管理層發言
Greetings, and welcome to the United States Antimony Corporation's Second Quarter and Six Months Ended June 30, 2026 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If you would like to ask a question, you may click on the ask question box on the left side of your screen. Type your questions and hit send. We do ask each participant to please limit to one question while submitting. If anyone should require operator assistance during the webcast, please indicate so in the chat. Please note, this conference call and webcast is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Mr. Gary C. Evans, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. One moment while I notify the caller.
Hello? Okay. Thank you, Ali, and welcome to everybody, and thank you very much for joining us today. First, I would like to start by introducing other members of our company's management team who will be joining me on this call today. We have five total speakers from management who will be talking about the respective divisions. They are as follows: Shawn Winkler, our interim Chief Financial Officer; Joe Bardswich, our Director and Executive Vice President and Chief Mining Engineer; Damian Coleman, who is Managing Director of our Government Affairs in DC, who you have not spoken to before; Aaron Tinesh, Vice President of our Antimony Division; and Jonathan Miller, who is Vice President of our Investor Relations area. I would like to start out by turning the call over to Shawn Winkler, our interim Chief Financial Officer, to go over the financial results that we have just reported a few minutes ago to the public. Shawn?
Thanks, Gary. It was my first full quarter with the company. I continue to be extremely impressed with our senior management, our outstanding operating team, and working closely with our high-quality advisers. It just continues to be an impressive team. Jumping on the numbers: Second quarter 2026 revenue was around $7.9 million. That is compared to $10.5 million in the second quarter of 2025, which is a decline of approximately 25% year over year. That is driven almost entirely by lower realized antimony pricing. Sequentially, compared to Q1, however, revenue was up 17% from the $6.8 million we reported in the first quarter, reflecting higher antimony volumes and continued strength in our zeolite segment. On a six-month year-to-date basis, revenue was $14.7 million compared to $17.5 million for the first half of 2025, a 16% decrease that again is due to the aforementioned year-over-year decline in realized antimony prices, partially offset by higher volumes. Jumping into our segment breakdown: Antimony revenue was $5.9 million in the second quarter compared to $9.6 million in the prior year period. Pounds sold increased approximately 26% year over year to 428 thousand pounds. Average selling prices declined approximately 52% from $28.32 per pound to $13.70 per pound, reflecting broader antimony market price conditions. Importantly, average cost per pound also declined approximately 33% to $13.34, partially mitigating the impact of lower selling prices, but not fully offsetting them. The zeolite segment continues its strong growth trajectory. Revenue increased 110% year over year to $1.9 million from about $0.9 million, driven by a 114% increase in tons sold. Our execution, broadened sales channels, especially in our cattle nutrition growth segment, has demonstrated success. Zeolite gross profit increased $0.4 million to about $1.1 million, benefiting from higher sales volume and lower average production cost per ton. Jumping to gross profit, operating loss, and noncash items: Gross profit for the quarter was $0.6 million, or approximately 7% gross margin. That compares to $2.8 million and 27% margin in the prior year quarter. The margin compression is almost entirely attributable to the antimony price decline as previously discussed. Operating expense was $7.6 million in the quarter compared to $2.8 million in the prior year period. The increase primarily reflects higher noncash share-based compensation expense, increased salaries and employee benefits associated with the company's expanded leadership team and operational infrastructure to match the growth projections we have in the back half of the year and into 2027, and higher professional fees supporting several growth initiatives. Operating loss for the quarter was about $7 million. It is important to note that this operating loss includes about $3.4 million of net noncash items: the aforementioned $2.9 million of share-based compensation and about $500 thousand of depreciation and amortization. Jumping to net income: Reported net income for the second quarter was about $100 thousand compared to net income of $200 thousand in the prior year quarter. The operating loss that I just mentioned was more than offset by two items: $6.8 million of unrealized gain from our investment in Larvotto Resources Limited, plus $400 thousand of interest