Welcome to the Caledonia Mining Q2 Trading Update. We're joined by Mark Learmonth and the management team. Mark, over to you.

Thank you, Scott. Could we get into the presentation, please? Okay well morning good afternoon to you should we just quickly go to the disclaimer page okay and then on to the presenting team so I'm Mark Learmonth Caledonia's Chief Executive and we're joined today by Ross Gerrard the CFO Victor Gapari another Executive Director who's running the Bilbo's project by Craig Harvey, VP Technical Services. He runs Exploration and MRM. And also in attendance, we've got Maurice Mason, who's Vice President Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Shall we move on? Okay, just in terms of an overview, production was up 18% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, which reflects improved access to higher grade mining areas and benefits from various operating improvements. Revenue up 16% to $76 million EBITDA up 16% to nearly $46 million supported by stronger production and a robust gold price environment Profit out of tax up 27% compared to the comparable period in 2025 up to $30 million EPS was up 29% to $1.36 operating cash flow was strong 28.4 million dollars and cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter was 167.8 million The growth pipeline is going well. We're making good progress at Bilbo's, as Victor will explain. We've got some very exciting exploration results coming out of Matapa, where we expect to produce a maiden resource in the next four weeks or so. And also some quite exciting exploration results coming out of the capits at Blanket. And just for the record, we've declared our usual quarterly dividend of 14 cents a share for the quarter should we move on to the next next slide okay i'm going to counter through these operating results quite quickly i mean really there's one thing that comes out and it's great so if we just move on but before we get to that let's talk about safety an excellent safety performance for the quarter we've had well now it must be over 400 consecutive days without any lost time injury and that's five nearly five and a half million Manow has worked without an LTI so that's a very good performance clearly that's a lagging indicator and the strong safety performance really reflects a couple of things the first is the extent to which we're focusing on proactive and pre-emptive risk prevention so things like you know we've undertaken risk propensity assessments on workers in high-risk areas we're putting a strong focus on near-miss reporting and things like that so trying to preempt and predict where problems might be so that we can address them and what underpins all of this is a a renewed focus on training, culture and readiness. So a very pleasing safety performance and congratulations to the mining team for achieving that. Shall we move on? Right production has recovered in the quarter and that really comes down to improved access to higher grade areas and as we said previously we've been hampered over the last few quarters by some fall of ground incidents in the course of 2025 which locked us out of high-grade areas so we've been effectively running the mine at a very low grade in the first quarter it was two and a half grams a ton in the second quarter it was about 2.88 and we're now targeting about 3.1 for the remainder of the year and we're operating at that level so higher access to higher grade areas we also in June moved the mine on to seven day working week Primarily to address worker fatigue but it also means that we've increased our blasting days by 18% and that is flowing through into increased run of mine production and from September onwards will be processing a portion of that incremental production through the through the Lima plant which will repurpose and then into 2027 we'll be spending some money as you'll hear shortly and to upgrade the main metallurgical plant to process all of that existing run of my material through the main plant This month, the end of August, we will have completed an upgrade to the Aleutian plant which will allow us to process about 40 tonnes of material that we've accumulated over the last 18 months or so at a grade of 600 or 700 grams a tonne. So that will give us an extra 1200 ounces across the months of September, October, November, December. And Q2 was well ahead of Q1 on the back of the higher grade access. So should we move on to the next page? Traditional graphs which we've seen before, I think the key things I draw out here are the top graph, the blue line, the stability that we've experienced now for many quarters and that really is because of the stockpile that we developed and we've been running. Fair to say during this quarter, quarter two, the stockpile was run down to zero and has now been, now we've started to rebuild that. since we introduced the new shift system in June. The bottom line in that top graph is the grade and you can see how the grade came down from Q2 2025 reached a low point in the first quarter and has now recovered. as I say in the second quarter running at 2.88 grams a ton target for the remainder of the year on average is about 3.16 and we're running at that level and then the bottom graph just pulls it all together in terms of looking at the the recovery and the ounces produced and it's fair to say that as the as the grade falls your recovery falls the the tail grade we can't do much better than a tail grade of 0.2 grams a ton and so frankly if the if the head grade is goes down and the tail grade stays at 0.2 that means that your recovery goes down so it is good to see that recovery bounce back again um move on So that's just an overview of the operations. It all comes down to grades. So with that, I will hand over to Ross, who's got quite a lot to cover.

