Ariana Resources PLC

LSE:AAU

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Operator]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Ariana Resources plc Investor Presentation, and apologies for the slight delay in starting today's meeting. [Operator Instructions]. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. I would now like to hand you over to Chairman, Michael de Villiers. Good afternoon, sir.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Good afternoon, and thank you for the introduction. This is a welcome to everyone, and apologies for the delay in what was just a slight technical issue, which in this modern day, we still seem to have. Thank you for attending on this such a glorious summer's day. I do hope that we are able to answer all your questions as best we can. And Kerim is on the line from Perth and we were going to start with an overview and introduction of what the updates are and then we'll go into the Q&A, which we've received in advance and some of which we expect to receive now. Over to you, Kerim.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

You thank very much, Michael, and thank you for everyone attending today. So it's a pleasure to present the company once more to our shareholders and other interested investors. As Michael has indicated, I plan to give a general update and overview of the business, where we're at. And as we go through into the Q&A itself, we can address particular questions that shareholders and investors may have about the business, and I'll come back to the presentation and may be use the presentation to support the discussion.

So on this particular occasion, we'll be using the presentation more as a discussion piece rather than systematically going through the presentation as we've perhaps done in prior formats. And the idea of this is really to give more time for interested parties to ask us the questions that they want to put to us so we can have a more interactive dialogue over a longer period of time.

So we hope that this particular format will work well. And if it does, we will repeat the same in future IMC events. I should just point out that right at the beginning, we have endeavored to answer every single question that was pre-submitted to the IMC platform, as we have done on prior occasions. And we've always answered these questions ahead of the IMC event, yet the IMC platform doesn't allow the answers to those written questions to be published ahead of the event. So what we've chosen to do this time is to make the answers available from the get-go. And if you go to this particular location on our website, which is actually a hidden location, so you can't navigate to it. You have to use this particular link. If that link is used, and in fact, I'll copy that link now into the Q&A, I should be able to do that. And then once that's done, you can perhaps just click into that particular location and review the answers to the questions.

Now the idea of this really is to ensure that we don't get repetition because we have as I said, endeavor to answer every single question that was submitted. So I hope that people can see that location. You should be able to just copy and paste that into your browser, and it will take you straight to the PDF document that contains those answers.

So as I'm going through the initial introduction to the business, perhaps people can just review the answers to those questions, get a sense of the questions that we've already answered, so that as we go through the live Q&A session, we don't have to cover the same ground.

So moving on to where we find ourselves. And obviously, this is a repeat of prior presentations, but I think it's a useful slide in that it focuses the mind on where we're at in terms of the assets. We have 3 advanced assets in Turkey that are held 23.5% through a partnership in Turkey and an associated profit-sharing agreement that comes through the JV documentation itself. We have Kiziltepe, the operating mine and then Tavsan, currently in construction yet paused, and I'll come on to discuss the situation with Tavsan during the course of the presentation. The Salinbas project in Northeastern Turkey, where we're continuing to drill. And then over in Kosovo through Western Tethyan Resources, we're now earning into 85% ultimately of the Slivova project, another gold and silver deposit. And in addition to that, we have a partnership with Newmont across Kosovo in the wider Balkans region. And that partnership is already through its first very successful year, and I'll come on to talk about further developments there.

And the Magellan project, which is a copper gold project primarily in Cyprus. And again, I'll talk about the latest developments Venus Minerals that holds those assets in Cyprus. Now one of the interesting things about Ariana is that it's a relatively unusual company, an exploration and development company in essence, yet it has demonstrated a significant return on investment since 2016. And really thus backstopped by the fact that the company has been in profit, which is a highly unusual thing for an exploration company, but it has been in profit for 7 years now. And in addition to that, as a result of the deal that we completed in Turkey, we have been able to pay GBP 7.74 million in dividends to shareholders since 2021. So again, a very unusual thing for an exploration and development company. And so in that sense, we're very unique.

We've got an active drilling program across a number of different project areas in Turkey primarily, but we've also been drilling relatively recently in other locations as well, the results of which we've announced for Venus Minerals previously. And indeed, through the work that we've been undertaking on behalf of some of our investee companies through the Asgard Metals Fund in Australia, in particular, the nickel cobalt deposit in Laverton in Western Australia. Coming back to Turkey. We've over the years, grown our resource base substantially. This is primarily a gold resource base, but there's associated copper and other metals associated with that. And we've continued to develop that portfolio across some of those other areas in the Eastern Mediterranean and Eastern European region. How have we been able to do this is ultimately underpinned by a very strong Board and management team.

The management team has continually been developed and augmented in Turkey and elsewhere. We've grown the team over the last couple of years to encompass a wide range of geoscientific disciplines that we're using to apply to our current exploration and development programs. And as we've demonstrated previously to do so very successfully at a very low gold discovery costs, and I'll come on to talk about that further as we go through the presentation and indeed the Q&A more specifically. As a result of the strategy, we have been able to build up a substantial cash pile. We have no debt currently both in our run rate but through the Zenit partnership in Turkey all debt having been paid off now associated with or because of that mine development.

And we're continuing to fund ongoing exploration and really developing that portfolio and taking that portfolio from strength to strength and adding to it continuously, adding to the project pipeline and moving those projects through the development curve, derisking those assets and ultimately increasing value of those assets.

And so that's what we've done very successfully over a number of years now, and that's what we're going to continue applying going forward. Another thing that we've done in more recent years is that we've moved from being very much a Turkey focused company to a company that's applying its methodologies and its approach to exploration over a wider range of commodities and jurisdictions. So that's something that we're very excited about, and I've already touched on certain aspects of that being work with Newmont in the Balkans to some of the investments that we've secured under the Asgard Metals Fund in Australia.

