By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have protected beyond all human probability and expectation for I had 4 bullets through my coat and 2 horses shot under me yet escaped unhurt. These were the words of George Washington boasting to his brother John in July of 1755 about his luck and military progress during the French and the Indian war. Yes, indeed, you are in the right venue for Exxaro's results presentation. Thank you, Ling and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your presence here today and welcoming those who are joining us online as well. A very warm welcome also to our Lead Independent Director, who just walked in Ms. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, and other fellow Board members who have joined us in attendance today. I'm also pleased to see the members of the pensioners club. But it seems as if there's only 1 member keeps coming every year in an art and I must say the 21 years I've been in this company, there's one of the pensioners who has attended this 21x. And before he attended the CEO, but I want him to stand up so that we can give him a resounding round of applause, Dr. Con. Please. So you need to really look for the other pensioners. I don't know what's happening. They're so disorganized. Okay. So thank you for your continued support. Really, we appreciate it. My team and I are pleased to present our 2023 annual results this morning compared to 2022 results. As always, we welcome your honest feedback. So now let me get straight into the business of the day. So 2023 proved to be yet another dynamic global operating environment post COVID. It started with optimism, mainly due to the much-anticipated post-pandemic recovery sentiment. As the year progressed, global investor sentiment shifted and weighed negatively on global economic activity and commodity markets. The global economy asserted a recession despite the continued challenges of elevated inflation, higher interest rates, turbulence in the banking sector, the Chinese weak property market, intensified geopolitical conflicts and gas supply risks. Throughout 2023, just looking at global inflation, it continued on its downward path driven by monetary tightening, declining demand, supply chain resilience, declining commodity prices and the reversal of many of the inflationary forces from COVID-19 pandemic. South Africa's headline inflation averaged at 6% while our mining inflation averaged at 8.1%. That is going to be very important to note as we present the cost slide later on by Kgabi. Despite the property sector witnessed in China, the seaborne iron ore market was supported by resilience of China's steel output as the much-anticipated steel capacity cuts remained modest in China that is. In addition, the property market policy that eased off in August also supported our overall sentiment within the sector. Changes in demand and trade flows in thermal coal were observed during the year. Now local coal prices also resulted in a resurgence in Indian demand, which is a good story for us, with both China and India, taking more coal due to their economic growth activity and buoyant power demand. We also saw the resumption of Australian supply into China from the trade ban of 2020, also a drastic reduction in Russian supply that we've seen to Europe, Japan, South Korea and lastly, Taiwan's gradual shift away from reliance on the Russian coal dependency. For most of 2023, seaborne thermal coal prices remained under pressure due to the weak demand for high calorific value coal from Europe and Northeast Asia. High stock levels of both thermal and gas in Europe, Japan and South Korea resulted in a significant price reduction. Furthermore, stronger renewable availability reduced the role of gas and thermal coal in the European energy mix. So towards the end of 2023, natural gas supply risks and the Israel-Hamas war and the uncertainty of the Northern Hemisphere winter, added to the energy market dynamics and pricing. On the back of all of this, we come back home, TFR continue to report the same challenges already mentioned previously to you, such as limited availability of locomotives, unending security incidents and vandalism of the infrastructure, resulting in the lowest RBCT coal exports of 47.2 million tonnes, below 48.6 million tonnes achieved in 1992. So operational challenges and equipment failures at Eskom power stations impacted on the offtake of power station coal in the Waterberg region and being specific at Grootegeluk. And Kgabi will share more about how much those volumes were and the impact just now. So moving on, looking at our performance. In this unsetting environment, you will recall that we had a loss of life at Belfast in financial year 2022. And we had to recognize a team to focus on basics so that we can achieve the much wanted 0 harm. As a result, I'm very encouraged to report today that in the last year, that is 2023, we produced all the tonnes without a fatality. However, our lost time injury frequency rates for the group, which we use as an indication of how well we're doing in safety was 0.07 against a much-reduced target of 0.05, which is telling us that we must continue to intensify our day-to-day efforts to achieve this much needed 0 harm in our operations. So looking at operational performance, and I must say that under Kgabi's leadership, the coal team responded with resilience to an evolving operating landscape, which was tough. However, lower demand from Eskom and continuing logistics challenges that we've talked about, resulted in a 1.4% decline in coal production from 43 million tonnes in the previous year to 42.5 million tonnes per annum. So with the continued logistics constraint, it is really important that I remind you what the design construct of this business. And I've mentioned this before that our operations are optimized to perform at 50 million tonnes per annum with 8 million to 12 million tonnes per annum of exports by rail to RBCT, very critical information because there is, however, a threshold to these volumes, below which even the most stringent of cost containment measures will be rendered ineffective. So let's look at how we are producing today. We operated 42.5 million tonnes per annum, not 50 million, oftentimes with full stock prices, which really impact the rhythm of operations back at the mines. And we are railing at 5 million tonnes per annum of exports, railing, some of which are on trucks to Maputo and also to our RBCT ports. So I can say to you that the ops team and Mellis are now feeling the pressure against inflation. And we're going to hear more about that when Kgabi and Koppes are talking about it. So consequently, if you look at our unit cost, it has increased by 16.7% on a year-on-year basis from ZAR 413 to ZAR 482 per tonne, driven by all these constraints that I've mentioned to you, the offtake from Eskom, full stockpiles and as a result of the acceleration of setting mining activities that Kgabi will share with us. And surely, if we are tracking more than we have before, we still have to optimize that cost as well. So we are really in a position, though, to really quickly respond to the demand from the market despite the challenges I've just mentioned to you. And also giving you context on this increased cost per tonne, this does not mean that we have abandoned our operational excellence initiatives that we've shared with you and the very intent of remaining below mining inflation. That has not changed. Our early value strategy, together with our market to resource optimization, enabled by our record average price realization of 97% against the API4 index is pleasing. And this is an increase of 4% compared to financial year of 2022. So let's look at synergy for a little bit in terms of the operations. And you'll see that in terms of wind generation, it increased by 8% compared to the financial year of 2022 as wind conditions improved in the previous year. Now coming to the financial performance, and you will hear more from Koppes that we've achieved an EBITDA decrease by 29% from all the reasons that I've already talked about to ZAR 13.4 billion. And this is our second highest following our record thermal prices in the financial year of 2022. This decrease is driven primarily by lower export prices and lower sales volumes for both our domestic and our export markets. Looking at the core business EBITDA margin. It went down by 9% from 42% to 33%, whilst the EBITDA margin of the synergy business remained stable at 80%. Headline earnings per share achieved for this period, ZAR 46.81, which is 32% lower compared to the financial year '22, including a contribution from SIOC and Black Mountain equity interests. We achieved a return on our capital employed of 35%. So this achievement is attributable not only to a high basket price performance, but also to our efforts on efficient capital deployment and cost management. Given this performance and considering the ongoing and prolonged logistics uncertainty ahead, including our growth aspirations, it is my pleasure to announce the final dividend as declared by our Board of ZAR 10.10 per share. But that's still weak, wow, okay, let's hear if you're going to do something now, and a special dividend of ZAR 5.722. Maybe that's going to be louder. That is tough. It is tough to answer. This is really heart-warming. But Koppes will elaborate a little bit more on that later. So it's not just a dividend. There's also a special on top of that. So as a purpose-driven organization, the sustainable impact of our business remains at the core of our strategy. We continue to integrate ESG into a day-to-day running of this business with our steering committee, together with our Board committees playing a crucial role in ensuring that there is momentum and quantifiable outcomes coming out of the programs. As a result, we continue to benchmark above our peers on global ESG best practice. So I'll give you just a few examples on this. The Lephalale Solar Project, which is valued at ZAR 1.6 billion, which we have announced before is under construction and will provide us with a 27% reduction in Scope 2 emissions upon completion in 2025 moving on with water intensity improved by 30%, while our carbon intensity was reduced by 20%. You may have also seen the good news in the media in quarter 4 of last year that we have signed an MoU with the Council of Geosciences to explore carbon capture usage and storage capacities and opportunities thereof, to mitigate difficult to update carbon emissions. All of these examples are an indication of demonstratable progress. In line with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, the representation of black women in senior and middle management has improved by a whopping 75% in the past 6 years. That must be great. Thank you. And in 2023, over 6% of our payroll allocation went into skills development and training of our employees, which included master classes that kept us abreast with industry development and best practice. We also provided over 200 SETA accredited courses for community SMEs. And compared to financial year 2022, we awarded more than double the number of bestiaries to previously disadvantaged youth. I think that's great news as well. Ladies and gents, if you look at the period between '19 and 2023 financial years, your contribution towards social investment was ZAR 7.4 billion, of which almost ZAR 2 billion of that was spent in the financial year of 2023. So really one area we spend a lot of time talking about as we go through challenges of costs everywhere, but this is one space we don't want to skimp on. So Kgabi will unpack a little bit on this when he speaks to these numbers. So last but not least, as a result of deep disciplined capital allocation framework, we have consistently delivered shareholder distribution, exceeding ZAR 45 billion over just 5 years that have passed, of which ZAR 38.9 billion was allocated as ordinary dividend and ZAR 7.1 billion in a special dividend while retaining a strong balance sheet and positioning this business for growth. Governance excellence is important to us, and it is core to the function of this Board, which is why we have decided to have dedicated Board governance session, targeting key critical business risks that have an adverse impact on stakeholder value drivers of the business, while at the same time exploring what could be in the emerging business trends that could add more value in the business. So our strategy scorecard is reviewed annually. Coming from that are key performance indicators that are assessed quarterly, and these have enabled the Board to monitor progress on the execution of the strategy. And for our business continuity, I'm proud to announce that we have maintained our BBBEE score rating of 2. Now achieving such of these against a complex and ever-changing environment does not happen by accident. It is the commitment of the great men and women of Exxaro and the leadership of our Board. So on that note, I will now hand over to Kgabi to take you through the performance of the core business. Over to you, Kgabi.