Thank you, Mark, and good afternoon, everyone. Just running through the financial results summary up on the table, you can see the impact of both gold sold and gold ounces produced. So we were down for both the three months and the six months in terms of ounces. but we did benefit from a higher average realized gold price of $4,259 an ounce. So that was a 34% increase quarter on quarter. So we did produce some healthy revenues and as we go through our cost profile, that's one of the impacts in terms of higher royalties driven by those higher revenues. I will take a bit of time to go through our cost updates in terms of where we where we ended up. But the key message is really our online costs were largely in line with where we had budgeted and were managing to. So in absolute terms, whilst those costs are shown to be up, there are some one or four abnormal items that I'll talk you through in terms of why those transactions occurred. But broadly, we're very happy with our mine costs and the teams are managing their cost base very well. Those top line answers really impacted on our unit metrics in terms of an ounce sold basis. So you'll see our oil and sustaining and our online cost per ounce sold were largely up, but there was some quite significant increases on our ounce profile metric, but in absolute terms, we're broadly in line. Going into our financials, we're very happy with our EBITDA that was up some 28.5% for the six month period. And as you can see, some healthy numbers going through in terms of free cash flow and ultimate profit and earnings per share. Probably to highlight and remind everybody our free cash flow number, the comparative period included our solar sale proceeds. So that's probably not indicative of a normal operating cycle but we're very happy in terms of where we ultimately ended up with some 23.8 million dollars worth of profit at the end of the three-month period and close to 40 million dollars for the six months or almost 35 percent up against the comparative period we can move on to the next slide and talk a little bit about the profit and loss You'll see our top line revenue as indicated that was really driven by that higher average gold price, albeit that some of our sales answers were a little bit down, but we're very happy in terms of ultimate gross profit position, which was up some 17.4% for the six months or 16% for the quarter. Royalties were up, but that was driven by that higher top line performance. And also we did have some shipments during the six months. I think there were three shipments over the $5,000 per ounce level, which attracted the higher royalty. But in terms of our production costs, we are up some 15% year to date. And I'll talk to some of those specific items went through and there were some timing differences so as already highlighted by Mark there was a drawdown on the stockpile and obviously the costs that are released in terms of those answers as they are put through it does have a working capital impact. Below the line in terms of significant movements probably the one to highlight is the is the administration expenses. And there were some quite significant one-off costs that have related to our advisory fees, particularly on the senior loan note transaction, but our broader financing facility. And as we go through Bilbo's and our overall strategy, you'll see that we've made some significant progress in terms of our funding initiatives. So it's money well spent in terms of those work streams. I will also highlight the fair value gain on our derivative financial instruments. So that is financial accounting and some volatility that will go through the P&L and it does result in some significant movements but I would ask you really to treat those as separate items when you're looking at the P&L because Mining Corporation Plc The tax expense was down, but that was really around the capital gains tax that was paid on the solar in the comparative period. So I guess our tax rate and effective tax rate is in line and we're very happy with that. Return to the next slide, please. In terms of cash flows, probably the items to note is really the rolling of our various loan notes. So you'll see some ins and outs, but actually there's no movement in terms of our net position there. In terms of pointing out significant movements, you'll see the acquisition of our cap call options. So the $14.4 million in the six month period was a one off item that came through and equally you'll see the impressive $145 million of proceeds in the convertible loan notes that came through and bulking up our cash at the year end position, which closed at just shy of 167 or $168 million closing cash, which really puts us in good stead as we move forward in terms of our strategic objectives. So if we move to the next slide, you'll see our overall liquidity position. And we're very pleased with our cash on hand at $171 million. There was bullion on hand of 13 million, 13 and a half million, which was really the ounces that are held on hand and ready for shipment. There was a slight delay on one shipment at the end of the six month period which was driven by the demonstrations in Johannesburg so there was a timing difference in terms of answers that were held as we got them to the refiner but those were delivered the day after and it was really driven by timing so nothing untoward to highlight there. But overall, very pleasing to have a total liquidity of over $200 million as we stand at the end of the June period. A very healthy position as we move forward with the company and the various initiatives. The next slide, this talks to our capital structure and debt. and we included that in terms of just summarizing basically our debt structure what's held at our Caledonia Holdings Zim level in terms of our loan notes and as I mentioned you know those movements that you see were really the successful rolling over of loans in terms of what was expiring Mining Corporation Plc pay down a large portion of that so that we're sitting in a very healthy position in terms of overall funding and then in terms of the new convertible bond that sits on the balance sheet increasing our total consolidated structure up to that 167 million that I've mentioned previously so that this gives you a picture in terms of overall debt Taking a bit more of a deep dive into those online costs, if we move to the next slide, we just wanted to highlight in terms of online costs of blanket and I think it's very important to pull out a few key, I guess, transactions or cost centers. The first one is salaries and wages. These have stayed broadly in line and you can see a 4% movement year to date in terms of base increases in terms of salaries and wages. So well managed and we're very happy in terms of that overall cost center. What has moved, however, is the blanket employee trust distribution. So previously we've had the facilitation loans. So any distributions that are made from blanket dividends have gone to offset or a portion of them have gone to offset those facilitation loans. and those are now being paid off and under IFRS any distributions that are now made under that arrangement need to be classified as employee costs and sit within production costs. So you'll see a big significant $3.2 million charge going through in this last quarter which has significantly moved our production costs. It hasn't changed any distributions or anything and is actually a reflection of a great operation in terms of distributing funds but unfortunately it sits within our mine costs and has