Ariana Resources plc (AAU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Ariana Resources plc interim results for the 6 months ended 30th of June investor presentation. [Operator Instructions] The company may not be in a position to answer every question it received during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. These will be available via Investor Meet Company at dashboard, you'll be notified once they're ready for your review. I'd also like to remind you this presentation is being recorded. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand over to Michael de Villiers, Chairman; and Kerim Sener, CEO of Ariana Resources plc. Good morning.

Good morning, all, and thank you for attending. Kerim, would you like to introduce the format we're going to run with? And then I will propose a question to you, which I think is the most relevant 1 that's come out of all our review of questions.

Okay. Thank you, Michael, and thank you to everyone for joining us this morning for the presentation of our interim results. Now the format of this presentation, we're actually going to run differently to prior presentations and rather than formally going through our corporate presentation. We would rather make that presentation available to shareholders as it has been previously. Give the people plenty of opportunity to ask questions of the company. And then we'd like to spend more time with shareholders and investors going through answers to those questions and then dipping back into the presentation to help us in the process of answering those questions. So just to kickstart this, I'll just provide a very brief introduction to where we've come and where we're going as a company. Most importantly, I'll talk a little bit about the history of where we brought the company from grassroots exploration through mineral project development, [indiscernible] environmental impact assessment, permitting processes in Turkey in partnership with Proccea Construction originally. We then established the Kiziltepe mining operation in Western Turkey, and we've been running that commercially since July 2017. And in fact, if you look at the company accounts, you can see that the company has been profitable over a 5-year period, essentially since then, both in terms of profitable operations in Turkey, but also running an accounting profit as well. So we've developed the company substantially from those early days of pure grassroots exploration. We've developed a very broad portfolio. That portfolio now encompasses several other projects in Turkey, all of which have been brought under the umbrella of an expanded enterprise with our prior partners, Proccea Construction as well as our new partners as Özaltin Holding. So this resulted from a partial divestment of our interest in what was a 50-50 joint venture in Western Turkey on our producing asset to a broader venture encompassing that asset, the Tavsan development project and the Salinbas project in Northeastern Turkey, as well as several other smaller projects that we've since vended into the expanded venture. In addition to that, in recent years, we've also become involved in the development of Venus Minerals, which is exploring a portfolio of licenses in Cyprus. They are predominantly copper assets but with associated gold. And this morning, we provided a further announcement to market concerning another extremely significant development for that particular portfolio. So we'd like to be able to expand on that further as part of this Q&A session. In addition to that, we also have a 75% interest in Western Tethyan Resources. That is primarily based in Kosovo, but is actually exploring as a remit to explore across Eastern Europe, again, for predominantly copper gold assets. Beyond the Eastern Europe, Eastern Mediterranean region, separate to that, in Australia, we have the Asgard Metals Fund and the Asgard Metals Fund has recently been developing its strategy. And as part of that it is going to be involved in the development of Panther Metals Limited here in Australia as Panther pursues an ASX IPO, but there will be other developments on the Asgard Metals Fund as well. So I think I probably summarized all I need to at this stage for the purposes of this introduction. And I'd like to throw open the opportunity for questions and perhaps maybe take the lead from you, Michael, in terms of what we've been able to distill from the existing questions that have been pre-submitted ahead of this call. And then we'll go from there.

Kerim, there's a lot that's been answered -- asked and answered in the details that you've prepared. But the thing that has stuck out in my mind is that we've transformed from a dramatically different company to what we were when we started 15-plus years ago. And very likely, we've transformed into something that's quite different. And I use the analogy of an octopus where you've got a central brain, a central fund, very flexible, very agile, yet it has many tentacles out. And partly what you've described is all of the different assets we've got. But I think I'd like people to imagine this as a central company owning parts of different assets all around it and has its tentacles in all these different assets. And some of them are well recognized like Kiziltepe, which is producing cash. So that's something 1 tentacle has caught and holding on to. Tavsan is the next 1 to come in, and that will be drawn in as well. Salinbas is the huge one. We can't yet determine how big that is, but we know it's huge, as is with Magellan and so on. So perhaps we could in some ways, describe ourselves as a very, very active hunter explorer octopus with tentacles out reaching out for different projects. And of course, the newest is what we're doing in Cyprus, which we just put some details out on. And of course, Asgard, which is the surprise one, that we will see what that 1 brings in, but we will probably catch a lot of small interesting things through that process.

