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spk01: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our Zoom call today. I'm actually very excited about this update. There's been a tremendous amount of activity over the last six months for sure. And I'll provide a brief summary of the information that was included in our press release from this morning and from our quarterly report filed on Form 10Q last night. Those updates will include our progress on recent breakthroughs in lithium ion battery recycling and especially lithium extraction, cellulosic extraction for producing biofuels, and also comment on the effective restart of our mercury remediation remediation operations in the Philippines, and also some promising developments coming online with Tonal Gold. I'll try to be brief in my prepared remarks, and I'm really looking forward to the Q&A. If you don't have a copy of today's press release, you'll find a copy on our website at www.comstockmining.com by just clicking on the press release tab on the menu bar. Our Form 10-Q is also available via editor on www.scc.gov. Please let me remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements on this call, including our prototype deployments of LIB crushing and lithium extraction technology and cellulose and carbon extraction technology and how this impacts our forward revenues and values. Any statements relating to matters that are not historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements. Our statements are based on current expectations and are subject to the same risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in previously reports filed by the company with the SEC and in this morning's press release. and all forward-looking statements made during this call are subject to those same and other risks that we cannot identify. Once we complete the prepared remarks, Zach will direct all questions zooming into us and I'll be happy to answer them. If you're not using Zoom, you can follow up with us after the call directly or via our website with any additional questions. So we've obviously been very active this year in building both an asset portfolio and an exceptional, exceptional senior management team, effectively killing two birds with one stone. Our balance sheet has increased to 100 million in net assets, tripling from last year end, and importantly, adding lithium extraction, cellulosic carbon and fuel extraction, and global engineering and manufacturing capabilities that places us in a leading position in each of our businesses. We've increased insider ownership as well to over 20%, fully aligning our team with all of our shareholders. Of course, it's not the size of the assets, it's what we can do with them. We've spent the last six months accelerating our plans for lithium recycling and cellulosic fuels with capabilities of each activity coming online in fully operational prototypes in the first and second quarters of 2022. We're going to talk more about that in a little bit. I'm going to take a few minutes to give you insights on each of these businesses and their developments, including some remarkable revenue and profit opportunities that are coming faster in 2022. Let me start with lithium-ion battery metal recycling. You already know that our engineering team, led by Comstock's chief processing engineer, designed and we are now deploying a crushing and separating technology that would ultimately represent 100,000 ton per annum state of the art battery metal recycling facility in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center right here in Nevada, right here in Story County, Nevada. What you may not know is that we believe we have the only system that can safely crush charged batteries, meaning we do not need to discharge the batteries prior to crushing and safely oxidizes out of those materials contaminants while preserving the lithium and minerals and producing the highest purity black mass. The system is scheduled to be operational in Nevada in the second quarter of 2022. However, we have a full prototype of the same system arriving in our PSI labs in Wisconsin next month. This is a fully integrated 18 foot tall replica capable of crushing six tons per day and fully demonstrating this unique technology. We believe this will produce the highest purity, driest black mass in the world in just a few months for all to see and differentiating us in the market for what we can do. Much more importantly, we are integrating our super critical intellectual property a process that will extract lithium, a lithium extraction system, if you will, that will follow right on from this crushing and separating system. That's being scheduled to arrive in March, again, in Wisconsin, that can extract substantially all of the lithium from the black mass at the front end of the process. I'm going to pause on this point because we don't see anybody in the market even attempting to do this. This enables an extremely profitable business even at low volumes and a highly profitable one at higher volumes as we can sell lithium carbonate later this year just from this capability. Can't exaggerate the importance and the impact of this technology and how unique it is. Most of the processes that we see in the market today, most of the processes we see being proposed to come online in the market tomorrow, destroy most, if not all, of lithium content from this recycling process. For us, it's a remarkable breakthrough. We also believe we'll be able to extract graphite at the front end of this process, another breakthrough and another immediate revenue stream that would further purify the concentrated black mass. We're not as far along on the graphite extraction as we are with the lithium extraction, but it's coming from a known process that we feel very confident we'll be able to put in place. This again will result in much more pure and much more concentrated black mass, which we may actually need to call something other than black mass, maybe brown mass or gold mass or something. I don't know, but it's going to be extremely valuable. We've also positioned ourselves downstream from there. with both