LZM Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): The Lifezone Metals webcast to discuss the Q1 2026 Financial Results summary and to provide an operational update. We'll finish today's event with a question-and-answer session. You can submit a question using the Q&A box at the top of your page. Please feel free to contact us directly for any questions not addressed in 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.

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): Details of the forward-looking statements are contained in our 30 April news release on our website at lifezonemetals.com. Please see additional disclaimers, which I'd encourage you to read in your own time. Joining us today are Lifezone Metals' Chief Executive Officer, Chris Showalter, and Chief Financial Officer, Ingo Hofmaier. Without any further to do, I'd like to turn things to Ingo Hofmaier for his introduction and the presentation.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): Thank you, Catherine, and welcome to our webinar. If you can please turn to the next page. As we all know, we had a very challenging period in the Nickel market over the last two years, predominantly caused by oversupply from Indonesia. Since the start of this year, things look a lot brighter. As of the end of last week, Nickel prices actually reached a two-year high, and they're up 37% from one of the low points in late 2025. Today, spot prices for Nickel, Copper, and Cobalt, the products that the mine will produce, are all higher than the long-term price assumptions in the feasibility study that we released in July 2025.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): For nickel, the price increase has various reasons, but most of all, there is, we believe, a realization in Indonesia that the relatively uncontrolled oversupply from lateritic operations in Indonesia needs to be brought under control. That seems to be driven by a desire in Indonesia to increase the tax break take from royalties and from taxes. So what have the Indonesians done in the recent past? First of all, they have reduced the nickel ore mining quota quite significantly compared to apparent demand. To better manage output, they've also reduced the validity from, of the quota system from 3 years to 1 year, so they can really turn the dial on a much shorter timeline. They've also revised the benchmark pricing mechanism, which means all the by-products are now included.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): With that, the net size for that is that the costs ultimately go up because you're also paying, for instance, royalties on cobalt, which is a very valuable by-product, but you're paying the royalties, so that's the price increase. There was the implementation of a tiered royalty system. That means if you look at the chart on the right side, that at current nickel prices, the royalty is 15% compared to 10% at the start of last year. That's a 50% increase of royalty rates. That's quite significant. There is other factors that I think are well documented, which is number 1, mining in Indonesia has happened for decades now, and therefore the best parts are already mined, and ores well rates are declining.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): Also there is an understanding in Indonesia and authorities to enforce environmental regulations more strictly. There were quite a few incidences over the couple of years that the local communities were very upset about, and I think this is very much driven by Indonesians considering the demands and needs of Indonesian communities. A very recent change and an upside risk, and probably most significant of all, LME metals impacted is nickel, is the increase in Sulfuric acid prices and the potential shortage of Sulfuric acid globally. China has implemented an export ban on Sulfuric acid, and every leach operation in Indonesia leaches Sulfuric acid. Around 15% to 20% of Indonesian output is highly dependent on this.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): The growing consensus is that ultimately fertilizer production will have priority in the next couple of weeks and months over other metal or chemical implications. That nickel is probably at the very low end of the pecking order in terms of the ability to pay for or getting priority for sulfuric acid delivery. There's quite a few things here where our analysts and traders expect the nickel price still to have a lot to go for and there's an upside risk. For the first time also in years, the International Nickel Study Group published last week that the market outlook for this year is a deficit compared to, I think, the last 3 years, but you can see how big the number was in 2025, a significant surplus that suppressed prices.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): In short, in today's world, under today's spot prices. The Kabanga Nickel NPV is around $300 million higher than the NPV in the study on the long-term prices. I think this outlines the very significant change in the nickel market environment. Let's stop here for a moment. We can speak about this more in the Q&A, I guess. I am sure there will be questions. In the meantime, I hand over to Chris to continue with the operational update.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Okay. Thanks, Ingo. Okay, what I'll transition to now is really kind of an update of where we are. I mean, we are in this transition process from really guiding through the strategic process to, you know, the transition into the FEED execution readiness. As we've, you know, talked to the market about, we are in this, you know, period where we are utilizing the $60 million bridge loan from Taurus. I'll show some slides that really goes to the deployment of that capital. You know, what are the priority areas we're focused on in terms of execution readiness, local infrastructure, and all the details of, you know, what we're actually, you know, focused on with the local Tembo team.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Importantly, we updated on the last public webcast that we are advancing the long-term strategic partnership process. We have been very, I think, clear to the market that we are very much focused on shareholder value and really tabling to the board of directors, you know, what is gonna be, you know, the most, you know, shareholder-driven, value-accretive recommendation based on the offers we've received. This is very advanced, and this is something that we're gonna continue to. You know, this is a large amount of management's time and effort right now is considering the proposals that have come in, finalizing negotiations, and getting prepared for recommendations to the board. This is at a very advanced stage, and we will be updating the market as soon as we can regarding this process.

