Mark Chalmers
Analyst · H.C. Wainwright
Thank you, Sylvie. Good morning, good afternoon to everybody on the call. Thank you for joining our year-end 2022 call and webcast today. We are always excited to talk about our achievements and particularly our extraordinary achievements in 2022 as well as the significant accomplishments we have already made early in 2023. So, there's a lot to talk about. We have absolutely set the stage for a very exciting 2023. Energy Fuels has also absolutely emerged as a clear leader in U.S. critical mineral production. And that is at a time when this has never been so important. In the presentation, I will cover the highlights and the financials in detail. For those that cannot join the call today, we'll have replays of this presentation available for about two weeks, later today on our website. Also, I just want to remind everybody that you are controlling your slides in the presentation from your own device. And I'll try to remember to tell you when to advance to next slide. There will be questions -- or time for questions at the end of the presentation. I will be joined by Dave Frydenlund, our Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer; Tom Brock, our CFO; and Curtis Moore, our Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development. So, let's jump into the presentation. So the first slide is the slide showing the White Mesa Mill and also showing the fact that we are becoming America's leading producer of critical minerals for the energy -- clean energy transition. Next slide. I may be making some forward-looking statements, and those are included on the slide number 2. Next slide. Energy Fuels is the leading U.S. producer of uranium, vanadium and rare earth, creating clean energy for a better world. Next slide. Now this slide is interesting because it shows the periodic table. And Energy Fuels can currently produce or will be able to produce many of these elements that are now required for the clean energy technologies in the clean energy future. So, I'd just like to point out a few things. I mean, certainly, we have a long history as a uranium producer, but now we're emerging into this strategy of advancing our rare earth initiatives. And if you look down on the periodic table, in green, you can see a number of these elements, many of which I couldn't even pronounce back a number of years ago, but many of which are absolutely required for improvements in electrification. We also have a long history of vanadium production, and we are also going down the path looking at potentially recovering Radium-226 at the White Mesa Mill. Next slide. So really, the products that we produce or will be producing are all absolutely critical for these clean energy technologies, whether it be nuclear fuel assemblies, vanadium for vanadium flow batteries or the rare earth for high-performance permanent motor drivetrains, wind turbines or even including military defense like jets. Next slide. So, when you look at our product lines, they're all high value: uranium, which provides 50% of the zero carbon energy in the United States; rare earths required for these powerful magnets; vanadium used for steel hardening, but again, we're getting substantial focus on the grid scale batteries for the vanadium flow batteries; medical isotopes like the Radium-226 critical for emerging cancer therapies, potentially even providing cures for cancer; recycling of uranium and vanadium bearing materials; and substantial financial strength. We had $117 million of working capital at the end of 2022, but we also have large inventories of uranium and vanadium. And then, after the end of the year, we closed the Alta Mesa project sale for $120 million in February. And the numbers at year-end also do not include the DOE, uranium cell or the fact that we have substantial investments in companies like CUR. Next slide. So, when you look at our 2022 financial performance, as I mentioned, we had working capital of $117 million. That comprised of $62.8 million of cash and cash equivalents, $12.2 million of marketable securities and $38 million of product inventory. But when you adjust for the current commodity prices, there is a flex-up in excess of $20 million at current commodity prices. And I want to highlight zero debt, zero debt and up to $1 billion worth of assets at replacement value. Now, at the beginning of Q1 in 2023, as I mentioned previously, we made the sale of encore -- to enCore, the Alta Mesa project, consideration of $120 million, $60 million of which is cash, which we've received, and we also have a convertible note for $60 million. So, that is all coming into the first quarter of 2023. I also want to add that also -- and we announced both, the Alta Mesa sale and the uranium reserve in 2022, they didn't close in 2022. So, those funds did not report to the 2022 year-end. So also, we sold the $18.5 million of uranium with a gross margin on our uranium reserve sale of approximately $10.8 million. Next slide. So, I want