Mont Royal Resources Limited (ZG1.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

And thanks very much indeed for joining us. My name is Nicholas Read from Read Corporate. And on behalf of Mont Royal Resources, ASX ticker MRZ and TSXV Code MRZL, thank you very much for joining us for what is our first investor webinar of 2026. We're absolutely delighted to have Mont Royal's Managing Director, Nick Holthouse, joining us live from Canada this morning. Of course, that's evening his time around 7:00 p.m. Nick relocated to Montreal in Quebec towards the end of last year. That followed a hectic December quarter, which saw Mont Royal complete its merger with Commerce Resources, finalize a $10 million capital raise and embark on a revitalized development plan for its key asset the world-class Ashram Rare Earth project. We're going to get into a bit of a Q&A, and we're going to review a couple of recent announcements that went out, an announcement that went out last week about a deal with the Port Saguenay and also a general quarterly update. So we'll bring those announcements up as we discuss them. And then once we finished a bit of a chat, we're going to open the floor to Q&A. This is meant to be an interactive session. So if you tuned in, please use that Q&A tab on the right-hand side of your webinar browser and shoot your questions in, and I'm sure that Nick will be more than happy to deal with them. So Nick, firstly, happy New Year. It's great to see you again, and thanks very much for joining us this evening, your time.

Thanks very much, Nicholas, and great to be here.

Nick, we'll get right into it, and we're just going to bring up the release -- the news release that went out last week about the MOU that was announced with Port Saguenay for the Ashram project. Maybe if you could just start by talking us through that announcement and just explaining its significance for the company and for the project.

Sure. Well, look, it was an important first step for the company with regards to its new logistics plan. So one of the things when we first came on board was -- when I first came on board was look at the existing PEA that have been halted. There were a few things in there, which probably could have done with some optimization. And one of them was certainly the logistics route. It was -- the old plan was to go north into an icebound bay. It required a lot of additional CapEx, a lot of additional storage and really operability was quite low. You're only getting access to this port for 5 or 6 months a year. So we commissioned a road option analysis. We had a logistics option analysis. We had a close look at all the -- there was 3 key sort of opportunities for getting product in and out of the Ashram project, going north again, south and then down to the Southwest as well and to a place called [indiscernible]. So we looked at all those options. The southern option to us made the most sense. We've socialized that road option analysis with government. They certainly -- for them from a strategic point of view, they see the Southern option joining onto a town called Shefferville and a railink down to the port of [Sept-Îles]. They see that as the best option. And we've also now socialized that option analysis with the First Nations Group. And they're all in agreements. They're all reasonably comfortable with that southern route. So we have a go-ahead for the PEA to go forward. So we have a road access story now, and that is going from Ashram south down to Shefferville, transferring to rail and then down to the Port of [Sept-Îles] then onwards. Now the Port of Saguenay then follows on from that. One of the things that really attracted me to the Port of Saguenay was the fact that not only is it a port, deepwater port a short way out the St. Laurent River from the [Sept-Îles] port facility, which is the same port facility of the Champion [indiscernible] and a few others for shipping bulk loading iron ore products and getting them off to market. Saguenay for us, as I said, it's a growing port. It's getting a lot of government focus and government are really keen to see this emerge as a critical mineral processing hub. So the industrial park, which is directly adjacent to the Port of Saguenay was -- when we had a look at that opportunity, it was quite compelling. It's -- there are large blocks -- they are well serviced. They have reticulated gas, power and water directly to the front door essentially. So there's no real transport requirements. All those services are reticulated. It has a rail head that comes in adjacent to that industrial park. So particularly for the importation of heavy reagents, we do use a lot of sulfuric acid. So that's going to be a sensible way to bring those sort of heavy reagents into site. And of course, we have that access to port. Now the reason for moving the hydromet facility to Saguenay, there's a couple of good reasons for that. These are very complicated pieces of kit, Nicholas. They need a lot of love and attention when they're running. So having them cited, and this was the old PEA plan was to have it directly joined to the flotation plant on site. So you produce a flotation con that flotation con then goes into a hydromet facility and gets cracked and leached and you come out, you turn up with a mixed rare earth carbonate product, an intermediate product, which is then on sold to separators for separation into those individual rare earth oxides. By dislocating those 2 processes, what we're doing is we're probably actually saving ourselves a hell of a lot of CapEx, and we're really derisking the project in that sense. We don't need to have or try and keep highly skilled technical people on site in a remote location in a fly-inflight operation to service that piece of kit. We can just rely on that flotation plant alone, which is a very simple bit of processing kit. There's thousands of them around the world. We can do that quite easily on site, but the hydromet plant deserves to live in a better place. And we think Saguenay is the right place for that. So not only has it got an industrial park, which is well reticulated with all those reagents that I mentioned before, water, gas, power. But it's also located directly adjacent to the town of Saguenay, which is a town of around 30,000, 40,000 people. Now they are -- there's a technical workforce there, which operate in several large mining operations and processing facilities. They work in complex processing facilities. That base -- that support base is there for skilled personnel. But also, which really appeal to me as well the support services, that ecosystem of support services that you need to keep these complex pieces of processing kit operating exists within Saguenay as well. So it's an easy place. It's going to be a cheap place to build a port -- sorry, build a processing facility. It's in a well-serviced industrial hub, it's right adjacent to a port. And most importantly, it's adjacent to a well-service town, which has the right skill sets to keep this piece of kit going. So that was for us a really a bit of a no-brainer really. And it's important. We're really now starting to see that logistics plan flow out. That connection piece from Ashram site down to Shefferville, that 300-kilometer road. We're working hard with the government to get that in place. That existing rail link, we're not talking about large volumes, only 6 sea containers a day of product we're looking to ship down out of site, off-site down to Saguenay. And then we've had that barging option when we get to [Sept-Îles] at the end of that rail link, we can either put those sec containers onto a barge and barge up or we can alternatively drive them. It's about a 6-hour drive from the port of [Sept-Îles] down to Saguenay. So for us, it was a great step forward, I think, and a smart way to take this project forward.

