Cora Gold Limited ($CORA)

Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Ed Bowie, an Independent Non-Executive Director of Cora Gold and Chair of the Board of Directors. Craig Banfield, Cora's CFO and Company Secretary, will explain some of the functions of the online. [Technical Difficulty]

Okay. Thank you. [Operator Instructions].

Thank you, Craig. Other directors of the company who are with us today are Bert Monro, CEO and Director; and Andrew Chubb, Independent Non-Executive Director. I'd now like to ask any shareholders attending today's meeting to please declare their presence and the number of shares they hold. In order to do this, you may need to unmute your connection. Alternatively those who have joined us using Zoom's conference software may wish to use the built-in text chat function to confirm their name and number of shares held. Is there anybody who'd like to register for voting?

I personally already voted by the platform that holds my shares. It's beneficiary.

Okay. Anybody else?

Yes, I'd like to register.

Graham?

Yes, it is, yes.

How many shares do you hold, Graham?

1.6 million.

Do you hold those certificated?

Yes. I do. They're with my broker which is [indiscernible].

I can't actually -- did you get a letter from the broker?

No.

That is all to vote your shares. To actually vote your shares, I need a registration letter.

Okay.

So because you're dematerialized effectively, I can't see your shares. You're not in certificated form. So you need a letter -- so for the future, you can do that through your broker, and they will get you a letter from our registrar. I think we can just -- is that Susie has just joined us?

Yes.

Susie, I have a letter from our registrar, Computershare confirming your number of shares. Are you actually voting today?

No, we already voted.

You've already voted. Okay.

We are husband and wife. So we voted between us. I think between us, we hold about 2.53 million shares.

Okay. So are you Leonard?

Yes, that's correct, yes.

I've got a letter for you as well, Leonard. That's the 2 of you covered off. Anybody else? No. I think we can carry on. Okay. Thank you. I can therefore confirm that no other voting shareholders have declared themselves to be present. In the unlikely event that we lose connection during today's meeting, we'll allow 5 minutes for attendees to rejoin and then resume the meeting. With the time shortly after 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the 24th of March 2026, and with proper notice of this Extraordinary General Meeting of Cora Gold Limited having been given as approved by the Board of Directors on the 6th of February 2026 as per the notice dated 9th of February 2026 and as notified and mailed to the company's shareholders on the 12th of February 2026, in accordance with the company's Articles of Association and with a quorum being present, I hereby declare the meeting open. I will ask the company's Secretary, Craig Banfield, to please minute the proceedings of this meeting. The Board of Directors believe that in the interest of allowing as many shareholders as possible to attend the meeting, these arrangements, both in person and online are in the best interest of the company's shareholders. As set out in the Notice of Meeting, we invited Cora's shareholders to submit questions by e-mail in advance of today. Shareholder questions will be addressed after the close of formal proceedings of today's meeting. Cora welcomes communication with its shareholders. Queries can be submitted by e-mail to [email protected]. Further details can be found at the end of the company's news releases and on the company's website. Now to the ordinary business of this meeting. In accordance with the company's Articles of Association, an ordinary resolution means a resolution passed by a simple majority of half of the shareholders who being entitled to do so, vote in person or by proxy at a general meeting of the company. As set out in the notice of meeting, the following resolutions are due for consideration at this meeting and if thought fit, then by ordinary resolution be passed. The first resolution for consideration is the directors be generally and unconditionally authorized to exercise all powers of the company to allot shares in the company and to grant rights to subscribe for or convert any security into shares of the company as detailed in the notice of meeting. I will propose this resolution. May I ask -- have someone second the resolution? Thank you. I confirm that the following votes cast in respect of shareholders who appointed the chair of the meeting as their proxy, 242,368,024 for and 49,703 against. With no other shareholders in attendance voting at this meeting, I hereby declare this resolution to be passed by ordinary resolution of the shareholders. Now to the special business of this meeting. In accordance with the company's Articles of Association, a special resolution means a resolution passed by a majority of 3/4 of the shareholders who being entitled to do so, vote in person or by proxy at a general meeting of the company. As set out in the notice of meeting, the following resolution is due for consideration at this meeting and if thought fit, then by special resolution be passed. The second resolution for consideration is that directors be generally empowered to allot equity securities for cash or by way of sale of treasury shares as detailed in the notice of meeting. I will propose this resolution and may I please have someone to second the resolution. Thank you. The following votes cast in respect to shareholders who appointed the chair of this meeting as their proxy. 242,265,524 for and 152,203 against. With no other shareholders in attendance or voting at this meeting, I hereby declare this resolution to be passed by ordinary resolution of the shareholders. And that concludes both the ordinary and special business of today's proceedings. And therefore, with no further business, I hereby declare the meeting closed.

