KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. (KGH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, everyone. Welcome at the conference where we will discuss the results for the first 6 months of 2023 at KGHM. And today, we have Mr. Tomasz Zdzikot, the CEO; Mateusz Wodejko, Vice President for Finance; Marek Swider, Vice President for Production; Miroslaw Kidon, Vice President for Foreign Assets who is also the acting Vice President for Development; and Mr. Marek Pietrzak, Vice President for Corporate Affairs at KGHM. As always, we have Janusz Krystosiak, Head of Investor Relations, and he will handle the Q&A session at the end of the presentation. We will answer questions from the journalists present here and those submitted via e-mail. This conference is also available online and questions to the Board can be submitted by e-mail [email protected]. And all the answers will be posted at the company's website in the Investors kit. And my name is Piotr Checinski, and I'm the Head of the Corporate Communications department. And it is my pleasure to be the host of this meeting. Now I will give the floor to Mr. Tomasz Zdzikot.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome at the results conference at our head office in Lubin. Today we'll share with you the results achieved in the first half of 2023. As you know, KGHM is one of the largest Polish companies and also a very global Polish enterprise. Therefore, we are impacted by external environments, macroeconomic not only local at Polish level, but also global factors. On the one side, it could be the price of basic raw materials, price pressures, economic situation in countries that drive demand. We are one of the largest suppliers of copper and all those factors influence the results of the capital group, KGHM Capital Group that we'll share with you today. Starting the presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, as I said, the macroeconomic environment is noteworthy for a number of elements. The price of copper. The price of copper, which compared to the last -- the previous period significantly came down. The average price is at $8,700 per tonne and was 8% lower than in the same period last year. The same applies to the price of copper in Polish zloty. This is a significant decrease of the price of this raw material that influences our raw material. In terms of the price of silver is similar to the same period last year, the same in terms of exchange rate, molybdenum price went up. However, the volume of production of molybdenum is such that, that increase doesn't influence the results of the capital group. The price of copper influences the results of the capital group. But why the price is as it is? First of all, the expectations were not confirmed related to a strong increase of the Chinese economy after the COVID pandemic. China is one of the largest markets. On the right-hand side, we can see that levels of stock in Shanghai Exchange after increase went down significantly. This was influenced by yuan's exchange rate to the American dollar, which is -- which came down also the use of an existing stock and also forecast that fail to fulfill in terms of the construction industry. The demand is driven by energy projects, but the market expected a strong balance in the economy after the COVID. This didn't happen, and this drives the price of copper. Right now, the price of copper is significantly lower than last year. And at present, it's at -- within the range of $8,200 per tonne. The price in Polish zloty is a bit higher and that also influences our results. So in terms of the macroeconomic environment, it is driven by different countries, especially by countries that drive demand for our products. In Poland, we can enjoy positive economic growth. These are forecast of the International monitor Fund from July comparable to the previous forecasts. But in general, a downturn of the economy in Chile, not very optimistic forecasts in terms of other economies, the eurozone under 0.1 percentage point. So that drives the demand for our product. And that's why the price is -- the price of copper is 11% lower than in the first half of last year. In terms of our results, I showed you the price of copper, lower by 11%. U.S. dollar to the Polish zloty exchange rate is comparable. We're happy in terms of the production performance. And actually, the whole of the performance delivered by Polish -- by Polska Miedz. Our performance allows us to mitigate cost pressure risks related to the fluctuations in the energy market and the steel market. So the results of KGHM are excellent, historically highest, one of the highest. So I would like to extend my thanks to all our employees or our people working for us. Their work significantly contributes to our performance. We are determined to continue our investment program. We are really happy that CapEx performance is 21% higher than the same period of last year. Revenue down by 1%, that's comparable given the difficult macroeconomic environment, we take pride in keeping a very safe level of debt to EBITDA under 1%, and my colleagues will elaborate on these details. In terms of the key and principal results. The capital group, over PLN 17 billion in revenue on PLN 15 billion by Polska Miedz. EBITDA 3 -- over PLN 3 billion, one of the highest -- historically higher and Polska Miedz over PLN 2 billion contribution. And the results are really significant highest in this year. My colleagues will elaborate on that. All this, we owe to excellent production performance and reduction in cost pressures. This picture gives you more details. EBITDA at over PLN 3 billion. This is the third highest result -- the 2020, '21 in the first 6 months was known for very high copper prices and a strong American dollar that influenced the results of the Capital Group. But the results, PLN 3.148 billion, is typical for our companies. Net results fits the long-term trend and the level of debt is safe. Production of silver and copper, historically at a very robust levels. These are one of the most important factors that allow us to mitigate any risks related to the existing prevailing cost pressures. In terms of development, just by way of introduction, and Mr. Kidon will elaborate more on this historically, we can enjoy the highest level of investments, PLN 3.25 billion. These are the assumptions and the performance in the first 6 months, PLN 1.369 billion that's 21% higher than last year. We presented the results, the GG-1 shaft which was connected in mid-June with our mine. We could -- we presented that there on site. We commissioned the SOLINOX line in our copper plant. We've started a lot of investments, and we're preparing sold production GG-2 shaft, where work is underway, but Mr. Kidon will tell us more.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Now I will give the floor to Mr. Miroslaw Kidon.

