Sibanye Stillwater - Earnings Call - H2 2024

Transcript

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to all the attendees. A warm welcome to our Golden Circle, and you'll see the relevance of that as I move through our '20 '20 '4 year end results. But also note the main heading of the presentation being quantifying the value created from our strategic differentiation, which I will also cover in some detail. Obviously, they are forward looking statements, so please take note of our safe harbor statement. If we can go on to the next slide, please.

I think it's all well known now that Richard Stewart has been appointed as CEO designate and will be taking over from me from September. I am exceptionally pleased with that and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Richard as well. But the purpose of this slide is also to highlight that apart from the succession planning, which I'm going to get to, we have a very competent and solid C suite. That's the first point you should note. I think the other thing is the company is all about the people and hence, the reason this slide is first.

The company is in good hands. And I want to say that we have followed a best practice succession planning for myself. And in fact, it is the same process that we follow for every senior management person within the company. And let me highlight the impact. We've been planning for this transition for probably about two years now.

So this is not something that was decided yesterday or last month or even last quarter. Very pleasing to myself, and remember, this is a Board process when it involves the CEO, is that this is an internal appointment, which will result in a smooth transition. And as I've said, the comfort I have is we have a very solid and stable C suite team. What an internal appointment does, as long as you've got ownership of the strategy as it's being developed by both the board and the C suite, is that you have strategic continuity and you are welcome to ask Richard directly what he may be thinking of changing and so on. But certainly, it's my understanding that we have significant continuity.

And not only that, I think the purpose of the company is we have a C suite which is committed to the purpose, which is underpinned by sustainability and that permeates our entire strategy. So I think a very good and important outcome. If we can move to the next slide, please. Again, I'm not going to go through strategy in detail, but just to say that our strategic positioning and the refocus on the strategic essentials has been validated if you start looking at the trends and the results. And I believe that it's appropriate and important to continue focusing on the strategic essentials.

And what are they? Well, it's ensuring safety and well-being, it's prospering in every region in which we operate, it's achieving what we call operational excellence, maintaining a profitable business and optimizing capital allocation. And as I mentioned at last year's results, ESG will remain an important part of the way we do business. Thank you. If we can go to the next slide, please.

So our vision is to create superior shared value for all stakeholders And this is new work based on an assessment done by the University of Montana using ImPlan. And I'm not going to go through the slide in detail, but for those of you who are interested, I would urge you to read it in detail in your own time. But if you look at the tree, and as you know, that represents our ethos, We are impacting over 147,000 jobs. In other words, we're supporting 147,000 jobs. That is very, very significant.

In terms of economic impacts, we have an impact of ZAR225.9 billion. In terms of compensation impacts, ZAR61.3 billion and in terms of tax impacts, ZAR27 billion. So again, confirmation that we do deliver superior shared value, not just for our shareholders, but for all our stakeholders. Thank you. If we can move on to the next slide.

So I would like to just almost skim through the salient features for the six months twenty twenty four and of course, it completes the year ended thirty one December twenty twenty four. So safety continues to improve with the group SIFR and TRIFRA at the lowest recorded level since 2013. So in a way, record safety performance. Very pleasingly, net debt to adjusted EBITDA came in at 1.79x at thirty one December twenty twenty four. And I want to highlight this is before accounting for the $500,000,000 stream.

And I do remember reading a number of reports, which had us well over three times. And I will cover the net debt to adjusted EBITDA profile a bit later. Revenue was 7% higher for the second half of twenty twenty four compared to 2023. Group adjusted EBITDA came in at ZAR6.4 billion and that is a stable result for the third sequential six month period. And I will say more on that.

We do note that a number of our peers are now starting to show declining EBITDA numbers where ours have now been stable. We've arrested our decline and I think we can look forward in a more constructive way going forward. I will cover that in more detail as well. Obviously, South African gold underpinned that change and there was a 216% increase in adjusted EBITDA for the second half of twenty twenty four. In terms of South African PGMs, I think what was a highlight was a 6% operating cost increase, which is very much in line with inflation and probably below mining inflation.

I thought that was a a standout result for the South African PGM sector. Our U. S. PGM, in my mind, had one of the best performances within the group with a successful restructuring at the end of twenty twenty four. And throughout the year, consistent production and a 27% reduction in all in sustaining costs.

There is still some way to go. We're not confused by the very good progress made and we know there's still a lot of hard work, but the light is at the end of the tunnel. There was a $32,000,000 or $594,000,000 contribution to the group's adjusted EBITDA in 2024 from our recycling business in The U. S, again, quite significant. And in the Australian region, we had a R34 million dollars or R641 million contribution in 2024 from the Century operation.

So, to me, those are good results considering the current commodity price climate and I'm referencing PGMs in that regard, obviously not gold, but a difficult operating environment where I would suggest we've arrested and turned a corner. If we can go to the next slide, please. So I would like to actually demonstrate in a factual way what the value that is being created by taking what we consider the roads less traveled, probably more complicated, certainly more controversial, but not controversial to be controversial and more complex, absolutely. So if we can go to the next slide. So as everybody on this call would know, we are driven or our strategy is defined by understanding the gray elephants, which we've presented previously.

I'm not going to go through them, but the one that was influential in driving the diversification of the company into a green metals portfolio company was that one of the angry planet. And we've often presented the sigmoid curves on the right hand side of the slide, which indicate growth from a gold base through South African PGMs, internationalizing the company in The U. S. Through PGMs and then slowly but surely moving into battery metals. So that's well understood.

But we've also, for some time, been talking about responsible resource stewardship. And you can't be environmentally responsible if you are not sensitive to primary mining, secondary mining and recycling. And we have very consciously been building those portfolios within our business. And I want to show you, they have become significant businesses and contributing quite significantly to the bottom line, but I will do that in the next couple of slides. Importantly, we have always maintained that having an underlying portfolio of gold is an insurance policy when you have a large portfolio of industrial metals and you move into an environment, a global economic environment that is difficult with high interest rates, high inflation and so on.

And it's become very evident in our business how that insurance policy of gold is working. If we can go to the next slide, please. So this, they say a picture paints a thousand words, and this is our adjusted EBITDA slide from 2017. And I just want to work through it and then make some conclusions. So we were a gold business, predominantly a gold business.

You can see how that gold business supported the investment into PGMs. And the contribution by PGMs was relatively small. But you can see as we moved into 2018, how the Stillwater or The U. S. PGM business actually carried the company through a very difficult period while we were growing our South African PGM business.

And you can see we took a strike in gold because to be blunt, Amco was trying to prevent us from buying Lonmin, and it was our U. S. PGM business that pulled us through that and eventually, we were successful. But you can see with that disruption in gold how gold became negative in 2019 due to all those disruptions. But that essentially allowed us to build a PGM business, I want to say, second to none.

