MUX McEwen Mining

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TORONTO, May 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE:MUX) (TSX:MUX) (“McEwen Mining” or the “Company”) provides an updated mineral resource estimate for the Tamarack gold and base metal deposit at the 100% owned Black Fox Complex in Matheson, Ontario. The Black Fox Complex comprises the Black Fox Mine and the Tamarack, Gibson-Grey Fox, Froome and Stock zones. The base metal component of the Tamarack resource is being included for the first time.
“This is the first time that base metals have been in incorporated into a resource estimate for the Tamarack project. With further drilling, we are excited to see how the project develops into what could be an additional revenue stream at Black Fox,” said Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner.
The new resource estimate increased from 41,000 Inferred ounces gold at a grade of 6.23 g/t Au (previous resource effective Oct 31, 2018) to 127,000 Indicated ounces gold equivalent (AuEq) at a grade of 5.08 g/t AuEq with the inclusion of silver, lead and zinc mineralization.
The updated resource estimate for Tamarack is the result of 46 new surface and underground exploration, delineation, and definition drill holes completed between October 2017 and April 2018 and already existing base metal assays not considered in previous estimates.

Table 1: Tamarack Mineral Resource Estimate, SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., May 18, 2018 here

Table 1 outlines the mineral resource estimate for Tamarack reported at a cut-off grade of 3.00 g/t AuEq to reflect an underground mining scenario. Mining operations at the adjacent Black Fox Mine are currently 100% underground operations.
The drilling completed over the last six months has increased confidence in the estimate such that previously reported Inferred resources have been upgraded to the Indicated category.

Tamarack geology and mineralization
The polymetallic (Au-Ag-Pb-Zn) Tamarack deposit is centered on a North-South striking quartz breccia which cross-cuts the faulted contact between Tisdale Assemblage ultramafic- to mafic-volcanic flows and Porcupine Group sedimentary rocks. The zone is characterised by an Upper and Lower lens; the Upper Lens measures approximately 300m along strike and 450 m down dip from near surface and has an average true width of 4.5m. The Lower Lens measures approximately 200m along strike and 250 m down dip from a depth of 500 m, and is open at depth. The lower lens has a true width of up to 5.4m. These lenses are separated by minor, narrow and discontinuous diabase dikes.
Lead, zinc, and silver mineralisation is preferentially located in the hanging wall of the quartz breccia, occurring as either i) stringers, disseminations, and semi-massive knots, clusters and bands of sphalerite and galena hosted within both the volcanic and sedimentary rock units; ii) as clasts in quartz breccias; and iii) as inclusions and fragments within adjacent diabase dikes. Gold mineralization is preferentially hosted within the quartz breccia, occurring as fine visible gold and in association with disseminated fine-grained pyrite.
Exploration drilling will continue to test possible southerly strike extensions of the Upper Lens where a few narrow intercepts of gold +/- base metal mineralisation lie outside of the current mineralised envelope. The Lower Lens remains open along strike to the south and down dip.
Some representative assay results of the higher-grade base metal and silver intersections that were part of the dataset used in the resource at Tamarack include:
•12.45% Zn, 7.78% Pb, 149.36 gpt Ag over 2.72m (True Width) in hole 17BF-621;
•12.10% Zn, 3.20% Pb, 40.60 gpt Ag over 1.32m (TW) in hole 520-EX582-48;
•25.24% Zn, 4.53 % Pb, 69.58 gpt Ag over 1.91m (TW) in hole 18BF-627;
•5.95% Zn, 4.56% Pb, 70.55 gpt Ag over 1.86m (TW) and
•9.92% Zn, 4.83% Pb, 58.96 gpt Ag over 5.95m (TW) in hole 17BF-625;
•22.80% Zn, 0.91% Pb, 16.90 gpt Ag, 1.01 gpt Au over 0.42m (TW) and
•11.13% Zn, 7.28% Pb, 127.71 gpt Ag, 0.81 gpt Au over 4.21m (TW) in hole 520-EX582-47.
These intervals have been previously released in 2018 exploration news updates, see footnotes below for details of composite interval criteria.

Further Work
As part of the ongoing exploration program, additional surface and underground drilling will test, refine and define possible strike and dip extensions at Tamarack.
Metallurgical test work on drill core samples from Tamarack is currently being conducted at an independent third-party laboratory, the results of which will help determine what processing route potential future production will employ. The test work is under the direction of Nathan M. Stubina, Ph.D., P.Eng., FCIM, of McEwen Mining who is a “Qualified Person” within the meaning of NI 43-101. It is currently expected that the gold-rich quartz breccia mineralisation will be processed at the existing mill facilities at the Black Fox Stock Mill.
Further density testing of different lithologies, mineralised zones and host units will be used in future resource updates.

Exploration at the Black Fox Complex
The exploration program across the Black Fox Complex, which includes the Black Fox Mine, Tamarack, Gibson-Grey Fox, Froome and Stock zones, continues with a total exploration budget of $15 million for 2018. Our primary goals are to extend mineralization around known deposits and to test targets close to our mine and mill. Recent highlights of the drilling campaign since our last Exploration news release of April 30th, 2018 include:
•27.76 gpt Au / 6.12m (TW), including 106.91 gpt Au / 1.28m (TW) in hole 560-F098-05;
•41.87 gpt Au / 0.38m (TW) in hole 560-F098-06.
Both holes are located in the eastern Central Zone (CZ) of the Black Fox mine. Follow-up drilling is ongoing and a full exploration update is planned for the end of Q2.

***McEwen Mining Annouces Results of the Annual Meeting

Gold Bar Construction Update

"Dear Shareowners,  
Construction of the Gold Bar Mine is on track for completion in 2018, and commercial production is expected to begin in Q1 2019. Activity at Gold Bar continues to increase with deliveries of construction materials and equipment ahead of heavy mechanical and electrical installation starting later this month. 
Key progress since our last update:
1.Retaining wall installation ahead of primary crusher arrival.
2.Continued heap leach pad synthetic lining and clay liner placement.
3.Production of heap leach pad construction materials using temporary crushing plant.
4.Continued civil work ahead of process plant structural steel erection this month.
5.Process equipment delivered to site.

Below are photos of the Gold Bar construction progress."

Wednesday July 18, 2018 Rob McEwen, chairman and CEO of McEwen Mining (NYSE: MUX, TSX: MUX):

***Miners Holding Steady In Face Of Lower Gold Prices  

MUX McEwen Mining Reports Q2 2018 Production Results

TORONTO, July 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE:MUX) (TSX:MUX) reports consolidated production for Q2 2018 of 36,959 gold ounces and 772,432 silver ounces, or 47,258 gold equivalent ounces(1)(“GEOs”), using a 75:1 gold to silver ratio.


Consolidated Production Summary

Q2 ‘18 Q1 ‘18 Q4 ‘17 Q3 ‘17 Q2 ‘17
Gold ounces 36,959 35,069 48,609 19,051 22,191
Silver ounces 772,432 695,651 926,739 749,749 779,487
GEOs 47,258 44,344 60,965 29,047 32,584

Highlights of the second quarter from our four mines including our newest mine in Nevada, which is under construction, are as follows:

Gold Bar Mine, USA (100%)
Construction activities at Gold Bar focused on the heap leach pad, and installation of the crushing and process facility. All major equipment and bulk materials are either on site or purchased. Engineering for the project is complete and approximately 90% of contracts are awarded. Construction is advancing on schedule for completion by the end of 2018, targeting production in Q1 2019. During the first three years of operation beginning with 2019, Gold Bar is projected to produce 55,000, 74,000 and 68,000 ounces of gold respectively.

Black Fox Mine, Canada (100%)
Black Fox produced 14,055 GEOs, in line with our full year production guidance for 2018 of 48,000 GEOs. A $15 million exploration program is ongoing across the Black Fox Complex, drilling results and other developments will be released quarterly, with the next update planned in the coming weeks.

El Gallo Mine, Mexico (100%)
El Gallo produced 10,808 GEOs, in line with our budget and full year production guidance for 2018 of 32,000 GEOs. By the end of Q2, mining and crushing activities ceased and contractor equipment has been demobilized from the mine site. Closure, reclamation and residual heap leach activities are ongoing and will continue for several years.

A new Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) study on the potential restart of production from the El Gallo Complex at some point in the future was published on July 9, 2018. The proposed development plan evaluated in the PEA is called Project Fenix. The key outcomes of Project Fenix include an average annual production rate of 47,000 ounces gold equivalent (AuEq), a 12-year mine life, low initial capital cost of $41 million for Phase 1 and $30 million for Phase 2, and pay-back period of 4.1 years. At current gold and silver prices the after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) is 28%, and the net present value (NPV) at a 5% discount rate is $60 million.

Capital cost estimates for Project Fenix are to a level of accuracy that is consistent with a PEA technical report. During the next 14 months we will continue to review mineral processing, mine sequencing, material transportation and tailings storage options; and the flow sheet will be optimized by undertaking trade-off studies, updating cost models and additional metallurgical testwork.

The PEA is available for review on our website and SEDAR (http://www.sedar.com).

San José Mine, Argentina (49%(2))
Our attributable production from San José was 12,139 gold ounces and 769,197 silver ounces, for a total of 22,395 GEOs. Production is on-track to achieve our full year guidance for 2018 of 91,000 GEOs. We received approximately $2.4 million in dividends from our interest in San José during Q2.

First Quarter Financial Results
Operating costs for the quarter ended June 30, 2018 will be released with our 10-Q Quarterly Financial Statements in early August. As of July 9, 2018 we are debt-free with liquid assets of approximately $30 million.

ABOUT MCEWEN MINING
McEwen’s goal is to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by creating a profitable gold and silver producer. McEwen’s principal assets consist of: the San José mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina (49% interest); the El Gallo Gold mine in Mexico; the Black Fox mine in Timmins, Canada; the Gold Bar mine in Nevada that is currently under construction; and the large Los Azules copper project in Argentina that is advancing towards permitting.
McEwen has a total of 337 million shares outstanding. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, owns 24% of the shares.

Footnotes
1.'Gold Equivalent Ounces' are calculated based on a 75:1 gold to silver ratio.
2.The San José Mine is 49% owned by McEwen Mining Inc. and 51% owned and operated by Hochschild Mining plc.

All dollar amounts are US Dollars

RELIABILITY OF INFORMATION REGARDING SAN JOSÉ
Minera Santa Cruz S.A., the owner of the San José Mine, is responsible for and has supplied to the Company all reported results from the San José Mine. McEwen Mining’s joint venture partner, a subsidiary of Hochschild Mining plc, and its affiliates other than MSC do not accept responsibility for the use of project data or the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
The technical contents of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Nathan M. Stubina, Ph.D., P.Eng., FCIM, Managing Director and a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects".

CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and information, including "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements and information expressed, as at the date of this news release, McEwen Mining Inc.'s (the "Company") estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations or beliefs as to future events and results. Forward-looking statements and information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies, and there can be no assurance that such statements and information will prove to be accurate. Therefore, actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements and information. Risks and uncertainties that could cause results or future events to differ materially from current expectations expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to, factors associated with fluctuations in the market price of precious metals, mining industry risks, political, economic, social and security risks associated with foreign operations, the ability of the corporation to receive or receive in a timely manner permits or other approvals required in connection with operations, risks associated with the construction of mining operations and commencement of production and the projected costs thereof, risks related to litigation, the state of the capital markets, environmental risks and hazards, uncertainty as to calculation of mineral resources and reserves, and other risks. The Company’s dividend policy will be reviewed periodically by the Board of Directors and is subject to change based on certain factors such as the capital needs of the Company and its future operating results. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information included herein, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. See McEwen Mining's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the caption "Risk Factors", for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information regarding the Company. All forward-looking statements and information made in this news release are qualified by this cautionary statement.

The NYSE and TSX have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release, which has been prepared by management of McEwen Mining Inc.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Mihaela Iancu
Investor Relations
(647)-258-0395 ext 320
info@mcewenmining.com
Website: www.mcewenmining.com 

Instagram: instagram.com/mcewenmining 150 King Street West
Suite 2800, P.O. Box 24
Toronto, ON, Canada
M5H 1J9
(866) 441-0690 

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MUX McEwen Mining posts loss on strong investment to grow key assets

Mining Weekly: McEwen achieves 45% increase in gold equivalent output in Q2

Highlights:

• Q2 EPS of -$0.02
• Q2 production surged 45% Y/Y to more than 47K gold equiv. oz. while all-in sustaining costs fell by 2% to $816/oz
• Gold Bar mine in the U.S. is advancing on schedule for completion by year-end 2018, targeting commercial production in Q1 2019

MUX McEwen Mining Reports Q2 2018 Results

TORONTO, July 31, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) today reported second quarter results for the period ended June 30, 2018 (“Q2”). During Q2, gold equivalent ounces (GEOs) produced increased by 45% and all-in sustaining costs per ounce decreased by 2% compared to Q2 2017. Net cash flow from the business excluding project development costs was $6.3 million(2) or $0.02 per share. A total investment of $26.3 million was made to further our long-term production growth plans at the Gold Bar, Black Fox, El Gallo Fenix and Los Azules projects. As a result, our consolidated net loss for Q2 was $5.4 million, or $0.02 per share.

During the first half of 2018 (“H1”) GEOs produced increased by 47% and all-in sustaining costs per ounce increased by 1% compared to H1 2017. In H1, net cash flow from the business excluding project development costs was $18.7 million or $0.05 share, and a total investment of $49.0 million was made to further our long-term production growth plans at the Gold Bar, Black Fox and Los Azules projects. As a result, our consolidated net loss for H1 was $10.6 million, or $0.03 per share.

Please join our quarter end conference call on Wednesday, Aug 1st, 2018 at 11am EST. Details are provided here

Gold Bar Mine, USA (100%)
Construction activities at Gold Bar during Q2 focused on the heap leach pad, installation of the crushing and process facility, as well as site-wide electrical and water utilities. All major equipment and bulk materials are either on site or purchased and engineering for the project is complete. Construction is advancing on schedule for completion by the end of 2018, targeting commercial production in the first quarter of 2019. We capitalized to construction in progress $18.2 million and $27.0 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, respectively, and $33 million cumulative to date. During the first three years of operation beginning in 2019, Gold Bar is projected to produce approximately 55,000, 74,000 and 68,000 ounces of gold respectively.

El Gallo Mine, Mexico (100%)
During Q2, the mine produced 10,808 GEOs, compared to 9,780 GEOs in 2017. Total cash costs and AISC were $783 and $816 per GEO, respectively. Production and cost guidance for 2018 are for 32,000 GEOs at a cash cost and AISC of $650 and $715 per GEO, respectively.
By the end of Q2, mining and crushing activities ceased and contractor equipment has been demobilized from the mine site. Closure, reclamation and residual heap leach activities are ongoing and will continue for several years.
A new Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) study on potential production from the El Gallo Complex at some point in the future was published on July 9, 2018. The proposed development plan evaluated in the PEA is called Project Fenix. The key outcomes of Project Fenix include an average annual production rate of 47,000 ounces gold equivalent (AuEq), a 12-year mine life, low initial capital cost of $41.0 million for Phase 1 and $30.0 million for Phase 2, and pay-back period of 4.1 years. At $1,250/oz gold and $16/oz silver the after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) is 28%, and the net present value (NPV) at a 5% discount rate is $60.0 million.
During the next 14 months we will be applying for permits in addition to analyzing options for optimizing mineral processing, mine sequencing, material transportation and tailings storage as presented in the PEA.
The Project Fenix PEA is available for review on our website and on SEDAR www.sedar.com

Black Fox Mine, Canada (100%)
During Q2, the mine produced 14,055 GEOs. Total cash costs and AISC were $771 and $1,056 per GEO, respectively. Year to date costs are trending below budget and gold production is above our projections. We are maintaining production and cost guidance for 2018 are for 48,000 GEOs at a cash cost and AISC of $920 and $1,210 per GEO, respectively.
A $15.0 million exploration program is currently underway at the Black Fox Complex. For information on our encouraging exploration results refer to recent news releases published on April 30, 2018 and July 25, 2018 available on the McEwen Mining website www.mcewenmining.com

For 2018, we have budgeted a total of $18.4 million for sustaining and capital expenditure activities at the Black Fox mine, of which we spent $7.6 million during the first half of 2018.

