Bunker Hill Mining Mineral Resource Update

0:08 Hello everyone, welcome to Bunker Hill's live summit today hosted by 6. Today I'm joined by Sam Ash, CEO of Bunker Hill, Richard Williams, their Executive Chairman, David Weins, their CFO, and Kyle Erdman, Head of Geology. The team's gonna walk us through their presentation today, and after we'll be accepting some questions. You can submit your questions using the Q&A panel found on the right-hand side of your screen at any time during today's presentation. And as always, this summit is being recorded. It'll be available to watch afterwards on six.com. Without further ado, Sam, I'm gonna hand things over to you to get us started. Yeah,

0:39 thank you very much. And thanks for everybody for joining us today. And it's really a pleasure to be going through and reviewing and giving some more color to the updated resource that we have just press released yesterday. Before we dive into some of the details about the resource, I just wanna take a moment to reflect and remind everybody about Bunker Hill, who we are as a company and the path that we're on. We are all about creating exceptional value through regeneration. You know, our foundation for that is obviously the Bunker Hill asset, which is our cornerstone asset and the leadership team that we bring to the challenge. We have a tremendous group of supportive shareholders, and we're developing enduring partnerships with regulatory agencies, local communities, such as the EPA, who we're working very closely with. And we're developing a pipeline of similar regeneration projects, which will expand across what we believe will be the full Western United States. You can see that as viewed by our London joint venture, which was the last time that we gathered and talked when we were talking about that opportunity.

1:48 Our vision is really all about the sustainable supply of essential minerals through regeneration of historic mining districts. We see that 50% of the long-term metal mix will be silver and precious in nature. And in the execution of this, it's really about applying modern technology and mining techniques to unlock distressed value across the assets that we bring into the portfolio. And along the way, a key focus will be maximizing the non not mining development opportunities that happen in in and around the assets that we are regenerating. Our strategy is really around bringing hill bringing bunker hill into early production and leveraging that early cash flow to unlock the unrealized silver potential that exists in bunker hill.

2:42 And now to explore and study the potential in the London mining district and to look for and take opportunities as they come along that are similar in nature from the aspect that they have compelling opportunities to deliver both economic value and regeneration aspects to the local communities that we're involved with. On to the resource. When we started here, the current management team, about a year and a half ago, what we saw was unparalleled mineral potential here at the Bunker Hill mine. And I think that we've been on a journey to really demonstrate that. And we've taken a big step with the release of this resource yesterday. We now have a measured and indicated category at 6.6 million tons. And importantly, 2.2 million tons of that is in the measured category.

3:36 Kyle Erdman, our head of geology, has been working really hard on the solid geologic and technical fundamentals that go into this. And I want to turn it over to him now, just to give you a bit of insight on the methodology and some of the work that he and the team have been doing, which is fantastic work. Kyle? Thank you, Sam. 2 main catalysts, really, for the reinterpretation of the mineral resource estimate at this time, and it was the receivable of the rest of the assets from our Phase II drilling program, which wrapped up earlier in 2021, kind of delineating more of the UTZ zone minimization, as well as the full-scale digitization of the geologic maps throughout the rest of Bunker Hill's historic map collection. So, took those 2 and kind of re-looked at the mineral resource domain used in the earlier 2021 mineral resource estimate to kind of further put some constraints on there and respect more of the geologic boundaries that we've discovered through the digitization process.

4:40 We looked at some of the geostatistics and bariography domain specific to the composites within those areas and really took an

4:50 apples to apples comparison between the PEA and what we did with the remodeling to make sure that everything was respected well to the sampled grades and showing without blowing grade out and showing that really well. So I took that all the way from the UTZ and Quill New Guard separated those models to help match the variography a little bit better and yeah. All right, thanks a lot Kyle. Now just a little bit when you look at the significance of this, you can look at it a lot of ways, but an important way to look at it is the significant increase in metal inventory across the 3 primary commodities, silver, lead, and zinc. And you can see the movement from the previous resource that we've been able to achieve here. So significant improvements, obviously, in the silver and the lead, to a little bit lesser extent in the zinc. But we're really excited about the mineral, or measured and indicated endowment of silver and lead. You know, those are in an area that we think, as we move forward with the technical work are going to really roll through and result in a more favorable project economics.

