Northam Platinum Holdings Limited (NPH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for the Northam interim results. Welcome to our Chairman, Brian. And pleased also to welcome our Board members in the front row, thanks very much for joining us. Welcome to those of you on the phone lines and the webcast. And a special welcome to all of you in the room. It's very difficult and unusual circumstances. I know, and we really appreciate the fact that you took the trouble to turn out. Presentation, as always, is reasonably concise. It's getting a bit longer these days, but the booklet contains detailed disclosure of the company's operational, ESG and financial performance. We've also released our interim financial results today, and these are available on our website. And thanks to Alet and her team for that. This picture, by the way, is Damian's favorite picture. This is a picture of the Booysendal South UG2. It's 160 centimeters wide and carries approximately 1 ounce per square meter of PGM. It's actually what it's all about. Here is the usual disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements that we may make today, and it's important that you read it when you have some time. Today, I'll review some of the key features for the period. Then I'd like to take you some -- through some of the ways in which mining, and in particular, Northam, contributes to the broader economy. I will then refresh you on the progress we've made with respect to the execution of our strategy, including detail on our operations and the capital projects. Alet will then deal with the financials. And finally, I'll provide guidance for the remainder of the year and together with the medium-term production forecast. Key features of the period under review have been our ability to post solid operational results, delivering significant progress in respect of our project pipeline, and of course returning substantial value to our shareholders. The solid operational performance has been underpinned by a 15% period-on-period improvement in production from own operations. This is on the back of all mines returning to planned capacity post the very difficult lockdown that we all experienced. Our growth projects are bearing fruit. And we're beginning to see considerable scale and optionality benefits in the group. All of the growth projects that we temporarily pulled back on for cash preservation reasons following the onset of COVID have been reinitiated, and we are forging ahead. Our refining in Germany and the logistics associated with moving the metal were negatively affected by border closures, and of course, the lockdown period across the world. And please bear in mind that, that happening in April, May and June effectively affects metal flow July, August, September because of the longer pipelines, and in particular for rhodium. So you will see we do have a backlog of rhodium over this period, which will be released in the normal course of business in the second half. We've continued to make material progress in returning value to shareholders through the acquisition of the Zambezi preference shares. We've reached the significant threshold of 80% ownership during the period and recently lifted our investment to 87.5%. We have also signaled our intent to accelerate the maturity of the Zambezi structure, and we believe that this will unlock further significant value for all of our shareholders. We will make an announcement in this regard in due course. As we all know in the room, mining is important, and the financial impacts of our business greatly benefits the economy on many levels. To demonstrate this, I'd like to take you through some of the metrics and the contributions that Northam itself makes. This is a picture, by the way, of the refinery at Zondereinde. Creating jobs is very important for the future stability of South Africa, and Northam has played its part. Since the inception of our growth strategy, we have created more than 6,000 meaningful, sustainable, direct jobs in some of the least economically developed areas of our country. This is against the backdrop of a shrinking mining sector and a struggling economy. We believe we are paying a fair and competitive wage. And to this end, our salary bill for the period totaled ZAR 2.3 billion. In addition, all of our employees and their dependents benefit from comprehensive health care as well as meaningful assistance with home ownership. As a result of our increased profitability, our tax contribution has grown significantly for this period. We've made the single largest tax payment in the history of the company. This includes income and employee tax, and of course, the mining royalty charge. 8% of Northam is owned by our employees and our communities. And in addition to this, the Toro Employee Empowerment Trust has benefited from our increase in profitability. We employ over 16,000 people at our operations, and we've added 855 new jobs in the last 12 months, and nearly 300 during this period on which we are reporting. We continue to grow our employee base as we grow our production base to 1 million ounces. This growth will predominantly come from Booysendal and Eland, where we expect to add another 2,500 permanent jobs. We've all been impacted by COVID-19, and we had lost 5 of our own employees and 1 contractor employee to the virus up until the end of December. This figure has now grown to 10 as a result of the second wave. Thankfully, this does seem to be receding. Any early and unexpected death is a personal and family tragedy. And the Board's condolences go out to those employees -- and of course, their families is, of course, what I meant to say there. We will continue to maintain our focus on the broader health and wellness of our employees as well as that of our host communities. And we will participate fully in the rollout of the vaccination program under the leadership of government. The mining industry as a whole has maintained strong health care programs over many years. Our collective achievements in managing HIV and TB, together with occupational health matters, attest to this. And we've all drawn on this experience in our response to the current pandemic. Our integrated HIV and TB management programs are showing positive results, as you can see on this slide. The UNAIDS 2020 targets for HIV response, which have been adopted by both the WHO and the South African Department of Health, are: that 90% of HIV positive individuals know their status; 90% of those are then on an ARV program, an antiretroviral program; and 90% of those in turn show improved CD4 counts. In Northam's case, 95.4% of our employees know their status, 99% of those are on HIV anti-retroviral managed programs and 92% of those in turn are indicating improved CD4 counts. Similarly, for tuberculosis, we have seen significant improvements in the number of employees affected, and our current incident rates is significantly below the national general population. Northam places a high premium on living conditions. And to this end, we provide meaningful assistance to acquiring accommodation. This is offered in a variety of ways, including interest-free loans, Northam-built home ownership programs, credit literacy assistance and living out allowance. The new units at Booysendal have proved extremely popular for our mining families. And I'm sure there's a future engineer in the young man on the slide there. Northam produces green metals that benefit the global environment. And we are acutely aware of the direct impact our operations have on the local environment. We mitigate this through careful planning and energy-efficient design, ongoing improvement in operational efficiencies, environmental rehabilitation, and where necessary, the establishment of conservation of biodiversity offsets. Our processes use large quantities of water. However, 82% of this is recycled. We have incurred no reportable environmental incidents during the period as a result of strict compliance to our integrated environmental management programs. Northam has always considered energy efficiency in its design and operations. And a good example of that is, of course, the application of hydropower technology and backfill at Zondereinde. As a growing producer, we are primarily focusing on energy intensity per tonne and have been able to improve this by 18% over the last 12 months. This translates into reduced greenhouse gas emissions intensity. However, in order to see a decrease in total emissions, we have made a commitment to renewable energy. We are designing and building a 10-megawatt solar plant for the Zondereinde smelter and expect this plant to be operational from January 2023. We are also busy with an initial solar installation at Booysendal. It's a little bit more tricky there because of topography. And in order to limit potential permitting delays, the initial installation will be restricted to 1 megawatt for now. These are the first of a number of renewable energy initiatives to come. The Buttonshope Conservancy Trust was established to manage Booysendal's conservation efforts. We have set aside 8,500 hectares, which is 30x greater than the area disturbed by mining. In collaboration with the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, the MTPA, we identified the headwaters of the Dwars River -- the Dwars