Chris Showalter (CEO): This is, this is the number one priority for us right now as executive management, is to conclude this process, and that's getting most of our time and attention. In parallel to this, we are very focused on the project finance. This is something that Ingo's been leading on his side. This is really a process that is. I mean, this does take quite a bit of time. It's very detailed. There are a lot of stakeholders involved. What we can say on this process is that the indications we've had are very, very positive, specifically regarding the nature and size, cash flow generation, duration of the mine longevity. This is a very attractive project for project financiers. We've had a very, very positive engagement with a number of potential lenders. This is something that we'll kick off.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Once we finalize and announce the long-term strategic partnership or alternative, and that process is Standard Chartered, we will be able to make some material updates on the process with Societe Generale. This has been progressing in parallel very nicely. We will have more updates for the market shortly. Okay, next. Okay, as we are building up on the strategic process, there are a number of things we are doing in parallel, and this is very important because there are a number of work streams in terms of execution readiness that we are focused on.

Chris Showalter (CEO): A lot of this, just to outline and highlight, this is, you know, getting a series of elements on the ground, project set up and governance, engineering and technical delivery, procurement and contracting, construction, readiness, commissioning, and external delivery, project controls and risks. Our Chief Operating Officer, Gerick Mouton, and his team are working hand-in-hand with the Tembo team and bringing in a number of consultants that we are scaling up. This is all in preparation for the pathway to FID. The Taurus funds are enabling us and giving us the ability to maintain timelines, maintain all the execution readiness, all the development works that need to be put in place to put us in the strongest position to, once we hit FID, to maintain the timelines and forecasts for the project delivery. There's a number of things.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Obviously, we're in continual negotiations and engagement with the government of Tanzania. That's very important because as we go through the strategic process, we have to work very closely with our partners in Tanzania to outline and keep them informed. That is a big priority right now. Also, I'd like to highlight that we have concluded the U.S. Development Finance Corporation process, their E&A, E&S process, and the standard we need to achieve in terms of IFC Performance Standard 5. We did pass that milestone, so that is a very big credential for us to have concluded. That's something I would like to note. Next stage, or next slide.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Yeah, just to kinda continue, here's the, you know, some photos and just, you know, some snapshots of some of the activity on the ground. But to highlight, you know, one of the biggest activities is North Box Cut and really getting all the earthworks and service works underway. You'll see us drilling boreholes for water. You're gonna see a number of test pits. This is, in terms of the project execution, readiness, preparation, you know, what this highlights is that we are busy on the ground. The teams are being deployed. We're scaling up. All the activities that are required for us to move the project forward are fully underway. You know, what I'd like to do is also compliment the teams on the ground.

Chris Showalter (CEO): They've been working very hard, and there is a lot of activity. This is probably the most important, you know, commitment we are demonstrating, not only to investors and shareholders but also to the government of Tanzania, is this pathway to progress the project while we get to FID. Okay, next. This is just another slide outlining, you know, some of the activities. The other example of what we are doing right now is working with the Mining Commission. There are a number of critical path expressions of interest that we are going out. In terms of the, you know, the work programs, the activities, the packages, we have gone through the process of releasing these to the market. Request for proposals, this is in the tune of roughly $380 million.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Everything from camp upgrade to infrastructure, water treatment, plant development, maintenance areas, camp storage, and buildings. This is just another slide demonstrating the level of activity on the ground, all the preparation, all the readiness that's currently underway. This, you know, for us, it's important to demonstrate on these calls and show examples of the progress that's actually taking place on the ground while we continue the more confidential process of working on the strategic investment and the FID process. Then obviously, we're working with the government in terms of, you know, the pathway for beneficiation. You know, I'd like to note that this is something that is very important to the government of Tanzania.

