KEFI Gold and Copper Plc (KEFI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to today's quarterly investor webinar for KEFI Golden and Copper, the exploration and development company with operations in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. We've had a number of questions come through. And we'll try to get through as many of those. If you do want to ask any more questions, however, you can do so by clicking on the speech bar -- speech bubble at the bottom of the control bar in front of you. So without further ado, it gives me a great pleasure to hand over to Executive Chairman and Founder of KEFI, Harry Anagnostaras-Adams. Harry, please take it away for your opening remarks.

Thank you for the introduction. Hello, everybody. I suppose I'll just explain why this is before the end of the quarter rather than after the end of the quarter. But COVID and other logistical restrictions played a bit of havoc with our plan A, you might say. We are due to have an Annual General Meeting on the last day of the month, but only 2 directors can actually get to it given the restrictions in respective countries at the moment. And therefore, we thought that what we might best do is to have a Q&A now, so that people can ask whatever questions they like and then give them plenty of time to absorb and reflect before they cast their votes for the AGM so that the directors at the time can have a vote that reflects full informed people. That's the reason we sort of split the consultative bit of an AGM off to do it today given that people can't actually physically meet on the 30th of June. So that's a bit of background for that just for courtesy to shareholders. Other than that, this is a conventional, quarterly affair we have. I've been encouraged to keep it up, even though it's not very typical of companies, but it seems to be appreciated by many people to give them the opportunity to ask questions and get answers. And to put a bit of color between more formal types of information releases in the formal center. The company does put out a lot of formal releases. I think, around about 1 a week on average. But nevertheless, the quarterly webinar has been appreciated to date, and we'll keep doing it for as long as people do appreciate it. So back to you to Julien.

Thanks, Harry. Okay. So we'll start going through the questions that have been submitted. The first question is asking what the timetable, current timetable is for financial closure?

I think let's start with defining financial closure because it has caused a bit of confusion. But what we mean by that is the execution of detailed documentation by all the parties of the syndicate so that they're all committed from that moment on. And that, by definition, then triggers funds flow to start funds flowing in stages, not all monies flowing in 1 day. Banks usually put their money in last, but they will -- but the banks would be committed from financial execution along with all the other participants, equity and so on. So that's what we mean by it. And as a result of all parties being committed from that day on, and all funds -- knowing that all funds will flow from that day on in the right sequence, we can then proceed to place orders for major works and i.e., displaced community inhabitants for their resettlement. So that's the definition of financial closure. We have laid out the plans for the financing to the Central Bank. That's necessary in Ethiopia, not required in many countries, but it is required in Ethiopia, quite a centrally administered country. This is the first mining transaction for about 40 years. So it's required probably about a dozen policy initiatives or exemptions for our project at our request. So we've laid it all out to the Central Bank for the confirmation that it all complies, it should, but we want confirmation, and it's very important to give comfort to all the money providers that it's all absolutely signed off by the government in every respect from all angles before money flows. So that's been set out to the Central Bank. We announced this morning only. And if they come back to us at the end of this month, if they come back to us in 10 days, detail docs should be ready to sign by the end of July. And that would be financial closing.

If Tulu Kapi is as good a prospect as you continue to state, why have we not managed to see a single stakeholder legally sign up to the project yet?

Well, that's not true. So the government has signed up and spending its money already. So a financial closure has occurred with the government. But you're talking about -- KEFI is a company that was capped at something like $10 million not that long ago. And it's putting together contracts here, the development contracts for CapEx, if you like, around 300 million. The OpEx is around 400 million that we're contracting at the moment. So you're talking about a company when it was a junior explorer putting together a $700 million package of contracts. And I don't think it should come as a surprise to anybody, if I think about it for a few seconds that everybody wants to make sure that everybody is in before they have to go in. So it's matter of rounding up everybody for simultaneous commitments to make sure everybody is covering each other's back. That's the simplicity of it. But -- so it's not -- and also on term sheets and letters of intent, so everyone has actually signed up for this project, but the binding contracts won't be signed until everybody signs together.

And what's the precise percentage of beneficial interest that KEFI has in Tulu Kapi project. Previously, it was indicated at around 75% to 80%.

Well, at law, right here and now, we own 95%. The government has a 5% free carry, and we own the balance. So law today, if you're on a straight up answer today, it's 95%. But when all the financing is complete, what will it be? A year ago, we thought it would end up at around 45%. We thought we'd have to give away quite a lot of equity at the project level to get the financing away. But now we believe we'll end up at 75% to 80% that's where that number comes from.

Can you run through the latest finance plan, explaining the different elements and how it could still change at this late stage? And in the executive bonus plan, you've given yourself until the 31st of December to get receipt of the first $20 million of funding. Question, why so far into the future? And with the Ethiopian government be happy at that time scale, how far will the money get the company?

