Generation Mining - Environmental Assessment - Public Hearings Conclude – The Path Forward

0:08 Well, hello and welcome everyone to Generation Mining's live summit today hosted by 6. We're joined today by Drew Anwalt, the company's CEO. Drew's going to provide a brief update and then we will be accepting questions. So you can submit your questions at any time using the Q&A panel on the right hand side of the screen and we'll get to them after the update. And as always the summit's being recorded and available to watch afterwards on SIX.com. But without further ado I'll hand it over to you, Drew, to kick it off. Thanks, Dasha. I hope everybody's having a good day.

0:40 All right, just a quick forward looking statement. Some of the material I will be giving will be balanced off by risk and uncertainty. So feel free to read that at your leisure. For most everybody on the call, I think we know where the project is. We're on the North shore of Lake Superior with brilliant infrastructure in the area. Again, I won't go over this in any detail as today's session is really based on the EA process and what's next after the EA. So just to give everybody a bit of a review of where we've come from, earlier this year, late last year actually, we received sufficiency on the environmental assessment documents, the EIS, environmental impact statement.

1:28 And that set off the process with which we just finished now. So we went over roughly 30 days of direct hearings that started in mid-March and we just closed off closing statements as of May 18th and 19th. So it was quite a relief to be done with this process. So that's where we've come from. And the real question is what's next? What's the next process? So Through the period of the hearings, we had the opportunity to present the environmental assessment for the project. And through the process, we went through the joint review panel, government agencies, NGOs, First Nation communities, indigenous folks, regional communities had the opportunity to voice questions, concerns, support, et cetera, for the process.

2:32 So where we are right now is the process is now closed. The 3 members of the Joint Review Panel and the Panel Secretariat will write their report which is really a summary document that includes all the information that exists in the EIS and really outlines the decisions of the report and the environmental assessment. And that will take roughly 90 days. We anticipate and we hope that the joint review panel will finish that report quicker than 90 days, but they have a legislated period. That report actually gets issued to the federal provincial ministers of the environment.

3:21 And the ministers have 120 days from that public document, once it's been issued, to set their timeframe. So again, we're hoping that the government folks can expedite that decision. But really the scenarios we're looking at is earliest opportunity is probably late October, early November for when the ministers will approve it. And if it goes late, then it comes to mid December. Following that period and once the EA is approved, that's where the permits would get updated and would get issued. And that's really about a 2 to 3 month period. And then following the permits, the receiving the critical permits, that's where we would start construction.

4:14 And again, the key permits we have to get are related to the closure planning, which we expect to have drafted and interfaced with different communities, specifically Bictagon-Nishinabeg, one of our local First Nations. So we expect to have that closure plan available for key discussion in the summertime. And the other permits that are critical are permit to cut trees and some species at risk associated with Caribou offset plan. So when everything goes well, we start construction early in 2023. Q1 2023 is the anticipated timeline. Again, I've got a list of the permits we need for the first part of construction.

5:06 And again, no point in going over those in details.

5:11 And through the process, again, this is a high level schedule. You see we've progressed through most of the phases. We're going through the detailed engineering right now and mine financing is progressing as well. So the goal is, as I discussed, starting construction in 2023 and production, let's say 20 to 24 months after that. There we go. There's a high level overview. Dash, back to you. Great, thank you so much. Quite a few questions have come in. First, what are the critical permits to start construction? So as I said, the closure plan, which is a provincial permit.

6:02 We've got to get the approval for the species at risk, which are associated with caribou on the North Shore, and then the simple permit to cut trees. So The critical path is really through the OB, the overall benefit for the caribou species at risk and closure planning.

6:24 Adam's asking, do both provincial and federal ministers need to approve? Correct, yeah. So it is a joint review panel, which means it's a, and the panel itself is set up independent from the government itself. It's an independent panel and they present their recommendations to both the federal and provincial ministers. Got it. Thank you. Doug's asking, what was the outcome of undertaking 31? Great question. So undertaking 31, during the hearings, the panel asked us to document all of the commitments we've made through the EIS documents, through the information requests, and through the hearing.

