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Discussion with Mark English | Auric Mining (ASX:AWJ) — Transcript

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0:01Welcome to Smith Weekly Discussions, an
0:03occasional program for our members of
0:05Smith Weekly Research. Please note this
0:07program is a private discussion and
0:08everything contained herein is for
0:10entertainment and educational purposes
0:12only. With that, we hope you're in a
0:14comfortable position along with your
0:16favorite beverage to enjoy the
0:17discussion. We remind our audience to
0:19examine our show notes attached to each
0:21of our shows to better understand how
0:23our program functions. Before we get
0:25into our discussion today, we want to
0:26say thanks for questions coming in from
0:28our audience at Smith Weekly, including
0:30Cindy W., Jack T, and Brent
0:34S. On the program today, we've got a new
0:37guest joining us for the first time. Mr.
0:40Mark English is on the podcast. Mark is
0:42the managing director of Oric Mining, a
0:45Western Australia focused gold producer
0:47and project developer with conventional
0:50open pit operations in the Calgori and
0:53Norman region including the Jeffre find
0:56mine, the Munda mine that just started
0:58mining operations, the Lindsay's
1:01project, and the Burbanks processing
1:03facility. The company also has a number
1:05of exploration projects nearby that have
1:07discovery potential. ARC Mining is
1:10listed on the Australian Securities
1:12Exchange under the symbol
1:16AWJ. Mr. English, it's good to have you
1:18on the program. Welcome. Thank you,
1:20Andrew. It's a pleasure. Mark, well, you
1:23are new to the podcast and as such, I'd
1:26like to have you start off here by
1:28giving us your background and experience
1:30in the junior natural resource sector.
1:33Thanks, Andrew. Um, I've been in West
1:35Australia majority of my life. I'm a
1:38chartered accountant by profession. West
1:40Australia is the resource house of
1:43Australia. So throughout my entire
1:46corporate experience, I've been involved
1:48in mining companies, exploration, doing
1:51corporate work, getting involved in
1:53prospectuses, capital raising, buying
1:56and selling projects, due diligence,
1:58that sort of work. And then we decided
2:01to establish Oric in 2019. And that is
2:05now my sole focus. Certainly agreed.
2:08Western Australia is endowed quite well
2:11in the natural resource sector and lots
2:13of wealth being generated there for both
2:15the state and also for Australia and of
2:17course folks around the world who
2:18consume those materials. I have to ask
2:21you, you're a new guest and it's always
2:22good to get different views on the
2:25market. How do you look at the gold
2:27market today Mark as far as you know
2:29junior producer in the market like Oric
2:32uh investor sentiment out there as well
2:35as if you don't mind how you see the
2:37gold price behaving going forward given
2:39the conditions out there I'll chat about
2:42the last question first the gold price
2:45so we see the gold price very bullish we
2:49see the gold price remaining
2:50particularly strong um both in US dollar
2:53terms and AUD terms You know, I think we
2:56all know about the about the problems in
2:59the world. There's the um both the
3:02economic problems, the debt load in the
3:04world, plus there's the problems in
3:06Ukraine, Israel, and recently the
3:09problems between India and Pakistan. You
3:12really wouldn't want that region of
3:14India and Pakistan to continue their
3:17skirmish because that would really be
3:19catastrophic. I think the other thing
3:21that's going to move the dollar price in
3:24AUD terms is of course Australia's got a
3:27very high interest rate at the moment.
3:29They're now talking about three four
3:32interest rate cuts in Australia this
3:35year. When they eventuate I see the AUD
3:38pair with the US dollar weakening. So
3:41that's going to have a further uptick in
3:43the gold price. Um the gold price today
3:46Andrew is is amazing. In AUD terms, it's
3:49about $5,200 an ounce. When we
3:53established Oric in 2019 2020, you were
3:57talking in AUD around
4:00252,600. So, of course, it's doubled,
4:03right? So, that is just a huge uplift
4:06and it's a beautiful place to be. from a
4:09small gold producer, which we are, we
4:13produce out of the Jeffre Fine Mine,
4:15we'll produce around 30,000 um ounces of
4:19gold. So again, $120 to
4:22$150 million worth of revenue. So we're
4:25not big. You know, the costs around 80
4:28to 90 million. Um so you're going to
4:30make a free cash flow out of that
4:33project of somewhere between 30 and $40
4:35million.
4:37We because we're a small cap at that
4:39stage, we did a joint venture with that
4:42project. Um we did a joint venture with
4:44the company called BML. They provide the
4:46working capital, they provide the plant
4:48equipment, the men, they fund it, and
4:51all Oric does is split 50/50 of that
4:53free surplus cash flow. So for our
4:57perspective, in 2023, we got a check in
5:01round dollar terms of $5 million being
5:03our share. 2024 and 25 to date. We've
5:07got another 8.1. So take us up to 13.
5:10There's more cash to come. We're going
5:13to mill another 60,000 tons of ore
5:16starting late June, early July. We
5:19expect to get another 3 to four million
5:22out of that. So we'll generate ORIC will
5:24generate somewhere between 16 and 18
5:27million free cash out of Jeffrey's find
5:30on a zerorisk basis over the last 2 to
5:34three years. Just stepping back a step
5:37our total cash cost to buy Jeffrey's
5:39Find and to get Jeffre find into
5:41operations is 1.5 million Australian. So
5:45we are going to get a tenfold return on
5:48Jeffrey's find which is an outstanding
5:51result for a small Aussie company and a
5:55lot of that is purely based upon the
5:57gold price. That's very good
6:00information. interesting comments of
6:02course on the gold market there and
6:03where you see this going and uh
6:05certainly Australia has been a pretty
6:07hot spot for mining and also I would say
6:10certainly compared to our friends in
6:12Canada that the sentiment um in
6:14Australia is certainly much better the
6:16markets behaved quite well there and um
6:18certainly there's been more success
6:20coming out of ASX listed companies than
6:22there has been uh in Canada for a number
6:25of reasons which we'll we'll go into
6:26maybe on a separate podcast when you
6:28have some spare time with respect to the
6:31cost profile. Um maybe you can just give
6:33us a little bit of a flavor as a small
6:35producer just on a cost profile basis.
6:38Uh call it all in sustaining cost basis.
6:40Where do you guys see this landing for
6:42the year as far as the company goes
6:43based on your expected production out of
6:45Jeffrey's fine but then also ramp up at
6:47Munda? Just talk a little bit about
6:50roughly I know you can't give exact
6:52money here but just what you expect on
6:54an all-in sustaining basis across
6:56company operations.
6:58two different profiles really. Andrew,
7:01Jeffrey's Find, as I said, we're not the
7:03minor operator. And the other thing
7:05about Jeffrey's Find is that I need to
7:07emphasize to your listeners is we are
7:10trucking it a long way. Okay? So, we're
7:13trucking that dirt around 210 kilometers
7:17each way to the mill. So, that trucking
7:20cost is a big piece. Manda is in a far
7:25easier location, far closer to the um
7:29mills. So Jeffrey's fine to Calguli or
7:32your listeners is around
7:35230ks. M to Calguli is around 100. So of
7:40course that that that saving in distance
7:43is a huge cost reduction in in trucking
7:48the mill cost because at this point in
7:50time in Orex evolution we don't own our
7:53own mill. So we're toll treating our
7:56mill which basically means we're renting
7:58a slot in mills. You deliver your ore to
8:02that mill. They clean out the mill. They
8:04close it down. they they get it to a to
8:06a to a stage where you then take control
8:10of that mill for the next 3 4 5 6 7
8:13weeks whatever it is and only your dirt
8:16goes through that mill and only your
8:18gold gets pushed out from that
8:21mill. So for Manda, our cost profile,
8:25we're working at a in an AUD term, all
8:29in sustaining costs of somewhere between
8:312750 an ounce and about 3250 an ounce.
