Savannah Resources (LSE:SAV) — Investor Presentation

0:01 Good morning, and welcome to the SAVANNAH RESOURCES PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. You can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just click Q and A, scroll to the bottom, type your question and press send. Company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company review all questions submitted today and publish responses where appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Dale Ferguson, CEO. Good morning.

0:30 Good morning, Mark, and thank you to everyone online for taking the time to come to our presentation today and listening to the presentation on the Barossa lithium development, where we hope to be the first large scale spodumene mine on Mainland Europe and and certainly why we think it's worth taking a a close look at the SAVANNAH RESOURCES opportunity.

0:55 Sorry. This is something popped up on the screen there. So I've got a presentation here, and we'll step step step through that. Sorry. I'm in Perth at the moment, there's a large storm here. So it's just a little bit of a lag, but I hope that everybody can see that now. So getting underway, I thought we'd just start with having a look at sort of the key metrics around SAVANNAH. So over the last two or three years, SAVANNAH has divested its Oman projects and its Mozambique projects to become a pure lithium play with a European focus. We're quite a unique company in that we own 100% of our projects still, and we purposely held on to 100% of of our off take two very important pieces of a puzzle, which we hope to be able to play in the coming months and years ahead.

1:53 I think we can consider ourselves a low risk project. We've focused on spodumene mineralization, and we've got very conventional production techniques. So the same sorts of techniques which have been around for the last twenty or thirty years, and certainly we're seeing on a regular basis nowadays. I think probably one of the most important milestones for the company was our approval of our key and prior environmental license, our DIA in May of twenty fifth this year. And that really gave us the second sort of key piece of paper that we need. So we've currently now have a grant mining lease for the production of lithium and also the environmental licensing now. So that then enabled us to complete an updated scoping study with a view to moving towards new definitive feasibility study, but that new scoping study gave us a very robust NPV of around 950,000,000, an IRR of around 80% and a pay payback period of just a little bit over a year.

2:57 So by very any metrics are, you know, a very robust project. And that sees us targeting production in around the mid of two thousand and twenty six. So still still a couple of years to go, but, you know, it's kind an exciting time ahead. Just quickly, a couple of comments about the last few weeks. We've been very busy continuing to strengthen our treasury. So we wanted to make sure that we could get through to the end of our DFS, and we conducted a very successful capital raise over the last couple of weeks. We were able to raise £6,500,000 and be able to do it at strike. So we had very strong support from our existing shareholders. And certainly, if anybody on the line has invested during that, thank you very much.

3:45 But also we're able to bring in a couple of new institutions who could see, you know, the true value in this stock, and and they were very happy to invest at at the market price. So we're very happy to be able to to get that sort of level of money in and the support from our our broke our our shareholders and without having to take any discount for for for that. So just quickly, I won't dwell too much on this. I'm sure everybody is very familiar with the lithium market. You know, certainly, by all metrics and all graphs you wanna look at that anybody wants to to provide, you know, the world needs more lithium. And, you know, SAVANNAH is very well positioned to to supply that and supply it in a, you know, socially and environmentally responsible way.

4:38 So I think which whichever way you look at it, you know, certainly, for the foreseeable future, the next five to ten years, you know, this just appears to be continuing deficit. And, you know, we'll be able to be coming to the market at the key time to help service service that deficit. I guess talking to about some of the key key aspects of of the project, you know, we're very well located, you know, certainly in the North Portugal's first world setting. We are the largest hard rock potential hard rock development in Europe. So we're certainly very large scale. As I mentioned, we're conventional low risk. And, yeah, there's certainly a lot of exploration potential, which is available there as well. So I think, you know, we've got all the key ingredients for the success.

5:31 And, it's, you know, a very positive backdrop in Europe at the moment with the recent CRA MAC, but also, you know, the identification of lithium and rare earths as sort of critical raw materials. And certainly, the push from the European government there to try and find, you know, 10% worth of domestic supplied battery metals and particularly lithium in in the short term. So certainly, we're seeing, you know, very strong support from both the European and Portuguese government, which is is certainly very, very encouraging. In terms of the project itself, it's located up here in the North Of North Of Portugal, so just inland from from Porto.

