Energy Fuels Inc. (EFR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to Energy Fuels Inc. 2024 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The meeting is about to begin.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome again to the 2024 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders of Energy Fuels Inc. My name is Birks Bovaird, and I'm speaking to you from Lakewood, Colorado. I'm the Chair of the Board of the company, and I will act as Chair of this meeting. The Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer and Corporate of the company, David Frydenlund will act as Secretary of the meeting. Also with us today are Mark Chalmers, President and CEO; and Julia Hoffmeier, Corporate Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary; Nathan Bennett, Chief Accounting Officer and Interim Chief Financial Officer; and Katherine Miner, KPMG Audit Partner of the company.

This is Mark Chalmers, President and CEO of Energy Fuels. We welcome each of you to this year's meeting which we are pleased to hold virtually so that our shareholders and guests can meaningfully engage with us from the convenience of your own homes and offices. We welcome your participation throughout the meeting, and we'll pause intermittently to accommodate questions on the matters before you today. After the official business has concluded, I will invite you to stay on for my presentation, during which I am pleased to share with you our vision for the company as we continue taking steps forward making our White Mesa mill the critical minerals hub for the United States.

This is David Frydenlund, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Energy Fuels. This meeting is held in accordance with the Ontario Business Corporations Act, which permits shareholder meetings by electronic means and is deemed to be held in [indiscernible] and do not wish to change your vote, no actions required at this time. If you are eligible to vote at this meeting and have not yet voted, or would like to change your vote, you may do so by clicking the proxy voting site link on the left side of your screen. Only shareholders and proxy holders who have been provided an 11-digit control number located on the form of proxy received are entitled to vote at this meeting. If there are any registered shareholders or duly appointed proxy holders who have inadvertently logged into the meeting as a guest, but intend to vote by online ballot during the meeting, please log back into the meeting as a registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder as per the instructions provided to you.

The 2024 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders of Energy Fuels Inc. will now come to order. To make the best use of our time, certain shareholders have been asked to move and second the resolutions, which we will consider here today and which are set out in the notice of meeting. This will allow more time for voting as well as any questions and comments later in the meeting. We welcome both shareholders and meeting guests to submit questions as they arise. Though we may address them at a later point in the meeting, or on a private basis depending on subject matter. We will pause periodically throughout the meeting to review questions directly related to any of the motions of the meeting, during which you may have -- you may experience brief periods of silence. Subject to any time constraints, general questions relating to the company's business and operations will be addressed after the CEO's presentation following the meeting. Duplicate or similar questions may be consolidated and paraphrase when read allowed in order to minimize repeat answers. We will conduct the votes on the matters before us via poll. In this format, every shareholder entitled to vote on this matter that is every shareholder or proxy holder who has been provided at an 11-digit control number has 1 vote in respect of each share entitled to be voted on the matter and held by the shareholder. If you previously voted by proxy, please note that voting in the poll will avoid your previously cast votes, and any votes submitted here will govern. We note that the proxies received to date indicate that the company has sufficient votes as all matters in accordance with the recommendations of management. The poll will be open for all resolutions at the same time. This will allow you to vote either on each resolution immediately or wait until the conclusion of discussions on all resolutions prior to casting your vote on any of the resolutions. Your votes may be changed until voting is closed just prior to the termination of the meeting. Equiniti Trust Company, LLC, formerly known as American exchange Stock, Stock Transfer and Trust Company, LLC, will act as virtual scrutineer of this meeting. To report on the shareholders present virtually and the number of securities represented virtually and by proxy at this meeting and any adjournment thereof to compute the votes cast by proxy and by the poll conducted at this meeting or any adjournment thereof and to report to me on those matters. The notice of Internet availability of proxy materials was mailed to all registered shareholders and was also mailed or notice was delivered in accordance with the notice and access requirements to all nonregistered shareholders in accordance with Rule 14A-16 of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Accordingly, the company is also in compliance with the Canadian National Instrument 51-102, Part 9.1.5, which allows compliance with SEC notice and access rules. The affidavit of mailing has been duly filed, and I direct that the affidavit be attached to the minutes of this meeting as a schedule. If you're entitled to vote at the meeting, you may address the meeting when there is a call to discuss a motion before the meeting. Should a shareholder or proxy holder entitled to vote at the meeting like to address the chair or other speaker on any motion, please type in your question or comment in the message section provided on your screen. Subject to timing constraints and applicability to the matters being discussed the Secretary or another speaker may read the question aloud and provide a response during the course of the meeting. As previously noted, duplicate or similar questions may be consolidated and paraphrased when read allowed in order to minimize repeat answers. A quorum for the transaction of business at a meeting of shareholders is at least 2 persons present, in this case, virtually each being a shareholder entitled to vote at the meeting or a duly appointed proxy holder or representative for an absent shareholder so entitled. I will now ask the secretary to report on attendance at the meeting.

