Pursuit Minerals Limited (PUR.AX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Everyone know that we are going to be taking questions during today's presentation. [Operator Instructions] And once the boys have concluded the presentation, we'll go through the Q&A, and we can wrap it up. So I'm just going to hand it over to you, too.

Perfect. Thanks, Evy, and welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Myself and Tom, I'm very delighted to have you all here. We'll run through our presentation. Just for any reference, all of the information contained in this presentation is available within our announcement dated 1st of October. Please refer to that announcement when looking for anything that we mention here today. Our standard disclaimers are here, and I'll kick straight into it. We always run these investor webinars assuming that you don't know who Pursuit are. So just a quick play -- a quick update on Pursuit, who we are and what we're looking to achieve. We've reestablished ourselves now as a pure play on Argentina, really focusing on Argentina as a jurisdiction following the successful divestment of our WA assets earlier in the year. And why Argentina? Well, right now, it's really positioning itself as a Tier 1 jurisdiction. It's quite attractive considering the last 10 -- 5 years of investment and where we've seen a lot of majors now entering the space such as Rio Tinto, BHP and both lithium and copper. We've also got gold majors entering as well. And with the President Mile, the attractive framework that is introduced, really driving foreign investment. And obviously, over the past couple of days, you may have seen headlines about his trade deals with the U.S. where they're looking at stabilizing the peso and investing significant money there. So a real transformation over the past couple of years to support significant major investment. For us, we have a great platform for growth anchored across 2 commodities being gold and lithium, both in Tier 1 world-class mineral belts in the massive and Santa Cruz. And the region up in the Sascha province. Along with that, we have a very seasoned Argentinian team with myself having been in the country for up on 20 years now, started my career there many years ago. And then obviously, our in-ground team that's delivered quite successfully on our lithium project, and we'll continue to deliver that over the coming course of our gold project. As this presentation focuses on our -- mostly on the new gold asset, I will give a bit of an update on our Rio Grande Sur Lithium project. It's important to note that this acquisitions that we've brought in with Sascha. It's not a pivot away from lithium. It's a diversification of the portfolio, so we can continue to advance both projects simultaneously. The lithium project, Rio Grande Sur has been exceptional and exceeded expectations from when we acquired it 2 years ago, having drilled, we've had some phenomenal drill hits above 600 MG LOI. We have a JORC resource of 1.1 million tonnes. And right now, we're in the process of completing that 5,000 tonne per annum prefeasibility study. The study in itself is really the next step for us to progress those offtake discussions, bringing online a supply, it will release the CapEx number, the OpEx number, the capital cost to build operating costs to produce along with the other investment figures that will allow us to progress the offtake discussions that we've been having with prospective partners. Some of which have received those 99.5% technical-grade lithium carbonate samples. So the lithium market at the moment is an interesting space. A lot of views are that it will rebound with a price increase over the coming years. We're seeing a lot of interest in the supply of critical minerals where China controls the majority of processing. Lithium falls into that category. The majority of lithium is actually processed in China. So alternative sources of supply are being sought, which makes the Rio Grande Sur Lithium project a very attractive potential new source of supply. Moving on with just the acquisition subject to a shareholder meeting of the Sascha-Marcelina gold project. That's in the massive area air province in the Santa Cruz province in the south of Argentina, and we'll run through the strategic rationale and why we like that project and decided to action the acquisition. Quick corporate overview. I'm very fortunate we joined by our Chairman, Non-Executive Chairman, Tom Eadie. Tom's reserve is very well distinguished and speaks for itself, along with my -- with Tom, we also have non-Executive Director, Stephen Layton, who sits on the board. Currently sitting on around about $12.8 million market cap, about $3.8 million of cash in the bank after our last successful raise. And from there, we have a very strong solid platform for growth. Just covering off the Sascha-Marcelina project and an introduction to the asset. When we were looking for assets in Argentina, we were looking for something which could move the needle significantly, something that has high potential exploration upside or a development pathway, only as a stand-alone but in a prolific area that could allow for potential future acquisitions or development of the project through additional infrastructure something that could really bolt on and be very complementary to Rio Grande Sur that goes through its development. We liked the Sascha-Marcelina project for a couple of reasons. First of all, it had some phenomenal results for an early stage project that really is underexplored. The geology stuck out significantly. It has the same host lithology as the Cerro Negro deposit, which is about 100 kilometers to north and really has the potential to be a district scale system with multiple vein corridors and walk-up targets identified. So for us, this is a project that is in a phenomenal province. And I'll just touch on the sadomassive. For those who don't know it, it's one of the premier epithermal gold silver provinces. There are 59 gold-silver deposits, 8 operating mines, an endowment of nearly 30 million ounces of gold equivalents, split with world-class operations such as Cerro Negro, which is currently owned by Newmont. That's only 5 million ounces of 8 grams per tonne. Cerovenguadia, which is Anglo Gold that's 3.2 million ounces of 8 grams per tonne. So this area in the south of Argentina is a -- it has a long track record of discoveries, long track record of production, which really for us also is enabling a prompt and decisive mining secretary permits are granted quite quickly in Santa Cruz compared to other provinces in Argentina, but also an established workforce. There's a depth of talent, drilling contractors, geologists, mine site operators, environmental consultants all within the province that allow us to move quite quickly and quite with intent to be able to walk this project up the steps in terms of its development. So the province in itself is a selling point, but also the project was is phenomenal on its own. So one of the key components of Sascha-Marcelina and why we quite like is the comparisons to the geology of Cerro Nergo. The Sascha-Marcelina project is the project shown on the top, and then you've got Cerro Negro at the bottom. Both of these projects have run a very similar history in terms of where they've come from, where they are. Sascha-Marcelina, like Cerro Negro when it was originally owned very underexplored, not enough drilling, not even at surface and shallow drilling went through a few hands such as Andara Mining and Goldcorp, where they started doing the proper structures, proper drilling and also drilling the silica cap and into the boiling zones, which was then the result of that large resource that was discovered. Sascha-Marcelina has the exact same silica cap center terraces and many of the epithermal northwest vein systems, which is the textbook indicator for those big gold systems. So for us, the drilling very much underexplored, but has district upside potential, which is for us a big standout. Going a little bit further into the deposit, there's 5 main trends for us will be starting and looking at the 2 key ones being the Pellegrini trend, which is the silica cap, very similar to what is at Cerro Negro and also the Sascha main vein zone, which is where most of the drilling has occurred to date. Within the Sascha main zone, there's been some phenomenal drill hits and grade intercepts that have come out. However, a majority of the drill holes, there's nothing below 170 meters. As with these systems, majority of the boiling zones, which is what we're seeing at Cerro Negro, which host a lot of those key gold -- sorry, the golden signs, a lot of those start to occur between 200 to 400 to 500 meters below surface. So it hasn't had enough drilling there. And as Tom will tell you, it hasn't been explored on the top. Do you want to comment on that one, Tom?

