“During 2023, we achieved broad commercial readiness and began commercializing each of our leading decarbonizing businesses, observed the successful launch and deployment of the GENMAT-1 hyperspectral imaging satellite, recognized significant appreciation across all of our strategic investments, and monetized major non-strategic assets,” stated
Selected Segment Highlights from 2023
Strategic Investments
Comstock’s Strategic Investments expanded, provided non-dilutive cash and/or meaningful gains during 2023, including:
- Recognized net gains on investments of
$25.0 million including$14.6 million on our investment inGreen Li-ion Pte Ltd. (“Green Li-ion”), and$11.7 million on our investment inSierra Springs Opportunity Fund, Inc. (“SSOF”); - Sold Comstock’s lithium-ion battery recycling facility for
$28.9 million and realized a gain of$7.3 million ; - Recognized gains of
$0.6 million from the sale of 4% of Comstock’s Green Li-ion equity for$0.8 million ; - Converted
$7.0 million in historical advances to SSOF into 3,880,556 SSOF common shares at$1.80 per share, increasing our equity stake in SSOF to 10,580,556 common shares, corresponding to 17.11% of SSOF; and, - Executed agreement to make a strategic
$3 million investment inSweden -basedRenFuel K2B AB (“RenFuel”).
“We began realizing value across our investments in 2023,” continued
Our teams completed all validations for our proprietary low carbon biomass refining process and began commissioning. We:
- Demonstrated production of commercially available hydrodeoxygenated Bioleum Oil (“HBO”);
- Validated yields exceeding 100 gallons per dry tonne of wood on a gasoline gallon equivalent basis (“GGE”);
- Confirmed market-leading, extremely low carbon intensity (“CI”) score of 15 on our woody biomass fuel solutions;
- Secured worldwide rights to RenFuel technology for refining Bioleum, with exclusivity in the
Americas ; - Executed first commercial biorefinery agreement with an option on our first
Sweden -based production joint venture; - Completed techno-economic analysis for deploying Bioleum hub solutions across the
Americas ; and, - Advanced discussions with multiple operationally and technically experienced, well-capitalized customers.
“Our Fuels achievements during 2023 changed the landscape for delivering extremely low CI-scoring, incredibly high yielding renewable fuel solutions that unblock the only meaningful constraint to rapid renewable fuel growth and true mobility decarbonization,” stated
Comstock Metals
Our teams completed pre-production activities for the first zero-landfill, true end-of-life solar panel recycling solution. We:
- Finalized technology readiness, engineered a system and ordered all production equipment;
- Leased and prepared the demonstration facility for production startup;
- Received all required permits for commencing operations; and,
- Secured revenue generating contracts and began receiving large quantities of end-of-life materials.
“I just toured our recycling facility, with all equipment in place and pre-commissioning activities well underway,” stated
Our teams, together with GenMat, our strategic minority investment, advanced our monetization plans and GenMat completed a series of critical technical milestones surrounding their physics AI and satellite remote sensing technology in pursuit of an advanced, new form of high precision prospecting. During 2023, we and/or GenMat:
- Secured a Mineral Exploration and Mining Lease Agreement (the “Mineral Lease”) with
Mackay Precious Metals Inc. (“Mackay”) resulting in annual revenues of over$1.5 million per year for just our northern target properties; - Designed, programmed, and constructed a first-of-its-kind satellite sensor platform through GenMat’s Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Imaging (“HRSI”) system, for optimizing future mineral exploration and discovery;
- Launched and deployed the GENMAT-1 space-based HRSI system into low earth orbit (LEO); and,
- Initiated development of the next-generation, AI enabling, physics-informed “world model” of our most strategic mine development areas, with future datasets from the HRSI system and enhanced-value, post mining uses.
“GenMat’s extended team innovated through a number of unprecedented obstacles in creating a first-of-its-kind platform for meeting the most stringent regulatory and security requirements for such a powerful hyperspectral imager,” stated De Gasperis. “This solution will be very difficult to replicate and, if you consider the physics-based AI interfaces and complex integrations, there really isn’t anything like it. We just don’t see anyone integrating these technologies into any one solution.”
