Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Exxaro's interim results for the financial year 2026. Thank you for joining us here today, here in person at the Connection and to those that are joining us online, we welcome you.

My name is Anda Mwanda. I look after Investor Relations at Exxaro, and today, I'll be facilitating this session.

Before we begin, like we always do at Exxaro, safety is our number one priority. For today, please note that we have not planned any emergency drill.

Therefore, if the alarm is activated, please remain calm and wait for the Exxaro floor marshals, who are wearing red reflective vests here in the building, and they will lead you to the assembly point in front of the building, where we have our parking area, where we'll all have a roll call, which will be conducted by an Exxaro floor marshal. We'll all remain there until we are informed to come into the building.

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In terms of our ablution facilities, you get out of the auditorium, you turn right, your first passage on your left, that's where you will see our ablutions. They are clearly marked.

We kindly ask that for this session, all cell phones are put on silent and just to remember that from a safety perspective, we encourage you not to text while you are walking in the building. Please take note of our disclaimer.

Today's presentation will cover our group highlights, followed by operational and financial performance, and we'll conclude with our outlook for the remainder of the financial year 2026. Unless otherwise stated, the results presented today relate to the six months ended 30 June 2026 and are compared with the corresponding six-month period ended 30 June 2025.

Presenting our results today, our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ben Magara, and Finance Director, Riaan Koppeschaar.

We've set aside time at the end of the presentations for questions and answers. It gives me great pleasure this morning to hand over to Ben to take us through the group highlights.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Anda. Good morning, everybody, and thank you very much for joining us this morning.

It is Women's Month. For those in purple and pink, we appreciate you for realizing that.

Also, in particular, to the women among us, and online, and everywhere, we want you to know that the benefits we get, including the life we have, come from your sacrifices, and we thank you. I would also like to extend a warm welcome this morning to all of you, as Anda has just said, especially those online, and most are here present with us today.

A warm welcome to our board members. Sis G, as we fondly call you, thank you very much for joining us, and I know some of them are also joining online.

We appreciate you. To our shareholders, and of course, my fellow employees.

We have the Pensioners Club here today. We hope we're keeping your earnings safe.

I must personally welcome you, because it is the journey that we have traveled. This year, Exxaro celebrates 20 years since our listing in 2006.

I wish I could have two horns today to showcase the two guys who looked a lot younger when they did that then, and they're present with us today. We shall not talk about their salt and pepper.

I'm not sure it's more just the salt, because I don't think I see any pepper anymore. When we met at our Capital Markets Day in June, we reflected on the progress that we have made in building a diversified portfolio for Exxaro.

We are indeed accelerating the disciplined and prudent execution of our strategy by strengthening our coal base, growing our renewable energy business, and for the first time, reflecting the contribution from manganese in our earnings, and into the business, and in these results today. The manganese results only reflect four months since we took over on the 1st of March.

Today, we want to reflect on our operational performance for the first half of 2026. From our operating activities, I'm really pleased that Exxaro has managed what's within its control and delivered strong production performance, strong cost management, and an exceptional safety performance that we'll reflect on.

The headwinds of inflationary pressures, especially diesel, were contained well within inflation thanks to the great safety and production from our operating teams in all areas, from coal to renewable energy and to manganese. Let me start with safety.

At Exxaro, we expect everyone to come to work and return home safely, unharmed, every day. This conviction is showing great signs, ladies and gentlemen.

We are now four consecutive years without a fatality, and our lost-time injury frequency rate improved by 60% to 0.02. This is our best statistics on record for Exxaro.

Thank you. I can promise you that if you don't read our results, the proxy of safety driving better production, better performance, better efficiencies, and cost will be reflected in our results in terms of how all our operating teams have performed.

Any business is a hazardous business. Any business has got risks, but we must remain focused, ensuring that our controls are in place and that we're able to proactively manage safety.

This performance reflects the continued implementation of our One Voice strategy. Most importantly, the commitment of our people across the organization to work safely and the conviction that zero harm is achievable.

We are encouraged by this performance, and we remain vigilant, and we must continue on our goal to zero harm, because that is what's critical in the underlying performance of any business. Now turning to some other key messages, as I've already highlighted that we continue to make tangible progress in executing our strategy and building our diversified portfolio.

Two highlights on our strategy execution for the first half is really our LSP project, the Lephalale Solar Plant reaching commercial operation in April, and it is now generating green electrons for our Grootegeluk mine. I'll touch on this a little bit later.

For the first time, our results, as I said, include the contributions from manganese. Ladies and gentlemen, safety makes business sense.

In that regard, our coal production is 11% up on last year to 21.5 million tonnes. Our coal export sales are up 15%, taking advantage of the higher prices we saw in the market, to 3.9 million tonnes.

Our renewable energy business is up 12% thanks to the solar plant at Lephalale, because we had much lower wind in the Eastern Cape. Pleasingly, production in manganese is also up 11% year on year.

Importantly, we reiterate our guidance for the full year as we can see that we are on track to deliver on it. This operational performance has translated into a resilient financial result, and I know Koppes will be touching on this a little bit later.

For those online, that's Riaan. Group revenue increased by 7%.

This is in spite of exchange rates strengthening by about, I think, 11%. Our EBITDA essentially flat at 5.6 billion, and the exceptional operational performance in production and costs is possibly a bit more masked by the cost inflation issues, but we're very pleased that we're able to withstand those cost pressures and deliver essentially flat EBITDA numbers.

We continue to generate strong cash flows, and our balance sheet remains strong, with net cash at 6.4 billion excluding the energy project finance debt. We exclude it because the project finance debt in Cennergi has no recourse to our balance sheet.

This provides us with the liquidity to fund our strategic priorities while we sustain the consistent shareholder returns that we have been delivering since listing. Most importantly, we remain on track, as I said, to deliver on our guidance.

Unfortunately, our headline earnings per share was negatively impacted by our equity-accounted investments in SIOC, Sishen Iron Ore Company, and Black Mountain. We are, however, pleased that in line with our new dividend policy, which is to return 46 to 40% to 67% of our group adjusted earnings and a pass-through of 100% from SIOC dividend, that the board has declared an interim dividend of 7 rand per share.

I'm surprised that Sis G clapped first and not the pensioners. This is Exxaro's 47th consecutive dividend since listing.

We have never missed a dividend. There are, however, still tough macroeconomic factors due to all the geopolitical uncertainty that I'm aware that we all are aware of.

Let me unpack a little bit just to give you a context in the impact on Exxaro, but also maybe on the whole industry and business, before I really unpack the issues of operational performance. The conflict in the Middle East contributed to renewed volatility across the global markets, with oil prices going quite volatile, translating all these into higher diesel prices for the country in general, but obviously, the mining industry, especially if you operate in open-pit mines with much more impact from diesel, and the broader inflationary pressures.

You will be able to see how Exxaro has managed to contain these costs all within inflation, thanks to the efforts of our operating teams today. However, some of these gains will be offset, as I've already said, with diesel costs and a stronger rand.

Against this backdrop, we remain focused on the factors within our control, driving operational efficiencies, maintaining the cost discipline across all our three businesses. It is this focus and disciplined execution and operational excellence that underpinned our operational performance for the first half, which I will now go and take you through them.

