Pan American Silver Corp Q2 FY2020 Earnings Call

Thank you all for joining us this morning. Before I turn the call over, I need to advise that certain statements made during this call today may contain forward-looking information, and actual results could differ from the conclusions or projections in that forward-looking information, which include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, cost of production, capital expenditures, future metal prices and the cost and timing of the development of new projects. For a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties and factors, which may lead to actual financial results and performance being different from the estimates contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Yamana's press release issued yesterday, announcing second quarter 2020 results as well as the management's discussion and analysis for the same period and other regulatory filings in Canada and the United States. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay today at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. Replay information and the presentation slides accompanying this conference call and webcast are available on Yamana's website at yamana.com. I'll now turn the call over to Mr. Daniel Racine, President and CEO.

Thank you, operator. Thank you all for joining us and welcome to our second quarter conference call. With me today is Jason LeBlanc, our CFO. It has only been a few months since the emergence of COVID-19, though it feels longer. The pandemic has changed our lives and while there is no doubt that we'll get through this, the uncertainty created by the virus has not been easy for anyone including our employees and contractors. But our people have persevered and done an outstanding job through the first half of the year. So I want to take a moment to recognize and thank our employees and contractors for their remarkable dedication, commitment, professionalism and compassion. I'm proud to be your CEO. While COVID-19 remains prevalent in Latin America we have the full support of our employees in both communities to continue operating. We are grateful for their support and do not take it for granted. We have implemented strict protocols and precautions at our operations to protect the health and safety of our employees, contractors and communities. Physical distancing, use of PPE, enhanced cleaning and disinfecting, enhanced screening procedures and the rapid contact tracing protocol are just some of the measures we've implemented to contain the risk of infection. I should note that in Chile where we operate two mines, the infection rate is declining and some businesses are starting to reopen. While there is some concern around mining in the country, this is primarily in relation to the copper industry where some companies have experienced high rates of infection. In the town of Jacobina in northeastern Brazil, the number of cases is limited and on the decline. We have from the earlier stage of the pandemic been supporting our host communities in the fight against COVID-19 providing various donations along with critical equipment and supplies. We'll continue to work closely with our community partners to understand their needs and do everything we can to support them through this challenging period. Turning now to our safety performance, our total recordable injury frequency rate in Q2 was 0.38. That compares to 0.6 in the second quarter of 2019. During the quarter Canadian Malartic reached a collaboration agreement with four nearby Anishinabeg first nations communities setting out measures to increase training, job and business opportunities and environmental protection. Both Cerro Moro and Canadian Malartic resumed mining activities in April, following temporary suspension due to government restrictions related to COVID-19. The ramp-up at Canadian Malartic progressed faster than expected with mill throughput in May and June exceeding 60,000 tons per day. Daily throughput in May of nearly 64,000 tons was a record for the operation, a remarkable achievement considering that it occurred on the eve of the suspension. At Cerro Moro, interprovincial travel restrictions resulted in the reduced workforce in the second quarter, extending the length of the ramp-up. The operation is implementing new initiatives to improve efficiency and production, including optimizing mine sequencing, improvements to drill and blast procedures and a review of the mine design, which aim to lower costs and accelerate development of high-grade zones. This initiative will provide long-term benefits to Cerro Moro that far outweigh the short-term impact of the travel restriction. We delivered strong operational and financial results during the quarter. Gold production of 164,141 ounces was driven by exceptional performances from Jacobina, El Peñón, Minera Florida and Canadian Malartic, which all exceeded their target production. Silver production of 2 million ounces reflects a strong performance from El Peñón. While the price of gold, which hit a nine-year high this week, is contributing to our strong financial results, the price of silver is also up sharply in recent months and bringing upside to our margins and cash flows. GEO production of 183,582 ounces was in line with plan, while cash costs and all-in sustaining costs of $715 per GEO and $1,025 per GEO respectively were better than planned despite the GEO ratio being higher at 105.14 against guidance of 98.85. Costs were positively impacted in the quarter by foreign exchange movements. Adjusted net earnings of $63.3 million or $0.07 per share, while cash flow before net change in working capital came in at $118.1 million. When normalized for costs associated with COVID-19, cash flow from operating activities before net change in working capital was $137.3 million. Net free cash flow during the quarter was $60.3 million or $41.1 million without normalizing for the impact of the temporary suspension, standby and other incremental COVID-19 related costs. Despite these impacts, gross margin and free cash flow on a per GEO basis increased in Q2 over Q1. Yesterday we announced that we are increasing our annual dividend by a further 12% to $0.07 per share. It is the fourth increase to our dividend announced in the past year for a cumulative increase of 250%. We will continue to take a gradual and progressive approach to