had quite a material impact and will continue to have a material impact in terms of the optics as we as we go forward so that is a standalone item we will be reporting it separately so everybody will be able to see that and and deal with that specific cost for line item independently and the other big movement for the period was the electricity cost where you'll see that's gone up 25 This is in fact driven by increased weeding charges, but our actual consumption has decreased. So again, something that's largely outside of our control where we've done well in terms of our consumption of of electricity but we've been hit with some increased charges there so again another one-off that has hit us in terms of those cost centers so largely when you when you back out those areas you look at the performance in terms of where we we've exited the six-month period it's really driven by lower grades so those reduced answers that have come through in terms of productions really pit us in terms of our unit metrics when you look at that online cost metric and at the bottom right of the chart going up some 46% now for the period. As that flows through onto the next slide in terms of our oil and sustaining costs, You'll see that the higher on mine costs that I've just discussed together with the higher royalty driven by that higher revenue that I mentioned at the start has really flowed through in terms of our calculation of all in sustaining costs. Whilst our capital expenditure has been well managed and in line with expectation, Those costs of the best distribution, so higher royalties and some higher administrative expenses largely driven by those advisor fees and transactions fees for our funding strategy have all fallen into that all in sustaining bucket and driven that increase in terms of our overall costs. So what does that mean? If we move to the next slide, we have had a look and done a whole six plus six exercise and looked at our outlook for the end of the year. And it has meant with those costs increasing the classifications as we look towards the end of the year, we've increased our online cash costs per ounce sold, increasing that by a hundred dollars from our previous guidance range. So the updated guidance range is $1,600 to $1,800. So the 6% increase. and our oil and sustaining cost per ounce sold has increased by some $400 up from $2,100 per ounce to $2,500 an ounce at the lower end and increasing to $2,700 an ounce at the top end of the guidance range. Those are due to the factors I've just discussed, but we've also introduced some new additional spend, which is indicated in the table below. And that's really around how we expect some of the capex to drop this year. So we had previously announced in March that there was 133 KV power line project that had been approved by the board, but we haven't done our costing and quotes, which have now come through subsequent to that announcement and of the 14.2 million, 8.1 million is going to drop in 2026. So we've included that in the guidance, together with an updated number for our ACDC configuration, our central shaft rock windup project, at $3.1 million. And there's also some additional spend in terms of key projects that we do need to deliver. One of them is the housing project, which is fundamental to our core operating activities, which we've included a further $1.3 million. and there's some exciting projects that I'll leave Craig to discuss in terms of cave pits and our underground development, which again are key additional spends that we need to deploy in terms of meeting our objectives. I just wanted to talk a little bit more about the CapEx profile. So if we move to the next slide, you'll see a breakdown in terms of what had previously been guided in terms of CapEx spend against each particular project. So our previous guidance in terms of sustaining capital expenditure was $26.6 million, introducing the three new initiatives, which you can see indicated by reference B and E. It's the new power line, the ACD conversion and the K-PITS projects, which pushes that CapEx profile up to $48 million. But we've also got updates in terms of our growth capital expenditure. And again, going through our Bilbo's development and now having quotes coming through and a better understanding in terms of our, I guess our deposit requirements where previously we had factored in that a large deployment of cash was needed up front in terms of ordering those long lead items. We've got better financing terms. A lot of that cash has reduced and we've been able to actually go with deposits and defer some of that cash into the early part of next year. So that Bilbo's $132 million spend has now been reduced for 2026 to $48 million with the 80 odd million being pushed into the first half of next year. and we also have a new blanket mine plant upgrade which is a new new project of three and three and a half million which is up been updated into the second half of this year so overall our capex number has moved from 162 million down to 103 million dollars but a large portion of that is the billboard spin which is really a reflection of timing i will highlight it's not to do with the ability to finance or positioning in terms of the project. It won't delay the project, but it's just a wise or better use of deployment of funds and has been a very healthy update for us in terms of us moving forward. So if we move to the next slide, please. As mentioned earlier, we do have quite a significant movement in our P&L in terms of the accounting for convertible modes, and we're not proposing to go into chapter and verse in terms of the accounting. But it's just a highlight that we have some significant movement with these convertible notes. It's driven by IFRS. We have independent valuations done and it's just to remind everybody that we have a split in terms of the accounting for the transaction where we have a host debt on one side of the senior notes, which is really treated in the amortized cost basis. And we have an embedded derivative, which is a financial liability on the other side of the transaction, which moves with fair value accounting and it does cause some quite considerable volatility through the P&L. It's fully disclosed. We are across it in terms of where we sit and I'm happy to take a deep dive as we account for it for anybody on the call, but I'm not proposing to go through each stage now, but just to flag that to your attention that you will see some quite significant movements and we'll keep everybody briefed in terms of how that is accounted for. And the last slide is really to remind everybody that we had the cap call option that was also associated with the con notes. If we just move to the last slide, please. The accounting for the cap call is another derivative financial asset, which is also fair value through the profit or loss and provide some volatility and net worth. So it does have an impact on the income statement as those fair values are recognized in the income statement each reporting period. And again, third party valuations coming up with the numbers are fully disclosed and does provide some quite significant movements as you can see in terms of original cost at 14.4 million and the various fair value movements as we sit and carry a net position of 4.4 million on the balance sheet at the end of the period. But again, happy to take a deep dive and explain that more fully for anybody who would like a bit more detail on that. And with that, I will hand across to Victor, who will talk us through the Bilbo's update.

