Orocobre 2020 Annual General Meeting Transcripts

BRISBANE, Australia, Nov. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orocobre Limited (ASX: ORE, TSX: ORL) (“Orocobre” or “the Company”) wishes to provide the Chairman and MD/CEO presentation transcripts for the FY20 Annual General Meeting.

Chairman Script

Before commencing our meeting today, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the many lands on which are all meeting. In Brisbane we are meeting on the lands of the Turrbal and Yugara people. I recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community, and I pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.

I will now make a short address to the meeting which will be followed by a presentation by our CEO and Managing Director, Martín Pérez de Solay. There will then be an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions on any aspect of the Orocobre business, however we will look to answer questions specific to any item of business when that is presented to the meeting.

COVID-19

The health and economic impacts of COVID-19 in Argentina have been significantly different to Australia. Argentina continues to endure high COVID-19 infection rates and material economic challenges constraining the governments capacity to respond to the health challenges and provide fiscal stimulus and support to business. Reported COVID-19 cases now exceed 1.2 million or 2.5% of the population. The economy is experiencing negative GDP, growing unemployment and surging inflation prompted by the 66% devaluation of the Peso during FY20 which has continued into FY21.

In this environment Orocobre has needed to be agile, developing its own bio security protocols and COVID-19 testing capacity. Maintaining our operations by preserving the health and confidence of our communities and people is essential to reducing the economic impact of COVID-19. To date we have been successful in this aim and Martin will talk more about this.

Safety

Our safety performance has continued to improve. The Group LTIFR for FY20 reduced to 2.5 from 3.0 in FY19 while Olaroz experienced a lost time injury (LTI) free period of 160 days during the year. At Borax, Tincalayu achieved 813 days without an LTI and Campo Quijano achieved 456 days, however Campo Quijano incurred an LTI post year end which together with a deteriorating safety performance at Borax prompted both a temporarily cessation of operations and a management restructure to demonstrate safety really does come first at Orocobre.