Comstock Inc. (LODE) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Comstock's Second Quarter 2024 Results and Business Update. This is Trevor Brucato with RB Milestone Group. Comstock's U.S.-based Investor Relations firm. Comstock is listed on the NYSE American under the symbol, LODE. Joining us today is the company's Executive Chairman and CEO, Corrado De Gasperis; and its COO William McCarthy. At the end of the prepared remarks, we'll be opening up to Q&A. We have received questions from registration, most of which have been addressed by today's announcements. But if any new questions surface throughout the presentation, please submit them in the Zoom Q&A module, and then, we'll do our best to address them all. In the next day or so, we'll be opening up the surveying for Comstock's Q3 Stakeholder Perception Analysis Report. The final report will include trends on Comstock's perceived strengths, weaknesses, and milestones and will be published shortly after the end of the quarter ending in September. Your participation will be much appreciated, as it will help strengthen Comstock's investor communications efforts, especially with all the recent accomplishments and help guide the focus of our upcoming events. Please note today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may be out of Comstock's control and should not be construed as a recommendation or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. For Comstock's full disclaimer, please visit their website at comstock.inc. Also, this presentation is being recorded today, August 8, 2024, and will be made available on the company's website. Lastly, RB Milestone is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. For more information on us, please visit rbmilestone.com. And now it is my pleasure to turn it over to Comstock Executive Chair and CEO, Corrado De Gasperis. Corrado, the stage is yours.

