Nova Minerals Corp (NVA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 2024 AGM for Nova Minerals Limited. Nova Minerals Limited acknowledges the traditional custodians of the country throughout Australia and their connections to the land, sea and community. We pay our respect to the elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. Thank you all for attending today's meeting. Just as last year, this meeting will be conducted entirely online. The company considers that it is appropriate to hold the AGM, as a virtual meeting. It is now 10:07 a.m. Australian Eastern Time. There will be a quorum -- there is a quorum present. There being a quorum present, I declare the meeting open for business, and I confirm that the meeting has been properly constituted. In opening the 2024 AGM, I'd like to introduce the Board and management team of Nova, who are in attendance. So Louie Simens, Executive Chair and Director; Ian Pamensky, Company Secretary; Chris Gerteisen, Director; Avi Geller, Director; and Craig Bentley, Executive Director. We have apologies from Rodrigo Pasqua and Michael Melamed. As this meeting is being conducted as a virtual meeting, I'd like to welcome those shareholders, who are joining us via Zoom and ask that you please submit any questions or comments via the Q&A function, which can be found at the bottom of your Zoom screen. When you submit a question or comment, please start by typing which resolution it relates to so they can be addressed at the appropriate time through the course of the meeting. Questions which relate to the general business of the company will be collected and addressed after the close of the formal business of the meeting. The agenda for today's meeting will be as follows: I will provide the Chairperson's address, after which we'll proceed to the formal matters to be considered at today's AGM. And finally, there will be an opportunity for questions and discussion. So to open with the Chairman's address. Dear fellow shareholders, during the past year, our sixth year operating at Estelle, Nova Minerals Limited has continued with our exploration and development efforts to progress the project, which has now become not only an exciting gold project, but also a district rich in critical minerals, including the strategically important mineral antimony, whilst operating in difficult capital markets. The focus has been to add value by advancing the high-grade RPM deposit towards production as soon as possible with a PFS currently underway, investigating a low capital scalable operation at RPM with the goal to generate short-term cash flow with high margins to self-fund future expansion plans, which will also be outlined at a scoping level for the wider Estelle gold district to demonstrate the exciting potential of the decades of mine life with multiple mining centers within the one project. With gold currently running at an all-time high, Nova has engaged renowned consultants Whittle Consulting, who are taking part of their fee in shares. We also engaged METS Engineering and Roughstock Mining to optimize and fast track the RPM into production. In parallel, while conducting old school boots and hammer exploration techniques across the other 20-plus exciting prospects on the Estelle district this year, we've also made the exciting discovery that the scarce mineral Stibnite, the primary ore source for the critical mineral antimony is abundant and coincident with gold on the property, particularly at the new Stibium and Styx prospects, as well as the Train and Trumpet areas. With the U.S. currently having limited domestic supply, China recently announcing a restriction on antimony exports and antimony prices also at an all-time high, Nova recognized early on the potential that antimony has for the project and has developed strong relationships with various federal and state government departments to present Nova, as a potential domestic partner to supply the U.S. with antimony and other critical minerals. Scoping level metallurgical studies have also been commenced on adding antimony and critical minerals processing into the flow sheet and the company has been actively pursuing brand opportunities to potentially develop a small-scale starter mine for antimony at Stibnite for early cash flow -- sorry, at Stibium for early cash flow. The company looks forward to giving more insight into the plans of moving this forward over the coming months. On the corporate front, the most significant activity over the past year has been the successful completion of the U.S. listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market. This achievement has been an important milestone for the company in terms of opening new and larger capital markets and expanding the potential support for the development and growth of Nova in reaching its strategic goals sooner, while endeavoring to minimize dilution to shareholders. In recent months, the company has undertaken a very active marketing program, which has included TV advertising on business networks and webinars. The company has also presented at conferences to potential new investors in New York. The U.S. listing has been a huge undertaking for a relatively small team to execute and complete. And it is an opportune time now to say, thank you to the Nova team, the advisers, the bankers and all those involved for the tireless efforts that generally go unrecognized to achieve this major milestone for the company. While the global economy remains dynamic with various tensions and conflicts, changing political outlooks and price movements through the numerous financial markets, we continue to remain optimistic about the rising importance of gold and antimony in the marketplace and take the view that Nova is well placed to recognize this significant upside. The focus of the company will continue to be the derisking of the project and the establishment of a solid foundation for future growth through prudential -- prudent allocation of capital. We now have also commenced a search for high-caliber independent director based in the U.S. with experience in funding and building projects to add significant talent to the team to assist us progressing Estelle rapidly towards production. As always, we want to actively engage with all our stakeholders, as we continue our journey in creating value, as we develop the Estelle Gold project in Critical Minerals District. With that in mind, I'd like to acknowledge the diligent contributions to the Nova team supporting stakeholders and fellow Board Directors for an immense year with all its achievements with an RPM optimization and a PFS underway, as well as an updated scoping level study for the wider project and in parallel, progressing the antimony opportunity. We believe that Nova is well positioned for another exciting year ahead, and we look forward to updating the market on our progress. That's the close of the Chairman's address. So we'll move on with the meeting. So further discussion and analysis of the Estelle Gold Project is available through the interactive Vrify 3D animations, presentations and videos, all available on the company website, www.novaminerals.com.au. Now we move forward on the formal business, as set out in the Notice of Meeting. The notice of the Annual General Meeting was mailed to all registered members on or about the 14th of October 2024, and is to be taken as read. Voting on all resolutions. For the purposes of the poll, I appoint Jonathon Cooper from Automic is online, the company's share registry, who have examined and prepared summaries of the proxy forms received to act as the returning officer and to conduct the poll. Shareholders in attendance via Zoom that have already submitted a vote by proxy should note that your votes will already be counted towards the poll. You do not need to lodge another vote unless you wish to change your proxy instruction. Shareholders in attendance via Zoom that have not submitted a vote by proxy and wish to vote on the resolutions being put to the meeting today can do so by following the instructions provided in the Notice of Meeting. On your screen, there are instructions for how to log into the online voting portal. Please note that the online voting portal is now open and will remain open until the poll is declared closed. Your votes must have been submitted prior to the poll being closed for them to count. On your screen, there are instructions for how to register and vote using the online voting portal. Are there any questions? Ian, I would just ask you just to...

No, there are no questions in relation to the voting in there at this time.

Okay. Thanks, Ian. I just need your help there because...

No problems...

[indiscernible] screens. Okay. There's no questions. We'll move on. So proxies have been inspected by all those validly lodged have been accepted. Proxies have been received representing 37.2 million shares or about 13.6% of the issued capital of the company. All undirected proxies or open votes that have been nominated the Chairman of the meeting, as their proxy will be cast in favor of each resolution in the Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting. We'll now proceed to the resolution set out in the Notice of Annual General Meeting. The first item of business to receive the company's annual financial report for the -- sorry, I'll read that again. The first item of business is to receive the company's annual financial report for the year ended 30 June 2024. The financial report and the reports of the directors and the auditors are now laid before the meeting. There will be no vote on this item, as this is a discussion item only. The company's auditor for 2024 financial year, [ Marcus Vakos ] of RSM is present. So welcome, Marcus, to take questions relevant to the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the independent auditor's report. So I ask, is there any questions or comments on the financial report or reports of the directors and auditors? I think Ian, are you there...

Yes, no questions.

No questions. Okay.

Please check. Hold on a second. No, there are no questions in relation to that.

Okay. We will now proceed to the resolutions set out in the Notice of Annual General Meeting. So Resolution 1, to consider and, if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, Resolution 1, adoption of the remuneration report, as an ordinary resolution. I note that the vote on this matter is considered to be advisory only and does not bind the company's directors. However, as noted in the Notice of Meeting to this AGM under the Corporations Act, there is a 2-strikes rule requiring a Board spill if the report receives 2 no votes of 25% or more over 2 consecutive years. Nova did not record a strike at last year's AGM. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please raise your hand or if attending virtually -- well, that's a misstatement. If you wish to discuss this resolution, submit your questions via the Q&A. Are there any questions there, Ian, for this one?

There are no questions. And the voting -- the proxy votes are displayed currently for all the resolutions. So we don't have to read them out.

