NioCorp Developments Aktie

Welcome to the Elk Creek mine and processing facility site, everyone. Thanks for coming today. Just a couple of quick administrative notes before we get started. I'm Jim Sims. I'm with NioCorp.

You all have your PPE on, your personal protective gear. Please keep that on for your entire visit today. We are an operating -- we are mining and construction, and we are regulated by MSHA. So we're very careful about safety. That's job number one.

We're going to have a short ceremony, and then we're going to transfer our folks up to the mine overlook site, so you'll be able to see the construction. We gave the guys the day off today down there. Normally, there'd be a lot of construction, big trucks going. So for safety reasons, you won't have any of that. But please, everyone take -- keep your eyes peeled for moving vehicles at all times.

When we go over to the -- after the program, I'll announce we're going to move to the signing ceremony, which we'll do here, and then we're going to do another one down at the overlook. For our elected officials, we've got 3 vans here. We're going to load you in those vans and drive you down. It's about a 60-second drive. For members of the news media, we'll help you go down in the van as well so you can get set up. And then for the rest of us, you can walk down. It's about a 5-minute walk. And since we don't have rain today, it should be actually a pleasant walk. Other than that, we're not going to have the media availability. For members of the press, it will be done down at the mine over site (sic) [ overlook site ], not here. So we'll do the program quickly, move down and then have fun down there.

And with that, let me introduce our master of ceremonies, Mark Smith, Chairman and CEO of NioCorp.

Thank you, Jim, and thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being here today. It's been a long time, but we're getting there. So anyway, welcome to the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Mine. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about that, but we have some pretty important guests here that we want to introduce first.

And as Jim mentioned, this is an active mine and construction site. And so sorry for the inconvenience of hard hats and safety glasses and reflective gear and steel-toed boots, but that's our life. And that's how we live it here. And safety is a value for our company. It's not a goal. It's a value for our company. It is the #1 thing in our mind at all times. In fact, I have a card here that any time I see anything I don't like safety-wise on this site, I put that card down, all the work stops and we get it sorted out. That's how important safety is out here. And we need everybody to keep their eyes open on that at all times.

So we do have some very, very important guests here today. I can't believe the turnout that we've had for that. And let me introduce a few of them. What I'll ask for you to do is to hold your applause because I'll give each of them a chance to say a few words as well, and then we can give them a proper applause and it won't be competitive at that point.

So first of all, we're very, very proud to have our host in the best sense of the word and one of our strongest supporters, and that's Governor Jim Pillen. Thank you, Governor, for being here today. We also have Nebraska's Senior Senator, Deb Fischer, a steady voice for a strong national defense and a steadfast supporter of our project. Thank you, Senator. Senator Pete Ricketts, a tireless advocate for American supply chain security and another ardent supporter of our mine, both as Senator and as a former 2-term Governor. We've met many times. Congressman Adrian Smith, who represents this district and the people of Johnson County for the record. While we share the last name, we're not related, but I would welcome him into my family at any time, Adrian.

From Washington, we have our U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, an extraordinarily effective member of President Trump's Cabinet. Thank you, Secretary, for being here. And we also have Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, John Jovanovic. John, thank you for being here. Without whose support and commitment to help bringing this project into reality, we wouldn't be here today. So thank you and your team for what you do.

We're also grateful to our local state senator, Bob Hallstrom. Bob, can you raise your hand? There he is. Bob has been a tremendous advocate for the project as well. And we have a number of other local and county officials here today.

But I'd also like to call out just a couple of other individuals who I think are very worthy of being called out. So Mark Kristoff with Traxys. Traxys, as we announced yesterday, is our partner in this effort. Traxys will be buying what we make here and selling it to the rest of the world.

We have Jim Smith. Jim, can you raise your hand? Jim Smith is with us. [ Doug Goracke ]. Where is Doug? There he is. And I got it right this time, Doug, instead of Greg.

Lavon Heidemann, can you raise your hand? There he is back there. We have Greg and Joyce Krueger as well. Raise your hands, Greg and Joyce. There they are. And I would be remiss if I didn't note Tony Fulton, who is a prior State Senator, Tax Commissioner and is on the NioCorp Board of Directors today.

And finally, at least -- last but not least, we have Michael Johnson from JPMorgan, Vice Chairman, and has been a real good friend for our project as well. JPMorgan does a great job helping us through the EXIM process and other ways as well. So that's who we have.

I'm going to make a few minor comments, and then we'll let the really important people speak here. So right beneath our feet here is one of the most remarkable, critical mineral deposits in North America. From this single source, we will be producing 8 different critical mineral products. First of all is niobium. It makes steel stronger and lighter. It's used in bridges, pipelines, vehicles and innumerable defense systems. However, we import 100% of the niobium that we need in this country today.

Second is scandium, which makes aluminum alloys lighter and stronger for aerospace and defense. It's an emerging material for the advanced electronics behind artificial, or perhaps more appropriately stated today, superintelligence. And we also import 100% of that critical mineral into the U.S. today.

Titanium is the backbone of modern aircraft, as we all know, in military hardware, and we import more than 85% of what we need for that mineral today. And the rare earths we plan to produce are essential to magnets inside the electric motors, drones, guided munitions. And it's a supply chain that China overwhelmingly dominates today. We import virtually 100% of the many different rare earths we need, including dysprosium and terbium, which we plan to make right here in Nebraska.

Elk Creek is designed to produce all of these from mine to finished product. We're not sending it off to China to be processed. We're processing it right here. And that's rare anywhere in the world, and it's exactly what America needs today. For Nebraska, this means creating and supporting about 1,200 construction jobs and approximately 500 permanent -- high-skilled permanent jobs over the 40-year mine life of this project. I'd like to say, it's really not a project to us anymore. It's a generational job-creating powerhouse is what it's going to be, and it's going to make Johnson County a different place, a better place.

It means new opportunity for Johnson County and the communities across the state with billions of dollars of investment coming to Nebraska over this mine's long life. For the nation, it means a reliable domestic source of material our economy and our military simply cannot do without. And it's going to be produced to American standards by American workers, on American soil and that feels really good to say. None of this happens alone. It takes partners at every level of government who understand that critical mineral security is national security.

So let me introduce our first partner in this journey. It's fitting that we begin with a man who knows what it means to build something from the ground up in Nebraska. He's a veterinarian, a farmer and an entrepreneur who grew a family business into one of the state's leading agricultural enterprises. He served on the University of Nebraska as a regent and some years ago, I understand, actually patrolled the secondary for the Cornhuskers. That was a new one for me, Jim. Since taking office, he's worked relentlessly to make Nebraska a place where people want to invest and build, where they want to raise their families. And he's been a strong supporter of what we're doing here at Elk Creek.

So ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the Governor of the great state of Nebraska, Jim Pillen. Jim?

Well, thank you, a gigantic congratulations. About 6 years ago, I met Scott Honan out here and he took me around and said, there's a little farm over here. We invested. I don't know, Scott, it was $8 million, $10 million. Then I knew it was really serious stuff. I want to give a shout out to Senator Fischer and Senator Ricketts. They've -- I'm the rookie in this deal. I've only been around for 4 years. They've been around putting a lot into this. And of course, Congressman Smith, tireless advocates to make this happen. So a big shout out there.

I want to certainly welcome Mr. Chairman. You come from good family. So welcome. I got to spend time with your father-in-law just this last week, and grateful for your family's commitment. And then, of course, Secretary Wright. We got to have a little bit of fun, but I've had the privilege to learn some things from Secretary Wright in the last 20 months. And pretty gifted human being. And I said, "Gee whiz, where did you learn all this stuff about energy?" And then the secretary. So Jim, when I was young, I kind of like to look up at the stars and think about fusion and everything. I said, "What the hell kind of books did you read when you were here?" That's not what I was exposed to. We're incredibly grateful for you to be here.

Grateful for you to answer the call when President Trump called because, as you said, it's really, really important. We fix the energy crisis in the United States of America that we get rid of these ideology ideas and just fix the fundamental basics so that we get power and that we lead the world in power. So incredibly grateful for your leadership and saying yes. So I think that's really important.

And then the NioCorp team. It's the Nebraska way, 16 years, extraordinary grit, determination, nobody gave up. And then, of course, the belief of everybody in the Elk Creek area that just really, really important piece. And think about Nebraska if I can brag just a minute. Gosh, in Nebraska, it's the people. It's our extraordinary water. We have the largest, most sustainable underground aquifer in the Western Hemisphere. We're #1 in cattle production, significant in food security. We're #1 in the highest value ethanol now because we capture our carbon in 18 of our 24 plants.

We just are embarking on making energy from a kernel of corn coming through livestock, making renewable natural gas. And there'll be opportunities to do hundreds of these in the state of Nebraska. And now we're the home of the most extraordinary rare earth mineral deposit in North America. And I think that maybe lastly, what I want to say besides a shout out to everybody here, but an incredible, incredible thank you to the President of the United States to -- that he was not duped that we have to get the supply chain solved in this country. We have got to recognize what it's like if we're doing business with foreign adversaries. We have to fix it. We have to make sure that we have all these under control. This is a step -- a big step in the right direction. We have lots of work ahead to do, but I'm incredibly proud to be a small part of it and the grit and determination of all the people in the front row to make it happen. And everybody from your team, Mark, is quite impressive. So congratulations.

Thanks. Good to be here. We've had a very special item that we want to hand out to all of our guests today. It's an acrylic piece. Of course, it's a little bit of advertising. It does say NioCorp on it. But this is actually a piece of ore from one of our core drill holes. And we want every one of our special visitors to take one of these, put it in your office, use it to hold down our loan papers, Mr. Chairman, and -- because they're going to be big. But we would like to make sure we hand out each one of those. So Governor, here is yours.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Governor. Our next speaker is a Sandhills cattle rancher from Valentine who served in the Nebraska legislature before going to the U.S. Senate. As a senior member of the Armed Services and Appropriations Committees, she has been one of the Senate's most respected voices on national defense. And she knows our military is only as strong as the materials it can be built from. Please welcome Nebraska's Senior Senator, Deb Fischer.

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary. Welcome to Nebraska. We are so happy you are here for a wonderful, wonderful event that we're having here in the Elk Creek area today. Mr. Chairman, welcome to you as well. This is a big deal for our state, but it is a huge deal for our country. Always good to be with my friend, Jim Pillen, Governor of Nebraska. We have my colleague and great partner in the U.S. Senate, Pete Ricketts. And my dear friend and good colleague. He's been there forever. In the House, he's on the Ways and Means Committee. He's a mentor to the rest of the delegation. And we certainly enjoy having Adrian here.

I'm going to give a shout out to a really good friend of mine. Where is Lavon? Stand up, Lavon, because I think Lavon Heidemann and I served in the Nebraska legislature together. He was Chair of Appropriations Committee, and I think it was in 2010 when Lavon started talking about rare earth minerals and stuff. And I'm busy worried about how we're going to build roads and bridges and take care of our water in the state of Nebraska, my focus.

And besides taking care of the state budget, Lavon was one of the first -- the first who mentioned this area and the potential in this area and what we would see and benefit from as a state because of that. So Lavon, wonderful, wonderful to see you today.

This is a very, very exciting milestone that we're all here to share today. And as it's been said, our country depends on these critical minerals for everything from advanced manufacturing to our military equipment and our national security. Every day, we rely on these minerals to power our lives. They're from our iPhones to our TVs, to our cars and lots more. And yet, we continue to rely on these critical minerals coming from foreign countries. That's not a good thing. That is not a good thing. That dependence, it creates vulnerabilities for our economy and especially for our national security as well. As a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I have been advocating for bringing critical mineral production and processing back to the United States. So what a thrill it is to see this in Nebraska.

I was extremely proud to help secure $10 million federal investment in the domestic production of aluminum scandium alloys, and that's exactly what's going to be produced right here in Elk Creek. Through the National Defense Authorization Act, I pushed the department to examine the need for American production of these critical minerals and to use existing federal programs to encourage that production.

NioCorp is also working to develop a domestic source of the niobium. I didn't read those books either at night, and titanium, among other rare earth elements. These minerals are essential to our defense industrial base, our aerospace industry and American manufacturing. This project also represents an extraordinary economic opportunity for rural Nebraska with the potential to support thousands of American jobs and entered -- and really to generate some long-term economic growth across this region.

I couldn't be more pleased to see the Trump administration recognizing the importance of this project to America's economic and national security. Today's letter signing marks another important step for NioCorp as they work to continue to get that federal financing review process going. Of course, none of this progress would be possible without the commitment of the people here in Elk Creek. For years, local leaders, landowners, community members and NioCorp's team have worked together to move this project forward. Their dedication, it reflects the determination, the cooperation and the work ethic that defines our great state.

Nebraska has long been a leader in national security through the critical work that is done at STRATCOM and at Offutt Air Force Base. And we're also leading in securing America's energy independence. So today, as we showcase how Nebraska will help secure the resources that America needs, we also celebrate the new opportunities that we are creating for the next generation of Nebraskans.

I am so excited for what lies ahead. And I am also excited and thrilled to be able to look forward as this project continues to grow. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Senator Fischer. Our next speaker saw early what Elk Creek could mean for Nebraska as our former 2-term governor. Now in the United States Senate, including on the Foreign Relations and Banking Committees, he's one of Washington's clearest voices on the threat China poses, including its grip on critical minerals, our economy and military and what we all depend on. So please help me in welcoming Senator Pete Ricketts.

Preparation for war is the surest guarantee of peace. Theodore Roosevelt said those words. And while I'm a huge fan of our 26th President, he did not invent that saying. It actually goes back to ancient Roman times, where Vegetius said, "Si vis pacem, para bellum." The concept carried through on classic works.

The idea is simple. The simplest way to avoid a conflict is by being strong. President Reagan knew that, too. We live in a very dangerous world. We can see it. Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism, continues to pursue nuclear weapons. The dictator Putin has launched a war of aggression in Europe that has lasted now over 4 years.

And Communist China, the dictator there, Xi Jinping, wants to replace us as the world's superpower. And he's aggressively putting pressure on our allies such as the Japan and the Philippines. It's a dangerous world. And as my senior Senator just mentioned, we cannot be reliant on our chief adversary in the world, Communist China, for things that are critical for our defense. And that's why this project is so important. Because establishing secure supply lines on things such as niobium and scandium, titanium, magnetic rare earths and processing them here is vital. Because what we see in the world is even when China doesn't mine these, they process over 80% of them.

Now if you go back 20 years, we actually used to do this. And then we stopped. We've got to get back to the point where we have these available here in our country. And this project here is a great first example of how we are doing this. It is a win-win-win. It's a win for the community of Elk Creek. Mark was talking about all the great jobs that are going to be here. The construction jobs, certainly, we see right now, with the 500 jobs that are going to be great paying jobs that will go on for the next 40 years.

We think about all the investment will come to Johnson County and how that will create more prosperity, allow the families here to be able to send their kids to school, go to that family vacation, buy a house. It's going to be great for the state of Nebraska as it adds to our overall state's economy. And it's going to be vital for our defense. Niobium, helping make steel and superalloys stronger. This goes into armored vehicles, naval vessels, drones, jet engine turbines.

Scandium, which goes into aerospace and defense materials. We must mine and process that here. And that's why this is such an important process and why Chairman Jovanovic and Secretary Wright, we're so glad that you are here to recognize that and especially your support to fast-tracking this project to be able to make sure we get it done.

When I was Governor, I recommended this project to the White House because of its importance. And now as Senator, I've introduced a bill to actually help the EXIM Bank have more flexibility when our adversary countries like Communist China start dumping on the market to put competitors out of business. My bill will help with that CTEP program that he's got, the China and Transformational Export Program, give them more flexibility and also add things such as semiconductors and medical supplies, which we also need to make sure that we have secured supply lines here in the United States.

This is a vital project. I'm so proud that Nebraska is part of it. This is something that's important for our country, for our state and for the community here at Elk Creek and Johnson County. So I want to thank everybody who's involved with it. I appreciate Mark, all the great work you and your team have done at NioCorp. I want to give a special shout out to Tony Fulton, who sits on the Board and actually was my Tax Commissioner when I was governor. But he was one of the people that first clued me in on how important this was. And then, of course, all the team that is working on this. And of course, the great support it continues to have from Governor Pillen, Senator Fischer, Congressman Smith.

This is a team effort. Team America, but Team America can win when we put our minds to it, and that's what you see here with this project. Thank you all very much for coming here today to help see the continuation of this process. We're going to work very hard to make sure that we bring this to a conclusion. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator. Our next speaker represents this district and knows rural Nebraska as well as anyone in Congress. A Gering native and former State Senator, he chairs the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, where he fights to open markets for Nebraska producers and to build American supply chains that don't depend on our adversaries. Please welcome our Congressman, Adrian Smith.

Good morning. It's great to be here, certainly, Mr. Secretary, Mr. Chairman, for your presence here today to really, I think, elevate an already big deal. And when I first heard of this early in my time in Washington that this was a possibility, as the chatter began, even then, it was exciting. So it's even more exciting now when we can see things come to fruition.

I was here for the groundbreaking. And I'm very proud to say that even though they put me at the controls of the excavator, I would not be perceived to be a threat to anyone's position in a more expert capacity at that. But incidentally, that was my childhood dream to become a heavy equipment operator. But to see things in action here already, it's so exciting.

And so being a member of the Ways and Means Committee, of course, I am very proud to have introduced tax modernization concepts for critical minerals. I'm always thinking about the third district of Nebraska, but even Nebraska, in general, of our place in the world and what each community can do. and to see this and not just Elk Creek in Nebraska or Nebraska in America, America and the world.

I had my family with me at a launch at NASA in Florida the other day and during August. And I have to think it's important we lead in that as well in space. We've seen new developments here was a launch of a telescope. SpaceX launched a NASA telescope. That will do amazing things. And so it all points, though, to the coordination that needs to happen.

So when we have workers here already and local officials, that, yes, we, at the federal level, we want to do what we can to help, but we know we couldn't do it without local officials and all of the coordination that's involved, dare I even say maybe the county assessor. I might weigh in a little bit, but that's hopefully good for the rest of the taxpayers as we expand and broaden our tax base. That is certainly important to a growing economy, growing opportunity and again, Nebraska's place in the world, more specifically Elk Creek.

I first heard of Elk Creek when I got to serve with Lavon Heidemann in the legislature, briefly as it was. But I just want to say thank you for getting this done or getting it going, I guess. We're still in the beginning process here as many years as it's taken just on the permitting, but I'm glad to be a part of it. And certainly, we want to see this through all the way to a very successful and continued operation. Thank you very much.

And just for the record, Congressman Smith actually did take the first scoop with the excavator for our portal project out here. He did a really good job, by the way. Probably some of the best of digging, Jake, we need to probably talk about that. Thank you, Congressman.

Our next speaker is an engineer and an entrepreneur who founded and led Liberty Energy, one of North America's most innovative energy companies. As Secretary of Energy, he is working to unleash American energy in all of its forms and rebuild the domestic supply chains for the materials that power our economy, our grid and our national security. We're honored. He's here to see this work firsthand. Please welcome the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Mr. Chris Wright.

I could not be more thrilled to stand here with you today. A few weeks into my political career, which is quite new, 18 months ago, a few weeks after being confirmed as Secretary of the Energy, I was in the Situation Room with our President and a few other leaders discussing in broader terms our relationship with China, the threats, the opportunities, the tradeoffs we had to discuss.

And one thing was already clear. China had decided that they would change the regime under which they would supply us critical minerals. We would apply and maybe they would supply them, and maybe they wouldn't. That was everything with a button on it requires magnets from these magnetic rare earth elements, high-temperature magnets. Our factories, our Air Force equipment, our planes, everything requires these inputs. We've just taken it for granted. They were just outsourced, and they were just shipped over.

Well, they were no longer going to be just shipped over. The President said, "How can we be in this position?" And more importantly, "You have to fix it as fast as possible. The United States cannot be in this position we are in. Move as promptly and quickly as you can to fix this problem." That's why I'm here. That's why I'm thrilled to be partners with the simply tremendous leadership from the state of Nebraska.

I met Senator Fischer, and immediately, it was the nuclear triad and American security and where do we stand and where are your plans and how do you view this issue and that issue. The seriousness and knowledge she brought to it was just refreshing and inspiring. I was proud to be an American that day that I met her.

Senator Ricketts, I've known a little bit before I went into politics. He's just a fellow business guy. We have some mutual friends in common. He's a man who believes in this country and believes America can and should do big and strong things.

Representative Smith, the same thing, a passionate leader for this state, a passionate leader for the United States of America, understanding there are critical vulnerabilities. We can't just talk about them and write a few papers and then hand it off to the next administration. We actually have to act. We have to do something to change the situation we're in.

Governor Pillen, a man of action, an absolute man of action, a man of passion for this state and understands if we do things the same old way, we'll be in the same old situation, and that's not good. That's not good enough for Nebraska. That's not good enough for the United States. This is not just the economics of the United States. This is our national security that rests on what's underground right here. I always take exception to use the word, the underground resources. They aren't resources because they've been underground for millions of years, and they haven't done anything for anyone that lives here. They're just materials underground. It's only the people here, people, everyone in this tent that are actually going to transform materials underground into resources that are going to change the national security of the United States of America.

Very thankful for Mark Smith. His expertise, his leadership, the business he has built, that's the tip of the spear. That's how we turn underground materials into resources and change the trajectory of our country. But this is a tricky one. 20 years ago, the United States was the largest importer of oil in the world. We were the largest importer of natural gas in the world. We transformed that in 20 years to where we're by far the world's largest exporter of natural gas and by far and away the world's largest producer of oil.

America can do big things. We can mobilize capital. We have the best trained and most motivated workers in the world. We can make great things happen, but we have barriers that often prevents that. The electricity grid, I won't go into that, government bureaucracy, crazy rules, a misunderstanding of climate change and a desire to politicize the electric grid has stopped the growth of American electricity 30 years ago.

Can we fix that problem? Absolutely. And we will fix that problem, but it involves knocking down barriers, changing the way people think about things and making stuff happen. With the underground materials under us right now, this is an even trickier problem. Not only is it building large things in America, the average time right now from a mineral discovery to build a mine in the United States is 29 years. If we operated that way, would we be the industrial powerhouse of the world? Would we be the last great hope for mankind? Would we have won World War II if it took us 29 years to figure out we're going to do something underground? No way. But we have lost our way. We have lost the American ideal.

And we have an adversary halfway around the planet that decided -- it didn't outcompete us economically. Oh, their mining technology is better or their underground materials are better. It isn't that at all. They made a strategic decision that this is an industry. It's not giant like steel or cement or plastics. It's specialized, and we can gather strategic control of it by buying overseas businesses, by subsidizing it, by selling under market, by manipulating prices so that commercial businesses, the way America operates can't compete. Didn't make economic sense for America to turn the underground materials here into resources, but it is imperative for our national security.

So we are here addressing a strategic concern. We have a critical business partner, but we have to change the math. We have to change the calculus to make this work. And one of my new great friends, John Jovanovic, who will be coming up here next, he came to play on Team America. Here's a smart, aggressive guy. A lot of things John could be doing right now, but he said there are big problems, and I'm going to lean in and together, we're going to fix them.

He's leaning in to provide the capital in a marketplace where China has distorted that marketplace. They have purposely and strategically made it uneconomic to do what we're doing here today. That's when we're going to say, "Oh, the math doesn't work." America's national security, it's just going to be in China's hands and elsewhere overseas. No, that's not acceptable.

John, the team here, the miners in this room, we're going to change that problem. We are going to restore America's control over our national security. We have everything going for us.

Thank you all for being here. President Trump, particularly to the miners, to everyone in this room, sends his enormous gratitude. And thank you for leaning in. This is a problem. This is not a new problem. China used this leverage on Japan 15 years ago. This threat was always there. This is a President and again, leaders in this room that have said, "Enough is enough. We're going to fix this problem now."

Thank you all. God bless you all. God bless the United States of America.

Now if I were the next speaker, I would really be worried having to follow that. But I've heard the Chairman speak before. I think you're going to be just as excited with him as well. So thank you, Mr. Secretary. That was outstanding. I mean you're right, for 20 years, we've said we have a problem. Let's write a report, and we didn't do anything about it. We have action now.

Our final speaker brings deep experience in energy, infrastructure and international finance, including opening the U.S. Development Finance Corporation's first overseas office, where he offered American financing as an alternative to Chinese and Russian influence. Today, as President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank, he's putting the strength of American financing behind American competitiveness. Please welcome EXIM Chairman, Mr. John Jovanovic.

It is great to be back here in Nebraska. Governor, Senator Fischer, thank you so much for having us. Congressman, you haven't only brought the third district to Washington, you've truly brought it to the world stage. And to my friend and partner, Secretary Wright, your leadership on energy security, supply chain security is bar none. We wouldn't be here today without it, without your tireless efforts. So thank you for that.

But I want to particularly brag about Senator Ricketts for a moment. Because from a non-Nebraskan, you all should know how fortunate you are to have a champion for Nebraska and for the United States in Washington for you. And I'll never forget our first meeting, Senator Ricketts. So at that time, Senator Ricketts is meeting with probably dozens of President Trump's nominees. And we went probably 2.5x over our time slot. And I walked out of there with a Six Sigma book on operational efficiency and excellence, which my poor team had to read too along with me.

But we got right down to it. How can we whip EXIM into shape? How can we become a frontline economic tool? But most importantly, how can America do the big transformative things that Secretary Wright talked about? You're a tireless leader and a tireless believer in the potential of America to be a force for good at home and abroad. Thank you for that. Nebraska. You are very lucky to have him in Washington. If we had another dozen partners on the Hill like you, Senator Ricketts, America would be stronger, safer, more prosperous, more secure place. So thank you for what you're doing.

Now we've talked a lot about the vulnerabilities that we face in our supply chain. And fundamentally, what it comes down to is we become overreliant on markets that aren't free, they aren't fair and they aren't functioning. And so all we want to do today is level the playing field and allow American capital, American innovation, American engineers and fantastic entrepreneurs and great companies led by the likes of Mark Smith to really succeed.

And so we've talked a lot about the periodic table. We've talked about the things. But if you work at NioCorp -- can you raise your hand, please? What you're doing impacts people? It transforms people's lives. And you may not feel it, you may not sense it, especially when you're coming here on a dark, cold day when it's muddy, and it's the last thing you want to do. I dare say what you're doing is heroic because think about the people that these critical minerals impact in fuel. Think about the war fighter of today and tomorrow who wants to keep America safe. Think about our first responders who rely on electronic devices powered by your critical minerals. Think about everyday Americans who wake up every day and work hard for their families and their factories are relying today on supply chains that are geared against them, right? All that changes with projects like NioCorp, all that changes with what we're doing today.

So not just a tremendous thank you to our partners at JPMorgan and Traxys and Lockheed Martin and so many others. But thank you to President Trump because what I can assure you, and Secretary Wright said it a moment ago, he has an unwavering commitment to reindustrializing America because reindustrializing America is at the core of being able to deliver the American Dream.

Now we've just been very fortunate to celebrate 250 incredible years of America's history. And what we're doing here today, Mark, and thanks to you and your team, is we're starting to engineer, design, and God willing, deliver the American Dream 2.0. And that requires supply chain security, that requires economic security and that will yield many, many more well-paying jobs like the thousands of jobs that you're supporting here today. Let's deliver the American Dream 2.0 together for at least another 250 years. Thank you.

Okay. Now we're going to get the best speaker of the house, Jim Sims, to tell us what's next. But before you do that, you all have said some amazing, amazing things. And the one thing that we know, and I want to really emphasize it, is it takes people. And I can't believe what a great team of people we have at NioCorp and all the partners that we have here today. And it takes a village, that's for sure. So Jim, what are we doing next?

We're going to do a signing ceremony with EXIM and NioCorp over here. But I would note for the members of the news media, we're going to do an outside version of that signing ceremony down at the mine overlook. So I would encourage the members of the news media to start to head down. And Alex Guthrie will help you do that.

This signing ceremony is for our live stream audience. We have, I think, a couple of hundred thousand people watching this now. So we're going to proceed with that. And if everybody could kind of hang tight while the members of the news media come out. And we got a van out here, folks, for those of you that want to ride down there. So let's go ahead and have our signing ceremony. Mark?

And for those who want to walk down to assemble down at the overlook, you're welcome to do that. Go out that door on the far north side, if you don't mind. It's about a 5-minute walk. News media representatives, we've got a Sprinter van right here to the south. If you want to take a ride down, just join us.

Good day, and welcome to today's webcast with NioCorp Developments. This is Barrett Boone with RedChip Companies. Today's webcast will cover NioCorp's recently published 2026 technical report for its Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in Nebraska. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the webcast over to Jim Sims, NioCorp's Chief Communications Officer. Jim, please go ahead.

Thank you, Barrett, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. It's a big day for the company. The team today, we're going to walk through a supplemental presentation during today's webcast to accompany our overall discussion in the Q&A session. NioCorp's news releases, presentations, SEC filings, including the technical report supporting the updated feasibility study; are all available now on our website at niocorp.com and on SEDAR.

On the webcast today, we have Mark Smith, Executive Chairman, President and CEO of NioCorp; and Scott Honan, Chief Operating Officer of NioCorp and President of Elk Creek Resources Company.

Before we begin today, please note that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements, including those regarding NioCorp's future financial and operating results, expectations, plans and prospects. Any statement that is not a historical fact should be considered a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed.

For a description of these risks, please refer to the cautionary notes in today's presentation and to the risk factors in NioCorp's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and on SEDAR+.

Today's discussion may also reference market and industry data drawn from third-party sources. which the company has not independently verified and which are subject to uncertainty. Lastly, all dollar figures today are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. Following today's prepared remarks, we will open the webcast to your questions.

Let me now turn the webcast over to Mark Smith. Mark, please go ahead.

Thank you, Jim. And much like Jim just alluded to, is a very, very important time in the company's history. This is quite the effort that the company has undertaken here. And along those lines, I'd like to start out by thanking Scott Honan, our COO, the entire NioCorp team, including our Board of Directors, who have all been just phenomenally supportive in this effort.

I want to thank the literally hundreds of consultants that we have used to put this entire independent study together and in particular, the 15 qualified professionals who have signed their name and certified the technical competency and accuracy of this report, very important. And it's just a huge responsibility that those QPs undertake when they do that. And then certainly, last but not least, I want to thank our shareholders for their patience as we worked our way through this process.

As Jim noted, we did file this report on SEDAR yesterday. If the report is not on our website yet, it will be up there today. And I encourage you to take a look at that 500-plus page document. One of the things that's very important to me personally in every one of these efforts I've ever undertaken is that -- and my entire NioCorp team can attest to the fact that I'm always pushing to get things done. Let's get things done, let's get things done.

But when it comes to a feasibility study, a technical report like this, quality needs to be paramount. And we will always choose quality over speed when it comes to doing a feasibility study. And so again, thank you all for your patience.

While we undertook this effort, it did take a little more time than what any of us had anticipated. But I know after all of the years I've been working in project financing and fundraising that, that short amount of extra time in this case is going to pay very good dividends for us as we move into the full project financing, including EXIM and additional equity fundraising. So thank you for that. I think it will pay dividends now with this high-quality study.

We basically undertook the feasibility study update for two reasons to start with, and that was to do some additional drilling out on site. We wanted to have tighter hole spacing so that we had better definition of what the ore body contained in between all the other drill hole samples that we had. We undertook that effort. The results were outstanding. Once again, every time we put a drill bit in the ground, we find out something even better about this ore body, and that just continues to be the case. This is an outstanding ore body.

Second, we had a new process flow diagram for our metallurgy, and we needed to have the process flow diagram converted into an actual feasibility study level engineering design.

So after 12 years now of working on this metallurgy and really optimizing it, I think, to almost the highest extent possible where we're getting high 80s, low 90% recoveries of all of the elements that we're going to be pulling out of this ore body and selling; we're now in good shape because not only do we have a demonstrated metallurgical process, we now have the engineering design to support that effort as well.

And then just because, again, quality is paramount, we undertook -- during the feasibility study engineering effort and the drilling effort, we undertook some other additional studies just to make our technical program that much more robust.

So we did some extra geotechnical studies, some geohydrologic studies. We did a lot of work on paste tailings and a lot of work on grouting, which will make for a better mine plan, a safer mine for our employees and a longer-lasting mine over the long run. So again, really, really a solid effort here, and I want to make sure we send out that thank you to everybody.

So Alex, let's go to Slide 4. And we'll start out with kind of one of the main drivers here in terms of improvements to the feasibility study for 2026 versus 2022. We will now have 8 different products that we'll be selling as a result of underground mining and surface processing activities.

You can see that we'll be producing niobium, scandium and titanium, which, of course, was in the 2022 feasibility study. But we'll also now be producing the neodymium, praseodymium high-purity oxide, dysprosium high-purity oxide, terbium high-purity oxide.

And then as a result of how one goes about processing rare earths and what comes out first and solvent extraction, we'll also be producing two different concentrate products. One is called an SEG or samarium, europium, gadolinium carbonate concentrate; and the other one is all the other heavy rare earth elements in a carbonate form, again, concentrate style.

What you can see on the right here is the life-of-mine gross revenue. The circle on the left shows the 2022 feasibility study, where we had niobium, scandium and titanium as part of the overall revenue, just a little under $22 billion for that life-of-mine gross revenue.

And then the figure to the right, which, by the way, is to scale so that you can actually visually see what the additional revenue means in terms of to scale picture here; we'll have life of mine gross revenue as a result of the 2026 feasibility study of a little over $37 billion, with multiple products here, niobium, scandium, the rare earths and the titanium.

And that $37.4 billion is about 1.7x greater than the $21.9 billion. So a huge impact on the revenue side of the equation, given the additional products that we'll be able to produce from this ore body.

Next slide, Alex. If we start heading into the overall economic highlights and some of the numbers associated with our economic model, I'll start out over on the left here, and this is a life of mine margin of $560 per ton. That is one of the highest that I've certainly seen in my career in the mining industry. And we get that by simply taking the $815 gross revenue per ton figure and subtracting the $255 OpEx per ton.

And keep in mind that, that $560 per ton margin is 41% greater than the margin we showed in the 2022 feasibility study. So again, really getting those extra products in, getting the extra revenue in really bolsters the economics here quite significantly.

Then we can focus on some of the numbers to the right. I know I like to focus on the $4.1 billion pretax NPV, utilizing an 8% discount rate. We've got $519 million per year average annual cash flow over the life of the mine. If we head over to the right, you can see the $608 million EBITDA over the -- annually over the life of the mine. We've got a 40-year mine life, and we've got a total upfront CapEx estimated at $1.85 billion.

So clearly, the CapEx number has gone up as has the NPV, as has the margin, as has the revenue, as has the EBITDA, as has the cash flow. But that CapEx number, I think we were all concerned about what inflation would do, and this is largely driven by inflation more than anything else. But we do need to remember that we've added some additional processing to what we had before as well.

We've got the solvent extraction for the rare earths, we have the chlorination for the niobium and the titanium. And again, can't forget about that horrible thing called inflation, but at a $1.85 billion CapEx number. And we still end up with a less than 3-year after-tax payback with these numbers as a whole. So very, very strong economics, very robust economics, I would say.

Next slide. So one of the things that is really starting to catch people's attention in the market right now is an absolute bifurcation of pricing between things that are coming out of China and things that are not being produced outside of China. And this is a quite compelling number, and it appears to have very good traction, and we think it's going to last for quite some period of time.

If we take a look at scandium as an example, scandium being sold -- being produced and sold within China is actually upwards of $800 to $850 per kilogram right now. NioCorp is actually out purchasing scandium on the open market today because we are demonstrating the ability to produce scandium metal, and we, of course, own a business that can make the master alloy, scandium aluminum master alloy. And we're actually out on the market purchasing scandium to feed those businesses.

We're seeing prices for scandium range anywhere from $3,000 to as high as $6,500 per kilogram right now. And it's a very good example of this bifurcation of what is being made and sold in China versus what is being made and sold outside of China.

Terbium is another very good example. Terbium inside China goes for about $1,000 a kilogram. Outside of China, it goes for about $4,500 to $5,000 per kilogram. And dysprosium goes for about $250 a kilogram inside China, and it goes for about $1,250 to $1,500 outside of China. So there's an absolute bifurcation, very clear and evident.

And we do, as I mentioned, feel like this bifurcation could last for quite a while because it takes a while to get these projects that everybody is supporting. It takes a while to get these projects built up and operating.

We think that in combination with the Section 232 duties, which are available to the President right now, tariffs, which are available to the President right now, Project Vault as well as the G7 support pricing discussions that are occurring and gaining a lot of traction; are all going to help support this bifurcated pricing structure that we're seeing between China and the rest of the world.

Next slide. So what do we have going forward here, now that we've got the feasibility study done? That feasibility study was a huge piece of what EXIM was looking for as part of the loan program that we're undertaking with them.

We met with EXIM for about 2 hours yesterday going over as much of the feasibility study that you can in a 2-hour period. They will be looking at that document now for the next week or 2, and we'll set up another probably all-day workshop with EXIM and all of their consultants to go over the feasibility study in detail and answer any questions that they have. But a huge, huge step forward in the right direction here.

As everyone knows, we continue to work on our offtake agreement with Traxys. That is all continuing to move forward, albeit a lot slower than what I think anybody anticipated, especially me.

And I had a couple of very good phone calls with Traxys just this last weekend, and we hope to have that agreement finalized. There's just two or three points that are still in discussion between the two companies, and I don't see any reason why those can't be cleared up and finalized in short order here.

The next item, though, is quite an undertaking, and this is where we have to continue with our engineering effort. We have to go from feasibility study to detailed engineering, and we have to put the company and our EPC contractor in a position that we can actually write an EPC contract and have something that both parties are willing to sign and something that EXIM is willing to agree to as part of their loan undertaking for this project.

So this will be quite an effort. We're already -- we have draft contracts that are already written. We're sharing those with the EPC contractors. We hope to have a lot of that effort behind us by the end of August or so. And then we plan to sit down with EXIM, the EPC contractor as well as NioCorp with EXIM and make sure that EXIM is as comfortable as we are with those agreements.

So you can see we're on a very fast track moving forward now that, that feasibility study is there, and we can use that information to support a lot of the efforts, including offtake agreements and EPC agreements.

And then finally, the EXIM bank loan and any remaining equity that's required, let's talk about that for a minute. We all are aware of the fact that we have written documents from EXIM saying that they would loan up to about $800 million, and they specifically said 65% debt-to-equity ratio in that correspondence.

So we are -- with the new feasibility study, the new economics associated with that study and the new CapEx estimate EXIM will be making another evaluation to determine what level of debt to equity they are willing to support for this project. And I don't have any reason to believe that, that amount of loan figure will not increase accordingly.

Again, final evaluations have to be made by EXIM, but the robust economics here clearly will support greater than $800 million in loans from EXIM. So we're anxious for that process to get going.

Again, we met with EXIM for about 2 hours yesterday, talked to them about their next steps and timing for those next steps. They are very energized about all of this. They're as excited as all of us are about this feasibility study being done because now they can really start to move on several fronts, and we're going to have more meetings with them in the next couple of weeks.