Mr. Chair, we are pleased to report that there are 119 shareholders holding 84,035,268 common shares represented in person or by proxy at this meeting. This represents 51.35% of the approximately 163 million issued and outstanding common shares.

Thank you. I declare the requisite quorum of shareholders is present and that the meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business. I direct that the final scrutineers' report on attendance the annex to the minutes of the meeting as is scheduled. The first item of business is the presentation of the financial statements of the company for the year ended December 31, 2023, together with the auditor's report thereon. Copies of the financial statements have been publicly filed and mailed to all shareholders who requested them. Are there any questions concerning the financial statements?

This is Julia Hoffmeier, Corporate Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary. There are no questions at this time.

As there are no questions, receipt and presentation of the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023, is hereby acknowledged. The next item of business is the election of directors. It's proposed that the 10 directors -- that 10 directors be elected at this meeting. As described in our proxy statement, the company has adopted a majority voting policy that provides for individual director voting by shareholders. Under the policy, if any nominee director receives a greater number of votes withheld than votes for election, such nominee director will tender his or her resignation for consideration by the Board of Directors following the meeting. In addition, in 2014, the Board and the shareholders of the company approved an amendment to the company's bylaws, which requires that shareholders submit a notice of director nominations at least 35 days and not more than 65 days prior to the annual meeting. No notices of nominations were received by the company within the specified time period. May I have a motion to nominate the individuals recommended by the Board of Directors.

This is Mark Chalmers, I nominate for election as directors of the company for the ensuing year, the following 10 persons whose nomination has been authorized by the Board of Directors. Birks Bovaird, Mark Chalmers, Benjamin Eshleman, Ivy Estabrooke, Barbara Filas, Bruce Hansen, Jacqueline Herrera, Dennis Higgs, Robert Kirkwood and Alexander Morrison.

As no other nominations were received by the company, in accordance with the advanced notice provisions of the company's bylaws, I now declare the nominations closed. All of the nominees have signified their consent to act as directors of the company. May I have a motion in respect of the election of the nominees as directors.

This is Mark Chalmers. I move that the individuals I have nominated be elected as directors of the company to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed.

This is David Frydenlund. I second the motion.

Thank you. Is there any discussion on this motion?

This is Julia Hoffmeier. There are no questions at this time.

Thank you. As there are no questions, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All persons eligible to vote may enter their votes by clicking on the proxy voting site link on the left side of your screen at this time. You may cast or change your vote until the poll for all proposals is closed just prior to the termination of the meeting. The next item of business is the appointment of our auditors. As described in our proxy statement, management is proposing that KPMG LLP and an independent registered public accounting firm located in Denver, Colorado, be reappointed as auditors of the company. I now ask someone to make a motion.

This is Mark Chalmers. I move that KPMG LLP of Denver, Colorado, an independent registered public accounting firm, be appointed as auditors of the company until the next annual meeting of the company at such remuneration as shall be fixed by the Board of Directors.

This is David Frydenlund. I second the motion.

Thank you. Is there any discussion on this motion?

This is Julia Hoffmeier, there are no questions at this time.

Thank you. As there are no questions, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All persons eligible to vote may enter their votes by clicking on the proxy voting site link on the left side of your screen at this time. You may cast or change your vote until the poll for all proposals is closed just prior to the termination of the meeting. The next item of business is the consideration and if deemed appropriate, the ratification and approval of the amendment and extension of the company's Omnibus Equity Incentive Compensation Plan, for a further 3-year term, as described in the proxy statement and the supplement there, too. To be effective, this resolution must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast. I now ask someone to make a motion.

