 Want to learn about stocks, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and the metaverse? Join RichTV.io. Hi, how are you doing today? I'm your host, Rich, and we have a RichTV Live with our very special guest, the CEO of HPQ Silicon Inc, Bernard Thierry Long. How are you doing Bernard? Very well, very well. Very good to have you on the show today. Very excited to have you back. We've been talking for quite some time and I know that you're very, very excited. You guys are no longer a mining company and you guys are now a tech company. So can you talk a little bit about the big news and how you guys have now become a tech company? Well, we are actually developing new technologies to make the materials that are needed for tomorrow's economy, the green revolution, all of those processes ongoing. At the beginning, we were tied to the resource required to do it. And then we realized that there's no real big value in the quartz deposit in those areas and we developed the technologies. But as a resource listed company, we were under so many constraints we're trying to develop the technologies that we ended up being in a position where our growth path that we have set out for ourselves were being sort of like slowed down, blocked by our listing requirement. So we went through the process, which is a long, painful process in a certain ways. It's like doing a prospectus, like just redoing a filing, all right? We went through that process and last Thursday, like Wednesday, we were still a resource company and Thursday morning, we were a technology company and not even that, we went from a tier two, which is the lower tier with regard to financial, the lowest minimum one to a tier one, which means it's the highest one, which means we have demonstrated higher financial capacity, capacity move forward in our plan. And that for us is a big thing for two things. When you go through that process of changing from one to the other, you sort of have, you present a Polaroid to the exchange, okay? And that Polaroid, I'm showing my age in Polaroid, but still Polaroid to the exchange and you have to stay as that same Polaroid until the moment of the exchange, until the bulletin is issued. Now I have more freedom to go talk about, move what we're doing, getting people to understand the value in which is an HPQ. You know, it is fascinating what HPQ has. We are in the perfect macro, the macroeconomic environment in which HPQ operates is completely in our favor. In the sense that there's not a new trend, which is called unshoring or basically de-globalization. So the world is realizing that you can't offshoot your production of strategic minerals, which is what silicone is, SI is, okay? You can't offshoot that to who could potentially become your enemy. So you need to bring it back. But then there's a counter argument to this is that the reason why it was off-shored is because people didn't want the dirty smelters next door to them. So in a certain way to execute on that, you need a new technology, a new process, a new way of doing it. And that's exactly what HPQ is doing with its PureVap QRR. It's a completely new process to make silicone. What we've demonstrated during all our research is that our unique capacity to eliminate impurities at the same time as we make this, so we convert the cores into silicone allows us to take much higher impurity in our feedstock to produce a higher purity material while producing less nasty chemicals. We don't need nasty chemicals as compared to our competitors. The other incredible factor we discovered because our system can go, and I know it sounds very technical all the way to foreign impurities in one step is that the battery space, okay, is looking for that. And that I've been saying for a long time, as we speak, I've been saying this. Well, lo and behold, about three weeks ago, the one of the biggest player in the industry basically announced they can make four-and-silicone material for batteries they're making. Now, some people think, oh my God, it's a competitor. It's not a competitor. I know how they make it. They take their material, the acid leach it, get it pure and then grind it. It's, it's, there's nothing different but it validates a lot of the arguments that HPQ has been making has been validating. Now, we've been actually talking since you guys were at four cents and HPQ has been one of the best success stories. We saw the stock really run well over a dollar, huge partnership of pyrogenesis where they're a large shareholder and they've made investments at much higher prices than what you trade today. Can you talk a little bit about your functionality? Yeah, well, the functionality is, well, there's different terms we use functional. Like in a previous press release, I said our QRR, okay, is functional, okay? Well, what does that mean in a technical sense? Our functionality is the system. The QRR is a multimillion dollar state-of-the-art new process. Now, the system the pyrogenesis built, okay? And we're now going through the testing phase for it is a unique one-of-a-kind system. It's like there's no second. So it's, you don't turn it, it's not like you're getting a car out of the garage and you put in the key and you started and you go, okay? Like, okay, maybe if it's a specialized car you're gonna say, you know, you gotta be careful for 1,000 kilometer. We're not talking about the same thing. We're talking about the first prototype of a first new system, okay? That is based on all the research we've done before and it is still a prototype, okay? Second point that people have