River, as a critical biodiversity area. You can see it clearly in the picture. The structure of this trust is being considered by the authorities as a model for future offset arrangements. We have a clear and transparent governance structure within the company. This organogram gives an overview, and you may wish to refer to our interim financial report booklet for more detail. However, the composition of the various Board committees will be reviewed during the coming period under the leadership of our independent director, our lead independent director. I'd now like to turn and remind you of the Northam strategic plan. And this picture is part of the execution of that plan. Actually, it's the partly built North RopeCon, which is the second RopeCon, of course, together with the feed silo from the Merensky mine on the ridge. And this is another key piece to the Booysendal longer-term plan. And current progress with construction is satisfactory despite travel restrictions imposed upon the Austrian construction team. As you can see, it's going up there. And you've seen this slide, the next slide, which is our strategic framework. You've seen this a number of times. The strategy remains unchanged, and we continued to deliver. We do what we say, in a nutshell. These qualities differentiate Northam, providing a unique growth and investment proposition for shareholders. We've embarked recently on the final leg by returning significant value to shareholders through the purchase of the Zambezi preference shares. Shareholders can expect us to be both aggressive and proactive on this point. Moving on to the operational and projects review. At this point, I'd like to state, we have significantly derisked our current project pipeline. We initiated our growth strategy during the commodities down-cycle and are now well set to benefit from recent price appreciation. We believe in the metals that we produce, and we invested accordingly. We adopted a classic countercyclical approach to capital allocation. And as such, we are able to grow output immediately and significantly into the current rising market. Moving on to safety at the operations. The safety and health of our employees is at the forefront of everything our managers do, everything the whole workforce does actually on a daily, hourly basis. We have shown continued improvement at all of the operations, and the reporting period was fatality-free. Unfortunately, we have had a fatality 2 weeks ago, and I will elaborate at this -- on this at year-end once the investigation has been completed. Shortly before this incident, Zondereinde had recorded 2 million fatality-free shifts. At Booysendal, we've passed another significant milestone, achieving 6 million fatality-free shifts. And we continue to operate this mine without a fatality over nearly 11 years since the mine began. Eland is in start-up, with a new and growing workforce, and still bedding down work practices and procedures. All accidents have the potential for serious consequences in mining. And the Northam Board and the management team take our duty of care extremely seriously. Looking at some of the operational highlights at group level. We have seen appreciable increases in production volumes as we start to see the benefits of the growth strategy. Booysendal South ramp-up is accelerating, Zondereinde provides solid production and Eland is beginning to contribute. I'd like to note that also the production of chrome, we did promise, will reach 1 million tonnes per year by 2023. We've just hit 500,000 tonnes for the first half of this year. So it's a little bit early. The base metals will always lead the PGMs because of the associated pipelines. The double-digit increase in cash cost per equivalent refined platinum ounce was mainly the result of the cost of surface ounces treated at Eland being linked to the prevailing market price. Looking in some detail at each of the operations. And of course, of all of the operations, Zondereinde was clearly and certainly the hardest hit by the COVID-19 disruption, to the extent, in fact, that we've only just returned the final stoping crews to the face. In light of this, the production performance during the period has been impressive. The commitment of mine management and all of our employees is commendable. It's been quite a huge, huge cooperative approach to recovering the operations post the lockdown period. Combined mill tonnages increased period-on-period despite the recovery from lockdown. This came preferentially from the Merensky Reef, as you can see on the slide, with a significant contribution from the western extension. And this has resulted in a corresponding improvement in the combined milled feed head grade. The last time we saw Merensky production at these levels at Zondereinde was in 2006, and this attests to the value of the western extension. It also enabled us to limit the increase in unit cost to 10% despite the impacts of COVID. This number includes the cost of our accelerated development into the western extension, which we expensed. A 54% increase in the basket price further enabled growth in operating profit of 45%. We forecast second half production to be in line, and expect to deliver 320,000 ounces of 4E from this operation for the financial year, which is a significant improvement on previous guidance. We believe that Zondereinde will remain in a competitive cost position relative to its peers. Capital expenditure for the period at Zondereinde was ZAR 525 million, of which ZAR 414 million were spent on project work, including the deepening section and the number 3 shaft. The forecast capital expenditure for the year at Zondereinde is ZAR 1.3 billion, which includes provision for the reaming of number 3 shaft and the scheduled rebuild of the old number 1 furnace in June. And looking at some detail on the progress into the western extension. Here is a picture of the raise bore rig drilling number 3 shaft, I showed you a picture of this site in August last year, with a lot more rods on surface. As you can see, those rods are now down the hole. The shaft will provide additional surface access into the western extension for men, material and services. And following our decision to develop the shaft in mid-2019, we've moved quite fast. The pilot drilling to a depth of 1,382 meters was completed at the start of the period. And this is a world record for both length and depth and accuracy of drilling. Reaming of the hole to its planned diameter of 4.8 meters has commenced and is going quite well. We currently stand on 290 meters, leaving us less than 1,100 meters to go. Master Drilling is doing a very good job here. We expect completion of reaming in early '22. Equipping will follow. And we expect the shaft to be operational in 2024. The completion of this shaft will cement Zondereinde's future well beyond 2050. And to contextualize that block of ground and to take a few moments to remind you why we paid ZAR 1 billion for the ground in January 18, this shows a plan of Zondereinde, with the western extension shown in the light yellow. It does indicate its extent and some key features. It contains over 21 million ounces of high-quality Merensky and UG2 reefs. It's directly adjacent to our western boundary as was, enabling swift access to the block on over -- on 10 mining levels. The strike extent is almost 4 kilometers, and this is equal to the western portion of the original mine. It's a very, very large block of ground. I'm hoping I'm making that clear. The block in the main is unaffected by structures, such as dikes and faults. And over the history of Zondereinde, we have demonstrated good productivity in good quality ground. Both the Merensky and the UG2 yield close to 1 ounce for every square meter mined. The acquisition has added significant optionality to the Zondereinde mine, and it's allowed us to rebalance mining actually, switching UG2 to the east side where we have large untapped reserves. Zondereinde effectively has a new lease of life, and we can see this benefit in the mindset of the employees. It's very refreshing. Underground development within the western extension -- I know the mining guys will understand what this plan means, it continues to progress very well on all of those 10 mining levels. You may wish to refer back to previous plans that we've shown in previous presentations, and you'll be able to see the progression of development across the boundary. Since transfer of the ground, we've developed over 17 kilometers of access tunnels. For the mining people, once again, I think you'll all agree that this is a sterling performance and reflects the quality of both the people and the quality of the ground that we have purchased. Please remember that we expense our development. It's sitting in the unit cost. Strike development is well beyond the third mining raise line, and over 200,000 tonnes of Merensky Reef were extracted in the last 6 months. We've already recouped the purchase price. Mining crew productivity is benefiting from the combination of a very stable reef, good rock conditions and focused logistics. Moving on to Booysendal. Booysendal once again recorded excellent production. Booysendal North mine, the original mine, is well established and is moving from strength to strength. The heavy lifting at Booysendal South is