And you can see how the PGM business from 2019 carried this company to new heights and how gold was a very much smaller portion of the contribution because of the very good PGM basket prices of the time. We also used and to be fair to our gold division, we used our gold division to ensure that if there was to be any sort of strife in wage negotiations and unrealistic demands that the brunt of that would be carried in the gold business because it was a relatively small contributor. But of course, that created the impression today that the gold business is not a contributor of any substantial amount to our business. And in fact, we often get questions, why don't you get rid of it? Well, you're going to see why not shortly.

So then as the PGM basket price fell off, especially in dollar terms and especially regarding palladium, you can see how the South African PGM business carried the company forward through 2023. But you can now start seeing in 2024 how the relative portion of gold in terms of the contribution to our earnings has increased. And the two bars on the very right hand side show the second half of twenty twenty three and the second half of twenty twenty four in terms of the contribution of gold. And one of the outstanding features of the second half of this year is that our gold business is really contributing and we look forward to it contributing. And I think the other thing to note from this is how our earnings have stabilized even though we have got decreasing PGM basket process.

So that's a story. That's the picture that I referred to. If we can go to the next page, please. So not only has commodity diversification created value and assisted the company through, let me say, difficult times, Our move into tailings, reprocessing and recycling has also become a very significant contributor. And if you look at our secondary mining business, it has become a big business by mining standards, generating revenues of over $11,000,000,000 a 10.1% contribution to the group and from an adjusted EBITDA point of view, contributing $3,200,000,000 which is a 24 contribution to the group.

So to me, that is smart strategic growth, especially in a complex environment with so many changes. If we go to the next slide and look at recycling, again, we've only really started to move into recycling more recently other than the PGM recycling or the catalytic converter recycling in The U. S. But if you look at it today, a revenue of ZAR14 billion for 2024, just over 10% contribution to group revenue and 4.5% contribution to adjusted EBITDA of ZAR594 million or $32,000,000 So again, these businesses will continue to grow. We can do them in an affordable way and they reduce they improve our flexibility through down cycles and so on.

Next slide, please. So the other area of our strategy that to some extent has not been seen to really add value, but I want to demonstrate it is that that relates to multipolarity, which we identified even before COVID, the world was going to deglobalize. You've had to choose which way you face, which markets you're going to prioritize, and we've prioritized the Western markets. And let's have a look how we've been rewarded for that. So you can read the slides in detail at your leisure, but in North America, the Section 45 credits that are not reflected in these financial results yet have delivered very significant credits or will deliver very significant tax credits in cash of approximately $2,200,000,000 and $1,600,000,000 for 2023 and 2024, respectively.

That's $120,000,000 and $90,000,000 respectively for both mining and recycling. Our estimate of the value of the credits for 2025 based on the recently restructured store water operations is about ZAR1 billion or 60,000,000. That is, I think, our rewards for being loyal to providing strategic metals in The U. S. And I'm not sure where else you would have got that type of value addition anywhere else in the world.

Other than in Europe, of course, which is similar to The U. S. In that it is dependent on strategic metals. And in France, we've been very well received by the French government. And in advancing the Gallicam feasibility study, we've been selected for a grant, and please remember, this is a grant, not a credit, of ZAR2.8 billion once we have a financial investment decision when we have completed that feasibility study.

And we are eligible for what they call the C3 IB tax credit for green industry innovation. So that's another value outcome from the strategy. In addition, we have the Finnish government through FMG, the Finnish Minerals Group, as a 20% co investment partner in Caliber. So in my mind, those are very tangible outcomes of the multipolarity strategy and focusing on Europe and North America as providing critical metals in those jurisdictions. Next slide, please.

So the other aspect I wanted to raise was our early response to a changing economic environment. And at our August or our mid year results in 2023, we actually shared with you how we were going to proactively respond to what we saw as a deteriorating environment. And those of you who attend these presentations will remember, when the Ukraine was invaded, we already raised the issue of an environment that was going to become inflationary and started preparing ourselves. If we can just build the slide to the next portion. You would also remember at our results presentation, we used a piggy bank to indicate that we were going to save money in a piggy bank and prepare and strengthen our balance sheet.

And I think I recognized there was some amusement and probably some And we moved into a number of and we moved into a number of restructurings both in the South African region and in The U. S. The U. S. Went through two and in Sandoval, we terminated the Bollardan contract and started moving accelerating our nickel sulfate concept studies, which then transitioned into the GALECAM studies going straight to PKAM.

In terms of reinforcing the balance sheet in 2024, and I'll discuss more about this, we embarked on a number of programs and I'm not going to go through them all. Probably the most significant one was the stream, but in effect, we raised ZAR34 billion, ZAR35.8 billion. We improved liquidity by that amount. To be safe and prudent, we had our covenants uplifted just to give us some headroom in case we were not successful with this. But all these initiatives have had a major positive impact on the company and its current positioning and I'm going to show you that in the next slide. So in terms of let's focus on the graph on the right hand side and I'll come back to the bullet points on the left. So in terms of net debt to EBITDA and our gearing, you can see how from 2018, from 2.5%, in fact, came down to being net cash and then moved up and the actual number, as I said, was 1.79%. But if you include the stream, our pro form a net debt to EBITDA is below 1.1. Now, I dare say that is lower than most of our PGM peers. And I say that and reinforce it because there was a lot of skepticism that we would not be able to keep our leverage below three times.

So I trust that in future when we say we're going to embark on these sort of programs, we will be given more credibility for achieving them. But I also want to acknowledge in a way that it's difficult for analysts to, let's say, know all the forms of funding that we can use and I know it's complex for them to value and include. But we're not a one trick pony. We know and we have experience of raising non debt. We have experience of using structures such as streams.

We have experience of analyzing these and fully understanding the negative and the positives of each form of structure. And we made a commitment, we would not use equity, we would not lean on our shareholders, and we have not. And for that, I am, first of all, very pleased but also very proud. We've retained upside exposure to prices. We haven't locked ourselves into anything.

As I said, we secured DKK36 billion of financing in twelve months. We have started well ahead of our peers. I would suggest that debt and non debt funding is going to get more difficult and more expensive. We have, as I said, accessed nontraditional sources of capital early and I think that is an exceptional result for a company like ourselves. Next slide, please.

So just a little bit on the stream because I've also read the reports about giving away upside and that's not really true. So we've crystallized $9,000,000,000 in future value. As you can see, it's had a very significant impact on Headroom and liquidity. It's almost a one time turn in reducing leverage. In fact, it's 0.7.

And important to note that, that $500,000,000 stream or ZAR9.4 billion stream is 44% of our total acquisition costs of our South African PGM assets, 44% of what we paid, we've raised in one stream. Now let's understand what that stream is. It's primarily a stream based on gold byproducts in PGMs, which we get practically no value for. In terms of the impact on platinum, there's a little bit of platinum stream. That's less than 2% of our platinum.