to understand is the difference between functional and operational is not unique to HPQ. If HPQ would have bought a standard, traditional smelter process, okay? From a big supplier, okay? We would have a period between about a year even with a standard process where you go from functional to operational. That's normal in the language that we use, okay? The problem that can occur in understanding from investors is that we have some legal language. We do contract with Pyro, they reach a milestone, we reach that milestone and then we enter it to a second part of an agreement which is the second part which we call the testing. So functional, operational, that's where the, I would dare to say that we're not speaking the same language type of situation occurs but at the end, okay? Within the 12 month period, when we make the silicone of the purity we said we're gonna do, who's gonna care about those delays? So my focus as a CEO is just to make sure that we get to that point which is what we're doing. The other point that people have to understand is the making silicone is like extremely high temperature process. At the core of the reactor, I believe the temperature is gonna be around 2,000 degrees centigrade. At the exterior core is gonna be 200 degrees centigrade, okay? So that's why everything has to be automated. Every control valve, every mechanism has to be completely automated because if there's an issue and it doesn't work, you can't send an employee to fix it, okay? You gotta stop and that you don't want. Once you start a smelter, you don't wanna stop but you wanna, everything has to be controlled, all the process to be done. So, if the engineers want a more time to be extra cautious at verifying that everything works, I really have no issue. I'm not gonna be like the CEO of Boeing that puts so many pressure on the 737 MAX, at the end all the issues happen. There is a time where a CEO can come in and says we gotta push forward and there's a time when the CEO has to lay back and listen to the information given to him and move forward. What I know is we're within the guideline of what we said we would do, the contract it is, okay? So we knew it was a 12 month period. We knew within that period, there'll be a few months that would be assigned to doing this and then there'll be a few months where we're gonna do testing, produce material. And at the end, we'll be operating the system 24 seven just to get all the final numbers so we can start building up scalable and basically demonstrate the value of it. That's where the QRR part of the business. That is normal, it's going through process. So I'm really excited where we are. It's sort of like, it's sort of insane, okay? Because we've been talking about this. We were talking to four cents, okay? I was sort of saying, I was presenting the business plan of what we were gonna do, okay? And there was still a lot of milestone to reach together. So here we are now, we've reached all the milestone, the plan is about to start producing. And so for me as CEO, where we are operationally and which is what my main focus is, I couldn't be happier. And what we've been able to build in parallel to this, we're not just a, we just don't have one story. We have the QRR, we have the battery materials that's coming into it where you need nano-silicon. Making nano-silicon is another thing that's not that easy to do. But we're advancing in that project and we're developing the fume-silicon. So often HPQ, we talk about what we're doing is we're gonna be, we're generating value. Well, once a QRR becomes technology valuable, okay? There's probably gonna be big players, either end users or competitors. They're gonna look at the technologies and it says, oh, this is something very, very interesting. And they've already done all the hard research. They got the patent to technologies. Maybe it's something that we wanna look at. And how do you value that? Well, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, it actually leads to my next question. So you mentioned the plant. I know that was a huge milestone that you achieved. Can you talk a little bit about the plant and why that's so important and why that was such a big milestone for you guys to achieve about a month ago? Yeah, it was, well, it was a contractual milestone that we reached. So basically, and for power genesis was also a big one because they work under the concept of revenue recognition. So we reached that milestone, all that part of the contract is done. And let me be honest, I went there a few times. It is a showcase piece of equipment. And when we're gonna be having it producing material and we're gonna bring people, they're gonna be amazed how the technology behind it, the state-of-the-heart process and the manufacturing of silicone, that's never like it's never been done. So it is, for us, it's a massive step. And just right next to that system, we're gonna be, we're looking, we're building the other one for the fume silica to it. So within a 12 to 18 months period, we're gonna have two showcase pilot plant demonstrating green technologies moving forward. Now, the second project is financed and part by the governments. The first one was financed and part by the Eves Smokybek, which is now our second largest shareholder for power genesis. So we have an institutional follow-up and we have Quebec-based institutional following. And it's also gonna change us. That's another reason why it became a technology company. During the last run-up and as people, what we were doing, there was a lot of people that wanted to invest