done, and the investment has been made and mining ramp up continues at pace. We're beginning to generate meaningful tonnages. The total mill feed at Booysendal was 28% higher at 2.2 million tonnes, on the back of essentially the south mine growth. Grade from the North Merensky mine was lower on the back of increased decline development. And this is in preparation for the Phase 2 ramp-up once the North RopeCon is commissioned towards the end of this year. UG2 grade increased at North mine, thanks to an improved mining cut, as well as the South mine, where stoping ramp-up is beginning to accelerate. Both North and South concentrators are operating well. And we've tested the south concentrator's capacity and found its nameplate of 250,000 tonnes per month to be somewhat conservative. Despite the ongoing challenges of COVID-19, together with the covering cost of the south mine, which is not yet operating at full capacity, of course, the increase in unit cash cost was limited to 8.4%. And I believe this is a commendable performance under the circumstances. On mine capital expenditure was just shy of ZAR 600 million, of which ZAR 270 million was spent on sustaining capital. Capital expenditure for the full year at Booysendal is expected to be ZAR 1.2 billion. Having a look in more detail at Booysendal South, you can see from the picture, this is actually a view of the UG2 complex looking north. It's a very compact footprint, covering less than 9 hectares. All surface infrastructure is complete, including the south Rob Conveyor transporting ore to the south concentrator. The mine is beginning to deliver safe, profitable production. It's on time and it's on budget. Here's the underground plan. And you can see, once again, stoping beginning to ramp up on the North and South declines. 7 stoping sections were operational at the end of December already, and this will grow to 11 by June and 14 at steady state in 2023. Production of ore averaged at 110,000 tonnes per month during the period. This will grow to 180,000 tonnes by year-end and 220,000 tonnes by a steady state. Head grade continues to exceed expectations. Very pleasing, actually, and this bodes well for the future. In the next slide, we -- indicating the new -- this is now the second Merensky module that is being developed on the mine. On the left is a recent picture of the Central Merensky boxcut, showing the 3 access portals. On the right, you can see the mine plan, indicating the actual and planned development and stoping. Obviously, it's early days. The Central Merensky boxcut and portals have been completed and decline development has commenced. The coming 18 months will focus on development. And appreciable stoping buildup will occur from 2023, with a very quick move to steady state in 2024. It's the nature of the mining method from surface bord and pillar. I'm very pleased actually that we're beyond the portal establishment phase, the rock conditions and the declines are pretty good, and development should go well. For this work, we are using the same seasoned crews that established the Central UG2 modules and the first Merensky module before that. Commissioning of the North RopeCon, as I mentioned, will occur towards the end of this calendar year, probably, hopefully, by December. And this will enable all the mining -- the 2 Merensky mining modules to deliver their full potential. This next plan is the plan for Booysendal BS4 this is -- we access this model by module from the valley boxcut, which we acquired from Aquarius, and we're beginning to develop the main declines here. We're on track to commence stoping early in the coming financial year, with a rapid buildup to steady state in 2023, again reflecting the bord and pillar mining method. BS4, by the way, this module is [ up depth ] and adjacent to the next BS3 module. And continuing the declines, as you can see from the diagram, will bring early access to BS3 and other Phase 3 project areas. And on that point, if we look at the overall development of Booysendal since the beginning, the property, we must remember, is vast, covering some 14.5 kilometers on strike, both Merensky and UG2 outcropping dipping at 9 degrees, with a resource base over 100 million 4E ounces. This is a satellite view of Booysendal looking north, with some of the key components for our existing and future mining plan for the UG2 Reef. I'm going to move over to Merensky just now. So this is looking at the UG2. We've considered the development of Booysendal in a series of phases, as everybody would know. Phase 1 comprise the developments of the North mine, together with supporting infrastructure, of course, the concentrator and the tailings dam. Following this is our current Phase 2 plan. This required the acquisition of Everest mine, which included also a concentrator and a tailings dam; as well as the construction of the road on the first RopeCon, and allowing the development of what we know now as BS1 and BS2. As I mentioned, the heavy lifting of Phase 2 is done and we are beginning to conceptualize a Phase 3 for Booysendal. And to this end, as you can see once again from the diagram, we've already identified and are planning UG2 modules in the southern portion of the property. If we look at the same piece of ground, but now referring to the Merensky outcrop and resource. We built the first North Merensky mine as part of Phase 1. Phase 2, which we're in now, is the second, Merensky module plus a second RopeCon. And we're now looking at conceptually at least the third module, which would form part of Phase 3 for Booysendal. Now turning to Eland. Processing of surface PGM and chromite material continued during the period, and we produced 20,000 4E ounces and 26,000 tonnes of chrome in concentrate. The cost of surface material is linked to commodity prices, as I mentioned earlier, but we were, of course, able to post again an operating profit. More importantly, I think revenue from this operation greatly assist in offsetting the capital relating to the ramp-up of the mine. It is our intention that the mine pays for itself. Here is a picture of the first stope on 1 West section. And you can see the [ RDO ] using a hydropower drill. This technology we've imported from Zondereinde is very efficient and very quiet relative to the traditional air powered machines. The UG2 seems clearly visible on the face, with various support elements and the blasting barricade to assist in face cleaning is also visible. So why Eland? We purchased Eland, as everybody knows, for ZAR 175 million in December 2017. And the key reason that we did this is because it hosts a world-class UG2 ore body. The grade heat map, shown on the slide, indicates over 19 million ounces of 4E and over 22 million ounces if you include iridium and ruthenium. The 2 million ounces of rhodium alone represent a king's ransom. The width and depth of the UG2 seam are ideal for stoping. Every square meter mine yields over 6 tonnes and 26 grams of 4E. This yield, combined with our rhodium-rich basket, will yield -- will lead to a healthy operating margin. And the shallow operation means that a quick ramp-up with relatively low capital is achievable. This is the plan showing the surface area. Again, this is a 250,000 tonne nameplate concentrator. It's actually a sister plant to the Booysendal South concentrator. And all surface infrastructure is of a world-class build quality. We delayed the stoping buildup at Eland as part of our capital trimming, but we didn't stop development. And you can see we've continued to open up reserves through the developments of the declines and strike drives. The full capital program was reinstated in September. And our estimated total capital for this mine includes for a steepened ramp-up and expanded steady state profile. Eland will be bigger and quicker. To date, we've advanced the decline of 450 meters, and this has opened up 6 strike drives. Full production requires 11 strike drives, so there's still some way to go. The 2 western strikes that you can see on the picture will connect to the neighboring Maroelabult, of which we expect to take ownership before the financial year-end. We'll keep you updated on this as we conclude. Over the past year, we've refined the profile for Eland. These revisions have both steepened the ramp-up and increased the steady state. As you can see from the graph, we're scheduled to reach 100,000 ounces by 2024 and grow production to 180,000 by 2028. You may wish to compare this profile with the slide and the profile that Damian presented at the Capital Markets Day in 2019, which is still available on the website. Over the next 5 years alone, Eland will produce over 0.5 million ounces. This, together with its superior metal basket, will enable the mine clearly to pay for itself. It will be a very capital-efficient and profitable addition to the Northam Group in years to come. This is an example of the business equation at Eland. This is illustrative, of course. The current Eland basket comes in somewhere north of ZAR 100,000 per platinum ounce, allowing for treatment fees. We expect our steady-state unit cost to come in midway between Zondereinde and Booysendal. And as you can see, this model has an indicative operating margin of over 70%. I'll now hand over to Alet to take you through the financials. Thanks, Alet.

