Ann: FY23 GUIDANCE, page-11

No surprises here. Copper price is getting smacked around with all this recession confirmation in economies all around the world.

In recessions, there’s a reduction of every type of construction and there’s also a move to cheap and reliable energy, therefore most renewables will suffer. AIS management made the mistake of going too hard into copper. Poor timing at the copper price peak, to be acquiring copper projects.

Instead, at that stage, just prior to a massive slowdown on the back of a once in a lifetime pandemic which shut down the world, gold was the less risky option. There was always going to be some sort of recession on the back of covid, delayed or not it was going to eventuate. The money printing consequences and inflationary issues were always going to take a few months to start hitting hard. Then the Ukraine conflict just made sure of it. The smart thing to do would have been to go all in on gold, especially with aud gold prices now at close to all time highs.

Anyway there’s always the option of putting the copper projects on care and maintenance for a few years while we ride out the storm, sooner it’s done the better IMO.