United States Antimony Corporation

just an academic chemistry issue, but one that protects human lives. So with that, I'd like to turn over our call to Rick Isaac. He's going to give more details regarding our operating and financial results. Rick is our CFO. And Rick, you want to take it from here?

Sure, sure. Thanks, Gary. I'll start with some comments on our consolidated operating results and then go to the balance sheet. Sales for the first nine months of this year were $26.2 million, up $16.9 million, or 182% over the prior year. This increase was largely due to price increases with some volume increase in our zeolite business. Looking ahead, our anemone sales volume increased in October with some of the expansion efforts that we've been talking about. and our consolidated sales were 5.6 million for the month of October compared to third quarter sales of 8.7 million. Our gross margin increased by four percentage points from 24% last year to 28% this year. There'll be some pressure on our gross margins in the fourth quarter with a declining antimony market price. We're looking to offset as much of this decline as we can with lower costs and higher margin long-term contracts. Also, we're pushing to increase the annual sales volume to increase our gross profit dollars and generate more cash flow. Our consolidated net loss was $4.1 million for the first nine months of this year. However, this loss included $5.2 million of non-cash expenses. From a cash flow perspective, our operating activities generated positive cash flow when you exclude working capital changes, which I'll talk a little bit about later. And that positive cash flow improved compared to the same period last year. Next, looking at the balance sheet, there were three main drivers that increased several accounts more significantly in our balance sheet. Anemone inventory was up about 300,000 pounds this year, which increased our working capital accounts, I guess specifically inventory, prepaids, accounts receivable, accounts payable. The sales value of our inventory similarly increased from about $3 million at the end of last year to $9 million at the end of the third quarter of this year, using today's and money market price for both values. Second, we acquired mining claims this year in Alaska, Canada, and Montana, and we're expanding our Montana processing facility, and these were the main drivers increasing our fixed asset balance. Third, nearly $43 million of cash was generated this year from the exercise of preexisting warrants and stock sales, which increased our common stock and additional paid in capital balances. We ended the third quarter of this year with cash investments of $38.5 million, which is an increase this year of $20 million. And we had long-term debt of only $229,000. The animal industry has had its opportunities and challenges over the past year, which makes the financials a little more complicated. However, we cut through the noise, and we really remain focused on generating positive cash flow. We're also focused on creating a solid foundation for the future of our company. To accomplish this, we strengthened our ore supply by securing a three-year supply agreement with a new supplier of antimony ore, and by expanding our capabilities and becoming a fully vertically integrated business with the ability to mine, process, and sell anemone products. We also strengthened the sales side of our business by securing a five-year sole source sales contract with the DLA and another recently announced five-year sales contract with a commercial customer. In addition, we had seven acquisitions of mining claims over the past 12 months with the expectation of several critical minerals being generated from these mining claims. We will continue to be focused on being the preferred provider of critical minerals, which will provide growth, diversification, and sustainability for our company. I'll pass it back over to you, Gary.

Thanks, Rick. And I'd like to now turn the next section of today's conference call over to Joe Bardswood. Joe is our chief mining engineer. He's also a director, executive vice president of the company. He's going to provide everyone an update on all of our mining operations located in Montana, Alaska, and Ontario, Canada. Joe?