Turning to operational performance, beginning with coal, and very importantly, that our three pillars of coal, renewable energy, and manganese also continued to portray exactly how the business is performing. If I start off with coal, with total production up 11%, strengthened by higher output particularly at Grootegeluk and the safe ramp-up at Matla.

Matla, if you look at it, year on year improved by 38%. This is an underground mine with continuous miners, extensive labor and workforce underground working safely and delivering a 38% improvement year on year.

Very pleasing. The Matla ramp-up has been delivered on schedule and continues to perform exceptionally well.

I saw a beautiful video from Mervin of a conveyor belt running. I waited for two minutes, Mervin, to see if the coal was coming, and I did see it.

I looked through the whole video. Really, wonderful performance from Grootegeluk and Matla.

Our Belfast and Mafube are mainly impacted, as you see, a bit lower year on year, but this is all in line with their respective mining plans. It's an expectation we have because of their own mining plans in that area, as the mines get slightly deeper and the yields get slightly lower, which is really kind of symptomatic of the Mpumalanga coal region.

At Leeuwpan, I'm really pleased that the turnaround plan is taking hold, with steady production and growing contributions from exports. No cigar yet is what I say to Ronald, and we are seeing really very good signs in the turnaround of Leeuwpan, and thanks also to Transnet for delivering on their promises to make sure that we could possibly increase the exports from Leeuwpan.

You'll see the benefits when Riaan goes through his numbers. Total coal sales up 4% to 19.9 million tonnes.

Caroline, where's 20? Supported by higher Eskom sales and strong export performance.

Sales to Eskom increased by 6% to 14 million tonnes, mainly driven by the exceptional performance I spoke about on the ramp-up of the new mine one at Matla. Importantly, coal export sales increased by 15% to 3.9 million tonnes.

We guided on eight for the full year, and we are on track. Supported by improved rail performance and our effective use of alternative logistics channels to evacuate our coal from the mines to the ports as prices do support the margins we can make out of that.

If you look at this slide, we are particularly pleased, as I said, with the Leeuwpan turnaround. You can see the movements, and you can see it's in the right direction, reflecting the progress that we're making in that.

Through our market-to-resource optimization initiatives, we were able to switch between domestic sales and export markets in order to maximize on profitability as we saw export prices much higher. You will see that domestic, even though down at 14%, is because the much more profitable market of exports is actually up 15%.

Metallurgical coal sales were a lot lower, and this really reflects the weak demand we are seeing in the domestic steel and ferrochrome industries. As we see Eskom coming to some agreements with some of the ferrochrome producers, we expect the domestic side to possibly, and particularly the metallurgical side, to possibly pick up as well as those furnaces pick up over time.

Let me touch a bit around our production, particularly the challenges with the Waterberg, but really a strong export performance. In a bulk commodity business, the key value lever after production is logistics.

Whether it's manganese, iron ore, or coal, the next key value lever is our logistics. We continue to see encouraging improvements in rail performance.

At an industry level, coal volumes railed to Richards Bay improved, placing this system on an annualized run rate of about 60 million tonnes. We continuously see step change in the performance of Transnet.

As highlighted, this improvement supported our own export performance, which went up 15%. In Mpumalanga, our tonnes railed directly to Richards Bay remained basically steady as we focused on wanting to evacuate more coal from Grootegeluk.

Together with Transnet, our teams worked flat out to deliver a bit more, and despite all activities, we achieved a 50% improvement in direct rails from Grootegeluk to Richards Bay. This ensures that we can reduce road transport, which is impacted by diesel.

What we see is that if you can rail direct from GG to Richards Bay, it's almost a two and a half to three times benefit on profitability and margins. That's why I'm really pleased to see the 40 the kind of 50% improvement.

Obviously from a low base, we also would remember that we had a two-week washaway where the rail was washed away by rains last year. Including all that, we have seen a fantastic improvement of 20%, if you compare just the last half of last year to this year, both halves had no washaway, and we still have an improvement of 20%.

The Richards Bay multimodal system, which we'll continue to utilize, especially at current prices, also improved by 20%, even though half-on-half from last year's second half, it dropped by 14% as we became conscious of the increasing diesel costs. In the meantime, our teams have continued to demonstrate agility in getting our product to the market, making use of all these alternative and multimodal logistics systems.

While these channels provide viable and flexible options, we have enabled ourselves to increase our export volumes, and they come at higher cost if you are going to be running by road. We are pleased with the progress of making 50% improvement of direct railing from Waterberg.

However, we still need a lot more improvement. Further improvement on the Waterberg line remains an important export lever for Exxaro to unlock the additional export volumes that I know we have and have been promised from our operating teams, and this will continue to deliver improved cost efficiency of getting our coal to the seaborne market.

During the first half, we saw softer demand from India, reflecting a little bit of higher domestic coal production in India, continued weakness of the steel sector in India, but also a much higher coal import costs, and when the costs go up, they tend to slow down in what they buy from outside. However, the strength of our diversified cost base and our market-to-resource optimization teams has enabled us to respond to these dynamics.

Our sales increased in Japan, where our premium product, low sulfur, high energy, remains a sought-after product, while on the Asian markets, particularly Taiwan, we also saw a contribution positively to our export performance. This reflects the strength of Exxaro as a coal brand and has established a position where our customers see our products as premium in our key markets.

Importantly, you will see that RB1, Richards Bay 1, represents 88% of our export sales mix during the half. Compared to last year, we actually did not sell any RB2, and you could say, "So what happened?"

Actually, because we produce very high-energy coal from GG, we can move less volume from there, bring it to the lower RB2 in Witbank, and blend it to deliver RB1 to the market, which sells at a much higher premium. We achieved an average realized price on export of $96 per tonne, reflecting a 91% price realization compared to the API4 benchmark price.

This price escalation reflects the mix of the fixed price, but also the index-linked contracts that our customers tend to prefer in times of lower prices, but in times of high prices, they tend to prefer fixed price. Our market-to-resource teams allows us to respond with agility, and I think we continue to do that.

RBCT, as I said earlier, remains our preferred and most cost-effective route to the market. A bit of coal well covered.

Let me move to our next business pillar, Cennergi, the energy business. Cennergi also delivered a solid operational performance.

The key milestone was the Lephalale Solar Plant that I spoke about earlier, reaching full commercial operation on the 21st of April, adding solar generation to our existing wind portfolio. The solar plant at Lephalale contributes 30% of the mine's energy requirements.

This is, in a way, reduced our carbon emissions by 22% on that mine and given us electricity savings of 100 million rand a year. The total renewable energy generation has increased by 12%, with the LSP contributing 66 gigawatt hours.

Wind generation was lower due to weaker wind conditions in the Eastern Cape, although plant availability was up and strong at 98%. The benefits of now having wind and solar dovetails our performance such that you continue to see an improved performance in EBITDA numbers as well.

Kariba Wind project continues and is in progress with commercial operation expected in the first half of 2027, and that remains on schedule, on budget. Touching on manganese, the new kid on the block and contributing both to improving safety, production, and improved pricing that we saw in the manganese.

This slide highlights the performance of Tshipi Borwa mine, in which we acquired 50% interest on the 27th of February 2026. For illustrative purposes, all the operational metrics that you see under manganese are presented on this slide on a 100% basis for the respective periods so that it's comparable, even though in our books, manganese only represents four months of performance since we acquired it from the 1st of April.