Yes. I agree completely with that analogy. And the octopus is a very interesting animal, very efficient animal. And yes, it has a sort of central nervous system. But they believe that the individual arms of an octopus have some capacity for understanding their environment that's actually somewhat independent of their central nervous system or the central brain. So the individual tentacles are intelligent to a degree in their own form. And that really hits the nail on the head because that's exactly what we're doing with our strategy and it's identifying very capable teams in the form of Venus Minerals, in the form of Western Tethyan, obviously, in Turkey with Zenit Madencilik. Teams that are unique to their specific environments that are capable of applying that very local knowledge in clever ways. And yes, overarching, there is sort of a central intelligence and central planning. But to a large degree, it's those little tentacles that are sort of worming their way through and catching the prey. That's the strategy in a nutshell.

And I think that's even more pertinent for the current time where we don't have the flexibility to travel as much as we used to. And so in having intelligent teams all around the areas that we're interested in, same thought I think.

Absolutely. Absolutely, that's actually core to the forward strategy. I mean in many ways, this is development of the strategy that has long existed has been sort of innate to Ariana for many years. But of course, our capabilities and the experience base that we're able to draw on and indeed the personnel, the whole team that we've built in Turkey, largely and elsewhere, we are able to leverage all of that in really clever ways and exciting ways going forward on the back of an overall resource base that is substantially strengthened.

Just to carry on with that thought, if we've got this intelligence central processing unit with our team of expertise in it, and we now want to show how we're going to develop Asgard and its first investment, we should point out that we're not putting money into that first investment. We're putting a small amount of cash, but mostly a large amount of expertise over 2 years. So that money doesn't get spent by the individual investment, that gets spent by us on what we are wanting to look at. I think the term you've used is looking under the hood.

Yes, that's exactly it. I mean, it gives us the opportunity to pop the hood on a project or an asset base in a new jurisdiction position, which maybe we're not totally familiar with. I mean in the case of Panther in Australia, yes, we're intimately familiar with that. But then there will be other examples, and we hope to be making further announcements in due course about some of the other projects that we've been looking at across the Eastern Hemisphere. But it gives us the opportunity to pop the hood, have a really good look at what's in there, understand the opportunity to a very detailed degree. More detail than you'd ever get from a sort of a standard due diligence assessment. And it's coming at effectively very little risk to Ariana and its shareholders. We're just, again, applying our intelligence to and our experience of the mineral exploration sector to those new opportunities and determining whether they would be a good fit for Ariana in the longer run or not.

Most importantly, it allows us to decide whether we want to continue investing in it. We'll stop it at that point when we've spent relatively little cash to know a lot more about it than probably most of the investing public could get to grips with.

That's exactly right. Yes.

I think it's also worth mentioning that both you and I have had numerous inquiries since we announced Asgard in the first investment, just showing how productive that channel of investment communication is.

Yes, very much so.

Similarly with Cyprus, we've invested via both cash and our investment in intelligent resources, and we know very much what we're looking at.

Yes. So I mean, maybe it's just worth running through the news of today and what that means. Just winding the clock back a little bit. We -- obviously, we've been undertaking drilling in Cyprus since earlier this year. Some of those results have been announced already relating to the Kokkinoyia sector of the Magellan project. Now we went into that drilling program with the expectation that we were probably going to find significant gold associated with what is predominantly a copper volcanogenic massive sulfide system. And we had an inkling that there was probably gold there from 2 sources. One, we've undertaken extensive sampling of some of the waste rock dumps around Kokkinoyia they were coming back with significantly high gold grades. And the other was from processing records. So when Kokkinoyia was previously mined, it was mined as an underground operation primarily. That -- those processing records demonstrated that there was gold associated with the copper concentrate. However, when it was being mined in the '70s, it was -- the gold was a very small economic component of the ore body. The reason that they were developing these orebodies primarily for the copper. And in fact, they weren't even assaying for gold in the drilling or the routine sampling. The entire operation was driven off copper. But as we've determined from this latest drilling program is that we do indeed have this gold zone or a gold halo, that's what it looks like, surrounding the copper ore body. And in fact, there's further complication to that as well, a complication in a good way. And that is that there's an associated zinc components to the ore body. So it's a very interesting mineral system. In fact, we're probably going to be putting out a further update on the drilling that we completed at Kokkinoyia as we've got to grips with the data even further since they were initially announced. So I think shareholders have that to look forward to in the coming weeks. So we understood that at Kokkinoyia, but the same is almost certainly going to be true at Klirou and at New Sha. Both of those locations, which also form part of the Magellan project are copper gold ore bodies and there's, again, associated zinc, certainly in the case of Klirou. We have also undertaken some drilling at Klirou and we'll announce the results of the drilling at Klirou when we have the opportunity to do so. Then taking another step on from that relating to the news of this morning. The Apliki project is located further to the west of the Magellan project in an area that has been -- has actually seen extensive mining in the past. So Mavrovouni was the big copper operation, which is now on the north side. Skouriotissa that's been mined -- actually, it's an ancient mine, but it's been mined for effectively thousands of years on and off. But it was last put into production with an SX/EW plant in the early 1990s. And very recently, its reserves were depleted Finally, the SX/EW plant shutdown, but that's operation and the skill sets associated with that operation and indeed the equipment associated with that operation we'll be looking to integrate that or rather Venus will be looking to integrate that into the proposed new Apliki copper project. So the intention of Venus is to acquire 50% of the mining entity, which will own the Apliki asset and the associated infrastructure. And ultimately, we expect to be mining there and indeed, bringing the material from the Magellan project, or at least part of that material from Magellan through to the Apliki processing site. So building up of substantial new copper and down the track, hopefully, gold mining enterprise in Cyprus under the umbrella of Venus Minerals. So it's a very exciting new development.

