Commodities Outlook H2 2026

0:03 So good morning, good afternoon or good evening, depending on where in the world you are. I appreciate it very much. I got a great panel here today to discuss metals and commodity prices going into the second half of 2026. With war in the Middle East apparently back on and unfortunately, England still in the World Cup, Nobody knows which way is up or down. But thankfully I've got some industry experts here with me to help sort it all out. A couple ground rules for today. I know there's a lot of you in the room. We're probably not going to get to questions about individual securities today, but I still encourage you to put them into the chat if you'd like follow-up. I'll be sending through those questions to the individual speakers' teams following today's event, so please do feel free to still engage. If you have a question that's on topic, I might be able to work it into the discussion, but we've got a pretty tight number of questions today, so I might not get to all of them. The only other thing I'll say is today's event is being recorded and will be available for replay end of day Eastern time. It'll pop right in your inbox. It'll also be available on Six's YouTube channel.

0:59 But That is through the boring part of today's event. I want to get right into the protein. And Dan, I'll start with you. He's got big news over the last 2 weeks, obviously, at 1st mining gold. But gold ran to an all-time high, near 5,600, almost, in late January, but then has met months since, grinding sideways, going into the low 4,000s, even dipping very briefly into the 3000s a couple weeks ago. My question to you is, is this the consolidation that sets up the next leg higher? Or do you think January is kind of the top of where this cycle is going to go? Well, first of all, thanks, Romeo and everyone for having me here. Much appreciated.

1:38 Listen, I think we are in a position where, and sorry, I've got a bit of a bit of background noise here. I don't know if there we go. Perfect. I think we're in a position where everything that got gold to where it was earlier this year has only gotten more acute. Right? Like we're in a situation where I think you can look around the world. There are very very few governments that are living within their means. I think you've had wars on a number of different fronts that is doing nothing but driving up government spending. You know, even announcements this morning that would tell me that there's billions and billions more that's going into into a conflict in the Middle East.

2:27 You know, I would like And I hope and genuinely every night before I go to bed, hope that we're gonna see a great outbreak of peace in the world at some point soon here, but I have 0 confidence that we're gonna see an outbreak of trust. And I think that's the situation we're in. And I think, you know, gold right now is reflecting one of the important sources of value, if you will, one of the important roles that gold plays in the financial system is that source of liquidity, when you need liquidity. I think we've been in a situation in the last 6 months from that run up where there's a lot of people, central banks and governments that have needed to turn gold into cash in order to buy other stuff, particularly arms,

3:22 and or fund government coffers that historically were funded by exports of oil. So yeah, I think the fact that in a very, very seller focused market, gold's held in at a resistance level of 4000, I think tells you that, you know, the, the those that are continuing to accumulate gold, and it's the same people still accumulating it

3:48 today that have been accumulating it over most of the last like 3 years that sort of drove the price up to the level that it got to in January. In my mind, There's nothing that got it there that's changed. And if anything, the things that got it there have made it more acute. So I keep going back to a few friends of ours in the industry who spend time focused either on the technical or on the, really on the fundamentals of supply demand of gold. And they're all calling for much higher prices from now through the end of the decade. So I think we're... Not that the gold mining industry needs it. I think this is a level where producers are generating exceptional amounts of free cashflow, but at the same time, I don't see there being anything here that's going to detract from that longer term view of gold.

4:47 I appreciate that, Dan. I think because you made a setup, but the bear case for gold is that every government starts suddenly acting financially prudent. I don't see that happening in the very near future. Exactly. Good luck. It would make me very happy if they did, but I have 0 confidence in that I think it because those back on the table politically but I I don't see it globally happening anytime soon bob I want to talk about solar for seconds so I'm not sure if you'd be free to make comments on gold too but so was version of the story is even wilder silver as always the bit of a

5:18 drama queen compared to gold. It touched 121 in January and has given back more than 40 percent, more than 50 percent since. You've been through a couple of silver cycles in your career. What is this correction actually telling you? And is it different than the gold story?

5:34 Well, Romeo, I mean, silver does trade differently than gold. I mean, it's on a sort of macro trend. It does follow gold or they trade together, but they do tend to trade a little bit differently. Gold will see a more gradual rise, steepening over time through these cycles as we saw last year. Whereas silver tends to trade more in a kind of a hockey stick pattern where it's relatively flat and it underperforms gold for a period of time and then suddenly it just goes parabolic where it outperforms gold. We see that time and time again. I look back to the last bull market, 2001 to 2011, when silver went from just under $5 to just under $50 in the space of 10 years.

6:29 And if you look at that 10-year period, you will see that kind of a hockey stick pattern. But if you look at it in more detail, you'll see that there are many cycles that also follow that same pattern. There were 4 of those during that 10-year period. And So, you know, silver would consolidate for about 18, and then it would go parabolic, and then it would correct about 50%, and then it would consolidate for another 18 months or so, and, you know, the cycle repeated.

