United States Antimony Corporation Price & Performance (UAMY)

Thank you and hello everyone thank all of you for dialing into our conference call this afternoon. We're anxious to update you today on all of our activities at US Antimony. I have with me on the call today Joe Bargewith, who is a board member and executive vice President as well as Chief Mining Engineer of the company Rick Isaac, who is our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Jonathan Miller, our Vice President who is in charge of Investor Relations. They will all be giving short presentations about their respective divisions today. When we had this call last year, we told you that 2023 was a year of transition. As indicated in the press release this morning, this past year, was a significant turning point for U. S. Antimony. We've added since the beginning of last year significant bench strength This includes a new controller, five new vice presidents, one Senior Vice President, one Executive VP and two Sales Personnel for our Z Lite division. These professionals are the ones taking your company to the next level. We reported this morning record revenues today of $14,900,000 which is up 72% year over year. Cost of sales was down 5% year over year and our gross profit was up 204%.

Year over year. I would like to now introduce Rick Isaac who's going to summarize and give you some more detail on our financial performance for fiscal thousand twenty four. Rick?

Thanks, Gary. So I'll start with some comments on our consolidated results. First, the reporting of our Mexico results in our SEC filings change throughout 2024, So I'm gonna briefly describe these changes. As you know, we closed our Mexico operations in the first quarter after years of losses. And presented their results as a discontinued operation in a footnote in our 10 Qs for the first, second and third quarters of twenty twenty four Then we reopened our Mexico operations in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four due to significantly increased market price and demand for antimony and presented their results in continuing operations our twenty twenty four ten ks. Which is also how we presented Mexico's results in our twenty twenty three ten ks. [indiscernible] Okay, so in the consolidated P and L, sales as Gary mentioned were 14,900,000.0 for fiscal year 2024, which as Gary said was an increase of 72% over last year. This increase was achieved with both higher sales volumes and higher sales prices in both our antimony and zeolite businesses. It's worth repeating, Gary mentioned it that our sales of 14,900,000.0 was the highest sales level since being listed on the NYSE Gross profit was $3,500,000 for fiscal year twenty twenty four, which compares to a loss of 3,300,000.0 in 2023.

This complete turnaround was achieved with cost efficiencies and price increases. And we also implemented strict controls in Mexico as we process the remaining ore in 2024 and this significantly improved gross profit from our Mexico operations. Along with the higher antimony market price. Next, I'll cover a few items with our antimony business. Our antimony sales were 11,100,000.0 in 2024. Which is up 5,200,000.0 or 88% over 2023. About 60% of the sales increase relates to the average price increase and about 40% relates to the volume increase. These increases were primarily due to the higher worldwide demand for as we've discussed and described in our earnings release. We've been focused on capitalizing on this increased demand for some time. And we have several initiatives in process to do just that. First, we reopened our Mexico operations as I described earlier. Our Mexico operations can process and sell finished antimony products with engineered production capacity ranging up to 200 tons per month. Additionally, we're sourcing ore for our Mexico operations from new suppliers and improving our machinery and equipment in Mexico both of which allow for more economical production of antimony products in Mexico. Also, we started the expansion of our antimony processing facility in Thompson Falls, Montana, In addition, we're we acquired mining claims that has the potential for us to own some of our antimony supply.

Next, with our zeolite business, Our zeolite sales were $2,900,000 in 2024. Which is up $500,000 or 19% over 2023 but half of the sales increase relates to the volume increase and about half relates to the average price increase. Our Zeolyte gross profit for 2024 was a loss of 600,000.0, which is primarily due to much higher maintenance and repair costs and related expenses. As described in our prior earnings calls, these higher costs were needed to repair older equipment and trucks make them operational after years of neglect, and resulted in an operational loss for 2024. However, these improvements increased our production reliability and safety, and will allow us to grow our Zeolyte business. And in 2025, we're focused on growing sales profitably. And we hired two salesperson out to do just that. Overall, we accomplished a lot in 2024. Financially, as we've said, 2024 was our highest sales level since being listed on the NYSE. We improved gross profit from a loss of 3,300,000.0 in 2023 to a profit of 3,500,000.0 in 2024 and we improved cash flow from a decrease of 7,200,000.0 in 2023 to an increase of $6,300,000 in 2024. Operationally, we started the year with our zeolite facility experiencing some downtime, and ended the year with a more reliable production facility with improved on time delivery and safety ready for growth.

