Category: Investor’s Corner

Our first quarter results reflect the challenging operating environment the industry has faced in recent months. Profitability has been impacted by lower steel pricing due to weaker economic activity and continued global overcapacity, as well as rising raw material costs as a result of supply-side developments in Brazil.

“Because of Greens Creek’s exceptional performance, Hecla’s first quarter was largely as expected, financially.” said Phillips S. Baker, Jr., Hecla’s President and CEO. “Greens Creek exceeded expectations for both gold and silver production due to higher grades and recoveries. However, Casa Berardi and our Nevada operations both produced less cash flow than expected.”

‘Our mines delivered solid results in the first quarter, despite soft precious metal prices, generating $61.4 millionin operating cash flow before interest, taxes and working capital changes,’ said Michael Steinmann, President and Chief Executive Officer. ‘After closing the Tahoe transaction in February, Pan American is now a larger, more diversified company with enhanced growth prospects. As we integrate these new assets into our portfolio, we are focused on capturing synergies and maintaining low-cost, efficient operations across the company.’

‘As a result of the ongoing depressed metals market environment together with the planned 7 day upgrade to the crushing circuit in which all mill circuits were offline, earnings during the first quarter of 2019 were affected’ said David Wolfin, President and CEO. ‘On a positive note, the installation of a tailings thickener commenced which should be completed on schedule and ready for startup in May, 2019. In addition, engineering work is ongoing for a new tailings storage facility in the historic open pit which is already permitted. Furthermore, we are confident that our decision to pursue the mill expansion in 2018 was the right move to position ourselves for the future. I’m proud of our diligent approach to trimming our G&A expenses with a 38% reduction this quarter compared to Q1 2018. We will continue to focus on profitable ounces and keeping costs controlled company-wide.’

‘The drill results to date at Los Ricos have been some of the best in my career,’ stated Brad Langille, President and CEO. ‘The high grades and wide zones identified thus far are less than 150m from surface. Our team has reviewed thousands of historical documents dating back 100 years which has allowed us to develop high probability targets for drilling.’

The proceeds of the financing will be used to advance exploration on multiple properties within the Oaxaca, Mexico Au-Ag belt as optioned from Minera Zalamera S.A. de C.V. in an agreement reached in August of 2018.

Fresnillo plc informó que registró una cifra récord en la producción de plata anual, de 61.8 millones de onzas (moz) en 2018, impulsada por el primer año de operaciones en San Julián (Yacimiento Mineral Diseminado).

‘The first quarter came in slightly lower than expected as a result of severe winter weather conditions at Florida Canyon and low equipment availability,’ said Mark Backens, President and CEO. ‘With an aged fleet we are reviewing the most cost-effective way to increase the availability at site. Our focus at Florida Canyon is on increasing productivity and lowering our costs across a number of areas where we see potential to make significant improvements including the mining efficiency, mine planning and increased ore in process.’

‘With the next two phases of production under construction at South Arturo, and better grades expected in the first half of the year at Mercedes, the Company is well positioned to return to higher levels of production and reduced costs in the near future’ stated Ewan Downie, President & CEO. ‘The ongoing permitting initiatives at the Cove and Hardrock Projects and the recent high-grade gold discoveries by Barrick as they earn-in to our property around Cove, provide Premier with one of the best and highly leveraged organic growth profiles amongst its peers’.

Fred Stanford, President & CEO of Torex stated: ‘As previously communicated, 2019 guidance is weighted toward the second half of the year. We expect to achieve at least the lower end of the guidance range, by producing for the remainder of the year at an average throughput rate of 12,600 tpd, at grades predicted by the reserve model, and at design gold recovery levels.’