Sylvania Platinum (LSE:SLP) — Interim financial results for the six months ended 31 December 2020

0:02 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the SYLVANIA PLATINUM LIMITED interim financial results for the six months ended 12/31/2020 investor presentation. Throughout this presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time by the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. 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 due to the number of investors on the call. However, company review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. These will be

0:33 available via your Investor Meet company dashboard, and we'll notify you by email once these are ready for your review. I'd also like to remind you this presentation is being recorded. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Jecca Prinsler, CEO and Luan Kamenati, CFO. Good afternoon.

0:54 Good afternoon, everyone, and, thank you for joining us, for our interim results presentation. Myself and Leanne Kamarati, our CFO, will, take you through the results and, hopefully answer some questions you might have at the end. So thanks, Paul. I think we can run straight into the presentation, and I'll I'll start there.

1:18 I think, firstly, just having a snapshot of the past year's results, I think it's a set of results that we we're very proud of and very happy with. Firstly, on the production point of view, we produced 36,300 ounces for the half year. Although it was 9% lower than the corresponding previous half year, it it was expected and and anticipated. It was as per our planning. And the operational teams and operations did a great job to actually improve the feed tons to the plants by 3% to mitigate the impact of the lower grades and recoveries due to the scale down of host host mines that we announced at the previous reporting periods. Obviously, with a solid production behind us for the first half of the year, we are remaining on track to achieve a 70,000 ounces full year production target that we've announced earlier.

2:13 And this solid production compared to the incredible rise in the basket price we've seen over the past year as well to also boost our profits and revenues. And the 74% increase in basket price we've seen was primarily driven by rhodium and palladium, as I will touch a bit more on later in the presentation. But rhodium is certainly the biggest star unit. This also assisted us that we could post, group revenues up 44%, on the corresponding periods. EBITDA up 58%, and, net profit 70% up. One area of focus and, we'll send as the group operating cost or group cash cost that's up 33%, from the corresponding period, and, Lou Anne will address that in a bit more detail, in in the finance section.

3:06 And then finally, very pleased, to announce that the company have approved a windfall dividend of 3.75p that would be payable in early April, and that is in lieu of the exceptional performance of rhodium and palladium during the past, calendar year and as per the board's indication in the earlier announcements. So just before we get back into the details of of the of the results, maybe just the overview again of where SYLVANIA is heading, our strategy of focus areas. We continue to focus on being a leading mid tier low cost PGM producer that can return value to our shareholders.

3:54 And I think maybe something we could add to the top is also being a low risk company in the sense that we are surface miners and they don't have any underground mining operations. Pretty much enabled for us to achieve that. We have the different pillars ensuring that we maintain our safe and profitable production and also maintaining our licenses to operate. And I think in that part, navigating us through COVID the COVID pandemic that is pretty much still with us will be important, and then ensuring that we reach our own profiles to generate continuous cash and benefit from the current PGM markets. Our relationships with our host mine is excellent. We have a fifteen plus year relationship, very synergistic, especially in the time where the chrome markets were difficult.

4:44 Our input and contributions to those mines was very valuable, so that's all good. I think a bit forward looking. There are two parts of us, ensuring growth in the in the company there. First one being focusing on r and d and process efficiencies and our in house exploration projects, which we already own. And then the, second one is looking at external growth opportunities where we continuously exploring potential and following up on opportunities that arise. I think we, at the previous announcement period, did touch a bit more on the false greater Northern Limb projects, and I I have a bit more detail on one of the next slides. But maybe another one worth noting is in terms of our R and D efforts is progress that we've made in the R and D and especially fine chrome beneficiation on our existing material and existing plants and what that enable us to do is reject more fine chrome out of our PGM plants thereby increasing PGM feed grades and hence PGM recoveries as well that would improve the overall efficiencies of our operations.

