Savannah Resources (LSE:SAV) — Investor Presentation

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the SAVANNAH RESOURCES Investor Presentation. Throughout this presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your question and press send. The 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 it's available appropriate to do so. These will be available via your Investor Meet company dashboard, and we will send you an email to notify you when they're ready for your review. I'd also like to remind you that this presentation is being recorded. Before we begin, we would like to submit the following poll. And if you would be so kind as to give that your attention, we would be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand over, if I may, to David Archer, CFO from SAVANNAH RESOURCES. Good afternoon to you, David. Good afternoon, Mark.

0:55 Right. Well, thank you so much for that, very sort of kind introduction, and good afternoon, everyone who's, on this call. I'm delighted to be here today to, give you an introduction and perhaps a little bit of, more detail, particularly, to those who are familiar with the company. So SAVANNAH is really framing itself up to be Europe's leading conventional lithium project based around the Mina De Barroso lithium project in in Northeast Portugal. We believe that Mina De Brusso can be really Europe's centerpiece to Europe's energy transition and really will provide a solid and sound foundation for the for the link up of the whole end to end value chain in Europe and really will be a sort of key feature in the introduction of electric mobility to to to Europe.

1:50 Just moving through the presentation, I'm the CEO of the company. I've been involved in the, resources industry for a number of decades, internationally, particularly in Australia and North America, now in Europe, and and, of course, in in in Africa. I'm aim ably supported by Dale Ferguson, our technical director. Dale and I have worked together since 2003. We developed the Kenmen two two million ton per annum open cut copper mine in South Australia, and he's certainly one of the more able resource industry executives. Michael McGarty, our CFO, is a a sort of a vital sort of piece of the overall SAVANNAH offering.

2:37 And on the project side, we have Joao Barros, our country manager in Portugal. He and his family have are very well respected and have been, long term participants in the Portuguese mining industry. Paul O'Donohue, leads the charge in Mozambique with the Batamba mineral sands project, and, Joanna Perez Arias, is our communications and communication, and community affairs, executive in, in in Lisbon. And finally, we have who leads on our business development side as well and brings sort of wonderful analytical skills to the company.

3:23 One thing I I would like to mention is that we also have a a very sort of senior and very able and very experienced advisory board in Portugal consisting of three individuals, one of whom is a senior retired civil servant and the other other two are senior former politicians. So, you know, we're very much interested in sort of building out our Portuguese component in terms of executive and advisory board skill skill set. Just looking at the sort of overall lithium setting and landscape, it it's it's extraordinarily interesting at the moment. What we're seeing is sort of dramatic increases in demand for electric vehicles.

4:12 From January to May of this year, electric vehicle sales went up by something like 73% on a on a year on year basis. It's estimated that electric vehicle sales will constitute something like 15% of European light vehicle sales in in April. The European Commission is forecasting that electric vehicle sales will move up from just over a million vehicles in Europe in 2020 to somewhere between seven and eight million electric vehicles by '20 by 2025. So, you know, we're seeing sort of remarkable increases in these in these sorts of percentage numbers. Macquarie Bank has forecast that something like 16% of global light vehicle sales will be constituted by electric vehicles by 2025.

5:06 That'll move up to about 33% by 2030. So, again, sort of very much underlying underscoring the enormous growth that's sort of going on. I think the other thing that is perhaps not more broadly appreciated is that not only will there be more electric vehicles on the road, those each of those electric vehicles will actually have more lithium in in their batteries, and this is mainly because of new developments in in battery technologies. We sort of we will see the adoption of solid state batteries. We'll see the adoption of, lithium metal cat cathodes. We'll see the adoption of, novel, chemistries like, lithium sulfur, anodes.

5:52 But what this really means is that there'll be something like two times more lithium per required for every kilowatt hour produced. It'll go up from about point eight kilograms per kilowatt hour to to around about two kilograms per kilowatt hour. So, again, just want to underscore the point that there'll be more electric vehicles with more lithium. What does that mean? It just means that demand is really going to really going to mushroom. We've already sort of seen the impact of that in terms of pricing for our for our product, which is spodumene. That's the name of the lithium mineral that will be sort of producing. The spodumene price as recently as one year ago was at recent all time lows of about 350 US dollars a ton more recently. And then most recently, it's actually moved up to about 850 US dollars tonne, you know, something like a 142 percent increase within within the space of a year.

6:58 Macquarie Bank is certainly forecasting continued deficits or sorry. Emerging and enlarging deficits over time and actually sort of characterize the situation as being permanent production deficits. So from a from a producer point of view, does it that sort of setting really sort of couldn't be couldn't be more perfect. We're seeing this as demonstrated by people like VW who will be producing this rather attractive vehicle in my background image here. VW will be producing around about 1,600 electric vehicles per day by by year end. That'll be equivalent on an annualized basis to almost 600,000 electric vehicles per annum, and that's something like 60% of sort of total sales of electric vehicles in Europe in in Europe last year. That's from one only electric vehicle manufacturer.