Green Line as everybody knows already and just recently entering into a collaboration agreement with Aqua Metals using this highly pure mass for developing clean high quality metals downstream like cobalt and nickel that strengthens and expands our downstream product line potential and ultimately will include all of lithium carbonate, graphite, nickel, cobalt, manganese, et cetera, and hopefully soon with Green Lion co-precipitated cathode materials. I do not see anybody better positioned technologically or operationally than we are in the battery metal recycling space. Lastly, we've also secured a nearly 200-acre storage site for our batteries in close proximity to the Linoco facility that opens the door for us to finalize agreements and start receiving and storing lithium-ion battery materials in Nevada. We're already receiving lithium-ion battery materials in Wisconsin on a smaller scale, of course, to operate in our prototype. But this was an important step in our plan, and it's getting done. There is still a lot of work to do, and we're fully dedicated, and we're getting it done. Let me just close on lithium battery recycling by saying that we can showcase crushing and separating in Q1. We can showcase lithium extraction in Q2 and everyone's going to take notice and it's going to be very different. For us, it's the most meaningful milestone for you all to track in terms of this business's progress. John Kane- Secondly, let me turn to cellulosic fuels and I appreciate that this is a new discussion and that we just fully acquired plain sight innovations, less than two months ago. John Kane- But we already have our first biofuel facility target and expected to scale up with an initial capacity exceeding 330,000 tons per year of forestry waste. over its first years of operation as it extracts and refines carbon-neutral woody biomass into ethanol, biodiesels, and marine fuels. I need to pause on this and explain that this business will be the biggest business in our portfolio. It's what I've personally been spending the last 90 days immersing myself in, and it will be by far the largest business in our portfolio and in the most nearest term. As big as Lineco's potential is, and it is, cellulosic fuels and the associated byproducts that come from it are significantly bigger. Our carbon neutral biofuel designs are remarkably scalable. We can make very small facilities. We can make 16 million gallon per year facilities. We can make 100 million gallon per year of facilities. The tech is proven. However, we recently had a breakthrough in the speed of the extraction process, literally tripling the speed of converting woody biomass into cellulose and ethanol. We literally take dead wood like sawdust and chips and produce an entire suite of bioproducts. Incredibly, for every gallon of ethanol that we can produce, we can also produce a half a gallon of alternative biofuels coming from lignin, the lignin in the wood. like biodiesel or marine fuels or biogasoline, meaning that a 16 million gallon facility would actually produce 24 million gallons of saleable materials. A 32 million gallon facility would produce 48 million gallons of saleable materials. This breakthrough in speed at which we can process is being extrapolated and engineered out through the entire representative footprint of our first facility, which is planned to be located in Minnesota. This is the business where the feedstock is abundant, it's cheap, and the decarbonizing impact is massive. The market is seemingly unlimited, although we've defined the market to be about 16 billion gallons of cellulosic fuel per year, wherein no one is providing a single gallon today. Remarkably, we've now actually been approached by two major counterparties to purchase from us engineering and construction services for deploying the same cellulosic extraction technology for paper products, pulp and paper products, and also ethanol production, where it's already proven for significant revenues and profits for Comstock. More will be coming in this area of, I guess, what I'll call clean technology-based sales and services from our model. But it's coming very soon. It's coming early in 2022. And all of this was enabled by the acquisition of Plainsight Innovations and its influential property and the engineering and manufacturing capabilities of RPS, Renewable Process Solutions. I mean, the fact that we can engineer and manufacture this tech that will both be showcased in Wisconsin next quarter. Let me make a clarifying point on that. I already mentioned that we're going to have lithium crushing, lithium battery crushing, lithium battery separating, and lithium carbonate extraction showcased in Wisconsin. But I didn't mention that we're also going to be able to showcase the same extraction capabilities woody biomass into cellulose in both cases with large-scale prototypes so we'll be able to do that next quarter um in in and it's foundational to creating these revenue and profit streams that i'm talking about we're nearly complete in integrating all of these businesses and plans into one comstock system where one company comstock with all of these capabilities. And that's really what we've been doing for the past six months. And unfortunately, and I'm sorry why we've been so quiet for the last three or four. Let me spend a few minutes on the mining activities before we go to Q&A, first with MCU and then with Comstock. With MCU, Dave and Andrews, We were paused due to requiring an additional permit for selling the sand and gravel, so we got up and running in the Philippines, we had all of our permits for for setting up the camp and in deploying the equipment and processing. Dave and Andrews, But unfortunately we didn't have the permit to actually allow us to sell the sand and gravel and that result in downtime for us between April and August. but our JV has secured that permit. We are now fully resumed operations. We are processing clean materials and we're starting to sell the result in sand and gravel. The delays are very disappointing, you know, as we are still resident and established in the lower part of the Nabok River in Philippines, where