Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question is from the line of Amit Dixit from GS Financial. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hi, good evening everyone and thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations for a very good set of numbers. A couple of questions from my side. The first one is on the MoU that we have with Tata Steel. So just wanted to understand the various facets of this MoU. While you have explained in your prepared remarks, Tata Steel also held a concall in which they explained a few things? But just wondering that in mining, when we are so strong in this region, why do we need someone else? I mean it might be Tata Steel, of course, no doubt they are experts. But what expertise we are actually looking to get from Tata Steel and is there something that goes beyond mining, let us say, into steel where we might get some kind of consultation from them? And if there is any -- is there any scope of having a long-term iron ore supply agreement to them? I mean, just wanted to explore these points?

The MoU with Tata has two parts. One is the BRPL SHA and the BRPL ownership and conversion contract, which is executed. The second future exploration of opportunities, there are two areas that we are looking at. One is the Eastern area of the country where, for example, Tata may have some assets where we can act as a contractor as an MDO contractor maybe or where they may need a pipeline to a certain area where we have some expertise, which Tata has not yet developed or maybe we have some land in Paradip, which we can try to utilize in a better way. A lot of opportunities are being looked at in the Eastern belt. In the Gadchiroli area, we are looking at whether we can bid jointly or opportunities come up with government trending system where we can get ore at a relatively better pricing, better commercials. This would not be from the existing mine. It will be for future expansions. We are always open to partnerships because that is a way to develop fast and Tata is one of the fin est companies in the country, not one of the -- I would call them the finest company in the country. So definitely, it's an honor to be partnered with them.

Okay. Okay, great. The second question is essentially on the copper. So, I mean, it is indicated in the presentation that there are certain mines also associated with it. First of all, Congo is not exactly the best place to work, and then, you know, mining, I know several companies who have failed because of various reasons? So what is it that we see in Congo, and are these mines yet operational, or at what stage of exploration they are? You have indicated some numbers, but these numbers seem to be more for the processing side. Just wanted to understand the backward integration part of it, a little bit more. And if you can also mention the grade of copper that you expect over there?

We are looking at Democratic Republic of Congo, Katanga area. This area by itself and DRC by itself is the second largest producer of copper in the world at the moment, after Chile. Number one. Number two, the copper majors, Glencore etcetera, are all based in copper -- in this area. There are 60 to 80 companies small and big operating, and the infrastructure, the systems are there in place to take care of very many things. The political stability in this country is much better and particularly this part of the -- the Southern part of the area, and it's a very economically based country and area, not politically worrying. Not zero politically worrying, there would be some worries obviously, but it is well , well sustained. The mining leases that we have are 16 or 18 leases, I'm forgetting the number right now, 18. 18 leases over 100 square kilometers -- sorry, 16 leases over 100 square kilometers. Exploration is going on. We have already found copper at good depths. 1.5% to 2% copper is also available, 0.8% is also available, oxides are available. And the 10,000 to 12,000 tons is a direct output of the plant that we are talking. We can, for that, for the Cathode plant, the leaching and Cathode plant, we could take the ore from our own mines which we have already started accumulating, as well as from bought out mines. At the end of the day, it would be an integrated operation of around 30,000 tons per annum, which may take 2-3 years to achieve. We believe that in the next year, financial year '27, 10,000 tons of operations would be achieved at a fairly integrated mix of ore.

Great sir. Just if I can squeeze one more. Just wanted to get the status of BHQ plant?

BHQ plant, the land is under -- land procurement is under control and the engineering is complete, the ordering is complete. We have ordered the equipment from the best possible companies in the world to take care of any exigencies because it's a newer technology in India, so we're not, you know, taking any chances on the technology part of it. We have worked with the Chinese and now with the -- with FLSmidth also. And we are hopeful of getting it commissioned by December '27 or so.

Okay. Great sir.

Latest by that time. Latest by that time and, yes.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jashandeep Singh Chadha from Nomura. Please go ahead.

