NYSE:MUX McEwen Mining Q1 2025 Earnings Report $7.43 -0.40 (-5.12%) As of 12:12 PM Eastern This is a fair market value price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast McEwen Mining EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.12Consensus EPS -$0.14Beat/MissBeat by +$0.02One Year Ago EPSN/AMcEwen Mining Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$35.70 millionExpected Revenue$39.06 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$3.36 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AMcEwen Mining Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2025Date5/7/2025TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateThursday, May 8, 2025Conference Call Time11:00AM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptQuarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by McEwen Mining Q1 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 8, 2025 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 6 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Welcome to McEwen Mining's First Quarter twenty twenty five Operating and Financial Results Conference Call. Present from the company today are Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner William Shaver, Chief Operating Officer Perry Ng, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Chan, Vice President Finance Stephane Spears, Vice President Corporate Development Michael Medding, Vice President and General Manager of McEwen Copper and Carmen Diaz, General Counsel and Secretary. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Rob McEwen, Chief Owner. Operator00:00:45Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:46Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome, fellow shareholders, analysts and interested investors. Year to date, 2025 has been an eventful year for us with the higher prices of gold, silver and copper brightening the outlook Speaker 200:01:03for our Speaker 100:01:03operations. We've increased our liquidity by using a financial instrument called a capped call convertible note. This instrument allowed us to reduce potential share dilution by setting an effective conversion price of at 100% premium to our share price at the time of the transaction. The majority of these funds will be used to advance the development of our Fox Complex, And we expect that once this work is completed and the Stock And Grey Fox mines are in production, our consolidated annual production in 02/1930 could reach as high as 225,000 to 255,000 ounces. This represents an increase of over 80% above our current production. Speaker 100:02:00So let's start with some other good news. It's taken some time, but our 49% interest in the San Jose mine has once again paid a dividend, and we're expecting more during the balance of the year. During the quarter, we were delighted to see Gold Bar produce 10% more gold than budgeted at a cash cost 24% below the low end of our annual guidance at $11.46 dollars as opposed to the low end of our guidance of $1,500 However, I expect you will be alarmed when you see Gold Bar's all in sustaining cost per ounce of approximately $2,200 an ounce. I want to explain this high number. It was a result of our decision during the quarter to access a gold zone that had been uneconomic at lower gold prices, but was quite economic at today's gold prices. Speaker 100:03:12So we decided to accelerate the stripping rate in the first half of this year. And so far, that's cost us about $7,500,000 in order to increase our production and lower our all in sustaining costs in the second half of the year. Financially, Q1 twenty twenty five compares well to Q1 twenty twenty four. I'll give you some examples. Our gross profit was up 68% to CAD10.1 million. Speaker 100:03:47Our adjusted EBITDA was up 38% to CAD8.7 million. Our cash and cash equivalents increased to CAD68.5 million from CAD17.5 million. Our consolidated working capital increased to $61,000,000 as opposed to a negative 6,500,000.0 Our total debt went up to $130,000,000 from $40,000,000 Our debt cost of service went from 9.5% to 6%. And our net debt is currently standing at just over $42,000,000 So speaking of our Fox Complex, it was a disappointing quarter from an operational perspective because production was lower than budget and cost per ounce were unacceptably higher than budget. However, many of the reasons for the under underperformance are expected to be behind us with production and cost per ounce for the balance of the year looking much improved. Speaker 100:05:05Speaking of Fox, on a positive note, we just received our permit to construct a ramp to the underground at the Stock Mine. This is a key element in our plans for the Stock Complex expansion. So we have exploration going on, active programs at both the Fox Complex and at Gold Bar, and we will be releasing updates on that throughout the year. We just put out a release earlier today on our exploration showing, particularly at the Grey Fox, how that resource has been growing quite rapidly. Some good grades over nice intercepts, quite optimistic that this still has quite a bit more room to grow. Speaker 100:06:05And with that, I'd like to open the session for questions. Operator00:06:26And your first question comes from the line of Mike Kozak from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open. Speaker 300:06:33Yes. Good morning. Hi, morning, and team. Thanks for hosting the call. I just really had one question. Speaker 300:06:41How much cash or cash plus investments is held within the copper subsidiary? Speaker 200:06:50Gary? Hi, Mike. So currently, the treasury for McEwen Copper is below GBP 10,000,000 currently. Obviously, we