Thank you, Paul. Good morning, everybody. This is a picture of a slag tapping at our number 2 furnace at our metallurgical complex. We recently changed from a wet to a dry slag handling process. This is a lot safer and it provides for efficient throughput. We will make the same change to furnace number 1 during its upcoming rebuild. Looking at the key financial features for the period under review. Northam has had a solid 6 months. This is the result of us being able to increase production in an appreciating price environment. Our growth strategy is bearing fruit. We achieved revenue of just shy of ZAR 12 billion. This translated to an operating profit of ZAR 5.2 billion and an EBITDA of ZAR 5.4 billion. Our free cash flow was ZAR 1.9 billion, after capital expenditure of ZAR 1.3 billion. This enabled us to continue to return value. Through our ongoing purchase program, we now hold more than 87.5% of all Zambezi preference shares. We have done this whilst maintaining a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of just over 1 to 1. I will unpack these highlights, but firstly, let's look at earnings. The graphs on this slide show the period under review together with 3 previous comparable periods. I've done this to illustrate our earnings growth. Our earnings and headline earnings were almost ZAR 6 a share, whilst normalized headline earnings per share, our main measure of performance, was ZAR 6.41. Moving on to revenue. Our revenue for the period was ZAR 11.9 billion. This is a $4.1 billion or a 51.9% increase on the previous corresponding period. The main contributors to this growth were: a 49.7% increase in the average U.S. basket price, together with a 9% weakening of the rand, offset by a 4.4% reduction in sale volumes. Whilst our production of metal increased by 15%, logistical handling issues associated with COVID-19 made it difficult to move our metal to our point of sale. This difference is reflected in our increased metal on hand, which will normalize over the remainder of this financial year. Looking now at cost of sales. Moving straight to the bottom line. Our operating profit increased by more than 75% to ZAR 5.2 billion. This equates to an operating profit margin of 44%. Our cost of sales was ZAR 6.7 billion. This grew mainly on the back of volume increases, together with normal mining inflation. Some of the larger nonoperational cost drivers included, firstly, royalty charges of ZAR 223 million. This increased by 50%, in line with revenue growth. Secondly, share-based payment expenses increased with share price appreciation. Thirdly, our contribution to the Toro Employee Empowerment Trust is linked to our profitability. And lastly, the cost of concentrates purchased increased with the increase in metal prices. Full details of all the movements making up cost of sales are included in our results commentary. Let's look at the income statement. Our bottom line for the current period was an IFRS profit of ZAR 2.1 billion. Key items impacting this included preference share dividends of ZAR 274 million, as well as the loss on derecognition of the preference share liability, both relating to our Zambezi structure. Our decision to purchase Zambezi preference shares reduced the dividend charge in the income statement by ZAR 356 million. The loss on derecognition of preference share liability of ZAR 888.5 million relate to the difference between the face value of the Zambezi preference shares and the price we paid, together with all transaction costs. After taking into account these Zambezi charges, the group generated a profit before tax of ZAR 3.5 billion. Tax is calculated on a statutory basis. This resulted in a tax charge of ZAR 1.4 billion. More than half of this was deferred tax, which is noncash. With the increased profitability, the tax liability has increased and the group's single largest tax payment has been made during the period under review. Tax is an annual event. And to this end, the first provisional tax payment relating to Booysendal was made. Whilst Booysendal had ZAR 814 million worth of unredeemed capital left at the end of the reporting period, we forecast that this will be utilized in full before the end of the financial year. However, this will depend on achieving the forecasted metal prices as well as exchange rates. For a reconciliation of the effective tax rate, please refer to Note 9 of the results booklet. I have alluded to the increase in inventory associated with COVID-19 logistical hurdles. Metal volumes increased by 25.5% to just over 276,000 4E ounces, with a corresponding increase in the cost of inventory of 6.4%. This rolled up to a metal inventory balance of the reporting period of ZAR 5.6 billion. A flow-through from this will be the sale of at least another 50,000 ounces of rhodium before the end of the financial year, which will normalize our basket. The bulk of purchased material, together with some of the inventory at Eland, will only be processed in coming years and is therefore classified as noncurrent. Over the coming 2 years, our inventory levels will stabilize at around 260,000 4E ounces, taking into account the growth profile of the group. Moving on to the group's cash flow. Now before you tell me accountants can't add up, we generated close to ZAR 3.15 billion from operations during the period. Nearly ZAR 1.3 billion was invested in capital expenditure, and this resulted in free cash flow of almost ZAR 1.9 billion. We have continually stated that we will return all free cash to shareholders, and we have once again delivered. Through the purchase of Zambezi preference shares, ZAR 6.9 billion was returned to shareholders during the 6 months and a further ZAR 1.1 billion after December. Moving on to the debt position. This was our debt position at the end of December. However, as I stand before you today, our revolving credit facility has been settled in full. The only remaining debt relates to our domestic medium-term note program. Given our current ability to generate cash, by year-end, our forecast net debt-to-EBITDA will be well below current levels. Let's look at the various funding facilities. The group has a revolving credit facility of ZAR 3.5 billion and a general banking facility of ZAR 500 million. Both these are currently undrawn. The group also has a domestic medium-term note program, which was increased to ZAR 15 billion. Notes of value of ZAR 7.1 billion had been placed by the end of December, with a further ZAR 100 million subsequently issued. Our COVID-19 liquidity preservation plan included the negotiation of relaxed covenant parameters over a period of 18 months. In addition, Northam's credit rating was also upgraded , with our outlook classified as stable. Another element of our cash preservation plan was the restructuring of our domestic medium-term note maturity profile. This slide illustrates the current position with our repayment profile up to 2025. This should be considered in parallel with the group's future capacity to generate cash. Ultimately, the most critical consideration for any company is the appropriate allocation of capital. Our capital allocation decisions have been guided by our strategy, and we have been consistent in our approach of growing our production base, and ultimately, returning value to our shareholders. In this regard, since 2015, we have invested ZAR 12.2 billion on growing production. And in addition, to date, we have returned ZAR 12.1 billion of value to shareholders. Our strategy is unchanged. We are currently trading under a cautionary. And we'll make an announcement in due course about our intention to return further significant value to our shareholders. I will now hand you back to Paul to take you through the operational guidance.

