Welcome to the Elk Creek Mine and Processing Facility site, everyone. Thanks for coming today. Just a couple quick administrative notes before we get started. I am Jim Sims, I am with NioCorp. You all have your PPE on, your personal protective gear. Please keep that on for your entire visit today. We are a mining construction, and we are regulated by MSHA, so we are very careful about safety. That is job number one. We have a short ceremony, then we are going to transfer our folks up to the mine overlook site, so you will be able to see the construction. We gave the guys the day off today down there. Normally, there would be a lot of construction, big trucks going. For safety reasons, you will not have any of that. Please, everyone, keep your eyes peeled for moving vehicles at all times.
After the program, I will announce we are going to move to the signing ceremony, which we will do here, then we are going to do another one down at the overlook. For our elected officials, we have three vans here. We are going to load you in those vans and drive you down. It is about a 60-second drive. For members of the news media, we will help you go down in the van as well so you can get set up. For the rest of us, you can walk down. It is about a five-minute walk, and since we do not have rain today, it should be actually a pleasant walk. Other than that, we are not going to have the media availability for members of the press will be done down at the mine overlook, not here. We will do the program quickly, move down, then have fun down there.
With that, let me introduce our master of ceremonies, Mark Smith, Chairman and CEO of NioCorp.
Thank you, Jim. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being here today. It has been a long time, but we are getting there. Anyway, welcome to the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Mine, and I am going to tell you a little bit about that, but we have some pretty important guests here that we want to introduce first. As Jim mentioned, this is an active mine and construction site, so sorry for the inconvenience of hard hats and safety glasses and reflective gear and steel-toed boots. That is our life, and that is how we live it here, and safety is a value for our company. It is not a goal. It is a value for our company. It is the number one thing on our mind at all times.
In fact, I have a card here that anytime I see anything I do not like safety-wise on this site, I put that card down, all the work stops, and we get it sorted out. That is how important safety is out here, and we need everybody to keep their eyes open on that at all times. We do have some very important guests here today. I cannot believe the turnout that we have had for that, and let me introduce a few of them. What I will ask for you to do is to hold your applause, because I will give each of them a chance to say a few words as well, and then we can give them a proper applause, and it will not be competitive at that point.
First of all, we are very proud to have our host, in the best sense of the word, and one of our strongest supporters, and that is Governor Jim Pillen. Thank you, Governor, for being here today. We also have Nebraska Senior Senator Deb Fischer, a steady voice for a strong national defense and a steadfast supporter of our project. Thank you, Senator. Senator Pete Ricketts, a tireless advocate for American supply chain security and another ardent supporter of our mine, both as senator and as a former two-term governor. We have met many times. Congressman Adrian Smith, who represents this district and the people of Johnson County. For the record, while we share the last name, we are not related, but I would welcome him into my family at any time, Adrian. From Washington, we have our U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, an extraordinarily effective member of President Trump's cabinet.
Thank you, Secretary, for being here. We also have Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, John Jovanovic. John, thank you for being here. Without whose support and commitment to help bringing this project into reality, we would not be here today. Thank you and your team for what you do. We are also grateful to our local state senator, Bob Hallstrom. Bob, can you raise your hand? There he is. Bob has been a tremendous advocate for the project as well, and we have a number of other local and county officials here today. But I would also like to call out just a couple of other individuals who I think are very worthy of being called out. Mark Kristoff with Traxys. Traxys, as we announced yesterday, is our partner in this effort.
Traxys will be buying what we make here and selling it to the rest of the world. We have Jim Smith. Jim, can you raise your hand? Jim` Smith is with us. Doug Garocki. Where is Doug? There he is, and I got it right this time. Doug instead of Greg. Lavon Heidemann, can we raise your hand? There he is back there. We have Greg and Joyce Krueger as well. Raise your hands, Greg and Joyce. There they are. I would be remiss if I did not note Tony Fulton, who is a prior state senator, tax commissioner, and is on the NioCorp board of directors today. Finally, last but not least, we have Michael Johnson from JPMorgan, Vice Chairman, and has been a real good friend for our project as well. JPMorgan does a great job helping us through the EXIM process and other ways as well.
