Lynas Rare Earths Limited (LYC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Kathleen Conlon, Chairman of Lynas Rare Earths' Board. I'm pleased to welcome you to this Annual General Meeting of the company. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, as well as the traditional owners of the land on which we live, work and meet in the Eastern Goldfields of West Australia. We pay our respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people attending the meeting today. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to shareholders joining us today, both in person and online. Ladies and gentlemen, today's AGM is being filmed and is being live streamed via the Internet. Details are available on the Lynas website. When we get to the Q&A sections of AGM, we will take written and audio questions from shareholders joining us online as well as questions from shareholders in the room today. Online attendees can submit questions via the Lumi platform at any time. Voting today will be conducted by way of poll on all items of business. Online voting will open shortly for all resolutions at that time. If you're eligible to vote at this meeting, a new voting tab will appear. Selecting this tab will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with the voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. You do not need to hit a submit or enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. However, you have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare the meeting closed. I now declare voting open on all items of business. The voting tab will soon appear, and I will provide notice before I move to close voting at the end of the meeting. For information on how to submit a question or a vote, please refer to the Lumi platform user guide on the website or in the documents tab of the Lumi webcast platform. I would now like to introduce my fellow directors. Joining me here, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Amanda Lacaze; and nonexecutive directors, Philippe Etienne, Vanessa Guthrie, John Humphrey and Grant Murdoch. Joining online is Non-Executive Director, John Beevers. John is unable to join us in person today due to a commitment arranged prior to joining the Lynas Board. We are also pleased to be joined by Sarah Leonard, General Counsel and Company Secretary. Our audit firm, Ernest & Young, is represented by Gavin Buckingham, partner, who's also here in the room with us today. I understand that all shareholders present have registered with our share registry boardroom before the meeting. The Notice of Meeting was dispatched to shareholders on the 12th of October 2023, and accordingly, this meeting is deemed to have been properly convened. We have a quorum of more than 2 shareholders, and accordingly, this meeting is able to transact the formal business as set out in the Notice of Meeting. Before we proceed to the formal business of meeting [Audio Gap] [ It is a great pleasure to address you today in this, my final address as Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Lynas Rare Earths. As you know, having served on your Board for the past 12 years, I will be retiring from the Board at the close of today's meeting. Looking around the room today, I recognize some of our shareholders here from my first meeting all those years ago. I am confident that this is the right time for a transition, and I'm delighted that John Humphrey, a long-standing Lynas Director, will be taking over as Chairman to lead the Board and the Company through its next phase of growth. You will hear from John at the end of today's meeting ]. [ This year we have welcomed John Beevers to the Board as part of our ongoing Board renewal plan. John brings a strong track record in entrepreneurship and operating excellence which complements the current skills on the Board. We have an ongoing plan of renewal and expect to add additional directors over the coming year. I have to say that this has been an incredible 12 years ]. [ Back in 2011 ], I knew this was a company with ambitious and worthy goals: to be an outside China supplier of ethical and responsible rare earth products for current and future technologies. However, I certainly did not imagine the journey we would go on and the challenges we would need to overcome [ to achieve our position as the world's only scale supplier of separated rare earths outside of China and a trusted supplier to our customers. To put this 12 years in context, in 2011, the iPhone 4 was announced, Generation Alpha was born and around 50,000 electric cars were sold ]. In 2023, we have the iPhone 15, a tech savvy younger generation entering their teens, and the International Energy Agency is expecting the sales of 14 million electric cars this year, which is excellent for us. I'm extremely proud of this company and what we've achieved, and I'm pleased to [ have this opportunity to ] provide this overview of the 2023 financial year. 2023 was a productive year for Lynas. The company delivered excellent production outcomes, particularly in the second half of the year. At the same time, good progress was made on key growth projects designed to meet forecast accelerated demand growth for rare earths and deliver long-term shareholder value. Sales revenue of $739.3 million and net profit after-tax, NPAT, of $310.7 million were achieved for FY '23 and the company recorded a 4% increase in NdPr production year-on-year. These strong financial results were achieved in a year that was marked by external headwinds, including lower market pricing for rare earth products and water supplier issues that limited our first half production in Malaysia. But this was made possible by our team's drive and ability to succeed in challenging conditions. The average China domestic price of NdPr, VAT excluded, decreased during the year from record prices achieved in FY '22, and future market price trends continue to depend on end product demand and the further development of the outside China rare earths market. This was a significant year for Lynas growth projects with construction of the Kalgoorlie rare earths processing facility largely complete, commissioning underway, and more recently, the kiln heated. In Malaysia, we constructed mixed rare earth carbonate receiving facilities or, as we call it, MREC, to receive and process the material produced in Kalgoorlie. And following the recent update to the Malaysian operating license, we will be able to process both MREC and Lanthanide Concentrate at the Lynas Malaysia facility. Amanda will provide more detail in her CEO presentation. In Western Australia, the Mt Weld capacity expansion was announced in August 2022 and is progressing well. The Mt Weld project will deliver capacity to produce sufficient concentrate feedstock for production of 12,000 tonnes per annum of finished NdPr product. This project includes scale and efficiency improvements and sustainability and circular economy initiatives, including a new gas-renewable hybrid power station, improved water recycling and segregated tailings storage for potential future use. The gas-renewable solution will replace the current diesel power station at Mt Weld and will provide benefits, including lower GHG emissions intensity and reduced exposure to fuel markets. An early works contract has been awarded and contract negotiations are expected to be finalized over the coming months. Design and long-lead procurement activities for the Mt Weld project were undertaken in FY '23 and early works have progressed following formal approval of minor and preliminary works from the EPA, Environmental Protection Authority, in March 2023. This month the WA EPA recommended the Mt Weld life of mine proposal for approval, which is an important step towards full environmental approval. During the year, we also made good progress on our U.S. project. A greenfield site in an existing industrial zone in Seadrift, Texas, was secured for our new U.S. processing facility. The large site will allow for colocation of the heavy rare earth and light rare earth separation plants as well as potential future growth opportunities, such as downstream processing and recycling, to create a circular mine to magnet supply chain. And on 1st of August 2023, we announced an approximately USD 258 million follow-on contract with the U.S. Department of Defense for the construction of the heavy rare earths component of the Lynas U.S. rare earths processing facility. The updated contract is an expenditure-based contract under which all of Lynas' properly allocable construction costs will be reimbursed. This contract is separate to the light rare earths contract with the Department of Defense, which was announced in January 2021, which remains on foot. These projects seek to ensure that your company is well positioned to grow [ with the market as demand for rare earths ] accelerates. I'm sure shareholders will be pleased, particularly the ones who were in the room with us 12 years ago, as I am, to see that the company remains in a positive cash position with a closing cash balance of $903 million as at 30 September 2023 to support our growth projects. [ Since 2021, we have been focused on employing ] capital on execution of major growth projects to ensure Lynas can maintain its share in a growing market. As we bring our major projects in Kalgoorlie, Mt Weld and Kuantan to a close, we will be announcing a revised capital management policy, including a dividend policy. As we grow, we seek to increase efficiencies and share learnings throughout our operations. One of the ways that we can do this is through workforce mobility and it's been very pleasing that we have been able to bring about 30 of our talented Malaysian team to Kalgoorlie to support the commissioning and startup of our new facility. We recognize that we operate in a competitive market and providing career development opportunities is one of the ways we support our people and build the next generation of leaders. Our company is committed to meeting customer, community and investor needs for ethically and responsibly produced rare earths. We work closely with our people and our local communities to provide opportunities and build shared value. From an environmental, social and governance perspective, we are focused on transparency and continuous improvement and have provided our latest updates in the 2023 ESG report, which is now available on our website. On behalf of my colleagues on the Board, I would like to thank Amanda Lacaze and her executive team, and all of our employees, for another excellent year. The Board would also like to thank you, our shareholders, for your continued support. We look forward to continuing to build shareholder value and share our progress in the year ahead. In closing, I'd like to say it's been an absolute privilege to have been part of the Lynas development from a new entrant to a significant rare earths player. This company has demonstrated that with resilience, perseverance and a commitment to doing the right thing, Australian companies can succeed as ethical and responsible materials producers for global manufacturing markets. The Lynas I retire from today is a sustainable business with a strong balance sheet, and this provides an excellent foundation to continue to progress our exciting growth plan to meet the future needs of our customers. I wish my colleagues on the Board, the Lynas team and our shareholders all the best for the future, and I look forward to following Lynas' continued growth and development as a shareholder. I would now like to invite Amanda Lacaze to address the meeting.

