McEwen Inc. Q1 FY2023 Earnings Call

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the McEwen Mining’s Q1 2023 Operating and Financial Results Conference Call. Present from the company today are Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner; Perry Ing, Chief Financial Officer; William Shaver, Chief Operating Officer; Michael Meding, Vice President and General Manager of McEwen Copper; Stefan Spears, Vice President of Corporate Development; Jeff Chan, Vice President of Finance. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Rob McEwen, Chief Owner. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll make this quick. We have gotten our mojo back. From September 1 of last year to last Friday, May 5th, our share pricing has increased by 200%. That represents an increase four times greater than the GDX and the GDXJ indices, eleven times greater than the price of gold, and fifteen times greater than the price of copper. Isn’t it about time? We still have much to regain. This outperformance was driven by a number of factors, which you’ll hear in greater detail as we go on today. The big ones were a $30 billion investment in McEwen Copper by Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest automobile manufacturer, and an investment by the world’s number two mining company, Rio Tinto. They increased their investment by $30 million to $55 million. Also factoring in was our increase in gold production and decreasing costs per ounce at our Fox and Gold Bar mines. We also had encouraging drill results from Fox and Los Azules, and we benefited from improving gold, silver, and copper prices. We’re going to improve our balance sheet by deleveraging it and reducing our debt by 38% on Friday of this week. I believe the best is yet to come. I will now ask Bill Shaver, our Director and Chief Operating Officer, to speak about our operations and growth projects for the next year. After Bill, Stefan Spears, our VP of Corporate Development, will provide an update on our exploration progress, followed by Perry Ing, our CFO, and Jeff Chan, our VP of Finance, addressing our financials. We’ll conclude with Michael Meding, our VP and General Manager of McEwen Copper. Bill?

Thank you very much, Rob. Good morning, shareholders. This morning, we are happy to report our operational and financial results for Q1, which have improved dramatically over last year and are expected to continue to incrementally improve based on changes we are making in our operations. On the safety front, our safety record continues to be the cornerstone of our plans going forward. Our three mining operations worked without a lost-time incident in Q1. We did have a minor medical aid in February when a diamond drill contractor employee cut his finger on a sharp piece of metal. Other than that, there were no injuries to people or contractors working for the organization. On an operational front, at the Fox Complex, we have continued our operational improvement process, which has resulted in a higher gold production and lower costs in Q1. We processed 17,500 tonnes of ore and produced 12,929 ounces of gold in the first quarter versus 68,000 tonnes of ore processed and 7,246 ounces in Q1 of 2022. Thus, a highly significant improvement of 57% on tonnage and 78% on ounces. Costs have also improved by approximately 30% over Q1 of 2022. We now have a cash cost of $1,088 and an all-in sustaining cost of approximately $1,300 per ounce. The Fox Complex is continuing a path of incremental improvement that began in Q2 of 2022 and has made steady improvement since then. We hope to continue this improvement over the remainder of the year. At Gold Bar, we completed the transition to a new contractor in January as planned and on schedule. We also moved the operation, the open-pit operation that is run by the contractor, to the Gold Bar South pit, which produced most of the ore in Q1. This transition was partly due to the heavy snowfall we had over the winter in the Pick pit, which is at a higher elevation. In Q1, we placed 578,600 tonnes of ore on the leach pad versus a budget of 459,000 tonnes. We produced 6,456 ounces of gold versus our budget of 8,952 ounces. The cash cost per ounce sold was $1,491, significantly improved from 2022 of $284, and ASIC was $17.25 versus $26.33 in Q1 of last year. The shortfall of 2,496 ounces was due in part to the slower leaching rate of the Gold Bar South ore, but also due to record snow over the winter, as well as a very wet and rainy spring. The very high spring runoff interrupted production and site access for approximately three days in the quarter. During that time, our two access roads were flooded, and getting to the site required boat and helicopter for a few days. With the help of our staff and contractors, we were able to mitigate the impact of these unusual weather events. We are working diligently to get our production back on track and returned to work in the Pick pit in mid-April, where the ore has much better leaching kinetics, which will allow the gold to be released much quicker. In Mexico, at the El Gallo Phoenix project, we have moved the plant we purchased last year to the site and are planning for production in early 2024. We are presently working on three important aspects of the project: number one, the permitting modifications required by the revised plant configuration and production rate; number two, the construction, engineering, and scheduling for the project; and number three, the financing for this construction. As you might remember, we will reprocess the heap leach pad, which has a grade of 0.6 grams per tonne. To accomplish this, we acquired a used 7,000 tonne-per-day gold processing plant, which was recently operating at another mining operation. We have moved this plant to our site, and we will assemble the front end of the plant, meaning the grinding cyclones and leaching portion of the plant, and used the existing El Gallo gold recovery circuit when we start production. The acquisition of this equipment reduces the capital cost for the project down to approximately $12 million, with potential to allow us to increase production as we move to production. In all of our operations, we are continuing our progress in stabilizing and improving operations so we can obtain predictable outcomes for gold production and cost in 2023 and into the future. Thank you very much. I’ll now turn it over to Stefan Spears for an update on our exploration efforts.