and investment income. Importantly, since quarter end, the investment in Larvotto has continued to appreciate; we detailed that there is about $2.7 million of additional increase since quarter end. Jumping to the balance sheet and our liquidity: We ended the quarter with a materially stronger position than three months ago. Cash and cash equivalents were $41.4 million as of June 30, 2026, compared to $3.2 million at March 31 and $30.5 million at December 31, 2025. We hold an additional $20.7 million in U.S. Treasuries held to maturity. Total liquidity, we have cash plus those treasuries of $62.2 million. Total assets grew $42.6 million during the first half of the year to $191 million. Working capital doubled to $70 million from $35 million at the end of the first quarter. Total liabilities declined $3.4 million to $9.6 million. Our debt remains de minimis. If you add the Larvotto strategic equity investment of $43.2 million, total cash investments and marketable securities on the balance sheet as of June 30 stood at $105 million. Digging into the balance sheet a little bit: Inventory at quarter-end was $21.6 million, up from $12.5 million at December 31, 2025, and $6.4 million at June 30, 2025. This buildup is intentional and reflects our strategy of building feedstock in anticipation of our ability to provide finished goods to support our DLA contract and other expected antimony commercial demand. Our inventory position is subject to normal lower of cost or market analysis. Each quarter inventory is carried at the lower of cost or net realizable value. Jumping to cash flow: For the six months ended June 30, net cash used in operating activities was $20.7 million, primarily reflecting our working capital investment, that is, the inventory buildup I just described. Net cash used in investing activities was $11.1 million, and net cash provided by financing activities was $43.4 million. The financing inflow was primarily driven by net proceeds from equity issuance in April, which were detailed as a subsequent event in our Q1 financials. Average exercise on those equity issuances was $11.56 per share. Capital expenditures for the first six months totaled $22.8 million on a gross basis, primarily to advance our Thompson Falls expansion and upgrade our Raidersburg flotation mill, including adding a first-in-class laboratory and funding other strategic capital investments, including several new mining planes in Alaska and Montana. Against those investments, in April, we received $12.8 million of milestone-based funding under our DPA grant award from the Department of Defense, bringing net capital deployed in the first half to approximately $10 million. I do want to highlight a subsequent event in our financials this quarter: In June, we delivered our first two shipments of antimony ingots to the DLA totaling approximately 82 thousand pounds. Unfortunately, we did not receive final acceptance from the DLA until July, so the audit sale will be reflected in our Q3 financials. With that, I will hand it back to Gary.
Thank you, Shawn. I would like to turn the call over now to Joe Bardswich to talk about our actual mining activities. Joe?
Thank you. So starting in the east with our tungsten deposit located near Espanola, Ontario: Metallurgical testing of our ore continues at Lakefield Research, while the site for an initial 20,000 ton bulk sample is being prepared for drilling and blasting. Several local contractors have been asked to prepare quotations for the drilling, blasting, crushing, and screening of the bulk sample. It is planned that the sample will be trucked to an operating mill in the region for concentration by froth flotation for eventual sale to an ammonium paratungstate plant located in Pennsylvania. The company acquired by claims taking this past year a large land package in the Dubreuilville area north of Lake Superior, north-northwest of Wawa, Ontario. After a review of Ontario government reports, the government conducted a helicopter-borne lake sediment sampling program revealing very high-grade, select concentrations of silver in lake sediments. A soil sampling program has been initiated with the intent to trace that silver up-ice in this glaciated terrain to the source. Moving west to Montana: In October and November of last year, we completed an exploration program on our patented Eliza claim, which revealed an accessible vein of massive stibnite near our Thompson Falls smelting facilities. Excavation of this vein resulted in approximately 800 tons of ore averaging approximately 10% antimony being trucked to our newly acquired Raidersburg mill near Tofton, Montana. This operation was reviewed by the Montana DEQ over the past winter and permission for continued further work was delayed until additional operating safeguards could be implemented. Mining resumed in late July at the Montana Stibnite Hill mine after plans were approved by MSHA. We are utilizing local contractors on a time-and-materials