That's who we have. I'm going to make a few minor comments, and then we'll let the really important people speak here. Right beneath our feet here is one of the most remarkable critical mineral deposits in North America. From this single source, we will be producing eight different critical mineral products. First of all is niobium. It makes steel stronger and lighter. It's used in bridges, pipelines, vehicles, and innumerable defense systems. However, we import 100% of the niobium that we need in this country today. Second is scandium, which makes aluminum alloys lighter and stronger for aerospace and defense. It's an emerging material for the advanced electronics behind artificial, or perhaps more appropriately stated today, super intelligence, and we also import 100% of that critical mineral into the U.S. today.
Titanium is the backbone of modern aircraft, as we all know, and military hardware, and we import more than 85% of what we need for that mineral today. The rarest we plan to produce are essential to magnets inside the electric motors, drones, guided munitions, and it's a supply chain that China overwhelmingly dominates today. We import virtually 100% of the many different rarest we need, including dysprosium and terbium, which we plan to make right here in Nebraska. Elk Creek is designed to produce all of these from mine to finished product. We're not sending it off to China to be processed. We're processing it right here, and that's rare anywhere in the world, and it's exactly what America needs today. For Nebraska, this means creating and supporting about 1,200 construction jobs and approximately 500 permanent, high-skilled, permanent jobs over the 40-year mine life of this project.
I'd like to say it's really not a project just anymore. It's a generational job-creating powerhouse is what it's going to be, and it's going to make Johnson County a different place, a better place. It means new opportunity for Johnson County and the communities across the state with billions of dollars of investment coming to Nebraska over this mine's long life. For the nation, it means a reliable domestic source of material. Our economy and our military simply cannot do without, and it's going to be produced to American standards by American workers on American soil, and that feels really good to say. None of this happens alone. It takes partners at every level of government who understand that critical mineral security is national security. Let me introduce our first partner in this journey.
It's fitting that we begin with a man who knows what it means to build something from the ground up in Nebraska. He's a veterinarian, a farmer, and an entrepreneur who grew a family business into one of the state's leading agricultural enterprises. He served on the University of Nebraska as a regent, and some years ago, I understand, actually patrolled the secondary for the Cornhuskers. That was a new one for me, Jim. Since taking office, he's worked relentlessly to make Nebraska a place where people want to invest and build, where they want to raise their families. He's been a strong supporter of what we're doing here at Elk Creek. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the Governor of the great state of Nebraska, Jim Pillen.
Thank you. A gigantic congratulations. About six years ago, I met Scott Honan out here and took me around and said, "You know this little farm over here, we invested," I don't know, Scott, was it $8 million, $10 million? Then I knew it was really serious stuff. I want to give a shout-out to Senator Fischer and Senator Ricketts. I'm the rookie in this deal. I've only been around for four years. They've been around putting a lot into this, and of course, Congressman Smith, tireless advocates to make this happen. A big shout-out there. I want to certainly welcome Mr. Chairman. You come from good family, so welcome. I got to spend time with your father-in-law just this last week, and grateful for your family's commitment. Then, of course, Secretary Wright.
Got to have a little bit of fun, but I've had the privilege to learn some things from Secretary Wright in the last 20 months, and pretty gifted human being. I said, "Gee whiz, where did you learn all this stuff about energy?" Then the Secretary said, "You know, Jim, when I was young, I kind of liked to look up at the stars and think about fusion and everything." I said, "What the hell kind of books did you read when you were a kid?
That's not what I was exposed to." We're incredibly grateful for you to be here, grateful for you to answer the call when President Trump called, because as you said, it's really, really important we fix the energy crisis in the U.S.A., that we get rid of these ideology ideas and just fix the fundamental basics so that we get power and that we lead the world in power. So incredibly grateful for your leadership in saying yes. I think that's really important. Then the NioCorp team. It's the Nebraska way. 16 years, extraordinary grit, determination, nobody gave up, and then, of course, the belief of everybody in the Elk Creek area, just really important piece. Think about Nebraska, if I can brag just a minute. Gosh, in Nebraska, it's the people. It's our extraordinary water.