we've been seeing very low mercury and gold contents. The good news is our machine is operating. The good news is the government is testing daily the mercury contents in the materials. The good news is the contents are de minimis and clean so that we're able to sell the sand and gravel. Now we're fully permitted to do so. So the system works, the operation's up and running. And we're moving forward. We're also testing upriver where we expect to see more mercury and gold content from all the artisanal and small scale mining that occurred upriver and hopefully and to finally establish a meaningful revenue stream that will grow as we see the increases in the mercury and the gold. Operationally, as I said, everything's in place and operating. We have extracted gold, just not very much. And we're now starting to sell the sand and gravel. Government's fully supporting us, and we have an extremely low overhead. profile. So the business is very efficient. We just need to see more mercury and more gold. So the prospects for the future outstanding as we see it. Let me touch base on the Comstock and in that context, Tono Gold. Tono is clearly going through some changes and there's probably not too many specifics that we can share now. But what I can tell you is they are deeply into an internal transition that's going to result in a remarkably stronger and highly qualified and very reputable mining and leadership team, both directors and officers, with strong capital commitments coming together and the ability to advance all of their exploration and development plans. They have drafted a technical report on the northern part of the district. It is in final draft form. We are reviewing it, including the lists are mine and they're also finishing up their financial audits, all of which should result in getting their plan. You know, very, very strongly back on track, and I would say even even better than originally anticipated we're working with them towards a very positive outcome and we expect it to all be completed before the end of the year. We are also advancing our technical reporting for the Dayton Spring Valley complex. We have had two dedicated geologists, including our chief geologist Larry Martin, junior geologist, and then our chief mining engineer Mike Norrid, and we look forward to both Tono and Comstock technical reports coming together, being available. My goodness, it's like with inflation surging and gold up $100 an ounce in just the past 30 days shooting up, last I checked, past 1850 this morning and climbing. These are very important and I would say, you know, although delayed, very timely indicators of our assets and their underlying gold and silver value. The bottom line is that our money and our commitments are where our mouths are, as we have directly linked all of our performance targets, as you know, with the goal of delivering the first half a billion dollars in share value. We're saying at least $12 a share to all of our performance objectives. We're now obviously recessing those values as each one of our businesses can exceed multiples of these amounts. As we build and grow them, we're really looking at something exponentially larger in terms of growth and in terms of any of the targets that we've sent. Regardless, because our significant insider ownership greater than 20% and because our comp other than that is structured such that if the shareholders are not rewarded, then neither are we. It's 100% performance-based. You know, we're really positioned for everyone to succeed here as we go forward. I'm not opposed to any questions in the Q&A, you know, be it related to any of the activities, GMAT or otherwise. I'll turn it over to Zach to start feeding me in those questions.
spk02: All right, thank you, Corrado. Our first question is, there seems to be other firms working on lithium extraction in the Nevada area as well, and probably recycling too. They seem to be trying to source used batteries at this time. How does Comstock compare in the time to significant commercialization Other than timing, what other differentiating factors are there relative to these competitors?
spk01: Outstanding. Thanks, Zach. So in terms of differentiation, let me say first that we have a fully, you know, we have a fully state of the art 136,000 square foot battery metal recycling facility. As far as we understand it, we're the most advanced in terms of the existing facilities that are in the ground and the permit applications that have been submitted. Number one. Number two, we don't see anybody in the industry looking to crush materials that are charged and in a dry state. That results in the purest, least contaminated black mass with the highest value of minerals residual, including lithium. Thirdly, we have the ability to extract lithium almost instantaneously using our super critical intellectual property and process at the very front end of the process. We don't believe anyone's even talking about extracting lithium at the front end of the process. Most of the processes are designed to produce minerals such as cobalt, such as John Kane- nickel such as manganese with with meaningful losses in lithium and graphite. John Kane- Our ability to extract lithium and hopefully graphite at the funding process totally differentiates us not just in terms of process, but in terms of value in the market. John Kane- What it also enables, and this is very important, is a profitable endeavor, even with very low volumes of lithium ion batteries. There is no expert in the market that is predicting anything other than a tsunami of lithium ion batteries coming out of the market. It's obvious. What's not as obvious is the timing, right? The tsunami is not coming in 2022 or 2023. It's coming much later, but it's coming. If you have the ability to produce a relatively low amount of battery feedstock profitably enabled, By extracting lithium, in our case, then you have a sustainable business that's going to explode at some point. If you talk to any of the experts, McKinsey, the mineral industries as a whole, the associations, the explosion is coming and we're going to be best positioned for it.
