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

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Sylvie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the NexGen Energy Limited Annual General and Special Meetings of Shareholder. [Operator Instructions] Mr. Curyer, you may begin the conference.

Thank you. The meeting will now come to order. Good afternoon. My name is Leigh Curyer. I am a Director and Chief Executive Officer of NexGen Energy Ltd. I'm pleased to welcome you to the Annual General and Special Meeting of the Shareholders of NexGen Energy. I will act as chair of this meeting. I ask that Harpreet Dhaliwal, Chief Financial Officer of NexGen, act as secretary of this meeting. I appoint Mita Garcia of Computershare Investor Services Inc. 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'll 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 this meeting. The scrutineer has submitted a report on attendance to the secretary. The secretary will now read the scrutineer's report.

Thank you, Leigh. One shareholder in person representing 20 shares, 108 shareholders by proxy representing 307,270,996 shares, 109 total shareholders holding 307,271,016 shares total issued and outstanding as at record date 479,364,899 shares. Percentage of outstanding shares represented at this meeting, 64.10%.

Thank you, Harpreet. I adopt the scrutineer's report and declare that a quorum is present. Adequate notice having been 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 that resolution. Voting for the election of directors will proceed by way of ballot. The corporation's articles under Section 11.15 provide that as Chairman, I may propose a motion and that no motion need be seconded. If 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, 2021, and the report of the orders 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 9.

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 9, and it is anticipated that 9 directors will be elected. In accordance with the corporation's advanced notice policy contained in Section 26.1 of the corporation's articles, May 23, 2022, 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 and Mr. Don Roberts.

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, Brad Wall and Don Roberts be and are hereby elected as directors of the corporation to hold office until the close of business of the next Annual Meeting of the Shareholders of the corporation or until their successors are elected or appointed.

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 are a registered shareholder or a proxy holder and you do not have a ballot, would you please raise your hand. Please mark an X in the appropriate spaces on the ballots before returning them to the scrutineer. [Voting]

With respect to the motion to elect the director nominees, I'm advised that a majority of the votes have been cast to elect each of the directors nominated. As a result, I declare that Messrs. Leigh Curyer, Warren Gilman, Karri Howlett, Christopher McFadden, Richard Patricio, Trevor Thiele, Sybil Veenman, Brad Wall and Don Roberts be 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. 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 reappointment of auditors. I now ask the secretary to read the proposed motion.

Be it resolved that KPMG LLP be reappointed 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? All those in favor of this motion, please signify by raising your right hand. [Voting]

Against, if any? [Voting]

I declare this motion duly carried. The last item of business relates to the reapproval of the company's stock option plan. I now ask the secretary to read the proposed motion.

Be it resolved that the 2019 stock option plan be reapproved for an additional 3-year term and that the full text of the ordinary resolution set out on Page 19 of the management information circular that was delivered to the NexGen shareholders in connection with the meeting be approved and adopted.

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

Against, if any? [Voting]

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? I now propose a motion concluding the formal portion of the meeting. Is there any discussion on this motion? All those in favor of this motion, please signify by raising your right hand. [Voting]

Against? [Voting]

