Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: BusinessWeek with Carol Masser and Tim Stenovek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, you might recall earlier this month Bloomberg exclusively reporting
Speaker 2: out that President Trump was set to launch a strategic
Speaker 2: critical mineral stockpile with twelve billion dollars in seed money,
Speaker 2: all in a bid to insulate manufacturers from supply shocks
Speaker 2: as the US works to slash its reliance on Chinese
Speaker 2: rare earths and other metals. Meantime, you see a lot
Speaker 2: of companies doing deal in the space.
Speaker 1: Tip.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm at today. Shares of America's Gold and Silver
Speaker 3: Corporation rallied as much as eight percent this after the
Speaker 3: miners said it would partner with United States Antimony to
Speaker 3: construct and operate an antimony processing plan and IDA host
Speaker 3: some details here and then we're going to get to
Speaker 3: the conversation. Facility will be fifty one percent owned by
Speaker 3: America's Golden Silver and forty nine percent owned by US Antimony.
Speaker 3: It'll be located in the Silver Valley in Idaho.
Speaker 2: All Right, So let's get to great to have with US.
Speaker 2: Gary Evans, Chairman and CEO of United States Antimony Corporation.
Speaker 2: It's a one point one billion dollar market cap minor,
Speaker 2: producer and seller of antimony products. It's based in Montana.
Speaker 2: Stock is up sixty six percent year to date, about
Speaker 2: twenty one percent of the float. Short also with US
Speaker 2: as Paul Andre Hewitt. He is chairman and CEO of
Speaker 2: the two point six billion dollar market cap precious metal
Speaker 2: minor based in Ontario, Canada. It is America's gold and
Speaker 2: silver corporation. That company shares are up about sixty one
Speaker 2: percent year to date, and we've seen it move in
Speaker 2: today's session. Gary and Paul both joining us here in studio. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 2: Tell us about this joint venture, the financial aspects, how
Speaker 2: it actually logistically works down, and what it means in
Speaker 2: terms of critical minerals in the US and just kind
Speaker 2: of elsewhere. So whoever wants to pick it up, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'll just start. So, look, this joint venture we've been
Speaker 1: working on it actually not that long, to be very honest.
Speaker 1: Actually Gary and I were talking about it. We met
Speaker 1: about a month ago. We one month ago we met,
Speaker 1: both teams assembled at the Mind Sight in Idaho. His
Speaker 1: executive team, my executive team. We were signing documents late
Speaker 1: last night with our legal teams, both of us at
Speaker 1: ten thirty at night, finalizing this and this is a
Speaker 1: transformational deal. Actually, this allows us to supply a product
Speaker 1: antimony to the US from the beginning right to the end.
Speaker 1: So US Gary's the expert in the antimony world, we're
Speaker 1: the experts in the mining world. And what we have
Speaker 1: is a mine, the Galina Mine in Idaho. Right now,
Speaker 1: we've got about three hundred and thirty employees. We just
Speaker 1: bought a second mine in Idaho. We closed it in December,
Speaker 1: so we bought the original one, transferred the whole management team,
Speaker 1: and made some big upgrades in capital. What we're doing
Speaker 1: is revolutionizing this mine. This mine's been around for a
Speaker 1: long time and it produces five critical minerals. So we
Speaker 1: produce silver, copper, antimony, lead, and then a small amount
Speaker 1: of goal, but they're all five critical minerals, which is
Speaker 1: very very important. This deal is very important to us
Speaker 1: in US minors and to the US as a whole,
Speaker 1: because we need fifty million pounds of antimony per annum
Speaker 1: and we're not even close to producing it, not yet.
Speaker 1: So this will allow us to start chewing away and
Speaker 1: getting some of that antimony produced domestically.
Speaker 3: So Paul Andre Hugh had given us the America's Gold
Speaker 3: and Silver Corporation view. Gary Evans, come on back in
Speaker 3: here and talk about why this deal made sense for
Speaker 3: you at US antimony.
Speaker 4: As you know, we're the only two we have the
Speaker 4: only two smelters for antimony in North America, so Montana
Speaker 4: and Mexico. And currently we're getting most of our supply
Speaker 4: from foreign sources and get it from the country of Chad,
Speaker 4: from Peru, Bolivia, Australia, Chile, Mexico, and we are looking
Speaker 4: for homegrown antimony. We are already processing Paul's antimony through
Speaker 4: another facility up in Canada. We receive that and we
Speaker 4: can make antimony try sul fight out of it. So
Speaker 4: the idea of when we met a month ago, met
Speaker 4: our two management teams got together. We immediately said, look,
Speaker 4: this is an easy answer. We'll put our new technology
Speaker 4: we developed in Bolivia. Last year we made the first
Speaker 4: commercial grade antimony hydromet facility and it's now we receive
Speaker 4: one hundred and fifty tons a month of antimony from
Speaker 4: that facility. We can duplicate that in the United States.