Well, good morning, everybody. And it's so nice to see so many familiar faces. This is actually one of my favorite days of the year because it is a terrific opportunity for us to take stock on where we've been. However, I am alert to the fact that last year, after I've done my presentation, I looked at my watch and I thought, "Did I really speak that long?" So I promise that this year, I will try to do better and keep it a little briefer, so that I'm not standing between you and what I think is quite a nice morning tea outside. I have something here, which is going to help me. This year, we have had a very good year. And we do this because we have a very clear view of the things which are important to us. And we share and live those values within the company. And today, we are fortunate to have most of our leadership team actually here in Sydney for a variety of different reasons, and I want to take the opportunity to introduce them. We have Gaudenz Sturzenegger who is our CFO. And he was nominated by the AFR just yesterday, 2 days ago, as the #2 CEO in Australia, so if I may -- CFO in the Australia, so you're doing pretty well. Sitting next to him is our COO, Pol Le Roux, who is well known to many of you. He has not been nominated as the #1 COO in Australia yet. However, if the AFR doesn't decide to do this, I might just establish this as a particular award, and we can give it to Pol, in any case. Alongside Pol, we have Daniel Havas who is our VP of Strategy and Investor Relations. So many of you actually have spoken to Daniel, particularly over the last year. And then next to Daniel is our Malaysian tornado, Mimi Afza, who heads up our people and culture, all of our community engagement activities and basically just keeps the rest of us under control. And at the back, we have Jen Parker who is our VP of Corporate Relations. So we are in -- it's great to have them here today, and I would encourage you to take the opportunity to speak to them after the meeting as well. Just hopefully, they will confirm that what I'm telling you is not just in my own imagination. So we have high aspirations and we hold ourselves to high standards in Lynas: to be a safe and sustainable producer; to operate efficient and low-impact operations; to grow, to increase in scale as market demand grows; to make sure that we are contributing to better and more sustainable supply chains, particularly for outside China applications; and we have a great passion for ensuring we make a positive contribution to our local communities in each of the areas in which we operate. Laverton and Kuantan, in both instances, we have many disadvantaged people in our surrounding community. And as we prosper, we seek to share some of that prosperity with our local communities. The 2023 financial year was a good year. It's very easy to say that now. I was saying to Penny before, it's like when you have a baby, you remember the first time they smile that year, but you don't remember all the times they cried. And so as I look back on 2023, I remember all the good things that we have achieved. And maybe even now, my memory is deliberately obscuring some of the more complex and difficult parts. But the team that I have just introduced are the ones who have variously -- I've been trying to look for the right analogy -- climbed mountains, blown up ramparts, walked on hot coals, these all sound pretty uncomfortable, don't they, but being absolutely laser-focused on delivering the best outcomes for this business. And whether that has required them to work all hours of the night to manage multiple priorities, they have done this every single day, and that is why we have been able to achieve this outcome, and always, as I said, holding ourselves to a very high standard for the quality of our operations. So first of all, we aim to be a safe and sustainable producer. We're all very alert to this as a mining company. I did love not long ago a description in The West Australian and Advertiser, which referenced the mighty mining industry. And I liked the fact that we're part of the mighty mining industry. And I've said before that Australia might have been used to ride on the sheep's back, but now it stands on the diggers' shoulders. The mining industry contributes over 50% of the corporate tax in Australia. Many of the services that we enjoy and expect there is a result of the mining industry. I'm also proud to be part of an industry where we lead the world in safety and sustainability practices. And we see this when we visit sites elsewhere in the world, and we see processes and practices that we certainly would not accept here in Australia. Which brings me to safety. I know that our safety statistics -- we'll start with safety is actually our first priority. We need to make sure our people go home safely every night. It is our duty to our people to ensure that. And whilst the performance this year has not trended in the direction that we would like, I think reflecting a lot more complexity in our operations, including a lot of the construction activities on site, we are absolutely focused on continuing to improve it. And on an absolute basis, it still measures well versus our peers. But it is still not good enough. So we're very focused on ensuring that we continue to improve that. Kathleen also already mentioned fairly quickly sort of our financial highlights. $310 million in NPAT last year, I know that it wasn't quite as good as the year before. But I can remember, and she talked about the soft rare earths pricing, Pol and Gaudenz and I can remember in 2015 dreaming of the day that we would have $65 NdPr prices. So we, as a business, can operate efficiently and successfully when the price is lower, we just are more successful when it is higher. Sales revenue, close to $0.75 billion; and the EBITDA at $377 million; and yes, it was wonderful to finish the year with just over $1 billion in cash because we have some people in the business who are very focused on actually spending some of that money to ensure that we are set up efficiently and to take advantage of the next inevitable upturn in the market. The operational highlights. Despite some external challenges with respect to things like water supply in Malaysia early in the year, Pol, it seems a very long time ago now, doesn't it, but it did hurt an awful lot at the time. We had a record year for NdPr production in the, in fact, 6 months of the year. In particular, the plant in Malaysia demonstrated to us just how good we could be. And at Mt Weld, our team there produced sufficient not only to feed today's needs but also to build a stockpile for Kalgoorlie; and of course, about $600 million reinvested in the business, in our property, plant and equipment, to ensure that we are fit for the next stage of operations. As I said our people -- our company is about people, and our people and all of us hold ourselves to a high standard. Sometimes I chuckle when people -- maybe I just roll my eyes when people talk about companies as if they don't care and it's only because someone outside says you've got to get your ESG right. Our company is made up of people. Our people care as much as anybody else about ensuring that we are sustainable and are very focused on this. And so as we think about this, we have this focus on safety, equity and diversity. Our communities, we seek to hire locally, to buy locally, to be active in the community and share our prosperity. And in terms of environment, yes, we don't want our children or grandchildren to inherit a world which is not okay to live in, and so we are focused on implementing strategies within the business that will minimize the impact that we have on our surrounding environment. So this year, we will pull out just as a specific because it is something that the ASX thinks is to disclose, we've got -- 25% of our senior executive team are women. 25% of our employees are women. This is a long way better than we were even sort of 6 or 7 years ago. And we have -- 43% of our Board members are women, although with Kathleen leaving, we will need to address that. We support -- we have within our community structures. We actually have focus areas, including education, sports and health as well as -- Mimi is down there. She's a bit worried that I might forget things. So she's just trying to manage me remotely. And our giving programs are all about ensuring that we actually are engaged with our community on the things that matter. And we are working to ensure that we, with time, reduce our impact with our greenhouse gas emission reduction action plan, which is not just about Scope 1 emissions, although we must start with those, but also about Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. And the most significant initiative here, Kathleen already referenced, which is moving from a diesel-operated generation at Mt Weld to a gas hybrid renewable power station. Now this is a significant commitment, but we are very pleased to be making that commitment. So the market for rare earths continues to grow. One of the things that I think that is worth reminding ourselves that today, in 2023, the market demand is 45% higher than it was in 2019. And we see this trend continuing. And of course, that's the reason why we are reinvesting in assets in the business to be able to meet demand as it continues to grow. In 2023, demand has been more moderated, and that really has reflected, in particular, some of the economic situation in Japan, but we -- sorry, in China, but we expect the growth to accelerate right through to 2030. During the year, as we've -- as I think all of you know, we've been very engaged, particularly in Malaysia, with respect to the license conditions and our ongoing operations. And I'd just like to share with you some of the communication material we've used there. [Presentation]