We might not get too many chances to speak. So I'll just tell you why I'm excited about project in general. One is it does look like Cerro Negro, which is 100 kilometers to the north, and I was likely involved in that project in the MDM days. And I just wish I had become more heavily involved in it, here's my opportunity to get and another one in the same area. So it's delightly explored, and I would always stress -- it's been might be explored it surface as well as its depth. So there just hasn't been enough drilling in this area. And yet, even with the light drilling, there's been some very, very good results. So we know we're going to hit some gold early on, and that excites me and then we just go from there. So what else do I like about it, the workforce, Aaron's familiarity with Argentina and the team we have in place it all fits together into a very nice package that I'm pretty excited to get some drill holes into.

Perfect. And with these ones, Tom, we -- like when we look at the next targets, obviously, this one has 3 shoots that have been mapped. It's really about finding the next -- where the structures are. That's where you start to increase the confidence of your drill hits, and that's something that you found at Southern Cross once you get more confidence in the mapping, it starts getting more certainty in where you're going to have better intercepts from your drilling program.

That's for sure, yes. You've got to get to know these areas, and you have to get to know them in detail. Good geologists don't find gold ore bodies. It's lots of drilling that finds good ore bodies. So that's what we have to do here.

Yes. Fantastic. So starting with us. with the slides, we're obviously going to be looking at the Sascha main as a main priority, but also the silica cap at Marcelina. Just walking through these silica caps, they have those PBs and correct me were on wrong, Tom. They have those PV zinc halos where normally underneath is where you find significant gold is what was it? Cerro Negro there. So for us, with that first drilling, it's doing that geophysics doing the work to identify the states across the 2 key targets and then moving forward.

Yes, that's good.