Thanks, Trevor, and hello everyone. Welcome to our second quarter update. I'm sure you're going to appreciate the substance of our update today, as we've made a tremendous amount of progress in all three of our businesses and at corporate. Plus, our strategic investments have really advanced their causes too, so there's quite a bit to update everybody on. We're going to ensure sufficient time for the Q&A session as well, so we have time to answer as many questions as possible. Let me start off by congratulating both Leon Farrant and the Green Li-ion team and Deep Prasad and the GenMat team for achieving the all-important milestone of commercial success in their respective companies. As you may have read, Green Li-ion commissioned its first commercial battery remanufacturing operation in Atoka, Oklahoma, where I recently attended the ribbon-cutting along with Leon and a contingent of Oklahoma VIPs, including Governor Kevin Stitt, as well as quite a few Green Li-ion's existing suppliers and potential customers. The Green Li-ion system makes Precursor Cathode Active Materials, also known as pCAMs, as well as lithium carbonate from fully recycled batteries. And we are certainly not aware of anyone doing that effectively in the market yet today. So, the Atoka operation will prove Green Li-ion's full technical and economic feasibility, and we understand that the resulting materials from their operations so far are showing extremely encouraging and very high battery-grade purity. So, it really seems to be coming together for Green Li-ion. I'm very pleased with that. Turning to GenMat, as most of you already know, last year GenMat developed and deployed its proprietary imaging satellite, the GENMAT-1, into orbit. In that process, they also had to develop encryption software for security, and ultimately, they had to develop an entire mission control software system for managing their own operations. What GenMat learned during this process is that the entire space industry is so nice and so fragmented that they really had to develop a lot of the satellite and supporting systems by themselves, which, by the way, is also one of the reasons why everything has taken so much longer than originally anticipated. Remarkably, now, the industry is asking if it can leverage GenMat's proprietary infrastructure for their needs. Accordingly, I'm just generally thrilled to report that GenMat just announced its first commercial customer agreement—a very big, very important milestone—with Geometric Energy Corporation for managing the assembly, launch, deployment, and the ongoing operations management of two new satellites, in addition to their own, creating effectively what will be a fully managed orbiting constellation of satellites. These new customer satellites, one called Ostentus-1 and the other NOCLIP, will also generate additional recurring revenues for GenMat once they're successfully deployed and operating. GenMat now plans on adding more satellite customers to this emerging line of business while leveraging its proprietary mission control, proprietary remote sensing, and proprietary material science technology and all the supporting expertise around those areas to enable this rapidly growing segment of the space economy. So from my perspective, it's a huge congratulations to both teams, and it's extremely gratifying for us here at Comstock to see these milestones achieved, and as importantly, what they imply for the future growth of these two companies and our investments in them. Starting up a new company, especially one with brand-new tech, is not easy at all. So, we're going to give big kudos to Deep and Leon and their teams. Okay, considering the breadth of the press releases from both this morning and this afternoon, including the announcement on the sale of our non-mining assets and the investments directly into our three businesses, I'm going to jump right into the overview of the entire $325 million that we announced this morning, while also updating you on each business as I go along. First, let me clarify that all the amounts that I'm referencing on this call will be in gross dollars. Even though the ultimate proceeds will be net of some transaction fees and we expect those to be about 3% or more depending on which tranche of capital we're talking about, I'm speaking in gross proceeds, to keep it as simple and clear as possible. I'm truly gratified to announce that we have secured a term sheet, working with a US-based globally positioned private equity group led by SBC Commerce LLC. SBC represents significant capital that we have validated, and it works and runs a global network of private equity professionals and funds. We worked hard to diligence, validate, and structure this capital to ensure execution and minimize dilution while maximizing the value for all of our shareholders. There are several ways we could have gone with this but we spent a lot of time thinking about what unlocks the most value and what advances the business in the most expedient way. I'm absolutely thrilled with the progress, and I'm absolutely dedicated to the outcome. SBC also has expertise across a number of industry sectors, especially in oil and gas and biofuels. All of this started over a year ago with discussions directly around our properties in Silver Springs and the Sierra Springs Opportunities-owned fund, also known in our circles as SSOF with their main principle Lori Sosa and some of our associates at SBC's off-market real estate group. They truly have deep expertise in arranging the development of not-so-ordinary real estate and major real estate development projects, which is exactly what our properties and positions in Silver Springs represent. We've conducted extensive due diligence on SBC Commerce over the past several months. There are specific funding sources for SBC's investment in our business. I've met with the principals and directly engaged those funding sources, interacting with them extensively during this whole process. I personally believe we've found a long-term capital partner that will transcend this transaction for many years to come. Accordingly, this week we signed a term sheet for selling Comstock's non-mining land in Silver Springs. That's