IGO Interactive Annual Report 2019

drilling programs and signing new partnerships, all in an effort to discover the mines of the future; and • continuing to emphasise the importance that culture has on our business, resulting in an engaged workforce, by co-creating a workplace that is fun, dynamic and exciting, made up by people who are motivated and energised to come to work and make a difference. The better than guidance production performance at Nova and on guidance production from Tropicana for FY19 reflects the quality of our assets, and, more importantly, the consistent high performance by our world class operating team at Nova and the joint venture team at Tropicana. This impressive operational performance from both Nova and Tropicana underpins our growth strategy that remains focused on exploration and discovery, as well as the potential downstream processing opportunity to produce battery grade nickel sulphate from Nova concentrate. Vertical integration During FY19, we made notable progress with our nickel sulphate downstream processing studies, achieving high extraction rates for nickel and cobalt in excess of 97%, and having produced high-quality, battery grade nickel sulphate and saleable copper-cobalt mixed sulphide products. Further work remains to be done to optimise the process design to minimise waste and maximise saleable by-product, as well as completion of trade-off studies to determine the optimum project location, with key drivers being access to and availability of power, water, transportation options, workforce and environment and community considerations. The objective of the downstream processing study is to demonstrate whether or not the project can deliver a compelling value to IGO relative to conventional nickel sulphide concentrate offtake arrangements. Consequently, in parallel to the downstream processing studies, we continue to engage with offtakers to understand strengthening demand and pricing for Nova style Class I nickel sulphide concentrates. Organic growth Exploration and discovery are core to the IGO DNA and over the last few years we have prioritised exploration and building a “best in class” exploration team and capability. Our exploration team has a diversity of experience and expertise and a strategy firmly aligned with our focus on the discovery of metals critical to clean energy. We prioritise nickel and copper exploration and discovery while remaining attentive to other commodity opportunities. In parallel, we have transformed our exploration project portfolio to increase our exposure to belts and projects that have the potential to deliver multiple tier one nickel and copper discoveries. We have also continued to consolidate a leading ground position in the highly prospective Fraser Range to capitalise on our investment in and geological understanding of Nova. Our portfolio also includes belt- scale greenfield opportunities in the Northern Territory at the expanded Lake Mackay Project and 100% owned Raptor Project, as well as our new West Kimberley Project, and Frontier Project in Eastern Greenland. Nickel as a strategic metal of the future Nickel is poised to benefit from the structural shift to energy storage and electric vehicles, and importantly the transition to increased use of nickel dominant, higher energy density lithium-ion battery technologies in electric vehicles. This, combined with continued demand growth for nickel from the stainless steel and specialist nickel alloy markets, will transform our industry and our Company. Thank you We would like to take the opportunity to thank all of our stakeholders, which include our employees, host communities, suppliers, contractors, joint venture partners, industry associates and regulators. Thank you also to our shareholders, including our employees, who are all owners of the business, for your continuing support and trust in the Board and management team. These are exciting times at IGO, and we look forward to our current and future work programs producing additional value creation for all stakeholders for many years to come. PETER BRADFORD MANAGING DIRECTOR & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER PETER BILBE CHAIRMAN IGO ANNUAL REPORT 2019 — 5