So yes. So with these projects as well, why we also linked the silicon cap at Marcelina, there's quite a significant possibility here where even though it's been drilled, all of the holes at the Marcelina, structure, all ended in mineralization. There's the IP strong chargeability anomaly that just looks like it's been missed. So for us, when we're going through our due diligence. And if we look at the drilling results, which our team has done, RCP on this is the former Head of Exploration for Barrick Gold in Latin America. Leandro is his name. He was our RCP on our lithium project as well, where he wrote our JORC statement. So a very talented geologist who's worked with us extensively in these projects. What we really started finding is that in the North -- sorry, Sascha main, a lot of the strongest intercepts there in the north, the gold grades increase with depth in the northernmost hole. So for us, it's going through, as we're saying, with Tom, identifying those structures and moving forward, prioritizing those drill targets so we can start getting some great results. Again, the same with the Marcelina cap. It's got that PB zinc halo, some grades that were at all, again, standout depth. So really mapping these out, figuring out and looking at the geophysics of what targets were missed and why and then moving forward quite significantly. So there is -- when you look across there's 5 main targets, Sascha main, Estancia, Marcelina, Iglo and all of them are relatively underexplored such Sascha main, Marcelina at the most advanced. But for us, about moving this forward as quickly as is feasible, which is the geophysics mapping the structures, starting to get the first drill holes down and then drilling a little bit more and continuing those programs as we get great intercepts moving forward. We are working with a team to enable that, a team called windfall geotech, but a great bunch of guys who have an amazing piece of software, which is AI-driven data exploration, predominantly of geophysics based, but it works analyzing data layers that pinpoint the increasing probability of discoveries. So it looks at geophysics, geochemistry, geology topography, other dual adjacent data sets compares the patents and narrows the footprint. Very similar to Cobalt Metals, which is the Bill Gates, Jeff AI data mining company that raised $0.5 billion at a $3 billion valuation earlier this year. However, these guys have had some great success with the, Evolution Mining and Codeother the software, the AI tech has actually led to some fantastic discoveries. So for us, it made sense to look at other ways that we can minimize our drilling footprint and refine and bring in the new technological advantages coming to the resource exploration sector. So just recapping the -- sorry, the asset in itself, multivan corridor system, depth and surface potential are untested. There's multiple drill-ready walk-up targets. It's a Tier 1 neighborhood, and it's a scalable package. So for us, being a clear analog to Cerro Negro has some great exploration upside and really focusing on gold at the time line gold is hitting record high. So immediate low-cost drilling in Argentina and has genuine potential to deliver some transformational results as we've seen around in this region. So it made sense for us to action this acquisition and move forward with it. Just covering on Argentina. Again, it's open for business, probably the best I've ever seen it in the past 10, 15 years. We had hints of these policies under the Macri government, the former head of Boca Genius for book club when he was President. Many of his economic ministers from the Macri President are actually in the Medley government. But with Mile, he's positioning himself is one of the world's and Latin America is more money friendly destinations. You've got region in place, IMF support, significant U.S. backing, very much the U.S. government supporting the peso there. So with these reforms with the activity of M&A BHP acquiring the mine with Lundin and obviously, Rio Tinto's acquisition of Arcadian Lithium, $10 billion invested between the 2 majors in 1 country. There's never been a better time to operate there. So if for Pursuit, we're taking significant advantage of that and continuing developing these assets. Just looking at the commodity demand, I'm sure everyone has seen this one where, in fact, we'll just focus on gold a little bit easier. But now gold is -- Bank of America is targeting $5,000 per ounce in 2026, averaging $4,400 an ounce. It's piece the 4,000 ounce level. This is quite important for Argentina. Cerro Negro operates at an AISC operating cost of around USD 900 per ounce. So massive margins happening in Argentina for the gold producers there. You don't have the labor rates of Canada and Australia. You don't have some of the environmental interventions that you have in Canada. So quite a significant advantage to be there. So as gold continues with the macroeconomic instability and the political -- geopolitical tensions. This is just helping miners and also projects increasing those economics and bringing those online. So in an area with like Cerro Negro sorry, an area like the, there are