spk02: All right. Thank you, Corrado. Our next question is about RCRA, or as we refer to it, RCRA. And of course, that stands for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which was enacted in 1976. The question is, do you have confidence to meet RCRA timelines in your battery recycling operation? Is your storage site RCRA approved?
spk01: Excellent question. So RCRA is the leading authority for hazardous waste management here in Nevada. The permitting process for processing these hazardous materials is done through the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection using a permit called a written determination. And the determination is that we're allowed to operate under RCRA guidelines as long as we don't store the batteries on site. So very important distinction. None of the recyclers are going to store batteries on site. It's not allowed. In that context, we're highly confident that we will have all the authorities and permits by the first quarter of next year. And that will be up and operating, you know, on the timeline that we indicated. Secondly, with storage. We're allowed to store lithium ion batteries up to one year at a dedicated storage site. We just secured a 200-acre site in very immediate proximity of our operating facility. And all that really requires, since we're not processing materials there, is a record id so it's a it's it's relatively permit light and that is different than if you had a fully permitted you know universal large quantity waste recycling facility that would require full record permitting which often takes many years i hope that answers the question okay thanks corrado the next question is
spk02: For each of your new businesses, could you reiterate a brief commercialization map that is date of first commercial activity and plan?
spk01: Yeah, let me do that. So for lithium, we are going to have a prototype operating in Wisconsin in January. We're going to have lithium extraction added on. to that prototype in March, April timeframe. That will produce, you know, sample quantities of the material, but also provide a showcase to the market of our full capability through lithium extraction. Immediately following that, we will have the crushing and separating system coming online in Nevada. You know, that is the May, June timeframe. And then we will have saleable materials coming from that. Following the lithium extraction will be added on. in the most likely early fourth quarter or fourth quarter of 2022, of which then we will have lithium extraction revenues and at a very low volume projecting, you know, profitability. So that's number one. Cellulosic fuels is very interesting. We will similarly have a full cellulosic extraction prototype up and running in Wisconsin in the March-April timeframe. we have already started and scheduled our first facility, which would be scheduled to come online in 2023 in Minnesota. The breakthrough that we had in processing time has resulted in us re-engineering, updating, if you will, the engineering of that facility for much, much higher throughputs, which I cannot, it's the most exciting thing that's happened for the company in the last six months. It's remarkable. However, there's an accelerator happening here. We've been approached by very recognizable companies to purchase engineering and manufacturing services and equipment to use the same cellulosic extraction technology for pulp and paper. And we expect revenue, meaningful revenue. tens of millions of revenue in 2022 from this, and even recently approached by a different counterparty for a much, much bigger project using the same technology. Once we can show in Wisconsin this cellulosic fuel capability, it would be shocking if every major petroleum producer and every large user of these fuels who have stated carbon targets by 2025 and 2030, it would be shocking if they weren't lining up, if you will, to use this technology to meet their carbon goals. So we have an opportunity to create a huge cash producing business of our own. We own 100% of the company, we own 100% of technology, and we have the ability to accelerate decarbonization in these transportation industries across a wide spectrum of huge companies by selling our engineering and manufacturing services to them as well. The services themselves are hugely profitable, but there's also opportunities to profit share, royalty share, cash share. beyond that. And so we're just building those models now. And we'll have a lot of discussion about that in the first quarter of 2022. Let me say one more thing. I'm sorry. With MCU, we're up and running. We are selling materials. We did produce some gold. It's very, very small. The important part there is the concepts being proved and the operation being established. no fatal flaw, we're moving forward. Once we start seeing more revenue from gold containing mercury, mercury containing gold, we'll provide better guidance on that. But there clearly will be revenue every quarter here as we go forward. It's just a question of when it gets to the meaningful level that we'll all care more about, but on a positive track there.
spk02: John Kane, Okay yeah thanks for that update on mcu there was a question about that the next question is how much capital will be required to implement your growth plan for the next three years.