expect to announce another financing at some point as we move towards the publication of the feasibility study. But currently, cash balances held at McHugh and Coffer level are relatively minimal. Speaker 300:07:17Okay. And then my follow-up to that is that $10,000,000 do you think that's enough to get you to get that feasibility study complete? And then is it still I think the schedule is still there for July ideally? Speaker 200:07:33We will likely need some additional runway to get to July, Mike. I mean, we just finished a geotechnical program at sites. Sites went down, so costs have come down significantly. But ideally, we'd like to complete another round prior to the feasibility study. Speaker 300:07:58Okay. That's it for me. I'll turn it over. Thank you. Speaker 100:08:02Thanks, Operator00:08:08Your next question comes from the line of Bill Powers, Private Investor. Your line is open. Speaker 400:08:14Hi Rob. Thanks for hosting the call. A few quick questions. I guess we'll start with San Jose. As far as getting a $2,200,000 dividend during the quarter, It still seems as though, as I talked about last time, there still seems to be over $80,000,000 of working capital. Speaker 400:08:37Have Hopfield given any indication on what they may be paying out? I would imagine have you talked about regularly quarterly dividends with them? Or what's the status? Speaker 200:08:53Sure. I can answer that as well, Bill. No, we're in regular dialogue with Hochschilds. There is a focus to extend mine life at San Jose. So it's going to be a balance between reinvesting in the mine, especially with silver prices above $30 and gold where it is. Speaker 200:09:15Between continued exploration, return to shareholders and setting aside some funds for rainy day and closure, it's going to be a balancing act. And right now, terms of the Argentine peso, it's right now very strong right now. So that has a negative impact on reported U. S. Dollar cash costs. Speaker 200:09:40But we are optimistic. We think the mine the mill expansion to 2,000 tonnes per day with the installation of the Verde mill has been performing very well. And that allows us to increase throughput and lower unit costs, which effectively lowers our cutoff grade at the mine. So all those things are important to us, but we do expect to receive further dividends this year at these commodity price levels. Speaker 400:10:14Okay. Good to hear. I guess one of the things I saw on your updated information sheet regarding the Fox Complex is that it looks like there's about $71,000,000 of spend for development this year. Speaker 500:10:31I was Speaker 400:10:32wondering how far along, I guess, percentage wise, are you complete with before you begin production? And is there any production expected to come from stock this year? Or what could be the status of that? Speaker 500:10:50Yes, Bill. Bill Shaver here. I'll answer that for you. Yes, we anticipate that we will have the first production from the underground portion of the stock mine in the last quarter of this year. The permit that we got a few days ago allows us to start the drilling and blasting of the ramp. Speaker 500:11:18And we now have obviously the final design of that ramp and we anticipate that we'll have the ramp down sometime late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter. And at the same time, we have the shaft now dewatered down below the 400 level. And we're in the midst now of doing the surveying, making sure that all the headings are safe and properly bolted and so on to the standard that's required today. And the plan is to do some exploration type work, sampling and so on underground in the old workings because we know that mine was shut down when the gold price was relatively low. And we're confident that there's some a certain amount of ore down there that we can extract fairly quickly. Speaker 500:12:22So as soon as we get the ramp broken through so that we can load trucks from the underground, that will allow us to go ahead with that work. And then as we go into next year, we'll ramp stock up to its full production capability. Speaker 400:12:44Okay. That is good to hear. I guess, one last question regarding Grey Fox. You guys have done a lot of drilling, seems to be going well. I guess what is the time frame? Speaker 400:12:55And what might you envision the cost to put the Gibson ramp back into production? Speaker 500:13:01So that's a very good question. So we're just in the midst of starting a study on that, what the capital costs are going to be, what the operating costs are going to be and what the exact strategy is for number one, getting the permit in as timely a manner as possible. And then number two, what's that going to look like in terms of a mine plan and capital. And I guess the opening of the mine, the Grey Fox mine, I mean, we're right now we're studying which is the best access method, should we be talking about an underground operation or should we be talking about a small open pit. And both of those options are viable. Speaker 500:14:01So now it's a question of deciding which one is the, you know, the cheapest and the fastest. So the the plan initially for, for that part of the property, Grey Fox and the associated other ore bodies around there would be to bring that ore back to the stock mill. And it's relatively high grade and therefore we would establish some cash flow. And then the next step would be what is the long term potential of Grey Fox, which we see as pretty robust. So then we would want to increase the tonnage through a process plant that would be significantly larger than the stock mill. Speaker 500:15:03So that's