in HPQ. But these are type of people that wanna invest into companies that where you can issue a prospectus finance. Well, how do you issue a prospectus financing for a mining company or your tech company? We can't. That's right. So we're executing our business plan. We're moving forward on our business plan. And if there's one thing that history demonstrated about HPQ is that we always deliver, never on time. That's just a sad reality of, because it's very difficult for us to have timing. And what's the most exciting part for me is because I see the Gantra, I see the timeline everywhere. I know we're getting closer and closer to doing it. So the timing for us finally becoming a mining company, a technology company from a mining company couldn't be better. Because I also had planned for a long time and I wanted to increase the HPQ's technical capacity and that's something I'm working on, hoping to be able to talk about it relatively soon. But what I'm looking to do is to create a core of silicone expert and hydrogen experts like all those type of process working with us so that I can let Pyro focus on what their strength is, which is developing those systems, okay? And HPQ and it's new colleagues focus on developing value added application for the materials we'll be producing. So that's going to increase value to the entire company. So that's in the pipeline, but I couldn't talk about this, do anything about this until last Thursday. Due to the fact that you're doing this change from going from a mining company to a tech company and because of that you had to be quiet. So you're not being quiet because there wasn't business being done. There's a lot of business being done, but you're being quiet because you had to due to the change in business, correct? Correct. And also let's address that concept because we're a tech company. Our main asset is no longer properties. It is patents. So when you do R&D and you do develop and you end up finding, oh my God, we didn't expect this to happen when we're using the system and this is a great opportunity, okay? Well, if you're a mining company and means we found gold in the property, you'll be screaming it everywhere else. If you're an R&D company, zip, shut up, don't talk about it until the patent's ready. So that's the pattern, that's the difference between a technology and a mining company. We're much more focused on developing technologies which brings about developing patents, which we're developing process, no doubt that's confidential to us. So our communication flow, our communication way is gonna be changing. It was very difficult when we were both of them to do it. I don't think, I don't think I explained it to you, but when we were technology, when we were a mining company, we had to sign covenant with the TSX Venture, all right? Which basically, I don't know if I said this or not, we had to sign covenant, which basically said we cannot sell any material, okay? That it does not come, any silicone that does not come produced from our own properties. Well, since we hadn't bothered to develop companies because we thought it was a waste of money, that was sort of as we got the plant almost ready to be operational, it was sort of becoming a big issue. Now, one of the things that investors are always looking at is the company's financials, the company's stability moving forward. Can you talk about your financials right now and where they stand so investors can get an update and get a better feel for how the company looks at like as far as the balance sheet? Balance sheet is very strong. For us to go from a tier two to a tier one, we had to demonstrate that we had the financial strength to last until December, 2023, all right? So our financial like it's cash equivalent to somewhere around $11 million, okay? We don't burn a lot. We don't spend a lot, you know, actually one of the criticism there is is there's not too many employees, but the ratio of what we do for employees, it's been pretty darn good. I am now looking and increasing that because it's the right time. You know, we're gonna be more present. We're gonna talk more. We gotta rethink our entire communication strategy. So our website is still in the HPQ Silicon resources it's been redesigned. As you can see from behind me, we got a new logo. We just finished a new deck, which I think it looks very, very good. I'm getting ready now to go out and talk about this because before I didn't wanna get caught in a position where I said something where I couldn't because of what I said to the exchange but now that's done. So it's for new investors that are discovering HPQ and there's a lot of them. Okay, we're not world famous yet. We were a mining company. So it blocked a lot of people from looking what we were doing. Now we're gonna be able more to market ourselves as a green ESG solution providers and those type of things. Like in the pipeline, it's gonna be moving forward. So because we have a lot of ideas that we're working on in the pre-patent phase that we're waiting to finalize and get them. So. So here at Rich TV Live, our community loves technology. I love technology. I'm heavily invested in technology startups, majors. Technology is pretty much a big part of what I do and what I believe in because technology is making the world go round and we're moving at a very fast pace with technology faster than ever before. Now in saying that for investors, what can investors have to look forward to in the next couple of quarters? Are there any milestones or timelines they should be looking forward to that they can