 Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Jeff Klenda from you are energy. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thanks Tracy and appreciate you having me back again. Jeff Did you have any idea that President Trump was going to issue that executive order last week? We did not that kind of came out of left field. Don't get me wrong. We were very happy to see it. I Wish that it would have been a little bit more specific in terms of what it was targeting But as you know with an executive order, it's it's laid out in very few pages and and the whole idea is that from the outset They're they are somewhat non-specific. So while we would have liked to have seen more That's okay. We'll see how it plays out over the course of the weeks and months ahead Well, I see that the media is just getting their teeth into it now we particularly liked how they were declaring the Supply chain a need for critical materials supply chain in North America as a national emergency that actually made us happy Can you comment? Do you believe it's a national emergency? Well, I think it's not only is it a national emergency I think it's been a national emergency for many many years now And what I found interesting was the language that they use because they talk specifically and if you read the executive order it really was targeted at China and it did primarily focus on Rare earths, but the fact is is that what they described was the fact that the Chinese have been flooding Worldwide markets with rare earths over the last several years and that this has destroyed the competitiveness of the domestic industry here for all of those materials and This is something that of course we've been saying for three years now starting with the filing of section 232 in January of 2018, so I'm While it you know, we didn't get we didn't see a lot in the way of specifics. I'm glad that the message is resonating anyway Well, we of course are putting together an international editorial board to provide updates and critical materials We thought it was intriguing that they pointed out Scandium and rare earth elements separately since Scandium is a rare earth element and wanted to see if you want to add anything further for those people They're new to critical materials and may not appreciate the vital role that uranium plays Well, I think that first of all, I think let me start by just making a couple of comments with respect to the executive order itself I mean what it did is it directed the Department of Interior to explore means by which they could use the Defense Prevention Act to speed or facilitate the domestic the Development of domestic mines. That's all good. It also directs multiple agencies the Interior Defense Commerce Energy and Treasury to report to the president within 30 days to have written recommendations to him in 60 days and then have follow-ups every 180 days after that but it importantly if it asks and it directs these agencies to focus resources For the protection and the expansion of these materials So this is all good and Unfortunately as I mentioned it was a little thin on detail. It only mentioned specifically gallium bearite and Pure graphite high high purity graphite and so we didn't get a mention and when I listened to the White House's Conference call on this they actually had some very good things to say they they mentioned all critical minerals When you talk about whether or not it's a national emergency, the reality is is of those 35 critical minerals We are reliant For 31 of them on more that we are reliant to the tune of more than 50% of our consumption on foreign entities And 14 of those critical minerals 100% and then so yeah, it is very much a critical issue They did not mention uranium specifically either in the executive order or on the Comments that came out of the White House But we do know that that assets are being directed and one thing I would point out also is that I In the in the White House Conference call it specifically mentioned that the Department of Interior Would be responsible for utilizing grants or providing grants and that the Department of Energy Would be responsible for providing loan guarantees for Those in the industry in the critical minerals. So that bodes well for us. It means that money's out there It is being directed. We simply it's up to us now to make sure we get a piece of it Okay, so I'm so happy that we contacted you to get an update on this. Thank you, Jeff So flipping to the Russian suspension agreement you helped us understand that a little bit better in our most recent interview Can you tell us what's happening with that now and how it's affecting the uranium market? Well, yeah, specifically Let's let's start out by saying that it was finalized on Monday of this week So it was it was the extended and amended version of the Russian suspension agreement was finalized on Monday Wilbur Ross came out and he had comments that he made on Bloomberg in a five-minute interview So I tuned into that on Tuesday dutifully and I think that it helps us in two ways One first of all over a 20-year period of time It reduces the amount of Russian material from 20% of our overall consumption to 17% That's very much a positive. The other thing was with respect to the return feed now in the past What happens is is that the Russians provide us with enriched uranium product the utilities then Send back the equivalent in return feed whether that's you three or eight or us six now in the past They could take that material it could be enriched and derive a new origin Because it was being enriched in Europe or elsewhere And then it could be sold into the United States and it wouldn't be subject to the limitations of the RSA Now that loophole has been closed. So now that return feed Must be going through 10x on its way back and it must count against the cap And that was one of the things that Wilbur Ross emphasized in his interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday Okay, so I'm a I'm interested in uranium. What are the benefits of the RSA then for a uranium investor? First of all first and foremost it caps the Russians I mean we this is something that we've needed to do and below 20% I'll be candid with you We didn't get the percentage. We were engaged in the process since February of this year We were pushing for a much lower percentage The utilities were pushing for the percentage that actually ended up being the final percentage Which was an average of 17% over a 20 year period of time. So the utilities pretty much got what they wanted They were not going to be able to renew it 20% So we'll take the the reduction and that is going to cap their material Unfortunately those reductions don't really kick in until 2027. So It puts us in a position where yeah, we're going to benefit overall from it and that feed component is critical So it will mean that that material once it's designated as coming from the Russians It's not going to come from elsewhere and they're not going to be able to flood the the market with material as they have been in the past So I think that overall we have to look at it in terms of the larger benefit rather