NexGen Energy Ltd. (NXE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. My name is Joanna, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the NexGen Energy Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Mr. Curyer, you may begin your conference. Please go ahead, Mr. Curyer.

Thank you. And welcome, everyone, to NexGen Energy 2020 Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders. It is our eighth Annual General Meeting and Special Meeting of Shareholders, which commenced way back in 2013. The meeting will now come to order. Good afternoon. My name is Leigh Curyer, and I'm a Director and Chief Executive Officer of NexGen Energy. I am pleased to welcome you all to the Annual General and Special Meeting of the Shareholders of NexGen Energy, and I will act as Chair of this meeting. I ask that Travis McPherson, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development of NexGen, act as Secretary of this meeting. I appoint Mita Garcia of Computershare Investor Services as Scrutineer of this meeting. The Secretary has tabled for inspection by any shareholder or proxy holder a declaration that the notice calling this annual general and special meeting was mailed to shareholders in accordance with applicable law. I will dispense with calling for a reading of the notice of meeting and direct that a copy of the declaration be kept by the Secretary with the records of the meeting. The Scrutineer has submitted a report on attendance to the Secretary. The Secretary will now read the Scrutineer's report.

Thanks, Leigh. The Scrutineer's report reads as follows: there are 81 total shareholders, in person and by proxy, representing 154,341,530 shares or 42.84% of the total outstanding shares.

Thank you, Travis. I adopt the Scrutineer's report and declare that a quorum is present. Adequate notice having being given and a quorum being present, I therefore declare this meeting to be properly constituted for the transaction of business. As a matter of procedure, I ask that shareholders wishing to speak during this meeting, please identify themselves by name, and indicate that they are a shareholder, or if a proxy holder, their name and the name of the shareholder they represent by proxy. Voting today will be by a show of hands unless either a ballot is requested or more than 5% of the votes eligible to be cast by proxies are voted against a resolution. Voting for the election of directors will proceed by way of ballot. The corporation's articles under [ Section 1115 ] provide that as Chairman, I may propose a motion and that no motion need be seconded. In the interest of expediting the business of the meeting, I will proceed on that basis. The financial statements of the corporation for the year ended December 31, 2019, and the report of the auditors thereon were delivered to the shareholders prior to this meeting and are available on SEDAR and are hereby placed before the meeting. It is now in order to proceed with setting the number of seats on the Board of Directors. I now ask the Secretary to read the proposed motion.

Be it resolved that the number of seats on the Board of Directors of the corporation be set at 8.

Is there any discussion on this motion? All those in favor of this motion, please signify by raising your right hand. [Voting]

Thank you. Against, if any? [Voting]

I declare this motion duly carried. It is now in order to proceed with the election of directors. The number of directors of the corporation has been set at 8, and it is anticipated that 8 directors will be elected. In accordance with the corporation's advanced notice policy contained in [ Section 261 ] of the corporation's articles, April 17, 2020, was the deadline for nominations for directors for the ensuing year. And no nominations have been received by the corporation prior to the deadline other than those submitted by management. Accordingly, no further nominations for directors for the ensuing year will be accepted. I now ask the Secretary to read the names of the persons nominated by management.

The names of the persons nominated for Directors for the ensuing year are: Mr. Leigh Curyer, Mr. Warren Gilman, Ms. Karri Howlett, Mr. Christopher McFadden; Mr. Richard Patricio; Mr. Trevor Thiele; Ms. Sybil Veenman; Mr. Brad Wall.

I declare the motions closed -- sorry, I declare the nominations closed and will call for a motion to elect the directors. I now ask the Secretary to read the proposed motion.

Be it resolved that Leigh Curyer, Warren Gilman, Karri Howlett, Christopher McFadden, Richard Patricio, Trevor Thiele, Sybil Veenman and Brad Wall be and are hereby elected as directors of the corporation to hold office until the close of business of the next annual meeting of shareholders of the corporation or until their successors are elected or appointed.

Thank you, Travis. Shareholders are entitled to vote in favor of or withhold from voting separately for each director nominee. As it is necessary to ensure that the number of shares voted in favor of or withheld from voting for each individual director is recorded. I direct that a poll be taken. The Scrutineer distributed ballots at the beginning of the meeting. If you're a registered shareholder or a proxy holder and you do not have a ballot, would you please raise your hand? There are none. Please mark an X in the appropriate spaces on the ballots before returning them to the Scrutineer, but there are none. With respect to the motion to elect the director nominees, I am advised that a majority of the votes have been cast to elect each of the directors nominated. As a result, I declare that Mr. Leigh Curyer, Warren Gilman, Karri Howlett, Christopher McFadden, Richard Patricio, Trevor Thiele, Sybil Veenman and Brad Wall be elected as directors of the corporation to hold office until the close of business of the next annual -- sorry, to the next annual meeting of shareholders of the corporation or until their successors are elected or appointed. I direct that a copy of the final Scrutineer's report on this motion be kept by the Secretary with the recorded minutes of this meeting. The next item of business relates to the appointment of auditors. I now ask the Secretary to read the proposed motion.

