 Today, we have the distinct pleasure of having Ramesh Bhaveh from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and I know I didn't pronounce your name properly. Can you please pronounce your name properly for our audience and give us your title? Thank you Ramesh. Sure. My name is Ramesh Bhaveh and I'm the Senior Research Scientist in the Materials, Science and Technology Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It's my understanding, Ramesh, that several years ago that the United States government gave the Oak Ridge National Laboratory upwards of $100 million to provide research and development for the extraction of some of these critical materials like rare earth elements with a membrane based solvent. So can you just tell us, you know, when you joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory and how you got involved in this process? Sure. So I joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in April of 2008 and as the Critical Materials Institute was being formed, we were looking at innovative ways of addressing the recovery of rare earth elements. So we have a lot of expertise in membrane separation so that's how I got involved in looking at ways to separate rare earths from used magnets or other supplies. So can I ask you, this membrane assisted solvent extraction of rare earths technology, which we've started calling the MSX technology, Dr. Luke Duchain from Investor Intel tells me that your name is on the patent along with several others. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Okay. He also said that you're probably the person I need to ask because our audience is interested in why this technology is so revolutionary and groundbreaking. Can I get you to explain why this technology is so different and arguably superior to some of the other extraction processes? Sure. So the traditional extraction processes either involves to precipitate the rare earths from into solutions or use the conventional solvent extraction. Both these processes result in significantly large steps in order to obtain the rare earths in the pure form. And as a result, the technology is very difficult to scale and is not as cost-effective. If you take the example of the conventional solvent extraction processes, that involves extraction stages, stripping stages, and there is always co-extraction of undesirable components such as non-rare earths. So if there was a way by which an extraction process can only selectively extract rare earths only and not the non-rare earths, it would simplify the downstream processing because you will obtain the rare earths in their pure form and hence very amenable for recovery. And so that's our process allows the selective recovery of only rare earths elements and therefore I think it's a significant step ahead of the conventional technologies that are available today. Okay. So I'm trying to understand this and I'm sure our audience is all leaning forward to understand what you've just described. But basically what you're saying is the membrane-based process, a solvent process allows you to ramp up to commercialization and to produce more in a more cost-effective manner. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Okay. And can you tell me which I think this particular technology, the MSX technology, is particularly good with extraction of magnetic materials? Can you talk to us a little bit about that? Yes. We have focused on the recovery of magnetic materials because these are the ones that are in the largest use. So if you look at a lot of these products, they contain neodymium-based magnets. So our technology has focused on the selective recovery of neodymium, neodyminium, preseodymium and dysprosium which are required in these high technology applications. And of course, one of the unique aspects of the MSX technology which your team has discovered and patented is the utilization for electronic waste. Is that correct? And can you tell me a little bit more about this? Yes. We have, as I said, focused on the recycle and reuse of magnetic materials and the e-waste is a big component of it because a lot of electronic devices contain magnets. And so if they can be removed from the device after the useful life has been realized then they can be then subjected to our process and then recovered the rare earth components and then send it back into the supply chain. And I understand that the Oak Ridge National Laboratories is planning a day to celebrate this down at the laboratory. Can you tell me a little bit more about this? Yes, because we have licensed this technology to US Rare Earths Incorporated and this is the first CMI technology that has been licensed so certainly it's a big day and a big event for us. Ramesh, if you would be so kind, for those of us that maybe didn't spend as much time in science studies as you have, can you explain simply as possible what the membrane-based process actually is and why you were attracted to getting involved in this sector? So the membrane-based process is a very attractive alternative because membrane is a selective barrier. So if you can tailor this barrier in such a way that it will only allow certain species to go through this barrier and selectively recover on the other side, it will offer a huge advantage and so therefore we have been always involved in looking at the membrane process in order to achieve some of these very difficult to achieve tasks with other alternatives. Thank you so much Ramesh for joining us today. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to speak with you.