PC Silver Mine: Permits, Partnerships and the Path Forward

0:04 Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you're signing in from. I know there's quite a few time zones represented today, so I really appreciate everybody taking time to watch this presentation. I'm lucky enough to have with me today Claudine Lee, Honey Badger Silver's Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, and also Chad Williams, company CEO. To answer questions, But Claudine is truly the star of today's show because we're talking about permits, partnerships, and the path forward for Honey Badger Silver. Here's how today's going to work. Claudine's going to walk us through a little presentation as an update. Then I've got some questions that I'll ask just based on the presentation. And then there were some lots of questions that came in over email. So we'll try to get to a number of those. And then there will be some time to get to questions from the live audience. So please do use that chat button at the bottom of your screen and feel free to ask questions any time during today's event. If for whatever reason I don't get to them, either it's off topic or we just ran out of time, also make sure that the Honey Badger team gets those questions afterwards so they can get back to you using either a phone number or email that you entered a registration. The other thing I'll say is that you can go ahead and press that request meeting button at the bottom if you'd like to be connected to the Honey Badger team at any point during today's event. I'll make sure that you get connected with them.

1:13 This is also being recorded and will be available for replay probably about mid-afternoon Eastern time. It'll come both on the same link, but also on Six's YouTube channel. Please do feel free to share it at that point. That's enough out of me. We're all here for the Claudine Lee show. So I'll pass it on to you for today's presentation.

1:29 Great. Thanks so much. And thank you everybody for joining today to hear about the PC Silver Mine and our permits, partnerships and how these drive forward a responsible project. As mentioned, I'm Clodian Lee, I'm the VP of Corporate Social Responsibility with Honey Badger Silver. I am a geologist by training but have spent most of the last decade and longer working with operational teams at mines as well as with Indigenous partners and I am committed to sustainable development and sustainable operations. In 2021 I started working on the project on the Prairie Creek project as I saw it was the next opportunity for benefits from mining in a region of the Northwest Territories that hasn't seen much of this kind of benefit recently.

2:17 I wanted to bring what I had learned working in other areas of the North and with other First Nations to a project that was just at the beginning of its life, its mine life. In the time that I've worked on this project, I've spent a lot of time working closely with our First Nation partners and their Indigenous governments to deliver on commitments from our impact benefit agreements, complete impact benefit agreements and build strong relationships with all of our partners, First Nations and other governments to ensure that the PC Silver Project is moving forward in a responsible and sustainable way.

2:57 Just to orient ourselves, the Prairie Creek Mine or the PC Silver Mine is located in the eastern slopes of the McKenzie Mountains in the Detro region of the Northwest Territories. It is located west of the Liard and the McKenzie Rivers. The closest communities to our location are the community of Nahanni Butte and the community of Fort Simpson in the traditional territories of the Naha Dehe Dene Band and the Lilliquay First Nation. We are located inside the Nahanni National Park Reserve and work closely with the Parks Canada team. It is a remote location with no road access at this time and currently site access is by air through our gravel airstrip that is located at the mine.

3:47 The Prairie Creek project of the PC Silver Mine has a long history, having originally been discovered in 1928 and through the 60s, 70s and into the early 80s, lots of exploration was conducted. You can see in this picture what the old camp looked like along the Prairie Creek Valley. Before the previous owners went bankrupt in 1982, infrastructure was brought in for 1000 tons per day underground silver mine. The mine was never started, but the site still houses a mill, an airstrip roads, power capabilities and 5 kilometers of underground workings. The current plan for the PC Silver Mine has a 20 plus year mine life as an underground mine for silver, zinc and lead.

4:40 Major permitting steps have been completed and impact benefit agreements have been signed. The mine is at the cusp of construction, right at the start, as we finish the last of our conditions under our authorizations.

4:57 So what benefit agreements do we have for the PC Silver Mine and its project. Well, we have signed quite a few impact benefit agreements for both the mining operation and for the all season road. These have been signed with the Naha Dehene Band located out of Nahani Butte. There we have an impact benefit agreement for the Prairie Creek Mine and a traditional land use agreement for the All-Season Road. With the Luthi Kwe First Nation out of Fort Simpson, we also have a benefit agreement for the Prairie Creek Mine and a road benefit agreement for the all-season road. In addition to this, we also have a transportation corridor benefit agreement with Ocho Dene Co First Nation of Fort Lillard, as the planned routing for shipping of concentrate will travel through their traditional territory and through British Columbia to the rail in Fort Nelson.