8:36If I take your listeners back to an ASX
8:39announcement that we did on the 10th of
8:41December, it's got a bit more clarity
8:44and a bit more meat on the bone about
8:46costing. And in that we said our we
8:50expected our cost to run at 2935 an
8:53ounce. So, you know, prices go up. Not
8:57everything always goes perfect according
8:59to plan on the Excel spreadsheet.
9:01There's always weather events. There's
9:03always problems. You know, there's
9:05there's always issues that slow you
9:07down. And no matter how much you um
9:10budget for those, reality is normally a
9:13lot tougher than your budget. So that's
9:15why I said somewhere between 2750 and
9:183250 Aussie gold price at the moment
9:215250. So there's still a good lump of
9:242,000 bucks an ounce margin in that.
9:27Going back to Manda if I can. We are
9:30doing Manda on a very conservative
9:33basis. We've never mined Manda before.
9:36So we are doing what's called a starter
9:38pit, a trial pit, our first blush. So,
9:42we're expecting to pull out around
9:44125,000 tons of dirt. We expect it to um
9:49come out between 1.6 and 1.8 g per ton.
9:53We're anticipating to produce around
9:556,100 ounces of gold. Okay? So, if you
10:00look at the number, so I just talked
10:02about a $2,000 margin on that. So you
10:05make a $2,000 margin on 6,000 ounces. We
10:09expect to generate say $12 million worth
10:11of profit out of Manda between today and
10:14the 31st of December.
10:17That gives us a good indication here of
10:20the mix of operations and obviously
10:22still for you guys to truck that kind of
10:24distance back on Jeffrey's find
10:26obviously the margins there and you guys
10:28are going after that goes to show you
10:29certainly that there's there's good
10:31incentive to continue to do these
10:32operations and just the mix of
10:34operations and where you're starting to
10:36locate more of the operations base now
10:39that Jeffrey's find is winding down and
10:41Munda is opening up of course among
10:43other projects we'll talk about here in
10:44a moment. I want to just go back just a
10:47little bit here and we've started in on
10:48some of the projects, but maybe let's
10:50step back and have you just cover
10:52briefly background of the company, what
10:55the overall strategy is for the company
10:56going forward, as well as Mark, why you
11:00took the post as managing director.
11:03Okay. So, how it came about is is it's
11:07quite a quite a beautiful story that
11:10John Utley, the technical director, and
11:12I live across the road from each other
11:15in a suburb north of Perth. John's a
11:18gold geologist. John's worked all around
11:20the world. John's last major big gig was
11:24up there on the Toquoy gold mine up
11:26there in Nova Scotia. He worked on that
11:28project for 12 to 14 years. That was a
11:31hugely successful
11:33project. John had some family issues and
11:37he had to step back from the workforce
11:39for a period of time. We were having a
11:41chat quintessential Friday afternoon
11:44chats on your deck in Perth where it's
11:46beautiful sun, nice sunny day and we
11:50decided that we'd put together a gold
11:51company. I'm a finance guy, John's a
11:54technical guy. So we did that. We gave
11:58John the brief that we only wanted to
12:00look at gold projects. John's expertise
12:03is principally in gold. So we decided
12:05that we gave John a blank canvas and
12:08said go and look at gold projects but
12:10only in two jurisdictions either
12:12Australia or Canada. We weren't prepared
12:15to take any of the jurisdictional risk
12:18other than being in those two
12:20countries. So John looked at projects
12:23principally in Australia. Um he did look
12:25at one in Canada that we passed on. And
12:28we looked at projects in in Queensland,
12:30Victoria, and in WA. WA is our home. WA
12:34is our base. You know, we know WA. So a
12:38company called Australa. Their ASX
12:40ticker is ESR. They put out an
12:43announcement on the ASX that they wanted
12:45to sell one of their projects called the
12:47Manda Gold Project, which is our
12:49flagship project. That was in late
12:542020, mid
12:562020. We um transacted on that project
12:59in September 2020. We bought that
13:02project off Australa at that time.
13:05Around similar time, Minor, which was
13:07listed on the ASX under the code MCR,
13:11Minor were focusing on nickel and they
13:14were building the Cassini nickel mine,
13:16which is about 100ks south of
13:19Manda. and they had the Jeffrey's fine
13:21project and the Jeffrey's fine project
13:24is a bit more
13:26remote bit further away from everything
13:28else and it was purely a gold project.
13:31So
13:32Minkor had announced also on the ASX
13:35that they wanted to sell the Jeffre Fine
13:37project. So we raised enough money of
13:40family, friends, seed capital, startup
13:43equity capital, whatever you want to
13:44call it and we bought both those
13:47projects. We bought Mander off Australa
13:49and Jeffrey's find off
13:51Minor. So then to really get into these
13:54projects and to get them to the next
13:56stage, you need equity. So we did a
13:58prospectus in late 2020. We raised
14:02around $7.2 million Australian and we
14:06listed on the ASX in February 2021. So,
14:10we've only been on the ASX for four
14:12years, so we're still a pretty new kid
14:14on the block as far as that goes. But we
14:17take a lot of um privilege. We take a
14:20lot of confidence that we are motor the
14:23quickest small cap company on the ASX to
14:26go from exploration to actually gold
14:29mining and production. And we think
14:31that's a big feather in our cap. We
14:34think that's a big accolade for the
14:36company that we have been able to
14:37achieve that and to be producing gold,
14:41creating revenue, making profits within
14:44four years of our IPO.
14:47Yes, a great achievement actually to be
14:49able to go from that point, make those
14:51acquisitions, get into production and
14:53realize cash flow. Cash flow in this
14:55market very important. Um, and certainly
14:57companies that have cash flow are much
14:59more rewarded than the ones who don't.
15:01Good information there. Just on capital
15:03structure, want to have you just cover
15:05off a few things here and then we'll
15:06talk about some key staff in a moment,
15:08but uh cover off for us uh where we are
15:10on shares on issue at this point. The
15:13current cash on hand as well as the
15:16major shareholders including yourself
15:18and management.
15:20Cash on hand as we speak today is around
15:225.5 million in the bank. We did our
15:25quarterly report at the um 31st of
15:28March. We're at 7.5 at that stage. So,
15:31we burnt about $2 million um between
15:3531st of March and today. We paid
15:39$450,000 to buy the loaded dog
15:41tenementss. And there was a pretty big
15:44GST bill of
15:46$500,000. GST is a timing issue, so a
15:49goods and services tax um uh issue. And
15:53our our payment for the revenue that we
15:56got from the Jeffree Fine Gold was
15:57around 500,000. So at the end of the
16:01day, our burn rate in this six-w week
16:03period has been around near a million
16:05dollars in OPEX and capital development.
16:08Um, Mand Mund is taking a fair bit of
16:10cash out of the system as you as you
16:12ramp it up. Um, but our burn rate's not
16:15too bad. Our management opex rate is
16:18really around $200,000 a month. Our
16:20total opex cost is about 2.4 million a
16:23year. Our capital structure is we've got
16:27149 million shares on issue. Our current
16:30share price is around 24 25 cents. So
16:33our our market cap is around $45
16:37million. Our largest shareholder, we
16:40have two substantial shareholders of
16:42which I am one. Our largest shareholder
16:45is a um elderly guy out of Melbourne. Um
16:49he's in his mid70s.
