 Hi, this is Jack Lipton, and today I'm interviewing Mr. Pat Ryan, the chairman of UCorps Rare Metals. And I think that UCorps is rocketing along on the right path. And as an introduction panel, I'd like to say a couple of words about you. In all of my time in the rare of space, I think you're the most successful businessman I know in this space. And you've come to the rare earth industry from the automotive industry where, please correct me if I'm wrong, companies you founded have sold billions of dollars of engineered products to the automotive industry. So with no further talk from me, please tell us what UCorps is doing right now to become a supplier to the rare earth world. Yeah, thanks for that introduction, Jack. Yes, the automotive industry, it's been where I've cut my teeth and build my career. I started a tier one automotive company 27 years ago, and the tier one company, as you know, is the most complex in the automotive supply chain. It's the one that does all the heavy lifting to make sure the automotive company gets what they want on time at the right price and the right quantities. And it's a very complex, complex role. And, you know, as we look at the rare earth supply chain for the battery metals, any of the critical metals used in electric vehicles, you know, and of course, you're aware that there are six times more critical metals in an electric vehicle than are an internal combustion engine. So these billions of dollars that have been announced by automotive companies and to date, I think on a global level, it's over half a trillion dollars announced, including some of that from China, of course, to expand and invest in electric vehicles. It's all about net start from zero carbon emission. But the supply chains to support it, the metallic supply chains are needed. It's right back to the days of Henry Ford when, you know, we had to invest in rubber plants and invest in steel mills and things that were required to make sure he could build his Model T vehicles back then. And the same thing applies today. The companies that have announced the biggest plans and invested the billions of dollars are the ones that are most vulnerable. And they need to develop independent X China supply chains, ones that are circular in nature, ones that are ESG bent to be able to get the job done. So yeah, I'm very comfortable working with the U-Core team as they work on taking best in kind technology to process rare earths. And for those of you that really understand the rare supply chain, if you're making a chemical concentrate or any type of concentrate from where of mine, you have no option today other than to send it to China for processing and it will get used in Chinese processing at that time. It will get used in F-35 fighters. I think it was an announcement, Jack, what just a couple days ago about how the Pentagon has cut off supply of materials for F-35 fighters coming from China because that's not right. So building the supply chains, you need best in kind tech to get the job done. We bought a company innovation metals corp a couple of years ago, and we've taken that technology for getting it ready for commercial prime time now. We're developing a demonstration plant in Kingston, Ontario, working with Kingston process metallurgy that we commissioned in Q4 of this year, 2022. It'll be processing tens of tons of rare earth concentrate from several feedstocks and producing rare earth oxides. And I think that's a really first mover. And then the automotive companies we're dealing with are looking at that going, okay, we've done our due diligence on the tech. This is what we need in what year, what quantities, at what price approximate, you know, because you've got to work through pricing models that make sure you understand that everyone's healthy in the supply chain. And we're working upstream with all the near term producers that only have an option to send product back to China. We're saying, don't send it to China. Let's process on North American soil. Here are our plans to get the job done. Here's our tech. Here's our list of customers. So it's real business. It's real go time. Let's not talk about, you know, more research and more lab tinkering and academics, God love them, but let's get the job done. That's, that's where my career's been. And that's kind of my excitement about being the chairman of U-Core as well. Pat, let me throw a curveball at you. The principle objection to a central processing plant is that you have multiple feeds resulting in a variety of what's called pregnant leech solutions, feedstock. And that if these feeds are small, let's say, then you have to blend them all together to get one shot typically to put into a batch for the current solvent extraction system. This is a big negative because you never know when you're going to have material to make that one batch. Now, what is your approach at U-Core to this real big problem for central processing? Well, you know, the team at Kingston Process Metal Energy working with our development team is probably best to answer that, Jack. But essentially, with each feedstock, you have an individual PLS. So each individual PLS or each feedstock will have an individual PLS. And then you've got a heavy solvent extraction train. You've got a light solvent extraction train. If you're