Over a couple of years, what could happen from a financial standpoint?

The fine spiral, they keep getting bigger and bigger, and then they can't get out from under it.

And the other byproduct of that is they can't get a license.

License is suspended because the state- So they can't

get jobs that require a license, or they can't get to work.

So there's a DMV bus that we have there, so they can walk right out with a license.

What does that mean in layman's terms?

I always say for someone to be tax efficient, there's really three phases to that in my mind.

First phase really centers around structuring and how one owns things and maybe how they make their money.

Do they own a business? Are they W-2? Kind of starting at that.

And what's the most efficient way to structure your affairs being phase one? That's not really where we play.

We can quarterback and help architect and work with people's existing businesses.

teams on something like that.

Are you seeing general interest from the industry? Because I'm surprised more people aren't talking about this.

And then maybe they're doing this, uh, and you doing gardening, you kind of come back to filmmaking with kind of a renewed passion, you know?

Oh yeah.

Well, that's where I am now.

Like nobody really knows.

I think where my level of storytelling has come to, um, because all in my head or it's all in the things that I'm doing in the garden, which are very subversive and people don't necessarily know that I'm creating these stories and exploring these ideas in ways.

But yeah, Um, honestly, it's like sometimes just picking in the garden, I'll be sitting and I'll have that rush of ideas that I haven't been able to have in years where it's like, oh, this thing hit.

And then it's just that spider web that my brain can do.

Oh, Gareth Edwards? Yeah, Gareth

Look forward to seeing it.

Hey, no worries, Dave.

Thanks for having me on.

What, what I'll do is I'll run you through the highlights, and then, you know, feel free to ask me any questions following that.

So Vortex Metals, we, we trade on the TSX Venture under the symbol VMS, which that's for a reason.

VMS stands for volcanogenic massive sulfide.

It's a type of deposit, and it's a type of deposit that is in high demand globally from mining companies.

... is the significance of Requesa, Marina, and Tequila projects, and how do they fit into the broader Vortex story?

Thank you.

I've got to say, I love seeing Professor Adler in the Q&A because it's like feeling like he's here with us.

He has good views that I always love hearing.

In any event, I wanted to talk a little bit about sort of some of the practical consequences from the state perspective here.

I do find it interesting and I'm happy to hear Professor Rodriguez in particular talk about placing the thumb on the scale in favor of state sovereignty, state discretion, state sovereignty being maybe the most important part of the job that I do here.

We're always pushing for those notions.

But I think what we've realized in this sort of upside down world is that state sovereignty and state discretion fall away if we allow one state to effectively attack another through operation of its extraterritorial laws.

Aren't concerns about one state reaching out to regulate actors in another state best handled under the due process clause rather than preemption? And is that question even contained within the questions presented in Suncor? Do you have any thoughts about that due process?

So first, taking a step back, how has this specific question, this question of what types of arms are protected, eh, specifically with respect to semi-automatic rifles, how has this been playing out in the lower courts since Bruen?

So since Bruen, obviously, we've seen these cases across the country, right? There are a few states that tend to have many of the laws in question here that arguably violate the Second Amendment.

For a while there, we were watching these mostly fail at the appellate level.

There were losses.

There were-- These laws banning AR-15s were upheld in the Seventh Circuit, the First Circuit, the Fourth Circuit, and only recently have we started to see some shifting there.

A couple of weeks ago, we saw the Third Circuit strike down New Jersey's ban on AR-15s.

And we've got the new AR ban here in Virginia that's being paused pending the outcome of Viramontes.

Do you think there's any room to distinguish maybe between the original NFA as a taxing and regulatory, essentially licensing scheme, at least as it, it exists today, where it's not so high of a tax in today's dollars that it is unaffordable and unattainable? And perhaps something like the nineteen eighty-six law, the Fireowners Protection Act, which limited that e-even more? Or do you think there's a categorical distinction the court might draw as, as opposed to an array of options about how heavily the fully automatic firearms might be regulated?

So first, taking a step back, how has this specific question, this question of what types of arms are protected, i- specifically with respect to semi-automatic rifles, how has this been playing out in the lower courts since Bruen?

