Energy Fuels - Q4 2022
March 10, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good morning. My name is Sylvie. I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Energy Fuels Fiscal Year 2022 conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw from the question queue, please press star then two. Thank you. Mr. Chalmers, you may begin your conference.
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
Thank you, Sylvie. Good morning and good afternoon to everybody on the call. Thank you for joining our year-end 2022 call and webcast today. We are always excited to talk about our achievements, and particularly our extraordinary achievements in 2022, as well as the significant accomplishments we have already made early in 2023. There's a lot to talk about. We have absolutely set the stage for a very exciting 2023. Energy Fuels has also absolutely emerged as a clear leader in U.S. critical mineral production, and that is at a time when this has never been so important, unimportant. In the presentation, I will cover the highlights and the financials in detail.
For those that cannot join the call today, we'll have replays of this presentation available for about two weeks later today on our website. Also, I just want to remind everybody that you are controlling your slides in the presentation from your own device, and I'll try to remember to tell you when to advance the next slide. There will be questions or time for questions at the end of the presentation. I will be joined by Dave Frydenlund, our Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Tom Brock, our CFO, and Curtis Moore, our Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development. Let's jump into the presentation.
The first slide is a slide showing the White Mesa Mill and also showing the fact that we are becoming America's leading producer of critical minerals for the clean energy transition. Next slide. I may be making some forward-looking statements, and those are included on this slide number 2. Next slide. Energy Fuels is the leading U.S. producer of uranium, vanadium, and rare earths, creating clean energy for a better world. Next slide. This slide is interesting because it shows the periodic table, and Energy Fuels can currently produce or will be able to produce many of these elements that are now required for the clean energy technologies in a clean energy future. I'd just like to point out a few things.
I mean, certainly we have a long history as a uranium producer, but now we're emerging into this strategy of advancing our rare earth initiatives. If you look down on the periodic table, in green, you can see a number of these elements, many of which I couldn't even pronounce back a number of years ago, but many of which are absolutely required for improvements in electrification. We also have a long history of vanadium production, and we are also going down a path looking at potentially recovering radium-226 at the White Mesa Mill. Next slide.
Really the products that we produce or will be producing are all absolutely critical for these clean energy technologies, whether it be nuclear fuel assemblies, vanadium for vanadium flow batteries or the rare earths for high performance permanent motor drivetrains, wind turbines, or even including military defense like jets. Next slide. When you look at our product lines, they're all high value. Uranium, which provides 50% of the zero carbon energy in the United States, rare earths required for these powerful magnets, vanadium used for steel hardening. Again, we're getting substantial focus on the grid scale batteries for the vanadium flow batteries, medical isotopes like the radium-226 critical for emerging cancer therapies, potentially even providing cures for cancer, recycling of uranium and vanadium-bearing materials and substantial financial strength.
We had $117 million of working capital at the end of 2022, but we also have large inventories of uranium and vanadium. After the end of the year, we closed the Alta Mesa project sale for $120 million in February. The numbers in at year-end also do not include the DOE uranium sale or the fact that we have substantial investments in companies like CUR. Next slide. When you look at our 2022 financial performance, as I mentioned, we had working capital of $117 million. That comprised of $62.8 million of cash and cash equivalents, $12.2 million of marketable securities, and $38 million of product inventory.
When you adjust for the current commodity prices. There is a flex up in excess of $20 million at current commodity prices. I want to highlight zero debt. Zero debt and up to $1 billion worth of assets at replacement value. At the beginning of Q1 in 2023, as I mentioned previously, we made the sale of enCore to enCore, the Alta Mesa project, consideration of $120 million, $60 million of which is cash, which we've received, and we also have a convertible note for $60 million. That is all coming into the first quarter of 2023. I also wanna add that also, and we announced both the Alta Mesa sale and the Uranium Reserve in 2022. They didn't close in 2022.
