Aurelia Metals Limited (AMI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

My name is Peter Botten, and I'm Chair of Aurelia Metals Limited. Sincere welcome to our 2024 Annual General Meeting. I wish to thank everyone for attending today, either in person or online. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Jagera and Turrbal peoples, the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today. I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land upon which Aurelia operates and pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging. While every effort has been made to ensure today's meeting runs smoothly for those attending online, if technical issues do arise, a short recess or an adjournment may be required depending on the number of shareholders affected. If this occurs, I shall advise you accordingly. At this point, I kindly ask everyone in the room to please ensure your mobile phone is switched off or placed in silent mode. A lot of people going for their phones. In the event of emergency, an alarm will sound. Please follow the directions from Allens staff. All of our Board members are present today. And on my far right-hand side is Lyn Brazil. Next to Lyn is Bob Vassie. Next to him is Bryan Quinn, our MD and CEO, myself. Next to me is Susie Corlett. And next to Susie is Bruce Cox. Also with us today is Rochelle Carey, our Company Secretary; and the members of our executive leadership team are sprinkled through the audience. Representing the company's auditor, Ernst & Young, is Ms. Kellie McKenzie, who is available to answer any questions in relation to the audit of the company. Under our constitution, a quorum for a shareholder meeting is 3 members. We have a quorum present today, so I now declare the meeting open. I propose that the notice of meeting dated 24th of October 2024, which was made available to shareholders, be taken as read. Moving to the agenda for today's meeting. I will firstly deliver a brief address. Our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bryan Quinn, will then present on our full year '24 performance and our outlook for full year '25 and beyond. It will be followed by the formal business, which is to receive and consider Aurelia's FY '24 financial statements and reports and put 5 resolutions to the shareholders. The resolutions will cover the adoption of the FY '24 remuneration report; the reelection of myself and Bob Vassie as directors in accordance with the company's constitution; approval of the company's long-term incentive plan; and the approval of issue -- to issue performance rights to the Managing Director, Bryan Quinn. Participation in the business of the meeting, including the asking of any questions, is confined to shareholders and people entitled to vote on behalf of shareholders. If you are in the room with us today and wish to ask a question please stand and show your yellow or blue attendance card. Please state your name, then ask your question. If you are attending virtually, you will be able to ask questions either verbally or in writing. [Operator Instructions]. These questions will be read by our Company Secretary at the appropriate time. If you're online, please identify yourself as a shareholder or moderator by one, typing your name and shareholding SRN or HIN at the start of your question or confirming the name of the shareholder you are representing at the beginning of the question, if you are a company representative, proxy or a power of attorney. If your question is about a specific resolution, please include the number of the resolution to help us address your question at the appropriate time. If you have a general question about the company or its operations, please write general question. We will then address any general questions after the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer's presentation. Written questions may be amalgamated when we answer them. If you are a shareholder attending online and wish to ask a question verbally [Operator Instructions]. Please note that there may be a delay between the submission of your question and our receiving question. I, therefore, encourage you to enter the question early. I'll now move to my address as Chair. And I'd like to make some opening remarks about the company's activities in FY '24 and our outlook moving forward. At last year's Annual General Meeting, I highlighted 3 priorities for the company for 2024. These included strong and consistent operational performance to focus on high margin, lower cost production that would deliver predictable cash flows and would help fund the Federation Project and further growth; the second was the optimization of our workforce with the right skills to drive our performance and deliver superior value; the third was to ensure competitive funding and progressive delivery of the Federation Project. Although there remains a long road ahead on delivery of these objectives and associated superior returns to shareholders, I believe we have made some real progress on many of these targets during the year and have set up the company for continued improvement in delivery in the years ahead. Of course, performance of any company starts with the safety of its workforce, both physical and psychological. Over the past year, the number of recordable injuries, particularly slips, trips and hand injuries, was higher than we would have liked. And although we have seen a reduction during the second half, the number of incidents remains unacceptably high. Safety remains our top priority. Both Board and management are committed to ensuring that our employees take the necessary time to prepare for their work, potential -- assess potential hazards and go home each day safely, with a clear sense of purpose and appreciation for their importance to the company. Bryan will discuss in more detail the health, safety and environmental and community initiatives that are driving these efforts, as well as provide insights into our operational and financial performance for the year. Despite the challenges of the past year, I'm pleased to report that Aurelia delivered a strong set of results aligned with our commitments and objectives for FY '24. Both Peak and Dargues exceeded tonnage targets, and despite some weather-related setbacks at the Federation Project, the project remains on track. We delivered our first stope ore in Q1 FY '25, as was committed to shareholders. And the expenditure continues to be in line with the improved capital budget. We saw a significant improvement in all financial metrics for the year, including a 45% increase in underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization; 119% uplift in cash flows from operations; 198% increase in all-in sustaining costs margin compared to FY '23. These financial results were achieved despite a $59.3 million decrease in sales revenue compared to FY '23 driven by lower production and sales volumes, inflationary pressures on labor and service costs and the ramp-down of production at Dargues towards the end of the year. Importantly, we finished the financial year with a strong balance sheet, holding $116.5 million in cash, bolstered by robust cash flow from operations, a significant turnaround over the last 12 months. This provides a solid foundation for our future growth. As reviewed in last year's AGM, the Federation Project was