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$38M in Campaign Cash to WA's Next Gold Producer: Mark English, MD Auric Mining (ASX: AWJ) — Transcript

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0:00So it's the highgrade pods within Manda
0:04that really take it to the next level.
0:07If you look at some of those numbers
0:09there in this grade control that you've
0:11got up on up on your slide, you know, 14
0:13m at 115, 10 m at 40, you got to capture
0:18them. And when you capture them, then
0:21your numbers go through the roof. Okay?
0:23So when you're doing your initial um
0:26numbers um so well we didn't know these
0:29numbers but the initial high-grade
0:31numbers that came out of the RC drilling
0:34you know the the guys pretty nervous
0:36about it so you top cut some of them
0:38>> [music]
0:38>> um but realistically at the end of the
0:41day um it's the grade okay so we
0:43budgeted 1.8 we got 2.46 46. Um, the
0:47recovery was a little bit better, but
0:49it's the grade that stand out to
0:52generate the 8886.
0:54>> This is general advice and my opinions
0:55only. This episode's company has paid me
0:57for this interview. I may be long,
0:58short, or hold an interest in stocks or
0:59CFDs mentioned. Past performance is
1:00reliable. The interview's views are
1:01their own, not necessarily mine. Leed
1:02operates as a corporate authorized
1:03representative 001318377 under ASL
1:06548573. You can find our financial
1:08services guide by the Lev website link
1:09in the show notes.
1:11[music]
1:18Right. Hey, bag holders and stop
1:20lossers. Continue it on the gold brought
1:23to you by WA Water Bors. I tell you
1:25what, Mark, if you need more water
1:27drilling down the Oric way, mate, you
1:29let me know and I'll get big Jarro James
1:32down there and you got you might have
1:34free interviews for life. Mark English
1:36the MD founder of Oric Mining AWJ.
1:41Welcome to Leed Copper. [gasps]
1:44>> Pleasure. Thank you Manny. What a
1:46beautiful introduction.
1:48>> Oh mate, good always good energy. I tell
1:50you another good introduction. I got you
1:52on screen here. uh 22 trading at 22 1/2
1:57cents 42 mil market cap but 38 mil last
2:02reported in the bank and plus whatever
2:05offices and assets that you've got uh
2:08essentially a zero EV at the moment mate
2:12for those who haven't heard of uh Oric
2:14uh just finish up producing gold tell us
2:18the yarn for those who don't know very
2:20very interesting setup you've got going
2:22on
2:24Yeah. Well, the interesting thing I I
2:26always say is lots of people haven't
2:29heard of us because we make our own
2:31money and we make our own cash. Um, and
2:34we have done for the last 3 years. It's
2:37a it's a beautiful place to be. Um, we
2:41last raised cash, Maddie, in
2:43[clears throat] May 2025
2:46and it was specifically the cash we
2:48raised was specifically earmarked for
2:51the Burbanks acquisition and the
2:53Lindsay's find acquisition.
2:56>> Yeah. So, so you got no friends in the
2:58broker industry then cuz you've been no
3:00use to them.
3:02>> Yeah, that's true. It's uh only the only
3:04guys that they they want to know are the
3:06guys that are going to pay them a six
3:08plus clip, isn't it?
3:09>> Yeah, pretty much. So, like here's a
3:12there's two parts to this. There's
3:14what's coming up and there's what's
3:15already happened. So, cuz you've you've
3:17just finished two mining campaigns which
3:19have given you this cash, Jeff find and
3:22uh M and both both profitable. perfect
3:26time to do it when gold price was was
3:29rising that uh so that 38 mil as you
3:33said is that that's just all been bottom
3:36line that you've made out of those pits
3:39>> 100%.
3:40>> Yeah. Right. Uh very good. So that
3:43you've done an acquisition just
3:45recently. So I guess your recent news
3:47this week the um Union Jack project. So,
3:50we'll get into the Burbanks acquisition
3:52cuz that's some um key infrastructure
3:54you'd say you picked up for a steal.
3:56Well, it appears you got the mill
3:57cheaper than you got Union Jack. So,
4:00this Union Jack pro prospect that's um
4:03100 100,000 ounces it's added at the
4:06moment. So, it's lifted your total
4:08resource ind inventory to about 301,000
4:11ounces. So, how why moving on this now?
4:14Has this been in the pipeline for a bit?
4:17Yeah, we started talking to the vendors
4:20in November last year. These things
4:23always take time. Lots of people think
4:26that they just happen in a nancond. Um
4:28they don't we had to do a fair bit of
4:30work before we we would even commit to
4:33making an offer. Um it's owned by a
4:35couple of guys out of Calguli. You know,
4:38the resource wasn't, you know,
4:40beautiful. A lot of a lot of the
4:42drilling hasn't been properly logged. um
4:45you know, you understand those things.