Now remember, this is less than 2% for a 44% return on what we paid for these assets. So now start putting it in context. In terms of the process you have to go through with a streamer such as Franco Nevada, they conduct exceptionally deep due diligence. And of course, the upside to them is the optionality of us expanding and having longer lives of mine. That is what they look for.

So it's another form of due diligence on the company, which we welcome. I would also add that this is long term non debt type of capital. It was at competitive costs much lower than you can get through, let's call it, vanilla financing instruments. There's no repayment of the advance payment and there's no minimum delivery obligations. So this is an exceptional instrument for raising money and has served us well.

The last thing I'm going to say is, please, when you look at this table in detail, just note the payback on investments we've achieved from these purchases, something like Lonmin, we've paid for 12.7 times over. So to me, all very good news. Thank you, Enrique, if you could. So at this stage, I'm going to hand over to the Chief Regional Officers to do to present a detailed operational review. So, Richard will be first up. So, over to you, Richard. Thank you.

Richard Stewart (CEO Designate and Chief Regional Officer)

Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you very much, Neil. I think if we start off with our safety, as a company, we are now three years into our Fate Elimination strategy. This has been a strategy that is very much focused on identifying and mitigating the highest risk areas of our business that could result in fables. It's very pleasing that we can see a consistent decline in terms of those lagging indicators. Looking at our top two, our serious injury frequency rates and our total recordable injury frequency rates, we've seen a consistent fifteen percent to sixteen percent decline in those rates over the last three years.

And in fact, 2024 was the best results we've ever achieved. Looking at our lagging indicators, which tracks our high potential incidents, and that includes incidents where we didn't necessarily suffer an injury, but it could have resulted in a serious injury or loss of life. We've also seen those incidents substantially reduced year on year and in fact month on month, demonstrating the real risk reduction across our operations. Nevertheless, despite an improving trend as well across our fatality frequency rate, it is deeply disappointing and tragic that we lost eight colleagues during 2024, and our sincere condolences go to the families, colleagues and friends of our fallen comrades. We will not stop until, as a company, and we do believe that we can mine labor intensive operations without loss of life and this will remain our deepest commitment until such time as we achieve that.

We are at a critical juncture in our fake elimination journey where our focus to date has largely been on identifying the risks, putting the controls in place to mitigate those risks and embedding that throughout the organization. We are now moving to a point where we are deeply focused on behavior and ultimately how we want to drive our culture through our management routines and our leadership ultimately underpinned by the values of the company and our value based behavior. Moving on to our gold operations. I think when we look at the first half of twenty twenty four in particular was a very tough operating environment for our gold operations. In addition to the regional restructuring that we were doing across the region, we still have significant disruption on operations.

We also had several one off incidents in the event of infrastructure failures that impacted some of our shafts. We had some increased seismicity during the first half of the year and then also stopped a significant portion of the Beatrix operation following a back break so that we could redesign that mining method, ensuring we were not placing any employees at risk. I think very pleasingly during the second half of the year, we saw much more stable and solid performance from our gold operations as they settled down. The benefits of the restructuring we started realizing, albeit many of the costs still carried through into the second half of the year. And together with an increase in gold price, that saw second half EBITDA of about ZAR3.5 billion, which contributed just over half of the total group's EBITDA earnings for the period.

For the year as a whole, our gold operations contributed just under ZAR6 billion worth of EBITDA, a substantial increase from the prior period. And looking forward, with our gold operations settled with the benefits of the restructuring coming through and a sustained increase in gold price that today is some 20% higher than what it was last year, we're very much looking forward to a continued positive output from our operations into 2025. Moving on to our SA PGM operations, we saw an annual increase of just over 4% in our operations and these were largely steady year on year. That increase largely came from the additional consolidation of the 50% of Kurnall that we acquired from Anglo Platinum during the year. And that was slightly offset by some operational disruptions we had at Rustenburg, most notably the Schaffen failure at Ciprumolelli, which took that shaft up almost two months and the two weeks' worth of disruptions we had at Crooendal as a result of illegal industrial action.

Nevertheless, I think the costs were well managed, particularly in the second half of the year. We saw a decline in our operating costs from H1 and year on year an inflation related increase operating costs just over ZAR25000 per four year ounce. Our total all in sustaining costs increased to just under ZAR22000 per four year ounce and that was a 9% year on year increase. I think some key drivers to that is the transition at Crooendale from a purchase of concentrate to a tolling arrangement that took place from the September 1 and effectively for those four months saw us incurring tolling costs. But of course that also comes with full exposure to the PGM basket price.

16% decline in the PGM basket price year on year did have a significant impact on the EBITDA from these operations and we saw that declining by just under 60% to ZAR7.5 billion for 2024. Important to note that during the four months at Crookndal, we did not recognize any revenue or earnings for that period out of Crookndal, given that we are building up the four month pipeline associated with the toning contract. So that metal will be returned to us from January of this year and recognized as revenue upon sale of that metal as we move forward. If we have a look at where our current PGM operations across the group are positioned on the cost curve, and we do utilize the Nedbank cost curve in this regard, it's both an independent source, but also looks at total operating costs as well as capital, and therefore is probably the closest reflection to an all in sustaining cost that we see across the industry. Looking at this, most of our operations are comfortably positioned on the left hand side of that curve or just above the fiftieth percentile, except for the Marinkana operations where we are heavily investing through the cycle in our K4 project.

The K4 capital or project capital largely comes to the end of this year 2025 And we look forward to the following years with reduced capital and continued and sustained ramp up in metal output, we'll ultimately see the Morricana operations moving down into the second quartile and therefore a very well positioned portfolio across the global industry cost curve. I think finally, on Wednesday of this week, we did announce a new agreement that we have entered into with the Glencore Marathi Venture. This is a significant step for us in terms of our strategy of optimizing value from our byproducts of which chrome is a critical one. That strategy really goes to diversification of the PGM basket and enhances our resilience during times like this when PGM prices are low, but many of the other metals, in this case, chrome, are doing significantly well. Underneath this revised what we call in the CMA, the chrome management agreement, The Glencore Maraffey JV will take over operatorship of all of or most of our Crone recovery plants.

And through that, we look to realize significant operational synergies through a one owner operator. So it's cost synergies in terms of operating costs, as well as the ability for the joint venture to apply their knowledge, expertise, IP and technology to enhancing our overall recovery of chrome from those facilities, including the recovery of fine Krum. I think two other significant benefits to the Krum management agreement. Many of you would be aware that historically, Lonmin signed a long term offtake contract with what was then Xstrata, subsequently Glencore, under which Marikana received very low values less than 10% of the market related value for its chrome. This particular contract would have run until about 02/1960 under the current terms.

