Ramelius Resources Limited (RMS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] is present. No video or recording of the meeting has been approved or authorized please ensure that your mobile phones are turned to silent mode for the meeting. Thanks. I would like to introduce the rest of the Ramelius Board of Directors, Michael Bohm; David Southam, Mark Zeptner and Natalia Streltsova is not here in person today. She'll be using the virtual facilities as she has a family issue to attend to, but she will be online shortly. I trust that all attendees, including shareholders and persons present by proxy have registered their attendance. Only attendees holding green or yellow cards are permitted to ask questions. For those I would have to -- you have to bear with me as I sort of talk you through how to vote if you're online. For those attending online, questions can be submitted at any time. [Operator Instructions] Please note that while you can submit questions online from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on 1 topic, we may amalgamate them together. For those shareholders who wish to ask a verbal question, an audio questions facility is available during this meeting. [Operator Instructions] If you have any issues using the system, please return to the Lumi platform. Finally, due to time constraints, we may not get to answer all of your questions. If this happens, we will answer them in due course via e-mail or posting responses on our website. I'll now move to our -- my Chair address before I hand over to Mark. And this has been published. So you bear with me in my monotonous voice, while I read the script exactly as it's being published. But it's a good story to talk to. So welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the 19th Annual General Meeting of Ramelius Resources Limited. It gives me great pleasure to be addressing you in person for the first time as Chair. Travel restrictions have prevented me from making it to Perth as often as I would have liked over the past few months, but hopefully, they won't pose such a problem going forward. As I have stated previously, my decision to take up the role as Chair had a lot to do with the impressive performance of the company over the recent years and its emergence as a significant midcap ASX200 gold producer with multiple operations, a strong exploration portfolio and an enviable record of meeting market expectations. It is pleasing to be able to say that this excellent performance has continued with the past financial year delivering another record performance in almost every metric. For the 12-month period to June 30, Ramelius reported revenue of $634.3 million from gold sales of 277,450 ounces. EBITDA of $341 million. Net profit after tax of $126.8 million. And net cash and bullion at the end of June at $234 million. Mark will go into more detail on the results, but I would just like to emphasize that these are a very solid set of numbers and a credit to all involved in producing them, particularly as much of the year was spent navigating the threat posed by COVID-19 and the restrictions it placed on the industry. Our continued financial strength has ensured that we have been able to pay a fully franked dividend for the third consecutive year, and this year's $0.025 per share dividend, representing a payout ratio of 32% of total cash flow and an increase of 25% on last year's dividend. Since implementing a formal dividend policy in 2019, we have now returned a cumulative $43.1 million in dividends to shareholders. For a goldminer of our size, it remains a source of significant pride that we've been able to reward you as shareholders in this way whilst also continuing to invest significantly in the future of this business. In doing my due diligence on the company prior to joining, I noted with admiration the way in which the growth strategy has been executed over recent years through very valuable organic growth at existing mines and well-timed, discerning inorganic growth through acquisitions. It has worked to great effect as seen by the growth in the company's market value from around $300 million at the start of 2019 to more than $1.5 billion now. Consistent with our growth strategy, last month, we made a cash and script takeover offer for Apollo Consolidated, owner of the Lake Rebecca Gold Project east of Kalgoorlie. Despite facing some early competition for the company, that now appears to be heading towards completion. Lake Rebecca is one of the best gold discoveries made in Western Australia in recent years with plenty exploration upside and the potential to develop into an important production center for the company. We look forward to getting on with exploration and studies at Lake Rebecca in a similar way to what we've done with the assets acquired through the takeovers of Spectrum Metals and Explaurum Limited. During the financial year, we mined first ore from Tampia project, acquired through the Explaurum takeover, and we began the development of the Penny Project acquired through the Spectrum takeover. Both these projects will be significant contributors to the company's production profile going forward with the high-grade Penny underground mine, in particular, expected to have a positive impact on operating costs from the next financial year. In terms of exploration, Ramelius invested approximately $24 million across its portfolio during the reporting period. That investment helped the company's total mineral resources lift by a further 15% to 5.4 million ounces after mining depletion. Reserves were steady at 1.1 million ounces. Taking those figures into account, in early August, we handed down a new mine plan, giving us more visibility on the future production than we've ever had and further addressing what has been one of the enduring criticisms of the company. And the new mine plan is 27% higher than the previous plan, detailing production of 1.84 million ounces across 7 years to the financial year 2028, with a low-grade tail of production over the following 2 years. Lake Rebecca will further factor into next year's mine plan and should be expected to deliver further improvement. With a view on further growth, the company has expanded its exploration and resource development budget for the financial year coming to $32 million, though it's important to note that we retain the balance sheet capacity to move on additional acquisition opportunities should they meet our strict internal criteria. As I'm sure all of you are aware, the themes of sustainability and ESG have moved to the front of mind for many stakeholders in recent times with good reason. This extends to some institutional investors and investor associations requiring listed companies, especially those in the ASX200, to report to certain frameworks or standards. Last year, Ramelius established a Risk and Sustainability Committee led by my fellow director, Natalia Streltsova to assist in our ESG journey and our first Sustainability Report released during that period. It was an excellent start in addressing this area. This year, we delivered our second Sustainability Report in which we provided an update on our performance, but also set out a pathway to reporting against global frameworks such as TFCD, which is a Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. Diversity and inclusion is also of significant interest to our stakeholders, and it's very important to the company and to me personally. I believe diversity not only in gender gives us a very important and broad range of experience and perspectives, and that makes companies better places to work in and drives better outcomes. With Fiona Murdoch's upcoming appointment as Non-Executive Director, 1/3 of the Board is now female, and there is a growing number of highly capable women making up our workforce, including Liz Jones as General Manager of our Mt Magnet operation. On that note, I'd like to welcome the Fiona to the Board for when she starts on the 1st of December. She has been able to attend today. She's sitting right there. So please take the opportunity to say hello after formal proceedings. The diversity Fiona brings is in her corporate and legal background, which adds a dimension to the existing skills matrix of the Board. Importantly, she has significant experience in the resources industry, not only as a corporate lawyer, but also leading business development within a significant mining company. Thank you to my fellow directors, David, Mike, Natalia and of course, Mark, for your support and wise counsel. It has been a pleasure working with you and the team at Ramelius, and I thank you, the shareholders, for continuing to share in the vision we have for the company. I could go on to provide more details of the company's achievements over the last financial year and the outlook for the year, but I don't want to steal Mark's thunder too much. It has been another excellent year for your company. Thank you. I now call on Managing Director, Mark Zeptner to provide a presentation on the activities of the company during the past year.

