Operator
I'll now turn the conference over to Justin Werner, Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Justin Werner
Thank you, everyone, and welcome to the half-year results presentation. If I could just ask the moderator to move to the next slide, please.
Start with safety and ESG. 0 12-month LTIFR, 0.45 12-month TRIFR, these are world-class safety figures.
18 million safe man hours worked over the past 12 months. In terms of ESG, once again, we were awarded the Green PROPER rating from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, one of only three nickel mining companies to achieve that rating.
We entered into an agreement to look at feasibility of natural hydrogen in and around the Hengjaya mining lease, which could offer potentially low-cost, clean energy source in the future. We inaugurated a 197-hectare biodiversity conservation area, a short distance from the Hengjaya mine, and again, one of very few mines who have successfully been able to inaugurate a biodiversity area.
The scholarship program continues to progress very well. We now have 30 students actively enrolled in a number of disciplines.
Then finally, on the CSR side, we've received CSR awards for excellence in community development, and we also won awards for some of our RKEF operations at the HR Asia Awards. If we could just move to the next slide, half-year summary, very solid results from the existing business prior to any contribution from commissioning of the ENC project.
If we could just move to the next slide, please. Group operations and corporate highlights, US$247.6 million of adjusted EBITDA, up 46% from the same time last year.
We also announced the $1.3 billion Sampala valuation in return for a share swap. Sorry, if you could go back slide, please.
In return for a share swap in the CNE HPAL, which I'll talk about a little bit later on. We also announced the billion wet metric ton resource at our Sampala project, so that is a world-class resource.
At our mine operations, adjusted EBITDA of US$73.4 million, up 4% on the same period last year. Although, and I'll talk about this a little bit later on, expect to see a significantly increased EBITDA from the mine off the back of a change in HPM pricing.
5.9 million wet metric tons of ore sales, on track, same as last year, but we are ramping up towards the back end of this year with ENC commissioning, and I'll touch on that a little bit later. EBITDA per ton margins from the mine were $12.40, and that was also up 5%.
Where we see the majority of improvement in this half was really from our NPI business. Adjusted EBITDA $146.7 million, up 87%.
In terms of nickel sales, they were down slightly. That was in relation to some planned maintenance that was undertaken at ANI and ONI, which are really our two major NPI producers.
These results were really driven by a strengthening NPI price, which was $13,784 per ton for the half, which is up 21% on the same time last year. Then finally, HPAL performed very well the first half of this year.
Adjusted EBITDA from our 10% interest in HNC was US$35.2 million, up 31% from the same time the previous year. We're pleased to announce our maiden dividend distribution of $3.5 million US.
Then moving to ENC, tremendous milestone of first MHP production in July, followed not too shortly afterwards by first cathode in August. If we could just move to the next slide, looking at the P&L and adjusted EBITDA.
The real drivers of that significant improvement, 46% improvement in EBITDA, was the nickel pig iron price, mentioned up 21% to $13,784, and as of today, it continues to strengthen past $14,000 a ton. The LME price has also risen significantly, up 15%, an average $17,700 for the first half of this year.
We were one of a very small number of companies that was able to increase our RKAB quota from 9 million last year to 14.3 million this year. That will drive some continued improved EBITDA.
Then we've seen at the mine more recently, a change in the ore price, which are flowing through to very strong margins at the HN mine, and resilient NPI production. Despite the maintenance that I mentioned, we were fairly much similar to last year.
If we could just go to the next slide, please. I'll hand over to Chris just to talk through the balance sheet and the next EBITDA waterfalls.
Chris Shepherd
Thank you, Justin. Morning, everybody.
On the balance sheet, the key balance sheet movements between December and June, 31 December and 30 June, $240 million US was related to the SFEIR transaction. We had a $239 million receivable as at 31 December and a $240 mil payable to Decent.
That's in relation to the 10% interest in ENC that SFEIR invested. Those receivables and payables have obviously been received during the period, so that is the main reason for the movement in current liabilities and assets.
Net debt of $980 million or $982 million as at 30 June. Importantly for our covenants, that sits us at about a 2.3 times leverage ratio, which is within our 3.5 times max covenant post our recent refinancing of our bank loans.
If the leverage stays at that level at 2.3 times, our margin over SOFR will fall from 3.5% to 2.5% by the end of this year, which effectively reduces our cost of debt from the current 7.1% under the bank loans to 6.1%. Can we move to the next slide, please?