I like the way you geologists get excited about complexity.

Complexity is a great -- usually a great thing. Wherever you get complexity in a geological environment, sure as hell that there's probably a deposit there of some sort.

Essentially, we're talking about a gold mine with a lot of copper in it.

Yes.

And I'm not sure how much you can talk about Venus' next steps in terms of corporate development, but that is happening presently.

That's correct. Yes. And I wouldn't want to steal Peter van der Borgh, the Managing Director of Venus Minerals. I don't want to steal his thunder. So I'll leave him and I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunities for investors and indeed shareholders to ask Peter questions directly, but yes, very exciting days for Venus.

Now we've had just a deluge of news out of Kiziltepe and all the surrounding drillings. And I would like you, in simpler terms that I can understand it, summarize it for us as to what it means in terms of continuation of operations, how operations have stepped up since the expansion took place. And how much longer are we going to be running at these good rates?

Yes. So during last year, we recognized the opportunity to expand the processing facility at Kiziltepe. Previously, we were running the plant at a rate of about 200,000 tonnes of ore per annum, which in fact was an increased over the design rate of 150,000 tonnes of ore per annum, but with the joint venture's operational efficiencies, they were able to crank that up to 200,000. But there was clearly a pathway forward to expand that throughput. And we've achieved that between late last year, the latter part of the final quarter through to August of this year, we completed the new plant build which involved extension to the existing processing facility, the introduction of a SAG mill and associated infrastructure, including 2 pre-leach tanks. And as a result of that development, the throughput rate has been able to be increased incrementally to a nominal throughput of 400,000 tonnes of ore per annum. So it's basically a doubling of capacity. Now this is absolutely essential as Kiziltepe starts to move towards lower and lower grades. Obviously, we had the big advantage of the Arzu South vein early in the operation. So for the first 4 years or so, we were almost mining exclusively at Arzu South. That's a high-grade vein. It makes sense to mine their first, very fast payback. But as we move to successively lower grade pits, Arzu North, Derya and Banu, it was important to increase that throughput rate in order to keep the unit cost down. Now through the -- again, the skill sets that we have through our project partners Proccea Construction. They've done a fantastic job yet again. And they provided again another turnkey solution on the process plant. That was financed through a loan with [indiscernible]for USD 6.6 million. A large part of that loan has now been repaid. The plant turned on, as I said, in August. We just had some automation test work to complete through late August into September. That's all complete, and we're now running the mill continuously at the higher rate of about 45 to 50 tonnes per hour. So this, operationally, has been a tremendous development. And they delivered it bang on time exactly when our schedule required the mill to go on stream has gone on stream and we're processing at those higher rates. So it's absolutely fantastic. I mean they've hit the nail on the head. In terms of further exploration, we started a drilling program, which was originally budgeted for 5,000 meters. But as we've continued that program, we wanted to test further and further targets. We've now we're almost approaching 15,000 meters of drilling across Kiziltepe, Kepez and Karakavak. And in fact, we've gone back to Kepez twice because the results of the initial drilling were really excellent, showing very high grades, good intersect widths and so on. So it's likely that Kepez will become a source of very high-grade ore we can blend with some of the lower grade material coming from elsewhere within Kiziltepe. So anyway, all of this work and as the drilling program was continually expanded, this will eventually result in a new resource estimate for Kiziltepe. So we expect the resource to grow again as we've tested out extensions on our Arzu North, Derya areas in particular. We are going to then take a further optimization study for because of the operation to demonstrate how we can expand the existing open pits. I think it's less likely that we'll be going underground at this stage based on the drilling that we've done. But we've got plenty of opportunity for further mining of the existing open pits. And notably at Arzu South actually in the Northwest end as a very decent area of about 150 meters, 200 meters of strike further into the hills' side. So we're looking forward to getting all of that work done in the latter part of this year.

