Chesapeake Gold Update Call

0:03 Hello everyone and thank you for joining us today for this live Chesapeake Gold update call. I'm pleased to be joined by Jean-Paul Asselt, Interim CEO and Justin Black, Chief Metallurgical Officer. They'll provide a brief presentation bringing you up to date on the company's current state of affairs followed by a Q&A session. You can submit your questions at any time using the chat box in the bottom right corner of your screen and as always this event is being recorded and will be available for viewing shortly after we conclude. With that, John-Paul, the floor is yours.

0:33 Thank you so much, Kyle, and welcome to everybody. I figured it was time for a quick update on several activities that Chesapeake has been working on. Just before Beaver Creek, we put a corporate update out there about both the work at Matates as well as third party test work, and then additional work and progress we've made at Lucey. And then just a few weeks ago, we've put out another update with the divestment of Tata Tia. So I figured this would be a good time to walk everyone through those important milestones and be available to answer any of your questions. So firstly, cautionary statements, obviously. Take your time. You'll find these with our corporate presentation. And just here, most of you have seen this already. I guess the main things to summarize on this slide, you know, it's really a 3 asset company.

1:25 It's Metates, our technology, as well as an early exploration project called Lucy. We have great support from our large, large shareholder base. As you know, Eric's brought recently, invest another $4.4 million into Chesapeake. In total, when you add both our directors of management and our insiders, which also includes Sun Valley, that represents over 35% of our equity out there. We're well-funded, 12 million in the bank as of the last update, and we continue to advance on many fronts. So just a quick reminder, Metates in this current market, I know today is a down day, both for gold and silver, but just a reminder to all of our investors, Chesapeake has been lucky and blessed with the presence of one of the largest endowments of both gold and silver.

2:22 Here we're showing silver deposits globally and you can see that Metates is number 1. There was also a report that was done by BNAs America also talking about our gold endowment highlighting us as being one of the largest undeveloped Gold deposits. So it's pretty exciting to have Metates with our portfolio. And even though the prices of the precious metals has had a correction over the last couple of days. There's still a firm belief that the direction that the metals will be trending over the next several months is still upwards and we would be one of the best places to have leverage to both Gold and Silver as they move.

3:08 So just quickly, I know a lot of you have heard this before, but the oxidative leach technology, what it is, you know, nature over 100 million years has been creating oxide deposits from sulfide deposits. We figured out how nature does that and we've been able to do that and show that consistently that we can do it over a timeline of months. There was that report out by McKinsey and Company back in 2021, and they highlighted that there's 2.6 billion ounces of gold in reserves and resources globally. And of that, 1 in 4 is considered refractory. So the little diagram there on the left just highlights, 1 in 4 is basically 580 million ounces, a conservative $3,000 ounce gold price shows that it's about $1.7 trillion market for precious metals trapped in refractory.

4:04 The other key point here is because these deposits are left in the ground, they tend to be higher grade and they're on average 2.25 grams per ton, whereas the non-refractory type that everyone's mining is now averaging about 1.21. So there's a lot of margin to work with. Because we're so excited about the precious metals industry as well as more focused on refractory, last year we went out and we acquired the patent portfolio as well as extinguished the license we had to the predecessor and brought that whole portfolio within to Chesapeake. Last year and earlier this year, we filed brand new patents for developments that we have done within Chesapeake to continue to advance the technology.

4:49 And then we've made this point of adding people to the team that both know the technology and also know how to ramp it up and take it to a commercialized state. And so we added Justin Black to our team earlier this year as our Chief Metallurgical Officer. And as you know, we have Randy Buffington on our board. He was at Highcroft when the technology was being developed, as well as we have Art Labrado as our QP who was the QP for Highcroft as well back in the day. So all of that combined gives us both the expertise and the know-how to advance this technology to the next state which is what we've been working on heavily over this last year. The last thing, obviously, last year we showed that the technology works at Metates, and then in the past,

5:40 we've shown that the technology also can work at Highcroft. And so I'm gonna let Justin kind of walk through the history here of the technology. Thanks JP. That's been almost 10 years since I started working on the technology with Highcroft and, you know, Highcroft was perfectly situated to try a heap oxidation technology because they have, you know, a really great crushing system and, one of the largest Merrill crows in the world. So our, our task at the time was figure out how to take the product. Between the crusher and the Merrill crow and make something happen without a mill. And so we did exactly that. We did hundreds of columns, and then we scaled it up continuously. As the timeline shows, over about a year, we did a 5,000-ton test pad or 2. And then we went all the way up to 50,000-ton test pads, all of them being successful, taking that 20% recovery material out of the ground over a course of several months, getting it to over 80% recovery.