Thank you. Thank you for this powerful introduction. Now let me elaborate on a few things. Yes, indeed, record-breaking CapEx and investments in 2023. But as the headline says, we are reasonable and responsible in our investments. Why are we spending this money? It's because we want to ensure a future for the Polish copper. Polish copper was built in the 1960s and '70s. The newest mine comes from 1982. So replacement is of key importance. We just can't give up on this. As you can see, as much as 36% of investments is replacements and maintenance, we need to adapt to changing geological situation, water deposits and other things we stumbled upon in mining. Also in processing and smelting, we need to follow-up on environmental requirements. We need to spend money on that or need to keep developing to maintain our production levels. And then development, R&D and we've heard, we also spend money -- R&D money on analysis and feasibility study of the Salt works, and we do that to take care of clean environment. We are a responsible company, and we meet all the legal requirements, but we want to walk the extra mile. We want to generate clean water. And we want to sell the world's best kitchen salt. Now our CapEx, our investment plan is not at risk. We will deliver it as planned. And this is a record-breaking plan, but it's still very reasonable. This will allow us to compete with the world's leaders in the future and to defend our second place in the global ranking, the second largest manufacturer and the eighth place in terms of largest copper mines. If you look at the details of our investments, as we mentioned before, GG-1 shaft. This is a huge investment. The shaft is Europe's deepest, 1,048 meters deep. We recently celebrated the first connection to the Rudna mine, and we also think about GG-2 and [indiscernible] shaft. Why is this so important? A lot of money here has been allocated for machinery replacement, water drainage. And our costs are growing, it's energy, it's the war. And on the other hand, we have to compete against our competitors. We have to reduce our C1 cost. Economies of scale, growing production will allow us to reduce our cost base. But to produce more, we need to access new deposits, we need to develop. We need to go ahead. We need to build new shafts. Geology is not helping -- we have 55 degrees. That's a rock temperature at 1,300 in the ground. These are very challenging conditions. This requires a lot of cost in terms of ventilation and air conditioning. Air conditioning alone in the shafts is CapEx in the range of PLN 0.5 billion, 800 cubic meters of water per hour and the temperature of the water is 1.5 degrees. And the returning water is 23 degrees. So this is a huge project. It doesn't look like AC in your flat at all, but this is indispensable. Without this, our miners will be unable to work down there. If you were -- if you went down the -- if you could feel the temperature we had before we connected to the mine, and we started to pump 10,000 cubic meters of air per minute. Well, the difference is huge. On target, we want to have 45,000 cubic meters per minute. The plan was 30,000, but with an investment of nearly PLN 2 billion, our people were working hard to improve that capacity. They worked on the shape of the shaft. We also got some permits to increase velocity from 12 to 18 meters per second. As a result, we will deliver 45,000 meters -- cubic meters per minute in 2029. That's why we're interested so much in further development of GG-2 [ Gmina Grebocice ] and the Retków. We're also interested in other methods of improving ventilation. Ventilation is cheaper than air conditioning. And we want to do an experimental drill for the Lubin mine. The borehole diameter will be roughly 4 meters and that borehole will be 600 meters deep, and its purpose will be to improve ventilation and working conditions in the mine. So far, we haven't done that. This is a new technology for us. We want to test it. And I will tell you more about this when I discuss international assets because we want to use our know-how and experience from overseas. Coming back to our investments, let me tell you about our pits, our workings. They are according to plan -- over 20 kilometers of working that's the expansion that we do in order to reach new deposits. Water pumping station successfully launched and on time, a very important investment 6 cubic meters per minute. This is where we started. Now we have 12 cubic meters and the target capacity will be 24 cubic meters per minute, and we want to reach it in 2024. Also, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in the program to adapt the installations to BAT Conclusions, we commissioned the SOLINOX plant. We are removing arsen and mercury. We will also use -- we will also install the plans to remove particulates containing Mercury and arsenic, we will use subatmospheric pressure. So the dust will be sucked in and captured in a tight conditions. And we want to use state-of-the-art solutions that will be very environmentally friendly, and they will reduce expenses related to dust and metals. Another important project is the replacement of our machinery. If you ask our miners who want to work with state-of-the-art and reliable equipment then they will tell you that this decision was just right, the decision to replace our machine part. This