Is it worth looking to a slide on the Kiziltepe map, just pointing out how much we've got left to mine. And if you wouldn't mind commenting a bit on the what you currently see the life of mine to be.

Yes. Well, we -- in this presentation, we don't have a Kiziltepe map. But I will -- I mean not the best slide to show it, but it will do. So I mean, this is our team sort of located roughly in the center -- at the top center of the Arzu South open pit. In the background there is the wall, the Northwest wall of Arzu South. And then just over here, we've got the Hill side associated with that extension of Arzu South. So it's going out in that direction, a good part of this additional ore body.

Really where I was going with that is how much have we got left to mine in that camp?

We'll determine that once we've completed the drilling program, the new resource estimate and most critically the new optimization. Because obviously, optimization is going to run slightly differently to prior optimization because of the pass-through put rate that we've got now.

Yes. there was a question around Kepez and I'm sure people want to see that answered in the context of the Kiziltepe operations and what we might do with that.

Yes. So at Kepez, we do have very high grades. And yes, it's a relatively limited area. It's located in the area that we call Kepez North. And there, we've got this 100-meter long zone of very high-grade mineralization. It's -- yes, 100 meters long and it's probably about 50 meters down dip. We've now undertaken a regular grid drilling over that area to help develop a final reserve. And then on the back of the final reserve, we complete the final stage mine planning and permitting. One of the beauties of the Kepez area is that it's very low strip ratio. The ore bodies very close to surface. There's very little waste material that needs to be moved. And of course, because the grades are running from, let's say, 4 grams per tonne to 7 grams per tonne for a large part of the ore body. It's really on the very high end of what we've ever put through the Kiziltepe processing plant. So it actually becomes quite an interesting additional source of ore that we can use for blending with some of the lower grade material.

Okay. Now we've had a few questions around Tavsan, and we haven't put out much news on that recently, but there's been a lot of activity in the background, which is coming to the surface now. So if you could skirt around the things you can't touch but tell us about what you can.

Yes. And actually, I'm just reviewing the question here that's come in concerning Tavsan. And So maybe I can deal with all of those in 1 go. So yes, I mean, Tavsan is a very interesting location, again, because the ore body is very close to surface. And in fact, a large part of the ore body actually sits at surface. So there are parts of the ore body that have effectively a 0 strip ratio which makes it very amenable to fairly simple mining and low-cost mining. And the other interesting thing about the ore body is that the material -- the mineralized material is located with a unit called jasperoid. And that very solicious material breaks up to a very particular particle size. I mean really sort of almost thumbnail-sized bits of rock. And those -- the facets of the rock expose the -- ultimately, the gold bearing surfaces to the chemicals that we'll be using for leaching. So from a metallurgical perspective, it looks like it will leach extremely well. So we're proposing this site will be a heap leach. The environmental impact assessment submission deals with all of that. And there's been a lengthy process associated with the EIA element of Tavsan, and we're expecting that EIA to be concluded imminently. And then we'll announce that in due course. In terms of the production target, which this question relates to. Yes, we are targeting 30,000 ounces of gold per annum. I mean, depending on the exact metallurgical processing outcome, it will probably be in the region of about 27,000 to 30,000 ounces, I suspect. We're expecting initially based on the prior resource 4-year mine life, a very short mine life. But as we've demonstrated, the resource has been expanded. We're now looking at more like an 8-year mine life. But one of the things that we wanted to complete before we sort of press the final trigger to the development of Tavsan is a 1 last drilling program and that drilling program, again, to be undertaken on the grid pattern. That will then confirm the reserve ultimately, and then we can proceed into the development of that site. Now we were hoping that we would start that drilling program, the long time back, several months ago, in fact. But one of the things that's impacted that is the expanded Kiziltepe drilling program that we keep extending. And we have capacity within the team to just deal with 1 project at a time effectively. So once we brought the Kiziltepe drilling program to a close, we'll then be able to move the team on to Tavsan for that program. And another issue was to do ultimately with COVID and not being able to get the right driller into the country because we principally wanted to drill this via RC, reverse circulation methods, and we required a driller to travel. But anyway, that's been resolved. So we're expecting a driller to be available in the relatively near future so that we can get that drilling program complete before winter. I mean, that's what we're targeting at the moment.