16:52um he owns um about 12% of the company
16:56um it's held through his company FF Oram
16:59um which is his surname spelled
17:01backwards so so his name is Jeffrey
17:04Markoff Jeffrey Markoff is very
17:07supportive he has acquired his entire
17:09interest in Oric by buying shares on
17:11market he did not come in any placements
17:14or any capital
17:16raisings I met with Jeffrey first time
17:19in
17:202023 We developed a relationship
17:22throughout 23 24. Um he came into the
17:26market most probably about um April May
17:312024. He has um as I said built his
17:35equity stake up to just below 12%. We've
17:38taken Jeffrey and his financial advisor
17:40stock broker on a three-day tour of our
17:43projects last month. He spent uh three
17:46days with us in Calguli and we went down
17:48and visited Jeffy's find Manda um our
17:52mine camp plant equipment. We took him
17:55up and showed him the um Burbanks Mill
17:58site that we have got under contract to
18:00buy and we took him up to Lindsay to
18:02show him that contract that we have
18:04under contract to buy. So we had a great
18:06three days with Jeffrey and his
18:08financial adviser. He was very impressed
18:11with what we've done um and what we are
18:13achieving. The directors collectively
18:16own about 16% of Oric. I'm about 5.2
18:205.3% and John Utley and Steven Morris
18:23are both in the high fours. So
18:25collectively between the three of us, we
18:27own the right mix in my opinion. I
18:30wouldn't like to invest in a company
18:31where the directors own less than 10%
18:34and I wouldn't like to invest in a
18:36company where the directors own more
18:37than 25%.
18:39If you get outside those two metrics, I
18:42think it's a it's not beneficial for
18:44your shareholders. So, I think we're
18:45right in the sweet spot as to where the
18:48director's equity should be in Oric.
18:53Mark, thank you for that. And uh yeah,
18:55very good to hear on the cap structure,
18:57you know, very early days there and of
18:58course your guys' uh insider ownership
19:01here as part of the company and helping
19:03to uh you know, provide that skin of the
19:05game approach here. Good information
19:07there for the audience to consider.
19:09Insider ownership, management team, skin
19:12in the game. That range I think is
19:13important, but the audience to take note
19:15of as well. Just on staff, you talked
19:18about some of the key shareholders um
19:20and their involvement. Uh some of the
19:22key staff there. Uh anybody there that
19:24you want to mention at the company and
19:25what they bring to the table? Yeah,
19:28absolutely. Look, I think we all know in
19:30business staff are your your main asset.
19:33You can talk all you want about
19:36commodity, price, where you are,
19:39location, all those good fun things, but
19:41if you don't have the right staff and
19:42the right mix, you are not going to be
19:45successful. In relation to staff, so
19:48John and I are the two full-time
19:50executives. We're the guys that run the
19:52business every day. We've got an
19:54excellent team. We've got some people
19:56that have been with us for quite a
19:57while. I'd like to talk about Nicholas
20:00Snow. Nicholas is our chief exploration
20:02geologist. He runs all the exploration
20:06um programs and teams with us. Nicholas
20:08has been with us for over four years
20:10now. Um he's a key employee and he's a
20:14guy that runs a drill rig and prepared
20:16to work pretty hard in either hot,
20:18dusty, dirty conditions or cold, wet
20:21conditions. So Nick's a key focus for
20:24us. Katherine Yo, our company secretary
20:27and finance um person has been with us
20:29for a bit over three years. Katherine
20:32again is important to us. Katherine's a
20:35lot younger than me. Katherine's just
20:36turned 30. She's going to be the face of
20:38Oric um as one of the key drivers and
20:41developers of Oric over the foreseeable
20:44time. We've recently engaged two mine
20:47geologists, Matthew and Adrian. Both
20:50those guys come with a wealth of
20:51experience. Both of them started
20:53full-time on the 1st of February. So,
20:55they've been with the company now for a
20:57bit over two months. Both of them have
20:59got double degrees, geology and geostats
21:03in Matthew's case and geology and IT and
21:07database management in Adrian's case.
21:10So, they're the two guys that are
21:12running the Mundine. All our workforce
21:15out at Manda work on a two week on one
21:18week off cycle. So those two guys
21:20overlap for a week and then they're
21:22there by themselves for a week and
21:24they're the two mine geologists. We
21:26brought on a guy Mark Lewis and his wife
21:30Tracy Lewis as the two senior side
21:32executives. Well Mark is the senior site
21:34executive. They're a husband and wife
21:37team and they've put together their team
21:38to mine m. There's going to be a team of
21:42about eight people on site at any one
21:44time. So they're they've got lots of
21:47experience. Marks worked in the mining
21:49contracting sector for 30 plus years as
21:53has Tracy. Tracy was born in Norman. Her
21:56father is a mining engineer. A lot of
21:59your readers would have heard of Cayora
22:01Gold um that was listed on the ASX that
22:04had all their
22:07operations around Higginsville Norman.
22:11Um Graeme Sloan is Tracy's father. So
22:14she grew up really operating in gold
22:18activities. The rest of the team that
22:20Mark and Tracy have put together are
22:22people with lots of experience that have
22:24all good operators. You know, you need
22:26the right people to drive the
22:28excavators, you need the right people to
22:30drive the trucks, and you need because
22:32it's a fairly small team, as I said, 8
22:34to 10 people. You need respect amongst
22:37that team. So, we've allowed Mark and
22:39Tracy to determine the entire mining
22:42team and we're looking forward to that
22:44being a great success.
22:46It's a good stuff there. The
22:47complexities of being an operator, of
22:49course, you pointed that out and the
22:51importance of people and the importance
22:52of expertise and of course the operators
22:55on the ground. One of the other things
22:57here I I wanted to talk about was uh the
23:00overall and and you started into it
23:02here. You know, you guys are
23:03transitioning from production at
23:05Jeffrey's Find of course and then you
23:06guys are working now on the ground
23:08already at Munda. Just talk a little bit
23:11about that. We'll move on to some other
23:12projects in a moment, but talk a little
23:13bit about Munda in terms of operations
23:16update there and then where you would
23:18find production coming in at the end of
23:20the year here. just remind the audience
23:21of of what you expect to produce at this
23:24uh project for this year and and maybe
23:26if you want to speculate a little bit
23:28more forward into 2026.