Thank you, Ross. Can we move to the next slide, please? Thank you very much. Basically, the message which we want to leave with you today is that Bilbo's continues to advance on schedule and remain central to Caledonia's strategy to deliver sustainable long-term growth. What we have seen is that we've done quite some considerable work across various work streams, especially financing, engineering and development during this last quarter. We completed geotechnical investigations for the process plant site that also includes the tailing storage facility. We've advanced process plant optimization studies. We're almost done with that. We're moving on that. We've substantially completed the tender processes and procurement for long lead items. Here we're talking about the milling plant, really the processing plant, some items of the processing plant and the major earthworks on site. So this is going ahead. We've continued to engage with prospective financing providers. Ross will be back in a slide or two to just tell you where we are with that. But basically what we're seeing is that quite a lot of progress is being made on this project. In terms of people moving on site, we expect the first The first contractors to be on site around October and we already have accommodation, but we also starting additional work on accommodation facilities during October. Can we move to the next slide? As far as capital expenditure is concerned, Ross has already explained a few of the items. Year to date, we have spent $3.5 million against a budget of $8.3 million. This is really expenditure on the owner's team. We have recruited the team which will build this mine, our own team, which will be working with our EPCM contractor, DRA Africa. The cost of that team plus also the early work which really at the beginning of the project is always the front end engineering design work which allows you to place orders for equipment so that's where we've been spending money really. The focus for 2026 as Ross has said is 48 million compared to the 132 million dollars which we had on the budget. As Ross again explained, this is really a timing issue. We've now gone out to tender, we've received firm offers, firm tenders from the various tenderers with our payment terms and a lot of those require us to pay a deposit and then the balance of the cost will be paid as contractual milestones are reached. There's really no change in the project timetable, the cost horoscope at this stage. Can we move on? The economic analysis, we've highlighted the economic analysis of this project over time, and it still is a very robust project for this company, and this will stand us in good stead in years to come. Can we go to the next slide, please? As far as the funding strategy for the project is concerned, Ross, can you take this on?