This is Mark Chalmers. I move that the ordinary resolution of the shareholders of the company in the form set out in the proxy statement and the supplement there to ratify in approving the company's 2024 Omnibus incentive -- equity incentive compensation plan for the further 3-year term in approving all unallocated options, rights and other entitlements under the plan as described in the proxy statement and the supplement thereof to be approved.

This is David Frydenlund. I second the motion.

Thank you. Is there any discussion on this motion?

This is Julia Hoffmeier. There are no questions at this time.

As there are no questions, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All persons eligible to vote may enter their votes in Lumi at this time as indicated on your screens. The next item of business is the consideration and if deemed appropriate, the ratification and approval of the company's shareholder rights plan between the company and Equiniti Trust Company, LLC, for a 3-year term as described in the proxy statement and the supplement thereto. To be effective, this resolution must be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast. I now ask someone to make a motion.

This is Mark Chalmers. I move that the ordinary resolution of the shareholders of the company in the form set out in the proxy statement and the supplement thereto, ratifying and approving the company's shareholder right plan for a 3-year term as described in the proxy statement and the supplement thereto, be approved.

This is David Frydenlund, and I second the motion.

Thank you. Is there any discussion on this motion?

This is Julia Hoffmeier, there are no questions at this time.

As there are no questions, I now call for a vote on the motion before the meeting. All persons eligible to vote may enter their votes in Lumi at this time as indicated on your screens. You may cast or change your vote until the poll for all proposals is closed just prior to the termination of the meeting. If you have not yet cast your vote on any of the matters voted on at this meeting, you must now cast your votes. I will pause for 30 seconds to allow time for all votes to be cast. [Voting]

Based on the preliminary scrutineer's report, proxies were received from a sufficient number of shares relative to the total number of votes cast at this meeting -- at the meeting such that I declare the following; with respect to the election of directors, I declare the motion carried and confirm that all of the nominees have been elected as directors of the company to hold office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until successors are duly elected or appointed. Each of the nominees for director received more votes for than the number of votes withheld. And accordingly, each of the directors has been duly elected, and none of the directors is required to tender his or her resignation under the majority voting policy. With respect to the appointment of KPMG LLP of Denver, Colorado, an independent registered public accounting firm, as auditors of the company until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders at such remuneration as shall be fixed by the Board of Directors, I declare the motion carried. With respect to the ratification and approval of the company's 2024 Omnibus equity incentive compensation plan for a further 3-year term, and approval of all unallocated options, rights or other entitlements under their plan. I declare the motion carried. With respect to the ratification and approval of the company's shareholders' rights plan with the Equiniti Trust Company, LLC, for a 3-year term, I declare the motion carried. I hereby direct that a copy of the scrutineers' final voting results be annexed to the minutes of the meeting that a report on voting results be filed on SEDAR and in accordance with Section 11.3 of the National Instrument 51-102, continuous disclosure obligations and at a Form 8-K in accordance with Item 5.07, be filed on EDGAR pursuant to the filing requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. That concludes the scheduled business of this meeting. Is there any other business that anyone entitled to vote at this meeting wishes to bring to the attention of the meeting?

This is Julia Hoffmeier. There is no further business to be brought before the meeting.

Thank you. As there is no further business, I declare the meeting terminated. The formal part of this annual and special meeting of shareholders is now adjourned. I invite you to stay online for a presentation of the company's activities to be given by Mark Chalmers, the President and CEO of the company.

