Nexgen Energy - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Speaker 7

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the NexGen Energy Ltd.'s second quarter of 2025 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session at the end. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To view the systems during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Leigh Curyer, Chief Executive Officer and Director with NexGen Energy Ltd. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Joseph. Good morning, and thank you for joining NexGen's Q2 2025 financial results and investor conference call. My name is Leigh Curyer, and I am Chief Executive Officer. Today, I'm joined by Travis McPherson, Chief Commercial Officer, and Benjamin Salter, Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, I'll discuss our exciting company's advancements in clean and correct windings, Patterson Corridor East results, which strongly validate another significant mineral body's unfolding 3.5 kilometers to the east alongside Arrow. Further, the PCE results clearly suggest a very significant uranium mineralizing event has occurred in the southwest region of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan. On an unprecedented world scale, now we are really only at the beginning of the findings to extend.

Further, the exciting developments in the uranium market over the quarter, including yesterday's announcement of NexGen doubling the volume in our offtake book, incorporating our key focus of market-related pricing mechanisms, ensuring NexGen Energy delivers industry-leading leverage for future prices whilst providing utilities with confidence with respect to volumes from local ones technically, environmentally, and socially elite operations. All in all, updating the critical role NexGen has set for players in delivering the world this vital clean energy fuel supply. At the conclusion of this presentation, we'll move to the Q&A portion of the call, where you'll have the opportunity to ask Travis, Ben, and myself your questions. Throughout the course of today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements. Please visit our website for all the relevant disclaimers.

A few years ago, the idea of nuclear energy power in BTEC, winning back global financing support, and forming the cornerstone of national energy policy might have seemed optimistic. Today, it's happening. In just the past several weeks, we've witnessed a series of transformational developments that are reshaping global perceptions of nuclear energy. Developments that signal a clear structural shift is occurring today and forecast to extend well beyond 2050. In Q2, corporate buyers, particularly hyperscalers and AI leaders, move aggressively to secure a long-duration, baseload power for their required energy needs. These technology companies have committed over $100 billion in AI data center construction, including Amazon's $20 billion spend on data centers in Pennsylvania. They've signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy to secure 1.1 gigawatts of nuclear-generated electricity, which would power the equivalent of approximately 1 million homes.

In addition, Constellation compares its nearing long-term nuclear fuel supply bills with other hyperscalers. Google has committed to fund the development of three advanced nuclear projects, and TerraPower and Ocelot raise another combined $1.1 billion to develop small modular reactors. The race for energy and, particularly, clean baseload nuclear prepared is on the growth, and demand has never been more robust. These are just a few examples of the decade-long commitments to nuclear energy from the most capitalized and data-dependent companies on the planet. According to the International Energy Agency, data center demand for electricity is set to increase by 170% in China, 130% in the U.S., 80% in Japan, and 70% in Europe over the next five years. This equates to an insatiable desire for uranium to fuel large portions of this demand through nuclear energy.

The reality is that current mine supply will not keep up with the existing demand and certainly not meet the exponential demand growth unless there are higher prices. Governments, including right here in Canada under Prime Minister Mark Carney, are also moving with urgency, fast-tracking regulatory frameworks, investing in small modular reactor development, and emphasizing domestic supply chains as a matter of national security. In May, President Trump signed a series of executive orders to accelerate U.S. nuclear power development, aiming to quadruple nuclear capacity from 100 to 400 gigawatts by 2050. Immediate actions include funding 5 gigawatts of upgrades for existing plants, starting construction on 10 new large-scale reactors by 2030, restarting closed or unfinished reactors, fast-tracking permitting via reforms, and constructing at least three new reactor designs by 2026. The U.S.

Department of Energy will also direct funding to new projects investing in fuel cycle infrastructure all to prioritize U.S. energy security and supply chain independence. This is the most comprehensive nuclear policy ever seen, and it has a profound positive implication for NexGen Energy Ltd. Western-based, low-cost, environmentally responsible, and poised ready for construction at the conclusion of the fairness-based emission hearing process commencing one of two quarters, only 99 days from now. In Canada, the passage of Bill C-5 enables the Government of Canada to fast-track major projects aligned with national economic, environmental, and Indigenous priorities and an approach that reinforces the direction NexGen has taken since its inception.

