United States Antimony Corporation (UAMY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thanks for that, Gary. After coming aboard at United States Antimony Corporation last summer, I was keen to discuss the way our strategy for investor relations has taken shape. Laying the groundwork—that consumed all our attention through the closing stretch of 2024. In the retail arena and the early institutional segment alike, our efforts were wide-ranging and exhaustive. Over 15 institutional conferences included us on their schedules, giving us the chance to introduce the company to a varied mix of investors—many of whom had never come across our name before. That visibility produced a meaningful rise in daily trading volume, an expanded shareholder base and, most importantly, an increase in market cap that more accurately reflects the strategic value of our assets. As the company matured and execution improved, our investor targeting became more precise; turning to 2025, we are squarely focused on long-term institutional capital—funds that look at returns over multiple years and understand what it means to hold the position of the only two antimony smelters in North America. So far this year we have completed a number of non-deal roadshows, and we've had strong support from the banking side—firms including B. Riley, Titan Partners, and Jet Capital. Through those efforts, we have connected—virtually or in person—with upward of 70 institutional firms, covering metals and mining specialists, generalist funds, and family offices. Beyond that, equity research coverage continues to broaden. Four firms currently publish research on the company: H.C. Wainwright, Alliance Global Partners, B. Riley, and D. Boral, and we believe several others are preparing to initiate coverage. Validation of that kind strengthens our credibility and opens doors to far larger pools of institutional capital. Media interest has expanded along the same lines. Television, podcasts, and print have all covered us on a regular basis, as curiosity keeps rising because of our compelling story and our continued ability to deliver. These days, inbound inquiries are arriving from cable news outlets keen to share our story—covering everything from critical minerals and national security to where our domestic production takes place. The message is resonating. Q2 will be a hectic period for us. On May 14th we will present at the D. Boral Conference in New York, followed by Canaccord Genuity's event in Las Vegas on May 20th and 21st, and then B. Riley in Marina Del Rey on the 21st and 22nd. Next comes the Lytham Partners Virtual Conference on May 29th, then Centurion One Capital in Beverly Hills on June 4th and 5th. Yet conferences are only part of what we have planned. At the moment we are evaluating digital marketing partners who might introduce us to a broader investing audience—particularly through data-driven targeting on platforms like Seeking Alpha, LinkedIn, X, and other trusted financial website publishers. Our goal is to reach the incoming wave of investors wherever they may be—whether that's a person managing a $10 billion fund or someone sitting at home on a Sunday evening browsing mining blogs. The takeaway: visibility was the story of 2024. Conviction is the story of 2025. The partnerships we're building now are meant to support shareholder value over the long haul, while we continue expanding antimony, zeolite, and our other critical minerals into a larger and more profitable operation. Another thing I'd add: joining the Russell 2000 Index when May closes ought to serve as one more catalyst, increasing our visibility among index funds, passive investors, and institutional buyers. That significant development, combined with our climbing daily trading volume — currently averaging 2 to 3 million shares, with 2 million of that representing a notable baseline — creates the kind of liquidity large institutions seek. And lastly, our messaging to investors remains consistent with national security, defense objectives, and what government purchasers care about, reinforcing our strategic importance in a sector shaped by geopolitics. Gary, back to you.

Appreciate that, Jonathan. There's something I want you to share with everyone: a few days back, a quite prominent, sizable institutional investor submitted ownership documents. Could you fill everybody in on that?

BlackRock's 13F filing shows they added more than 1,800,000 shares, which brings their total stake up to 5.1%.

