SolGold (Aquis:SOLGL) — Cascabel Pre-Feasibility Study

0:01 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the SOLGOLD Cascobel Pre Feasibility Study Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and could be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab that's situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Just please simply type in your questions at any time and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we would like to submit the following poll. And if you would give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand over to Fawzi Hanano from SOLGOLD. Good morning, sir. Thank you, Mark. Good morning. I'm Fawzi Hanano, Head of Investor Relations.

0:47 Today marks an important milestone for SOLGOLD with the release of the PASCABEL project prefeasibility study. I'd like to thank you for joining us today here in London and over the live webcast, and also a special welcome to the excellency ambassador Carl. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you. And from SOLGOLD today, we have Dal Kasubo, managing director and chief executive officer

1:12 Ingo Hoffmeyer, acting chief financial officer and Keith Marshall, nonexecutive director and chair of the Cascabell project steering committee. And with that, I'd like to pass on to Darrell who'll walk you through today's presentation. Thank you, Fazi. May I also extend a warm welcome to his excellency ambassador, Karel? It's such a pleasure to have you with us today. Good ladies and gentlemen, to both those joining us here in person, but also to the many people that are online. It is our privilege today to present to you the outcomes of our prefeasibility study, which is a result of many people working diligently on this for some time. At our last annual general meeting, we said that we would present our prefeasibility study to you in quarter two as we are doing today.

2:02 SOLGOLD has an exciting future as we fortuitously find ourselves right at the juncture of an incredible opportunity meeting an incredible global demand. We are moving into a period where the world needs much more copper if it is to to transition to a net zero emissions future at an increasing pace and where Ecuador, as the most unexplored part of the Andean Copper Belt, can and needs to become the next copper frontier. SOLGOLD is right at the juncture of this incredible opportunity and global need, not only because we can confirm today that Cascobel is a tier one project, but also because SOLGOLD has the most exploration concessions across this unexplored part of the Andean Copper Belt, where we will inevitably be taking other projects from exploration into development.

2:57 In this presentation, you will see that we have based the economics on assumptions that are deliverable. You'll also see as a common theme in this and future presentations that we'll always be applying our minds to identifying further upside potential as we continually explore what more we can do to make this project as sustainable, economically attractive, and as deliverable as we can. So let me now turn into the details. I just first draw your attention to the cautionary note. Our pre feasibility study has confirmed what we and many of our investors have known all along, and that is Cascabell is one of those very rare tier one copper and gold projects.

3:43 At a copper price of $3.60 a pound, the project delivers a pretax NPV of US $5,200,000,000 at 8% and an IRR of 25% and a post tax NPV of US $2,900,000,000 and internal rate of return of 19%. The startup CapEx required to achieve this is $2,700,000,000. Now if you assume today's prices, the pretax NPV jumps to 7.9 US billion dollars at IRR of 30% with the post tax NPV increasing to 4,100,000,000 and IRR of 23%.

4:30 For the first five years post ramp up, the average production levels are a 190,000 tonnes per annum of copper and 680,000 ounces of gold, which in copper equivalent terms is 330,000 tons per annum and enviable all in sustaining cost of minus $1.38 a pound. Over the life of the mine, the average production levels are a 132,000 tonnes of copper, 358,000 ounces of gold, which is about 212,000 tonnes of copper equivalent an all in sustaining cost of 6¢ a pound. The low unit cost is driven by Cascabell's high grade core being suitable for the very low cost block caving mining technique as well as due to the significant byproduct credits.

5:24 This delivers an average free cash flow of US $1,350,000,000 per annum for the first five years post ramp up and $740,000,000 per annum over the life of the mine. This is all based upon initial mine life of 26, albeit the real mine life will be well over fifty years given that this initial mine plan only extracts 21% of the measured and indicated resource. We're working towards this project having a low carbon footprint off the back of hydropower supply, transporting construct concentrate by pipeline to the port and using electric vehicles wherever we can underground.

6:12 This slide here, it provides more details on the economics and the underlying drivers. Importantly, it highlights Wood Mackenzie's accelerated energy transition scenario. This is where in order to achieve a two degree climate change scenario by 2050, which more and more governments are increasingly committing themselves to, long term copper price needs to be at least $4.20 a pound in order to induce the necessary production growth. In what you would have to say is a critical and credible scenario, you can see that Cascobal's after tax NPV list by nearly $1,000,000,000 to US $3,800,000,000 at an IRR of just under 22% and an all in sustaining cost of minus 17¢ a pound.

7:01 Based upon extensive metallurgical testing, we've used copper and gold recoveries of 8772% respectively over the life of the mine. The total copper and gold mined is 2,800,000 tonnes and 7,600,000 ounces respectively. These figures clearly highlight Cascabell's tier one credentials.