5:52 Sorry. I went one too quickly. From a safety point of view and in environmental, we are very fortunate in in our company, and that's why I also added the low risk in the in the earlier slides is that since the inception of our first operations almost thirteen years ago now, we haven't had any fatalities at any of the operations. So we've been fatality free for the whole period. And then also, you know, we have been lost time injury free at two way operations for more than eight and a half years. We have been unfortunately, we have one lost time injury at during the past period, and that was after they've been lost time injury free for about five and a half years. From our environmental perspective, we don't really have any issues. We have we had no significant environmental incidents in the past five years, and and everything is quite good there. I think worth noting maybe from environmental point of view is we, made great progress in terms of a very innovative water scavenging initiative that we implemented at both in the SEDI and to everything to reduce our water losses, due to seepage at the tailings dam perimeters, and that also will help reduce water downtimes we experienced there in the previous, two years.

7:11 From a COVID point of view, we've just come out of the second wave in South Africa, during December, January, and, we were fortunate enough that there was no, serious or no interruptions to the operations. We've had quite a couple of employees exposed or infected by the virus, but fortunately, not not as serious and also no operational downtimes. And we maintain our focus in terms of proactive measures to safeguard operations and people.

7:43 In terms of our people and communities, I think both communities and people is always a end and end relationship and both very important both in terms of their contribution and also cooperation towards the success of SYLVANIA's objectives. And we generally maintain good relationships and working relationships of both parties. We are particularly proud on the employee side that we've been able to roll out an employee dividend entitlement scheme during the past financial period, and that is just a scheme where that facilitates employees to share in the benefit of dividend awards someone declared. And that helps to align our employees also with the expectations of shareholders, in other business.

8:36 So just a brief overview again in terms of where our operations are limited and just showing the two distinct parts of it. The orange, circles are indicating the six currently operating Chromium PGM manifestation operations that are located on our host mines on the eastern and western, limbs respectively of the South African Bushveld complex. And those are the operations that's in operation generating, ounces and generating cash at the moment. Then to the north, on the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex, we have, our, mineral projects or what we call the exploration projects, and that entails Grass Valley, Northern Limb, and Fulsepruit. As you remember from previous announcements, the Grass Valley, the Chrome mine is a asset held for sale and is subject to conditional offer that we have received, which the due diligence and conditions present is currently progressing.

9:36 And then full spread and Northern LIMITED, the two projects that I'll be learning in a bit more detail just now. From a production profile point of view, I think we've as I said earlier, we're positive with the production in the first half year and confident that we will reach the 70,000 ounces, for this financial year. I think on this graph, just maybe worth noting is, the dip in 2020 financial year and also, secondly, the increase in the series profile from 2022 onwards. And let me deal firstly with the the dip. When we announced the scale back from the host mine operations, they were three of the mining sites that were affected.

10:22 Two of them were already impacted for the full 2021 financial year. In fact, they two of those operations, the underground operations did not start up after the hard lockdown in South Africa in March, April last year. The third operation was only due to, scale down from January this year. And, therefore, while 2021 would have the full impact of two operations and also impact of the third, 2022 would have had the full impact of all three operations.

10:52 I think on a bit of more of a positive note, however, with the little bit of improvement in the crow market recently, the house mines have not scaled down that third operation yet, and and indications are that it, it's not gonna happen in the immediate term. Although it's just been a very recent recovery in the crow market, and and they will have to assess the situation in the next couple of months in order to give us a formal guidance of when we can expect that slowdown to occur if it indeed will occur in future. But that, we will, keep the market updated on. In terms of the Lacedi yarns profile that's increasing, there are two things. The one is in terms of the ore feed source, that's a better regrade and recovery potential that's scheduled for it in the future, and also the, m f two, which is a secondary milling and flotation, plant that we're gonna add there that we've also announced in the capital projects. It will assist to improve that ounce profile. So overall, we're confident that we can achieve this profile, and if anything, there might be a little bit of upside in that 2022, and going forward.

12:01 In terms of the operational focus areas and the challenges, I think I've I've said quite a bit about the, downturn in the on the host mines and also in terms of the COVID pandemic that's in hand, and, maybe we're focusing on on speaking. But more is the power, infrastructure supply issues, because it it seems to come up, often in these, presentations. Unlike the previous, presentations and results sessions we've had, the disruptions this time was not due to formal load shedding from utility, but more related to supply interruptions, due to, copper cable theft and, vandalism around some of the substations and, supply lines to the mines, just before the Christmas period towards the end of last year, and that impacted directly on our operations due to significant downtimes.