As many of you know, BlackRock oversees in excess of a trillion dollars and acts as a bellwether; what it offers is — picture it as something akin to the Good Housekeeping Seal of approval. That they are aboard as major shareholders in our business is something we could not be happier about. Again, I appreciate it, Jonathan. As you can see, we have kept ourselves rather busy with the job of informing investors — chiefly institutions — about US Antimony Corporation. Ours is a rather uncommon position: we are the only two antimony smelters operating today in North America, and in truth across the entire Western Hemisphere. Allow me to put one point bluntly. A worldwide scarcity of this hard rock mineral is with us at this moment. We can say that with confidence because we attempt to buy material in the market every single day. Who would you say is our largest competitor? The People's Republic of China — that 10,000 pound gorilla. What comes next? Undoubtedly, higher prices will bring supply back into balance. The problem is that this will take time. It is no easy thing to fix. Stronger prices for this ore have raised the economic thresholds. In other words, smaller volumes, wherever on the planet they happen to be, that might exist today, become economic. Along with China, we are pursuing agreements to secure these smaller supplies from origins across the globe. Even so, the standout opportunity for us in all of this is Alaska. With our eight permits at these different sites now covering more than 35,000 acres along with mineral claims, we believe we may possess some of the highest grade antimony, stibnite, ore anywhere on the planet. Bringing this material into our own smelter, with the current expansion work underway, cannot come soon enough. Our margins will improve, and a dependable feedstock supply will be secured. As an investor and shareholder, what should you expect as catalysts from our company in 2025? Six is the number I will give you. First, the closing of a DOD grant. Second, additional new international antimony supplies for both Madero in Mexico and in Thomson Falls beyond what has already been disclosed. Third, Alaska supply beginning in late summer. Fourth, completing our expansion plans in Thomson Falls now underway before year-end, which will deliver a six-fold increase to our throughput capability. Fifth, more purchases of mining claims, several of them potentially in other critical minerals. And sixth, continued gains in operating and financial results. Each quarter should represent a stair-step improvement over not only the prior year, but the quarter immediately before it; we issued our first annual revenue guidance when we reported 2024 physical results, which was not quite two months ago. That guidance anticipated revenues of $35 to $50 million. At this point, I'm tightening that band down to somewhere between $40 and $50 million, and I'm comfortable making that move. That said, Operator, would you go ahead and open the lines so our listeners can ask their questions? One thing, though — I'd ask that nobody bring up a DOD grant or when it might land. I'm not allowed to address those. Other than that, everything's fair game. Operator? That's a reasonable thing to ask, and I can tackle it a few different ways. To start with, yes — we plan to have this finished prior to year-end. In fact, we think it may land one or two months early, provided our contractor does what he's committed to. The contractor we selected has a major presence and workforce in Montana; they're very busy throughout that state. It's a large firm; we have a great relationship with its top management, and they understand why getting this done quickly matters. Day-to-day operations won't take a hit. Everything we're building is new, added onto the property we already have. We'll probably relocate our office off that spot to another area of the property, because we need the room for the build-out. The biggest single problem for us in Thomson Falls is a lack of ground cover. To put it another way, we don't hold enough acreage to do everything we'd like. What we've announced for the expansion is the most we can do given the land we have. The Forest Service is all around us, and beyond that, topography limits us; the landscape is very mountainous. So, returning to what you asked: yes, I have a lot of confidence we'll finish before the calendar year ends. And no, day-to-day operations won't be affected. I think we've pretty much covered that ground already, but August, September is what we're aiming at. We might get fortunate and land in late July or August. Right now, everything hinges on getting our permits, which, according to Joe, we're hoping to receive in the coming couple of weeks, and once that's done it's site prep and clearing rock; the contractors are already signed, and we'll start putting stibnite into Super Sacks to haul to Montana; we can't move quickly enough. We're going as hard as we can. That's why we've added more people in Alaska to move things along faster. My bet is Q3, not Q2. Yes. Over the road, you're looking at 2,100 miles. It's basically a straight shot; about two days of driving. Fortunately, a lot of trucks coming up to Alaska haul freight in and head back either empty or bobtail. We've talked with a number of trucking contractors about backhauling, and that gets us a much better rate. Winter trucking shouldn't be a problem, as I see it. The hard part is being able to dig the ore out through the winter. That's exactly why we're looking for property. We've got a number of locations that should be finalized shortly, and once that happens, we'll start building up our antimony stockpile so the trucks can keep moving all winter long. That's how we're approaching it. Joe was very careful about picking spots near roads, so we wouldn't end up stranded far from civilization, unlike other companies whose antimony sources are buried deep in the woods and forest, maybe hundreds of miles away from any road. Being where we are means we're right along the Alaskan Highway and the main routes connecting Fairbanks and Anchorage, so we can get that material out in any season. For that to work, we need it stockpiled. For starters, antimony hasn't faced any tariffs, and we've been working closely with Teck and with the government. The way things look now, we don't see an issue there. Obviously, there's a lot of saber rattling between the U.S. and Canada at the moment; so far, we're okay. Of course, the material headed to Mexico, Madero, comes in from international sources, and from there we can sell internationally. No tariffs apply in that situation. Even if we were to ship that material into the United States, critical minerals like antimony stay exempt. Yes, we look at that constantly. Let me be upfront: this isn't an easy business. Other companies can get licenses; they can get construction finished. But operating and managing an antimony smelter is no simple matter. Think about it: if we're having trouble finding antimony to feed our own smelters around the world — I mean, we're on the phone with eight, ten different countries every week — and we're looking at figures like $35 million to $40 million, we're having trouble getting antimony.