No, that's great. Thanks. Nick, I'll just move the release forward to the map there now. It's a very broad scale. That's a matter of Canada, obviously, and Canada is a big place. And I know you and the team are developing some other maps as this story advances. But it's perhaps just with that up there, we are talking small volumes, aren't we, as you said, this is a very high-value product. So maybe just again to step us through that sort of logistics chain that's starting to evolve there.

Sure, absolutely. So as I said before, we've dislocated that complex piece of kit, the hydromet step from the flow sheet, and we're relocating that down to Saguenay. So on site, it's going to be a much -- with the new PEA going forward, it's going to be -- we're looking at a much smaller workforce. The flow sheet is much simplified on site. The reagent burdens on site and the power requirements on site have all reduced because of that dislocation process. So there's some significant CapEx savings there for us and improvements in operability and reduction in technical risk. So we produce -- we have a conventional mine on site. It's an open cut mine. We drill and blast, we load and haul, we crush, we grind and then we produce a flotation concentrate. That flotation concentrate will be packed into sea containers, as I said, about 6 a day, so not many. That will be driven down the yet to be built 300-kilometer access road that we're working very hard with government for and certainly starting to make some headway there. So that access road will service as a conduit between site and Shefferville. And once we get down to Shefferville, there's already a rail hit in place there. We'll be loading those sea containers on to site. It's a once-a-week service at this stage. They're looking to increase that service that rail service as the demand grows. So it could well become a 2- to 3-week 12 times a week operation that we'll be sending our product down to that rail link, it's about 400 to 500 kilometers long down to the Port of [Sept-Îles]. And then as I said before, either trucked directly from [Sept-Îles] down to Saguenay for further processing in the hydromet plant or ship down the [indiscernible] River alternatively. We'll look at the cost between those. I mean if there's a burning need to get stuff to site quickly, then dropping onto a truck and driving it down is a very quick option. As I said before, 6 hours we're there.