6:16 So it's about a 145 kilometers far from from Porto. We are quite close to a main freeway here, so we're about 28 kilometers off the main a 24 freeway. And quite uniquely, we're about one kilometer off the main grid. And when we plug into that main grid, we get 73 renewable power. So it's, you know, the the the opportunity in Europe, you know, whilst there's some higher bars when it comes to social environmental, certainly, when you look at the ability to plug in and just get 75% renewable power, it will certainly help us with our green credentials and certainly driving down the carbon footprint of the potential operation. We're quite unique in the sense that it appears that we're going to have two or three potential refineries or hydroxide plants nearby.

7:11 So we've got one over here just to the South of Porto at a place called Esterasia, which is look a joint venture between Bondolte and Reed Advanced Metals. And we've got a further one down here to the South, which is the Aurora lithium project, which is at Sittabul just to the South of Lisbon. And across here, about 200 kilometers to to the east in Spain, we have a new development going up there, which is with a company called Envision. So within easy trucking distance of us, we have three hydroxide plants that look like they're going to be going up in around twenties two thousand twenty six, two thousand twenty seven, which coincides very well for us with our production schedule as well.

7:59 So we, you know, are very well located. And I think, you know, in terms of driving down our carbon footprint for our product, we're not going to have to face intercontinental shipping. So that will give us both carbon savings as well as real cost savings. So we're very well positioned and I think there's some significant advantages for the location of our project. Just a little zooming in and looking at the project itself, we currently have a thirty year mine license. The current resource, which we just updated a little while ago, is at 28,000,000 tons. It has a very large exploration targets go with it of 11 to 19,000,000 tons, you know, which suggests we've got a strong chance to expand this resource out over 50,000,000 tons. So all ore bodies are open at long strike and down the dip, and we still have probably another six to eight high priority lithium bearing pegmatites that we haven't drilled yet.

8:56 So we're hopeful that we can continue to expand this resource and increase the mine life and perhaps the throughput of this operation. The other interesting thing which we hope to see later in this year, all going well, is Portugal launching their national exploration tenders for six blocks for a very perspective ground for lithium. So we'll be looking to participate in that And we're very hopeful we'll be able to secure one or two blocks as part of that. So we're looking to continue to build our footprint in Portugal. Portugal has got some amazing geology and certainly a lot of spodumene bearing pegmatites. And that's where the main focus of our business is to to focus on spodumene mineralization, which is really the main mineralization of the hard rock ore bodies.

9:53 Looking at at our project in a little bit more detail. So in July of last year, we entered article 16 where the government identified a number of issues that we're concerned about with our original plans. We've been worked very closely with the government to to resolve those issues, which they which they've raised, which led to the successful approval of our project in in May of this year. So the sort of key issues which we we look to resolve, number one was was access. So you can see this sort of yellow swiggly line here, which is the main access routing. So we've committed to a road which will see none of the mine traffic pass through any town. So all the trucks, etcetera, will go around all towns all the way to the A 24 Freeway.

10:50 So that's a capital commitment of in the order of €30,000,000 to to do that. So that's a significant piece of community infrastructure as well, which the community will be able to access that. The second major area that was of concern was was water. So our original plan impacted 12 streams. We've worked closely with the with APA and their technicians, and we're able to devise a new plan which minimized that impact and got us down to to impacting only four streams. So whilst we couldn't get that down to zero because we have a number of streams which pass through some of the key deposits. We're able just to reduce that impact significantly.