Chris Showalter (CEO): It is one of their major policy initiatives, is to show through our, through our proposal of focusing on the mine and concentrator up front, we continue to work with the government on a long-term downstream beneficiation pathway. That's something that we, you know, we have committed to, and that we're working very hard with them to, you know, to do those technical studies together. Okay. Okay. The standard through which we hold ourselves is very high. I think this goes back to some of the initial partnerships we've had with previous investors, BHP, for example. We've always adhered to a very high standard on the ground, and that continues through this transition process. When you see the occupational health and safety reports, this is something we're always gonna herald in board meetings and company presentations, project reports.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Two point seven million hours worked without a lost time injury at Kabanga. This is obviously something we're gonna be, you know, very much focused on. I think when you look at the scale-up of the project, this becomes even more important to focus on as management. We have roughly 230 employees and contractors by the end of March currently, and the environmental monitoring that runs in parallel. This is all in a build-up to FID and going into the full construction process. Importantly, we've also completed an ISO compliant life cycle analysis or assessment, an LCA, for the Kabanga project. This is something we have not released yet, but we can say as management we're very pleased with the results.

Chris Showalter (CEO): I think this is something that'll demonstrate the differentiating factor between us and Indonesia is really the low emission impact. Those credentials are very important to us still. That's something that we're gonna be able to release in the near term. That is concluded, and we are pleased with the results. Okay. Okay. Just an extension of the activity and the commitment on the ground. What's fundamental to us right now is in this transition period where there's the commencement of more material activity on the ground, it's really it's that social license to operate. The standard we strive to is to really overachieve when it comes to specifically engaging with the community. Catherine specifically and her team, this is a major focus.

Chris Showalter (CEO): The MOU that we've implemented for the CSR project, this is something that's really a step forward. This is not something we're required to do. In terms of health, education, you know, local sports activities, you know, assisting with local agricultural support, these are all things that we are continuing through this transition process as we bridge from conclusion of the DFS through to the process of funding and FID. That social license to operate and demonstrate to the local community that we are committed, we're there, and we're moving everything forward is paramount for us right now in this current stage. The resettlement plan obviously has progressed. We've compensated people, and we continue that extensive community engagement on the ground. That's, you know, I can't emphasize again the importance of this work stream in this current period.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Next. Something we really wanted to highlight in this presentation, specifically on the back of the additional capital we have raised for the deployment of additional projects. For Lifezone Metals, we have our flagship project in Kabanga, but that has always been, you know, one major first demonstration of our capabilities. There obviously is a much larger vision for us as a company. One really good demonstration of that is the ability for us to have, you know, worked very closely with the Burundi government to begin the process of exploring, investigating this second large deposit that rests in the same region as Kabanga. Just by way of background, the Musongati deposit, we have an exclusivity agreement with the government of Burundi that we signed in March. This was discovered at the same time as Kabanga.

Chris Showalter (CEO): It's a laterite deposit. It's different, it is another very large, very significant resource. The interest for us to look at this in parallel is when you look at the focus on critical supply chains globally around the world right now, when you look at Kabanga and potentially the bolt-on of a Musongati, you're almost creating a completely separate, independent Nickel and Cobalt supply chain away from the East. The scale and size of that is massively important, when it comes to, you know, the direction of Western governments to focus on critical supply chain security. This is another demonstration of how Lifezone is there providing solutions. Long-term scalable sources of critical metals, this is something that we're gonna be updating on, you know, more going forward.

Chris Showalter (CEO): I think the adjacency of Musongati, it's a project that would be very challenged without the infrastructure, the shared operational potential, there's some very key operational synergies that we've identified that we're gonna be investigating over the period. This is something where this is the largest potential economic driver for Burundi. It's a very small country. It's getting a tremendous amount of support right now from specifically the US. This is something that we see as a very complementary initiative that shows the scale and size of East Africa as a massive source of new critical supply chain solutions for the consortium of Western-aligned governments. Okay.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Very exciting, I know I kinda hit on this at the end of the presentations, but again, I emphasize this is something we are very excited to discuss in more detail. We have concluded the piloting study and all the R&D for the platinum plating and rhodium recycling. This is a demonstration of our hydromet commercializing being deployed, and this is a much shorter pathway to market for us to demonstrate our key core advantage of being, you know, specialists in hydrometallurgy. We've been working very closely, you know, the consultant and the team member we have on this project right now, Justin Froneman, is working very closely with our team.