San José Mine, Argentina (49%) 
Our attributable production from San José in Q2 2018 was 12,139 gold ounces and 769,197 silver ounces, for a total of 22,395 GEOs, which is essentially unchanged from the comparative period in 2017. Q2 production costs per GEO produced were also slightly lower than the comparative period in 2017. Year to date San José is performing in-line with our guidance for 2018 of 91,000 GEOs at a cash costs and AISC of $806 and $1,065 per GEO, respectively.
During Q2 2018 and H1 2018, we received $2.4 million and $7.3 million in dividends from our interest in San José, compared to $2.4 million and $4.9 million in dividends received during the same periods in 2017. For 2018, we are forecasting dividends in excess of $12.0 million.

Los Azules Project, Argentina (100%)
During the first half of 2018 we spent $5.9 million developing infrastructure alternatives and environmental base line monitoring work to advance our permitting efforts.

Conference Call and Webcast
We invite you to join our conference call, where management will discuss our Q2 2018 financial results and project developments and follow with a question and answer session. Questions can be asked directly by participants over the telephone or can be emailed in advance to cd@mcewenmining.com. Please email questions prior to the start of the call.
Wednesday, Aug 1st, 2018
11:00 am ET Toll Free US & Canada: 1 (844) 630-9911
Outside US & Canada: 1 (210) 229-8828
Conference ID Number: 8486966
Webcast Link: edge.media-server.com/m6/p/enj6zmcz

 

An archived replay of the webcast will be available for one week after it takes place.

Access the replay using the link edge.media-server.com/m6/p/enj6zmcz

 or by calling (855)-859-2056 (North America) / (404)-537-3406 (International), Conference ID Number 8486966.

ABOUT MCEWEN MINING
McEwen has the goal to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by creating a profitable gold and silver producer focused in the Americas. McEwen’s principal assets consist of: the San José mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina (49% interest); the Black Fox mine in Timmins, Canada; the El Gallo Fenix project in Mexico; the Gold Bar mine in Nevada, currently under construction; and the large Los Azules copper project in Argentina, advancing towards development.
McEwen has a total of 337 million shares outstanding. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, owns 24% of the shares.

MUX McEwen Mining Q2 2018 Earnings Conference Call

Executives
Rob McEwen – Chief Owner
Andrew Elinesky – Chief Financial Officer
Sylvain Guérard – Senior Vice President of Exploration

Analysts
Jake Sekelsky – Roth Capital Partners
John Tumazos – Very Independent Research
Howard Flinker – Flinker & Co
Matt Barry – H.C. Wainwright
Bill Powers – Private Investor
Bhakti Pavani


Rob McEwen

Good morning fellow shareowners and curious investors. Joining me on this call today are Andrew Elinesky, our CFO; and Sylvain Guérard, our Senior Vice President of Exploration. Today, we’re going to talk about our second quarter and first half results for 2018 both financial and operational, in addition we will talk about our successful exploration program and our new incoming President and COO, Chris Stewart.
This year we have held our – for this quarter and half year, we held our production costs in check, but significantly, increased our gold and silver production. In the quarter, all-in sustaining costs per ounce were down 2% and production was up 45% over the comparable period in 2017. In the first half of this year, our all-in sustaining costs were up slightly by 1%, but production was up 46% compared to last year.
We are making a big investment in exploration, and to date the results have been very encouraging. Not only have we increased the size of our resource base, we have also established new compelling targets of both Gold Bar and the Black Fox complex. Last year at this time, we were waiting for a permit to start construction of our Gold Bar Project in Nevada. We have just made our first acquisition in the world class Timmins region of Canada, and we had just started our due diligence on what became our next strategic acquisition in the Timmins region, the Black Fox Complex, which we bought in early fourth quarter.
Today, we have a diversified production base of three mines, increasing to four by year end. We have large landholdings and promising exploration potential in two of the best areas in the world for gold. We have a new development project in Mexico, the Fenix project, which is progressing to a feasibility study early next year and preliminary number show it to be a silver and gold mine that requires low CapEx and generates attractive returns over a 12-year mine life. Our San José joint venture of silver mine in Argentina continues to generate dividends.
At this I would like to pass the call over to Andrew to speak about our financial and operational results for the quarter and half year.

Andrew Elinesky
Thank you for taking the time out of the busy summer to join us here today. Further to Rob's opening remarks, the second quarter was a solid continuation of the steady production and cost at our operations. In addition to the stable performance, we have continued with the execution of a number of initiatives that the company had planned for this year and that includes building the Gold Bar mine, turning around the Black Fox mine, adding Fenix as the next operation in our development pipeline and that of course raising the capital to achieve these goals this year.
From the perspective of operating performance, our production and cost per ounce metrics were slightly under planned levels as Rob mentioned. And from a financial perspective, the net loss we reported was also in line with expectations. As our income statement and treasury balance continue to reflect the sizable investments being made at the Gold Bar Project, our continued work at Los Azules as well as the exploration across our properties.

Regarding our overall operating result, the company had consolidated production of just over 47,000 gold equivalent ounces for the quarter, which brings our year-to-date production to over 91,000 ounces and as is tracking above our full-year guidance of 171,000 ounces. The increase in production is primarily the result of the addition of Black Fox in Timmins as well as slight increases at our El Gallo Mine in Mexico and San José mine in Argentina.
And as Rob mentioned earlier, the lower than expected consolidated costs resulted in earnings from mining operations coming in at $15 million or $0.04 per share. This contribution from operations help to offset the significant investments being made at the Gold Bar project, evaluation work at Los Azules and the significant exploration program at Black Fox and our other properties in the Timmins area. These investments resulted in a decrease of our liquid assets by just $21 million when compared to the end of the first quarter.

The other major item to note is the increase in the loss reported from our investment in San José. Similar to the first quarter of the year, the joint venture reported an increase in non-operating expenses, which was driven by the continued devaluation of the Argentine peso and the resulting non-cash revaluation expense of the joint ventures net assets as well as an increase in tax expenses and accruals. Ultimately the combination of our project investment costs and the increased loss on our investment in San José meant the company reported a net loss of $5.4 million, or $0.02 per share.
Moving on to the outlook for the rest of 2018, firstly with Mexico. We expect our cost to decline from the second quarter due to the completion of all mining, crushing and processing activities all of which ended in the second quarter. Despite El Gallo no longer being in operation after June 30, we will continue to produce gold on a declining basis as residual leaching activities will occur for the next two plus years or as long as it remains economic to do so.
This will allow us to maintain an established presence in the area as we continue with our studies for the development of the Fenix Project or previously called El Gallo 2 for which we published the results of our initial study in early July. This study showed the potential for a robust operation that has an average annual production of just over 47,000 gold equivalent ounces for twelve years and has a 28% post-tax IRR.
Moving over to Black Fox, production was ahead of plan due to an increase in tonnage with cost per ounce trending lower than our guidance, which was partly due to the increase in ounces, but also due to cost reduction efforts. These efforts included crushing at more opportunistic times to avoid peak electricity costs as well as other initiatives. We also continued with the evaluation of our project and exploration opportunities in the region and we feel that we are on our way to creating a sustainable cash generating operation.
Thirdly, at San José production levels will stay consistent in the next quarter with the highest production occurring in the fourth quarter, which is in line with our historical production profile that has occurred there over the last decade. Accordingly, we’d expect cost of San José to stay in line with guidance on a per ounce basis as production increases over the year. In addition, we expect dividends to continue at a similar level for the foreseeable future as the cash generation abilities of the mine continue despite the increase in the non-operating expenses as a good portion of these are non-cash expenses.
Finally, at Gold Bar, we’re still on schedule for commissioning of the mine in the fourth quarter of this year and it is our objective to declare commercial production in the first quarter of 2019. The project is currently on schedule and on budget with approximately 65% of activities completed and 50% of the costs incurred as of the end of July. Some of you may have received our e-mail blast yesterday with an update on Gold Bar and from slides 12 and 18 on our presentation online in this call, we have included the photos that were e-mailed to everybody as part of that blast.
It shows the progress that we have made and the current status of the construction activities there. In addition, we have locked in prices for approximately 85% of the overall costs on long-lead items and other price sensitive construction materials. This removes a significant portion of the project's price risk and puts us in an excellent position to meet the $81 million capital budget for the project.
Before I hand the call over to Sylvain, I would like to provide a quick update on our previously announced debt financing to let everyone know that this is proceeding as expected. The majority of the documentation has been finalized and we anticipate closing on this deal in short order, which as I mentioned earlier will allow us to finish the execution of our initiatives for the year.
At this point, I'd like to thank you again for taking the time to join us today and I will now turn the presentation over to our VP of Exploration, Sylvain Guérard.

Sylvain Guérard
Thank you, Andrew. We had another highly active and productive quarter focusing our exploration efforts at the Black Fox complex in Timmins and at the Gold Bar Project in Nevada. At the Black Fox complex, we continue our major exploration program, a total of 39,000 meter of surface exploration drilling was completed during Q2 for a year-to-date total of 67,000 meter. Our drilling continues to deliver very encouraging results and is reinforcing our view about the strong exploration potential of both the Black Fox and Stock properties.
I will now discuss the results from our Stock property first and then the Black Fox surface and underground drilling results highlights. At Stock, drilling has been initially focused on the East Zone and the program has now extended along with 2 kilometer trend that cover the old Stock Mine to the west, the stock East Zone to the east as well as the sector between these two mineralized zone where limited drilling has been executed so far.
The Stock East target has a strike line of about 500 meters and vertical extension from near surface to a depth of at least 450 meter. The zone remained open at depth and along strike. We are highly excited by the potential of the Stock properties. The presence of the old Stock Mine that remained untested below 500 meter, the positive drilling results of the Stock East target and very importantly, the proximity to our mill facility make the stock priority a compelling exploration project with both open pit and underground potential. Treasury rigs are currently active over the property and the first resort estimation of the stock East Zone is planned for later this year.
Moving now to the Black Fox property, positive drilling results have been generated from multiple targets, with main highlights from the Froome deposit area, which is 700 meter west of the mine and from the Gibson target area in the Southeast property sector. At Froome, drill intersection suggests group potential beyond the current indicated resources of 159,000 ounces, at a grade of 5.26 gram per tonne gold.
Drilling to the north of Froome is defining three new mineralized zones along a strike land of approximately 750 meter. The details of the drill results have been presented in our July 25th press release. We have two rigs operating at Froome in addition in the southeast property area, one drill rig is focusing on the Gibson target area to follow up on an impressive Q3 interaction of 3.11 gram per ton gold over 34 meter including 10.8 gram per ton over 6 meter.
It is very significant intersection extend the depth of the normalization at the Gibson target by approximately 100 meter and suggest the potential for extension of the mineralization to about 500 meters depth below surface. Other high potential targets will be drilled during Q3 in the surrounding area, including the Gibson Southwestern target where 639 gram per ton gold over 0.7 meters was intersected earlier this year. At the Black Fox mine, a significant portion of the second quarter on the ground drilling was dedicated to confirming and expanding non-mineralized trend that are located close to current working and that could be brought into production quickly.
Definition drilling to the east of the 560 central zone has extended the east zone by approximately 30 meter. In-filled drilling targeting the 780 meter to 820 meter level of the deep central zone has design to aid in future development and production planning as a return high-grade intercept showing an impressive natural [indiscernible]. Deep central zone drilling highlight from four intercept grade between 44 to 141 gram per ton gold over with ranging from 2.4 to 7.5 meter.
Underground mining and exploration debt forwards in Q3 will be dedicated to conversion of ounces from resource to reserves category in the upper part of the mine and development of our next version drift to provide additional drilling platform for testing the mine-depth extension that remain open.
I am now moving to Nevada, another focus of our exploration is our development stage Gold Bar Projects, and we are very pleased with our recent progress and new target defined. Gold Bar is located 25 miles southeast of Barrick’s mine and recently announced Barrick Fort mile discovery. This new significant hybrid discovery by Barrick reinforce the high upside potential over this portion, the Bella Morton Cortez trend that also cluster a large deposit at Barrick and along the Southeast extension McEwen mining, Tonkin and Gold Bar properties.
In addition, favorable original setting type of old stocks presence of mineralization across number of tri-graphic horizon, type of alteration mineralization are all similar characteristics between Gold Bar and some of the large calling gold deposit. Exploration of Gold Bar was only reactivated in Q1 2017 following a five year break that occurred during the mine permitting period. Since then McEwen initiated a resource expansion and pit delineations with the objective of extending the mine life.
Over the first half of 2018, geographical mapping, geophysics, geochemistry and spectral data has been compiled and new survey executed. As a result, we have defined new high quality drill target in the immediate area around the Gold Bar pit. Drilling is planned during the third quarter to test additional shallow oxide deposit as well as higher grades of hard mineralization.
To summarize, our exploration program are advancing very well at mid year and the results received so far are highly encouraging and reinforce our view about the high exploration potential of our properties in the prolific Timmins mining region and along the Cortez gold trend in Nevada. Drilling will continue at Stock, Black Fox and Gold Bar during Q3 and we will keep you posted with new results.

Rob McEwen
Thank you, Sylvain. I just like to follow up with some comments on the market and I'd also like say for those online that we do have a number of charts and diagrams attached to the link on the refresher screen. And I'm going to refer to those later there's also a short video. In fact I’d like to start by saying I view gold to be an asset where big surprises will be on the upside not on the other way around. You need to appreciate that the price of gold and the price of gold equities are cyclical and that both are trading at historic lows relative to the broader market.
As successful investors you know that the largest games are made when you bought near the bottom. Many market indicators are signaling that now is the time to seriously consider building your portfolio of gold equities. Investor sentiment towards gold is scraping along the floor. Trading volumes are microscopic in the gold equities. There's a large short positions, the precious funds, managers are experiencing continuing redemptions and the only press the gold industry receives seems to be negative. It's a perfect environment for the contrarian investor.
What do I recommend you consider? It will be the explorers, the junior and intermediate producers that should deliver the largest gains in this cycle why because they're making discoveries and they're growing their production while the seniors are shrinking their production. The seniors continue to work on bolstering their balance sheets by selling production and in essence selling their future production pipeline to raise funds, to reach higher their large debt loads.
As you know, we have 337 million shares outstanding. I own 79 million shares, representing 24% of the company. And what you may not know is. One, the cost to my investment is a big number, its $133 million. Two, my personal financial commitment ranks as one of the largest personal investments of any CEO in the precious metal industry and among the top 1% to 2% of all the public company traded in the world. Three, I'm a big believer in the bright golden future of our company. Therefore, I am increasing my investment in the company by $25 million, providing half of the $50 million debt financing, that Andrew spoke of earlier.
These funds will be used to complete financing and construction of our Gold Bar mine. I did not – when we chose depth, the reason was, we didn't wanted issue additional shares at the current share price because we believe the growth we're going through and what we're seeing in exploration will drive a higher share price in the future. I'm a big believer in exploration, and as Sylvain said, we have a lot of exploration going on at our properties. And just stopping for a moment, and just saying, Gold Bar is in a really good area of the world for gold. It's just 25 miles north to Gold Bar is Barrick's collection of properties Cortez Hills, Gold Rush, 4-mile Canyon or 4-mile discovery is over 50 million ounces, 25 miles away uptrend from us in the same rocks, in the same trend, and it appears that we have some of the stratigraphy.
Is it a guarantee we'll have anything close to that? Absolutely not. But it is very prospective we – when we looked at Gold Bar, initially, it was viewed as shallow, open tips, mining oxide or and any time we hit sulfide, we stop looking at it. We did have a few hits and one of our targets besides expanding our oxide ore resources and extending the life of Gold Bar is looking deeper into these sulfide targets, getting into the lower plate and we've seen some shallow windows of lower plate, which would allow us to test this hypothesis that there is good geology sitting below.
At Black Fox, we have a couple of slides I wanted to share with you and they're sitting online in the refresh button. Slide 14. Sorry I just needed an assist there. And what you're looking at there are a pass of – looking at the Black Fox mine and the distribution of grades using a color scheme in showing grams per ton, the distribution of it through the mines. So you're looking at a cross-section of the mine from the surface, there's a line, a straight line, showing surface and then indebted greenline that shows where the material was mined by open pit and below that, it looks like a patchwork of colors.
So the first slide is showing gold, where it occurs in greater than 1 gram. The second slide is greater than 3 grams, there is also a darker red in there. The 3 grams is pink, 3 to 5, and red is 5 grams, anything greater, the next slide is greater than 10 grams, which is quite a respectable grade in the Timmins district. And you can see it's quite broad. And then the next slide shows us greater than 30 grams.
And I want to emphasize that this deposit seems to be open at depth. Certainly, we're testing that and when you look at the mines, the majority of the mines within the Timmins, Matheson area, the area, the average depth is around 1,500 meters and we're down at 800 meters at the moment. And the last one you, you don’t see a lot of dots but you see little red dots and that's greater than 50 grams per ton.
So exploration wise, I think, these facts give me a lot of encouragement. I would also say that in the gold market, there are number of people coming out and saying we are at or near our bottom. And I just want to reference you to Jim Cramer, there's a little 1-minute video where this person who hasn't been very bullish on gold for quite some time is turning that way and there are number of other people, including myself that feel that we are at the – either at the bottom or very near the bottom and it is an opportune time to be thinking about gold, gold shares and McEwen Mining. We have a large data, our balance sheet's relatively clean and diversified, production-based and we're growing.

