Northstar Clean Technologies Inc.

everybody welcome to the q4 2024 and full year 2024 financial results uh an investor update um as usual same kind of uh admin as we've done over over the last um few quarters so please Put your questions in and we'll pick those up as we go along. And then we will have the team ask the questions at the end. And so, yeah, the plan, of course, is to take you through where we are with the financials and the results, obviously, that came out with the press release this morning and do an investor update. So without any further ado, and obviously, of course, forward-looking statements. We will be making forward-looking statements, and this is obviously the disclaimer with respect to that. And now I'll hand it over to Greg Feneff to take us through the financials.

Greg. Thanks, Aidan. Good afternoon, everyone. This represents my first North Star earnings call with the markets. I'm honored and privileged to be part of the team. And I look forward to many, many more of these calls with you as we begin to post operational results. Just a few financial highlights for me that occurred during the 2024 fiscal year prior to handing it back over to Aiden. 2024 represented a significant year in the capitalization and funding of the company, the proceeds of which served a multifold purpose. One, funding construction efforts on the inaugural Calgary facility. Two, providing capital dedicated to sourcing, analyzing, and securing future sites as part of the exciting growth plan for the company. And three, funding the operations of Northstar itself. Cash balances at the end of fiscal 2024 were $10.2 million compared to $7.6 million at the end of fiscal 2023. During 2024, Northstar through various vehicles raised over $28 million, the majority of which were non-dilutive to existing shareholders. Together with receipts from government agencies, the company received nearly $30 million in cash to fund the business. The majority of these funds were dedicated to the construction during 2024, as I mentioned of the Calgary facility. The company recorded $19 million in capital expenditures and $1.5 million in deposits paid for existing facilities during fiscal 2024. 2024 also represented an important year from the perspective of generating increased revenues from tipping fees. Revenue for 2024 was $640,000 compared to just $206,000 for fiscal 2023. As has been communicated in various press releases, we anticipate commencing full operations in mid-2025, and as such, quarterly results will reflect material increases in revenue and operations. From a cost perspective, cash expenses for the year totaled $4.8 million, As compared to 4.1M for the prior year, the increase is due to additional personnel and a broader scope and operations for the business. Research and development expenses were nil for the period compared to 778,000 for fiscal year 2023. As the company evolved from pilot operations to full commercial operations, requirements for R&D diminished. Having said that, we would anticipate only minor amounts to be spent on R&D going forward as we fine tune operations and perform product testing for specific future markets. Comprehensive loss for the period was $9.3 million compared to $6.7 million for fiscal 2023. As the company moves to full-fledged operations and anticipated profitability, these losses will be used to significantly shelter income from taxes. We forecast our tax payable horizon, assuming our state of growth plans for plants, to be several years into the future, thereby leaving more cash in the business itself to fund growth and in turn minimize dilution to existing shareholders. One final note from me. We included a more detailed analysis of our issued and outstanding and fully diluted share capitalization in our management discussion and analysis to aid current and potential shareholders understand the somewhat complex capitalization of the company. Assuming all existing securities that are issued and that could be issued upon conversion of certain debentures are in fact converted, Northstar would have an outstanding share base of 274 million shares, but would bring in an additional $20 million in proceeds upon various securities being exercised. I would welcome any questions as part of the Q&A, but for now, Aidan, back over to you.

