DOD Awards $6.2M to Sustain Critical Production of Tungsten

0:04 I'll say good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where in the world you're signing in from today. I saw at least a number of people sign in from Asia, so really appreciate you joining us close to midnight your time. That's very kind of you. I've got with me today Oliver Friesen, CEO of Guardian Metal Resources and JT Starzycki, the company's executive chairman. Gentlemen, how are you today? Doing great, Romeo. Yeah, doing well. Thank you. Awesome. So they're here to discuss 2 rapid fire press releases that went out this morning, London time. The granting of a $6.2 million award from the United States Department of Defense and the announcement of a successful raise of approximately $21 million US. So here's how today's going to work. First, I'm going to throw it to Oliver for a really just quick intro. Then I've got some questions for the executives today. And then I'm going to throw it to our live audience here for a few questions from your end. Try to get to a couple at least before we end today. The bottom of your bottom right of your screen, there's a chat button. Once you press that, that's where you're able to ask questions to both of them today. We'll try to get to as many as we can. But if we don't get to your question, just for whatever reason, we run out of time.

0:58 There are a lot of you in the room, so there may just be too many. I'll make sure that those questions get to Oliver, JT, and the team, along with your email address or phone number so they can get back to you as quickly as possible. But honestly, before we get into anything else, I'll throw it to Oliver for a bit of an intro. Go for it. Yeah, very good, Romeo. Good to chat again. I know it was only a few days ago, I think, that we spoke last, but things are moving quickly. I apologize in advance, JT and I are running on fumes right now. It's been a few sleepless nights.

1:28 So we've been obviously working hard getting all this over the line. It's here now, which is fantastic. Hopefully, we're making sense in our answers. We do need to get some good sleep tonight, hopefully. But before we do get started, just really what I wanted to say is on behalf of Golden Metal Resources, USLC, which is our US operating and holding company, as well as our global Guardian Metal Resources team. You know, a huge thanks to not only the United States Department of Defense, but also the Trump administration for delivering a very essential award for US domestic production of tungsten. So that's the first thing I wanted to say. And also just on top of that, it is a huge honor to be the first U.S. Recipient, U.S. Being the keyword there of Defense Production Act Title III award for U.S. Tungsten mining. So it's a huge honor to be in this position. I think it really highlights, you know, the position that we occupy here at Guardian and Gold and other resources and where we can go with the support of the DPA3 program and the financing we've completed today.

2:32 Awesome, I appreciate that intro. I do want to get right into it with you guys. So let me jump in. Oliver, I'll start with you. I know we've talked about this before, but for the folks in the room, China controls 80% of tungsten supply and imposed some pretty significant export restrictions, I think, and surprising some people with their timing. But how does this Department of Defense award position Guardian medals to solve America's tungsten crisis?

2:54 Yeah, it's a good question. I think I think the first thing that I would say is it allows us to go faster. A lot of times junior mining companies are reliant on raising capital, as we have done today. But to have the government be able to come in there and help support a portion of that means we can go quicker. And now JT and myself and the team, what we can do is with this award in hand and the financing is we can really put our heads down and focus on the task at hand, which is getting to the goal of delivering, you know, mine tungsten production to the US market. So it allows us to go quicker. Also, just in terms of really solidifying our position as we believe a leader, if not the leader in US tungsten exploration and development. So it's a really, really important milestone day for us. Easily the most important day of the company thus far in our only just over 2 year history.

3:46 But really today feels like the starting gun for JT, myself and the team. And now it's time to go and now it's time to deliver on our mission and our goal here. So it's very, very exciting. And as you pointed out, China is currently just north of 80% of the total global tungsten market.

4:01 And some of your listeners may be familiar with the fact that as of February 4th, all exports of tungsten material outside of China were shut off. So what we're seeing now is a lot of tightness in the market. And just on top of that, another data point is that you look at the top 5 global producers, you also have North Korea and Russia in the list as well. So really that points to the urgent need for a company like Guardian to deliver

4:27 meaningful tungsten mine supply to the US market. So it's a really exciting day. And to answer your question, the award allows us to go quicker. And that's exactly what we're going to do here. That's great. And investors love to hear quicker. So that's awesome. JT, I'm going to get you in here. As Oliver mentioned, you know, your first company with U.S. Assets to get that Defense Production Act funding for tungsten mining. How significant is that kind of first mover advantage to Guardian? Sorry, Romeo, I literally just dropped out. So I just clicked back in. If you wouldn't mind sort of repeating that, that would be amazing. Yeah, no problem. I still saw your face, but I guess it was frozen in time actually. But my question was, I know as Oliver mentioned, you're the first company with US assets to get the Defense Production Act funding. How significant is that first mover advantage for Guardian?

5:17 Oh, I mean, honestly, I think it's everything.

5:21 In the junior mining and metal space in the defense middle metal space critical metal space you know there's there's been some companies that sort of have come before us and we've seen high levels of success, having them be sort of first to the market or first to the table. You know, in the recent news, we've seen a lot about MP Materials, right?