And the comment that was made by the highest-ranking XM employee there at the meeting yesterday was that NioCorp remains the highest priority for EXIM right now in terms of critical strategic mineral projects. So we have their attention. They have the data that they need. We'll go through this additional due diligence process with them, and they will make a final determination in short order on how much that loan can be and what percent debt to equity that we'll end up with at the end of the day.

Once those decisions are made, then we'll know what additional fundraising, if any, we need to do on the equity side. So that's kind of a short description as to where we are now with the feasibility study is done.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Scott to get into some of the more technical parts of the feasibility study, changes and whatnot. Scott, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mark. And I'd like to start just by echoing something that you said at the top of the webinar. I'd just like to thank our NioCorp, Nebraska team, the local community around Elk Creek and Tecumseh, Nebraska, the good folks at Kruger Farms and the 15 QPs that certify our feasibility study report. I'm really grateful to have a strong team like this that has worked so hard to make today possible.

When we look at our project as it stands today, we have definitely built on the 9 previous technical reports we've done on the Elk Creek project and all of the engineering and testing and mine design that have gone along with that. But we have -- we've continued through this design process to derisk the project, both from a technical perspective as well as from an economic perspective. And I wanted to highlight a few areas where we've made some changes to the better for the project.

The first area is just in terms of mine access. In our previous study, we had presumed that we would access the mine with a twin shaft arrangement. We've now replaced that with a twin ramp from surface.

The twin shaft idea was certainly technically viable, economically reasonable approach. It did require us to use a freezing approach to freeze the ground so that we could sink the shafts through the ground safely. However, putting in shafts is an exacting science. A vertical shaft in a mine has to be perfectly vertical, there can't be any deviation. And shaft access does require some specialized equipment, both in the shaft and on surface that's only made by a few manufacturers around the world.

So we're now moving from that to a ramp access from surface. We started that work here in February, establishing the mine portal where our twin ramps will originate from. And putting in the ramps is definitely an improvement, in that the ramps can tolerate some up and down and back and forth as you advance and they are a quicker way to get to the ore body than the shaft approach.

Kind of building on that in terms of project schedule, I'd like to thank the folks at Amplify Mine Planning and Dumas, who put together the new mine design and mine plan. And again, just building on the access question, we now have a design that gets us down to the ore body and into full production in 35 months. That's definitely an improvement over our previous study.

And I think we've always recognized that in looking at this project that the critical scheduling path runs through the mine, you have to get that mine established up and running to get the entire project producing and making products. So it's been really gratifying to see that taking this approach gets us there faster. And when we get there faster, we start generating revenue and getting a return for our shareholders.

Inside the mine, we've changed our approach to material movement. So previously, everything would have been moved around underground using diesel equipment and then hoisted to surface through the vertical shafts and a thing called a [ skip ]. With the ramp approach, we've also changed our design, our philosophy around material movement. And we've embraced the idea of the railveyor for moving material from the mine to the surface plant.

The railveyor is -- it's a very nice piece of technology. I had the opportunity to visit a railveyor installation down in Missouri. And I was struck by how simple it is, both mechanically and operationally, how easy it is to operate and maintain.

And one of the questions I ask myself when evaluating a new technology is, if this thing breaks, can I go to Elk Creek welding and have it repaired? And the answer with the railveyor is certainly yes. So I think we have here certainly a lower cost, more efficient way to move material out of the mine that will serve us well as we put the mine into production.

Energy supply has been a difficult proposition, particularly in Nebraska. Like a lot of places, we've seen a situation where a lot of big data centers have gone in, power supplies are stretched a bit. And the situation with the local utilities is a little bit tougher than it was a few years back.

And we are in a situation where getting connected to the local power grid was going to be an expensive proposition, both in terms of the capital cost to bring in a power line as well as the capital cost to put in a large substation at the site.

We really did evaluate a number of options here. And I think where we have landed now is that our best proposition is an on-site microgrid. So what that means is we'll have a series of small natural gas-fired generators that will power the site, both during the construction period and during operations.

And a third-party company will own, operate, install and maintain this equipment. We just get power through the fence to power our activities. And the third party can do this at a cost that's really right at the same benchmark as we would get from the utility.

So we have a good solution there. We will certainly still need a natural gas connection from a local pipeline to the site that's underway. But that part of it has been certainly a design change, but I think certainly one for the better. And when I say that, I'm very focused on the reliability of our power supply. Certainly, when you have people in an underground mine, you need to have power and it has to be there all the time.

I was fortunate enough to visit a very similar type of microgrid system that powers the Pittsburgh Airport and has been doing so for 5 years. And really, I felt that if you can have one of these systems to power a big airport like that, we can certainly use it to our advantage at the Elk Creek project.

The other big change is on the processing side. So certainly, we've added equipment to the production process to produce rare earth products, but we've also changed our approach to the front end of processing the ore. In the prior project design, we had a couple of upfront steps. The first was leaching with hydrochloric acid. The second was leaching with sulfuric acid.

And the acid demand in that approach was quite high. It required us to have an on-site acid plant, which again was both technically and economically feasible, although acid plants are a very particular technology and do come with some considerable maintenance considerations.

Stepping back, we had -- we ran a demonstration plant and evaluated different ways to get at the pay metal in the ore. And what we came up with is a much better front end of the project. So what we have now is a calcining step and a step to remove calcium and magnesium. This reduces the mass of the ore that the rest of the plant sees by about half, and it takes out all of the acid consumers in the ore or at least most of them.

After those first two steps, we then returned to the idea of hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid leaching to get at our pay metals, but we can do that at a much lower acid consumption than we had previously. And as a result, we no longer need an acid plant on site. We will recycle our hydrochloric acid and simply neutralize our sulfuric acid. So it's definitely a change to the better on the process side of things, reducing our acid consumption and simplifying our production process.

Now finally, as I mentioned, we've added or expanded our product suite to include the rare earth products that Mark mentioned at the top of the webinar. We're really leveraging our expertise around rare earths as a company. And we're taking advantage of all the good work that we did at our demonstration plant, where we built a small-scale version of our production process. We ran it continuously, and we're able to take all of the data generated from that plant and incorporate it into the current design.

What distinguishes us on the rare earth side of things as separate from a lot of other development-stage companies is that we are actually going to produce fully separated high-purity rare earth products that can go directly into the supply chain for making rare earth permanent magnets.

And in addition to that, because we have all the rare earths present in our ore body like any rare earth ore body, we have the upside ability to take [ samarium ], europium, gadolinium, perhaps [ yttrium ] and separate those out and make those products as well. That could be a future capital project at the site, again, to deliver some more revenue and value to our shareholders.

At the end of the day, folks, we have a better project here. It's a better revenue distribution across a broader product portfolio. And we have a project that's not reliant on a single element or product to sustain our economics. We've made improvements to the mine and the surface plant, and those have resulted in higher efficiencies in the operation and higher yields to product. And then we also have a shorter time to commercial production.

Next slide. One thing I'd like to talk about is what's happened to our resource and reserve as a result of all the good work that we did last year at the site with an extensive drilling program.

So now we have 45.9 million tons of proven and probable reserves, 40-year operational life. And in the process of doing the drilling last year, we have established a proven reserve, which is the highest category of reserve that you can have on a mining project. This is a very important step for us, and it was important because not only does it increase confidence in that underground mineral reserve, but it's something that the EXIM Bank was looking for us to do.

I think it's important for folks to understand that the drilling we did last year was what's known as an infill drilling program, so we certainly knew where the ore body was and we had a certain level of confidence in it. Really, that program was intended to put holes in between holes that we already knew a lot about. When you tighten up hole spacing that way, you increase your confidence and you get to these higher level of resource and reserve categories.

A nice side benefit of the drilling that we did is we did get a substantial increase in our inferred resources category. That wasn't part of the initial plan, but it's always good when it happens. And it just points to the fact that we have a tremendous ore body at Elk Creek that remains open in a number of directions and certainly has the potential to become bigger with more technical work.

In terms of the resource now, we have 21.7 million tons of measured resources, 187.4 million tons of indicated and 169.2 million tons of inferred. And I think what you can read into those numbers is we've talked about a 40-year mine life. But again, with some additional work, we could certainly convert more of those resources into reserves and certainly extend the mine life beyond the 40 years that we're talking about here.

Our product portfolio remains the same, and I'll just highlight to everyone that we're now reporting everything in Imperial units. We did that because at the end of the day, we're building a project in the United States and the people on the [indiscernible] that are going to be using the tools are going to be used to doing everything in Imperial. So we've made that unit conversion to make it easier for the eventual construction of the project.

We'll make a little over 8,000 tons a year of ferroniobium. That's our backbone product. That's what our entire production process is built and based around. We'll make 118 tons a year of scandium and just a lot of exciting things happening in the scandium world these days.

I'm sure everyone has seen our recent announcement with Lockheed. We now have NioCorp advanced metals and alloys with the capability of producing [ aluminum ] master alloy. And we've got some great things happening over in the U.K. with Project PIVOT, looking at incorporating scandium into aluminum that's used in automotive platforms.

We have our 3 magnetic rare earth products. that certainly are in high demand here in the United States right now. We're making a [ samarium ], europium, gadolinium carbonate or SEG carbonate. That will have a market for it certainly. But that again goes back to what I said about some upside here and that with some additional capital and testing work, we could separate those rare earth products into individual oxides as well and get some more economic benefit from our ore body.

We'll make a heavy rare earth carbonate, which is all of the rare earth elements heavier than holmium on the periodic table, including [ yttrium ]. Interesting things happening in the [ yttrium ] market these days, again, an element that certainly the federal government here in the U.S. has some interest in. And again, something we could do in the future as an expansion or improvement project to target that element and recover it as a separated product.

And rounding out our product portfolio is just a little over 59,000 tons a year of titanium tetrachloride, a higher value version of the titanium product that we've made previously and a feedstock that's used to make titanium pigments and titanium metal.

Bottom line here is we have a strong project with a long life and the potential for an even longer life with more technical work. Lots of upside here. And certainly, I can't wait to get underground and see how big it really is.

With that, I'll turn it back over to Barrett.

[Operator Instructions] Thank you very much, Scott. Our first question comes from Neal Dingmann of William Blair.

Mark, could you talk a little bit about -- you mentioned the timing. Again, I think -- and Jim and I talked about this a little bit, key data now is the timing between now and the financing, of course. Again, is it just the EXIM? It seems like now having the definitive feasibility study you'd have most, but is it just now cross the Ts, dot in the Is. I mean how much more details will EXIM be looking for between now and then?

It's a good question, Neal, and we continue to learn more in every discussion we have with EXIM. They're no different than a commercial bank in many ways. They kind of have an idea as to what they'd like to see and then we talk about that and we provide it to them and then they have another idea.

So we'll continue to go through that process, but we know what the main pieces are that are remaining. We've got to finish the Traxys offtake agreement. We need to get an almost final, if not final, EPC contract in front of them, and we're going to be ready to go. So I don't -- I just don't see any reason why we can't get a lot of that work done in the very near future and get this in front of the Board of Directors for EXIM in short order.

Very good. And then I love to see and was hoping to see the -- now as Scott walk through having the 8 distinct critical minerals that are in there. I guess my question is, as prices -- once that starts -- once Elk Hills starts producing, how flexible, I guess, is the best way to ask it; will you all be, I mean if, again, scandium prices take off or dysprosium, you name it?

There's going to be a lot of, obviously, upside potential for the mine. How much flexibility will you have to sort of lean into one or the other? So I guess my question is maybe for Scott, just on operational flexibility, how he sees it once the -- once Elk Hills is producing commercially.

Yes. I think, Neal, that we have a production process that's built around a mine plan that is intended to deliver a fairly steady head grade to the operating plant. That's not to say, though, that, that can't be optimized. We have some very good and clever mining engineers. And while you're a little bit constrained in an underground environment as to how you approach the mining, there's a certain sequence you have to have.

We certainly have enough information about the ore body that we could target, say, higher-grade zones of niobium if the niobium market got really hot. I think the other thing that we've certainly talked about internally is the fact that our production process is pretty versatile as far as what kind of feedstocks it could incorporate and process successfully.

So there's probably a number of flavors of rare earth concentrates, for instance, that might be available in the market that we could buy and supplement to the feed coming from our own mine to prospectively increase our production of rare earths. That might require some capital investment on the back end of the process to ensure we have adequate separation capability to make additional rare earth products, but it certainly could be done.

If I could sneak one more in, Mark, just on further off, should we expect those in the coming months, coming quarters [Technical Difficulty].

You broke up a little bit there, Neal, do you mind?

Just on further offtake agreements, should we expect -- you guys have done a tremendous job already, obviously, locking some things in. Should we expect more in the coming months, coming quarters?

Yes. Let me discuss that just a little bit, Neal. Kind of at a very high level, we're going to have two commercial agreements for 100% of the offtake for this mine. 50% of our ferroniobium will go to Thyssenkrupp, and then everything else will go to Traxys once that commercial agreement is finalized.

Within that Traxys agreement, and a lot of this is built around the long-term relationship and trust that we have between Traxys and NioCorp, is our ability as NioCorp to continue to go out and market those products on our own. And we may find customers or uses, applications, different strategies that we want to employ because of a growing market or strategic implications for the country that we want to really focus our sales on certain customers versus others.

We will have the right in the Traxys agreement to undertake those sales efforts and then sit down with Traxys and discuss which party would be better overall for NioCorp and its shareholders.

And Traxys will be fine one way or the other because they'll get the economics regardless of whether they make the sale or whether we make the sale. So we can really kind of lead in on a lot of different areas that we think may have a better future, a better margin, maybe working with a customer that's a better credit risk.

So lots of things that we can use there to optimize our commercial situation. The other thing that we're doing, and this is based on -- after a while, you do learn how not to do things in the business. And so we try to keep those in top of mind as well.

One of the things we're doing with our commercial agreements is we're turning them into volumetric take-or-pay agreements rather than price-based take-or-pay agreements with floor prices. And one of the big reasons behind that is our confidence, extreme confidence, I might add, in where all of these markets are headed for the products that we're going to be selling; the supply and demand fundamentals are all in our favor.

And what I don't want to do is to end up with a commercial arrangement where we may get a floor price, which really helps our debt provider get comfort, but then we also end up having a ceiling price as well. We're going to avoid ceiling prices wherever possible and make sure that the company can take full advantage of the confidence that we have in where these markets are going.

So we are trying to apply some deeper thinking to how we're conducting our business. And I think we'll end up being very protective of very good markets going forward and be able to, like you say, lean in where that possibility opens up.

Congrats on great announcement.

Our next question will come from Tate Sullivan of Maxim Group.

Thank you for presenting the study and all the details. And can you talk about the planned construction timeline? I think in the study, it indicates 35 months back in 2022, it was 45 months, I believe. Is that due to the ramp access? And also is it due to the portal starting construction in February?

Scott, do you want to do that?

Yes. Certainly, Tate. As I mentioned, we've always recognized the critical path for this project goes through the development of the mine and getting the mine into production. So it's a combination of two things. One is getting that mine portal started and established. If we can get that behind us, then the remaining work to get down to the ore body and get the ore body producing goes quicker.

I think the other thing here is that when we had put together various mine plans, including the one in the last study, looking at shaft access, the shaft access and the development from the shaft to the ore body introduced some constraints on our ability to get to the ore body quickly and to ramp up that production.

And if you look at our last study, there was a fairly long period, about 8 months or so, where the mine started producing at an initial rate and then it ramped up fairly slowly to full production. I think the design we have now gets us there just a lot more quicker. So we get down to the ore body quicker.

And with the ramp access and the advantages it provides, it allows us to get the stopes that we need into production quicker and get to that full production threshold just as quick as you could hope.

And one more for me. Mark, can you talk about -- I mean, from looking at potential timelines, do you think there's more variability in the mine construction aspect of the work or in the processing plant construction?

Yes, it's a great question. And I don't have a perfect answer, but I'll provide you with some thinking along those lines.

The engineering associated with the aboveground project will be a little more straightforward and a little more black and white from an engineering standpoint. But it is a big project, and it's a complicated project to build, multiple floors in the buildings and whatnot. So it has its challenges.

Having said that, though, as confident as we are in our underground mine plan, those of us who have been in the mining industry for a couple of years know that you never know what mother nature is going to hand you until you open up the ground. And so there's always those concerns.

But I will say that the extra work that Scott and his team have done on the geotechnical, the geohydrologic, the paste tailings designs where we're going to backfill the underground mine. All of that extra work has made us even more confident that surprises in an underground mine are really not going to happen in our case.

But we've all been in the business a long time. We know it can happen. But I think we've taken every effort possible to minimize any surprises at the end of the day. That may require us to put a little more ground down there or add a little little bit more cement to the paste tailings, but that's what we'll do. Safety will be job #1 for our employees. So not a precise answer, Tate, but hopefully, you understand the complexities of both.

Yes. Thank you and thank you for including the report the ex-China pricing and the other sources -- current sources of supply.

Our next question will come from Soundarya Iyer from B. Riley Securities.

So it's mostly around investor skepticism around scandium demand. Just given the size of the market today, I wanted to ask if you're able to share anything on the commercial process with prospective offtakers, specifically that would help investors get better sense of how much Western demand could inflect once a reliable non-Chinese source like Elk Creek actually starts producing?

Yes. Soundarya, great question and one that I love to answer because we're really studying the scandium market as deeply as we can. And I will be the first to say that this is a product line that has my excitement level just exceptionally high. Let me start out with just kind of a couple of foundational data points.

First one being up until very, very recently, we all understood the scandium market to be about a 30 to 35 ton per year market, maybe 3 tons a year being produced out of Canada, 7 tons being produced out of the Philippines and basically the remainder being produced out of China.

For some reason now, the USGS has published a report that suggests that the market may be upwards of 60 to 65 tons per year. We're still trying to do the math to figure that out because we don't know where the extra production may be coming from. But it is interesting to note that the USGS has identified sources that they think exist, which has almost doubled what the market was in terms of the supply prior to this year.

Now the reason why I spent just a little bit of time on that is that, that's all kind of interesting and fun to think about. But when we think about just one application of scandium in the world today, and it's a real application that's being used today, and it's in the solid oxide fuel cell business, in order to support the growth that the solid oxide fuel cell business is suggesting is going to occur in power generation, and they certainly have good reason to believe that with all the AI and data center power generation requirements; just one application there, those solid oxide fuel cells will then need about 400 tons of scandium per year to meet their production requirements for those solid oxide fuel cells. So that alone is going to create just a tremendous amount of demand for this new product that we're all pretty excited about.

Now we've kind of got that baseline figure, which is -- far exceeds anything that's produced today. Then you start talking about things like defense applications. We just had announced the MOU with Lockheed Martin for 15 tons per year. We know that there's going to be more demand from Lockheed and other prime defense contractors as they continue with their lightweighting as they continue to figure out that scandium aluminum alloys are cheaper, they're easier to work with and perform many additional duties over what they're using in the fighter jets today, which would be composites.

So we know that, that demand is going to grow. We're looking at various automotive uses. We've got Project PIVOT that Scott mentioned over in the U.K. We're actually working with Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover.

We've actually made the first scandium aluminum part for the front suspension of that -- their DBX model, and they're doing destructive testing on that now. And then the next part that we make will actually go into one of the Aston Martin DBXs and the automobile industry, just based on the market reports that we have, could consume upwards of 3,000 tons of scandium per year.

So when I take a look at the demand side of the scandium business, and then I think about literally the win-win, win-win that the automobile manufacturers get by utilizing scandium aluminum alloys; they get lighter weight, they get better corrosion resistance.

You can weld it. It's cheaper when you use it with recycled aluminum than just using aluminum by itself. You got all of these things, including a CO2 emission reduction that they get on that part. So they get to lower their overall CO2 emissions for their corporate reporting purposes.

Every single one of those things is a very positive outcome. And we think the automobile industry is likely going to become a huge user of scandium. So we're really excited about the scandium business, and we want to make sure that we show everyone that we can be a reliable producer.

And I think we differentiate ourselves in that method or that way as well because by virtue of the fact that we're underground mining a single ore body, bringing everything up to the surface and running it through a metallurgical plant, and we're there primarily for niobium, which is a fabulous market all to itself. By virtue of the fact that we're producing niobium, by definition, we'll be producing scandium.

And I think a lot of the end-use applications look at that as a reliability improvement over a primary scandium production facility because we have these multiple products by virtue of producing niobium, all the other products come out.

So I threw a lot out there, Soundarya, and I hope I didn't confuse the situation too much. But hopefully, you can hear just a little bit of excitement in my voice about the scandium market and where it's going to go. It's really an exciting place to be right now. And I'll finish it by saying that the United States Department of War understands the importance of scandium, and it's high, very high on their radar right now in terms of importance to the security of our country.

No. Thank you, Mark, for that comprehensive answer. It makes a lot of things very clear for me. Just one more on the sequencing between EXIM facility and the potential equity component. Will EXIM require any evidence of committed equity before the loan closes or...

I think it's going to be an interesting situation. We have talked with EXIM significantly over the last 3 years and 1 month now. And they have come around in a big way to this idea of loan authorization with conditions precedent. And one of the areas that they are -- they certainly seem to be very open to is the idea of loan authorization with a condition precedent to raise any remaining equity after the announcement of the EXIM loan authorization.

So we'll continue to work with EXIM along those lines. That is not something that they have historically done. But under the leadership of John Jovanovic and Brian Greeley, they are very commercially astute. They understand how these markets work and when it's a good time to raise equity and when it's not. And I think we have a much better soundbox to bounce things off of with the new administration than what we have seen historically. So I think that, that possibility is certainly there.

Having said that, I also know that capital pools form when they're ready to form, not when I want them to form. And so if the capital is available, the company will always take a hard look and try to make the best decision possible on behalf of our shareholders when it's the right time to raise any equity. So lots of optionality there. congrats on getting this through.

Our next question will come from Heiko Ihle from H.C. Wainwright.

Is there a way to expand into more products and diversify just a little bit more? I mean, obviously, you've gone from 3 to 8. Is there a way to go further downstream? And just conceptually, how much more can Elk Creek even grow? I mean you're looking at a 40-year mine life here. How much more can Elk Creek grow before you oversaturate your own production or at least start moving down your own pricing?

Yes. Good consideration, good thinking, Heiko. Scott, I'll have you kind of go over some of those extra rare earth products, which we know are there. They'll be in the concentrates that we're going to be making anyway, and we just need to separate them. Do you want to cover those first? And then I can start talking about some of the downstream activities that we're engaging in.

Certainly, Mark. I think when you look at what we've presented here in this webinar, the product mix when it comes to rare earths is -- represents a bit of a trade-off. So we've targeted specifically the magnetic rare earths, which is where about 80% of the value lies. And we produce -- we have to separate those from the balance of the rare earths, and we make specific decisions about that to make the best use of capital on the project.

So for instance, we have lanthanum and [ celerium ]. We don't do anything to try and recover those. They're very low-value products. They'll cost more to recover than what their value would be. [ Dysprosium ], gadolinium sit in between neodymium, praseodymium and terbium dysprosium on the periodic table. So we have to separate them out. We recover them together because we didn't want to put the additional capital into the project to have 2 more solvent extraction circuits to make those 3 as individual products.

But it would certainly be not a difficult exercise to do that engineering to add that solvent extraction capacity and make those products if we were able to get the right pricing for those products.

For the heavy rare earths and [ yttrium ], the holmium and everything heavier than holmium, it's really quite small quantities. It would be a challenge for us to try and make any kind of business out of those heavy rare earths.

But the [ yttrium ] is certainly interesting. There's a couple of hundred tons of atrium prospectively. We'll make all those together right now as part of the project and send them to someone else to separate. But again, at the right price, we would probably need one additional solvent extraction circuit to separate out the [ yttrium ] and turn it into a product.

But just aside from those rare earth products, I think once we get the plant up and running, we have a mineral resource and a reserve here that could certainly support a higher production rate than what we have in this current study.

Now that will require, again, some capital to expand mine production and some capital to expand production in the surface plant. But it's fairly easy to see how that could be done to, say, go 2x from the current plant and double the production output.

Last thing I'll mention is that -- and this is -- this goes to almost more of an environmental matter than a production matter. But some of the products that come out of the plant, calcium carbonate, for instance, iron oxide; are actually fairly high purity products in their own right.

Now we use those to make the paste backfill material that goes underground and fills the voids that we create by mining and supports the structure of the underground mine. But we certainly are in discussions with some folks that could potentially take those products off our hands.

And the advantage would be then that we need to keep enough on site to sustain the paste backfill activity. But it would be a situation where it might generate some extra revenue and it certainly could defer or delay the cost of surface tailings impoundment facilities.

And I would just add to that, Heiko, that we really were looking at the SEG con and the heavy rare earth con as leaving them there, and that was largely driven by the prices of the samarium, the europium and the gadolinium at the time. And then on the heavy rare earth concentrate, leaving that as is and not separating it because things like [ yttrium ], which were in there as well, just didn't have prices that would support any capital expenditure for that.

That has changed, just like all the other rare earth elements right now, and we're seeing a very strong bifurcation of pricing for things like samarium and [ yttrium ], which, as you know, our Department of War needs in a big way. And [ yttrium ] is becoming a lot more important right up there in terms of importance along with scandium right now.

With the right situation and the right price supports, we can easily take the samarium out of that SEG con. We can easily take the [ yttrium ] out of that heavy rare earth con, and we can have two more products. But we're not going to do those at a losing proposition. We'll only do that as a profitable proposition, but that would add more products to our list.

And then the other way that we can expand the product horizon a little bit is to just take the existing products like niobium is a very good example to start with here. we plan to make ferroniobium, which 90% to 92% of all the niobium sold in the world today is sold in that form. It's basically sold to the steel industry. It's an alloying agent and it strengthens regular steel into high-strength low alloy steel.

But there are many other markets out there for niobium that we are aware of, and we're pretty excited about. You can make niobium pentoxide Nb2O5, and that can be in different purity levels, so it has different applications. And the margins on the high-purity Nb2O5 are significantly greater than ferroniobium. You can also get into niobium metal where your margins are probably the highest in the niobium industry.

But what we wanted to start out with was a simple product that has pretty broad ranges for the specifications. That's the ferroniobium. And we want to make sure that we get good at that to start with and generate revenue as fast as possible. So we'll start out with ferroniobium, but we have every intention once we get good at that, at looking at some of these Nb2O5 and niobium metal downstream applications.

And in scandium, we're already into the downstream markets there. We're doing some testing of scandium metal production right now. Scott and I just witnessed that last week at the contractors facility where they're doing that. That looks very, very promising because there are customers for scandium metal right now. I mean they will place a contract with us right now for scandium metal because you can't find scandium metal outside of China. And China is being very selective on who gets any of their scandium metal on an export basis.

And then, of course, the scandium aluminum master alloy, we bought that business in intellectual property last year. We've relocated the business to a more suitable manufacturing facility. And now we're purchasing scandium feedstock so we can start making scandium aluminum master alloy, and we have customers waiting for that product to be produced.

So yes, there are many, many ways yet that we, as a company, can continue to take the foundational elements that we have and pursue these downstream activities where margins generally increase. And we find that to be quite exciting.

In 23 years in this industry, this might be the longest, in a good way, answer to a single question on a conference call I've ever gotten. So -- by longest, I really mean most comprehensive. So thank you for that.

One thing -- I'd be lying if I told you I read through the whole study, but I did sort of skip through a couple of pages. And one thing that popped out was the gas line. It was 18.4 in the study. I think it was Page 379. You said you expect to connect this to a distribution pipeline. 30 miles away.

Are all arrangements to actually get this done related to terms, pricing, how much you can get already done? Or can you give maybe a bit more color on power generations and the factors that may sway you into a certain direction of all?

Sure. Scott, do you want to start that one?

Yes. Certainly, Heiko. We're in a unique position where our project is located in that we're close to actually 3 natural gas transportation pipelines. There's one to the East that's only about 5 miles away. There's not a lot of capacity on that line, but we'll access it to provide power during the construction period.

The 2 larger lines are one that's about 28 miles to the south in Kansas, the Rockies Express Pipeline; and then there's a Northern natural gas/Black Hills alternative for us about 30 miles to the west. We went through a competitive process with those 2 larger pipelines to see -- really to get the best deal we could on gas delivered to the site, understanding that in today's environment, we're going to be responsible for the capital cost of those pipelines.

And as part of the competitive process, we established terms around the cost of the pipelines as well as the subsequent transportation fee we would pay to have the gas transported from a main pipeline to our site. And so going through that process has resulted in what you see in the study where we're focusing on this opportunity to the west bringing in a 12-inch diameter pipeline to our site to provide gas for both the process and for power generation.

And just to put a point on the power generation, that's about 15% of our natural gas need is going to be dedicated to generating power for the site.

So I don't think it's -- I don't think we're at the point, Heiko, where we have definitive contracts in place. That takes a little bit of time, but we are pretty far down the process with a particular provider and supplier of gas. And there's a contract to finish there, but we don't expect that, that will take much long. And certainly, we would expect that to be in place here later this year.

Thank you to our many participants today. If there are any further questions, please direct them to NioCorp at [email protected] or [email protected]. Once again, that's [email protected] or [email protected]. Once again, thank you for attending, and thank you, Mark, Scott, Jim and Alex for presenting.

Thank you, Barrett. Thanks, everybody.

Good evening, everyone. We're going to get this party started. First of all, thank you all for coming out on a Friday night. We really appreciate that. My name is Jim Sims. I work with NioCorp. I'm the Chief Communications Officer. And I spent my middle school years in Falls City. And so one of the things that motivates me literally every day in -- working with this team and getting this project to where it is today, which is like this far away from getting started is that I want to see, like all of us do, all of the economic growth, development opportunity that this project is going to bring to Southeast Nebraska because I still have a lot of friends here. So thank you all for coming.

We want to also thank the good folks in Elk Creek for letting us bring a lot of cars in and parking all over the town. We kind of apologize for that. And welcome and also congratulations on the construction of this beautiful facility. It's a testament to the community, its ability to raise funds and get organized. It's a great facility, and thank you for letting us for the night kind of take over. We really appreciate that.

So before I begin, a quick safety minute, all right? We've got about 9 exits, including these large doors. You can see where the exits are. Please take just a minute and look around for your closest exit in case there's any emergency. One thing to note is if fire alarm goes off because they've done something in the kitchen, this middle door is a fire door, and it will come down automatically.

So be careful. Don't try to go through that building exit this way in a calm manner. And if it goes longer, we'll see if we can get you some warm coffee outside, kind of [ eases sting of that. ] Restrooms are where you probably see. And the food is still there. And so while we get the program started, please continue to eat because we're not going to be able to finish what's not eaten. So we'll probably donate that to some folks.

So we'll have a program. The way this is going to work tonight is that we have some special speakers to start, and we're very pleased to have with us Senator Ricketts. The Senator came all the way down here even though he had an event in the afternoon in Omaha and he's got an event tonight in Omaha. So he came all the way down. He'll have to go, you're not off the clock center until to get all that done. So we appreciate him coming down. The Senator has been phenomenal in support. And my CEO is going to introduce him. We'll talk a little bit about that.

Then we will -- we have 2 videos to show. One is from the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. And my boss will have explained why that's important and what that Chairman says about this project is pretty extraordinary, which I think you'll agree when you see it.

And then Senator Fischer was going to be here again tonight, but she couldn't. So she yesterday or the day before, I think she taped a video to welcome everyone. Earlier in the evening, we gave her -- NioCorp gave her a very special award from our company, and we gave it to her representative who is here. We won't do that now, but we will show the video, and we're very pleased with what she had to say.

And then after we get done with the program, after we get done with the speeches, we're going to have a couple of us give you all an update on where this project is, how far we've come and most importantly what we see is happening in 2026 because there's a lot. And I think you'll all have a takeaway from this event that after all these years of doing this work, 12 plus for some of us, maybe more for others here who've been involved in this, we're there. We're about ready to get going and get ready to construction. So we're excited about it. So with that, let me -- and then one more thing.

Once those presentations are made, there's going to be 3, they're relatively quick. Then we go to the best part of the evening, at least for us, is a question-and-answer period. And we'll stay here as long as you guys want to stay. Anyone has a question, there are no bad questions, there's no dumb questions. So lay it out, and we'll be happy to kind of fill you in on everything we know about it, give you some ideas about what you may be seeing in the next year around here, job situation, economic opportunity and the importance of this project, the Elk Creek Critical Minerals project, not just in Nebraska, but to the country because it has national implications.

We're very proud of that. So with that, let me introduce my boss. And I'm going to say nice things about him not because he's my boss, but because he's the reason we're here. He came into this company before any of us did. He came in singly and turned that the original company around and now has built it to where we are today, again, on the cusp of actually delivering what we said we were going to deliver. It's Mark Smith, our Executive Chairman and CEO. Please join me in welcoming him.

Thank you, Jim, and thank you, everybody, for coming out. It is a Friday night, by the way. So I'm wondering about your social lives. But it's so good to have you all here. It is a very distinct pleasure to be able to introduce our first real speaker because you're going to hear from me later because he has been unbelievably supportive of this project.

When he was the governor of the state, he was constantly asking us, how are things going? He couldn't -- he just couldn't help enough. And now that he's a Senator, the Junior Senator is from what I hear, we like to tease him about that. He is also just stepping up constantly and helping us with this project. And Senator Ricketts, much like Senator Fischer, when we set up meetings with the Senators from Nebraska, they meet with us. They don't send their staffs to meet with us. They meet with us. And that's what kind of people you have in your elected positions right now. And I think you need to be complimented for that. So without further ado, though, Senator Ricketts, may we have the pleasure of you at the podium.

Well, thank you very much, Mark, and thank you all very much for being here this evening. I knew this was a big event, and obviously, it's a brand-new facility here. I didn't realize it was like Church. Nobody wants to sit in the front row. But it is a very big deal. Mark mentioned the national security aspects of this. Folks, we are probably at the most dangerous time we have been in our country's history since World War II.

We see this in the actions of our adversaries. We can certainly see what Russia is doing to Ukraine right now. We've seen what Iran has done when they funded terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis and their attacks not only our allies and partners, but there are continued attacks or attempted attacks on us.

We can see it with the Bellicose intentions of North Korea. And we can see it with Communist China, what they are doing to our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific and how they've treated us. And that's why this partners -- or this project is so important because we would like to take a firmer stance with Communist China. We know from my years of being Governor and now that they're a terrible trade partner. But they have a lock on many of the critical elements, rare earth elements, there are types of things that we need for our advanced technology.

And they've threatened to cut those things off, which would harm our economy. Some of those rare earth elements and critical minerals are what are going to be out of this mine.

Scandium, for example, is a -- goes in with aluminum make a lightweight alloy that's important to aerospace and for defense applications. We get about 85% of our scandium right now from Communist China. [indiscernible] rare earth elements, China has, again, about either they mine or process about 80% of these. That's really important for all sorts of electronics and specifically defense applications. Some of the other things that we get like the niobium, we can get from allies like Canada or Brazil, but that's still supply chains that are outside our country.

Titanium, we can still get again from allies, but again, outside our country. A lot of our titanium comes from Japan, for example. So making our supply chains more resilient by putting them here in America is critical to our national defense, especially at this time in our country's history. And that's one of the reasons why this project, in particular, is so important for the defense of our country. It's not just important, though, for the defense of our country, but it is one of the ways we can continue to grow Nebraska.

This is about a $1 billion project or more when it gets done. It's going to create roughly 450 jobs here in Southeast Nebraska. So that's economic activity and really creating a new industry we have not had here in Nebraska.

Now these things do take time to come to fruition. I remember as Governor coming down here and looking at some of the drilling projects and being very excited about it. And Tony Fulton was telling me about this. And it really, really is an exciting new industry that we can create right here in Nebraska and the economic activity that goes along with that. Now that was a while ago. And so one of the things you may say is, why does it take so long to get this stuff done? Part of it is just what goes on with the mines. It's making sure you've got the deposits, it's raising the money. It's also the permitting that goes along with it. There's a phrase in a mine's life. And right now, in the United States, it takes about 29 years to be able to get this permitted and up and operational.

The only country right now that's worse than us is Zambia at 34 years. So we've got work to do on this. Now congratulations, Mark, [ you're like 13 years, you're going to be another, ] so a good job. You're like way above the average here. And so one of the things that we need to do is continue to work on how we can make sure that we're speeding these processes up.

I sit on the Environment and Public Works Committee in the U.S. Senate, and we've got a number of bills to be able to help do that. Our RESTART Act, which we introduced last year, is one of the ways that we can help the permitting up on infrastructure projects. I've got a co-sponsor of the FREE Act with Senator Lummis from Wyoming that would basically allow for permit by rule, which would remove some of the regulatory burden on getting these types of projects done.

Also, when I was Governor, one of the things we implemented was Lean Six Sigma, which is a process improvement methodology. For example, we took our air construction permits, they were taking like -- it's like 110 steps long and taking 190 days to get done, and we cut it down to 22 steps and 65 days to get out. That allowed, again, people to get going. We couldn't change any environmental rules. That was just changing the process. And so I've been evangelizing that to everybody in the administration who is coming through my door to talk about these things. So there are things we can do with the federal government to speed this up.

One of the other things we're doing with federal government is we just passed a major tax bill, the American -- or the Working Families Tax Cut Act. And there's lots of things in there that will also help facilitate projects like this. We're going to allow for the media expensing of research and development, meaning expensing of plant and equipment, interest expense, bonus depreciation. And maybe those of you in the crowd who are in accounts are going like -- doesn't mean anything to me.

But I bet, Mark, you've got people that go, hey, that really is really helpful for us to be able to make the decision to make the investments and speed these projects along. So those are some of the things that we're doing to be able to help make sure from a Senate standpoint. And then I think you're going to talk a little bit about what Senator Fischer specifically has done. She sits on appropriations and what she has done to be able to help with the Defense Department to invest in this, you're going to hear about the Import-Export Bank and what they're doing to be able to help this project.

And again, that reflects the importance of this project to our national security. So this is a win-win-win. It's going to be a win for the people of Southeast Nebraska. It's going to be a win for our state, and it's going to be a win for the country and our national security. This is a really important project. And so I'm very pleased to be able to support it. I will also just hit upon one other thing, too, when we're talking about that Working Families Tax Cut Act, that is going to be good, not just for companies like NioCorp who are trying to make investments and create jobs, but it's going to be great for all of our families here in Nebraska, right?

By passing that act, we were able to avoid a $2,400 tax increase. At the end of the 4 years, the President's Council of Economic Advisers believes that we'll see a $9,000 take-home pay increase, things like no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. 88% of seniors won't pay taxes on social security, their federal income tax on social security. You may recall, as Governor, we got rid of the state income taxes on social security for seniors as well. Those are the sorts of things that will put more money back into the pockets of our families here.

We also are taking the child tax credit up from $2,000 to $2,200 as opposed to getting cut in half. We've got incentives for companies to create childcare. We're taking that credit up from $150,000 to $500,000 with a new tax incentive for small businesses that's $600,000. And we're taking up, for example, if you've got dependence, taking that credit up from like $5,000 to $7,500.