Good morning, ladies and gents. Thank you, Nombasa. We've been on an exciting journey despite facing challenges in the macro environment. It's an honor to work with the coal team, [indiscernible], [Mellis, Chris, Las, Lorato, Lungi]. So the team has really supported us this year. Despite a challenging 2023 on the safety side for the industry, we did not have any fatalities as mentioned by Dr. Nombasa in any of our operations. With ongoing logistical constraints, we managed to still maintain production as well as export sales of more than 5 million tonnes and achieved a record price realization against depressed coal prices. We also effectively controlled our total costs and continued our focus on value-adding projects in capital execution. I'll now dive deeper into our performance. Starting with safety, which remains our #1 priority and underpins how we do business. Positively, the group achieved 0 fatalities since August of 2022. However, the industry did experience the tragic loss of 53 lives in 2023. I'll therefore like to take this moment to convey our deepest condolences to the families and friends who have lost their loved ones. Improved safety outcomes across business remains a continued and collective responsibility. Regrettably, we did record 11 lost times injuries and that has resulted in us not achieving our target. Our target was 0.05, where we ended up achieving 0.08. And to address this, the team initiated enhanced safety campaigns across all our operations as we firmly believe that our commitment to 0 harm is paramount and achievable. We'd like to highlight some noteworthy achievements in our environmental performance, demonstrating our dedication to sustainability, a 20% improvement in carbon intensity with a continued commitment to achieve our 2026 target of reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from our baseline of 2022, a 30% reduction in water intensity staying well below our target of 180 liters per annum of mined tonne and surpassing the coal mining benchmark of 380 liters of mined tonne. Our rehabilitation efforts resulted in 20% multistep land restore compared to 2022. Mongezi and Tim are leading that. We maintained a 0 level 3 major environmental incidents. However, there was an unfortunate level 2 incident recorded at one of our closed operations. We are pleased to report a 14% increase in community investments totaling ZAR 1.9 billion, as this was mentioned by Nombasa. Of this, 79%, which is ZAR 1.48 billion was used to support our black SMMEs through local procurement and enterprise and supply development. This inclusive approach reflects our dedication to positively impacting lives and fostering a sustainable world. Next, I will focus on our operational performance. It is evident that our operational agility shielded us from major impacts on our business. The Eskom operational challenges resulted in sales being impacted negatively by 1.2 million tonnes at an increased quality at Grootegeluk. However, this impact was mitigated by increased production at Leeuwpan based on placement of product in the market as well as Belfast ramping up to normalized production levels after the impact of the unfortunate fatality in 2022, resulting in overall production decreasing by only 1.4 million tonnes. Our sales decreased by 3.8%, mainly due to the Eskom impact, as highlighted above. Despite these challenges, our domestic sales increased by 7.1%, benefiting from our market resource strategies as well as maintaining export sales above 5 million tonnes. We forecasted product for 2024 to decrease by 1.4 million tonnes and sales to remain the same, mainly due to a 9% decrease in Mpumalanga production, mainly driven by Matla decreasing by 17% in line with the life of mine project. Leeuwpan optimization, we are focusing there on driving value, not on volume, hence the reduction in terms of the numbers, and improvement at Belfast through alternative logistical export channels. A slightly improved Eskom offtake is expected at Grootegeluk, although it's still less than the full contractual volumes. Although the decline in the API4 index poses a challenge in selling our product through alternative ports, we continue to pursue this option to enable our operations as long as it remains financially viable. Moving to our market slide. Our robust and diverse product portfolio resulting from the Early Value Strategy and our market to resource optimization initiatives enabled us to increase our RB1 sales from 58% in 2022 to 73% in 2023. This resulted in record price realization of 97% achieved against the index across total export volumes. 2023 saw the API4 index lower by 55% compared to 2022. However, the exchange rate assisted somewhat in countering the impact of lower realized rent price. Looking at the pie chart at the top right, you will note the following regarding our markets. Sales to Europe have reduced by 36% in 2023. That is -- and this was -- these levels, we believe that they will be sustainable going forward. This reduction in sales was on the back of much lower demand for coal, influenced by very high inventory levels coming into 2023 and much higher availability of gas at very low prices, causing coal to gas switching. We have increased coal volumes into Asia by 19% and Africa by 15%, in line with our longer-term strategy. Our robust product portfolio continues to enable us to play our strengths in different markets. As much as coal evacuation to our markets remains a serious challenge, the team continues to focus on finding solutions across numerous domestic and export logistics channels, and we expect to continue to build our past successes to move product via alternative ports in 2024. With the initiatives in place, exports are expected to increase by 18% to 6 million tonnes in 2024. I'll then move to our costs. During the half year presentation in August, we highlighted the fact that we have installed capacity to produce 50 million tonnes. Nombasa did spend time on that because it's quite important that we understand an investment upfront, where you're sitting with a capacity of 50 million tonnes. So that is an important one as I go through my presentation. We indicated that should there be offtake and logistics constraints that additional cost projects will result. And our remaining guidance of remaining within coal mining inflation will be at risk. Subsequently, the catch-up of 1 million tonnes on the Eskom uptake at Grootegeluk did not materialize. And actually [indiscernible] and the TFR performance also didn't improve, resulting in higher volumes through alternative channels. This impacted the operational rhythm and required us to pivot regarding our mining processes. We, therefore, utilize this opportunity to prepare our operations to be more responsive to this new ongoing reality. At Grootegeluk, we accelerated the enlargement of the footprint of the sum to more effectively manage our total balance, especially during periods of excessive rain. At the Mpumalanga mines, we made a conscious decision to create value by increasing the amount of export coal and restore operations to run of mine activities. This resulted in total tonnes handled increased by -- increasing by 27 million tonnes, resulting in an additional 1 million tonnes of run of mine produced to the plant. This enabled continued production and sales volumes through our alternative logistics channels. We achieved a 1% decrease in our cost per total tonnes handled as depicted in the graph on the top right, underlying our operational efficiency in handling additional volumes despite the external pressures, which I've just discussed. Given this macro impact, the above value creating decisions has temporarily resulted in our cost increasing by 16.7% and in our cash cost per tonne being higher than mining inflation by 8.1%. At Leeuwpan an additional 5.7 million tonnes were moved at a cost of ZAR 89 million enabling us to produce 600,000 tonnes and a movement between pit resources targeting higher product quality. Belfast moved an additional 4.8 million tonnes at a cost of ZAR 131 million. And after the first quarter delay in mining, as discussed before, and -- they've managed to produce 473,000 tonnes additional. The Grootegeluk establishments to enable water management in the mining pit, as mentioned, required us to move about 2 million tonnes of material at a cost of ZAR 111 million. We can confirm that the stripping ratios are still aligned to the life of mine guidance at levels indicated previously, where the strip ratios at Leeuwpan and Belfast decreased in 2024, while the Grootegeluk strip ratio will increase slightly. All these movements are linked to the normal resource geology. I will now unpack the production costs, as indicated by the shaded area in the bottom graph. Even though our rand per total tonnes handled decreased by 1%, our production cost on a rand per tonne basis increased by ZAR 53 per tonne, which is about 12.8% due to the sales volume constraints, as mentioned above. Then the key contributors include the following. We've handled additional material and that resulted in increased contractor activity, rental of equipment higher, and we've also enhanced maintenance as we're operating more equipment. And that came at a cost of about ZAR 40 per tonne, which is about 9.7%. Employee cost increases due to normal levy increases, which were about 1.7%, and energy costs increased by 1% due to a 16.5% increase in electricity rates. And these were offset by improved efficiencies in our operations. The above cost was offset somewhat by the decrease in the rehabilitation liability mainly due to increase in discount rates. Koppes will later unpack the general and distribution costs. What I'd like to end on the cost side is in the face of challenging macro environment, our commitment to cost containment remains steadfast. We are comfortable that the work performed during the last 6 months have set our operations up for a sustained and resilient response to ongoing external market impact. This is supported by our commitment to driving digital programs targeted at obtaining insights from advanced data analytics. We, therefore, see ourselves returning to normalized cost and strip ratios as guided previously. We continue to actively investigate economically viable logistic strategies. Finally, I'll move into our capital expenditure. Our total capital spend for 2023 demonstrated our commitment to financial prudence and operational efficiency. It is noteworthy that we achieved this while maintaining alignment within the 5% guidance provided in the November 2023 FD Pre-Close with the actual expenditure at 3% below the forecasted value. Further on our capital excellence journey, our commitments to capital excellence is reflected in our continuous review and reprioritization of the capital pipeline. This ensures that our investments align with impactful business objectives, driving sustainable business and value creation. Looking ahead, we forecast our 2024 capital expenditure to remain in line with our overall guidance, projecting an average spend of ZAR 2.5 billion per year in real terms. Key areas of focus include equipment replacement at Grootegeluk and license to operate infrastructure in Mpumalanga. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the operations team and my colleagues here at a connection for the exceptional agility and resilience demonstrated through the year. Their efforts have played a significant role in our financial achievements. Now I'll hand over to Koppes, who will provide a detailed overview of the financials. Thank you.