5:42 As really the only and kind of, well, the first and now only, you know, producer of rare earths in the United States. A lot of press, a lot of opportunity has unfolded because they were a first mover. We've seen what great things Perpetua and their Steven Knight Project has done, you know, for antimony, particularly establishing them as the primary source of antimony in the future here in the United States. And we very, and I think rightfully, can take our place in that conversation now being sort of the first to the market when it comes to US-based tungsten. So exploration, but remember, our projects were former producing assets and we've got infrastructure in place. And so, you know, as Oliver rightfully pointed out, what this award gives us and the funding package gives us is the ability to fast track everything and to move both of our projects forward. So I think being a first mover

6:38 gives us a massive advantage. And I think we've got companies that have come before us that show that being first in this case is a great opportunity. And we're certainly going to step on the gas and we're not going to waste this opportunity. This is something pretty special. Awesome. And actually, while I got you on that, I'd love if you could talk me through just the current tungsten supply chain landscape in the USA? Because I know most of it does come from China right now,

7:05 globally. So I'm curious, if you're able to put your projects into production, what does the downstream start to look like in the US? Yeah, no, that's a fantastic question. First, let me kind of sort of walk through what the market looks like today. And Oliver alluded to it in his opening remarks. The market is tight. I mean, there is with no product coming in as of February from China. You know, there are derivatives companies right down that sit downstream in the value chain that are looking anywhere and everywhere for even scrap material so that they can reprocess that. As far as how we're planning to build out our business, right, so we'll mine the rock and we'll produce tungsten concentrate And that tungsten concentrate will then go to the likes of, you know, of companies that we have commercial arrangements with. So, you know, anybody that's been following our story knows that we've got an LOI with Global Tungsten and Powders in Pennsylvania. And so our tungsten concentrate will go to a place like GTP specifically.

8:04 They will produce the Ammonium Peritungstate product or all the other derivative products. But one thing that I'd really like to

8:13 point out to our audience that are kind enough to join us today is what you have with Guardian is you have the first opportunity to have a mined and processed tungsten downstream derivative value chain, right? And so we in the United States have had the ability to to

8:31 take tungsten concentrate and produce all these high-value products, whether it's for oil and gas and exploration, national defense, aerospace, but what we haven't had in decades is the ability to mine the product. So here we've got now Guardian Metals coming to the market with the ability to have a full end-to-end solution right here on American soil. You mine the product, turn it into a concentrate, work with your partners to create the derivative of products and deliver it to the end customer. It's a pretty special opportunity. Great. And just for the folks in the room, and myself, for that matter, I love you could, everybody knows of Tungsten, I think, as a defense medal, or it's at least increasingly becoming known as such. But can you walk us through what the actual military uses are? And how big is the defense opportunity?

9:16 And how does it coincide with kind of the timing of this award from the DoD?

9:19 Sure, sure. So the defense opportunity, generally speaking, has been a consistent and a pretty rapid growth on a pretty rapid growth trajectory in the last couple of years. But it historically hasn't been the main driver. Exploration, drilling specifically, has been sort of that consistent need for the product. Because of the physical properties of tungsten, it makes a great input into drill bits. And so the likes of a Slumber J and a Baker Hughes, those organizations really rely on the product

9:51 to sort of, for all of their drilling equipment and all the high-end cutting tools that sort of go into that. From a military application perspective, projectiles is a big input, right? So armor piercing rounds, even things like grenades, but then also on the flip side of that, armor defense, right? So skins and armors for vehicles, for tanks.

10:15 Again, it has ammunition type, you know, munitions type applications. It has sort of vehicle defense, even personal defense in sort of body armor type applications. And sort of given where we're headed in the United States and the need to sort of bring more of that within our own borders so that our own military has access to these types of materials. That's where we're seeing some growth here last year, this year, forecasted into next year.

10:46 And there's been no shortage of press on the fact that the national stockpile in the United States has been depleted across a lot of different critical minerals, tungsten being one of them. So lots of opportunities there, lots of opportunities in some other pretty traditional markets. And then there's a lot of new applications that you've heard Oliver speak on, you know, in previous webcasts and presentations.

11:09 So hopefully that gives the audience an idea of how big the market actually is. I appreciate that. And for folks on the channel, I'll link some of the previous interviews. I know there's quite a few that I don't think have seen Guardian before, so I'll make sure we link those previous interviews so you can get a look at those as well. Oliver, I want to get you back in here to kind of zoom in on your projects for a second. So you already have, as I understand it, water rights, nearby power, and clean environmental baselines. So how does the DoD funding accelerate the advantage over your competitors who are kind of starting from scratch? Yeah, so I think this is the thing to highlight first there, Romeo, is so we have our 2 co-flagship assets. So Pilot Mountain, That is the asset of which we received DPA3 funding for the award for to date. So that funding is earmarked for PFS related work streams for that project. And we acquired that project about 5 years ago.