Why would someone choose to invest the funds necessary for constructing a smelter that might lack any feedstock? That's the reason we headed to Alaska. That's the reason we'll have our own feedstock arriving within a few months. This places us in a somewhat unique position; we turn into a vertically integrated operation. To address what you asked, we've heard of a handful that are exploring, considering, and conducting studies. For them to secure the capital needed to truly finance a smelter, they must have feedstock. Which means you have to secure an agreement with someone. There is no antimony feedstock within the United States. I'm not overly worried about it over the next 2 years, certainly. We keep getting interest from outside parties regarding certain of our mining claims in Mexico; we're in fact engaged in ongoing talks with a few of those parties. We made a deliberate choice 12 months ago when we halted all operations in Mexico. That was 12 months ago, in March, to avoid mining in Mexico. I don't foresee that altering. I believe we've explained the reasons previously. To address what you asked, there are folks interested given the right figure or the right royalty or the right involvement; we would take action with that property. It isn't considered a core property for us at present. No material is moving from Mexico to Montana. All our activity in Mexico right now originates from Australia, shortly to originate from 2 additional countries, and we do receive material from Mexico. It gets sold to buyers that don't need any type of processing at Montana. Anything we do in Mexico either remains in Mexico or is sold to international buyers, doesn't arrive in Montana for smeltering. Quite possibly; we're still examining that. Once we finish our work in Montana this year on the expansion plans and begin getting material, I mean, we aim to finish this year at roughly 500 tons per month, 200 from Mexico, 300 from Montana; that means we'd be maxed out. Are we considering other options? Yes. Much of that depends on what our government would prefer. I can't, once more, go into detail on those talks. We do know some significant extra funds have been directed to various departments of the Department of Defense literally within the last couple of weeks; they're considerable. Given what we're doing currently and what we expect to announce shortly, that will help pave the way to the next phase, which is a bigger expansion beyond the 500 tons per month, and will need to be a new site somewhere; that's a valid question. If you examine the range of mining companies out there, many companies bring in capital from investors with plenty of fluff. We witness it constantly since many of those companies want to sign contracts with us to grant themselves credibility. When I refer to fluff, if you're discussing 3, 4, 5 years into the future and significant sums of money required to bring a product to market, that's an entirely different situation. You'll observe that all our efforts, whether it's the antimony project in Alaska, the cobalt initiative, or a new critical mineral we expect to reveal shortly, can all be reached rapidly. Life is too brief. I attended five funerals of friends during the past six months. I'm attempting to move more quickly. I'm aware that others at this company also wish to move more quickly. We don't want to wait 3 years, 5 years into the future. We want something we can advance rapidly; we also understand from our conversations with the federal government that they'd like us to examine some of these other critical minerals far more swiftly than a typical mining company would. People still don't believe us regarding Alaska; they'll believe it once they witness that we haven't even been there for a year and we'll be extracting rocks within months. That's unprecedented in this industry. It's a different mindset. It's a different approach to our business. We're still evaluating acquisitions, but they must fit within our expertise, and they must be something we can reach quickly. Waiting 2, 3, 4 years to bring something to market isn't part of our strategy. Oh, that's quite a few questions there. To begin with, I don't really wish to discuss Q2 at this point. It's fairly clear that if we have inventories that were quite elevated at the close of Q1, then that alone ought to indicate we should have greater throughput in Q2; we are — pardon me — we are seeing that happen. It's worth noting that many of these inventories we purchased, whether from Canada, from Australia, or from other sources in Mexico, those inventories were generally acquired at significantly lower costs than today's current price; we're also seeing the advantage of that improved margin. Returning to the initial question, which I believe is, how will the Alaska properties enhance our margins? Let me give you a sense of it; we're usually paying 40%, at the maximum, 50% of Rotterdam to bring antimony to our facilities. We think that once Alaska begins, that figure might fall to as little as 20% of Rotterdam. That would essentially be a 30% margin gain. That's another factor making us enthusiastic about it; we have numerous customers. I believe I tallied the most recent 17 separate customers seeking long-term agreements. They want a guarantee. I can't provide that with confidence. When we source this material from outside parties, they might face an issue in a given month—a mine problem, a regulatory issue, a merger with another firm, or something else—so nothing is guaranteed. Making that international shipment group much more diverse matters a great deal to us. My expectation is that this will show up in Q2; final supply negotiations are underway with two additional nations. That gives us more leverage on pricing. My pricing leverage is constrained while smelters sit underutilized. After our smelters are full and operating correctly, we can begin pushing harder in negotiations with the suppliers we presently get material from; a couple of weeks back we announced the Thomson Falls upgrade at roughly $15 million. My guess is the final figure comes in below that, yet that's the number we have; we're hopeful our DOD grant, which we're pursuing, would cover most of it. That's the hope. Regarding other CapEx plans, Alaska fortunately requires very little given the nature of those operations; that will shift, though, in 2026 and 2027, when Joe and his team there must dig deeper, wider, and farther compared with the basic rock collecting we'll do at first. On acquisitions, we do have some in the pipeline. We're hoping to make an announcement within the next 60 days regarding one acquisition.