Under the new management agreement, we have been able to accelerate the delivery into that through the synergy that we expect to realize. And on the back of the current life of mine profile, we'd expect that contract, although the Moricana contract to come to an end round about two thousand and thirty three, after which Moricana will receive market related prices for their chrome output. In addition, as part of the agreement, we have agreed that any new projects that come online on the Morricana property may be ring fenced if required and therefore receive full market value for their chrome even if developed prior to 02/1933. In particular, we have three projects, three shallow UG2 mechanized projects, therefore low cost, very low capital intensity given that they are brownfields projects that we are progressing through a feasibility study. And this agreement certainly adds significant value to those for those to be brought online at an appropriate time given the current PGM markets.

But I dare say these are three of the most attractive projects within the industry at the moment and this agreement has just further enhanced that value quite materially. Thank you very much and I'll now pass over to Charles to discuss The U. S. Operating region. Thank you.

Charles Carter (Chief Regional Officer of Americas)

Thank you, Richard. We have done two rounds of significant restructuring on the Montana operations in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty three and again in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. If I reflect on the first round of restructuring that drove our operating plan through the year until our second restructuring that disrupted the fourth quarter production, we delivered mined 2E production, which was stable at 425,842 ounces. We saw a 27% decline in ASIC to thirteen sixty seven. Total operating costs reduced 4% to $480,000,000 We saw a combined reduction of $191,000,000 in capital with a 50% reduction in OOD and a 72% reduction in sustaining capital.

Project capital declined by 62% to $16,000,000 We also saw the average 2E PGM basket price decline by 21% to $988 an ounce through the year. This persistent low price pressure led us to a further substantial restructuring during the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. As you are aware, we have reduced our mine production by 200,000 ounces in the 2025 plan. We placed Stillwater West mine on Kieran maintenance. We increased production from our high grade Stillwater East mine to 130,000 ounces and we reduced production from our East Boulder mine to 135,000 ounces by moving from six ramps to four, which in turn allowed us to push out our capital on our tailings and rock dump expansion plans.

In the process, we reduced our workforce by six thirty six employees and contractors, a reduction of almost 40%. These changes have significantly reduced our cash bleed. Although given the significant reduction in ounces, you will see that our ASIC on a unit basis is forecast at $14.20 dollars an ounce to $14.60 dollars an ounce in 2025. Any future booking of the 45x tax credit has the potential to reduce this ASIC forecast by $30,000,000 or approximately $100 an ounce. Given that the 45x rules are retrospective, we are expecting that combined credits for 2023 and 2024 financial years are estimated at approximately $120,000,000 combined.

As noted at the time of our restructuring in our last market presentation, we have a three year game plan to move these operations to $1,000 an ounce cost character. As you will have seen in the industry cost curve slide covered by Richard, we are now in the middle of the pack, whereas a year ago, we were the highest cost producer in the industry. Our aim is to shift to the lowest quartile over time, and I believe that we are well on the way in that journey. We set ourselves a three year game plan to hit the $1,000 an ounce. And obviously, where we can bring that forward and accelerate it, we will seek to achieve that.

Certainly, from December, we started hitting our ounce and cost targets according to the run rates we have in the 2025 plan, and we have continued this through January. Most pleasingly, we were injury free through December and January in the Montana business, and this is a first for these operations. Given the amount of change we have been through, I think this talks to the character, commitment and professionalism of our employees, and I'd like to thank all team members for leading in safety in this way. With that, let me hand off to Grant to cover our recycling business, where we have seen an excellent integration of Relden into our North American recycling platform during the course of the year. Over to you, Grant.

Grant Stuart (Head of Recycling and Global Operations)

Thanks very much, Charles, and a good day to you all. As Neil illustrated in the earlier slide on the diversification benefits of our metal portfolio, the acquisition of Relden has expanded our recycling footprint, finding exposure to a broader suite of precious metals and collection networks across North America, Mexico and India. Our AutoCAD recycling business fed 317,000 ounces of platinum, palladium and rhodium, a 2% increase from the previous year despite persistent soft market conditions. While marginally better than 2023, there is no indication of any meaningful recovery in spent AutoCAD volumes as inflationary pressures and higher prices of new and used vehicles continues. Over the ten months since the acquisition of Relden, the operation has processed over 20,000,000 pounds of precious metal bearing waste and sold 108,000 ounces of gold, 1,700,000 ounces of silver, 35,003 ePGM ounces and 2,600,000 pounds of copper.

Raldan has certainly demonstrated strong safety performance, operational and financial performance underscoring the ability to deliver value without requiring further group capital investment. The combined recycling segment contributed just under 5% of total group adjusted EBITDA, some $33,000,000 or just under ZAR600 million with Ralvan contributing 45% over the ten months. The Auto Cat recycling operation contributed the ZAR326 million balance with annual profit margin of 4.3%. As mentioned earlier by Neil, this excludes the Section 45X credit specific to the Autocat recycling operation, estimated at some ZAR58 million or R1 billion dollars for 2023 and R32 million dollars or R580 million for 2024, which enhances the profitability of the recycling operations. Looking ahead, the evolving recycling landscape presents both risks and opportunities.

Our strategy prioritizes long term value creation of a short term competitive tactics, ensuring that we maintain access to critical feedstock technology and infrastructure to deliver the unchanged forecast of 300,000 to 350,000 PGM ounces. Ralgam is looking to deliver 120,000 to 130,000 ounces of gold and 2,000,000 to 2,300,000 ounces of silver. Across both businesses, our key priorities include fostering a performance driven culture, realizing synergies across the recycling operations, leveraging global sales networks for spent auto cap collection and reinforcing our commitment to responsible sourcing and clean premiums. With that, I will hand over to Mika. Thanks.

Mika Seitovirta (Chief Regional Officer - Europe)

Thank you, Grant. And greetings, everyone, from Helsinki. For Region Europe, in Sandoval, we had a year of transformation and restructuring. And actually, the team did rather good job. The primary goal was to reduce the losses of the existing operations, and we managed to do it by producing 8% more than the year before and through rigorous cost management, which resulted in 43% better result as the year before.

We also did good working capital management and freed cash from the operation. At the same time, when we are preparing ourselves for the ramp down of this operation, we believe that it will happen H1 this year. We also developed the possible future of Sandoval operations, which is the project Gallicam. Gallicam is a result of different repurposing alternatives that we analyzed. And the strategy is to take us towards battery metals and the battery metals ecosystem in France through precursor manufacturing.

We are currently doing the pre feasibility study for that. So originally, we said that we would finalize that already November 24. However, due to a change in scope, we decided to split it to PFS I and PFS II. Now PFS as a whole will be finalized this year, Q4. We are a strategic project now.

We got the status from the European Commission. And at the same time, we got a grant from Innovation Fund, which is million for this project. We are also eligible to another grant in France, which is called the C3IB fund. Now over to Calibert. Calibert construction progressed very well and on time.