7:58 As you see, other electric vehicle manufacturers roll out a more comprehensive model range and model offerings, I think you'll you'll certainly sort of see production levels move up. And, of course, the great news about Europe is that there's a a very willing consumer marketplace for electric vehicles. Just looking at Europe itself, the European Commissioners and other countries within the geography of Europe have all made, you know, very sort of significant commitments to the decarbonization of their economies and and to a certain extent, transportation as well. The overall objective is to reduce transport emissions by 90% by 2050.

8:46 And, of course, there's an overall objective of moving Europe into a carbon neutral position by by by 2050. It's it's a it's a very important, imperative as seen by the European Commission in terms of a public policy objective. And, of course, there are some geo geopolitical elements to it all as well. Currently, most EV batteries and and battery lithium refining is actually done in China. It's it's very much a a globally sort of concentrated industry. I think really what the European Union is looking to do is to sort of build out its own independent infrastructure, its own, as you can see from the bottom of this slide, its own end to end lithium value chain comprising all of the the linkages from extraction through refining through the the manufacturing of the battery active chemicals, the the actual battery cells themselves, the assembly into battery packs, employment in electric vehicles, and the employment in a full circular economy with recycling recycling itself.

10:06 Whilst there are a number of policy initiatives, it's also reflected in sort of hard actions as well. The European European Commission has created the European Battery Alliance, which is a sort of partnership designed to encourage the development of European industry in in this particular in this particular sector. And, of course, a lot of money will be going from the recovery and resilience fund into into the the green transition and and and the digital transformation. We believe that there will be some very significant and meaningful opportunities for SAVANNAH and MENAH DIBOROSA in terms of sort of securing some of those opportunities.

10:54 And we most recently announced our participation in the back power consortium in Portugal together with companies such as EDP, GALP, and Bosch, and we'll be looking at some of the opportunities to secure funding as a result of the European recovery and and resilience fund. Looking at the, if you like, the the sector topography, this this side has been with the company for a few years. I I suppose what we're seeing is it's being increasingly populated with more and more of these boxes, particularly around gigafactories.

11:42 There is something like sort of 31 overall sort of gig gigafactories either in operation operation or planned in in Europe. So there's gonna be a really sort of massive build out of of battery production capability. What hasn't really been matched, at least until somewhat recently, is the sort of the build out of the upstream part of the value chain. Clearly, Minotaurosso, we believe, will be very much an early mover in terms of the production of the the raw material, the lithium raw material itself, but that material needs to be refined. When we originally secured Mina De Broso in 2017, the the sort of natural outlet for material that we produce was China.

12:30 However, you know, we believe that they would will will have been a a build out of refineries, and what we're really seeing now is evidence that that is very much the point of focus for multiple consortia in in Europe. We've outlined a number of the the public ones that are out there at the moment. And, really, these are the people who could potentially be customers for material from MENAH to Barossa. And we believe that European sourced material, European produced material, European materials are produced in accordance with European environmental and labor regulations and in accordance with the good governance that you see within European countries means that Miner Barossos spodumene concentrate will be a preferred and premium item for both refiners and will sort of be seen to be very much a a qualifying raw material by downstream consumers, you know, such as Daimler blends or VW or whoever might ultimately get the lithium in in the batteries that they actually sort of buy from gigafactories in in Europe.

13:51 So terrific topography in Europe. We believe we've got the right mind in the in the right place at very much the perfect time. Just looking at looking at the project itself, obviously, we're sort of based in in Northeast Northeast Portugal. We've got the largest spodumene lithium project or deposit in in Europe. It's very much the analog of the Australian hard rock spodumene projects, which really now sort of produce the the lion's share of the the globally lift globally traded lithium raw materials. What we want to do is replicate the development success of the Australian producers and do so in do so in Europe. We want to we don't want to do anything novel, unusual, or unproven.

14:44 All we're going to do is be adopting the now tried and proven sort of techniques that have been demonstrated in Australia and apply them apply them to Mina De Brose. So this is very much a conventional mine development with a very conventional sort of processing associated with it. We believe that our current resource of 27,000,000 tonnes is only the start. We believe there's plenty more upside where that 27,000,000 tonnes came from, both in terms of extensions to existing deposits, which we hope to be able to provide further definition around over the next over the next few years. There's also a very exciting lithium tender which will be offered by the Portuguese government perhaps later this year or early next year, and we believe that those tender areas are highly prospective. And because of our track record, our familiarity with the Portuguese setting, and the expertise that we've developed in the country over over the last four four years years or so means that we'll be a very sort of strong contender in that for that tender, for the award of those areas, and we'll be able to sort of build out a larger portfolio, you know, with a view to really sort of building a major European lithium production hub in Northeast Portugal and for that to sort of very much lead the production charge in in Europe.

