Thank you, operator. Good day, everyone, and good morning to those joining us from other time zones.

Welcome to Kazatomprom's 2025 full year results conference call. We appreciate your time and interest.

With us today we have Kazatomprom's management team: Meirzhan Yussupov, Chief Executive Officer; Marat Tulebayev, first deputy and Chief Financial Officer; Dastan Kosherbayev, Chief Strategy and International Development Officer; and Seitzhan Zhanybekov, Managing Director for Sales. Traditionally, the call will begin with the management presentation and move to a question-and-answer session.

Corresponding instructions will be provided at that time. Please note that all materials, including the 2025 financial statements and the accompanying operating and financial review, have been published earlier today and already available on our website.

Newly designed investor presentation will follow soon. Today's conference call is open to all members of the investment community.

Throughout presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The simultaneous translation of the call, including the Q&A session, will be available for the Russian-speaking line.

All participants can also submit questions through the webcast page using the "Ask a Question" button. Please note that conference call may contain forward-looking statements, which include all matters that are not historical facts, involve risk and uncertainty, and are not guarantees of future performance.

The company does not make any representation, warranty, or prediction that the results anticipated by such forward-looking statements will be achieved. Our CEO will now update you on the market situation in industry outlook, provide an overview of the company's results for 2025, and share our plans for the upcoming year.

Please, Mr. Yussupov, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Good day, everyone.

We are pleased to welcome you to our 2025 results call. Last year was a period of profound achievements for Kazatomprom.

We continued to reinforce our position as a world leader in uranium supply. I'd also like to mention that we have reached a historic milestone: 1 billion pounds of uranium has been mined in Kazakhstan throughout our nearly 30-year history.

If we were asked to describe today's market in a single sentence, I'd say that the industry's structurally exceptional fundamentals are currently being temporarily obscured by extraordinary policy uncertainty and geopolitical unraveling. While the long-term outlook remains incredibly strong, we must navigate this period of global instability with a clear focus on the underlying value of our sector.

We are presenting our results at a moment when global uranium industry has moved from a period of transition into a clear era of expansion. Before we discuss the details of our 2025 performance, I want to reaffirm our commitment to the value-over-volume strategy.

We introduced this strategy back in 2018, when the market conditions were rather different from what we are witnessing today. Almost a decade later, this strategy remains our guiding principle and time has proven it to be right.

Even as we see elevated spot prices, our focus is not on short-term volume. Our priority is a long-term health of our assets as well as sustainable development and support of the uranium market.

The global landscape for nuclear energy reached a new level of maturity. Uranium has established itself as a cornerstone of national strategies for resource and energy security backed by unprecedented level of government support worldwide.

In the United States, this shift is highlighted by the Project Vault initiative, the expansion of the strategic uranium reserve, and the return of uranium to the list of critical minerals. This path is further strengthened by China joining the international pledge to triple nuclear capacity, bringing the world's largest nuclear growth program into alignment with its ambitious targets.

Such developments are mirrored in other regions, with Sweden lifting its moratorium on uranium mining and Australia recognizing uranium as a strategic material in some provinces. These collective actions demonstrate that governments fully recognize the urgent need to address years of underinvestment into the nuclear fuel cycle.

Because new supply cannot be brought to the market quickly regardless of price, we are seeing a fundamental transition from a buyer's market to a seller's market. This change is reflected in our annual customer surveys, where reliability and guaranteed physical availability have become top priorities.

We now see a greater willingness from clients to accept seller-proposed pricing structures to secure their needs. This market reality validates our strategic focus on maintaining a proven and operational resource base.

To understand the current market, we must examine why the structural supply-demand deficit took longer to appear than initially predicted. In the mid-2010s, several factors delayed this shift: a slow recovery in demand post-Fukushima, high inventory levels held by utilities, and continued production worldwide.

For nearly a decade, these secondary supplies effectively bridged the gap between primary production and consumption. However, these inventories have now largely been depleted and will continue to shrink, leading to much more immediate deficit forecasts.

While analysts in the 2000s predicted a supply gap that would not arrive for another 20 or 30 years, that timeline has now accelerated significantly. Today, the deficit is closer than ever before.