5:53 One of the measures from the environmental assessment that was completed was to put in place an agreement to ensure that Dene knowledge was incorporated into the project with Dene oversight and direct communication to our First Nation partners. This was included in the environmental agreement between the company, the Naha Dehe Dene Band and the Likwe First Nation and was signed in 2022 and will be in effect for our construction and operation of the PC Silver Mine. These agreements include provisions for contracts and procurement opportunities, capacity building, hiring, training and employment, scholarships, community events and community support.

6:39 Agreements are signed to ensure that benefits from this project flow directly to the impacted and affected Indigenous First Nations and governments and to address economic reconciliation commitments. Support and partnership from impacted First Nations is critical to the advancement of the project, and our strong relationships ensures that the project moves forward responsibly. The project site, as I mentioned, and you can see in this map, is located inside the Nahanni National Park Reserve. In 2009, Parks Canada expanded the Nahanni National Park Reserve around the Prairie Creek project, so that they could include the entire South Nahanni watershed.

7:24 To do this, an agreement was made that the area where the Prairie Creek mine would be would not be included into the park and would stay as part of the territorial land and the Canada National Parks Act was amended so that the expansion could happen and that there would still be continued development of the project and the construction and operation required for the access road for the project to go forward. As a note, the National Park Reserve designation is provided for this park as negotiations on land claims between Canada and the First Nations, the Dutch First Nations and the Naheedah Denny Band are ongoing. The company currently maintains a memorandum of understanding with Parks Canada, focused on responsible mine development and access road operations.

8:19 Our team works actively and closely with Parks Canada to ensure both of our mandates will be achieved.

8:30 The government of the Northwest Territories regulates the land on which the Prairie Creek project is located. And the Northwest Territories has seen many benefits from mining through various mining cycles over the years and is supportive of exploration and responsible mining projects. The closure of mines currently in the Northwest Territories has put an additional lens on the Prairie Creek project as it could be the next mine in operation in the Northwest Territories, countering some of the closure and impacts to jobs and contracts within the North. To ensure that there are benefits flowing not just to our Indigenous partners but to the North as well, we have a socioeconomic agreement with the Government of Northwest Territories that establishes methods and procedures to maximize the beneficial opportunities and to identify impacts and mitigate negative socioeconomic impacts from the project.

9:28 This includes targets for the Northwest Territories, including employment, training, well-being, business opportunities, and sets out how the Governor of Northwest Territories and its departments can support this project. As well as supporting mining, The GNWT has responsibilities to administer lands and enforces authorizations. Lands administration is responsible for surface leases and license of occupation. So we work closely with the departments within the GNWT as well as with their inspector teams to ensure that our operations meet the requirements and all of our authorizations and permits.

10:11 As well as supporting mining within the region and regulating some of the responsibilities underneath our authorities. We work closely with the GNWT and our Indigenous governments when we engage at the federal levels to ensure that Government of Canada understands the importance of this project not only for us and our company, but for the Indigenous governments and our Indigenous partners, as well as the GNWT.

10:45 We interact quite a bit with the Government of Canada as well, as they have responsibilities as reviewers and regulators on this project. This includes Fisheries and Oceans, who are responsible for Fisheries Act authorizations, and the Environment and Climate Change Canada Department, who also looks at various regulations that apply to our site. The Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada also administers a portion of the lands along the All-Season road near the community of Nahanni Butte. We work with these departments often with our teams located in Yellowknife and as well as their departments across Canada.

11:30 When it comes to support of mining and mining projects, the Government of Canada has set out a critical mineral strategy. Under this strategy, there are many opportunities for continued interaction and funding from the government to the project. In 2024, we were awarded $25 million through the National Trade Corridor Fund for the construction of the All-Season Road. The National Trade Corridor Fund was issued through Transport Canada to address infrastructure challenges and to promote the flow of goods and the ability for trade. Our project, Prairie Creek PC Silver Mine, was noted as an important project that required some support for infrastructure both on our road and for us to get to the railhead and then to our markets.

