VANCOUVER Sep 1, 2015 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Trevali Mining Corp earnings conference call or presentation Monday, August 17, 2015 at 2:30:00pm GMT TEXT version of Transcript ================================================================================ Corporate Participants ================================================================================ * Steve Stakiw Trevali Mining Corporation - VP, IR and Corporate Communications * Mark Cruise Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director * Anna Ladd Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO ================================================================================ Conference Call Participants ================================================================================ * Peter Campbell Mackie Research Capital - Analyst * Alex Terentiew Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. - Analyst * Derek Macpherson M Partners - Analyst * Stefan Ioannou Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst * Luis Vicente Kallpa Securities SAB - Analyst * Mark Turner Scotiabank - Analyst ================================================================================ Presentation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [1] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Trevali Mining Corporation Q2 financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded. I would like to turn the meeting over to Steve Stakiw, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Stakiw, Trevali Mining Corporation - VP, IR and Corporate Communications [2] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Trevali Mining's second-quarter 2015 financial results conference call. Trevali's Q2 financial results were issued on Friday and are available both on our website and on SEDAR. Additionally, a corresponding news release was also issued with our financial results to review the main points of our second-quarter performance, particularly ongoing operations and production at our Santander zinc-lead-silver mine in Peru. Our presenter today is Dr. Mark Cruise, Trevali's President and CEO. Accompanying Mark for the question-and-answer portion of this call is Anna Ladd, Trevali's Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Mark Cruise. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [3] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks, Steve, and welcome, everyone, to Trevali's second-quarter 2015 financial results conference call. Really in review of our Q2 financial performance, the Company posted EBITDA of CAD7.2 million for the second quarter and CAD5.4 million in operations income from our Santander mine that booked over CAD30 million in concentrate sales revenue. Net income was CAD0.2 million for the quarter. Really breaking it down into detail, just over 190,000 tonnes of mineralized material was processed through the Santander mill in Q2. Underground production for the quarter was approximately 191,000 tonnes and was really sourced primarily from the Magistral North-Rosa and Magistral South zones. During the second quarter, Magistral Central was in development cycles and scheduled production from that zone will start to increase and have more impact throughout the remainder of 2015. Production results for the quarter were 13.7 million payable pounds of zinc, 8.7 million payable pounds of lead, and 191,000 payable ounces of silver approximately. The mill does continue to perform above design recoveries. Q2 recoveries averaged 90% for zinc, 88% for lead, and 78% for silver. And we are using average head grades; we're a little bit shy of 4.3% for zinc, 2.47% for lead, and 1.85 ounces per tonne silver. And that resulted in the production of 14,700 tonnes of zinc concentrate, averaging 50% zinc. And a little bit over 7,000 tonnes of lead-silver concentrate, averaging 59% lead and approximately 39.5 ounces per tonne silver. And sales during the quarter were approximately 13.2 million pounds of zinc, 8.7 million pounds of lead, and 190,879 ounces of silver. Average realized prices for the quarter were $0.95 per pound zinc, $0.82 per pound lead, and $16.33 per ounce silver. And cash cost broke down to approximately $45 per ton, and that is broadly in line with our guidance for 2015. Really, Santander is currently in steady-state at our 2,000 tonne per day nameplate production, and we do continue to tweak and try and improve operational efficiencies. We did commence a pretty a pretty modest 6,000 meter predominantly underground drill program during the second quarter, and that will be ongoing throughout the remainder of the year. Really, the aim of that is to convert inferred tonnes to a higher confidence category, to get them into our mine plan. And also obviously contingent on our results and hope to continue to expand the newly discovered Rosa and Fatima zones, as we chase some deeper development progresses. Really, at this point in time, our production guidance for 2015 remains unchanged, at approximately 48 million to 50 million pounds payable zinc. And that is in cons grading 50% zinc. 23 million to 25 million pounds of payable lead in cons grading 55% to kind of 57% lead. And somewhere between 850,000 and 950,000 ounces of payable silver. And they have got reports and to the lead concentrates. Really, our 2015 site cash costs and guidance were between CAD48 to CAD51 per tonne milled. And certainly, we should be able to achieve that based on we are halfway through the year at this point in time. Really moving north to New Brunswick, commissioning of our 3,000 tonne per day Caribou mill commenced during the quarter and progress today is in line with our expectations. Really based on our experience from our Santander operations, we have adopted a phase commissioning plan and we have initially been using lower grade feed material. And just as we familiarize ourselves with both the grind and the recovery characteristics and reagents of the mineral feed. All critical mill circuits really in detail: crushing, grinding, zinc-lead flotation, the filters, various labs, and loadout facilities have either been fully replaced, refurbished, or repaired and are fully available. And our primary focus in the month of June was on the zinc circuit and followed in July by the lead circuit fab, with the silver reporting to the lead