11:38 The other major issue was was where we're going to source our water from. So there was concern around getting the water from the nearby Covis River, and we were able to get around that by installing a series of reservoirs which will capture the water. So you will see here on this map, there's a series of reservoirs which will go in, and we'll use these reservoirs to capture the water. So these will go in around twelve months before production starts because we need to get one winter to ensure that we have enough water to start the prep start the processing plant. So as soon after the road goes in, we'll then look to build the reservoirs and capture capture the water. The other major chain change was we split we had a combined integrated waste land form, and APA asked us to split those. So we now have a series of waste rock waste rock land forms, and then also we have a tails separate tails facility, which will be a dry stack tails facility. So there'll be no traditional upstream tailings or or dam structure. It'll all be a dry stack dry stack tailings.

12:57 Quickly moving forward and looking at the the scoping study in a little bit more detail, the scoping study is built around a mining crack contractor scenario. We will be operating five open pits. The EIA currently has four of those approved, and the fifth one of that is the LD deposit, which, you know, we're looking to get licensed over the next two or three years, and we'll be able to then bring that forward forward in the strip in the schedule. So the schedule is based around 20,500,000 tons of material, and it has a a sort of a strip ratio of around about around about six to one. And certainly during the early years of grandeur stage ones, that's closer to to one to one. So certainly, you know, a high strip ratio, not a low strip ratio, you know, certainly numbers that, you know, are very are very encouraging.

13:56 Turning our sites to the processing circuit. This is very conventional processing circuit, and it's the same circuit you'll see in virtually all lithium mines. So it's a combination of dense dense media separation, which is effectively using gravity to to remove waste and create a product and then into a a flotation circuit and and in our case, using very environmentally friendly reagents. We are targeting a grade of 5.5%. And I think, you know, with the exception of a couple of deposits, most materials in the world at the moment average 5.5 or or less. Certainly, when you look at what's being sold out there at the moment, certainly 5.5, probably the new six new 6%.

14:49 In terms of the recoveries, we're seeing, you know, some very strong recoveries in the laboratories. Our recent cycle tests were showing sort of 70 seven through to eighty one percent. But I think when you look around the world, you know, you were seeing recoveries in the order of sort of 70 to seventy five percent, you know, when when operations are going. So we were quite conservative and, you know, used a seventy three percent recovery in in our in our in our scoping study. So just to make sure that we weren't squeezing everything out out of this. And and certainly, I think it's leaving lots of good upside for when we do the feasibility study. We'll also be producing a quartz and feldspar byproduct. So whilst we don't have any tantalum, one of the unique features for us is that we're in the heart of the Iberian Peninsula ceramic industry.

15:41 And certainly, there's a strong interest in in our our waste effectively. So the waste products which come off the DMS and off the off the the the flotation cells will be saleable as the ceramic byproduct. So certainly, that's very helpful. And we'll be certainly working with a number of the largest ceramics groups in Portugal to to put some agreements together around that. Looking at the other key inputs into the into the scoping study, I guess the the major one is the spodumene price. So as I mentioned, you know, we're producing a 5.5% spodumene grade. So we spent quite a bit of time looking at what we're going to do with this. So we choose to take only price decks from 2,023.

16:31 So if look back in like, 2022, there were certainly some more favorable price decks, but we chose to use price decks, which was sort of showing some level of correction because we've certainly seen a little bit of of the shine come off the spodumene price. So we settled on a price deck for spodumene at 6% of around 1,600 ton dollars a ton, and then we discount that down a little because we'll only be producing 5.5%. So The US con grade we took according to our model was about fourteen fifty. So that gave us so for the operation, we have a total CapEx of around about 280, which includes contingencies and and about 230 odd. If you exclude those contingencies, of that 230, around about 40,000,000 of that is community related.

17:25 So new roads, we'll be oversizing the the water reservoirs that we're constructing to allow allow some freeboard for local community, that type of thing. You know, if we've invested heavily into closure and rehabilitation costs, we'll be spending close to a $100,000,000 to close out the project to make sure it's as close to as reasonably possible as to what it was before before we left. But even with all those costs, etcetera, you know, we've got an all in sustaining cost of around about $410 per ton of concentrate, which is a very healthy margin when you think that we're, you know, potentially selling it for around about $1,500 per per ton. So there's a sort of healthy thousand dollar per ton of concentrate margin there, which which we're working on, which shows, you know, this is this is quite a robust quite a robust project.

