[Music] Welcome to CEO Insights. I'm Marilyn de Guzman with investingnews.com. I'm speaking with Nicholas Kakos, president and CEO of Blue Sky Uranium. Hi, Nico. Hi. How are you? Good. Good to see you again. Likewise. So, let's start our conversation with, you know, what's happening uh right now with your Ivana deposit project. you have a strategic partnership with COAM for the Ivana uh uranium venadium deposit. Can you talk about the details of this partnership and how it aligns with Blue Line Blue


Skye's long-term objective? Oh, this is a very uh this is a huge milestone for Blue Sky, our uh the agreement that we struck early finalized rather earlier this year with COAM which is shortand for corporation Americas. This this uh business group is one of the most important business groups in Argentina. Um they are besides being involved in a number of uh diversified businesses including mining. They are have a reputation for getting things done uh under budget ahead of schedule and uh and and capable in terms of being able


to navigate through the regulatory process so that we can take our Iana uranium deposit and uh take it through the pre-development phase. very uh to the feasibility study at which they need to spend up to $35 million uh US and then uh if a when a construction decision is made to go forward and put the project into production, they're responsible for funding up to $ 160 million US uh putting it into production. Basically giving Blue Sky and our shareholders um a free ride all the way through into production. So they


get to earn 80% by spending upwards of around $200 million and we get basically 20% carried interest. So, it's a it's a very good uh transaction for Blue Sky. And uh and as far as our long-term objectives go, it achieves the first long-term objective of uh creating a pathway here uh that can take us right through to production and allows us now to begin to look at and focus on our other 100% own projects that we have and and uh work on, you know, coming up with a second uranium discovery. It's


exciting times. So before we uh I guess move on to uh you know discuss your other projects, let's uh expand a little bit on uh discussion on the Ivana deposit. What sort of timelines are you looking at? Um and what are the next steps in in advancing this deposit? Well, it's basically two major milestones. First milestone is uh that COM needs to achieve is to spend the $35 million US to and present uh a feasibility study. Now the feasibility study to typically could take two or three years but what we're looking at


here and already we made an announcement uh earlier this month in which we're trying to fasttrack that. Um the budget for this year has been doubled and uh what that means is we're hoping in the next 12 to 18 months to produce the feasibility study so that we can make a production decision be in a position rather to make a production decision at a much sooner time. H you're obviously you're operating um in Argentina last year it the country has enacted the basis law which establishes the


framework for economic and social reforms which also includes the incentive uh regime for large investments. How do these pal policy shifts in influence your operations and your investment decisions in that region? Yeah, they they have a tremendous effect actually on large investments. uh it creates a very very favorable tax uh regimen for investments that are north of $200 million. But beyond that uh the new government here of Malay has made Argentina very business friendly. They've cut a lot of


regulatory tape uh and we're and they've been able to stabilize the economy. They've stabilized the Argentine peso. They have tamed inflation which was really running rampant in that country. um it's created an environment that's very attractive for international business. So what we've seen in the last little while is you know BHP real like just to quote in the mining space that have come back into Argentina and committed billions of dollars of investment there and in other industries


as well. So Argentina is becoming um a very favorable business destination and by virtue of the fact that we're already there we already are known to the government we're known you know, in in the industry. It gives us, I think, a leg up in knowing how to operate there and pairing up with a partner like KOM, I think, gives us a real edge uh over other newcomers. Right. And this is probably a good time to discuss your other projects in in that region. Um, can you provide updates on the exploration activities in the Corovu,


Chuidos, and your your projects over there? And yeah, how do these fit in the company's broader exploration strategy? Yeah, I mean over the last uh while few years we've been really focusing on the Iana deposit uh from discovery in 2017 and getting it to the preliminary economic assessment stage and then transacting that project to allow it to move forward and you know to head towards production. Um but what I lies in a district known as the Amaro Grande. It's a district that's basically it's a


corridor over 145 km in length and 50 km wide. It really is quite enormous. It comprises of over 300,000 hectares. So the the van is represents a very very small section of it that's been joint venture. The balance of the property uh is wide open. We own it 100%. There are uh many occurrences of uranium mineralization there. And in fact uh there's an opportunity here to make multiple Iana discoveries just in this district alone. Beyond that we also have projects in in the province to the south