Chris Showalter (CEO): This is, right now where this is, we are going into the finalization, and we'll be concluding this in the coming weeks of the feasibility study. All the piloting has concluded with very, very high recoveries. I would like to emphasize that this project had taken a little bit longer 'cause of some more extended R&D, but what we've done is we have, in our view, we have identified an innovative breakthrough process that will really be groundbreaking in terms of this industry, specifically this recycling industry. It is an industry right now that is fractured, and it has a number of different components in the value chain.

Chris Showalter (CEO): We can consolidate that into one central collecting to final refining, we would be solving one of the key requirements specifically for the United States, which is ticking off platinum plating and rhodium from the critical supply chain risk register. This is something we've also applied for 2 grants from the DOE. We should be hearing back from them within the next 2 to 4 weeks. That would be for both potentially grant and debt funding for co-investment with us on this. We tick all the boxes in terms of what we're proposing as a solution to deliver, which is final refined metals recycled domestically in the US. Again, to emphasize, this is a partnership with Glencore.

Chris Showalter (CEO): What we really like about that partnership is this is something where Glencore doesn't have an extensive amount of exposure to the PGM market. The partnership with Lifezone and on this project gives them a rapid ability to scale up their metal book in partnership with us in recycling, which is a core strategic initiative for them right now. We're always, you know, focusing on Kabanga as our flagship project, but these are the type of solutions. Importantly, when you hear a lot of these governments talk, it's not about getting and securing licenses for mining rights or mineral rights. If you're really gonna solve the supply chain challenges in the world right now, you need the downstream processing and refining to be solved.