12:50 So be it due to infrastructure, interruptions of this nature or the fear of load shedding, we we are and have been working on, studies to identify and evaluate alternative energy solutions in terms of our sites. We've done a survey at each one of the sites to determine the requirements and also get costing on on alternatives, and we are evaluating that and also prioritizing to see what it's gonna be. I mentioned to some of the previous presentations that we do already have diesel generating power at some of the operations, and although it is older technology and not not necessarily aligned

13:28 with some of the green focus ever going forward, one have to align your cost and payback periods for our operations with that as well. You know, some of the costing on a pure green PV solution that we've got for our operations could range from between 3 and $5,000,000 per operation depending on the size of the installation and also what existing infrastructure there is. But we are progressing in that regard, and we we are certainly evaluating our opportunities. Just a bit forward looking. I've just added this slide for us to have a look at the two different streams of our business. The first one, looking at the, dump operations. And I think it's important to highlight that between '20, 2018, 2013, we spent most of our efforts creating new, treatment capacity that was adding plants on. So building the one plant of the rest from the first one to six operating plants, which took us from six to 45,000 ounces by about 2013.

14:29 Thereafter, it was primarily focusing on process technology improvements in r and d and operational excellence to drive efficiencies. And also in 2017, when we formally announced the project echo rollout that added secondary milling and flotation, stages very successfully to three of our operations already. So that took us from from about 45,000 ounces to 70,000 ounces. So that is on the same more or the same feed tonnages into the plant, but improving efficiencies to bring up the the ounce profiles. And I think, you know, in the similar vein to that, we're looking at how we further unlock potential, from our existing resources and plants, and we certainly have done a lot of work over the past year to eighteen months in terms of r and d and technology, work, around fine chrome recovery so that we can remove more chrome ahead of our PGM plants, thereby upgrading our PGMs better and also creating higher higher recovery potential for our flotation plants.

15:28 And then the m f two, milling and flotation is a secondary milling flotation plants that we're gonna add at Lesedi and then, later at Quefontein, pretty much aligned with project ECA. So I think, on the exploration side, it's been, a bit of a different story where we've most of the exploration and test work and prefeasibility work was done before 2013. And, and then in the meantime, between 2013 for the last six or seven years, we've primarily been focusing on our social engagements and environmental authorizations and approvals with all three mining rights also being approved in that period. But, not much technical advancement or progress in terms of, executing those projects. And part of the reason there is that the regional scope was that it would be a very large mine and treatment facility producing a low grade PGM concentrate, lower grade but than we're currently producing and therefore not able to deliver to our current offtake smelters, which would necessitate the in house smelting refining facility.

16:31 That obviously had a much higher, capital cost and estimates at that time was between 2 and $300,000,000. It didn't really align with the strategy and risk appetite of both our board and the the investors. And as we saw increase in the PGM price now in recent months or say in the last eighteen months and year, we realized that, it's opportunity now for us to review those projects technically and see how do we unlock the value. And, as I explained before, the idea was then to revise the focus. We get a lower risk, a lower capital, smaller modular plants, and try to produce a high grade concentrate that we can sell to or smelter for offtake, and we don't have all that risk and capital intensive downstream, processes.

17:19 So, both those studies were initiated in early and mid twenty twenty respectively. On full spread, we expect, the final feedback report in in the next coming months. And, hopefully, by year end or our financial year end, we are able to give a more definitive outcome of where we believe FOLSPRITED will be going. On the Northern LIMITED resource, we have had already interim results that indicate that we, can potentially, then most probably be able to achieve what we want. We're looking at more localized high grade areas of mine. But in order to, up our confidence and the, resource classification on those areas, we had to, proceed with additional infill drilling on it. It's not a huge drilling program, but it will take about twelve to eighteen months for the complete program and around, you know, $22,500,000.

18:15 But, we might have results earlier. As the results come available, we can start making decisions, but at the longest, the final work will be only completed in eighteen months. And that's where we are with, these projects. And I'm gonna hand over to Lou Anne now on the financial sections, and then I'll touch just based on the some of the market Africa at the end, and we'll address some questions. Thanks, SYLVANIA For the six months to 12/31/2020, the company recorded revenue of $85,000,000 a 44% increase on the comparative period. The most significant impact on the revenue was, of course, the increase in the basket price, adding $31,600,000 Unfortunately, the decrease in ounce production had a negative impact of $5,400,000 This reduction was however not unexpected given the slowdown in the host at the host mine.