dividend increases as our cash balances continue to grow from rising cash flows and successful initiatives to monetize our portfolio of non-producing assets and financial instruments. At the new annual dividend rate, the dividend paid will be above $70 per GEO, in line with our target of between $50 and $100 per GEO. We reiterate our 2020 guidance for 890,000 GEO, which comprises of 786,000 ounces of gold and 10.25 million ounces of silver. Our all-in sustaining costs guidance for the second half of the year is between $1,020 and $1,060 per GEO. Production is already tracking ahead of guidance with Q4 expected to be an exceptionally strong quarter on both production and cost. As a result, we are evaluating an increase to current production guidance. We are also reaffirming our 2021 and 2022 outlook for production of 1 million GEO in each of those years. Gold production, as you can see, will be slightly higher in 2022 at 885,000 ounces compared to 873,000 ounces in 2021, while silver production will be at 11 million ounces next year, dipping to 10 million ounces in 2022. Turning to our operational results by mine, Jacobina posted its sixth consecutive quarter of record-setting gold production at 45,646 ounces. The record production reflects higher grades and increased throughput, which averaged 6,850 tons per day, well above the phase 1 target of 6,500 tons per day. El Peñón delivered another strong quarter with both gold and silver production higher than planned, primarily due to processing higher-grade ore. As mentioned, the ramp-up at Canadian Malartic progressed faster than expected, while the ramp-up at Cerro Moro was steady, despite the impact of travel restrictions in Argentina. Production at Cerro Moro in June was almost 50% higher than in May. Production at Minera Florida in Q2 was better than planned, benefiting from higher grades and increased ton processed, largely due to continuing improvement in productivity. As mentioned, our overall production is tracking ahead of guidance and expected to be more heavily weighted towards the second half in line with the annual trend, with Q4 being our lowest-cost quarter. I will also add that we now expect the second half to be higher than the 54% weighting that we had previously forecasted. There were a number of positive catalysts during the quarter. We delivered significant exploration updates that support mine life extension at Jacobina and El Peñón. We also provided an update on the phase 2 Jacobina expansion plan announcing robust project economics. A few key highlights as a reminder, the plan has a modest capital cost estimated at $57 million using a conservative exchange rate of 4 Brazilian Real to $1. I would note that the capital is tracking closer to $50 million based on the current exchange rate, with $1.7 billion in cash flow in the first 10 years under the expected extended case scenario, assuming a gold price of $1,550 per ounce in the same conservative exchange of 4 to 1. Average gold production of 230,000 ounces per year at an average feed grade of 2.4 grams per ton represents a 31% increase compared to the phase 1 rate of 175,000 ounces per year. We are now conducting a backfill study for a 2,000 ton per day plan. We are studying two options: the first option is a hydraulic backfill plan that will cost between $7 million and $10 million. The base and backfill plan is the second option, between $15 million and $20 million. We have both options very well studied right now and are leaning towards the hydraulic fill again between $7 million and $10 million. We will complete the study in the second half of this year and come back with the decision and more precise numbers in the coming quarters. During the quarter we also announced an option agreement on the Suyai project. The agreement with Consultores Assets Management, a privately-held portfolio management and capital market in Argentina, is an important step that we believe advances ESG matters related to the project. At Canadian Malartic, we have authorized the construction of surface infrastructure and exploration ramp into Odyssey and East Malartic. With governmental approval already in hand, construction of the surface infrastructure and portal in preparation for the development of the ramp is expected to begin in August of 2020 with a budget of $6 million for the remainder of the year on a 50% basis. The ramp development should start in Q4. Once complete, the new ramp will allow us to carry out a bulk sample of up to 40,000 tons of ore. We advanced Agua Rica with Alumbrera to create a significantly de-risked Agua Rica and Alumbrera integrated project. We also continue to advance the permitting and facility study for this long-life low capital intensity project. We completed internal studies for the advancement of Monument Bay as a high-grade underground project and developed a plan for the exploration of significant downplunge extensions and satellite areas. You may have seen our release earlier this week announcing our intention to list on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. We're in the advanced stages of the listing process and expect to begin trading in the next few months. The London listing will improve our liquidity and expand our share register in a large underserved market for pure gold players with assets in the Americas. Our goal is to become the investment of choice on the LSE for those looking for exposure to gold equities in the UK and Europe and we believe our rising cash flow, dividend profile, high-quality asset portfolio, and strong balance sheet will help us achieve this objective. I should also note that we do not intend to raise equity capital in conjunction with the LSE listing. During the quarter, we completed the sale of the royalty portfolio for total consideration closing at $64.2 million, including a 13% interest in Nomad royalty. Nomad has a strong growth mandate and is already beginning to generate value for us due to share price appreciation that fixed the value of our stake to $102.6 million as of July 22 compared to $64.2 million when the transaction closed in late May. Finally, we completed the sale of 12 million units of Equinox Gold for gross proceeds of $120 million with the unit structure that is expected to generate an additional $81 million for total proceeds of over $200 million. I will now turn over to Jason to discuss the financials.

Thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everyone. Turning now to our financial performance. Revenue in the quarter was $303.4 million compared to $463.5 million in the same period last year. Aside from the inclusion of Chapada in last year's results, we also had the impact of COVID on our sales levels during Q2, mostly from mines that had temporary suspensions during the quarter, but as Daniel mentioned, those impacts are largely behind us as Malartic had a very quick ramp-up and Cerro Moro had a steady performance since Q2. Higher year-on-year G&A expense reflects an $11.8 million increase in historical stock-based compensation from the increase in the company's share price during Q2. On a cash basis, however, G&A expenses were $14.6 million during the quarter, in line with plan and lower than the $17.9 million in the second quarter of 2019. Earnings during the quarter of $0.00 per share were impacted by a number of items including $19.2 million in COVID-related costs that I'll talk about more in a moment. On an adjusted basis, net earnings were $0.07 per share compared to $0.02 per share a year earlier. One of the other impacts from COVID has been an adjustment on planned capital during Q2. In future quarters, capital will increase more in line with the value we see here for 2019, that's just over $40 million of sustaining capital per quarter and $20 million of expansionary capital per quarter for each of Q3 and Q4, just tied to our revised guidance for the year. The same is true for our exploration spending. For the full year, we expected $64 million of capitalized exploration and we spent $23 million year-to-date. So that leaves $20 million per quarter for the balance of the year. We also guided $20 million of exploration expenses for the year and have spent about $5 million to date. So that's about $7 million per quarter remaining for Q3 and Q4. Beyond our regular exploration program in years past, we announced an additional generative exploration program earlier this year to advance our pipeline of prospective projects, mainly in Canada and Brazil. This primarily includes the Monument Bay and Domain properties in Manitoba and the Labravela, Bugarama, Yuwalanda and Jacobina Norte properties in Brazil. As we've said, our objective is within the next three years to increase at least one resource base from our generative program to 1.5 million ounces, which will represent the next mine in our portfolio. Quarterly cash flow performance continues to reflect the impact of strong production in gold prices with cash flows from operating activities of $118.1 million during the quarter. Normalized for the $19.2 million in outflows associated with COVID-19, cash flows on the same basis would have been $137.3 million. Free cash flow before dividends and debt repayments during the quarter was $38.3 million and marked our fifth consecutive quarter of positive free cash regeneration. We also reduced our net debt during the quarter by a further $101 million to $768 million. During the quarter, we brought $120 million into treasury from Equinox Gold units, which consisted of one common share of Equinox owned by the company and one-half warrant, with each full warrant exercisable into further Equinox shares at $13.50 per share until January 2021. As of today, the warrants are in the money and if all of the warrants were exercised that represent about $81 million Canadian. In addition to the likely warrant exercise, we also hold a further 1.2 million shares of Equinox valued at just under CAD20 million as well. As Daniel mentioned, we had $10 million in cash to treasury from the sale of our royalty portfolio during the quarter. In addition to that upfront cash, we also hold Nomad shares in deferred consideration valued at over $90 million today. Finally, in June, we repaid $100 million on the $200 million we borrowed in March on our revolving credit facility as a precautionary measure due to the uncertainty around the global pandemic; we expect to repay the remaining $100 million by the end of the year. From a balance sheet perspective, you should expect to see a steady reduction in our already low debt levels quarter by quarter. As mentioned, we incurred $19.2 million of COVID-related costs during the quarter. These can be broken down into two categories as follows: temporary suspension and standby costs, which include costs associated with placing certain mines in care and maintenance, the subsequent ramp-up of those operations and the under-utilization of labor and contractors in relation to our pre-COVID mine plans and incremental costs resulting from COVID-19 including community support, additional PPE, higher transport costs, and overtime costs resulting from lower headcount levels to site to accommodate social distancing. You can see the breakdown by site and by category in the accompanying presentation. We expect the temporary suspension and standby costs to be minimized for the balance of the year as the mines return to full production levels. The incremental costs are also expected to decrease prospectively over the rest of the year, but this will ultimately be dependent on the path of the COVID virus. Despite the impact of the pandemic in Q2, our free cash flow, gross margin and all-in sustaining margin for GEO were all higher in the quarter compared to Q1. This sets us up for a strong second half from a margin perspective, as we expect lower unit costs for the balance of the year, with a kicker that the gold price per ounce is about $200 per ounce higher than in Q2. So both would positively impact the margins you see here as well our production will increase sequentially over Q3 and Q4; therefore, that higher margin will apply to more units as well. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Daniel.

Thanks, Jason. In closing, I'll come back to my remark at the end of the Q1 call and double down on them. We believe our business may be in a better position than it has ever been. The temporary headwinds notwithstanding, our operations are executed exceptionally well, and we are headed into a stronger second half of the year; our net debt continues to decline and cash flow continues to rise, giving us the financial flexibility to advance our organic growth opportunities while further increasing shareholder returns. And despite the gain in our share price in recent months, we believe we’re in the early days of the cycle, that our shares remain undervalued relative to our peers, and that considerable and sustainable upside remains. And with that, we'll be happy to take your questions.