Chris Showalter (CEO): That is how we're positioned as a company, and this is a really good example of how we're gonna continue to provide solutions through a competitive advantage of applying our technology. Again, really excited about this one. Okay? Okay, I'll turn it back over to Ingo.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): Thank you, Chris. Thank you. Perfect. In the final slides, we wanna speak on the financial results, there's 2 things that really matter and are material for our investors, which is cash, liquidity, and cash flows for the period. The period in this case is 1 January this year to 31 March. We want to also speak about cash uses in terms of the funds that we have recently raised, I come back to this in a second. First of all, let's look at the cash flow statement. We had an opening cash balance of $20.1 million with operating activities or cash outflows in this department of $1.2 million. Significant improvements to the $3.3 million cash outflows in the comparable period a year before.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): The main driver for this is, and this is important to stress that we have a cash generating, already cash generating business in Perth with the Simulus lab. The Simulus lab in the last 2 years was highly focused on the flow sheet for Kabanga. That means the Kabanga Refinery, which is to a large degree complete. Secondly, what Chris just alluded to, the PGM recycling flow sheet. While these things have come to a close, there's still work to be done, of course. We have refocused the efforts of the Simulus lab on external revenue generation, and that drives this positive view. Of course, as our investors know and readers know, we have also been trying to optimize our operating structure, and costs have come down in that sense as well.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): With regards to investing activities, they are now increasing. You have seen that we have with all this team employees in Tembo Nickel in Tanzania, many short-term contractors in various areas of execution readiness and geotech and hydrotech drilling. There is of course more happening, so this number is up and is going to go up in the next couple of months until we reach FID, then it goes up a lot further for obvious reasons. The financing activities is a net number. That means the USD 2.48 million is a cash inflow. That was USD 5 million we received from Taurus as part of the second drawdown. The rest were interest payments under the convertible loan notes that we issued, announced 2 years ago.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): The convertible loan note, because it is now in place for more than 2 years, the second anniversary was the 27 March. From now on, we are paying the interest in cash. Before it was a component between share interest and PIK. That big outflow here was the big payment. Another part of that big payment was actually paid at the start of April. In terms of the liquidity, we had $15.27 million in the bank at 31 March, plus undrawn amounts under the Taurus facility of $35 million, made $50 million. It is worthwhile to update this number, even though this is a Q1 focus for recent events. We have last week raised $23.3 million in net proceeds via issuing 5.7 million shares at $4.40.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): Plus, we have received yesterday, out of this $35 million available, $16.7 million, which completes the second drawdown under the Taurus bridge loan facility. That means only $18.3 million is remaining to be drawn down. In our opinion, this is also sufficient to get to FID. The point I want to clarify is that Taurus is earmarked for the Kabanga Nickel project and can't be used for anything else. The funds that we have raised from existing and new investors in the US last week is for some of the initiatives that Chris has just spoken about. It means it is there if we want to undertake further activities in Burundi at Musongati. It's there for regional exploration. That means outside, so expanding the mine plan, for instance, in Tanzania. It's there for PGM recycling.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): It's for research projects and so on, and it's also for corporate working capital expenses. Income before tax was $2.4 million, and quite a lot of this income, and I will speak about this because there's all these things here, was driven by fair value gains. In our case, in Q1, this was $8.7 million in terms of fair value gains. There's three things or three situations that we are fair valuing on a quarterly or on a regular basis. Next page, please. To explain the profit before tax number, all of these are gains, and they were basically driven that our share price was lower at the end of the quarter than at the start of the quarter.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): I don't want to speculate here, but quite a lot of this was driven because of the uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East. Our share price has since then, it was $3.36 at the end of the quarter, also quite significantly recovered. As I mentioned at the outset, there is a significant amount of upside risk in the Nickel price, where many observers believe the upside risk in Nickel is the highest of all LME metals for reasons related to the shortage or potential shortages of sulfuric acid. What we are currently fair valuing is on the ones that we embedded derivatives, and that is currently the main driver here is the conversion right itself in the convertible at $8 per share.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): It's the fair value gain on warrants that we issued as part of the 2025 offering, $4.4 million warrants. There is the deferred consideration. There's a reminder on that. That's the deferred consideration payable to BHP. It's a 2-stage where $10 million has to be paid 12 months after FID. $28 million indexed to our share price payable 12 months after commercial production. That's why it is called a deferred consideration. It's ultimately an outstanding and a liability, a financial instrument to BHP. The $28 million is indexed to the share price. If the share price falls, the value of this falls, there's a gain because that liability reduces.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): I want to stress to readers, of course, there is an expectation of a significant amount of volatility in these calculations, as well as there's assumptions underpinning all of this. There could be a reversal to the trends. For instance, if our share price is going up, that means these things could become ultimately losses on the P&L and impact in-income. Next page, please. Having talked about cash and cash flows and the liquidity, an update here which is relevant on the capital structure. After the, what we call the 2026 offering that closed Thursday a week ago, we have 89.9 million ordinary shares outstanding. The rest there is no changes here. We have warrants. These are the warrants from our listing. We have earnout shares.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): These were the earnout shares under our business combination agreement. We have warrants to growers. These are not fair values. They are equity instruments. The warrants that were issued in November last year, they are liability, but in this calculation, they are shown as, of course, potential dilution. There's stock options and RSUs to key management personnel and employees. The market capitalization as of yesterday was $435 million. With this, I would like to conclude our operational update and financial results and open it up for questions and answers. Thank you very much for joining.

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): Thank you, Chris and Ingo. As a reminder to everyone, if you have a question, there's a Q&A box at the top of your screen. Please could you submit questions via that. Starting off, I've had an anonymous question come through regarding the nickel price outlook. The question, I think it goes to you, Ingo, would be: where do you think the nickel market is likely to be in the next couple of years, specifically around the time that Kabanga is expected to come online?