So there's a lot in here that will help out Nebraska families as well. So really, really a great bill that's going to be great for our families and great for companies like NioCorp that are creating the jobs that allow people to be able to take care of their families. So we've got a lot going on right now in Washington, D.C., and you obviously got a lot going on right here in Southeast Nebraska. It's really, really an exciting time.

I look forward to seeing how this project will continue to develop because it is something that, as I said, is going to be really, really great for people here, for our state and for our country. It's really important as we think about how we are going to deter Communist China from what they are trying to do to displace us as the world power. And nobody wants to live in that world.

So this is a fantastically important project for us to be able to secure our supply chains and get away from having to use Communist China. With that, again, I just want to say congratulations, Mark, to you and your entire team for all the success you've had here. I'm really excited to see you continue to develop this. I'm looking forward to getting the construction underway and looking forward to seeing how this continues to benefit the folks here in Southeast Nebraska. Thank you all for being here tonight. God bless you all, God bless Nebraska and God bless America. Have a great weekend.

Pretty supportive. I like that. Okay. The next thing we're going to do is it's actually a video, and it was done by the President and Chairman of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. He was not able to be here today. And so yesterday, he actually put together a video that we're -- get the privilege of showing today. And then I was a little disappointed that he couldn't make it here. But then I found out right before this event started tonight that he was apparently a little busy today. He was with President Trump today. Pick your priorities, but we did get his video nonetheless. And I think you'll be pretty excited to hear what he has to say about EXIM and NioCorp together. So with that, let's go ahead and show the video.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm John Jovanovic, President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. I'm sorry, I can't be there with you in-person today, but I did not want to miss the opportunity to highlight how much Elk Creek matters to EXIM and America's manufacturing future. I'd like to thank you, Governor Pillen, for your leadership and for headlining today's event. A big thank you to Senator Ricketts as well. Senator, thank you for all of your support of EXIM, for all of your guidance and advice along the way and for your friendship. Your commitment to Nebraska's workers and American manufacturing renaissance is amazing. Nebraska and EXIM have a long history of working together. Over the past 10 years, EXIM has supported more than 30 businesses across the state, big and small, with over $0.5 billion in financing, helping local companies grow, strengthening supply chains and supporting jobs from Chapman to Elk Creek. And we're not done.

EXIM is committed to being a partner to Nebraska's manufacturers, farmers and innovators, not just today, but for the long haul. The Elk Creek Minerals project is exactly the type of opportunity EXIM was always designed to support, advancing U.S. control over the critical minerals essential to aircraft, automobiles, advanced manufacturing and our broad industrial base. Securing our supply chain is vital to our nation's economic security.

Thanks to President Trump's incredible leadership, EXIM is once again a frontline economic tool, strengthening our supply chains, empowering U.S. manufacturers and ensuring our nation is never dependent on adversaries for resources that power our economy and the world. And that's why we're proud to support Elk Creek. This project means more good jobs in Nebraska, more opportunities for American workers and a stronger, more secure industrial future for the United States.

Thank you for including me today. Governor Pillen, Senator Ricketts and the entire Elk Creek community, EXIM is proud to stand with you as you build Nebraska's future. Thank you.

I love that video. So our next very short video is going to come from Senator Deb Fischer. As Senator Ricketts pointed out, she's on the Appropriations Committee, and she worked with NioCorp tirelessly. And ultimately, we received a $10 million grant from the Department of War, Department of Defense or Pentagon, I don't know what we're calling it right now, but we got it nonetheless. And it was absolutely critical to doing a lot of the technical work that Scott will tell you about in a little bit and also advancing some work on scandium, which we did announce recently in terms of a deal with Lockheed Martin. So with that, let's go ahead and show Senator Fischer's video.

Thank you, and welcome to everyone gathered at Elk Creek's new Firehouse and Community Center. I'm sorry, I can't be with you in person today. Bruce and I have many friends in Elk Creek, and we look forward to seeing you all very soon. I was delighted to hear about your official ribbon cutting. This is an exciting milestone for the community, and I want to congratulate you on this successful community development effort.

I can't wait to visit the facility myself. I also want to recognize the local leaders, community members and partners joining you today, people who continue to champion responsible economic development and job creation across Southeast Nebraska. Your commitment is the reason communities like Elk Creek continue to grow and thrive.

As your United States Senator, one of my top priorities has always been strengthening economic growth, expanding opportunity and supporting Nebraska families and rural communities. And as we work to build a stronger economy, I've also focused on doing everything we can to safeguard our national security. These 2 missions, they go hand in hand. That's why I have strongly supported the Elk Creek project. This mine and processing facility represents a transformational investment in our state bringing hundreds of high-quality jobs, long-term economic activity and new opportunities for the region, all while helping diversify the tax base in Southeast Nebraska.

Just as importantly, the project will produce critical minerals that are essential to our national security. As a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I've worked hard to encourage onshoring and reshoring our critical mineral supply chains and resources, our economy and our military depend on. The Elk Creek project will play a vital role in advancing that effort across multiple minerals. I was proud to champion federal funding for NioCorp to accelerate this work and to help your team partner with Lockheed Martin on innovative technologies that use scandium to make our pilot safer and our defense capabilities stronger.

I also want to acknowledge the collaboration that we've seen throughout this process between NioCorp, landowners, local officials and residents. This project is a true partnership, and it reflects the best of how Nebraska gets things done. Finally, to the entire NioCorp team, thank you for this award. I am honored to receive it, and I will display it proudly in my Washington office. I look forward to seeing many of you soon, whether here in Nebraska or in our nation's capital. You are always, always welcome. I hope you have a productive and informative gathering today, and I look forward to the continued progress and success of this community in the years ahead. Thank you very much.

Just amazing. I'd love to see that support. And it all goes to what we've continually been talking about as NioCorp. It's the people of Nebraska that makes such a difference. You're so humble and down to earth, we just love it, and that's why we get along with you so well. So the award that Senator Fischer was talking about, we had handed out to her earlier. She had a staff member come in and accept it on her behalf, and she will hang it in her Washington, D.C. office. But it's an award that has a very special place in NioCorp's family. It's called the Michael J. Morris Memorial Award, and it is the highest award that our company has decided to hand out. And it's based on Michael J. Morris, who is our Lead Director, and he passed away in July of this year.

Michael set the absolute highest standards for trust and honesty and integrity. And everybody that you talk to about Michael, I had the pleasure of attending his funeral and meeting all the people that I've met by having him as a friend as long as I did. Everybody talked about how he improved their lives by being part of their lives. He's just magical. He made everybody's life better. So we decided to put this award together, call it the Michael J. Morris Memorial award. And again, it will be the highest-level award that we can hand out. And we've handed that out to Senator Fischer today because of her trust, honesty and integrity, and she's changing the lives of people everywhere she goes as well. So we couldn't think of a better honorary for that than her. So very, very proud and happy to do that.

I think we'll head into the NioCorp part of the presentation. But before I do that, I just want to -- hopefully, you got the sense like I do when I listen to Senator Ricketts and I listen to Senator Fischer and I listen to Chairman Jovanovic, this project is moving forward, and it's moving forward very fast right now. I know it's taken a long time to get there. It's a tremendous amount of work to put a project like this together and get the project financing together. But what you're going to hear about now is where we are on a lot of this project financing, and we are just about there.

And we are anticipating starting construction on this project in 2026. But you're also going to see a whole bunch of things changing out here starting in about February of 2026 because we have had good success raising money this year, and we're taking that money to advance portions of the project to make sure that when we start the real construction project, we can stay on time and we can stay on budget. So you're going to see a lot more activity out there, and it's going to feel like we started the project, but we'll let you know when we start because we're going to have another big celebration, and it's going to be a groundbreaking celebration.

So let's go ahead and start. I'm going to take this and kind of walk over here a little bit. You've heard about a lot of the things on this very first point already, strong state, local and federal support. We're getting support from all angles. Both sides of the aisle support this project. Everybody understands the dilemma that we now find ourselves in because we don't produce these minerals in the United States today and you cannot have that situation and all of a sudden have a trading partner decide they don't want to sell it to you. That kind of ruins supply chains, it ruins manufacturing, it ruins a lot of things.

So we're getting all of this put together, I think, in a really strong, honest and fair way. The metallurgy, there's kind of 2 things that you think about when you're in the mining industry. One is you better have a really good resource and you better have good metallurgy. And when you get both of those together, that's a successful project. And when you add a group of people like we have over here that have put all that together and we know how to actually manufacture these products, that's a successful project.

We're going to have a successful project. We're going to kick this off in 2026. So proven metallurgy. We're updating the feasibility study because as Scott will tell you about in a little bit, he's figured out how to even improve the metallurgy more, and it's a phenomenal improvement. What he did with this update is really going to change the economics of this project even more.

We've been doing all the drilling. As everybody knows, this is what we call infill drilling. So we're not trying to expand the resource. We're just trying to make sure that we know exactly what's in the ground where we will be mining. And that way, it's bankable for people that are going to offer debt to it. And I don't know, [ Catherine, ] do we have that model back there?

Okay. There's a model back there on the table that if you get a chance, just stop and take a look at it. The kind of bronze color, that's the ore body based on a 3D printed rendering of that ore, that ore body. That's the 38-year mine life that we're talking about. So that's how big that resource is. The 2 little white things next to it. One is to scale 3D rendering -- yes, there you go, thank you, [ Catherine. ] The scale 3D rendering in her right hand of the Empire State Building in New York, and the smaller feature in her left hand is actually the state capital of Nebraska. So just think about as you've gone to New York and you've seen that Empire State Building or if you've gone to the state capital and take a look at the size of that ore body. I think we've got something pretty good here in the ground. So that's pretty exciting.

Project financing, let's talk about that because that's really what's going to allow us to push this forward now. We've done a lot of the technical work. We had to have the money to do it. So as you saw with Chairman Jovanovic, we've got a $780 million loan application in front of EXIM, and we are this close to being done with that. And I do think that, that will come together in fiscal year 2026 for the U.S. government, which means I think we'll have our binding agreement, our final agreement in place on or before like September 30, 2026. And I hope it's actually well in advance of that, but I don't see it occurring after that.

The other part that we've done is that we've been able to raise over $360 million in equity fundraising this year. We've had 6 different fundraising efforts. And what we've done there, if you take a look at the stats on it, every single fundraising we did, we raised more money. We did it at a higher share price, and we did it at a lower discount to the market price at the time. That's good for shareholders. I'm happy when we do that. I'm a shareholder, too. This is how you treat shareholders. So we've been able to raise a good portion of this money.

And if you just do the simple math, call it, a $1.2 billion capital project and you subtract the $780 million from what EXIM will provide for debt, that leaves $420 million. And we've been able to raise over $360 million towards that effort. So keep in mind that when we get the EXIM loan, it's not quite as simple to do the math that way as what it sounds because EXIM is going to want debt service reserve accounts and that has to be cash. And so there's additional cash required, but we can see it right now. That light is at the end of the tunnel and the end of the tunnel is really, really close, and we're going to be starting construction on this project in 2026.

So we're excited about that. And we're continuing to work on offtake agreements. This is really the one item that we have to finalize for EXIM to get them all the way over the line and get us a final binding loan agreement for this project. But we're just -- we are this close right now. So be excited, but remember, life is going to change when we start really working out there on site. So get ready for that.

I think we can go to the next slide. So here's a little bit more information on the left here. The $374 million is because we've had a lot of options and warrants exercised as well with our share price doing as well as it's done this year. Almost all of the warrants that we had outstanding are in the money and people are exercising those warrants. And that means cash comes into the company and the warrant holder gets shares in the company. So that's worked out very well. Our share price has done well.

Our market cap is as high as it's been since I've been with the company. That creates more and more opportunities for fundraising as well because there are a lot of equity -- private equity institutional investors that can only invest in companies that have a certain market cap or higher. We passed most of those thresholds right now. So we've opened up the door to more people that want to put money in here.

We talked about EXIM a little bit. We're way, way along the road here with EXIM. And I do want to identify our 3 JPMorgan people in the back who are actually here to celebrate this with us and take a look at the property, and they've just been absolutely wonderful to work with, great advisers. You don't want anybody other than that bank to help you with EXIM. They're that good, and we're privileged to have them.

We talked about the $10 million award that we got from the Pentagon. Again, probably $8 million or so of that was intended for the technical work that you'll hear about from Scott. And then the other part was the Pentagon wants us to have a metal -- scandium metal production capability in the United States. We do not have that capability today. And they also wanted us to continue to work with Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin has developed a new technology involving scandium, aluminum alloys that helps make our fighter jet pilots safer. And it's the word that they use, but I still -- it makes me laugh a little bit when they say it because they just say it, so matter of fact, it makes them safer and it makes them more lethal. So that means that they can shoot down the bad guys even better. And that's good for our defense as well. So that partnership is good.

And guess what we want to get out of that. It would be called an offtake agreement. So we're in discussions with Lockheed Martin on that offtake for scandium, and that will be a big part of finishing up the EXIM application. So all positive things here, and I think we can go to the next last one. So this -- the scandium supply chain does not exist in the U.S. [indiscernible] I'll start out by talking about all of these minerals. You can see all 4 of them on both sides. Niobium today, the United States imports 100% of the niobium that we need in this country today.

And there isn't one other niobium mining project under development in the United States other than this one. We import 100% of the scandium we need in the United States today, and there isn't one other project being developed in the United States that will mine and produce scandium oxide. So very important.

Magnetic rare earths, there's different types of those, the neodymium, praseodymium. We only need to import about 98% of what we need there. So we're producing a little bit in country, but not a lot. And then the other 2 magnetic rare earths will produce dysprosium and terbium, we produce 0 in the United States. We have to import all of those. So what -- and titanium, it's a little bit better. We only import 85% of what we need for the titanium. So there's a lot.

When we take a look at scandium and those 2 heavy rare earths, dysprosium and terbium, those are heavy rare earths that China cut off. They produce 100% of those minerals. And they cut off all exports of those 3 rare earth elements in April of 2025. And that's one of the reasons why things have picked up in our country in terms of support for bringing onshore critical and strategic minerals and the supply chains associated with them.

The markets opened up, as you can tell, we were able to raise a lot of money. The importance of these regional onshoring activities has become paramount in this country. And we're tired of just China pulling the card and saying, sorry, we're not going to ship this to you anymore. You can't run an economy that way.

So we are bound and determined to get this up and running. But this scandium is particularly interesting because we produce 0 oxides at any mine in the country today. We don't produce any metal. And then we just announced along with the DoD contract we just talked about, where they've asked us to figure out how to make metal. We think we've got that figured out. Scott and his team will be making some in February of 2026. That will be an excellent start, and then we'll need to figure out how to produce more of it, but it will be a very good start.

And then we just announced yesterday the acquisition of a company that had intellectual property and assets, and we purchased the intellectual property and the assets, and they have figured out a way to go directly from scandium oxide to the master alloy. And that's a huge technological advancement. It reduces our cost to produce master alloy by 30% or 40%. And before that, you always had to go scandium oxide, then you had to make the metal, then you could make the alloy. So we've now got a technology that just eliminates the need to make the metal for the alloy purposes. Scandium metal still has importance, and it's used for a whole bunch of different things, sputtering targets and whatnot. So it has its own use, but now we don't have to convert everything to metal and then part of it to alloy.

We have another piece here, the final alloy itself where you take the master alloy and you mix it with a little bit more aluminum to make the actual alloy that people want to buy and use. And we've partnered with a company out of Indiana, who has demonstrated on the first pour that they did for us that they can produce that scandium alloy, the regular alloy, and they had some of the best results ever. It was their first time that they poured it. So we did ask them they're going to do another pour here probably in the next couple of weeks because one time might be lucky, and I want to make sure they can do it again. But we will have all of the supply chain in the United States. And that's starting here in Nebraska. And we're going to be the Saudi Arabia of scandium because we're going to produce 5x more at this mine than what the whole world produces today.

And don't get worried about that because the demand for this oxide, the scandium element is very, very large. So we'll probably be trying to figure out how to produce more sooner than what everybody thinks. So this is a very exciting part. The U.S. government is behind us very strongly on this whole effort. And I think you're going to hear more and more about scandium and its importance to our country. So I think with that, we get to hand it over to Scott, and Scott gets to tell us about the drilling and the engineering work that we're doing to get ready to finalize this EXIM financing and start construction. Scott?

Thanks, Mark. I appreciate that, and I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you folks about the Elk Creek project, which I'm very passionate about. And I got to thinking about one of our early town hall meetings here back in 2015. We did it in the old fire hall. And that was a fine facility, but I think we had to stop the proceedings at least 3 times for trains. And now 10 years later, here we are in this brand-new fantastic facility, what a -- here's the train, of course, yes, timely.

But I can still -- I can speak over it now. So that's a definite improvement. So here we have -- here we are. And I just got to thinking about all the hard work it took to make this facility we're in here go from concept to reality. And I really feel we're doing a lot of the same kind of work now with the Elk Creek project. We put in a lot of time and effort. Now we're finally seeing the fruits of the effort. And what I'm going to talk about here today is kind of what we've done in 2025 and what you're going to see going forward in 2026.

The first thing that I wanted to talk about is just our land position. We have -- are somewhat unique in terms of a mining project in the United States, in that we don't touch any federal or state land. Everything that we do is things that we've done by working with the local landowners. And when I was brought in, in 2014 and I started working on the project, I talked to any number of people in this room about their land and getting option agreements in place. And I'm sure most of the folks I spoke to at that time didn't think that we'd ever get to the point where those options would be exercised and NioCorp would actually own some of the land. But here we are today, we've acquired effectively a square mile of ground, Section 33, Township 4 North, Range 11 East. I never get tired of saying that. And we have the land that we need now to build the project and to operate the project probably for something like 30 years.

So we're in a great position. We have some additional land yet under option that we can acquire for expansions or other things we might want to do down the line. But that was -- it's a great accomplishment, I think, and we feel a lot of pride as a company getting to this point. And we couldn't have done this without the support of the community. So I'm very grateful for that. As Mark mentioned, we did a drilling program this year, and that program ran from April until about October. And what you see on the figure there on the right-hand side of the slide is projections to surface of some of the drill holes we drilled here in 2025.

These figures are a little bit inscrutable, but the purpose behind this drilling was to increase the confidence that we have in what's underground. And you can drive by the site today, and you can't tell that there's 300 million tons of mineral resources underneath the ground. Everything we know about the project is stuff we know because we do drilling. And as we've been talking to the bank, the bank really wanted some higher confidence in those mineral resources and the part that we'll mine, which is known as the mineral reserve. So they asked us to do some additional drilling. And so all these holes that you see on the figure are really holes that are effectively in between holes we've drilled previously.

And when you put holes in between holes that you've drilled previously, you tighten up that spacing and you increase the level of confidence that you have in your resources and reserves. So that was very important work to get behind us. What we do with all that information, and it's still coming in even though the drilling finished a few weeks ago now. But we bring all that together. We take all of the data we have. We generate a new resource. We build a new mine plan around that. So we'll have a new mineral reserve. And here in the new year, we'll package all that up into a new technical report for the project, which will then help us get through the final bits and pieces of the loan process with the Export-Import Bank.

While we were drilling, we did some other things, too. We don't want to ever waste any time in the field. And so while we're collecting all this data on niobium, scandium, titanium rare earths, we also collected a bunch of data on hydrogeology and in particular, our ability to grow the underground formation to prevent water coming into the mine. And we did a bunch of geomechanical work. And geomechanics is just a way to talk about the strength of the rock underground. We want to make sure that when we establish the mine, it's going to be safe and stable for everyone that's going to be working in there.

And just to put things in perspective, you see an abstract number up there, 11,431 meters of drilling. If you were to take all that drill core and stack it end-to-end, I mean, it runs from basically here to Tecumseh. So keep that picture in your mind. It's quite a bit of drilling that we did. The other thing -- big work package that's going on here in 2025 is work that is happening in engineering offices. It's not necessarily something you'll see on the ground at the project site. And what we're trying to do is take everything that we've learned about the project today to make some improvements. And it's kind of reflected on this project layout.

One of the big things you see there is kind of in the center bottom of the figure. You see an area that's marked twin mine portals. So if you look at our previous work on this project, we've always said we're going to access the mine with 2 vertical shafts. And we took a look at that and found a competing technology that's proven and looks like it's a little better. And that is instead of sinking vertical shafts, we'll drive some ramps down and use ramps to get down to the ore body area. The reason we're doing that is in looking at this from an engineering study standpoint, we think that we can get the ramps established faster than the shafts. And certainly, we can do it, we think, cheaper than the shaft option.

So that's great. It gets us underground. The other thing that goes with that is this thing called a Railveyor, which you'll see a picture of in a minute. A Railveyor is a way of moving rock out of the mine from depth to surface. And it really looks like it's kind of a cross between a conveyor belt and the flume ride at an amusement park. It's like a series of coverts that move on a track, and we can fill it up with ore and move it up to surface. And it's a very cost-effective and efficient way of moving the rock out of the mine. So that's kind of one of the bigger pieces and changes that we've made to the project layout.

Along with this, you'll see we still have some fairly substantial production plants. I wanted to note that we're continuing to have an entrance to our facility off of 721 Road from the north. We really wanted to do that to get as much traffic as possible off of Highway 50. And I think the other things you see on the figure here are some stockpiles and the places where this Railveyor when it brings rock out of the mine makes stockpiles on surface. So this is kind of what the mine would look like if you took a vertical slice through it after it's been established. And the things I want to draw your attention to here are the purple lines that start at the top and kind of snake their way down.

Those are the 2 ramps that we want to establish. One of those ramps will be for people and for equipment. The other ramp will have this Railveyor system in it. And to put this figure in perspective, the distance from the top of the purple lines to the bottom of the mine is about 3,000 feet vertically. So this is pretty big. And again, Mark gave a good analogy with the model of the ore body that we have at the back of the hall here.

Just again, to give some context and perspective to this visual I'm showing you. Each of those green and blue boxes is what we call a stope. The stope is an individual mining unit. And each stope is 120 feet high, it's 45 feet wide, and it's anywhere from 45 to 300 feet long. So you can see this is going to be a big operation. And what's personally exciting to me is that this mine, which has a very long life, represents something like 10% of the mineral resources that we know about today. So when we get this mine established, as Mark noted, we're going to be here for a very long time.

I think a project that will happen now in 2026 that is very important to this community is some improvements we're going to make to the junction of Highway 50 and 62. And -- what we envision is, of course, a fair amount of new traffic to the area as people who are doing the construction and people who work in the operation come to work every day. And so we did a traffic study and determined that we needed to add a southbound turn lane on Highway 50 on the 721 Road as well as a northbound turn lane for the same purpose. And along with those road improvements, we would take then the section of 721 Road from Highway 50 to our entrance, and we would pave that. So this is a way, I think, to safely and efficiently manage the traffic that's going to come down the road and try and get into the site.

And I really want to recognize Johnson County here. Johnson County has stepped up and earlier this week approved a package of contracts to help us effectuate these road improvements, which we hope to start early in 2026. And just to be perfectly clear about this, this project is completely funded by NioCorp. So we're paying for the road improvements. We're paying for the construction management from a company called Olsson. We're paying for the County's special adviser on this, a company called MEI, and we will pay the County's costs for overseeing the construction and maintaining the road once it's built.

But nonetheless, we couldn't do this without a very strong partnership and the support of Johnson County. And I'd just like to recognize the Chair of the County Commission, Dave Borrenpohl. He really pushed this along as well as road superintendent, Matt Schaardt, and the County attorney, Jennifer [indiscernible].

So a very important project. And again, this will be one of the early works that you'll see here starting in 2026. The other big project that we hope to get kicked off early in 2026 is the start of the establishment of the underground mine. And we refer to this internally as the portal project. And we call it a portal because when you're starting a mine, you dig a big hole and you start driving some tunnels, that's typically called a portal in mining parlance.

And -- the reason that we're focusing on this particular aspect of the project is kind of the first things we're going to do is we really feel that overall, the schedule for the mine involves or the critical path for the overall project involves getting the mine established and producing. That is the thing that will drive our overall schedule getting from where we are today to a producing operation. So this is where we focus our attention first.

And in addition to starting these -- digging a big hole and starting these ramps that go into the underground, you'll see some other features there. So we're going to put in an internal road from 721 Road down to the area of the portal. We're going to establish an area where we're going to have our initial offices and base of operations. We're going to have a couple of stockpiles associated with the excavation. We've got to dig down through the soil. We need to put that somewhere, so we'll put it in a stockpile. We also need to drill and blast a bunch of limestone, which we will temporarily stockpile adjacent to the excavation, and we'll eventually crush that and use it for road base around our site.

In addition to that, we'll save all the top soil that we excavate from the portal area. We'll save that for the ultimate reclamation of the site far in the future. And we'll put a sedimentation pond at the south end of this whole operation to capture storm water, let the sediment settle out before that water goes on into Elk Creek. So very excited to get this going. This will be a pretty serious project. It will be very apparent, I think, to everyone who's a resident in the area.

The last thing I wanted to cover here is just what a Railveyor looks like. This is the discharge end of a Railveyor. So you can see there's just a series of these small cars on a track, you fill them up with rock, and they go over this big wheel and the rock spills out into a stockpile. We're very excited about this technology because, as I mentioned, this is part of an overall strategy of getting the mine established faster than we could do it with shafts.

But the other part that's exciting here is that this is part of an overall strategy to electrify our operations underground. And that's important for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it makes the environment underground better for the people working there. So if you don't have a completely electrified mine, you'll have a bunch of diesel equipment underground, and you have to ventilate the mine to deal with the diesel exhaust, but it's much nicer for the people working there if everything is electric and there's no diesel emissions for the folks there to deal with.

It also helps us make the mine more economical and more efficient because with a completely electrified mine, you need to basically push less air down into the mine because you're just trying to get the air down there for folks to breathe. You don't need to dilute diesel fumes. And the other thing is it's just a lower operating cost than other ways of conducting the mining. So pretty excited about this. And I think this is a real winner for the Elk Creek project.

So just to sum up, we've done a lot of work here in 2025. But I think in 2026, you really start to see the fruits of our labors. You see a lot of activity on the site, a lot of construction type work. And it's going to be a very exciting year, I think, both for the community and for NioCorp.

With that, I will turn things over to our newest director, Tony Fulton, to talk about some of the economics of the operation.

As Alfred Hitchcock once said, good evening. Does anyone know, Alfred Hitch -- I am old. I don't look like it, but I'm pretty old. So good evening. I joined the Board of NioCorp back in 2013 with Mark, actually. I was in the legislature with Lavon up until 2012. And about that time, well, I hung around Lavon a lot. In fact, I had written some of this down and some of which, which I'm not going to reshare, Robin. But we spent probably, I don't know, 14 hours a day together, 12, 14, 16 hours a day for 5, 6 months out of the year. And so we talked about a lot of stuff.

Well, this project was one of them. I remember talking about it with Lavon back in 2010 and '11. I'm from Auburn originally. And of course, I knew there were always magic rocks under the ground in Elk Creek. But what was really here, I started to think about it some more in those years when I was with Lavon. So right around the end of -- middle to end of 2012, I started buying shares of the company at that time. It was called Quantum back then. And I did so with my kids. So I was trying to teach -- I was learning about investing myself, but I was also trying to teach my kids about it. And so my wife and I wanted to have a large family, mission accomplished. We have 8 kids, and they are all shareholders at different levels of NioCorp. And it's really been something that's -- it's been a tool that we have used in the raising of our kids.

So there are some young people in Lincoln, Nebraska, who are really excited about this. They didn't believe me for the longest time. But -- so after that time in the legislature, I served on the Board for a period of time. And then Governor Ricketts, well, he was Pete at the time, became Governor Ricketts, and he asked if I would join him in his administration. So I served -- the reference there was I was the Tax Commissioner. So I served as Pete's Tax Commissioner for 2 terms.

And if you followed my time back in the legislature, you'd know that taxes, I didn't really like them. So it was a bitter irony that I served in that position, but God has a sense of humor. So there I was. Well, after that time was over, I handed it off to the next guy. And I went back to my businesses and just doing things in the private sector. I'm really a big believer that we can do things for the betterment of mankind through the power of the private sector, especially in this country.

And so I was fortunate after having been off the Board for that time that I was able to rejoin the Board of NioCorp back in August, I guess it was. So not too long -- this time, I'm an old newbie on the Board of NioCorp. But we want to show you some of the economics that I said earlier this afternoon, I've heard these numbers, but I just think it's important that we reemphasize these numbers because it's just jaw dropping. I said this earlier today, too, growing up in Auburn, Nebraska, I would never have guessed these kind of numbers would be something that would come from Southeast Nebraska, okay? But it's real, it's true, and we should go over them.

The number of long-term jobs that this mine will provide is 450. Pete, Senator Ricketts mentioned this earlier, 450, and that number is etched in our brain. And we'll see with the -- we're working on another feasibility study. We'll see what that number is. But it's going to be -- this is a lot of people, okay? This is about, I don't know, 8 or 9 Elk Creeks, is big. So these are all people with families and futures, some of whom are here today, some of whom will be born in future years and in years after that.

The number of indirect jobs, that's another impressive number. It's over 2,000, and we're talking about supporting jobs, the teachers, the restaurant workers, the people who work in the grocery store and the gas stations. And as Mark said, there are going to be changes. And so it's a brave thing that's going on here. The -- that number in the middle, $3.4 billion, cumulative operating expenses over project life. This includes salaries and wages that will be paid to these families who are supporting the future of our country, the future of Southeast Nebraska. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of families. So lots of people could go around and have 8 kids if they wanted with that kind of pay, $1.1 billion.

The amount of revenue that would be generated for local governments, but also for the state, $608 million. It's a lot of money. And then lastly, this is the eye-popper. Royalties paid to Nebraska landowners over the project life, $300 million. That's money that's going to find its way into the economy here in Southeast Nebraska. It's just -- it's a remarkable thing. So we thought it was important to point this out.

I want to say that in closing, the mantra, our President wants to make America great again. And I went and I checked this quote that I heard some time back, and it's attributed to Tocqueville, but I'm told that it's not actually him who said it. America is great because America is good. It's a wonderful statement, and I think it's true. Well, then it's fitting that Southeast Nebraska's contribution to American greatness will come from American goodness, something about which we should be very proud. So okay, we've got some Q&A coming. God bless you guys, and God bless a great company of NioCorp.

Now it's my favorite part. We get to go to any question that you want. But before we do that, I do want to have the NioCorp team who is a little bit scattered, but mostly over here, stand up so you know who all the team is. And remember, we got some back here, too, and one Dan is way in the back, Matt over here. We have doubled the size of our team in about the last 3 months. And so we're changing as well, and you're going to meet more and more people. Three of the people are actually going to be working here in Nebraska now. So here we come, and we're going to be here for a long time. You heard Scott -- you guys can sit down, I'm sorry.

You heard Scott. We run a 38-year mine plan based on the reserves and the resource and those have different definitions, but the resource is about 10x that large. So we're going to be here for a long time, and we can't wait because you've been very, very warm and receptive all along. But let's get to the fun part. Anybody have a question tonight? Here's one right here.

How dangerous is this mining?

It's a very good question, ma'am, and thank you for asking that. First of all, let me tell you that Scott and I started our careers in the health, safety and environmental area. And so there's very little in these operations and these mine activities that's more important to us than the health and safety of our people.

Our goal is to make sure that every single employee leaves the facility the same way they came in every single day. We have a great track record on this. We both worked at a different mine. It was a very large project that was involved. We had gone over 10 years without a lost time accident, and we had probably 1,100, 1,200 people as part of a large construction project for 3 years, not one lost time accident. So can it be dangerous? Absolutely, it can be dangerous, and you hear about it all the time with accidents going on at mines. But we do everything in our power to make sure our people are safe and they go home every single night. Quick -- Scott has something that he wants to add to that.

Well said, Mark, I think -- just to maybe put some more perspective to the safety question. We just finished the drilling program. And if anyone in this room remembers it was an epic summer here in Southeast Nebraska. There was rain and thunderstorms. It seemed like almost every day. Very challenging conditions for our drillers and for our geologic team. We have a very strong focus on safety. And one of the things I'm particularly proud of is that team was able to deliver this drilling project, and there were no incidents, there were no injuries over the course of that time frame from April to November. And that's kind of the way we think about safety.

We don't want -- we want everyone to go home in the same condition that they show up for the job at the beginning of the day. I'll maybe share one other statistic, if I could, on safety, which I think is relevant and may resonate with the room here. If you look at all the mining activity in the United States, it's usually broken into metal mining and non-metal mining. In a typical year, there may be as many as 40 fatalities in the industry. That's 40 too many, but those are the statistics.

How many people do you think are killed in agriculture each year? It's about 10x as many. So we have a very strong focus on safety in the mining industry. And certainly, the operation that we intend to build here will be safe for everyone that's working at it.

Mark, you've shared the benefits to the country, to the military, to the town, to the state. What is the benefits to the shareholders that got in early and took a 10:1 reduction in their share value? What do we expect for the people that got in and have stuck with NioCorp for a long time?

First of all, let me duly note that I am one of those people as well. So I get it, and it was something that we needed to do in order to be registered on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, which has been one of the best things this company has ever done. Being on the NASDAQ allowed us to raise $360-plus million this year. I couldn't do that on TSX. I couldn't do that on OTC. So yes, it was a little bit painful to go through that, but that was what the requirements were to be listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.

Now I worry about things like dilution and I worry about things like ownership because I had always been until this year, I was the largest single shareholder in this company. And I'm no longer the single largest shareholder in this company because we raised $350 million. And we've gone from about a 98% retail shareholder holding to less than 50% retail now. But how I look at this is more on value than on ownership.

So that 22 million shares that I owned before we did the 10-for-1 split at the time was worth, I don't know, $0.60, $0.70 each. When we did the 10-for-1 split, the price of each share went up as well. And so today, sitting here at $6 or $7 a share, my 10-for-1 split is still -- it's upwards of $12 million to $14 million. So I'm in this for value, not for ownership. And if you're in it for ownership, you got a lot of competition because there are some institutional investors that hold a lot of shares right now. So I hope that, that helps a little bit.

Do you expect it to be a dividend type of stock or do you expect this to be a share value stock?

Well, I think for now, we have no choice but for it to be a share value stock because we have no revenue. But once we get up and running, and we're making $400 million or $500 million a year in EBITDA, our Board of Directors and one of them we got Dean Kehler and we've got Tony Fulton. So you've got 3 of the 7 here. We have a really hard job because all the extra money that's going to be sitting there, we have to decide what is the best thing to do with that money. So we'll look at dividends. We'll look at acquisitions. We'll look at expanding this mine to even be a bigger mine and create more cash.

But that's our job as shareholders. That's our fiduciary duty to you is that we have to figure out what's best to do with that money. Now the good news here is that between Dean and Tony and myself, we own a couple of shares of the stock. And so we might lean towards that dividend side a little bit. Good question though. And not that I want to challenge you, but this afternoon, we did questions for how long.

An hour and 45 minutes.

Yes, and I will stay here until every question is answered. Yes, sir.

You guys mentioned something about EXIM needing to be satisfied with the loan. They needed more in agreements with the mineral that you have?

Offtake agreements, yes.

How much more percentage do you need based on what you have now?

It's not an easy question to answer, but we do need more than what we have right now. And how that all works out is that we have to demonstrate with our offtake agreements, how much revenue that will generate and then EXIM puts it into an economic model and then they'll tell us what our debt capacity is and what our ability to repay that debt is. Those are the 2 calculations, and you can only do that with the offtake agreements. So it's a little bit of a puzzle, but I would tell you that the 75% of the niobium being fully contracted for with an enforceable contract, not an MOU, that's a heck of a good start, and they know it. And that's why we got through as far as we have with EXIM is because they take -- they pull all the sensitivity levers as they run their economic model. And when they did that on what we call TRC1, they felt that our economics were strong enough that they could support a loan on this project.

So we won't have to contract 100%, but we do need more than what we have right now. And we've got I don't know how many different things we've got going on, and we have new resources like Ernest Cleave, who's helping us work on these sales contracts. And we have some contracts we're trying to go after with single companies like Lockheed Martin right now. We've got other contracts where we're looking at getting in with larger trading partners where they agree to buy everything else that we have, and that's -- it's an easier way to go. What I can tell you is that we're going to have offtake and we're going to have offtake pretty soon because I'm not going to let EXIM not issue this loan because of offtake.

How long do you anticipate the construction period to be?

That sounded like Greg. No. The construction period will be 3 years. But Scott, all you have to do is just either nod or shake your head sideways. Scott, do I ask you about how much more we can shorten that? Maybe every day. I mean we -- and every day is going to count, right? And once we get the loan and once we start construction, the sooner we have revenue, the better.

And then just a follow up, how much supply of the United States will you be able to provide versus 100% now scandium and niobium being imported?

Yes. So in the United States today, there's about 15,000 tons of niobium used per year. We'll be producing about 7,500 tons of that. But don't forget that our largest contract for niobium is with ThyssenKrupp out of Germany. So we'll be exporting that to Germany. And don't forget that we don't qualify for the EXIM loan unless we export a certain amount of our offtake. So it's a good thing that we're shipping it to Germany, friendly allied nation. It allows us to qualify for the EXIM financing. I can't find a debt package that will be cheaper than the one we're going to get out of EXIM. So there's a lot of positive things there.

What is your plan for finding employees for either the construction or the permanent jobs?

Scott, I'm going to have you come up here, so you can kind of explain how we're going to structure the construction a little bit. We're going to have a 3-year construction project. So that will kind of have its own hiring process, and Scott will cover that in just a minute. And then probably sometime within a year to 1.5 years before construction is done, we'll start hiring our own employees and go through the training and transition. So that they can -- the construction folks can literally hand our operating folks the keys and then they take over. So probably 1.5 years, maybe 2 years from now before we start hiring all 450 people that we're going to hire out there. But Scott, why don't you talk about the construction project, too?

Yes. I think it's fair to say that the construction is really split into 2 parts. There's the underground construction part and then there's the surface plant. And they're really quite a bit different as far as the workforce goes. So for the underground mine, we're going to be using a firm called Dumas as an EPC contractor. So that means engineering, procurement and construction. So they're going to come in and self-perform all of the work of building the mine. And the typical model and the model that I like is one where they bring in a core of experienced development miners, a small group. Those -- that group starts the development of the mine, and then we hire locally to build up the mining workforce.

And what we would expect to happen is once that workforce has developed the mine, we would transition those folks into the operational workforce. So really, most of the mining workforce, the hourly folks doing the work would come from the local area.

In terms of the surface construction, we are partnered with a firm called Zachry. They have a big engineering office in Omaha. They're headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. They're also an engineering procurement construction firm. So they self-perform all of the work. They have a craft workforce in-house of about 22,000 individuals. And they will bring all of that craft or not all of that craft workforce. They'll bring portions of their craft workforce to the site, and they will perform all of the surface construction activities.

