Ariana Resources plc (AAU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Ariana Resources investor presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And if you'd give that your kind attention. I'm sure the company will be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand you over to Chairman, Michael de Villiers, and Managing Director, Kerim Sener. Good morning.

Good morning all, and welcome to another Ariana update. Very kindly, IMC have arranged another Q&A, and Kerim and I have decided that we would also like to have a chat about the broader developments in the company. I last described that Ariana is something like an octopus with many tentacles out in the exploration world and carrying on that theme, I think we should see what the Ariana bionic octopus has been up to. Kerim, there's a lot has been happening in the last 6 months since we spoke like this for the benefit of our shareholders. And I think we should start by looking at the structure of the company and all its various projects. Let's start with Kiziltepe. That news goes back to, well, when we last announced the various production guidances recently, going back to about the middle of last quarter. We had a JV update where we described the cash costs. I think that we all know that, that will have gone up a bit since then, but we'll cover that a bit more later. And that's largely a function of fuel prices going up and other inputs. But talk a little bit about the Karakavak drilling results, which we've put out August last year and how this is going to impact on future production.

Certainly, and welcome to everyone that's joining us this morning. Good morning to all. It's great to be able to provide a further update on company progress. So coming to Michael's question regarding the exploration that has been underway in the vicinity of the operating plant at Kiziltepe, that has encompassed drilling at Kiziltepe itself, drilling at Kepez and at Karakavak. Those latter 2 prospects are located, some kilometers to the northeast of the Kiziltepe operation and within trucking distance to the Kiziltepe processing plant. And in fact, in recent months, we have been hauling ore from the Kepez location to the Kiziltepe processing plant. And we're experiencing very high grades from that particular location coming in at the 7 to 8-gram per tonne range, at least in the screen material that has been moved so far, but they are now mining the in situ material at that location through a drill and blast type operation. The drilling undertaken elsewhere, such as Karakavak that has shown extensions to known vein systems. We've had some interesting numbers coming from there, but we will require further drilling work in some of those outlying prospect areas with a view to increasing the overall resource for the Kiziltepe sector as a whole. And it's worth noting that the relatively recent update on the new resource and reserve statement for Kiziltepe came in very positively. We are showing the potential to add a number of years to the expected mine life, albeit that we now have a much higher throughput rate for the plant following the plant expansion that was completed in around September of last year.

Well, we've got our production guidance of 25,000 ounces for the year. And if anyone wants to do the maths, I think we discussed earlier that we might expect an all-in cash cost of about $750 an ounce going forward, with a gold price of $1,900, you can calculate your own margin on operations and multiply it by our percentage holding to know what the attributable cash flow would be to Ariana. And actually, all of that doesn't flow directly to the company, we are going to fund ongoing operations, particularly at Tavsan, which is part of the Zenit Group. So Kiziltepe not only pays us a dividend, but also pays for the development of our other projects as well.

So I think it's just worth noting the cash cost -- our cash cost on average over the life of the mine to date are shy of $500 per ounce. In more recent quarters, we have seen an increase in cash costs. The impact of that potential increase is largely down to the increase in various input costs that we've seen around the world, but in Turkey as well. Fuel is just one of those, but other input costs into the process itself. But the full impact of the -- positive impact, I should say, for the processing plant expansion has yet to be fully factored in. So that's cost calculation work that is underway at the moment.

Yes. And we'll be in a position to announce our last 6 months' results later in the year as that accounting process is finalizing in the current months.

That's correct.

Maybe we should move on to Tavsan, which is the next big catch in the tentacles of the octopus.

Yes. And I should actually -- let me just move the presentation forward. You have also said that it's not our intention this time to go through presentation systematically. This will be made available in any case. We will use this presentation as we provide answers to questions that we have received to provide support and context for what we're talking about. So I've now moved to the Tavsan-related slide. But most importantly, we had some news out this morning related to progress at Tavsan, which primarily involved the drilling update. We had been drilling since very late last year. We had planned around 2,000 meters of drilling. But during the process of that drilling program in part down to the very poor weather conditions that were being experienced across Turkey. We experienced some delays, but those delays gave us the opportunity to reconsider parts of the program. And in fact, extend the program significantly. So we finished shy of about 4,000 meters of drilling in fact. So it's a very good result. Yes, it did take a little bit longer than planned, but that's the nature of exploration when you're working halfway up a mountain. The other updates relating to the Tavsan development involved the forestry permitting process. There's not much more we can say on that. Those applications are in following the EIA. And in terms of the EIA specification for the footprint of the planned operation at Tavsan, and we're waiting for further responses from the various ministries.