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): Well, yeah, this is very much a forward-looking statement. I would even say this is probably something which is more my opinion. There were a lot of people that were very wrong about the nickel outlook. Most of us, the nickel outlook as of the end of last year, probably including most of us, the view was that nickel will be oversupplied because there are still quite a significant amount of developments and expansion projects in Indonesia. The view was somehow related, and this was relayed by consultants and participants in the industry, that probably after 2028 or 2029, the market will be oversupplied.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): As the slide and the press release for the International Nickel Study Group outline, there is now the belief, both in Asia, where there was this earlier realization the market is a lot tighter, as well as the rest of the world, that the market can be quite tight. Ultimately, it's very much in the hands of the Indonesian government, and I think listeners need to make up their mind what they think is the driver ultimately. Indonesia, like many other countries, has financial, GDP, trade deficits and GDP, deficits. From that perspective, there is a view that the government is looking for avenues to increase revenues. The whole metal space, the royalties particularly, seem to be an area where, especially if you have a strong market share, you, you can do something there. There's a toolbox there.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): We can see it already. I mean, costs are definitely going up. There's also the view that costs are going up because energy prices are going up, supply chain restrictions, grades are going down. You can see, as we have shown this slide, that there's more and more imports of nickel ore into Indonesia from neighboring countries, particularly from the Philippines. Also what is an available standpoint is that the Indonesian government wants also further downstream beneficiation. First step was export ban for ore. That means the next step of beneficiation. Next step now is really going down into the battery space. This was always like in ten-year blocks, we are now entering the third phase of this. We can only speculate if the export tax comes.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): It might well be that because of the developments in the Middle East, that that is being put on hold currently. It is a fact that the royalty rate is 50% higher today than it was at the start of 2025. It also affects its grades are falling. Most commodity analysts are now believing that there is, in the short and significant upside risk because of sulfuric acid in the midterm, that this is probably a new price environment. Looking a lot better than last year. A last point here.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): What is also very encouraging around this is that from a project financing and from a funding perspective, you can, the listener can see that it was significantly easier and at better prices to raise equity at this time of the year than only 2 months before, number 1. Also, we have a lot more incomings from equity and debt investors this year. It is also much easier to fill roadshows this year. Where I think last year it was basically nickel was parked, and it was a show that was happening in the silver and gold space, this is broadening out. You can see in the precious metals that the peaks have not been reached again, while on the base metals, this seems to be moving quite nicely to the upside. Thank you.

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): Thank you, Ingo. The next question I think will be for Chris. Chris, pre-development is significant. What is the potential to move forward with the strategic partners, as with BHP?

Chris Showalter (CEO): Thanks. I think as we, as we've outlined, the process we're running with Stanchart has been a very comprehensive process, and we've gone into this with a very, with a directive from our board of directors to look at all possible avenues with a steering from the board that we need to look at what's in the best interest of shareholder value. That's been really our marching orders as executives for the company. I think what we've done is we've looked at all alternatives, and that's everything from. Then we have disclosures that we've looked at outright. We've entertained, you know, offers for 100% of the project. We've looked at strategic partnerships. We looked at scenarios where we have, you know, financial investors come in to partner with Lifezone.

Chris Showalter (CEO): What I can say is we've been very fortunate, just given the quality and the size, the quality and tier one status of Kabanga, the strategic importance of Kabanga as an alternative nickel supply chain source to the East. We've had an incredibly competitive process. I think that I can say categorically that is why this has taken some time. We've had a number of very strong contenders that we've entertained offers from, and we've been very thoughtful, and we've been, you know, really analyzing and looking at what is gonna be in the best interest of shareholders. I think we've done a very, very detailed, thorough process analyzing those, and we're really at the end of the process.

Chris Showalter (CEO): You know, I can't really give an indication of what direction we're gonna go, but I can give assurances to our shareholders that this is a, as I said, very competitive. We have all the right interested parties you would hope for as part of this process, and that we're gonna have some pretty, you know, tough decisions. You know, we have very, very good decisions to make in the near term. That really echoes back to the quality of the asset and the strategic importance. I think we're in a very strong position. I look forward to making that update to the market once we're ready.

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): Thank you, Chris. The next question is regarding the PGM recycling. I actually have two questions. The first one is, what is the cost and scale of the PGM recycling project in the US, and how is the partnership with Glencore structured? That tagged onwards, are there any indications from Glencore in how they're thinking about the recycling opportunity in terms of increasing funding, or could there be alternative options?