As Mark alluded to, as we get to the end of that construction process, we'll start building up our own team and once that surface construction is complete, our workforce will move in to commission and operate the surface facility. So a little bit different between surface and underground. But again, we expect to hire heavily here in the state of Nebraska.

And Dumas and Zachry will basically be putting their workforces together, and we enter into contracts and they get all that done. So I suspect that they will start hiring pretty soon, but that is their part of the contract, not ours. It's when we're ready to switch over to operations where we have NioCorp employees that we'll be hiring ourselves. So probably about 1.5 years on that, but pretty quick on the construction side.

You mentioned blasting and drilling. How will that affect your neighbors? And what hours will you be blasting?

That's a great question because I've been very close to some road construction projects where they didn't care too much about what time and how much. I'll have Scott answer this in more detail. But a lot of the work that we'll be doing once the mine is established, it will be underground. And you probably won't hear, see or feel anything. You've got a good example just off the road, where we're going to be deeper than them and you can't really hear or see what they're doing. But on the front end, this portal project, there's going to be some blasting on the front end of this project, and you might hear that. But we don't do any of that at night. That's all going to be done during the day and like not before 8:00 a.m. because we don't want to irritate anybody. But you want to talk a little bit more detail about that?

Sure. So a good analog to what we're going to be doing is the Weeping Water Mine up the road. The Weeping Water mine is mining limestone, which sits underneath the glacial tiller, sometimes we call that the soil. And the depth we're talking about at the Weeping Water Mine is probably on the order of, say, 100 to 200 feet below ground surface. And I don't know this for a fact, but they're drilling and blasting every day. And I don't know that the community around there has any issues with those practices.

For practical purposes, our mine is much deeper. So the geologic formation we're going to be mining doesn't start until we get at least 600 feet below ground. And we go from 600 feet below ground surface to about 3,000 feet. And certainly, when we're -- there's 2 types of blasting that happen underground. The first is what's called the development blasting where you're just advancing a tunnel. So it's a blasting volume, let's say, 18 feet by 18 feet by 10 feet long. The other is production blasting where we're actually blasting ore, and we're doing that to feed our surface plant. And those blasts are a little bit bigger.

So it's certainly possible that people living close by might feel the production blast. I don't think anyone will notice the development blasts. Those blasts will probably happen a few times a week. And the safest way to do that in an underground mine is at shift change. So say at 6 o' clock in the evening when the day shift leaves, but before the night shift starts, everyone will evacuate the mine, we'll initiate the blast from surface. It's over in a fraction of a second, and then the night shift comes in and resumes activities. So that's kind of what we'll see in this particular mine for drilling and blasting.

Our goal would be is that you don't even know. That's the best way.

Mark, there was a question this morning at the luncheon that might be on people's minds that follows on from that is what will folks see and perhaps smell from the facility?

Yes. I'll have Scott do that. He did a great job with it earlier.

So yes, it's a natural extension of the question. Thanks for thinking of it, Jim. This is going to be a little bit different in terms of what you will see, hear and maybe smell from what you're used to in the area. So what smells around here anhydrous ammonia, chicken houses, pork operations, those kind of things. So those have their own unique odors, and I grew up in the pork industry, so I've got no issues with that. The thing that will happen in our operation is we'll be using things that smell different. So as an example, we'll be using mineral acids, hydrochloric and sulfuric acid.

We'll be using some chlorine compounds. So those things obviously smell a little bit different than the chicken house. But I think the thing that everyone should remember is, first and foremost, everything that we do is going to be inside an enclosed building. So number one, it's contained. Number two, by virtue of the fact that we have a construction air permit from the State of Nebraska, we had to demonstrate with a really high degree of specificity that every source of emissions was documented and that we have a control technology for every source of emissions at the facility.

And when I say control technology, it's not just any old technology. We had to demonstrate to the state that what we were going to put in was what's known as best available control technology. So we had to survey the whole universe of controls. We had to demonstrate to the state satisfaction that what we were putting in is the very best control technology available. So to the extent that there will be dust or chemical smells, they've all -- they've been -- they will be controlled to the highest degree we can possibly achieve. So I really don't think you're going to see or smell really anything from the facility. But in the event that you do smell something, maybe it's the slight smell of an acid or something that smells a little bit like a swimming pool, if that helps for context.

Two quick questions. The 450 people that are going to be here long term with the mine, what type of craft personnel are you looking for that?

I think it will be every kind that you can think of. We're going to want mechanics. We're going to want electricians, instrument people. We're going to want welders, all of that. We're going to want engineers. We're going to want geologists. It might need 1 or 2 executives, but not much. We don't -- it's the people that work at the mine to make it all happen. And it's everything that you can imagine that just think of a chemical plant and an underground mine and anything that can or will breaking, those, we've got to have somebody to fix it.

We need the labor, too, right? The people that do the really hard work, drilling and blasting.

Right. And then I recently read that a gentleman in Japan came up with a scandium battery. And they're saying it's so much more efficient than a lithium ion that it's going to eliminate the lithium-ion battery eventually. Has there been any speculation in the industry of what that's going to do to the scandium demand?

I haven't seen any speculation about what that would do, but we can imagine that, right? If it replaces just every lithium ion battery in every electric vehicle, we won't make enough here is my first comment. So we'll have to increase production. But we need to -- that technology is going to take a while before it's proven out. These things take time. I mean that may be a 10-year development project. But we are aware of it. We are watching it. We think it would be fantastic.

Okay. Is there any other -- okay, we've got one more -- actually, 2 more here. And then I think we're going to, unfortunately, probably stop the questions because things are icing up outside. And the sheriff, who is one of the kindest sheriffs I've ever met, by the way. He thinks maybe we ought to be safe and get going. He suggests sooner than later. So let's do...

Why do you anticipate the company being profitable.

Why do I anticipate it being profitable?

How long will it be until it's profitable?

When we're done building this facility, we will have ore on the ground already. And then when we start to commission the aboveground facility, we start producing product, I mean, as soon as it's through the system, which doesn't take all that long. Then we start generating revenues. And the customers we have, for instance, in the niobium space, they want what we're going to produce right away. So they'll give us a little bit of leeway on the specs and whatnot. So we'll start generating revenue. And once we can get up to full capacity, at least based on our 2022 feasibility study, we'll be producing about $400-plus million of EBITDA, which is the equivalent of cash flow per year. So 3 years construction and then just give us time to ramp up and this mine is going to be very profitable.

Are there any plans at some point to partner with [indiscernible].

They are a very good company that poured a great alloy from master alloy that we gave them. There's lots of options on the table. We could do a JV with them. We could have a tolling agreement with them. We could just sell them master alloy and they could make and sell the scandium aluminum alloy on their own. So right now, what we're trying to do is to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the U.S. government that this whole scandium supply chain can exist and it can exist on U.S. soil. They will worry about all the business arrangements some way or the other. But they did a great job on that first pour.

With your team trying to develop offsets for your product, has anyone contacted Elon Musk and his teams for -- they have SpaceX. They have Tesla. They're producing all their equipment there. They have the solar panels. They have the digging, the boring company. I had sent out a text to him to see if he would contact you guys, but has anyone from the company tried to talk to them?

I'll reverse that and just say that they have contacted us.

Happy to keep doing more questions. I just want to make sure everybody is comfortable and feel safe with the ice.

We got one over here.

What could the communities around here -- and I know there's already been a lot of work being done, this being an example. What can the communities be doing to prepare the employees to be successful for you as an example and just prepare the community areas in general?

I'll have Scott answer some of the answer as it relates to housing and whatnot. But my simple response to that question is, be you. You all make us feel so comfortable here. And when we get this mine up and running, if you treat the mine people the way you treat us, they're going to be as happy as can be and they're never going to want to leave. So just do what you do naturally. It's just so perfect. It's just so warm and inspiring for all of us. So just be you.

I've heard the Governor talk about the greatest thing about Nebraska is its people. And if you ask people outside of Nebraska, what's -- what do you know about Nebraska? What makes Nebraska so great? And everybody outside of Nebraska says, it's the people. But the Nebraska people are so humble that you don't want to actually talk about how good you are and all this stuff. And when we ask you what your state should be known for, you just kind of kick soil a little bit, put your hands in your pocket and look down and you're just precious, you're precious. Just be you. Yes sir.

I have been in industrial maintenance for over 20 years and I serve as a maintenance manager currently. And I'm looking for the same guys you are. I'm in Lincoln, which is a larger population, obviously. I'm looking for electricians, welders, automation guys, mechanics. I mean, what motivates somebody like me to come down? I mean there's some fishing holes around here, but I don't know much else around here, honestly.

Well, that would be a pretty good start, though, wouldn't it? We've got to have the right culture so that you as an employee feel like you're an important part of the organization. We have to make you feel welcome. We have to pay you properly. And I'll tell you that you're right, everybody in the United States is looking for these crafts because they just don't -- we just don't have a strong workforce in that area. The good news is that most of those numbers are starting to turn around and more of the young people are starting to go into the craft trades area, that really makes me happy.

I'll tell you that we're not going to just sit and let that happen either. We're going to work with the local organizations. We're going to work with the university, and we're going to make sure that we have people trained and what we need them to be trained for. We're going to do internships. And I mean we're going to do everything we can, but most of all, make it a welcoming environment for an employee.

When it comes to sending out your product after it's mined, obviously, probably using semis and trailers. How many do you anticipate going in and out a day going up and down Highway 50? Are they going to be going north? Are they going to be going south? How much truck traffic is Highway 50 and the intersection out there going to be? Because like up at Weeping Water, when they're busy during the day, it gets kind of crazy and we're not used to that down here. So I was just wondering how many are going to be going in and out?

I'll answer part of it, and then I'll have Scott answer the rest of it because he's already done the calculations and he's going to tell you how many trucks a day are going to be leaving with niobium. But on scandium, we're going to produce 5 truckloads a year. So you're not going to feel that one at all. And all of the production of our materials is small enough because these are minor alloying agents for much bigger products. You don't need a whole lot of them. So our products are all going to be shipped by truck to either a port that then they get exported from or whatever but everything from the plant will be shipped out by truck. And then I'll have Scott talk about crazy things up North versus how nice it's going to be down here.

Yes. Thanks, Mark. Maybe to put some hard numbers around that. So we'll produce something like 7,500 to 7,800 tons of ferroniobium a year. And if you work that backwards, assuming that a truckload is about 20 tons, that's about a truck a day of niobium product going out of the facility. Titanium might be 3 or 4 trucks a day. I think to put that in context, as I understand, the Weeping Water operation, when they're busy, it's 150 to 300 trucks a day. So really, I think the production -- the product flow out of our facility is going to be fairly modest in terms of traffic impact. And I think you'll see trucks heading both north and south because they're going to want to get to I-80 or I-70 to get where they need to go.

Any other questions? All right. I think we did it. And again, a huge thank you to everybody for coming out on a Friday night, be safe driving home. And we hope to see you again real soon. 2026 is the year.

So I want to talk a little bit before we start, we have some honored guests here today. Thank you all. And I just want to mention a few people. I'm not going to mention the Governor yet, since he's going to be formally introduced, but we have Senator Bob Hallstrom with us. Senator, thank you. We have several, I think, members of the Johnson County Commission, Dave Borrenpohl, I think Dave is here. Dave, if you're here, there he is. Thank you. Appreciate it. Les Agena of the commission, I think, is here. I didn't see him, but I think -- well was applaud in absentia, thank you. Tim Weber, I think Tim is here, or maybe Tim couldn't come. But again, thank you for your service, Tim. Doug Goracke, Johnson County, Economic Development. Where's Doug? Doug does a lot for a lot of people in the county. He's done a lot for this project. Doug, thank you for your tireless efforts on behalf of us, this is our County.

Jon Rather, the Superintendent of Johnson County Schools is here. Jon, way in the back. Thank you for coming. We appreciate it. Greg Bates, Chairman of the Elk Creek Village Board. I think of it as the mayor, but he's the Chairman of the Elk Creek's Board. Greg, are you here? I think he is somewhere. Okay. Well, he was here. So thank you for coming, Greg. We appreciate that. Megan Buckley with the emergency, the Johnson County and Pawnee County Emergency Management Program, Division Office. I know Megan is here. And if the fire alarm goes off, that's who you really listen to. She will tell us what to do. I think Chris Erickson, the mayor of Auburn is here, he just left, he was here. It's okay. We appreciate that.

From Gage County, Myron Dorn County Commission is here. Thank you for coming. I saw you earlier. Ron Seitz, Pawnee County. Several officials will come. Thank you all for coming, Ron Seitz. Lavon Heidemann, both on the commission. Jess Colo and Jessie Friendly, who are in the Economic Development for Pawnee County. Thank you all. This is really in many ways of Johnson County, Pawnee County kind of collaboration. So thanks. Sheriff Lynn Lyon is here. Thank you, Johnson County Sheriff. Sheriff, thank you. Deputy is here as well. We appreciate that. And finally, I want to mention from Senator Fischer staff, she really wanted to be here. She's going to get a pretty cool award. She could not be here. But from her staff, Sam Visnic is here, Sam. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. All right. A long list of dignitaries.

So here's what we're going to do today. We're going to have a few people speak, starting with the governor. And then because Senator Fischer, go ahead in advance. There we go. She couldn't be here. We have a video. She recorded video in D.C. just the other day, so we're going to show that video.

Then we have someone who also wanted to be here, could not and recorded a video yesterday in D.C. as well. That's the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., John Jovanovic. Many of you probably haven't heard from him or of him, he's new, but he plays a critical role in this project. He's going to talk a little bit about that in this video. And he has some unbelievably positive things to say. So I'm anxious to show that, and that's a great one. Now tonight, we will have Sarah Ricketts, who will be here in person. So those of you who really like the center, come on back and you can have turn with us as well. We appreciate that.

All right. And then after the speechifying, and they'll make it short. Then the management of now, corporate going to give you a short presentation about where we are with this project. Many of you know, we've been at this for 12, 13, 14 years. And I think the message that you're going to take away from this, not to spoil a surprise, is that we're there. And we anticipate, and I have forward-looking statements that I'll put behind this, but we anticipate that we're going to be able to start construction in 026 next year. After all this time, we're going to get there. And I grew up in my middle school years in Fall City. So I have a special desire to see this thing get online. We're going to get there. We can't wait to get going.

Then we're going to have Mark Smith, who I'm going introduce the second, our CEO and Chairman, is going to speak. We'll do this presentation. It will go pretty quickly, and then we're going to open it up to Q&A. There's nothing off limits. And generally, as those of you who have been to these events with us before now, we just keep going on the Q&A until everyone has their question answered. So I know we're a little late today, but if I stick around and please, more questions are better.

With that, let me introduce my boss, the one who is really the key core driver of this project more than any of us. He came on board with this more than any of us, who brought us all together. And he's the one that's going to get us over the finish line, Mark Smith.

Well, good afternoon, everybody. And what a crowd. This is our biggest town hall ever. That makes me happy, and I hope I make you happy today as well. Jim already stole my thunder, so I may as well just take the rest of the day off. But I'm going to tell you a little bit more about why this is going to happen, and it's going to start in 2026. So it's going to be an exciting time for the community, the changing times as well. This is a big project. We have just the unbelievable honor of having Governor Pillen here today. He has a special place in our heart because when he was elected, and he wasn't even in office yet, he went out of his way to come to a town hall here in Elk Creek 2 years ago. And I will not forget that, governor. That was very meaningful to us. And lo and behold, he's back here again today.

The governor understands how important this project is for the country, for the state of Nebraska, for the local citizens here. I can't thank the local citizens enough for how warm and cheerful, you all are every time we come here, we feel like it's home. And that's, I think, an important thing. That's part of our culture, part of our values as well. So thank you for the very warm welcome that you've all provided here. And without further ado, governor, I'd like to have you come up and take the stage.

Well, thank you, Mark. And just simply a gigantic congratulations to everybody in the room, 13 -- 12, 13, 14 years. First time that I had the privilege to be here and understand the potential and the impact of this project was 5 years ago about now and this calling happened and started coming across the extraordinary state of Nebraska. The one thing I want to say before I have a couple of things to talk about that you might not expect, but the one thing I think that's really important that I'd love asking everywhere I am. I have a suit and a tie on because I had the privilege to be at Offutt Air Force Base, be with Four-Star General Cotton, who has headed up the Strategic Global Nuclear Command for the last 3 years.

General Cotton and his team at Offutt Air Force Base were the people who put together the extraordinary command to make sure, make sure our foreign adversaries know who's in charge. They were the ones that put together the bombing to enable in Iran this last summer. I called General after that, and I said, "I'm so mad. I hear that they came from Missouri." he said, "Well, you know, our team right here in Nebraska is who put this extraordinary complicated." And it has put our adversaries on our heels for about the next 30 years. But with that, he has been in Command for 3 years, and it was a privilege to -- for everybody there to witness and say thank you for his extraordinary service. And now Admiral Correll will take over and what takes place at Offutt Air Force Base is extraordinary. But I think that lots of people have it all on the line or in this room. And I'd say nothing but congratulations.

But I think I'll share a moment a couple of days ago, where we recognized a couple of World War II veterans, and we've been recognizing World War II veterans this past year in Nebraska. We have 250. I think we're at about 175 of the 250, where we give a medallion and a certificate and simply say thank you, and let's keep the stories alive because of the greatest generation and what they did to stop the Nazis and the spread of what was going on 80 years ago.

Why is that so important? When we talk about our foreign adversaries. I think it's really, really important that #1 of 80 years ago, my father was a part of the generation and how it brought America together. And this project is so awesome, because of how it's bringing everybody together and that everybody understand what an incredible impact for security, what an incredible impact it has because we've been duped in the last 50 years in regards to doing business with China. China is a foreign adversary. They are foreign adversary. It's important everybody in this room knows what that means. That means they want to take us out. That means they are not friends.

I'm a believer that we need to do business with our friends, with our family members, with family-owned businesses. We need to do business. We have to stop buying c*** from China because it's a $0.05 cheaper. We've been duped in my lifetime. So I think it's really, really important that we recognize that. And we -- it's a full team approach, right? We're all working really, really hard. There's extraordinary opportunities in the say, Nebraska. And these critical minerals, I mean we don't -- this is one of the greatest deposits in the United States of America, and the impact it's going to do to make sure the critical minerals that we have them here, and we're not relying on foreign adversaries for [indiscernible].

Does everybody realize how big a deal that is? It's extraordinary. I get goosebumps talking about it. Want you to know we have another big project that has extraordinary potential to take place to be able to make polypropylene from corn ethanol in Nebraska. Won't be very far from this neck of the woods. This is a little project, only $7.5 billion. And I think it's important when we talk about those words, a lot of time, hey, we're extraordinary people, right? It's -- what do we love the most about Nebraska? Every time I've been off at Air Force Base and servicemen and women all over the country. And I say, what do you love the most about Nebraska that they can't get it out fast enough? The people, the people, the people, the people. And yet as Nebraskans, we don't ever come up with people because we're so humble, we think we're normal. It's important to recognize we are not normal. We are extraordinary people doing extraordinary things.

So why do I bring up making polypropylene from ethanol and a $7.5 billion because that's the only guess where we get our polypropylene? Of course, China. So these kinds of projects are incredibly, incredibly important. And then the other piece is just what's taken place in Nebraska in the last year. We've been working on it for 3 years but to be able to have the Tallgrass pipeline to be able to sequester carbon, connect our ethanol plants. The ethanol industry will be doubling in the state of Nebraska in the next 5 years. Working extraordinarily hard to bring businesses. We're open for business, growing our incredible economy, making sure that everybody in this room that has a business that you have the ability to grow your business and be able to attract great people to Nebraska to keep growing in the great life.

The pipeline, what that simply means is the goal, the vision for Nebraska agriculture is really simple. We want to make sure we don't put corn on barges anymore. Selling our commodities around the world is given the top soil away. By being able to process it, feed it, process it, utilize it here and selling those finished products around the world to our friends, not our foreign adversaries, is the greatest calling in future.

Maybe the other thing I wanted and then being able to sell our ethanol, our ethanol is the highest demand because it's the lowest carbon, it's a high demand. Some will say, I don't believe in that stuff. It really doesn't matter what we believe in. It's the market. It's an extraordinary market that can create extraordinary rural economic growth. So with the special minerals, and then, by the way, the new bioeconomy of all the things we'll be making from ethanol in Blair, Nebraska.

Some people would say $7 billion, that's too big, that's going to change. Well, go, take a look at Blair campus, the Cargill campus. So if that was built new today, that would be $7.5 billion. Columbus, Nebraska ADM plant, they -- my hometown, they process a lot of corn there. We'll be making aviation fuel from there in the coming years, again, because of sequestering carbons.

So -- and the ethanol business is 15 billion gallons. The aviation fuel market around the world will be 45 billion in the next -- 45 billion gallons in the next 10 years. So we're the epicenter of it because of all of us working together. And so I want to leave you with these 5 words about Nebraska.

The future for Nebraska on top of these critical minerals, right? Number one, it's the people. We all agree, right? It's the people. Number two, it's our water. Our Ogallala Aquifer is the largest, most sustainable underground aquifer in the western hemisphere, and we're going to keep it that way. We're putting still things in place to measurement. So we use every drop as preciously as we possibly can.

Number three, we're #1 in cattle. I was just on a call with Secretary Rollins and other governors. We are #1 in cattle. Move over Texas, you're #2, Texas, right? Isn't that a good thing? And then I think all of you -- hopefully, all of you saw, just a month ago, the Renewable Fuels Association of Iowa, had a deal and they put the white flag up and they said, we've led the ethanol industry for 25 years. We succeeded to Nebraska. Nebraska is #1 and our ethanol industry will grow. So we're not -- and then all the bio economy that takes place, that's worth a shout out for Nebraska and Nebraska producers.

So it's the people, it's the water, it's the food and it's the fuel and then lastly, the incredible importance of electricity. We are working on major projects for electricity. Some say pilings against data centers. I said time out on data centers. Three years ago right now, found out we didn't have enough electricity to keep the lights on, grow economy. So time out, time out. We've used 11.5% of our electricity on data centers.

Well, the hardcore reality is, we have to explode artificial intelligence. I've learned from General Cotton, how critical it is that we understand what's going on with our foreign adversaries. Just so everybody knows. Guess what Iran is doing. Guess what China is doing. Guess what Russia is doing, they're making electricity from coal. They're building electricity at warp speed rates. Why? They're really not too worried about their people using the electricity. They are creating extraordinary data, artificial intelligence that is operating at warp speed because what do you have with artificial intelligence? It's the future of who's going to be in command.

We, the United States of America cannot lose that. So we will be having extraordinary projects taking place in the next 5 years regarding power and electricity generation and playing an incredible role in artificial intelligence. There's incredible opportunities for this state, we the people of Nebraska to have phenomenal impacts on how we're feeding the world, how we're fueling the world, and then how we're saving the world because of what we can do with electricity and power.

I just can't commend everybody enough for coming together and being so incredibly supportive of this project because it's easy, right? All of us in rural Nebraska, we can kind of sometimes say, I don't want my fencepost moved. I'm against that. And it's really awesome to see this, your phenomenal new hall filled to the brim, and everybody here cheering and being together. I don't know about you, but I'm getting goosebumps when I think of all the people of Elk Creek being here celebrating the day, and the most extraordinary deposit in North America, it's going to soon be turning things out gigantic congratulations. Thanks for all you do for Nebraska. It's really cool. God bless. Thank you.

Well, I don't know about you, but I have goosebumps going up my back. I mean that was pretty good, Governor. Thank you very much. And that was, again, just what an honor to have the governor here to show the state level of support that we have for this project. The next person that we're going to be introducing on a video message instead of live, but he did want to be here live. He just couldn't make it, is the EXIM Chairman, John Jovanovic. Mr. Jovanovic is newly into his office, probably 2 or 3 months. He knows the NioCorp project. He knows the NioCorp people, and he was kind enough to take time out of his day yesterday to put this video message together. And I hope you'll join me in welcoming Chairman, John Jovanovic for this short video message.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm John Jovanovic, President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. I'm sorry, I can't be there with you in person today, but I do not want to miss the opportunity to highlight how much Elk Creek matters to EXIM and America's manufacturing future. I'd like to thank you, Governor Pillen, for your leadership and for headlining today's event. A big thank you to Senator Ricketts as well. Senator, thank you for all of your support of EXIM, for all of your guidance and advice along the way and for your friendship. Your commitment in Nebraska's workers and American manufacturing renaissance is amazing.

Nebraska and EXIM have a long history of working together. Over the past 10 years, EXIM is supporting more than 30 businesses across the state, big and small, with over $0.5 billion in financing. Helping local companies grow, strengthening supply chains, and supporting jobs from Chapman and Elk Creek, and we're not done. EXIM is committed to being a partner in Nebraska's manufacturers, farmers and innovators, not just today, but for the long haul.

The Elk Creek Minerals project is exactly the type of opportunity EXIM was always designed to support, advancing U.S. control over the critical minerals essential aircraft, automobiles, advanced manufacturing and our broad industrial base. Securing our supply chain is vital to our nation's economic security.

Thanks to President Trump's incredible leadership, EXIM is once again a frontline economic tool, strengthening our supply chains, empowering U.S. manufacturers, and ensuring our nation is never dependent on adversaries for resources to power our economy and the world. And that's why we're proud to support Elk Creek. This project means more good jobs in Nebraska, more opportunities for American workers and a stronger, more secure industrial feature for the United States. Thank you for including me today, to Governor Pillen, Senator Ricketts and the entire Elk Creek community. EXIM is proud to stand with you as you build Nebraska's future. Thank you.

So that's what caused the feeling in my back yesterday when we got to see that. That was a pretty strong message. And I hope it shows you the level of support that we're creating at the highest levels in government to get this project to the start of construction. So thank you, Chairman, Jovanovic.

Next, we'll hear from U.S. Senator, Deb Fischer through a prerecorded message as well. Senator Fischer has been a friend of NioCorp's for many, many years now. And every time that we go to Washington, D.C., she always has an open door, and she actually greet us personally when we go out to see her. There aren't many senators in the United States that do that. She is one, and you should be really proud of that. She is personally engaged in what she does. So with that, without further ado, let's have Senator Fischer give her remarks.

Thank you, And welcome to everyone gathered at Elk Creek's New Firehouse and Community Center. I'm sorry I can't be with you in person today. Bruce and I have many friends in Elk Creek, and we look forward to seeing you all very soon. I was delighted to hear about your official ribbon-cutting. This is an exciting milestone for the community, and I want to congratulate you on the successful community development effort. I can't wait to visit the facility myself. I also want to recognize the local leaders, community members and partners joining you today. People who continue to champion responsible economic development and job creation across Southeast Nebraska, your commitment is the reason communities like Elk Creek continue to grow and thrive.

As your United States Senator, one of my top priorities has always been strengthening economic growth, expanding opportunity and supporting Nebraska families and rural communities. And as we work to build a stronger economy, I've also focused on doing everything we can to safeguard our national security. These 2 missions, they go hand in hand. That's why I have strongly supported the Elk Creek project. This mine and processing facility represents a transformational investment in our state bringing hundreds of high-quality jobs, long-term economic activity and new opportunities for the region, all while helping diversify the tax base in Southeast Nebraska.

Just as importantly, the project will produce critical minerals that are essential to our national security. As a senior member of the Senate Arm Services Committee, I've worked hard to encourage onshoring and reshoring our critical mineral supply chains and resources, our economy and our military depend on. The Elk Creek project will play a vital role in advancing that effort across multiple minerals. I was proud to champion federal funding for NioCorp to accelerate this work and to help your team partner with Lockheed Martin on innovative technologies that use scandium to make our pilot safer, and our defense capabilities stronger.

I also want to acknowledge the collaboration that we've seen throughout this process between NioCorp landowners, local officials and residents. This project is a true partnership, and it reflects the best of how Nebraska gets things done.

Finally, to the entire NioCorp team, thank you for this award. I am honored to receive it, and I will display it proudly in my Washington office. I look forward to seeing many of you soon whether here in Nebraska or in our nation's capital, you are always, always welcome. I hope you have a productive and informative gathering today, and I look forward to the continued progress and success of this community in the years ahead. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Senator Fischer. That was a very meaningful presentation to all of us, and we've gotten to know her pretty well. She's a pretty fine lady. NioCorp created an award that's pretty special to our company. It's called the Michael J. Morris Memorial Award, and it is the highest honor that our company hands out to any individual.

Michael Morris was our Lead Director at the company, and he passed away in July of this year. And so we've created an award to recognize what Michael represents to everybody that he comes in contact with. He's an honest person. He has integrity and the one thing that you hear about wherever you talk to people that know him, they will tell you he improved their lives. Those are some pretty good qualities to have, and we wanted to recognize those types of qualities, and we couldn't think of a better person to recognize today than Senator Deb Fischer.

And we -- although she is not here to accept the award, she did accept it verbally. And we are very grateful to have an individual for her staff here today, Sam Visnick. And Sam, thank you for being here and accepting this is on behalf of Senator Fischer.

Okay. Now we get into the fun part. I thought that, that wasn't pretty fun already, but I hope you're getting the sense of momentum for this project because that's what we have right now. 2025 has been nothing less than a phenomenal year for NioCorp, and we are getting this close. And I hope you walk away from here today realizing that things are about to change and 2026 is going to be the year that it changes.

So in terms of just some things that we've accomplished, you can see them all up here. I won't bore you with going through all of these things, but the point that I like to think about is how many things have to be done to get a project like this up and going. The permitting, which the state has been phenomenal about they review our stuff, our applications very thoroughly, they protect the environment. We're happy to comply with that, but to get their job done as well.

So in Nebraska, we have all our permits in hand that we need to start construction. There's hardly a mine in the United States that can say that they have their permits in hand to start construction right now. And that's my compliments to the state of Nebraska, phenomenal.

We've got a long ways down the road in terms of financing. That's the big key right now. EXIM Bank is ready to move. They need a couple of technical things for us. Scott will go through those technical things that we're working on, but they're all right in vision right now, doing some drilling that we did this year. All of that is just about ready to wrap up, giving an update on the feasibility study because Scott improved the metallurgy so much. We had to change our engineering on that.

All these things are coming to a head, probably in the first quarter of 2026, that's the information EXIM needs to make their final decision on this project, and then we're going to get that loan from EXIM. That's going to be a $780 million loan from EXIM to support this project. And we've got a $1.2 billion capital estimate for this project, so we still need to raise a little bit more above that $780 million. And that's where this year has been even more exciting because we've actually raised over $360 million of that $420 million that we need. So we are that close right now. And believe me, we are out, Scott and I, for 3 weeks, have been on the road, continuing to do the fundraising. In the last 3 weeks, we've been to London, to Dubai to London and then Omaha. And we're going to get right on the plane again next week and have at it again because we're that close.

We're going to get this project up and going. 2026 is going to be our year, it's going to be your year. So we're very excited about that. Here, you can see some facts and figures on that, the $374 million that we brought into the company this year and just a little bit more to go, and we're there, but it's very doable at this point in time. And you might imagine what's going to happen when we're able to announce the binding deal with EXIM. It might even be easier to raise money at that point. So this is all right in our grip right now, and we're going to get this project where it needs to go.

So I think our next speaker is going to be Scott Honan, and he's going to give you a little bit more detail and granularity on all of the technical work that we've been doing to get over the line on this EXIM loan. And Scott's been doing a great job.

So let me introduce Scott Honan, our Chief Operating Officer.

Thanks very much. Need my milk crate here. I just -- I'm really gratified to see such a fantastic turnout here today to this event. I can't help, but reflect to a similar event that we had about 10 years ago in 2015. It was in June. It was in the old fire hall. It was a little bit warm that day. I think we only had to stop 3x for trains, and here we are in what is a first-class facility. Congrats to the -- to Elk Creek for getting this fantastic facility built and I can't help but think of all the time and effort that went into getting this facility built. It feels a lot like what we're trying to do with our Elk Creek project.

I wanted to start out today just by reflecting on some of the things that we've done here in 2025 and give you a preview of what you're going to see in 2026. And this first picture is just a picture of our land acquisitions here to date in 2025. We now own a whole section of land. I'm very happy that we have a very simple land description now is just Section 33.

And again, I'm reflecting back on my long tenure with this project working with the folks here that own the land, getting agreements. I'm sure that many of the folks that we work with thought that those agreements would never result in where we're at today, where we've actually acquired the land we need to build and operate the project. But that's -- it's a big milestone. And our company can't be successful without that relationship with the community, without that support and certainly without the ability to put a land package together that lets us build our project.

I'm sure most folks in the area noticed the drillers and the drilling and the geologic teams that we're in the area from April through about October of this year. Most of that effort was focused on getting some information for the U.S. Export-Import Bank. And the bank, as Mark mentioned, is getting ready to put a loan together for us. But for us to get that loan, we had to do what's known as an infill drilling program. They wanted us to demonstrate a higher level of confidence in what sits underground, underneath our land position, and so really, you can think of this program that we did this year as drilling in between holes that were already drilled and just sort of increasing the statistical confidence in the underground resource.

We should be getting what we are getting very close to getting all of the information back from the various labs we use that come out of this drilling program and recalculating our mineral resource and recalculating our new mineral reserve and putting together a new mine plan.

But in putting this together, we drilled something like 11,400 meters of drill core. That's about roughly speaking, 7 miles, roughly the distance from here to Tecumseh if you were to lay it out end-to-end. So that's quite a bit of drilling. And just looking at the results as they've been coming in, I'm very encouraged by what we see. I think we're going to have a very good result here, and we're going to make the bank very happy with what we're going to be able to put together in terms of a report.

At the same time, and as we've done many times in the past, we have not only focused on getting information for the resource and the reserve and how much is underground, but we've integrated other things into that program so that we understand a lot about the hydrogeology or the water that we're going to encounter on the ground. We also did a bunch of geomechanical work so we can make sure that when we build the mine, the mine will be safe and stable for everyone that's going to work there.

What goes along with all this work in the field is really a whole bunch of work in engineering offices. And as Mark mentioned, we're working on an update to our existing feasibility study for the project. This is a very important tool for financing because it really gives people that we're talking in the finance context about all the information they need to understand what the economics are, how much revenue the project is going to generate? How quickly we'll be able to pay a loan back, et cetera. And I just wanted to highlight a few features of the changes that we've made to our project to make it better than the previous version.

The first thing we've done here is we've previously -- we're going to access the mine with 2 vertical shafts, and those shafts are very expensive pieces of hardware to put in. We've replaced those shafts with ramps. So we'll have twin ramps going down into the ground in a corkscrew-type fashion, very similar to what they have just up the road at the Weeping Water Mine. This is a more economical way to access the mine and should allow us to get underground quicker and get to the resource and start mining faster, which is very important. The other features you see here are the left-hand side of the slide, you can see a reference to Railveyor. Railveyor is the way we're going to get the rock out of the mine to the surface plant. And it's -- we'll show a picture in a minute here. It really looks like a combination of a conveyor and amusement park ride. It's a little train that runs up and brings the ore from the underground to the surface where we can put it in our plant and make our products.

Along with that, we've got some stockpiles. We've got our production plants, which we've had previously. And I wanted to highlight that for the folks that live in the area, we've designed our project to have the main entrance coming in from 721 Road to get the traffic off of Highway 50 and just make things a little bit better for the local road system here.

This is a picture of what the mine is going to look like. If you were to slice down the center of the earth and look at it from the side. So those purple lines are these ramps or declines as we sometimes call them, they're going to start at surface. They're going to stake underground. One of those ramps is going to have the railway system in it, which will take the rock out of the mine and back to surface.

Just to put those little boxes in perspective, each of those little colored boxes, they're blue and green in this picture. Each of those boxes is going to be about 120 feet high, 45 feet wide and anywhere from 50 to 300 feet long. So this is a very big middle resource. Once this operation is established, it's going to run for a very long time. I wanted to speak as well about some early works that you're going to see here next year. And the first thing is some improvements to the junction of Highway 50 and 62. So as I mentioned, our plan for the project is to bring the traffic off of Highway 50 onto the County Road and have all of the traffic come into our project site from the north.

To make that efficient, we did a traffic study and the traffic study recommended to improve that junction and basically to put turning lanes from the northbound side and from the southbound side to help manage that traffic load. And the other thing we're going to do is we're going to pave the 721 County Road from Highway 50 all the way to our entrance. I think this is -- again, it's -- this is important for the community because it helps us manage traffic and this is a project that NioCorp will be paying for, but we could not do this without the help and the support of Johnson County. And I want to recognize Chairman Borrenpohl for his leadership on this project. This project was just approved by the county this past Tuesday, if I remember right. I'd also like to thank Matt Chart, the road superintendent and Jennifer Stehlik Ladman, the County Attorney for their help in helping us get this project to fruition.

So it's going to get built. We should get that done. We're going to try and get it done as early as possible next year. And we'll be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of this road for as long as it's in place. I'm very excited to get that one off the ground. The other thing that you're going to see here starting in 2026 is a project that's going to be really the initiation of our underground mine. We really think that in terms of getting our mine from where we are today to production, the critical path, the path that will take the longest to do is to get the mine established and to get the mine producing.

So what you're going to see is the excavation of what we call a portal. The portal is going to be basically a hole on the ground about 9 acres in size. And into that excavation, we're going to run 2 ramps, which will be the start of the ramps that go into the underground mine. In doing so, we'll be excavating a lot of dirt, as well as drilling and blasting, some of the limestone that sits underneath the dirt. We'll use those materials around the site, particularly the limestone will crush that up and use it for road base.

In addition, we're going to have some laydown areas in a road. And I really should recognize our friends from Ghana here today. Ghana is based about 40 minutes away from us here. And again, it will be the company that will be doing the vast majority of this work. So folks, thanks for coming, and thanks for your help with this.

And I think the last thing I have is just a picture of what the Railveyor looks like. So this is what's known as the discharge end of the Railveyor. It really looks like a series of culvert sections. They get pushed along on a rail by some rubber tires. It's really cost effective. It's really sturdy equipment and it's really a cost-effective way to move a bunch of material out of our mine. And at the same time, it reflects, I think, some of the impetus that we put in to continually improving our process because in addition to putting in this Railveyor system, we're completely electrifying our mine operations.

If I was to give this presentation, say, 10 years ago, I would say that all of the equipment in the mine would be diesel-powered. But now it's all going to be electric, battery electric operation and electric operation of the Railveyor. So this is a recurring theme for us. It's taken us a little bit of time to get to this point, but we've been fairly relentless in trying to make the project better, reduce the impacts, trying to get to production quicker, and just make it overall better or more financeable project to get off the ground.

So thank you for your attention. And I guess I'll turn it over to Jim or to Tony.

I've gotten to know Scott Honan in the past several years, and we're really fortunate to have a fellow like that. So thanks for being on this team, Scott. He's great.

All right. So I'm Tony Fulton. I was born and raised in Auburn, Nebraska. Don't hold that against me. I got in trouble with some -- I see some faces out there in the crowd that I've got in some trouble with when I was in high school. So I've got a slide here. We are going to show that slide? Okay. I'm going to touch on that. But before I do, I was -- before I was a Tax Commissioner of Nebraska, so I'm not the Tax commissioner anymore, but before I did that, I was in the legislature. And I started in the legislature with Elk Creek's very own Lavon Heidemann. Now, Lavon, I'm just going to apologize in advance. This is a story that I wrote down back when I was a senator in 2012.