6:57 And so, you know, when you look at what's happened over this last year, year and a bit, we see exactly the same sort of thing. Silver underperformed gold as it was gradually rising and then late last year, silver just suddenly took off, went to $120,

7:16 but then it's corrected again about 50% pretty much on Q. And now it seems to have fallen into this consolidation pattern again. So I think that's exactly where we are. And I think we'll continue to see this for a while. It is more volatile. I love that analogy of the drama queen because it really does speak to the way silver trades. It's a much, much smaller market and it doesn't take much to drive it and the price is mostly investment driven. So although all the supply factors that everyone talks about, not to take away from those, they're real, but that just sort of underpins the overall price. In my view, it's not really what drives these upticks.

8:09 That's mostly coming from investment and it falls back just as quickly when people start to take profits. So, I think we're now just in one of these consolidation phases. Not sure how long it could last, maybe through the balance of this year before we really see silver take off again for another rise. But I think The overall longer trend is still upwards, much as it is for gold, and for all the same reasons that Dan talked about.

8:39 I appreciate that very much, Bob. Kit, I'm going to throw it to you. Blake, apologies, precious metal boys, getting all the attention at first, but I will get to you right after this one. Kit, what I'm going to throw to you is that the physical side of silver, to me, doesn't really look like the price chart.

8:55 Mine supply doesn't seem to be responding to where things seem like they should be. How long do you think that disconnect can last? And generally, I'll let you comment on all the precious metals conversation we've had so far. Sorry, you're just on mute. I've requested unmute there from you. Sorry, it went back and forth. So yeah, I well, I had several comments there that Bob just stole the thunder. So silver is very different from gold is that it does have 2 components, you know, the industrial demand that people talk about a lot. But really, I think from the price performance standpoint, what Bob said is, it's really driven by investment demand, the hockey stick portion of it. So the long-term industrial demand, very, very strong, And that will continue.

9:47 There is discussion about physical supply shortages, but I think I sort of look at places like India that have been collecting silver for the last 100 years. And they have a tremendous supplies And that sort of comes and goes depending on the price gets really high. Then people use it as monetary source of monetary goal. So it's the price is really driven very quickly by the futures market. So when you have that upward swing in January, there's a lot of investment demand and silver is about 1 10th I think maybe just sort of guessing a little bit on the size of the gold market So yeah that can change very very quickly. I think right now we are in a consolidation, you know, whether it's Current level where there drops down a few dollars an ounce and then back up. I think I'm going to just say that will continue through August. And by the end of August, I think we'll start to see another upward trend in silver as people come into it.

10:49 Jeffrey Christensen at CPM Group I follow a little bit, and he just remarks that, correctional models are going to keep going up. The world is entering just maximum uncertainty, whether it's military, political,

11:04 unrest. It's really very different than it was 5, 10 years ago. So that ain't going to be changing anytime soon, I'm sorry to say. So that's going to continue driving things. And the timing is very difficult. But once you see both metals start to take off, then time to stand back because we don't know where the next hops will be. Helpful context. I think that's great, Kit. Blake, I'm going to get you in here now because there are already people in the comments talking about lithium. I think it is an interesting story right now. I know the price roughly doubled off its mid 2025 lows, then gave a good chunk of that back from the May high. So I have a kind of 2 part question. Where do you think we are in the cycle right now? And then a question from the chat, which I think is fair, is why aren't investors seemingly tracking with the lithium price? Why aren't they coming back as the lithium prices increased?

12:00 Well, because gold and silver are doing too well, obviously. These guys are still in the thunder at this panel and in the market, I think, at this gig. But, you know, I think in general, you know, I look at lithium and where we are in the cycle, I don't think the cycle's begun yet, to be honest. I think what we saw was the lows of last year getting down to spodumene in a $600, $650 price range, which was ridiculous.

12:28 But in 2022 and 2023, I used to go to meetings and tell people that $8,000 spodumene was ridiculous too, given there is a processing and downstream component to this that would make materials too expensive ultimately for the end user. And so, in our opinion here, this has always been, these levels of $2,500 spodumene are certainly much healthier for the market because you have projects that can ultimately be able to bring material online, even the higher cost producers can bring material online and ultimately fulfill demand that continues to grow. There's all kinds of debate around the rate of growth and what's driving it, but ultimately Our view has always been we're a very low cost,

13:21 high return project. We will be at roughly $600 all in standing costs for our project. $2,000 is fantastic. $2,500 is fantastic. But for a lot of projects that are going to process differently and be in different jurisdictions, it's going to be higher costs. It's going to be plus $1,000 a ton. And to make those projects work, you need to see $2,000, $2,500 pricing. And so probably in an environment that's healthy to bring demand on with what's known in the world now to feed the demand that's there now. But I think the cycle is not there yet. To answer kind of the equity part of it is why are people not jumping in? I think that that side of it isn't there yet. I don't think that the investment communities come back yet. They wanna see some stability in pricing. They wanna understand where battery storage is going next, probably robotics on the back of that. What does the EV market look like as we grow and continue to move forward?