Kerim, I think it's worth explaining that the EIA, environmental impact assessment, is actually a document that dictates a whole host of other applications that have to be made, which is everything from being allowed to have certain chemicals on site to being allowed to build the road somewhere, getting the forestry permits in place. So it's actually a book of things that you have to do. And I think might have been the impression that EIA means that you can start now, but now you can start getting all the permits and then start building.

That's correct. The EIA sets out the parameters by which the government and the local community will accept an operation. And there's a series of requirements that stem from the EIA. So receiving an EIA approval is just one step of the process. It's a very positive step, and we are glad that we got Tavsan through that last year. But here, we now have to go through all these other steps just as we did at Kiziltepe and this is not something that's unique to Turkey, this is the standard around the world. And forestry forms just part of that, but there's also other requirements, as you say, related to any form of use of water, for instance, in the area, how we have to monitor water for the process operations, dust suppression. There's a huge range of different things that we have to ensure that we can comply with and can continue to adhere to.

Now I have the same experience in all the years I've been in mining. So it's the same all around the world. I'll confirm that. But what is also interesting is this process took a lot longer than we wished it would, when we built the Kiziltepe mine. Now that we have both Proccea and Ozaltin working with us, we're finding that, that bigger team is having a more effective approach in getting these things done quicker.

Yes, that's certainly the case. And it's certainly good that we have a company like Ozaltin on board as part of the joint venture with Zenit.

Okay. Well, we've given the update on Tavsan, and I'm not sure there's much more to mention other than there's additional drilling being planned. I think is that correct for...

For Tavsan, the next stage of work that actually involves the input directly from our team will involve new mapping, and sampling over the wider Tavsan project area, because we do see that there are some opportunities for further potential resource expansion that would then become the subject of future drilling programs. That's correct.

Okay. Now I think the biggest story in our last 6 months has been Venus Minerals, which I think has grown bigger and faster than we expected. And that has several updates going right back to, I think, confirmation of gold is one of the more exciting ones to me, because we know how much that adds to the revenue line of those operations. In addition to that, we've increased the resources and we've got an IPO pending. So there's quite a lot to talk through there. Let's see if we can spend -- a straightforward, simple way for me to understand.

Sure. So our interest in Cyprus, in fact, goes back to 2017. But we didn't commence activities there on a more formal basis until 2018. And then progress those to the point of a formal arrangement with a Cypriot company, some around enterprises. The structure required an earning by Ariana on expenditure of EUR 3 million to take 50% of the entity in Cyprus primarily. Although we have now placed a U.K. registered company over the top of the Cypriot entity. So our ownership is through the U.K.-registered company, which then owns 100% of the Cypriot separate entity, both of which are now named Venus. The work involved in Cyprus has primarily been related to proving up the areas around the Magellan project as well as undertaking further exploration elsewhere within the North Troodos area as well as some areas that we've identified in the truly area, a little bit further to the east of Nicosia. All of that information is available on the Venus website, and we've provided updates in our own rights through RNS updates. And some of that work has obviously involved drilling and one of those drilling results we do highlight in the presentation, because it reaffirmed our belief that these copper systems, these volcanogenic massive sulfide systems in Cyprus are gold rich and substantially so. This was the first work undertaken to confirm that. And we've got that exceptional intercept at the Kokkinoyia sector of the Magellan project of about 130 meters at 0.5% copper -- 0.5% copper and 0.55 grams per tonne of gold. That has been through further drilling that we've undertaken at Kokkinoyia itself. That has informed a new resource estimate that we put out some months back. And that has grown the Kokkinoyia resource very substantially, because we've now identified not only a copper zone, which we knew was there already, but there is a gold zone and it's substantially rich as well as a zinc zone. And so it's a much more interesting deposits with significant scale that we've now added to it. And a lot of new exploration needs to be undertaken, particularly at depth. The same is true of the Klirou sector of Magellan, and we have also provided some updates on that. But I think the most important news that we've received regarding the development of Venus, I know Peter van der Borgh, the MD of Venus, has been working very hard over several months to get the definitive agreements relating to the Apliki joint venture with the Iacovou Group over the line, and that was also concluded very successfully. So that was the last key tick in the box that was required by Venus so that it could progress towards the IPO on end and that process is now very much underway, working through the CPR, the lead DD and so on.

Okay. The history of gold mining on Cyprus, that's been ignored in history from the beginning of their mining days until now. Is that correct?

