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Hello, welcome to Monday Markets with me, Graeme Dixon.
And me, Justin Pitchford. A very warm welcome to Shaun Day, CEO of Greatland Gold. Good morning, Shaun. Good afternoon to you.
Hi Graeme, Charles and Kevin. Thanks very much for having me on the program.
It's a pleasure. So, how is Greatland at the moment?
Yeah, no, it's going well, Graeme. We had a really strong last financial year to June, which was really gratifying, and we're starting to tear into the new year now.
So, Shaun, can you lend us some money? Because it seems like you have quite a lot of cash.
We are. It's spoken for, Kevin. We're planning to deliver Havieron and the West Underground and more. So that's the opportunity, and I think that cash just gives us, and hopefully our shareholders, confidence that we have the financial means to deliver those growth opportunities.
Shaun, there's a question for you. Obviously, in a lower interest rate environment, using debt to build out Havieron makes a lot of sense. But now you have the war chest to just do it yourself. Are you tempted to just use that cash to build it and just leave the banks out of it, or do you quite like having the debt component?
Well, Charles, we have those debt facilities in place, so they are there and will continue to be with us. What that means is, together with our cash, we've got not just almost 1.3, but almost 1.8 billion dollars to solve a 1.1 billion dollar puzzle. So we just think it gives us flexibility and increases the confidence that we can deliver the project. So I think, though, in more direct answer to your question, the first thing we would do is draw the cash. You don't want to be paying interest on debt if you've actually got that cash at the bank. So in a perfect world, we just about wouldn't even draw that debt.
And in terms of the gold price and where we are, obviously the gold price is still close to record highs. Do you still have those put options in case it comes down a little bit in place?
Yeah, we do. We still have some put options. I'm going to say they stretch out 12 to 18 months. So you know, that's just risk management. Put options are the path of least regret. So we fully participate in the spot price. But if it was to really correct, we've got the insurance there. And I think the analogy I've used before is it's like taking out home insurance on your house. My house has never burnt down. I don't even know anyone who's had their house burned down, but I still have home insurance. So we like having the insurance there. It's a relatively low cost for the protection it gives us, but it's there really for a rainy day. You know, as further to the preface to your question, we actually think the gold price environment is pretty strong and yeah, continues to be strong.
And then in terms of exploration, because I think the operations in terms of the gold you're generating at Telfer seems to be just going completely fine by itself, probably with a lot of hard work. But in terms of the exploration that's going on, it's throwing up some pretty strong hits so far that maybe a year or two ago I wouldn't have expected. So tell me what's going on.
Look, I think that whole Havieron discovery is, you know, it's a great discovery since acquisition. It's exceeded expectations in terms of grade, size, and then that Pinnacles hole, that's an extraordinary hole. It's extraordinary in terms of the concept. Yeah, they modeled out that one Western structure 1.2, 2 kilometers to the south. They then drilled it, and the execution of that hole, had they been more than one degree out, they would have missed the intercept. So again, execution was outstanding. And then the result, you know, 60 meters at 6.5 grams into that structure. It was a remarkable outcome in concept, in execution, in outcome. So you just gold star to that exploration team. That was our regional exploration team who came in and thought about structure and wanted to test that big step out. And equally, you know, we've got that big 450,000 meter, two-year surge of resource drilling. So this is getting definition of the resource and reserve. You've seen the benefits of the first 110,000 meters of that where we went from a 600,000 ounce resource to 7.9, almost 8 million ounces at Telfer, plus we went from zero reserves to 1.8 million ounces of reserves at Telfer just from the first 110,000 meters of that program. So, you know, all elements of that geology team are just knocking it out of the park right now.
And then, yeah, I'm going to hand over to Graeme and Kevin in a sec. I've just got a couple more. OALHs for tungsten. You know, last time we spoke, it seems that there was, you know, activity afoot. Can you make any comment there? I mean, the market speculation at the moment is that EQR Resources, you know, in whom you share a mutual shareholder, might be looking at that asset, you know, with some glee. What are your thoughts?
