Electra Battery Materials Corporation (ELBM) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Electra second-quarter 2023 results conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝你的支持。這是會議操作員。歡迎參加 Electra 2023 年第二季度業績電話會議。提醒一下，所有與會者都處於僅聽模式，並且正在錄製會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the call over to Joe Racanelli, Vice President, Investor Relations with Electra Battery Corporation. Please go ahead.

我現在想將電話轉給 Electra Battery Corporation 投資者關係副總裁 Joe Racanelli。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. Before we begin, I want to point out a couple of items. We filed our materials last night and our press release, MD&A, financial statements are available from our website as well as on SEDAR and EDGAR. We will be making use of a presentation this morning for those listening in on the phone. A copy of that presentation is also available from our website this morning. And I do want to draw your attention that we will be making forward-looking statements and the conditions associated with those and factors associated with those are itemized on page 2 of our presentation material.

謝謝接線員，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。在開始之前，我想指出幾點。我們昨晚提交了材料，我們的新聞稿、MD&A、財務報表可從我們的網站以及 SEDAR 和 EDGAR 上獲取。今天早上我們將向那些通過電話收聽的人進行演示。今天早上我們的網站上也提供了該演示文稿的副本。我確實想提請您注意，我們將做出前瞻性陳述，與這些陳述相關的條件和因素已在我們演示材料的第 2 頁上逐項列出。

With me on the call today are Trent Mell, company's CEO; we have Mark Trevisiol, VP of Project Development; and for the first time joining us is Peter Park, our Chief Financial Officer, who was appointed July 4 of this year. After our presentation is done, we will have a question-and-answer session for analysts who cover us. Anyone who would like to follow up afterwards, we will make ourselves available.

今天與我一起參加電話會議的是公司首席執行官特倫特·梅爾 (Trent Mell)；我們有項目開發副總裁 Mark Trevisiol；我們的首席財務官 Peter Park 首次加入我們，他於今年 7 月 4 日被任命。演示結束後，我們將為報導我們的分析師舉行問答環節。如果有人想後續跟進，我們將隨時為您服務。

And with that, I'll turn it over to Trent for his opening remarks.

接下來，我將把它交給特倫特進行開場白。

Yes. Thank you, Joe. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us. So before we open the call to our analysts, I want to review some of our recent developments. Peter and Mark will be speaking as well and share with you our strategy through the end of this year and into 2024.

是的。謝謝你，喬。大家早上好。感謝您加入我們。因此，在我們向分析師開放電話之前，我想回顧一下我們最近的一些進展。 Peter 和 Mark 也將發表講話，並與您分享我們從今年年底到 2024 年的戰略。

So since launching the strategic review process that we referenced or mentioned in Q1, efforts have been particularly focused of late on strengthening the balance sheet. And this culminated last week in the closing of a $21.5 million in gross proceeds from two concurrent private placements. I want to emphasize, Canadian dollars, and unless otherwise indicated, everything in this press release will be in Canadian dollar denomination.

因此，自從啟動我們在第一季度提到或提到的戰略審查流程以來，最近的努力特別集中在加強資產負債表上。上周同時進行的兩次私募募集資金總額達 2150 萬美元，達到了頂峰。我想強調的是，加元，除非另有說明，本新聞稿中的所有內容均以加元計價。

So despite a tough market and a lot of economic uncertainty that we see in the markets today, we did receive strong support. I was very pleased by the support that we saw in our book, which allowed the dealers to exercise their overallotment option. They were encouraged with our raise and our planned use of proceeds. And I want to thank investors who participated in that as well as the syndicated bankers who helped us lead that race.

因此，儘管我們今天在市場上看到了嚴峻的市場和許多經濟不確定性，但我們確實得到了強有力的支持。我對我們在書中看到的支持感到非常高興，這使經銷商能夠行使他們的超額配售選擇權。他們對我們的融資和我們計劃的收益用途感到鼓舞。我要感謝參與其中的投資者以及幫助我​​們引領這場競賽的銀團銀行家。

Other developments in the quarter indicated here in slide 4 included the completion of two major reports, one related to the completion of our cobalt refinery project and the other relating to the potential for a continuous operation, permanent black mass recycling facility. And we'll talk more about both in a little bit.

第 4 幻燈片中顯示的本季度的其他進展包括完成兩份主要報告，一份與完成我們的鈷精煉項目有關，另一份與持續運營、永久性黑色物質回收設施的潛力有關。我們稍後將詳細討論這兩個問題。

We also signed an MOU with the First Nation's economic development group named Three Fires for battery recycling in Ontario. And we extended and expanded our supply agreement with LG Energy Solution. And then equally important, first, with our black mass trial, we had our first plant scale test completed in North America at our existing refinery. And we had a commercial shipment of MHP. We'll elaborate on some of these.

我們還與原住民經濟發展組織“三火”簽署了一份關於安大略省電池回收的諒解備忘錄。我們延長並擴大了與 LG Energy Solution 的供應協議。同樣重要的是，首先，通過我們的黑料試驗，我們在北美現有的煉油廠完成了第一次工廠規模測試。我們有一批 MHP 的商業運輸。我們將詳細說明其中的一些內容。

And first though, let's go to our new CFO. I want to welcome Peter to the team. He joined us as CFO on July 1, so he will review our liquidity position on slide 5.

首先，讓我們來談談我們的新任首席財務官。我想歡迎彼得加入我們的團隊。他於 7 月 1 日加入我們，擔任首席財務官，因此他將在幻燈片 5 上審查我們的流動性狀況。

Thank you, Trent. Good morning, everyone. As Trent just mentioned, I became the CFO of Electra at the beginning of July after joining the company in the end of February. I'd like to begin today's remarks with the review of our liquidity position found on slide 5.

謝謝你，特倫特。大家，早安。正如 Trent 剛才提到的，我在 2 月底加入 Electra 後，於 7 月初成為該公司的 CFO。我想首先回顧一下幻燈片 5 中我們的流動性狀況。

At the end of Q2, we held $7.4 million in cash and marketable securities, which was a reduction from $12.8 million at the end of Q1. The decrease is mainly due to capital cost related to construction of the refinery and cost related to running our black mass trial. I should point out that our cash balance at the end of Q2 did not include the remaining $5.1 million of government funding, nor did it include $21.5 million gross proceeds from last week's financing.

第二季度末，我們持有 740 萬美元的現金和有價證券，比第一季度末的 1280 萬美元有所減少。減少的主要原因是與煉油廠建設相關的資本成本以及與運行黑大規模試驗相關的成本。我應該指出，我們第二季度末的現金餘額不包括剩餘的 510 萬美元政府資金，也不包括上週融資的 2150 萬美元總收益。

Cash management remains a key priority for Electra, and we have taken steps to manage liquidity and reduce costs since the start of the year. And this includes staffing reductions from 12 headcounts to 30 at the end of 2022.

現金管理仍然是 Electra 的首要任務，自今年年初以來，我們已採取措施管理流動性並降低成本。這包括到 2022 年底將員工人數從 12 人減少到 30 人。

This concludes my remarks. I will turn the call back to Trent.

我的發言到此結束。我會把電話轉回特倫特。

Thanks, Peter. All right, let's go to slide 6 before I go to slide 7, which the point of this now -- section is going to be to discuss the details of the re-baseline engineering report. This was a report concluded by our EPCM contractor in consultation with our management team and then reviewed by a third-party engineering group to give us comfort around the capital for completion and the timeline for the recycling project. So slide 7 gives you the context.

謝謝，彼得。好吧，讓我們先看幻燈片 6，然後再看幻燈片 7，這一部分現在的重點是討論重新基線工程報告的細節。這是我們的 EPCM 承包商與我們的管理團隊協商後得出的報告，然後由第三方工程小組進行審查，以使我們對完成的資金和回收項目的時間表感到放心。幻燈片 7 為您提供了背景信息。

As previously communicated in Q1, we faced, as did frankly all development projects in North America, a number of supply chain issues coming out of COVID. There were delays. We compounded by the receipt of a damaged vessel at site, which has since been addressed. We faced inflation, a 40-year high, and all of that created additional pressures on a project that was gearing up to be and will be the first cobalt sulfate refinery in North America to serve the EV market. So until we better understood the impact of those pressures, we did withdraw our guidance in Q1 related to both commissioning and our CapEx. And that was done on February 14, and that's when we launched our re-baseline engineering review. And that covered the scope, the scheduling and CapEx, all as itemized here.

正如之前在第一季度所傳達的那樣，坦率地說，我們面臨著北美所有開發項目一樣，因新冠疫情而出現的許多供應鏈問題。有延誤。我們在現場收到一艘受損的船隻，此後問題已得到解決，這讓我們雪上加霜。我們面臨著 40 年來最高的通貨膨脹，所有這些都給一個項目帶來了額外的壓力，該項目正準備成為並將成為北美第一家服務於電動汽車市場的硫酸鈷精煉廠。因此，在我們更好地了解這些壓力的影響之前，我們確實撤回了第一季度與調試和資本支出相關的指導。這是在 2 月 14 日完成的，那時我們啟動了重新基線工程審查。這涵蓋了範圍、日程安排和資本支出，所有這些都在此處逐項列出。

And you can see the out the output of that report, construction budget of about CAD104 million. And then the low and the high to midpoint -- basically $161 million is the midpoint of our estimated range in order to complete. About $81.7 million has been spent and accrued to date. And I should emphasize, we've also got legacy investments that we benefit from that total today over a $100 million existing equipment buildings, not to mention all the permits that are in place.