4:46If you're if you're a Romelius or a West
4:49Gold or somebody like that, your your
4:52geos are going to be a lot lot more on
4:54the money than a couple of couple of
4:56local guys out of Calguli. What
4:58attracted us to it? Um various things.
5:02Strip ratio is really low. Location's
5:05fantastic.
5:06Nice and close to surface. 15ks away
5:10from Burbanks. hasn't really had a lot
5:13of work on it. Um, and we think with
5:17some technical skills and some money and
5:20some elbow grease, we'll be able to get
5:22it up well above 200,000 ounces, which
5:25is why we've got those hurdles in there.
5:27>> Yeah. So, cuz you've paid you paid 6
5:29mill 6.6 6 mil cash, another 3 million
5:32in shares, and then another is it
5:35another 6 million worth of uh sorry 7
5:38million more in milestone payments and a
5:401% royalty to them. I I assume you
5:44you're not scared of the milestone
5:45payments. You you've bought this to grow
5:47it.
5:49>> Yeah. Yeah. 100%. The milestone payments
5:51are not a problem. So, if we get it up
5:53to 200,000, our cash cost comes down to
5:57about $82.50 50 an ounce in the ground
6:00which is you know right in the cheaper
6:02end of the scale at this point in time.
6:04Um look as I said we've been talking to
6:08um the guys from Easy Oz they run the
6:10trucking business in um in Calguli KBD
6:14um Holage um they're smart guys around
6:17Cal um they know what they've got but
6:22they couldn't really take it to the next
6:24level. Okay. and they they didn't want
6:27to just flog it off to somebody else
6:30bigger. They wanted to get a reasonable
6:33amount of equity in the deal so that
6:35they can ride on the upside for the
6:37shares that they've got.
6:39>> Yeah. And and cuz you look at some of
6:40the like historical uh hits, so like
6:44we're talking 17 m at 4 and a half grams
6:46from 24 meters. Like everything's like
6:4915 at four from 62. So everything's
6:52everything's pretty shallow. But I guess
6:53you alluded to um probably the QAQC
6:57side, you know, difference between
7:00private and public. What with the
7:02drilling that you're committing to
7:04straight up, how much of that's going to
7:06be confirmatory uh versus testing the
7:09extensions of what's there at the
7:12moment.
7:13>> It's more going to be about testing the
7:14extens um testing the extensions. You
7:17know, there'll be a little bit of
7:19confirming what we what we what we know.
7:22We've now done enough work um to be
7:24reasonably comfortable with that, but
7:26you know, we want to grow it. We think
7:28that um we've got a we've got well at
7:32this point in time down at Mund's three
7:34rigs at Manda. Um one's going to start
7:37to finish up reasonably soon and we
7:39intend to move it straight up the road
7:41to um to Union Jack.
7:45>> Yeah. All R. That'll be all RC. I should
7:49>> Yeah.
7:49>> Yeah. Great. and and because there I
7:51think one of the leases on this deal
7:52it's still subject to DD. So when when's
7:55all that when's the whole thing? Do you
7:57expect that's going to settle?
7:59>> Oh, we'll we'll have it all wrapped up
8:00by the end of the month. Um the big M's
8:03subject to DD, but we've virtually done
8:05all that now. Um we've worked our way
8:08through the royalty agreement. We're on
8:09the second turn of the um TSA agreement,
8:13so it's it's going to get knocked over
8:15pretty quickly.
8:16>> Yeah. Uh mate, you've you've taken uh
8:19you've you've handed over the reigns a
8:21bit like you this has been your gig uh
8:24from the start and you've just bought in
8:28Gareth Sullie from Black Cat uh and
8:31you've got a bit of you got a couple
8:33from Blackat in the Oric team now. So
8:36he's come on as CEO and exec director.
8:38You're still MD. uh mate the decision to
8:42bring him in what's he bringing to the
8:44table for the next stage of Oric and how
8:47I guess what he's both working in tandem
8:49a bit to push forward
8:52so dealing with the last bit first
8:54absolutely we're pushing together in
8:56tandem um [clears throat]
8:59Scott Bailey and Gareth at this point in
9:01time are focusing on what we need to do
9:03at Burbanks I'm focusing on a few other
9:05things that we need to clean up and get
9:07done it's always been our plan that I
9:10step down as the MD on the 1st of
9:12December. Um, and Gareth becomes the MD
9:15on the 1st of December. I'm going to
9:17hang around for another 18 months. Um,
9:20in a more finance capacity. Um, Gareth's
9:24going to look after the front end of the
9:26business. I'll look after the money, the
9:29compliance,
9:31you know, the company secretary work,
9:32all the all the add-on stuff that you
9:34got to do in a um in a public company.
9:37Um Gareth's an outstanding appointment
9:40for us. Um at the end of the day, it was
9:43my choosing. We have been talking about
9:46secession planning at Oric for a while.