Hello, hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations sir on a great set of numbers. Sir, my first set of questions are around iron ore. Firstly on your guidance, FY26 guidance is close to 20 to 22 million ton. If I assume that you will be doing 3 million ton of pellets also, that is close to 4.5 -5 million ton of iron ore . 10 million tons of iron ore you have still done, which means close to 6 to 8 million tons of volumes you are forecasting for fourth quarter of FY26? Lloyds has not done -- you know, anytime such volumes in one quarter. Just wanted to understand what is the confidence behind giving such guidance and what are the challenges that the company can face in meeting those guidance? My first question is this sir.

The volume in this year -- in this month, that is January, is around 2.4 million tons -- 2.5 million tons, which crosses the 26 million ton overall, and definitely will achieve the 20 million-21 million ton target for the year. We have to appreciate one thing that at the moment we have to - - the problem is not in the marketing of it, the problem is not in the mining of it. The area that we are right now focusing on solving the problems are on the logistics side. Right now we are moving around on an annualized basis around 4.5 million tons of ore by the pipeline. And come by April we will be able to do 9 million tons. The second plant would be come by June, the second slurry pipeline -- the pipeline would be ready to take the second pellet plant input, so 9 million ton would move out of that. And right now we are producing around -- transporting by truck around 70%-60% more than the overall requirement. It is a tough job. We are very confident of achieving 21. That's why we have given a confident -- a guidance of 20 to 22 million tons for the year. We believe that quarter guidances and directions are lesser -- quarter guidances are lesser important for a company of our nature, and our overall direction of decadal growth or at least 3-year growth is what we are -- what we are -- what I am focusing on. Operational efficiencies are looked at every level, and you can see that in the increase in the revenue, in the margin also, 280 basis point is a factor of whatever Riyaz said plus a cost control system also. So everything has been factored in when we have made the guidance.

Understood sir. And thank you so much for such an elaborate answer. My second question is also around, you know, iron ore only. Sir, we have seen that the benchmark domestic iron ore prices have come down in this quarter. With that regard, I just wanted to understand how much, you know, the realization has been impacted for Lloyds ? And how much margin compression EBITDA compression we can see in the fourth quarter? And then again related to iron ore only, I just wanted to understand what is the capex for the slurry pipeline? And can you also, you know, for our analysis, can you also tell us how does it compare with the Peers?

Compare to the Peers?

Other company. Okay. The benchmark has come down and so as the basis of benchmark come down from 62% to 61%. So if you currently look at benchmark price of $103, it amounts to around $108, which is around $3 -$4 higher than the same amount last year -- same period last year. So I think the benchmark has not really come down, it's gone up.

Sir domestic -- I was talking about domestic iron ore.

Domestic iron ore, I don't know by what stats you are saying it's come down. In the -- some of the competition has increased the prices over the last 2 months, both the months. The auctions that have come out have been very strong. Steel benchmark is very strong. So at the moment, I do not see any indication of the steel industry or iron ore industry being soft in India at all. At the moment. Maybe 1-month back, 1.5-month back it was different, but that's part of the cyclical nature of the business.

And sir on slurry pipeline, you know the capex and...

Sorry to interrupt you Mr. Singh, can you rejoin the queue for more questions?

I mean it's part of my question only. I have asked you that one only?

On the slurry pipeline. On the slurry pipeline, as you as you might be knowing, we had planned for another 5 million tons of slurry pipeline connecting our -- the mines to the Chandrapur plant in -- Ghugus plant in Chandrapur. Now what we have now doing is we would be -- we have increased the capacity of that, we will be now making it a 16 million tons slurry pipeline so that we cover the entire 26 million tons of dispatches through slurry pipeline. So it will be one will be -- one is existing which is there as a 10 million tons, this is a second slurry pipeline which will be a 16 million tons slurry pipeline which will be taking us more to the markets as well as to the -- to our Chandrapur plant. And the total cost for this we also in fact have a second phase on it, the slurry pipeline which will be connecting to more of the markets as well as the ports. So the total cost envisaged is around INR8,000 crores on this particular project, but we will be doing it on phase wise. So the first phase of up to Chandrapur will be around INR2,000 crores - - INR2,500 crores.