Those funds did not report to the 2022 year-end. Also, we sold the $18.5 million of uranium with a gross margin on our Uranium Reserve sale of approximately $10.8 million. Next slide. I wanna go into the net loss that we posted of $59.8 million. A big part of that was the non-cash market-to-market loss on our investments, primarily Consolidated Uranium, which accounted for 30% of that loss. Again, non-cash on investments. At the same time, we started up or in the process of starting up four uranium, vanadium mines, and we started that activity about mid-year. That started putting substantial cash requirements on starting up those four mines.
The beauty of that is that literally with a phone call, we could start mining uranium in less than 24 hours if we have to at one or two of those mines. We're also continuing to develop our commercial rare earth capacities, and we are making progress in leaps and bounds. We continue to optimize our rare earth carbonate production. We have proven that at commercial scale. We are also continuing to process monazite, but we have had some delays in deliveries of monazite, which also impacted our 2022 economics. We recently received another 600 metric tons, and we're processing that as we speak, and we expect to receive, and this is material from Chemours, another 400-700 at year-end.
On that front, we're also canvassing the world, looking to secure significant potentially additional monazite in 2023, and we're very excited about the prospects on that front. While at the same time, we've proven we can make a uranium and thorium-free carbonate, we are modifying and enhancing our solvent extraction circuit to recover separated oxides in NdPr up to 1,000 tons, and we plan to have that available by the end of 2023 or early 2024. That in itself is a remarkable accomplishment. I talked about the radium-226. We're advancing our medical isotope business and strategy. At the same time, we had higher expenses for acquiring the Bahia project and selling the Alta Mesa project.
At the end of that, when you start going back into commercial production, it doesn't come for free. We are investing in the future and as I said, setting the stage for a very exciting 2023. Next slide. If you look at our guidance for 2023, we will sell 560,000 pounds of uranium in 2023. 300,000 pounds will be the closing of the sale to the Uranium Reserve at a $61.57 price per pound. We're also going to sell in the second and third quarter, 260,000 pounds at a price between about $54 and $58 per pound. Those are contract sales. Those are contract sales that start the beginning of our contract sales that cover a span of 8 years.
In the meantime, we plan to place, one, at least one uranium mine into production in 2023 or 2024. It could be more than that depending on the market. We're also seeking long-term uranium supply agreements at higher prices, and we hope that we can conclude additional long-term contracting in 2023. The 2023 will also be very focused on our rare earth initiatives plans. We're not planning currently to have any finished uranium or vanadium production, but it is always still possible.
We will process, as I mentioned, we have the 600 metric tons of monazite that's currently being processed right now, we plan to receive additional monazite, and this is the material from Chemours only, later in the year. While at the same time, we'll continue to process our rare earth separation capacities at the mill with the phase I that we've been talking about that is capable of producing upwards of 1,000 metric tons of NdPr. We're also doing the engineering and design for phase II, which is somewhere in the order of at least three times greater than that.
This phase I project that we're in currently, we've ordered a lot of the equipment and materials required to continue to put those capabilities into our existing building, is about $25 million, which is absolutely lowest, probably the lowest cost separation you're gonna see in the developed world. As I said, should be operable by the end of this year or early next year. We continue to aggressively seek rare earth off takes, or we believe we'll be able to get off takes and secure additional monazite feed. We also are rapidly advancing our Bahia project in Brazil, we've completed our phase I drilling. We're looking at preparing the various technical reports for a resource there, we also recently purchased a sonic drill rig for about $1 million. Next slide.
If you look at our working capital of $100 million at year-end 2022, it doesn't include the sale of Alta Mesa for $120 million. Folks, that moves the needle pretty substantially when we close that in the first quarter of 2023. You also look at the significant inventories of uranium and vanadium that we have. In that table, you look at what we're carrying in our working capital, the value of uranium on the books, and you look at the price differential between what we're carrying uranium on the books at under $30 per pound in current prices, and you see the same thing with vanadium and current prices.