23:31Yeah, thanks Andrew. So Manda, as I
23:34said, we're doing it on a conservative
23:36basis and we're doing a starter pit to
23:39understand the
23:40geology. So in round dollar terms, Manda
23:44this year 125,000 tons going through the
23:48mill 1.7 to 1.8 8 g per ton is our is
23:52our um budget
23:54recovery to produce 6,000 ounces of
23:57gold. In round terms, 6,000 ounces of
24:00gold, 5,000 Aussie gold price, 30
24:04million revenue costs around 18 to 20
24:07million. So we should we should make a
24:09profit out of Manda this year of
24:12somewhere between 12 and 14 million is
24:15the range with the sweet spot of being
24:1712. our our budget says that we should
24:20make 12 million bucks out of Manda. Of
24:22course, if the gold price kicks, then
24:25that's going to kick, you know, strongly
24:28on on your
24:29production. From a company perspective,
24:33yes, Manda is our flagship asset. Mer
24:37again, if I take your listeners back to
24:39the study that we did in December 2024,
24:42it's got a resource of around 145,000
24:46ounces. That's the resource that we
24:49believe is minable at Munda. So if we
24:52take out 6,000 ounces this in the next 6
24:55months, that still leaves quite a
24:57substantial resource behind. We see us
25:01going back into Munda and mining that
25:03maybe starting in Q2 next year round 1
25:07April
25:082026. If everything goes perfectly and
25:11everything goes in accordance with our
25:13plan, we would then mine Manda for a 3
25:17to four year
25:19period. The biggest issue for us to
25:22achieve that is getting access to a gold
25:24mill. Now, with the gold price where it
25:27is, Andrew, and your listeners, of
25:30course, a lot of low-grade stock piles
25:33that people have had sitting around that
25:36previously were uneconomic are now
25:39economic. For example, we have heard
25:42that Northern Star is now pushing dirt
25:45through their mill at8 gram per 8 gram
25:50per ton recovery. With the gold price
25:52where it is, everybody's trying to crank
25:54up their mills. Um, so if anybody has
25:57their own dirt, if any company that owns
26:00a mill has their own mining fleet,
26:02mining capacity and their own dirt, they
26:05are not going to want a toll tree. So if
26:09I then go on to the next stage in our
26:12development, the next stage in where
26:14Oric wants to get to is why we are
26:16looking at the Burbanks facility.
26:20Burbanks has a mill at this point in
26:22time is unoperational. It is it is old.
26:26It is tired. It really the you cannot
26:29look at it from a mill perspective.
26:32We're not going to turn that mill on
26:33tomorrow. No chance. But what we are
26:36buying is the opportunity and the
26:39regulatory licenses at Burbanks. So
26:43Burbanks is about 15 kilometers
26:45southwest of Kulgardi, nice and close to
26:48town for your workforce. It has bitchmen
26:51to your front door. It's got threephase
26:54power coming off the national
26:55electricity grid. It's got water
26:58licenses. It's got permits. It has
27:01granted granted mining leases. It is a
27:05site. So what we are doing is we are
27:07paying and we have not settled on
27:10Burbanks yet. We expect to settle on
27:12Burbanks in July August this year. We
27:16are buying that facility for 4.4 million
27:19Australian. So we have allocated in our
27:22minds a lot of that money just being for
27:25the power, the water, the licenses, the
27:28permits and the infrastructure. So if we
27:31started off on a clean slate, clean
27:35piece of paper without that
27:36infrastructure already there, we believe
27:39that we are shortening the build cycle
27:42by 3 to 5 years. So as it's a fully
27:45permitted mill site, you don't you know
27:48a lot of that work is already done.
27:51Getting the power there already done,
27:53having the water to run your mills
27:55already done. There is a tail storage
27:58facility there. there's some problems
28:00with it. So therefore, we are not really
28:04expecting to use the current tail
28:06storage facility. We believe that we
28:08will need to build something else. So
28:11our plan for Burbanks is to is to settle
28:15on the on the project to complete as I
28:19said to your listeners in July/
28:22August, pay the $4.4 4 million and then
28:25you own own own a site, you own the
28:28concept. And then throughout the
28:30remainder of 2025 and early 2026, you
28:34are then going to start to look at
28:36engineering designs, costings,
28:39development, timelines, all that
28:41infrastructure work that you need to do
28:44to construct your own mill. So that is
28:47at least 18 to 24 months down the road.
28:51Okay. So as I said to you, you and your
28:55listeners earlier, Orex's biggest um
28:59impediment to growth is going to be a
29:01mill facility, a mill capacity. So that
29:04is why we bought Burbanks and that is
29:06why we are taking that opportunity to
29:09build the mill. You're going to need
29:11more ounces. There is no way in the
29:13world you are going to go into that
29:15capex construction with the current
29:18resources that Oric owns. So in addition
29:21to that work that we will need to do on
29:25mill and design and getting that piece
29:27right, we need to step really hard on
29:31the accelerator and develop our ounces.
29:35So our exploration activity commencing
29:38on or about the 1st of July is going to
29:41be very quick.
29:43So I want to talk about Burbank just a
29:45little bit more and then we're going to
29:47jump into expiration here a little bit
29:48later and then also talk about the
29:50Lindsay's project as well. First on
29:53Burbank. So the refurbishment timeline,
29:54you guys are going to do some reviews.
29:57I'm assuming there's going to be at some
29:59point a plan for the refurbishment. Talk
30:02just a little bit about existing
30:04capacity. I know you guys are going to
30:05refurbish this, but talk a little bit
30:07about existing capacity just so we have
30:09a flavor for capacity. And then also I'm
30:12assuming as part of the refurbishment
30:15process you guys will need to maybe
30:17amend permits or maybe that doesn't need
30:19to happen. Just talk about that overall
30:22total timeline if it is indeed at 18 to
30:2524 months complete or if you see this
30:28going further all the way to a point
30:30where it could be operational again. And
30:33then also just talk a little bit about
30:34that capacity.
30:36At this point in time, the capacity of
30:38the mill is around 180,000 tons per
30:41hour. So, it's small. The mill has
30:45really been dormant for about 8 to 10
30:48years. The last major uses of the mill
30:52were
30:53Romelius. Romelius again an ASX listed
30:56company. It's Cody's
30:58RMS. They use this mill to process the W
31:01dam deposit. The Wadd Dam deposits
31:04mostly
31:05about 60 to 80ks south of the mill. The
31:09Wadd Dam deposit, Andrew, is everybody's
31:12glory. If you could find a Wadd Dam
31:14deposit in this market, your market cap
31:17would fly. So, Wadd Dam produced
31:21286,000 ounces of gold at an average
31:25average recovery of 10.6 g per ton. Wow,
31:31what a beast. you would be literally
31:34going to your ATM machine and taking
31:36cash out of that ATM machine every day
31:40with a project that was generating that
31:43recovery. So our view is that the mill
31:47is is is is worn out. We don't look at
31:51it so much as a refurbishment. We're
31:54looking at it more as a total rebuild.
31:57Okay. So that's going to involve
32:00engineering designs. There's a lot of
32:03work. Okay, we're not afraid of work.
32:05Oric as a business and Oric as a team is
32:08not a afraid of putting your shoulder to
32:10the wheel and going hard and working
32:12hard. We'd like to emphasize that we've
32:14done that in the four years that we've
32:16been listed on the ASEX. That piece
32:18doesn't concern us. What we have to do
32:22is as as I said, it's a it's a two-fold
32:25process. To build your own mill, you
32:27need to justify the capex. So, you got
32:29to build your
32:30ounces, but you got to start the process
32:34of of of getting a piece of land, a
32:38piece of dirt and infrastructure before
32:41you can even start to plan the
32:43construction.
32:44So that's what we're doing with Burbanks
32:47and we are looking at it purely as a
32:51position where we can build a mill that
32:55we can purpose fit to some of our
32:57projects.
32:59So as you outlined earlier some of that
33:02concern with you know everybody
33:04processing the gold price is high um
33:06mills or capacities are getting filled
33:08out why you guys work towards that
33:11self-determination you know
33:13self-direction in terms of your own
33:14processing facility which is a fantastic
33:16way to go and obviously will be much
33:19beneficial as you guys continue to
33:21progress on Burbank. Um, any concerns
33:23about your existing relationships in the
33:25region as far as being able to toll
33:27process? Any concerns there, Mark? Do
33:29you guys see that things are heating up
33:31in the region or do you believe that
33:33your relationships are going to make
33:35sure that you guys have that ability to
33:38process the lots as you have been doing
33:40in the past?
