Thanks, Cameron, and good morning, everyone. I'll unpack the December quarter for you and then open for questions.

I say unpack this time because while the December quarter was a great quarter, the numbers are a bit more complicated than usual because of the amount of stockpiles we've built up and the opportunity that the current strong commodity price is providing us. Eloise is a great mine, operated by great people.

In a quarter when Mother Nature was clearly in a bad mood, throwing both geological and meteorological problems at us, our team delivered on both production guidance and cost guidance. Thank you to the team at Eloise, particularly those who worked through Christmas and the New Year in some very tough conditions.

Eloise produced 3,202 tonnes of copper in concentrate at an all-in sustaining cost of Aussie $4.87 a pound or US $3.26 per pound, and an all-in cost of Aussie $5.22 a pound or US $3.50 per pound, achieving production and cost guidance. Note that Eloise achieved record quarterly mine production under AIC Mines' ownership of 189,000 tonnes of ore.

With that, half the financial year now complete, we've produced exactly half of guidance, and we are well set up to bring the second half home. Eloise got a lot of rain in December: 571 in December alone, including 357 over a 48-hour period.

That's a lot of rain. It didn't impact mining, but it did impact ore crushing and concentrate trucking.

At the end of the quarter, we had unusually large ore stockpiles and concentrate stockpiles. This needs to be considered when running through our cash flow information.

I'm sure everyone on the call was expecting the December quarter to be our best cash flow quarter ever, given the current commodity prices, but you'll see that it was pretty much in line with the June and September quarters. Three simple reasons.

One: December quarter cash flow is basically September, October, and November sales. Two: reduced processing capacity due to wet ore saw us build ROM and crushed ore stocks of 27,000 tonnes containing approximately 450 tonnes of copper.

Three: poor concentrate drying conditions and temporary road closures and the delivery pad at Mount Isa smelter due to rain saw us build a stockpile of about 2,000 tonnes of concentrate containing 464 tonnes of copper. That concentrate is worth about $8 million, and if we'd sold it in December, it would have delivered our best quarter ever, which I expect is what shareholders were expecting.

Don't worry, it's all there, it's just coming in the March quarter. January prices are better than December prices, something of a silver lining there, boom boom.

While talking about Eloise, don't gloss over the drilling results from the Deeps and Lens 6. They're on the front page, obviously in the report.

Exceptional width, exceptional copper grade, and well worth noting exceptional gold grades. It's a ripper of an ore body.

Jericho, as you well know, is equally impressive. Note the deep drilling done at Jumbuck and Squatter: 200 m step-out holes, and bang, there she is.

We're going to be mining at Jericho for a very, very long time. Jericho: we hit a bit of water in the access drive, we knew it was coming, we now look to be through it, but it did slow us down a bit in the quarter.

At the end of the quarter, we were 90 m from crossing the J1 Lens, you can expect an update from us shortly. The plant expansion can't come soon enough.

We're whipping GR Engineering as hard as we can, albeit with a feather boa, not a cat-o'-nine-tails, we know who we're dealing with there. They continue to perform well.

The plant expansion is progressing well, and although it is still early in the construction period, it's on budget and on schedule. Turning to financial performance: capital expenditure remains broadly in line with guidance.

That is, most of our line items were at about 50% of full-year guidance, being now halfway through the year, that's where they should be. Those capex items that are ahead of budget are Eloise mine development, Eloise resource definition drilling, and non-plant infrastructure.

Let me run through these exceptions. Eloise underground mine development is guided at $32 million for the year.

That's summing both sustaining and major. We've spent $21.7 million of that, or 67% of that amount at the halfway mark.

We now expect to come in slightly ahead of guidance at $36 million as basically costs have crept. Eloise resource definition drilling is guided at $2.5 million, and we've spent $1.6 million.

We now expect to come in slightly ahead of guidance at $3.5 million as initially gated expenditure, i.e., success-dependent, is brought into budget. The NPI, non-plant infrastructure, that's at 59% spent, that's mainly timing.