你可以看到該報告的輸出，建設預算約為1.04億加元。然後是低點和高點到中點——基本上 1.61 億美元是我們估計範圍的中點，以便完成。迄今為止，已支出和應計費用約為 8170 萬美元。我要強調的是，我們還擁有遺留投資，我們今天從價值 1 億美元的現有設備建築中受益，更不用說所有已到位的許可證。

So given our balance sheet and the capital required to complete, we will require additional capital in order to get this project through construction and into final commissioning. Happy to discuss this a little bit in more detail after the call with the analysts. But essentially, having done the raise last week, our focus and my focus is really on our commercial partners, government agencies, and other sources to try to address the funding shortfall.

因此，考慮到我們的資產負債表和完成所需的資本，我們將需要額外的資本才能使該項目完成建設並進入最終調試。很高興在與分析師通話後更詳細地討論這個問題。但本質上，在上週完成融資後，我們的重點和我的重點實際上是我們的商業合作夥伴、政府機構和其他來源，以試圖解決資金短缺問題。

Sliding -- turning over to slide 8. The good news coming out with the parallel report around black mass. So as we were updating our capital cost for the refinery, we also share details of a scoping study that assessed the potential economics of processing black mass at our refinery. And so this is taking place as we speak as a demonstration plant within the existing building using all of the existing equipment, some new, that was fully recommissioned and is operating still today even on a batch basis.

滑動——翻到幻燈片 8。關於黑人彌撒的平行報告帶來了好消息。因此，當我們更新煉油廠的資本成本時，我們還分享了一項範圍研究的詳細信息，該研究評估了我們煉油廠加工黑色物質的潛在經濟效益。因此，當我們在現有建築內使用所有現有設備（其中一些是新設備）作為示範工廠時，這種情況正在發生，這些設備已完全重新調試，並且至今仍在批量運行。

So the scoping study was launched as a result of some really good progress that we made with the trial and significant interest that we've received from stakeholders, from industry within the EV supply chain. As you can see from slide 8, the scoping study is based on processing 2,500 tonnes of recycled material per year and showed some very compelling project economics. Notably, building the black mass operation using our current footprint at a refinery has an estimated cost of about CAD8.1 million or USD6 million, as we previously indicated in US dollar denomination. And it delivers a rate of return to more than 120% and a payback of one to two years.

因此，我們啟動了範圍界定研究，因為我們在試驗中取得了一些非常好的進展，並且我們從電動汽車供應鏈內的行業利益相關者那裡得到了極大的興趣。正如您從幻燈片 8 中看到的，範圍界定研究基於每年處理 2,500 噸回收材料，並展示了一些非常引人注目的項目經濟效益。值得注意的是，正如我們之前以美元計價的那樣，利用我們目前在煉油廠的佔地面積建設黑色大規模業務的估計成本約為 810 萬加元或 600 萬美元。回報率超過120%，投資回收期為一到兩年。

So to put that in better perspective, slide 8 shows you the estimated EBITDA contribution over a four-year period, starting with the full year production. This assumes we're buying black mass in the market and selling final products as we've been doing through our trial process. And so the fluctuations you see here is really a reflection of commodity prices that we and analysts are projecting over the next four years. So with the strong economics with the modest CapEx spend, and the fact that we are running it successfully in that basis now, we are going to be accelerating our black mass strategy while we put together the capital structure to complete the cobalt recycling plant.

因此，為了更好地理解這一點，幻燈片 8 向您展示了從全年產量開始的四年期間的估計 EBITDA 貢獻。這假設我們在市場上購買黑色物質並銷售最終產品，就像我們在試驗過程中所做的那樣。因此，您在這裡看到的波動實際上反映了我們和分析師預測的未來四年的大宗商品價格。因此，憑藉強勁的經濟和適度的資本支出，以及我們現在在此基礎上成功運行的事實，我們將加快我們的黑色大規模戰略，同時整合資本結構以完成鈷回收工廠。

So just turning over to the next slide, progress of our black mass trial is continuing. So I'm going to turn the call over now to our VP Project Development. Mark Trevisiol, who has a great team working on this, and he'll provide you an update on the black mass process that we've been running since last December. Mark?

因此，翻到下一張幻燈片，我們的黑人大規模審判仍在繼續。因此，我現在將把電話轉給我們的項目開發副總裁。 Mark Trevisiol 擁有一支出色的團隊致力於此工作，他將為您提供我們自去年 12 月以來一直在運行的黑色彌撒流程的最新信息。標記？

Thank you, Trent, and good morning, everyone. We've got a couple of slides here to highlight what we've achieved so far. But just as a quick background, black mass is basically the residue that's left over from the recycling of electric vehicle batteries and other lithium-ion batteries. So there's a process that separates the structure that supports the battery, takes the plastics out. And what you're left with is the nickel and the manganese and the cobalt and the lithium, which then undergoes a process to separate those out and potentially make battery-grade products. So at our refinery, as Trent mentioned, we've got an existing refinery of over probably $100 million, maybe $150 million if you have to build it today. So utilizing the existing resources that we have there, the asset that we have, we developed a proprietary process, which looked at separating out these metals.

謝謝你，特倫特，大家早上好。我們這裡有幾張幻燈片來強調我們迄今為止所取得的成就。但作為一個簡單的背景，黑色物質基本上是電動汽車電池和其他鋰離子電池回收過程中留下的殘留物。因此，有一個過程可以分離支撐電池的結構，取出塑料。剩下的就是鎳、錳、鈷和鋰，然後經過一個過程將它們分離出來，並有可能製造出電池級產品。因此，正如特倫特提到的，在我們的煉油廠，我們現有的煉油廠可能耗資超過 1 億美元，如果今天必須建造的話，可能需要 1.5 億美元。因此，利用我們現有的資源和資產，我們開發了一種專有工藝，旨在分離出這些金屬。

Our objective was to go after the cobalt, the lithium, the manganese, graphite, and the nickel. And of course, in any manufacturing or processing facility, I mean you're gauged by your effectiveness of the process or your efficiency to recover metals, your recovery rates, and certainly your production rates as well.

我們的目標是尋找鈷、鋰、錳、石墨和鎳。當然，在任何製造或加工設施中，我的意思是您的衡量標準是流程的有效性或回收金屬的效率、回收率，當然還有生產率。

Going on to slide 11, I'll talk a little bit about the results. Recovery rates have been very -- we've been very pleased with the recovery rates. There's parts of our process especially around the MHP where the recovery rates were at or superior to the results we achieved in the lab. And in the MHP, that's a product that in our process contains nickel and cobalt. MHP is basically a mixed hydroxide precipitate.

繼續看幻燈片 11，我將談談結果。恢復率非常——我們對恢復率非常滿意。我們流程的某些部分，尤其是 MHP 周圍的回收率等於或優於我們在實驗室中取得的結果。在 MHP 中，我們的工藝中含有鎳和鈷。 MHP 基本上是一種混合氫氧化物沉澱。

We've also produced lithium carbonate. And recently, we had our first shipment of nickel cobalt MHP. So we've garnered some interest in this process, and this was mainly the catalyst with the joint venture with the Three Fires Group, which Trent will speak on shortly. And we're basically having the asset there has put us ahead of the curve in the production of these materials from spent lithium-ion battery. So we're really enthusiastic. The people and workers at the site have done an excellent job to get us to where we are today, and we continue to work at it and produce some refinements.

我們還生產碳酸鋰。最近，我們收到了第一批鎳鈷 MHP。因此，我們對這一過程產生了一些興趣，這主要是與三火集團成立合資企業的催化劑，特倫特很快就會談到這一點。我們在那裡擁有的資產基本上使我們在利用廢鋰離子電池生產這些材料方面處於領先地位。所以我們真的很熱情。現場的人員和工人做了出色的工作，使我們達到了今天的水平，我們將繼續努力並進行一些改進。

So our next steps continue to optimize our flow sheet. There's certain engineering involved in terms of material balance, process flow diagrams, and doing some early process instrumentation diagrams as well, where you wanted to identify the long lead items, update our study based on some of the results that we've seen. I look at a summary report for the site, not only looking at the process, but looking at some of the support services, the logistics, everything involved in terms of how we did to make these products. And that will certainly give us a path to further commercialization and building our plan with 2,500-tonne per annum facility.

因此，我們下一步將繼續優化我們的流程。在物料平衡、工藝流程圖以及製作一些早期工藝儀表圖方面涉及某些工程，您想要識別長周期項目，根據我們看到的一些結果更新我們的研究。我查看該網站的摘要報告，不僅查看流程，還查看一些支持服務、物流以及我們如何製造這些產品所涉及的一切。這肯定會給我們提供一條進一步商業化的道路，並建立我們的年產能 2,500 噸設施的計劃。

I will now turn the call back over to Trent for some of his closing remarks.

現在我將把電話轉回給特倫特，讓他發表一些結束語。

Thanks, Mark. Okay. I'm on slide 14. At the start of the call, I mentioned that we've completed a number of strategic initiatives in Q2 and even subsequent to Q2. So I want to touch on a couple of them now. In September of last year, we announced that we signed a three-year supply agreement with LG Energy Solution. They are, well, not only the world's second largest EV battery manufacturer, they're the largest outside of China. And so the signing of that contract, our first big commercial contract with such an important partner was important to us, but important, I think, as a signal to the industry that North American onshoring of the supply chain is happening.

謝謝，馬克。好的。我在幻燈片 14 上。在電話會議開始時，我提到我們已經在第二季度甚至第二季度之後完成了許多戰略舉措。所以我現在想談一下其中的幾個。去年9月，我們宣布與LG Energy Solution簽署了為期三年的供應協議。他們不僅是世界第二大電動汽車電池製造商，而且是中國以外最大的製造商。因此，簽署該合同，我們與如此重要的合作夥伴簽訂的第一份大型商業合同對我們來說很重要，但我認為，它向業界發出了北美供應鏈外包正在發生的信號。

That contract that we had then has been extended more recently. In July, we announced the extension from three years to five and that the production or supply was going from 7,000 tonnes to 19,000 tonnes. So at our initial nameplate, a run rate of 5,000 tonnes per year of cobalt contained in our sulfate product, that's 80% of our expected output before an expected expansion maybe in year three or so to 6,500 tonnes per year.