Thank you, Bob. It certainly has been another significant year for the company, where we have managed to achieve a number of records despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we have our employees and contractors largely to thank for this. This morning, I will focus on the FY '21 year and its highlights before taking you through some key project updates and finishing with the reasons as to why we believe Ramelius remains well placed for further growth. This presentation does contain some forward-looking statements, and I'll refer you to our website if you wish to read these and any of our other presentations. If I may start with the corporate overview, using last Friday's share price, our market cap slightly more than $1.5 billion with a healthy cash and gold balance of $274 million, and we also are debt free. For those of you thinking ahead in terms of the Apollo transaction, we would expect this figure to drop by around $70 million to something close to $200 million, given the cash component of the deal is $99 million, and Apollo itself holds a little more than $30 million. This is still a very healthy balance sheet post the deal. There's not been a lot of change in the structure of the share register in recent times in terms of location, but there's an ever-present move from active capacity funds within the institutional space, meaning you need to appeal to the generalist investor more than ever and ideally be part of the key indexes, such as the ASX200 and VanEck's Gold ETFs, the GDX and the GDXJ. As Bob mentioned, we delivered record annual production in FY '21 of 272,000 ounces, up some 18% on last year's 230,000 ounces. If we are to achieve the midpoint of guided production for FY '22 of 280,000 ounces, then we are looking at another record year and yet further production growth. This continued growth is due in the small part to an experienced and focused management team well supported by a highly effective Board. And it's also great to see you here, Fiona. Look forward to your contribution once you've started formally next month. Now we spent a fair bit of time in FY '21 working on the business from the top down. From left to right, that included revisiting our mission statement, revising our values, working up a 5-year strategic plan and introducing the Ramelius Essentials program. Touching on each one briefly. Our mission is unchanged. We are committed to being a sustainable gold business, and we are focused on delivering that results in superior returns for stakeholders, with these returns being a combination of capital growth and yield. Our values, we feel are very apt for Ramelius. We empower our people and by this we mean we can do. We achieved fit-for-purpose outcomes. And by this, we mean we are efficient. We deliver and do it safely. And by this, we mean we are credible and reliable. And lastly, we are authentic. And by this, we mean we act with honesty, integrity and respect. Now the first three strategic priorities are pretty self-explanatory, I would hope, and a growing business with a growing business, there is a need to ensure the organization can cope. So we've had to grow our capability. And whilst this is mainly to do with people, priority number 5 the essentials are more to do with systems and processes. What are the Ramelius Essentials? The Essentials program is designed to ensure that we do the fundamental things well and with consistency. We figure that if you cover the 7 areas or pieces of the pie shown here, then you have a framework in place that's appropriate for an ASX-listed company or even larger. There's no duty in Bob's address more and more has been asked in terms of sustainability, especially for those in the ASX200, and we are stepping up to the plate. In this area, we continue to build our profile within 4 key pillars. Our business is strong, and we recognize that without it, sustainably simply is impossible. Importantly, we have achieved record performance financially while complying with our key governance requirements. We are committed to our people, and this has never been more important in this COVID-19 environment where access to labor is at all-time lows. We've managed to reduce our injury frequency rate over the year, increase our diversity and contain turnover as much as possible. We have active and positive relationships with our communities, both where we operate and where our workforce reside. Our community benefit fund approach has really been embraced in recent years, including in those new areas, we have had to forge new relationships from scratch. And fourth, we are mindful of the need to minimize our impact on the environment wherever possible. And we've done some excellent work in this area by reducing our emissions intensity, which I think is the best measure of improvement. And we're also in the early stages of assessing opportunities for the energy transition that everyone's talking about these days. Going into the FY '21 key metrics, we've delivered some excellent results with a couple of exceptions that are readily explainable. Whilst resources grew nicely, up over 5 million ounces for the first time, it was mainly the timing of mining studies that prevented us from seeing growth in reserves. With this in mind, it was still a good outcome to replace what was mined and remain above the 1 million-ounce mark. Gold production and sales were up 18% and 22%, respectively, as previously mentioned. The increase in all-in sustaining costs, the first double-digit percent increase in many years, mainly as a result of the COVID-related impacts to items such as labor, parts, [ GET ] and fuel has coincidentally matched the rise in our realized gold price for the year, which is a pretty good result, I would argue, all things considered. As for the financials, the company produced another strong set of numbers. I say another because FY '21 was the second -- seventh consecutive