14:18 And so much of that is driven by China. The North American market has softened heavily, and that's fine, but it's continuing to grow. So as that demand continues to grow, and as material is not there to fill in, we're going to see price can run again. And I think that's going to drive the equity market. So even though prices have recovered, I look at it more as a correction than actually the start of the next cycle. I think the cycle is still on its way. And that's when the equities are going to jump back in. And I think we're going to start seeing, you know, the next phase of near-term producers start to really see the benefit of that. Awesome, I appreciate that. Now, I got one. Blake, I'll start with you, but Kit, I want to get you in on this, too. And it is a bit of that story of the Chinese markets, because I know you're both living this from kind of different angles. China controls, as I understand it, 80% of lithium conversion and has spent the past years restricting gallium exports, not to mention tungsten, etc.

15:15 But I'll start, Blake, with you. As a developer with a Brazilian non-Chinese project, where do you fit into the Western supply chain push? How does that work for people looking at lithium ionic today? I mean, I think it's a great opportunity. I mean, the material can go anywhere as we move forward. We actually have a couple of offtakes in place with some of the largest refiners of material in the world, and they're Chinese-based. The nice thing about Brazil is that we trade well and are a trusted trading partner with pretty well every jurisdiction in the world. China does drive that market. It made sense to us to put something in place that set a floor on pricing, that made sure we made money on every single dollar or every single ton that we produced. It helped us with looking at lenders and getting our project built. Five-year term and who knows as Europe and North America continue to grow their refining capacity and the market continues to kind of round itself out, how our material ends up being integrated into either a North American strategy or a European strategy or continues to be driven by the Asian market. But either way, one of the huge advantages of where we are is that agnostic approach to global trade and the ability to put that material anywhere.

16:32 Yeah, I appreciate that. Kit, I got one for you in the same kind of vein, because I know at Illinois Creek, you've got a gallium credit in a country that currently produces almost none. The United States, not to say that Canada's producing a ton of gallium either. The whole West seems a little weak on gallium production. How much does that critical minerals angle matter to the Alaska silver story right now? Well, the first part is pretty straightforward. It matters really from a permitting standpoint. The US government's very interested in gallium. And so that's really the biggest help. From a production standpoint, you're right, the US produces 0, and it's a very critical component for the US military, and what's called the active radar display, which is what makes the F-35 the F-35, and also in all guided missile systems.

17:23 There is some gallium produced in Canada. Source is a little remarkable. It comes from grinding up Apple iWatches. So that's really not a long-term solution. So we have gallium and we have a high temperature silver-lead zinc deposit as opposed to the more common sedimentary lower temperature. So we have gallium, not germanium. Germanium is more common than the other deposits. So it is in the sphalerite and that would go into our zinc concentrate and then that would go to a zinc smelter. Trail is 1. NOAA in Japan is the largest Japanese zinc smelter and they do have a proprietary solution for extracting the gallium from sphalerite, and probably the only non-Chinese company that has that.

18:12 Gallium also comes from bauxite, and the US has been heavily investing in some Australian deposits or processing. But that's such a tiny component for bauxite producers. It's really not something they've ever been interested in. So we're going to move ahead with that. It is a significant component, is a byproduct, and it'll come out of the zinc. And we know we've done some testing, so we know that there is a commercial process that will pull the gallium out. We just need to get some help from the US government for metallurgy and some other things to move it ahead faster. And that's our goal right now. Great, thanks, Kit. Now, very briefly, I'm going to sneak in a couple of questions about your individual projects before we get back in the macro picture. Dan, I'm going to start with you because mostly I wasn't able to give you your flowers yesterday. I know you're at the end of, geez, an 8 and a half year process

19:09 for 1st Mining Gold of getting the environmental assessment for the Springpole Project in Ontario. So 1st, Congratulations, I wasn't able to say yesterday, but now that that primary permitting risk is behind you, what changes for 1st mining other than obviously the appreciation in share price you've already seen? Oh, well, you know, there's still a lot of work in front of us here. We've got the federal environmental assessment

19:31 Approvals last week, but we're still working our way through the provincial EA process. The provincially a document is out for public comment right now, and so it will be until the end of July. And so we're optimistic we get that provincially a by the end of the summer. We've announced agreements with 3 of the Indigenous communities that we're working with, but those are kind of term sheets. We still need to get to final definitive agreements on long-term project agreements with the community. So still some real work to do here, so we got to keep our head down and keep moving forward. But for us,

20:10 getting to these milestones really unlocks that next stage of the development plan. So we're getting ready, collecting all the remaining information we need for a feasibility study, targeting that DFS, you know, call it middle of next year. And in the meantime, we're starting more detailed engineering around actual, you know, construction permits, and closure planning, you know, important elements like that that. We'll take some time to get through so that works progressing and then, scoping out, you know, continued de risking on the project, which is likely an infill drill campaign, probably confirmatory metallurgy. And, you know, moving from there into looking at some of the, you know, early works, construction activity we can be starting around roads, power, camp. So lots to get done, but we're just, you know, we still got to get to the end of this, of the combined federal provincial EA process,

21:08 sort of in line of sight. But yeah, from there, we are rolling up our sleeves and moving on to the balance of that development plan at Springpool. So, you know, we're delighted to have got here. I've seen, you know, a nice bit of share price reaction over the last couple of weeks, but we're still trading at $50 an ounce, right? And I think that for us is the real, you know, metric that we're focused on is how do we now close that gap between us and a number of our peers that are trading at $250 a month. So yeah, lots of work still to do but I think there is real, real value in having achieved these milestones because every project in Canada is likely gonna have to go through. Hopefully, governments want it to move a little bit quicker, hopefully it's gonna move a bit quicker.

