Comstock Inc.

Welcome everybody to Comstock's third quarter 2024 results and business update. This is Trevor Brucato with RB Milestone Group, Comstock's US-based investor relations firm. Comstock is listed on the NYSE American under the symbol L-O-D-E. And joining us today is Comstock's executive chair and CEO, Corrado De Gasparis, and COO, William McCarthy. I'd like to thank the hundreds of investors who registered for today's event. We received your questions during the registration process, but if any new questions surface, please submit them in the Zoom Q&A module, and we'll do our best to address them following management's prepared remarks. Please note this presentation is being recorded today, October 22, 2024, and will be made available on the company's website at comstock.inc shortly after today's event. Again, that's comstock.inc. I'd also like to thank those who participated in Comstock's Q3 Stakeholder Perception Analysis Report that was published on October 3rd and portrayed a positive shift in investor sentiment compared to previous quarters. In the coming days, we'll be opening up the surveying for the fourth quarter. We'll be circulating the link to registrants and subscribers by email, but it will also be available on the company's website at the top of the investor section. As a reminder, the final report includes trends on CompSox perceived strengths, weaknesses, and milestones, and will be published shortly after the end of the quarter. Your participation will be much appreciated as it will continue to help strengthen CompSox investor communications efforts and 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 CompSoc's control and should not be construed as a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security. For the company's full disclaimer, please visit compsoc.inc. Lastly, RBMG, RB Milestone Group, is not a registered investment advisor or broker-dealer. For more information on us, please visit rbmilestone.com. And now it is my pleasure to turn it over to Comstock's Executive Chair and CEO, Gerardo Diasporas. Gerardo, the stage is yours.

Thanks, Trevor. And hello, everyone, and welcome to our third quarter update. I'm very happy to report that we have positive updates, insights, and outlooks on all three of our businesses and a meaningful number of expanded partnerships that have positioned our system and capacities in a way that has already altered the way the market perceives us and is engaging us. It's truly gratifying to see all of our teams getting this traction across the board. Similar to our last call, We'll take live questions after these prepared remarks. I'll cover corporate first since we have announced some very meaningful transactions ranging from recent partnerships with the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab to our previous announcements regarding capital with SBC. Then Billy will update you on metals and mining and I'll wrap us up with Comstock Fuels before turning to questions. Okay, so from a corporate perspective, I'm happy to update that I've spent the past two days with SBC and our capital partner, and we are methodically moving forward. We're genuinely excited with how we have positioned Comstock fuels, metals, and mining, and the opportunities we are now capitalizing on. We are deep in the due diligence structuring process with SBC and believe we have a high level structure well outlined to facilitate the capital. Some of you have asked about equity versus debt, and we're just trying to optimize the structure for the businesses and our shareholders. These monies are specifically designed to fund each of our businesses with the right amount of the right capital to accelerate their commercializations, capture their markets, and exponentially grow value while taking maximum advantage of our net operating loss carry forwards and maximizing company-wide value. From the remarkable technological and market advances that both fuels and metals have achieved in just the past three months, Plus this recent surge in precious metal prices, people are really starting to appreciate the potential value coming from what we are creating. There is some complexity here and everyone needs to be just a little patient as we work through the tranches. They're coming and we're committed to maximizing the value of the enterprise in the safest and best way. our liquidity remains stable as we close on some other minor asset sales and the previously announced one and a half million convertible note while we advance with SBC and frankly, some other capital transactions. I stated on the call last time that I expected us to be a bit over 200 million in shares and we're now at 209 million outstanding. From a corporate transaction perspective, we announced a binding agreement to restructure and own 100% of Genmat's material science discovery business, including the material science AI technology, the related material science team, and the associated know-how and IP. We're doing it without issuing new shares or cash, but rather assuming the team and the tech into what will become both Comstock's AI engine and its own business. Conversely, the satellite, the satellite software, and the space-based employees, as well as the small investment in Xtropic, will go deep in a new venture that we understand will be called Starvasa. Our focus is, has been, and will remain material science. We're 100% focused on it, and we could not be happier to have our own team 100% dedicated to material science breakthroughs with dramatically less required spend, dramatically less required capital outlays. We also expect to develop an AI business with external customers while supporting all the advances of Comstock's own breakthrough materials. Speaking of Comstock, we've done a tremendous amount. We've achieved a tremendous amount in just the past three months. As you've read, Comstock Innovations announced a truly landmark agreement wherein we acquired the exclusive rights for lignocellulosic IP that was developed by the National Renewable Energy Lab and MIT in conjunction with the Department of Energy. This tech is exclusive to Comstock and includes substantially all of the world's different woody biomass is within those patents. The market is starting to understand that there is really no way to produce even a small fraction of the required renewable fuels of the required sustainable aviation fuel without an abundant, extremely low carbon feedstock. Most people are starting to understand that woody biomass is the only practical answer. We have the technology. NREL has acknowledged this and the leadership of our enabling technology, making our technology platform and frankly our global team second to none. We've consolidated the IP into our platform, and we're jointly developing the next generation of higher yields, lower CI scores, and significantly lower costs. We didn't go to NREL and NREL didn't come to us just to combine an IP portfolio. They wanted to, and we are very receptive to working with them together on the opportunities that they've identified the breakthroughs that they've already advanced to get to this significantly lower CI score, significantly lower cost, and next generation of higher yields. Let me comment on metals and mining. Revenue is ramping up rapidly, and the market is expanding for us almost daily. Billy's going to walk you through the update, and then I'll come back around, and I'll wrap it up with the fuels update. Billy, please go ahead. Thanks, Corrado.

