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5E Advanced Materials Inc. (FEAM)

Q4 2025 Earnings Call· Mon, Sep 29, 2025

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the 5E Advanced Materials Fiscal Year 2025 Year-End Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, today's call is being recorded. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. For more information on these risks, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 5E Advanced Materials undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. At this time, I would now like to turn the call over to Paul Weibel, Chief Executive Officer of 5E Advanced Materials. Paul, please go ahead.

Paul Weibel

Analyst

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. Fiscal year 2025 has been a transformative year as we move from development to commercial readiness. We achieved broad validation across our project from the SK-1300 pre-feasibility study to customer qualifications and supply chain milestones. Before I go into detail, let me summarize the key achievements from fiscal year 2025. Strong project economics have been validated. Our recently published pre-feasibility study for Phase 1 only confirms a 39.5 year mine life with a robust after-tax NPV of $725 million and a 19% project IRR. Commercial front, we have successfully qualified our high-purity boric acid with 14 customers across multiple segments and have now advanced to full-scale production testing with a Tier 1 specialty glass manufacturer. On the financing front, we received a nonbinding LOI from USXM for a potential $285 million project debt facility, a major step towards securing funding for Phase 1 construction. And in regards to on track for being -- towards the project FID, we now have milestones and are well positioned to advance towards FEED engineering and a final investment decision in mid-2026. Today, I will cover these 4 areas in more detail and discuss the upcoming fiscal year 2026. First, the recently published SK-1300 PFS provides a strong validation of the scale, economics and longevity of our Ford Cady resource and reserve. This study covers Phase 1 only, not including future expansions or higher-value boron derivatives. The results underscore the strength of our project fundamentals. The project shows a pretax NPV of approximately $725 million with a 19% project IRR. The after-tax NPV is about $469 million with a 16% project IRR. We estimate free cash flow over the life of mine have roughly $3.7 billion pretax with an after-tax payback of just under 6 years.…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Okay. And it looks like -- apologies, just about to hand it back to you, Paul, but we did get a question coming in from Tate Sullivan from Maxim Group.

Tate Sullivan

Analyst

Can you review the comments you had about the disruption to the California boron mine? What was the specific announcement that you cited?

Paul Weibel

Analyst

Tate, yes. No, appreciate you dialing in and thanks for the question. So at the end of August, Rio, with the appointment of the new CEO, made announcements that they've streamlined their business. Historically, Rio has been broken up into 4 different business segments. And on a go-forward basis, they're now structured where they have 3 business segments, which is one, iron ore; two, copper; and three aluminum or lithium. And essentially, the industrial minerals, which I believe that's where their diamonds, borates and titanium business sat, are essentially up for -- well, they now sit with the chief -- the office of the Chief Commercial Officer for the release and they are up for a strategic review.

Tate Sullivan

Analyst

Okay. And then to get boron on the USGS critical mineral list, is it a -- I mean 3, 6-month process or what needs to happen in terms of the review?

Paul Weibel

Analyst

Great question. So we were in D.C., I was down there and met with Interior in July. Kind of the word on the Street was that sometime this fall, the draft list would come out. And there was no comment on it, boron would or would not make the list. But essentially, the appropriate measure to get boron added to the list is essentially to submit public comments. My kind of gut told me at a time, I should expect to see a draft list by October. Was pleasantly surprised that kind of came in ahead, and I think it was maybe the first week of September or last week of August the draft list was published, which essentially opened up a 30-day public comment window. All comments are available on the Federal Register. And we submitted our comment, as did believe 8 other groups, that you could search for borate on the Federal Register under the comments and they're all there. I was pleased that there was some well-known groups that did apply. And so we're not now the kind of the only one in the room kind of ringing the bell that there are supply chain concerns there in this market.

Operator

Operator

And there were no other questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Paul Weibel for any closing remarks.

Paul Weibel

Analyst

Great. Thank you. I appreciate the Q&A during today's call. As noted, we believe 5E has the right resource, and now it's the right time. We are committed to building a strong and resilient borate supply chain that underpins the U.S. industrial base for many generations to come. We look forward to fiscal year 2026 and delivering on our expected milestones as we go into 2026. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And this does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.