33:42That Andrew is a million-doll question.
33:45We've got great relationships. So in our
33:47area at this point in time there are
33:50four mills that do toll treatment in
33:53some manner shape or form. Okay. There's
33:57the green fields mill at Kulgardi that's
33:59privately owned. They're they're doing
34:02some work for evolution and others at
34:05this point in time and we have used that
34:07mill uh a lot for Jeffrey's find.
34:11There's a mill right next door focus
34:13mill. The Focus Mill is controlled by an
34:15ASX listed company, Focus Minerals.
34:18Their ticker is FML. They are processing
34:21the remaining 60,000 tons of ore from
34:25Jeffrey's Find. And we have an agreement
34:27with them to start late June, early
34:30July. The third mill that is in the area
34:33is the Lakewood Mill at Calguli.
34:36Lakewood used to be owned by Cayora.
34:40Cayora was taken over by Westold. Um
34:43that transaction completed sometime last
34:45year. West Gold has made the decision
34:48that they want to focus on their big
34:50mill at Higginsville and they didn't
34:52want to operate two mills in the region.
34:55So they sold the Lakewood Mill to
34:57Blackat 8. Um their ASX code is BC8.
35:01They settled on that on the 31st of
35:04March. Blackat um we're very close to
35:07the board and management at Blackat. Um
35:10we are have another meeting with
35:12Blackcat later on today to talk to them
35:15about about capacity. They know that at
35:19this point in time blackat does not have
35:21enough ore from their east Calguli
35:24operations. They won't reach maximum um
35:28throughput there till early mid 2026. So
35:33they have some capacity to process our
35:36ore in
35:372025. The fourth mill in the area is a
35:41big mill. It's the Paddington Mill. And
35:43the Paddington Mill is north of Calguli,
35:46about 30 to 40k north of Calguli. But
35:49they do it on a different way. I
35:51mentioned to you earlier in this podcast
35:54that if you toll mill, they basically
35:57clean out the mill. They get to a
36:00starting point. Yes, there's a thing
36:02called operating stock gold in circuit.
36:05Gold that's rolling around in the mill.
36:07You do a valuation of that gold at the
36:09start. Then your dirt goes through it
36:12and only your dirt, only your ore goes
36:15through that mill for that contract
36:16period, whether it be four, five, six,
36:19seven, eight weeks. And then you process
36:21your gold out and then you do the
36:24closing stock. So you do the closing
36:26stock gold in circuit at the end. And
36:28then you
36:29reconcile the gold that was in the mill
36:32when you started it and the gold in the
36:34mill at the end. And there's either a
36:36payment to Oric or a payment to the mill
36:38depending upon whether the golden
36:40circuit is a positive or a negative.
36:43Paddington do a totally different
36:45operation. They do an or purchase
36:47agreement. So Paddington comes in the
36:50case of Manda. They will come down to
36:53Manda and they will look at the ore that
36:55we have on our rompad at
36:58Manda. They'll put a little excavator on
37:01the top of that romp. They'll drill it
37:04all out. They'll then take that data and
37:07put it through a mill, put it through a
37:09laboratory. They'll say, "Well, we think
37:11that there are x number of tons there
37:14and we think the recovery is x and they
37:18will pay you half of the value of that
37:21gold at that time." Then they take that
37:25dirt and they blend it with everybody
37:28else's dirt. So they they actually would
37:32blend Oric Mund dirt with other small
37:36cap producers. Um
37:38Horizon, HRZ, U Brightar, BTR I think is
37:43their code. Um Leafroy Exploration,
37:47other small to medium players in the
37:50Calguli Kugatti region, they would blend
37:53all our dirt together and throw it
37:55through the mill. So at the end of the
37:59day, the difference, the key difference
38:01is you never know your recoveries of
38:04your dirt because it's a blended
38:07material. So our desire is to understand
38:11our own or understand our own
38:14metallurgy, understand our own recovery.
38:17So we would be looking at Monday going
38:19through either the um the Greenfields
38:22Mill, the Focus Mill or the Lakewood
38:24Mill as a lender of last resort or or
38:28usage of last position would be the
38:31Paddington Mill. As I said earlier,
38:33Andrew, with the current gold price, a
38:36lot of projects are being dusted off. A
38:39lot of dirt that's been stockpiled from
38:41the 50s, 60s, and 70s has been looked
38:44at. So, if you know the guys that own
38:48the the Greenfields Mill, they have
38:50their own operating facilities, they
38:52have their own operating mines. If they
38:54find um the recovery is good enough on
38:58their operating dirt to um punch it
39:01through the mill, they're not going to
39:03want to toll treat and just get a get an
39:06hourly rate. They're going to want to
39:08toll treat. They're going to sorry, not
39:10toll treat. they're going to want to
39:11mill their own resources so that they
39:14get the benefit in the upside of the
39:16gold price. So that's a big risk for us,
39:20Andrew. That's the biggest impediment
39:23that we have to manage and control,
39:26which is exactly why we're looking at
39:28Burbanks. So as you pointed out earlier,
39:32Andrew, you got to control your own
39:33destiny. You got to be in control of
39:36your mining operations, your trucking
39:38operations, your milling operations, and
39:41you got to be able to control that all
39:43through that production cycle. And until
39:46you have your own mill, you are unable
39:49to do that.
39:51Fully agreed, Mark. Thank you for
39:53running through that. And the
39:54optionality is there. You're going to
39:55need to balance those relationships. And
39:57I think you guys given your contacts and
39:59connections in the region there, you
40:01guys will be able to find a way to keep
40:03things moving as you have already
40:04demonstrated here in the past with
40:06production. Very much agreed. Uh
40:09self-determination here is going to be
40:11very important moving forward. Okay, so
40:13we've got a good idea on where Burbanks
40:16stands. I want to move on here to we've
40:18got Munda sorted out here. the Lindsay's
40:21project. Talk about the status here as
40:24well as what you can say on expectation
40:26on gold resources for the project as
40:28well as what you guys are thinking
40:30preliminary as to the mining plan. We
40:34love Lindsy's. We really rate it. The
40:37more work we do on it, the happier we
40:40are with our
40:41acquisition. So, at this point in time,
40:44we have Lindsy's under contract. There's
40:46some um tenure problems with Lindsy's.
40:50There are people in West Australia, if
40:53you believe, even though you're the
40:55current owner, if you believe you are
40:57not in compliance with the mining act
40:59and the mining regulations, you can
41:02issue what's called a plaint against
41:04that tenement. And then you go to what's
41:07called the warden's court, one of the
41:09courts in West Australia to argue
41:11whether the incumbent should keep that
41:14mining tenement. and mining tenure or
41:17you the plaintor or should be granted
41:21that
41:22tenure. So Lindsy's is a combination of
41:25eight or nine tenementss and two of the
41:28tenementss are under plank. So we will
41:32not settle on Lindsay's until those
41:34planks are
41:36resolved. The next hearing in the
41:38warden's court is on the 20th of June.