9:49Um I I've told my board some time ago
9:52that I wanted to slow down a bit. You
9:55know, running a public company for 8,
9:57nine years is pretty hard yaker. Um
10:00Gareth, we knew Gareth because of our
10:02relationship through Lakewood.
10:05When they told process the Manda um or
10:08through Lakewood, um we saw that he
10:11stepped down in that transition period
10:13at Blackat. Um he wanted a bit longer
10:16holiday than we gave him. Um he wanted
10:19he wanted 4 months off. I think we gave
10:22him about 10 weeks and said, you know,
10:24come on, come on, we need to get moving.
10:26Um Gareth's an outstanding guy. Um, from
10:29my perspective, to choose your own
10:31timing is pretty rare. Um, to choose
10:34your own timing and handpick your
10:37replacement, I think is really unique.
10:39Um, and I'm I'm delighted. Um,
10:43>> you can just have the media commitments
10:44now, Mark. [laughter]
10:47>> Yeah. Bit of chitchat. No, I'd like to
10:49just do a do the long long broker
10:51lunches that uh don't seem to operate
10:54too often anymore.
10:56>> They trust me, mate. If you need money,
10:58they will. [laughter]
10:59>> Um, but you know, look, Gareth, Gareth's
11:02going to bring a lot more energy.
11:04Gareth's 20 years younger than me. Um,
11:07he's got a lot more fire in his belly.
11:09Um, we've done a great job. We've put
11:12together a really good company. We've
11:14got fantastic assets, but, you know, it
11:17needs to get to the next level and there
11:19comes a time when you got to, you know,
11:21you got to hand over the reigns. And as
11:24I said earlier, I'm deliriously happy
11:26with the timing and the person that
11:28we've brought on board.
11:29>> Very good. Now I guess m like you talked
11:32about the major drilling that's that's
11:34started there but I guess reflecting on
11:37the pit progress and like I guess you've
11:41been mining for a bit and like yeah you
11:43got 38 mil in the in the bank and it's
11:45sort of and it's been it's chipped away
11:47over like it wasn't just an instant hit
11:49but you got like that starter pit
11:52delivered 8.8,000 8,000 ounces and but
11:55you budgeted for 6,100
11:58uh in in the plan. So you got 46% more
12:01gold than than you thought. So what what
12:04do you attribute it to? Like was it
12:06literally positive reconciliation? Was
12:09everything a bit thicker? Were there
12:10veins that you bloody seen when you were
12:12mining that weren't in the plan? How
12:14where was the upside from? Um most of
12:17the first two things one of the most
12:19remarkable things about Manda is John
12:22Utley my co-director my technical
12:25director says how unremarkable it is
12:28right so the gold is very fine there no
12:31visible gold so it's the highgrade pods
12:35within Manda that really take it to the
12:39next level if you look at some of the
12:41numbers there in this grade control that
12:43you've got up on up on your slide you
12:45know, 14 m at 115, 10 m at 40, you got
12:50to capture them. And when you capture
12:53them, then your numbers go through the
12:55roof. Okay? [snorts] So, when you're
12:57doing your initial um numbers, um some
13:01well, we didn't know these numbers, but
13:03the initial high-grade numbers that came
13:05out of the RC drilling, you know, the
13:07the guys were pretty nervous about it,
13:09so you top cut some of them. Um but
13:12realistically at the end of the day um
13:14it's the grade. Okay. So we budgeted 1.8
13:17we got 2.46.
13:19Um the recovery was a little bit better
13:22but it's the grade that sustained out to
13:25generate the 8886.
13:27>> Yeah. And and rec even recovery it was
13:29an upside because you budgeted for 83%
13:32recovery and you got 89 a half. What
13:35what was what are the um the SL you'd
13:39say the slight met downsides that were
13:41saying that you were going to get 83?
13:43What is there some copper? There's some
13:44sulfides or
13:46>> uh no copper um no sulfides. Um just
13:50again, you know, when you do your met
13:52samples, they're they're pretty small,
13:54aren't they? Right. So, you get you take
13:56three, four m samples, you send them off
13:58to the lab, you get those. Um but of
14:01course when you do a bulk sample called
14:04126,000 tons um you get a far better far
14:08better result. You um we believe the MET
14:11is actually better than that because at
14:13Black Cat we had a finite time of how we
14:17how we could process it. And with the
14:20gold price where it was and the amount
14:22of ore that we had it on the romp, we
14:24actually cranked the mill up with Black
14:26Cat. So it was thumping through the mill
14:28quicker. And we took the view that what
14:31we would lose to tales we'd pick up in
14:34gold and we'd pick up in price. So when
14:37we when we put this through our own mill
14:39ultimately in a couple of years, we
14:42reckon the recovery can even be stronger
14:44than that.