While Rook I is already well advanced under the current regulatory framework, the passage of Bill C-5 presents a clear opportunity for the federal government under Prime Minister Carney and Minister Hodgson's leadership to demonstrate this new legislation in action, something that is much needed in Canada in order for the country to realize its potential as a natural resources world leader. As a process that unambiguously meets the criteria of national interest, delivering economic benefits, environmental excellence, and building regional partnerships through legally binding industry-leading benefit agreements. In the first 10 years of forecasted production, Rook I is scheduled to provide $37 billion in economic benefit to Canada. It will support 1,400 direct jobs and be initially licensed beyond 2060. NexGen's Rook I project exemplifies every aspect of the criteria the current government has supplied for projects to be prioritized through Bill C-5.

We look forward to the conclusion of the CNSC process to deliver the many stakeholder-led benefits our project exhibits. None of these developments are isolated. They are strategic signals from the private sector, financial institutions, and government policy makers alike that nuclear energy has moved from the sidelines to the center of the global energy preference. Nuclear is not just part of the solution; it is foundational. At the core of this shift is a single truth. The world needs more electricity, and it needs to be clean, reliable, and affordable. It's not just about the power; it's about energy security, economic prosperity, and national competitiveness, all underpinned by the requirements to supply the key ingredient, uranium. All these developments are new and lack of supply lay the groundwork for structurally higher uranium prices in the foreseeable future.

The reality is that the industry at large, to some extent, still believes that this can all be solved with higher prices over a reasonable timeframe. However, to meet the exceptional growth in demand we're seeing, you need many new Arrow-type projects to be found, delineated, engineered, permitted, funded, and built. Arrow is widely considered the most technically sound and environmentally benign deposit globally, and we are entering into the 12th year since its discovery. Our decision to relaunch exploration in 2023 at Rook I has paid immediate dividends with our Patterson Corridor East discovery, which we'll evaluate in significance as drilling and development advances. I'll say more in a moment about Patterson Corridor East. While the global policy environment accelerates, the uranium market is also gaining ground.

In Q2, uranium spot prices rose over 20%, closing at $78.50 per pound, largely driven by the re-entry of the spot uranium trust following a $200 million raise. It is a powerful reminder that the uranium market is very undersupplied and that when demand volume returns to the market, prices respond rapidly. Further, yesterday announced the new offtake agreement with a major U.S.-based utility, which doubles their contract book in volume. Importantly, and distinguishably from past practices, our pricing on the $10 million contract book is all U.S. utilities and is market-related at the time of delivery, providing unprecedented leverage to investors in this rising uranium pricing environment. At the same time, given our superior technical setting and environmental designs, it provides competent diversification of a new Western world supply.

Our contract book represents approximately 3% of our total defined resources and underscores NexGen's patient and strategic approach to building a scaled book. We're in advanced discussions with utilities across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and negotiations are increasingly urgent, informed, and fast-moving. With the commission's hearing set for September 25 and February 26, NexGen is preparing to transition from advanced development to construction and subsequent operations. Our current cash balance stands at $375 million Canadian. We're funding to complete the 2025 site programs and initiate development for the first 12 months of post-approval construction. We maintain full strategic optionality with a strong cash position and active engagement with global debt providers, sovereign funds, and utilities, amongst others, resulting in financing interest well in excess of the full funding requirements of the bills.

As we always have, we will optimize the vast number of financial financing alternatives available for maintaining our production flexibility and ultimately maximizing the value of each pound of uranium we produce and sell. At 10:00 P.M. during the quarter, NexGen announced our best discovery phase asset survey, which will hold RK25-232, returning an incredible 15 meters at 15.9% U3O8, including an exceptional peak of 0.5 meters at 68.8%. This is amongst the best exploration intercepts in the world, with Arrow hosting the majority of the other top 10. Since discovery, 45 holes at Patterson Corridor East have intercepted mineralization. Of these, 12 have produced ultra-high-grade, massive replacement mineralization. We've been bold with our spacing, in some cases over 200 meters apart, and it's still intercepting mineralization consistently, demonstrating the continuity of mineralization and the overall strength of the system.

Drilling today at Patterson Corridor East confirmed the stark similarities to the mighty Arrow deposits just 3.5 kilometers away. It's suggesting early signs of another Tier 1 asset. It really does speak to the vast discovery potential of producing more deposits on the Rook I property in the future. We also recently announced the consolidation of our entire land package, including Patterson Corridor East, with the purchase of Rio Tinto's 10% production carried interest. It held on 39 of our claims. NexGen has secured a right of first refusal mechanism over this package after a third party made a bona fide offer to acquire it from Rio Tinto. NexGen now holds 100% ownership of all its assets in the district.