7:26 With this slide, you can see that there is a five year ramp up of Cascabell for Cascabob, which then maintains a run of mine production level of 25,000,000 tonnes per annum. You can see that we have initial high grade in gold. In the first year, it's helping to deliver a relatively short payback period of four point seven years while the mine is still ramping up. Peak production occurs in year five at nearly 400,000 tonnes copper equivalent consisting of about 210,000 tons of copper and 830,000 ounces of gold and 1,400,000 ounces of silver. You'll see in a later slide that there is expansion optionality to bring copper and gold production forward through additional block caves, which will not be sterilized with the mine design that we're presenting today and where this optionality has already been factored into the the CapEx of what we're presenting.

8:25 This optionality not only enables additional copper and gold production to be brought forward, but will enable Cascobal to be a multigenerational mine with over fifty years of life.

8:41 Cascobal's strong economics have three key drivers being the high grade core, suitability for block caving, which is a very low cost mining technique, and low capital intensity due to access to existing infrastructure. To cover off on the first of these drivers, this graph shows the high grade core where upon full ramp up, we see a copper equivalent of just under 1.8%, where gold provides a particularly strong contribution in the first six to seven years. We then see copper and gold grade drop off, but again, it's important to realize that this initial mine plan and these curves only reflect 21% of the resource. Our preproduction CapEx includes earthworks to readily facilitate the construction of an additional processing module.

9:34 It's also important to point out that the concentrate from crack from Cascabell is incredibly clean, and there's a backup slide that that indicates that. Where we've already got interest in offtakes from a number of parties with one of those parties just being on-site at Cascabell a few weeks ago.

9:54 The second reason Cascabell has strong economics is because of its low cost of mining and due to block caving, but also because of the the strong gold byproduct credits. Shown here is where Cascobal sits on the Woodmax global copper industry curve, where Cascobal is the first decile of unit cost performance per pound of copper produced. Essentially, gold byproducts more than covers all sustaining costs inclusive of sustaining capital. At current prices, we see an average all in sustaining cost of minus 0.17 a pound and a net cash cost of minus $0.63 a pound over the initial twenty six year mine plan.

10:42 This graph is based upon the year 2030 and is typical of where Cascabell will sit during its payback or just post its payback period where all in sustaining cost is minus a dollar 38 a pound.

10:59 Over the initial twenty six year mine life, Cascabell will contribute in excess of $14,000,000,000 of cash with over $1,350,000,000 per annum average over the first five years of production post ramp up. And that is equivalent to one year's cash flow is more than SOLGOLD's current market cap. At today's spot prices, that cash flow would increase to $1,700,000,000 per annum average over the first five years post ramp up. And to put that into perspective, if Cascobal was producing today, over 60% of its startup CapEx would be recovered in just one year. It is such long life, highly cash generative assets like these that over the past hundred years have formed the bedrock of what are today some of the world's major mining companies.

11:56 It is therefore not unreasonable for us to hold a similar ambition for SOLGOLD, particularly given our strong exploration position in the unexplored part of the Indian copper belt throughout Ecuador.

12:11 Quite often when you're opening up a new mining area, you have to build substantial infrastructure to support it, but this isn't the case for Cascobal. This doesn't just reduce CapEx, but it also significantly reduces project approval, schedule, and execution risk. Cascobal is only 200 kilometers drive from the capital of Ecuador, Quito, and that's predominantly on multilayer highways. We have access to existing hydropower network just 30 kilometers away. The project is premised on conveying concentrate by pipeline to the existing Esmeraldas Port that is only a 180 kilometers away. And the site will be self sufficient with regards to water supply based upon water reuse and local catchment.

13:01 The access that we have to existing infrastructure provides Cascabell, even as a greenfield project, a low capital intensity of $16,200 per copper equivalent ton. Normally, a greenfield project, you'd expect to be above average given that many of the projects shown here are brownfield expansions. With that said, we are confident and there are ideas that we can further reduce our start up CapEx as we further optimize the project. Two key commercial drivers of the project are the assumptions around ramp up rate and operating cost. You can see that Cascabell's ramp up rate is well within benchmark rates already being achieved.

13:50 Similar for mining cost, Cascobal is well within unit cost being achieved of other comparable mines or projects. As we have been doing, we will continue to assess the best expertise globally available on block caves and incorporate learnings from existing block cave mines into our planning so as to one, derisk the project, but also to continually improve the financial drivers of the project. Now I'm going to hand over to Keith who's gonna talk a little bit more about the mining side. But by way of introduction, you can see on the screen on the right hand side, we've got the mine cost. And the one that's the lowest is mine number one, and this is the mine that Keith actually delivered. So with that, I'll hand over to you, Keith. Thanks, Daryl.

14:38 Good morning, everybody. I would point out that the operating cost of Palagoras is now significantly lower than it was in my day, which is most of my time, we were doing lots and lots of secondary blasting, which is the because we initiated the cave. That's what we had to deal with with the cost. But that was said that the cost is now very, very comparable to to open pit mines. I just wanna talk briefly about the the underground. Initially, just looking at the mineral reserve estimate, you'll see from the upper right chart, a box there, measured and indicated resource at the Alpala deposit is 2,700,000,000 tons. And just to put that into perspective, when we talk about a production rate of 25,000,000 tons, if you do the maths on that, we're we're certainly looking at a a mining operation that's gonna be in excess of fifty years, if not closer to to a hundred years.

