|
|
Post by Entendance on Dec 15, 2021 10:44:13 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Dec 22, 2021 6:19:44 GMT -5
McEwen Mining: Exploration @ Fox McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to announce that drilling continues to deliver good widths and grades at the Fox Complex, both from exploration at Stock and delineation at Froome.
Highlights include:
Assay results show the potential of the Stock mineralized zones to extend to depth and down plunge. What has been outlined to date will contribute to our immediate growth plans.
Drilling is planned for 2022 to investigate the intercept in hole S21-202, which encountered 21 meters (m) of 4.29 g/t gold. If this intercept connects to mineralization at Stock West, it will materially enlarge the boundaries of the Stock West system.
Assay results are starting to arrive from our exploration on Stock Main (the historic Stock mine). Visible gold has been noted in several drill cores, such as in hole SM21-024 that returned 9.1 m of 7.43 g/t gold including 2.6 m of 23.72 g/t gold, within 25 m of surface.
Stock West & Main
Drill results from holes S21-202 (released on Nov. 3, 2021) and S19-95 (released on Sep. 4, 2019 - 7.0 m (core length) of 27.2 g/t gold) confirm that mineralization remains open to depth and the east (see Figure 1). The intercept in S21-202 is an over 200 m step-out along a prominent shallow eastern plunge from mineralization at Stock West. The current geologic interpretation suggests a possible connection of a further 250 m to the intercept in hole S19-95.
The host lithology of the Stock West mineralization, which also occurs in hole S21-202, was recently intersected in the footwall of the Stock mine. These observations support our confidence that the property is early in its discovery phase of development.
Forty-six surface drill holes were completed at Stock West (see Table 1) and Stock Main (see Table 2) since the last exploration update in May 2021.
Progress made at the Stock Property in 2021 will be reflected in the pending Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Fox Complex, which is currently being finalized for publication.
Figure 1: www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/95d0f9b3-13f4-4fd0-9caf-b122f557cc91Froome Mine
The best new result is 20 m (true width) of 7.43 g/t gold – Hole 200-F085-14
Three hundred and seventeen underground drill holes were completed for delineating the Froome orebody during 2021 (see Table 3). The Froome mine, while only a short distance from the Black Fox mine, is different in important ways that offer several advantages, such as a straighter, shorter, and more efficient underground haulage route, and wider more consistent mineralization that is amenable to lower-cost bulk mining methods. Mining started earlier this year and has been meeting expectations on key ore quality indicators such as gold grade, dilution, and total ounces produced.
Delineation drilling has expanded the deposit further to the west than previously designed, giving the Fox Complex team confidence that the Froome mine life will be extended. 2022 diamond drilling will focus on resource expansion at depth to extend the Froome mine life (see Figure 2).
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Dec 23, 2021 1:58:55 GMT -5
McEwen Copper: Los Azules Progress Report McEwen Copper Inc., a subsidiary of McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX), is pleased to provide a summary of the work at the Los Azules copper project in San Juan, Argentina, that started in earnest this July 2021. Our two immediate objectives on our path to designing and constructing the copper mine of the future are to:
Advance Los Azules from its current stage of development (Preliminary Economic Assessment or PEA) to a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS); and
Construct a new road, the ‘ Northern Access Road’ , that will provide critical year-round access to Los Azules. The current ‘ Exploration Road’ is generally only usable five months of the year due to winter weather.
Below is a photographic account of our activities to date.
Background
On July 6, 2021, we announced the creation of McEwen Copper and our intention to raise US$80 million in a private offering comprised of 8,000,000 shares priced at $10.00 per share. We closed the first $40 million tranche of the placement in August with Rob McEwen, and the balance of the financing is expected to close in January 2022. Assuming completion of the $80 million financing, McEwen Mining will retain 69% ownership in McEwen Copper, and new shareholders will hold 31%. McEwen Copper will continue to hold a 100% interest in the Los Azules project.
Los Azules is one of the largest undeveloped copper porphyry deposits in the world. It is located along the prolific Andes Copper Belt as shown in the location map below: Photo 1 - Work starting in July to open the Exploration Road Photo 2 - By September 27 th , we had reopened the Exploration Road to Los Azules, and the camp provisioner and caterer (Caterwest) had started setting up our work campsites. Below is a picture of the Exploration Road being improved. If you look closely, you can see the road continuing beyond the front-end loader.