18:18 When you look at the the free cash flow, so the average annual revenue is around $304,000,000. But I think, you know, the important bottom lines there are, you know, after tax, the post tax NPV is $509,100,000,000 dollars rather. Very good internal rate of return at 77.3% and a very short payback of of one point three years. So I think by any metric that you look at this project now, it's a very robust project. And I think you can see by the fact that we've, you know, we haven't used aggressive spodumene prices. We've certainly seen other people studies

18:56 using spodumene prices as high as 2,500 for life of mine. And certainly our recoveries, we've just taken a very cautious approach to that. So even when you sort of take that cautious approach, you know, this this this project has produced a very robust financial outcome in the scoping study. Just quickly having a look at some of the the sensitivities. So no surprise, the major sensitivity is is price. So certainly, if we, you know, were to put a a more favorable price in this, certainly, it's very cash generative. The other place which is it has quite a large impact is the recovery. So as I said, we haven't pushed that too hard at this point.

19:42 But, you know, there's opportunities there for us in the EFS to perhaps improve that. But I think the really quite interesting thing for project is to see that, you know, it's not heavily dependent on on the CapEx. So it's, you know, it's very cash generative and, you know, any sort of swings on the CapEx, yeah, don't make a huge difference to the to the project. So so, you know, quite a conservative scoping study, we believe. Plenty of room for for improvement. And, you know, as we move into the DFS, we can hope we can in in further in improve that that bottom line story and and and continue to generate, you know, great great outcome for for for the for all the all people included.

20:28 In just swinging our self back to the project now and having a bit closer look at it. You know, one of the very big focuses, as we sort of said earlier on the presentation, was trying to come up with, you know, a project which is which is acceptable as possible to to all our stakeholders. You know, it's impossible to keep everybody happy all the time, but certainly we put a huge amount of effort into, you know, developing a project which we think has got a very good balance between social environment and and and economics. So we've put a lot of effort and time into it and, you know, generate what we think is is a very good outcome. So as I've sort of touched on before, one of the sort of key things was the the new road, which we're we're putting through.

21:17 Also, you know, we've been very focused on what I would call comfort factors for for the local communities. So certainly, whilst the the the process plant will run twenty four seven, we've committed to just running two eight hour mining shifts, which, you know, has a small impact on the bottom line. But with larger equipment, we're still able to mine and produce the required amount of material to operate this plant 20 fourseven at 1,500,000 tons per annum. As we noted, all the water will just be collected on-site. We'll be running a closed system on-site. So, basically, any water which comes out of the the process plant will report to a water treatment plant.

22:07 So no water which comes through the mining process will ever enter the the local system. So it's all captured and completely completely recycled. One of the other potential issues for the region was the Iberian wolf. So in the North Of Portugal, we have a protected species called the Iberian wolf, but we've spent three years monitoring this area. We have a very good relationship with the Lisbon University and one of the best wolf professors in the country. And him and his team have spent a long time out here monitoring for us. So we've been able to, through that work, be able to categorically say that there's no no wolf that lives in this area, and the nearest place that they live is probably in excess of five kilometers away.

22:54 So that's all been very positive for us. And in terms of the the open pits, one of the sort of key requirements from the government was to try to minimize the landscape impact. So we've come up with a plan. I think we run about 28 different mining sequences. So we've you know, we're looking to backfill the Pinero Pit and the Noah Pit, which are quite small pits. And then we've agreed that we would backfill the reservator pit in the Granddale Pit to the point where the lake doesn't form in the bottom of it and then pushing the sides of it and and rehabilitate it. So, again, that's part of the the $100,000,000 we've committed to to rehabilitate this this site.

23:40 But, you know, this project is a good project. Unfortunately, it's been able to to cover all those additional costs, environmental and social costs. So I think we've got a very good balance between between everything everything now. Just quickly, you know, we're very focused on our stakeholder engagement and community social commitments. You know, we're very conscious of what we're doing there, and we've put a lot of effort into continuing to communicate as as regular as we possibly can. So we have two community information centers, one in the town of Covis and the other in the town of Patikas, which are run and manned all the time. There's a lot of information available there.

