Latest / Kitco MINING / US$150B Drone Boom Fuels Critical Minerals Race | Michael Rowley

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US$150B Drone Boom Fuels Critical Minerals Race | Michael Rowley · Kitco MINING

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to KitGo Mining with me, Paul Harris.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Wednesday, the 2nd of September, and we're going to take a look at some nature precious metals and critical minerals today.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Joining me is Michael Rowley, president and CEO of Stillwater Critical Minerals, which announced an updated and expanded resource estimate for its Stillwater West Critical Minerals project in Montana last week.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Michael, welcome to Kitco.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Bob.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Glad to be back.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to come to your resource update in a moment, but we've got a lot to talk about before then to set the scene, starting off with the need for critical minerals.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: BMO, the the bank, published a note this week that took a look at critical minerals in drone warfare.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: This was picked up a lot on X, including by Robert Friedland.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: The report said that with about 150 million drones expected to sorry, 15 million drones expected to be deployed in the Russia-Ukraine war this year, BMO estimates that governments have pledged some 150 billion US dollars for the development of drone and counter drone capabilities in the last two years.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this important?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It said gallium, germanium, and rare earth are the critical minerals most important for military drone manufacturing and in counter drone technology.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: So very big quantities there, and I imagine the key thing for these niche metals is that a shot up or exploded drone is not recyclable.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Michael, as the CEO of a prospective critical minerals supplier and producer, how do you see the markets and pricing development, particularly in light of the increased use of these minerals in warfare?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's becoming a really interesting question.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you're absolutely right.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Where the metal is is being coming as important as the metal itself.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Geopolitics are very real here.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Can you look at global supply chains anymore?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Who controls most of these?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Can you count on buying it?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is what the US government is all over.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: And frankly, we're seeing that as a very great desire for domestic supply chains.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: We've heard that again and again from the DOE, DOD, DOW.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And Stillwater, of course, not only world-class geology, third largest layered pneumatic system in the world, with the other two in Africa, but it happens to be in a producing mining district in the U.S.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: with 10 of the commodities you've just listed as critical.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And current production by Sabany.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: So this is really positive.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Big picture for building domestic supply.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: How quickly can you build it would be the next question.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's no question that America has the geology and that these minerals are being consumed at an accelerated rate.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of growth, BMO talked about it said$150 billion over the last two years, but uh I imagine that's going to be the tip of the iceberg.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: China's obviously very putting a lot of effort into this.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Last week or so saw the second ever robot Olympics where it shows the capability, the growing capability of robotic uh entities to do stuff.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another thing trending on X last week was a short video of a robotic dog with a gun on the back, shooting out with a drone that was shooting back.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: They were shooting fireworks at each other, but the the message is very clear that uh warfare is increasingly moving into uh being executed, if you like, by non-human combatants.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um it seems the demand for the inputs into these technologies is only could get bigger and bigger.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they had a robot dog out on the floor of the DibX show last week, and that's what I see is uh who's gonna supply all these minerals.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And back to your first point, it has to be done from a horse, if not domestic, then at least an ally.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: It can no longer be a global source.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So price is not the only factor anymore.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're gonna be consuming more of these things, and the supply chain becomes important.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now you mentioned Debs.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I wonder about uh the US government.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's advancing various means to stimulate the reassuring of critical mineral supply chains to sort of North America and friendly nations, the Department of Energy, the Department of War, US Exim Bank, they're all providing funding.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, early this year, project vault,$12 billion there, the defense stockpiles and so on.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um you were at DibEx last week, which was a um a government event.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us about that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: What was that event all about?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was a very encouraging show of how focused on this the UN US government is.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: This was Department of War, uh Department of Energy, separately, as you note, has also been funding mining ventures increasingly, including just simply mining as well as the processing that they're usually known for.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: DUW is on the front lines and they are funding um companies like ours to de-risk these things and advance them.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um there were several mining shows there.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: There were many, many non-mining companies, frankly, downstream processors or weapons manufacturers and such.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's very encouraging to see this level of support from a government.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's unprecedented, certainly in the past 60, 80 years.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think America has it right in that regard.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um they are looking at debt.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you mentioned the Exxum.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's often debt equity uh and also just street grant funding, whatever is appropriate, or some combination of those.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen the government take equity positions in um mineral companies now.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: How do you see the US government's understanding of the mineral space evolving?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of criticism a couple of years ago that the US government didn't really know what it was doing, didn't understand the minerals business or where would be the best points of the supply chain to apply its stimulus.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how how do you see that evolving over time?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's insightful.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there were some investments made that were questionable.