When you look at the current prices, I mean, there is a lift in current value of well over $20 million not included in the working capital. As I said, when you look at the sales that we're planning, that 560,000 pounds of sales in 2023, that will be revenue of over $30 million on uranium sales alone. Next slide. Our core business is uranium. Always has, always will be. Many of you that know me know that I've been producing uranium and in the uranium business, this year is coming up on 47 years. I'm an old dog that's not gonna change direction when it comes to uranium. Next slide. You know, you've seen this slide many times.
You know, you've got the White Mesa mill, and certainly, that is the hub of our critical mineral program, being able to recover the uranium, the vanadium, soon to be separated oxides in one building, the existing building, while recovering the uranium, you know, in southern Utah. In addition, Pinyon Plain mine in Arizona, which I built in the 80s, is at pre-production. We have people working there right now. They're driving drift, and they're readying that project. We have the Nichols Ranch project, which is still on standby, and we also have people working at La Sal complex, also in pre-production, getting it ready, and that's a uranium, vanadium mine, and that is where we could literally start mining today if we decide we need to do so. Next slide.
Certainly in 2022, securing long-term contracts, three long-term contracts with two U.S. nuclear utilities was a significant accomplishment. Those contracts go out for eight years. The base quantity is 3 million pounds. If they flex up, it could be 4.1 million pounds. At the same time, you know, look at the changes in the winds that are happening with the U.S. government having bipartisan support for nuclear energy. Look at the escalation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and also look at some of the transport issues that are being impacted because of problems in Russia and Kazakhstan in getting product out of those countries. As we said, you know, we closed or got paid for the 300,000 pounds that we sold to the Uranium Reserve at a very nice price.
Next slide. Again, you've seen this slide a number of times, and it's an important slide because we still trade as a uranium company. We're in the middle of the pack. We have a very strong working capital position that does not include the sale of Alta Mesa or these uranium sales that we just made with the Reserve and the contracts we have mid-year. Zero debt, substantial infrastructure, significant uranium inventories that are on the books for, you know, under $30 or around $30 a pound, and vanadium. You also look at the uranium, and everybody on that list is focused on uranium, and you look at the fact that Energy Fuels over the last 15 years has produced about 1/3 of the newly produced uranium in the United States.
You look at the list there between Cameco and Energy Fuels for the last 15 years, 85% of the uranium produced in the United States came from two companies, Energy Fuels in the United States was absolutely the leader of the pack at that 1/3, with Cameco being about 50%. We trade as uranium stock. Look at the rare earths. Look at the fact that we're secured, Bahia. We've got an arrangement with Chemours. We've got a strong relationship with Neo. We've also advancing our ability to separate. We've proven our ability to crack and leach. That is not included as part of our market cap, in my opinion, in a material way when we trade with uranium peers. Vanadium. Vanadium, we have the only conventional vanadium plant in North America. We're proud of that.
We have the ability to go back into vanadium pro-production in due course, and the medical isotopes, again, White Mesa is ideally suited to advance that initiative, and we are. Then lastly, the ability to recycle, particularly in down markets. Next slide. Let's look at the growth drivers for rare earths. Next slide. A complementary business opportunity is the uranium, the rare earths, and how they fit perfectly with Energy Fuels, mainly because the best rare earth feeds contain uranium that most others cannot produce or handle. Next slide. This slide is quite interesting because this is a slide prepared by the Department of Energy, and it shows how dependent the world has become on China.
If you look at this slide and you look at the mining, the separation, refining and magnet manufacturing, it just shows you how vulnerable we are to China and how big of a market share China has. We're trying to reestablish that in the United States of America as we go forward. You know, this is actually quite a shocking slide. Next slide. Now we're showing the progress of our rare earth initiatives since we announced we're getting into rare earth business in April of 2020. You know, looking at the advancements and how quickly we were able to advance. We begin processing carbonate in 2021. July of 2021, we began pilot scale separations.