Oh look, it's, you know, we've got this tremendous organic growth profile with the copper and gold, that's really our focus. If we didn't have that existing growth profile, which we think is our core assets, we'd probably be a lot more enthusiastic about what Greatland can do with OALHs. But really for us, it's a tungsten asset. It probably has more value in someone else's hands, particularly someone that can activate it sooner than us. So look, we're looking at opportunities. You know, tungsten is a small kind of eclectic specialty metals market, but we're really excited about just the quality of that asset. You know, it's a top three global tungsten asset. So we'd like to find a home for it. Perhaps our base case is we spin out something more imaginatively named than Greatland Tungsten, but we'll see. And if there's an avenue to create shareholder value quicker through a transaction, of course we'd be open to that as well. But yeah, you know, we came out with the J resource I think in very late March, and really that set up the optionality that we have today.
And then last question for me, and this is more market structural. We've seen Amarok move up to the main market from AIM. We saw Jet2 flying off the index. You're actually, you know, by far and away the largest company on AIM. Now, are you happy with your home on AIM, or are you thinking potentially to move up to the main market at some point?
Yeah, look, I think Charles, we are happy with our home on AIM. I think, you know, we're really grateful for the success that we've had off that market in terms of the journey Greatland's had, the support that we had in the London market. I think we did the largest mining equity raise in London since 2016 off that market. So for us, it's worked really well. We obviously also have the listing on the ASX. We get full indexation of value both on London and on Australia on the ASX platform. So I think AIM works pretty well as that London platform for us. We're kind of open to ideas about why we should move to the main board, to the LSE. From time to time, a bank will come and talk to us about it. We're also mindful that some shareholders prefer us being on the AIM. I think there are some that would like us to go to the LSE. So we're kind of, you know, we can go either way on this. But for now, it seems to be a really nice complement, and you know, it's trading well. It's, you know, it's not broken, so we're not looking to fix it imminently.
Very good, Shaun. From the point of view of Telfer and obviously this, the Havieron extension and all the different things that you've now found, where are we at in terms of mine life extension with Telfer as opposed to where we were when we bought the farm, if you like?
So, Kevin, it's a good question. So when we bought the farm, it had, I think it started with a 15-month mine life that Newmont had. Newmont started that before acquisition, which from memory was in December 2024. So there was, say, 13, 14 months of that mine life left. It's been longer than that. You know, the acquisition mine life should have closed in about January 2026. So we are 7, 8 months past that date already. And where we had zero reserve at acquisition date, today or as at 30 June, we've got 1.8 million ounces. So it's an absolute sea change. I think, you know, the 1.8 million ounces probably suggests a life of, you know, ballpark 5 years, but I think the street really sees that supporting at least 10. And to my mind, when you look at something like the feasibility study life of Havieron, which is 17 years, I think there's a really good basis to think both mines, Telfer and Havieron, will go well beyond 20. I think that's more easily apparent at Havieron where you already have that delineated 17 years. But I think Telfer, just the ocean of opportunities we have there, the fact that we've still got three quarters of that or more, you know, we've got some 340,000 meters of drilling still to go in this search, I think gives us a lot of confidence that we can demonstrate really significant mine life extension at Telfer. I think it's a great growth story, and certainly the fact that we extended that drill program from an initial 240,000 meters to two years to 450,000 meters tells you what we're seeing as we continue that drill program. It tells you we think we'll get good bang for our buck in terms of extending that program.
Yeah. So if that was the case, obviously to be proven at this moment in time, but there's a level of confidence that both these mines are going to operate for 20 years, and your ambition was always to build something huge. When do we go outside of Telfer, Havieron and find the next HAV?