14:45>> Yeah. Well, you you'll be able I assume
14:47you haven't got the you haven't got much
14:48finetuning capability on toll trading
14:51like you like you do when it's your own
14:53mill. With all respect to the toll
14:54traders out there,
14:56>> like zero [laughter]
14:59Um now the the drilling that you're that
15:03you're doing at at M where is this have
15:06you effectively mined everything most
15:10things you've drilled and now this is
15:12going to be all extension to for stage
15:16two.
15:17>> Oh god no. Um [clears throat] the
15:20starter pit's minute. Um the starter
15:23pit's very very small.
15:24>> Okay. Gotcha. this this the um we took
15:28out 125,000 tons of ore. Um this the the
15:32main pit has been around for quite a
15:34while and it was always around 2.8
15:37million tons. We just did the starter
15:39pit as a as a trial pit, right? We
15:41wanted to we want to understand it a bit
15:43better. Um so, oh goodness know it was
15:47always going to be a far bigger pit than
15:50what the starter pit was.
15:52>> Gotcha. Gotcha. So that so what I'm
15:54looking at on screen here that's what's
15:55been mined already. Is that right?
15:58>> Something something like that. Yep.
16:01Yep.
16:01>> Yep. And so this so stage two that we're
16:04talking about that's that's that cut
16:06back there and that's all the bloody
16:08glory at the bottom
16:09>> and plus more I should imagine now
16:12because because of the um gold price um
16:15the the cutback's even going to be
16:17bigger.
16:18>> Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. So, and you're so
16:21there's obvious like there's there's a
16:23lot of drilling already there. So, I
16:25guess um just the drilling that you're
16:28doing at the moment, is this really on
16:30the extremities or is there much grade
16:31control happening with that?
16:34>> Well, the there's three bits. So, the um
16:40the diamond drilling's been completed
16:42now. So, we had the diamond drill in
16:44there doing the doing doing the work for
16:46the geotech walls. They did four holes
16:49for the geotech work. They're finished
16:51and they're gone. We got an RC rig there
16:54at the moment doing extensional drilling
16:57looking for principally down here on the
17:00southwest corner. Um is the main area
17:02where where they're doing the work.
17:04>> Um and then we've got a grade control
17:06rig in there and we started doing the
17:09grade control work about about 2 3 weeks
17:12ago. Um, and it's going to be there
17:15really from now till November 2027. Um,
17:20it's going to do a 5x5 grid pattern just
17:23like we did before we mined the starter
17:26pit. Um, so that that grade control
17:28works going to be there realistically
17:30for 16 months.
17:32>> So that cuz that grade control that's
17:3389,000 mters. Is that is that a function
17:36of that fine grain gold and highly
17:38variable grades? You just want to get
17:40the best idea. you try to find as many
17:42high-rade funds as you can.
17:44>> Yeah. Look, that's that's the absolute
17:47trick.
17:48>> Yeah.
17:48>> Here, this is if you get those
17:51high-grade pods, your grade can even go
17:54above 2.45.
17:56If you if you put those high-rade pods
17:58to waste, you you're really going to be
18:00in trouble. So there's some technical
18:03technical work and technical capacity
18:05that the guys have got to do, but I'm
18:08very confident as the MD that the guys
18:10on the ground will get it right. Um the
18:14Burbanks mate Burbank there's milling
18:17infrastructure around Khuli comes in
18:19many shapes and forms. There's a lot of
18:21a lot of legacy stuff and this and
18:24Burbank the Burbanks mill was exactly
18:27exactly that. Um you you'd say you
18:30picked it up for a steal, eh?
18:33>> Yeah. Again,
18:36that took nearly 18 months from when we
18:39struck the price to settlement.
18:42>> Yeah.
18:42>> Okay. So, the gold price when we when we
18:45put in our first bid, I'd suggest was
18:48February 2024. The gold price really
18:51hadn't started to to get ahead of steam.
18:55But by the time we settled in February
18:582025, the gold price had gone through
19:01quite a solid run and then it kept on
19:03going through to February 2026. But
19:06look, we bought this project. Um, it was
19:10under the power of BDO out of
19:12Queensland. BDO had been appointed as
19:15the mortgages in possession. Um, I won't
19:18tell you all the issues with it, but it
19:22needed a whole lot of environmental work
19:24to clean it up. Um, there was
19:27outstanding reporting to the Department
19:29of Environment for about 8 n years as
19:32you as these things normally are. If
19:34they end up in, you know,
19:36administration,
19:38liquidation, mortgages in possession,
19:40they get there for a reason. Um, so we
19:43did a lot of work to clean it up,
19:45Matthew. Um, and that's why it took
19:48quite a while to settle. But for us,
19:52we didn't buy it because of the mill. We
19:54bought it because there's three-phase
19:56power. There's water balls. There's tail
20:00storage facility. It's a fully permanent
20:03site. It's only 9 to 10k south of
20:06Kgardi. It's got BMAN your front gate.