is an important stage in the life of a mine. If you -- if you're delayed with this, if you do not follow the life time, the life cycle of a mine, then you will suffer in the future because your equipment availability will go down, your production output will go down. We want to be responsible as a management board. And we also employ professional managers and specialists. We are fully aware of that, and we have a regular equipment replacement plan and we allocate the resources we need to avoid any availability reductions. We actually want to improve equipment availability. We want to reach, we want to catch up with the global leaders. And Sierra Gorda is one with 86% of equipment availability. Let me also mention the southern quarter. Finally, KGHM will start use hydrocyclones and densification of waste. This is a technology used globally, and we've never had this. When waste is densified to 62% of solids, that's our target in Sierra Gorda, for instance. We may not reach the target, but still we will reduce our costs and waste storage is cheaper and also the waste heaps grow at a slower pace, which obviously is cheaper. Now let me move to the next slide. Let's go to the deep [indiscernible]. That's an important operating area for us. That's why we are reporting on the progress regularly. This area is stable, and it keeps growing. As you can see on these charts in the first 6 months of this year compared to the first month of the previous year. That's 38%, 32% in the amount of metals and precious metals is -- it's 35%. Active concessions and future potential more the nearest, areas that's [indiscernible] we want to apply for a new concession until 2026. We estimate that copper content is roughly 1 million tonnes, and we also want a concession in Retków in 2025. We want to get that license, the mining license in 2025. The other concessions are for prospecting. We are trying to beat our competitors because they are some. And hopefully in terms of concessions, KGHM will meet all the requirements on the expectations of public administration. And we will also prove to be an attractive holder of the concession from the government's perspective. Now let me move on. Now I'll give the floor to Mateusz.

Mateusz Wodejko, VP for Finance Welcome, everybody. Our colleagues said a lot about energy, about key aspects related to excavation related to energy. But the smeltering also consumes a lot of energy and needs, competitive energy. Therefore, we are undertaking a lot of actions related to low emission energy. These activities show that we are progressing in the right direction. In terms of solar, the first project, they are still small in Glogow-1, 3, Tarnowiec, Kalników, Polkowice. They are nearly finished to get the building certificate and to start the commissioning. But in the pipeline, we have a significantly larger projects, 50-megawatt farm in [indiscernible], 88 megawatts where at the end of June, we applied for connection. These conditions in-house development is the most beneficial one. Therefore, we have a renewable energy project team to continue this. In terms of wind, we have [indiscernible] offshore or onshore actually land, we can also develop other interesting projects. In terms of renewable energy projects in the market, we are very active there as well. And as I mentioned during previous conferences, everything depends on the price. If the price is attractive, given our financial model, we'll be involved in the projects. In a number of cases, we are at a very advanced stage, and I really hope will shortly communicate something to the market. Everything depends on the price and on the transaction conditions. So we are active there. Going to nuclear energy and other low-emission area where we're very active. This is a long-term project. But step by step, we are fulfilling our tasks. Number one, we've obtained the principal decision for 2 potential locations. We obtained that permission in July. And this confirms our high standing in terms of nuclear energy projects. We are also involved in other nuclear projects. We are very active. You can see here that we're applying for Phoenix program money, and we are very active and broadly there. We are also active in the gas industry, the gas and steam industry were planned to work at a lower performance and thanks to dropping gas prices, the performance is higher there. We're active on the gas market, and we're benefiting from dropping gas prices and for our production facilities, we can deliver energy and heat from these sources. Ladies and gentlemen, in terms of production results, production of metal and the capital group and national assets and foreign assets, I will focus on domestic assets and Mr. Kidon on foreign assets. We have payable production, silver and TPN and molybdenum. In terms of the dry weight, 15.6 tonnes, the contents of 1.74%. This gives us 2% up year-on-year in terms of concentration, 202,000 tonnes with a concentration of 22.6%, which is plus 1.7% year-on-year. In terms of electrical copper production, [ 2,960,000 ] tonnes production. A lot is 10% up in domestic production year-on-year, the performance is the same. In terms of silver production, 699 tonnes, which is plus 4 points up 4.5% year-on-year. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And again, I would like to ask Miroslaw Kidon to take the floor.