11:59 And it also hosts the largest undeveloped tungsten deposit in the US. So obviously a very critical asset on US soil, especially given the current

12:07 geopolitical climate. And then fast forward, what we did is we acquired another asset at a very opportunistic time, really before people started to get clued into the importance of this metal. So we acquired a Tempai Ute. We closed that deal earlier this year and that was actually formerly the largest tungsten mine in the United States of America for many, many years. And I think you know, investors or listeners who know this story, the thing that probably stands out is how advanced these assets are. You know, there's a

12:39 lot of other earlier stage assets, and especially right now, given the price of tungsten increasing, you're seeing earlier stage, you know, grab sampling and geophysics happening at other assets and properties across the US. Now, that's really important because, you know, we need investment into earlier stage Tungsten assets to deliver Tungsten to the market 15 years from now, Because that's how long it can take from discovery, original discovery to the actual mining. But we at Girding have recognized that there's an opportunity right now. There's a window open right now. And it's really our job as a team. And I think with the award today and also the subsequent concurrent financing is a signal to the market that we are looking to deliver material in this current regime and within the current window.

13:26 So we've built assets that are, we put assets together that are built for speed, like you said, having the water rights at Pilot Mound, having an environmental baseline with no sensitive federally listed species, roads that you can access very easily, proximity to power lines. And then similarly for Tampa Ude, that was a large operator back in the 1980s. So we have a lot of infrastructure in place there. I encourage listeners to go to our presentation to look at everything that is on that property and ready to go on a restart. So once again, the key thing is building assets and putting assets together that are built for speed. And that allows us to hopefully deliver in this current, you know, tungsten market that we're seeing right now, because obviously there's a huge demand for and need for a Western world. I think more granular than that is a U.S. Mine source, because currently there is none. The US does not mine any Tungsten right now. So we have assets that can move quickly based on having a lot of those key boxes checked. And then on top of that, you layer on the award from the DPA-3 program and the financing that we completed today. And once again, that allows us to then take those assets and move to the next stages swiftly and quickly. And that's all once again towards our ultimate goal here of delivering tungsten concentrate to the U.S. Market from 2 Nevada-based assets.

14:47 Awesome. I know there's a lot of great questions from the audience. There's 1 that I'm gonna sneak in right now, so I think it's helpful clarification. Mike asks, does the 6.2 million have to be paid back? And if so, is it subject to interest?

15:00 No, so the way that the award is structured, it's a ward, so it's a non-dilutive award. So effectively what you can do is you can put forward a proposal to the United States Department of Defense and if there's a specific work stream that you want to get funded, which the funding of that work stream would allow you to get to your goal quicker. If you are successful, which in this case we have been, that is funding that we can use for pre-allocated and pre-chosen work streams. On top of that, there is a cost sharing element. So for instance, a lot of the other work streams that are associated with the PFS, you know, we bear

15:37 the financial responsibility there. But the great thing is, you know, we've been drilling and pushing this project forward for the better part of the year. So now we can push forward with the DPA3 now layered on to get to the goal of delivering a PFS to the market.

15:52 Awesome. JT, I want to get you in for offtake strategy because I think that's important, obviously, for the company. Obviously, a bit of a news junkie. I've heard some whispers of various global manufacturers threatening to shut down due to inability to secure kind of those key input metals I'm curious outside of defense Who are some of the big consumers of tungsten in the US and how would you view their ability right now to source the metal? Yeah, no excellent question. So let me go back to maybe a statement I made earlier when we talk about sort of the oil and gas and just the general exploration You know industry vertical as itself that is as right now one of the verticals specifically that are in a bit of a hurt. So we've heard rumblings from pretty good sources that companies like Baker Hughes, who specifically need a particular tungsten alloy to go into their preferred drill bit products, are now at a point where they can't source any tungsten. And so there is some threat that they will shut down the manufacturing of said drill bits and said products because of the lack of the ability or the inability to get your hands on the appropriate

17:01 raw material. And so this, you know, in a lot of cases, when you're building projects, right, you hear about there's a forecasted gap in supply. The supply gap in Tungsten is very here. It's very much now. You know, you've got companies searching for scrap all over the place.

17:22 You know, as you would expect, it has now driven prices up pretty considerably since the beginning of the year, which is great, right, generally speaking. But yeah, that concept isn't just whispers. That is very much here and now, and that gap is upon us. And so there are some companies that are starting to try and figure out what are those solutions gonna look like, because they just can't get their hands on a product. So yeah, that's a very real issue today. Yeah, people always talk in metals about the looming supply crisis, but sometimes it actually arrives. I agree, yeah, I agree. Absolutely. One thing, Oliver, I wanted to ask you is outside of the DoD award that you've now received, how do the executive orders we're seeing on critical minerals reduce the execution risk for Guardian generally?

18:11 Yeah, so I think we discussed this last time, but what we're seeing is across the board, multiple executive orders that are really creating positive tailwinds for, I would say, US projects specifically. One of those kind of pillars is the ability to tap into non-dilutive government grant funding and award funding, which we have now successfully done through the Department of Defense that's announced today. That's a really important part of this, because that is funding that will allow us to really just go quicker with the PFS work streams.

18:43 Now, that's really important. But then you look at the other executive orders, and there's been at least 4 or 5 now since the Trump administration came into office. One of the other ones that really stands out to me is the call to not expedite, but speed up permitting. Permitting has been a very notorious roadblock in the US, but also in the Western world, right?

