Automated transcript · Written by software from the replay's audio. It can mishear names and figures; the replay is the record.
0:35 yours. Thank you, Kyle. And thank you to everybody that's taken the time this morning to join us on this webinar. The intent, of course, is to talk about our MET testing, as well as some of our additional news that we've put out since then. But as always, I'd like to spend a couple of minutes talking about the story for any new investors that are now looking at American tungsten. We will be making forward-looking statements. Next slide, please. In terms of tungsten, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the element, it is used in various different applications, but importantly, it is an element that has been restricted for export by China over the last 3 years or so. And as a result, the price continues to rise. It's been critical or classified as critical by the U.S. DoD for quite some time, 1979 to be precise, and its uses in the automotive as well as other sectors in North America continues to be critical. It is of course a primary material in defense given its hardness and we'll touch on that in a second.
1:38 The advantage that we have with American tungsten is the IMO line. It is a past producer, it is private and patented, it has some of the highest grade tungsten in the world. But it also has about 2 ounce per ton silver and 0.15% moly, which ultimately help to offset the OPEX and, of course, increase profitability. We've got significant infrastructure. We've had various conversations with various government officials in different levels and different agencies and we continue to expand upon those opportunities. We've put out some significant exploration results which I'm sure some of our followers have seen already and we'll touch on that in a second but I'd just like to highlight one of the major holes that we put out about 2 weeks ago. If you look at it from a silver equivalent perspective including you know silver tungsten and the moly, that hole equates to about 900 grams per tonne silver, 29 grams per tonne gold. So extremely high grade being retrieved from our drill program.
2:37 We are completing our ongoing phase 1, which is 15,000 feet. And we've developed a team here, or assembled a team, I should say, of individuals that I would like to highlight at the tail end of the slides. Next slide, please. So tungsten, used in defense because of its hardness. It is the hardest metal on the periodic table. The only thing harder is diamond. It's used in microchips that we're seeing used tremendously in the AI boom today. Aircraft turbines, wind power as well as nuclear energy, thanks to its very high melting point of 3,400 Celsius. China's dominated the production of it. It does exist in other places on the planet. And this is why we're down, or we're taking the path of restarting IMA in the United States. Next slide, please.
3:25 In terms of pricing, as of Friday last week, we're well above 2,000 per ton. And That is an incredible number given we were, give or take, about 280 in January last year. So the price does continue to rise. Defense, of course, being a big driver there. Lack of supply, another very relevant and topical reason. And then last but not least, the emerging markets that are continuing to increase their infrastructure and their military defence spending. So we've got another part of the world that's looking to develop their economies with double digit GDP growth in various nations. You can imagine the demand for tungsten is rising. Next slide, please. We'll skip over this one, but I think ultimately just to say that tungsten is not mentioned in the news. It has been as of the last few weeks, but rare earths have grabbed headlines.
4:16 It is critical and does continue to be. Next slide. The IMA project is in Idaho, which is a great jurisdiction. We'll touch on that in a second. But there are some majors that operate around us that have had great successes. Thompson Creek, which is a molybdenum by-product mine that is owned by Sinterra, is restarting operations next year. And they have a grade of about 0.04 moly. We're sitting at about 0.15 at IMA. There are also some gold and copper porphyry systems in the area, a lot of mining. And as a result, you can imagine the communities are very encouraged by the restart of IBO. Next slide, please. Without spending too much time on this slide, the asset's been around a long time. It was the fourth largest producer up until 1959.
5:02 It's had the likes of Anglo-American work on it, as well as recently in 2008-2010 about 25,000 feet. We optioned the asset in 2024, well before the influx of the various tungsten companies that we're seeing coming to market today. So we do have a first mover advantage in that regard. And our intent, of course, is to be the first producer of a tungsten concentrate in North America since 2015 when production ceased. Next slide, please. The land package worth highlighting, we've got private patented land as I said, which of course reduces the need for major permitting. We've got the majority of our permits in place. We also have significant land to put our processing facility in.