You can see here some beautiful pictures of the mine, of the concentrator and of the refinery. And you can see the difference, which has happened only in more or less six months in between the pictures. A lot of people have been working in the construction, and it has gone well as mentioned. What happened last year as well is that we got the funding of 500,000,000. And we also recruited people.

We are an attractive employer. The project is very much liked. So our headcount increased according to our plans as well. What we are doing now is that due to authorities and regulatory changes and some changes also in the scope of the project, That means that it's necessary to review the CapEx needed and also the OpEx concerning the ramp up. This work is now underway as we speak.

We are now also targeting for the ramp up H1 twenty six. That's the hot commission as well. And we have a change against our earlier plans and mainly due to commercial reasons. We are not going to do the external FEED phase at all, but we have decided and the current plan is that we go directly to our own ore and that, as mentioned, H1 twenty six. There are good news as well.

As you know, we have done a lot of exploration and we are updating our reserves and our resources. They increased actually in our reserves by 36.6%, And we feel that, that is a very good result. So we have a future here and we have a future potential to grow. Thank you all. Over to you, Robert.

Robert van Niekerk (Chief Technical & Innovation Officer)

Thank you very much, Peter. Hello, everybody. I'm Robert Monicak and I'll talk to the Australian region and the Century reprocessing operations. The region produced 82,000 tonnes of payable zinc material in 2024. Disappointingly, this is not a big improvement on the preceding ten months.

Portra one was severely impacted by excessive rainfall and flooding. Production did recover strongly in quarter two and quarter three. But then in quarter four, again, production was impacted by bushfire. The bushfire was on the October 19 and the team did exceptionally well. They managed to protect most of the assets.

Unfortunately, we did lose in excess of 23 kilometers of large diameter poly popping by the fire and this impacted us severely. We were impacted for about sixty days. So I say again the fire was on the October 9. We were in production again by the November 16, but we were only back to normal production by the December 4. We had a 22% decrease in production for the second half of twenty twenty four compared to the same period 2023.

The all in sustaining cost was $2,317 per tonne. This was 17% higher than in 2023 due to what I've just spoken about, but compounded by higher royalties associated with the higher metal costs we received and then slightly higher sustaining capital as well. US3.5 million dollars of the increase in the sustaining capital was directly attributable to the bushfire. During the year, we were assisted by two very strong tailwinds. We saw a turnaround in EBITDA.

The region contributed sorry, the operations contributed positive adjusted EBITDA of $34,000,000 This is in excess of ZAR640 million and this compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of ZAR15 million for the preceding ten months. Average zinc price for the year was USD2805 per tonne, significantly higher than the US2541 dollars per zine tonne for the preceding ten months. We were also fortunate with lower treatment charges. The treatment charges decreased year on year from $264 a tonne to $148 a tonne. I am optimistic that we are going to continue to have strong metal prices in 2025, especially given the deterioration of the Australian dollar to the U.

S. Dollar. And I also believe that our treatment charges are going to be significantly lower than ZAR148 we had per concentrate time in 2024. The region is also busy developing two growth projects. The first you are familiar with, the Montalar copper project.

The feasibility study has commenced for this project and we're expecting that to be completed by the end of this year. This feasibility study is backed by a very significant increase, or 20.8% increase in copper resources. And then we're also busy with the development of a phosphate feasibility study. In this regard, we are assessing the opportunities to leverage our existing infrastructure in the region together with a large regional phosphate deposits. And this we can bring into operation post the completion of the Zienthalis retreatment project.

In this regard, the feasibility study has also commenced also which we plan to have finished by the end of the year. I think I'll leave it there for the Australian region and I'll hand over to our CFO, Sean. Thank you very much.

Charl Keyter (CFO & Executive Director)

Thank you, Robert. Turning to the financial results for the six months and year ended thirty one December twenty twenty four. Revenue for the six months increased by 7%. This was mainly due to higher Rand gold prices and the inclusion of Relden for this six month period. The effective date of the Relden acquisition was March 2024.

Although cost of sales was up 8%, on a like for like basis, normalizing for the Relden operations, cost of sales increased by only 0.5%. This is very commendable cost performance, red against the backdrop of still high global inflation. Adjusted EBITDA came in at ZAR6.4 billion, and this is the third half year in a row where we have kept EBITDA at this level. Finance expenses are partly due to the debt service charges on the convertible bond, which was issued in 2023 and the utilization of borrowings. The gain on financial instruments reflect the impact of lower medium to long term commodity prices, which has a direct impact on the valuation of third party liabilities, which include dividends and profit share to our empowerment partners.

We have booked a further impairment at our U. S. Operations due to the impact of consensus to lower future palladium prices. Profit for the period was $1,300,000,000 compared to a loss of $45,000,000,000 for the similar period in 2023. No final dividend will be paid.

Moving on to the full year results. 2024 saw a 1% reduction in revenue despite the inclusion of the relevant operations. The main driver was lower PGM prices as the basket price at our SA operations were down 16%, at our U. S. PGM operations down 21% and at our U.

S. PGM recycling operations, it was down 46%. The reduction in PGM prices were partially offset by an increase of 22% at the SA Gold operations. Cost of sales increased 7% year on year, but again, if we normalize for Relden, costs only increased by 1%. It is important to note that the positive impact of Section 45X is not included in any of the financial numbers.

The estimated impact for 2023 is a credit to cost of approximately ZAR2.2 billion and for 2024 a credit to cost of approximately ZAR1.7 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was ZAR13.1 billion for the six months ended thirty one December compared to just under ZAR21 billion for the same period in 2023. Finance expenses, as highlighted earlier, were impacted by the convertible bond and the utilization of our facilities, specifically the million facility for Calabar. The gain on financial instruments, as explained, were impacted by lower future commodity prices, specifically PGMs and lithium. The full year impairments were ZAR9.2 billion with ZAR8.8 billion at The U.

S. Underground PGM operations. The loss for the full year was ZAR5.7 billion. Excluding the impairments, it would have been a profit of ZAR3.5 billion. Headline earnings per share was flat year on year at ZAR0.64 per share.

Borrowings increased from $33,600,000,000 to $39,400,000,000 The increase of $5,800,000,000 is due to the drawdowns of $5,700,000,000 under the caliber €500,000,000 green facility as the project ramps up construction. Cash on hand is ZAR16 billion and net debt was ZAR23.4 billion. Including the R500 million stream on a pro form a basis, leverage for 2024 would have been 1.1 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA. Furthermore, had we included the R1.7 billion impact of Section 45x for 2024, leverage would have been below 1x net debt to adjusted EBITDA, which is the level we have always indicated as our comfort level. Liquidity remains high with Edgroom at $45,700,000,000 or almost 250% of our financial policy, which requires that we have available liquidity of two months of OpEx and CapEx.