Well, I think probably in ancient time, so going back thousands of years ago, some of these outcropping VMS systems, the gossans zones that occur on surface would have been substantially gold rich. And actually, we see some evidence of at the Klirou location. There's a part of a gold that gossan that was not touched by the looks of it in ancient times. And we've got rock chip grades that are really very high indeed. So I have no doubt that some gold was being sourced in ancient times, but in more recent history, so going back to the 1900s and beyond, certainly up to 1974, when the island was being mined by Cyprus Mines Corporation, the focus was entirely on copper. In fact, they were not assaying for gold, because doing a gold assay is quite difficult. So the focus was on copper. But of course, the smelters that were taking the copper concentrate in part, they were identifying gold in concentrate. So everyone knew it was there, but it wasn't properly quantified. So that represented the exploration opportunity. And that's the beauty of Cyprus. As I said, 1974, all exploration on the island effectively is a preserved opportunity for exploration on the doorstep of Europe, which is very exciting indeed, particularly given the importance of copper now. And of course, gold is just the added benefit.

Okay. Now logistically, Cyprus is quite straightforward for us to access and for Ariana team to add value to the Venus operations. And that's probably quite an important point to note is that we've been continuing to make site visits through the COVID lockdowns where we were allowed, and very recently, we have had a lot of people out there looking at things.

Yes. I mean there's a very good in-country team in Cyprus that we're very proud of. That team has done very well throughout the drilling program and all the work that's followed on from that. I think it's just worth also mentioning that the group that we're -- through Venus we're now tied in with the Iacovou Group is a very large construction enterprise in Cyprus. They have also been involved in mining in part through their interest in the Hellenic -- both Hellenic mines as well as Hellenic Apliki mines, which is actually going to be the joint venture vehicle for Venus. But along with that skill set is coming the SX-EW, so the solvent extraction electro-winning plant that was previously operational at Skouriotissa. And that photograph in the presentation shows the plant as it was in 2019 shortly before it was dismantled and it's now sitting ready to be moved to the Apliki site. But the end product also shown in that presentation is the copper cathode that's coming off the electro win part of the processing plant. So that would be the product that we'd expect from the Apliki operation.

Okay. I think that pretty much covers Venus. Let's talk a bit about Asgard and -- which is a very much a new venture for us in that we've set it up as a separate entity. We funded it. You've gone ahead with some very exciting things in Australia and then lately, something in Kazakhstan. And I think this is probably the thing that people will probably want to know more about how this might develop and grow into something that becomes substantial. And I see it as a diversification and reach, but please expand a bit on that.

Yes, that's very much so. You can -- let's put it this way. You can look at Asgard as a set of binoculars. And it gives us the opportunity to identify very interesting opportunities in the Eastern Hemisphere. We've been very specific about focusing on the Eastern Hemisphere. Any opportunity within that region is fair game. We are very, very selective, however. So, so far, we've only made 2 investments. Those investments not only comprise cash, but they are most importantly, comprising our team involvement. So we're putting team time in exchange for shares in those investments, which gets our foot into the door, in terms of our understanding of the opportunity. And as those opportunities develop, we may up our interest levels in those set of projects. But it's all about identifying teams that are compatible with ours, that share the same core values, and the core value is recognizing the fundamental value addition that comes through the process of discovery, with a view to ultimately see a producing asset, but recognizing that getting from discovery to producing asset takes a long time. So our focus is very specifically on the discovery stage through the Asgard Metals Fund. Investors shouldn't expect us to be making lots of investments every year. That's not the case. As I said, we're going to be very selective about what we go for. But most importantly of all is sharing those common values with the teams in which we're invested.

There's important to point out that these operations have their own teams, yet we complement them through earning additional shares through adding content whatever that may be appropriate as of maybe. But you said something else interesting. An Eastern look, East of Greenwich, and probably following the Tethyan metallogenic belt in some respects, but also outside of that.

Also outside of that, so the Tethyan belt is an area that we've explored for a very long time, as 17 years as a listed company. So there's a huge amount of know-how within the company. Associated with our understanding of the geology and distribution of mineral deposits within the Tethyan metallogenic belt. And that explains why of all the areas that we first branched out into, we were looking in Cyprus. And then we started looking into the Balkan regions as the extension of the Tethyan belt westward out of Turkey. It's a very prolific metallogenic provinces. There are other areas along the western -- other areas along the Tethyan metallogenic belt that are very interesting indeed, but most of those are really off limits. There are maybe a few other places that we could potentially go to. So beyond the region that we're actively working in and operating in, in the vicinity of Turkey, there are actually relatively few opportunities that are really viable in the Tethyan belt. So we're also open to the possibility of looking in other provinces and Kazakhstan is one of them. Now they -- Kazakhstan geologically, it represents a series of other arc belts, but substantially older than the Tethyan belt. So they are related to tectonic movements that occurred many, many more millions of years ago, after -- before the Tethyan belt was formed. But geologically, there are similarities. So we can apply our knowledge or know-how to those areas as well. Our interest in Australia, that's somewhat different. That stems from some of the skill sets within the company. My own included, I did a lot of work in our key and Greenstone Belt terrains a long time ago. when I was working from Zimbabwe and lately in Australia when I was a student here. So it's an area that we know well and the geology we understand. And the work that Panther Metals is doing in the Laverton region is fantastic. I mean, they completed a 6,000-meter drilling program at the Coglia Nickel-Cobalt Project area, and they've announced some fantastic results, very much in line with what we expected. So that's been a real success.

