Notes from GGP Presentation at Bell Potter Conference - 10 Feb 2023

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Notes from GGP Presentation at Bell Potter Conference - 10 Feb 2023

Interview:
https://youtu.be/XyYjY6nJlgo

Created from a software transcript export

Download link for PDF with slides included:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/sl7dwtd6 ... 3.pdf/file

Host – Brad Watson

Next, we have Shaun Day, managing director of Greatland Gold PLC presenting for us. Greatland owns 30% of the Havieron gold and copper project which is near the Telfer gold mine in Western Australia.

Telfer is owned by Newcrest mining who own the remainder of Havieron and is Greatland’s development partner, currently Havieron has 2.9 million ounces of gold equivalent contained in all reserves and 6.5 million ounces in mineral resources.

Greatland has already pre-arranged much of its financing for its share of the development capital for Havieron, Shaun thank you very much for presenting to us today and over to you.

Shaun Day Presentation
Hi Brad thanks very much to you and Bell Potter for having me on and nice to follow Reilly who just talked about brand, the development of brand-new assets and that's what we have here at Havieron which is a brand-new asset with all the best operations ahead of it.

So, with that let me try to go through our presentation over 15 minutes and leave some time for questions particularly in the context of our joint venture partner Newcrest being subject to a takeover bid, there's a little bit corporately active around Greatland just now.

But if we move across to the first slide after the disclaimer, we have the just an orientation around our strategy and there's really three pillars to our strategy which is deliver on an expanded Havieron, we continue to do that and the expectation is that will be moved from two million tons per annum in the pre-feasibility study to three million tons per annum which will take it to around a 400 or 450 000 ounce per annum asset.

The second pillar of our strategy is around exploration and we want to invest in the drill bit, there's no better place to look for Gold & Copper than where it's been found and we find the opportunity we have there in the Paterson is exceptional and we also have some other tenements that we're excited around…is… about as well but certainly want to continue to accelerate that investment.

And then the third element is M&A growth, we have this wonderful platform, we have a beautiful asset and growth profile but I guess a lot like my time at Northern Star, if in a financially disciplined way we can add assets to our portfolio I think there's a fantastic opportunity for us to do that.

Again, just rolling forward a slide, this is just really to recap the board (BOD), we expanded the board during the course of 2022 bringing Mark Barnaba on as chair and Elizabeth Gaines joining as Deputy chair, that was all part of a large transaction where we announced the deb, a Strategic investment from Wyloo but also aboard is Jimmy Wilson who joined some months ago in an executive capacity... was the third director we added.

So, we think together with the existing board Alex, Clive and Paul we really have a very strong operational background on the board but also a very strong corporate profile there, so we think the board is the real strength of the organization and really measures up with any board in the country and our philosophy here is that if we invest in people both at the board level but also at the management level, we increase our probability of success.

And for those who follow our announcements we just announced that we took the business development team out of Fortescue, a three-person team led by Jeremy Maynard and we also bought Simon Tyrrell across from Northern Star as our COO but with a deep history there and had a number of stints actually as stand in CEO at Northern Star but also running the processing and project development there. So, you know we feel our team strength is a huge part of the organization.

Cycling forward on the presentation, another slide, I won't spend a lot of time on this other than say that we bought in 390 million dollars (A$) of capital that covered debt and equity, we brought in the strategic shareholder of Wyloo which is an important element but I think this tier one debt facility with ANZ ING and HSBC is the cornerstone of that and again a high quality asset in Western Australia next to existing infrastructure, it really is a fantastic opportunity and I think seeing that growing support in the equity markets but also from debt has been extremely helpful for us.

Next slide will just be and jump through this this cover sheet but it's just to go to the resource itself in the reserve, so a 6.5-million-ounce resource that continues to expand, it’s a real focus for us and remember you know this continues to grow so we've got about a 50% compound average growth rate (CAGR) on this resource right now.