Great. Thanks, Greg. That's great. And great to have Greg on board and great performances we got through the audit, which is always a heavy lift for the finance team. So great to have that team here delivering that. Okay, so investor update. So look, we chatted about this as we came into the year, that there were kind of three objectives that we had for 2025. So the first one was to deliver the Calgary facility and ensure we were up and operating by kind of middle of the year. The second was to develop the 2026 site such that we could start construction in 2026. And then the last thing was obviously to develop the portfolio such that we could really identify, you know, at least the next 10 facilities or next 10 locations For us to start to start the development work in it, because obviously, you know, permitting, you know, the earlier you can identify areas, start to secure supply and start the permitting process, the better. So the key to liberals, I'll talk through most of these in the in the next slides, but obviously all of them align with those three objectives. And I think it's also worth reflecting just at the end of at the end of the at the end of the year, kind of like what we actually delivered in kind of 2024. So, you know. The left-hand side are all the things that we think are important with respect to, you know, where are we with the strategic offtake customers, where are we with the strategic investors, et cetera. And if you look at the highlights that we had for 2024, it was a fairly barnstorming year. You know, obviously discussions ongoing with Hamilton and US One, you know, secured 14 million from our partners at CVW, you know, 1.8 came in from Tamco and the completion of one of the, you know, one of the ERA funding stages. We had ERA come in for the first milestone we delivered on milestone one. We had 2.25 million come in from strategic Calgary investors, including the Chew family with Patrick joining the board. You know, we secured feedstock supply for Calgary. We started, you know, we identified exactly where the first TAMCO facility to be supplied was. And remember with the TAMCO investment as well, so we extended the number of sites that TAMCO will take from three to four with the extension of the MOU. So all of that lays a phenomenal foundation for stepping into the U.S. I'm actually at the Planet Microcap investor conference in Vegas today, and one of the key points that I've been making to investors here is, if you think about the 16.5 million tons going into landfills or destined for landfills across North America, You know, about one and a half of that is in Canada and, you know, 15 in the US. So really understanding as we develop this portfolio, what the US options look like is absolutely critical. So, you know, we started to draw on the BDC loan. We had, as I said, milestone one payment come in from ERA. And most importantly, we started construction during 2024 on the Calgary facility. We've been putting out the construction videos and we'll talk about that in a little bit more detail later. But yeah, obviously a very important milestone for the company. You know, technology continues to go, so R&D work is continuing to develop. The IP, you saw most recently that we added another patent for Canada. And with respect to emissions, the measurement and monitoring protocol that we have to adhere to with the emissions reduction Alberta work has already been kicked off and we've been doing measurements through commissioning. So You know, like we always talk about what are the, what are the fundamentals of the business and what, what are the foundation? And, and I think, you know, that's one of the things that we've been building as we've gone over the last kind of three or four years. Um, but yeah, I think we can might've, uh, I think we can might've 2024 with a very, very solid foundation. And clearly one of the most important things, and again, ruthless focus from the company is the Calgary facility. So we collected the feedstock for commissioning. We constructed it, you know, completed construction in kind of March. And then we started commissioning. So as you'll have seen from the video at the beginning of this week, commissioning on the front end, on the aggregate separation, is actually complete. One of the things that happens with commissioning uh construction projects and that i've seen through my time in uh you know mbp and the like is that construction hands the plant to commissioning to commission it and commissioning hands it to operations to operate it and that's the ultimate um kind of destination is when it when it gets to operations and the front section of this plant that does the aggregate separation and the production of aggregate. So our first product has actually been handed from commissioning to operations. So as the commissioning guys are focusing on the back half of the plant, The operations guys are now running the front half to give them the feedstock to process and commission in the second half. So that's a phenomenal place for us to get to. We continue, as I said in the video on Monday, we continue to expect the plant to be operational by mid-year. And that that has not changed. We've got great confidence in that. And, you know, the the first stage, the water stage, which obviously, you know, provides aggregate that first product, but also provides the fiberglass covered in asphalt to go on to the hydrocarbon side is working really well. So we're very, very we're very happy with with the progress of that. You know, the expansion plan, you know, we've looked at 2026, we've always had kind of, you know, kind of been chatting about three options. So Hamilton, US 1 and Vancouver. So kind of in reverse order, as you saw the press release, we were able to extend the lease agreement in Vancouver, an extension from five years to 15 years, which obviously can work, you know, the economic life of a facility. And so that's obviously, you know, an expansion option. Hamilton, we have kicked off the permitting process. So the consultation of our pre-consultation process has started. We've been working with HOPA on the lease agreement. And as you saw already in Q1, we had the LOI with York 1 for our first tranche of supply. And again, All those things are important to make sure that we have this pulled together to be able to sanction it in the second half of the year. US1, again, in 2024, we identified the Frederick site in Maryland to supply for TAMCO. And so now it's all about site selection. And so we've been going through kind of pretty rigorous site selection all the way kind of from Philadelphia down to Baltimore and, you know, Delaware in the middle. And so lots of, yeah, lots of work being done on that. And we're hopefully going to have something to kind of announce here in Q2 with the site selection. And obviously important because then, you know, that kicks off the permitting process as well. So good progress on all those three. I'm not going to go through in detail either the Mid-Atlantic or Hamilton. It's in the slide pack and it's also on the deck on the web. And look, the last thing I would say is, you know, people have heard me talk a number of different times that this isn't, we are absolutely at the tipping point of the stock here. I chatted with, you know, when we're chatting investors down here at the MicroCab conference and my point has been, Look, up until this point, this has been a technology story. Like this has been a technology stock. It's kind of like, can they take this idea and make it commercial? We're literally, in my opinion, you know, six to eight weeks away from demonstrating that, you know, middle of the year. And I think this story will pivot rapidly to be not a technology story anymore, but to actually be a deployment story. And so we're not going to be measured necessarily against the highly progressing the development of our technology here. we're going to be measured against how can we deploy this um more quickly you know how when you know what stage do we add licensing that we've always talked about in our strategic plans you know how do we how do we develop the 10 next sites and actually have the resourcing to start working those straight away and if you think about the 10 000 foot number and you think about you know and you think about, you know, 10 sites all delivering, all having the potential to deliver something like, you know, five to 10 million bucks, depending on what the volume that goes through that, that gets us to a completely different conversation with respect to, you know, as Greg says, the earnings calls will be talking about how we're deploying plants, what are those plants delivering, what is the EBITDA, you know, difference between kind of plant one, plant three, plant five, et cetera. and it'll be a completely different conversation. So when I say that I believe we're at a tipping point, those are the fundamentals that I kind of hang on to as we chat about how we expect the stock to do. I mean, great, we got awarded the Venture 50 for TSX performance last year, and I'm expecting, hopefully, to do exactly the same again this year. So, yeah. I think lots of upside, I feel. And I think from the business perspective, I think we're in great shape. We've got an excellent facility that's literally, you know, commissioning as we speak. And by mid-year, we're expecting to be supplying some product. So, guys, I think, Matt, I think those are my remarks.