Thank you very much, Bill. I’ll start by highlighting exploration results from projects in the Timmins region. We have a large exploration and resource delineation program ongoing at the Stock property, the site of our mill, as well as the past producing Stock Mine. To date, in 2023, we’ve completed 42,800 meters or approximately 140,000 feet of diamond drilling. Yesterday, on May 8th, we published an exploration update, which you can reference for complete results and diagrams. We had a positive outcome from our drilling near surface up plunge along the historic Stock Mine trend. This mineralization occurs just below the bedrock surface, very close to the proposed ramp access to Stock West and our mill, with strong gold grades and widths in eight holes. Two highlights are 18.9 grams per tonne gold over 9.4 meters, including 103 grams per tonne over 0.9 meters. In the second hole, we observed 18.7 grams per tonne gold over 3 meters, including 53 grams per tonne over 1 meter. Drilling also returned positive results from the Stock Mine trend down plunge below the historic mine workings, as well as step-out drilling at Stock West, where additional intersections carrying visible gold are currently in the lab. We also encountered a potential new hanging wall zone above Stock West, which returned an intersection of 5.7 grams per tonne gold over 5.9 meters true width. Exploration drilling in Timmins will continue throughout the year at Stock, with drilling also allocated to Grey Fox to follow up on positive results received last year. Moving to Nevada, exploration is just getting ramped up after the winter and a very wet spring period. We look forward to reporting on progress at several near-mine exploration targets during our next call. In Argentina, the McEwen Mining management team visited the San Jose joint venture mine in April to tour the site and received presentations on the production plan for 2023 and exploration progress. Drilling to define new veins is ongoing, with a focus in 2022 and 2023 on two veins to the north of the mine. The first, called Mora Northwest, located approximately 750 meters north of the nearest underground infrastructure, had an initial resource defined in 2022 with additional potential along strike. The Mora Southwest, located approximately 250 meters from the nearest infrastructure, returned encouraging drill results such as 390 grams per tonne silver and 1.8 grams per tonne gold over 1.8 meters true width, and the local geological team believes this vein has good potential for additional resource growth. In the second half of this year, drilling is planned at the Telken North target, which is adjacent to the Cerro Negro mine, targeting the extension of the northwest trending vein system that exists on Newmont’s property. We intend to highlight exploration opportunities and results from San Jose more actively in our disclosures going forward. Finally, moving to Los Azules. We have published four drilling updates so far in 2023. Most of the drilling has been devoted to delineating the deposit and improving our understanding of the geologic controls, metallurgy, rock quality, hydrology, et cetera, which is essential as we move to more advanced engineering studies. The area around the Los Azules deposit remains underexplored with numerous geophysical targets never tested by drilling. One deep exploration hole testing a geophysical anomaly to the north and below the deposit was published on March 6th. It was highly successful, returning an intersection of 1,052 meters of 0.29% copper, including 480 meters grading 0.24% copper. Copper grades in this hole increased below 500 meters with grades up to 1.46% copper over 26 meters in early mineral porphyry with copper-stained veins, which is typical of the high-grade core of the resource. Thank you. I’ll now turn the call over to Perry Ing, CFO.