If you have a look at the exploration success and the drill intercepts that we've published over the last 12 months, your expectation is that there'll be another very meaningful increase to our resource, so we're incredibly well positioned and I think with one of the key numbers on this page is actually that 86% conversion factor and what that is, is how much of our resource has transitioned into reserve, 86% is the highest I've ever seen in my career.

And what that is telling you is basically all that resource, it runs some four grams through that SE Crescent sitting right next to infrastructure, comes into the Mine plan, you put your mining shapes and polygons kind of around that but fundamentally kind of other than access and level developments, really all that comes into the Mine plan which is absolutely exceptional and then what we have with that we presently have 2.9 million ounces gold equivalent at 3.9 grams sitting in reserves. I think at current copper price that ore grades probably a bit higher now.

Walking across to the next slide we talk about just this is a bit… looks a bit busy but this is actually looking down at Havieron in plan view, that SE Crescent that's where we're going to start mining down here at the bottom of the page but I talked about the growth in the ore body as we start moving through that Link Zone into that Eastern breccia, you've seen huge growth through that Eastern breccia and what's great about that Eastern breccia not only a massive increase in volume but over the course of the year we've seen the grade of that area just improve and improve.

We're talking about the Northern breccia just briefly, what we're increasingly seeing is that NW pod marry into that Northern breccia and create this NW Corridor and part of the drilling this year has been focusing on the high-grade intercepts within there and really kind of understanding the Mine plan that we could put around it and that high grade elements gives us options.

Right now, our base case is the SE Crescent, we plan to bring out through the decline that's under development with sub-level open stoping (SLOS) with secondary paste fill but then potentially what we'll be able to do is bulk out that Eastern breccia and that Northern breccia.

But it's nice to have that high grade elements that gives us an alternative way to solve the puzzle and it just gives us a really nice optimization strategy to run there but you know that's 15 to 20 years down the track for this multi-decade asset.

Going to the next slide, look this is really one of my favourite slides in the deck and it talks about ounces per vertical meter (OPVM) through Havieron, we're running over 8000 ounces per vertical meter through the upper reaches of this ore body.

I think to put that in context you know typically a benchmark of three to four thousand ounces at Northern Star was viewed as exceptional and we're considerably higher than that, you'll see on that our right of screen that it actually walks in as you go down the page, we don't think there's any geological or structural reason for that, that's the density of drilling which you see on the left hand axis, there's a huge correlation obviously between where you've drilled and what ounces you've delineated.

So as we continue to get a more consistent level of drilling down through that ore body, we expect that line to become more vertical down the page that's what it should be if anything there's a slight increase in grade at depth on that SE Crescent and an ore body that runs 8000 ounces per vertical meter is exceptional, particularly when you understand this is a 650 meter by 600 meter dimension, so it's actually quite a contained size, single access and those ounces per vertical meter in this single access or strike length is going to drive not just a compelling capex profile but also a low all in sustaining cost (AISC) for every meter of development and you know we are extracting a high number of ounces and the cost with that density of ounces or grade of ounces will be also compelling.

And that's picked up on these next slides if we if we walk forward and this slide really just talks about it's important to understand that this is under development so we started that box Cut in February 2021 so we're over... when we expect to be at first ore in March 2024, so we're in advance of halfway, accelerates all the time, another quarterly record of advancement, with depth here we get into more and more competent ground getting through the Permian structure and then ultimately into a very competent country rock.

But it just continues to accelerate and if anything, right now we're starting to feel we could be guiding towards early... getting... finishing the decline early although that's still subject to a couple more months of great progress but everything we're seeing right now is very strong.

Turning forward another slide which takes us into this cash cost and I talked about those answers per vertical meter and where we sit on the cost curve at 643 dollars an ounce ($USD) absolutely compelling and I think that's incredibly exciting for us and again these are numbers out of that Newcrest PFS study so coupled with the work we've done in terms of developing the asset we feel we're incredibly well placed.

