Americas Gold and Silver Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 11, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Production in Q2 reached 689,000 silver ounces, a 54% increase quarter-over-quarter, driven by a 34% jump at Galena and a 103% surge at Cozola.
  • Positive Sentiment: Closed a $100 million senior secured debt facility and an $11.5 million private placement alongside a five-year offtake agreement, boosting cash to $62 million.
  • Positive Sentiment: Rolled out long hole stoping at Galena with new drills, loaders, and infrastructure upgrades to enhance safety, productivity, and reduce unit costs.
  • Negative Sentiment: Reported a net loss of $15 million in Q2, up from $4 million a year ago, reflecting heavy investment in revitalizing Galena and transitioning EC120 at Cozola alongside lower base metal revenues.
  • Positive Sentiment: Metallurgical test work achieved up to 96% antimony recovery and 99% silver recovery from tetrahedrite, positioning the company as a potential only U.S. antimony producer.
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Earnings Conference Call
Americas Gold and Silver Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 4 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the America's Gold and Silver second quarter twenty twenty five conference call. This call will be recorded and will be available for viewing from the events page of our website later today. Now without further ado, I'll pass the call over to America's Chairman and CEO, Paul Hewitt, so that we can get started.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Maxim. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to our second quarter conference call. With me today on the call will be our CFO, Warren Varga, who will walk through the financial highlights of the quarter. Also with me on the call is Oliver Turner, our Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, who will take us through some important corporate highlights.

Speaker 1

I'll start out today by covering some key elements of our growth before turning the call over to Warren. Please note that we will be referencing a slide deck, which is being shared through the webcast of this call. So over to slide three. The normal cautionary notes. Before I begin the presentation, I would like to remind you to please review our cautionary statements regarding forward looking information and non GAAP measures.

Speaker 1

These statements can be found in our second quarter MD and A news release and in our presentation slides. Now over to Slide four. Let me begin by expressing our continued confidence in the path we're forging as a company and the strides we're making to achieve our goals. Throughout '25, the Americas team has been tirelessly focused on strengthening our foundation. We've bolstered our balance sheet, allowing us to invest in our business and begin to implement the operational enhancements we've identified to set up for a sustained production growth.

Speaker 1

Our our mission remains clear, to responsibly maximize the value of our assets through disciplined execution and strategic investment. This quarter, we've prioritized much needed equipment upgrades across our sites, adding new jumbos, bolters, and scoops to our fleet. Additionally, renewed exploration efforts are already revealing high grade opportunities near existing workings. Over to slide five, Maxim. At the corporate level, we've continued to make great progress.

Speaker 1

In '25, we significantly strengthened our balance sheet by closing a $100,000,000 US dollars senior secured debt facility with SAF, a world class financial partner whose support underscores our value creation vision. Finalized in June, this term loan facility provides the capital we need to fuel our ambitious growth strategy, particularly at the Galena complex. In addition to the term loan facility, we secured a five year offtake agreement for 100% of Galena's production. As part of this agreement with Teck Resources and Ocean Partners, we also completed a private placement of 11 and a half million dollars at 95¢ per share, representing a significant premium at the time of approximately 14% to our twenty day volume weighted average price. This agreement not only provides us with the revenue certainty, but also includes improved terms for byproducts credits for byproducts such as copper, antimony, and gold.

Speaker 1

Under this agreement, we will no longer be penalized for some of these byproducts. Instead, we will pave the way to begin being paid for them. This is a significant financial advantage that further supports our growth strategy and positions us well to achieve our goal of becoming a leading North American silver producer. The term loan facility is a cornerstone of our strategy to increase development rates, boost tonnages mined, and also reduce unit costs at the Galena complex. It's enabling us to execute a multiyear growth plan that includes and we'll just go over to slide six, please.

Speaker 1

First and foremost, something we're very excited about, the introduction of long hole stoping. We have developed and mined our first long hole stope at Galena. We've mobilized a brand new long hole drill at Galena, and now we're actively drilling and pursuing other long hole areas at Galena. This method offers tremendous safety improvements, higher productivity rates, lower costs, increased backfill capacity, and reduces the the amount of waste we have to skip out of the mine compared to the previous conventional underhand cut and fill approaches that we did with jack lights. Just for example, we could be drilling one long hole stope that could have 7,000 tons, and that was our first stope, just under 7,000 tons.

Speaker 1

Historically, we've been drilling and blasting, with jack legs underhand cut and fill. They were about 50 to 70 tons each blast. So we're going from drilling and blasting 50 to 70 tons with a handheld jackleg to using the long haul method that can have stopes up towards 7,000 tons. So a huge, huge shift in in momentum for us. Number two, the expansion of our underground fleet equipment.

Speaker 1

We've already acquired 10 new piece of equipment, seven loaders and three trucks, all supporting productivity gains and cost reductions as we start implementing and ramping up the long haul stoping. And the third and and my my extremely important thing is the major infrastructure upgrades. We're advancing trade off studies on materials handling to optimize underground productivity and hoisting schedules alongside major upgrades like the new hoist motor for the number three shaft, which is scheduled for installation in the 2025. I'm actually quite pleased that during a recent site visit last week, we were able to see the components have arrived on-site, and therefore, phase one of our shop upgrades will begin in q three. Phase two is scheduled to be done in the fourth quarter, which is setting us up for 2026.