Thank you, Victor. We're delighted in terms of providing an update on the funding strategy. You'll see the four pillars that we've previously highlighted in terms of our step process, providing the hedge program, doing the convertible, and then have an interim funding facility while we position the project finance facility. So the first two steps as highlighted on the chart have been delivered. It was important that we put that gold price hedging in place and that basically hedged our position over the construction period but provided a floor that supported the cash flows as we went through our discussions with the various banking institutions. You would have seen the delivery of the successful convertible note offering again oversubscribed and really delivered a great outcome in terms of treasury and positioning as well in terms of our funding initiatives. Those two pillars really meant that we've been able to advance with our banking syndications. The first being the interim funding facility. We've just come off the back of two weeks of bank visits, both with the interim funders and also the project funding institutions where we had very good due diligence, excuse me, site visits with those institutions across our assets. in terms of our interim funding facility. We've got credit approval from our two co-leader ranges and we're working with other syndicate banks in terms of getting that 150 million facility in place. We're well down the track. We're going through all the final DD positions and we hope that we're planning for that to be closed in late August, early September. So well positioned in terms of that work stream. In parallel, we've been working with our project finance banks and again that process is well underway. We've been very excited in terms of the The both the appetite and the reaction from from those banks. And as I mentioned, we've just come off a good visit to Zimbabwe visiting both government, the assets and the various management teams in countries. So that's running parallel. We previously indicated in terms of timelines that we felt that it was a little bit further out so over the next 12 months we thought that we could deliver that but off the back of the work streams and how it's advancing and we certainly planning for that to be closed by the end of the year or early into next year so over the next two nine months maximum but we're delighted with the progress and we're well positioned in terms of the various discussions that we have at play If we move to the next slide, we just wanted to give you a quick update in terms of that total funding requirement. So this is an update to a previous slide that we've done in previous updates. On the right, you'll see the use of funds and I guess the deployment that we're looking for with a capital cost, but including interest in working capital, looking for the better part of 600 million. of funding using that three and a half thousand dollar per ounce pricing that we've done in terms of our hedging facility you can see the breakdown of our cash on hand that we now have at the 30th of june of 172 million dollars our forecast cash flows from blanket being 115 million dollars and therefore we're looking for best part of 300 million just over 300 million in terms of senior debt or other facilities to to meet that funding requirement if we look at the middle chart and we've done that slicing at a price deck of four thousand dollars per ounce and you can see in terms of where that sits and moving that up slightly, it certainly reduces our senior debt facility down closer to order of 263 odd million dollars. So both charts we believe totally achievable. I think we're well on track in terms of our funding work streams and we're excited about the coming months in terms of making sure that those are closed out and we can really focus on delivering the project. and with that I will hand it across to Craig Harvey.