The improved LTIFR by 52%, reflecting the operations' ongoing commitment and conviction to maintaining safe and disciplined working environment. Production volumes up 11%, and the increased production was deliberate response to the favorable market conditions that we saw.

Sales volumes, however, declined by 5%. Mainly, this was driven by the record sales we had in the first half of last year as a result of the prevailing market conditions at that time.

Despite this decline, sales volumes remain robust, and the CIF prices for the high-grade semi-carbonate manganese that we produce increased by 18% to $4.64 per dmtu. On this note, we're very pleased with our long-life asset, cash-generative manganese business that is now in the house for Exxaro.

In particular, for the long life that we have, we believe that the long-term fundamentals of manganese remain robust, and we're very pleased that we have it now in the house, and our prospects around that continue. Let me hand over to Koppes so that he can take us through the financial highlights.

Thank you.

Thanks, Ben. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and it's again a pleasure to present the interim results for the six months ending 30 June 2026.

On the first slide, I'm going to look at the operating performance of the group. Just to note, to ensure comparability across the reporting periods, the figures presented in this section are based on the IFRS results adjusted for headline earnings items, and the reconciliation is included in the supplementary slides.

Starting with the group's overall performance, you can see the first two graphs on the top left illustrate the performance of our own managed operations. Revenue increased by 7%, supported by the stronger coal prices we saw across both export and domestic markets.

Although EBITDA remained broadly in line with the prior period, the coal and energy EBITDA increased by 5% and 2% respectively, demonstrating the resilience of our operations despite the inflationary pressure. However, if you compare it to the second half of last year, you can actually see that the EBITDA increased 22% from the previous half year.

Turning to the chart on the top right, which reflects our equity-accounted investments. Equity-accounted investments declined significantly during this period, primarily attributable to a 781 million reduction in the contribution from SIOC, where earnings were negatively impacted by lower realized selling prices mainly resulting from the stronger rand.

Black Mountain also recorded a weaker contribution, reflecting higher mining cost and a slower-than-anticipated ramp-up of the Gamsberg 2 project. This was offset by the first contribution from our investment in Tshipi, which added 242 million for the four-month period.

Further detail on the equity investments is included in the supplementary slides. Despite operating in a dynamic and challenging market environment, the group generated cash of 6.1 billion, and as a result, we closed the first half at a net debt position of 1.4 billion, including the Cennergi project financing.

I will provide additional detail of the cash position later on in the presentation. Overall, the performance of our managed operations together with the contribution from our investment portfolio resulted in headline earnings of 13 rand 77 per share, representing a decline of 20% compared to the prior period.

If we then look at the EBITDA waterfall graph, starting with the price impact, you can see export prices realized in the first half of this year increased by $8.70 per tonne, or about 10%, broadly in line with the higher API4 benchmark price. This benefit was partially offset by a decline in our price realization, which decreased from 96% to 91%.

In addition, there was stronger pricing in the domestic market to support our revenue generation. If we look at volumes, export volumes benefited from the improved rail and the road logistics from the Waterberg, as Ben mentioned.

The first half of last year, we also had the impact of the rail washaway. These improved logistics enabled higher export volumes through RBCT and also increased our overall exports.

In addition, Leeuwpan's sales were positively impacted by the establishment of the Navitrade alternative export channel. As a result, export volumes increased 15% in the first half of 2026.

Looking at inflation, inflation continues to have a big impact on our business. As you can see there, the diesel impact on our specific mines, the cost increased by 25%.

Electricity, the tariffs increased by 10.6%, and labor costs on average increased by 4. 6.3%.

Other operating costs generally tracked PPI, increasing by approximately 4.5%. Beyond inflation, several other cost factors to consider.

Selling and distribution expenses increased by 425 million, largely reflecting the higher export volumes as well as also the higher diesel cost when we had to move the product by road. Inventory movements had a favorable EBITDA impact, driven by our production volumes exceeding sales volumes.

The rehab liability adjustments were 341 million less favorable than the prior period, mainly due to scope changes, inflationary pressures, mainly at our mines in closure, Durnacol, and also at Leeuwpan. The stronger rand-dollar exchange rate that we mentioned earlier, there you can see the impact, direct impact of 740 million rand on our group EBITDA.

This was partially offset by 188 million impact from realized and unrealized foreign exchange gains on our foreign-denominated debtors and cash balances. Finally, our general costs were year on year lower, as the prior year also included consulting and legal expenses associated with our corporate transactions, including ferroalloys and other strategic initiatives.

This resulted in a favorable variance of 112 million rand. The manganese EBITDA contribution will be unpacked later on.

When we look at costs, we continue to focus on disciplined cost management despite the inflationary pressures, the elevated diesel prices, and the increase in logistics costs that we are seeing. If we look at production volumes excluding Mafube and Matla, it increased by 7% to 16,6 million tonne, while total cash costs increased by 4.6%, broadly in line with the PPI, reflecting the benefits of the higher production volumes and continued cost optimization.

The initiatives that we are embarking on include benefits from the Leeuwpan turnaround strategy and active optimization of our logistics channels and costs to ensure that the exports remain value-accretive, and then also cost excellence initiatives across all our mines. Looking at a specific cost component that I want to highlight out a few, maintenance cost decreasing by 14 rand a tonne, in line with the normal life-cycle plans and also the Leeuwpan turnaround strategy.

Employee costs decreasing by 7 rand, also reflecting the new Leeuwpan operating model and the implementation of the operating model. General costs, 6 rand a tonne, mainly due to decreased equipment leases at Grootegeluk.

We are bringing in a new mining fleet that we will also address later on. Electricity costs, 1 rand a tonne, with the Lephalale Solar project partially mitigating the cost increase at Grootegeluk.

Contractor cost increasing by 8 rand a tonne, primarily associated with Leeuwpan mine, as Leeuwpan mine is, in essence, on the mining side, now a contractor operation. Our fuel cost increased by 9 rand a tonne, reflecting the higher diesel prices across the portfolio, and this remains the single largest inflationary cost pressure.

In 2025, just to point it out, diesel cost for the group, fuel cost is about 2 billion rand. Any increase has got a major impact on our cost base.

As pointed out earlier, the rehab-related adjustments at Leeuwpan and Durnacol increased unit cost by 20 rand a tonne. Then, very important, logistics cost, 23 rand a tonne, mainly due to the higher export volumes and also the impact of diesel cost on road transport.

Remember, on road transport, diesel is probably your biggest driver in those contracts. Although the alternative export channels come at a higher cost, they remain value-accretive, with logistics decisions focused on moving products that maximize value and margin for the company.

Costs remain under pressure from elevated diesel prices, and alternative port routes, however, ensures that we actively manage these costs by prioritizing exports directly to Richards Bay. We do collaborative contracting, market testing, and also ongoing optimization initiatives.

On the next slide, we'll look at the metals business. As Ben pointed out, we acquired the manganese portfolio the end of February.

This includes a 100% investment in the manganese marketing company in Singapore. Basically, Tshipi mine sells our portion of the production to the marketing company that on-sells it then to the end customer, very similar to our coal marketing company in Switzerland.

Then also in these numbers are then our 51% investment in Tshipi, which we pointed out is equity-accounted. The numbers included for a four-month period from March to June.