So to start, let me refresh everyone on some of our core thinking on the energy transition. I'm going to include both the what and the when. And when I say the what, I mean what technologies do we think are going to make a real impact? And when I say when, I mean how these markets are going to evolve over the coming decades. And our core thinking, our focus today leads to this core assumption that in the energy transition, where we go from producing the majority of our energy from fossil carbon to producing the majority from biogenic carbon and other renewable sources, there's no question that we definitely need more metals. We need them for all stages of energy production, transmission, and storage. So simply put, the energy transition needs metals. And I don't just mean exotic and rare metals. Precious metals are a big part of this story too. Silver has already emerged as a crucial resource necessary for the energy transition. Demand for silver by solar panel producers has nearly tripled since 2021. You may have seen the recent news from Samsung about a solid state silver battery. We think this is an exciting early development, but in our opinion, it's only just the beginning of a new energy storage industry generating substantial demand for silver and other metals in the coming decades. Both our Comstock Metals and Comstock Mining businesses are positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. We're seeing the price of silver over $34 today, continuing to move towards $35 per ounce. It's been over a decade since we've seen prices like this. Many in the market are looking for a breakout even higher, one that can test the historical highs. On the gold side, we've seen strength all year, and we think it's here to stay. With gold as a safe haven asset, hedge against policy and inflation effects on other asset values. Geopolitical conditions around the world are unstable on multiple fronts. The global monetary system is pushing boundaries we previously thought were impossible, and new gold discovery continues to lag historical norms. Yes, gold prices are at all-time highs, but we see a long way to run. We agree with the recent call by Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett that gold is heading well above $3,000. This opportunity is setting up perfectly for us. We have known resources in the most significant mining district in the United States with a mature infrastructure and team on the ground in place. All the necessary pieces are there to move fast. Our team has spent the past year sharpening pencils and laying out the plans for the next steps. Our latest independent technical report on the Dayton Consolidated published in 2022 by Barry Dolbear estimated measured and indicated mineral resources containing 293,000 ounces of gold and 2.1 million ounces of silver, plus an inferred mineral resource containing an additional 90,000 ounces of gold and 480,000 ounces of silver. As we look forward into next year, We're planning to start work on the preliminary economic analysis for the Dayton Consolidated Resource, the first step in advancing the project to production, which we intend to do on the shortest possible timeline. Beyond the Dayton, we're working up exploration and development plans for our other mineral targets in the Southern District, South and West of the Dayton, as well as the Lucerne, Woodville, and Sucker Valley targets in the Central District. We're planning to put all of these assets to work. And then when we're done mining, we're committed to reclaim, redevelop, and leave the district better than we found it. That's gonna be a big plan, and it's gonna take years to reach that goal. For the immediate future, we're focused on developing our targets, getting to production, and realizing the value of these resources in Dayton, Spring Valley, Lucerne, and the satellite claims. Gerardo and I will be at the New Orleans Investment Conference in late November with the team, where we'll be presenting more on our plans for Comstock Mining in 2024 and beyond. You can look out for us to release more information on our website ahead of that conference. Now let's pivot to talk about a different kind of mining, what we're calling urban mining. Comstock Metals is collecting and extracting a non-virgin silver resource. This is the same silver we pull out of the ground on the comp stock. It's just a different source of ore and a different process. Today, nearly 18% of global silver supply comes from recycling, and 19% of that supply goes to solar panel manufacturing. As solar panel production increases, so does demand for silver. As 10- and 20-year-old panels reach end of life, the opportunity to expand recycled supply of silver is more than substantial, and Comstock Metals is on track to become a significant silver producer. On the operating side, our team found and filled another meaningful gap in the supply chain this quarter. Before the end of life solar panels can be recycled by Comstock Metals, They need to be disassembled, removed, and transported to our facility. What's known as decommissioning. After winning our first bids with a full service offering that included decommissioning, our team was able to quickly mobilize our network of contractors to these sites to begin the work of decommissioning panels and transporting them to us within days. This expanded offering added $80,000 to revenue in Q3, but that was from only a few days of operations in late September. We're confident this new capability adds significant strength to our market position versus our competition. Now, strategically, we established this business in the Southwest US, locating first in Nevada because the region has the largest concentration of old solar panels nearing end of life. But there are aging panels in every state. In recent months, we've seen increased demand from customers outside our region and across the country. These customers are willing to incur the increased freight costs to use our services. We're competing and winning against what are effectively lower priced alternatives, lower price because we're further away, And I think this is a powerful statement to the quality of service and the exceptional value proposition offered by the Comstock Metals team to the market. In the near term, through the end of this year, we're focused on continued development, including state permit submissions for our first industrial scale processing facility in Silver Springs, Nevada, and county permits for additional storage capacity. Looking out to next year, in addition to the Silver Springs expansion, we're planning site selection and permitting kickoff for additional facilities in the Southwest. Plus, you're going to continue to hear and see more details on our plans for expansion nationally. It's happening now. So yeah, I'm very excited for where we are and the pace that we're moving in both metals and mining and look forward to a strong Q4 setting up for a very busy 2025. I'll stop here and turn it back to Coretta.