We've just set out the profit and adjusted EBITDA reconciliations here on the chart on the left-hand side. You can see the contribution from the three core businesses: the RKEF business of 147 mil, the HPAL business of 35 mil, and so that's HNC and Sin Creation, our trading entity, and 73 mil from Hengjaya mine.
73 mil from Hengjaya mine, the total being there of 255 mil from operations. There's 6 $7.6 million of NIC overheads to get us to our final 247 mil of adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2026.
On the right-hand side, we then provide the bridge from adjusted EBITDA to profit, and we can see the key items being obviously the 80 mil D&A, 29 mil in taxes, our net finance costs of just under 50 mil, and then some FX-related charges of just under 16 mil to give us our NPAT for the first half of 2026 of 74 mil. Can we move to the next slide, please?
On the cash flow waterfall, some key three the three key items: we've got 65 mil of cash flow. You can see that on the right-hand chart, the first two columns, the 77.5 operating cash flow less the capex of 12 mil.
That's what we say our cash flow prior to any growth and debt. Our higher earnings were partly absorbed by an increase in nickel ore stockpiles of approximately $30 million.
That primarily relates to limonite as we are preparing for the ongoing commissioning of ENC. Taxes and royalties paid and then a decrease in trade payables of approximately $40 million across the half year.
We've had growth spend of $137 million throughout the first half of the year. $46 million of that was for our final ENC payment for our final 2% to take us from 44% to 46% equity interest in ENC.
Our Sampala development capex of approximately $26 million across the half year, and then an acquisition payment of $28.5 million for Sampala. That was the advanced payment that we announced in May of this year.
Our net borrowings following the successful syndicated loan in April of refinancing the outstanding 400 mil of bank loans to 450 mil of the syndicated loans in April. They're the key items there.
It shows the movement of cash from 320 mil, 323 mil at the start of the year to 260 mil. A strong cash balance of 260 mil as we head into the second half of 2026.
Justin, back to you on page 8.
Justin Werner
Thanks, Chris. If we could move to the next slide, please.
I'll start with the mining operations, 5.9 million wet metric tons for the first half of this year, basically on track as the same as the first half of last year. We do have an RKAB for 14.3 million for the remainder of the year, and we saw a very strong July where we delivered 1.4 million tons and we're on track to potentially exceed that number in August.
Expect to see a stronger ramp-up in tons in the second half of this year. The average realized sales by 28% to US$31.30.
That again has increased significantly in the June quarter. We expect to see the flow-on of that adoption of the HPM pricing into the third and fourth quarters of this year.
Operating costs were up slightly, $18.70, well, they're up significantly versus the first half of last year, and that was really driven by higher royalties. Adjusted EBITDA of US$73.4 million, that was up 4%.
I think what you'll see is in June, we delivered a $45.7 million EBITDA just for the month of June. We only really adopted the new HPM pricing in May, and we did have in the June quarter 14 days of lost production.
The third quarter of this year will be the first full quarter at that new HPM price. If you look at the adjusted EBITDA per wet metric ton, it was $12.40 for the first half of 2026.
It was $15.90 in the June quarter, and we would expect that EBITDA per ton margin to continue to rise across the third and fourth quarters of this year. Looking forward to a very strong second half to the year from the Hengjaya mine through increased volumes versus first half of this year and increased EBITDA per ton margins due to the new ore pricing regime.
If we could just go to the next slide, please. We were very pleased to announce the Sampala JORC resource upgrade, over a billion wet metric tons.
We know margins currently at around $15.90. You can see the value of that ore body.
That it contains 8 million tons of nickel, it makes it one of the largest ore resources globally. We were able to leverage the value of that ore body into a share swap for 18% of Sampala's ANN and ETL IUPs, remembering that there's actually three IUPs, it's only two of the three IUPs, for a 36% interest in the CNE HPAL project, which has about 28,000 tons of nickel capacity for zero cash.
That share swap implies a Sampala valuation of above US$1.3 billion. That's about a 5.4 times value uplift on the consideration that we will pay for the project.
In terms of project development, the progress continues to be made. Both for ETL and ANN IUPs, the feasibility studies are being progressed, and we're hopeful of approval of those in the coming weeks.
In terms of the construction of the 24 km of haul road, the first 8 km has been completed. The remaining 16 km, we're just waiting on the relevant permits to be issued to be able to continue that 16 km section.
