Iofina CEO maps out route to 2,000 tonnes of annual iodine production as IO#12 comes online

So if IO-12 produces between 170 and 220 metric tons, that's about a fifth of our of our production. So it's a pretty big uh, increase in our production on a year-on-year basis.

Hello, you're watching Proactive. I'm joined by Dr. Tom Becker, the CEO of Iofina. Tom, very good to speak with you. IO-12's now commissioned. Brine is flowing. When do you expect it to reach commercial production and how quickly can it ramp up?

Yeah, Stephen, thanks. Um, yeah, IO 12 exciting news today that we handed over IO 12 to our operations team, which is now um, going through water testing and all the you know, safety measures that we have to when we start up a new plant. So we're taking uh brine water, produced brine water from our partner Western Midstream, pushing it through our plant, testing all of our systems. Uh the ramp up to these kind of um plants, these new plants are generally weeks kind of periods of time, but they're they differ from plant to plant. So we anticipate um, IO 12 contributing not only in October for but for the rest of the year.

Now, Tom, IO-12's your largest plant yet. It's targeting 170 to 220 tons of iodine a year. How significant could it be for production and profitability?

Yeah, so, you know, we expect once IO 12 comes online that our general um, annual kind of production from all of our plants including IO 12 will be at that about a 1000 metric ton kind of run rate. So if IO 12 produces between 170 and 220 metric tons, that's about a fifth of our of our production. So it's a pretty big uh increase in our production on a year-on-year basis and so we expect that to move up into the sales and profitability of the company. And, you know, I I will say that, you know, we are very excited about IO 12 being the first iodine production plant in the Permian basin and there are a lot of other opportunities not only with our current partner, with other partners in the in the Permian region. So, I I believe the future is bright in the Permian basin for Iofina and iodine production.

IO-11's new brine pipeline is complete but water supply issues affected third quarter outputs. Have volumes recovered and are you confident the plants can now deliver as planned?

Yeah, so, so in our, um, our our plants in Oklahoma, we did have, um, a little bit less production than we anticipated in the third quarter. And we have ups and downs in our production from all from time to time, whether it's due to maintenance issues or whether it's brine supply issues that uh don't allow us to have as much brine water at our plants, um, from time to time. And, you know, in the first half of the year, the plants performed over what was expected. Um, and we were able to work with our partners to get even more brine water. In the in the third quarter we had some maintenance issues on our side. Um, there was a saltwater disposal well, um, that one of our partners was working on that caused some production issues. And we're working with partners to bring uh back some uh supply to these legacy plants. So, not all the supply is back to where it was in the first half of the year, but a significant portion of it has, um, increased and we're we're working with our partners to get that production back uh to more normalized levels. And what I can say is that, you know, our legacy plants in Oklahoma have done really well year over a year kind of basis over the last number of years to produce consistent amounts of iodine. and we anticipate that moving forward.

And Tom, with IO-13 and IO-14 planned for Oklahoma, you're targeting 2,000 tons of annual iodine production. What are the key milestones from here and is the end of 2027 growth plan still on track?

Yeah, we're we're on track for 2027 kind of growth plans and we we said stated that over the next few years we hope to get to that 2,000 metric ton kind of level. And with IO 12 coming online and being at about that 1,000 metric ton run rate. And with the um third quarter uh announcement that we do have agreements for IO 13 and 14 and that we're going to build them at the same time, um, it will push us towards that target of uh 2,000 metric tons. We won't we won't hit that in 2027, but in 2028 and 2029 when we build new plants will be at that 2,000 metric ton level. So very excited about the added capacity that we're putting in um, to Ifina, not only in Oklahoma but in the Permian basin for IO 12 and we anticipate uh future plans will get us to that 2,000 metric ton uh mark very shortly.

Yeah. Tom, I hope you'll continue to keep us updated with your progress. Thank you for your time today.

Thanks, Stephen.

That's Dr. Tom Becker, the CEO of Iofina.