Well, the beginning of the question was what's the plan. The plan is what we just set out in the annual report. So it was about $320 million of total CapEx. The mining contractor provides the fleet, senior lenders for about $140 million. That takes you down to about $100-odd million. The government putting in $20 million of project level equity. It's actually down to about $80 million. And then we broke it down from there for equity risk capital as provided by others. There's offtake linked subordinated finance, which is equity risk capital, but put it in a nonconvertible way. There's local investors who are subsidiaries of multinationals who are investing there in local currency into the company, convertible at prices 3 years from now. So it's not dilutive in today's share price terms. That's about $40-odd million. And so I think the missing piece was around $11 million, something like that now. What could change, something might go wrong with one of these parties, but I don't expect so. They all know Ethiopia extremely well. They are working very hard. So I don't expect anything will go wrong with any of them. And there might be some more of them and reduce the missing pieces a little bit further, but we can't wrap up that last brick in the wall, to be honest, until we're very close to closing within a week or so that we can wrap up the last piece to make sure it's the optimal that we can achieve from KEFI's point of view. Second question was bonuses. Bonuses are not tied to getting $20 million. Bonuses are tied to receiving full commitments for the whole package. But I think it was expressed that after the first 20 million received, a first tranche of bonus is going to be paid, but they're certainly tied to the whole package having been committed and being bankable. The last quick bit of the question, I think was why December, and I think -- I'm not sure why the Board picked it, to be honest, but I think they were just being conservative on the date that's all. But nobody is planning to take until December.

So question here relating to the RNS on the 7th of June, which maybe slightly seeded, but it was the time the last update regarding Project Finance. And it said that by 30th of June 2021, the following needs to be carried out so as to proceed and i.e., as the project finance settlement: construction and procurement, pricing confirmed, documentation to be approved by the relevant government agencies, including the Ministry of Mines and the National Bank of Ethiopia, so the execution may proceed by all syndicate parties; and position for local equity investors an offtaker. Could you just give us an update on the progress of all 3 points given that there's a short number of business days left before the end of the month to achieve these targets?

Well, I think that's what the point of today's announcement was that we have achieved that, and it's now in the hands of the Central Bank and the Mines Ministry to do their bit. There's quite a number of things that they may be administrative or bureaucratic or whatever you want to call them, they no longer policy type deliberations or debates or whatever. But they are important. They're critical. No money will flow until they're all done, signed, sealed and delivered to make absolutely watertight the financing and the deals that people are getting themselves into once you trigger, there's no turning back. And so we want the authorities to sign off on every aspect before we get going.

The follow-up timetable question here. Surely, if you're as close as you say we are to closing the deal, and then there should not be a fixed timetable where everything has to happen in order on time in order to ensure that it all goes to plan?

The question sounds like it's the mine's minister. The -- listen, I was meant to be in Ethiopia around Wednesday or Thursday, lined up my second job for the vaccine. Today's the election day in Ethiopia. And yesterday, the country closed its borders. And so okay, plan B. I'm just giving you one little example of what's going on when you have to travel around at the moment. And so okay, plan B. I go to the Embassy in Canberra, the Ethiopia embassy and I arrange for a different approach to Visas, so I can get on a plane. I lose a few days, my password has to get approved back and forth. And I need special dispensation from the Partner of Foreign Affairs in Ethiopia to get over there. So I probably lost a week by the time it's all done and dusted. Then you multiply that, but a handful of companies and a handful of jurisdictions with their own circumstances, and there are other things on their plate that I just sit around waiting to work on our project every day. It's a weird world right now in terms of managing logistics from the point of view of day-to-day predictability. Now overall, the project undeniably unstoppable. But I don't think anyone who gives a moment thought to managing logistics between Australia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, the United States, and I've left out a couple of jurisdictions that could deny that there are some problems in getting things getting -- even lining up physical signing meetings at the moment. I'm not trying to make excuses. I'm just trying to give a small example about one little glitch that probably cost me a week in my location.

There is a detailed question here about signing and it goes. With respect to final closure, are you expecting signatures by all parties on the same day? And if not, you're expecting the 2 senior banks to be the last to give their final seal of approval?

Well, there'll be a day of signing, everybody has to sign. But there's quite a cumbersome certification process that goes on. Ethiopia requires certification in a certain way and that will be complied with. So there will be blue ink signatures being chased around carried around the world by DHL or whatnot over the space of a couple of weeks, I'm sure to get everything certified in front of the right people at the right time. But in terms of -- from the point of view of knowing that the organization is committed, we'll have signing on the same day. And the approvals, the question I was asking did the banks go first or last or something. The most rigorous due diligence and most demanding decision-making protocols are those of the senior lenders, no question about it. Because they've got -- they don't have any equity gains in it for them. They just have an interest rate to earn and they will be bloody comfortable. So usually, they are the most significant signature to go first. And usually, the last money that goes in. And that's just normal common sense. So they will make sure that -- the equity will make sure they've signed up before the big equity rolls. And the banks will make sure all the equity is going in and were on their way to being spent before their money rolls. That's just normal sequencing.

So question now, the change in tax side. It appeared that the company tried to conceal the warning letter from the government despite it being mentioned in the local press. Question, why was this?