Thank you so much sir. I'll join back the queue.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Singh from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of numbers. The first question, Gupta ji, largely on BHQ project. Given the fact that bulk of our volumes going ahead would be coming from BHQ. How confident are we in maintaining the fact that the cost of production of BHQ would be similar to our current cost of production, given that we'll have to mine more material, there will be beneficiation cost also? I understand that we save a bit on royalty, but do you think there is any risk of operating cost overrun in BHQ going ahead?

BHQ, the royalty saving, based on the existing proposals of the government as well as existing policies as well as future proposals of the government, would the royalty savings would offset the cost of processing the ore -- the BHQ to ore. Please also factor in that the grade of ore from 62-64 would become 66%-67%, and that gets a very high premium. So the cost of ore versus the selling price or the usability of ore becomes much better. The BHQ beneficiation or beneficiation of ore in general has been accepted by the government as a very, very important aspect of the national policy of steel, and that therefore we expect lot of support on the royalty front from that. Does that answer your question?

Yes, so just going into a bit more detail here , sir. So royalty, if our current realizations are let's say 6,000, and royalty all in, let's say, 20%, so 1,200 odd royalty, and even if royalty on BHQ is let's say zero, so INR1,200 per ton of saving plus let's say some premium because of higher grade...

Royalty is not zero. Royalty would be around from 1,200 would come down to around INR200 rupees. And processing of the ore would involve some power, which is the biggest cost. We are working on getting greening our power also as well as other operations, and that's where that's what I said we are using the best technology to ensure that the systems are very, very strong and uptimes and efficiency of the plant is the best.

Okay, understood, sir.

The premium that we would get on this output of product if I were to sell all the ore would be around INR1,400 a ton also. You have to also factor that in.

Understood sir, understood. And the second question is largely on the slurry pipeline, 85 kilometers...

Sorry to interrupt you Mr. Singh, as we have a long queue, can you please rejoin for a follow - up question?

Yes sure.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikas Singh from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question pertains to our copper mine, as you stated that it was an operational mine. So just wanted to understand had the existing promoters was facing any difficulty in terms of producing and ramping up of the mine, and that's why we were got the chance to get some stake there? And secondly, on the management bandwidth, we are doing too many things simultaneously. So just wanted to understand the management bandwidth in terms of managing and looking after the timely completion of all these projects. How should we look at it?

Number one, on the existing promoter, they are more involved in commercial activities and general traders in the country. They had got this mine as an opportunity, mine and the copper plant has been set up by them as well. The copper plant is running -- is set up, but not running. They lost the bandwidth to run it, and that's where we come in. We have Mr. Prabhakaran and the erstwhile Thriveni had been looking at DRC for a long period, and that's how the opportunity comes to us of investing in that. There have been no problems. Again I repeat, there are around 70-80 plants including Glencore and Ivanhoe and the best companies in the world running copper mines there and copper operations. So that's not a worry that we are -- we foresee in a very serious way. In terms of operational bandwidth, we have scaled up -- first let me give you a little bit of history. We scaled up from around INR500 crores to INR10,000 crores or in this year maybe INR13,000 crores over 4 years. We have proved to the market, we have proved to ourselves, we have proved to our team, and our team has proved to us that we can take care of growth in a sustainable, sensible, economical, and business-like manner. And we continue to do that. Number one. Number two, as far as Congo particularly is concerned, one of the Promoter Directors would be involved full-time there. Apart from a very, very professional team who has been involved in mining operations, and we have hired experts on copper side also -- on the copper manufacturing side also. The technicality of the leaching process and the cathode process is not a very -- is not a super technical or a super new invention, and that can be taken care of by the team that we have ensured already on the job at the site as we speak. I think that should -- we are confident of sustaining this growth in a very sensible way.