a major investment to deliver growth with $64.8 million invested during the year, in line with our budget expectations. Our operations generated $75 million in cash flow, which was largely reinvested into growth and exploration projects. In terms of capital and balance sheet risk management, the Board endorsed a hedging program and policy to lock in a significant portion of attractive spot prices, providing some protection from unfavorable fluctuations in commodity prices. This prudent step helps ensure our financial stability and supports the continued growth and development of the company. As the Federation Project progressively comes into production, resulting in growth in cash flows, our focus is moving towards delivering profits and material returns to shareholders. More of this later. In October 2024, the New South Wales government released the New South Wales Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metal Strategy 2024-'25, a forward-thinking initiative designed to stimulate investment in commodities essential for decarbonization and electrification. The strategy offers a range of incentives, including royalty reductions, exploration support and assistance for downstream supply chain. Aurelia is committed to working closely with the government to explore how these incentives can benefit our growth opportunities, particularly in relation to our exploration activities and the Great Cobar Project as well as other projects in our pipeline. These initiatives have been provided to the industry at a very convenient time for Aurelia metals' growth journey. Our Federation Project and Great Cobar study focuses on producing commodities crucial for the renewable energy transition, including materials needed for wind turbines, battery storage, solar panels and, of course, electric vehicles and EV batteries. We believe our portfolio is strategically positioned around commodities that are in high demand and short supply, making a significant contribution to the global transition towards a low-carbon economy. We have an outstanding portfolio of development and exploration opportunities in the Cobar region, along with access to material infrastructure, which can be used as the basis for high returning, capital-efficient further growth, using ours and, where appropriate, third-party product. Our focus now goes to prioritization of investment opportunities whilst optimizing efficient funding and project delivery. It's not just about growing production, but a real priority improving profits and returns. During the year, we continue to optimize how we work, with a priority on becoming a Cobar area specialist, whether it's in mining, processing, development and exploration. We want to be a regional expert in everything we do, giving us a competitive advantage in how we drive value in our Cobar assets. It is a long road, but 2023/'24 saw the first real steps in delivering of this strategy. Looking ahead, along with Federation, we're pleased to have progressed our next 2 projects in our Cobar portfolio. These projects are strategically sequenced to ensure we maximize production capacity and operational efficiency in the Cobar region. They include development of Great Cobar, which is targeting a final investment decision in late Q3 FY '25. This project has significant potential for future copper production, adding further strength to our portfolio. The second project involves the expansion of the Peak plant, increasing the throughput capacity from 800,000 tonnes to 1.1 to 1.2 kilo tonnes per annum. This project is targeting a final investment decision in second half FY '25. This will help unlock further shareholder value, lowering production costs across the portfolio and driving higher returns for Peak and Federation. We will continue to refine these opportunities and finalize the cost-effective, efficient financing for this continued growth. I'm pleased to announce that the Board approved Aurelia's Sustainability Strategy in FY '24. This marks a significant step forward in our commitment to sustainable business practices and aligns our operations with the principles of environmental stewardship, social responsibility, corporate governance. The strategy focuses on 4 core areas: The health and safety of our people; energy intensity reduction; water consumption intensity; and building long-term trusted relations with our community. These pillars provide clear direction for the company, ensuring that we provide initiatives that will improve the workplace environment, reduce energy and water consumption, and strengthen our relationships with the communities in which we operate. By delivering on these commitments, we aim to create long-term value for both the business and the communities we serve. In our annual report, we have outlined the specific targets we are working towards with each of these areas, and I encourage all shareholders to take time to review this document as it provides a detailed account of our goals and the actions we are taking to meet them. Another critical area of focus for the Board in FY '24 has been updating of our risk management framework. We've made significant strides in enhancing our approach to risk management, ensuring that we are prepared for potential challenges while also seizing opportunities for growth and improvement. In line with optimizing our management and organization structure, we also made some strategic changes to our Board with the appointment of Lyn Brazil in July 2023 and the resignations of Helen Gillies and Paul Harris in January 2024. These changes ensure we have the right Board size, mix of skills and experience to provide the appropriate level of oversight and governance for Aurelia's next phase of development. Looking ahead, the FY '24 results represent a pleasing continuation of the turnaround in the business started in 2023. While we celebrate these achievements, we recognize there's still significant work to be done in FY '25. Key priorities for the year ahead will be improving safety and continuing to enhance the profitability and returns from the business. As part of these efforts, we'll focus on optimizing our excellent Cobar portfolio to ensure we are effectively filling our mills at lower cost and advancing critical projects to deliver a step change in cash flows, in profits and returns. We believe that by developing, operating and producing the commodities that will power the future, we are positioning ourselves to capitalize on growing demand in the global transition to a low-carbon economy. These strategic projects will not only strengthen our financial performance, but also help Aurelia position itself to continue in -- to be a top quartile performer in the mining sector and the companies of similar size of market capitalization, delivering long-term maximum value to our shareholders. In closing, I would like to thank my fellow Board members, executive leadership team, all of our employees and shareholders for their support during FY '24. I'd also like to thank the communities in which we work and recognize the critical support that they provide across all our activities. The company has made substantial progress in delivering on its commitments and potential, and we look forward very much to continuing to do so in the future. I'll now turn to -- and invite Bryan, our MD and CEO, to give his address.