我們當時的合同最近得到了延長。 7月份，我們宣布將期限從三年延長到五年，產量或供應量從7,000噸增加到19,000噸。因此，按照我們最初的銘牌，硫酸鹽產品中所含鈷的運行率為每年 5,000 噸，這是我們預期產量的 80%，然後預計在第三年左右將產量擴大到每年 6,500 噸。

And so working on the final contract, we do have a term sheet, a binding term sheet. But as we work on the final contract pieces, the expectation is we're working really towards a tolling arrangement that gets rid of the peaks and valleys and gives us steady state margins that we would be paid for refining hydroxide feed provided to us for LG's use. And looking at a margin of around USD2 is what we have in mind as our optimized scenario.

因此，在製定最終合同時，我們確實有一份條款清單，一份具有約束力的條款清單。但當我們處理最終合同時，我們期望我們真正致力於一種收費安排，消除高峰和低谷，並為我們提供穩定的利潤率，我們將獲得為 LG 提供的精煉氫氧化物原料的報酬。使用。我們考慮的優化方案是 2 美元左右的利潤。

So by way of context, just the size of this contract, even at today's very depressed cobalt prices because we are in a trough for that commodity. We've got about USD620 million worth of Cobalt under contract with this. And what it signals, I think, to the market is Electra is just about sold out short of an expansion or an expansion into whether it be expansion in Ontario or into Bécancour, there are a lot of other players, not just in Canada, but in the US that need our product. And I think it puts us in a very good position as we figure out our working capital -- sorry, rather our CapEx needs to complete the facility.

因此，從背景來看，即使在今天鈷價非常低迷的情況下，這份合約的規模也是如此，因為我們正處於該商品的低谷。我們與此簽訂了價值約 6.2 億美元的鈷合同。我認為，這向市場發出的信號是，Electra 即將售罄，還沒有擴張，或者擴張到安大略省還是貝坎庫爾，還有很多其他參與者，不僅僅是在加拿大，但在美國需要我們的產品。我認為，當我們計算我們的營運資金時，這使我們處於非常有利的位置 - 抱歉，我們的資本支出需要完成該設施。

Flipping over to page 15, slide 15. Let's talk a little bit about Three Fires. Q2, we did announce the signing of an MOU to form a JV focused on recycling waste. As Mark explained, there's two steps to battery recycling. The one -- the more commonplace one across North America and Europe today is the shredding piece where you take the batteries and you disassemble and make the black mass, and then the refining that we're doing is what makes Electra unique. But that first step is really the subject matter of the joint venture that we're working on.

翻到第 15 頁，幻燈片 15。讓我們來談談“三火”。第二季度，我們確實宣布簽署諒解備忘錄，組建一家專注於廢物回收的合資企業。正如馬克所解釋的，電池回收有兩個步驟。今天在北美和歐洲更常見的一種是粉碎部件，您可以將電池拆解並製成黑色物質，然後我們正在進行的精煉使 Electra 獨一無二。但這第一步實際上是我們正在開展的合資企業的主題。

So Three Fires, as I mentioned, it's a First Nation-owned economic development group, and they're -- basically their focus is generating generational wealth for their members, and they've got involvement in quite a number of projects. These are long-term investments that can yield dividends or income for them in their First Nations for many years to come. So we're delighted to be working with them.

正如我所提到的，三火組織是一個原住民擁有的經濟發展集團，他們的重點基本上是為其成員創造世代財富，他們參與了相當多的項目。這些是長期投資，可以在未來許多年為他們的原住民帶來股息或收入。所以我們很高興與他們合作。

And of note, of course, there are two major battery plants that are being constructed on the traditional land of member First Nations, namely in St. Thomas and in Windsor and Southern Ontario, which is not far from us. Encouraged with the discussions, hopefully have more to say in the quarter ahead as we try to get through the formalization of the relationship. And certainly, the JV, as Mark alluded to, it was an important factor that's going to contribute to our acceleration of black mass and the commercialization of our strategy.

當然，值得注意的是，在原住民成員的傳統土地上正在建設兩個主要電池廠，即聖托馬斯以及離我們不遠的溫莎和南安大略。受到討論的鼓舞，希望在接下來的季度我們努力實現關係的正式化時能有更多的發言權。當然，正如馬克所提到的，合資企業是一個重要因素，將有助於我們加速黑人大眾化和我們戰略的商業化。

And so if we flip over to Page 16, I think this map gives a good perspective of the opportunity, the proximity, which is important when you're looking at localizing the supply chain. So that box is kind of roughly the area where Three Fires operates. We've got two cell plants there. And if you want to get a picture what the flow of materials looks like, you have cell plants, there's two of them there, but there could be others. But you also have secondary scrap, end-of-life batteries from cell phones and laptops. So material from both could be processed at a trade facility to be located in Southern Ontario through this joint venture, and we would collaborate certainly from the technical and commercial side. I believe they'll have -- they have some ability to raise the capital to build it, so that sits outside of Electra proper.

因此，如果我們翻到第 16 頁，我認為這張地圖提供了機會和鄰近性的良好視角，這在您考慮供應鏈本地化時非常重要。所以那個盒子大致就是三火經營的區域。我們那裡有兩個細胞工廠。如果你想了解物質流動的情況，你有細胞植物，那裡有兩個，但也可能有其他細胞植物。但也有來自手機和筆記本電腦的二次廢料、報廢電池。因此，雙方的材料都可以通過該合資企業在位於安大略省南部的貿易設施進行加工，我們當然會在技術和商業方面進行合作。我相信他們有能力籌集資金來建造它，所以它位於伊萊克特拉之外。

And then that black mass, once it's made and bag, would find its way up to Electra which, as you can see here, is just past Sudbury. And then that refined material in turn under an ideal world basically goes back to the OEM and the battery maker that supplied the feed, so you've got a true closed-loop supply chain. For now really, it's just about making sure that material gets recycled and returned to any ecosystem, whether it's the battery market or the metals market. But the longer-term strategy, as we grow, is to try to create that sustainability circle that the OEMs are chasing.

然後，黑色物質一旦製成並裝袋，就會找到通往伊萊克特拉的路，正如您在這裡所看到的，伊萊克特拉就在薩德伯里附近。然後，在理想情況下，精煉後的材料基本上會返回到提供原料的 OEM 和電池製造商，因此您擁有了真正的閉環供應鏈。實際上，現在只是確保材料得到回收並返回到任何生態系統，無論是電池市場還是金屬市場。但隨著我們的發展，長期戰略是努力創建原始設備製造商所追求的可持續發展循環。

So I think I'm going to end it there on the JV and just go to our outlook on Page 18. So on our last call, I mentioned that we were anticipating 2023 was going to be a challenging year, and I think market indicators have supported that. Lots of economic uncertainties, lots of commodity price volatility that we're witnessing, and we've tried to respond to that in kind. So to mitigate the -- all those uncertainty and its effects on our business plan, we took steps to strengthen our balance sheet most recently.

所以我想我將在合資企業上結束它，然後轉到第 18 頁的展望。所以在我們上次電話會議上，我提到我們預計 2023 年將是充滿挑戰的一年，我認為市場指標已經支持了。我們目睹了許多經濟不確定性和大宗商品價格波動，我們試圖以同樣的方式應對這些問題。因此，為了減輕所有這些不確定性及其對我們業務計劃的影響，我們最近採取了措施來加強我們的資產負債表。

And we've also been reducing our costs. So Mark and I and others have reduced our salaries. We've reduced headcount. We've reduced procurement activities until we have a firmer outlook on the cobalt sulfate funding solution, and we're focusing on a lower cost path to cash flow that could get us there fairly quickly at a pace that we believe we can afford.

我們也一直在降低成本。所以馬克和我以及其他人都減少了工資。我們減少了員工人數。我們已經減少了採購活動，直到我們對硫酸鈷融資解決方案有了更堅定的前景，並且我們正在專注於成本更低的現金流路徑，這可以讓我們以我們認為可以承受的速度相當快地實現這一目標。

So with the priority of our black mass, I think that's going to be really the momentum heading into the balance of the year. And that will really be the timeline to watch as we transition from developer to cash flow entity. So in the near term, we're going to focus on a number of milestones. You can see them here. It's going to help create value for the company. It includes the completion of a summary report that Mark referred to, the findings, recommendations, opportunities, that we've, I guess, garnered from eight months of operating a demo plant from the black mass trial.

因此，隨著我們黑人彌撒的優先考慮，我認為這將成為今年餘下時間的真正動力。當我們從開發商過渡到現金流實體時，這確實是值得關注的時間表。因此，在短期內，我們將重點關註一些里程碑。你可以在這裡看到它們。這將有助於為公司創造價值。它包括馬克提到的總結報告的完成，我想，我們從黑色大規模試驗的示範工廠運行八個月中獲得了這些發現、建議和機會。

We're going to continue to receive a number of key pieces of equipment for the cobalt sulfate plant. Recall, these things are being shipped from all over the world. We've got our last batch at SX tanks that will be arriving at site shortly. So that supply chain, a lot of the long lead items are now either here or about to show up tanks, in-house equipment, and so forth. We could talk more on that if you'd like.