Noted sir. Sir second question pertains to Thriveni. While the top line growth for...

Mr. Singh, sorry to interrupt you. As we have a very long queue, can you please rejoin for a follow-up question?

I'll rejoin.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vedant Sarda from Nirmal Bang Securities Private Limited Please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on the great set of numbers. Sir, my question is, we are hearing that government is taking various measures to ensure availability of iron ore, like they have to bring our iron ore, iron product sizes at par with international markets. So we can complete and export our iron goods. So, can you comment on the pricing outlook going forward and how to look at this?

See, if you look at iron ore in India, the growth is around 5%-6%, the steel growth is around 8%- 9% even now. If you look at 5 years CAGR, it is 5%-6% for iron ore and around 9%-10% for steel. So, there has been a continuous shrinkage of the supply, extra supply and therefore exports either in the form of low -grade iron ore or in the form of pellets have reduced . So, the overall supply-demand gap is very, very favourable in supply of iron ore, number one. Number two, as we go forward, over the next 5 years, around one-third of the capacity which is premium-free will go into auction over the next 5 years and that will add to the, not the lesser supply, but definitely to a higher cost mechanism for the industry. So, we are pretty confident of our commercial part of selling iron ore and over a period, our value-added business will be quite a lot and we can therefore be well equalized in both iron ore as well as value-added products like pellets or steel as well in the future.

Thank you for explanation, sir. Thank you so much.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harsh Shah from Seven Rivers Holding. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, sir and our heartiest appreciation for excellent execution over the last 3 years. Sir, my first question is on the MoU with Tata Steel, given that it could end up being quite an extensive agreement eventually. So will it in any way affect or change our plans for the integrated steel plant, which would be our INR16,000 crores capex plan?

Our future steel plant in Gadchiroli is being looked at internally, nothing to do with the Tata MoU. Any Tata MoU -- any Tata setup together would be for a different plant than that.

Okay. And sir, one bookkeeping question. What would be the warrants outstanding now as of today?

What is the?

Outstanding warrants as of today.

We should be getting around INR900 crores from it. I'll give you, I have got the number, but the value around INR900 crores is pending, which would be coming up in the month of March. That is something - the time between 15th or 18th March that will happen. So we should be getting it.

Okay. And sir, on the copper part, the 10,000 metric ton capacity which we have, what would be the average realization and EBITDA margin on those?

This is copper cathode. So the current copper price is around $11,000 -- $11,500, $12,000. And normally, there is a premium to Congo because of the transport cost. So the -- that's the approximate range. And the margins that we anticipate are approximately 30%, 32%. So that gives that INR500 crores, INR700 crores that we're talking about next year.

Okay. And since we have 50% stake in this JV and this is relating to this? So are we the MDO partner here or mining will be done by someone else?

Okay, sure. Thank you so much.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hardik Gori from Abans Investment Managers. Please go ahead.

Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a great set of numbers. Firstly, on the growth outlook for our MDO business in FY '27? And secondly, what was the IPS benefit for Q3?

IPS benefits, we have been drawing the benefits from day 1 of the pellet plant production and this year has been around INR130 crores. The Thriveni outlook is around 40% increase in iron ore non- Lloyd metal. Around 60%, 70% increase in the Lloyd metal because of the BHQ increase, 15% in NTPC, that is both the Pakri Barwadih mines, around INR60 crores EBITDA they have come up directly with the EBITDA figure expected for the gold mine.

Goldmines is 0.3 million tons.

0.3 million tons output and that would be the profitability. There will be some reduction in volumes in Indonesia and in the barytes operations. Overall, a top line growth of around 15% to 20% and a bottom line growth of around 35%, right?

Got it, sir. And our expected debt trajectory on a console level?

Sorry to interrupt. Please rejoin the queue for more questions.

All right. Thanks.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vinit Thakur from Plus91 AMC. Please go ahead.