To sum up on Asgard, it takes shares. It earns more shares through its content contribution. And ultimately, it becomes an investment, what they grow into, but it doesn't mean we're putting all of our eggs into one basket. We're actually distributing them quite widely.

No, no, this is all about using our team in clever ways. We've got a fantastic team, and I'd encourage investors to look at the team section on our website as the length and breadth of the skill sets that we have within the company. And we're very proud of the team, and they're more than capable of running multiple projects at that sort of global scale.

Yes. And in a funny way, lockdown has actually contributed to that way of working.

Yes, absolutely. Making best use of current circumstances, for sure.

And very low CO2 miles.

That's exactly it. And so another tick in the box from the ESG perspective.

Okay. Now probably the biggest news is our exploration alliance with Newmont, a really big ticket item on our balance sheet. But let's go back into the, why we started looking in that area in the past and what it covers, and what we can get out of this.

Okay. Then I'll go to a slide that shows a simplified map.

That's the one.

Of our interest area.

So the area of Turkey that we're covering is about 780,000 square kilometers. The area that you outlined in orange is about 400,000 square kilometers. So order of magnitude, we're increasing our footprint by, say, 50%.

Yes, it's substantial. And the geology, as I said previously, is very similar indeed. The age of the rocks associated with the mineralization is very similar from the Cretaceous period. I don't want to get too geological, but I might as well just briefly, indulge me. So when the African plate was moving into the Eurasian Plate, so we have a series of arcs that -- metallogenic arcs, island arc chain, sort of similar to what we see in Indonesia today and the associated archipelagos out that way. And in fact, that represents the tail end of the Tethyan realm. So as the African plate was moving northwards into the Eurasian Plate, these arcs became amalgamated. And Turkey comprises multiple arcs. And each of those arcs contains its own unique styles of mineralization. A number of those arcs containing gold and gold copper deposits. And we see the same arcs running through into the Balkan regions as well through the Macedonia areas of Northern Greece, in through North Macedonia, Kosovo, through Serbia and clipping the edge of Bosnia Herzegovina as well. The art that goes through Bulgaria is an older art going back -- it's dated to Cretaceous. And that arc runs through Northern Turkey. And in fact, it's the same arc that contains the mineralization that we see at Salinbas Ardala, although the intrusions in that case are somewhat younger than the Cretaceous.

With the 3 colors on it, which I think, there's a slide with 3 colors on it that we looked at before.

Oh, that one. Yes, I'll come to that. I'll just..

What you're describing.

Yes, I'll put that into context for people. So that map that we currently see explains the current footprint of our exploration interest areas, the development projects. We've shown the location of the processing plants. So the Kiziltepe operating plant in Western Turkey, Tavsan the planned heap leach operation. And in the inset map, we show the position of the Apliki SX-EW processing plant that will also be installed and become producing. The area associated with the Newmont arrangement partnership is that one outlined in orange, red orange. The area around Turkey, we still through a separate agreement with Newmont have access to the Newmont databases, and we'll be utilizing those Newmont databases even more aggressively now in a region of Eastern Turkey that we now refer to as Project Leopard. So now I'll come on to that particular slide. So this slide shows the project Leopard area of Eastern Turkey. It's a highly mountainous region that is, in fact, roamed by the very rare Anatolian Leopard, of which only a handful still exist today, sadly. But it's an interesting metaphor for our search for multimillion ounce deposits within this region. And the region, as you can see, comprises these 3 broad arcs, the pink, teal and orange. The pink arc is the Cretaceous arc that I was referring to earlier. The teal arc is the next most interesting. And that contains the Copler deposit, which is one of the largest gold porphyry systems in Turkey, as well as the Mollakara discovery that was made by Newmont many years ago, about 20 years ago, in fact. But also multimillion ounce about 3 million ounces identified there. And then that arc continues into Iran and a number of discoveries were made in Iran. Most notably, right to the bottom of the map, you can see the position of the Sari Gunay deposit, which was discovered by Rio Tinto. That arc is highly prospective, particularly for gold, more dominantly gold systems of the porphyry type or high sulfidation epithermal type. Yet it's an area that's barely seen any exploration. These mountainous regions are quite difficult to access, and that has inhibited some of the exploration activity, but this is what Ariana is all about. It's about identifying new search spaces, getting our teams into those search spaces to make new discoveries, because the real value is in that process of discovery.

So despite being called project Leopard, it's elephant country.

They run together.

