Champion Iron Limited (CIA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] continue on, or back to the start. So joining me today are the directors and nominee including 3 directors attending in person, Mr. David Cataford, our Chief Executive Officer; Michelle Cormier and Ms. Louise Grondin; and Jessica McDonald, who is a nominee and joining via the webcast. Other members of management also joining us today are Steve Boucratie on my right, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary; Mr. Michael Marcotte, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Capital Markets; Mr. Alexandre Belleau, Chief Operating Officer; Mr. Donald Tremblay, our Chief Financial Officer; Ms. Angela Kourouklis, Senior Vice President, Human Resources; Jorge Estepa, Assistant and Corporate Secretary; and also Mr. Patrick Bernard Daru, a partner from Ernest Henry, the company's auditors, he was also present at the meeting to take questions you may have in relation to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and content of the auditor's report the accounting policies adopted by the company for the preparation of the financial statements and the auditor's independence in relation to the conduct of the audit. It's my pleasure to welcome everyone to the Annual General Meeting. I'll now let Mr. Steve Boucratie, our Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, briefly explain certain formalities regarding the conduct of this meeting. Mr. Boucratie will then deal with the formal business of the meeting as outlined in the meeting materials that all of you received, including voting on resolutions on my behalf.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Steve Boucratie, and I am Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Champion Iron Limited. Voting will be conducted by ballot so that all proxy votes can be recorded. Any shareholder who has not received a ballot, please raise your hand so that TSX Trust Company can provide you with a ballot. The Chairman has exercised its rights on the Rule 17.2 of the company's constitution to call a voting by ballot on [Audio Gap] it's being conducted meaning that shareholders with a ballot may vote at any time during the meeting and when voting closes, we will ask shareholders who voted by ballot to raise their hand to return the ballot to the scrutineers. Rebecca Prentice and Steve -- Steven Nguyen of the TSX Trust Company, the company's Canadian transfer agent will organize the distribution of voting papers and we'll provide guidance on the completion of those voting papers if required. Once the voting papers have been completed and returned to the transfer agent, the ballots can be counted. As a reminder, as with any in-person meeting, only registered shareholders and duly appointed registered proxy holders are permitted to vote or ask questions at the meeting. I would now like to outline the format of today's meeting. First, I will deal with the formal business of the meeting as outlined in the meeting materials that all of you received, including voting on resolutions. After we conclude the formal portion of the meeting, we will be pleased to answer questions you may have or respond to your comments regarding the matters addressed during the formal part of the meeting. Second, after the Q&A period is concluded, Mr. David Cataford, our CEO, will provide a brief corporate overview of activities in our recently completed fiscal year 2023 and fiscal Q1 2024. Upon a request of the Chair, I will also act as Secretary of the meeting and Rebecca Prentice and Steven Nguyen of TSX Trust Company will act as scrutineers. The notice of meeting and the management information circular were dispatched to shareholders filed electronically with the ASX and on SEDAR Plus and placed on our website. The financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2023, and the annual report for the year ended March 31, 2023, which include the remuneration report at Pages 63 through 101 have also been filed with the ASX and on SEDAR Plus and placed on our website. These materials are taken as read. The formal business of the meeting consists of receiving and considering the company's financial report, together with the directors' report and auditor's report for the fiscal -- for the financial year ended March 31, 2023 adopting the remuneration report as set out in the annual report of the company, for the financial year ended March 31, 2023, electing 7 directors under 7 separate resolutions. To expedite the formal part of the meeting, I will briefly describe or discuss each resolution in the sequential order in which they appear in the notice of meeting. I do not propose to read aloud the text of each resolution. These are contained in the notice of meeting, which has been taken as read. While this procedure will facilitate the handling of the formal resolutions, registered shareholders or duly appointed and registered proxy holders may raise comments or questions on any resolution before the meeting. Before we proceed with the formal resolutions of the meeting, it is appropriate for me to advise that under Australian Corporations Act, the company is obliged to lay before this meeting the last audited financial