at Chiboot uh province. Uh we have our uh exploration licenses there. Um they're earlier stage and Chaboot is making some changes to its mining code right now. So we'll be able to uh assess and resume exploration there. And then in the province of Mendoza, most people I think will appreciate that this is where all the great wine in Argentina comes from. It was just last year when I was speaking with the governor, he mentioned that they're making changes to their code as well to permit uh mining


in that province, including uranium mining. So, we've made some moves there. We've acquired some projects there, and we're currently doing some work on these projects, and um you know, we'll we'll be reporting those results as they come in. So we have a lot on our plate beyond what we have with Ivana. There's a lot of depth to the company and these other projects are all 100% owned. So a lot of blue sky here. Right. So you've also recently closed an overs subscribed non-brokered private placement. How will


the proceeds be allocated and what does this indicate about investor confidence in Blue Sky? Well, yes, we did close a financing. uh the proceeds uh go to fund some of the exploration work that we're doing specifically in the Menosa province and for general working capital. So um going forward now as we begin to assess the changing environment in Argentina for more favorable investment, we'll be we're structuring our budgets and uh we'll be uh announcing sort of what our exploration


plans are for some of the more promising projects that we've got there. As you know, you know, global uh there's been a global push towards and nuclear energy um and uh recent policy shifts for countries to start building up their capacity. Um how does Blue Sky uh position I think our investors would probably be interested to know how you're positioning yourself to capitalize on this increasing demand for uranium. Well, yeah, there definitely nuclear uh power, electricity generated by nuclear means is really one of the


only ways we can generate base load uh stable, cheap uh and reliable energy and safe too, I might add. Um so as the power needs now begin are projected to increase uh dramatically uh with the advent of uh new data centers and AI and and and electric vehicles and all the electrical um components that are coming into place. There's a huge increase in the demand for electricity and it's projected to continue to increase. Where are we going to get how are we going to generate all this increased electricity?


We know we're moving away from burning coal and burning oil and gas. Um, wind power and solar energy are intermittent. Batteries play maybe a role to help uh ease off this intermittency, but really the most efficient way to do it is with nuclear power. So, the demand, the buildout now for nuclear uh facilities around the world, reactors is is skyrocketing. They're being built all over the place. Just this week, we heard from the United States. They're looking to almost quadruple the amount of


nuclear energy that's electricity that's generated by nuclear power in the United States. So, there's a huge projected demand that's expected to last and continue on for decades. But you need uranium to power all this fuel. So, where does the uranium come from? It's uranium is more limited than most people realize. And you have to also look at you know uranium that can be sourced from geostrategically uh reliable and safe countries. You know in the past we relied on Kazakhstan or or Russia to to


get nuclear power to get uranium. These places are proving presenting uh the west with a a bit of a security risk. But a place like uh Argentina uh which is uh strategically located in the western hemisphere uh is is a favorable destination friendly and uh and now we're seeing with uh what we're making you know these these discoveries of uranium there's potential here to supply not just Argentina with uranium but also other countries here United States and Canada and so forth right and then with


Argentina too do you I think um although they have an established um nuclear energy program, they really don't have a you know uranium production uh infrastructure as of now. But are you seeing signs that that's going to change soon that they're going to start producing? What are you seeing? Well, that's us. Um you're right. Argentina has a very sophisticated actually very well reggarded nuclear industry and and they have a history that goes right back into the 50s almost as long as the


United States nuclear industry. But although they're active in every facet of the nuclear cycle, what they don't have, you're right, is production. They don't produce, they import all their nuclear, all their uranium. What we have just with the our project, it represents the largest and most advanced project nuclear uranium project in Argentina today. So we aim to as the our fasttracking is to become Argentina's first domestic supplier of uranium and to become a net exporter as we make


additional discoveries there. That's great. We'll leave it at that. Thanks again, Nico, for taking the time to speak with me. Thank you very much. Been a pleasure. And thanks everyone for watching. Join us again next time for another edition of CEO Insights.