our 98 acres of industrial land, our 160 acres of commercial land, plus certain associated water rights for $50 million. We expect to recognize a gain of about $40 million on this transaction alone. And again, with our existing NOLs and some tax planning, we expect that this gain will be well covered in terms of us not incurring cash taxes. These proceeds will extinguish all of our debt as well as certain other obligations and be mostly available to ensure that we're funded for all of our corporate development activities without having to sell more stock. The agreement contemplates a $5 million nonrefundable deposit on the land and that's expected within two weeks or sooner. And we look to close that transaction within 60 to 75 days. Before turning to the businesses, let me just address liquidity and dilution head-on. As I just said, we pinned how we structure these transactions. We were being lobbied to do leveraged buyouts, and we weren't interested in that. We were interested in maximizing value, maximizing the speed of the creation of new value, and minimizing dilution. Between other minor asset sales and the $3 million in equity by SBC directly into the corporation, our cash position is stable but about to become very robust. While our outstanding shares are now over 175 million, the SBC equity placement will bring that number to about 183 million. Depending on where the converts end up, we're likely to finish right around or a little bit over 200 million shares. Our business plans have always supported the goal of creating multibillion-dollar value, and now we're starting to glimpse that reality. I'll break it down by business for each one of them in just a few minutes. But a 200 million share flow starting with about $0.5 billion of valuation is a solid capital base for us and supports our efforts to attract more institutional investors and provide liquidity for those who require it. Let me turn to the other $275 million in investments now. One of the most meaningful aspects of these commitments and what we were able to negotiate and agree on were the business valuations. The pre-money valuation negotiated for just our three businesses totaled just under $0.5 billion, and I must say, represents a very strong outcome, because it recognizes real value for our existing investors today in the form of cash and capitalizes our ability to deliver and exponentially grow that value, so we can deliver remarkable future returns for all of our existing and new shareholders. Let's break the numbers down one at a time. Starting with Comstock Metals. This is our recycling business where we just proved we can recover and reuse 100% of the solar panel materials recycled, including, surprisingly joyfully, very high grades of silver. We've agreed to issue 20% of the equity from our recycling subsidiary, Comstock Metals Corporation, to SBC for $22 million. This reflects a pre-money valuation of $88 million or $110 million post-money. That commitment alone enables us to accelerate the site selection and deployment of three industry-scale facilities right along the California and Arizona borders and ensures we fortify our early-mover advantage and position ourselves to capture the majority of these projected end-of-life panels over the next five years. Each one of our facilities can handle 100,000 tons of primarily industrial-use panels. These panels, unlike the smaller ones used in residential applications, tend to weigh about 60 pounds each. That means that with 100,000 tons per year, one facility alone can handle 3.3 million panels annually in a market projecting to be ten times that size by 2030. This recycling system was designed for scale. This is Fortunato's baby, designed for scale. I really don't believe there's anything like it in the market today. Our system is designed to process one panel in less than eight seconds—over seven panels a minute. And with almost 450,000 minutes in a 300-day year, that's over 3.3 million panels a year. And remarkably, as big as that number is, that only equates to about 20 trucks a day, making it logistically manageable for such a big machine, with room for even more capacity. That's why we keep referring to these things as industry-scale. We don't see anybody else that has the ability to ramp up as we are about to. As the end-of-life waste materializes and creates this new market, we can add even more capacity to the existing network of facilities. Funding for metals is going to be in two tranches, with the first $10 million planned this month. That will allow us to initiate all remaining activities around the build-out of our first industry-scale facility. The remaining $12 million will be within 90 days to fund the acceleration of site selections, permits, and build-outs of facility numbers two and three. We discussed the metals business plan and financial model many months ago, but just to repeat it, we see annual revenues increasing to $150 million within four years with cash profit margins of more than 80% and an NPV of about $0.25 billion from just three facilities. This represents a minority market share, less than 30%, based on where we see the market going, with no perpetuity assumptions. In other words, we just cut it off and asked how much money can we make? It's truly robust and will certainly do better, but it's a remarkable establishment. It's also important to note that we recorded revenue this quarter, and as of last week—no, as of this week—we shipped our first reusable materials out the door. I posted the pictures on Twitter today. So both revenue on the front end and revenue on the back end—all happening today. GenMat announces its first customer, Green Li-ion commissions its first machine, producing high-purity materials, and our very own recycling business is now receiving and shipping from an entirely new supply chain. Moving on to mining, we've advanced our monetization plans for the northern part of the district, primarily in Storey County, including those northern targets currently under lease. To be clear, we've been trying to sell those assets, because the southern part of the district has emerged as a much more production-ready gold and silver resource. With an updated mine plan