6:42 So pushing that forward, we said, all right, well, the test pads have all been successful. Let's keep doing it. And we did almost a million tons commercially, pouring gold through the Merrill Crow, you know, Dore bars, and then COVID happened. And, you know, that was a disruptive event for everyone, but especially so at Highcroft where basically all the technical teams scattered to the wind. But during that time, Alan Pangborn previously the CEO with us, he's the one who brought in the license to Chesapeake. And we were able to start testing that on Matates that had similar, very positive results using the same protocols that we've continued to advance over the last several years, which is kind of what brings us to today in our update.

7:28 So successful commercial production at Highcroft and that's what we hope to see in the future for Mitates. And right now we've got a very successful test program that's gonna support moving in that direction. Yeah, just to add to that, if you take 2014 to 2025 And you look how much Highcroft has invested and Chesapeake has invested in this technology. Nearly $50 million has been invested in the development. And along the way,

7:57 the whole process has been overseen by third parties. And so all the work has been done by others, following the protocols that Justin and the team have prepared for them to follow. So it's not us turning the dials, it's others getting to the results that we're very excited about.

8:18 Yeah, and so the exciting thing that JP mentioned is really what it does to the economics of a project in development or a project that's running out of oxide and has sulfide. So for Matates, we kind of ran it down the traditional, okay, here's our refractory or how do we make money off the path and that is, you've got a mill, you've got flotation, so you can make a con where you can easily treat the material that you're having the issue with, for Matates and Highcroft is that gold and silver encased in pyrite. And we oxidize the pyrite, you know, historically in an autoclave or a roaster. There are several technologies out there, but again, they're all the type of process that requires that con and then it turns into a growing and growing processing facility so that you can have that return on the initial investment you make in your capital, your operating costs.

9:15 So Batates was huge, it was 3 and a half billion dollars, 90,000 tons per day. Really a big producer, but at the time that it was run at $1,600 gold, it was really a beast to build. And That's when Alan decided, hey, let's look at this technology. And the continued development showed us in 2021 that we can advance the project for a tenth of the capital, 360 million. It's a smaller annual throughput, but it has a very nice return on it. It doesn't require building a power plant, desalination plant, the really massive significant infrastructure that would have been required to support a mill project of that size. And The economics, I think on the next tab, look pretty good, especially because that's only 1600 ounce gold, $1600 an ounce gold and silver at a much lower 22.

10:13 So one of the things we're looking forward to is revising and updating our PFS in the coming year and the metal prices that will go into that, but then also the process improvements, which we're going to talk about in a couple slides here. The one other thing I would just note is when we did this 2021 PEA, if you look at the all-in sustaining costs there at $750 per ounce, that's still pretty exciting first quartile costs with this technology. Overall, It's a pretty economic endeavor, which is different when you look at a pox autoclave or a traditional way to handling refractory where there's a lot more capital intensive build that's required.

11:01 Yeah. So, yeah, the exciting thing that the technology does is displayed right here for Matates, fresh out of the ground, you're going to get about a third of the gold and a little more than a third of the silver. Today that might be economic at the prices we're looking at, but we'd rather have more. So we oxidized for 126 days during this phase of the test program, which got us about 50% gold recovery and improved the silver. We carried that oxidation further another 30 days, almost 60% recovery and silver again, increasing. And then the full length that we gave, that we tried was over 200 days. And that got us 75% recovery, which is significant. That's a good match for a lot of what's in the industry on the heap for gold recovery.

11:50 Silver still saw an increase from what was out of the ground, but there's other things that needed to be done to optimize that, which luckily we have in the works right now and are already starting to show some positive results for us.

12:04 And the works that I'm talking about are well depicted here. On the left are just the large columns we have, which happen to be stacked to the height we envisioned for our heap oxidation pad. So they'll be a full stack height, basically a production level height test for us. And they're some of the most promising work I've seen in this technology so far. Very fast oxidation with the really refined protocols that we have. But, you know, we can't wait to see what the final results say in quarter 1. And then on the right, we have our kind of full array of variability tests, where on the far left, we've got the tests that have been more freshly put in the columns at that time, and then on the far right, the ones that have run the longest. And you can see the progression of color change, where the ones on the right have oxidized closer to that brick red color that they'll ultimately end up at, And the ones on the left are much closer to the color that came out of the ground.