Lastly, I'll just end here on this introduction just to emphasize our major partners. Newmont Mining Corporation, I've already mentioned, the world's largest gold miner involved with us through Western Tethyan Resources in a 5-year exploration alliance. And it's been fantastic working with the Newmont team over the last year. And I think we're very pleased with what we've been seeing. And also Ozaltin holding and Proccea Construction in Turkey, our partners in the highly successful Zenit Madencilik JV. So I think I'll leave it at that for the introduction.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

A very brief introduction because I don't know that we're a little pressed for time and I'll throw it open to questions. I can see that there's 1 question that's already come through already from John D. The company website says the 2 executive directors comprised the company's Managing Director and Chairman, you dedicate 100% of the contractually required time to the group. Please tell us how much time is contractually required.

So I should actually -- I suppose part of the answer here is already stated in one of the answers to the question, pre-submitted questions that came in. We live and breathe Ariana Resources. If you could see me now, and I'm sorry that you can't, but I know Michael is in the same situation, we're wearing the Ariana Resources, polo shirts. I don't own very many shirts, but most of the shirts I own are Ariana Resources shirt. So you'll rarely see me in a shirt other than one that shows the Ariana logo. So the logo is very close to my heart, physically and actually. So I certainly and I know Michael does, we dedicate our times extensively to the business of Ariana Resources and it very much is just ourselves and the wider team that very much is a 24/7 business.

And the fact that our team is also spread globally, effectively, it doesn't shut down. There's always someone somewhere working on Ariana business. So with that, there's perhaps no other way to stress the significance of that other than to say that we're fully committed to seeing Ariana Resources develop further and add to its ongoing success.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Kerim, I'd endorse exactly what you've said and echo that. I'm not involved in multiple other businesses. This is what I work on all the time. And I think you can say the same thing and I think the same is true for the rest of the team. In the spirit of looking at other people's questions, let's look at where questions might tie in with what we've put out and used recently to see if we can fill in some of the gaps. I think the one that I'm most interested to discuss is the additional drilling around Kiziltepe and the Kepez prospects of becoming involved in producing mines for or pits for the existing mine. Maybe you could just dwell on that for a bit because I think that probably goes to discussing how much longer the Kiziltepe plant will run for.

And many people who want to draw a time line on that and know when it's going to end, I think you've shown us with all the exploration work that, that isn't something that's exactly imminent. There is a lot more to be discovered in that area and brought into reserves and resources.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. So exploration has been ongoing in and around the Kiziltepe deposit and satellite prospect areas for some time. I mean, really, it's been an ongoing process of exploration over many years, in fact. But since the initiation of our enhanced partnership with those onboard a significant amount of additional emphasis and indeed funding has been applied to the exploration of the Kiziltepe sector. And the drilling programs that we've conducted in recent years being the most extensive drilling that's ever been undertaken on the project as a whole. And it's hard to sort of drive home and emphasize that enough. But the drilling that's been undertaken at Kiziltepe has already led to an enhanced resource and reserve, which we announced in early 2022. We are currently in a drilling program at the moment that is continuing to drill some of the extensions and to do some resource infill drilling within that previous resource. And as a result of that, we'll continue to build on the reserve base.

In addition to that, we've been drilling for the first time in some prospect area, some satellite prospect areas that really have not received very much attention to date. We previously did not have the sort of budget that we have currently for exploration through the Zenit JV and the work that's been undertaken at Kepez has yielded some very interesting results. And I should also say it doesn't just relate to the drilling. It relates to the geophysics work that we've completed recently and announced. We've identified a significant geophysical IP resistivity targets sitting under Kepez main hill. And we've consequently designed a drilling program to test that particular target. We believe that the mineralization or the more likely gold-bearing zone within that system is at some depth. So 150, 200, 250 meters beneath the top of the hill. So it will require some deeper drilling.

But as I said, we planned that out carefully. We're in the process of going through the forestry permitting for that area. And indeed, testing some other areas, Kepez North, which we've previously part mined. So the Kepez North area has also received some additional drilling. And as a consequence of that, we'll be evaluating that data when it comes through and then determine whether any further work needs to be undertaken in that area with a view to potentially expanding the Kepez North pit.

The other area of interest and significance to us is Kepez West. Again, this is an area that's only received cursory drilling in the past. We have announced an inferred resource related to Kepez West previously. But we haven't built that for some years, the last drilling that was undertaken there until the most recent program was 2015. And sort of further work is underway at the moment on that area, and we hope to continue to build on our understanding and eventually, hopefully, put together a new resource estimate for that area.

Kepez West, I should read out is a little bit closer to the Kiziltepe processing plant than the Kepez North area, which is where we were previously trucking some very high-grade ore. So those are a couple of the satellite prospects at the Kizilcukur sector. There's also Karakavak, so the drill rig is currently drilling at Karakavak at this point in time. So it will be interesting to see what comes out of that area. And we're also planning around, putting a new drilling program together for Kizilcukur. So we hope to be able to make some further announcements on that in due course. So hopefully, that's answered that question related to exploration around the Kizilcukur sector.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Yes. And Kerim, I think the last comprehensive update that you just made reference to was the one on the 1st of February 2022, which was a resource and reserve update Kiziltepe. And...

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes, that's one.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

So we probably are due for a more broader update of the Kiziltepe drilling in some months in the future?