Thank you for the handover, Mr. Chairman. And ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to make the following presentation. And this first slide, which is taken down in San Juan County, not too far from the White Mesa Mill, titled Clean Energy starts with us really does on steroids when it comes to decarbonization, electrification and energy fuels can do more than I know of any other company when it comes to this energy transition and reducing carbon emissions and improving electrification. Next slide. I may be making some forward-looking statements. Those are on this Page 3. Next slide. So really, our business objective is very simple. We're playing a long game to create a profitable, high-margin critical mineral company centered on uranium and around uranium producing the advanced materials needed for the energy transition. So everything we do is to center around uranium, whether it be traditional uranium ores, vanadium, rare earth, the recycling that we've done, the production of potentially medical isotopes and even the heavy mineral sands that contain monocyte, they all have the common denominate of containing uranium or other radioisotopes that we are very well placed. As a matter of fact, we're best placed of anyone I know of and particularly North America to deal with those and to monetize these various elements. Next slide. So everything we do is a high-value product line. Uranium, where we have been the largest producer of uranium for the last -- since 2017, where we produced 2/3 of the uranium produced in the United States, mainly from our recycling activities, which in itself is remarkable. We have restarted and are producing from 3 uranium mines right now, and we're ramping up that production between 1.1 million to 1.4 million pounds of uranium per year by the end of this year 2024. Rare earth and this is a very exciting bolt-on to our company centered around uranium producing the critical elements used for the powerful magnets use for EVs and other high-tech technologies. We announced just a day ago, the fact that we are making commercial on-spec separated rare earth and we're very, very excited about that. And we're able to push that facility at full design capacity to produce that and it has the capacity to do between 850 to 1,000 metric tons of NdPr per year, given enough feed, and that is the equivalent to powering up to 1 million electric vehicles per year. And again, this is a very major accomplishment by the company. We're very proud of this and very few companies can do what we've done over the course of the last 6 months at getting this Phase 1, both designed, constructed and up and operating to specification. Heavy mineral sands. Heavy mineral sands contain titanium and zirconium and the rare earth's particularly monocyte. And this is a unique part of our story to provide the company with a security of supply of the contained monocyte in these heavy mineral sands deposits, which in themselves can be highly profitable and the monocyte becomes a byproduct. Vanadium, a critical element used primarily for strength, hardening but also used for grid scale batteries and aerospace. And we have the only conventional vanadium circuit in the United States. Recycling, the reason the White Mesa Mill remains today and full operational capacity and has since it was built in 1980 is it has had the ability to recycle natural uranium products and vanadium that has kept it alive during periods when uranium prices were as low as $7 per pound. And even though it is not our main focus, it has always been an important focus and fallback to produce revenues from these sources that otherwise would be lost at disposal. Financial strength, we always pride ourselves in having substantial financial strength. With that, at March 31, we had $222 million of working capital, including nearly $200 million of cash and marketable securities and large inventories of uranium and vanadium and no debt. Next slide. So all the products that we make are really focused on this clean energy transition. Historically, you would invest in a uranium only company, a rare earth company or maybe lithium or graphite. And we've seen just how brutal it is when the prices are going up, it's great for the share price. But when the prices turn and go down, it's brutal to the share price. So our company is building a company that has the diversification of various elements and not dependent on any single element for its business strategy and that levels out the peaks and the valleys, but it does level things out. So if you are a believer of energy transition and energy technologies, Energy Fuels is really a one-stop shop, whether it be for nuclear fuel, vanadium flow batteries, the electric drivetrains on electric vehicles, wind turbines or for defense, Energy Fuels is providing diversification in all those areas like nobody else I know of really in the world on how we're doing this strategy. Next slide. So recently, towards the end of April, we announced the proposed combination of base resources, and we see this as an outstanding opportunity for our company to create a path to become the leading U.S. producer of critical minerals and also be in the heavy mineral sand business. The Toliara project is world-scale, world-class project in Madagascar. And we're excited about that because that provides a source of monocyte for decades. It still has to come out and get full approval from the Madagascar government, so it's not unencumbered at this point in time, but we believe that this project fits energy fuels than any other company with our strategy. And it also enhances the scale and the asset diversification, the acquisition of these large sources of monocyte once that project is fully approved and is built and also very highly