statements and reports for the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The tabled copy of the audited financial statements and reports, including the director's report and the auditor's report are available for inspection by registered shareholders or dully appointed and registered proxy holders at the meeting. The reports are tabled but are not subject of a resolution. However, we will be pleased to receive any comments or questions concerning the financial statements or the reports, which we will address at the general Q&A session at the end of the meeting. Questions may also be asked of the auditors in relation to the contact of the eye. The preparation and content of the auditor's report, the accounting policies adopted by the company for the preparation of the financial statements and the auditor's independence in relation to conduct of the audit. The second item of business is an Australian Corporations Act requirement to consider a nonbinding an advisory vote on Champion's remuneration report as set out in the annual report for the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The Chairman has authorized me to open the voting on this resolution, and I now do so. We ask you to please vote on your ballot. [Voting]

The tabled copy of the annual report is available for inspection by registered shareholders or duly appointed and registered proxy holders at this meeting. The remuneration report can be found at Pages 63 to 101 of the annual report, the reading of such report will be dispensed with. I would like to remind shareholders that the vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the company or its directors. Acknowledging that each director has a personal interest in his own remuneration from the company, as described in the remuneration report, the directors unanimously recommend the adoption of the remuneration report. The third item of business, as contained in resolutions 2 through 8 in the notice of meeting is the election of directors for the current year. The Chairman has authorized me to open the voting on this resolution, and I now do so. We ask you to please vote on your ballot for each resolution. [Voting]

Under the company's constitution, for such time as the company's shares are listed for trading on the TSX, all directors must retire annually and may offer themselves for reelection at the Annual General Meeting. Each of the auditors, except Ms. Jessica McDonald, was appointed at the last Annual General Meeting. The notice of meeting and related materials contain the names and details of the proposed nominees to the Board of Directors, who are Mr. Michael O’Keeffe, Mr. David Cataford, Mr. Gary Lawler, Ms. Michelle Cormier, Mr. Jyotish George, Ms. Louise Grondin, and Ms. Jessica McDonald. The directors recommend that shareholders vote in favor of resolutions 2 through 8 to appoint the respective nominees as directors of the company, except that each director does not make any recommendation as to how shareholders should vote on the resolution relating to its own appointment. As previously mentioned, voting today will be conducted by ballot. The ballots will close shortly. We would ask for everyone who has not voted on the ballot to finish voting. All shareholders who voted by ballot should raise their hands to return the ballot to the scrutineers. I now declare the ballots closed. We will proceed to the Q&A session while the scrutineers tally results of the ballot on each resolution.

Is there any question. Okay. There are no questions at this time. As there are no questions, I will now hand over to Mr. Jorge Estepa, our Assistant Corporate Secretary, to provide voting results on each resolution that was passed before the meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Jorge Estepa. I'm the Assistant Corporate Secretary of Champion Iron Limited. The scrutineers, TSX Trust Company, have provided me with the preliminary results of their tabulation of the votes with respect to each of the resolutions considered today at the meeting. The scrutineers, TSX Trust Company confirmed the following preliminary voting results. The remuneration report for the financial year ended March 31, 2023, has not been adopted and more than 25% of the votes cast have been cast against the resolution, meaning this company has received its first strike. And each of the 7 director nominees received the required percentage of votes for.

Disseminated and announced, including on the ASX, filed on SEDAR + and made available on our website as soon as possible after the conclusion of the meeting. As there is no further business that ends the meeting, which I now declare closed. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders for their continued support over the past year as well as our employees for their commitment and their diligence and we look forward to reporting on our ongoing progress during the upcoming year. Also, I would like to remind everyone that we have planned to provide a corporate overview of activities in our recently completed 2023 fiscal year and fiscal Q1 2024, following the formal part of the meeting and our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. David Cataford, will now begin the presentation.