20:09But the big value proposition for us
20:13excluding that those things is we'll be
20:16able to turn this on within you know 14
20:1916 18 months whereas if you was trying
20:22to start something without all those
20:24permits it's you know 3 4 5 years.
20:29So if it's uh originally 180,000 ton
20:34peranom Burbanks and for those you as
20:36you mentioned off camera that's this is
20:38where Romelius threw their waddle damn
20:40dirt through the very high grade stuff
20:41and we'll get on to some tenementss that
20:43you've got in proximity to Wadd Dam
20:45later on. Uh but what's what is the plan
20:49or referring to your your scoping study
20:51that you you put out? So effectively
20:54expanding 180 to 600,000 ton peranom.
20:58What is involved in that? What have you
21:00got to refurb and what have you got to
21:01add to the processing plant to get to
21:04that number?
21:06>> So the first thing you got to do is all
21:07your compliance and all your permits.
21:10We're well and truly on the way with
21:12that. um you know increasing all the
21:15permits from 180,000 up to 600
21:18principally to make sure that there's
21:19enough storage in the tail storage
21:21capacity. Um in that scoping study that
21:25you that you put out there there's peak
21:28funding requirement of 145 million. Um
21:31we've just done this study based on um
21:34dirt coming from Manda. Okay. So nothing
21:38else. We just looked at what could Manda
21:40do for the next four or five years at
21:42this plant. That's why we picked 600,000
21:46ton prenum. We could have maybe made it
21:49a bit bigger to start with, but your
21:51working capital costs would be gigantic
21:53and you'd have to start mining MR a lot
21:55earlier. Um and realistically Manda it
21:59it fits like a hand in glove for Manda
22:02going into Burbanks up until about year
22:05three year 4 and then you'd really like
22:07to use some of your free cash flow to
22:10then crank it up from 600,000 ton
22:12premium up to 1.2 million.
22:15>> Yeah. and and that that 145 you talk
22:17about how much is that of that is
22:19attributed to the I guess the mill
22:21itself versus I guess you said it comes
22:24with tailings dam you got you know
22:26mining fleet pre-strip um any other
22:29infrastructure what's the split
22:31>> yeah so look the the the the
22:34um the mills about 98 million
22:37>> y
22:37>> and your owner's cost is about 36 okay
22:41and the owner's cost is everything
22:42outside the outside the square that the
22:45mill's not um uh not going to cover. Um
22:50so, you know, we we've got some we've
22:53got a fair bit of cash at this point in
22:56time. We're looking at, you know, all
22:57the combinations of debt, equity,
23:00royalty streams, all those all those
23:03good fun things that you can do with at
23:06this point in time because the payback
23:08is quite quick. The payback's about 2.3
23:11years from memory. Um, you know, it's
23:14it's it's a great little project. We've
23:17done the gold price at 5750.
23:21You can see that we'll generate a lot of
23:24cash particularly in years three, four,
23:26um, years 2, three, and four. If you
23:29keep scrolling down to I think it's
23:32table 10 there on the on your screen.
23:35So, here it is here. Right. So, it's
23:38going to take a little while to ramp up,
23:40of course. So our aim is to start
23:43production in March 2028. So the first
23:47year 2028 year is only only for 9
23:50months. Then 2029 you'll get it up to um
23:54you know 32,000 ounces of gold produced.
23:57Next year about 40,000 ounces of gold
23:59produced. So if you look at year three
24:01numbers with an Aussie gold price of
24:035750, you know, you're going to make a
24:06free cash flow of about 140 154 million.
24:10the number down the bottom.
24:11>> Yeah.
24:12>> So out out of as I said this is just
24:15putting Manda through Burbanks. So now
24:19that we've got Union Jack, assuming we
24:22settle, you know, Union Jack will most
24:24probably take up a fair bit of this hole
24:26in year four and year five. Um so we
24:29don't want it to we don't want it to
24:31slip. Once we get up to around 40,000
24:34ounces of gold coming out, we want to a
24:37continue that and b use your free cash
24:40to build up to 1.2 million done and
24:42plant. So then you're producing, you
24:44know, somewhere between 75 and 85,000
24:47ounces of gold a year.
24:49>> Yeah. And and is there's a few parts to
24:52the next bit because I I'm just
24:54inferring there is a lot going on in the
24:58background. This is one case of how
25:00things could operate for Oric. But have
25:03you have you essentially said right
25:05we're not mining and producing any more
25:08dirt to we're throwing it through our
25:10own mill. We're not tolerating anymore.
25:12Is that a fair statement?
25:14>> That's a very fair statement. Twofold to
25:17two parts to that answer. One is there's
25:20no capacity.