Good afternoon all. I'll take you through some of the exploration highlights that we've been encountering at Caledonia. So I think throughout the finance and through some of the CEO's remarks, you've heard the term capits. So what is the capits? The capits is an area situated inside the blanket mining lease area. During this period under review or basically the last six six months We did over 2,000 meters of surface trenching We did 7,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling shallow holes only down to about a depth of about 40 meters purely to have a look at oxide mineralization potential so what you can see there on the selected drill highlights on the right we've you know we've got oxide grades ranging between one and a half and two and a half grams per ton over drill-hole lengths those are drill-hole lengths between 15 and call it 25 meters but these are within 40 meters of surface below that pleased to see that the mineralization continues and very pleased to see what the sulphide grades actually look like as well so I mean we're talking grades of six grams a ton over downhole widths of between 7 and 16 meters all within 40 meters of surface so what we're currently doing is quite clearly we have completed our drilling exercise we are drawing up a resource statement we are doing metallurgical testing in the term in terms of column testing various sizes various heights We are currently constructing a small heap leach trial test pad to actually test it under conditions similar to what the column tests are so that we can gauge that it's actually working. Results to date are encouraging. I obviously can't say anything here. one of the things that i just want to touch on is kind of the those those bottom three points why this discovery matters well i think for anybody that knows blanket mine um you know there was a whole lot of investment in in a central shaft we can currently waste and mine a lot more than what we can mull hence there are some tweaks coming up to the plant in the near future but still with this as an external heap leach source anything that we do here clearly does not need the actual blanket main plant so that's just for the for the oxide material where the zone is situated it's situated about 200 meters to the east of the closest known ore body that we're mining in the underground section of blanket We are currently in the process of laying out some surface drill holes to drill below this area now. We're also looking at drilling from line level at our sheet shaft which is about 200 meters below surface. to have a look for this area now quite clearly you know 200 meters vertical at quite a fat surface expression of the ore body at sulphide grades like that you know it just opens up another whole opportunity and I think I've said it on this call before so one of the things that people that know Blanket should notice is that when you arrive at Blanket you only see headgear you don't see open pits now at Bulbo's you see open pits you don't see headgear so this zone represents only a small portion of of ground that we have rights to in terms of the mining license and in terms of our claim areas and in the coming years this is going to be the model that we're going to follow and it's going to be the first of many I'm pretty sure of that so if you could move on to the next slide It's just going to be a recap of Blanket Underground. I just highlighted two intersections in red at the bottom there, the 2409 and the 2408 drill holes, reminding that it's approximately 280 meters below 34 level, which is our deepest mining level at the moment. That represents four main mining levels. So we are currently in the process, you know, we're busy dotting the i's and crossing the t's on a blanket mine mineral resource update, which will include surface. So you'll see the CAPED numbers there. If you can go on to the next slide. And just to highlight that those Plc Mining Corporation Plc But if you take selected core zones, sort of the mineable zones, we're talking eight meters wide still at anywhere between three and five grams per ton. That is very much what we are currently mining in and around 34 levels so the takeaway here is that you know going deeper at blanket we aren't seeing the ore bodies getting thinner disappearing grades dropping or anything like it in actual fact we are finding blanket 7 a new zone which we haven't known before way up on the top at the capits there's a potential new zone so the old lady term blanket is very very far from sort of rolling over and playing dead there's a there's a lot yet to come if you can go on to the next section which you'll just deal with my tarpa quickly Again, dotting the i's and crossing the t's. The mineral resource estimate is done. We should be publishing the results of that in the next couple of weeks. It's only based on the drilling results that we did in 2024 and 2025. The 2026 exploration program is ongoing. Proceeding very well. It's focusing more on the central and southern shear zone. At the same time, we are continuing trenching. It's proving to be a great exploration tool for us. We have identified some new areas that will come out in an exploration drilling or exploration results release later in the year. But all these results are just underpinning Caledonia's view that Matapa is going to feed into the Bilbo's project in some formal fashion and we'll continue doing the work. So in a nutshell, it's looking good. With that, we'll hand back to our CEO, Mark, to close out.