It speaks to the acceptance by not only NexGen, but others of the tremendous value in the southwestern Athabasca Basin portfolio, which dominates the known and prospective assets in the district, a district which is often referred to as the future of uranium mining. In response, we've received regulatory approval to expand our exploration infrastructure, including a temporary airstrip, road for dual-way traffic, and expanded accommodations to support a growing team on site. This program is currently underway and scheduled to be completed in Q1 2026. Our lead standards on responsible development continue to guide every part of the business. In May, we released our fifth annual sustainability report aligned with global reporting initiatives and Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosure standards, highlighting major advancements across environmental, social, and governance metrics.

Through our growing education and workforce development programs, over 500 participants have engaged in NexGen-led training initiatives these past two years across a wide range of skilled trades. These programs developed in partnership with regional institutions and Indigenous communities are designed to build capacity and create meaningful career paths aligned with the project's long-term moves. Indigenous leaders have publicly recognized NexGen's unique and leading collaborative approach, with all four of the Indigenous nations in the local project area citing NexGen as a benchmark for meaningful Indigenous engagement and shared prosperity. I advise to keep an eye out for a video on our website about Shantel Herman, who is one of a group of talented local students who have become members of the NexGen team, pursuing highly technical careers at NexGen while still living in their community.

Shantel is one of these leaders in the community and is glad it's not met back in 2015 at the National School Volleyball Tournament and went on through our summer student program, followed by a scholarship, and is now a second-year geology student at university whilst working as a field geology technician at Rook I. It is one of many great outcomes from the Rook I project and is the foundation of delivering even greater generational advancement of the project as it goes into construction and operation. NexGen's well-advanced on procurement is long lead and critical path items already ordered and in several cases staged and secured in our warehouse. This progress reflects NexGen's fully integrated execution stages and proactive supply chain planning, ensuring we are ready to begin major construction immediately upon final regulatory approval. With the team, materials, and partnerships in place, Rook I is execution ready.

As we enter the next phase, our focus is clear: concluding the approvals, finalize funding, and begin building the most important new uranium project in a generation in a manner fully consistent with how NexGen has delivered the best results today across every aspect of the organization. At NexGen, we're advancing with clarity and conviction. We're executing with deep respect for the environment, communities, Saskatchewan, Canada, the world, and our shareholders. We are energized by the opportunity to lead the future of nuclear. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to delivering further progress in the second half of the year. Thank you, and we will now open the call to your questions.

Speaker 7

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speaker phone, please pick up your headset before tapping any keys. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the number two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue and while we prepare the Q&A roster. We will take our first question here, coming from Katie Lesopel with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking that question. Great from a new offtake. Similar to your previous agreements, you noted that it was a market-related contract. Two questions. Can you confirm if there's floors and ceilings in that new contract? As a follow-up, it appears that you're signing better firms relative to what some of your peer companies are announcing. Is that fair to say? If so, what do you think is giving you that edge? Thanks.

Speaker 3

I can confirm that our contract is a blend of very substantially market-related prices at the time of delivery. There's not one contract that's typical. Contracts are very specific to the technical and sovereign profile of either the producer or the emerging producer and also that of the particular circumstances of the utility. I would make a general comment that U.S. utilities, and particularly the larger ones, do prefer a surety around future pricing. What you'll see with those contracts is an embedded floor and ceiling. Where that is the case with NexGen, I want to say that we have four contracts in place which cover all aspects: floor and ceiling, pool spot, and then also no floor and an extremely high ceiling. They are, based on our knowledge of the market, very strong, relatively. I think that speaks to a number of things.

If you're an overall assessment by utilities with respect to the state of the current mine supply worldwide, we're seeing some of the historical projects that have been getting back into production not meeting expectation. We're also seeing significant sovereign and technical risk impact some of the current producing centers. What NexGen represents, and also the other advanced developers in Geneson, particularly in Canada, is we provide an alternative or a diversified supply of this key important fuel. I think that ultimately gets reflected in the pricings from what has occurred in the past to what is actually about to unfold in the future. I know that's a bit of a long-winded answer, but we are only conveying what we're experiencing, and that is what is driving our contract book.