5:49 We have a mineralization that's called hubnerite, which is a bit different from your typical shelite or wolvermite, but I will tell you that recoveries of hubnerite are significantly higher than those other 2 groupings And I suppose that's why we're here today. Next slide, please. The asset has a vein system that essentially stems from a molybdenum porphyry system and the veins extend below the water table. One of our key advantages, of course, is the fact that we are above the water table. We have no dewatering to do and we have no discharge from our adits. We've rehabbed the D level and the 0 level. We've started drilling on the D level with one of our 3 drill stations. We've put in 500 feet of additional drifts to support our drill stations.
6:34 And we're about to start drilling on the 0 level here shortly. Next slide. This slide here just highlights some of the historical drilling. You can see the grades there that are highlighted in green. Very exciting. I want to point out the north side of the valley is where we will focus our expansion program today. And given some of the high grade scene on the south side of the valley, once we are in production, we will be moving the rigs across the Patterson Creek to bring to light the potential resource upsides on the South side. Next slide. This slide is important because it shows you some of the assay results received in the past by Inspiration, which was a subsidiary of Anglo-American. XRF assaying techniques did not exist back then. And so the grades there, while still very strong, given the global average of tungsten production is about 0.2.
7:26 At 0.43, significantly higher than the global average with about 2 ounce per tonne silver across the board. When we re-assayed these results, they came in about 40% higher. So I think there's still a lot of meat on the bone here that needs to be extracted. And the reason behind that increase in grade is driven by XRF technology and the ability to better understand war bodies. Next slide. This highlights our exploration program. We can skip over this one and talk about Idaho here very quickly. Very favorable mining jurisdiction. I've had the honor of meeting with Congressman Simpson, Senator Rich, Governor Little, and Lieutenant Governor Benke, all very encouraged by what we're trying to do. We've had conversations with every single state agency with respect to permitting. But again, given private patented land, we're well ahead of our peers.
8:19 In terms of the vein systems, very accessible. A dry environment ultimately means that we haven't seen any degradation, and given we're above the water table, no erosion whatsoever. The communities are very keen to come back online and start work here. Some of the people that did the work on the project back in the 50s, their grandsons are currently working on site today. So we have 30 people on site working around the clock. That number in the organization is growing quite rapidly, given we were about 5 people in April last year. We've changed our narrative here from shipping concentrates to mill sites to Montana and Idaho to now putting a mill on site. WSP is our partner. They've developed a flow sheet for us, and of course, that's why we're discussing the recoveries here today.
9:06 But ultimately leaving the beneficiation to us, American Tungsten, so that our shareholders win alongside us when we're selling a value-added product to one of our offtakers. Last but not least, we've got the lowest cost power in the United States, which is always a bonus. Next slide, please. For those that are new to the story and those that are supportive shareholders, we appreciate you. We've been a very busy bunch. We closed 7 million in July last year. We made some significant changes to our leadership team. We signed our LOI with GTP, one of the largest offtakers for tungsten on the planet. We did 18 million in October last year and then announced an LOI from Ex-Im to the tune of 25.5 US. Ex-Im is a word that you're probably hearing with other issuers as well. And I think one of the key differentiators here is, you know, we're not asking for $2 billion, we're asking for a smaller amount.
10:03 And as a result of that smaller amount our laundry list of items that we have to complete before we can draw down on that capital is significantly shorter. So we've satisfied just about 88% of the requirement. There is the last piece of the puzzle, which is the PEA. At that point, we can draw down on that funding. We started our drill program in December. Provided our fantastic drill results, as well as our MET testing results. We've now looked at our tailings, which are extremely exciting. And we will cover that in some of the Q&A, I believe. But the intent is to put out the resource estimate, end of Q2, early Q3, PE shortly thereafter, put in our PFS, and then ultimately look to commission the mine. So we are on track to be the first producer of tungsten in North America. Next slide.