spk01: John Kane, So the capital requirements is important question right we've we've been very careful like in how we've been capitalizing these activities, a lot of the capital. You know, using when it goes example, you know, has been deployed already, you know, through cash we've made over $5 million of cash investment this year already done, you know, and over. $7 million of investment through stock that was provided. So, you know, Linaco is funded through, you know, certainly, you know, the first half of next year, and it's important for us, you know, that we can demonstrate the capabilities that we've talked about here, you know, in the first quarter of next year, you know, as we plan that forward. There shouldn't be a reason. that those projects can't be debt financed when we look at the cash flows that they are purporting to generate. So we're very excited about that. With cellulosic fuels, there's a tremendous amount of government support and everybody's been talking about the infrastructure plan and the significant materials, I'm sorry, the significant mineral and material subsidies that are being provided, the credits, the grants, et cetera, for carbon neutrality. If you made a list of the technologies that are most impactful, we'd be at the very top of the list. Our access and availability to those funds is tremendous. I spent all day Monday in Las Vegas with Senator Masto who has been one of the primary sponsors for these mineral extraction subsidies to the benefit of Nevada. So she couldn't be more excited. We couldn't be more excited. We're in the sweet spot. But what people are even less cognizant of is that even in Minnesota, we're getting interest-free loans, grants, and subsidies to establish an operation there. is in part because it's carbon neutral, absolutely, for sure, but also in part that the forestry industry has a big dilemma. The forestry industry generates hundreds of millions, if not up to 1 billion tons of waste wood every year, killing the carbon footprint, carbon detriment, carbon hurting, Right, cutting down trees hurts the carbon footprint, dead wood hurts the carbon footprint, taking dead wood and renewing it into pure cellulosic, pure carbon neutral fuel. I mean, there's a scenario where we could be demonstrating carbon negative activity, puts us in a position, but even then the cashflow profiles of those projects are able to be debt financed. The other side, of which the capital sensitive people will be thrilled to hear about is we have proposals ranging from 50 million in revenue to 165 million in revenue, profits of 10 plus million to 40 plus million that require no capital. That's us providing engineering, manufacturing construction services. to deploy these technologies for decarbonizing impact in other industries that don't compete with what we're using them for. And this is going to be the big story for 2022. And this is going to be the big story for Comstock. The conversations, the proposals are already exchanged. They're engaged. They're progressing. We're just not ready to announce definitive agreements and the specifics there too, but it's coming. And it's coming so strong. that we've recognized this can not only be an entire business in itself, but with low to no capital requirement, the returns are infinite. I mean, it's just remarkable. So this is new. I appreciate this is new. This is a brand new conversation that we've had our sights on for 18 months from the first day that we engage Plainsight Innovations from the first day that David Winsness, who is now our Chief Technology Officer, demonstrated this technology to us, from the first loans that we made to bridge them and then ultimately our acquisition. And in the last 60 to 90 days, deep dive planning. So it's gonna come fast. We're gonna start moving at a different pace, but I appreciate it's new and I appreciate your patience on this part of the discussion.
spk02: Gerardo, based on your answer to that question, you actually answered quite a few questions that we have in the queue. So pivoting just a little, the next question is, can you please provide an update on the sale of non-core assets?
spk01: Absolutely. The activities in Silver Springs are very dramatic. Like they're picking up. We've just had announcements of nanotech and graphene companies coming into Story County's Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. I mean, exciting businesses, exciting technologies. We've gotten major retail companies taking cornerstone properties in Silver Springs, convenience stores of which you would recognize the names immediately, you know, hotels, you recognize the names immediately. We had, and we, you know, Sierra Springs Opportunity Fund specifically was approached by an internationally recognized company to buy an orphan parcel on the, you know, on the other side of Highway 50. which we had no plans for, for almost $9 million. So we're seeing a tremendous amount of economic surge. We're seeing companies coming in and submitting permits and expansions in the area. We're seeing new technologies and new companies flowing in. And we are now much more actively engaged with, and when I say we now, I mean, Sierra Springs, which Comstock is an investor in, is getting an increased amount of activities for investors and the dynamics changing. It's going from relatively small high net worth people looking to intelligently roll capital gains into an incredible value opportunity to sophisticated real estate developers, sophisticated companies that are looking to invest in a much, much larger way. And so we expect all of that will result in closing the sale of our two properties for over $10 million of proceeds within the next few months. John Kane, a longer story, you know, then, then we originally expected, but when we look back and we see the growth curve and the development curve in northern Nevada and in silver springs, we can say unquestionably. that the growth and the inflow and the thesis is significantly stronger and even faster than we were expecting to see. But fast was a relative term. There's a lot of infrastructure. The four lane expansions of Highway 50 all through the Silver Springs properties just got completed. The brand new second roundabout just got completed. the intersection of the USA Parkway to the now expanded Super Highway 50, all just getting connected. So it's happening remarkably. We're just being patient and hopefully it'll be done within the next two or three months, but it will certainly be done. It's just coming that strongly. Those are the cores of our asset sales. You know, we're monetizing the rest of our total stock. That'll happen in due course, especially with some of the good changes that they're about to announce. And then, you know, the D&E Ranch is already contracted for sale, expected to close next May. So, you know, within the next seven, eight months, we should expect to see all that cleaned up, you know, and fully behind us, which provides remarkable non-dilutive benefits.