Well, the questionnaire is making a mistake. The -- I know if you like, some of the details around this because caught our attention, and we're pretty upset about it. But there was a media commentary on the 15th of May by a government employee or quieting a government employee, which talked about the issuance of a warning letter to the company. We put out an RNS on the Monday. So the 15th of May was a Saturday from memory. We put an RNS out on 7 a.m. Monday morning that said, first, we've heard about it, which is the first we've heard about it. And then 2 weeks later, we did receive a letter, and we immediately responded to it officially to the government. This isn't normally a, your issues, admissive issues with government over the media and we didn't choose to put it in media. Anyway, we referred to the letter then in our annual report within a few days. So the things we hear anything just didn't follow the sequence of the facts. So that was a situation. And anxiety is leading up to closing the first deal in the country in 40 years for mining in the middle of election fever led to some inappropriate communications, things should have been discussed privately.

At the time of the last webinar, you suggested that the government would want a good news story prior to the elections regarding Tulu Kapi when they be concerned, this has not happened?

Well, I think Ethiopia is not unique, you meet any politician in the middle of election fever anywhere in the world, they want a good news story. So Ethiopians are just normal people like everybody else. So -- but to be honest, that slip of the tongue or whatever you want to call it, what you're going to call it of talking to the media about what was being contemplated in the mind of civil servant over some particular issue. [indiscernible] frankly, what we had in mind or a string of things being announced over the course of May and June. Because we -- our stakeholders, our syndicate members are all very large corporations, much larger than KEFI. The banks are huge corporations. The local equity investors, subsidiaries of major multinational companies. And nobody wants their reputation branded about in election fever in any way, which isn't -- they don't need it. So everyone was a bit taken aback by that bit of noise, and everyone just wants to make sure that whether we all focus on the job at hand, and let's leave the media to themselves and they sign the whole thing up, we can announce or one big happy party down the train.

Can Harry confirm the company's meeting and able to continue to meet all of our agreements and responsibilities. And whether the government have indicated what any potential, I guess, sanction may be i.e., loss of Tulu Kapi mining license, financial penalty, but allowed to continue to operate or loss of potential new exploration licenses should there be a slippage?

First of all, because of states necessary to go back and bring it up to date -- because of states of emergency in Ethiopia, several of them over the last few years, a few financing deals that we had on the boil fell over, and we had to quickly replace different parties. They didn't disappear here, but they became so reluctant to move forward in the context of those states of emergencies that our deals were sort of stuck in the mud for a bit of time because of political turmoil, let's call it, in the country. And therefore, we had formal exemptions up until this year as regards to the schedule for startup, in recognition, of the fact that we were out there, we were probably the most, I don't know, the most hard-working ambassadors you get for the Ethiopian mining industry that one could wish for, if I may say. In the midst of all the states of emergencies, we just kept pushing and tenaciously putting project into place. The end result of that is that we've ended up with a much stronger indicator of actually people who really know the country very, very well, and they're not doll to by the country and the country itself is sort of turn the corner and moved out of the states of emergency at the most significant -- it's having the most significant election ever today. So we hang in there as a company and the government is appreciative, actually put its money in as a reflection of that comfort with us and appreciation and also support to make sure it happens. I want to make sure it happens. And this year, all I can say is that the desire, the anxiety, the lust to get this thing going is palpable. And it will be the single biggest export generator in the country when the countries have been knocked about economically because of COVID and because it's some other things that happened in the country where -- it's been a hell of a lot of money on some regional security problems up north in Ukraine. And so you see the best and the worst of symptoms, don't you? At moments of high anxiety or high despair or whatever. And so -- what I can say is that doing business in mining in any frontier market for mining is not to faint-hearted. Anyone who tells you that it's a piece of cake is kidding themselves or lying. But we're not contravened or breached anything at all. We're extremely careful. We laid out a very careful audit trail on everything we do. We insist on approvals before taking the next step, which is what we're doing now. Because we can't take shortcuts. And I could tell you some horrifying war stories of people who've taken shortcuts to get a job on the road without making sure everything was signed and sealed and delivered by all the authorities and it came home to rest eventually. So we won't be cajoled into moving until everything signed and sealed and delivered in a way we've all agreed. And we meet the government regularly. We have a task force with the government, all the various agencies that. We meet very often, monthly Board meetings with our partners from the government. So we're working hand-in-hand with all the agencies every week, all the time. But it doesn't mean to say that just like in a family, it doesn't mean to say that there are an occasional spats. That's a simple truth. And the strength of relationship is tested by how you deal with spats.

I don't know if you all have anything to add. You said you touched on this point here, but the follow-up question asking about the nature of the current relationship with the Ethiopian government given the media stories. Is there an open dialogue? Or is it dialogue via intermediaries?

No, no it's not intermediaries. I mean I've got an open line, true to ministers whenever it's required and vice versa. And the teams deal with all the levels of government down to the local hamlets. There's people who are connected into the government even down at the hamlets level of clusters of houses, working up to municipalities, up to zones, up to regions, up to the federal. We deal with all these levels all the time every week.