basis to conduct this work under the supervision of an experienced geologist. As of today, an additional 25 truckloads of 16 tons each have been mined and shipped. Moving north to Alaska: Starting with Ester Dome, work continues in this area near Fairbanks. Previous work during the Fort Knox discovery era by Placer Dome and Kinross revealed large antimony soil anomalies. Successful discovery of stibnite in place in shallow trenches could lead to the establishment of operations similar to Montana's Stibnite Hill mine. The company purchased in the past year a staging area office site near Fox, Alaska, which serves both as a HQ and a logistics center. Trenching and drilling operations are continuing in the Ester Dome area in attempts to find near-surface deposits of stibnite related to the low soil anomalies. Any material mined would be hauled to the Fox facility for sorting, packaging, and stockpiling prior to trucking to our Raidersburg facility in Montana. Regarding the M and K copper deposit: The Alaska State geologist completed a reconnaissance-level exploration program that included the M&K area. Very high copper values were reported from surface sampling. The company recently acquired this area through staking and has permitted a core drilling program that will be completed this summer to determine whether the high copper values extend to depth. Bowland Creek: In late January of this year at a trustee's public auction, the company purchased a group of mining claims previously owned and operated by a private company. This is in the Nolan Creek area near Wiseman, Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle. Of prime interest to the company is the resource reported by Tom Munson, a qualified person and made available to the public. Munson reported, quote, an inferred reserve of 42.4 thousand tons grading 28% antimony and 0.408 ounces of gold per ton, end quote. That yields a gross per-ton value of $8.9 thousand at $4,000 per ounce gold and $13 a pound antimony at 20%—yielding a total gross value without deducting mining, processing, or transportation costs of $377 million. The ore zone is presently accessible after we built a seven-mile road into the property from Wiseman. It is accessible from an underground adit, and although additional development is required before an efficient mine operation is established, during the past two weeks the company hosted pre-bid underground site inspection tours by two internationally recognized mining contractors in preparation for their submission of tenders in mid-August for further underground development and mining of this high-grade material. The raw ore would be trucked to our Raidersburg mill for gravity and flotation recovery of both the antimony and the gold. Mining operations are tentatively planned to begin late this year. Back to you, Gary.
Thank you, Joe. I now introduce Damian Coleman, who has been with us for about six months now and is running our government relations. Damian, why don't you give us a little overview of your activities?
Thank you, Gary. As the company's Director of Government Affairs, I am pleased to report that United States Antimony Corporation continues to execute successfully under its $245 million sole-source antimony contract with the Defense Logistics Agency. Based on our current production and delivery schedule, we anticipate completing our first delivery order of 9.9 million nearly one year ahead of schedule. During June, our firm delivered two truckloads of military specification antimony ingots totaling more than 80 thousand pounds, representing approximately $2.6 million in revenue for the company. These deliveries highlight USAC's unique capability to produce antimony metal exceeding 99.5% purity through our supply chain. We expect to deliver our third and fourth truckloads of antimony ingots next week, which are anticipated to generate an additional $2.6 million in revenue for the third quarter. In addition, the company is currently testing truckloads five, six, and seven of antimony ingots totaling more than 120 thousand pounds for anticipated shipment in the next few weeks. Subject to successful testing and acceptance by a third-party lab, these shipments are expected to contribute approximately $4 million of additional cash flow in the fourth quarter. To date, cumulative orders awarded under the DLA contract total approximately $57.3 million, reflecting continued demand and strong execution against this strategically important program. Finally, United States Antimony Corporation is awaiting feedback on four separate grant applications submitted to the Department of Energy and Department of Defense earlier this year. These four grant requests total $275 million and represent funding needs around antimony, tungsten, and our hydrometallurgical process. Back to you, Gary.
Thanks, Damian. Now I would like to turn the call over to Aaron Tinesh, who is Vice President of our Antimony Division. Aaron?