25:22Right. And two is your you your toll
25:25mill rate now is mostly $100 to $110 a
25:28ton. Our opex cost down here is going to
25:32be about 45. So you you prefer to leave
25:34the dirt either in the ground or on your
25:37romp because at $55 a ton arbitrage,
25:42you know, it's not going to take you too
25:43long to pay back.
25:45>> Yeah. Yeah. And I guess with and you
25:48talked about every everything's on the
25:50table at the moment with um progressing
25:52towards funding and FID, but I I assume
25:55with the the Union Jack deal that's just
25:58happened. Uh I assume a lot of the a lot
26:02of the FID is going to be depending on
26:03what comes across your desk or
26:05finalized. There's there'd be a lot of I
26:07assume there's a lot of talks and a lot
26:08of opportunities out there at the moment
26:10with numerous people in the district.
26:13>> Oh, there's lots of talk.
26:16U and lots of talk with lots of people
26:18with lots of ideas and you know at the
26:22at this point in time you know gold's
26:25the flavor of the month again. Um
26:27there's a lot of lot of debt people
26:29talking to us and you know we don't want
26:31to load it up with too much debt because
26:33you know that makes us a bit freaky but
26:35you know there's there's lots of
26:37opportunity. Um, so I think there's
26:39opportunity both in a other people in
26:42the district, um, and b how you fund it,
26:46right? And we we're we know that we got
26:49to do that. Um, we're pretty smart about
26:51it. We we we've got a clear plan on what
26:55we want to do and how we're going to do
26:56it, which is why we put the scoping
26:58study out, you know, 6 weeks ago. If we
27:02if we were nervous about it, we wouldn't
27:04have put that scoping study out. But you
27:06got to you got to start to bounce the
27:08ball or you got to start to whatever
27:10analogy you want to use, you got to get
27:13into it. Was it and I assume the point
27:15that you're at that you're at now, this
27:17was this was always the goal because
27:19you've had discussions for years, but
27:21you obviously wanted to mine these
27:23starter pits. You wanted to be you're
27:25debtree. You got a decent decent cash
27:28balance. Well, you you got a zero EV and
27:30you've got a and you've got milling
27:32infrastructure. Was this always the goal
27:34to get to this point?
27:36Oh, 100%. So, our our immediate focus
27:39ever since we incorporated the company
27:41was to do two things. One is to be 100%
27:46gold.
27:47Two to be 100% round Curulli. And the
27:51third thing was to buy projects that you
27:53could turn into cash. Right. So, the
27:57first two projects that we bought were
27:59Jeffre find that we bought off Minkor.
28:02The second project we bought was um
28:05Manda that we bought off Estrella. The
28:08third project we bought was a whole lot
28:10of uh um adjoining land land tenure that
28:14we bought from Neo Metals. Um and it was
28:18always our goal to you know get onto
28:21mining leases so that you could actually
28:23monetize it and turn it into cash. you
28:26know the Jeffrey's find when we mined
28:29Jeffrey's find we did that with BML
28:32Ventures we were most the first people
28:34to do a big deal with BML Ventures um we
28:37didn't have the capacity we didn't have
28:39the cash we didn't have the people you
28:42know we produced 30,000 ounces of gold
28:44out of there in couple of years we toll
28:47treated it all up in Kulgardi at either
28:50FMR or at Focus's Mill um we made a made
28:54a profit of $33 million out of that
28:57project that we split 50/50. So for
29:00Oric,
29:02our cash cost to get in was about 1.6
29:06and within 3 years we'd turn that into
29:0816 12,
29:09>> right?
29:10>> Um people talk about trucking. Don't
29:13worry about trucking. Trucking is not a
29:15cost that's going to cause you a lot of
29:18grief. from Jeffrey's find to Kulgardi
29:20was 210ks each way and that was at the
29:24gold price of around 3,200 Aussie 3,300
29:28Aussie. So with the gold price now
29:30around 6,000 Aussie you can cut at 300
29:34400ks easily if you want to.
29:37>> Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. Um I think
29:40it's might be worth 0.1 or 2 of a gram
29:42these days. So yeah.
29:44>> Yeah. Not a lot. Not a lot.
29:46>> Especially when you got your high grade
29:47stuff. um the Lindsay's project. What
29:50I'll just go through the the other
29:51tenementss you got. So, this has sort of
29:53been stuck since um since this tenement
29:57sale agreement in November 2025. There's
30:00um like forfeite of leases. It's in the
30:02wardens court. Is there any any update
30:04on what's happening here?
30:07>> It's been stuck for longer than that.
30:09>> Oh, has it?
