McEwen Mining Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 6, 2024

There are 13 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to McEwen Mining Q3 2024 Operating and Financial Results Conference Call. Present from the company today are Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner William Shaver, Chief Operating Officer Perry Ng, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Chan, Vice President, Finance Stephane Spears, Vice President, Corporate Development Michael Medink, Vice President and General Manager at McEwen Copper Carmen Diaz, General Counsel and Security. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. I will now turn today's call over to Rob McEwen, Chief Owner.

Operator

Please go ahead,

Speaker 1

sir. Thank you, operator. Good morning, fellow shareholders and interested investors. You heard who is with me today on the call and they're available to answer your questions when we move into that period. During the Q3 and the 1st 9 months of this year, we have made significant progress reporting double and triple digit improvement in key performance metrics.

Speaker 1

As you can read in our press release, Q3 of 2024 was stellar compared to the Q3 of 2023. Revenue up 36%, gross profit up 2 68%, adjusted EBITDA up 5.86 percent, operating cash flow up at $23,000,000 from a negative $2,300,000 back in 2023. Our safety record is also stellar. We are pleased to post our records at Gold Bar 54 33 months without a lost time and McEwen Copper, Los Azules an amazing 1,300,000 man hours without a lost time accident. During the quarter, we continued to push our exploration spending $5,300,000 at the Fox and Gold Bar Mines, dollars 6,100,000 at Los Azules, the McEwen Copper Project.

Speaker 1

And these expenditures, we view as strategic investments and that have successfully extended the lives of our mines and they're currently treated as expenses and largely contributed to the net loss we recorded of $2,100,000 or $0.04 a share. We will be providing updated resource estimates to be released early next year. For McEwen Copper, we have raised privately over our funds and over the in the last quarter we closed on 56,000,000 dollars and that'll be used to complete the bankable feasibility study for Los Azules. We expect the feasibility study to be completed in the first half of next year and we're also expecting to receive our environmental permit to construct the mine during that same period. Once we have both the feasibility study and the environmental permit in hand, we're planning to IPO McEwen Copper.

Speaker 1

I think it's worth noting that we have raised privately over $470,000,000 to go towards the development of Los Azules. And based on the last financing that we completed at $30 a share, it gives an implied market value to McEwen Mining of 984,000,000 dollars I expect this value will soon reach the unicorn status that I predicted several years ago. During the quarter, we made some investments. In Nevada, we completed the acquisition of Timberline Resources. It has properties, 3 properties, but one close to our Gold Bar Mine has patented land claims with over 500,000 ounces outlined on there that we will be using to extend the life of our Gold Bar Mine.

Speaker 1

We are starting to drill on some of the exploration targets we've identified and that's starting this week and will continue through the year. At Fox, work is underway expanding our tailings facility to accommodate increased production from our Fox complex. And we will be driving a ramp to connect the underground at Stock going to connect Stock East, Stock Main and Stock West. In Ontario, we bought a position in a company called Inventus Mining. It has a very interesting paleoplacer gold deposit.

Speaker 1

These deposits are quite common in South Africa and contributed to South Africa's large gold production. It's a shallow deposit. We think it could be easily mined and find it a very interesting property. We also invested $14,000,000 in McEwen Copper, part of the $56,000,000 we raised early this year, believing that after BHP in Lundin, their deal of in excess of $4,000,000,000 we looked at our property and said it's lower altitude, a larger resource, it's closer to infrastructure. We can see a higher value for our Los Azules property.

Speaker 1

At this point, I'd like to open the session for questions. I can say we have 2 questions that came in online. Well, 2 people came in online, each asking 2 questions. One was, how much capital the company is planning to raise for Los Azules? And a related question, the anticipated IPO in 2025, can we provide preliminary details on the expected offering price and size of the offering?

Speaker 1

I'm sorry to say we can't say provide comments on either of those. It can be considered pre marketing and we haven't completed the feasibility. So we are not we don't have a hard number to say how much going to raise. But once we have the feasibility study out, we can answer those questions. The second questions came in and it was outlining what studies have been completed at Los Azules for the feasibility and what are outstanding.