year of profits for the company and a record one at that. There are plenty good numbers to talk about here. Suffice to say that most of the moves have been positive. But I wanted to point out one figure that's actually not on this slide, EBITDA margin. Ramelius' EBITDA margin at 54% remains one of the best in the Aussie gold space. Also in terms of the dividend, we followed up previous 2 years, as Bob mentioned, with another fully franked dividend, up 25% to $0.025. This shows that you don't have to be one of the majors to be able to pay ongoing dividends, which is certainly our own, but you do need to be operationally and financially prudent and our cumulative dividend payments of $43 million to date demonstrate our commitment to shareholders in this area. Whilst we would all prefer to see our share price rise year-on-year as it has done in the past few years, it should be comforting that when the market cycles turn against gold, as I have done in FY '21, at least we are still leading the pack by going down the least seen here in gold over the FY '21 year compared to our peers. A 15% reduction in share price over the year does, if nothing else, at least prove the theory that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. For those who were here last year, will know what I mean. The main thing you can do is perform well, and we believe we have done that, which positions us for when the market inevitably turns, which we have seen signs of recently. Whilst not technically achieved within the FY '21 year, I'm happy to report that Ramelius' value-accretive acquisitions are continuing with the looming completion of the Apollo transaction. Apollo is the current owner of the plus 1 million-ounce Lake Rebecca project, 150 kilometers northeast of Kalgoorlie right here in our backyard in Western Australia. There was another ASX-listed corporate who also saw the potential in the Rebecca project, which ultimately led to Ramelius paying an implied price of $0.62 per share, a combination of cash and scrip that was recommended ultimately by the Apollo Board. Ramelius ownership was sitting at 72.7% at last counting. We believe that Rebecca has the potential to be a 1 million-ounce producer, say 10 years at 100,000 ounces per year, and therefore, potentially a new production center for the company. Indeed, our team believes that the Rebecca project, which sits at the Southern end of the prolific labored and tectonic zone has unmatched exploration potential in the first 6 to 12 months will certainly be focused on this aspect, post-completion. This acquisition will be the fifth since 2017. The other 4, Edna May, Marda, Tampia and Penny listed in chronological order and also shown on our standard project location map on the right, along with the ongoing Mt Magnet and Vivien operations. Now for some brief project updates starting with Penny. We remain on track to bring one of Australia's highest grade gold mines into production in FY '23. We have a 14- to 15-gram resource reserve grade, which gives us an all-in sustaining cost in the low 600s, low enough to impact on the overall cost for the group once in production. All is going well. We have completed the small Magenta open pit. And as shown in the photo on the right, have commenced the cutback of the previously mined Penny West pit to provide the portal position for the underground development. Tenders for underground mining services are currently being evaluated, along with the construction contract for a new air strip for the project. My personnel are currently been flown into the [ UNM ] airstrip, just to the north, kindly provided by Rox Resources following a Ramelius sponsored upgrade. Exploration targets along the Penny structure to the north have been identified and drill plans are being worked up for early 2022. At Mt Magnet, Galaxy will be our next underground ore source. We actually mine the open pit seen in brown between 2012 and 2018, and the team identified that we could get into Galaxy ahead of an underground at Eridanus due to the fact we still have a couple of years of open pit mining to go. Our current plan contemplates access from the historic hill 50 decline shown on the left before splitting into separate declines for the Mars and Saturn deposits. The stope design shown here are only to a depth of approximately 400 meters below surface. The BIFs or Banded Iron Formations at Mt Magnet generally have excellent depth to continuity. So we very well may be looking at a long life operation here at Galaxy. The PFS are due for completion at the end of January, but don't be surprised if we make an earlier-than-expected start at Galaxy. At Edna May, work on the Stage 3 pit is ongoing. We have -- again, we have a large resort at our disposal, and our January 2021 scoping study points to a large low-grade open pit with significant ounces in life, but comes with a decent CapEx requirement of $165 million, which is mainly the cutback itself. As flagged in our mine plan released in August, where we did go into some detail, recent market volatility on pricing and hasn't gotten any better since that time, probably got worse. Both construction and mining, it's been difficult to pin down the optimal pit shell as part of the pre-feasibility process. Now I still believe that this will be our last crack at another cutback. And I cannot -- so therefore, I cannot envisage a Stage 4, especially given where the main milling infrastructure is located in relation to the open pit itself, which you can see on the plan. And therefore, we need to take the time to get it right. We get one last go here. We have further progressed on key sections of work such as geotech tailings facility design and associated plant CapEx and also have started receiving results from drilling of the Golden Point area, which is to the east being the green holes on the plan, if you can see them. Modeling updates will be carried out on