Advancing the Falcon West Cesium Project to Production With Avenir Minerals

0:04 Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where in the world you're signing in from today. I know it's a relatively international audience. I saw at least Alaska through Singapore, so I really appreciate everybody's time at all times of the day and night. I'm lucky enough to have with me today, Robin Dunbar, President, CEO, and Director of Grid Metals and Brandon Smiths, the company's Chief Development Officer. Robin, Brandon, how are you today? Very good. Good. Yeah, thanks. Awesome. Thanks for having us. Here's how today's going to work, just for the folks in the room. So 1st, Robin and Brandon are going to run through a presentation, then I'll have some questions based on that presentation. I appreciate them letting me grill them. Now, There are quite a number of questions that came in advance over e-mail. I'll try to tackle those. This is an interactive event. Please use the chat function at the bottom of your screen. You can ask questions during today's event. If we have enough time, we'll get to those as well. If we don't, don't worry. I'll still make sure that the Grid Metals team gets access to those questions afterwards, along with your phone number and email that you put in at registration, so they'll be able to get back to you at their leisure and availability.

1:04 The other thing I'll say is today's event is being recorded. We'll be available for replay probably at around 3 o'clock Eastern time. It'll pop right into your inbox, but will also be available on CYX's YouTube channel. Please feel free to share it at that juncture. At this point, I will hand it over to Robin and Brandon to run through their presentation, but really appreciate everybody being here. Thanks very much, Ramiro. We are happy to be here and welcome everybody for listening in today. I'd just like to make the standard disclaimer that we will be making some forward-looking statements and investors should not rely on them.

1:43 Today we want to take the opportunity to talk about our Falcon West Caesium project and the recent development that we announced a few days ago, which was a joint venture with Avenir Minerals. Avenir is the critical metal subsidiary of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., one of the largest mining companies in Canada and a highly successful company that has established a subsidiary to look at Critical Metals opportunities. And Their announcement of the JV with Grid Metals is one of the earlier opportunities that they've actually completed. The reason that Avenir is interested in getting into the Caesium market and doing a deal with Grid.

2:34 I think it's fair to say they like the potential of the Caesium market. It's a very rare but forward-facing mineral and we think has a lot of potential in the future. And they are looking to bring their expertise in mine development and operations to the project. And we were very pleased to offer them, take the opportunity to have them sign up as a joint venture partner. And in a somewhat unique situation where the major company takes a minority position in the project, which is excellent for us. We'll remain the project operator and have access to their technical expertise and look to be working in close collaboration with them.

3:33 On this slide you can see there's a map of the Manitoba and with an inset there. We're close to the Ontario border and you can see on the left of the graphic there's the city of Winnipeg and the Falcon West project is about an hour and 20 minutes down the Trans-Canada Highway. And the project's just off the Trans-Canada Highway, about 500 meters north. And we also have other properties in Southeast Manitoba and the Bird River Greenstone Belt, and those include Makwa Maval, which are base metal. Makwa is a joint venture with TEC, which we announced a couple of years ago. And the Donner is a Lithium deposit, which we have

4:17 drilled delineated to an inferred and indicated resource. And one other note on the map you'll see there is the Tango lithium mine. That's the lithium mine and also has a cesium mine and cesium chemical plant and that's owned by Sinomine, the Chinese company that really controls the world cesium market.

4:45 Yeah, so we think in summary that, you know, when we when we decided to get into cesium, that the things that appeal to us is it's extremely rare. There's only a few companies that are have resources that

5:00 include cesium or are cesium. And the so it's a it's something that, you know, is very difficult to find. And the Falcon West, we saw as a excellent potential to drill off a resource. We haven't, we're not quite there yet, but we will be announcing that we will be getting a resource estimate completed quite soon. And so that'll put us into a very small club of companies that have Cesium resource.

5:37 As I noted, we have now the 3 joint ventures with Avenir for Cesium. TEC is funding the Makwa Nickel project and we have some, We announced a very exciting drill target at that property. So that's looking forward to some drilling activity there in the fall. We're looking for an Eagle Snaps type deposit. And We also announced earlier this year a joint venture with Beledin in the Thompson, just to the east of the Thompson Nickel Belt. We call that the Thompson East Project, and that's focused on tier 1 discovery for Nickel Copper PGM. It's a large underexplored terrain that we think has lots of potential.

6:25 All 3 of the projects were the operators,

6:28 which will help offset our overhead costs and keep a focused geological team on these projects, which we think is really important. And we think just in upcoming, the next major

6:50 milestone for the company is the calculation of the resource estimate. So we expect this early in the fall, and we're certainly positioned to have that re-rate the stock with a good result.