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes, we'll be putting together a new resource estimate in the coming months. And following that, we'll be doing further work on indeed this sort of ongoing work of the mine operational team on the optimizations and bringing resource into the reserve category ultimately for mining.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

And then we'll have a much clearer picture as to life of mine beyond what we're currently projecting.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes, indeed. So we'll reinforce the current reserve position. Actually, I'll move on 1 slide because it's relevant. So the current reserve position will see the mine, its exhausts its current reserve in 2025. And that does include the Kizilcukur satellite. It's important to note that. And as I said, we do need to do some more drilling at Kizilcukur to demonstrate that we can mine the area previously designated as a reserve. So we see the mine exhausting itself based on its current reserve in 2025.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Yes, that will become a more understood picture when we put out a later update on the resource and reserve statement.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes, that's correct.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Okay. Now will that dovetails nicely into how things have been going on the Tavsan because while we were in construction, something stopped it, we can talk about that, but we should also talk a bit about what we've managed to do to enhance Tavsan. So when it does come back on to the construction slate and goes into production, then we've got to discuss its life of mine and how that might change our production profile for Zenit.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. So firstly, again on the point of resources and ultimately reserves. The last resource update that we put out for Tavsan during last year demonstrated over 300,000 ounces of gold and most of that being in the measured and indicated draw categories. So the most derisked categories of resource. And we have had a further drilling program underway at Tavsan and to continue to derisk the resource and to continue to enhance those -- that proportion of the resource that's in the measured category in particular. And that program is currently paused. We decided to pause that following the initiation of the quarter or the process back in March.

As we previously indicated, the court process is due to recommence soon. We obviously have to go through a process that involves the appointment of the expert committee as mandated by the court to make certain judgments or take a particular view on certain aspects of the environmental impact assessment as it related to forestry and agricultural land among other things.

That report was completed last month and has been submitted to the court for review. We're now waiting for the court to determine a date. And then that will then lead to ultimately a judgment being made in relation of the recommencement of operations. So both construction operations and indeed other operations such as drilling across the project. It's probably worth pointing out that the drilling program, we were planning to just continue drilling post the court ruling. But after a little while, we decided just as a precaution that we should probably bring that drilling program as well to a close to just ensure that we were never going to fail of any particular issues on the Tavsan mine side.

So we very hopeful that we'll get through this, and we'll be able to recommence construction very soon. If we are able to commence construction again, we'll be moving into mining and deep processing around sort of the end of the first quarter of next year. That's the basic urge.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

So actually, the process of construction that remains for the completion of the Tavsan mine is not that long as in its probably 6 to 8 months.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

So in terms of -- sorry, in terms of the construction process itself post the decision.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Yes, that's what I meant, not the time or the date, number of months that it would take to complete construction and commissioning.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. No, that is correct. Yes.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

So actually, it's not that far off given that things do fall into place as we hope and expect.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. Yes, definitely. Okay. Just looking at some of these other questions that have come in the bottom. So a question from Steve. B, what is the expected waiting time to get a hearing? Also, I thought that the delay was in relation to linings with forestry involved, is this going to be a longer delay because forestry can take ages based on previous experience.

So the timing of the hearing is entirely dependent on the completion of the expert report. So operations, construction operations were shut down in March and we had initiated the -- or secured the expert panel to commence their work. And that work was concluded last and submitted to the court. The court can -- it may request a further review, it's possible. We have to get to that stage. And if they do, that additional review could be given a further 30 days. Our current expectation based on progress to date is that during this month, we will hear where we stand with the court as to whether they will complete the hearing, and we will determine the path forward or they choose to accept further expert review. If it goes back to further expert review as I said, that's a period...

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

I think your phone has gone off, Kerim.

[Operator]

Hi Michael. Yes, Kerim's phone has just disconnected. So please do bear with me while I just reconnect him.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Okay.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

I can hear you fine.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Right, Kerim, carry on.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. So hopefully, you heard all of that in relation to the timing. And at this point about the delay was in relation to linings, that's not correct.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

The question around forestries, forestry is a subset of the complaint, which is an EIA umbrella complaint and the only one aspect of it. The other aspect were land ownership and I forget what the third one was.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. So actually, the point about forestry is a very interesting one. And it just highlights the oddity here in that the EIA provided for -- to enable us to apply for areas of forestry, which we then secured through the forestry permitting process. And Once those areas were successfully secured from forestry, the Forestry Department itself then submits those areas for tender for the felling of trees. Once it's gone to tender, it's under the control and remit of the forestry department themselves. So all the things that are currently going on, on the project, it's interesting the forestry department is still overseeing the process of the felling of trees.

So that forestry process is ongoing. And in that sense, work is still ongoing on the project because it doesn't involve us, it involves the forestry department. So that's a bit of a bizarre sort of situation, but that's the reality of it.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

I think it's worth pointing out the photograph in the bottom left corner of the screen shows the forest has been removed.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes, at least in part, that some of the areas are agricultural areas. And actually, some of the you don't really see it so much in that photograph, but immediately to the right-hand side of that photograph are the areas that are associated with the heap leach pads and areas that were being prepared for that. And so those areas are completely clear of trees at this point in time.

So work hasn't stopped on Tavsan. The work in some form has continued. So that's certainly a positive. I hope you have answered that question. Okay. Again, sort of taking it from the bottom. Lovro R has asked, "I have noticed many changes in mining code in various countries recently. Do any new changes in legislation potentially impact Ariana's exploration or JV's, royalties, regulatory state ownership, et cetera."

So yes, I mean this is obviously an issue for many jurisdictions. And I think it's an ongoing battle, I suppose, that mining companies and exploration companies subject themselves to. And we just have to play along. Some of the legislation obviously makes our lives trickier than we feel we ought to. But that's just the nature of the beast. And you just have to find ways of navigating those issues.

In Turkey, there's been a progression of changes to the mining law since the first major revamp that occurred in 2004. There have been changes intermittently since in 2010, '15 and tweaks here and there to the royalty regime. And those issues have been ongoing and we expect further amendments to be made in the coming years as well. Some aspects of that have made our lives easier, I have to say, other aspects have made our lives harder. And so take the rough with the smooth, sometimes.