Thanks, Peter. Good morning to everyone here present. And also, I know we have over 40 different participants online as well joining us. So welcome to you guys also. Very excited to take through the results for FY '24 and also discuss, I guess, what I think makes Aurelia Metals a successful and resilient company going forward, definitely worthy of your ongoing trust and support and investment. So before turning to the operational performance, I'd like to highlight and recognize the 92% increase in share price over the period of FY '24. This is an excellent achievement for the company over the 12 months, and obviously really shows the potential of this company considering in the next 12 months as well as we start ramping up Federation and bringing more production into sales. I do recognize, obviously, the price has come up a little since July, similar to other base metal peers as well. But I do also think that our value proposition is very strong as a company compared to our peers. Firstly, we have good growth potential in the Cobar region, capable of filling our mills and delivering strong cash flows and EBITDA. And we have these results available to us through our clear organic pipeline. We have quality infrastructure to extract payable metals for all the resources we mine, which sets us apart. We have a strong balance sheet, no debt has been drawn down, and our operations have been generating cash to actually allow our capital growth -- capital into our growth. Our location is in a Tier 1 jurisdiction of Cobar, which has low risks, and we have good access to infrastructure, people and also services, and we have a good relationship with the local government and also the state government. Importantly, this can only be done with the right leadership and the workforce. We have the shareholders' interest in mind every day. And we want to improve the business every day. To achieve these plans, since the last AGM, we've made some organizational changes with the introduction of Angus Wyllie, being promoted from the Dargues General Manager to the Regional General Manager of Cobar. Angus is at the back in the room. And obviously, Angus did a great job with Dargues. We're basically bringing the operation towards closure at the back end of FY '24. He did a sterling job in terms of delivering the operations safely with above budget production, below budget costs compared to FY '23 as well and also delivered more cash than we actually budgeted in FY '24. So Angus has now taken on the lead role, General Manager for the region in Cobar to set us up for success. Also in the room, I have Martin Cummings, the CFO over to the left, my left; Rochelle Carey, CoSec and Chief Legal over to my left; Andrew Graham at the back, second row, Technical and Business Development; and Susan Scheepers, our Group Manager of People and Culture, and she's over to the left as well. So please, at the end of the session today, [indiscernible] yourselves and ask any questions you might have of the leadership team. Now turning to the operational and financial performance. I'm actually -- it's been a year of significant improvement for Aurelia Metals. Our operations delivered cash. Our Federation has progressed well, and we've been building strength in our balance sheet. And also, we've had impressive exploration results, which we've released throughout the year. Importantly, FY '24 is a year to build credibility with our shareholders and employees. And if you recall, 12 months ago at this AGM, I sort of made 4 commitments. One, was safely delivering operational excellence and lower unit costs while generating cash to grow our business. Also, number two, said that pursuing long-term -- you near-term growth projects, which is obviously Federation. We're going to safely generate as much cash from Dargues as it transitioned from a product -- producing mine into a closing mine towards the end of the year. And also optimize the Cobar Basin, taking advantage of our infrastructure and our highly prospective geology. There are 4 commitments I made at the AGM last year, and I think it progressed quite well over this period of time. And although we're not there yet, we've got a way to go, I'm happy how we're progressing from our baseline at the start of FY '24. Some of the financial outcomes this year across the business which we have reported include delivering above budget tonnages at Peak and Dargues. We delivered on guidance for commodities and costs with our all-in sustaining cost for 2024 being $2,035 per ounce, which was 12% below our FY '23 numbers. Peak also reduced its all-in sustaining cost by 11% compared to FY '23. Cash flows from operations, as Peter mentioned, improved by 119% against FY '23. Underlying EBITDA margin improved by 73%, while our underlying EBITDA improved by 45%. This was done with less volume produced compared to FY '23, and 16% less revenue compared to FY '23. So this is all about improving the quality of shareholders earnings through what we do in our business. Our major cash outflow was the funding of Federation capital project this year, which commenced in August 2023, and we have delivered first stope ore in Q1 FY '25 as we committed to the shareholders, and we'll remain on budget for the project at this point in time. We spent in FY '24, $65 million on the Federation Project. So we have a lot to highlight for FY '24 in our financial metrics, which I'm very proud of for the team for achieving. I'll take a few minutes to explain some of the details of the physical achievements we've actually made over this FY '24 period as well, which are all documented in the annual report, which is our cornerstone operation. We focused heavily on developing our operations, and we're able to deliver consistent development meters quarter-on-quarter over the year, which allowed us to actually achieve our production areas being available to stope and allowed us to deliver over budget tonnes for the year. Mining costs per tonne have come down over the last 5 or 6 quarters from over $180 a tonne down to around $124 a tonne, and we're targeting to go to $100 a tonne in the near future as we transition to the North mine. We've improved recoveries of the processing plant for all commodities. For example, zinc was 70% at the start of the year and is now 77.5% at the end of the year. Copper was 81%, and we've now moved to 93%. These are all important changes that we're making in the organization to deliver operating excellently, because effectively, if we can continue this path of improving, we'll deliver much more shareholder value than we are today. These -- the recoveries are particularly important, especially with Federation ore being processed in quarter 2 this year. Effectively, with these recoveries, we can extract more value from the ore coming from Federation also, which is a great outcome for the business. I'll just talk about Dargues briefly. Even if it's been the last year of production, full production, and we've ramped down in quarter 1 FY '25, but for most people, that's quite a complicated year to run a business as you're keeping -- need to keep people focused, need to keep people safe. They're looking at their shoulder wondering what's going to happen after the operations finished, et cetera. And I'd have to say the management team has done a great job, and the team itself on site has done a great job of really delivering, like I said, above-budget tonnages. They've done at an all-in sustaining cost less than our targets of FY '23, and they've also generated nearly $10 million per quarter cash to the business from Dargues in this last 12 months. I really want to thank all the employees that were there up until closure of the mine. It was actually great to have them as part of the team. It was actually sad to see the team need to leave. We did retain some people over to the Cobar region, but it was a great outcome, once again, for the mine to finish successfully, as we committed to the shareholders last year at the AGM and maximize cash in doing that. In FY '25, the operation is transitioning to closure and selling off all the assets. That's now moved into our technical and BD team under Andrew Graham's responsibility to allow us to focus our efforts in the Cobar region on operations. Our Federation Project, we delivered first stope