10:52 A key development that I think we highlighted in one of the press releases 3 or 4 weeks ago is our tailings. So we've got about in excess of 200,000 tons at 0.25. And again, to touch on the fact that global average is 0.2. We've worked with a group out of Vancouver, Sepo Systems to look at a modular low-cap-ex system that allows us to bring the tailings to production or at least produce a concentrate from them. Those conversations have gone very well so much so that the mill has been designed and the net testing recoveries have been delivered to us. We now need to – next slide please – we now need to drill the tailings that exist to come up with a resource and ultimately start to progress that. So our first concentrate will come out of the tailings and that will be before year end. Our offtakers have already received samples and understand their ability to process.
11:47 The intent again is to ensure that production occurs before year end. Next slide. Here's some of our near term work. One of the key objectives that we have to ensure that we're able to grow our resource and have a life of mine that's longer providing for greater economics, of course, is the acquisition of the Mazda claims. I will state that those conversations are going very well and we expect to have that wrapped up here in due course. Next slide. Operational updates there. In terms of drilling, just a semblance of how well the team has performed. There's a man standing there beside the drill for a sense of scale, and this is about 1,100 feet into the mountain. So fantastic work being done by the team that's on the ground, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
12:35 Next slide, please. Some of the highlights from our drilling program, they're on our website. I know we're here to discuss meth testing, so let's move on. In terms of the team, for those that are new to the story, Dennis Logan, our CFO, was the CFO of Almonte, which is the largest tungsten company by market cap in the world today. They recently started mining in December at Sandong. A very similar mining methodology to what we are looking to do, which is a cut and fill, minimal waste. Dennis also negotiated their offtake agreements with the likes of GTP, and I'd just like to touch on the fact that he was an investment banker in the past with himself and a plethora of experience to the company. Carolyn Loader, National Mining Hall of Fame inductee, the only woman to have been inducted there.
13:23 She's a director at Integra Resources, which is a neighboring asset to us in Idaho, but also a fantastic individual with respect to tribal relationships. Dan Nicholas, ex-Department of Energy, where he led the largest portfolio at their LPO. Jim Whitaker, Chief Operating Officer of Capstone Copper, built the likes of Escondida as well as various mines around the world. And then Duncan Blunt, who is the chief executive of Chilean Cobalt Corp, but also an individual that is one of the, his forefathers are some of the founding fathers of the United States. So it does open up a significant number of doors for us in government. Next slide. Dave Sabarin, a gentleman that's built 2 underground mines in the United States, so we're very happy to have him building IMA.
14:12 Liam's built 2 half 1 billion dollar advanced material technology companies, nano, nano exploring biography and solutions. So very pleased to have him stick handling operations. VPE Exploration is Austin Zinsser. He was at Perpetua, a company that recently received $2 billion from ExSim in Idaho as well, joined us about 18 months ago. Joanna Longo leads our IR. She's an individual with a vast amount of experience on Bay and Wall Street and continues to bring institutions, such as the ones that have recently participated in our bought deal to the fold. Michael Zare is our lobbyist in DC. I will touch on the fact that we have 2 other lobbyists that are not here but should be mentioned, Roy Igeren and Melinda Merrill in Boise.
15:01 And then Finley Baker, a true tungsten veteran. He was at Canton from inception up until they went and mothballed the operation in 2015 when the Chinese flooded the market with cheap tungsten. So we've assembled a very strong team to execute, and that's some of the highlights of the individuals. Next slide. From a cap table perspective, of course, this is pre the raise that we announced as of Monday last week. Until that closes officially, we're not going to update the cap stack, but very proud with 49 million shares out today, 7 million options and warrants. The vast majority of that is options and they have been issued to board and management at a price vastly higher than the issuance price of every capital raise that we've done.