So, taking to the next slide and through the exploration activity slide next page just to cap off look we've had our, obviously that our centre of gravity is around the Paterson and near Havieron, that's where we're undertaking most of our exploration having said that we're quite excited about some of the assets in the portfolio the one I really just want to highlight today is Ernest Giles.

It's in Archean greenstone, I think all of those greenstone Archean greenstones across Western Australia have been mineralized, this is undercover so it's basically a newly identified Archean greenstone and it lights up on the geophysics we've done and some the geochemical we like the Pathfinders that we see there so we have some really exciting targets.

We're finalizing land access agreement with Wakamura people, we hope to finish that in the first or in 2023 and potentially have rigs spinning there in the back half of this year but I think the option value around that exploration portfolio centred around Havieron and the Paterson region but also particularly on Ernest Giles I think is exceptional.

And that's one of the benefits of joining an organization a couple of years ago that was exploration focused as I think the portfolio of exploration assets, we've put together including obviously Havieron being the highlight there as a discovery but has been exceptional and I'm really looking forward today to continuing their emphasis on drilling and unlocking the option value in in the Greatland portfolio.

Next slide is just maybe to focus on the corporate aspects which is where presently as per Brad's introduction… we’re London listed, we are keen to complete an IPO here in Australia, most likely in the first half we're actually actively underway on this process now.

We continue to enjoy and appreciate the platform we have in London but we're an Australian asset, Australian… largely Australian board management team and a peer group here, I think it makes a lot of sense to us to be listed here and a number of our key shareholders are also already Australian funds, so that's something that we're looking to do and I think broaden our investor base as part of being ASX listed.

Just to wrap up to the next slide so look thanks for your time and with that Brad I think I can pass over to you and tackle any questions.

* Thank you very much, you know you spoke a lot about what's happening at Havieron, you touched on you know potential first production in sort of March 24 I think, you know what does the production ramp up there look like and you know what are your thoughts on achieving commercial production and what.. could you remind us again of sort of the ultimate production rate that's contemplated there?
- yeah Brad, look so we we're looking at a 400 to 450,000 kind of gold equivalent ounce profile for up for 100% of Havieron, the... when we think about this it'd be first ore in kind of the March or around March 2024 and then we have the ramp up following that
- one of the real advantages we have though is the existing plant there with Telfer, Train B presently is intended to be dedicated to Havieron, so you know you effectively have an already running plant sitting there at surface already manned up already performing well, so I think it means there's a an opportunity for our ramp up to be accelerated
- in terms of time frame look I think we're going to leave that to the PFS, sorry the feasibility study, the PFS had a ramp up over a period of six months, that continues to be refined so let us like not jump ahead of that announcement but I think it suffice to say I think it's an incredibly useful.. when you're bringing out a feasibility study when you're already over you know probably about two-thirds into the decline and you already have the plant built at surface.
- I think we'll be really able to narrow down that timeframe and that's part of the optimization process is try to minimize that time between first ore and the transition to free cash flow.