Right. Let's go back to the map that you showed just now and talk a little bit more about how Newmont plugs into us. The history of the database that you are capitalizing on and how we intend to work in those regions with Western Tethyan resources. And quite a lot of questions, I think, around the share structure of that Western Tethyan Resources operating company, which we bring to the table.

Yes. So I'll just reiterate regarding the history of our association with Newmont, because I think that provides the right perspective. When we first got properly started in Turkey in early 2004, we identified the area around Kiziltepe as being quite interesting from an exploration point of view. We were conducting grassroots exploration in the area to the south of Kiziltepe, in fact. And we were informed at the time that a company called Newmont were operating just to the north and that they've been drilling there. So we thought we'll makes sense to go and talk to Newmont, which we did in Ankara. And that sort of struck up the beginnings of a long-term relationship with Newmont in some form. And we ended up acquiring the Kiziltepe project from Newmont in early 2005. And that became our flagship listing asset, IPO. But then what was the -- at that stage, an informal relationship with Newmont, but one with great understanding and one that continues to this day -- continued. And then by around 2010, it was clear that Newmont were planning to pull out of Turkey for their own reasons. And they looked at Ariana as a potential partner for the licensing of the extensive database, which comprised 2 decades worth of exploration data across the country, across Turkey.

It's worth mentioning that, that data was acquired through sample collection and analysis using fairly bespoke methods.

It was, yes. There were proprietary methods involved in the collection of several phases of the exploration data. And the value attributable to that database is in the region of $20 million. So if that sort of exploration was to be repeated today, it would probably come in north of $20 million, in fact. I mean that's how valuable this database is, and we have access to it.

The same approach was applied to the Eastern -- Southeastern European countries that we're targeting now.

That's right. So that's a separate database, and that forms the basis for the new agreement with Newmont that relates specifically to our activities with Western Tethyan. But in the case of Turkey, we're in the process of putting the new agreement together for Western Tethyan. We had the opportunity to bring up to date certain parts of the previous arrangement that we had with Newmont, which we've entered into with them in 2013 in exchange for a 1% net smelter return royalty on any discovery that then turned into a producing asset. So with updated parts of that agreement, and an important component of that is to allow for our ownership within Zenit. So Zenit separately picks up licenses that we have no direct control over, then any royalty payable thereafter is at the 0.325%. So it's reflective of our ownership within Zenit. Elsewhere, so Ariana in its own right, acquires licenses in Turkey that then become a producing asset, we would pay that 1% net smelter return royalty to Newmont. In the case of Western Tethyan, yes, Newmont had extensive databases across the Balkan region, somewhat less extensive than in Turkey, that they were in that Balkan region for less time. But the database, the spread of the data is clear, lots of site visit reports that are valuable, and we've got to progressively go through all of that data and identify opportunities as a result of that. Separately, Western Tethyan has been building up its own database and we are augmenting that. So we -- in that particular case, we're actually taking ownership of the Newmont database. So at the end of the 5-year alliance, assuming that no -- this is in the event that no major deposit is found. So a major deposit for Newmont is anything over 2 million ounces. If nothing is found within the 5 years that meets that criteria, then the 3 parties go away with a full copy of the database each and we take full ownership each. And we can go on and use that database in our own ways should we wish to do so.

I'm sure we're going to find something in that time. But I think the important thing is that there has to be a project of magnitude for Newmont to then participate at a higher level. And then start taking shares in Western Tethyan resources. For now, they don't have shares until the trigger project comes along. And order of magnitude, I think you said is 2 million ounces or plus.

Yes, over 2 million ounces identified from prefeasibility type stage. So that's another important point. And I think I'll briefly provide the answer to this, and then maybe we should go on to some of the questions that have been coming through, because I'm conscious of time. But the key thing is that if a project of merit is identified within that 5-year term, that project of merit then becomes the subject of a mining company. And the mining company is established specifically to hold that project and each of funding requirements of that project as detailed in the RNS that we put out, go specifically into that company, to fund specifically that project. If another project comes along, that also satisfies that criteria of Newmont, and we've got 2 plus -- 2 million-ounce deposits, then both will be funded on that basis in 2 separate mining companies. So that's an important point.

So we end up with a number of children to Western Tethyan resources.

That would be the idea, yes. And the other thing is that in the event that 5 years lapses and we don't find anything that fits the 2 million-ounce figure, let's say, we've got 1 million-ounce deposit that doesn't quite tickle the fancy of Newmont, but it would certainly be of significant value to a junior. We will be still retain 75% of that, assuming that we've retained 75% ownership to that point in time.

The outside shareholders to Western Tethyan Resources are the other directors, and they bring us payable local skills, boots on the ground and the history of discovery in that area.

That's correct, yes. And so principally, in Kosovo, Mentor Demi, he is the Managing Director of Western Tethyan.

