Where are you? Jokes aside, where are you from originally, Mark? How'd you find your way to the industry? Tell me more about that background of yours.

Yeah.

So I grew up in Scarborough in the East end of Toronto.

I had a subscription to the Northern Miner when I was nine years old.

So a bit of a strange kid.

Why? And the reason that interest in mining came.

So both of my grandfathers...

was it was it just the grade i mean did they miss miss it under the musket there or was it just kind of you know the 0.22 nickel that you have was and and the recoveries i think 41 was just not enough for them at the time

Is that right?

Um, yeah.

[laughs] Yeah.

So, you know, that's, you know, the, the, the, the challenge here is, is to get that spotlight, you know, on these metals.

That's why, you know, we saw in the rare earth space, uh, last summer, right, the US government tossed some big dollars at, at a handful of projects, you know, and then we saw, you know, that entire, the entire sector re-rate.

Governments are still getting going.

I mean, don't, uh, you know, but that money, it's not a question of if, it's just a question of when, and governments always take longer than you would like to take them.

Can you actually break down that capital stack in terms of the debt equity, quasi-debt, whatever, however you think it comes in?

What's the secret sauce for you? Is it size is important?

Yeah, no, for us, I mean, in terms of scale, I mean, I think, you know, the point that Ingo made is really, really key.

I mean, sulfide processing is, you know, pretty simple.

These are not complicated laterite projects that didn't work out so well last generation.

And, you know, we're operating, you know, they're much higher grade, but operating at a smaller scale with the high grade.

We're at the other end where we're We're a lower-grade deposit, but we're just operating at the right scale that makes the cost work.

I think the key piece here is, given the nickel risk that's there, you have to make sure that the other risks involved in your project are relatively low.

Was it or was it just something he just needed to do anyway? Did it lead to any access to additional cash?

Um, tell me about it.

Uh, well, it started really with my love of camping.

Um, so the theme was once upon a time, and, um, my love of nature, uh, really started with me going camping when I was a little, little lad.

And I've got a son now, he's just started to go camping with me.

So that, that love sort of working with nature and being amongst it is kind of really important.

So a lot of the plantings, mixing sort of wild planting with perennial planting.

Um, and then also the structures in the garden are, are sort of reminiscent of using pioneering techniques from-

It is beautiful, and it's got a, a, a natural look to it.

Mm

...

in terms of social deprivation.

Um, and on one hand, [laughs] I have a heart for these places to be reached as well.

That's not really my background.

And I think recognizing the challenges of starting a church plant small anyway, if we were then to move in a completely different, into a completely different situation socially, uh, which we wouldn't have been used to, that would have perhaps been an- another step-

Okay.

Um, so we've always been self-supporting.

uh you've had a significant support from the canadian government uh talk about how that piece works with your financing and what is the piece that you're going to need to fill or what is it going to need to uh to uh fill in

yeah we ended up 2025 and started 2026 um you know with some tremendous uh government momentum so we're named to the major projects office uh in in november had minister hodgson come to site um you know a great press conference got to tour the site posted this wonderful video on social media all social media feeds you know really highlighting the strengths of the project in the province we had minister lecce and minister peary come to site um in january and then we were referred to the 1p1p which is the expedited permitting process for Ontario.

You know, having that, you know, that very clear government recognition has been, you know, we were already well down the path and doing well, you know, with a number of different, you know, consumers, industry participants, other governments.

But, you know, we're in a much...

this brings us to a whole other level in terms of attention globally.

In terms of the financing stack, this is one of the things with critical minerals projects here in Canada.

We qualify for a 30% investment tax credit, which effectively gives us 30 cents of free cash on every dollar we invest.

What gives you confidence in this market to build a new nickel mine?

And Mark, how does the People's Choice Award work? I think a lot of people are wondering, do you have to have seen the film in order to vote?

yes actually that's a great question ben you know there a lot of people were were trying to be helpful and messaging me saying i want to vote for your film and i said i appreciate that but it's not going to count all the tickets through tiffer through ticketmaster they know who attends and you know while i appreciate you know communities rallying around the film if a film gets 10 000 votes but only 1800 people see it uh everyone knows something is up right And so they have a very fair way of doing it.

It's actually based on percentages.

And this way, a film that plays in a smaller venue has just as much of a chance of winning the People's Choice Award as a film that plays a larger.

And that's what I was going to

But I have to assume you guys have been working overtime even after the film was finished, right?

Well, you'd be right.

I mean, Barry and I are essentially a two-person operation here.