Again on the same topic, can Harry comment on why there appears to have been a change of sentiment towards KEFI from the European government perspective, as this news that people read in the media comes an expected shock to shareholders. You're hearing out how strong the partnership is going to be with the government?

Well, I guess just to reiterate what I just said, and that is that if you expect never to get slapped around then go to Ethiopia. And if you expect not to have to slap around in reverse when you're justified to stand your ground, don't go to Ethiopia. And Ethiopia is not unique, right? I'm just saying that this is our reality -- I'm not saying this to be diplomatic. But it's incredibly powerful country going through incredibly powerful change. And the people are very, very tough. They're tougher on each other then they are against us, to be honest. And they are truly appreciative of people who have a go and try to do something which is innovative for the country. And we got -- we occasionally disagree, right? But -- and I don't think disagreement should lead to individual offices and the bureaucracy talking to the press about it. But that's what happened and we got on with it, kissed each other on both cheeks and moved on. But that's all I can say. It's not really -- it's unfortunate, it became public domain. It was counterproductive. It was meant to be a hurry along, but you don't give a -- in my view, it's not wise to give a hurry along to major banks, one of which is actually has Ethiopia as a shareholder. You don't need to hurry along a bank that has Ethiopia as a shareholder [indiscernible] isn't it. And they have been taken aback and questions were asked, and everyone is even more careful now on making sure the signing procedures are correct because -- just want to make sure it's all done properly, and it will be.

And a question here about the Ethiopia whether it will be a signing ceremony given the government and company good publicity on completion of the mine finance? Or will it be done more modestly and announced by the usual channels?

No. I mean all of the above. It will be good everything there'll be. I'm sure there'll be some local media, we'll have to put out a regulatory announcement when things are signed. And -- but there'll be more private affairs at the local level with the local community. The local community doesn't really have any interest in, frankly, business people and politicians. They just want their kids to get a job. And they just want to get there opportunity for their children to get an education, and I really enjoy the media fan fair. They want to be treated with respect face-to-face. So there'll be celebration of sorts at the ground level in a way that works at the ground level. And in the major city, there will be maybe a media briefing, I'm sure.

Another question about the government story in the press, but I think you've dealt with that. There's not a lot to add there. Moving on to the next one, how can you say in one breath that historical spend is $70 million, and in another report in the accounts only $13 million?

Well, spending -- sorry, expect what, $70 million. And in our accounts, it's all written off, except for $13 million. We write off everything until we decide to pursue. But -- so it's just accounting, but the spend was $70 million.

So moving away from Tulu Kapi to Hawiah. When will further drill results be released? You indicated that there's been a lot of activity going on at the drill site.

Yes. It perhaps to say it makes it sound like we're not terribly interesting to traders and shares. But on the other hand, we do have a very large share turnover. So I suppose that can't be the case. But -- we tend not to want to put out a drill hole at a time of announcement, which doesn't really mean much on its own, unless it was some stupendous pit that would make everyone jump up. But -- so what we do is we tend to package up results for the drilling. So the a big picture interpretation can be made that is significantly different to what it had been previously. So I think we've just gone to 3 rigs, 24/7 because Ramadan ended last month. And so we'll wrap that up in a month or so I think that phase of drilling. And so I think around about a month or so, we should have a batch of results. Most -- a lot of them would have come through and then probably a month or so later, the rest of that batch should have come through from the labs. So I should have thought between -- around August, September, there should be quite a flurry of a set of drilling that's material to report. There's also quite a lot of important results coming back now on metallurgical laboratory work. And because these types of deposits have several number of metals in them, this one has, by quantity, it's copper, zinc, gold and silver. By value, it's copper, gold, zinc and silver. And the question usually with these polymetallics is can you get all of it? Or do you just one of the metals get lost sort of thing. And so the results we've already indicated very preliminary results are indicating that we're going to get all of it, but we've got quite a lot of work going on, on the metallurgical front, and that makes a huge difference to interpretation of the economics of the thing if we can confirm that we will get all of it back. Apart from that, it's baseline studies. So I think over the next few months, what was kicked off as a preliminary economic assessment exercise and see whether we've got enough and it's going to shape up for the mine. I think a lot of that will come home to us over the course of the next 3 months with a lot of drilling results in about a month, I think. Yes.

And how quickly could a mine be up and running at Hawiah?