Okay. All right. I'll then won't read them out. I'll let people view them at their discretion. Next slide. Okay. Proxies received in relation to this resolution are on screen. The proxy votes received on this resolution are currently displayed on the screen. I intend to vote undirected proxy votes available to the Chairman of the meeting in favor of this resolution. If against the vote less than 25%, the next year's AGM will proceed as normal. If against the vote greater than 25%, Nova will have received a first strike and at next year's AGM, this will happen again, it will result in a second strike, which will result in a spill meeting motion being voted on for the reelection of the Board of Directors. All right. Given the personal details of all directors of this resolution, the Board takes no recommendation to shareholders regarding this resolution. So I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via online portal are reminded not to click on the next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. Resolution 2 has been withdrawn. So we will now move through to Resolution 3. So Resolution 3 is as follows is to consider and -- then technically, I should hand this over...

You must hand it over to myself. Yes. So Resolution 3, election of Director, Mr. Richard Beazley. Resolution 3 is as follows: to consider and if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment Resolution 3, election of Director, Mr. Richard Beazley as an ordinary resolution. Details on Mr. Beazley are included in the Notice of Meeting. The Board, excluding Mr. Beazley, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please raise your hand or if attending virtually submit your questions via the Q&A. Are there any questions? I do not see any questions, so I'll carry on. No, there are no questions. The proxies received in relation to this resolution are shown on the screen. I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via the online portal. However, a reminder not to click on next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. I'll just give you a few seconds, and I'll hand back to the Chairman to carry on with the meeting. Richard?

Thank you, Ian. All right. Resolution 4 is as follows: to consider and if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment Resolution 4, approval of 10% placement facility as a special resolution. So Resolution 4 seeks shareholder approval by way of a special resolution for the company to have the additional 10% placement facility provided for in Listing Rule 7.1A to issue equity securities without shareholder approval. If Resolution 4 is passed, the company will be able to issue equity securities up to the combined 25% limit in Listing Rule 7.1 and 7.1A without any further shareholder approval. Resolution 4 is a special resolution and therefore, requires approval of 75% of the votes cast by shareholders present and eligible to vote in person by proxy by attorney or in the case of corporate shareholders by corporate representative. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of Resolution 4. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A.

There are no questions.

Thanks, Ian. The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on screen. I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via the online portal. However, reminded not to click on next until you've selected your vote for all resolutions. I hand over to the Company Secretary, Ian, for the next section. So Ian?

Okay. Resolutions 5A to 5F, excluding Resolution 5E, which has been withdrawn, is approval for the issue of shares in lieu of cash fees to various directors of the company. So we've decided I'll just combine this in relation to all the directors, but voting will be separate for each of the 5A to 5F, excluding 5E. So I'll just read out one of them. Approval for issue of shares in lieu of cash fees to consider and if thought fit to pass the following resolution, as an ordinary resolution that for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 10.14, Section 1954 of the Corporations Act and for all other purposes, shareholder approval is given for the issue of fully paid ordinary shares to -- well, this one is for Richard Beazley, but and/or his nominee, but it's applicable for all the directors. in lieu of cash fees for directors' services rendered, as described in the memorandum, which accompanied and formed part of this notice. So instead of reading them all out, I'll just continue, but I mean it's exactly the same for each of the directors. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of Resolutions 5A to 5F, excluding 5E, respectively, by or on behalf of a person referred to in ASX Listing Rule 10.14, 10.14.2,1014.3, who is eligible to participate in the employee incentive scheme in question and their associates. If you have -- if you wish to discuss this resolution, these resolutions, please raise your hand and submit your questions via the Q&A. Are there any questions?

[ Doesn't look like any ].

No. The proxies received in relation to these resolutions are shown on the screen. I'll just change the next page, so you can see all of them. I now put these motions to the vote. Please vote on each of 5A to 5F separately, excluding 5E. And those voting virtually can vote via the online portal. However, a reminder not to click on next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. I'll give you a few seconds. I'll hand back to Richard to continue with the meeting.

Thanks, Ian. Resolution 6 is as follows: to consider and if thought fit to pass with or without amendment Resolution 6, adoption of employee incentive scheme as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of Listing Rule 7.2, Exception 13(b) and for all other purposes, including Sections 259B and 260C of the Corporations Act 2001 of Commonwealth approval is given for the company to adopt the employee incentive scheme, as described in the memorandum, which accompanied and formed part of this notice. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of this Resolution 6 by or on behalf of a person, who is eligible to participate in the employee incentive scheme or any of their associates. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of this Resolution 6 by or on behalf of a person, who is eligible to participate in the employee incentive scheme or by any of their associates. bit repetitive. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please raise your hand. And if attending virtually submit your questions via the Q&A.

There are no questions.

Thanks, Ian. The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on screen. I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via the online portal. However, reminded not to click on next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. Right. Enough time is there. So we'll move on to Resolution 7 and is as follows: to consider and if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, Resolution 7, ratification of prior issue of shares as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.4 and for all other purposes, shareholders ratify the prior issue of 28,380,000 fully paid ordinary shares at an issue price of $0.122 per share to existing and new unrelated sophisticated and professional investors as described in the memorandum, which accompanied and formed part of this notice. On September 24, 2024, the company announced that it had received firm commitments for a placement of 28,380,000 fully paid ordinary shares, as placement shares with every 60 placement shares represented by 1 American Depository Share and ADS at an issue price of AUD 0.122 per placement share, equating to USD 5 per ADS to raise AUD 3,517,260, U.S. equivalent of $2,365,000 before costs as the placement. The placement shares were issued on the 25th of September 2024 under the placement capacity available to the company under ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and 7.1A. ThinkEquity, LLC underwrote the placement. Participants in the placement were unrelated sophisticated and professional investors, who were either identified by ThinkEquity or by the company. The company agreed to issue ThinkEquity and/or its nominees 1,419,000 unlisted warrants, as part of fees for capital raising services provided by ThinkEquity. The warrants have an exercise price of USD 7.50 per ADS and expire on the 25th of March 2029. The material terms of the warrants are set out in Annexure A. The issue of warrants is subject to shareholder approval, which is sought under Resolution 8, the following resolution. Resolution 7 seeks shareholder approval for the ratification of the prior issue of the placement shares for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.4 and for all other purposes. Resolution 8 -- it should probably be Resolution 7 seeks shareholder approval for the issue of warrants -- sorry, that is Resolution 8 seeks shareholder approval for the issue of warrants for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of Resolution 7 by or on behalf of a person, who participated in the issue or is a counterparty to the agreement being approved or any associate of that person. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A. So Ian, any movement on the Q&A board for this Resolution 7.

No questions.

All right. The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on the screen. I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via the online portal. However, are reminded not to click on next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. All right. We'll now move on to Resolution 8 as is follows: to consider any thought fit to pass with or without amendment, Resolution 8, approval of issue of warrants, as an ordinary resolution. That for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes, shareholders approved the issue of 1,419,000 unlisted warrants each with an exercise price of USD 7 per ADS and expiry date of the 25th of March 2029 to ThinkEquity, LLC or its nominees, as described in the memorandum, which accompanied and formed part of this notice. On 24th September 2024, the company announced that it had received firm commitments for a placement of 28,380,000 fully paid ordinary shares -- placement shares with every 60 placement shares represented by 1 ADS at an issue price of AUD 0.122 per placement share or equivalent to USD 5 per ADS to raise AUD 3,517,260 or equivalent to USD 2,365,000. This is before costs, as the placement. The placement shares were issued on the 20th of September 2024 under the placement capacity available to the company under ASX Listing Rules 7.1 and 7.1A. ThinkEquity, LLC underwrote the placement. Participants in the placement or unrelated, sophisticated and professional investors, who are either identified by ThinkEquity or the company. The company agreed on to issue ThinkEquity and its nominees 1,419,000 unlisted warrants, as part fees for capital raising services provided by ThinkEquity. The warrants have an exercise price of USD 7.50 per ADS and expire on the 25th of March 2029. The material terms of the warrants are set out in Annexure A. The issue of warrants is subject to shareholder approval, which is sought under Resolution 8. So Resolution 8 seeks shareholder approval for the ratification of the prior issue of the placement shares -- sorry, Resolution 7 for the ratification of the prior issue of the placement shares for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 7.4. Resolution 8 seeks shareholder approval for the issue of warrants for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of Resolution 8 by or on behalf of any person, who is expected to participate in or obtain material benefit, as a result of proposed issue, except a benefit solely by reason of being a holder of ordinary securities in the company and any of their associates. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A.