19:14 In the bottom right of this slide, the pie chart shows the split of the 6E revenue for the six months. Rhodium made up 60% of our half year revenue at $48,000,000 Platinum 19.5% at $16,000,000 and palladium 17% at $14,000,000 The gold, iridium and ruthenium, while a small percentage, still contributed $3,000,000 to our 6E revenue.

19:46 Our operating costs, our cash cost per ounce, unfortunately, in rand terms increased 48% compared to the prior year's comparative period. The main contributor to the higher cost was the lower ounce production, and we had higher salaries and wages for the period. Employees received the annual increases and the labor complements was increased at some of the plants. Lennox, we had the ROM section that was commissioned and at Twerfontein, we brought the remining in house. The higher remining costs were also incurred due to the fact that the cost of mining dumps is higher than that of receiving current horizons and wrong material directly from the host mine. Our less electricity costs were higher because of the annual increases and higher consumption at some plants.

20:36 And then a significant increase in the cash cost was the royalty tax. And this has two sides to it. The first being the calculation of the royalty tax rate. In the prior years, SYLVANIA's royalty tax percentage was 0.5% as we had a large amount of anodine CapEx that could be applied to the calculated EBIT to reduce the rate. This unredeemed CapEx was fully utilized at June 30 resulting in an increase of the rate to 7% and then the second part of this calculation is the impact of the higher revenues generated by the increased basket price. To calculate the cost, the rate is applied to the revenue of royalty attracting ounces, so the higher revenue results in a higher cost.

21:23 Looking forward for the full year, we're cost forecasting a slightly higher cash cost in rand terms as it's been adjusted for this the royalty tax at the current basket price and same for 2022 and '23. Then the the rand cost per ounce has been converted at the current exchange rate of $14.79 which then gives us slightly higher forecasted dollar cost per ounce which was previously converted at 1622. Our operating costs relative to the rest of the industry. This is the Nedbank corporate and investment banking cost curve that was published in February 2021. They calculate the the cost on the calendar year, and SYLVANIA is still in the lower end of the cost curve.

22:12 They've estimated our all in cost at $797 per ounce, and we're currently at $8.00 $1 per ounce, which is pretty much in line with the the forecast. And with the necessary cost controls in place, we should stay at the lower end of this curve. Our group EBITDA was $58,000,000 and net profit of $40,000,000 for the reporting period. Looking at the full year and at current prices, the EBITDA is forecast just shy of a $120,000,000. The drop in 2022 is linked directly to the forecast drop in ounces at Trivintane, which Jakku has already mentioned. However, if Trivintane were to remain open, then the EBITDA would be more in line with the 2021 and 2023 forecasts.

23:00 Any major fluctuations in the basket price and exchange rate will obviously impact this EBITDA forecast. But for the next twelve months or so, analysts and the institutions seem to be in agreement that the deficit in palladium and rhodium will keep these prices up.

23:22 Our capital expenditure hasn't changed much from our last reports and presentation on the SDO forecast. We have, however, added the $3,000,000 that we have allocated to the drilling program for the Northern LIMITED projects. The other capital projects for 2021 are the Moyno optimization project and the Zeri MF2, and then the slightly higher SIB, which we have mentioned in the previous presentation, is slightly higher due to the three tailings dams that we're going to be building over the next two to three years. On our cash flow, the group's grown the cash balance from $55,000,000 at June to $67,000,000 The operating profit before working capital was $58,000,000 with working capital changes resulting in an outflow of $32,000,000 This increase in the working capital outflow is due to the increase in the debtors balance as we've got the four month pipeline between delivering ounces and invoicing.