12:20 These funds were used to start the first phase of construction of the all season road, which was a winter road in the winter of 22 and 23. And that was completed so that we could do some investigations and that information would be able to feed into the final design of the all season road, which has now been completed.

12:42 As the government's critical mineral strategy contains zinc as one of its critical minerals. This promotes the domestic production of critical minerals and has made money available through a number of programs, including the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund and new programs that are coming like the First and Last Mile Fund. These programs help to support the connectivity and healthy communities as well as supports Indigenous supported projects in the north. We currently have 2 projects in review with the critical minerals infrastructure fund and will be evaluating opportunities when more information is available on the first and last mile fund. We are also continuing to work with the Government of Canada and the territorial government to look at what other opportunities there may be, whether it be through Canada Infrastructure Bank or other funding opportunities or tax

13:42 incentives or tax approaches with the Government of Canada.

13:52 So with all of these partnerships and the work that we do, you know, how do we ensure that the benefits that this project can bring align with the development strategies of our First Nation partners and government strategies of critical mineral development, infrastructure and Arctic sovereignty. Our project and its location, the construction of the all season road and the use of the Northwest territories highway system

14:17 starts to address the infrastructure deficit that we have in the north. This project and its use of the highways feeds into the McKenzie Valley Highway Project, which was just recently recommended to the major projects office. So there's a really important tie in when it comes to the development of the North Arctic infrastructure and Arctic sovereignty. These ensure that there is safe access to communities within the Dachau relating to healthy communities. The benefits from our project will see training and employment opportunities along with contracting opportunities,

14:52 supporting the development of indigenous businesses and will create high paying jobs in the Dutch region. This is an important contribution to the industry of the Northwest Territories as the current mines close down or prepare for closure in the next few years. Our project, although not as large as another project like Divex, still can bring in over 600 jobs during the construction phase, 30% of which are targeted to be Northerners and Indigenous employees, as well as during the operation phase, which could be 20 years or more, 300 jobs with a target of 60% Northerners. This is an important opportunity for the North and for the region.

15:40 So are we ready to take the next step? With our relationships and strong First Nation support in place, along with a focus and priority by the territorial government and support from the federal government,

15:55 what does it look like next? And so to be able to continue, we do need authorizations. The Northwest Territories has a very unique regulatory system. We fall underneath the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, which came out of the negotiations for land claims. This is a co-management system that provides the mandate for regulation of water and waste to a set of land and water boards and those boards have representation from government and Indigenous participants. Therefore, decisions that are made are made between both of them together.

16:34 Underneath the McKenzie Valley Resource Management Act, environmental assessments are conducted by the McKenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, and then water license and land use permits follow issued by the land and water boards once that step has been completed. The boards have issued these water license and land use permits and we operate underneath of them. So what authorizations do we currently have? Well the Prairie Creek Mine had completed major permitting milestones, including the environmental assessment for both the mine and the road. The outcomes of these and the reasons for decision indicate that the projects, both of them, are able to go forward with some mitigation in place.

17:19 Those mitigations were then rolled into the next step of permitting, which included the water license and land use permit issuance. These were issued and have been kept up and in good standing and we continue to operate underneath of them and be in compliance with those requirements. As the project includes both the mine location and the road, where our key regulators include the Land and Water Board, Parks Canada,

17:46 CERNAC and the GNW team. The next steps for us for authorizations that will be in place that will be triggered as we continue through our plan to move towards construction will include surface leases for the operation at Prairie Creek and for the barge landings along the road, and updates to our license of occupation. And now that the design of the road has been completed, applying for our Fisheries Act authorization.

18:19 So how do we take Prairie Creek into the future? What are our next steps? And how do we continue on this strong relationships and the path that we have placed in front of us? Well, with the release of our strategy, we will be working to continue on the construction readiness for the all-season road in early 2027. This includes completing the requirements or conditions underneath the authorizations to start the construction. That means we'll be finishing the management plans that show how we will responsibly construct the road and what measures and mitigations we have in place to ensure that it is a safe road for not only people, but for the environment and for wildlife.