Thanks, Steve. Thanks, everyone, for being here in person or for those joining us virtually. So if we take a look at the previous year, I think it's been a pretty transformative year for us here at Champion. We've surpassed by far our record production, and this is mainly due to the fact that we've onboarded our Phase 2 project, essentially doubling the capacity at Bloom Lake. We managed to produce roughly about 50% of what Phase 2 will be able to do in the future in the first year and achieve commercial production only a few months after we started the project. We'll be able to go through all the different elements of this past year and also of the previous quarter. If we look at in terms of the environment, very proud of what we've managed to achieve this year, no major environmental issues reported since the recommissioning of Bloom Lake in 2018. So this shows that we've invested the money at the right place to make sure that we keep the site in good order and that we continue to build the trust with the various environmental agencies to make sure that we can continue developing in the future. Also in terms of health and safety, it was a record year. So even if it's a very complicated year in the sense that we've onboarded roughly about 400 new employees. We managed in this year to onboard everyone and to make sure that we have a record in terms of health and safety for the year. We created quite a positive impact also on the region. So if you look at local and indigenous jobs, we have over 51 of these positions, and this is direct jobs, but we also hired quite a lot of First Nations members and local community members in a lot of our suppliers. From our procurement from our local suppliers, we're roughly over $400 million in contracts awarded during the year, which shows that our strategy is really to work with the communities around the mining site. One of the big highlights for the year as well, again, 100% compliant with our tailings management. We've seen tailings issues in the past, but very proud of the way that we've structured our tailings, invested at the right place to make sure that we keep the site safe and that we can operate for the next decades. In terms of ESG, very proud of the ESG report that we've been able to supply this year as well. We've got quite a lot of highlights. We position ourselves very well compared to our peers in the industry. So very proud of the fact that the mining industry can do so well in a lot of these various ESG points. We've also managed to get quoted on many different agencies. GRI, SASB BTCFD. In the future, we're probably going to see that reduce to a more concentrated group and a more concentrated standard. But until that happens, we make sure that we hit all of the major ones, and we make sure that we comply and send all the information required to make sure that we can have the right grade within those agencies. In terms of calendar 2022 highlights, one of the big highlights for the year. As you know, we've -- we're on a path not only to help our clients decarbonize, and we have a significant impact with our clients, but we also work to be able to lower the CO2 emissions directly at site. And if we look at this year, we managed to lower CO2 emissions by roughly about 5.8%. So we've invested to make sure that we can produce one of the cleanest and most sought up after iron ore products in the world. Also very happy that we completed new First Nations cultural Competence training for the entire workforce. So we set that as an objective last year, and we wanted to make sure that everyone at site understands the reality of the First Nation and vice versa and make sure that we can work together. We're by far one of the largest employees of First Nations in the region. And we want to make sure that we can continue to attract talent. But to do that, we need to have an environment that allows for First Nations members to feel accomplished when they work at Bloom Lake, and we've managed to achieve that over the past years and we'll continue to improve over the next years. If we look in terms of milestones, I mean, it's been a pretty intense year. As we mentioned, the year started roughly with the first shipment of Phase II material from Bloom Lake. So we managed to commission on time and on budget, one of the largest mining projects that's been done in North America in the past 10 years. So we're looking at roughly about a $1.6 billion project that we managed to deliver during COVID on time and on budget. We also entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire the Pointe-Noire pelletizing facility. So we managed to secure probably the best area in Canada to be able to build a pelletizing facility. We secured it at a very attractive price and we did it in partnership with the Quebec government, which, as you know, has been one of our best partners since we've restarted the project. We also refinanced the credit facility with a revolving facility to make sure that we have available funds and able to position the company for growth in the future. We also committed to a GHG reduction target, so an official target for 2030 and for 2050 and very proud of the target that we've set roughly about a 40% reduction by 2030. And this is in addition to what we've already done in the past. As you know, we've already reduced CO2 emissions by 40% since we recommissioned the site. So quite an ambitious target, but we do have the team to be able to achieve that. We also are the first mining company to have declared the National Indigenous Peoples Day, a cultural day for all employees. So what we do, it's a day that we essentially focus on understanding the realities of our partners. And at the head office and at the mine, we have separate activities to make sure that everybody can benefit from this new holiday. We reached commercial production on the Phase II. I think that was one of the large major highlights from the year. And we also announced the findings of a