Jake Sekelsky, Roth Capital Partners
Starting at Black Fox, I mean it looks like cost has come down since the acquisition or Q2 level is something you guys think are achievable going forward on a cash cost basis we're below current 2018 guidance at 920 per ounce. So just a little color on that will be helpful.

Andrew Elinesky
Q2 as I mentioned was a little bit lower just due to the increased ounces. I would expect cost to be at a similar level but perhaps a little bit higher. Maybe not in Q3 but Q4 where we do have a lower than planned activity level, just the seasonal order of things and the mine plan. Q4 will be our lowest amount of production for the year. So on a per ounce basis, we'd see cost increase slightly in Q4 compared to Q2. But generally speaking, you know this is where we anticipate costs, generally being, depends on some of the initiatives on the capital front. But Black Fox in our mind, that's a fairly steady state, which obviously, we're looking to improve upon any ways.

Jake Sekelsky
Got it. And on the exploration side there, can you just quantify how much of the $15 million program has been spent to date, and may be just give us an idea of what the areas of focus are now that the portion has been completed?

Andrew Elinesky
Yes. So your – for the first question on what was – what has been spent so far? As of the end of July, roughly speaking, out of the $16 million budget, we spent about $10 million in total. And sorry, I just missed your second question there, it was about meters?

Jake Sekelsky
No, the second question was just related to the areas of focus. I mean now that a portion has been complete. Has any of the focus shifted to any particular areas than you guys had originally planned?

Sylvain Guérard
Currently three rigs drilling at that Stock Properties, we like what we see at Stock since we started exploration there. As I mentioned, there is a 2-kilometer trend that owes the old mine and the depth extension that we started to test. And this extent to the east over what we call the East zone, where we have got very, very significant results from the surface to a depth of close to 500 meter, extending we're 500 meters right plan. So this entire trend at Stock is a focus of the exploration.
And in addition, three rigs are turning at the Black Fox, we are back on Froome, we want to grow the resource at Froome, and we also find additional mineralization proximal in the footwall zone to the Froome deposit. And we see this as a extra potential ounces that could be mined, eventually at Froome. A third rig is in the southeast portion of the property around the Grey Fox Gibson area. We've got highly encouraging results of 3.1 gram per ton intersection at Gibson over 30 meters that's included high grade, and we also had surrounding targets in this sector, that we will be following up. So to summarize, three rigs at Stock over the 2 kilometer trend, 2 rigs at the Froome to increase the resource there and the rig in the Southeast property area.

Jake Sekelsky
Thanks for that. That’s helpful. And just lastly at project Fenix, what are the next steps in the permitting process, you think can move forward there just from a high level over the next, call it, 2 or 3 quarters?

Andrew Elinesky
Again, so we’re working on making our submission in the third quarter to amend the permits. We obviously have permits already in place, so we have to drill El Gallo 2 as well as for El Gallo 1 operation. So the permit application we anticipate making this quarter, so Q3, and then hopefully, walking through the government with that because it is an amendment and it is a change that is new to Mexico, and we will take them through that and hopefully have a result in the first quarter of next year.

Jake Sekelsky
Perfect, that’s all for me.

Bhakti Pavani
Just a quick question on the grades at Black fox. I know that the grades have slightly come down from below six, while modeling the production going forward, how should we consider about the grades at Black Fox?

Andrew Elinesky
I would continue to model the Black Fox grades at similar levels maybe a touch higher, but I think what we're finding is higher tonnage and touch lower grades. However, the mining methodologies and plans there, obviously we have a new President and COO joining us in short order, so I'm sure that will be one of the first thing he reviews. But the plans that we have now for the rest of the year, I would continue to model probably just a little bit higher, but not as high as six, I think is what you talked about before. So the grades in tonnage that we had in Q2. Going forward, you see the tonnage go down a little bit, but the grade come up slightly, but not that much higher than the 5.6, 5.7 we had in the quarter.

Bhakti Pavani
Got it. Okay. With regards to the updated mineral resources that you put out at Black fox I'm kind of wondering with the exploration program or the drilling you are doing at Black Fox, do you see the mine life extending from the current results going forward before you guys bring the other project areas into the mine plan?

Andrew Elinesky
Yes, the short answer to that is, yes. So our efforts right now aren't focusing on not just resource additions, but resource conversion into reserves and engineering department there as well as the corporate office have been focused on that, and when we do an updated Black Fox resource at the end of the year, we'll have an updated reserve estimate as well. And we would anticipate that we should see additions to that to accommodate to the consumption we've had from the production, since the last update.

Bhakti Pavani
Got it, okay. And the last question is you have a drill results from Stock and you have drill results from Froome. Stock has been an historical mine, so when it comes to bringing that online, would did – if you have encouraging results going forward as well. Would it take precedence over developing Froome going forward?

Andrew Elinesky
No, it would not. If we are successful at Stock, the potential there is a large open pits, deposits, if we're able to ever join those two potential deposits together and that would be quite a significant project on its own. And we're looking at moving Froome to bring development of that into 2019 and bring production out of Froome, starting at the end of 2019 or 2020. Stock, if you're able to make continue to with development of that deposit, we will slightly spend at least another year drilling the heck out of it. So I would think it will definitely be second on the list compared to Froome. Froome is much more closer to being intangible production in the short order.

John Tumazos, Very Independent Research
In terms of sulfides at Gold Bar, congratulations Chris on the new job. How big would a sulfide deposit have to be to justify around metallurgical complex to 4 million, 6 million ounces? And do you think the strategy would be to corporate with one of the bigger neighbors with around metallurgical complex. I know I'm putting the cart before the horse, you have to find the gold first, but I'm just thinking ahead?

Andrew Elinesky
We're still trying to find the horse, John. We have – that's an interesting question, which I love we’d have to deal with when we find more gold there. I think it's all going to depend on the type of results if – right now we have some sulfides that were drilled assay results that we had from earlier drilling, but we're ignored and they didn't stretch. Well, they stretched over 16 meters. We haven't got anything close to approaching the resource. We just have as few sulfide wholes at this point. I'd have to say if it wasn't a large resource that ultimately was found, but it could be mined. It would seem quite logical to approach the seniors that are nearby and see if they have excess capacity. If we're lucky enough to see a large deposit there, there was a major intrusive that our gravity survey shown sitting right underneath the property. So the potential for something like what's up the road exists then we would have to evaluate the economics. But definitely, it's – would you like to add to that Slyvain?

Sylvain Guérard
As Rob mentioned earlier and s you know, Patrick's version have been focused on the upside portion of the deposit. And most, if not all of the mineralization is open and expand down deep and had depth into sulfide, that's the case that gold dig does the case with Kevin Creek. We now have a new geophysical survey, including CSAMT, survey that we have just complete recently, that exist that there is significant sulfide mineralization at the depth of both deposits or those pits, and we will certainly drill and evaluate the situation there.
We have some historical drill intersection in sulfides and at significantly higher grade, which is encouraging because in sulfide we want to see higher grade. And interestingly, we did follow up on Kevin Creek down with extension where we have sulfide and oxide mineralization there surface and deeper down dip we intersected oxide mineralization again. So indication of a complex structure offsetting also a characteristic of the – some of the large deposit – carbon deposit you see in Nevada, a mixed up sulfide and oxide when you go at depth of those deposits. So oxide, remain our first priority. But certainly we'll be assessing the sulfide potential as well.

John Tumazos
If I can ask you the second question. So that at Stock, you're looking at something totally different than 100,000 ounce underground historic production. Could you tell us a little bit about two open pits or targets you're trying to connect, if the grades are like one gram and if they're better than one gram, something about the size of the target or the dream?

Sylvain Guérard
Yes, sure, we started our exploration at the Stock East target, which is 700 meters from our mill. It's a long the fall, the Destor-Porcupine east of the old stock mine. We had historical results there, but quite limited and formation. We were positively surprised with our first phase of drilling. We intersected grades ranging from one to three gram per ton starting at surface, extending at least up to 450 meter over a strike length of 500 meter. So that gives you a size. The grade is, as I said, from one to two over tens of meters, 10, 20, sometimes 30 meter intersections.
And what we like, it also includes narrow high-grade mineralization. So we believe, the high-grade portion is a component of this mineralized system. On the geological front, we see what we want to see, what we like to see are for this type of deposit, major structure, mineralization all stood in mafic, ultra mafic and [indiscernible] typical Archaean gold deposit. If we extend to the West over the Stock Mine, Stock have been drilled to a depth of 500 meter, so there is still a significant upside potential to drill deeper and extend mineralization for underground potential at the old Stock mine.
As you know, 500 meters is quite – is relatively shallow for this type of Archaean gold deposit. So we see a high upside potential there. And a part of this drilling is also intersecting large QFP dikes that are mineralized. We saw that in the historical drilling and we are currently having one rig turning on the down depth extension. And we are confident we should be able to intersect additional lower grade and wider zones. So there's a mix of a higher grade and lower grade and the potential is there at Stock for both open pit, but also we keep underground as a possibility.

John Tumazos
So if you do the Stock open pit, is the existing mill big enough, or would you be so active and just take keep the best grades of the open pit?

Sylvain Guérard
That's a good question. We still have to advance with our evaluation. Keep in mind that Stock East could be a mix of open pit mining and underground. So we could be starting for example, the Stock East mining with open pit and extended as an underground to catch high-grade. This is still early stage. As you know, started Stock exploration less than six months ago and progress have been excellent and results are above expectation, I would say.

Howard Flinker, Flinker & Co

I didn't hear something clearly. Did you say that at Black fox you're drilled down to 800 meters and other people find in the neighborhood are at 1,500 meters?

Andrew Elinesky
That’s correct.

Howard Flinker
All right, I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks. That's it.

Rob McEwen
You’re welcome. I should mention to everyone on the call that on September 6, we are scheduling a major presentation on all of our exploration results on all of our properties and you're all invited to join the conference, but there will be physical presentation as well in our office. Just want to give you heads up to that upcoming event.

Matt Barry, H.C. Wainwright

With the appointment of Chris Stewart today and with experiencing M&A, coupled with the fact that your goals remain to be included in the S&P 500. Should we expect to see more M&A? And if so, we wouldn't be surprised if you're not looking – I mean we would not be surprised if you're not looking at assets across the globe. So where you guys are currently looking, North America, South America? And our second question, the $15 million exploration program at Black Fox is pretty impressive. I think you guys may have touched on this a bit earlier, but can you just walk us through expenditures quarter-by-quarter over the remainder of the year? We're just trying to get some sort of sense of cash flow over the remainder of the year.

Rob McEwen

Certainly. In terms of looking for opportunities to build production in our resource base, we’re looking through the Americas and through Europe at the moment. We are – I would describe ourselves as opportunistic and looking for acquisitions where we can build value under each one of our shares rather than just growing for the sake of growth. We needed to be growth for a higher share price. And yes, Chris has demonstrated background of turnaround, successful turnarounds, so with a very strong operational bias. In terms of exploration, I’ll just ask Sylvain to talk about his budget or Andrew.

Andrew Elinesky
I'll answer the question, Rob. Thank you. Hi, Matt. We’re pleased to see the budget is geared towards the front half of the year, especially doing a sizable portion of that and flow through financing, we want to ensure that we get through the $10 million of flow-through funds in a timely fashion on qualified expenses. So we saw those 6 million cash expenditures in Q1, $5 million in Q2 and you will see both $3.5 million in Q3 and just over $1 million in Q4. What will remain to be seen is, what next steps we want to take or what Sylvain – what programs Sylvain wants to come up with and whether we do more flow through programs or how we choose to handle that depending on the success of the programs that are currently under execution. So Q4 may increase, but right now we're scheduled to spend just under $2 million in Q4.

Rob McEwen
I can add to it. We continue to get the exploration results we're getting that will encourage us to keep an aggressive exploration program in front.

Matt Barry
Perfect, thanks a lot guys.

Bill Powers, Private Investor
Yes. It sounds like you're off to an excellent start as far as exploration goes, but just a two quick questions. Personally, I know move forward on M&A, a lot of it is going to depend on accretive acquisitions and a part of this is, is the stock price as far as it seems as though McEwen shares are the most shorted precious metal stock in the world right now and one of the most shorted stocks in North America from what my research indicates. And was about 38 days to cover a 19% of the [indiscernible]. I mean have you guys spoken to the OSC about this, about whether there's been actual failure to borrow correctly or saying that or any plans to I guess reduce the short position outside of just continued operational results because it seems as though nobody cares right now, from what I could see.

Rob McEwen
Thank you for your question Bill. No, we have not spoken to the Ontario Securities Commission or the SEC about that. I've looked at the short and in a positive light and that if we continue to delivering good exploration results and improving operational results, we're going to make those shorts run to cover. And that will be a great fuel for the fire to drive the price. But I take your suggestion and we’ll follow-up on that.

Bill Powers
Okay. Well, thank you. And then the second one is just as far as Tonkin goes, I mean given it's proximity between Gold Bar and Cortez projects. Has there been any thoughts given to reviewing or reestablishing exploration there, given what you're seeing elsewhere in Nevada?

Rob McEwen
We are exploring. We are not exploring, but well we’re exploring recovery methods because in between Gold Bar and Cortez is our Tonkin property, which is better than 1.6 million, 1.7 million ounces of gold. It's locked – it's largely locked up in a silica compound and we've been looking for ways to be able to break that bond and recover the gold, but it's a large resource sitting there.
There's a large – we always thought there was a large stratigraphic unit called the lone Mountain that it was barren and you had to go through about 3,000 feet to get down to the lower plate. But given what Barrick has found down around 2,200 feet, we're looking and seeing if there any spots on the property where there might be shallower windows to the lower plate. And definitely, what Barrick has shown is that there is still a lot more gold to be found in that area, just a short distance north of our properties. So we have a large land package there, a very, very favorable land package and I'll just ask Sylvain to elaborate on that.

Sylvain Guérard
Yes, if I – good morning, Bill. If I can add to this and I think we have a slide that is available that’s shown our land position at Tonkin and Gold Bar in relation to the Barrick cluster of deposit to the Northwest and this is a big cluster of deposit. As Rob mentioned, there's like a 50 million ounces of gold cluster around pipeline Cortez build, Gold Rush and a new 4-mile discoveries. So we are strategically located along the trend on the Southeast extension.
As you know, the large deposit in Nevada sits around those trends, and we do have mineralization at both properties, Tonkin, has a large low-grade deposit in what we call the upper plate, which is not the best poster, so we will keep looking and developing the model there to keep chasing what could be extension of the mineralization within the most favorable lower plate rocks at Tonkin. At Gold Bar, we have the system, well developed in the oxide and the depth extension remains untested.
We've been adding quality new layers of information that allow us for the very first time developing a good understanding of this property. As mentioned, we were not active there for five years. We have now all the key layers of information. In addition, we are reinforcing the team. We are assigning a new exploration manager, a former, highly experienced Barrick geologist that work at gold strike. So all these together, make our Nevada exploration highly exciting. And again, it's all about being at the right place and I strongly believe that those properties are extremely well located along the trend in a country where elephant deposits procure close by.

