Ariana Resources plc (AAU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Ariana Resources plc Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company will review questions submitted today and publish responses where appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to speak the following poll. I'd now like to hand it over to Kerim Sener, Managing Director; and Michael de Villiers, Chairman. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the post AGM presentation for Ariana Resources. A big welcome to all our shareholders that are able to attend today. I will try to keep this presentation fairly brief, just keeping to the main points, the main areas of advancement for the company and then throw it open to questions so that we can spend more in the question-and-answer session than perhaps on the presentation itself, as we've done on a few other occasions using the IMC platform. Obviously, I don't need to dwell on the Board, but just a very quick recap there of the directors present today, both in person and online. A very quick update snapshot of the current market position of the company. The share price and volume graph shown there on the top left-hand side. Obviously, we can draw attention to the fact that there's been a significant uplift in share price over recent years. And that's largely down to the very successful operations at the Kiziltepe sites in Western Turkey and particularly as we paid off the debt associated with that construction of the Kiziltepe mine, we saw a corresponding uplift in the share price. So that's the sort of jumping ahead a little bit in terms of where we need to -- where we are in the presentation. But it's just worth emphasizing that as we bring another mine on stream in the case of Tavsan, we would expect a similar sort of uplift as we go forward. Also worth just drawing attention to the fact that in relatively recent times, Newmont Corporation came on board as a significant investor in the business. That relates directly to our Western Tethyan project area in Southeastern Europe, but also it relates in part to our ongoing activities in Turkey. And I'll talk about those in further detail as we go through the presentation. So this provides a snapshot of some of the key performance indicators of the company, both operationally, financially in terms of risk profile and also on the environmental, social governance side of the business. In terms of operations, I've already alluded to the fact that operations associated with our Kiziltepe mine held in partnership with Özaltin Holdings and Proccea Construction. That's been going from strength to strength since operations commenced in 2017. We're now willing to -- well coming through into our sixth year of operations there. And again, we're expected to meet our production guidance of 25,000 ounces of gold, and this is in part down to the strong performance metrics of the mine. And in particular, the effect that the plant expansion had in the latter part of last year and into the current year. In addition to our operations across Turkey, we obviously have other interests, both regionally. Each of those are talk about in further detail, but also through the Asgard Metals Fund, we run what we call the Project Capitalist strategy. And again, I'll talk about that in further detail as we go through. The key point is that as an exploration and development company, we aren't profitable. And as a result of our exposure to operations and cash flow organically self-funding in terms of our exploration development activities, which is an unusual position for an exploration company to be in. As a result of the cash flow and the performance of Kiziltepe, we're in a very strong financial position. And obviously, we completed a significant transaction in recent times associated with the partial divestment of our interest in Turkey, and that has also enabled us to provide the first of our dividend, special dividend. And the last part of that last tranche of that is to be paid out in early October. Importantly, there's very little debt associated with the business as a whole, and that debt is actually housed at the Zenit level. There's about USD 0.9 million of debt remaining associated with that. The other elements of the business, I won't dwell on. I'll just jump on straight into the main body of the presentation now. The most important thing to recognize is that the company over 15-plus years of operation as an AIM company. We've very much gone from strength to strength. And we've been very, very -- we've tried to measure our performance on a number of different levels. And since we've gone into production, one of those metrics, which relates to the way that we measure our performance on an ESG basis is our carbon footprint. And we certainly, on that basis alone, we're doing very well indeed in the 50% of the industry average. And then in terms of operational cash costs, these cash costs have risen in recent times. That's in part due to the lower grades that we're encountering in some of the satellite pits that we've been mining in the last few years but also relates to general increase in costs associated with consumables in Turkey. And it's not a Turkey-specific phenomenon, that's something that's occurring globally. But because of the plant expansion that we completed late last year, that has helped keep the cash cost levels down at a very reasonable level. So we're currently in the round of USD 650 per ounce range. And then over the entire length of the company's life, if you look at the performance of the company as an explorer, the best way of measuring that is the discovery cost per ounce of gold. And again, we performed very well in that sense. And in fact, substantially less than the international peer group, which comes in at about USD 62 per ounce of gold versus ours at about USD 11 per ounce of gold. So on those key metrics, the company is continuing to perform and continuing to excel. I want to do this all mean. Well, -- in part, that links into the current slide and the way that we've grown the company over time. And this slide in a cartoonish sense demonstrates the increase in value on a relative basis of the company from its originals in 2005 as a listed company to the present date. The pie charts on that graph show the growth of individual components of our business. These are, as I said, it's a cartoon, they're not absolute numbers necessarily, although they are derived from absolute numbers. And it demonstrates or tries to show how the different components of the company's interests have grown over time and how that relates to overall value. So as time has progressed, the company has gone from essentially an exploration-only portfolio, largely based around a single asset because as it was just an exploration play at that time. That was then drilled out, taken through feasibility, construction commenced and then into production. So it went from essentially a single asset so the value was attributable to that single asset. That has gained -- our profile has gained further complexity over time. Cyprus was brought on board our earning to Venus Minerals, taking an important part there and also