Our Malaysian stakeholders on that material. So just looking then a little bit at our operations, which, of course, is Pol's area as our Chief Operating Officer. And really, he and his team have just pulled the blind this year. That's very Australian, he won't understand that. So it's okay, I'll just say that to all of you. But record annual concentrate production at Mt Weld, we completed mining campaign 4, we've got really extensive drilling. It's fine to have sort of the recognized highest grade ore body in the world, but it's not good enough to just sit there and say, "Well, we'll just sort of pull that out." The additional drilling will allow us, with time, to move some of the resources into mineral reserve, but it also allows us to become more sophisticated and clever in the way that we mine. So instead of just mining for grade because we mine a variety of different elements, over time, we will start to think about how do we mine the element in addition to just mining for grade. The exploration program. The geos every time -- again, well, as you know, they sort of look at me like sort of a little cartoon character with the propeller on his head. They sort of get very excited about finding out more about this ore body. And we have a significant team including resources from JARE, our Japanese partners, working through this. In Malaysia, record NdPr production January through June, I mean, really excellent. And we needed to do that after some of the disruptions in the first 6 months of the year. The 3-year operating license was initially renewed on the 2nd of March. But with the restrictions on our operations in Malaysia still in place, so we have had a very intensive number of months on that. The mixed rare earth carbonate receival facilities are constructed and commissioned. That's been pretty exciting. And we are now shut down in Malaysia as we do tie-in works to be able to increase our downstream production, that solvent extraction and product finishing, to 10,500 tonnes of NdPr per year. This is just a picture to share with you of the new MREC facility. It's pretty -- like I said, it's pretty exciting to see, a new kit in place. And this allows us not only to process the material, which will come from Kalgoorlie, but also, as part of this, we have included additional facilities, which will allow us to continue to improve our efficiency in Malaysia and also our quality. Of course, the big news and jigsaw puzzle piece that came out from under the catch, the Malaysian license in earlier this month or just at the end of last month, was updated to remove the conditions that provided constraints on our operations in Malaysia. This means that we are now able to continue to process lanthanide concentrate from Mt Weld at our facility in Malaysia for the duration of this license. This is a major achievement. Unfortunately, Dato Sri Mashal, who heads up our Malaysian regulatory efforts, is not here today because he's actually in Malaysia working with the AELB on some of the R&D commitments that we have made. But Mashal and Pol, between them, really have delivered an outstanding result here. So in the future, Malaysia will take feed as concentrate directly from Mt Weld, which will go through the same current flow sheet that it does today. And it will take feedstock from Kalgoorlie as well. And this is the reason why we've shut down at present to do the time works for the solvent extraction and product finishing is so that we can -- absolutely, cracking and leaching is not a bottleneck for the foreseeable future, so we need to increase our downstream processing capacity. So when I think about that, it brings us to the next thing, which is really increasing scale and our appetite for growth, which even all these years on is undiminished. We are very fortunate because we face into a growth market, and we have the skills and the competence and the assets to be able to fully participate in that market. We are increasing our footprint, Mt Weld, Kalgoorlie, Malaysia, the U.S. And the U.S. project, as Kathleen mentioned, is now significantly progressed. Kalgoorlie, I know everybody wants to know about what's going on in Kalgoorlie. I can see a few sort of smiles at present. I can tell you that the kiln is on. It is at temperature. The refractory has been cured. That all sounds very technical, doesn't it? But all of these things are necessary preconditions to production. We have been through commissioning of all of the various stages of the plant, and we are waiting on a final sign-off from the gas inspector, almost as we speak. So [ Paul Grand ] has to send me a daily update so that I know where things are at. But this is an extraordinary facility. It is being constructed very quickly. We were disappointed to have to announce that we had experienced cost flow outs on the construction of this facility. Unfortunately, as it turns out, someone said to me, "Well, every project is overrun. What made you think you'd be different?" And I said, "We aspire to be different." But unfortunately, particularly over the past sort of 18 months, there's been real explosion in costs in WA in particular, and then we add to that the fact that we were racing very hard to meet a deadline. We have a little bit more breathing space now. However, we will be producing more than the original design out of that facility. And we made those further enhancements to design as we move through. So just let me show you a little bit of what the plant looks like. [Presentation]