We have moved from a market defined by excess and inventory drawdown to one defined by primary supply scarcity and a focus on physical availability. In 2025, the spot market saw a significant rise in activity, with total volumes reaching 56 million pounds, driven largely by financial participants and intermediaries.

Within this total, utility buying on the spot market was particularly strong, increasing by 54% to 13 million pounds. The activity in the long-term market is perhaps even more telling, with total transactions reaching 116 million pounds.

Notably, term purchases by US utilities grew by more than 50% year-on-year, rising from 31 to 48 million pounds, supported by positive regulatory developments. This heightened demand also pushed long-term prices upward, showing a steady 7% increase over the course of the year.

Today, major consumers are prioritizing physical availability over the short-term price concerns, and many are entering into commitments that extend well into the next decade. Despite this momentum, the total level of contracting in 2025 still fell short of actual needs.

With reactor requirements at approximately 170 million pounds, total purchases reached only about 130 million pounds, covering only 77% of the demand. This growing deficit will eventually require a replacement at a time when low-cost resources are largely exhausted, creating even more pressure on the global market.

These market improvements are, in our view, a clear sign of the benefits from the global production discipline. Kazatomprom alone has removed more than 130 million pounds of primary production starting from 2017 to 2025.

Our longstanding value-over-volume strategy remains more relevant than ever as it focused on preserving and replenishing our resource base. This disciplined approach allows us to be selective with our contracts, focusing on high-quality partnerships while ensuring we can realize our production potential in future at the price that reflect the true value of uranium.

Furthermore, we must balance global needs with potential domestic demand, keeping our strategy aligned with national nuclear energy priorities. We aim to safeguard our resources and ensure that they are used wisely to meet both global and internal requirements in a sustainable way.

Turning to our operational performance, Kazatomprom's production on a 100% basis for 2025 was a little over 25.8 thousand tons, or about 67 million pounds. This represents an 11% increase compared to 2024.

Attributable production was up by 10% at 35 million pounds. In 2025, Kazatomprom fully met its sales guidance, with total volumes for both the group and the company exceeding 2024 results by 11 and by 7%, respectively.

Diversified global footprint remains our priority even as a more proactive interest from Chinese customers has slightly increased Asia's overall share in our portfolio. Despite this strong regional demand, we remain committed to a balanced market presence, as demonstrated in 2025 by welcoming Switzerland and the Czech Republic as new customers and signing a new contract with major Japanese utility.

Looking ahead, we have also entered into strategic supply agreement with India subject to EGM approval. While Kazatomprom remains focused on its mid- to long-term commitments, our trading subsidiary, THK, is strategically positioned to capture opportunities in the uranium spot market and the rare metals sector.

Given the growing interest in the nuclear energy in the United States, our office in Bethesda is operating proactively, as reflected in steady increase of the region's share in our sales portfolio. By establishing this infrastructure for direct engagement, we look forward to more decisive steps from our Western partners in securing their long-term requirements.

We invite our customers to take advantage of those proven channels now, ensuring their significant uncontracted needs are addressed before the window for securing reliable and long-term supply narrows further. Ensuring timely deliveries remains our top priority, especially as we navigate increasing regional tensions.

In 2025, our logistics strategy proved its resilience, with nearly 50% of all Western-bound shipments transported via Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. This corridor has proven to be a reliable and secure path to international markets, providing our customers with the independence they require in a complex geopolitical environment.

The Northern Route continues to operate without disruption too, allowing us to maintain supply diversification. The realized prices achieved in 2025 underscore the strength and stability of our sales portfolio.

While we do not disclose the exact pricing structure of the portfolio, our updated sensitivity table clearly demonstrates how closely our sales correlate with market movements. This high level of correlation, in fact, is one of the strongest in the industry, confirms the flexibility and resilience of our commercial strategy, setting us apart from other producers.

As the market environment improves, the company is well positioned to capture further upside. Our 2025 financial performance highlights the resilience of our business model.

Despite a 14% decline in spot prices, we achieved substantial revenue and net profit levels. The group's consolidated revenue for 2025 met our guidance, resulting at 1.8 trillion tenge, remaining on par with last year's figures.