feasibility study that I believe will be able to transform the company yet again in the future. And this is to be able to produce 1 of the highest grade materials in the world. It's a flotation plant that we would build directly at the site. We've already started investing a significant amount of CapEx towards that goal, and our target is to be able to deliver that project in 2025. Why is it important to produce one of the highest grade materials in the world? It helps our clients decarbonize. And not decarbonized just a little bit, but decarbonized by roughly about 5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. So significant impact in the world. One of the highlights that's maybe a little bit more recent is that we've navigated pretty well during the forest fires, managing to keep production at a decent level. Obviously, our sales were affected because the rail line was shut down for a while and was operating at a lower pace once it restarted, but we've managed to keep production at decent level, keep everybody safe, work with our local communities to make sure that they're safe as well and navigated through that pretty well. And just recently, we announced that we've got a whole lot more resources at Bloom Lake, and we'll be able to potentially continue operating well over our current mine plan of 18 years. If we look at the industry, it's been a volatile year in terms of iron ore price and a year where I think we're recovering from COVID, and we did see the premium for the high-grade material be compressed. We don't believe that's going to be a trend in the future. We still believe in the fact that high-grade material is what is required to be able to help our clients be more productive, lower their CO2 emissions, produce the right type of steel and the right quality of steel. But this past year has been a little bit more complicated. But when we look at the whole year, I think one of the major highlights is the fact that the iron ore price, even if there was some potentials where it would dip much lower than $100 per tonne, we see that it seems to be resilient over that $100 mark for the [ 62 ], so the baseline for the iron ore. Even if there's quite a lot of volatility, we see that it's hanging on to that price, and we potentially see that in the future as the sort of bottom where we want to focus on where our resources should be. And this is why you've seen a significant uptick in our resources because when we use that sort of price in our model, we see that there's over 3x as much resource at Bloom Lake as what we had initially had in our 2019 feasibility study. If we look at the major highlights for the year, it's really the Phase II portion. So when we look at the fact that we've commissioned the project, reached nameplate capacity. And recently also, we're operating a full quarter at about 90% of our full nameplate capacity. You can see that the trend to be able to deliver the Phase II project is on track and we should be able to be at full nameplate capacity in the very near future. So I'm very proud of what the teams have been able to do to be able to reach that. In terms of pricing, I think the main highlight what's important to note from this is we've always said that our material gets a small premium to the P65 the 65 index. And we've demonstrated that again this year, achieving a price of roughly about $132 for our material and the average for the P65 for the year was about $131. So we continue to build that credibility in the market. And that's quite an achievement this year because, as you know, we've increased significantly the tonnage that we were selling. So we had to onboard new clients. Typically, when this happens, it has to be done at discount, but we've managed to create the right relationships and make sure to benefit from the full premium of our material through the whole year. In terms of cash cost, so it was a year that was a little bit more complicated due to the fact that we had only a portion of the tonnes from Phase II, but all the fixed costs associated to the project, but we should be able to continue reducing our costs in the future as we finalize the ramp-up for the Phase II project and are able to be in a more steady-state operation at the site. In terms of our customer base, so we touched a little bit on this when we talked about the price for the year, but one thing that's important is to have the right diversity of clients around the world to make sure that we're not too leveraged in one single market. It's a year where, obviously, we sold a little bit more into China because that's one of the easiest markets to be able to target in a year of full ramp-up and they continue to be a great partner of ours, liking the high-grade material, but we did increase the amount of tonnes that we also sell into Europe which is a market that's much closer to home, and it's a market that we want to focus on in the coming years to be able to increase the amount of tonnes that we sell there. We've also been selling more into India, as you can see on this year. You see a little bit less into Japan. This is not because Japan is not as good of a partner as it was but we have a limited amount of quantity that we can sell into Japan. That was pretty much already covered with our Phase I. So by bringing on tonnes from Phase II, that's why you see a little bit of a dip in the percentage sold to Japan, but they remain one of our best customers as well that require high-grade material. In terms of our financial results, so a year, we're a little bit less than fiscal year 2022 that if you remember, was a fantastic year with the iron ore prices. But because we've been able to increase the tonnes and in the future as we continue reducing our costs, should be able to increase the EBITDA and the earnings per share from the company. What does that mean in terms of cash for the business? So during the year, we managed to continue our capital return strategy, paying 2 dividends to our