ore in Q1 FY '25, and now we're ramping up to achieve between 100,000 and 140,000 tonnes in FY '25. Trucks have already started hauling material to Peak from Federation, so we can have a batch -- bulk sample processed in this quarter, which we did commit to the shareholders also. We've continued to descope and rescope the Federation Project to reduce cost and also reduce complexity. And that's actually freed up capital for contingency for the unknown outcomes of the project as we get towards the end of the project this financial year. More recently, in October 2024, we've also signed a Redpath for a 3-year contract to build our mine with us, which has been a great outcome for the company. They've been with us leading up to the start of the operation or start of the project in August 2023. They've been involved with us trying to get through all the headwinds of the heavy rainfalls we experienced. And now we've signed up a 3-year contract with them with key milestones along the way. With all this in mind, for Federation, we still remain on track at $144 million for the -- as per the approved budget. But I do want to acknowledge what Peter mentioned around safety performance. With our total recordable injury frequency rate getting up to 12.8, which I'm not proud of or happy about at all. But thankfully, we've seen that turn around in FY '25 and the trends in the right direction. The majority of these incidents as Peter mentioned were slips, trips and cuts on hands. And the majority also were our contracting partners, which make up 40% of our workforce. So as a part of a way forward in FY '25, we're really going to work hard at improving our contractor management [indiscernible] leadership in the field, verification of performance in the field, but also make sure our contractor management is much better than it has been in the past. Nothing is more important than safety of our people. We -- in terms of it, we take seriously every incident, every near miss and every injury. We investigate thoroughly those particular events to make sure we can learn from them and make sure that we implement those controls and changes in our organization as soon as we can. To me, we're actually -- we are resolute that everyone that comes to work for us should be able to work safely in Aurelia and go home safely each day. And that's our commitment to the workforce. I'll just move on to our balance sheet. So obviously, the work we've done to deliver payable metals and deliver strong revenues, our focus on reducing costs, our focus on keeping Federation budget -- Federation project within budget and building the business, in addition to some of our prudent hedging we've done on pricing of commodities has meant that we've actually retained a very strong balance sheet at the end of FY '24, as Peter mentioned. There's $116.5 million cash available, and we have over $150 million of liquidity. And so this balance sheet is really setting us up to be -- to grow our business in the right direction, in line with our road map that I'll discuss very shortly, and provide further business deliverables and maximize our shareholder value for the future. But importantly, we actually need to make sure that we understand success comes from our people. And to build a future, we, of course, need to make sure we have the right people with the right mindset, and we need them to be hungry to make sure Aurelia is really successful with the right culture, as I believe people are the success of this company going forward. Therefore, to understand this better, in FY '24, we conducted an assessment to understand where we need to focus to improve our culture, which the outcome of the assessment and the -- on sustainable engagement provides some really good insights on where we've improved and also where we need to improve. Those things have been taken forward, and we're involving our workforce in actioning key focus areas to improve those areas we can deliver better performance. To support also the sustainable engagement with our people, there's 3 key initiatives we've kicked off this year to really get operational excellence out of our business. One, we've kicked off is a focus on our diversity, inclusion and equity initiative; two, is operating mine system, which is our MOS; three, is our risk management system that Peter talked about. So firstly, we've started to prioritize diversity, inclusion and equity, ensuring our workplace is where -- is one where all employees feel safe, valued, supported and empowered to reach their full potential. I've personally taken the Chair role so we can prioritize projects starting -- which are starting to make a difference. Currently, we have 3 -- 4 projects which are under construction, and all the committee members are involved in implementing these projects with the teams on site. Secondly, an exciting new initiative in FY '24 has been working with our people building our mine operating system, which we call it MOS. This is actually to enable our people across the organization to have daily input into improving safety, productivity, costs, in addition to implementing 5S standards, which will improve our workplace standards. These initiatives are cascading through the organization and really help with operational excellence of which I will report in future quarters on our deliverable. And thirdly, another key initiative towards operating excellently is really delivering our step change in risk management that Peter spoke about. We have developed a maturity curve that we are working towards to enable our people and our teams, one, to plan better; two, look around the corner and implement controls to prevent major failure or delays that may have impacts and consequences on our business and on themselves; and also three, verify the controls are in place in a routine way to make sure the risks don't eventuate. All of these 3 initiatives will assist to deliver operating excellently and a better culture where we plan the work and work the plan and become -- which will become the fabric of how Aurelia operates going forward and improve our bottom line results. So with that in mind, I'd like to talk about our road map going forward. So how does the current road map and immediate future for Aurelia look? Looking ahead, Dargues is now closed, and we're on care and maintenance. Peak is performing well, and we obviously need to continue delivering our budget and our cash flows to continue to drive the business forward. Federation is ramping up month-on-month and before we know it, in the next 12 to 18 months, we'll have both the Peak and the Federation mine delivering over 1.1 million tonnes. So our focus is maximizing value from our assets in the Cobar region, an area that offers the greatest potential to fill our mills. The strategy is key to giving Aurelia Metals and our shareholders greater exposure to commodities. So in those -- in our Great Cobar -- sorry, in our Peak mine and in our Federation mine, we'll have exposure to copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver. And as we know, these are all relevant minerals that have been sort of required for the global megatrends. Shareholders, what you have at Aurelia Metals is a company that -- with a clear strategy, a focused road map and a relentless focus on delivering value. We aim to fill our mills with high quality ore while producing at a competitive cost. And as Peter mentioned, the global volatility in the markets are likely to continue. However, we believe with the stability of our strategy, our strong balance sheet and increasing our scale of production and the diversified nature of our commodities, we'll be able to navigate these challenges and continue to grow. But we are making a step-by-step progress on this road map to bring it to reality. So let me just talk through the sort of steps in the road map. First of all, obviously, we need to continue to extract high-grade payable metal from Peak at the right cost and deliver our budgets and cash flow. Federation project needs to be ramped up in FY '25 to commercial production, and then obviously continue ramping up into FY '26 at full production. We are putting Peak expansion final investment decision to the Board in the second half of -- in Q2 of FY '25. We're also putting Great Cobar Project final investment