Corporate
Our corporate activities supported the commercialization of our technologies across all of our businesses. During 2023, we:
- Increased total assets to
$106.5 million , up from$100.1 million in the prior year; - Decreased total liabilities to
$28.2 million , from$43.7 million in the prior year; - Increased total debt to
$9.9 million , from$7.9 million in the prior year; - Increased cash and equivalents to
$3.8 million , from$2.5 million in the prior year; - Increased net income attributable to Comstock to
$9.2 million , from a net loss of$45.9 million in the prior year; - Increased fully diluted net income per share to
$0.09 , from fully diluted net loss per share of$0.62 in the prior year; - Outstanding common shares were 117,862,081 at
December 31, 2023 ; - Reacquired and cancelled 2,605,322 of its previously issued common shares in
January 2024 ; and, - Outstanding common shares were 115,820,980 at
February 28, 2024 .
“Our 2023 achievements were foundational and established a shared corporate services platform that enables speed for each of our business teams,” stated
Outlook for 2024
Comstock’s goal is to Accelerate the Commercialization of Decarbonizing Hard Technologies. Comstock is pushing the boundaries of what is possible in technology and sustainability by leveraging the unique skills of its teams, its diverse technology portfolio, and its frontier research and development networks toward achieving breakthrough innovations. We are delivering meaningful positive impact across industries, economies, and communities. The focus for 2024 is commercializing our businesses and the continued innovation, development and engineering of our technologies and solutions.
Commercialization - Lines of Business
Our teams have decades of diverse innovation, technology development, engineering, and commercialization experience. The Company uses a disciplined approach to devising, qualifying, and elevating innovations from conception through readiness.
Our biorefining technologies are commercially ready and offer growth-enabling performance for prospective customers. Comstock is actively pursuing joint development and licensing agreements representing future revenues from technical and engineering services, designed to identify, define, and enable renewable fuel hub projects, including performing preliminary and final engineering, securing associated supply chain participants, facilitating commissioning, construction, and operations with globally recognized supply chain participants, including current and developing renewable fuel producers.
Most current forms of renewable fuel draw from the same pool of conventional feedstocks, including corn and vegetable oils in the
The Company’s objectives for 2024 include:
- Execute multiple, revenue generating commercial agreements for industry-scale joint development projects, including prefeasibility, feasibility, engineering, commissioning, construction, operations, offtake, and feedstock agreements, with operationally experienced, technologically sophisticated, and well capitalized customers; and,
- Expand, integrate, and commission a continuous biointermediate production system to produce cellulosic ethanol and
HBO for sufficient time to achieve and demonstrate Bioleum derived fuels atTRL 7 within less than 18 months.
Each joint development project could initially result in millions of dollars of pre-construction revenues as a prelude to construction of licensed commercial production facilities that could each create upwards of 20+ years of royalty revenues.
Comstock Metals
Comstock Metals is commercial now and is currently deploying its first commercial demonstration facility in
End-of-life solar panels are one of the primary metals-based products that can cause a massive amount of pollution if simply allowed to be landfilled at decommissioning, with no recovery of any of the underlying metal values.
Comstock Metals objectives for 2024 include:
- Advancing the technology readiness for broader material recycling to
TRL 7 , prioritizing photovoltaics; - Commissioning and commencing production of the demonstration scale photovoltaic material recycling facility;
- Expanding our existing revenue generating supply commitments; and,
- Finalizing the design and site selection for our first few “industry-scale” facilities and commence permitting.
Comstock Metals has secured all permits for operating its demonstration scale production facility in
On
The Company’s objectives for 2024 include:
- Receive cash proceeds of least $2 million from mineral leases leveraging the northern district claims;
- Commercialize mineral development agreements that enable resource expansion of the central district claims;
- Develop, with GenMat, AI-based exploration tools, using Comstock’s extensive geologic data along with GENMAT-1’s hyperspectral imaging solution to condition and develop the AI and ground-truth its predictions; and,
- Complete the development and mine plans that enable the economic development of the southern district claims.