at $2,300 gold—currently around $24 or $25 today, up $40 today—our day-in resource presents almost $0.25 billion of pre-tax net cash flow over a six-year mine life, with a discount of over $100 million in net present value. People have asked how I was able to secure these capital commitments; it's the substance of the business plan we've been working hard to pull together. These updated plans and yes, with a little friendly help from gold and silver prices in this case, enabled us to secure $50 million in commitments for 40% of these mining interests. This will allow us to expand the resource, acquire some incremental lands around the property, finalize the mine plan, deploy infrastructure and within four years, deliver an incredibly valuable—even more valuable series of sustainable property developments. We still have more work to do on this part, and although not relevant to getting the capital commitment, this aspect could actually double the value of everything we're doing, especially considering property values in Northern Nevada. We've always been bullish on gold and silver, and we’re absolutely thrilled that these commitments enable our plans now. The 40% represents a $75 million pre-money valuation and $125 million post-money valuation—truly an incredible deal for all our shareholders. Lastly, let's wrap up my prepared remarks with our fuels business. We’ve advanced our discussions with strategic partners and our ongoing due diligence, including sending out oil samples to customers. These samples are being analyzed with great effect, both in terms of our customers’ appreciation and their advancements. Our extended trials have resulted in much higher yields than we initially communicated, aiming for 100 gasoline gallon equivalents. This was our hope all along, but it’s always great to have that validated. We finalized the full business and financial plan based on that. The plan includes building a profitable commercial-scale demonstration facility sized for 50,000 dry tons of woody biomass per year. While producing about 5 million gasoline gallon equivalents per year, this allows us to similarly move forward and build three more industry-scale facilities, and finance those facilities. A big part of lining up a capital partner was ensuring we had the resources behind us when deploying industry-scale facilities. In this case, up to one million dry tons of woody mass per year equates to over 100 million gasoline gallon equivalents of fuel per year. The $200 million commitment is for the direct subsidiary, Comstock Fuels Corporation for 40% of that entity, representing a $300 million pre-money valuation and a $500 million post-money valuation. You can imagine the significant amount of work we've been involved in over the last three or four months. Our financial models are robust, that’s how we received the approvals, but still assumes we’re only producing 100 GGEs per ton. From just these three industry-scale facilities alone, we generate an NPV of nearly $1 billion. If anyone asks how many facilities the US market could handle, we’re looking at 16 billion gallons of advanced renewable fuels, which means 160 of these facilities. We start with three, reaching nearly $1 billion NPV. If we include our plans for licensing more facilities, the NPV quickly jumps over $1.5 billion on its way to $2 billion. It’s an incredibly robust plan. $150 million of that $200 million investment is dedicated to the deployment of the first facility, including site selection, final engineering, permitting, construction, and operating the first facility. We already have multiple sites and feedstock contracts lined up, along with offtake contracts. We’re pulling it all together. As stated in our press release, we validated higher yields—now 125 GGEs from a ton of wood. This testing was done with our strategic partner in Oklahoma, and we couldn’t be happier. We’re also finalizing what some call a bolt-on technology—different from our core IP, a gas-to-liquids technology—that captures our own carbon dioxide emissions from our facilities, converting that gas to liquid for sustainable aviation fuel, further increasing our yields and lowering our CI score. We understand cost parity with petroleum is a real stretch goal, but the plans to get there have already been developed. While it can’t be achieved today, we’ve designed the experiments for those innovations, and we didn’t do it alone—we’re collaborating with extraordinary partners. If successful, this positions us to effectively decarbonize mobility. We’ll share more about those innovation plans and partners once final agreements are solidified. With committed financing, we can start moving forward on facility number one, while other development activities are far advanced in their design and approvals. As we sit here today, we’re in a whole new state of reality as a company. I’m not obsessed or upset if people believe it or not. We’re here to effectively communicate, deliver substance, and maintain transparency. Our goal is clear: we’re accelerating the commercialization of these technologies—hard-hitting, impactful technologies that are sophisticated and complex markets. None of this work is easy, but we are starting to form a track record. All these outcomes are not luck; they’re planned, hard work, sustainably engineered. Our shareholders and a broader pool of investors will start seeing a powerful trend emerge from this system and this innovation process we are implementing. This is one of the most meaningful challenges facing the world, and in many ways, we’re just getting started. I appreciate that this update was dense with information. I hope I came across as concise and clear. You can imagine we’ve been heads down and focused. I’m personally thrilled with the commitments secured and what’s in store for us in the near future. Our teams are equally committed and focused. When I’m off securing capital, they’re out securing feedstock. David was in—well, I won’t disclose where he was—but he’s been in multiple states over the last six weeks. We’re excited about our progress so far. I’ll pause there. I hope that was a good overview. With that, Trevor, I know we have a lot of questions. We’re keen to jump in.