Thank you. I would like to present Sierra Gorda performance. We are really happy with the results and the performance of Sierra Gorda mine. It's one of the best mines in Chile. Year-on-year, it receives more and more awards from the authorities. This year, it will be for health and safety. We delivered 200,000 tonnes of production of copper, and we are #1 in terms of year-on-year productions right followed by Chilean Spence. However, they opened a new line of sulfur. We, however, delivered this through efficiency measures. Looking at payable copper production, these results are influenced by the content of copper and molybdenum in the ore looking at molybdenum and precious metals year-on-year, they are growing up 11% molybdenum, 6% gold and payable silver, 10% lower, although the content of ore was down by more than 10%. However, looking at the second quarter of 2023, is compared to the year '22 is a bit better. However, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is the operations of that facility this year. We delivered over the budget, while costs were under the budget. And this year, we are delivering 130,000 tonnes in August of processing -- daily processing. Sierra Gorda was designed for 110,000 tonnes of having that capacity. We are exceeding the capacities, not by 1,000 or 2,000, by 20,000 tonnes, in terms of daily processing. And we believe this is not the end of the development of Sierra Gorda. We have plans. We are analyzing the ways to still boost processing. All investments take into account the potential looking at opportunities to grow production in Sierra Gorda. This year, we've commissioned third densifier [indiscernible] having a diameter of 80 meters. We have 2 of them. This densifier is a more modern fit well. It's like a distribution box that distributes waste through the densifier and with a more powerful drive. We needed the drive to test the densifier to obtain the declared 62% of solids in the environmental permission. There was measurements from last month show that we are able to obtain 64%. This is extremely good news because that gives us a green light for further analysis, for further development in driving productivity and processing in Sierra Gorda. The processing and yield in Sierra Gorda is growing continuously, thanks to optimizations, launching new technologies, upgrading of the technological processes. We achieved all this, thanks to our excellent people. These are both Chileans and Pols and a lot of people from other countries in total different people from over 12 countries. We have really excellent professionals who expand this mine. We would like to share the experiences from Sierra Gorda across different assets and roll out this best practice throughout our Capital Group, also in Poland. Going forward, looking at KGHM International, KGHM International, as can be seen, shows a decline year-on-year and this is mainly due to a transition zone. The transition zone is regretfully a place where we don't have clean arm, its mix with different kinds of filled sand, clays, and that changes the performance of our machinery and pushes down the performance. Therefore, in the first quarter -- also in the first quarter, we had extreme snowfall and then following -- at that time, you may not remember, but at that time, there was plenty of news related to weather anomalies and impacted our mine, Robinson. Plenty of water, streams of water, very poor road conditions also contributed to the malfunction of a lot of our machinery. We implemented appropriate measures. We made the decision to buy an additional 11 trucks having a capacity of 240 tonnes and that will be purchased in 2024. Actually, the first truck is due to arrive in 2 months, 6 trucks this year, 5 next year. We have plans for 14 more, and we will replace the whole fleet of 38 trucks and replace 35 trucks. That will allow us access to appropriate places. And this will allow us to overdeliver achieving performance comparable to Sierra Gorda. So we have a plan for that. But I'd also want to say that our foreign assets is not the core business. It's not mines alone as KGHM, we are a very flexible Corporation. And in our portfolio, we have both manufacturing facilities, manufacturing copper. So that's vertical, a diversification and -- but also we have support industries in Poland, [indiscernible], but abroad have DMC, which is a modern service companies providing services of manufacturing, mining facilities or shafts. And I think my friend, Mr. Marek will -- Marek Pietrzak, Head of Corporate Affairs.

Thank you very much. As mentioned, KGHM Group also includes groups -- companies that support production processes. And these companies include Zanam, who are in the mining equipment business, [indiscernible] construction company for mining industry, Marcus, a logistical company and many more. And in our corporate governance, we constantly look for synergies to maximize -- to make the most of our assets. And this is an ongoing process, as the President has mentioned, we do more than mining proper. We also do a lot of associated businesses. And one of the companies -- here is DMC Mining Service. We are very proud of its performance, and we acquired that company back in 2012. It has over 40 years of experience. It has a strong market presence and a portfolio of market-leading customers, such as Glencore, Vale or Codelco. And it is a global company. It has offices in Canada and the U.S. So far, it has delivered 32 projects. So a lot of reasons to be proud of. So we do much more than our core business. We also acquire companies around our core business. And President Kidon will tell you more details.