Bill Powers
Okay, well thank you very much for your time this morning.

Howard Flinker, Flinker & Company
I add to your comment about the short sales. Every one of those shares has to be bought back and it is really deferred purchases. So like you I contrarily view it as a positive phenomenon.

Rob McEwen
Yes, thank you. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. May you continue to have profitable investments in the gold sector and look forward to giving you further exploration news as year goes on. Thank you. Gold is money.

McEWEN MINING INVESTOR DAY TOMORROW!
Discover the Potential with McEwen Mining

Rob McEwen, Chief Owner, together with McEwen Mining’s Senior Management and Technical Teams will be gathered in Toronto for a live webcast to show you how we are breaking barriers at our exploration, development and operational projects.
We will update you on all operation and exploration activities and tell you why we believe you should be excited about McEwen Mining and the future of our projects.
Rediscover the Black Fox Complex in Timmins. We will demonstrate where we have uncovered new zones of mineralization and where we have encountered high grade gold…up to 20 ounces per ton. Look at where we are building our gold resources and where we see the potential to extend the mine life within the Complex.
The Gold Bar Mine in Nevada is targeting commercial production for 2019. View our progress and discover the additional areas where we believe we can extend the mine here as well.  
In Mexico, we plan to extend the mine life at the El Gallo Complex by 12 years without onerous financing.   
Los Azules, a large copper project and our biggest possible value creator, is being transformed from a remote, limited access project to having year-round access and moving quickly towards permitting. 
These are exciting times for McEwen Mining. Come share the future with us!

WHEN: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6TH, 2018 TIME: 12 PM - 2 PM
WEBCAST DETAILS: www.smpav.ca/sign-in.php?ID=39321

Aug 31, 2018 4:21:36 GMT -5 Entendance said:

ATTENTION ALL CONTRARIAN INVESTORS:
BIG PROFITS ARE POSSIBLE – TIME TO ALTER YOUR PORTFOLIO MIX


TORONTO, August 30, 2018 - McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) invites all precious metals analysts, market letter writers, shareholders and contrarian investors to circle in their calendar, Thursday, September 6th from 12pm to 2pm EDT. We have made a lot of progress this year, which we want to share with you.

We are inviting you to come and learn how:
•Exciting new drill intercepts at Black Fox have encountered high grades of up to 20 ounces per ton of gold;
•We have been building our gold resources at Black Fox and Gold Bar;
•Our newest mine, Gold Bar is progressing quickly to production;
•We plan to extend the mine life in Mexico by 12 years without onerous financing needs;
•Los Azules, a large copper project and our biggest possible value creator, is being transformed from a remote, limited access exploration project to having year-round access and moving quickly towards permitting.

Our Chairman and Chief Owner, Rob McEwen, has just increased the cost base of his investment in the Company by $25 million to $160 million. Come find out why.

It will likely be a big surprise to most investors to learn that many gold stocks have delivered far superior returns to the broad market indices. Since the start of 2016 to present, while the Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 have increased by 52% and 45%, respectively, the share price of McEwen Mining has increased by 76% and yet it is trading at 21% of its 2011 high of $9.15.   
If you haven’t considered an investment in precious metals for quite a while, you should now. Why? Because there hasn’t been a better time in many years. The downside risk is much lower than the broad market and the potential for large capital gains is considerable. Consider these two facts: commodity prices are cyclical; and today the value of commodities relative to equities is at the lowest point in 48 years.  
Join us on Sept. 6thto learn why precious metals are the next place to invest and why you should consider having McEwen Mining in your portfolio. The event will be held at Vantage Venues, (previously St. Andrew’s Conference Centre) at 150 King St. West, Toronto, 27th floor, Caledonia Room, from 12:00 pm to 2:00 in the afternoon. 

 To reserve a seat, please RSVP to cd@mcewenmining.com

 or info@mcewenmining.com

 or call our office at telephone 647-258-0395 or toll free 866-441-0690.


If you can’t attend in person, or if the room is filled before you reserve a seat,

please join us via webcast at www.smpav.ca/sign-in.php?ID=39321
  
These are very exciting times for MUX and we want you to be a part of it!

ABOUT MCEWEN MINING
McEwen’s goal is to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by creating a profitable gold and silver producer. McEwen’s principal assets consist of: the San José mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina (49% interest); the El Gallo Gold mine in Mexico; the Black Fox mine in Timmins, Canada; the Gold Bar mine in Nevada that is currently under construction; and the large Los Azules copper project in Argentina that is advancing towards permitting.
McEwen has a total of 337 million shares outstanding. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, owns 24% of McEwen.

Gold is important to me because... click here

More Emerging Market Chaos – How Long Before It Spreads To The Developed World?

McEwen Mining Reports Q3 2018 Production Results

TORONTO, Oct. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) reports consolidated production for Q3 2018 of 33,806 gold ounces and 745,172 silver ounces, or 43,742 gold equivalent ounces(1)(“GEOs”), using a 75:1 gold to silver ratio. Consolidated production for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2018 was 135,344 GEOs, which is 48% higher than the comparable period in 2017.

Consolidated Production Summary

Gold Bar Mine, Nevada, USA (100%)
Construction is advancing on schedule for completion by the end of 2018, targeting production in Q1 2019. Activities at Gold Bar in Q3 focused on completion of the heap leach pad and crushing circuit, and advancing the process facility. All major equipment and bulk materials are either on site or purchased. Engineering for the project is complete and 97% of contracts are awarded. During the first three years of operation beginning with 2019, Gold Bar is projected to produce 55,000, 74,000 and 68,000 ounces of gold respectively.
During Q3 we announced an updated and increased resource estimate reflecting changes since the last Gold Bar Feasibility Study was published in March 2018. Measured and Indicated resources increased by 92,000 gold ounces to 721,000 gold ounces at 0.92 g/t, and Inferred resources increased by 82,000 gold ounces to 197,000 gold ounces at 0.90 g/t. Combined with the nearby Gold Bar South deposit the total resources on the Gold Bar Property are now 822,000 gold ounces in the Measured and Indicated category, and 202,000 gold ounces in the Inferred category. An updated mineral reserve estimate will be completed in Q1 2019.
We have committed $5 million to exploration in 2018 to further increase gold resources and test new exploration concepts at the Gold Bar Property, located along the prolific Battle Mountain - Cortez Gold Trend, Nevada.

Black Fox Mine, Timmins, Canada (100%)
Black Fox produced 11,618 GEOs in Q3, and 37,751 GEOs year to date, in line with our full year production guidance for 2018 of 48,000 GEOs. During Q3 we announced new resource estimates for both the Froome and Stock East deposits, as well as encouraging exploration results from the ongoing $15 million exploration program at the Black Fox Complex near Timmins, Ontario.
The updated Indicated Mineral Resource for Froome increased 14% to 181,000 gold ounces at a grade of 5.09 g/t, and the initial Inferred Mineral Resource for Stock East contains 114,000 gold ounces at a grade of 2.54 g/t.
Significant high-grade drill results from the Black Fox Complex included:
•Froome Footwall Target: 53.93 g/t gold over 8.29 m including 322.86 g/t gold over 1.34 m
•Pike River Target: 35.04 g/t gold over 3.30 m
•Stock East Deposit: 25.16 g/t gold over 2.09 m
•Grey Fox Deposit– 147 Zone cross structure: 13.41 g/t gold over 2.82 m including 27.70 g/t gold over 0.94 m
•Black Fox Mine depth extension: 35.08 g/t gold over 1.69 m
For additional information on exploration refer to two news releases published on Sept. 6, 2018 on our website www.mcewenmining.com

San José Mine, Argentina (49%)(2)
Production is in line with our full year guidance for 2018 of 91,000 GEOs. Q3 attributable production from San José was 11,768 gold ounces and 743,100 silver ounces, for a total of 21,676 GEOs. Year to date our attributable production is 34,729 gold ounces and 2,204,349 silver ounces, for a total of 64,120 GEOs.

El Gallo Project, Mexico (100%)
Production has exceeded our full year production guidance for 2018 of 32,000 GEOs. Residual heap leaching at El Gallo resulted in 10,448 GEOs in Q3, and 33,473 GEOs year to date when combined with prior period mining activity. Q3 was strong as a result of ore stacked on the heap leach pad at the end of Q2, however, residual leaching is expected to taper significantly in Q4 to be more in line with our longer term recovery expectations. By the end of Q2, mining and crushing activities at El Gallo ceased. Closure, reclamation and residual heap leach activities are ongoing and will continue for several years.
A new Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) study on the potential restart of production from the El Gallo was published on July 9, 2018. The proposed development plan evaluated in the PEA is called Project Fenix. The key outcomes of Project Fenix include an average annual production rate of 47,000 ounces gold equivalent, a 12-year mine life, low initial capital cost of $41 million for Phase 1 and $30 million for Phase 2, and pay-back period of 4.1 years. At current gold and silver prices the after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) is 28%, and the net present value (NPV) at a 5% discount rate is $60 million.
Capital cost estimates for Project Fenix are to a level of accuracy that is consistent with a PEA technical report. During the next 11 months we will continue to review mineral processing, mine sequencing, material transportation and tailings storage options; and the flow sheet will be optimized by undertaking trade-off studies, updating cost models and additional metallurgical testwork.
The Project Fenix PEA is available for review on our website and SEDAR www.sedar.com

Nov 01, 2018 Video Rob McEwen: Gold Majors Are Doing More Harm Than Good

Executives
Rob McEwen – Executive Chairman & Chief Owner
Chris Stewart – President and Chief Operating Officer
Sylvain Guerard – Senior Vice President of Exploration
Andrew Elinesky – Chief Financial Officer

Analysts
Jake Sekelsky – Roth Capital Partners
Heiko Ihle – H.C. Wainwright
Mike Kozak – Cantor Fitzgerald
Bhakti Pavani – Alliance Global
Robert Silvera – R.E. Silvera Associates
Bill Powers – Private Investor

Rob McEwen
Thank you, Operator. Good morning, fellow shareowners, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very pleased to welcome you to our third quarter conference call. Happy Halloween. During the third quarter, we moved forward on a number of fronts.
Exploration has been successful, increasing our resource base at Gold Bar and will lead to an extension of mine life. Gold Bar is also advancing as planned, on schedule, on budget, with production to begin in Q1 of next year.
At Black Box, exploration has not only increased the resource base of several existing deposits, it has found a number of new targets that are quite encouraging. At Los Azules, the most important development is the possibility of a new access route into the deposit, and this could provide 12-month or year-round access rather than the current five month access. It looks promising, and should it work, I think, this will substantially increase the value of Los Azules to us.
As a result of these factors and work being done at Black Fox and in Mexico, my confidence in our company's assets, management, exploration potential and my belief that we are in the early stages of the next bull market for gold equities, compelled me to increase my investment in the company by $25 million. This brings my total investment in MUX to $161 million.
I'd like to start with this agenda. We'll start with our new President and Chief Operating Officer, Chris Stewart, addressing our operating performance and forecast for next year. Chris will be followed by our Senior Vice President of Exploration, Sylvain Guerard, who'll update you with the recent results from our exploration. And Sylvain, will be followed by our CFO, Andrew Elinesky, who will cover off our financial performance for the third quarter. Chris, over to you.

Chris Stewart
Thank you, Rob. Good morning, everyone. Q3 2018 was a strong operating quarter with consolidated production of 43,700 gold equivalent ounces using a 75 to 1 gold to silver ratio. Consolidated production for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 was 135,000 gold equivalent ounces, which is 48% higher than the comparable period of 2017.
El Gallo mine in Mexico, residual leaching activities continued after the final ore was mined and stacked on the heap leach from El Gallo Gold. Work progressed on the Fenix project, including the start of our feasibility study in July and ongoing environmental permitting assets. While the most recent Fenix project, PEA economics were completed at $1,250 gold and $16 silver, based on current metal prices, the project still demonstrates strong economics with an NPV of $41 million and a post-tax IRR of 22%.
Based on residual heap leach activity, the operating team achieved a production of 10,400 gold equivalent ounces in Q3, which brought the year-to-date production to 33,400 gold equivalent ounces. Following substation of mining and crushing activities at El Gallo, by the end of Q2, cost in Q3 were down to a total cash cost of $671, and all-in sustaining cost of $696 for gold equivalent ounces.
Q3 was strong as a result of ore stacked on the heap leach pad at the end of Q2. Residual heap leaching is expected to taper significantly in Q4 to be more in line with our longer term recovery expectations. Closure and reclamation and residual heap leaching are ongoing and will continue for several years.
Our Q3 work is focused on advancing the Fenix project towards the final feasibility study to be published during the first half of 2019. During the three and nine months ending September 30, 2018, we spent $1.5 million and $2.6 million, respectively, on feasibility study work, which includes reviewing mineral processing, mine sequencing, material transportation, tailing storage options and flow sheet optimization.
We also progressed permitting for Project Fenix and plan to make our formal submittal for Phase 1 in November with approval expected in Q2 2019. Phase 1 is for the reprocessing of El Gallo Gold, heap leach material through a typical carbon-in-leach mill circuit. Phase 2 permitting, which we look to obtain in 2020 would require further expansion to process sulfide ores from mainly El Gallo silver.
Project Fenix is expected to add another 12 years of mine life to our Mexican operations. On Canada, at Black Fox during Q3 underground exploration efforts focused on potential resource growth near existing infrastructure. We also commenced an exploration drift on the 810 meter level, which will allow us to drill to deep potential for the main Black Fox deposit.
We have initiated cost, logistics and environmental baseline studies at Lexam’s Fuller product and we now have completed the resource estimate for Froome deposit near the Black Box mine and a new resource for the Stock East Deposit near our mill. Together with results announced in Q3 from the ongoing exploration program of the complex we continue to develop expanded ore zones that can increase our mining output and gold production.
We've produced 11,600 gold equivalent ounces for a total of 37,750 gold equivalent ounces produced year-to-date. Cash costs were $932 and all in sustaining costs $1,285 per gold equivalent ounces during the quarter bringing year-to-date cash costs to $839 and all-in-sustaining cost to $1,159.
Black Fox production is in line with our full year productions and cost guidance for 2018. For 2018, we forecast a total of $14.5 million for sustaining and capital expenditure activities at Black Fox mine of which we spent $10.6 million during the nine month period ending September 30.
We're excited about the potential of our Black Fox property and we will be closely evaluating our options with respect to bringing on additional production from one of our satellite deposits at from the Grey Fox and Tamarack in the next 12 to 18 months.
And the San Jose mine in Argentina production is in line with our full year production and cost guidance for 2018. According to our 49% interest in the mine, our attributable production in Q3 was $21,600 gold equivalent ounces at a cash cost of $856 and an all-in-sustaining cost of $1,028 per gold equivalent ounce.
Our year-to-date attributable production is $64,000 gold equivalent ounces. The cash cost of $864 and all-in-sustaining cost of $1,078.
At Gold Bar construction is advancing on budget and on schedule for completion by the end of 2013, targeting production in Q1 2019. Activities at Gold Bar in Q3 focused on completion of the heap leach pad, the crushing and conveying system, and advancing the gold processing facility.
We expect to complete commissioning of the crushing and stacking circuit by mid -November and then we will start loading the lease pads with ore. Our ADR plant is expected to be completed in mid-December after, which the cyanide leaching process would commence.
Mining activities are progressing well. We pre-stripped one million tons of waste material at Gold Pick, and Cabin Creek. We're also mining ore from Cabin Creek pit and currently have approximately 100,000 tons of ore sitting on the ground in front of our crushing plant waiting to be placed on heap leach pad.
We also have another 97,000 tons of ore Cabin Creek, waiting to be hauled at the crushing facility. So we're in great shape with regard to having ore ready to go on to leach pads.
All major equipment and bulk materials are either onsite or purchased, engineering for the project is complete. And 97% of the contracts are awarded. Exploration on the Gold Bar property restarted in November 2017 after receiving the construction permit from the mine from the $5 million exploration budget for Nevada, we spent $1 million in Q3 adding to the $4.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2018.
At Los Azules, we forecasted $8.9 million in expenditures for the 2017, 2018 exploration season. We spent $5.5 million during the year. The activity is focused on technical site investigations, environmental baseline monitoring work in order to advance our permitting efforts.
As you can see Q3 was another quarter during which we delivered significant production and focus on the future production growth of our company. I will now turn it over to Sylvain Guerard our Senior Vice President of Exploration to expand on the exploration programs for our properties.