22:00 Real focus on critical minerals, I think will help in this conversation, help some of those things move more quickly. But the reality is shaving a year or 2 off what is a 15 year from, you know, discovery to construction decision time frame, isn't fundamentally going to change the supply or the pace of supply or the pace that new production capacity can come online. So yeah, it's exciting times and still lots of work to do. Awesome, I appreciate that. And yeah, it is, People got to remember even through the grindy part of the Lassonde curve, there's so much work that has to be done. First mining is getting it done. I'm going to throw it to you, Kit, for a quick one on

22:41 Illinois Creek. Because I know the company's called this summer the most aggressive drill program in Alaska silvers history. Got 2 rigs, 6,000 meters, boots on the ground, all season in Alaska. So walk us through what a successful season would look like by October when it might wrap up. Okay, well, we are full speed ahead. We have 2 drills going. We started the first week of June. Things are going very well. Actually, we're drilling quite a bit ahead of schedule, about 24% better drill production than before. But that's just part of the story. We have a triple-dar technical team. So, last year with our Silver Sage discovery on the south end of the airstrip, which is right over my head in the slide there in the photo, we have 1 drill going down there and then sort of directly below me in the air is Water Pump Creek. Second drill rig is exploring both extensions, Water Pump Creek North and Water Pump Creek South. And that's a really high-grade silver-lead zinc underground deposit.

23:41 But in addition to that, we've been working for the last 4 or 5 years

23:48 on planning and engineering for access route to the Yukon River, which is about 20 miles off my shoulder. And we're very close to that. We've done our engineering. We've just completed the cultural resources along the route. The wetlands team just came in yesterday when I left camp, and Fish and Game will follow them. So we have all our baseline studies in place and hope to file a right away application with the state very soon. So a lot of exploration going on. I'd like to extend our drilling program with our great success we've had so far. So that's something I'll be working on. And it's going to be a very good season. We hope to start de-risking Illinois Creek a little bit more with some metallurgy, taking a sample out of the... We have an open pit, so it's a little easier to go down and take a bulk sample than just drilling. So, we're in the process of doing that now.

24:44 And that should de-risk that, and we're going to be working on the economics for Illinois Creek, which was a past producing fully permitted mine. So that's a good starting point. So very good season. We're really excited with the progress so far. Awesome. Appreciate it. Now just for the 50 or so people who came in just a bit late, a reminder there is a request meeting button at the bottom. If you can request to meet with the management of any of the companies represented here today, please feel free to press that at any point during today's event. Bob, I'll throw it to you. Pinnacle's doing something interesting that I think very few people in the junior space do, which is that your drill program at El Patrero is underground delineation drilling, not surface exploration. I'd love if you could just tell the folks in the room who might not be as familiar with the strategy, Really, why do that? Why build towards a production decision that way?

25:36 Well, Romeo, I mean, it's fundamental to our business model really is, you know, to get to production as quickly as possible. And So it's not really an exploration story. So, we didn't take on this project to try and build out a large resource and take that kind of approach over a multi-year timeframe. We really do want to get production quickly. And because it's a past producing mine,

26:05 access to 3 historic underground mines on the property and all within a 500 meter strike length of the main vein. And so that provided an opportunity for us to get in there and do some initial systematic channel sampling which gave us a really good understanding of where the mineralization existed within the mine workings and a little bit about the overall grade and taking metallurgical samples and so on. So, doing all that work, but the underground workings are still somewhat limited

26:47 in extent And often they were just following right on the vein itself or maybe immediately adjacent to it, such that we really didn't have a good sense of the width of the vein and the size and shape of the mineralized zones. The easiest and fastest way to determine that was just to go straight to underground drilling. Because this project has been privately owned forever,

27:15 there has never been any drilling like this before. The owner just previously just started mining, basically built the plant and started mining. And we also don't have any of the old production records, which is a bit of a disadvantage, but it gave us an opportunity to go in with a clean slate. And so we just decided to go straight to the underground program and try to delineate

27:43 those zones from within the underground workings. And so the way we're set up in there is that, we've got drill stations established roughly every 12 and a half meters through the main adit.

28:01 And then the holes are being drilled as sort of a fan-like pattern. So if you think in terms of a bicycle wheel, where the drill is the hub of the wheel, And then the holes are being drilled in sort of a fan-like pattern. So if you think in terms of a bicycle wheel, where the drill is the hub of the wheel, and then the holes are being drilled off like the spokes coming out at different angles.

