Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation's 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. My name is Thomas Weng, and I am Chairman of the Hycroft Board of Directors. As we did last year, we are holding our meeting this year by remote communication. You have joined the meeting through our virtual meeting platform, on which you will be able to participate in the meeting by voting and by submitting written questions. Immediately following the meeting, questions received will be addressed by management or me. Pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, those present should note and understand that any statements made at this meeting, which are not historical facts and refer to the company's future prospects, are forward-looking statements.
For a discussion of these and other risk factors that could affect Hycroft's business, see risk factors in Hycroft's 2024 Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. No assurances can be given that the actual results of operations and financial condition will conform to any such forward-looking statements made today. Before we continue the business of our meeting today, I would like to note that other members of our Board of Directors are joining us through the virtual meeting platform today. In addition, also present through the virtual meeting platform are Diane Garrett, our President and Chief Executive Officer; Stanton Rideout, our Chief Financial Officer; Rebecca Jennings, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, and Kenny Wilkes and Jonathan Timmer of Baker Tilly, LLP, our Independent Public Accountants.
A meeting agenda detailing the order of business for today's meeting is available in our proxy materials and posted on the meeting platform. There will be an opportunity for general questions and comments following the business portion of the meeting. In the meantime, questions may be submitted on the virtual platform during the meeting. Today, present or represented by proxy, are holders of more than 43.5 million shares of Hycroft common stock, constituting approximately 54% of Hycroft's issued and outstanding shares on the record date of December 12, 2025. We have a quorum, and we can now proceed with the meeting. Ms.
Jennings informs me she has had an affidavit of mailing and notes that a complete certified list of all holders of record of the company's common stock as of December 12, 2025, which list has been available for the past 10 days and is available for examination by any stockholder of record desiring to do so. Margaret Lloyd of Continental Stock Transfer and Trust Company has been appointed Inspector of Elections and has been duly sworn. I therefore formally present Hycroft's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, which contains its balance sheet and statements of operations, cash flow, and stockholders' equity. These materials are also available under the Meeting Documents tab on the virtual shareholder meeting platform, as well as the SEC's EDGAR website. I now declare the polls open with respect to the three proposals and the proxy statement.
The first item is the election of six directors to serve until the next annual meeting of stockholders, or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. The nominees to serve as directors of the company are listed in the proxy statement provided to all stockholders, as are biographies on each nominee. No other nominations have been submitted, as provided in the bylaws. The second item is approval of the Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation's 2025 performance and incentive pay plan. The third item is the consideration of a request to ratify the audit committee appointment of Baker Tilly, LLP, as the corporation's independent auditor for 2025. Any stockholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by following the instructions on the virtual annual meeting platform.
If you have already voted by means of a proxy card or through the internet and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to take any further action. I now declare the polls closed and will present the report on voting for the formal proposals based on a preliminary examination provided by our Inspectors of Election. Based on the preliminary report, for Proposal Number One, each of the nominees named in the proxy statement has been duly elected as a director. For Proposal Number Two, the adoption of the Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation's 2025 performance and incentive pay plan is approved. For Proposal Number Three, the selection of Baker Tilly, LLP, as our independent auditor for 2025 has been ratified. We have concluded the business portion of the meeting.
Final results will be reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days of today's meeting on a current report on Form 8-K. Now, I'd like to turn over the meeting to Diane Garrett for a discussion of 2025 and previous 2026. Diane?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everyone. It's Diane Garrett, President and CEO of Hycroft Mining, where we have one of the world's largest precious metals deposits and the best jurisdiction you could hope for, which is Nevada, USA. 2025 was a transformational year for the company. Actually, it was probably our second transformational year after the initial high-grade discoveries we had in 2023 and 2024. This year, 2025, we eliminated all debt from our balance sheet, which was creating quite a bit of an overhang on our stock. It was a debt that we inherited, and we were able to successfully clear it from our balance sheet, and in the process, we brought in an enviable blue-chip institutional shareholder registry to join our very loyal and very meaningful retail shareholder base, so we'd like to say, look where the smart money goes investing.
80% of our shares are now held by long-term institutional blue-chip shareholders led by Eric Sprott, who now owns approximately 40% of the company and is the quintessential, most successful precious metals investor. And then BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Schroders, and a large Australian investor base, which is new to the company, led by Tribeca and also Regal and Ilwella. These are people who have invested behind our team in the past and have really seen what we are doing at Hycroft because this is the game changer for the company and the project. Never before was it contemplated that Hycroft could emerge as one of the highest-grade silver mines. But through the excellent and outstanding work of our very experienced technical team, we've had not one, but two very high-grade silver discoveries that are continuing to deliver excellent results and expand in size.
We have three drill rigs on site today, thanks to the new investment by these institutional shareholders, and we're expecting the arrival of two more drill rigs around mid-year of 2026. That alone should demonstrate to the market what this management sees as the potential of these systems. And it's not just limited to the Brimstone and Vortex systems. We are seeing other areas that are highly prospective targets, and we look forward to being able to test those in 2026. We now have one of the best balance sheets in the industry, with no debt and approximately $175 million in cash, which will soon become well over $200 million with the exercise of some recent warrants from the June offering.
2026 is shaping up to be another exciting year with gold and silver already at all-time highs, and silver alone expected to reach somewhere in the $200-$500 range, according to experts, in the next few quarters. We are very fortunate to have the balance sheet that we do, which provides us the ability to move much more quickly in expanding our high-grade systems, testing new targets, and advancing the project towards a production decision. We have an updated resource report coming out in the new year. We also have a technical report that is pending for the new year. So we want to thank all of our shareholders, all of our stakeholders for their support of the team, for our strategy. We look forward to working with all of you to generate exceptional value for our shareholders.
So in summary, we believe this is the right mine at the right time with the right team, the right balance sheet to be uniquely positioned in the current markets. Mr. Chairman?
Thank you, Diane. We will now move to the answers posed by stockholders to the platform. Currently, I see one question. The 14A states that the list of stockholders can be accessed during the virtual meeting. However, it appears the list is not available for viewing. So what I would suggest is.
Mr. Chairman?
Yes.
Mr. Chairman, I will take that. My response for you, sir, I sent him a certified, and I'll ask him after the meeting.
Okay. Thank you, Rebecca. Seeing no further questions in the queue, ladies and gentlemen, I will end the Q&A session. Ladies and gentlemen, we sincerely thank you for your investment in Hycroft and for your attendance at this meeting today. We look forward to engaging with you throughout this year and to seeing you at next year's annual meeting. We are adjourned.
The meeting will go on air at the scheduled time on the meeting webpage.