[ Lynas tragic ] because I get very excited by that video. I am particularly excited by things like our filter building, which is now -- we've been able to put in significantly enhanced design and operations in that facility. We have automatic filter operation, including the ability to change out costs, those sorts of things. We would describe this as really sort of generation for technology after a number of rounds of improvement in Kuantan and now we have been able to design out some of what we saw as the initial floors in the Kuantan operation. Then, of course, at Mt Weld, we've also got a significant project ongoing. The minor and preliminary works approvals have been had. We're very engaged and have a lot of support from government here, Western Australia, U.S., Japan, Europe, everywhere, for the further development of this activity. We have the recommendation from the EPA that the plant be allowed to -- that we be allowed to execute our plan in full. And I'm very proud of one of the announcements from Matthew Tonts, who's the EPA Chairman, who said, "This is one of the first projects to provide the EPA with a life of mine insight that allows confident assessment of the combined and cumulative impacts." And so as said again, we hold ourselves to a high standard, we seek to ensure that we do provide useful and appropriate information. At Mt Weld, as I said, we'll be transitioning to cleaner energy, and we are well progressed with an agreement with an energy provider for a power station, which will replace the current diesel-powered power station. It will be a combination of gas, solar and wind. And probably one of the most important things that we're doing as part of this project is really getting a step change in our water recycling. Water is almost as valuable in Mt Weld as the rare earths that come out of the ore body. And we need to treat it that way. We need to ensure that we are utilizing that water wisely and, as I said, that we are reaching appropriate recycling levels. So just a little look at what... [Presentation]

So I don't have any time -- Kathleen is looking at her watch, and I think that I have failed miserably. But anyway, you can tell -- you can send someone with that hook to pull me off if you like, but I'll keep going. The U.S. rare earths processing facility, we were really delighted this year, I mean, in the U.S. as well. I mean we did a lot of work on this plant and what it was going to cost, and then we had COVID, and then the costs went up by 40%. We said to the U.S. government, "We need to rethink this." The U.S. government is absolutely committed to this facility. And the contract that we have essentially ensures that we are not carrying significant risk on the development of this facility. So we are pretty excited about this. We've got site. Some of our team are actually next week doing some significant local community engagement, and we have the equivalent of our EPA proposals in place, in the U.S., it's NEPA, and so that process is continuing. And certainly, by the next time I speak with you, we will have time lines, photography, to show just how much we've achieved there. Growing the rare earths market outside of China is critical to our business. We need to ensure that we have a larger industry outside of China. Sometimes I get asked about sort of the potential competitors. And for us, if we can have a larger and more robust industry outside of China, it is actually good for all of us. But we are looking not just at the next 5 years. We're looking at the next 10 years and what sorts of technologies are going to be developed over that time. And in particular, as we think about the energy transition from sort of the energies of the 20th century to the energies of the 21st century, there is a role for rare earths in that process and not just our magnetic materials but our catalytic materials as well. And we have built a team, an R&D team, who is actually working on these technologies, which are the 5-year-plus technologies, including use in the production of hydrogen, say, for example, and some of those other areas. I don't have time to go into that in a lot of detail today, but I'm sure that Pol will be delighted to speak with you about it because his great passion. So we look forward to the next 10 years with excitement. [Presentation]

We have come a long way in the last 12 years, but we've still got a long way to go. And finally, as I said, we're very committed to building prosperity in our communities, sharing with you some of the key numbers on that. We are committed to buying from local suppliers, and we also do pay them in a very timely fashion. But we invest in R&D. We invest in the community. We make sure that we employ from our local communities, which ensures that, that money goes back into the community and creates more economic benefit. So finally, I need to add my words to a farewell to Kathleen. The company that we are today owes its success in no small part to Kathleen's hard work, intelligence and commitment. One day, I think I might write a book on my journey at Lynas, and it will include the way that she managed to entice me to join this company. Suffice to say she did and suffice to say that we have had a very strong working relationship over the past decade almost, which I think has been very good for Lynas and its shareholders. Kathleen understands the business. She understands when it is appropriate and is prepared to roll up her sleeves and help in the business. And she understands when it is more appropriate to maintain proper distance for governance reasons. She brings to our business a real focus on operational excellence; an understanding of investment, investment logic and investment markets; a fabulous ability to manage multiple stakeholders. She is a trusted and respected counsel for me and for the whole of the management team and brings the famous, much-wanted emotional intelligence to what we do with a focus on our people, on development and, of course, diversity. One of my very favorite pictures is on the left here, which is Kathleen and me at this year's International Women's Day celebration in Malaysia. Actually, it was themed around rock around the clock basically. We taught our Malaysian women how to do nutbush, which some of them got it, liked that; and others were like, "Oh, this was a bit energetic." But it was just a fabulous, fabulous time and was an excellent example. We couldn't have done that 10 years ago. Our first International Women's Day celebration, we had 35 women. At this one, we had over 200. And really, that focus on diversity, not just gender but age, experience, ethnicity, is something that Kathleen has brought to the Board table and also to our business. And on the right, of course, is the photo when we had Ambassador Caroline Kennedy spend a full day with us last year. She came out and visited both Mt Weld and also Kalgoorlie. And we were just delighted because foreseeing new people on this trip, we're all women, so we had Ambassador Kennedy and we had Kathleen and we had me and we had the U.S. consul from WA, who is Siri, who is also a woman. So it was a great day, and we were able to really demonstrate, and she was able to take the message back to the U.S. about how important we were. So we are incredibly sad to say farewell to Kathleen, but she promises me that she's going to remain a shareholder, and she's going to run up each year and she's going to ask me really difficult questions. So I would like you to join me in really saying thank you very, very much to Kathleen. And with that, having singularly atrociously not met my objective of speaking for less time, I will now open up for questions. Sorry, I have to hand it over.

Thank you, Amanda. And I have a confession to make. I was not onstage with you in nutbush. I'm American. I have no idea how to do the nutbush. I'm [ sliding ] with the Malaysians in the back. So thank you very much for those kind words, Amanda. I will now table the financial statements of the company for the year ending 30 June 2023, consisting of the annual financial report, the directors' report and the auditor's report. The annual report was dispatched with the Notice of Meeting to those shareholders who've requested a hard copy, and an electronic copy was sent by e-mail to shareholders with an e-mail address and made available on the ASX website and the company's website. We would now like to ask for questions on the management presentation and the financial statements. A reminder that only shareholders, proxy holders and authorized representatives can ask questions. [Operator Instructions] There were some questions submitted in advance by shareholders. And we've attempted to answer those questions throughout the speeches, for example, dividend policy. But again, if people didn't get the answer that they were expecting, please ask again. [Operator Instructions] For more information on how to ask a question, please refer to the Documents tab on the webcast. For shareholders in the room who would like to ask a question, please form a queue behind the microphone in the front -- in the middle of the room. Okay. So with that, I'd like to open up for questions. Make your way to the microphone, please.