Sir, I would like to know what would be the expected debt console figure for the year and what would be our peak debt?

As on 31st December, if I would say, the consol e debt, net debt was around INR7,100 crores. This year, we should be not more than that. And FY '28 is when I would say the peak debt. When we reach the peak debt, we should be -- on a console basis, should be around INR10,500 crores, INR10,600 crores. So we are always targeting at 1 is to 1 debt to EBITDA and that is what we are working on.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shubham Harne from Purnartha Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.

DRI is one of the most challenging businesses like some other questioner asked earlier about the down cycle. It's most affecting the secondary steel market and that. Prices on pellets, if you're asking has gone up.

The EBITDA per pellets?

If you look at the pellet prices, the pellet pricing has gone up. Therefore, pricing is showing that there's a pressure on that, right, EBITDA on D RI pricing. So basically, it's a -- it was a cycle. The cycle has crossed the hump.

The pellet prices in quarter 2 was around INR11,000, is what we had got in average realization and it has come down to INR10,000 in quarter 3. That is why the margins have been reduced.

The pricing is lower because we have added more export to the mix. As the volume has picked up, we have had to add some volume of export. The EBITDA is still very strong and much stronger than the rest of the industry put together.

Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you so much.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tanmay Choudhary from Ventura Securities. Please go ahead.

Sir, given Lloyd's ongoing capex pipeline, so can you just outline the expected funding mix and cash outflows over next 2 years and also the s cheduled debt repayments and principal payment providing not declareing any dividend?

The debt schedule and all, we can give it to you separately. I won't be able to do that. But yes, the capex outlay is around INR14,000 crores from this year and the next year. We would be around -- we intend to do around INR6,000 crores from debt and then the balance should be from the internal accruals. That is where we are working on.

Okay. And sir, just last one question. In PPT, we have mentioned the realization of pellet increases because of the geographical location. So can you just throw some light on it?

Sorry, can you repeat your question? Tanmay Choudhary I'm saying in the PPT, we have mentioned the realization of pellets increases because of the geographic location. So can you just throw some light on it?

Geographically -- I mean, I cannot relate directly to the PPT question, but geographically our location is such that we can market to -- we have been very strong in marketing to the South as well as the Chandrapur area itself. So that's why our realization in pellet is around INR4,500 and the EBITDA is around INR4,500 crores per ton because of the market-friendly nature as well as our costing and logistics cost. So I think that's where -- does that answer your question? Or is there something specific?

Realization is a factor of trade versus market and that's where we are. Being actually located, it helps, the location helps. That's how we are better than others.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Karthik Srinivas from Unifi Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Sir, I just had one question just on the policy level. Now that many mines are coming up for auction till 2030 and there is significant demand-supply gap between iron ore and steel, is there any possibility that the government has to intervene and put a cap on the auction premiums? And is there a risk that we run -- because if the government have intervene and put a this thing on the auction premiums or change some of the policies at a policies front?

The government we believe is still believing in free market, and the premiums are quoted by the biggest consumers of iron ore, which are one of the biggest -- some of the biggest corporates in the country. So we have not seen any policy change or policy announcement which would indicate that there's being a cap on the premiums being put.

Okay sir, thanks.

Thank you. The next question we have is from -- a follow up question from Jashandeep Singh Chadha from Nomura. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you for the opportunity again.

Sir, my question was regarding Thriveni . Just wanted to understand, you know, on the remarkable performance, the EBITDA has doubled quarter-on-quarter. I wanted to understand that the proportion of the EBITDA, so is it the large chunk of increase, is it coming from increased volumes from Lloyds, or there are other major heads also because of which the EBITDA has improved? And wanted to understand how should we, model the growth in EBITDA going forward till FY '28 if you can help sir?