Photo 3 - While opening the Exploration Road, on July 19 th we also started the construction of the Northern Access Road . Pictured here is the start of the eastern end of this new road. A prominent San Juan-based road construction firm (Zlato) is building the road for us. The construction of the road has been divided into five sections. Photo 4 - By late November, we had completed Section 5 and approximately 50% of Section 4. We are awaiting permits, expected in Q1 2022, to advance construction of the remaining sections. The expected completion date of the Northern Access Road is mid-2022. Photo 5 – Back on the Exploration Road, the road was reopened to our first work camp, Candidito, by August 25 th on the road to Los Azules.
On December 1st, the medical services and emergency rescue teams had arrived at site and exploration drill platforms were being constructed.
By December 20th, 36 drill platforms had been constructed and 2 of the 10 exploration drills had arrived on site. The other 8 drills are expected to be arriving throughout January and into February. Drilling will start on January 4th. The first phase of our drill program will involve a 174,000-foot (53,000 m) program. It is designed to convert the Inferred mineral resources to the Indicated category, as well as to test deeper exploration targets, where historic drilling had ended in strong copper mineralization.
McEwen Copper currently has 282 people supporting the exploration drilling program at Los Azules, with approximately 85% being from San Juan. Photo 8 and 9 - The first two exploration drills to arrive at the site. Photo 10 – At Los Azules, McEwen geologists orienting the drillers from Major Drilling, with the rock conditions that they will be encountering.
Project Development Workshop
This past week, December 14th to 16th, we held an intensive workshop with senior management of both McEwen Mining and McEwen Copper and a powerful group of consultants and advisors. A total of 30 individuals well versed in designing and building, and operating copper mines, especially in South America, gathered physically and virtually from Argentina, Chile, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
The workshop started with a presentation from Whittle Consulting from Australia, who for the past three months have been evaluating various development scenarios for the Los Azules Project. Their work suggests there is considerable room to improve the economics of the project.
Companies involved in moving Los Azules to PFS are:
Bechtel Corporation, the largest construction company in America with a long history of advancing, building and developing large copper concentrators and infrastructure projects globally, including the recent feasibility study update on the El Pachon project approximately 75 km south of Los Azules; and
Samuel Engineering, who will help oversee project management, controls, metallurgy and processing plant design, is a full service multi-disciplinary project development and execution company bringing a team with extensive large copper project experience in South America, including past involvement at the Los Azules project; and
Stantec, a full service engineering and consulting firm, with offices in Argentina, Chile, and Peru, including select subcontract consultants will focus on geology, resource and reserve estimates, mining engineering, hydrology, geotechnical and the tailings, waste, and water management facility design.
Our overarching goal is to design a mine that will be the model for copper mining in the 21 st century. One that supplies the raw material to enable a greener world, while incorporating the use of renewable energy sources to have a low-carbon footprint and that uses technological innovation to achieve an energy efficient mine.
At several points during the workshop, Jason F. McLennan of McLennan Design in Seattle, a prominent figure in the field of architecture and green building movement, shared his thoughts on technologies, visions and attitudes on how mining could change to contribute to a healthy world and how lessons learned in other industries could be applied to transform certain elements of mine operations, infrastructure and facilities.
We all left the meeting energized and believing that the future of mining will be exciting, new and game-changing. For the world to make considerable progress towards a lower carbon emissions world, the world needs responsible mining to provide the materials to make that a reality.
We at McEwen Copper, along with our consultants, plan to design, build, and operate a facility, a community, that will be at the leading edge of a changing attitude in mining towards protecting our planet.
To view a .PDF of this news release click here: mcewenmining.com/files/doc_news/archive/2021/20211222_McEwen_Copper_Update.pdf
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Jan 7, 2022 5:43:06 GMT -5
 IT'S THEM OR US. TERTIUM NON DATUR. (There is no third possibility)
TORONTO, January 6, 2022 - McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) reports that it has fallen below the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") continued listing requirement related to the price of its common stock. The NYSE requires that the average closing price of a listed company's common stock be above US$1.00 per share, calculated over a period of 30 consecutive trading days. The Company was notified by the NYSE on January 5th, 2022 that the average price of its common stock for the previous 30 trading days was below $1.00 per share.