7:09 And during that process we had conversations with with 2 of the First Nations Biktigon and Nishinabeg, which are about 10 kilometres away from the site and have exerted exclusive land title, Aboriginal title over the property. So they were a key partner in clarifying and understanding and us working with them, to be honest, to get those commitments clarified. And we also spent some time with another First Nation that's that's proximal about 100 kilometers away further to the west called Pace Platte. So that undertaking 31 was really documenting the commitments and and frankly making sure that that BN was was aligned with the commitments we've made.

8:05 Great, yeah, there are quite a few questions about your relationship with BN. Do they support the project? What is the relationship? The relationship is strong. Again, during this undertaking 31, we had numerous interactions with them, some robust discussions on some of the commitments. And at this point, we have signed an AIP, an agreement in principle, which really maps out the framework for the community benefit agreement going ahead. And we've also signed an MOA, a memorandum of understanding, which really defines how the relationship will work with some set aside contracting and whatnot.

8:56 So BN is very strong and very balanced on the environmental protection, specifically of the Big Tig Zibi, the Pick River, which goes through the east of our property. Very strong on environmental protection overall, but also recognizing there's a balance of development and benefits that both be in and the Town of Marathon will receive. So they've been

9:28 strong on the relationship at this point in time. Things are progressing very well with them, but they still need to continue down the path. Okay, thank you. Adam's asking, what is the expected timeline of final approval to build the mine? So final approval to build the mine, the steps really involve completing the EA, which as I said goes through the federal and provincial ministries, getting the key permits to allow us to start construction, of course getting a community benefit agreement with Bictagon Nishinabe and getting the financing organized.

10:12 Thank you. Stuart's wondering How much of a buffer for inflation creep was included in the previously announced CapEx budget and is it still sufficient? Interesting question. So we are going through the detailed engineering right now. The world is certainly seeing a crazy time and we still have to evaluate what the total impact on the project will be. Okay. Thank you. Sam's just asking, is everyone impacted seem to be on board with the project. Do you think that panel members have any concerns of their own? Well, what we'll see from the joint review panel report is they really document and they collect all the concerns.

11:02 So through the process, most of the First Nations had the opportunity to either submit in writing or present directly.

11:12 We had some non-government organizations that presented some tough questions for us. And frankly, whether they're fully informed as the company is, we've been working on this project, not me directly, but certainly other folks, Generation Mining and the previous proponent for over a decade. So we understand the project exceptionally well. But the tough questions that we do get through the panel allow us to make a better project and make sure all those concerns are addressed. Yeah, absolutely. Ron's asking, can you expand on what set-asides have been discussed and up for consideration? Yeah, so I won't go into detail what the set-asides are, but what Biktigon Nishnawbeg is quite an exceptional community. They've got a lot of skills that already exist in the community, and they also have some aspirational areas for development.

12:16 So the set-asides are really a commitment between generation and BN that allows us to work on sustainable businesses to make sure that the benefits of the project are equally balanced with BN. Another question here, I don't know if you can answer this because it's directed towards Jamie, but there was a recent share purchased by Jamie. Can this be interpreted that he believes the permit is going to be awarded?

12:49 That would be, we'd have to ask Jamie on that. But, but the management and, and some senior executives are certainly supporters of the project. We see this as a great opportunity and we embrace the opportunity to be shareholders and gain from the benefit as well. Absolutely. Well, Drew, thank you so much for coming on and providing us the update and obviously taking us through the Q&A. Thank you for everyone who joined and asked all these great questions. If you do have any follow-up questions, feel free to reach out directly to the Generation Mining team. They'll be happy to follow up with you. And of course, you can find more information on their website. So genmining.com. I'll pass it back to you if you have any closing remarks, Drew. No, thanks for everybody for dialing in for the quick update and if you're in Canada, enjoy your long weekend.