7:08 Quickly, the team. Myself, Dave Peck, VP Exploration. Dave is a PhD geologist. He was a Global Nickel team leader for, sorry, slipped my mind, but here it is, for Anglo-American, I'm sorry. And he was with North American Palladium as the VP of exploration as well before they were bought out. Brandon joined us from Cormark and we have a very solid board including Constantin Karyanopoulos who has been very successful in the NEO group of companies in the rare metals space.

7:53 Here's our cap chart. The, there's some very large shareholders, Wartor 19.9%, EMCI Group out of Australia, it's a private equity company focused on mining. Avenir took over Agnico shareholding, so Australian shareholders. And reasonably decent float and lots of the long time shareholders of the company. Current market cap is about $25 million. And after we complete the Avenir transaction, we'll have about $5 million in cash.

8:34 So I might turn it over to Brandon to give a bit of an overview of the cesium market for those of you not familiar with that. Brandon. Yeah. Thanks Robin. Yeah. So Cesium is a pretty small niche market that most people have never heard of, but there are some key strategic uses across energy. So petroleum exploration for deep sea drilling, that's kind of half of the cesium chemical market. They use it as a drilling fluid in the North Sea and various other places. There are applications in aerospace, there's military applications related to atomic clocks and GPS and navigation, there's electronics and medical imaging equipment. And there is an interesting kind of next generation use case in solar cells where perovskite or the tandem solar cells that have a bit of a perovskite layer in the normal layer as of now, that's an emerging demand driver of the future for Cesium. It really increases the efficiency of the solar cells when you create these tandems or perovskites and have a little bit of Cesium in there. And the big issue right now, obviously, is we'll talk about that in a few slides, but the Cesium feedstock market is very limited right now. Someone wanted to build out this business, you don't really have stability of supply of Cesium feedstock. That's where hopefully a company like Grid comes in and can supply that stability for some of these next generation uses. The market is small.

10:02 It's about 400 to 500 million US revenue for cesium chemicals. And just for context on pricing, cesium carbonate, there's a price on Shanghai metal markets. Hey Brandon, your internet's cutting out, so I might take over if that's okay. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, so just for reference, the cesium chemicals trade for about 10 times the price of Lithium chemicals. And really it's very important when you're looking for Cesium, by far the best form to find it is a mineral called polyusite, which can contain up to 40% Cesium oxide. And at Falcon West, we've had it up to 28%.

10:50 And so that means that it's

10:54 very cost efficient to process and a small amount of material processed yields quite yields quite a bit of Cesium product. Next slide. Yeah, so We know the world market is

11:18 dominated by Sinomine and they have an estimated 85% market share. Albemarle also has a Cesium Chemical Circuit in Germany, in Langesheim, Germany. And Albemarle publicly announced a transaction with Power Metals to take all of their offtake from their Kayslake project. And this really highlights their desire to source more supply.

11:51 We've been neighbours

11:56 and in good contact with the SinoMine team in Canada and also from their head office over the years. We are very aware of their interest in new supplies of Cesium in mineral polysate. Cesium is quite a high value commodity. With ore grades running up to 20% and a Cesium concentrate from 15% to 20%,

12:32 This can be extremely valuable ore per ton. It's extremely hard to find. We kind of came across Falcon West through historical reports and it's an extremely fractionated system and very importantly, it is right at surface and is polyacetate. There have only been 3 mines that have ever produced Caesium ore.

13:02 The Tango Mine owned by Sinomine, our neighbour in Manitoba, is what we believe to be running short of ore supply. And the 3 metals for the juniors that are really focused on Cesium are noted there, including power metals and PEMET resources.

13:24 One of the really interesting things about Cesium in processing from polyacite is that it's a very simple process and requires minimal capex. The process essentially is crushing and ore sorting, which has been very well established now in Canada. You're effectively creating a gravel that is run through an ore sorter and 1 pile spits out a salable 15% to 20% cesium polysaccharide concentrate and the other is your waste. The advantage of this process is it doesn't use water and you don't need expensive infrastructure. So that will make permitting much simpler

14:07 because you're not affecting the water's supply in any meaningful manner, which is usually the main environmental factor that has to be analyzed in projects. And the waste stream and water streams have to be very carefully monitored and managed. So very simple operation, really more akin to a quarry with very low capex.