In November of 2022, we made a high purity carbonate that is between 32%-34% NdPr. In March of 2022, we acquired the Bahia project. In February of 2023, we started retrofitting our ability to do the separations, which we expect to have done at the end of 2023 or 2024. We're doing the engineering for being able to expand separation at the mill by 2026 as we secure more feeds of monazite. Lastly, phase III, looking out around 2027, looking at separations of the heavy rare earths. Again, remarkable progress. Next slide. If you look at the supply chain, we're truly building a capital efficient and global rare earth supply chain.
If you look at, you know, what we're doing on the mining beneficiation stage, we're doing that today with natural monazite, the crack and leach today with a rare earth carbonate separation, into this year, next year on separated oxides. We continue to march down the list to get as far as we can on full integration. Now, if you look at that little picture of the world, you can see that we're truly building a global footprint when it comes to the rare earth business. Next slide. The Bahia project. The Bahia project, again, we closed that and very substantial. We closed that just recently. Could produce, provide monazite to us for decades between 3,000 tons-10,000 tons of monazite. Very large land position, nearly 60 sq mi. We're drilling it. We're advancing our permits.
As I said, we purchased a sonic drill rig, and we're looking at building a rare earth, or a resource here, in the not-too-distant future. Next slide. You know, just pictures of the rare earth production, and the carbonate going to the Neo Performance Materials in Silmet in Estonia. Pictures of the lower right-hand corner of our separation pilot scale 72 mixer settlers. Next slide. We've talked about the many advantages of why Energy Fuels will succeed when others have not on the processing of rare earths, and it's our ability to handle and monetize the radionuclides, including uranium, from monazite. We have a long, you know, history with solvent extraction. We have the tailings facilities, we have the personnel.
It's low cost, capital efficient, and also, you know, we're in the state of Utah we're very proud of. Next slide. If you look at our market position with other rare earth producers, you really look in the top five with MP, Lynas, Iluka, ourself, and Neo Performance Materials. We're valued as a uranium producer, and we think there's huge market upside to showing the market, demonstrating the market this year, next year that we're able to commercially produce this material at very low capital and operating costs and get a substantial re-rate. Particularly when you look at the value of NdPr, the value of the dysprosium, the terbium that the monazite has.
I mean, these are high-value products, and it'll provide material revenue to the company with what we believe are very material margins in time as we build out our strategy there. Next slide. You know, we've talked about the vanadium and the ability to produce vanadium, the history of producing vanadium. Vanadium markets are improving. Also we talked about the medical isotope strategy, and that we're, you know, we're focused on that. That's farther behind the uranium, vanadium, and the rare earth strategies, but it is a very exciting spot for us. Next slide. We're doing more on community engagement, ESG, and recycling than we've ever done. Next slide. You know, looking at our products, you know, they meet these ESG initiatives perfectly.
Uranium for zero carbon emissions, rare earths for these clean energy technologies, for the future, the vanadium, high strength, and renewable power via grid scale batteries. The isotopes I've talked about, the recycling history and our, you know, sustainability report is truly a carbon reduction electrification document on steroids. We are a company on steroids when it comes to the energy future, electrifications future, looking forward. On the community outreach, we've just made leaps and bounds there, focusing on more community consultation. We've made a long-term commitment with that with the San Juan and with our San Juan County Clean Energy Foundation. We contributed $1 million to the foundation, and we're also committed to ongoing funding of that foundation equal to 1% of annual mill revenues.
That foundation is supporting new and existing programs, focus on education, environment, health, wellness, economic development for the region as well as Native American priorities. Our recycling program reduces carbon emissions. Long history there. We're also continue to make a pledge to help reclaim the Cold War mines on the Navajo Nation. The last slide basically shows that a really nice picture of the region, and it's a very bright future for Energy Fuels going forward. Before I open it up for questions, I think I might have in my pile of slides missed a slide, but maybe I haven't. I'll open up for question. No, I think I covered it all.
Anyways, I'll open it up for questions, you know, and that's the end of my presentation.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will then hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you would like to withdraw from the question queue, please press star followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, we ask that you please lift the handset before pressing any of the keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. Your first question will be from Heiko Ihle at H.C. Wainwright & Co. Please go ahead.