Thank you very much for giving me the floor. Again, I will tell you why we are talking about DMC in a second. Let me first confirm that this is a high know-how company, lots of top quality experts from Poland, Canada, U.S. or the U.K. And quite importantly, just like our other assets and our Polish mining operations, DMC pays a lot of attention to safety. There were no accidents or injuries in '21 and '22. DMC has a flagship product. They have the know-how and the capabilities of drilling shafts by using an SBR harvester. This is a machine that was first designed and built by DMC in cooperation with Herrenknecht from Germany. And that company, the German company designed a machine to the guidelines of DMC. So it's fully automated in Stage 1. It does the proper digging, then it sucks the material and delivers it upwards. Obviously, the borehole is secured immediately after it's drilled. It has certain limitations. If the hardness exceeds 320 megapascals, then it will not work. But when you have potassium deposits or salt deposits, this technology is just fantastic. And we are proud that DMC as the world's first player used that technology. Now coming back to our projects in Poland, as I mentioned, we want to build a ventilation shaft with a diameter of 4 meters. And we want to use the experience of DMC. We've been thinking about the blind boring technology. This is a machine that knows how to drill in situations where water is a threat, and the machine can do that without actually freezing the ground. And in the end, the water is actually used to help stabilize the shaft casing. That's why we've been thinking about using that technology, it would actually shorten the drilling time 4x compared to traditional methods. As I mentioned, the -- our expansion in new areas of operation require more and more ventilation. That's why we've been searching for new technologies that would help us build ventilation shafts quicker. DMC is important for another reason that's another major project in Canada, -- that's our Victoria mine -- we haven't yet decided on building a mine there. At this stage, the depth of the shaft is 40 meters only. We should start drilling in September, and we will go down 1,800 meters. Another shaft will be 2,000 meters. When you compare our 1,300 at GG-1, well, then GG-1 is not that impressive anymore. But the difference is in the conditions, the soil conditions and underground conditions are more favorable in Canada because the temperature adds 2,000 meters in Canada is 30 degrees, give or take. Actually, we will probably need heating rather than air conditioning. And more seriously, the project is very tempting that deposits are good quality. They may have well over 0.5 million tons of metals, mostly copper, nickel. There's a little bit of gold, silver, palladium, platinum and cobalt. So with energy transformation coming ahead for the world, these are very important metals for the transformation process. Copper is self-explanatory. Silver is commonly used in PV panels. Nickel and cobalt are necessary in lithium and iron batteries. Platinum is key in fuel cells. For instance, Bosch is phasing out it's traditional batteries. Now it's searching for hydrogen batteries. So we will be ready for them. I think this is it for me when it comes to foreign assets.

Thank you, Mr. President. Now let me give the floor again to Mr. President, Wodejko.

Yes, indeed. I will try to elaborate on financial performance in the first half of the year, as Mr. Zdzikot already began -- so as you said, if we look at EBITDA, the adjusted EBITDA for the group and for KGHM Poland, if we take a longer perspective, a certain cycle, so to speak. Then you'll notice a certain trend, the first half both for the Capital Group and the Polish company. The first half of the year was not bad. It was one of the better first halves. Here, our baseline is the first half of 2022 with record high copper prices. And then inflation pressure caused by the war in Ukraine. Well, it increased the cost of materials and labors, but it was not that visible last year. So the first half of the year doesn't look bad in terms of EBITDA. And as Mr. Zdzikot said, copper prices went down by 11%. And when you look at our revenues, we did all we could to make sure to optimize our revenues. We did some hedging transactions. We sold more products wherever possible. And given the lower copper prices and an unfavorable dollar to zloty exchange rate year-on-year, with each ton we lost PLN 4,000 because of the exchange rate difference. If copper prices were at the level of over [ PLN 9,000s ] then we would surely be able to counterbalance the cost pressure. And