Sylvania Platinum (LSE:SLP) — Interim Results

0:00 Good afternoon, and welcome to the SYLVANIA PLATINUM LIMITED Interim Results Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and they can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And I would now like to hand you over to CEO, Jakob Princely. Good afternoon to you, sir. Good afternoon, Alex, and good afternoon to everyone online. And thanks for the opportunity to take you through our results for the past six months. Myself and Ronnel, Bossman, our CFO, will take you through the highlights of this period. Think maybe just also to to welcome Runelle officially. It's her her first official reporting period after taking over as CFO on the December 1 from Lou Anne Lou who stepped down at that time. But Runelle is not new to the company. She's been with us for more than five years already in the senior finance positions, so more than able to take us through the financial results. So we will take you through it in a moment.

1:08 Just before we get into the the detail of the presentation, please just take note of the standard disclaimer. And if you make any investment decisions at the company, you shouldn't make it solely on the information contained in this presentation, just as a standard. Thank you very much. Okay. So as we just briefly, I think, as a overview for for those of you who don't or not maybe so familiar with the company, SYLVANIA has is a a low cost cash generative PGM and current producer. And we have, at the moment, all the revenue and and profits you would see from the current presentation has been generated from our existing SYLVANIA dump operations as well as the newly commissioned Tava JV.

1:54 And we have six of these beneficiation plants with an STO located on the eastern and western limb of the Bushveld Complex, respectively, that treat a combination of run of mine characterizing sand historical chrome tailings at the respective sites. And then as part of our growth profile, the JV has just been commissioned in quarter one of this financial year, and we are this currently in a ramp up phase, but I'll deal with a bit more of the Talbah JV specific progress later in the presentation. I think if we just look at the summary of the results for this first half year, as an overview, I'm very pleased to have a very strong set of production and financial results for the half year. And I'm very proud that we were able to propose that 25% improvement year on year in terms of the 40 ounce production and we during a period where all six of our SDO plants have exceeded their business plan for the period and really remarkable performance.

2:54 I think this supported by a 55% improvement in the PJ basket price where we currently the average reported for the year was $2,162 per ounce, certainly assisted us to post very attractive net revenue and EBITDA figures. Our net revenue have increased 110% to almost $100,000,000 $99,800,000 And our adjusted EBITDA have increased to $51,000,000 which was a 414% year on year improvement. While we managed to still control our cash cost very well, in fact, cash cost was slightly down period on period, primarily driven by the increased ounce production and bringing down our unit cost. So overall, this enabled us to still maintain a healthy cash balance and also in line with our commitment to distribute our capital allocation to shareholders.

3:57 I'm very pleased that to announce that board have approved a interim dividend of 2p per ordinary share that we will pay in this period as well as an additional $2,500,000 that we have allocated for share buybacks based on our valuation and opportunity. So all in all, I think a very pleasing set of production and financial results. So I think we are not just focusing on the financial and production per se, but it's also important for us that we return value to our employees and their communities where we operate. And to that extent, I'm very proud of our safety performance as always. Think I maybe just highlighting some of the key features. I'm very happy that we've managed to maintain our fatality free record since inception of the first operation almost eighteen years ago now. And then we also have a remarkable achievement. Durham was still thirteen years lost time injury free, and Durham was Lanax and Muenwe were all injury free for four, three and one year respectively.

5:03 So certainly a remarkable and an industry leading performance from safety on these operations. If we focus for a moment just on the operations and what enabled that 25% PGM production increase for the past six months or the first half of the year, we were fortunate that we've managed to increase our PGM feed tonnes by about 9%, and and that was on the back of improved stability and utilization on our all our SYLVANIA dump operations while the Tawba operation is still ramping up. In combination with the higher tonnes, we also carried on the momentum from the higher feed grades what that we saw in the to from about the latter half of the previous financial year, that carried on, And we had a 10% higher PGM feed grade. And primarily, the contributors there is higher met great material received from the host mine at Tuifontein, Muenue, and the Awa Lissedi projects. As you can see, the contributions in the bars at the bottom.

6:08 And then finally, also very pleasing that the recovery efficiency has increased to 3%. You know, it's quite a bit improvement on our long term outlook of about 54 to 56% recovery. And it's very pleasing that all three of the levers that we are able to pull to increase production in terms of tons, grade, and recovery were all improving year on year, period on period. So that's all good. If we look just ahead in terms of what's to come in the forecast, we obviously communicated to market earlier that the Tarbah JV ramped up slightly lower slower than what we anticipated originally and as I said, am going to talk more about that at the end the presentation, but you can see how the Taba contributions are starting to come through on the green bars at the top of the profile. So that certainly helped us to maintain our profile as some of the other plants might see lower grades going forward.