I am Bob Richardson, a private investor and I give my congratulations to you and to Amanda for a wonderful year and your wonderful service. [indiscernible] would have liked to have been here and done it himself, he asked me to pass it on. I wondered if I might ask about the outlook for the calendar year next year for reduction in demand? I understood what Amanda said, but are we looking forward to a greater demand for the long term, we're expecting, but what are we expecting for next year? And with the increased production capacity, will you expect Kalgoorlie to be fully utilized over the next shorter period? Or is it going to take some time to absorb that extra production?

So I hand that question to Amanda.

Okay. Thanks, Bob. So as I said, it's sort of a bit of putting a jigsaw puzzle together. I think as many of you who've been with us for a long time now, we have 5 different steps in our production. And we don't always manage to lift them all up at the same time, at the same rate. So in fact, with the new license, we take the constraint of cracking and leaching and between Kalgoorlie and Malaysia we have combined capacity of about 16,000 tonnes a year. We will manage that for the best and most efficient cost outcome for the business. Once we have the Mt Weld expansion complete, we have a sustainable 12,000 tonnes a year, but we will be picking that up because we're focusing on the rare earths [indiscernible] for the current bottleneck, which is, for example, dewatering first. So it's not that we sit at current rates until the end of next year. We're going to have a couple of steps in the meantime. And right now, we're enhancing downstream in Malaysia to get us to the 10,500 tonnes. So our target would be that by the end of next year, we should be running at a minimum at a run rate of about 10,500 tonnes a year. And in fact, hopefully, sooner than that, and it will be a little bit dependent upon that. Well, will we be able to place all of that in the market? Will the market continue to grow? Absolutely. The easiest part of Pol's job is the responsibility for sales and marketing because he picks up the phone and he says, "Sure." Is that true? But we have had significantly more demand particularly over the last year that may have been observed, particularly during the period where we've been uncertain about the license conditions. And so Pol and the sales team are now very actively involved, particularly with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in the automotive industry to set up now the contracts for the future.

Thank you very much. I'll ask just one more question, perhaps to Gaudenz or whoever. Sulfuric Acid, is there any other option other than BHP for sulfuric acid for Kalgoorlie?

Not yet. [Technical Difficulty] and germanium, I think. So they're not our materials, no. But I think that many, certainly geopolitically, sort of look at this and see this as potentially the sort of the canary in the mine shaft. This is, if China is prepared to put export controls on those materials, will that move into some of the other materials.

So are you to mine them?

No, we don't have them. Unfortunately, if we did, we would, but no, we don't have them.

I have another question. What have you done differently this year? And has the effect been positive or negative?

That's an excellent question. That's a really good question. I think we have done many things differently this year, particularly in our operations. And there are some people in the room who have visited sort of our Malaysian facility. I think that one of the things that you would see who went there today is that we've implemented or Pol and his team have implemented about ensuring that the plant is kept in its best possible condition because if you operate in a clean environment, you are going to make more quality product. And people would actually see that there. I think that we have enhanced our skill level again. I think a number of them we have added to our R&D team, we've added to our process improvement team. So we are looking to always be improving. We currently have a pilot in place where we're looking at increased water and chemical recycling in the business. This is again about sort of improving sustainability. So I think that we've all adopted, which we are much better than yesterday, but much worse than tomorrow. So we continue on that journey. But would there be anything else you would want to add to that?

[Technical Difficulty]

Maybe it is good. I'm quite sure about the ugly. That's probably not very cliche. But the bad, what have we done? Actually, I think that we have dealt with a number of external challenges really very well. It was very difficult in the first quarter in Malaysia. But I wouldn't say that, that was out as a result of our efforts. Certainly, as I said in our speech, I guess the one thing that we -- if I had a magic wand, we would not have -- we would have delivered better, was that we wouldn't have had the same cost overrun at Kalgoorlie. But other [Technical Difficulty]. Thank you.

I am [indiscernible]. I'm a retail shareholder. I've been a shareholder since Zlatko has founded the company, for a long time, and it's been a long and fortius journey. So I congratulate the Board and the current management team. First question in relation to what you may call the inflection of international [ politics ] focused on the supply chain and value chain of rare earth, in particular in defense applications. What aspirations given Lynas' position in the leading stage internationally? Does the Board hold and management hold to repeat the exercise of the Texas facility somewhere in the European Union or the U.K.?

Thank you, Jonathan. I'm really pleased that you're not prepared to give us even a moment's breathing space between transactions. We're not quite there yet and let's say like when are we starting again. Let me say a little bit about the U.S. first because I have spent a little bit of time in the U.S. over the moment. The Prime Minister very thoughtfully aligned his travel plans to mine. So he was in Washington the same week that we were, which was very convenient because it was critical minerals roundtable at the Australian embassy in which we participated. And it was excellent because Lynas was really, well, it was -- we really got [ pride of ] place in terms of projects and development. So the U.S. is very determined to reshore manufacturing. And as I then traveled back to APAC and President Biden made the comment, don't bet against the American people. And I think that, that is correct. When you look at the policy settings that they've put in place, they are not clicking their heels 3 times and saying, now we're going to be in critical minerals. They are actually putting policy settings in place, including things like the Inflation Reduction Act, which will ensure that this manufacturing is reassured. And I think that we, as a company, have found a pathway to do that, which actually has transferred the balance sheet risk to the U.S. government rather than to our company, which is a very good thing. But we do that with confidence that there will be development of the industry. I think we've got 7 different magnet projects. In Europe, we are engaged. And certainly, we have an understanding. We have many of our customers or our customers' customers are in Europe. We also are engaged with those who would seek to find ways to process and otherwise. But we're not in a position to make [Technical Difficulty]

[Technical Difficulty] so the shareholders can understand a lot better. I know the criticality of the ongoing operation in Malaysia, the sunset condition on the operating license and [indiscernible] excellence of environmental standards of the company, and no apparent [indiscernible] public domain of those things, routinely published for the benefits of the Malaysian society. What efforts will the company be making in the next year, in particular, to extend the sunset days by I say for the 10 years to satisfy both the state and the nation of Malaysia that accumulation of norms and the ongoing operational standard capacity will satisfy the requirements?