In Q3 the EBITDA is increased mainly because up to Q2 due to rains and other local factors, the EBITDA was -- the production was lower, so and the EBITDA was lower. And Q3, when the rains were not there, we came to our original strike rate and the EBITDA w as normal as what we had planned. And for the next year what we are targeting -- Q Q4 again the Lloyds will be doing the full production. This year also we are -- in Q4 we are starting one new mining lease and next year we are getting 3 -4 new contracts and extended capacity. So the volumes will be higher and accordingly we don't face -- see any challenge in EBITDA.

Understood sir. So just concluding that, so this appears to be the normal run rate for EBITDA and as contracts increase and volume increase, there will be, growth from here onwards. Is my understanding right sir?

Yes.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rushabh Dhruv from Uttam Investments. Please go ahead.

Yes. So my question is regarding iron ore sales volume. So for this quarter we just did around 4.1 million tons, right? Then why is this PPT also showing 5.39 million tons? What's the difference here?

That that also includes the internal transfers. That's how it was. That is the dispatches from the mines.

Okay, okay. So it's captive, right?

The sales figure is 4.1 million. Which is there…

Sales is 4.1. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Singh from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity again. Just wanted to get a sense as to when we had showcased the transaction with Thriveni back in December '24, we had given a sense of an EBITDA of around INR3,500 crores in FY '27 by Thriveni. Is that something which we stand by or are on track right now as well, or is that number a bit changed up or down?

FY '27 the EBITDA of Thriveni should be close to INR3,000 crores.

Understood, understood. Thanks, that's all from my side.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Divya Agarwal from Ficom Family Office . Please go ahead.

Yes, hi sir. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, my question is on Thriveni MDO business. So in Q2 call you guided to achieve EBITDA of around INR 2,000 crores to INR2,200 crores for FY '26. However, if we see 9 months, the total EBITDA stands at around INR 1,100 crores. So do you still stick to your earlier guidance or would you like to revise it downwards?

We stick to the guidance.

You stick to the guidance, sir?

Yes, yes, we stick to the guidance.

And on the revenue guidance as well, just wanted to know for FY '26 and '27, what would be the revenue guidance for Thriveni?

FY '2…

FY '26 and FY '27.

Right, right sir.

Yes, so FY '26 we are looking at a revenue guidance of around INR 7,500 plus crores. And FY '27 revenue guidance of INR10,000 plus.

INR10,000 plus crores.

Yes.

And last year sir just what would be the actual PAT for...

Mr. Agrawal, sorry to interrupt you Mr. Agrawal. Please rejoin the queue for more questions.

Sure, sure. Thanks.

Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Parthiv Jhonsa from Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers Limited. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity and thank you for allowing us to host the call. My quick question is on again on Thriveni MDO. A couple of quarters back you had given us the guidance for almost up to ‘28 and '29. I believe sir has given the EBITDA guidance of about 30% in '27. Thereafter, is it possible to give a guidance of '28 and '29 because I think it was about 32%-odd give or take, considering you are going to do 40% higher volumes on iron ore non- Lloyds and for the other minerals as well? Is it possible to give some guidance?

'28-'29, see it's a contracting company, we are looking at contracts on a continuous basis. It would be very difficult to see, give a further guidance than what we have. Even the guidance that Mr. Naredi just gave would have some surprises upwards because some contracts would come up hopefully future.

Absolutely, absolutely. Yes. Okay. And sir is it possible to repeat that number that 40% increase in iron ore and everything? I think I missed a couple of them actually. For next year?

The internal -- sorry, the external iron ore figure is around 40% increase in '27, FY '27. The external coal, that is NTPC contract is around 15% growth, correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Naredi. There would be a reduction of around 65% in the barytes operations. There would be reduction of around 25% in the Indonesian operations. Add to that Gold and Copper of the Katanga area . With that we expect that figure that Mr. Naredi just gave us.

Perfect. Sounds great sir. Thank you sir.

Thank you all for joining us for the conference call today. We at Anand Rathi would like to thank the management for giving us this opportunity. This concludes this conference call. Thank you everyone and have a good day.

On behalf of Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers Limited , that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.