US Antimony, Americas Gold and Silver to Work on New Processing Site

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1:51The Cincinnati insurance companies. Let them make your bad day better. Find an independent agent at c-i-n-f-i-n.com. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. Well, you might recall earlier this month, Bloomberg exclusively reporting out that President Trump was set to launch a strategic your critical mineral stockpile with$12 billion in seed money, all in a bid to insulate manufacturers from supply shocks as the U.S. works to slash its reliance on Chinese rare earths and other metals. Meantime, you see a lot of companies doing deal in the space, Tim.

2:36Yeah, on that today, Shares of America's Gold and Silver Corporation rallied as much as 8 percent. This after the miners said it would partner with United States Antimony to construct and operate an antimony processing plant in Idaho. Some details here and then we're going to get to the conversation. facility will be 51 % owned by America's Gold and Silver and 49 % owned by U.S. Antimony. It'll be located in the Silver Valley in Idaho. All right, so let's get to it. Great to have with us Gary Evans, chairman and CEO of United States Antimony Corporation. It's a$1.1 billion market cap minor producer and seller of Antimony products.

3:10It's based in Montana. Stock is up 66 % year to date, about 21 % of the float short. Also with us is Paul Andre Hewitt. He is chairman and CEO of the $2.6 billion market cap, precious metal miner based in Ontario, Canada. It is America's gold and silver corporation. That company's shares are up about 61 % year to date, and we've seen it move in today's session. Gary and Paul both joining us here in studio. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Tell us about this joint venture, the financial aspects, how it actually logistically works down, and what it means in terms of critical minerals in the U.S. and just kind of elsewhere.

3:46So whoever wants to pick it up. Yeah, I'll just start. So look, this joint venture, we've been working on it actually not that long, to be very honest. Actually, Gary and I were talking about it. We met about a month ago. One month ago, we met. Both teams assembled at the mine site in Idaho. His executive team, my executive team, we were signing documents late last night with our legal teams, both of us at 1030 at night finalizing this. And this is a transformational deal, actually. This allows us to supply a product, Antimony, to the U.S. from the beginning right to the end. So us, Gary is the expert in the Antimony world.

4:22We're the experts in the mining world. And what we have is a mine, the Galena mine in Idaho. Right now we've got about 330 employees. We just bought a second mine in Idaho. We closed it in December. So we bought the original one, transferred the whole management team and made some big upgrades in capital. what we're doing is revolutionizing this mine this mine's been around for a long time and it's it produces five critical minerals so we produce silver copper antimony lead and then a small amount of gold but they're all five critical minerals which is very very important this deal is very important to us and u.s miners and to the u.s as a whole because we need 50 million pounds of antimony per annum and we're not even close to producing it not yet so this will allow us to start chewing away and getting some of that antimony produced domestically.

5:16So, Paul, Andrew, you had given us the America's Gold and Silver Corporation view. Gary Evans, come on back in here and talk about why this deal made sense for you at U.S. Antimony. Well, as you know, we have the only two smelters for antimony in North America, so Montana and Mexico. And currently, we're getting most of our supply from foreign sources. We get it from the country of Chad, Peru, Bolivia, Australia, Chile, Mexico. And we are looking for homegrown antimony. We are already processing Paul's antimony through another facility up in Canada. We receive that, and we can make antimony trisulfide out of it.

5:57So the idea when we met a month ago, met our two management teams, got together, we immediately said, look, this is an easy answer. We'll put our new technology that we developed in Bolivia last year. We made the first commercial-grade antimony hydromet facility, and now we receive 150 tons a month of antimony from that facility. We can duplicate that in the United States. So we have the technology, we have the patents, we have the license for North America and Australia. He has the land, he has the supply, so it was a marriage made in heaven. So why weren't you processing here in the U.S.? Well, we are processing, but it's using foreign supplies.

6:39Okay. So he has domestic supplies, which the country doesn't have. So the processing facility that you're going to be building? Yes. Give us timeline. When is it going to be running up at commercial scale? That's a great question. He fortunately has all the permits that we need. So we are in the construction engineering phase now. We should start within 90 days and be done in a year. Wow. So in a year, it's up and functioning? If you think about the last one, sorry to interrupt, the last one that was built in the U.S. was built in 1942 at that same area in Silver Valley. And it took six months to build it during World War II.

7:16That was actually built. Gary's team just built one in six months in Bolivia. So these are not massive facilities, but they're very important. So once we get the engineering stages and everything done and we start construction, it'll go pretty quick from that time. Carol mentioned Project Vault earlier this month. Bloomberg exclusively reporting out that President Trump set to launch a strategic critical mineral stockpile with$12 billion in seed money. Gary, have you been in touch with the White House, the administration at all about this? How much antimony do you expect the stockpile will hold?