Well, I think the preliminary -- the preliminary feasibility study will be finished over the course of the next 9 or so months. Then we will go into the way it looks to me at the moment. I think we'll go into a mining license application and definitive feasibility study phase. And there around about the middle of '23 when we would expect to finish the definitive feasibility study and development plan and to have the mining license have been granted. So it would be starting its development in around the middle of '23, I think that it would be -- you get amongst ore pretty quickly because it breaks surface. So -- and things are a lot quicker -- things will be a lot quicker there than they have been with sort of KEFI because it's majority owned by a very large group called ARTAR, the Al-Rashid Group. And we don't have to run around so much, putting together so much finance from a small company, but it will be a bigger company ourselves. We won't be the minnow that this company was up until a year or so ago, plus we don't have to put together all the capital. The Al-Rashid have put together most of the capital, and we don't have to run around looking for banks because the Saudi development funds are -- have been instructed to lend money exactly to this sort of project to get the sector moving there as well. So it should be a lot easier. There's no people and there's no community that we have to resettle. There's all sorts of speed advantages, if you like, once the projects have been planned out properly.

So moving on then to Jibal Qutman, if -- in your last announcement, it looked as if you've almost written off Jibal Qutman as a lost cause, stuck in a regulatory quagmire, why?

Well, I say it lost cause, but it is stuck in a regulatory quagmire -- it's just being conservative. It's stuck in a regulatory quagmire. And unfortunately, these things happen. And we're just playing it down until we get it out of that quagmire and so it is -- it's not a lost cause. It will be sorted. But right here and now, it's still in the mess in a regulatory sense.

So we're just going to move on to some more generic questions here. Is it right that you give interviews to your friend, Tom Winnifrith that can going to be accessed through his paid subscription service? Did you get paid for them? Long-term holders might feel they've been denied certain information.

Well, I never met a journalist who paid me for any interviews, and I doubt that I ever will. That gentleman is a journalist, I know him as a journalist. I've had a few drinks with him in the past. I like the man, but doesn't mean to say he is a pal or a mate. I don't know where the last time I met the man, I am not bagging him out, he's a good guy, but he's just a journalist, right? And I answer journalist questions if they ring me in and a discussion that's what I do there. I don't know what he does with the story to follow is newsletters and stuff. I don't know what he does with them.

In the annual report, you say we do have avail ourselves of unsecured advances from time to time as arranged by our corporate brokers, Brandon Hill Capital to provide working capital pending the achievement of short-term business milestones. This is taking place now pending the finalization of the Tulu Kapi Financing in preference to availing ourselves of several other much appreciated bridging financing facilities on offer. Can you elaborate further on this, and say -- if this means no further placings will take place prior to full funding?

Well, an announcement this morning said that that's what we're doing. So probably the question was asked before the announcement that we said we -- that's what we're doing. We're availing ourselves of unsecured advances arranged by Brandon Hill, as they've done probably a dozen times in the past, and we've asked them to. And now it's important because neither they nor we nor our major shareholders want to really gain in near the stock market. We want to sort of wrap this whole thing up completely. And not dilute these sorts of processes. I think we answered in today's stock exchange release.

There's a further question there about dilution, but I think you just addressed that. So when is the next broker's note due to be released to the extent that you or all can be aware of that?

Well, it's a coincidence, I'm aware of the fact that a major broking houses has put together a research report because they asked us to check it for factual errors and so on. And we did approve it last week. And -- so it's imminent, but I don't know they might send it to their clients first before it becomes generally -- no, I have no idea what their protocol is. But I keep an eye that because there will be a large broking house put out an initiation report on the company any time now.

Just back to Ethiopia, would you need to travel to Ethiopia for the final mine financing deal completion? Or can it be carried out remotely?

This whole COVID scene has taught us all a few new tricks. I'll spend more time in Australia in the last year than I had in the previous 20 years. But it's now sort of not cutting time. And so it's time to be on the spot and to help the team with whatever pops up. So I think I mentioned earlier, I was meant to be here in the middle of this week, and I'll lose a few days or a week or whatever, that entails because of entry changes that took place only yesterday in the country, but I'll be there for the foreseeable future to button it all down with the team.

In the RNS on the 7th of June, results for the year ended 31 December 0020. With reference to the AGM, Harry stated that because of COVID safety protocols, we will conduct a shareholder meeting in London with remote participation. I'm somewhat surprised that the RNS released on 17th of June that the AGM is now a closed meeting with shareholders and will not allow anybody -- nobody else will be permitted to attend a meeting. Can you clarify what the latest U.K. COVID-19 response has to do with no longer being allowed remote participation by shareholders? From an investor relations perspective, good corporate governance and transparency, this feels a little concerning as the reasoning does not match the action. Surely, remote participation can be facilitated as it is with this webinar.

Well, that's the point. It's been facilitated with this webinar. And so you can ask all your questions today, get your answers. If you don't like them, vote against whatever you want to vote against, which can't turn up to the general meeting because you're not allowed to turn up to the general meeting and any 2 directors can make it there anyway. So we thought this was a more democratic and transparent approach to give the time for people to ask all their questions well ahead of the deadlines for voting, so they could vote on a best in informed basis as possible given that they can't turn up to the meeting and vote at the meeting. So you have to vote by proxy. So we thought that putting this Q&A on now would give the opportunity for information to flow and people to compare notes, try to vote whoever they want to and then cast their vote as they deem appropriate.

Thank you. What does KEFI's contingency plan look like?