And certainly from a broad perspective on Turkey specifically, the environment has actually been broadly conducive to the development of mining operations. So having said that, we could argue that there are some aspects of the current mine law that are less conducive to the exploration stage. And exploration stage licenses are -- one positive, I should point out, is that exploration licenses now have a longer life than they used to. So that's definitely a good thing but the conditions under which you can maintain such license in good standing has become more onerous, both in terms of cost and in terms of the work commitment that's required at various stages through that 7-year life. Now there's obviously, there are good aspects to that because it encourages companies to -- or the owners of the licenses to actually do functional work on the ground.

So I can see why the government has promoted that and certainly applaud that because what you don't want is for license owners to just sit on ground and not do very much work because it just locks up the ground holding and the ground doesn't get explored, particularly effectively. But the result of that is that in the Turkish case, there does seem to be a bit of a consolidation occurring because it's only the more advanced companies that have deeper pockets that can successfully apply themselves to exploration. So there is a bit of a thinning of the field as a result of that. And it's interesting to see that Turkey previously had -- I mean I think this is going back to about 2013, '14. There were about 23 foreign companies operating in the country at that time. And then through these changes, among other things, that's whittled down to no more than a handful.

So that's a consequence of those sorts of changes. But we've always operated as a Turkish company, and we've been able to navigate these issues better than many other foreign and junior exploration companies. And I think that's why we're, in that sense, the last man standing in Turkey is an [ Ahmet the Junior ]. So I think we can be quite proud of that.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Kerim in summing up, I think one can look back 2 decades and say there's been a fair amount of support and stability around the development of mines. And consequently, 20 mines have come into operation, that's large-scale mines in Turkey in 20 years. And the other choice we've made is choosing partners that are in country who have a good corporate citizen record, and they've worked with us and that has helped as well.

So one thing to comply with the law, it's another thing to now to get it to work. And I think the third point I wanted to make is that we don't go into areas where the mining law isn't and the exploration law is not conducive to operating. So we choose our destinations according to geology and the fact that the environment is accommodating.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. Yes, definitely. Scanning through some of these other.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

There's a point in that Kosovo which is worth flowing on from what we've just discussed with addressing.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. On Kosovo. So a question from Neda L. Kosovo, what major mines were open there since independents. Are we optimistic to open an operating mine on the great geology or are there other considerations. So Kosovo is a very interesting country to operate in. And there are some serious advantages. And in a sense, in the Balkan regions, it can be considered the jewel in the crown. So taking, for example, the geological geoscientific data management system, it's effectively first world. They've obviously had a lot of independent input from other countries. World Bank has obviously been an important contributor to certain developments in the country, including these sorts of initiatives and these programs associated with geoscientific data. So they've got great coverage with airborne geophysical programs. Really very good, indeed, very high-quality data. And that data is available.

It's very cost effective. A lot of the other geoscientific data, it can be sort of readily accessed indeed, via an online platform, which is highly unusual for the part of the world that we're talking about. Even Turkey doesn't have an online platform. In that sense, Turkey is very much behind the curve. But the sort of platform that they have available in Kosovo is similar to what we're perhaps used to here in Australia.

So that's certainly an encouragement and it's an incentive for exploration companies to go into the country. But there are other advantages to operating in Kosovo as well. We find that the mining law and the framework around the issue of licenses is very straightforward. There is an independent Board or independent commission referred to as the ICMM and that independent Board -- so it's a sort of quasi government organization independently appointed to run the mining sector in the country. And periodically, the Board has -- there hasn't been a standing Board in place, and there have been times when we've had to wait for applications to be reprocessed and then eventually the licenses to be granted. So there are some delays in that. But generally speaking, it's a fairly fluid process. And it's contrasting that to what I've been saying about Turkey and the sort of hurdles that we have to go through in Turkey, Kosovo actually seems to be more straightforward. So that's a real positive, and we very much appreciate that.

In terms of mines, so in our sector, no new gold mines or precious metal deposits, base metal deposits obviously historical. But we don't see any particular issues with the opening of a new mine in the country.

I think that if there was no desire to open mines in the country, they wouldn't bother having a mining board, so or even issuing licenses. So there's obviously a desire to see mines come into fruition. It's just a matter of being well, just like any country or any jurisdiction, it's just a matter of being patient and working through the issues, both local, geological and ultimately social. And as long as the social factors and the environmental factors are dealt appropriately, there's no reason why a mine can't be operated there.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

I think I'm correct in saying that Mentor worked in that process of establishing the legislation in the early part of...

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. Yes. So that's worth pointing out that Mentor Demi, he's the Managing Director of Western Tethyan Resources and the founder of Western Tethyan and he's got an extensive background as a Kosovan himself, operating in from his base in Pristina. And so he's very much plugged into the exploration and mining seen in the country. So that's another real positive and really essential in order to get things done in that country.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Which underscores our confidence in going into the Slivova agreement.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Correct. Yes. Yes. Just going back to the top of the list of questions. Again, a question for Neda L. On the JV minority rights protection beyond the law in the JV contract. Can you elaborate, please? Sorry, can the biggest shareholder?

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

No.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

I don't really understand the question, but...

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

The brief answer is we understand JV minority rights protections in the context of our JV with Pristina and with Ozaltin and I think that's the context of that question, and we went into that into a lot of detail to make sure that the minority rights were well protected.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. Yes, that's correct. And the one thing that's worth emphasizing here, I think, is that both Pristina and ourselves. So we were the 2 originating partners in the Zenit joint venture prior to Ozaltin coming in. Now both Proccea and ourselves diluted to 23.5% each of the enhanced JV, as we call it, partnership is probably a better term.