Sylvain Guerard
Thank you, Chris. To better visualize the tradition our projects I would like to refer you to look at the presentation slides available online. On the exploration front and starting with key highlights at Gold Bar in Nevada we increased significantly our resources and the reserve updated and progress to extend our current mine life.
In Timmins we increased and we also added new resources and generated multiple drill intersection that will positively impact our development projects and that may lead us to new discoveries.
Q3 was another highly productive and successful quarter, a total of $30,000 meter was drilled during Q3 for a year-to-date total of 110,000 meter. We are measuring our recent exploration success as follow. First, we have significantly increased our mineral resource base and defined new resources at Gold Bar and at Black Fox. For total of 241,000 ounces of gold equivalent in Measured and Indicated and $196,000 gold ounces in Inferred categories at an average grade at an average all included cost of about $39 per ounces.
Second we generated multiple positive including high-grade drill intersection. And third we developed new high quality drill target and kept reinforcing our exploration team. Starting with Nevada one of our key objective is to extend the Gold Bar mine life. During Q3 we were pleased to announce an increase of the Measured and Indicated resources by 92,000 ounces and Inferred resource by 82,000 ounces, representing a 13% and 68% resource increase respectively.
The total resources of the Gold Bar property including Gold Bar South are now 822,000 gold ounces in the Measured and Indicated category, and 202,000 gold ounces in the Inferred category. An updated mineral reserve estimate will be completed in Q1 2019, that will extend the life of mine at Gold Bar.
A complete set of data including new the geophysical surveys have been at sound levels contributing to the definition of multiple high quality near mine targets. Drilling to test some of these targets started in mid-August and will continue in Q4. This new data is also providing key information in the development of conceptual targets for potentially deep and large in Carlin gold type deposits and drilling would start in 2019.
Moving on to the Timmens regions at Black Fox property drilling on the extension of the Froome deposit located only 800 meter west of the Black Fox mine led to an increase of 14% of the indicated resources to 181,000 thousand ounces gold at a grade of 5.1 gram per ton.
At The Stock property located about 30 kilometers northwest of Black Fox drilling on Stock East target led to an Inferred, an initial Inferred mineral resource totaling 114,000 ounces gold at an average grade of 2.5 gram per ton. Including 40,000 ounces at 1.6 as open pit and 73,000 ounces at 3.9 as underground resources.
This newly defined resource is located less than a kilometre from our mill and it's part of a two kilometer priority exploration trend that own the former Stock mine. In 2018, Black Fox and Stock exploration programs were also very successful in generating multiple new significant drill results that may positively impact our development projects and lead to the discovery of news on the mineralization.
At the Froone footwell target a new mineralized structure has been defined to the northeast of the Froone deposit with intersections of up to 54 gram per ton of gold over 8-meter, including 322-gram per ton over 1.3 meters. This new zone mineralization is considered important and is located between the Black Fox mine and the Froome deposit, where future rent developed and is anticipated to access Froome.
At Grey Fox, a new mineralized structure with intersection of 13 gram per ton over 2.8 meters has been defined to the northeast of the Grey Fox zone of 147. This new target area has settled overburden and will be considered as a potential site for researcher access decline to reach the main Grey Fox deposit. Finally, drilling at the Pike River target located alone the Gibson-Kelore Fault zone that owes Froome and Gibson deposit, return on intersections of 35 gram per ton over 3.3 meter highlighting the upside potential of this under explored structure. Follow up drilling will continuing into 2019 with the objective to define the external and concentrated mineralization of the Froome Footwall, Grey Fox Northeast and Pike River target.
At the Black Fox mine, the deepest drill intersection yet returned 55-gram per ton gold over 1.2-meter at the 10, 50 meter level on the depth extension of the mine. During Q3, we developed an exploration drill at the 810-meter level, from which we have initiated drilling to test the depth extension of the Black Fox deposit, and future drill results are expected over the coming quarter.
At the stock property, in addition to the focus on the Stock East zone where we have generated the first resource, drilling on the down-plunge extension of the former stock mine returned multiple positive intersection, including up 30-gram per ton over 0.8-meter as part of the 3.8-meter interval grading 7-gram
per ton. Indicating that the mine mineralized system remained open at that. Follow up drilling is planned for 2019 to deep extension potential.
On the west extension of the Stock East Deposit, from wide lower grade enter a wall of 0.8-gram per ton was intersected over 35-meter cord lamp and follow up drilling was performed with pending assays over the sector with the objective to extend the Southeast Central resource to the west. During Q4, our Black Fox surface drilling was focused on the Froome Footwall target. Underground drilling will focus on testing the depth extension and the far west target area earlier area. Our stock updated and reserves estimate for the Stock East deposit will be delivered later in the quarter.

At Gold Bar drilling continue it’s testing in priority targets including Gold Bar South to extend the mine life. Finally, we are working on our program and budge planning for 2019 to build on the excellent exploration success generated this year at our Timmins and Nevada priority projects.

Andrew Elinesky
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today during a busy reporting period. Further Rob and Chris’ opening remarks, the third quarter for us was one of the steady production and operating cost on a consolidated basis. In addition to the stable performance, we have continued with the execution of our capital investments, the company had planned for this year, building the Gold Bar mine in Nevada, recapitalizing Black Fox mine, progressing with the Fenix project in Mexico, and of course, raising the required capital needed for achieving these goals within 2018.
Our operating performance in the quarter was in line with our expectations, both from a production and cost per ounce perspective. However, the company reported a net loss of $12.8 million or $0.04 per share. And this was greater than expected and it was due to the overall lower sales prices as well as increased foreign exchange in tax cost at the San Jose mine in Argentina.
Our treasury balance continues to reflect the sizable investments being made across the board. And as such, you see the increase partially offset by the investments being made. Regarding our overall operating results, related to Chris’ comments earlier, the company had consolidated production of just over 43,000 gold equivalent ounces for the quarter and that brings our year-to-date production to over 135,000 gold equivalent ounces and still has this tracking above our full year guidance of 171,000 ounces.
The increase in production versus the prior year's primarily the result of the addition of Black Fox and Timmins, as well as a significant increase in production at our El Gallo mine in Mexico. Our earnings for mining operations were $6.9 million or $0.02 per share in the quarter, which was 28% lower than the third quarter of 2017. This was the net result of the stronger performance in Mexico as a result of the increased production levels, while both the San Jose and Black Fox mines reported slight losses due to weaker sales revenues and increased costs.
This net contribution from operations, helped to offset the significant investments being made at Gold Bar, Los Azules and the exploration program, primarily at Black Fox. In addition, the company finalized the previously announced $50 million term loan facility during the quarter, which should satisfy the capital needs required for our investments this year. This net result of the capital raise and investments spend and our liquid assets increased by just under $20 million when compared to the end of the second quarter.
And to summarize the financial results for the quarter, the lower profitability of the Black Fox and San Jose mines in combination for the continued exploration program for the quarter and the company reported our net loss of $12.8 million or $0.04 per share.
Moving on to the outlook for the final quarter of 2018. Firstly, with Mexico, we expect our cost to continue to decline compared to the first three quarters of the year. This is due to the completion of all mining, crushing and processing activities, which ended in the second quarter. And despite El Gallo no longer being in operation after June 30, we will continue to produce gold on a declining basis as residual leaching activities will occur for the next two-plus years.
This allows us to maintain and establish presence in the area, as we continue with our studies for the development of the Fenix product, which despite the drop in metal prices, still has an IRR above our investment threshold of 20%.
Moving over to Black Fox. Production is in line with our plan, despite the lower grade in the third quarter, which we partially offset with an increase in tonnage. And we aim to keep our per ounce costs at or lower than our guidance. We also continue with the evaluation of our project opportunities in the area and plan to continue with a meaningful exploration program due to significant success that Sylvain and his team have had so far this year.
Thirdly, at San Jose, production levels should increase next quarter. This is in line with historical production profile that has occurred here over the last decade. And we should expect cost at San Jose to stay in line with guidance on a per ounce basis due to this production increase in the quarter. However, we do likely anticipate the increased foreign exchange losses that we saw in the third quarter to continue and there will be the additional export taxes which came into effect in September.
Finally, at Gold Bar, we are still on schedule for commissioning of the mine in the fourth quarter of this year, and it is our objective to declare commercial production in the first quarter of 2019. The project is currently on schedule and on budget. And I think it is worth highlighting one point that Chris mentioned earlier.
With approximately 97% of the overall project cost locked in, we've removed a significant portion of the projects price risk at this point. And this risk should continue to decline as we complete the remaining work in the coming months and puts us in an excellent position to meet the $81 million construction budget for the project.

Rob McEwen
Thank you very much, Andrew. I'd like to start by talking about what I call the invisible gold bull market. And it’s started in January of 2016. But it appears to be invisible to almost everyone. Just look at the performance of the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Index since 2016 – January of 2016. The results are quite respectable. The S&P is up better than 32%, the Dow is up even more at better than 43%.
So you don't have to look any further, those are good gains. On October 4, The Wall Street Journal wrote that “the pessimism for gold is near total”. And I believe that view is shared by most investors. In fact, if you were to look at the only gold stock in the S&P 500, which is Newmont, and took it to market cap and compared it to the market cap of all the stocks in the S&P 500.
Newmont's market cap would represent seven 100th of 1%, almost nothing. So the performance of gold stock since January 2016, will appear to many is unbelievable. Our share price during this period, January 2016 to present, delivered a gain of greater than 3x the S&P and 2x the Dow and better than 100% gain in 22 months. I believe we are in the early stage of a new bull market in gold equities.
And the performance of our shares is not unique. There are a number of gold stocks that have also done that. In the last three months, there has been exploration companies and what you're looking at is a situation, where there is very – most of the selling has happened, there's very little volume out there. And when someone sees a story, they like and they start buying it, it's moving some stocks up very quickly.
So in the last three months, if you want to look at the chart there, six companies we looked at and they increased in value between 50% and 500% in just the last three months. These are gold exploration stories, small companies. But they are another sign to me that we're in a bull market because if they have to release the results six months earlier, it would have gone nowhere. It would have been like pushing the string. Their share price would have just sat there.
But we're now in a market and is paying – starting to pay attention to drove results. We're entering the market where profits can be made again by buying gold stocks. I think we're well positioned to participate in this new bull market. We have growing production, exciting exploration results, one of the highest debate in the gold industry, large insider ownership, a good balance sheet, big optionality to copper. And I might say, we have a large, short position in our company and it’s probably take 25 days of the average daily trading to cover it.
And you might look at that as a negative. But in a rising gold market, the shorts could find themselves in an uncomfortable position or they have to cover at a higher price than they sold, fueling a rapid increase. So I look at our share price and I look at in the past, there is some – right now, we have something, we’d be called an inverted head and shoulders pattern. It looks very positive. And that's also reinforced by my positive view on the gold market.
I'd just like to give you a little bit of history on gold equities. And in the last 77 years, there have been eight bear markets for gold shares. The last bear market that we were in ended at the end of 2015. And I can say, it was one of the longest bear markets we've injured in the last 77 years and it was the deepest. During that same period, there have been a number of bull markets, we are currently in the seven, and the six – of the six preceding bull markets, four of them had gains from bottom to top of over 600% or better. So if you use that for as a reference point, out of the six, you could project that – it’s on a very limited scale, we can say there's a 67% probability that you could get a three or fourfold increase from where we are before this cycle ends. And to me that's where it is looking at. The broad market is at record high. And so there's room on the downside. And the gold market was pushed to the floor. And you could say, well, it could go lower, but I can tell you, there's not much left to go lower on. So I think risk reward is quite good here.

Jake Sekelsky, Roth Capital Partners

Costs at Black Fox for the quarter were mostly in line with 2018 guidance, but they did seem to tick up a bit from the previous quarter. Can you speak to the drivers behind the quarter-over-quarter increase there?

Rob McEwen
Sure, Jake. Chris, would you like to address that?

Chris Stewart
Yes, sure. How you doing, Jake? Just could you clarify your question a little bit because our overall ounces mined was down slightly from Q2 and significantly from Q1 – in Q3 so I want to get a better understanding of your question, sorry.

Jake Sekelsky
Yes, so I'm just trying to get a handle on costs going forward. On a cash cost basis, we did move up quarter-over-quarter, that's just a function of less ounces mined?

Chris Stewart
In Q3, the recoverable grade was down from what we anticipated. So as a result, we ended up with lower gold ounces produced. But the other thing we started to do in Q3 have spent some more money on capital development. So we reactivated the ramp at the bottom of the mine to access some new levels coming into 2019 to set ourselves up for success there. So I just joined the company and that have been slowed down and I was very focused, when I came on at mid-August was to start pushing that heading against we can set ourselves up. So I think you'll see coming into Q4, cost will be similar to what they were in Q3, I would say with respect to cash cost.

Jake Sekelsky
Okay, that makes sense. And then just switching over to El Gallo, you've already beat 2018 guidance there. Can you just give us some color on where the residual leach activities are at right now, where we should expect them to be going into Q4 in 2019?

Rob McEwen
Yes. Again, at El Gallo, as you mentioned, we've sort of over performed on the recoveries. So we did our recovery model for that and anticipate the overall recovery of gold to drop and be more in line with what we are predicting originally, we’re sort of in the 1,000, 1,200 ounces per month type area. So we expect coming to year end, we will beat our guidance there and then next year again, we are looking at more in the 1,000 to 1,200 ounces per month range.

Jake Sekelsky
Perfect.

Rob McEwen
Thank you, Jake. Just like to read a question from Neil Barron, he’s a private investor from Virginia. And he starts off, Rob, congratulations. Thank you for another excellent quarter, stay the course, keep the research exploration funded, keep building mines, producing gold and silver and looking for our next major acquisition. His question is about the short position. He was looking for insights into the short position. And when this might be over?
Our short position is equivalent to about 25 days of average trading volume, which is high relative to a number of companies in the industry. In looking into it, you can go out and borrow stock and there are various rates that are applied for borrowing stock. And the last I saw was the borrowing rates for our shares was 1.15%. So it's a low-cost to borrow it. And we are in 57 ETF indices and mutual funds.
And these holders often rent out or lease out their positions to people who want to short. So one way to stop that is probably to get your stock registered in your name, if we had all of our shareholders registering their stock in the name, there would be less of shares available for shorting and would probably increase – and as a result, that would increase the cost of borrowing because some borrow rates are up around 5% or 6%. So might mitigate some of the benefit.
And Neil had a second question regarding the silver price being below 16 and the impact on Fenix, and Andrew and Chris spoke about that. At the current price of silver and gold, which is below the numbers we used in our study on El Gallo, we still – at current price, it's generating about 22% after-tax IRR. So we're still pushing that forward.
 
Heiko Ihle, H.C. Wainwright

Hey, spent some time in your website earlier and played it around with that Black Fox virtual tour that you have on there, which is pretty cool. I think I mentioned that to you before. Can you just sort of why – it led to a pretty obvious question, given there is a virtual tour rather than images. Can you just sort of walk us through which parts have not arrived at the site Antamina, earlier on this call, someone mentioned that the ADR plant was getting completed in mid-December. I assume that the pricing is definitely down but I mean what about deliveries, are they locked as everything on-site. Are there any potential bottlenecks that we may not know about yet?

Rob McEwen
Heiko, that would be our Gold Bar property rather than Black Fox.

Heiko Ihle
I’m sorry, of course.

Rob McEwen
It's all right. And with respect to your construction, I'll turn it over to Chris, let him cover up that.

Chris Stewart

With respect to Gold Bar, we're in very good shape. Everything, all the critical items are on-site. So there's no – as far as the risk goes to complete and are we waiting for any materials to show up or anything like that. That's all looked after and we're in very good shape and we're very confident that we're going to be on track to again sort of loading the leach pads in mid-November and have the ADR completed, the last items that were concerned where the MCCs for all the electrical and that was on-site, about a week late, but we’ve essentially caught up on schedule on that.
So we're in good shape with the liquid natural gas plants, for electrical power have all been commissioned, that's up and running up. We got power across the site. So we're in very good shape with respect to construction, very confident we can deliver on time and on budget.