19:06 You know, trying to get these projects through the various permitting stages and to their goal of production has historically created a lot of challenges. And now it's important to recognize here, no one's looking to cut corners and not adhere to the very important environmental regulations that are in place, but there's a way to do that at the same time, cutting out the unnecessary red tape and regulations that unnecessarily slow these projects down. So there's been multiple calls to that specific element, which is we need to give these companies non-elusive grant funding, but also make sure that the roadblocks that have been there historically are cleared away so they can move decisively towards their goal.

19:44 So, you know, we are, you know, our projects are either on BLM ground, Bureau of Land Management, in the case of Pilot Mountain, and then at Tempai, units on patent and their private mining claims. But effectively, a lot of these directives and executive orders targeting permitting can directly benefit both of our projects. And that gives us a lot of confidence because that is typically the longest lead time sort of work stream associated with getting into production.

20:10 So that one is incredibly important. We're seeing, as you can expect, you know, the directive from the top is making its way down to the actual people who are processing these applications and saying, hey, we've got to move. We've got to move quicker, because if we don't do that, then we're not going to get these important metals mined in the US in a reasonable timeframe. And as JT pointed out, The US needs a domestic mine source of tungsten yesterday, not 10 years from now. So having that other layer of sort of getting that permitting process fixed, I would say, and moving forward efficiently is really important for Guardian, given where we are in that process. And then the other one that comes to mind and one that probably isn't spoken about as much is the executive order covering the section 232. Now that's 1 that I think we need to keep an eye on because we don't have the full resolution from that executive order quite yet. I think there was a 90-day period to return with the solution effectively, and we're getting quite close to that.

21:07 But historically, Section 232 has been used to input tariffs on external

21:14 importers of critical and important defence metals that plug into the industrial base in the U.S. So we'll see what comes of that. One of the things that we'd be looking for is potentially having tariffs placed specifically on tungsten imports to the U.S. Because what that does, Romeo, is it increases the competitiveness of mines in America. And that is, we think, one of the important directives here is we view

21:41 based on kind of what we're seeing from the directives from the top is mines in America, manufacturing in America is better than anywhere else in the world. So really what we are looking for is potential tariffs or other trade mechanisms which would support a project like PILOT or a project like TEMPO by you going into production. So the non-dilutive government grant funding, that is an important part of the puzzle, an incredibly important part, and we're very happy with the announcement today. And then looking to also tap into the potential to speed up permitting, and then also seeing what happens with Section 232. But I think the takeaway from all this is, what an incredible time to have these 2 projects on US soil. As your listeners know, timing is everything in this industry.

22:27 These have been fantastic assets for many years, But you need to have them at the right time and the right place. And we believe, you know, it's a kind of a cheesy slogan, Romain, I hate to say it, but it's the right place,

22:38 right metal at the right time. And it could not be more true. So we're really excited to continue to work with the US government as we work towards our goal of delivering mine tungsten to the US market, which is a very important mission that we're on right now. Sure. And actually, I'm going to stick with you for just to expand on that just a little bit more, because I know the DoD has handed out some awards to Canadian-located projects, et cetera. And I'm really just looking for you to expand on what you just said, really, but how does being a US domestic producer give you an edge against even those other projects that have been given awards by the DoD? What's different for Guardian? We're in the US. Like I said, that's the best place to do this, right?

23:19 And other awards, the administration has obviously changed over as of earlier this year. So some of those awards potentially could be from a previous administration. But in our view, the signals that we're getting is, once again, mines in America, manufactured in America. So if your listeners are familiar with Nevada, which I'm sure they are, and as a geologist myself, I've worked all over the world and I can tell you confidently,

23:44 Nevada is the best place in the world to explore, develop, and also to mine. So, you know, if I could put these 2 assets anywhere in the world right now, I would not move them an inch from where they are because they're in Nevada, they're close enough to infrastructure, they have all the pieces in place. And once again, you know, I think specifically right now with the Section 232 with the tariffs that are being put in place, once again, all that points to, is mines in America is better and more important than anywhere else in the world. So that's the directive, we're going with that. And we love working in Nevada and we love the support that you find within Nevada

24:22 for permitting and mining in the state. So, yeah, we're really excited to have these assets located in the United States of America. Awesome. JT, speaking of government signals, I know folks in the room have seen people talk about different demand crises, et cetera, but how should investors in this room right now look at what this grant or what this award signals about the project? What is the government validation they should be really keeping their eyes on about both tungsten demand certainty, but also pilot mountain specifically? Yeah, great question.

24:56 First and foremost, I think it allows us to continue to slowly de-risk our projects, right? So if you can get to a position, and we've been very fortunate to get to that position, where you've got a nation like the United States that is saying, not only do we need this, But we've looked very closely, I mean the process was a process that we went through over a period of time, looking at your project, evaluating your project on its merits, right? Looking at how you're going to bring this thing forward, mirroring that up with the need for the particular metal. So as an investor looking at this, it really does sort of give us a yet another layer of validation, right? Because most governments generally speaking, or at least the US governments don't suffer fools easily.

