Comstock NYSEAMERICAN: LODE executives said the company ended the second quarter of 2026 with a stronger balance sheet, completed major capital spending on its first industry-scale solar panel recycling facility and remains focused on monetizing legacy mining and real estate-related assets.
Chief Financial Officer Judd Merrill said Comstock ended the quarter with approximately $31.4 million in cash and no debt. Total working capital was $39.9 million, based on $58.1 million in current assets and $18.2 million in current liabilities.
Merrill said the company expects another $20 million in cash in August upon closing a securities purchase agreement tied to the sale of 100% of its legacy mining assets to Mackay Precious Metals. He said the transaction would also remove mining reclamation liabilities, bonding requirements and related costs from Comstock’s balance sheet, while allowing the company to retain upside through net smelter return royalties across the district and equity in Mackay.
“The mining sale will also eliminate annual costs of about $1.4 million and free our capacity to focus more on the recycling business,” Merrill said.
Capital Deployment Focused on Metals and Sierra Springs
Merrill said Comstock’s largest source of cash during the first half of the year was its January equity financing, which generated approximately $56 million in net proceeds. The company also generated nearly $6.5 million in additional proceeds, including more than $2 million from mining asset sales, $1.8 million from debt extinguishment-related recoveries and $2.6 million in solar panel recycling revenue, including deferred revenue from Comstock Metals.
On the spending side, Merrill said the company invested approximately $21 million into Sierra Springs, enabling the closing of more than 2,200 acres of land and nearly 2,000 acre-feet of water rights. The investment increased Comstock’s ownership in Sierra Springs to nearly 50%, according to the company.
Comstock also spent approximately $5 million completing its first industry-scale metals recycling facility, $1.3 million expanding product upgrade capabilities, approximately $1.4 million advancing new metals recovery technologies and approximately $3 million on metals operating costs as operations ramped.
Merrill said Comstock was added to the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes in late June, which the company views as a step in strengthening its institutional capital base.
Solar Panel Recycling Facility Set to Begin Continuous Operations
Chief Executive Officer Corrado De Gasperis said Comstock’s first industry-scale solar panel recycling system is expected to begin ramping in August after final testing and commissioning. He said the system is designed for 100,000 tons of annual capacity and that the company expects to operate at about 25% capacity initially.
De Gasperis said the company’s process is designed to remove contaminants and produce clean, saleable materials, including glass and metals. He said Comstock’s product upgrade systems are already operating and have been stress-tested, allowing the company to produce higher-specification glass while recovering additional residual materials.
Merrill said the company’s new storage area is graded, fenced and ready to open, with total panels on the ground and ready for processing approaching 9,000 tons. De Gasperis later said panels are stored across sites including California and Ohio, but the company is not disclosing volumes by location.
In response to investor questions, Merrill said the metals operation begins generating cash from an operational standpoint when the first plant reaches a little more than 20% capacity. He said the company-wide cash flow threshold from plant one is roughly 40% to 50% of operations.
De Gasperis said Comstock is not guiding beyond 25% capacity for the year-end ramp, though he said the company has incentives to push higher. “Getting to 25% proves what most people are looking to see,” he said, citing whether the machine works reliably and profitably at the line-of-business level.
Management Discusses Customers, Competition and Future Sites
De Gasperis said Comstock continues to engage with large customers in the utility segment and has been adding offtake agreements. He said customer demand today is smaller than what the company expects as deployed solar panels mature and reach end of life.
Asked about competitors, De Gasperis said the company still sees alternatives such as landfilling or shredding panels and shipping materials overseas, but said Comstock does not see another company with a comparable science-based system that can produce clean materials and scale to the same extent.
Comstock is also evaluating additional site opportunities. De Gasperis said the company has selected sites two and three, is close to selecting a fourth, and is looking at Ohio, northern Nevada, Texas and the East Coast. He emphasized that site selection is not the same as deploying production capital, and that Comstock will not order equipment for the next facility until the first system is operating and ramping successfully.
The company is also advancing a one-ton-per-day metals recovery pilot system intended to test extraction of silver and other metals from industrial tailings generated by its recycling process. De Gasperis said Comstock hopes to know more about silver recovery before the end of the year, but said it is premature to discuss silver yields.
Sierra Springs Monetization Effort Advances
Comstock executives spent a significant portion of the call discussing Sierra Springs, which De Gasperis described as a potentially valuable industrial land and infrastructure opportunity in northern Nevada. He said the consolidated land, water and power position is intended to attract counterparties involved in major industrial and compute-related development.
De Gasperis said Sierra Springs has secured an initial precedent agreement tied to 50,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas, which he said could translate to up to 300 megawatts of power. He said Comstock is also positioned for a potential follow-on opportunity that could bring the total to at least 1.2 gigawatts, though the later opportunity has not yet come to formal bid.
De Gasperis said the company expects to launch a marketing effort later this summer and believes it can structure transactions before year-end, although he noted that potential counterparties may require 90 to 150 days of due diligence.
Bioleum Strategy Recalibrated
De Gasperis said Bioleum has been operating more quietly as Comstock prioritizes the metals business, the mining asset sale and Sierra Springs. He said Bioleum’s strategy has been recalibrated following the acquisitions of RenFuel and Hexas, with a focus on integrating feedstock and conversion technologies into a “farm-to-fuel” platform.
De Gasperis said the company does not expect revenue from Bioleum generating fuels in 2027, but does expect revenue from Bioleum generating materials for fuels and from Hexas. He also said Comstock expects to pursue capital at the subsidiary level, potentially through non-dilutive sources and third-party investment, before the end of the year.
Asked about Bioleum impairments recorded in the quarter, De Gasperis said they were non-cash and tied to intellectual property that is no longer strategic to Bioleum’s focused plan. Merrill said the company’s investment carrying value increased to approximately $67 million even after the non-cash impairment.
About Comstock (NYSEAMERICAN:LODE)
Comstock Mining, Inc NYSE: LODE is a growth-oriented mineral exploration and production company focused on the historic Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada. The company’s primary business activities include the development, extraction and sale of gold and silver from its flagship Lucerne project. Comstock leverages modern mining techniques and infrastructure to access high-grade ore bodies in one of North America’s most renowned silver-gold districts.
In addition to its core precious metals operations, Comstock Mining maintains a commercial real estate division centered in Virginia City’s historic district.
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