RecycLiCo Battery Materials Inc. (AMY.V) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

So good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Annual General Meeting of American Manganese Inc. The meeting will come to order. My name is [ Melody Yu ], and I'm legal counsel for the company. I will act as Chair of this meeting, and Teresa Piorun has kindly agreed to be the Secretary for this meeting. So I'd like to introduce the Directors and members of management. As everyone know, Larry Reaugh is Director, President and CEO of the company, and he is here with us today. Rest of the directors are Andris Kikauka, Edward Skoda, Norman Tribe, Kurt Lageschulte and Zarko Meseldzija. I think from what I can see, Andris, Kurt and Zarko are here with us today. I am not sure if Norm is here. I don't see him, and I don't know if Ed is here, but someone's joining us. Anyways, at the end of the meeting, Larry will provide an update of the company's activities, after which there will be a period for questions. It's my pleasure to welcome everyone to the meeting today. [ Roxelle Oquendo ] of Endeavor Trust is here to act as scrutineer for our meeting. Thank you, [ Roxelle ]. So let us proceed with the business of the meeting. I have been advised that the notice calling this meeting, together with the management information circular of the company and the form of proxy were mailed to shareholders of record in accordance with applicable law. Endeavor Trust has filed with me proof of service of the mailing, and I direct a copy of the proof to be annexed to the minutes of the meeting as a schedule. I have been advised that there is a quorum present and the scrutineer's preliminary on attendance is as follows. So roughly 17.19% of the -- of shareholders have voted online already. And [ Roxelle ], how many people are attending today roughly?

It shows that 29 participants are attending.

Thank you. So I'd like to take a moment to comment on the voting procedures to be used at today's meeting. Now usually, we do it by show of hands. We could still do that this year if you have the camera on. But for those of you joining us by phone, if you do wish to vote, you will have to say out loud, aye or nay. And due to the fact that the votes cast so far are overwhelmingly in favor of the resolutions, just for expedience, we're going to ask those people who vote against a resolution to identify themselves so that we can tally the no votes to see if it makes a difference. Okay. As the first item of business for this meeting, I now present to the meeting the company's consolidated financial statements for the year ended July 31, 2020, a copy of which was filed on SEDAR. Teresa Piorun can e-mail copies to anyone who wants them. But unless there is any objection, I don't propose to go through them. Are there any questions on the financial statements? I don't hear any questions. So we'll proceed to the nomination of the directors. I will call for a motion first to fix the number of directors of the company at 6. Would someone please make the motion and another person to second? Teresa, could you tick your mic off? You're going to mute yourself.

I motion.

Okay. Thank you, Teresa.

I second that motion.

Sorry, who is it, that second?

I second that motion.

[ Garrett ]. Thank you. So Teresa and [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, say aye? And could you please unmute yourself to say aye? [Voting]

Thank you. Any nays? I don't hear any nays. So I declare the motion carried. The next item is the nomination and election of each director. Would someone please nominate as directors those names out in the information circular, namely Larry Reaugh, Andris Kikauka, Edward Skoda, Norman Tribe, Kurt Lageschulte and Zarko Meseldzija. Can I have a motion?

I motion.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second that motion.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. Are there any further nominations? Since there are no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed and the names put forward in the information circular to be nominated. So now I move on to the election of each director. Would -- may I please have a motion for the following resolution, resolved that Larry Reaugh be elected as a Director of the company?

I motion.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second that motion.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, please say aye. [Voting]

All those opposed to the motion, please say nay. As I don't hear any nays, I declare the motion carried. Next one. Would someone please make a motion for the resolution that resolved that Andris Kikauka be elected as a director of the company?

I motion.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second the motion.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, please say aye. [Voting]

All those opposed to the motion, please say nay. As I don't hear any nays, I declare the motion carried. May I please have a motion for the resolution that Edward Skoda be elected as a director of the company?

I motion.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second the motion.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, please say aye. [Voting]

All those opposing the motion, please say nay. As I don't hear any nays, motion is carried. May I please have a motion to resolve that Norman Tribe be elected as a director of the company?

I motion.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second the motion.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, would you please say aye? [Voting]

All those opposed to the motion, please say nay. As I don't hear any nays, motion is declared carried. May I please have a motion to resolve that Kurt Lageschulte be elected as a director of the company?

