Operator: All attendees to arrive. Welcome to the Lifezone Metals webcast. Please give us a few more minutes for more attendees to arrive. Welcome to the Lifezone Metals webcast to discuss the Q3 2026 interim financial results and to provide an operational update. We will finish today's event with a question and answer session. You can submit a question using the Q&A box at the top of the page. Please feel free to contact us directly for any questions not addressed on this webcast. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's event will contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Details of the forward-looking statements are contained in our 29 October news release on our website at www.lifezonemetals.com.
Operator: Please see additional disclaimers, which I would encourage you to read in your own time. Joining me today is Lifezone's Chief Executive Officer, Chris Showalter, and Chief Financial Officer, Ingo Hofmaier. Without any further ado, I would like to turn things over to Ingo to start the presentation. Thank you.
Ingo Hofmaier: Thank you, Kathleen, and welcome to our Q3 financial results presentation. As in the past, we want to speak about the nickel market first, which is topical after last week's LME Week. After a strong H1, the H2 has so far seen a mixed nickel market with many contradictory signals. Sulphur peaked mid-year at around $1,100 per ton, which was a historical high. Indonesian imports of sulphur fell in volume but rose in value as Middle Eastern suppliers retreated sharply. Starting in Q3, improved shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and supplementary imports such as Canadian sulphur significantly improved Indonesian sulphur supply compared to Q2. Sulphur is now reported to be trading at around $800 per ton, which is still eight times last year's price.
Ingo Hofmaier: Our friend Jim Lennon reported that every $100 increase in sulphur prices adds around $1,000 per ton of HPAL production costs in Indonesia. Therefore, Indonesian HPAL producers have moved from the bottom to the top of the cost curve, with some cutting outputs by up to 50%, and there are rumors that more cuts are going to follow. Also, some of the analysts noted recently that ore grades in the limonite ore falling below 1.5% to 1.4% versus acid consumption per unit of nickel recovered, which compounds the sulphur cost pressure. On the other hand, Class 1 stocks have risen, seemingly keeping LME prices in check. More importantly, ore prices have fallen in the last couple of months as extra RKAB quotas came onto the market with downstream operations complaining about not having enough ore and a delayed rainy season extending the mining window in Indonesia.
Ingo Hofmaier: With well over 65% of market share still going, Indonesia holds the key to nickel prices and has publicly maintained in recent weeks that its target price is 19,000 to 20,000 USD per ton. With that, I would like to hand over to Chris for a more operation update before I return with the financials.
Chris Showalter: Okay. Thank you, Ingo. Okay. Welcome, everyone. I am very excited to dive right in here. I think from our last quarterly, we do have some material updates to talk about, and I will jump right into the key elements on the financing. First and foremost, on the short-term financing, this is really important liquidity for us to bridge from the DFS to FID. We have drawn down a total of $41 million, and we have the last tranche draw down. This is really empowering our owners team. I will talk on another slide, really the activities that have been undertaken and what the owners team is focused on because there is a lot of activity on the ground that is very important in really keeping us on these timelines to march toward FID, and really get all the preparation in place for the full scale of construction. Okay.
Chris Showalter: Next, we did issue a press release on Friday. It was publicly announced that Lifezone Metals is in advanced negotiations with the Orion Critical Mineral Consortium. This was disclosed on Friday, so this gives me the latitude to really discuss how we are positioned as a company and what this really means going forward. The Orion CMC, by introduction, this is a multi-billion dollar critical minerals consortium involving the US government, Orion, which is really the preeminent private investor in the mining space, as well as the sovereign investment fund, L'IMAD, from the UAE. What this really does is bring together some of the world's leading metals and mining investors, pools of capital, in addition to the projects and operators to create this. Really, this is all driven for the creation of competitiveness and national security, really led by the US government.
Chris Showalter: For us, what I am excited to convey here is for a tier 1 project like Kabanga, this is a demonstration of the types of capital we are able to attract and the strategic importance of Kabanga as a project, just given its size and scale. These are the pools of capital driven by the United States and its Western allies that are absolutely best in class for us to demonstrate the competitiveness for us moving forward as a project. This is something we will be able to announce more details in the near term. We cannot give a lot of details, but I think the fact that this is now public, what I can outline a little bit more is the US nexus that we are capitalizing on, the amount of support we are getting from all of the various departments and agencies.