to go into the net loss that we posted of $59.8 million. And a big part of that was the noncash mark-to-market loss on our investments primarily consolidated uranium, which accounted for 30% of that loss, again, noncash on investments. At the same time, we started up or in the process of starting up four uranium, vanadium mines and we started that activity about midyear. And so that started putting substantial cash requirements on starting up those four mines. And the beauty of that is that literally with a phone call, we could start mining uranium in less than 24 hours if we have to at one or two of those mines. We're also continuing to develop our commercial rare earth capacities, and we are making progress in leaps and bounds. We continue to optimize our rare earth carbonate production. We have proven that at commercial scale. And we are also continuing to process monazite, but we have had some delays in deliveries of monazite, which also impacted our 2022 economics. We recently received another 600 metric tons and we're processing that as we speak, and we expect to receive -- and this is material from Chemours, another 400 to 700 at year-end. So, on that front, we are also canvassing the world, looking to secure significant potentially additional monazite in 2023, and we're very excited about the prospects on that front. While at the same time, we've proven we can make a uranium and thorium-free carbonate, we are modifying and enhancing our solvent extraction circuit to recover separated oxides NdPr up to 1,000 tons, and we plan to have that available by the end of '23 or early 2024. And that in itself is a remarkable accomplishment. I talked about the Radium-226. We're advancing our medical isotope business and strategy. And at the same time, we had higher expenses for acquiring the Bahia Project and selling the Alta Mesa project. And at the end of that, when you start going back into commercial production, it doesn't come for free. We are investing in the future. And as I said, setting the stage for a very exciting 2023. Next slide. So, if you look at our guidance for 2023, we will sell 560,000 pounds of uranium in 2023. 300,000 pounds will be the closing of the sale to the uranium reserve at $61.57 price per pound. We're also going to sell in the second and third quarter 260,000 pounds at a price between about $54 and $58 per pound. Those are contract sales. Those are contract sales that start the beginning of our contract sales that cover a span of eight years. In the meantime, we plan to place one -- at least one uranium mine into production in 2023 or '24. It could be more than that, depending on the market. We're also seeking long-term uranium supply agreements at higher prices, and we hope that we can conclude additional long-term contracting in '23. The '23 will also be very focused on our rare earth initiatives plans. We're not planning currently to have any finished uranium or vanadium production, but it is always still possible. We will process -- as I mentioned, we have the 600 metric tons of monazite that's currently being processed right now, and we plan to receive additional monazite. And this is the material from Chemours only, later in the year. And while at the same time, we'll continue to process our rare earth separation capacities at the mill with the Phase 1 that we've been talking about that is capable of producing upwards of 1,000 metric tons of NdPr, but we're also doing the engineering and design for Phase 2, which is somewhere in the order of at least 3 times greater than that. This Phase 1 project that we're currently -- and we've ordered a lot of the equipment and materials required to put that -- those capabilities into our existing building is about $25 million, which is absolutely lowest -- probably the lowest cost separation you're going to see in the developed world and. And as I said, should be operable by the end of this year or early next year. And we continue to aggressively seek rare earth offtakes where we believe we'll be able to get offtakes and secure additional monazite feed. We also are rapidly advancing our Bahia Project in Brazil, and we've completed our Phase 1 drilling. We're looking at preparing the various technical reports for a resource there. And we also recently purchased a sonic drill rig for about $1 million. Next slide. So, if you look at our working capital of $117 million at year-end 2022, it doesn't include the sale of Alta Mesa for $120 million. Folks, that moves the needle pretty substantially when we close that in the first quarter of 2023. You also look at the significant inventories of uranium and vanadium that we have. And in that table, you look at what we're carrying. In our working capital the value of uranium on the books and you look at the price differential between what we're carrying uranium on the books under $30 per pound in current prices, and you see the same thing with vanadium and current prices. And when you look at the current prices, I mean, there