this Golden Point area once we receive all results, which is likely to push us into the new year. Tampia is our newest project to be brought into production where we spent a large proportion of FY '21 actually preparing the Edna May mill for the feed, gaining approvals for the mine and building the camp on the outskirts of Narembeen. The mill is currently processing both oxide and transitional material from Tampia at a high production rate, pretty much the same production rate that we feed the Edna May material through that mill circa, 2.6 million tonnes per annum with fresh rock expected to slow throughput by the end of the calendar year. Through our open pit mining contractor, we commenced MACA, we commenced mining in late April, first ore started in June and first truck of ore was sent to the Edna May plant in July, pretty much as we have scheduled. As opposed to previous photos of the mine, if you've been following the story, the surrounding cropping areas are now ready for harvest, a distinctly browner coloration, as you can see in the background. A local community group has commenced harvesting of the crop area surrounding the mine, and we have established a community benefit fund under the local [ Shire's ] umbrella. And this, combined with improved revenue for local businesses is leading to a much more positive view of both mining and Ramelius. At Marda, mining is continuing at pace some 170 kilometers north of the Edna May plant, with a number of the Marda central pits now completed, allowing for commencement of the King Brown pit to the north and the Golden Orb pit to the south, which is shown here. The tech services team been working on the Marda North project for a while. We are looking at environmental approvals for the Die Hardy pit, the larger of the 2 resources, and we're hoping to see approval next quarter. Record rainfall across most of WA and a somewhat constrained road train haulage market has meant that despite our best efforts, we have almost 450,000 tonnes of ore on site, which is equivalent to 7 to 8 months of ore haulage. In the new year, we'll be assessing our options for haulage both here and at Tampia to see what can be done to reduce the on-site stockpiles. The combination of Marda and Tampia, along with the Edna May underground at Edna May itself currently ensures that the Edna May plant is running at full capacity. And so whilst Ramelius has had another standout year in FY '21, where is the future growth going to come from? Well, part of it will come from the organic growth potential that exists within the extensive mineral resources currently on our books. We're always rejigging our mining study schedule. Some studies have been completed early. Some have been pushed back. Suffice to say, the team is doing a lot of work in this area, and we're also in the process of looking at historic Hill 50 and Morning Star Projects. I was briefed on one of those, just the other day, which haven't been looked at for a number of years. In terms of the Eridanus underground, more information is required, which will be gained as the pit has deepened. And this flows into the potential to expand the Mt Magnet mill. In the Edna May Stage 3 pit, as I mentioned, is awaiting remodeling of the Golden Point area and some normality in contractor mining and construction rates, something that's not expected until 2022 and the reopening and associated influx of labor assuming that, that actually occurs. It's important to note that this doesn't include -- or this list doesn't include any exploration success within our suite of exploration projects, which we are always very much looking forward to. The second part of our growth is likely to come -- or likely to be delivered from our inorganic or M&A growth projects, where we have an excellent record of producing returns, which hark back very much to the early days of the company. The chart you see here, we show the purchase prices in blue, cash generated in yellow and the net cash being the red dot. Obviously, we have a nice trend established here with increased investments over time, but for larger and larger returns. Vivien, last quarter clicked over $100 million net cash flow, a significant achievement for a $10 million investment sometime back. Edna May is not far behind. Good old Edna May that no one thought was a good investment. Marda is actually in the black when you factor in the stockpile that sits at the mine. And Tampia is in production now, and we're very confident of also generating an excellent return from the high-grade Penny project, as you would expect. Hopefully, we can add Rebecca to this chart early in the new year. So to summarize why we believe we're well placed going into 2022 firmly. Firstly, we have a proven management team with a track record of delivery, managing a dynamic business made based on a mix of open pit, underground, processing and long-distance ore haulage operations. With our strong balance sheet and disciplined approach, we are well placed to strike the right balance between growth opportunities and shareholder returns based on our risk appetite, which is talked about and understood right to the Board level. Thirdly, we are acquisitive by nature and our track record of 5 acquisitions since 2017 supports this claim. We are looking for the acquisition that sustainably pushes us past 300,000 ounces per annum, and we believe that this growth aspiration is what will deliver superior returns for shareholders in the future. We are committed to significant investment in exploration, more than $30 million, as was mentioned for the financial year, and we're very positive about the potential to add ounces at the Rebecca project based on what we saw throughout the DD process. And finally, we'll continue to provide regular updates to the market on our progress with both our mining studies and as we move towards production at Penny. Thank you for your attention.