McEwen Mining intends to take steps to regain compliance with the NYSE continued listing requirements. Under NYSE rules, the Company has a period of six months to bring its share price and 30-day average closing share price back above $1.00. During this period, the Company’s common stock will continue to trade on the NYSE, subject to all other continued listing requirements. At the end of the six-month remedy period, if the share price has not recovered, the Company's stock will be subject to NYSE suspension and delisting procedures. The Company's listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") is unaffected by any actions of the NYSE.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Jan 19, 2022 10:52:22 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Jan 20, 2022 6:13:34 GMT -5
...“We’ve seen a number of majors come in and take a close look at Argentina,” McEwen said. “That in itself is giving more comfort to foreign investments.”
For now, he wants to increase Los Azules’s value by moving to pre-feasibility stage over the next year and a half. The company is deploying drill teams and building an access road, although work has been delayed by cultural preservation efforts after hitting fossils...
Copper Majors Are Taking Another Look at Argentina,McEwen Says
McEwen reports FY 2021 consolidated production jumped 34% Y/Y to 154.4K gold equiv. oz., consisting of 118.5K gold oz. and 2.57M silver oz., and Q4 output rose 29% Y/Y to 40.1K gold equiv. oz., consisting of 31.3K gold oz. and 682.7K silver oz.
McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to report consolidated production for the full year of 2021 was 34% higher than in 2020 and Q4 2021 was 29% higher than in Q4 2020. Production guidance for 2021 was achieved. Full year production was 154,410 gold equivalent ounces(1)(“GEOs”) consisting of 118,500 gold ounces and 2,572,000 silver ounces. In Q4, production was 40,150 GEOs consisting of 31,300 gold ounces and 682,700 silver ounces.
In Q4 2021, our attributable production from San José(2) was 682,700 silver ounces and 11,300 gold ounces, or 20,200 GEOs, which was in-line with our expectations; Black Fox production of 9,460 GEOs was also in-line with our expectations; Gold Bar production of 9,950 GEOs was above our expectations; and El Gallo produced 540 GEOs from residual leaching.
Notes:
(1) 'Gold Equivalent Ounces' are calculated based on a gold to silver price ratio of 94:1 for Q1 2020, 104:1 for Q2 2020, 79:1 for Q3 2020, 77:1 for Q4 2020, 68:1 for Q1 2021, 68:1 for Q2 2021, 73:1 for Q3 2021 and 77:1 for Q4 2021.
(2) The San José Mine is 49% owned by McEwen Mining Inc. and 51% owned and operated by Hochschild Mining plc.
Technical Information
Technical information pertaining to mining operations contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Peter Mah, P.Eng., COO of McEwen Mining and a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects."
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.
 |
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Jan 22, 2022 3:40:00 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Jan 27, 2022 5:44:14 GMT -5
McEwen Mining: Fox PEA – Higher Production, Longer Life McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to provide summary results from the Fox Complex Preliminary Economic Assessment ("Fox PEA" or "PEA"), which outlines a mine life of over twelve (12) years, generating average annual production of 71,980 gold ounces, at average cash costs and all-in sustaining costs ("AISC") per ounce under $800 and $1,225, respectively.(1)(2) Peak annual gold production of approximately 100,000 ounces occurs in Years 6 to 10 of the mine life.
 "The Fox PEA is an important step forward for us. It translates our exploration success into a business case that increases mine life and production rates and lowers costs per ounce! It also provides a clearer picture of where future exploration should be focused to add value.
Our commitment and investment in exploration has provided the foundation for this study, and ongoing exploration success continues to further enhance the expansion potential at Fox. While the PEA is an encouraging first iteration, continuing exploration success, improved economics, and a shorter payback period is required before we decide to advance the project.
I am also pleased that the Froome mine was successfully brought into production in 2021, is performing as planned, and is expected to continue for at least another three years while our expansion plans and drilling progress," commented Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner... Press Release Details here |
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Feb 14, 2022 1:33:01 GMT -5
McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to announce a financing to fund continued exploration at the Fox Complex in the Timmins region of Ontario. These funds will be employed to build on the business case outlined in our recently announced preliminary economic assessment (see news release dated January 26, 2022).
