Vast Resources (LSE:VAST) — Investor Presentation

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the VAST RESOURCES PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted anytime by the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your question and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. These will be available via your investment company dashboard and we'll notify you by email when these are ready for your review. I would also like to remind you that this presentation is being recorded. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Andrew Prelare, Paul Fletcher, Craig Harvey, and Andrew Hall. Good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. Good Andrew,

0:47 would you like to take the lead? Will do. So we want to to keep the focus of this session on on the q and a. No doubt there'll be there'll be a number of questions. We have we have, however, just just about to release a new new presentation, so I'll just like to run through the key aspects of the business for any new investors on this session. So getting straight into it. Ultimately, our principal activities are in Romania and Southern Africa. In Romania, we're focused on the ramping up of production at our bi supply polymetallic mine and also exploring the recommencing of production our Manayla polymetallic mine currently on care and maintenance.

1:36 In Zimbabwe, we are still finalizing a joint venture agreement to procure the special grant of mine at our Alluvial Community diamond concession. And then we hold a number of expansion opportunities in both Romania and also in Botswana, where we're exploring the agreement to acquire 90% in the Gargu diamond mine in Botswana transaction we're currently in process of at the moment. So the company has an asset portfolio, which gives interest across the development spectrum from appraisal and development with our Ducklas Agra and Blueberry projects through to our producing mine in Baita Bay and near term production potential in Manayla and the...

2:30 And our interest in Zimbabwe.

2:34 So this this information on the on the presentation is going to is going to be available on the website for for people to look into it in more detail. Ultimately, this this presentation will allow allow people to see to see the the pipeline of of opportunities that we have.

2:58 So in short, we we are a multi commodity portfolio of of near term and producing assets. At the moment, we we have spent the year upgrade high supply mine and ultimately have increased increased the value of this asset to an independent valuation of $80,000,000.

3:20 We are looking at advancing our pipeline of assets, and we are looking to cement our position in in Romania and Zimbabwe and Botswana.

3:34 So if I hand hand back over to to Alessandra, we can get straight into the q and a. Thank you for your presentation, guys. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated in the top right corner of your screen. But just while the company take a few moments to review those investor questions submitted already, 'd 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 your investor dashboard. We received a number of pre submitted questions from investors today and I want to start the Q and A session with these. The first one reads as follows. After four years as CEO, Andrew Prelaer managed to dilute shareholders. After consolidation back in the beginning of the year, share price crashed further from 10p to 2p. Share price is down 90% over the last few years. My question is why is Andrew still the CEO? Why is he up for reelection?

4:24 So this is Andrew Hall. I'll address this question.

4:29 Andrew Prelier's reelection of of CEO is is extremely necessary for VAST to be able to continue and develop our strategies in both Romania and Zimbabwe. He's developed key strategic relationships in the jurisdictions that we operate. He's been a key part of the process of bringing by to ply from a development target to a producing asset. Despite the share price profile, the value creation from an asset perspective over the last four years tells a very different story. Using independent broker valuations, By Itaply alone has increased from 28,000,000 in 2016 to 80,000,000 this year.

5:10 The near term producing potential assets in in Manila, once operational, would add increased value to the business, which would give us a combined NPV in both Manila and Vaitsa of about $112,000,000 in the pipeline of opportunities that we have outside of Manila and Vaitsa would also increase this asset value. Thank you for that, Andrew. The next question asks, what skill has Andrew Hall to be on the company board? He has no experience at senior level. Answer that one for you.

5:54 I think something's just happened with the screen, thanks. Andrew's role is really focused on company's strategic business initiatives and he's been fulfilling that role for a considerable amount of time. He's also been very active and will continue to be so in the capital raising, the managing of the off take relationships, well as the leading external and investor communications. And he's been doing that for quite some time. His elevation to the board role was because of the work that he's done and fulfilled and the work he's continuing with. And he's proven to be a valuable asset to the company. People don't quite understand his background. He's actually been fourteen years working in the natural resources and finance businesses.

6:43 He's done a sterling job over the course of the last three years that he's been with the company for almost three years now. And the board thought that it was tight time that we brought his skill set onto the board to be a more valuable asset to the business. And we welcome him Gordon, and we hope to see him stay in the company for years to come.