So it was in Proccea's interest as well as our interest to ensure that those minority rights were protected. So the 2 originating partners very much saw eye to eye on what was required of the enhanced partnership following the addition of Ozaltin.

So I think that that's as robust a position that we can be. All right. I'm going to -- hold on, it was a very long question here, I see. Sent from Nick V., and this actually related to a question that was presubmitted for which we provided the answer. And then the comment being question 5 and your answer. Surely, the share price is the market view of how well you're doing all the things you state in your answer. The recent move would suggest lack of confidence.

The market actually, I'll tell you what, the easiest way to answer this is to just have a look at the peer group analysis. So the market moves in and out of sectors periodically. And you can see in this particular peer group, which is a decent peer group by which we can compare ourselves because the other companies chosen are all at the production stage that they're in production, they're in the same commodity. Some operating in similar jurisdictions, Angloasian, for instance, just next door, in essence to Turkey, the sentiment. In Egypt Middle Eastern country, if you class Turkey is Middle Eastern. And it's interesting that in these cases and indeed in the other examples given there that the share prices will just move based on overall movement in the sector. And part of that can be driven by gold price or rather changes to gold price, both positive and negative. And it's not really influenced by day-to-day news flow. That doesn't really impact.

And we've done an extensive analysis of this. News flow does not really impact the movement of share prices, at least in our sector. There's a general trend, and it's those companies and some of those peers are dividend paying. So that's another important factor. And in fact, that graph shows where we paid our own dividends through recent years. And you can't really relate to the payment of the dividend to the movement in the share price. But it's quite interesting that over that time period and the time period is also another important factor, which I referred to in one of the answers to the presubmitted questions. It really does depend on which time frame you're looking at as to the overall performance of a group of companies or one relative to another. But over this time period, and this one chosen specifically because all companies took a major hit around the 15th of March 2020 because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So it's a good time frame by which to set the origin of the graph. And Ariana is the blue line, we move with more or less, very similar movements to other peers there. And in fact, we're one of the better performers. The only other one that beats us is Caledonia Mining that's operating in Zimbabwe. So this what this graph tells me is that over that particular time frame, it's good to be invested in a gold mining company in Turkey and a gold mining company in Zimbabwe. And that's about it.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Kerim, I think we need to move on to a few more of the recent questions, so we don't leave them out with time running out. But the one that sticks in my mind is we've got to talk a little bit more about Salinbas and how long it's taken to get those drilling results out and when there might be a comprehensive report on that. I know you've made reference to it in your ready written answers, but let's just discuss that briefly.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. So there's actually a question here now from Paul R related to that. So this was previously explained. The drilling program that we initiated on Salinbas in very late 2021. Obviously, that was a very bad time to be initiating a drilling program in a highly mountainous part of Turkey right in the middle of winter. So the drilling program obviously got off to a very slow start, and we were expecting that. We planned for that. But we wanted the drilling program to commence. And obviously, with the support of Ozaltin we were able to make that happen. And the drilling program not only progress through those difficult weather conditions, but it was also drilling in some very tricky areas. So there's a thick cover of colluvium through which even prior drilling programs have struggled. So the drilling was very slow.

And we outlined that in some detail in our announcement on the latest Salinbas results. Coupled to that, we made the decision that we wanted to utilize the expanded Kiziltepe laboratory, which is now accredited in Turkey for the analysis of all the Salinbas samples. And so material was periodically being sent from the drilling program to Kiziltepe mine laboratory for analysis. We were going through all our routine quality control, quality assurance tests. And we've identified failures of certain QA/QC controls. And as a result of that, and this is normal. This is normal course of business as it is what we have to do. We always have QA/QC control samples in sample stream.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Just to explain what that is because I think it's a complex technical point for those not doing it day-to-day.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. So when you send off samples for analysis, we don't just send off the material to the laboratory and accept the laboratory's results. We've never done that. And in fact, you can't do that. The current requirements on the JORC specify the use of what's called blank material. So material that is of similar nature to the material that you're analyzing routinely that you know contains no gold or other commodity of interest. So you know that there's an assay result that's going to come back 0. If it doesn't come back 0, you know you've got a problem at the laboratory and especially if it's consistently not coming back 0 when it should.

The other thing that we place into the sample stream are duplicates. So duplicate samples are splits of an individual sample. So it could be let's say, you're taking half core for analysis, a split would be 1/4 of the core. Just I'm explaining this as simply as I can.

So 1/4 goes off for analysis in 1 laboratory, another 1/4 core could actually be sent off to another -- a different laboratory. So that's one way of dealing with a duplicate sample. Our duplicates, we've tended to use what are called pulp duplicates and crush duplicates.

So pulp duplicates require the pulverizing of the sample. And that's -- so you have a pulp prepared and then you do a split of the pulp. And in this case, it's analyzed at the -- in an individual laboratory, but you're checking whether one pulp is coming up with the same number in the assay as the other pulp. We also do that at the crush stage. So it's a much coarser grind to determine whether we're getting contamination ultimately at another stage of the process of sample preparation.

So it's to try and understand where there may be laboratory error, where there may be error being introduced as a result of the preparation methodology prior to a laboratory analysis. And then the last check that's done, and this is done on a batch-by-batch basis. The last check that's done is in terms of a reference or a standard material.

So a standard material is a material that has been analyzed across a number of international laboratories that are internationally accredited. And it's a material that consistently yields the same grade of the commodity of interest or gold or silver or whatever. Now if our analysis of our own laboratory deviates from that reference material significantly, and you assess that statistically based on the standard deviation of the deviation, you can determine whether you've got some other problem with the laboratory analysis.

