 Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Eric Vasson-Sherb from Critical Elements Lithium Corporation. How are you today, Eric? I'm well, Trace. Thank you. How are you? I'm very good. It's a real pleasure to have this time with you to start by congratulating you on becoming the chairman for Critical Elements Lithium, which you accepted in September, if I recall. Some of our investor intel members may be aware of your background with canticorginality as a top analyst in the metals and mining sector. Can you tell me why out of all the jobs you could have accepted or elected to participate in that you have selected Critical Elements, please? Sure. I was a geologist originally and then became a mining analyst almost 35 years ago when I realized I wanted to stay being married. And in that time I've looked at a lot of companies, and in fact it's like being a movie critic. I realized in December when I left canticord that I no longer wanted to be a movie critic, I wanted to make my own movies. And so Critical Elements is exactly what I was looking for. It's a company that I've been following since 2009. I've known the people involved and I like their very conservative, quiet, solid, cobitant approach to how to advance Critical Elements' Rose project. So I'm very excited to have gotten involved with that. Of course, I'm extremely optimistic and enthusiastic even about the outlook for Lithium itself. I'll tell you, that breeds all kinds of additional questions we'd love to touch upon, but let's start with your corporate update that you recently put out. And could you give us kind of an update on what's happening with the Rose Lithium project, please? Sure. Rose Lithium project is located in Quebec. It's wholly owned by Critical Elements. It is one of the most pure Lithium projects that's undeveloped globally. And when I say pure, that means the impurities are extremely low in terms of iron oxide and mica. And that is extremely important in the Lithium industry. Now, why Lithium? Lithium is used in Lithium-ion batteries and Lithium-ion batteries are ramping up in terms of demand due to the drivers of dual drivers, if you will, of e-mobility of electric vehicles and energy storage systems that are used in conjunction with renewable energy, wind and solar and so on and so forth. Our land package is over 700 square kilometers. That makes it one of the largest land packages globally as well. And so for us, Rose is hopefully just the first of a number of projects that we advance from that land package. Rose is the one that we've started with and we aspire to be a large responsible and sustainable provider of Lithium to that Lithium-ion battery industry. And of course, you've made reference to the history that you've had in following Critical Elements Lithium. And so I want to just draw your attention back to the question I asked you about why you really selected this company. I appreciate your understated comment. I too have been following Critical Elements Lithium since about 2010-11. And they are very understated in what has been some very sophisticated news over the years. They are also involved in extraction technology processes. So is that the real reason you were attracted to this company or was it the actual project? Am I allowed to put you on the spot there, Eric? Please feel free. As always in these decisions, it isn't just one thing. And yes, you're right. I have very strong feelings about management. If you look at Stefan Haber, for example, Dr. Haber was the CEO of Rockwood, which was sold in 2015 for over $6 billion U.S. to Albemarle to create their Lithium division. So you've got an extremely strong knowledge of the Lithium industry. And Jean-Sébastien Lavalé comes from a family of generations of miners and explorers in Quebec. So you've got a great understanding of the process of putting something into production in Quebec as well as important relationships with the First Nations community. In terms of the process, I've mentioned that the rose deposit is particularly pure. Well, that makes it a lot easier when you look at the purity of the deposit as well as the purity of the host rock. It makes it easier and cheaper, simpler to convert that or into spodumene concentrate. The next step is that you go from spodumene concentrate to the Lithium chemicals that are actually used in building the cathodes and the Lithium iron batteries. And so Lithium hydroxide and Lithium carbonate, these are very, can be very complex chemical processes. And so in this case, we are working in conjunction with Mezzo-Utatec, one of the leaders in metallurgy globally. And Mezzo-Utatec conducted our piloting and yielded a beautiful recovery rate on the process, Helcoline leach process that is very nice to see without the use of sulfuric acid like it is in much of the industry. And that process is one that actually goes back to the 60s, was used in Quebec in the past. And it's also the process that seems to be what Tesla is settling on for their conversion of spodumene concentrate into Lithium hydroxide. So that whole idea of a clean process, ESG as it's called right now in terms of environment, social and governments, are extremely important these days as the end users look back on the entire chain of their supply. Is it clean at low carbon footprint and so on and so forth? And of course, that's another one of the competitive advantages for the company in being in Quebec. Being in Quebec, it's not only one of the world famous mining jurisdictions globally. It is also a great location to be from an ESG perspective. If you look at 93% of the power in Quebec comes from hydro electricity. It's a low carbon footprint. Geographically, we're strategically located between Europe and the United States. So we can strategically supply both markets with a very responsible, a