* Okay thank you, you touched a little bit on the you know resource growth there and you know you made reference to Bulk Mining and perhaps that's a longer dated opportunity, could you explain that a bit further to us and what that might mean for a production rate for example?
- yeah look one of the really exciting things about developing a new mine is all of the best grade, all of the best years of Havieron is ahead of it and we will go straight into that SE Crescent which runs you know ballpark four grams, so 3.7 grams presently in that reserve and we think that walks up a little bit
- the so… when we think about and that and there's probably around you know 15 years of mining already delineated around that and that SE Crescent continues to grow but this can be a 2-3 plus decade mine life and when you do that you start tracking down into or broadening into those Eastern breccia and Northern breccia zones
- right now we see it actually being potentially a mine with two mining methodologies so continuing to focus optimizing grade and it's quite delineated that SE Crescent so bringing in a selective mining with the sub-level open stope using paste fill to make sure we can take it all out and effectively running a sub-level open stope throughout the life of mine focused on that SE Crescent
- but then for that Eastern breccia and Northern breccia we have flexibility because they do have high grade components but right now I think one of the really exciting things for us and for our partner in Newcrest is to look at bulking that out, be that a sub-level cave or be that a block cave but actually taking out that whole Eastern breccia and Northern breccia zonations and I think that optimizes the potential size and the mine life of Havieron if we're able to achieve that
- otherwise we can also go down more of what I might call akin to say a Sunrise Dam where you drive in to those high grade areas and take out the best parts of those ore bodies, I think both opportunities are ahead of us, we'll need we continue to drill that out and that's really been the focus of our drilling in 2022 was understanding more around that Eastern breccia and the northern breccia
- the drilling there was really I think fruitful for us if you go through those intercepts, the increasing grade at the Eastern breccia across that whole zonation was really positive and in that Northern breccia as I mentioned we're really targeted on some of these high-grade pods that would we'd had previously kind of intercepted
- so we feel pretty good how that's yeah how that continues to evolve but right now if we talk about the vision for the mine, it's the sub-level open stope down the SE Crescent with bulk mine really upgrading that and then we can run a fill the mill strategy on that 10 million tonne Telfer train B.

* Okay thank, you know could you perhaps comment a little bit you know just on how important the project is to you know the Newcrest Telfer project?
- yeah we yeah we obviously really think very highly of the of the Havieron project, it's world class at that size, six and a half million ounces and growing and grade in a West Australian jurisdiction, you know next to infrastructure, it's you know we're a little bit spoiled really
- we think yeah we think it's a world-class asset so therefore we can understand that it fits in the portfolio of a major, we’re the junior partner there at 30% but we'd like to think it's a good relationship and we both bring something to the joint venture table
- it's interesting you know to some extent you know Newcrest and Newmont will fight it out to decide who is our joint venture partner and I think that creates opportunity for us
- and perhaps you know perhaps ultimately you know people see it as a really important asset to that merged co or to a standalone Newcrest, you know we don't know what that outcome will be but either way you know do they ultimately want to fold that into the organization or is there as an opportunity for us really to do what we'd like to do which is to be a partner of a junior… sorry be the junior partner of a global major, have this wonderful flow of free cash flow (FCF) and be able to return that to shareholders and/or leverage that into a larger vehicle
- so I think having a multi-decade platform is you… yourself huge optionality about how we grow Greatland over the coming years.

* Okay great and perhaps finally you mentioned that you have the ASX listing planned for 2023, could you speak a little bit more to that and what you hope to achieve through that?
- yeah look there's a real Focus for us as I mentioned look it's an Australian asset, Australian board, Australian management team and of course our peer group here and increasingly what we've seen as people understand Havieron more is more and more of the Australian fund managers who are more focused on resources and familiar with the gold space here you know come on to our share register
- so we think the ASX is a really natural step, we really appreciate what we have in London, we have a big following there, good liquidity and we want to hold on to that but I think having the ASX listing I think would be really advantageous for us and particularly for corporate next steps
- so when we think about that look potentially it's a compliance listing where we really just established the Bridgehead, alternative we create some liquidity here but that those are the things we're thinking about but we are actively working through a restructure to you know get the most out of that ASX platform and we really are very focused on trying to achieve that subject to markets and subjects wearing everything the regulatory processes away
- but we are targeting trying to get this done in the first half of this year and I mentioned a little bit of augmentation to our management team, I think we've created the centre of gravity around that BD (Business Development) team where we can put time and energy and effort into successfully completing an IPO.

* Okay excellent well Shaun, thank you very much for presenting to us today that's all we have time for really exciting story and good luck for with what's coming up
- thanks Brad thanks people for tuning in and Bell Potter bringing us onto the platform, so thank you again.

Download link for PDF with slides included:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/sl7dwtd6 ... 3.pdf/file