Chrysos Corporation Limited (C79) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everyone. It's my pleasure to welcome you to the 2025 Chrysos Annual General Meeting, the 9th since the formation of the business. I'm Rob Adamson, the Chair of Chrysos Corporation. It's approximately 12:30 here in Adelaide, and I'm delighted to declare the meeting open. Based on the proxies received and members present at this meeting, I can confirm that we have a quorum. Firstly, I'd like to introduce the members of the Board here today. So Mr. Eric Ford, Independent Non-Executive Director; Mr. Greg Holt, Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit, Risk and Finance Committee; Ms. Elisha Civil, Independent Non-Executive Director, who recently joined the Board. Not here today is Kerry Gleeson, our Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee, who had a family emergency and has had to fly to the U.K.; and Mr. Dirk Treasure, our Managing Director and CEO. Also present today is Brett Coventry, our CFO; Dr. James Tickner, in the corner, our Chief Technology Officer; Dr. Alvin Chowles, our Chief Operating Officer; Kim Boland, our Chief People Officer; and Ms. Laura Goldsmith, our Company Secretary, whose appointment was confirmed to the ASX earlier today. Finally, in attendance is Mr. Paul Cenko from KPMG, our auditor for the financial year ending 30 June 2025. As the Notice of Meeting has been circulated to all shareholders, we'll proceed on the basis that the notice is taken as read. I'd like to thank shareholders for their participation in today's meeting. The agenda for today's meeting will be as follows: I'll begin with the Chair's address. Following this, Dirk will provide a presentation of the company's recent performance and activities, and there will be an opportunity to ask him questions. Finally, we'll proceed to the formal items of business denoted in the company's Notice of Meeting. There will be time given to shareholders following each item of business for questions related to that item. For shareholders attending this meeting virtually, we ask that you submit your questions online now via the Q&A function. There's a little bit of a time lag, so getting them early is helpful. These questions will be addressed at the appropriate resolution. After all formal items of business have been discussed, a vote on each item will be conducted by way of a poll. After the close of the meeting, Dr. James Tickner will give a presentation, setting out the company's research and development map and will talk about all the really cool [indiscernible]. FY '25 was another year of solid progress for Chrysos. We continued to redefine Photon -- sorry, resource analysis through our PhotonAssay technology, driving faster, safer and more accurate solutions to the global mining industry. Financially, we achieved record results. Revenue grew 46% to $66.1 million, and EBITDA rose 80% to $16.1 million. These results reflect the strength of our business model, the growing demand for PhotonAssay and the execution of our strategy. The gold market remained strong throughout FY '25 and a surge in capital raisings by miners and explorers, beginning in late 2024, drove increased demand for assays in the latter part of the year. This dynamic aligns perfectly with our business model. Each PhotonAssay unit is deployed under a minimum monthly assay payment, ensuring stable locked-in return. As demand grows, customers pay for additional utilization, many higher assay volumes translate directly into higher revenue per unit, particularly in the laboratories. This recurring revenue model provides both stable revenue through the cycle and significant upside as market conditions strengthen. PhotonAssay is not just faster and safer, it's also more accurate. Traditional fire assay methods often underreport gold in heterogeneous deposits and where gold is present. Increasingly, customers are discovering this, and to our benefit, several are reporting this in the ASX and TSX announcements, highlighting the difference between fire assay and PhotonAssay results. This accuracy advantage is helping drive adoption and reinforcing our position as the industry's preferred solution. Operational highlights for the year. We installed 11 new units, bringing our total to 40 deployed globally, and signed 9 new leases, ending the year with 62 units contracted. Each deployment strengthens our recurring revenue base and demonstrates the scalability of our platform. Importantly, during the year, we completed the build of our next-generation XN unit, which will become the standard for future deployments. The XN delivers the same trusted analytical performance with greater efficiency, faster installation, higher throughput, easier transport and lower maintenance. The first unit will soon begin an extended validation period with SGS in Perth before broader rollout. During the year, our partnership with Bureau Veritas marked a major milestone, our entry into South America with a deployment in Chile, one of the world's largest mining regions. With Bureau Veritas now on board, all 4 global laboratory networks are Chrysos customers, underscoring the strength of our technology and market position. We also deepened relationships with leading miners, now working with 70% of the world's top 20 gold producers. Notably, we signed a master services agreement with Newmont’, the world's largest gold mining company, highlighting our growing capability to deliver PhotonAssay solutions directly at mine sites. As our installed base continues to grow, we are seeing the benefits of operational leverage flow through to improved margins and stronger cash generation across the business. Importantly, this financial performance is matched by meaningful progress in our sustainability agenda. During the year, an independent GHD assessment released confirmed PhotonAssay delivers substantial environmental and safety advantages over traditional fire assay, using 50% less energy per sample, reducing CO2 emissions -- equivalent emissions by approximately 76% and eliminating hazardous