At the Morowali project, feasibility study is also under review, and that's initially looking at a 2 million ton per annum ore operation. For Sampala, we're looking at about 19 to 20 million, a similar size to what it is or the intention of the Hengjaya mine.
I should add that we have made an application to increase from the 14.3 million at Hengjaya, and we are hopeful of hearing the results of that very shortly as well. If we could just move to the next slide, please.
RKEF operations, nickel production down slightly due to some scheduled maintenance at the power plants and RKEF lines at ANI and ONI, which produce the bulk of our NPI. We did also start a kiln and furnace rebuild on one of the HNI kilns at the end of June.
Cash costs were up 13% to $11,480, driven by the Indonesian government raising the benchmark saprolite ore pricing. Sale price up 13,700 to $13,784 a ton, up 21%, and pleasingly, EBITDA up 87% to US$146.7 million.
I think that clearly demonstrates the leverage that we have to an improvement in both the NPI and the LME price. We've got a 21% increase in the NPI price and 87% increase in adjusted EBITDA.
If you look at the EBITDA per ton margin, that's gone from 1,250 to 2,500, that's a 100% increase in the EBITDA per ton. If we look at NPI demand looking forward, one of the analysts, CRU, they're talking about an additional 697,000 tons of nickel required to meet stainless growth, which is about 62% of incremental nickel demand.
Currently, there's a moratorium on any new NPI growth in Indonesia. Strong demand for NPI through growth in stainless, but a cap on supply.
We think that looking forward, the NPI business looks to be very strong, and that's supported by the first half results. If we could just move to the next slide, please.
At our HPAL operations, commissioning of ENC is progressing well. We began commissioning in May.
We've now announced subsequent to that first cathode and first MHP production. We currently have two kilns that are in the process of commissioning.
They're at about 50% capacity, and we should have an update shortly as to when we will be able to start the commissioning of the third kiln. One of the challenges we are coming up against is it's extremely dry wet season, and so we're just looking at ensuring that we can secure enough water for the whole operation.
Other than that, the commissioning is progressing well. At HNC, 35.2 million in adjusted EBITDA, up 31%.
Nickel sales were down by about 10%. EBITDA per ton margin up 52%, very strong margin from MHP for the first half of this year of $9,113 a ton.
There is obviously some pressures coming through in regards to the cost of sulfur and the situation in the Middle East. I think pleasingly, the June quarter margins were still at 8 $8,090 a ton at HNC.
We announced the first maiden distribution from HNC of US$3.5 million. If we could just go to the next slide, please.
The HPAL is really where we'll see the next leg of growth. I think if you look at the mine and NPI numbers, they're very very strong.
If we didn't have any contribution from ENC this year, I think we'd still be on track to be somewhere around US$0.5 billion in EBITDA just from the mine and NPI business alone. You look at what is coming on over the course of sort of the next 12 to 18 months, we have ENC obviously commissioned, NIC's attributable interest in that is 33,000 tons.
Just to remind everyone, that has a 15-year tax holiday with an additional 2 years at 11%, and it's the first HPAL globally that will produce MHP, nickel and cobalt sulfate, and nickel cathode. Before the end of last year, we announced the transaction with SFEIR, who is one of only five accredited suppliers to SpaceX and the only one with a long-term 10-year contract.
Nickel cathode will be going into SpaceX rockets. The quality of the cathode that's been produced thus far is very good, and so we're confident that that will allow us to achieve LME registration.
That will take some time, but with LME registration, we should be able to command a premium. The recently announced HPAL transactions, I'll start with TMI, that's $169 million required to be paid in November.
That will give NIC 7,000 tons of attributable nickel metal. It's in a very strong consortium of Korean and Japanese partners, LS MnM, who are a significant global copper refiner as well as other base metals and cathode producer; Hanwa, a Japanese trading company with long, deep roots into Indonesia; and another unnamed strategic investor who's a global player in the EV chain.
As with all of our previous projects, that comes with a capex guarantee. Sampala has signed an MOU to be the exclusive supplier of ore to this project, and we feel the integration should bode favorably when it comes time for RKAB application at Sampala.
Then secondly, CNE, which I touched on in Sampala, effectively swapping an 18% interest in the Sampala projects, the ANN and ETL IUPs, for nil cash consideration for a 36% interest in CNE. That will give NIC about 10,000 tons of attributable nickel metal.