25:47 Right, And you have to go through an elaborate, not an elaborate process, but you have to go through a process. So outside looking in, it gives us a level of validation that I think very few companies are able to achieve.

26:02 Certainly the finance itself, right, so the piece that we can utilize to advance the project that essentially didn't dilute our current shareholder base, right, or it's not a structure that has a negative impact to our shareholders. Certainly as an investor, I think you would like to invest in companies that the US government is saying, hey, it makes sense for us to help these organizations move this thing forward.

26:32 It'll also open up opportunities in the future for us to go back to that well. So if I'm an investor outside looking in, that is it's one of those things that becomes an ultimate stamp of approval saying, hey we as the U.S. Government need this. We believe in what the company is doing. We believe that they've got the right people with the right asset to execute and feel very strongly that that investment is a good investment because this company can get to production in a relatively near period of time on something that we desperately need as a country. So that's how I would view it from an investor perspective. No, appreciate that, it's helpful. Switching gears, Oliver, I do wanna talk about the other piece of news today more robustly, that financing package.

27:20 So as I understand it, it's the largest equity raise in the history of the company. I'm curious just if you could give a perspective. Why did you and the board decide to raise that approximately 21 million US off the back of this award that we've talked about so far?

27:33 Yeah, so I mean, it's because we're growing, right? And to get to our goal, it takes capital, right? You know, we have come a long way in the 2 years we've been listed. And we had an opportunity here, a fantastic opportunity, mind you, that concurrently with this very exciting award from the Department of Defense to bring in some capital, which will allow us to layer on and go even quicker. And a big part of that financing package is really earmarked for Tempai Yut. And that's the asset that we haven't spoken about much today, but we love it. And for its

28:03 merits, it's one that we want to push forward in tandem with Pilot Mound. So now that we have government support, we can tap into for Pilot Mound to move that project through the next key engineering step. We now have brought in the important capital, which will allow us to continue to move forward Temp-by-Uden lockstep. And, you know, it's probably worth pointing out that, you know, we have been very prudent and thoughtful about all our equity raises as a business since we've IPO'd. And, you know, opportunity came up here And I encourage investors and listeners to go look at that press release. Look at the details there. Very minimal dilution. No warrants attached to that. But I think more

28:40 importantly than that is who was able to partake in that equity raise. And what we're seeing is a huge vote of confidence and support from our existing shareholders. People who have bought into the company previously and said, hey, I like what you're doing. I want to continue to back you as you move these projects in this company forward. So, you know, We are absolutely thrilled with the outcome there. You know, we have a lot of fantastic existing shareholders which increased their position there. And that allows us to once again, move forward swiftly and very confidently towards our goal. So we're absolutely thrilled with that outcome. We're really thankful for the existing shareholders who continue to back us. You know, as you grow as a business, obviously, the capital needs intensify. But, you know, it's probably worth noting that, you know, when we IPO, we've done every equity raise at a subsequently higher level, which means that next less dilution, but also allows us to then push to the next key step. And what we're pushing towards here

29:37 is the ultimate goal of delivering commercial production from 2 tungsten assets. And this large funding package, aligned with the DoD award that we've announced today, puts us in a really strong position to surge forward towards that goal. So, you know, we're absolutely thrilled with not only the DPA3 award, but also the fantastic equity raise that we did as well. So investors, I'm sure, are very pleased with the outcome on both those fronts. Awesome. And I'm gonna stick to the future for a second. So Oliver, I'll keep to you. There's a couple of questions in the chat, a couple that came in on email. So I'm gonna kind of group it all together and I'm gonna say, look, what milestones should investors be watching for in the next 12 to 18 months? And obviously I'm sure there's some tungsten hobbyists in the crowd. Most people are here to make money. How does that timeline translate to share price appreciation over that same period? Yes, I mean, just on the share price appreciation, we try not to worry about that too much as a company. Really, at the end of the day, we have a goal, which is to get to commercial production, as I mentioned, and deliver meaningful material amount of tungsten concentrate to the U.S. Market. We believe as we get towards that goal and ultimately to that goal, the share price will figure itself out. And that's been the sort of the model and it's proven Correct so far. So we just focus on the goal and we figure the share price.

30:49 We'll figure that part out. Upcoming milestones. I mean, 21 million plus the DPA3 support. That's a big number, much bigger than we've ever had at this business by by almost an order of magnitude. So the exciting thing is if you thought we were going fast before, just imagine how fast we can go now, right? You know, we had been very prudent about spend. We always will be. Even with this amount, we will be prudent. We really maintain and look at working capital projections to make sure we are putting ourselves in a position of success. But when you have that amount of money in the bank, it gives you the opportunity to go that much quicker. So for instance, you know, we were prudent, we had 1 rig on site at Pilot Mountain, given the capital we had in the business. Well, you can imagine now that we're looking to expand and already we've secured a rig for Tempa Ute to launch that program as well. So, catalysts look forward to the work we've been doing over the last 6 months. So, we have drill results pending from Desert She Light.