Thanks, Kgabi. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure presenting the results for the year ended 31 December. The results will be compared to the '22 financial year. As mentioned, I think our results must be viewed in the context of a very difficult operating environment where we had a bumper 2020 financial year with gold prices at elevated level. Despite this, we posted the second highest EBITDA as Nombasa mentioned in the history of the company, which is definitely testimony to the robustness of the business. The IFRS results will also be adjusted with headline earnings adjustments to make them more comparable and details are included in the backup slide. So on the first slide, the high-level overview of the group results highlight the performance of our own operations depicted on the first 2 graphs on the top, followed by income from the equity accounted investments on the top right. So following the record performance on the back of high coal prices in 2022, the tougher conditions we experienced in 2023 are evident in the lower revenue and EBITDA numbers. However, looking back at the 5-year performance, the significant compounded growth rate demonstrate that shareholders are handsomely rewarded for our efforts to enhance efficiency, cost control as well as our conviction in our early value and market to resource strategies to deliver value for our stakeholders. Revenue and EBITDA will be unpacked in more detail later on. The total contribution from our non-managed operation was in line with 2022. And equity income from SIOC was ZAR 1.3 billion higher, offset by a weaker performance from Mafube, a 50% joint venture with Thungela mainly as a result of the lower export coal price. So this translated into headline earnings per share of ZAR 46.81 per share. Our cash generation remains robust at ZAR 13.3 billion for the year, enabling us to bolster our net cash position with an additional ZAR 5.2 billion to ZAR 10.5 billion, putting us on a strong footing to execute on our growth strategy. On this slide, we split out the EBITDA for the coal business between Waterberg and Mpumalanga. EBITDA decreased at both the Waterberg and Mpumalanga commercial operations compared to financial year 2022. The decrease in EBITDA at Waterberg of ZAR 1.5 billion was driven by a decrease in revenue of about ZAR 1.1 billion due to lower export prices realized on higher export volumes, offset by higher prices that we achieved in the domestic market, although on lower volumes. There was a corresponding decrease in the royalties of about ZAR 480 million and inflation added about [ZAR 579 million] to our cost base and production costs increased mainly due to the additional volumes that Kgabi already alluded to that we moved of ZAR 208 million, plant and truck maintenance of ZAR 101 million and energy cost of ZAR 96 million. Distribution cost increased in line with higher volumes of road transport to other ports, the Richards Bay MPT port at a higher cost of about ZAR 276 million. We also had the favorable impact of a higher discount rate used to calculate the rehabilitation liability, which resulted in a positive variance of ZAR 120 million. The Mpumalanga decrease in EBITDA of ZAR 5 billion is attributed to lower revenue of ZAR 7 billion from our Mpumalanga mines, mainly due to the lower export volumes at lower prices. There was a saving on distribution costs in line with the lower export volumes of about ZAR 220 million, and we had a positive variance of ZAR 2.5 billion at the Mafube JV due to us buying the coal in at lower volumes and also at lower pricing. At Mpumalanga, we also experienced inflationary pressure, adding about ZAR 260 million to our cost base as well as the additional costs that we incurred to move the additional volumes of about ZAR 220 million. The EBITDA for Matla remained fairly stable with a slight increase of 8%. This translated into a 33% EBITDA margin for the coal business. Moving to energy. Energy generation at the Cennergi wind operations increased 56 gigawatt hour as the wind conditions improved in 2023 following the low wind conditions in financial year 2022. This was partially offset by a 15 gigawatt hour generation lost at 1 facility due to an Eskom distribution line fault in the first quarter of 2023. We're proud that we've now also reached financial close and construction commenced on the ZAR 1.6 billion Lephalale Solar Project. This facility will provide 68 megawatts of clean solar energy to the Grootegeluk mine. Cennergi's operational EBITDA margin was stable at 80%, underpinned by the annuity nature of the long-term offtake agreements. The project financing of [ZAR 4.3 billion] for the Cennergi wind farms will be fully settled in 2031. And to remind you, it has no recourse to the Exxaro balance sheet and is hedged through interest rate swaps at an effective interest rate of 12.8%. The increase in the project finance debt reflects drawdowns for the Lephalale Solar Project, which is also project finance. So hedge accounting is applied on these hedges and therefore has limited volatility on the profit and loss account. If we then look at the EBITDA waterfall, firstly, the price bar. So our export at lower prices resulted in an average realized price of $117 a tonne, 53% lower compared to financial year '22. As Kgabi mentioned, we are proud about our price realization compared to the benchmark API4 price and it improved by 4% to 97%. This impact was partially offset by higher prices realized in the domestic market. And if we look at volumes, export volumes decreased 105,000 tonnes as a result of the ongoing logistical challenges. We also experienced lower offtake from Eskom due to equipment downtime and unplanned maintenance at both the Medupi and Matimba power stations. Inflation, similar to the rest of the mining experience, we continued to experience pressure with electricity cost increasing 16.5%, labor 6.8% and the rest of our cost base 6.8%. There was some relief on our diesel cost and diesel decreased by 4%. As mentioned, buy-ins from the Mafube JV decreased to 485,000 tonnes at the lower price of about ZAR 1,183 a tonne. Looking at the other cost bucket, the increase in operational costs was unpacked by Kgabi earlier on and it's associated with the biggest contributor for the ZAR 1.2 billion variance due to the additional tonnage that we moved. The royalties expense decreased in line with the lower revenue, resulting in a positive variance of ZAR 795 million. Employee costs overall, including incentive payments were lower, in line with the lower profitability of the group and not achieving all performance targets. The impact from external surveys on the rehabilitation cost at our operations, combined with a favorable movement in the discount rate was partially offset by increase in water treatment costs at our mines in closure. The net positive ForEx variance is due to the impact of the rand-dollar exchange rate on revenue as well as realized and unrealized ForEx differences on debtors and foreign cash balances. Included in the other bucket of positive fair value adjustments on foreign exchange contracts of ZAR 508 million and our funds in the environmental trust fund and in our insurance captive of about ZAR 300 million. Also included here is the accounting treatment of new insurance products. We are now entering into resulting in premium expense that will now be classified as financial assets on the balance sheet and not expensed through the income statement anymore. We then come to the cash generation and capital allocation. So in employing our capital allocation framework, we aim for a net debt to EBITDA of below 1.5x, excluding the energy project financing. Cash flows in 2023 totaled ZAR 15.6 billion, comprising of ZAR 10.7 billion from our own operations, and we received dividends of ZAR 3.4 billion from SIOC and ZAR 1.5 billion from Mafube. In terms of our framework, we used this to sustain our operations and support functions with capital of ZAR 2.5 billion. We paid dividends of ZAR 8 billion consisting of a pass-through of the SIOC dividend of ZAR 3.4 billion and ZAR 4.6 billion from our own managed operations. Included in the other bucket of ZAR 706 million, are shares required to settle vested share-based schemes in 2023 and also insurance deposit facilities that we made of ZAR 360 million. So excluding the net debt of ZAR 4.3 billion, this resulted in a closing cash position at the end of December of ZAR 14.8 billion, excluding the energy debt, which gives us considerable flexibility to execute on our growth strategy. We shared the economic value generated to our shareholders, including ZAR 6.5 billion of employees, ZAR 5 billion to government through taxes, and we paid ZAR 7.4 billion to the external shareholders as dividend, and we shared GBP 90 million with communities. So as Nombasa also pointed out, I'm pleased to resolve that the Board has resolved to pay a final dividend of ZAR 102 at an overall group cover ratio of 2.2x. This is a pass-through of the SIOC dividend and a cover of 2.5x on the Exxaro adjusted group earnings. As previously signaled to the market, we aim to balance the level of cash retention with our growth strategy as well as returns to shareholders. We also take into account plausible downside scenarios and want to retain a balance sheet flexibility. And as indicated to the market, we earmarked cash retention of between ZAR 12 billion to ZAR 15 billion, excluding our energy project financing for the growth strategy. So considering the level of cash in the business currently, the Board has resolved to pay a special dividend of ZAR 5.72 per share. Our cash retention will continuously be reviewed, taking into account the economic outlook and the base of the implementation of our growth strategy. So with that, also, I'd like to thank all the people in Exxaro that made the results possible whether you situated at the business unit or at the connection. Thanks very much for your efforts. Also my finance team, I'm not going to single them out. Hard work to put all of this together, I really appreciate it. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Kgabi. And now that we have looked at the year it was. So, I'd like us to just start looking at the road ahead. And I want to start by reiterating our strategy. So, our purpose and vision of powering better lives in Africa and beyond by responsibly investing in resources that power a cleaner world remains core in the execution of our sustainable growth and impact strategy, which remains unchanged. We aspire to build on our strong foundation as we transition towards a diversified minerals and energy business. To enable this vision, we must first continue to recognize that we have built a robust core business over decades, which continue to deliver great value to yourselves and stakeholders. And as such, it remains a critical strategic lever for Exxaro. We thus remain committed to creating optimum value through this business by executing our early value strategy and our market to resource optimization strategy. We are building a resilient diversified and sustainable minerals and energy business within the next decade, while advancing in our efforts of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve these aspirations, we will continue to leverage our position of strength, utilizing the following; our bulk commodity mining and energy experience, as well as our technical and project execution skills; our business integration experience; our balance sheet strength; and the strength in the skills and experience of our people. Success in executing the strategy will be measured by growth in diversified mineral earnings and energy generation; the decarbonization of the portfolio, return on capital employed of over 20% as well as agility and effectiveness in our response to material ESG issues and opportunities thereof. We remain positive and confident in our ability to create value for you, our investors and also our shareholders, despite the complexity and challenges of our operating context, experienced both globally and domestically. We believe in our defensive strategy such as our early value delivery, market to resource and the digitalization of our value chain, which have really protected the margins. You can see in our record realization of 97% levels against -- percent against the API4 index. The challenge of all times for Kgabi and his team is what he's talked about earlier, of always finding a new optimized operating levels in response to the volatility and uncertainty that we've seen in the last 3 years, coupled with structural challenges in the local and the global economies that have become a norm from a market to resource intelligence that we have gathered over this period. And we've heard that they've shifted and they continue to shift. The involvement through special private sector investments into the development of our infrastructure as far as our energy and rail has changed the nature of doing business in the country as we knew it. It has become more complex and requires more involvement from ourselves as a private sector. So we believe that the developing business partnerships with government under Business Unity South Africa under the custodian of private sector CEOs and gladly now having our -- also, our former CEO, having joined BUSA as the President. The National Logistics Committee, which he also leads and the National Energy Crisis called Necom, really gives us confidence that we will get the impetus that is necessary to address socioeconomic crisis facing our country. With the combined and focused intention resources, capacity and all that is brought in by these bodies, we believe that we can leverage on our operational resilience and turn these challenges around. So for these reasons, we have confidence that Kgabi's team and their ability to deliver within the following guidance for the 2024 financial year worth mentioning, meaning that we expect coal production of between 39 million tonnes and 43.2 million tonnes. Total coal sales expected to be at 38.4 million tonnes to 42.4 million tonnes. Then as far as the total coal exports ranging between 5.7 million tonnes and 6.3 million tonnes. We expect to spend between ZAR 2.5 billion, which we have already I think [indiscernible] did advance or advise you between that and ZAR 3 billion in sustaining CapEx for the coal business. And with wind conditions remaining favorable, we expect our wind generation for the year to be between 700 and 780 gigawatts hour. So we are very clear about our strong value proposition. Our core resources and reserves are of distinctive quality, enabling a unique market position. Through our early value strategy and market resource optimization strategy, we believe we'll be able to realize more value. This unique market offering enables us to produce coal that meets customer expectations in terms of quality and enables us to achieve maximum export prices relative to the API4 index. And I think we've seen as our RB1 content in our product mix, we saw more and more improvement in our realization of price. The steady operations at your wind farms continue to perform at high EBITDA margins of what we've had already of 80% and geared up to grow its generation base further and so that we can contribute in the decarbonization of our own operations, but also to meet the challenges of decarbonization of our economy of its 2050 Net Zero target. The business has delivered strong cash generation from the core business and the iron ore investment, which has supported a healthy balance sheet. On the back of this, we are a business solving for current energy needs here in Africa and beyond and gearing up for a strong generation of future green energy demand through our synergy business alongside a portfolio of future critical minerals that we are busy pursuing. Our assets are cost competitive and we've been able to demonstrate that historically. From our track record, we can equip our cash cost per tonne below mining inflation to protect our EBIT margins. And we are aware that we are challenged currently, but we still have that goal of optimizing so that we can really retain a business that is resilient, that is able to generate strong cash flows through appropriate digital applications as well, cash optimization and obviously, our resource efficiencies when we look at the energy and water through our ESG optimization programs. We have demonstrated robust financial performance and stable earnings, achieving the second highest group EBITDA performance of ZAR 13.4 billion in the history of Exxaro and an average ROCE of 32.4% over the past 5 years, demonstrating our commitment to consistent stakeholder value creation. Our growth strategy is well defined and we have shared it with the market over and over and we continue to do so when we do our road shows. And what we promised on is the responsible transformation and transitioning from coal to a lower carbon through M&As diversification into minerals that are critical to a clean energy future and developing an energy solutions business. We believe an optimum amount of net cash to be retained of ZAR 12.5 billion that Kgabi talked about, both really to enable the strategy and execution of our M&A strategy that or program that we've mentioned and obviously return healthy shares to our shareholders. We do not intend to build our cash beyond this range. And we get this question all the time, and we still maintain ZAR 12 billion to ZAR 15 billion is enough for a company that is not as geared as we are. So as I conclude, ladies and gentlemen, let me reiterate that our strength and success is rooted in our fearlessness, our ability to unlock impactful and sustainable resources and the conviction to deliver on our dreams. All being said, we cannot forget that our strength lies and the great women and men of this organization who like George Washington have the bullets through their coats and had horses short under them and yet still standing strong so to contribute to the value of your business. So allow me today on the 14th of March 2024 to brag on their behalf. So I would like each and every one of them to know that we're grateful and we thank them for their continued dedication, resilience and loyalty. They know that we are hashtag, cruising nicely. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I now give over to Ling-Ling. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Thank you, Doc. Thank you for your continued leadership and vision. Thanks to Kgabi, Riaan and Doug for a very insightful and thorough presentation. As you've heard, I'm sure you'll all agree, we've delivered on a robust set of results facilitated by our early value strategy and market to resource optimization strategies with an exceptional focus on operational excellence, cost containment, agility and delivering as our CEO has highlighted, the second highest EBITDA in the performance of Exxaro's history. This brings us to the end of our presentation. I would like to thank those of you who have joined us via LinkedIn, our live stream will now end. For those of you who have joined us through the Chorus Call and webcast, please remain on the line as we facilitate our Q&A session. A - Ling-Ling Mothapo: We will then now move into the Q&A session of the day and in remaining true to our commitment to honesty, transparency in our communication, we invite robust questions and dialogue to ensure that you have truly understood the performance of the business as well as the outlook, as outlined by the CEO today. So without further ado, I would like to open the floor to questions. I will start to take questions in the room. And as I do so, I would like to invite our MD Energy, Leon Groenewald, to join us up on stage, just so that he can handle some of the questions from the energy business. Okay. Are there any questions? Thank you. We'll start with Tim Clark. Thank you.