we could present even better performance. But the global situation on the market is what it is. We have an economic slowdown, material prices go down and price pressure keeps growing. If you look at inflation scores from all over the world, you will see that the pressure is still there. In the Polish operations, in the Polish company, we do quite a lot to counteract the pressure. We review our contracts. We plan for the next year to prevent the baseline inflation. And cost pressure is actually coming from the world to Poland. So we can't do much about this. Now let me discuss the results in detail. If you look at multi-annual perspective, both for the Group and the Polish operations. Then in Poland, the result is quite good, PLN 1.207 billion. It's one of the better results in the history with 2 or 3 exceptions. The first half of '21 and '22, these were very good periods, yes. But in principle, when you compare it to other years, it doesn't look bad at all. And for the group as a whole, it's not that impressive admittedly, even though -- there were some comparable periods in the past. And why is it so unimpressive? Well, the net result of the Group as a whole is strongly affected by the performance of KGHM International, as Mr. Kidon explained, we have this transitional reduction in output. And this brings about more consequences. So we need to do a more accounting operations, such as additional provisions for reserves. We also have higher capitalization of cost. So the results of international is relatively poor. It's actually quite negative. But there are many reasons for that. Also, we need to look at the net result of the capital group. Foreign exchange losses are quite important here, the dollar and euro exchange rates at the end of 2022, well, they were much higher than now. So foreign exchange losses. I will explain in details in a while. That's of key importance here. Another accounting parameter is the higher level of a reversal of losses on loans granted in Sierra Gorda. Some write-offs were made in the past in 2022. In 2023, we continue doing that. But obviously, they are lower, it's roughly PLN 300 million, which is significant. Also in 2022, the company enjoyed a tax relief, relief on the tax on mining production. So this also meant that our cost in 2022 were much lower. Now some details. As I said before, EBITDA of the group is PLN 3.148 billion. This is slightly lower than in the second half of 2022. But in the multi-annual perspective, it's not that bad. Revenues comparable, both for the group and for the Polish operations and the net result of the group, as I said, less reversal of losses on loans granted and foreign exchange losses. This had a strong bearing on our results. Now revenues, why are they slightly lower? For the capital group, it's more sales PLN 227 million. And that comes mostly from the Polish operations and a reduction in international. You can see [ PLN 1.79 billion ], that's lower copper prices, and we can counterbalance it with foreign exchange changes. We also have a positive impact of the adjustment of revenues from derivative instruments plus PLN 600 million. This year, we had [ PLN 227 million ]. Last year, it was PLN 370 million minus. So as a result, the delta is PLN 604 million. Also Polish zloty in terms of 1 tonne of copper H1 and H2 go down, the level is pretty low, just over 37,000 and that's the price of copper in Polish zloty. So I'm glad that the revenues are comparable to the last or the previous year. But we were unable to improve -- to increase our revenues in order to counterbalance our costs. And here, we have cost by type. As you can see -- when you look at the pure cost by type, then the growth is not as big as the total cost for operating purposes where we have changes in inventories or cost of inter-business service, intra-business service. Here period-to-period, the costs went up by PLN 1 billion roughly. If you look at the quarters of the year, then when we exclude third-party charges and mining tax, then we have PLN 5.4 billion. And in the first half of last year, it was PLN 5.7 billion. So as you can see, we are actually counteracting the cost pressure. This is not an easy fight but we're trying to do all we can to keep our costs under control. Now C1, when you compare the first 6 months of this year to 2022, where the world inflation was much lower than now than the difference is quite big. But let's say loud. Our revenues depend on the macroeconomic situation. So it's only natural that the growing cost worldwide should be reflected in our growing revenues. But this is not easy when we have an economic downturn globally.

[indiscernible].