There are no question -- there are no questions, Richard.

All right. Thanks, Ian. So the proxies received in relation to this resolution are on screen. I now put forward the motion. Those attending the -- virtually can vote via the online portal. However, are reminded not to click on next until you have selected the vote for all resolutions. All right. We'll move on to Resolution 9, which is as follows: to consider and if thought fit to pass with or without amendment, Resolution 9, ratification of prior issue warrants as an ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.4 and for other purposes, shareholders ratify the issue of 31,350,000 unlisted warrants, each with an exercise price of AUD 0.1806 or equivalent to [ USD 7.266] per ADS with an expiry date of 25th of July 2029, as described in the memorandum, which accompanied and formed part of this notice. On 24th of July 2024 and the 26th of July 2024, the company issued an aggregate of 31,350,000 unlisted warrants, each with an exercise price of AUD 0.1806 per share or equivalent to [ USD 7.266 ] per ADS, an expiry date of 25th of July 2029, as free attaching 2 ADSs issued by the company to unrelated investors in connection with the initial public offering and NASDAQ listing of the company. Details of the initial public offering and NASDAQ listing were released on the 26th of July 2024. If shareholders pass Resolution 9, then the public warrants will be treated as not having used the placement capacity of the company available under the ASX listing rules. Shares issued on the exercise of the public warrants, if any, will also increase the placement capacity available to the company under the ASX listing rules. If shareholders do not pass Resolution 9, then the public warrants will continue to use the placement capacity available to the company under ASX listing rules. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of Resolution 9 by or on behalf of a person, who participated in the issue or is a counterparty to the agreement being approved or any associate of that person. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit virtually your questions in the Q&A. It doesn't look like there's any questions, Ian, on the Board.

There are no questions.

Okay. So we'll move on. The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on the screen. I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via the online portal. However, are reminded not to click on the next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. Right. Resolution 10 is as follows: to consider and if thought fit to pass with or without amendment, Resolution 10, approval for issue of shares RedChip Companies Inc. as an ordinary resolution. That for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of up to 1,200,000 fully paid ordinary shares to RedChip Companies Inc., as part fees for Investor Relations services, as described in the memorandum, which accompanied and formed part of this notice. Resolution 10 seeks shareholder approval for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes for the issue of up to 1.2 million fully paid ordinary shares to RedChip Companies Inc., as part fees for Investor Relations services rendered, the issue of shares is subject to Resolution 10 is subject to and conditional upon receipt of shareholder approval. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of Resolution 10 by or on behalf of any person, who is expected to participate in or who will obtain a material benefit, as a result of the proposed issue, except a benefit solely by reason of being a holder of ordinary securities in the company and any other associates and their associates. If you wish to discuss this resolution, please submit your questions via the Q&A.

No questions, Richard.

Thanks, Ian. Proxies received in relation to this resolution are on screen. I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via the online portal, however, are reminded not to click on the next until you've selected your vote for all resolutions. Moving on to Resolution 11 is as follows: to consider and if thought fit, to pass with or without amendment, Resolution 11, approval for issue of shares Whittle Consulting Proprietary Limited, as ordinary resolution. That for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of fully paid ordinary shares to Whittle Consulting Proprietary Limited, as described in the memorandum, which accompanied and formed part of this notice. Resolution 11 seeks shareholder approval for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes for the issue of fully paid ordinary shares to Whittle Consulting Proprietary Limited part fees for geological services rendered. The issue of shares is subject of Resolution 11 is conditional upon receipt of shareholder approval for the issue. The number of fully paid ordinary shares to be issued is USD 50,000 converted to Australian dollars at the exchange rate at the issued date divided by the VWAP of fully ordinary paid shares on the 5 trading days on which trades in the shares of the company were made on ASX prior to the 30th of November 2024. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of Resolution 11 by or on behalf of any person, who is expected to participate in or who will obtain a material benefit as a result of the proposed issue, except the benefit solely by reason of being a holder of an ordinary securities in the company and any of their associates. If you wish to discuss this resolution, virtually submit your questions via the Q&A. Ian?

There are no questions in relation to this resolution.

Thank you. The purposes -- sorry, the proxies received in relation to this resolution are on screen. I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via the online portal. However, are reminded not to click on next until you've selected your vote for all resolutions. Resolution 12 is as follows: to consider and if thought fit to pass with or without amendment, Resolution 12, approval for issue of note Nebari convertible facility as an ordinary resolution. That for the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and for all other purposes, shareholders approve the issue of convertible loan note to Nebari Gold Fund 1, LP, as described in the memorandum, which accompanied and formed part of this notice. On the 21st of November 2022, the company announced that it had entered into a convertible facility agreement with Nebari Gold Fund 1 for USD 5 million. The company sought and obtained shareholder approval ratifying the agreement to issue shares under the facility at an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders held on the 31st of January 2023. The facility was varied on the 7th of March 2024, and that first variation to the facility ratified the variation of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders held on the 31st of May 2024. On the 20th September 2024, the company announced a further subsequent variation to the facility. The material terms of this variation and the material terms of the facility, including the following amendments are subject to the variation are detailed in the Notice of Meeting. Subject to shareholder approval, the company has agreed to issue Nebari, the convertible loan note on the terms of the variation, which is convertible into the securities to be issued on repayment of the facility. The company will disregard any votes cast in favor of Resolution 12 by or on behalf of any person, who is expected to participate in, who will obtain a material benefit, as a result of the proposed issue, except the benefit solely by reason of being a holder of ordinary securities in the company and any of their associates. If you wish to discuss this resolution, virtually submit your questions via the Q&A.

Richard, there are no questions specifically relating to this resolution. There are some other questions, which we will answer after the meeting. They're more of a general nature.

No worries. All right. We'll push on. The proxies received in relation to this resolution are on screen. I now put the motion. Those attending virtually can vote via the online portal. However, are reminded not to click on the next until you have selected your vote for all resolutions. Right. That concludes the resolutions to be voted on today. As noted, we are conducting a poll on all resolutions. I note the poll is already open. And all shareholders voting online, please now ensure that they have submitted their votes. I will allow another minute before the poll is closed. If you have any questions in relation to the submission of the online votes, please send them through the Q&A function now. I just give a minute to pause while this is being conducted. As a minute tends to draw out [indiscernible] longer. I think that's about a minute now. So no questions, Ian, coming up?

No. So let's rather just close the meeting and then Chris can make his presentation, and we'll answer all the questions from the shareholders.

Let's do that. So there being no further questions, I declare the poll closed. Staff of Automic will now process the poll, and the results will be announced to the ASX once they are available. So yes, we'll go to Chris for his presentation, then we'll -- then we'll close the meeting before.

Then we'll close the meeting before. Let's close the meeting before and then, [ you can just turn it to Chris ].

Okay. We'll do that. There being no further questions, I'd like to thank all shareholders for their attendance, and we'll now end the formal part of today's meeting. I declare the meeting closed. As advised earlier, the results of the poll will be announced to the ASX once they are available. Right. I'll now hand over to our CEO, Mr. Chris Gerteisen to make his presentation. The floor is yours, Chris.