quite a few mills that are actually on care and maintenance that should you find a discovery toll treatment or even acquiring an existing mill to reset productions or possibility. So as we continue this gold pool market, there's plenty of opportunity across the value chain for us to explore. So really, where we're focused. In fact, I'll sit to the next slide because it bid focuses in the next 6 months. So what can investors expect in the near-term milestones. The completion of the acquisition ended by the end of November, that's where we're expecting that EGM for the shareholder vote to approve that. The Rio Grande Sur 5,000 tonne feasibility study that will come out towards the end of November, start of December. That's -- and for those who have seen some of my earlier presentations, you can see parts of that in the presentation we gave at the IRS on the Gold Coast, our 3D geological block model and the on design for the 5,000 tonne scenario. So we're working through those various work streams with some phenomenal people that we'll be excited to get that study out into the market, as mentioned, so that we can continue the offtake discussions and look to advance the Rio Grande Sur project. On Sascha-Marcelina, we'll be commencing that structural mapping and geophysics with a lot of those crews being mobilized now. The geophysics team are the same guys who did our TEM and CSAMT at our lithium project in So they'll be mobilizing down south to do those geophysics. We have our CP, as mentioned, who was on our Sur project. He and his team will be working on the structural mapping and really target definition. So we're expecting that to be coming out at the end of December, start of January and then drilling commencement through the end of January, start of February 2026. Key targeted outcomes here, delivery of that feasibility study that's confirming a pathway for lithium production. We're not MPV chasing in terms of these massive studies. Well, that study will deliver is hopefully something tangible and feasible, attracting offtake partners to actually want to write prepay offtake funding checks, which is something that we feel it will. And then with the Sascha-Marcelina project, it's walking through the structural mapping, the geophysics to really target those high-priority areas. Looking at the drill-ready targets and then looking at the drill -- sorry, where we're going to commence those first holes and to really test the high-grade zones and really validate that this has got some district scale potential. So for us, there's quite a bit of news flow coming out over the coming months, and we're going to be looking to accelerate as fast as we can, and really take advantage of the current global market and also looking at the lithium market when that's set to return as well. So really, why invest, why looking at Pursuit? We've got some phenomenal Tier 1 assets in jurisdiction. Argentina has really established itself as one of the Tier 1 most prominent areas in South America. It's more favored than Chile, more favored than Colombia, really on par with Brazil in terms of established jurisdiction now. So for us, we have 2 great projects, Sascha-Marcelina gold, Rio Grande Sur Lithium. And we're a group that has an in-country experience and the exploration and development track record. So for us, it makes sense to be an Argentinian pure play, really focusing on the jurisdiction. The near-term catalyst as mentioned, we'll be drilling out the first 1,700 to 1,800 meters over Sascha-Marcelina, the Santa Cruz province in itself enables fast assay turnaround will have quite a significant amount of news flow. We're using a trade and established team. The group knows the drilling contractors that we intend to use. We have very good on-ground people with our CP who's a phenomenal geologist along with knowing the geophysics guys who we've known for many years who have worked on several lithium projects with us and also projects in other commodities. So for us, this discovery stage upside with this deposit with Sascha, it has those analogs to Cerro Negro not exported surface, not explored at depth. So it's something that we're quite excited to progress. With that, we are funded, we completed our $4 million capital raise and then that was oversubscribed. So for us now, it's providing investors with immediate exposure to immediate drilling, continuous news flow on the gold but also not forgetting the lithium. We're not pivoting away from lithium to gold. We're looking to develop these projects simultaneously, where lithium has been drilled and does have the exploration upside. It does have the potential to continue. However, it's -- the capital intensity is significantly less now as we work on those desktop feasibility studies, working towards offtake partnerships and working towards the construction side of the new supply. So for us, that gives us the optionality and opportunity to work on the more capital-intensive exploration, where we'll be looking for some of those good drill hits that can then have that transformational and share price re-rate in the near term. So that's the conclusion of the presentation. Any questions that have come through?