Well, there's time yet, and I'm looking forward to us being able to announce those results.

Yes.

Previously, we've always talked about Salinbas, Ardala as 1 entity in 1 project. And while it is housed within 1 operation. I think it's worth discussing how the 2 pieces come together. In the past, I've always described it as being something of a flower with the petal coming off it. Ardala being the main body of the flower and Salinbas being the petal and then the potential for other petals of mineralization around it, which you've demonstrated in some of the work that you've presented to the Board and that I've been able to present to investors but probably worth trying to describe that in a opportune type fashion, if at all possible.

Yes. And actually, this slide that I brought up now does do that. It actually does it very effectively. So...

That's Page 9 -- Page 11 of the annual report.

Correct. So right at the top, we show the sort of bird's-eye view, the aerial footprint of each of our resource areas across Zenit Madencilik, and we also showed Magellan in Cyprus as well separately. Now the teal color and the pink color relate to Ardala and Salinbas. Ardala -- the footprint of Ardala is shown there sort of colored in teal. And that is a copper, gold, molybdenum porphyry. It's a multiphase intrusion, very steeply orientated sort of almost in the funnel shape is exposed in the bottom of the Ardala Valley. And then on 1 side of that, on its western flank, and indeed intimately related to the porphyry mineralization, at least in part, is the Salinbas gold and silver ore body. And that's shown in pink. So I should point out that all of these bird's-eye footprints of each of the resource areas, they're all shown to scale. And we also show the volume of each of those areas as well. So volumetrically, Ardala is very large, it's 3 million meters cubed of potential mineralized material, whereas Salinbas is 3.2 million meters cubed. However, it is higher grade. So between both Ardala and Salinbas, because ultimately, they developed as one part of a single system of mineralization, there's about 1.5 million ounces of gold so far. But we've demonstrated opportunities to continue to expand that resource. In the case of Salinbas, both to the North and on its Southern flank, but also in the region between the Ardala porphyry and the Salinbas gold and silver zone. There's -- as I said, there's a sort of interplay between those 2 and the sort of inter-finger, and it's quite an interesting zone of mineralization there. And the other thing that this diagram does is it shows the total content of metal, be it gold or copper associated with each of these or zones. So just looking at the total content of metal in the case of Ardala by far the largest of anything in our portfolio. Salinbas contains very little copper or other metals, a little bit of molybdenum. It is primarily a gold and silver system. And again, it's a significantly large ore body.

Now this is slated for drilling later the season.

Yes. So this -- unfortunately, this was affected in just the same way as Tavsan we couldn't get a driller into country, at least for the very specific rig that we were after. But as I said, that is resolved. We're just waiting for the rig now to become available to go to site. But we will almost certainly be drilling Tavsan first, and then the rig will be coming to Salinbas.

So that's where we can look for much later in the news on that drilling.

Yes, that's right. And actually, another question has just come in relating to the exploration plan. At Salinbas -- and it's just to summarize, could we expand on the plan. To some degree, we've answered that. Yes, the next stage is to continue drilling. Some of that drilling is purely resource drilling. It serves to confirm the existing resource, but there are some holes in that program that is designed to start testing the periphery of Salinbas. So it's our intention to both confirm and to some degree, expand on the Salinbas resource. And that question is also correct to state that the plan in the longer term is to develop Salinbas as another production center producing at a rate of about 50,000 tonnes -- sorry, 50,000 ounces per annum over about 10 years. So that 50,000 ounces, I should point out relates to the prior resource, which we'd identified in 2015 and it was based on a scoping level study only. But our intention now that we've got Salinbas into our expanded venture in Turkey with the benefit of, as often, funding, another $8 million worth of work specifically on Salinbas is to advance this as quickly as we can to a feasibility stage. So we're probably going to jump straight through prefeasibility and the plan would be to sort of try and move as seamlessly as possible and complete a feasibility.

The question about the $8 million and the investment from [indiscernible] I think there was a question around that in the submitted questions, and maybe we should just explain how that money is being applied and when?