Chris Showalter: This is really a Western-aligned investment consortium that we are marching forward with. I think that really translates into the project finance process as well. What you are going to see as we get into more detail on the project financing is a construct of a number of Western best in class banks, DFIs, ECAs, that will be complementary to the equity piece, which is obviously a very Western US-centric driven equity group. Something we are really excited about. There will be more detail to disclose as we go forward. For our board of directors, the process we have gone through, we could not have really designed a better investment group to come in and support this project. This news should be very positively taken and a demonstration of the work and support we have been undertaking in DC and overall with a US-led initiative.
Chris Showalter: Just in addition, I think I would like to highlight on the Tanzanian side, we continue to advance and get into final closing on the framework agreement. We have worked very intently in parallel to getting the equity in place and getting towards closing to finalize our agreements with the Tanzanian government. A credit to Honorable Mavunde, the Minister of Mines, for his support getting us to this point. He has been very active on the road. The Tanzanian delegations have been on a number of different circuits across really the globe, focusing on Tanzania being open for business. What we are very excited to do is once we get into our final announcements to really demonstrate this as the hallmark project supported by this Western ally consortium, and for Tanzania to be unlocking one of their most strategic sovereign resources with the help of this Western ally network.
Chris Showalter: This is going to be something very powerful. Really excited to get to that point. A credit to the Tanzanians and their excitement as well to see us close this deal. Okay, next. As we indicated, the Taurus bridge funding has been very critical. The owners team that has been assembled, a credit to Gerick Mouton, our Chief Operating Officer, and the team he has put in place. Gerick brings a tremendous amount of expertise on the ground in Africa, building and developing projects. He has really put together the team that he envisions is going to be the one to bring this to fruition. The team has been very busy working with our partners at DRA Global. There have been a number of workshops down in Johannesburg over the past several weeks.
Chris Showalter: All the work streams that are being deployed right now and undertaken as part of this interim bridge funding to get us from DFS to FID. There has been a tremendous amount of progress on the ground. Everything from camp upgrades to the procurement process. We have gone out now with over 600 plus packages for procurement, and that is a very intensive process. For us to be able to be working on this right now is critically important because the timelines we want to meet, and especially as we march towards FID, these are critical work streams. The team has been incredibly busy on the ground, and this is obviously all in advance of getting to the final closing and full FID. Okay, next.
Chris Showalter: Okay, as I always mention, sustainability and community engagement is going to be a hallmark of how we conduct ourselves on the ground. This is something that we put an enormous amount of time and effort into the social performance and resettlement program. What we would like to highlight here is the standard we hold ourselves to is incredibly high, and we are very proud to be able to demonstrate that that standard has resulted in us achieving a commercial result in our exit agreements with BHP, where we have an additional $8 million reduction in the terms with BHP. That was something that they challenged us to adhere on their exit to a certain standard, and we have been able to meet that IFC Performance Standards. That is something that we intend to continue to achieve as part of our overall motivation.
Chris Showalter: This is just a tangible, quantitative demonstration of we are actually on track, we are doing this the right way. The community has been massively engaged on all fronts, and this is resulting in tangible value back to Lifezone shareholders as a result. So really, really excited about this, and congrats to all the teams that worked on this. Other highlight, obviously 3 million plus hours with no lost time or injury at Kabanga. That is something we are going to be continually focused on as an organization. In terms of the overall performance, environmental permitting compliance everything is tracking. A lot of engagement has been taking place with TANESCO in terms of the power line coming in. These are all part of the work streams being managed by the owners team to ensure that we are advancing every part of the project as we march towards FID. Okay.
Chris Showalter: Really underpinning everything we do in Tanzania is the enormous commitment they have made to infrastructure, and the TANESCO engagements are paramount right now. TANESCO being the utility company in Tanzania, that power station, that substation we are going to be building those negotiations with TANESCO are critical and advancing very well right now. That is the 88-kilometer transmission line we need to bring in to the mine site so that we can tap into the new grid. The new grid is powered by a number of new hydro sites that I have outlined before. Tanzania is actually an over supplier of power versus its overall draw. So Tanzania is in an incredibly strong position to be that regional hub for infrastructure, and they continue to demonstrate that.