Speaker 1

And also exploration news, what are we going to be doing on the newly discovered porphyry system that's 3 kilometers away? And I'll ask Mike Medding, our VP and General Manager of Los Azules to answer those questions those two questions. Mike?

Speaker 2

Thank you so much, Rob.

Speaker 3

So our record breaking drilling campaign last season with 23 rigs at site provided most of the technical data needed for the feasibility study. We plan to drill an additional approximately 7,700 meters this season to complement existing data using rigs operated mainly by local contractors which developed in Safran. We're planning nearly 4,000 meters of condemnation drilling using diamond drills in the area designated for future project infrastructure, along with about 1400 meters of geotechnical tonic drilling, 1500 meters of geotechnical diamond drilling and 800 meters of hydrogeological wells to support our study conclusion. In Q3, we updated the mineral resource model, optimized pit resources and conducted initial reserve calculations, with results being likely close to the preliminary economic assessment with the PEA. We also completed hydrological models, process instrumentation diagrams, the P and IDs and initiated 3rd party reviews for resource modeling, geotechnics, hydrology and metallurgy.

Speaker 3

Metallurgical recoveries are trending at expected levels with recoveries of around 76% in line with the prior press release we put out. We've signed a second memorandum of understanding with YPF to ensure feasibility study level of engineering aligns with our feasibility goals. YPF committed to options to provide renewable energy for the project to wind solar and hydro sources. Our team conducted benchmark visits in Chile and the U. S.

Speaker 3

And engaged with major equipment suppliers on electric and autonomous fleet options. Now what are the remaining steps? The remaining steps before the feasibility study include completing the site investigation, as I mentioned before, the final mine design, complete metallurgical variability testing, engineering, logistics planning, equipment specification, capital and operating cost confirmation and finally, the write up of the feasibility study itself, which we already started. We aim to include the newton upside as potential in the NA-forty three-one hundred and one report. So that's what we have on the schedule going forward.

Speaker 3

With regards to TANGO, depending on funds availability, we have a comprehensive program in place to test the mineralization in tango. You remember that we discovered a porphyry about 3 kilometers east of Los Azules. This will not be included in the feasibility studies on top of what we think is that we have a porphyry system. We have seen moly on surface. We have seen quartz veining.

Speaker 3

We have seen copper veining. We have seen geophysical anomalies. And we have drilled at the last at the end of the last season to relatively shallow depth. But we saw 106 meters with about 0.11 percent of copper. While this is borderline, it shows that the system is mineralized.

Speaker 3

So we're going to drill more to the center of where we see the anomaly to confirm the presence of higher grade. That's what we have on top of mind for Tango going forward.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mike. Operator, are there other questions?

Operator

Your first question is from the line of Jay Sekulski with Alliance Global Partners.

Speaker 4

Hey, Rob.

Speaker 5

So just looking at Gold Bar, turns in another strong quarter from a production perspective. I'm just curious, are the higher production levels we saw over the last two quarters something we should expect to continue heading into 2025?

Speaker 6

I'll maybe right answer that question for you. We have increased the amount of material we're moving at Gold Bar, but a lot of that material is actually waste that we're moving off of a part of the pit that's called PIC III. So it's basically a stripping operation. So although we are moving more significantly more material, the expectation is that production of gold in 2025 will be in line with what we've done this year. So we'll have an equal amount of gold produced in 2025 with more tons being mined because of the amount of stripping and that we're aggressively pursuing the stripping now because of the high gold price.

Speaker 5

Okay, that's helpful. And switching to the Timberline acquisition, Rob, you touched on this a bit. Can you just give us some color on what the permitting process and timeline might look like at Eureka? I'm just curious how quickly some of this material could potentially be brought into the Gold Bar Mine Plan?

Speaker 1

Sure. I'll ask Stephan Spheres to address that question.

Speaker 4

No problem, Rob. Hi, Jake. So, we're looking I mean, we're working already on the permitting process. We've got our permit to conduct exploration. And as Rob said in his remarks, exploration has started on part of the property.