Thank you, Mr. Racine. We will now take questions from the telephone lines. The first question is from Fahad Tariq from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. On Cerro Moro, can you talk about the plans to increase throughput in the second half of the year and how we should be thinking about that? It sounds like grades will improve from the underground mines. But maybe just talk about throughput and some of the efficiencies that you're seeing with a lower workforce? Thanks.

Good morning, Fahad. Good question. So yes, we see, first an increase in throughput. We were quite affected by travel restrictions in Q2; it’s getting better in Q3. And hopefully it will be almost back to normal in Q4. That's the first thing. Grades will effectively increase quite a lot in Q3 and Q4 compared to Q2 and Q1. And it's mostly what I said during the presentation is the area where we're developing right now with a limited workforce but we're developing with higher-grade zones both on the underground and on the open pit. So we see a lot better second half for Cerro Moro compared to the first, especially Q2 which was affected by travel restrictions.

Okay, and just as a quick follow-up, what percentage of the workforce was there in July? I think it was like 48% in June, but where are you now in July?

We're between 70% and 80%. It depends on the shift. It will increase because we had also kept limited capacity because of COVID-19. We have to respect social distancing. So before we had two people per room, now we'll limit it to only one. So we had to add some room capacity at the camp. We're doing that right now. So this is why we're very confident and into Q3 and Q4 that that will increase.

Okay, great. That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from Ralph Profiti from Eight Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Daniel on Jacobina Phase 2 timeline, what's your estimate on how long you foresee running at the Phase 1 optimized rate before start thinking about optimization? I'm just wondering how much we should think about the decision trigger being the feasibility study?

Good morning, Ralph, good question. We know that the timeline is quite clear for us at Jacobina. We have to complete the feasibility study. So we have the pre-feasibility. We already know that Phase 1 is achieving a lot better than the 6,500 tons per day for the first two quarters; we achieved above that. So I'm sure you can all assume that this year production from Jacobina will be higher than what we guided, and it will probably be closer to the run rate of Phase 1 we announced before. So we're going to run at that level for the next two years because we're going to make the decision after we complete the feasibility study early next year, then we have to order equipment. We have to go through the permitting. As you all know, we have already applied for the permit of 10,500 tons per day at Jacobina, so we're in that process of completing the feasibility study right now. So by this time next year, we will have made the decision to go ahead or not go ahead with Phase 2. The Phase 2 construction will take 18 months or by the end of 2022. So, early 2023, we would be at the new rate level. It is going to be at 8,500 tons per day; this is what we're going to see with the Phase 1, real Phase 1 with over 6,800 tons per day in Q2. So we'll see in Q3, Q4, probably Q1 next year, and that will guide us to what will be the new tonnage for Phase 2 is 8,500 or above that — we have to see what will happen in the next few months. So that's our timeline by the second quarter next year, I made the decision to go ahead and then we're going to run at the actual Phase 1 until Phase 2 construction is completed by the end of 2022.

Yes, that's great, thank you.

On the backfill, maybe to add Ralph on the backfill that might arrive sooner because backfill is a lot easier as a process to do at the mill, especially if we go with hydraulic fill. We know it's only cycloning the tailings to separate the coarser ore or coarser waste to send on the ground on the tailings. So that project we're doing the study right now will be completed in this second half, and then we might decide to go sooner for that one because it's going to bring extra ounces to the mill that we're currently leaving in pillars right now that we can recover with the backfill there.

Yes, that’s clear. Yes, maybe for Jason on the dividend reserves. With a stronger outlook for free cash flows coming from not only operations but stronger gold and silver prices. How much more work needs to be done on the balance sheet before kind of notionally where you are, where you want to be?

Hey, thanks, Ralph. Good morning. Great question. As you know, with the concept we introduced about a year ago, we want to get to a point where we could backstop three years of our dividends with cash set aside on our balance sheet aside from the day-to-day needs, so we've been steadily progressing towards that with free cash flow generation and monetization of some assets. With a dividend increase announced today, that three-year dividend level is about $200 million is kind of what we're aiming for. If you look at the balance sheet, where we sit here today, we're about $325 million in cash on the balance sheet; $100 million of that was from the remaining revolver draw. So if you net that off, you're at $225 million. We've always run about $100 million in maintenance cash, which leaves us about $125 million otherwise on the balance sheet. So we see the delta between $125 million and $200 million is kind of the cash flows we're going to be generating just based on the year alone. But both Daniel and I talked about it on the call today—we've got Equinox warrants and the money that would come into Treasury by December, which has a very high probability right now that will take us above that level. Not to mention other assets, right? Yes, I guess the easiest way to say is we feel very strong that we're going to fully backstop that dividend reserve fund over the balance of the year here.