The financing consists of a US$15,080,000 (Cdn$19,212,500) private placement offering (the “Offering”) of 14,500,000 flow-through common shares (within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada)) priced at US$1.04 (Cdn$1.325) per flow-through common share (the “Offering Price”). The Offering is expected to close on March 1, 2022 (the “Closing”) and is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from the TSX and NYSE.
The proceeds of this Offering will be used exclusively for qualifying Canadian Exploration Expenditures (CEE) on McEwen’s properties in the Timmins region.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Feb 17, 2022 8:26:28 GMT -5
McEwen Copper anuncia Incorporación de Nuevo Directivo
TORONTO, February 17, 2022 - McEwen Copper Inc., a subsidiary of McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX), is pleased to announce that Michael Meding has joined as Vice President of Andes Corporacion Minera SA. in Argentina. Mr. Meding is accountable for the overall direction and management of the Los Azules copper project in San Juan. He will play a significant role in taking McEwen Copper through its next phases of technical studies, upcoming IPO, and development as a global model for environmentally and socially responsible green mining.
Mr. Meding has over 20 years of international experience, primarily with major mining companies such as Barrick Gold and Trafigura, including extensive experience with project development and operations in Argentina. While at Barrick Gold's Veladero mine in Argentina, he played a key role in the turnaround, extension of the mine life, and subsequent strategic partnering with Shandong Gold. Mr. Meding is trilingual (Spanish-English-German) and holds an MBA from Indiana University in Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Leipzig Graduate School of Management in Germany.
McEwen Copper Inc., una subsidiaria de McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX), se complace en anunciar que el Sr. Michael Meding se ha incorporado como Vicepresidente de Andes Corporación Minera SA. en Argentina. El Sr. Meding tiene a su cargo la dirección y administración general del proyecto de cobre Los Azules en San Juan. Desempeñará un papel muy importante en la conducción de McEwen Copper a través de las próximas fases de estudios técnicos, la pronta Oferta Pública Inicial de Acciones (OPI) y el desarrollo como modelo global de minería verde en términos medioambientales y sociales.
El Sr. Meding cuenta con más de 20 años de experiencia internacional, principalmente en grandes empresas mineras, tales como Barrick Gold y Trafigura, incluyendo vasta experiencia en el desarrollo de proyectos y operaciones en Argentina. Durante su desempeño en la mina Veladero de Barrick Gold en Argentina, jugó un papel fundamental en el proceso de cambio de rumbo, la ampliación de la vida útil de la mina y la posterior asociación estratégica con Shandong Gold. El Sr. Meding es trilingüe (español-inglés-alemán) y posee título de Maestría en Administración de Negocios de la Universidad de Indiana en Pennsylvania y título equivalente de la Escuela de Posgrado en Administración Leipzig en Alemania.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Mar 1, 2022 7:19:29 GMT -5
McEwen Mining GAAP EPS of -$0.05, revenue of $35M; issues FY22 guidance
Revenue of $35M (+26.4% Y/Y).
For 2022, our gold equivalent production guidance is 153,000 to 172,000 GEOs.
Fox production for Q4 and 12M 2021 was 18% and 23% higher, respectively, compared to Q4 and 12M 2020.
Cash costs and AISC per ounce sold for the 12M period both dropped by 21% and 11%, respectively, compared to 12M 2020.
McEwen Mining: 2021 Year End and Q4 Results
March 1, 2022TORONTO, March 01, 2022 -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) today reported fourth quarter and full year results for the period ended December 31, 2021.
Cash and liquid assets (2) and working capital at December 31, 2021 were $63.5 million and $32.6 million, respectively.
Our operations delivered production in line with our guidance. For the full year 2021, production was 154,410 gold equivalent ounces (GEOs)(1), above the midpoint of guidance for the year and 34% higher than 2020 production.
Production costs/oz for 2021 decreased compared to 2020 and additional reductions remain a focus. Cash costs(2) per GEO sold from our 100%-owned mines in 2021 were $1,453 representing a decrease of 18% compared to 2020. All-in sustaining costs (“AISC”)(2) per GEO sold from our 100%-owned mines in 2021 were $1,635, representing a decrease of 21% compared to 2020.
For 2022, our gold equivalent production guidance is 153,000 to 172,000 GEOs (see Table 5).
We continued to invest aggressively in exploration, completing 254,800 feet (77,700 meters) of drilling at the Fox Complex, and 17,500 feet (5,300 meters) of drilling at Gold Bar.
