ASP Isotopes Inc. Common Stock Emerging Growth Conference
Review the key takeaways and the transcript of this earnings call.
Transcript
Preview the first fifteen paragraphs, organized by speaker.
Welcome back, everyone. Next, we have ASP Isotopes Inc., trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol ASPI, and is developing a differentiated isotope enrichment platform to strengthen global supply chain access to critical materials used in nuclear medicine, next-generation semiconductors, and nuclear energy. Happy to welcome CEO, Paul Mann. Welcome to the conference, Paul. We are very much looking forward to hearing your presentation today.
Great. Thanks for your interest, and it's good to be back again. We'll move on straight onto the slide deck. Today, we've got a few slides of forward-looking statements. If you could just review these, that'd be fantastic. Also please refer to our SEC filings for a complete set of risk factors and forward-looking statements and to see the most up-to-date developments at the company. Our goal is to strengthen access to critical materials and specifically these, we have two processes to make isotopes, aerodynamic separation process and quantum enrichment, and we have a large helium project in South Africa as well to bring helium to the market. The goal over the next 6 months is to bring most of these divisions into commercial production, start generating revenues and free cash flows, and then start to grow, build new plants.
In terms of the industries we operate in, it's mainly kind of electronics, nuclear medicine, and nuclear fuels. I would describe the company as having four verticals, and I'll run through each of these now. Today, we're actually going to take a different step to what we normally do in these things. We're going to do a deep dive into Venogen and helium today. Here's the corporate setup. You'll see it to the left we have PET Labs, and this focuses on radioisotopes and delivering nuclear medicine to people with cancer and other ailments. PET Labs is growing great. We achieved over 50% revenue growth during the first half of the year. Revenue should double in 2026 versus 2025. When we invest in PET Labs, we typically don't see the pickup in revenues for a couple of years.
We're really at this point now where revenues are starting to accelerate and build momentum over the next sort of 3 or 4 years. It's very exciting. We are, I would say, right at the start of a new therapeutic cycle in pharmaceuticals where we use radioisotopes to treat cancer. It's a great runway ahead there. Within PET Labs, we also have Alpha Theranostics, and Alpha Theranostics has developed a number of proprietary drugs to treat cancer, and they will go into clinical trials later this year. There'll be lots of news on PET Labs over the next 12 or 18 months or so. Within ASP Isotopes, we've built three stable isotope facilities in South Africa, one for silicon-28, one for carbon-14, and one for ytterbium-176. These are all in the process of starting up and being commissioned at the moment.
The silicon-28 plant is the one that most people are focusing on right now. We've put together the first 48 stages. We're putting together the final 48 at the moment. That plant is enriching silicon-28 at the moment. These are both going to nuclear medicine and into the electronics industry for next generation semiconductors. Renergen will be actually the focus of today's presentation and that focuses on producing helium and energy. We've got a very unique asset in South Africa that can produce helium and energy. We actually started that plant up this week. That plant should start producing free cash flow by the end of the year, with first product going to customers during September. That's the expectation there. Quantum Leap Energy focuses on nuclear fuels for the future, specifically High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium, lithium-6, lithium-7, LEU+, and the kind of nuclear fuels the world needs to build to double its nuclear capacity over the next 25 years or so.
Our goal is to spin Quantum Leap Energy out later this year, ideally in the third quarter. We filed the S-1 for that in November. I think we'll be pretty much there with the review process. This just shows the industries we operate within, electronics, nuclear medicine, and nuclear energy. All of these are growing rapidly and a lot of these are shaping the future of the world. In terms of our operational milestones for the next six months or so, we expect to ship our first silicon-28 during the second half of the year.
That plant is enriching right now. Actually we'll talk more about that later on in the presentation. Carbon-14 is currently producing carbon-12. We're still waiting for the sufficient quantity of carbon-14 feedstock to start commercial production of carbon-14. That should happen during the second half of the year. Ytterbium-176, we're expecting the continuous processing vessel, which allows us to produce large quantities of ytterbium-176. We're expecting to have that built during September. That's a fairly quick enrichment from that point. We also expect to ship helium and LNG during the third quarter and start generating quite a lot of free cash flow from that towards the end of the year. Phase 2, we'll start construction during the second half of the year as well. Phase 2 is 13 times the size of phase 1. Expect to see continued growth in radiopharmaceuticals.
As I mentioned earlier, our first clinical candidate is going into humans during the next several months. Today I'm going to focus on the electronics sector and do a deep dive into electronics. I think in the next one we do with you guys, we'll do nuclear medicine. Then we'll do Quantum Leap Energy. Our helium asset is very unique. When we drill for helium, we get about 3% helium in the gas. Typically when you drill for natural gas in the U.S., you get about 0.4% helium. In Qatar you get about 0.04% helium. This is a very unique asset. We have the only onshore petroleum production right in South Africa. As I said, we've completed phase 1. We started production this week and we expect to start phase 2 during the second half of the year.