Speaker 4

There's kind of 2 segments to the property. One area where we have patented mining claims that are not BLM ground. So we're dealing with the state only on permitting there and that has a kind of a quicker timeline of around 2 years for permitting. BLM permitting is a slight unknown, but it's expected to be longer and that would affect the lookout mountain resource. And so the way the team is looking at it is it will be permitted in several phases, with the earliest possible production projected for around 2027 and then layering on from there.

Speaker 5

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And then just lastly at Fox, any color on the development work that's being done and still needs to be done there over the next quarter or so in order to improve stope access?

Speaker 1

Dale, would you care to address that?

Speaker 6

Yes. Well, we are in the final throes of getting our permit to start the ramp excavation to get down into the main ore body at Stock and also into Stock East. At the same time, we are doing some shaft rehabilitation and this work is being done principally to make sure we have proper egress from the mine and also to help in the eventual ventilation system for the operation. So I guess we're hoping to have the stock, some parts of the stock operation in operation in kind of Q3, Q4 of next year. And that will overlap nicely with ore coming out of Froome, so that we don't end up with a gap in between the two operations.

Speaker 6

And this year we've had, I would say, a very successful drilling program where we've extended the ore to Stock East and extended ore down as deep as 600 meters. So I think the future looks pretty good there and of course with today's prices even looks a little bit better. So we're pretty optimistic about what we'll be able to do with our assets in Timmins and we're now working diligently on a plan that gets us kind of around 100,000 ounces per year by 2028. And some of that planning will be fleshed out in our 2025 budget process, which is going to which we're working on diligently right now and we'll have before our Board sometime in December.

Speaker 5

Got it. That's all for me. Thanks again and congrats on the quarter.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jay.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Joseph Reagor with Roth Capital Partners.

Speaker 1

Hi, Joe.

Speaker 7

Hey, Rob and team. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess, the first one, just kind of a follow-up to Jake's question about Gold Bar, but more so about just this year. The current guide, you're almost there already. Should we read into that Q4 is going to be a lower production quarter because there's less ore stacked in Q3?

Speaker 7

Or is there just no incentive to raise the guide ahead of the quarter? Which way should we read that?

Speaker 6

Well, actually, the plan for Q4 was that it was going to be a low production period of time and that's in part due to some of the stripping we are doing on the PIC III. And so I can't remember exactly what that number is, but it seems to me it's around for the quarter, it's around 8,000 ounces for the last quarter is the number I kind of remember, but it's I think it's between 8,000 And that was always part of the plan. So we're basically on track to meet guidance with the better quarter that we just had and we're working hard to try and make the last quarter a little bit better and we're pushing our fellows to do that and a few of us are headed down there next week to spend some time trying to figure out how to do that. So yes, I don't think we're going to see a significant change in the overall guidance for the year. So but it's kind of steady as she goes.

Speaker 7

Okay. Fair enough. And then for Los Azules, post the equity issuance a couple of weeks ago, what's the cash balance roughly right now in the subsidiary?

Speaker 1

Jeff, do you want?

Speaker 8

Sure. Let me just

Speaker 1

pull that out.

Speaker 8

But it would just be north of $40,000,000 at the moment.

Speaker 1

You get that, Joe?

Speaker 7

Yes. All right. And then one final thing. As you guys work towards adding in the Timberline acquisition to Gold Bar, will you guys be treating it as a separate mine or you guys be treating it as kind of like a separate pit, but still all through Gold Bar from like an accounting standpoint?

Speaker 1

From an accounting standpoint, it would be unitized under Gold Bar.

Speaker 9

Most likely, yes.

Speaker 6

Yes. And that's in part because operationally, eventually we may have a leach pad at Timberline, but the final finished product, the Gold Bar will be still produced at Gold Bar. So we'll transport carbon Gold Bar and then remove the gold.

Speaker 7

Okay. That's helpful. All right. I'll turn it over. Thanks,

Speaker 1

guys. Thank you.

Operator

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

Speaker 9

Hello, Heiko.

Speaker 6

Hey, Rob. How are you?

