Boss Energy Limited ($BOE)

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Boss Energy Investor Conference Call March Quarter 2026. [Operator Instructions] If we run out of time and do not have time for your question, we ask that you please call our office on (08) 6263-4494 or e-mail [email protected] and speak to our team. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Matt Dusci, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

[Audio Gap] to Boss Energy March quarterly conference call. Joining me on the call this morning is Justin Laird, our CFO. We're happy to take questions at the end of this call. Turning to Slide 2. In summary, this has been a challenging quarter operationally for the business. At the same time, we've made significant progress in advancing our pathway forward. In terms of the Honeymoon operation for the quarter, production for the quarter was lower and costs were higher than forecast. The primary driver was the impact of heavy and repeated rainfall events during March, which restricted access to site and limited the delivery of key reagents required to maintain stable leaching conditions. This is also compounded by delays in commissioning additional processing capacity, including columns and associated primary pumps. As a result, we revised our FY '26 production guidance to 1.4 million to 1.45 million pounds. We have reconfirmed our C1 cost guidance of $36 to $40 per pound and all-in sustaining cost guidance of $60 to $64 per pound. Note that we expect to finish the year towards the upper end of our cost guidance range. Importantly, we have now commissioned NIMCIX column 4 in April with column 5 expected to be completed this quarter. Completing this stage of construction and commissioning is a key step in stabilizing operations and improving forecast reliability. This will be a key milestone from a plant operational perspective. On finance, the company remains in a strong financial position with $211 million of cash and liquid assets. We achieved an average realized sale price of USD 73.6 per pound with total sales of AUD 34.4 million during the quarter. Importantly, even with lower production and continued capital investment, the business was broadly cash flow neutral for the quarter, taking into account timing on payments. Boss Energy remains in a strong financial position. Finally, on strategic programs of work. We have made meaningful progress on unlocking value through execution of our pathway forward. We released updated mineral resource estimates for Gould's Dam and Jason's and the accelerating permitting pathway. And we continue to advance the new feasibility study and wide space wellfield design. There has been a clear step change in our understanding since December. And based on the work completed to date, I am increasingly confident in the value that we can unlock through this approach. Turning to Slide 3. Looking at Honeymoon production in more detail. Drummed production during the quarter totaled 203,000 pounds. We entered the quarter expecting soft production due to lower forecast tenor. However, the quarter was also significantly impacted by rain events across Central Australia. March 2026 was the second wettest March on record in South Australia and access to site was restricted for approximately 27 days during the month. This had a direct impact on operations. Rainfall restricted access and delayed reagent supply and ability to maintain steady leaching conditions and the final completion and commissioning of additional NIMCIX columns and pumping circuit expansion. As a result, we have revised our production guidance to 1.4 million to 1.5 million pounds of drummed uranium for FY '26. We expect Q4 production to be in the range of 356,000 to 406,000 pounds, reflecting increase in flow enabled by new infrastructure. Importantly, we now commissioned NIMCIX column 4, which is in operation in April. Column 5 is scheduled to be operational later this quarter. In parallel, we are upgrading the primary pumping systems, including installation of PLS, BLS pumps 4, 5 and 6. While we've experienced some pump [ days ] during commissioning, we are -- these are being resolved. Turning to Slide 4. Honeymoon C1 cost for the quarter was $60 per pound with all-in sustaining cost of $93 per pound. This increase in cost is primarily a function of lower production volumes during the quarter, resulting in lower fractionalization of fixed cost, hence, the increase in unit cost. There has been no structural change to our underlying cost base and as production increases in Q4, costs will come back down. On this basis, we are reconfirming our FY '26 C1 cost guidance of $36 to $40 per pound and our all-in sustaining cost guidance of $60 to $64 per pound, noting that we are likely to be at the top end of this range. In terms of capital, sustaining capital during the quarter was $5 million, primarily related to wellfield development at East Kalkaroo, which will come online into production this quarter. Project and supporting infrastructure capital totaled $8 million, largely associated with NIMCIX columns 4 and 5, the East Kalkaroo trunkline and accelerated resource delineation programs. As with operations, these programs were also impacted by weather during the quarter. Turning to Slide 5. On -- our balance sheet remains a key strength. We closed the quarter with approximately $211 million in cash and liquid assets. The cash decline from $53 million to $38 million was due to a delay in cash receipts associated with sales executed but not the cash received in the following quarter. We generally try to hold approximately $50 million in cash. Drummed uranium inventory finished the quarter at 1.53 million pounds. We view this inventory as strategic for the company as we continue to see tightening of the uranium market. Sales during the quarter consisted of 325,000 pounds at an average realized price of USD 73.6 or AUD 106 per pound. We delivered 125,000 pounds into a legacy contract during the quarter. An additional 125,000 pounds will be delivered during the current quarter. This contract is for a maximum of 1.7 million pounds with annual deliveries of 20% of the previous calendar year's production up to a