], yes?

So he's key man to the operation comes with a lot of experience in the region, he is Kosovan himself. But has explored throughout the region that we see on the map there. And in fact, I first met him 10 years ago, halfway up a mountain in Eastern Turkey, and we've had a great dialogue since.

Yes, I met too, and we'll be seeing a lot more of them as well the rest of the Board. Perhaps we should now start looking at some of the questions.

[Operator Instructions] Kerim and Michael, firstly, thank you very much indeed for taking the time to address all of those presubmitted questions that came in before today's event. And of course, we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so after the presentation has ended. But as you can see, we've also received a number of questions throughout today's presentation, and thank you to all investors for submitting their questions. If I could please ask you just to run through that Q&A tab and where it's appropriate to do so. Read out the question and give your response, and then I'll pick up from you at the end.

Okay. Thank you, Jake. Okay. I'm just reviewing some of these questions. A number of these questions we have already answered in the dialogue that we've just had with Michael. And a number of other questions, I note that we've actually provided answers for in the pre-submitted questions, which will be published after the event. So I'll just quickly scan through for anything that is just worth touching on now. Okay. There's a question here about cash management. How much cash Ariana has at the moment? And in which countries, banks, is it mainly placed? So a very valid question. I'll just go back to the slide in the presentation that answers a part of that. So on that slide, you can see the current position. So it's a substantial cash holding. The other thing, of course, is that we have very little invested debt. That invested debt relating specifically to the plant expansion that was undertaken at Kiziltepe, so that debt is owned by Zenit.

A ring-fenced at Zenit level. There are no holder guarantees. So it pays out itself and guarantees its own debt.

That's correct. And then most of the capital of the company is held in the U.K. The bank is HSBC. In Turkey, we have separate banking relationships, and our cash is held in dollars primarily. Some of that in term deposits. So it's safe.

There was a question on Apliki and bats. I don't know there were bats in Apliki.

So I mean Apliki is a fully permitted mine site. It has received and gone through the EIA process, the process that we were talking about earlier. As any EIA, certain requirements need to be adhered to, and that's part of that process.

Okay. That's not a problem.

Yes. These are the sort of normal things that mining companies have to deal with, because no one wants to cause environmental damage. What we're trying to do as a business sector is to extract something of value to the world. And in the case of Apliki exceptionally important to the future of the society, because of the copper being produced. But to do it in a way that minimizes any possible environmental impact, and that's not just to the plants and trees, but to animals as well.

One of the questions is, are we're not spreading ourselves too thin with so many projects ongoing for our size? Well, the analogy of the octopus is that each tentacle has a certain amount of intelligence and autonomy despite being attached to the main body of the octopus. And that's the analogy I like to look at us with, because where we've set up separate subsidiaries and invested in projects, they run and operate themselves. Yet we own that are substantial chunks of them or small chunks of them and have a data stream of we're adding input and they're giving us back information. So we know how our investment is doing.

That's exactly right. And it's central to our strategy, to identify and to build teams that are capable of undertaking the work that is required of them in their specific areas of operation. So that's why there is a dedicated Cyprus team. That's why there's a dedicated Kosovo team. The arrangements that we have through our investments via Asgard is because we're identifying other teams that are capable in their particular spheres of operation that adhere and match our broad objectives and understanding.

Okay. Are there any of these other questions that you think we haven't answered? I'm just looking. I haven't read them all yet.

There's quite a few.

There's a question on minority interests, and how exactly Ariana's minority rights are protected?

Yes.

Well, I think as already said, we are receiving dividends from Zenit and we are protected in law. And there is an ongoing dividend stream we're being paid as and when they are declared and paid to the other shareholders. So there's also a law, and I'm not sure you can say more than that.

Yes. I mean it all comes back down to the minority protection provisions in Turkish corporate law. So the arrangements that we have in Turkey relate directly to that. I can't really relate to anything else. It has to be underpinned by law.

I think there's another element to it and that is it's the relationships as the contributor to the management of the Red Rabbit joint venture, we bring to the table things that they don't have, which is the exploration expertise and interpretation of that data.

That's right.

There's 2 ways to it all the time.

Yes. So there's obviously some overlap between the skill sets of the 2 companies, particularly as Zenit has grown and it's been growing very well indeed and that the skill sets increasing all the time. So we augment that, because we're providing additional input, at the somewhat earlier stage of the understanding of a mineral system. So is one of the reasons why they called us in specifically to get the next round of work done at Tavsan to identify new opportunities. But our involvement is also most recently, I can say, in terms of geophysics, geophysical input into Kiziltepe itself and identifying potential areas for future drill targeting and also planning new geophysical surveys that might be undertaken later this year.

On that subject, we had our new BoxScaner equipment at Kiziltepe for a while.

