Niocorp Developments Ltd (NB)

[stark12]

Thank you, Walter, for elaborating. I understand the reasoning and I am supportive of the collaboration with Nanoscale to develop these alloys as originally announced here: https://www.niocorp.com/niocorp-launches-phased-approach-to-commercial-production-of-made-in-america-aluminum-scandium-master-alloy/. There have been some subsequent press releases on the progress of this collaboration.

I view this as a worthwhile endeavor. If our ability to secure financing is dependent on this endeavor then it becomes necessary to devote the required resources to further the primary/core endeavor which is to mine critical elements. However, there is something troubling about this new "requirement." It suggests that previous feasibility studies misread the scandium market. The project scope keeps getting bigger and bigger, the can keeps getting kicked further down the road, all with promises of eventual payoff.

Our stock value has plummeted. Have we been mislead going from niobium only to niobium/scandium/titanium to niobium/scandium/titanium/REE and now to niobium/scandium/titanium/REE/scandium-aluminum alloy? The alloy was never required with previous promises of imminent financing, plans A,B,C,D, etc. All the while operational costs continue to result in dilution. More delay, more dilution has been a consistent reality, especially for long-term shareholders.

Yes, I am a believer in the project and that it will eventually happen, but if this latest focus on scandium alloying is the latest excuse for lack of financing, I find that unacceptable. I feel like a mule chasing a dangling carrot.

Furthermore, from what has been previously stated, the CAPEX for this Nanoscale phased development collaboration is supposed to be independent from the updated feasibility study. We are waiting for the long-ago promised REE final recovery rates from the demonstration plant. (Without explanation from management about why it is taking so long!) That updated FS will have to include scandium calculations. Are we to conclude that these scandium calculations are contingent on the Nanoscale alloying collaboration? That seems like a shell game to me. Aren't the REE financial implications, improved titanium numbers, etc. supposed to make the project more attractive to financiers? Now we need Sc-Al alloy offtakes to secure financing? I'm having a hard time with that kind of rationale.

This leads me back to my position of working on completing the updated FS without devoting any resources to other endeavors that slow completion of the FS.