Thank you, Gary. I will keep my comments focused on four areas: antimony procurement from international sources, the Raidersburg flotation facility, Bolivia, and the Americas Gold and Silver joint venture. On procurement: We continue to bring in material that supports Thompson Falls and our downstream commitments. Approximately 300 tons of metallic feedstock have been recently received and are currently inbound for final processing to the DLA or for antimony trioxide production. Short- and medium-term procurement contracts have been developed to sustain the expanded production of the Thompson Falls processing facility while awaiting the construction of the hydrometallurgical processing plant to be built in the joint venture with Americas Gold and Silver. The first shipment from Bolivia is on the water, and the facility in Bolivia is expected to come fully online over the next several months at a rate of approximately 150 tons per month. Regular shipments of ore to our Madero smelter in Mexico continue with stable supply lines. Long-term contracts and surge capacity ensure maximum production. Moving on to Raidersburg: The site has moved into the operating phase to concentrate the approximately 1.1 thousand tons (about 1,100 tons) of high-grade ore received from Stibnite Hill, Montana. Safety and initial process improvements have been installed. The lab installation is now complete. The MSHA ID is in active status, and operators are feeding ore into the system on a daily basis now. All lab systems have been installed, including the factory installation of the new 3-kilowatt wavelength-dispersive XRF system. A lab manager has been hired and has begun methods development to help support all of USAC's various mining ventures. Circling back to Bolivia: The key point is that the work there has become a real operation for us, not just a concept. The first container of metallic antimony will deliver to the Thompson Falls facility within the next month, with the second load shipping from Bolivia within that time frame. While the circuit in Bolivia was commissioned a few months ago, there were delays related to countrywide fuel supply issues and transport difficulties within the country that have now been resolved. Some equipment retrofits and additions were required at the plant, but those changes have now all been completed. Bolivia gives us valuable process information for the hydrometallurgical pathway we intend to scale domestically, not only in our new JV but elsewhere. These systems offer a more robust process that can accept varied inputs and better manage deleterious elements in diverse feedstock compared to traditional systems like our gas-fired furnaces. The joint venture with Americas Gold and Silver in Idaho continues to advance. This JV gives us a domestic platform to process antimony-bearing feed, including tetrahedrite and other complex materials that provide greater diversity in metals that can be monetized such as silver. Technology development contracts have been executed and scale work for the more complex feedstock is well underway. Engineering and procurement contractors have been identified, and expressions of interest have been requested. While there have been a combination of equipment, contractor, and logistics delays regarding our development activities for 2026, everything continues to make progress and production of finished products will continue to ramp up. Thank you. Back to you, Gary.
Thank you, Aaron. Okay. Let me conclude with a number of comments I would like to make, and then we will go to our listeners for questions. I get asked all the time about our acquisition front and what is going on there, so I thought I would give you a little background. We continue to view acquisitions of both properties and companies. We have no problem finding willing sellers. The issue is we have very stringent guidelines and have yet to find anything that really piques our interest from a geological, engineering, or financial perspective. We probably turned away at least seven different deals just in this quarter alone. This does not mean there are not any great opportunities out there. We are just in such a fast-track mode; waiting three years for sales of minerals is not in our game plan. Typically, it has to be within a year to 1.5 years for us to have an interest. Three perfect examples of properties that did fit with our time frame and that we executed on are Stibnite Hill, Montana—we started buying those properties last summer and, as Joe indicated, we mined last year before winter and have been mining this year all summer. All that material is at Raidersburg waiting to be processed, and we will significantly augment our DLA deliveries; Nolan Creek, Alaska—we bought that in January of this year; as Joe mentioned, we have already built a road into the property, we have contractors, and we will be mining that property hopefully before the end of the year with third parties; and Fostung Tungsten up in Ontario, Canada—our tungsten play—bought in May of last year; we are already going to be bulk sampling this year and have agreements to process that material and take it to a refinery in Pennsylvania. Not many companies can say that within the past 12 months they identified three specific high-grade properties, did something about them, and are mining. That is highly unusual in this business, and I am very proud of our team for being able to do it. Those are bragging rights we have and are very proud of. Let's talk about the presidential forum I attended on Friday. I was fortunate enough to be invited by the administration to attend an event held in D.C. It was primarily to award $100 million in new grant money to schools and universities that have active mining programs. I actually met several students there and gave business cards; when they get out of school, we might talk to them. What did I get out of this visit? More than anything else, tremendous new contacts that are already helping us. Two contacts I made there, I cannot identify yet, but I have had two conference calls with them in the last three days. These are very high-influence people that are involved in the government and want to assist. What we have in this administration is a can-do, will-do attitude, and you have secretaries