McEwen Inc. Q1 FY2025 Earnings Call

Welcome to McEwen Mining's First Quarter 2025 Operating and Financial Results Conference Call. Present from the company today are Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner; William Shaver, Chief Operating Officer; Perry Ing, Chief Financial Officer; Jeff Chan, Vice President, Finance; Stefan Spears, Vice President, Corporate Development; Michael Meding, Vice President and General Manager of McEwen Copper; and Carmen Diges, General Counsel and Secretary. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Rob McEwen, Chief Owner. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning and welcome, fellow shareholders, analysts, and interested investors. Year-to-date, 2025 has been an eventful year for us with the higher prices of gold, silver, and copper brightening the outlook for our operations. We've increased our liquidity by using a financial instrument called the capped call convertible note. This instrument allowed us to reduce potential share dilution by setting an effective conversion price at a 100% premium to our share price at the time of the transaction. The majority of these funds will be used to advance the development of our Fox Complex, and we expect that once this work is completed and the Stock and Grey Fox mines are in production, our consolidated annual production in 2030 could reach as high as 225,000 to 255,000 ounces. This represents an increase of over 80% above our current production. So let's start with some other good news. It's taken some time, but our 49% interest in the San José mine has once again paid a dividend, and we're expecting more during the balance of the year. During the quarter, we were delighted to see Gold Bar produce 10% more gold than budgeted at a cash cost 24% below the low end of our annual guidance at $1,146 as opposed to the low end of our guidance of $1,500. However, I expect you will be alarmed when you see Gold Bar's all-in sustaining cost per ounce of approximately $2,200 an ounce. I want to explain this high number. It was a result of our decision during the quarter to access a gold zone that had been uneconomic at lower gold prices but was quite economic at today's gold prices. So we decided to accelerate the stripping rate in the first half of this year. And so far, that's cost us about $7.5 million in order to increase our production and lower our all-in sustaining costs in the second half of the year. Financially, Q1 2025 compares well to Q1 2024. I'll give you some examples. Our gross profit was up 68% to $10.1 million. Our adjusted EBITDA was up 38% to $8.7 million. Our cash and cash equivalents increased to $68.5 million from $17.5 million. Our consolidated working capital increased to $61 million as opposed to a negative $6.5 million. Our total debt went up to $130 million from $40 million. Our debt cost of service went from 9.75% to 6%. And our net debt is currently standing at just over $42 million. So speaking of our Fox Complex, it was a disappointing quarter from an operational perspective because production was lower than budget and costs per ounce were unacceptably higher than budget. However, many of the reasons for the underperformance are expected to be behind us with production and cost per ounce for the balance of the year looking much improved. Speaking of Fox, on a positive note, we just received our permit to construct a ramp to the underground at the Stock mine. This is a key element in our plans for the Stock complex expansion. So we're having exploration going on, active programs at both the Fox Complex and at Gold Bar, and we will be releasing updates on that throughout the year. We just put out a release earlier today on our exploration, showing, particularly at the Grey Fox, how that resource has been growing quite rapidly, some good grades over nice intercepts. Quite optimistic that this still has quite a bit more room to grow. And with that, I'd like to open the session for questions.

And your first question comes from Mike Kozak from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Yes. Good morning. Hi, good morning, Rob, and then team. Thanks for hosting the call. I just really had one question. How much cash or cash plus investments is held within the copper subsidiary?

Perry?

Hi Mike, so currently, the treasury for McEwen Copper is below $10 million. Obviously, we expect to announce another financing at some point as we move towards the publication of the feasibility study. But currently, cash balances held at the McEwen Copper level are relatively minimal.

Okay. For my follow-up, do you believe that $10 million is sufficient to complete the feasibility study? Is the timeline still targeted for July?

We will likely need some additional runway to get to July, Mike. I mean, we just finished a geotechnical program at site. Site has wound down but the costs have come down significantly. But ideally, we'd like to complete another round prior to the feasibility study.

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Powers, Private Investor. Your line is open.

Hi Rob, thanks for hosting the call. I have a few quick questions. Let's start with San José regarding the $2.2 million dividend for the quarter. It still seems like there is over $80 million of working capital. Have Hochschild indicated what their payout might be? Have you discussed regular quarterly dividends with them? Do you have any updates on the status?

Sure, I can answer that, Bill. We are in regular communication with Hochschild, and there is a focus on extending the mine life at San José. It's going to require balancing reinvestment in the mine, especially with silver prices above $30 and gold at its current level. We need to consider continued exploration, returning funds to shareholders, and setting aside some reserves for future needs and mine closure. Right now, the Argentine peso is quite strong, which negatively affects reported cash costs in U.S. dollars. However, we remain optimistic. The mill expansion to 2,000 tons per day with the addition of the Vertimill is performing well, allowing us to increase throughput and lower unit costs, which effectively reduces our cut-off grade at the mine. All these factors are significant to us, and we expect to receive further dividends this year at these commodity price levels.