Marcus Giannini (Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, guys. This is Marcus calling in for Heiko. Thanks for taking our questions. You bought a total of 301,000 pounds of U.S. origin uranium at an average price of about $50 during the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of this year. Just out of curiosity and since you pointed out its domestic origin, can you provide a bit of color on the price differential between U.S. product and imports from outside the U.S. and maybe even product from outside of North America in general?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
You know, Marcus, we're not seeing, or at least I'm not seeing, and Curtis can chime in here if you'd like, a market differential. If we see U.S. origin product at a price that we think is attractive to us, we'll continue to build our book with some selective purchases. One of the reasons, you know, certainly, U.S. origin material now, you'd think it'd have a higher, much higher value, but we and we know it should. It also gives us more flexibility by doing some of those selective purchases where we can trade in to those with some of the material we have in inventory.
That can also give us some flexibility when we're mining and we're processing the ores from our operations. Curtis, do you wanna add anything there? No, no, I don't. It's just. Yeah, I mean, we don't see a huge differential in price, but when we see an opportunity to pick up some U.S. origin or, you know, or any material at an attractive price, we're certainly gonna look at it.
Marcus Giannini (Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. All right. Perfect. Thanks for that. I guess sort of changing gears here. During 2022, you produced 205 tons of rare earth carbonate from monazite. We're mostly through Q1 at this point, you've got another 600 metric tons of monazite in the fourth quarter. So that gives you, say, 375 tons-485 tons of rare earth carbonate. You know, keeping things simple, how much of that should we expect to see by quarter during the year? You know, should we just divide that number by four?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
Good point. I mean, it gets a little lumpy. I think, you know, probably that production will occur in, I'm gonna guess the timing will be second quarter. You know, first, second quarter anyways. There's this other material coming in later in the year and the timing yet to be determined. We got to get the material there and get it processed and then get it moved on, you know, to Neo, or wherever we move it on to. Yeah, again, Curtis, I don't know if you have any comments there.
Curtis Moore (SVP of Marketing and Corporate Development)
No, I have nothing to add there.
Marcus Giannini (Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, perfect. Yeah, that's it for me. Congrats on the year.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Next question will be from Joseph Reagor at Roth MKM. Please go ahead.
Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, Mark and team. Thanks for taking my questions. I guess first on the uranium front, any comments on the Senate bill introduced yesterday, you know, with the intention of banning uranium and enriched uranium imports from Russia, and how that might impact you guys directly?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
You know, I think it's all work in progress. I mean, I think there's a huge wake-up call that, you know, look at how dependent we've gotten. It doesn't make really any sense, you know, to continue that dependency. At the same time, we become so dependent that, you know, it's pretty hard to go cold turkey without some of those nuclear products coming into the country. I haven't had a chance, Joe, to, you know, look at all that. Curtis, I know you've had some other discussions in that regard. Is there anything you want to add there?
Curtis Moore (SVP of Marketing and Corporate Development)
Yeah. I mean, I think it's positive. you know, I don't think that U.S. utilities, and we don't think that U.S. utilities should be helping fund, you know, fund a war in Ukraine. You know, the news had come out the last month or so that Rosatom was directly aiding in that the war effort in Ukraine. you know, we also want to make sure that U.S. utilities and nuclear power plants aren't caught short. We haven't had a chance to really review the legislation yet. as I understand, it bans Russian uranium imports by, I believe, the beginning of 2028 or 2029. starting in the...
Actually, the ban starts in 90 days, but they can get utilities can get waivers from that ban going out to 2028 or 2029. You know, I think that it's a ramp down, which I think is positive. You know, we are seeing, I'd say most U.S. utilities are looking to move away from Russian supply and the risks inherent also with Kazakh supply, particularly around transportation. I think that's been one of the reasons we've definitely seen an uptick in contracting interest. You know, again, for our next tranche of contracts, you know, we're looking for some higher prices, but discussions are definitely ongoing.
Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. That's good commentary. Second thing. Mark, you mentioned $25 million investment in, you know, the rare earth business for additional equipment. Any, you know, rough number on what the, you know, expected after-tax IRR is on that investment?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
You know, I don't have an IRR on that. I mean, we have to fill the molecules that feed that, Joe. You know, in addition to Chemours, you know, we're getting a lot closer on a number of those fronts. Yeah, I mean, what's interesting in looking at our ability to separate, a lot depends on the cost of the monazite going in. We're building a hybrid model that isn't directly tied to what we call the China price, you know, through acquisition of Bahia, the agreement we have with Chemours, and some of the purchases that we're doing.
I can say this, you know, we're very encouraged because of this low capital strike rate on that $25 million to be able to be in a position to do those separations. We're also, but it's really dependent, Joe, on what the cost of the monazite we secure, and how that blends together with two or three of these sources that, you know, we either have right now, going forward. I can tell you know, the strike rate itself is extraordinarily low.
Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Another thing on rare earths. Tesla made some comments a couple of weeks ago that they were, the next generation of their cars would be going back to the engines that didn't use rare earth-based magnets. You know, any concern that this might impact, you know, the rare earth market domestically, the other manufacturers might follow suit, for ESG reasons, you know, any thoughts there?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
We don't see any material impact. If you want the best-performing electric vehicle, there are no smoking gun substitutions at this point in time. You get the most efficient electric motor. I mean, if you look at Tesla, they, you know, they started as an induction motor company for the electric vehicles, which did not include rare earths. Really, I believe it was the Model 3s they started putting rare earths into it. Yeah, look, the people I've talked to that are very close to the rare earth market, including some of the trade groups, don't see it as anything immediate. They don't see it as materially impacting the market.
Now, it did shake up the market on the day, but I don't see any, you know, real concern on that front at all.
Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thanks for the color on that. I'll turn it over.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Next question will be from Mark Reichman at Noble Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Mark Reichman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Thanks for taking my questions, a handful of them. First one, do you have a timetable where we might start to get a little firmer cost numbers on phase II or even phase III at White Mesa?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
We're planning to have a lot of that work done on phase II this year. I would say, you know, later this year on phase II. We expect it to be, again, quite favorable in the scheme of developing these extra steps and extra capacity in the Western world. For the reasons that I've said that, you know, it's existing infrastructure, power, water, laboratory shops, people, all those things are already in place. Yeah, I don't wanna give an exact timeline at this point in time. But again, we think our strike rate is gonna be...
I think it surprises a lot of people because of the fact that it's an existing site that we're bolting on to. In the case of phase I, you know, we're in the existing SX building, and we're using the uranium mill for the crack and leach.
Mark Reichman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. Moving on to the medical isotopes, is that the type of thing we'll be hearing developments over the next couple of years, or is it really somewhat dependent on completing phase II or phase III?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
No, it's not dependent on phase II or phase III at all. We've submitted a research and development application to the State of Utah. We're working through that. The recovery of the radium-226 is really largely focused on our mining of our conventional mines, not so much, at least at this point in time, on the rare earth processing.
Mark Reichman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. A couple questions on the Chemours agreement. Are they technically in violation, and is there any recourse to you? Given that you're kind of negotiating to extend beyond this year, that's nothing you would consider anyways.
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
Well, you know, a number of people. Yeah, they didn't meet the obligations of that agreement, but we have a close relationship with Chemours, and we're working through the agreement and potentially other opportunities in due course. You know, it's, you know, on the one hand, it's, you know, it's quite unfortunate 'cause we were depending on that feed in the early days of our rare earth program. On the other hand, they're still supplying, they're in the United States, and they're working with us, and so, yeah, we're working it out with them.