16:16 Just in terms of some of the the headline numbers, we've got market capitalization at the moment of about 71,000,000, a very, very modest very, very modest market capitalization in comparison to our industry peers. Despite the small market cap, we actually enjoy some pretty pretty stellar numbers around the sort of projected net present value of the the development, looking at something like 365 u 156, I should say, US million in terms of NPV. We've we enjoy very low cash costs per ton, and I'll talk about that a little bit a little bit later. The initial scoping study defined a a CapEx of about 109,000,000 before contingencies around about 20 around about 20,000,000.

17:09 In mining industry terms, that's relatively modest CapEx requirement. And, of course, you know, it's very much in alignment with our market cap and is a very doable and very sort of financeable CapEx to to undertake. We'll be looking to put in terms of our scoping study, we studied the production of around about 175,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate per annum in our current DFS, which is underway at the moment. We're looking at expanding the run of mine right from about 1.3 to 1,500,000 tons per annum to produce around about 200,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate per annum. What does 200,000 tonnes mean? What it means is that we'll be able to satisfy European demand around about five sorry, 6% of European demand by 2025 and something like, 5% by, by 2030.

18:07 So certainly not going to be the slam dunk solution for Europe, but we'll be able to help in a in a in a material way in terms of production of this strategic raw material. Just looking at the project in a little bit more in a little bit more detail, I think it's very important to understand that we have actually a granted mining lease at Mino De Grosso. It's a 520 hectic square or hectare area. It was originally granted in 2006. It has a term of thirty years. It is a mining lease. It is a granted mining lease. It was a granted mining lease. We are mining there at the moment. We're mining modest quantities of of quartz and at the moment.

18:54 And what we're looking at doing is getting the government approvals, including an EIA approval to expand production so that we'll be able to mine larger volumes and also to construct and operate the process plant to produce the, if you like, the added value sort of product, the spodumene concentrate, which effectively is a sort of a ground and sort of concentrated powder, which will contain around about 6% l I l I two o. The project enjoys very positive economics. I've talked about the sort of application of Australian know how and deploying that in into Europe. And, you know, we're looking forward to a very exciting few years in front of us with a number of very sort of material value drivers that we hope to that we are planning and working to make come to pass. So, clearly, you know, one of the major milestones is the environmental license award.

20:00 We lodged out EIA in at the end of May in twenty twenty twenty. We started the whole environmental approval process actually in 2018 with a a PDA, which was used to define what the contents of the EIA would be. We've just concluded the the public consultation process, which concluded Friday of last week on on the sixteenth. And, you know, we believe we're now sort of working our way through sort of the final stages, and we're sort of hopeful that we might see a an award sometime in the in the in October or potentially November of this year.

20:48 Certainly, the the more lengthy community consultation period is pushed pushed back back a bit through into the October period. And the other element too that's made it a little bit longer is that we also have to go through a a process with Spain as well. The project is actually within 30 kilometers of the Portuguese Spanish border, and there is a a treaty between Spain and Portugal which obligates the regulator to seek the views of of Spain around this development. Needless to say, the impacts will be because of the distance between ourselves and the Spanish border will be limited, really, only to sort of potentially some more road traffic and, you know, potentially more some job opportunities for Spanish people living across the living across the border.

21:45 One of the other sort of key drivers will be offtake. We've we're currently talking to a number of well qualified sort of potential offtake partners at the moment. It's a it's a a comprehensive field, I'm I'm I'm pleased to say. And, you know, so we believe that we'll be able to secure material offtake arrangements with well qualified counterparties, which will sort of effectively sort of guarantee the ability to sell the spodumene concentrate in Europe to to refinery refinery customers. Alongside the offtake, it's likely that there will be associated investment.

22:35 That associated investment will be sort of part of the sort of cocktail, the funding packages, which will sort of go towards the financing of the of the actual mine development itself. So I would anticipate that, you know, a an offtake or and or investment should be something we should be able to secure by the by the end of the year. We have did have a heads of agreement with GALP, the Portuguese oil and gas major, which we allowed to expire a month or so ago. We believe that, you know, there's a whole range of sort of potential partners that have become apparent during the during this calendar year, and we'd really like to sort of test each one of those as a potential candidates to see, yeah, what is the best deal, from Savannah's point of view, from a, you know, particularly from a a funding and, and offtake perspective.