14:37 We think we have the pathway to a project that can be developed reasonably quickly compared to most conventional mines. Do you want to try it again, Brandon? This just shows the current Cesium projects globally and then some historical pricing context from Austin Devaney, who used to run Albemarle Cesium Division. He's now a consultant to Grid. And as you can see here, there was basically 3 producing operations, as Robin mentioned. There was Sinomine, which is still producing. There was Paquita in Zimbabwe and Sinomine actually owns Tanko and Paquita.

15:23 Then Essential Metals, which had the Sinclair deposit in Australia, that was effectively a bulk sample that got shipped to Tanko to be processed. That's been largely the history of Cesium mining from the mineral poly site. Currently, there's basically 2 other companies focused on Cesium projects.

15:43 Power Metals is one of them in Ontario with Case Lake and they are a Cesium first deposit. So kind of similar to what we have. And then Piment, they have their large deposit up in Northern Quebec, but that's in conjunction with a major, major Lithium, Cesium, Tantalum operation. So a very different beast to what we've delineated or are looking to delineate at Balkan West

16:09 with grid. And just for context on pricing, there is Shanghai Metal Markets pricing. It's about, Robin mentioned, US$250,000 a tonne. So it's over 10X Lithium Carbonate. So that just kind of shows how high value this stuff is.

16:33 As you can see, it's a pretty limited field and there are some new projects here which are noted, but we feel there seems to be a real potential shortage of feedstock for the chemical operations and downstream chemical products over the next few years.

16:58 Next. Yeah, So just to talk a little bit about the actual project. So again, a bit of a closeup of the project in relation to Winnipeg. I mean, obviously the infrastructure is excellent. It's about an hour and 20 minutes by down the Trans-Canada and there's gravel road into the site.

17:20 And it's a very, there's a number of small communities in the area. And The host is the Lucy South pegmatite, and that's part of the larger pegmatite system in the area, which is mostly undercover. There hasn't been a lot of exploration over the years. The mineralization at Lucy South sits about 25m from surface. And again, we think this is going to be very amenable to a quarry style, shallow open pit with minimal capex. You know, we drilled 130 something holes starting in October with the placement that Agnico did, and then finished those off, that series of holes from January to March of this year.

18:14 We identified

18:17 a flat-lying zone of Cesium polysate in a 10-metre flat line pegmatite. It's a little over the size of a football field in dimensions. That's really what we're going to focus the first stage of, you know, mine development on going forward.

18:42 Yeah, so in terms of the deal with Avenir, you know, this deal was came out of their initial placement that they were interested in going into a joint venture. And we think it's structured really well for grid in that it has 3 funding elements. The first one is we sold a 15% interest in the Thotten West project for $3.75M in cash and we'll get that on closing. That is a non-dilutive capital for the company and secures Avenir as the actual partner in the project and with their technical expertise. The second stage is upon announcement and completion of a resource.

19:30 Avenir has an option to elect to take another 10% equity placement in grid at a 10% premium to the 30 day VWAP with the common shares. And So, you know, this could occur sometime this fall. And then the third option that Avenir has is to acquire an additional 15% for a total of 30%. And that's based on a formula upon completion of a preliminary economic assessment or adoption of a mine plan, which is, yeah, those 2 things should be occurring in close timing to each other. So, you know, we think that this deal will provide substantially all or all of the potential funding required for the project development and capital to get into production, which roughly, rough scale would be about $15M.

20:26 So yeah, it is staged and I think it's a well thought out transaction. And we will end up with 70% of the project. So we did give up some ownership of the project, but at the same time we brought in capital and extremely strong partner.

20:47 This is a plan view. So looking down at the sky and the dots are the pierce points of the drill holes that we completed in the phase. And we did do some exploration holes more widely. On the left-hand side of the graphic is where the pegmatite is within 5m of the surface.

21:12 And then it dips shallowly to the west on the right-hand side of the graphic. We drilled these holes quite close spacing. Polyusite is extremely fickle, so you'll get it in 1 hole and not in another. We drilled a lot of holes, probably on averaging less than 5m spacing.

21:33 This is what we need to gain confidence. You can see some of the numbers there. It's in a package with CZM and Lithium together. We may be able to or sort the Lithium as well. And we'd have to find a home for that. But the Tango mine is obviously a possibility as they have a Lithium circuit there.

21:59 Going forward, the milestones will be the cesium resource this fall. In Q4, we will be announcing some results of the progress on the network and the permitting. We expect to have some exploration drilling to follow up on additional targets because clearly we think there's potential for more of the project. And we're working on a geochem and geological mapping to define new targets at the property. But we felt that this footprint that you're looking at is the very logical source to look at doing a resource around and designing initial open pit operation.