13:06 Right now, the whole lab is bright red, but no fresh pictures allowed just yet. Wait for our next press release. The other exciting thing, we talked about silver kinetics improving and some work we've done with the HPGR and some different pH management protocols have shown us some really exciting silver numbers in our solution grades. And again, it's preliminary, but we're excited and I expect to see that our next report reflects better silver recoveries

13:36 intended or expected as well. And the last thing in the lab is the third-party programs, which are one of the things I'm most excited about is it really describes how the technology is applicable to the industry in a much wider way than what we talk about with just Mitates or Highcroft. I think there are a lot of properties out there that this will benefit greatly and We have a handful in the lab already that are starting to become evidence of that.

14:09 And then one of our kind of, we look at it as a side benefit, but really for some people, it's a core benefit that this is a green technology compared to the other ways the industry has to handle refractory ores. If you've got to create that con and roast it or put it in the autoclave, you have to put significantly more energy into your process in terms of heat, fuel, everything, you know, the energy required for size fraction reduction through your grinding mill, the flotation, you pull in a lot more water, whereas the heap, you're really just fighting evaporation and replacing what you lose. So, you know, across the board, it's, it's better for emissions, less energy consumption, less water consumption. And these are, a great way to depict that These are barracks numbers and they show an autoclave technology being used on the left and the water consumption energy that's associated with that and then on the right one of their heap leach operations and you know it's somewhere from a factor of 7 to 10 reduction when you go from a mill technology to a heap technology.

15:20 And that's exactly what we expect to see the difference between what Matates would have been if we had to continue down the autoclave path and what Matates will be when we apply this technology and build it that way.

15:38 And then the best part about this technology is it's really easy to attach to an existing mine that's already running a heap leach process with cyanide. So what you can see there, the pits on your bottom right, it's that concentric circles coming out. It feeds a three-stage crusher, which is common for heap leach. We're targeting maybe 3 8th inch crush and then it feeds a heap oxidation pattern. That's a novel part of this process on the south there, that big football field. And it's basically, we envision 10 cells. It could be more, could be less, smaller, larger. That's all going to benefit from the kinetics work we're doing. But we'll say this is the size that you need to support 15,000 ton per day throughput, which is what was in our last SUDB.

16:30 And for 10 days, you'll fill, or 20 days, you'll fill a cell and then you'll move to the next cell. And as you progress, that first cell will start oxidizing. And once the whole pad is full, you'll be using an on-off conveyor or trucks, depending on your operations preference, to pick that oxidized material up, take it to the permanent cyanide pad. And from then on, you're basically just a typical cyanide heap leach operation. You can have carbon Merrill Crow, whatever your operation demands at the back end. Merrill Crow for us, obviously 500 million ounces of silver. And then you start refilling that ox patent. It's just not a pad, you have to rebuild or expand, you continue to use that one. And it isolates the technologies application to those ponds in that area. And then Like I said, the rest of the operation is your normal cyanidation.

17:20 Thank you so much, Justin. So we're going to switch gears here. I think the only last comment I'll make on this is, you know, just to reiterate what Justin said, you know, we're doing third party test work in the lab. We're very excited about the work that's ongoing. A lot of these third parties that we're working with or looking to work with in the future, a lot of them are either an operating mine, a mine that's just on care and maintenance or a mine that was recently operated. So those opportunities all have infrastructure in place, permitting ready. The only thing that they're missing is, you know, adding this additional oxidation pad, which in all cases would add additional life to those operations.

18:06 We've been very targeted from the 200 list of opportunities that we have in our proprietary list of refractory projects.

18:16 We continue to move forward with the work at the lab and with updates coming next year. So as we switch to LUCI, the next couple of slides are just kind of a reminder where everything's at. Last year, we successfully did another drill program taking our Lucy project to 20 holes. Again, still showing high-grade mineralization, 6m of 5g, 24m of 1.4g per tonne Gold, and within that 10m of 2.29g. Really good results we had last year. We also did the soil geochem program on the northeastern side that showed the mineralization continue going to the northeast.