19:02 These go through a public review process as part of our Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act requirements underneath the water license and land use permits. And then we'll be approved by the appropriate regulator. So that may be Parks Canada for a portion of the road or the land and water board. This includes a lot of engagement from the company with our First Nation partners and all the reviewers to ensure everybody understands the approach that we're taking and the way that the construction and operation is going to roll out.

19:37 The design of the road will be reviewed by an independent technical review panel in Parks Canada and surface leases and Fisheries Act authorizations will be applied for based on acceptance of the final design. We will continue to engage on funding opportunities following up on our applications underneath the critical minerals infrastructure fund and applying for new funding where available underneath the new First and Last Mile Fund as more information becomes available on that program. We'll also be looking at continuing to get our territorial and federal support to ensure that the project moves forward in a timely manner. When it comes to our Indigenous partnerships, our plan is to continue to engage and build our relationships with those partners, working together, building capacity and preparing for the employment and contracting opportunities that the PC Silver mine is going to bring.

20:34 You know, we believe that the project today represents one of the highest quality advanced brownfields silver zinc lead opportunities in the world. And the work that has already been completed that we will continue with the authorizations in place, continuing to build our strong relationships with our indigenous partners and focus on federal support and opportunities when it comes to developing critical minerals,

21:02 addressing Arctic sovereignty and infrastructure deficits, sets us up to be a really strong and exciting project that is going to come in the very near future.

21:19 That's it for me for today. Maybe Romeo, I can hand it back to you. Awesome Claudine, thank you so much. Really appreciate that presentation. I thought it was very interesting. There are a lot of questions that came in both in the chat, but also that came in over email. If you don't mind, I got some first for you. So everybody just be patient for a couple of seconds. I know you got into it a little bit, obviously, about where permitting is, But for listeners who are new to the story, and I know the hundred and some odd people in the room, some certainly are, Prairie Creek is described as fully permitted. You hear it a lot. What does that actually mean in practice? And why is it such a big deal for a project in the Northwest Territories? Yeah, sure. That's a good question. We get that a lot. So yes, the PC Silver Mine is what we refer to as fully permitted because we have completed the key and longest pieces of the permitting process, which include the environmental assessments of which the outcome is that the project can go forward and whatever impacts there are can be mitigated. So that is a huge piece of the work and that has been done already for both the mine and for the road.

22:28 When the determination came out that the project was able to go ahead. The next step is then to go back and to update our application and apply for our water license and our land use permits. So these have been done. And as I mentioned, our authorizations include water license and land use permits for both the road and the mine that are currently active that we operate under right now. These things can take a very long time.

22:57 The work to get to starting an environmental assessment can take many years of collecting information and baseline and developing your plan. The process itself has a lot of engagement and a lot of review to ensure that everybody understands what those impacts may be, and that they can be mitigated and that the project is good to go ahead. Following that, the water license and land use permit also can take a lot of time. So those key steps have been put out and in place and now we have the direction of how we can operate. So what still needs to be done is the completion of some of the authorization conditions. So that means you can go ahead and build and operate a road, but you need to come up with a plan that says how you're going to protect wildlife. So those pieces still need to be completed, but I'm very confident they will be completed, that we just need to meet the conditions of them. They do go through a review, so we do get excellent feedback, and we know that the plan when it is approved will be able to protect the environment, whether it's wildlife or water or whatever condition it may be.

24:05 Awesome. I appreciate that extra color. I had one, I know just to give a bit of extra information, Honey Badger, like you said, has 3 benefit agreements in place with Impact and First Nations. I'd love just for the folks in the room, if you could give us a bit of extra color on how those relationships were built and what makes a partnership like that work for both sides over long-term.

24:28 Yeah, yeah, that's an ongoing approach is building our relationships with our First Nations partners, our Indigenous partners and other government and regulatory groups. So these relationships are built over a long time. Trust is an important part of that and trust doesn't come immediately. And so a lot of what we do is listening,

24:52 listening to what is important with our Indigenous partners, what they are looking for for their membership, as well as, you know, visiting communities and working with all levels of their government and their communities. So that includes meetings with leadership, so with chief and council. It includes meetings with strategic development partners, so their development corporations or businesses. It includes meeting with the community and sharing what we wanna do and listening. Not everybody will be able to get all the information at all the time, so it's important that we're being consistent in getting out into the community and sharing the information. And for us, we are developing things quickly and things are changing and we are moving forward. And so it's really important that, to maintain our relationship, we have open communication.