We started the year as the only US domestic producer of antimony products, and ended the year with the ability to produce antimony products in The US and Mexico. We started the year with only one supplier of antimony ore and ended the year with three suppliers of antimony ore We started the year with no US mining claims and ended the year with mining claims in The US and Canada. That have the potential to make our antimony business more vertically integrated and expand our company's product offerings. Overall, we have a talented team that dedicated to improving our company strengthening America's critical minerals and critical materials pipeline, and increasing shareholder value. I'll turn it back over to you, Gary.

Thank you, Rick. Now I'd like to ask that Joe Bartsworth update everyone on all the activities he and his team have been working on with regards to our mining leases both in Alaska and Canada. Joe? Okay. I was going to start with operations at Bear River Zeelight, Gary. Okay.

Great.

There's never been a reserve calculation for this world class ore body.

Without one, we believe that we could even be out of compliance with the new SEC SK 1,300 regulations regarding reporting of mineral reserves and resources. To rectify this, we conducted a definition drill program during July of twenty four, really made a 80 holes for a total of over 6,700 feet Holes were drilled approximately 100 feet apart. Mostly along existing roads and other areas which could be accessed easily. Cuttings from from each drill six foot drill interval were collected We ended up with over 1,100 samples. Split into portions suitable for assay and sent to internationally established well known ISO certified labs, namely ALS Global and SGS. For both sample prep and analysis. This program was conducted solely on a portion of the privately leased ground and did not include any of the federal land covered by our mining claims. Technical report adhering to the guidelines of SK 1,300 is being prepared with an independent qualified person as the primary author and a specialist licensee of the proprietary LeapFrog Resource Calculation Software myself as secondary The report will include a statement as to the reserves that have been calculated target date for the report, completion is March 31, While the drill was on-site, the contractor was also engaged to drill and blast a large area on the east side of the property to finish up this area so that it could be reclaimed concurrently with continued mining operations.

The blasted material was estimated to contain 63,000 tons of zeolite sufficient for three or four more years of production at present rates [indiscernible] money in the bank there. Subsequently, the old BRZ drill was sold along with other condemned equipment. That has been sitting idle on the property for several years. Basically eliminating an ISAR. The loader was purchased along with the 40 ton articulated truck with the excavator and dozer remaining on-site. The quality and reliability of our equipment fleet has been vastly improved. To go along with the plant improvements that have been made. Switching to the Ontario Canada Cobalt property, This property is located on the Northwest edge of the Sudbury Basin. This basin, believed to have been caused by a large meteor impact is the most prolific mineral producing area of Canada. Mainly for nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum group metals since the late eighteen eighties. The claims that we have acquired through an option agreement and our own scoping program cover an area of more than 4,000 acres on the Northwest edge of the basin. The area has been previously explored by small companies and includes showings of high grade cobalt nickel business and other critical minerals of economic interest along the three mile trend.

The highlight of the iron mask showing was an historical drill hole [indiscernible] drill coil interval of four feet of 16% cobalt and 8% nickel. About two miles to the south of the cobalt shaft were the Ontario Department of Mines reports that it's six ton sample of ore grading 15% cobalt and nine ounces of silver per ton was shipped in the 1930s. This compares with average rate of cobalt producers being in the 1% range. This area is covered by extensive sands, gravel, musk egg, and small lakes, which has hampered efforts of earlier explorationists to map the geology of the area and definitively understand that geology. We believe these high grade showings do not exist in isolation, and we are focused on determining the extent of the mineralization particularly the cobalt. We have assembled a team of geologists from the Sudbury area headed by Doctor. Fred Briggs, recently retired from the Ontario Geological Survey. As soon as the snow is gone, we will commence an excavator supported overburdened trenching and stripping program to uncover and wash the rock do detailed mapping of the geology, determine the mineralogy and assess the potential of property to host, economic quantities of critical minerals.