Thank you so much, Richard. I'll just share my screen here. Is that good? You see that? Excellent. So welcome every -- all attendees. Quite an exciting time for our company. We've listed on the NASDAQ. We spent a lot of our time and energy this year doing that, and that was successful. We've been in New York, in Wall Street, really getting the story out and getting a lot of good interest in what we're doing here. And I think that's really reflected in the share volumes that you're seeing over there on the NASDAQ and also on the ASX. So we continue to work away at that and really get the story out. What we have, of course, for all existing shareholders and perhaps some new ones on the call is the Estelle project, where we're developing North America's next major gold and more recently, Critical Minerals District here in Alaska. We're a gold company. That story is strong and getting stronger. However, we have made very significant discoveries of some of these other elements being antimony that's drawing a lot of interest, silver, copper and some of these other critical elements that are so highly sought after these days. Disclaimer, read it to your leisure. At a glance, Alaska is a large project area, 514 square kilometers, where to date, we've defined almost 10 million ounces JORC compliant resources. And then within that, because now we're listed on the NASDAQ, that requires SK 1300 compliance. So that's the U.S. -- those are the U.S. guidelines, and that requires reporting resources within an economic pit shell. So out of that almost 10 million ounces global resource, we have reported SK 1300 5.2 million ounces at a $2,000 gold price inside those economic pit shells. And that's across 2 deposits, Korbel bulk tonnage system up north; RPM, which really become the jewel in the crown down south, very high-grade deposit. And the company, as you'll see, is laser-focused on getting that into production as soon as possible. And then in addition to that, we have 20 other known prospects across the project. And one to point out there is the Stibium prospect, where we've made one of these very significant antimony discoveries. In Alaska, Tintina Gold Province, this is the land of the intrusive related gold system. Here's our neighborhood. Some names you might recognize, major companies in the area, Newmont, Kinross, Barrick with their Donlin project to the west of us. You can see 10 million-plus ounce deposits not uncommon in our neighborhood, and that's certainly what we're on to at Estelle just on the southern end of that belt. Now let's zoom in, South Central Alaska, and we're looking east here. The project lies about 100 miles from west of Anchorage, the main population center, the main -- this is the central area of where things happen in Alaska in terms of economic activity. And the first thing to note is that we're all on state land. This is such an important note to make. There's no federal land or native corporation land to contend with. and that's such a big bonus for this project. What that means in terms of permitting, and we're coming into that phase of the project life now. In terms of permitting, it's a much more streamlined process just dealing with our state agencies mainly. So that will really benefit the project. In terms of access, we have, of course, our 4,000-foot plus air strip on the site. We can already bring in large aircraft like DC3. We are planning an air strip expansion to expand that just slightly, another 500 feet on either side to bring in DC4 aircraft. So the impact of that will be rather than bringing 1,000 gallons of fuel at a time in a flight, we'll be able to bring 3,000 gallons of fuel. So the capacity there will be threefold -- will be threefold. Also, the pink line, it's our winter road, been very successful at that. And we're getting very excited now about the red line. So that's the West Susitna Access Road project, state-funded project, a whole economic corridor through there, lots of things going on. We're on the end of that road here in the West Susitna Mining District, our project, as well as some other resource developers. And I urge the attendees to go and look at the news out there about this project. It's really moving forward rapidly. The project is now in the -- the first stage of the project is already part of the Department of Transportation Infrastructure plan and budget. So that's in the state plan and budget. It's 90% federal money, 10% state match. Of course, the state always jumps on to these projects. They're looking to break ground on that next year. And as I said, all that news is out there and information for the attendees to find. The second half of the road, the Phase 2 of the road, which takes it out to our site, AIDEA, the Alaska Industrial and Export Authority is running out that project. They completed all the field work this year, the last round of field work, and they will be submitting for permitting in the first half of next year. And so, remember, we don't need the entire road. It's set up to be an industrial haul road for some of the other resource developers to take out concentrates and coal and these type of things. We don't require that level of road. We just require the initial alignment. And so, if they're breaking ground on it next year, very early after that, we'll be -- it will be a functional road for our purpose for construction and these type of things. Now that is a big bonus for the larger project. However, we believe with our start-up plan, we can construct this mine and get started just with the winter road. Power, lots of options there. The blue line you see that is the proposed Donlin gas pipeline that will pass about 10 miles to the north of us. That passes about 10 miles to the north. That's potential offtake there. That's an option. Also, we've looked at our own transmission line. That's the yellow line. 70-mile transmission line to the Beluga Power Plant, that's gas, all gas power here for Anchorage in the Valley. Now we're also getting and gaining major momentum along that route is this coal project. So this is one of the projects the state is pushing for energy security for Alaska in this region. Also, the federal government, it's 1 of 3 new coal-fired power plants in the United States that are looking to be subsidized by the federal government for carbon capture and sequestration technology, and it's perfect geology for that here with these -- all these gas fields to put for carbon sequestration. That -- if that comes online, if and when that comes online, that will take our transmission line to about 20 miles, probably one of the most cost-effective solutions. Also interestingly, we're looking at micro nuclear reactors. Big push for that in the state of Alaska and elsewhere around the world with nuclear. And we've spoken to Westinghouse, NANO Nuclear, Radiant out of the United King -- Radiant out of Wyoming, Nano out of the U.K. All the technologies there, it's a regulatory issue, but it's moving fast, moving very, very fast now, especially in the state of Alaska, the first one Westinghouse unit is set to go in a big Air Force base up in Fairbanks in Alaska here in about 2026. So all those solutions, which I just mentioned, are solutions that -- where the CapEx is borne by the power provider, and it just becomes an OpEx for the company. And so, those are longer-term solutions and that we'll grow ourselves into the long term. There's also, of course, diesel generators, which are how most mines start up and how we envision ourselves starting up, as soon as possible with our RPM options that we'll go into now. So lots of options there. We'll choose and grow into what fits our time line and our needs, as we move forward. The project 35-kilometer long mineralized intrusive corridor coming through the claims. We've been focused on 4 main areas: Korbel and RPM, where we have our resources defined, of course, and then Stoney and Train, which has been the main areas for our exploration, but also some [ underlying ] prospects, particularly with the antimony that you see there, Stibium and Styx. But those have been our main areas of focus. Now ultimately, this is a larger project, and we demonstrated that in our scoping study, which is a bit dated now, almost 2 years ago, I guess it is 18 months ago, that it was ultimately a larger project. In that scoping study, we looked at the whole project, Korbel and RPM and at current gold prices, I mean, certainly, the NPV is well over $1 billion. The challenge for us right now in this market and with the current valuations is the price tag. The CapEx there was almost $400 million. And so the wonderful thing about the project is we have the option on how we attack this, how we develop it. And we're choosing now and we have been this year for the lowest CapEx option. So what we're doing is we're going after our first -- our strategy is to first go after the low CapEx, high-margin option to start up at RPM to go after that near surface RPM North, high-margin, high-grade material where we got intercepts like 132 grams (sic) [ meters ] at 10 grams per tonne, go after that, get the cash flow as soon as possible, get into production as soon as possible, laser-focused on that and then grow ourselves into the larger project as we move forward, being Korbel with our -- we grow ourselves with our own cash flow and/or take on one of these strategic partnerships. This is one of these projects that I've mentioned in the past that the major companies, some mid-tiers were on their radar. They're very interested in this project. They're getting into our data room, having a closer look to some discussions there to be clear, there's no deals on the table, but they're certainly taking -- they need a project like this because they have -- some of these producers have depleting reserves. They need to fill that gap. And it's the kind of project where you could be producing 0.5 million ounces a year, several hundred thousand ounces a year. This is that type of project, not many left in the world. So certainly, there's that opportunity as we move forward with Korbel and some of these other regional targets that we're advancing as well. That's the gold story, and we never want to dilute that. However, other opportunities have present themselves in some of these 20 other known prospects across the property. And that -- the main one there being antimony. We've made very significant discoveries at several prospects of antimony at Stibium, at Styx. We're mainly focused on Stibium as of first. But what we see there is massive stibnite veining on the surface, and we are seeking Department of Defense grants. We're quite advanced with that, and we're seeking these grants to develop that opportunity. By the way, there's gold in that as well. So there will be gold credits we expect, but there is a desperate need for antimony production in the United States. And certainly, the Department of Defense sees our project potentially play a major role in getting that production back to the United States. So that's our strategy. That's where we're moving forward. First step, RPM. So looking closer at RPM, our drilling to date has defined 3 main zones, South, North and Valley. And all those have the potential to emerge as we move forward. However, what you see there on the screen is that we are focused on RPM North. And that outline you see here is the RPM North Pit. So we're working right now with Whittle Consulting to optimize that and look at the potential for an early small footprint, low CapEx, high-margin start-up to be able then to grow ourselves with the cash flow into the larger project right there at RPM North. RPM North remains wide open in terms of exploration potential, by the way. We've done -- you can see here this green shaded area. This is along the ridge line from RPM, and we're seeing a number of anomalies. You can see the surface sampling here, out here, also here. We've done additional quite extensive surface sampling, rock chips, soil samples across this whole area this year. And that news flow, we're waiting for results for all that to come in. And that news flow will come in and we'll report that to further identify those anomalies and really generate some good drill targets for the future to hopefully discover another RPM North style deposit very close by. We already have a potential plant site, chosen this site. We've surveyed this out this area. This is a suitable site for a very low footprint, early plant, smaller plant, low CapEx, but it will be scalable. It will be scalable as RPM grows and as we bring online projects in the South area here like Train and some of these other ones, very close to RPM for a short haul. So a very small footprint scenario we're looking at there. So let's go back to RPM and have a closer look at what we have there. Here's the actual drilling to date. And to date, we have defined those 3 main zones, North, South and Valley. Most of the drilling has been focused around RPM North, trying to get that into production. And then we keep chipping away at RPM South and RPM Valley, and that's all future upside as we continue to prove up those resources. Here's that starter pit area, the area we're looking at now to optimize with Whittle to see what we need to do to complete this PFS and get it into production as soon as possible, focused right there on RPM North. So we did drilling this year. It was our -- what we believe is our last round of drilling for this PFS that we're completing now and this optimization to get as many resources as we could and prove up as many resources as we could to have the most robust PFS and the quickest payback as possible. And here are some of the results that we've reported in the last couple of months from this year's drilling. And what we focused on there is this wedge right here, this wedge. So these 2 drill pads like here and here were previous drill -- years' drilling, and there was still an open in the wedge of the near surface material, and that's what we utilized our own RC rig. So it was very cost effective drilling. Recall, we own an RC rig, and so we just have to hire a driller, and we can do that drilling at very, very, very cheap rates. So it's