Effectively, if you look at the two transactions, we're acquiring 17,000 tons of additional incremental high-margin MHP for a cash consideration of US$169 million. That's a capital intensity of around US$10,000 a ton, which is significantly lower than any of our peers are paying or have paid in the market to access high-margin MHP units.
If we could just move to the final slide, please. I think this first half has really demonstrated our leverage to the nickel prices given our strong production base.
That was demonstrated through 21% increase in NPI price translating into an 87% increase in EBITDA at our RKEF operations, and we're yet to see any contribution from ENC and then looking forward from CNE and TMI. We're positioned at the very bottom end of the cost curve through our scale and integration.
I think if you look at particularly the first half of last year where we're at cyclical lows and a number of our peers were loss-making, even during that difficult time, we were able to make a robust margin. Now that we're coming into a period of significantly improved pricing and a much better market outlook, you can see what that is done to our bottom line.
Again, a reminder of the material tax concessions that we have and the benefit that brings, up to 15 years for our ENC project. We are one of the largest owners of nickel resources globally, and we're seeing strengthening mine margins.
Expect for the second half of this year, we're looking forward to increased volumes and significantly stronger margins, and also a very strong focus on bringing on Sampala next year into production. We have a clear pathway that's funded to this growth.
We think this growth, when you combine the incremental HPAL product margins that will come on over the course of the next 12 to 18 months along with margins from Sampala at a 19 to 20 million ton run rate, that sets us up well to targeting EBITDA of US$1 billion in the next sort of 2 to 3 years. If you look at the market itself, again, coming back to CRU, they believe there's probably about an additional 1.1 million tons of nickel demand up until the end of 2030, so that's a CAGR of about 5.6%.
700,000 of that to come from stainless, and so that obviously bodes very well for the NPI business given the lack of new supply coming on. About 250,000 of that from battery, and then another 150,000 from other, and that's products such as superalloys, which obviously is the market that ENC will be selling into through the transaction with SFEIR and the supply to SpaceX.
With that, I'll hand over to Q&A.
Operator
Thank you. If you have a question, please press *1 on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue.
If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, simply press *1 again. One moment, please, for your first question.
Your first question comes from the line of Lyndon Fagan of J.P. Morgan.
Your line is open.
Lyndon Fagan
Good morning, guys. Thanks for the call.
Look, the first one, just a bit of accounting treatment tidy up. With mining, at what point are we going to see all of the revenue going intersegment, i.e., I guess, the HPAL division consuming whatever's left there?
I guess, are you able to give some color on when that will be zero revenue, i.e., it's going to feed everything internally?
Justin Werner
Chris, do you want to take this one? Chris's line has dropped.
Okay. I think we've lost Chris, Lyndon.
Lyndon Fagan
That's okay, I can take it offline.
Justin Werner
Yeah. Okay.
Lyndon Fagan
The other one was just to pick up on your billion-dollar EBITDA comments. Are we able to break that down by division?
I guess I'm a bit under that, just trying to kind of figure out what I might be missing there.
Chris Shepherd
Sorry, Lyndon. I've just been cut off.
I heard you say the first one's for an accounting treatment tidy-up, and then I've been cut off the line. I've just dialed back in.
I haven't heard anything since that. Oh, yeah.
Lyndon Fagan
No, that's all right. I guess what I'm trying to determine is just when all of the mining revenue will be intersegment, and so I guess that relies on the HPAL division consuming, I guess, the remaining portion of revenue there that's going externally.
When should we expect that to be showing zero revenue in the segment reporting?
Chris Shepherd
For the limonite or the saprolite or just the limonite?
Lyndon Fagan
I guess at this stage, it's already zero for limonite and we're seeing
Chris Shepherd
the saprolite.
Lyndon Fagan
When are we going to see
Chris Shepherd
The saprolite is all internal, we eliminate that out already. The intercompany revenues you're seeing there in the nickel ore mining, that's saprolite revenue.
Currently,
Lyndon Fagan
where we Oh, I've got it the wrong way around, then. Yeah.
Chris Shepherd
Whereas the limonite ore sales have been to third parties. We have been selling to third parties, they have not been getting eliminated.
We will have a very It won't be the same for it'll be a little bit different when we bring on ENC and we have the revenues there because we're not going to be consolidating ENC. It's going to be equity accounted treatment.