of various departments that are willing to jump in to assist mining companies. That is something our industry has not seen in 20 to 30 years, and I give the administration great kudos for helping support our business. Next item is Larvotto Resources. As everyone knows, we own approximately 10% of this Australian-listed company. The purpose of this $40 million-plus investment has been our attempt at a takeover. After four different rounds with the entrenched management team there over the past 12 months, we are about to give up. If so, this will be a liquidity event for United States Antimony Corporation. Let me conclude by saying, as I stated last quarter, our quarterly financial and operating results will be bumpy. They are bumpy this quarter. We have pros and cons. The thing that I cannot control, nor can any of the management team control, is world antimony prices, which is the primary reason for the reduced revenue guidance that we provided in this report for this year. As we report results, though, from our recent deliveries of antimony ingots to the U.S. government, our margin expansion will be realized. You can do some easy calculations based on some of the things we reported today to determine how wide those margins are. The key metric should be pounds of product delivered. We delivered antimony; our deliveries were up 26% from last year, and that is just with Thompson Falls starting up over the last 30 to 45 days with the big expansion. For zeolite, up 114% from last year, that is all due to new sales. This again is without any DLA shipments included; this is just pure historical industrial customers. So you should see market improvements in the third and fourth quarters as we are now delivering, as we have indicated. The government takes longer than we anticipated: they have to inspect our product, they have to make sure the logistics are right, they have to go through another inspection once it is delivered, and then it takes time to be paid. As Shawn mentioned, we were anticipating having revenues in the second quarter from the DLA because we delivered in June. You would have thought we would have been able to report those revenues, but that was not the case. So again, these quarterly financials will be bumpy; that is the nature of our business. Look at the year in total; that will tell you what we are doing. Again, antimony revenue is up and zeolite revenue is up, all due to sales. When I say revenues, I meant sales up. We are moving more pounds of product and, again, we cannot control the price. We feel fortunate that we have built this inventory in anticipation of additional shipments to the DLA at lower prices. Aaron has done an admirable job of negotiating with foreign entities until we get our own antimony production up, and we have been able to make some great deals. You will see that margin expansion in the third and fourth quarters that we could not report in the second quarter, again because of no DLA revenue recognized at quarter end. With that, operator, I would like to turn our call over to questions from our listening audience.
Gary, should I give my update?
Oh, I am sorry. Jonathan, I completely missed you, and I am sorry for that. Please go ahead.
No worries. Thank you, Gary, and good afternoon, everyone. Q2 was another quarter of continued execution for United States Antimony. We continued our marketing efforts, which included broadening our institutional shareholder base both domestically and internationally. Institutional ownership in U.S. Antimony now exceeds 57% compared with just over 42% at the end of Q1. That represents a significant change in the composition and depth of ownership in our company. The Q2 13F filings provide some particularly encouraging data points: State Street Investment Management increased its position by approximately 3.3 million shares, ending the quarter with approximately 11.3 million shares. BlackRock Fund Advisors added approximately 1.44 million shares, bringing its position to approximately 9.96 million shares. BlackRock Investment Management United Kingdom added approximately 122 thousand shares, while DWS Investments UK added approximately 91 thousand shares. Importantly, the shareholder base increasingly includes large passive index managers alongside active growth, value, and institutional investment strategies—not hedge funds. That institutional growth has been supported by an aggressive outreach program. Gary, Shawn, and I participated in six institutional conferences and roadshows during Q2, including B. Riley, Litham Partners, William Blair's Growth Stock Conference, and Stonex's Natural Resource Summit. We also continue to receive positive sell-side support: Alliance Global Partners maintained its buy rating, while H.C. Wainwright maintained its buy rating and increased its price target to $11.75. So the Q2 message is straightforward: we shipped, we invoiced, we expanded capacity, we restarted domestic mining, and institutional ownership in our company continued to grow. We entered Q2 having spent much of the previous year building the platform and expanding awareness; we exited the quarter with tangible evidence that the platform is translating into execution. Looking ahead, our priorities remain equally clear: scale deliveries under the DLA contract, expand domestic production and processing capacity, advance Thompson Falls, Raidersburg, and our Idaho HydroMET initiatives, and continue expanding our institutional investor base. Our investor calendar remains active with upcoming participation planned at the Needham Virtual Conference next Monday, the Piper Sandler Growth Conference in September, the North American Critical Minerals Summit in October, the LD Micro Main Event in October, ClearStreet IO Disruptive Conference in November, Northern Miner Symposium at the end of November and resourcing in December in London, the B. Riley Convergence Conference in December, and a ceremony next month in Dallas for our recognition by the Dallas Business Journal as one of the Texas Fast 50 companies. We continue to execute against our company purpose: to become the premier supplier of certain critical minerals here in the United States of America. Thank you for your continued support and interest in US Antimony. Back to you, Gary.
