International Battery Metals Ltd. (IBAT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the IBAT First Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Earnings Conference Call and webcast. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Siegel, Investor Relations. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter fiscal 2027 financial results conference call. I'm Brian Siegel with Hayden IR. With me today is our Interim CEO, Garrett Galloway, who will provide a business update; and our CFO, Michael Rutledge, who will review our financial performance. Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that except for historical information, the matters discussed in this presentation are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Words like believe, expect and anticipate refer to our best estimates as of this call, and there can be no assurances that these will actually take place. So our actual future results could differ significantly from these statements. Further information on the company's risk factors is contained in the company's quarterly and annual reports filed on SEDAR+ and with the Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR. Now I'll turn the call over to Garrett.

Thanks, Brian, and good morning. I want to start by addressing Joe Mills's recent resignation. His departure was not a result of any issues with the company, a strategic shift or a change in any of the opportunities we have spoken about during prior calls. Joe came to IBAT to study the company and get it ready for its next chapter, and that is what he did. He brought stability to the business, and we have enhanced the team with a focus on execution. Importantly, the team has completed numerous successful testing programs that prove our technology performance across a variety of brines from different regions. We also have a clear understanding of our flow sheet and where IBAT fits into the field development process and the partnerships required to construct a full operation. And finally, we have identified key counterparties who would be suitable partners for IBAT DLE technology. I am grateful to Joe and for his guidance over the past several months. He leaves the company in a stronger place than when he started. Looking forward, I can tell you the direction holds because I've been part of it since early 2025. Over that period, the macro environment has improved and engagement has accelerated. I have been the one leading our conversations with counterparties, so these are not new relationships that I'm picking up cold. The people who did the technical and operational work that got us here are the same people doing it today. The team that built this is still here and the strategy we set over the past several quarters is the playbook we are still running. Let me give you an update on the opportunities themselves. Here in North America, we are in early conversations with resource owners where it is too soon to speculate on if or when they move forward with the project or DLE implementation. Something that has come up repeatedly in these conversations is that our technology is designed, sourced and built entirely in the United States. For a domestic resource owner deciding who to partner with, that is a real advantage. Specifically, in the Smackover, we are still actively pursuing field deployments with certain counterparties who have drilled wells, completed their subsurface diligence and are ready to evaluate DLE. In the Middle East, we continue to pursue an opportunity with our partner. Based on where this process stands, it looks like that decision could come over the next several quarters, which could be impacted by ongoing issues in the Middle East. We are optimistic about lithium developments in the Middle East and plan to keep investors updated on any material IBAT developments. In South America, there continues to be an uptick in resource evaluation and potential investment decisions. Our partner is encouraged by current activity, and we continue to support them in those efforts. Overall, resource owners are finally advancing projects and the opportunity for IBAT DLE deployments is wider today than it ever has been in the past. The backdrop is moving our way, too. The lithium demand curve continues to gain support with demand expected to increase from 1.6 million tons per year in 2025 to 4 million to 6 million tons per year by 2035. Prices have remained supportive and resource evaluations, which went quiet during the downturn are reactivating and evaluating development. Importantly, many of these new projects are taking a harder look at DLE as the optimal solution to advance development. That said, most resource owners are still not ready to move forward with commercial projects or fully deployed DLE at this stage, but IBAT is ready to help them advance towards a decision. I'll end where I started. The transition does not change what we are doing or how we are doing it. We will stay disciplined and sign the right deal on the right terms. And then we will put the technology in the field. Signing deals to become DLE technology provider on a resource is our top priority day in and day out. This will eventually advance our path to revenue. I've been a part of the company's plan for this integral period, and I am confident in where we are headed. With that, I'll turn it over to Michael to walk through the numbers.

Thanks, Garrett. Unless I note otherwise, all comparisons are for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 against the same quarter last year. We remain early in our revenue development. This quarter, we recognized $120,000 of service revenue from brine testing, up from $7,000 a year ago. Operating costs, excluding depreciation, decreased to $400,000 this quarter from $600,000 in the same quarter a year ago, while SG&A decreased to $1.8 million this quarter from $2.3 million last year. Our operating loss narrowed to $2.9 million from $3.6 million, an improvement of roughly $700,000 as we ran the business leaner and certain costs from last year did not repeat. Each quarter, we record a noncash change in our warrant liability based on updated pricing model calculations. This quarter, we experienced a gain of $2.9 million compared to a gain of $5.3 million a year ago. These fluctuations will continue until the outstanding warrants are exercised or expire. The net result was a loss of $28,000 or $0.00 per share compared to a net income of $1.7 million or $0.01 per share last year. That change is primarily the result of the smaller noncash warrant gain offset by lower operating and G&A costs in the current year. We ended the quarter with $9.4 million in cash compared to $9.2 million at the end of March, and we carry no debt. During the quarter, we closed a private placement with EV Metals, an insider of the company, issuing approximately 34.3 million units at $0.08 per share for gross proceeds of $2.8 million, which brought cumulative funding under our existing letter of intent to $15 million. With the cash on hand at quarter end, we believe we have sufficient operating cash to continue through at least the next 12 months, and we have a strong balance sheet to fund our ongoing operations. When we sign a deal, we expect we will need to raise additional capital as equity or debt to upgrade the plant and support deployment and potentially build one or two small pilot plants. With that, I'll hand it back to Garrett.

Thanks, Michael. I'll end by reiterating where we stand. The strategy hasn't changed. The team that built this is still here, and the market is gaining momentum. Our job is to convert opportunities into one or more projects in the field, and that is exactly where our focus is. I appreciate you being on this call this morning, and we look forward to updating you as we go. Operator, we can turn it over to questions.

[Operator Instructions] That concludes our telephonic Q&A session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Brian Siegel for any closing remarks.