Naturally, that requires funding. But as Rick pointed out, the amount of cash we're sitting on has kept climbing, even while we've been expanding at a tremendous pace, largely because of warrant exercises. Our approach to expenses has been extremely disciplined. What I mean is, we've got an excellent crew that holds a lot of stock, which keeps them motivated, and we do our best to hold salaries down and put ourselves in a position to deliver better margins for our shareholders. I believe that covers those questions, Operator. I'm familiar with PPTA. The other name, I don't recognize. Clearly, more refining capacity benefits everybody. We'd love for Perpetua to be able to supply us with material right now. Sadly, that isn't where things stand. Our understanding is that they could still be as far out as 4 years from producing material. Keep in mind, Perpetua started as a gold mine, with antimony coming second. It's a gold mine located in Idaho that needs — my understanding is they're pursuing a $1.8 billion loan from XM Import Bank, and 500 employees are required. This isn't the kind of thing that happens overnight or within the next year. As our refining capacity keeps growing, I believe companies such as Perpetua will grow more confident that we'll be able to start processing their material once it reaches the market 4 years from now. That's an additional factor behind our consideration of a possible third facility somewhere in 2026. None of that has been settled yet. There are 3 locations we're examining closely, and I expect that will be on the agenda. A great deal depends on how the government chooses to support us in that effort. You did. Next question. Joe, maybe you could just describe your plans. I'm aware there's a budget for the cobalt play up in Canada. What do you intend to do this year to sort of bring that to the point where we could either move forward on our own or bring in a partner?

It's clear there's high-grade cobalt present — 16% in a single drill hole — plus 8% nickel alongside it. Within that same localized zone, you also find tungsten, bismuth, and copper. The geology isn't fully grasped by anyone yet. Progress was achieved by Dr. Fred Briggs back in September. The moment we're able to return to the site, which I'm anticipating in a few weeks, that effort will pick back up: we'll strip a bigger area, chart how large the cobalt deposit is, and then launch a drilling program to confirm it. No guarantees exist, yet a grade that high in a drill hole can't simply be dismissed; it comes down to grasping the geology. Previously reported as four geological units, we've moved beyond that — the fall program identified three additional geological units, and that aids in figuring out what's happening and pinpointing where the deposit, should one be there, is going to be located. Thank you.

One more thing worth pointing out, Joe, is that this region sees quite a bit going on, with plenty of mining work happening. As I recall, you mentioned it ranks among the bigger copper mines located up in the Sudbury area, plus there's extensive infrastructure serving both midstream and downstream activities. That factored into why we picked that property — we'd have straightforward access to smelters and operations run by others instead of needing to construct our own.

That's spot on, Gary. My expectation is that we'd be — or rather, that asset, that property, would end up getting bought out by a party that's already operating in this space.

All right, next question. After this one, I believe we'll go ahead and finish up, Operator. Yes. Since the price of antimony has risen so dramatically, and our volumes are about to go up, there's no doubt that zeolite will account for a smaller portion of our business. We absolutely intend to keep it; we're aware that we hold one of the finest zeolite mines anywhere in the world. We're also aware that we have a long-term supply of zeolite, potentially as much as 100 years. We know we can double the capacity at our existing operations with little to no capital. So what does that tell us? It tells us we need more sales. We're putting in a lot of effort with the government, with our lobbyist group in Washington that's assisting us on that front, and we've also brought on salesmen to help us in the water treatment area. We did have a saleswoman in the cattle area. For personal reasons, she had to resign. We're working to fill her position. We know the cattle market and the water treatment market are both enormous markets. We also know the concrete market holds a great deal of promise, where zeolite could take the place of fly ash; we believe that business — because now, under Joe's direction, we've drilled enough holes, and we have a sense of the reserves we hold — we've just renegotiated our 10-year operating lease up there. Jeff Fink, brought on a year and a half ago, has the operation running smoothly. The CapEx we spent last year is complete. Now all we need is sales. We're out there trying to secure them. I'm confident that will happen. It's quite difficult for our competition to keep up with us when we demonstrate the quality of our zeolite against the quality of the zeolite they sell. Once their customers see that, they take notice. This company has never engaged in any form of operations for selling its products, and we're changing that. I believe we'll keep seeing improved operations there. With that, Operator, I think we're finished with questions. Thank you all for taking the time today to listen to our results. You can tell that our management team is enthusiastic. We know a great year lies ahead for everyone involved; we'd like to keep showing you that we are blocking and tackling and doing what's necessary to build this company into a billion-dollar company. That's my goal. When I came on and became CEO, I told this board I wanted to build a billion-dollar company. The team we've assembled and the team we're still assembling have the capacity to do that. It's a very exciting time. We've got a lot of wind behind our sails, and there's nothing — every day I keep waking up thinking, "Where's the grizzly bear coming from behind?" I haven't seen him yet. We plan to keep pushing forward. We appreciate you spending part of your day with us.

Thanks. That wraps up today's webcast, and you're free to drop off your lines now. We appreciate you taking part.