Great, okay. That's good. That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from Josh Wilson from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi, first off for Jacobina, looking at that project and the capital that's required in the context of where gold prices are and where the new dividend level is, it seems like excess cash flow would be still pretty high. So, knowing that the current permit still allows 7,500 tons a day, why not consider looking at advancing that project and accelerate the grade again, just kind of looking at the capital requirements in the gold price today?

Good morning, Josh. Good question. Sure, we have the permit to 7,500 tons per day; we're going to push the actual Phase 1 to see where we can reach this. It's completed. But we had already bought some equipment for Phase 2, mostly on the gravity circuit. So we're looking to install this equipment as we have the permits, like I mentioned for 75; that might continue to increase, mostly recovery is already high, but probably throughput also, it will be difficult to advance more than that because the permit will have to wait for it. And then the construction of Phase 2, there's so much we can do, we have to order a mill, we have to have the right size of the mill; for that, we have to complete the feasibility study, we have to look at the crushing capacity. And that takes some lead time, long lead time to order this equipment. So you can bet that we're going to try to push close to that 7,000 for now and see how close we can get to that 7,500, but to advance Phase 2 faster, we’re limited by the permit, one, and then the ordering of the equipment and installing them.

Okay, thank you. And when you're looking at the Malartic Underground ramp that's now been approved, is there any ability to use this ramp for future production and would you be in a position to do that maybe as early as two years' time?

We'll see. We're continuing the study. The shorter ramp will be in exploration ramp but at the same time, a potential production ramp. I already mentioned that our permit gave us the option to do a 40,000-ton box sample, so as you can bet we're going to drive the ramp to see the three zones, the East Gouldie, Malartic, and Odyssey during the next couple of years. Developing that ramp will start in Q4. Like I mentioned right now, we’re doing overburden excavation; we have then to last a couple of rounds in portal, install the portal, take a few more rounds, and continue to fully prep the portal for the excavation, it will start in the fall or in the winter. So we have to be ready for that, it will take at least two years to develop that ramp to be ready. So yes, there's potential that some of the production might come in 2023, 2024. We're not there yet; we're studying first priorities to drive that ramp and drill from underground. So with that, we mentioned it will open a big opportunity to drill over 40,000 meters from underground. And it will be a lot cheaper than drill very normal from the surface. That is the main goal right now is to go underground, establish a diamond drill bay to drill the East Gouldie deposit that it’s drilling all the time from the underground.

Got it. And maybe one last question, looking at the London listing, which is I guess a bit of a surprise and you would be, you have an advantage I guess being one of the first North American companies there. What do you see as being either underappreciated or not properly appreciated with the current listings that the secondary listing would be able to service value from?

We're very happy with the two listings, we have here in Canada and the U.S., but we have quite a lot of shareholders coming from the U.K. and Europe. And then we spoke with them about this. And also, our Board of Directors, led by our Executive Chairman Peter, will discuss this for a long period of time; we have spoken with people, and it makes sense. We got told by our actual shareholders and potential shareholders in the U.K. that some of them, as you might know, own shares of companies if they're not listed in the country in the U.K. So that's another advantage; it is holding many firms and then people that are not invested in business or in gold to invest in Yamana. And then, like you said, we will be one of the first major companies to list there. And then we had very positive comments since within the announcement and then before that with our actual shareholders and then the people we've met in the past few months in London.

Thank you. The next question is from Jonathan Guy from Berenberg. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks very much guys, and congratulations on a good quarter. Just a question around the restrictions in Argentina and Brazil. Have you got any sort of timelines from the governments in Argentina around how restrictions will be eased? And what's your expectation over the next quarter and a half about a return to full operations there? And in terms of Brazil, obviously the COVID situation seems to be bad or even worse than it was previously there. Have you had any sort of official communications around grade restrictions being imposed and what costs should we assume for temporary suspension standby costs and other COVID costs for the next quarter in the second half?

Good morning or good afternoon, Jonathan. Yes, if I start with Argentina, we think travel restrictions will stay for the rest of the year; we will be able to bring more people as we will have more camp capacity. But we assume that it will continue to improve, but travel restrictions will stay in place probably at least for Q3 and probably Q4. So we don't anticipate that it's going to get worse and probably get better. But if not, then we know what we will be able to do with the people; we're bringing more and more people to each shift change we're doing. We're quite good in the process right now that we need the permit for all the employees each 14 days, we're doing a shift change, and it's getting better and better. We even moved some of our employees from other provinces. The problem is moving from other provinces to Santa Cruz. And as we mentioned many times, over 30% of our manpower is coming from outside of Santa Cruz and some of these people have key roles at the mine on blasting and stuff like that. So we even moved people temporarily with their family in Santa Cruz and portable to Seattle to make sure that travel restrictions do not become a bigger issue in the future. So we only see an improvement going forward in Argentina. On Brazil, Brazil is like Canada, the U.S. and other countries where there's provinces and then it depends where you are in Brazil. So if you go to Sao Paulo, cities like that, the infection rate is high; but you'll go to Bahia where we are, it's really low, and then you can look at this statistic. It is very low and in the town of Jacobina, where we are we had only a couple of cases; and then they came from outside of the town or the town is quite a large town with 80,000 people living there. It's been limited; we had no cases at the mine; so business is running, there is basically almost no impact. The small impact you saw on COVID for Jacobina is there is some restriction, like I said, from cases from outside but people that needed to come to the site that couldn't come generated some cost. But on Jacobina, you can assume that from now on there will be no cost; we don't see anything going bad in Brazil for Jacobina, like I said where we are. It’s a remote location and no issues, and then the State of Bahia also has no problem; it’s more where you have big communities, where there are big cities that it seems to be bigger issues.