Awesome. One quick follow-up. In the past, you've indicated, I think it was upwards of $1.6 billion U.S. in lending interest from banks and other credit providers. Is that number around the same, or has that changed? Now that you've got a couple of these offtake contracts in hand, do you feel like you're getting closer to finalizing an agreement on the debt side?

Yeah, it's been quite a while.

Speaker 7

I'll hand over to Travis, Brian.

Speaker 8

Yes. Hey, Katie. Yes, it is growing, I would say. There's more parties getting involved, seemingly every week, frankly. I think that's on the back of, you know, obviously, all those banks signing that agreement to support the funding of this growth initiative by all of these international governments. Also, the bank lifts in that funding of nuclear throughout the computer, yeah, well on X just for that. Uptake, I would say, helps the lending process, but it also opens up different new avenues of lending in government as an example. To be clear, the offtake contracts are being done kind of on an isolated basis based on, you know, our acceptance of those terms of the payment. It's not like we're conceding on anything that we want long-term.

It's very positive, and we're really chasing to fund the balance project along the timelines that we've indicated in the past, which is, you know, end of the year, into Q1 of next year ahead of the approval process. Out-of-debt is one of the alternatives, and as we mentioned in the earlier part of the call, we do have a number, I think it should be unsurprising quality of the asset mixture now, but we have quite a few options at hand to fund this whole project.

All right. Awesome. Thank you, guys.

Speaker 7

Our next question will come from Andrew Wong with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Let me stay back on financing a little bit. With regard to that, as you're having more of these founders' basements with various partners and there's more and more interest, what's your stance on the most likely path here? Is having a strategic asset or, sorry, a strategic partner the most preferred path, and then maybe that's supplemented by better equity? Can you maybe just provide a sense on that? Thanks.

Speaker 3

I think maybe I'll start.

Speaker 7

Go ahead, Travis. Did you want to go?

Speaker 8

Yes. I would say we don't have a preferred path at this stage. We're keeping an open mind to all of the avenues at hand. They all come with, well, first of all, they're all at various stages. I would say all of them are advanced, but I would say various stages of how advanced they are. All of them are attractive in isolation or together. I would say we're keeping a very open mind with respect to how this ultimately gets funded. Although, you know, obviously, we are keeping our focus on our ability to be flexible with respect to production volumes and maintaining our leverage feature or upsetting prices. That's what I would say to that. At least, I'm excited. Company.

Speaker 3

Yeah, exactly. Look, our principle is to finance it in a manner that optimizes the production and the return on every pound produced. We're working both streams, both the equity stream, project equity, debt, and also the potential of the prepayment on the future supply of a volume of pounds. Each one of them comes with their costs and benefits, but the overall principle that we will incorporate when we conclude the package is optimizing the exposure to future uranium prices. Whilst we can't be specific on the debt to equity percentage or whether it's project equity or not, that will be the guiding principle. We will be most likely concluding that in the first half of 2026, subject to the conclusion of the CNSC hearing process.

Speaker 2

Great. I guess maybe on the project itself in terms of construction, given that the approval might be coming sometime in that first half of next year, Andrew talked about how the project team is shaping up right now. Can you highlight any successful expertise you've hired, or is there any notable additions recently?

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's a good question, Andrew. One that we don't make a lot of noise about, but behind the scenes, there's a very well-planned human resource execution that is going on. We've been adding to the team consistently since 2017, in line with the stage of development. Look, there's no doubt we've appointed some people that are ready to go and start constructing this mine. Obviously, when we've seen a quality hire, we've hired them on board, and they're very busy. They're not just sitting around doing nothing, that's for sure. I would say on balance, we're probably over employed, but it is going to pay strong dividends once we have that approval and we're into the construction phase. The benefit of a long-term process is it gives you plenty of opportunity to plan, review, plan again, and review again.

I can tell you the construction plan is down to a finite detail. We know exactly what we're building. It's technically a very simple mine in a mining sense, and we've attracted the best in business onto the team. We have a combination of both direct employees and consultants, but the overall philosophy of NexGen is that we don't delegate any decision-making. We have a person on the team that takes responsibility for their respective fields. That responsibility ultimately rests with Travis and myself on the board. We are very much owner, constructor and offloader model.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's great. Thank you very much.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Speaker 7

Our next question will come from Ralph Profiti. Ralph, please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Thanks, operator. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Leigh and Travis, I just want to delve in a little bit on these two offtake contracts being held to a five-year term. Was there appetite on the part of the counterparty to move those contracts out to a further tenure? Is what's holding back sort of movement on the floors and the ceilings, you know, or is this becoming the industry standard? I'm just wondering if there's other factors at play, specifically with regards to the tenure.