Chris Showalter: On the Standard Gauge Railway over 5 million passengers have now traveled on that, and the next stage of the expansion has been announced. Standard Chartered is leading that. It is going to be $3.79 billion. This will be extending that railway, that Standard Gauge Railway, through the interior of the country to the area near Kahama called Isaka, where our rail siding will be located. It is also going to be extending further into the region. On the port side, a lot of activity with Dubai World Ports being in control of the port. What you are seeing is you are seeing that translate into increased efficiencies in delivery time and turnaround time. This is also leading to expansion projects being progressed, which are really critical for us.
Chris Showalter: To have that Dubai World, you are seeing a strong nexus of investment and cooperation from the UAE that does have a correlation to us. The Orion CMC has the UAE Sovereign Fund as part of that consortium. We see a lot of synergies between the US leading this consortium, also with the UAE is a very major part of this, and that is something we will look to expand on further announcements. Next. As I mentioned, the extension of the Standard Gauge Railway, one of the extension lines will go into Burundi, where we have our Musongati Nickel project. This is really at the epicenter of how Tanzania is creating itself as a central critical metals corridor underpinned by the infrastructure development they have done to date.
Chris Showalter: What we are seeing right now is we are seeing the initial results of how that is translating further inland to countries like Burundi. Now that we are seeing progress on that, we are able to work and move forward on the Musongati project. We have had teams in the country and really what we have seen is again, a US-centric support for critical metals investment and development. This is something we are replicating the relationships we have in Tanzania. With those same supportive networks, we are unlocking and getting a lot of support from the US government in Burundi, really driving and supporting Burundi and US companies by association. We are also working closely with KoBold Metals as two of the preeminent mining companies in the country. What is really nice about this relationship is KoBold Metals focuses on digitizing historic geological data.
Chris Showalter: The material and the geological information from Musongati has been in very old forms. To translate and upgrade that and for that to be an initiative that KoBold's focusing on, that works very nicely for us to get an advanced series of information that we can then download into our processes. A very symbiotic, very positive relationship with KoBold Metals and that is a relationship that I wanted to highlight. In terms of the next stages in Burundi for us is really focusing on working with the government. As I said, we have the teams there right now, and we will have some more announcements later on, before end of this year on really what the shape of that next step of the program is going to look like.
Chris Showalter: That entails getting samples out to do hydrometallurgical test work on, and undertaking a drilling program to not only further confirm the laterite and the extent of that ore body, but also to focus and look at the extent of the potential deeper sulfide material. Working very closely with the government right now in Burundi and the ministry, and working out what that drilling program will look like. Exciting progress in Burundi. I think as we, number 1, leverage the regional infrastructure that Tanzania is driving, these additional ore bodies of critical metals increases the size and scale of the opportunity in the overall East African region. The size and scale of these opportunities have to be supported by large governments and investment capital.
Chris Showalter: And that is what Lifezone Metals is demonstrating, that we are in a preeminent position to begin unlocking some of these new core sources of battery metals, with the support of a Western allied investment capital group. I will touch on another extension. As I said, we are focused on really the flagship project in Tanzania, but also we have a pipeline of other projects that also include support from the United States government. What you are seeing is us focused on a domestic auto cat recycling program. We are very, very pleased with the results of the last piloting. One of the key elements of a hydromet process for the recycling of catalytic converters is can you get those recoveries up to be competitive with the pyrometallurgical processes. Our teams have delivered on that. We are into the second confirmatory piloting.
Chris Showalter: This is a partnership with Glencore, in the US. What we are doing right now is working with Glencore. We have identified a site, so that is very important that we have concluded on a site selection, and we will be marching towards FID, in Q1 2027. This is, again, I have emphasized this sometimes on these calls about how exciting this project is. As we focus on getting Kabanga funded, closed, Lifezone Metals will be focused on identifying other areas where we can work with our US strategic partners and allies to unlock these choke points that you hear about in the press. The way you unlock those choke points is you design and develop solutions for the processing and refining.