Thanks, Stefan. I’ll provide a brief overview of our first quarter results for 2023, following on from Bill’s overview of our operating results. Jeff and I will then discuss our liquidity and the impact of the Stellantis and Nuton Rio Tinto transactions, which closed late in the first quarter. Starting with McEwen Mining’s consolidated results, we reported a GAAP net loss of $43 million or $0.91 a share, which compares to a GAAP net loss of $20.7 million or $0.45 per share for the same period in 2022. Given that the reported loss is primarily a function of the Los Azules exploration expenditures at McEwen Copper, we have introduced a new metric this quarter of adjusted net earnings loss, which is a non-GAAP measure focusing on the results of our 100% owned gold operations and excludes the results of both McEwen Copper and the San Jose mine. Accordingly, our adjusted net loss on this basis was $6.4 million or $0.14 per share for the quarter, compared to $13.1 million or $0.28 per share in the first quarter of 2022. Our adjusted net loss improved significantly despite accelerated spending on our 100% owned properties, nearly doubling from $3 million to $6 million this quarter. This demonstrates a significant improvement in our operations, particularly at the Fox Complex during the quarter. This is reflected also in the improvement in our reported gross profit and cash gross profit figures on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Looking at our operations and characterizing our results, Bill did a thorough job reviewing our operational successes and challenges at our properties. Continuing on from Stefan’s discussion about San Jose, first quarter production was generally disappointing. It came in at 23,000 gold equivalent ounces, which, while slightly ahead of the first quarter of 2022, was significantly below budget expectations, with resulting all-in sustaining costs coming in over $200 above realized gold equivalent sales prices. This is primarily a result of lower-grade processing as they experienced a high level of mining dilution and also processed lower-grade stockpiles due to shortfalls from underground mining. The average gold and silver grades processed were approximately one-third lower than the comparative period in 2022. Tonnage to the plant was 108,000 tonnes, which was slightly ahead of the 103,000 tonnes processed in the comparative period. We will work with the team at San Jose and our partner, Hochschild Mining, to monitor the execution of the drilling and recovery plan that I’ve outlined to better define the mining resources and access new areas of ore not in the original mine plan, as Stefan outlined. This should have a positive impact for San Jose both in 2023 and 2024. Adding the results of the three operations together leaves us consolidated production of roughly 30,000 gold equivalent ounces for the quarter, compared to 25,000 ounces for the first quarter of 2022. While slightly ahead of where we were last year, we still have a fair amount of work ahead of us to meet guidance for the year. Based on the plans outlined by Bill, we believe we can do so and deliver these results profitably, especially at current gold prices. From a liquidity standpoint, the transactions, as Rob outlined, leave the company in much better shape in terms of cash and working capital, as evidenced by our balance sheet. We are currently in the process of retiring $25 million of our debt through front lending, which should close in the coming days, as Rob mentioned, and this will further deleverage our balance sheet. Now I’ll turn it over to Jeff Chan, our VP Finance, to go over a few highlights.