Okay. Thanks very much, Mark. At this point and before we move on to the formal part of the business, I'd just like to pause to -- for people to be able to ask questions about Mark's presentation, not at this point about the resolutions, but just the presentation in general, if there's any questions online or from the floor, starting with the floor there.

[ Ashley Shan], shareholder. Just got a couple of questions. The first is on share buyback, the last 12 months, there's been periods, February and March 2001, September and October 2001, where the share price has been below broker valuation, $1.30, $1.50. And as Mark's presentation pointed out that the earnings per share also fell over the last year with -- although profit has gone up, there's been shares issued for acquisitions. Has there been a strong considering or why isn't strong consideration being given by the Board for share buyback? Probably specifically for the periods in the future when the share price would be weak or below market broker valuations given the volatility of the markets at the moment.

Okay. Thank you. I'll try and handle that one first up. Look, with share buybacks, that's important tool in the capital management for any company, and it's now [ all box ] as well. We would be in a position to do it if we thought it was the right thing. So we're geared up to be able to pull that mechanism. But when you look at the companies of our size and our type in the gold industry, to me, unless your value -- your share price is really, really significantly below valuation and our prices very like every one -- our competitors with the gold price. So it's very hard to sort of judge that. But unless it's a disastrously low valuation buybacks mean you probably run out of ideas. And we haven't run out of ideas. What we do with the money, as every of you seen, is give it to our shareholders through dividends and also invest as we have, just done with Apollo. So it is, to your point, it's an important tool in the capital management back. We do have that tool available to use and would use it probably, but it would have to be a market difference in valuation.

And then for Mark, in your presentation, you mentioned that Galaxy has the potential to be a long-life project. Sort of how and when -- or how and when would you sort of find that out? For Edna May, it's current -- you mentioned it's currently running at capacity. Is there any potential for short-term capacity increases there by rejigging the plant? And then on the reserves and resources side is about 4 million of indicated resources and 1 million of reserves? I guess specifically when and how do you envisage in your 5-year plan, the conversion of some or all of those resources into reserves?

Thanks for your questions. Actually, firstly, on Galaxy. Look, we usually follow an approach where we drill and prove up enough ore to justify a start in a project, and we think we're very close to that at Galaxy rather than drilling something to the center of the earth and taking an extended period of time to do that. So once we get in there and we start mining, we're producing cash flows, then we'll be able to do further drilling. So we do it on an ongoing basis. So I'll just watch the space on Galaxy. In terms of the Edna May a mill, it's pretty hungry as it is. It's 2.6 million tonnes. We ran through a period when we waited for Greenfinch approvals 12 or 18 months ago and the mill wasn't full, and we suffered a little bit through that period. So there's no real plans at this point in time to look at an expansion at Edna May. In terms of the indicated resources, it is a little bit of a case-by-case basis. Typically, your higher grade ore bodies have a higher conversion and lower grade ore bodies are the opposite. And the resource and reserve mix is a mix of high-grade and low-grade ore bodies. And as you are converting through drilling and through economic studies, which we can only study a certain amount, and we're studying more projects in parallel than we ever have at the company. As you are moving some from inferred to indicated and indicated into reserve, you're also generating new indicated resources and new inferred resources. So it's a moving feast. I would like the conversion to be higher, but I can't fault the efforts of the team to convert as much as we can. And we'll always look to convert that. But then again, we won't put mine plans out with big swag of inferred in there. We want robust mine plans that the guys can deliver on. So hopefully, that answers your questions, [ Ashley ].

[ David Gospel ] Shareholders Association, proxy. I've got 1 probably to you and 1 to Mark, but I'll put Mark first. Everybody in the goldfields has had terrible problems with workforce, labor issues, you're probably no exception. You're now talking about Lake Rebecca, which is going to exasperate the problem. How do you intend to go in about obtaining the workforce of skill -- with the necessary skills to meet your plans?

You want to send that one the way [ to MD ].

Look, we're mindful that right now I wouldn't get time to be built a brand-new project. The thing about Lake Rebecca is that it's at an earlier stage than our other previous acquisitions. We've probably got 6 to 12 months, as I alluded to on exploration. And there's already an exploration team, the Apollo team in place, which we'll be taking on if they're willing to come over in the first instance. So we're looking at a considerable amount of time before we go from exploration into studies and into construction. So we'd like to think that things normalize over the next couple of years to account for that.

My second question really concerns, probably concerns you more, Bob, is concerned with ESG aspect side monitor. Numbers of coal companies in Australia. And certainly, Northern Star and others like that are having tremendous pressures put on them to look at ESG aspects in terms of conserving water and climate change and all those many issues. You didn't seem to have mentioned those in your talk. And to me, they're quite important because they're becoming increasingly important to investors.

Thanks for your question. Yes. Look, I did mention them only in passing in my presentation, then Mark was able to cover the math as well in his presentation. They're very important. And when we meet with the proxy advisers as we have been and other entities, such as the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors and the like, that's very front of mind for them. We have seen also just on the other side of the equation, a lot of people don't want what they call greenwashing, right? So it would be very easy for us to say that we will be net carbon zero by 2050 because our mine plan doesn't go that long. Now obviously we have firm designs on being Ramelius in 2050, but we need to look at the types of mines that we're going to be operating what power sources we can use. And we're already starting -- we actually have some specialist advisers advising us on that. What we do find is that there'll be plenty of people. Companies will come out and say, we'll put a solar farm there for you and you won't have to pay for it. We'll just charge you by the kilowatt hour, and you'll be able to get your tick in the box for greenness. But really, you've got to look at what fits into your power draw in the plant, whether you're running ventilation fans underground or whether you've got an open pit, whether you've got gas source of power or whether you're running remote generators. So we're looking at getting independent experts to guide us in that nature when it comes to energy efficiency and admissions. What is important to us as it is to anyone in WA. And we've, as metrics that Mark pointed out in his presentation on our focus on recycling water and reducing use of water. So absolutely, those things are front of mind. And as I said in my short speech, the requirements now from those stakeholders that say, look, basically, if you don't start reporting against TFCD requirements as a global standard we're going to be voting against you. So it's got to that level, and we're taking it very seriously, not because we just don't want to get into trouble. It's the right thing to do. So it is top of mind for us. Do we have any -- sorry, one more question here.