If you look at the EBITDA line, the marketing entity reported a positive EBITDA of 28 million for the period, and as I pointed out, driven by the sale and marketing of our share of the Tshipi ore production. This was offset by a Day 1 fair value loss of 179 million recognized on the investment in Jupiter Mines, reflecting the impact of the share price and the exchange rate on the effective date of the transaction when we acquired the asset, and then the balance of that is once-off transaction costs paid during the period.

Looking at the performance of the equity-accounted investments, as pointed out, mainly impacted by SIOC due to a big impact of the exchange rate on the sales price that was realized and also higher production costs associated with the conflict in the Middle East. Equity income from Black Mountain negatively impacted by the delayed ramp-up of the Gamsberg project.

As pointed out, Exxaro's 50% interest in Tshipi has been equity-accounted for the four-month period following completion of the transaction, and that is the 242 million that you can see. During the period, we received dividends from our investments: 1.4 billion from the equity-accounted investments, mainly from SIOC, as well as 100 million from the newly acquired investment in Tshipi, as well as a 26 million dividend from the investment in Jupiter, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Looking at capital allocation, our capital allocation framework remains disciplined and consistent, and as pointed out, we continue to target a net debt to EBITDA ratio below 1.5 times, excluding the Cennergi project financing. This approach preserves our balance sheet strength while maintaining flexibility required to execute on our strategic priorities.

As previously highlighted, during the first half, we generated 6.9 billion in net cash inflow, comprising 5.4 billion from our owner-managed operations, 1.5 billion received in dividends from our investments, including 1.3 billion from SIOC, 100 million from Tshipi, and 75 million from our Mafube joint venture. In line with the capital allocation framework, we deployed that capital across the business to support the operational sustainability, our growth initiatives, and also shareholder returns.

So 1.4 billion was invested in sustaining capital for the coal business, ensuring asset reliability, continuity, and safe production. 3.4 billion was returned to shareholders through dividends.

This comprises 1.3 billion from the pass-through of the SIOC dividend and 2.1 billion distributed from our core group earnings, excluding SIOC. We invested 10.6 billion in the manganese acquisition, further strengthening our portfolio and positioning the business for the long-term value creation.

We also settled 2.5 billion acquisition debt that we acquired. A further 864 million was invested in expansion capital, primarily relating to the completion of the remaining work at the Lephalale Solar project and the continued construction of the Kariba Wind Farm.

The other cash allocations include 337 million rand for the acquisition of shares to settle vested share-based payments and 100 million on deposit for our insurance program. As a result of these cash flows and capital allocation decision, we closed with a net cash position of 6.4 billion.

If we exclude the energy business net debt of 7.8 billion rand. Looking at capital expenditure, sustaining capital mainly in the coal business, and this, as I pointed out earlier, is primarily driven by Grootegeluk, where we are in the process of rolling out a new truck and shovel replacement program.

The increase is intentional and value-accretive, supporting the long-term sustainability of our assets and also ensuring asset reliability to underpin future earnings capacity. Turning to energy, the project cost at Lephalale Solar, 160 million was invested during the first half to complete activities ahead of the commissioning of the plant in April, and during the same period, we spent 704 million on the Kariba Wind Farm, which remains on track for completion in the first half of 2027.

Our energy projects are typically funded through a structure comprising approximately 75% project finance and 25% equity funding, optimizing returns while maintaining disciplined capital allocation. The project funding is normally drawn from the outset of construction, with our equity contributions weighted towards the latter stages of project execution.

Importantly, as Ben pointed out, all the project financing is structured with limited recourse to Exxaro's balance sheet and is hedged through interest rate swaps, providing certainty against any interest rate movement risk. Last slide, the new dividend policy.

Our increased confidence in the group's diversified earnings base, the balance sheet resilience, and long-term cash generation resulted, as we pointed out at the Capital Markets Day, in enhancements to the dividend policy: the removal of the 12 to 15 billion cash buffer and a revision of the dividend cover to 1.5 to 2 times, or a 40% to 67% payout ratio, whilst maintaining the 100% SIOC pass-through. The intention is future growth in future will be financed through internally generated cash flow, also supplemented by the debt facilities where we raised it in the group earlier on.

I'm pleased, as Ben pointed out, to announce that the board has resolved to pay an interim dividend of 7 rand per share at an overall group cover ratio of two times. This includes a pass-through of the SIOC dividend, if you look at the 7 rand, 2 rand is a SIOC dividend, and reflects a cover of 1.8 times on Exxaro's adjusted group earnings.

The graph on the right depicts the quality of our shareholder returns, and you can see there the enhancement due to the new dividend policy. The final dividend end of last year, the enhanced dividend from the new policy, 2 rand 93, and this time around, 1 rand 43 per share.

With this, Ben, also from my side, thanks to everybody at Exxaro that made the results possible, whether you at one of the mines, at one of the wind farms, here at the corporate center. Also thanks to my finance team, long hours, hard work, but thanks, we were able to deliver these sets of results.

Thank you. Thank you, Riaan.

Really wonderful set of results, and thanks to everybody. It's a great opportunity for us to be showcasing while everybody else still has to deliver in the operations and the plans.

As we look to the remainder of the year, and the geopolitical environments obviously remains uncertain. Tensions, particularly the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, continue to create uncertainty across both commodity and energy markets, and have an impact on inflationary factors, and also shipping rates.

We have an emerging risk. I think we all know the local government elections are about to take off now, while the domestic operating environment in South Africa really continues to show improvement.

Whether it's from our two networks of Eskom and Transnet and the current account of Treasury, it's really pleasing to see those numbers, and the flexibility, and the improvements that we're seeing. These dynamics present both risks and opportunities for Exxaro, reinforcing the importance of our operational excellence, the importance of cost discipline, and the flexibility that we have in our portfolio, and as we diversify the portfolio.

Against this backdrop, the strong operational performance delivered during the first half clearly positions Exxaro well for the remainder of the year. We therefore reiterate our coal production, sales, and coal export sales in line with the guidance we gave, including the sustaining capital requirements when Riaan spoke about the truck and shovel project at GG.

Compared to the pre-close guidance of 830 megawatts to 860 gigawatt hours, we revise our renewable energy generation to 800 between 800 and 830 gigawatt hours. This is mainly due to the weaker wind resource conditions that we are seeing.

Thankfully, we have the dovetailing nature of solar that I spoke about earlier. Importantly, and for the first time, our guidance now incorporates manganese, reflecting the growing contribution of our metals business pillar to our diversified portfolio.

As I highlighted, and we said this at the capital markets, we are finalizing the feasibility study to replace our ERP system and look at all the options, because really we are seeing opportunities of innovation, reduced costs to the extent of a lot of systems and IT systems we would have. Our current system is a legacy system, and we are assessing the potential and replacement opportunities that we may get out of that, without compromising shareholder returns.

Overall, we remain focused on disciplined execution and delivering against our full-year commitments. I would really like to reflect for a moment on the positive social impact your organization continues to create.

Our strong performance during the half extends beyond just financial and operational results. We continued, as we have done over the past two decades, to create value for all our stakeholders.

I spoke about Sis G being with us, and for completeness, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi as chair of our SER committee. This is an area of focus continuously in terms of when we sit at the subcommittee and in the full board.