Eloise, maybe $4-$5 million over guidance on capex for the year, so that's roughly 10%, but set against significantly better revenue than expected. Which brings me to the very last paragraph of the quarterly report.

This is where the gems are always hidden, a bit of a trick, always check the very end, right at the very end, last paragraph. Let me read it to you: "If current prices hold for the next 6 months, then Eloise could produce approximately $30 million more cash flow than we originally forecast.

This strength in commodity prices, combined with the strong drilling results at Jolly, has warranted re-optimization of the development rate at Jericho. An increased development rate, albeit at increased upfront cost, is now being considered as it would provide for a faster production ramp-up to 1.1 million tonnes per annum and a stronger platform for the Stage 2 expansion to 1.5 million tonnes per annum."

What this means is that we are going to put that $30 million to work by doing additional development at Jericho. Additional development sets up additional stopes, which would allow us to achieve a sustained 1.1 million tonne per annum mining rate, and then a 1.5 million tonne per annum mining rate sooner than planned.

This is what we've been saying all along: if the market delivers us incentive pricing, then we'll use that funding to increase production. We're putting that work together now, and expect to have more information for you with our updated mineral resource and ore reserve estimate due for release in April.

Until then, we'll continue to refer to the 1.5 million tonne per annum production rate as aspirational due to the JORC constraints, but post-April, I think you're going to hear us refer to it as the new plan A. That concludes my review.

I'll ask the operator to open the lines for question, and let's get into the minutiae. Thank you.

Hi, Aaron, thanks for the call. Just a couple of questions.

Firstly, just on grade out of Eloise. Obviously, the last two quarters have been a bit lower than the quarters before that and a little bit lower versus reserve.

I guess, just how should we think about the grade coming out of Eloise moving forward, and obviously, yeah, once it combines with Jericho, it should come back down a little bit, right?

Yes to the last part of your question. It'll drop a bit once we start blending in Jericho, especially where we're starting at Jericho, 1.5, 1.6-y type numbers kicking off there.

Lower than it has been, probably lower than you and I expected. Simplest answer, Paul, is overdraw.

Simplest answer is, if tonnes are presenting themselves, we'll take them at the moment. Don't read too much into that.

That's not a massive change in strategy, it's not a change in cut-off grade. In the upper levels, like at Macy and some of those areas that we are essentially closing off, finishing off, we'll take that last stope or two, because we're not coming back.

At the moment, at $18,500 a tonne, 1.5% is not to be left behind. It's at the margin, but, Paul, you've correctly picked up that slightly lower grade, but then have a look, and then you'll notice this, a lot more tonnes.

189,000 tonnes mined for the quarter, a record. Where do you think those came from?

That came from, yeah, grabbing everything that we could see. Does that answer the question for you, Paul?

Yeah. No, it does.

I guess, what should we assume as the base case for Eloise moving forward?

Back to reserve.

Okay.

Yep. No, I should have been clearer.

Don't read into that a change in strategy. It was opportunistic.

Run with reserve grade.

Too easy. Then just, yeah, moving on to those tenements that you acquired just north of Cannington.

Just talk us through that. Obviously, some interesting geophysical anomalisms there, just the history with those tenements, etc.?

Been

tied up by a a junior, which is now Broken Hill Mines. The the shell that they backed that into held them for quite a while.

I should know the name of the company, that was the company we're dealing with, it just doesn't spring to mind. We've been trying to get hold of those for quite some time.

We like it. Historically, the work was done 5, 6 years ago.

There's a nice anomaly. There is very, very little drilling and and the typical sort of shallow, let's not take this too seriously type drilling.

One hole's got a nice intersection, one hole doesn't, and so it just sort of sat on the back burner in in this in the junior company portfolio is in the past. We like the area.

It it fills in a gap in our tenement pro, our tenement package down there. As you as you correctly picked up, nice anomaly, and and and copper in it.

The if the second hole didn't come in, it's still, we've historically it has been tested that, there is copper there in that system. It'll come as no surprise to you, we're going to give it a better whack than what's been out there in the past.

Apologies, for not not being able to supply you with a lot of information. We just get tangled up by JORC these days as to, we would have had to put out 50 pages worth of appendices to give you one historic number.

