UAMY - NYSE

Greetings. Welcome to the United States Antimony Corporation Calendar Year 2023 Results Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Gary C. Evans, you may begin.

Hello. Thank you, operator, and thank all of you for dialing in this afternoon, and we look forward to updating you on the activities at U.S. Antimony. I have with me today, Joe Bardswich, who is a Board member and a co-CEO with me; as well as Rick Isaak, who's our Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer. So there'll be three of us today participating in this call from the management and the Board. Let me first start out by telling everyone, 2023 was truly a year of transition. To give you a few high points here, we added 2 new Board members to our corporate board, Mike McManus and Joe Carrabba. We also had 4 Board members resign. Russ Lawrence, the former President, Hart Baitis, Tim Hasara and Gustavsen. So there's been a major shift in the Board that occurred last year during different times. We currently have today a 5-member Board, 2 of which are now management as well being Joe Bardswich and myself. Russell Lawrence, the President, resigned in July. And so -- it wasn't until that time that really the Board took a much more active role in managing the company. Gustavsen, who's been with the company a long time, resigned as CEO and is now President of our Antimony division. Joe Bardswich is -- as I mentioned, an existing board member, he's now co-CEO, along with myself. And of course, Rick, as I mentioned, joined as Senior VP and CFO. We also added a controller, a gentleman by the name of [Mike Oztree], came on board last year. We have a new Vice President and General Manager at Bear River, which is our zeolite facility up in Preston, Idaho. His name is Jeff Fink. And we also have a new plant superintended at Bear River by the name of [Nick O'Neil], who just started about a week to 10 days ago. So lots of changes at the Board and the management, and we think all of these changes are going to be for the benefit of our shareholders. I would like to take a minute now and talk about our financial performance for 2023. It wasn't a pretty picture, but the changes we've made will have dramatic effects going forward. We released this on Friday of last week. And so with that, I'll turn it over to Rick Isaak, who will give us a presentation. Rick?

Thanks, Gary. As Gary described, we made some changes to our company that we believe improved it. Let me first talk about 3 of these changes before I get to the financials. On March 11, 2024, we shut down our Mexico operations, which was primarily our Madero and Port Blanco plants. After this shutdown, we terminated the majority of the employees which costs about $40,000. The remaining 14 employees in Mexico are helping to close the operations, securing the buildings, closing the books and performing other administrative functions. Once these functions are complete, we'll have some additional terminations. Some of the factors that led to our decision to close Mexico -- our Mexico operations include the following. While our Mexico operations did contribute to our antimony sales, their contribution was under 15% in 2023. In addition, we're finding new sources of antimony ore for our Montana processing plant. Finally, these operations in Mexico have been a drain on cash since inception of over $50 million. All right. Second item, during 2023, we made additional investments of about $1.3 million to improve our machinery equipment and plant at our Bear River

Thank you, Rick. One point I'd like to make for our shareholders is that zeolite revenues up at BR

Thank you. So as Gary mentioned, everybody knows the plant was sort of built out of scrap and the unreliability of it is evidenced in the financial reports, et cetera. One of the major purchases we made was to buy a new cone crusher. Unfortunately, that cone crusher also came with a lot of downtime. Part of that -- a part of that was due to a problem that the base that it was placed on was not properly engineered, which is not properly constructed that there was the vibration from the cone. It was so great that the operators took it upon themselves to never run that cone faster than half speed. Not only are you getting half the production through it, but you're recycling an additional load through there, which means you're much less than half of the capacity. We had a dust problem in December. We had a shutdown order from Emshaw. In January, we brought in an independent team to inspect and get that dust order lifted and make what other recommendations that they could. 6 out of the 6 dust collectors were inoperable at that time. Presently, all 6 are operating. We're still short of enough dust collection capacity to satisfy our objective of making it a dust free operation. We're working towards designing new additions on that end. Even though the dust collectors are all working, the duct work that are associated with the draw of the dusty air into the dust collectors all have to be rebuilt, and we're in the process of doing that. But home base, we got professional engineers to design a new base that's going to be put in before the end of the month. During that downtime with that cone, we've arranged to bring in a portable impactor that has taken the material from 6-inch down to the 1-inch minus that we can feed into the rest of the plant, thereby not suffering from the downside of the cone. The jaw crusher was operational, but the pipes on it were worn so bad that you ended up with a concave plate. So the machine just wasn't doing the job it should have been. Those have been replaced and they are operational now. The next main objective is to optimize the screening to reduce the dust and increase production. These screens are old, were used when they were purchased. They've been welded. We've lost the metallurgical properties that you should have in the screen. So that's going to be another step to do on that. We also intend on recognizing some of the packaging plant to reduce cost and increase reduction at that point. To mine, we have the best deposit in the country in my opinion. We plan on doing a drill program to provide a resource and reserves figures to release probably by the third quarter. And it's in conjunction with that, we'll have a mine plan and a mine reclamation plan that will ensure increased efficiencies and lower recognition costs. That's it for me, Gary.