In Alaska, we've acquired several properties related to critical minerals with a focus on antimony. And located on non federal lands. Alaska, and particularly the Fairbanks area with the primary source of antimony for the allied nations during the First World War. During World War II with the advance of Japanese forces in the Aleutians, the Focus shifted to Idaho. We are shifting our focus back onto Alaska. The Fairbanks area antimony deposits were originally discovered by the placer gold miners in about 1900. Who considered the large boulders of antimony a hindrance. Following the discovery and development of the Fort Knox gold deposit in the 1980s, the area saw intense exploration by major companies like Placerdomes, and Inco looking for gold. Part of their exploration programs included soil sampling surveys of indicator minerals included antimony. We have optioned a large number of claims on state of Alaska land from a family company who've owned these claims for a couple of generations. No federal land, therefore no NEPA permitting is required. The owners have provided us with these placer dome and records And Rod Blakstadt, our Vice President of Mining Division has identified eight target areas with anomalously high antimony values in the soil.

Rod is a graduate of University of Alaska Fairbanks and has nineteen years of field experience in the state. He will return to Alaska to head up an exploration program of trenching the areas containing the antimony anomalies, which will include mining of any antimony as it is uncovered. We've made arrangements to lease a 3.75 acre parcel of fat patented land from us. A local master miner and intend to establish a shop warehouse building on this site. And make this our field headquarters. We anticipate that once we have stripped the overburden and uncovered the bedrock, we find high grade antimony. In that bedrock, which we would excavate all through and store on the patented land that we've leased. By August, we intend to have sufficient ore to begin trucking to our Montana facilities. A ton of material grading 50% antimony would have a gross value of $25,000 per ton at today's prices. Trucking from the Fairbanks area to Phillipsburg at about 2,435 miles. A 20 ton truckload worth $500,000 at 50% Pneumonia is estimated to cost $5,200 per truckload. Or about $260 per ton or about 1% of the value. So there's some real incentive to move forward with this Alaska operation.

Rod and all of us at US Antimony are committed to making this happen. Turn it back to you Gary.

All right, great Joe and I hope everybody heard what you said in the last couple sentences because it's important for our investors to understand that today we are buying antimony from third parties. And as Rick said, we have three different parties that are supplying us antimony and they are all international. There is no antimony today being mined in The United States or Alaska. And with our ability to move our own product from Alaska in August to our facilities in Montana at the very low cost that Joe just outlined our margins will substantially improve. And so I keep hearing numbers about the amount of tonnage I keep putting that in the back of my mind, but I'd be happy starting out with a couple hundred tons a month. And so we're getting prepared to receive that material and looking forward to that having a substantial impact to our operating results in the second half of the year. Would like to now introduce Jonathan Miller, He's a brand new father and who now gets absolutely no sleep so please give him a little love there. To tell will tell you all about what we've been doing on the marketing front in the capital markets as well as investor relations.

Jonathan?

Appreciate the introduction, Gary. So, when I joined US Antimony in July of last year, one of our most immediate challenges was our complete lack of exposure to Wall Street, and the broader capital markets. Prior to management changes, UAMY had no marketing efforts, no institutional awareness, and virtually zero engagement with investors. It was clear we needed to build that foundation from the ground up. Initial strategy in the second half of last year was straightforward, but deliberate. Start small, build credibility, and create visibility. We focused heavily on attending more than 20 in person and virtual investment conferences, targeting small cap and micro cap events, where we could directly engage retail and early institutional investors. These efforts allowed us to tell the UAM story for the first time.