25:44 We treat them as partners and we respect that we are being allowed to work on their traditional territory and that there is a real rooted connection to the land and water through culture, through use and through time immemorial. And so understanding that, respecting that shows that we are here for the long haul and that we are worthy of having a relationship with them and that we are worthy of working with them. We often have common goals. Many of the First Nations want to see responsible mining and responsible development

26:23 in their traditional territory. You know, they don't want it at the expense of, you know, the land, but they do, there are many First Nations that do believe that there can be a balance. And that is also what is of value to us at Honey Badger Silver. So we are aligned when it comes to that and continuous communication,

26:44 and coming to the community and listening and working with them and trying to ensure that the ideas that they have and the strategies and the development that they want to see aligns with ours and helping them develop that is a way that we can do that. Continuity within the team has also been really important. And through the acquisition from the previous owners to Honey Badger Silver, we had a lot of conversations about what that looks like. And it was very clear that Honey Badger Silver aligns with those values and that pillar of business. And so that was a really good start when we went to reach out to the First Nation partners we have to start to talk about, you know, who Honey Badger is, what they believe in and what they want to do together as partners. No, I appreciate that. I was actually just about to ask about continuity between groups. So appreciate that you got to that. One thing I wanted to jump into, because I know Ottawa, where I sit right now actually, has announced major new funding for critical minerals and Arctic infrastructure, including the first and last mile fund.

27:43 How do programs like this fit into Prairie

27:46 Creek's development plans And what does government support actually look like on the ground from where you sit? Yeah, so it's really an interesting time in Canada, and it is great that we have a project that we believe is really, really strong, is so far advanced and does have a critical mineral. Zinc is on the critical minerals list, so that is great for us. I think that the approach and the direction that the Canadian government and the territorial government has fits really well into our timeline and the PC Silvermines development. You know, there is this focus on Canada's domestic development of critical minerals as well as addressing, you know, Arctic infrastructure deficits and focusing on Arctic security and Arctic sovereignty.

28:37 You know, this is seen by announcements by the prime minister in the Northwest Territories that they're gonna put $35 billion into defense in the north, which leads into other parts, including the recommendation, as I mentioned, of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, 2 major projects. This is something that has been wanted in the Detro region for many, many years. The timing of this works out very well for us because as they are developing that and moving that project forward, you know, we tie into that. You can't get to the Mackenzie Valley Highway unless you, you know, come up Highway 7 or from Yellowknife. And so, you know, we are a part of that story and we will see the benefits from that. You know, we're currently working with the GNWT and others on, you know, how do we bring benefits to the region? And so if they're bringing benefits through infrastructure construction, so that there's connection and healthy communities, you know, we get to be a part of that as well too. We can be a part of those discussions, we can see that. So there's going to be some addressing of infrastructure.

29:44 There's also a lot of focus on, you know, Arctic sovereignty. And, you know, for a lot of people, the talk of Arctic sovereignty is ensuring that there's like safe connectivity and safe and healthy communities. So that also will benefit our project, you know, if you have healthy communities where people are able to live, have schools, have health care, have activities, they can draw in a lot more people who are interested in living in, you know, one of the most beautiful regions of all of Canada. And those people bring their families and that means that you bring in, you know, skills and excited people who would be interested in working on our project, who would live locally and contribute to the economy of the First Nation or to the community or to the Northwest Territories in general.

30:34 And so, you know, these pieces, when it comes to addressing Arctic infrastructure and Arctic sovereignty are going to help support our project. And the timeline is very well matched for that to be happening as well. When it comes to funding and other opportunities, there has been a lot of money that has been set aside for the development of Arctic infrastructure within the critical minerals and other projects. Those details are coming out. There's been a couple of calls of the critical minerals infrastructure fund already. As I mentioned, we have 2 applications currently under review. We'll wait to hear that. The Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund has now been incorporated into and underneath the First and Last Mile Fund, where there will be opportunities not just on the infrastructure side, but maybe at the, you know, both at the upstream and midstream parts. So there may be some opportunities as well there for funding when it comes to processing.