6:10 And then just a mention about the inferred. You know, the inferred material is important as well. You know, So what you saw in this resource was not just a simple conversion from inferred to measured and indicated, although you certainly saw that to an extent. We still have a very robust inferred category of 6.6 million tons, and that really provides us with a roadmap to further resource conversion and transition into an operating plan as we move forward into production.

6:44 So I'll put this slide in here to give a little context on the Quill New Guard portion of the remodel here in the November 29th model. And I touched on a couple of points already in the presentation, bringing in the measured category for the first time, as well as looking at this model through more of an NSR, a polymetallic vision instead of a zinc specific cut off grade and estimation methodology. So here we're showing some of the new portions of the model there where I have the 23 zone, it's what they were calling stoping in this area in the New Garden Quill. Taking another look with the digitized geology to some of the drill holes, we were able to bring that into the mineral resource estimate, and then that large portion between the 10 and 11 levels in the quill ore body. This was one of the areas where we have 3 specific subdomains coming together in that area. And we do see more lead-silver dominant metallization over zinc. So going to the NSR base, bringing in those metal values, allowed us to bring that above cutoff without solely relying on the zinc grades.

7:49 I also wanted to throw this slide up I think it's very helpful and very useful to understand and and get an appreciation of the context in which this resource is being brought to the table. So you know As we've stated from the very beginning, is that Bunker Hill has tremendous future exploration opportunity at depth. We see that that is truly going to be the future. And our plan all along, as we've continued to discuss and bring you along on this journey, is to really get the mine back into operation in the upper areas of the mine. I use that to develop and put ourselves into a position to fully explore and exploit the mineral potential at depth. It's important to note that this resource and the changes in this resource are still in that first 2,000 to 2,500 vertical feet of extent. So what we're doing with this resource is really solidifying the economics of that restart, solidifying our geologic understanding in the areas that are going to be the first places to move into production.

8:52 And it's an important step along our path and along our journey. And again, as I said, I expect that with the technical work going into the mine planning, as we incorporate this resource into the mine plan, we expect to see a pretty positive benefit on the project economics, as well as mine life. The opportunity of having the conversion into measured and indicated, and in addition, maintaining a robust inferred category really paints a path towards the opportunity to have significant mine life extension as well.

9:35 And you know I just want to circle around and end and remind everyone some of our near-term catalysts and milestones. You know what I can say is that we're getting very very close to the finish line on our discussions with the EPA around the payables, the mine purchase, and the restart financing. Everything's progressing and progressing very well. I'm really looking forward to being able to have and discuss that in a forum once we cross the finish line. So please stay tuned. And you can see we've talked today about the resource expansion. We've really achieved everything we wanted to this year on that resource expansion front. And work is moving along and advancing on a variety of technical fronts.

10:24 We have geotechnical studies, detailed process plant engineering, and now with this resource revisiting and incorporating this resource into the mine plan. So, still a very, very exciting time, and we're really looking forward to use this as a springboard to finish the year out strong and move into restart in the new year. And with that, I think I'll open it up to any questions. Great. Thanks a lot for that, Sam. I'd like to remind everyone in the audience that at this point, if you have any questions, please submit them using the Q&A chat

10:57 found on the right-hand side of your screen. Time allowing, we'll of course get to them. But Bunker Hill team, I have some questions that we received in advance. And the first one goes along the lines of, first, congratulations on the big increase in your resource. Measured and indicated of 6.6 million tons at 8.4% zinc equivalent grade now looks pretty similar to the 6.4 million tons at 8.7% zinc equivalent grade in the PEA. Does this mean that we can expect you to publish a PFS and with M&I resources? What might that look like? Well, you know, I think that what that means is that we now carry a mineral inventory in the measured and indicated category that makes that very intriguing.