23:45 One of the other key key milestones will be, the completion of our DFS. That's somewhat interlinked with the results of the EIA because we did actually have to present a series of potential development options to the regulator. We're reliant upon a decision being made around that so that we can actually sort of fully sort of outline all of the elements that we have to conclude with the DFS. So we're sort of really somewhat waiting for the the DIA so that we can try forward and conclude the the DFS. We've been doing also a lot of work around the the greening of the project. One of the key aspects of the project is the great news is there's a lot of renewable energy generated in Northeast Portugal.

24:37 There's abundant wind and hydro somewhat supplemented by solar. And, you know, something like 60% of Portuguese electricity generation is from from renewables, and we'll be certainly looking to preferentially take all of our electrical input from renewable resources. What we are looking at doing, though, is that of looking at some of the options to sort of convert what will initially be a diesel powered mobile fleet at the mine to

25:09 sort of nondiesel alternatives. We're working on a few initiatives at the moment around that, and, certainly, it will be our objective to to reduce the already relatively sort of modest c o two footprint of the project and sort of further reduce that over the medium term. So, you know, lots of interesting and sort of worthy news that will come out from that particular initiative. I mentioned earlier that, you know, one of our key objectives will be to sort of continue to increase the size of the resource. Minor Barossa is the gift that is kept kept on giving in terms of resource additions, and, you know, we have, during our drilling campaigns, regularly increased the the size of the resource from the zero tonnes that existed there when we first secured the project to today, where we have around about 27,000,000 tonnes.

26:09 So so plenty more action available to us. And finally, yeah, there's likely to be a lithium conversion plant constructed in Portugal. We believe that having the largest source of spodumene lithium in Europe makes for sort of compelling logic to locate that refinery sort of close to its major feedstock source, which will be sort of Nina de Brose. And, of course, that has very significant benefits both to the refiner customer and to ourselves. To ourselves, it really means much shorter transport distances, lower transport costs, the elimination of that transport link to to China. And from the point of view of the customer, it means that the customer will be able to produce a lithium hydroxide with a a lower c o two footprint, which will make his lithium hydroxide a whole lot more appealing, to some of

27:07 the, cathode cathode cathode producers and the downstream electric vehicle, sort of consumers. So, yeah, a lot of things are coming into, you know, rather nice coincident alignment, and, you know, I think we're putting together an extremely sort of solid, worthy, and exciting picture around the development of Mina DiBrosso. Just looking at the the setting itself, and I suppose this sort of again, the geography is something that's pretty important, but I I suppose also the so really the infrastructure setting as well. And sometimes we sort of take for granted the the infrastructure that's available in Europe, but it's it's worth talking about. This is not remote Northwest Western Australia.

27:56 This is this is mainstream Europe, and, you know, we enjoy here where our project is. We've got major dual lane carriageway expressways that run all the way down to the export port of the Port Of Leixos, about a 140 kilometers away, all downhill, I'm I'm pleased to say. There's excellent

28:18 There's excellent distribution electricity distribution and infrastructure. You know, we believe that there will be a refinery constructed in in in Portugal, probably in Northern Portugal. And, of course, we do we are actually sort of quite proximate to Northern European ports via the via the Port Of Vlaixos. So, you know, there's certainly a real opportunity for us to, you know, provide material to refiners that might be established along the along the the Baltic or the Northern German Northern German coast. Talk to ESG is really just front and center.

29:09 There for really every every company sort of globally and, you know, particularly, of course, in the in the mining industry, and it is very much a primary focus for us. Just in terms of the the practical application of our intent, in terms of the EIA, you know, we've, we've really worked, very hard to, minimize the, impact of, the mine development in terms of some of the design initiatives. For example, a bypass road,

29:40 which will cost us an extra 4 to €5,000,000 to construct to take traffic altogether away from local villages and and local towns. We'll be looking to put in funding earthen berms, which will be vegetated to screen the development from any sort of local local habitation. We'll be drying the tailings and dry stack dry stacking the tailings. There'll be no tailings dams, and these dry stack tailings will be sort of contoured and revegetated on a on a rolling basis literally almost from day one, and that'll be that'll revert to effectively sort of natural landforms. At the end of the line life, we'll be looking to sort of repurpose the pit as as as either, you know, attractive local feature with a with a lake or, alternatively, can be used for income generating purposes for the local community in terms of pumped hydro, for example. So, you know, we do see this project is providing a sort of a long term legacy, a beneficial legacy, to the community. Legacy is actually a word indicating a positive impact, not an not a negative impact.