31:36 Details still to come, but you know, this is what has been promised by the federal government. We've also heard that, you know, the federal government is looking to support projects that have indigenous support of which we do, and are very much focused on the north. So not only is there funds that are available, but the federal government is looking to ensure that projects are supported in all areas. So not just, you know, a little bit of money here for you to do a bit of construction or a bit of money to build a contract, but looking at all aspects and helping the projects move forward through all pieces, whether that be moving to major projects for permitting and getting to 1 project, 1 review decision, money, seed money to get started, investment money or loans through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. So the time is now and our project is advanced and very well set up to take advantage of a number of the things that are coming both from the federal government and for other opportunities.

32:40 Oh, exciting. Thank you. Peter, from the chat, I think that answers your second question, but Claudine, I will throw you his first question. It's a comparative, so I find it interesting to hear your perspective on it. He wants to know in the past few years, do you find local communities more supportive, less supportive, or about the same of Honey Badger's development plans? I would say more supportive. For a number of years, we were moving slowly through the process getting there. And so it was, you know, there was a lot of promises and opportunity of what was to come next. I think since Honey Badger Silver has taken over and we've set out some strategies and priorities there's been even more support. As well as seeing activities moving forward, meeting the new team and being able to build a relationship there, The First Nations that we work with are also seeing the opportunities that are coming for mining when other parts of the mining industry in the Northwest Territories are on a decline.

33:42 So I think that there is even more support for this project to go ahead, because they are looking for it to fill a little bit of what is going to be lost when it comes to other mines in the industry in the Northwest Territories closing. So it's been really good. It's been a positive transition from the previous company over to Honey Badger Silver and I think that there's a lot of interest in moving forward and starting to see those benefits flow into the First Nations and with our Indigenous partners. Awesome, Thanks for a thorough answer. Peter, if you still want more information about the provincial federal government, let me know. But otherwise I've unmuted Chad, just for a good couple of questions that I think would be probably better directed towards him.

34:27 There's one that was reflected both in the chat, but also from email. Laura Stein asked on email and Michael Reed asked in the chat, basically the same question. I love you can speak about the roads. If all goes well, when could construction on upgrading that road begin? Sure, Romeo, can you hear me okay? We can hear you great. Okay, perfect, thank you. First of all, thank you to 6 and thank you to Romeo, very professionally done. And obviously, thank you to Clodine. As everyone who is on the call can tell, she is outrageously qualified, very passionate as well about the project and there's no doubt that she was an important part of Honey Badger deciding to move forward with the acquisition because we spoke to her, did a lot of due diligence and you know she she she's she's so strong it's it's a comp as you can tell it's a very complex process and she's mastered it.

35:26 And perhaps the most important thing is she has the confidence of the indigenous governments, the local indigenous governments, the government of the Northwest Territories, they all, I can tell, they all respect her. They've all worked with her for years. And it was very, very positive. So And the final thing I'll say is it's symbolic of the quality of the people on our team. We will have other seminars or conference calls like this to discuss exploration with Andrew, and operations with Ron, financing with Justin and so on and so forth. So there'll be more of this because, the word communication is by far the most important word. Claudine mentioned that, we need to communicate well with everybody concerned.

36:20 And this is part of us trying to communicate better with our shareholders. So, At the end of the day, you know, We hope to be open and transparent and we'll have people on site as soon as we can. And people can see what we've got going on there. But in terms of the road, Claudine mentioned it, it's been approved, it's engineered. I believe that the previous owner, RCF, spent $30 million on all the engineering plans, many years. So the road is debunked or de-risked. As Claudine mentioned, we will have to do some, what we call management plans, which are detailed plans on different parts of the road to make sure that we mitigate the, quite frankly, simplistically, that we construct it properly and mitigate some of the environmental aspects to it. But that is in the normal course of business. There's no surprise there.

37:24 And no, to be fair, you know, we will start, and this was mentioned in a press release of a few weeks ago, we will start quote-unquote, you know, if you saw me on camera and I'm not on camera because Elon is doing his IPO tomorrow, so I guess everybody's logging into Starlink, so I've got a bit of a sketchy internet today, but the point is is that under quotation we're going to start working on parts of the road that are on the Eastern side. The road exists and it's used by some of the local community members, but there are certain things that we can do to let's call it upgrade it to get it prepared for the, these are very inexpensive things but in some ways are important things for the local community so that they can see that we're earnest and we're going for it really.