Fantastic. Probably a good time to ask now, Nick, as well, while we've got the map of Canada up there. So you left the farm just before Christmas and you've relocated to Montreal. Tell us how it's been going? How have you found it? How has your engagement been with government and stakeholders? And -- how is the project sort of perceived over there?

Yes. Well, look, that's been one of the real reasons for moving over here. These -- the drilling phase is essentially well and truly over for Ashram. It's really about a development story now. And it's really about an infrastructure story. So getting in front of those government departments is all important and hence, the reason for moving over. You can't get that sort of traction with regards to government departments if you're not in front of them all the time and available. So moving over here is really important. As I said, we've certainly made that commitment. My wife is here as well. Very much enjoying Montreal, albeit a little bit cold. I think minus 17 today. So that's a little fresh for me. But nonetheless, it's still a beautiful city to be in. The engagement with the government has just been fantastic. So Ashram is well and truly back on the radar with those guys. They understand the importance of this particular project. And now with that growing support from the First Nations Group, I think -- and then becoming engaged with government as well. They really want to see this project go forward. They want to support us in that road infrastructure piece, that all helps. So we're slowly knocking over the domino's here. We've got some really good announcements coming forward with regards to government engagement coming up in the near future. We've had a couple of good ones. This Port of Saguenay announcement is a really good start. There's some funding announcements that you'll be seeing fairly shortly that will be coming to fruition. So all those pieces are starting to build up to that all-important support announcement that we're looking to gain from government that we've always promoted that we go out there and get. But as I said before, you need to be in country to get those things moving. So we're getting really good traction at the federal level -- sorry, at the provincial level, really well engaged there, really well engaged at the First Nations level. And we're now really just really starting to push the levers with regards to federal engagement as well. So we've engaged a group called First National. They're a Quebec-based national lobby group, and they are certainly starting to set up some really interesting meetings for us at that federal space.

Fantastic. We might just jump across to the quarterly, and I will just bring up the front page of that just for people's reference. It was your first quarter as the new Mont Royal following the merger and the capital raise, the ASX relisting. So a lot happened. And of course, more importantly, you started your revitalized development. Now you've talked us through some of the logistics and infrastructure aspects. But maybe if you could just touch on more broadly what's going on with the project at the moment, what work streams you kicked off and where those are up to at the moment?

Yes, sure. Look, I've mentioned before, but the road option analysis was a really important piece of work. very -- I think my first day with the company, I spent in Canada, meeting the provincial government in Quebec. And for them, we did talk about road access. And for them, they really wanted to see that piece of work in place. So we very quickly got that moving. And it's been a fantastic document to shop around. We've really gained a lot of traction with that at all levels. It's demonstrated very clearly what the best options are, and they really were what we intuitively thought were the best options as well. So for us, it's been a great reinforcing piece. So it's great to get that away. That document, as I said before, has now been shared with government and First Nations groups. So everyone has a copy of that. They understand why it's important that we're pushing this southern route. And there's been -- and we're getting great alignment there from all those different key stakeholders. The MET test work is the other important piece that we've kicked off. So met test work being the heart and soul. We already have a very robust flow sheet in place. SGS Lakefield did a fantastic job. We get a really good -- we can pull a really strong float concentrate and the hydromet work that's been done is really good. But we need to take that further and look at opportunities as we go into the PFS study in particular. So I just wanted to get some fresh eyes on that. We took a bulk sample from Canada down to Perth, Aurelia now that just kicked off some test work with that particular bulk sample. They're just starting their site of test. We're waiting on head assays to come back and then they'll move forward with producing some of that concentrate. We did want to have a look at -- just as I said before, get some fresh eyes on that test work and see what opportunities may be there. And if anything has been missed. But I guess importantly for us as well is to produce another sizable quantity of concentrate that then we can go and do further work with. So we've got hydromet work we'd like to do in Australia. So we're just working through that package at the moment. We'll be announcing that shortly. But there's also some new technology pieces as well. The belt and braces story for us is standard flotation and a standard hydromet, much as you see with Lynas. But there are some really new and interesting and out-of-the-box technologies that are coming along as well. So generating some concentrate for those folks. And there's 3 or 4 of those. I can't really talk too much about them at the moment. We'll certainly be announcing those guys and the results of their work over the coming months. But that they need concentrate to take that story forward, and they need some mixed [indiscernible] carbonate as well. There's some really interesting separation technologies that are coming into play as well. We see those as sensible technology partners. We've always stated that we don't want to go past the mix rare earth carbonate stage on our own. We see that as a sensible battery limit for a junior miner to operate in. Going into separation is complex and expensive and the margins become tighter. So we're more than happy for -- to either sell our carbonate or move further down into that value chain through JVs or collaborations with others. And that's where a few of these technology partners come into play. So there may be some opportunities emerging in that space. So road options, the met test work, gap analysis on the PEA was an important one. There's a lot of things there, which we weren't quite comfortable with. We've really resculpted the scope and the battery limits for the PEA. That's now gone to Altris. We announced that Altris are leading that piece of work. We've got all the existing or the original contributors into the previous PEA. Most of them have come back, and we've restarted that process. So that work is well and truly underway as well. And then, of course, the road, it's all really about the road. Once we get the road, we really think that's going to be a rewrite for this story. And it's really going to be one of the catalysts that's going to, I think, attract industry to this story as well once they can understand how these molecules can get off site. So that government engagement piece, we've really been pushing that hard, and we'll continue to push that into 2026 as well.