It's good to hear. I noticed on your updated information sheet about the Fox Complex that there's around $71 million allocated for development this year. How far along are you percentage-wise in your preparations before starting production? Is there any expected production from Stock this year, and what is the current status of that?

Yes, we expect the first production from the underground section of the Stock mine in the last quarter of this year. The recent permit allows us to begin drilling and blasting for the ramp, and we now have the final design for it. We anticipate completing the ramp either late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter. Additionally, the shaft has been dewatered below the 400 level, and we are currently surveying to ensure all headings meet safety standards. Our plan includes conducting exploration work and sampling in the old workings, as the mine was closed when gold prices were low, and we believe there is ore we can extract quickly. Once we finish the ramp, we will be able to load trucks from underground and proceed with that work. Moving into next year, we aim to increase Stock's production to its full capacity.

Okay. That's good to hear. I guess, one last question regarding Grey Fox. You guys have done a lot of drilling, seems to be going well. I guess, what is the time frame? And what might you envision the cost to put the Gibson Ramp back into production?

So that's a very good question. So we're just in the midst of starting a study on that, what the capital costs are going to be, what the operating costs are going to be and what the exact strategy is for, number one, getting the permit in as timely a manner as possible; and then number two, what's that going to look like in terms of a mine plan and capital. And I guess, the opening of the mine, the Grey Fox mine, I mean we're right now studying which is the best access method. Should we be talking about an underground operation or should we be talking about a small open pit? And both of those options are viable. So now it's a question of deciding which one is the cheapest and the fastest. So the plan initially for that part of the property, Grey Fox and the associated other ore bodies around there, would be to bring that ore back to the Stock mill. And it's relatively high grade, and therefore, we would establish some cash flow. And then the next step would be what is the long-term potential of Grey Fox, which we see as pretty robust. So then we would want to increase the tonnage through a process plant that would be significantly larger than the Stock mill. So that's another part of the study that we're working on. And I guess, I see a mine that's running at 3,000 to 5,000 tons a day. And then we need a tailings facility and so on. And I guess, the major thing we have to think about in terms of the ultimate timeframe for putting that together is how long is the permitting going to take. And so that's something that we're actively working on. And as we've all heard from our governments at both federal and provincial levels that they're going to speed up the permitting process. At the present time, based on historical time frames, that would take about three years. We're hoping that, that might get down to 18 months to two years would be, I think, an optimistic view of that and that's kind of what we're hoping for.

Okay. No, that's very helpful. The time frame for obtaining it would depend on the mine. It would require a significant amount of work since it hasn't been active for quite some time.

That area has an exploration ramp that was constructed around ten years ago. Significant development is needed to start operating a new mine there. The good news is that the overburden is minimal, and we have ore accessible right from the surface, which we could start mining within months of receiving a permit. There are many positive aspects about the ore body at Grey Fox, and our current drilling efforts are expanding the resources we have. We recently spent a couple of days reviewing the drilling and exploration program, and we are very optimistic about the future based on our successes thus far.

We have ore right at the surface that we understand we could be mining within months of receiving a permit. There are many positive aspects about the ore body at Grey Fox, and our current drilling efforts are expanding the resources available there. We recently spent a couple of days reviewing the drilling and exploration program, and we are very optimistic about the future based on our successes so far.

While we're on pause, I want to touch on something I didn't mention in my opening remarks regarding our financials. Our income statement will improve once the feasibility study for Los Azules is published this summer. This is because we will stop including the expenses from McEwen Copper and Los Azules in our income statement once the study is released, leading to those expenses being capitalized under accounting standards. This change will positively impact our bottom line. Over the past few years, Jeff will explain how much we've had to include in our income statement for Los Azules' expenses. However, that will now be removed, which is beneficial. We've made significant investments to enhance the value of Los Azules, and as a result, we've faced a negative bottom line for quite some time.

Yes. So just to expand on what Rob just mentioned, at the end of the first quarter, we reported negative $6.3 million in net income. And capitalizing the expenditures of McEwen Copper would have resulted in a positive net income of $2.3 million rather than a negative. If we take a look at the last few years of expenditures since 2021, we've spent over $250 million in McEwen Copper that we could have capitalized onto our books should we have hit feasibility four years ago.

Yes. Thank you, Jeff.

There are no questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to you, Rob McEwen, for some final closing remarks.

Thank you, Operator. When I look at it, it's been an interesting year so far. I think it's going to get more exciting. From an operational standpoint, we're still not quite there in terms of where we want to be with respect to performance, but that's on the right track to be repaired. As I said, from a financial standpoint, we've improved our liquidity. We have the money to advance the project at Fox, and that's going to have a big impact on our future. Although a couple of years away, but that's moving ahead. Exploration is delivering encouraging results. And so there will be active news coming out on exploration each quarter. And I believe price gold is going higher. So for a company like us, higher gold is a good price for us. Thank you.

And this concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.