Thank you. The next question is from Richard Hatch from Berenberg. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much and good morning, and congrats on a good quarter and high dividend. I've got two questions, the first one is just on Agua Rica, Alumbrera just with regards to the feasibility study which comes next year. Just I think the last year's CapEx was around the $2.4 billion number. Would you just be able to talk around any opportunity to reduce that or how do you feel about that number? Is there any sort of risk to that? And then the second one is just on the potential for increased production in the second half and that that's the new guidance. Any thoughts about how more you would expect the throughput and better grades to come through and say just been benefiting from throughput as well. Is there any chance we're kind of dragging out if that's where we can expect to see either and not jumping grades just as we look at the next couple of quarters? Thanks.

Good morning or good afternoon, Richard. Good question, the first on Agua Rica. Yes, we mentioned on the pre-feas study it was for $2.4 billion. Our group led by Edoardo Fernandez, who is the leader for the company on that study, the feasibility study will be completed late next year. As you know, we had delays because of COVID-19 regarding that and also because of being able to do some drilling on the project, but we got the permit now. So work should start soon. We have identified many opportunities with the pre-feasibility study, and we think we'll see. I can't see it will be for less than $2.4 billion, but we have already increased the reserve resources at the site by mining. So that will be a loss for the project. There were a lot of opportunities to reduce costs on the conveyor, on the mill, on different areas. So we'll see when the final number comes, but yes, there are opportunities to reduce that CapEx. As you know we own 56% of that CapEx. We'll see what will happen in the future. On the second guidance, we said, and I said many times during the presentation that I'm confident that we can do better than what we guided in April. It's just right now we need to take the time to properly assess what it will be. For Cerro Moro, I was clear just a few minutes ago; it will get better, but it will still be challenging. So don’t expect that Cerro Moro will achieve the guidance that we said in April. Even if it achieves that guidance, it will probably be lower, but all the others. You saw Q2, I mentioned that all four of the other operations did a lot better, even Minera Florida; where we were expecting to be just on budget because there were some restrictions there from traveling to people from outside of where the mine is, the town, all the other towns around, we have employees. They couldn't come to work now, they can. So it happened during the end of the second quarter. They were allowed to come back to work. So despite there were some travel restrictions, the mine achieved way better than planned. The big difference I think in the second half where we will see an increase in guidance is all these four mines especially Canadian Malartic. I should mention because we did the first shutdown; we mentioned in April that we allocated about 8 to 10 days for the shutdown at Malartic to happen because of restriction again on the amount of people we were able to bring to the site. The first shutdown we did in July, so early this month went a lot better than planned also. So we gained approximately two to three days of production. So assuming around the six to seven days of shut down instead of 10, that brings another two to three days more per quarter of production for Canadian Malartic. And then as I mentioned many times, Malartic is producing between 1,500 to 2,000 ounces per day. So that will help the production that might take. Jacobina, like I mentioned before, because of tonnage and grade, was also better than planned in Q2. We’re assuming Q3 and Q4 will probably be the same. So Jacobina will produce more; El Peñón, outstanding two quarters Q1 and Q2. So we're assuming that it will be better, and then Florida should be also a bit better, but similar to what we've seen achieving at least the guidance for the year. So if three are above what we said in April, Florida about the same, Cerro Moro, a bit lower than globally, we should be higher. It's too early to say a number, but you can feel in my voice and what I'm saying; we're very confident that we'll be better. So we'll come this quarter in Q3. We won't wait until the end of the quarter to put a new guidance, so stay tuned, as we will announce in the coming weeks a revised guidance for Yamana for the rest of the year both on production and on costs. We already mentioned that the cost will be lower. We established a target already, that will come into production.

Thanks, Daniel. And it’s really good to hear. If I could just talk one follow-up in two parts sorry, first ones just on the Equinox and potential to sell those shares? Can you just remind us about the tax impact on that one? And then secondly, just on the working capital, just build in the second quarter? Should we just expect to see any kind of flowback of cash from working capital movements into the second half?