We have the largest, most sustainable underground aquifer in the Western Hemisphere. We're number one in cattle production, significant in food security. We're number one in the highest value ethanol now because we capture our carbon in 18 of our 24 plants. We just are embarking on making energy from a kernel of corn coming through livestock, making renewable natural gas. There'll be opportunities to do hundreds of those in the state of Nebraska. Now we're the home of the most extraordinary rare earth mineral deposit in North America. I think that maybe lastly, what I want to say, besides a shout-out to everybody here, but an incredible thank you to the President of the U.S., that he was not duped. That we have to get the supply chain solved in this country.
We have got to recognize what it's like if we're doing business with foreign adversaries. We have to fix it. We have to make sure that we have all these under control. This is a big step in the right direction. We have lots of work ahead to do, but I'm incredibly proud to be a small part of it, and the grit and determination of all the people in the front row to make it happen, and everybody from your team, Mark, is quite impressive. Congratulations.
Good to see you. Thank you.
We will have you stay here for a minute.
Okay.
We've had a very special item that we want to hand out to all of our guests today. It's an acrylic piece. Of course, it's a little bit of advertising. It does say NioCorp on it. But this is actually a piece of ore from one of our core drill holes. We want every one of our special visitors to take one of these, put it in your office, use it to hold down our loan papers, Mr. Chairman. Because they're going to be big. But we would like to make sure we hand out each one of those. Governor, here's yours.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you, Governor. Our next speaker is a Sandhills cattle rancher from Valentine who served in the Nebraska Legislature before going to the U.S. Senate. As a senior member of the Armed Services and Appropriations Committees, she has been one of the Senate's most respected voices on national defense. She knows our military is only as strong as the materials it can be built from. Please welcome Nebraska Senior Senator, Deb Fischer.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary. Welcome to Nebraska. We are so happy you are here for a wonderful event that we're having here in the Elk Creek area today. Mr. Chairman, welcome to you as well. This is a big deal for our state, but it is a huge deal for our country. Always good to be with my friend, Governor Jim Pillen Governor of Nebraska. We have my colleague and great partner in the U.S. Senate, Pete Ricketts, and my dear friend and good colleague, he's been there forever in the House. He's on the Ways and Means Committee. He's a mentor to the rest of the delegation, and we certainly enjoy having Adrian here. I'm going to give a shout-out to a really good friend of mine. Where is Lavon?
Stand up, Lavon, because I think Lavon Heidemann and I served in the Nebraska Legislature together. He was Chair of Appropriations Committee, and I think it was in 2010 when Lavon started talking about rare earth minerals and stuff, and I'm busy worried about how we're going to build roads and bridges and take care of our water in the state of Nebraska, my focus. Besides taking care of the state budget, Lavon was the first who mentioned this area and the potential in this area and what we would see and benefit from as a state because of that. So Lavon, wonderful to see you today. This is a very exciting milestone that we're all here to share today. As it's been said, our country depends on these critical minerals for everything from advanced manufacturing to our military equipment and our national security.
Every day, we rely on these minerals to power our lives. They're from our iPhones to our TVs, to our cars, and lots more. Yet we continue to rely on these critical minerals coming from foreign countries. That's not a good thing. That dependence, it creates vulnerabilities for our economy and especially for our national security as well. As a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I have been advocating for bringing critical mineral production and processing back to the U.S. So what a thrill it is to see this in Nebraska. I was extremely proud to help secure a $10 million federal investment in the domestic production of aluminum scandium alloys, and that's exactly what's going to be produced right here in Elk Creek.
Through the National Defense Authorization Act, I pushed the department to examine the need for American production of these critical minerals and to use existing federal programs to encourage that production. NioCorp is also working to develop a domestic source of the niobium and titanium, among other rare earth elements. These minerals are essential to our defense industrial base, our aerospace industry, and American manufacturing. This project also represents an extraordinary economic opportunity for rural Nebraska, with the potential to support thousands of American jobs and really to generate some long-term economic growth across this region. I couldn't be more pleased to see the Trump administration recognizing the importance of this project to America's economic and national security. Today's letter signing marks another important step for NioCorp as they work to continue to get that federal financing review process going.