There has been a question that's come through. But you have -- you did answer it in one of those last slides, when are you starting to drill for gold. You did cover that off that January, February, you're going to kick off. My question is, have you been speaking to any drilling contractors? Do we know who's going to be doing the drilling? Where are you at with that?

Absolutely. So we get this question a lot, and thanks for asking it. So we have a team in country and this exploration. You can see those guys that's our CP, who did our lithium JORC, he's been doing the DD review for Sascha as well. With that, we have plethora of people. So I know I was asked to you, but how does it work? Do you buy rigs? No, you don't buy rigs. There are drilling contractors and companies within Santa Cruz that we'll use like everybody else often through the Ministry of Mines. So we know those companies. We have good strong links to those companies. Obviously, Sascha is not undrilled. It's had about 8,000 meters of drilling there. So we know where the camps are. We know the contractors. We have our field site geologists who supervise the drilling as well as we know the geophysics teams. We know the relevant parties. So we have good on-ground connections. We have a team in Argentina. Obviously, my COO, Alex is an Argentinian. Jewel Australian Argentinian citizen. So we drilled the Rio Grande Sur project together. And Alex is going to be continuing that. And Alex has team -- a team underneath him and guys who he works with who are based in Argentina as well. So we have the guys on the ground. We know who everyone is. We're working with the project vendors on the environmental permits on the safety and handling of dangerous goods permits. We're working on all of those issues so that once we complete the acquisition, we can move forward relatively quickly. So yes, we have a good time line in place. Santa Cruz is a bit more favorable than I'd than Salta government mandate for drilling permits. They're issued in 45 days at a maximum. Salto can be up to 12 months as some other ASX-listed entities have found, took us about 5 to get our permits. Would have been faster we had to put the cap in the right place, but that's the nature of that beast. So we're really progressing this as fast as we can working with all of the parties down in Santa Cruz. And unfortunately, we have those long-standing relationships and contacts that are really serving us at the moment.

Okay. Another question that's just come through. I was going to try and revert it. Apart we'll walk up drill targets, how risky is the drilling. I'm assuming you've done heaps of work. There's already enough data there.

Well, let's -- Tom, do you want to answer that one?

Sure. Well, risky. I mean, drilling is never risky. In fact, I guess our view of exploration is not risky. We're spending money, we can afford to spend. We get more confidence, the more we drill. So if we get some good hits. It's easy to follow. We'll understand the geology better. Things get less risky, as you might say, as we go along. So it's -- I guess, I always look at potential and potential is great. And the risk of finding nothing. Yes, that's pretty low. So I guess the question, mix is being up a little bit. The potential is good. That's what we want. And we've learned a lot from our first drill holes, and we'll hit some gold with our first drill holes, and we'll go from there. And we'll know a lot more with the next drilling. So I'm looking forward to it. I guess that's all I can say.

No, I think that's definitely cut. Yes, I think that's a great answer. There is -- there was another one that came through on the registration, but I wasn't sure whether it was referring to the lithium product or the gold. So the question is who in which prospective companies are interested in your product and how realistically promising are they?

So I can cover that off two on both EV. So lithium, we're obviously under a nondisclosure agreement. We can't disclose who the offtake parties are, but there are parties that have receive samples, and they've gone through the technical validation. There are multiple parties that have received those. And we continue those discussions. The interested parties are all within that lithium supply chain. Some are more closer to source ends and some are traders of the product. But having said that, there are parties that have -- within that group that have executed prepay agreements, they've written checks for other projects. So we're very confident within the competency of the partners that we're looking at and the people that we've been wanting to offtake from Rio Grande Sur. Gold is slightly different. There are many gold refineries. ABC Gold is the biggest in Australia. You have refineries in Switzerland that are quite active. Many traders are trading both gold dore and God concentrate as well. So the market works a little bit differently with gold as lithium is highly end-user focused because of the spec of lithium whereas trading gold dore, trading gold concentrate, there is a plethora of buyers, well-established buyers from ABC Gold here in Australia I think the biggest refinery is MKS in Switzerland that are big buyers. So there's refineries globally that will come in and intend to buy as well as trading companies that buy the concentrate. So we haven't -- obviously -- it's an exploration project for gold. We haven't obviously had any discussions on that front. But part of our due diligence is looking at the province, and we have seen some of the companies that were offtaking gold from some of those mills I mentioned on care and maintenance. So we know those parties. They're all fairly reputable parties established mills that are buying the gold concentrate in Dore. So again, all of the people that we would do with a quite credible and very much important of the various supply chains.