Now we do this absolutely routinely across all our exploration programs. Sometimes that requires us to have a material reanalyzed, not only at our own laboratory, but external laboratories. So it's an ongoing process. Now because -- so coming back to the point, because of Kiziltepe mine laboratory had never handled the particular ore type demonstrated at Salinbas, it is very different style of mineralization to what -- because Kiziltepe laboratory was previously used to, that is at Kiziltepe.

So it took some time for the laboratory to work through the sorts of issues that I've been talking about and us working through that with them to refine the analysis. And there were initially, there were problems with gold, then we identified there were some problems with some of the base metals. But over time, we've improved the results, and we have confidence in the results and as a result of that we were able to announce the first batch of results to the market.

We've never announced batches of results of the market unless we are 100% confident in the results, otherwise, and that could be highly misleading. And so we have to work through these things. And some of these things can take time. You can imagine if samples have to be reanalyzed and especially given the workloads, not only at the Kiziltepe laboratory, but the international laboratories in recent times. I mean the -- just to give you an example, there have been delays of 3 months at some of the Western Australian laboratories. So this is an international problem as well. The sheer sample volume being submitted to laboratories is difficult for laboratories to manage.

So we have to be patient. We have to spend time working through the QA/QC matters. We have to gain complete confidence in those results before we'd ever announce them. And the other thing is that even when we got those results, we need to put it into a geological framework. So we determine a threshold of materiality to our results. and then we'll announce those results when we determine that it's materially important for the market to see that data. So I think that's important for people to recognize.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Thanks, Kerim. Just so that we've got an order of magnitude, how many thousands of meters were drilled and how many thousands of samples were sent in?

[Kerim Sener, executive]

So we've drilled -- will it be over 12,000 meters of drilling. And most of the mineralized horizons are over sort of 15- to 30-meter intervals in each hole. So there have been several thousand samples submitted and more analysis coming in at this time. We're looking at further analysis and analytical results coming in imminently. And we'll be making -- during our assessments as I've described, we'll be determining the QA/QC going through the QA/QC and determining the correctness of the results. And then once we're comfortable, and myself, I'm a competent person providing sign-off, but so are other members of our team, Zack van Coller, Ruth Bektas. Once we're collectively comfortable with the results, then we'll put together announcement, make that announcement available.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

And all of this is about how we're going to deal with Salinbas in the longer term which is probably the most promising single biggest project we've got in Turkey let alone Zenit.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. Yes. That's correct.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Pretty much an elephant country, if you look at the neighbors around us and how big some of their discovery has been.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. Yes, very much so. So Salinbas project as a whole is a highly prospective area. The fact that we've got the mineralization that we've seen at Salinbas itself, the gold, silver coupled to a porphyry copper gold molybdenum system, that system occurring in the north part of the project area. As we go to the South, we've now made the discovery at Hizarliyayla area, which was previously was just a geochemical anomaly. But clearly, there's a system there. And that system, we're now testing with drilling and visually, we can see mineralization in the drill core, so base metal mineralization primarily, but we've also had some surface assay results from similar material that we're seeing over a gram per tonne gold in some of those surface assays.

So it's very encouraging. We feel that in that particular area, we probably need to drill as deep as possible because we feel that the system is an expression in a high level of the hydrothermal system. So we need to test much deeper into that system to encounter a more enriched goals zone.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Maybe we should just talk more broadly about what our longer-term strategy is, and with you giving that in-depth explanation as to how we drill out and analyze what we do, let's talk more broadly about how we identify where we go and why we go to different places and how we have projects in various stages of development, and we don't have all our eggs in one basket.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. Obviously, that's a good thing as an exploration development company. You hear these horror stories of companies with a single asset in single jurisdiction and something goes wrong, something goes wrong with the jurisdiction. And no matter how good the deposit, it could be sitting on several million ounces, it can all go up in smoke. So as a way of mitigating that issue, it is actually important to diversify across jurisdiction and also from a commodity perspective, again, having all your eggs in one market in a single commodity I don't think even Newmont is doing that anymore. They're also interested in copper among other things.

So yes, so -- and especially mineral systems that contain multiple commodities such as copper gold. So anything that's sort of porphyry related can quite often be copper gold associated.

Obviously, the volcanogenic massive sulfide systems that we've been working on in Cyprus with Venus Minerals. That's likewise the copper gold system, as we've now proven. So there are certain commodities that will always tend to go together. Silver is another good example of that in the case of the low sulfidation epithermal system that we're currently mining at Kiziltepe. So I think sort of a systems-based approach to commodity makes a lot of sense. And even further afield, if you look at our investment into Panther Metals in Western Australia, there, again, it's a systems-based approach. It's nickel, cobalt, laterite that's being drilled currently. And that's one of the standouts and one of the larger nickel-cobalt laterites in Western Australia at this time. So obviously, a lot more work to be done there, but we're confident in the progress being shown.

We're also looking through, again, the Asgard Metals Fund now into Kazakhstan. And again, there's a sort of multi-commodity approach there, copper, gold and somewhat different styles of copper mineralization as well, including in the sedimentary copper basin that is one of the standout sedimentary copper basins globally that's received very little international exploration attention in the past. But that's very much a case of watch this space, I think.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

So we've been looking at things that are Greenwich Meridian and East. We've ignored South America, North America for a good reason, and you might want to just mention that, but then more importantly, talk about what's directly down the Greenwich Meridian.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. So obviously, we have to draw the line somewhere and the world is a big place. As a company, myself included, none of us have experience in the Americas, maybe a little bit in Canada. But really, no experience whatsoever in the Americas from north all the way to the south.