Yes, sure, Richard. Why don't I address those two questions there? I guess on the Equinox, pretty straightforward. No tax impact on those monetizations. We’ve got shelter at a corporate level for those sales. And as I said, it's got an expiry date on those warrants in January; it's $2 in the money right now from a probability perspective, I'd probably tag that at about 75% probability. If you look through the math from an option perspective, so high probability of those cash can come into Treasury. And it's not just the $81 million, we do also hold a residual Equinox position worth about $20 million as well. So some significant value there. From a working capital perspective, yes I think it was if we would have looked back to the start of the year, we would have been flat in Q2. So again, another COVID impact, the first just very straightforward with the reduction in overall mining activity; everything slows down and you're basically not turning over your invoices as fast as you're paying them. So that's the primary impact here; we just saw that flow and then similar effects from Q1 in terms of speeding up AP to suppliers, building up their inventories. Over the balance of the year become conservative and say it's going to be flat; flat profile over the balance of the year.

Thank you.

Thank you. And the last question is from Jackie Przybylowski from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much for taking my call. I just wanted to follow up on the question Josh asked earlier on Malartic Underground. Daniel, you said that maybe production could come as early as 2023 or 2024. If the ramp isn't finished fully constructed until 2022, are you talking about basically just production from that exploration ramp for a couple of years while you're looking at other options like a shaft? Is that sort of the way you guys are thinking about developing underground right now?

Good morning, Jackie. Thank you for the question, good question. Yes, like I mentioned, the main target right now is to drive the ramp for exploration. Sure, we can use the ramp in future. We’re studying that right now, what we can do as you all know for East Gouldie, we're going to need a shaft, so that will take a few years to do the study for that, and then order the equipment, start the shaft sinking—the biggest advantage of the ramp also after exploration will be to use that ramp to raise the shaft instead of sinking a shaft. As many of you probably know, raising a shaft is a lot less costly, and a lot more efficient than sinking a shaft, so that will be a purpose in the future. This is what we're studying; the underground production, if it started in 2023 and 2024, we don't know yet. Like I said, we're doing this study but not sure if we have the ramp developed, we have access to these zones, so why not mining some of them? Production will be a lot smaller than the shaft for sure. But any tons that you can come from underground will be better graded than the open pit. We’re studying also potential open pit on the surface; we have a huge land property; we've had some success in exploration on the surface or studying old areas where there was mining before. So there's so many things going on right now with Malartic that can change in the future; we're focused on driving that ramp down, probably use it at some point to produce from underground, there's no real need because the open pit can supply the mill for the next seven years, but anything coming from underground can extend either the mine life of the open pits. So this is all in the study; this has very good potential to use and do it. And assuming what we know from us and our partner, if there is potential to bring higher-grade ore on surface, look at good costs; we’re going to evaluate this and then at the right time do it. So this quarter and next quarter, we're going to continue with a study, a pretty well-advanced study that our group and Malartic is doing our technical service; we’re quite impressed by the job they're doing at the mine. We mentioned already before and then we hope this quarter we will come with an exploration update at Malartic that will show a growing of resources at East Gouldie, and that will be put into our PA study done internally and it will help us to make decisions, so don't be surprised before the end of this year or with the release of the year-end that we come with a very good plan on how we're going to develop the underground mine. Are we planning to go mine underground? What will be the timing for everything?

Okay, that sounds great. So I guess when you're looking at designing the exploration ramp, you've got all of this in mind. So where the ramp should go in order to help facilitate things like raising the shaft in the future, it’s all part of the designing?

Yes, it's all part of the design. As I mentioned earlier to Josh, we have already begun excavating the overburden, so we know exactly where the ramp portal will be located. Over the next few months, we will prepare the portal and install trailers on the surface. We were fortunate that our partner closed a mine last year, so we can utilize their existing surface infrastructure to facilitate access to the underground project. This process started as soon as we received approval, and the mine was awaiting confirmation from the partners to proceed. They are moving quickly. The ramp construction will commence in Q4, and it is expected to progress well in the upcoming months.

And if I could just maybe to ask one other really quick one on some of the same topic. You just mentioned that there's a lot of information that you're hoping to put out either later this year or with the Q4 earnings results. In the MD&A, it says there's the further update in the third quarter. So is that something, do you expect something in the intermediate I guess timeframe to put out something a little shorter? And then a more extensive update like you mentioned a little bit later this year or early next year? Is that the idea on the flow?

I think in the short term, it will be exploration, so success in exploration. And you know, we got news, we told you in September last year, when we announced the discovery, we came back in February with an increased resources on East Gouldie. As you all know, we closed for the announcement of the resources in February, we have to close the drilling in October. So we drilled from November up to now. So we have a lot more information on East Gouldie as we have drilled for the past nine months. So this will mean the main topic is the increase in resources at East Gouldie, it's quite impressive with the new drilling. We have extended the zone in many directions, we have our target to bring some of this into indicated resources by the end of this year also. So the news will be mostly focused on exploration, but also giving some detail on our plan on the shorter term. So what is our plan with the ramps in the next couple of years, and then maybe indicate the type of shaft and stuff like that, but the full study won't be completed but we'll have a pretty good idea. So this is the interim probably announcement. Then with the Q4 result in February, we'll see what our partner can say; we know already that we're going to release higher resources and probably even some indicated, so that will come in February and then April next year.