very cost effective this year. But you can see this is right on the surface. This is the first material we'll be getting into as we mine RPM in the future production scenario, 39 meters at 5.4 grams per tonne, including 20 meters at 10.2 grams per tonne, 29 meters at 7.1 grams per tonne, including 22 meters at 9.4 grams per tonne. That's the material that will give us that quick payback once we start mining this. You can see why we're so focused on getting this in production, high margin, very, very good cash flow to come out of this deposit and quick payback to then grow ourselves into the larger deposit. And then we'll continue with that pit and what awaits us in the future. This is from the previous drilling. You can see at depth. This is what awaits us from previous results. Here, let's read a couple off just because it never gets boring. RPM-005, 400 meters at 3.5 grams per tonne, including 132 meters at 10 grams per tonne. Another one, RPM-015, 258 meters at 5.1 grams per tonne, including 117 meters at 11 grams per tonne, 45 meters at 25.3 grams per tonne. So that's what awaits us as we move forward with this RPM North start-up mine. World-class spectacular intercepts. I mean these are some of the best intercepts globally over the last 10 years, for sure, and we'll be mining that as soon as possible. And then what awaits us even further in the future, RPM Valley. We have some good results here. Here is one RPM-060 hole, 204 meters at 1 gram, including 42 meters at 2.6 grams, 17 meters at 5.3 grams, very typical of the Valley zone. And then the RPM South zone here. Early days there. The most recent discovery has geological similarities to RPM North, haven't hit those big bonanza holes yet, but not too shabby. We're definitely on to the pay dirt. RPM-023 hole here, 333 meters at 0.9 gram, including 94 meters at 1 gram, 50 meters at 2.3 grams. So that's definitely pay dirt. We can make money off that, no doubt, but still further work to do there, wide open. Zooming around now, we're looking North. It's a cross-section looking North through RPM North and RPM Valley zones. What do we have on here is the 1 gram per tonne cutoff grade shell. And you can see even at that very high-grade cutoff, which will be that initial material we mine, you can see this zone still hangs together, very nice, thick continuous broad zone at the 1 gram per tonne cutoff. That's the deposit, that's the zone, that's the pod that we're focused on with the earliest start-up, low CapEx, high margin. That's what we'll be mining out. And now you can see we've drilled down into the valley, and we see another high-grade zone starting to take shape in the Valley zone, and we continue to infill that and prove that up, awaiting for us in the future. Here are some rocks. And well, actually, I have the 0.3 gram per tonne grade shell on here now. So this is much more aligned to a long-term mining cutoff, the 0.3 gram and really bulks out. So that will all be economic. And then on the right-hand side, you see the rocks. So it's the light colored rocks we're after. That's the mineralized intrusive, intense veining in there, visible gold. And then the dark colored rocks on the bottom, that's the hornfels, tends to be barren. So it's a very visual deposit, which makes it very nice. We know when we're drilling that we're in the right stuff and not wasting too many meters and wasting our time drilling into waste, very visual. Okay. Here's an economic pit shell. This one here is at an $1,800 gold price. And according to SK-1300 standards, as I mentioned, the reporting there requires in-pit economic resources. However, you can see that the deposits are much larger, hanging outside the pit here and off to the side here, more resources, considerable amount. So we continue to infill drill those areas. And of course, with a rising gold price now at $2,600, $2,700, these pits will just get larger and deeper and capture more and more of that resource as we move forward. And that will be reflected, I believe, in our upcoming resource update to be delivered here before the end of the year to reflect those new gold prices and this additional drilling that we've done. Resource classification, high confidence measured and indicated resources at RPM North, where all that close space drilling is. And I'll note, so this was the 2023 -- beginning of 2023 resource model. And there, you can see the numbers, 340,000 ounces at 2.3 grams per tonne in that core zone. It should be noted that this drilling here is not included in the resources. And that drilling there is the 2023 drilling as well as this year's drilling, you can see here. And so this is what we're incorporating in our resource update, which is happening now, and that will be delivered to the market. We'll report that before the end of the year. And so our target there with all that considerable amount of additional drilling is 500,000 ounces at 2 grams per tonne. We believe that's achievable with that additional drilling. And remember, internal to that, which will be the initial focus for the mining -- for the early mining scenario, internal to that 500,000 ounces at 2 grams per tonne, there'll be 150,000 ounces, maybe 200,000 ounces at 5 grams per tonne. We think that's achievable. So that resource update, we're working on it now. We're looking to deliver that as soon as possible before the end of the year. Then the remainder of the deposit remains inferred. So still infill work to do there in the Valley and the South. And remember, these zones remain wide open. And all of our drilling indicates, it's all oriented core and our drilling data indicates that these zones have the potential to link together between RPM South and Valley. 600 meters of strike length there, potential resource upside, big volume and also between Valley and North, that's still wide open as well. And so currently, this deposit is 1.2 million ounces in total with all the zones. We see this as easily a 2 million ounce, 3 million ounce deposit. Just need to get in there and drill and prove that up as we move forward. But there's plenty of upside awaiting us. And once we start up at RPM, we expect the mine life to increase significantly as we continue to drill these other zones and link these zones up. So there's RPM, and that's -- like I said, that's what we're focused on right now with our PFS study. We're doing the initial stages of the optimizations now to see what that looks like with Whittle. Also concurrently, there's metallurgical test work happening in the background, all kinds of technical studies, everything converging to deliver this PFS and our schedule there has it by the end of 2025, the end of next year, potentially before that. We're, of course, always striving to deliver things before time, but certainly by the end of 2025 to look at that RPM start-up scenario. Now let's take you and show you this further in the South area here, nearby RPM, the other exploration potential, taking you 5 kilometers to the North to the Train prospect. At the Train prospect, we see another one of these massive intrusive-related gold systems lighting up. And what you're looking at are surface samples, these dots, surface samples, rock chips from outcrops, soil samples. And you can see that why major companies and mid-tiers are so interested in this project. Certainly, they like the resources we have, but it's the future upside, which is demonstrated here at Train, for sure. At Train prospect proper, you can see the high-grade gold extending up to 80 grams per tonne, 20s, 30s all over the place. That's about a 1 kilometer strike length area. Then 1 kilometer to the North of Train at the Trumpet prospect, and we believe Train and Trumpet have the potential to merge together and link together as well. We map that mineralized intrusive between both of them. But at Trumpet, same story, high-grade gold up to 132 grams per tonne. And here, we're starting to recognize the multi-element potential at Estelle, particularly in this Train area. You can see hundreds of grams per tonne silver in with the high-grade gold, [ percents ] of copper, antimony and many of these other critical elements we're seeing here coincident with the gold. At the Shoeshine prospect on the East side of the Train area, again, same story. And we'd like to highlight the highest rock chip ever we've discovered at Estelle, 1,290 grams per tonne in the rock chips there at Shoeshine prospect. It just shows you the extreme high-grade potential we have here. But same story, multi-element silver, copper, antimony, other critical elements here at Shoeshine. And then the last prospect I'll take you to in the Train area is Muddy Creek. This one tends to be gold only. Metallurgically very clean, as they say, a little bit of silver, but just gold, the other element is not really present. And -- but you can see the gold is just phenomenal. High-grade gold, up to 127 grams per tonne, 90 grams per tonne. On average, the rock chips here -- this is a 1 kilometer strike length of sampling as well. On average, the rock chips here are running 18 grams per tonne. And even the soil samples, which tend to just be an indicator, target generation to find anomalies, they're running ore grades up to 2.5 grams per tonne on average for all those soils over that 1 kilometer Muddy Creek prospect. So all of those prospects I just showed you, this is our exploration upside. And we have -- these are drill-ready targets. And as soon as we can get to it, we have the budgets. We will be drilling these to establish a third, fourth resource to join RPM as well as Korbel, which we'll go to now. And we'll take you along our proposed whole road system. So we've surveyed all these roads out, these lines you see here, and we've completed a LIDAR survey across the property. So we have detailed topography, and we're now -- it's with the engineers for detailed design for these roads to start breaking ground on these by next year on these roads. So we're heading North, past our fully winterized 80-man camp, all the facilities here with the air strip, you see on-site prep lab. This is a year-round operation, another thing the majors really like. We're really committed early on to make ourselves a year-round operation and have this infrastructure in place to further develop this project and have a base. Taking up North to the Korbel Valley here. And the same story, a number of things we're working on up North here in the Korbel Valley and out at Stoney there. But let's focus in on these black dots. That's where we have our resources defined. The Korbel Main deposit, huge deposit, bulk tonnage, 2.5 kilometer strike length. It's not just one of these narrow vein things. It's a sea of mineralization there. The entire host rock is mineralized with these sheeted veins throughout, right on the surface, very low strip ratio, ideal economics. Almost everything you dig up there, certainly in the early years is some kind of pay dirt. And then 500 meters away, a short distance away, a new discovery at Cathedral. And it's early days there, but at a minimum, we see another Korbel Main taking shape here at Cathedral. So long section looking East through Korbel Main. 800 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.3 grams per tonne, bulk tonnage, lower grade system. Now there is a higher-grade feeder core through the center of this deposit. And by that, you can look at some of these intercepts and see what I mean, 94 meters at 1 gram, 101 meters at 1.3 grams, including 30 meters at 2.4 grams, 113 meters at 1 gram. So that's very representative of that high-grade feeder core that comes to the center of the deposit, and I'm putting on the 0.5 gram per tonne grade shell. That encompasses that core zone and very continuous down along the centerline strike of the deposit. Now I put on the 0.3 gram per tonne grade shell, and it really bulks out, right? Like I said, 800 million tonnes here. So what do we intend to do with this beast here? As I said, we'll start up at RPM get the cash flow, grow ourselves into the larger deposit. And to a large degree, that means growing ourselves into Korbel. And so at Korbel, I mentioned the high-grade feeder core that comes right on the surface, and that's here our starter pit. This is our starter pit area. There's almost probably 1 million ounces there in that starter pit of that higher-grade material. That will be direct mill feed. And then the remaining portions of the deposit, the lower grade portions of the deposit to understand their sheeted veins through this deposit. When you selectively sample those veins, they're running ounces per ton. And so it's not a grade issue per se, it's a vein density issue for these sheeted veins. And so the challenge is how do you separate out these higher-grade veins. And we've shown through our test work that we can make good money of this stuff by doing that. So the highest grade starter pit portion of the deposit direct to the mill, the lowest grade portions of the deposit, we send off to the heap leach pad, and that's a very low-cost recovery method, and we're doing test work, finishing up our test work now with METS Engineering to really pin that down. And then we'll classify a medium grade material. And in the medium grade material, we'll utilize ore sorting. We've done extensive test work with ore sorting to separate out these high-grade veins and it works exceptionally well. We're seeing a 10x upgrade. So our test work, we were taking 0.4 gram, 0.5 gram material and upgrading it to 4 grams per tonne to 5 grams per tonne. And that's why there's -- I think there's a lack of understanding around the Korbel deposit when they see 0.3 grams per tonne average grade, but really, if you understand our processing there, this is a very lucrative deposit separating out those high-grade veins. So that's our intention there. And that's why we reported that low cutoff there to capture all those resources to separate out those high-grade veins. Most of the in-pit resources here are indicated. We're working on this years before we even discovered RPM. So very high confidence indicated resources there in the Main pit and then lots of inferred still around the edges, wide open there at