41:41So not far away 5 6
41:44weeks we are working on the basis that
41:47the incumbent is successful in their
41:49argument in the warden's court and
41:51therefore they keep the ten
41:53tenementss we will then proceed as
41:56quickly as we can to settle on that. So
41:58let's say the warden's court and
42:00assuming he issues a decision on the
42:04day hearings on the 10th of June assume
42:07he gets his decision out by the 30th of
42:10June we will settle on Lindsay's by the
42:1231st of July. So in our mind we're
42:16looking at settling on Lindsay's late
42:18July early
42:20August. What we've seen in our due
42:22diligence at Lindsay's really excites
42:25us. It is proving far better than we
42:29expected. There are some fantastic
42:32short-term mining opportunities and then
42:35there is enormous potential to grow the
42:38resource. At this point in time
42:41internally, we're looking at a resource
42:44of around 150,000 ounces of gold at
42:48Lindsy's. We believe that we will be
42:50able to increase that resource soon
42:53quickly through exploration as well as
42:55development drilling. So our plan is if
43:00everything works Andrew and you are in
43:03utopia and everything goes perfectly our
43:07plan is to mine Ma 1st of May through to
43:11the end of November then move the mining
43:14team to Lindsy's mine Lindsy's. there's
43:17some good economic mining ready to go.
43:21So, mine Lindsay's 1st December through
43:24the 30th of April. Then I mentioned
43:26earlier, we would then like to go back
43:29to Manda and start mining Monday 1st
43:32April
43:332026. That's our internal plan. That's
43:37our that's the gant sheet of where we
43:40believe our mining activities will go.
43:44However, if the gold price keeps on
43:46raging along and the gold price keeps on
43:49increasing, the opportunity may be to
43:52mine both Manda and Lindsay's
43:55concurrently. We believe that there is
43:58enough material at Lindsay's from what
44:00we have seen to date to achieve that.
44:04But let's not get too far ahead of
44:06ourselves. Let's just work on that plan
44:08where it's m 6 months lingies for 6
44:11months a m for you know the next 3 to
44:14four years from a mind
44:17capacity. So you've asked me and we've
44:21sort of spoken a little bit about the
44:23exploration capacity. We see exploration
44:26upside at both Manda and Lindsay's from
44:29a mine expansion point of view. We
44:33believe both those projects are capable
44:36of increasing the current resources on
44:40hand at both Manda and Lindsay's. So if
44:43we add them together now, Andrew, you
44:46get to around 300,000 ounces of gold.
44:50Okay. But with
44:54development drilling, we believe that we
44:56can increase that number.
44:59So then we go and talk about what we
45:01haven't spoken about at all today is our
45:04exploration focus. Our exploration focus
45:08is two projects at this point in time.
45:12The loaded dog project that I mentioned
45:14that we settled on five of the
45:16tenementss in last month, April. There's
45:21another three tenementss that we expect
45:22to settle on and we expect to settle on
45:25them quickly. So those eight tenementss
45:28are all around Higginsville, Wiji,
45:30Malta. They've got some short um
45:34results, you know, quite shallow between
45:3725 and 30 m. They've got some good
45:39numbers, you know, 4 m at 8 g, 3 m, at 9
45:45g, all nice and shallow. So we need to
45:48get into loaded dog quickly and do
45:51exploration drilling. Our other focus is
45:54up at Spagville. We've done two two
45:58drilling programs at Sparkville. If your
46:01listeners want to have a look at the
46:03last ASX announcement on Sparkville,
46:05which was in September last year, we
46:08need to go back and do further work at
46:10Sparkville because we believe that is
46:13the second upside area for our
46:16exploration growth. Sparkleville is only
46:19about 3 to 5 km north of the Wadd Dam
46:23deposit. We believe that it's in similar
46:26geology and just north of our tenment is
46:30the Spargo reward tenement which is
46:33mostly about 1 to 1.5ks north of us
46:36which is being now mined by Westgold. So
46:40we believe in that 6 km belt. You got
46:44Wadd Dam to the south and uh Spargo's
46:48rewards to the north. We hold a lot of
46:51expectation for what we believe we can
46:55achieve at Spargoville
46:57on the expiration targets there. So
46:59Loaded Dog and Spargoville. Uh aside
47:02from that, I want to point out yet
47:03again, you guys do have immediate work
47:05as well to expand operations there is at
47:08Munda as well as uh Valenc's project as
47:11it gets going as well. So you have that
47:14at mine expansion potential, but then
47:16you also have these exploration targets.
47:18uh just talk a little bit more about
47:21some of those expiration targets
47:23specifically and when you guys would
47:25expect assuming the capital allocations
47:28there this year or into early 26 when
47:30would you guys start to drill test those
47:32targets?
47:34Okay, so our first target is going to be
47:36on the loaded dog tenementss and there's
47:38two targets, one called amorphice and
47:41one called footsfind. To answer the
47:44second question first, our expiration
47:47budget for the next 12 months is 1.7
47:49million. That's we've got the cash to do
47:52that and we have the budget to do that
47:54and we got the team to do that. Nicholas
47:56Snow is our exploration geologist and
48:00he's the man that runs all our
48:02exploration activities. We are looking
48:05at getting into the footsfind and
48:08amorphous in July this year. There'll be
48:11two or three programs that we will do
48:14there. Majority of it will be RC. We
48:17just finished the soils program um there
48:20and we're collecting that data at the
48:22moment. And then we will move from um
48:26Amorphus and Footsfind up to
48:29Sparleville. And we've got two targets
48:32at Sparle. One called Fugitive and the
48:35other one called Anomaly B. And we would
48:38be looking at getting in there in
48:40September, October this year. With the
48:43current gold price where it is, it's our
48:46view that you got to go hard. You know,
48:49I use the phrase all the time
48:51internally, we got to push hard on the
48:53accelerator. You got to go, you got to
48:56do everything that you can as quickly as
48:59you can without being stupid. So, we
49:02need to get into our exploration focus
49:07on amorphous, footfine, fugitive, um,
49:11anomaly B. They're our four key targets
49:14for the next six to eight months. Okay.
49:18That's very good and I like to use the
49:20term I think it's similar and I like
49:21yours make hay while the sun is shining.
49:24You guys have a lot of things going here
49:26but as you said it makes sense to step
49:27down on the accelerator when market
49:29gives you these good prices here to uh
49:32take advantage and maximize uh cash
49:34flows and obviously value for
49:37shareholders. Okay. So Mark, we we've
49:39talked a little bit about the
49:40exploration work and some of your guys'
49:41plans there. Um any other projects to
49:44add? Anything to add on uh Chalice West?
49:47Uh anything else there? We see Talis
49:50West as a bit more green fields
49:52opportunity. Um so so whilst it's a good
49:55project and we've spent a fair bit of
49:57money on it. We've spent about $1.5
49:59million on Chalice uh already, it's more
50:03a longerterm vision. We want to build
50:06our ounces, Andrew, and we want to build
50:08them as quickly as we can. And we see
50:11that through the drill bit. So, so the
50:14only way you're going to increase your
50:15ounces under your control is either a
50:17through the drill bit or b through M&A
50:20activity in our area. There are some M&A
50:25opportunities in the small small to
50:27medium cap space. Forget the big boys,
50:30forget the Northern Stars and the and
50:32the West Golds and the and the
50:35Goldfields and people like those great
50:37big behemoths, Pantoro even. forget
50:40those guys because they're going to play
50:42in a different market and a different
50:44area than what we are. You've just seen
50:47in our neck of the woods
50:49um just complete the merger of or the
50:52takeover of Maximus resources and as a
50:55consequence of that they were able to
50:57put out a new resource announcement
50:59yesterday I think it was where they've
51:02increased their resources up to about
51:041.75 million ounces under their control.
51:08So for Oric our our key focus has to be
51:12on Ma Lindsy's amorphous footsfind
51:16fugitive and anomaly B. They're the
51:19they're they're the six key things that
51:22we talk about internally all the time as
51:25mustd dos.