Speaker 1

Excellent. Thank you.

Speaker 10

Hey, you had somewhat lower than expected grades at San Jose. Can you just provide a bit of color on what happened? I assume the mine plan is still intact. And also, most importantly, probably what you've seen in Q4 thus far? And then building on all of that, how should we think of our longer term estimates to the site?

Speaker 10

I assume that this is more of a one time thing, right?

Speaker 1

Yes. Perry will answer that question.

Speaker 9

Good morning, Heiko. Thanks for your question. So, yes, we have regular dialogue with the team from Hauschild and management at San Jose. They've advised that the lower grades were temporary, again, mostly reconciliation versus resource model. But that seems to have been rectified in October or by October.

Speaker 9

So Q4 is trending well so far and we believe the operation is on track to meet guidance. Overall, I think they're quite bullish on San Jose as an operation. Obviously, silver prices having ticked up over the past quarter has helped significantly. And there has been some modest exploration success, which should continue to extend mine life.

Speaker 10

Fair enough. And then something completely different and frankly I'm actually shocked that this hasn't come up yet. It's a bit more philosophical. I mean you're based in Canada, you operate Gold Bar in Nevada. Obviously, big news out of the state today.

Speaker 10

We're going to get a new President in January. I wanted to see if you have internally thought of the impacts of all of that positive or negative from the election results from last night, even just like minor things, whatever cash moving across borders, staff travel, that kind of stuff?

Speaker 1

Well, McEwen Mining is a Colorado Incorporated company. Gold Bar is in Nevada and President-elect Trump has said that he wants to encourage the development of resources in the country. And I think it can only be positive. He wants to streamline the regulations and create more employment in the country.

Speaker 10

And he's pro mining obviously.

Speaker 1

Yes. So I think that's good for Gold Bar and our other properties there.

Speaker 10

Fair enough. I figured you'd say something along those lines, but you don't have any little like internal checklist of things that you're focusing on?

Speaker 1

It's too early at this point. Fair enough. The outcome of the election was up in the air and we just thought we'd let the dust settle before trying to look at that.

Speaker 10

I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Speaker 11

Thank you, Heiko.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Chris White with Paz Ventures.

Speaker 1

Hello, Chris.

Speaker 11

Good morning, Rob and team. Congratulations on the sales price of $2,499 announced. That's great. I got 2 quick questions. I think they might be for Bill, but you let me know.

Speaker 11

So, reviewing the release, I'm struggling with on slide 28 of the corporate deck, it said that our all in sustaining costs were going to be going down to like $16.50 to $17.50 at Gold Bar. But the press release said Gold Bar's actuals was $18.22 and then same thing at Fox. The slide 28 says $14.50 to $15.50 for Fox, but the actual was $19.53 or $400 to $500 more than 28 slide 28 suggested. Could you maybe provide more details here for all of us on the line and maybe answer also what would it take to get under $1500 in Q4? Is that even possible?

Speaker 6

Do you want to answer part of that, Jeff? Yes, I would say the chances of us getting under $1500 is probably very low. In the case of Gold Bar, it's in part because we're on a very aggressive stripping program right now to take advantage of the high gold price to do stripping at PIC III. PIC III is a lower a little bit lower grade than the average at Gold Bar. And at these prices, it is very valuable ore.

Speaker 6

But if the price of gold, say, fell back to $1500 that material might not even be ore. So we're in part, we may be seeing some higher, I guess, cost per ounce numbers, but those are based on doing proper work in order to put us in a better position for next year.

Speaker 11

Sure. So just in clarifying the Slide 28 in your corporate deck, you guys are going after different parts of the mine than you what the all in sustained cost of $16.50 $17.50 was reflecting. Is that right, because the price of gold is higher?

Speaker 6

That's right. And also, I mean, this stripping that we're doing now is going to expose ore for next year.

Speaker 5

Got it.

Speaker 11

Any comment on Fox, why Fox came in so high?

Speaker 6

Well, Fox is primarily high because of the lower the low production in Q3. That's basically it has to do with the divisor. And it also, I guess, is some of it is attributed to all of the money we're spending at this point on getting stock going as well.