Yes.

A little bit about how that has contributed to the speed and diversity of data that you're getting out of those results.

Yes. So let me just quickly go to the slide that shows the photograph of the BoxScan unit. So the BoxScan unit, this is the very latest of scanning technology, primarily for drill core or drill chips, but the system can be modified to take other types of sample. And in fact, that's an area of active work and research being undertaken by our team, because we do want to be utilizing the same setup for the routine analysis of soil samples, for instance, to undertake XRF analysis, but also other types of analysis of the same material in an automated way. This is a robot. The robot basically contains an arm that houses an XRF unit, an alteration survey device and magnetic susceptibility meter, laser scanning as well as other implements for the scanning of the samples, including photography. So we get a full suite of data products that relate to mineralization, relate to alteration, relate to structure, relate to other characteristics of the rocks, in perhaps -- of geophysical sense. And we can use that information because we're collecting reams more data than is possible with the human eye alone. Well, it's beyond the human eye. So you're collecting reams more data, and it's about then using that data in clever ways to help advance the objectives of future exploration. And because it's a robotic process that is very well automated and controlled. We can ensure we have a steady stream of data product coming out. At the moment, the unit is in , in Western Turkey. There's certain work that we're continuing there. But ultimately, we intend to bring this unit to our head office in Ankara, where the geochemists will be based on a more permanent basis and samples will be coming from all of our project areas of interest to that central location in Ankara for analysis.

Kerim, some questions coming up on commercial matters. So take it away from the technical area, which you love. With having so many projects needing financing, will the regular dividend be paid without further dilution? Are we going to fund projects from existing cash flow, and we will determine the future how much we might be able to pay as a dividend on an ongoing basis?

Yes. So we provided you an answer to a very similar question in the pre-submitted questions. So we probably can refer on that further, investors can just review that.

Another one, can you specify which projects in Turkey are not included in the present joint venture? That obviously means joint ventures.

So it is useful point of clarity, all of our projects in Turkey that were once either 50% held through the existing Zenit JV with Proccea or were 100% held previously like Kizilcukur. Everything is now within the Zenit joint venture framework. So we own 23.5% of everything in Turkey. However, as I referred to earlier, in the new strategy that we're pursuing in Eastern Turkey, project Leopard. The intention is to secure new 100% held assets or as close to 100% as we can get, because obviously, there may be some deal terms with existing owners that we have to work our way around. But the intention is to get majority held assets in Eastern Turkey that we can then continue to explore and add value to.

All right. Another question is what are the 25% Western Tethyan Resource holders paying into the alliance, as we have paid their share of share capital?

That's correct. And there's a more expansive answer -- there's a more expansive answer that we've already provided and we submitted questions. And really, it relates to the individual skill sets of those key people within the company. So we're talking about 3 people primarily, Mentor Demi, the Managing Director is one of them.

Yes.

There's one question -- the last question here, I can see. Can any of the recently drilled resources be sold into the joint venture? So again, this is -- maybe there's a misperception. But all the exploration being undertaken in Turkey is funded by Zenit, of which we earn 23.5%. Any exploration that is funded by Zenit, so all the drilling that we've undertaken in recent times belongs to Zenit. However, if -- and there's provision for this in the joint venture agreements that we completed with those Ozaltin and Proccea. If Ariana identifies independently of what Zenit is doing. If we identify an opportunity within a current JV area and a good example of this might be in the Hizarliyayla in Salinbas project area. It's a prospect that's seen very little work. But if we decide that that's an area that really needs a bigger push with exploration, and we can do that, if we've got the ability to do that, we can fund that work independently within the JV area. And then if we identify an expansion of the resource as a result of that work that we've independently funded, then the Zenit joint venture can repay us, reimburse us 3x the exploration cost.

Yes. And that's been explained very well in the past. Just so the people know, we've read all your questions where we have not answered them specifically. We have already prepared answers that are going to be published. And we feel that those questions are pretty much covered in those original pre dial-in questions submitted.

Yes. So I think most of those other questions, in fact, all of them, I can see we have answered in some form in the pre-submitted questions. I'm just doing another quick scan through to see if there's anything else that we might have missed. Yes. I think we've answered everything sufficiently, and I think we're coming up to time.

We are running out of time. So well, thank you all very much for your questions, and thank you for the chat, Kerim. It's been good.

It's a pleasure. Thank you to everyone for listening in. It's always a pleasure to relay our thinking to our investors.

Good.

I think the presentation will be available in any case, certainly on this platform, but we'll make it available on our website as well for shareholders to review at their own leisure. The presentation contains a number of key updates in certain areas as we had the last presentation we gave.

Do you want to close by showing us the growing pie via the diversification?