Of course, none of this progress would be possible without the commitment of the people here in Elk Creek. For years, local leaders, landowners, community members, and NioCorp's team have worked together to move this project forward. Their dedication reflects the determination, the cooperation, and the work ethic that defines our great state. Nebraska has long been a leader in national security through the critical work that is done at STRATCOM and at Offutt Air Force Base, and we're also leading in securing America's energy independence. Today, as we showcase how Nebraska will help secure the resources that America needs, we also celebrate the new opportunities that we are creating for the next generation of Nebraskans. I am so excited for what lies ahead, and I am also excited and thrilled to be able to look forward as this project continues to grow. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Senator Fischer. Our next speaker saw early what Elk Creek could mean for Nebraska as our former two-term governor. Now in the U.S. Senate, including on the Foreign Relations and Banking Committees, he's one of Washington's clearest voices on the threat China poses, including its grip on critical minerals, our economy and military, and what we all depend on. Please help me in welcoming Senator Pete Ricketts.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Preparation for war is the surest guarantee of peace." Theodore Roosevelt said those words. While I am a huge fan of our 26th president, he did not invent that saying. It actually goes back to ancient Roman times, where Vegetius said, "Si vis pacem, para bellum." The concept carried through von Clausewitz. The idea is simple. The simplest way to avoid a conflict is by being strong. President Reagan knew that, too. We live in a very dangerous world. We can see it. Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism, continues to pursue nuclear weapons. Dictator Putin has launched a war of aggression in Europe that has lasted now over four years. Communist China, the dictator there, Xi Jinping, wants to replace us as the world's superpower, and he is aggressively putting pressure on our allies, such as Japan and the Philippines. It is a dangerous world.
As my senior senator just mentioned, we cannot be reliant on our chief adversary in the world, Communist China, for things that are critical for our defense. That is why this project is so important. Because establishing secure supply lines on things such as niobium and scandium, titanium, magnetic rare earths, and processing them here is vital. Because what we see in the world is even when China doesn't mine these, they process over 80% of them. If you go back 20 years, we actually used to do this, and then we stopped. We have got to get back to the point where we have these available here in our country. This project here is a great first example of how we are doing this. It is a win-win-win. It is a win for the community of Elk Creek.
Mark was talking about all the great jobs that are going to be here, the construction jobs certainly we see right now, with the 500 jobs that are going to be great paying jobs that will go on for the next 40 years. We think about all the investment that will come to Johnson County and how that will create more prosperity, allow the families here to be able to send their kids to school, go on that family vacation, buy a house. It is going to be great for the state of Nebraska as it adds to our overall state's economy. It is going to be vital for our defense. Niobium, helping make steel and super alloys stronger. This goes into armored vehicles, naval vessels, drones, jet engine turbines. Scandium, which goes into aerospace and defense materials. We must mine and process that here.
That is why this is such an important process and why Chairman John Jovanovic and Secretary Chris Wright are so glad that you are here to recognize that, and especially your support to fast-tracking this project, to be able to make sure we get it done. When I was governor, I recommended this project to the White House because of its importance. Now as senator, I have introduced a bill to actually help the Ex-Im Bank have more flexibility when our adversary countries like communist China, start dumping on the market to put competitors out of business. My bill will help with that CTEP program that he has got, the China and Transformational Exports Program, give them more flexibility, and also add things such as semiconductors and medical supplies, which we also need to make sure that we have secure supply lines here in the U.S. This is a vital project.
I am so proud that Nebraska is part of it. This is something that is important for our country, for our state, and for the community here in Elk Creek and Johnson County. I want to thank everybody who is involved with it. I appreciate, Mark, all the great work you and your team have done at NioCorp. I want to give a special shout-out to Tony Fulton, who sits on the board, and actually was my tax commissioner when I was governor. He was one of the people that first clued me in on how important this was. Then, of course, all the team that is working on this, and of course, the great support it continues to have from Governor Jim Pillen, Senator Deb Fischer, Congressman Adrian Smith. This is a team effort. Team America.