really kind of look at and put on their calendar or just kind of look at as maybe a timeline where they maybe wanna position themselves for something big coming in the next three to six months? Ooh, that's an interesting one. I have to be cautious on how we reply this. Let me put it to you this way. I'm how here with you, sort of my first outing is a technology company. Now, I'm doing this because we are getting closer to that moment. Where's we moving? As I explained, we have a 12 month target. Within that 12 months, we have multiple issues on moving. I can't, and for the life of me, I've been wrong in my timing before, but we are so close. I think that's probably for me as a CEO, the most mind-numbing position to be, to know how close you are. And if you look at each PQ market like everybody else, it looks as we're as far away. In a weird way, we're much better positioned as a company now that we were when we were 165, 167, because there was a massive wave that came in. Now, we're definitely on the other side of the wave. Now, it's everything more negative. And as they say, people are naked, they're gonna show we're not naked. We're fully dressed, we have a plant, we have a real system, real technology. Well, I mean, you mentioned it. You said that you're in the process of hiring people. The biggest companies in the world are laying off 10% of their workforce. Yeah, well, that's because they over, but see. That's right. Oh, you guys are in the process of scaling up while some of the biggest companies in the world are scaling down, which means you guys are moving in the right direction. Yes, well, yes. But to be totally honest with the size of our company, we had kept ourself very, very lean. We had heavily depended on pyrogenesis technical team. Nothing wrong with this. And I'm completely happy with this. If you take a look at it, if you wanna understand why I'm so confident we're gonna do it, okay? Just think about the fact that the waste destruction system on the aircraft carriers of the US Navy is built by this little Montreal company, which is our partner, okay? And they're within the timeline. That means they got a system to work that nobody thought would work. I'm not worried about pyrogenesis delivering to us an operational system that will produce what they said it would produce. So I'm absolutely not worried. But what I'm realizing is that if I wanna develop high value application to it, okay? I'm gonna need to have my own research guides. That are gonna be able to do it so that we can value valorize, basically make value out of the material that comes out of the HPQ, QRR reactors and other product. We had dabbled in the concept of generating hydrogen with silicone powders. That is for me, a subject that's very, very important to us. And I'm hoping to finalize something very soon that will demonstrate that we've sort of got ourselves in pretty strong expertise in that level and other high value applications. Now, we've got shareholders all over the world within our community and outside of our community that are shareholders of HPQ silicone. What message do you wanna deliver to them, those investors today? I'm operationally speaking, I've never been happier where we are, okay? This being said, as a human being, I am as frustrated as everybody else by the market but I've been living this for so many years, okay? That I understand it's cyclical, it's not related to me. I understand, there's one rule when you manage your publicly traded junior company. When the stock goes high, investors are genius. When the stock tank, the CEO is an asshole. Simple as that, it's as blunt as that. So I basically have been doing this for so long that I sort of, I don't listen to it. We're focused on doing what we have to do, okay? If people wanna ask me questions, they know how to do it, there is a way to do it, they can send me email. But other than that, I'm focused on what we have to do because that is out of the value of what we've done is gonna come through. We'd love to bring visibility to underappreciated, undervalued, underexposed companies like HPQ Silicon. If there is an investor or investors that wanna get in contact with you, you mentioned that you're willing to take emails, what's the best way for them to reach you? Info at hpqsilicon.com. And is there anything else you wanna say to the people that are watching before we say goodbye? I think the future looks very, very good. Well, thank you so much for your time today, the CEO of HPQ Silicon. Rich TV Live is strictly for information and education purposes. Please do your due diligence, do your research before you invest in anything we talk about or discuss here on Rich TV Live. You can also join our ecosystem where we create group chats and chat rooms for companies like HPQ Silicon. We do have a group chat for HPQ Silicon. Go and join that group chat, join the conversation, feel free to contact Bernard directly. And thank you for joining us today, the CEO of HPQ Silicon Inc, Bernard Tulion. Thank you Bernard for joining us and we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Thank you. Always a pleasure. If you're not winning, you're probably not watching. We bring you the winners, we bring you the news, we bring the analysis and we bring it to you first. Put HPQ Silicon on your radar and on your watch list. The CEO here, very, very great gentleman joining us today and the symbol HPQFF in America, HPQ in Canada. Put on your radar, put on your watch list. This is Rich from Rich TV Live, with Bernard saying, have a nice day everybody. We'll see you soon.