spk02: funding you know for us to complement the last question you know that came up you know in terms of our new initiatives transitioning from non-core assets to the management team please provide information on your new president and cfo as well as the other members of the management team absolutely so this is this is the sort of hidden jewel
spk01: of the series of acquisitions that we've completed. So with the acquisition of Plainsight Innovations, we acquired Kevin Chrysler, who became Comstock's president and chief financial officer. Kevin has an exceptional breadth from a decade plus of hazardous waste management and recycling to a decade plus of solution extraction and clean technology, and is one of the masterminds of TerraScale decarbonization that Plainsight Innovations is going to enable. With Plainsight, we also got David Winsness, who was the CEO of Plainsight, but also the leading technologist in all of this cellulosic fuel development. We have an extraordinary full-scale research and development lab in Wisconsin with full-scale operating prototype capabilities that we've just talked about are about to be expanded. development capability can't be exaggerated from an ip perspective but but i guess what what i maybe am not saying clearly enough is from a marketing perspective that's going to allow us to show the world what we can do show the capital markets what we can do and show our customers what we can do it's going to be the single strongest enabler of our sales you know going forward Following on that, we acquired Renewable Process Solutions, and Raul Balini became our chief process engineer. Raul has built 21 ethanol facilities in the last 15 years. When I say he's built, I mean he's engineered, he's designed, he's procured the manufacturing of all the equipment, and he's commissioned them. When we talk about our capabilities between David's inventiveness and Raul's engineering and deployment, and they're both engineers as well by education, we have this just twin turbo capability of building our own facilities and building our own businesses. We do it at faster lead times. We do it at lower capital costs, the lowest by far in the industry. I'll cite the example at Linoco. where we were going to acquire a $9 million crushing and separating system that we delivered ourselves for a little over $6 million and half the time with much greater capabilities and capacity than we saw. That's just a drop in the bucket of what our capabilities are. And this will be most immediately demonstrated by some of the new sales that we're going to have you know, through these technology and manufacturing and engineering capabilities. We also required and Billy McCarthy is our chief operating officer, you know, who is literally synchronizing and coordinating all of these activities into one series of project schedules. So we operate the company always under approved projects, all scheduled and all coordinated. And really, it's important here. We're going to talk less. You're going to hear less words like PSI or RPS. And you're going to hear more about Comstock. Comstock is one system. Comstock is delivering one solution. Our core competency is this supercritical extraction process. Imagine my surprise when we acquired supercritical extraction process for taking dead wood into biofuels. And the first thing out of David and Raul's mouth, we can extract lithium from black mass the same way. What? Incredible. So we also have another underlying a team of senior people that are helping us in terms of all of our business processes, our project managing, our sales and marketing. It's a robust team, not just the C-suite. It's a robust team of more than a dozen people managing projects, making sales, engineering, manufacturing, delivering solutions. It's beyond what we were expecting. We haven't marketed it other than, you know, just the minimally compliant, you know, reporting requirements. But we will be now that we've integrated it all into one system, now that we can show clearly how simple the one system is, now that we can demonstrate our technology hard live in person and we can show off the team, which I'm extremely proud of. And I'd be remiss if I didn't say names like Tracy Seville, Chad Black, Colby Corson. I mean, we've got Matt McClelland. I mean, we've got Zach Stogdill. I just wanna give you guys the impression that this is no longer a one man show, you know, so I couldn't, I couldn't feel more aligned. But what's more excited is how super competent, you know, these people are.