Chris Showalter: The mines and the locations are one part of the equation, but when you really look at the supply chain challenges, it is really in the processing and refining. With how we are positioned right now, that is where we can focus our core competitive positioning. I think this is going to be another demonstration of how we go from Kabanga to auto cats, and then we have a pipeline of additional projects that we are going to continue to focus on. Bringing in the prowess of these investment partners is really going to be one of the strongest complements for us as a platform.
Chris Showalter: Positioning ourselves as a US-listed main board company with this funding capacity, the technological innovation and capacity that we have focused on projects, that is really how you are going to see Lifezone Metals positioned to be really to solve a lot of these issues going forward.
Chris Showalter: Really, really well designed strategically going forward. If I then go to the next slide. We are seeing a lot of this in our labs in Perth. Simulus Group and the work they are doing, not only have they delivered for us the first ever refined metal out of Kabanga, through that process. The R&D that they have undertaken has unlocked our hydromet flow sheet for the auto cats. Those are only two proprietary projects that we have been working on with Simulus Group. What Simulus Group is focused on right now, there is piloting for other products, other critical metals, antimony, germanium, rare earths, a series of base metals where they have a core expertise, and also precious metals, including gold.
Chris Showalter: So what we are seeing is we have our proprietary projects, but Simulus continues to grow and be bringing in third-party work where we are not only doing this for Lifezone, but we are assisting other mining companies throughout the world, delivering our expertise through a collaborative agency process. What I like about this is we have the opportunity to also work with some of these projects we see going through our pipeline. So if we see a project that we think is really well-positioned, we can look at a collaborative approach as Lifezone on specific projects that we see. And I think unlocking these solutions for Lifezone translates into unlocking these solutions for other mining companies.
Chris Showalter: So a really critical role we are playing is, and an unheralded role is the work we are doing at Simulus in Perth, where we are helping other mining companies really solve those choke points, trying to find new innovative flow sheets so that we can move forward and really collectively be part of this transition from supply chains being really controlled by one region and really focusing on an emerging Western allied supply chain that transcends not only our Kabanga project, but we can play a major role assisting not only the majors, but other mid tiers and juniors. So a lot of work going through our labs right now, and that is going to really be part of our pipeline going forward. Okay, I will turn it back over to you, Ingo.
Ingo Hofmaier: Thank you, Chris. So now we come to the core part of the Q3s. Please follow me on the very right side through the table. What you can see here is the 9 months to September 2026, and the 9 months to 30 September 2025. In 2026, we started the year with $20 million in cash and cash equivalents. We had operating cash flows of $7.8 million. That is an improvement of around $1.3 million. So we are in the second year now, where we try to manage our general and administrative cash costs tightly. The investing activities, as you would have expected, increasing our execution readiness activities and final engineering of design and procurement activities have increased to $24 million in cash, and financing activities were $34 million in the 9 months. There were no financing activities in Q3.
Ingo Hofmaier: I think if you remember, we had a capital raise in April where we raised $25 million in gross proceeds, $23.3 million in net. And then we also received $21.7 million in the H1 from the Taurus bridge loan that we signed last August. There is another $18.3 million undrawn, which is available until 29 November, and conditional on the joint financial model and framework agreement amendment. We ended the Q3 at $22 million. And the liquidity, including the undrawn amount from the bridge loan, is $40.5 million. In terms of our liabilities, the convertible debenture with a nominal value of $50 million is on the books for $39.5 million and kind of gets amortized and will get to this point after the four years.
Ingo Hofmaier: We have the bonds from the 2025 offering and then the senior secured bridge loan facility, plus the deferred consideration from BHP, which is now reduced by $8 million. What you see there on the books is, on the one side, it is a $10 million payment 12 months after FID and $28 million indexed to our share price, and the index reference point is $4.16 US. That maximum amount has been reduced by $8 million, so there is a cap on it. In terms of the E&E assets, they have increased, and this is basically the book value of our Kabanga asset from $104 million to $272 million.
Ingo Hofmaier: If you compare this to the investing cash flows, there are some non-cash elements there. In particular, we capitalize the interest costs or the cost of the senior secured bridge loan facility from Taurus because that is exclusively for the advancement of Kabanga.