Look, Mr. Chairman, I was going to ask this at the end, but I wasn't sure whether you're going to have questions at the end of the meeting. And it follows on that query about the ESG issues. I read through the sustainability report this morning, and it's very impressive. And I'm really pleased that it's being led from the Board actually, that's a real positive. But coming to the end of the Sustainability Report, there was a nagging question in the back of my mind, and it was to do with emissions and energy. And I'm thinking to myself, look, what are the ambitions of the company. And I was -- and there were two things in my mind that we're posing that question. One I'd seen a report from the [ active ] gold mine, where they've spent some money there, having wind turbines, a solar farm, a battery and a gas storage there to run something. So these are gold mine that's really gone full bore in terms of the energy and stuff. The other thing that got me a little bit is that you're looking at your materiality index, I could if I had spare hand, I could go back to the page. But the energy and emissions were very low priority on that map that you had there. So I'm just -- so if you're happy to take the question about ambitions about the energy stuff.

Look, our ambitions are to do as well as we can in that arena. I've also seen the stuff that goldfields has done. I think it was presented at Diggers. It was quite impressive and got me quite interested in what we could do. But for example, if you've got a remote operation with a pit life of 3 years, it's not economic to put in wind and solar just for that item. So you've got to look at what you do there. And I think the biggest driver for us on emissions is emissions intensity. So emissions intensity is driven by a couple of things, grade. If you're moving a certain amount of dirt and you're getting a lot of gold out of it, then your emissions intensity is lower. And if your underground, it's lower generally and usually higher grade as well. So we've got to factor that into our thinking on our profile and also understand that Mt Magnet has been going for 100 years on and off. And so we think we'll have some of these operating centers being fed into while the satellite might be powered by diesel power or something like that, we can do things at the hub, and that's exactly where we're sort of getting a device. The matrix you referred to as a sort of a broader matrix where everything actually rates in the important quadrant is just there's a bit of scatter there, and it's also from inputs from different stakeholders. Some of our stakeholders would value engagement with traditional owners above emissions and others might not. And it depends on people's time frames. But I think you'll find all those ones are in the highest quadrant of importance. Thanks for your question. Is there anything online, Tim?

No, Mr. Chairman.

All right. I'll move on to the formal part of the business. Notice of Meeting. The Notice of Meeting dated the 27th of October '21, was sent out to all shareholders, and I take the Notice of Meeting as being read. Voting today will be conducted by the way of a poll on all items of business. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I will shortly open voting for all resolutions. At that time, for those attending online, if you are eligible to vote at this meeting, a new voting tab will appear. Selecting this tab will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options to cast your vote. Simply select one of those options. There is no need to hit submit or enter as the vote is automatically recorded. You do, however, have the ability to change your vote right up until the time I declare voting closed. Now I promise I won't surprise you there. I'll give you a bit of warning. I now declare voting open on all items of business. The polling icon will soon appear. Please submit your votes at that time, at any time. Up until I close, I will give you a warning. For those here at Fraser Suites, I will deal with the poll procedures at the end of the discussion on the items of business. So we have 493 proxies have been received, representing 458,102,905 shares. A further breakdown of proxies received for each resolution will be detailed prior to voting for each resolution. You'll see that on the screen. The first item of business is to receive and consider the financial statements and reports of the directors and auditors for the year ended 30th of June 2021. They were sent to shareholders and are now before the meeting for discussion. Are there any questions on the financial statements and report from management or the company's auditor? If there are any questions for the auditor, Mr. David Newman of Deloitte is present here to answer them. Yes. Yes, we have a question for the auditor.

To what extent did you satisfy yourself that Ramelius had made significant breaches of the Corporations Act during 2021, or sorry, from 2011 to 2018, as outlined in my letter to the Board in -- solicitors letter to the Board in September.

So we undertake a series of reviews. We discuss and look at legal matters with General Counsel. We also deal with any external council that's been involved and all of the work is undertaken in the context of materiality to the financial statements as a whole.

[ Have you formed an opinion on this particular client ]?

Sorry?

[ Have you formed an opinion on this particular client ]?

We were aware and we were satisfied with the treatment from a financial statement's perspective.

[indiscernible]

Yes. From a materiality perspective in the context of the financial statement.

[indiscernible] significant.

Yes.

It's not made a significant reach.

Yes.

So materiality isn't necessarily the only fact of receiving [indiscernible]...

Yes. Okay.

Okay. All right. Do we have other questions from the floor? Yes?

A very quick question, Bob. It's concerning JobKeeper. I haven't seen a declaration from yourselves. And the thing I assume you haven't taken any JobKeeper benefits from the government.

No, I don't think we have and we haven't needed to. That's the strength of the company, and I'm proud that it's been the case. Any questions online?

No questions, Mr. Chair.

Are you sure you're connected?

I can't answer that.