7:02 Thank you very, much. Just turning on to the next question which asks why Brian Moritz is still the company chairman. He has all failures over the last five years starting from Roy Pitchford and ending with Andrew Prelaio. Hi, this is Paul Fletcher, I'll answer this. Brian specialises in natural resource companies and was formerly chairman of Metal Bulletin PLC, African Platinum PLC and Chromix Mining PLC, as well as currently being chairman of several junior mining companies. He has a huge amount of experience. There's some additional information that

7:39 listeners can look at in our annual report regarding his background. And as a consequence, Brian has historically and continues to offer invaluable leadership and advice to the board. Thank you for that, Paul. The next question asks how much VAST spent on Alexander Pelleira racing team in Romania?

8:00 You can see the VAST logo on his car and racing seat. This is Andrew Hall. So I can confirm that VAST has not spent any money on sponsorship or or on any other costs for the for the racing team. The company allows the use of our of our logo for us to capitalize on free marketing in Romania, which has proven to be quite effective given these races are are very popular televised events.

8:29 Thank you for that. The next question asks if you could provide an update on talks to lenders to refinance Atlas via traditional lending rather than via dilution. It's Andrew Hall again. So as we've previously announced, we've continued to prioritize and focus on the the refinancing of of Atlas. We can't comment in any more detail on this process outside of an r and s announcement,

8:54 But we can say that it's ultimately in everyone's interest for for us to refinance Atlas and avoid further dilution. That's great. The next question asks if you could provide an update on the time frame on exploration on BP to extend its current three to four year life. Hi it's Craig Harvey speaking. I'll take this question. So just a gentle reminder that the three to four year life being referred to is on the current JORC resource that VAST RESOURCES DROLLED during 2020. Circus 600,000 tonnes only between 1819 level on the Antonia scan.

9:40 Remember that there is an additional 1,800,000 tonnes of historic mineral resources that lack the QAQC order trail for inclusion into a JORC resource. Now in order to start converting some of these historical resources, The team on the mine has investigated the accessibility of some of the historical blocks on thirteen and fifteen level on the

10:08 Bayer Roshiscon. And the outcomes from that are positive. Ground is there. Bearing in mind that these areas were mined in the 1970s. So re equipping I. E rails, air, water, power is all going to be required. So it's not a three to four year life.

10:30 There are additional resources out there. Regarding the actual drilling and the actual exploration, what the exploration is intended to do is to add new mineral resources, not any historical mineral resources or anything like that below 19 level down to 21 level on the Antonio and the Antonio North Scone. Original plan, yes, was to commence at the end of this year. It was a 4,000 meter drilling programme that was planned. We were going to drill it from 15 level elevation, but it required a whole lot of rails, air pipes, water pipes, it required a change of skip rope. And so we thought it prudent to delay it by probably two or three months so that we can get a drilling platform that is much closer to the actual scans.

11:26 The old drilling plan would have only allowed us to do about 13 drills, So resulting in 13 minuteeralised intersections. The replan is going to allow us to do 40 drill holes. So from a resource definition point of view, it's the absolute winner.

11:51 And so that is going to commence in Q1 of this year, Q1 of twenty twenty two. Craig, if you don't mind adding, I don't know if you said it before, we should reiterate that the new drilling rig that was commissioned specifically for this drilling program has been built and is in country and can be delivered as soon as we're ready for. Correct. Correct. Thank you. The next question reads as follows. Could you provide an update on the realistic time frame for BP to be operationally profitable and the group to be profitable as a whole? Previous time frame guidance per video discussion has passed. What is the main driver of missing operational profitability and group profitability?

12:33 This is Paul Fletcher. I'll answer this. As previously announced on October 25 by RNS, the company has transitioned to periodic reporting. The company will provide quarterly production and sales volume reports. And the next production and sales report will be published by 01/31/2022, in respect to the quarter ended 12/31/2021. This report will specifically address operational performance. Going back to the RNS of the October 25, that RNS released addressed the previous guidance figures given to the market on the 03/30/2021. So, I would I would suggest listeners also go back to that RNS.

13:20 You will see that the profit projections for the for the mine were laid out into yearly periods, 04/22/2324. And obviously, you can see it consists a large rise in net profitability as we ramp up volumes, and you can see the mined tons and feed tons. And the thing to reiterate, which again we reiterated previously on the mine plan, on the mechanized mine plan, is you will see a trend where the mined tons significantly exceeds the feed tonnes, as we're concentrating the tonnage with technology, XRT technology.