This is designated a strategic asset by both the South African government and the U.S. government. We have secured a significant amount of capital for phase II from the U.S. government and from Standard Bank, about three-quarters of a billion dollars. As I say, this is one of the few assets of its like in the world. We announced back in July that we intend to merge this asset into a NASDAQ company called ENDRA Life Sciences, and this will then become the focus of that company. This will become the first helium pure-play company listed on NASDAQ. It is actually producing helium, so it is very exciting. It is a very unique asset, helium. I will talk a bit more about helium now.
Helium is unique in that it is chemically inert and it is a zero viscosity as a liquid and as a gas and it is very good for sterilizing and sanitizing certain things. It has got a very low density and has a boiling point at extremely low, minus 270 degrees Celsius. Here you will see the end markets that helium is used in. I think what is driving significant growth right now in the helium market is really semiconductors and rocketry. You cannot launch a Falcon 9 or a SpaceX Starship without a large amount of liquid helium. It is the propellant that pushes the fuel out of the rocket. You cannot make a semiconductor without liquid helium. It is used in a number of industries globally.
It is about a $3 billion market. You will see over the last 20 years or so, 10, 15 years or so, the U.S. strategic reserve has dropped from being about a third of global supply to almost zero. Coincident with that, the prices have escalated from 200 up to more like $400 or $500 per MCF. We expect this growth to continue as the GDP plus type demand growth. If you look here, about a third of the world's helium production used to come from Qatar, or comes from Qatar, about 15% or so from Russia. If you look at the demand and supply-demand imbalances, America is broadly balanced in terms of supply and demand. If you look at Asia and Europe, both are significantly out of place in terms of their needs and the supply.
We think it is likely we are entering the fifth helium supply crisis. What has happened since the start of the year is that Iran has damaged Qatar's gas processing facilities, and so Qatar has had to shut down its LNG and helium production. The Strait of Hormuz is also closed, so they cannot get anything out of Qatar to the rest of the world. When Qatar tries to restart its LNG facilities, it may take some time, and we do understand that some of those facilities are impaired for a number of years rather than just a number of months. Additionally, Russia has introduced helium export controls. It will no longer be exporting helium to the rest of the world. Almost 50% of the world's helium supply is currently not available for customers.
I was in Asia earlier on this year, and there are some very nervous semiconductor companies that need helium that are concerned that they are not going to be able to get it in the amount they need. Not so much concerned about the price, just more concerned about the quantity and the amount. This will be interesting to see how the second half of the year plays out. We are in the process of starting up our plant at the moment to help supply some of this market. We cannot supply the whole lot, but help supply some of it. This asset is very unique. This is probably the highest concentration of commercially scalable helium found on the globe. It is vast, multigenerational asset. The location of it makes it extremely efficient to ship around the world. This is also the lowest carbon footprint for incremental helium production.
It is very unique. It was formed about 2 billion years ago when two meteorites, two asteroids hit planet Earth at exactly the same point, one 3 billion years ago and one 2 billion years ago. What you have below the surface of the ground is a large concentrated source of uranium about 5 miles below the Earth's surface. That undergoes radioactive decay and produces helium, which is then trapped in the upper portion of the rock. That is how I got there. Our acreage is where this red kind of patch is on the map, and if you look at the pink bit in the middle, that is the center of where the meteorite hit the planet. This is our resource that we have. Our proven reserves are basically in this middle yellow polygon that is drawn there.
We expect to start exploring the outer parts and doing another reserve analysis later on this year. Phase one and phase two combined use about half the yellow box in the middle. So we expect to have plenty of acreage and supply for phase three and a phase four and a phase five if we think the market requires that. This just shows the scale of what we have here. Our 1P reserves are basically about the same size as what the U.S. federal helium system is, the reserve is. It is a vast reserve for many generations to come. South Africa is actually an ideal place to ship helium from. When you are shipping helium, about 1% evaporates or turns off into a gas every day you are shipping it. So shipping distances matter. Cape of Good Hope is a great place to ship to all four corners of the world, actually.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Continue the full translated transcript in StockNow.
Access every statement, the English original, and speaker-by-speaker history with StockNow Pro.
View the full transcript with ProCall participants
2 people spoke on this call — only 1 are shown here.
PARTICIPANT LIST
View participant details in StockNow.
Log in to see executives and analysts, their roles, and complete speaking history.
Log in to view all participantsKeep exploring