28:18 And it's a good way to visualize what we're doing. But, you know, in doing that, the holes are very closely spaced. And, you know, it's for that reason that we really need to drill quite a few of them and we have more than 100 planned within this program. But because they're so closely spaced, there's really no point in releasing

28:42 results on a few holes at a time the way you might normally do with a surface program. And so, you know, to date, we've drilled about 35 holes out of the roughly 108 that we were planning. But we only have assay results back for the first 13. And so I need to be able to get enough results back to be able to combine them all, interpret them, and then put those results into proper context. Because the way the holes are being drilled at different angles from the same station, without that context, a table of assay numbers is really meaningless. And so that's the way we've been approaching it. But out of this, we'll come out with a very, very strong understanding of the mineralized zones within those workings. And then we'll be able to transition from there to a surface drill program, where we'll then be able to drill above those holes and also in between the underground workings because they don't connect underground and then step out to also drill adjacent veins to be able to add to the tonnage and grade and provide the upside, you know, a little bit farther down the road.

30:08 So, you know, this was a way, going at it this way was a way to get some early confidence in terms of the mineralized zones and take us, you know, a significant step closer in de-risking the project. Thank you very much, Bob. Blake, I've got one for you. I've got some more macro questions for you actually, because I am curious about the lithium story. But if you don't mind, I know this is at some degree your introduction to the 6 audience. I love if you could share just where the Bandera project is at right now. I know you're ambitiously moving towards production at a pretty speedy rate. What's up next at the project for investors? Yeah, so I mean, Bandera is moving about as fast as I think you can move a project forward. We went from discovery hole in 2022.

30:56 On that asset alone, we've outlined roughly 50 million tons of resource, very rich in spodumene. And now we've engaged through the state and federal level permitting process. We're about 90% of the way through the federal process. We expect to have the response on that for extraction in the next couple of months here. And then that would set us up for the state vote, bless you Kit, and it would set us up for the state vote, which ultimately we feel well supported on as well. And so we think within the next 3 months or so, we're going to be a fully permitted operational extraction environmental permits in our hands to start building the project. So to go from discovery hole to starting construction and ultimately in a place where we believe we can be producing at the end of 27, start of 28.

31:54 I don't know if you can move projects much faster than that. It speaks to the type of asset, the quality of the asset, and the jurisdiction that we're in and also ultimately the team that's working on it. So I look at us, we separate ourselves from a lot of our peer group. There aren't many projects that have been able to move that quickly and set themselves up to be a near-term producer and certainly be at this stage of project in the timeline. A lot of it has been reactive to a spike in the lithium market and a need, a growing demand that needs to be filled in. And ultimately, I think, you know, whether you're in the North American jurisdictions or European or wherever you may be, it just takes longer to get those projects moving forward. And that's just a reality and not a knock on any of those projects. It's just a different place to be in a different jurisdiction to work in. So, I mean, as dry as the state has been, fantastic to move Bandera forward.

32:55 I look at our project and think, wow, it's one of the, well, we'll be one of the lowest cost producers in the world. It's inexpensive to build. The rate of return on it is fantastic. And it'll fit right into what we believe to be the perfect time in the cycle where demand is growing and there's just not enough supply. And so we're pretty excited about the coming months here for the project. I appreciate that. I do want to throw back to macro for you for a second. This is really a reference to something you were talking about earlier, which is last time lithium went up, it was to some degree about the North American EV story, I think. Whereas now, quietly, energy storage has become seemingly a big new source of lithium demand. Does that change how you read the demand side?

33:43 There's, I mean, there always seems to be this massive disconnect in the lithium space between supply and demand. I think in a lot of ways, the idea of what supply is coming online is grossly overestimated based on a lot of reports that are out there. And so that sometimes quiets the investment in the space, the belief that, okay, there's a lot of lithium out there that's going to come on and fill this need. The reality is, all of a sudden, a brand new industry pops up in EVs, and now that sets itself up to be about 90% of the global demand for lithium right now is feeding an EV market. And if you look at the next 5 years or even less, battery storage looks to replace it as the largest need for lithium in the market. I mean, so going from 1 industry that didn't exist, then taking up 90% of global demand for lithium, and then a new industry again that didn't exist, that's going to take over for EV as the next wave of demand.

34:48 And then you curtail that into robotics, which is something we don't really talk about here in the Western world, but if you're in China, this is very much top of mind. These are all brand new industries that are gonna need these materials. There is just, I'm very excited, I mean, but also, you know, it's pretty wild to think about the demand that's going to be coming online and the projects that just won't be there yet to fill that. And I think that that should be the excitement about, you know, the next wave and the next cycle where we're at. And I just think there is that always going to be that disconnect in some ways from the supply demand in this, because it is so tightly held by the Chinese market in a lot of ways. So it's, You know, it's not a commodity that's spot traded, it's auction traded. And so it's a bit of a black box for some of the investors.

35:37 But it's pretty wild to look at what's coming next in the battery storage world. Yeah, it really is just quite different. There's no lithiumprice.org where you can just see what the price is. It's quite different than gold. One question I had for you, just something I've noticed about the lithium market, is it's odd, forecasters can't even agree on a surplus versus deficit. You've got S&P and Wood Mackenzie on one side, Morgan Stanley and UBS on the other. How's a company like Lithium Ionic looking at the call to build into a price environment where it's contested whether there's even a surplus or a deficit? How are you thinking about those oppositional forecasts? Well, I think we put boots on the ground and go see it ourselves. I mean, I've been very fortunate to go around and just come back from China recently and have seen the type of expansion, the refinery expansion, the expectation of demand there.