24:28 So that's recorded at the December prices, which gives the increase in the datas. We also received the $1,000,000 interest income and paid out $14,500,000 in income taxes. We spent $2,500,000 on capital and $1,400,000 on share buybacks and paid the $5,900,000 in December on the 2020 dividend. And then finally, on this cash flow slide, we've included the 3.75p windfall dividends that's going will be paid on the April 9. As detailed in our prior year annual report, and I think Jaki mentioned it a little earlier, the dividends was calculated on the excess cash flows generated on the difference between the palladium and the rhodium prices that we received versus the 2020 consensus, less any smelter charges, taxes and royalties.

25:28 And at the current exchange rate, we expect to pay out about $14,600,000 in April. Over the last five years, SYLVANIA has returned value to shareholders and aims to continue to do so through opportunistic share buybacks and the payments of annual dividends as per the dividend policy. And during this reporting period, we bought back the 1,800,000 shares and I've just announced the cancellation of 690,000 shares. Okay. Thank you, Anne. I think just looking briefly at the basket and explaining some of those increases in in the basket price overall and also in our revenues.

26:14 Just highlighting again our pro split and the pro split being just, the composition of the four main elements as part of the four e basket. We are sitting at 12.7% rhodium exposure for this past financial year. It does, vary slightly from from, period to period because we treat combination of LG and MG materials, and, and and they they have slightly different splits, but we're generally between 12 and a half and 13% on our rhodium. So that with a 167% increase in rhodium over the past period meant that, where we in the first half year in 2020 at a 58% contribution of rhodium towards the overall revenue, it was close to 60% or basically on 60% during this last, reporting period. So so, certainly, rhodium has been the star performer out of the PGM basket.

27:13 And, looking forward, I think, we'll probably continue to to do so. What I've just tried to do is I've put a summary of three of the institutional forecast that I could get. The green is the Nedbank Capital Investment Banking in South Africa. The dark blue is Standard Bank Securities, also in South Africa, and then Liberum's forecast in the piece on late January. And you would see that for PLATINUM, over the next three years, everybody is more or less aligned and quite consistent. At palladium and rhodium, however, there is a bit of a discrepancy, and the net bank seems to be more conservative.

27:59 And, one of the main reasons, for for Nedbank's approach to having a bit of a, a lower basket price, a lower rhodium and palladium price going forward is that they worked in quite a high exchange rate, South African rand dollar exchange rate of about R18.50 to the dollar going forward. And the interpretation or the opinion is that if you have a high rent price for these metals, you will put pressure on the dollar price because most of the South African mines are producing at rent cost. And therefore, you know, you don't need the the huge dollar price to sustain the cost of operations. But I guess when you look at the supply and demand fundamentals, which everybody agree on it, it will go on if if people want the metal and there's not enough of it, you might well see the the the price remain high.

28:52 And we do know that almost everybody agrees that rhodium will definitely be in deficit for the next three years at least. I think in in conclusion, that's is it. I believe that we will continue to add value and generate cash during this next year due to our attractive exposure to to rhodium. We have a very experienced and trained management team in place. And with our infrastructure, we I'm pretty sure we continue to be a low risk sustainable business. We have a proven track record both in terms of our implementation of our projects, our growth over the years, and in returning value to our shareholders that we are certainly a company that sticks to our word.

29:45 Overall, I'm very happy with the results, of this past reporting period and to with our entire team who, enabled us to achieve it. So thank you very much for your time. And, Paul, I would hand back to you now for, some questions. Fantastic. Yako and Luann, thank you very much for your presentation indeed. And ladies and gentlemen, do please consent to continue to submit your questions using the q and a tab situated in the right hand corner of the screen. I wish you all the company took a few minutes to review those investor questions submitted. I'd like to remind you the recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a, can be accessed via your investor dashboard on the Investor Meet company platform. I'd also like to remind you that your feedback is important to the company, immediately after the presentation is ended, you'll be redirected to the opportunity to provide feedback in order the company can better understand your views and expectations.

30:37 Yakuru, and we have had a a number of questions, as you can imagine, come through. And and just to the attendees, we've got quite a lot of you on the call today, so please, the company will review all questions that are submitted today. But perhaps I could just pick pick some of these out and just pose them to you, please. The first one we have here, as you're relying on feedstock from ProMia miners, how secure is that supply? How many years worth do you currently have? And, realistically, how much further can you extend that? Thank you, Paul. Yes. So on our dump operations, certainly, you know, we we are extracting those PGMs from our, host mine resources. And we are fortunate in in the, setup we have that there's quite a number of historical dumps. In other words, dumps that were created in some years ago, and then combined with that, we have the fresh feed coming in, which is the current horizons and and wrong.