You'll see in our next set of accounts in the December accounts, there'll be slightly expanded disclosure. What you're seeing there in the HPAL project's the revenue of EAI which is backed out, that is that's the revenue, the sales from HNC to Sin Creation.
That's very different. HNC, where we've got our 10% interest, sells to our trading entity, we're backing that out.
Lyndon Fagan
Yeah. I've got the trading bit sorted.
It's really just to try and figure out at what point is the mining division just feeding everything internally to RKEF and HPAL. Are we going to get to that point in the next year?
Chris Shepherd
Currently saprolite, yes. We intend to prioritize all of our limonite into ENC, and if there is any external leftover, then we will sell it externally.
The hope and the plan is that all sales will be internal to the group.
Lyndon Fagan
Yeah. Once ENC is ramped up, we basically won't be seeing any revenue in the mining segment, is that fair?
Chris Shepherd
No, no, no. You'll you'll you'll see it The nickel ore mining will be exact- Sorry, yes, you're right.
Lyndon Fagan
There'll be an intersegment elimination for all of it, yeah. Yes.
Chris Shepherd
For the saprolite and the limonite, yup.
Lyndon Fagan
Yeah. When's ENC expected to be fully ramped up to sort of trigger that?
Chris Shepherd
Justin, do you want to talk about the ramp-up timing?
Justin Werner
Yeah. We're at 50% on the first two autoclaves.
We're just waiting on the decision and the timing for the commissioning of the third and final autoclave, and then we'll be able to give a more definitive answer. It target is still very much before the end of this year.
Lyndon Fagan
Great. Then, Justin, just to pick up on the billion-dollar EBITDA target, how should we split that up across the various segments?
Justin Werner
Look, using today's margins, if you assume about 125,000 tons of nickel in NPI at a $2,500 a ton, gives you about $300 million US in EBITDA. If you take the Hengjaya mine at 14.3 million and you use current margins of sort of $15.90 or $16, it's about $225 million.
That's the as-is operations at the moment, so as I said, it's about $0.5 billion. That's supported with the US$247 million of EBITDA for the first half of this year.
Then looking forward, if you look at HPAL, we've got 60,000 tons of attributable nickel units coming through from ENC, CNE, and TMI. If you use the June quarter margins, which were sort of around $8,000 a ton, you've got another $480 million.
Then you've got Sampala at sort of 20 million tons, again at that $15.90 margin, you've got about another $300 million. Those three, four numbers, now that takes you to sort of in excess of that US$1 billion in EBITDA.
Lyndon Fagan
Thanks for that. I'll pass it on.
Justin Werner
Thanks, Lyndon.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Richard Knights of Barrenjoey. Your line is open.
Hi,
Richard Knights
pardon me. Hey, Justin, Chris.
Thanks for the call. I just wanted to push you a little bit on the water issue at ENC.
What exactly are you looking for there in terms of permitting, and how should we be thinking about the ramp-up? Are you still expecting to hit nameplate by sort of the end of the year, or how should we think about the risks to that?
Justin Werner
Yeah. We've had an above-average dry season.
In fact, it's been a very dry season. Given obviously the growth in the park and the size of the park, that we are looking at what water is available.
We do draw water from one of the major rivers and that's sort of at a very low level at this point in time. Look, we're confident that when the wet season comes on, which is in the next 2 to 3 months, that it'll return back to normal.
That's just something that we're just looking at at the moment, and that'll really determine when we're ready to start commissioning of the third autoclave. At the moment, we've got two commissioning, and the commissioning there is going very well.
Availability of water will determine when we start the commissioning of the third autoclave, but we still remain confident, given that we should be coming out of the dry season fairly soon, that we'll be able to achieve that nameplate by the end of the year.
Richard Knights
Yeah. Okay.
The two autoclaves that are ramped or that are that are operating, they're running you said about 50%, during
Justin Werner
the They're they're they're already at the Yeah. They're already at at 50% of of their of their nameplate.
Richard Knights
Yeah. Okay.
We should expect those two to be running at sort of nameplate by the end of the year with a degree of confidence?
Justin Werner
Look, I would think within the next sort of 2 months.
Richard Knights
Yeah. Okay.
Then maybe just pushing a little bit on sulfur prices and the impact there. Does that come into your thinking at all in terms of the ramp-up at ENC?