Adjusted EBITDA showed a 3% increase, while attributable EBITDA showed an 11% growth compared to previous year, mainly due to increase in EBITDA of JVs and associates, which resulted from a higher sales volume sold by those entities. All of our cost metrics landed within the guided range, demonstrating our continued financial and operational discipline.

While our ISR mining method remains the backbone of our company's operations, we're not immune to global inflationary pressures. In 2025, our cost profile was influenced by the rising price of materials, supplies, and reagents, specifically sulfuric acid.

These factors, alongside an increase in the MET, mineral extraction tax, rate and an increased volume of drilling and wellfield preparation necessary for achieving 2025 production targets, directly affected our cost figures. These investments are essential for maintaining our long-term operational capacity.

Looking ahead to 2026, we expect total production to be between 27.5 and 29 thousand tons of uranium. On an attributable basis, this represents a range of 14.5 to 15.5 thousand tons.

This growth is primarily driven by the planned expansion at JV Budenovskoye. It is important to note that the entire output from this JV through 2026 is already fully committed under an existing offtake agreement.

Beyond this expansion, our focus is to maintain healthy inventory levels. We expect the group's total sales volume to be between 19.5 and 20.5 thousand tons, with Kazatomprom's sales proportion accounting for 13.1 to 14.1 thousand tons.

Our 2026 revenue is expected to grow to 2.2 to 2.3 trillion tenge. Our all-in sustaining costs are also expected to rise, primarily due to an increase in C1 cash costs.

This reflects the anticipated growth in MET expenses resulting from differentiated rates for 2026 alongside rising costs of materials and supplies. We are focused on managing these costs carefully to ensure our operations remain resilient in the current economic environment.

In addition to our operational and financial performance, I'd like to highlight several other important developments. While natural uranium remains our core business, we are seeing growing interest from customers in higher-value products, such as UF6 and enriched uranium product.

We continue to evaluate these areas so that we can offer integrated fuel solutions in the future. Beyond the uranium sector, we are also consistently strengthening our position in the rare metals segment, which saw significant attention this past year.

To support this, we are actively developing the raw material base for our subsidiary, the Ulba Metallurgical Plant. A key milestone in this effort was the 2025 agreement with a producer in Rwanda for beryllium concentrate supplies, with deliveries expected to begin in 2026.

This expansion highlights our commitment to being a diversified and dependable partner across the entire nuclear and critical metals value chain. I'd like to highlight our exceptional performance within the capital markets.

While we remain the highest dividend payer in the industry, returning a substantial amount of our profits to our shareholders, the stock has also significantly outperformed the market, demonstrating resilience during turbulent times. Before concluding, I want to reiterate our unwavering commitment to a disciplined, market-driven strategy.

With high-quality assets and a resilient contracts portfolio, Kazatomprom is still exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on fundamental growth, continuing to focus on long-term value creation for our shareholders. Thank you.

I will now pass the floor to the operator to begin the Q&A session.

Great, thanks all. The cost guidance for 2026 is a reasonable step-up, both in cash costs and all-in sustaining costs.

I just wonder whether you can provide a bit of a breakdown on what the drivers are there, for example, how much is inflation, and obviously there's more MET in there? Thank you.

Hi, Alex. Thank you for your question.

Roughly the costs are increasing by roughly 40% and then most of it is MET. Why?

Because the MET rate itself is increasing, first of all, and also for some of our assets, the volume was increasing. That's why the most effect is coming from the MET.

I'll ask Marat, our CFO, to give you more detailed breakdown, maybe.

Yes, it's correct. The major part of this increase is MET, and the rest part, the minor part, is the inflation issues with materials and suppliers.

There are two factors to explain the increase in C1. I should say that, as for 2025, there is a fixed rate for MET, it's 9% for each subsoil use agreement, it does not depend on the production volume or mining volume or spot price, and in 2026, it is scale percentage for it which depends on the production mining volume and spot price.

We have provided the sensitivity table on this MET rate.

So... Thank you.

Maybe if I could ask a follow-up, sorry.

No, no.

I just wanted to ask a follow-up on acid. Obviously, we've seen pricing pressure on sulfuric acid elsewhere.

What's the situation in Kazakhstan and your supplies? Thanks.