Thank you, Joe. As Joe said, we know from our own review of other zeolite properties around the country and deposits set over the last 6 months that we own the highest quality zeolite resource in North America. I mean, there's just no doubt. And our customers tell us that all the time as well. So my fourth item, which Joe stole my thunder a little bit is our first mine reserve report. This company has never had any kind of reserve reports on its resources. As an oil and gas guy for close to 40 years, I mean, I can't imagine how you run a company without knowing what your resources are, so there will be some drill tests done with the idea of having a reserve report by year-end 2024. It will be just the beginning because I think that report will be able to be expanded upon as years go by. So my fifth item is to grow this business externally via acquisitions and leasing of new properties. I personally spend the greatest majority of my time on this endeavor. We hope to have some very interesting and notable transactions to tell everybody about sometime this year. We are actively evaluating and leasing properties in 2 new areas. And for obvious confidentiality reasons, we're not at liberty to discuss these areas yet. But they do include both antimony and zeolite reserves in regions the company has never been before, but nothing is international. Everything is domestic. My sixth item, I guess I had 6 instead of 5 is continuing to lobby Washington, D.C. These are senators, congressmen, governors and various governmental agencies. I've spent 3 days in Washington just several months ago working with lobbyists to get ourselves introduced. I was absolutely astounded that nobody that I met with and I was with probably 20 different people had any idea who we were and what we do. This was shocking to me as being the only antimony processing facility in North America. The Congressmen there from Montana, Honorable Ryan

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is with what management has learned with your recent lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C. concerning government grants and loans on strategic metals and materials, has the company changed any of its thinking or game plan with respect to this area?

Good question, and the answer is yes. Through those discussions I had for 3 days in Washington, I learned really what were the hot buttons for receiving those grants. And we have tailored our activities to be able to meet those hot buttons. So the answer is yes.

The next question is, when do you expect BR

BR

The next question is with respect to

Another good question. And the answer is yes. We do recognize that sometimes the middlemen end up making a better margin than we do. In conjunction with some of our other M&A efforts, which we hope to be able to announce in a not-too-distant future, we will be making some significant changes there that include the hiring of highly seasoned salespeople. We have never had a sales person other than when the phone rings answering it and taking on an order. We've never gone out and marketed and by reviewing other

The next question is, previously, samples had been sent to DoD and approved. What happened there?

Joe, you're probably better suited to answer that than me.

So we ended up as being the only North American supplier of antimony trisulfide to the U.S. Department of Defense. Unfortunately, our source was in Mexico, and we're actively seeking other sources so that we could resume those shipments. We do have the technology, probably the best in the country or at least in my opinion, is the best in the country to produce ammonia products and -- the question is we need to source a reliable source of material. So we could fulfill the market.

Why don't we hold and, if there are additional questions, let's see if you can submit those. We'll give you a minute or two. We have one question in the meantime while people submit their questions. The question is, are you still in conversation with Perpetua?

So Perpetua is a unique animal. I'm going to speak to it a little bit, and I'll let Joe jump in as well. As you know, and as we've all witnessed, Perpetua has been very fortunate to receive grants. They just actually even announced a large loan. I don't think it's been approved, but it's something that they're working on a very large loan from one of the departments in [indiscernible] -- or Department of Defense. In our belief, Perpetua is still a number of years away from having something they can sell. And that's what's given us kind of a kit to find new resources of antimony in order that we can fill that void and we believe can be a cheaper supply. So Perpetua has done a phenomenal job on the grant side and -- but as we know when we read through everything they are many years away from actually selling product. They have wanted to do some things with us, but we have kept our gloves close to our vest and I think there will be some opportunities with Perpetua, but I think they're down the road. Joe, do you have anything to add?