another part of this study that we're working on. And I guess I see a mine that's running at 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes a day. And then we need a tailings facility and so on. And I guess the major thing we have to think about in terms of the ultimate timeframe for putting that together is how long is the permitting going to take. And so that's something that we're actively working on. Speaker 500:15:40And as we've all heard from our governments at both federal and provincial levels that they're going to speed up the permitting process. At the present time, based on historical time frames, that would take about three years. We're hoping that, that might get down to eighteen months to two years would be, I think, an optimistic view of that, and that's kind of what we're hoping for. Speaker 400:16:13Okay. No. That's very helpful. And so basically, the time frame of getting it would depend on a mine. I'm guessing the it would require a fair bit of work since it has not been I'm guessing hasn't been active for quite some time. Speaker 500:16:33Well, that area, in fact, has a ramp there, an exploration ramp that was driven many years ago, to tell you the truth. I don't know exactly when it was, but it's approximately ten years ago. And so there's a significant amount of development to bringing a new mine into operation there. The positive thing about that area is the depth of the overburden is insignificant. We have ore right at surface you know, that we understand, you know, that we could be mining, like, within months of getting a permit. Speaker 500:17:13So so I think there's lots of really good things about the ore body that's out at Great Fox. And the drilling that we're doing right now continues to expand the resources that we have there. And you know, we've just spent a couple of days up there reviewing the the drilling and the exploration program, and, you know, we're very, very positive about what's going to happen up there, you know, based on our success up to now. Speaker 400:17:47Okay. That's great. Thank you so much for all your time today. Speaker 100:17:50Thank you, Bill. While we're pausing, operator, one thing I'd like to bring up that I didn't mention in my introductory comments was something that's going to happen to our financials. Our income statement is going to look better once the feasibility study for Los Azules has been published, which will be this summer. It's going to improve because we won't be needing to include the expenses of McEwen Copper and Los Azules in our income statement any longer once the feasibility is published. That expense will be capitalized under accounting standards. Speaker 100:18:54And so it will improve our bottom line. And over the period of the last few years, I think Jeff is going to tell us how much we've had to incorporate in our income statement for the expenses of losses. And that but that will be removed, which I think is a good thing. We've invested heavily to increase the value of Los Azules, and we've paid the price of showing a negative bottom line for quite a while as a result of those investments. Speaker 300:19:33Yes. So just to expand on what Rob just mentioned. At the end of the first quarter, we reported negative $6,300,000 in net income and capitalizing the expenditures of McEwen Copper would have resulted in a positive net income of $2,300,000 rather than a negative. If we take a look at the last few years of expenditures since 2021, we've spent over $250,000,000 in McEwen copper that we could have capitalized onto our books should we have hit feasibility four years ago. Thank you, Jack. Operator00:20:12And there are no my apologies. There are no questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to you, Rob McEwen, for some final closing remarks. Speaker 100:20:23Thank you, operator. When I look at it, it's been an interesting year so far. I think it's going to get more exciting. From an operational standpoint, we're still not quite there in terms of where we want to be with respect to performance, but that's on the right track to be repaired. As I said, from a financial standpoint, we've improved our liquidity. Speaker 100:20:56We have the money to advance the project at Fox, and that's going to have a big impact on our future. Although a couple of years away, but that's moving ahead. Exploration is delivering encouraging results. And so there'll be active news coming out on exploration each quarter. And I believe price of gold is going higher. Speaker 100:21:19So for a company like such as ourselves, higher gold is good price for us. Thank you. Operator00:21:27And this concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallMcEwen Mining Q1 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsQuarterly report(10-Q) McEwen Mining Earnings HeadlinesMcEwen Mining: The Future Is Golden at Grey FoxMay 8 at 7:05 AM | finanznachrichten.deThe Future Is Golden at Grey FoxMay 7 at 6:53 PM | globenewswire.comAltucher: Turn $900 into $108,000 in just 12 months?We are entering the final Trump Bump of our lives. But the biggest returns will not be in the stock market.May 8, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)High Grade Results and Rising Forecasts Reignite Momentum in Gold MinersMay 7 at 11:00 AM | baystreet.caMcEwen Mining (MUX) Exercises Warrants to Fund Pardo Gold Project | MUX Stock NewsMay 6 at 12:06 PM | gurufocus.comInventus Announces Early Warrant Exercise by McEwen Mining and Begins Grade Control Drilling at PardoMay 6 at 7:12 AM | financialpost.comSee More McEwen Mining Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like McEwen Mining? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on McEwen Mining and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About McEwen MiningMcEwen Mining (NYSE:MUX). engages in the exploration, development, production, and sale of gold and silver. It also explores for copper deposits. The company owns 100% interests in the El Gallo and Fenix projects located in Mexico; and the Black Fox Mine and Stock Mill, Grey Fox, and Froome and Tamarack properties in Canada. It also owns interests in the Fuller, Davidson-Tisdale, Buffalo Ankerite, and Paymaster exploration properties located in Canada; and a 49% interest in the San José mine located in Argentina. In addition, the company owns 100% interests in the Gold Bar and Tonkin properties located in Eureka County, Nevada; and interests in the Los Azules copper project located in the cordilleran region in the province of San Juan, Argentina. The company was formerly known as US Gold Corporation and changed its name to McEwen Mining Inc. in January 2012. McEwen Mining Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.View McEwen Mining ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Upwork's Earnings Beat Fuels Stock Rally—Is Freelancing Booming?DexCom Stock: Earnings Beat and New Market Access Drive Bull CaseDisney Stock Jumps on Earnings—Is the Magic Sustainable?Uber’s Earnings Offer Clues on the Stock and Broader EconomyArcher Stock Eyes Q1 Earnings After UAE UpdatesFord Motor Stock Rises After Earnings, But Momentum May Not Last Broadcom Stock Gets a Lift on Hyperscaler Earnings & CapEx Boost Upcoming Earnings Enbridge (5/9/2025)Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras (5/12/2025)Simon Property Group (5/12/2025)JD.com (5/13/2025)NU (5/13/2025)Sony Group (5/13/2025)SEA (5/13/2025)Cisco Systems (5/14/2025)Toyota Motor (5/14/2025)NetEase (5/15/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. 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There are 6 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Welcome to McEwen Mining's First Quarter twenty twenty five Operating and Financial Results Conference Call. Present from the company today are Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner William Shaver, Chief Operating Officer Perry Ng, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Chan, Vice President Finance Stephane Spears, Vice President Corporate Development Michael Medding, Vice President and General Manager of McEwen Copper and Carmen Diaz, General Counsel and Secretary. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Rob McEwen, Chief Owner. Operator00:00:45Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:46Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome, fellow shareholders, analysts and interested investors. Year to date, 2025 has been an eventful year for us with the higher prices of gold, silver and copper brightening the outlook Speaker 200:01:03for our Speaker 100:01:03operations. We've increased our liquidity by using a financial instrument called a capped call convertible note. This instrument allowed us to reduce potential share dilution by setting an effective conversion price of at 100% premium to our share price at the time of the transaction. The majority of these funds will be used to advance the development of our Fox Complex, And we expect that once this work is completed and the Stock And Grey Fox mines are in production, our consolidated annual production in 02/1930 could reach as high as 225,000 to 255,000 ounces. This represents an increase of over 80% above our current production. Speaker 100:02:00So let's start with some other good news. It's taken some time, but our 49% interest in the San Jose mine has once again paid a dividend, and we're expecting more during the balance of the year. During the quarter, we were delighted to see Gold Bar produce 10% more gold than budgeted at a cash cost 24% below the low end of our annual guidance at $11.46 dollars as opposed to the low end of our guidance of $1,500 However, I expect you will be alarmed when you see Gold Bar's all in sustaining cost per ounce of approximately $2,200 an ounce. I want to explain this high number. It was a result of our decision during the quarter to access a gold zone that had been uneconomic at lower gold prices, but was quite economic at today's gold prices. Speaker 100:03:12So we decided to accelerate the stripping rate in the first half of this year. And so far, that's cost us about $7,500,000 in order to increase our production and lower our all in sustaining costs in the second half of the year. Financially, Q1 twenty twenty five compares well to Q1 twenty twenty four. I'll give you some examples. Our gross profit was up 68% to CAD10.1 million. Speaker 100:03:47Our adjusted EBITDA was up 38% to CAD8.7 million. Our cash and cash equivalents increased to CAD68.5 million from CAD17.5 million. Our consolidated working capital increased to $61,000,000 as opposed to a negative 6,500,000.0 Our total debt went up to $130,000,000 from $40,000,000 Our debt cost of service went from 9.5% to 6%. And our net debt is currently standing at just over $42,000,000 So speaking of our Fox Complex, it was a disappointing quarter from an operational perspective because production was lower than budget and cost per ounce were unacceptably higher than budget. However, many of the reasons for the under underperformance are expected to be behind us with production and cost per ounce for the balance of the year looking much improved. Speaker 100:05:05Speaking of Fox, on a positive note, we just received our permit to construct a ramp to the underground at the Stock Mine. This is a key element in our plans for the