Well, look, we're looking for the next Havieron as we speak. So that regional exploration program continues, and we are trying to work with and facilitate other regional explorers. We think if there is a major discovery in the Paterson, we're a monopoly provider of processing infrastructure in the Paterson. We think it all comes to Telfer at some stage. So no one is more supportive of exploration in the Paterson, both by Greatland but also by a raft of junior explorers. So that's one side of it. And I guess there's also the more inorganic opportunity to bring in another asset. But again, we're in this beautiful position of strength. We've got probably an unparalleled best organic growth profile, best operational growth profile in the sector. Yes, if we can augment that with something sensible that we can create value for our own shareholders, of course we'd be interested. But there's no rush. We've got all the time in the world because whether we buy something or not, we have five years of consistent growth in front of us.
Yeah. And I mean, you've managed to collect basically, I would imagine now, even though your figures are out in June, you're in excess of a billion Australian dollars in cash. I mean, how quickly do you think that's going to keep going if we keep the current gold price? And then my next question is, how do you see the gold price and copper price?
All right. Well, let me answer that in three parts then. So to start with, I think what you're seeing now is continued good operational performance, but you are going to see a lot of capex being spent on Havieron over the next two years. It's $1.1 billion, and that was a June 2025 value in the feasibility study. So you'd expect some inflationary pressure since that date. So, you know, that's earmarked. That's why I wasn't able to kind of loan you the money earlier in this conversation, Kevin. We think that's earmarked to deliver that growth. But we continue to operate as well. We think that creates free cash flow margin, which gives us even more reason to believe we're able to not just deliver Havieron but also deliver the West Underground, continue the heavy investment in exploration, update the fleet renewal, and we're doing several things at once. But it's the good operational performance at site that is allowing us to do that simultaneous advance. In terms of gold price, look, it's hard to think that there's ever been a more supportive environment for gold. You've got governments around the world, the US government probably most famously, but the UK government doing its best to replicate these wartime deficits during peacetime. So just a complete loss of fiscal discipline. You're seeing that coming to Australia a little bit too now. They're funding that with debt. We've had 5,000-year low interest rates for the last five years, but interest rates didn't used to be one or two percent. So I'm not sure they last that way forever as debt just keeps mounting up. That creates a little bit of pressure on how people see sovereign debt, which is good for gold. And in parallel with that, you've got the biggest continental war in Europe since World War II. You've got China not renouncing military violence to take Taiwan, and the less said about the Middle East the better. So all these factors, I think, support a strong environment for gold. And then you go into copper. Well, copper's just been a fantastic way to get exposure to electrification. It's used in data centers. If you believe in the ongoing investment in AI, which I think most do, copper is a really good exposure for us. I couldn't think of two better metals in a portfolio than gold and copper. So we like that exposure. Copper's just been going great guns. Gold is still really strong. Came off a little bit over the last kind of three to six months, but still top decile all-time gold price, whilst copper's probably hitting new highs just about every week. So it's a good portfolio. But I love the fact that we have this copper in the portfolio, and when Havieron comes online, it actually dumps fuel into our copper afterburners. We get copper, there's more copper in Havieron than Telfer, and actually West Underground is also heavy copper. So we like what that does to our copper exposure over the next kind of three to five years.
What does the Australian dollar do to the overall finances of it? Because the Australian dollar, I presume, is getting a little bit stronger against the US dollar. If we do see a decline in the US dollar, your results are going to be turbocharged.
Yeah, look, I actually like the fact that we're effectively AUD dollar gold. Although I think market sentiment on all gold companies, including Greatland, seems to be driven off the USD gold price. In reality, it's the AUD gold price that delivers our margin. And when you look at that, gold seems to go up when the US dollar dips. That's when the Aussie dollar relatively appreciates. So in some ways our gold price stays a little bit consistent. Equally, if gold price drops and the USD appreciates and gold price drops a little bit, Aussie dollar drops, we're actually keeping the same margin. So I actually like, I guess, the automatic stabilizer that our AUD exposure gives us. So perhaps our highs are a little less high, but our lows are a lot less low as well. So I think it kind of works really well. And the longer we can stay in this record margin environment, the happier we are. So I think AUD gold is one of the, just given that correlation between gold and the AUD and USD, I think actually is a really neat spot to be in. I think it de-risks your gold portfolio.