Well, I think history is the best judge on questions like that because we turned up in Ethiopia 6 years ago. And ever since then, we've been bent and twisted all over the place by changing circumstances in the country. And over the course of that time, we've replaced the principal contractors we were dealing with. We've replaced the principal lenders that we're dealing with. We replaced the principal local investors we're dealing with. And we've ended up with a bunch of syndicate members who know the country better than what was the case when we started. And we've been blooded by, I think, I'm now dealing with the sixth mine miniature -- mine minister that I've dealt with in 6 years. So contingency planning is what you see in front of you. We move and twist. We duck and weave. You keep pushing and shoving and you keep moving around and we do it on the ground. COVID has stopped some of us moving around as much as we wish and we used to, but we are still. Our senior team are on the ground there all the time. They have all had COVID now, are all being vaccinated. We're there at the face and contingency planning comes from being on the ground and knowing how to duck and weave and repair our bridges and all that stuff. But I think history is the best judge of that because that's what we've done.

Will there be a general meeting for shareholders to approve the financial closure?

No, not if it doesn't need to be. There some resolutions about some relatively small share authorities in the general meeting in a couple of weeks. If they're passed, I don't see where they won't be, but if they're passed, unless something changes, that should be about it. So I can't think of anything that would change that.

Can Harry comment regarding KEFI's plans and policy for updating the company's website and Twitter accounts? Used in the correct way, these will be a massive benefit to us by increasing sentiment and showing interesting progress, however, the Twitter account still under the old company name hasn't been posted on since February. The company named website isn't even aligned correctly with past words are covered for example, Arabian-Nubian Shield. And the whole website generally feels like it needs a bit of a revamp and clear direction. There are so many options which KEFI could explore, post mockups of new starter homes, even the link to the company, fabricating them or photos of the units for transport from the factory because at the moment, they just feel that the company is kind of status with nothing to update and until forced to give an update?

Well, will that not be the perception, but here I am on the webinar, which we do quarterly, as an example, and no one forces us to do that. See, in terms of Twitter, I've been given different advice at different times, to be honest, about the appropriateness of focusing on Twitter type one line messaging from a company within a regulatory regime that we have to abide by. But -- what I would readily agree to is that it should all be looked at again, the whole messaging platform for the company. The company is about to change quite dramatically. And I think because of that, it will be a much bigger company. It will have 1,000 employees. Ethiopia before long, it's going to change very, very quickly now. And -- we'll have a Ethiopian website in various local languages. And so one has to be a bit careful not to incite noise for noise's sake, but I do think we have to change the way we communicate and expand it quite carefully and deliberately around everything that's about to happen. So I'm not being defensive. I'm just saying there is a time and place at least minds about when one spends a lot more time and money on media communications and social media communications. And up until now, it's been most important just to get these deals done and get the show on the road. But I think once we get through to the -- through this closing and the associated activities, I think then community engagement, in particular, will demand local social media interaction as well. So I think that will change. And so I think it's a timely prompt from whoever sent that question in.

So it's just about 10 to 3 London time. So we're coming up towards the hour. We still got quite a few questions to go through. Just pick up the next one on the share price. Share price has been very deflated due to a few negative stories being bandied about. The shareholders should be getting excited now, biting their nails so close to such a momentous time for KEFI. What can you offer shareholders that these are indeed false rumors and that shareholders should be getting excited at this stage?

I assume you're talking about the media. There was one media story on the 15th of May, which was regurgitated a week or 2 ago in another newspaper, just regurgitating the same story. So one media story doesn't make for a sort of a barrage of negative stories. If that's what you're referring to, I think we dealt with that already in the questions earlier about the substance of the matter, and it's all we can do is deal with the substance of the matter. I mean if the question is referring to bulletin boards or chat lines, commentaries and that sort of thing, we don't engage with that. We can't spend our time trying to work out the motivations of anonymous posters on chat lines. So I can't really comment about that. I don't think it's appropriate that the Board of a company trusted decipher who's saying what and for what reason on anonymous chat rooms.

What aspect of the AGM resolutions was it that you said has to be held and agreed by the shareholders? Prior to the agenda being released, it was implied, there would be specific resolutions regarding the Tulu Kapi project as far as I can tell it's a fairly standard sort of AGM agenda.

There was a couple of things I thought we'd have to come into it as it turned out, the deals we did don't require it. So it's a sort of requirement that the AGM be held as part of our governance compliance, obviously, but it's important but downgraded as these deals got sort of.

So a question here. I know Harry is a fan of Edward de Bono. So what questions would a savvy shareholder be asking them if they knew everything that Harry knows?