15:52 The intent there is to ensure that this new team that we've assembled here, that consists of world-class individuals, have the ability to grow their ownership within the organization, have skin in the game to ensure the success of the organization. So currently we're sitting about 1.1% insiders. I'm expecting to grow that to 5% before year-end. 15% institutional holdings that have come in in both our October and July rounds last year. This again does not capture the announcement that we put out last week. 84% retail, of which 7,400 are in the US, 6,000 or so in Canada, which ultimately drives the volume that we see on a day-to-day basis on both sides of the border. In terms of our listings, we're currently on the CSE, we're in Frankfurt and on the OTCQB.
16:43 We're in the midst of completing a TSX-V uplist and we cannot do that until the financing closes, of course, due to regulatory reasons. And then we are contemplating a US uplisting. So if we're able to get that done by June, I would happily proceed down that path. If we lead into July or August, then September will be when we conclude the uplist on either the NYSE or the NASDAQ. Next slide. In terms of comps, always important to look at who's out there. There's a number of newer organizations that have stepped into the space over the last 8 months or so. These are the organizations that I'd like to really put on the map alongside us. And the reason being is, you know, Almonte is the big behemoth. It's the big kahuna.
17:28 Everybody knows Almonte. It trades where it trades. We're down at about 120 million, 130 million market cap. And we're the only one on this list that has a past producing asset on private patented land with the second highest grade of all the companies that you see on this list here today. In terms of our first production coming online before year end, that's very much a promise and you will see it. In terms of what our production profile will be when we're in commercial production from IMA, given the throughput of about 500 tonne per day, we will be producing 1825 tonne of tungsten metal per annum. Our cobs here that are currently producing EQ resources, which I believe is trading about 1.4 or 1.5 billion today, is currently producing 1600 tonnes from 2 operations, 1 in Australia, 1 in Europe.
18:21 And those are open pit operations with a market cap about 1.5 to 1.6. So do I suspect that there's still torque in our story? Absolutely. Do I suspect that we start to play catch up? I would believe so, and I would hang my hat on it. Do I think we're going to be at Almonte's level? Not quite certain, but I don't suspect it's a place that we get to with the production profile that we have. Next slide, please. That's an image of the site. Yeah, we have paved roads. We've got power. And we own the valley floor there with the tree line as well, which hides the tailings that I showed you on the prior slide. Let's pop over to the next slide very quickly. In terms of the work that's been done since June, the adits were in atrocious and hazardous state. Today they have been timbered for 200 feet and then bolted in place beyond that with MeSH.
19:17 Next slide, please. That's some of the work that has been happening underground, and I know the vast majority of you have seen that in our press releases, but always nice to share the great work that's been done on site. And With that, Kyle, I think we can open up for questions or talk about the questions. Yes, definitely. We do have questions in the chat and we do have some. A lot of people are joining the call interested on the metallurgical results. So we'll start there. Can you just give us your overall thoughts on what was reported and what it means for the IMA project going forward? Yeah, you know, the significance of the MET testing shows us that tungsten and silver can be recovered using conventional methods that we're not reinventing the wheel here. We're looking at what has been done in the past and ultimately refining it to ensure that we have the ability to extract at a very low cost or a cost-effective approach the minerals that make up the IMA mine.
20:11 The optimization that we're considering as well as some of the the MET testing beyond what we've currently done will ultimately allow us to increase our ability to keep that beneficiation with the shareholders at IMAC to ultimately earn the beneficiated price as opposed to a DSO model. Now at the beginning of the presentation, you mentioned the growth in the commodity since January last year. It's relatively new to many people. So the staged Falcon gravity concentration achieved 94.4% W03 recovery. What does that mean for the project potential processing efficiency and how does it compare to industry benchmarks? I'll answer the second question first. In terms of industry benchmarks, it's industry beating. It is world class in terms of the recoveries that we've seen.
21:02 And for the company, what we see here is the ability for us as you know, you consider selling a product at 1% W03, your offtakers are going to give you a smaller price relative to something that's at 94.4% W3. So the price has continued to rise and that's driven by the increase in demand as well as the limited supply. China's mines in themselves have grades that are declining and as a result they're unable to quite frankly mine what they require for themselves let alone export right so those recoveries are extremely exciting our offtakers are very pleased with them because that ultimately means that they have a lower cost to bring it to the 100% that would be required for the downstream applications. So we're extremely excited by those recoveries and given they are world class in industry beating given the average globally is about 60 to 70% we're extremely happy.