And this is my last question now regarding the places that you're going to be listed. Obviously, you're on AIM at the minute. You're on the ASX. Surely the next move is New York Stock Exchange, not a high listing.
Oh, look, I think it's a while before we take on New York, Kevin. But look, I think there's beauty in the eye of the beholder. I think we already attract some US investors. Of course, we'd like more, but extra listings are somewhat extra work. Our genesis is due to the support we got out of London. So we kind of both have a historical affiliation with it. I'm a bit of an Anglophile, I like getting up there. But ultimately, I think two listings might be enough. I think we'd have to really change gears to be adding New York to the mix.
I mean, everything sounds fantastic, Shaun. Obviously, you've got the gold price doing well, the copper price is doing well. But you've got Havieron that you're developing. And you touched upon about when you did the feasibility study last year, it was, was it 1.1 billion, but you've had cost price inflation. What are you doing to sort of mitigate those costs so you don't take your eye off the ball from that? Is there anything you're doing to, like, change equipment, or is there anything you're doing differently?
Well, one of the really exciting things about Havieron is people might recall when we came out with the feasibility study on the 4th of December 2025, we still had that mine life that Kevin asked about. We had zero reserves at Telfer. So when we came out with the Havieron feasibility study, we assumed it was just Havieron operating by itself, that there were 4 million lonely tons coming out of Havieron going through an otherwise shut down 20 million ton Telfer. Well, today I don't think that's valid. Today I think most people would expect that Telfer and Havieron are going to be operating together. Now whether that's 10 years, 20 years or 40 years, time will tell. But I think there's now an expectation that Telfer and Havieron will operate together. So when you go back to the cost structure of Havieron, I think it actually looks better. So just to put some color on that, last year we operated the Telfer mill at about $17 a ton. In the Havieron feasibility study, we assumed $37 a ton to process subscale through Telfer. Well, now you do grind it a little bit finer. So let's say it's not 17. Let's even just say it's $27, the midpoint. That's a $10 a ton saving. Then you think about overhead, sustaining capital, just the economies of scale. We actually think you perhaps put downward pressure on the operating costs of Havieron. So perhaps Havieron looks better in today's market than it did nine months ago. And that's the opportunity for us.
I see. So you might have a slight increase in capex, but the opex will more than compensate for that.
Yeah. And look, in terms of capex, obviously we're laser focused for it. I think the street assumes it's 1.2, 1.3 billion because they factor in, I'll just assume a 4% inflation. That feels about right. So I don't think there's any surprises there that inflation exists, and the street's pretty good at understanding that. But right now, our job is to try to deliver it at 1065. That was the feasibility study number. Of course, there could be some creep with that, but if we delivered it at 1065, we'd beat the street's expectation. Now, that's a good spot to be. And right now what we're trying to do is fix in as many of those costs as possible so hopefully we can deliver that 1065 and not have to accept 4% creep over a couple of years on everything.
Yeah. Shaun, you came on about a year ago on to Monday Markets, one of the first guests. So we thank you for coming back, and we just ask you the question: what is your favorite midweek takeaway?
So Kevin, we've had a long relationship, and I appreciate the early engagement of Greatland as well. So you've been on the journey from small Greatland to where we are today, which is a lot bigger. So we've enjoyed being part of your program. And in terms of the question you're asking, what exactly?
What is your favorite takeaway? So it's a takeaway meal. Yeah, it's Wednesday night and you know, you have to have... What is it?
Oh, look, I think in reality it's probably pizza is the thing that we would do if we are grabbing a takeaway meal. So yeah, I think the kids do enjoy the pizza when they can get it. So there's normally a bit of negotiation around pizza toppings, but that aside, it's good.
And how's the running coming along? Are you keeping...
I just did the City to Surf, which was 12 kilometers last weekend. So fresh from a run, but never enough time. But yeah, it's continuing, which is a success in itself.