accretive, we believe, for a re-rate and we also secure a management team that is experienced running heavy mineral sands projects, which is an area that we do not have that expertise and that comes with this possible acquisition combination. And again, as I said, it is a very exciting development for the company. Next slide. So when you look at the slide of the world, basically, what you see in the Northern Hemisphere, mainly in blue with exception of Bahia, those are mainly our uranium assets and that also includes the White Mesa mill. And that is where we do the hydromet for both uranium, vanadium recovery and for the rare earth recovery. So the Northern Hemisphere will be managed assuming this combination comes together as we expect will be managed by Energy Fuels in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere, which mainly focused on the heavy mineral sands and the monocyte will be managed by base resources out of Perth, Australia including the wind down of their quality project in Kenya and also of the development of the Toliara project in due course, but also with the signing of the definitive agreements for the joint venture on the Donald project in Victoria, Australia, they'll also provide support to the joint venture. As well as take ownership to manage the Bahia project in Brazil. So this is a perfect combination of having the Northern Hemisphere of the hydromet in the Southern Hemisphere with a physical separation required for heavy mineral sands. And again, this is taking 2 companies and putting them together where 1 plus 1 equals 3. Next slide. So just sort of the highlights of some of the management team of base resources. As I said, they've been very successful in developing their quality of project, which is coming to an end, and we will have this team when we close to help us with that southern hemisphere for the heavy mineral sands and also securing the monocyte stream. So we don't have to go out and find people, train people. These guys are great at what they do. We recognize that, that is the real benefit of the base transaction with the Toliara project and this expertise. Next slide. So let's talk about our core business, uranium. Next slide. So again, many of you have seen this slide before. We're ramping up our uranium production up to 2 million pounds in the not-too-distant future. You see the White Mesa Mill, you see the Pinyon Plan mine that I built in 1987. It is currently producing high-grade uranium ore that is the highest grade uranium -- underground uranium mine in the United States. Nichols Ranch, we're starting to do drilling at Nichols Ranch of some of the production areas and then the Le Sal complex, which was really a complex of 4 or 5 lines, and we have the Le Sal complex in the Pandora complex that are mining uranium vanadium ores. And so we are without impeding on our uranium production capabilities we are advancing the rare earth strategy, but these projects are going right now and producing uranium ore, and that ore is being shipped to the White Mesa mill for processing later this year into next year and the next years beyond that. Next slide. So in the development pipeline, and these are significant projects. The Roca Honda mine in New Mexico is a very large high-grade source of uranium as is the Sheep Mountain project in Wyoming, which is a combination of open pit and underground project is fully permitted to go to the Sweetwater mill in Wyoming. And then you have the Henry Mountains, the Bullfrog project that's in Utah. So when you look at these pipeline projects, in addition to the projects we have we can ramp up our production in time given all the permits to roughly 6 million pounds per year. And these are significant projects, particularly looking to the future with the uranium business with the focus being on nuclear power and reduction in carbon emissions, these are 3 exciting projects in the pipeline. Next slide. So uranium sales, we have made a number of sales into or started making sales into the contracts. We have sold uranium on the spot market opportunistically. The price uranium has dropped back to 85 a couple of days ago. I think it's 82.5 or 83 today, but we are well positioned with our long-term contracts to keep those core projects up and going, and we will be looking at how we position ourselves with our inventories and our contracts as we go forward. We did sell 300,000 pounds of uranium in Q1 and we did do a spot sale in Q1 that was nearly $103 a pound. Now the thing is that one of the advantages of having long-term contracts and having the ability to put material in the spot market, it gives us ability to position ourselves how we choose to when the market swings up or down. Next slide. Look at some of the growth drivers. Next slide. So we've talked about monocyte for the last several years and the ability to process that and to monetize the uranium, and it's a byproduct of heavy mineral sands. And again, we believe this is playing to our strengths as a company when it comes to our ability to, one, recover the uranium to process the rare earth, to use solvent extraction and the White Mesa Mill is the only facility in the United States, which is able to do this. They are currently processing monocyte in China, and we are effectively replicating the China plan, but we're doing it in the United States at world standards. And so we can make -- and we have done, we've made a commercial carbonate that we made since 2021, and we've proven we can recover the uranium and the thorium and extract that from the material. And we have now, as we mentioned just yesterday with our press release, we're making on-spec separated rare earth. And I want to mention that if you look at even Linus, when they started making -- tried to make separations, they