Edward de Bono, if I have to think about what a lateral thinker would say. The thing that is interesting is, if you do enough homework on companies at this stage, it's pretty easy to draw a slide rule over the numbers and to project what the share price should be as it completes its construction and goes into production. There's hundreds of examples over decades that you can draw a slide rule over. And we alluded to those sorts of numbers in our talks and slides and analysts do it themselves in their own way. So it's not a magic. It's just there's some historical statistics paint those pictures. So develop, explore and discover. Okay, you've done that, you're better than most. Develop getting to production, run the slide rule over, you will get your answer. The question is, what more can one do? That's me, to me, the really interesting question. But yes, this is a really special situation now. It's a country that's might not read like it to the international press, but this country is about to take off in a way that most people have no appreciation of in more ways than one. And -- so the country and the sector are incredibly poised and we're the first mover. So the question is, what does one do about that? Now what do you do about being the first mover in a country that's taking off, particularly for the sector and when metal prices are running hot. So I'm complemented that the shareholder thinks I've got some sort of lateral thinking thing going on here. But to me, the intriguing thing is not will we get financed? Can we build it? Can we run it? The team that we've got in my history, and we've done this thing many times over. But the intriguing the means that given the coincidence of those points of inflection, what actually is really possible here. That's the interesting thing. And you only -- you don't really know all the answers, but you got to get amongst it, you got to be on the ground, you've got to get amongst it and usually other things, other opportunities arise to run with it harder than in other that's the thing that's interesting to me, it's fascinating. There's a team that's burst in the run here. They want the team just wants to get going. The government wants us to get going. The community wants us to get going. And it will get going. But to me, the answer to that question is prompt, where can this go to? And I think it could be something else again.

As a long-term quarter, can KEFI please give an update of the anticipated, I think it's going to be rating, re-rating of the share price once the funding of Tulu Kapi has been achieved. And ignoring hopefully additional good news from elsewhere from Saudi Arabia?

Well if we can take off the Edward de Bono visionary thing, take that away now, I'll throw that head away and I'll go back to the slide rule man, the slide rule man say, well, the annual report tells you what the things NPV is and the market cap tells you that it's only like 1/10 of it. And all the analogs over the history of the stock market, and there's plenty of them tells you that on closing, set of being a 1/10 of it, the market cap should be like 1/4, 40% of it, something like that. So it should go up at a multiple of a few times if it just behaves the same way as it's statistical brethren historically. And as it approach construction, it closes that gap. And as it goes past into production, if it's got a half decent pipeline of growth coming through, putting aside how we use and things like that, that we've got. But just the resource reserve growth coming through around the project, it should be trading at 20%, 30% above NPV when it's in production. So the stock here tells you that just based on analogs and not being a great pundit, but just sort of drawing slide rules to get settled on, this thing should go from 1/10 of NPV to over NPV over the course of the next 3 years, as it settles down, and how we as and whatever else we can deliver value on should complement that.

Just moving on to a couple of the other additional questions that have been submitted. Very direct question here. If the financing falls through this time, will you consider stepping down from the CEO role and let somebody else take it over?

Well, it depends on the reason. If someone turns around and says, we don't want to go ahead because Harry is there, of course, I would. But if a member of the syndicate for some reason is prevented from preceding and the other syndicate members, say, by golly, Harry, fill the gap and get on with it. All right, of course, I'll fill the gap and get on with it and preserve the syndicate and protect the company. And I founded this company. I'm not shying away from any challenges. But this isn't the moment to vent your frustrations for years of states of emergency and slow progress. This is the moment to stand your guard, stand your position, chin up, chest out and deliver and protect the business, protect the syndicate and do the right thing.

There's a question here about the political, I guess, variability between the 2 different parties. If the current party is not reelected in Ethiopia, what risk -- is there any risk and impact on the Tulu Kapi project?

We're completely apolitical. We really bear no party allegiances at all. But the chance that the ruling party is not reelected is pretty close to 0, because it's the only multiethnic, multiregional-based party. All the other parties, and there are lots of them are all single ethnic groups or single regional-based groups. And the Prime Minister has managed to follow coalition, which is unsurpassable politically because it actually is the most representative of -- that any party has ever been in the country. What you're witnessing here is the birth of widespread and widely based democracy in a country that was ruled by one ethnic group until not that long ago. And so to come back to the question, even if there were other parties that were tough political prospects, strong prospects to win the election, which I don't think is the case. But if there were, then it changed, then I don't believe it would change at all for the project because the project still remains prospectively the largest export generator for the country at the present time, at least. And the country needs it. And so I don't see why we changed at all.

There's another question coming from a slightly different risk perspective here on dilution. If you need to place shares because of one of the financiers or bankers back out of the deal. Would this be done before the deal is closed or after deals closed as shareholders have already seen their value as their investment go down? It's bit of...