Then, I suppose the counter to that is, what are nickel and MHP prices doing? How are those realizations looking?
Have you even sold any material from ENC yet?
Justin Werner
We are still awaiting for the IUI, or the sales license, to be able to sell some MHP from ENC. We're confident of sort of getting that in the near term, so that'll allow us to make the first sales of MHP.
We also have some cathode which has been produced. MHP payabilities are holding up quite strongly.
Sulfur obviously continues to be a challenge looking forward, although we are sitting at around still about 44,000 tons of sulfur in stockpiles. We do still have a good buffer there until we have to sort of go out into the market and buy some meaningful volumes.
Richard Knights
Yeah. Thanks.
Then maybe just a question on regional quotas. We haven't seen anything firm yet, but there's been rumors that Weda Bay, the sort of 20-million-ton shortfall that Tsingshan had there, has now been granted.
I suppose, what are you seeing in terms of additional quotas being granted halfway through the year, and how do you expect that to inform your application at Hengjaya?
Justin Werner
Look, there was some unfounded news that went out that Weda Bay had received a 20-million-ton increase, but that hasn't been verified. In fact, before the RKAB quotas are released, they're just waiting for confirmation from the government as to whether they will be making any increases in the RKAB.
We've been through three iterations of evaluation. I think now that we should be in the next 2 to 3 weeks, potentially even earlier than that, we should know the outcome of the applications that have been made by all participants and who may or may not receive an increase.
At this point in time, we're not aware of anyone that's been issued an increase, and there certainly hasn't been anything formal from the government to indicate that there's going to be a new RKAB quota level set. I think that's really what everyone's waiting for for that confirmation of what the number is, whether they're going to stick with it or whether they're going to make an adjustment.
Richard Knights
Yeah. That's interesting.
Then just one last one from me just on the balance sheet. Can you just remind us of the timing of the payments for Sampala and for TMI CNE?
Justin Werner
Yeah. Richard
Richard Knights
When are those cash outflows?
Chris Shepherd
TMI, there's 169 mil due in November. CNE, you just said payments for TMI and CNE, there's actually no payment for CNE, that's the share swap.
Then the remaining payment for Sampala is in April, 144 mil for our equity interest in the project. That's in April '27.
Richard Knights
Yeah. Okay.
Chris Shepherd
The follow-up which other people may have and I'm expecting to get, it is we announced when we did the transaction for TMI, the 169 mil payment, that should we require it, Tsingshan would be available to fund if required. Subsequent to year-end, we've now actually entered into a facility agreement with a partner of Tsingshan for that purpose.
Obviously we haven't drawn down any of it. I'm not expecting to draw down on it, but for completeness, that facility is there, it's been executed, if we did require it, we can draw down on that.
Richard Knights
Okay. That's a $144 million facility,
Chris Shepherd
is it? The facility is 169 to match the TMI payment which is due in November.
Richard Knights
Yeah. Yup.
Yeah. Perfect.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Chris Shepherd
Thanks, Richard.
Justin Werner
Thanks, Richard.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of David Coates of Bell Potter Securities. Your line is open.
David Coates
Good day, Justin. Good day, Chris.
Thanks for the call this morning and congratulations on a good result. Just a couple of quick ones from me, hopefully.
Just on the mining ramp-up, you're waiting on the RKAB license. What's your mining strategy in the meantime?
You're sort of running flat chat and then banking on the sort of permitting coming through, or you're adjusting your mining volumes in case it doesn't, or there's a delay? That's the first one.
Justin Werner
Yeah. No, thanks, Dave.
Look, for the mining strategy, we've sort of kept it at, about 6 million for the first half of this year in anticipation of saving volumes for the ENC commissioning and ramp-up. We did 1.4 million tons in July, will be on track for about 1.5 in August.
We're just sort of matching the demands of ENC along with the making sure that we we sort of get close to our or we meet our RKAB target. What we do have, which is great, is we have the flexibility of third-party limonite sales to other HPAL producers, we're just balancing that against the RKAB quota and then against the commissioning and anticipated limonite requirements coming from ENC.
As I said, hopefully we'll know the outcomes of our RKAB application in the coming weeks. Then depending on what that is, we do have a strategy in place to, if required, if we do need to ramp up, how we can look to achieve that ramp-up for the larger volumes if we're successful in our application to increase.