Speaker 3

Yeah, the contracts are very different, depending on the actual asset and the utility. There's not one contract that suits all, and that is also reflective of the utility's specific requirements. Utilities have a range of contracts with a range of suppliers, and some are short-term and some are long-term. I would class ours as medium-term in terms of length. We are just at the beginning. We're at 3% of our total defined resources at Arrow. We all know that the Arrow deposit is much larger, and given its inferred resource, which will convert to indicated with definitely closer space drilling. I would say our philosophy is, at the moment, we're negotiating a variety of three-year, five-year, and 10-year contracts. It is really dependent on the specific circumstances of the utility, and those characteristics differ from one region to the next worldwide. The U.S.

utilities have a different preference to the Asian utilities. They have a different preference to the European utilities. I just want to make the point that there's not one contract in this market that fits all. It is very specific to the utility and very specific to the producer. What we offer is obviously a high level of competence in volume, given the technical simplicity of our project, and that is resonating strongly with the utility's customers.

Speaker 5

It's very helpful. I appreciate that. Thanks. You mentioned the Bill C-5 a couple of times in your pre-prepared comments. Now that we're six months from that second CNSC hearing, it does sound like there's iterations going on with detailed engineering. I'm just wondering, has there been any scope changes with regards to planned equipment or components in the design that are directly being driven by the Bill C-5? The reason I'm asking is just to kind of think about scope changes in the early pre-construction phase of the project.

Speaker 3

Yeah, interesting question. The answer is no. Our growth has been absolutely no scope changes whatsoever, full stop. We wouldn't be contemplating scope changes as a result of Bill C-5. Our approach, since even prior to discovery, has been to deliver an environmentally elite approach, along with a socially elite approach. We have done that. In every respect, we've exceeded the requirements of the legislation, from a technical and environmental perspective and also from a social perspective. It's well documented that we've been incredibly proactive in engaging and consulting with indigenous communities and implemented programs where there is incredibly strong collaboration between NexGen and the communities. That actually even extends beyond those that are defined as impacted.

I think Bill C-5 is a reflection of Prime Minister Mark Carney's government recognizing that there are elements of duplication to permit a resources project, not just specific to uranium, but major energy and national infrastructure projects. I absolutely applaud them for recognizing it and introducing legislation that aims to make the whole process more efficient while maintaining incredibly high environmental and social standards that Canada leads the world in. That's why we are in Canada. That absolutely is aligned with our values as an organization, and we're very proud to deliver this project to Canada in line with the very high environmental and social standards that Canadians expect.

Speaker 5

Great. Very helpful answers, Leigh. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Ralph.

Speaker 7

Our next question will come from George Ross with Argonaut. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thanks, operator. Hi, Leigh and the team. Thanks for having me. My question is just in regards to the production carried interest. When is the market going to be informed a little bit more on the cost, etc., attached to that?

Speaker 3

It's confidential as per the agreement of the clause that figured it. We are unable to disclose what it means or what the cost was specifically in relation to that acquisition. I will say, we are very pleased to have acquired it. We had approached Rio Tinto on it. A bona fide bid was received by an external party, which we do not even know the identity of, and we triggered our right of first refusal. Whoever that party was, thank you for expediting the process.

Speaker 1

Just to clarify. Okay. Thanks for that. In regards to the Patterson Corridor East, any plans to sort of test along the strike at this point, Leigh, or is it very much just going to be focused on sort of defining the higher grades there at PCE?

Speaker 3

Yeah. Our initial focus is to define and extend what we have at PCE. We have also seen the results at Halliday, which is basically an extension of the trend that had some Patterson Corridor East trends off our property, and they've hit mineralization as well. What that says is that the whole conductor trend is very highly prospective for additional mineralization. As I speak, we've probably explored less than 1% of that actual Patterson Corridor East conductor trend. Similarly, with Arrow, we've explored less than 10% of that particular conductor corridor. As everyone knows, you've got Triple R that's along the Patterson Corridor conductor of our project. The area is extremely well mineralized, and we are on the cusp or just at the very, very beginning of truly defining its true extent. We have eight conductor corridors going through the Rook I project alone.

