during before during the Soviet era and post Soviet era. We have a significant amount of data from the the previous owner, over nine and a half thousand chemical assays from some 23 and a half kilometers of core drilling. So that's where we then needed to do this hyperspectral scanning because the way certain drill core is is logged and interpreted
20:35 can can be varying between different geological teams. And so what we're trying to do there was provide some consistency to allow for the three d modeling to actually start to take place. We we there there's initial mining scoping studies
20:52 based on open pit designs and two two and multi options for met metallurgical processing as well. All of the historical drill core was transferred to the company, so we have access to all that data. And so we will be doing a lot more, assessment of that drill core itself, as well as, the requirement of of further drilling to twin and validate the historical data as well as new data for ourselves. The the total resource in situ, about 900,000 tons of copper. And, originally, there were two mine designs carried out, one containing 43,000,000 tons of ore and another one ninety million tons of ore. So you can see the copper figures there in the presentation, nine year life and eighteen year period.
21:48 But the metal prices that were originally used for those particular
21:52 projects were significantly lower than where we are today. And so the next stage is really is to see what the impact of the metal prices are on these various designs, but we're now in the proceeding a a proceeding and due to start the confirmation of the geotechnical studies, hydrogeological studies, geotech for the metallurgical sampling as well. So we now have actually signed contracts with foreign foreign based consulting groups who have experience with managing porphyries, managing the various styles of, approach that we are considering.
22:37 So in terms of that approach,
22:43 yes, I referenced it would be an open pit. Yes. And processing wise, it's likely that we are now considering to have a copper heap leach system. The question then is whether that copper heap leach system would also be expanded into catering for the feed mineralization from
23:06 Garadag. Yes or no? Quite clearly, the scale of these operations, the footprint impacts are really quite large. And so we've been looking at various aspects of further test work for the process technologies apart from just pure copper heap leach, but the introduction of bioleaching. And then on the back end of that, obviously, having a solvent extraction electro winning plant, which would actually then deliver cathode copper metal. Okay? So, when one looks at sort of the differences between flotation plants, which will require a large scale tailings dam and the heap leach options, there there's quite a compelling argument for looking at the heap leach.
23:54 But then when we started to think about the scale of the open pits, does it make more sense to go underground? So we're actually looking at that as an option as well, an underground scenario,
24:07 as well as various forms of, IPR in place recovery. In other words, you know, are we able to effectively have a leach circuit
24:19 based underground? Excuse me. So that's something that we're needing to do going forward. And in fact, we have in the the schedule to actually, construct a small test mine that we're working on at the moment in terms of getting ready to submit that through to the government for approval. The image on the bottom right, you can see the position of in the southwest corner and then Garadag, the larger cluster of red dots, and then Jair. And effectively, that's a 10 kilometer belt of copper mineralization. And all those black dots effectively represent where there's surface sampling of 0.1% copper on surface. And in fact, further to the Southwest from we move into the northern part of the Getabek contract area where we have another porphyry target known as Almirallatala that, we actually defined as part of, a ZTEM helicopter survey we did, which is an electromagnetic method, that we carried out some years ago. So it's all starting to come together for the future.
25:30 Excuse me.
25:33 Our twenty twenty five guidance, underpinned by two new mines and upgrades to the processing facilities. 2025 has already been a milestone year with Anglo Asia now becoming a multi asset producer. You know, we're operating from three mines now, open pit and underground, with production ramping up at and delivering extra extremely strong grades from especially. The ramp up period, obviously, for has been subject to a lot of, upgrades, equipment upgrades, trying to bring everything into into play. Now, the just from from that viewpoint, you know, the the processing plant at the Murray is not yet fully commissioned.
26:27 We're doing it in a staged approach, and so that would be continuing during q four. Getaway processing plant upgrades progressed well. As I referenced, because of the the the high copper grades, coming through the flotation plant from the Gilar deposit. We've added, and installed a new filter press to cater for the additional, copper capacity coming through. That really was the precursor to what will be a much bigger project, and, we have, planned a larger, flotation plant upgrade project. The capital cost of that's in the order of around about million and a half, $2,000,000, which will then, see the implementation of two further filter presses, a lot more flotation cells, and an overall upgrade.