In Kazakhstan right now, I would say last year we pretty much managed the situation and the situation will continue, of course. We are partly importing sulfuric acid from Russia.

The situation will continue this year also, because we are right now in the process of building a Taikonur sulfuric acid plant. Still it's in the process of being constructed.

We hope that maybe later this year or the first half of the next year, it will be commissioned, and then we'll be less dependent on imported acid. Overall, yeah, the situation is still continuing with the scarcity of sulfuric acid.

In terms of cost changes? Costs,

yeah, there is some change in costs. Why?

Because we are producing sulfuric acid out of sulfur, and the price for sulfur has increased dramatically, and that gives additional costs on price of sulfuric acid for our production. Because we are buying for our sulfuric acid plant, the price of sulfur is linked to market prices.

Great. Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Hi, good afternoon, everyone. It's Paul Kirjanov?]

from Bank of America. Two questions, please.

Can you give us a bit of color on progress with long-term contracting? It seems that '25 was slightly below expectations, just wondering where do you think this is heading in '26?

Maybe second one, I just follow on what Alex was asking about sulfuric acid. Have you contracted enough sulfuric acid to reach your 2026 production targets?

Yes. Hello.

Thank you for your question. It's Seitzhan.

As in Kazatomprom, we are focused on long-term contracting and we work with the customers all over the world. As you can see in our results, there is a dynamics in a diversification of our customer base.

We're seeing slight increase on the customer's activity from Asian region, and there is several reasons for that. One of that is being proactive buying pattern from the customers from that region, and secondly, it's just the geographical proximity.

Our major focus in contracting is being long-term contracting with utilities from all over the world. Also on the top of that, we are having trading subsidiary located in Switzerland called TH Kazakatom that is being active participant of a spot market and that are trading on a market in order to gain from fluctuations of a spot price.

Hope that it answers your question.

Yep.

What relates to the second question, let me answer that. We are completely secure on sulfuric acid for this year.

We have contracted all the volume needed. I would like to add that you, of course, know that this week, spot price for sulfur is slightly more than 500 USD per ton according to Argus, and exactly one year ago, it was 250.

You can imagine or calculate what might be the price effect, because usually, it's 1/3 of the sulfuric acid price is a sulfur. It's a main component.

I'd like just to add that not all our suppliers, they make sulfuric acid out of sulfur. Suppliers like Kazakhmys, Kazzinc, and sulfuric acid imported from Russia, this sulfuric acid made using different technology, not using sulfur.

Thank you.

It's a byproduct. Great.

Thank you.

Yes, hello. Thank you for taking my question.

Maybe a quick follow-up on the question about the sulfuric acid. Given the developments on the markets that we're seeing now and what you alluded to earlier during the call, is it reasonable to assume that the group's weighted average cost of sulfuric acid will continue to rise at similar kind of double-digit pace as it did in 2025?

I think in 2025, you mentioned that the cost of sulfuric acid for Kazatomprom increased by more than 40%. Is it reasonable to assume that this year, such pace of asset inflation will continue?

Yes, there is a risk that the average price for sulfuric acid will increase by something like similar like it was in previous years. That is why we always keep saying that for us, it's important to have sulfuric acid with acceptable price.

As we kept saying previously that it's always physically available, but the question is the reasonable price for sulfuric acid. That is why we always take this into account.

Understood, thank you.

As I said previously that this is one of the main factors, drivers of C1 increase this year.

Thank you, operator. We have several questions from webcast line.

The first is coming from Mr. Gonzalez, individual investor.

He's congratulating the company on impressive results and he's interested about the future uranium production. "We see the chart you provide in your presentation for showing the decline in current production, which consists of 14 deposits.

At the same time, Kazatomprom has 42 more deposits on standby. Could you give us an overview of these 42 deposits compared to the currently 14 in production?

How many decades of future production do you anticipate you can provide?"

Thank you. Mr.

Gonzalez, thank you for your question. Our mineral resources currently stand at 786,000 tons of uranium with 531,000 tons in confirmed ore reserves.

This is according to SRK Consulting report issued January this year. This extensive portfolio ensures we are well positioned to support the global nuclear industry for decades to come.