Stock Complex expansion. So we have exploration going on, active programs at both the Fox Complex and at Gold Bar, and we will be releasing updates on that throughout the year. We just put out a release earlier today on our exploration showing, particularly at the Grey Fox, how that resource has been growing quite rapidly. Some good grades over nice intercepts, quite optimistic that this still has quite a bit more room to grow. Speaker 100:06:05And with that, I'd like to open the session for questions. Operator00:06:26And your first question comes from the line of Mike Kozak from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open. Speaker 300:06:33Yes. Good morning. Hi, morning, and team. Thanks for hosting the call. I just really had one question. Speaker 300:06:41How much cash or cash plus investments is held within the copper subsidiary? Speaker 200:06:50Gary? Hi, Mike. So currently, the treasury for McEwen Copper is below GBP 10,000,000 currently. Obviously, we expect to announce another financing at some point as we move towards the publication of the feasibility study. But currently, cash balances held at McHugh and Coffer level are relatively minimal. Speaker 300:07:17Okay. And then my follow-up to that is that $10,000,000 do you think that's enough to get you to get that feasibility study complete? And then is it still I think the schedule is still there for July ideally? Speaker 200:07:33We will likely need some additional runway to get to July, Mike. I mean, we just finished a geotechnical program at sites. Sites went down, so costs have come down significantly. But ideally, we'd like to complete another round prior to the feasibility study. Speaker 300:07:58Okay. That's it for me. I'll turn it over. Thank you. Speaker 100:08:02Thanks, Operator00:08:08Your next question comes from the line of Bill Powers, Private Investor. Your line is open. Speaker 400:08:14Hi Rob. Thanks for hosting the call. A few quick questions. I guess we'll start with San Jose. As far as getting a $2,200,000 dividend during the quarter, It still seems as though, as I talked about last time, there still seems to be over $80,000,000 of working capital. Speaker 400:08:37Have Hopfield given any indication on what they may be paying out? I would imagine have you talked about regularly quarterly dividends with them? Or what's the status? Speaker 200:08:53Sure. I can answer that as well, Bill. No, we're in regular dialogue with Hochschilds. There is a focus to extend mine life at San Jose. So it's going to be a balance between reinvesting in the mine, especially with silver prices above $30 and gold where it is. Speaker 200:09:15Between continued exploration, return to shareholders and setting aside some funds for rainy day and closure, it's going to be a balancing act. And right now, terms of the Argentine peso, it's right now very strong right now. So that has a negative impact on reported U. S. Dollar cash costs. Speaker 200:09:40But we are optimistic. We think the mine the mill expansion to 2,000 tonnes per day with the installation of the Verde mill has been performing very well. And that allows us to increase throughput and lower unit costs, which effectively lowers our cutoff grade at the mine. So all those things are important to us, but we do expect to receive further dividends this year at these commodity price levels. Speaker 400:10:14Okay. Good to hear. I guess one of the things I saw on your updated information sheet regarding the Fox Complex is that it looks like there's about $71,000,000 of spend for development this year. Speaker 500:10:31I was Speaker 400:10:32wondering how far along, I guess, percentage wise, are you complete with before you begin production? And is there any production expected to come from stock this year? Or what could be the status of that? Speaker 500:10:50Yes, Bill. Bill Shaver here. I'll answer that for you. Yes, we anticipate that we will have the first production from the underground portion of the stock mine in the last quarter of this year. The permit that we got a few days ago allows us to start the drilling and blasting of the ramp. Speaker 500:11:18And we now have obviously the final design of that ramp and we anticipate that we'll have the ramp down sometime late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter. And at the same time, we have the shaft now dewatered down below the 400 level. And we're in the midst now of doing the surveying, making sure that all the headings are safe and properly bolted and so on to the standard that's required today. And the plan is to do some exploration type work, sampling and so on underground in the old workings because we know that mine was shut down when the gold price was relatively low. And we're confident that there's some a certain amount of ore down there that we can extract fairly quickly. Speaker 500:12:22So as soon as we get the ramp broken through so that we can load trucks from the underground, that will allow us to go ahead with that work. And then as we go into next year, we'll ramp stock up to its full production capability. Speaker 400:12:44Okay. That is good to hear. I guess, one last question regarding Grey Fox. You guys have done a lot of drilling, seems to be going well. I guess what is the time frame? Speaker 400:12:55And what might you envision the cost to put the Gibson ramp back into production? Speaker 500:13:01So that's a very good question. So we're just in the midst of starting a study on that, what the capital costs are going to be, what the operating costs are going to be and what the exact strategy is for number one, getting the permit in as timely a manner as possible. And