Excellent. Just got a couple more questions, Nick, before we open the floor. So I'll just remind everyone that's listening in, please take this opportunity to ask whatever you like off Nick, just use that Q&A tab. Nick, you mentioned the road study and the PEA, and I don't want to put you too much on the spot, but we -- investors all love investment catalysts. Any idea on the time frames for those items in terms of when you think we'll see an outcome on the road stuff and also, obviously, the timing of the PEA, if you could just remind us.

Yes, sure. So I'll start off with the PEA. PEA, there's not a lot of work to do there to get that closed off. As I said, there's a little bit of rework with some of the new battery limits with -- for us, it was all about derisking and reducing capital cost. So we've simplified that process significantly. Coming south takes away a lot of storage. It really improves that operability and dislocating the plant also, we should be seeing some really good capital cost savings there and reduction of risk around operability, technical risk. So that PEA process, we're looking to have that -- we were pushing really hard to have that done by the end of March. It may drift into April, but we're only a few months away from that. So keep an eye out for that. It may drift into the second quarter, but hopefully, by the end of this quarter, we'll have that closed out and out to market. We've got test work that we'll be announcing from the met test work. So that will continue to come through. We've got really interesting, as I said before, relationships building, particularly with First Nations groups and that relationship to government infrastructure, that particular piece, there's some interesting story starting to build there. That's moving a little quicker than I was first expecting. So I expect to see some announcements around that, all leading towards, of course, the big one, which is government pitching in and announcing that they will support our infrastructure story for this particular project and others in that area, as I said before many times, it's not just about us. There's other operations up there, which are quite mature in their project development, which are looking for road access as well as a multitude of exploration plays, which would benefit from a road infrastructure story in that northern area.

Fantastic. That's great, Nick. Thanks very much. A couple of questions we'll just deal with that have come in. Firstly, there's a general question, just if you can give us an update on the company's financial position. Quarterlies are always a good time to do that. You've obviously had a $10 million raise last quarter, and there's also, I think, an impending tax rebate. So just give us an overview of the financial position.

Yes, sure. So we're in a strong position. The treasury is looking good. We finished the quarter with around $7.4 million in the bank. We've cleaned up a lot of the aged creditors that came along with the old story, and we were in a holding pattern for quite some time. So most of those have been cleaned up now. We're moving forward, engaging new work packages. And then, of course, we've got that, I guess, in the next month or 2, we've got that impending flow-through tax rebate, which will be coming through, which is somewhere in the order of around AUD 2.6 million. So that will take us back up to around 10 million. So we're in a good position. We certainly have visibility right the way through to, I would say, mid next year, late next year with regards to current work packages, which is really good. So we're certainly not in a raise position anytime soon. We're well funded to close out the PEA. We're well funded to take forward our met test work programs, which are pushing towards the PFS study and also kicking off the PFS study later this year. So things are looking good.