During the first half, we created approximately 10 billion rand value across both for our employees, our shareholders, government, and our financiers, alongside the 1.4 billion rand in social impact spend on our host communities and also our labor-sending areas. We opened in Cofimvaba recently our sheep-shearing project, which really has provided some much-needed opportunities for our labor-sending area in the Eastern Cape.

I thought Anda would clap, because I think that's his village. We maintained our level two BBBEE status and strengthened the long-term sustainability of our coal operations through the improved and amended Belfast integrated water use license that I spoke about earlier, and also the signing of the Matla coal supply agreement with Eskom.

This all support jobs and the economies of our host communities. We delivered strong environmental performance, with the LSP, as I spoke about, the solar plant contributing improved carbon intensity and improved energy intensity and reducing costs.

These outcomes reflect our continued focus on delivering positive social and environmental impact while creating the long-term value for all our stakeholders. I particularly like the next picture.

Let me assure you, it was not AI-generated. It might be African intelligence, but it's not AI-generated.

It captures the coexistence of coal-fired power generation and renewable energy in our just energy transition. That's a picture at Grootegeluk, with a coal-fired power station in the background, and our 129,000 panels supplying 68 megawatts to GG.

This is the reality of our country's energy future, a diversified mix, and Exxaro is well positioned to be a market leader in both. Our diversified natural resources business has delivered during the half, and that's why we call ourselves natural resources: mining, wind, and solar.

We achieved our best safety record, which expectedly delivered stronger production performance across the business within the cost inflation I spoke about. The coal business EBITDA went up by 5%.

The renewable energy business EBITDA went up by 2%, contributing to the essentially flat EBITDA that we showed you earlier, mainly impacted by the investment, or call it once-off acquisition costs in manganese. We are seeing the early results of our strategy execution, from the performance of the coal business to the growth of our renewable energy, and for the first time to the manganese, contributing both to income and operating contributions.

As I said, our once-off transaction costs masked the great production, especially in coal, renewable energy, and manganese. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we continue to apply our capital allocation framework with discipline.

Not only because some people we have here have got deep pockets, but extremely very short hands on the left. Giving us really the flexibility that we need to track the consistent returns to our shareholders that we need, while still funding the strategic priorities.

Koppes, thank you. Allow me the opportunity to thank again, as Riaan said earlier, our fellow employees for a job well done.

We did it safely, and that is most critical to me, your Chief Executive. We had excellent production.

You contained your costs, despite the pressures of diesel, to still be within cost inflation. Indeed, I am proud and pleased that we continue to do the best work of our lives at Exxaro.

This is who we are today. If I was to share with you the contribution of our growing energy and future-facing metals business, we want them to account for over 50% of our group earnings by 2030.

This way, it will reduce our group carbon intensity. For the first time, we have manganese firmly part of that picture.

Today, a coal contributes around three-quarters of those group earnings, and by 2030, we expect that to be below 50%, not by reducing coal, but by growing the other buckets. As I said, ultimately reducing our carbon intensity as we aim for our carbon neutrality by 2050.

This slide 29 really anchors our strategy in the three pillars of coal, renewable energy, and the future-facing minerals. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Exxaro today, and this is the business we are building for tomorrow: a diversified natural resources champion, not only providing the earnings and reducing carbon intensity, but providing the career opportunities of many young and up-and-coming people to make sure that we remain a key driver to our country's economy.

We are anchored by long-life, high-quality, and cash-generative coal business, a growing renewable energy business, and future-facing metals that are built globally, with a significant manganese exposure I spoke about. As we look ahead, we will continue to anchor our coal business, and we'll continue to drive in line with our prudent and disciplined capital allocation, underpinned by our people and the conviction to achieve zero harm and to do this ethically.

These three business pillars of coal, renewable energy, and manganese and future-facing metals position Exxaro continuously as a consistent dividend payer sustained for growth. We thank you for your attention this morning.

Thank you very much. Anda will be joining us now to take us through any discussions, questions, and answers that you may have for us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ben.

Thank you,

Riaan. We are now going to go to the Q&A.

Like we always do, please raise your hand. We have roaming mics in the room.

We're going to start in the room. Please remember to introduce yourself and the company that you represent before you ask your question, and then I will recognize you.

Then from the room, we are going to go to the online platform, and please remember to also post your questions there, and we will read them out here. Thank you so much.

I think we have a question from Tim Clark.

Thank you. Congrats on the results.

It's Tim Clark from SBG Securities. I've got a few questions.

Just let's start off with the Waterberg rail extracts. Really good numbers coming out of exports out of GG.

At the Capital Markets Day, my sense was that you were a little bit worried about Transnet coming down from GG to Overvaal. The results seem to be better than that.

I wonder if we could just get a bit of an update on the sort of outlook for rail out of Waterberg. My second question's really just on India.

It's quite low in the mix compared to a couple of your peers out of South Africa, and you grew quite strongly in Japan. I wonder if you could give us a couple of thoughts on the coal that you're producing, the marketing that you're doing, and then maybe if we're lucky, just because the market is so volatile, what you're currently seeing in the market, what your sense of coal demand is at the moment.

Then my last question just on manganese. If I look at the cash flow statement, and I add up all the numbers that have got note 22, which is the acquisition of manganese attached to them, I get to 12.95, let's call it 13 billion rand, which was a bit more than I expected in cash outflow for manganese, for the Tshipi part of manganese.

I wonder if you could talk to us just about that and how much was spent. Maybe there was some adjustments there that I don't understand.

Then secondly, just a bit of an update on Mokala, if you could. Just what's happening, what you're expecting in terms of closure of the final leg.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tim.

Thanks, Tim. Riaan will touch on the manganese and Mokala.

Let me just go through. You're right about our concerns at the Capital Markets Day on Grootegeluk.

I think those concerns are bearing fruit, and it was simply a move to give a sense of what the priorities were and how focused our teams were to get that C-section line going. I must say that the performance of the joint team that we put together between Transnet and Exxaro to drive that performance has been very commendable, and that's why you see the improvements.

Never mind the fact that we had a rail washaway last year, we continuously see that improvement even if you compare the second half of last year to this half. There is continued improvement and focus.

If you estimated around the number of trains per week, by the time when we were talking, we were possibly playing around three trains a week. We are seeing now growingly four, five trains a week.

Our aspiration is to get to seven, even higher. There's no cigar yet.

I think we are very pleased with the progress that we have made, Tim. Maybe that covers on the logistics side, because the more we can do that, obviously, and you know it, that the most profitable route is Richards Bay, and especially if directly railed.

We continue to put that effort, and I'm very pleased that as much as our WhatsApps keep ringing with Transnet, we're actually seeing it in the numbers.

That's

very pleasing. On the marketing side, I think the volatility of the prices, and especially when you start seeing prices rising, never mind the fact that India have lower steel demand and they have produced more locally in India, it means they've needed less coal, but whenever we see high prices, the Indian customers tend to withdraw to some extent.

You will see that if you compare, as you said, around the peers, that the price realization of Exxaro is possibly north of 90%, and the price realization of peers, as you put it, is a lot lower than 90%, which means they're possibly still selling into a much less margin, less profitable market. Our teams, and Fortune and Saki and Lester, they work hard at looking for alternatives.