Yeah, I think you're going to create another mini-major. And eventually it's going to become a major because I can see that's your drive. So hopefully you come back every year and we'll see how much bigger you have grown on an annual basis. If what we think is going to happen, which is basically gold and copper are right at the beginning of a supercycle, then the potential upside in Greatland is still absolutely huge. You could argue that you're actually at the start of the story, not from when we were Greatland Gold on AIM at 0.75p or whatever it was. We are absolutely at the start of a generative process that will mean that Greatland will be a much, much bigger company than it is today.
Well, Kevin, supercycle is a great and stylish way to conclude the program. So thank you, and let's hope that is the trajectory.
Okay, Shaun, thank you very much for appearing on Monday Upbeat Markets, and look forward to seeing you again.
Thanks again, Graeme. I appreciate the time, and Kevin and Charles, always good to be on the program.
And today we have a special guest, director of Priority One PLC. Welcome, Dan.
Good afternoon. How are you? How are you all?
Very well, thank you very much.
Good, good, good. So tell us a bit about what Priority One is all about in, I don't know, two sentences.
In a nutshell, Priority One is an AI technology platform that helps businesses scale.
Okay, that's very succinct.
Very succinct. I'll be doing a lot of talking later, Graeme. So I'm saving your ears for now.
Okay. And tell me, what's the mainstay of, you know, I know you've got separate divisions of Priority. Is there a particular main division? I know you've got a sports division and you've got a SaaS division.
Yeah, we've got new businesses now as of last week. So we now run four operating companies. We were at three. Prior to that, Intelligence Group, as you say, is the PLC, which is where we hold our technology and IP. What we do in a nutshell is we take businesses' data and we turn it into parameters to create their own AI models, and that powers their growth. So we run a SaaS technology platform with up to 11,000 users on it, and we operate sector-specific operating companies. Halfspace is sport. Priority AI is your theme, looking at your direct-to-consumer brand, your more traditional businesses. You've got Metric, which is music, hospitality and partnerships, which was until last week our newest brand. And then we have the very exciting acquisition of Perks, which is now in the theme HR and wellbeing space to add to the stable, all powered by our proprietary technology.
I see you're chalking up some revenue now.
Chalking up some revenue. We've got in-house revenue. Every single one of the operating companies is driving good revenues. Pro-forma post-Perks acquisition, we are well into the seven figures across all the operating companies. We've got our year ends coming up pretty shortly as well, which I'm sure investors will be eager to see. Over 11,000 users across all four of the platforms now on our technology, using our software, which is fantastic. Growing at a rate of knots. Busy summer. Sadly, no summer holidays for lots of us. Doing M&A, putting out some new products. We've got some big contract renewals coming up, which I'm sure people will be eagerly awaiting to see some new stuff on. So all in all, really busy summer, lots of great work. Headcount, we are 25-ish post-acquisition in the City of London. So we are bursting at the seams of the office. But yeah, brilliant, really fun ride since listing.
Dan, tell me about the ability for you to bring on other businesses. It seems now with Halfspace and Perks for sure, and Metric I think has been more created from within, but you seem to be acquiring and bringing on business to create scale. Tell me more about this.
Well, I mean, Kev, you know the story really well. You've been a supporter from the times we had kind of the ideas James and I founded the business, and we always wanted to go and help businesses grow, help businesses scale. Our technology is built there, from our voice AI to our social media, our data enrichment technology. Everything's about growth. We're trying to help businesses scale. We do a lot in the operational efficiency space. We ourselves have used a lot of our own technology to shave a lot of operational efficiency. We're talking big numbers here where we've not had the internal skills. So we've gone and used technology to fill that gap and save some operational resource. That does lend itself to looking at other businesses in and around our space. We're talking complementary technology around our space, helping other businesses grow. And what we can do is parachute in, take the user base, take the revenue, create those operational efficiencies with our own technology, and really, really quickly. With the Halfspace acquisition, which is now fully integrated, all of those Halfspace customers are powered by Priority technology. All the Metric customers are powered by Priority technology. We are the data and AI mothership that's powering these operating companies, and it's a really quick and aggressive way for us to grow. Perks acquisition, over 10,000 users on platform into the Priority Perks brand, which will shortly be migrated onto our platform to access that same level of technology they've had from Perks. Lots of irons in the fire. There's lots of opportunity out there. We've obviously got some fantastic institutional backing from the guys over in the States at YA, who are very supportive of our growth and want us to be going quicker and harder. We're more than happy to go with that as well. So I think, yeah, lots of exciting stuff for us to do, and where we can create immediate efficiencies and push those operating companies as quickly as possible to EBIT positive, there's tons of work that we can be doing, and it's an exciting place as well to help out some cool businesses with their own cool tech.