spk02: i hope that didn't go overboard but probably did no we've had several questions about that so that was perfect that's what people were looking for and now uh pivoting to the mining properties uh the southern comstock properties in our portfolio yeah can you please provide an update on the dayton consolidated and uh spring valley
spk01: Yeah, so two meaningful points there. Our team's been working very hard on finalizing the new resource model for Dayton Spring Valley Complex. You know that's going to result in a second technical report. There will be two technical reports being issued, one by Tonal Gold on the north, one by Comstock on the south. You know, we are engineering that resource model now. Our junior geologist was just released from the team to do some other work because he finished and completed his work, Wyatt Cohen. It's taken longer, not because of any problems that we're running into, but with all the integration and work that we've been doing in the company as a whole in the last five to six months, Mike Norrid, who is our chief mining engineer, has just been pulled into just so many strategic activities that it frankly had delayed the Dayton resource. So it's coming. It's gonna be exciting for us to get that published. It's gonna be validating. And as I said, with gold surging towards 1900, it's gonna be timely. There's another thing. I mentioned that we secured 200 acres for lithium battery. This property is adjacent. you know, to the Dayton Spring Valley complex and really positions the southern part of our district for any and all possibilities. It also has, believe it or not, 12 million tons of aggregate material that could be mined out of it, you know, and so it's a very multi-use property that we've secured that we look to be closing on before the end of the year. It supports Linoco, of course, in terms of battery storage, but it accelerates and expands what we're able to do in the southern part of the district. Our commitment to the Comstock has never been stronger. We're putting a few last pieces of the puzzle in place. It presents an extremely valuable district play that's only going to get more and more valuable when we show these technical reports and then more and more value as the price of gold and silver continue to move up in this ridiculous, irresponsible fiscal government scenario that we're in.
spk02: The next question is a question looking for any update that you can provide on GenMAT.
spk01: Sure. So, yeah, so I wasn't going to plan to say a lot about GenMAT, you know, in part because it's a little bit of a stealthy operation. We've invested or we will invest before the end of this year $5 million, you know, in cash and I got to tell you, that in a couple of years from now, we're gonna be looking back saying, holy crap, this is just incredible. We're talking now about the absolute front line of material science. And so if I could, excuse me, if I can just give you some insight. You know, Gen Mat, specializes in quantum computing and quantum sensing technologies. These technologies are going to absolutely revolutionize how we do material science and engineering in the future. We're literally building an artificial intelligence capability that's going to solve the most complex quantum mechanical equations that are prerequisite that are required for breakthrough materials discovery. It sounds incredible, I can tell you. that Gen-Net has strategic agreements with the most sophisticated, the most advanced quantum computing companies in the world. I can tell you that they operate on a peer scale with those people. I can tell you that the people that we're hiring are on a different scale on a different scale of anyone that, you know, would operate in any technological corridor. And before your eyes, you know, roll too far behind your heads, you know, the dedicated focus of this company is breakthrough materials in quantum sensing as it's applied to mining, in new material discovery as it's applied to batteries, As it's applied to carbon capture and utilization and it's as it's applied to aerospace and so you know we'll probably have a point in time where you know we'll have a dedicated call. where you can even be exposed to the leadership and the teams. They're the best people that you could ever imagine working with. They're the smartest people on the planet. And what we positioned ourselves for following on what we're doing. And I don't want to dismiss or understate the breakthroughs that we're having with materials and engineering. you know, with lithium extraction, with cellulosic fuel extraction. That's going to be all that we're talking about, you know, tomorrow, next week, and for the next, you know, two to three to five years. But somewhere in that continuum, we're taking it to another level, you know, and that's what GENMAT represents.
spk02: Corrado, I believe you addressed this in several of your earlier comments. But several people are asking, will there be a need to raise cash from any stock offerings next year?