19:02 Then the plan for this year was to go back, soil work, we're gonna do some structural work, and then we'll do some additional trenching. And so we'll get to those results. This just shows the continuation of the mineralization along that corridor. And all of those drill holes are just intercepting the mineralization within the first 25 to 50 meters from surface. And this is, you know, so we have a continuous zone here in the discovery area, which we're just highlighting, where that soil Geochem signature was off to the Northeast. We actually dug down right to the rock bed, took a 25m sample. And from that, we got 1.44 grams per tonne gold and included in that is another 10 metres of about 3 grams.

19:54 We then did a structural map of the property looking at the folding and the faulting on the property, we realized the folding has a lot to do with the mineralization that on the discovery zone. And so we started expanding our view to the rest of the property where also we seen folding. And one area was the central zone area where we see a lot of fold, both anticline and syncline and very little work was done there. Some early indications that there was potentially mineralization on that scarn. So we went out there over the shear. We did some additional trenching work on that side and we got 29m of 0.94g per tonne Gold and within that another 15m of 1.33g.

20:47 And then we also just to the east of that, again, another 34 meters of 0.64 grams, including 10 meters of about a gram. And so we start to identify this new corridor here. And there's some additional samples even further down to the west, where we've just taken grab samples from the ground, you know, about 2.4 meters of 2.3 grams per ton. So this is very exciting. This is a brand new corridor that we have started to uncover here. And then the other interesting thing is the government decided to build a new power line across our property. And this power line is to feed most of the coastal cities along Sinaloa. But this provided access to our Western zone.

21:34 So our staff was able to easily get into that part of the ground with this new access. And they were able to take a bunch of grab samples from the ground and we're already seeing copper signatures as well as Zinc on the far Western side. You know, just on the Copper, you know, 0.35% Copper in 1 sample. You know, we also have 0.46%, 2%. You know, These are all exciting grabs in an area where we did not know there was scarn. Now we've mapped scarn there. We looked at the geophysics and the IP, so mag and IP, and This is an area that was quite interesting to us because of. The presence of a quants a coincident mag and IP anomaly.

22:25 Still more work needs to be done but you know that's a good sign when you're starting to pull up you know copper results from scar to the West. And what we believe could be the feeder that has fed into the the gold bearing Scarns to the east which we've been exploring to date. And so this is very exciting so we have our you know 700 meter discovery corridor. This new corridor right now we only have 20 200 meters identified on it but there's still room on either side to continue and extend it and then also at depth.

22:56 And then just a reminder for everyone, we did do a metallurgical work last year on the initial discovery zone. And from that work, we were shown to have Gold recoveries up to 97% on 24-hour bottle rolls. And so that signifies that this is a much easier metallurgical project to advance. We don't need all of our technology to advance this one as far as we know from the work that we've done. So this is a much simpler project to advance when it comes to development.

23:34 And then the last part, so this this announcement earlier this month, you know, we focus on Metates a lot, the technology, Lucy, but we also have a couple other regional properties in our portfolio. Most of them are located in Durango. So, you know, there's a lot of synergies there. Most of them are located in and around Matates. Tata Tia happened to be a project that we had received early on back, I think 2006, 2007. It was a property that showed really great potential. But this property is located in the Veracruz state. So if you look at Mexico, Mexico kind of looks like a hook shape with the Yucatan Peninsula being the end of the hook. Well, Veracruz is in that little area where it goes down here. So just, It's not anywhere near Durango, which is at the top of the hook where you have the hole to put your thread in, as well as Sinaloa. So there was a lot of additional work

24:41 and activities that needed to be done and logistics in order to continue to advance Tetea. And internally management saw it as being non-core. Instead of continuing to advance it, we spoke to Mexican Gold. They were interested. They obviously have the Las Minas property with I think almost 800,000oz of gold and resources there. It seemed like a great opportunity for us to divest this asset and in return get both an equity stake up to almost 15%, giving us additional upside to the future of the property, as well as a 1.5% NSR. So if they're able to discover something on our property that then advances the whole project, then any ounces that come from our ground or copper that comes from our ground would be provided NSR royalty to Chesapeake. So this is a very exciting rather than just dropping the claim, we had a potential partner here that has the people on the ground, has the license to operate, and they have the key asset in the region too. So It was a wonderful opportunity to sell this asset and continue to maintain an upside to the future development of Mexicans Gold

26:14 properties. So just to kind of sum everything up here as a conclusion. So looking forward, a couple of catalysts, we have an update on the Metates test work, which we're looking to put out early in 2026. That would then follow with the update on the third-party test work. Following that, we're aiming to put out a PFS later in the year for Matates, continuing its development. Over at Lucey, work is still ongoing. Right now, the focus is completing a regional soil geochem program over the discovery zone, central zone and Western zone to really get an idea of the geochemical signature of the whole property and where the various metals are concentrated.