7:05 But we will obviously assess during our new business planning cycle between April and June how the current grades are performing and if there are potential upside in '27 and '28 going forward. While we haven't talked much about chrome both in the results or in these graphs at this stage, we've shipped the first chrome concentrate from Talbah during the period, but it will only become a real more significant contributor during the next period. But we have a target between 60,090 tonnes of attributable chrome for this period that we communicated. Just in terms of operational focus areas, it's not surprising. Obviously, if we look at the potential that we can the potential improvement we can have once Starboss reaching steady state or there's nameplate capacity, our primary focus for both our operational and technical teams are to make sure we continue to improve the plant throughput rate and stability at Tawas so that we can get the plant capacity and also focusing on the wrong quality feeding the plant. And I'll deal a bit more about the implications and plans there. And then besides that, it's pretty much focusing on the existing dump operations to make sure we maintain the same momentum and discipline that we have seen over basically the last twelve months that were all record performances for the company and to ensure that we continue to add attractive value from these operations.

8:35 I am going to hand over to Runeel now to just take us through the key financial aspects of the presentation and the results. Thank you, and good afternoon to everyone on the call as well. Not only that SYLVANIA had an exceptional six months performance operationally and in the safety space as mentioned, But looking at the profit statement for our half year results, it is evident that the six months ending thirty first December twenty twenty five has been a very successful period for the company financially as well. The improvement of the 4E PGM basket price during quarter two had a significant impact on the profitability of the company and was further supported by the record ounce production for the period from the STO.

9:25 Net revenue, which includes byproducts and sales adjustments as a result of the provisional pricing period, increased by 110% compared to the comparative period. And I will explain in the next slide some of the underlying drivers of this revenue increase. Cost of sales includes direct and indirect operating costs and increased by 31% period on period including the mineral royalty tax of which approximately 4% relates to the rand dollar exchange rate fluctuation. I will also expand more in more detail on the cost drivers later on in the presentation. The mineral royalty tax on the attributable ounces increased by $3,700,000 This increase relates mainly to the increase in applied mineral royalty tax rate driven by the mentioned increase in revenue.

10:20 Additionally, there was less qualifying deductible capital expenses available during the period. The impairment of exploration and evaluation assets of $12,300,000 relates to the HACRA project located in the northern limb of the Bushveld Ignis complex. During the reporting period a decision was made not to commit any further additional capital to this project which resulted in a non cash impairment loss of $12,300,000 Hakra also forms part of an exploration portfolio acquired historically where approximately $10,100,000 of the purchase price was apportioned to the Hakra project with an additional exploration spend of approximately $2,200,000 to date.

11:09 Income tax is incurred at the corporate income tax rate in South Africa of 27% on taxable income generated in South Africa. The income tax expense increased from $2,600,000 to $13,500,000 and this increase in income tax is mainly as a result of the higher revenue realized with a proportionate increase in taxable profits. Also included in the income tax expense is deferred tax recognized mainly on capital assets and unredeemed CapEx. Looking more closely at the revenue for the period and as shown in the revenue graph on the top left hand side, the net revenue increased half year on half year by 110% equating to $52,300,000 85% of the increase is due to the increase in the average 4EPGM gross basket price which increased by 55% period on period.

12:08 24% of the increase in revenue is due to the record ounce production during the period which increased by 25%. And lastly, the first chrome revenue was realized through the Tava JV during the period of 6 and $39,000 The pie graph on the top right hand side indicates that platinum is still the largest contributor to the current 6E PGM revenue stream at 43% followed by rhodium contributing 33% and palladium contributing 13%. The bottom graph details the increase in the EBITDA from H1 FY 2025 to H1 FY 2026 amounting to $41,120,000 This increase is contributable mainly to the 110% increase in net revenue as mentioned, driven by the 55% increase in metal prices and 25 increase in ounce production.

13:13 On the cost side and despite increased revenue as discussed, we continue to focus on disciplined cost and capital management as well. The SDO cash cost per four ePGM ounce amounted to $726 per ounce, which equates to approximately $570 per six ePGM ounce. Although the total operating costs were higher than the prior period, the total cost per ounce decreased due to the higher ounce production during the period. The graph on the top right hand side reflects the chrome cost per tonne relating to the Tava JV. As indicated by the blue bars on the graph, the unit cost calculated on the base case is estimated at $114 per tonne for the full year and then continued to decrease towards 2027 and 2028.

14:07 Due to a potential atlas impact by lower raw feed quality from the current pit, a conservative cost per tonne was calculated and is indicated by the gray line on the graph indicating a potential marginal increase in dollars per tonne. A detailed mining review and optimization studies are currently underway, but Jakob will expand on the detail thereof later in the presentation. As reflected in the pie graph at the right bottom corner as well as in the table on the left, labor cost, electricity and power costs, the buy in of third party material as well as consumables are the top four contributors to direct cost. Labor cost remains the highest cost for the operations and the annual salary increases were affected in July 2025 aligned with prior periods.