Thank you, Craig. Look, we've covered a lot of ground. We've taken 45 minutes. So just to draw it all together, the immediate focus, by which I mean between now and the end of the year, is to build on the success we've had at Blanket in this quarter and get Blanket running sweetly, increase production and improve the cash generation. Clearly, the big focus is Bilbo's. Continue to get the funding in place and continue to deliver that project targeting first production towards the end of 2028 and the first full year in 2029 and then as you've heard from Craig we've got some very exciting further development and exploration opportunities both at Blanket and at Matapa so look we've taken 45 minutes if we could pause there and open it for questions please

Thanks very much. If I could remind people if they'd like to ask a question, please do so by raising your hand in the bottom of the screen. We've got our first question is from Nick Dingham. Nick, please go ahead. Nick, please go ahead when you're ready. Nick, if you're ready, you just unmute yourself.

I'm having some speaker issues here. Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can hear you loud and clear, Nick.

Okay, great. All right, so I'm very interested in a couple of questions here around this potential capacity expansion that arises on the mine as a result of the CONOP. So the first question would be, does 18% more blasts The underground mine results in 18% more potential production, regardless of what happens to the mole.

It should do. Yeah, I mean, it's not currently running at 18% uplift in run of mine production because we're still opening up new areas. But in the fullness of time, yes, we would expect, as you've said, that maths to work. Yeah.

Okay, so that sounds like about a million tons a year. Just a bit less, just a little bit less, about 990, yes. Okay, so now coming on to the plant itself, there's been a discussion about a ball mill and a tons per hour figure given. There was also a discussion about potential increasing the crushing. Now you're talking about Aleutian circuits and you're talking about 200 tons per day. But what is that when it comes to the annual production capabilities of the plant when all of this is bedded down?

Well, that's exactly right. So the 200 tonnes a day that we're going to be putting through Lima is a short term stop gap measure, just to start harvesting some of the increased run of mine production as soon as possible. So don't get distracted on that. And then what happens to the Lima plant after we've upgraded the main number four the main number four shaft plant is another story the elution upgrade is something we plan to do anyway so that's a three ton elution vessel which will come on stream at the end of this month and that just allows us to reprocess these grits these activated carbon which currently we're accumulating and we can't process so the new expenditure will be at the front end the crushers so we'll be upgrading the crushers to well it'll that will give us about 2700 and yeah about two yeah it'll give us it'll give us they'll increase it to about 990,000 tons a year so we'll be spending some money on those crushers then the back end the CIL we need to put another CIL tank in this one will be about twice the size of the existing tanks and that's so that we can keep the residence time at about at about 40 hours, otherwise we end up losing recovery. So the ball mill, we put in a new ball mill BM3 that was commissioned in June. So we're just basically bookending it, upgrading the crushing at the front end and upgrading the CIL at the back end. And that will cost about three and a half million dollars. The actual phasing of that, How that gets phased, that's something we need to work on between now and the end of the year. So at this stage, I can't tell you between right now at what point all of that work will be implemented so that the main plant will be running at that sort of target rate of 990,000 tonnes a year. I can't answer that yet. We'll do that by the end of the year. Also when we've been through the full sort of procurement and budgeting exercise. So what I can't do at this stage, I can't tell you how that will convert into extra ounces in 2027. Because at this stage, I don't know the exact timing of the implementation of the of the crusher and the CIL upgrades.

Okay, thank you. I'd like the next question to ask a little bit about the capital program. You've upgraded it to $48 million plus some growth capex in blanket again. Yet to date, I can only find about $13 million have been spent in H1. So this looks like quite a daunting task to spend the balance of the money, but you're obviously confident you can do it.

Yeah, the spending isn't constrained by lack of funding. The spending is usually constrained by slow delivery of materials. So, I mean, case in point would be the ACDC conversion, no, the Aleutian plant that we're working on at the moment. We found that deliveries of steel have been slower than we expected, and that's a fairly consistent theme across all of our capital projects. It's not a failure on our part in terms of Our capacity is just the supply chain that gets a bit stretched. But yeah, we're comfortable we can get there.

Okay, thank you. And just a little bit about the new power line that you're proposing. So we heard about that previously. You've changed the scheduling of that slightly.

Again, that's because of extraneous events. Things move slower in Zimbabwe than we'd like, especially when we're not altogether in control of the project. So the 132 KV line that we're putting into Eagle Vulture requires extensive engagement with ZETDC which can take longer than you'd like but that should be in by about June next year.

Okay so the other question that was linked to that was that there were some question marks about how the pricing of power that would come through that line and obviously you now expect this enhanced capacity at the plant and at the mine to be able you'll be able to create enough power from that or source enough power from that transmission line.

Correct. Blanket is currently using more power than it's been allocated, and we can only get away with that for the time being for as long as the neighbouring mine of Lubachiku is on care and maintenance. If Lubachiku came off care and maintenance, and I've got to say, I see no immediate prospect for that, we would struggle with the amount of power we can get through the existing 33kV line. With the 132kV line, that disappears completely. That constraint disappears completely.

Have you settled your pricing now? Apparently there's been a little bit dispute between the various parties that entered into power supply agreements with you previously.