24:28 We often send out to to landholders and to let homeowners, you know, information on the project. So we have a series of fact sheets. I think there's 17 or 19 of them now, which cover all sorts of various information around potential impacts, those types of things, and talks about what the company is doing to to to minimize those things. So we're very focused on those things and continuing to, you know, develop our programs as as we move forward.

25:00 So just looking at the the main timeline for for the project, you know, it's been a very busy time for us in 2023. Certainly, myself has been a lot of time for sleep, but but, you know, it's all been very enjoyable as we as we've tackled all these issues. So, you know, this year, we finalized the revised EIA or DIA rather and got it in in March. Then then there was a further public consultation, which led to the positive DIA towards the end of May on so it was May 31. And then shortly after that, once we had those final conditions and the final footprint was decided, we're then able to produce the the updated scoping study within since completed a very good capital raising as I noted at the start. So our treasury is very strong at the moment, and we're now in the final throes of finalizing the tenders for the DFS and the Re cape and and the bypass road. So we've issued those tenders very soon after the after the positive DIA, and those have been out in the market now for a bit over a month. And we're just in the final process of assessing those things, they'll be getting underway, all those major pieces of work in in August.

26:23 So we're we're full steam ahead at the moment. We're hoping or we're looking to get the rigs back out in September. It's very hard to do much in in Portugal or in Europe, really, during the August months as as most people take some sort of holiday. So we're looking to get those up and going in in September. So we're just finalizing dual contracts, etcetera, at the moment with a view probably somewhere in the first two weeks of this September. The rigs will start up again, And that will sort of focus on resource upgrades and some more geotech work, which we need to finalize for the final pitch designs as part of as part of the DFS. So if that all goes well, you know, we're hoping that we'll see the final licensing, etcetera, towards the end of two thousand and twenty four and and and FID sort of late two thousand and twenty four, early two thousand and twenty five, which we'll see some in the construction 02/25 and production by around mid of two thousand and twenty six.

27:31 Just looking at that schedule in a little bit more. So I think I've got a schedule which has about 650 line items in it. So it's a very complex job to do all these things, but this is a a simple sort of summary of those things. And we can sort of see ourselves over here at the moment. So this is where we've had approval of the EIA in May with or end of May. So we're just sort of sitting in here at the moment. So we're just about to let the contracts for the DIA and the feasibility study, which you can see down here. And those two pieces of work will run for the next nine to to twelve months just depending on how we manage to sort of put all those things put all those things together. So so so far, so good. You know, we've had a, you know, a very successful year.

28:21 We've got the right ticks in the box, but still, you know, we've got some more more work to go to finalize the last pieces of the licensing and then also to get the feasibility study done. But I think it's important to note that we we haven't been idle. So, you know, we're to sort of finalize the scoping out of DFS until we got the the the final EIA through because that was really the thing which settled what the footprint would look like because there's been it was a lot of negotiation with the various stakeholders, interest parties as to what that would look like. But during that period, we've done an enormous amount of metallurgical test work. So we've actually completed all the DEFS test work even before the DEFS starts, and we're actually ready to start designing the plant. So whilst it's been a little bit frustrating waiting for these things to come in, we haven't been idle. We've been trying to make the best of the time available, which which we've had. So so we're we're moving forward. We're continuing to hit our milestones, and, you know, we're looking forward to a pretty interesting 2000 or second half of two thousand and twenty three.

29:33 Since we've got the DIA, I mean, even before we had the DIA, you know, we had a lot of interest from sort of strategic partners and offtake partners. But I think it's fair to say that since we released that DIA, that this has got got very much larger. So we're sort of, at the moment, you know, just looking at all those potential opportunities in terms of strategic partnerships and and offtakes. And that's a process, you know, we're looking to sort of, you know, run-in the second half of this year. So it's something we're gonna be looking very close at and, you know, and looking to find somebody who can help us out, continue to fund this project and, you know, help us deal with the the CapEx. So, you know, as with all these discussions and negotiations, our number one priority is to try and minimize any potential dilution for our for our shareholders.