27:06 And so we'd probably likely once we get those results, put an update out as well on Lucy and our plans for Lucy going forward. And then, you know, looking at other areas, as we all know, San Vicente 3 right now is at the circuit court level. We're still waiting for an update on that. And so that's another catalyst that's out there for Chesapeake.

27:28 I think that's everything I have, Kyle, if you want to open the room to some questions. Definitely. Thank you for the question. Quite a few questions here. So we get started with the ones that were sent in upon registration. I'm just going to ask the question and you 2 feel free to jump in whenever you feel it's right to address it. So you mentioned 3 third-party projects are now testing your sulfide leach technology. Can you share what timeline you're looking at for potential licensing agreements and how significant could technology, license and revenue become relative to advancing Metates itself?

28:09 Okay. Well, I'll talk about the timeline on the programs we have right now is quarter 2 next year. It's the latest we expect results to be in our hands. And then, you know, the timing on sharing those results will depend on our agreement with the projects themselves. But that's when I think we'll have data to talk about. And then JP can probably enlighten us on the licensing agreement idea. Yeah. So, once

28:37 we have results, we'll have discussion with these companies and we'll likely move to pilot test work and advancing even further. But When it comes to monetizing the technology, there's really 2 pathways that are out there. One is a strictly licensing pathway where we will receive some, let's call it basically a royalty, an NSR royalty, probably some management fee for us to manage the site to make sure that the oxidation pad is working at an optimal level. And the other route is really taking a stake in the asset. So we would provide the technology and in turn we would have a minority stake in the property. And so the property we'd have buy-in to continue to want it to be successful in advance and we would provide the expertise to move that project forward.

29:33 To give you an idea of what these things could look like, the Tata-Tia deal is a perfect example. The Tata-Tia deal, we provided property and in turn we had to get a 15% stake in Mexican Gold. Intellectual property is still property. And so by providing the property, you can see how that could in turn become a stake within an actual project. And so it's very similar in that sense. And then in the case of a Tata Tia, we did get an NSR. And so you can see by providing property, you can get a royalty as well. And so the Tata Tia deal is a perfect example for all of my audience here to kind of understand what the value of technology being implemented at the various projects that we're working on today. But also, we have a plethora of other opportunities which we're working through as we advance to continue to dive into that larger market for factory projects globally. But really we need to start somewhere and we have 3 opportunities beyond Metates to begin that process.

30:44 Touching on that larger market, David in the chats wondering with oxidative technology being such a huge market, why would Highcroft sell for such a low price?

30:55 Yeah, that's a fair question and from the technical side I'll just say that you know when COVID hit and Randy Buffington left and I left and Art Abrado and the 2 other guys helped us put the whole thing together. It was really like a secret sauce left, the trade secret aspect of operating this left and the new team that came in at Highcroft came in during COVID, had to hire during COVID, try and find a technical team that could support running what was at the time a novel process in that environment. And it just was a really tall ask, probably impossible. So their method was, all right, well, we're gonna go back to what we know, which is building a mill and raising money to build a mill, a very significant, you know, billion dollar plus mill.

31:43 And when you're dedicated to a path like that, I think that seeing the technology sitting here is potential value to put money towards the path they have in mind that's that's how they treated it they didn't necessarily see the value the same

31:59 way that the team that had spent time developing it and watched it work firsthand had. I'm gonna stick with the questions regarding the technology for now, as there's a few. The modified HPGR test columns are showing more promise in silver kinetics compared to 2024 results. Can you quantify this improvement and explain how this can materially impact the economics in the upcoming 2026 PFS? Sure. So I hesitate to Give the actual recovery number. I'm a metallurgist and everyone who knows the industry knows that we are very guarded with our numbers but There is a what I think going to be a pretty significant silver improvement and that's a bit Benefiting from 2 things and I think 1 is the HPGR crush and the fines it generates and the way it liberates the minerals more readily because it's pressuring along the fault lines and exposing that surface. And the other is, you know, we've really looked at improving our pH control kinetics and just keeping our pH in line With what it should be for cyanide leach Throughout both our baseline columns and our oxidation columns seem to have done Something to prevent formation of gericides potentially or some of the other harmful side effects that a lower acidic pH can cause.

