 Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Jeff Atkins from Vital Metals. How are you today, Jeff? Very well. Thanks, Tracy. Thanks for having me on. Well, of course, we know the story. The real story here is your countdown to May 2021. Will you will be producing? Is that correct? We will be. So we are currently putting the finishing touches to our infrastructure to mobilize our mining fleet across to Nettulacho, ready to start operations. I love that. Setting the mining fleet over. And this is this is a significant piece of news in our industry. I mean, you know, I was just mentioning off, you know, off the camera here a few minutes ago that you're one of the few people outside of China that has a real life experience of taking a company from exploration to operations. And it looks like you're going to do it again. I'd like to say it's been easier the second time. But look, it's an exciting time for us and exciting time for all of our team. And we're looking forward to bringing this operation into fruition. So, of course, everybody out there who's been watching the rare earth, you know, basically battle to see who's going to produce next outside of China for the last decade. This is really sizable news. And and I'd like, if you wouldn't mind, just explain what's going to happen here around your, you know, kickoff date. Yeah. So our philosophy has really been around how are we able to enter production in the in the shortest possible time frame for the least amount of capital? And that's really been the focus of what we've what we've done. So what we have up at Nechilacho is we're developing the project over two stages. The first stage is is really all about getting into operation and getting customer acceptance and to prove to customers our ability to produce product at specification and the ability to ramp that up. And then we move to a larger operation, which is more typical of what you you see people looking at developing for in rare earths. So that's been our journey over the last 12 to 18 months. And it's really exciting to to be in the position now where within the next within the next month, we expect to see our mining fleets on the site and then the commencement of operations. So what we will do there is we will will produce a benefited product up on site through all sorting will then transport that product down to Saskatoon to the Saskatchewan Research Council, where we will then produce a mixed rare earth carbonate product from there from there that will then be be on sold to separation facilities. I really appreciate you providing such a good update on how you're planning on doing this. Having been to Nechilacho a couple of times, would you like to explain some of the competitive advantages of this actual, you know, this I've been following Nechilacho now for over a decade. So you have no idea how sincerely excited I am about you getting this to the next level. So can you just tell us a little bit about the competitive advantages for those of you out there that may not be familiar with what an extraordinary rare earth project this actually is. There's three real real aspects to Nechilacho, which do make it unique and make it the ideal project to be to be starting off on. The first one is it has enormous potential for long life and scale. So that is incredibly exciting. It is one of the biggest rare earth projects in the world. So you've got that as a as a foundation. The second thing you have is you've got these isolated areas of resource, which have incredible mineralogy. And what I mean by that is you have it's these resources are at the surface and it's incredibly easy to separate the rare earths from the waste material to produce a concentrate. And that's the most critical aspect of rare earth development, particularly for startup operations. The third thing that Nechilacho has and this is something which is coming from somebody in Australia is is really I've found really quite interesting is that because the project is located on the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, it opens up incredible opportunities to commence operations with minimal expenditure on infrastructure. So if Nechilacho is located just about anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't be able to develop it the way that we are because we'd have to spend so much money on roads and things like that. Whereas because we're on the Great Slave Lake, we can mobilise mining fleets, we can mobilise equipment and get material out either by ice road or barge. And that provides so much flexibility in terms of how we can design and develop the operation. Of course, you've recently also announced that you had a definitive off-tech agreement with RETEC or is that R-E-E-T-E-C? How exactly do we pronounce that, Jeff? That's that is 100 percent correct, RETEC. So, yeah, look, that's incredibly exciting. And that provides our cornerstone customer. So RETEC are a Norwegian company. I first met them in, I think, 2009 and they've been developing a separation technology for 10, 12, 12 years. They've so they've got a very good understanding of their process. They are backed by a substantial corporate entity, so the ability to fund that project. And the other thing is they also have a team of people who have a lot of experience in the processing of rare earths and the production of products for customers and meeting customer expectations and specifications. So what that means is it's a customer who is a specialist in the separation of rare earth products, but then also has that real potential for growth. And that's incredibly important for us as a for our first first customer. And now that we have have them signed and we have that commitment, it now means it gives us the flexibility to look for our second and third customers and to finalize those those conversations for the remainder of our product. Well, I'll tell you, it's such a sizable fee to be getting to production. You said you were going to do it. Looks like you're doing it. So if you don't mind, we'd love to ask you a couple of questions about what's happening with the rare earth market right now. Are you are you willing to to take a run at some of these questions, Jeff? Absolutely. OK, Jeff, you know, we're getting a lot of interest in rare earths right now. Are you experiencing are you experiencing the same thing in Australia and what kind of feedback are you getting presently? Yes, look, there's a lot of interest in rare earths. And I think we're in a very interesting time from the rare earth market and it's very different to what it was back in 2010, 2011. Back then, people were looking at a variety of products and uses and thinking and nobody really knew how to what to focus on. Whereas sorry, and that meant that it was a bit more complex for for the average person to really understand what rare earths are and what they're used for. The big difference now, though, is that it's very well understood that rare earths are tied to magnets and the demand for rare earths is tied to magnets, whether or not you're talking about lights or heavies. It's all geared around magnets. And that's suddenly become something which is much easier to understand. So when you start then looking at future demands, it's all linked to electric vehicles, wind turbines. Yes, there are strategic uses, but fundamentally from a mass market perspective, that's what's driving demand. And that simplicity in understanding suddenly drives a lot more interest because people see the announcements which companies make. Jaguar announced today that they're shifting to an electric future. And those types of changes to the fundamental market just drive a lot of interest. Add to that the fact that there aren't very many rare earth producers and it is a difficult product to get into operation. It means that there's a lot of there's a lot of interest, but at the same time, people don't really know how to get involved. So it's an interesting time. Well, of course, anyone watching the Super Bowl would be excited about rare earths, of course, and the demand coming from electric vehicles. And I think on that note, since you're the Tom Brady of rare earth operations, maybe you can tell us that we as shareholders should anticipate, besides, I don't know, an international celebration when you cut the ribbon at Nechilacho in May 2021. You know, what else should we be expecting this year? Look, from our perspective, it's really around consolidating our operation and betting that in. But it's also around starting the process to stage two. So we just started our drilling program to define which will be targeting it, defining a mind plan for that larger operation. And it's really about moving forward with that. From Nechilacho, it's the focus there really is on getting product out and getting product out, getting it delivered to our customers and selling the product. Well, I'll tell you, we're expecting regular updates. And perhaps when you're cutting the ribbon in Nechilacho, we at Investor Intel would like to get a clip to run on Investor Intel, because we really consider that a major anniversary for the entire industry in general. So, you know, absolutely. Unfortunately, and with travel restrictions, I may not be able to get up there personally, but we'll be sure to have some video of it. All right. Well, thank you very much, Jeff, for joining us today and for everyone out there. Make sure you're watching Vital Medals as they race towards production here in the next couple of months.