Thank you, Perry. During Q1, we raised a total of $185 million, consisting of private placements and secondary common share sales. These transactions brought in $30 billion from FCA Argentina, a subsidiary of Stellantis, and $30 million from Nuton, a Rio Tinto venture. McEwen Mining as a standalone company received $47.5 million in consideration for its 8.7% interest in McEwen Copper. The balance of the funds will be used by McEwen Copper to advance the Los Azules Copper project. The pricing of the recent transaction implies a market value for our copper business of $550 million. From an accounting perspective, the cash raise is fully reflected on our balance sheet, hence the reported cash balance of $190 million. As described in Note 4 to our financial statements, as of March 31st, McEwen Copper held $29.5 billion at an official exchange rate of $209 to $1. We are prudently managing our Argentine peso balances to mitigate inflation and devaluation risks, investing in low-risk liquid securities. As a result, our investments in Argentina yielded $9 million in interest income during Q1, against $7 million in devaluation impact on our peso balances. I’ll now hand things over to Michael Meding to discuss our Los Azules Copper project.

Thank you, Jeff. In McEwen Copper, we had a remarkable quarter this year. In a challenging market, and as mentioned by Rob, we have been able to win the support and investment of Stellantis, the world’s fourth biggest car maker, through an equity investment of $30 billion, obtaining a stake of 14.2% in McEwen Copper. This is remarkable because, to my knowledge, it is the first time a car maker has invested in a copper developer. This is testimony to a trend shift in the mining sector and validates the value that Los Azules represents. Car makers recognize the significant amount of natural resources required to shift toward greener energy metrics and electromobility, and the need to secure supply. Los Azules presents a unique opportunity: a future mine built towards minimizing environmental and carbon footprint with low water consumption, aiming to produce copper cathodes that have direct industrial applications in Argentina and are attractive from an ESG perspective. It is remarkable because it is strategic beyond mere financing. Stellantis produced about 160,000 cars in Argentina, half of which are exported and supports approximately 24,000 employees in Argentina, both direct and indirect. Urban centers do not share the same appreciation of mining as the more distant mining provinces in Argentina. Now, we have a significant amount of exposure to our copper development, not only through the sharing of future tax income but also through Stellantis' participation in McEwen Copper. With Stellantis, we are now bringing mining closer to those urban centers, an essential component of our ESG strategy. Rio Tinto, the world’s second biggest mining company through Nuton, also seized the opportunity to invest another $30 million, acquiring a percentage that now makes them equal shareholders to Stellantis, owning 14.2% of McEwen Copper. As highlighted by Jeff, this means that the implied market value of McEwen Copper increased from approximately $260 million to $550 million, while our share ownership decreased from 68.1% to 51.9%. This represents an overall value accretion of 80% for McEwen Mining shareholders from $160 million to $290 million. Rio Tinto has ratified the value of McEwen Copper and the importance of the Los Azules project. We have secured 15 drill rigs in an environment where there is a scarcity of drill rigs. Including four new Boart Longyear LF160 rigs, we own ourselves and have also dedicated to local supply development. We have drilled 34.4 kilometers in 127 holes, successfully delivering and communicating strong inflow results in this year’s press releases, with more to come. Stefan has already mentioned in their exploration update our promising results regarding the latest exploration efforts, showing the potential to further expand our already vast deposits. We've improved our existing roads, with our exploration road now supporting 18-wheelers, successfully tested with commercial loads to the site for the first time since the project's inception. Argentina has become relatively more attractive compared to jurisdictions such as Chile or Peru, given its vast Andean mountains with significant copper deposits. Testifying to this increase of interest in Argentina, especially San Juan, was the attendance of our event at PDAC, where we welcomed the Vice Governor of San Juan, the Mining Minister of San Juan, the Ambassador of Argentina to Canada, and representatives from the financial sector. This, as well as the recent visit of the Canadian Ambassador to Argentina where together with the Minister of Mines of San Juan we toured our projects, showcased our progress on the Los Azules project in the Andes, the first project the Ambassador visited in this province. Both indications show that Canada and Argentina are interested in collaborating to advance mining projects that play a central role in the future energy transition. We have made remarkable strides on the permitting side and filed our environmental permit application for exploitation with San Juan authorities. This included an event with the Governor, the Minister of Mines, and representatives of the National Secretary of Mines and Legislators on April 14th, which is the primary permit application for furthering our projects. Another milestone was the recent Memorandum of Understanding we signed with YPF Luz. YPF is one of the largest companies in Argentina and is a majority state-owned national oil, gas, and energy company. This memorandum signed between McEwen Copper and YPF Luz outlines the framework for delivering 100% renewable energy solutions for the operation of Los Azules and San Juan, aiming for carbon neutrality by 2038. Our competent management team in Argentina, with deep local experience, is prepared to drive the project and realize our vision of a green, sustainable mine with an accelerated timeline. The Rio Tinto company is expected to start drilling at our Elder Creek properties during this month. Kennecott is slated to invest $18 million over seven years to earn a 60% interest in Elder Creek. Thank you for your attention. I will now turn the conversation back to Rob.