33:21 And both of those things have fed into us seeing, for me, the highest silver concentration in solution on our leaching columns that I've seen from a top days period. So that's the first really good sign we've had. I won't say specifically what the concentration is or what I project silver recover to be, but it's a big improvement. And I think we had less than 50%

33:43 silver recovered in our last round with Matates, and it's going to be above that now. That's what I would estimate. Yes, just to put that in perspective when it comes to economics, when we were looking at the technology and we got those results last fall, we saw an improvement on the Gold side and about a 5% improvement of where we originally had estimated. And that 5% because of the value of Gold relative to the value of Silver actually made up the losses that happened in the Silver side. So where Silver was depressed and we didn't get as much as we had hoped, that was offset by the gains we got from Gold. So really any of the work that Justin's doing here, any incremental increase of the percentage of recovery on silver is just going to be additional. So we're very excited about the work that's going on and we're looking forward to just seeing what the final results will look like.

34:44 And I guess another way to put it in perspective, so we talk about Matate's 500 million ounces of silver. So if we get a 1% recovery over over the life of this long project, that's 5 million ounces per 1% recovery, right? And current silver prices, it's $25 million, right? So then that's how you can look at it. I won't give the percent we think we're gonna jump yet. That's something for 26 when we've got our test results in hand, but every 1% we get is 5 million ounces of silver.

35:15 Thank you guys. Now, weaving in the technology into the Metates project, David's wondering how many tests do we need to start to work on Metathase and what type of additional capital will we need?

35:30 How many additional tests? So what we've got right now for the lab for metallurgy is going to cover us for the PFS, and likely most of what we're going to do in feasibility. We've got a little bit more work in mind for next year that I believe our current bank account can bankroll regarding the SEDs and maybe a little bit of additional variability. But really, we're going to have it largely covered metallurgically. So then the pilot and the drilling work, that's all stuff that is maybe down the road. JP, what do you think? Yeah, I think that's about right. I think we're pretty well covered for the pre-feasibility study next year. And then, you know, we will make a decision after that. What are the next steps, whether to take it to feasibility or beyond that.

36:24 Right now, we're well covered. A couple of jurisdiction questions here. What's the status of the starter pit being planned? And I want to add on with the second question from Eddie. Could you please update the Mexico open pit mining ban and how it applies to Chesapeake? Thank you. Yeah, so in Mexico, we've definitely seen almost a 180 with what the government has been saying with regards to open pit mining. Just to give everybody a little bit of background here, there was a lot of, there was a big push back in 2023 to ban open pit mining. You know, After Claudia was elected as president, she removed from her 100 pledges, her pledge to ban open pit mining.

37:14 The discussion, the dialogue started to change afterwards. If a project is considered strategic, then it would be advanced. In my opinion, when you look at how big Metates is, I think that underlines that it's in the strategic opportunity for Mexico and the Mexican people. The state of Durango has a short list of important projects in Durango and Metates falls on that list. So I would say that we're pretty high up on the strategic list. Fast forward a little bit more, come January, February of this year, we saw the permitting of underground mines, Elmos's underground portion of Malatos, La Preciosa with Avino, and then there's a couple of others with Pinoles.

38:04 And so that was the first sign where the government is giving out permits and moving things forward. I know that's underground. But then when we met with the government of Mexico at the PDAC and they were presenting in front of all of the audience, the head of the extraction business or the DGM announced that the government has no interest in continuing to advance the ban on open pit mining. And that was both said to us in Spanish and in English to make sure that that message was clear. And so, you see a lot of projects that potentially could be open pits in the future, getting drilling permits now and being advanced.

38:52 But there hasn't been a clear, this is a permit for an open pit mine. I think that's really the next step the government needs to take in order to really highlight to the market that they're really open for open pit mining again. But very clearly, open pit mining is important, not just for us, but you're mining Silica from the ground to make sand, that's an open pit mine. You're mining Ilmenite for Titanium and for Iron for magnets, that's open pit mine. All the Lithium deposits are low grade near the surface. That means that they would have to be mined for open pit. All of the limestone operations that produce concrete and aggregates, those are all open pit mines.