Team America can win when we put our minds to it, and that is what you see here with this project. Thank you all very much for coming here today to help see the continuation of this process. We are going to work very hard to make sure that we bring this to conclusion. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Our next speaker represents this district and knows rural Nebraska as well as anyone in Congress. A Gering native and former state senator, he chairs the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, where he fights to open markets for Nebraska producers and to build American supply chains that do not depend on our adversaries. Please welcome our Congressman, Adrian Smith.
Good morning. It's great to be here. Certainly, Mr. Secretary, Mr. Chairman, for your presence here today to really, I think, elevate an already big deal. When I first heard of this early in my time in Washington, that this was a possibility, as the chatter began, even then, it was exciting. It's even more exciting now when we can see things come to fruition. I was here for the groundbreaking, and I'm very proud to say that even though they put me at the controls of the excavator, I would not be perceived to be a threat to anyone's position in a more expert capacity at that. Incidentally, that was my childhood dream to become a heavy equipment operator. To see things in action here already, it's so exciting.
Being a member of the Ways and Means Committee, of course, I am very proud to have introduced tax modernization concepts for critical minerals. I'm always thinking about the third district of Nebraska, but even Nebraska in general, of our place in the world and what each community can do. To see this in not just Elk Creek in Nebraska or Nebraska in America in the world. I had my family with me at a launch at NASA in Florida the other day, during August. I have to think it's important we lead in that as well. In space, we've seen new developments. Here was a launch of a telescope. SpaceX launched a NASA telescope that will do amazing things. It all points, though, to the coordination that needs to happen.
When we have workers here already and local officials that, yes, we at the federal level, we want to do what we can to help, but we know we couldn't do it without local officials and all of the coordination that's involved. Dare I even say, maybe the county assessor might weigh in a little bit, but that's hopefully good for the rest of the taxpayers as we expand and broaden our tax base. That is certainly important to a growing economy, growing opportunity. Again, Nebraska's place in the world, more specifically, Elk Creek. I first heard of Elk Creek when I got to serve with Lavon Heidemann in the legislature, briefly as it was. I just want to say thank you for getting this done or getting it going, I guess.
We're still in the beginning process here, as many years as it's taken just on the permitting. I'm glad to be a part of it, and certainly, we want to see this through all the way to a very successful and continued operation. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
You need to find a shovel.
Yeah.
Just for the record, Congressman Adrian Smith actually did take the first scoop with the excavator for our portal project out here. He did a really good job, by the way. Probably some of the best digging. Jake, we need to probably talk about that. Thank you, Congressman. Our next speaker is an engineer and an entrepreneur who founded and led Liberty Energy, one of North America's most innovative energy companies. As Secretary of Energy, he is working to unleash American energy in all of its forms and rebuild the domestic supply chains for the materials that power our economy, our grid, and our national security. We're honored he's here to see this work firsthand. Please welcome the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Mr. Chris Wright.
I could not be more thrilled to stand here with you today. A few weeks into my political career, which is quite new, 18 months ago, a few weeks after being confirmed as Secretary of the Energy, I was in the situation room with our President and a few other leaders discussing in broader terms our relationship with China, the threats, the opportunities, the trade-offs we had to discuss. One thing was already clear. China had decided that they would change the regime under which they would supply us critical minerals. We would apply, and maybe they would supply them, and maybe they wouldn't. That was everything with a button on it requires magnets from these magnetic rare earth elements, high-temperature magnets. Our factories, our Air Force equipment, our planes, everything requires these inputs. We've just taken it for granted.
They were just outsourced, and they were just shipped over. They were no longer going to be just shipped over. The president said, "How can we be in this position? More importantly, you have to fix it as fast as possible. The United States cannot be in this position we are in. Move as promptly and quickly as you can to fix this problem." That's why I'm here. That's why I'm thrilled to be partners with the simply tremendous leadership from the state of Nebraska. I met Senator Deb Fischer, and immediately it was the nuclear triad and American security, and where do we stand, and where are your plans, and how do you view this issue and that issue. The seriousness and knowledge she brought to it was just refreshing and inspiring. I was proud to be an American that day when I met her.
