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Item 3. Legal Proceedings

2025-04-15 compared with 2024-04-16 · 0 added, 91 removed, 33 unchanged (73% of the section changed)

11 unchanged sentences

adverse effect on the Company.

A prior owner of the Van 4 Mine had been

granted a first Temporary Cessation from reclamation of the mine by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board (“MLRB”)

which was set to expire June 23, 2017.

Prior to its expiration, PRM formally requested an extension through a second Temporary

PRM subsequently participated in a public process which culminated in a hearing on July 26, 2017.

Prior to the hearing,

three non-profit organizations who pursue environmental and conservation objectives filed a brief objecting to the extension.

MLRB board members voted to grant a second five-year Temporary Cessation for the Van 4 Mine.

Thereafter, the three objecting parties

filed a lawsuit on September 18, 2017.

The MLRB was named as the defendant and PRM was named as a party to the case due to the

Colorado law requirement that any lawsuit filed after a hearing must include all of the parties in the proceeding.

The plaintiff

organizations are seeking for the court to set aside the board order granting a second five-year Temporary Cessation period to PRM

for the Van 4 Mine.

The Colorado state Attorney General

was defending this action in the Denver Colorado District Court.

On May 8, 2018, the Denver Colorado District Court ruled in favor,

whereby the additional five-year temporary cessation period was granted.

The Plaintiffs appealed this ruling to the Colorado Court

of Appeals and on July 25, 2019 the ruling was reversed, ruling that the additional five-year temporary cessation period should not

have been granted.

The MLRB and the Colorado Attorney General advised

Western that it will not make an additional appeal of the ruling.

Further, the time period for an appeal has passed.

The Judge has subsequently

issued an instruction for the MLRB to issue an order revoking the permit and putting the Van 4 Mine into reclamation.

On January 22, 2020,

the MLRB held a hearing and on March 2, 2020, the MLRB issued an order vacating the Van 4 Temporary Cessation, revoking the permit and

ordered commencement of final reclamation, which must be completed within five (5) years.

The Company commenced reclamation of the Van

4 Mine but progress has been delayed both by COVID-19 restrictions and countywide fire and open flame restrictions.

The reclamation cost

is fully covered by the reclamation bonds posted upon acquisition of the property.

On February 4, 2020,

the Colorado DRMS sent a Notice of Hearing to Declare Termination of Mining Operations related to the status of the mining permits issued

by the state of Colorado for the Sunday Mine Complex.

At issue is the application of an unchallenged Colorado Court of Appeals Opinion

for a separate mine (Van 4) with very different facts that are retroactively modifying DRMS rules and regulations.

The Company maintains

that it was timely in meeting existing rules and regulations.

The hearing wa s scheduled to be held

during several monthly MLRB Board meetings, but this matter has been delayed several times.

The permit hearing was held during MLRB Board

monthly meeting on July 22, 2020.

At issue was the status of the five existing permits which comprise the Sunday Mine Complex.

COVID restrictions, the hearing took place utilizing a virtual-only format.

The Company prevailed in a 3 to 1 decision which acknowledged

that the work completed at the Sunday Mines under DRMS oversight was timely and sufficient for Western to maintain these permits.

subsequent July 30, 2020 letter, the DRMS notified the Company that the status of the five permits (Sunday, West Sunday, St.

Jude, Carnation,

and Topaz) had been changed to Active status effective June 10, 2019, the original date on which the change of the status was approved.

On August 23, 2020, the Company initiated a request for temporary cessation status for the Sunday Mine Complex as the mines had not been

restarted within a 180-day window due to the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accordingly, a permit hearing was scheduled

for October 21, 2020 to determine temporary cessation status.

In a unanimous vote, the MLRB approved temporary cessation status for each

of the five Sunday Mine Complex permits (Sunday, West Sunday, St.

Jude, Carnation, and Topaz).

On October 9, 2020, the MLRB issued a board

order which finalized the findings of the July 22, 2020 permit hearing.

On November 10, 2020, the MLRB issued a board order which finalized

the findings of the October 21, 2020 permit hearing.

On November 6, 2020, the MLRB signed an order placing the five Sunday Mine Complex

mine permits into Temporary Cessation.

On November 12, 2020, a coalition of environmental groups (the “Plaintiffs”) filed

a complaint against the MLRB seeking a partial appeal of the July 22, 2020 decision by requesting termination of the Topaz Mine permit.

On December 15, 2020, the same coalition of

environmental groups amended their complaint against the MLRB seeking a partial appeal of the October 21, 2020 decision requesting

termination of the Topaz Mine permit.

The Company has joined with the MLRB in defense of their July 22, 2020 and October 21, 2020

On May 5, 2021, the Plaintiff in the Topaz Appeal filed an opening brief with the Denver District Court seeking to

overturn the July 22, 2020 and October 21, 2020 MLRB permit hearing decisions on the Topaz Mine permit.

The MLRB and the Company

were to respond with an answer brief within 35 days on or before June 9, 2021, but instead sought a settlement.

The judicial review

process was delayed as extensions were put in place until August 20, 2021.

A settlement was not reached and the MLRB and the Company

submitted answer briefs on August 20, 2021.

The Plaintiff submitted a reply brief on September 10, 2021.

On March 1, 2022, the

Denver District Court reversed the MLRB’s orders regarding the Topaz Mine and remanded the case back to MLRB for further

proceedings consistent with its order.

The Company and the MRLB had until April 19, 2022 to appeal the Denver District Court’s

Neither the Company nor the MLRB appealed the Denver District Court ruling.

Subsequently on March 20, 2023, the MLRB issued

a board order for the Company to commence final reclamation, which upon completion will terminate mining operations at the Topaz

Reclamation is to commence immediately at the Topaz Mine and is to be completed within five years by March 2028.

is currently working toward the completion of an updated Topaz Mine Plan of Operations which is a separate federal requirement of

the BLM for the conduct of mining activities on the federal land at the Topaz Mine and needed to re-permit the Topaz Mine with

Colorado’s DRMS .

MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

20 unchanged sentences

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 3. Legal Proceedings