15:35 And then if you look at the mineral reserve, which is the box below it, that's the initial as Daryl said, the initial 21% that we're focusing the prefeasibility work on 558,000,000 tons of point 58% copper and point five two grams of gold, giving us for that first twenty five years a copper equivalent grade of almost 1%, one eight five, 19%, which is which is very, very in my view, from an underground point of view, that's that's pretty that's a very good grade. Next slide, Daryl. Thank you. This just gives you an idea of the infrastructure that's gonna be associated with the blockade. If you'd see the vertical lines there, the red and the blue lines on the left hand side, those are the initial access to the underground will be through a shaft. That's the quickest way of getting access to the footprint, which is on the 300 meter.

16:33 RL, so about 1.3 kilometers deep. On that level, we will put the the main infrastructure for the the mine crushers and and and extraction system. And then on the right hand side, you can see the decline coming down from surface from 1,200 meters parallel, and that'll be the the access the main access to the to the mine for equipment as well as the conveyor to extract the ore. Here. This is the footprint development. This is the basically, this is the engine house of the of the cave. The the tunnels that you can see that run east west are what we call the extraction drives, and then the blue squares are the draw bells.

17:23 So this is where they they started the block cave in operation. And what I'd like you just to to imagine is that they we're looking at about 400 meters East West and about 500 meters North South. I think of that as as real estate, and that's where we need to put the the loaders for extracting ore in the cave, and that's where we get our productivity from. You can see it in the Central North South, the the truck haulage loop, which is the we use trucks underneath the footprint to extract the material. The load was passed into an all pass. It goes down to a truck loop. And then to the left in the blue box the blue tunnels, there it's a central crusher.

18:11 So the trucks deliver to the crusher, and the crushers then deliver to the the conveyor decan. Thanks, Daryl. This just gives an idea of the the scale of the block cave. The cave is the blue box in the center of the picture, and that vertically that's about 700 meters of extent. So what we do is we put the tunnels to the bottom of the ore body, and then, basically, we pull down and draw down the the ore body into that onto the extraction level. Can see the the shafts, ventilation shafts to the left. And then on the right, you can see the ink the conveyor incline. It looks like it's vertical here, but it's actually about 15% inclination.

19:01 Next, doc.

19:05 We talked about the reserve being 558,000,000 tons and the resource being 2,700,000,000 tons. This gives you an indication of the location of the potential future blockades within the Alpala deposit. And we've got material mineralization below, which we can extend the conveyor decline down to. And we've got mineralization to the southeast of the footprint, which we can access from the the location of the conveyor decline. So all of the infrastructure that we're putting in place has multi uses. We can use it for our first cave, and then we'll be able to use it for subsequent caves as they identify it. It.

19:57 So the delivery from the cave, as I say, is going to be via conveyor decline, and that conveyor decline can be seen on the next slide, and I'll pass back to Daryl to talk through the process. Thank you, Keith. So this slide diagrammatically lays out the process plant design. This design and flow sheet is based on tried and tested processes used across the industry which SOLGOLD will optimize for the Cascobal project. The plant provides flexibility and optionality through a modular design, allowing for future potential expansion options, where the CapEx included in our modeling already incorporates the earthworks required to add additional an additional module.

20:43 During the next phase of the project, we're exploring whether the process capital can be further optimized as informed and supported by further metallurgical testing and analysis. The last few years, there's there's been a lot of focus on tailings management as it should be. And we we know how important it is to get tailings management right, but also to be able to demonstrate that to our many stakeholders. Consequently, we've worked closely with reputable consultants assessing multiple options from an environmental, social, and risk perspective. We're committed to applying leading practice in the construction of the tailings facility. The design incorporated in our capital estimate is based upon the global industry standard on tailings management, the Ecuador requirements for tailings design, and the Australian National Committee on Large Dam Standards.

21:40 We will be appointing a tailings review board as part of the next phase, definitive feasibility study phase. Not only will we commit to the global design standards, we will also engage best practice with respect to construction, making sure that such construction is well supervised and controlled. Such capability and knowledge will then be meticulously transferred into operations.

22:05 As I alluded earlier on, as we work through the different phases of the project, we will be continuously looking for upside, recognizing that you can always do better and that greenfield projects such as ours provide you with opportunities that you just don't have with brownfield projects. So consequently, you'll see us regularly update you on our pipeline of improvements. Now some of these improvements can be incorporated before we complete definitive feasibility study. So we will incorporate them in what we call a PFS addendum that we are expecting to release by the end of this the end of this calendar year.