27:27 We've had contractors on-site recently looking at that type of project, and we're expecting to be concluding those agreements in the very near future with the intent of having that then complete during q one. So in summary, from our guidance on the back of, what we've we've been able to deliver so far, the company expects a 2025 production of copper, 8,100 to 9,000 tons, and gold, 25 to 28,000 ounces. So our investment case. Obviously, we have a range of of audience, probably existing shareholders, hopefully new shareholders, and those who are associated with the industry.
28:23 So as Bill referenced in the the opening speech, we're a well established company mining company here in Azerbaijan with extensive resources transitioning to a multi asset mid tier copper focused producer. We've opened two mines this year, significantly significantly growing our production, and our our base to actually operate. We're a very different company this year to where we were last year. And when we've given our projections, you know, we've been able to deliver on on our time scales and what we're wanting to do. It's an exciting asset portfolio that we have. I've already mentioned the quantities of metal in the ground. But beyond that as well, our exploration portfolio is really quite phenomenal.
29:14 So the pipeline of projects coming through, you know, the Harha, Garadags, the Mery upgrades, that's all the near term type work that we are working on actively all the time currently. But beyond that then, you know, we've got a pipeline of projects from all eight contract areas that will continue to deliver projects going forward for the company and our shareholders. We have a long term track record. You know, the company has discovered new new mineral deposits, evaluated them, and brought six mines into production. And we've done that without diluting any shareholder from a value point of view. So, you know, we have a highly experienced team that have actually gone through the construction of open pit underground, copper gold, the associated processes in the business to actually make that work.
30:14 So we've got the core team. We're expanding our team as a as a base now. We've got nearly 2,000 employees and contractors working with us, because, obviously, as one grows, having all of the technicals is one side, but we need all that nontechnical aspect as well to come through to support the business growth. And that's where, you know, the disciplined approach, to the funding starts to come into play as well. So, you know, we have a well structured, well planned approach that is really defined to deliver in the most cost effective way but profitable as possible. And, historically, you know, we've always been a very low cost producer, generally in the lowest quartile, and that's something that really we still would like to take into consideration going forward. So I think overall, I wanted to set the scene to, you know, demonstrate what has happened and, why our q three results are like they are, but also sort of give some of the the future and the excitement that the company's got going forward. So, you know, as the the the team and the shareholder base can all be part of that that exciting growth story.
31:34 Okay. Thank you very much. That's great. Well, you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions. You can do so just by using the Q and A tab that's situated on the top right hand side of your screen. Just while the company take a few moments through the questions that have been submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A, can be accessed by our investor dashboard. As you can see, we have received questions throughout today's presentation. What I'll do is I'll just hand back to the team to run through the Q and A, and then I'll pick up from you both at the end. Okay. Well, I'll kick off with a few of the financial questions that have been asked to give Steve a bit of a break. And let me go through them here. First question is when do you expect the business to be cash flow positive? And the answer to that is next month.
32:22 We were actually cash flow positive in the first half. The reason we were not cash flow positive in the third quarter is we was unable to sell Demiri concentrate. Everything is now in place for us to be able to sell Demiri concentrate as from next month. And when we start selling the product from Demiri, we will be cash flow positive, and our forecast show that there will be a significant reduction in your debt between now and the end of the year. Second question is can copper grades through each mine be shown in RNS tables alongside the gold grades already shown? When we looked at the RNS when it was finally finished, literally in the last couple of days, we felt that that could go in, but it was probably a bit late. So the answer to that is yes. We will be showing that in future.
33:18 Regarding the regarding copper, the company is going to have to double its record production achieved in q three in the fourth quarter in order to meet the minimum guidance as recently given the market. Is that going to be possible? And the answer to that is we believe so. If you look at the numbers year to date, end of September, we produced 3,475 tons of copper. And to get to the midrange of our copper guidance, we would have to produce 5,000 tonnes in the final quarter. We believe that's possible with 3,000 tonnes through the Miri and 2,000 tonnes from Getafek. Regarding our gold guidance, we produced 18,912 ounces in the year to date to end of September, which will give us roundabout 7,500 ounces between or in the final quarter.
34:16 And we believe that is possible at Geller Bay. Right. Over to you, Steve, I think, to to take a few questions. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Bill. There was a a a presubmitted question name withheld. What progress is being made at Garadag, and when do you think you'll start construction? Obviously, I've spoken about that during this presentation, but our approach is now is to really understand if the project's gonna be an open pit underground and to firm up on the the the the processing methods.