30:10>> We uh we executed the agreement to buy
30:13it in February 2025. So,
30:16>> nearly. So give or take, you know, 18
30:19months
30:21of paying for Oric. Um there's there's
30:26seven tenementss in the project. We've
30:28settled on four. So there's three other
30:31tenementss of course they're the main
30:33ones. Um
30:35one of the two of the tenementss again
30:38are granted mining leases. Um one of
30:41them has two applications for forfeiture
30:44on it. The other one that that is key
30:47has one application for forfeure. We've
30:50been um down the warden's court pretty
30:53regularly. Um it's now getting to that
30:55classical pointy end with all these
30:58things in litigation. Um we believe we
31:03will be successful. Um, and it's our
31:06view that with a bit of push, we could
31:09clean it up by the end of 2026 or it
31:12might go into early 2027. But we are
31:16Oric is 100% confident that we will
31:19settle on these outstanding three
31:21tenementss and this will be another big
31:24uplift in our resource inventory.
31:27>> So th this was always planned to be the
31:30second or source in addition to Manda.
31:33Is that is that still would this if
31:35hypothetic hypothetically if this did
31:38get settled by the end of the year or
31:39starter next would this be in preference
31:41to Union Jack or or both both are in the
31:44game for actually getting dirt to a mill
31:47both of them are in the game what what's
31:50going to be the driver is which one's
31:52next after m's going to be some further
31:55drill work understand the resource
31:58understand the you know the the
32:01mathematics of the mining
32:03Um at this point in time,
32:05[clears throat]
32:05Union Jacks most in front in some
32:08reasons 15ks.
32:10Lindsy's is 105.
32:13Union Jacks Mo got better gold at
32:15surface than Lindsy's. Um but it all
32:18comes down to grade. Okay. So, but from
32:22a Oric perspective,
32:24if we mine M and deliver M or to
32:28Burbanks for four years, then you get
32:30another couple of years out of Lindses,
32:32then you get another couple of years out
32:34of Union Jack. We're now up to sevenyear
32:37production span at Burbanks. And I don't
32:41think people understand that. I don't
32:43think the market the investment
32:46community totally understand that with
32:49now Manda Union Jack and Lindsay's we've
32:54most got seven eight years production
32:56capacity for Burbanks
32:58>> and and how many are on mining leases is
33:00there many that need to be converted or
33:02have you got a lot already as MLS?
33:05>> Oh, most of them are MLS. Um, so at
33:08Lindsy's there were 3 [snorts] MLS, two
33:12P's and the other ones were
33:14miscellaneous licenses. So that's fine.
33:17At Union Jack the main tenementss are M.
33:19There's a little P on the on the western
33:22fringe of it. Um, and we'll put an M
33:24over that P. Um, so that they both both
33:28become M's at Union Jack. Um, the other
33:32tenure that we've got, Sparkville,
33:34Higginsville, Loaded Dog. Um there no
33:37M's on any of that land. Um we've had an
33:41M application at Sparville now um at
33:44Demise for maybe 3 years I'd suspect. Um
33:50so that will get granted soon. At this
33:53point in time, Oric has a full heritage
33:56agreement with the Naju people um for
33:58everything around Norman. Um, and that
34:01gives us clear clarity on how we
34:03progress from a a P and an E to an M. At
34:07this point in time, we don't have any
34:09agreement with the Malin Ghoulie people.
34:11We're getting closer. Um, and then once
34:14that gets finalized, then this M
34:16application at Sparville will progress.
34:19>> Yeah. So, are you until that's all
34:21sorted, are you going to be doing any
34:23drilling there at all at Sparville or
34:25not?
34:26>> Uh, yeah, but [laughter]
34:28yes, but no. Um, I think Union Jacks
34:31just [clears throat] put its nose in
34:34front.
34:36Um, it was always planned for the RC rig
34:40to go from Mundo to Sparville, but it
34:43now might go a bit further up the road
34:45and go to Union Jack, I'd suggest.
34:47>> Yeah. And and so the is it just uh just
34:51final question just on the because this
34:53uh for those who don't know this the
34:55Wijy Muthther area like this whole area
34:58is the most confusing tenement ownership
35:01area you will ever come across I reckon
35:03so is it is it just um cuz some of the
35:07tenementss are registered to Mount
35:08Edwards critical medals which is win
35:11wind medals I know um Astral's got the
35:14same thing with them and uh so Oracle
35:17hold like gold rights only. Um Manda you
35:20hold every right except lithium. Is are
35:24mo most of the tenants in this region uh
35:28a a gold ride or mineral ride
35:30arrangement or is there many that you
35:31hold like 100% of and that's no one else
35:34to worry about.
35:36>> Most of them we now own 100%. At
35:38Sparkleville we own 100% of everything
35:41at Sparkville.
35:42>> Okay. Yeah, we we bought we bought win
35:45out of their nickel rights and their
35:47lithium rights at Spagwell
35:49>> round loaded dog and a lot of the
35:51tenementss that we've got around
35:52Higginsville. We own a 100% of all of
35:55those tenementss. The only ones really
35:58left that we are in partnership with Win
36:01are the ones around the Wijima Dome. um
36:04the top end of the Wijim Madome. Um at
36:07for those those tenants um we own the
36:12Yeah, leave it on that slide, Matt.