decision to the Board in Q2 FY '25. And beyond that, obviously, we're having a very intensive exploration program to look at what's next in our pipeline. These projects will deliver more than 1.1 million tonnes. And if the FID is approved for the expansion of Peak plant. Obviously, we have the Hera plant available for further expansion of our volumes beyond the 1.1 million to 1.2 million tonnes that we're currently talking about for the expansion. I'll just take a few minutes to talk through the studies and the project. So if you -- where we are right now, we have a very good resource of [ 14 ] million tonnes, as reported in M Ore of copper sitting in the North mine, which is accessible via box cut and has been established -- this has been established for many years, and this gives us access to the Great Cobar Project. To support our increase in copper production going forward, which is a -- Great Cobar is the natural project for us to go after. It's a business which has 8.6 million tonnes resource, 2.1% copper, 0.6 grams per tonne gold, and it's open at depth and on strike. We have the mining permits already approved, and we will take this to the final investment decision in second half of FY '25. If it's approved, we'll obviously move forward in FY '26 with the project. The project involves developing declines across the ore body from the current workings in the North Mine, installing a vent shaft, doing ventilation upgrades, installing service facilities, power, water and small workshops on the surface, which already exists at the North mine. Secondly, to maximize value from Federation Project and the Great Cobar Project and also the Peak mining as well, we're bringing to the final investment decision the expansion of the Peak mill, which currently is at 800,000 tonnes, and the project looks at -- between 1.1 million to 1.2 million tonnes. So we'll process all the material from Peak, Great Cobar and Federation ores all through the Peak mill if this project is successful. What this gives us is a much more superior revenue source because we're able to actually separate the concentrates out of the actual run-of-mine ore and obviously deliver much better EBITDA and cash flows for the business going forward. The intention behind this expansion is to take the capital that was allocated for the restart of Hera mill and put it into the expansion of the Peak mill, about $20 million to $25 million as we reported before. This project will unlock the latent capacity of some parts of the Peak mill and use the infrastructure from Dargues, including the ball mill and the control power station, which already exists and saves us buying those units. All of these activities can be achieved without major interruptions also for the processing at the plant at Peak. This is an exciting opportunity, which will have many direct benefits to the bottom line for Aurelia, including lowering unit costs, using power and water from the mains grid, which is also at lower cost. And most importantly, we extract maximum revenue from our commodities as payable metals. So to talk beyond those projects and studies, I'll just move on exploration focus. The exploration activities in FY '24 have been fundamental to our growth journey beyond where we are now and beyond what our current project studies are all about. It actually enables us to continue to find quality ore that we can grow to fill our mills in the future and to fill our growth ambitions. So as per the road map beyond the 3 projects that I just discussed, we're seeking the next growth target. We've spent over nearly $12 million in FY '23 -- FY '24, and over 40,000 meters have been drilled. I just want to highlight some of the results that have come out of 4 of the particular areas that we've drilled. Firstly, drilling at Federation East below the main thrust intersected thick intervals of high-grade mineralization, including 6 meters at 27.2% zinc and 13.5% lead. This drilling also to the Northwest are offset intersected high-grade massive sulfides, about 140 meters off the main ore body. So really impressive results coming from Federation. Secondly, Chesey North had 6 diamond drill holes in the program provided significant intersections with copper grades reaching 9.7% copper and gold reaching 4.2% -- 4.2 grams per tonne of gold. Thirdly, we had some exceptional gold copper grades of 17% from Queen Bee. And lastly, at Nymagee, we had intercepted multiple thick high-grade copper lenses at 13.4% and the highest zinc assays up to 37.9% and silver 250 grams per tonne. Further drilling, obviously, will be required at all these locations to continue to unpack the potential resource for our future options. As you can see from the exploration side of things, we've had some amazing results in FY '24. We're rolling into FY '25 with a very intense drilling program as well to sort of uncover further resource potential for our business. And as I said earlier, this highly prospective area that we've got tenements over is very impressive compared to all our peers in that region. So none of our growth and exploration is really possible without really our involvement with our community. So I'd like to highlight, as Peter mentioned, some of the things we're doing with -- as a good neighbor in the community and creating value for our communities as well. We are deeply invested in the well-being of the communities in the regions we operate, and we actually strive to be a partner of choice for local government, suppliers and communities. This year, we invested $89 million in local community spend on good services and contracts. We spent $273,000 in community grants and projects for the better of the community, and approximately $32 million net in government payments as well. These all go to the region -- sorry, not all go to the region, all these investments are going towards our long-term prosperity in the region we serve. In addition, we made significant progress, as Peter mentioned, on our sustainability goals that we set in FY '24. Our focus is on energy use reduction, water reduction, improvements in health and safety of our people and also continued focus on community engagement as a good neighbor. This is all part of our commitment to working in the region, having a good reputation and improving our sustainability as a company. Shareholders, we are producing the metals that actually do matter and which will provide good returns as demand increases year-on-year for these commodities. Your continued support is essential to our success as a company. We have a plan, we have the balance sheet, and we believe we have the drive to make this a successful company with the leaders in this room and the Board's support. With a clear strategy to utilize our infrastructure, geological prospective we have in our tenements and with capable people, applying good operating discipline and a focus on value creation, I'm confident that Aurelia Metals will continue to grow and deliver value to you, our shareholders. Therefore, the focus areas in FY '25, to wrap up, really continue to ramp up Federation towards full production, which will generate significant cash and value to the shareholders; safely maximize cash generation from operations through operating excellently to continue to strengthen our balance sheet; attract and retain talent that will grow the company and be part of our successful culture; deliver the final investment decision for both Great Cobar and the Peak mill expansion; and to continue to focus on exploration on delivering our next growth milestones. So thank you for your ongoing support. We look forward to delivering into the future. But lastly, I want to spend special thanks to our Board, our executive leadership team that are all here today as well, and also the Aurelia team for making this year in FY '24 possible with the results we have achieved, and I look forward to delivering that in FY '25 as well. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Bryan. I'll now open the floor to general questions. Does anyone in the room have any questions of general nature around the course of the business in 2023, '24? If you do have a question, please ensure that you can show your yellow or blue attendance card and state your name or the name of the shareholders that you're representing. Sir?