Okay. So tell us about Halfspace, what they actually do in an elevator pitch, and then the same for Perks.
So Halfspace, award-winning data consultancy business, also in the technology space, going for eight years now. So we acquired them coming up to a year ago now, just passed our anniversary. Very much a consultative business, which we pushed our own proprietary technology into. So using SaaS, using technology to not only retain those consultative customers, increase their spend and build out data with them. Everything that we do, and our tagline, it's in the office everywhere, is 'growth train on your data'. So we go into businesses, we take the data they've already got and we turn that into immediate growth. That might be helping them drive more revenues, better efficiencies, understanding their customer better with our data enrichment products. Halfspace is fantastic at doing that. Our technology has just super-sized it in the length and breadth that it can operate at. Some fantastic customer wins like World Aquatics, International Federation for Aquatics over in Lausanne. Brilliant customer for us underneath that Halfspace banner, but driven by Priority products. Obviously flagship customers like Premier League football clubs, which we all know and love. Aston Villa being one of the oldest customers in that brand, been with us over two years now. The Racecourse Association, GBR, every single racetrack in the UK using a version of our technology. Really good ways to get our tech into people's hands quickly, and all coming up for renewals in terms of the work that we're doing for them. And very happy customers, lots of testimonials, lots of positivity, and lots of growing sports. Obviously breakout, amazing season for Villa last year, which I'd like to take credit for but sadly not. However, on the business side, all their numbers are up, which is where we get our wins.
As a Millwall fan, you can't take credit for anything. Okay. The next one is Perks then, obviously the new deal that came there on Friday. Tell us about it. Why is that going to, if you like, catapult the business in terms of the number of clients? By the looks of things, it's going to be a pretty good number of clients.
Revenue, the pipeline that sits in there, around £550,000 of audited revenue last year from Perks, a pipeline in excess of that. We're talking £850,000. Perks delivers employee wellbeing predominantly to SMEs. We can have direct-to-consumer customers as well, people that jump on. We're talking £450, £5 a month to have 24/7 GP, discounted employee benefits, mental health care for your employees. Think of it like a Vitality Lite effect. Private healthcare for your employees. Everyone here has business owners. Super expensive. Perks is an affordable, quick, technology-driven solution to bring that in. Huge traction early doors. Some real, real big customers that sat in that group. People like Travis Perkins, real big mainstays of the UK economy, incentivizing their staff coming to this platform. James, co-founder of Priority, and I have known the Perks business for over five years now. Followed and supported it. Private company, very well funded. Unfortunately, financial headwinds with institutional backers, some falling away, meant that the business couldn't scale at the velocity it wanted to. So we've come in and identified those synergies. I think one of the big ingredients for growth in a business is the people. It's the first time we've gone into that people space with our technology, but going in, speaking to a captive audience of hundreds of members with tens of thousands of users, cross-selling our Priority products, but also cross-selling the Perks solution to the already big numbers of users that are on our platform using our tech every day to grow. There are great synergies. We've got some fantastic forecasts for that business, both as a standalone entity revenue-producing with a pathway to EBIT positive, but also as a wider play in the group. I think you look at comparables in that space. The numbers that Perks is operating on, there's tons of room to grow there. Really excited, and there's loads of operational efficiency that we can put in place to supercharge that towards EBIT positive a lot quicker than you would expect.