What we saw in Taiwan and the growth you have seen in Japan has given us real comfort. The Japanese market is more sticky.

Once you have a premium product that they can have a life-of-mine kind of approach, we saw almost record tenure of contracts in Japan. For competitive purposes, I won't say the number, but I think that it's very helpful to see Japanese and Taiwan growing, because there they need the RB1, and we have that with our product mix, and we've been able to take advantage of that with a much higher price realization than our peers.

Thanks, Tim. I hope that covers those two, and Koppes will cover the manganese questions.

On Mokala, the agreement with Glencore, I think it's progressing well. We've reached agreement on most of the outstanding issues.

Hopefully, we should be able to conclude that and put it to bed before the long-stop date that we indicated to the market, I think it was February 2027. That is on Mokala.

Then on the cash flow, the 10.6, remember included in that cash flow was 1.5 billion for Jupiter, about 1.5 billion for the Hotazel, the 9% in Hotazel, and then the balance will be Tshipi mine and then also the marketing company. Then the 2.5 billion is actually almost an in and out flow, because we refinanced that debt in the company subsequent to 30 June just to give context on that.

Thanks, Riaan. Brian?

Can give to Brian.

Thanks very much. It's Brian Morgan, RMB Morgan Stanley.

Just two questions from my side. First is, Riaan, you left about 4 billion rand of cash on the balance sheet.

Is that the new cash buffer, the new 12 to 15, or is that Mokala?

Yeah.

Maybe just tell us about that.

Remember even at the Capital Markets Day, I think at the Capital Markets Day, the cash was more or less at the same level. We said the cash on the balance sheet is earmarked for Mokala.

Mokala really the maximum, depending on whether the tag-along rights, etc., are exercised, is 4 billion. The TauRx acquisition on energy is 1.8 or 1.9 billion, that still needs to close.

Then our equity contributions for Kariba and also the other energy transaction is about a billion rand. What we then say is then the intention is to run the business cash-free, debt-free.

You only really get into debt if you do acquisitions or growth.

Got it. Cool.

Thank you. Then just the next question, just further on that Waterberg rail, the C-section story.

Could you flesh out a little bit about what's happened? Is it signaling?

Is it more locos? Is it more train sets?

Just maybe a little bit more granularity because it's a big prize, right?

It is indeed a big prize, Brian. I think predominantly it's operating efficiencies, cycle times for the trains.

If you improve cycle times, you can get more trains on it. Because it's a bit of a distant setup, the prioritization is possibly much better in the Mpumalanga area for Transnet.

Once you send a train more to the Waterberg, it takes a bit longer. Having improved some cycle times, operational efficiencies, I think we didn't have a rail washaway, as we said, for this year.

There is also some underlying operating and fixing of infrastructure, but predominantly, it's a lot to do with improvement of cycle times and increasing of the number of trains per week, which, as I said to you, were lying somewhere around 2, 3, now they're sitting around 4, 5, and if we can get another improvement to 5, 6, 7, then I think we continue to be on the right path. We know the export optionality of Exxaro and GG, and we still have a lot of scope to do that.

Thank you, Ben. We have another question from Thobela.

Okay. Morning, everyone.

It's Thobela Bikitsha from Nedbank CIB. I've got two sets of questions.

I'd like to start with coal first and then get your answers and then come back again. The first one on coal is just with regards, again, I think, this Waterberg story.

With that 50% improvement, where does that put you in terms of your capacity for that Waterberg rail capacity? Where does that put you, and how far are you to maxing your capacity there?

Then the second one is on your realized pricing, which was 5% down relative to previous reporting period. It is a bit surprising, especially given that you have increased your RB1 sort of contribution.

Can you just maybe give us more clarity as to what is it about marketing and your realized pricing that occurred in this half? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll do the C-line, and then you can pick up on the realized prices, I think.

The Waterberg line, that C-section, has about 3.9, if you're Riaan, I call it 4 million tonne capacity. Of that 4 million tonnes, there's some sharing between the ferrochrome industry and the coal industry, because that line comes through Amandelbult, Rustenburg, then down.

If you look at what we could do there, there is no doubt if you look at the period of Russia-Ukraine, we moved a lot more. If you say the half we moved 6.

600 million tonnes we moved 600,000 tonnes there right now, and you can multiply by two and you get to 1.2. Can we get even higher?

Absolutely. We think the Waterberg line that C-section line still has so much to go to the 4 million tonne capacity of the rail that it has got.

It's possibly sitting at about half right now as we speak, and we take a portion of that. The work that we're doing with Transnet, with the Ministry of Transport on both the public sector partnership and the customer collaboration program with Transnet is geared, and you are aware of those train operating companies that were brought in.

There's opportunities given the appetite to privatize and to also bring in more players, and we're talking to a few of those players to see how we can improve over the long term. In the short term, I think we have that scope, as we talk about, possibly move from five trains a week to about seven trains a week.

Okay. Then we move to the realized

prices. On the 91% realization, what you will normally see when the market goes up, certain customers don't want to lock in the price.

They want a fixed price. They don't want to be exposed to the index, because you obviously only sometimes settle the contract later on.

In a increasing coal price environment, customers tend some of them to want a fixed price, and then in a declining environment, you'll see vice versa, where the customers wouldn't want fixed-term contracts or fixed-price contracts, they would like to have index-based contracts. I think it's that dynamic.

Yeah. Okay.

Then, Thobela, you've got other questions, Thobela?

Go ahead. Yes.

On manganese.

Okay.

Just on manganese then. I think your production there was quite strong.

Could you just talk to us as to what would you think is your normalized level? I'm saying strong because we know that there's been heavy rains in the Northern Cape and some of the producers within that province have struggled when it comes to production.

Then, final question is around, I guess, your EBITDA, even if one strips out the once-offs that you spoke to, I don't necessarily think it does speak to your sort of first-half cost-curve type of operations. Could you just talk to us as to now that you have sight of the operations, what do you think about the manganese operation, because I think, at first glance, it doesn't seem as though they are as good as perhaps initially thought.

Thank you.

Right. It's production, and then the EBITDA in manganese, Thobela, and talk about that.

Perfect.

I think the production numbers, we have guided quite clearly there, Thobela, 3.2 to 3.4, but noting that that guidance is sales, not necessarily production. You may have some movements around inventory depending on what you see in terms of market conditions.

Is that the appropriate kind of number? We think so.

I think a manganese business around the 3.5 million tonnes for Tshipi is possibly ideal given the infrastructure and capacity that exists today. Is there scope for more?

We think so, and we continue to explore what is possible. I think the cost position of Tshipi really places it well.

The impact of diesel, I think in that environment, is much bigger, because obviously, as much as the manganese line is doing well, the logistics still requires additional. Omdraaisvlei entitlement is not enough, and therefore, there is still more road transport, which gets impact from diesel.

There is still cost pressures, mainly driven by diesel, that comes through the manganese side. If you look at the challenges today, I think the cost position of Tshipi, because of its high volume, really places it well on the lower half of the cost curve.

We still see benefits in that, and we'll continue to drive We've got Johan here, who is nodding, and they continue to drive the efficiencies that we would expect and the kind of benefits that I think Exxaro's competence and capabilities in bulk mining could be transferred for the benefit of all stakeholders in that business. You may want to touch on

Yeah. Obviously, also a big impact similar to SIOC, exchange rate.