And to venture off into yet another continent is not appropriate. Obviously, there are massive mineral systems, particularly in Southern America. But it's just not the environment for us. None of us are Spanish speaking or Portuguese speaking. So it's just a nonstarter. The sorts of places that we could readily explore are any English-speaking country. Any country that has a Turkish element or optimum Turkish influence. So good example of that being a whole Balkan's region.

And the optimum influence in that region was so significant that there are many people through that region that will speak Turkish. And I've experienced it myself working in that region. Quite often you'll encounter people that will speak Turkish and that's a fantastic thing. Kazakhstan is another good example is a form of Turkish that they speak there. And any English-speaking country, well, that's a large part of Africa. And we've had experience in Africa in the past at a board level and elsewhere within the company and Australia for that matter. So it's yes, that's really the reason we've chosen to look at the Eastern Hemisphere.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

And if it's an English-speaking jurisdiction, it's likely to have a legal system that we're more familiar with, and we would find more normal from our perspective as well as government administration, which is all the stuff you have to plug into and you should be verse in something, that you're at least reasonably comfortable. It shouldn't be a challenge just to understand that. The geology is difficult.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Well, that's said, I mean you don't want to make a rod for your own back unnecessarily. And if there are ways to reduce the height of the hurdle, and there are many hurdles in this business. You do what you can to ensure you're jumping over the smallest possible hurdles. It's simply not.

Michael, I just wonder whether we should touch on some of these other questions that have come in. I've got 1 comment from Steve B. that he prefers this format.

So thank you, Steve, B. glad that it's working out. John D. Okay. Is mine development in Kosovo in any way, impacted be state. This is a disputed territory who's independence is not recognized by the United Nations or by the difficulties between the Serb and Albanian community. So I think there are some other questions actually that related to -- yes, there's another question from Steve B. relating to troops being there.

I don't know whether people have heard, but interestingly, that's -- the NATO troop reinforcements actually came in from Turkey this time. So it was Turkish mechanized brigade that was mobilized. And obviously, there's strong American military presence in the country as well. Yes, they have had some issues with Serbia. That's something that's sort of bubbled away in the background for a long time. It's sad that, that sort of thing happens. But certainly, no one's interest for there to be any more conflict and we've already got enough conflict in the world, and hopefully, cool head will always prevail. And hopefully, they prevail elsewhere, too.

So as an exploration company and coming back to the point that I was making earlier, you diversify risk. And if one jurisdiction doesn't work out for whatever reason, you've got other strings to the bow, and you just move on to those and emphasize those further.

Cyprus is a good example. And coming back to the point we were making just now about language and the hurdles in place, legal framework. Cyprus is obviously English speaking, both north and south. Legal framework, both north and south, although you can't work in the North. But in the South, the legal framework is effectively the British legal framework. So it's those sorts of things that we're constantly working on evaluating and trying to sort of drive a route forward.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Kerim, sorry, to interrupt, you finished? Or can I move on?

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. That's fine.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Okay. Now in what currency and where is the 15 million joint venture cash equivalents, cash and cash equivalents and can we specify the difference between the 2. Within the joint venture company, they hold currency in both USD and Turkish Lira that's pretty much cash or it's a receivable for gold delivered. The interesting point, I think, that's worth drawing attention to is that cash is being utilized for the things that you've described Genesis doing. And more importantly, that's cash available for the construction of Tavsan, which has meant we have not had to go to the project finance market to fund the construction of Tavsan which in this environment, would be both expensive and difficult. So we've saved that tremendous project finance costs that would have otherwise been a requirement.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes, that's correct. I mean we're very fortunate that we didn't go down the bank debt route in the case of the Tavsan mine build and that we chose sensibly and I should say collectively, so this is all the partners agreeing that, that was the best route forward was to retain cash within the Zenit entity and to utilize part of those cash resources for ongoing exploration around Kiziltepe elsewhere, but also to fund the ongoing mine build at Tavsan.

Have we taken on debt a year or so ago, I think we would be in a worrisome place. But that's not the case and all debt associated with or because of the Kiziltepe mine build has now been paid off. So we're in absolutely great shape both in our own right as Ariana, but also the Zenit operational entity.

In terms of how the cash is held within the entity, you're right that there's obviously receivables from gold and silver at the refinery in Istanbul. There's also, I should say, though, that we're obviously most of the gold and the silver is actually sold to the Central Bank. So the gold, specifically the gold is sold to the Central Bank and it almost always is bought by the Central Bank and it's paid for in Turkish Lira. However, we immediately convert to U.S. dollars, and we hold U.S. dollar cash reserves within Zenit. Some of those cash reserves are held in what I call interest rate -- sorry, exchange rate protected accounts where they in essence, exist in a Turkish Lira, but the exchange rate is locked in on day 1.

So when you exit after whatever period, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, you've already pre-secured the rate of conversion irrespective of what actually happens to the exchange rate in the meantime. So that's something that was brought in by the Turkish government when would have been to late -- early [ '22 ] or there about. So some of our cash is held that way and some, obviously, in Turkish Lira current account because we have all our expenditure in Turkey and Turkish Lira. So we keep it across a number of different currencies.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Yes, as they all require the number of different currencies.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Good cash management. Well, there are a few left, and we can go through them if we still have time. How it is dedicated to specific projects in our portfolio. It's bit difficult to answer because it's quite a general thing, but...

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Wherever the place really.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. I mean, maybe I can answer this by just saying that with the team, every day pretty much we're moving from one project to the next project. So we're -- it's a constant chain of project development.

And as one project advanced in terms of our understanding and our reporting on said project, we move on to the next project. And so on. And then by the following week, we're back on to Project A. So it's constant and that's a great thing because it certainly keeps everything -- keeps us all on our toes and ensures that nothing about the portfolio is in any way boring. Everything sort of new and exciting, and we're always adding new data. We're evaluating different data sets. We're looking at new projects on a continuous basis. So not only the projects that we're currently working on, but there are new projects coming to us that we're assessing and determining whether they may be a fit for the portfolio.