22:52 We're really focused on this producing cashflow as soon as possible, and that's certainly Avenir's intent as well. Now For the Cesium comparables, we have 3 companies. You can see the resource size clearly P-MET's giant resource. They will be targeting a final investment decision later. It's a several billion dollar project. There's certainly a large amount of high-grade Caesium there. And that will I think significantly change the contours of the Caesium market when that starts to come to production in the future.

23:39 And Power Metals has already got a resource and has announced a transaction with Albumar. So we're earlier stage and a much smaller market cap. We're looking at developing a sizable resource coming up as we can. Just a little bit about our other projects. The Makwan Nickel project is in the middle of the map. That's an option in joint venture with TEC. We signed that in the end of 2024. To get to 70%, they have to fund $17M and the focus is high-grade, high-value Nickel Copper deposits. We expect some kind of decision from them about the next phase of drilling this fall.

24:31 Mayville, we have a 32Mt open pit Copper resource with Nickel, good metallurgy on that. We have a dominant position in the belt, so lots of exploration potential. We think the logical outcome is a consolidation of that belt and a concerted effort to put together critical mass for a base metal operation. And then the Donner Lithium project is right next to the Mable project. And there we have close to 7Mt of Lithium good grade. We did have a toll milling agreement with Tango before the Lithium market crashed in 2024.

25:18 And so there's potential there for us to do something on that project as well. So lots going on in Southeast Manitoba. Dave Pack, our VP Exploration is based in Winnipeg And we have 2 First Nations technicians and 2 young geologists live locally. So we do lots of work ourselves and very efficient operation there. So we like this area, lots of geological potential. And then finally, the Thompson East project, which we just announced with Beledin, and they like the prospect of the rail link going up to the port of Churchill to be able to take metal concentrates out.

26:04 So this is a infrastructure initiative of the Manitoba and the Feds. And of course, Thompson Nickel Bell is one of the major Nickel producing centers in the world. It's been operating since the 1950s. And this is a parallel belt to the East, far less explored. It could be the copper rich portion. And we're just getting underway with exploration there. Some of the grades that we're getting of the precious metals seem to be quite high. So that's a very good sign for the belt. So under that deal, they have to spend $10M to get 80% interest with some cash payments. And there's also scope. You can see that the green and mustard rectangles, the gray is the area which they have the option to expand with a commensurate increase in exploration expenditures and cash payments.

27:00 That'll be based on the results of the exploration. Of course, ESG extremely important. We have done an extension of environmental baseline work across all our properties. We tend to go in early and do baseline water sampling. We've completed all the baseline work for Falcon West to be able to submit a mine permit. We do have a number of First Nations in the various areas. The most important group for us is the Sagin First Nation as they are Makwa, Mabel, and Donner and Falkenwester in their traditional territory. We have an exploration agreement with them.

27:49 And they've been extremely helpful and a very positive partner. And there's the Manitoba Metis and the Peguis or other First Nations that we consult with. And that's extremely important in Manitoba to get the buy-in from the First Nations. And we have a very strong health and safety record for the company. So, this is extremely important working with communities and being a good neighbor as we try to develop our projects. I think in recent months, We've been talking to people about Cesium.

28:35 It's a metal that's not well known. And we think with signing a deal with Avenir, that'll be a real vote of confidence for the market and put it more in focus. We are looking to move Falcon West Season Discovery along to capture value for that and near-term cash flow. Also, we're always focused on discovery and optionality of other mineral projects, which are being funded by large mining companies. So we are really excited about the prospects in Manitoba going forward And we have lots of activity going forward and good financial backing.

29:21 And it's exciting news ahead for Great Metals. Yeah, so that really concludes the formal presentation and happy to answer some questions. Awesome. First thing I'll say is that Brandon's connection actually seems fine. Robin, I think it was yours cutting him out. So I'll just throw him into the conversation as normal. And if you ever don't hear my question, let me know and I'll just be able to repeat it. The first thing I wanted to ask, I know we've talked a lot already about the Avenir deal, which I think is really interesting. I'd love if you could take us behind the announcement a little bit. How did a subsidiary of Agnico end up at the table in the first place for a Cesium project in Southeastern Manitoba. Who approached him? How did this come together?