Thank you, Michael. Operator, we’re going to go to a question-and-answer period. We have two questions that came in online. The first one from Glenn. He asked what measures we’re taking to minimize potential losses from a declining Argentinian peso. I’ll ask Michael to reply to this question.

Sure. We invest in low-risk and highly liquid investments in Argentina. In Q1, we gained about $9 million in interest income versus a devaluation of $7 million. So we made about $2 million despite the peso's devaluation, which is a good outcome. We also invest a lower amount in CDRs about $4 billion to further our potential upside against the devaluation of the peso.

Thank you, Michael. Glenn also asked another question about contractors. We noted in the 10-Q that we engage drilling contractors due to their expertise. He inquired about the contractor at Gold Bar, which has always been a part of our plan to minimize initial development costs. We have a new contractor in place who is performing very well for us. The next question came from Valeria Bittencourt of FP Wealth Management in London, representing her Managing Director, Brent Fitzgerald. This question has three parts. First, is there a price target available from research or analyst reports? There are currently four reports available, ranging from $9.50 to $11 per share, with two at $11, one at $10.50, and one at $9.50, from alliance partners H.C. Wainwright, ROTH, and Cantor Fitzgerald. The second question is whether we plan to raise additional capital by issuing new shares this year. The answer is no, assuming current gold and silver prices remain stable. We have not considered seeking external funding. There may be M&A activity or other projects, but for now, all of the projects Bill mentioned will be financed with internally generated funds. The last question was about our share structure, specifically if there are any restricted shares maturing. There are none. As for warrants, approximately 1.9 million are outstanding and currently out of the money. We have no convertible debt or proposed convertible financing. The last figure for the short position was 1.7 million shares. I don’t believe there are any other online questions at this time. Operator, do you have any questions in the queue?

Yes, we do. The first question comes from Jake Sekelsky from Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open.

Hey, Rob and team. Thanks for taking my question.

Hello, Jake.

So you’ve had some exploration success at Fox recently. Can you just remind us of the size of the exploration program there for this year? And maybe just what’s left as far as flow-through dollars still that you have left to spend in 2023?

Bill probably will have to handle the exact number, but the flow-through commitment is around $14 million, of which we’ve spent $4 million.

We’ve spent about $5 million at the end of April. So we still have approximately $10 million to spend through the remainder of the year. At the present time, we have seven drills operating and growing approximately 10,000 meters per month.

Okay. That’s helpful. And then just switching gears to Los Azules. You mentioned in the release that the environmental impact report was submitted. Are you able to provide any high-level color on what that process looks like and the timeline of events on that?

Sure. Michael?

Sure, Jake. So starting on April 14th. What is going to happen now is the Minister of Mines is having a commission of 14 different entities that will evaluate the different aspects of the report. Hopefully, within a relatively short period, we will receive approval to begin construction and future operation of this mine. A comparable project, Josemaria from Lundin Mining, took about a year for evaluation, and it’s a bit more complex than ours. So that gives you a frame of reference regarding timing.

Okay, very good. That’s all from my end, and thanks again and congrats on a strong quarter.