31:33 Where our reliance and, comes in in terms of the dump and what makes the our position unique is if you have a downturn downturn in the grow market like we had now and the miners having to scale back the operations, we can simply substitute the lower the the loss in feed. In other words, we're we're losing feed because of the lower ROM risings, run of mine, or the current risings from their beneficiation plants, we can increase our dump material feed. And there's enough of that to to do it. Based on the the current, profile and assuming the scale downs for this financial year and what do we we've been communicated with us for 2022. I said, and our view is that we have a eight to ten years, lie profitable life, of operation. It might not be at the the same 70,000 ounce profile, but certainly profitable the near term 60 to 70,000 ounces and maybe a bit lower going forward.

32:28 How's the queue are they? So on all our current operations with our host mine, we have an exclusive, service and supply agreement, to all the historical dumps that is there and all the current risings and ROM being treated at those operations. And that that agreement is continuing for for as long as the mines are on operational or as long as we want to treat those those dumps. But, you know, we've had a very positive relationship, of, as I said, more than fifteen years with the the house mine. We certainly, have a very beneficial and synergistic relationship where they they have, also benefiting from the the the chrome that we produce, you know, especially in time like now where they had scaled down on their own primary production.

33:19 There's a significant amount of chrome that we produce, basically at well, at the nominal chrome charge to them. So that have have helped a lot. I think the other part of the question was how long can you extend it to? I think an example of of that would be before we announced project Echo, we had still good plant that was commissioned in '20 also 2008 and shut down in 02/2016. That was one mine that didn't have current horizons, for instance, attached to it. And, we basically completed the treatment of the historic dump and therefore closed the plant down and fought to that stage that we're abandoning the dump. But as we, progressed with project ECHO and some of the chrome, beneficiation, improvements, that dump has become feasible again to treat and is in our planning. And it added about two to three years of life on our Duren Moss operation. So that is the operation that was adjacent to, steel wood, and we would, just treat that material in there, and and that added life.

34:23 So, similarly, looking at this fine chrome technology and dumps that otherwise could have been retained, there's one or two of our operations where we could potentially add another two years, or or even, a bit longer, two to three years onto that operational life. So so we're continually doing that, and we've been very successful over the years with our, operational improvements in the r and d to to make that possible. So, yes, I think I hope that answered that question. Thank you. Okay. Next one we've got here is what percentage growth on revenue do you expect SYLVANIA PLATINUM to achieve in the next three years? I know we had a couple of points in in the presentation already, but if I could just hand that back to you. Yes. Look. I think that is some if you talk about revenue growth, we've in terms of the ounce profile of indicating quite a flat PGM ounce profile.

35:16 And, also, if you look at the cost, although it's increasing increased from the past year to this next one, also quite a flat curve, then you primarily rely on what the basket price is gonna do. You know? And and that I think is is probably as good as anybody's guess. Is is do you wanna take a very bullish view on it or are you gonna be more conservative? We did try I think it was on that slide 18 where we showed EBITDA forecast, and the sensitivity lines we put on there was just to show how the different, institutions view the forecast going forward. And and, you know, I would think that would probably be the best idea to guide you into some form of, reason what you can expect in the coming years. But, it's pretty much dependent on what the PGM basket price is gonna do.

36:04 Fantastic. Thank you. One question that sort of come through quite a bit actually, and, no surprise there. What are you planning to do with your cash? No. Look. I mean, it's it's been coming through, often and even, you know, in other meetings. At every results presentation, people are saying about the cash. And and and so so I think, you know, I've tried to indicate on that, slide with our the the exploration projects and the STO in terms of what we wanna progress at some of the things. So I think the first things what we know in the immediate term is certainly, Lou and I like that there's about $14,500,000, windfall dividend that will have to come off that cash. That still has to be, paid. You know, our immediate, exploration projects, the, let's say, the m f two and the completion of the Moino one is, is adding about $8,000,000 in this year. And then, you know, the the SIB in terms of the tailings dams over the next three years and other plant improvement projects between 2021, '22, and '23 is about 14 to $15,000,000.