15:02 Power and electricity increased at a rate higher than the South African inflation rate during the period. Although the third party material constitutes a large portion of the overall cost, it continues to contribute positively and strategically to the group as a whole. This cost is calculated on a price matrix which is directly linked to the basket price. And therefore in terms of elevated basket prices the cost of third party material increases proportionally. Work in progress relates to PGM ounces and chrome times produced in the current period, which will only be delivered in the coming periods. Although the all in sustaining cost and all in cost increased by 2310% respectively of which again approximately 4% relates to the rand's appreciation against the dollar, the company remains well within the lower quartile of the cost curve.

16:02 There has been no major changes in the forecasted capital spend up to FY 2028 and estimates are in line with previous communication. Capital spend for the first six months of the financial period amounts to $12,300,000 This excludes attributable stripping cost of approximately $3,700,000 as well as attributable cost capitalized from the Tawba JV during the ramp up phase of approximately $1,300,000 Capital spent estimated for the full year equates to $30,000,000 and is in line with previous communication. The tailings dams and related infrastructure remains the largest portion of the capital spend with the remainder of $11,400,000 forecasted for H2 FY 2026.

16:57 Attributable capital spend at the Tawba JV for H2 FY twenty twenty six is estimated at $1,900,000 and included in the exploration asset capital estimated for the remainder of the period is the planned drilling program at Aurora project of approximately $1,100,000 following the geochemical and geophysical surveys already completed. We also continue to exercise disciplined cash management ensuring optimal capital allocation and balance sheet resilience. Cash inflow from operations during the period amounted to $25,750,000 Net income tax paid across the portfolio to the local tax authority amounted to $6,870,000 Capital cash outflow amounted to $15,720,000 and dividends paid during the period amounted to $6,850,000 We closed off the period with a healthy cash balance of $54,000,000 Our capital allocation approach is underpinned by strong cash generation and disciplined cash control cost control enabling us to reinvest in our operations, advance growth initiatives and deliver sustainable returns to the shareholders.

18:21 Following SYLVANIA's strong performance for the period ended 12/31/2025 and in line with the capital allocation framework, we are pleased to declare an interim dividend of £02 per ordinary share, which is aligned with our dividend policy. And as Jocko mentioned in the introduction, we have also earmarked approximately $2,500,000 for potential share buybacks during the course of Q3. Our history of paying consistent uninterrupted dividends as well as the aforementioned additional capital allocation emphasizes the company's commitment to return value to shareholders through both regular dividends and opportunistic share buybacks. Further, there has been no capital raising in the market since December 2009 and we continue to fund our capital expansion and optimization projects for cash reserves.

19:17 Thank you, Jochen. Okay. Thank you, Ronnel. And you know now that we have discussed the overview of the past Buret's performance and demonstrating how we're adding value, I think it's also important to look at just what is in terms of our growth pipeline. And from a growth perspective for the company, we have a two pronged approach. Firstly, we continuously look at how we can unlock further potential or value from our existing suite of assets, which now also include the Taba operation that has been, just commissioned. And secondly, we are looking how do we create value from external growth opportunities where we can replicate our improving operating model and leverage our successful track record and experience. So before I talk to some of the future opportunities we are exploring, first, let me start off by giving you an overview of the current progress on Taba to date and what our primary focus areas are.

20:15 I think what is encouraging is that we have now successfully commissioned the Tawba project during quarter one of twenty twenty six financial year. We've had our first chrome and PGM concentrate product dispatched during the past quarter. And that's an important transition important as we transition from commissioning into commercial production. And then we are continuing to do the ramp up phase and aiming to reach nameplate processing capacity by the end of q four. I think one of the we we had some challenges during the the project. I think it is not unexpected for a project this size and complexity, but we we certainly thought we would have a fast ramp up than we've had. And there's primarily two areas that contributed to the current ramp up plan.

21:10 Firstly, you know, from a physical ramp up perspective, the capacity in the plant has been slower than we anticipated, and this was primarily impacted by teething issues with some of the equipment and processing and related to the processing circuit integration as we started up. We also had, you know, starting a new plant up with with new people and a new circuit. You know, there's we had to look at how do we improve the experience quickly. And then some early stage plant configuration optimization also impacted on physical throughput and availability in the plant. And as I said, our technical teams and operational teams have made very good progress and good strides during the past two to three months.

21:56 And, you know, I'm very positive for the progress, and that's why I'm confident that we should be able to get to that nameplate processing capacity towards the end of quarter four. The second aspect that had impact on our current ramp up and also has an impact as I illustrate on the next slide, just on the production going forward is that we've had initial lower raw feed quality and variability from the host mine. And a lot of that's primarily linked to the early development of a new open pit mine and higher than planned waste dilution that we've experienced than we we planned. But we're currently engaging with also our JV partner who is managing the mining owning the mine and also managing the mining operations as well as technical mining and geological specialist team that we've appointed to assist with review of the resources, the mining plan, and and and models, and as well as the schedule and procedures so that we can ensure we optimize the feed to the plant in the period to come so that we both maximize short term profits as well as optimize the NPV over the life of the project.