Thanks, Jake. Next question?

And the next question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle with H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. This is actually Marcus calling in for Heiko. Thanks for taking my question. In terms of McEwen Copper, with the implied value you mentioned of $550 million and your 52% ownership, this yields a $286 million value for the original McEwen, which is well over half your market cap. The idea behind McEwen Copper was to surface value, and you can easily argue that’s exactly what’s happened thus far. So, looking ahead, is there a price for which you’d sell your remaining 52%? While you’d lose an important asset, you’d also be able to return a significant amount of cash to shareholders?

That’s an interesting question. We haven’t contemplated the sale of it, but we have wondered about the value. There are two public values out there for copper projects in our province: the Josemaria property that Lundin acquired for $485 million and the Filo project, which has a market cap exceeding $2 billion. We are larger than both of those projects. Our copper grade is higher than both of those projects, we're located at a lower altitude than those projects and we are closer to infrastructure, power, and highways. I believe the value is somewhere between what we’ve just come up to and the $2 billion mark. So, that will give you a range.

Okay. Fair enough. Those are fair comps for sure. Changing gears here a bit, when you described your gross profit and cash gross profit, you referenced improvements at Fox and Gold Bar. Now that we’re essentially halfway through Q2, can you give some context on what exactly led to these savings? What improvements were undertaken, what continues to bear fruit in Q2, and what are your expectations for the remainder of the year? Are there any other efforts being implemented?

Yes. At Fox, we’re working on a process that will increase the tonnes through the mill to around 1,400 tonnes per day. We’re doing that in a very organized fashion. In the last quarter of last year, we conducted a series of test work on crushing at the mine and delivering to the mill material that was already crushed. That experiment was successful, and we have engaged a contractor to crush all of the ore we’re producing at Froome to a slightly smaller size than we did the test work on. This will allow us to feed that into the mill at a slightly higher tonnage. Currently, we are at a point where we’re starting to implement that process, and the results will be seen in due course. We expect this will increase throughput in the mill by approximately 10%, which could lead to an increase in gold production of a little over 1,000 ounces per quarter. Although that may not sound like a significant amount of money, it will result in $10 million over a year. In the case of Gold Bar, we’re finding the leaching time on the Gold Bar South ore to be a bit longer than anticipated. It’s still early days since the first ore from Gold Bar South was put on the leach pad in the middle of winter. Leaching conditions are generally better once the weather warms up, and we’ve had a lot of rainfall and snowfall, resulting in dilution in our leaching capabilities. We anticipate that returning to the Pick pit will allow us to put ore onto the pad that leaches more quickly, bringing production back in line. I’m optimistic that we will see improvements at both sites, and we plan to have Phoenix constructed, which will produce estimated cash flow of around $10 million per year once it comes online. There is substantial potential upside from operations that we’re incrementally changing in a manner that involves very low risk and capital impact.

Okay. Perfect. That was an incredibly comprehensive answer. I appreciate all the detail. That’s it for me. Thank you.

Thanks.

Thanks, Marcus.

And the next question comes from the line of Joseph Reagor with ROTH Capital Partners. Your line is open.

Hi, Rob and team.

Hi, Joseph.

Thanks for taking the questions. Some of the topics I wanted to touch on were already covered, but I have a few remaining. First, regarding Los Azules, what’s the total budget for this year?

It’s $132 million.

And will that all be expensed through the income statement?

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay. Then shifting over to Gold Bar, the processing rate in the first quarter is nearly 580,000 tonnes. Do you feel that’s sustainable with the new contractor? It’s quite a bit better than the old contractor on a quarterly basis, but is it sustainable? Were there any factors that led to a higher processing rate in Q1? Could we do better than that? Just any insights would be great.