So it's all really quite exciting and has been great working with the team particularly over the last couple of years has been really fantastic. In terms of services, so through Asgard, the arrangement that we've got there is really we take a position in an investee company for cash and the sort of -- the levels of cash that have been invested range from about, let's say, $50,000 to $300,000. But coupled to that is a consulting agreement typically that is paid for in shares. So in the case of Panther, being the very first investment we made this way, we made a cash investment of $100,000 at the time, but we secured $250,000 worth of shares upfront in lieu of the consulting input over 2 years.

So is that sort of arrangement that we put in place with our investee companies and it's working out really well for us. And as we expected, it's working out really well for them because one of the challenges, I think, for junior exploration companies that are end of the market, so to speak, and private companies, in particular, is that they often do not have the capacity or depth of the team to apply to their exploration projects.

Now Ariana represents a full spectrum geoscientific team with a complement of obviously, geologists, but all the way through from remote sensing specialists, geophysicists, geochemists, and so on. So we're able to apply that expertise very effectively to other investee companies. So those companies, they might go off and do a drone magnetic survey, they want that later assessed. So rather than sending it to another consultant that's got no skin in the game, they send it to us. We analyze the data. We provide them the outputs and the recommendations. And then that might feed on into a new drilling program, for instance. So it's a very sort of interactive, iterative arrangement that we've got with our investee companies, and I think it's working out really well.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

They are that sort of dovetails into the question from Lovro R. And is the company in a position to exclusively aim for joint ventures or our sale of assets or probability the [ write-off becomes lumbo ].

That's always the case, I think. And in value creation, offers of sales or similar. Well, of course, the lithium discovery you made in Australia, the decade.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes, yes, exactly. So I mean, in that case, that was just one of those serendipitous things in a way because we were able -- the lithium sector was not doing particularly well at that stage. There have been a sort of brief moment in the sunshine in around 2012, '13. But by 2014, there was no interest in lithium. And so it had reached a particular point in the market cycle where we were able to pick up lithium assets very cost effectively to the extent that Ariana itself only injected $30,000 into the acquisition of the projects. And we were able to vend those into 2 separate ASX-listed companies.

And within the space of 18 months cashed that out to the tune of $3 million. So that's -- admittedly that's a sort of unusual example but it's one where the sort of timing worked out perfectly well and the sort of work that we were involved in was early-stage prospecting. I was identifying the ground, doing some initial prospecting, working up the opportunity to the point that it was of interest to someone else.

And we weren't in a position at that time to go on and develop those projects any further ourselves because we have our hands full with the development of the Kiziltepe mine at that stage. So it made sense for us to just cash out both in terms of real hard cash as well as shares, which we later sold. So yes, we're always up for that kind of thing, where the opportunity permits.

But also in the case of the longer road that we've chosen at Kiziltepe where we started off with a relatively early-stage exploration project, and we were able to systematically drill test that, partner up with a capable partner in the form of Proccea develop that into our first mine and ultimately benefit from the cash flow, as we did up until the point of the Ozaltin coming in as a third partner and benefiting then from Ozaltin's cash in the form of an expanded partnership that involved the Salinbas asset, which, of course, is the largest single resource within the portfolio.

So it really needed a large amount of additional capital expended on it. So that partnership with Ozaltin came at a perfect time. And as a result of that, we were able to partly sell down our interest in Turkey, which has then enabled us to look at these other jurisdictions and go through the process of more broadly derisking the company so that we are spread across a variety of different areas and commodities.

So we're no longer in the situation that we were once in going back to 2010 through to 2016 of essentially being a single asset company. And if we weren't able to get Kiziltepe operational, that could have been the end of the matter. But that's that was the risk of that strategy. So we're trying to avoid being cornered effectively into the same position by broadening out our horizons, applying the skill sets that we've built up over the years successfully in the case of our Turkish assets. And then reapplying those skills to the identification of new deposits elsewhere and in new partnerships potentially moving those assets up the development curve to the point of mining.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Kerim, thanks. I think it's about time for us to wrap up. But answering that question the way we have in part answers the question is exploration profitable. I think what we've discussed in the past, if we weren't just making discoveries at $11 an ounce, we wouldn't be profitable and the profit that we just reported proves that as well. I think in wrapping up, I just want to mention that we put out an RNS this morning about a problem with Broadridge and the proxy voting platform they use and an incorrect listing of resolutions some of which we do it, some of which we had nothing to do with us and some of which are playing wrong. That has been corrected. They have acknowledged, they made a mistake and they have apologized and that platform is now corrected for those shareholders who lodged their shares with -- or bought their shares through Broadridge. But in summary, I think Kerim has the closing remark, and let's hear it today.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Yes. I so think just to say thank you to all listeners for their time. I very much appreciate the interaction. Obviously, this platform provides for a particular style of interaction in the form of the pre-submitted questions. which we've done our best to answer, as I said. But hopefully, some further value has been extracted through the live Q&A session. I know that we're not able to answer all questions in the live format because it's difficult for us to both speak and read the questions. But again, we do our best to work towards an answer that is hopefully satisfactory, and we very much welcome these opportunities to present to shareholders and investors. Thank you.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Yes. And thank you, too, Kerim, thank you to those who have attended and for your interest and questions.

[Operator]

Michael, Kerim, that's great. And thank you very much indeed for being so generous of your time in addressing all of those questions and also for updating investors this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected of the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. It's going to take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Ariana Resources plc, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all.

[Michael de Villiers, executive]

Thank you and good afternoon to you, too.

[Kerim Sener, executive]

Thank you.