Our 100%-owned mines generated a cash gross profit of $17.3 million(2) in 2021 and a gross loss of $6.5 million. Cash gross profit (loss) is calculated by adding back depletion and depreciation to gross profit (loss).
Our consolidated net loss in 2021 of $56.7 million, or $0.12 per share, relates primarily to investment of $35.0 million in advanced projects and exploration, general and administrative costs of $11.4 million, and a gross loss of $6.5 million from our operations.
Fox Complex PEA outlined potential to extend the mine life by 9 years, generating average annual production of 80,800 gold ounces at average cash costs and AISC per ounce of $769 and $1,246, respectively.
A webcast will be held on Wednesday, March 9th at 2 pm EST. Please see the details further here
Operations Update
Fox Complex Canada (100% Interest)
Fox production for Q4 and 12M 2021 was 18% and 23% higher, respectively, compared to Q4 and 12M 2020. Cash costs and AISC per ounce sold for the 12M period both dropped by 21% and 11%, respectively, compared to 12M 2020.
Black Fox mine wound down during 2021 as production shifted to the Froome mine. We realized a milestone on September 19th, 2021 when commercial production was reached at the Froome mine, three months ahead of schedule. To date, mineralized material extracted from the Froome mine produced grades that are consistent with the resources model and mine plan.
On January 26, 2022, we announced the results of our PEA for the Fox Complex. The PEA presents estimates for a positive business case for the Fox Complex expansion project, with potential average gold production of 80,800 gold ounces per year over nine (9) years, after the depletion of the current resources at Froome. The economic analysis estimates an after-tax IRR of 21% at a gold price of $1,650/oz, and average cash costs and AISC per ounce of gold of $769 and $1,246, respectively. Additional exploration work on the Fox Complex properties will be conducted throughout 2022 to support ongoing studies necessary to advance the expansion project and shorten the payback period.
We remain focused on our principal exploration goal of cost-effectively discovering and extending gold deposits adjacent to our existing operations, that can contribute to near-term gold production. During 2021, we incurred $15.0 million in exploration initiatives at Fox. The exploration budget for 2022 at the complex is $10.0 million.
Gold Bar Mine, USA (100% Interest)
Gold Bar production for Q4 and 12M 2021 was 66% and 57% higher, respectively, compared to Q4 and 12M 2020. Production increased significantly in 2021, primarily due to improved heap leach operating efficiencies and no materially adverse COVID-19 impacts on operations. Cash costs and AISC per ounce sold for the 12M period dropped by 20% and 29%, respectively, compared to 12M 2020.
The permitting process to access ore at Gold Bar South satellite deposit is ongoing and we anticipate receiving the permit in Q1 of 2022. The initiation of gold production from Gold Bar South is planned for the second half of 2022.
In 2021, we spent $4.2 million on exploration activities, including metallurgical, geotechnical and drilling programs for a cumulative 8,620 feet (2,627 m) at Ridge and Tonkin Rooster. Delineation drilling programs were conducted at Atlas Pit, SW Pick Extension, and Cabin North, with a cumulative 8,629 feet (2,632m) completed. Delineation drilling at Cabin North and the SW Pick Extension is ongoing. The Gold Bar exploration budget for 2022 is $2.5 million.
San José Mine, Argentina (49% Interest)
San José attributable production(3) for Q4 and 12M was 38% and 41% higher, respectively, compared to Q4 and 12M 2020. Cash costs and AISC per ounce sold for the 12M period increased by 2% and 6%, respectively, compared to 12M 2020.
Gold and silver production increased in 2021 due to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions that impacted operations throughout 2020. We received $10 million in dividends from our interest in San José in 2021, compared to $0.3 million received in 2020.
McEwen Copper (81% Interest)
Activities at Los Azules ramped up in Q4, with the opening of the seasonal exploration road, the activation of two camps, the start of construction of a new all-year access road, and the preparation of drill pads and roads to support the current drilling program. Drilling started in January 2022 and there are currently five rigs operating, increasing to seven in March.
On February 17th, 2022, Michael Meding joined as Vice President responsible for the overall direction and management of the Los Azules project. Mr. Meding has over 20 years of international experience, primarily with major mining companies such as Barrick Gold and Trafigura, including extensive experience with project development and operations in Argentina. While at Barrick Gold's Veladero mine in Argentina, he played a key role in the turnaround, extension of the mine life, and subsequent strategic partnering with Shandong Gold.