Speaker 1

This financing ensures that we have the balance sheet strength to sustain robust production growth over the coming years, positioning Galena as a key driver of our success. Over to slide seven, please, Maxim. Switching specifically to production, we achieved a standout performance in q two. On a consolidated basis, we produced just under 700,000 ounces. It was rated at 689,000 silver ounces, a remarkable 54% increase from the 446,000 ounces in q one.

Speaker 1

This leap reflects the dedication and skill of our teams across our operations, setting a strong foundation for the year. At Galena, we've seen a 34% quarter over quarter silver production, growing, to 420,000 ounces. This success stems from extensive operational enhancements, including time studies, engineering work, and productivity focused projects. The introduction of the new equipment and the commencement of long hole stoping have been pivotal, delivering safer and more efficient mining methods. Our team's efforts are unlocking Galena's vast potential, and we're on track to further increase output once our upgrades to the shaft are completed later this year.

Speaker 1

At Cozola in Mexico, our team delivered an extraordinary 103% production increase over q one, contributing 269,000 silver ounces in q two. This growth reflects outstanding execution as we transition towards the high grade silver copper EC one twenty on schedule for commercial production by the 2025. EC one twenty promises to significantly enhance our silver output and free cash flow, reinforcing Kosala's role in our portfolio. These strong production results paired with our fortified balance sheet position us exceptionally well to meet our 2025 goals. We're building momentum across our operations, and we look forward to sharing more as we advance our development and drilling programs.

Speaker 1

Now let's dive specifically into Galena first and foremost. At Galena and in Mexico, safety is the cornerstone of our operations. And I'm in I'm incredibly proud of our Galena's team's unwavering commitment to this principle. Their outstanding performance was showcased at the recent May mine rescue competition in Kellogg, Idaho, where the team earned first place in rope rescue, first place in benchman contest, and second place in the technician event. One of our engineers, Nicole Henderson, was honored as benchman of the year and tied for the inaugural Central Mine Rescue MVP award, recognizing her mastery of mine rescue protocols and leadership both on and off the field.

Speaker 1

These achievements highlight the strength and dedication of our Galena crew. As previously mentioned earlier on the call, Galena produced 420,000 silver ounces in q two, meeting our internal expectations. We've advanced to fifty five one seventy nine decline, opening access to new stopes and successfully mining our first long haul stope. New loaders and trucks are boosting productivity while ventilation improvements, including the first Alimac raise and ongoing second raise, enhance our underground conditions. The upcoming number three shaft hoist motor upgrades in the second half will further increase capacity, targeting sorry, targeting our increased rate of approximately a 110 to a 118 tons per hour versus the 42 tons per hour that we actually inherited six months ago.

Speaker 1

Over to slide nine. Now discussing some of our recent test work with metallurgical breakthroughs having potential to add significant value at Galena. In May, we reported that test work by SGS Canada achieved 90 to 96% recoveries on antimony and 98 to 99% recoveries from the tetrahedrite material. With concentrates grading 18 to 19% antimony and 600 ounce per ton silver, that that's tremendous results that we're already seeing from this test work. This puts us on a pathway to potentially become the only US producer of antimony, a critical mineral for the defense and energy sections, especially after China's September 2024 halt on, incoming antimony into The US.

Speaker 1

Obviously, we're not stopping there. The next step in enhancing our value creation potential from antimony is through ongoing test work being conducted by Alahi's engineering, which is focused on treating our concentrate to produce multiple saleable antimony products. Historically, antimony was recovered from Galena ore, so we have strong technical precedent for recovery test work that's currently underway. Over to slide 10, please. At our coastal operations in Mexico, we have a team of experts led by our general manager, Gabriel So to, who has been consistent with his standard of safety and productivity.

Speaker 1

During the second quarter, silver production was just under 270,000 ounces of silver, which was a 103% higher than in q one. This was alongside 1,500,000 pounds of zinc and point 2,000,000 pounds of lead. Higher EC one twenty grades drove this this silver surge. Though base metal though base metal output dipped as we continued our transition from San Rafael, it is important to note that the higher lead and zinc base metal output of San Rafael, which will switch to a higher silver and copper as we move into the EC one twenty, which is scheduled to happen in q four of this year. We're accelerating EC one twenty development toward its high grade silver copper core with production increases expected through the '25, as I mentioned.

Speaker 1

San Rafael's remaining, sorry, remaining stopes continue to offset costs during this shift. EC one twenty's preproduction contributed 8,300,000.0 to revenue with 211,000 silver ounces produced. We're on track for commercial production by year end, significantly boosting our silver output and, more importantly, our cash flow. Now before I hand the call over to Warren to go over our financial highlights, I'd like to welcome Shirley Intervalb to our board of directors. Missus Intervel brings over thirty years of experience in senior management and board positions across the mining, renewables, and energy sectors.