23:07 So we've commissioned the mining study already in the past quarter, and the review is underway. Some of the initial findings are communicated and implemented as we progress, while the final findings from the optimization studies and detailed reviews is expected during this current period and probably in the next two to three months. And we will continue to keep the market abreast of developments in that regard. But I think, overall, while the the initial production was adversely impacted, we still believe that the overall project is is key to the long term future and growth of the group and will still continue to add attractive revenue and profits over the life of the project.

23:57 If we just look at, you know, trying to illustrate the impact of the slower ramp up and also the the slightly more dilute run of mine. We've included some graphs and sensitivities just to guide investors on that. I think and and we termed on on this graph, so you would see this. We talk about the conservative from assumptions or the average life of mine assumption. Average life of mine is what we've previously planned and add in the, you know, in the investment case and the current conservative from is taking into consideration roughly a 10% to 15% additional grade dilution over the years to come. But that obviously have a impact a knock on impact on chrome production and also PGM production as we continue.

24:44 I think what we can see is that while while there is a slight impact, we use we would with your optimization efforts, end up somewhere between the the two lines. And, you know, still considering that the project still would add between 10 to 14% EBITDA increase of about 20 to 30% of our overall of our overall group material, which is significant. And as I said, the the we'll probably be 10% to 14% lower on chrome product, about 15% lower on PGM ounces for the period. But as I've mentioned earlier, despite this ramp up, we still believe it's attractive project and will contribute to attractive diversified revenue and EBITDA as we continue. I think what's encouraging is that we understand where the challenges, what the challenges are, where what some of the levers are we are able to pull, and I believe that the team would be able to resolve it as we go forward.

25:49 As this is just an update for the people who to illustrate, you know, what the site looked like since since the commissioning. We have the run of mine stockpile and milling circuit upfront, the hydro mining station, also the PGM flotation and milling circuits and some of the chrome stockpiles with the material dispatched. If we look at the growth outlook, and so I've mentioned already Tawba and certainly that big part of our growth in 2026 is optimizing and stabilizing the Tawba operation that will continue to contribute. But I want to focus here maybe on the two most significant short to medium term opportunities we are working on. The first one is pre feasibility study that's currently underway in terms of a potential new treatment chrome dump and ROM treatment facility on the Eastern limb that's currently in the prefeasibility stage. And and it's a project that would be probably very similar in nature to what we have done at Taba, where we would share both the chrome and PGM revenue stream and probably the same kind of capital requirement as Taba. The prefeasibility study results is expected during the probably to be complete during Q4, And we should be able to update the market on our strategy and the outcome during our full

27:20 year results later in the year. And we would, at that stage, decide, know, do we have enough confidence in the prefeasibility study accuracies? And, also, is the investment case robust enough that one could consider it going straight to execution, or does it warrant us to go first complete a full feasibility study? And the difference between the two would mean that there's about a year in delay if we would do a full feasibility study first. The second project that we're doing pre feasibility on at the moment is looking at potential fine chrome recovery from dormant chrome tailings facilities where there's still significant potential value in in some of the final tailings dams at our respective mine sites.

28:10 And that could potentially generate both a chrome additional chrome revenue stream as well as a life extension. But we are still engaging with the host mines in terms of potential terms of that and the outcome of the prefeasibility, which is also, you know, probably due in the next three to six months, but again, guide us in terms of what the best decision is. I think barring these specific projects, then we also continue to look for opportunities that further diversify our commodity profile and operational presence by considering alternative commodities and jurisdictions where we can replicate our proven operating model and leverage our successful track record and expertise. And we frequently perform technical and commercial due diligences on such complementary projects and opportunities that come across our desk, and we'll continue to do so going forward to see how we can best grow the company.

29:06 I think if we look at opportunities, also important maybe to consider the market outlook. And I just want to take us through some of the parameters. I think firstly, you have seen in our results already that we've had a significant increase in the PGM price during the previous half year. And I think you can see it on the how the individual metal price increased. Obviously, the rally was led by rhodium and and platinum. Platinum increased 59% over the past six months or half year, and rhodium about 57, and palladium also holding up nicely, increasing by about 33%. And and also, I I think you consider our pro split where we have 65%, call it 66% platinum and our pro about 11% rhodium.

29:58 Certainly, those increases assisted greatly to boost our revenues as Ronnel has illustrated. I think also from a a chrome point of view at that bottom graph is just showing that while we normally have the the chrome and PGM prices quite countercyclical, we're fortunate at the moment that we both are at a fairly attractive level at the same time, and the chrome has maintained its momentum in the range of between 240 200 and 6 260, $280 for the past six months and and still remains robust. If we look just before going into the specific supply demand fundamentals for both PG and and Chrome, It's probably worth pausing for a moment to consider the most recent and updated PGM industry cost curve as compiled by Nedbank corporate investment banking.