35:04 So all of that work and the the studies is all ongoing currently. And, you know, as stated, we'd still like to start some production by twenty nine thirty depending on the process method. Obviously, lead time on equipment is different, but we're pulling together all of those those various project aspects. Okay. Thank you. Another presubmitted question on Gilar. They've got any indication of possible gold deposit or further expansion of it. Gilar is obviously a copper gold project, especially that lower zone 4 that I mentioned. However, the upper levels, zones one and 2, do contain copper.
35:54 And previously, we reported some copper vein sorry, some gold vein systems adjacent to the Gilal property on the surface. So given where metal prices are today, both gold and copper, quite clearly, the modeling work that was done for that Gila resource model will need to be updated. And we've recently strengthened our team with some technical geologists and and mining engineers who would also then be starting to look at that. So, yes, I would be hopeful for an expansion of the gold situation at at Kilar going forward. K. Thank you for that question.
36:42 Question here from Stan m. When exactly was the ball mill installed? Operation at Demerly is about two weeks ago. And and end of the week, it's about two weeks ago. So we now have the SAG mill and one flotation line working, and now the SAG mill and the ball mill working as well. So, again, this is what I was saying. You know, it it's a it's a development process of trying to bring everything back into being on stream, and it's it's it's it's a big job. But so to answer that question, about two weeks ago. Okay. Thank you. K. Do you want me to take a couple, Steve, now? Yeah. Sure. Thank you. Okay.
37:33 I've got two questions here from a Chris l and a Paul h, which is basically the same question. Sorry. Do you have any plans to start paying dividends, and what is our dividend policy? I will not comment on when we are going to resume paying dividends because I think that will be dividend guidance, which will be unwise to give. However, we are shareholders along with the rest of you, and we very much like our dividends. As you can see, the company is starting to return to very much robust financial health following the episodes of the last couple of years, and we will plan to start paying dividends really as soon as we feel that the company is in a robust financial position to be able to do so.
38:24 So I think that's as much as I'm prepared to say about about dividends. There's a question here from Debbie Kay. What are the corporate plus royalty rates? We don't actually pay a royalty. We actually have a production sharing agreement, which basically we pay in physical metal. Now it's a pretty complicated agreement, and I won't go into detail here, but basically, we are paying an effective royalty of 12.75% of our production as a royalty to the government, although that can change. That arrangement goes back to the production sharing agreement, which goes back to when the company was originally set up in the late nineteen nineties.
39:12 So it's been completely and utterly stable since then. There's been no attempt to change it, and our production sharing agreement is not in accordance with the law of Azerbaijan. It is actually the law of Azerbaijan. So it's a very, very stable regime. And currently, we're paying a royalty of or not paying a royalty. We're paying an effective royalty as part of our production share of 12.75%. When will production guidance for 2026 be available? That's from David c. We are still very much working on our production guidance, and we hope that we will, issue that guidance early next year.
40:01 Thomas d, will the cost of refurbishing the Demerle plant be counted against the rental payments? And the answer to that is yes. We've got a mechanism where we can actually offset our refurbishment costs against the initial rental payments. Shall I take a couple, Bill? Alright. Do you wanna do a couple more now, Steve? Yeah. Sure. Let's let's have a look. There's a a question here from John c. The Demerle plant had a recovery rate of 54% of copper, 711 tonnes of 1,307, and produced a constant grade of 15.6.
40:50 The Gettybek plant far outstripped the performance this quarter, 88% recovery, produced a concentrate of 23%. But this benefits from the SART plant that presumably does not have. That's correct. Does not have a SART plant. However, that recovery as well was purely a function from the flotation plant dominantly. Yes. It was supported by the SART, but not with or. And, effectively, the this is purely a function of of copper grade. Okay? And that's where I was talking before about the situation with looking at the oxide sulfide ratios and also the copper grades because, generally, the higher the copper grade, the more efficient that flotation can be.
41:38 So the last part of that question then, what recovery rate and grade of concentrates expected from Demerly once the plant is settled and running efficiently, or is it simply not known? Might modifications be needed at Demerly? It's not that it's simply not known, but we're unable at the moment to say hand on heart where we are with the feed. Let's wait until the plant is fully operational, up and running, and we've got a better handle on the geological model. But, essentially, as I say, that difference between the Gettybek plant and the Dumili plant was was grade as well as the fact that the the flotation plant at Gettybek has been in operation for a long period of time. So we understand the stable operations, whereas the mill is being refurbished.