It's Tim Clark from SBG Securities. Firstly, congratulations on the results. It's been a very tough operating environment and I think the special dividend was greatly appreciated by shareholders. Kgabi, can we just try and delve into some of the costs. I was trying to write down the numbers furiously that you were giving us and it was quite a complex situation. It looks like you were stripping more on opening up areas you incurred additional cost. It's quite a strange situation to have lower production sort of a relatively benign lower production outcome and then be opening up additional areas. Generally, you slow down stripping or slow down additional work when your volumes are low. So I suppose my question is, if you were to normalize costs for the previous year and take out some of those one-offs that might not recur, what do you think our starting base is? And if you could give us some indication of that at a sort of maybe a Waterberg and Mpumalanga level, that would be hugely appreciated. My second question is just it's second to that. But if you're set up for 50 million tonnes, which Nombasa you've very clearly outlined to us, at what point do you start trimming out some of the excess costs? And how much excess cost do you feel like you're living with as optionality at this point in time, if you are set up for that higher volume as you point out. And then my last question is just for Riaan. Just on the net cash, ZAR 12 billion to ZAR 15 billion, as I said, we really appreciate the special dividend. But just to help us think about that. Do we take your net cash ex-synergy take off the dividend from the 2.5x cover on residual earnings ex-SIOC? And then look at that net amount and then say what excess cash is there between ZAR 12 billion and ZAR 15 billion? And then clearly, you're indicating or it looks like you're indicating that there's no deal on the horizon because if you're comfortable giving an additional ZAR 2 billion back to shareholders. Just if you could just outline a little bit more, it will help us just on your thought process around the special. As I said, don't -- no negative on that. We're very happy with that. I'm sure Dr. Con is particularly...