Thank you. And the last question is from Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, everybody. Just wanted to ask Daniel and Jason, just on your dividend policy. You have that $50 to $100 per gold equivalent ounce that you would like to pay out. What do you need to see to increase that level?

Good morning, Tanya. Good question. You see, it's all related to that reserve fund. So we have built now that reserve fund to be able to pay that $0.07 per share. This is how we see it with increased cash flow from the operation. Sure, also with the increase in metal prices, that brings more cash flow than anticipated. So that reserve fund is building, that is building, and we know quite well the capital that we will need to spend. It's very small at Jacobina, we know roughly what it will be in Malartic in the next seven years. Then the big capital will be even not that big for the two companies when we split the two together. So this is all we manage it. We know we don't have any debt repayment until 2022. So we manage off, Jason can speak more because he's the one doing it, but as we reach the target on that reserve fund and then we reach the target on putting aside money to repay down the debt in 2022 with the capital investment needed in the next few years this is all we decided. So with our board, we saw that we have reached the money to be able to pay that $0.07, this is why we have decided to go ahead. The next time we're going to do it is because we have reached the next level to say okay, if it's $0.08 or whatever the number is, because we have the reserve fund available, we see our planning, our target, our cash coming into our treasury to see okay, now we can be that new amount, and then we made it clear a year ago what was our target and then we're following on that target. I'm happy that we have almost reached half of our targets; that’s quite good and impressive.

Okay. So is it safe to assume that, I mean, you have all of these other proceeds coming in by year-end from these warrants that will continue to add the cash in addition to the higher gold price and the free cash flow generation? It appears you said what your capital spend is going to be in the next couple of years from Jacobina and Canadian Malartic, which really are your own expansionary capital. So it could be something that you can quickly get to your upper limit of your $100 per ounce and then continue to grow that cash and make that adjustment. Is that a fair statement?

That’s fair. Jason, you want to put some color on your own?

Yes, I think it's a fair statement, Daniel. We start by making sure that dividend is sustainable. Really that first and foremost is backed up by what we would consider on an unencumbered cash flow, and that's cash flow that we generated and it doesn't have a home. We don't have a lot of capital intensity over the next number of years. So we can invest in the business really holding on to that cash flow in the company and the outlet for that unencumbered cash is going to be the dividend. I think it just gives that much more confidence that we can put a reserve fund in place like we have and the monetization has been a theme, I guess over the last number of years at the company that's going to continue on. We have these options in the portfolio to monetize and to increase the level of that reserve fund. Yes, we think that $100 is in line of sight over the next couple of years here.

Okay. And maybe just one other question for Daniel, I know that on Jason to like the COVID costs that of $6 million are small. I’m just kind of trying to understand what do you believe are the cost that are going to be COVID related that are going to stick to the business that we are going to have to take to our cost structure?

Yeah, maybe Tanya, we as I mentioned I think it's—we've got an idea of it obviously we're going to be driven by the path of COVID and we're going to do all those right things to make sure we got the protections in place. I think the highest intent of that spend has been early on here. We wouldn’t have to calibrate that spending most appropriately. So it's going to go down. We were $19 million across all categories in Q2, and I think conservatively, I'd say over the next couple of quarters it will be a third, maybe a little bit more than that in terms of total costs associated with COVID. And if it's round then the costs are going to stay around as well. I think that's going to be clear.

Yeah, I was just more interested from looking at the business; there was going to be some costs I know I think you divided the category until like $6 million which are like COVID, like the other one was care and maintenance and then $6 million of COVID cost. I know that's not a large number. I am just wondering what do you believe some of these costs are that are just going to stay with us for the business.

I think we've said it before and I think the cost of the longer term would be low single million dollars. So I think A, rate something very manageable, but B, we see opportunities to offset those costs and I think there is still early days to implement some of those lessons learned in the business but I think first off we'll offset it. You look at something in the movement in the energy yield ratio in shorter term has been more than compensated for any COVID costs for us. I think that's kind of—you need to ask given the exposure to silver in this place. And we've been waiting for some time to see that mean reversion in the gold equivalent ratio. We think that time is upon us, and we should have a pretty favorable impact on our business because of that. Metal more has been covered in COVID costs multiple times over. I think that's yes.

Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I'll turn the meeting back over to Mr. Racine.

Thank you, operator. So thank you everyone for joining us today. We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and we look forward to updating you on our third quarter results in October. Please take care and stay safe. Thank you and have a good day bye, bye.

Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time and we thank you for your participation.