I motion.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second the motion.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, please say aye. [Voting]

All those opposed to the motion, please say nay. As I don't hear any nays, motion is carried. May I please have a motion to resolve that Zarko Meseldzija be elected as a director of the company?

I motion.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, please say aye. [Voting]

All those opposing the motion, please say nay. As I don't hear nay, motion is declared carried. The next item of business is the appointment of auditors for the company. I will read out the resolution and then ask for motion and a second. Resolved that DeVisser Gray LLP, chartered accountants, as -- be appointed as American Manganese independent auditors for the next fiscal year and to authorize the directors to fix their remuneration. May someone please make a motion?

I motion.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, please say aye. [Voting]

All those opposed, please say nay. I don't hear any nays. So I will declare the motion carried. The next item of business is the amendment of the company's stock option plan. The amendment only consists of increasing the number of shares that we are reserving for stock option grants to be 20% of the company's issued and outstanding shares as of today. There is no change to any other item or condition in the plan. I'm going to read out the resolution we are putting forward to pass, which is also printed in your proxy, which is the following: Be it resolved that the company's stock option plan be amended to raise the maximum number of stock options allowable for grant to equal to 20% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company as at the date of this meeting. Would someone please make the motion?

I so move.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor, please say aye. [Voting]

All those opposing the motion, please say nay. As I don't hear any nays, I declare the motion carried. Is there any further business? I don't hear anybody putting forward any further business. So I am going to ask someone to move and someone to second a resolution that this meeting now be formally terminated.

I so move.

Thank you, Terry. And a second?

I second the motion.

Thank you, [ Garrett ]. All those in favor of terminating the formal portion of this meeting, please say aye. [Voting]

Thank you. Any nays? I don't hear any nays. Motion is carried. So I declare the formal portion of this meeting is now terminated. I thank [ Roxelle ] for attending as scrutineer. She is going -- she has other meetings to attend. So she's going to leave us. Thank you, [ Roxelle ]. We'll see you next year. And I will ask Larry to give an overview of the company's operations. Over to you, Larry.