Speaker 11

And that just wasn't factored in on the Slide 28 piece? Like what's the delta between what you guys have in the corporate deck and what actually happened in Q3?

Speaker 8

So this is Jeff Chan here. Just to speak to Slide 28 on this deck, I think we need to keep in mind that the guidance figures here are provided on an annual basis. And so just speaking to Gold Bar specifically, we still do expect to meet or exceed by exceed, I mean, come in below our cost guidance on an annual basis. I think as Bill mentioned in his earlier remarks, given the planned declining production of Gold Bar quarter over quarter, it would be natural to see increasing quarterly unit costs go up. But on an annual basis, I would expect to still come in again within or below cost guidance.

Speaker 8

At Fox, it's exactly as Bill mentioned, due to the lower than planned production and the production that we've advised the markets, we are expecting higher than expected unit costs in our guidance. Looking at our financial base, it's not a result of overspend. I think on a total basis, we're expecting to be within exactly our planned spend, but it is a production issue.

Speaker 1

And at Fox there was an unexpected failure of 1 of the stopes that affected a larger area underground and that reduced our production. And as Bill said, when you reduce the production, the cost per ounce goes up. That's very

Speaker 6

low. Also remember that the Froome mine is kind of in its last year of mine life. And so there is that's always a bit more challenging, I would say, but we're handling that well.

Speaker 11

That's helpful. So it sounds like that if we were to put a bow on this answer, you guys are sticking with the estimates on Slide 28 and that Q3 was just an outlier.

Speaker 1

Is that a fair articulation?

Speaker 11

Maybe, Joe?

Speaker 6

I'd say, I guess, just to maybe add some caution there, I would expect that what we're going to see is a slightly higher cost per ounce at Fox and it will depend on exactly what the production is in the last quarter.

Speaker 1

Got it.

Speaker 11

So then my last question here just kind of spring poles or spring boards rob off what you said. In the release, it says 15% to 20% fewer ounces compared to the annual guidance on Fox for the reason that you highlighted. If that hadn't happened, wouldn't we be looking at potentially a breakeven quarter? And I guess if that's correct, how do we make sure that this type of thing doesn't happen again? Because boy, this stock would be ripping if you guys could just be breaking even.

Speaker 11

I don't know, am I interpreting that correctly? That's what's stopping us from being breakeven? And then this question of how do we make sure this doesn't happen again? Any comments there?

Speaker 9

You're totally correct, Chris. And this is Perry, the CFO. So definitely, had we produced a bit more ounces, we would have had a positive quarter. And as well, as Rob mentioned, going back to Los Azules, once we finish the feasibility study and have our permits in hand, we can actually capitalize our exploration costs that McEwen Copper is incurring. So if you look at our year to date spend, our year to date proportional loss is $36,000,000 $37,000,000 That would have been nullified on as a loss and we would have been quite profitable for the year and for the quarter.

Speaker 1

It would have been $34,000,000 Yes.

Speaker 11

So when what quarter do you think that that comes together? I mean, and I asked this, I've been on the ride with you, Rob, since 2016 and I've been an investor, not a speculator and it's been rough. And so I'm ready for it to come. It'd be interesting to hear Yes, I can imagine for you. When do you think that quarter,

Speaker 9

Perry? Feasibility will be in the first half of next year. And the I guess the feasibility as Michael talked about is well underway. The timelines for that are fairly definite. The permits obviously were subject to the timelines from the appropriate

Speaker 1

ministries in Argentina. And

Speaker 11

then Right. So first half of twenty twenty five, we should be printing positive quarters. Fair?

Speaker 1

Well, we'll have the feasibility. We expect to have the permit and we have to get the IPO out. We don't need to have the IPO. All right. So at the end of the first half, we should be moving into positive ground, assuming we don't buy something else.

Speaker 11

Which prices could be good. All right. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Chris.

Speaker 1

Thank you for your loyalty.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of John Morin.