Our debt maturities and the repayment profile remains very manageable and the balance sheet is in a strong position to ensure that we continue to navigate the low PGM price environment. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I will now hand you back to Neil for the conclusion of our results.

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Thank you, Charles. And before we move on, I would urge the audience just to look at the speedometer, and it's actually marked in miles per hour, so the company's at speed. So let me conclude with what I think the key points are. So record safety performance, however eliminating fatalities and reducing high potential incidence is a major focus area. The balance sheet reinforcement, I'm very pleased about and we currently have a pro form a leverage of 1.1 times and as I've said, better than most of our peers and especially when you consider that our earnings have now been stabilized over the last three half year periods.

There's no doubt that our diversified portfolio portfolio ensures greater financial stability through these price cycles. Our South African gold operations are contributing significantly to our profitability. And in fact, we let's call it current depressed PGM prices, we expect our South African gold business to generate more than half of our EBITDA this year in 2025. Our recycling and tailings reprocessing businesses are delivering stable and good margins and have created significant value for our stakeholders. I think our proactive, decisive restructuring of the loss making operations has arrested the declining profitability and you now have three half year periods to demonstrate that.

Our multipolarity strategy has resulted in also significant value creation. So in my view, our strategy remains relevant. However, there will be a continuing focus on the strategic essentials, as I said right at the beginning of the presentation. So finally, I'll conclude with guidance for 2025. And again, I'm not going to go through this in detail.

It's much of a muchness. There's no major differences from the previous years. I think in terms of output, the one area I would ask you to focus on, Our little Reldan recycling business produces almost as much gold as DRD, significant amounts of silver, PGMs and copper. Costs have escalated in line with inflation. And I would leave it to you to read this in detail in your own time.

But operating guidance shouldn't create any major surprises. So with that, let me hand over to James to manage the question and answer session. Thanks, James.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

Thanks, Neil. Greetings, everybody. I think I'll start just got two questions here, Neil, gold related. It seems we can't please everybody anytime, even when we produce a ZAR3.6 billion EBITDA from these operations for the second half of the year. There's still some questions about this one from Chris Nicholson.

You mentioned shaft infrastructure issues at the gold operations. Could you please give a bit more detail on this? And could you please give us comfort that these assets sorry, that's Arnold from Grant. Give us comfort that these assets are adequately capitalized? And should we expect a sharp increase in CapEx at these operations on the back of the higher gold price as seen elsewhere in the gold industry?

And then the second one is also related. Unit costs are guided by 83% to 8% year on year. Is this a lot of disappointing outcome given the restructuring we've done in 2024? Is ZAR1.3 million a kilogram the new base AISC for the SA Gold operations?

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Thanks, James, and thanks, Arnold and Chris. I think Richard is probably best placed to answer the question in detail. But let me just say, volume is a major driver of costs. So, you would have seen both in The U. S.

And now with the restructuring in South Africa, I think it's actually a very pleasing outcome that cost escalation has been contained to about 3% on lower volumes. So, the restructuring has definitely worked, and I'm sure Richard will tell us there's more benefits that will still flow through. But Rich, over to you just to pick up both of those questions. Thank you.

Richard Stewart (CEO Designate and Chief Regional Officer)

Perfect. Thanks very much, Neil, and good morning. Arnold, thanks for the question. I think in terms of the incidents that we suffered at Gold last year, there was the one K7 incident where we held the conveyance that caught a bunsen in the shaft. So from a safety perspective, we stopped that shaft for two months while we inspected the entire shaft and fixed those buntons.

And then we also had a two week outage at our Drieffontane 8 operations where we did some maintenance work on our winder. That is actually something that had been planned to to be done over the break, but based on a safety assessment and risk assessment, we decided to move that forward into earlier in the year. I can assure you that we do have detailed risk assessments and plans that are done annually to make sure that our maintenance and infrastructure is appropriate. So they are well capitalized. Of course, these are old assets, so that is a big focus of ours.

I can also assure you that there isn't a significant jump coming in capital at all. Our Our sustaining capital and our ORD capital for these operations is pretty steady going forward. What we have in the plan right now is what we will sustain going forward and exposure to the gold price, we should see that full benefit coming through on the bottom line. So no, there's no capital change expected due to gold price at all. I think you can model what we have right now as fairly sustainable going forward.

Chris, I think, yes, just to pick up on that. And perhaps just to qualify, I think obviously, the all in sustaining cost you see reported that I think you've done your sort of comparison to in terms of increases total for the group including DRD. If we look at our managed operations, which is the guidance we provide for, our guidance is in fact slightly lower versus what we achieved in 2023 across the managed operations. So I think as Neil said, look, that for us is actually quite pleasing. We saw a 20% drop in total output with the restructuring we did from 'twenty three to 'twenty four.

So being able to manage that decline in output and effectively work inflation out of the cost year on year given that they flat in nominal terms, I actually think is a good outcome. In terms of your question, is 1.3% the next base? I do think we can still get that cost. I think it's the base certainly for the next twelve to eighteen months. Beatrix is a stable operation.

At KIRF, we're opening up sorry, at Prefontaine, we're opening up a significant new block of ground on VCR. And at KIRF, we're transitioning to a greater proportion of secondary reefs. And I think as we see those two projects coming through, we can look to a continued decline in those costs. So I would like to see about a further 10% or so reduction on that cost base over the coming period. But for this year on the managed operations, 1.3% is probably a good number.

I think we're including DRD. I would expect that to be closer to 1.2%.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

I think while we've got you on the mark, Richard, another question from this is from Nkeeteko Motonzi at Investec. Could you please talk us through the free cash flow generation of SAP GM assets in 2024? Rustenburg, Marikana and Crandall.

Richard Stewart (CEO Designate and Chief Regional Officer)

Sure. So I think what I might, given that there are a lot of intercompany movements in terms of the free cash flows, etcetera, but, Joel, would you like to just comment on that change from all in cost to future, Richard?

Charl Keyter (CFO & Executive Director)

Sure. I think, Kakegur, I think to be fair, if you look at the all in sustaining cost and if you look at the basket price, these operations were still cash generative on an all in basis. But as Richard has pointed out, obviously, because our treasury vehicle sits within what we refer to as the whole Sibanye gold, there are quite a few intercompany movements that skew the free cash flow. But I think as a good benchmark just using the basket price and all in sustaining cost, you'll see that for 2024, they still made very good bottom line cash flow for the group.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

So, I think it's probably worth important to add on to that is that at Croendal, at the end of the year, we went from a POC to a toll arrangements on the September 1. So we didn't recognize any revenue from Croendal at all for four months at the end of the year. And as such, no cash flow obviously. And that's because from the POC where we normally sell concentrates to the processing party, We then fill the pipeline before we get the refined metal back at the end of that period. So that would have had a big impact on the cash flow as well.