And I wrote all this stuff down because I just knew that someday I was going to forget what happened when I was a senator, and Senator Hallstrom, it's my advice to you, write stuff down because as the years go on, we forget. I'm 53 now, some would call it, my kids would call that old. I've been told I'm still a pop, but I can tell you, that things start to fade in our memories. And so I wrote this down. And before I headed out the door this morning, so I'm up in Lincoln. And before I drove out to come here, I went back to my computer, and I printed this out. So I wrote this back in 2012. I just had to share it with you. Sorry, Lavon.

So a couple of years back, and at this point now, it's like 15 years back, or maybe more. This is 2007, 2008. Lavon and I were at a disagreement on funding some program within one of the agencies of government. And he was lobbying me to support his proposal. I was being stubborn, and I said, Lavon, I just can't do it. It's just the principle of the thing. I don't even remember what the issue was now. Without missing a beat, without cracking a smile, he looked at me straight in the eye and he said, Tony Fulton, this is no time to stand on principle. And needless to say, you remember it. Yes, he does remember it. He's lying. So that was quite a while back. It was about 2012, 2013.

After I left the legislature, my kids and I heard about this group at the time it was called Quantum. Quantum Rare Earth was the name of the company. And being from Auburn, being from Southeast Nebraska, understanding the value of these minerals, these magic rocks under the ground. This when I was growing up, that's what I knew about Elk Creek because they had these magic rocks under the ground.

It was right around 2013 when my kids and I started to buy shares of this company, Quantum. And of course, they're a lot cheaper back then, but I just had this desire to put a little bit of our blood, sweat and tears into something meaningful for Southeast Nebraska, for Nebraska, of course, but also for our country. And if I'm being honest about it, I really wanted to teach my kids that you can do something, you can make a difference. And that's really what started us off in NioCorp. I started buying shares way back when.

Long story short, I bought enough shares with they had to kind of pay attention and I eventually got invited to the Board and about the same time that Mark Smith got invited to the Board. And so I served on the Board for a period of time and a friend of mine, got elected governor from Auburn, so the Ricketts family there from Nebraska City when Pete was the governor, he asked me to serve as tax commissioner.

And so grudgingly okay, all right, but it really was an honor to serve as the tax commissioner. And it's one of these things that I'm not a big fan of taxes, but we need them and they need to be done right. And so I serve my time and then I handed it off to the next guy and that's really what I believe about public service, especially in Nebraska.

So what that meant is that I was free to pursue other things. And so I've got a bunch of different businesses that I work with, a lot of inventions I'm working on and just trying to teach my kids how they can make a little difference in life. And I was fortunate to get asked to rejoin the Board of NioCorp. And so that was, I think, in August or so, some time. So I'm proud to say that I'm a part of the NioCorp family. This -- we've heard some of these numbers before. But Jim asked that I share them with you again. It's just jaw-dropping when you think about it, born and raised in Auburn, Nebraska. These are not the types of things that I was dreaming about, but yes, here we are. The number of full-time permanent jobs, 450, and that's a pretty big city in Nebraska. That's a lot of people. So I know we're in for a change, but it's just jaw-dropping to think about this.

The indirect jobs that are created. We're talking about teachers and people who will work in our grocery store and whatever else is going to happen when this project comes to fruition. It's over 2,000. These are all going to be men and women who have kids and maybe they'll buy stock in some small company in the same way that I did way back when. The number of construction jobs at peak 1,200, the accumulating -- cumulative operating expenses over the project life, and this includes salaries that are going to be paid to working families. It's $3.4 billion with a B. This is jaw dropping. I heard it said that if you take a dollar bill and every second, you laid down another dollar bill 1 1,000; 2, 1,000; 3, 1,000 something like 30 years before you got to 1 trillion or no, before you got to 1 trillion. That's a lot of money.

So $1 billion, you can do the math on what $1 billion is that's going to change a lot of lives. The tax revenue, that was important when I was the tax commission or when I was in the legislature, tax revenue, to local entities, because of this project, there will be $600 million more flowing into local and state entities. And then that last one, royalties paid to Nebraska land owners over project life. Well, those are Southeast Nebraska landowners, Johnson and Pawnee County, that's some of you. $300 million. It's just jaw dropping. So I know I've heard and like you, I've heard these numbers. I've heard them said, but oftentimes, they just kind of fly over our heads. We really should stop to think about how really important this project is for livelihoods of our children and our children's children and maybe -- and probably people we haven't even met yet.

So I'm going to close with this. Our President, his mantra is to make America great again. And as I was driving down here, I've taken this route a gazillion times, it's just a beautiful drive, and I hope never to take that for granted, but it just struck me that this greatness of America that we're trying to revisit or that we already are great, and we're going to be better. It is the great -- I heard it said that it is -- America is great because America is good. I think it was something that Tocqueville said someone said long ago about the United States. America is great because America is good. And I just think that, that is a perfect analogy for what Elk Creek will give to America.

We're trying to make America great again. And one of the things -- some of the things you're going to need are these critical minerals. And so that contribution to America's greatness came from America's goodness. I just think it's something that we should never take for granted. So I look forward to 2026, God bless all of you guys, and I think we're going to do a little Q&A now.

I think he'd run for office. What do you think? He's just a tremendous speaker. Great job, Tony. I had just a couple of things I wanted to point out before we'll open it up for questions. The first one is you see these 4 posters that are kind of behind the team. And those are the products that we'll be producing here in Southeast Nebraska.

So let's start with niobium first. We are the only niobium development project in the United States today. We import 100% of the niobium we need today, and we're going to take care of that problem. We're going to onshore that problem right here in Southeast Nebraska.

Scandium. We import 100% of the scandium we use in this country today. We're going to take care of that. And in fact, I've made the statement before, and I'm going to make it again. Nebraska is going to become the Saudi Arabia of scandium because we're going to produce 5x what the world has out there today. And there are uses for this material. We've been having press releases on partnerships with Lockheed. We've made an announcement on putting in a new part of the supply chain. We made an acquisition that we reported on yesterday. We are going to be the scandium kings, but remember, we import 100% of that today.

Titanium were a little bit better. We only import 85% of what we need to this country for that mineral. That needs to be taken care of. And then finally, the magnetic rare earth, everybody has heard about rare earth now. Donald Trump doesn't go anywhere over in Asia without talking about rare earth and he gets quoted a lot on this. But we import about 98% of one of the magnetic rare earth products that we're going to make into the country today, and we import 100% of the other 2 that we make today. So this is going to be an important mine for the entire country, and it does allow us to onshore these activities and bring it back to America. And I hope you're going to be as proud as we are at the end of the day, because it's going to come from Southeast Nebraska. So that's pretty important, I think.

And then can we get the scandium supply chain up there? We made an announcement yesterday about the acquisition of some intellectual property and some assets from a company called FEA Materials. FEA Materials has the ability and the technology to take scandium oxide and put it into a process that then makes what's called a master alloy. And you can see here, okay. So we'll do the scandium mining here in Nebraska. We'll make the scandium oxide here in Nebraska. And then we have 2 routes that we can go, scandium metal or scandium master alloy.

And historically, you couldn't take the scandium master alloy directly on its own, okay. You had to make the metal and then you could make the master alloy, but the technology that we purchased yesterday allows us to go straight from scandium oxide to scandium master alloy that saves probably 30%, 40% on the production cost for that material that allows more people to want to use this material. So this is about as exciting as life gets right now in the scandium world, you think it's really exciting in the scandium world, don't you? I think, it's really exciting.

And then as everybody knows, because we issued another press release on this, we have a company here in the United States, and I can take that master alloy and make the final alloy that goes into all these parts that the United States government is going to need, Lockheed is going to need, the Navy is going to need. The aerospace industry is going to need, it's all going to come from right here. This is going to be like an unbelievable opportunity for this area of the country, and you're going to be the Saudi Arabia of scandium. I think that's pretty cool.

So with that team, team, let me introduce -- I won't introduce here, but have all the NioCorp team stand up and wave your hand a little bit, and you'll notice the team is getting bigger. There's one guy back there. Some people know, he hides a lot, but the team is getting bigger. We've more than doubled the size of our staff in the company in the last 3 to 4 months, and I think we need to double it again, and then we're going to need to double it again. Things are happening in this company, and you're going to see 2026 be a really, really good year for NioCorp and for the Southeast Nebraska community.

So some of you here might remember, I still remember it quite vividly. President Reagan was over in Germany at one point in his career, and he said something about tear this wall down. Well, I used to remember that very vividly. And what I want to say to you is, let's build this project.

Okay. I think we're going to open it up to questions. And again, anything is open for a question, and we won't leave until every question is answered. We've got mics kind of all around. Sir?

In regards to the current import agreements, will those go to 0? And what's like the time frame once you start producing here? Maybe talk to -- about the current import agreements that we have and also the take-off agreements, and maybe the value and how those are priced as you get into full production here?

Okay. So I will try to answer that. That's a big, big question, by the way. And it's like -- is my mic on? Just going to get it closer. Okay. Sorry about that. You're asking about offtake agreements basically. And will this project -- I think you're asking, will it eliminate imports? And I don't know if it will eliminate imports or not in their entirety, but I can tell you that the scandium today is basically made in China, and they are not exporting scandium today. So we'll take that for what it's worth. I have no idea when they're going to open that channel up again and let the world have scandium.

And then the far right, those rare earths, 2 of them, dysprosium and terbium, called heavy rare earth. Those heavy rare earths are also restricted by the Chinese right now. And so those are not being imported by anybody. Nobody can buy them right now. And so this is an area that we can take care of. We won't produce enough of these to solve all of America's problems. So we're rooting for other rare earth producers, other -- I mean we need more and more of these minerals, but it's a heck of a good start.

And right now, when China says no more exports to these minerals. What do we do? We have none of this in the United States right now. We can't do anything about it. How you would typically handle it is stockpile it and trying to make sure you've got some for a period of time. You can't stockpile something that you can't buy. So we've got to get this mine up and running. We've been advocating this for 20 or 30 years in the government, they get it, they absolutely get it. And you're going to see more and more involved in there. So hopefully, that answered things.

Yes. The offtake agreements, as we call them. As everybody knows, we've got 75% of our niobium already spoken for in enforceable contracts. We've got 12 tonnes per year of scandium. We've got multiple discussions going on with different parties about the offtake for the remainder of our production. And we've got different strategies and different avenues that we're pursuing, and this is all going to boil down to time right now.

We've got interested parties. We've been trying to get the best deals possible. It's going to be about time right now because EXIM wanted this technical work done, Scott is doing a great job. That's going to be done first quarter of 2026. EXIM wanted to make sure we could raise money. We showed them how we can raise money in 2025. Those two issues are really pretty well satisfied by EXIM. The last one is the offtake agreements. And so we are going to not necessarily take the best deal at the end of the day. We'll do -- get the best deal we can, but we won't offtake in place because they will have to have those offtake agreements in place to support the loan.

So we're going to finalize these. You'll see more announcements on this coming up. There's one party that we're talking to about offtake that might not surprise anyone that would be Lockheed. Lockheed has a new scandium technology that they've developed, and we've got an offtake agreement in front of them. So we'll see what they say.

Mark, next question back here. Roger? Put it close.

As planned, at one time, you were going to do a lot of processing at the site. And I think the new plan is you do a lot of preprocessing, et cetera. Is that correct? And has that changed the overall cost, the capital cost to do that way?

Great question. Thank you. And nothing is going to change in terms of the aboveground facility. We will be making high-purity oxides for sale just like we always were, Scott's got a better way to do some of that. So that's why we're having to update our feasibility study, but we're still making high-purity oxides at the site, and they will be made here in Nebraska. The part that probably seems like it's a little bit different is we're actually looking at supply chains for these minerals and how far do we need to go down the supply chain to make sure that supply chain exists in the United States.

All of that scandium supply chain I showed you doesn't exist in the United States. So we're going to put everything together that we need to, to make sure that whole supply chain is here in the United States, and some of that processing might take place in a different state that all the oxides will be produced here in Nebraska. Hopefully, that helped.

Mark, we've got a question from someone in the back that she asked me to ask. I'll get you next. And that is, can you talk about the radioactive content of the ore and how that all works?

Sure. And Scott, you might want to come up here and he'll have the details down a lot better than I do. We do have uranium and thorium in the ore body, every rare earth ore body has those constituents in it. We have very, very low levels of these materials. And these levels are low enough that they don't take any federal licensing through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It's exempt because they're so low in quantity. Scott, I'll have you talk about what happens as we go through the process and where those go.

Yes. Certainly, Mark. I think as Mark said, there's low levels of uranium and thorium in our ore. There's low levels of uranium and thorium in the dirt in your backyard. And the question is, is this something anyone should be concerned about? And the short answer is no, but I'll give you some numbers that I hope you'll find reassuring. I live in Denver, Colorado most of the time and I get a radiation dose because I live there, high elevation. So typically, someone who lives in Denver gets 300 to 500 milligrams of dose a year. Those numbers are abstract and they're hard to talk about, but to put those numbers in perspective, if you work at a facility anywhere in the United States and you're exposed to radiation, the dose that you're allowed to get over the course of the year is about 5,000 milligrams. So roughly about 10x the dose that I get just sitting in my office in Denver.

To further put this in perspective, I can point in this room to the person who's got the biggest radiation dose so far in 2025, and it's this guy here. Because flying in an airplane at 35,000 feet, there's a lot less atmosphere between you and radiation from space. So this guy is getting about 1 milligram an hour sitting on United Airlines seat 1A. He looks pretty healthy, too, by the way.

I'll give you one other data point, and again, I hope all this is helpful. I worked at a facility in California for many years. That is very similar geologically to what we have here in Nebraska, a carbonatite ore body, low levels of uranium and thorium, actually a very, very old plant there. And we were compelled by the State of California to monitor at one point all of our employees. At that time, we had about 1,200 employees on the monitoring program. And as I mentioned, the occupational limit for dose is 5,000 milligrams. So it's up here.

When we monitored all those people, and we monitored them for about a year, the average dose was about 4 milligram. So it's probably a little bit less than what you get when you go to the dentist and get a dental X-ray. So yes, it's there. Yes, we will monitor and measure it. Yes, we'll be very responsible. We'll comply with our license requirements from the State of Nebraska. But no, nobody in this room should be concerned about the fact that there is some uranium and thorium in the ore.

Thanks, Scott. I think I'm supposed to be happy with that. But I want to emphasize something that Scott just said. We will have dosimeters on all of our employees, every visitor that comes in there because radioactivity is a complex issue to talk about in the public. I think facts are what you want to use to talk about radioactivity, not emotions. And so we use dosimeter data to show that everybody that works on that site is safe. And if they're not, we will stop operations and we'll figure out what's going on.

But given everything we know, you're going to have even lower than 4 micrograms per year on anything we measure out here at this plant. But keep us -- hold us responsible for that because that's a -- radioactivity is a tough issue to talk about. But we're happy to talk about it.

Mark, we have a question over here.

Yes, sir. I'm interested in knowing -- is this on?

Yes.

Okay. I am interested in knowing what effect might be involved with [ Apex ] Precious Metals and having acquired some of the property around your area. Also, I think the same engineer has been quoted as studying some of the materials for them as for you. What relationship is there?

The relationship is that the owner of the geologic firm that we use, Dahrouge. The owner of that firm is part of that partnership that's out there doing things that are uncommon in our industry, and it's rather irritating more than anything else. There is a reason why we took the 1 square mile that we own now. And we're not interested in what they're interested in, and they have no idea what they're interested in.

This activity happens in the mining industry, the oil and gas industry as well, by the way, where you get something successful and then you have all of the -- I want to use the right word here. I was going to say scavengers but I don't want to say scavengers. So something like that. And they're trying to force us into buying that from them or whatever. Just be careful with these folks. They don't have the same value system that we have. Just be careful. There is a reason why we're not interested in what they're interested in.

Question here, Catherine?

We have one question over here first, Mark.

There was two questions. One at the table here was about the water. Do you recycle it? Or do you have to have fresh water wells to supply the processing?

The answer is yes and yes. And Scott, I'm going to have you come back up to make sure you go through all the details on this. We will be recycling water to the maximum extent possible, including treating processed water and then reusing it in the system. So we respect water here in Nebraska and want to make sure that we handle it as preciously as you do. And then we will need some amount of freshwater to supplement what we need in the process. And then we will also get some water from the underground mine as well that we will treat and utilize in the process. But the idea is utilize as little water as possible and recycle everything to the maximum extent. Do you want to add anything more to that, Scott?

Well, since you give me a chance, Mark, I will. I tend to think of these things in very much engineering terms. And as Mark said, we're going to have a closed-loop system when it comes to water. So there's going to be water that comes out of our production process. There's going to be water that comes out of the underground mine. We capture all of that, we treat it and we reuse it. So it's a closed-loop system.

But having said that, there are places where we are going to lose water and really a few places where that is very apparent. The first is in some parts of our process, we're going to have cooling towers, cooling towers evaporate water, so that's a loss. The second thing is in terms of what comes out of our plant, our waste materials, we'll take that and we'll mix it with cement and fly ash and we'll pump it back underground into the voids that we create by mining. But to make it pumpable, it has to have a certain amount of water, and that water is water that is lost to us. And finally, we'll have some surface impoundments and we'll lose some water in those surface impoundments.

So really, what we're doing is we have to bring some freshwater in to replace the water that's otherwise lost to those three sources. Otherwise, it's all closed loop, and a fairly big part of our capital cost for the project is the systems for recovering, treating and recycling water.

Okay. The other part of that -- I had two questions there. The other one is, are you working with the electric company to give them enough lead time to be able to get you power when you want it?

Another very, very astute question, thank you. And the answer is absolutely. That's one of our critical issues in front of us right now. And we're actually meeting with OPPD once a week to make sure that we're on top of this and we get the power to the site that we need. We need construction power and we need operating power ultimately. And so it is complicated because these are big power needs that we have, but we are meeting with them weekly right now. In fact, we met with them twice this week.

So we're on it. And as soon as we have final arrangements made, we will report that out. Governor Pillen, as we're sitting over there asked me, because he's a little bit passionate about power, and he asked me how are things with you guys in power? And I said, I would really appreciate 5 to 10 minutes of your time maybe next week to talk through this because OPPD has a lot of hard decisions they have to make right now.

But I will tell you that they have been remarkable to work with. Their executive management team is showing creativity, ingenuity. They really want to make sure they provide the power to this plant. But there's a lot of discussions going on right now.

Mark, a question from the back room. And since there's so much metal here, the reception is not good, so I'm going to pass it on to you guys. They say they know us as NioCorp. But out here, a lot of folks see Elk Creek Resources Corporation. What's the relationship?

Very good question. We deal with this stuff every day. So it's just -- it's second nature to us. NioCorp is what we call the parent company. That's the publicly traded company. So we're on the Nasdaq, ticker symbol NB. Almost everybody in this room knows that, of course, because we have a lot of very good shareholders in this room. Elk Creek Resources is a wholly owned subsidiary of NioCorp. But it's a 100% U.S. company, NioCorp. And this is what we got when we came to the company, it's actually a Canadian company. And so we wanted to make sure we had something here in the U.S. with a U.S. incorporation and that's what Elk Creek Resources is.

I think further to that, if you're doing business with us here in the State of Nebraska, the contract is with Elk Creek Resources. So it's the vehicle for our project execution. For those of you who have land agreements with us, that's Elk Creek Resources as well.

Mark, we have a question over here.

Have you already purchased all the mining and aggregate equipment to do the project, conveyors, crushers, screening, washing, things like that?

No.

When will you be open to bidding and who do we talk to about that?

Here's the guy you're going to talk to you about that, Scott. I would imagine probably sometime after we reach what's called FID, or final investment decision, which means as soon as we have a binding loan agreement from EXIM and we finalize the remaining equity financing or fundraising, then we're going to want to go. And then we're going to wish we would have started earlier, by the way.

Mark, another question over at the table.

One thing to add there.

Since I'm up here, I think a lot of people ask us similar questions. How can I get in the bidders list, et cetera. And I think it just bears speaking a little bit to how we're going to execute the project because we're a company of 15 right now and we're going to be doing a $1.2 billion project. And we can't hire the hundreds of people needed to execute on a project of that size as quick as we need to. So the way you do that is you hire what we call EPC firms, or engineering, procurement and construction firms.

In our case, there'll be two of those firms, one for the underground and one for the surface. The firms are Dumas for the underground and Zachry for the surface. And the EPC model is just what it says. You hire those firms to do the detailed design. They do procurement and they do the construction all under one roof. So for those folks who are interested in that side of the business, I think it's important to get to know our two contractors because they'll be doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us when it comes to the procurement side of our project.

Two questions. First one is once you start groundbreaking, what is the estimated timeline to actual production? The second is, I recall from a previous town hall, you talked about when you were on the shaft system that you would not be able to dig deeper to get a size estimate of truly how big this thing is, right? And so you got down deep enough because it was cost prohibitive to drill from the surface. So any update on that with the new system of ramps versus the shafts going in?

The second part remains the same because we just -- to put a drill in the ground and to send it down there 3,000 feet, the first couple of feet are pretty cheap. So you get down to 3,000 feet, that's expensive drilling. So we actually want to get the mine development down to 3,000 feet, then we'll start drilling again. But we have not found the bottom of this ore body yet. And it goes out to the Northwest and it goes down to the Southeast as well.

There is, I think, on the back table, is it still there, Catherine, the ore body? Okay. Let's put it out there as everybody walks out. We actually have a 3D rendering of this ore body. And we've set it up so it's sitting there rotating. And there's two little pieces of white plastics sitting beneath that, that are to scale versus our ore body. One of them is the Empire State Building and the other one is the capital for the state of Nebraska, which has the highest known, I guess, so far, that's changing in Omaha now, but it used to be the tallest building in Nebraska. Take a look at the scale of that State Capital Building and the Empire State Building versus our ore body and tell me that we shouldn't be pretty proud about how big this ore body is.

So a follow-up to that then also. Would you estimate that -- I think I heard 30-some-odd years for the original life of the mine. Is it possible to be doubling that span?

Yes. I would be remiss if I said doubling because it's not nearly enough. Remember that geology is one of those kind of weird sciences. And so you have reserves, and our 38-year mine life is based on reserves. But then you have what's called the resource, which is what the geologists go out and find. The mining engineers are the ones that determine what to reserve and what's not. But our geologists have found well over 300 million tonnes of mineral containing ore in the ground. And we're talking about doing 36 million tonnes of those as part of our 38-year mine life. So I hope you like us because we're going to be around here for a long time. I mean, this could be 300, 400 years.

So back to the first question, from start of construction to production.

Three years. Although trust me, I'm talking to Scott every day about how much faster we can get that done, but having joked around about that a little bit. One of the things that Scott and I have a great track record for is safety on site during operations and construction. So we're going to do this very safely. And I always have another saying that I always remember. It seems like we always have enough time to do things right the second time. We'd much rather do it right the first time. So we're going to look at quality and safety to make sure we do it right.

Over here.

Mark, in addition to the $780 million in debt financing from EXIM, do you have an estimate on how much additional capital funding you need to raise? And in what form, would that be equity offerings, convertible debt?

Yes. Again, a fantastic question because project financing is much more than just taking the $1.2 billion estimate, subtracting $780 million for EXIM and ending up with $420 million. Because I'll tell you that EXIM is going to want what they call debt service reserve accounts that will have to be fully funded with cash. They're going to want contingency fees. It will have to be fully funded with cash or some other instrument. They're going to want cost overrun facilities.

So there's going to be more money, more cash required than just that simple math that we go through. I don't know what that's going to be yet. In fact, I'll take the opportunity, where are our JPMorgan participants here today? There they are right back here. JPMorgan is our adviser for the EXIM loan process. Fabulous, fabulous, really smart people that we get to deal with. And we're talking about those issues right now. So we have a good idea as to how much more money above the $420 million we have to raise.

In terms of what form that takes, the one thing I've learned after 44 years of being in the business, you take whatever form the market will give you, number one. But right now, equity is the kind of preferred way that investors are coming into companies. And that's why we've raised over $360 million in equity raises in 2025. Having said that, because I'm an engineer and an attorney, so I get to speak out of both sides of my mouth, there is that feature that you just mentioned, which is convertible debt. And I've been adamantly opposed to convertible debt because we had so much on our balance sheet for so long. And in February of 2025, we paid off all of our debt and we paid off all of our convertible debt.

And you wouldn't have seen me that happy for a long time. But the convertible debt market has changed now and it's almost an unbelievable place to raise money. So I'm going to be open-minded about it. And what we ultimately want to do as a company is get the lowest cost capital to build this project. That's our goal. And so we'll analyze all these different ways to do it. But my message to everybody here is that market is unbelievable right now for equity and convertible debt. Maybe it's some combination, I don't know. We'll find out. The capital forms -- when capital is ready to form, we know that.

So the question here was what about dilution? And again, good question because for quite a while, I was the largest shareholder. But because of dilution, I'm no longer the largest shareholder. So I worry about this as well. And one of the charts that we have, I think it's on one of our -- I think it's the investor deck on our website, and I'd encourage you to take a look at that. We have a listing on the left hand of the slide that shows all the capital raises we did for this year. And then there is a very confusing chart on the right-hand side.

But what that chart says is that each and every one of the fundraisings, and we did 6 of them in 2025 so far, each and every one of those fundraisings, we raised more money, we did it at a higher share price and we did it at a lower discount, which means we care about shareholders and we're trying to get the best deal possible. But I've always said and I would still say, there's going to be dilution by definition. But I sure like my share value today versus my ownership value before I was diluted. It's about value.

One more for you, Mark. Recently, you had an announcement regarding limited duration rights. I'm curious around the timing and strategy of those limited duration rights. Is that a byproduct of the environment we're in or the stage of the project? Just I know you mentioned there was no specific acquiring person or target. But I am curious to the strategy or timing around that.

Yes. What you're talking about is what we call the shareholder rights plan. And that's -- it's a tool that we felt was necessary because we've got over $300 million sitting in the bank right now. And at the time, our market cap was pretty low. Our share price is pretty low. What that can cause to happen in the financial markets is you get a very smart financial engineer now coming in and trying to take over the company because they want the cash in the bank and they could care less about anything else we're doing out here.

So we put into place a shareholder rights plan, which will strongly discourage those bad actors from doing those activities. And it gives the Board of Directors, Dean Kehler is over here and Tony is over here, it gives the Board of Directors more time to sort through those situations and protects all of us as shareholders from those bad actors that could come in and play financial engineering games. So that's how I look at it. It's a protective measure. There was nobody that we knew of trying to do those bad actor things. But we want to make sure that we're trying to think ahead of the game at all times and make sure that we have protected the company and our shareholders. Hopefully, that helps.

My husband and I live 1.5 miles from the site, and we're very supportive and really excited about this project. We just don't want -- we want to know what to expect as far as like the noise goes, odors, air quality, those types of things, so we know what to expect when this happens.

Yes. First of all, we respect that and I want you to know that. And if we're not doing the right job informing you, then I want you to call us and let us know because our priority, especially in the community, is we want to be accepted by the community. We want to be trusted by the community. And so we need to communicate with you in the most open way possible.

I'll have Scott talk about what you can expect for like the portal project coming up. I mean, you're going to see in 2026, even before we say we've reached final investment decision, you're going to start seeing a little bit of road construction going on. That road is going to be really nice. I mean, it's going to be a very safe right-hand turn as you're headed south and a very safe left-hand turn as you're headed north. We're going to start putting that portal project in.

That's a big, big project all by itself. And the whole community is going to see a lot of activity out of that site. And we haven't reached a final investment decision, the construction is just going to get greater and greater. But it's going to be a great opening for everybody to get a feel for the activity on the site, and there's going to be a lot of earth moving going on, probably hear some engines going on out there. But we do respect the community and to the extent that you have issues, come and talk to us because we listen. Scott, do you want to say anything more about noise?

Sure. Certainly on the noise side, starting early next year, as Mark noted, we're going to have a bunch of equipment on the site, excavation happening. But once we get underground, everything is happening pretty far beneath the earth. The closest our mining comes to the surface is about 600 feet below ground. That's actually quite a bit deeper than the next nearest mine here, which is the Weeping Water mine just up the road. So certainly, I think everybody in this room has probably driven past Weeping Water. You don't -- it's deep enough underground, you don't hear the mining activity.

As far as odors and other things you might see or hear, especially once we get the facility built, everything happens effectively indoors, inside buildings on surface or it happens fairly deep underground. And one of the standards we're held to by the State of Nebraska, and we're happy being held to this standard, is that every source of emissions that we have, every source of odor, anytime we have a chemical operation, we have to control that using what's known as best available control technology.

So it's not like we have to hit a standard. We have to go out and demonstrate to the state that the control system we're putting in is at least as good as, if not better, than the best that's used anywhere in the country. That's a very high standard to meet. And I can't stand here and say you won't see or hear something from our operation. But I can say it will be controlled to the highest degree possible.

And I think it's fair to say as well, the chemicals that you have here in the area, things like anhydrous ammonia, sources of odors like chicken houses and pork operations, things like that, those have particular odors associated with them. The chemicals and things that we do will be different than that. So for instance, we use mineral acids and we use chlorine compounds. And so I think the thing that's fair to say is we're going to control all of that. But the things that you smell, if you smell them, will be different than what you're used to.

[indiscernible] for our family, our state and to help you guys get started. We bought 50,000 shares on February 27, 2015. And that's when you were still core drilling it or starting to core drill and everything else in there. Well, that was good up to January 1, 2023, up to February 1, 2023. And then we got this through the mail saying on March 21, 2023. NioCorp decided to do a 1:10 reverse split.

So our 57,000 shares that helped you guys out went down to 5,700. Why did you do that to us early investors? Are you going to, eventually when you really make some money, reimburse those whole stocks? Or did we just lose them stocks? Help us out. We helped you out. You help us out.

First of all, I'm sorry that you're upset about that.

I'm not, I'm just telling you the truth.

Got it. Well, and I'd like to tell you the truth as well because what happened was we went through what's called a SPAC deal. And so if that SPAC deal would have been completely successful, we would have had $300 million in the bank and we will be traded on the Nasdaq. Because of what happened in the banking industry at the time, it was Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank that went under, Silicon Valley Bank on a Thursday, Signature Bank on Sunday, the redemption vote by the SPAC shareholders who we merged with occurred on Monday and nobody wanted to do anything other than pull their cash back out of that deal.

But we did become Nasdaq listed as a result of that SPAC deal. And we got Nasdaq listing immediately. And you can see what's happened to the company now that we're on the Nasdaq, and it's not TSX or TSXV, we're able to raise money because the capital markets available to either companies on the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange far exceed any exchange in the world. And so yes, you have 5,700 shares right now. I had over 22 million shares at the time and mine went down to 2.2 million. But now I take a look at where the stock prices come back to, and the value that I had achieved with that 22 million shares is about equal to my 2.2 million shares today.

So ownership is not going to be something that I look at as something that I need to be a 10% or a 15% shareholder. What I want to make sure was that the shares that I bought and whatever price I bought them at, I'm going to make money on those. And I'm making money on those shares today. And I'm going to guess that your 5,700 shares that you have today trading at $7 is probably as good, if not better than the 57,000 shares you had because those were all at $1 or less than $1. So hopefully, your value has improved.

Well, I'm sure it has. But if you would have went bankrupt or something, we'd have lost it all, boom. That have been it. But just take 5,700 shares x $6, $34,200. Take $6 x 57,000 shares, that's $342,000.

You're going to come back. But you have to do the math on both of those numbers. So it's not going to be $6 a share, it's going to be $6 divided by 10 and it would be $0.60 a share. You don't get the high share price and the high share count. It goes like this.

It goes like that. But with our investment, how come the early investors, the ones that buy it now won't go into a reverse split, I'm sure. Why did we have to? Now I know you're probably going to say, well, that's business. Well, that was the hard business decision in our day too back 10 years ago that we had to make. So why can't you reimburse us back once you get to go on?

But you have a higher value today than what you did when we did the 10-for-1 split. So I think financially, you've got the dollars in your account that you hope to have. And hopefully, we're going to have more for you. But the reason we had to do the 10-for-1 split is that you have to do certain things to qualify to be on the Nasdaq and trade your shares publicly on the Nasdaq.

One of those is a certain price per share. We had to do the 10-for-1 split to get the price high enough to qualify to be on Nasdaq. And I think going on the Nasdaq was the best thing this company has ever done. And we've done it so that we can raise money. And guess what? It worked.

Are you considering doing that again?

No, I'm not.

Well, you didn't back then either, but it happened. So I just don't know why you can't help the early investors out somewhat somehow once you get going because we helped you get going right off the dirt, right off the ground.

And we appreciate your support, by the way, and your commitment. Don't take that likely at all. We really appreciate it. This community has been unbelievable not just welcoming us but supporting us by buying shares on the market. So we absolutely appreciate that. And our goal now is to get the lowest cost capital to build this project, start producing these minerals, creating revenue. And then let's figure out what we're going to do with all that cash that's being generated.

Yesterday, Bloomberg came out with an article saying that Washington had additional interest in taking stake in companies. Do you think you foresee any additional support from Washington for NioCorp?

So I should introduce first our new General Counsel, David Hamm. He will limit me on what I can say here. And I'll just talk personally. I have no doubt in my heart that you're going to see more activity by the federal government in this arena, and I can guarantee you that NioCorp is at the front door just like everybody else.

Mark, two questions. I haven't heard anything lately from anybody about the Nebraska tax incentives for NioCorp. Could you comment on that, please?

We are going to have our Chief Financial Officer, Neal Shah, come up and comment on that because I want you to get to know the whole team here. And Neal has worked on this tirelessly, and we can't thank him enough and what a great program that we have. And it tells us that we have support at the state level for this project as well. That was very meaningful. Neal?

Thank you, Mark. I'll do my best. I wasn't quite prepared for this. But the company will qualify for what was under the Nebraska Advantage Act as a Tier 6. So we need to invest at least $100 million and hire at least 100 people at greater than the Johnson County average wage. So once we've invested at least $100 million, hired over 100 people at over $80,000 a year, we'll qualify for a 15% tax credit against any of the taxes we'd be paying into the state. So that will be credited against our property taxes and our sales taxes and over the life of the project.

So we anticipate about $1 billion is what we're going to spend on the projects. We're at about $150 million in tax credits. But what's really important is that the 450 full-time employees that we're going to have are going to continue paying their sales taxes, their property taxes and their wage taxes into the community here. Does that help?

Yes. Second question was IBC. Where is IBC in the whole scheme of things, specifically after yesterday's announcement of the acquisition?

Yes. So IBC is another company I'm involved in. And as we were starting to take a look at the scandium supply chain and trying to onshore it into the United States, we looked at -- we will produce the scandium oxide here. We actually have a Department of War grant that they've asked us to figure out how to make scandium metals. So we're going to do that. I think our first metal is February or something that we'll produce there. And then we found this FEA technology that allows us to take oxide directly to master alloy.

Perfect. So now we've got all of that supply chain put together. But we didn't have anybody in the United States that could take the master alloy, the scandium-aluminum master alloy, and convert it to the actual alloy that people want to buy and utilize because of its outstanding properties. So knowing what I know about IBC, I asked them to take some master alloy that we would send them and to see if they could pour in their foundry some of this, what we call, just regular alloy, the 0.1% to 0.2% scandium. And they did that. Their very first try, they did that. And they came out with the perfect scandium-aluminum alloy.

And this would be sellable in the marketplace the way that it's produced right now. We've asked them to undertake one more test for because I just want to make sure they didn't get lucky. But I don't think they did. They knew what they were doing. And I think we're going to see the second test will be just as good. What we're trying to do is put that supply chain together. And don't read anything more into that than you need to. I want the whole supply chain through that piece put together here in the United States.

We can joint venture with IBC. We can use them as a tolling company and just pay them so much to make the alloy. But they have the capabilities and isn't it amazing? We had those capabilities in the United States and nobody even knew it. So don't read anything more into that other than we're putting a supply chain together.

I have a question.

One more back here.

The 450 jobs that are going to be created, what career paths will those be? And what would people who live in this area be looking to have their kids learn how to do in order to be successful working at this mine?

Great question because I'll tell you who we want to hire, the local Nebraska people. And hopefully, you've seen the track record that we put together already. If there's a job to be done out there on site, we bend over backwards to use Nebraska companies to do those jobs. And we want to keep that going. I'm going to have Scott talk about everything we're -- because it's going to be the full spectrum, laborers at the mine, engineers, business executives, health and safety professionals. And we're going to have an entire organization out there. And there's going to be spots that if people have a passion for, we'll probably have a position for. And education doesn't hurt.

Yes. And I think generally speaking, we're going to hire people to run the line and the surface operations and then we'll have a bunch of scientists and engineers as well. When I think about staffing in the mine, Nebraska doesn't have a lot of underground mining right now. We have Weeping Water up the road, and that's great. This mining is a little bit different than that. So to get the mine started, we will, as a necessity have to bring in some experienced miners from outside the state as the initial core staff.

But the plan after that is to hire locally to staff out the mine workforce. And we will provide the training for folks to do that. And I think it's been an observation we've made many times over the years that the folks that we hire here to help us with the project are very well suited to become underground miners because they're independent, they're usually very mechanically savvy and they're good workers. And that's what you need to have a good miner underground.

In the surface plant, the operation is a little bit different. It's more like a manufacturing operation. Some analogies to say, the cement plant up the road, the chicken plant. It's something that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And again, we will hire locally for all of that and we will train folks to run the operation to use -- it will all be computer-controlled. So they'll need some computer savviness, but all of that can be taught and trained.

Now in terms of support functions, we're going to have a lot of things that you'll have at any industrial facility. So we'll have a warehouse and we'll have a purchasing group. We'll have HR. I know my CFO doesn't like when I talk about HR, but we need those functions. And so those things are in ready supply here in Nebraska. We'll hire locally for that. I will say there will be a few specialized functions, things like mining engineers, certain classes of chemical engineer, analytical chemists, people of that nature. We're going to have to probably bring some of those folks into the state initially.

But we foresee certainly this being a partnership and a long-term partnership with the state. And as we get established and we ramp up, we look forward to partnering with local educational institutions to build programs that will provide trained people from within the state to fill those roles we need at the operation.

I got a question. After all of this business is done, the mining, the production, whatever, okay, how does that go out into the country? Is it through semis? Is there any other transportation, rail routes or anything like this could be utilized to bring this product to get further processed?

I'll start out and then Scott can get into the details. But with the mine that we're going to have and the quantity of materials that we'll be producing, it's conducive to trucking. And so we'll be shipping all of our products out via truck. But that's because the quantities are that size. This isn't like a coal mine or an aluminum mine or an iron ore mine where there's just massive, massive quantities of material and you can't afford to truck it out. You've got to use dedicated rail lines even because there's so much volume there.