30:11 We've been in conversations with them for a while. They're obviously their critical mineral subsidiary of NECO. We've been working on the Cesium now for over a year. We've had conversations going back in time. In our view, they've done a good amount of work into Cesium and they liked the space. We were getting close to a permit at Falcon West, looking to drill it. And we kind of needed the risk capital to push that ahead. And it just kind of came together where they came in behind the scenes, undisclosed at the time. And then from that first stage of the relationship, it blossomed into this minority joint venture agreement we recently structured. It's been great working with that team. Some of the very sharp guys and focused on critical minerals in Canada, in metals that they've done work into.

31:06 I think it's fair to say that just to add to that, that I don't think they would take a minority position in any project with a team unless they were very confident in that team being good to work with. And also not to toot our own horn, but we're very pleased that we're able to enter into an agreement like that. And obviously Lots of work ahead, but that's a great position for a company like ours. No, I always encourage some well-earned horn tooting, so please do feel free. Brandon, I'll throw you on just about the nature of the deal, because it's got a few layers to it. It's got the cash up front, the equity option tied to the resource estimate and the second project level option priced off NPV.

31:51 Walk us through, if you could, why the deal was structured that way rather than a straight kind of classic earn it. Yeah, no, good question. The way the reason we structured that way is effectively to get financing at key milestones to largely get the project into production, ideally funding the initial CapEx where we don't really have to go back to the market to get this thing into production. So That was the genesis of having the staged payments to increase their equity interest and then additionally increase their project interest. We wanted to structure it that way because we're looking at a very expedited timeline to get this into production. Because as Robin mentioned, it's effectively largely a quarry versus a true mine. There's no fixed infrastructure, there's no tailings, there's no water in the process to produce a concentrate.

32:44 We want to move fast And this kind of allows us to move quickly and get the capex we need to because markets are finicky with minor metals that no one knows anything about. It's sometimes hard to find. And so that was kind of the genesis of why we structured it that way. That makes sense. Minor metals, they can have big weeks, but they can also have long, long months. So it makes sense to me. And speaking of, and this reflects a comment in the chat, but not directly, but I do want to touch on it. CZM is a market, I know most investors in this room have never really had to price or think about pricing. I know there's a lot of precious metals investors in the room. There's no terminal quote, no futures curve. So when you model Falcon West internally, how do you get comfortable with what a ton of polysite concentrate is actually worth?

33:32 Yeah, That's a good question. We've obviously done a lot of work behind the scenes. We obviously have engaged Austin Devaney, who used to run Albemarle Cesium Division. So getting some insights from him. But that's kind of the multi-million dollar question is there is no poly site concentrate pricing. So what price do you get? And kind of the approach we've taken is that for a minor metal, a lot of times what can happen is markets kind of go a bit dry and you can't raise equity at great prices. Some offtaker comes in with a prepay or something and gives you maybe a price for the concentrate that is lower than you could get if you could get to production by yourself. To hedge against that, we've structured it to get into production with, you know, hopefully not needing the markets again.

34:19 So, you know, if you're auctioning off a concentrate and you can get there without, you know, entering an offtake, we think we're in a good spot because the feedstock market is severely constrained right now for caesium concentrate. No, definitely appreciate that. Like I said, I think a lot of people in the audience probably have never thought about pricing cesium before, so I think it's helpful context. Robin, I wanted to get you in, because I know phase 2 assays are still pending. Without front running results, which obviously I don't want to try to do. What would you need to see from that program for the fall resource estimate to land the way that you're hoping that it does? Yeah. You know, not much really, to be honest, we don't need much more. So it's, you know, we, We've decided to go ahead and start a lot of the work on the resource based on the results in hand.

35:13 These last holes largely were drilled around the edges, where the zone seems to be thicker in the middle and thinning out. We think we're going to get some reasonable results, but the majority of what we've drilled off has been drilled off in an ounce. We're very confident that we're not going to have to go back and drill more holes. If these results are not zingers, we're not going to have a good resource. That's a good position to be in. These are funny deposits. There are theories as to why poly site forms, but I think they seem to be different types of deposits from time to time.

36:02 So it is what it is. And we've defined what we can at this stage and lots more work to do, but we think we've got kind of the critical mass for a project here to go ahead. That's a good spot to be in July, I would say. Not worrying too much about results. Brandon, I'll throw to you for a kind of zoomed out question because I know as we've touched on today, Albemarle locking up all the power metals, case like offtake, I think tells you, tells the market generally that converters are nervous about feedstock. And like I said, we've already touched on it, but to put it clearly, have those kinds of conversations already started for Falcon West or is that post-resource discussion? You don't touch it until that's through. Yeah, no, I think it's fair to say we're speaking to various groups that could be interested. But truthfully, once we have a resource, that's when you really, those conversations really kick into high gear.