Remember, 100% is exported. In a EBITDA type of performance, exchange rate will play a big role.

As we pointed out, logistics costs. If you look at manganese, a third is basically your on-mine cost, and two-thirds are logistical cost.

What we currently seeing in the world, the CIF price that went up is basically mainly due to the logistic and shipping cost included in that price.

Then the EBITDA,

the

four-month basis unpacked.

That's what I'm saying. It will flow through too.

It will flow through,

yes.

Okay. I think we can quickly just go online, because we've got some questions here, and then we'll come back to the room.

Jean le Roux from Jan de Pretorius from Umthombo Wealth was asking a question around your coal export mix moving to more RB1 looks like a great result. I think the question is around the fact that we've dropped our price realization to 91% despite this.

What do we expect then going forward? Of course, we've answered the question on the price realization, but then going forward, what are we expecting?

Then a question from Tshilidzi Ravele from the IDC. Many thanks for the update.

There are no mention of China of the China market in your export sales. Is this by design?

Then we are getting mixed messages from Transnet of Transnet performance, even from other players. What is Exxaro's medium to long-term view on Transnet performance?

Then the other question is on your views on coal markets. How significant is the disruption to thermal coal production in China due to the mine accident late May?

Maybe let me just take one more from Citi, Shashi. He's asking the questions: Could you please provide us the FY '26 cash cost and maintenance CapEx guidance for manganese asset?

What is the targeted net debt to EBITDA ratio now for the company? I'll stop there.

Then just recap, it's the outlook on the price realization and then China, and then long-term view on Transnet, and then the coal markets.

I'll some of them. China, and you can correct me, Exxaro, we don't really sell to China.

I think there's very few South African coal producers that actually sell to China. Exxaro, China's is not our market.

We better placed for the other markets.

We don't quite compete with them even in Japan and in Thailand. Really, they as far as I recall, they're still net importers.

That need to be checked. Please go ahead.

Then the impact of the explosion, what was that? At the thermal coal mine?

Wasn't it at the metallurgical coal mine?

It was, yeah,

it was at a met coal mine. I think it's not comparable probably with the coal we produce.

Exactly.

There was also an as there were two other blast explosions also in Colombia, but all these again, I think it's a matter of moving chairs around volumes. The global seaborne market is about a million a billion tonnes,

and

our contribution to that is somewhere around 1%. I don't think it's as impactful to us.

We see it more in the price as a basic fundamental of supply and demand.

Then I think we did answer the question on the balance sheet that we debt-free, cash-free basis. Then to the extent that we gear the balance sheet for growth, it should not be more than 1.5 times EBITDA, excluding the project financing.

I think that we've covered.

Then the CapEx?

The CapEx, remember we said at the Capital Markets Day, it was included there in the business that the manganese business is self-sufficient. Remember at the moment, it's still a JV, all of the CapEx is incurred at the JV level, but also take into account, it's a contract mining operation, there isn't really that big CapEx from that perspective.

Thanks, Riaan. I think there was a request in the questions around Transnet and how the various markets are perceiving Transnet?

I think from an annualized run rate for the coal industry, I spoke about 60 million tonnes, which is an improvement on how they performed last year, tick. From our performance and increased almost unrelenting focus on the section C-line from GG direct to Richards Bay, we have seen an improvement of 50%, again a big tick.

Are we happy with where we are with Waterberg? No, we want more.

Yes to Michelle, with all the great performance, we still want more from the section C-line from GG, even though we have done very well. Manganese, we are doing well.

I think in talking about all the touch points of our participation and involvement with Transnet, we are very pleased with the progress, but there's no cigar yet.

Thanks, Ben. I'll also just keep on with online.

"You have highlighted a 37% decline in equity-accounted income, particularly from SIOC. How much of the decline do you view as cyclical from stronger rand, iron ore pricing, and input cost inflation, versus a structural change in SIOC's sustainable earnings power?"

This is from Chris Haswell from Haswell Consulting. Then the second question, "If we normalize iron ore prices, rand, and SIOC SIOC's cost base, what do you consider a sustainable level of annual earnings from Exxaro's SIOC interest?"

Then, "The manganese acquisition represented approximately 10.6 billion of capital deployed. Now that the assets have contributed four months of earnings, what return on invested capital do you believe the acquired manganese portfolio can generate through the cycle?"

I think Riaan And then there's another one: "As Exxaro transitioned from coal-heavy portfolio towards minerals and energy, how do you think about optimal pace of coal capital allocation? At what point do you stop reinvesting aggressively into coal assets and instead maximize cash extraction from the existing portfolio?"

Then there's the question from David Fraser from Peregrine Capital: "From the company's perspective, any progress on your thinking regarding the BEE share lock-up expire in 2027?" Okay.

Perfect. Looks like it's all buddy questions, but whatever you leave out, I will then top up what's left.

Let

perhaps start with the BEE. We are engaging with the BEE shareholders.

I think we pretty much aligned on the way forward. Remember what we told you last time, the current structure expires in December.

There is a wish or a desire that we look to extend the structure beyond 2027. Parties are in discussions of that.

As we pointed out, we think these days of the new-generation transactions, you can move away from facilitation, all of that. The one thing that we are at the moment looking for is certainty on the draft minerals bill, and then obviously, taking that into account, there could always be a role for a increased ESOP or community participation in schemes like that.

Thanks, Riaan. Then I think let's just do the SIOC question, impact from rand exchange rate.

I

think I can't now speak on behalf of SIOC on all of these things, but obviously, a big impact has been the exchange rate, also what they mentioned. Remember last year, the first half, they had a once-off from the TFR take-or-pay, and then also I think this year, there was an impact from rail.

Then coupled with that, they are currently busy with the tie-in of the UHDMS project, all of that may have an impact on the business probably the next year or two. I can't now speak on all of that on behalf of them.

Exactly. Thank you.

I think two things left, maybe the manganese returns. I think our mining returns, as we have guided at the Capital Markets Day, is around that hurdle of 20%, and on the Cennergi side, our guidance is an internal rate of return of 15%.

I think those investment criteria is what we used both at acquisition and our expectations of performance within those two parameters. There was something about coal CapEx allocation.

I think we guided it quite clearly in our Capital Markets Day, but again, it's in line with the normalized numbers we had in 2022 in our last market guidance. We're currently going through maybe a peak period of two, three years with our shovel and truck project at GG, but we expect that to drop to the normalized levels by 20 20 2029, 2030.

Perhaps just to add to that, what I also understood from his question was when will we stop coal CapEx? Remember, we've got contracts in the Waterberg until 2054 on Medupi, and also the operations must be maintained, and then the additional angle that we get is that with the delay in decommissioning power stations, etc., coal is going to play a role in the energy mix well into the future, we must make sure our operations are well capitalized, well maintained to be able to capitalize on that.

Indeed. I think maybe it's worth continuing on that, Riaan, because I think Caroline's song on coal is that the global energy demand is dropping, but the supply is dropping faster.

Coal, yeah.

The coal supply is dropping even faster. Exxaro is well positioned, with 9 billion tonnes of resource, and the only operating in the 50 billion tonne resource in the Waterberg.