Speaker 2

Hi. I have two questions. The first, I've been an individual investor for over 12 years, now having over 40,000 shares. When people ask me why I invested in the company, I told them, I said the company is really unique. You founded and were Chairman of the Goldcorp.

Speaker 2

And then you started this company, you have a large stake in it and plus originally you had no debt. So I said it's one of a kind. The thing that puzzles me though is that back in the day like about 12 years ago, the stock was at least peaked substantially higher. Now from what I can see, the company is in much, much better shape now. You finished that road for the copper and you mentioned that the copper, if I understood you correctly, is worth more than the stock price, not even counting the gold and silver.

Speaker 2

So what puzzles me is nothing to do with you, but why the market isn't reflecting this to a much larger degree where you would estimate the stock should be in the 20s or 30s. And then my second comment, I heard what you said about Trump, but just today the gold is down about $80 a share almost and the silver $1.50 And I was wondering if it's a positive reflection at least with the Colorado, Nevada or in the Nevada mine, why do you think it dropped so substantially? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, John. Okay. Let's deal with the first question about why are we not higher. And I agree, we are in better shape than we were back then. We have production coming from a number of areas.

Speaker 1

Unfortunately, there was a period of 3 to 4 years, 2018 to 2022, where our operations were not delivering on guidance. They missed it by a wide margin. And as a result, our revenue was low. And I think people looked at our copper project and said, how are you going to finance that? This is a big project and it's going to be very cash hungry.

Speaker 1

So we separated the copper and said let's raise the money privately there rather than diluting the Q1 mining to raise the funds. And we've had the benefit of our operations, our precious metal operations coming back on stream and performing much better. There's still, I think, an issue of consistency in the production across all of the operations. One's up, the other one's down. And that's being addressed and we see room to expand our production considerably.

Speaker 1

So over the next 3 to 4 years through organic growth. So we're looking at a bigger price. When we do our internal estimates of value, it's sort of the sum of the parts. We have the proper holdings. We have a portfolio of 5 royalties, none of them producing at the moment, but the largest one is on Los Azules 1.25%.

Speaker 1

And based on the preliminary economic assessment, production forecast, that would generate over a 20 7 year life better than $400,000,000 And then we get down into the gold shares and when you compare it to a peer group, we're trading at a large discount at the moment. And these results and what we can see going forward should start addressing concerns about the life of these assets and the cost of them. So I think it's a timing issue that will resolve itself as we move forward. But it's been a painful process. With respect to Trump and the gold price, I was looking at it and saw Bitcoin was up and gold was down and I think that's odd.

Speaker 1

I suppose the market's saying they don't expect the Trump government to be spending being as profligate a spender as would the Harris government and that's stronger resulting in a stronger dollar or perception of a stronger dollar. And you saw it wasn't only gold, it was silver, it was a number of the base metals. The only one that wasn't down at one point this morning was lead and that's probably because of the wars going on.

Speaker 2

Can I just ask one other thing? Yes. The institutional investors that has grown over the years, right?

Speaker 1

It has been. We have good volume. We trade average daily volume about 500,000 shares on New York. So good liquidity and with an improving balance sheet and operational performance, I think we'll win the attention of more institutions and retail investors.

Speaker 2

And I'm 68, I know you're 74. How much longer do you think I'm retired. How much longer do you think you're going to go with this?

Speaker 1

Let me share a story. A number of years ago, I was meeting with an executive coach and his first question was, how long asked me how long I was going to live. And I said, well, ever since I've been about 20, I figured I'd live to 100. And he said, well, tell me what you think you're going to be like when you're 99. And I said, well, I'd like to have a clear head and be mobile.

Speaker 1

He said, well, all right, if you like that at 99, you think you're going to die at 100. And I said, no. My wife and I have put a lot of money into regenerative medicine and research. And what I've seen there is life expands are going to extend and make so I said, he said, well, how long are you going to live? And I said, 120.

Speaker 1

And he said, okay. At the time I was 60, he said, if you're going to live to 120, you have your whole life in front of you again. What are you going to do with it? And I said, well, what could I do with it? And he said, well, you could do 10 times what you've already done.