36:53 And then the big piece for offtakers and groups that are gonna use the concentrate are, you know, when we do our MET program and get some actual physical concentrates. So, you know, that hopefully is into your end. And once they can see that and see that they can convert it to chemicals, that's when you can really start discussing off takes or what you're gonna do with it. So, you know, it's fair to say we're talking to groups, but it does really kick into high gear after a resource. And once you have some net work done and some concentrate in hand to ship out to them. Great, thanks. And Robin, I'll throw it to you. Just something curious looking at your deck and hearing this presentation. You've got Tech at Macwa, Ballatin at Thompson East, and now Avenir at Falcon West. For a company with your market cap, it's an unusual roster. You don't often see those names. So what's your read on why majors keep seeming to pick Crid's ground?

37:50 Well, I think they're attracted to good projects with good underlying geology. And, you know, that's, they're not going to do anything unless they see that at minimum. And then, you know, what we do bring to the table is an operating team that can operate, you know, extremely efficiently. So I think they like that to run these programs. So if you think about it, if a company like, you know, Beledin wants to set up an operation in Canada, they have to hire local geologists, get an office, establish all the relationships that they need to do, whereas we have those people in place. None of these projects is a full-time for a geological team, but if you have a number of projects, it kind of all works.

38:36 And so it's a combination of those factors, but the world is a finite place. And I think it's fair to say, Beledin, we met them at PDAC 2 years ago, and they're looking at terrains where there is good prospective geology and good geopolitical situations where they're very confident about the rule of law. Manitoba and Canada certainly ticks that box. Manitoba, generally speaking, is underexplored. There's still a ton of potential. I think it's a combination of those factors. And then our technical team, Dave's very strong technically and does a great job at explaining the merits of the projects and working with the other geological teams. So I think they feel confident in handing over some operating discretion to our team because they know what they're doing.

39:34 Yeah, that makes sense. One last one from me, and then I'll get into quite a few questions that came in over email. There's also quite a few in the chat, so I probably won't be able to get everything today, but I do want to flag, There's a request meeting button at the bottom of the screen. Please do press that. I'll try and get you connected with the Grid Metals team. It'll give both your phone number and email address, and it'll be available after the event is closed as well. Brandon, I wanted to throw one last one from me to you, which is, with roughly $5 million in the treasury post-closing, how are you prioritizing spend between now and the resource estimate? And this reflects a question in the chat too. What does the market get to see between here and there? What are the next big catalyst milestones that people should expect? Yeah, no good question. So obviously we're going to kick things into high gear at Falcon West.

40:22 There's things where we kind of got ready, but now we can actually execute on them with the Avenir financing coming in. So we'll kick off the resource. We're targeting fall. It's a few months from now to have a resource out, which in our view is a large, large catalyst. And then the other things that are going to come after that are the network, so actually producing a concentrate and getting that into the hands of off takers. There'll also be the permitting side of things and the IBA discussions with the First Nations. So those will really be kicking into high gear. And then all of that will lead us to a mine plan or PEA or some sort of mine plan into early to mid next year. And then hopefully we do think the permitting is relatively expedited for a project like this because there is no tailings in infrastructure and targeting to be permitted in a very timely fashion. So post the resource, sometimes network and discussions on permitting don't really move a stalk, but a PDA around the corner. And we are looking to also drill this winter. So we're looking to hopefully do some exploration drilling with some tech, some geophysical and geochemical techniques that the team's using to try to uncover some more tons of cesium on the property within this core area we're focused on.

41:44 Nope, exciting. Appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing what comes next. Let me get into, I'm going to do a mix of questions that came in advance over email and then some of the ones on chat. So try to get as many as we can. One person wrote in almost as soon as the event was announced, if you could confirm the expected timing of the MRE and whether the independent QP and consulting firm have already been formally engaged and have the final assay database right now? Yeah, we haven't formally engaged the QP, but We've been working closely with somebody on a consulting basis for several months. We can formally kick that off quickly.

42:29 The whole idea is that a lot of the work would have been done before we start and that we get a sense of where it might land in terms of numbers and that it's going to be a successful outcome for the company. It should happen a lot more quickly than starting from scratch, but there can always be glitches when you come to MREs. They're kind of notorious for taking longer than you expect. So yeah, we'll try to make it as smooth as possible and get it out the door efficiently. Because it is, as Brandon mentioned, it really, you know, will be a positive milestone for the company. Oh, awesome. Appreciate that clarity. One question was written in there, kind of 2 versions of it. So I'll summarize into one. And that's what classification split between indicated and inferred should shareholders anticipate, you know, napkin math is totally acceptable for the maiden estimate and what cutoff grade methodology is being applied to the core zone?