37:17 So those are things that that's formalized in our pipeline already. Stuff that's not necessarily, you know, presented in our pipeline is is definite is we've, we've indicated the drilling cost on the exploration projects. At this stage, it's the only significant or, yeah, sizable cost that we've planned on those exploration projects because we we need to understand where we're going with them. If it's fitting, as I said previously, with our current fitting with our current expertise and operating philosophy and and and our operation strategy, we would look at executing it ourselves and then we'll start off putting cost in there. Otherwise, you know, we will look at disposing of those assets if it's, if it is too risky and too high capital requirement.

38:04 So, those things we we have to evaluate. We are constantly looking at at opportunities to grow through acquiring external resources. We are in talks with with some people and have recently participated as well in a in a tender process on one of the bigger, like, current resources or or dump studies available in the industry, but there's nothing concrete yet on that. We we obviously are cautious and looking at our capital holdings so that we can, react and have sufficient funds to execute if, there's a positive developments. That regard, we, I've mentioned the fine chrome r and d that we have, and we are, communicating with our host mines and, and looking at our internal process on how we execute that further, and that would also require some capital.

38:51 So I think, overall, you know, there's there's certainly a sizable portion of capital as we've have in our presentation already that we have to fund. There's the windfall dividend that will come out. And then on the, the other part, sorry, that also is we always maintain is that we maintain about $16,000,000 14 to $16,000,000 as a buffer for our working capital. We have increased that slightly since COVID the first COVID impact just for any eventuality. We don't anticipate any disruptions from COVID again, but we are taking a cautious approach in providing for any eventuality or crisis. Thank you, Jako. Next one we've got here, well done on a great set of results. SYLVANIA PLATINUM SYLVANIA SYLVANIA PLATINUM SYLVANIA LIMITED.

39:49 Yeah. I I think maybe on that question. So it is it's maybe a bit of a correction. So it's not Semencore that have been selling. Semencore don't own any shares in SYLVANIA. It is Africa Asia Capital that have been selling share shares down. They've been a shareholder since early two thousand and eleven and our major shareholder. They've had 58,000,000 shares about, so about 20 of our share capital at that time. As we saw that some buybacks, I think it grew to about 21% in recent times. They did start selling some shares, from about December. '15 and down currently to to about, 15%, holding. So so just over, around 41,000,000 shares.

40:41 You know, I'm not an expert or or don't have a exact idea of of what the reasoning is. What I do know from some of our engagements with some of our other funds and institutions is as our market cap have increased significantly over the past year, you know, it put us in a different category with many funds in terms of, how much of, SYLVANIA shares they, they can hold in certain funds, in terms of how they diversify their funds. And, you know, I guess that there's all kinds of things that can play a role. And on the other hand, if I look at from early two and eleven when, Africa Asia entered to now, maybe they they're also just looking at enjoying some of the profits over the years. So we don't have a correct idea.

41:28 So not being Symantec, it does not affect any of our relationships at all with Symantec. We have a very good relationship with Symantec. All our compliance are in place with them, and and and and therefore, you know, there's there's no concern. Fantastic. Thank you. Next one we've got here around dividends. Rather than dividends, would the company perform more share buybacks including on the market buybacks? Thanks, Paul. In the past, the company's bought back shares to cover bonus share awards, the previous option plan, and the new employee dividend entitlement plan that Jakob mentioned in the presentation. This is to avoid issuing new shares and diluting shareholders holdings further.

42:16 So and then we had the two non UK buyback programs to enable shareholders who held certificated shares after the redomicile to sell these shares without incurring the dematerializing costs and appointing UK brokers, which can be quite costly for non UK residents and and sometimes more expensive than the actual value of the shares that they were holding. So that's what what's happened in the past at at present, we don't have a a need to cover any shares, but going forward, these will be bought back if through the bonus shares or or schemes are are initiated. And also, if the board believes that the the shares are trading at a discount. And and, yes, then also depending on cash flows. So there is a possibility of shares, but there's no formal formal guideline.