14:03 And so, as we get into 2023, we have we're at peak production into that period, and that's observable from the profit forecast that we gave. So, I think everything is pre explained in that RNS and that remains applicable today. Thank you very much. The next question asks whether there are diamonds held in Zimbabwe that belong to VAST, and what are the value of these? Can we access them, and why

14:39 are they not in the company financial statements? It's Andrew Praday, I'll take this one. The information related to the projects in Zimbabwe are extremely sensitive in nature, and part of the ongoing discussions that we've been having with the Zimbabwean government authorities since twenty eighteen-twenty nineteen. There are a lot of rumours in the market related to the settlement process that we RNS back in, I think it was October 2019, and people should just consider those as rumours. As and when the discussions are finalised, and we're still confident that those discussions are ongoing and will be finalised, The company of course will update the market in accordance with a rule 11. So we do reiterate that we still have a presence in Zimbabwe, are still confident of an outcome, a positive outcome for the company.

15:29 And the reason why there's nothing in our financial statements is on the settlement is because the settlement is not complete, and once it is done, then anything that is there or will be there or could be there will be reflected in our company's financial statements. Thank you, Andrew. Just turning to the next question. How long until the company is making enough profits that placements are no longer needed?

15:53 It's Paul Fletcher. I'll answer this. It kind of expands on two questions back. As BAE Supply approaches peak production, the company believes it will be in a position to self finance and access wider pools of debt finance to advance its additional strategies and pipeline assets.

16:15 The board and management are acutely aware of the resistance to further dilution and will promote alternative funding strategies rather than equity placings wherever possible. Thank you very much. The next question reads as follows. Having told the market VAST is going to grow organically, can this be confirmed as currently there's no finance deal and the Gagoo deal should be close to completion? Excuse my pronunciation there. No problem. Gargle is a mouthful if you don't know how to say it. All I can say is the company is actively working on the financing arrangements for the Gargle project. We are in discussions, detailed discussions, and it's ongoing. We maintain the position the project will be funded by third party finance and we are currently continuing on that trajectory to have the deal closed in time in accordance to contract and what is available to us at the time. We will not be placing for GAVU and that can be confirmed.

17:21 Thank you very much. With Roy Tucker becoming a non exec, will he now take a backseat and therefore have a substantial reduction in salary?

17:30 It's Andrew Proloquin. I'll take this one as well. Know, Roy's been with the company almost since inception. He's an invaluable asset to the company with his depth of knowledge, not only in the company's history, but also in his consulting world, both on accounting and legal. And, you know, he was willing to step down completely. The board did manage to convince him to stay on as a non executive. He'll be engaged as a consultant. Of course, salary will be adjusted according based on the reduced role. And yep, he's agreed to that. And he'll be continuing with the company as an NED, but also separately as a consultant as and when required and be paid accordingly. But yes, salary will be drastically reduced in accordance to the amount of time he spends working with the business. Thank you very much. The next question asks whether the students at the Mining School at BP are new recruits or are these current staff that are being retrained?

18:27 Hi it's Craig, it's Craig Harvey I'll take this question. So it is pretty it's predominantly new employees that are being trained to operate in a mining environment typically underground. Select existing employees have been further up have been further upskilled by training them as rock drill operators and moving into minor class class one.

18:53 Prior to the some formal qualifications outside of this of this of the school was actually completed during the beginning of the year for when we for when we started we had one certified miner slash blaster of which now we have a total of seven certified miners and blasters on the mine. There's been a lack of labour pool. A number of people have come out of retirement to help us out, but we have to train our own people. Thank you very much. The next question reads as follows. Can you please confirm that the current headroom is not being utilized prior to the AGM?

19:38 Are you renegotiating the debt with Atlas or are you planning to pay it pay it off?

19:43 This is Andrew Hall. So the company is in constant dialogue with Atlas, and the intent is to to refinance the Atlas debt prior to the end of the term. As previously mentioned, the board managements are extremely cognizant of the opposition to dilution and will avoid using the headroom wherever possible. And the board are not currently planning any placings between now and the and the AGM. Thanks very much, and thanks for answering all those pre submitted questions. Investors have also submitted a number of questions during the presentation today, and I wanted to hand back to you to respond to those where it's appropriate for you to do so. Could I simply ask you to read out the question and who it's from? Perfect. So I'm just... Some statements as opposed to to questions.