31:00 We're still doing a lot of work around active management of to protect the biodiversity in the area. We're working hard, yep, with local groups around promoting the health, welfare, and well-being of local wolf populations. None live actually on our on our tenement, but some of them sort of travel around the area. And the local wolf packs live off live off the tenement itself. And I think in terms of one of the major sort of technical innovations, we're looking we're very much looking to develop a a networked mine, not only in terms of our sort of internal management of the mine, but so that we can actually sort of outline all of the environmental KPIs on a real time basis in a fully transparent way to local community, to the regulator, to stakeholders, and, in fact, anyone who wants to sort of see how we're performing. So it's very much about sort of showcasing what

32:02 we believe will be a very responsibly managed development. Social aspects are also very key. We've worked very hard in terms of developing some state of the art social initiatives. We've developed a benefit sharing plan. We'll be looking to form a foundation, a local foundation, which will endow with around about €500,000 per annum. That foundation will have a board of local local people, and that board will then assess, evaluate, and decide on how that 500,000 is best spent to provide the best outcome for the local community.

32:50 We will also be

32:54 ring fencing some of that money to build up a corpus of capital that will be available at the end of the mine life, and that corpus of capital can then be utilized to provide funding to ongoing community programs long after Mina De Broseo is actually sort of closed. Finally, on the government side, well, you know, we are listed on AIM on the London Stock Exchange. So, you know, we have the sort of routinely, as most people do, compliant with sort of broader sort of corporate policies and objectives that public company should be compliant with.

33:35 Just, again, just a little bit on on the ESG side. Securing a power purchase agreement, a 100% green power purchase agreement. We'll be looking to preferentially source power from renewable resources. We'll be also sort of looking at generating a modest amount of power on-site ourselves from from from solar, and we'll also be looking at some CO2 mitigation measures as well, either forestry exercises or pro forestry, maybe even ensure ensuring the forest is not cut down in the first place, the the carbon setting ability of a mature tree is superior to the carbon setting ability of a of a an adolescent tree.

34:25 So, you know, we think that, you know, this project will be extremely well sort of credentialed in terms of its ESG characteristics.

34:36 It's apart from driving good ESG outcomes, we're very much intent on driving superior investment in outcomes for our shareholders. And the good news is that Mena de Broso, for a number of number of reasons, enjoys a very sort defensive, very low relative c one cash costs in comparison to its industry peers, and there are a few reasons for that. Firstly, Portugal is a a far lower cost setting than the cost setting of our major competitor, Australia. I was reading an article in an Australian newspaper the other day. It said that a a marshal controlling traffic at the side of a road whilst road construction is underway is paid a 130,000

35:27 Australian dollars per annum, for that, for that job. I think in, euro terms, that might be about, it might be about 80,000, euros per annum, whereas, the average salary for a university university graduate is something like €25,000 per annum in, in Portugal. So a much lower sort of cost setting than our international competitors. Secondly, we're producing we'll be producing a co product credit, which is quartz and feldspar. The lithium is actually sort of hosted in a sort of a quartz and feldspar matrix. We're already mining quartz and feldspar at at the mine at the moment, and and and we'll be producing more of that as a result of the sort of increase of the tonnages we'll be mining. So that will sort of reduce our overall c one cash cost to around about 300 US dollars a ton.

36:28 Finally, the actual geometry of the ore bodies is very favorable. The biggest one, Grand Out, enjoys a a stripping ratio of around about two and a half to one. In mining industry terms, that's that's very low, and that's really you know, particularly in the early years of the project, will sort of drive some very low cash costs, and it'll be pretty cash generative, particularly in those early years.

36:53 Just by way of example, the the image on the right sort of shows mining that's underway at at the moment, And you can sort of see the sort of major deposits that we'll be looking to develop at Pinero down to the South, Grand out to the North and to the West, Reservatorio and and Noah. We've drilled about 30,000 meters of drilling. We'll be looking to sort of launch a drilling program later this year to effectively sort of complete infill drilling and sort of take some of our existing indicated and inferred material up into up into a measured status. This really sort of highlights the development of the resource inventory over time.

37:42 As you can see, this is one of these very nice sort of charts that sort of has a very sort of clear northern trajectory to it all, and we're really sort of guiding to that being around an overall resource inventory of around about 50,000,000 tonnes. Yeah. That will support something like a a twenty plus year mine development. And I'm pretty sure that in twenty years' time, we that the mine will still support a release resource base of of twenty years as as is often the case with with mines around the world. The good news is it's a relatively low iron spodumene. It's got a lower iron level than most of the Australian material.

38:28 Iron is probably sort of the the key impurity that customers sort of look at. The grade is, broadly equivalent with the Australian equivalent. And and, you know, the metallurgical test work shows that we can produce an s c six product, spodumene concentrate 6%, you know, which is, equivalent to what is broadly internationally traded at the moment. This is, a little bit of an outline as to how the project might look, although this might change depending upon the decisions of the of the regulator. As you can see, multiple peak developments, to areas of dry stack tailings, which will be some contoured, revegetated, and will come effectively new natural landforms.