Directly to market participants who had never heard of us and knew nothing about antimony and zeolite. Simultaneously, we launched profiles on key social media and brokerage platforms such as LinkedIn, X, formerly Twitter, StockTwits, and Webull, which now represent a combined audience of nearly 65,000 retail investors actively following or watching UAMY. These platforms became critical tools to communicate company milestones, industry news, and raise awareness about antimony's role as a critical mineral. The results speak for themselves. Through this focus retail and microcap institutional outreach, we successfully took the company from a cap of 20,000,000 to approximately $200,000,000 putting UAMY firmly on the radar of Wall Street, and for the first time, aligning our visibility with the growing national interest in critical minerals especially antimony. As that awareness grew, particularly around antimony's strategic importance in national defense and energy storage, our strategy naturally evolved. The next phase, which began this January, is to target larger investors and funds, many of which are international, that drive significant long term capital appreciation. We've been fortunate to work closely with highly connected boutique firms like Alliance Global Partners, Titan Partners, and Jet Capital. All of whom have not only taken the time to fully understand our story, but have also introduced us directly to dozens of institutional investors through sponsored road shows.

Further outreach has included meetings with mining focused analysts and bankers from RBC Capital, Canaccord Genuity, National Bank Financial, Scotiabank, BMO, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Rothschild and Co. These conversations have been invaluable. Not just for future potential capital sources, but for relationship building and market intelligence as we position UAMY within the broader critical mineral space. Another core focus has been securing equity research coverage, which was completely nonexistent prior to our team stepping in. Since then, two independent firms have picked up research coverage on us, include H. C. Wainwright and Alliance Global Partners. Potentially four more firms expressing interest in publishing coverage following today's earnings report. A major milestone that will continue to expand our institutional audience. Finally, we've extended our visibility into the mainstream media and industry press.

Planting seeds in the broader narrative around critical minerals and U. S. Supply chain security. Secure television and written narrative coverage in over a dozen major outlets, including Reuters, S and P Global, Fast Markets, New York Stock Exchange TV, Bloomberg, and Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, all amplifying UAM at UAMY's story to a global audience. In summary, 2024 was about laying the groundwork. Elevating UAMY from obscurity to relevance. 2025 will be about continuing to plant seeds, deepening institutional relationships, broadening research coverage, increasing revenues, and positioning UAMY as a key player in the National Critical Minerals conversation where we believe we firmly belong.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jonathan. And one other thing that I'd like to mention concerning the capital markets is it based on some preliminary work that a couple firms have done for us It appears that The US Antimony is going to be added to the 2,000 Index in May. This will obviously add further to our market awareness and create additional trading in our securities. Two things that we have not touched upon on this call today are the DoD grant request and tariffs. I'd like to give you a little information there We have submitted all the required paperwork for the federal grants to the US government and we currently remain in what's called a quiet period. So no doubt the changes that that have been made recently since President Trump became our new President of The United States. Have slowed things down.

But we feel confident that we're well positioned and the story that we've told the Department of Defense and we remain hopeful of something, some relief down the road. When we did the Q and A session, don't bother asking me anything about the DOD because I really can't say anything more than what I've just said. With respect to tariffs, we do remain concerned and have discussed the situation with the Governor, Senators and House members in the states where we do business. This has been done both in a personal meeting by myself and our Head of Government Relations Melissa Pagan as well as in written correspondence that we've delivered to all of these members. They all understand it and they all are are waving our flag. This has not affected our business yet but we continue to monitor the situation close Since we obviously deal in critical minerals, we believe there will be an opportunity for exemption similar to the auto industry We also happen to sell antimony products. Before we open the conference call to questions, I'd like to outline seven key objectives that we have as a company for fiscal twenty twenty five. They are as follows: one.

Continue to increase intake volumes of antimony at both the Thompson Falls and Madero Smelters. [indiscernible] Expand capacity at both smelters as our increased volumes dictate. This is predominantly done by adding additional furnaces. [indiscernible] Assuming we are successful in receiving government grant monies, hope to accelerate our expansion efforts further predominantly in Montana. [indiscernible] Grow our continue to grow our zeolite cells in a much improved manner [indiscernible] also try to continue to improve our net margins. We think that all the past problems have been resolved and we are now in a period of time where we can show significant progress on ZLA. Number five, initiate our mining activities as Joe Bartlett has so described in Alaska in bringing high grade antimony ore to our facilities located in Montana this summer. Number six: Continue our diversification efforts in other critical minerals in either The United States and or both Canada. Number seven maintain a pristine balance sheet while growing all divisions of the company so that we stand out as a premier enterprise. So with that operator we would like to open up the audience to ask us questions.