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Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts radio news.
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D
You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massar and Tim Stanvak on Bloomberg Radio.
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C
Well, you might recall earlier this month Bloomberg exclusively reporting out that President Trump was set to launch a strategic critical mineral stockpile with $12 billion in scene money, all in a bid to insulate manufacturers from supply shocks as the US Works to slash its reliance on Chinese rich rare earths and other metals. Meantime, you see a lot of companies doing deal in the space.
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E
Yeah. On that. Today, shares of America's Gold and Silver Corporation rallied as much as 8%. This after the miner said it would partner with United States Antimony to construct and operate an antimony processing plant in Idaho. Some details here and then we're going to get to the conversation. Facility will be 51% owned by America's gold and silver and 49% owned by US antimony. It'll be located in the Silver Valley in Idaho.
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C
All right, so let's get to it. Great to have with us Gary Evans, chairman and CEO of United States Antimony Corporation. It's a $1.1 billion market cap miner, producer and seller of antimony products. It's based in Montana. Stock is up 66% year to date, about 21% of the float. Short. Also with us is Paul Andrea Hewitt. He is chairman and CEO of the $2.6 billion market cap precious Metal miner based in Ontario, Canada. It is America's Gold and Silver Corporation. That company's shares are up about 61% year to date. We've seen it move in today's session. G. Paul, both joining us here in studio. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Tell us about this joint venture, the financial aspects, how it actually logistically works down and what it means in terms of critical minerals in the US and just kind of elsewhere. So whoever wants to pick it up.
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D
Yeah, I'll just start. So look, this, this joint venture, we've been working on it actually not that long to be very honest. Actually, Gary and I were talking about it. We met about a month ago. We One month ago, we met both teams assembled at the mine site in Idaho. His executive team, my executive team. We were signing documents late last night with our legal teams, both of us, at 10:30 at night finalizing this. And this is a transformational deal actually. This allows us to supply a product, antimony to the US from the beginning right to the end. So us, Gary's the expert in the antimony world, we're the experts in the mining world. And what we have is, is a mine, the Galena mine in Idaho. Right now we've got about 330 employees. We just bought a second mine in Idaho. We closed it in December. So we bought the original one, transferred the whole management team and made, made some big upgrades in capital. What we're doing is revolutionizing this mine. This mine's been around for a long time and it's, it produces five critical minerals. So we produce silver, copper, antimony, lead, and then a small amount of gold. But they're all five critical minerals, which is very, very important. This deal is very important to us and us miners and to the us as a whole because we need 50 million pounds of antimony per annum. And we're not even close to producing it, not yet. So this will allow us to start chewing away and getting some of that antimony produced domestically.
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E
So Paul, Andrea Hewitt giving us the America's Gold and Silver Corporation view. Gary Evans, come on back in here and talk. Why this deal made sense for you at US Antimony.
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F
Well, as you know, we're the only two. We have the only two smelters for antimony in North America, so Montana and Mexico. And currently we're getting most of our supply from foreign sources. We get it from the country of Chad, Peru, Bolivia, Australia, Chile, Mexico. And we are looking for homegrown antimony. We are already processing Paul's antimony through another facility up in Canada. We receive that and we can make antimony trisulfide out of it. So the idea, when we met a month ago, met our two management teams got together, we immediately said look, this is an easy answer. We'll put our new technology we developed in Bolivia. Last year we made the first commercial grade antimony hydromet facility. And it's, it's now we receive 150 tons a month of antimony from that facility. We can duplicate that in the United States. So we have the technology, we have the patents, we have the license for North America and Australia. He has the land, he has the supply. So it was a marriage made in heaven.
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C
So why weren't you processing here in the us?
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F
Well, we are processing, but it's using foreign supplies. Okay, so he has domestic supplies which the country doesn't have.
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C
So this new. So the processing facility that you're going to be building. Yes, give us timeline. When is it going to be running up at commercial space?
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F
That's a great question. He fortunately has all the permits that we need.
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D
Right.
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F
Okay. So we are in the construction engineering phase now. We should start within 90 days and be done in a year.
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C
Wow. So in a year. Yeah, it's up and functioning.
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D
If you think about the last one. Sorry to interrupt. The last one that was built in the US was built in 1942 at that same area in Silver Valley and it took six months to build it. During World War II that was actually built. Gary's team just built one in six months in Bolivia. So these are not massive facilities, but they're very important. So we will, once we get the, once we get the engineering stages and everything done and we start construction, it'll go pretty quick from that time.
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E
Carol mentioned Project Vault. Earlier this month, Bloomberg exclusively reporting out that President Trump set to launch a strategic critical mineral stockpile with $12 billion in seed money. Gary, have you been in touch with, with the White House, the administration at all about this? How much antimony do you expect the stockpile will hold?