39:23 A little small image of what is a very sort of conventional flotation plant and one of the sort of potential bypass routes in green that literally snakes its way down to the south to the main national highway network. We started off on this project in 2017. As as as as we know, these things are a little bit of a voyage. We're here in 2021 now, and, you know, we hope to sort of secure, you know, the very sort of major milestone, which is the EIA approval later this year. The DFS, depending upon that EIA approval, timing may well slide into into 2022, but we're still, you know, very much looking to make a development decision in 2022, start construction in 2023, 2022, and targeting, full scale production or commissioning and full scale production in 2023.

40:26 So we're very much at the sort of in the lead in terms of our ambitions to to move into production. Just to really try and put Mina de Broroso in the context of some of its European peers, We've got a sort of listing of some of some of those on the on the left hand table. We will be the second largest producer of lithium carbonate equivalent in Europe behind Vulcan, but I think we will be in production. So, clearly, in the first half of the twenty twenty, so I think it's probably likely the the others will probably be mid or to in the second half of the twenty twenties.

41:12 The CapEx, is, not a major hurdle in comparison to our market cap. It's, yeah, eminently, doable, yeah, in terms of, financing. But importantly, and from the point of view of people, on this call, the project shows, you know, really, outstanding post tax IRRs. I mean, this is a this is going to be a very, very attractive, project for us to develop. I think one of the key things going forward from here is that as we move through these milestone stages, I think we'll sort of see a re rerating of SAVANNAH as a result. We're operating at a a price to net present value ratio of about point four.

42:00 Those in production enjoy NPV ratios of around about 1.4 to one. So, you know, there's a significant price available to us as we cycle through these future value value drivers that are outlined on the on the left. Okay. I think that sort of largely sort of brings us to to the end of the presentation. Now I think I think we're in a really fantastic sort of position in terms of the project. I think its location in in Europe is is ideal. I think its location close to the Atlantic Seaboard puts us in a very sort of good position to sort of feed a potential refinery development. We're seeing extremely strong growth in electric vehicle demand and sales in Europe. We'll see increases in the lithium content of lithium ion batteries as well. That's going to drive, you know, requirement for more lithium in more electric vehicles, which will actually only add impetus to the to the lithium price.

43:11 You know, we believe that we can be in production in 2023, which will coincide with increasing demand and an emerging sort of global deficit for lithium. We believe that the project is very well credentialed in terms of its c o two footprint. We believe that Mena de Brrosso, you know, could well be an example of the first implement first implementation in Europe of an electric electric mining fleet. And, you know, we believe that SAVANNAH RESOURCES and MENAH DIBROCES offers compelling investment value, and myself and my executive team and our board are intent on delivering great outcomes over the next couple of years to to our shareholders.

44:00 So in summary, that's it. We're in we're in a good good spot. We've got just raised £10,000,000 in cash that will sort of comfortably see us through to the completion of the DFS. A couple of other things we've got planned. And, yeah, we believe that we're very well positioned for what will be a multi decade sort of growth surge for lithium and electric vehicles. So thank you. And, Mark, over to you. David, thank you very much indeed for updating investors this afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of the screen. Just while David takes a few moments to review investor questions that have been submitted already, I'd like to remind you that the recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A, can be accessed via your Investor Meet company dashboard.

44:51 I'd also like to remind you that your feedback is important to the company. And immediately after this presentation has ended, you'll be redirected to the opportunity to provide feedback in order the company can better understand your views and expectations. David, I haven't given you an awful long while, and you've had a number of questions that have been submitted, but we did enable investors to pre submit questions, of which we received a few, which I'd like to start the Q and A off with. The first one reads as follows: Are there any discussions other than Gallup that would that are anywhere near bearing fruit as demand for lithium for the EV market looks like it will take off as we get over COVID? Could you let us know who, when, and how this is happening? Well, it's pretty hard to talk about who because of sort of confidentiality requirements, but, you know, we're we have multiple discussions underway at the moment with a number of very well qualified individual companies and and consortia.

45:51 Some of those involve both European only consortiums and others actually sort of comprise an amalgam of European and and Asian groups. So, you know, we're very sort of encouraged about, you know, the degree of interest that's been sort of shown by groups in Mino de Braso and those who want to sort of team with us from an offtake or in in investment point of view. I I think what is becoming sort of clearer is that, you know, there will be multiple refinery developments in in Europe. And I think that the key thing particularly to understand is all of those or most of those refinery developments will be all prefaced on processing spodumene lithium. That is the, you know, the most internationally sort traded lithium mineral.