Just start with cost. Do you want us to take more links? Ling-Ling Mothapo: I would like to take one more question before we move on to answering -- maybe 2. Yes, Mpumelelo, do introduce yourself.

Mpumelelo Mthembu from Absa Capital. So my first question is on Waterberg. I see your forecast for production is flat, but your exports or yourselves rather total sales for Waterberg, they're increasing. Is that a decreasing in inventories? So that's the first question. And then the next question is with regards to Belfast. I see your coal volume sales are increasing. That's for your forecast. I just would like more color on that. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Thank you very much, Mpumelelo. Yes, there is the next question. So please introduce yourself.

It's Brian Morgan from RMB Morgan Stanley. So it's a couple of questions. Just looking at the segment report, if I'm not mistaken here, it looks like in Mpumalanga, it was free cash flow negative about ZAR 112 million last year. And just to hear comments on that, especially in light of the fact that, obviously, spot is quite a lot lower now than it was on average last year, right? So are we reading it wrong? Is there some -- are there one-offs in that number, which would make it free cash flow positive on a normalized basis? And then the other there is, Kgabi, if you could just chat to us a bit about economics on road at the moment, where we are right now and if it actually makes sense still?

Okay. Ling, if you don't mind, can we stop right here. Otherwise we are going to forget all of this... Ling-Ling Mothapo: [115] Thank you.

So let's line up Mellis and then Mellis will be followed by Sakkie to talk about the economics of the road, right? And also talking to us about 50 million tonnes up to which levels do we start cutting on fixed. Let's deal with that.

All right. Thanks very much. Thanks, Tim, for the question. And good morning, everybody. Just on the costs and I mean I think it's important, Tim, what Nombasa said in terms of the 50 million footprint because that's kind of where it starts. What is your business structured to do. And remember, the 50 million tonnes is basically 30 million to Eskom. And then the balance, we're going to export and sell domestically. So if Eskom -- and we started the -- let's go -- it's basically 2 halves, a discussion in 2 halves. If you look at the first half, we actually were well with about 4% below what the mining inflation number was. And what we indicated at that stage was that TFIR, the situation was expected to improve. We also said that Eskom, we're going to catch up the 1 million tonnes that were behind at that point in time. So Eskom ended up being 1.7 million tonnes behind. So that increased that gap. And then the TFR performance actually regressed slightly, and we actually accelerated some of the activities through the optionality ports, which come at a higher cost. So then if you go to the business itself and what the footprint looks like and some of those activities that you referred to, we needed to use the opportunity actively to address some of the challenges that we had. So from the GG point of view, we've seen the weather patterns changing. There was some already planned. We accelerated that sum to use the capacity that we had to get that sump in place and put the infrastructure in place for our store motor system and manage that in the new reality that we're having from weather patterns point of view. If you then look at Belfast we've talked about Belfast, remember the first quarter, we didn't produce, so all of that catch-up had to happen in the second half when we were ramping up and Belfast actually had record production over the last 6 months, but that entailed additional tonnes. And then at Leeuwpan as well, we're busy going from a 2 pit operation to a 1 pit operation. So there were 2 that we were operating previously. That pit has been closed and we're moving across to a new pit. So we were in that process. We're also accelerating and making sure that we position ourselves to take advantage of when the market does turn because we do have the belief, and you've seen it in our numbers that we're forecasting that we are going to get back to the levels that we expect to be economically viable. So if you look at our rand per tonne, it went up by ZAR 69 per tonne from the ZAR 413. And if you take an 8.1% mining inflation figure, that should get you to around ZAR 35 a tonne increase on the ZAR 413. So the balance of the activities, and you saw it in the waterfall are very much related to the 27 million tonnes additional that we moved in 2023 compared to 2022. So I hope that gives you some color around the reasons for them. So quite deliberate actions, but others were external impacts that also had an impact on our rand per tonne because your divisor came down, remember, on a total tonnes handled point of view, we actually reduced our costs on the total package. But on a per product basis, we had that increase against mining inflation.

And just maybe to mention that it's always been customary in our organization to look at every efficiency opportunity before you start touching the fixed cost. So we still go by that rule. And we are not at a point where we believe that we've optimized all levers of control at this point in time. Thank you, Mel. Sakkie?

Thanks, Nombasa, and good morning to everyone. Brian, your question on the road transport, I think you will appreciate that with Exxaro having exported 12 million tonnes in 2020 and as we've just reported, about 5 million tonnes in 2023, it is placing the business under serious constraint to be so constrained on our export side. So for us to create additional export capacity is really our strategic importance. Our current view on the truck logistics to other ports is that it's definitely value accretive to a business at the moment to still continue with that. We're also very aware that there's still a lot of room to optimize in the cost of those logistics channels. So looking forward into the future in terms of the volumes we plan to export and in terms of the opportunities to optimize those channels still, we think, a big opportunity for us that will add a lot of value. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Okay. Thank you, Sakkie. Then there is a question around the EUR 12 billion to EUR 15 billion in terms of understanding our position on the dividend.

So how we look at the ZAR 12 billion to ZAR 15 billion, we look at the net debt number, excluding the synergy project financing as at our reporting date being now December and June. So this time around, that number was ZAR 14.8 billion. And based on that, we thought there is sufficient cash to pay a special dividend. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Does this indicate that there is no deal on the cards?

Indicate... Ling-Ling Mothapo: There is no deal on the cards.

No, I didn't say that. Ling-Ling Mothapo: This was part of the question. Okay.

I think it's really keeping to our way, Tim, that we said we'll keep it in ZAR 12 billion and ZAR 15 billion. And I think that's one of the reasons there's excess, why not then return? Okay. There was a question on Mpumalanga being cash negative.

Yes. So Mpumalanga, Brian, your question, I think on Page 22 of the booklet shows the cash flow. So you can see there. So obviously, as Mellis pointed out, the optimizing stuff like the mining contractor, the rail engine transport and then specifically, the Leeuwpan operation is very important to improve the position of the Mpumalanga operations at this stage. But yes, there you can see the -- on Page 22, the cash flow between Waterberg and Mpumalanga.