the growing Australian portfolio through Asgard Metals. And then most recently, the addition of Kosovo and the broader Western Tethyan Resources portfolio in Southeastern Europe. And that's arrow that we see sort of connecting all of those pie charts is really showing the accelerating growth in value of the company over time as a result of that expanding pie. So looking at that very thing geographically, the company started off very much focused on Turkey alone. That was then joined by Australia in 2014. And then continue to develop in more recent times through the addition of Cyprus and Kosovo. And then through Asgard Metals, the Australian company. We have developed interest in Kazakhstan and last as well as in Australia itself. And looking at the same portfolio at this time in terms of a project pyramid, this really shows the pipeline of projects and where they sit in terms of relative risk and relative value. Again, we're a very simplified diagramatic representation of the company. At the Apex sits Zenit, so the lowest risk assets comprising Kiziltepe, the operating mine, Tavsan, the developing mine and the Salinbas development project. Sitting one tier beneath that, Venus Minerals and Western Tethyan Resources these are the developing parts of the project pipeline. Each of those being its own entity with its own management team that are very much focused in very specific regions of operation in Cyprus and in Kosovo Southeastern Europe, respectively. Sitting on run underneath that is the Asgard Metals Fund, and we have 3 current investments Asgard Metals in Australia, Palace Resources in Kazakhstan and Panama Resources in Laos. Sitting beneath that, are the project generation, is effectively the Project Generation division of the company. This is the team, the exploration team that sits behind it all, that are generating new opportunities for the company and identifying potential investments through the Asgard Metal Funds or other -- I just lost my presentation. You lost the presentation? Yes. It's kind of back. The -- so identifying other opportunities for the company, either through the Asgard Metals Fund or for further development in other parts of the project portfolio. In a little bit more detail, we see the main area of focus, which will remain the main area of focus for obvious reasons. We have an uncolorbased team, and we have our regional teams in Kosovo and in Cyprus. We're obviously very familiar with the geology and the exploration potential of this region comprising as it does a significant part of the testing metallogenic belt. That belt is host to a number of major copper gold and associated porphyry and epithermal and indeed VMS systems. So we're very familiar with our geological backyard and it makes sense for us to continue our main focus in this particular region. But having said that, we have subdivided that overall region so that it can be led by regional specific teams. So the red area, red outlined area is being led by the Kosovon-based team for Western Tethyan Resources. Cyprus itself outlined in green is being led by the Venus Minerals team. While our Turkish entity, Galata Madencilik runs Turkey. And of course, we have our interest in Zenit Madencilik, which owns the Kiziltepe, Tavsan and Salinbas assets. Looking at some of those assets in a little bit more detail. This is a simplified diagram that shows the relative size. So comparable size of individual projects. So each of those little sketches. Hold on, let me just highlight that. So each of these little sketches here, if you can see what I'm doing there on screen, that each of those projects is represented by a cartoon of the mineralization footprint. So it's the aerial footprint of the deposit and they're all at the same scale. So it gives people an indication of relative size. Kiziltepe is our producing asset, obviously, is the only one from which we're recording revenue. And up until the end of last year, we've recorded $177 million of revenue for the Zenit joint venture. That sits on a current resource of 227,000 ounces of gold. But then if you look at that in the context of the rest of the diagram, Tavsan is a larger deposit. Salinbas is larger. Again, Ardala, the porphyry system is further larger. Magellan is the Venus Minerals' primary asset in Cyprus, somewhat small in terms of gold, but it is a significant copper deposit. So this diagram really highlights the nature of the Ariana Resources portfolio. And it is notable that our smallest asset is currently the one producing. It's currently the main focus of value for the company, but it's those other elements of the portfolio that demonstrate future value. I won't spend too much more time on the structure of Zenit Madencilik other than just stating that it is in partnership with Özaltin Holding and Proccea Construction. Proccea separately been our partners in prior joint venture since 2010 up until the end of 2020 when we completed the new deal that brought Özaltin Holding in. Up until that time, we've been working in a 50-50 partnership with Proccea, but Proccea, despite the change in partnership structure have been retained as managers of the new partnership despite Proccea owning the same shareholding as ourselves, 23.5%. It's probably just worth mentioning on that slide that overall within Zenit, the company, Zenit sits on a resource base of 2.1 million ounces of gold. So it is very substantial, and there are opportunities to grow, as you'll see in current slides. So the Kiziltepe mine located about 2.5 miles drive out of Izmir -- out of the northeast of Izmir. That as I said, has been operating since 2017. It's been producing on average about 21,000 ounces a year. Some years, we do more than that, around 28,000 ounces. This year, as I've indicated, we're still expecting guidance to come in at 25,000 ounces. I've already mentioned the cash cost profile. So no need to dwell on that, but worth just emphasizing that the enhanced throughput rates through the processing plant expansion is running at its nominal rate of 400,000 tonnes of ore per annum. That could be increased that we've got capacity to do that with the existing plant layout, but 400,000 TPA is where it's at, at the moment, and we're quite happy with that. Now based on the resources and indeed reserve position at Kiziltepe, we've got -- since earlier this year, we had about 2.5 years of reserve left. There's obviously opportunities to expand that reserve and that's based on the existing inferred resources primarily. In addition to that, we have a further exploration target that needs to be drill tested in further depth. And we're expecting that in future years, we'll continue to see that reserve position expanded. But assuming that there is no more to be found, we're only going on the basis of the current reserve, then we see the mine winding up in around 2025, as we've previously indicated. This diagram we've had as a feature in this presentation and we've referred to it on previous occasions, but this shows an expected time line of production. Kiziltepe production shown in blue. Hold on, one moment. Let me just see if I just bring up the point here. Are you able to see my pointer?