Okay. And just one last one that's just come through again. Weather is -- whether a constraint for drilling and general side access site access?

So the weather is quite a lot easier in the Santa Cruz, I mean, comparative to the, you're not up in 4,000 meters above sea level high altitude drilling on SoCast in an area that kind of looks like Mars, you're dealing in sheep grazing plains, it's not high altitude. I think the trip is about a 4-, 5-hour round trip from Rio Carajas, which is the capital there in Santa Cruz. Comparative to 24 hours from Salto, you've got to go up into the mountains. So the drilling weathers obviously, you deal with brain and overcast and things like that, like any normal climate. However, Santa Cruz is a much easier area to drill in. You're looking at about 50, 60 meters a day were for a reports of Cerro Negro, which was Newmont, they drilled a hole in 200 meters in a day and a 400-meter hole over 3 days. So the drilling speed is significantly faster, and it's a lot easier in terrain.

Okay. Will you be chasing more mono -- do you know what that means? No.

No. I mean a few things. Is that a way to be clarified?

Money, probably money.

Money.

Well, he said hang on. Stuart, can you clarify? Money. Yes. Will you be chasing more money? Yes.

I think that's a symptom to every ASX junior company like Pursuit. No one has even -- and for us, it's -- we've raised capital with an gender and an objective list for shareholders to achieve, and we have those outcomes, which I've mentioned to achieve. The unfortunate nature is no ASX junior is in the exploration space is a revenue-producing business. So everyone has to raise capital. It's a function of the market. But for us, we're expecting that the value of our projects, the intrinsic and market value will increase how we deploy this capital. So I mean, eventually, yes, a capital raise is needed for all companies. And that's just a fact that's just a market factor. But with the money that we do -- that we have which we have raised, we intend to deploy that diligently. We do intend to deploy that in a way that it creates value, so that our share price increases when we release those results and when we release those milestones. And we have a multi-project strategy to do that various value creation opportunities exist. So capital raising for juniors, yes, it's going to happen regardless of the company Pursuit is no different to all the other junior miners that are developing their projects. However, for us, we have a strategy, a very capable team in both Tom and Steve and myself working towards value creation. And when the time comes to raise further capital, the share price is significantly higher than where it is now as we've delivered on the objectives that we've set out that we want to achieve on.

Yes. So we -- so Pursuit now has 2 significant projects, our lithium, our advanced lithium project and this I'm going to call it advanced gold project, gold silver project as well. Will we be focused on just those 2 projects? Or are you still looking at acquiring other projects?

Look, we're in Argentina, and we get access to projects that not many people see just through the nature of our in-country connections. Some of those projects are quite phenomenal. But we can't do everything. We're cognizant of that. But if there is a value opportunity that the Board decides will add value for shareholders that complement the projects that are in the portfolio, then sure, we'll take that to shareholders and get the feedback. But for us, gold and lithium makes sense. Argentina makes sense. There are 2 commodities going through different cycles, both with very good long-term outlooks. You've got multibillion-dollar exits in both with Cerro Negro that was a $3 billion exit Rio Tinto have bought Rincon for nearly $1 billion for, which was gaining $1 billion in lithium. So the value potential is there, and that's what we need to see. Value potential that the Board can turn around, say, yes, this is something that we think we can add value to and advance in line with our shareholders to create that value so that everyone benefits. So we're not looking for things that are maybe a distraction. We're not going to be looking outside of Argentina. We're in Argentinian pure play and going to stay that way. So for us, for any new acquisition, it has to be ultra compelling, and it has to be complementary to the assets in the portfolio for us to move on it.