我們將繼續接收硫酸鈷工廠的一些關鍵設備。回想一下，這些東西是從世界各地運來的。我們已經收到了最後一批 SX 坦克，很快就會到達現場。因此，在供應鏈中，許多長期交貨的物品現在要么已經在這裡，要么即將出現，坦克、內部設備等。如果您願意，我們可以就此進行更多討論。

And then lastly, we're anticipating funding decisions. I won't say too much, but there's a number of government agencies, whether it be Canada, US, federal, provincial that we're working with. And we're encouraged by the talks and hopeful, looking at the acceleration of downstream investments, that there'll be, I guess, an in-kind reflection of that in the upstream in the coming months.

最後，我們預計資金決定。我不會說太多，但我們正在與許多政府機構合作，無論是加拿大、美國、聯邦還是省級機構。我們對這些會談感到鼓舞，並希望看到下游投資的加速，我想，未來幾個月上游投資將得到實物反映。

So I think I'll stop there. And with that, we will turn it back to you, operator, for any questions.

所以我想我就到此為止。這樣，如果有任何問題，我們會將其轉回給您（操作員）。

(Operator Instructions) Heiko Ihle, H.C. Wainwright.

（操作員說明）Heiko Ihle, H.C.溫賴特。

So with the black mass plant-scale recycling trial, can you provide some color or at least as much as you can and are willing to in a public forum like this as to what parameters get tested? And also, how many adjustments or rather like trials, or however you want to call it, can be done in a given week? Or does this mostly just depend on what actually gets changed?

因此，對於黑色大規模工廠規模的回收試驗，您能否提供一些顏色或至少盡可能多的顏色並願意在這樣的公共論壇上提供有關測試哪些參數的信息？而且，在給定的一周內可以進行多少次調整，或者更確切地說，類似試驗，或者無論你如何稱呼它？或者這主要取決於實際發生的變化？

So I guess I'll start and then I'll turn it to Mark for a little more detail because I'm hearing -- I think I'm hearing two things there. One is the continuous improvement and any mat plant, even a gold mill, you're never done, right? You're always trying to improve and increase your recovery and quality of products. So that is something that can continue. I think our demo plant while we're declaring it a success, we're still -- we still have a number of initiatives that we're running to try to improve it.

所以我想我會開始，然後我會把它交給馬克了解更多細節，因為我聽到 - 我想我聽到了兩件事。一是持續改進，任何墊子廠，甚至金廠，都永遠不會完成，對吧？您一直在努力改善和提高產品的回收率和質量。所以這是可以繼續的事情。我認為我們的演示工廠雖然我們宣布它取得了成功，但我們仍然 - 我們仍然正在採取一些舉措來嘗試改進它。

Now in tandem with that, is that transition to a -- from a batch demo to a continuous operation. It's going to involve more tanks, right, to have that continuous flow. This refinery historically was making a lithium -- sorry, a nickel and cobalt carbonate. And so the lithium circuit would be an area where we would expect to see additional investments to try to grow that because it is the bottleneck right now because it was part of a trial.

與此同時，從批量演示到連續操作的轉變。它將涉及更多的水箱，對吧，以實現持續的流動。這家精煉廠歷史上生產的是鋰——抱歉，是碳酸鎳和鈷。因此，鋰電路將是我們期望看到額外投資來嘗試發展的一個領域，因為它是目前的瓶頸，因為它是試驗的一部分。

Beyond that, Mark, do you want to add anything?

除此之外，馬克，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yeah. Again, good question. I've run a number of process plants in my experience. And walking into process facilities that could be 30 and 40 years old, you're still -- as Trent mentioned, you're still continuously improving the process to recover -- either to recover metals or to increase production rates. There's a number of things that continue to be ongoing. It's not a tap that you just turn on and off and everything works fine. We're really excited about the results that we got, and we continue -- and it's mainly a focus on recovery, right? Because that extra 1%, 0.5% that you can rationalize and recover, that's margin. That goes directly into your pocket. And that's where the niche is, and that's what we're focusing on.

是的。再說一遍，好問題。根據我的經驗，我經營過許多加工廠。走進可能已有 30 到 40 年曆史的工藝設施，正如特倫特提到的，您仍然在不斷改進回收工藝，要么回收金屬，要么提高生產率。有許多事情仍在繼續進行。它不是一個水龍頭，只要打開和關閉就一切正常。我們對所獲得的結果感到非常興奮，我們會繼續——主要關注的是恢復，對吧？因為你可以合理化並收回額外的 1%、0.5%，這就是保證金。它直接進入你的口袋。這就是利基所在，也是我們關注的重點。

Did that answer your question, Heiko?

這回答了你的問題嗎，Heiko？

Yeah, it did. Completely, completely different question. Obviously, Canada is the focus on the phone. Nonetheless, in your written earnings presentation, the word Iron Creek was not mentioned once. In the press release, the only time beside the company description -- hello?

是的，確實如此。完全、完全不同的問題。顯然，加拿大是手機的焦點。儘管如此，在你們的書面收益報告中，“Iron Creek”這個詞一次也沒有被提及。在新聞稿中，公司描述旁邊唯一一次——你好？

Heiko, we can hear you. Go ahead.

海科，我們能聽到你的聲音。前進。

In the press release, the only time besides the company's description at the very bottom that Iron Creek is mentioned, there's a single sentence where it actually states that you're having lower exploration expenses for the site. I'm going to just assume that this is more of a coincidence, or is there a shift of focus that I maybe haven't really picked up on? And again, I understand that Canada always was and likely always will be the number one priority of the company.

在新聞稿中，除了公司在最底部的描述之外唯一一次提到 Iron Creek，有一句話實際上表明您對該地點的勘探費用較低。我會假設這更多的是巧合，或者是否有我可能沒有真正注意到的焦點轉移？再說一遍，我知道加拿大一直是而且很可能永遠是公司的第一要務。

So, yeah, thanks for that. Look, I think the border between Canada and the US is -- you might as well consider it nonexistent for purposes of what we do, right? Our supply chain is about moving away from China and into North America. I think there are things that can be done better in Canada, well faster permitting, just given the nature of our laws. But, yeah, our market as much as we might talk about the VW plant or LG in Canada, our market addressable is much larger than that, right through it, a half dozen well more, it's about eight states in the US

所以，是的，謝謝你。聽著，我認為加拿大和美國之間的邊界是——就我們所做的事情而言，你不妨認為它不存在，對吧？我們的供應鏈正在從中國轉移到北美。我認為，考慮到我們法律的性質，在加拿大有些事情可以做得更好，如果允許的話可以做得更快。但是，是的，我們的市場就像我們可能談論加拿大的大眾工廠或 LG 一樣，我們的潛在市場比這要大得多，直接通過它，六個多，大約是美國的八個州

So -- but that aside, Iron Creek, I'm glad you asked. I mean, I think it's a great asset. I love the asset. Cobalt has gone from $30 a pound down to wherever we are now, $15. And at a time where the markets are choppy, we just can't be seen spreading ourselves too thin. So holding costs there are less than CAD100,000 per annum. But we did put that new resource out, right, early in this year, 4.5 million tonnes of indicated, another 1.2 million of inferred.

所以——但除此之外，Iron Creek，我很高興你問了這個問題。我的意思是，我認為這是一筆巨大的財富。我喜歡這個資產。鈷價格已從 30 美元/磅跌至現在的 15 美元/磅。在市場波動的時候，我們不能被認為過於分散。因此，每年的持有成本不到 100,000 加元。但我們確實在今年年初推出了新資源，指示產量為 450 萬噸，推斷產量為 120 萬噸。

Right next to Iron Creek, an offset fault, we believe is Ruby which, at least from a geophysics perspective, seems to be equally -- present equal opportunity in terms of its potential. And we know Iron Creek is open strike and at depth. So I'm extremely enthusiastic with that asset. It's going to take more money. I would note Jervois to the north of us recently received DOD funding for drilling of their resource, actually that satellite resource which I find extremely encouraging because typically America policy hasn't favored supporting any subsurface activity. So I view that as an opportunity.

我們認為紅寶石緊鄰鐵溪（一個錯位斷層），至少從地球物理學的角度來看，紅寶石似乎同樣具有同等的潛力。我們知道鐵溪是開放的，而且是在深處。所以我對這項資產非常熱情。這將需要更多的錢。我要指出的是，我們北部的蘇杭最近獲得了國防部的資金用於鑽探他們的資源，實際上是衛星資​​源，我覺得這非常令人鼓舞，因為美國政策通常不支持支持任何地下活動。所以我認為這是一個機會。

Now having said all of that, are we vertically integrating? Are we going to do mining and refining? I think not. I'd like to keep advancing this. It may find a better home somewhere else either as a JV, an earn-in, or monetize it to favor our refining operations. And so I don't think this is the time to make that move, although we're keeping an open mind on how we might create value for shareholders on that asset because we're not -- I don't see that reflected in our share price today.

說了這麼多，我們是否在垂直整合？我們要進行採礦和提煉嗎？我想不是。我想繼續推進這一點。它可能會在其他地方找到更好的家，要么作為合資企業，賺取收益，要么將其貨幣化以支持我們的煉油業務。因此，我認為現在不是採取這一舉措的時候，儘管我們對如何為該資產的股東創造價值持開放態度，因為我們沒有——我沒有看到這一點反映在我們今天的股價。

Gordon Lawson, Paradigm Capital.

戈登·勞森，範式資本。

Looking at your CapEx estimate, the $155 million to $167 million, can you clarify how much of that is needed for the black mass recycling versus the cobalt hydroxide or even the expansion if that's still on the table?