Be it resolved that KPMG LLP be appointed as auditors of the corporation at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors to hold office until the next annual general meeting of the corporation.

Is there any discussion on this motion? No? All those in favor of this motion, please signify by raising your right hands. [Voting]

Thank you. Against, if any? [Voting]

We show none. I declare this motion duly carried. The last item of business relates to the approval of the company's shareholder rights plan. I now ask the Secretary to read the proposed motion.

Be it resolved that the ratification, confirmation and approval of the amended and restated shareholder rights plan be approved.

Is there any discussion on this motion? No? All in favor signify by raising your hand. [Voting]

Thank you. Against, if any? [Voting]

No? I declare the motion carried. As I mentioned earlier, a question-and-answer session will follow the formal portion of the meeting. Is there any further business to be brought before the formal portion of the meeting? No. I now propose a motion concluding the formal portion of this meeting. Is there any discussion on this motion? All those in favor of this motion, please signify by raising your right hand. [Voting]

Thank you. Against? [Voting]

I declare this resolution duly carried and the formal meeting to be concluded. I'd like to take the opportunity to now provide a brief update on activities and programs over the first 6 months of 2020 in light of COVID and our plans moving forward, and then I'll open the line up for Q&A. During the first half of calendar year 2020, COVID-19 has presented unprecedented circumstances for all organizations, causing significant business interruption to working environments and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. On Monday, June 8, 2020, NexGen's Saskatoon team returned to the office in accordance with the guidance issued from the provincial government. And I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the excellent leadership of Premier Scott Moe and his government in their stewardship of the pandemic. However, the challenge is far from over. And at NexGen, we've been committed from the moment the pandemic hit to do everything in our power to support the community, government, employees and all we transact with. NexGen deeply values its people and service providers and the communities in which it operates, and keeping everyone safe and well. During the last 10 weeks, the team has shown great resilience and immediately adapted to the change in their working environments. We've taken an opportunity to review our processes and status of our objectives and even when taking into account the business disruption and consequences of rescheduling the completion of our feasibility study and submission of the Rook I project environmental impact statement, we are certain NexGen is well positioned given the advanced nature of the project which is in its seventh year of continuous technical and environmental assessment. The majority of material requirements for the submission of the EIS are 100% complete in assessment, and the remaining items are approaching 100%. Hence, the Rook I project is a key opportunity for the province of Saskatchewan and Canada to expediently initiate a large-scale sustainable, environmentally elite major project, which will bring in external investment, create thousands of jobs directly and indirectly, and as per the PFS, approximately $3.9 billion in provincial government revenue alone through royalties during the first decade of operations. This is coincident at a time in the uranium market, whereby demand in 2019 reached historically high levels, just shy of 200 million pounds per annum. And the supply forecast for less than 120 million pounds per annum in 2020. The status of sustainable production has been under stress for the last 5 years, and COVID-19 has merely brought some transparency to that existing stress of materially rising production costs through ore grade degradation and input cost increases. The outlook for uranium moving forward is incredibly positive, with market analysis indicating the demand/supply gap accelerating annually, requiring not just an Arrow in the middle part of this decade, but a number of mines of Arrow's caliber to meet demand. The consequence, of course, is going to be considerably high uranium prices required not only to reintroduce off-line production but incentivize additional production. If further disruptions to the supply cycle continue, which seems to be more and more evident every month, it is only going to increase the output uranium price pressure. We have achieved a lot during this period. We have appointed Chief Project Officer, Tony George, who will be commencing on June 22, 2020; and [ Luke Mogo ], who is performing an excellent job in advancing our permitting and licensing objectives. We've seamlessly continued to support communities in our project area during the pandemic in a highly sensible, genuine, safe and respectful manner, advanced development of the strategy with respect to the communities in their project area, closed a $30 million U.S. strategic financing with Queen's Road Capital, and we have been a leading share price performer. Everyone on the NexGen team is demonstrating extremely high levels of responsibility and accountability for their role and that of the organization's objectives. As an organization, we are continually assessing ourselves on the highly efficient use of capital, the quality of our work incorporating elite standards in everything we do and our professionalism and values in which we conduct ourselves. At NexGen, we are often at our best when challenged the most. And this recent period has demonstrated just that. At the same time, our brand is built on at all times focused on delivering optimally, no matter the environment or past successes. We look forward to tomorrow. The NexGen team is thinking about you and your families, the health and safety of everyone is first and foremost, and I implore all to continue to adhere to the advice and guidance of the government's health officials. As always, be well, stay safe, and we're very excited about our delivery on the very high standards and objectives the team sets itself on behalf of all stakeholders, shareholders, community, government, both provincially and federally, employees and importantly, the world's population and being a fundamental foundation to delivering clean air energy to the world, which is the single most effective element to materially lift the living of standard worldwide, both environmentally and economically. I now open for any questions regarding any aspects of our objectives and development plans to shareholders who may be on the line.

[Operator Instructions] We currently have no questions on the line. You may proceed.

Very good. Well, all right. Thank everyone who has called in and appreciate their support on behalf of all the NexGen team. We appreciate their support and look forward to delivering the future plans and objectives. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating, and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.