No, sir. We're not. You just need to click on that and drag...

Yes. Yes. So in blue here, these blue bars here, that represents Kiziltepe production. There's obviously a period from 2017 through to 2020, 2021, where it was held in the 50-50 partnership with Proccea Construction. Production took a dip during that period of time instantly. But then in 2021, the plant expansion kicked in. We've seen production rise once more to these levels here. In 2022, 25,000 ounces. We'd imagine that, that would continue to be maintained through 2023, '24 and into 2025 based on current reserves. In orange shown here up until 2030, that's the Tavsan production coming in. And currently, we remain on target to achieve first production from Tavsan in 2023, as we've expected after some time. Salinbas is less well constrained obviously, a lot more work that needs to be undertaken at Salinbas that's shown in green here, largely in this area. And indeed, assuming Salinbas does kick in as our third mine that production will continue to be maintained in future years out in beyond 2030, so beyond there. So at this point in time, that diagram is representative of our best understanding of how the production portfolio held in partnership in Turkey will play out. So on Tavsan, there is some further work to be undertaken on the resource estimation we're doing that at the moment. We're hoping to provide further updates on that in due course in parallel with an update on where we are with the finance for the mine build. It's currently -- the mine build is currently being financed by Zenit itself, and that work has commenced in July this year. So assuming that we stick to the current construction schedule, we're expecting operations to commence -- production operations to commence in the second half of 2023. Based on the current resource estimate, there is an opportunity for an 8-year life as we see it. But as I said, there is further scope on the resource, and that's something that's underway at the moment. So we may have further improvements on that and certainly in time as other exploration and development work is undertaken at the Tavsan site. Moving on to Salinbas. As part of the deal that we completed with Özaltin and Proccea. Özaltin kicked in USD 8 million into the Salinbas project entity in Turkey, and we're utilizing that funding to continue exploration work at Salinbas primarily. We've been waiting on some permits up until relatively recently, but all those permits have come in now for all 3 project licenses: Ardala, Salinbas and Hizarliyayla. We've got one rig running at the moment. It's been running since late last year, but that is expected to be joined by one possibly and a further rigs. So we may have 3 rigs running on this project, depending on rig availability, and we plan to continue that exploration work for the remainder of this year. Both Salinbas and the related Ardala copper-gold porphyry, represents a substantial epithermal porphyry system, and there's lots of scope for further resource enhancements in time. Outside of the Zenit partnership, and this is something that we are pursuing in our own right, and it does relate to the arrangement that we've reached with Newmont -- associated with the database that we've secured from Newmont for Turkey and the wider region, we are pursuing new license acquisitions in Eastern and Southeastern Turkey, that we're referring to as Project Leopard. There's not too much more to say on this at this point in time other than the targeting work is well underway and actually near in conclusion, and we are expecting to make up the first of our license applications in this area between now and the end of this year. Moving outside of Turkey. We now hold 50% of Venus Minerals. Venus has been pursuing an IPO on AIM in recent times. We were essentially good to go for June, but with the developments in international markets in that month, we called our horns in. So there's more to come on that front. We're continuing to work on the Apliki JV separately. So there's some work that we're doing on the resource estimation for Apliki, and there'll be further announcements to be made on that and that will further augment the run to IPO for Venus Minerals. And we'll see where we stand in the coming months. But most importantly, the Apliki JV that has been agreed with the Iacovou Group in Cyprus by Venus represents a substantial opportunity to develop a new copper mine in Cyprus, utilizing the SX-EW solvent extraction electrowin process plant that was originally established in the 1990s by an Australian company, [ Oxiana ]. That processing plant ran successfully for over 20 years. That was wound down in 2019. The processing plant was then packaged up and readied for reinstallation at Apliki. So the joint venture on Apliki relates to