I declare this motion duly carried and the formal meeting to be concluded. A presentation by myself, Leigh Curyer, the Chief Executive Officer, will shortly follow the formal portion of this AGM, after which the question and answer will be held. To view this presentation, please access through the webcast link provided. A recording will also be available on NexGen's website. So for those online, you should currently be seeing the cover page of this presentation titled Delivering the Clean Energy of the Future, Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders. Forward-looking statements also available on our website. This is just a very, very brief presentation to just cover and review what we achieved in 2021 and also in the process of achieving in 2022 and moving forward. The year 2021, so we're publishing our environmentally elite and economically robust Rook I feasibility study, where the economics of the project make the Rook I project, one of the most economically powerful projects globally. The other aspect of it is that the feasibility study has incorporated the most elite standards of environmental performance highlighted by one aspect of our design of incorporating underground tailings management facilities. We completed 108 -- $173 million bought deal financing to support the optimal advancement of the project shortly thereafter in March of 2021 and signed mutual impact benefit -- mutual and impact benefit agreements with the Buffalo River Dene Nation, and Birch Narrows Dene Nation, which was a magnificent milestone for the company, which really does demonstrate the partnership approach at NexGen and the communities have taken in the advancement of this important project. And then at the end of the year, we showed and released our maiden sustainability ESG report, something which everyone at NexGen is incredibly proud of, and there's a real key foundation towards the company moving forward in the conduct of everything they do. We also completed some regional exploration drilling targeting brand-new discoveries, and we're very successful in hitting [ 10 kilometer ] radioactivity below Arrow. What that does is effectively validates our geological assertion that there is potentially a very material broader system at depth below Arrow; and with future drilling, we look forward to proving that up even further. Most likely going to be once we've [ sunk all ] the development and workings for the Rook I project around the Arrow deposit as we currently know it. We also commenced our licensing submission, which went into the CNSC, which is the result of a lot of years of work and planning, which is going to be -- which is submitted in parallel with all the other permitting and environmental impact study documents, which we just released this week. We successfully completed our geotechnical field program, which has fed into our front-end engineering design components, which we commenced at the same time. That program is proceeding extremely well where a lot of the aspects of the project have been completed, engineering completed through to 100%. And we also listed on the Australian Stock Exchange under the ticker NXG. That was a function of many, many years of demand from down on the ASX. We already have a percentage, approximately 25% of our shareholders located in the Australasia region. And this listing is a perfect complement to our 2 on the TSX and NYSE. And we awarded an EPCM contract to Hatch, those primarily -- primarily the FEED engineers on the Rook I Project. Going into 2022, the look ahead, there'll be further submission of licensing documents. We also have executed our impact benefit agreement with the Clearwater River Dene Nation, which, again, just a fabulous reflection of the partnership between the company and the community in the optimal advancement of the Rook I Project. The submission of the EIS, as I mentioned, that was just earlier this week. It took a few weeks to upload it. It's a very large document. That is now currently and confirmed before the CNSC and Department of Environment, and we very much look forward to the next period during primarily the third quarter where there will be a public comment period with respect to our EIS. And at the conclusion of the third quarter, we'll be looking to address any final issues and include the draft EIS into the final EIS format. We will be releasing our 2021 sustainability report in the near future. Again, it's an extension on our maiden report from the previous year and something that -- as I said, that everyone at NexGen is completely committed to in every aspect in terms of our approach to the project and the conduct of the company. We will be, as FEED, the front-end engineering design concludes, immediately commencing the detail of engineering where the remaining items with respect to the project will be completed to 100% engineering and a subsequent geotechnical confirmation program where required. Regional exploration drilling is imminent, again, similar objective to the 2021 program where we're looking for new areas of mineralization. Everyone familiar with the project knows that Arrow was discovered on the very first drill hole with respect to a 4.5-kilometer radius. There had never been a drill hole within a 4.5-kilometer radius of that target; and yet, we've hit what is considered the world's highest-grade and largest project under development. The prospect for additional mineralization is clearly very evident, and we are always very, very excited when we've got the drill rigs turning at Rook I. And then in the very imminent fourth quarter, as I said before, the front-end engineering design will conclude with the immediate commencement of detailed engineering. So a very, very busy 2021, an even busier 2022. The submission of the EIS this week is a very significant milestone for the company. It's the culmination of 8 years of dedicated work. And we are very much looking forward to the next exciting stage of advancing this phenomenal Rook I project. With that, I would now like to open the meeting for any questions from shareholders. And if you could please identify yourself by name and if you are a proxy holder, please indicate the shareholder which you represent. Are there any questions?

[Operator Instructions] And at this time, sir, we have no phone questions.

Thank you very much. Well, that concludes the agenda for this meeting. I thank you all for your attendance and support for NexGen in the pursuit of all of the objectives we outlined today. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your meeting for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.