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Those of us in the mining business would would question if that was a good example of that project, if the desire is to get that commodity.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've seen a shift now, right?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: The addition of David Copley, um, well-known senior mining executive.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: He knows how to build things, he knows how to de-risk and then build something.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Having expertise like that is a shift.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and we're seeing that more than ever.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're also seeing a recognition that not all those fundings that were done early are panning out.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there is an urgency on the part of government to secure these things.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, that's probably all I could say about that.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: But they're there, they're they're real.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me give a sort of twist to that question.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how fast do you think the US government is getting up the learning curve of the minerals business?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And with that in mind, how well do you think they are applying stimulus to the sector?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, faster than any other country, perhaps other than China, who's been there obviously decades, head start.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about that.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the US, I think, is outdoing Canada and Europe in this regard.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the American process is noisier, um, but ultimately it gets there.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And um, they will release grant funding under the Defense Production Act, Title III.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's a 1950 act, but it's a great way to fund something that the president deems important.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then they're opening up equity, debt, all these other avenues as well.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the proposal, but the conversations with companies like ours is very simply what's your timeline to production?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: What do you need to do?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Where can we support?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that perhaps brings in another important element because uh obviously the the US awarding money or giving money or loans, the the dollar amounts obviously make a lot of headlines, but there's more than one way of applying stimulus.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So um again, with that in mind, this non-monetary stimulus, things like uh assistance with permitting or accelerating permitting, what other things do you see the US government doing that are being really effective to help companies like yours move along that development chain?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what has limited, take Stillwater as an example, what has limited us for the past 10 years really is capital, access to capital.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that has been the point of our conversation with them.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: That we've we're left to public markets and we won't take money on certain terms.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Good money has been, was a little scarce.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: That changed somewhat last year.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: I can't keep making excuses.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um that is a major thing that government can do.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you believe in this, then get behind it.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Grant equity, debt, whatever.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Something that works for the company.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let us do our work um and fund it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Permitting, yeah, that's less of a factor for us because we have Savany right beside us.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And um, our forest service that we work with is well used to mining.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually never been really a concern.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's a process, that's it.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um now I I think if ever there was a project, this is acceleratable.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the that's the conversation we're having with government.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think looking elsewhere in the space, we're seeing that accelerated permitting coming through on projects.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Paramount Nevada announced this morning that they've got one of their final permits as a result of accelerated permitting processes.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's for their project, their gold project in Oregon.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Stillwater, you recently announced an updated and expanded resource estimate for the Stillwater West project in Montana.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: The new resource includes 805 million tonnes, grading about 0.34% of total nickel equivalent.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that contains some 4.8 billion pounds of nickel, copper, and cobalt, and 7.4 million ounces of platinum, palladium, gold, and rhodium.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: You also have some chrome in there.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you have some exotic precious metals in there as well as the industrial critical minerals.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Michael, um, what are some of the important takeaways from this resource update?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: The first thing is scale.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we were able to make this a lot bigger with relatively modest drill programs simply because it's a big layered system, and Savany's deposit, if you think about it, is actually contiguous across that whole 10 kilometers that holds the four deposits that have been put out in this release.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we simply have this kilometer thick layer below them, south of them, because it all comes to surface.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that is the Pritotite zone, and all our deposits are in there.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really not a surprise that we're this big.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: As we go to further connect these, you'll notice that five deposits have now become four, following two of them merging, two previous ones merging.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we expect to get bigger still.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Key point about this resource, though, is that we're now big enough, effectively, and we're pivoting towards indicated.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And you see our first indicated resource in this uh current one.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: We've never had one before.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's a major step up.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's something that bankers take seriously.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's something that Glencore and Sabany and others take very seriously.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Greater drill density, greater certainty on mineralization.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's where we're going next.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: You'll see us.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: We will still grow somewhat, but we don't need to be a lot bigger.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we will work now to upgrade those and move towards a PEA study and then further production-related studies beyond that.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's the that's the future here.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I want to sort of talk about the path forward in just a moment, if I may, Michael.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: But before we get there, you position the resource as a nickel nickel equivalent.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So will nickel be the sort of driving primary metal as you sort of go forward with the economics with a production scenario, potential production scenario?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we have to do nickel equivalence because the regulators tell me to.