Speaker 1

I said, 10 times like 10 times more wealth, 10 times more travel, 10 times more philanthropy, 10 times more wealth. And he said, all of the above. And I said, well, that sounds pretty good. You have and I said you have 240 quarters in front of you. So you can lay out a plan.

Speaker 1

So I'm in no rush. I think we have in McEwen Copper, the Los Azules property, I believe has the potential to be much bigger than Goldcorp ever was. It is if you look at it and put it on a gold equivalent, it's bigger than a 60,000,000 ounce gold deposit. And on the projected cost to be coming in at just over $600 cash all in under $1,000 27 year life and producing gold equivalent of better than 600,000 ounces a year. In my book, that's an extremely big gold deposit.

Speaker 1

It's almost equal to all the gold that's been reduced in the last 100 years out of the Timmins District, the most prolific mining area, one of the most prolific gold areas in Canada. So, I think there's a lot of room. We've got copper is in large demand. You look at the deficits that are being projected for a number of reasons. The electrification of energy, the extremely high use of electricity by big data farms and servers and then the growth of the world's population and the use of copper in the infrastructure.

Speaker 1

So there's that. And gold, I think we've got the right mix of assets. Gold is to me that's always been that's money. And our governments are good at debasing fiat currency. And so gold is in my mind heading higher despite this little drop today.

Speaker 1

When you have $36,000,000,000,000 in national debt, the service costs on that are high. And America is not alone. I look to Canada, I look to Europe, I look to China, everybody has printed a lot of money and they've taken on a lot of debt and at one point have to pay back the debts and gold is one of those hard assets you want to have in your pocket because it doesn't appreciate like be it currency.

Speaker 2

I agree with you on the potential life expectancy. Yes.

Speaker 1

Good.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you very much for sharing all that. I really appreciate it. And someday I'm going to come in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Someday I'll come up to Toronto and meet all of you. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Maybe we'll get down and see you down in Hershey.

Speaker 2

Okay. That'd be great. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Your

Operator

next question is from the line of Mike Kozak with Cantor Fitzgerald.

Speaker 1

Hello, Mike.

Speaker 12

Yes. Good morning, Rob and team. Congrats on the solid quarter. I joined the call a little bit late. So if any of this was already mentioned, I apologize.

Speaker 12

But one question, I've had in the back of my mind the last couple of months. Just with what silver prices have done over the last few months, kind of catching up with gold strengthening, notwithstanding the one day move down today. But in the current silver price environment and both McEwen Mining and McEwen Copper looking increasingly more focused on Los Azules. Would you would McEwen Mining potentially look at monetizing either the Project Phoenix or your interest in the San Jose mine?

Speaker 1

At the right price? Sure. Yes.

Speaker 12

Okay.

Speaker 1

At the right price. I mean there has been rumor that Haschow is thinking of possibly selling San Jose and we've been approached by one potential buyer that asked if we'd be amenable to thinking about selling.

Speaker 12

Okay.

Speaker 1

Nothing coming along

Speaker 12

Okay. I did hear something, a rumor to that effect. That's why I was just asking this question. But okay, that's all I had. Thanks.

Speaker 1

All right. Thank you, Mike.

Operator

At this time, there are no further questions. I will now hand the call back over to Rob McEwen for any closing remarks.

Speaker 9

Yes, sure. Okay.

Speaker 1

Before we close off, Perry just wanted to make comments on.

Speaker 9

Yes. We did receive an email from Howey Center. It's just regarding Page 4 of our news release. So we can confirm that there is a typo on one of the columns on the gross margin percentage. So we'll update that on our website version, but the correct percentage should be 17.6% rather than 35.1% gross margin at the San Jose mine in the Q3.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Rob. Thank you. Well, thank you everyone for joining the call today. I hope you share the same thoughts that this was a great quarter. And what we want to do, our goal is to keep repeating these.

Speaker 1

So thank you and successful investing.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.

Remove Ads
Powered by Quartr
Earnings Conference Call
Lee Enterprises Q3 2024
00:00 / 00:00
Remove Ads