lead waste entirely. These outcomes are not only demonstrating the strength of our technology, but also reinforcing our commitment to support a safer, more efficient and more sustainable minerals industry. The GHD assessment is available on our website under Chrysos ESG. In governance and leadership, we strengthened our governance framework, and welcomed Elisha Civil as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the 15th of October 2025. Elisha brings deep expertise in finance, strategy and governance across the mining, energy and infrastructure sectors, further enhancing our Board's capability as we continue to grow. Looking ahead, our priorities are clear: accelerate our global rollout, deepen customer partnerships and maintain innovation and operational discipline. With good momentum and a robust financial position, Chrysos is well placed for another year of growth in FY '26 and beyond. Finally, I would like to thank our Managing Director and CEO, Dirk Treasure, our executive team, the entire Chrysos team, my fellow directors and our partners and customers. And to our shareholders, thank you for your continued support. We're proud of what we've achieved and excited about what lies ahead. I will now hand over to Dirk Treasure, our Managing Director and CEO, for his address.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you, Rob. I'd like to start by echoing Rob's thanks to our team, our partners and our shareholders. The position we're in today is the result of a collective effort, and I'm proud of how the business continues to deliver and to grow. In FY '25, we delivered across the spectrum, expanding our global footprint, growing our installed base, delivering on our guidance and advancing our next generation of PhotonAssay technology. From an operational perspective, our performance has remained strong. Utilization levels are healthy. Customer feedback continues to affirm the reliability, speed, accuracy and safety of our technology. Over the year, we refined our deployment model to make installations more efficient. We strengthened our supply chain and continued to embed local technical and maintenance teams, ensuring customers receive timely on-the-ground support as we expand our international footprint. Our international momentum continues to build with active deployments and partnerships across Australia, EMEA and the Americas. Chrysos is now firmly established as a trusted partner to most of the world's global gold miners and most of -- and all of the major laboratories. Our entry into South America through our partnership with Bureau Veritas is a particularly important step, unlocking growth opportunities in one of the world's largest gold mining regions. Turning to trading and activity. I'm pleased to report that the 2026 financial year is off to a solid start. Activity in the industry remains elevated, and there is strong flow-through of samples into our PhotonAssay units, particularly to those units in Western Australia. This additional sample volume comes from both higher sample volume coming from existing mining and exploration companies that use us, but also new explorers adopting the technology. This is through the efforts both of our sales team, but also through the efforts of the marketing of our major lab partners. We continue to achieve record sample volumes, which by virtue of our fee per sample model, flow directly through to Chrysos' revenue. Our year-to-date revenue to the end of October is $28.9 million, made up of $21.2 million in minimum monthly assay charges and $7.6 million in additional assay charges. This reflects 26.4% of our revenue being generated by those additional assay charges in comparison to 15.3% during FY '25. Two PhotonAssay units have been deployed so far this year, with one at Thunder Bay, Ontario, with ALS, and another at Norseman mine in partnership with Intertek. We had one unit decommissioned from MSA's Obuasi operation in Ghana, bringing our current deployments to 41. We've started installation of our XN unit into SGS' Perth facility and have also started installation of an additional unit into ALS' Perth facility, which is a contract that we've signed since our last update. We've entered into a new contract with Acrux Gold for installation into their mine in Scotland, which we expect to have up and running this financial year. We'll soon begin installation of our first Newmont unit at the Ahafo mine in Ghana, our first unit for Bureau Veritas in Chile, an MSA unit to be deployed into Newfoundland, Canada, and a unit for Allied Gold at the Sadiola mine in West Africa. With respect to Allied Gold, we've recently signed an MOU with Allied for complete adoption of PhotonAssay across their mines. This will be 2 units deployed to be operated directly at their mines and the remainder of their samples coming through hub labs in Ivory Coast. We're excited by the pipeline of opportunities ahead, supported by a buoyant gold market, which is showing no signs of slowing. Early momentum into FY '26 gives us confidence in our outlook for the year. We reiterate our guidance for revenue of between $80 million to $90 million and EBITDA of between $20 million to $27 million. We remain well funded with $75.7 million in available cash and committed debt to support our upcoming deployments, which is complemented by our positive operating cash flow. Our strategic priorities for the year remain clear: deliver on our contracted pipeline and accelerate global adoption, deepen partnerships with existing and new customers being explorers, miners and laboratories, continue to enhance operational efficiency and reliability and advance our technology road map to sustain our leadership in assay innovation. With that in mind, our Chief Technology Officer, Dr. James Tickner, will take you through our technology road map at the conclusion of the AGM's formal business. I'm happy to take any questions about Chrysos' operations before passing back to the Chair for the formal business of the meeting. Are there any questions in the room? Are there any questions online?