Okay. And then if that question is answered, there's also a question with regards to the production volumes, which seems flat and the sales increasing, Kgabi, if perhaps you could elucidate on these aspects regarding the coal volumes?

Yes. So it will talk to also the inventories we have. So the sales will come from the inventories as what you've picked up. For Belfast... Ling-Ling Mothapo: Can we give the mic to...

So the first question was on Mpumalanga and then the second one was on Belfast. So on Belfast I wanted to understand why there's such a big increase from F '23 to '24. So for your first person, I think it's answered.

Yes. If you look at Belfast performance, even last financial year, it's performing very well. Laterally, we're performing at almost benchmark performance. Hence, for us, we're forecasting that we're going to improve products in Belfast. Melisa, maybe if you can just because you close out to the numbers, I'm not having...

So remember, so GG, the big one is that we expect the Eskom performance to increase slightly. So that's why you see the numbers in the detailed offtake splits between domestic Eskom and export. You'll see the increase there to Eskom. It's about 700,000 tonnes and Belfast, I mean we didn't reduce for the first -- for the last quarter of '22 and the first quarter of '23. So clearly, '24 as the first year that Belfast will be having a full year of production. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Okay. In Mpumalanga, I think that you answered. Would you like to reiterate. Okay. Thank you. Please go ahead.

It's Thobela Bixa from Nedbank. I've got a couple of questions. So the first one is just on domestic pricing. That seems to have gone up quite significantly in the period. If you could just elaborate as to why that is the case? And then my second question is on the export numbers. So based on your forecasting, I think you are implying about 18% increase in exports volume. So which will then imply a significant improvement in terms of RBCT or rail volumes. So where do you see that increase coming from? And if you are looking at the current run rate of Transnet, where is that run rate currently sitting versus your implied increase?

Thanks for the question. On domestic pricing, I would love to say Amos Sello, who's our Head of Domestic Marketing has done all of it. And she has done and the team has done a great job. But part of domestic pricing is driven by certain price mechanisms like international arc coking coal pricing to ArcelorMittal prices that has assisted us. What also assisted us is a lot more FCA sales than what we had to do. So in the absence of logistics to our port, we have to sell that coal in the domestic market and we sell that generally at export-related prices, which means it reports in the domestic marketing segment, but that has the effect of then also reporting a higher price on that. But generally, I think our domestic marketing team has done very well on the pricing. On the export number of jumping from about 5 million tonne to 6 million tonne over the guidance period, it's not the majority of that is not RBCT. I will have like for it to be RBCT. So if you talk RBC, you must talk TFR rail performance. So we do, in our internal view, place a bit more volume to RBCT than in the previous year, but not to that extent of this. So a lot of these tonnes will go to alternative ports specifically to Maputo to assist us to increase our export performance. Then just to your question of guidance on TFR performance in terms of these export numbers. The year didn't start off well with a big derailment that has cost us quite a lot of tonnes. Quite encouraging trend over the past 3, 4 weeks, where we always try to get that 1 million tonnes of railings per week on the coal line and the industry have not been able to achieve that for many months now. In the last 3, 4 weeks, we've seen numbers of between 1 million and 1.15 million tonnes per week, which is quite encouraging. To give you a sense for the coal line to achieve 60 million tonnes of exports in a year, it must achieve average weekly rails of about 1.25 million tonnes. So we're quite encouraged that the current level of performance, even though it's not very stable, is definitely hinting at potential performance levels of above 50 million tonnes for this year in comparison to 47-point-something last year. So there is definitely encouraging signs. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Okay. Thank you very much, Kgabi. Are there any further questions in the room? I see a question right here.

Thank you very much. I'm [indiscernible]. I just want to find out, are we worried about the fact that there is such growing many about the carbon, which our coal contains. And so where are we going to be going if at all the noise is just too much. And then secondly, I'm not sure as to whether my second question has been adequately answered. Living in [indiscernible] as I do, there are too many trucks on the road caring coal. How far is Transnet expediting the repair of the railway line. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Okay. And then Doc, maybe if I can take one more question to add to this one. There is [indiscernible].

Thank you so much. My name is [indiscernible]. I just want to check from the panelists, I see that there is a lot that is done for the communities and we appreciate that so much. But I want to check the spread of the impact that support is given to communities. Is it concentrating on where you have operations? Or is it taken throughout the country.

So [Marius] to get ready. Is Marius here. Well done for being here. Okay. Do you still want to take some more? Is that enough? Ling-Ling Mothapo: I think Doc perhaps we can just settle here for now and handle these 2 on decarbonization and impact on society.

Okay. So let me start with our thinking around what we call the carbon mania that I think about 2016, it became very clear to us that a company that is -- or whose revenue is dominated by fossil fuels has got to think about its future. And thinking about its future meant derisking the business from what we see as headwinds. But what we were struggling with at the time was to determine the stockholder runway to say how long is this runway? Is it 20 years? Is it 50 years? How long is it? And we really didn't have a crystal ball to say what it was. But what we were clear of that, we would not like in the long run to remain with stranded assets because you will lose as a shareholder. Therefore, we had to optimize, first, we said, whatever we do, we need to make sure that what remains in our portfolio is a set of assets that are so competent and robust that they can compete in most markets globally. Because we knew that some of the players are going to fall by the wayside because the markets are shrinking. Therefore, you want to be able to optimize your reach out there globally. So we talked to the optimization of our portfolio to make sure that the assets that are remaining will withstand those headwinds. And at the same time make sure that with the current operations, we decarbonize them. And you must be hearing about our process of taking carbon out of operations. Some of the things we do is to take those assets we believe are not core and that obviously rebased our carbon footprint, which we're very happy about and we've done a lot in that regard. The one other big thing we're talking about is bringing in the synergy business to begin to clean up our current operations and others for that matter. So we're very clear on the fact that we've got a business that is future fit, a business that has also increased its high-quality coals so that this coal can burn in Japan when we could not burn it in Japan before. And this call can burn in other markets, which are taking high-quality coals because you can see when the Chinese are putting high-quality technology so that they can burn high-quality coal. So from a market point of view from what we're remaining with, we've got a very strong business. Taking value out so that it doesn't remain for long underground. So whilst we're building these new businesses that we're telling you about, our intelligence says that we still have some years is definitely more than 10 years. And within that period, we believe that we would have grown a formidable minerals business and an energy business that can begin to almost replace, if not stand strong, next to our core business. So that's really how we're looking at it. We very adamant that we will meet our neutral -- carbon-neutral status by 2050. And so yes, that's really where we are. That's why we are keeping this cash so that we continue to look in the market to build these extra businesses that will derisk this business because we want to have a sustainable business that's going to continue to generate jobs for own generations to come and also for the world over. So that's really where we're at. Then on the Transnet progress quickly, all we can say right now just to help the team is that the size that we see in our interaction with Transnet are promising. We keep on saying this. On top of our own efforts, we've got the National Logistics Crisis Committee that is mobilized to make sure that it assists us in unblocking all the challenges we have, whether they're technical, whether they are policy related. And we've seen the ZAR 47 billion guarantees that are given now to Transnet by government. That is promising to us. Obviously, the efforts of us looking at alternative ports and alternative ministry what we'd call, I think it's a very good initiative and I think innovation from Kgabi and his team, which we are excited about. Are we hoping that the Transnet issue is going to be solved tomorrow, the trucks are going to stop being on the road? I don't think it's going to be short term, but it needs each and every one of us to assist Transnet to get through this difficult time. So that's really where I can leave it at right now. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Thank you. Marius on the communities.