Yes. I think that's it, that's a wrap. There's hang on. Any concerns about a change in government or government policy?

No, no, not at all. I think it's really important people. We're probably hearing that the midterm elections are coming up. Those are not presidential elections. So Javier Milo is not up for reelection himself to 2027. What will occur now is these midterm elections are in the Congress for that what you'll see with Milo's quoting the U.S. quite significantly. That $20 billion investment is unprecedented support in terms of Mila and his political nuances and what he's doing. So it will really affect his ability in terms of his policy and agenda. But having said that, he continues to deliver on lower interest rates, Lauren Frasch, government surpluses. He's delivering in terms of international investment, the U.S. putting $20 billion in. And actually, it's more than that now Scott Beston came out of right saying they were going to further support. So will this affect us in terms of where we are? No. This is a congressional election. Javier Milo is still going to be empowered for another 2 years. So we expect him regardless whether he wins, loses, suffers a massive defeat, we expect him to maneuver his way to continue to deploy his legislative agenda and to seek reelection in 2027. So the upcoming elections, it's not having Milo himself. He's not up for reelection. It's a congressional election. And the results even though there was the sorry, provincial elections that didn't end out too well, there's a lot of uncertainty on which way this will fall. But it's looking and gaining momentum that Javier Milo is making up the ground that he lost from the last election. So like everyone else, we're looking to see how that pans out. But having said that, I've operated in the Kirchner government, which was a bureaucracy, red tape, policy intervention, government and projects like Orocobre were still built. So yes, from that perspective, it's not the end of the earth. If he does lose in -- have a defeating Congress, it will just make his list agenda a little bit harder, but many of his major reforms are already in play. So for us, I'll be watching like everyone else, but Milo is there for another 2 years as President, and we expect that we'll be able to benefit significantly in those 2 years.

That's great. Are there any surface rights owners across the tenement package on the gold project?

There are some surface rights owners, and we have excellent relationships with those surface right owners, and it doesn't cover all of it. It's a huge package. It's 100 square kilometers. But the surface owners are very minimal. They've been drilled. There's acquisition opportunity to acquire that service right, if you find something. But for us, there's no service right risk, so to speak, with those with those owners. There's also a local or farm that's the drilling camp, and that's owned by the provincial government. So that's within proximity to the Sascha project. So very much like Australia, but are probably a little bit easier to use in terms of surface rights and the support of the owners.

Yes, I can. I'm just going to allow -- where is he? Where has he gone? Stephen Later, I think you had a question. Yes, are you on Steve? No. Okay. I thought he had a question. Sorry. He must have question for Tom Eadie, sorry. How -- no -- are there any royalties?

In Argentina, there are. There's federal and provincial royalties. It's about 2% when you get into production. You don't have royalties, so to speak, they're canon fees, and they're very modest. They're in the low hundreds of dollars per year for the licenses. So it's not a massive expense. But royalties when you're in production is 2% standard, and that's very common across multi provinces.

Okay. I think that's it. Did anyone else have any further questions? Await? There's one more thing for the presentation. I know you already dispatched lithium covenant samples in June, but I was wondering if there are -- if there was any chance we could receive some samples for testing at our facility, John Lee. I'll let you deal with that one.

Contact me directly, I'm more than happy.

Yes, in contact details, so I'll let you to have that discussion.

Yes. Fantastic. We have names in our pilot plant, happy to facilitate.

Okay. Anyone else? No. Oh my God, they're still coming through. Sorry. What are your thoughts about the 19th December options?

Is that the listed option, I'm assuming. That's the I mean, look, I hope that -- I mean, the 19 December listed option was in the money not too long ago, we have had people exercise those options of late. So again, 2027, they've got a few years off before they're expiry. But having said that, we are seeing trading volume on some of those options as well. So that's up to the option holders at their discretion.

Okay. I think that's it. That's a wrap guys. Thank you so much. That was an exceptional presentation. Very -- a lot of information there. We have recorded it. So we will be flicking out the replay today, probably some time.

Excellent. Thanks, Evy, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. And thanks, Tom, for being on here with me. I much appreciate your time.

My pleasure.