is a lift in current value of well over $20 million not included in the working capital. And as I've said, when you look at the sales that we're planning, that 500 and what I said, 60,000 -- 560,000 pounds of sales in 2023, that will be revenue of over $30 million on uranium sales alone. Next slide. Our core business is uranium, always has, always will be. Many of you that know me know that I have been producing uranium, and in the uranium business, this year is coming up on 47 years. I'm an old dog that's not going to change direction when it comes to uranium. Next slide. Now, you've seen this slide many times. You've got the White Mesa Mill. And certainly, that is the hub of our critical mineral program, being able to recover the radium, the vanadium, soon to be separated oxides in one building, the existing building, while recovering the uranium in Southern Utah. In addition, Pinyon Plain mine in Arizona, which I built in the '80s is at preproduction. We have people working there right now. They're driving drift and they're readying that project. We have the Nichols Ranch Project, which is still on standby. And we also have people working at La Sal Complex also in preproduction getting it ready. And that's a uranium-vanadium mine, and that is where we could literally start mining today if we decide we need to do so. Next slide. So certainly, in 2022, securing long-term contracts -- three long-term contracts with two U.S. nuclear utilities was a significant accomplishment. And those contracts go out for eight years. The base quantity is 3 million pounds. If they flex up, it could be 4.1 million pounds. But at the same time, look at the changes in the wins that are happening with the U.S. government having bipartisan support for nuclear energy, look at the escalation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and also look at some of the transport issues that are being impacted because of problems in Russia and Kazakhstan and getting product out of those countries. And as we said, we closed or got paid for the 300,000 pounds that we sold to the uranium reserve at a very nice price. Next slide. Now again, you've seen this slide a number of times, and it's an important slide because we still trade as a uranium company, we're in the middle of the pack. We have a very strong working capital position that does not include the sale of Alta Mesa or these uranium sales that we just made with the reserve and the contracts we have mid-year, zero debt, substantial infrastructure, significant uranium inventories that are on the books for under $30 or around $30 a pound and vanadium. When you also look at the uranium -- and everybody in that list is focused on uranium, and you look at the fact that Energy Fuels over the last 15 years has produced about one-third of the newly produced uranium in the United States. And you look at the list there between Cameco and Energy Fuels, the last 15 years, 85% of the uranium produced in the United States came from two companies. And Energy Fuels in the United States was absolutely the leader of the pack at that one-third with Cameco being about 50%. But we trade as uranium stock. Look at the rare earth. Look at the fact that we're secured Bahia. We've got an arrangement with Chemours. We've got a strong relationship with Neo. We've -- also advancing our ability to separate. We've proven our ability to crack and leach. That is not included as part of our market cap, in my opinion in a material way when we trade with uranium peers. Vanadium: vanadium, we have the only conventional vanadium plant in North America. We're proud of that. We have the ability to go back in the vanadium production in due course. And the medical isotopes, again, White Mesa is ideally suited to advance that initiative, and we are, and then, lastly, the ability to recycle, particularly in down markets. Next slide. So let's look at the growth drivers for rare earth. Next slide. So a complementary business opportunity is the uranium, the rare earth and how they fit perfectly with Energy Fuels mainly because the best rare earth feeds contain uranium that most others cannot produce or handle. Next slide. So, this slide is quite interesting because this is a slide prepared by the Department of Energy, and it shows how dependent the world has become on China. And if you look at this slide and you look at the mining, the separation, refining and magnet manufacturing. It just shows you how vulnerable we are to China and how big of a market share China has. And we're trying to reestablish that in the United States of America as we go forward. So this is actually quite a shocking slide. Next slide. Now we're showing the progress of our rare earth initiatives over -- since we announced we're getting into rare earth business in April of 2020 and also looking at the advancements and how quickly we were able to advance. So, we begin processing carbonate in '21 -- July '21. We began pilot scale separations in November of '22. We made a