More questions just on the 45x. When will the 45x credits for 'twenty three and 'twenty four be received? Will we get these physically in cash? Or is it an offset against future taxes?

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

So certainly, I think Peter Henning, the CFO in The U. S, is best placed to pick it up. But for my understanding is that for the next five years, we get it in cash. But Peter, come in, please, on the details. Yes, Peter, we can hear you.

Pieter Henning (Divisional CFO)

Thank you. Morning, all. Yes, Section 45X is for five years, you elect direct pay from the first year. We've already, with our tax returns in anticipation of the 45x Mayday election for Direct Pay. So from the tax years effective '23 for five years, we will get Direct Pay.

Post that event from the years onwards and there's no expiry date on 45x as it relates to Critical Minerals, you will have this first you will apply to your taxable paid at this period and thereafter you can sell the credits here in The U. S. At a discounted rate for cash as well. So at the end of the day, you will offset it to post five years against your taxable income and the balance will can be converted into a cash resource quite relatively easily in The U. S.

Markets. We do expect as it relates from a timing point of view, we do need to resubmit our twenty twenty three tax returns during this year to make the claim Depending on administration process with the IRAs, we expect that to hopefully this year, but I guess depending on timing that could roll into 2026. '20 '20 '4 tax return will be submitted during this year, obvious, and that will be paid out within hopefully twelve months and therefore also expected into 2026. Thank you.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

I've got two more questions for The U. S. PGM operations. The first from Nkateko Matonsi. What is your targeted palladium breakeven price for the restructured Stillwater operations?

And I guess we'd have to look at a Section 45X and without Section 45X price, I assume. And then do you think $1,000 per ounce AISC is still achievable at The U. S. PGIM operations? From Chris Nicholson.

Charles, will you or Neil, will you go for it?

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Yes, sorry. Charles, please, would you pick that one up?

Charles Carter (Chief Regional Officer of Americas)

Yes, sure. Thanks, Neil. So let me take the second question first on driving towards 1,000. So we've set ourselves thirty six months to really achieve this. Obviously, where we can bring that forward, we will.

And it covers multiple fronts. So it's everything from logistics changes to mining areas, mining method changes, mining cycle changes, material and maintenance strategies and underpinning all of that is the peoples and skills focused. We're really opening up and resource loading current mining fronts even though it's a reduced footprint. We're optimizing our fleet requirements and we've got really two phases on the mining methodologies. Phase one, which is going to really run six to eighteen months is to fully mechanize MCF and Phase II that follows that is to convert to SLE.

And where we can overlap that, we will. So I think thirty six months is realistic. There's a lot to do, but this is our intent. And obviously, on a unit basis, if we lift volumes with better prices, we will get that accordingly. But the intent is to get a sustainable $1,000 an ounce cost character to our production machine and then to scale that up with better pricing and as we can bring volume back on Stillwater West mine further down the road, it will be on a more efficient basis.

So that's the game plan. Obviously, quarter by quarter, you're not going to see dramatic changes there. But I think over the twelve to eighteen months, you already start to see a shift underway. As I noted in the presentation, 45x effectively takes $100 an ounce off ASIC. So at $950 pricing, we're still bleeding cash, $9.75, we're still bleeding cash.

We start to get towards 1,200 with 45 x, you're starting to see a breakeven scenario. So, this machine is very geared, very levered to price upside. It's also very levered to getting productivity improvements and then volume increases over time. So I think it's a good game plan that we have on the go. Thank you.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

Thanks, Charles. And I think it's probably worth pointing out that that $110 per ounce benefit from 45 x is actually only on the portion that applies to the mining operations. If you include the $30,000,000 from the recycling, it actually goes up to over $200 per ounce. So depending on how you look at these things, it can be quite a big difference for U. S.

Operations. Dollars 60,000,000 is quite chunky for Nexo. Some questions on the Appian case from Shashi Shektar at City. Could you please provide some details on the status of the case with Apion over canceled Brazilian mines deal? How much are you planning to keep aside in provisions?

And then Lisa Steyn at News24. Is Sibanye open settlement talks? She mentions here a worse funded scenario of cost scenario of $1,200,000,000 but I think we dealt with that when last year that the claim is half of that at most. So Neil, I think that runs for you.

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Yes. No, thanks. And I think there was one more that came in, James from Lorenzo at JP Morgan. And he highlights that I see that the potential claim payable ranges between $0 and $522,000,000 So, Lisa, there's no chance of a $1,200,000,000 claim. I think that's the first thing.

Let me say, we're struggling to see why there's actually any claim at all. But having said that, we're quite open to engaging in settlement talks, remembering that APN has a duty to minimize the damages while we're in dispute. So let me leave it there. The rest, we can't really comment on. It's really sub judicate. Thank you. Thanks, James.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

Okay. Thank you, Neil. A question from Arnold van Kran.

Will we be able to recoup some of the bushfire related losses at Sentry from insurance and our insurers?

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

So I think let's ask either Barry or Rob to pick that up. Rob, up to you.

Robert van Niekerk (Chief Technical & Innovation Officer)

Okay. Thank you, Neil, and hello, Arnold. Let me start off by saying that the full cost of the fire is included in the 2024 results, while most of the insurance payments are still to be received in 2025. Insofar as damaged equipment is concerned, we are fully covered for that after a small excess of AUD 1,000,000 and we also have full business interruption insurance. That being said, that comes into play after a thirty day period.

So in summary, our damaged equipment fully recovered business interruption insurance after a delay of thirty days. Thank you, Arnold.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

Thanks. The next question, I'll just quickly answer one from Jandray Pizza, sir, about U. S. Credits. Are they based on profit or cost CapEx?

So the credits actually base 10% of operating costs at our extractive operations, which is the mining operations and then recycling as well. So it's a double benefit there. This one is on a few questions back on the gold again. Hi, Richard. At what shaft and what average depth is the new Drieffenstein VCR block?

And at Clerf, will the secondary reef project target the main reef and again at which shaft and at what average depth and does this access require pre development? That's from Bruce Williamson. You can see the old dogs ask the very detailed questions. And then one question about whether we plan to reopen Kloeff Foreshaft.

Richard Stewart (CEO Designate and Chief Regional Officer)

Bruce, good morning and thanks very much. Bruce, in terms of the VCR block at Griffontein, that's actually quite a significant block that we explored and started opening up about a year ago. It actually sits amongst the predominantly Drieffontein Five shaft and some of the extremities of Drieffontein One. So that would be a total depth of about 2,700 odd meters. So that's the VCR block and certainly forms a big portion of what's going forward at Drieffontane 5.