David Coates
Cool. Just a quick reminder, that's a 19-point-something-million-ton application you made, is that correct?
Justin Werner
Yes, application for 19. Then
David Coates
secondly, the registration of nickel cathode with the LME, you mentioned that might take some time and I don't particularly want to hold you to a schedule that's probably beyond your control, but broadly speaking, what kind of timeline are you looking at? What kind of marketing plans will that kind of enable that you'd be interested in pursuing assuming it comes through?
Justin Werner
Look, our head of battery materials, Simon Miller, he's really driving that LME registration process. My understanding is that it'll probably be about an 18-month timeframe, but that's sort of the target that we're working towards for the registration.
I think what's interesting for cathode is obviously we already have a large volume that's accounted for outside of the LME for SFEIR. I think their volumes requirements will continue to grow with the growth of SpaceX or the forecast growth of SpaceX and their superalloy requirements.
David Coates
Cool. Okay.
You look to leverage that LME premium pricing into that SFEIR offtake or?
Justin Werner
Yes. Absolutely.
Yup.
David Coates
Excellent. Thanks very much, guys.
Cheers.
Justin Werner
Thanks, Dave.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Donavan Tan of BlackRock. Your line is open.
Donavan Tan
Hey, management. Thank you for the presentation.
I think I have a couple of clarification questions. Apologies, I didn't hear too clearly.
Can you just double check that some cathode has already been produced, one; and two, when you were speaking about the kind of EBITDA waterfall, it's going to be 300 from RKEF, $0.5 billion from the HPAL, and about 300 from the mine, is that correct?
Justin Werner
Thanks, Donavan. That's correct.
First cathode has been produced, and the quality that we're producing subsequent to that is very good, we're very happy with that. Just in terms of the EBITDA, yeah, we're looking at about $300 million from the NPI business, about $200 million from Hengjaya mine, about $300 million from Sampala.
Then from the HPAL, we've got 60,000 tons of attributable at nameplate, and really it depends what margin you use there. We've used the June quarter margin of 8,000, so that's another sort of $480 million of EBITDA there.
Donavan Tan
Got it. Thank you.
I have two questions. The first one is just asking about the SFEIR side of things from ENC.
I understand the products will be kind of pro rata. Is there any expectations of selling your own share of the ENC products over the SFEIR, incremental demand from them?
Yeah.
Justin Werner
They obviously have the right to offtake their pro rata 10%. We have entered into an agreement to provide over and above that 10% due to their demand, and I think that demand will continue to grow.
Obviously subject to the pricing being competitive, then we'd look to entertain further cathode sales to SFEIR.
Donavan Tan
Got it. I think just one final question for myself.
I think this is regarding a headline back in July where Tsingshan kind of suspended some exports of metal products. I understand that you guys sell it to Tsingshan, which is not exactly an export, but have they communicated anything about this to you guys?
Justin Werner
They did pair back some of the production at their IWIP HPAL operations. I should note that those operations aren't integrated with ore supply, and so as a result, they are paying a much higher price for ore than ENC.
I think they took the decision to just to pair back the production. Again, look, we think it just demonstrates the benefit of being integrated and sitting at the bottom end of the cost curve.
Donavan Tan
I hear you. All right.
Thank you, that's all from me. I'll go back to the queue.
Justin Werner
Thanks, Donavan.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of William Jing of ION Analytics. Your line is open.
William Jing
Hi, thanks for taking my question. I have just one follow-up question about the mining strategy.
Basically, we're seeing very strong production at the Hengjaya mine, and at the same time, our production at ENC project is still ramping up. Therefore, there should be kind of a mismatch between the strong production at Hengjaya mine which produced the limonites used in ENC production.
I just wonder in case that the limonite production is very strong that outpaced the needs for limonites at ENC, are we going to sell all those excess limonite production to third-party or we are going to stockpile it until ENC reached its nameplate production and consume all the limonites? Yeah.
Because I guess we are going to exhaust all the RKAB quota this year so that we can keep the same quota or lift our quota next year. Therefore, I think probably you guys want to produce up to the RKAB quota, yep?
Justin Werner
Thanks, William. No, that's absolutely right.
Our target is to produce right up to the RKAB quota. At the moment, our strongest margins come from the saprolite, given the very, very, very good pricing that we're seeing there.
We have 30 million tons stockpiled, there's no risk of us running out of limonite for ENC. We'll continue to balance ENC's demands along with ensuring that we hit our RKAB target.