That's great. Thanks, Nick. And I think you've made the point a lot as well that this deposit is exceptionally well drilled. So there's no cash burn from -- there's no need to keep drilling it, is there?

We don't think so, not -- certainly not -- we certainly don't need any more drilling for the PEA. There's no drilling required that we can see for the PFS. We may need to go back in and do some more work on bringing up -- bringing some more measured into the schedule for the definitive study when we get to that stage. But that will really depend on what our financing options are as well. That will drive what those requirements are.

Fantastic. Nick, there's an online question here about the fluorspar. If you can give us a comment on that. Is it a likely add-on addition to the rare earths, the question asks?

Yes.

Fluorspar is for those that may not know.

Yes. So I guess Fluorspar is -- it's an interesting mineral. It's very much -- it's widely used in steelmaking. It's widely used in aluminum in the aluminum making process. And it's actually used to finish uranium products as well. So that's the met grade. Met grade fluorspar concentrate sits at around 65% plus. And then you get into -- beyond that, you get into the acid grade fluorspar, which is around 94%, 95% plus, which goes into HF acid products. There's a whole bunch of pharmaceuticals and food products, plastics, which are made with those particular products. So we are certainly looking towards being able to make what they call a Metpar product, which is a 65% con. We've done that in the past with other flow sheets in previous test work programs. One of the things that we'll be doing with the test work that's going on in Aurelia at the moment is taking that underflow. Most of the fluorspar reports the underflow and then seeing what we can do with that waste stream. And so that for us is the real opportunity. None of that work is going to make it into the PEA. But we're certainly looking to try and insert a fluorspar circuit into the PFS work going forward. So at the tail end of the flotation test work that's happening at the moment, that underflow will be captured and then -- I think we'll probably end up taking that product back to Canada or actually, there's some interesting folks over here that has some technologies, which we think can translate into a fairly simple secondary flotation story to monetize that -- the Fluorspar story for us. So it's not going to be a big add-on. The rare earth elements, they certainly pack the biggest punch in regards to the financials. But we're hoping that Fluorspar could be a good base second income for the project going forward.

And will that be captured in the PEA, Nick, the Fluorspar.

PEA. It won't make it into the PEA, but we're going to be trying to make sure that, that secondary circuit is included in the PFS study.

Fantastic. Well, I think we've dealt with questions online. So we might just keep this one nice and short and sweet so that we don't hold up people from their day too much over here. But I think maybe just a few couple of closing comments and a quick outlook about why, from your perspective, MRZ is a great opportunity.

Look, I really think -- I think we've talked about this quite a bit in the past. This is one of North America's great rare earth stories. The scale of this deposit and the quality of the met as it stands at present, and that's fairly -- still fairly immature. I think there's a long way to go with the met story translates into a high-quality, long-lived project and supplier of rare earth molecules into that North American space. I think it's beautifully positioned the rerate really comes from getting access into that part of Quebec, I think. Once you have an access road, these molecules have a home pretty much anywhere on the planet. I really see it moving into the North American space. I really -- I still think there's a lot of opportunity there with regards to an ever-growing ecosystem of downstream processing. That's really going to build out over the next 10 to 15 years, and the timing is going to be just right for us. So the road story, I think, is really going to be the rerate this project needs. So stay tuned for that government announcement.

Fantastic. Look, thanks very much, Nick. We really appreciate you making yourself available late evening over there and for talking to investors and shareholders this morning. So -- and look, it would be great to get you back on here in the not-too-distant future as the project moves forward. So it sounds like a very exciting year ahead.

Thanks very much, Nick. It's been an absolute pleasure and look forward to catching up again.

Thanks, Nick, and thank you to everyone for joining us. We will release a recording of this later in the day on all the social channels and the website. So thank you very much for joining us for our first investor webinar of 2026, and we look forward to seeing you all again soon. Have a great day. Thank you.