42:30 We might do another one, Bill. Sorry. Okay. I've got one here from Guido b. Bill, can you confirm going forward when dividend gets when dividends get resumed that 25% of free cash flow will be returned to shareholders? I cannot comment on that because that's all part of our future dividend policy, and that was a dividend policy for a very different company as we were back then. I think you would have to wait until we've decided to restart our dividends, and, obviously, then we will announce what our annual dividend policy will be. There's another one here. Okay. John c, the says we sold five one eight one ounces of gold at an average of $343.00 per ounce, including government share, that's 17,700,000.
43:26 The RNS also says that 5,797 diametric tons of concentrate from Getaway fetched 15,500,000. That totals 33,200,000. The last table in the RNS says revenue was 27,800,000. Please can you explain the discrepancy? The discrepancy is due to the fact that you are not comparing like with like. The figure of 33,200,000 is the revenue for the quarter. The figure of 27,800,000 is technically sales proceeds received rather than revenue, although we called it revenue because we think our shareholders will more understand that. And to get from the 33.2 to the 27.8, you would have to adjust for basically your opening debt as for sales proceeds. So it's not a like for like comparison. You are comparing revenue, which is on an accruals basis to sales proceeds received in the cash flow, which is obviously on a a cash flow basis.
44:31 So that's that one. Are very conservative on our view on gold and copper prices when we do our forecasts. And I think that's fair to say that we don't spend a lot of time thinking about what the copper golden price is. Although, obviously, given the world we live in, we think that we can be fairly bullish on them.
45:23 Claudio, a couple, Bill? Yeah. Sure. There's one here from Walter Kay. AAZ has had minimal CapEx over the past seven years. When will the company provide CapEx guidance for achieving the strategic plan given the requirement for two new tailings dams and further extensive PP and E? We're actually firming up our overall strategic plan at the moment. I referenced as well the various options that we have for project funding and and capital financing within the presentation. When we have this firmed up, certainly, we will be presenting the CapEx figures going forward.
46:11 However, we've we've been looking at, obviously, all of the construction programs that we have the Getabek plant upgrade, for example, the two heap leaches you sorry, two tailings dams you referenced, one at Jamerrilli and one at Getabek, the heap leach scenarios and mining scenarios for and Garadag. And so we're trying to finalize those CapEx figures. Obviously, we have quite high level figures, but that's not something we'd want to put into the market without reaffirming that. So we we will be doing it in due course. E and J, given the price of gold, are you looking to revive exploration at your mainly gold based tenements such as Audubad?
46:59 I seem to recall you thought it might be a large scale porphyry system. Yes. Thank you, Ian. I I totally agree with you. The gold is is significantly important to us. And if if you go back into our Audubad reports, it's actually the deposit known as PSBASI, which was a a vain gold system that we're we're looking at. We also have not just in Audubad, we have narrow vein high grade gold potential in Gorsha and Veginarli as well. So what I've been doing with the team is just really trying to assess the different styles of mineralization that we have. Obviously, we have sort of the the bulk copper, in inverted commas projects such as Temeli, Garadag.
47:53 But then there's there's there's the the vein gold systems that we're needing to really look at and pull forward. So, yes, they're on our radar. Yes, we've been writing and preparing a lot of documentation and reports on those so we can make some strategic decisions on how best to manage them going forward. K? Thank you. Okay. I've got one from Walter Kay. AAZ has had minimal CapEx over the past seven years. When will the company provide CapEx guidance achieving the strategic plan given the requirement for two new tailings dams and further extensive PP and E? The answer to that is that we have already started to improve what we've given for guidance. We're now giving turnover guidance, and we are giving EBITDA guidance.
48:45 And I think it's only natural that we can start giving more guidance on CapEx as well. So I think that's something that the company will very much consider and is quite likely to happen in the next guidance that we give out, which would be early twenty twenty six. I have a question here from Ian Jay. Actually, there's two. But the first one, what are the main issues when deciding whether to upgrade copper output from concentrate to electrolysis. Example, price difference, CapEx, etcetera. Now it's not just purely the financials. It's the metallurgical properties of the rocks themselves.