30:53 I think what is what we can see here is that there's been a much needed relief for PGM producers over the past six to twelve months where basically every one of the producers at the moment is is profitable, and that's that's indicated by the gap between the green bars, which is a cost, and the staggered red line at the top, which is the revenue graph. And and and that certainly is is is giving the industry a lot of breathing space, especially if you consider that just twelve months ago, if and you look at that dotted line at the bottom that says average basket price February 25, about half the industry was underwater. And still six only six months ago, about 20 to 30% of the industry was also still loss making.

31:40 And and that is important to note because as we talk about the supply constraints and outlook on the next slide, you know, the fact that a lot of the expansion and growth projects in the industry has been put on hold or delayed at last you know, the period actually leading up to last year this time and and during that period because so many of the producers were were loss making. You know, there is you you can't just bring those projects back immediately because we've seen a six months or a or a nine month relief in prices. The most of the producers would want to see a more sustained high price environment before reinvesting or committing capital to those projects. And finally, just before I move off this graph, Ronel has spoken about us being well positioned within the bottom quartile of the cost curve, and you can just see the blue bar at the left indicating SYLVANIA's position well positioned. What that does for us is that, you know, when we are in a difficult price environment like the the one when we I explained in February last year, SYLVANIA is still able to continue to generate attractive cash and fund our growth aspirations when it's maybe then more difficult for some of our peers. And when we're in a good market environment like we are now, we are able to return attractive value to our shareholders and generate cash to fund our aspirations.

33:07 So just briefly looking at what's happening on the supply and demand. Obviously, with our pro split, as I explained earlier, and considering that more than 80% of palladium and more than 90% of rhodium is consumed in auto catalyst, vehicle sales and auto catalyst remain one of the primary focus areas from a demand point of view. But I think if we consider the demand for autocast and the growth in hybrid electric vehicles at the slower than initially anticipated decline in internal combustion vehicles, combined with some tighter emission standards globally, means that demand remains strong for auto catalyst, certainly for the near to midterm. I think we all know that the the growth, while it's still growing, the pure battery electric vehicles, it is at a reduced rate.

33:59 And the hybrid electric vehicles still use autocast, so that's good for the industry. In terms of platinum specifically, we besides the autocat demand that's stable, we've also seen increased demand in jewelry, industrial applications as well as some of the investment demand during the period. And these are all positive contributors. And if you look to the forward demand applications future demand applications for platinum as well in terms of energy transition, the hydrogen economy, Certainly, platinum has a very strong demand outlook. And in summary, we remain, as a company, retain a robust outlook from a demand perspective in the near to midterm. When we look at supply, and I personally think if we look at the price reaction in the last in the previous half year, the supply is probably one of the bigger considerations because I explained earlier that some of the growth projects been declined. If you look at the longer term South African production outlook, we know that there's a declining production profile unless new production comes in online.

35:04 And that combined with very low above ground stock levels, which is still being maintained and at record five to ten year periods for respective metals. That is certainly a big consideration for the market. And while secondary supply from recycling has started to see an improvement and and a slight increase as the prices increased. It was not as much as initially anticipated, and it's still quite subdued levels compared to historic levels. So all in all, if we consider and looking at the graph on the right way, all free metals are expected to be in deficit for at least '26 and and '27. Rhodium is so fully traded, so it's close to balance and but just in deficit. And I I think once you get to 28, many analysts still have all three metals then in in deficit or maybe palladium just going in the slight surplus. But, certainly, that would support the overall PGM price outlook during the next period. And I think, you know, we would continue to see stronger prices for this year. Certainly, as we've seen from most of the analysts cover that's covering our company and also doing some research that they share the same view.

36:27 From a Chrome perspective and point of view, it is probably a bit simpler in terms of demand than than the few various the the four EPGM basket that in the sense that stainless steel is the by far the biggest consumer of of ferrochrome production globally. And and as I've indicated in those graphs at the bottom, the stainless steel consumption or production have been increasing or growing at about four to 6% annual compound growth rate over the past ten years. It has slight slow slow down slightly to about 3% in 2025 and again to between 2.53% expected for 2026.

37:13 But even at the slightly slower growth rate, it still continues to grow while we see, the chrome ore production fairly flat and the ferrochrome production even potentially marginally dropping off. So from supply demand fundamentals there, again, I think we it's fair for us to remain and retain a bullish outlook on chrome going forward. And you can see on the chrome prices, the trend at the bottom both in rand and dollar terms, it has it has been trading in a in a good range for us during the past six months. I'm gonna hand back to Ronnel to just talk us through some of our ESG highlights before I will close off in the presentation.

38:01 Thank you, Ronnel. Thank you, Joaquin. I think as a recruitment focused mining company, sustainability is already inherent in our business model, but we continue to prioritize environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and the safety and well-being of our people as well as a strong governance to deliver resilient and responsible operations. On the environmental side, the tailings facilities management remains key, and we continue to conduct regular inspections aligned with a global industry standard and training management standards and no material risks were identified. Additionally, SLPH rehabilitation trials are in the planning phase to expand on the positive ecological responses that we've seen during the previous trial at the Trefontein operations as well.