the processing plant, which just needs to be reinstalled and the Apliki site, which contains the current resources there of 11 million tonnes at 0.25% to 0.69% copper. So it is a very exciting opportunity for both Venus and, of course, ourselves. Outside of that area, we -- over the last couple of years, we've been developing interest in Southeastern Europe through a nominal costume base represented by Western Tethyan Resources. Even more recently, we've brought on board Newmont Corporation as a strategic investor into Ariana and a strategic exploration partner into the Southeast European region. And that partnership is well underway and some exciting work being done there. In recent months, Western Tethyan resources also secured the first of their licenses. In Kosovo, there are some other license applications in process at the moment. So the current holding of 300 kilometer square granted licenses will increase in time in Kosovo, but we are also looking elsewhere within the broader Southeastern European region as well in those countries that were represented on that prime app that we built outlined in red. Asgard Metals Fund in Australia, that comprises primarily a discovery stage portfolio. So containing investments in listed and unlisted vehicles. The listed vehicle currently represented by Panther Metals, which listed on ASX in December of 2021. And that's developing a portfolio of gold and nickel cobalt assets in the Laverton region of Western Australia and gold assets in the Northern Territory of Australia. The nickel cobalt asset is the flagship at this point in time that was drilled successfully several months ago, and the first resource estimate was established for that demonstrating that asset at Coglia to be a substantial nickel cobalt laterite deposit of one or more outstanding deposits in Western Australia. Pallas Resources represents a very large portfolio of copper gold and gold assets in Kazakhstan. This is an earlier stage of exploration and the field work and associated activities have only relatively recently commenced on that portfolio. And the data is starting to come in from those field activities and there's some -- certainly some exciting initial indicators coming up from a number of those project areas. And there will be more to be said on that in due course. Our investment in Annamite, also a private company, but this time in Laos, they've been drilling actively on a copper gold porphyry system in the sort of northwestern part of Laos. It's a very interesting looking system. The initial drilling results at Laos are giving great hope that there are some extensions to the porphyry system containing as I said, copper and gold. So there'll be more to be said on that in due course. Our team are contributing to those exploration and development programs across that portfolio in exchange for shares, but we've also participated in a number of placings for those companies. We're expecting to add to the Asgard Metals Fund portfolio in the coming months and indeed years. We'd like to see a good spread of discovery stage assets represented there. So just summing up, the company is a cash generative dividend-paying exploration and development company. We've done that on the back of profitable operations, producing gold and silver from a low-cost base, most importantly. We've demonstrated a track record of exploration and development success and that's reflected in the discovery cost of gold per ounce. And that's also reflected in terms of other industry metrics, both production cost and carbon footprint. All our operations are driven on the basis of fundamental understanding of ESG. I mean it's one thing I haven't delved with particularly in this presentation, but many different levels within the organization. We're putting great emphasis on those aspects of our business, be it reforestation programs, be it ensuring that we can minimize our carbon footprint. And being good corporate citizens and doing the right things socially within our areas of operation, ensuring maximum employment of the very capable people that we have the pleasure to work with. And underscoring all of this, and I think is a key reason for the success that we've had as an explorer. And one of the main reasons for our low discovery cost per ounce is that we've always taken a very innovative approach to the identification of new exploration project opportunities. And the way that we've chosen to explore those projects that we've dealt with things in a very innovative and intuitive way, and that's all helped build the success of the company over several years. I'll just leave this slide up because I think this might help us deal with some of the questions that have come in as part of the IMC event. And at that stage, I'll just hand back over quickly to Paul.