We certainly do. Thank you, Corrado, for that exciting update. We'll now open it up to questions submitted in the Q&A module and those submitted during registration. Since there were a lot of important updates to absorb across the businesses, I'll try to keep the questions categorized by topic. And we'll kick off here with SBC. Could you provide more background on SBC? And why did you end up going with them?

Yes. So, a year ago, we focused on just monetizing the assets, particularly Silver Springs. We engaged a couple of brokers and agents—none of whom were SBC—and received a lot of traffic and interest. However, Silver Springs was a developing pioneering area. We had just done the transaction— or I’m sorry, Silver Springs had just completed their transaction with Microsoft. A lot of awareness surged. However, these kinds of developments require infrastructure—roads, water systems, power. SBC has an off-market real estate practice. They’ve facilitated the construction of major hotels on private islands, which comes with major capital sources. We began engaging in and around Silver Springs, and although it wasn't ever my intention to come out with all these commitments at once, we’re thrilled with how it all came together. The relationship transcends just the capital source; that’s how it happened. It wasn’t necessarily intelligent design. We didn’t go knock on Goldman Sachs’ door but rather found people who had expertise in ways that directly benefited us. So, I’m thrilled.

Thanks, Corrado. Can you walk through the steps to closing this transaction? And can you reiterate the anticipated closing date? I believe you mentioned it would be 60 to 75 days, correct?

Yes, that’s right. In a nutshell, the substantial majority of the due diligence around the businesses, the business risk factors, and the financial models is complete. Now it’s just a question of some things I’ve been referring to, making sure that our structures, funds flow, and tax profiles remain positive. We don’t want any unintended consequences. I think the real estate, recycling, and corporate stuff will go quickly, and then mining and fuels will probably follow behind that. I think the 60 to 75 days for the first tranche is accurate, but the rest of it is likely to take 75 to 90 days. All of my time is being spent on this right now, and I’m genuinely excited about what I’ll be doing tomorrow regarding this.

Got it. Do you anticipate updates along the way for shareholders to track that everything is moving in the right direction? What sort of updates can they expect?

Every meaningful step will be reported. If we close on the $3 million tranche—obviously, we’ll announce that. If we receive the $5 million deposit, we’ll announce it sooner rather than later. We’ll be entirely transparent, and I believe people’s perception of accomplishment will rise along with our credibility. We have no concerns about this; we just want to finish it all up.

Do you anticipate SBC partnering up with Comstock on GenMat?

We haven't discussed it yet. Interest has been expressed, but GenMat is much more complex. GenMat already has engagements with many capital sources focused on AI and physics-based models. The realizations made around their entire business model have fostered a unified approach, enabling them to collaborate with others in ways that we don’t see being easily replicated in the industry. It’s something we might explore in the future, but we don’t currently see it applying in the near term. However, they would absolutely be there for additional refineries or innovations we roll out.

I want to cover other questions related to the other businesses, as there’s a lot to discuss in the time we have together. To wrap up on the SBC, could you elaborate on the sources of capital that SBC Commerce has access to, and provide any clarity on target players involved?

We’ve mainly engaged with a couple of very large non-US private equity funds directly. Their interests span fuels, mining, and real estate. I’ve interacted with the principles and gotten through investment and stakeholder committees, but that’s all I think we need to say.

Sounds like a good start to a potentially beneficial long-term relationship. Let's move on to metals. These questions relate to the maintenance of your solar panel recycling facility. Are you finding it difficult to run the process due to breakdowns?

Absolutely not. The short answer is no; we’re not finding it difficult. We built this demonstration system to generate revenue and to start processing panels for several reasons. It's really to vet out our system and ensure everything operates according to plan. To date, it's been very effective. There certainly is a maintenance cycle on our equipment, but we’re satisfied with how things have been operating.

You partially answered this earlier, but what's holding you back from going to three shifts right away?

I don’t think anything is holding us back. We have a plan and are on schedule. Our crew is fully trained and operational. We’re actively recruiting—with new hires coming in nearly every week or two. We also have a rigorous training process in place. We expect to transition to three shifts as soon as all pieces are in place.

Is there any chance you could use your own Bioleum fuel to power your facility?

That’s an interesting question. While we do talk about gasoline gallon equivalents, much of the focus right now is on aviation fuel coming out of Comstock Fuels. We’re keeping Comstock Metals firmly grounded, so it won’t help there. However, the facility is designed to be efficient. We have different designs allowing us to switch from natural gas to electricity as a primary fuel source, optimizing for cleanliness and cost. It's also worth mentioning that we’re working on biofuel for renewable diesel to power trucks, which could lead to future synergies on the trucking side of the supply chain.