then number two, what's that going to look like in terms of a mine plan and capital. And I guess the opening of the mine, the Grey Fox mine, I mean, we're right now we're studying which is the best access method, should we be talking about an underground operation or should we be talking about a small open pit. And both of those options are viable. Speaker 500:14:01So now it's a question of deciding which one is the, you know, the cheapest and the fastest. So the the plan initially for, for that part of the property, Grey Fox and the associated other ore bodies around there would be to bring that ore back to the stock mill. And it's relatively high grade and therefore we would establish some cash flow. And then the next step would be what is the long term potential of Grey Fox, which we see as pretty robust. So then we would want to increase the tonnage through a process plant that would be significantly larger than the stock mill. Speaker 500:15:03So that's another part of this study that we're working on. And I guess I see a mine that's running at 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes a day. And then we need a tailings facility and so on. And I guess the major thing we have to think about in terms of the ultimate timeframe for putting that together is how long is the permitting going to take. And so that's something that we're actively working on. Speaker 500:15:40And as we've all heard from our governments at both federal and provincial levels that they're going to speed up the permitting process. At the present time, based on historical time frames, that would take about three years. We're hoping that, that might get down to eighteen months to two years would be, I think, an optimistic view of that, and that's kind of what we're hoping for. Speaker 400:16:13Okay. No. That's very helpful. And so basically, the time frame of getting it would depend on a mine. I'm guessing the it would require a fair bit of work since it has not been I'm guessing hasn't been active for quite some time. Speaker 500:16:33Well, that area, in fact, has a ramp there, an exploration ramp that was driven many years ago, to tell you the truth. I don't know exactly when it was, but it's approximately ten years ago. And so there's a significant amount of development to bringing a new mine into operation there. The positive thing about that area is the depth of the overburden is insignificant. We have ore right at surface you know, that we understand, you know, that we could be mining, like, within months of getting a permit. Speaker 500:17:13So so I think there's lots of really good things about the ore body that's out at Great Fox. And the drilling that we're doing right now continues to expand the resources that we have there. And you know, we've just spent a couple of days up there reviewing the the drilling and the exploration program, and, you know, we're very, very positive about what's going to happen up there, you know, based on our success up to now. Speaker 400:17:47Okay. That's great. Thank you so much for all your time today. Speaker 100:17:50Thank you, Bill. While we're pausing, operator, one thing I'd like to bring up that I didn't mention in my introductory comments was something that's going to happen to our financials. Our income statement is going to look better once the feasibility study for Los Azules has been published, which will be this summer. It's going to improve because we won't be needing to include the expenses of McEwen Copper and Los Azules in our income statement any longer once the feasibility is published. That expense will be capitalized under accounting standards. Speaker 100:18:54And so it will improve our bottom line. And over the period of the last few years, I think Jeff is going to tell us how much we've had to incorporate in our income statement for the expenses of losses. And that but that will be removed, which I think is a good thing. We've invested heavily to increase the value of Los Azules, and we've paid the price of showing a negative bottom line for quite a while as a result of those investments. Speaker 300:19:33Yes. So just to expand on what Rob just mentioned. At the end of the first quarter, we reported negative $6,300,000 in net income and capitalizing the expenditures of McEwen Copper would have resulted in a positive net income of $2,300,000 rather than a negative. If we take a look at the last few years of expenditures since 2021, we've spent over $250,000,000 in McEwen copper that we could have capitalized onto our books should we have hit feasibility four years ago. Thank you, Jack. Operator00:20:12And there are no my apologies. There are no questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to you, Rob McEwen, for some final closing remarks. Speaker 100:20:23Thank you, operator. When I look at it, it's been an interesting year so far. I think it's going to get more exciting. From an operational standpoint, we're still not quite there in terms of where we want to be with respect to performance, but that's on the right track to be repaired. As I said, from a financial standpoint, we've improved our liquidity. Speaker 100:20:56We have the money to advance the project at Fox, and that's going to have a big impact on our future. Although a couple of years away, but that's moving ahead. Exploration is delivering encouraging results. And so there'll be active news coming out on exploration each quarter. And I believe price of gold is going higher. Speaker 100:21:19So for a company like such as ourselves, higher gold is good price for us. Thank you. Operator00:21:27And this concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by