Apologies for the delay....here are my summary notes of the AGM
Governance
·Responding to a query from the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association representative on the absence of any females in the group of (three) directors recently appointed to the Board, the Managing Director Damien Marantelli stated that the company utilised female recruitment agents but the agency (Derwent) put forward no female director candidates.
Remuneration Report – “First Strike”
·The New Zealand Shareholders’ Association representative stated that it was very difficult to vote for the advisory resolution (Resolution 1) to adopt the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2019, given a) the widespread destruction in shareholder value from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019; b) the permanent loss of shareholder value; and c) the value loss from dilution to existing shareholders from the most recent placement at $0.15.
·MD Damien Marantelli conceded that there had been a significant permanent destruction in shareholder value over the past year and that the placement was dilutionary to existing shareholders; but that “the entire Metals X team is working tirelessly to deliver value for all shareholders”.
·Voting instructions at proxy close had been 28.48% against the resolution, above the25% hurdle rate for registering a “first strike”.The short but intense debate and results of the poll incorporating voting cards cast into the ballot boxes at the end of the meeting saw the vote against the resolution slightly increase its share to 28.65%, and a “first strike” was recorded against the Board.
Nifty Copper Mine
·MD Damien Marantelli provided a background summary of Nifty Mine for the last 11months since he was appointed.
·His review in December 2018 found there was no geological data to support the previous management’s 40,000 tpa plan which was really an “aspiration”.
·Metals X is effectively developing a new copper mine with some old infrastructure –the depleted central zone does not support the 2 million tpa production target.
·Now in October 2019 there are some developed inventories/stocks to mine (ca 8-9months), primary target is 12 months or 2 million tpa – with a follow-up target of 2.5 million tpa.
·It is noted that sustaining the maximum daily rate of 9000 tonnes/day would equate to a 3 million tonnes pa run rate, if the plant were running 24/7 – but to achieve this, the company would need a) the inventories and b) an expanded crew.
·Culture and safety performance has markedly “improved” at site.
·Reserve reconciliation based on March 2019 reserves statement is “good”, in fact 5%better than benchmark.
·Resource drilling of 3000m has occurred since May 2019, and the results of these will be incorporated into the 2020 resources (and hopefully reserves) statement.
(20min delay)