Specifically to the Salinbas project. So the Salinbas project was held by an entity punted mine [indiscernible] which we held 100% through a Dutch subsidiary of Ariana. So what happened was a share transfer with share sale associated with the Turkish subsidiary of our Dutch subsidiary. So we sold the company. We didn't sell the asset. We sold the company that held the asset. And into -- as part of the deal that we did with Özaltin, Özaltin injected $8 million cash into that company. So that $8 million is sitting there. It's ready to be applied but we have been just waiting for the rig availability before we can properly advance the next stage of resource development work, which ultimately we need to do in order to get to progress towards feasibility. So the other work has been underway. Obviously, there's a certain amount of activity that has to be ongoing on any mining project in Turkey. And we're ticking all the boxes in that regard. And certain aspects of feasibility work are also underway. So there are elements of the environmental requirements, environmental permitting and things like that, site plans, sort of initial site plans that we need to be able to start the process of feasibility. And an EIA application, all of that work is fully underway at this point in time. Just having a look at -- there was another question relating to...

Before you go to the questions that I can see we're waiting to answer. We've discussed all the assets that we've got on our balance sheet, which is what's on Page 11 of the annual report. The 1 that's not on here is, of course, what we're going to be doing in Eastern Europe and how that might unfold. And rather than us going into any specifics, which I'm not yet available for discussion, we could outline the broad plan of what we're going to do with what we've got in terms of intelligence and where we're going to get other intelligence from and how we've got a team deployed on the ground in Kosovo.

Yes. So I think it's probably worth emphasizing that the team in Kosovo, this is a group that we've known for a long time.

Yes. So we both have.

Yes. And we've worked with in some capacity in the past. So it's not a team that's coming from left field, and it's been a pleasure developing the strategy for Western Tethyan with that a very capable team. They are based in Pristina and Kosovo and actually, Kosovo, in that sense, geographically, forms a nice hub for all exploration activities across Eastern Europe because it is very central. Our overall interest is to explore the region, encompassing Bosnia Herzegovina, all the way out to Bulgaria on the East and then Serbia in the north down to North Macedonia, that's really sort of the overall block. Now that this is a region that has seen a lot of exploration success in recent times in the sort of gold and copper gold space primarily. There are opportunities for other mineral deposit styles as well carbonate-hosted styles of mineralization, including base metals. That's obviously a little bit more left field and that's the discovery of Rio Tinto, which is a lithium project in Serbia. But really, our core focus is going to remain on copper gold opportunities because this is where we see value in the long term. It's what we are most familiar with in terms of our overall understanding of the geology of the Tethyan belt is what we've worked on most often across Turkey. And maybe it's just worth me just going to a slide on the Tethyan belt here. Now this is very much a cartoon I'd love to show more geological detail that's one of these things that you can't do in a presentation. So in the far western side of the Tethyan belt -- what we understand from the Tethyan belt is that overall, it's not only underexplored relative to some other metallogenic belts in the world. But it's also in terms of potential and prospectivity, it's one of the best. So looking at the statistics of exploration success across the Tethyan belt, you can boil it down to sort of bang for buck of metric. And the bang for buck in the Tethyan belt is significantly higher than the global average. So that tells you something about how important it is to emphasize exploration in such a region because you're just that much more likely to be ultimately successful in the exploration that you do. Now Eastern Europe and obviously, through Tethyan we've seen a lot of exploration activity in recent years. And Turkey sort of stormed ahead, and we've now got 17 operating gold mines in the country. Eastern Europe, I'd say, is lagging a little bit in terms of its potential for development. But geologically, the potential is clearly there. And just like we sensed all the way back in 2004, an opportunity to do something in Turkey and we timed it beautifully. We sensed the opportunity to do something now in Eastern Europe. So with a good team, with the right timing and given what's going on in the commodity space and particularly with what's happening in copper, we think that Eastern Europe and the whole Western Tethyan strategy is going to be a very good place to be.

So we're in the right place at the right time again elephant country.

Indeed, elephant country.

The question from Andy M. is what catalysts should we be looking in for near term the asset base and value creation. I think we've answered that in what we've discussed. I don't know if we can add more.

Yes. I mean we've answered that in different forms, I think. we've got assets really across the whole range and different stages of development. So let me just jump to...

We're progressing them at the appropriate rates and in many different theaters. So we've diversified risk, and we've diversified asset types and also asset participation.