51:27That seems to be a good mix because you
51:29have cash flows coming in or helping to
51:31fund this keeps the dilution down. Um a
51:34great little mix here Mark. So, I
51:36appreciate you going through that. Um,
51:38overall strategy, Mark, you guys are
51:40cash flowing. You're intending to deploy
51:43a lot of that cash back towards growth
51:46those initiatives to grow the company
51:48value. What do you see as really the
51:50long-term goal here? Continue to
51:52increase production profile, continue to
51:54size up, continue to be an operator, or
51:57do you guys see at some point you'll
51:58start to return maybe capital to
52:00shareholders and maybe a form of a
52:02dividend? What do you see as kind of the
52:04the bigger picture for the company?
52:06Look, it's a two-fold question. From
52:09today for the next three maybe four
52:12years, we see ourselves as a growth
52:15opportunity. Our focus must be upon
52:18growing the company. It must be
52:20increasing our ounces, increasing our
52:22profile, increasing our market cap,
52:25building resources, building
52:27infrastructure, getting to the stage
52:29where Oric can control its own destiny.
52:33Right? That's our profile work for the
52:36next three to four. After that, we would
52:39certainly be looking at being a dividend
52:42payer. Look, we're making enough profits
52:45at this point in time and we're making
52:47enough cash flow at this point in time
52:49that Oric could easily pay a dividend.
52:52However, we see that as a bit of a
52:54short-term issue like like we see better
52:58value for the money internally and it
53:01would be my pitch to you and your
53:04listeners that we are a growth stock and
53:07we are a growth opportunity for the next
53:09three to four years. If you're looking
53:12at a dividend yield, a dividend return,
53:15Orex mon not not where you should go for
53:18the next three to four years. But you
53:20know, we need to substantially and I
53:23mean substantially increase the market
53:25capitalization of this company and
53:28therefore the underlying share price. So
53:31our goal and our focus, Andrew, is
53:34purely on capital growth and development
53:38at this stage. market, I think that
53:41makes sense. Definitely where I would
53:42point as well. So, I appreciate you
53:44covering that off. Okay. So, just on
53:46other matters here, I want to get into a
53:48little bit of administrative. Any
53:50comments on the community work at the
53:52various uh project areas? Anything you
53:54want to add there? Now's a good
53:56opportunity. We like to ask our guests
53:58about community work, if there's
53:59anything on that front that uh needs to
54:01be covered, as well as anything on the
54:03regulatory and permitting side of things
54:05at each of the projects.
54:08Okay. So again that's a bit of a twofold
54:10question Andrew. So talking about the
54:12community work first we and it was
54:15announced on the ASX in late December
54:18last year. We have entered into motor
54:21one of the first agreements in Western
54:24Australia on an areawide basis with the
54:28traditional owners, the Naju people. And
54:31we've now entered into an agreement with
54:33the Naju people on all their tenure and
54:37all our land within their area on an
54:40area
54:41basis. So that's a fantastic result for
54:44both the Naju people and for Oric. It
54:47gives certainty for Oric on our mine
54:50plans and our development and our work
54:53and ability to carry out activities and
54:56mining operations on Naji country and it
54:59gives the Naji people clarity upon what
55:02they are going to get financially from
55:05our
55:07activities. So there's at Jeffrey's fine
55:11and Munda they're both on granted mining
55:14leases. So, so they're on pre-native
55:17title granted mining leases. So, so
55:19there was no obligation for us to pay
55:22any money at all to the NU people for
55:26our mining activities at Jeffrey's
55:28find. We didn't think that was in the
55:31spirit of cooperation. We didn't believe
55:34that that was in the interests of both
55:36parties for a longerterm view. So, we
55:39entered into an agreement with the Naji
55:41people that we would give them a fixed
55:43price sum up to the first 30,000 ounces
55:46of gold that we take out of Jeffrey's
55:48find. And then in addition to that, we
55:51have agreed to pay them a royalty of I
55:54think it's 1 and a half% for any gold
55:58that comes out of Jeffrey's find over
56:0130,000 ounces. We've also entered into
56:04an agreement with the Naji people to
56:06provide them first choice of work and
56:10contracting. So a lot of the um
56:13traditional owners either part or fully
56:16owned, partially owned, you know,
56:18trucking operations, mining operations
56:21and we we have offered to engage with
56:23them under under first rights principle.
56:28Certainly any work that we need on
56:31rehabilitation work, reveation work, um
56:35replanting, again, we would offer Oh,
56:38sorry. Our agreement specifies that we
56:41would offer those people the first
56:42rights to do that work. So, we meet with
56:45them fairly regularly both in Perth and
56:48at their office in Norman. Whenever I'm
56:51in Norman, I make sure that I go in and
56:53meet with the people that run their
56:55operations. And in addition, you do
56:58these heritage clearance um operations
57:01before you can do drill programs. And
57:03we've built a good rapport and
57:05arrangement with those people cuz we've
57:07mostly now done I don't know 10 to 15
57:11day heritage surveys across Naji country
57:14over the last couple of years. The other
57:17uh traditional owner group that is in
57:19our area are the Millennia Guli people.
57:22We haven't had so much interaction with
57:24them at this point in time because we
57:27haven't had a lot of activities in their
57:29area and also their claim has yet to be
57:33determined in the federal court. So at
57:36this point in time, the Millennial
57:37Ghoulie people do not have the tenure
57:40and the native title grant that the Naji
57:42people have. So, we're we've started our
57:46conversations with the Millennial
57:47Ghoulie people, but they're nowhere near
57:49as advanced as they are with the Naji
57:52people. Up at Lindsy's, there's a
57:54totally different traditional owners up
57:56there. So, we will need to, you know,
57:58start that conversation and open those
58:01doors soon. In mining tenure, we're very
58:05lucky at Oric is that we have at this
58:09point in time six or seven granted
58:12mining
58:13leases. That means that if we find a
58:16resource, we can go mining on it
58:18quickly. For example, both Jeffrey's
58:21fine and Manda when we bought those
58:23projects of Minor and Estrella, we knew
58:27that they on granted mining leases and
58:29we knew therefore that we could mine
58:32them quickly. If they weren't on granted
58:35mining leases and they were still on
58:37exploration licenses, you have to go
58:39through that process to get them moved
58:42from an expiration license to a mining
58:44lease. And at this point in time, you
58:47would expect three to five years
58:50timeline to get them granted from a
58:53expiration license to a mining
58:56lease. For example, I'm sure lots of
58:59people on your podcast have heard of Deg
59:02Grrey and the Hemi deposit up at Deg
59:04Grrey that West Gold has just um taken
59:07over. The gray had spent three to five
59:12years getting that deposit converted
59:14from an exploration license to a mining
59:16lease and I'm not sure if it's just been
59:19granted or is expected to be granted. So
59:23the gray whilst it was an amazing
59:25deposit has never been able to mine it
59:28because they weren't on granted mining
59:30leases. So that's a very important point
59:33that I need to emphasize for this
59:35podcast that Oric has um all the rights
59:39to go mining on the tenementss at Manda
59:43at Jeffrey's find and at Lindsay's and
59:46that's really important in this
59:48fantastic gold price environment to keep
59:52hammering the point that we need to get
59:54in and get it done. Mark, thank you for
59:57going through that. I think that's great
59:58stuff there. definitely gives us a
1:00:00flavor of kind of how you guys are
1:00:01treating community that I think uh goes
1:00:04a long way with what you guys have done
1:00:06there and then of course some of the
1:00:07regulatory and some of the time frames
1:00:08that we would have on permitting and
1:00:10whether it be exploration activities or
1:00:12of course mining operations. So
1:00:14appreciate the uh the flavor on that and
1:00:16how that looks. Other part of this on
1:00:18the administrative side, any plans for
1:00:20the company to add a USOTC listing in
1:00:23the near term or do you think the ASX
1:00:25listing is suitable at this stage for
1:00:28the company?
