TORONTO Jul 22, 2015 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of McEwen Mining Inc earnings conference call or presentation Monday, May 11, 2015 at 6:00:00pm GMT TEXT version of Transcript ================================================================================ Corporate Participants ================================================================================ * Rob McEwen McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner * Perry Ing McEwen Mining Inc. - CFO * Nathan Stubina McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director ================================================================================ Conference Call Participants ================================================================================ * Jeff Wright H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst * Mike Smith Goldman Sachs - Analyst * Bill Powers - Private Investor ================================================================================ Presentation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [1] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good afternoon. My name is Sean and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the McEwen Mining first quarter 2015 financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions). Thank you. Mr. Rob McEwen, Chief Owner, you may begin your conference. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [2] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, operator. Welcome, one and all. I'm pleased to present information on a great quarter. With me today are Nathan Stubina, our managing director. He's going to report on operations. And Perry Ing, our Chief Financial Officer, who will be dealing with, naturally, financials. As I said, the quarter was good. We had positive cash flow and earnings. We remain debt-free. And looking ahead in the year, production is going to be flat but we are looking at a fall of 6% in the all-in sustaining cost per ounce. Briefly, operations in Mexico, production was up; cost per ounce were down; and the mine was performing so well we attracted gold thieves. And Perry will talk more about that -- our insurance there. In Argentina production was off, costs were up. But the good news is the presidential election coming up later in the year and we expect there will be changes for the better. And we're starting to see large software and investments being inked with Argentina and China and Argentina and Russia. So, I'd like to turn the call over to Perry to talk about the financials. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perry Ing, McEwen Mining Inc. - CFO [3] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks, Rob. I'll cover some financial highlights for the first quarter, our financial outlook, and a review of our liquidity and cash resources. I'm pleased to report net income for the quarter of $6 million or $0.02 a share, which compares to $18 million, or $0.06 a share in the same period in 2014. We do need to look at this on an adjusted basis, given there were some significant foreign-exchange movements that affected our results last year. So if you look at it on an adjusted basis, our net income was $1.9 million for the quarter, or $0.01 a share, compared to a loss of $6.2 million or $0.02 a share when you strip out the effects of foreign currency gains and income tax recoveries that we reported last year. Those recoveries were primarily due to the devaluation of the Argentine peso relative to the US dollar last year and were non-cash measures. The improved financial performance is reflected in our earnings from mine operations, which was up to $17.2 million compared to $11.4 million in the first quarter of last year. You'll see that our gold equivalent production was up 4% to 33,400 ounces, which was caused by a 64% increase in El Gallo 1 production, where we increased it by over 6,000 ounces to over 15,000 gold equivalent ounces compared to just 9,400 in the first quarter of 2014. This was partially offset by a 21% decline in gold equivalent production from the San Jose mine, where they experienced lower gold and silver production, as well as lower realized silver prices which has an impact on our gold equivalent reporting. Overall, average realized prices for gold and silver were just over $1,200 and $17 an ounce for gold and silver, respectively, compared to $1,319 and just over $20 in the same period of 2014. The improved operating performance was reflected in our cash cost and all-in sustaining costs, where again the strong performance at El Gallo 1 more than offset some cost increases at the San Jose mine. Overall cash costs on a gold equivalent basis fell to $674 an ounce from $790 an ounce, a decrease of 15%. On an all-in sustaining basis we have an equivalence decrease of about 14% on a per ounce basis, down to $950 an ounce. With the strong Q1 results reported, we remain on track to meet our 2015 guidance of 15,000 ounces at El Gallo 1 and 138,000 ounces on a consolidated basis. This is despite the theft of approximately 6,300 ounces of gold concentrate reported on April 7. This updated estimate of 6,300 ounces has been lowered from the original estimate of approximately 7,000 ounces, as we updated the estimates on the quantity of material stolen as well as receiving final assays of the materials stolen. We expect to receive insurance proceeds that will mitigate the majority of these losses and we will report the receipt of those proceeds in the quarter received. There may be an effect on our cash cost guidance for the year depending on the amount ultimately recovered through insurance proceeds, and we will update that information accordingly. Turning to our liquidity and cash resources, we are pleased to highlight our growing treasury balance as we began the year with cash and gold of approximately $15 million. As of the end of the first quarter, this has grown to $17 million, and I'm pleased to report as of today's call our cash and gold balance is in excess of $20 million. We did not receive a dividend from the San Jose mine during the first quarter but did receive a small dividend of $0.5 million subsequent to the end of the quarter. At current metals prices we do not expect to receive significant dividends during the remainder of the year. In terms of our outstanding DAT receivable in Mexico, we are also pleased to report that we have received $2.7 million during the first quarter of the year and an additional $1.3 million subsequent to the end of the first quarter. This brings total DAT collected in 2015 to $4 million. As well, to further enhance our liquidity options, we entered into a credit facility with a local Mexican bank to borrow against approximately $6 million of our remaining DAT balance receivables. As of the date of this call, we have not drown down on those facilities. That sums up my review of the first quarter and our liquidity. I'll now turn the presentation over to Nathan Stubina, our Managing Director. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Stubina, McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director [4] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, Perry. In the next few minutes I will review our Q1 results and give some comments about our 2015 guidance. Firstly, as mentioned, despite the theft of the concentrate from our El Gallo mine that was reported in April, our guidance remains unchanged at over 50,000 gold ounces for Mexico. Our consolidated 2015 production guidance remains at approximately 138,000 gold equivalent ounces. First, let's take a look at our production for Mexico. Our gold equivalent ounces for the first quarter was over 15,000, which is an increase from the 9,365 ounces that was produced during Q1 of 2014. The increasing in gold produced in Q1 is essentially due to an increase in gold grade. The ore grade treated in Q1 of this year was about 3.2 grams per tonne versus about 1.2 grams per tonne in Q1 of 2014. This is the main reason why the total cash costs for Q1 was $460 and the all-in sustaining cost was $611 for Mexico. Our production forecast for Q2 is expected to be around 14,000 ounces of gold. For Q3, we are projecting around 8,000 ounces and for Q4 around 11,500 ounces. The drop in Q3 is essentially due to the rainy season, and we are making provisions to handle the rains this year. Now, if we look at our San Jose mine in Argentina, for our 49% share of production the forecast for 2015 is set at 46,500 ounces of gold and approximately 3.1 million ounces of silver. At a silver to gold ratio of 75 to 1, this equates to around 87,800 gold equivalent ounces. Our share of gold production for the three months ending March 31 of this year was over 19,000 ounces of silver -- sorry, of gold -- and silver production was just over 1.3 million ounces of silver. Let's take a look at some of our projects. For the Gold Bar project in Nevada, we continue to advance the Gold Bar permitting process for construction production of an open pit heap leach operation. A feasibility study is expected during Q3 of this year and final permit approval is scheduled for the second half of 2016. For the El Gallo 2 project in Mexico, the silver project that's close to our existing gold mine, an updated feasibility study on the fully permitted project is expected in the second half of this year. On the exploration front, we released than exploration update for Mexico on April 21 of this year. Our total exploration budget for McEwen Mining is around $5.5 million for 2015 in Mexico and an additional $1 million in Nevada. So, thank you for this opportunity to review our results. I'd like to conclude by reiterating that our consolidated annual production guidance remains at approximately 138,000 ounces for the year. Thank you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [5] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, Nathan. Thank you, Perry. Just before Q&A I'd just like to say that our production costs, while they are flat, we're going to have -- our all-in sustaining costs will be lower by about 6%. As Perry said, our cash is growing. And something that's unusual in the gold industry is we have no debt and we have a number of deliverables in terms of resource updates and feasibility studies coming out within the third quarter this year. Very positive outlook and thank you for joining the call. I'd now like now to open it up for questions. ================================================================================ Questions and Answers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [1] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Operator Instructions). Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [2] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good afternoon, everybody. A quick question on tonnage and grade at both San Jose and El Gallo. I understand the reduction in tonnage at San Jose was due to a planned vacation. So, just kind of doing the quick math, it looks like the tonnage needs to go up to approximately 147,000 tonnes per quarter going forward to reach the 550,000 guidance. Does that put you guys on track with that, or is that something that could move or be cyclical again? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [3] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for the question, Jeff. I'll ask Nathan to answer that question. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Stubina, McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director [4] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, your calculation seems about right. Yes, there was a vacation outage in the first part of the year. And now things are steadying out and we do expect to hit the target or guidance for the rest of the year from San Jose. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [5] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. And I guess just for planning purposes, I don't recall that much seasonality last year. Is that something we should plan for Q1 2016 as well? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Stubina, McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director [6] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. That's the typical vacation part in Argentina. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [7] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And then consistent grade in that, let's call it 5.7% to about 6.3% range for the rest of the year on the gold side? And similar grades, right around 400, 420 on the silver side? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Stubina, McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director [8] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. The gold grade -- yes, it is what you are seeing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [9] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pretty consistent. Okay. And then with El Gallo, obviously there's the jump in the gold grades. Could you give a little guidance on gold grades throughout the year so we can effectively bake that in? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Stubina, McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director [10] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. For this year the gold grade is certainly higher than last year. If I remember the mine plan for this year is going to be over 2.2 grams per tonne for 2015, so it's significantly higher than last year's. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [11] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. But compared to Q1 you think the gold grade could come down from 2.8 to just a little bit lower? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Stubina, McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director [12] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. For right now, we're still mining those high grades. The thing with Mexico, of course, is the rainy season in Q3, which affects more the tonnage than the grade. But right now what we are treating and what's in the stockpile is still over 2.2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [13] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And with the rainy season do you think there would be any impacts on the recoveries, or just really on the overall tonnage mined? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Stubina, McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director [14] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's important for us is to actually bring down the level of the ponds, more for environmental, and in anticipation of the rainy season, because you don't know exactly when it's going to start. We have to make sure that we are adding enough lime to the pad for pH control. So right now the pond level is quite low and we are building up -- the real issue is the crusher, which has trouble with wet ore, so we are trying to crush as much in stockpile, as much material, before the rainy season. So it's just a question of flow of material through the plant, either water or cyanide solution, so we're getting ready for that. So your understanding is quite correct. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [15] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Makes sense. And then one follow-up question for Perry on the insurance side. Obviously insurance is out of your control, but are we talking -- we'd receive an update in the next few weeks, or is this --? Is it weeks versus months? How would you describe the timeline to fully understand the financial impact? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perry Ing, McEwen Mining Inc. - CFO [16] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We do expect to receive proceeds, I would say, over the course of the next two quarters. But obviously in terms of timing it's hard to say right now whether it's going to be late Q2, early Q3, later Q3. It's a bit of an unknown at this point. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [17] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Got you. But it's one of those events that you don't anticipate would slip into Q4 or even in 2016? It's a pretty straightforward process? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Stubina, McEwen Mining Inc. - Managing Director [18] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's too hard to speculate at this point. We'll just say we have fully complied with the requirements in terms of submissions and the ball is out of our court, so to speak, currently. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Wright, H.C. Wainwright & Co. - Analyst [19] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Makes sense. Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. I'll get back in line. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [20] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your next question states, what prices would be necessary to build El Gallo 2? And how long would it take to reach commercial production? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [21] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On El Gallo 2 -- thank you for your question, Steve. We're still working on the costs. Timing is 18 months, and we go from there. And in terms of the price of silver, we'll have a -- we were saying recently not under $20 silver, but part of the purpose of the updated feasibility study is to look at the economics. We believe there are a couple of different ways of dropping the capital costs and our operating costs, which could have a very positive impact, and thereby lowering the decision point; the price of silver that you could start construction. But we'll have that in the third quarter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [22] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your next question states, why is the CEO not more aggressive in M&A? Lots of activity now by good CEOs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [23] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's a good question. We've been looking in a number of situations. I'd say the item that's holding us back the most from activity is an informal investigation by the SEC. And that's been ongoing for 17 months. We've disclosed it in our financials, and it's relating to a valuation in 2012 of the Los Azules project. Our auditors, KPMG, and our valuers have had conversations and made submissions to the SEC, and we're waiting for them to clear us of this matter. We don't think -- we've done everything according to the rules. The reason for not going in is you could do a financing, you could do an M&A deal, and find with an open file at the SEC that you don't have control over your timing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [24] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your next question from Michael Riley states, I am hopeful we will get true price discovery for gold and silver when the SBX comes active. I hold MUX as a silver stock, but Rob always talks in terms of gold. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [25] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Right now we happen to do about 50-50 gold and silver. Not quite; we're more gold at the moment. They are both precious metals, and if one is moving the other one will move. Silver usually falls gold, and silver has been depressed more so it probably has more upside. Next question? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [26] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your next question from Michael Moore states, could you please explain your unwillingness to place a date on your S&P 500 goal? And any color on the M&A market opportunities would be appreciated. Thank you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [27] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks, Michael. The S&P 500 -- we were much closer several years ago when our market cap was north of $1.5 billion. The threshold to get into the S&P is now $5 billion. And you also need positive earnings for four consecutive quarters. So we'll have to do some M&A, but as to a timing of that, it's anyone's guess right now. The goal remains the same, just the timing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [28] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Smith, Goldman Sachs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Smith, Goldman Sachs - Analyst [29] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, I was curious as to the Los Azules project. Do you see that asset being disposed of eventually, or do you see it somehow being developed? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [30] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, Mike. Los Azules, we are hoping to monetize that asset. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Smith, Goldman Sachs - Analyst [31] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Got it. Do you think that with the upcoming political elections in Argentina this year, anything -- or maybe we can look forward to anything happening before the end of the year? Do you see that being a 2016 goal? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [32] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think it would be more reasonable to expect it in 2016. While the election occurs in, I think it's October, the President won't vacate her office until December. So no new decisions about the direction of the country will be that apparent. People will want to see a new government in there that are friendly to foreign investment before too many people will step up. Now, you could have a stronger copper price. It's been improving and people wanting to step up ahead of the election if they see the direction of who's going to win, and they see that as a positive development. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Smith, Goldman Sachs - Analyst [33] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, yes. The last question that I had was that we personally feel that the MUX stock is way undervalued as its trading only at $0.98 to $1.00, which puts the market cap at maybe $300 million. With all the assets and everything that we assess, we think that the Company has more or less of a $500 million to $600 million. So would the Company consider teaming up with maybe private equity to buy some shares back on the market and just reduce the flow now that it's at the bottom? We feel that it's at a reasonable bottom -- or does the Company pertain to more or less go at it alone in the marketplace? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [34] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, we agree with you that we think we are undervalued, and we do have quite a collection of assets. I think going into the market and buying back stock -- we don't have a strong -- I mean, our treasury is bigger than it was at the beginning of the year and last year, but is not of the size where you'd be --. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Smith, Goldman Sachs - Analyst [35] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, that's what I was saying. I realize that the Company's funds are not that great, so that's why I was saying would the Company consider teaming up with maybe private equity that is flush with money. If they can buy the shares back at $0.99 to $1.10 -- you just take the shares out of the market and reduce the float that's out there. It will definitely benefit everyone in the mid-term to the long-term. Or would the Company just prefer to just let it languish and let the market move it up on its own? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [36] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You raise a very interesting point. I don't think we've given any thought about private equity coming along, but if you know of some, happy to have a conversation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Smith, Goldman Sachs - Analyst [37] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Got it. Okay. Got it. Thank you very much and great first quarter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [38] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your next question from Jerry Wool states, has there been any interest in outside parties in Los Azules? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [39] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Has there been any interest by outside parties? There have been a couple of people looking at it this season. It's accessible -- it's sort of the opposite -- for the southern hemisphere. It's now their winter, the approaching of winter. And so accessing the property is difficult, but there were people earlier this year representing a number -- a couple of companies on the property. And that's really all I can say. They haven't thrown big numbers at us. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [40] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next question from Michael Moore states, any opportunities to amalgamate Rob's personal holdings? Evanachan Limited, Lexam, Pure Gold, Abitibi, and [Inventis], et cetera, with MUX for greater resource scale, et cetera? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [41] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you. Who was it? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [42] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Moore. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [43] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry, Michael. Occasionally we look at alternatives. That could be one of them. It seems to get complicated when you're -- there's a large shareholder and he also has other investments, such as myself, trying to bend them into a company. Regulators don't seem to like that and it gets very expensive for what you are getting. But we are still looking. Maybe one day. Nothing imminent, Michael. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [44] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Powers, private investor. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Powers, - Private Investor [45] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. I want to say great quarter, but as far as the costs go I know you've made some progress on your overhead, your general and administrative costs. But I guess my two questions would be is, one, do you see those continuing to come down? Secondly, as far as getting the costs -- bending the cost curve, like you did in Mexico and Argentina. I know Hochschild has at least stabilized operations there. Do you feel that there's -- that they are going to be able to move forward initiatives to move down, similar to what's going on in Mexico? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [46] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you want to do that? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perry Ing, McEwen Mining Inc. - CFO [47] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sure. In terms of G&A costs, yes. We certainly are trying to keep a sharp eye on our overall costs. We have been helped by some devaluation of the Canadian dollar, given we are a Toronto headquartered company. So we -- with the continued low oil price, we can expect the Canadian dollar to remain somewhat below the US dollar, which will help our G&A costs, as well as general cutbacks across the Company. In Argentina, I think Hochschild, as you said, has done a good job stabilizing the operation. A lot of it will depend on devaluation versus inflation, which is hard to predict. So far this year devaluation has not occurred at the pace we were hoping it would. You see the peso just ticking along; not really taking any big devaluations like it had last year. Presumably there's some motive by the government to try to maintain things status quo, to the extent possible leading up to the election. So it really depends on the balance between inflation and devaluation. Outside of that, I think Hochschild landed some good cost savings programs, but I think a lot of the lowest-hanging fruit has already been executed. And we'll need to see them putting a bit more money back into underground development over the coming years as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Powers, - Private Investor [48] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And one last question as far as Nevada goes. You say you are going to spend about $1 million there. When could we expect drill results? And the second part to that would be, is there any movement as far as -- or any decisions as far as sizing -- the size of that mine? Making it bigger or smaller, to try to reduce the upfront capital? Or I guess could you give us some idea of the thought process along that front, please? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [49] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Gold Bar we are looking at a new -- our feasibility study in the third quarter. We have been looking at the process, rather than crushing going run of mine, and testing the recoveries, which would have a positive impact on the capital. In addition, it will also have a positive impact on operating costs as well. So that will be out in the third quarter and we will be able to provide you the numbers then and speak with authority. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Powers, - Private Investor [50] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That sounds great. Thank you so much and a great quarter, guys. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [51] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Operator Instructions). Your next question from Joshua Fritz states, looking ahead to the next several years, how would you describe the Company's approach to growth? For example, is it more likely to see investment in joint ventures? Acquisitions of other companies? Acquisitions of new land, et cetera? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [52] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joshua, it could be any one of those three. We are exploring our own properties and seeing if we can build the resource life there. We've been looking at M&As and joint ventures; sort of a subset of an M&A. So all of those are open and all of those should be happening in the next few years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [53] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your next question from Ronnie Simpson states, do you see gold at $5,000 ounces? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [54] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's very crystal clear that a higher gold price -- based on economic history and many incidents of inflation and debasement of currency -- can see the purchasing power of gold going up significantly, given the huge expansion in the monetary base around the world, the incurrence of debt at government levels, at personal levels, at corporate levels. It's just a matter of time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [55] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your next question comes from Robert Gruben who states, to follow up on the M&A question, seems to me that the acquisition in friendlier jurisdictions such as Nevada would make sense once the SEC situation is resolved. Are you more apt to buy late-stage projects or entire companies for the free option on greenfield projects? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [56] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would agree with your thoughts on safer environments and it could be any of those alternatives you mentioned. It just depends on the price and quality of the asset. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [57] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your next question from Michael Riley states, Rob told you about really nice prospective holdings around the San Jose property. Any recent thoughts on drilling some of these unexplored prospects? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [58] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Around the San Jose, we are dealing with our partners about joint venturing. And at the moment we're not looking to be drilling around those properties until there's a change in the political climate. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [59] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are no further questions at this time. Presenters, I turn the call back to you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob McEwen, McEwen Mining Inc. - Executive Chairman and Chief Owner [60] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you very much, operator. Everyone who joined us on the call, thank you very much. Look forward to a good second quarter and better metal prices. Thank you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [61] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
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