There are no questions online.

Thank you all. We'll now hand over to Rob Adamson to proceed with the formal business.

I'll proceed to the formal items of business. Each of the items of business will now be shown on the screen, with each outlining the number of valid proxies that have been appointed for each resolution in the notice of meeting and the percentage of the company's total number of shares this represents. I intend to vote all discretionary proxies we've received in favor of the resolutions as set out in the notice of meeting. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion in relation to each item of formal business. For shareholders attending in person, we ask that you hold questions related to specific items until the relevant time in which the item is discussed. However, for shareholders joining virtually, if you haven't already, please submit your questions online via the Q&A function. And we'll then address -- they will then be addressed at each resolution. So the first item of business is to consider the annual financial report of the company for the financial year ending 30 June 2025 and its related reports and declarations. There is no vote on this matter, rather it's your opportunity to ask any general questions or make statements about the financial statements, company performance or today's presentations. Questions may also be asked to Paul Cenko from KPMG, the auditor, in relation to the conduct of the audit, the content of the audit report, the accounting policy adopted by the company and the independence of the auditor in carrying out the audit. If there are any questions, please raise your hand, or are there any online?

There are no questions online.

There are no questions online. There's nothing. No questions in the room. Move on to the second item of business, adoption of the remuneration report. To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution. For the purposes of Section 250R(2) of the Corporations Act, the company's remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2025 be adopted. Are there any questions?

There are no questions online.

Moving on to the third item of business, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution, that Elisha Civil, who was appointed as a Director of the company since the 2024 AGM and being eligible, be elected as a director of the company. Are there any questions?

There are no questions online.

No questions in the room? The next item of business, reelection of directors retiring by rotation. Item 4a is to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution, that Greg Holt, a director who retires by rotation in accordance with the company's constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.4, and being eligible, offers himself for reelection, be reelected as a director of the company. Are there any questions?

There are no questions online.

Questions in the room? We'll move on to Item 4b, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution that Kerry Gleeson, a director who retires by rotation in accordance with the company's constitution and ASX Listing Rule 14.4 and being eligible, offers herself for reelection, be elected as a Director of the company. Are there any questions?

There are no questions online.

Moving on to Item 5, approval of FY '26 CEO LTI awards, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution that for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule -- sorry, 10.14 and for all other purposes, approval is given for the company to grant 239,919 performance rights to Mr. Treasure to satisfy the FY '26 CEO LTI award in accordance with the employee equity plan. Are there any questions?

There are no questions online.

Questions in the room. Moving on to Item 6. Approval of termination benefits Mr. Dirk Treasure and Brett Coventry. Item 6a to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution that for the purpose of satisfying the procedural requirements in Section 200B and 200E of the Corporations Act, and for all other purposes, approval is given for the company to provide potential termination benefits to Dirk Treasure relating to the 239,919 performance rights to be issued to Mr. Treasure, subject to shareholder approval in FY '26 and in connection with Mr. Treasure's loss of position from a managerial or executive office with the company or related body corporate on the terms described in the explanatory notes. Are there any questions?

No questions online.

Questions in the room? Moving to Item 6b, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution, that for the purposes of satisfying the procedural requirements of Sections 200B and 200E of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, approval is given to the company to provide potential termination benefits to Brett Coventry relating to the 108,702 performance rights to be issued to Mr. Coventry in FY '26 and in connection with Mr. Coventry's loss of position from managerial or executive office with the company or related body corporate on the terms described in the explanatory notes. Are there any questions?

There are no questions online.

No questions in the room. Conduct of poll. Pursuant to Clause 26.2 of the constitution, on a poll, each member present has 1 vote for each fully paid share held by the member at the record time. The proxy votes already received in respect to each resolution have been announced, to the extent that I hold open proxies as the Chair of the meeting or cast those proxies in favor of each item. Each person in attendance will be voting on their behalf or as a proxy for another member will now be handed a voting paper for the poll showing the number of shares you're entitled to vote in each capacity. Each resolution upon which a poll is being taken is set out in the voting paper. You should record your vote in placing the cross in either the for, against or abstain square on the paper of relevant resolution. You should also print on the voting paper your name, if you are a shareholder or the name of the shareholder whose proxy representative or attorney you are and sign and date the voting paper where indicated. If you hold multiple proxies, please state these and we'll complete the information from the proxies. I appoint Laura Goldsmith, our Joint Company Secretary, as the returning officer to conduct the poll and to report the results of the poll. Joint Company Secretary will collect the papers if there are any to collect. I now declare the voting closed. The results of the poll will be announced to the market on the ASX once all votes have been counted. This concludes the business of the meeting. Is there any other business that may be legally brought before this general meeting? No? Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting has now dealt with all business placed before it. So I now declare the meeting closed at 12:55 Adelaide time with thanks for your attendance.