Thank you, Alet. Yes, given the growing production base and the rising price environment, I do think is important -- and of course, the unusual circumstances that we've been facing as a country and the world, to provide some very specific guidance to where our production CapEx unit costs are expected to be for the remainder of the financial year. By the way, these photographs, the top one is nickel sulfate. That's a nice blue green color. It's the product of nickel that we make. And the bottom is new copper being extracted from the electro-winning circuit. Both of those areas are at Zondereinde. So here's the guidance. Production -- PGM production from own operations will be within the range of 680,000 to 690,000 4E. We've increased our forecasts relative to the June guidance. Our cost base is predominantly fixed. And as a result, we expect unit cash costs to be on the lower end of the guided range, ZAR 28,000 to ZAR 29,000 per platinum ounce. Remember, these numbers are at group level and include for Eland. We should be able to hold this cost position for the next 2 years. Sales will follow production towards the higher end of 660,000 to 670,000 ounces 4E. And once again, this forecast allows for the number 1 furnace rebuild schedule, which will take place from June this year. The capital forecast is ZAR 3 billion, allowing for Eland in its fullest glory and the 3 shaft project at Zondereinde. Should the rand basket price remain at around -- or anywhere near, in fact, current levels, the company's ability to generate cash will not disappoint. And here's an illustration of the business equation, the basic business equation for the group. In this example, I've used the mid-range of our cost forecast for the coming 2 years, and I've also used the basket of ZAR 80,000 per platinum ounce. Your own forecast may well be higher than this. And you can see that the indicative operating margin for the group is in excess of 60% for FY '21. Between 2015 and 2020, Northam doubled its production, and we will double it again by the middle of the decade. We are realizing demonstrable growth and improved optionality from the various projects. The capital efficient investment will deliver our medium-term production target of 1 million ounces. This graph is the underground production, it does not include for third-party or recycled material. The combination of a strong margin, with sector-leading volume growth, will deliver superior returns for shareholders, I have no doubt. Reading the market under these conditions is not so easy, but there are some very positive signs of global economic recovery, in particular, very strong in China, reasonably strong in North America, Europe is still struggling a bit. Light-duty vehicle sales however should or are likely to come in around 87 million units during this calendar year. And that's actually not too far down on the pre-COVID forecast of 90 million units. Given this outlook, this is our considered opinion for the major metals. And firstly, for palladium. Palladium remains in deficit. It remains the metal of choice for gasoline vehicles for the foreseeable future. Although there is some traction for around 15% platinum substitution over the medium term, we expect a number of about 150,000 ounces substitution for the current calendar year, platinum for palladium. On that basis, the palladium price will have to rise to clear the market. Platinum, while still in surplus, is viewed as an investment case, offering some good relative value relative to its system metals. And we may expect pricing of these 2 main metals to reach parity over time, as platinum benefits from the emerging hydrogen economy. Rhodium remains in significant deficit and will continue to be the only viable solution for the control of nitrous oxides. I wouldn't expect rhodium to soften to any great extent from here. And it's probably fair to say that the market has acclimatized to these higher price levels. Our basket contains what we have historically considered to be minor metals or minor PGMs together with base metal byproducts. Global economic recovery, together with the growing shift towards renewable energy sources, is adding prominence to these metals, and this is positively impacting prices. Current demand for iridium, for example, is about 250,000 ounces. Accelerating developments in green hydrogen production has resulted in recent price moves to $6,000 per ounce from $1,500 per ounce only a year ago. Iridium will do well. The ruthenium price languished around $250,000 (sic) [ $250 ] per ounce for a long time, its recent appreciation to $360, $390 per ounce even this morning is -- reflects increased interest in what is our third metal by volume. Our group rand basket price is expected to remain strong throughout 2021. In summary, our growth strategy remains intact, and we've significantly derisked the project pipeline. We are also beginning to consider the next phase of the company's growth. We've been consistent in our approach, as Alet pointed towards. And we can look forward to further value creation from the group. Repeating what Alet has already said, we will shortly make an announcement regarding our intent to accelerate the majority of the Zambezi structure, and we believe this will add further significant value to shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the presentation. We'll take some questions. If we can go perhaps for -- to the room first. I'm just going to take my glasses off. And then we'll take some questions from the phone lines and the webcast.