20:31 If you don't mind, Andrew, I'll take the... There's a first question, if I'm not mistaken. We go from the top down. There was a... Sorry. Oh, jeez. There are quite a few questions. Well, there are some people who are just making statements, as you said. Andrea, I'll let you take it while I scroll through because I I unfortunately didn't have them up. So please feel free. David s says, what is the current situation with Atlas? Are you able to refinance with them? How much do we owe them?

21:11 So the situation with Atlas is that that we had announced in in August that we had... We were in, well, agreed heads of heads of terms to restructure their their debt into a into an asset backed debt with a with a settlement date at the end of June of of next year. This ultimately was something which was was not able to be finalized. This... That was outside of our of our control. And, ultimately, the atlas has reverted back to to the standard terms, which allows them to to convert. And the and the settlement date is is the end of January next year.

21:58 We have seen three small conversions, which now put the settlement amount at $6,350,000 As mentioned in the previous answers, it is our priority to to look to to refinance this before the before the settlement date is up, and we'll have to... In terms of any other comments on on Atlas, that will have to be be something by RNS announcement.

22:31 Thanks, Andrew. There's another question here. Why would we be able to obtain finance for Gargoyle ahead of refinancing Atlas and getting our Romanian assets into production? Also, how can this be prudent at such a low market cap?

22:47 Gargu is in a jurisdiction that has a proven history. It's unlike Zimbabwe and Romania, where there are no peer comparisons. Botswana is quite often considered as the Switzerland of Africa. So obtaining finance for an asset that has over $250,000,000 of investment that has a track record that was explored by De Beers, brought into production by JEM, a known quantity attached to it. That's why it's proven to be an easier asset to finance than the current assets in Zimbabwe and Romania. So that's that question there. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask two answers of two...

23:32 We can answer two of the questions that are being asked. The first is is Tim w, why is there such a disconnect between the share price and the independent valuations?

23:43 There was another question asked by David s. Well, it was answering an answer of ours, but the main reason for BP asset increasing is the copper bull market. I mean, the... To take to take these together, we... The assets the assets increase from a valuation perspective in by Eta has has actually been because the the company has has brought this through the through the licensing process, achieving the the license for for BAE to start mining. And then really without... You know, we we offer offer... Ultimately suffered liquidity issues at the end of eighteen, but enabled the refinancing, you know, with Atlas two, which was drawn in in January last year.

24:32 And we achieved as a... You know, as the team in in Romania achieved, you know, a a fairly a fairly big achievement in bringing Beiter into production in, you know, in a nine month period from from funding through to initial production, and that was, you know, with with the backdrop of COVID and and lockdown. And this, you know, and Byte as an asset is, you know, is is one that is is going through the ramp up process in... Of production. So I think I think there's a there's a lot of a lot more reasons than than just the copper price.

25:08 Andrew, to put it into perspective, the valuation increase is 400%, whereas the copper price increase is about 35%, 40%. So there is a disconnect there alone. So to increase the valuation of BEIS is solely based on copper price, it's actually not quite a correct analogy. The 10 times difference between the copper price increase and the asset value increase. Yes, there is a huge disconnect, but once again, I go back to there were no peer comparisons for Romania. We are the only operator in country. We've managed to invest less than $25,000,000 into the Romanian operations as a whole over the years. Bates I think is now just shy of just over $20,000,000 of investment. That's a four times multiple on shareholders investment.

25:58 And it's been done in a very short period of time in mining terms. So I thought I'd just add that to your comments as well. And further answer to the disconnect between share price and asset valuations is, you know, ultimately the elephant in the room is the, you know, is the this Atlas, this the settlement of the Atlas facility. Until until there's some clarity around around that situation, you know, it will it it will create share price suppression. I think once there's clarity around the Atlas situation, I think there's a very strong case for our asset valuations to be realized and expressed in the market cap.

26:52 Andy M, what actions are the board going to undertake to give the market any faith in their ability to turn this around?

27:04 I can I can take take that? I mean, the I think the the main the main way in which the board will, you know, will be able to restore faith is, you know, is is gonna be, you know, with with facts and figures. You know, we've we've obviously tried to tried to give guidance to to give investors and shareholders and potential investors a view on what, you know, what what is possible. Ultimately, now it's really results that will that will sort turn turn sentiment around. And the the board are working, you know, are working extremely hard to to be able to to to restore sentiment. Sorry, there's a couple of questions here.