39:39 Mexico, they are really heavily focused on development projects, aggregates and all of those, those are all open pit mines. So I think the government realized that there can't be a blanket ban. It's really required for Mexico to operate and operate functionally. Narrowing down to the regional level, any progress on San Vicente concessions and has the hearing started? Yeah, so obviously this is an ongoing court case. All I can really say is that it is in the circuit court. They have a docket of files in front of them, but no hearing date has been set yet.

40:26 Moving on to Lucy, you've indicated Lucy's footprint may extend over 3 kilometers with new discoveries in the central and western zones. How does the grade and style of mineralization in these new zones compare to the discovery zone and what does this mean for Lucy's potential to become a standalone development project? For Lucy, that discovery zone, there's a lot more potential along that. So we'll start there. Obviously we have the soil geochem and now we also have that trench that shows that the mineralization continues to the Northeast. There's still the soil geochem program that's ongoing throughout the whole Discovery Zone area. But again, this is all surface, so we can expand along the surface and obviously adding meters either side of the corridor helps to grow it. But again, when you're looking at underground, the fastest way to double is if I add additional drill holes below, taking it from 25m to 50m to 75m depth, dipping mineralization to 100m. That's a pretty quick way to build resources on the discovery zone.

41:35 Adding that separate new corridor is quite exciting because that's another way of doubling the resources at Lucy. So we already have 200 meters that have been identified. And again, same thing open to the Northeast and open to the Southwest and no drilling yet to date. This is very exciting that it's not just a discovery zone. Now we've found a separate zone with additional Gold mineralization. And talking about whether there's some sort of link between the 2, obviously it's a folded system. And in the scarn from the Discovery Zone, there's some tracer elements that we found that's been helping us with our exploration. Those same tracer elements are in this new discovery corridor. And so they're probably cogenically in place at the same time. So they came from the same fluids that brought the mineralization.

42:27 So those are pretty similar. Now, when you look to the far West, where we just have a couple of grab samples and we're starting to see Copper and a bit of Zinc as well. Over on that side, this is kind of a new area. It's a new type of deposit. It's hard to tell yet whether there is, let's say a source of heat and fluids that comes from below. The mag and IP would indicate maybe there's some sort of plutonic source below that could indicate maybe a porphyry associated to the West. But additional work again needs to be done to kind of figure out and investigate whether there's actual a porphyry system there, whether the copper is coming back, whether the mineralization that's going up through these limestones and forming these scarns is what we're seeing on the Eastern side.

43:21 But there's a lot of hand-waving here. I guess I'm wearing my geologist hat too much. But again, it's still exciting that we have discovered a second corridor on our property and it gives us more to look at and think about. Excellent. Last question I have in the queue here. Many investors weren't familiar with the Tata Tia project before the sale. Are there any other non-core assets or opportunities within Chesapeake's portfolio that could be similarly monetized to fund your other projects? We do have other properties within our own portfolio. They're at various stages. A lot of them are pretty early, or I would say in some cases even earlier than Tatatia.

44:08 Those are all opportunities. But the way I look at that, and I look at every project, even Lucy, we're going to continue to advance it. And then there's going to be trigger points as we advance. Obviously these other regional properties, we're not spending big dollars on them. We were able to advance Tata Tia with very little money and you could see the value that was created for that. And so these other properties, we could continue to advance with low investment expenses like we did with Lucien when we first started bringing that one forward. And just being, When it comes to capital and capital allocation, really being conservative and thoughtful on the dollars that are being spent. And so when you add that all in, yes, there could be opportunities in our portfolio 1 day in the future that we would divest.

45:02 Maybe Lucy can get to a stage where Lucy could be an opportunity that someone's interested in. It'd have to be the right price and the right time. But our priority again has always been with Metates and our technology. And then Lucy is also something I personally am excited about. So we'll continue to advance that. Excellent. Gentlemen, thank you so much for the presentation and addressing all the questions. And thank you everyone that attended, especially the ones who asked the questions. It's always more fun when we have some engagement in these rooms. If you did come in a little late, just note that this is being recorded and the replay will be available within the next couple of hours or so. But I'll pass it back to you, Jean-Paul, if you have any final commentary before we close things off here?

45:48 Yeah, for both Justin's and I, thank you very much for everybody taking this time out on a Tuesday. We really appreciate your excitement about our story. We're working very hard on our side to continue to advance the technology, advance Mitates as well as Lucy and we look forward to providing you guys another update in the coming weeks to months. Thank you.