Senator Pete Ricketts, I've known a little bit before I went into politics. He's just a fellow business guy. We have some mutual friends in common. Here is a man who believes in this country and believes America can and should do big and strong things. U.S. Congressman Adrian Smith, the same thing, a passionate leader for this state, a passionate leader for the United States of America, understanding there are critical vulnerabilities. We can't just talk about them and write a few papers and then hand it off to the next administration. We actually have to act. We have to do something to change the situation we're in. Governor Jim Pillen, a man of action. An absolute man of action, a man of passion for this state, and understands if we do things the same old way, we'll be in the same old situation, and that's not good.
That's not good enough for Nebraska. That's not good enough for the United States. This is not just the economics of the United States. This is our national security that rests on what's underground right here. I always take exception to the use of the word the underground resources. They aren't resources because they've been underground for millions of years, and they haven't done anything for anyone that lives here. They're just materials underground. It's only the people here, people, everyone in this tent, that are actually going to transform materials underground into resources that are going to change the national security of the United States of America. Very thankful for Mark Smith, his expertise, his leadership, the business he has built. That's the tip of the spear. That's how we turn underground materials into resources and change the trajectory of our country. This is a tricky one.
20 years ago, the United States was the largest importer of oil in the world. We were the largest importer of natural gas in the world. We transformed that in 20 years to where we're by far the world's largest exporter of natural gas and by far and away the world's largest producer of oil. America can do big things. We can mobilize capital. We have the best-trained and most motivated workers in the world. We can make great things happen. We have barriers that often prevent that. The electricity grid, I won't go into that. Government bureaucracy, crazy rules, a misunderstanding of climate change, and a desire to politicize the electric grid has stopped the growth of American electricity 30 years ago. Can we fix that problem? Absolutely. We will fix that problem.
But it involves knocking down barriers, changing the way people think about things, and making stuff happen. With the underground materials under us right now, this is an even trickier problem. Not only is it building large things in America, the average time right now from a mineral discovery to build a mine in the U.S. is 29 years. If we operated that way, would we be the industrial powerhouse of the world? Would we be the last great hope for mankind? Would we have won World War II if it took us 29 years to figure out we're going to do something underground? No way. We have lost our way. We have lost the American ideal. We have an adversary halfway around the planet that decided maybe it didn't out-compete us economically.
Oh, their mining technology is better," or, "Their underground materials are better." It isn't that at all. They made a strategic decision that this is an industry. It's not giant like steel or cement or plastics. It's specialized, and we can gather strategic control of it by buying overseas businesses, by subsidizing it, by selling under market, by manipulating prices so that commercial businesses, the way America operates, can't compete. Didn't make economic sense for America to turn the underground materials here into resources. But it is imperative for our national security. So we are here addressing a strategic concern. We have a critical business partner, but we have to change the math. We have to change the calculus to make this work. One of my new great friends, John Jovanovic, who will be coming up here next, he came to play on Team America.
Here's a smart, aggressive guy. A lot of things John could be doing right now, but he said, "There are big problems, and I'm going to lean in, and together we're going to fix them." He's leaning in to provide the capital in a marketplace where China has distorted that marketplace. They have purposely and strategically made it uneconomic to do what we're doing here today. Is that so we're going to say, "Oh, the math doesn't work. America's national security is just going to be in China's hands and elsewhere overseas." No, that's not acceptable. John, the team here, the miners in this room, we're going to change that problem. We are going to restore America's control over our national security with everything going for us. Thank you all for being here.
President Trump, particularly to the miners here in this room, sends his enormous gratitude and thank you for leaning in. This is a problem. This is not a new problem. China used this leverage on Japan 15 years ago. This threat was always there. This is a President, and again, leaders in this room that have said, "Enough is enough. We're going to fix this problem now." Thank you all. God bless you all. God bless the United States of America.
If I were the next speaker, I would really be worried having to follow that. I've heard the Chairman speak before. I think you're going to be just as excited with him as well. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. That was outstanding. You're right. For 20 years, we said we have a problem. Let's write a report, and we didn't do anything about it. We have action now. Our final speaker brings deep experience in energy, infrastructure, and international finance, including opening the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation's first overseas office, where he offered American financing as an alternative to Chinese and Russian influence. Today, as President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank, he's putting the strength of American financing behind American competitiveness. Please welcome EXIM Chairman, Mr. John Jovanovic.