22:46 This will include, you know, further optimizing the mine footprint, the mining sequence, as well as looking at what's called a controlled draw. There are also opportunities to further optimize the processing plant supported by additional testing. Combined, these present material opportunities for further reducing start up CapEx whilst mitigating start up risk and long term plant utilization. We recently released the results of our latest drilling on Tandayama America resource, where the resource has grown with increased drilling. We see the Tendayama resource potentially contributing to both the economics of Cascobal, but just as importantly, reducing its risk profile. Tendayama doesn't have the same grade as Cascobal, but it is open pittable, meaning that we can bring production, hence revenue forward to the Kascobel plant that won't be fully utilized until year four or five.

23:44 Economically, it just needs to recover the relatively modest incremental CapEx required to start the open pit. It also derisks Cascobal by bringing in revenue earlier, enabling us to fully test the process plant head of underground production and by providing a contingency production supply should there be ramp up delays with the underground.

24:08 During the definitive feasibility study, we'll also be engaging with organizations to investigate building further hydropower capability so as to lock in a long term cost effective renewable power supply power source supported by a long term power purchase agreement. The additional pretax value that we expect to get from these ideas is in the range of 400 to 800,000,000 pretax NPV, which we'll present back at the end of this calendar year, and an additional 600,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 of upside opportunities that will be explored through the definitive feasibility study phase. We believe this value is real, but we will only incorporate it when we've done the the the the the detailed planning, the assessment to incorporate it.

24:57 It's important that we're always looking for improvement to not only optimize the opportunity, but also to offset inevitable challenges that are uncovered with increasing project definition. This slide shows our indicative timeline and will be further firmed up over the coming months of planning. I'm not going to run through all the steps here, but I do want to point out a few key things. We've shaded some areas to reflect the level of uncertainty and timing, particularly where we don't have control over that timing.

25:31 Off the back of a comprehensive prefeasibility study, we expect to complete DFS by the end of next year. Our fiscal negotiation is where we confirm the taxation regime, including royalties with Ecuadorian government ahead of signing the investment protection agreement for the exploitation phase.

25:52 We anticipate that this will this will replicate the principles in our current investment protection agreement where if there is ever a need for arbitration, such arbitration is held in The UK courts and that this agreement would cover the initial mine life of twenty six years. The environment and social impact assessment timing has the most uncertainty associated with it. This will commence shortly off the back of finalizing the PFS. To derisk the investment and to remove twelve months off the critical path, we're proposing to start the decline shaft early, giving us early access to the ore body.

26:36 High level discussions with the government support our ability to do this under the existing exploration concession. This paves the way under a best case scenario for construction to begin late twenty twenty four pending government approvals. Whilst today is focused on Cascabell, Cascabell is only the start. I say that because it's improbable that the copper and gold mine deposits that you see on this graph on the right hand side that's, you know, just peppered all the way through Chile and Peru, that those copper deposits would just happen to stop at the Ecuadorian border.

27:15 The lack of copper and gold deposits in Ecuador is simply a reflection of how little it has been explored. We have confidence in this that goes beyond the Apollo discovery.

27:26 As mentioned previously, Pulverineer is our next cab off the rank that we're taking through the preliminary economic assessment. Whilst it doesn't have the size and grade of Cascadol, it has ore at surface, hence potentially enabling a much faster and lower investment pathway to production. Also, literally only a few days ago, we took these photos shown at the bottom here at our Haliputus concession, which is adjacent to Solaris' resource. Solaris' resources were rinses project. This is a photo of an outcrop, and it's displaying porphyry characteristics, and in fact, the same sort of characteristics that we saw with the Alpela outcrop.

28:12 As we and others drill more, it stands to reason that we will find increasing evidence that the high copper gold yielding characteristics of the Andean Copper Belt continues through Ecuador. SOLGOLD is well positioned here given that SOLGOLD has the most exploration in sessions with over 3,000 square kilometers of ground.

28:35 Recognizing this and that Ecuador is becoming increasingly investor friendly positions Ecuador to be the next copper frontier at exactly the time when the world needs it the most as we progressively accelerate towards a net zero emissions future. We have seen this transition in Ecuador firsthand with ongoing support and the signing of our investment protection agreement in November of last year. But we're not the only ones that are seeing this transition. You see evidence of that through the the escalating exploration spend in Ecuador despite the impact of COVID. You see many of the the mining majors move in in recent years, and and these organizations only move in when they've done their homework. And you can see the significant drop in sovereign bonds soon after president Lasso was was elected.

29:28 The SOLGOLD to be able to develop Cascobal and other projects requires a commitment to ESG that goes beyond compliance. We know that ESGs are foundational importance to Ecuadorians who take pride in their country that is known for its biodiversity and pristine environment. We also know that ESG is of foundational importance to those that we'll be seeking funding support from.

29:53 However, we also know that if we want SOLGOLD to play a critical role enabling the globe to transition to a net zero emissions future, where as an organization, we are known and well regarded for the role we play, then we need to be leaders in ESG. Consequently, you'll hear a lot more on this as we as we move into the next phase of developing Cascadol.