31:48 We have drill results pending from Desert Sheilite. We have drill results pending from Garnet. We have the geotech holes that were completed and that's being worked forward. Obviously, the updated resource eventually. We have the PFS that we're working towards. We have the new pilot north claims that we've staked and we have geologists on site literally as we speak right now sending me photos of what they're seeing there. We put out some photos on Twitter this morning actually of what we found. That's just one of our projects and I've probably missed 3 or 4 things happening there. Move over to Tempayu, now we have the capital, we need to push that project forward fast. We have the stockpiles that we're looking at very close there, obviously. We have drilling starting, that's the big thing there, is looking to establish a resource that would be adequate to allow us to fund the CapEx for the rebuild or the restart of the operation and the infrastructure that we have there. So we are going quick.

32:42 There's no summer breaks for JT or myself or the team, I'll tell you that much. I might need to get a good night's sleep this weekend, but it's going to be super busy the rest of the summer into fall, winter, you name it. So it's going to be active. And on top of that, the other layer, just to remember, is the macro. The macro is really exciting right now. We're seeing the price of tungsten continually increase. The market is very tight. The market is asking for a new domestic mine source of tungsten. And on top of that, you know, all these other government tailwinds that we alluded to and with a key one now established, looking at ways to really tap into some of these other tailwinds that can really make a meaningful difference for this business as we move towards our goal. Awesome. And JT, I'm going to ask you to look even farther into the future, if you don't mind. This is a classic chairman question. I'd love you could paint us the three-year picture for Guardian Metal. So past all the big news that Oliver just talked about, what does it look like for the next several years?

33:33 Yeah, no, it's, well, let me just share maybe some commentary to the audience first. You know, when I, and I've been involved now with Oliver and the company for coming up on a couple of years now, and I've been doing this for near a couple of decades. And when you go into an initiative like this and you take a look and you've got exploration projects and there is the sort of the fast track that you hope that you want to accomplish and then there's the reality of it. And, you know, the thing that continually and has excited me for the last couple of years and continues to excite me is the fact that that we have the ability to actually get to world class assets into production before the current administration leaves office.

34:19 Let me say that again. World class assets to get into production in the next 3 and a half years. And the reason that we have that opportunity is, is, you know, we've been doing such great work on Pilot Mountain for the last couple of years. The DOD funding unlocks that opportunity for us to push that forward as fast as we can. You know, and then when we get into conversations with anybody, any stakeholder, any potential investor, investors, You start talking about Tempehuit and the fact that there's a 3000 kilowatt power station already built there that actually is operating today. It has a water pipeline. It has a mill facility with the footings that's already there, right? We've looked at opportunities where, you know, there's potentially equipment purchases that we can do to cut down on long lead items. And so this, us saying, hey, in the next 3 years our ability to provide tungsten to the domestic market isn't a pipe dream, right? It is something that we firmly believe day in and day out. Now it's an aggressive time scale, we understand that, and nothing ever goes smoothly.

35:24 But when we said to sit down as a leadership team and as a board and you put up the Gantt charts and You have both projects sitting up there and you can see a path forward that within sort of the next 3 and a half years, we could get to a point where we're producing tungsten in the United States. That's a very realistic target for us. And so when I think, hey, what does the next 3 years look like or what does it look like when we're sitting here in 3 years? It is just that. It's us being at plants that are producing tungsten concentrate that we are delivering to the to a market that is desperate for the product. And that isn't that's not a pipe dream to our audience. That is a very realistic target and that's what gets us going every single morning. That's how when we as a board and me as chairman, when we think about what we're doing and all the work streams that we're doing on a day in and day out basis, that's the target we're marching towards.

36:18 Awesome. I appreciate that very much. That's mostly enough out of me, but there are some great questions from the audience. I'm going to start with a couple that came in over e-mail, and then I'll jump to a couple that we got live. I know we're getting close to where I promised the time would end today, but I think I can still get to a couple. And keep in mind, any that we get, including any that still come in, I'll make sure they get to the team so they can get back to it. I know there's a 25, you came a bit late, so don't forget there's a chat button on the bottom right of your screen. So one question, Oliver, I know you already touched on this in your last question, but it came in over email, So I just want you to reiterate if you could. How is rig availability right now? And will a second one be turning soon? Rig availability is tight, full stop. In Nevada, it's a mining state. I mean, there are, I don't know how many, but I would venture to say there's over 100 drill rigs running in Nevada right now.

37:06 And so, one of the things that we've highlighted previously is the importance of having a team who knows how to operate in state. I used to live in Nevada. Our operations team, our engineers have built mines in Nevada. So what that means is that we have existing, pre-existing relationships where we can sort of jump in front of the line, so to say, right, and get sort of priority access to these key things because, you know, there's some companies who, you know, are on an eight-month wait list to get a drill rig. So imagine if we sat on our hands for 8 months and said we had no access or availability to drill. Market would not like that. So we tap our networks, I tap my networks as someone who's drilled many, many times in Nevada. So we work with a fantastic drilling company. They have made availability for us for another rig. And that rig is being prepped as we speak for Temp-I-Ute. So that is going to start in short order, especially now that the financing is secured.