看看您的資本支出估算（1.55 億至 1.67 億美元），您能否澄清黑物質回收與氫氧化鈷甚至擴建（如果仍在討論中）需要多少資金？

Sure. Sure. So the -- what we put out in the baseline, we actually put out two different numbers, right? So that, call it, average of $161 million to complete, that would refer really to the cobalt sulfate plant. And the CAD8 million for the black mass or USD6 million is a separate spend. Now I'm going to -- I don't want to further confuse things, but those are the numbers we put out.

當然。當然。因此，我們在基線中給出的內容實際上給出了兩個不同的數字，對嗎？因此，平均完成成本為 1.61 億美元，這實際上指的是硫酸鈷工廠。黑人彌撒的 800 萬加元或 600 萬美元是單獨的支出。現在我不想讓事情變得更加混亂，但這些是我們公佈的數字。

The reality is a lot of the CapEx that we spent on the cobalt sulfate plant is they're complementary, right? I mean, you've got -- we twin the water line for instance. We've got a world-class lab up there. We refurbished the warehouse and did a ring road around the refinery and drainage. And so when it comes to infrastructure and then some of the other parts of the facility, the bigger CapEx numbers that you're seeing on the cobalt refinery is really what's allowing us to execute on what is a fairly low-cost operation on the black mass side.

事實上，我們在硫酸鈷工廠上花費的大量資本支出是互補的，對吧？我的意思是，例如，我們將水管連接起來。我們在那裡有一個世界一流的實驗室。我們翻新了倉庫，並在煉油廠和排水系統周圍修建了一條環路。因此，當涉及基礎設施以及設施的其他部分時，您在鈷精煉廠看到的更大的資本支出數字確實使我們能夠在黑色上執行相當低成本的操作質量方面。

Cobalt is going to yield EBITDA that's probably 4 or 5 times larger than recycling. But then the CapEx is currently about 10x. And so we're going to sequence it accordingly. But good question. Yeah, we should be clear that that $155 million to $167 million is the cobalt sulfate refinery, and that's what we're going to pause or slow down on until we get the rest of the capital end up.

鈷產生的 EBITDA 可能比回收高 4 到 5 倍。但目前的資本支出約為 10 倍。因此我們將對其進行相應的排序。但好問題。是的，我們應該清楚，1.55 億至 1.67 億美元是硫酸鈷精煉廠，這就是我們要暫停或放慢腳步的項目，直到我們完成剩餘的資本。

Okay. Yeah, that's certainly more clear. And in terms of the cobalt hydroxide versus black mass, what are the current plans? It was previously stated that you're looking at a rotating production schedule, or are these now two completely separate processes?

好的。是的，這當然更清楚了。就氫氧化鈷與黑色物質而言，目前的計劃是什麼？之前曾說過，您正在考慮輪換生產計劃，或者現在這是兩個完全獨立的流程？

Yeah. So I would say from the cobalt hydroxide, obviously, by prioritizing black mass that the plant is going to solely treat black mass feed in. And, yes, the extension and expansion of our relationship with LG shows that it doesn't matter, if I can put it that way. 2025 onward is really where the battery market in North America starts to take hold. So a delay in our cobalt plant certainly didn't dissuade LG or others from concluding or trying to conclude offtake contracts with us. And so for the next while, I think you should assume it will be 100% black mass feed, but you raised an interesting point. I don't know if you want to speak to this, Mark, but the opportunities at different parts of the circuit to blend black mass and some of the cobalt hydroxide into a common stream.

是的。因此，我想說，從氫氧化鈷來看，顯然，通過優先考慮黑色物質，該工廠將只處理黑色物質的進料。而且，是的，我們與 LG 關係的延伸和擴展表明，如果我可以這樣說。 2025 年以後，北美電池市場將真正開始佔據主導地位。因此，我們鈷廠的延誤當然並沒有阻止 LG 或其他公司與我們簽訂或試圖簽訂承購合同。因此，接下來一段時間，我認為你應該假設它將是 100% 黑色物質飼料，但你提出了一個有趣的觀點。我不知道你是否想談論這個，馬克，但在電路的不同部分有機會將黑色物質和一些氫氧化鈷混合成一個共同的流。

Yeah, okay. I'll add a little bit to that, Trent. If our cobalt hydroxide process produces battery-grade cobalt sulfate, and we'll produce it once all the capital is in place, with the current black mass process, we're producing an MHP, which is an intermediate product, intermediate nickel cobalt product. As Trent says, the hydroxide process to sulfate allows us to extract with a little bit -- some small process changes in our black mass circuit allows us to pick out the cobalt and have that cobalt report to the cobalt hydroxide, the cobalt sulfate plant. So there's an opportunity there with combining both of the processes where we can get a final product to market and realize the full margins of a battery-grade cobalt sulfate. I hope that answers your question.

好的。我會補充一點，特倫特。如果我們的氫氧化鈷工藝生產電池級的硫酸鈷，一旦所有的資金到位我們就生產它，用現在的黑料工藝，我們生產的是MHP，這是一個中間產品，中間鎳鈷產品。正如特倫特所說，氫氧化物轉化為硫酸鹽的過程使我們能夠提取一點點——黑色物質迴路中的一些小的過程變化使我們能夠挑選出鈷，並將鈷報告給氫氧化鈷，即硫酸鈷工廠。因此，我們有機會將這兩種工藝結合起來，將最終產品推向市場，並實現電池級硫酸鈷的全部利潤。我希望這能回答你的問題。

Yeah. Thanks for that, Mark. Essentially, the stage 1 of our black mass is not final state. We would expect that circuit to grow, and we would expect that the beneficiation from MHP to higher-value products will also evolve through time. The point is to get the cash flow and to demonstrate -- be the first to demonstrate that we can do this on a continual basis and then build from there. So the same strategy, right, the same -- we prioritized the sequencing.

是的。謝謝你，馬克。本質上，我們的黑色彌撒的第一階段並不是最終狀態。我們預計該循環將會增長，並且我們預計從 MHP 到更高價值產品的選礦也將隨著時間的推移而發展。關鍵是要獲得現金流並證明——成為第一個證明我們可以持續做到這一點的人，然後從那裡開始構建。所以同樣的策略，對，同樣的——我們優先考慮排序。

But the strategy and the vision is to supply battery grade materials to PCAM and CAM producers in North America. And this is a gaping hole in our supply chain on this side of the world. We've got a lot of Korean and Japanese investors and some start-ups that are kind of working from PCAM and CAM onward, but you go further upstream, you can't connect Canadian and North American mines, our domestic battery supply chain without this refining infrastructure that's just not happening anywhere else.

但戰略和願景是向北美的 PCAM 和 CAM 生產商供應電池級材料。這是我們世界這一端供應鏈中的一個漏洞。我們有很多韓國和日本的投資者以及一些初創企業，他們正在從PCAM 和CAM 開始工作，但如果你再往上游走，你就無法連接加拿大和北美的礦山，如果沒有的話，我們國內的電池供應鏈就無法連接起來。這種煉油基礎設施是其他任何地方都沒有的。

Okay. Understood.

好的。明白了。

And I would say -- we said this in the past, recall, we did a nickel study at one point in time. I mean that's the -- and this is down the line. This is not the current strategy, but it's part of the vision. It's black mass, it's cobalt and then you need nickel refining, and then you've got everything co-located, you capture the operational the CapEx efficiencies. It makes sense for PCAM. So it's a multiyear strategy. I'd say we're in the second inning of a much larger vision and strategy. Electra was early to the game. And now that other players are coming, I'm hopeful that the capital strategy gets a little bit easier as there's a heightened competition for our production.

我想說 - 我們過去說過這一點，回想一下，我們在某個時間點進行了一項鎳研究。我的意思是，這就是——這就是下面的內容。這不是當前的戰略，但它是願景的一部分。它是黑色物質，它是鈷，然後你需要鎳精煉，然後你就可以將所有東西放在一起，你可以捕獲運營資本支出效率。這對於 PCAM 來說是有意義的。所以這是一個多年戰略。我想說，我們正處於更大願景和戰略的第二局。伊萊克特拉很早就開始了比賽。現在其他參與者也加入了，我希望資本策略能變得更容易一些，因為我們的生產競爭更加激烈。

Jake Sekelsky, Alliance Global Partners.

Jake Sekelsky，聯盟全球合作夥伴。

So just on the black mass recycling. Can you provide any color on what that ramp to the 2,500 tonne-a-day rate might look like and touch on sources of feedstock?

所以就對黑海進行大規模回收。您能否提供有關日產量增加到 2,500 噸的具體情況，並談談原料來源？

I'll start with -- I'm going to let Mark talk to the ramp-up schedule. Yeah, feedstock, frankly, is not proving to be hard. 90% -- my understanding, 90% of black mass that gets produced today ends up in Sudbury at the smelter that Glencore operates. And by and large, the rest of it goes overseas, whether it's Chinese buyers or Japanese trading houses. And so getting -- it's just fluctuation of terms and expectations as the Asian buyers come into the market, it kind of disrupts pricing mechanisms, but we got a pretty good handle on what Glencore is offering.

我首先要讓馬克談談啟動計劃。是的，坦率地說，原料並不難。 90%——據我了解，今天生產的黑色物質中有 90% 最終到達了嘉能可經營的薩德伯里冶煉廠。總的來說，其餘的都流向了海外，無論是中國買家還是日本貿易公司。因此，隨著亞洲買家進入市場，這只是條款和預期的波動，這在某種程度上擾亂了定價機制，但我們對嘉能可提供的產品有了很好的把握。

And so sourcing a black mass, which is managed by our commercial team, Michael Insulan. We've got 20 some relationships, I think, with black mass producers, I'd say, half in the US, which is more than sufficient for our needs today. The other half would be around the world. And this is where black -- this is where the Three Fires relationship gets interesting, right? If we can lock in that part of the supply chain ourselves, the margins get better, and the earnings are more steady and predictable.