46:42 And, you know, our project our project produces spodumene lithium, but actually in Europe. So I think our material will be in demand by from multiple refineries. I think it will be in demand, you know, particularly because of its relatively low sort of CO two footprint. And, of course, it sort of provides those refineries with, resilience as well because the material is actually going to be produced in in Europe. It's not gonna be produced in West Africa, where, you know, some of the jurisdictional issues can be a little bit, a little bit sort of challenging. So, you know, we're undertaking a very, sort of diligent and rigorous exercise to to make sure that, you know, whatever partnership, we commit to, is the right one with the the best partner and, and a true alignment of interest between us as a producer and, and them as our, sort of customer partner. So, watch this space.

47:44 You know, this is not a few years ago. There there are very few candidates, and most of those were in Asia. The pendulum has swung very much from Asia, very much to Europe. And, you know, that's our sort of principle sort of point of focus. This is Europe European mine producing European lithium that will go into the production of European electric vehicles. Thank you, David. Just moving on, we had a a pre submitted question relating to the share price, and we also have a question that's come in by Selvin. The question that was pre submitted reads as follows is, why has the share price been falling by 20% over the last six months? And Selvin asks, and thank you for your question, at which stage would you expect a significant uplift in the share price?

48:35 The great thing about equity capital markets is that they generally get generally get pricing wrong, either on the upside or the downside, and you'll be unsurprised to hear that I believe the equity capital markets have got the pricing wrong on the on the downside in in our case. I mean, the the the share prices have dropped by about 34% over the last six months from about 5p to to 3.3p. I think, you know, probably one of the factors was the fact that the GAP deal expired, but, yeah, we we allowed that to we allowed that to occur, and it's really put us in a position where we've got a very sort of wild wide field, I'm very interested in counterparties that we're sort of talking talking to at the moment. Also, lithium sentiment rather perversely was, you know, particularly strong in the early part of this year.

49:39 Since then, of course, the the the lithium prices probably has moved up by, you know, probably about another 50%, 60%, 70%. I I think the so I think that's been a factor as well. But, you know, we we see that, you know, there are multiple events that we can sort of point to that are likely to occur that will sort of materially rewrite the company's clearly offtake investment, EIA approval, further additions to the res res resource inventory. I think the the widening realization that, you know, what Macquarie Bank has been forecasting, I. E, permanent deficits, is actually going to happen and and will be happening and will be demonstrably happening.

50:30 And, you know, I think as well the announcement of the to do sort of multiple refinery developments in Europe. So I think all of those factors will have a significant sort of positive effect and that will sort drive our share price forward. Thank you, David. The final pre submitted question relates to Mozambique, and we also have a question, I believe, forgive me if I'm wrong, from Richard. Mozambique shareholders get an understanding of where the company is at and the plan? And Richard asks, thanks for the presentation. It's very encouraging. Please can you advise on the progress with Mutamba and potential time scales? Sure. Well, we've announced that we're in the process of a strategic review of Matamba at the moment.

51:18 And I suppose that strategic review has a number of objectives. I suppose the first one is to to ensure that the value of Matamba is manifested in our market capitalization. I don't believe it is at the moment. It's a somewhat forgotten asset. I think the other aspect is that, you know, I think we would like to be able to have a you know, present a European sort of pure play lithium story so that investors can sort of focus on one only commodity. We don't necessarily want to impose our commodity choices on on investors. And, also, I believe that, yeah, it would be important for us to sort of concentrate on the development of, one only project, at at at a time. And, you know, what that means is that, you know, we very much want to become, the major, Iberian Peninsula lithium producer.

52:25 And, you know, really to to make this strategic review a reality and drive a great outcome for us, we've engaged Bruce Bruce Griffin, who's an internationally respected mineral sands industry executive who's got, you know, sort of vast experience in in the field, and he's working very closely with us as we sort of frame up our thoughts. And I would imagine over the next few months, we'll have some news that we'll be able to share with our shareholders. Yes. Principally directed at those sort of three objectives that I actually sort of spoke to. Thank you, David. Okay. So that takes care of the pre submitted questions. So if I do my best to run through the questions that we received from investors during today's call. The first one from Alex r thank you, Alex. Piedmont Lithium has a similar deposit to SAVANNAH and their market capitalization has increased by around 10 times in the past twelve months. Can SAVANNAH learn anything from their strategy? For example, a high profile offtake MOU, commissioning a feasibility study for downstream processing to increase project NPV or buying into other lithium products.

53:39 Yeah. I suppose we've sort of chosen a a different development model to that of of Piedmont. We regard ourselves as being a mining company. We do and we regard lithium hydroxide production as being a different industry. I mean, effectively, it's sort of a chemical production activity. We sort of agree sort of broadly with what Piedmont has done, but I think I think what ours is sort of subtly different in that we would prefer to partner with a group who sort of of brings those sort of technical skills to us, those chemical production skills to us.