spk01: So, you know, look, we're always sensitive to the dilution. We're very, very careful, you know, with our equity. I couple that with saying that we've been very aggressive, right, in the acquisitions, you know, that we've made. But if you peel the onion on how we've done it, We've created a world-class leadership team with a world-class portfolio of technologies, all that are commercial ready and that we're commercializing as we speak with insider ownership exceeding 20%. And will we need to use equity at some of the early stages of some of these developments, we will need to use some equity. Because of their cash generating nature, it should be significantly less. Because of our ability to sell products, meaning, you know, engineering and manufacturing services, it would be none. You know, because we're able to sell these non core assets, it will be minimized. So the answer is yes, but an incredibly capital sensitive way with huge appreciation models tied to the use of that capital. There was a legacy of having to use equity just to cover operating expenses. That was years ago. It's not what we're talking about here. We're deploying capital into huge exponential growth markets, which I didn't overstate, but let me surely state now, we're going to be the leading decarbonizer. We may be the leading global decarbonizer, The amount of carbon that we are stemming, the amount of carbon that we're reducing, and in a little while, we're going to have a very exciting conversation about the amount of carbon we're actually taking out of the environment and converting into solid carbon products and graphite is going to lead the world. The capital markets... are now laser focused on these kind of investments. The government has prioritized these initiatives, single most important thing. And every major fossil fuel using and carbon horrible enterprise is clamoring to get this technology. clamoring to meet targets that they've set for 2025, 2030, 2040. They can't conceivably meet. We have the technology to do all of that. So that's where we're positioning ourselves. It's where we have positioned ourselves and we're commercializing into.
spk02: We're getting near the top of the hour. So we have one final question. It seems like you are acquiring and building a strong portfolio of intellectual property. Excluding the human capital, such as people, how are you protecting this property vis-a-vis patents, etc., and will it be licensed to others? repeat the question yes i was daydreaming okay it seems like you are acquiring building a strong portfolio of intellectual property excluding the human capital such as people how are you protecting this proper property vis-a-vis patents etc and will it be licensed to others yeah excellent question sorry i wasn't really daydreaming so um
spk01: We have a very, very aggressive IP protection protocol. It isn't in my DNA, like we inherited it as we acquired Plainsight Innovations. Kevin is a master at IP protection. We have a very precise strategy. It is biased towards filing patents and protecting the technology. We have in-house capability. Mike Riebel is one of our chief scientists, is a machine in terms of researching, evaluating, compiling, and actually filing for patents. I've never seen a company of our size actually have that kind of internal horsepower. And so the answer is yes. We just filed a patent on a breakthrough that we had in Wisconsin where we were able to actually extract biographite, biographite from dead wood. I mean, anyone that's in the carbon and graphite industry can appreciate what that would mean to the world if we could naturally produce carbon and graphite from dead wood. I can't wait for the day where we're talking about producing carbon and graphite from carbon dioxide, but that's not for today. These are game changers. And so, yes, we will patent it. Yes, we will protect it. And yes, we will license it in the appropriate circumstances. Our goal is to decarbonize. Our mission is decarbonize. Our goal is accelerating the rates at which we do that and generate cash. What's beautiful about the system that we've designed is every time we reduce carbon, we make money. So this is the new dialogue. This is the new normal. Like environmentalists are profit centers. The speed at which we decarbonize is synonymous with the speed at which we generate cash. I don't know anyone that's able to say that. That's what we designed our system to do. And that's what we're implementing here in 2022. We will license our tech if it John Kane- increases the rate at which the world is decarbonizing and it simultaneously increases the rate at which we're making money. John Kane- And so we've eliminated one of the most profound conflicts in the world, which is the conflict between doing good and making money like for us they're not one in the same once the markets understand this and we haven't we haven't rebranded ourselves. We have not communicated this message. Why? Because we just acquired PlainSight Innovation two months ago. Because we just spent the last six months integrating four acquisitions into one system. We now have an identity, we have a purpose, and we are clear on how we're going to the markets. And we're doing it as one system. We're doing it as one company, Comstock, Comstock Inc. So I'm very excited. And we will we will again, we will license it, we will enable others to decarbonize as long as it accelerates the rate. You know if they can do it faster than we can if they can do it in markets that we're not familiar in and if we can make just as much or more money doing it we're doing it, yes.
spk02: Thank you, Corrado. And also, we would like to thank all the participants who zoomed in today. And thank you for all of your questions. And I'll turn it back to you, Corrado, to close us out.
spk01: I want to thank everyone for your interest. I want to say the focus is really consolidating here at Comstock. We will have a lot more to say. We will have a lot more frequency and clarity in how we say it. We will have a new website. It's already built. I've already seen it. Our guys are so fast, they didn't want to show it to me, but they showed it to me. I love it. And so I appreciate that we have a shareholder base that's longstanding, that loves the Comstock and loves the precious metals. Understand that we're custodians of those assets and they're only going to be more valuable. I feel remiss that we haven't and can't talk more about Genmat, but we're focused. So it's all to come. And we look forward to more. Thank you all.
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