30:16 From an environment perspective, we will build off the work that we have already done to explore how we can further minimize our carbon footprint. As we go through the environment social impact assessment, we will engage broadly with relevant stakeholders so that the impacts are well understood and mitigations thoroughly examined and committed to. Needless to say that we will apply appropriate international standards, including the equator principles, the International Finance Corporation performance standards, and the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. From a social perspective, we believe we have a strong foundation of support from our local communities built over the last ten years of doing many projects in partnership with them such as reforestation projects, establishing a bakery, a coffee plantation, etcetera.

31:07 This support isn't just passive, but we believe will be active in helping us to pursue Cascabo and the opportunities that we know it will bring.

31:16 We value our local communities remaining our strongest advocates, where we continue to ensure that they are always well aware and involved in what is being proposed, and that we work together to develop the skills that would support a project like Cascabile, hence enabling maximum benefit to flow back to the local communities.

31:36 And from a governance perspective, significant progress has been made against The UK governance code, and we are on track to complete this by the middle of this year. With this said, we also realize that as Cascobel progresses through development and into build and operations, that our governance processes will need to evolve and mature as we move through these increasingly complex phases with more stakeholders invested in us. So let me me summarize. We believe that this PFS confirms that what we have known all along and that Cascabell will be a tier one mine being large, long life, expandable, very low cost, and will have a low carbon footprint.

32:25 At a copper price of $3.60 a pound, Cascabell delivers a pretax NPV of $5,200,000,000 and a post tax NPV of $2,900,000,000 from initial mine plan that extracts only 21% of the resource. At current spot prices, a pretax of $7,900,000,000 and post tax of $4,100,000,000 would be delivered.

32:50 The Cascobel high grade core lends itself to block caving, which enables a first deck hole unit cost performance. This in turn allows the initial mine plan to generate over $14,000,000,000 of cash flow and 1,350,000,000 per annum average in the first five years post ramp up. The plan that we present to you today is deliverable with substantial upside to be factored in as we progress the project. Whilst Cascobal is a very strong project, SOLGOLD is the holder of the most exploration concessions in Ecuador is more than just Cascobal. I mentioned at the start of this presentation that SOLGOLD finds itself at the juncture of an incredible opportunity and an incredible global need.

33:39 To fully appreciate what I mean by this, let me conclude on the following three points. Firstly, Cascobal will generate the sort of cash flow that convert a multi asset organization. At $1,350,000,000 per annum free cash flow per annum, it doesn't take long to pay back your investment enabling funding for other projects. Secondly, as we get closer to the second half of this decade facing a structural deficit of copper that requires about seven new Escondidas, the world's biggest copper mine, There will be immense pressure on copper pricing given that this structural deficit will jeopardize the pace of transition to a net zero emissions future.

34:26 Thirdly, the most plausible new copper frontier that can meet such demand is Ecuador, being the most unexplored part of the Andean copper belt that today supplies 40% of the world's copper. I'd like to think that Cascabell and SOLGOLD more broadly can play an instrumental role in enabling Ecuador to play a crucial role in supplying the copper that the world needs to transition to a net zero emissions future. Thank you. That's great. Daryl, thank you very much indeed for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions online using the q and a tab situated just on the right hand corner of your screen. But just while the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted already. I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via your Investor Meet company dashboard and we'll notify you by email when they're ready for your review.

35:20 Fawazi, if I may hand back to you. Obviously, you can see the investors online have submitted a number of questions already. And if I could ask you at the appropriate time to read those out. But if I may just hand back to you firstly to perhaps take questions from the floor, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you, Mark. So, yes, if we could get some questions on the floor. I see Jason already started. Could you please just say clearly your name and organization for the question? Sure. It's Jason Fairclough, Bank of America. Just a little bit of a question here around the timing. So you're saying start construction on the the end of twenty four into '25. Are we talking two to three years for construction and then you start to put the work through the mill? And then we had a four or five year ramp up to that? Yeah. So, yeah, it's it's a bit longer than that.

36:05 So it's about four or five years of construction and then about four or five years ramp up. So so we first order the mill then post 2030? Mhmm. Okay. Sorry. No. No. It's it's '29. '29. Okay. Mhmm. And then in terms of financing, can you just talk about your current cash burn rate and how you expect that cash burn rate to evolve over the next Yes. Few Good question, Jason. As you know, we had €58,000,000 in the bank at the start of this year. We probably had a little bit higher cash burn rate in the first quarter. Numbers are going to come out as the first quarter of calendar year, which is our third quarter. A little bit higher cash burn during that period because we pay our license fees. But you usually see us at around $40,000,000 per half year.