Now in terms of the PLN 401 million of profit. There is PLN 169 million deterioration, operating costs, [ 1.9 ] down then cost by type change in stock -- change in production for owned goods. In the first half year, we actually build stock more than in 2023. PLN 301 million is the accounting approach with the reversal of debts -- of loans and slightly lower charged interest in terms of loans given to Sierra Gorda and exchange rate differences, PLN 1.5 billion. You can see the significant influence of exchange rate differences on company's performance. I can say that company had a profit of PLN 4 billion. Now it has PLN 400 million. But if you look at negative exchange rates and on top of that, there were PLN 300 million of the write-off due to reversal of write-off, then you can see how matters beyond the control of the management can influence the performance of the companies, the negative exchange rates. And we, as a company, on the one hand, if the Polish zloty is stronger than that will reduce our liabilities, but also we can -- the negative aspect is that if we grant a loan to Sierra Gorda, then it's the loan is quoted in Polish -- in the dollar. And if the Polish zloty is stronger then in the dollar, they are still high. So everything depends on the exchange rates. What else happens, individual one-off events, the sale of intangible assets, the sale of the oxide project and the sale of subsidiaries. The Franca mine PLN 300 million in one-off events that took place in 2022. So that's from the point of view of the capital group investments. In terms of cash flow, we can show here that the company aiming to maintain a low level of debt. Net debt-to-EBITDA, try to maximize cash, and we can see that we achieve this. Then this allows us to maintain a safe debt-to-EBITDA ratio with working capital as positive. And in terms of the debt of KGHM, 0.9%, which is under 1%. So lower cash, lower debt, significant change of net debt from over PLN 5 billion to just over PLN 4 billion, we maintain -- in these hard times in the world that we maintained safety and security, like financial security. Therefore, the financial institutions can show that we are a prudent and responsible entity with money to invest. Now on these slides, I wanted to show you the performance against budget. Looking at this, it looks quite good. The unit production cost lower than budgeted for. Capital investments at a low level, [ PLN 1.369 ] billion in terms of CapEx 21% higher year-on-year. Capital investments, PLN 589 million this year, this half year. So our loans given out which, for example, fund the Victoria project, where we expand Victoria using our DMC company. So this money is retained within the group. And our liquidity 0.9%. In terms of production and sales results compared to the budget the Polska Miedz, we have a success in terms of mining, copper, concentrated copper, concentrated silver exceed the budget levels in terms of the first half year, electrolyte copper at a similar level year-on-year. Looking at the budget, we are happy to say that in the first half year, in 2023, we manufactured electrolyte copper using own concentrate more than in 2023. So we minimize outside inputs. We improve our efficiencies. Our mining production from my perspective is more desired because we don't have transportation costs with own input, you don't have a supplier margin so that we can be happy that the mining was on the rise. In terms of sales, we can say that this is within the budget international, that's been discussed by Mr. Kidon. Sierra Gorda, also, Mr. Kidon mentioned that looking at the second quarter in terms of Sierra Gorda, we can see that the second quarter is much better than the first quarter. So despite of the geological hindrances, the yield is progressing nicely. In terms of the second quarter of 2023, we can see we are facing problems related to revenues. And this is because compared to the first quarter in 2023, the price of copper was much lower in the second quarter. In the first quarter, the world believed that the economic rise in China would be higher after the COVID, the pandemic, but there was no stimulating package. Therefore, in the second quarter, the price of copper and silver was lower. We are trying to mitigate these adverse effects by applying cost measures and the cost of energy and gas helped us in that. So the second quarter doesn't look that bad. Also as a matter of order going through different segments in terms of EBITDA, Polska Miedz can see a decline by [indiscernible] billion and a large share of that of the international that impacts EBITDA at consolidated level. In terms of Polska Miedz, Polska Miedz', in the first quarter, the revenues was actually higher than in the first quarter of 2022. So our efforts to maintain sales was more effective. And in terms of sales of copper. You can see the results here in terms of volumes. Now in terms of cost, we showed costs by type. Cost by type show -- reflect the level of the capital group. So the stock -- we manufactured to stock -- so at the cost by type, the negative effect is lower than at operational level. And looking by quarter, we can see the costs -- we are trying to curve the costs. EBITDA and financial results. Just that's been discussed earlier in 2023 in the first half year, the adjusted EBITDA was higher of Polska Miedz than in the second -- than last year. The prices were similar, the exchange rate helped. But we are trying to oversee the costs. Therefore, the EBITDA was higher. Net financial result. We don't see a big difference. As in the case of the Capital Group, increase in the top line. 2,808 that's volume, PLN 299 million, that's a top line growth, higher operating costs of PLN 1.6 billion. The result of exchange rate differences. We can see that how that impacted our performance reduction of the income tax that contributed to our benefit. In terms of risk management, in the second half of 2023, we have security for 94.5 tonnes of copper and 2,100 ounces of silver. So we have that in our order book. At the end of the H1, the mother company showed performance and derivatives at PLN 164 million. So we have reduction in operations, PLN 109 million and [ PLN 4 million to PLN 6 million ] in terms of financial results. So we have a lot of positive performance in terms of using derivatives and financial results. In terms of our foreign currency security in hedging, we have $487.5 million secured. And then for the next [ 5 ] years, $330 million. So that's in terms of me. So this is the end of our presentation. And now I understand we are opening the Q&A session.