30:28 So, you know, our preference will be defined some way or some partnerships or offtakes that can, you know, find, you know, good ways to to finance these things, but without having shareholders having to take too much more dilution. So so certainly, you know, we've received a lot of interest in there, you know, from all parts of the value chain. So from refiners, battery makers, OEMs, equity players, all types of all types of things. So the job for us over the next three to six we're continuing to push forward with the DFS is to look at all those opportunities and see if we can't find something sensible to do in there for for for the project.

31:15 Just quickly, we've got a very experienced team on-site. So there's myself, but, you know, the the rest of the team is is very experienced in delivering delivering projects. And over the next sort of three to six months, we're gonna continue to strengthen that team and bring on another a number of other senior executives from from Portugal. Now as this project continues to to mature, it's very important that we get further Portuguese executives into to support our existing existing team because, you know, it's, you know, it's really important that that the locals benefit from this project and and certainly, you know, like every country, you know, using local staff there is is a better idea and the local nuances and and those types of things. So certainly over the next three to six months, you will see a strengthening of the team and also, you know, having having a look at the board at the moment. You know, we need to make sure that the board is fit for purposes. We we move forward to to move from what's the thing effectively being an explorer, moving into a developer, and eventually a a miner. So we're sort of looking at the whole team at the moment, both senior executives as well as the board to make sure that we're appropriately configured to take on the challenges of the next three years ahead.

32:38 I think, you know, just sort of the the last slide and where I'd like like to end, I think, you know, by by any metric, you know, we think, you know, SAVANNAH is incredibly incredibly undervalued. It's always difficult to try and work out how to show that. You know, you can look at the amount of you can look at the the amount of material we have in the ground. So you can look at resource versus market cap, that sort of things. But but, you know, the metric that we presented here is is is looking at your PNEV. So for for us, you know, our PNEV is around point point one. And I think if you look at any other groups which are in similar positions to us, you know, we've got completed licenses, you know, where largely through our d DFS DFS now, you know, whichever way you look at us, we're incredibly underpaid.

33:39 You know, most of our peers are operating perhaps closer to to point three pNAV. So there's us us there. And, you know, I guess you can sort of see this overall upward trajectory. So that's kind of the, I guess, the the the the the path we we we are hoping which we're we're on and certainly the the path that we're trying to drive drive value on. So, certainly, you know, we've got a great project now and certainly, it's my job and the senior executive jobs to get out there and continue to tell the story and explain to to to the investing market, you know, why this is a very attractive pro project and and why it can be, you know, a critical piece of Europe's, you know, transition into into in in all green transition, basically. So so, certainly, you know, it's, you know, it's a pretty exciting opportunity.

34:35 We we're we're incredibly undervalued. I think, you know, we can see that people are recognizing that now with the resource capital raise. People are happy to come in. We're happy to come in at spot because I saw the the true value of the stock. And I think, you know, you look at SPANGEL or any of the people who have done research on us, I think they're sort of, you know, around the sort of $20.20 odd cent p mark. So I think, you know, there's a lot of room for growth there for us. So, certainly, our job as an executive is to try and drive that growth. And, you know, it's certainly gonna be a very interesting space over the next sort of three to six months as we continue on the path of developments, like getting all our studies up and going, but also, you know, looking at this this partnership. I think, you know, a lot of other groups that are have approached us to see the true value of this project. So I think, you know, we're very hopeful we can get something meaning very meaningful done around that, which will, you know, transcribe through to to value to to our to our shareholders.