1:00:29Well, Andrew, I'll be honest, that's a
1:00:32question I've never even put my mind to.
1:00:35I don't know that much about the OTC
1:00:38market. I know that quite a few ASX
1:00:41companies do progress onto the OTC
1:00:44market or up into Canada. At this point
1:00:47in time, Andrew, we got enough things on
1:00:51our plate without really looking at
1:00:53that. Most people can trade either
1:00:56through HSBC or through uh Interactive
1:01:00Brokers. Um we have quite a few
1:01:02shareholders on our register through
1:01:04both HSBC and IB accounts. So at this
1:01:08point in time, Andrew, it's a it's a
1:01:10long way down our thought process. Maybe
1:01:13you need to jig me along and get it a
1:01:16bit closer to the forefront of my mind,
1:01:17but the answer for the next 12 to 18
1:01:20months would be no.
1:01:22Perfect. No, Mark. I appreciate you
1:01:24going through that and giving us your
1:01:25straight opinion on it. I do think there
1:01:27would be some benefits for sure. I would
1:01:29always encourage uh folks uh looking to
1:01:31grow that North American audience to
1:01:33look at the USOTC listing as the first
1:01:35step in any type of listing. I sadly
1:01:38would discourage you from not going on
1:01:41any Canadian exchange at this point.
1:01:43Give it a good Australia. You guys are
1:01:46doing fine there. But uh certainly a
1:01:48USOTC is is probably one of the easiest,
1:01:51simplest listings to get a QB or a QX
1:01:53listing is fairly straightforward.
1:01:55Probably start with a QB. But certainly
1:01:57there were some advantages to getting to
1:02:00some of segments of the US uh investor
1:02:03market. You're absolutely correct. you
1:02:05know, uh, having a brokerage account
1:02:06like Interactive Brokers or HSBC. Uh,
1:02:10some of the full service brokers
1:02:11obviously in Canada and some of the, uh,
1:02:13the better brokers in the US can
1:02:15certainly get access directly to the
1:02:16ASX, but still, it's funny, you can
1:02:20still get quite a few brokers in the US
1:02:23that do not have access to the ASX and
1:02:25that they're more US- ccentric. So
1:02:27that's certainly a consideration, but uh
1:02:29I think you're on the right track there
1:02:31and probably not an immediate concern,
1:02:32but maybe something to look at in the
1:02:34future. Well, Mark, short of any other
1:02:37comments you'd like to add here, I think
1:02:39we'll wrap it up for this introduction
1:02:40for potential investors who are
1:02:42listening in. The company has a market
1:02:44capitalization roughly of about 40
1:02:46million Australian dollars. Why should
1:02:49ARC Mining be considered within the
1:02:51institutional family office and retail
1:02:53investors portfolio at this stage? I
1:02:56think there's a few reasons. One is we
1:03:00believe we're very cheap at this point
1:03:02in time. Two, we have a clear path to
1:03:06production both at Jeffrey's Find and at
1:03:09Ma. Three, we have our growth strategy
1:03:13lined out and we know where we're going.
1:03:17You'll not see Oric um move from a gold
1:03:22focus and you'll not see Oric move from
1:03:24a focus around Kguli, Kgardi,
1:03:27Higginsville, Wimala. Okay. So, one of
1:03:31the key focuses for Oric is we want to
1:03:34stay in that region. And the reason we
1:03:37want to stay there is there's a couple
1:03:38of reasons but basically is that you are
1:03:41not wasting money on transport on
1:03:45airfares on
1:03:47logistics. You need to you need to
1:03:51maximize your spend in the ground. We
1:03:54believe we're in a fantastic location.
1:03:57Everything that you need or want to run
1:04:01a mining company like Oric is 100%
1:04:04available in
1:04:05Calguli. Calguli is a big town and it's
1:04:09a mining town. It's really got nothing
1:04:11else other than mining. So our M project
1:04:15is 100k south of Calguli. We have a a
1:04:19problem flat tire or something major.
1:04:22You can get that part out of Calguli and
1:04:24most have it there within two hours.
1:04:27There are some other great mining
1:04:29activities uh mining centers within West
1:04:32Australia, but that that location, that
1:04:35ability to be so close to town's
1:04:38fantastic. Lindsy's is even closer.
1:04:40Lindsay is only 60 kilometers out of
1:04:42Calguli. So we've used Calguli and
1:04:45Kulgardi as our hub and we Andrew as a
1:04:49company philosophy want to stay within
1:04:52100
1:04:53120ks radius of those two hubs. That's
1:04:57that's a key focus of ours.
1:05:00I think there's still enormous growth
1:05:03both through buying small projects like
1:05:06the loaded dog project like like the
1:05:08Lindsay's project to build the resources
1:05:11of oric
1:05:13quickly and then you know we got to we
1:05:16got to build the resources as we've
1:05:17spoken about Manda Jeff Lindsy's you
1:05:21know footsfind sparkle you know so so we
1:05:25I suppose our my biggest pitch to your
1:05:29investors would be a we're focused, b
1:05:32we're in a superb location, c the
1:05:35commodity that we are in is going to be
1:05:37a great commodity for the next 1 to 5
1:05:41years. I don't see the gold price going
1:05:44south in that period. We're well
1:05:47managed, tight capital structure, the
1:05:50directors have got enough skin in the
1:05:51game. I think we tick a lot of the boxes
1:05:54that people want to see when they make a
1:05:57investment decision.
1:06:00Mark, for uh investors seeking further
1:06:02information, how can they reach out to
1:06:04the company? Oh, they can um jump on our
1:06:07website,
1:06:09oricmining.com.au. We've got an investor
1:06:11hub there. They can ask questions. We'll
1:06:13answer their questions. All our emails
1:06:16are on there. Um my email is
1:06:21mglishoricmining.com.au. I'm happy to
1:06:22take any questions. Um anybody wants to
1:06:26email me directly, please do so. and
1:06:28I'll reply. Um we have a internal rule
1:06:32is that we try and reply to all emails
1:06:34within 24 hours. So, you know, we have
1:06:37some shareholders in um North America.
1:06:41We have they're actually in our top 10.
1:06:44Uh they were living in Australia,
1:06:47they're now living in New York. Um
1:06:49they're computer people that are that
1:06:52are reside in um New York. Um, I
1:06:56communicate with her on a fairly regular
1:06:58basis. Um, and with the time time
1:07:01difference, you know, she can email me
1:07:03early evening, her time. I'll pick it up
1:07:06early Aussie time and I respond to her
1:07:08throughout the day. So, I'm very happy
1:07:10to take any questions, you know, and
1:07:12respond as best I can without getting
1:07:15myself in trouble with the ASX listing
1:07:17rules.
1:07:19Excellent. I like how you put that,
1:07:20Mark. Well, thank you very much for the
1:07:22introduction to Oric Mining. Uh keep up
1:07:25the good work there Mark and of course
1:07:26the production and development
1:07:28activities and we look forward to having
1:07:29you back to update. Yeah, thanks Andrew.
1:07:32Been a pleasure.

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