36:32 If you go to Shanghai, a city of 20 million people, every second car is an EV. If you walk through a mall, there's 5 EV companies selling EVs in there. It's driven differently in that market than it was in North America. North America was almost force fed. You know, that this was gonna be what we're gonna do and this is how things are gonna work. And, you know, there were so many questions about, well, how would infrastructure keep up with that? And how is that gonna actually work? And, you know, I can't drive this far, range anxiety and all these kinds of things. In reality, there, what they've said is, well, we're gonna build this market, the infrastructure is gonna come after and that's gonna be the next phase of what we do. And then, you know, then the battery storage comes along and that's another opportunity. And so that drives other markets, like, you know, the nuclear market and, you know, sort of what comes next in that and how energy is going to be created there.

37:25 We, like I said, came back from China recently. We met with multiple refiners who have committed to some of their downstream purchasers that they will be expanding over 10 times their current capacity. There is just not enough material being produced globally right now to feed that demand, And it is a disconnect between there and here. They are all in and certainly expanding and building for that. And they continue to see this as an opportunity to control the industrial economy. And they're going to continue to grow that market and mop up as much of the supplies they possibly can. So I think, you know, there's a bit of a denial situation going on in North America and, you know, a lot of the world that EVs are wavering or that battery storage is not as large as it's going to be. And it just couldn't be further from the truth. So we view it very much from, you know, going there and touching it, seeing it, seeing how quickly these refineries are coming online, seeing how focused and dedicated the Chinese market is to growing that market.

38:33 And we see a massive gap starting to form between the supply and demand. No, honestly, appreciate the macro view very much. And it's a tricky one to speak on in a lot of ways. So appreciate that. I wanna talk about financing for a second and Bob, I'm gonna throw it to you first, but Kit, I'd love to get your opinion on this too. As, you know, exploration stage, you know, progressing quickly, exploration stage companies, financing conditions for juniors do seem to have improved over the last year, along with the metals. But from what I've seen and what analysts are talking about, generalist money still hasn't fully shown up. Bob, we'll start with you first. Are you seeing that change in real time on your side? What's it going to take to get, let's say, my mom talking about metals and mining securities?

39:22 Well, Romain, I think, with all due respect, I think if folks like your mom are starting to talk about it, then that's not really a good sign because then we're probably close to the peak. But I take your point. No, I mean, we are starting to see a shift in a lot of the meetings that we're going to, and conferences and so on. People are looking at the entire market. It's an interesting dynamic right now with the interplay with critical metals, and things like lithium and so on, as well as precious metals. So it's the whole commodities universe that's really starting to move. I think a lot of these generalists are recognizing that they need to get into the mining space, but there's so much more to it than perhaps some previous cycles that they've been exposed to where it was maybe just precious metals or maybe just base metals or something like that.

40:29 And So I think they're being, you know, they're sort of bullish, but still somewhat cautious as well. And so they're not necessarily just jumping in. And often the journalists will take a while to filter down from the larger companies down to the junior level anyway. That's just normal. And so I think it will come. We're not quite there yet. And I guess that's both good and bad. But yeah, I mean, the financing opportunities are opening up for sure. Still very much at the retail level for the juniors. But then we're finding for ourselves a big part of our shareholder base is coming from family offices, high net worth individuals, that sort of thing.

41:24 And for a company our size, we haven't quite moved into the institutional space yet, but we want to get there, but it's a bit of a transition. And as we get closer to actually making that production decision, I think that will happen as well. So I think it's a good trend. It's healthy and I like what I see. Well, thanks Bob. And I, to be honest, agree. If my mother ever understands what I do for a living, it's probably time to sell everything. That might be the end. But Ken, I'll let you get in on the same question. How have you seen financing change over the last year as metals prices have jumped up and down. Who are you seeing? Is it a different crowd or generalists in yet or is that still to come? There, how's that Romeo?

42:21 Better? Yeah, I think the big change, and you never can predict what is going to make a change, but the war in Iran, everybody thought, well, this is a petroleum issue. And then, but the world of commodities changed when suddenly people realized that a blockade created a shortage in sulfuric acid to pick a number 4 in fertilizer. It's the world of commodities is so interrelated. So when you shut down natural gas production in Qatar, and suddenly that causes a shortage in fertilizer, which is soon to be causing a food shortage, that just opens people's eyes up. And you see that sulfuric acid putting a crimp in the copper production. Who would have predicted that ahead of time? So that's the type of thing that just opens the generalist's eyes up to the world of commodities.

43:18 Once that sinks in that there are supply chain issues, there are major production issues, we're not awash in commodities as everybody maybe thought we were, that then will percolate into the precious metal, base metal markets. Producers always are looked at first, and then through the pre-development companies like us. So I think that's the change. It's been very different and unexpected, and change usually is unexpected. So that's what's sort of happening in my view. Now, I think expect the unexpected sometimes in metals markets is certainly the case. Dan, I'm going to throw it to you on financing because you're in a different universe a little bit as a developer stage now with new permits in hand. You said the pool of potential financing partners expanded kind of the moment that permitting risk came off spring fall. So what does that financing conversation look like now in this gold market and where you think the market's going this year?