So if I can ask René. He's got his hand up, if we can have a microphone. Then Chris. So René, Chris, then Arnold. I will take those 3 -- yes, okay. Let's go to René first, yes?

Well done, once again on superb set of results. You are getting close, I think, to maybe a dividend payment in June. I'm just preempting. But have you thought about any sort of dividend policy going forward?

Thanks, René. With respect to capital allocation decisions, I think I'm going to say nothing further, except to point that we will make an announcement in due course with respect to the Zambezi transaction, potential transaction.

Good. You've got like ZAR 2.5 billion liability in your balance sheet for the pref shares. But you own 87.5% of them. Sorry. You've got a ZAR 2.5 billion liability in the -- in your balance sheet for the Zambezi, for the prefs, but you own 87.5% for them. Can you not reduce that liability?

So the -- at the close, René, we had that number that you're referring to. But of course, post close, we bought another ZAR 1 billion of preference shares. So that liability is reduced by 1/3 already from where we were in December. And again, I'm struggling to answer your question fully because we're under a cautionary. And I would just encourage that we just wait and allow the company to make an announcement separately with respect to the Zambezi structure.

Just one last question. What is your rhodium pipeline in weeks?

I -- that's competitive information. Unfortunately, I'm not going to give it you. You're asking very difficult questions. Then we have, Chris, yes.

Two questions from me. The first one is on inventories as well, so 2 together. Just you gave some nice detail on your trading update with what was dispatched to Heraeus and sold. Can you maybe just give me some info on where the actual risk and reward of ownership pass with Heraeus? And then linked to that, just if I have a look at rhodium, specifically you've talked about selling 50,000 ounces. That would imply about 30,000 in the second half, which roughly is what you produce, is -- so I understand you're destocking some of the other metals. Is it fair to say maybe not rhodium though, just selling what you produce?

Yes. We don't like to guide on the downside to -- so we are quite conservative and we must be careful. So it will be at least 50,000 ounces, Chris, if I can say it that way. The passing of risk, remember, we never lose ownership of the metal actually. It's always our metal. We sell the metal direct to the market ourselves. Sometimes, we do sell to Heraeus. In fact, they're contracted to take a certain portion of our metal. And only at the point of sale, once it's in the vault available for sale, does that risk pass. So that's -- in essence, we're very similar to any other company who has a mine-to-market model on that basis. Yes.

Understood. And then second question, are you in a position here to talk to what this -- the capital budget for 3 shaft will be now that you've put a plan to equip and get it up to production by 2024?

Not yet, Chris. So we, of course, have not completed the hole. So there is reasonably significant technical risk in this reaming activity. It is, as I said, a world record hole. And we are loath to show plans and project capital for the 3 Shaft as -- in its fully sense until we've got high confidence that, that hole can be achieved. I must just say though, having said all that, this morning, we're about 293 meters up already. So the hard yards have been done in many respects, and we're almost in the realms of normal. I wouldn't say normal, but raised bores that have been achieved in the past, at about a kilometer. So we're getting there. The reaming is going well. We're hitting, for the last 3 days, 7 meters a day on average, which is a remarkable achievement if you think about it for a 4.8 meter hole. So it really is looking good. Our partners, Master Drilling, together with the mine management out there, we're very positive. But give us a chance. The reaming at that rate should, of course, be complete towards the end or the beginning of next calendar year. And we'll be in a better position then to talk about what we're going to do. And of course, there won't be just one hole. There may be a series of holes there. That's a very long -- it's 4 kilometers of strike, a huge block of ground. So you can expect a complex, a shaft complex, which will allow for production out of that block in many, many years to come. So just give us a chance. Arnold?

Arnold Van Graan from Nedbank. Paul, yes, you've done very well. Basically, on a 5-year time line, you've hit almost all your targets. And I guess this is a case study in countercyclical growth. Now I guess my question or comments around this also goes to capital allocation, but I guess minus broader and longer term. So maybe you can answer some of that. So in the next phase, how do you approach that, because you have been countercyclical? And do you continue to push growth to a next level and maybe we'll see another step change? Or do you return more money to shareholders over the next, let's say, 5-year period? So I know it does go to capital allocation, but I'm trying to read your view on the market. Are we in early-stage and continuous growth from here would still be countercyclical? Or you feel that maybe we return more to shareholders, less to growth? So that's the first one. And then just a very quick question on Eland. Have you seen any surprises there? Anything that surprised you on the underground from a geological or technical perspective? That's either on the upside or that you are worried about.

Okay. Thanks, Arnold. The first -- the second question is a quick one, not yet. We're doing quite a bit of stoping now and a lot of development, as you can see. That ground is well drilled and well mapped by some would say the best in the business, which is a big brother, beginning with an A. It's pretty well understood. And so far, so good, I would say, on that one. In terms of the first question, as you heard my response to René, difficult for me to give you an absolute answer. But I'll be illustrative by doing a matchbox calculation, if I may, to give you an idea of magnitude of the cash generation of the company relative to the capital that we may spend. So let's take an example that we have on the slide. Let's go back to -- in fact, let's go back to the basic business equation. Am I going the wrong way? Yes. There we go. Yes, there we go. There we go. So Damian has turned me off. But yes, okay, I'm going to talk anyway. We don't really need the slide. But the -- at spots, and you can't do a calculation at spot. But this morning spot on this group basket is sitting at about ZAR 112,000, ZAR 113,000 per platinum ounce. So that's spot number. So I always give you a very, very strong health warning on that number. And you can see, what we've given here is a potential position at the end of '21, which is the current financial year, as to where the group may be. So I'm going to use, for ease of calculation and so everybody can follow what I'm doing here, around ZAR 100,000. Let's assume that the basket remains for the group at around ZAR 100,000. Now as you know, the cost per platinum ounce, we've just guided around ZAR 28,000. But let's round that up to ZAR 30,000 for argument's sake. And let's use these numbers in real terms. So let's assume the basket stays real at ZAR 100,000 and cost is real at ZAR 30,000. Can you see? We have about a ZAR 70,000 per platinum ounce cash margin that the operations generate. And now I'm going to round the production profile for, let's say, the next 3 years. Let's say we average 500,000 platinum ounces over the next 3 years. Obviously, a bit lower in the first year, maybe 450,000, and then growing, let's say, to over 500,000. But let me average it at 500,000. Again, I'm making the calculation easy. Can you see that 500,000 times ZAR 70,000 is ZAR 35 billion of cash generated from the group per annum? And as we've mentioned, our capital guidance is, for this year, about ZAR 4 billion. And to be honest, it's very difficult to spend ZAR 4 billion, with our management bandwidth and with the asset base that we have. But let's round that up to ZAR 5 billion. You can see that the relative cost of the capital program against the cash generation or the cash-generating ability of the group is very modest. Now the second point I would like to make is the suite of assets that we have -- do have optionality that has been embedded already in the first and second phase of the development of the group. Booysendal is a classic example. We put all the road in and the RopeCon. It's all done. And yet you still have additional ground available. The same would apply to, of course, Zondereinde and Eland. So there is optionality, and that's the point we're making, that has been developed inside Northam. And if the market pans out as we suspected it may, you might expect us to do further -- a further growth program beyond the million ounces. And that would not be an unreasonable expectation and it would not be -- it is a very affordable capital-efficient capital program, as you can see from that example I've just used. I hope everybody followed that. There wasn't -- there's a bit of math in there, which I think Arnold is pretty good at. So you have the right to note. Brendan. Brendan Ryan, please?