• 12:21
  unknown: Okay.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: They want you to do an equivalence of something that you're 50% of.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And really, on some pricing, we're 40% nickel.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: So the beautiful thing about what we're doing is we're truly polymetallic.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're not just a little whiff and a sniff of cobalt or palladium or whatever, rhodium, even.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: We actually have these things in real commodities, and that's part of why Glencore really likes this, and that's part of why our congressman really likes this.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's just an internally diversified commodity blend.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: When one thing is down, you're going to make money on something else.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the beautiful thing about it.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, that that's that's the nature of what we're into.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's grown really nicely.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: You'll notice that the indicated grade is actually generally higher than the inferred grade, too, which reflects the fact that we drilled a lot of those holes ourselves or Amax, and the targeting is better.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're not including other um deposit types, older work, you know.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: That shows where the grade is is going.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, continuing on grade, you'll note that we have high grade within mid-grade within bulk tonnage grade as well.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: So there is optionality.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: This is not a homogenous system.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it looks really good.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you reported a Chrome resource for the first time.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: What why was that?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what's the potential for the Chrome there?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually the second time we've reported a Chrome resource.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: The uh the last one had uh, I think 2.3 billion pounds.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: This is 6.6 billion pounds, and it's very real.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have real interest from DOW in Chrome.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's a further 222 million pounds in the inferred category.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, in the indicated category, 6.6 billion pounds in the inferred.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's significant because the Stillwater District is still America's only place for chromium.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: It has the grades, it has the scale.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Government money subsidized the mining of chromium in the 1940s and 50s.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: So uh this broadly is a district that is known for critical minerals.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's been mined for critical minerals since even before the chrome.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh currently, Sabany is producing right there.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we like the chromium a lot.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: We're not including it in the economics, as you've seen.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um little early for that.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: We need to do some metallurgy and see what the recoveries, what the products are like, what the value is actually like.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um potentially, chromium is very significant here, and it's certainly getting us further attention from the powers that be.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now nickel, copper, cobalt, industrial metals, there, you know, people are quite familiar with those.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Platinum, palladium.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I imagine the use that people are most familiar with there are catalytic converters.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: What about rhodium?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the rhodium price is roughly twice that of the gold price.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So as precious metals goes, it's you know, in terms of value per ounce or whatever, it's probably top of the pile.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what is the main use is for rhodium?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: I believe it's still catalytic converters.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's often the three main PGMs, bladey, platinum, and rhodium.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there are certain mineral military applications as well.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And um I believe it's used in certain glass uh coating applications too.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: It this is the biggest by far in in North America, actually.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, it's one of two in North America.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it becomes very significant.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: It it punches above its weight as a commodity goes.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we have good metallurgy from 1972 that suggests it was even recoverable.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we're looking forward to building on that.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you've given us uh a lot of tantalizing things to sort of think about, Michael, uh, with this updated resource and the fact you've now got some indicated reserve uh resources, what are you gonna do with this?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: What are the next steps?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned a PEA.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what timescale will you look to develop that on?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: And given your comments that this truly is a polymetallic deposit, how are you gonna sort of tackle the the issue, the question of how you can produce from this?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how will you mine it?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: How will you process it?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it helps us immensely that Sabania is there processing.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, they're underutilizing their current facilities.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: They not only run the two mines, two concentrators, but they run an elaborate processing center in Columbus, Montana, right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: They make a nickel carbonate product right there in Columbus, Montana.