Ingo Hofmaier: The loss per share, basic and diluted is the same, simply because it was a loss in the period. Therefore, the diluted is the same. It is not always just about numbers. We have a team size of 248 employees and contractors. As one of the slides from Chris mentioned earlier, 188 people, so the large majority, of course, are linked to the Kabanga project and are working across the Kabanga site, Dar es Salaam, but also in our engineering partner offices in Joburg, South Africa. Next slide, please. In terms of our register, as we did not raise equity this quarter, there was not much of a change in the outstanding shares. We issued around 500,000 shares under our RSU program. You can then see here the fully diluted share count. As of yesterday, we had a market cap of $307 million.
Ingo Hofmaier: Probably one noteworthy thing is that, of course, we have seen a nice uptick after the announcement of the advanced conversations with the Orion CMC, but also that after we bought the 17% stake of BHP last year, they have also in the quarter exited our Lifezone Metals shareholder register. With that, I think we are going into Q&A, and I hand back to Kathleen. Thank you very much.
Operator: Thank you, Ingo. Thank you, Chris. As a reminder, if anyone has any questions, please raise them via the Q&A box, which should be located at the top of your screen. We are only taking written questions, so please could you post these in the Q&A, and we will address them as we go forward. We have our first question. Chris, this will be for you. Can you talk a bit more on the conversations with the US government and the other strategic partners for Musongati, and could conversations be similar to what we are undergoing with the Orion CMC?
Chris Showalter: They are very early stage compared and relevant to Kabanga, but I think the overall way we approach these transactions is really that we are being very supported by the US State Department, by other areas within the US government. I think what we are able to do is really go shoulder and shoulder into some of these discussions. I think what you are seeing is we are uniquely positioned to be able to capitalize on the strong policy initiative from the US and leading Western allies. This is an incredibly important point in time, and I think with the strategic knowledge that these supply chains are not going anywhere in terms of policy importance, we are really, really focused on capitalizing on our positioning.
Chris Showalter: That is going to extend from Kabanga to the project in Burundi, and you are going to see us in a situation where we can replicate that model going forward. As I said, this is a point in time where the momentum is there for us to take advantage of. We are uniquely positioned. I love the fact that we are a main board-listed company, and once we fully announce the terms of this deal, I think we are in a position to materially re-rate, and that will put us in a position to just continually access the full scope and potential of US financial intermediary markets and be a funding and leverage platform going forward for additional projects, additional growth. That to us is very exciting. I think we have got the platform where we can tap into US institutional capital.
Chris Showalter: We have got the key strategic partners as we have evidenced in the discussions with the Orion CMC. There will be additional announcements regarding other areas of cooperation that we have not disclosed as yet, and we will in the near term. But I think this kind of big bang, full comprehensive approach is something we are going to be evidencing that we are just right at the forefront of being able to monetize.
Operator: Thank you. Chris, we have a few questions on Orion CMC, so I am going to ask a few of them in order. The first one being, will Lifezone still be the operator and controlling shareholder of the project following the current negotiations?
Chris Showalter: Yeah. Our intent, and I think this is something that we can demonstrate based on the build-out of our owners team, is we as Lifezone Metals and with the capability and skills of the team we've assembled, we are going to move forward. We are going to be the operator and controlling shareholder driving this project into full scale construction and commissioning. We're highly confident in the team we have. I think that's obviously been through a very detailed due diligence process by the various investors. Just to take a step back, we've had a very competitive process.
Chris Showalter: I think when you look at the process we've been alluding to with Standard Chartered, an asset the quality of Kabanga, there was tremendous interest. We were in an incredibly privileged position to be able to select really the top tier, best in class investment capital to come into this project. I think the board was very specific about what is going to be in the best interest of shareholders and where can we achieve the most value. I think the magnitude and the overall breadth of these pedigreed partners, I don't think we could be in a stronger position. To the point, we intend to drive this project forward. We will be the controlling operator, and we are going to go build this mine.
Operator: Thank you. Second question to that is, are we still expecting to close the deal before the end of the year? Are the terms still being negotiated, or is the size of the deal pretty much arranged?
Chris Showalter: What I can say is pretty much we have concluded the commercial negotiations. We are in final legal processes. I think with what I can say right now is we are looking to close this as soon as possible. Without giving any definit.
