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Cliff's now.
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Cliff's now. Yeah, so it's pretty crazy to be having
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a scrap convention and be at Churchill Downs. It is.
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It is.
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Yes.
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One of the things, so let's talk about MI2 a
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little bit. Okay. I mean, I've mentioned that a couple
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times tonight already, and people are like, yeah, no, I
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don't really know about MI2. So just what is MI2?
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I mean, I know what it is because we're a
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member and we love MI2, but in your words, what
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is MI2? Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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So MI2 is a 501c3 nonprofit. We were started by
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the Cabinet for Economic Development and the large metals manufacturers
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in Kentucky. And really what they wanted to do was
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create an entity that was there to support the metals
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industry in Kentucky to help its growth, to solve problems,
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to do all of these things.
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And that's what we're here for.
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I found it extremely fascinating that metals industry in Kentucky
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is three times the size of the bourbon industry.
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And the bourbon industry is what everyone talks about.
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That's all we hear about.
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That's right.
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Bourbon industry is, and I love bourbon. You know, we're
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having some tonight, right? That's right. But to think about
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it being, so I, I've Gemini'd this. I don't know
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how big you are on AI, but I'm, I'm, I'm
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all in on Gemini right now. I nerd out a
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little bit, probably a little bit too much, but Gemini
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says that The bourbon industry is about $ 10. 5 billion. And
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metals is $ 30 something. So three times, I mean, it
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just blows my mind. When we had the governor's roundtable
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and we were talking about the size of the industry
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just a couple months ago, that's when I initially searched it.
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And I'm like, that is just unbelievable. Now, correct me
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if I'm wrong, but Kentucky is the largest... state as
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far as metals producer in the United States. Is that right?
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It is the fastest growing state. Okay. Yes. It is
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the fastest growing state for metals right now.
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And it is, it's just exploding because now we have
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so many companies coming to Kentucky precisely for what we're doing.
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And it's almost 20% of the GDP.
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Yeah.
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So to have, you know, such a focus on it,
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It's really supported by the state government as well.
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It is.
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I was really impressed by the way the governor and
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all of his administration just really pours into that. I
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was very, very, very impressed. Let's talk about, since we
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are here for recycling. Yes. At the governor's roundtable, it
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was also mentioned. Now, everybody knows Tunko is tungsten, but
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aluminum was a big subject.
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It is.
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And I found it a little bit discouraging that Kentucky
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is only like at a recycle rate of 15%.
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It's abysmally low. Yeah.
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Yes.
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So I think there's a project that we support called
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the Million Cans Project or something like that.
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Yes.
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So give me a little feedback on what that is.
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Well, you're about to get that email soon, too.
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Okay. All right. All right.
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But what it is is MI2 came in and we
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knew that we had to do better as a state
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with recycling all metals, but we're starting with that used
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beverage can because that's what people see the most.
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It is completely recyclable.
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It can be recycled throughout the life of that aluminum,
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which is permanent. And so it's really silly and sad
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to have them end up in a landfill. So we
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really want to raise that awareness. And that's something that
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we are focused on. So we're partnering with other agencies
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that have already been doing this good work for recycling
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to see if we can't boost that signal expand what's
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Load full transcript
happening in Kentucky with it and actually begin to make
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an impact on that circular economy with aluminum. And then
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we want to branch out a little bit and be
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able to do it with other metals and precious materials
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that do not need to be in a landfill.
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Right. One of the projects that we're working on is
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headed by the Urban Mining Initiative because it's like, you know,
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really when you think about the critical raw materials that
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we have, we have a lot that are in the
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urban areas. We don't even have to mine it.
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That's right.
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We just have to make sure that we are recouping
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it and that it's not ending up in a landfill somewhere.
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That's right.
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Now, Million Cans is also big on school programs, right?
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It is.
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And the purpose behind that is so that we begin
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to teach the next generations about recycling. I grew up
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in Michigan, so I grew up in a deposit state.
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And so I'm accustomed to taking things back to the store.
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And that's what I grew up with. And when you
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don't have that set up, you have to get families
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to understand why it shouldn't go in the trash can,
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why it needs to come back and be recycled. And
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that's why starting in the elementary schools is a great
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way to do that. So through the Million Cans program,
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they get books. Every student that participate gets a book
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and it teaches them about why to recycle, particularly aluminum cans.
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And then there's a contest and there's winners at the end.
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So it's just really fun for the students to be
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able to learn about recycling while they're collecting cans.
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Yeah, that's great. That's excellent to get the kids involved
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in that. One of the things that we're working on
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at Tunko, you may have even seen some of the
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media posts that we've been doing. Have you heard about
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Project 74?
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I've heard a little bit about it.
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Yes.
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So it's pretty exciting right now. We're going to be
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one of the first state-of-the-art tungsten chemical processing plants in
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the United States, working with the federal government on that.
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And we'll be able to supply the defense industrial base
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with the materials they need to make all kinds of components.
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It could be things that go boom. One of the
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big things that people don't think about with Tungco or
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with tungsten in particular is with chip manufacturing. So when
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people are like, hey, what's tungsten in? If you have
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something that has a chip in it, it actually has
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a coating of tungsten on that. So project 74 will
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go towards the defense industrial base and helping reshore the tungsten.
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As of right now, a lot of it does go
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offshore because we don't have enough production capacity. So like
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right now where we don't have a good recycling rate
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on aluminum, we actually have a really good recycling rate
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on tungsten, but we don't have enough capacity to be
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able to produce the material. So project 74 will actually
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increase the defense industrial base production by about 15% on
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the domestic base. So we're pretty excited about that. And
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hopefully in the coming months, you're going to be hearing
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a lot more about project 74. Now I'm Tungsten. We've
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talked a little bit about aluminum, but just so we know,
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the mi2 is all metals yes so if you if
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you're out there and you're in the metals world you
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need to take a look at mi2 for sure and
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especially obviously if you're in kentucky yes and then so
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if somebody wants to find out a little bit more
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about mi2 i think we've got a trade show coming
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up maybe do yes and give just tell me a
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little bit about where would i go to find out
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more about mi2.
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Sure So it's the Kentucky industry conference that's coming up.
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It's going to be in Lexington. It will be October
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14th and 15th. So we're really looking forward to being
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there and gathering. We're also going to be doing the
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final parts of our InnoSearch contest, where we have been
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looking for problems from the metals industry, solutions from the
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value providers, and then those combinations that create things like
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pilots and really measurable metrics for these solutions that can
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make a difference in the metals industry. And if anybody
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wants information about us or the conference, they can go
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to our website, which is M, M as in Mary, I,
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the number two, KY.org.
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Awesome. Awesome. Well, it was really great to have a
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sit down chat with you. And I'm super happy that
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we were introduced a few years ago. Love MI2, love
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being on the board and everything that MI2 has going.
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And it's awesome to be part of that in Kentucky.
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Well, it's likewise.
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We really recognize that Tungco walks its talk and really
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invests in the things that matter. So it is definitely
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mutual appreciation on that. So we are glad to have
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you part of the team.
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All right. I think I actually see a bourbon and
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cigar on that billboard out there.
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Yes.
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So maybe we'll go have another.
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Sounds good. Thanks for having me.
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Appreciate it. Cliff's now. Cliff's now. Cliff's now. Cliff's now.