The Clurf Secondary reefs we're targeting are actually the Clurf and the Middle Fly Reef. We have very successfully targeted these in the past out of the Clurf 8 Shaft and currently we are looking to open that up at the Clurf 1 Shaft. So, that would also be at a depth in the region of about 2,500, two point two to 2.5 kilometers. That bunker ground does require opening up, so we do use of course, the main infrastructure that's previously mined the VCR, but there is opening up on the secondary reefs, which is currently occurring and part of the reason why there was a slight increase in ORD costs across Cliff over the last year. Thanks, Bruce.

Sorry, second question around reopening K4. So that's something we do continually assess, but there are no plans at the moment to open it right now, no.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

Thanks, Richard. I don't have any more questions on the from the webcast. So could we maybe go to the lines, Chorus Call lines, please?

Operator (participant)

The first question that we have comes from Marina Salero of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Marina Calero (VP)

Hi, good morning. Thanks for the call. I have a couple of questions.

First, a follow-up on the 45x. Given the change in the new version in The U. S, how likely do you think is that this program will take place?

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

All right. Let me pick that up. Merino, thanks. I think that if the strategic metal we were producing was about, let me call it, the green energy revolution, I would probably be a little bit worried. The fact is that the strategic metals we produce are strategic in terms of where I think President Trump wants to take the country and make it self sufficient.

So I don't think there's any risks related to 45 x for our business. I hope that answers your question.

Marina Calero (VP)

That's great. And one more, if I may. On Ryonet Bridge, given that you are prioritizing the balance sheet in the current market environment, how likely you think that you will exercise this option this year? I appreciate to see the Board evaluating the latest details, but how are you thinking about that? And when do you think you will be in a position to communicate a decision for the market?

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Again, let me pick that up. The Board is currently deliberating. We've presented, let's call it, our assessment having received the detailed feasibility study. I think probably within a week, we will be able to advise the market of our decision. The funding of Rhyolite Ridge, we've always said, if we were to go ahead, it would be separately funded.

But I think let's rather wait for our board to deliberate and make a final decision.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question we have comes from Adrian Hammond of SBG. Please go ahead.

Adrian Hammond (Executive Director)

Yes, good morning. I have three questions. First, for Mika, if he's able to answer my questions on Calabar. Just curious what the scope is changing and what the impact is on CapEx and then as well as since you won't be taking in feed, you will be mining your own material. That will be assuming you're going to move into a commercial state of production as soon as next year.

Are you able to give us some cost and CapEx guidance for this business or for modeling purposes? And then for perhaps Neil or Charles, I see you've done a $50,000,000 current repayment. Which assets were those? Was it Rustenburg or Crindall? And is this separate from Glencore JV?

Has that money flowed? Would you do some more? And then since Neil invited the question for Richard, I'm going to ask what does he envisage as changes he'd like to implement for the business going forward? Thank you.

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Perfect. Thanks, Adrian. So I'll ask Charles just to pick up the KRON prepayment. And then I'd ask Mika to answer your question in terms of calaboscope and guidance there. But let's start with Richard on Adrian's question regarding any strategic changes you may be thinking of, Rich.

Richard Stewart (CEO Designate and Chief Regional Officer)

Adrian, good morning. I'm afraid the answer I'm going to give you is probably going to be a little bit boring. And that's and I think as a company, we've spent a good few years developing the strategy that we have. I think in many instances, that strategy has been very forward looking and really been based on what we as a team see as very long term fundamental issues, whether that relates to energy transition, whether it relates to multipolarity. I think we've given a lot of guidance to the market on how that strategy was developed.

And I dare say, I don't think that any of those sort of long term fundamentals have changed. So the broad strategy of the company remains appropriate and certainly not something that I would be looking to significantly change at all. I have been part of developing that with the team and our board, and I think that supports it going forward. Of course, we always have to look at our current operating environment in the short term and as well as what we our strengths internally. And I think as you can hear in this presentation, our focus is very much at the moment on our strategic essentials balance sheet.

And that's that we've got to take into consideration. So that will remain the short term focus. But the long term strategy around ultimately growing our diversified base in terms of green metals will remain a long term strategy, but will be executed as appropriate given market conditions and our current position. So Adrian, I hope that assists.

Adrian Hammond (Executive Director)

Yes, that's great. Thanks, Richard.

Richard Stewart (CEO Designate and Chief Regional Officer)

Charles, if you'd like me to take the crown prepay, I can pick that up as well.

Charl Keyter (CFO & Executive Director)

Rich, I'm happy to go.

So, Adrian, in terms of the crown prepay, this was done 100% on Rustenburg material. As you pointed out, it was $50,000,000 and it was for a short period of six months. I think this was basically a first transaction to make sure that we can execute the chrome prepay. And this does not impact the JV that we announced recently. Would we do more?

I think for now, we've done the self help measures that we believe had the biggest impact. So we'll keep this in our back pocket in case we need it going forward. And then you would also know, for instance, we've got about ZAR25 billion of inventory sitting on that we can always also use to monetize that. So Adrian, we have a lot of dry powder to make sure that we can protect the balance sheet, but I don't think we're going to rush out and do further prepayments because as the balance sheet stands now and our liquidity, there's no need for us to do anything else beside what we've done to date.

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Thanks, Joel.

And Mika, if you can answer Adrian's first question, please.

Mika Seitovirta (Chief Regional Officer - Europe)

Thank you, Neil, and thanks for the question. Concerning the Kielipa CapEx, so as mentioned, based on the regulatory changes and changes from the authorities, including consequently some changes in the scope of the project. So as we speak now, we are working on an updated CapEx profile. We have also included into this work our ramp up considerations and risk mitigation on that one. I would say that within four to six weeks, we are in a position to announce our stakeholders the updated numbers.

Concerning your second point about external FEED, actually not using it is improving our numbers this year because of the current market environment. And we will be on time with the mine so that we have enough home ore, which obviously has a completely different cost profile. So this is how we plan to do the H1 '20 '6 ramp up of the refinery.

James Wellsted (Executive VP of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs)

I think that's it. We don't have any more questions on the webcast on the Chorus Line. No questions, I believe. So, Neil, would you like to say a few wrapping up words? Yes.

Neal Froneman (Outgoing CEO)

Yes. So, again, I just want to thank everybody for joining the call. I hope you found our presentation interesting. I must say twenty twenty four was a year where we implemented what I want to call austerity measures. We arrested the declining earnings profile.

You can see that started some way back already. I believe the company is very well positioned. And I would just like to thank the Sabania Stillwater employees and the senior management team for working through what has been quite a difficult period, especially when you consider there's been significant job losses. Looking forward, though, I think the company is very well positioned, especially relative to our peers. And again, let me say, I'm very pleased with the CEO succession transition that we're entering into.

And certainly, between Richard and I, over the next few months, we'll ensure an orderly transition with minimum disruption. So, again, thank you for your time and please have a good and a safe day. Thank you.