Aqua Metals, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the ACMA Metals, Inc., second quarter 2020 corporate update call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Glenn Axelrod, President of Bristol Capital, and then please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Welcome to Aqua Metals' second quarter 2020 conference call. Earlier today, Aqua Metals released financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. This release is available on the investor section of the company's website at www.aquametals.com. Joining us for today's call from management is Steve Cotton, President and CEO, as well as Judd Merrill, the Company Chief Financial Officer. During today's call, management will be making forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed today, August 4th, for a summary of the forward-looking statements and the risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. Aquamental cautions investors not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The company does not undertake and specifically disclaims any obligation to update or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or unanticipated events as they occur, except as required by law. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Steve Cotton, CEO of Aqua Metals. Steve, please go ahead.

Thanks, Glenn. Good afternoon and welcome, everyone. Since our last corporate update call, I'm happy to report on behalf of our entire team key areas where we have advanced on our mission to help the $65 billion lead-acid battery industry capacitize, compete, innovate, and thrive in an increasingly environmentally-focused world by utilizing our proven aqua-refining equipment and technologies. First and foremost, despite the challenges of COVID-19, we are pleased to announce that we are ahead of schedule on our V1.25 electrolyzer program. We are seeing better than expected results in efficiencies and throughput enabling us to offer lower-cost equipment that runs more efficiently with lower operating costs to potential licensees we continue to engage with. A key goal in the initial phase of the electrolyzer's three-phase program, V1.25A with B and L to follow, was to automate the operation of the electrolyzer. Through regular runs over a period of weeks, we have already reached the point with the electrolyzer achieving consistent results once the on and off buttons are pushed and the control system and the electrolyzer handling the rest. This key improvement that positively impacts our value proposition would not have been achieved without all the operational experience and data that we gained from producing 35,000 commercial aqua refined ingots in 2018 and 2019, which we sold for a significant price premium to Clarius, the world's largest battery maker. Learnings from our heritage appears to have paid off in meeting this key automation goal. I'm also pleased to announce that we are ahead of schedule on our second iteration, version 1.25b. This iteration includes several additional improvements, inclusive of a new tank design with an integrated frame. That reduces complexity, fabrication cost, and maintenance labor costs. Improved endurance performance of the electrolyzer is also expected to take place during this iteration. We have made substantial progress preparing for the version L as well. which will be highlighted by new tightly integrated data logging capabilities in near real time to our secure web-based portal. Our future licensees will utilize this portal, but just as important, we plan to utilize this infrastructure as well to remotely support and improve the V1.25 L units and future iterations. So the V1.25 program is ahead of schedule and we are pleased with the results thus far. Present and future planned advancements continue to be fueled not only by our team's knowledge, skills, and outright passion, but our cash on hand as a result of already received and planned ongoing insurance collections. In addition, we expect to receive additional cash infusions from the expected sale of unnecessary assets as part of our go-forward model. We have now collected $15 million in insurance proceeds and we expect to continue collecting our insurance claims as we work through the layers of coverage we've already disclosed while simultaneously selling the assets we no longer need to supplement our cash position. We have thoughtfully added organizational human capability in the quarter, including a commercial leader that we were happy to have rejoin our team. Dave Regan hit the ground running in June and is keenly focused on our licensing and partner development efforts. In addition, we have added a strong chemical engineer and other technical resources to ensure the V1.25 program moves through its development and ultimately into the support phase. Our continuing conversations and engagements with potential licensees, our improving value proposition from our V1.25 program, and interesting new partnership opportunities in the areas of market development and technology improvements continue to show promise. Subject to the completion of our V1.25L development program and finalizing the costs and performance and benchmarks for improvements, which is expected by the end of the year, we believe that we will be in a position to finalize pricing, configuration, and the overall value proposition to negotiate and secure the first equipment supply and licensing installation outside of our facility for our V1.25L product. I'll now hand it over to Judd to review our Q2 financials. Go ahead, Judd.