Yes. That's actually a very important slide and I kind of skipped over it. So this slide encapsulates where we're going with our strategy. And it's a strategy that has worked exceptionally well in the past. It's just -- we haven't referred to it in perhaps the ways that we are today. And we've given certain components of that strategy, new names like Asgard Metals Fund like Project Catalyst Strategy. Those are just labels, new labels that we're attaching to things that we were already doing, in fact, and doing very, very successfully. So this chart shows, in a relative sense, how we see the value of the company growing in terms of the pie chart. And so if we wind back to, let's say, around 2015, most of our interests were in Turkey, and we had some interest here in Australia through the nascent Asgard. At that stage, it was getting involved in lithium exploration opportunities in the Pilbara. That pie has grown substantially in the years since Kiziltepe went into operation. So the value, the relative value of Turkey has grown, but at the same time, we were also doing other things. So we were getting involved in Cyprus. So the orange part of the pie, that starts to grow the pie even more. So it's like an inflating balloon. You can look at it up that way, too. And the relative value of Australia is also growing as the Asgard investments started to pay off in the lithium space. In most recent years, that pace of progress has accelerated marketly -- now yes, the market might not recognize that. That's another thing. That's largely beyond our ability to control it, because it depends on things like what's going on in the metal markets, general investor sentiment. Those are things that we don't -- we can't worry ourselves with that. We can only concern ourselves with those things that we can control as a business, and that is the execution of the strategy, which, as I said, we're executing very competently. So most recently, we've seen that marked acceleration. The relative value of Turkey within the portfolio, even though in an absolute sense, it hasn't shrunk, it's stayed static, but the value of those other components of our business have contributed to an increasing balloon. The other big advantage, that we have that we never had in the past, is that we also have critically deployable capital. And that deployable capital we can utilize to aid further investments to ensure that those investments that we have made are progressed to the best that they can be. And it's placed us in a position that we were never in before. Prior to recent years, we had a very much more hand-to-mouth type of existence, having to come back to the market repeatedly for investment funds to be able to progress the company projects forward. I should also jump on to this slide, because this slide summarizes the components of the investments that we've received. So the purple bar shows that we've raised from the market about $25 million -- sorry, $25 million from our IPO in 2005 to 2017, which is when we stopped raising money through the market, because there's been no need since. Because Kiziltepe went into operation and has been paying a dividend to the company. But we've also had project partners come in periodically. And we've had European Gold Fields, Lately Eldorado Gold. Proccea Construction each kicking in about $8.4 million. And then bank finance started to kick in through the arrangements that we entered into in Turkey through Zenit to fund the development of Kiziltepe. So we've been very, very prudent in terms of how we've managed capital. And we've been very careful with shareholders' funds. And unlike the majority of exploration companies out there, we are value accretive. There's no doubt about that. We can show that in multiple ways. And we do it at a discovery cost that is -- and I'll come to that graph quickly. So we're operating still on a 1985 cost base, whereas our peers are off on the -- largely off on the other side of the chart. So this is a distinct advantage to the way that we conduct our business and is one of the reasons for the successful development of our projects.

Kerim, going back to the debt number that you introduced. That's been repaid, which is an important point. There is a residual amount we're still owing but very small. And another thing worth pointing out is that's been in my experience of being in this industry for so long, the cheapest debt financing I have ever seen in terms of actual cost to company in the end.

Yes. So there was 2...

And signs of having good partnerships.

That's correct. So that debt financed -- the primary debt finance of $33 million through Turkiye Finans Bankasi, that came in at about 7.5% annual interest rate over the term -- 5-year term. The latest loan facility secured through another bank in Turkey related to the plant expansion, that was actually a Turkish lira loan. The value when it was taken out in dollar terms was $6.6 million, but because of the devaluation of the lira, which was kind of expected, that's halved. And so the actual cost to our business in a sense is halved.

Wow, it's extraordinary.

Michael, Kerim, thank you very much indeed for taking the time to address all of those questions that have come through from investors today. And of course, ladies and gentlemen, the company will have the opportunity to review any further questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses. Along with those responses for the pre-submitted questions on the investment meet company platform, and we'll notify you by e-mail when these are ready for your review. Michael, Kerim, perhaps will redirect investors to give you their feedback, which I know is particularly important to the company. Can I please ask you just for a few closing comments to wrap up with?

Well, thank you very much. I think it's worth pointing out that we'll be doing this quite regularly, and we should perhaps plan the next one for around the time of the AGM and the annual results. And thank you all for your questions and for attending.

Thank you very much.

Michael, Kerim, that's great. Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to update investors this morning. Can I please ask investors not to close this 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. It's going to take a few minutes to complete, and I'm sure we'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Ariana Resources plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good morning to you all.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Good morning and bye-bye. Thank you.