Speaker 1

Her extensive background includes serving as a director for companies such as Westgold, Develop Global, and more recently, Corora Resources, where she was the director on our team, as well as leadership roles at Burvey Energy and Alcoa in Australia. Her expertise strengthens our board and will be invaluable as we continue to continue to execute our growth strategy. Over to slide 11, and now I'll pass the call over to Warren, our chief financial officer.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. This morning, we released our Q2 twenty twenty five financial results. Our unaudited, condensed, interim, consolidated financial statements and MD and A for the three and six months ended 06/30/2025, are available on our website and under America's Gold And Silver's profile on SEDAR plus and EDGAR. Revenue was $27,000,000 down from $33,000,000 in Q2 twenty twenty four due to the noted lower zinc and lead production as we focused on the EC120 development where we will see higher silver and copper output compared to the San Rafael Mine. Silver sales grew with realized price of $34.22 per ounce.

Speaker 2

We produced 689,000 silver ounces and 839 silver equivalent ounces, including 1,500,000 pounds of zinc and 1,900,000 pounds of lead. Costs were approximately $28 per silver equivalent ounce for cost of sales, dollars 26.64 per silver ounce for cash costs and $32.89 per silver ounce for all in sustaining costs, down almost $3 from last quarter's, with continued reductions expected as production volumes rise. Our net loss was $15,000,000 an increase from $4,000,000 in Q2 twenty twenty four, driven by our investment in the revitalization of the Galena mine, the transition to EC120 at Khozala, increasing precious metal prices on metals based liabilities, non recurring, non cash corporate G and A expenses connected with the addition of critical technical personnel and the reconstitution of the Board of Directors and lower net revenue from the decreased base metals production previously noted. This loss was partially offset by lower interest and financing expenses and higher foreign exchange gains as well as very strong silver revenue performance. The adjusted loss was $12,000,000 and the adjusted EBITDA was a $4,000,000 loss.

Speaker 2

Our cash balance soared to $62,000,000 this quarter, an increase of 53,000,000 from Q1, mainly due to the first $50,000,000 tranche of our $100,000,000 term loan facility with SAF Group and the $11,500,000 offtake financing with Ocean Partners. Working capital improved to $10,000,000 from a $29,000,000 deficit at year end 2024. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Oliver Turner.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Warning Warning, and hello, everyone. I'm pleased to share some significant developments in our corporate strategy that are enhancing America's visibility in the market and positioning us for continued growth. In July, we hosted our first external group analyst tour with nine different sell side groups attending a two day visit to Galena. The tour tour was very successful, and we were able to show the group many of the positive developments and productivity improvements Paul mentioned earlier as we execute this investment year into our Galena operations. Later this year, we also look forward to hosting our first buy side tour and welcome inquiries from a very strong shareholder base.

Speaker 3

Over to slide 14. In terms of our results, I'd like to highlight a key achievement in this quarter. 82% of our revenue came from silver. In fact, this surpasses our short term goal of reaching over 80% exposure to silver by the 2025, demonstrating that we're well on track to becoming a leading North American silver producer. While this percentage will shift slightly over the coming quarters as we transition into new mining areas with variable base metals, byproduct credits.

Speaker 3

It is a strong indicator of our progress and the effectiveness of our silver focused strategy. And, look, no matter which way you cut it, investing into our company is one of the best ways you can place silver in this very exciting market that we're currently experiencing. Over to slide 15, I'd like to address our upcoming share consolidation, which will see every 2.5 America's shares exchanged for one America's shares. As apparently as previous by our shareholder vote on June 24 and approved by the board on August 6, this consolidation is designed to expand the investability of our stock to a wider audience. With a higher share price, the stock will not now not only be eligible for more large institutional investors who have a minimum price threshold, but it will also enable margin trading for retail investors through brokers with share price requirements.

Speaker 3

This has the potential to enhance liquidity and allow our stock to be included in more investment portfolios in larger sizes, a positive and welcome outcome for all America's investors. We intend to file articles of amendment soon and expect the common shares to commence trading on a post consolidation basis within the next ten days following final approvals. We'll provide further updates as we move forward. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Paul for some closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Oliver and Warren. And, actually, thank you to everyone who took the time to join us for this call today. Look. Q two, without doubt, has been a tremendous quarter about momentum for us at both Galena and in Mexico. Galena has had operational, explorational, and metallurgical breakthroughs, some of which haven't been done for years.

Speaker 1

Kosala continues to thrive and get into the EC one '20. And at the corporate level, with our our $100,000,000 financing, we're really set up to really deliver on those things that we've been working on. So overall, the first half of the year has been very exciting. It's been a lot of work. We're certainly not afraid of the work, and we're excited about what the second half is going to bring.

Speaker 1

So thank you to each and every one of you for taking the time to be with us here today and listening to our call. If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to get ahold of any one of us, and have a great day. Take care, everyone.

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