Speaker 4: So we have the technology, we have the patents, we
Speaker 4: had the license for North America and Australia. He has
Speaker 4: a land, he has a supply. So it was a
Speaker 4: marriage made in heaven.
Speaker 2: So why weren't you processing here in the US.
Speaker 4: Well, we are processing, but it's using foreign supplies. So
Speaker 4: he has domestic supplies which the country doesn't have.
Speaker 2: New So the processing facility that you're going to be building, yes,
Speaker 2: give us timeline. When is it going to be running
Speaker 2: up at commercials is a great question.
Speaker 4: He fortunately has all the permits that we need. Okay,
Speaker 4: so we are in the construction engineering phase. Now we
Speaker 4: should start within ninety day, be done in a year.
Speaker 2: Wow, So in a year, Yeah, it's up in functioning.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you think about the last one, sorry to interrupt,
Speaker 1: the last one that was built in the US was
Speaker 1: built in nineteen forty two at that same area in
Speaker 1: Silver Valley, and it took six months to build it.
Speaker 1: During World War Two that was actually built. Gary's team
Speaker 1: just built one in six months in Bolivia. So these
Speaker 1: are not massive facilities, but they're very important. So we
Speaker 1: will once we get the once we get the engineering
Speaker 1: stages and everything done, and we start construction. It'll go
Speaker 1: pretty quick from that time.
Speaker 3: Carrol mentioned Project Vault. Earlier this month, Bloomberg exclusively reporting
Speaker 3: out that President Trump set to launch a strategic critical
Speaker 3: mineral stockpile with twelve billion dollars in seed money. Gary,
Speaker 3: have you been in touch with the White House the
Speaker 3: administration at all about this? How much antimony do you
Speaker 3: expect the stockpile will hold?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 4: We currently have a contract with a DLA, which is
Speaker 4: an Apartment of War, for two hundred and forty five
Speaker 4: million dollars to deliver antimony ingots, which is like a
Speaker 4: goal barn antimony bar cereal stamp. To put it on
Speaker 4: a pallette, We shrink wrap it and we send it
Speaker 4: to the government strictly for inventory for all the subcontractors
Speaker 4: of the government. Could be Buoying Northland, could be general motors.
Speaker 4: They need antimony to make their products. So we are
Speaker 4: the stockpiler for the government, and we're the only approved company.
Speaker 4: In fact, when it went out to guv dot com,
Speaker 4: it said the United States Antimony Corporation is the only
Speaker 4: company capable of bidding on this contract. And so the
Speaker 4: fact that we've been around fifty something years, we can
Speaker 4: do this and so now we can take America's Gold
Speaker 4: Silver's antimony through our new hydromet process and do the
Speaker 4: same thing.
Speaker 3: Have you talked to the White House just in the
Speaker 3: last few months about.
Speaker 4: This, Well, General Jack Keane, I don't know if you
Speaker 4: know who he is. He's on our board of directors
Speaker 4: and so he's been very helpful. We've already won the
Speaker 4: DLA contract, we have a Department of War grant coming
Speaker 4: with our now new joint venture. We're finding a new
Speaker 4: white paper with Apartment of Wars. We filed a grant
Speaker 4: request at Apartment of Energy for forty five million dollars
Speaker 4: January fifteenth. So we are constantly in the mixed seeking
Speaker 4: capital to help grow the center price.
Speaker 2: We're talking with Gary Evans, chairman and CEO of US Antimony,
Speaker 2: and Paul Andrehwitt at CEO at America's Gold and Silver Corporation.
Speaker 2: Without the US support and backing, would this be happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, there's no doubt what's happening now is changing
Speaker 1: things for us, and it's opening doors this.
Speaker 2: Project, financially changing it, making it well.
Speaker 1: We're going to be one of the first groups Carol
Speaker 1: actually putting in submitting this white paper for capital.
Speaker 4: Okay, and nobody's done that yet.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're the first, so which is really important. I
Speaker 1: was just at the White House. In fact, I've met
Speaker 1: with a couple of Senators, governor, congressman, and it's very
Speaker 1: clear that this this project vault, it creates a floor.
Speaker 1: It allows us to not have that volatility that we're
Speaker 1: up against. You know, we've got to prepare ourselves for
Speaker 1: if China's going to dump a whole bunch of antimony
Speaker 1: on the market, We've got to be able to protect
Speaker 1: that pricing for us, like people like us who are
Speaker 1: producing it domestically.