My name is Dennis Walker. Is the company looking at putting your own, I imagine, solar and don't know what the winds [indiscernible] but there's a few mines start to put their own stuff in now. Is that a thought in the future for you guys?

Bryan?

Yes. So with our Federation Project, we're actually doing a full review of diesel, LNG and solar and even battery to recharge system as well. And so at the moment, the preferred direction we're going down the path of is actually looking again -- so a combination of those things. We aren't looking at wind so much. That's a large investment, and we're not experts at that sort of thing, but we are looking at that. We're also continuing to look at what we do at the Peak complex as well in terms what we can do there for solar. We have a mains grid, and that mains grid is provided by solar down the road at [indiscernible]. But as far as Federation, which is off the grid, we're definitely looking as a key opportunity as well for sure.

Just one thing for sure in the future, the cost of energy is going to grow up a lot more than the cost of your wages and stuff.

Yes, most definitely. We're taking that into account. We were looking at the future of the business and also the fact that we can run daytime on solar and run night time with battery and other sources. That's where we want to head down the path of.

Are there any further questions in the room?

Yes, I do. [indiscernible]. My -- from my understanding from memory, last -- correct me if I'm wrong, but gold was hedged with Aurelia at roughly wasn't it at AUD 1,000 per ounce up until September. Is that correct?

Martin will answer.

Yes, it was -- sorry.

[indiscernible].

Okay. Yes, we did hedge this year up to September '24 at around $3,000. We then put some new hedges on at $4,100 back in, I think, it was August. So our average hedge price at the moment is around $3,800. So today is around bit over [ $4,000 ].

So just to clarify, it was roughly about AUD 1,000 per ounce up until September. Is that right?

No, around $3,000.

Around $3,000. Wasn't that last year a lot lower, right?

No. It hasn't been about at $1,000 for years -- for more than 10 years.

And we haven't hedged the total book. It's a proportion of the book only we've hedged just to protect our future revenue.

So at the moment, you're saying it's about $4,000?

So today, gold price is around a bit over $4,000 an ounce.

I know that's [indiscernible].

That's why we're saying on average hedge is $3,800 at the end of September. And that's for around 25% of our production out to June next year.

Just on that one. What percentage is hedged?

Around 25%.

I'm sorry. And because our hedging policy really is focused on hedging future revenue, while we're in sort of building phase of our business as well to protect our capital investments.

Graham Harman. Martin, that hedging, is it the requirement of the financing side?

No. It's not. It's just our decision around managing the balance sheet. Yes. And it's not a Board mandated. It's a decision we've made just for the near term.

Yes. Okay.

Any more questions from the floor? Okay, Rochelle, are there any general questions from those attending online?

I've got a question online, Peter, from Mr. Ben [indiscernible]. That question is, Aurelia trades at circa 1.3x EBITDA multiple at spot pricing. What are the plans to improve this aside from just consistent operational performance?

Yes. I think the current multiple is obviously a result of where we are in the cycle. With our performance going into Federation, we'll deliver much more cash flow. As we sort of ramp up the volumes, we'll have Peak providing cash flow. We'll have, obviously, Federation providing cash flow coming into the next 12 to 18 months at full capacity. And obviously, the multiples will obviously improve a fair bit compared to where they are now with that sort of outlook. [ Martin ], any additional comments?

No other questions.

There are no other questions. Well, thank you for that.