28:01 One that I think should be answered is, Amjid M, Fastest Felt to Fulfill on Every Commitment Production Forecast XRT Zimbabwe deal are only a few examples. What will FAST do differently going forward? This question is quite a sensitive one, and there are no excuses to be made. Production forecasts were based on, and mining is not a simple industry. We did get the mine into production in nine months in an area that had been sitting idle for almost eight years, which was filled with water. Hence the change in the production forecast was purely to do with area underground. And when you blast into a soft rock and it does collapse, safety comes first. So the production forecast, we have adjusted accordingly.

28:48 Maintain We that new production forecast that was given on October 25 in the RNS, we are confident and that will be published. We've reduced the times from six months reporting back to three months and quarterly reporting, so you will know in real time what's going on. Anything shorter than that is not an accurate depiction of what's going on in the mine. As far as the XRT is concerned, well nothing's changed there. It all had to do with the changing the mining plan. We're still considering and we're still going to move forward on the implementation of XRT in Baitsa, as well as Mana'ilu, which again comes back to putting it on care and maintenance back in 2019. Was the correct decision. We preserved the asset. We found a way to extract maximum value while reducing costs considerably.

29:36 Zimbabwe is a jurisdiction where, let's please remind the audience that it was not us that announced in October 2019 that we were proceeding with signature. It was actually the Minister of Mines who called the press conference, and under the AIM HAL 11, we were obliged to confirm that that's what we had been told.

29:58 So all I can say is that we have brought base into production into a country where no one else has brought any mine of non ferrous nature underground or open pit into production since 1989. It is an unusual jurisdiction due to the lack of infrastructure in country in the mining sector, although for mining it's fantastic having water, roads and infrastructure and electricity in place.

30:23 So it has been rather difficult, but we have now succeeded and we are on track and we're quite happy with the performance of the mine as it stands today. So, hopefully, that answers. I'm sure it ends question. And I'll... Next next question, I'll turn over to Andrew to answer. Yeah. So we've got, I think, one for one for Craig, actually. So David s, why are you not ready for the jumbo rig? This was initially due in April. Yeah. Okay. Well, let me take this. So as Andrew has mentioned, and you've heard in between, we have had some COVID related issues specifically on this supply chain. Our initial due date for the machine was the May 15.

31:16 The supplier notified us that it was ready in the middle of August. At that time we were busy redeveloping around the collapse that we had mentioned earlier. And we had to bring in some extra people and some extra hands. So what we have done is we are actually trying to preserve some cash. The jumbo rig that we were going to buy is pretty expensive. What I've been able to do is I've been able to source

31:50 a similar rigs. And when I say rigs, I mean rigs. For the price of that one rig, I can get three rigs that can do the work of nine machines. So I. E. Each of these rigs can drill as a face drilling jumper for your typical tunnelling. It's then got an attachment that you can put on to drill your vertical long hole production holes. And it's got an additional bolt on for roof bolting. So with the prior machine that we were going to get, it was only and solely limited to face drilling. Whereas now for the price of the original jumbo, I can get three machines that can do the work of nine machines.

32:43 And those ones are planned to be on-site at the end of February.

32:47 Just also, you should advise the audience that these have now been ordered and paid, deposits paid, and there is no deviation from the mine plan that has been published in October 25 as a result. Think it's very important for people to understand that. I just I just want to clarify that that the

33:11 original jumper is worth it not coming is not going to have an adverse effect on the mining plan. And in relation to the three machines coming, I can actually increase production a little bit quicker. Because once you start doing the long haul production stopes, you're you're doing a bulk mining method.

33:40 So that will help us. So, Greg, well, there's another another question while while while you're on. I mean, Tim W. Says, given all the issues with previous forecasts being over optimistic, are you now taking a more conservative view or are they still a best case scenario? Well, look, I mean, I think it's more it's more realistic scenario. I mean, we're now in the position that we have on mine production numbers. So we know that in any given month, if you've got 22 shifts in the month, sorry, twenty two days with three with three shifts per day, we know what we can advance a tunnel by. How many meters we can advance and things like that. I mean in this month we have we have done record wasting.

34:33 Out the mine. On a day on a daily basis. So it's not really optimistic or pessimistic view. It's a realistic view. I do have to say because it's the world that we live in. We you know the mine has had its fair share of Covid related slowdowns and things like that, which does impact. Of course, it has to. If you know, if you lose 20% of your underground workforce, you're going to lose 20% of your production. So we have had hiccups, yes, but the plan going forward is a realistic mining plan. So I think that that also answers Andy M's question, which was given given Craig Harvey, the team have produced two back to back mining plans, which have missed targets set.