Thanks, Ed.

Yes. As mentioned earlier, shareholders were invited to submit questions in advance of the meeting today. We have no questions, but it's happy to take some questions from any people attending meeting.

Yes. Thanks, Ed. Yes, exactly. As I had announced, submit any, but please, if you've got any questions just far away, and we'll do our best to answer them as thoroughly we can.

Yes. Just obviously, as outsiders, what was it in particular that drew you to the Toubani to that Eagle Eye investment?

I suppose there's, I guess, a number of pieces to it. Clearly, we want to build a mine at Sanankoro, and clearly, that's going to take a significant amount of investment to deliver that. As we're all aware, we've obviously been waiting for a permit and be pushing the permit as hard as we can. And obviously, frustrating, we haven't received the permitting that we need yet. I think Eagle Eye offer both a strategic element to it. Clearly, they're big investors across Africa, but obviously, specifically in Mali. As you sort of sit there with Toubani, they're obviously the most significant shareholder in Toubani. I think people have probably noticed or might be aware that Toubani recently received a mining permit under the new mining code, and that's obviously come subsequently to Eagle Eye investing in them and obviously put them in a fully funded position. I think for us, we've obviously raised a lot of money over a number of years with our existing shareholder group. And obviously, at the stage of having a potential new strategic investor offering you significant finance, which you know you're going to need to develop the project, it seemed like the appropriate time to take it and obviously will hopefully enable us to move forward more quickly with the project.

And if I might follow on with that, presumably, they've already got quite established comps with the powers in Mali based on their recent experiences?

I mean, across Africa, but also specifically in Mali, they're obviously invested in Toubani, but they also have other business interests as well. So I mean, yes, they're very embedded in Mali and obviously, their investors are in a number of sectors in Mali. So yes, they've got good -- they're well positioned in the country. Any other questions from anyone?

I have a question in relation to funding. Obviously, with passing the resolution today and the prospective funding gap going forward, it looks to be now a fairly smallish amount. What is the thinking in terms -- relative to the amount that you've already suggested might be raised through financing through a debt instrument. What is the current situation in terms of how you're thinking about that? Does the Eagle Eye financing change the way you think about how you might be able to attract cheap capital to finance the project itself? And what funding gap might still require some equity issuance going forward? Or is there another pathway to achieve that funding?

Yes, it's a good question. And it's obviously a reasonably tricky one for me to answer because obviously, you often have a number of different conversations with people at any one time. I mean, traditionally, mining projects have been financed on sort of 30-70 equity-debt situations. Clearly, our CapEx, as it's publicly stated, is GBP 125 million. So on a traditional debt-equity funding basis, 70-30, there'd be obviously an additional equity need. I think you've obviously seen with a significantly heightened gold price, in particular, different types of funding solutions coming into the sector. I mean, obviously, Toubani next door to us have obviously brought in a blend of a stream on debt. And obviously, I think that's enabled them to obviously raise maybe less equity because of the nature of a stream being seen as a sort of quasi-equity instrument. So we're obviously in a fantastic period in terms of gold price right now globally. And I think that's probably opened up a number of avenues to fully fund projects, which are maybe different from the traditional 70-30 debt-equity blend, which people have seen historically in the sector. I mean, for us, clearly, our aim is to maximize our shareholder value. And clearly, for us, maximizing shareholder value is getting it into construction and into production as quickly as possible. And it's obviously minimizing dilution and making sure that shareholders are able to see as much sort of the upside as possible. So our focus is on making sure we can deliver the project as quickly as possible, which obviously has a number of different dynamics to it around, obviously, clearly permitting, the speed of getting financing in place, the style of financing you put in place as well and how you blend that equity and debt. So without sounding too much like a politician and talking around the question, I guess we are laser-focused on trying to deliver those aspects. And obviously, clearly, we're working as hard as we can on trying to do that. So yes, I'm sure, hopefully, there will be more news in the coming months on all those factors. Is there anything else to...