Fantastic. Kerim, thank you indeed for the presentation. [Operator Instructions] Just fort the team, take a few moments to review those questions submitted today. I'd like to remind you that recording the presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A can be accessed via Investor dashboard on the Investor Company platform. Kerim, as you can see, you've had a number of questions throughout today's presentation. Together with those were presubmitted by investors and thank you all for submitting those questions. Perhaps if I may just ask you to read out the questions and give your responses where appropriate to do so directed to a member of the team.

Before we go to -- Kerim, can I ask you to go back to the slide that has the shareholdings on it. And note that an emission is that one very large shareholder has been emitted by era, and that's Steve Bingham at 4.02%, so he would sit just below Newmont Corporation. And I think that there was an option in the preparation slides. So that's noted. Thank you.

Okay. So moving on to the questions. So we had several pre-submitted questions, which we can run through now. We've already provided written responses to these questions, but I'm happy to read our responses. And then those responses will be published in any case following this event. We've also -- I've noticed that we've had a number of questions coming through while I've been speaking and having a very quick look at those questions. A number of those questions we've already dealt with as part of the pre-submitted questions. So I'll just run through the pre-submitted questions. Question one, with Özaltin being the majority holder in Turkey, have they imposed or are there any restrictions when it comes to Ariana being able to report on say drilling results at Salinbas or any other aspects of the JV work? The answer. There are no restrictions on our ability to report on developments at Zenit Madencilik. We report news to the market when the developments are material to the business or when they are strategic significance. Question 2, what is the intended use of the cash pile? Is it to be invested in new projects used to continue a dividend policy or just left in the bank for a rainy day? Answer, Ariana will have returned circa GBP 7.6 million to shareholders within about 12 months, representing a significant proportion of the funds received following our partial divestment of interest in Turkey. The remaining funds are being applied to our interest in Cyprus, Kosovo and Australia. In addition to funding further exploration work in Turkey, largely independent of Zenit Madencilik. It is also prudent in these times of great uncertainty to retain a significant cash balance in order to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, giving us a great degree of strategic flexibility. We have also previously stated our intention to implement a longer-term dividend policy. However, this will only occur when the time is right and in a manner that best benefits the company and its shareholders. More on the dividend strategy as outlined in another question below. Question 3. Can you tell us where we are with the Venus IPO and give us an update on when it is likely to list? Answer, despite challenging market conditions, Venus is continuing to make solid progress towards its planned IPO on AIM, and we have provided a recent update in late June to the market regarding its status. Further news will be forthcoming from Venus in due course. Question 4. Where are we with regard to Project Leopard? The work being undertaken on Project Leopard has been extensive in recent months, involving the direct input of 10 team members and the company is preparing to submit license applications soon. Further news on this aspect of the company's strategy will be provided when relevant. Question 5. When -- why do you retain Panmure Gordon as a broker? As previously outlined, Panmure Gordon are appointed by the company is a reputable broker with institutional outreach, which represents an important cornerstone for the way in which our business is promoted. That said, in the interest of our shareholders, we continue to evaluate options that we feel will best enable us to achieve maximum growth of the business, whether that be in place of or in addition to Panmure Gordon to remain. Question 6, why is news from Salinbas taking so long? Answer, we will be reporting the results of the current program of drilling following its conclusion. The program has been ongoing since late 2021. And now that we've received forestry payments across the project licenses, we're expecting to continue drilling for the remainder of the year as part of an expanded program of work. Question 7, why does the company no longer present in London? Answer, the company did present, in person, in London in early July and also attended a number of events early in the year, including one in May and another in June. Prior to that, we've been limited by COVID restrictions. Also, the generally accepted format of company presentations has changed and we now prefer to present to a global audience via the IMC or similar platforms