In this episode of CEORoadshow, we are joined by SAM ATAYA, CEO of WESTERN MAGNESIUM CORP
Hi i’m mike elliott and you’re watching ceo road show today we’re joined again by mr sam ataya he’s the ceo of western magnesium corp western magnesium is committed to rebuilding the united states industrial base by offering their innovative eco-friendly and high quality clean magnesium metal and alloys focusing on american companies and american products with
An american workforce their stock trades and canon on the tsxv under wmg and here in the us and the otc under mlyf good afternoon sam and welcome back good afternoon how are you doing i’m doing great thanks for asking um to start off real quick for new investors give us a quick overview of western magnesium we are we have produced a technology that is going
To bring back the production of magnesium metal into the united states specifically for u.s industry such as auto aerospace airline eco-friendly tech companies like car battery companies and the department of defense and we’re for focusing on those industries uh to support american industry and give an advantage over uh other countries and sam next let’s talk
About the news regarding metal purity results at your pilot plant uh that’s happened over the last month how does your process compare to other manufacturers and why is that purity so important for magnesium well to begin with we’re very excited that we produce magnesium metal here in the united states and more specifically that it’s green magnesium and i’ll
Talk about that in just a moment but what is so exciting for us is that we built a commercialized pilot plant and we’ve proven once and for all that we can produce magnesium metal for industry in the united states that is green and and that was the first part and that’s been very very exciting we did that about five weeks ago and and finally brought that plant
Online the commercialized pilot plant online um but now we’ve had those results tested and it’s been unbelievable because the purity uh normally what we’re trying to achieve in the market especially for industrial is 99.8 and we came back with 99.83 what makes that unique is that typically producers around the world when they produce magnesium they have to
Clean it to get it up to that 99.8 percent purity but this is straight from the reactor un not cleaned at 99.83 which means that we can uh apply it to different products now in for magnesium and we’re very excited about that so this is a real game changer and again i’m going to say it it’s green we have near zero toxicity and near zero waste and that that’s
A complete game changer as well in the industry wow okay and when do you anticipate uh your pilot plan to be fully operational well it’s now fully operational so it’s starting uh to produce on an ongoing basis it will we’re going to be running that for about six months we want the data and the analytics we want to see what we can do with it we’re going to push
The technology we’re going to stress test it we’re going to do a lot of things with it until we get the data that we feel comfortable with to go on and build big commercial plant that we’re we’re planning on and so that we’re going to break ground on in 2023 so this next six months are vital for us to to look at all the analytics and make sure that the plant we
Build the big one is uh will be ready to go and supplying u.s industry great sam and do you already have potential clients lined up for your magnesium product and if so where are you seeing the most demand i think that you know here’s the thing i people will say that the auto industry is the low-hanging fruit because they’re desperate to reduce weight and and
Again i’m going to remind everybody that you know magnesium metal is 80 lighter than steel 60 lighter than titanium and 33 lighter than aluminum yet it has a great weight to strength ratio and certainly uh different industries want it because it lightens the load you know people say that auto industries are low hanging fruit but quite frankly so is the airline
And aerospace and and the military look the military in the united states is the largest polluter in the u.s and if they can change the metal on their vehicles on their tanks on their planes certainly would be less polluting so really it’s a we are in dialogue we are talking to different industries very exciting uh because we’re getting to know what they want
And what they need quickly a lot of them have challenges meeting epa regulatory standards like the auto industry where they really have to figure out what they’re going to do by 2030 and reducing emissions so these conversations have started they’ve been very positive and uh we’re looking to announce clients that we’ll be working with great sam and lastly just
Wanted to talk about just to give investors uh watching this interview some perspective you know we talk about focusing on the us us manufacturing us jobs especially strategic metals and crucial metals like just paint a quick picture for us how dependent right now is the u.s historically a great manufacturer one of the greatest in history how how dependent are we
Now today on foreign suppliers for metals like magnesium and other strategically crucial metals well you know clearly we’re very dependent and i think that when the supply chains broke and uh and covet came in we saw that we were very dependent and we couldn’t get what we needed you got to remember that with rare earth metals our cell phones computers satellite
Navigation our military is completely dependent on rare earth metals the thing with magnesium is we extract it from a gravel aggregate called dolomite and it is actually the reverse it’s the seventh most abundant material in the world and available all throughout the united states we are not a rare earth company we’re a rare tech company because we’re the only
Ones with the technology to produce magnesium metal in a green uh environment and so you know i think for us it’s so important to bring back production resource and manufacturing within our own borders it’s vital we’ve let it go we’ve lost our way and it’s time to bring it back into the united states and we feel that we’re part of the tip of the spear uh of
Trying to make that happen in the u.s being built in america by americans for american corporations and overall really the message has to be that we are green technology and we we can build in the united states uh an environmental product that helps the environment and still profitable and i think that we have to invest in that we have to to really do more to
Create companies like ourselves to really start building again in the united states it is vital let me tell you in the magnesium business how dependent we are uh to the chinese so the chinese came in in 1997 and decimated our magnesium industry 6 000 casting companies shut their doors over a span of two years and by you know that was it the chinese there’s only
One million metric tons of this metal being made every year 85 percent of it comes from china and we’re completely beholding to them and so we can’t get it we can’t get enough supply to help our industry especially assembly line manufacturers that want to see a continuous supply of magnesium metals so they can pour it into cars and planes and trains and other
Products there’s none of it available so we’re really the first game changer now that is coming in into the united states a domestic supplier green environment profitable and and we’re very excited about that yeah i couldn’t agree more sam you guys are you know one of the companies we started to see now that we’re paying attention to that are really focused
On the american marketing restoring american industry so um that’s great to hear i applaud you for that and i think you know as investors put western magnesium on the radar that’s one one of the things they should keep in mind you’re not just investing in western magnesium you’re investing in the rebuilding of american industry and infrastructure and that is
Uh critical so sam that’s all the questions we have for today uh what else should investors take note of as they add western magnesium to the radars i think this is a period and time we’re going to see a shift in government policy and finance here stepping in and saying is enough is enough we need to really bring back um production manufacturing resource to
The united states and i think we’re shifting away now from dependency on other markets i think we are part of that if you want to participate in a company that is environmentally responsible where it if you want to participate in a company that’s providing jobs in the united states high-paying jobs in the united states we are it if you want to participate in a
Company that’s trying to build industry back into the united states we’re in so there’s a number uh to a number of things to focus on when it comes to our company and i think we appeal to a lot of investors because typically you’re having to sacrifice either you know if i invest in a in a green technology maybe it’s not so profitable or how will it help us here
Is it going to be built offshore but with our company we are green we’re going to be profitable uh we’re going to be very competitive we’re a domestic supplier and we’re supplying u.s industry and that’s going to give us industry an advantage and that’s a very good investment to feel good about good agreement sam thanks again thanks for joining us and for your
Time and we’ll see you again next wednesday at 12 p.m uh eastern time for your next investor webinar so for those watching please register for that at ceo roadshow.com and join us for a live webinar followed by uh q a with sam um sam until next week uh take care thanks so much thank you cheers uh for everyone uh watching thanks for for watching this interview
Again we’ve been talking to mr samataya he’s the ceo of western magnesium corp they trade again on uh in canada under wmg on the tsx here in the us on otc under mlyf and you can find more out about them at their website westernmagnesiumcorp.com thanks for watching ceo roadshow you
Transcribed from video
Sam Ataya, CEO of Western Magnesium Corp. (TSXV: WMG ) (OTC: MLYF) Updates Investors on CEORoadshow By Mike Elliott