Yes, I’d like to interject. The most remarkable aspect of this business is that as Billy said, we use natural gas and electricity—those are our only significant variable costs, and they are very low. There’s not much opportunity beyond logistics that could extend the flexibility of how we power things, but I love how low our variable costs are. We get paid upfront for the vast majority of our revenue on the panel side. The throughput model ranks number one among any I’ve been involved in, and we’re eager to get more facilities up and running while capturing the influx of panels as they come out.

Can you elaborate on the silver you're recovering from end-of-life solar panels?

Certainly! We’re seeing grades of silver emerge from the panel process that are much higher than we anticipated.

Yes, when we first planned this business, Billy and I wanted to avoid modeling any revenues for the residuals. Our primary revenue is solid enough that we didn’t want to rely on estimating residuals. However, in the last 8 to 10 weeks, we’ve successfully recovered 100% of the aluminum, glass, and silver-rich fines. We didn’t know how much residual value there would be but now we are evaluating whether we can refine that silver to maximize our value. The grades we are seeing are compelling.

Could you discuss the revenue figure from metals for the last quarter, considering the speed you stated for panel processing?

The numbers Corrado quoted related to the planned industry-scale facility's projected revenues, not for the current operational facility. That might have caused the confusion.

Exactly. The number is 100,000 tons per facility, with projected revenues of $50 million per facility. If we construct three facilities, that’s $150 million in revenue with 80% margins—leading to an astounding $120 million in profit. The residuals will likely improve this outcome, and we want to ensure we capture the market first and strategically position our facilities to lock down the supply chain. We believe it’ll be difficult for others to compete with our processing rates; processing one panel every seven seconds is a key competitive advantage. Logistically, it remains imperative to be close to panels, which is why we’re positioning our sites along the borders of Nevada, California, and Arizona. Our ambition is to capture a substantial share of the Southwest region.

Jumping around here.

Many have said that if Comstock Metals stood alone, it would be an incredibly valuable company. We are mindful that it’s a matter of time until these revenues, financial metrics, and supply agreements are realized—initially known to us. Our metals team is actively monitoring the materials through various testing, achieving consistent recovery rates. With the commitments secured, we will expedite the ordering of equipment, enabling quicker rollout to our mining, fuels, and other business segments.

Let’s get to fuels. We have many questions here. To begin with, does the fuel business produce any additional byproducts?

It's a good question. Our focus is on lignocellulosic biomass—which could be woody biomass, crop residues, or plant matter. As we’ve discussed many times, we separate that wood into two components: lignin, which we make into Bioleum, and cellulose for sugar and ethanol. Ethanol is also a highly valued fuel additive today, generating significant government credits. The carbon dioxide produced is typically captured and converted to enhance fuels, which allows us to leverage the entirety of the process.

Exactly, while focusing on the wood, we maximize how much carbon we can convert into energy and liquid fuels. We initially set a milestone for producing 100 GGEs, yet we are further away than expected but still monumental. Getting to 125 GGEs was extraordinary, and we have additional technology in the pipeline that can capture our emissions effectively and augment fuel yields even higher. This approach could meaningfully lower our CI score, which we are excited about.

I appreciate the insights provided. I’d like to make sure we cover the current status of the mining assets. What is the status of the gold reserves?

We have gold and silver resources in the ground as detailed in formal SK 1300 third-party technical reports quantifying our assets. Our focus is on the Dayton resource, which has around 300,000 gold equivalent ounces. Our mining engineers have engineered a mine from which we can extract that gold and silver. The capital coming in will facilitate the completion of the prerequisite work required to mine it, including additional drilling, geotechnical drilling, and hydrological validations to ensure a safe and sustainable mine plan.

We’re finalizing the strategic plan regarding that mine plan. The strategic work is underway as capital will soon unlock multiple projects over the next 18 months. We will have many developments from that sector.