Speaker 2: Well, let's go there. Because you know, you also have
Speaker 2: the US reaching agreements with the European Union to PanAm
Speaker 2: Mexico to cooperate on securing critical minerals used in various industries.
Speaker 2: So they have committed to creating price floors. What kind
Speaker 2: of price floor is needed for antimony? What would be
Speaker 2: the ballpark the price that kind of would shield you
Speaker 2: from China oversaturating the market.
Speaker 4: I think something in the twenty dollars per pound range
Speaker 4: would be a great price floor to protect us. You
Speaker 4: got to understand China has one hundred year plant. We've
Speaker 4: been sitting behind the eight ball for twenty five years,
Speaker 4: watching China go all over the world, take over countries,
Speaker 4: take over minds, and they drove the antimony price down
Speaker 4: to such a level it drove everybody out of business.
Speaker 4: And fortunately our company stayed alive, only one that did
Speaker 4: stay alive. Yeah, and now we're reaping the benefit of
Speaker 4: having these refineries up and running.
Speaker 3: Hey, Paul, you have lived all over the world. You've
Speaker 3: done this all over the world. We're a big part
Speaker 3: of the conversation is the US reliance on China. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I'm just curious what you're seeing because the US
Speaker 3: and China still haven't reached an agreement when it comes
Speaker 3: to export control licenses for rare earths and permanent magnets
Speaker 3: are are is any export any antimony being exported from
Speaker 3: China to US consumers that's not military related? And Garry
Speaker 3: feel free to jump in here too.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean I could probably answer this pretty well because
Speaker 4: we monitored daily. China cut off all antimony exports in
Speaker 4: every country in the world, including the United States in
Speaker 4: September twenty four. People think, oh, it's got to do
Speaker 4: with Trump's tariffs. This was during the Biden deministration. This happened, well,
Speaker 4: guess what China's biggest mind called the twinkle star of
Speaker 4: mine in China depleted last June of twenty four, so September,
Speaker 4: three months later, they stopped all exports. Now are we
Speaker 4: seeing antimony dripping into the market in the black market?
Speaker 4: Probably some coming from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, but China has
Speaker 4: actually arrested twenty some odd people. They don't want antimony
Speaker 4: going to the free world. Why we all need it?
Speaker 4: In military, you can't fire a bullet without antimony. Laser
Speaker 4: guided missiles, night vision cameras, not vision binoculars. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's in everything you can imagine in the military. And
Speaker 4: so our administration fortunately has taken the lead and saying
Speaker 4: we've got to fix the critical mental problem. And it
Speaker 4: is fixable, but it's gonna take some time, and it's
Speaker 4: gonna take a lot of money.
Speaker 1: And the one thing that I heard coming out of
Speaker 1: the White House, Tim was very clear. One of the
Speaker 1: messages I was talking about was well, we need fifty
Speaker 1: million pounds and we're going to be able to help
Speaker 1: make that solution. But it was very clear to me
Speaker 1: leaving the White House that we have to also think
Speaker 1: about our allies, And honestly, I never thought of that.
Speaker 1: As CEO of America's Golden Zilver, I thought, but go.
Speaker 2: There because there's so much conflict. It feels like even
Speaker 2: with the US and its traditional allies that have been
Speaker 2: there for a long time, you're saying we can't do that.
Speaker 2: We've got to be cooperating.
Speaker 1: Right, Carol. Look, it was very crystal clear and was
Speaker 1: made very clear to me. Change your pitch, even as
Speaker 1: the CEO of America's Gold and Silver. Change your story,
Speaker 1: because you don't just need fifty million pounds for the US,
Speaker 1: you need another eighty percent on top of that for
Speaker 1: our allies who we have to make sure in NATO
Speaker 1: that we protect along the way, which honestly, for me,
Speaker 1: I didn't understand that completely, and I don't I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't understand it. Never mind the
Speaker 1: fifty million pounds we consume per year, right our allies
Speaker 1: is another forty million pounds, So we've got a deficit here.
Speaker 1: China's been so far ahead, Like Gary says, we're starting
Speaker 1: to help this situation significantly by this.
Speaker 2: JV, which goes back to national security. Can't just think
Speaker 2: about your own backyard. You've got to think about your
Speaker 2: allies as well. Gentlemen, please stay in touch, let us
Speaker 2: know how things are going. Gary Evans, CEO of US
Speaker 2: Antimony Corporation. Paul Andrey Hewitt, he is CEO of America's
Speaker 2: Golden Silver Corporation. You are listening and watching Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Speaker 2: Daily