43:30 I'd say that we're hoping as much will be indicated as possible, but we don't know that. We want that, we will not know until we see. Partly that depends on QP review within the engineering firm And then, you know, the, I think it's safe to say we will use a cut off methodology that will be familiar to the, you know, other CSUN resources and not out of line with those as to exactly what it's going to be. I can't tell you, but it won't be something that is unusual. Well, it won't shock. No, I appreciate that. One question from the chat from Fish and setups, great username by the way. They want to say, look at the Lucy South intercepts and the step outs. The amount of polysate found in a relatively thin pegmatite seems high for the known volume. They want to know if this suggests the system may be larger at depth.

44:31 Well, I think it's fair to say that it does ebb and flow in terms of the concentration of polysite. And there may be orientation, like the flattening of the pegmatite may have led to the precipitation. We don't know. We certainly don't know the extent of the Lucy South pegmatite. It's definitely open down depth. What we're looking at is about a 10-meter wide pegmatite that has a wall zone and then a core zone, which consists of plus or minus quartz and it has spodumene with Lithium and polyacite and Lipidolite. So in varying manners. So that's the package. And we follow that until we start to see the amount of polyusite get thinner and thinner and then we'll stop.

45:21 But that doesn't mean that 100m over here, it may pick up again. But the advantage of where we're drilling now, it's very close to surface. So if you think in terms of the processing, it'll be a relatively small number of tons that we would process. And the wall rock is black, the pegmatite is white, and we'll put the whole pegmatite through the ore sorter. And based on the ore sorting, we'll capture, we hope more than 90% of the of the polyusite based on density. So, economically you can process the whole thing. Now, if this is an underground mining scenario, it becomes more complicated because you have your development costs are greater and it's expensive to go through barren areas.

46:11 So yes, early days, This is a very highly fractionated pegmatite. We don't have a lot of Tantalum, but when you get it, it can be in the percent range, which is extremely high. This is a very unique system and there is a huge pegmatite next to it, that's a potassium pegmatite, but at the kilometer away that we drilled, we got some really high-grade Lithium with big crystals. It's a really intriguing system. Again, most of it is not exposed. And so there's lots more to do there.

46:56 So yeah, we're optimistic at this stage that we can find more, but we don't know. It's exploration. Fair enough. I got 3 questions over email about the deal of increasing difficulty to answer, so I'll throw them at you in that order. First one is phase 2 option allows Avenir to acquire further 15% interest at 40% of project NPV. Somebody wants to know if you can walk shareholders through the rationale for pricing that increment below pro rata value and how the JV management committee views the circumstances under which that option would be exercised. Yeah, no, that's a good question. You know, a lot of times when majors are coming in for, you know, a PA stage asset or even later, you're not going to pay 1 times P to NAV.

47:42 Even in, you know, companies in production and baser or precious metals, they don't, they hardly trade over 1 times P to NAV. So it's kind of the nature of the beast that, you know, Avenir, Agnico wants, you know, some upside to a preliminary mine plan, which could evolve and change over time. It was just trying to find the right place where we're both happy with the outcome. And obviously too, we got a $25 million implied valuation up front on their $3.75 million investment, which was above our full market cap. So, we think it's a fair multiple to pay for a pre-age stage and we like how we structured the deal. Great. Just in the interest of time, I'll jump to the most difficult question to answer about the deal. But that's does the JV agreement contemplate a pathway to Avenue or Agnico acquiring the project to the company? And are there any first right of refusal tagalong or similar provisos that would affect your ability to run a competitive process in response to third party proposal?

48:46 There's, I'd say all the terms there are pretty standard in these type of things. So there certainly is the ability for us to sell our interest in the project at some stage. Super helpful. One question, when do you expect ore sorting and metallurgical results and what concentrate grade and recovery would you guys regard as a successful outcome given the feedstock you've got? Yeah, maybe I'll take that one. I think on the MET program, you know, now we're looking to, we kind of have a bit of a bulk sample ready to go out for some ore sorting test work where they'll crush an ore sort it. I think it probably takes 4 to 6 months. Maybe by year end we'll have those results outstanding.