7:50We currently have a contract with the DLA, which is the Department of War, for$245 million to deliver antimony ingots, which is like a gold bar. It's an antimony bar. It's serial stamped. We put it on a pallet. We shrink wrap it, and we send it to the government. It's strictly for inventory. For all the subcontractors of the government, could be Boeing, Northland, could be General Motors. They need antimony to make their products. So we are the stockpiler for the government. And we're the only approved company. In fact, when it went out to gov.com, it said the United States Antimony Corporation is the only company capable of bidding on this contract.

8:29And so the fact that we've been around 50-something years, we can do this. And so now we can take America's Gold, Silver's Antimony through our new hydromat process and do the same thing. Have you talked to the White House just in the last few months about this? Well, General Jack Keene, I don't know if you know who he is. He's on our board of directors. And so he's been very helpful. We've already won the DLA contract. We have a Department of War grant coming. With our now new joint venture, we're filing a new white paper with the Department of War. We filed a grant request to the Department of Energy for$45 million January 15th.

9:07So we are constantly in the mix seeking capital to help grow this enterprise. We're talking with Gary Evans, chairman and CEO of U.S. Antimony, and Paul Andre Hewitt, CEO at America's Gold and Silver Corporation. Without the U.S. support and backing, would this be happening? Yeah, look, there's no doubt what's happening now is changing things for us, and it's opening doors. Financially changing it, making it possible? Well, we're going to be one of the first groups, Carol, actually putting in, submitting this white paper for capital. Okay. Nobody's done that yet. Okay. We're the first, which is really important.

9:38And I was just at the White House. In fact, I've met with a couple senators, governor, congressmen. And it's very clear that this project vault, it creates a floor. It allows us to not have that volatility that we're up against. We've got to prepare ourselves for if China's going to dump a whole bunch of antimony on the market, we've got to be able to protect that pricing for us, people like us, who are producing it domestically here. Well, let's go there because, you know, you also have the U.S. reaching agreements with the European Union, Japan, and Mexico to cooperate on securing critical minerals used in various industries.

10:15So they have committed to creating price floors. What kind of price floor is needed for antimony? What would be the ballpark, the price that kind of would shield you from China oversaturating the market? I think something in the$20 per pound range would be a great price floor that protects us. You've got to understand China has a 100-year plan. we've been sitting behind the eight ball for 25 years, watching China go all over the world, take over countries, take over mines. And they drove the antimony price down to such a level. It drove everybody out of business. And fortunately, our company stayed alive.

10:54Only one that did stay alive. And now we're reaping the benefit of having these refineries up and running. Hey, Paul, you have lived all over the world. You've done this all over the world. A big part of the conversation is the U.S. reliance on China. And I'm just curious what you're seeing, because the U.S. and China still haven't reached an agreement when it comes to export control licenses for rare earths and permanent magnets. Is any antimony being exported from China to U.S. consumers that's not military related? And, Gary, feel free to jump in here, too. Yeah, I mean, I could probably answer this pretty well because we monitor daily.

11:32China cut off all antimony exports to every country in the world, including the United States, in September of 24. People think, oh, it's got to do with Trump's tariffs. This was during the Biden administration. This happened. Well, guess what? China's biggest mine, called the Twinkle Star Mine, in China depleted last June of 24. So September, three months later, they stopped all exports. Now, are we seeing antimony dripping into the market, in the black market? Probably some coming from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia. But China has actually arrested 20-some-odd people. They don't want antimony going to the free world.

12:10Why? We all need it in the military. You can't fire a bullet without antimony. Laser-guided missiles, night vision cameras, night vision binoculars. I mean, it's in everything you can imagine in the military. And so our administration, fortunately, has taken the lead in saying we've got to fix the critical mental problem. And it is fixable, but it's going to take some time. And it's going to take a lot of money. And the one thing that I heard coming out of the White House, Tim, was very clear. One of the messages I was talking about was, well, we need 50 million pounds, and we're going to be able to help make that solution.

12:43But it was very clear to me, leaving the White House, that we have to also think about our allies. And honestly, I never thought about it as CEO of America's Gold and Silver, I thought. But go there because there's so much conflict, it feels like, even with the U.S. and its traditional allies that have been there for a long time. You're saying we can't do that. We've got to be cooperating. You're absolutely right, Carol. Look, it was very crystal clear. It was made very clear to me. Change your pitch even as the CEO of America's gold and silver. Change your story because you don't just need 50 million pounds for the U.S.

13:11You need another 80 percent on top of that for our allies who we have to make sure in NATO that we protect along the way. which honestly, for me, I didn't understand that completely. And I think a lot of people don't understand it. Never mind the 50 million pounds we consume per year. Our allies is another 40 million pounds. So we've got a deficit here. China's been so far ahead, like Gary says. We're starting to help this situation significantly by this JV. Which goes back to national security. You can't just think about your own backyard. You've got to think about your allies as well. Gentlemen, please stay in touch.

13:42Let us know how things are going. Gary Evans, CEO of U.S. Antimony Corporation. Paul Andre Hewitt. He is CEO of America's Gold and Silver Corporation. You are listening and watching Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.

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