Korbel Main. We can continue to step out. And then Cathedral, like I said, just getting started there, inferred at Cathedral. Here are some rock chip samples at -- in the Korbel area. And you can see these grades in these rock chips. And some of these are taken from that vein material, 114 grams per tonne, 98 grams per tonne. That's what we're separating out with the ore sorters, right? So with the ore sorters, you can see how we readily achieve that 10x upgrade by separating out that material, which is so easily identified by the XRT density ore sorting to be specific. That huge contrast between the granodiorite host rock and then the vein material, which is quartz-arsenopyrite. It just pick -- the ore sorters pick this out very, very, very, very well, and that's how we get that upgrade. Let's talk more about the process now. We've done quite a bit of metallurgical test work in our scoping study, and we're doing the next level of that now for the PFS, and we've developed our flow sheet, which we're fine-tuning now. But something to understand is it is largely particulate gold. So it's quite easily liberated. And there's -- so the process, there's nothing real fancy going on here, conventional off-the-shelf technology. What we're doing is we're crushing, we're milling, we're floating to produce a concentrate and then we take that reduced volume of concentrate and we regrind to 22 microns and still quite coarse, but we just found very good gold liberation at that grain size in our test work. And then we take that and we leach, and already in scoping level, we were getting over 95% recovery. Now we're doing the next level test work. We're honing in, we're finding efficiencies with these certain things, these numbers are only set to improve. So to recap to understand the process, as I said, early days, RPM down South now straight to the mill, direct mill feed. Then we grow ourselves into the Korbel deposit, get into that high-grade starter pit. That will be direct mill feed, lower grade portions of the deposit off to the heap leach pad, and then we'll have the medium grade material, mainly at Korbel, hundreds of millions of tonnes of that stuff, and we'll utilize these ore sorters. And we'll focus with the ore sorters. We'll focus on maximizing the grade out of the ore sorters. One thing to note, in the scoping study, we looked at ore sorting all the material. And so we weren't just focused on maximizing the grade, we were focused on maximizing the recovery as well. And that came at the expense of grade out of the ore sorters. But with this, with the new flow sheet and the heap leach option, we can now ore sort, focus on maximizing the grade, the accepted portion coming out of the ore sorters running 4 grams per tonne to 6 grams per tonne off to the mill, and then the reject portion, which still has some gold in it, can go off to the heap leach pad. You see that because in the scoping study, we were concerned about losing gold out of the reject portion. But now with the heap leach, we can take the reject and heap leach that and get the rest of the gold out. So very efficient resource extraction, optimizing and maximizing the total gold recovery over the life of mine. All that, of course, straight to the bottom line. And we believe with the ore sorting on classifying that medium grade, we know that we can limit the CapEx now with not ore sorting everything. So less ore sorters, smaller mill, and this is just -- this will be very, very, very good outcome for the CapEx when it comes to building these mills. Okay. So that's Korbel and the process. Now another exploration area just South of Korbel here at Stoney. Same story. I mean it's a bit of a different beast here, polymetallic stacked vein system, see these massive sulfide lenses in these veins, which are just very highly mineralized, seeing high-grade gold at numerous prospects, high-grade thousands of grams per tonne silver, up to 12% copper, particularly in the Stoney, Rainy Day vein set here. Antimony and other critical elements throughout the Stoney area. So these are -- this is, again, a pipeline of prospects that we continue to advance for the future, another one of the aspects of this project that major companies and these companies that are looking for us to be strategic partners really, really appreciate. Porphyry copper systems. Now our direct neighbor there is US Gold Mining Inc., and they are onto the Whistler porphyry copper deposit, of course, copper gold. We have that same geology. We have porphyry copper targets here as well. We believe we're on to one of those here at Wombat, for sure. High-grade gold and copper there on the surface, we believe, are very porphyry. West Wing is another one that we have as well. So porphyry copper gold targets are certainly in our wheelhouse for future discoveries, just to note. And then the last prospect I'll take you to our most recent discoveries, one of our most recent ones is here at Stibium, which really demonstrates the antimony potential. So we found gold there, very good gold, but you might say the antimony found us. This is one of these prospects where we see massive stibnite veining on the surface, and that's this photo you see here in hand sample. That is stibnite there. And what this has done now is with the antimony story to make it -- a lot of us have heard the story, but there's no antimony production in the United States. We're 100% import reliant on China and Russia. What is antimony used for in addition to all the clean tech, green tech, batteries, solar panels, semiconductors, of course, all of that goes on and on. It's also used in all the munitions. So artillery shells, small alarms, high -- everything, all these military type munitions you hear about all require antimony. Believe it or not, the United States is totally import reliant for antimony from China. China announced, and it's already happened on September 15, China restricted all exports of antimony to the United States. And so this is -- I was -- we had already presented this, and we've been working with the Department of Defense. They've drawn a lot -- they have a lot of interest in this project for -- since the beginning of the year. And we've been working on a DoD grant funding to develop these antimony prospects, not only mining, not only mining, but also refining, and we were working on that to bring that to Alaska and bring that back to United States. Once China announced that they were cutting off all antimony exports, the Department of Defense had an increased urgency, had an increased urgency and they have looked hard at our project. We've had some discussions to really get this -- get fast tracked. And the discussions have been great to fast track this project and start to fully secure the U.S. supply chains, and they see our project playing a major role in that. It's a big opportunity for the company. And as -- you don't know until the money is in the bank, but we're very well advanced with this grant funding. I believe that it's looking positive. I believe we'll get some kind of decision on that possibly before the end of the year on some type of grant funding to go after this antimony opportunity and like I said, bring this production back to the United States, fully funded through DoD grants. And with that, we love this project. This is the first one we're working on because it's so close to our camp and our infrastructure, only a few miles away. It's only a few miles away from our camp. And we're not only looking at mining the antimony, but at the behest, at the urging of the Department of Defense when we first started talking, they said, no, it's not just -- we don't just want you to mine it, produce a concentrate and do what, send it off to China. That does -- our mission is to fully secure the U.S. supply chain. So you need to give us a proposal that not only is the development and mining of the deposits, but also the refining. We want to bring that capacity back to the United States. We love Alaska. Alaska has a lot of antimony opportunity. We want to create a state-of-the-art antimony hub in Alaska and please put that in your proposal. So we've been developing the refining side of it. And just to understand, an antimony refinery is not like a copper or a nickel smelter on hectares and hectares of land and billion dollar projects, for less than $100 million, you can get the state-of-the-art antimony refinery that produces all the products, metal, antimony trisulfide, antimony oxide and potentially also antimony compounds for the semiconductor industry, and to be able to feed the DoD, the Department of Defense needs as well as the U.S. industrial demands as well. And so that's part of our longer-term proposal with the Department of Defense. Initially, it's just to go in there at Stibium, pull out what they require first for the munitions is antimony trisulfide, which is basically just stibnite ore. And so as Phase 1, we just produce antimony trisulfide. And then as Phase 2, the larger project, we develop this type of antimony type refinery here located in Alaska, either on our project site or out at Port Mackenzie to fully secure the U.S. supply chains and our project and Nova Minerals is playing a central role in that. Remember, I also mentioned there's gold in this material as well. So the refinery will be set up to get gold out and have gold credits and be producing some gold dore bars from this material as well. So that's the antimony story. So zooming out, you can see that this is -- the project is a district play. We'll be out here for decades and decades, producing multiple commodities at multiple mining centers ultimately. But right now, we're laser-focused on RPM to get us into production as well as pursuing those grants for the Stibium antimony project, which is a much smaller scale, low CapEx. And we can take it on a separate path, parallel path to the gold projects and develop that quite rapidly with DoD grant funding, and the -- at current record high antimony prices, the -- is very lucrative, let's just say that. I mentioned along the way I mentioned other critical elements. So what am I talking about there? What we see there at the site in places like Train and Trumpet and Stoney are other critical elements, highly elevated concentrations. So we have gold, antimony, of course. But we noticed this when we went through our multi-element data, but also we've been working with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks CORE-CM Group. So the CORE-CM is a DoE, Department of Energy initiative, and that group at UAF has received tens of millions of their own grants to identify and commercialize critical minerals projects in Alaska. And they have looked at our numbers and been through our data, and they have said some of these numbers are just eye-popping. And what we're talking about are elements like bismuth, gallium, indium. We're seeing good numbers there. That's important for semiconductors. Lanthanum, starting to see some of the light rare earths, having a closer look at that. Scandium, big for stealth technology, F-35 jets require that. Tungsten, hardened steel and warships and tanks. And you see it's the same story here, no to negligible U.S. production, right? And in most cases, again, import reliant on China, Russia, what the DoD considers foreign adversaries. And perhaps a larger -- a bigger part of the story is there's no reserves. Nobody has been looking for this stuff for decades. Even if we wanted to surge and produce in the United States, it's not possible. There's no reserves for any of this stuff. And so the DoD is also interested in funding these type of projects. And we're talking about looking at which one of these we can extract from our deposits once we get into these different prospects that have these highly elevated critical minerals. And this is what we're talking about. Here's the flow sheet. We've been through most of this. And you can see, I mean, we've spent all the time, money, energy to process for the gold, and then we have the waste stream. And with our current flow sheet, we have the opportunity to not only take off a concentrate of our flotation circuit, that will be important for antimony and some of these elements and send it off to our refinery. Also after we leach the gold out, we have the waste stream that normally just goes off to a tailings facility. We can divert that to critical minerals extraction plant. This is what we're talking about. This is what the Chinese do. This is how they've captured the market, and we're bringing this to United States. This is what we're working on for the grant funding with the Department of Defense for the development studies and the CapEx to put in these critical minerals extraction plants and pull many of these things out of our waste streams. Now with the start-up at Stibium, we're only talking about putting a flotation circuit and then going from there off to a refinery. But in the grand scheme of things to get many of these other elements, we're talking about extracting these from our waste streams, and there's plenty of grant funding and a need -- DoD need, U.S. government need to bring this back to the United States. So national security for the U.S., we're all in on that, bring those supply chains back, but also can provide significant byproduct credits to the overall economics of the project. So obviously, we're all in on that, bringing value for our shareholders. So you can see we're in the right place with all the geopolitical sovereign risk of these projects, so much more of a consideration being in Alaska, right place at the right time with the right commodities, both gold and antimony at historic prices and rising rapidly, moving into bull markets, we believe, both of them, and we're on to both of them. So a big opportunity here for the -- for shareholders with our projects, which are moving forward rapidly. So I'll leave it at that. All that content, much more on our website. Please follow us and watch the news flow, watch the news flow for many of these items that I've discussed today. And with that, I'll thank you, and we'll go to any questions. Should we go to some questions? Should I just read them off?