We'll we'll give you more detail when we get out there and we drill some holes. Keen to do that.

We where, we've got an it comes as no surprise to you, Paul, we've we've got a a view on on sort of every every patch of ground, within 50, if not 100 km around us and what we do like, what we don't, and and the best way to get hold of some of that is to peg it, and or or acquire it, as we've done here. We haven't gone into the acquisition day details because they are de minimis.

We we've acquired for cash 100% on that interest, and there's not a blip for us, it's not a blip for BHM. They were keen to move it on, we were keen to add it to the portfolio.

We'll keep you updated.

Too easy. No, thanks, Aaron.

That's it for me. Cheers.

Thanks, Paul.

Hi, Aaron.

Good

day. Quick question, almost follows on from the last one.

What can we look forward to in the next 3 months in terms of exploration, and perhaps drilling in particular?

Tough, Shane. These 3 months are the hard ones because of the weather.

I hate to say this, but don't look forward to much. We won't be back on the ground with a drill rig until March, and possibly late March.

That won't see numbers coming through until really April, May. First probably is some infill at Jericho.

Yes, as soon as that weather gets better from April, May, we're right back into the regional prospects. That Cannington or Brumby project, that's on the list, and it's not better than, it's definitely no worse than some of the prospects we already have in the Eloise regional package.

We'll be out there again this year banging through those. It probably warrants a bit of an update, an exploration note for you so you know what the program looks like this coming dry season.

We'll get that out in due course. Unfortunately, Shane, that's probably not the answer you were hoping for.

In the next quarter, the exploration or the drilling results you'll see will only be drilling from underground. We will be drilling underground obviously at Eloise, Deeps, Deeps Northwest.

We'll be out at Jericho. Could have some drilling platforms set up out there shortly.

It's probably the June quarter is the one to watch.

Great, thank you.

Thanks. Cheers, Shane.

Hey, Aaron. Good morning.

Good

day. Good, mate.

Just wanted to ask about, I guess, the execution of the Eloise plant upgrade. What are the biggest risks there to the timeline, do you think?

I'd say there's nothing complicated in what we're doing. Critical items: power upgrades.

We've got to upgrade the plant, we've got to get upgraded power to it as well. Then, George, it's a crossover.

You've noticed in the past how careful we've been with this. Not the two plants, but the current plant and expanded plant, we try to keep those work areas segregated so the build is not impacting the current throughput.

That's possible, but it's not perfect. Then we've also tried to make the cutover as straightforward as possible, but obviously that cutover will need to take current plant down, wire in, pipe in the new crushing circuit, new float cell, then run it back up, probably wet, before we start pumping ore through it.

There'll be a bloody great stockpile of it ready to go, we'll want to do that as quick as possible. Certainly not one of these things we're going to run water and waste through just to see how she goes.

We might do that for 30 seconds, but there's ore ready and willing already, let alone in 9 months' time. I think, George, at this point, the risk is not the schedule to build it, the risk is the December quarter ramp-up.

What do we really get through the new mill in December? Do we even manage to do the December quarter at the 700,000 tonne per annum run rate?

I would hope so, that's what I'll be whipping for, a million tonne per annum rate through in that quarter. That's the bit we'll find out in December.

How are you going with stockpiling of ore, Aaron?

Two things. One, we were discussing this recently, it is going to be difficult to provide you with guidance in July for FY27 because of that.

We'll do our best, we'll step you through it, we'll give you as much detail as we possibly can, you know us. Stockpiles, well, we've already got almost more stock, crushed ore and ROM pad than we can deal with.

That stockpile build-up is not going to be a problem. We're certainly going to have the stocks available.

The opportunity, and I think we've mentioned this in the past, over the next 6 months is the ability to put some decent parcels of Jericho through the current plant to see how it goes through on its own. Obviously, we can start blending some through.

We're not expecting anything untoward. We've done sufficient met testing, as you know.