38:52 We are also very proud of our industry leading safety performance with zero fatalities since commencing operations as well as zero LTIs reporting across all operations during the current period. The communities in which we operate remain important to us, and we funded the installation of a solar power system at the Modispruit Medical Community Clinic to enable safe and uninterrupted medical care to the community. The table on the left hand side indicates the various financial contributions made to employees, the local tax authority as well as suppliers, which includes supplies from the local community in which we operate. And back to Jocko now to take us through the outlook.

39:39 Thank you, Ronnel. I think if we just look at the country, we've we spoke quite a bit about what's happening at Tava, and that certainly is gonna be a big focus area for us going forward. And you can see, especially as we go into the next year, the improvement or as the Tarbah contributions from Chrome and these PGMs come in, our EBITDA increase. But besides Tarbah that we're focusing on, we will continue to focus on our STO operations to make sure we continue the strong performance during Q2. We have a production target of 90,000 to 93,000 ounces for the full financial year, which together with sustained PGM metal prices would assist to post significantly improved EBITDA for the year. And if we look at the based on our current price assumptions that, just for your information, also equate to about $2,400 per ounce is what we've used in these solid bars, then we would see a full year EBITDA increase by more than 300% to approximately $97,000,000 for the '26 financial year. And that would improve to a range between, you know, to approximately $116,000,000 in '28 as we start getting a stable dollar contribution in it.

41:00 So so overall, I think we are I said earlier, we're quite bullish about the PGM prices at the moment. We're very confident with both the existing operations performance and how that has been doing over the years and also the momentum carried into this current half year. And and we and also, we are happy with the efforts and the measures taken at Tava to improve the ramp up. So overall, a very positive outlook for the remainder of the year, and I'm hoping that we can share some exciting results with you at the end of the year when we do our full year reporting. So just in closing, I think our shareholders would agree that SYLVANIA remains an attractive low cost, low risk and cash generative business.

41:48 And, you know, over the years, we've developed a track record of strong performance, and I think we've proven that we continue to deliver significant or return certainly significant value to our shareholders over the years. And while we still have some significant expansion plan for this next year and a little bit in the neck in in the following as Ronel has indicated, We will continue to prioritize our capital returns to Australia owners alongside the value creation and the business sustaining requirements going forward. So, yeah, that concludes our presentation, and I would hand back to Alex at this point. That's great. Thank you very much, Schafer, Ronnel, for your presentation. I will now turn your cameras back on. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via our investor dashboard.

42:44 And Yakaran, now at this point, if I may just hand back to you to take us through the Q and A session. I'll pick up from you both at the end. Thank you. Thank you, Alex. So I was just looking at at the side of my screen on some of the the questions, and we had one of the presubmitted questions that were asking us about some of the criteria we would use in terms of investment and how when we look at capital employment and investing in projects. I think what's important, and we have communicated that some of the some of our previous discussions, with our big focus of being low risk, cash generative, and low cost operator. We obviously look at projects that meet that criteria as well. So from a board perspective, we certainly try and and only do projects where we have IRR in excess of of at least 20% as one of the criteria. Then also considering, you know, the market fundamentals and aligning with our our strategy, We ideally want to invest in projects that have a simple payback of between three and five years. I think that reduce your risk significantly.

43:56 So those are just some of the primary measures that we look at. One of the other questions, I think it was Preston from Ireland, said I came across a mineral called osmium, which is only found when mining platinum. Price per kilo is, you know, over £1,000,000 per kilo. So does SYLVANIA PLATINUM ever find this extremely rare mineral. Thanks. I think osmium is occurring in the basket with PGMs in the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. However, because of the low it's in trace quantities and the low quantity, it does not typically form part of the revenue basket for junior material companies. You would find that the majors, your Valterra, Impala, NOVANIA, might record Osmium revenues because they can recover in refineries that and with the higher volumes they're treating.

44:50 It is easier, but typically so certainly Slovenia does not have exposure to that. And as I said, as far as I'm aware, very few, if any, of the mid tier or junior producers would have access to to that revenue. I look at the next question. It says on the Taba JV. And sorry, this writing is small. I'm just gonna put my glasses on. On the Taba JV, please can you help us understand the cash flow dynamics? How much have you invested so far in terms of CapEx, shareholder loans and working capital support? And what should we expect in terms of further cash contributions from this point? And how should we expect cash to be returned from Taba? Will the working capital loan be repaid in '27? And should we expect dividends to be passed up to all the shareholder loan to be consistently repaid?

45:37 How should we think about the cash conversion of Taba? So I think and if I go just back to the Taba slide, what we have said, and I must maybe just correct. So the capital for Taba at the moment, the overall project capital, was about $58,000,000. It's the project capital that excludes, I think, the stripping cost that has been capitalized, but that's also getting add back as we we remine the pit as on an ongoing basis. So it's about $58,000,000 on the on the on the project side. We still on the fundamentals, and if you look even at the conservative case, still between a three and a four year payback period based on the current price assumptions.