Let's do that, Chris. I'll just run that through. We'll wait for some more questions to get posted, but we'll go through the ones that are currently up there. So first one up was, is the Board able to provide any further update on what the plans are for the Estelle project to be moved from 85% to 100% ownership by NVA? So I'll just go to Craig Bentley to answer that for us.

Thanks, Richard. Yes. Okay, a pretty short answer there at the moment. Yes, we're well aware that we only own 85% of the company. And I make note that many mining companies don't own 100% of their project. There's various reasons for that. They can stop takeovers, et cetera, on that as well. In short, we have had some discussions with the other party about this, and it is something that we are looking to do in the future. But at the moment, with everything else that's going on, it's not something that we have a current time line for. So I hope that answers that question. I'll put it back to you, Richard.

All right. We'll then move to the next one. What update is the Board able to provide on the U.S. funding for antimony, which I'll throw straight back to you, Chris.

Sure. Absolutely. I think I touched on this, but we're very advanced with our DPA Title III grant funding with the DoD, and we have the application in. It was a funding -- a request for funding for a request from the Department of Defense to submit for these type of projects, specifically for antimony. There's not many other antimony projects that we know about across the United States. We think we have a very good shot at that. It's quite advanced. As I said, getting positive vibes, I believe that before -- some kind of decision before the end of the year, one way or the other. Like I said, you don't know until the money is in the bank, but we have a very good chance at it. And so watch the news flow.

All right. Thanks, Chris. But I'll just jump the order of questions, there's one just popped up related to that matter, which reads with the recent elect of President Trump, do you see this having an impact on the DoD grant for antimony?