Okay. Good, no text questions through either, okay. So we'll move on with no further questions, we'll move on to the first resolution to be considered today is the adoption of the remuneration report and is set out in the slide behind me. In accordance with Section 250R of the Corporations Act 2001, the company submits to shareholders for consideration and adoption by way of a nonbinding resolution as a remuneration report for the year ended 30th of June '21. The remuneration report is a distinct section of the directors' report that deals with the remuneration of directors and key management personnel of the company. It was included in Pages 72 to 81 of the annual report and is now before the meeting for adoption. The number of proxies received for this resolution are shown on the screen. I now move the resolution as set out in the Notice of Meeting. Are there any questions on this motion? Yes, we have one from the floor here.

[ Toby Brooks, ASA ]. We're actually quite disappointed with the remuneration report hence, really regard to transparency, they were really, we like to see scores against particular things rather than meet threshold, doesn't meet thresholds, things of that sort. It's more a request than anything else, but I'd like to feel that you gave a little bit more transparency within your remuneration report. I've got a second question, but you can answer that one first.

Yes. Look, the -- we do get some of that feedback from time to time. Look, some of the proxy advisers are happy with our transparency. Others say, well, we can actually work out what the score was if we work it backwards, why don't you just tell us type of thing. I think the advantage that we have at the moment is the company has been performing very well. So we tend to trigger past all the thresholds and targets. And in the case of the comparator group on the long-term incentive we were top of class. So -- and that can be calculated, but we understand that not everyone can work that out directly. So we've tended to sort of granularity enough for a broad range of shareholders just to not confuse the issue with too much transparency but to say that we met certain hurdles, and that's how we're doing it now. But we do take your point on transparency, and we will look to that in the future.

Thank you, Bob, because it's a little bit awkward. You can work these things backwards as you say. The problem is then you may be, we may be representing -- misrepresenting units. It's always a dilemma. It's a far better really if we can get stated explicitly. Second thing is concerned with comparator groups. You've got your own comparator group which you developed, which actually contains developers within it rather than miners, which we thought was a rather odd level of comparison. Other people have actually picked up an index like GDXJ or a TSX index and things of that sort. Why don't you go to that sort of thing as a compared to group without being controversial.

Yes. It looks as a good one and I've had experience with this with a number of companies. And again, there's groups of people that like the comparator group, and people that like the index and the strengths and weaknesses of each one. In the comparator group, if we were to try and only cast companies on their own image, there'd be 1 or 2. And most stakeholders don't want you to only compare to a small comparator group. So we tend to open it up. We tend to keep it around the gold. We don't throw coal in there, for example, or anything. So we make it relevant. But we also realize that shareholders like yourselves have the ability to invest their money into developing companies for gold. And we have a strong developing pipeline in our company as well. So it's not too far-fetched to have 1 or 2 developing companies in a subset of close to 20. So that's how we approach on that side, and that's how we've been doing it for a reasonable amount of time now. I have seen people move towards like a GDXJ index. But in reality, half that index is Newcrest. So you're heavily waiting to, if they have a bad year, you're going to be way ahead. If they have a good year, well, it's too much of a lopsided ship. It is not -- is a relevant way of doing it. It's a somewhat accepted way of doing it, but we prefer to do it by picking companies like us or companies where investors could put their funds instead of us.

As regards to the long-term incentive hurdles, you have 2 hurdles there, both a total shareholder returns. And I was pleased, Mark, that the stock price up there recently because there's a fair bit of volatility in the price of Ramelius. So you could be lucky or unlucky depending on how you want to look at it on 30th of June as regards to the share price. So I'm wondering whether the Board has thought much about having, just one of the hurdles for longer-term performance being a total shareholder return and one being something else like earnings per share growth or some measure like that.

Yes, we have thought about it. We do review it each year. And you all know, and you probably noted that some companies will have a relative total shareholder return and a return on investment on capital invested or something along those lines. So Mike is our Chair of the Rem and Nom Committee has had considerable experience in this and been a lot longer in this company than me. So Mike, do you have any comments?

Thanks, Bob, and thanks for the question. There's a lot of work that goes in to Rem every year. We look at this every year, and we look at base salary. We look at STIs and we look at LTIs. And specifically around KPIs that sit with LTIs, there's a number of KPIs you can use. If you go back 3 years ago, we used to just have one, which was a relative total shareholder return. So we're sitting looking at a group of peers. We got feedback from [ Axie ] and the proxy advisers that they didn't, they would prefer to not see one, and they would like us to open it up into 2. So we did that. We took it on board and that's where we came up with the cumulative one. And the beauty of that is that it only gets paid out if that hurdle is met. And the hurdle is 15% compounding over 3 years. So you have to see a 50% increase. So look, we're always looking at the KPIs we use. We try and not chop and change every year because it looks like you cherry pick, so we're mindful of that. But by the same token, we're not, we don't ignore the fact that different people are looking for different things. So all I can really comfort you with is we do look at different aspects and different KPIs at which to adopt, and that's how we've gone from 1 to 2. But we're always happy to consider others than we do. And we take external advice as well from independent groups, and that's how we set up our system and how we review our system.

Thanks, Mike. Any questions online?

No, Mr. Chairman, assuming I'm connected.

That's good. Okay. Okay. We'll now move on. Next item of business relates to election of a director. And as it relates to my appointment, I will temporarily hand the position of Chair of the meeting to Mike Bohm.