Thanks, [ Melody ]. Now it's kind of an exciting 5 months, and I'd like to just go back to March of 2020. When the entire market collapsed, it looked like we were -- everybody was doomed. At that time, we declared that there would be a V-shape recovery, and we were right. Within a few weeks, everybody was talking about a V-shaped recovery and that was dealt very well by the company. And then in December of 2020, stocks started to get up. And I attribute a lot of that to short covering and then it just took off. And in January, the stock went up 28x, made a lot of -- and has and still does, makes a lot of millionaires out there, and that makes us all happy. That includes the directors, advisers management. We've all made good money that we all worked hard for. And so I don't think that anybody has any complaints except for the late buyers on -- when it went to $2.80, but nice to see that is surpassing. We're getting more and more news out about battery manufacturing, EV tire manufacturing, and now recycling. And we are in the White House's 100-day battery supply chain review, and we were -- we displayed dominantly in that. And it goes to show that the U.S. government is following us and -- as they should, because we do have deals with the DOE at the DLA. And the DLA, I'm pretty excited about at this time for obvious reasons. They need the manganese. They need the electrolytic manganese metal. The only place they can get that is South Africa at a premium, and I'm hoping that works and something long term for us. So I see a tremendous future there. We've had a lot of invitations to present, and Zarko has done 90% of those. He's an excellent presenter and certainly knows his stuff when it comes to recycling batteries. And so we're front and center on that, and we just keep moving through. But the other interesting aspects of what we're doing is that the critical metals are front and center. Whether you're a supplier by mining, whether you're an EV car manufacturer, OEMs, battery manufacturers, whatever, it's all going into electric vehicles. And that's only good for us. I saw a figure the other day where they expect the recycling to hit $44 billion by 2026. And right now, it's around $4 billion. So that's not a small number. It's not like we're all in there, how do we choose the last [ support shop ]. It's -- there's lots of companies out there that want to recycle. And so we have an opportunity here to bring forward something that saves the environment that is effective and circular. So -- and that's what we strive for. I know that I've taken a lot of criticism for the length of time it's taking, but scientists have to do every step of the research and development. It's not something that's figured out in the backroom and then you vote, build a plant. It's something that has to be -- it's trial and error. Let's face it. You got the ideas. It should work and everything else, and then you start running it. And then you find that there are certain things that can be improved. There's other things that have to be done. And eventually, you'll come up with a working plan. And that's the whole idea. It's to come up with a design and estimate that is reliable. And we do have an MOU with Italvolt. Although we don't get a lot of credit for that, the fact of the matter is it fits into our going-forward plan. And that plan is to locate recycling, have the battery manufacturing area so that we can turn around the scrap material immediately. And we're focused on scraps. Obviously, it's the low-hanging fruit. And it also is the most convenient way to go and get the fastest results. Now why would we focus on scraps? Well, if there is $4 billion worth of battery manufacturing going on, at least $400 million of that will be scrap. And that's how you build the company. It's -- you start to supply what the market needs, not what you want. It's what the market needs. And that's one thing that we've always looked at, and we've had an excellent group of scientists with Kemetco to share their vision and have advanced us in the point that we're at now. So what else is happening? Well, we've got about $5.5 million in the bank. So we're not exactly bent over. And that's enough for us to do all of the work with Kemetco and Encell. So you have to remember that all that work that we do with Tier 1 companies, the battery manufacturers, OEMs cost us money. I mean Kemetco may be the greatest research firm out there, but they don't work for nothing and they have to be paid. So -- but our strategy has worked through this point. I think we're being recognized as one of the most advanced solutions out there. It's patented with 2 patents and patents pending in other countries. So I think the Board, the advisers, management should be proud of the achievements that the company have made to this date. And we're certainly happy with our investors and those who stuck with the company that did placements of $0.20 with warrants and everything like that or get the double rewards. And that's where it should be. We had a long, stagnant period there between $0.20. And I talked about predator trading. You can see it every day in the stock. You trade up until 12:30 or trading $0.05 high or something like that. At the end of the day, it was down -- even or down. And that's usually when the algorithms kick in, and they just bring the stock up. You don't have to believe me on that. You just have to check the trading every day, and you'll see that I'm correct. All of a sudden, smart investors who may have been selling higher decided that they want to get lower price that they'll knock it down at the end of the day. So -- but you know who that is. It's the predators, and I want to apologize for that. They're exposed now for a long time. I was the only voice out there talking about it. And now at least we are vindicated. And I'm talking about it because we've educated most of our investors except for those that probably are predators hanging to the shareholders' list, and they're not happy. And -- but hey, I am and I never lost faith in this company. I have a lot of faith in Kemetco and Norman Tribe and [ Troy Chang ]. And I'm stuck by that. So I never lost sleep over that. Sometimes, it was tough to raise money, but we did. And that was the -- that's the main thing that -- without money, we don't have any gas for the engine. And so we -- that's what they tried to prevent, given us $0.20 forever because the bigger people would get tired of paying $0.20. We've been -- in the long run, it looks like that was a great idea. That was smart. You've paid $0.20. You've got a warrant at $0.25. Stock goes to where it is today. And so 100,000 shares is worth 130,000, but you can double that almost with the warrant. So there's lots of shareholders out there with several hundred thousand shares and lots out there with several million shares. So we've got a lot of happy campers, and we've got some dissenters that are -- I don't know why, [ because of the fact ] they didn't pay more than $0.02 or $0.20 for the stock. And -- but some people's glass is only half full and -- or half empty. They don't see their glasses half full. So I think that the management and the directors and the advisers have done a tremendous job in bringing this company forward. And it's -- all I see is better times ahead. This is going to get better. Price is going to go up. And that's in my opinion, in case anybody is recording that, in my opinion. My opinion has counted for something for quite a few -- quite a while ago. And so again, I'd like to thank the shareholders, directors, advisers, management, contractors, everybody that's involved with us in helping build this company. I think I said enough [ without saying ] more of the same thing. Please?

That's great, Larry. Are there any questions from shareholders? Please -- I think we'll just let everyone have enough opportunity to ask questions. If there are too many, I'm going ask your team to sort of moderate that a little bit, but feel free to just unmute yourself.

Any questions? Well, thank you.

Yes. I think you got a bunch of happy campers, Larry. So great work, everyone. And I thank everyone for coming today. You can always reach out to management. They're always here to answer your questions, if you have any. But I think if there is no further business or questions, we will finish it off. How's that?

Thanks.

Okay. Thanks, everyone, for attending today. We appreciate you supporting the company. So bye for now.

We're going to have a directors meeting following this one, and I think it will be an interesting meeting for everybody. Okay. We're going to hang up and then reconvene with the directors.