maximum quantity of 250,000 pounds per year. The contract material reflect the realized price of approximately 65% to 70% on spot price of sales for that period. Turning to Slide 6. In terms of our 30% stake in the Alta Mesa, a joint venture with enCore, production for the quarter totaled 97,000 pounds, of which Boss Energy received 35,000 pounds during the quarter. The production decline is associated with the timing of bringing in new wellfields online. This includes additional modules coming online at Wellfield 7, Wellfield 3 expansion development progressing with further wellfields being installed, a clear focus on Alta Mesa series with additional drill rigs and accelerating of permitting constraints and continue resolving some of the permitting delays that the joint venture has seen. Turning to Slide 7. I'll now talk about the new feasibility study, which is a key focus for the business. At a high level, our pathway forward at Honeymoon is centered on 2 things. That's bringing in low-grade mineralization into the wellfield design and fundamentally shifting our cost structure to ensure that we can generate solid margins on lower-grade material. The pathway we're advancing to achieve this is a change in our wellfield design, moving to a wide space approach that is better suited to the Honeymoon style of mineralization. Importantly, since December, there has been a clear step change in our understanding as we progress this work. We continue to confirm the assumptions that underpin this approach. This comes back to the characteristics of the deposit. We are seeing strong continuity of mineralization at low grades, supported by a continuation of 3D modeling and ongoing drilling. We are confirming good permeability and hydraulic connectivity, allowing flow and control across large wellfield spacing. We continue to see relatively low acid consumption, and we are significantly improving our understanding of groundwater behavior through modeling. This work being executed is progressively validating and derisking the pathway forward. Turning to Slide 8. A step change in our approach is the use of reactive transport simulations. I won't go into the technical detail, but at a high level, this is allowing us to simulate fluid flow and chemical interactions within the deposit. This was developed in the 1990s in Europe for nuclear waste disposal. It is a tool that has been used in highly complex applications globally, and now we're applying it to ISR mining at Honeymoon. The importance of this is that it's giving us a much higher level of confidence in wellfield design, wellfield planning and ultimately wellfield performance. Turning to Slide 9. The reactive transport simulations are a core part of the new feasibility study. At a high level, we're incorporating detailed inputs across geology, hydrodynamics, wellfield design and chemistry and running these through high-performance simulations. The outcome is a much deeper and more predictive understanding of fluid flow behavior, leaching efficiencies and ultimately production performance. They have been calibrated against historic production data at Honeymoon, which has given us confidence on the outputs. So while the modeling itself is complex, we are now building a better understanding of how this system will perform, which will facilitate delivery of a robust feasibility study. Turning to Slide 10. In parallel to the modeling, we are establishing a series of trial wide-space wellfield patents. This slide shows how we're developing the trial patents for both Honeymoon domain and East Kalkaroo. At a high level, we're testing from current wellfield spacing to a wider wellfield spacing in these trials, which will cover larger areas, reduce capital intensity, lower operating costs by reducing pool volumes. The lower cost will deliver lower cutoff grades in turn providing more resources under leach. Turning to Slide 11. Gould's Dam is a satellite deposit located approximately 80 kilometers from Honeymoon. During the quarter, we delivered an updated mineral resource estimate of 38.7 million tonnes at 388 ppm U308 for 33.1 million pounds of contained uranium. Importantly, the deposit is amenable to ISR. It is likely suitable for wide space oilfield approach, and we are accelerating our baseline and technical studies required for permitting. Once the accelerated resource delineation drilling is completed at Honeymoon, we plan to mobilize drill rigs to Gould's Dam with a priority to convert the unclassified portion of the mineral resource to inferred. We're expecting this program to commence in Q1 next financial year. Turning to Slide 12. The Jason's deposit is located 14 kilometers from Honeymoon. It is smaller with an updated mineral resource of 13.3 million tonnes at 410 ppm U308 for 12 million pounds of contained uranium. Importantly, mineralization remains open, and we are advancing studies through permitting. Consistent with Gould's Dam, this deposit shares the similar characteristics and expected to be amenable to wide space wellfield design. Turning to Slide 13. So just to close, this has been a more challenging quarter operationally, primarily driven by rainfall and timing impacts. Our focus is on completing commissioning and delivering a strong Q4. It will be a milestone quarter with the completion of columns 4 and 5, along with bringing in East Kalkaroo oilfields. At the same time, we are making strong progress on the new feasibility study. The work completed to date continues to support the pathway forward. We have a step change in our understanding of the assets and how we develop it. The wide space wellfield approach has the potential to materially improve the cost structure, lower cutoff grades and bring more resource into production. Importantly, this is not just about optimization of Honeymoon. It also provides a scalable pathway across the broader district, including Gould's Dam and Jason's. With a strong balance sheet and disciplined capital approach, we are well positioned to execute on our pathway forward. Thank you. And with this, I'll hand back to the operator, and we're happy to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Alistair Rankin with RBC Capital Markets.