than Because there was nothing specifically for the uranium producers in the rsa Okay, so is there room for an appeal here? There is not Once it was finalized, it's done and we knew that would be the case and that's why we've been so actively engaged in the process since February You know where we spend a lot of money on Washington DC lawyers anybody who's ever done that knows that's no fun and that's a that's a That's a burden on anybody's budget But we we felt compelled to do that. We've been fighting this battle whether it's been section 232 working group or rsa now for three years and so I think we got everything we could out of the rsa I would have liked it if there would have been a specific component in there for the uranium producers We just we just didn't get that but we'll have to be we'll have to be satisfied with the overall advantages And they are significant. So I don't want to undermine. I don't want to underplay those or downplay them Well speaking of things to discuss we've had a lot on the news There's been so much uncertainty happening presently between covid 19 presidential elections What should you know? How is this going to impact your energy? How is this going to impact the uranium Market in general. I'd love to know what you think well, I think first of all We were really headed in a positive direction when we saw that kazatom prom Had shut down production and had halted well field development. That was very good for us In addition to that we saw that kamiko had Had a cigar lake I didn't like it when and we were seeming to get bids. We were we were out all of the equities were We're moving higher in price. It was deemed to be very good for us They announced almost simultaneously that the kazaks were going to begin well field development once again and that Kamiko was going to restart cigar lake I have not gotten a status on either one of those. So whether or not they've actually fully restarted cigar lake We don't know and whether or not the kazaks have been able to get into the field I don't know that either we know that they've been able to get in there with their with their On staff labor their contracted labor. I'm understanding they have had difficulty getting them back in the field And that they haven't been able to secure the number of drill rigs that they would like to deploy for the well field development So we'll have to wait and see how that plays out. But as far as the presidential election is concerned I think that this has great deal of importance to us. Look, there is no commodity on the face of the earth. That's more highly politicized than uranium and As that is the case We know that we have not been for example, we were not the obama administration's constituency and we know that And as a result, we saw a great deal more In place that did not benefit us. It made our jobs tougher. We don't want to see a repeat of that Frankly for us and I'm speaking for myself here not being political, but just Dressing it directly The the if there's no change in administration that is going to be deemed to be very bullish for us And so we know which side of this we come down on again. I'm being self-serving, but We really if there's no change in administration, I'll be very happy on November 5th Well, just for the record Jeff, we are having a lot of consistent messaging that echoes what you just said So for everybody out there who currently owns you our energy stock Can you just tell us what we should be anticipating this fall and winter? What are we looking forward to? Sure, there are a number of things and I think that uh, a number of things that are going to happen First of all in the next three months First and foremost, we just talked about at the outcome of this election that happens in less than four weeks now So, um, that's critical to us. That's very very important Also, as I mentioned, what Kazatom prom and what camico do and whether or not they're going to come in and now start weighing on the market again Now if you believe guys like Riaz Rizvi, uh with Kazatom prom Saying that the impact from their shutdown will be that will be seen in the fourth quarter and into the first quarter of next year To the extent that it reduces the amount of material that they're pumping into the marketplace Obviously, that's very good for us But I think that now that the rsa is behind us the general consensus is is that we will see the utilities coming back into the marketplace We're thinking that that's going to push prices higher before the end of the year. Obviously, that's not just good for us It's good for everybody in the space and we stand ready, of course as you know, and as I've mentioned on this Venue before we have kept our operational staff in place. We're ready to ramp up at any time We can do it faster at lower cost and with less dilution to our shareholders Than anyone else and we're chomping at the bit for the opportunity To do that, but I think that if we can if we can see those things happen I think that uh, we're in very good position and uh, we've been able we we're in strong solid position in terms of cash and I hate to even Say this but one of the things that we did is that we secured a very large database when we purchased our Shirley Basin property from the french giant areva back in 2013 And we always said that what we'd like to do is we'd like to develop projects out of there Well, what we've developed out of there is a goal project We have been working on it so far in the early part of October it's in just a great neighborhood in nevada and we will actually have Drills on the ground there in the middle uh early part to the middle part of november So uh as much as I hate to say it in terms of adding value for shareholders We actually are developing a goal project in the fourth quarter So we hope that we see good things out of the uranium space and frankly, you know As many others in my space have commented on Look, we got everything we wanted out of the working group and the working group report that came out on april 23rd What we really need now is something like this executive order to light the fire under these agencies specifically department of energy To say look, this is how we're gonna fund this because right now we're at the mercy of congress Anybody you don't want to be at the mercy of congress You just don't want this thing to be part of the budgeting process But if we can now I hope that this will signal resolve on the part of this administration If there is no change in administration It means that there will be followed through and they will provide the funds for the uh for contracting for The domestic producers and hey if I had my choice between making a half A dozen deliveries a year to domestic utilities or making two deliveries a year to the federal government I'll take the two deliveries here to the federal government. And I know they're being business the attack from now, right? Well, jeff as always, it's a real pleasure. Thank you so much for an update for ur energy to the investor intel audience We appreciate it Tracy, thank you so much and thanks for what you do for the industry. We really appreciate it