38:19 And there are certain things that we can do and visitors to the area will be able to see those improvements very shortly. Great, thank you Chad, appreciate that. One question over email, It's a bit of a crystal ball gaze. So indulge me if you will. I would like to know what's the next opportunity for a re-rate of Honey Badger stock. So, Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, to your point, no one has a crystal ball. And we are, like every other mining company, affected by things that are outside of our control, in particular, let's say the silver price or the ongoing correction in mining stocks generally, including junior mining stocks like us.

39:11 And so that's out of our control. But what is in our control, of course, are things that we can do internally. And I assure all of the listeners, all of the investors that we are outrageously busy adding value to this company including, you know, as evidenced this call and work on site. We have people on site doing lots of activities on the environmental side on the on the on the rehabilitation side of the mail and so on and so forth. Things that are well within our control. I got a good news yesterday that one of our underground pieces of equipment is colloquially called a scoop tram. The real term is a load LHD, a load hull dump machine that actually is in really good shape. So, you know, we're doing little things like that, that adds value.

40:09 You know, we will be issuing press releases as we establish milestones. We have lots of things in the pipeline. We are obviously presenting at the Rick Rule Conference. We'll be at the Beaver Creek Conference. There's a Kelowna Investment Conference as well. We're also participating in a Calgary event as well. So there's lots of things, lots of opportunities for investors to meet us, to hear about all the good things that we're doing. We do understand that it's a bit of a treadmill that we need to generate news and you can count on us to do that. Awesome, appreciate that Chad. There's one question that I think is a bit of a misapprehension, so I'll throw it to you. We want to know, does JDS have cost-effective tech for mercury and arsenic mitigation?

41:00 And then as a corollary question, how long is the path to the first mill test run? Sure. Okay. So in terms of the mercury, you know, our, every single zinc mine in the world, without exception 100%, has mercury, it produces some mercury in its concentrate. It has to do with the chemistry of sphalerite, the mineral that contains the zinc. Ours is no different. What is different about our concentrate is that we have very low iron, exceedingly low iron, very unusually low iron and low silicon. So those are good things and We have had ample discussions recently with smelters, folks that want to treat our zinc and also our lead concentrate.

41:57 And I assure all the listeners that there is a very high demand for both our concentrates. The world has changed in our favor since about, well, it's 2021 when the latest economic study was released when the last time that NorZinc issued an economic study and treatment charges are very much in favor of the producer, of people like us that mine the material. In fact, there are some reasons to believe that we will get paid rather than us paying for some of our concentrate. Those economic parameters will be incorporated in the JDS study. And I should add that JDS will take information.

42:54 JDS doesn't really do anything with smelters, okay? But we have a gentleman called Howard Nakamura. You'll see him on a call like this as well. He'll be talking about these smelter terms and he will be advising, if you will, JDS. He did advise the previous consultant in the previous economic study. So he'll be doing the same thing, but of course with upgraded terms, which I just indicated are very, very favorable. In fact, the most favorable in the history of mining in favor of the mining companies. What we have is highly unusual. We have a new project.

43:42 As Claudine mentioned, it's permitted. Getting an environmental assessment, the water license, the IDAs with the indigenous governments, these are very unusual things. So the smelters find that attractive and those terms will be represented in the upcoming JDS study. So just for me to finish, because I'm rambling on a little bit, as you can tell I get very excited about these things. And in terms of, our goal is to produce what we call a proof of concept or in technology, if you're designing software you would call it an MVP, a minimum viable product, which is a handful of lead and zinc concentrate tote bags.

44:30 Those can be shipped by airplane. Those bags of concentrate will be tested with the various smelters to give them an up-to-date, you know, samples, if you will. This is not commercial production, this is not free cash flow positive, this is basically you know getting some material to them to be tested. I think we can do that within a year. It's an ambitious plan, there's no doubt about it. And I ask Ron every week, Ron, can we do that? And Ron says, yeah, based on what he sees so far, there's every reason to say that we can do that. You know, the mill as an example, it's like finding a 1982 Porsche in a garage.