So well, I mean, the grant funding we've gone to was already budgeted even in the previous administration. However, with the recent election, I mean, the thinking is, is that most importantly, certainly, we don't believe -- we believe this type of funding for minerals development projects, I mean a big part of their platform was resource development and it's the regulatory -- on the regulatory side. Now we don't have a lot of that because we're on state land, but certainly, these things feed off each other. So in terms of the regulatory regime, permitting, these type of things, from what I've seen, the Trump administration has said that they intend to take down the roadblocks and allow projects like ours to move forward. And certainly, if we can get in to the -- and start working with the Department of Defense as soon as possible here with this current grant opportunity, then we're in the system and we can prove ourselves and deliver this, then certainly, there's further opportunity to take -- further opportunities to take advantage of. And so we don't -- we see it as a positive in terms of resource development projects and our project in particular.

Thanks, Chris. And I'll go back to the top of the list. We touched on this one as well, but we'll address it. How far are we into the PFS? And can we expect it to be released any earlier than expected? So I'll go back to you, Chris.

Right. So the PFS schedule has us delivering it by the end of 2025. How far are we into it? We're looking at initial optimizations with Whittle right now to see what we do if there's any data gaps, if there's anything to do, what this thing looks like in terms of paybacks and lowest CapEx options, these type of things. And then with METS Engineering, technical studies, a lot of the metallurgy happening, some of that, we should be getting that by first half of next year. It all depends on what it looks like. It's kind of an iterative process, kind of a stage approach. It depends what the next move is based on the results of what's happening now. And so we would -- trust me, we would like to get it and we will get it to market as soon as we can. But at this stage, all I can say is our schedule has it by the end of 2025.

All right. Thanks, Chris. The next question we've got is when is the company out of the blackout period? And can we expect all directors to be buying more shares on market? I might get...

Yes. We would love to. We would love to. We'd be all over that. But there's a lot of sensitivities. We're coming out with a resource update. We're doing those little optimizations. We're in the PFS stage. I mean, maybe you can elaborate on that, Craig. But -- maybe you can elaborate on that, the blackout periods.

Yes. Look, I think Chris answered it, especially at these prices, we'd all love to be buying at the moment. Directors to date have put in personally over $5 million. We've been in all capital raises. Chris, Louie and I put in $0.5 million even in the last raise. But with sample assay results still outstanding, the work being done on the PFS and a number of other items in the works, unfortunately, we're continuously in blackout periods now. And not only do we have Australian blackout periods, we have U.S. blackout periods, which are a little bit more strict as well. Having said that, directors have bought on market whenever they can. I mean, I think I've personally put in about $1.8 million in the last year or so. And the purpose of the resolutions that we had today was to give directors the ability to take shares instead of cash for directors' fees. So directors have been very supportive of the company and continue to be so. And yes, we would be buying on market whenever we can. The other thing I just want to say as well is that, as was also shown in some of the other resolutions today, the company has also now been asked by some of our vital suppliers, Whittle Consulting, who are doing our optimization work, RedChip Marketing, who have been doing all our marketing in that -- in the U.S. wanting to take shares. So to me, that shows great confidence in the project as well. So the short answer is, yes, we'd love to be buying, but no, we are currently still in blackout periods that are restricting us. So hope that answers the question. You can see Chris' enthusiasm.

Thanks, Craig and Chris. Go to the second last question on the Board. So says here, Chris has mentioned we have multiple partners knocking on our doors for potential JV and could potentially lead to a bidding war for a JV? Has there been any further dialogue with these partners? Chris has mentioned everything has a price. So what mentioned we could potentially sell off the project to any of these partners? So I'll go back to you, Chris.

Okay. Great question. So to be clear, our core strategy is we're not here to flip the project. So that's -- I've said that, so not with this one. I mean, this project, we're not -- that's not one of our core strategies, just build it and then flip it. Now I have mentioned in the past, everything has a price. Like what is that price? Nothing close to what we're seeing now. The issue with some of these majors and some of these people we've talked to, no deals have been put on the table, I should be clear with that. But in discussions is you can't take advantage of the company because the asset value is totally different than the current valuation of the company. And until that gap is bridged, we can't entertain anything like that. And certain -- obviously, there's companies out there that want to take advantage of that. But that's not -- so we can't entertain something like that. Now we would consider a strategic partnership, and we do continue discussions on an informal basis. Obviously, I go to conferences and here -- with our community here in Alaska. I was just at the Alaska Miners Association, on an informal basis, of course, we discuss these things. And so we would consider a strategic partnership. For some of these strategic partners, this is why the PFS is such a big milestone because that is the trigger point for not only strategic partnerships to get -- to come in, many of these companies, but also for funding options, the type of -- any type of -- I mean the funding options just open up, just plethora of funding options open up. And that's at a stage where you're more comfortable with taking on potentially a debt facility and minimize the dilution because you know you're going to be producing high-margin material within the next 12 months to 18 months at that stage. So to answer the question, yes, we're open to JV potential. And we believe as the market -- as the gold market heats up and as we progress and advance and derisk the project and we get to that PFS, certainly, they'll be nipping on our -- and knocking on our doors even further a bit harder. And we would consider that because remember, these companies would come in -- one of our challenges has been we know we have it there, it looks very good, but budgets. We're a small company. We don't want to -- we want to minimize dilution. We -- our budgets are limited. These major companies would come in here and triple, quadruple what we're doing. The most we've ever had out there is 3 drill rigs. This year, we had 1 drill rig. A major company, would they be throwing 10, 12 drill rigs at this, really rapidly advancing the project and really creating value for all the shareholders in a much shorter period of time. So yes, the opportunities are there, and they'll be coming hard and fast as we move forward, advance the project rising -- coming into a rising gold market.

All right. Thanks, Chris. Pretty comprehensive coverage. Last question on the Board, reads disappointed that existing shareholders have not been given the opportunity to participate in all these placements. Can NVA please ensure all future placements be accompanied by an SPP for shareholders? So I'll just give that back to you, Craig Bentley.

Yes. Okay. So just a few things on that. Firstly, I'd like to say the last raises were done in the U.S. only, and that's been our strategy for the company for some time now is to get listed in the U.S. Estelle is a U.S. asset, and we've seen that U.S. assets, whether we like it or not, are getting better valuations on the U.S. capital markets. And raising in the U.S. has also given us access now to a much larger capital market than when we have here in Australia. In order to keep the dilution to a minimum and due to our capacity restrictions that we have with the number of shares, obviously, that we can do in a raise, we've done these U.S. raises over 2 tranches. The second raise was done in the U.S. because after talking to the bankers, they wanted more volume -- not just bankers, sorry, bankers and potential investors. They wanted more volume over there. And we believe with the recent trading volumes that we're seeing in the U.S., which have been considerably well over the volumes we're seeing here in Australia that we made the right decision in doing that. However, having said that, we are well aware that we haven't done a raise in Australia for a while. But I do note, and I have raises as a sophisticated investor come across my desk every day, I'm seeing a lot of other small cap companies are doing SPPs that here in Australia, but they're not getting well received by shareholders in Australia. Funds are tight over here. There's a lot of shortfalls happening. And SPP can really hurt a company's share price, especially if you don't get everyone take up the SPP like you hope. They go out for a month. The market is well aware of what you're raising at for a month. Whereas if we do these raises in the U.S. or raises to sophisticated investors, we can get them done very quickly. It seems to have more of a minimal impact on the share price because it's done in a very quick time frame. However said that, yes, we have noted that we haven't done an SPP. It is something we'll consider for any future raises. But as I've just stated, they are the main reasons why we haven't done SPP here in Australia. I hope that answers the question.

All right. Thank you, Craig. Right, there's no more questions on the Board. I move to close this last part of the informal meeting. And in doing so, I just want to thank all our shareholders online for attending today and generally, all our shareholders for the support they've given us over the past year. Also I just want to say thank you to [ Marcus Vakos ] from RSM for his attendance and participation in the meeting and of course, Jonathan Cooper representing Automic, providing the platform and support services through the registry for us. And to formally close, just one last item. So one of our directors has tendered his resignation. So Rodrigo Pasqua just want to extend the Board's thanks for his efforts over the past period of time and to wish him well in his future endeavors. So thank you very much, everyone, and we'll call a close to this meeting. Thank you.