44:19 Well it's interesting, you know, for us the reality is there's not that many projects that are at an advanced stage, you know, that are looking at these construction decisions, not projects of size, over the course of the next, you know, 3 or 4 years in Canada. We know that because we know how long the permitting process is, much as I've actually been involved in permitting a couple of projects in Brazil, as Blake has, and they have a very efficient bureaucracy that can see those things go through. The financing discussion for us, a lot of our shareholder base today, probably 70%, is much like Bob was talking about. It's high net worth individuals, it's family offices, it's a lot of traditional, you know, real supporters and followers of Keith Neumayer, our chairman and founder. So, we've had a great supportive shareholder base, but once we got this environmental assessment approval at Springpool and the community agreements as well, it really sort of for the first time has opened up, I'd say probably 90% of that institutional shareholder base, institutional investor base to look at 1st mining. Because a lot of investors are just kind of looked in the past and said, you know, too hard.

45:38 I can't handicap the probability of you getting this environmental assessment approval. So we're We are still fundamentally underheld versus our peers, who would probably be more in the 60 to 70% institutionally held. We're at low 20s right now, and I think we're going to see that continue to change here as we move forward? There's lots of capital available but you know to the to the other points you've been asking like generalists, no I think we had a bit of a false start. We saw in in the fall and in January what happens when we have inflows into the sector? And I think what people need to understand is even in that, like prior to that run up in the years prior when gold was going from, you know, $1,300 to whatever, $1,600 or, you know, to $3,000, $3,500, we didn't see that momentum come into the sector.

46:40 And it was really in a short period of time where you could actually feel it. You saw everything going up 5% and 10% a day on some days. And it was actual capital coming in to get exposure to the sector. So we still haven't really seen that. That's certainly cooled off. And I think We were just looking this past week at how far off some very large cap gold companies have fallen since their peaks in January. Like the largest gold companies are off 35, 40 percent from those peaks. That's a massive amount of market cap that you've seen given back. And why? Because the gold price has pulled back to $4,000 an ounce where they're still generating like record levels of free cash flow. So we have this disconnect. Our industry always struggles to attract a broader investor base than those that are mandated to invest in it. But what's going to solve that is the value, it's cash flow, It's the deep value that all of these gold producers are trading at right now. And not just gold, I mean, talking about more broadly on commodities.

47:55 We're quietly and secretly in the middle of a phenomenal bull run that has only begun to be recognized. So it's really when we start seeing those other flows of capital starting to come into the sector and you'll see it coming into ETFs and then you'll see it coming into producers and coming into single name companies, that's when it starts getting really exciting. And so we got a bit of a taste of it last fall and into January. But I think there's a lot more of that to come. And particularly, going back to the beginning of this discussion in the gold sort of thesis, but I really struggle to see how, you know, there's anything that's going to change the situation for, you know, gold and the role that it plays in the financial system.

48:47 I tend to agree and I tell people Beaver Creek 25 to Beaver Creek 26 is the first time I've seen cautious smiles from famously grumpy mining CEOs. There's brief windows. So I know we're getting towards the end of time today. Before I make everybody give a price target, I'm sorry, the chat has asked me to, so I have to. But I want each of you to kind of pitch your story. Now, I don't actually have a gong, but I'd love if you all stuck to 90 seconds. I know there's a few hundred people in the room, many of them investors of only one company, some of none. If you could pitch to that group. Kit, I'm going to start with you. Why should people take a look at Alaska Silver? The main reason is to look at we have 2 excellent resources. The past producing Illinois Creek oxide gold silver mine. That's something we're working on.

49:33 Very importantly, it was fully permitted, fully operational. It just didn't make money when gold was $270 an ounce in 1997-98. That has changed and we're looking at that opportunity. Water Pump Creek is one of the highest grade polymetallic resources around. We're working on that to expand it, but it is a great resource. We're de-risking both of those deposits as we move ahead. These are great opportunities. We're trading at, like everybody else, I think depressed levels, less than when we went public a few years ago. But if Franco, Nevada and Newmont are up 40%, then I guess that tells the story right there. I think we'll be coming back and towards the end of the summer as the results come in, it's a great opportunity.

50:24 Awesome. Thanks, Kit. Bob, same story. Pitch why people should look at Pinnacle Silver and Gold's Pochero Project. Well, essentially, we're looking towards getting into production and cash flow as quickly as we possibly can. We recognize that this project is not huge, that's not the intent, but it is a past producer. We think we can get there fairly quickly. Right now we're targeting the end of next year to get to production. If we can get all the permits and everything in place as well. And the idea is to really just continue to build the company out of cash flow rather than being held hostage to these crazy markets that we're in and continuing to have to dilute the financing.

51:15 So that's really where we're heading. You know, we've recently signed an agreement appointing Oromet Capital Partners to finance the project. And we think we only need about $5 million US to actually get it into production. So with signing that agreement, we now have the confidence that the funds are going to be there to get to that point. And we're just de-risking the project now, moving it forward. And once we get there, we also have a second past-producing high-grade gold mine, which is in Ontario, only about 10 kilometers from 1st mining spring pool project. So, it's a great mine, great location as well. And ultimately we'll get to that one as well. But The idea is just to get to cash flow as quickly as we can and then continue to build the company Through expanding that project as well as our agency and acquiring other projects along the way Awesome. Thanks, Bob Blake. I'll throw it to you. This is I think primarily I would say a precious metals audience But for those who are lithium curious, we'll call them in the audience. What's the pitch for Bandera?