45:20 It has great bones. We think we can get it on the road for a very cost-effective basis, but we won't know until we get into it in details. But we're working on that right now and we'll obviously upgrade the market and investors as the information rolls in here. But in terms of full commercial production, we don't really know on that either. That's what we're going to rely on JDS to tell us. You know, they're gonna tell us how long it'll take and we'll guide the market accordingly. And that's why we commissioned JDS to do this. Great, no, it makes sense. Claudine, I got one for you that's gonna combine kind of 2 questions from the chat. One person wants to know what's the biggest risk and one person, writer Peter Epstein, wants to know if there are any potential red flags. He notes that he's more concerned with delays than not getting approval. So just as a professional, Are you seeing any red flags that could indicate delays?

46:18 I'm not seeing any red flags, but there is obviously the potential for delays because these programs go through a very rigorous public review. You know, it requires that all reviewers and those that are interested have the time and the resources to be able to do that. I mean, there are things that have happened like in Yellowknife a couple of years ago when the entire town was evacuated due to a forest fire. You know, there definitely was delays required for that, you know, because the McKenzie Valley Highway is going to major projects and they are looking to move that forward, there could be some delays related to having both projects sort of happening at the same time where why it's important for us to be working actively with the First Nations, with their development corporations, their contracts and businesses, as well as the GNWT to ensure that we are all being able to move forward on those projects.

47:16 It is correct, I'm not worried about not having these management plans or these things in place. It is really about the timing and making sure there's proper resources available. So what we have done to ensure that everybody's on the same page is put together a draft that we are starting to talk to our regulators and our key reviewers about to identify if there are any bottlenecks when it comes to resources, any specific issues that we can discuss early so that they don't come out later and create a delay. Included in that is what are the key things that are of most interest that you think that we need to be better at communicating and what type of communication makes the most sense? As I said, we meet with senior leadership, we meet with businesses, but we also meet at the community level.

48:03 And there is obviously a lot of interest when it comes to, you know, how we're going to manage and protect wildlife, how we're going to protect water, because Prairie Creek does feed into the South Nahanni River and then does go by Nahanni Butte, the community, and then down the Lillard River and into Mackenzie. So there's a lot of interest on how we're going to properly manage that and having those conversations early is really important. And what we've done up to now is done what we call early engagement, where we talk about the plan, do some review of it, and then update it before we even start this public and regulatory review process, so that we are sure that any comments on the plans and the way that we're gonna do this work is already incorporated before it goes out to public review to make sure that resources that are very scarce are used in the most efficient way possible.

48:58 Awesome, thank you. Really appreciate it. Chad, I'll give you one last one, we've got time for from the chat. Tom asks, if there are critical minerals, what if anything needs to be added to the mill? It's a good question. We don't know. We don't know. There are many elements in the mineral. I've seen 1 study that says there's 45 different elements, and maybe a lot more than that. We don't really know with... And when previous operators tested the ore, they weren't really looking for a lot of the elements that are important to us today. So we don't really know, number 1, what's there, number 2, what amounts are recoverable, and number 3, what quantities, in other words, what tonnage. So let's say that we have germanium in economic quantities. We think we will.

49:56 You know, what part of the ore body is it? Is it in just one part? So there's lots of studies that we need to do. And then of course, it's an excellent question. We just don't know the answer. What will we have to do to the middle to recover those critical elements, critical metals or minerals, whatever you want to call it. My gut tells me, and I'm speculating, I'm guessing here, is that the germanium will be an important economic component. It will pay for a good chunk of our operating and or transportation costs. Can I prove that today? Absolutely not. It's just a gut. And we'll have to do a lot more studies before we know that, but it's very exciting.

50:45 I appreciate that. It's always good to know what you don't know. So we'll wrap it up there. Chad and Claudine, thanks so much. Claudine, especially for running through the presentation, but Chad for running through questions. I know we had quite a full house in the room today. So I really appreciate everybody's time, of course. There were a couple of questions over e-mail I didn't quite have time to get to. I'll make sure that the team at Honey Badger gets those so they'll get back to you as quickly as possible. But the replay should be available in just a couple of hours. I encourage you to share it if you enjoyed this video. But Chad, Claudine, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time today. I hope everybody has a great end to their Thursday.