It is great to be back here in Nebraska. Governor, Senator Fischer, thank you so much for having us. Congressman, you haven't only brought the 3rd District to Washington, you've truly brought it to the world stage. To my friend and partner, Secretary Wright, your leadership on energy security, supply chain security is bar none. We wouldn't be here today without it, without your tireless efforts. So, thank you for that. I want to particularly brag about Senator Ricketts for a moment, because from a non-Nebraskan, you all should know how fortunate you are to have a champion for Nebraska and for the United States in Washington for you. I'll never forget our first meeting, Senator Ricketts.
At that time, Senator Ricketts is meeting with probably dozens of President Trump's nominees, and we went probably 2.5x over our time slot, and I walked out of there with a Six Sigma book on operational efficiency and excellence, which my poor team had to read too along with me. We got right down to it. How can we whip EXIM into shape? How can it become a frontline economic tool? Most importantly, how can America do the big transformative things that Secretary Wright talked about? You're a tireless leader and a tireless believer in the potential of America to be a force for good at home and abroad. Thank you for that. Nebraska, you are very lucky to have him in Washington.
If we had another dozen partners on the Hill like you, Senator Ricketts, America would be stronger, safer, more prosperous, more secure place. So thank you for what you're doing. Now, we've talked a lot about the vulnerabilities that we face in our supply chain. Fundamentally, what it comes down to is we've become over-reliant on markets that aren't free, they aren't fair, and they aren't functioning. All we want to do today is level the playing field and allow American capital, American innovation, American engineers, and fantastic entrepreneurs and great companies led by the likes of Mark Smith to really succeed. We've talked a lot about the periodic table. We've talked about the things. If you work at NioCorp, can you raise your hand, please? What you're doing impacts people. It transforms people's lives.
You may not feel it, you may not sense it, especially when you're coming here on a dark, cold day, when it's muddy, and it's the last thing you want to do. I dare say what you're doing is heroic. Because think about the people that these critical minerals impact and fuel. Think about the war fighter of today and tomorrow who wants to keep America safe. Think about our first responders who rely on electronic devices powered by your critical minerals. Think about everyday Americans who wake up every day and work hard for their families, and their factories are relying today on supply chains that are geared against them, right? All that changes with projects like NioCorp. All that changes with what we're doing today.
Not just a tremendous thank you to our partners at JPMorgan, and Traxys, and Lockheed Martin, and so many others, but thank you to President Trump, because what I can assure you, as Secretary Wright said it a moment ago, he has an unwavering commitment to re-industrializing America. Because re-industrializing America is at the core of being able to deliver the American Dream. Now, we've just been very fortunate to celebrate 250 incredible years of America's history. What we're doing here today, Mark, and thanks to you and your team, is we're starting to engineer, design, and, God willing, deliver the American Dream 2.0. That requires supply chain security, that requires economic security, and that will yield many, many more well-paying jobs like the thousands of jobs that you're supporting here today. Let's deliver the American Dream 2.0 together for at least another 250 years. Thank you.
Okay, now we're going to get the best speaker of the house, Jim Sims, to tell us what's next. But before you do that, you all have said some amazing things. The one thing that we know, and I want to really emphasize it, is it takes people. I can't believe what a great team of people we have at NioCorp and all the partners that we have here today. It takes a village, that's for sure. Jim, what are we doing next?
We're going to do a signing ceremony with EXIM and NioCorp over here. But I would note for the members of the news media, we're going to do an outside version of that signing ceremony down at the mine overlook. I would encourage the members of news media to start to head down, and Alex Guthrie will help you do that. This signing ceremony is for our live stream audience. We have, I think, a couple hundred thousand people watching us now. So we're going to proceed with that, and if everybody could kind of hang tight while the members of news media come out. We got a van out here, folks, for those of you that want to ride down there. So let's go ahead and have our signing ceremony. Mark?