因此，我們採購了黑色物質，由我們的商業團隊 Michael Insulan 管理。我認為，我們與黑人大規模生產商建立了 20 個關係，其中一半在美國，這足以滿足我們今天的需求。另一半將在世界各地。這就是黑色——這就是三火關係變得有趣的地方，對吧？如果我們能夠自己鎖定供應鏈的這一部分，利潤率會更高，收益也會更加穩定和可預測。

And the black mass, looking into it, there's -- it's not hard, if I can put it that way. It's not hard to do the shredding piece. There's three widely known technologies, wet and dry. There are a handful of known vendors, and it doesn't -- it's not like building a refinery where we've got probably $200 million invested up there. This would be a fraction of the cost. Three Fires would lead that, and that, I think, will just enhance the business model.

黑色的物質，觀察它，有——這並不難，如果我可以這麼說的話。做碎紙片並不難。有三種廣為人知的技術：濕法和乾法。有一些知名供應商，但事實並非如此——這不像我們在那裡投資了大約 2 億美元建造煉油廠。這只是成本的一​​小部分。三把火將引領這一趨勢，我認為這只會增強商業模式。

Okay. That's helpful. And then just on the cobalt refinery, I mean, you spent about half of -- or a little bit more than half of the updated CapEx figure to date. What options are on the table for the balance here? I mean I know you mentioned that Iron Creek, you might be looking for a partner. Does the same go for the refinery? Or is that something that you'd like to keep fully owned over the longer term?

好的。這很有幫助。我的意思是，就鈷精煉廠而言，您花費了迄今為止更新的資本支出數字的大約一半或略多一點。這裡有哪些平衡選項？我的意思是，我知道您提到過 Iron Creek，您可能正在尋找合作夥伴。煉油廠也是如此嗎？或者您希望長期完全擁有它？

Yeah, I think the refinery, view that as wholly owned. I mean, the noncore assets, if you want to put it that way, we do have a small royalty package on some former mineral projects in Canada that could easily be monetized well, easily, that could be monetized, I guess. And then Iron Creek kind of TBD. Again, we got to wait that we see a little life in cobalt or see a satisfactory structure that preserves our upside for our shareholders. When I look to what's next having done this equity raise, I think we've got to look at other sources, right? We've got -- the most valuable currency we have right now is our production because nobody else is going to do what we're doing in the near term. And so I will be looking to our partners.

是的，我認為煉油廠將其視為全資擁有。我的意思是，非核心資產，如果你想這麼說的話，我們確實對加拿大的一些前礦產項目有一個小的特許權使用費，我想這些項目可以很容易地貨幣化，很容易，可以貨幣化。然後是鐵溪（Iron Creek），待定。同樣，我們必須等待，直到我們看到鈷的一點生命力，或者看到一個令人滿意的結構，為我們的股東保留我們的優勢。當我考慮這次股權融資的下一步時，我認為我們必須考慮其他來源，對嗎？我們現在擁有的最有價值的貨幣是我們的生產，因為短期內沒有其他人會做我們正在做的事情。因此，我將尋找我們的合作夥伴。

There's a lot of money that has been deployed under the Inflation Reduction Act and on this side of the border as well through programs that have invested heavily in the downstream. And so the way forward is, I think those recipients need to work with us on a capital solution. And likewise, the government intending a bit of a catch-up trade with policy on this side of the border that's catching up to the needs of people in our sector. So commercial and government would be my focus over the next three to six months. Does it get 100% of the funding gap? Not sure, CAD80 million or so, or USD60 million, we'll have to wait and see.

根據《通貨膨脹減少法案》和在邊境這一側以及通過在下游進行大量投資的計劃，已經部署了大量資金。因此，前進的方向是，我認為這些接受者需要與我們合作制定資本解決方案。同樣，政府打算在邊境這邊採取一些追趕性貿易政策，以滿足我們行業人們的需求。因此，商業和政府將是我未來三到六個月的關注重點。是否能獲得 100% 的資金缺口？不確定，8000萬加元左右，還是6000萬美元，我們得拭目以待。

Surya Sankarasubramanian, Red Cloud Securities.

Surya Sankarasubramanian，紅雲證券。

This is Surya Sankarasubramanian from Red Cloud Securities. We read the news about Ford's investment in a new plant in Bécancour yesterday valued at around CAD1.2 billion. So I was just wondering what -- how it impacts your plans in terms of whether you're prioritizing your PFS maybe changing timelines? Or you also saw that half the government funding was -- I mean, half the funding was from loans from the government. So that has any implications for your clients as well?

我是紅雲證券的 Surya Sankarasubramanian。昨天我們讀到了福特在貝坎庫爾投資一家新工廠的消息，價值約為 12 億加元。所以我只是想知道 - 它如何影響您的計劃，即您是否優先考慮 PFS 可能會改變時間表？或者你還看到，一半的政府資金是——我的意思是，一半的資金來自政府貸款。那麼這對您的客戶也有什麼影響嗎？

Yeah, great question, Surya. Yeah. So Bécancour is very much on the radar for us. And just for those not familiar, Bécancour is located north of Montreal, south of Quebec City, right on the St. Lawrence. And so the -- what we're seeing there, and this for us at least, has been widely anticipated. The Ford-EcoPro relationship is one that we are very familiar with, both in Korea and in the US. And so it has been anticipated, glad to see it land. What it means is, in Bécancour Industrial Park, you've got three different projects underway. The better known is probably GM and POSCO building a cathode plant, and that is well underway.

是的，很好的問題，蘇里亞。是的。因此，貝坎庫爾非常受到我們的關注。對於那些不熟悉的人來說，貝坎庫爾位於蒙特利爾以北、魁北克市以南、聖勞倫斯河畔。因此，我們在那裡看到的情況，至少對我們來說，已經被廣泛預期。福特與 EcoPro 的關係是我們在韓國和美國都非常熟悉的一種關係。所以它已經被預料到了，很高興看到它落地。這意味著，在貝坎庫爾工業園區，三個不同的項目正在進行中。更廣為人知的可能是通用汽車和浦項製鐵建設的陰極工廠，並且正在順利進行中。

BASF has their tract of land as well, and they've already cleared the trees. And now we've got the third one that's in place. That park is now full. And when you look at what they're doing, the plans today build the cathode plant, and the plans for tomorrow are to build the precursor cathode active material plant, and that's what connects us directly.

巴斯夫也有他們的土地，他們已經清理了樹木。現在我們已經有了第三個。那個公園現在已經滿了。你看他們在做什麼，今天的計劃是建設正極工廠，明天的計劃是建設前驅體正極活性材料工廠，這就是我們直接聯繫在一起的。

And then alongside of that, now you need -- these are NCM batteries, right? We're not talking iron phosphate batteries. So you need your nickel, cobalt, and manganese. Vale has already announced that they're building a nickel dissolution plant. Euro Manganese just finished the study. I can't remember if it was a prefeas or feas on nickel -- sorry, on a manganese dissolution circuit. And Electra has been invited in by Investissement Québec and the government of Canada to be the cobalt solution provider there.

除此之外，現在您需要 - 這些是 NCM 電池，對吧？我們說的不是磷酸鐵電池。所以你需要鎳、鈷和錳。淡水河谷已經宣布他們正在建設一座鎳溶解廠。歐洲錳業剛剛完成了這項研究。我不記得這是對鎳的預檢還是預檢——抱歉，是在錳溶解電路上。 Electra 已受魁北克投資局和加拿大政府邀請成為當地的鈷解決方案提供商。

Now we've got the luxury of borrowing from Ontario in the interim or increasing the size of the Ontario plant. And so the prefeas is taking into account the staging of our 5,000-tonne plant in Ontario, expansion of 6,500, the needs of this camp. And so we stand to have the first and the second cobalt sulfate refineries on the continent. But I think it's important to underline that our ambition is not to be a cobalt play, which is why we changed our name a couple of years back.

現在，我們可以暫時向安大略省借款或擴大安大略省工廠的規模。因此，預審會考慮到我們在安大略省的 5,000 噸工廠的分期、擴建 6,500 噸以及該營地的需求。因此，我們將在非洲大陸擁有第一家和第二家硫酸鈷精煉廠。但我認為重要的是要強調我們的目標不是成為一家鈷公司，這就是我們幾年前更改名稱的原因。

We plan to be a refiner. So black mass is there, nickel, and so forth. But the announcement by Ford, it just shows the increase -- the continuing momentum to onshore and just further validation of our strategy.

我們計劃成為煉油廠。所以那裡有黑色物質、鎳等等。但福特的聲明只是表明了增長——陸上的持續勢頭以及對我們戰略的進一步驗證。

So in this context, is there also considering you also mentioned that you don't want to spread such thing, will you be pursuing the Three Fires plant parallelly [just like previously] or can you comment on that?

那麼在這種情況下，是否也考慮到您也提到您不想傳播這樣的事情，您是否會並行追求三火工廠（就像之前一樣）或者您能對此發表評論嗎？

Yeah. And the Three Fires relationship -- Canadians in the mining industry will understand the importance of engagement and consultation with indigenous communities, First Nations communities. It's a crown duty that we execute corporately. And so I think if I'm building a big battery plant on a traditional territory, I think it behooves you to have meaningful engagement and to try to find opportunities. We've done it in our neck of the woods, we signed one, there's no demonstrated impact. So we're not doing IBAs, but we've got a benefits agreement with one group. We've got four others that we talk to and that we support. And as we get to cash flow, that will increase.