I think what's positive there is we have the flexibility of third-party limonite sales. At this point in time, they want to take everything that we produce, so that's how we're sort of managing the RKAB and limonite sales.
William Jing
Oh, okay. Sure.
Got it. Just and one more follow-up question on the royalty on the limonites based on HPM price.
Basically, I think a few quarters ago you guys mentioned that although the HPM for limonite is higher than the market price, but then actually the transaction for limonites are actually happening on a level which is lower than HPM, which basically means that we need to pay more royalties based on the higher than market level HPM price. Just wonder if that changed, or whether the buyers for limonite is accepting a higher price, which basically means that we are not undertaking or paying more royalties than the HPM?
Or we're still paying royalties more on the higher HPM price, but then they're selling the limonite at the market price? Sorry, maybe I'm not being clear enough here.
Justin Werner
No, I think I understand what you're saying. You're right that we are paying more royalties on limonite, and we haven't seen any change in the market price.
That market price has been pretty consistent for sort of the last 3 years, sort of sitting around that sort of, $20, $22 a ton sales price. I don't think there'll be any changes in that in the foreseeable future.
On the saprolite side, we've seen very strong growth in margins there, and that's really because of the increase in the HPM price there. If you look quarter-on-quarter, our first quarter average saprolite sales price was around $30, and then the June quarter, that had risen to sort of $51.60.
We're making up margin in the saprolite.
William Jing
Okay. That's all for me.
Thank you. Thanks, William.
Operator
Your next question comes from
Justin Werner
the line
Operator
of Love Sharma of Point72. Your line is open.
Love Sharma
Hi. Good morning.
Two questions from me. First one, if you can just highlight the working capital usage for the first half, and if you can break it down between first quarter and the second quarter?
It seems to be quite decent given the gap between your EBITDA and the operating cash flow. Second one, the question about Tsingshan's ability to export and some disruption there, did you mention that they have been paying you or paring back the production?
I didn't catch that part, if you could clarify some bit of that. Thanks.
Justin Werner
Chris, do you want to take the first part of that question?
Chris Shepherd
I can. Love, I don't have the exact numbers or split between the quarters at hand.
We did have quite a large working capital build in Q1 and a lot of that unwound in Q2, however, and that was working with Tsingshan, particularly around our trades receivable. We managed to really tighten up a lot of the days there, and I'm talking about the NPI sales, I think it's a testament to our relationship there with them.
I'm happy to follow up with you with the specific numbers. I don't want to give out
Love Sharma
Sure. That'll be really useful.
Yeah. Broadly speaking, first quarter was negative in terms of the working capital usage, and second quarter you had positive?
Chris Shepherd
It would improve it, yes. That's correct.
Love Sharma
Understand. Will be good to get some numbers later.
Thanks. Then the other question about Tsingshan and if you could clarify what was it about, they pared back production or I thought you said they paid back?
Justin Werner
Yeah. Tsingshan did announce that they were scaling back production out of, I believe, two of their HPALs at IWIP.
Love Sharma
Right, okay. How does it impact you as of now?
Or is there any change in terms of your own production or output to
Justin Werner
No, look, no impact for us, and probably a positive in terms of that's higher-cost MHP capacity that's not in the market. It just means we can look to replace it with lower-cost MHP as ENC ramps up.
Operator
Thank you. That's all the time we have for today's Q&A.
I will now like to pass the call back off to Justin Werner for some closing remarks.
Justin Werner
Thanks again, everyone. Really just to sort of hit on the fundamentals of the business, and we've built the business historically on nickel pig iron and mining.
Both of those segments look very good moving forward. Then we're now moving into the commissioning of the higher-margin HPAL business along with the commissioning of or the first production from Sampala, which is also an exciting milestone for the company.
Then coming back to the numbers that I mentioned at the end of the presentation, with an additional 1.1 million tons of nickel required by 2030 according to CRU, and a cap on NPI, and as well as a cap on MHP and HPAL out of Indonesia, we think that looking forward, the integrated low-cost producers such as ourselves that have a diversified product across different segments of the nickel market, we're positioned very well. Again, I think our leverage to the nickel price really demonstrated in the first half, 21% increase in NPI, 87% increase in EBITDA.
Look, thank you, everyone. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to Chris or myself.
Operator
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call.
You may now disconnect.
Already premium?