Heiko IhleGreat. You mentioned $4.2 million exploration at sites for 2018 year-to-date, any – I know its early but any idea we should expect to see for 2019?

Rob McEwen

In terms of our budget?

Heiko Ihle

Correct.

Rob McEwen

We're looking around $5 million on Gold Bar.

Sylvain Guerard
Just to add on this. It’s Sylvain speaking. Regarding our plan for next year, we have developed a lot of quality target just around the mine site there, that we are currently drilling and will extend to 2019. And we also have very interesting target to develop deeper for large potential call in mineralization that we are planning to add them also next year.

Heiko Ihle
Very helpful. Thank you guys.

Rob McEwen
Good, Heiko. Thank you very much. Our next question that was came in via email was from Steve Ellis, an investor, says I hope all is good with you. After 10 – after additional 10 months of stock price, I was wondering if the company has any idea when it will turn profitable, even assuming the price of gold and silver stay where they are.
So we are investing heavily in growth in exploration and building roads, hopefully losses are less, and building the value. In terms of turning profitable with gold and silver stay where they are today, it's unlikely we will turn a profit next year. But our objective is to be profitable and we will see the – we're hopeful that our investments that we're making and the expenses were incurring will generate assets that produce a healthy profit margin in the future.

Mike Kozak, Cantor Fitzgeral
A few questions from me. First, just go back to Black Fox. In Q3, the grades of the mill averaged 4.8 grams per ton. I think you mentioned that's a little bit lower than expected. That just kind of slightly negative grade reconciliation or more dilution, can you just elaborate on that a little bit?

Rob McEwen
Yes, in Q3, we did incur more dilution than we had anticipated with some of our stopes. So we’ve actually – we’re spending time right now, redesigning the stopes and especially the hanging wall with respect to ground sport requirements. So we're taking steps to mitigate that. But certainly, if you look at the overall – we overproduced on tons but underperformed on grade and it's certainly it's a dilution.

Mike Kozak
Got you. And then just following up on that, I mean that grade, I mean, it's down for four quarters in a row for when you guys bought. I’m just wondering, when – what that's grade going to stabilize that or what kind of average grades you guys looking at for next year at Black Fox?

Chris Stewart
We’re still working on that process right now. So I can't give you a firm answer on that. But I think, you can anticipate, seeing better grades next year than what you've seen this year and that’s our focus is on controlling dilution, reducing dilution within the stopes and looking at how we handle the ore as well through the entire process to get it over to the mill.

Mike Kozak
Got you. Okay. And then again at Black Fox, just when I calculate your unit cost per ton in Q3, I get $129 per ton, so that's mined, milled, G&A, everything on the operating front. That's down, I think, over 30% from last quarter and over, I think, 15% from Q1. So that's very good. I'm wondering is that sustainable, is this a function of some of those cost reduction initiatives that you talked about at your Investor Day, what number should we look at on a per ton basis going forward at Black Fox?

Chris Stewart
Again, we are just working through the plans for next year and what our budget will look like. And I think certainly some of the cost-saving initiatives, especially the global adjustments, that the team has been doing there. It certainly going to pay dividends next year, and that will be reflected in the cost per ton. The reason the cost per ton declined a fair bit in Q3 again was a result of handling all the tons that we have. But we do have excess capacity and we're again looking to match what we have with respect to manpower and equipment usage to match the production and that should in fact move your cost per ton down from where it's been in the past. But I would say if you’re in the sort of the $120, $130 range, it's probably a good sort of thumbs-up for now, for next year.

Mike Kozak
Okay, that’s great. Last quarter, I think, costs were up at $180 a ton. So that's good to see it coming down. And then just my last question and I'll hop off. I think you mentioned, although, you went through pretty quick, that you have 100,000 tons of ore that was mined and crushed, that's sitting there in front of the leach pad, waiting to get stacked. If that number is right, what – if you can say what is the grade – what's the grade of that 100,000 tons and how to reconcile relative to your reserve model?

Chris Stewart
Yes so we actually have 100,000 tons of ore, it's not crushed, it's sitting in front of the crushers. So we haven't fired up that part of crushing and stacking circuits. So sitting there basically run a mine ore. As far as reconciling with our model, we actually have a positive reconciliation on tons. We expect them to get 67,000 tons. We've got 100,000 tons of ore. And with respect to the grade, we planned on a 0.014 ounce per ton for that ore and those ventures, and we see – sorry – 0.001 buy, so actually slightly better than what was planned.

Mike Kozak
Okay, that’s great. Yes best of luck for next year guys.

Rob McEwen
Thanks very much Mike. The next question is from Allen Steven, a long-term shareholder. He said we're doing a great job, especially with respect to management and compensation, aligning interests with shareholders breath fresh air. He was wondering about Los Azules any possible joint venture news there. And what about permitting PEAs in the next six months? And the likelihood of a deal being struck, provided copper prices remain around $3.
We are going to be submitting in the first half of next year a permit application to develop the project. Right now we're doing reconnaissance on the access route into Los Azules, which, as I said earlier, would give us – if it works, it would give us 12-month access below the snow line and would provide a very good route for bringing power into the site and would alter, in my mind, the value of this property significantly.
Given the capital cost, we are looking for a joint venture partner. We’ve had some discussions. The ones we've haven’t had lot of conditional statements attached to them and weren’t attractive. Perhaps with copper around $3, this is an attractive price. And with the road, we'll be able to put, I would just think, something else. Someone ask about running their 4x4 up the road. It’s ready. But sorry about that, Allan. We'll hear news losses over the next six months on the road and permit application.

Bhakti Pavani, Alliance Global
Just a quick question Black Fox, assuming there is still potential below the mines, just kind of wondering at this point, with the exploration work that you have done, especially at the Black Fox's main side, do you see any potential of extending the mine life of the Black Fox deposit itself over next two to three years? Or do you think you will have to bring in from the next 12 months?

Chris Stewart
Yes good morning. With respect to Black Fox, personally, I'm quite bullish on the operational. I think there's significant potential to see growth. If you look at all the deposits through that area in northern Ontario, we typically go down 2,000 meters below surface. We're only scratching the surface down, sort of 800 meters down with the latest pull that Sylvain drill down to 1,050 meters. Again we’ve got a decent good grade into gold intercept there.
So I think there's significant potential depth and also along strike as well. We're planning some new areas with the exploration drilling that are quite interesting and close to our existing working so that could move into the mine plan fairly quickly as we continue to drill that moving into 2019.
Overall, when you look at the – the overall idea in my mind with respect to what we have in Timmins there, we got Black Fox mill, that's capable of 2,400 tons per day. And if you run 5 gram material through that, 5.5 gram material, you should be able to generate 140,000 ounces roughly per year. So our goal is to expand life at Black Fox, have it continue to operate, and then in conjugation with that, bring in some of the satellite deposit, so we can actually start to pump up the overall production at the mill rate, so start to try – essentially try and fill our mill overtime. Those going to take some time to do that, but that’s sort of what our vision is for what we want to do there in the Timmins camp.

Sylvain Guerard
Maybe I can add a bit on this. Sylvain speaking. What we see there at Black Fox or in Timmins, the Black Fox complex it's a complete pipeline, where we have the mine and we are working to extend the life of mine with the underground exploration drilling there, and we have some success that we are advancing with. And going down with development projects and the pipeline point of view, we have, as you know, the Froome, that is sitting there all ounces in the ground at 12.5 meters spacing and also Grey Fox in the Southeast area.
However, exploration is adding mineralization close to those deposits in the Froome footwall, hopefully that will contribute to make Froome even more attractive and economic. And at Grey Fox, we have the Northeast zone that is recently defined and could provide access to the Grey Fox main deposit.
And we have a bunch of new early-stage exploration intersection that could lead us to new discovery. And I am just talking here on Black Fox property. Now next to our mill, as you know, we have Stock. Stock is the new play [indiscernible] for 20 years, no drilling on the Stock East, where we have generated our first resource. And this sits on a very attractive joint called sitting on the big structure, that's at Destor-Porcupine, right geography, right alteration and correlative of gold over 2 kilometers strike line that we will extending next year and drilling over a 3 kilometer strike line at Stock. So together it’s a pretty good story, and of course, we are working hard to extend life of mine at Black Fox.

Bhakti Pavani
Perfect. Thank you. Just a follow-up. So if I have to model production for the Black Fox going forward, would it be fair to say that the production would remain consistent at the 2018 levels going into 2019? But – and should I model an increase in production from 2020, assuming that Froome will come online, is it fair to say that?

Rob McEwen
I would say 2019 you're safe. Froome, we're doing studies, the economics. We think we're going to be right now preparing a portal to go in. But I'd like to be a little more confident that we've driven over there and are ready for production before saying in 2020, we'll have Froome added to our production. But we'll know in the first half of this year – next year about Froome.

Bhakti Pavani
Got it. Okay, perfect. Switching to El Gallo, I know third quarter was a quite a surprise when it comes to production numbers. So – and the production is expected to taper off in fourth quarter, but just kind of wondering between now and when Fenix comes online, do you think the residual leaching activities would help you sustain during the time until Fenix comes online. And at this point what is the expected time line for Project Fenix?

Chris Stewart
Yes. Also the residual leaching will certainly help us maintain our operations and continue to do work on on-site. We have incurred manpower, layoffs as such given that the mining work has stopped, and as again, we're just residual leaching out, but we're moving full steam ahead on the feasibility study. And again, it's planed to be completed mid-next year. And then depending upon the outcome of that, a decision would be made to move that into construction. So we started a bunch of work to do around that to sort of make that decision. But certainly based on – if you run through the PGA numbers right now, its current material prices, it doesn't look like it's still quite attractive. But as you know when you get to the feasibility level, you're digging a bit further into the costs and becoming a lot more accurate around that. So, we'll have to see what the results are but if it is positive, which we expect it will be, we'd move into production and you probably got a year's worth of work to get that up and running. And during that time we’ll still be residual leaching, we expect the leaching, the residual leaching to last another sort of another three to four years. And phase one is actually reprocessing all that material on the leach pad running that through a CIL mill to reprocess that. So, we pick up whatever gold we haven't in residually leaching by doing that.

Bhakti Pavani
And lastly just to get a hand on the exploration expense across all your properties, what's kind of the expected exploration spend that we should be modeling in fourth quarter?

Chris Stewart
In the fourth quarter of this year Bhakti. We're spending about 1.2 million in Nevada, and we're spending just under a million dollars at Black Fox. So the fourth quarter is a bit lighter than the first three quarters of this year. Black Fox was the significant program from the flow through funds, which we completed before the end of September. So it's we're down to one surface rig right now at Black Fox and Gold Bar we're getting some work done but we'll see an increase in activity next year for Gold Bar and the Black Fox Project and the Timmins region will still see a sizable investment, but it won't be the same as what we invested this year.

Bhakti Pavani
And lastly Los Azules?

Chris Stewart
Los Azules for this year. So, the season is just kicking off, we're waiting to get – we’re waiting for the snow melt to co-operate to get site access, so we can continue on gathering data for our permit application. So we have about 2.5 million budgeted for this quarter but that's going to be dependent on the access and how quickly we get there to spend the funds but we're looking at about votes for that the 2018, 2019 season, we're looking at between $7 million to $9 million depending on the work we can get done on the road access.

Rob McEwen

I just wanted to build on Alan Steven's comment about management compensation and the Paulson Fund Management Company a year ago delivered a blistering attack on the mining industry and focusing in on performance and compensation. We just built on that. But the 15 largest Gold producers in the industry, the CEO compensation between 2010 and 2017 are over those seven years. The total of the 15 amounted to $695 million, which is outrageous, given the performance they had.
Of the 15, 13 of them delivered performance that range from – their shares down 21% to 94%. In that same period, we were down 2% and I received over that seven years $3 in pay. I do think the industry has to realign its compensation to reflect the performance and deliver more to the share owners.
Before share owners are only too happy to share it when it's going up and improving that. I think compensation is one of those big hot topics in the industry and that goes along with share ownership. Most of the people who got those large compensation packages had very little ownership in their company.

Robert Silvera, R.E. Silvera Associates
Hi, Rob thanks for taking the call. We've been shareholders for before your name was changed, long time and our perspective has always been long-term. Gold is your principal with silver et cetera. It's getting harder and harder to find a significant sources so to speak locations for gold especially and silver. What is your strategy for long-term. Because we’re – we tend to be very long-term holders want to stay with the company stay solid. Love your management, love your approach et cetera. Your history, and that's why I have stayed with you so many years.
But it's getting harder and harder to find gold, harder and harder to find these deposits. Do you have any vision for going into – because we know mining, things like the platinum groups, and/or lithium for instance, which has a future in batteries et cetera to branch out into those areas, so that we have a very long-term future for the company.

Rob McEwen
Robert I moved or jumped from the investment industry into the mining industry many years ago, and it was a belief that I saw a number of prospectors that showed me property packages and they showed me that – they kept discovering new deposits. My own history with Goldcorp, we’ve took a mine that had been starved with capital for 15 years, was high, it had a short life, or thought to have a short life of three years, had it difficult labor and at the bottom a mile below the surface we found what became one of the richest gold mines in the world.
It defied a lot of the geological thinking at that time. There are deposits still being found and I think maybe they're not on surfaces easily found as they were before. Some are found right in the shadow of the head frame of an existing mine. And there are other new settings so. I do believe you're going to see more Barrick Gold would be a case although that was 25, 30 years ago. They bought right between Homestake and Newmont in the Carlin Trend for $60 million bought something that ultimately produced 40 million ounces of gold. They're still finding deposits just north of our Gold Bar.
Deposits up at Cortez Hills, recently Barrick announced a big discovery, a four mile discovery and it was right near Cortez Hills. So – and they're picking them up in Africa, the Fosterville in Australia was a very difficult mine and they've encountered some high grade at depth.
We haven't gone – we have gone deep in South Africa much deeper than anywhere else in the world with their gold mines about down a kilometer and a half two kilometers that you're down in Timmins, you're in Red Lake, Curtin Lake. Our mines, I think our properties could yield additional discoveries just at depths and we have some good real estate.
If you were to take a look at our copper project and if you were to take the liberty of taking our Inferred resources both categories of resources, which you're not supposed to do but that would be about 30 billion pounds of copper, if you put that in to a gold equivalent it's more than 70 million gold equivalent ounces based on our PEA $1.14 a pound production cost that be equivalent to about $500 an ounce production costs and its modeled to have a 36 year life.

Robert Silvera
So, you do see a long-term horizon as far as being able to successfully mine gold and silver. And not what I read so many times that – these are being so hard to find. By the way I've owned Goldcorp also since the days you were there at Goldcorp. So I mean I've been with you for a long, long time and when you left Gold Corp and formed McEwen, I have stayed with you and very pleased with what you've done. But I wonder are you willing to look and branch out to for instance the platinum groups because we need platinum and we need palladium catalysts all that stuff.

Rob McEwen
Yes well part of my thrust has been gold and gold is money and it's a monetary asset not an industrial asset as much but when I was running Gold Corp we did have some industrial mineral operations that provided steady long-term cash flow and I'm not adverse to that type of investment

Robert Silvera
Good and I am just trying to get a perspective because as I said we're very long-term holders and I believe in the management pretty strong.

Rob McEwen
Thank you very much, appreciate that Robert.

Robert Silvera
Thank you. And hopefully the price of gold will get real one of these days. We'll talk to you later.

Rob McEwen
Robert, if you have a moment Sylvain would just – he is our Head of Exploration, just wanted to make a comment.

Robert Silvera
Sure, sure go ahead.