high-purity carbonate that is between 32% to 34% NdPr in March of ‘22. We acquired the Bahia project in February of 2023. We've started retrofitting our ability to do the separations, which we expect to have done at the end of '23 or '24. We're doing the engineering for -- being able to expand separation at the mill by 2026 as we secure more feeds on monazite. And lastly, Phase 3, looking out around 2027, looking at separations of the heavy rare earth. So again, remarkable progress. Next slide. So, if you look at the supply chain, we're truly building a capital-efficient and global rare earth supply chain. And if you look at what we're doing on the mining beneficiation stage, we're doing that today with natural monazite. The crack and leach today with a carbonate separation into this year, next year on separated oxides, and we continue to march down the list to get as far as we can on full integration. Now, if you look at that little picture of the world, you can see that we're truly building a global footprint when it comes to the rare earth business. Next slide. The Bahia project. The Bahia project, again, we closed that and very substantial. We closed that just recently, could produce -- provide monazite to us for decades between 3,000 to 10,000 tons of monazite. Very large land position, nearly 60 square miles. We're drilling it. We're advancing our permits. And as I said, we purchased a sonic drill rig, and we're looking at building a rare earth or a resource here in the not-too-distant future. Next slide. So just pictures of the rare earth production in the carbonate going to the Neo Performance Materials in Silmet in Estonia, pictures of the lower right-hand corner of our separation pilot scale, 72 mixer settlers. Next slide. And we've talked about the many advantages of why Energy Fuels will succeed when others have not on the processing of rare earth and it's our ability to handle and monetize the radionuclides, including the uranium from monazite. We have a long history with solvent extraction. We have the tailings facilities. We have the personnel. It's low-cost, capital-efficient, and also we're in the state of Utah we're very proud of. Next slide. So, if you look at our market position with other rare earth producers, you really look in the top 5 with MP, Lynas Iluka, our self, and Neo Performance Materials. Again, we’re valued as a uranium producer. And we think there's huge market upsized to showing the market, demonstrating the market this year, next year that we're able to commercially produce this material at very low capital and operating costs and get a substantial REE rate, particularly when you look at the value of NdPr, the value of the disposing the terbium that the monazite has. I mean these are high-value products and it will provide material revenue to the Company with what we believe a very material margins in time as we build out our strategy there. Next slide. So, we've talked about the vanadium and the ability to produce vanadium, the history of producing vanadium. Vanadium markets are improving. And also, we talked about the medical isotope strategy and that we're focused on that. That's farther behind the uranium, vanadium and the rare earth strategies, but it is a very exciting spot for us. Next slide. We're doing more on community engagement, ESG and recycling that we've ever done. Next slide. Looking at our products, they meet these ESG initiatives perfectly, uranium for zero carbon emissions; rare earth for these clean energy technologies for the future; the vanadium high strength and renewable power via grid-scale batteries; the isotopes I've talked about, the recycling history; and our sustainability report is truly a carbon reduction electrification document on steroids. We are a company on steroids when it comes to the energy future, electrifications future looking forward. On the community outreach, we've just made leaps and bounds there, focusing on more community consultation. We've made a long-term commitment with that with the San -- with our Clean Energy Foundation in San Juan County. We contributed $1 million to the foundation. And we're also committed to ongoing funding of that foundation equal to 1% of annual mill revenues. That foundation is supporting new and existing programs, focused on education, environment, health, wellness, economic development for the region as well as Native American priorities. Our recycling program reduces carbon emissions, long history there. And we're also -- and continue to make a pledge to help reclaim the Cold War mines on the Navajo Nation. And then the last slide basically shows that -- a really nice picture of the region, and it's a very bright future for Energy Fuels going forward. And before I open it up for questions, I think I might have, in my pile of slides, missed a slide, but maybe I haven't. So -- but I'll open it up for questions. No, I think I covered it all. So anyways, I'll open it up for questions. And that's the end of my presentation.