36:58 That's the average we will expect in both first half and second half. K. And so in terms of how how we should think about the half of the year, any comments in the part from here? I mean, see, we we we get constantly approached for funding. And at the back of this release, we will, of course, assess the most viable solution in the interest of our shareholders. But we have no doubt there's funding available in the short and in the long run. And there's further questions on project financing, and we'll come back later. Thank you. Tim? Tim Huff from. Actually, on on the back of Jason's first question, with the the first the first award going through in '29, you've got that five year construction period. One of the questions we we got this morning was off of slide slide 19 on the presentation, which is with with all of the NPV uplift and and items that you want to identify by the PFS addendum and furthermore by the PFS.

38:03 Is that five year lead in, is that clearly provides time if Tandayama actually does come on as an open pitiful resource. And I guess the question I had was, you know, do you the way if it does come through in the PFS or the PFS that that is doable, is that something that you you want to bring it on as early as '26, if possible, or is it or is it more of something that you wanna use as maybe you said, Daryl, which is testing for the plant and the ore for the underground maybe maybe just a year or two ahead of underground in '29. I don't know how you're thinking about it. And, obviously, there are no uncertainties. Mhmm. But if you could just maybe give us a bit of color, that would be great. So so in terms of what so let me talk first about what Tendai Armour brings, and then let me talk about timing.

38:57 So in terms of what it brings, it it's got two aspects. So one, it it can bring production forward given given it's an open pitable resource. But secondly, as you rightly pointed out, it derisks the Cascabell underground development. So you've got a contingent production supply. You can test the the surface plant and iron out any bugs, etcetera. In terms of timing, I'd look at it two ways two parts. So the critical path for this is is environment, social, and impact assessment. Tandemo is part of that. So so Tandemo from a critical path perspective, being part of it, is progressing as quickly as it can, and and we've got sufficient understanding to to do that.

39:46 The next six months, we're taking the drilling results, putting a number of mine plans over to see what is the optimum mine plan that can support the Cascabell ramp up to see how we can optimize it from both an economic and risk perspective. But that's gonna take us a few months. So that'll be part of what we bring back towards the end of this this coming year. But importantly, that's not what drives the critical path. What drives the critical path for Tandayama and indeed the overall project is the environment social impact assessment. Roger, please. Hi. It's Roger Bell from Partners.

40:31 Just two questions for me. Well, first of all, congratulations on very solid PFS and the likes of the Board of Comm. You mentioned on Slide 19 about underground mine design sequence scheduling optimizations in the DFS and presumably allows to try and exploit more than 29% of the tonnages when you get to to that DFS. But how are you going to think about that? Is it simply adding to the mine life, or could you look at options to increase the annual throughput and go forward some of that? So absolutely. So both. So let me let me answer this. So so, you know, I mentioned Escondida earlier. So and Escondida is a good example. In fact, many copper mines are, is they get built around initial mine plan where you obviously optimize capital, you optimize risk, you optimize grade, particularly in the early years to to pulling the payback period. That's what we're doing with initial mine plan for '26, for the first twenty six years.

41:35 So when we talk about mine optimization, it's actually to look at how we can reduce that startup CapEx of 2,700,000,000 a little more by being a little clever about, you know, minimizing some of the underground development, putting the infrastructure in a different location that requires less infrastructure, less haulage times. Now in terms of your broader question, Keith presented to you if you remember that slide that showed the multiple the slide here that shows the multiple block caves. So the dark gray is the one that this mine plan is based upon. So what you envisage happening is as you get this underway, same as what happened at Escondida and a bunch of other copper mines, you then go into phased expansions.

42:29 This initial mine plan doesn't sterilize the other block caves that are shown here. So you can then see, well, what you'll do is you'll move into another block cave and you put an additional module on the plant. So it brings up production as well as extending life. So you're saying that those phased expansions won't be considered as part of the d DFS. DFS is going to be 25,000,000 tons. Right. That's right. Sorry to interrupt, but there there was there is an element of optimization within the scheduling within the initial cave as well. Okay. Because we identified various zones within as looking you're up the cave, the there's an optimum grade area, something like a 120 meters above the footprint level.

43:15 And if we can pull that material down quicker, then we get better grades to the plant sooner. So So there's there's an an optimization element within the cave within Cave 1 Okay. That we So just to build on Keith's point, so this slide here shows between one and $1,800,000,000 of additional upside. That's just for Cave 1. So everything we're talking to you about is just Cave 1. Okay. Mhmm. That's good. Then on the next slide, you can talk about the early early access permit coming potentially late this year. How critical is that to the whole how important is that to the whole critical path of the project? Or could you accelerate the shaft and the decline development if if that permit comes a bit later?

44:08 So it's so so the early works, which is the decline and the shaft, it's not proposed to be started until the end of next calendar year. So it's not now. It's next calendar year. So and the two things driving that is one, you get access to the ore body earlier. And the more you understand it, the better you can derisk the whole project. But secondly, it saves in the order of twelve months off the off the schedule. And every twelve months that you can shave off is about $300,000,000 post tax NPV. Mhmm. Okay. So that that becomes critical path by the end next year?