是的。三火關係——採礦業的加拿大人將了解與土著社區、原住民社區接觸和協商的重要性。這是我們共同履行的一項重大職責。因此，我認為如果我要在傳統領土上建造一座大型電池廠，我認為您應該進行有意義的參與並嘗試尋找機會。我們已經在附近做到了這一點，我們簽署了一份協議，但沒有任何明顯的影響。所以我們不做 IBA，但我們與一個團體達成了一份福利協議。我們還與另外四個人交談並提供支持。當我們達到現金流時，現金流將會增加。

And so the Three Fires relationship has some strategic value because they've got levers and skills and relationships that we don't have. And it's Phase 1. I mean that one I would view it as being tied to recycling. They were at one point we are discussing strategic investment corporately at Electra. We completed our financing last week without them. They weren't ready. That's still on the table, but that really is separate and apart from the joint venture, which we're pursuing.

因此，三火關係具有一定的戰略價值，因為他們擁有我們所沒有的槓桿、技能和關係。這是第一階段。我的意思是我認為它與回收有關。他們有一次我們正在 Electra 討論公司戰略投資。我們上週在沒有他們的情況下完成了融資。他們還沒有準備好。這仍然在討論中，但這確實是獨立的，與我們正在尋求的合資企業不同。

So Three Fires, I think, will enable and strengthen the black mass strategy. The cobalt sulfate in Ontario will then resume once the capital solution is in place. And Bécancour, where that sits in the sequencing is really a function of the three parties that I named and some talks around funding and the scheduling of their needs. We'll have more to say on that soon. We've got to get a couple of more ducks in a row before we're ready for prime time on that.

因此，我認為，“三火”將啟用並加強黑人群體戰略。一旦資本解決方案到位，安大略省的硫酸鈷將恢復生產。貝坎庫爾（Bécancour），在排序中的位置實際上是我所指定的三個團體的函數，以及一些關於資金和他們的需求安排的討論。我們很快就會對此有更多的說法。在我們準備好迎接黃金時段之前，我們還得再多做幾件事。

Trent, if I can just add to your comments on this is anything like the announcement by Ford and EcoPro on putting the plant in Bécancour, I mean that's another Canadian asset to be built. And what we're trying to do with Three Fires, again, that's another Canadian chain of supply for the electric vehicle market. And that in itself with governments involved, federal and provincial governments involved, that in itself is significant momentum for a player like us who -- our plant is in Canada, and we have -- we would have leverage because of that because the federal government is supplying money to both of those facilities. And I mean, that's a good news story as well for Electra and moving forward and supplying -- certainly supplying not only the Canadian market but going into the US as well. So I think that that's really positive. The more plants that get built in Canada, I think it waives our flag even higher.

Trent，如果我可以補充一下您對此的評論，就像福特和 EcoPro 宣佈在貝坎庫爾建廠一樣，我的意思是，這是另一項要建設的加拿大資產。我們再次嘗試利用“三火”來實現加拿大電動汽車市場的另一個供應鏈。這本身就涉及政府、聯邦和省政府的參與，這本身對於像我們這樣的參與者來說是一個重要的動力，我們的工廠在加拿大，而且我們有——因此我們將擁有影響力，因為聯邦政府正在向這兩個設施提供資金。我的意思是，這對於 Electra 來說也是一個好消息，並繼續前進和供應——當然不僅供應加拿大市場，還供應美國市場。所以我認為這非常積極。加拿大建造的工廠越多，我認為它放棄我們的旗幟就越高。

Sorry, Trent, I just wanted to add that.

抱歉，特倫特，我只是想補充一點。

Thanks for that, Mark. Yeah, look, $600 million of funds going into that latest announcement, it's just -- it just continues.

謝謝你，馬克。是的，看，最新的公告投入了 6 億美元的資金，它只是——它還在繼續。

Matthew O'Keefe, Cantor Fitzgerald.

馬修·奧基夫，康托·菲茨杰拉德。

It sounds like you've made some good progress during the quarter, so congrats on that. Just a couple of questions. One on black mass and one on the cobalt refinery. First, on the black mass, so the -- I don't know if you actually answered the ramp-up question. When do you think you'll start construction, or not construction, but development of that? And when will you actually start seeing the cash flow because you've got sort of a guidance of years one, two, three, four with averaging about $10 million a year. But when would year one be? What's your current thinking on when year one is? And also, it sounds like you're going to be revising that study to -- with some updated numbers later this year -- I think, later this year. And like what will be the main changes there?

聽起來您在本季度取得了一些良好的進展，所以恭喜您。只是幾個問題。一篇關於黑色物質，一篇關於鈷精煉廠。首先，關於黑色彌撒，所以——我不知道你是否真的回答了升級問題。您認為什麼時候會開始建設，或者不是建設，而是開發？你什麼時候才能真正開始看到現金流，因為你有第一年、第二年、第三年、第四年的指導，平均每年約為 1000 萬美元。但第一年是什麼時候呢？當第一年到來時，你目前的想法是什麼？而且，聽起來您將在今年晚些時候修改該研究，並提供一些更新的數據，我想是在今年晚些時候。那裡的主要變化是什麼？

So the ramp -- I'll let Mark talk to ramp up. In our -- in the release the scoping study we put out, it was 12 months from being fully funded. So we've got a step that we've got to fill on the black mass. So I would call it 12-plus months from today, maybe the best I can do. But Mark, on the ramp proper, once we do start a ramp-up, say, it's, I don't know, say it's October of next year, what does that look like?

所以斜坡——我會讓馬克談談斜坡。在我們發布的範圍界定研究中，需要 12 個月才能獲得全額資助。所以我們有一個步驟，我們必須填充黑色塊。所以我會稱之為從今天起 12 個多月，也許是我能做的最好的事情。但是馬克，在適當的坡道上，一旦我們開始加速，比如說，我不知道，比如說明年的十月，那會是什麼樣子？

I think that much -- and it has been a great way for us to start to experiment with the existing plants. So it leads into my answer. We could see that the first six to eight weeks, maybe as much as 10 weeks, there was a pretty steep learning curve on running the circuits. I would imagine that you're looking at -- after commissioning is all done, you're probably looking at three to four months of the ramp-up to the 2,500-tonne per annum target. The rates -- the processing rates just comparing to what we have with the cobalt hydroxide, the cobalt hydroxide we're putting through almost 50 tonnes, dry tonnes a day of feed. And this feed rate will probably be a fraction of that, maybe around 7 tonnes a day of feed.

我就是這麼認為的——這對我們來說是開始試驗現有工廠的好方法。所以這就引出了我的答案。我們可以看到，前六到八週，甚至可能長達 10 週，運行電路的學習曲線相當陡峭。我想您正在考慮——在調試全部完成後，您可能會考慮三到四個月的時間來實現每年 2,500 噸的目標。速率——加工速率與我們的氫氧化鈷相比，我們每天處理近 50 噸乾噸飼料的氫氧化鈷。這個飼料量可能只是其中的一小部分，可能每天大約 7 噸飼料。

So we don't see a lot of -- having weathered the storm and somewhat rode our bicycle already in the trial, a lot of these items have been dealt with. And we know the strengths, we know the weak spots. And once we get going, I think, within three or four months, we should be at 100% capacity.

所以我們沒有看到很多——在經歷了風暴並在試驗中已經騎了我們的自行車之後，很多這樣的問題已經得到了處理。我們知道優勢，也知道弱點。我認為，一旦我們開始行動，三到四個月內，我們的產能就應該達到 100%。

And maybe I'll just add to that, if I may, Mark is that -- I've been through the facility a couple of times. But for those who haven't, we do have an existing plant that has operated in the past and is operating today. So the short ramp is a function of what we learned, a function of the fact that it's small tonnage, but all of the Lego pieces, the bricks are already assembled. Now we -- there are going to be some changes, but it's not like you're commissioning everything brand new.

也許我會補充一點，如果可以的話，馬克就是——我已經去過這個設施幾次了。但對於那些還沒有這樣做的人來說，我們確實有一個現有的工廠，該工廠過去一直在運營，現在仍在運營。因此，短坡道是我們所了解到的功能，它的噸位很小，但所有的樂高積木都已經組裝好了。現在我們——將會有一些變化，但這並不是說你正在委託一切全新的東西。

And so, yeah, and I guess on the summary report piece, Matt, that you mentioned, I think we'll have a little bit more detail if we got a -- this was scoping steady or desktop level, right? So we got to drill down on that a little bit. Certainly, timelines will be a little clearer once we've done that and looked at equipment lead times. But, Mark, what might we see that's new in the summary report of our findings that perhaps wasn't in our press release on the scoping study?

所以，是的，我想在總結報告中，馬特，你提到的，我想如果我們得到一個——這是穩定範圍或桌面級別的範圍，我們將會有更多的細節，對吧？所以我們必須對此進行深入研究。當然，一旦我們做到了這一點並考慮了設備的交貨時間，時間表就會更加清晰。但是，馬克，我們可能會在我們的調查結果總結報告中看到哪些新內容，而這些新內容可能不在我們關於範圍界定研究的新聞稿中？

Without giving away all our secrets, I think what we definitely will be putting into our process is a sodium crystallizer. That wasn't initially in our plan, but it's fairly evident that we will need that. And I think, Trent, we've talked a few times a week on some of the significant developments around reagent uses. And the strategic use of reagent and sometimes even a combination of reagents has really put us ahead of the curve on the processing side. So, yeah, we've got some changes coming and exciting because it just means more margin to our bottom line. I hope that answers your question there, Matt.