Thank you, Jonathan, and apologies again for overlooking you. I want to highlight again what Jonathan said concerning our institutional ownership. When I came on board a little over three years ago, we had zero institutional ownership. Today, as Jonathan said, we are up to 57%, and that appears to grow almost every single quarter. We started marketing for the very first time in Europe; Jonathan and I were there about three to four weeks ago and were introduced to a number of very quality institutions by Barclays Bank. This is a bank that does not follow us at present, so that introduction came through contacts we had in the bank that knew what our company was doing. We are going to broaden investor and institutional ownership even further. We have other plans for additional marketing in Europe this year, and we are very excited about the reception we are receiving. The difference between our company and many others in this space is we are generating revenues, generating EBITDA, generating cash flow. We have not only a sole-source contract of $245 million, we have grant applications, and we have $250 million of grants that we are requesting. So we think that we will have a very active second half of the year. We are very excited about the growth in our DLA shipments, and we think that this will have a material impact on our financials going forward. So with that being said, operator, let's now turn it over to our audience.
分析師問答
Thank you. Apologies, ladies and gentlemen, one moment. I will go ahead and take the first question.
Gary, the first question: Are you able to provide any color on planned deliveries for the second half of 2026? Do you feel the original guidance is still reachable? Next question: You recently discussed packaging $250 million-plus strategic transactions with the federal government. How advanced are those discussions? Should shareholders expect equity warrants, price floors, or additional offtake contracts to be part of the structure? Next question: What is the company's outlook for forward antimony price? Do you expect prices to normalize closer to their year-end 2025 level or continue closer to current levels? Next question: When will there be an update on the government grants? Last question: Can you speak to the production rates you are currently achieving in Alaska in tons of ore and how that translates to finished pounds of shipments? What delivery volumes are embedded in your new guidance for the second half of 2026?
No. We lowered our guidance in this financial statement today to $60 to $75 million, and that really has all to do with pricing. It has nothing to do with delivery times. So the price of antimony has dropped significantly this year and that is the primary reason for the revenue drop. It is difficult for us to tell you whether it is going to be low $12, low $18, or low $20—we do not know. It is a combination of us getting material in, processing it, and getting approval from the government. But we are going to do everything we can to complete that $57 million order that we received in 2026. Regarding packaging $250 million strategic transactions with the federal government: It is not $500 million; it is $250 million—still a big number. I do not think there is any doubt that this administration is leaning away from straight grants. The new plan of attack includes equity. In other words, they might provide cash or support but want an equity position in the company. I was at the forum in D.C. on Friday and that was evident from the discussions. There is no doubt they are leaning more that way, but I do think there is a possibility that some grants could be structured without equity. We are open-minded. If we do an equity deal, it will have to be done in a manner that is accretive to our shareholders. We are not going to do an equity deal for the sake of doing one. You can see from our historical raising of capital that we are very cognizant of where our share price is when we do it, and that will continue to be the case. On the outlook for antimony prices: I wish I had a crystal ball. I believe that for the remainder of 2026 we are probably in the roughly $10 per pound range. You have to remember that is double what this company historically had received, but it is obviously down from $30 per pound. We know we can make really good money at roughly $10 per pound because we are buying at $4 to $6 per pound and selling at a premium. So we know what we can do, and we are very careful on our procurements. The price is undoubtedly influenced by China; there is no question about that. It really depends on what China wants to do. Regarding updates on government grants: I wish I had an answer. That is totally dependent upon the government. Damian and I were in D.C. and saw the relevant assistant secretaries; they were courteous but closed-mouthed. They are not going to tell us anything until the process concludes. We are using our contacts to apply pressure, but it is out of our control. On production rates in Alaska: There is no production of antimony yet coming out of Alaska. We are highly confident that we will find antimony this summer and that we will be able to stack it at the Fox property and hopefully move it to Raidersburg. But today there is no antimony production in Alaska. The only antimony production this company has today is coming out of Stibnite Hill in Montana. When Joe gets Nolan Creek up and running, that may change, but at this point there is no antimony production currently out of Alaska. That concludes the questions. Okay. Operator, I think with that we will close up, and we appreciate all of you listening in and look forward to giving you some updates in the near future. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's webcast. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.