44:56 We're actually by doing it early, you actually take it off the critical path. The critical path will be the environment social impact assessments. Mhmm. Mhmm. Richard? Richard Hatch, Berenberg. Just a question firstly, just on the access decline portal. What were the considerations around stinking sharps here and why did you opt for the course approach? The the shaft will give faster access to the underground. Any production shaft, we did consider a production shaft. Production shafts tend to limit out at around about 60,000 tons a day.

45:43 We believe that there is flexibility to to get higher production from the underground. And the only way to accommodate that increase in productivity would be through a a compare decline. It's It's a a conveyor compare declines virtually by capacity of the production shaft. I think there's a it's a very close call, and I think there'll be more work to be done on that in the in the next stage of the study. But we certainly identified that the shaft is quicker access, and the conveyor is the highest productivity. Okay. Do have any thoughts around the difference between the two? They're very similar. It's almost a mining philosophy debate Yeah. Between North Americans who prefer shafts and Australians who prefer.

46:38 And, really, that's what it boils down to. So we're we're actually looking very closely at going to, which I've obviously got some history with because they put they initially put in a production shaft, and then they switched to a conveyor detail. And that's a very expensive switch to make, and we wanna make sure that we don't duplicate production shaft and compare the design. It's gotta be one or the other. Certainly not. Nice. And the second question is just on on the permitting process. And how confident are you just in terms of the the permitting process? Any kind of concerns around that? What are the key ones we need to be looking at? And the same for the fiscal. Like, do you just are you comfortable? You you're able to look in the fiscal terms you're looking for any sort of concerns around rising tax rate rules, rates, precarious and such like? Yeah. So look, let let me answer a second one. So I mean, it's really a question for the Ecuadorian government.

47:37 But what I would say is you can see in this slide here that we sign off on a investment protection agreement middle of twenty twenty four, which locks all of that in. So before we, you know, make extensive investment, that will all be all be locked in. In terms of the environment social impact assessment, I think it's probably too early to say. But, you know, one of the things, look, that's important to us is, you know, we wanna maintain the very strong community support that we have. So it's not just about the ESI process, but about the engagement with potentially impact stakeholders. So that's important to us. The tailings facility, that's that's obviously a a big one.

48:29 And the other thing is we wanna do everything we can to for this to be a low carbon footprint mine. I think we're quite fortunate. Right? Because, you know, we've got hydropower supply at our doorstep. We're transporting concentrate by pipeline, which is low energy. We're looking at using electric vehicles as much as we possibly can, which actually saves us some ventilation cost. So there's some of the more key, I think, focal points that we have going forward. But but as you know, as you go through this process, it it it obviously, you know, things that you think may not be a concern become a concern. So so, you know, we haven't started that. We've had strong community engagement, but it'll obviously, we haven't gone through the ESIA process yet. And just on the tailings, what's the solution there? Were there any sort of what what is the solution?

49:24 So we we we will build or construct a ten four, and then the the tenants will be stored behind that. The the downstream upstream Well, downstream upstream implied it would be a upstream downstream implies that you're making it all out of the tailings and rising. We're not doing that. We're constructing upstream upstream. Yeah. And and maybe, Richard, on your question, fiscal regime, I mean, you know that they are already tried and tested investment protection, government exploitation agreements in place with two other mines that I think have proven in Ecuador that you can professionally develop mines on time and on budgets to the benefit of local communities in the country. And with three recent engagements with the government, we have no doubts that this blueprint will be used by both parties and become this will not be the critical path in terms of timing to come to this arrangement.

50:25 It's very well defined in the law in Ecuador what you can negotiate, what you can't negotiate, which I think helps. And I guess with that, I'll I'll turn to questions that we've received over the webcast. So but first, we received quite a few questions around funding. So I'll turn to Ingo, who'll be able to talk a little bit more in terms of options or timing that would answer all these questions with one answer. Yeah. Okay. Let me try to summarize this one. At the back of the release of this highly attractive PFS, we will restart our project financing process. We were already quite well advanced, as many of our investors know. We will be supported by an independent debt advisory firm and international investment banks.

51:11 Based on the viable economics and supported by a bankable offtake agreement, As for our procurement strategy and, of course, a supportive government, we have no doubt that we will conclude a successful financing at the back of our study work. As you probably remember or as we can see from our appendix, the Cascade concentrate is extremely clean. It is an average on most of the the relevant deleterious materials like arsenic and for instance, cleaner than OT, kolawasi, or chugica mata. And we have seen that because of the precious metals enrichment, it will be very much thought after in the smelter market.

52:02 And this will be ultimately the bedrock of a multi source funding solution. The offtake discussions are ongoing, and the market sounding will start in the coming weeks. And we will update the market as we progress. Was there anything more specific? There was a specific question, I think, on the resource, extract 21% of the resource. This is just the ore. I think this is very important to understand the work of the project steering committee was to enhance the value of the project. So we expect 38% of the value via this 21% of the OR. And I think that's the important number to know. The effect on the cast of of Cascabella on the Ecuadorian government, we have worked very closely with the government, and we have worked very closely with consultants to do an economic impact assessment. We did this based on the earlier studies. We have to redo this. And once we have this, we will engage with the government on our findings.