Just firstly, on the testing for the new wellfield configuration. Can I just ask when you'll be able to start physical testing on those configurations and what you need to do to get that underway?

So in terms of those wide space trial programs, some of those wells have already been installed, but we expect to commence first flushing on those first of those trials in July. So that will start receiving data basically in July on those trial patterns. As you understand, these wide spaced and typically wellfields don't have a long lead and also will take time to fully deplete. So we won't have -- we won't have those sort of trial patents depleted by the time we deliver the EFS -- sorry, the feasibility study, but it will be an important input into some of the modeling that we're doing.

Okay. And is there any interruption to existing production at the plant you need to sort of [ read of that ] infrastructure that's being used for ongoing production right now to do that preconditioning and then ultimately the testing for the new wellfields?

Yes, not at this point. We believe that we can bring those trial patterns in without having too much of a production impact. What you -- so everyone is online just so that people -- also people understand is one of the constraints will be ability to flush, which our ability to flush, which is linked to our water treatment plant. We've got programs in work to continue to expand that water treatment plant to ensure that we can bring new wellfields in time online plus additional work associated with these trial patents.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Branko Skocic with JPMorgan.

I was just wondering how road conditions are around site. I know you called out wet weather through the first quarter of the calendar year as well as how the lixiviant chemistry is performing in the plant. I know we're now at end of April. So if that's, I guess, started to normalize.

So some good questions there. So road conditions have improved. We've been working with state government on main access road. That was one of the key restrictions. Generally, on site, road conditions are good. We find the constraint is the state road [ Mount Gowrie ] road, which is under state control is our biggest challenge. And obviously, we've got to work with the state to improve that to give us a little bit more resilience in terms of that operation. Lixiviant, when we talk about lixiviant control, it's mainly associated with the wellfields. The plants less -- is more -- we can get that under control quicker. But what happened with the rainfall event is effectively because of that 27 days of restricted reagents to site, we couldn't continue to provide the lixiviant to the wellfields. So it's taken us a little bit of time to get wellfield chemistry back in line. That's back in line, although pH, we're still going to get pH down a little bit more in some of the wellfields to see that higher tenor come through.

I appreciate it. And final question from me. You called out the water treatment plant, I guess, just upgrading the capacity there. Is that coming through the FY '26 CapEx? Or is this something we can expect into FY '27?

Yes. There are 2 elements there is to get that water treatment plant to nameplate. That will just be within our current cost structure that we'll complete this quarter. With the new feasibility study, we'll have to work through what infrastructure would be required. And just at a high level, the water treatment plan and whether we need an additional water treatment plant will be one of the things to be addressed in the new feasibility study. And our ability to flush will ensure as part of the shift from this current spacing to a wide spacing that we don't see a production drop, and that will be largely linked to water treatment plant and our ability to bring on flushing and get these wide space programs into -- wellfields into production.

Your next question comes from James Bullen with CG.

Just a quick question around B6. Do you have an early read on how that's performing at all?

James, B6 is not yet into production. It will come into production this quarter.

Okay. And then...

Yes, go ahead.

And then just around Alta Mesa, obviously, having a few delays around permitting there. I would have thought Texas was a particularly onerous regulatory environment. Do you have any more color around what's happening there?

With the permitting regime within -- for Alta Mesa is they have to get each wellfield permitted. So unlike ourselves, we're working within a whole permitting regime within a mining lease, they have to permit each wellfield. So if there's any delay associated with defining -- definition of the wellfield, putting controlled monitoring wells, et cetera, then that just flows through permitting and then permitting timetables. So that's the thing they're trying to resolve now is how they can actually change the permitting regime or accelerate that permitting regime.

There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Dusci for closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call this morning. As noted on the quarter, we look forward to delivering a strong Q4. And we have a clear pathway forward as we continue to build confidence in this wide space drill program. So thank you for joining.

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.