Sylvain Guerard
Yeah thank you Robert. It's actually a very good question you're asking there. I'd like to add a bit of our view on the exploration potential, how can we increase our chances or probability to be successful with our exploration program. One of the key point is that we try to focus our exploration effort in the right regions on the right projects. But in the right region. And we are currently investing and focusing exploration in the highland regions.
I'm talking here of the regions that old hundreds of million ounces of gold. They are not small regions, they are in small deposits and those deposits, those $100 million ounces of gold sit along very well defined structure and you have to be those are the breaks that the [indiscernible] Black Fox is located.
In Nevada the trends that the small all the large Carland gold system including the Barrick Newmont deposit. So, this is where we are and this is where we believe we have a lot better chance to be successful. And this is where discovery keep happening until now. Even if those came sometime 100 years of mining and exploration there are still new discoveries happening.
So maturity much is still relatively low because success keep happening there. So we have a strategic position, if we look at the local scale and Rob mentioned that and as you probably know, Gold Bar is located right along the Cortez trend, right along the southeast of the Barrick large cluster of deposit. And we have the right geology, the same geology, the same type of mineralization, the same type of deposit.
And the other important things about Timmins, Black Fox and Gold Bar, we are just starting a year ago exploration on those properties. So we are quite Primero in Q4 of 2017 and for Gold Bar the project was inactive for five years and we are just restarted again in Q4 of last year. So it’s a year of exploration and what we have generated as new resources, new exploration, drill intersections and development of new targets is extremely positive and give us all the confidence that we are at the right places to keep delivering good results there.
And finally those good regions are Ontario and Nevada are some of the best mining jurisdiction in the world when it comes to investment and stability and very low political risk and security risk. So all this to say that we tried to focus our effort where there’s a lot of gold or there’s a large deposit on the right property along the right structure at all scales and based on what we see with good encouragement, we keep advancing with strategic and exploration investment.

Robert Silvera
Good. What do you – from a geological standpoint since you brought that up, and I do love the fact that you’re in relatively stable places, how do you view Argentina and where we are as far as future goes, they keep throwing taxes around in their monetary situation, et cetera. How do you view that area?

Rob McEwen
It’s a good question. It doesn’t have a long history of mining. But it does have a long history of populous governments, both to the relation. And so we’re watching it. They said that the tax they have reimposed on exports will be there until 2020. And I think right now they’re desperate for an exchange and the exports seem to be the only additional source they could access. But if they want to attract any foreign – large foreign investments, they’re going to have to deal with that. So I would expect by the time we start thinking about developing Los Azules will be okay. It does have an adverse impact on our San José revenue.

Robert Silvera
Do you find when working with the people down there, a cooperative spirit in Argentina?

Rob McEwen
Generally, yes.

Robert Silvera
Good. Okay. Well, thanks very much, Rob. I really appreciate it and congratulations and thank you for the way, you run the company. I’m very, very pleased within. Thank you.

Rob McEwen
Thank you very much. Rob and appreciate the comment.

Bill Powers, a Private Investor
Hello, Rob. Couple of quick questions. One, I guess, what is your projected cash flow? I know -- I believe it’s all once for Gold Bar in the first year, it was projected at around $35 million and I was wondering if that is still holding through as far as where you’re seeing next year unfolding?

Chris Stewart
Hi Bill, the cash flows as we’ve revised the mine plans, particularly recently we were seeing kind of cash flows tapering off in 2021 and 2022, the guys have been going back to look at those cash flows for Gold Bar. And effect we’ve been trying to smooth out, we get some stable performance there. So next year, some of that has come out of next year. We are looking at over $20 million in terms of cash flow for the mine site next year, assuming 1250 gold. And then effectively seeing so comparable similar levels for the following four years after that. It’s not as high as new in the feasibility study, but the feasibility study was significantly had a bit of gap in 2022 in particular, which we’ve been looking to address with revised mine plans as well as minimizing the upfront OpEx that we planned to incurred us to get going on the mine too.

Bill Powers
Okay. And then I just have one more question regarding slightly you guys have out on your website regarding its – the sulfide mineralization that’s from the Cabin Creek area. You guys have a couple of nice picture or a nice picture of some core samples from Cabin Creek area. I guess, this goes back to your a little next to your drilling, what you plan to due into the deeper sulfide next year. Could you just tell me little bit about where this came from and kind of – I guess, is this historic drilling that you were able to core sample you’re able to achieve, receive from previous drilling or – and I guess, how is this connected to what you’re planning to do going forward?

Sylvain Guerard
Yes, Sylvain here. That’s a good question. And as you know, what we have at the Gold Bar, it’s a heap leach upside open pit, but we know that there is a component of this system that will be hosted in the sulfide. And historically some exploration hurdles like the one that you see there on the photo, this is typical calling type system into sulfide and its high grade. So for us, it’s a very good indication that this mineralization exists at Gold Bar. And this one is to later all to Cabin Creek and historical drill core that you’re seeing there.
But we work with former Barrick geologists and actually our exploration manager in Nevada is a former Barrick geologists, that work at gold strike. And when those people look at this core, they all ask this is exactly what we see at Cortez. This is what we other large calling gold system. So what we have there at Gold Bar is the -- it’s a longer trend and the project or the priority scale has all the right ingredients for hosting a larger and hopefully higher grade sulfide deposit.
And all the path exploration stopped at the limit of the pit depth or when they start to hit sulfides but we know that mineralization is open into sulfides along the right statographic horizon. And then, we are also developing the deeper target, which stem beneath a unit called the mountain and this lower statography that could host this type of larger sulfide deposits like the other large one in large Nevada remain basically untested on our Gold Gar property.
And next year we are planning to seismic geophysical surveys and are defining targets to start drilling for such deep deposits. So we have the near mine, extension of non-mineralization and that is a bit more shallow exploration. And part of that we want to initiate the deeper score and we believe we as said we have all the right visions to grow this Gold Bar deposit.

Rob McEwen
Thank you very much one and all for joining us today. Best wishes for a successful investing.

Gold is important to me because...click here

"It was a showdown among titans.
Once again, this year’s vote for Kitco Mining CEO of the year was a close-fought race, but for the third year in a row, Rob McEwen of McEwen Mining (NYSE: MUX TSE: MUX) took the crown.
In what was a frustrating year for mining investors – many of the criticisms that often surface are that while stock performance may be down, it has not stopped executive boards and CEOs from walking out with a huge paycheck.
And year after year, investors take their hats off to McEwen who stands by his $3 annual salary.
In a November interview with Kitco News, McEwen said his advice to other CEOs was “reduce your pay.”
“In the last seven years, the CEOs of the 15 largest companies in the industry paid themselves just under $700 million,” McEwen said. “Pay yourself less and get your stock performing better and buy shares in your company,” he heeded.
And when it came time to ask our Kitco viewers the reasons for their nominations, this message was loud and clear:

“McEwen, keeps the company afloat with little to no debt and has skin in the game,” said one voter.
“He has a natural talent for finding good mines and putting them into production for less money than competitors.”
“He takes little salary and acts in the best interest of the shareholders of which he is one.”
“He puts his money where his mouth is, and continues to expand the company through tough times while keeping investors frequently and fully informed of the progress and challenges.
“[McEwen] believes in his company. Puts his money where his mouth is. [He] Does not take compensation. Every other mining CEO is getting rich at the expense of the shareholders...”

Rob McEwen, Mark Bristow and Keith Neumeyer Lead Pack for CEO of 2018

Gold is important to me because...click here

McEwen Mining Reports 2018 Full Year and Q4 Results
February 21, 2019

TORONTO, Feb. 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) today reported fourth quarter and full year results for the period ended December 31, 2018.

For the year, McEwen Mining achieved record production of 175,640 gold equivalent ounces(1) (“GEOs”), at cash costs of $817(2) per GEO and all-in sustaining costs (“AISC”) of $1,002 per GEO. Our 2019 production guidance is 210,000 GEOs, a 20% increase over 2018 production, at average cash costs and AISC per GEO of $877 and $1,034, respectively. During 2018, we invested heavily in areas that we believe will enhance our future growth and profitability. We invested $35 million in exploration, $66 million in construction at the Gold Bar Mine in Nevada, and $10 million to advance our Fenix and Los Azules projects. As a result we are reporting a consolidated net loss for 2018 of $45 million, or $0.13 per share.

At December 31, 2018 we had cash and liquid assets of $38 million, including cash and restricted cash of $31 million. In August 2018 we raised $50 million in debt to fund construction of the Gold Bar Mine. We decided to debt finance a portion of the required capital rather than issuing equity because we strongly believed that higher gold and silver prices were close at hand, and that our share price should improve as a result.

The table here provides production and cost results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2018, comparative results from last year, and production and cost guidance for 2019.

The table here provides financial highlights for the year ended December 31, 2018, and comparative results from last year.

Gold Bar Mine, Nevada, USA (100%)
Construction of the Gold Bar Mine started in November 2017 and by year-end 2018 we had invested $72 million, approximately 89% of the total construction budget of $81 million, the balance of which will be spent in Q1 2019. In 2018, our exploration expenditures of $5 million resulted in an increase in our gold reserves of 8%, which extended the Mine’s estimated life to 7.4 years from 6.3 years. It is expected that a portion of the resources at Gold Bar South will be converted to reserves once the permits for development are in place, which would further extend the Mine’s life. See Tables 1.1 to 1.3 for updated mineral resource and reserve estimates.
Our 2019 exploration budget on the Gold Bar property is $5 million. Exploration drilling will target both near surface and deep Carlin-type mineralization.
Gold Bar 2019 production guidance is 55,000 gold ounces at cash costs and AISC per GEO of $930 and $975, respectively. The first gold ingot weighing 390 ounces was poured at the Mine on February 16, 2019. Heavy snowfall at Gold Bar and being understaffed have recently impacted our operating activities, particularly delaying the ramp-up of the crushing plant, as a consequence we expect to achieve commercial production during Q2 2019.

Gold Bar Feasibility Study (2018)
Our 2019 cash costs guidance of $930 per GEO at Gold Bar is approximately 6% higher than that projected for the first year of operations in our feasibility study. This is primarily due to an increase in the amount of waste stripping. A revised mining schedule has been designed to better position the mine for its second year of production in 2020, which is estimated to have 20% lower cash costs and 35% higher gold production.

Black Fox Mine, Canada (100%)
Production in 2018 was 48,928 GEOs, in-line with our production guidance of 48,000 GEOs. For 2018, total cash costs and AISC per GEO were $845 and $1,137, respectively.
Black Fox 2019 production guidance is 50,000 gold ounces at cash costs and AISC per GEO of $905 and $1,080, respectively. The Black Fox mine is undergoing significant changes in management, workforce and mining practices, with the objective of improving the overall economic performance of the mine in 2019-2020. So far in 2019 the mine has faced some challenges reaching targeted productivity levels, although we believe these issues are temporary and should not impact our planned output in 2019.
In 2018, we spent $21 million on exploration at the Black Fox Complex. Our 2019 exploration budget is $17 million.
The mineral resource and reserve estimates for the Black Fox Mine have been updated (Tables 2.1 and 2.2) to reflect mine depletion, additions from exploration, and the deletion of certain resource blocks that are deemed inaccessible due to prior mining activity. Resources and reserves decreased by 19% and 21%, respectively. The mineral resource for the Stock East exploration project was updated and increased by 32% (Table 2.3). Resource estimates for other deposits at the Black Fox Complex including Froome, Grey Fox and Tamarack are unchanged.

San José Mine, Argentina (49%)
Our attributable production from San José in 2018 was 47,331 gold ounces and 3,020,696 silver ounces, for a total of 87,607 GEOs. Compared to 2017, gold and silver production were down 4%, primarily due to lower average mined grades of gold and silver. For 2018, total cash costs and ASIC per GEO were $851 and $1,061, respectively.
During 2018, we received $10 million in dividends from our interest in San José. For 2019, we expect to receive $7-10 million in dividends, with the final amount being determined by the profitability, treasury position, and decisions on capital and exploration investments.
In 2018, $6 million was invested in exploration at San José, and the 2019 exploration budget is $5 million (100% basis).
San José 2019 production guidance is 49,000 gold ounces and 3,225,000 silver ounces, for a total of 92,000 GEOs attributable to us, at cash costs and AISC per GEO of $830 and $1,060, respectively.
The mineral resource and reserve estimates for the San José Mine have been updated (Tables 3.1 and 3.2) to reflect mine depletion and additions from exploration. Resources increased by 11% and reserves decreased by 10%.

El Gallo Project, Mexico (100%)
Production in 2018 was 39,105 GEOs. For 2018, total cash costs and AISC per GEO were $733 and $771, respectively. Mining activity ceased at El Gallo by the end of Q2 2018.
El Gallo 2019 production guidance is 13,000 gold ounces at cash costs and AISC per GEO of $875 and $915, respectively. These ounces are derived from residual heap leaching activities that are ongoing and will continue for several years.

Fenix Project
In 2018, we invested $4 million to advance the development of the Fenix Project. Activities included metallurgical studies, permit applications, and the preparation of a feasibility study. The Fenix Project’s PEA is available for review on our website and SEDAR ww.sedar.com

Potential Sale
Our focus is on delivering near-term production growth from our projects in the United States and Canada, and on advancing Los Azules. As part of our capital allocation strategy we will be exploring the potential sale of our Mexican assets. We anticipate that half of the net proceeds from the potential sale would be used to advance the development of projects with the greatest potential to significantly improve our share value, and the balance would be used to retire a portion of our debt.

Los Azules Project, Argentina (100%)
We spent $6 million at Los Azules during 2018. The activities performed were mainly technical site investigations and environmental base line monitoring work, to advance permitting efforts. We are currently investigating a new access route to the project that, if developed into a road, could provide year-round access to Los Azules, greatly accelerating the potential development of the project and reducing operating costs. Our 2019 exploration budget for Los Azules is $3 million.

Distribution
During the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company paid two semi-annual distributions on February 14 and September 4, totaling $0.01 per share of common stock, for total distributions of $3.4 million. The next semi-annual distribution of a ½ cent per share will be paid on March 15, 2019, to shareholders of record on March 8, 2019.

Resource and Reserve Updates
Mineral resources and reserves have been updated for the Gold Bar Mine and Gold Bar South (Nevada), Black Fox Mine and Stock Project (Ontario), and San José Mine (Argentina). Resources for other deposits in our portfolio are unchanged from the previous estimates. For a summary of all the McEwen Mining’s resources and reserves refer to the tables on our website.

  ***FORM 10-K For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018

McEWEN MINING Operations Sites

MCEWEN MINING Q4 AND YEAR-END
2018 RESULTS CONFERENCE CALL

TORONTO, Feb. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) invites you to join our conference call following the release of our Q4 and full year 2018 financial results on Thursday, February 21st, 2019 at 11:00 am EST. Questions can be asked directly by participants over the telephone or can be emailed in advance to info@mcewenmining.com

April 2, 2019 11:00 AM ET

The Conference Call

Company Participants
Rob McEwen - Chief Owner
Chris Stewart - President and CEO
Andrew Elinesky - CFO

Conference Call Participants
Bhakti Pavani - Alliance Global Partners
John Tumazos - John Tumazos Very Independent Research
George Darling - Sandstorm Resources
Ken Rostron - Carpathia Portfolio Consulting
John Rast - Huntleigh Securities
Ken Reese - Sagepoint Financial

Rob McEwen
Thank you, operator. Good morning fellow share owners. I'd like to start this conference call with an apology. I want to apologize for our horrible share price performance. Clearly, our actions and statements have disappointed confused and prompted many shareholders to sell their shares. Today, we want to share with you; one, the reasons why it has been challenging for us in the last three to six months. The corrective steps we've taken and what the balance of 2019 looks like.
With me today on the call are Chris Stewart, our President and Chief Operating Officer; and Andrew Elinesky, our CFO.
Before asking Chris to talk about operations, I'd like to say that we have four sources of production and revenue this year, up from three last year. We have reduced our production guidance by less than 3% to 205,000 gold equivalent ounces from 210,000. And the recent financing has repaired the damage to our balance sheet caused by several events, some of which were beyond our control, but it has given us put us in a position to complete the year as we have planned at 205,000 ounces gold equivalents.
At this point, I'd like to ask Chris to talk about the operational issues and the solutions to them and what it looks like for the balance of the year.