35:37 So so I think that's it, Mark. So passing back to you for now. So let's just try to keep it short and not go on too long because people will like to ask questions. Absolutely, Dow. Thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, as Dow said, please do continue to submit your questions just using that Q and A tab just on the right hand corner of your screen. But just while Dow takes a few moments to review those questions already submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of the presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A, could be accessed via your investor dashboard. Dale, I haven't given you a great amount of time, but if I could just ask you to click on that q and a tab and start at the top and where appropriate to do so, if you could just read out the question and give your response and I will pick up from you at the end. So I guess there is a number of questions around partnership.

36:29 So I think it's probably I'll I'll answer that together as one. So there's most of the questions around around partnerships. I think the easiest answer to that is that we'll be running an informal process, so which is actually underway. So, you know, we have a very long list of of punters, probably somewhere between forty and fifty groups are interested in in in partnering with us in in in some way. So that process is underway, and we have a very experienced executive on on our board, a gentleman by the name of Sasha Keene. He's our chief strategy officer, and he has a lot of experience in this type of transaction and bank financing, those types of things.

37:15 So Sasha has been directed by the board to to run this process. And, you know, we're very hopeful that somewhere amongst those 40 to 50 groups, you know, there's a suitable partner for us that gives us the the good balance between, you know, finding the money we need to take this project forward and not diluting our shareholders or minimally diluting our shareholders as much as possible. So we're hopeful that, you know, by the end of the year that we will have some transparency around what's going to what's going to happen there. But certainly, it should be a pretty exciting time as we sort of wade through those wade through those opportunities. And then I think certainly, as I said earlier on, you know, there's a broad breadth of opportunity there. So from equity groups to potential or existing hydroxide producers, there's people from the battery plant sectors, there's OEMs, some sorts of incredibly wide range of people. So certainly, it should be a pretty interesting time over the coming months as we wade through there.

38:26 The next question is around EU grants and are those within our reach. So certainly there is money in the EU. Certainly, we're not seeing a lot coming out of the Critical Raw Materials Act at this point, which is, you know, which is not ideal. We're kinda I guess we're all hoping to see something perhaps more like the IRA out of America, that type of thing. But we think that that's cut that's that's coming. So certainly, you know, we have the potential to, you know, get those and we certainly have a very much have our eyes on those. And we already are involved in a number of EU initiatives, know, primarily at the moment around processing technology and those things. So we're working with a number of the universities on trying to improve various different different processing technology. So so the money is there.

39:25 It's I guess, it's flowing slowly, but, you know, we're very hopeful by the time we come come to deal with our CapEx late next year or early the year after that some of that money is starting to flow through to where it needs to be, which is at the mine gate. Because without these mines operating, the whole battery chain is is is at risk really. You know, it's no point having battery factories if you've got no got no raw raw products for us. There's a question here. Did you say there is a possible 50,000,000 ton of supply in the Barossa mine? I did say there's opportunity to potentially expand towards that. We see, you know, all our resources are open on long strike and down dip. So there's certainly that possibility.

40:16 We need to continue to drill holes and to try and further evaluate that. So we're hoping or we will be getting the rigs back in there in September of this year and continuing to sort of work and evaluate. So the the primary focus of the rig drilling initially will be to do the work required for the DFS, and and then we'll look at expansion work after that. So primarily, we need to finalize the the infill drilling and do some do some do some geo tech geotech drilling. There's some questions here about climate change and the need to capture water on-site ASAP.

41:07 So I guess to answer that, we've looked very closely at the water which comes into our our our area or our our valley. So on an annual basis, in excess of 1,000,000 cubic meters of water comes into our valley. And year on year, we need around 240,000 cubic meters of water. So as long as we're in a position to capture that water at least one year beforehand, we'll have more than enough water to run the process plant. And on top of that, there'll be water which comes from pit dewatering and board dewatering around the pit. So we haven't included that. So we've been very conservative around how we've planned to to to to to to to do this.

41:55 Let me keep going. So there's a question here about the construction of the road and the schedule and who designs the the bypass road. So that bypass road will be designed by Portuguese consultants in conjunction with Infrastructure Portugal, which is the main government group that that designs and and run these things. And so that process will get underway during August. So we'll be starting just starting that process. And then it will be a joint venture between the government and SAVANNAH in terms of of that of that project where they'll be helping us out with with various different aspects.

