This ame by mailDear Stakeholder,Operations in Re-start ModeI am...

This ame by mail
Dear Stakeholder,
Operations in Re-start ModeI am writing to you as we are recommencing operations again, and are just over a week away from starting to load our first vessel at the Bauxite Hills Mine.As you know we were loading vessels until mid-February to meet customer demand. Although things didn’t go completely to plan with interruptions due to 2 cyclones and COVID, the incremental cashflow we gained underpins the required maintenance and improvements to our fixed and mobile equipment for a productive 2022 season.The Maintenance team have been onsite for a couple of weeks with road and production crews remobilising steadily over the next few days. The Floating Crane - TSA Skardon is finalising some upgrade work in Cairns which couldn’t be completed in China before it mobilised in September last year.New Contracts SignedThe commitment to meet customer expectations has paid dividends in that we recently announced an additional offtake agreement with our foundation customer Xinfa.The new agreement is for the equivalent of 1.0million Dry Metric Tonnes (DMT). Half of the additional tonnage will be on a CIF basis and half on FOB basis. Pricing is a combination of fixed and floating price, to be agreed later in the year.https://www.metromining.com.au/media/33510/20220318-asx-metro-33-m-wmt-locked-in-for-2022.pdfMetro’s total contracted tonnage for 2022 is now 3.8 million Wet Metric Tonnes (WMT), which is almost all of our target production from now until December 2022. We will assess incremental sales on a margin basis in parallel, with a review of Floating Crane capacity, wet season productivity and the expansion timing as we target 5 million WMT sales for 2023.Tackling the Freight MarketWe also announced that we have forward contracted freight arrangements to the level of 2.0 million WMT for 2022. This includes a three-year contract with Berge Bulk for approximately 1.5 million WMT per year at a fixed price and bunkers. This rolling forward freight contracting, together with the floating crane and an increasing share of FOB sales, is part of our strategy to mitigate freight market volatility and risk.New Director- Andy LloydWe also welcome Andy Lloyd as a new non-executive director to the MMI board.Andy has over 30 years’ experience in the global resources value chain from development, operations, mine closure and stakeholder engagement. He is currently the Independent Chair of Jabiru Kabolkmakmen Ltd (JKL). He was a senior executive at Rio Tinto for many years and worked closely with myself and Doug Ritchie on several occasions, so we know him to be a good fit for this role.Good-bye and Thank You to Stephen EverettFormer Chairman Stephen Everett has resigned from the Board of Metro after serving 9 years as a Director, playing a significant role in changing the focus of Metro Coal to Metro Mining and Bauxite through the acquisition of Cape Alumina and Gulf Alumina. Stephen has been an outstanding contributor to the Board and his expertise, experience and pragmatism will be greatly missed by myself and the executive team.Thank you for keeping the faith with Metro. The Bauxite market is steadily improving from COVID lows, but the environment is still very volatile. The new Management team are dedicated to making Metro more robust and resilient, rebuilding your trust and the value of the company.Best regardsSimon Wensley