It's Brendan Ryan, Miningmx. Paul, having listened to your presentation, I now have the song bouncing around in my head which goes, "Come on, baby, let the good times roll." But you and I know that this industry...

I'm trying not to smile.

I'm exactly going to -- I'm going to do. So this industry, as you know, has had some vicious upswings and some equally vicious downswings. So my question is, looking at the industry, how long will the good times last this time around, in your opinion?

In one answer, I think we will see the best decade the industry has ever seen.

The best decade?

Yes.

Okay. I'll hold you to that.

It's fine. Okay. I think we've cleared the room for questions. If we can go to the lines or the webcast, and Damian's got a list of questions. You have to use the mic, Damian.

But first question, from [ Miles Farik ], no organization stated. Medium-term goal is to get to 1 million ounces per annum. Do I understand correctly that this will happen in the next 3 to 5 years? And therefore, production should increase by 9% to 15% per annum of '21 forecast of 670 kilo ounces. Congrats on your interim results.

So Miles, just to answer that question, that slide is clear guidance on the medium-term targets within the group.

Miles also asked about the potential for dividend payments, but I think you've already answered that.

We have answered that one.

[ Steve Shepherd ]. Looking through the booklet, it seems that you have 13 kilo ounces of refined rhodium more than you sold during the period under review, is that correct? Can you clarify when this metal will reach market? It is noteworthy that the current rhodium price is some $29,000 an ounce and more than double the 13 kilo -- $13,000 an ounce that you realized in H1.

Yes. So in big round numbers, let's say, we sold 20,000 ounces of rhodium in H1, Alet has pointed out we'll sell at least another 30,000 ounces in H2, and that represents plus/minus the difference that Steve is looking for.

He's also looking for dividends as well, Paul, so.

Yes.

Just so you know that. Investec Bank, Nkateko. What is the high level potential of Booysendal Phase 3 in terms of production? I guess maybe the...

Yes. Too early, Nkateko, to answer that question. But as you can see, we've only exploited half the strike in Phase 1 and Phase 2 in the Booysendal property. So when we talk about the southern portion, that is, in fact, the southern 7 kilometers of additional strike as yet unexploited. So it's not small.

Nkateko is also asking if there's a possibility or probability of ramping up Eland in less than the guided 8 years?

No. I would say no on that one. It's a pretty conventional layout as opposed to mechanized bord and pillar. And those type of ramp-ups take that type of time. And maybe as a comparison, good recent comparison publicly, the K4 ramp-up would be very similar.

Also just asks if you've got some guidance on the base metal refinery expansion CapEx.

I'll have to take that one-off line. There is some CapEx required in the base metal refinery in most of the elements from milling to the autoclave, to the electro-winning and some of the intermediate bits and bobs. But it's not a massive capital at this stage. It wouldn't -- it's not going to break the bank. And we'll only spend that money when we need to in a phased approach as each element approaches its capacity.

Also, your view on recycling supply growth, particularly palladium and rhodium. And what is Northam's expected throughput from recycling volumes over the next 3 years?

Yes. I think the recycling question is actually a very important aspect. The recycling segment of the market is absolutely essential for the health of these markets. And recycling is under pressure, I must say. You can imagine, these are very large working capital requirements. And the price of rhodium, for instance, has essentially trebled in a very short space of time. So the working requirements of -- also, the working capital requirements has also trebled. And this puts lots of pressure on treasuries of the big companies. And you can imagine value at risk calculations are very, very significant in the recycle loop. So the recycle loop is also under pressure, I must say, for supply because of these reasons. What has happened is the pricing of risk for recycled metal has increased. So returns to collectors has decreased, and that is absolutely necessary. It's very, very important that we price financial risk and processing and refining risk into that recycle loop. That is beginning to happen through necessity. So the consequence of it is, it's not so easy, basically, in a nutshell. I hope I've given a bit of a flavor for that.

Wade Napier from Avior was asking, can you remind us whether the group -- I think it comes back to base metal refinery, Paul. Can you remind us whether the group has any processing constraints to meet 1 million ounces per annum?

Yes, we do, particularly in the base metal. But I've referred to that already in the previous answer. It's small CapEx though. And it's sequential CapEx as you hit the various capacity limits.

He also asks, beyond volume growth, what levers does the business have to combat mining inflation of plus/minus 8% year-on-year?

Very, very difficult to get away from a 7% to 8% inflationary increase in mining terms because of the elements of the cost input. If you think about administered power, for instance electricity, cost increases year-on-year are in double-digits. And wage inflation is also above CPI. So it's very difficult to do it on the cost base per se. So you need structural change. You need to improve the way you do things. And as everybody knows, Northam is growing its production platform down the cost curve. How are we doing that? A lot of the growth comes from shallow mechanizable ounces, and they are inherently lower-cost ounces.

There's still quite a lot of questions, Paul, so.

Okay.

There's a couple of questions from Nomtha Ngumbela from Umthombo Wealth. Can you provide an update on the status of operations of the refinery in Germany?

Yes. Operating normally at this stage. However, they did have corresponding lockdowns in Europe, and of course, Germany. And this is the reason why rhodium is delayed primarily. But at the moment, operating normally.

Also, can we assume that mine crews at Zondereinde is now 100% operational?

Yes. So full complement is 109 crews, and we've just reached 109 crews at work.

Rajay Ambekar from Excelsia Capital asks, what gives you the confidence that the rhodium price will not fall to 4 to 6x palladium? Please elaborate on your comment of acceptance of these rhodium prices?