52:24 Well, yeah, and these are great assets we've been talking about today, so I look forward to following all of them. But yeah, look, I think we're at a stage that we're very close to some of the re-rate that Dan's benefiting from now and the success they've had in getting permits through. And look, we're a project that has moved very quickly. It's very high quality rock, very clean, produces at a very low cost, low cost to build. It's about 200 million capex to build this project. Today's price is about 2 billion NPV to that and almost 100% IRR to that. So you look at where we trade right now on a P2Nav basis, it's less than 0.1 P2Nav. Our peer group as a producer, where we look to be in roughly 18 months, trade at almost a 1.0. So there's a 10 to 12 times multiple from where we are sitting today. And I think that should be exciting to anybody looking at the project.

53:17 Very close to that permit re-rate, the catalyst of financing that project and starting construction and ultimately being in a position to produce in 18 months. I mean, it's a, I think a rare opportunity to find projects like this. We're very fortunate to have a project like this. The team's doing a great job moving it to a place where we can be producing as quickly as we are. You can see a lot of news that we've been putting out about securing long lead items and actually starting the build of this project. So, you know, it's an exciting time for us on the micro scale. And for all those reasons I've talked about on the macro scale, I think we're going to be pushing this thing into production at a time when we start to see that cycle really, really rip and ultimately get a huge return to investors.

54:04 You mentioned the Lassonde curve, this is the right time for a project like ours and for people to jump in and ultimately see the benefit of getting in here before they have to chase it later. So yeah, I guess that's my elevator pitch, but very exciting and excited to see all these other projects continue to move forward as well. Thanks Blake, appreciate that. And finally, Dan, for those of you who are not familiar with FirstMiningGold, after today's conversation, why is now a good time to get involved? Well I think you know we've got 2 of the largest undeveloped gold projects in Canada and the most recent one to get its federal environmental assessment approval. You know these are world-class deposits big enough to be meaningful to the largest gold miners in the world in wonderful tier 1 jurisdictions, both Springfool and DuParquet, big robust projects with very attractive financial metrics. And you can buy it today for $50 an ounce when our peers are trading at $250.

55:06 So yeah, we've seen the beginning of some of that re-rate, but it's only been a week. So we're expecting that It takes a little bit longer than that for this, what I think is a logical migration of the shareholder base. But one of the things that we continue to talk to investors about is the reason I love being a shareholder of this company is that you don't really have to search for where you're gonna find the value, right? We're not dependent on a drill hole that's gonna deliver an outcome. These are well-drilled, well-established resources that have had combined probably $500 million spent on them. And they are scarce, and people are starting to realize how scarce large permitted resources in tier 1 jurisdictions are.

55:55 So yeah, that's lots of opportunity from here. Appreciate it. There just aren't that many of the big ones. Majors are getting thin. That's how it goes. Now I will end with only 4 minutes left on the hardest question by far, so bear with me. But it's also a quick one to answer, and that's somebody looking for price targets for the end of 26. Dan, I'll throw it to you for gold, Kit for silver, Bob for both, and then Blake for, I guess, a range, because lithium is the toughest one to put a number to but then if you can buy Christmas will call it 26 which price target for gold $6,000. Thank you very much. I love Dan is always want to give a number. I don't know is so lame. I appreciate it. Kit, go for it for silver. I think at the end of the year, we'll probably settle at around 70, but there will be a pop way above that sometime along. And that's just the way the silver market goes. And what that is, is that one's too tough to call.

56:48 The top. I would 70 for my pile of physical in Canada. I'd be thrilled to see 70 this year, so that's great. Bob, I'll throw it to you for both. Well, not too far off. I was going to say about 75 for silver. And on the gold side, I'm going to be a little bit more conservative than Dan, but go for 5,000, but still heading higher after that. Appreciate it. And people will clip these and put them on Twitter just so you guys know. So be prepared for that. Blake, I'll throw it to you. You have the easiest job here in some ways and also the hardest for the range of where lithium will be at the end of the year. Jeez, I want to guess silver and gold. But those are blow your hair back numbers for those commodities in the last 10 years. But I am really excited. Listen, I think that we're going to see a tightening in the market in lithium.

57:44 I'll use Fodgemean as the price because that's what we're looking to sell. And ultimately, I think we're going to be well over $3,000 a ton by the end of this year and into the start of that cycle that we talked about earlier. So very, very exciting time for us. Thank you very much, Blake. Dan, Kit, Blake, Bob, Thank you so much for joining us. This was a great discussion. I know there were hundreds of people in the room, so thank you for being behaved and appreciating that I wasn't going to get to all questions today. I will send through the ones you emailed in for individual security, so don't worry about that, and the replay will be available end of day. But gentlemen, thank you so much. I think this was a great discussion. I really appreciate your time very much.