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. So Mr. Tomasz Zdzikot to summarize that and then Mr. Krystosiak. And we'll move to the Q&A session. Mr. President, the last word.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are aware of the challenges that we face today and going forward. The challenges related both to our macroeconomic environment, and we showed that to you today related to raw material prices, commodity prices, energy prices, steel prices. And in general, cost pressures. We are facing these challenges successfully. Mr. Wodejko said that we are keeping our costs in control. We are making sure to ensure higher production levels. Mr. Swider mentioned that. Production in Polska Miedz is something that helps us unlock to stabilize the company's situations and to develop and grow looking for further opportunities for production increases. We have a lot of development projects, which were in the pipeline, and now we are implementing them. They will bear fruit by showing production stability, financial stability in the long term. In terms of challenges related to foreign assets, we'll manage that as well. We are happy with the progress of our group companies. Mr. Pietrzak mentioned that because in our portfolio, we have both domestic and foreign companies, international companies that manage well in the market and for a part of our whole supply chain, internal supply chain. So ladies and gentlemen, in summary, PLN 3.148 billion EBITDA in the group, over PLN 2 billion in Polska Miedz, net results PLN 400 million group results. Given the environment, given the trends and looking at the trends starting from 2018, that performance ensure stability of our company, and that is the word that will -- we are repeating. Polska Miedz needs to be stable, both when we have adverse macroeconomic environment, and when we have economic prosperity, which we experienced in the last 2 years. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. President. And then now Janusz Krystosiak.

Thank you very much. Now the first question from Bank of America, Jason Fairclough is asking. What is the plan for international asset operations? Because it seems that we have a lots of money at EBITDA level is that sustainable. Will you shut down mines? And I think Mr. Kidon.

Thank you very much for the question. As I mentioned earlier, we are in the transition zone. As this indicates this is a transition. We will come to the ore, through the proper ore, we will get proper blending and obtaining of the workings and deliver performance in Robinson. So definitely, this is a temporary time. The plan is to improve availability of mining machinery, and we have made appropriate CapEx decisions in terms of the replacement of machinery. And we want to support Robinson with our Polish know-how. We are preparing a group of engineers who will support Robinson. In the future, we are also intending to implement a debottlenecking project as we made in Sierra Gorda to improve production at Robinson. We are also intensively exploring the site. We are right now in the [indiscernible] 5 transition zone. And we are planning to keep the company, the mine until 2035. But even now, we can say that on the basis of exploration research, we will extend that life to '39, thanks to Liberty and veteran pits. We are still searching for copper-bearing minerals in an associated area called Lane Valley. Hence, as I mentioned earlier, the lifetime of the mine will continue. We will go through the transition zone and we have appropriate financial plans to improve effectiveness, efficiencies, production and profitability of Robinson in the future. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We discussed a lot today about Victoria project. What the working assets in Sierra Gorda, but maybe Mr. Kidon could add something still to the project by answering the question -- from UBS. Can you show -- can you indicate when KGHM will agree or further agree the progression of Victoria project? And the fourth line in Sierra Gorda. And can you indicate additional production related to these projects? So probably -- let me just say that the forecast would not be at this stage. We might talk about client parameter. But in terms of management decisions, could we say something more perhaps?

We have plans to make a decision in terms of the fourth line by the end of the year. Naturally, we need to take that with our partner, sub-32. Therefore, we are actively analyzing NPV, improving production, the C1 costs. Thanks to that investment. Therefore, we gave ourselves time until the end of the year. Victoria project is similar. However, we as being a reasonable management board we've analyzed the project in depth. And we came to the conclusion that there are risks we need to address and mitigate before the decision is made. And at present, we are working on that. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we will make -- we'll take the decision, but that depends on the analysis.

Thank you very much. As I browse through the other questions, I can see that they are related to operating costs of the group by different market segment. We've been talking a lot about this. We have also some questions about our forecast or expectations. Quite importantly, we don't do forecast, actually, we don't publish forecasts. So as reading the list, I can't see any new questions and detailed questions about different cost items or C1 costs that still have to be calculated. Well, we will answer all these questions by posting the answer on the website. I wouldn't like to take too much time from you. President Wodejko spoke about cost at length and detailed calculations and parameters and KPIs will be published on our website and specifically in the Q&A. So that's it for me. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Let me also thank the Board of Directors of KGHM Poland. This is where the conference ends. This was a conference summarizing the first half of 2023. All the journalists here are invited to record interviews. The Board is here for you. And online viewers, thank you very much for your attention. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]