No, I think you've covered that pretty well. Want to get fully funded. That's the goal. And there's a few different options. So we'll update the market as soon as we can.

If there's no other questions, I mean the only other thing I might just add around permitting just for everyone's benefit. I mean, people who aren't following the Mali news as close as us. I mean, this year, I guess you've seen 2 companies make permit progress. So last week, a Canadian group called Roscan received a permit renewal, which is positive. And obviously, the month before, you saw Toubani getting their mining permit of the new code. I think a lot of people have obviously been sending us questions and calling me and asking about permitting progress. I mean, clearly, last year, whilst the moratorium was lifted partially, the government's focus was clearly around moving with existing operating miners, guys who are already in production. And you saw a lot of progress with operating miners coming to agreements with the government. And I think us who are in the sort of development ready stage clearly were in the wings behind that. So I guess it's pleasing to see in the last month ,6 weeks, the government making progress with non-producers, which is the first time they've kind of really done that from a permitting perspective. So we've seen the Malian sort of government ministries this quarter. We saw them last quarter and that we're having good positive dialogue. So we're hoping to have progress and updates to give people as soon as we can, but very hard to commit to a specific time frame because it's obviously clearly out of our hands. But I guess what's in our hands is pushing and driving as hard as we can. So that's what we're doing.

Yes. Sorry, if I might then, we've got you captive audience. Obviously, there was a bit of a share price wobble back in, was it November with some of the geopolitical issues surrounding Mali. I mean, obviously, for people who've never even been there, have things improved on the ground with respect to those sort of security risks. And I appreciate it was more towards the north and less the south of the country and all of this. But the oil blockades or the petrol blockades, have things improved on the ground in terms of day-to-day logistics and operating of any company in Mali, I suppose?

Yes. I mean, I guess that was a very specific period where I think for about a 10-day period, the oil tankers, which mean there's 2 main routes. Obviously, Mali is a landlock country. There are 2 main routes that oil tankers came in. And obviously, for a relatively brief period, there was a very sustained attempt by terrorist groups to stop fuel coming in to try and sort of choke the country. I mean, interestingly, I was in the country at the time that happened. And actually, in Bamako, it felt reasonably like business as normal, apart from slightly longer than normal queues of the petrol pumps. I mean, regardless of that situation, Mali clearly has a heightened security risk. It's obviously had significant numbers of warnings from multiple governments, and you always have to be very wary of the security. That said, through that crisis and over the last decade, probably 2 decades, no producing mining company has lost production because of a security incident. All through that period, no one -- no mining company had to put out any warning that they were short of fuel or unable to operate. For us, obviously, we've been in a quiet period operationally clearly while we focus on the permitting. But Toubani, who's our next door neighbor, they sit, they abut us in terms of permits. I mean they drilled all through that period. So they didn't stop drilling. They were drilling the whole time. They had people on site operating. And obviously, clearly, now they're ramping up and have just broken ground on construction. So I guess that's probably the best parallel in terms of Cora, while I can't speak for us being actively operating in construction, Toubani literally is 10, 15 kilometers away. They are in a similar situation to us in terms of logistical routes to site from Bamako. So you've always got to be vigilant in Mali. I sort of say it doesn't always Google that well, but the reality on the ground is mining companies have been very effective at operating and they've had little to no kind of disruptions touch wood. So yes, you've always got to be vigilant, but that's the environment we're operating in.

But just one more. Have there been any alterations over the last couple of months in terms of how you think about the project itself and how you go about construction and bringing the project on mining?

From a specific security perspective or...

Actually more in terms of understanding the resource and understanding the potential logistical issues that might have come up in a project in this...