rather than a specific in-person events, which have certain limitations. Such online platforms have a much wider reach and more cost effective, allow for a greater degree of useful and importantly recorded interaction with shareholders and match our ESG objectives. These are in addition to the AGM, which is held in person. Question 8. According to the last reserve statement in February 2022 Kiziltepe had about 2.5 years of life remaining. Is there any change to this plan? Answer, the last reserve estimate was published following an extensive drilling program conducted in 2021. It accurately reflects the expected reserves remaining to be mined across the Kiziltepe sector. And as a result, the mine will cease operations in 2025 unless further reserves are established in the meantime. Zenit is conducting a major new drilling program with the intention of further extending mine life. It is important to note that Kiziltepe has already produced more gold than its feasibility study and will likely run beyond this planned 8-year mine life. The company currently envisages the total mine life to be extended to 10 years to 2026 with the development of further resources and reserves. It is important to recognize that in this context, there's still significant inferred resources and our exploration target that still remain to be drill tested in full. Question 9. When will we hear more about the dividend strategy beyond the last tranche of the special dividend? Answer, our ability to pay ongoing dividends depends on several factors, not least the Tavsan mine development plan. We are working on a strategy to continue to pay dividends, but this will be dependent on the continued performance of the Zenit operations in Turkey. Question 10. Does the company have plans to add another nonexecutive director to the Board? Answer, this question is addressed in our annual report and in other Q&A sessions that we've completed in recent times. There is no change to our view that we will add to the Board when appropriate to do so, and the expertise we seek will either be in mineral processing or in ESG being the 2 most critical long-term strategic elements of our business, which are not currently addressed at Board level. Question 11. Can you comment on the future development strategy of the business and its objective to grow its market capitalization significantly within the next 10 years? Answer. The strategic goal of the company has summarized in both our annual report and in our corporate presentation. We have developed a clear strategy and pipeline of exploration development projects on which this strategy is based. Page 4 of our annual report provides the most succinct summary of the strategy and of its depth. Ariana has already grown from a company with an exploration-only portfolio and a market capitalization of GBP 3 million to one with interest in multiple highly prospective assets, one producing and a market capitalization over 12x greater than that at IPO. Even if only one other of our assets within our pipeline becomes a producing mine, we might expect that our market capitalization will least double again. But having multiple interests, Ariana shareholders are derisked but retain the value upside. Our strategy also allows us to provide our expertise to assist with the growth of the projects and companies in which we're invested. The more options, the greater the opportunity and our strategy is aligned squarely with the same. Question 12. Developments of Tavsan have clearly advancing its pace. Can you tell us any more about progress there? We are very pleased with the progress of Tavsan and seeing the earthmoving equipment on site in recent weeks was a fantastic site. This is a testament to the solid steps being taken by the Zenit team, we're putting huge effort to commence the construction of the mine as soon as it's possible to do so. In the meantime, we are still working on a new resource estimate to support the finalization of the feasibility setting. Further news on this and other aspects of the Tavsan mine development program will be announced in due course. Question 13. What do you consider to be the reasons for the recent lack of share price performance? Answer, the recent share price has been disappointing. We are in line with the market, which has gone through a challenging period, not only for our more direct peers but also majors and the performance of AIM generally. Despite this, over the past 5 years, we've significantly outperformed each of these comparables. We feel that the market still largely bases Ariana's value on the production from Kiziltepe despite the portfolio being far more diverse, the exciting growth potential and the exciting growth potential that this represents. We feel, however, that getting Tavsan into production as our second mine will further demonstrate Ariana's strategy. With the continued development of our assets over time, this value will no doubt be recognized and the share price will reflect this. So that was the answers to the submitted questions, 13 of them. And I'll just take another quick look through the questions that are coming live.