Thank you very much for the question. With regards to the question that has been asked, allow me to start by saying the social impact strategy of Exxaro is underpinned by our people statement of powering better lives for all in Africa and beyond. And by sourcing is to mean that we are not limited to our host communities. So with the social investment spend that has been mentioned for the past 5 years of ZAR 7.3 billion. And for 2023, where we have spent about ZAR 1.9 billion, it has been across different provinces that will include our host communities. It includes our closed mines and it included our [indiscernible] areas. And the project they spend from education, agriculture and SME development. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Okay. Thank you very much, Marius. I see that there is a question online. Maybe I can go to that one for now. So the question to Kgabi and perhaps Mellis, what is your expectation of growth in Eskom sale price next year? And what is your expectation of cost inflation next year?

So mining inflation, what we normally guide PPI plus 2%. So that's going to be the same guidance that we're going to give. So Tim, to try and answer your question, it's not going to be against an elevated base, which includes some of these ones that we will then indicate our costs against that. It's going to be against the normal mining inflation. I mean, remember, we were 4% down in our 22 -- the year, 22 percentage against mining inflation. We actually came in 4% better. So it does come in swings and roundabouts, but our guidance is still to remain within mining inflation. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Okay. And on the Eskom side, any guidance there?

Yes. The pricing mechanism, of course, is difficult and thing to talk about because it is a confidential contractual matter between us and Eskom. But broadly, I can explain it that it is a mechanism that take account of cost pressures in line with PPI and the actual cost index at the mine to protect both parties. So yes, I think that's the extent to which I can go on talking about price. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Okay. Thank you very much, Sakkie.. Perhaps at this point, I could just give those online an opportunity to ask us some questions. Are there any questions on the Chorus Call?

Yes. We do have a question from Nkateko Mathonsi of Investec.

And congratulations on good set of numbers, especially the special dividend. So I have a couple of questions. The first one, I just want to get a bit more color on the increasing core sustaining CapEx guidance for FY '24. And it seems actually sitting in Mpumalanga, is it a one-off increase? Or is it something that we need to price into the years ahead? And this is mainly because at some point, we used to talk about big CapEx, but it would seem that our CapEx continues, outstanding CapEx for the coal division has continued to increase. And then I also want to get a little bit more around Leeuwpan. I can see there's a lot of focus on that operation. At some point, it was not a continuing operation. And in this environment, as much as you're focusing on optimizing that operation, are the other optionalities that you are actually looking at as far as that operation is concerned? And then on M&A, this is my last question or maybe second to last question. On M&A, I think if you can give us a bit of guidance on whether the scope on the new energy transition method remains the same or whether it is a bit streamline based on the attractiveness of the opportunities that you are interacting with at this point in time? And then -- and congratulations on being able to pivot out of Europe into Asia as far as your core exports are concerned. I just wanted to get an idea as to what do you see happen that would continue to help you optimize your realized price in FY '24? Ling-Ling Mothapo: Thank you, Nkateko. Maybe just a clarity -- a point of clarity on your second question, you mentioned the operation, which operation specifically.

Leeuwpan.

Okay. So on CapEx, Mellis. Are you going up or down or sideways?

Thanks. We have guided that we're going to be spending a sustaining CapEx of ZAR 2.5 billion per year in real terms. So the number is not going up. I mean we're sitting at ZAT 2.4 billion for this year, and we're going to ZAR 2.7 billion next year. So the ZAR 2.5 billion is in 2022 terms. So we are well within our guidance. Obviously, it's just taking account of the time value of money. The Mpumalanga is -- we see it as a business combined. We just showed the split for disclosure between Mpumalanga and GG, but obviously, Waterberg does carry the bulk of the capital expenditure.

Great. So just on Leeuwpan optimization, do you want to add anything, Kgabi?

Yes. So just going back, our focus for Leeuwpan was to get stability in that business. If you look at how it has performed last year has done well. But if you look at going forward, we're not looking at volume, but we're looking at value. So we're continuously looking at optimizing that business. So where we can then inform if there's anything there.

And I think what was outstanding, which we have mentioned before, had been in the contracts that we want to get for that operation to add to the optimization, especially to the likes of Eskom Sasols who really take within the right grade for Leeuwpan. So that really would set Leeuwpan in the right stand. And we are in conversations with those 2 companies. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Okay. Thank you very much. In M&A, new reach. Thanks, Doc.

Thank you for the M&A question. In terms of additional commodities, right now, we are still very focused on manganese and copper. We've spent a long time preparing for these commodities and that's where we are spending a lot of our time. However, we do have leeway on those initial commodities that we had identified and within the battery transition or energy transition framework, we are starting to consider other commodities, which we would naturally then have to take to the Board for approval. So at this time, yes, there is leeway, but the overwhelming focus is on the commodities that we had identified previously. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Doc, the last question was on the coal exports. What are we expecting will happen in our guidance going forward. The price realization.

Oh, yes, very good 97%. It looks like you'll be looking for 100% here, Sakkie.

Thank you for the question. I was actually hoping someone will ask this question today. I think it's a number we, as Exxaro, are really proud of. It's not something happening by itself. And the origins of this performance is important that we understand it comes from the time that Exxaro defined the early value strategy and the market to resource optimization strategy even at the time that Nombasa -- of Nombasa's 10-year in coal. Where we are today with the market resource, the implementation of the market to resource optimization strategy under the leadership of Samantha Maharajh is that we really are in a position where we can optimize our thinking of why do we produce at what mine and what do we put in the market and on what logistics channel. And I think that is really standing us in good stead. Our market to resource optimization strategy is really guiding our marketing teams, whether it's [indiscernible] in the domestic market, whether it's [indiscernible] in the international market to understand what products do we take away and how do we optimize the sales mix. We believe there's still value we can further get from this. The 97% number is quite a high number. But we believe a number of 95% and above is definitely achievable and something we will definitely continue to chase. So I think still a lot of value for us in that space. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Thank you very much, Sakkie. Nkateko, I'm sure that answers all of your questions. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions on the line?

We have no other questions on the conference call. Ling-Ling Mothapo: Thank you very much. Are there any additional questions in the room? Okay. Perhaps not. So at this point in time, I'd like to thank you all for your active participation. Thank you very much for all your insightful questions and robust discussions today as we certainly hope that we've covered all the fundamental aspects that help you understand our financial performance for the year ended 2023. Not only that, but also our strategic priorities, as highlighted by the CEO and our Chief Growth Officer and MD, Energy. I would like to thank you very much for your continued interest and support in Exxaro. I think that with this -- all of this confidence really fuels our determination in continuing to deliver sustainable growth and value to you all. I thank you very much, and good morning to you all.