I will now move to the consideration of all the items of business for today's meeting. The notice of meeting sets out the resolutions proposed today. No notice of other business has been received in accordance with the Corporations Act, and so the only items of business to be presented today will be those specified in the notice of meeting. Firstly, I'd like to explain today's voting procedures. As stated in the notice of meeting, all resolutions will be put to a poll. I appoint Adrienne Atkinson of Automic Group, the company's share registry, who have examined and prepared summaries of the proxy forms received, to act as returning officer and to conduct the poll. If you are attending in person, please fill out your voting card, and our Automic representative will collect your completed voting card at the appropriate time. If you are voting online, you will see instructions on the Automic website once you have logged in on how to register and vote. Please do not click "Next" until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. Should I say that again? Do not click Next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. Resolution 1 relating to the remuneration report is advisory only. All other resolutions are ordinary, which means that to be carried, they require 50% of the votes cast by members who are entitled to vote. Resolutions 1, 4 and 5 are subject to voting exclusions, and further details are set out in the notice of meeting. As each resolution is discussed, the wording of each resolution and the results of the proxies received prior to the meeting will be shown. The proxies received prior to the meeting represents 898,940,923. I hope I don't have to say that number again, shares, of which that represents 53% of the issued capital of the company. To the extent permitted by the Corporations Act and ASX listing rules and subject to the voting exclusions detailed in the notice of meeting, all valid undirected proxies or open votes that have nominated the Chair of the meeting as their proxy will be cast in favor of each resolution outlined in the notice of meeting. Directors and executives identified as key management personnel will not be voting undirected proxy votes given to them for resolutions 1, 4 and 5. The poll and therefore, online voting pool portal is now open and will open until I declare the poll closed. Your votes must be submitted prior to the poll being closed for them to count. I will now move to the first item of business. The first item is to receive and consider Aurelia's FY '24 financial statements, the directors' report and the independent auditor's report. As no resolution is required, there will be no voting on this item. Kellie McKenzie from Ernst & Young is available to answer any questions you might have regarding the audit of the company. Are there any comments or questions from shareholders in the room regarding the financial statements or the audit of the company? Are there any questions from the floor? No. That's clear. Thank you. Rochelle, are there any questions from online attendees? No questions. Obviously, very clear for everybody concerns, and thank you for your work, Kellie. There being no further questions, I will now move to resolution 1. Resolution 1 relates to a nonbinding resolution required by the Corporations Act in relation to the FY '24 remuneration report. The wording of the resolution and the proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. The presentation of the remuneration report is a requirement of all ASX-listed companies. The company's remuneration report is included in the company's 2024 annual report. The remuneration report sets out the remuneration of Aurelia's directors and key management personnel and Aurelia's remuneration policies in respect of the key management personnel. In accordance with the Corporations Act, this vote is only advisory and does not bind the directors or the company. Are there any comments or questions from shareholders in the room regarding the remuneration report? Are there any questions online? Very good. I'd like to acknowledge the extremely hard work that our Chair of our Remuneration and Nomination Committee, Bob Vassie, puts in over the year. He's done a great job pulling that together. I put to the meeting resolution 1. Please record your vote in relation to resolution 1 by choosing for, against or abstain on your screen or voting card. Shareholders voting online are reminded not to click Next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. [Voting]

We now move to resolution 2. As this item relates to my own reelection, I'll hand the chair of the meeting to Susie Corlett for this item. Susie, over to you.

The next item business is resolution 2, which is the reelection of Peter Botten as a Nonexecutive Director. The wording of the resolution and the proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. Peter's credentials are outlined in the notice of meeting. Peter is the Chair of the Board and a member of the Board's Rem and Nom committee as well as the Audit committee. I will now ask Peter to address shareholders regarding his reelection.

Thanks, Susie, and thanks for the opportunity, and thank you, shareholders, for providing the opportunity for me to continue as a director of Aurelia for further 3 years. It is much appreciated. I joined the Board some 3 years ago at a time when the company had some serious challenges. The mining operations were not going well. Costs were not well controlled. Cash flows were not consistent. Safety performance were poor. And access to capital to deliver development of growth projects, including Federation, was a real challenge. It was an interesting time to join the Board and an interesting time to work with fellow directors to work through the challenges that the company had at the time and lay the platform for what I now see is a great opportunity to deliver shareholder value and go beyond where we even considered possible some 3 years ago. I'm pleased to say the company is in far better shape now than it was then. I do believe I bring to the Board substantial experience in running and growing a successful resources company. I have a track record in that space to understand how growth can be successful and considerable experience in delivering major projects and developing a high-performing quality leadership team. I believe that the skills that I can -- I bring to the table does add value to the discussion and richness of our Board deliberations. And really, I see it as a job only partly done. There is so much more to do, having rebuilt a platform that is now the basis for ongoing success in the business, establish a management team and a group of people who are highly committed and highly skilled in developing what is a particularly challenging mining environment in Cobar area and developing the financial capacity and skills to continue to build the business. In my view, we have a very well-balanced Board with each member bringing the right -- different skills to continue our ongoing transition to a larger, profitable, highly high-returning company. I believe we have the foundation coming into place to build a very, very successful company. In my view, the job is half done. And I'm really excited to hopefully be part of the future, working with you and the management and Board to deliver the potential that Aurelia undoubtedly has.

Thank you, Peter. Peter's reelection is unanimously supported by the rest of the Board. I'll now ask there any comments or questions from shareholders in the room regarding resolution 2. Rochelle, are there any questions online?

No questions.

On behalf of the Board, Peter, I'd like to thank you for your commitment, your diligence and your leadership over the last 12 months. I put to the meeting resolution 2. Please record your vote in relation to resolution 2 by choosing for or against or abstain on your screen or voting card. [Voting]

I will now hand the chair back to Peter.