shareholders, roughly about $103 million. And we also had a significant change in the working capital in the results, but we generated quite a lot of cash managed to finish Phase II be able to -- reinvest in the asset as well to make sure that Phase I is in good standing, but all of the environment portion is dealt with, and we finished the year with a little bit less cash than last year. But we're very well positioned to be able to finalize and keep working on our DRPF project, the flotation project to increase the grade of our material. As we mentioned, a very robust balance sheet. It's pretty amazing when you think that we've started the operation in 2018, when you look at the replacement value of our assets. They're in the order of magnitude of about $6 billion, $6.5 billion as we've done studies with different engineering firms, and we're in a net cash position. So we've created quite a lot of value for our shareholders. quite a lot of value for the region, and we're very well positioned to continue growing with this base that we have in place right now. In terms of our strategy, we talked a little bit this year where the high-grade premium was a little bit depressed. But when we look at the trends and where the market is going, you can see every week, every month, governments around the world give subsidies to different companies to be able to build electric arc furnaces. Electric arc furnaces require a different type of material and a much higher grade type material to be able to operate. We see a significant amount of announcements for these electric arc furnaces. A lot of these projects are already either being built or will be built very shortly, but we don't see any new supply of high-grade material. And that's where we see the demand increasing significantly in the future for high purity iron ore, but we don't see that supply coming on. This is why we believe that by delivering one of the highest purity materials in the world, we'll be able to create significant value for our shareholders once this project is delivered, because we'll be tapping into a market where we don't see any new supply coming on and where we see the demand potentially growing significantly over the next 5, 10, 15 years. In terms of our next projects, so the main one, as we mentioned, is really the flotation plant to be able to upgrade the material. But we do have some other projects in the pipeline as well that we're evaluating. 2 major feasibility studies that will be delivered before the end of this calendar year. One is for the pelletizing facility that we purchased in Pointe-Noire, where we're doing a feasibility study to potentially pelletize roughly about 8 million tonnes per year. This feasibility study is being done in partnership with a very large steel producer and advancing very well, and we'll be able to deliver this project by the end of 2023. The other major project that we're working on is the Kami project. So this is an ore body that has significant amount of reserves, just a few kilometers away from Bloom Lake, and we're currently working on completing our feasibility study also by the end of this calendar year to be able to make a similar product to Bloom Lake, so a DR-grade pellet feed from this project. So we've always announced that this project, if we were eventually to go forward is something we want to do with a partner. And we are working with potential partners on seeing the next steps of this project. But the next step right now is really delivering the feasibility study that will be delivered by the end of this year. We also have a debottlenecking project, which probably will be the most accretive project for our shareholders going forward after the flotation plant. This is directly at Bloom Lake. We've mentioned that we've increased significantly the resources. And with the current infrastructure, we do believe that we can potentially get more tonnes out. So we are working on a study to be able to debottleneck the assets, which could potentially allow us to go over our nameplate capacity of 15 million tonnes per year directly at Bloom Lake. Maybe a quick update also on the DRPF project. So this project right now is still on track to be able to delivered by 2025. We have advanced some of the work -- the final elements that are required for us to take a final investment decision is to get the power allocation from the Quebec government and also working with Donald, our new CFO, to be able to -- I don't think I can say new CFO too long anymore, but our current CFO and working to be able to finalize a similar package as what we did our Phase II project. So to have all the funds available for us to deliver the project and to do it in a nondilutive way. So to continue working with all of our current partners that are in our bank syndicate right now. Focus for '24. Well, first one is really to keep operating and to improve our health and safety with not only our partners, but also all the contractors that come to site, all of our employees to keep working with local communities to keep the permit to operate. For us, that's main focus for 2024. Second is really to optimize our Bloom Lake operations, hit that nameplate capacity, start reducing our cost and make sure that we have a competitive asset to be able to operate for the next decades. Advancing the DR pellet feed project to be able to position the company to benefit from the premiums that should be able to materialize for this type of material, completing our 2 feasibility studies and also continuing our diligent capital management and shareholder returns to make sure that we continue working correctly with all of our shareholders. So that being said, I really want to thank all of our staff, everyone that's worked with us, our own staff, our also -- all of our partners that have allowed us to achieve this year, looking forward to seeing next year as well the next AGM to be able to hopefully deliver an even more exciting year for fiscal year 2024.

