Cash and Cash Equivalents

The Company has reported $1.3 million and $3.2 million in Cash and cash equivalents on the Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024 respectively. The Company maintains cash balances at financial institutions which may exceed federally insured limits. The Company has not experienced any losses in such accounts and believes it is not exposed to significant credit risk.

The Company considers all highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents.

Long-Term Investments

Investments in equity securities are generally measured at fair value. Gains and losses for equity securities resulting from changes in fair value are recognized in current earnings. If an equity security does not have a readily determinable fair value, the Company may elect to measure the security at its cost minus impairment, if any, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for an identical or similar investment in the same issuer. At the end of each reporting period, the Company reassesses whether an equity investment security without a readily determinable fair value qualifies to be measured at cost less impairment, considers whether impairment indicators exist to evaluate if an equity investment security is impaired and, if so, records an impairment loss.

Investment in Golden Gryphon Explorations Inc.

Long-term investments at December 31, 2025 and 2024 consist of approximately 1.7 million shares of Golden Gryphon Explorations Inc. (“GGE”). In 2019, the Company entered into an earn-in agreement with GGE for the Sand Canyon project located in northwestern Nevada. In August 2022, pursuant to the second amendment to the earn-in agreement by which the earn-in period was extended an additional year, the Company purchased approximately 1.5 million shares of GGE’s common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $225,000. In August 2023, the Company purchased approximately 200,000 shares of GGE’s common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $40,000.

For a description of the earn-in agreement with GGE, see “Exploration Properties — Sand Canyon” in Item 1 of our Form 10-K.

The GGE investment is accounted for at cost less impairment pursuant to ASC 321 “Accounting for Equity Interests” as there is no ready market for the shares and it is recorded as non-current investments on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Company concluded it was impractical to estimate fair value due to the absence of a public market for the stock. The Company identified no events or changes in circumstances that might have had a significant adverse effect on the carrying value of the investment and have therefore not recorded any impairment against the asset.

Credit Risk

The Company invests substantially all of its excess cash with high credit-quality financial institutions or in U.S. government or debt securities. Credit risk is the risk that a third party might fail to fulfill its performance obligations under the terms of a financial instrument. For cash and equivalents and investments, credit risk represents the carrying amount on the balance sheet. The Company mitigates credit risk for cash and equivalents and investments by placing its funds and investments with high credit-quality financial institutions, limiting the amount of exposure to each of the financial institutions, monitoring the financial condition of the financial institutions and investing only in government and corporate securities rated “investment grade” or better. The Company invests with financial institutions that maintain a net worth of no less than $1 billion and are members in good standing with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.