Yes, Kerim, in addition to your point about brokers, I think it's worth mentioning that you and I have both been speaking to brokers in London. So we are actively reviewing it at this time.

Yes.

From the questions I've seen that have come in on the Q&A, I'm not sure if I can scroll up and down. Yes, I can.

There's one question here from David L, that actually relates to that slide that I had right at the end and also...

That's the one I was thinking of, yes.

Reflects one of the other questions and answers that I gave. But the question from David is why do you think the market values Ariana at 40% less than it did 2 years ago? So yes, I mean you could look at it like that, and that would be a correct observation. This -- that's exactly what has happened. But that's looking at a very narrow window in the company's history and in its development. And if you look at the share price graph, that we provide on screen there. That shows Ariana's share price performance in relation to its direct peer group. So the direct peer group being other producers or near producers, some dividend paying and a number within our sort of region of operations or with a similar sort of risk profile. So that some of the companies that we can most easily be related to. Now over that window of time they're selected at 5 years. 5 years, representing really the window of time from the commencement of commercial production at Kiziltepe going forward. And also, coincidentally, that's a window of time that matches some of the other companies within that peer group as well. No, that's some of them. You can see a marked increase in Ariana's share price over that period of time, reflecting what I was saying earlier during the presentation as we continue to produce Kiziltepe pay down debt. And of course, the market itself was doing well, buoyed by the gold price through that period. We saw that uplift that reached a peak in around July, August of 2020, as did a number of other companies within that peer group. But then likewise, as with other companies in the peer group and the wider market and given fluctuations in the gold price, that our share price as with others, has drifted downwards. So if this is nothing unique to Ariana, this is the market talking, and it needs to be understood in that context.

I think it's fair to say that we're not the only one who's been deselected in the market, and you've just highlighted that with that graph. But looking at some of the major producers, they've similarly suffered quite substantial devaluations in the last while.

Correct. There's a question from Will M that touches on a couple of different topics. The question is, as a long-term investor, I'm very happy with the overall trajectory of the business. I'm concerned about the presentation, the launch of Tavsan and how commencement of mine construction was launched to the public and how lap lusted the broker notes are. Notably, you talk about growth, but where is this projected in broker notes who currently value the shares of about 5 pence? Do you agree? And if so, what is being done to address this? So a couple of subjects there. One is in relation to the developments at Tavsan. So Tavsan is -- will be just the second producing asset within the Zenit partnership. Our primary focus within Zenit obviously continues to be Kiziltepe. Tavsan development program has been dependent on receiving various permits, not least forestry permits. But there are other permits as well. Those permits, on the forestry side, have been received. There are some permits that will be required before we reach commercial production. But as we've seen at Kiziltepe, those other permits relating to, for instance, health and safety and a temporary operating permit. Those permits are -- can only be received later on in the development program. They're not permits that you can receive at this point in time. So you have to go through a process. Critical to that was the environmental impact assessment positive approval, which was received and then the associated permitting on forestry. So Tavsan is proceeding according to plan. As I was showing in the graph, the time line of our assets and the production that we're expecting from each of those assets over time. So it's very much on time and on target. And we've gone through all those hurdles. The same hurdles that we went through at Kiziltepe. There's nothing different about how we're developing Tavsan. And the previously reported on each of those hurdles. The EIA was reported on the forestry permits we reported on. And now the commencement of construction has been reported on. So I don't think that we're lacking information in terms of where we are in the development program for Tavsan. Then the second point was associated with our broker. We previously provided a note about that in a previous question. So there's probably not much more that we need to say on that other than perhaps the point about valuation. And the broker notes obviously take into account current operations, and they project forward to future operations, and they have to put a risk valuation on those future operations and how much they're risked or how they're discounted within their cash flow models is up to them. They've got their own way of doing that. We've got our own thoughts about what that should be. But at the end of the day, they have to apply a particular set of pro forma metrics to their analysis, and that is exactly what they're doing. So that for their clients, they're able to sort of compare apples with apples rather than apples with oranges, that they can't do things in different ways to suit different companies. So I don't think that's a particular problem. It is a valuation produced by an analyst, other analysts may come up with different numbers.