37:59 And then on top of that, if we need another one, once again, we can tap into that network and look to secure a third. And a third could potentially allow us to go faster at either of those 2 projects. So rig availability is not good. If anyone just showed up in Nevada and Reno airport and said, I need a rig, Good luck. But that's the importance of having a team who's established and knows what they're doing and has the people they can call to at times like these in the state. But I think the important thing to note there is there's a reason there's low availability because Nevada is a great place to explore, develop, drill, mine, you name it. And there's a lot of activity there, and we obviously have a fantastic opportunity with these 2 assets, and we will be drilling out both of them in the not too distant future. Awesome. 1 investor also wrote in over email, is looking for you to do a bit of crystal ball gazing. So obviously answer the best of your ability. He notes having done a great job in securing a grant to complete a very robust PFS for Pilot Mountain.

38:52 Would you expect to receive an offer or offers for Pilot Mountain or the whole company? As he notes that is often what happens to juniors. Deets, JT, do you wanna take that one or should I? Why don't we tag team, but I'll offer some commentary. Okay. You know, the message we want to definitely get across is, we have an eye on the prize. And the eye on the prize is to get this project, projects into production as fast as we can, and as best as we can. We don't control the outside forces in any way, shape or form. You know, I'm sure based on the news that we've put out today that we've turned some heads, right? There's, you know, the fact that we have a story that again is mined and can be processed in the United States should be really enticing.

39:40 And so, yes, I suspect that we've turned some heads, but it's not part of our thinking. We don't sit as a leadership team and think, OK, now we're at a point where maybe we could look for some suitors. And Oliver made the comment earlier, if something were to come to us, yes, we have to go through the due diligence process, or we have to consider that. And is it in the best interest of our shareholders? We start with that question. But at the end of the day, we've got our eye on the prize, which is to get things into production. But I'll pivot and hand it over to our chief executive. Yeah, I completely agree. There's no for sale sign up. We have a team here and I think that's probably the biggest signal to the market is who we put in place on the engineering and actually project delivery side of things. People who have done this before in Nevada in the last 10 years. We wouldn't have those people in place if we were looking to get this thing sold off.

40:34 And the other benefit is having a board of directors, JT and myself, who are hungry. We're seasoned enough, but we're also young and we're hungry. And we want to deliver. This would be a huge, huge win. It's something we could be very proud of to deliver to minds of very important metal to the US market. So we're hungry. We've put the team together to deliver these projects. With that being said you know we're commercial. We look at everything. But I think at the end of the day, if we are doing our job, which is de-risking these assets and pushing towards our goal, then very good things will happen. So that's what we're focused on here at Guardian and Google Mental Resources. Awesome. Now I got time for a couple of questions from the live chat. I apologize in advance. We definitely won't get to all of them, but I will run through a couple of them. And again, I will make sure all the questions get to the team, so please do feel free to add them anyway. Wesley asked right at the beginning of the hour, so I wanted to get to that one. What does this mean for state permitting? Oliver, I know you already talked about how the land is on BLM, but also private claims. But Just how does the signal from the federal government impact the potential state permitting process?

41:37 Yeah, I don't want to get too granular with my answer there. What I'll say is it helps, obviously, you know, when a very important US agency and department like the DoD, you know, is able to provide grant support, sorry, award support for the project. That obviously is a very clear signal to the rest of the United States of America. So I won't comment exactly what that is going to mean, but what I can say is it obviously helps. And the executive orders as well, I think is the clear signal, which is they are looking and actively trying to help speed up permitting. And obviously where we are at in that process, and given we can supply a very critical and important defense metal, which JT mentioned is in critical shortage right now, you know, as you can imagine, you know, we'd have eyes looking at us to say, hey, how can we help you move this along? So it certainly helps, and hopefully we have more to say about that in the future as we continue to move through those stages with the various agencies.

42:33 Great, thank you. Dave from the chat asks, has a grant been applied for or will you apply in regards to Temp-I-Yut? We won't comment on that. Yeah, we'll just, no comments on that. Key is obviously the award that we've received for Pilot Pound today. But we look at all options. There's a lot of tailwinds, as I mentioned, available for projects like Pilot and TempIU. So we're gonna look at ways to get as much support as possible from both of those assets because that support gets us closer to our goal. Perfect. Sigeberry from the chat asked a couple of questions, so I'll try to kind of summarize them. I'll start at the end of his, and he asks, when is the Nevada weather so hot that it's difficult to continue? So what is the effective season in state?