I think the big tweak we made in this feasibility study from the previous one was actually the incorporation of the scrubber circuit on the front end. And the significance of that, obviously, in a much higher oil price environment like we're in now is actually -- it means you can reduce the size of your mill because a significant proportion of your ore can go straight from your scrubber into your tanks into your [ Seattle ] tanks. So that optimization in the flow sheet we did in the updated feasibility study impact of lowering your power usage and obviously, then the impact you are exposed to kind of the oil price. So that's obviously, I guess, a significant optimization that we did in terms of that study. I don't think in terms of the way you operate, I mean, clearly, security is always up there. So you've always got to be vigilant on security. Clearly, I was involved in building a mine in Mali back in 2016, 2017. And for example, we didn't put an airstrip at the project. Initially, we were driving the gold in and out. And obviously, now, pretty much every mining project in Mali has an airstrip. There are things which obviously people are doing to amend how they operate in Mali to kind of factor for that. I mean, look, the other piece which came out in the new mining code was around local content. And I think, obviously, sort of legislated in the new mining code around levels of local participation of national staff in your project and other factors. I mean that's something which we would have always maintained. We would have always achieved that level anyway in terms of your local point, but I suppose that's one of the big changes in the new mining code is around staffing levels and senior staff, who are national senior staff rather than with expatriates at a senior level. That's obviously a significant change in the mining code. But for us, it hasn't impacted how we would plan to operate the project, but it's something which I guess it was fortunate it was sort of being brought in before we completed our feasibility study. So it isn't something we've had to -- we're having to sort of retrospectively think about how we would operate the project because of the timing.

One final question in relation to [indiscernible] And it's due to new miners operating in the sector. Clearly, obviously, we've had the change in the mining code, we have to sort of refer to some extent where those decisions are being taken and why they're being taken. Is there a risk going forward that, for example, increased refining internal to Mali if done through, say, this new Russian facility, does that create potentially a constraint at some point, whereby actually there would be a funding issue where yes, because the ore has to be refined through that facility, it reduces the capacity review to essentially access the international gold price and it becomes somewhat bottlenecked by that? Or is that not something that concerns you?

Yes, it's a tricky one to answer. So I think in reference to the question, Mali has agreed that it will look to build its own refinery, and it's going to use some investment from a Russian entity to help it do that. As it stands, I don't believe they started building a refinery and it isn't currently clear what they'll be looking to try and achieve with the refinery in terms of what production capacity have specifically and how that might impact operators. So I mean every commercial operator in Mali currently ships all of their gold to either refineries in Europe or in South Africa. So I don't think anyone -- it's not current on anyone's agenda that they're going to have an inability to control where they have their gold refined.

But it could be a positive in some respect because it could be a local processing capacity, which cuts out some logistical cost? It doesn't have to be a negative?

Yes, I don't think it has to be a negative. And clearly, for Mali, the gold sector is their biggest income generator. So I guess part of your question was, could it create a bottleneck if the refinery didn't have capacity for all the gold? That will obviously be completely counterproductive to the Malian government because they're going to need all of their gold, they're going to need all of the gold sold all the time because it's going to be maximizing their revenue. So I guess it's hard to -- I don't know how many years in advance this refinery might be in operation or what impact it might have. But my understanding is it won't have anywhere near the capacity to process all of the gold that's currently produced in Mali. And clearly, the government wouldn't not want all of the gold being sold because they're getting obviously royalties and other taxes and everything else. So it's not something which is currently a concern for us to worry about. I don't know, Craig, if there's anything I've missed that.

I mean there was a foundation laying ceremony probably 5 months ago, I'm guessing something like that. I don't think anything has happened.

Anyone -- any other questions? I think just for everyone knows from our perspective, obviously, we're looking -- obviously, this fundraise is now closing, which is great. Hopefully, we'll be able to put out some positive news going forward. Obviously, we've got a new Board member joining, a representative of Eagle Eye and obviously, we'll be looking to update on plans going forward in the near future. And obviously, I think our intention is to also follow up with investor presentations and obviously, more marketing communication. It's clearly been quite a quiet period whilst we've been trying to wait for this permit. So it's our intention to be more vocal about plans and discussions going forward, and that will likely be potentially in the form of sort of online presentations as well as obviously RNS is clearly with material news. So thank you, everyone, for joining. Great to see so many of you here. Thanks for the questions. And obviously, looking forward to hopefully a more positive year ahead with progress on the ground. Great. And so with no further matters for consideration on behalf of all of us at Cora, I'd like to thank you for attending today's meeting. And yes, thank you very much, and goodbye.