49:33 In terms of where the concentrate grade should land, if you're anywhere in the ballpark of 10% to 20% Caesium oxide, that's a good concentrate and should command top dollar. We're hoping it's within that range where it needs to be. Just for context, we have got historical drill holes of 3m of 20% Cesium oxide. That's already concentrated grade there. Hopefully we can achieve the standard in the cesium space, even though it's a small market, that's kind of where we want it to be. No fun. There's 1, is a PEA part of the near-term plan and what conditions, resource scale, met results, et cetera, would need to be satisfied to proceed to 1.

50:21 Yes, I think we'll have the resource out in the fall and we are starting on the networks. So once you have those, those are the 2 big, big pieces. This won't be a very technically challenging mine plan because as we've mentioned, it's a flat-line sheet about 20m below surface. From a mining perspective, it shouldn't be too complicated. Once you have the met stuff done and you have your resource, you can move towards that. That would be the next step into the new year of starting the PEA process to get some economics to the market and get a better understanding of actually what we have. Right, I appreciate it. One question that reflects a question in chat and on email, so I'll try to combine them here. And that's basically is grid fully funded through the MRE and PEA, or should shareholders anticipate additional equity financing? And if so, over what kind of timeline?

51:15 Well, the second phase of the Avenir deal is their option to take a equity placement. And with the 2 other parts of the joint venture that should fund us for the development and the capital of the project. It is technically possible. We could raise some other equity for other things, but that would be largely discretionary for a grid. You know, For example, if we got into a phase of expiration, which was extremely productive and we wanted to ramp that up, we could do more of that. But yes, we're pretty mindful of our share count. If you look at the last few years, how we've funded the company, with a low stock price, we haven't been issuing a lot of shares for what we've done.

52:09 And so not to say we wouldn't do that, but we were certainly mindful of shareholder dilution. I appreciate that. Thanks for answering. A couple of questions I want to jump into just from the live chat. The one on global cesium bifurcation and markets, I'll probably save. That's probably an hour discussion. So I'll throw that through to the team. One person wants to know what's current permitting status on the project in Manitoba. Yeah, so we haven't launched the permit yet. We've done the baseline work. We're kind of in pre-consultation phase with the first nations and the government to make sure that everybody knows what we intend to do. We're not surprising anybody.

52:58 We've done a fair amount of work on the project description, which is required for, in Manitoba, it's an environmental act permit. And the project description is really a detailed description of what it is you're going to do. There's a couple of other steps prior to launching the formal permit, but we have a very good permitting group in Manitoba who's very experienced, does a lot of work for majors. And it's a pretty good aggressive timeline that we think is doable. We got an advanced expiration permit for our Donner project in about 6 months, which in other jurisdictions would take many years. The government was very cooperative with that. We did have the sponsorship of First Nation involved and that really smooth thing.

53:53 So we were familiar with the process and we're really getting the ducks in a row to be able to launch that and part of it is funding too. So now we'll be well-funded to launch that. So it's all coming together with various other aspects of the projects at the same time. Yeah. Oh, great. Appreciate that. Time for about 2 more questions, I think. So I'll just throw 2 more in the chat. So feel free to ask them. I'll just make sure that the team gets them afterwards. One is a classically difficult question to answer, so feel free to pass on it. But T from the chat asks, what's your current relationship with Albemarle? Are you in frequent discussions with their team right now? We've talked to them at PDC and we have a relationship with them.

54:46 Beyond that, I can't comment. Perfect, thank you. Just a reminder to the chat, those are the type of questions that famously people can't give full answers to. One question right under, Barry wants to know if there's any government funding avenues available right now for cesium projects in your jurisdiction? Yeah, I would think we definitely have some options. You know, we've obviously kind of, we've been in conversations with the Canadian government and ARCAN and various groups. But kind of the big thing to actually unlock these pools of government funding is you at minimum need a resource. So, you know, once we have the resource that we're going to make a much bigger push on the government financing side and, you know, even talking to groups in the US as well, it is a critical mineral for the US and Canadian government. So that's kind of when it really kicks into high gear.

55:32 We've had high level conversations on things, but you kind of need a resource on paper before anyone's going to take you serious for government financing. That makes sense. Appreciate it. And generally, appreciate both of you, Brandon and Robin, for running through the presentation and also letting me grill you for a good a half hour. We got through a lot of questions. Thanks to the audience. I know there were a lot of you here today. Please encourage you in the last couple of seconds of today's event and after it closes to hit the request meeting button at the bottom of your screen. So be able to try and book some time with Brandon Robin, the team at Grid Metals. But thank you both so much for giving time to speak to the market. Always appreciate it. Thanks, everybody, for joining me. Thank you.