35:27 How can shareholders and the market trust what is to come next or have any trust in the ability of of this team? I think Craig's Craig's assessment also addresses addresses that question. Another question from from Andy m. Could the board give a fair and honest assessment on their performance given this year alone, the year to date share price is negative 85?

35:55 Well, I mean, it's what people don't see that we should be assessed on, which is that we brought a mine in a difficult jurisdiction into production, one that would be at least a $60 to $80,000,000 replacement cost as it sits today. That we are in production, that we have got a mining plan now that we are confident of fulfilling. We did have hiccups as you do with all new mines, whether they be in greenfield or brownfield, especially in the brownfield, that we have created value from, and I'll cross over to another question that think that came down further from David S, that when you acquired BP License, what was the original cost given getting PP into production?

36:41 You've just said it cost 20,000,000 so far. Yes, that was the acquisition getting into production, but we've also invested, expanded, and we're continuing to grow the mine. There's been a lot of capital expenditure and a lot of rehabilitation both in the plant and in the underground. So to get an $80,000,000 mine that I think once we reach peak or a production figure of 14,000 tonnes a month according to the SHORE CAP report, will be worth circa 130,000,000. I think that's what we need to be judged on, is not so much on where the share price is, but the value that's being created. The share price will follow. We do understand there are some hurdles to doing so. The team is working tirelessly to show that, well for the value to be reflected within the share price.

37:26 But we do believe that the management team has in a very difficult jurisdiction, managed to bring the money into production and to create the value for shareholders far greater than the cost to date. So I think I've answered two questions there for the price of one. So John John t has asked, Shore Capital was brought on board to get institutional investors since Shore Capital had been brought on board, have any... And if so, how many institutional investors have been brought in? Also, why was information that was sensitive for the report not announced as RNS prior to the short cap report?

38:02 So first, I mean, first of all, short cap were were were brought on on the, you know, on on the basis of what had been announced in August in terms of Atlas restructuring into straight debt, attracting institutional investors, you know, whilst you do have a near term settlement of a, you know, of a convertible debt is, you know, is is challenging. So we recognize that, as we said, it's the elephant in the room, which, you know, which needs addressing and we're and we're and we're working on. Once

38:39 once the the Atlas settlement... Once there's clarity on on that situation, then there's gonna be the ability to to start attracting more institutional investors. We've been we've been busy behind the scenes with, you know, with short capital conducting non non deal roadshows to start to start educating investors who who don't who don't have a

39:05 view on on VAST. So that's that's something that that we've already started to do. You know, it takes time to, you know, to introduce a story and for for institutions to start monitoring and be be updated on the on the story and developments before people will will start to, you know, to to actually potentially write write checks.

39:29 The second part of that question in terms of information being announced in terms of the report, the report was... Is very much based on the... On assumptions of offshore capital, and they only had publicly available information to hand to make their report. The assumptions that they make is not something that the company have control or influence over. So it's it's very much... It was very much their report.

40:06 David s has asked, can you explain the recent purchase of 500,000 by Sean Dee?

40:14 Given the timing of this purchase, this feels like it could be either a pay for vote situation or insider information. Can I answer that please, Andrew? Just to put into perspective, Sean has been a shareholder I think since the beginning of the company's establishment in 2006. We were not aware of his share purchases, but The management and directors have not been in contact with Shaun in any way shape or form. He acquired those shares purely to average down. He was sitting with a substantial amount of shares that have been diluted over the last fifteen years.

40:53 We did speak to him after and he was advised to do his TR1 only after we had received the updated monthly report, shareholders report. There is no timing other than the fact that he felt it was cheap. There is no other situation attached to that. So anything other than that is pure speculation, incorrect.

41:19 Anchor d, one for Craig. Thank you for explaining about the jumbo and three new rigs being bought. So why not in the first place, did you slash VAST decide to buy three new rigs instead of the jumbo? Please clarify. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for that. Because I mean... So so what so what people need to understand is that when you when you look at the equipment, if if you go on to your Google sites and you Google underground LHDs and underground jumbos,

41:52 etcetera. They dime a dozen. However the shafts at BP the widest piece of equipment that I can put down the shaft is nine fifty millimetres. So less than one meter. So it's a very niche specialist market. When we were looking at acquiring this equipment I wanted to keep it in the EU for hopefully easy access to parts, materials, the supplier and things like that. Because I mean I you know I mean I could have gone to China. But one of the key things is that the equipment has got to be small enough to be broken up that it can fit down in the actual shaft.