But ours is all going to be trucked in and out, and that's one of the reasons why we want to make sure we do those improvements to the road to improve the safety there. We want this to be not a hindrance to the local community. Anything else you want to add?

Yes. Maybe just to give something of a concrete example. Our primary product is going to be ferroniobium, and we'll make about something like 7,500 to 7,800 tonnes of that material a year. If you do the math, that's about, roughly speaking, 20 tonnes a day or one truckload a day. So that gives you some context as how many trucks are going to be leaving the facility.

Again, maybe to put it in a local context here. I think at Weeping Water the limestone mining operation, there's something like 150 to 300 trucks a day going through that facility, taking that product out to various places. So we'll be quite a bit less than that.

And scandium, remember, is 100 tonnes. So that's 5 trucks. It's really conducive to trucking.

Mark, could you talk a little bit more about these offtake agreements. They're negotiated in today's dollars. And is there an inflationary factor or as scarcity maybe goes down and the price goes up, what kind of backup do you have to capture the most competitive price for it? And also, is the U.S. government going to be providing any minimum price supports for you all just so China or some other foreign national doesn't try to undercut the market here?

Yes. Let me start with the second one. First of all, we don't know if they're going to do it with us or not, but they've done it with one company. And it was huge. So it is possible. And I will tell you, having been in the business as long as I have been, that was a courageous thing for our U.S. government to do because it's very anti-capitalist, right? It bothered me when I heard it.

And yet I've seen this circle going around with the Chinese modus operandi. And they capture whole markets. And then once they have 100% of it, then they let that price go up and they just make a ton of money. And about the time the price gets high enough that Americans and Canadians and Europeans can afford to open up one of their mines, then China dumps more material on the market, crashes the prices and none of us can get financing.

When the U.S. government provided the price floor for MP Materials that they did, that takes that whole Chinese MO away. They can't do that anymore. They can go ahead and crash the prices if they want, but MP Materials is still going to produce. So it's a courageous thing to do. I also believe, because I am a capitalist, that we shouldn't have that for the life. It shouldn't go on into perpetuity. That's a 10-year deal. And I also firmly believe, like if Scott and I get lucky and get something like that, we'll work our tails off during that 10-year period to make sure that at the end of the 10-year period, we are the most competitively priced company out there.

Technology will be able to be used and we'll figure out how to do this. But right now, the playing field is so uneven we can't get a jump on anything. So in terms of the offtake agreements, one of the things you noticed is that these are pretty small markets overall in the bigger scheme of the world. So copper has a futures market. So you can actually go out and you can engineer your offtake agreement so that the banks are satisfied with minimum prices and maximum prices, and you can really engineer things to protect the company and pay your debts.

You can't do that with these minerals. We have no futures market for any of these minerals. So what we go out and do is really a bespoke contract with each and every deal that we enter into. What we've done on the niobium side is that it's basically a volume requirement that the customer has to take, but the price is set at whatever the market is at the time. So there's no inflation adjustment up, but there's also no limit if the market goes up as well. So it's a little bit better in my mind than adding inflation factors in there.

But niobium is an extremely stable pricing environment. For the 50, 60 years that it's been out and sold in the market, there's been two prices. Fortunately, the price now is here. And it's just going to stay there because there's one company in the world that produces 90-plus percent of the niobium. They want a stable market. They want a predictable market. They want their customers to have a predictable situation as it primarily goes through the steel industry. So that market, even though it's a market-based price, that's a really stable price. And I think that we'll get EXIM to come around to that issue and they'll realize that's a very bankable agreement.

And some of these others, it's pretty tough. Scandium is one of the most opaque markets you'll ever deal in. I'm probably more excited about it than the others because of the upside potential for this mineral, but it's opaque. And what we've seen since we've started working on this for the last 11 or 12 years, scandium was priced probably upwards of probably close to $5,000 a kilogram when we started. And guess what, there's another country that's decided to become the primary producer of this mineral and they want to be the only producer of this mineral. Does it sound familiar?

And the price is now kind of about $7,00 a kilogram, but they're not exporting it anymore either. And so what they're already doing is creating a Chinese market and a non-Chinese market. So we're going to work hard to make sure the scandium market comes together well. We have zillion things going on in scandium to develop the applications. And I couldn't have been more proud when we announced that deal with Lockheed. That's a real offtake partner. And we're going to work hard to get an offtake agreement with them at a good price. But every one of them is kind of one-off and you get the best deal that you can.

I'm betting Scott is the only one that knows this in the room. A company Metallium maybe from Australia, so they have a proprietary process to process their ore called the Flash Joule Heating technology. Is that a threat? Is that something that -- well, I'll let you take it from there.

Yes. So what that technology involves is rapid heating and then conversion of some of the pay metal values to chlorides. So it's what I would think of as a front-end technology. As I think about that and its application to Elk Creek, are you familiar with mag chloride? Okay. Mag chloride is a very common industrial chemical that's used to suppress dust on roads. And it has a reputation for being very sticky. That's what makes it a good dust suppressant.

If we were to use this technology on our ore, we would make a whole bunch of magnesium chloride. And magnesium chloride is like goo in your plant. It's the worst thing you can ever have. It's sticky, gets everywhere, hard to handle, hard to manage. So this is very early-stage technology that Metallium has. I can see its application for rares to be fairly limited because many rare earth deposits are like this one down the road. There's a lot of calcium and magnesium, and you're going to make a whole bunch of chlorides that you're going to have to deal with.

So I don't see this as a threat. I would also say the production process that we've developed for the Elk Creek ore is one that's been now tested and proven for 10, 11 years. We've actually built a demonstration plant. So we built the whole thing at a very small scale and we've run it continuously in an integrated fashion. So we've got just about the highest confidence level you can get in a production process, short of building the full-scale plant and running it.

Question back here, please.

I would just add before we go to the question that I have kind of one of these philosophies in the mining industry, and it's particularly appropriate in the rare earth space. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I mean, rare earth manufacturing is -- I mean, the way you do it is solvent extraction, it's the proven and tried method. And we know that method.

There's a guy back there, Rick Sixberry, wherever he is, he's done more solvent extraction than anybody I know in the world. We have the best people with the right knowledge to do what's known and what works. There's a lot of those ideas floating around right now. But I want technology to continue on, but we just haven't found anything in the rare earth space that works like solvent extraction.

I get excited when there's questions about processing. The other thing is that when Mark and I sit down in front of a bank or some investor and they say, how are you going to do this. And we say, well, here's our 10-process steps, and here are all the places that those steps have been used commercially at large scale and successfully. That's a very good story to tell.

If you go into that same kind of meeting, that same context and you say, I'm going to use this new black box that somebody has developed. It's never been worked at scale and I'm not sure how well it's going to work. It's a much weaker story. So we built our production process on tried and true technology. So we know that when we build it, it's going to work.

Okay. Question in the back.

Yes. So this is about housing for the new staff coming in. So citizens and leaders in our area know that finding quality housing in Pawnee City, Elk Creek, Southeast Nebraska in general is already a struggle. What steps are you taking to make sure that your employees have quality housing? And those that are already working towards solutions, how can we help you do that?

I'll start out, and then Scott's actually had lots of meetings out here with the local community on that issue in particular. And he's been having those meetings for 5, 6 or 11 years. I guess we've been at this a little longer than I thought. But it is something we care about deeply. And to get the best employees, you have to have the best situation for those employees. So we are very concerned about it. We're interested in how we can work with the local communities and we're going to do that.

And it's another one of those things where everything looked like it was so far off. We thought we had plenty of time, probably should have started this in a little more earnest some time ago. But it's something we have to deal with and we're going to deal with. I don't know if you want to add anything more, Scott? We don't have definitive plans.

Yes. Certainly, Mark. I think it's important for us as a company to stay in our lane, which is we've got experience building projects, running mining operations, making things we're going to make. I've worked for companies that have got into the sort of company town type mentality. And I don't see that as a workable model here in Southeast Nebraska.

Over the years that we've worked on this, we talked to many folks that are waiting for an opportunity to invest in the housing market. And I think it's a better model to let those entrepreneurs take the lead in constructing more housing than for us necessarily to start trying to do that ourselves. I think what you'll see is that you'll have people moving into the area and you'll have local people getting jobs at the operation. We're going to pay very good wages and that will drive demand in the housing market that will, we feel, be met.

I think the other thing is as well when you think about our project and the impact on the housing market, I think of it in very broad terms, I look at all the counties in Southeast Nebraska as potential communities where our employees could live, including the south end of Omaha and the south end of Lincoln. Those are all within commuting distance in my view. So I don't foresee 400 people trying to move into the subdivision north of Tecumseh. I see it spread around quite a bit in this local area.

Mark, we have a question.

I was wondering, where are this -- or is this product going to be trucked to, to be turned into a real valuable item for use?

Yes. So great question, and it's quite bespoke in that regard, too. So a lot of the -- half of the ferroniobium that we'll be producing is being sold to thyssenkrupp, a steel company out of Germany. That material will all leave our facility by truck, probably be driven to Baltimore, and then it will be shipped via ocean freight over to Germany.

The scandium, I don't know just yet because we're not exactly sure where those opportunities are going to arise. But we know we've got opportunities at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. That would all be trucked to them directly. And we know we've got really good scandium opportunities over in the United Kingdom as well. Some of their automobile producers over there, Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover. They're a little more creative and innovative on how they improve their automobiles. They're very interested in scandium. So that would be probably shipped to Baltimore and then -- via truck and then it would go ocean liner then over to the U.K.

So it's a little bit different for each of the products. The rare earths that we would make, those -- the first step that you have to do with -- once you have an oxide like we're making, the first step you have to do to make a magnet is to convert it to metal. Well, guess what we don't do any of in the United States today? So 100% of that would be -- today would have to be shipped to Vietnam or China to convert it to metal, shipped back to the United States, then we can make the alloy and then we can make the magnet.

So it's very different with each product. But we know these supply chains pretty well. We've been dealing in these commodities or these minerals for 44 years, in my case, and you're not that much younger, 30-some-odd years for him. So we know all the customers. We've shipped to them before. So we've got a very good idea how this will be done. But again, primarily in the United States, it will all move by truck.

Christine, we got one right behind you.

My question also has to do with the permanent jobs. And do you anticipate that the jobs such as engineers and scientists and such, would those particular positions be individuals that would work more remotely and so not necessarily directly close in this area, but perhaps Denver or somewhere else? Do you know that at this point?

I'd say we don't know it at this point. But I would add and then, Scott, you come up and say some things, too. But when you're running a chemical operations which are aboveground facility, it's basically a chemical processing facility, and an underground mine, it's really hard to do things remotely. You kind of have to be there and get that feel for what's going on. Now does that mean that every single job in the place can't do work from home on Friday or whatever? Not at all. And there's probably going to be some flexibility. But for the most part, those jobs are going to be on site and those employees are going to have to be there because that's where we're running. Anything you want to add on that?

I think, Mark, you've captured my philosophy as well. My feeling is that if you're going to work at the operation, you have to show up there every day. And that's where everything is happening. You can't run a mine in a production plant like we're talking about from your couch. So yes, you got to be there.

I think we've got to be pretty close to wearing you down with questions. I'd like to say that I thought you were doing a pretty good job as a frontman for this company on the Maria Bartiromo show. Yes, you did just fine.

Well, Jim tells me I have to smile more. I think he's right, by the way.

So not too many questions at all, but I saw the Secretary of Interior on a program about last week, Burgum. What a guy. Do you talk to him?

We don't talk directly to him but we talk to his staff.

The day he can name drop NioCorp should be a big help.

Yes. Although, I hope he says NioCorp.

I'm a rookie. Anyway, we've had fun. We're about ready to head out, but I want to let you know I thought you were doing a good job.

Thank you very much. Very kind, very kind. Any other? We got another one over here.

I'm going to back up to an earlier discussion a little bit on the water demand for the project. Does that water demand -- is it met from within from its own well? Reason I ask is there's extensive rural water systems in Johnson and Pawnee County, both. And I didn't know if there was any demand on that water at all or not.

Yes. I think in looking at the situation in both counties, we talked to the rural water districts. We'll have a small connection to the Pawnee County rural system really just to supply the house and the tenant that are on our operational site. And recognizing that water is a big issue in Southeast Nebraska, we're looking -- we're going to need a supply and we're going to need that to come from a variety of sources. So that will include what we hope will be a connection to the City of Tecumseh's water system, perhaps drawing some water out of the Nemaha River and access to wells, whether those be on our site or from adjacent properties.

Okay. I would have one other question to follow up. You mentioned about some comparisons to the mine at north, Weeping Water mine. What's the support system for this underground mine? There, they use like rooms and the rock layers are bolted together for support systems. What will be used for support system in this?

Yes. I think the best way to compare the Weeping Water mine to our mine is that they're horizontal and we're going to be vertical. So that's the main difference right there. And a lot of the data that we collect is data just to characterize the rock mass to understand what it is we need to put in, in terms of ground support. I think what you see, and I hope you can come for a tour once we get it built, but I think you'll see in the majority of the mine just simple rock bolts to hold up the back.

There will be places, and we see this in our drill core, where the ground quality is not that great. The rock mass is broken and fractured. And in those particular locations you'll see -- in addition to rock bolts, you'll see some screen and some shotcrete. And that's really just to hold back any of these small pieces of rock that might fall down and injure someone. In very rare situations, in places where we have some key infrastructure, you'll see some more extensive or elaborate ground support.

So as an example, in the underground mine, we're going to have shops where we'll take our mobile equipment for maintenance and servicing. That's going to be a long-term piece of infrastructure. And certainly, in those areas, we'll have slightly more elaborate ground support up to and including things like cable bolts, which are just very long structural supports that go into the rock mass.

So I would have just said, this is absolute classic underground mining. There's nothing that we're going to do that's different. And he's done all the testing he needs to make sure he knows what size bolts, how far do we have to drill them in. It's really, really good work that's been done. Very classic underground mining though.

We got one here. And let me announce we're getting close to the end. I mean, frankly, we usually stay as long as people have questions. But we have another event tonight in about 1 hour 15 minutes. So let's just do another two, three, please.

I'm going to ask you to do something almost impossible, so bear with me. I understand you're planning on breaking ground in 2026. Am I correct?

You are correct.

Okay. And how long do you project it will take before you're actually pulling ore out of the ground based on how deep it is, et cetera?

That's going to be about 2.5 years when we start pulling ore out, but years 3 years to do the full mine development so we're ready to feed the processing units.

Sure. Great. And based on then, how much leverage you're taking on and how quickly you anticipate seeing revenue, how long do you think it will be before you're revenue positive? I know it's very difficult but just...

No, those are good questions. And maybe another way to say that question would be how long would it take to pay off the debt.

Kind of.

Yes. So if we just take the EBITDA figures that we have from 2022, and remember, those are lower than what we're going to see once this updated feasibility study comes out. But if we just take those figures it would take less than 2 years of EBITDA to pay off to $780 million. So do you think this is a really good economic mine? I do. So we're going to be in very good shape there. But again, we have to start thinking about all the factors involved in this. And if we get a U.S. export-import bank loan, and let's say, it's at 5% interest rates and they give us 10 years to pay it off, I want to take a look at is it better to pay off early? Or should I keep using that debt and use the cash for something else? So we have lots of things we're thinking about.

I must say it to be your last question.

No, we have one more over here. But you go, you go.

When you start working on the road out there, we need to know how you are going to go about it because we're going to have that [indiscernible] to the mine. We also have [indiscernible] that will have to go to all of the roads [indiscernible]. So that is the only thing that we are concerned about and we just need to know what way you're going to do it and [indiscernible].

Okay. And it's kind of like road construction today, notwithstanding us. You just need to know what the lanes are and you figure it out, and we'll make sure that, that happens. All the signage will be appropriate and very evident and then we'll all get used to it. But I think we'll probably -- is there going to be anything more publicly that we do on that? Like a brochure or something?

It will be like a lot of road projects you've seen, including the Highway 50 project. But we don't anticipate necessarily there to be a closure of, say, Highway 50. We'll keep the traffic going. There may be some temporary closures of 721 road, but you'll be able to go around both sides if you need to get to the backside of 721.

Pretty typical road construction, yes. Okay.

Mark, in your 2-year payoff schedule, is that over and above or does that include operational cost for that 2 years?

I used EBITDA, so earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation. So that's kind of your cash flow is another way to look at it. Yes, that's already been paid for. This is money that comes after you paid for those expenses.

Any other questions? Well, thank you for your patience. Thank you for all the questions.

Hello, today, we have Mark Smith, the CEO of NioCorp, trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol, NB. Mark, welcome back.

Thank you, Craig. Always a pleasure to be here.

Recent reports in the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets suggests that China will continue to maintain a chokehold on heavy rare earth exports to U.S. companies connected to the defense sector. This is in spite of announcements in the United States that all export restrictions have been lifted on these defense critical materials. Can you provide us with your view on what is really going on here?

Yes. Unfortunately, Craig, what your question suggests is the truth. But first, let me praise President Trump for the absolutely amazing job that he's doing, trying to push back against the Chinese and get these rare earths flowing into the marketplace. He's really focused on that, and you can tell in the negotiations that that's 1 of his top priorities, and we can't praise the President enough for understanding the importance of this issue to us.

But as the intel continues to leak out of China right now, what we're finding is, is that not much has changed. It appears that the Chinese may be undercutting that agreement with President Trump pretty fast. It appears as if all of the elements that were put into export restriction in April of 2025 are still restricted and we will still need a dual-use license at a minimum to get out of the country. And don't forget the dual-use license as the People's Liberation Army, is 1 of the reviewing parties.

So this is going to be a problem. It's going to become just as serious as it has been since April, the markets just don't know about it yet.

Mark, you personally have been a commercial developer and an investor in the rare earth and critical minerals space for more than 3 decades. What are the most important due diligence factors investors should be looking for when researching potential critical mineral investments?

I'm glad you asked that question, Craig, because it's 1 that I'm thinking about literally every day of my life. I've been in the rare space for over 38 years. I've been in the mining industry for over 44 years. I love this industry, and I am an investor in this industry. And so I have come up with some very important things that I think other investors should be well aware of as well.

Let's start out first with -- I always look to see, is there a bankable feasibility study level work that has been done on this project? So does it meet the NI 43-101 standards? Does it meet the S-K 1300 standards at the feasibility study level, not PEAs, not guesses, not assumptions. This is real technical work. And if it has that work available, now you can actually do due diligence on that project. And with that bankable feasibility study, you will now know what the ore grade is of that resource that you're looking to invest in. And if they don't have measured and indicated resource information and ultimately reserve information on that resource itself, stay away because you have no idea of what's in the ground.

Second item that I take a very hard look at because you can have the best ore body in the world in the ground, but if you don't have metallurgy that can pull those elements out, and make them sellable to the customer specifications, then your ore body isn't going to do anybody any good and you're going to fail on that investment. So we look for that metallurgical work, and we look for the ability to say we have actually produced samples for customers that meet their specifications. That's huge. So those first 2 items to me, are the most critical.

Then we can get into things like does the management team have the commercial experience to sell these materials. Do they have the operational experience to actually make these materials at a commercial scale? If they don't, that's going to be a very, very hard trail to hike and especially in the rare space. That is the most complicated mineral processing that I've ever experienced in my life.

Number four, do they have all the permits in hand? If they don't have their permits in hand and especially if they're trying to open a mine in the United States, that can take 29 years to get your permits in place. We're way beyond that at NioCorp. We're very happy with that.

Number five, I think that we need to look, does the project have strong local support? If it doesn't have strong local support, you don't have a license to operate in that area. So you need to make sure that you establish good, full of integrity, honest and truthful relationships with the local people because that's who you're going to be hand-in-hand with for years to come.

Then there are some other smaller items that I do look for. Do we have any public land issues? Those can create permitting issues. Do we have indigenous people issues? That kind of goes to the local support, but that can be a much harder issue to deal with.

And then finally, has the project received any level of government funding? If it has, that's a very strong statement of confidence that a government of whatever country is expressing for that project.

So those are the things that I look at before I invest in a project and happy to say that every single 1 of those boxes is checked with bright green for NioCorp.

Thanks for that, Mark. Turning now to the Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works collaboration recently announced. That is a Pentagon-funded effort to advance scandium-based defense technology. Now what does that partnership mean for NioCorp's role in strengthening U.S. defense innovation?

Well, first of all, let me start out by reiterating something that I have said for a long time, and that is that the United States imports 100% of the scandium that it needs in this country today. And guess what? We now have defense prime contractors. We have OEMs. We have multiple applications that are looking at utilizing scandium in conjunction with aluminum, in particular, because of all of the attributes that, that small little amount of scandium adds to the aluminum.

On the Skunk Works project, this was just super exciting for the company because it demonstrates 1 more time that there are applications for the scandium that we will be producing at NioCorp. Those -- the scandium production that we'll be putting together in the next 3 to 4 years, that is being heavily looked at by all these defense contractors because of what scandium does for aluminum. And in the case of Lockheed in particular, this is hugely important. They're going to be taking scandium-aluminum alloys adding those in very special ways to the F-22 and the F-35 fighter jets and it's going to increase our fighter pilot safety as well as increase their lethality as we look at them going out and protecting the United States.

So this is a huge application. We couldn't be happier to have a partner like Lockheed Martin, and we're really excited to take this to the next level with Lockheed Martin.

Mark, you and your team have raised more than $370 million year-to-date. How do these capital raises position the company as it moves toward full project financing?

Yes. It's a very good question, Craig. And first of all, let me thank my team, who help us help every step of the way in this fundraising effort. And this fundraising effort is critical because as everybody knows, in a large project, you go through a project financing phase. That project financing phase needs debt, and it needs equity. The $370 million that we have raised goes to the equity portion of that project financing arrangement. As we've been very public, we're working very hard with Export-Import Bank of the United States to put the debt side of that package together. And the good news is that, that is moving along very well. And with our ability to raise that $370-plus million in 2025, we've increased the confidence level of the EXIM Bank on our ability to do that. They now are working hard to get that debt package to the final stages and final approval process. It's been a wonderful thing for the whole project financing effort.

On top of that, we have project advancement activities that we get to undertake right now. So we have purchased all the land that we need to purchase for a 38-year mine life. We're taking out the shrubs and the trees and brushes, clearing out the land, getting ready for this new above-ground processing facility that's going to be located in Southeast Nebraska. And we're going to have, hopefully, after Board approval, we're going to have a very large project advancement activity where we start to install the portal for the underground mine. We'll have more news on that as this effort develops. But all of these project advancement activities helped the company stay on time and on budget when the real construction project starts and we say that we're breaking ground. So this is just nothing but positive for the company right now.

Mark, you've already mentioned some exciting things to be looking out for, what else should investors be looking now for in the next few months?

Well, first of all, we make a very, very strong effort to publicize what we're doing to keep our shareholders and the market informed. Transparency and honesty are 2 very critical values for this company. So what you'll see is we recently announced we finished purchasing all the land that we need for a 38-year mine life. You're going to see additional information coming out on drill holes. We also said we were sorry, the last press release we sent out for drill hole #2 because we really didn't want to send out press releases for every single drill hole, but the results from drill hole #2 came out the best that any drill holes ever come out and I wanted the market to know about that. I wanted our shareholders to know just how real and how fantastic this ore body is. So we are going to continue to see some work and analytical work from those drilling efforts.

As we get further and further into the year, we're going to finish up the engineering effort where we're taking our new process flow diagram, raising that up to feasibility study level standards for engineering for feasibility study definitions. That would be an FEL 3 level of engineering, very substantial and something that the banks have to see in order to issue debt. So EXIM is looking for that product, that is on its way. We are 4 or 5 months into that effort. We're now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for getting that engineering work done.

We're going to continue to let the public know how we're spending our money because there is a lot of money in our treasury right now. We're not letting it sit. We're advancing the project and staying as far ahead of the project budget and the project schedule as is humanly possible.

So they're going to see a lot of positive things starting to come out of the company, and we're always public about it, but they're going to see a lot of things coming out in the very near future here because we've had a lot of work that we've been undertaking.

So this is an exciting time for the company. We hope to finish the fundraising for all of this in the next, call it, 2 to 8 months as well. So lots, lots, lots of work going on.

It is such an exciting story, Mark. Thank you.

Thank you, Craig. Again, always a pleasure. Yes, and we look forward to coming back again next time. Thank you.

This last session of the Mining Symposium on Critical Minerals and rare earths. It is a pleasure to host NioCorp. Mark Smith is Executive Chairman, President and CEO. And we also have Jim Sims in the forum. We're going to keep it hopefully very conversational. You can also meet questions via the Zoom app. We will read it once we get it for Mark or Jim to answer. But before we begin, please let me mention some disclaimers. Please note that this webcast is for Morgan Stanley clients and select employees or appropriate employees, I should say. This webcast is not for members of the press.

And if you are a member of the press, please disconnect and reach out separately. For important disclosures, please see the Morgan Stanley research disclosure website at www.morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures. And if you have any questions, please reach out to your Morgan Stanley sales representative. All right. So with that out of the way, Mark, the -- we're going to just keep it conversational, as I said, we have some questions, [ Mark ] and I and then as the audience starts to send theirs, we'll also ask them to answer those, please. Maybe just to set the stage and before I pass it on to Mark, would you just present a brief introduction of the company, a little bit of the history, and then we kick it off from there.

Very good, Carlos. And again, thank you -- and [ Mark ] for this wonderful opportunity. I think this will be the only slide that we use for the presentation today, but it's such a great slide in terms of summarizing what our company is and what we're doing. If we take a look at the upper left-hand corner here, this really summarizes it very, very well. We are trying to put together the technical plans, the construction plans and the financing for a $1.2 billion underground mine and surface processing facility located in the very southeast corner of the state of Nebraska. We will be mining and producing products, including niobium, titanium, scandium and the magnetic rare earth oxides. I would like to point out very quickly that the United States imports, 100% of the niobium it needs today. It imports about 85% of the titanium that it needs today.

It imports 100% of the scandium that it needs today, and it imports very close to 100% of the magnetic rare earth oxides, although MP Materials is certainly ramping up on the NdPr, the neodymium praseodymium right now, and congratulations to them for that. So these are very, very important strategic elements for the country, and it's time to bring some onshore production of these minerals to the United States. We are traded on the NASDAQ ticker symbol NB. We'll go down to the lower row on the blue box on the lower right -- lower left, sorry, and note that we have 0 debt, 0 outstanding convertible notes. Going to the company highlights section, the green box, lower right, we've raised almost $371 million this year, including a $10 million Pentagon grant that we got that's been very, very useful for the company.

We have all of our permits in hand. There is no permitting risk associated with this project. And once the financing is finalized, we've got a 36-month construction time period to get to production. Unbelievable strong state and local support for this project. We hold town halls in the area, 500-plus people come out to these town halls. We have 0 protesters, 0 naysayers. We have really worked hard to earn that trust in the community. That's our social license to operate. We're going to work hard to maintain that social license. All the other things on here, I think we can probably just let the viewers read those on their own. But hopefully, that gives a pretty good high-level view of what this company is about and what we're trying to undertake.

Great. Thank you, Mark. I guess let's double-click a little bit here on the actual site itself and the time line that you guys have outlined for the commercial production here. Let's just break that down a little bit and what you could foresee as being some of the bottlenecks or governors to hitting that target.

Great question, [ Mark ]. And of course, in the United States, we have to ask that question constantly in the mining industry. As we all saw early in the year, there was a report that came out that suggested it takes, on average, 29 years to get a mine into production. So I will tell you that I've been working on this NioCorp project for over 12 years. I'm happy to report that we are very, very close to seeing the finish line and being able to start construction. In terms of items that we're looking to accomplish in the next few months here, as we noted just a moment ago, we've really had some very good success raising equity funds for the project financing. We also have worked for 2 years and 4 months with the Export-Import Bank of the United States. We think that we're probably sometime in 2026, going to see the final results of that effort. It's a very long tenuous effort. But as taxpayers, we, of course, want them to protect U.S. taxpayer money. So we're fine with the level of due diligence, but we have been in this process and XM is talking about a $780 million loan.

So we're very, very close to having the full project financing that we need to start construction. The rest of that then goes to how prepared are we for construction itself because once you raise the money, then the hard part really starts. -- you've got a $1.2 billion construction project, you have to be on time and you have to be on budget. So what we've been doing with the $300-plus million we have in treasury is we're advancing the project as we speak today. We're clearing the shrubs, clearing the trees. We've bought all the property, the surface and the mineral rights that we need. We're getting all those little things behind us to make sure they don't cause delays in our schedule or upset our budget in any way. So we're really moving forward. This is based on 44 years of experience in the business. I know exactly what can go wrong. And so we're trying to address those things upfront and just get them behind us. And I'm really, really pleased with the level of effort that our employees have put into advancing this project today. It's really remarkable.

Got you. And do you foresee any constraints, be it on account of labor availability or just general infrastructure in the region? Help me kind of think about the site's location a little bit more.

Yes. Infrastructure in the region, let me start there. There's natural gas pipelines very close to the site. There's electrical power very close to the site. We're working with the local power provider for the community and have meetings with them once a week right now to make sure we get those lines into the site. As is always the case in very big power demand situations, we have to discuss those things. That puts a huge burden on their system. So again, just that open, honest conversation we started very early on and we're meeting once a week with them right now. So infrastructure, I'm very confident that all of that is going to be in place.

And the point that we want to make is, again, advancing the project on an early basis like we are because we have cash in the bank, that allows us to start early on those infrastructure efforts and make sure that they're there on time. If something goes wrong, we have plan B and plan C and plan D. So I'm not losing any sleep over infrastructure, but those are big, big power projects to bring on to the site. In terms of -- let's see, the other part that you'd asked about, [ Mark ], I apologize. I got so tied up on infrastructure.

Oh, just labor availability...

Oh, labor, yes. No, great question. First of all, the people in Southeast Nebraska I think, are super supportive of this project because they're looking forward to the very high-paying mining and surface mineral processing jobs that we're going to have out there, probably 450 to 500 full-time positions out there. So we've got a huge interest level already. But I'll also say that our 2 EPC contractors that we're using have capabilities that can add to that and make sure that we bridge ourselves from going from 0 to 500 employees quite easily. So Zachry will be our EPC contractor for the aboveground facility. They keep a workforce of over 22,000 people available for construction projects and you can hire them on a contract basis just to go right into operations while you're bridging that issue if you need to. Same on the underground mining side.

We've got Dumas, who will be developing the underground mine for us. We have every intention to just keep them on as the underground mining entity on a contract basis because underground mining is different than surface mining. And the one thing you figure out after being in the mining industry as long as I have, and you've seen both surface in situ, underground, I've seen every type of mining there is. There are certain people in the world that really like underground mining. And there's a lot of people that don't. And there's no in between. I mean you either like it or you don't. And so to make sure that we have that issue addressed, we've already talked to Dumas about providing the contract mining for us. So again, not losing any sleep over either one of those issues, but very, very good question, [ Mark ].

Perfect. Maybe let's shift back to the financing here and address a question from the web. And again, I'd invite everybody on the webcast to please submit your questions. They're all great here. Maybe if you could provide us with an update on your equity raise. Are we finished with the share dilution? And how much additional dilution might be necessary to get where project cash flows start financing the operation?

Yes. I've been really tried for the 12-plus years that I've been running NioCorp to make sure that all of our shareholders from day 1 until now understand that by definition, we are going to have dilution. We have to raise more equity. We are maximizing the amount of debt that the project can deliver here, and XM has done a great job of figuring out what that debt level is. They're going to give us a 65% debt level on this project, a little higher than some normal projects and certainly higher than a lot of projects today. And a lot of that comes from the fact that we have 4 basic product streams coming out of there that can ultimately produce 11 or 12 different products into different markets and the earnings and cash flow from that commercial operation look fantastic, which then bumps the ability to take on the debt.

But we still have to raise equity for the project. There is going to be additional fundraising. I've been very forthright about that. We don't know how much because we're in final discussions, so to speak, with XM on what they want for debt service reserve accounts, what they want for cost overrun facilities. All of these add to the necessity for either raising that money and equity finding lines of credit to support those facilities. We're still putting all of those pieces together, but we have to know the amount that XM is wanting to see. We were supposed to meet with them a couple of weeks ago to start those conversations. Obviously, with the government shutdown, that meeting didn't occur. Happy to report we're headed back out there next week. We're not wasting any time. We're going to get right into it with XM. I want a binding something from XM as soon as humanly possible.

And Mark, I would like to bring the conversation back a little bit to the company operations of the company. Can you maybe provide a little bit more color on the characteristics, details of the deposit? What is the distribution of elements? You mentioned that you're going to be able to produce several of the critical minerals and rare earths that the world is so dependent on China. Can you maybe flesh out a little bit the distribution of those elements, the proportion and what is going to be more relevant for the revenue generation?

Yes. Happy to do that, Carlos, and it's a great opportunity to make sure everybody on the call here knows that information. So we're going to be, as I mentioned earlier, we'll be producing niobium titanium, scandium and the magnetic rare earths. So the niobium is really our primary product that we're going after. This is really -- it's a carbonatite deposit that has a very good ore grade for niobium. It's upwards of 0.8%, 0.82% and as we just announced in the results from the #2 drill hole that we put out there to do some infill drilling, we had the best drill results that we'd ever had. Full mineralization in the entire carbonatite section that we drilled, and we saw some of the highest continuous ore grades for niobium that we've seen, well over 1%, which then puts us into potentially a #2 category instead of #3 in terms of some of the best ore for a niobium project that's under development right now.

So we're very pleased with the niobium ore grades we're seeing, and we've got the metallurgy figured out just beautifully right now in terms of how to recover that niobium at very high recovery levels, upwards of 90-plus percent for recovering the niobium. Also in the carbonatite deposit, we have titanium, very common to see niobium and titanium in the same resources. We've figured out how to separate the titanium from the niobium. And under the new process flow diagram, we'll be producing 6x the amount of titanium that we note in our 2022 feasibility study. So that will be updated here as we're updating our feasibility study again with the new process flow diagram, but we've got excellent separation between the titanium and niobium now. We're going to be producing scandium as well. And scandium, keep in mind, the scandium titanium and the magnetic rare earths, in our view, are byproducts for the mine. Scandium will be producing at about 100 tonnes per year.

That's probably 3x what the market size is in terms of what's produced basically out of China today. But we are very confident about the latent market demand associated with that scandium. And we are working with, as we just announced also companies like Lockheed Martin on uses and ways to sell the scandium oxide. So they've got a new technology that will help our fighter jets be safer and yet more lethal at the same time. That requires scandium to undertake that change in technology. So we're thrilled with that. And we have other OEM programs that we're working on with automobile manufacturers where we'll replace current parts that are made with 100% aluminum with scandium aluminum and potentially scandium recycled aluminum, which has all kinds of win-win attributes associated with it. And then finally, the magnetic rare earths. And we're able to actually selectively produce the rare earths that we want because we start our metallurgical process with a full hydromet.

So we're putting everything into solution and then we can selectively remove the rare earths that we want. And having been in the rare earth industry for 38-plus years, I can't tell you how nice this is to be in this position because I've always been in a position where you didn't have the capability of selectively producing what you want. And so you end up producing a lot of cerium and a lot of lanthanum before you ever get to the minerals, the rare earths that have value. 90-plus percent of the value of any rare earth ore body today is associated with these magnetic rare earths. Well, we're in the very luxurious position of being able to put everything in solution and then selectively remove that 90-plus percent of the value of the rare earths in our ore body.

And we have the very good fortune with this carbonatite geologic resource of having both bastnaesite and monazite in our ore body, which then allows us to pick up and produce the dysprosium and the terbium all the way to high-purity oxide form. So hopefully, that helps a little bit. And then we -- just to add to that, particularly on the scandium side, there are so many things that we need to bring onshore in the United States here. I mean, first of all, scandium, we don't produce any scandium in the United States today, nor do we produce scandium metal to speak of. We don't produce any of the scandium aluminum alloy of any amount that makes any difference. NioCorp is working on all of those supply chain issues as well, and we hope to have some announcements here in the next near future about efforts that we're undertaking to make sure that, that scandium supply chain is fully onshore in the United States. We're very excited to do that. But a few details we have to work out before we can announce it.

All right. And one more here on the company's operations before I pass it back to [ Mark ]. Can you give us a little bit of information, color on the Elk Creek time line from where you are now to commercial production?

Yes. And remember that I am the Chief Executive Officer. And as I like to tell everybody, I'm also the Chief Cheerleading Officer. And so I'm always going to be very optimistic about what we're doing here. And I also have enough experience in the field to know that sometimes my optimistic views take a little bit longer than what we hope. But I think what I'm about to talk about is pretty realistic because we've been working on so many of these things for so long, and we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. So the really big issue that's hanging over us right now is we've got to get the XM loan to be binding and get it to final form. That needs to be fully approved by the XM Board of Directors. And again, we've been working on that loan process for 2 years and 4 months. And I really feel like we're narrowing down on the last few items that we need to agree to with them, and we're narrowing down on the technical work that XM wanted to see enhanced in order for them to issue us the loan.

So that process is coming together. I don't see any reason right now why that process can't come to conclusion in the U.S. government's fiscal year 2026. So what that means in layman's terms is on or before September 30, 2026, we should have that XM loan in place. We do need to raise a little more equity or some form of additional financing to support the non-debt piece of the project financing. I don't see that as a particular problem either with as much money as we have in the bank right now, the interest level in this project is extremely high. We'll raise the extra money. And again, that should all be able to happen sometime between now and when the XM loan process is finished. What that means then is project financing should come to a conclusion in 2026.

We have a 3-year construction schedule, but don't forget, we're doing a whole bunch of things right now that are part of that construction schedule. But I'll just leave it at 3 years, which means we should start production in 2029. And we've given ourselves about a 6-month period to ramp up from commissioning to full nameplate capacity production at the site. Once we start production, though, so before we hit nameplate capacity, we will be producing minerals. And our offtake contract partners want those minerals sent to them as soon as they're produced and as soon as they meet a reasonable level of product specification. So we'll start generating revenues very quickly at the conclusion of construction. And we have all of our permits in place. So financing is in place, here we go.

So I guess, Mark, if we could, I mean, let's just double-click a little bit more on the XM funding. A question here from the web that as you'd mentioned, you expect sometime in fiscal '26. In the past, I guess, you'd expected the process to likely end by end of '25 due to the parallel XM process moving along simultaneously with the feasibility study and social impact study. So maybe if you could narrow down that time line a little bit more? Should we be thinking more towards the second half of fiscal '26? Or is it closer to the original projection?

Again, let me start by saying, remember, I'm also the Chief Cheerleading Officer. So I continue to push these things and push these things as hard as I can because like everyone else, I'm major shareholder in this company as well. And the sooner we can start construction, the sooner we can start production, the sooner we start revenues for this company. So I want the exact same thing that every shareholder out there wants. Sometimes we don't understand priorities in the government as well as we need to understand them. And there is very little control that we ultimately have over XM in terms of how fast they move in their process. They had pointed out to us in 2024, some technical work items that they wanted to have done to advance their loan evaluation process. We had revised our process flow diagram, unbelievable metallurgical results from that, very well proven out at a full feasibility study level with over 2 weeks of continuous operation at a demonstration plant.