54:25 Really more in a sort of teaming kind of an arrangement. We don't wanna be sort of the prime mover, if you like, of the development of the refinery. We believe there are peep people, you know, better qualified and and and and better sort of credential than and finance than us to do that. But, you know, I do believe there's probably an opportunity for us to, you know, perhaps sort of mesh the projects together in some way. So, you know, there may will be an opportunity for us to secure, you know, some some degree of equity in a in a refinery development. So, yeah, we might we might sort of get to a similar place as Piedmont, but are rather more sort of circular, but, you know, what we believe to be a less risky and and more sustainable way.

55:16 Thank you very much indeed. We have a question from Thomas which talks about the lithium backdrop and that many company valuations are very healthy. I think we've discussed around share price. So Thomas, we may just redirect you for the previous answers. Question from Mahinda who asks what would stop you getting into lithium production in Portugal. Well, I suppose well, a few you know, a few things we've got to do. You know, one is, of course, so we can get the EIA approval, complete the DFS, complete the funding, design the plant, construct it, commission it. So all of those things all of those things have gotta gotta be done. So, yeah, there's still, you know, an enormous amount of sort of execution and and a series of execution challenges that we've got to deal with, but I and my team have been involved, in doing similar sorts of, executions in the past.

56:24 And, you know, we're simply focused on, making it all happen. Thank you very much indeed. And a question from SAVANNAH asks, is the project being held up in any way by environmentalist groups? Not not really insofar as I can see. I mean, you know, I think virtually any any development, anywhere, in the world will, have its sort of naysayers. And, you know, we we're very happy, to sort of see people with differing views, but their opinions, you know, will be sort of taken into account. But we believe that we've designed a compelling or put together a compelling case for the mine development, we believe that it can be really very much the sort of flag bearer for how modern mining can successfully integrate local communities and and local regions and, you know, really will be the, you know, very much the flag there for mine developments in Europe.

57:33 Thank you very much indeed, David. Next question we have is from Michael C. Thank you, Michael. Didn't see a reference to BASF as a lithium producer in the SAV slides. Since there is no reference, the assumption would be you are not in discussions with them. They are going to be a major supplier to VW. Well, we won't sort of get into saying who we're with and who we're not dealing with. But BASF is is not involved in lithium production or lithium hydroxide production. They actually are consumers of lithium hydroxide, and they're one of the globe's largest producers of of cathode of cathode materials. So yeah, so, you know, they're a big big consumer, and and, you know, their products then on sold to the the cell manufacturers themselves.

58:38 Thank you, David. We've got a question here from Johan D. What, in your opinion, are the key risks to the Mino Del Barroso project? Well, you know, really the you see traditional risks around the IA approval, completion of the DFS, successful construction, and successful commissioning. Yeah. It's just the traditional suite of ironing challenges. Thank you. We've got a question from Miguel. He asks, will the offtake investment decisions by SAVANNAH and Partners be made only after the EIA decision by the Portuguese regulator? Well, so clearly, we won't be able to sell spodumene if we don't get the environmental approval. So, you know, any deal will be sort of clearly subject to environmental the environmental approval and, you know, effectively a sort of series of sort of conditions subsequent, which will include, you know, one one condition subsequent, of course, is that that the our counterparty does actually build a refinery, for example.

59:48 Thank you very much. I was just reading. There were a couple other questions that perhaps I could have grouped together for you. But the one question from E and H around EIA says, what fallback options does the company have if the EIA four is rejected? We don't believe it will be rejected. You know, we believe it's a very sort of worthy a worthy project. But, you know, the the key thing is to realize that it is an existing granted mining lease. We are mining there at the moment. We're not going away. The deposit's not going away. It's just becoming more valuable, and we're pushing hard to get that approval as soon as possible so that, you know, we can, you know, play our role in the reduction of c o two emissions, dealing with the challenges of climate change, and sort of produce electric vehicles that can sort of materially improve the air quality for millions of Europeans in towns and cities all over Europe.

1:00:50 Thank you very much indeed, David. Well, look, I'm pretty mindful of time. We're we're we're just going through the hour, and I'm mindful perhaps for every question that I ask you. There seems to be another one or two that come through. So thank you to all the investors that have submitted questions, and we will present all of these questions. And if there's anything that perhaps we've missed or perhaps needs reconfirming, obviously, we'll make those available to you where it's appropriate to do so. David, I know investor feedback is important to you and to the company, and I'll shortly redirect investors to provide you feedback. But before doing so, perhaps I could just hand back to you just for a few closing comments. Yeah. Well, I I appreciate the sort of support and interest in in in the company. I believe we're sort of building enduring value with both for our shareholders and and and for Portugal and for Europe.

1:01:40 David, thank you very much indeed for updating investors this afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, could I please ask you not to close this session as we'll now automatically redirect you for your opportunity to provide feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of SAVANNAH RESOURCES PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That concludes today's session. Good afternoon to you all.