So since Bruen, obviously, we've seen these cases across the country, right? There are a few states that tend to have many of the laws in question here that arguably violate the Second Amendment.

For a while there, we were watching these mostly fail at the appellate level.

There were losses.

There were-- These laws banning AR-15s were upheld in the Seventh Circuit, the First Circuit, the Fourth Circuit, and only recently have we started to see some shifting there.

A couple of weeks ago, we saw the Third Circuit strike down New Jersey's ban on AR-15s.

And we've got the new AR ban here in Virginia that's being paused pending the outcome of Viramontes.

Do you think there's any room to distinguish maybe between the original NFA as a taxing and regulatory, essentially licensing scheme, at least as it, it exists today, where it's not so high of a tax in today's dollars that it is unaffordable and unattainable? And perhaps something like the 1986 law, the Fireowners Protection Act, which limited that e-even more? Or do you think there's a categorical distinction the court might draw as, as opposed to an array of options about how heavily the fully automatic firearms might be regulated?

Within minutes, the Scott County Sheriff's Office was on the scene.

I think the officers and deputies that were there did an exceptional job because you're, you're looking at a missing person, basically, but they wrote it as a kidnapping or homicide just based off their gut feeling really.

I mean, if you think about a lot of agencies that are smaller, you get a missing person, some of those agencies says, "Hey, wait 24 hours.

She don't show up, then we'll, we'll take a report." But they didn't get that sense.

Is there a point where you say to yourselves or you can say aloud, "I don't think Cheryl's alive anymore"?

I guess I'm, uh, 99% positive that that's what's true.

But being as you don't have a body, stranger things have happened, that one day she may walk back into our lives.

But do we live our lives with that belief? I think we, to be honest, we don't.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, it was, it's a t- people are exposed to, like it wasn't easy being gay back then.

You know, they ha- uh, D- Joe was, Doreen was hidden, had to keep her relationship quiet.

She had 17 brothers and sisters, couldn't tell them anything about her lifestyle.

And now it's so taken for granted, and I just love when she sat down at the library, uh, and just talked, told her story, and teach people.

And we find that a lot.

We did a documentary, uh, called, on the early gay rights movement called Equal, uh, years ago.

[laughs]

Can you tell me a bit of background about Harvey, uh, who he was and, you know, why you felt it was important to set up this charity in his name?

Yeah, most definitely.

So Harvey was my firstborn son.

Harvey was 18 when he passed away, roughly about four and a half years ago.

Um, yep, typical young lad, teenager.

Loved football.

Played for his local team, Darlington 21 All-Stars, uh, before getting scouted by Darlington and then going down to Exeter to continue his football plus studies.

Mm-hmm.

I wonder if you have views.

Well, I certainly do.

And I think Chad's done a good job of setting up a lot of the sort of practical realities and difficulties that would arise from adopting this sort of framework.

So I think today what I want to focus on are some of the constitutional concerns that we might see from if this thing actually does get triggered.

I think we're 48. electoral votes short of actually getting it triggered.

So let's imagine that we're in that world and all of a sudden we're facing the potential crisis of litigation from implementing this.

I think there are several potential problems with actually implementing the interstate compact that these folks are trying to press here.

and

Yes.

As ever.

Um, there was so much in that.

Uh, it was really kind of, uh, absolute textbook Tony Birch.

It was thoughtful, it was angry, it was considered, it was, um, both a call to action and also a call to not unnecessary action, which I think is a, an interesting kind of tension.

I wanna start though with that extraordinary writing of the 19th century that you spend so much time in the archives of.

Because of its invisibility in our institutions, in our historical record, in our education system now, that these are voices that haven't been canceled, they've just not been silenced or allowed to be heard.

So those relationships with young people, I feel, I do feel very optimistic about them.

So let's take a step back and talk to me a

Well, it's interesting, Steve, because internally as a company, where we are in the sector in the sense of, as you mentioned, rare earths, critical metals, there's a chasm forming, bifurcation in our industry.

You either will go into the Asia Chinese camp or the US side.