53:01 And they look at how Cascobil sits relative to other mining projects, how Cascobil will impact exports, investments, first of all, of course, and employment. One can expect that Cascobil will have a a material impact on the economy while in construction already, and then, of course, during the the exploitation phase where we need to update our services is the government's oil and gas strategy to understand the relative importance. Is there anything I think this is more probably from there. One one question about how easy is it to recruit and retain high quality staff as we expand towards development? Yeah. So how do you answer that?

53:49 Look. I think so Cascobel is a tier one asset. There's not too many of them. So I've in in previous lives, if you've got a great project, you can attract great people to deliver that project. But one of our important goals is to build out the capability in Ecuador that can get us through the next phase and subsequent phases. But I think this sort of project will attract the sort of talent that we need to pull it off. We've got we've also got time during the the study phase to work with all the education authorities in in Ecuador and develop training programs. Mhmm. In in terms of there was a question on NPV sensitivity on CapEx. Overranza would like to draw the attention to everyone on the standard kind of spider graph that looks at sensitivities against various assumptions on page 34 of our presentation that outlines that in detail.

54:53 There's a question about president Lasso help promote Cascabell. I think you can speak for all three of us who have met him in person more than once. I think he is a very sensible and business friendly president that so far has shown great support to us as an organization. I think we expect this to continue. We will do our part. I'll go. We have one one question a bit more broad in talking about supply chain constraints and impact on mine operations over world. And a question really about, you know, how confident we are that the needed supply chains will exist as we go into construction. Yeah. So look. I think if we were if we were a large open pit, it would be a much greater concern. If you look at the critical path once you had the approvals, it's it's really building the process plant and the underground development.

55:55 So we'll have a bit of concern around the process plant, but most of the timeline is driven through the underground development. So you're not as reliant on the sort of supply chain that you are if you're an open pit. There was a question about our Swiss holding operations. As you probably know, we implemented was set up as Swiss companies, BCG, that holds the Equatorial entities that are involved in the CASK capital project. The reason simply is that Switzerland has a couple of arrangements with Equatorial that are simply making project financing more advantageous. But also equalizing the process to kind of reach out and reestablish relationships. But at the point of time where we invested a 100,000,000 into the country, Switzerland was the most advantageous country to do this for.

56:54 I have one question around timing and our confidence in terms of timing for the PFS delivery. This is so what is it? It said delivery against the timeline that we just showed? Yes. That's correct. Yeah. Look. You know, we I put up that timeline before, and you can see that I I shaded some areas in. Look. I'm yeah. We've got to do a little bit more planning to firm it up, but the single biggest factor in in the overall timing is the is the environment social impact assessment and the and the approvals, which it is for for any any project. So we we've got it here that we get permitting, you know, either late twenty twenty four best case or or late twenty twenty five plausible worst case. So we've shown a bit of a range, but but there is uncertainty there. And, you know, there's one question here on capital for the treatment plant asking about the the size of capital. I think that may be quite low under their estimates. I don't know if you could comment on that.

58:06 This is the surface process plate? Yes. That's correct. So I think so just with the surface process plate, there's two modules, and the preproduction includes the first module and starting on the second. So we've delayed, you know, capital as much as possible. So I'm assuming they're looking at the preproduction numbers for the process plant that doesn't include the full second module. But the preproduct if I remember, it's about 400,000,000. Mhmm. 465,000,000. And you can see another 200,000,000 post post start up. Mhmm. There there's a couple of further questions on funding, also relative funding between the regional as well as Cascobal.

58:55 The project financing is traditionally ring fenced. That means a lot of the funding will happen at the project level or closer to the project level. That's why we implemented the Swiss holding company that will also trade some of the some of the concentrate. The regional will have to be funded by the PLC before projects crystallize like Cascabell. And we as I mentioned before, I think we there were questions about funding solutions. We will look at a multisource funding solution for Cascabell. Part of that could well be a well priced precious metal stream. I think the market knows that we have conversations with various parties already. But in the end, it is about achieving the lowest cost financing solutions for the organization so we can weigh this off.

59:46 And being mindful of time, we've gone through most of the questions, but we've come to to the end of of the presentation. So with that, I'll hand back to to Dial for any closing remarks. Mhmm. Thank you, Fazi. Look. Let me just conclude on this. Firstly, thank you for your time today. I hope that you are excited as we are about Casa Belle, not just being a tier one project, but it's the sort of project that can birth a multi asset organization, which is our aspiration. So thank you again for your time. That's great, Daryl, and to the team from SOLGOLD. Thank you very much indeed for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors online not to close this session as we'll now automatically redirect you for the order that you can provide feedback in order management team can really better understand your views and expectations.

1:00:35 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 SOLGOLD PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session, and may I wish you all a very pleasant morning. Thank you.