feeding your feeds into two different trains within the plant and you go through the very stage of rapid insects, you do hit a point in going through those trains where you then can mix. You can't mix initially, but you can mix eventually. And when you can mix eventually, then you determine what you could do from there and you get your splits and you develop the product that you need to produce for the automotive company or the wind turbine company or wherever the end customer might be. And it's not just automotive, as you know, there are all sorts of other uses for the rare earth that come into a feedstock concentrate coming into your plant. So yeah, that level of central processing with multiple feedstocks has been thought through many, many times with a lot of really smart metalurgical people and chemical engineers that know a lot about the process that I'm not as dialed into as a mechanical, but I do know that that was one of the tough questions I asked. We're feeling pretty bullish on all of that, Jack, but great question that that that is something that goes into the failure mode effect analysis, which you have to take a look at when you're developing such a system as we are. You've mentioned in the past that you're, you're, you're developing a demonstration plan at a partner facility in Kingston, Ontario. Have you, can you tell us where you might put a full scale commercial plan in North America? Yeah, that's a great question, Jack. The commercial, the demonstration plan is being built in Kingston and from that we're acquiring commercial or commercial metrics to be able to then plug into an engineering plan. We've been working with Metchem out of New England and they're a great processing company, we've worked with them for over a year now, developed in the engineering side. So back to your question about where do we set up strategic metals complex number one. We've been scouring across North America, looking at things that matter. Where's your best energy? Where's your best labor pool going to be? Where's the best in and out for freight inbound, freight outbound? Where's the best source of your chemicals reagents, all that stuff? Where are you going to get to a brownfield facility? And by that I mean dealing with the automotive companies, they have a definitive plan of what they want to have in one year. And based on what we've been discussing with several automotive companies, we've got to look at a brownfield building. I can tell you that our team in the last several months has been scouring across North America, looking at brownfield facilities. We've narrowed it down to an area that we believe will be SMC number one. We're looking at the Gulf States. We're also looking at New England. We've looked at a couple of opportunities in Canada. And I can say stay tuned within weeks, stay tuned. You'll understand where the first strategic metal complex will be going. But it's all based on those inputs, which are best inbound freight for your various sources, best energy use, best source of chemicals reagents, available in the chamber pool, grants incentives from the area that wants to have you set up shop in their area. Where is the most anti-dilutive approach? Where's the best processing? What makes sense? So we've got that whiteboard with all those metrics ticked and we're ready to move. Finally, I'd like to ask, have you lined up feedstock sources? Is that sort of important for a processing plant? Yeah, absolutely. We're not at the definitive agreement yet, the stage yet, but we're certainly moving along in discussions that a couple of our MOU stages. We have three that are MOU stage. Two of them don't want to be identified at this point because it's quite critical to what they're doing and critical to us too. But yeah, we're moving towards definitive agreement. So the thing about the feedstock arrangements, Jack, and I think I recall you reading an article you had written that maybe a year or more ago. But you can't, people have asked us, will you toll for us? And the answer is no, not at this stage. We're not going to toll. But we will develop a supply chain economic metric that allows you to be healthy. The processing company, U-Corps to be healthy and the downstream automotive company to be healthy. So everyone's got to be healthy and understand what your minimum cost, your minimum margin, your return on that investment is and make sure you're healthy all the way through the supply chain. So we are working with near term feedstock people and we're talking about the way to get to a definitive agreement that keeps them healthy so we can be healthy so the automotive company can get what they want on time all the time. Thank you very much, Pat. There's a lot of more questions that I'd love to ask you, but we don't have infinite amounts of time. Really good luck. And I want to put you on the spot here. When can I go visit the Kingston Ontario facility? You know, Jack, we're going to invite you in Q4. We've got a couple of near term people that are involved in our story. They understand this industry very well, like yourself. And in Q4, we're going to take a small group of people bring into Kingston and show you what we're up to. I think you'll be impressed. Thanks a lot. I always look forward to driving the Canadian winter. Thank you, Chef.