effectively. Once we iron the kinks out of the zinc and lead circuits, we will focus on the copper circuit in due course effectively later on this year. We have been using quite a lot of external specialists, both from South Africa and in addition with our partners Glencore. They are actually providing support as well to try get us up and running, hopefully a little bit faster, a little bit sooner, but we will see how that goes. We will continue to put out monthly updates on the Caribou mine and mill as we continue to progress it going forward. So that's essentially where we are at this point in time. Thank you. Operator, I would now like to open up the call to questions, if there are any. ================================================================================ Questions and Answers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [1] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Operator Instructions) Peter Campbell, Mackie Research. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Campbell, Mackie Research Capital - Analyst [2] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for taking my phone call this mornings. My questions this morning primarily relate to Caribou. I have just a couple of them. One of them is that you reported that the mine is operating at approximately 1,500 tonnes per day, which is adequate to maintain the stockpile. Can we therefore infer that the mill is also operating at approximately 1,500? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [3] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark here. No, absolutely. I think the mill really in June and July, we've been kind of running on different grind characteristics. We have been ramping it up, just trying to stress the system effectively. But certainly in June, run rate in the mill in June varied anywhere from effectively 500 tonnes per day to 1,500 tonnes per day. It really was very variable. Just as we were getting used to the various speed, certainly for July, we are running at between 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes per day and we will continue to ramp that up in August. So certainly, the concept is we don't want to ramp it up too fast until we get the recoveries there where they need to be, because we are just putting effectively cash into the tailings base at that point in time. So really, underground, we were just maintaining that 100,000-tonne course or feed pile just by the crushing -- crushers there. And really, there is no point in putting more on it. We are actually just at capacity at this point in time. So I think as the mill continues to ramp up, that will eventually balance out towards the end of the year and everything will be in sync. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Campbell, Mackie Research Capital - Analyst [4] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. So then in terms of the like ramp up to the nameplate capacity, then it seems that it's more about making careful progress at the mill instead of any sort of bottlenecks that are developing with [CCA] mine. Is that correct? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [5] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Absolutely, yes. And that's all well. Certainly internally, I think where we've been -- everyone is well aware the metallurgy that Caribou is challenging. It's finer grains, certainly than our Peru operation. So that has been and remains the main focus. If anything, underground is ahead of schedule and we do have 3 years of development in place. And we've got close to 10 kilometers or 13 kilometers fully refurbished. So really, yes, underground is there. It's just when it makes sense to kind of up that underground mining rate and bring in extra feed or what have you, just to get it in sync with the mill. But the mill has and continues to be the primary focus. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Campbell, Mackie Research Capital - Analyst [6] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, very good. And then my final question is that you reported that the zinc concentrate that you've produced and been able to sell so far has a grade of just over 50% zinc, which seems quite good, given the fact that you are using very low-grade material to commission the mill. What are the expectations for concentrate grades once you've achieved commercial production? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [7] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are pretty much in line. If you look at the Bathurst camp as a whole, typically zinc cons grade anywhere from 50% to 55%. Brunswick 12 I think was 53% to 55%. Based on what we are seeing, I think 53% is probably doable. So we are effectively there. And you are correct: as you up the head grade, you should improve your recoveries and up that as well. But no, zinc is there. Anything over 50% is definitely salable, which has been the main focus, primarily for us is just to prove to ourselves that we can produce salable cons. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Campbell, Mackie Research Capital - Analyst [8] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sure. And then for like lead, what would be your objective for the lead con? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [9] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lead for the Bathurst camp, it's not the highest quality lead con, to be honest. Typically, anything from kind of high 30%s to maybe mid-40%s is standard for the camp. And averaging, I would say, 40% to 43% is pretty typical. I think we are at about 39% and change at the moment, effectively 40%. So we are kind of there. So I would anticipate minor, modest incremental improvements going forward. But really the main focus now, again, is that we have produced salable cons is really to dial in those recoveries, which is what the guys are focusing on now and try and get them up to where they need to be. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Campbell, Mackie Research Capital - Analyst [10] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, perfect. Those are all of my questions, Mark. Thank you very much. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [11] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex Terentiew, Raymond James. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex Terentiew, Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. - Analyst [12] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just similarly, a few questions on Caribou here. Looks like the mine -- you guys have spent quite a bit of your remaining CapEx at Caribou in the quarter. Can you give us an estimate of how much CapEx we should expect to be spent at the mine in the second half of this year? And a related question: your 2014 PEA called for a nearly CAD19 million in CapEx -- or development spending, anyways -- for next year. Is that still a number we should be relying on? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [13] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, Alex. It is Anna Ladd here. So yes to your second part of the question. CAD19 million is a good number for next year. Between now and the end of the year, we are pretty much kind of all the CapEx spend on the mill and such is behind us. So I'm going to guess roughly between CAD6 million and CAD9 million in that is kind of mine development. But that could gear down a bit, too, because we are actually ahead of schedule there. So that is roughly the number that I can give you off the top of my head. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex Terentiew, Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. - Analyst [14] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, great. And then one more question again on Caribou, and I know you kind of touched on this a little bit earlier. But I know the mine is still ramping up here, but can you give us an idea of what recoveries are and operating costs are for the mine so far? I know you said things are tracking in line with your expectations and the mill is a focus and metallurgy and so forth. But I am just trying to get a little bit better sense of should the -- should we still continue to use the PEA numbers or how long you think it may take to get those sort of numbers? And you know, what -- just basically what you're seeing so far. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [15] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, I think, like I said, June and July has been focused on producing salable con. So to be honest, the recoveries have been all over the place. So I don't want to be misleading. I think certainly, we are comfortable with the PEA recoveries out there. So that's about 84% to 85% for zinc, high 60%s for lead, and about 38%, 40% for silver. We are comfortable with them and we see no reason why they can't be achieved by end of year. That's what we're focusing on. Costs, because we are in the commissioning phase, we don't actually track it on a cost-per-ton basis because, yes, we just don't track it at this point. And we start hitting commercial production effectively. Anna, I don't know if you want to say a few more words there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [16] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, and we expect the cost to come in at around what we said in the PEA, once we hit commercial production. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex Terentiew, Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. - Analyst [17] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. That's it for me, guys. Thank you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [18] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek Macpherson, M Partners. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek Macpherson, M Partners - Analyst [19] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just to follow-up on the last question. Just as far as -- you mentioned CAD6 million to CAD9 million in capital for the year balance of the year at Caribou. What about working capital? Obviously, we saw a little bit of a drawdown or a negative adjustment working capital in the quarter. Do we expect a little bit more to come as you guys ramp up operations there? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [20] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are just about there, Derek, so probably around August, September, maybe another month or so. And we are actually starting to ship and sell the concentrate quite a bit more this month, so that should kind of balance out this quarter. And coming into Q4, nothing really -- we should be there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek Macpherson, M Partners - Analyst [21] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, okay. All right. And then on the -- and then just following up on -- you were talking a little bit about Caribou commercial production, when you guys get there. When do you guys -- based on the sort of the progress to date, when do you guys see that happening now? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [22] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark here, Derek. It is certainly going to happen in Q4 of this year. I am not going to be able to pin a date down exactly, but based on what we're seeing now, we see no reason why we shouldn't be declaring commercial by end of year, prior to the end of year. That's kind of where we are at this point in time. Obviously, it's hard to pin it down, but I think we are pleased with the progress we've made on the zinc and lead in Q2. Now it's just really focusing in September, October, getting those recoveries where they need to be. That's pretty much the last missing piece at this point in time. Probably more materially for us is the grind in the mill is where it needs to be. It's all about the grind at Caribou. So our sag and ball mills are consistently grinding in the kind of 30 to 40 micron range. And the Isa mills, which is what we need for the lead recoveries, are from 17 to 8 microns, averaging 12 micron grind size. So certainly that for us internally has been a big breakthrough that happened in the second quarter and we are very pleased with that and the team has done an excellent job and spent a lot of time focusing on that. So hopefully from here on in, it should be a relatively straightforward, just get optimized on the reagent mix. So like I said, just to reiterate, we don't see any issues at this point in time. We should definitely be able to declare a commercial prior to end of year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek Macpherson, M Partners - Analyst [23] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. And then just I guess with the grind sizes coming in a little more consistently then, have you guys seen sort of recovery start to steadily improve though? A little less erratic and a little more constant? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [24] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek Macpherson, M Partners - Analyst [25] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. And then just shifting gears a bit onto Santander. Obviously, the current resource excludes sort of the Rosa and the Fatima zones. And you have the drill program ongoing there. When do you guys expect to update the Santander resource? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [26] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, certainly the hope is to get it updated for our end-of-year reporting. So it is something we are working on at this point in time. Clearly, to be upfront, obviously the main focus is Caribou. But nevertheless, that is kind of chugging away in the background. And we do have two rigs turning at Santander, one on surface, one underground. And like I said, the hope is to kind of update everything for kind of end-of-year reporting schedule. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek Macpherson, M Partners - Analyst [27] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. And is that -- I mean, obviously, this probably isn't a focus at this moment with where Caribou is. But is that resource sort of going to be the decision driver behind whether you guys look at the expansion at Santander or not? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [28] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not this phase, no; absolutely not. This is just -- I guess ongoing maintenance, ongoing -- I think obviously contingent on results. We would need a pretty hefty drill program in 2016. Obviously, that is contingent on a lot of variables, including commodity prices, and obviously Caribou as well. So certainly no -- just so there is no confusion: this won't be a kind of go/no go decision for any potential expansion at Santander. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek Macpherson, M Partners - Analyst [29] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, all right. Thank you, that is all for me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [30] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst [31] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maybe just following up a little bit on the CapEx spending. The CAD6 million to CAD9 million going forward -- or sorry, looking at what you spent in Q2, the sort of CAD19 million on, can you give a breakdown of sort of what was spent at Caribou versus Santander? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [32] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. At Santander, it was approximately CAD3 million and the balance was Caribou. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst [33] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, okay, and -- okay. So is it fair to say that Caribou has come in a little bit over budget now from a CapEx point of view? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [34] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No, I think like I sort of mentioned before, we are ahead on underground. So we are going to be backing that off a little bit and possibly changing the spending there for the second half of the year. We did not anticipate it in the PEA, but what we have done is brought in quite a lot of experts due to the challenges at the mill. So that, of course, is added to our costs a little bit. But making progress anyway in getting us there sooner than expected. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst [35] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, okay, great. And then just on the cash position currently, is there much or any flow-through dollars left in that current cash position at June 30? Or is it all hard dollars? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [36] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is probably a few million and (multiple speakers). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst [37] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few million, okay. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [38] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- spending that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst [39] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. And I guess would that be money that is kind of earmarked then for Stratmat/Halfmile stuff or --? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [40] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst [41] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. What's the timing there sort of in terms of getting an updated mine plan or idea around Halfmile, Stratmat, with or without a mill at, say, Heath Steele or something? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [42] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark here, Stefan. Really we are working on it at the moment. So what we have done in second quarter, we obviously had the Stratmat resource estimate update out there. Based on the recommendations, we completed a couple of metallurgical drill test holds. I need to catch up with the guys today. But certainly, they should be at the lab at this point in time, so the guys will be doing some initial met work at Stratmat. Certainly, Stratmat mineralization is materially coarser than anything else in the Bathurst camp. So we would anticipate positive results from that. But nevertheless, we need to wait and see how that goes. And we are currently putting in a few confirmation holes at Halfmile. We've got a rig turning. We are dropping in two or three holes there at Halfmile. At the base of that, I think the plan will be to have an updated PEA out probably late Q4, but probably more realistically into Q1 of 2016. But that is churning away in the background and we are working with SRK on those updates. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst [43] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, great, great. In terms of just talking about planning and stuff, in terms of the pace to fill stuff at Caribou, how is that going? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [44] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Certainly, we are looking at the obviously various paced fills/engineering fills. Work to date has been positive and the guys have been kind of optimizing the potential mixes just to see where it's going. Certainly, the 7- and 90-day test results were positive and they are just waiting for the 180-day test results. And really from that with assuming they are positive or whatever the results will be, that will kind of dictate which way it may make sense to go, whether it is a full paced or it is an engineered fill, where you bring in some sand as well to use with it. But that is kind of ongoing in the background and we just need to wait until the cylinders cure and the guys can do their strength testing on them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stefan Ioannou, Haywood Securities Inc. - Analyst [45] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Got it, got it, great. Thanks very much, guys. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [46] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luis Vicente, Kallpa Securities. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luis Vicente, Kallpa Securities SAB - Analyst [47] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations on the results. Most of my questions have been answered. I just have two questions on the financials. I noticed you spent really low expenses on royalties this quarter. Why was that? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [48] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry, was it the royalties on Santander? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luis Vicente, Kallpa Securities SAB - Analyst [49] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [50] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, so there was an overaccrual in Q1 on the royalties. So to get the proper royalties, you just take the average year to date and divide it by two to get the quarters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luis Vicente, Kallpa Securities SAB - Analyst [51] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, okay. And the other one is about the taxes. I think the effective rate is like [87%]. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [52] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luis Vicente, Kallpa Securities SAB - Analyst [53] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So should we expect any taxes around that for your next quarter? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anna Ladd, Trevali Mining Corporation - CFO [54] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, our taxes are a combination of things between Canada and here. So roughly, it's about the same. It depends on what Santander does. A lot of it is based on obviously the income on Santander. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luis Vicente, Kallpa Securities SAB - Analyst [55] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, great. That's helpful. Thank you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [56] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Operator Instructions) Mark Turner, Scotiabank. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Turner, Scotiabank - Analyst [57] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry, I tried to withdraw my question there, because most of them were around sort of CapEx and working capital at Caribou had answered. Maybe just then one question in terms of the throughput ramp up at Caribou. I guess the difference between sort of the 1,500, where you may be right now, and 3,000 tonnes per day is still a big step up. What have you see more recently that you get comfort that you will be able to continue sort of at volume pull at the grind size that you have been looking for? Or that you have been achieving right now as a lower rates? Is there sort of any worry there or anything that needs to happen to continue to sort of lockstep bring those up? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [58] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark here. No, I think certainly internally -- and I mean, like I said, June and July obviously, we were I guess stress testing the mill and the circuit. So it has been variable throughput. But certainly, you know, we have on short bursts, so about a week's period, we have been able to take things up to 2,500 tonnes, 2,800 tonnes very easily. So we don't see any issues. The power draw in the mills and the grinds we're maintaining at that higher throughput rate, albeit for short bursts of time. So really then, like I said, the guys have just backed it off a bit, just so we can focus more on the recovery. So like I said, certainly 2,500 is going to be very easy. I don't see any problems with that. And we have been there for short periods of time, so we don't foresee any problems at this point in time. Like I said, the grinding circuit has been working very well, which is really where you would get bottlenecks if that was not the case. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Turner, Scotiabank - Analyst [59] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Great, sounds good. Yes, seems like you are doing everything you can to de-risk it through this process, so congrats on the ramp up so far. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise, Trevali Mining Corporation - President, CEO, and Director [60] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's great. Thanks, Mark. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [61] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I would like to turn the meeting back over to Mr. Stakiw. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Stakiw, Trevali Mining Corporation - VP, IR and Corporate Communications [62] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay. Thank you, everyone, for dialing in and participating in our conference call this morning. As usual, if anyone has any follow-up questions, please don't hesitate to either ring or email us. Once again, thanks, everyone, and have a great day. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operator [63] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.
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