And internally, we made a decision that we would like to align with the US and we would like to process our manganese in the United States.

And we can use China as a fallback position.

But, you know, I know there's a lot of Canadian companies lining up for grants and for US assistance.

It's not that easy.

It's not that your project is, you know, somewhere where, you know, there could be challenges getting what you have out and over to the United States.

What did you personally learn and how did you personally make some shifts in yourself and in your own leadership?

One of the biggest things is just making sure I'm getting, listening, and processing the feedback from my team so we can make sure we're implementing the best strategies overall.

So one of the things we did is I met with the crucial leadership, like the top two or three people that represent the leadership team.

And that leadership team, we individually met with the entire team, so the other 20 people, we met with one-on-one and just kind of went through a few different things and that they held us accountable.

It was an open conversation like, hey, I like this.

Hey, I don't like this.

Hey, I think that you guys could be doing more of this.

What it is that you do to help people? What do you provide for people? And if someone out there who's listening wants to contact you to learn more about your business, Let them know how they can get in touch with you.

Yeah.

But, but people were kinda coming there directly, and then it became this thing where, like, you know, GQs or Esquire, whomever is like, "We have to pump out 50 stories a day because the more stories we publish, the more we get social traffic.

The more traffic we get, the viewership, the more ad money." So social traffic came, and it became just this game of Instagram and social media, which I really don't enjoy and try to avoid.

I mean, I'm in there sort of as a necessity, but it's not something I really think is good.

And so I just didn't like the way that things were moving, and then sort of d- advertising fell apart.

Like, it just, the business of it became really gross.

And I, at that point, I sort of was tired of living in New York and just moved to LA and just stopped doing it.

They're, like, they're great

couple of years could have done you some good.

I could have done with that, yeah.

But I listened to so many people that were like...

To be fair, before I turned pro, I remember as a kid I was telling everybody, like, I'm going to go pro, I'm going to go pro.

And then I think I was 16 and I said to everybody, I'm going to go pro when I'm 20.

And everyone was like, I don't think you're good enough to be a pro.

And I was like, watch me, watch me, mate.

least he's honest.

And so how are you thinking about this? How are you positioning this asset? Is it a silver asset or is it a manganese asset with a silver kicker?

Well, that's a good question.

Paradoxically, it's as simple as complex.

So what we have there, those are three unique metals to have in a deposit.

Normally you don't see the amount of silver we have and copper with manganese oxide.

That's unusual.

You know, it's a bit of an outlier when it comes to that.

Are you guys looking to drill out Barranquilla more, or is that a shift to your other projects? You have two other projects, I'm going to butcher this, Chalicolo and Cachinal in northern Chile, both silver projects, but-

That one

... we're aware that it's lunchtime, so I'll just talk very briefly about the heritage flight, uh, and the way it works now.

So the RNZAF operated the Harvard up until 2018.

Uh, the main retirement was in 1977, but of course the Air Force operated 1015 right up until 2018.

And in fact, it was only disposed of, uh, last year.Uh, you'll know that it had an engine failure in 2018, and that was the catalyst for the Air Force to look at, do we continue with heritage aviation? Um, we commissioned a review, an external review, and the outcome of that, um, it was a outstanding review.

I might, might say so myself, Sir.

Um, the outcome was, yes, the Air Force should continue with heritage aviation, but do it properly and get a utility out of that.

[laughs]

How long have you been waiting for $100 silver? [laughs]

A lifetime.

[laughs] You know, when I started in the business, uh, silver was $6, and if it ever went to 20, we would have thought it was a panacea.

But as things have evolved, the...

My flagship project, uh, Barranguila, which, which has a big silver content, I, I think silver was trading when we were negotiating five years with, uh, SSR, Silver Standard Resources, at around 18, but it was moving up, and by the time we concluded negotiations, it was 23.

So at the time, as a, uh, the executive chair of the company, I really wasn't looking forward.

I was looking backward and thinking, "Okay, if silver pulls back again to 15, is this project gonna be economic?" And I, I think as senior management you need to do that, but one of my big shareholders, in fact, my biggest shareholder, is Eric Sprott.

[laughs]