Yeah, there's a bit of a dispute. Victor's close to this than I am, but there's this thing called the Intensive Energy User Group in Zimbabwe and there's also ZETDC. There seems to be a bit of a dispute between the two of them. We have incurred a higher wheeling charge um which has affected our our um our electricity charges as Ross outlined that's part of the the play between ZESA and ZETDC and IEUG uh the the power that we'd expect to come through the 132kv line we would expect that to be somewhat cheaper than we're currently paying and let's be clear if we if we continue to face supply difficulties in country we can do what I believe some of the other very big users do I think the platinum producers which is just for import power directly ourselves so the the power the power tariff going forwards with the 132kv has not been finalized but there's no reason to suggest it will not be cheaper than it is at the moment

Okay, excellent. I have lots of questions, but I'll ask one more, I think, to close it off. You have interim funding lined up for two to three months time. It almost sounds like from the rate of spending that you think of having to spend over the next period in Bill Bowes will actually be a lot less than you originally thought. Does this mean you can be a little more relaxed about the interim funding?

No, we're still continuing, especially you work at Standard Bank. Stanbic is one of the core components of that interim funding structure and there's no way we're going to Freewheel on getting that funding together. We will go flat out as quickly as we can to get all that funding in place. Even if it means that we get it earlier than we need it. I mean, Ross, do you want to... Ross is the CFO. I mean, Ross, do you want to sort of comment on that? Absolutely. Are you going to go on an extended holiday and not raise the money?

No, no. Full steam ahead. We want it all in place. And then we can talk about timing of drawdowns and the like. But...

Okay, thank you very much. Okay, thank you.

Can I just remind people if they'd like to ask a question, please do raise your hand, which is in the bottom toolbar. I'm just going to pause for a moment as we have wait for people to ask a question. We have our next question from Yuen Lo. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on a good result. Can I ask whether you can give any color or things like commitment fees and like the interest rates, 10 years and so on for the various for the interim funding and for the project finance?

I know it's probably too early. All I can say is the two key criteria here. The project of this size and quality, any delay in implementing it will cost money in terms of NPV per share. That's the first thing. And the second thing, just to be clear, is that all of these debt funding structures, the cost of those compared to our cost of equity, our cost of equity is so eye-wateringly expensive that the cost of the various debt facilities is... I'm not saying we're price insensitive, but it's not a major cause for concern. So I think you're splitting a hair that just doesn't need splitting. But at this stage, it's too early to say.

That's fine. I'm just asking for modeling purposes. Yeah, sorry. All right. And for Craig, I know you've said it's also too early to give us any methodological results. I was just curious as to the nature of the refractoriness, if any, at the K pits in the sulfites and potentially the transition zone. And also, why are you wearing a jacket, a heavy jacket?

Just on the last one, because he's in Johannesburg and he's bleating about it being cold, that's why he's wearing a jacket.

That's freezing. That's freezing. But yes, look, I mean, what I can remind you is that just remember that the blankets, all bodies that we mine are all free milling. So I can't go beyond that. We have done bottle roll testing on our drill-all assays and they are in the press release that we put out there. And bottle roll assays, so that is direct cyanidation for 24 hours. to a fire assay value we're getting 80 to 85 percent so I would be expecting on a heap leach to recover yeah 90 to 95 percent of of of that okay thank you very much sorry was your question about the refractory nature of the sulfide the underlying sulfide

Yes, I was asking about that. I was wondering whether it's sulphides, no signal refractory, whether it's carbon, that sort of thing.

Craig, at this stage, are you able to give any indication as to whether we have any basis to believe that the underlying sulphide could be tricky to treat?

Look, at this stage, there's nothing that gives an indication either way that it's in any way different to the sulphide ores that we mine at Blanket at the moment. There's nothing that's saying that it is refractory, but I don't have any information that I can give you to say that it's not.

Clearly, it's something we will be evaluating.

Okay, wonderful. Thank you.

Thank you, Joanne.

Thank you. If I could just remind people, if anybody would like to ask a further question, please do so by raising your hand. I'll just wait for one second to allow people to raise their hand. Mark, as we've got no further questions at the moment, please hand back to yourself for any closing remarks.

Thank you all for your time. I think this quarter just finished has been a transitional quarter from a very disappointing first quarter. I think we've set ourselves up for a very exciting sort of closing half to the year and a very good start to next year as well. So thank you all for your time and your attendance.

Thanks very much. That concludes the Caledonia Mining Q2 trading update. Thank you very much for your time today.