Looking at the EIS statement from Perpetua. Even after they get their permits, they have a full 24-month buildout before they become operational. And then the operation is going to be the antimony byproduct of the gold production. So the emphasis will be on the best gold area. So it will be a build up before they hit maximum antimony production from that source. One of the things we're trying to do as we look for other sources is looking at patented property and here in Arizona and in other states, there's a lot of state-owned land if we can bypass that federal permitting that is required, which is holding up Perpetua, you really got a jump start on things. If you have to go through the federal permitting, it can take a long time as is witnessed by Resolution Copper here in Arizona and by Perpetua is another example.

As Joe mentioned, our leasing activities are catered around state lands, not federal.

The next question is, has the company identified a domestic new source of antimony?

Yes. We thought about [indiscernible].

We're trying to leave it right now. So yes, we have.

Okay. The next question is -- any update on Ambri.

We remain in a situation where John Gustavsen is sort of a fair head boy, when it comes to supplying high-quality antimony to Ambri. Ambri, in my opinion, is behind on their schedule, and I am speculating when I say that. I had expected faster build-out from the lab and the prototype to actual production. So I'm speaking as an individual rather than as an Ambri representative when I say that.

Yes. And we continue to sell product to Ambri, just not a tremendous amount.

The important thing to Ambri is the quality of the antimony, the lack of impurities, et cetera. And again, our operation in Thompson Falls and in particular, John Gustavsen, we do make the cleanest antimony anywhere.

The next question is, in July 2023, you talked about attracting institutional investors. What progress can we report?

Okay. I have probably spoken with 7 or 8 investment banking firms. These are firms that I have dealt with in the oil and gas arena. And -- the biggest problem we have is size and stock price. So we're deemed a micro cap company, even though we're listing on the New York Stock Exchange. And -- we are just not attractive enough to the big mining banks like Bank of Montreal, Canaccord and others. Those banks also don't deal in antimony or zeolite because their customers or their clients are dealing in gold, silver, copper, et cetera. So we've had to lower our view in looking for more middle-market firms, and we are actively having those discussions. We have wanted to achieve some of the things that I've announced that are in our plan for 2024 before we make a concerted effort. I mean, I need -- we need more meat on the bone and that's what we're trying to do. And so I also have a gentleman that worked with me for over 15 years, marketing my prior companies, that is on standby to start once we have 1 or 2 of these announcements I've mentioned where we could actually say they're done. So answer your question is, yes. We've got to get more exposure, but we need more meat on the bone in order to entice the investment banking community and the equity research community to be interested in us.

The next question is, what excites you most for the future?

Well, I've only been on this board a little over a year and a couple of months. And when I first came on board, it was a pretty dark tunnel. Today, I see a bright light at the end of that tunnel. And I think the combination of the Board changes, the management changes. All the things we're doing operationally, whether it be improving BR

Yes. Gary, I echo your thoughts. I'd even add to that, that I think the excitement is the team that you and others have assembled, I think everyone open to new ideas, new thoughts and also still focused on doing the right thing, having the right initiatives, creating shareholder value, all those goals, those tentacles to the solution kind of get the excitement going. And I think, as you've said, we'll continue to implement good changes. There's never one solution. We're open minded and go at it each day, each week to try to make a difference.

Yes. I summarize that one step further, Rick. This company has 2 minerals that it deals with being antimony and zeolite that are truly unique and are truly in high demand. So it's incumbent upon us to figure out how to meet that demand. It'd be one thing if we were producing a product that nobody wanted, it was cheap. The prices of both these products continue to go up. We actually implemented a 10% increase on zeolite back in late 2023. And we know from our review of other companies, how well positioned we are and how we can expand that customer base, and we have plans to accomplish that this year. So I think as we sit here on April 17 versus December 31, 2024, I think we'll look a whole lot different.

Gary, I think that's it for the questions.

Okay. So I would like to thank all of you for your time, your unwavering support. It's our turn to make you happy shareholders. That's our goal. Thank you.