Additionally, our mining plan assumes no new gold and silver discoveries from the drilling process. As we continue that drilling, even with minor expansions, we expect those ounces will grow. We haven’t modeled that yet, but we will do that work.

The additional questions here span several topics; let’s shift back to GenMat, Green Li-ion, metals, and other components of the transaction. First off, any comments on Green Li-ion?

Green Li-ion is finishing some bridge financing that will allow them to run the Atoka system for six months. They’ve gained interest from the capital markets tied to those developments, and we want to see consistent operations. We're seeing battery-grade materials coming out, which is positive for them, but it’s likely means the monetization of that asset is delayed by four to five months. It may occur late this year or early next year when they’re positioned for the next real capital raise—not urgent for us now as the progress is promising.

For shareholders and new investors, can you reiterate the ownership that Comstock has in Green Li-ion?

We own just under 13.5% of Green Li-ion, comprised of around 35,000 preferred shares. It’s currently recorded on our books at about a 30% discount to their last offering, roughly valued at $19 million. If we sold at a discount to their last offering, we would be pleased to obtain $19 million on an original investment of less than $2 million.

Transitioning here, the SBC transaction simplifies evaluating metals, fuels, and mining. You commented on Green Li-ion’s discounted valuation; can you share insights on GenMat and SSOF?

With GenMat, we executed a restructuring. While it was a Memorandum of Understanding, we’re expanding the ownership to roughly 32%, which may increase further as we continue funding. They are seeking third-party capital—something we’re excited about, but any valuation will not change until they raise funds with a third-party firm. Regarding Sierra Springs, we maintain 17.5% of that entity. Though the investment of around $18 million is on our books, we believe its value is higher than recorded. Recently, a significant player in the area, a data center company, has made a significant investment, which gives our properties near their developments great optimism.

Any thoughts on the timing related to satellite images and data coming into Comstock that could assist with your mining assets?

Definitely. Our teams are coordinating with GenMat's geophysics teams to establish a digital twin of our mine plans. This dual approach employs machine learning and geophysical AI modeling to create predictive capabilities. The resulting hyperspectral imaging from GenMat-1 will also enhance the model. It’s important to note this won’t straightforwardly lead us to a 'bonanza.' It will provide corroborative and predictive analyses. If successful, it will represent a significant advancement in our mineral discovery methods, leading to refined capabilities.

We’re approaching the end of our time here. Are there any other questions or topics you would like to cover before we wrap up with Corrado providing a summary?

No, I think we should wrap it there, Trevor.

Alright, perfect. Corrado, the stage is yours for a quick recap and some final comments.

Thank you all for your time. We appreciate the questions and the engagement. I’ve never felt more energized to tackle the work coming together for us—it’s truly substantive. To give a short outlook for each business: In fuels, we’ll facilitate closing on the $200 million investment. We’ll commence site selection while finalizing customer agreements—this will designate our first site as we consider additional ones. We plan to announce agreements to advance our innovation network, securing paths for enhanced yield potential. In metals, we’re set to close on the first tranche of the $22 million, finalize engineering, and order equipment needed to move forward on our first facility. We’ll expedite permitting and site selection for our next two facilities. Our team is actively working towards three shifts operation as we increase efficiency and scale. With mining, we’re set to close on investments, progressing with the mine plan, and expect a lot of activity in the next 18 months. Lastly, while Green Li-ion may experience a slight delay, progress is promising, and we’ll share updates as they come.

A lot to absorb, and a lot of excitement ahead. I appreciate Corrado and Billy, and those who submitted questions for participating today. We will wrap up the recording and send it around. It will be available on the company's website in the Investors section. As a reminder, the Q3 perception analysis report will also be distributed. We appreciate your comments and feedback—good, bad, or ugly—we will consider them and respond. We’re wrapping up an updated presentation as well, and we will consolidate that for you. Thank you, everyone. If you have any other questions, please reach out through the website or at [email protected]. Thank you again for connecting, and we look forward to keeping you posted on next steps. You are free to disconnect.

Thank you.

Thanks, everyone.