42:43 But, ultimately, it's SAVANNAH's job to to tender the final the final project and to organize the construction of that road. It's our job to to pay for that. We've committed to to that. There's a question here. It says, have you spoken directly to any carmakers? Yes. We've spoken directly to to many potential carmakers. They're, you know, certainly very interested in spodumene supply. And I think you can see, you know, you've got Ford who's invested in Liontown, for example, and there's many, many, many more examples there. So certainly, you know, the the OEMs are looking right down to to the to the mine to mine gate, and it's not only car companies, you've got your truck companies and also, you know, larger equipment companies and and that and that type of thing.

43:38 So so certainly, you know, there's a lot of interest out there at at all all levels. So yes. So there's another question here about debt funding and equipment lease and how much the total CapEx can you do without equity funding. So I think what we're trying to do through this upcoming partnering process is to try and see if we can't find some way perhaps through part of the off take or something like that to hopefully leverage somebody else's balance sheet to help with that with that CapEx. So certainly, we're very conscious that we don't wanna dilute our our shareholders any further. And and part of why we're running a process is to try and look at as many different ways of financing this thing to ensure that we don't, you know, continue to dilute our shareholders.

44:40 There's discussions going on with a number of the different mining fleet producers. And certainly, there's lots of opportunities there. You know, perhaps, you know, we we can be a show side or something like that for one of those in Europe, for one of those groups, which which might provide us some some benefits. So certainly, all those conversations are going on at the moment, and, you know, we're, know, we're very hopeful that that that that something will will will come come out come out of that. So, you know, we're, I guess, looking at all the possibilities in terms of, you know, how we best take this project forward. There's a there's a cheeky question here. Had you had lunch with Elon yet? I can't answer that can't answer that question. I haven't got his diary diary either. But, you know, certainly, you know, we are meeting a lot of people and a lot of there's a lot of interested parties out there. So, you know, certainly, we can't divulge what those discussions are. But But certainly, you know, as I said, there's a broad range of interest in this, we'll continue to explore that to make sure that we do the best possible deal for our shareholders.

46:01 I think that's probably about it, Mark. I think I've got through most of the of the questions and covered most of the top the topics. That's fantastic. Look, thank you very much indeed. Of course, any further questions that do come in, you will have the ability to review those, and we can publish those answer questions back on the Investor Me company platform. Now perhaps just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which I is particularly important to you and the company, can I just ask you just for a few closing comments, please? Sure. Firstly, thanks for everybody for taking the time to come along and listen today, and I hope we're able to show you, you know, the enormous potential of the lithium project. I think, hopefully, while we're somewhere under vain and and why it's worth taking, you know, a closer look at SAVANNAH as a potential, you know, investment opportunity.

46:47 You know, I think the next six months are gonna be very exciting as the project moves forward and, you know, we use the board a very sort of conscious and we're trying to continue to, you know, create further value for our for our shareholders. So, you know, I've been banging on about being incredibly undervalued, but it's our job to get out there and trying to trying to drive that value. So I think, you know, we can do that through the continued sort of maturity of the project as we move through the the various different steps. And, you know, and we're very hopeful that somewhere in the next six months, we might be able to find ourselves a good quality strategic or off take partner who will, you know, help take some of that financing burning off the company and, you know, reduce the the possibility of further dilution for our for our shareholders.

47:33 So so certainly, you know, we thank everybody who's been supporting the company. And certainly, as Mark said, we'll be very happy to go through any questions, which which I haven't covered through through this through this discussion today. And, you know, people are always I'm always happy. People wish to reach out to me directly. Happy to do that and answer any questions where where I can. So thank you very much to everybody, and and thank you, Mark, for organizing this. It's been a great platform. Fantastic. Thanks indeed for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session? It should be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, and that's greatly valued by the company.

48:21 On behalf of Dan and the team at SAVANNAH RESOURCES PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That concludes today's session, and good morning.