在不洩露我們所有秘密的情況下，我認為我們肯定會在我們的工藝中放入鈉結晶器。這最初並不在我們的計劃中，但很明顯我們將需要它。我想，特倫特，我們每週都會討論幾次有關試劑使用的重大進展。試劑的策略性使用，有時甚至是試劑的組合，確實使我們在處理方面處於領先地位。所以，是的，我們即將做出一些令人興奮的變化，因為這意味著我們的利潤將增加。我希望這能回答你的問題，馬特。

Yeah. I think so. That's helpful. Appreciate that. And then with -- I mean, part of the funding here is supposed to be coming from Three Fires, I think. What's the timing from them? Or what have they suggested we now actually come forward with the -- I think it was $10 million that they were committing?

是的。我想是這樣。這很有幫助。感謝。然後——我的意思是，我認為這裡的部分資金應該來自三火。他們的時間是什麼？或者他們建議我們現在實際提出什麼——我認為他們承諾的是 1000 萬美元？

Yeah, yeah. Initially, we had announced it was going to be co-funded, right? We're going to do a rate $10 million Three Fires, $10 million Electra would source. On the heels of the LG announcement, we had a very positive market reaction, and then we ended up raising $21.5 million. Three Fires, they just weren't ready to go. And so timing and the decision ultimately will rest with them. And so there's -- we have two impacts.

是啊是啊。最初，我們宣布將共同資助，對嗎？我們將為《三火》定價 1000 萬美元，為《伊萊克特拉》採購 1000 萬美元。 LG 宣布這一消息後，我們引起了非常積極的市場反應，最終籌集了 2150 萬美元。三火，他們還沒有準備好出發。因此，時機和決定最終將取決於他們。所以我們有兩個影響。

Some of our relationships there are taking summer holidays. So that will resume probably late summer, early fall. So yeah, there's two conversations. Funding, so the -- their thoughts around timing for that. But to me, the more exciting piece really is the joint venture because of what it could represent to our business plan. And the -- I mean, if I look at the two plants that are in their backyard, that are in their yard, those are still a few years out, but that shredding plant could provide great optionality for a lot of different feedstocks.

我們那裡的一些關係正在放暑假。因此，這種情況可能會在夏末秋初恢復。是的，有兩個對話。資金，所以他們對時機的想法。但對我來說，更令人興奮的事情確實是合資企業，因為它可以代表我們的商業計劃。我的意思是，如果我看看他們後院的兩家工廠，它們還需要幾年的時間，但破碎工廠可以為許多不同的原料提供很大的選擇。

So do they already have the shredding plant plans in place, and are those funded?

那麼他們是否已經制定了粉碎廠計劃，並且這些計劃是否得到了資助？

So we are -- I mean, I think that probably Electra would be more of the technical partner, if you will, with Three Fires as the financial partner. Maybe that's one way to look at it. We're still working through the terms of the JV, but in terms of the shredding plant, the sizing, sourcing of equipment, engineering, all of that rests with our team, whereas Three Fires has spent the last little while working on the funding of that JV as well as the land acquisition. So hopefully, more to say throughout the quarter as we progress our two streams.

所以我們——我的意思是，我認為如果你願意的話，Electra 可能更多地是技術合作夥伴，而 Three Fires 則是財務合作夥伴。也許這是看待它的一種方式。我們仍在研究合資企業的條款，但在破碎廠、規模、設備採購、工程方面，所有這些都取決於我們的團隊，而三火已經在融資方面花了最後一點錢該合資企業以及土地收購。因此，希望隨著我們推進兩個流程，整個季度能有更多的說法。

Yeah. No, that will be good. Okay. And then if I could ask one more then on the refinery. So you did the -- you had that extended and expanded contract with LG or modified with LG, which is great. But what about -- I mean, they're obviously interested in the product, but I mean we've seen other customers come up with some financing to help construct some of these -- operate the battery plants. We see it in some other type in the battery and the supply chain. Is there any discussion around LG coming up with some funding to get the refinery construction complete?

是的。不，那會很好。好的。然後我能否再問一個關於煉油廠的問題。所以你做了——你與 LG 簽訂了延長和擴大的合同，或者與 LG 進行了修改，這很棒。但是——我的意思是，他們顯然對該產品感興趣，但我的意思是我們已經看到其他客戶提出了一些融資來幫助建造其中一些——運營電池廠。我們在電池和供應鏈的其他類型中看到了它。是否有關於 LG 提供一些資金來完成煉油廠建設的討論？

I'd say, writ large, there's discussion with all of our stakeholders on how do we fund to complete and engage with -- I mean, some of these players that are not named go back three-plus years. And so the IRA and some of the recent announcements is putting pressure on everybody to find a dance partner. But I will say the discussions that Michael was leading on strategic, whether they be investments or prepays or loans or what have you. We've seen all kinds of templates out in the market. There was a bit of a chill heading into 2023, rising yield environment, concerns over the economy.

我想說，大體上講，我們與所有利益相關者都在討論如何提供資金來完成和參與——我的意思是，其中一些未點名的參與者可以追溯到三年多前。因此，愛爾蘭共和軍和最近的一些公告正在向每個人施加壓力，要求他們尋找舞伴。但我會說邁克爾領導的戰略討論，無論是投資、預付款、貸款還是其他什麼。我們在市場上看到過各種各樣的模板。進入 2023 年，有些寒意、收益率環境上升、對經濟的擔憂。

As a general statement, I would say that those conversations took a little bit of a pause, but I sense they're coming back. And from our perspective, given that we're now prioritizing black mass, I don't think we need to finalize any contract, nor should we until we figured out how we're going to get that funding in place because there's -- as you know, Matt, there's a lot of money that's being thrown at the industry from governments. There's a lot of investments that then make their way from the recipients to their partners. And there's no reason Electra shouldn't be a part of that equation as well.

作為一般性聲明，我想說這些對話稍微停頓了一下，但我感覺它們正在回來。從我們的角度來看，考慮到我們現在優先考慮黑人彌撒，我認為我們不需要敲定任何合同，也不應該在我們弄清楚如何獲得資金到位之前我們也不應該敲定任何合同，因為有——你知道，馬特，政府向這個行業投入了大量資金。有很多投資會從接受者那裡流向他們的合作夥伴。沒有理由 Electra 不應該成為這個等式的一部分。

Okay. So then that leads into sort of the question as to all the equipment that you've ordered, and that's coming -- those are some costs. Those -- when I was on site, it was all very well secured, and storing outside is stainless. So is there much of a cost in -- like what are your kind of costs in delay as far as just holding costs for keeping everything clean and tidy on site?

好的。那麼這就引出了一個問題，即您訂購的所有設備，以及即將到來的設備——這些都是一些成本。當我在現場時，這些都非常安全，並且外部存儲是不銹鋼的。那麼，是否存在很大的成本——例如，就保持現場一切乾淨整潔的成本而言，延遲的成本是多少？

Mark?

標記？

We do have the facilities to keep the equipment indoors. The equipment that has to be put indoors will be indoors. I mean, structural steel, for example, doesn't have to stay indoors. It will stay outside as well as some of our tanks. But, yeah, I mean as far as keeping it in proper shape, we've -- they're out of the elements. The equipment that has to be out of the elements is out of element.

我們確實有設施將設備存放在室內。必須放在室內的設備就放在室內。我的意思是，例如，結構鋼不必留在室內。它將和我們的一些坦克一樣留在外面。但是，是的，我的意思是，就保持其適當的形狀而言，我們已經——它們脫離了自然環境。必須出元素的裝備就出元素了。

So we're pretty confident that the funding will come here. And it might not come in the next few months, but it will come, as Trent said, there's a real need to produce this product on this continent, and it's going to come. So we're hoping that within the next few years, everything is being utilized because it's -- we're producing cobalt sulfate and -- so I'm not too concerned about the equipment and the places where we --

所以我們非常有信心資金會來到這裡。它可能不會在接下來的幾個月內出現，但它會出現，正如特倫特所說，在這個大陸上確實需要生產這種產品，而且它將會出現。所以我們希望在接下來的幾年裡，一切都得到利用，因為我們正在生產硫酸鈷，所以我不太擔心設備和我們的地方——

It's all in our property, right, Mark? I mean, it's all sitting on Electra property. So it's not third-party storage. It's under our control and supervision, and we've got our team there.

這都是我們的財產，對吧，馬克？我的意思是，這一切都在伊萊克特拉的財產上。所以它不是第三方存儲。它在我們的控制和監督之下，我們的團隊也在那裡。

Yeah.

是的。

And when that funding does eventually come, I think you may have said on the previous call, about a 12-month schedule to complete the construction?

當這筆資金最終到位時，我想您可能在之前的電話會議上說過，大約需要 12 個月的時間才能完成建設？

That's correct. Yes.

這是正確的。是的。

Okay. Very good. Well, we'll look forward to some more progress in the balance of the year.

好的。非常好。好吧，我們期待在今年剩下的時間裡取得更多進展。

That's all the time we have for questions today. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Joe Racanelli for any closing remarks.

這就是我們今天提問的全部時間。我想將會議轉回給喬·拉卡內利（Joe Racanelli）做總結髮言。

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Our next call is slated in mid-November. But as you've heard, we have a number of activities on the go, and we will certainly provide updates once we get some material developments to report on. I should point out as well that we did file a notice of our AGM that's slated for early -- for October, and we look forward to meeting our shareholders then. If anyone has any follow-up questions, I would encourage you to reach out to me. Happy to answer them. Thank you, everyone, for today.

謝謝大家今天加入我們。我們的下一次電話會議定於 11 月中旬進行。但正如您所聽說的，我們正在進行許多活動，一旦我們得到一些重大進展需要報告，我們肯定會提供更新。我還應該指出，我們確實提交了定於 10 月份提前舉行的年度股東大會通知，我們期待著屆時與股東會面。如果有人有任何後續問題，我鼓勵您與我聯繫。很高興回答他們。今天謝謝大家。

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與並祝您度過愉快的一天。