had a number of years of challenges to actually get their plant to work. And MP had the same kind of problems. We were able to commission our plant in about 1 month's time because we have this expertise to handle and understand solvent extraction, and we had done a significant piloting over the last number of years as well as doing the crack in leaching shipping that to Neo. So we had a number of coordinates that gave us a better outcome. So we expect we only have a small quantity of monocyte that we're processing for this commissioning run. And so we expect to produce about 25 to 35 tonnes of on-spec NdPr this year, and that is approximately about 2 truckloads of NdPr. So we are continuing to advance our plans to designing an upscaled separation plant and crack and leach plant that can produce up to 6,000 metric tons of NdPr per year, which is the same scale as Linus currently producing at and also with heavy REO separation of the heavies. So really, this is where it is so exciting because we are making these steps. We put a strategy forward, and we've been advancing this strategy. We say what we do, and I think if you look at the history since we got in this business 4 years ago, we say what we do and then we do it. So monazite, again, is recovered as a low-cost byproduct of HMS mining. In most cases, the heavy mineral sand mining pays for the recovery of the monocyte and that is a real distinct advantage for our company and the strategy that we are putting forward. And lastly it is not diminishing our ability to produce uranium. If people think it is, it's not. I can tell you that my last breath will be producing uranium and my wife will agree. Next slide. So looking at the integration profile of how we're going. I mean, we've got the ability, we're doing it right now with the mining and [indiscernible] and then moving down to the crack and [ Leach ], which I discussed is where we removed the uranium and the thorium moving to separation, which we're doing right now, and we have our eyes on metal making and alloys and we've got a number of initiatives to advance the metals and the alloys. Meanwhile, we will be securing monocyte in time when we get the Bahia project, we get the Donald project, and ultimately, we believe, hopefully, get the Toliara project shipping monazite to the white Mesa mill in that lower hemisphere again, will be where base resources with their extensive skill sets will be helping to accomplish that lower hemisphere of getting that monocyte and the heavy mineral sands to market in a profitable way that provides us diversity and security of supply to what will ultimately be our offtakers for the products we produce at White Mesa. Next slide. So this is just a time line on the rare earth development time line. When you look at here we are in 2024 with the running of the Phase 1 plant. In the meantime, when we're done commissioning in the next month or 2, we're going to switch the mill over to run uranium, and we are going to push as much uranium through that mill as we can over the next few years. Meanwhile, we'll be getting the Donald project in order and ready to ship monazite and heavy mineral SaaS. It will make an HMC concentrate that will be shipped to another party that will recover the monazite from -- and the Donald project -- excuse me, the Donald project will be making an agency and we'll recover the monazite that will be shipped to White Mesa mill. The Bahia project, the will be a heavy mineral sand concentrate. We'll go to some other group and recover the monazite. And these are going to be happening in that 2026, '27 and onward period. And meanwhile, we closed -- hopefully, we believe we'll close the base acquisition or a combination, and the Toliara project will then be in a position to get fully permitted and able to advance and be built. And then when you look at the combination of those 3 sources and not including Chemours, which we're still working with by that 2026, '27, '28, we see large quantities of monazite showing up to the mill when at that time, we believe we will have Phase 2, if we have the quantities of monazite, Phase 2, Phase 3 to handle that material and go ahead and do the value adds at the White Mesa Mill and then also looking at the advancements looking to the future for metals alloys and even up to magnets. Next slide. So this table just shows the Bahia project that we own 100%, potential for production in 2026, supplying monazite to the White Mesa mill kind of repeating what I said. It also includes not only NdPr but DY and TB, the Donald project that we signed the joint venture on that has a couple of phases. The first phase was around 7,000 tonnes on monazite, also includes DY and TB in addition to NdPr. And then you get the Toliara project that we're in the process of acquiring 100%. We have to close it. We expect that to close towards the end of August. And this is the large significant project that has initially up to about 17,000 to up to 26,000 tons a year of monocyte. So that is real significant world material quantities of NdPr and DY and TB. So the combination of these 3 assets as I said, provide us with line of sight to the molecules required for our rare earth strategy at World significant scale in the sort of same order as Linus in due course. And that is why we're so excited about it. Next slide. So just more information on the Toliara project I mean, again, it is significant scale. It has a lot of monazite. When you look at the monazite at Toliara and at Donald, you have several million, a few million -- 2 million to 3 million tons of monocyte on the horizon and measured indicated inferred basis. So it really puts the company in a position to have security of supply for decades. And that, again, is why we're excited. Now we