11:43 The technical work is underway to incorporate that into the mine plan. It's not only a mine plan sequencing and scheduling, but along with that comes the advancement of the technical engineering studies, the detailed process engineering and the geotechnical

12:01 work. And so it's really a culmination of a variety of technical work streams that are ongoing now. But I think that certainly, you know, the observation is correct. You know, that measured and indicated category is quite similar to the full PEA, which included the inferred. And we're certainly moving in that direction. Okay, great. Thank you for that. Another question we've had is, when will you be able to start exploration at depth as you work to unlock the silver potential?

12:36 Yeah, so what we're really doing there, again, and it goes back to our strategy and our approach, that potential, as Kyle and the team are advancing our geologic understanding based on the historical information, certainly looks intriguing and interesting. It's important to understand that that is, you know, 3000 feet below the current water level. Below the current water level. So an important part and an important piece of the process to unlock that opportunity is to have a robust mine plan that allows for concurrent rehabilitation and dewatering of the mine while generating free cash flow, and then ultimately funding that exploration effort out of free cash flow.

13:24 So the path and the opportunity here is really to get to that potential, unlock that potential through the use of cash flow generated in, you know, continuing to upgrade the resource and our operational plans with the material that is immediately available in the upper areas of the mine. Great, okay, thanks for that Sam. Ron in the audience, he's not clear on what your projected date for the start of production might be. Could you elaborate? Yes, and we are on a pathway really to you know to be in a position to restart production 18 to 24 months post-financing. So we're nearing the end of that financing process and really the firm date towards operational restart is gonna be based on that financing date.

14:26 All right, thank you for that. Lenin in the audience wants to know if there's gonna be any changes on the mining sequence and engineering works in the infrastructure? Oh, they're all, you know, the way that we think about it and the way that we're approaching it is that changes and optimization to the mine plan and the mine sequencing is the normal course of business. You know, certainly, you know, with a resource

14:53 and an improvement in resource in this nature, you know, there's certainly going to be an iterative approach where we go back and we look to optimize our, you know, our mine plan, our mining sequence, and our strategy around that. You know, this resource, you know, when we look at it presents a lot of opportunity and a lot of, you know, and a lot of optionality. And we're just starting the engineering process to fully assess and understand that opportunity and optionality. So, the short answer is yes, and optimization and upgrade of mining plans and operational plans is an activity that we will always be engaged in.

15:40 No, fair enough, absolutely. I'm wondering if any of you on the team wants to highlight any significant elements that you feel are important or that you're most excited about just so maybe we can hear from everybody. Dave, our CFO is with us. So, I'll probably point that and direct that to Dave first. All right, thanks Sam. Look, I think that the first question that came across was actually quite a good one around, will this result in a new mine plan

16:10 and can you publish when we certainly can and we're working through that detail. But if we remind and we have a slide in our presentation on this, back in April, when we first published our PEA, we had an NPV of $101 million on this mine. 5 months later with the September PEA we had a $143 million NPV. We now have published a 59% increase in our M&I resource. We don't have an M&I to go, we don't have an NPV to go with that, but I think viewers and investors can connect the dots that this team is continuing to add incremental value and very quickly to this mine. This is just the tip of the iceberg and to me it's quite exciting the amount of value creation that we're doing through this. Absolutely, thanks for that David. We've actually had quite another question and kind of comment from Jonathan in the audience that maybe we can touch on now.

17:01 Jonathan says great job guys, He just wants to say that he appreciates the consistent updates to the website where he can stay up to date on progress. But in one of the recent updates there was information about investing in the community and addressing the housing shortage in Kellogg. He'd love to hear more about your plans if it's something that you can speak to at this time. Yeah. So, you know, what I can certainly speak to is our approach, and that goes to the heart of the company that we're building. And that's a really using mining at its core to initiate and be the catalyst for regeneration. As a part of that, particularly here in the Silver Valley of Northern Idaho, affordable housing is one key component of that.