The opportunity here and we get other analysts on the card, we will see different valuations. And I think that's when people can see there is more to the story than just one analyst's view.

Yes. But all analysts their estimates. They're not.

And some analysts don't understand operation as a valuation.

The only valuation that matters is that the valuation that the market gives the company.

Yes. Kerim, could we break and take some questions from the floor in the room?

Yes.

Gentlemen, would you? Yes.

[indiscernible].

One at a time.

Yes. Well, the first one. What's the significance of keeping Harare regional office on Page 2 of [indiscernible].

I'll repeat the question, so everyone can hear it. It's the reference to Harare on Page 2 of our annual report. What is the Harare office?

Yes. So by our GIS analyst who's based in Harare, Zimbabwean geoscientist. It is our regional office primarily for Asgard related activities.

Okay. Thank you. Did that answer your question?

The second question.

Yes, please carry on.

[indiscernible] seems to me that we make pretty good investment trust and bringing a lot more funding...

So you're proposing that as Asgard Metals would make an attractive investment fund to attract money?

Yes. For the investors.

Kerim, did you hear that?

Yes, I got the sense of that. Yes. I agree.

We agree, but it's not necessarily part of our current business plan just yet. Yes. Thank you for this. Any other questions from the floor?

We've got quite a few, but I don't know whether you want me to deal with them now, or...

One at a time.

I think the question and the answers that we've had today confirmed won't be that were we see in many cases because they're too general. And I think they haven't really necessarily specifically answered. I was pleased to see that you will definitely say that Tavsan is not delayed because of permitting. So I think I can take that as being one of my questions that's been asked, which I'm very pleased to know. With regards to Salinbas, I don't see any comments, in fact the appreciable acceleration that we are expecting from the joint venture with Özaltin. I wonder if -- there's a comment on why they're not seeing that.

So to frame your question concisely, you want to know what is the contribution the Özaltin Group is making to the development of Salinbas. Is that correct? Okay.

And why aren't we hearing any progress report on such an important asset, which was actually started drilling at the end of last year, and here are halfway to back that at all.

Kerim, did you get the gist of that?

Yes, I did. So part of that question relates to what Özaltin contributing. They've contributed USD 8 million in cash to the entity that holds the wider Salinbas asset. So that's the 3 prospect areas that I counted off earlier: Ardala, Salinbas and Hizarliyayla. We're currently drilling on Salinbas. It was the only area that we were able to drill from late last year because we did not have the necessary forestry permits for the wider drilling program secured at that time, but we needed to get started. As Özaltin was obviously keen to see their money being put to good use. So we felt that we needed to make a start on that late last year, even though the time is not really optimal for drilling. I mean it was mid-winter and as a result of that, it was very, very slow going with that drilling program. It has only really started speeding up in the summer months of this year. There is a backlog of samples of the Assay laboratory and indeed at the depot. All of that is being assessed. We are, as I said, now expecting to up the pace on that drilling program. And that is a result of now having received the forestry permits that we needed for the wider program at areas like Ardala and Hizarliyayla as well. As well as Salinbas itself. So there were certain forestry permits that we needed there too. So we can now commence with the original wider program that we had established. So there's a huge amount of work that's been going on in the background. And the results of that work will be reported when they're determined to be material to the business.

Does that answer your question?

Yes. [indiscernible].

So the question is what are they bringing in addition to their money into the operations of Salinbas?

So Özaltin do not provide any input operationally. The Zenit partnership is managed by Proccea and Zenit itself from Board level comprises to Özaltin representatives, one representative from Proccea, one representative from Ariana. So 4 Board members and then sitting underneath that is the management team of Zenit. And the management team of Zenit comprises the management at the Kiziltepe mine site and it also includes the exploration team attached to Zenit. Now that's not our exploration team. That's Zenit's own exploration team, which are now managing 3 exploration programs at Kiziltepe, at Tavsan and at Salinbas. On our side, we provide exploration input and advice into the partnership. Özaltin on their side, provide commercial advice. And they've been particularly helpful as we've gone through various stages of permitting, be they local permitting for drilling programs or be the more substantial permitting matters relating to mine development such as Tavsan.

Okay. So for me to summarize, they've actually assisted in the background with permitting because they have a tremendous amount of experience in getting permitting from their construction background.