So you touched all the credit -- the important points there. The license condition that we accepted as part of this license, which is a normal 3-year license, right? So it doesn't actually have a close date on it. And there's nowhere in the world, not just we would like it, where you are having license to do anything in perpetuity or period. It is a clean license. It is not that the conditions have been temporarily put at bay. It is a normal license. We have committed to spend 1% of revenue on R&D, and that R&D is targeted at the removal of the norm [ which is thorium ] from the technology, which is, it's not cutting edge but leading edge maybe, we would say. And so we have a team which is focused on doing that development. And certainly, we remain very actively engaged with the Malaysian government, in particular, on the opportunity of activity. And I think that this Malaysian government understands the walk-up start that Malaysia has by having Lynas in Malaysia in a way that maybe hasn't been fully appreciated previously.

Jen, do we have any questions?

Yes, Chairman, we have two questions from online. And is it still targeted to reach nameplate capacity by the end of calendar year 2024?

Amanda?

So in terms of when does this production come out, I mean, there's always a little bit of uncertainty around this as you commission a new plant. And as you deal with all of the issues, that is why you have a significant commissioning phase. As I said earlier, the kilns on the, it's operating at temperature where factory is cured. We are progressively moving through commissioning of all of the other stages, most of which are fully commissioned now. We have all of our raw materials on site, and we're just awaiting a final sign-off from the gas inspector.

And the capacity, nameplate capacity?

We will produce at the rate that we require for the market as we always do and ensure that we balance both of our facilities to give us the best possible cost and earnings outcome for our shareholders.

So before we move back into the room, Jen, do we have another question online?

Yes, we have a second question from Mr. Millas which is how will the combined processing capacity of almost 20 kilotonnes per annum for the Malaysian and Kalgoorlie plants be maximized if Mt Weld uplifted production capacity is 12 kilotonnes per annum NdPr equivalent.

Sure. So that was what I was saying earlier. We never let -- we don't lift each of the stages in lockstep because each of them has different drivers to the way that we actually develop the capability. So yes, the Malaysian decision gives us headroom in cracking and leaching, but we are putting in place the enhancements to move both the upstream and the downstream over time.

Questions from the floor?

Yes. I'm Paul Holman from the U.S., and I want to thank you very much for spending our tax dollars on your new plant very prudently. I have two questions anyway. The first one is regarding supply and recycling. And I was wondering if you could provide a little more detail. Can you address the procurement scarcity and recycling of the required [indiscernible] as well as the sulfuric acid requirements? Or in other words what recycling percent do you expect within the next 12 months?

So first of all, just thank you for your tax dollars. It's quite interesting in the variety of different interactions that I have with various politicians, I actually say you should not seek to pick winners. You should create I am a bit old fashioned. I think government's job is to create infrastructure, say, for example, to create an environment in which vary the provision of infrastructure or other policy, we then can be successful as a business. However, if governments are determined to write checks, I've told my people to be at the front of the line because at least then we can be sure the money is spent wisely. Now I would like to ask Pol to speak to the point of recycling of water and chemicals because this is an area that he spends a lot of his time on.

Yes. So recycling is a project we are piloting at the moment. The primary concern is to get it read or to reduce our water dependency on fresh water supply by something like 70% and [indiscernible] and caustic soda being 100% recycled. So it would be not dependent on whatever happens on our water supplies. I am looking forward for the day when I can say to the water supply "oh there is no water, too bad." And that is being piloted for this calendar year, '24. And so then we'll have to invest and we develop this process across the world for all our operations. But it's not on sulfuric at the moment, step-by-step approach.

To just add to that Kalgoorlie, we take gray water from the council, and we actually recycle that 6 times. And in the Mt Weld expansion, a significant portion of that is actually dedicated to further upgrading our water treatment facilities and increasing our water recycle there. The target is over 90% recycled.

My second question, please, is maybe a little touchier, however, but how does Lynas size up China in the desire to perhaps a [ win at the ] Lynas' competition. The size matter, Lynas' compared to China world-wide sales?

You have a good shot at that. Pol's laughing because he did a presentation just recently where one of the slides say, "size matters" So I'm going to lend him initially.

I think Pol attended that presentation, I think so.

So yes, "size does matter." Critical mass is really important. I think that we have over 30 years, a market where the normal rules of supply and demand have been are not operating. And I think that ensuring that there's sufficient critical masses from my comments that we do need an industry outside of China not just a single company, right? Because that is the only thing which is going to change those dynamics in the market and long term, that will be good for our business.

So are there any more questions on line?

There are no further question.

Well, [indiscernible]. Two little points; a lot of mining companies pretend they have some rare earths stockpiled somewhere here and there, especially in Western Australia. When do you, when does the company anticipate it will start processing these [indiscernible] valuable stockpiles that other companies pretend they have?

Well, we can't process anything that's just pretend. However, we are very happy to receive material when it is available. So we have been very clear with some of the firms that say "Yes, we've got this material that we would be prepared to enter into an uptake agreement and process their material," we are yet to receive any.

Yes. And the other detail was some of the roofs, I see, have not got solar panels on it, but Kalgoorlie or Mt Weld and I was thinking of every player. We've had a solar panel at [indiscernible] battery, it will be good and [indiscernible] than lithium because it is not burnt.

Are you a shareholder...

No. Well, immaterial in [Technical Difficulty] and the other thing is that -- I have forgotten that.

So we have a solar array going in as part of the renewable power station at Mt Weld. We have solar panels going into our [indiscernible] facility. In Kal, at this stage, as Western Power is greening its own grid, we actually have elected to take the power from the grid. But we have also engaged with a number of potential suppliers of sort of a local microgrid of renewables in Kalgoorlie.

Well, I'm here, might as well ask the auditors? [indiscernible] Has any of the workers that work for Lynas on the Lynas project ever worked for PwC in the past 7 years? [Technical Difficulty]

Pol, do you want to provide the microphone to Gavin, please?

I'm thinking to all -- my immediate answer is not. [Technical Difficulty] I wonder whether any Malaysian is here in the senior team. [Technical Difficulty] say the order concession has not carried itself in glory in the past [Technical Difficulty]

Next question, please.

Just a statement, I think that needs to be addressed is the elephant in the room that we at Lynas Rare Earth being a creditor to the banks for $903 million, let's assume that the money is in the bank. And given that the banking system is showing very severe crack [indiscernible] What guarantees are there that the $903 million that you've got in the bank is safe?

Gaudenz, this sound like a banker pose a question for our CFO.

Well, we are very aware of the potential risk we have with the bank. So we certainly spread the accounts we have. I think we have about a spread in over 5 pretty big renowned banks, and obviously, we look at the revenue we can get on 1 side, but the more important is not to have too much in 1 bank only. So I think we will be pretty confident and also to bring in the audit profession, I think it's properly audited, that the money is there. Yes, that's confirmed. Yes.

[indiscernible] probably more interesting ones on the accounting. But can you please explain to me what the difference is between current inventories and non-current inventories? [Technical Difficulty] I'd be curious to know. Thank you.

I can, but I think it's more competent if it's coming from the auditor's side.