Mark Reichman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Have you ever said how long it might take for Bahia to get to the point of producing monazite?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
Well, we're kinda looking out, yeah, three years-ish. I mean, we've got to complete the drilling. We do have a consulting company helping with the permits. There are some sort of smaller permits that are already in place. We're also talking to a number of heavy mineral sands producers that have expressed interest in Bahia and partnering perhaps in some capacity with us on that front. We're thinking around three years. Again, as I said, we're between Chemours, Bahia, other purchases, other investments. You know, we're trying to come up with what I call a sort of a hybrid approach to how we supply and feed the White Mesa Mill with molecules going forward.
Mark Reichman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
I hate to throw out a hypothetical, but if the Chemours agreement ends at the end of this year, you don't reach another agreement with somebody else, and Bahia's three years away, is there a chance that the rare earth element development stalls a bit?
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
I don't believe so at all.
Mark Reichman (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. All right. Thank you for your responses.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. Your next question will be from Puneet Singh at Eight Capital. Please go ahead.
Puneet Singh (Equity Research Analyst)
Thanks. Just had a quick one on the decision not to recover uranium at the mill this year. If the price stays where it is, would you take the decision to add more alternate feed sources to produce uranium through the mill versus going to the market to build up inventory? Thanks.
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
Well, look at one of the things that, you know, is unique with what we do is, you know, we can fill our contracts through our existing inventories. You know, we build up alternate feed, and typically, you know, pick our time when we decide to run it. You know, we're planning to, you know, restart our mining. Yeah, I mean, the real focus on not looking and things can change. Not looking at making finished product right now is to get this these this phase I for our separated rare earth oxides, keep the focus on that and getting that done this year and not having too many distractions.
You know, it is, you know, in itself, just getting this phase I done in a year's time is a pretty big undertaking. Now we're, you know, we're confident we're gonna get it done. It's really a bandwidth issue and you know. Things can change, so, but it's really a bandwidth issue right now.
Puneet Singh (Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. Thanks, Mark. Yeah, the only reason I ask is just 'cause I know you get pretty good margins on the, on the alternate feed, that's why. Thanks.
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
Yeah. The alternate feed, as I said, it, you know, we get deliveries from various sources, and then we let it build up, and then we pick our moment when we wanna recover it. As I said, we've got, you know, we've got existing inventories. We've got quite material stockpiles of other sources of uranium sitting at the mill that we can run when we pick the time to run it. It's really focusing on, you know, getting this phase I, constructed, modified, this year and keeping the guys focused on that.
Operator (participant)
Did you have any further questions?
Puneet Singh (Equity Research Analyst)
Nope. That was everything. Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. At this time, Mr. Chalmers, we have no other questions. Please proceed with closing remarks.
Mark Chalmers (President and CEO)
Well, again, I just wanna thank everyone for joining the call and those that are joining later, thank you for listening to it. You know, we're in an incredible position here. As I said, I don't think that a lot of people understand the long history we have as a uranium producer, the assets we have, the ability to respond, the flexibility to respond. Then when you bolt on what we're doing on the rare earth front, you know, this is a unique opportunity in my career and many people that work with us career 'cause you don't see this potentially in a generation, maybe two generations. We're really excited.
Yeah, the 2022, you know, we've spent quite a lot of money to get this flywheel going again. In the first quarter, with the close of Alta Mesa, these uranium sales, both the Reserve and these contracts, we are in an absolutely perfect position. We have probably the strongest balance sheet of any company in North America, the uranium miners, with exception perhaps Cameco, which is definitely exception. We're rolling. We're going. You know, we're an aggressive company. We're not reckless. Having a strong balance sheet, having the right people, having the right relationships, are very important to us. People know that we are doers.
We are doers, and we are focused on building a substantial company that covers these critical elements, on a number of these fronts that no other company that I know of in the world is focusing on. All I can say is we're working hard, we're focused, we're busy, and we think, again, 2023 is gonna be a very exciting year for us, and we look to the future with significant optimism for what we're doing and how we're doing it. Thank you very much. We'll leave it at that and, you know, look forward to other updates in due course as the year progresses.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a good weekend.