Moreover, right now and last year also, as I said, we are heavily focusing on geological exploration. We actually tripled our investments into geological exploration.

Last year, we started working and exploring on six new blocks spanning over 1,000 square kilometers, and these are very promising strategic prospects. Also, we are strictly following our value-over-volume strategy, as I said during the presentation.

We developed these assets at a pace that match the real market demand and long-term customer commitments. I also should mention that whatever we are trying to find now in terms of exploration, for now we plan start producing them at least let's say late 2030s or early 2040s.

That's why whatever we are finding or looking for right now, we're going to start production in a decade, in a decade and a half, in 15 years' time, maybe. That's why we are sticking to our value-over-volume strategy and will do our best to continue with this understanding.

Thank you, Mr. Yussupov.

I guess the next question also is for our CEO. It's coming from Grace Starks from Energy Intelligence: "Should we expect to see production decreases in 2026 at any specific projects or JVs?

Are negotiations underway with JV partners on production decreases following the decision not to return to 100% subsoil use level production?"

Thank you for your question. According to our legislation, we can flex up or down, and right now, we are still in negotiations with our partners to find the right volume of production for this year.

Basically, we pretty much are on the same page. Of course, there might be some kind of small deviations from our guidance in terms of if you look at asset by asset, but overall, we plan to stick to our guidance levels.

Thank you, Mr. Yussupov.

The next question is coming from Alex at Ocean Wall: "What is confidence in supply of sulfuric acid given events in the Middle East, and can you provide any update on the development of the sulfuric acid plant construction? Thank you."

The question will be answered by Mr. Tulebayev, our CFO.

Thank you for the question. The situation in the Middle East does not have any effect on our sulfuric acid supplies, because we don't use suppliers from that region or we don't use that route from the region.

Of course, as I said previously, the probable fluctuations on price for sulfur might affect the price for sulfuric acid. On the second part of your question, on the sulfuric acid plant, we still stick to our plan, and according to which we should finish the construction in 2027.

As you remember probably, we kept saying that there were two constructions. The first one was EuroChem sulfuric acid plant that was commenced in 2025, this year we have started receiving sulfuric acid from that plant with capacity 800,000 tons.

That's all.

The next question is coming from Max Khristov from Shippo Capital. The question is: "So, is there a scenario where you should shut down production because the sulfuric acid is not reasonable?"

Thank you for the question. Answering this question, we should keep in mind that according to subsoil use agreement, we can flex the mining volume up and down by 20%, plus we have commitments according our contracts for uranium.

When we take decision on the mining volume on the level of some JV, it's always complex decision taking into account all the factors I have mentioned, and it's not only the price for sulfuric acid or its availability. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Tulebayev.

The next question is coming from Kirill Tachenikov: "In materials and supplies cost line, what is the percentage of sulfur purchases in 2025, and what is the reason of the year-on-year decline in materials and supply line in 2025?"

Thank you for the question. From our OFR you can see that materials was 53% in 2025, including sulfuric acid.

The decrease is related to the fact that the uranium that we used to buy from our associates is a part of the materials, and due to the fact that the spot price was less in 2025, the amount of materials is slightly lower in 2025 than in 2024.

Thank you. The next question is also coming from Alex from Ocean Wall.

He's asking on Akdala: "Can you expand on what the transition looks like for this asset and other JVs approaching contract expiration? How does the company view this from a strategic perspective, and what are the development plans for these mines after the transition?

Thank you."

Thank you, Alex. On Akdala, to be honest, well, the legislation changed recently, was signed late December.

For Akdala, which is expiring this month, actually, it's more, I would say, learning by doing. We are right at the moment following the steps and working closely with agency on atomic energy.

For Akdala, we will be continuing with pretty much the same, I would say, levels of production, but the Akdala is the part of South Mining Company, it's that part or that chunk of South Mining Company was not that big, actually. That's why we'll be continuing with the same level of production, and we'll try to explore some adjacent, I would say, territories.

I should also say that because the legislation has been adopted or updated very recently, was kind of surprising to us, because as partners, of course, we are working very closely with our JV partners, but it's the government or the parliament members that initiated the changes in the code. That's why we'll be continuing, and given you're also asking for other mines also.