42:40 And I wanted to keep it in the EU as I said. So these so these other rigs that are now being ordered are used in low profile platinum mining in South Africa. Now yeah unfortunately I'm a South African so but that's I know the company I've I've seen them. They actually showed me a mock up of the dimensions that I gave them for the cage size that they are going to remanufacture their equipment to get it to fit. So that it's no longer taking it apart bolt by bolt and nut by nut but that is going to come in modular parts, goes underground, gets put together and goes goes in.

43:26 So that was really the main reason. Wanted to keep it in the EU for ease of access to support and maintenance, etcetera. Greg, on the... Just another question from a technical perspective. Is the XRT definitely coming for ByteApply and when? This this wasn't made clear earlier. Yeah. Well, I think it will come when the time is right. I mean, one of the, you know, one of the big benefits of the XRT is that you mine more than what you can mould if you do not have the XRT in there. So

44:05 once we reach the production level and it's coming, I mean I'm not saying it's not, it's coming probably fairly shortly. That the the XRT is going to be required because we will have enough faces underground to over produce what our what our mills can handle. So the benefit of that is by rejecting the waste you getting you know a higher content coming into the mills. So yes it's on the cards and and it will come in when the time is right. Thanks for that, Greg. There's there's been a number of a number of questions of taking the... Taking a similar similar theme, which ultimately, if you cannot refinance Atlas by the end of January, will they convert all the remaining debt to equity, which would destroy the share price?

45:05 I think... I mean, the relationship with... That we have with Atlas is, you know, is... You know, remains remains communicative since we drew down in in January 2020, the the first the first tranche to date. I think they've shown to be a considerate lender and certainly not and certainly haven't operated in the way that I think some people would expect some of the, you know, the more vanilla convertible lenders would normally have acted in terms of more, you know, more conversion.

45:44 I think certainly to date, you know, in... With the with the conversions that have that have happened, it's been it's been very, very measured, and they've certainly taken account of of the of the share price profile. So we remain in in communication with them. We are inactive inactive sort of processes for for the refinancing. And and at this point, that's... We we... That's that's the focus that that that the board that the board has.

46:21 They ultimately have until, you know, they they have the ability to to convert until until the the settlement date at the at the end of January next year. Post post that post that settlement date. It's... That's not something that that I can really sort of comment on outside of outside of actually being in the being in the situation. Andrew, would you have anything else to add?

46:49 No, I mean, that we are discussing with several institutions and financiers, non equity linked, that until something is announceable, we have to remain silent. But we are constantly working on a solution to pay back Atlas by the end of the term. There was a question here asked if it made bankruptcy for the company, and we can say that it would not be. Because beta is a performing asset, and we still do remain confident of a solution for refinancing. And if it did not fall by the January 29, not that we're saying it won't, Atlas has been quite a considered lender to date, and that we will reach a solution. So we still remain confident of that.

47:46 So, Harpreet, as as I understand, you cannot provide specifics on the refinancing, but can you confirm the number of parties you're dealing with and your view on percentage of of success. I think the right in terms of not being able to provide specifics and and certainly can't can't give a a percentage figure. But, ultimately, we're dealing with with a number of a number of parties on on the refinancing, and anything anything more is gonna have to be covered by an RNS at the appropriate time. There's quite a few questions regarding the XRT as well. Craig, the XRT is planned for May next year or June?

48:32 Yes.

48:34 Look, so I mean, what I said there is that the XRT is when the time is right. Now the time is right for the XRT when your production from the underground mine is about to exceed your milling capacity. Before that

48:53 to go and splash that amount of cash when when you have the milling capacity available is capital money that is going to go in. You know so it's all about balancing when is the right time. And the right time as I said is when the production is about to exceed the milling capacity. And as we know the milling capacity at BP is approximately 14,500 tonnes. So we should be getting there. And it's as you said Andrew around May. That is when we are going to hopefully be switching it on. It might be a month earlier, a month later, but that's in the ballpark. And we should also reiterate that that XRT equipment's already got finance approved.

49:41 So it's not a matter of funding, it's more a matter of timing.