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F
Well, we currently have a contract with the DLA, which is Department of War, for $245 million to deliver antimony ingots. Which is like a gold bar. It's an antimony bar. It's serial stamped. We'll put it on a pallet and we shrink wrap it and we send it to the government. It's strictly for inventory for all the subcontractors of the government. Could be Boeing, Northland, could be General Motors. They need antimony to make their products. So we are the stockpiler for the government and we're the only approved company. In fact, when it went out to gov.com it said United States Antimony Corporation is the only company capable of bidding on this contract. And so the fact that we've been around 50 something years, we can do this. And so now we can take America's gold, Silver's antimony through our new hydromet process and do the same thing.
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E
Have you talked to the White House? Just in the last few months about this?
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F
Well, General Jack Keane, I don't know if you know who he is. He's on our board of directors and so he's been very helpful. We've already won the DLA contract. We have a Department of War grant coming with our now new joint venture. We're filing a new white paper with the Department of War. We filed a grant request to the Department of Energy for $45 million January 15th. So we are constantly in the mix seeking capital to help grow this enterprise.
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C
We're talking with Gary Evans, chairman and CEO of U.S. antimony, and Paul Andre Huett, CEO at America's Gold and Silver Corporation. Without the U.S. support and backing, would this be happening?
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D
Yeah, look, there's no doubt what's happening now is changing things for us. And it's opening doors, this project, financially.
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C
Changing it, making it.
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D
Well, we're going to be one of the first groups, Carol, actually putting in, submitting this white PA for capital.
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F
And nobody's done that yet.
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We're the first. So. Which is really important. I was just at the White House. In fact, I've met with a couple senators, governor, congressman, and it's very clear that this project vault, it creates a floor. It allows us to not have that volatility that we're up against. We've got to prepare ourselves for if China's going to dump a whole bunch of antimony on the market, we've got to be able to protect that pricing for us. Like people like us who are producing it domestically.
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C
Well, let's go there because, you know, you also have the US reaching agreements with the European Union, Japan and Mexico to cooperate on securing critical minerals used in various industries. So they have committed to creating price floors. What kind of price floor is needed for antimony? What would be the ballpark, the price that kind of would shield you from China oversaturating the market?
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F
I think something in the $20 per pound range would be a great floor, price floor that protects us. You got to understand, China has a hundred year plan. We've been sitting behind the eight ball for 25 years watching China go all over the world, take over countries, take over mines, and they drove the antimony price down to such a level, it drove everybody out of business. And fortunately, our company stayed alive. Only one that did stay alive. And now we're reaping the benefit of having these refineries up and running.
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E
Hey, Paul, you have lived all over the world. You've done this all over the world. A big part of the conversation is the US Reliance on China. Yeah, and I'm just curious what you're seeing because the US and China still haven't reached an agreement when it comes to export control licenses for rare earths and permanent magnets is any antimony being exported from China to US consumers that's not military related. And Gary, feel free to jump in here too.
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F
Yeah, I mean, I can probably answer this pretty well because we monitor it daily. China cut off all antimony exports to every country in the world, including United States in September 24th. People think, oh, it's got to do with Trump's tariffs. This was during the Biden administration. This happened. Well, guess what? China's biggest mine called the Twinkle Star mine in China, depleted last June of 24. So September, three months later, they stopped all exports. Now, are we seeing antimony dripping into the market in the black market? Probably some coming from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia. But China has actually arrested 20 some odd people. They don't want antimony going to the free world. Why? We all need it. In military, you can't fire a bullet without antimony. Laser guided missiles, night vision cameras, night vision binoculars. I mean, it's in everything you can imagine in the military. And so our administration, fortunately has taken the lead in saying we've got to fix the critical mental problem and it is fixable, but it's going to take some time and it's going to take a lot of money.
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D
And the one thing that I heard coming out of the White House, Tim, was very clear. One of the messages I was talking about was, well, we need £50 million and we're going to be able to help make that solution. But it was very clear to me, leaving the White House that we have to also think about our allies. And honestly I never thought of that as CEO of America's Gold and Silver.
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C
I thought, but go there because there's so much conflict, it feels like even with the US and its traditional allies that have been there for a long time, you're saying we can't do that, we've got to be cooperating.
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D
You're absolutely right, Carol. We. Look, it was very crystal clear. It was made very clear to me. Change your pitch even as the CEO of America's Gold and Silver. Change your story, because you don't just need £50 million for the US you need another 80% on top of that for our allies who we have to make sure in NATO that we protect along the way. Which honestly for me, I didn't understand that completely and I don't, I think a lot of people don't understand that. Never mind the £50 million we consume per year, right. Our allies is another £40 million. So we've got a deficit here. China has been so far ahead, like Gary says, we're starting to to help this situation significantly by this JV which.
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C
Goes back to national security. Can't just think about your own backyard. You've got to think about your allies as well. Gentlemen, please stay in touch. Let us know how things are going. Gary Evans, CEO of US Antimony Corporation. Paul Andre Hewitt. He is CEO of America's Gold and Silver Corporation. You are listening and watching Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.