Yes, happy to. There is definition. I mean, the current inventory is really what you expect to use in the next 12 months through the normal cycle. So you see the majority of the inventory is current. But if your expectation through the plan is some of it, you're not going to [indiscernible] some longer-term cycles. It is noncurrent if they're not going to be consumed within the next 12 months. So that's the rational difference between the two.

Can I give you a specific example. We mine at Mt Weld on a campaign basis rather than a continuous basis. So therefore, when we mine, we will mine enough material to last for maybe 18 months or 2 years. So it comes out of the brand and it goes on what we call our run pad and it sits there. So the material that we expect to utilize in the next 12 months is current inventory and the material which is sitting there that we expect to process next year is noncurrent.

Okay. So if there's no further questions at this stage, we'll proceed to the formal business of the meeting. Attendees in the room will have received one of the following cards upon registration. Blue is voting shareholders, Orange non-voting shareholders, Yellow for visitors. Each resolution will be discussed and then voted by way of a poll or it might be white for visitors. Details of the proxies received for each resolution will be shown on the screen prior to each resolution being put to the meeting. As stated on the proxy form, the Chairman will vote undirected proxies in favor of each resolution. Each shareholder who is present in person and eligible to vote at today's meeting will have received a blue-colored voting card from the registration desk. At the conclusion of the meeting, representatives of boardroom will collect completed voting cards from each shareholder. The notice of meeting having been duly distributed to all shareholders will be taken as read. After each resolution is tabled, I will ask for questions from shareholders online and shareholders in the room. So Shareholder One seeks approval of the 2023 remuneration report, which is set out in the company's annual report. Remuneration report sets out specific details of the company's remuneration framework during the year ended 30 July 2023. Proxies received for Resolution 1 concerning the remuneration report are now showing on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution?

Hello. [indiscernible] Shareholders Association. This is probably a comment as much as the question. The ASA that is actually going to be voting against the remuneration report this year, primarily because it was held, there was insufficient justification for potential maximum remuneration increase from $3.2 million to $5.7 million. Also, we thought the detail of the STIs and the LTIs, were that's missing in the Annual Report. And we also found that it was difficult to understand the impact of the changes required for a significant awareness of matter of [indiscernible] the CEO and the KMP were actually achieving? Yes, we like to see an actual remuneration table for the CEO and KMP and targets and hurdles that are clearly aligned and measurable outstanding performance. We want to say that remuneration is tested by the Board and can be justified and due to the lack of the data, we do not feel confident that, that is the case. It may well the reverse. We don't feel confident about it. We appreciate the attempts to simplify the remuneration report and the clarity of the framework, we like board to consider more transparency around the specific targets or hurdles and a long-term performance period for LTIs.

Thank you for the comment. I'll make a few comments on that. The first one is that we do benchmark our remuneration and we look at both a framework around different ASX companies as well as specific ASX companies. We think it's really important that remuneration does not become transactional. And so we take a proactive view on what that remuneration could be, and we try to make sure that it's fair. We do have a significant proportion of remuneration at risk for our executives. And anybody who has known us for a long time would know that they rarely pay out at 100%. That there are definitely hurdles that do not get met. So for example, if you look at Kalgoorlie, there are lots of reasons why that didn't get met, but it didn't get met and it didn't get paid. And so we think that has a lot of credibility from that perspective. Your point about transparency. Every year, we take on the feedback. And in fact, I think we added a table specifically asked for by the ASA, and I think the question is, should it be different going forward. We do take that input each year and try to improve the transparency. Are there any questions online, Jen? No. Okay. So if there's no further questions on that, I will put the Resolution 1 to the meeting for voting by way of a poll. The text of the resolution. I keep forgetting I have to do this myself. The text to Resolution 1 is shown on the screen. Okay. We will now move this year's Resolutions 2 to 5 related to the reelection of John Humphrey, Grant Murdoch, Dr. Vanessa Guthrie and the election of John Beevers. Each of these resolutions will be voted on separately. I will ask each of the directors to address the meeting. And then following that, I will ask for questions on those resolutions. So Resolution 2 relates to the proposed reelection of John Humphrey as a Director. The Board values John's experience and contribution, and we support the reelection of John to the Board. Detail of John's background and experience are set out in the explanatory memorandum and on the screen. The proxies for this resolution are also shown on the screen. I would now like to invite John Humphrey to briefly address the meeting.

Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and I'm pleased to have this opportunity to address you this morning. I've been a Director of Lynas for 6 years having first been elected in 2017. And I currently serve as the Chair of the Nominations and Remuneration Committee. I am a lawyer by profession. I was a partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and its predecessor firms for 18 years and subsequently at King & Wood Mallesons for 14 years. During that time, I specialized in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and capital raisings, corporate governance and infrastructure projects. I'm an experienced company director, having served on the boards of a number of ASX-listed entities, including Spotless, Cromwell Property Trust, Horizon Oil Limited, Auswide Bank and Downer Group amongst others. I'm also an experienced Chairman having served as Chair of Spotless, Horizon Oil and Auswide Bank. Lynas is a dynamic company, which its CEO, Amanda Lacaze has told you earlier, has made great progress in a complex business environment. But I feel that the best of Lynas is yet to come because we have a number of exciting projects as Amanda as outlined at various stages of development. If I'm reelected as a director today, I look forward to working with Amanda and the management team to having you being introduced to try and realize the company's further aspiration. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Resolution 3 relates to the proposed reelection of Grant Murdoch as a Director. The Board values Grant's experience and contribution, and we support the reelection of Grant to the Board. Detail of Grant's background and experience are set out in the explanatory memorandum and on the screen. The proxies for this resolution are also shown on the screen. I would now like to invite Grant to briefly address the meeting.

Thank you, Kathleen, and good morning, everyone. And first of all, thank you for the opportunity to serve as your director for the last 6 years. Some of the challenges, I think, have been outlined by Kathleen and Amanda and as the Chinese proverb goes, we are living in interesting times. However, they've been very rewarding times in terms of the way that the company has responded to those challenges. My details are set out above, so I won't go through them any further other than to say I think the background, I was positioned to be able to serve as the Chairman of the Audit Risk and the ESG Committee, I have a sense of experience in doing that. And if reelected, I'm looking -- I would look forward to the challenge of working both the management team and also the opportunities that Lynas faces going into the future. So I look forward to your support.

Thank you, Grant. Resolution 4 relates to the proposed reelection of Dr. Vanessa Guthrie as a director. The Board values Vanessa's experience and contribution, and we support the reelection of Vanessa to the Board. Details of the Vanessa's background experience are set out in explanatory memorandum and on the screen. The proxies for this resolution are as also shown on the screen. I would now like to invite Vanessa to briefly address the meeting.