22:04 Now the heavy liquid separation result also showed strong WO3 recovery. How does that reinforce the case for dense media separation as a pre- concentration method? Well the test work shows that HMS would serve as an effective pre-concentration step. It's not something that we're doing that's vastly different to what's being done around the world. It just allows us to put together a product at a lower, in terms of capex, it's not a huge input to the system. The exact amount is to be determined, but we're reducing the processing throughput, thereby reducing the wear and tear on the actual circuit, and we'll be producing a very hybrid product as a result as well. In the press release, it also stated that the sulfide flotation successfully recovered copper, silver and molybdenum alongside the tungsten. How does that polymetallic potential factor into your overall value proposition for the project?
22:58 If you were to look at some of the projects around the world, you might have tungsten in there at about anywhere between 0.1 to 0.2, and it's an open pit. You've got nothing of value beyond the tungsten. And of course, if prices were to start to come back down, which in my view, everything that goes up that quick is going to come back down, but you will have a new floor associated with that price. And so the ability for various miners to be competitive is very dependent on a baseline price that ultimately ensures profitability. For us having silver, copper and moly with silver about 2 ounce per ton, copper grades are not very high, but of course we will have value from them. And then molybdenum at 0.15, which is significantly higher than what you're seeing in production for moly around the world, that represents between 15 and 30 percent of the in-situ metal value.
23:52 And if you were to, you know, sort of flip that to dollars, you're looking at anywhere between $220 up to about $400 per ton that would be recovered to offset our OPEX and also hedge us against any decline in price. However, I will say that the hedge against a decline in price is fantastic to have. It's a nice to have, but it's not a need to have for IMA given the very high grade of our tungsten itself at about 0.67 and if we implement x-ray ore sorting which is certainly part of the plan here the grade that goes into the flow sheet will be in excess of 1% so again very high grade tungsten being processed that ultimately ensures profitability. And now we have this added hedge that brings about 15 to 30% of value to the project.
24:43 So this was initial met test results. Can you elaborate on the next phases of metallurgical testing plan, particularly around geometallurgical variability testing and locked psycho-falcon gravity testing? Yes, you know, it's early days Certainly, but what we provided to not only the 3 offtakers that we're working with, but the lab that we're working with out of Vancouver was an indicative sample set of the ore that is expected to come out of the mine. And what we've seen from our MET testing, not only from our laboratory, but from the offtakers as well, is extremely encouraging. So this next phase ultimately just looks to ensure that we have the ability to simulate continuous processing. We've got to make sure that we're able to process this continually.
25:30 And the assessment of the gravity circuit will ensure that this is something that provides longevity. And again, I want to reiterate what we've done here is not reinvent the wheel. So this is not a brand new flow sheet. We've simply added some enhancements to what was done historically when this mine was in production. We're going to optimize the flow sheet, some variability testing, and then a couple of small pilot-scale studies. But really exciting stuff coming out of this mine, given where we're at today. That's the ore from the mine. You also have the historical tailings you touched on, currently undergoing additional metallurgical testing. What potential do you see in those materials and what could a positive result mean for the project? Well, it's, you know, if you look at in excess of 200,000 tons at 0.25 with the modular system that I highlighted in the presentation being a very low CapEx item that could ultimately also help process some of the tailings from IMA when we're in production.
26:32 It just allows us to put out a product here very quickly. In terms of the tailings and what they look like or look and feel like, for those of you that are golfers on the phone call, imagine bunker sand with little black specks in it, where that black speck is the silver and the tungsten. So we believe it is very economic to reprocess. We also think that, not think but know, we'd be good stewards of the landmass that we operate in by remediating the tailings. So, you know, clean up the land that was left behind by the prior operators and ensure that we're generating significant value from it. So, the tailings opportunity was a big surprise to us, but a very welcomed surprise given we can convert that to revenue at a very low capex and start with it well before we bring IMO to production.