There's no doubt there's been a significant mineralizing event in the region. We're putting the exploration camp to facilitate extensive exploration of that region of which we host 320,000 hectares. It's incredibly exciting. It really is a geological phenom. There's a lot of agility to be done before we can truly hold our hand on our hearts and say, "You know what? This is the extent of it.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Leigh. You'll do a drill.

Speaker 7

Our next question will come from Fred Palo, a private investor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Thank you. Good morning, Leigh and team. You mentioned Rook I is execution ready, and you've been held back, in my view, for some time now awaiting the federal approval process. You mentioned Bill C-5, and I have a couple of questions along that theme. Has Bill C-5 triggered some conversations with the government on advancing mine approval? Might there be some movement on the government schedule that you also mentioned earlier in the call? I ask that because of the principles of fast tracking that are associated with Bill C-5. Thanks.

Speaker 3

Thank you for the question. It's a very topical question. I would say that the introduction of Bill C-5 from Prime Minister Carney is absolute recognition that there are some efficiencies that can be gained at the federal level, particularly after provincial approval and indigenous community approval in the region of a specific project. He's been very, very clear about that, and as a consequence, he's also going to resort to new project shoppers to help fast-track the federal process. I absolutely applaud Prime Minister Carney and his ministers for that endeavor. I think, in reality, the NexGen project is so advanced in the process that these initiatives are going to really benefit other projects that come after NexGen. We are resource industry advocates, clearly, and we're really excited about that because NexGen isn't going to fill the gap on its own.

The world needs, with the tricky uranium, the world needs two to three Arrows, and they need it now. I think that's excellent news for every other advanced developer out there looking to get into construction. Particularly to our project, I think the benefit is most likely for other projects behind us. I absolutely applaud the recognition and the importance that the federal government is placing on the exposition of major projects.

Speaker 0

Understood. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Pleasure, and thank you for your support.

Speaker 7

Again, if you have a question, you may press star then one to join the queue. Our next question will come from Brian MacArthur with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. If I can just go back to the contracts, there's been a lot of talk about floors and ceilings. Can you confirm or deny, I guess, whether there are any volume options in those contracts? It sounds like there isn't the way you're talking about how much is committed, but I'm just trying to figure out how that part equates with working in all these contracts.

Speaker 3

Yeah, Brian, there's no volume discussion in the contracts by the utility or us as the supplier. That's very clear. I'd make a general statement that the form and structure and pricing of the contracts are changing from what has been done in the past. The environment is changing, and the contracts which we are doing are different and have got different elements to what has been done in the past. I think you're just going to see that naturally evolve over time as the scarcity and the risks, be it sovereign or technically around supply, increases. My overall comment is the environment is changing. There's no doubt about it. What we are conveying to the market is what we are experiencing, and it's different for all companies.

As I said, it's very specific to the technical and sovereign profile of your supplier and also very specific to the particular utility's preferences, and they differ between the U.S., Asia, and Europe.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks. That's very clear. The second thing, can I just confirm, there's been a couple of comments about the financing and timing, whether it's year-end or H1 next year, and then comments around the CNSC approval. Could you have financing in place before the CNSC approval, and would that be subject to CNSC approval, or are they sort of dependent on each other? Any comments on that, just to clarify, I think would be helpful.

Speaker 3

Yeah, they're obviously related. If we were approved today, we would have concluded the financing. We've been well prepared for this for many years, but we can't really trigger the financing until we have approval to that extent. As the final approval timetable unfolds, so will the financing. Terms or optionality may be better in the future given the way this environment is changing. We are just keeping our exposure to that in place. I can assure you we will conclude financing in short order post-approval.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Leigh. That's very clear. There's just a different time horizon to talk about, so I was just trying to clarify that. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Brian.

Speaker 7

This concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Leigh Curyer for any closing remarks.

Speaker 3

Yeah, thanks. Thank you all for listening and joining the Q2 call. Thank you for your questions. We certainly appreciate them and everyone's interest in this incredible project. Q3 is going to be an incredible quarter ahead of us with everything that we're working on and the conclusion towards the end of the year, not just what's happening at NexGen, but driven by what is happening in a very rapidly changing market environment. We appreciate your interest in our project, and we look forward to continuing to deliver on the milestones that we have articulated.

Speaker 7

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.