Rajay, I didn't say the market accepts the rhodium prices. I said -- I used the word that market is acclimatized to the higher prices. Rhodium is extremely inelastic and very, very -- in very, very tight supply. So any disturbance in the market, you can see immediately you've got price reaction. And we've had quite a bit of that actually recently, which is -- you've seen the almost immediate rhodium reaction to those news events. So rhodium is extremely inelastic. It's not substitute. Suitable at this stage. And nobody is going to make a motor car that's not clean. And on that basis, the legislative nature of demand, it's not an option. We must use rhodium on the motor vehicle to control nitrous oxide. So it's a very, very inelastic, very tight market.

I think that answers [ Adrian Harman's ] question about are you concerned about demand destruction in the rhodium market and long-term implications. He also asks, your unit cost performance does not yet tie up with volume growth, is this yet to come? Can you provide some long-term cost guidance?

I think the unit cost that we've just put forward do include the impacts of COVID and the consequence of the lockdowns to a great extent. But also, remember, we expense development, and we're doing an awful lot of development. And that goes against the working cost numbers. Not everybody, of course, does that quantum of development.

Warren Riley from Bateleur, I'm sure it will be asked, but could you touch on the impact of the [indiscernible] mine flooding and 750 kilo ounces of mainly palladium coming out of the market? Do you foresee an impact on rhodium production as well?

Yes. I think when one considers pipelines for palladium and platinum, it will -- the physical market will be impacted in about 5 to 6 months against that number and the rhodium market in about 7 to 8 months against that number that has been published by the [indiscernible].

[ John Tubella. With BEV emergence ], how do you square your PGM demand outlook with OEM ambitions for automobile electrification? Why do you believe your view is the correct one?

Yes. Again, a very, very good question. I think what we can say is that -- let me start, 7, 8 years ago, the world did believe that we no longer needed PGMs. There was enough on surface because it was believed that there will be wholesale replacement of the internal combustion engine by pure battery electric vehicles, which, of course, do not use PGMs. I think it was a bit ambitious, those forecasts. And we have a penetration for BEVs out to 2030 of about 15%. The interesting calculation to do is that automobile sales essentially follows world GDP to a very large extent. And by 2030, the world should be producing somewhere around, I would say, between 110 million and 120 million units light duty vehicles. And if we've got 15% penetration of BEVs, you can net off 15 million, let's say, you've still got significant growth in the internal combustion engine in the face of, in fact, that change. So there's still a long way to go for internal combustion engines. Of course, what is important is -- and this is like a double-edged sword, in fact, for the OEMs. When I talk about OEMs, I'm talking about the motor car companies. You're not going to make a car that's not clean, one way or the other. And you can make a clean internal combustion engines, just do it properly, put the right amount of PGMs in the exhaust system and it will be much, much cleaner than where we were, I'd say, 10 years ago or during the dieselgate scandal.

Catherine Cunningham from JPMorgan asks, your comment in the release that your mining metals will become a significant revenue contributor going forward. Could you unpack that a bit more? Of what time period are you expecting to see this? And where do you see the iridium and ruthenium supply-demand balance is moving in the near to medium term?

Iridium is very similar to rhodium, it's extremely tight. And it's a must have in the applications in which it's used. We could have iridium revenue of around about ZAR 2 billion in a not-too-distant future, ZAR 2 billion, yes. Ruthenium, on the other hand, is quite a bit of a [ divide ] at about at the moment, but it has a bright future in fuel cell applications. Yes, so I'm not going to give a number on that one. But I do want to point out that we do produce more ruthenium than rhodium. Once again, it's the third metal by volume. So it can become important. Let's see how things develop in the hydrogen economy.

Catherine also just queried the refining costs, including sampling and handling, up 25% year-on-year. Of what time horizon are you expecting this to normalize?

Yes. So your -- refining cost for us will probably not easily come down. It's a euro-based cost. And I'm not so sure we'll do much better than what we've just presented.

Also, one thing that impacted the refining cost is the cost of refining of ruthenium. And those volumes have increased quite dramatically with the increased UG2 volumes.

And then we've got Martin Creamer from Mining Weekly. He's got a series of questions pertaining to renewable energy. Do you calculate a benefit to energy cost by generating 10 megawatts of solar power at Zondereinde?

Yes. Yes. A good -- quick answer to that one. The development of photovoltaic units now is -- to such an extent, that we're buying kilowatt hours from Eskom at just over a ZAR 1 per kilowatt hour and we can probably, if we do a self-build, reduce at about ZAR 0.30 per kilowatt hour. So it's quite, quite substantial. Of course, there's much more to it than that. We are an energy-intensive user. We are very, very reliant on Eskom, and that's unlikely to change. But what we can do is supplement Eskom with PV at quite an attractive cost. We're giving about a 4 -- if we would then put the capital in there, it's about a 4-year payback by our calculations for a 10-megawatt unit.

I think you've answered the -- can you elaborate on decarbonization underway at Zondereinde and Booysendal, success in lowering emissions so far, and the vision? Are you considering the generation of green hydrogen to buy your fleet in an emission-free manner?

So emission-free, no, but we can reduce our carbon emissions by at least 20% over the course of the next decade. And we're still formulating our longer-term statements surrounding that.

Site dealing with unreliable energy supply has been a major factor, possibly affecting the future financial position. What's being [ mold ] to mitigate unreliable energy supply, especially on the Eastern Limb solar window or both?

Actually, we're looking at PV on site. We're looking at some offsetting of wind in the Eastern Cape. And we will -- at this stage, we will experiment with batteries. So I think that's probably fair to say. How many more questions, Damian? Everybody's feeling...

Two.

Two more. Okay.

Sorry, everybody. It's obviously popular. Siphelele Mdudu from Excelsia Capital. Great set of results. What could be the sign that the market has peaked? What would derail the best decade ahead for the industry? What worries you about industry players' actions?

Nothing in particular about industry players' actions. I think supply is generally very constrained across the board. So it's not easy to see supplier response into this price, to be honest. It's -- we've seen some recent announcements. But if you do -- if you sign them up, they will not, in our opinion, disturb the market. That's important. What was the other bit of the question, Damian? Let me assume those questions are answered. And what we will do -- for all the questions that we didn't answer to the people on the line, on the webcast, we'll make a little note and we'll put it out to you because I'm conscious of -- very conscious of time. So thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us. In particular, in situ, I know it's not easy, but we have -- took the necessary risk mitigation procedures outside with the nurses. I hope you'll all remain healthy, and we'll see you soon. Thanks very much, everybody.