17:45 Skills training, development opportunities are all a piece and a part of that. You know, as we move forward, what we're looking to do is create partnerships where that can move forward and we can play an active role in that. So I think that as we move forward, you're certainly going to see that those partnerships develop and those and some end results really begin to be created and catalysts presented. But really, what we're looking at is that the restart of the mine is a real catalyst. But what I can say is we're already reaching out, we're already working on creating and entering into some of those partnerships as we move forward. And there will be a lot more information as we move forward along that process.

18:46 Great, thanks for that, Sam. We heard from David. Richard, without putting on the spot, I'd love to hear if you have any thoughts or any highlights that you'd want to share with the audience today. No, thank you. I'm delighted to be put on the spot and I'm delighted to be down here in Idaho with the team. As regular watchers of this will know, we all spend the majority of our time down here. My point is, as you look at this catalyst slide, I will double down on what Sam said, is that after nearly 2 years worth of working here, we are exactly where we wanted to be, which is proving to all of our investors and other stakeholders, the immense value that's in the mine that the right team can unlock.

19:35 That is proving the value in our partnership approach with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the IDEQ. And proving through that partnership approach, the remarkable value that other non-mining businesses can bring to this part of Idaho. And the combination of all of that, we feel presents to our stakeholders and shareholders, the opportunity to participate in great value creation in the one sense, but fantastic positive social impact in the other sense too, which is what we as a small mining company wish to participate in, in what the industry is seeking to do to meet the world's demand for metals today.

20:25 And here in the United States, this American team focused on the regeneration of other American assets that were shut down primarily through legislation passed in the 1970s or other commodity price challenges since then, can do what they're doing here at Bunker in multiple sites elsewhere and build, as Sam outlined right at the start, a company which has a portfolio of similar assets that has leveraged all of that sunk capital in ways that deliver superb returns to shareholders and really significant positive impact in the most sustainable way to the United States of America and other stakeholders wherever we operate. So I'm delighted with what the team's doing. We're exactly where we expect it to be. And As I said, watch those catalysts very carefully over the very, very short period of time. It's very exciting.

21:27 Great. Thanks for that, Richard. We have a question from George in the audience. Just regarding securing the process plan, estimated costs, will all the things you've been talking about today be in accord with the PEA or the flow sheet size changes or finer grinding evaluations? Just a general question if you have any comments about any of these specific elements that George has highlighted today. Well, certainly the direction that we've outlined in the PEA is 1 that, you know, we're in the process of moving forward and adding the technical detail and the technical certainty. And it's really de-risking as we move forward with the technical work. So really, we're on that path and advancing quite quickly, filling out the technical detail to make us ourselves restart ready. So certainly no change from the direction, the approach that has been outlined in the PEA.

22:27 If anything, the technical work that we're doing is confirming that our approach is sound. Okay, fair enough. Thank you. Well, listen, we're running out of the questions from the Q&A, so I'd like to pass it back to the team. If you have any closing comments that you'd like to share before we wrap up today. Yeah, for myself, again, thank you. It's great to be able to have a broader conversation about our progress and our advancement here at Bunker Hill. The very near future is going to be quite an exciting time for us. And, you know, just to remind everybody, you know, what you get with Bunker Hill is you get an asset that when it's into production is going to be a strong cash flow producer through the full commodity cycle. And that's going to allow us to leverage that cash flow into unlocking the exceptional mineral potential that exists in the broader mineral endowment here at Bunker Hill.

23:25 Coupled with that, you're looking at a company who's beginning to build that production profile and production pipeline. We're very excited about advancing the opportunity in the London Mining District. And I believe that you're seeing a company that is poised to really deliver some outstanding results in the very near future. Great. Well, thank you so much for that, Sam. And honestly, thank you, Richard, David, Kyle, for coming on today. I'd like to, of course, thank everyone in the audience who's tuned in today to watch this presentation. If you think of a question after the fact, feel free to reach out to the team here. I will be sending out a short survey where you can of course get in contact with them or leave your thoughts and feelings about the presentation today as well.

24:12 I encourage you to check out bunkerhillmining.com if you want to find out any more information. But with that, today we're gonna wrap things up. Gentlemen, thank you again for coming on and I hope you