still, again, have to close the Toliara project or the base project that has the Toliara project, and we've got to get all the approvals and get the project built to get those scales but it is an exciting project for us looking forward. And if you look at the base DFS and PFS on both the heavy mineral sand business and the rare earth, they have a combined MPV in their documents of approximately $2 billion NPV at 8% and an IRR of 32%. So this is a significant company maker project for our company, and so we will be advancing that to close at the end of August. Next slide. So looking at sort of the preliminary economics, the Phase 1 separation that we announced on Monday. It has the capacity up to 1,000 tons of NdPr given enough monocyte producing the 25 to 35 tons of separated NdPr. And we built that for approximately $16 million to $18 million, which is really unheard of. Most companies cannot even build a pilot plant for that, and we built a commercial size separation facility at the White Mesa Mill, so that was a substantial accomplishment. We also have completed a Class IV pre-feasibility study that was looking at a feed rate of around 3,000 tons -- or 30,000 tons of monocyte, which is about 3,000 tonnes of NdPr, and it had a capital expense of around $350 million but also an operating cost for recovery of NdPr of around $30 per kg. So really, the key to our economics is what is the cost of securing the monazite. If we have monazite that comes along with the heavy mineral sands revenues and we get it for free, that is an outstanding result. But it really is what the cost of the heavy mineral sands of that production and what revenue you get from the heavy mineral sand business? And what do you get in the by-product with the monazite on what you optimal long-term economics are. We believe this will be world significant. With our models and what we believe we can produce the monazite at these heavy mineral sands projects, we believe it's a very exciting place to be, and it's a unique place that only Energy Fuels has really kind of put together this puzzle and the way we have done that. So because we're having great successes on securing these heavy mineral sand projects and are building a pipeline on the monazite, we are looking at increasing the size of our ability to crack leach and separate stand-alone from the mill up to 60,000 tons of monazite per year, which is up to 6,000 tons of NdPr and also recovering substantial quantities of DY and TB. And so we're currently doing some of the pilot work. We're starting to do pilot work on the heavy separations, which is the DY and TB and we will only make the commitment to building this expanded Phase 2, Phase 3 if we have the monazite secured and showing up at the mill, but we can do the work on the engineering and the permitting right now, and that is what we're focused on. But we're getting the molecules lined up, as you can see, with both Bahia and the Donald project, and Toliara over in due course. Next slide. So again, the structural advantages and how can we be globally competitive and a very competitive rare earth market, again, a lot of it is that we have the licenses, the infrastructure and of the radionuclides, of monazite and that is underappreciated. That is underappreciated. That is a big advantage. The monazite are high grades. They have great distributions. It's low cost to effectively mine it. It was a waste product for years and now is considered sort of the goal of the rare earth business. And it can be a byproduct that can be very low cost. It is straightforward to process monazite, if you have the ability to handle the radionuclides and you also have the knowledge on how to crack and leach it and also apply solvent extraction to recovery. It's low cost in terms of capital efficiency and operating cost efficiency. We have over 40 years of experience of dealing with SX. And I think that is one of the differentiators of why others have had difficulty starting up their SX plants as they didn't have the kind of experience that Energy Fuels has. And Utah is a relatively low-cost jurisdiction. Matter of fact, it is low cost in the United States, and it's relatively low cost when you look at it from a world perspective, and we have the expertise, as I said, to do not only the recovery but also focusing on global ESG standards. Next slide. So let's talk about long-term growth opportunities. Next slide. And I'll just touch on it briefly, but we do have the vanadium circuit. We are mining vanadium from our Le Sal complex right now. And we have the ability to go back into vanadium production when the prices are more favorable. We did sell vanadium in 2023 for about $11 a pound. It's around $6 a pound right now. So we really just look at how we sell vanadium when the price of vanadium goes up because it's a very spiky element. Medical isotopes, win reprocessing, uranium ores and reprocessing, monazite, we saw [indiscernible] another -- a number of elements, including Radium-226 and Radium-228, and we're still advancing that and we have a research and development license, and we're advancing our efforts to see we can recover these Radium 226 and 228 and then be able to put that into the medical supply chain in due course. Next slide. So let's talk about community. Next slide. Well, first of all, everything we're doing fits perfectly in with ESG, whether it's uranium for reducing carbon emissions the rare earth, as I said, for these clean energy technologies improvements, electrification, vanadium mainly used for steel hardening, but also used for renewable power grid storage the medical isotopes, if you're processing uranium and monocyte, why not try to recover the RADIUM-226 and 228, which potentially can save life with this targeted alpha therapies