We see opportunities, and because of that, the International Energy Agency says it's likely that the global energy mix will still require coal even beyond 2050. It needs to come from responsible miners with proper corporate stewardship like Exxaro.

We think we are best placed as a responsible miner to provide for that demand, and we have the resource to do that. That is key for why we have positioned coal where it is.

Caroline and team are looking for life extension opportunities in all our operations in line with that demand beyond 2050. We are focused on logistics that we keep talking about, because we know the Waterberg can do more, and we're focused on entitlement in order to make sure we can evacuate our coal through the export facilities.

Those are the kind of three levers we know, and that coal remains an important base for us, and supplier of wonderful cash earnings for the growth pipeline we have.

Thank you, Ben. I don't know if we have any questions in the room, any further questions in the room.

Alex, I see your hand is up. Oh, okay.

Cool. Okay.

Without any further questions in the room, there's one question just to rehash on the price realization. I think just to drive an understanding, because from Lauriston Mike from Laurium Capital, his question is, "Can we circle back on price realization, the 91% versus the 96%?

Your answer implies customers can at their election revert to contract prices once prices have risen. Is this correct?

If yes, why, of course? I guess this is one now is this correct?

Maybe just clarifying."

Let's Yeah, maybe let's touch a little bit on that, and then, Riaan, you can top up. Compared to last year, last year, our realized price was $88 per tonne in the first half.

This year, we realized a price of $96 a tonne, our prices went up. However, the index price, API4, went up to $106 per tonne.

When the price is on the up and trending up and the futures are showing that API4 is going up, our customers want to lock in a fixed price so that they have predictability of their cargo when it comes. When they lock it, when the price goes up again, they continue in that manner.

Hence, our realized price drops to 91, but we still to 91%, but the price is still higher than what we have ever gotten. When the so they tend to fix their prices.

However, when the price comes down, because they potentially want to benefit from the index price coming down, they leave the price on the contract floating. As they leave it floating, we benefit more, because the realized price is actually better, our price realization is much higher.

I hope this covers it well,

and

I know you're online, you may not see my my my hands, but I hope we have covered it well. Riaan, anything I might have left?

Thank you.

Tick.

Yeah. Then now we're going to go to the call.

We've done the webcast, and then now we're going to go to the call. Operator, do you have any questions from the call?

Thank you. I'll just do another round in the room to see if there's any further questions.

Oh, there's one question there by Dr. Con.

Yes, it's coming. Yes, it's coming.

We know you may not have the voice anymore. That is still okay.

Thank you. I don't want to prolong this, and I'm not going to complain about the divvy, so.

Thank you for that. As soon as I leave here, I'll go to the grocery store and start spending some of that.

I just don't want to let you off the hook totally on this Transnet thing. Round figures you said about 60 million tonnes down to Richards Bay where we are now.

Now, if you go back to the history of that facility, I can remember when I was still working, we signed off on the expansion of the terminal owned by the private sector.

Indeed.

The figure that we had when we put the capital in at that stage was 90 million tonnes.

Yes.

Then we dropped, and we dropped, and we dropped. My memory is not that great anymore, but I think we probably never got beyond 72 million.

Then it went right down. If you look ahead, the next 10 years, let's say,

Yeah.

What sort of figure do you think we can get out of this? Firstly, I'm not complaining.

Any improvement on the previous year is always welcome.

Absolutely.

I think being sort of Women's Month, it just shows you you put a woman in charge, you get things done. The thing that's been worrying me for years is that we spent the capital, and as I say, I still signed off on the capital on behalf of our company.

Indeed.

For 90 million tonnes. I think it's probably a pipedream, 90, but has the industry got any collective view of where we can get to and what are the main impediments?

Because we can get transport right in this country, South Africa is going to look a lot different. There's a couple of others as well, but the transport one worries me.

Thanks, Dr. Con.

You're right about the 91 million tonnes. I was the other side when me and you signed for RBCT to go up to 91 million tonnes per year.

I think the most they did Was about

76.

75, 76.

76, yeah.

I think we already had expanded the plant to 76, which was the fourth the phase four of RBCT. The phase five was to take it to the 91 million tonnes, which we did, and we have spent the money.

Transnet in all the challenges went down to 48 million tonnes a year, and have been going up in steps between 5% to 8% improvement year on year, thanks to Michelle Phillips. We have seen that now at 60.

If you were asking for my own predictions of the coal industry's performance, not Exxaro, I would think that we might still be able to get to the 70, 75 million tonnes. I am not convinced that the coal industry can supply beyond 75.

However, Exxaro can. The opportunities we have is that we have enough resource to supply to, one, to our entitlement, and to possibly crouch in others' entitlement should they fail to meet that, and whether through buying it or leasing it.

I really think our resource and what Caroline's team are doing with life of mine extension, how do we continue to really get close to get it right. Call about women in charge, Michelle and Caroline can help us get there.

I'm really pleased with the efforts of 5% to 8% year on year, but as I said earlier on, no cigar yet, but I don't think the coal industry as a whole will get beyond 75. It is sad, but at least we can continue to benefit.

If the coal industry can't and Transnet wants to go to 80, Exxaro has got the volume.

Thank you.

Thank you,

Ben. Thank you, Riaan.

We have another question from Mx.

Another pensioner here.

Sure.

I think you know the answer. The new structural reforms, it's about what companies themselves can do for themselves to get higher.

It's no longer going to be reliant on just Transnet doing that. The question is, what efforts is Exxaro going to be taking to say, "You know what?

In the last path, especially on Grootegeluk, we did a very good deal with Transnet at that time to increase the number of trains per week on the basis of us putting capital and them putting capital." Now the question is, are we prepared to put in the capital, because the reforms are going to allow us to do that, to be the masters of our own destiny on that C-line.

I think that's the real question is that no longer are you going to have to say, "Well, it's Transnet's job," but we have the opportunity because the reform allows us to do that. I think that's what the question Dr.

Con and I'm also asking.

Fantastic, Mx. I think you are so right about the opportunities that the C-line provides for Exxaro, and especially that we're the only operating asset in that area.

There are even conversations around how do we extend that rail into Mmamabula in Botswana. Let's stick to our own knitting and what we can do with it.

We are pleased with the privatization and the liberalization of Transnet and railing capacity in the country that the Ministry of Transport and Transnet are driving through both the PSP and the CCP processes. We are in engagements with train operating companies that have been already picked up, and we think that process needs to be fast-tracked.

The benefit for us is we'll explore and we'll see how it works with parties, but the benefit for us is to have train operating companies, because we're not competent at running a train. Have a train operating company, give them an offtake agreement, and they will get money.

The key for us, yes, we can consider a level of funding that our pensioners continue to get their benefits, their returns, but most importantly, if you can give any train operating company assurance of 15 million tonnes offtake, any bank can fund that. We believe that we're taking it in our own hands, and we really believe there's opportunities in there.

We actually wish the process to be fast-tracked. We have done a research, how much money did we put in the study to understand how do we get to 4 million tonnes, how do we double, how do we treble it.

We as Exxaro have funded that study, because we know that the export optionality we have differentiates us from any other player. Mx, on the money?

Thank you. Thank you, Ben.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Without any questions, we've come to the end of our session, and thank you for your continued partnership on behalf of Exxaro. Thank you so much.