very sustainable project. And that's what drives me and gets me very excited about being involved in that. Emergence, if you will, of a battery hub, let's call it EV Nord in Quebec. So speaking about positioning the location, it seems that timing is on the side of critical elements. Lithium Corporation, recently the European Commission's raw material strategy was announced. The executive order that came out of the US on critical materials. And of course, let's not forget Tesla's battery day. So can you just comment about the relationships? Because I'm guessing you're well positioned for both being a source for North America and for Europe. That's exactly right. One thing that COVID has done is exposed the fragility of the global supply chains for a lot of products, let alone in electric vehicles or any vehicles for that matter. So although electric vehicle sales are way down, and pardon me, time electrical vehicle sales, but rather general vehicle sales are way down, electric vehicle sales are much less down. And so we're actually seeing a ramp up of sales, EV sales in Europe. The Europeans in particular on a policy basis are really driving sales for electric vehicles in Europe. Take Norway, for example, and extreme example, if you will, but we're looking at over 70% of their sales last month of vehicles. We're actually electric vehicles. So making a long or answer longer, Tracy, I apologize. The Europeans are very focused and you alluded to it. They have brought out a critical materials policy and they want to encourage the production of batteries, not just vehicles, but also batteries and the battery materials going into them in Europe. They want to build their own supply chain that's less reliant upon Asia. The problem is that there are some good projects in Lithium projects in Europe, but not a lot. And so even in their policy, it states very clearly that they're going to have to rely on established mining countries like Australia and Canada. So we're extremely well positioned to take advantage of that to work with the Europeans in providing super clean guilt-free, as someone put it, guilt-free Lithium into the European market, which then brings us to the United States. Of course, Tesla has been the poster child for EV vehicles. And in the United States, there are also some really good suppliers of Lithium to come. And you can see that in the deal that they did with Piedmont, for example. And there will be more. And so I see in not too long of future, whether it's five years or plus or minus a couple of years, where we see producers of Lithium in Brazil, in the United States, and of course in Canada. And it's our vision to be a very, very important part of that supply chain. And being in Quebec, you're at the nexus of both the North American and the European markets. Well, I would argue we have quite a visionary here. We were involved in Lithium in following it in 2009. I mean, Jack Lipton and I were on the hillsides of Alaska fighting over what we should call critical materials in 2012. That was before we even knew what they were. So we would love, if you will, Eric, a love to have you come back to talk to us just about the global supply of Lithium, if you will. Okay. And also, can you tell us, as the chairman of Critical Elements Lithium Corporation, the company you've elected to put your name on, what we as shareholders should anticipate in the next, say, half a year? Can you give us any hints? Well, I think there are those people that have felt that we haven't moved fast enough. To my mind, it's really important to proceed the proper way. You want to work very closely in partnership or in cooperation with First Nations. And let's face it, the reality in Canada is that without having that relationship, it ain't going to happen. And so we're happy and we're proud with the relationship that's been formalized there. That then feeds into the ability to permit. And so whereas in the past, we talked about full permitting occurring sometime next year and so on. And then it became guidance that, well, it's going to happen over the next few months. You will have seen our most recent release refers to permitting happening over the next few weeks. And so we're quite optimistic that we're going to see permitting, full permitting, on the federal and the provincial level early in 2021. And so that's an exciting threshold, an exciting milestone to be achieved. And then after permitting, the next important milestone will be financing. Of course, we have detailed engineering ongoing for phase one, which is the construction of a mine concentrator. But then after we make, or as we get prepared for a final investment decision on phase one, financing becomes the important step. And as you can imagine for strategic partners, and we've been talking about that publicly that we are in the process of identifying the right strategic partner that has a shared vision, that an important milestone for that is permitting. And so you can imagine that as a next step as we see a strategic partner coming in and the construction, if you will, of a financing package for phase one. Then the next important threshold and milestone, if you will, is to look at phase two. We hope to complete a feasibility study for phase two, which is construction of a conversion facility in Quebec for the spodumene concentrate out of rows, making lithium hydroxide that goes directly to the Catholic manufacturers. And so that mid-2021 will also be a very important milestone for us. So those are the three main ones. Well, I'll tell you, Eric, what a pleasure. I applaud your answers and congratulations to all the shareholders of Critical Elements Lithium Corporation for having an outstanding chairman. It was a real pleasure. Thank you, Eric. You're very kind of you, Tracy. Thanks for having me today.