for cancer treatments. And then lastly, the recycling, which, again, we're very, very proud of because we have recycled nearly 6 million pounds of uranium and additionally, a couple of million pounds of vanadium over the course of the mills life, which is the main reason mill has been able to survive the test time. And we're looking at producing approximately 400,000 pounds of low-cost recycling some of our [ alternate feed ] programs as we go forward, and we've done that over a number of years. It fluctuates, but it is a really important part to our business strategy, and it provides the sources of these natural uranium projects that we can recover and complement our traditional conventional mining and ISR mining. Next slide. So on community outreach, I've mentioned this a number of times, the San Juan Clean Energy Foundation. We set that up with $1 million contribution and competing 1% of our annual revenues from the mill going forward is supporting a number of existing programs, but really focus health, wellness, economic advancement and native American priorities as well as environment and education. And so we're really excited about that. And we've made a number of grants over the last couple of years, and those are on that far right-hand corner, and we continue to make grants. The Advisory Board has 2 indigenous members, and they've done an outstanding job at looking at applications for grants and awarding where they thought it is best suited for the region. So it's a very exciting and growing foundation as we increase the size and scale of our business, that foundation, that 1% will increase over time. And it is just, again, an outstanding setup for the region, and we couldn't be prouder of that. Next slide. So we'll talk about financials next. Next slide. So looking at Q1 of 2024, we continue to have earnings. We had $3.6 million of net income, which is $0.02 per share. We sold 300,000 pounds of uranium at a blended price of around $84 a pound, which net at a gross profit of over $14 million. And we're still looking at potential additional uranium cells in 2024, and that could be spot sales, but it could also be -- I think we have up to about 100,000 pounds of a contract that could still be called upon by nuclear utility. look at our balance sheet and 0 debt, we have nearly $0.25 billion of liquidity at current commodity prices. We are very strong, and I think we're stronger than any of our peers. We're advancing the activities that we're talking about. And so we have a very strong balance sheet, and we will always have a strong balance sheet because when you have a weak balance sheet and the market turns on you, it's not a place you want to be. Next slide. So just looking at guidance in 2024, as I mentioned, we have -- we're finishing the commissioning of the Phase 1 separation plant. As soon as that's done, and we've ran through all the other material, I think we slipped the slide here. Can you go back to guidance? Thank you. We will shift the mill over to vanadium runs, we'll start processing uranium in the mill. Now that doesn't mean we're going to get all that through. So that 150,000 to 500,000 pounds is just guidance for what we'll process through the mill. We have a lot more product to process than that. And if we can beat that guidance, we will. But that's our guidance for running the mill this year but we are -- every day, we have trucks showing up with more uranium, and that will be ran this year, next year, and following years and it builds up. So I talked about the 300,000 pounds of uranium sales in Q1 I talked about, we'll be looking at what uranium calls we make or don't make for the remainder of 2024 under contract or spot sales. We're ramping up these mines, as I mentioned, to that runway of up to 1.4 million pounds of newly mined ore that would be shipped towards the mill that will be brand either later this year or early next year or the following year, and we expect to push up our uranium production up to about 2 million pounds a year over the next year or 2. Meanwhile, we're preparing Nichols Ranch to go back into production. If prices continue to support that. We're finalizing, as I mentioned, that run with the NdPr at the Phase 1 doing the engineering work on the Phase 2, Phase 3 expansion and drilling at the Bahia project in Brazil, and hope to turn that into a resource estimate later in '24 or '25. So -- and lastly, advancing the combination with base resources, which we hope to have closed by the end of August of '24. So thank you very much. Thank you for being interested in Energy Fuels. Thank you for being a shareholder, and it's an exciting time for our company. But again, remember, we are a hybrid of several elements. We're not going to be vulnerable to 1 specific element at any one time with the business strategy we are executing right now. Thank you. Any questions?

This is Julia Hoffmeier. There are no further questions at this time.

Do we want to wait a moment or 2, see if any other questions come in or any questions come in. Well, if there are no questions. I just want to conclude that we are driving and shooting and orchestrating a long game here. We are not focused on the share price of any particular day. We are focused on building long-term shareholder value with a very unique strategy based on this energy transition, as I mentioned, with multiple elements to take the peaks and the valleys out of the market. And as I said, you've seen it with lithium, you've seen it with graphite. You've seen it with cobalt, you see it with uranium. Price goes up, price goes down. We are building a company with long-term diversification and really being able to position ourselves to capitalize on the energy transition. So again, thank you for your time, and have a great day.