46:29 I think the rules in terms of our JV agreements, collection we have communicated that before in the market when we announced the project is that the loan repayment would commence on the first anniversary of the commissioning, which would be in the last second quarter of the next financial year in quarterly payments over a five year period. So that is certainly how it would be repaid. The question in terms of if we would pass up dividends while we are waiting for this loan, certainly, think just our current dividend declaration is is illustrating our good commitment not to do that. We have, as well, our dividend policy says, would pay a minimum of 40% of our adjusted free cash flow. And the adjusted free cash flow would obviously take into account what we funded now in terms of Tava. It takes into account the capital we are currently employing on our other same business and growth projects. So if you would take that into account, we have the 2p dividend declared for the current period is well in excess of the 40% of adjusted free cash flow.

47:32 So and that was specifically the decision of the board to do that in order not to penalize shareholders for the flow of cap you know, the funds in terms of the Taba agreement. Think I that's in line with our overall capital commitment and also considering the level of cash that we need to maintain to fund both continuous shareholder returns as well as strategic growth projects. So I I hope that answered that question. Then I have a question that says, what's the current four e and six e basket price, and what's the forecast budget for '26? Previously, I believe it about a thousand $800 for four e for '26. I think we we explained that the solid bars, I said it in that last EBITDA slide is our price assumption there is about $2,430.

48:18 That was based on the December average spot price we received. It's about 2,430. If I look at the various forecast and at the back of our slide deck, and I can maybe go there on slide 38, we have include the sensitivities or some of the forecasts from both PLATINUM, who's our and and Berenberg, who are our joint brokers, as well as is it NetBank? Or or even the company consensus pricing. And you would see that that is still well aligned with that $2,400. And then going into if I look at 2728 forecast on the respective models would range somewhere between 2,400, say, 2,200 to lower into 2,600, almost $2,700 per ounce looking forward in that range, but you can find it in the back of the the slide deck.

49:12 I think, you know, if we look at what rhodium have just done this week, we currently, as it stand on our split, the basket price is at about $3,000 per ounce. So we continue to maintain a sensible and cautious approach to the pricing, and and and then we we take that bear that in mind in the decisions we take. I I'm looking at one of the next questions. Given the strong cash balance and likely good cash generation in '26, please can you discuss why you are not buying shares back more aggressively, and how would you consider buybacks and dividends? I think we, again, have mentioned and Ronelle said in her presentation, how we maintain a balance between the and share buybacks.

49:57 You know, I've I've also maybe just important to know to note is I've shown on that net bank curve, how we moved in a year across the industry average basket price from last year this time was just over 20,000, say, R3,000 a ounce. Six months later, we had R32,000 a ounce. And and by December or or now at just over R43,000 a ounce. So if you put it in rand terms now, that graph, unfortunately, was rand terms. So you could see that the price more than doubled in just a year. We saw after '22, 2122, the buoyant PGM price we had then how quickly those prices drop. So you can have swings within six to twelve months in this basket price either way. So the company needs to take a risk based approach to those volatility and fluctuations and and make sure that, you know, we we we buffer the business against that. However, our dividend and the general cash allocation scheme does take the full year into account. So while we've made an estimate now of what we believe the full year free cash flow would be when we declared the 2p dividend, At the end of the year, we would reassess the position based on the actual free cash flow for the year. And if the metal prices then were maintained and the production levels were maintained, we, by all means, would adjust our allocation at that point. And as I said, we we have announced already that we've allocated $2,500,000 for the shares share buyback. I think on on Ronnel's

51:28 slide, she had the total number of shares bought back. I don't think she mentioned the figure. But over the last ten to fifteen years, SYLVANIA bought back and canceled about 10% of our issued shared capital. So I think it certainly shows our commitment towards share buybacks. Another question is saying assuming the PFS for the Eastern LIM is positive to the extent that the DFS is not required, what would you be looking at in terms of potential timelines for the construction production? Yes. What we see there is, obviously, it is a greenfield site. So if we can go straight to execution and and, you know, as I said, the level of confidence is high enough that it warrants us, you know, you you can continue straight. It it would be between, say, a twenty four and thirty months timeline because the the bottleneck or on the critical path, there is environmental authorizations for the new tailings dam on-site that that they have to be there.

52:26 There's some power infrastructure that we have secured, but still have to be installed. So I would say, yeah, our current estimate is probably about twenty four to to thirty months from when we make decision, but that final timeline will be confirmed once the PFS is published. Would you consider so this is the next question. Would you consider a move to The UK main market and leave AIM? I think that's a the question we we it's not the first time we we get posted. I think, you know, certainly, we understand there are some some benefits to that. But, you know, I think we Renal mentioned that we the last time we raised capital in the market was probably in 2009, you know, and we continue to look at at growth and expansion projects.