27:27 Great, we have one more question then we get to the chat here we have a few minutes left. With the block deal financing now completed, what are your near-term priorities for deploying that capital at that time of mine? Well we're definitely going to ramp up on MET testing and flow sheet enhancements. I think that's important for us to do. Permitting as well as any potential property acquisitions. I think that's something that, you know, given we're building a processing hub in Patterson, Idaho on our property, if there are assets that make sense for us to bring into the fold that ultimately provide us with feedstock, that is certainly something that we will look to do. Given the expanded treasury today, we will of course, given the very exciting drilling results that we've had, put more holes in the ground in order to continue to grow the resource.
28:13 And then the balance of course, will be working capital and corporate. Now, during the cap structure slide, you touched on this briefly, but the status of the TSX uplisting is previously targeted for February. Is it still on track for the near future? It is on track. So as you know February was certainly when we had hoped to do so. We have been in a, let's call it a number of different conversations with respect to bringing capital over the line, which was announced with that bought deal. And we cannot complete that uplist until the bot deal has concluded. That is going to happen on or before March 18th, and shortly thereafter, we will be uplisting to TSX. What is the status of the IMA Mill engineering plans? Roughly 30, 60, 90% complete?
29:04 I would say you're probably close to 90% complete. The flow sheet's been done, the met testing has been done. And what we talked about in terms of met testing, we've got to do the lock cycle, Falcon gravity test, we've got to simulate continuous processing. So the vast majority of it has been completed. There will be some flow sheet optimization and some testing for variability, but the majority of the work has been completed. So the mill was designed by WSP back in, I want to say September last year based on the historical flow sheet. And our intent, of course, is let's refine that further. But the engineering is complete. So roughly speaking, Peter Epstein is wondering How much cash do you have today and when might you draw down on the EXIM loan as soon as 2026 or are you looking at 2027 to utilize that?
29:55 It's a good question. If you look at our Treasury today, we're sitting at about CAD$15M. When the bought deal closes, we'll add about 32 and a half. If we do the 35 million, if we take the over allotment, which brings us up to 40, we'll end up with an additional 37 million in the bank. The EXIM will be released to us once we've completed our PEA and that'll of course you know they've got to go through their process. I will tell you that I've had a number of conversations with EXIM and you know they work at the pace that they work at, but given this is not a large check, I suspect that it will be ready for us here in short order. Whether we draw down on it or not is a very significant question. I think with what we've done with the last bought deal, we've added more institutions to the fold and the more institutions you get, in my view, at a price that is higher than in prior placement, that is non-dilutive to our shareholders, we're ultimately bringing on capital that's long sticky money that supports us should we require more capital if we're expanding the mill, if we end up with a 10 million tonne resource at 0.7, you're going to need to fund that to increase your production profile.
31:11 So while it's great to have Ex-Im, I will be continuing to look at equity investments to help support us. Should we require the drawdown on Ex-Im? It's certainly something we've got a lever to pull, right? So having that is a great benefit to the company. So to answer your question in brief, could be this year, could be next, could be never. Right. So a clarifying question from Chris here, to support you on what exactly? What milestones or developments would require another raise or the funds? Well, if you look at the mill, that's about 25 and a half million for the mill and that was priced out in September. That's US, just for clarification. The funding that we're talking about is from the bought deals and the private finances in Canadian.
32:02 The Ex-Im is US And we will start to switch everything over to US to remove confusion. So the mill itself is about 25 and a half back in September. I can expect that number to grow, given what we're seeing in terms of inflation and what have you. But in addition to that, a production added, with the intent of bringing this thing to 1000 tons per day, a production added will require additional capital. We've got 2 major addeds that go into the system today. We've got the D level and the 0 level that are fully rehabbed. That's where our drills are going in today, our personnel that are on-site are going in today. But in order to ensure that we have an efficient but more importantly safe addit for our individuals to pull out the ore body and production added will be necessary.