Chris Showalter (CEO): Sure. I'll take that one. I think in terms of the cost, I mean, you know, I really like to kind of benchmark this against if you were gonna bring on a new source of several hundred thousand ounces of 3 PGMs, you would have to build a, you know, mid to large scale mine in South Africa, which would be, you know, close to $1 billion. You compare that versus the capital intensity ratio of us building a roughly $30 million recycling plant in North America to produce just over 200,000 ounces of 3 PG through a recycling plant. That is a massive de-risked alternative to be doing that in North America versus South Africa.

Chris Showalter (CEO): That's a major component of how Glencore is looking at this, and how we look at it as well. The partnership with Glencore is approximately, well, it is a 50/50 partnership. We have jointly funded on a 50/50 basis the piloting and R&D to this point. There will be a continued capital call once we reach FID to the shareholders on a 50/50 basis. We do have mechanisms in the agreement to increase our shareholding over time, that we'll be able to outline. Obviously for Glencore, the value, as I mentioned earlier, is really this gives them a low cost, immediate PGM book. Obviously they care about the metals and the offtake primarily, given that's the core of their business. They do have a very big emphasis on recycling.

Chris Showalter (CEO): This was a very easy relationship. We've known the team at Glencore for a very long time. We work really well with them. I think when you look at some of the initiatives they have in the recycling space, this is very, you know, very compatible with their direction. Yeah, we're looking forward to talking more about this project.

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): Thanks, Chris. Mike, I see your hand's up. Are you able to add your question to the Q&A? I think that would be the easiest. We do have 3 minutes left, so it'll probably be one or two questions, and then we'll revert and email you directly. That's a new question. Any indication around the timing for the DOE decisions for the PGM funding?

Chris Showalter (CEO): Yeah. That we have communicated with them. We should be hearing back mid to end of May. This is 2 to 4 weeks in our estimation. You know, what I can say is there already have been people in the process that have been told that they would not qualify for the funding, and we're still very advanced in the process. We're, you know, we're hopeful that we, you know, that we will qualify for that. That remains to be approved in 2 to 4 weeks.

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): Thank you. We're getting them hot and fast. Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out which one came first. Harris says, our strategic partners were negotiated during lower Nickel prices. Any thought if the difference will affect the potential deal?

Chris Showalter (CEO): Yeah, I mean, it's a good question. I think with the gyrations in the Nickel market, I think, you know, we've been through a number of chapters in our existence here. I mean, obviously with BHP and the effect that the Nickel market had on BHP closing of their projects during, you know, the point when they were a shareholder in our project and then transitioning. The Nickel price volatility has definitely impacted, you know, where we've gone from, you know, beginning of our journey in Tanzania to now. I think what you'll see in some of the decisions we'll make is we would be equally aligned with several potential scenarios. Any swing in the Nickel price will directly benefit the shareholders jointly.

Chris Showalter (CEO): There has been some negotiability, just given where prices have gone. This recent price, we're very advanced in negotiations. I wouldn't say that we're gonna try to day trade negotiations around intermittent nickel price spikes. I mean, if anything, we know the future potential of nickel. We have a very strong view that, you know, we would be coming into construction and commencement of mining at a point when nickel prices should be going into deficit. I think that's the longer term view. I wouldn't see short-term gyrations as giving us a lot of leverage 'cause we're all focused on the long-term potential of Kabanga right now.

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): Thanks, Chris. Unfortunately, we are at time and nearing overtime. For all remaining questions, we will reply to you directly. A quick reminder that if you do have any further questions, please feel free to follow up with us directly via email at info@lifezonemetals.com. Ingo, I see you have your hand up. I think you wanna quickly answer one.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): Yeah. First of all, as Kirsten said, if you wanna get in touch, please simply email us. Secondly, we will also put conferences or non-deal roadshows on our homepage. The next event that we are taking part at is the EU Raw Material Summit or the EIT RawMaterials Summit. We will meet several of our European and African partners at that event in Brussels in May. Please reach out. If you're participating, you can meet us there. Otherwise, we are always open for one-on-one calls, and particularly we will have follow-up calls with the research community next week. Thank you very much for joining.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Thank you.

Catherine Nichas (Head of Sustainability): Thank you. That concludes our webcast. Thank you for attending, and we look forward to speaking with you.

Ingo Hofmaier (CFO): Thank you.

Chris Showalter (CEO): Thanks, everyone. Bye.