I couldn't be happier with the metallurgy. But as we knew would happen, XM wanted to have that metallurgical process put up to FEL 3 or feasibility study level engineering. That work started at the end of April of this year. It will be done by the end of this calendar year. That will be available for XM to do their due diligence on. That will not take very long. Their technical due diligence contractor has already reviewed everything from a 2019 feasibility, everything from a 2022 feasibility study. This will be a very easy technical review for them to get through, but that has to be done. Second item that they wanted was we had all of our geological reserves classified as probable reserves and XM wanted to have proven reserves. And so we did discuss that with them for quite some period of time because that was very extraordinary.

Most of the commercial banks in the world are very happy with probable reserves in order to finance projects, but XM wanted proven reserves. So we agreed and we undertook an infill drilling program, which we started late April of this year as well. All the holes have been drilled. The rigs are demobed and off-site. All we're doing now is waiting for the analytical results to come back in from that effort. Remember that there were 7,700 samples taken from the 13 holes that we put in the ground, and all of those have to be analyzed. So we've got 2 of the 13 holes done already. We anticipate all of the analytical work to be back in by about mid-December. Then we give the geologists about 30 days to run through all of their models. And the goal that we're trying to achieve on behalf of XM to make their final decision is they want at least 10 years of proven reserves. I have absolutely 0 worries about us not hitting that 10 years.

And I have reason to believe because the geologists that are doing the work actually have offices about 25 feet away from my office. I might be over in their office quite often every day. And I have reason to believe that we're going to hit that target with absolute flying colors. So that is ongoing. And this next week, when we meet with XM, we'll update them with the specifics on that, but that issue is not going to be an issue going forward either. So then it boils down to 2 final things that we have to undertake for XM. Offtake agreements, which we're working on, and we're working on both individual company offtake agreements, we're also looking at a much larger general offtake agreement with a single party. And it's going to be whoever comes first in time is going to get this contract for offtake because we don't have a whole lot of time to finish discussions on this anymore.

XM is ready to act as soon as we have those offtake agreements in place. So we're very focused on that. And then the final issue, which we've already talked about a lot, is they just want to make sure that all the equity is going to be there before they finalize the loan. But needless to say, with the $370-plus million we've raised in 2025, they've verbally indicated to us their confidence level in our ability to meet the full amount is as high as it's going to be. So we're very good in every category. I think the market is going to like when they hear more on the offtake side because that means XM advances that much faster. But I don't see any reason at all why this cannot be completed in 2026. And certainly, when we talk to all of our advisers, when we talk to XM themselves, there's an awful lot of head nodding as we talk about these dates. So I'm confident we're going to hit that.

Got you. Maybe just a follow-up to that. Let's double-click a little bit on the offtake agreements themselves. What do you expect them to look like? And what should investors look out for by the end of this year, end of '26? And then a follow-up question from the web. respecting a lot of the progress here, we're looking to make sort of still hinges on XM, is there any sort of a backup or contingency plan there if it's denied or deferred any further?

Let me start with the second question first, [ Mark ], because I think it's a great question. And one of the things that we've made -- tried to establish a very good reputation for is to have plan A through how many plans we can. And one of those sub plans for the debt side has been we started talking to commercial debt providers 5, 6 years ago. Once we became eligible for the XM process, it became evident to us and the commercial lenders that we were talking to that it was going to be very hard for the commercial lenders to compete with that cost of capital. And so we've kept them on the sidelines, very warm. We give them updates to our project whenever anything significant happens. And so we've kind of got 3 commercial banks sitting out there still very interested in the project, but they know they can't really compete with the XM cost of capital. So yes, we have other plans sitting out there.

I'd also add that there are multiple government agencies in the U.S., which can also provide additional funding here either in concert with XM or separately. All of those have really become fully funded. And for the most part, they're becoming operational now. The Office of Strategic Capital, DFC, those are 2 that I can point to that are very, very directed by the White House to get this critical strategic minerals effort onshore into the United States. So those would also be considered back up. Jim and I have had multiple meetings with those agencies as well to make sure they know who we are, what we're doing. They obviously want to be very careful that they don't cross over into the XM area unnecessarily.

So we're trying to hold all of those conversations very carefully, but very strategically. There's also the market that we can go to. I've been watching the convertible debt market in particular right now. And it's something like I've never seen in 20-plus years of doing financing. I've never seen a convertible market that is this attractive right now. So our goal is to make sure that we put together the best financing package at the lowest cost capital possible because that's what makes a difference to our shareholders and their ultimate value in this company. So we're being very open-minded about it, but we have gone a long ways down the road with XM. I have no intentions of throwing that away and starting fresh again with other folks.

Got you. I guess let's take it back up now a little bit more towards the operations itself and some of the opportunities. But do you anticipate any future partnerships with other parts of the midstream or downstream processes to really kind of help vertically integrate and secure that domestic supply chain?

Yes. Great question, [ Mark ]. And it allows us to once again kind of talk about our culture. There are some entities out there, very small entities sometimes and a little larger entities other times that can do some of these onshore supply chain pieces. And we are not an aggressive company that goes in and takes over companies and does hostile M&A, we do things cooperatively. And so we're -- what we want to make sure that we do for the United States is to put together the whole supply chain where it needs to be put together because other people are not working on it. We want to put that together, but we'll do that in partnership. We'll do that in a JV. We'll do that in an acquisition. I mean it's whatever makes the best sense for us and the other company that we're working for. But we're not going to do anything hostile. We're doing this for purpose, and that's to onshore these supply chain activities. So the United States government is assured that we can do these things and not have to worry about export licenses or decisions on whether things can be sent to the United States or not.

Got you. And then maybe also while we're on it, let's double-click again on the Lockheed deal there and kind of help me understand a little bit more the scandium alloy market and respective to its current size, where do you see the opportunity set? And what are the advantages this alloy kind of brings to market?

Thank you for that question. This is one where hopefully, we'll get finished here in the next 45 minutes or so, [ Mark ]. This is one I'm going to go on. So scandium aluminum alloy and just looking at it by itself compared to aluminum, and that's kind of what you want to look at it for. And the way I kind of like to look at scandium with aluminum is just to kind of think about what niobium does for steel. It's a grain refiner, you end up with something that weighs less. It's significantly stronger, much more corrosion resistant, much more heat resistant on both cold and hot. And then scandium does almost the exact same thing to aluminum. It makes it ultimately lighter, makes it significantly stronger, makes it weldable. It has much better corrosion resistance to it and a much wider temperature span that it can operate under. So it does a lot of very good things. It just -- there's just never been enough supply there.

And so all the technologies that people have that can utilize scandium have basically just been put on a shelf because there wasn't enough supply there. NioCorp can change that to a very large degree. And the part that you always interests me when we're talking to potential scandium offtake partners is they come to realize, and maybe we help them a little bit on this, but they come to realize that we're not a primary scandium producer. We're there for niobium. And as long as we're producing niobium, we necessarily produce scandium. They like that extra advantage that they have, that extra surety that they have that scandium will actually be produced. And because it is a byproduct, our economics with scandium are going to be very different than a primary producer. So it really creates many advantages for us. But in terms of other applications because I think the big issue with scandium has been it's such an opaque market.

There's only 20 to maybe 30 tons produced in the world today. You can Google scandium. And when I did it 7 or 8 years ago, you would find prices that ranged anywhere from $3,500 a kilogram to $12,000 a kilogram. If you Google it today, you'll find prices that are kind of right around $700 a kilogram to $3,500 a kilogram. And what you're seeing there is that this is the basic China MO again where they see the advantages of scandium. They understand that they are the major producer of scandium today. They're trying to capture that market share. I've seen this go through at least 3 cycles on the rare earth space, and we're just seeing it again on scandium. So what they've been doing is dropping the prices of scandium to keep all the other producers out, capturing more and more market. That's not something that bothers us.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I want to make sure we get the right value for our scandium. But our price to produce that doesn't create a problem like it does for a primary scandium producer. So we can hang in there pretty good with the Chinese for a long period of time, and we plan to do so. And in the meantime, we're developing -- we're working with the people who will actually use scandium and developing those applications to make sure that people know that we are going to produce 100 tons per year. You can move forward with these efforts that include the scandium or scandium aluminum alloys. One of the -- we've talked about Lockheed a little bit. That's a very exciting opportunity for us and unbelievable what it will do for our pilots. We're also working on another project over in the U.K. called Project PIVOT.

And we have Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover, Boeing U.K. as kind of the end users in this Project PIVOT group. But we have NioCorp as a future scandium supplier. We have the extruders. We have the casting companies. We have the aluminum companies. And what we're looking at over there is taking recycled aluminum adding a little bit of scandium to it. And what you end up with is an alloy that is equal to or better than the aluminum that you would use if you used fresh or green aluminum in that application. Well, these car companies are ecstatic about this because you do end up with an alloy that has equal to or better than the properties of the aluminum. The cost of recycled aluminum is 70%, 7-0 percent less than buying fresh aluminum, so they get a lower cost part. And then one of the best things that the U.K. manufacturers like is that when you use recycled aluminum in this process, you get a 96% reduction in your CO2 emission profile associated with that part.

And that means that converting the aluminum parts in these automobiles to scandium recycled aluminum parts, that will be their largest single reduction in CO2 emissions corporate-wide, and they are still committed to their CO2 emission targets that they've put out publicly. So this is a win-win-win for the OEMs over in the U.K. And our -- we can't wait to finalize all those project efforts and get all the final data and enter into offtake agreements with those parties. Our biggest concern is we're only producing 100 tons. If we start talking about the likes of Ford or GM that might want to do this down the road, we're going to have to produce a lot more scandium. That's a good problem to have. So we're looking forward to that.

All right. Great. Very comprehensive response, Mark. You have 5 minutes left, 4 minutes left, and there's 2 questions that I would like to ask you. Hopefully, we can get those in those 4 minutes. First is beyond the Lockheed Martin offtake agreement that you discussed, are there any other offtakes agreements? Maybe to the extent that you can comment or provide some broad color would be great. Particularly, is there -- is it a possibility that you get upfront payments as some of other rare earth companies out there have been able to get? And then the second question is just a brief take on the current flurry of announcements that we have seen between the U.S. and China regarding rare earths in the last couple of weeks.

Yes. I'll start with offtake because that will be very, very quick. I've probably said as much as I can say, given the confidentiality agreements that we obviously have to enter into to have these discussions. But we are in discussions with individual users of our materials, and we're also in discussions with one party in particular, that would be more of a general overall offtake agreement with one party. And I want to do that, again, I think I've said it already, but it's all a matter of timing with the XM process right now. The XM process is coming down to the final steps. They have to have offtake, I will make sure they have offtake. So we're going to take whoever comes to the finish line first, and we're going to make sure we get that XM loan. In terms of what's going on in China, it's an unbelievably good question, Carlos, because we've had reports coming out of the White House in terms of what they think was agreed to with China.

Now we're starting to get some feedback from China on what they think they agreed to. And needless to say, there's mass confusion again. There are suggestions that what China agreed to was to loosen the restrictions on the list of heavy rare earths that they put out in October for export restrictions, but not the ones that they put out in April. I will be the first to tell you that in terms of rare earth permanent magnets, it's the April list that matters, not so much the October list. Notwithstanding whether it's the October list or the April list, we know that China is also still requiring export licenses. And they're going to require those export licenses because they are going to do everything in their power, and they're very verbal about this. They're going to do everything in our power to make sure that none of these heavy rare earths, which they are the sole producer of in the world today, none of these heavy rare earths can be used in U.S. military applications.

So there will continue to be a licensing process. And then I -- because I've done enough business with China over the years, particularly in the rare earth space, I actually view the Chinese approval process as 2 steps. First thing to do is to get the actual paper license. And remember that if you answer a question wrong, they send it back and then you have to fill out the whole thing again and send it back again. And don't forget that the People's Liberation Army is now one of the reviewing entities for these paper licenses that you have to get. So that's your first step. But then once you get the license, there are decisions that can be made, and I don't know how they're made, but sometimes exports are allowed and sometimes exports aren't allowed.

So there's kind of this paper license and then there's this subjective decision as to whether or not you're going to get those materials or not. I'm very hopeful that we can get around this issue and that we can continue to produce the vehicles that our companies want to produce. We don't have to shut down automobile production. I mean what a huge problem that would create for labor in this country. But there are still issues there that need to be resolved. We're hoping they get resolved. Having said all of that, and as negative as that sounds, I also want to say thank you, President Trump. He understands the issue. He's putting that issue front and center with China. No other leader that I know of in the United States has ever done that.

So my compliments to our President for understanding we have a serious issue here. It needs to be addressed. He's also doing some absolutely courageous things in the marketplace. The floor price for MP Materials, unbelievable courage to do that as an elected official. That's really not something that's done in our country. We're a capitalist society, but he did that, and it takes away the Chinese MO that I talked about just a minute ago with scandium. So he's bringing these activities onshore. He's bringing the production and the supply chains for these critical minerals onshore and he's trying to work out trade deals to make sure they continue to come onshore while we're building up our capabilities. My compliments.

Yes. Well, and we want to say thank you to you for joining us. It has been a great session. We'll see you shortly. But thank you very much. Thank you, [ Mark ], for cohosting these fantastic discussions. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Carlos. Thank you, [ Mark ]. It was a pleasure.

Okay, everyone. We are going to get things started now. This is Paul Kuntz with ready ship companies. I want to thank everyone for joining today's event with NioCorp, which trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker NB.

With us today, we have Mark Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of NioCorp; Scott Honan, Chief Operating Officer and President of Elk Resources; Jim Sims, Chief Communications Officer; and Alex Guthrie, Director of Investor Relations.

We will begin with a brief presentation in a moment, and then we'll open up the event to questions. I will keep everyone's lines muted throughout the presentation. Users may reach the team at any time by clicking the Q&A button at the bottom of the Zoom window and typing in their question.

Before we begin, please allow me to read the safe harbor statement. This call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements pertaining to future financially and our operating results, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects expressed by management constitute forward-looking statements.

Any statements or not historical fact sold also be considered forward-looking and, of course, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.

I will now turn the call over to NioCorp team. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, and thank you, everybody, for joining us today. It's all part of our effort to make sure that we keep our shareholders and the market up to speed on what's happening at NioCorp. And there certainly are a lot of things happening at NioCorp right now. As you can see in the upper left-hand side, I'll just do some preliminary background materials to start with here, but the upper left-hand corner here, you can see that NioCorp is all about building a $1.2 billion below ground, our underground mine and surface processing facility in the Southeast corner of the state of Nebraska and our minerals that we'll be producing involve niobium, titanium, scandium and the magnetic rare earth oxides.

And just to put that in context a little bit, let's keep in mind that we import 100% of the dysprosium and terbium oxide. So it's very important that as part of the onshoring effort that the United States is going through today that this mine get up and running. We are NioCorp and the lower left-hand side here in the blue, you can get a little bit of company information. We are traded on the NASDAQ, ticker symbol NB. You can see some of the market cap, total number of shares outstanding, et cetera. And the very bottom there is a point that we're pretty proud of. We have 0 debt and 0 convertible debt on our balance sheet as of today.

In terms of company highlights, I'm going to say this more than once, but we have been able to secure greater than $370 million in funding so far this year, and that's in the form of equity funding as well as warrant conversion and use of our CEPA program. We do have all of our permits in hand. So once the financing is in place, we can start construction immediately. The other really important points here is the second one from the bottom and that is that our team has actually produced the minerals that we're going to be producing here at the Elk Creek facility that maybe from other locations around the world, but we often hear in articles or conferences that the United States just simply doesn't have the experience to produce these minerals anymore, and we would like to challenge that. We think our team not only has the hands-on experience, but we have the institutional knowledge to make that happen. So we're pretty proud of that fact.

Next slide, Jim. Here's the minerals that we'll be producing. Again, ferroniobium, scandium oxide, titanium and even tetrachloride or TiO2 form, neodymium, praseodymium, oxide that's put together, the 2 minerals and then dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide. You can see that red banner across the middle, emphasizing the fact that these are all very, very highly dependent on foreign sources to keep the United States running.

Next slide. This is an important point that came out about 4 weeks ago, but the USGS United States geological survey was asked by the White House to do a criticality analysis of the 54 critical minerals for the United States. They did that work. They published that work. And as we suspected anyway, but it certainly came out TrueBlue, Niobium, dysprosium and terbium are considered among the highest priority critical minerals. And in fact, Niobium was considered the second highest threat when it comes to the United States gross domestic product, or GDP, it would have greater than $10 billion a year to hit -- negative hit to the U.S. GDP if we were not able to import those materials today. So a very interesting finding, one that didn't surprise us at all. But I think Niobium is continuing to get more and more pressed, much like the rare earth today.

Next slide. Here's where we are on contracts. These are actual enforceable offtake agreements. These aren't LOIs, they're not MOUs. These are binding and they're enforceable offtake agreements. So we're continuing to work on that. And in terms of additional milestones that you'll hear the company meeting, we would hope to see some additional enforceable offtake agreements between now and, hopefully, the end of the year.

Next slide, Jim. In terms of our -- just a simplified version of the project financing, we start on the right-hand side with the upfront CapEx $.12 billion. We know from the communications in writing that we've gotten from the U.S. export import bank that they're willing to fund on a 65% debt-to-equity ratio that $1.2 billion, which means that we can get $780 million in debt financing for U.S. export import bank. And we'll talk about that in more detail in just a minute. That leaves $420 million of additional money that has to be raised in 1 form or another. And if we very quickly go to the next slide, we'll show you where we are on that.

On the left-hand side, in the green box, you can see that we've raised almost $371 million to date in 2025. The complicated graph on the right that you see is just really a message to our shareholders that we are trying hard to do the right thing for our shareholders. And what this slide is showing us is that the offering size, as we started in January of 2025 and our last raise was October 15, the size of each of those offerings has increased. The share price has increased as each of these offerings was made and the discount to the then existing market price is also getting lower and lower every time. These are 3 things that you want to watch for. We're very happy that we've been able to achieve this so far, and we'll continue to do our best to make sure these trends are going in the right direction.

Next slide. With that money in the bank, we're not just letting it sit there. We're actually trying to utilize it and do several project advancement activities utilizing that money and ensuring that once we do have all the financing in place and the actual construction of the project starts, we will have a bunch of these activities done and out of the way, which just keeps us on schedule and on budget with that much more derisking involved. So we're finalizing all the property purchases. We're hoping to have a good announcement about the final property purchases hopefully within this week or next week. That will allow us to say that we have secured roughly 640 acres of 1 square mile which is what we need for our 8-year mine life and the above ground facilities.

We've finished up our mineral reserve uplift drilling T.he rigs have been demobilized and we're now just waiting for the analysis to come out for all of these 70 -- almost -- well, it's over 7,000 samples of diamond core that have been sent into the labs. And Scott can talk about this more in just a little bit. But all these other things as well and site preparation and early works construction would be too, that I would point out as well. Getting the property prepared for the construction activity, maybe getting our portal put into the ground. Those are things that just keep us ahead of the game and make sure that as the full construction project starts, we're on top of it, and we can tell our shareholders and the market that we're on budget and on time.

Next slide. So we got a $10 million grant from the Department of War. And the first 2 items here, Items 1 and 2 are all about technical work that the U.S. Export-Import Bank asked us to do to further our debt application process and it was good to see that the Department of War provided this $10 million of funding and allowed us to take on items 1 and 2. So we already talked about the drilling activity, and we'll have Scott provide more detail in a minute. We also started some detailed engineering -- I'm sorry, feasibility study level engineering on our new process flow diagram that started the last week in April. It's proceeding very well right now, and we're looking forward to hopefully some good results on that as early as the end of this calendar year.

Items 3 and 4 are pretty exciting to the company, and you've seen some press releases last week, in particular, relative to our activities in the scandium area. The Department of Ward really views scandium as an important and critical mineral for them right now, and that's an element that we do import 100% into the country today. So they've asked us to take a look at how can we produce scandium metal in country that is not done today. So we are undertaking that effort. We hope to have our first scandium metal production as early as November, which should be very quick now. We're also -- and we just announced last week the aerospace prime is Lockheed Martin, and we are working on an aluminum scandium alloy technology for advanced fighter jets, both from a threat detection Antelope and a structural capability in the F-35 and F '22. So very, very exciting, and we're thrilled to be working with a company like Lockheed.

Next slide. So we mentioned we're working on the XM loan process, $780 million. We are very far down the road with EXIM. And once the government gets up and running again, hopefully, we can sit down and finalize this process with EXIM and the shortest amount of time possible. We were supposed to have a meeting with them last week to go over things that are in the second checked item here, which is the preliminary project letter and the preliminary indicative term sheet. We have a report card that we put together and have shared with EXIM from time to time to let them know where we are in the various activities that they wanted us to undertake as part of securing this loan.

And it's really very gratifying to me to see that report card and see how much work has been concluded with very little left now to get to the finish line with EXIM. So all that is going well. I think our relationship with EXIM remains strong and, of course, having an adviser like JPMorgan certainly helps the process tremendously. So more to come on that. And I think it won't surprise anybody if I say that probably one of the most important news events that will happen in the history of the company will be what we could say that we have a binding agreement with EXIM. So obviously, that is a huge focus of all of our activities today, probably our #1 priority.

Next slide. We have the capabilities of bringing other export credit agencies in as well. The U.K. export finance group and the German untied loan program. The German loan program is actually probably more feasible at this point in time because we actually have an offtake agreement with a German customer. And that is what you need to be eligible for that program. So we'll be pushing that with program here, probably meeting with them face-to-face sometime in December. We've had a couple of different face-to-face meetings with the U.K. export finance group.

They're very interested in helping fund this project as well. But we do need to have an offtake agreement to some U.K. company, and that is not in place yet, but we are continuing to work with multiple companies potential offtake, not just of scandium, but maybe some other of our products as well. So more news to come on that front as well. But again, very excited to have this level of interest being expressed to us by all these export credit agencies and getting a multi-country view on how we're doing things.

Next slide. We've covered this before, so I won't spend a lot of time on it. This is from our 2022 feasibility study. We're getting very close now, probably within 5 to 6 months, we should have the updated feasibility study done, and that will allow us to provide updated economic model highlights to you. We're looking forward to that because we know when you add the magnetic rare earth as additional revenue when you increase the amount of titanium that you're going to produce by 6 times, you increased your niobium recovery by 4% or 5%. That EBITDA number on the upper right-hand side is going to go up, which also means that your pretax NPV number on the upper left-hand side is going to go up. So we're very anxious to get that technical work done and be able to report to the market and our shareholders what the updated economic model will look like.

Next slide. Here's our team. And you can see we've added a couple of faces here. So you've got the usual suspects with Mark, Scott, Neal and Jim. We've been working on this project for 11 to 12 years. between all of us. We've added Ernest Cleave as of August of this year. Ernest is a very seasoned finance professional and really business professional and has already added tremendous value to the company and multiple things that he's working on, including that scandium supply chain that we're very interested in putting together.

We just added David Hamm, he's our new General Counsel, tremendous individual. I think as the market gets to know him and our shareholders get to know him, very quickly find out why we wanted David on our team. very high energy, very smart, just really a hard worker and as honest as they come. So he fits our team very, very well.

I think that, that basically concludes everything for a presentation, and I think we had some questions. How are we going to do the questions?

Yes. Thank you, Mark. We are now going to open up the webinar to questions. [Operator Instructions] Our first question how does the new collaboration with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works accelerate aluminum scandium commercialization and confirmed Elk Creek's role in U.S. defense.

It's a great question. And I think just the fact that we announced the study shows that there are actual applications, new applications that involve scandium and this is what we've been trying to tell the market for quite a while. There is a tremendous amount of latent demand for scandium out there. And NioCorp has put it upon ourselves to go out and find those applications and encourage companies like Lockheed to move forward with these new technologies.

I can't get into too much of the technology for obvious reasons. But this is a technology that Lockheed has been working on for a period of time. The Department of War is about as excited as I've seen them in a long time when it comes to a new technology and they're pushing Lockheed to have this as a ready to install technology within 18 to 24 months which is -- that is equivalent to what we kind of jokingly call Trump time right now. That is very, very fast for the Department of War to install a new technology that quickly, and again, just speaks volumes to how important scandium can be if we have a good supply.

And it's -- NioCorp will be producing about 100 tonnes of that per year. That's about anywhere from, I don't know, 3x to 4x more than what is produced in the world today. but the number of latent technologies or latent demand with utilizing scanning technologies that are just sitting on the book shelf getting Dusty today is unbelievable, and we're going to do our best to unlock as many of those technologies as possible.

Thanks, Mark. And when will Defense Production Act Title III milestones begin converting into cash reimbursements and potential follow-on government work.

I'll be happy to answer that, although I think Jim can answer that as well. Why don't we have a different voice on the line here.

Good. Thanks, Mark. The answer is pretty simple. They're already being reversed as we speak. And so that process will continue as we walk through the deliverables in the program, but that process is going very well.

Thank you, Jim. Our next question, being that all required land and mineral rights are secured, how quickly can you break ground after financing and what are the first on-site steps?

Scott, why don't I have you answer that one.

Sure, Mark. I think we're certainly anxious to deploy some of the capital that we've raised so far this year. And as we look forward to continued capital raises, we're already thinking and working towards those groundbreaking type events. So I think subject to our board's approval, the kind of things that we might see in the near future include things like clearing and grading at the site getting a start on the mine portal, which Mark alluded to during his comments earlier in the webinar and just getting a start on things like utilities that we need to eventually run the operation and pushing forward with operational permitting and hiring staff.

I'm pretty excited because there's a whole universe of things that we can get working on now that we have some money in the treasury.

Thank you, Scott. And our next question, what is the status of the drilling campaign you have been conducting in Nebraska.

I'll hand that one over to Scott because this is -- it's too exciting for me not to let him talk about.

Well, I'm pleased to report that the drilling is complete, and we actually finished that up on October 9. And that's a program that in the field went particularly well. We actually did an evaluation in late July and determined that because we were doing pretty well with budget and schedule, we can add an additional 4 holes to the resource drilling program. So the original impetus for this program was to convert some of our indicated resources to measured and thus convert some of our probable reserves to proven. But we had an opportunity here to add some additional holes to the program with the expectation that if we get good results there, we could further increase the size of our resource.

And we also added some geomechanical work to the program so that when we actually establish our portal and the ramps down to the mining area, we have some good knowledge about the rock we're going to be going through. So that program went very well. Right now, if you were to go to the site, you'd see the field team and the geology team really wrapping up work for the field season. We're doing some resampling of some historic core stored on site. We expect that work to be done in early November.

And I think the other thing I would say is that we had some very clever geologists design our field program this year. It really was an adaptive program that is that as we got results from hole number one, we would use those results to inform the location and characteristics of hole number 2. So we use that adaptive approach through the program and I'm pretty sure that we're going to get a good result out of this drilling at the end of the day.

Thank you, Scott. And another question we have. With regard to the land position that the company has, is there room for future expansion of the mine.

Simple answer is yes. Scott, do you want to get into the details there?

Sure. At this point, we have all the land that we need for construction and initial operations. We are pursuing some additional land acquisition just really to optimize our land position and allow for some operational flexibility. I think that we focus on 1 section of land, which in Southeast Nebraska is a parcel that's 640 acres basically 1 mile on a side in Square form. And the challenge that I've put before the engineering and design teams is to make the best use of that land possible.

So let's take a look and see how many operational years we can get out of that land position. Over and above that, we do have options to purchase additional land in the area, an additional 970 acres so that if we get something like 20, 30 years of operational life of our main parcels land, we've got plenty of room to expand in the future.

Thanks, Scott. And our next question, regarding the feasibility study you were working to update, how is that process going?

Scott, I'll let you answer that again. You've got all the engineers working hard.

Well, I will say the work is moving along nicely. Really, if you were to take a snapshot of where we're at time right now, most of the efforts at this point has been just an engineering design updating designs from our 2022 basis, getting new features such as our twin decline and railer system designed and tied into the surface plant and then taking what we learned from our demonstration plant and further refining our production process and the design of the surface plant.

So a lot of design engineering work there that is now transitioning into the cost estimating part. So once everything is designed, you have to figure out how much it's all going to cost. All of that work is moving along nicely. I would say just looking at all the different work streams that are running in parallel right now, we probably have a critical path that runs through getting all of our assays complete from this drilling program that just finished getting all those assays into an assay database, updating our mineral resource and thus updating our mineral reserve. And then at the end of that, making sure that we have an adequate mine design to mine all of those mineral reserves.

So working with a lot of partners on this. The work is going extremely well, and I hope to have some results to report on all of that work here very soon.

Thank you, Scott. And our next question, how is the process for securing additional offtake agreements going?

I'll take that one. It's going, and we're constantly working on this. This is one of the things that is absolutely critical in terms of getting debt financing, it doesn't hurt with equity financing either, but it's absolutely critical for debt financing. So we've got multiple avenues literally with every product that we're undertaking now, and it's going to be first come first serve at the end of the day. But as the world tightens, so to speak, was a lot of these critical strategic minerals and exports are being halted out of some countries. It certainly is making people rethink their supply chains, rethink where they're securing their minerals from. And if nothing else, they want alternatives to what they've had previously.

So those are all tailwinds helping us on the offtake side. But I do think that we'll have -- there would be some pretty good milestones that shareholders and the market can expect to hear about in the next few months here.

Great. Thank you, Mark. And our next question, how are discussions with the U.S. export import bank, U.K. export finance and other lenders progressing? And what financing mix best limits dilution ahead of the final investment decision?

Yes. So I think I talked to that to some degree already. All those discussions are going very well. Unfortunately, the U.S. government is shut down right now. And so we were not able to do a meeting with EXIM last week that we were supposed to. However, we do have meetings that are being set up in December with the U.K. export finance group. They're actually going to be in the United States, and they asked if we could meet with them while they're over here in the United States. So that that's the level of relationship that we're starting to build with all of these export credit agencies.

I think at the end of the day, what we'll see is a very good blend of those 3 export credit agencies, and that just kind of helps each of them feel more comfortable. And all I mean there is instead of EXIM assuming $780 million in a debt package, they could end up assuming about $380 million with U.K. export finance group, assuming $200 million in the German government program, assuming another $200 million. It just makes everybody relax a little bit more when their total amount exposure goes down to those levels. So we're encouraged by what's happening. We just need to get the government back to work.

Great. Thank you, Mark. And our next question, what is the road map to scale aluminum scandium from defense prototypes into automotive and aerospace production, including master alloy partnerships and customer qualifications.

Yes. And let me go back, Paul, just on that last question. I didn't answer the question of dilution. I think the simple answer there is everybody can see that we're looking at export credit agency finance at about a 65% level that addresses dilution by definition. And what we're otherwise doing then is raising equity in the form of common shares and we're trying to get the highest price possible in those offerings that also minimizes dilution. So hopefully, our shareholders and the market can see that we do care about things like dilution, but we also care about increasing the value of the company constantly, and I think that we're seeing some good success in that regard.

So then going to the scandium issue in terms of going from defense or defense prototype into more of a commercial application. I think the key there to me is in order to service Lockheed the way that they're going to need to be serviced. We're going to have to establish many parts of the supply chain for scandium aluminum. And that's going to mean you're going to have to have a mine that produces scandium oxide. That's what we're building at NioCorp. You're then going to have to take that oxide and either convert it to metal, which we're doing with our DoD grant or converted straight into an aluminum scandium master alloy, and we have a couple of different technologies that are pretty exciting to us in that regard.

We hope to clamp down on one of those pretty quick and start moving that more into maybe our ownership or a partnership or something where we have more control over the production of the master alloy and then ultimately be able to produce the scandium aluminum alloy itself at the 0.1% or 0.2% scandium levels. We just announced in combination with IBC Advanced Alloys that they had done their first pour with the using master alloy and aluminum to make the actual scandium aluminum alloy that would be used by folks like Lockheed Martin. And so you can see there, we are moving down the road, making sure that we have an onshore scanning aluminum supply chain. And based on the 2 press releases last week, we're seeing some pretty good success in that regard.

As that supply chain is put together and it's able to service companies like Lockheed Martin, you will get the rest of the commercial applications for scandium aluminum to pay more attention to this as well. There's not a whole lot of reason for people to pay attention to it right now when the supply chain doesn't exist inside the country. So our speed of putting this together is going to dictate how much commercial attention is paid to the scandium aluminum arena. And I got to say that I'm pretty excited about the inquiries that we're getting from people as a result of the announcements we made last week. So I think more good news to come on all of those fronts, Paul.

Great. Thank you, Mark. And our next question, do you anticipate down the road issuing dividends to shareholders?

No, that's a little ways out because we still have to finalize financing. We have to finalize detailed engineering. We have to build a mine, and we have to make it operational and then we need to pay debts back. But certainly, if you take a look at the average EBITDA even on the 2022 feasibility study, it would certainly suggest that we're going to have excess cash. And so we will do our normal corporate analysis on that. Are there ways that we can grow the business that make sense? Are there ways that we can go through M&A and grow the business, should we look at share buybacks or should we look at dividends. But those decisions are a little ways down the road. We certainly think about them and get pretty excited about them. but we're going to stay pretty focused on financing and construction here for the next little while.

Thanks, Mark. And this next question, I think you touched on a little bit just a moment ago, but can we expect more material news on scandium and scandium aluminum alloys this year? And for example, 2 methods, offtakes and/or additional partnerships.

I mean, Scott, why don't I have you talk about your expectations for the metal because I think that's November. I think that we could probably have some announcements there, and then I'll pick up after that.

Sure, Mark. We have kicked off a program with 2 companies, Nanoscale powders and creative engineers to produce scandium metal. This is a different method than making a master alloy. It's a little bit trickier because scandium is a very reactive element as a metal and generally, you have to keep it away from water and from oxygen so that it doesn't oxidize. But we have a mechanism for doing that. We will be starting the test work associated with that here in November. The expectation is we'll start at a few tens of grams, ramp that up to a few hundreds of grams.

And I think the exciting part of this is that there are customers here in the United States that would like to have a supply of scan metal. There's a fair few places in the world you can get that. And if we're successful in these undertakings and the test work, that's something that we might think about as an early activity as part of our overall effort to develop the Elk Creek project.

Great, Scott. Now as we kind of think about the supply chain that we've talked about already, where we can produce the oxides, produce the metal, produce the master alloy produce the alloy, the next steps are pretty interesting. We think the additive manufacturing world probably has a pretty good jump start on their capabilities in terms of the activities that need to occur for them to be successful downstream of producing the actual alloy itself. But there are some other areas where we think some additional development is going to have to occur because you could actually put the scandium aluminum alloy, the 0.1% or 0.2% in a billet form. You could then cut the billet into pieces and machine those disks into the finished product shaped part shaped that a company would want or we just showed that we could produce the aluminum scandium alloy at IBC, and you could remelt that material and put it into a casting business to make a near net shape part.

So there's a couple of other pieces of the downstream supply chain that we're looking at and we're very interested in. We want to make sure that everything that needs to be done in that scandium supply chain is done, and I think we're well on our way. You can see there's some little pieces that we think would be just as important to put into place, and we have actions occurring in each of those areas.

Thank you. And our next question, Trump has been dealing with and taking stakes in lots of critical mineral companies lightly, thoughts on the likelihood of an incoming deal in the rare earth space.

That's speculation at best, Paul. So I'm going to limit our answers in their entirety on that ground. But just suffice it to say that, we are in talking to the federal government at many different levels. Many different levels of the federal government know about our project and the multiple critical strategic minerals that we'll be producing -- so we are part of the process, and I'll just leave it at that right now.

Thank you, Mark. And our next question, given the rapid growth of hyperscale and AI data centers, how has NioCorp positioned its critical minerals like niobium and scandium to meet demand for high-performance materials used in cooling systems power infrastructure and advanced alloys in data center construction.

Well, I think it all boils down to we've got to be able to put the company in a position where we're producing these minerals and then have the flexibility to take the basic forms of the -- each of the products that we're making and have flexibility to go into other types of these products. So niobium would be a very good example where we're primarily focused on ferroniobium, which is where over 90% the niobium goes in terms of sales, and that all goes into the steel industry, but there's a really, really nice business to be had there. In terms of metal, niobium metal and niobium pentoxide or the high-purity niobium oxide. And that's where you start getting into the AI and data center activities as when you get into those higher purity oxide forms and the different areas that each of them utilize.

Same thing for scandium, same thing for the magnetic rare earth. It's a matter of producing them and there is a place to sell them, and we love the higher tech applications because they do tend to like the higher purity materials as a general rule that gives us a higher margin on our materials.

Mark, if I could add to that. One thing specifically about data centers and those that are serving the AI infrastructure, those chips tend to run very, very hot. And what we're hearing about is designs that involve disposing metal, which is 1 of the metals that can handle those high temperatures. So certainly, we will be well positioned to serve that business as we'll be producing a high purity and fully separated dysprosium oxide product.

Great point, Scott.

Thank you, gentlemen. And we are running up towards the end of our allotted time. So this will be our final question. What top 3 catalysts should investors watch in the year-end and early 2026 that you believe the market is underappreciating?

Well, I'll take a first shot at that, but Scott would love your opinions as well. I think the finished geology work, the results of the drilling is going to be well received by the market. I think the finished work for the feasibility study is going to be well received by the market, including the updated economic model. So those are 2 very big catalysts I think additional offtake agreements being disclosed will also be very big for the company and well received by the market.

And then just the normal activities of continuing with our fundraising efforts continuing to do our fundraising efforts with all the right trends in mind. And ultimately, again, I'll repeat it, but I think it will be one of the biggest newsworthy events we have in the history of the company when we get to announce something binding from EXIM. But we've got work to do in that regard. It's not going to be tomorrow, but we are very confident in our ability to get to the finish line.

Maybe I'll add to that, Mark. You continue to push my team and myself to deploy the capital that we've raised here very successfully in 2025. And I'm working with our engineering and construction partners to do that. So I think investors can look forward to some things happening on the ground at the Elk Creek project here in the near future.

Yes. Excellent point, Scott.

Great. Well, thank you, gentlemen. For our audience for more information about NioCorp, please call us here at RedChip at 1-800 red ship or you can e-mail us at nb, that's the techersymbolnb@ redchip.com. You can also visit RedChip's Investor Information page for NioCorp. It's niocorpinfo.com. There, you can view and download the investor presentation and fact sheet and I'll sign up for news alerts as well.

And with that, I want to thank you, gentlemen, for joining us today and thank our audience for joining us as well.

Thank you, Paul. It's our pleasure.

And this concludes today's event.

[Audio Gap].

[Audio Gap] We are working just laser-focused on getting that EXIM loan in place. EXIM has been very clear. They need certain technical work programs to be done. They need additional offtake by NioCorp, and they need to have a higher level of confidence in our ability to raise the equity needed for the project financing.

And we have some very good news on all of those fronts. The two technical work programs that EXIM has asked us to do are actually on board. They are being finished up as we speak. We started those in late April of this year. So we are in very good shape there.