43:18 Yeah, it's a good question. And it's another reason why we love Nevada so much. Las Vegas is down in the valley. It's sort of a very low elevation valley, And that's why it gets up to 40, 45 degrees in the summer. In my view, that's too hot. People still go to Vegas. The great thing about these assets is we are in a higher desert position, which means that the temperatures are typically a bit more moderate. Now, it's very hot there, without a doubt. In my weather up I have both locations where we're operating and it's between 30 to 35 degrees Celsius, which is around probably the mid-90s Fahrenheit. And that's hot. But these guys, these are Nevada drillers. This is what they've done for a majority of their career. So they handle that no problem. And on the flip side, when a lot of companies are shut down, and as someone who's worked in Northern Canada and northern US, I'll tell you for free that, you know, 8 months of the year, you're doing nothing because it's multi, multi feet of snow. And once again, if you want to move quickly, that's, it doesn't work, right? You can't have 8 months where you're sitting on your hands waiting for the snow to melt. So, you know, just for instance, and knock on wood, this winter at Pilot Mountain, we did not have to plow a single foot of snow. There was at no point was there enough snow where we needed to plow. So it did not stop operations at all. Temperatures rarely dropped below 0 degrees. So

44:48 once again, another reason why we love Nevada and these assets specifically where they're located is we can operate around the clock 24-7, which is what also allows us to get to our goals quickly as possible. So it's a really good question. And we operate around the clock. Right now, there are guys in the field drilling at Pilot Mountain. We have guys walking around at Pilot North right now. We have guys at Tempehute as we speak right now. It's 30, 35 degrees, it's hot, but there's an important mission that we're trying to get towards here. Great. One question in the chat alludes to just generally, if there are plans, and we've talked about it before, Oliver, to list on the other side of the pond in the United States. I'm just curious, in such a situation, it's really a kind of technical question. Is there an issue of new shares and how does it affect existing holders when you either additionally list or switch listings?

45:39 JT, do you want to tackle that one? Then I can jump in behind you. Yeah, absolutely. Look, at a very high level, right? We are, we're a UK based company because we respond out of a mining incubator, you know, merchant bank model. We have people that represent us here in the United Kingdom, which is where I'm sitting today. But we are a U.S.-based company in the sense that our assets are there. Right. And so we are about reshoring Tungsten into the United States. Not sure necessarily if we're going to redomicile, you know, as a U.S.-based company, but I think it's safe to say that a listing over in the United States makes sense for us as a business.

46:27 It is something that as a board we have looked at pretty heavily, specifically in the last couple of months. It's something that we look at very favorably. I think for a couple of different reasons is, being a Mind in America project, being able to allow the capital markets within the United States to trade freely within our organization and support us from a capital perspective also makes a lot of sense. There is a bit of a process to go through. I mean, and we did go through, you know, a discussion earlier in the year, did it make sense for us to do an interim listing on the TSX and then move into the US. And at the end of the day, you know, the view of having a listing, but not giving up our listing here, having a listing in the United States expands the capital pool, makes sense for a lot of different reasons, both from a business and a capital markets perspective. And it is something that is part of our strategic thinking in the very near future.

47:26 That's the best way that I can answer it without confirming anything or denying anything, right? So that's our view. And I'll just quickly add to that, JT. So just to confirm to anyone in the US right now, we do have a US listing right now. So if you, you know, OTCQX, you know, our ticker is GMTLF. So we're tradable. And even today, as we sort of expected with this fantastic news, you know, we have traded the most volume on the OTC by a wide margin already. And the market's not even, you know, halfway through the day. So there is a conduit for US investors to get exposure to what we're doing. But as JT mentioned, we, you know, our operations business is in the US, it's in Nevada, the vast majority of our employees are in Nevada working on these projects. So for all intents and purposes, We are a US operational business that just so happens to have a UK listing on top. But we have a US listing now and as JT mentioned, we think the key thing here is what a senior US listing could deliver for this business. You look at the likes of MP, you look at the likes of MP, you look at the likes of Perpetua, and what those really senior North American exchanges allow for is access to a huge investor pool. And right now, and potentially there's an opportunity, which is a lot of new U.S.

48:46 Listeners who have never heard this story are saying, I don't know who you guys are. And it's because we're sort of an unknown UK company, even though we are, for all intents and purposes, US. But what that gives us is an opportunity to grow into that and say, hey, we can become the champion of US Tungsten. And JT and myself and the board, we speak about this often. And this DoD award is a huge catalyst for us to really shift gears. And we're not going away from the UK. We love our UK shareholders. But really, we sense that there's a massive opportunity in the US waiting for us. And being unknown in the US right now, what an exciting proposition, because as we grow that presence and get this in front of new eyes, what an opportunity, right? So almost all the roadshows that JT and I do now are in the US. We've just started doing them. And now with this support in hand, you can imagine that we are gonna be pushing hard across the US to get this story out there and to really make sure that we can take advantage of that to the fullest.

49:43 We think a senior US listing really is key for us. So a big pinch point with the senior US listing is it's expensive, but pair that with the money we raised today, you can imagine what some of the use of proceeds will be used for. We do appreciate it. Gentlemen, I know we're just running out of time, so I would like to thank you both for giving a lot of context to 2 pieces of news. You don't often see 2 PRs back-to-back on the same morning, so I appreciate you guys running through all the details on it. Everybody who joined us, I know it was a big crowd. I know I didn't get to every question, which I do apologize. I will be sending them to the team, so they'll get back to you as soon as possible. I know many of you requested a meeting with the team. I'll work to make sure that those get on their radar relatively quickly. I would thank you all so much for joining us today. Really appreciate everybody's time. JT Oliver, hope you have a wonderful end to your day.