Thank you, Susie. I'll now move to resolution 3, which is the reelection of Bob Vassie. The next item is Bob is -- that reelection of Bob as a Nonexecutive Director. The wording of the resolution and the proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen now. Bob's credentials are outlined in the notice of meeting. And I'll no ask Bob to address shareholders regarding his reelection.

Thank you, Peter. I'm very pleased to be up for reelection this year. I guess, I joined in January 2021, so coming up to almost 4 years, and they've been 4 pretty interesting years in the company, as Peter outlined. I do like -- I'm a mining engineer of 40 years' experience. So a lot of mining and a fair bit involved in types of mining that we do here at Aurelia. So I think that background, that experience and the technical knowledge offers value to the Board as we continue to look at getting our operational excellence as Bryan outlined on track. And already, we're seeing results there and looking at growth moving forward. The -- I like businesses and I'm involved with a couple of other mining businesses that have production, meaningful production and cash flow that have a development pipeline of new projects to bring online to improve the business and to have longer-term shareholder value. And I very much do like exploration opportunities. And when you look at what we've got here, we've got all those together, and that's what attracts me to carrying on with the Board and working with the Board and Bryan and his executive team. There's lots of opportunity here and as it's been outlined today. When you look at where we've come from and having to arrange the funding for Federation to now looking at Federation online, Peak performing an expansion at the plant at Peak and then the great opportunity we have, and we don't even know how big it is at Great Cobar. And then having that [ 100,000 ] long strip of exploration land in the Cobar Basin, that makes for a great company. And I can just see we're going to simplify it and grow it and make it more profitable, and that's why I'm up for reelection. So I very much appreciate the opportunity to do so. Thank you.

Thanks, Bob. Well spoken. Bob's election is unanimously supported by the rest of the Board. Are there any comments or questions from shareholders in the room regarding resolution 3? No? Any questions online? No?

No.

Thank you. Then I put to the meeting resolution 3. Please record your vote in resolution -- in relation to resolution 3 by choosing for, against or abstain on your screen or voting card. [Voting]

Resolution 4, approval of long-term incentive plan. The next item of business is resolution 4, which seeks shareholder approval for the company's long-term incentive plan. The wording of the resolution and the proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. The company's long-term incentive plan was last approved by shareholders at the 2021 AGM. ASX Listing Rule 7.2 exception 13 provides the equity securities issued under the employee incentive scheme which has been approved by shareholders within 3 years before the issue date of the securities, do not count towards the company's placement capacity under ASX Listing 7.1. Company is, therefore, once again, seeking shareholder approval of the long-term incentive plan. A summary of the long-term incentive plan is contained in the notice of meeting. Are there any comments or questions from shareholders regarding resolution 4? None from the room? Are there any online? No? Thank you. I put to the meeting then resolution 4. Please record your vote in relation to this resolution by choosing for, against or abstain on your screen or voting card. [Voting]

Thank you. I'll now move to resolution 5, approval to issue rights to the Managing Director and CEO. The next item of business is resolution 5, which seeks shareholder approval to issue performance rights to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bryan Quinn, under the company's long-term incentive plan. The wording of the resolution and the proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. As Mr. Quinn is a director of the company, shareholder approval of the proposed issue of performance rights to Mr. Quinn must be obtained under ASX Listing Rule 10.14.1 before the performance rights can be issued. The grant of performance rights will, in due course, involve the issue of ordinary shares in the company, 1 ordinary share for 1 performance right if the rights vest upon satisfaction of certain vesting conditions which are measured over the 3-year period from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2027. Are there any comments or questions from shareholders in the room regarding resolution 5? No? Any questions online?

Peter, we've received a general question online, which I suggest maybe we do at the end of the formal business not relation to resolution.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Well, therefore, I put to the meeting resolution 5. Please record your vote in relation to resolution 5 by choosing for, against or abstain on your screen or voting card. [Voting]

As that is the last item of business, the online voting platform will close. So get your votes in. In [ P&G ] vote early, vote often. Can all shareholders, proxies and power of attorneys vote online please ensure you have submitted your votes? All shareholders in the room, please complete your voting card, and our Automic representative will collect them. I'll allow another minute before I close the poll. But if you've voted, the lady is wandering through. [Voting]

I think we've collected them all around the room. Hopefully, you've all voted online. So I can now declare the poll is closed. That concludes the formal part of today's meeting. And of course, the results of the poll will be declared and released to the ASX after the conclusion of the meeting. There is one further question though so.

Thank you, Peter. We have a question from Mr. Anthony Wallace who has indicated he's a longtime shareholder. And that all shareholders have different reasons for investing in Aurelia, but he would like to ask Mr. Brussel why he invested in Aurelia.

I wasn't expecting that.

Well, I believe the company got a great future. We've got great resources there. We're operational, which is a bit rare amongst mining companies, and where we're actually producing positive cash flow. So I think that Aurelia is a very good investment.

Thanks, [ Lee ]. A very solid endorsement from the major shareholder. So thank you. Much appreciate it. Okay. I would, therefore, like to close the meeting, and I'd like to thank everyone who's attended either in person or online and participated in the 2024 Aurelia Metals AGM. I'd also like to personally thank all our shareholders for your continued support. I believe, like me, you recognize the significant value of our portfolio. On the back of our substantial progress during FY '24, I'm convinced that we have the right team and strategies in place to put Aurelia on a renewed path to success. I now declare the 2024 Annual General Meeting closed. The directors and management welcome those who are attending in person to join us for tea, coffee, [ bone broths ], refreshments et cetera, after the meeting. Thank you very much for your attendance.

Thank you.