49:31 Obviously, the capital costs and operating costs form a significant impact on this. There is a big price difference. And so, you know, that's where going forward, E and J also had another question turning to what are the implications for processing copper sulfide rather than oxide. Now that's where a combined situation of looking at flotation that we currently have with copper heap leach going forward could be an option of balancing that portfolio of production. That's where trying to understand our geological model in terms of what tons of each type of material we have is so fundamentally making those decisions.
50:24 So, yes, it's it's it's all of the different impacts and modifying factors that go into the financial models. But quite clearly then, we need to be looking at the type of mineralization that we have going forward and how it could be balanced between the the flotation plant and the solid extraction of that. Now clearly as well, the final product from flotation is concentrate. Solid extraction electrowinning through heap leach is copper cathode. Now the other thing is that, you know, the the the deposits that we have are quite clean copper in inverted commas, so they don't necessarily carry precious metals with them. And so with any offtake agreements, etcetera, as much as we have some pretty good agreements currently, there wouldn't be additional copper sorry, precious metal benefits to the copper concentrate.
51:26 And so when we bring that aspect into it as well and the fact that we'd be producing copper metal as opposed to concentrate, that's where, you know, the the differences really start to to come forward and highlight the fact that, you know, heap leach for us in those situations could be really quite a strong argument. K. I have another one here again, Dave Kay. You mentioned mining the deepest levels. I'm assuming that is at Garadag. Is this a block caving method? The we're looking at a method of vertical crater retreat.
52:14 And, effectively, instead of removing the material, could we actually create a fragmented column that could be leached in circuit? And so, you know, we're looking at all different scenarios and looking at all different comparisons of technologies and mining methods from around the world to see what we can do in terms of optimizing, you know, the the overall management of these new projects going forward. So it it's we've we've looked at block caving, but it's not an ideal situation for us under that current situation. Okay? Bill, do you wanna take any? No. I've just reviewed the questions, and I have now answered, I think, all of those questions that require financial input. I think it's just any final questions that you feel need answering, Steve, and then I think Okay.
53:05 We've come to the end of the questions. Well, look. I I have two more here. One from Stellan. When will extension drilling commence at Gila from the underground development? It already has. So we've got rigs underground at the moment, and we're we're just starting to to drill that Zone 4 extensions to see what's what. During the tunneling activity to get to Zone 4, we did intersect some mineralization as well. So we're trying to understand the structural geology and the position of that mineralization going forward. And then as a reference with regards to the upper levels of Gilar, once the team have reworked at the higher metal prices, the the effective outline of the the mineralization.
53:54 I am aware that there were gaps in the drilling of that upper level, so we would then look at either drilling from surface or indeed putting additional infrastructure to drill from underground. So that work is all ongoing. It's a it's a seriously exciting project. Guido b, Steven, how is the tailings dam at Getabit performing, and where we need to update upgrade and construct a new one? Okay. The Tailings Dam is performing very well. Obviously, we have regular inspections, independent and our own and and with government. So performance is absolutely fine. We're currently finishing off the construction of the final lift, lift 5 B as it's called, that is is proposed to be completed into probably q one next year in reality.
54:49 That should then give us two to three years. We've already got design documents and drawings submitted to the government with regards to tailings too with the the locations of that. And, simply as soon as they come back from the government, we'll be finalizing the construction design and pushing that forward. So, quite clearly, I know what you're driving at. Effectively, you're looking at, you know, ensuring that there's overlap between tailings one and tailings two so it doesn't impact on the production schedule. So that's something, you know, we will be pushing, and we'll be keeping the market updated accordingly. So thank you for that, Guido. That's great. Well, I might just jump in and thank you for answering those questions from investors. Of course, the company can read all the questions submitted today and we will publish the responses out on the Investor Meet company platform.
55:40 But just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, because that's particularly important to the company, Steven, could I just ask you for a few closing comments? Sure. First of all, thank thank you to everybody for participating in this event and for the organizers. You know, I'd just like to say, I think the company's in a a very, very strong position. Our share price is the highest it's ever been. Our production is ramping up. We've got records, in our production scenarios, and, we we've really created now a strong foundation, for our future growth and development of the group to become a mid tier company. So, again, thank you all very much. Much appreciated, and we appreciate your support. Thank you. That's great. Well, thank you on the scheme for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session? As you know, we automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations.
56:42 Apart from management team of ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.
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CFO at ANGLO ASIAN MINING PLC