Again, we have to be very careful in approaching this type of issues, I would say. That's why we'll do whatever legislation allows us, but also there are some legislation at this moment at the very high level does not disclose very, I would say, detailed path how we should move on.

Overall, in terms of levels of production, we'll be sticking to value-over-volume strategy going forward. I think that's how I would answer this question.

The next question is coming from Daniyar Serikov, and he's asking about our plans to continue investing in uranium exploration and production in Jordan given the Middle East conflict.

Thank you, Daniyar. Thank you for following our external investments or potential, I would say, external investments.

That's why right now we are in the mood of analyzing what are the costs of production, et cetera, et cetera, the types of mining there, methods of mining. Of course, we seriously take into consideration this geopolitical situation in Middle East.

Of course, this is two-part question. Whether we should go there or should not go there will depend on economic viability of projects there, first of all.

Then if there is economic sense to go there, of course, we'll look at our ability to do so given the geopolitical situation. Right at the moment, we are in the mode of analyzing the pros and cons, but overall, if there will be good conditions and ripe conditions, of course, we'll potentially might go there.

Everything will be dependent on economic viability of projects. Of course, we also have projects in other parts of the world that are not close to Middle East.

Thank you.

Hello. The next question is also from Mr.

Serikov, and he's asking: "How will the 2026 increase in mineral extraction tax affect company's profits?"

Thank you for the question. It will depend on production and spot price level.

In OFR, we presented sensitivity table, which shows effective MET depending on scenarios which are based on the mining volume and spot price. Thank you.

One more question with regards to the cost. It'll also go to our CFO, Mr.

Tulebayev. Max Khristov from Shippo Capital is asking: "As mentioned, sulfur prices have doubled and that it is roughly 1/3 of cost of sulfuric acid.

Are there any other drivers that might increase the price of sulfuric acid?"

Max, thank you for the question. As I said that the price for sulfur is a main driver, and I should say that the the the current increase does not according to it's our it's our opinion it's it doesn't it's not related to the current situation in the in the Middle East, because this this current increase was this issue arise before that conflict, and and previously, if we review the historical data, we can we can see that the previously there was such increases in the past, and then after that the price for sulfuric acid went to almost zero.

We will see how long this trend will go on. Aside the sulfuric acid, probably for plants who use sulfuric acid, the second driver, I think, it's a transportation cost.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Tulebayev.

The next question is also coming from Grace at Energy Intelligence: "Can you give any update on plans to develop conversion and/or enrichment?" The question will be answered by Chief Strategy Officer Dastan Kosherbayev.

Yes, hi, hi, Grace. I was hoping I'd skip today's call without commenting, but you've invoked sort of a question for me answer from me, I mean.

As this been included in out of in our strategy, right now, yes, we have several offers we're entertaining, and I guess once the decision will be made, we're going to make an appropriate announcement. The enrichment part, though, is a bit tricky, I'd say it will happen somewhere down the road further, not now.

As with regards to conversion, yes, I assume you can expect some news within the course of this year or next year. Thank you.

There is one more question coming in: "When Akdala and Zarechnoye mines will be depleted, how this will affect your production levels during the next 5 years considering the decrease in mining volumes of Baiken?"

Again, Akdala is technically the contract is going to be finishing this March, but of course there are some leftover tons, 1.7, I guess, thousand tons, but of course we will be doing additional exploration, we'll be extending the life of Akdala for the next 3, maybe, years, and then maybe embark on production of nearby adjacent territory, in case we'll find. In terms of Zarechnoye, Zarechnoye is ending 20 2029.

According to CPR, is up until 20 2032. Again, of course, when it comes to the end of life of mine, of course, the volumes are decreasing.

However, as I said, because of our heavy focus on exploration, we'll be trying to find some new volumes nearby.

Thank you, Mr. Yussupov.

I think there are no further questions at webcast. Dear operator, are there any additional questions from the conference line, just to double-check?

Thank you, operator. Then I think we will now conclude our call.

Thank you, everyone, for participating. Thank you for questions.

As always, if there are any follow-up questions, please feel free to email us at [email protected].

Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your time.

This year, we'll be trying our best to match all those goals that are set by our investors and by our large shareholders. Thank you very much.

Have a good day.