32:51 And so funding around that is currently being developed to look at or rather the let's call it the cost associated with doing that is being developed by the company and having those 2 added in excess of the production drift, the D level and the 0 level, provide for 2 additional egresses for folks to come in and out of the mine as necessary and not disrupt the mining operations that will occur with the production drift. Sorry, apologies. Apologies for that. We have time for about one more question. And it's an interesting one before we do what the callous are for the next 6 to 12 months, but Could tungsten pull lithium, where it rallied very aggressively and then there's a rather long low? What are your thoughts on the overall tungsten market in regards to comparing it to how lithium performed?
33:42 That's a great question. It's 1 that I've been contemplating for quite some time, given I came from the lithium industry. But it's also 1 that I've spoken to various analysts and industry pundits about. I will say that lithium started to run on the back of what was a very investor-friendly market following the lockdowns and a lot of excess capital in a number of hands as well as the push to come to a green sort of transportation mode post-pandemic. That also was driven by the likes of China deciding that they want to go out and buy out a number of the projects around the world to ensure they have their hands on all the lithium globally.
34:28 Since that time we've now discovered that North America prefers V8s to EVs And the rest of the world, I've been in East Africa not so long ago, I've been out to Asia a number of times over the last few years, and the number of EVs in those jurisdictions is massive. So while we don't see lithium in North America, it's certainly being driven, demand is being driven out of those other nations. Lithium ran as a result of speculation and over investment in the space. I think lithium has now, we've come to realize it exists just about everywhere in every form imaginable. We also at the time that the price was running, you know, DLE, direct lithium extraction was not a thing. Now it's a thing. It's they're actually assets in production. TAs are getting investments from government. So lithium is now being found everywhere and it's come down here tremendously.
35:19 The difference is tungsten is not found everywhere. There are very few mines around the world that produce tungsten as a primary product. A lot of them have now been underwater and would take many years to de-water and build water treatment plants. You also have the fact that the grades of the mines that have been producing throughout to date have grades that are declining. So there have been some new discoveries and the biggest one of them all is of course Fireweed's MacTongue project. 42 million tons in 0.7, yes fantastic, but it's out in the middle of nowhere and getting infrastructure out there to bring that behemoth online will take a number of years. So the difference in tungsten is it is not found everywhere.
36:05 The restarting of old mines will be very difficult. The degrading grades around the world of course reduce supply and then the fact that again there are big assets but new discoveries but they're extremely hard to bring to market. So tungsten is a bit of a different beast. And what I would encourage you to do is if you can get your hands on a report that was put together by BMO Monday, the week prior, not last week, the week prior, during the BMO conference, George Happen, the analyst out of London, he put out a report that highlights exactly what the global supply of tungsten looks like. It's about 102,000 tons per annum, so it's not a big number, It's a very niche number as opposed to what you're seeing in terms of lithium But also the fact that he doesn't suspect the price to fall as quickly It'll come down it always does but it's not gonna fall as quickly simply because there is not enough tungsten on the planet today, either discovered or otherwise, to help bridge that gap.
37:08 Ali, congratulations on the results. I did tell you I would get you out of here on time. So just closing remarks, please let everyone know what they should be expecting for the next 6 to 12 months here as you continue to advance the IMA project. Thank you. In terms of the next 6 to 12 months, you'll expect the additional drilling results coming out, updated mat testing, the final flow sheets for all our production equipment that's necessary. Of course, the biggest one is production from our tailings. That'll happen well before year-end, which I think will be instrumental to cement our position as first mover and the first producer of a toxin concentrate in North America since 2015. We've got our uplist strategies on both the TSX and one of the US exchanges later this year. So a very busy year, not to say we haven't been busy. I think we've done a fair bit since June last year, but we're just about to get busier.
38:04 Excellent. Thank you so much, Ali. Appreciate your time. My pleasure. Thank you all.