The Company’s 2024 efforts will apply economic analysis to Comstock’s existing gold and silver resources progressing toward full economic feasibility for the southern part of the district and the ultimate development of a next-generation mine.
Strategic Investments
Investment in generative physics-based AI is a crucial component of Comstock’s technology innovation strategy. GenMat develops and commercializes proprietary physics-informed artificial intelligence models for the discovery and manipulation of matter. This includes AI models that can be employed today, for commercial use on GenMat’s existing, high-performance computing platform that is enabled for both cloud and on-premises use cases. GenMat's AI simulates atoms and molecules that enable chemists and materials engineers to design and develop advanced materials in an exponentially shorter time than traditional methods allow. Material discovery typically takes many years, if not decades, and many millions of dollars. GenMat's physics-based AI can simulate thousands of unique new material candidates in seconds at a fraction of the cost.
GenMat’s objectives for 2024 include:
- Elevate new material simulation to
TRL 7 by synthesizing and directly testing the AI’s ability to predict material properties to confirm the precision and accuracy of those simulations; - Commercialize its space-based hyperspectral imaging sensor platform for mineral discovery applications; and,
- Commercialize physics-based AI solutions to enterprise clients for advanced materials simulation and synthesis.
While the Company can’t be precise about exactly when GenMat will initiate revenue, GenMat’s technologies are maturing much faster than anticipated and at least one commercial agreement is very likely in 2024.
Investment in Green Li-ion
Green Li-ion continues making meaningful progress in the development and deployment of its system that remanufactures critical precursor cathode active materials (“PCAM”). In 2023, LINICO received gross proceeds of approximately
Investments in other non-mining real estate, water rights and securities
The Company directly owns land and water rights in
“I expect that we will increase our lead in fuels, metals and mining as our system converges and our technologies are validated across our businesses and strategic investments,” concluded
COMSTOCK TO HOST UPLODE 24:
CONVERGENCE AND YE 2023 EARNINGS AND BUSINESS UPDATE
Comstock’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Investors and all other interested parties are invited to register below.
Date: | |
Time: | |
Register: | Webinar Registration |
HAVE QUESTIONS? There will be an allotted time following the results presentation for a Q&A session. Unaddressed questions will be reviewed by management and responded to accordingly. You may submit your question(s) beforehand in the registration form (linked above) or by email at: ir@comstockinc.com.
About
Comstock (NYSE: LODE) commercializes technologies that enable systemic decarbonization and accelerate the energy transition by efficiently converting under-utilized natural resources into renewable energy products, and by leveraging physics based artificial intelligence for more efficient and effective mineral and materials discovery. To learn more, please visit www.comstock.inc.
About
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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release and any related calls or discussions may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “project,” “plan,” “should,” “intend,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “potential” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of doing so. Forward-looking statements include statements about matters such as: future industry market conditions; future explorations or acquisitions; future changes in our exploration activities; future prices and sales of, and demand for, our products; land entitlements and uses; permits; production capacity and operations; operating and overhead costs; future capital expenditures and their impact on us; operational and management changes (including changes in the Board of Directors); changes in business strategies, planning and tactics; future employment and contributions of personnel, including consultants; future land sales; investments, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, business combinations, operational, tax, financial and restructuring initiatives, including the nature, timing and accounting for restructuring charges, derivative assets and liabilities and the impact thereof; contingencies; litigation, administrative or arbitration proceedings; environmental compliance and changes in the regulatory environment; offerings, limitations on sales or offering of equity or debt securities, including asset sales and associated costs; and future working capital, costs, revenues, business opportunities, debt levels, cash flows, margins, taxes, earnings and growth. These statements are based on assumptions and assessments made by our management considering their experience and their perception of historical and current trends, current conditions, possible future developments, and other factors they believe to be appropriate. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, representations or warranties and are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are unforeseeable and beyond our control and could cause actual results, developments, and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Some of those risks and uncertainties include the risk factors set forth in our filings with the
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