Well, I will understand that shareholders are paranoid or sensitive to what may or may not happen. And I think the history of the last few years of being working through Death Valley in the stock market since the company was amongst many that -- I think the whole index for juniors and juniors in the U.S. is over a $100 million market cap. That's the definition of a junior. So we're a micro-cap in the context of those indices. The index of plus $100 million juniors in the mining space, they went down 95% over the course of 2011 to about 18 months ago. And therefore, it was worse for the micro caps. So that was a terribly debilitating period of time for anyone in that space with some exceptions, obviously, made a great discovery or something. But -- but yes, I don't think -- I'm not saying this to be arrogant or to brag or anything, but one should recognize that this company that was capped at $10 million is putting together a contracts package, well, today, it's not $10 million, it's 60-odd and it will be many times not too distant future. But is putting the other contracts package of about $700 million, including the OpEx and the CapEx. And it's going to end up owning 75% or 80% of this thing. Let's not kid ourselves here. This is a remarkable, remarkable achievement. Let's not cut our chickens, but it will be a remarkable achievement. And shareholders shouldn't get involved with junior exploration measure, if they don't want to put in money, because they don't have any cash flow. So -- they don't have any money. And if you want them to explore, you got to give them money. And you're going to develop, you got to give them money. That's the whole business model. But this company, I'm not saying it hasn't diluted, it has, and it's hurt all of us as shareholders. But for the most part, it was against a backdrop that I explained earlier with the sector going down so much over all those years. And now it's putting together all this capital on terms which could not be achieved if it wasn't for a number of factors which are quite unusual. So I'm not -- I can't give guarantees. How can I give a guarantee that somebody doesn't fall out of the syndicate. But I doubt it doubled the role, acting in a way where they want to get on with it. It's no accident. It's not a coincidence that the election is today and the closing is following the election. People want to make sure that the country is steady as she goes. No one starts rolling the cash flow on a $700 million package of contracts unless the country is steady as she goes. And if anyone thinks it could have been done in the month before the election, particularly given what happened in recently, which I'm sure people read about the problems in the countries north over the last 9 months. It's just not sensible is it to -- no one rolls the dice on hundreds of millions of dollars. You make sure that's settled down. And so long-winded answer, I'm just trying to give a feel for the situation. I'm not here trying to gild the lily. I'm just saying that we're a tenacious bunch of guys -- and leave whether -- we've weathered real storms in Ethiopia. And from now on, it's a piece of cake compared to...

Just a couple of more questions, I think, before we wrap it up. Back to Jibal Qutman. What's happening with the mining license there? Is the Saudi government waiting to see if we can get Tulu Kapi out of the line first before acting?

I wouldn't be careless about Tulu Kapi. I -- without wanting to be insensitive or undiplomatic, there was a regulatory stuff up there. And we just have to let it clean itself up and unravel itself. So I don't think we should go any further than that. But there was -- it was for no fault of our joint venture, for no fault of the management team, there was a regulatory stuff up. And it was one of the things that caused the overhaul of the mining regulations and exploration regulations in the country where they have been overhaul, one of the case studies that led to that overhaul was what happened with Jibal Qutman. And the government at the highest level wants to rectify, but it's got itself in a bit of a muddle. And needs to sort of at the wrong way.

Just a couple of final questions, both dealing with similar issues on Hawiah. I'll read the first one out, regarding Hawiah, when do the bankable deposit report be released, I believe this is scheduled for some time during June. So still the case if this is delayed? Why is this the case? And then the second one, just say as it sounds like this Hawiah being delayed by around 6 months from previous plans? Is this accurate? And if so, why is this the case?

Well, yes and no. Because what I mean by that is that when we put out our maiden resource about a year ago, we -- when was it, last August, September, we projected forward what we will have to achieve to justify at a conclusion that this looks economic, and we should go into feasibility study mode. And we project it forward, we'd have to -- we take until the middle of this year, I think, from memory, to get a handle on the structure and the ore body sufficiently to justify going into feasibility study mode. We crossed that bridge some months ago. So we actually announced that some months ago that the grade is picking up, and we've stepped out long range of drilling way out ahead, and we kept clipping the thing. So we decided to jump a couple of steps. And we triggered the preliminary feasibility study, I forgot exactly, but some time ago. And so the money is going into preliminary feasibility study as much as drilling now because we sort of knocked off that commercial objective. So it's bigger than it was. It's higher grade than it was. It's already in the feasibility study mode. As with any exploration project, it changes its shape compared to what you thought might be the exact case. But by and large, it seems pretty predictable. So I think -- I don't remember, to be honest, the exact milestones of the questioner was alluding to. But I do know that what we projected back last August when we declared a maiden resource, we've gone faster than what we anticipated in terms of those key commercial judgment calls of have we got enough to justify development? Yes. Do we trigger feasibility studies? Yes. And we've already done that. And I didn't think -- and we didn't think we'd do that until this next quarter or so, originally.

Okay. Well, the last question we just had in, actually, as a comment saying, thank you, which I think is a nice point to draw it to a close. And Harry, over to you in case there are any closing remarks you'd like to make in wrapping up?

Not really. I think we've covered a good spectrum there. I'm not -- there's nothing weighing on my mind, but that I thought would have been asked that wasn't asked. So I think we just all have to knuckle down and get the job done. And that's it from me.

Very good. Okay. Well, then Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, thank you very much for your time today. Really appreciate it. I'm sure the investors and shareholders have to have their tea.

You're welcome. Thank you. Bye-bye.