00:00I just want to hear your main takeaway from that meeting with the president on Friday.
00:04What were your main takeaways?
00:06Well, I think more than anything else, we have an administration that very much recognizes
00:12the dire need of critical minerals for our country, for our industries in this country,
00:19and obviously our military. So the support that this administration has provided to the mining
00:27industry has been immense. And the real event on Friday at the State Department was a $100 million
00:35grant that the federal government is giving to universities and schools in order to train
00:42new engineers and geologists and the technical people that we need in this industry because
00:48we all are getting older, a lot of people are retiring, and this industry has been in the
00:55doldrums for the better part of 30 years. And so having that kind of financial commitment to the
01:01schools, and there were a lot of administrators there. For me, the big takeaway was some incredible
01:07contacts that we made at this forum. There were a lot of very influential people involved in the
01:14critical mineral space, both from a banking finance area, as well as some of the administrators like
01:20the Secretary of Interior was there, Secretary of State was there, and we were able to have one-on-one
01:25meetings with them about issues we might have. And so I think what I got, when I came away from
01:31that
01:31conference, realizing that if I need help, there's people I can call to get help. And that's very,
01:37very important, something we've never had.
01:39So take us into the specific conversations that you had. Like who did you speak to from the
01:43administration and what did you tell them that you needed?
01:46Well, I'll be specifically frank. The Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum, he and his assistant were
01:55there, and he stayed after the forum was over and was talking to people. And I went up to him.
02:01We
02:01have an issue in Alaska, specifically related to the BLM, which is under his venue, and the Department
02:08of Transportation, which is not, but he has influence on. And it has to do with a new property
02:12we bought in Alaska in January. And we're just getting pushback and, you know, slowness from
02:19local officials, not understanding that that antimony that we're trying to bring out of this
02:24mine is needed by the federal government. We have a $245 million contract to fulfill
02:29the needs of the military. And we've got local people in Alaska holding things up. So I gave him
02:36the information. He took it down. He said, I'll be on it Monday. And I have no doubt he will
02:40be.
02:40So that's the kind of thing that, you know, we express to them.
02:46So when you think about these conversations that you're having, and you think about the future of
02:50antimony, you're pretty optimistic, it sounds like, coming off of that. Anything other than that,
02:56that you would say concrete that you are looking to see advancements on as it relates to relationships
03:00between your company and the U.S. federal government?
03:03Well, we won a $27 million grant last year, and then we won the $245 million contract.
03:10We've got, though, over $350 million of additional grant requests in to various departments of the
03:17federal government to assist us, not only in antimony, but in tungsten and some other critical
03:21minerals we're involved in. And what I'm kind of hearing through the conversations is that
03:28the president really wants to go more from a grant, which is basically a gift to the companies,
03:35to more of an equity component. In other words, we'll give you X amount of dollars,
03:39but we also want a piece of your company. He talked at this forum about the success he's had
03:44with Intel, the success he's had with MP Materials. And so there was a new fellow that I met there,
03:51actually from Dallas, that is now kind of key at the White House in looking at these investments.
03:57I also heard very loud and clear, they want to do bigger deals, $500 million minimum or bigger.
04:04And so we're looking at packaging some things. We're looking at, okay, we can step it up and
04:09look at bigger. So that's one of the things that we're doing.
04:13So it raises the question, how much of your company would you be willing to sell to the U.S.
04:17government? Well, that all depends on how much money they're willing to give me. So
04:23you know, we're a publicly traded company with a billion dollar market cap.
04:27So we'll have to look at it like any other investment. However, you know, if the government
04:31will give you certain additional incentives, say price floors or minimum contracts or other things
04:38that would assist your business, you can look at maybe not only just equity, but some warrants that
04:43are out of the money, other things that gives the government incentive. So we would look at it like
04:49any investment banking transaction. But, you know, if you'd asked me this six months ago, I'd say,
04:57well, no, I'd rather have the grant. Obviously, the grant is non-dilutive equity. But if you have
05:01in the government as a shareholder, I would prefer not over 20 percent would be fine.
05:07And broadening out just a bit, how quickly when we think about the U.S. domestically in terms of our
05:13critical mineral supply chain, how quickly do you think that we could actually push forward with
05:18those strategies, those plans? And is government support enough to make these projects economically
05:24viable? Well, what's made them much more valuable today is the price of all these critical minerals and
05:32rare earths has gone up dramatically. Why has that happened? China over the last 30 years has gone
05:38around the world and tied up all these critical minerals. For antimony, they own 85 percent of
05:43worldwide reserves. For tungsten, it's close to 90 percent of worldwide reserves. We have sat and let
05:49our country stay behind the eight ball for 30 years while China has done this. So we're playing catch-up,
05:55no doubt about that. And it's going to take time. We can't do it overnight. But having the regulations
06:02removed so that we can move quicker, you know, we've learned a lot from the past with regarding
06:07some environmental issues. We are very big environmentalists in our company. You know,
06:12when we dig up something, we try to bury it again, you know, within weeks, not years down the road.
06:17So we've gotten some kudos from a lot of the regulatory agencies that, hey, you guys are really doing a
06:23great job. And so I'm a big conservationist. I love to hunt. I love to fish. I don't want to
06:28leave
06:28what we do and ill repair. So we've made sure that we are the type of company that people will
06:37wish
06:37that we had come rather than somebody else. So, you know, that's very important.
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