Thank you again, Bob. Resolution 2 deals with 1 Director standing for election today, being Robert Scott Vassie. Mr. Robert Scott Vassie retires by rotation pursuant to the ASX Listing Rules and the constitution of the company and who, being eligible, offers himself for election as a director of the company. The number of proxies received for this resolution are shown on the screen behind me. I now move resolution 2 as set out in the Notice of Meeting, that Robert Scott Vassie being a Director of the company appointed by the directors since the last Annual General Meeting, who retires in accordance with Listing Rule 14.4 and clause 47 of the company's constitution, and being eligible, offers himself for election, be elected as a director of the company. Are there any questions on this motion?

Is Bob able to speak a few words about himself and why he wants to be a director.

Back to you, Bob.

Yes. Thanks. I won't take it too long my background is in the Notice of Meeting. I've been in mining all my professional life, I studied mining, engineering and worked around the world. I really like the gold space. I came into it later in my career. I find it really interesting. I find the people fantastic to work with. I had quite a bit of experience leading St Barbara, but I also found that those sort of jobs are somewhat relentless. And I thought in my later years, I would move more to a nonexecutive type of role where I could participate with companies, help companies but not run them, that's what management does. We're here for governance and risk and strategy. And I just find that being able to keep engaged though not working full time in an industry that I love is just a real gift. So that's my $0.05 worth.

Tim, are there any questions?

No, Mr. Chairman.

If there are no further questions, I'll now move to the next resolution, noting that this resolution will be voted on by poll at the end of the meeting. I will now hand control of the meeting back to Bob.

Okay. I'll catch up where I am. So we're on resolution 3. As you can see, we're wearing the same time in these photos. So a reelection of Mike Bohm. Michael Bohm retires by rotation pursuant to the constitution of the company and who, being eligible, offers himself for reelection as a director of the company. The number of proxies received for this resolution are shown on the screen. I now move resolution 3 as set out in the Notice of the Meeting. Are there any questions regarding this resolution? We get off lightly. I'm sure everyone knows, Michael.

No, Mr. Chairman.

You have me excited there. So we're going to go. Okay. So no audio questions on this motion. For no further questions, I'll move to the next resolution noting that this resolution will be voted on by poll at the end. So Resolution 4 is the grant of performance rights to a director. You can see the resolution on your screen now. The number of proxies received for the resolution are shown on the screen. I now move resolution 4 as set out in the Notice of Meeting. Is there any questions on this particular resolution? Nothing from the floor.

And nothing from over here.

Okay. Thank you. All right. If no questions, then I will now move on, noting that this resolution will be voted on by poll at the end. And finally, we have resolution 5, which is approval of increase to the non-executive director fee pool. And the number of proxies received for this resolution are shown on the screen now. I now move resolution 5 as set out in the Notice of Meeting. And I'll read that out actually for this one. That approval be given for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.17, rule 50 of the constitution and all other purposes, the aggregate maximum remuneration payable to non-executive directors of the company be increased to AUD 1 million per annum to be allocated between the non-executive directors as the company determines on the terms set out in the explanatory statement. Are there any questions on this motion? No questions online?

No, Mr. Chairman.

Right. For no questions, I will now move on noting that this resolution will be voted on by poll at the end. So ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct a poll on motions numbered 1 to 5. I've already discussed voting procedures for those attending online. In a couple of minutes, I will close the voting system. So I'm just giving you that warning. Please ensure that you've cast your vote on all the resolutions, and I will now ask you to finalize those votes. For those present in the Fraser Suites, firstly, if there is any person present who believes they are entitled to vote but has not registered to vote, would you please raise your hand for assistance? You should have received material at the time you registered with the Computershare staff prior to the meeting. The people entitled to vote on the poll are all shareholders, representatives and attorneys of shareholders and proxy holders who hold green admission cards. And I think yellow cards as well. On the reverse of your admission card is your voting paper and instructions. I will now go through the procedures for filling in the voting papers. Proxy holders have attached to their admission card a summary of proxy votes which details the voting instructions for business items on the appointed documents in your favor. By completing the voting paper, when instructed to vote in a particular manner, you are deemed to have voted in accordance with those instructions. In respect of any open votes, a proxy holder may be entitled to cast, you need to mark a box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to cast your votes -- your open votes. Proxy holders should refer to the summary of proxy votes form attached on your voting paper for further information. Shareholders also need to mark the box beside the motion to indicate how you wish to catch your votes. Please ensure you print your name where indicated and sign the voting paper. When you have finished filling in your voting paper, please leave the auditorium and lodge your voting paper in the ballot box being held by our share registry staff from Computershare at the exit and ensure your votes are counted. If you require assistance, please raise your hand any time from now. Okay. I'll just allow a bit of time for people to complete their paperwork if you haven't already done so.

I have pens as well. If you need a pen and paper, [indiscernible].

Yes. Yes, that's excellent. Thank you. A couple of pens. Are they allowed to keep them?

No. [Voting]

So raise your hand if you need any assistance. Okay. As I've warned on, for the online folk, Voting is now closed for online. So ladies and gentlemen, the results of the poll will be declared by announcing the details to the ASX when they are available. Thank you for your attendance, and I declare the meeting closed. Feel free to hang around and talk with that. We've got plenty of Ramelius people here. And I wish you well for the rest of your day. So just make sure you deposit your votes before you leave.