Thank you, Kathleen, and good morning, everyone. It has indeed been a privilege to be part of the Lynas' Board since October 2020 and to work alongside Amanda and her talented executive team as well as my fellow directors. I now formally offer myself for reelection as a director, so that I may continue to contribute to the growth of Lynas at a time of significant market expansion, reflecting the global economic growth in the critical minerals sector. As a Director of Lynas, I'm determined to add value to your investment. I bring over 35 years of executive and director experience to the Lynas' Board for through the knowledge, expertise and perspective that I've built in the mining sector in Australia. In particular, that includes a detailed knowledge of the minerals value chain from exploration and resource identification through mining extraction and mineral processing to commodity markets and emerging technologies. Importantly, in today's changing world, I have extensive experience in sustainable development, including environmental management, social impact and climate change response. I won't go through the details of what, any further of what Amanda has outlined, but suffice to say in my 3 years on the Board, we've committed to expanding Lynas' footprint and delivery to our customers globally. I also serve as a Nonexecutive Director on the Boards of Santos Limited, Orica, Tronox Holdings and Infrastructure Australia. And I am Pro-Chancellor of Curtin University. These roles provide me with excellent exposure to the issues driving the broader global economy, which I bring to our board discussions to the benefit of Lynas. I commit to you, our shareholders, that I have the time, the energy and the commitment to dedicate to Lynas' continued success in both meeting our customers' needs as well as growing Lynas to continue to be that important part of the global Rare Earth sector. If I'm successful in gaining support, I'm committed to working collaboratively with my Board colleagues and the executive team in the execution of our exciting growth strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Vanessa. Resolution 5 relates to the proposed election of John Beevers as a director. John joined the Board in May this year and brings over 30 years of experience in resources, mining services and chemical industries. We support the election of John to the Board. Details of John's background experience are set out in the explanatory memorandum and on the screen. The proxies for this resolution are also shown -- were also shown. I'd like to now invite John Beevers to briefly address the meeting.

Thank you, Kathleen, and good morning, everyone. I'm honored to have had the opportunity to join the Board of your company over the last few months and to work with the talented and experienced group of directors and executives at Lynas. I'd have to say it's an exciting dynamic company and one with huge potential, as I'm sure you're all aware. I would have liked to have joined you in person today, however, a long-standing commitment made prior to my appointment to the Lynas Board means that I'm not in Sydney today. Given this is likely the first time you've met or heard from me, let me tell you a little bit about myself and my experience relevant to lines. I have some 35 years international experience in the mining resources and chemicals industries, both as an executive and as a director on board. During this period, I have gained a wide range of experience in many of the functional requirements such as building new technology and marketing it as well as large and complex asset management and business leadership roles. I have experience in well-run large businesses with the processes and procedures that are needed to safely and effectively run growing businesses of scale. I've also been involved in start-ups and business turnarounds requiring agility and speed to market. So I've built some experience in optimizing companies for both growth and performance. I am particularly passionate about people and love building and working in high-performance teams and need of all businesses, no matter what size or phase they are in. I currently serve on the boards of Orica and Syrah and am engaged in a number of other private endeavors. If I'm successful in gaining your support to continue on the board, I'll be looking forward to contributing to the building of your company in the years ahead. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today.

Thank you, John. I'd like to confirm that the Board supports the election and reelection of these directors. I'd now like to ask if there are any questions in the room or online related to resolutions 2 through 5. Jen any questions online?

Chairman, there are no questions online.

And none in the room? Okay. So that concludes the discussion on Resolution 2 to 5. I now put Resolution 2, the proposed reelection of John Humphrey as a director to the meeting for voting by way of a poll. The text for the resolution 2 is on the screen. I now put Resolution 3, the reelection of Grant Murdoch to the meeting for voting by way of a poll and the text of Resolution 3 is shown on the screen. I now put Resolution 4, the reelection of Dr. Vanessa Guthrie to the meeting for voting by way of a poll, and the text is shown on the screen. And finally, I put Resolution 5, the election of John Beevers to the meeting by voting by way of poll. The text of the Resolution 5 is shown on the screen. I will now move to Resolution 6. Resolution 6 relates to the authorization of issue of performance rights to employees eligible to participate in the rights plan. More details regarding the performance rights are set out in the explanatory memorandum. Proxies for this resolution are now shown on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution? Are there any questions online?

There's no questions online.

I will now put Resolution 6 to the meeting for voting by way of poll. The text of resolution 6 is shown on the screen. Resolution 7 relates to the proposed grant of performance right to the benefit of our CEO and Managing Director, Amanda Lacaze. Each performance right is a right to acquire 1 share in the company in the future. More details regarding the performance rights that are proposed to be issued to Ms Lacaze are set out in the explanatory memorandum. Proxies for this resolution are now shown on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution?

There's no questions online, chairman.

Thank you. I will now put Resolution 7 to the meeting for voting by way of the poll. The text of resolution segment is shown on the screen. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the formal business of the meeting. And if there is no other business, I declare the formal part of the meeting as closed. I would now like to complete the poll process and advise that I will close the online voting system in 1 minute. Please ensure that you've cast your vote on all resolutions. For those shareholders present in the room, the instructions for completing your blue voting card are as follows: First, please write your name the space at the top of the card. Secondly, unless you wish to vote a number of shares in one manner and another number of shares in a different manner, clearly mark one only at the boxes of voting paper next to each resolution. You may vote for or against each resolution. Please sign in the space provided at the foot of the voting card and finally lodge the completed blue voting card in the ballot boxes that are available at the doors when you exit the room or hand your card to the boardroom representative. For shareholders online, voting is now closed. The results of the poll will be announced to ASX and will be posted on the Lynas' website later today? Before we close the meeting, I would like to thank my shareholders, to thank my Board colleagues and to thank the executives for an amazing 12 years, and I look forward to being a shareholder. And with that, I'll ask your Chairman elect, John Humphrey to address the meeting.

Thank you, Kathleen. As you've heard, subject to reelection as a Director today, I will become the next Chairman of Lynas. I was delighted too that my colleagues have chosen me to take on this role, and I'm excited and energized at the thought of doing that and working with Amanda and the management team to bring Lynas' amazing future closer. And as you've heard this morning, our Chairman, Kathleen Conlon, is retiring after serving as a director for 12 years, and it's really hard to overstate the contribution that Kathleen has made while she's been on the board, Lynas has had extended periods on the brink of solvency. And as you've also heard from one of the questions, we now have $1 billion of cash, well distributed in the bank. Kathleen, we're sorry to see you go, but thank you for your enormous contribution. Thank you for the calm, measured, collegiate way in which you've made this contribution. And I'd like to ask everyone here today to join with me and acknowledge Kathleen's contribution by [indiscernible]. This concludes the Annual General Meeting.