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: They make palladium platinum that are upgraded in New Jersey.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: So this the the groundwork is already there and it's built to be expanded upon.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: As for us polymetallic, absolutely, we have good studies from the 1970s era by Amax, single-stage flotation, uh, particularly on the basal sulfide stuff, which is they called it camp zone, we call it CZ.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's that uh Iron Mountain area stuff.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you will see us work up more around that.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh PEA timing with this resource out and looking as good as it does, that accelerates our desire to get towards a PEA and shift towards that infill drilling I mentioned to with a PFS in mind, right?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: More indicated versus inferred.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh timing, year, 18 months at most.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we want to get there quickly, and it's really dependent upon markets at this point.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: We currently have three drills turning our most ever, and we're liking the core that comes out, and all that will go to inform a resource update uh and a PEA, presumably, and generate samples for a PEA.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've mentioned your neighbor in Montana several times throughout this conversation, Sibany.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're advancing a mechanization strategy at demi.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you mentioned some of the uh the facilities they have.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: How do you see the overall district evolving and uh what role do you see Stillwater and your project contributing to that future development?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Will it be a standalone?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Will it be combined, a joint development?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good question.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um I would be very glad to be combined with Sabania in some form, whether it's a JV or acquisition or whatever.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Their infrastructure is obvious.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: And their good name locally, actually, is obvious.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Where they struggle is cost.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're seeing now their costs are a little over$1,300 US per two E ounce.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're bringing that plat reef model from South Africa.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you've seen Ivanhoe's study,$599 per 4e ounce cost because of mining widths, mechanized mining, it's bigger stuff.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Economies of scale kick in.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's what we'd like to bring to Montana.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think put the two of them together, and you've got infrastructure, you've got a very high grade, highest grade in the world, and in Sedany's JM Reef deposit, but then you've got the diversity of commodity suite that we offer and the mining widths.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: We can be tens to hundreds of meters depending on what type of mine you're running.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: They're already processing sulfide uh materials floating uh in their facilities.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: We would simply be adding to that.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um you asked about recoveries of um an exotic polymetallic suit are a diverse polymetallic.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: We are, of course, working with Glencore and they have XPS uh as their preferred uh metallurgy uh folks internally, somewhat internally.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: We are also deep at Columbia University, um, and uh we are talking to others as well, but I think the answer here broadly is hydrometallurgy.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: So basically don't look to smelt.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: You make a cruder concentrate, you recover more into that concentrate, and then you put it into um a hydromet plant.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um Savania already does some of this.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you look to get more metals out of it, basically, at higher recoveries.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that would include chromium, possibly iron and magnesium, even, though it's very forward-looking.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Certainly nickel, copper, cobalt, PGMs, you know, things we're known for.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sounds like you have a lot going on, Michael.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe share with our viewers what some of the key catalysts they should look out for over the next 12 months or so are going to be.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd be glad to.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, drill program.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're running three rigs right now.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: The core, even Danny Grobler has put out some core on LinkedIn, I see.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um he likes what he's seeing.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the model is working, and that would be a key point.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so watch for drill results, watch for the expansion they represent.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: We have done some work on our UConn asset, and there will be news around that.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: That is earlier stage.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Heritage continues to do good work on our Ontario Gold project.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there will be news on that.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh presumably next year, bigger programs uh and and the push towards PEA and production studies.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that will really re-rate the company as we show what we're into.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've got some other things too that I can't talk about, but I'm hoping those come to fruition as well.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: We're excited.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll definitely have to do an update at some point when some of these catalysts materialize, and hopefully some of the uh the known unknowns, you can talk about those as well.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, until then, Michael Rowley, thank you very much for joining me today.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: Good to see you.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, to our viewers, if you like what you see, don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.