That's right. Very much so. And this diagram summarizes the opportunity pyramid of the company. And I think this question is really answered by this diagram. So throughout this diagram, there are opportunities, both near and long term and everything in between. Obviously, Zenit, it's the highest value asset within the portfolio that we own 23.5% of and the least risk. So now within Zenit, there are, again, tiers. So obviously, Kiziltepe is the producing mine, that's the least risk, and it has a most well quantified value and opportunity. Sitting 1 rung underneath that is the Tavsan development project and then another rung underneath that is the Salinbas asset. So there are obviously -- there's more granularity associated with this diagram that we can't show here. So then it coming down from the apex of that diagram, we then come to the category orange there, our investments into Venus Minerals. And as per this morning's announcement, we are going to be increasing our shareholding in Venus Minerals to 50%. and Venus Minerals has now given an indication as to its trajectory. So ultimately, it will be pursuing an IPO in London. And associated with that, there are a series of projects that, again, different stages, representing different levels of value and risk. And another part of that component is the Western Tethyan Resources, which we've just discussed. That's much earlier stage. That is greenfields type exploration to a large degree. We're looking for opportunities across Eastern Europe. But that's where Ariana was back in the day. And again, it's all about having the right team in the right place. So we fully expect Western Tethyan to do a really good job on that front. And then sitting another level below that is this very nimble part of our project identification strategy. And that's the Asgard Metals Fund. So this is going back to the Octopus analogy. This is that very long and nimble tentacle that's able to sort of seek out opportunities, sort of discovery stage opportunities that have the potential for high value can be potentially catalyzed with the input of the Ariana team. And that team and that input is not just purely technical, it's corporate as well. Because we've got a very successful track record of bringing companies to the market. And we've been involved in several listings along the way. One example of that is Royal Road Minerals and over here in Australia, Kingston Resources, and it's been taken over now by Perseus Mining, but it was Exore Resources. And that and also the associated expertise that we've got in the company, we're able to recognize the value. If we can get the right ingredients together around that, including that technical input, that corporate input, then we're able to capitalize that opportunity and create value going forward. So that's what Asgard Metals is all about. And then, of course, sitting underneath that, which is the very sort of technical part of our business, that's the project generation division. And that's what so that the nuts and bolts, the really exciting stuff, where we're seeking those opportunities across the Eastern Hemisphere. And as Michael has pointed out, since the launch of the Asgard Metals Fund, we're getting opportunities coming our way now, which is exactly where we wanted to put ourselves why create work for yourself when you can just put up a big banner and say, here we are, and that's exactly what we've done.

And I think we've both been in this game long enough to know the characters are coming to us to know whether how long we talk to them.

Yes. Exactly.

Steve B. has asked the question do we envisage realizing cash from Venus listing over the short term? And are you more interested in letting our investment ride?

Look, I think our modus operandi is we're mine finders and mine builders. That's what drives us. That's where the passion lies, finding that early-stage opportunity. As I said, identifying the right ingredients to turn that opportunity into a producing asset. And why do we do this? Well, ultimately, we do this, and I'll come to the key slide.

That's it.

This is why we do. It's creating opportunity for people and stakeholders.

Stakeholders.

And stakeholders include our shareholders, obviously, but it also includes the very specific environment in which we're operating, the local communities that ultimately provide the manpower. So a good example shown in that collage of photographs, a lot of the local people in the case of Kiziltepe are employed on our mine site. So we've created a local economy associated with the mine. We're not only adding to the economy, but we're adding to the environment as well. Reforestation programs, which we haven't dealt with at all. But those and other environmental programs are only benefiting the communities in which we're operating. And ultimately, we're benefiting the countries in which we're operating. In the case of Turkey, yes, we've got 1 mine operational. We're expecting a second mine to go operational. And then all being well, the largest of all, Salinbas, eventually get that operational too. That's the objective. And then in the case of Venus, so specifically dealing with that question, yes, we want to be involved in a producing copper asset in Cyprus. And then hopefully, all being well, we'll do the same again, somewhere in Eastern Europe and potentially elsewhere in the world.

Kerim, we've got about 5 minutes left, and I was wondering if we should turn to some of the presented questions that may need a bit more discussion, while you've provided a comprehensive written on. And I think the question around whether we are a gold producer explorer or an investor is worth discussing. We both have our perspectives on that. But I think we've probably answered it in the content we've put forward, but to say that we continue to be perhaps both in the truest sense of the word, but primarily our driving force is exploration and implying the very central intelligence hub we got both in Ankara and in the U.K. and in Perth.