Yes. To be honest, I haven’t looked at that particular issue. However, in the first quarter, there was a significant amount of snow and rain, and operating in the winter is definitely more challenging than the rest of the year. I would say we did a great job in Q1. So far this quarter, we’re on schedule to continue at something over 100,000 to 120,000 tonnes per month, so I don’t see that in jeopardy. There is slightly more stripping to do as we move forward with Gold Bar South since the ore body is partly a high hill, raising the stripping ratio as we go. However, the distance we're moving waste is relatively short, and the truck speeds are quite good due to a relatively level road. I think you can expect performance going forward to be sustained.

Okay. Thanks. Lastly, Rob, on MSC, it seems that it’s become an annual issue that there's a quarter that doesn’t perform, which has prevented cash dividends from being released. Do you have any long-term thoughts on that asset or how you can start getting some cash out of it?

Good question, Joe. Traditionally, the first quarter is the toughest quarter since the mine started, due to holidays and startup issues. A number of us visited there last month to assess their operations. They have a large land package and are still finding new veins. We remain optimistic about silver prices and their potential to generate attractive earnings. We hope to see a dividend coming from it. We’ve provided some recommendations to them based on our observations on how to improve operations by having a fresh perspective looking at it. The asset still has an interesting life ahead. We have asked them if they want to sell it, but they didn’t offer a price that was attractive, and we’ve inquired if they want to buy our share, but the price proposed didn't entice us. Currently, it remains as is. Newmont has a processing facility in a larger mine just below us, and some veins appear to extend up to our property line. They might consider adding our operation to their package. But as of now, nothing is in the works.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bill Powers, a private investor. Your line is open.

Hi, Bill.

Yes. Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call, and congratulations on a great quarter. My question revolves around the Stock development, the ramp mentioned in the recent presentation and news release. If you could provide some insights on the timing, costs, and production expectations from the total Fox Complex once Froome continues production in Stock mine?

Thanks for your question. The answer is a bit complex, but let me attempt to clarify. First, we have the Froome mine, which will eventually run out of ore. We are currently conducting an extensive review of Froome to pinpoint when that might occur. Based on today’s gold price, the tonnage from Froome will exceed what we have in resources and reserves at this point. We’re trying to manage the transition from Froome to Stock while improving the milling process without incurring significant expenses. We’re developing a study regarding the capital and operating costs of the Stock Mine with a hope to initiate ramp construction as early as late Q3. We might start mining before winter sets in. We’re pleased to have found ore nearer to the surface, and old sections of the Stock Mine hold potential ore as well. We’re finding ore down to 400 and 600 meters below the surface. We plan to enhance the Stock mill output while maximizing Froome's output and keeping a positive cash flow throughout.

That sounds great. Thank you so much, Bill.

And our next question comes from the line of John Tumazos with Very Independent Research. Your line is open.

Hello, John.

Thank you. I’m just following up on the previous gentleman’s question to Bill. In terms of the ramp at Stock, you expect to generate significant ounces. Which month might there be gold ounces, and how many tonnes per month do you expect to move from the ramp? I’m not asking about predicting output or grades, just the potential tonnage we might see?

We don’t have a definitive number yet as we’re in the midst of assessing drill results and converting them into resources and reserves and mine plans. We hope to at least maintain the tonnage that we’re currently extracting from Froome—about 100,000 tonnes a quarter. Meanwhile, we’re working to understand how to optimize our mill's output. The ore from Stock is somewhat softer than Froome, which should benefit our tonnage. So, we're aiming for something around 1,200 tonnes a day from Stock.

Super. That’s very exciting. I apologize for asking detailed questions before you have all the answers.

We don't have all the answers yet. We have a lot of questions. Those numbers I provided you should have question marks beside them, but it is part of the process we need to understand as we go along. It will depend on what resources we find and how quickly we can drive the ramp.

Thank you.

Thanks, John.

There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Rob McEwen, I turn the call back over to you.

Thank you, Operator. Thank you, everyone, for attending. The rest is yet to come. Thank you.

And this concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.