49:47 So somebody's just asked the same question. I've just explained that. David s. Greg T, you've come in obviously late because we've explained the XRT and also the jumbo rigging details. You can refer back to that on the recording. So we have Patrick M. If VAST is actually making any money slash profit from ongoing production, I assume that's might apply, and why is this information not being given to the market? As we'd as we've said in the in in the previous answers, we, you know, we are making a move into periodic reporting,

50:22 and the production sales report for by itself for q four of this year is going to be made in in January 2022. One of the reasons for for doing this is is actually so so the market and and shareholders, potential shareholders can can actually

50:41 have a... Have more consistent and and regular sort of news flow. We we know Track the progress. We're reticent that over the course of this, you know, of this year, there's been, you know, ebbs and flows of of of of news flow, and we want to try and try and create more, you more consistency. So moving into, you know, the quarterly production and sales report, plus the interims, plus the annual, you you start to, you know, to get more predictability around your regular pieces of news and then any other ad hoc updates will be made at the appropriate time. There's one shareholder keeps making statements, Sammy H.

51:31 They're statements, not questions. So we're not answering those statements where if you have a question that hasn't already been answered, we'd be more than happy to answer it. But so far, all of the the statements... All of the questions are statements, and most of them have already been answered in other forms.

51:50 So I suppose we can ask one of the manager. I mean, Sami H asked, why don't you treat VAST RESOURCES as a as a business? Also, the statements around treating it as a lifestyle company. I mean, these are these are regular and irregular questions that have that feature on the, you know, on the bulletin boards. Like we've said before, and I can maintain that from a, you know, from a compensation sort of benchmarking activity that the that the board and management definitely remain at the at the lower lower quartile of of pay brackets. You know, we've we've got members of the members of the board who have who have worked for blue chip multinationals, you on on multiples of of what their their current sort of package is.

52:41 And everyone everyone is is certainly not doesn't is not working on a on a nine to five basis, and it's a and it is a commitment from, you know, from the entire board of management, you know, seven days a week and being available as and when required. I'll put a particular mention actually for Craig Harvey, who, you know, will have a very extended stays at Byte, apply overseeing the operations firsthand, you know, away the last stint was fourteen weeks away from his family and his wife and children. You know, that's not a lifestyle business.

53:24 I mean, also in respect of treating it like a business, that's exactly what we're doing. We are treating it like a business, and I think that's reflected in its valuation versus the current share price. We're looking at building a long term business with a long term strategy and

53:41 a revenue stream for shareholders that will start to pay dividends, meaning as far as profitability. A mine is not something you turn the key on overnight you start to make cash. It's a business that takes time. Generally it takes ten years to build a mine. And then it takes five to ten years to recover your initial costs. Bates is in an unusual position where we got into production in nine months. It will be profitable in a short period in mining terms. And then it will start to generate free cash for the business, which is highly unusual and a payback in a much shorter period than normal. So yes, we are treating it as a business. Unfortunately, it's not reflected in the share price at this point in time, but we are confident we'll be once those production reports come out on a quarterly basis and people can see the results of the hard work of the management and the staff at the mine.

54:40 I'm reticent that we're approaching our slot. Alessandro? Yeah, I was just going to jump in there. I think you guys have addressed a number of questions today from investors. And of course, the company will review any further questions submitted and published responses where it's appropriate to do so. Just before redirecting investors to give you feedback, I was wondering if I could ask Andrew Poulair for a few closing comments.

55:07 Certainly. As I think we've stated quite a lot during the course of the Q and A session, that although things haven't gone 100% to plan, and mining is not an easy business or simple in any way, shape or form. When you look at the value chain of a mine, I think the company has actually outperformed most mines as far as bringing it into production, revenue generation, and cost of getting into production. Unfortunately, we do believe in the business, and we are unfortunate in the fact that it's not reflected in the current share price. The management team, executive and staff on the ground are working tirelessly to turn that perception around. It's been a very hard twelve months for everybody. We've done it during a COVID pandemic, which has had a significant impact on supply chain, but we've managed to work through it. We've managed to maintain production. We are growing.

56:04 That will be reflected and seen by the shareholders in the production report in January. And I think it's now time as a company for the valuation of where we are today as to what we're producing as a company. I think there's a huge disconnect, and we hope that shareholders will see that in the not too distant future. And we look forward to a share price rise and creating value for shareholders. Andrew, Paul, Craig, and Andrew, thanks for updating investors today. Could I please ask you investors not to close the session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations?

56:49 This will only take a few moments to complete however it is greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of VAST RESOURCES PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session, and good afternoon to you all.