Yes. Yes, that's exactly right. And just on the subject of the questions that came in prior to this presentation. We have endeavored to answer all of those questions in written form as best we can. And those have already been answered and they will be published shortly after we bring this presentation to a close. But would it be helpful do you think, Michael, for me to just read the answer to that question?

Please do go ahead.

In that case, so I'll just quickly recap the question. It was question #2. Do you consider Ariana to be a gold producer explorer or to be an investor in gold explorers? Do you think that some of the weakness in the recent share price may be because of uncertainty and doubt among investors over the strategy and focus of directors. So our answer to that is fundamentally Ariana is an exploration development company. These are our core strengths and have been since the company was founded. Our strategy has been proven repeatedly over time, leading to the creation of value seen within the asset base of the company today. From these core strengths, we have been able to develop further and diversify our business, not only derisking the company, but also providing additional revenue streams, making Ariana more attractive as an investment. Ariana currently has an interest in gold silver mining operations in Turkey, via its involvement in Zenit Madencilik and it is also developing strategic interest in the region around Turkey in the form of Venus Minerals and Western Tethyan Resources. Beyond this, it is advancing a strategy to identify early-stage high-value potential opportunities across the Eastern Hemisphere. It is important to realize that this strategy stems from our previously demonstrated ability to discover projects that offer the potential to generate returns for the company and its shareholders. Perhaps the best example of this skill set historically includes the currently operating Kiziltepe mine, the multimillion ounce Salinbas project and the lithium projects in Australia identified by Asgard.

Okay. I don't think we have any more unanswered questions in the chat room.

And I think you're just coming up to the hour there, guys. So thank you very much indeed for updating investors today. And of course, we will publish those responses very [indiscernible] pre-submitted questions, along with the audio transcriptions those answered today. And of course, there are any further questions that do come through Michael and Kerim will have the opportunity to review those. Kerim perhaps before we redirect the attendees to give you some feedback. I think may I ask you just for a closing snapshot, please.

Yes, certainly. Let me just quickly go to the summary slide.

[indiscernible] In that, I'll just answer 1 question, and that is that the next dividend payment is due by the 31st of March 2022. And I again look forward to getting another dividend check in the post. It's been the best result I've had in ages.

That's what it's all about.

Exactly.

So yes, to summarize, Ariana represents a cash-generative, dividend-paying exploration and development company. Now as Michael has mentioned, getting a dividend check in the post is a highlight, certainly, of the 15 years that we've been a public company. And we feel that it's absolutely critical that we continue to generate value within the enterprise as a whole. So that in the longer term, we can continue to pay dividends. But the success or otherwise at that only time will tell. But that's the intention. That's the trajectory that we've taken the company on. And based on our experience to date and the ability of our team to unlock value. We've created a very unique opportunity, I think, for investors. Ultimately, all of that is underpinned by the very profitable operations at Kiziltepe. Now 1 thing we haven't touched on in this presentation is the very low operating cost base. And Fortunately, in Turkey, that's naturally the case. But in the case of Kiziltepe because of the skill set of Proccea as a manager and indeed builder of processing plants, we've been able to ensure that, that cost base remains at minimal levels. We've demonstrated also not just in the case of the producing asset but across other assets within our portfolio, an exceptional track record, and we just build on 1 success after another. We're not a company that fails. We always delivered. And if you look back at our history, go back to 2005 when we first listed on AIM, and the intention there was that we were going to define a mineral resource. And ultimately, get that mineral resource to the point that it could be mined. Well, we've done it, and we're going to do it again, and we'll do it again. That's, as I said, what drives us. That's what makes us passionate about what we do. And also relating to that is the slide that brought regarding our corporate and social responsibility or ESG as it's more broadly called. And that's ultimately -- that's what underpins everything that we do. It is feeding back to all stakeholders. So we don't have a very narrow view of what it means to be a corporate enterprise. We have an extremely broad view of what our responsibilities are. And we act accordingly, and we act in the overall best interest of the company and all of its stakeholders. And then we've been able to take this expertise and we're now applying it with further leverage as a result of the position we're now in to explore for new opportunities potentially anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere. So it's a very exciting time for the company. And we look forward to bringing shareholders and new investors along with us on this journey into the future.

That's fantastic. Indeed Michael, Kerim, thanks again for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session as you'll be ultimately redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete and is greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Ariana Resources plc, we would like to thank you very much for attending today's presentation. That concludes today's session. Thank you, and good morning.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Thanks.