Thank you, David, and sitting here reflecting on your presentation and the work that's been achieved through the year and the difficult scenario that you had to go through. The Board and I thank you and your team very much for everything that you've been able to achieve. And it's -- just looking at that photograph there and remembering the day to when we first walked onto that site and what's happened over the last 5 years, but also the very exciting future that we have with our product that's going to make a difference to the world. A lot of people, including governments haven't woken up to the fact of what a change that's going to make. And we know what a great pollute the steel industry is with blast furnaces, the only way we're going to get away from that is going down to the initiatives that Dave and his team are putting together and the work with First Nations -- in fact you take the family up the day and would spend the time with them, the fact that they get such recognition and that you do respect them and the way you and your team work with them is just quite outstanding. So that aggravates me when I look and you look at the shareholder activist groups that come in and they have a template that says they put over a company and says, we're voting against the Rem Committee because of this. What they don't see is, what I see and the rest of the Board sees through the year, and that is the hard work that goes into this. Hard work is great, but you need to be able to achieve results, which is what Dave and his team have been able to do. And it breaks my heart to see the fact that we have to go through this process when we're making sure we look after those teams. If I go around the universities today and talk to professors and the heads of various faculties, it's a difficultly trying to get engineering people, metallurgical people into the mining industry. They don't see it that fashionable. They'd likely work with investment bankers, where the deals are being done and where thing happens pretty quickly. And I blame a lot of the industry for not stepping -- getting in there and trying to get this universities to encourage people into these disciplines. So that's happening at the university stage. Imagine what it's like for us as a Board to recruit people in their senior people and also people at the workplace. So just to have the right staff to be able to deliver these opportunities and the initiatives that we're putting up there. And by the way, what the community wants us to do is being good citizens in the mining industry. So these people don't just come and go. We have to spend a lot of time finding and developing the people. And Dave and I sit there regularly, Alex and the team that we have. It's just -- it's quite incredible when I sit back and look at what we have and if we didn't have those people, we'd be struggling. And you as shareholders would be too. So again, I go on and on about this a little bit. Normally, I'm talking more about the -- what we've been achieving, but David has been able to tell you about that. For me and the Board, it's how do we retain these people because they are a limited commodity and everyone wants to get them because they've been very successful in what they've done in Champion. So, all these lithium projects that the government is pouring money at and all you need is a resource these days, you go to market capital of $1.5 billion or $2 billion in lithium, which has not even been developed, I mean, I can't [indiscernible] understand that. But the -- because they can get access to money, government, shareholder money, investors' money is much easier for them. So they then just go and start purging and taking the people that we've been able to develop. So I -- again, taking out of this year for me is what the teams achieved but the disappointing fact that we've got strike against us on our remuneration -- is for me, it's very, very disappointing and for the rest of the board. So we'll take that hit. We'll get on with life and we'll make sure that we continue the process of delivering shareholder returns and dividends. So I'll park that and go on and I'd also like to thank the departing directors in Wayne Wouters and especially Andrew Love. Andrew has been with me for [indiscernible] and also in Champion. So he was one of the original directors with me and really worked through the hard periods with me. So thank you, Andrew, and I wish you all the success in your future. And thank you, shareholders, and good day, everyone.

Thank you all for participating. You may all disconnect.