43:09 Fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you, Lorraine. The next one, again, just kinda touches again on dividends. You know, will the company give option to shareholders for a dividend reinvestment plan? We currently don't have this option available, but I don't believe that the board would be opposed to it. So we will be taking this to the next board meeting, and then we'll be able to report back afterwards. That's great. Thank you. Also, one we've got here just around power. What is the likely impact of power shortage in South Africa and the cost of mitigation activities? Has any progress been made with regards to short securing power supplies? Thanks, Paul. Yeah. I think I've tried to touch on some of that in in the presentation, but, you know, looking at South Africa as a whole, I think there's been a lot of work going into with the new management they they have at the top.

44:05 Of Eskom, our power utility in in terms of getting the house in order, improving on it. Yes. There's been interruptions in the past year still, and I guess it probably will be for another year or two, catching up with maintenance and, everything. So, I don't think anything significantly more than we currently, experiencing or have experienced. I said the the previous half year for us was already better in term in the sense that, it wasn't formal load shedding. It was more, the this the interruption or the structure or damage on the supply infrastructure. If you think what it is costing us, so both the previous time and now is between 12% of our throughput was affected for the period.

44:53 So it is not certainly not a figure to ignore. It's substantial enough to do something about. And that's why we, as I said, we have initiated studies, and we're currently evaluating those those options. As I mentioned, it is quite expensive going pure green solutions. We're looking at a certain amount of of hybrid solutions where you would have some PV and some immediate power. So you maybe have a battery or a system to to just prevent the immediate shutdown when you have a trip and then switch over to a more to a hybrid solution to provide ongoing power. So we we're evaluating those options. But, you know, at the moment, we don't have something formal or we haven't don't haven't initiated or executed any projects in that regard. We do have, as I said, the parts of those most critical, and we had the most interruptions historically was.

45:46 Tufontein, we've have, a number of diesel generators installed over the years because we had, supply problems there. And in this past period, in in fact, the problems was not at Tufontein. It was more in our Western operations, Moinou and Moselau that was affected. Tufontein had minimal impact, during this past period. So I think our strategy already at Tufontein where we had the historic problems have assisted, significantly to resolve that there. That's great. Thank you. I think you've addressed a number of questions from investors. And I'd also like to remind all the attendees that the company review all questions submitted, by you today, and we'll publish responses where appropriate to do so on the investor meet company platform. Jacob, perhaps I could just ask you for a few words just to to to perhaps wrap up as as we go into the close and and redirect investors to give you some feedback.

46:39 Thank you, Paul, and as I thank you for the opportunity. It's a second time we've used the investor meet platform. I think it's certainly a great opportunity for us to to reach more of our investor base, especially the the smaller retail investors that we don't get to meet too often. You know? And I think I have to recommend our management teams and operations in terms of the solid performance. You know? One of our investors said to me in in this past week, he says, you know, it's a great set of results, not necessarily all by your own doing, you know, inferring then that the the big role the metal price played. And I said to him, I said, you know, you are right. But if we haven't put the infrastructure systems and management teams in place to benefit from this opportunity now when the price is high, you know, we wouldn't have benefited from the cycle. And I think that's that's always the thing. So it's yes. We're having a benefit now and and, yeah, in a in a sense, a windfall, but it is years of, very disciplined capital and operational cost, control and allocation.

47:43 It is putting the right systems and people in place, and I think it's bearing fruits now. I think, you know and I have to thank our investors for the confidence that they have in us, and they're very very supportive. So I think overall, we, a company, are very happy at at the moment with the performance. And and I I think I would ask the investors also to trust us that we will spend the cash and in the right way that we continue to grow value for the shareholders and that we continue to do what we've been doing up to now. And it's growing the the profile of the business, growing the cash, the cash returned, and and growing earnings. So thanks very much for everyone. I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah. Caroline, thank you very much for updating investors today.

48:30 Could I please ask investors not to close the session? It should be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback. If you've accessed this meeting from our website, the feedback page will appear in front of you. If you've accessed the meeting via the link sent in to you in the email, you'll be asked just to log in and submit your feedback. Only takes a few seconds, so please do so. It's much appreciated by the company. On behalf of the management team of SYLVANIA PLATINUM LIMITED, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That concludes today's session. Thank you, and good afternoon. Thank you.