Chalcopyrite's chalcopyrite, stuff jumps on the bubbles. That's the opportunity over the next 6 months is to try not really to build up too much of a stockpile, to use the opportunity to treat it to see how it performs.

Current plans show we will have a decent stockpile ready for that plant when it commissions, all going well in the December quarter.

That's great. Thanks, Aaron.

Was that the question? Is that answered?

Yeah.

Just one last one. There's a mention here of the 1.5 million study.

How are you feeling about timeline on that at the moment?

The Time of

execution. We've commenced

we've commenced the engineering. We've given GR Engineering the go-ahead on that engineering design, engineering drawings.

We haven't made any long-lead time orders because they're they're not sufficiently long that we've needed to do that. We we've we've still got some time up our sleeves to put those orders in in.

The the schedule, the timing is all about all all production and the amount of development, which what, obviously that's what we're alluding to at the moment is how quickly we ramp up, how quickly we push the underground. That, no spoilers today, sorry, George, we'll have to wait to the MROR estimate, April, that work's ongoing.

That work, is exactly what we're doing at the moment, and rather than me start throwing around numbers now, we'll we'll we'll get you something useful in a couple of months' time, a few months' time.

That's great. Thanks, Aaron.

That's it from me.

Thanks. Cheers, George.

Oh, good day, Aaron. I got some earlier commentary back-to-front on my side.

Just remind me of, I guess, the mechanism, the timing lag on your shipments, I assume it's something like 90% recognition at a provisional price and then maybe 3 months for settlement, is that correct?

Look, we can take you through it. I know we've done it in the past, we've put it in, directly.

I I've got John with me here if we want to run through it, but see the the the difficulty Yes, you're right, Paul, and as I said, September, October, November, is sort of what we, got paid for, what we pushed through. We know, 90% of that comes in, then the 10% comes in, later, whether that's a month later or 3 months later.

What what we've got with Traxys at the moment is M, M+3. They can they can choose whether they take the month month of shipping or month of shipping plus 3 pricing.

That was changing around. Look, we we rather than sort of John, you have a chat to run through that.

No, that's exactly right. In essence, the way to think about it is, yeah, 90% provisional in the month following shipment, it's just a question of whether that 10% final invoice is the month after that provisional or a couple of months later, and that really depends on the nomination, so that can vary.

Look, we schedule that out behind the scenes based on those nominations. Again, happy to have a chat offline on that, but that's effectively the broad way that works.

No, that's fine, John and Aaron. Thanks.

Probably the takeaway is when you have a volatile price movement, there'll be more difference between, I guess, the average price over a quarter and the price you guys receive when price flips around like it is at the moment. I guess that's just something we'll be mindful of on our side.

Look, I think you guys handle the lag, that 1-month lag pretty well. It's the sort of more mum-and-dad shareholder that probably thinks we're minting $18,500, $19,000 a tonne for copper at the moment.

That doesn't happen for another month, and that's why I'm probably overly sensitive to it, that's why I mentioned in the commentary that I suspected shareholders were expecting our best cash flow ever, but really hold that thought for March, yeah.

Sure. One last quick question.

Any more cash bonding required to be handed over sort of between now and the conclusion of the growth projects, or you're effectively fully bonded as we speak?

At this stage, there's potential requirements on the margins, but that's at least 12 months out, but it's around the margin. The answer fundamentally is yes, fully bonded.

Exactly what I was going to say. Nothing in the financial year and it's a couple of million bucks, we'll run you through that for the next tailings dam lift and things like that, Paul.

Nothing material.

Understood. That's all for me.

Thank you.

Cheers.

Thanks, Cameron. Look, as you saw, the December quarter was another great quarter, even under a challenging operating environment.

Eloise is a great ore body, and we've got a great team running it. Calendar year 2026 calendar year 2026 is a transformational year for AIC Mines.

We've got a big year ahead of us. We have the team in place, we have the funding in place, the ore body gets better and better and closer and closer, and the copper, gold, and silver prices are supportive, to say the least.

2026 is going to be a great year for AIC Mines. You cannot own too many AIC Mines shares, albeit gamble responsibly.

Thank you for dialing in. That concludes the call.