53:18 I think the right time, considering the high cost of and and the logistics of moving from the AIM to the main market would be if there's a substantial m and a transaction or something to do that. So it's it's something that we don't have any immediate plans, but continuously on our radar, and we we will continue to assess the merits of it as we continue. Then there's a just a question that says Pandora announced a switch from silver to platinum. Is there enough platinum in the market to support this change? So, yeah, I know that, you know, there's been significant increase in demand in in platinum in the Chinese market during the course of last year because of the price differential between golden and platinum and that has taken, you know, I think you guys have been talking about on the upside of a million ounces of platinum.

54:16 They're benefiting from that move and that demand. But I can't unfortunately, I don't have any idea of how much Pandora has in terms of what the typical silver consumption is. I certainly think, you you know, that supply probably the current forecast did not take that necessarily into account, there could be upside, but I would not be able to, unfortunately, you know, let you know, make a give opinion on exactly what that would be. I have another question here that says great position on PGM pricing, but a little disappointing on slower startup and more dilute wrong from Taba for Chrome. The JV partner about learned some lessons, but was this linked to shortcomings in modeling? Was the drilling perhaps a bit too spaced out?

55:06 And so on. So I think, as I said, we we currently reviewing the model. We obviously have concluded or or done a due diligence study on the mining plan also a part of the problem. I think if I look and then the current indication probably is we underestimated the amount of of stripping dilution, I from initial operations. If you, in hindsight, look like we had a more effective profile in our planning initially, know, rather looking at averaging it out on the over a year and years than looking at the specific ramp up profile. So I think there are some lessons learned there for for us in that. I think what we the with the engagement of the specialist mining consultants that we've employed now as well together with the staff from our JV partner, we I think we have a good handle now in reviewing the models to just identify where the, you know, the dilution is coming from, what kind of levels is acceptable from industry standard, and how can we optimize the current mining operation to achieve that. So as I said, we we, at this stage, don't believe there's a fatal flaw in anything identified. Think it's probably more scheduling issue.

56:11 And from if we look at if there's a longer term impact of the overall dilution, the sensitivities I've provided in the graph does indicate that on the Tava slide. And as I said, still even if you take that into account, Tawba would be attractive revenue and profit contributor to the to the group. So then there's a question that says, given the surge in the PGM basket, even since the reporting period end, what is SLP strategy in terms of hedging? So I think to give me a chance to take some water, I'm gonna give that one to Ronnel to answer. Yeah. I think, historically, we haven't hedged. We are we've we've had quite good results just continuing with the without hedging. And I think the feeling also is that if we did, for example, hedge during the COVID time where rhodium had the spike in the runaway, we might have lost out if we locked in the prices there.

57:09 So we do continue just to keep a close eye on the prices and the volatility in the market. We also partner quite closely with treasury advisers who advise us on the movement of the market, and we we continuously actually engage with them to advise us whether we should consider consider hedging or not. But at the moment and, again, it's one of those things that we we haven't written off. We continuously consider it. But at the moment, we we are continuing as we are. I think thank you, Renal. Finally, just the last question, and I'm conscious of of us running out of time as well. But it is only one question left. And it says great presentation, but why not mention of the high value loan to the Tawa JV partner? What is the value of this loan currently? I'm, again, gonna hand back to, Ronnel just for the values, but it is, obviously included in our financials that has been included in our interim report also released yesterday.

58:06 But, also, maybe just mentioning that if the people are not if somebody's not aware that that loan has has been granted on a in it's an interest bearing loan at South African prime interest rate that's currently 10.25%. So so that is also just worth worth mentioning. And, Ronelle, you can probably just give us some indication of of the where the project capital loan sits at the moment. So the project capital loan currently amounts to $30,500,000. And as Jocca mentioned earlier in terms of the payment terms as well, it is repayable on the first anniversary of of commissioning date, which will be in in quarter two, and that is inclusive of of the interest as well. And we have constant communication with the JV partner as well in terms of the repayment of of that related loan.

58:56 Thank you. Alex, I think this concludes the questions that we've had. Yeah. That is correct, Jakob. Thank you for taking those questions from investors today. But Jakob, before we direct investors to provide you with their feedback, which I know is very important to you, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments? Thank you. I think, maybe just in conclusion, I'm very pleased with the SYLVANIA's performance over this past financial period, you know, both from a production and financial point of view. And I'm very excited about the future and the growth prospects of the company. As I said, you know, we have a short term disruption or slower ramp up at Tava, but we still remain confident that the long term value will be realized as we ramp up. So I believe that as we continue to as we have continued to demonstrate both for our performance and our solid result over the years, we, SYLVANIA, as a company and we, as a group, remain an attractive, reputable, stable cash generative company that I think we have illustrated that we can continue to return attractive value to shareholders through both stable dividends and share buybacks and by also establishing ourselves as a partner of choice in the industry.

1:00:08 And I'm sure we would be able to continue doing this going forward. So thank you for all everybody who attended the presentation, for all our shareholders for their support over the over time, and we look forward to continue the journey with you. Thank you very much. Fantastic. Thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.