36:14Yeah. Um it's those tenementss up around
36:16the top top the north end of the Wijima
36:19Dome. Most of those tenementss are
36:22registered by Mount Edwards Critical
36:24Medals and we own the Gul rights. Um
36:29some of them we've we've dealt a little
36:31bit. Um but Manda didn't come Munda came
36:35from Australa.
36:37Most of these other sentiments up the
36:39top end of the Wujima came out of Neoals
36:43which is why they've gone in to win. So
36:45Neo Medals sold us the gold rights and
36:48then Nemetals did a spin out to win um
36:52and that became Man Edward's critical
36:54medals. Yeah,
36:56>> at this at this point in time, we're the
37:00manager of all the tenementss. And at
37:02this point in time, we're the ones doing
37:04most of the work down here. Wind's doing
37:07its project, its radio project at
37:09Southern Cross, and it's gone up to a
37:11gold project up around the Hall Creek.
37:14Um, so Oric is the manager and the
37:17operator of all these tenementss.
37:19>> That sounds like it' be much easier if
37:21it stays that way, too. [laughter]
37:23And then and then you didn't talk about
37:26you didn't talk about you know the uh
37:28the joint mineral rights with Minor
37:30which is now Woo. Um you forgot a couple
37:33others in there. Maximus has still got
37:35some. Um Ostrol's in there. Dynamics got
37:40some. Uh Kelly Medals is in there. Um
37:44the whole belt all the way down is
37:46complex to say the least.
37:48>> Yeah. And because wasn't it it was it
37:50Chris Reed actually did a lot of
37:52consolidating of it eventually. Was he
37:54what? Because it used to be even more
37:56complex, wasn't it?
37:58>> Yeah. Um it was it was even more complex
38:00between Minkor and Neo Medals and they
38:02resolved quite a few things. Yeah. Um um
38:06and and Chris Reed did did resolve a lot
38:08of the tenement issues, but there
38:12there's some really um extraordinary
38:15ownership structures [clears throat] of
38:17some of the mineral rights bit further
38:20south than us um around the Cassini
38:22nickel mine and getting a bit further
38:24south of um Cassini nickel mine. The the
38:28tenure is just mindb mind. [laughter]
38:31Oh, well, you've proved you can mine
38:33gold out of it and make money, so that's
38:35all that matters, mate. [laughter]
38:37>> Yeah. And we've also we've also over the
38:39years, ever since Orex's been listed for
38:42the last 5 years, we've chipped away and
38:45we've we've bought the other rights out
38:48of the tenementss that we needed to get
38:50to get to 100% ownership. The only
38:52reason we don't own the lithium rights
38:55at Mander at this point in time is
38:56there's a bit of a bun fight um between
38:59Estrella uh to do with the lithium
39:02royalty. Um and as soon as that gets
39:05resolved will buy win Mount Edwards out
39:09of the lithium rights at Manda.
39:11>> Yeah, very good mate. Thank you for the
39:13full transparent description of that and
39:16that's probably only covers 3% of it.
39:18[laughter]
39:20Good on you mate. Well mate, thanks so
39:22much for uh coming on. It's been a great
39:24end of me week. I love bloody chatting
39:26to a minor. So uh well done on um you
39:30know executing what you did with your
39:32starter pits and having a bloody 38 mil
39:34in the bank. And uh it looks like uh
39:36there's a very exciting journey ahead
39:39with Gareth on board now and whatever's
39:43going to happen in between now and when
39:45you pouring gold. So I think there I
39:47don't think it's as it's I know I pretty
39:49I could bet me on the block and say
39:51it's not as simple as what's going in
39:53that scope and study. I think there'll
39:54be a lot more to come.
39:56>> Yeah, there is um lots lots of good
39:59things, lots of upside. You know,
40:01there's there's a fair bit of hard work,
40:03but that's okay. Um you know, the the
40:07dynamic people or the people that are
40:09successful people don't shy away from
40:11the hard work. Um the gold price is your
40:14friend. you know the gold price is going
40:16to be your friend I reckon for the next
40:18you know from today for the next five
40:20plus years gold price is going to be
40:22pretty strong so you know we've got
40:24ourselves a outstanding tenement package
40:28once you got the infrastructure built
40:30you know we'll be we'll be a a really
40:34good small cap profitable company
40:37>> well mate if you keep chasing bloody 14
40:38meters at 115 grams mate you'll be fine
40:42you'll be fine at six grand an ounce I
40:44can that mate. You have yourself a
40:47lovely weekend, Mark. And thanks again
40:48for uh coming on Lever, mate. Had a
40:50blast there.
40:52>> Okay, Mie. Thanks. Have a great weekend
40:54yourself.
40:55>> You beauty. Cheers.
41:00[music]
41:08[music]

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