And the technical work programs that we're undertaking actually will meet the highest standards available in the industry. So the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has a standard. It's called S-K 1300. We will meet those S-K 1300 standards at the feasibility study level.

So this is not guessing. This isn't preliminary economic assessments. This isn't pre-feasibility. This is feasibility study level standards, and we're exceptionally proud to meet those standards and give the U.S. Export-Import Bank and our shareholders the confidence they need in this project.

The second item, offtake, we hope to have some good news on that very soon. As you can imagine, when you're producing critical strategic minerals today where there are very few options where to get those minerals, the #1 option, obviously being China, that creates a problem.

And so there is multiple sources of demand for these minerals, and it's just a matter of finalizing contracts and putting them into place and putting them in front of EXIM.

And then finally, we've been able to raise $212.5 million just in 2025 and EXIM has signaled to us that their confidence level in our ability to raise the equity is very strong right now.

So we are really -- we're moving very quickly, very fast through this process, although it's been a 2-year process, but we really feel like we're coming to the end of the tunnel. We could see the light right now.

Yes. And we pointed this out as well in the setup going to you, Mark, that China practically monopolizes this market. And one of the problems that could come out of that is China's ability, because of its monopoly, ability to perhaps really violate the supplies as well as crash prices or push up the prices. So what would be some of the considerations that your long-term investors, private investors need to make going into projects with you and into your company?

Well, again, I'll focus on the extremely high standards that our company meets on all of the technical work. That reduces the risk in a project in an unbelievable way. But I should also point out that things are changing in the world right now.

The current White House, President Trump and his staff really understand the age-old issue coming out of China right now, where they get total control of a market and then they can either increase prices or decrease prices and all of us that are outside of China have troubles financing our projects as a result.

The Trump administration has demonstrated unbelievable courage in this industry. They are providing price floor support. That takes care of that price manipulation issue and control over financing.

And so that issue is going to be behind us very quickly as the Trump administration continues to work on each and every one of the critical strategic minerals in the world today. I think it's really good news for the world overall.

Right. But for these critical mineral projects, my understanding is that it's incredibly long lead times, upfront costs are very high as well. So what kind of -- realistically speaking, what kind of time line are you running against right now? Are you -- will you be able to get all these critical minerals unearthed and mined and refined in 5 years from now, 10 years from now?

Yes. It's a great, great question. And of course, that has been the issue. China has put billions and billions of dollars into their critical and strategic minerals program for decades now. And you don't just flip a switch and have a new mine or a new processing facility. And in the United States, we tend to have one of the longest permitting time frames available.

I'm very, very pleased, happy to report that the NioCorp project in Nebraska, its critical strategic minerals project is fully permitted. It's ready to go for construction. Once project financing is in place, we start construction, and it's 3 years to finish that project and have product flowing into the United States.

And we won't just have rare earths at our facility. We'll have the heavy rare earths, and we'll have some light rare earths, the magnetic rare earths, which is very important. Those heavies are particularly important because that is an issue that still faces the Pentagon today, and we can help provide that source of those heavy rare earths.

But we will also be producing niobium, scandium and titanium. Those three elements are also critical and strategic to the United States. So I think if we're smart about how we go about supporting this project or supporting that project, here's one that is a great example where we are really almost done with all of the technical work at the highest standards possible.

We're moving fast now into final financing stages of the company. We can build a mine and we can take care of niobium, scandium, rare earths and titanium in one project. That's a very efficient way to get things done.

What have you learned in recent months about perhaps the sense of urgency that U.S. government has regarding this rare earth-related policies? And do you also think about and even talk about with the government about the potential direct, I don't know, stake buying by the U.S. government? And would you go for that kind of option as well?

I think that we have to be very flexible to help the country and to help the world with the need for these critical and strategic rare earth minerals. And if that means equity positions by the United States government, if that means loans from the U.S. government, if that means price floor supports, we need to do what it takes because we are in a very, very difficult position right now.

And if we don't start the building of these mines and these processing facilities, we are not going to be in a position to negotiate anything with China going forward. So I think all the right things are being done right now. And as I mentioned earlier, I think it's really taken a lot of courage for the United States government to step up the way that it has. And we're here to help in any way [Audio Gap].

Hello, this is Craig Brelsford with RedChip Companies. Thank you for joining today's event with NioCorp, which trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker NB. With us today, we have Mark Smith, Chairman, President and CEO; Scott Honan, Chief Operating Officer and President of Elk Creek Resources; Jim Sims, Chief Communications Officer; and Alex Guthrie, the Director of IR. We will begin with a brief presentation in a moment, and then we'll open this event to your questions. I will keep everyone's lines muted throughout the presentation. Users may reach the NioCorp team at any time by clicking the Q&A button at the bottom of the Zoom window and typing in their question.

Before we begin, please allow me to read the safe harbor statement. This call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements pertaining to future financial and/or operating results, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects expressed by management constitute forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical facts should also be considered forward-looking statements. Of course, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.

I now turn this webinar over to the NioCorp team. Gentlemen, please go ahead.

Thank you, Craig, and thank you all for joining us today. It's been a pretty exciting few months here at NioCorp, and we're pretty anxious to provide yet another update for our shareholders and interested investors. Let me start out with this NioCorp at a glance slide. First of all, we'll start in the upper left-hand corner. We are a Colorado-based company, pursuing financing to start construction of a fully permitted underground and aboveground surface processing facility in the state of Nebraska, near Elk Creek, Nebraska. And as part of our production, we will be producing the designated critical minerals, niobium, titanium, scandium and the magnetic rare earth oxides including neodymium-praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.

If we take a quick look at the lower left-hand side here, you can see that we are traded on the NASDAQ, ticker symbol NB. We have a market capitalization of about $526 million, a little bit more than that today. And I'd like to point out specifically the very last item here, we have zero debt and zero outstanding convertible notes on our balance sheet as of today, and it's a really good feeling. Another couple of highlights I'll point out here just because it doesn't come out in the detailed slides we have later.

But again, we are fully permitted to start construction for a 3-year construction project. All of our permits are in hand. There is no permitting risk associated with this project. Second, we have very, very strong state and local support and no known NGO opposition. When we hold town halls on site, we will have 500, 600 people there. There isn't one naysayer, there are no protesters. The people come in, they're very excited. They want to know what we've done since we were there last and what our plans are for the next few months. So we feel very welcome there. We very much appreciate that. We respect the honor that they give us to be in that position, and we will work very hard to keep that position.

So let's go into some of the more detailed slides, which will cover these highlights. First of all, here's just a slide to show you what the products actually look like that we'll be producing. A lot of times, people don't really have any idea what they look like. Well, this is what they look like. And I'd ask you to pay particular attention to the bright red stripe in the middle of that slide. As you can see, there is no niobium production in the United States today. And in fact, NioCorp is the only niobium production facility under development in the United States.

Again, no production of niobium in the United States, most if not all of the niobium comes from Brazil today. Scandium oxide, no production in the United States today. We import 100% of what we need, and most of that mineral comes from China.

Titanium tetrachloride or titanium dioxide, a very, very high import reliance. We import almost 85% of what we need in the United States today, and we'll be very proud to start supplying the titanium producers here in the United States with American-made titanium. When it comes to the magnetic rare earths, there's very minimal production in the United States today. There is the MP Materials mine out of California that is working very hard to increase their [ neo-praseo ] oxide production, and we wish them the best of luck. We need every pound that they can produce. But NioCorp will also be producing neodymium-praseodymium oxide. And very importantly, we'll be producing dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide which MP Materials does not have any plans to produce.

These are what are called the heavy rare earths. And in the magnetic world, you need dysprosium and/or terbium to add to the recipe for the magnet so you can have a higher temperature magnet and if you don't add these heavy rare earths, the regular, as we would call it, permanent rare earth magnet will lose all of its magnetic capabilities at higher temperatures. So these heavy rare earths are very important.

And as we all know, China stopped the export of all of their heavy rare earths outside of China about the first week in April of 2025. So this has become a critical issue, and we're now hearing about manufacturing facilities shutting down in Europe. They were -- some facilities were considering it in the United States in July, but we're actually hearing of more shutdowns occurring because the high temperature rare earth permanent magnets are simply not available. In terms of the importance of these minerals, the USGS recently published a study that talked about how critical these critical minerals are. And niobium, dysprosium and terbium are now considered among the highest priority critical minerals by the United States government. And in fact, NioCorp's top target pay metal, niobium, is the #2 most critical mineral in the United States in terms of threats to the United States gross domestic product, or GDP, if the import of that material could not occur anymore because we produce zero here in the United States.

So very good to see the recognition by our United States government, how important these products are. And in fact, all six of the minerals that we will be producing at the Elk Creek project are considered critical, but we certainly have some that are considered more critical than others. Moving on, we can get into the offtake agreement for the project. We have 75% of our niobium spoken for an enforceable offtake agreements. We have 12% or 12 tonnes per year of our planned scandium under contract, enforceable contract.

That's the largest offtake agreement known for scandium. We're in discussions with multiple people concerning titanium. This is becoming a very interesting issue largely because of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, and a very large portion of the world's titanium comes out of Russia and with the trade sanctions on them, it's really tightened up the market and made the U.S. producers or users of titanium start to think twice about onshoring their procurement of these materials.

On the rare earth side, continuing to work with Stellantis. They've indicated early on, they wanted all of the rare earths that we would produce, particularly in the heavy rare earths and they had also been considering a strategic investment in the company. All those discussions are ongoing, but needless to say, the attitude about rare earths and in particular, the heavy rare earths has gotten very serious. And so we are actually in discussions with multiple parties about the potential to sell these rare earths to magnet manufacturing facilities or end users of the magnets. So this is a very good time, particularly with the Chinese export restrictions to be out marketing the rare earth materials.

Next slide talks about our financing plan. And this is a very, very simplified capital structure slide that we like to show. You can see the debt financing on the left. That's EXIM debt financing. We've got a slide coming up next where I'll get into more detail on that one. But let's focus on the equity box here for $420 million. And of course, the $420 million plus the $780 million equals the $1.2 billion upfront CapEx that is in our 2022 Feasibility Study. If we go down to the bottom of the green section, here, you can see what we've done so far in 2025. And we've actually raised more than $152 million, which goes to that $420 million that we need for the equity side of the financing. We continue to look at ways to raise this equity money if we could do it using equity that's probably our best and simplest way to raise the money, and we've had very good results in that category right now. In addition -- and we'll go into more detail here. We did get the DoD grant for $10 million and we've had some additional equity issuances that have brought this money in.

Now in total of the $152 million, we'll need about $30 million of that to get us to FID. That will cover the -- all the technical work programs that EXIM has asked us to do. It will cover their due diligence costs where they pick the contractor to do the due diligence, we pay for the contractor, it covers our overhead and SG&A. That leaves about $120 million left, which means that we're kind of in the ballpark of needing to raise an additional $300 million now. And this is all very important as we go to the next slide, we'll talk about project advancements that are underway, then we'll get into DoD, then we'll get into EXIM. But I want to talk about what this capital raising does for EXIM's confidence in our ability to raise this money because that's very critical at this point in time.

Next slide, Jim. Here's some project advancement activities that we have underway so that as we have that $120 million in our treasury, that goes towards the $420 million we need. We're not letting that money sit in the treasury. We're actually deploying that money and undertaking items that are in our CapEx estimate and reducing the amount of CapEx that ultimately is required. We're utilizing the money to get ahead of the project so that when we actually start full construction, we will have a lot of these little things that can be bothersome, troublesome or time consuming out of the way.

The one we like to talk about a lot is the finalization of land purchases. We have exercised our options to purchase property such that by about the end of October, we should own a full square mile of property in Southeast Nebraska. We will then be the full owners of most of the mineral rights and all of the surface rights on that 640 acres, and that's enough surface area and underground area to handle the 38-year mine life. So that will be nice to have that out of the way. It's just a good thing to get out of the way while everybody is feeling positive about the project and you don't have any late naysayers that want to renegotiate anything. This will be behind us probably by the end of October.

As everyone knows, we've been drilling out on-site. We'll have some more updates on that. We're starting to get the analytical work in right now. The drilling is -- it will be all done, I think, this week, that all of the nine holes that were used to uplift the probable reserves to proven reserves, those holes are done. And we're just waiting for the analytical work to come in. We're very excited to provide some press releases along the way as that work comes in, so we can let our shareholders and let the market know that this work is coming along well and the results are looking very gratifying.

As is always the case with an underground mine, you want to do as much geotechnical field work as possible. Scott and his team are going that extra mile to make sure that we know exactly what we're doing in that underground mine. This would include grouting. This would include bolting. This will include all of the geotechnical work that we need to do to have a safe underground mine for our employees.

A lot of the other things here, you can see site prep is another one where we actually have people on-site going through some of the site prep work right now, where they're removing shrubs, removing trees. Again, these are little things that you can get out of the way early, and they don't cause you scheduling problems later on down the -- down the road. I would like to point out our owners team build out as most people know, we've had about seven employees in our company for a very long time. We purposefully did that to keep our overhead rate as low as possible, and we utilize contractors then to do the work.

So we may have 200 people working for the company, but only seven of them are employees but we have made offers that have been accepted by about six new employees right now. That will put us up to 13, and my desire is to try to get our owners team build out upwards of about 20 people before the end of the year. We are getting that close now to moving this project from financing into construction. We need to make sure we're ready from a human resource standpoint to move. It's an exciting time in NioCorp.

Next slide, Jim. Just a little more detail on the $10 million DoD funding that we received. There were four components to that. I think everybody is aware of the Mineral Reserve uplift drilling that we have conducted. That's part of what's covered by that $10 million. The additional engineering that we needed to do to take our new process flow diagram up to feasibility study level engineering, that's all being done as well. That started the last week in April. It's coming along just fine. And at the end of that effort, we will have not only the feasibility study level engineering for the process flow diagram, but we will have a new capital estimate.

And we'll be able to update our economic model to include the magnetic rare earths to include 6x the amount of titanium that we can produce with the new process flow diagram versus the previous one, and a slight uptick in recovery on niobium as well, which goes right to the bottom line. So we're really excited to get the engineering work to the point where we can get the capital estimate and update that economic analysis and get that out to the public.

The two items on the right here are very interesting because it really tells you how excited the Department of Defense is to have scandium production here in the United States. So they've asked us as part of this $10 million effort to figure out how to make metal out of our scandium oxide. We are moving along on that project exceptionally well and we hope to have the first metal produced as early as November of this year, subject to a few things that may be beyond our control, but that would be an excellent start on this capability that the DoD would like us to demonstrate.

The project on the right here, number four, this one really kind of gets all of us excited. I guess as little boys, you always like to see those military jets and the fighter jets out there like we had on our opening slide. Well, this new technology that's being developed by a DoD aerospace prime contractor involves aluminum scandium alloy and it's a technology that will be put into certain fighter jets that exist already. It will take those fighter jets from what's called Gen 5 up to Gen 6 technology. This Gen 6 technology will double the radius of the threat detection system on these fighter jets, making the pilot safer because he can see what's coming in from further away. And it also gives him a 360-degree view of what's going on within that threat detection envelope. So this is really going to enhance the safety of our pilots in those fighter jets.

We're working with the prime right now on finalizing our development contract with them and hope to have a good news release on that very soon. Next slide gets into the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Things are progressing well there. We hope to have an announcement concerning the environmental and social due diligence contractor that has been retained for the efforts by EXIM. We are in full onslaught of due diligence with one thing that we have to keep in mind. And that is they're reviewing everything that we have available on the project right now. But as we update the drilling reserves, their technical folks will have to review that material. As we update the feasibility study engineering and economic models, they will have to review those as well. So there's some work that can't occur by EXIM until we're done with our work, but we're getting everything done possible that we can.

Part of the effort to raise the additional equity that we have recently goes to one of three items that we're laser-focused on for the EXIM process. First of all, they want the technical work done. You've already heard that's ongoing. It's really developing well, and we hope to have that information available on or before the end of this calendar year. They want us to continue to work on offtake agreements because that's what they use to calculate debt capacity and the ability to pay back the debt. We understand that. We're working very hard on offtake. And again, hope to have some news here in the future, near future, concerning offtake agreements.

And then finally, they need to have enough confidence in the company's ability to raise that $420 million so that, that money is available when -- actually before we can spend any of the EXIM money. And so that's why we've been working pretty hard on the equity raising process and that's going well. And we know their confidence level has risen substantially just in the last 4 to 5 months. So we'll continue to work on that. And with the help of JPMorgan, as our advisers on this project, we feel very confident that we're going to get to the end of the line and close out this deal with EXIM.

And with the terms that they will have, this is really good for the company, it's good for our shareholders. This will, in all likelihood, be something around a 10-year loan with anywhere from 4.2% to 7.2% interest rates. I can't get anything but double that 7.2 number at a commercial bank. So this is the lowest cost capital, and we plan to take full advantage of it. EXIM is very supportive. I want to assure everyone we are on their radar. They want this project funded, but there are due diligence processes that we have to go through to make sure that everything is understood from a risk standpoint and we're doing everything in our power to get all the information they need to make their final decision.

Next slide talks about some additional country financing that has been made available or can be made available to us. The United Kingdom Export Finance, they gave us a letter in May, indicating an interest of up to $200 million in debt guarantees, and that's a 100% guarantee, by the way. The German United Loan Program or the UFK program, we've been eligible for that for probably 8 or 9 years now. We are still eligible for that. That really revolves around the niobium that we'll be selling to ThyssenKrupp.

And again, that's upwards of $200 million loan guarantees that they've indicated a willingness to provide. The $200 million in each of these categories would go towards the $780 million. So $780 million is the top level of debt that we'd be able to secure. But if each of these agencies comes in at $200 million, then the EXIM amount would be $380 million.

I will personally say I was a little concerned about having three government agencies involved in a debt process and thinking about all the paperwork that would be involved there. These three agencies have worked together on multiple projects, sometimes all three of them, sometimes just two of them. They know how to work together very well. They already have intercreditor agreements that they basically fill the blanks in on. So this will not slow down the process or hurt the process in any way.

And if anything, I think it could ultimately help the process because each of the three governments would be assuming a certain level of risk with a loan like this, whereas if EXIM did it all by themselves, that would be entirely at their risk. So I think we're headed in the right direction there, and we're listening to our advisers very closely on that.

Next slide talks about the very robust economics that we have with this Elk Creek project. And these are the highlights that are still out of our 2022 Feasibility Study. So the point that we need to keep in mind is that on the right upper side, where we talk about $403 million in EBITDA over the 38-year mine life, that did not include the magnetic rare earths oxides, it did not include 6x the amount of titanium, and it did not include the extra niobium that we'll be recovering. So we expect that number to improve. We also expect the NPV number on the left upper side to improve as a result of a higher NPV -- I'm sorry, as a result of a higher EBITDA.

The other thing that I think will help our NPV is the total upfront CapEx we talk about here on the bottom second from the right circle, $1.14 billion. There are three major points I'd like to make when we talk about that number. First one is a negative. We will have to update the 2022 numbers to be 2025 numbers, because there are impacts from inflation. However, because of the new process flow diagram that Scott and his team have developed, we will not need to construct a sulfuric acid plant as part of our aboveground processing facilities. That saves $100 million by itself.

The second item is, as everyone knows, we're going from a twin shaft underground mine plan design to a twin ramp that is expected to save us about $188 million. So we're kind of upwards of almost $300 million in savings just from those two items, and we know there's multiple little items as well. So I feel very confident that we will not go above this number and with a little bit of help from good engineering and Scott's very smart capabilities in this category, maybe we'll end up a little bit lower at the end of the day, which, of course, goes to a higher NPV as well.

Last slide is just a picture of our management team. Everybody knows Scott Honan, our COO; Neal Shah, our CFO; and Jim Sims, our Chief Communications Officer. We have a new member of our senior management team, Ernest Cleave, now he's the Senior Vice President of Business Development. Ernest and I go long ways back. He is just a phenomenal individual, extremely smart, deep thinking, very logical, and he's just a welcome addition to our team.

And then of course, we have Alex Guthrie as well who just joined very recently, I think Monday, and Alex is our new Director of Investor Relations. And he had the pleasure of having his face on the NASDAQ screen right outside of the NASDAQ building this week, which was quite a thrill to everybody at NioCorp and gave us good reason to celebrate. So we want to welcome Ernest and Alex to the team.

And I think with that, Craig, we would welcome any questions that the group may have.

Mark, thank you very much for that. We already have many submitted questions. [Operator Instructions] We already have this one, Mark and the team. Many of us see the updated geologic model as a derisking catalyst how will the revised model and resource statement strengthen the mine plan and feed the next feasibility study as well as the Export-Import Bank of the United States due diligence?

I'll start out answering that at a very high level, and then I will ask Scott to provide any additional detail that he'd like. But the bottom line is that this takes the probable reserve category that we're in now up to proven reserve. And when you go up to a proven reserve category, it means that the risk for a lender, the risk for an investor just decreases that much more. So this is all about risk mitigation. We're very, very comfortable with our ore body, but when you're a government agency, and you're going to be spending tax dollars to fund a $780 million debt or loan with a company, you want to make sure that you minimize risk to the maximum extent possible. And that's exactly what this extra drilling does for the company.

Scott, do you want to add anything else on that?

Sure, Mark. We talk about the uplift of our reserve from the probable category to proven. And really, what that means is tightening up drill spacing. It means drilling holes in between holes that we already have to reduce the distance between points in our geologic model. And I'm really proud of the team that did this work in the field because they designed an iterative program. So we didn't just design all of the drill holes at once. We picked the first one, we drilled it. We evaluated the drill core as it was coming out of the ground, and that helped us inform the location of hole 2 and hole 3 and hole 4 and so on.

So I think this kind of iterative design was a clever way to go about conducting the field work. And we set a target for the team to deliver at least 10 years of proven reserves. And I'm feeling very good at this point that we'll certainly be able to exceed that number. And perhaps with the drilling we were able to do this year, even increase the size of the resource somewhat as well.

Thank you, gentlemen. Next question. Long-term shareholder here. Can you explain in plain terms, what improvements you expect in the feasibility study, refresh like process flow, capital, operating costs and how the inclusion of rare earth elements could enhance project value?

Yes, I'll start out at a high level. And then Scott, you add whatever you'd like. But I think that the question is a good leading question because those are the things that we're going to improve as a result of all the work that we're doing. We do have a new process flow diagram that Scott and his team worked very hard on and achieved outstanding results. I really can't believe the recovery levels that they were able to demonstrate in the demonstration plant.

These are some of the best recovery levels that I've seen for these minerals anywhere in the world and that takes a lot of hard work and determination to get there. So all of that will be part of the feasibility study update. As part of the engineering effort, we've said earlier, we'll have a new CapEx estimate, we'll have new OpEx estimate, all of those parameters will go into the economic model, and we will demonstrate to the market once again how robust this project is from an economic standpoint.

But let's not forget that we're going to be producing things that are not produced in the United States today, things like dysprosium and terbium that makes this a very high-profile project in the eyes of people in Washington, D.C., the people in the state of Nebraska and certainly the people in our company, including our shareholders. So these are all things that are going to continue to make this project even better than what we had portrayed earlier, and I, for one, am super excited to get this information out to the public so that we can talk about it. Scott and I have a pretty good feel for what's going to happen with a lot of this data as it comes in. And if you can't tell how excited we are, then we need to smile more, we need to raise our eyebrows more. This project is going to go to a whole different level when we get this final technical information in.

Scott, do you want to add anything to that?

Yes, Mark, I think you've hit upon any number of hard benefits to the work that we've done. I think there's some other benefits as well you might consider them as somewhat soft benefits. But as an example, we ran a demonstration plant. So we built the plant at a small scale, and we ran it continuously. And there are things that you learn when you run any kind of production process continuously that you don't learn doing a test in a beaker on a bench.

And so we've made a lot of strides in not only optimizing our production process, but understanding how it will work at commercial scale. And I think I'm particularly proud of the fact that the team has come up with a production process here that's really fully integrated. It's not like one production of a particular thing like the niobium or the rare earths is just bolted on. Everything is integrated together and works together as a unit.

So I think at the end of the day, we've got something that's going to deliver good results but also will be operable and successful once we build it.

Thank you, gentlemen. On the Department of Defense supported drilling, which technical objectives did you prioritize to upgrade confidence in the ore body? And what are the next visible steps, assays, geotechnical work, model integration, for example, that investors should be watching for?

Scott, I'll start out with a very quick comment, then you can talk to those items and especially the geotechnical work because I think that's an important point that we need to make sure people know about as well. But the bottom line is the drilling is done on the nine holes that we had planned to upgrade this reserve from probable to proven. We're now collecting the analytical data. And as the analytical data comes in, we will report out on a frequent basis as we gather that information, it all has to be QA, QC, and so we have to go through the right process and procedures to ensure the accuracy of this information.

But we have every intention in the world of publishing literally a hole-by-hole press release to let people know what we found there. And what we want to focus on as a shareholder because remember, what we're trying to do is we're trying to take the probable reserves, raise that level of assurance up to proven reserves.

What you want to make sure is that the data that we show is either equivalent to what we've prepared with prior holes or better than what we had done with the prior holes. And certainly, to date, we haven't seen anything different than that. So Scott, do you want to maybe talk about some of the other details there, like the grouting would be a big one, I think.

Yes. Certainly, Mark, I think, obviously, the primary objective of our field program has been to get to that proven reserve benchmark and I'm feeling really good about that. But along the way, we collected a bunch of other very important information as well that the kind of thing that perhaps doesn't lead to a press release per se, but it's important for a successful project. So as an example, we collected many, many samples and tested them for various geomechanical parameters. And all of that leads to a mine design that will be safe and stable for the people that will be working underground. That's pretty important.

I think the other thing that Mark alluded to is we had some great success in testing various types of grouting while we were out in the field drilling. And that grouting is going to be very important for us as we've moved from a design based around shaft access to a design based on ramp access. Ground freezing is less practical in a ramp development situation. So our ability to control water coming into the mine will rely on grouting techniques, and we are able to test and deploy a number of those in the field very successfully, and we demonstrated that we can grow this resource and control the groundwater inflow to something very reasonable for an underground mine.

And that, by the way, we'll remove about $12 million of CapEx in terms of the groundwater freezing that we were otherwise going to have to do. So again, very positive news.

Gentlemen, can you frame the remaining milestones with EXIM. Again, that's the Export-Import Bank of the United States, EXIM and how potential support from the United Kingdom Export Finance, or UKEF and Germany's Federal Guarantee Program, UFK could slot into the overall project finance structure that JPMorgan is advising on.

Yes, I'll start out by just repeating what I said earlier in terms of to the extent that UKEF or UFK come into the overall loan effort. It just takes the $780 million amount, reduces it to a lower level that EXIM would be financing. So it's all looked at as one pot, so to speak. And in terms of the remaining milestones with EXIM, you've heard three of those already. We need to finish this technical work, we need to increase the amount of offtake we have, and we need to continue to gain their confidence in our ability to raise $420 million in equity.

But -- those three things are very important. We have to get through their due diligence process as well. And it's a very time-consuming, very detailed process. They're well into it at this point in time. But we've got to keep guiding and directing that and making sure that we are absolutely responsive to anything that they ask. So we are front and center in front of EXIM every day.

They have a new President and Chairman of the Board, CEO, President and Chairman of the Board at EXIM. We look forward to getting acquainted with. We certainly know all the people below him, and we're trying to set up some meetings to get to know the new CEO as soon as possible. But we have a word from other folks who have had some discussions with him that he certainly knows about NioCorp, supports the NioCorp project, and we just want to make sure he knows who we are as we continue to get to know him better and better, but we still feel extremely positive about EXIM. We just have to understand that any type of a loan of this size takes a lot of time to get through and get to the finish line. But we're laser focused on it, Craig.

This leads nicely into the next question. Once financing is in place, what gives you confidence that the project can move quickly? How are detailed engineering, grid interconnection and other long-lead items being sequenced to keep the critical path tight.

I'll let Scott answer this in as much detail as you want, Scott. But bottom line is we're undertaking most of these efforts right now even before we have complete project financing in hand. And that's because we've been there and we've done this before. We know the things that can cause hiccups in your schedule or problems with your project budget. So we're getting these things out of the way. And all of the things that you talk here and -- talk about here in this question, Craig, are actions that we're undertaking. Scott, do you want to add some more to that?

Right. I'd point to the fact also, Mark, that we have experienced a very capable firms helping us with this design work in Zachry and Dumas, they've built big projects before they understand sequencing and critical path and what the long lead time items are that will drive overall schedule. And so as we go through and finish the study, we're getting pretty focused on some of those things. So one thing we talked about at the top here was just land acquisition, making sure we have enough land in hand to build the project. It seems pretty self-evident.

But along with that, we're looking at some early works projects that we can use the cash that we've raised this year and deploy it effectively in advance of full construction. So things like getting the site clearing and grading done, getting the excavation started that will form the basis of the twin ramp system that will go underground, getting power and water utilities going -- the sooner we can get those to the site, the sooner we can start saving money during the construction time period.

And then focusing our efforts and our available cash on some of the big long lead time items that can really -- they can really drive schedule, things like the big power transformers and the big calciners that we use in the plant.

Gentlemen, Elk Creek is positioned to supply multiple U.S. designated critical minerals, of course. How are you communicating that strategic relevance to original equipment manufacturers and government stakeholders? And what public milestones should we track over the next 12 months to gauge steady progress toward construction?

Yes, I think, first of all, the DoD grant that we received really strongly supports our contention that the current administration, the current White House is fully supportive of this project and they understand how important it is to the country and to onshoring our efforts relative to these minerals, which, again, as we spoke to early on, we are largely dependent on foreign resources for.

So I think that we've got great support out of the federal government already, I think that those discussions have to continue. They have a lot of different minerals that they have to work on right now because we are so -- just bear where our coverages are bare in terms of the ability to produce a lot of these critical strategic minerals in the United States today. So they're working on a lot of things. But our project is certainly front and center.

We provide the capability to onshore the niobium, the scandium, the titanium and the magnetic rare earths, including those two very important heavy rare earths. So it's almost by definition, we are front and center in front of the U.S. government right now that places us in front and center, in front of multiple off-takers and their desires.

But with all that in mind, and let me back up for just a minute in terms of the offtakers. This becomes -- almost by definition, they want to talk to us because they're having to talk about shutting down production lines now because they can't secure these critical minerals from the outside sources that we have historically obtained them from. So they are very concerned and you're seeing large companies and their procurement programs really dig in deep and trying to find the real projects that can support their efforts and allow them to continue to produce.

So I think what you're going to see over the next few months in terms of news flow, again, we've covered a lot of this already, but drilling news, offtake news, continued fundraising news. You're going to have more and more information, although pretty much kind of at the end of the engineering process. There isn't much to report in the interim. But at the end of the engineering process, you'll start to see CapEx numbers, new economic models and all of that positive news that we just can't wait to get out. So Scott, I don't know if you wanted to add anything else that is on your mind that we'll be reporting.

Certainly, Mark, I think in addition to the things we will report, there'll be things to see. We will continue after the drilling program is over to do work at the site. I alluded to some of the early construction works we hope to get into shortly. And that will send a message as well. And the question was framed around equipment manufacturers and folks of that nature. I can just guarantee that the equipment manufacturers are very focused on our progress just by the number of e-mails I get every day. And they keep an eye on the site because there'll be press releases and there'll be activity. And I think it's all going to be very good.

You already have strong commercial visibility in niobium and scandium. How are you thinking about layering in titanium and potential rare earth element products to broaden the revenue mix and reduce single product risk at first production.

Yes. And that's one of the unique things about our project, Craig, is that we have an ore body that has multiple potential products that we can produce from it. And this is a risk mitigation device all by itself because most mines in the world have one product, possibly a small byproduct. And if that one product -- if the market for that one product deteriorates or goes down for a while, it can really cause some economic hardships for them.

In our case, we have multiple products that have very different markets associated with them. They have broad scoping markets associated with them, including everything from reducing CO2 emissions to Department of Defense, EVs, robotics, I mean, you name it, it gets involved in all of these different market areas. It really provides a risk-mitigated revenue approach for our company.

And in terms of the titanium and rare earths, I think that, first of all, I'll say that, Scott, as he mentioned earlier, and I can't congratulate he and his team enough they have properly integrated the full production of all of these elements, these products into our process flow diagram. So there isn't anything bolted on or kind of an easy way to do it. We've done it correctly.

And as a result of putting the engineering and metallurgy together correctly, we end up with some of the highest recoveries that I've seen in the industry in my career. All of those things allow us then to -- if we put ore into the front of the system, we will produce all of these products. It's not like we just produce one and send the other out to tailings. We produce all of these products. That gives our customers a lot of satisfaction and a lot of confidence.

For instance, a scandium customer, if they're trying to buy scandium from a primary scandium mine, we have to look at that operation and really calculate the risk associated with that operation shutting down. Whereas in our case, if we're producing niobium, we're producing scandium. If we're producing niobium, we're producing the magnetic rare earths. And if we're producing niobium, we're producing titanium. And it just really moderates all of the risks associated with single products. And again, with the very large market scope that we have for all of our products, we know there are places to move these products one way or the other, once they are produced. So we're very happy with our polymetallic resource and think that it provides a really high-level risk mitigation approach and strategy for us.

Now without getting into specific numbers, we're timing directionally, which levers have the most potential to improve on that 2022 economic case. Is it process optimization, rare earth coproducts, titanium [ route ] selection or mine plan refinements?

Scott, why don't I have you start with that, and then I'm going to add a few words.

Certainly, I think the thing that is going to make the biggest difference is the production of rare earth products and what distinguishes us from other developing projects is that when we make those rare earths, we'll make fully separated high-purity products that command a lot of value in the marketplace. And we're able to do that in a way, again, that is integrated with the production of the other things we're going to make. So the incremental impact to CapEx and OpEx is minimal. So I think that's the thing -- that strikes me is the thing that's going to give us the biggest bang for our buck.

And I concur with Scott on that, but I would also say, Craig, that each and every one of those is important to the company because it improves shareholder return. And so we aren't going to focus on one thing or the other. We're focused on all of those things because they do improve shareholder return at the end of the day.

That Title III award from the DoD or maybe we should say DoW now supports several work streams from reserve uplift drilling to rare earth process engineering and scandium metal demonstration, which of these should shareholders view as the nearest-term value unlocks and why?

I would have to say the drilling and the engineering because those are going to be key technical work programs that get us farther down the road for EXIM approval and EXIM approval is absolutely critical to this project. So in my mind, those are the two most important things near term. But I've got to say, without hesitation, by the way, that the work that we're doing in the scandium arena right now is exceptionally exciting.

The DoD, DoW are starting to realize the importance of scandium to our military, and we're certainly seeing a rising interest level by OEMs and other potential users of scandium as well. So this kind of forgotten element that is such an opaque market, nobody wants to talk about. It has an awful lot of excitement associated with it and the things that scandium can do and make improvements to don't go unnoticed when we go and talk to all the potential users here. So I think near term is more the engineering and the geology work we're doing right now. But in the long term, the metal production and the efforts with the DoD prime contractor are going to be well received by our shareholders and by the market.

Scott, do you want to add anything to that?

Yes, I think I'll echo your sentiments, Mark. I would also say that at the end of this process, the DoD is funding will have a new feasibility study. And those studies are expensive undertaking. As you can see with ours, it involved drilling, it involved engineering. At any time, we have about 20 different firms working on this thing. And it will all get compiled up into a nice report. But having that report in hand, I think, is important for us because it's not just important in an EXIM context, but in just about any financing context that we encounter whether that's an ECA like EXIM, a traditional bank, a debt provider or an equity investor, having an updated study in hand helps us out with all those folks.

I would like to add to that, Craig, because one of the things that we don't really highlight enough is the quality of the technical work that we do at NioCorp. Mean what Scott and his team are undertaking right now is an update to a feasibility study that will be S-K 1300 compliant. That means that it meets the highest standards that the SEC has put out for companies like ours before you go out and try to raise money, before you go out and try to get debt packages.

This is a level of study that significantly reduces risk, and there were very few development companies that we're aware of, particularly in the United States right now that have that quality of study. In other words, they're not necessarily S-K 1300 compliant or if they're Canadian, they might not be NI 43-101 compliant. Those are the targets that we aim for because quality on that technical work is the #1 priority.

Thank you participants for your questions today. We have far too many than we could possibly address in our time frame. In fact, we've gone over time a little bit. And of course, you can reach us at any time at [email protected], we'll make sure the NioCorp team sees your question if you didn't have it answered today.

Final question for today, gentlemen, Water management and waste handling feel like underappreciated strengths. How are these designs embedded in the permits and community engagement and how do they scale smoothly as you transition into construction?

Scott, I would love to answer that but you've done a great job on this. You get this under.

Appreciate it, Mark. I think those features of a project, while they may be underappreciated have always been a focus of Mark and that flows down to the rest of the team. We prioritize these things during design and we bring a strong environmental ethic to the table. So what you see reflected in our design is a system where we treat and we reuse any of the water that comes out of the mine or comes out of the production process. And really, the only water that we consume, if you will, is water that we lose to evaporation in some form or another or water that ends up in our paste backfill.

And when I talk about paste backfill, that's important because what paste backfill is, it's using our waste materials to make a structural fill for underground mine. And I've really challenged the design teams here to look at waste and what we're doing with it and find other uses for these waste streams in addition to using it as backfill. Really, the stretch goal there would be to have an operation where -- we have a nice production process. Everything is run close circuit and that we take some of the waste, we put it back underground, but maybe there are other outlets for that waste material such that nothing ends up in a surface impoundment.

So that's the goal at the end of the process here, and we're trying hard to get there. The other thing we're trying to do is we want to be a good neighbor to the folks in Southeast Nebraska, so we're really striving very hard to fit the project into the smallest footprint possible. And I think that will provide the least amount of disruption to the neighborhood that we're going to operate in that will make sure that we're good neighbors to the folks that we're going to be living and operating beside for a very long time.

I think I'll just close that out, Scott, by saying that all of those efforts are what allows us to say we have all of our permits in hand to start construction. And that is also a very unique claim that NioCorp gets to make compared to almost every other project that's under development in the United States. We care about the environment. Scott and I grew up in the health safety and environment field. This is just second nature to us. We believe in it. I want my kids as kids and their kids to enjoy the products of this mine, and that means we have to do it right from day one.

That's a great way to end up today, gentlemen. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Craig.

Yes. Just a few more words here. For more information about NioCorp, you can reach us at 1800 RedChip or e-mail us at that address I gave earlier, [email protected]. Please visit RedChip's Investor Information page for NioCorp. It's niocorpinfo.com. There, you can view and download the investor presentation and fact sheet and sign up for news alerts on NioCorp. Please watch small stocks, big money, RedChip's program featuring exciting small-cap companies every Saturday at 7:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern on Bloomberg USA. Join RedChip's next webinar with Enlivex Therapeutics on Tuesday, September 30 at 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern. Register for all RedChip webinars at redchip.com/events. Thanks again to our many participants today, and thank you very much, Mark and Scott.

Our pleasure, Craig. Thank you.

Thank you.