Chris Stewart
Thank you, Rob. Good morning everyone. First quarter of 2019 has been challenging for our North American operations that represent approximately 3% of our annual goal production. At our Black Fox mining, total issues had a negative impact on our Q1 performance. In January, we ran into an issue with one of ore which took our only ore source at a time online for about 2.5 weeks.
After getting our workplace back up and running in late January, we had an incident early February with our local contractor who carries out ore crushing on surface. They had a fire in the surface crushing plant. The conveyor belt caught fire and quickly consumed the cone crusher tower, setting for the two other conveyor belts, melting all the electrical wiring and the heat damaged the structural integrity of steel tower. So, it took a month for the repairs to be completed on the crushing plant, was back up and running in the first week of March.
While the temporary crushing plant [indiscernible] to see that’s as an immediate fix, winter conditions in February were particularly brutal in the Timmins area this year where temperature is in the minus 35 to the minus 45 Celsius range. So, the temporary plant did not perform well at all. So, we had very limited mill processing in February. We had seen significant improvements within operations in second half of March as we add two to three mines fronts available to us. Our main focus in the first half of 2019 is about well back test to multiple mines front in the underground operations. This will allow us to be more consistent in our number of tons of ores in second half of the year.
Private owners did not invest enough capital into development at the mine. They only spent enough money to access the next mine area, which resulted limited workplaces being available at any time. So it's hampered the overall performance of this operation. We are now developing as planned on multiple mine fronts and pushing to open up areas in the upper, middle and lower parts of the mine simultaneously. We've also replaced the majority of our senior leadership team at Black Fox, as we worked during in the operation around. The problems had hampered our performance in Q1 have been resolved and we were back to regular operations.
Other new Global mine in Nevada, we also struggled with our operational performance in Q1. Several factors impact the operations here. 2018, 2019 winter has been wettest weather ever recorded in the United States. In local area, we have experienced a wetter and colder winter than normal. To give you an example, we've received over 7 inches of precipitation in Q1 compared to the normal average of 3 inches and total precipitation in our area is 11.8 inches annually on average.
The unusual weather caused delays in both our mining operating on the mountain due to wet conditions, snowfall with a commissioning of our handling system as the crushing, screening, conglomeration and stacking system which how we take the road of mine ore and committed for replace on the heap leach pad. To address these issues, we made modifications to our ore handling system to promote better move on the ores of the entire system. We're also in the process of installing whether protection around the layers of major equipment infrastructure. Men hour are also contributed albeit to a lesser extent to our slower than anticipated progress in late 2018 and into early 2009 that we are manned moving forward now.
Our ADR process plant is working well with and falling our [indiscernible] February 16th, we continued to pour gold ore on a regular basis. The commissioning process has been challenging during the reverse quarter, but we are on targets and move into commercial production in the second quarter as planned. We're pleased to share that our El Gallo mine and scope performing as planned and the feasibility study remain on track to be completed midyear. Our El Gallo mine adventure producing well and on budget for Q1.
So in summary, first quarter of 2019 has definitely been challenging, but we're confident we have resolved the unusual operation excuse at Black Fox in Q1. And at Gold Bar, we have identified the issues, we've developed solutions and we're in the process of reinventing them now. We look forward to us underperforming in Q2 and the remainder of 2019. Thank you.

Andrew Elinesky
Good morning, everyone. This is Andrew Elinesky, Chief Financial Officer. I'll take you through the financial impact of events that Rob and Chris just described. First, go back through that time line events that Rob mentioned, impact of our cash flow and followed by review how we see 2019 and 2020 from a cash perspective.
Upon our plain cash generation for operations in 2018 was progressing well until about the fourth quarter. At which point, the reintroduction of exports taxes in Argentina as well as losing gold and silver inventory in the republic refinery bankruptcy amended our planned portion of the cash proceeds from the San Jose mine were reduced by approximately $6 million roughly covering the period of December 2018 to 2019.
Then starting in early January this year with the commissioning issues being faced with Gold Bar described by Chris, meant our original production plan was about 7,500 ounces for the first quarter and we reduced this to 4,500 ounces in our guidance given in February. And in turn, this just came in at just over 2,000 ounces forward as at the end of March.
Similarly, the Black Fox revenue plans were impacted by the production issues. And originally, we had 15,000 ounces envisaged for the first quarter of 2019. This was then introduced to 10,000 ounces when we issued our guidance in February, and our actual production just coming in sort of just over 8,000 ounces for the quarter.
So, these combined events continuing our ongoing cash and working capital balances where both significantly impacted and the capital injection was obviously required. The timing of this was predicated by the working capital covenant of our term loan, meaning we needed the capital injection by the end of March in order not to breach this covenant and trigger the associated penalties.
This capital injection that we just completed should carry us through the rest of this year to focus on the Gold Bar startup, as well as the turnaround of Black Fox as well as our projects and exploration activities at both sites as well as progressing with our evaluations of Los Azules.
For everyone's references, our projections used at 1,250 gold price and a $15 silver price. The outlook for MSC is steady as usual, now that a slight increased plan for compared to 2018 as well as continued peso deevaluation of the next few years. We should allow us to see dividends and the cash flows from the joint venture, continuing the range of about $10 million per year plus or minus 20%.
At Gold Bar with the construction coming in on budget and the mine on track for commercial production, we will see this business unit switch from being a cash consumer to a cash generator, particularly in 2020, which should see significantly higher production in cash generation. In addition, mine life extension opportunities remain in our goal to extend to 10 years or greater still achievable.
And finally, at Black Fox as Chris said, we've recovered from our delays and gold production rates have normalized. The production rates have increased significantly in the last three weeks with just over 4,500 ounces of the overall 8,000 ounces producing the quarter reported in March alone. With this fair capacity, our processing plant in the mining rate being increased. We're still on track for meeting our 50,000 ounce guidance for the year despite this delay.
And similar to Gold Bar, we're still working on the significant project and exploration opportunities that attracted to us for this investment in the first place. Overall with the conclusion of construction at Gold Bar and turnaround work at Black Fox, we should see our operations transition from cash assumption 2018 to cash generation starting this year and ramping up and increasing into 2020.
And with that, I'll hand it back to Rob.

Rob McEwen
Thank you, Andrew. I'd like to now just talk a little bit about the background to our why we did the financing, we did recently. And I'll go back to August of last year when we were looking at how would we finance the construction of Gold Bar, complete the construction of Gold Bar, and we required $50 million. And if we looked at our stock price at the time and said, it seems low. And we looked at our projections for revenue over the next year. We said next couple of years and we thought, well, why don't we take out some debt? We should have a comfortable margin to service the debt and retire it and rather than issuing shares of what we thought was a low price per share.
So, we raised $50 million. There were some covenants attached to that debt that we thought we could clear those hurdles easily. Then, as Andrew said in the fall of last year, Argentina impose taxes, export taxes on our San Jose mine and it went across the entire industry on mineral exports. And then, there was a bankruptcy refinery used by our partner, which further reduced the revenue we received from the mine.
And we thought, well, alright, we're with there, but we will need -- we could need some financing mid this year. So we put in place an ATM or what an app market financing. It was described to us and we were led to believe it was a low costs, lower cost one of the financing in your traditional equity issues. And it'll be less disruptive to the market because it was being sold in smaller quantities rather than doing an issue all it once.
And we thought, well, if we could sell it at a certain price, if we continue going on and we'd raise the money that we need without disturbing the market, we made a mistake, which we corrected recently by canceling the ATM. But our financial position was aggregated in the New Year by loss of production, as Chris said, basically for the first two months of the year from Black Fox and Gold Bar being delayed, by a quarter coming into commercial production.
So, we haven't raised much money through the ATM, but we put a $90 million top on what was possible to raise through the ATM and I think that just gave the impression that we are going to be in the market forever and we only sold about $2 million worth of stocks in the ATM. And now, we were with the loss of revenue from the two of our operations, we were facing a covenant for each -- a possible covenant for each of our loan. And it came with some penalties, which we really didn't want to see have to deal with.
We needed to have a $10 million of working capital. And if we were below that, at the end of the quarter, the interest rate on the loan would increase from 9.75% to 15%. And we would be technically in a default, and we didn't want either those events to happen. And so, we then started saying, well, we got to get some capital quickly and we looked at a number of alternatives.
And the one we selected was a, single shareholder, stepped up and said they'd put up the bulk of the money, but they would like to see -- they put up 88% of the money. And they said, we'd like to see alignment with management, and a number of directors and officers of the Company put up money including myself and we closed for financing on March 31, and thereby prevented any breach of covenants.
Is this the preferred way to raise money? No, we thought we had it under control with the ATM. We didn't plan on Black Fox having the production problems or the contractor having a fire in his crusher that would shut us down for basically two months between the technical problems underground and the fire. Now did we plan on the delay at Gold Bar.
Could we have had insurance for the contractor, fire, we haven't found any insurance that we could have utilized. We didn't lose any gold. It just got deferred into the next quarter. I'm very pleased by what happens in March at Black Fox. We certainly perform very well there. And I think it's a good sign of what's going ahead. The grades were improving, Gold Bar; Chris says, if the phone call is a little the sound wasn't that great. Good Chris up by the phone connection from Gold Bar wasn't that good. So I apologize for that. But we're addressing that and we're looking at commercial production in Q2.
As I said earlier on, we're been doing a much more dire first quarter. It won't be a strong one. But it's going to be much better than we had thought at the end of February that it would be. There are concerns about financings and why not everyone's involved? And I'd like to suggest to all our shareholders that as it makes interest and we need money somewhere in the future that they indicate net interest to us in the near future, to say, yes, I'd like to participate.
We did the right issues some years ago. It's a very cumbersome process. And then it's expensive, it's lengthy and needs a lot of exposure. And I don't know why the securities commissions around the world, particularly United States and Canada, don't change the rules on rights issues. So they could be executed much the same way as a private placement. Fairly quickly shareholders are knowledgeable of the Company, they should be able to make that decision and not be prevented by securities regulators.
We did do financing last year, late in the year of flow-through financing, it was done in 24% premium above market. We found the flow through a good instrument to use one because of the money's being spent on the Black Fox properties. It's being used for exploration. We have $180 million in tax loss carry forward. So we're not giving up any sales there. And as I said it's done at a premium we also do one in 2017 again 24%, 25% premium over market.
The, if we were, we did announce we reporting are open to sale, conversations about selling on Mexican in property. We wanted some flexibility on our balance sheet. So the question about whether or not we would use the proceeds of the sale to buy back stock. That is a possibility, but we're continuing to grow and advancing our plans to qualify for the S&P. So in the near-term where growth company, adding to production we think our exploration this year will yield some interesting results.
We're already seeing good results from Black Fox and Gold Bar, we have an exciting program there this year, to not only test for additional surface oxide ores. But in the late summer will be testing for a possible deep sulfide carbon-styled mineralization on the property, which is a reasonable belief that it could be looking for us to surface close, I mean, within the top 3000 feet.
This point, I really wanted to use this session to field questions from our shareholders and interested investors. And I'd like to ask the operators open up the questions period.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator
Our first question comes from Bhakti Pavani with Alliance Global Partners.

Bhakti Pavani
Just kind of wondering you, in your prepared remarks, you did mention about increasing the development at Black Fox mine. Could you maybe you know elaborate or provide some additional colors on what would it -- how would it reflect when it comes to production from the mine for this year and going forward?

Rob McEwen
Certainly, I'll ask Chris to answer that Bhakti for you.

Chris Stewart
Yes, with respect to the capital developments are doing, as I mentioned, we're developing balance on three different areas of the mine. So the upper, middle and lower portions historically, what, what they've done is basically developed to the next level set themselves up so we have more stopes in. When you're done above, you need go down in mine. But they didn't sort of push ahead a number of different trends that does as it limits your ability through the mine cycle between drill last mark and then peak billing where you're limited to the number of areas. So you can actually work and draw ore. So that gives us lots of variation in the production levels kind of the mine sort of strategy is to open up multiple areas. And again and sort total different areas of the mines, so we're not opening to [indiscernible] in any area, but it allows us the flexibility. So, if we do into an issue that we had in January where we had a blast and slurring go had on it and it took us 2.5 weeks to cover that to get stood up and running. If you do run into that problem, you still have two or three other areas and draw for. So allow you to get better coordinated the overall cycles within the mining sequence. So you get that consistency in that business. So our strategy is focusing on development 13 and 11 meters per day of development for currently to meeting that and essentially open up the areas ever saw set up by year or second half 2019 as much stronger from a gold production perspective in 2000. First half of the year, certainly Q2 will see significantly proven in gold production as well. So we're taking the time out, setting ourselves up for success going forward. And I will maintain that, in details of is Wendy and Ron.

McEwen Mining Announces Management Changes

TORONTO, May 06, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to announce two new management appointments. Meri Verli, PhD, CA, CPA, will be joining as the new Chief Financial Officer, replacing Andrew Elinesky who is departing the Company effective today; and Jack Henris will be joining as General Manager for Nevada effective today.
Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, commented: “I’m pleased to welcome these two experienced and accomplished individuals to the team at McEwen Mining. We are moving forward with a strong management team, who is focused on operational excellence.”

Meri Verli
Meri has extensive experience as a senior financial executive, having held several management roles in the gold mining sector, including most recently as the CFO of PPX Mining Corp since October 2017, Senior VP Finance and Treasury at Kirkland Lake Gold until July 2017 and VP Finance at Lake Shore Gold for 9 years.
At Kirkland Lake Gold, Meri was part of the team that executed the transformational merger between Kirkland and Newmarket Gold creating a new +500,000 ounce per year gold producer in 2017. During her tenure at Kirkland Lake, Meri was instrumental in integrating the finance and treasury teams, policies and practices for the various acquired entities.
Meri was VP Finance at Lake Shore Gold until September 2016, where she provided senior financial planning and analysis support. She played a key role in cost reduction initiatives and in building the finance department and policies as Lake Shore Gold transitioned from a junior exploration company to a commercial gold producer with more than 600 employees and contractors.
Meri is a Chartered Professional Accountant, holds a PhD in Economic Sciences, a Bachelor of Geology and Engineering and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Tirana, Albania.

Jack Henris
Jack is a senior executive with deep hands-on experience in the mining industry. He has a successful track record of driving cost reduction, increased production and safety improvement.
Jack brings over 30 years of experience, most recently as the Vice President of Mining and Geotechnical for Goldcorp. He has extensive experience in Nevada having worked at Newmont for 12 years and Barrick for 9 years. Prior to joining Goldcorp from 2013 to 2017, Jack held the position of General Manager at two large Newmont operations in Nevada, the Carlin Operation and Cripple Creek. Jack holds a BSc in Geological Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

ABOUT MCEWEN MINING
McEwen has the goal to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by creating a profitable gold and silver producer focused in the Americas. McEwen's principal assets consist of: the San José mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina (49% interest); the Black Fox mine in Timmins, Canada; the Fenix Project in Mexico; the Gold Bar mine in Nevada; and the large Los Azules copper project in Argentina, advancing towards development.
McEwen has approximately 360 million shares outstanding. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, owns 22% of the shares.

•McEwen Mining MUX says it has reached commercial production at its Gold Bar Mine in Nevada, and reports new positive exploration drill results from the Grey Fox Area within the Black Fox property in Ontario.
•MUX says Gold Bar production has been steadily increasing since the first gold pour in February and forecasts output of 50K oz. at an all-in sustaining cost of $975/oz. for 2019.
•MUX also says Ontario drill results included positive results from two targets in the Grey Fox area, which cumulatively hosts estimated indicated resources of 465K oz. of gold.

McEwen Mining Exploration Produces Rich Gold Results at Black Fox

Key intercepts include:
34.77 g/t Auover 2.65 m (1.12 opt* Au over 8.69 ft.)
396.46 g/t Auover 1.81 m (12.75 opt Au over 5.94 ft.)
245.55 g/t Auover 1.27 m (7.89 opt Au over 4.17 ft.)
30.64 g/t Au over 2.99 m (0.99 opt Au over 9.81 ft.)
51.50 g/t Auover 0.95 m (1.66 opt Au over 3.12 ft.)

TORONTO, May 23, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is delighted to report rich gold assay results from its Black Fox Mine near Timmins, Ontario, Canada.

Sylvain Guerard, Senior Vice President Exploration, commented: “For a mine with a history of producing 5 g/t gold, these drill assay results are very encouraging. These results highlight the significant potential of our exploration to extend the mine life at Black Fox and improve its profitability. Our geologists are building an improved geologic model of the Black Fox deposit that should allow us to grow our resources through near-mine exploration and enable more effective mine planning. We have a large and exciting year of exploration ahead of us.”

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