An extensive team of experts have been engaged to advance the Los Azules project to a pre-feasibility stage, including the following:
Bechtel Corporation, the largest construction company in America with a long history of advancing, building and developing large copper concentrators and infrastructure projects globally, including the recent feasibility study update on the El Pachon project approximately 75 km south of Los Azules;
Samuel Engineering, who will help oversee project management, controls, metallurgy and processing plant design, is a full service multi-disciplinary project development and execution company bringing a team with extensive experience in large South American copper projects, including past involvement at the Los Azules project;
Stantec, a full service engineering and consulting firm, with offices in Argentina, Chile, and Peru, will focus on geology, resource and reserve estimates, mining engineering, hydrology, geotechnical and the design of tailings, waste, and water management facility;
Whittle Consulting from Australia, with over 35 years of leadership in the field of integrated strategic planning and optimization; and
McLennan Design in Seattle, led by Jason F. McLennan, a prominent figure in the field of architecture and green building movement. McLennan is the creator of the Living Building Challenge – the most stringent and progressive green building program in existence.
Our overarching goal is to design a mine that will be the model for copper mining in the 21 st century, one that supplies the raw material to enable a greener world, while incorporating the use of renewable energy sources and technological innovation for a low-carbon footprint and energy efficient mining.
Conference Call and Webcast
Management will discuss our Q4 and Year-End 2021 financial results and project developments and follow with a question-and-answer session. The conference call and webcast is being held later than usual this quarter due to executive site visits. Questions can be asked directly by participants over the phone during the webcast. McEwen Mining Q4 and Year-End 2021 Results
Date: Wednesday, March 09, 2022
Time: 02:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
To call into the conference call over the phone, please register here
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Mar 3, 2022 7:04:30 GMT -5
McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to announce the closing of the previously announced private placement offering (the “Offering”) of 14,500,000 flow-through common shares (within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada)) priced at US$1.04 (Cdn$1.325) per flow-through common share for total gross proceeds of US$15,080,000 (Cdn$19,212,500). The sole bookrunner for the Offering was Cantor Fitzgerald Canada Corporation and PearTree Canada structured the flow-through donation placement.
The proceeds of this Offering will be used exclusively for qualifying Canadian Exploration Expenditures (CEE) on McEwen’s properties in the Timmins region.
This press release is not an offer of common shares for sale in the United States. The common shares may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an available exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") and applicable U.S. state securities laws. McEwen will not make any public offering of the securities in the United States. The common shares have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act, or any state securities laws.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Mar 7, 2022 13:41:47 GMT -5
McEwen Mining El Gallo 2020 Sustainability Report link to flipbook Here |
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Mar 10, 2022 3:18:36 GMT -5
McEwen Mining MUX CEO Rob McEwen on Q4 2021 Results
Company Participants
Rob McEwen - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Segun Odunuga - VP and Controller and Interim CFO
Peter Mah - COO
Michael Meding - Vice President, Andes Corporación Minera S.A.
Steve McGibbon - EVP of Exploration
Conference Call Participants
Jake Sekelsky - Alliance Global Partners
Joseph Reagor - Roth Capital Partners
John Tumazos - John Tumazos Very Independent Research
Heiko Ihle - H.C. Wainwright
Rob McEwen
Hello to and welcome to fellow shareholders and investors. As you know, we've been working to turn our fortunes around. Today we're going to discuss the progress that we made in 2021 and provide our outlook for this year.
In 2021, we had a number of notable steps of improvement. We increased our production, lowered the cost, cost per ounce at our operations delivered positive exploration results along with a preliminary economic assessment for our Fox complex showing that there's a 10 year life out in front of there and we created McEwen copper to fund the advancement of our losses of this copper project.
Today on the call, a number of our officers will be talking about 2021 results and looking forward into this year. And we're going to start with Segun Odunuga. You're up Segun.
Segun Odunuga
Thank you, Rob. Good day, everyone. Our financial performance continue to improve our power [ph] at Fox Complex mine in 2021 after a 2020 mark, by the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although mostly [ph] currently imported by COVID-19, our operation -- our 50-50 gold ratio operation at [indiscernible] money to generate $10 million in dividend payments to maximum mining during 2021.
Our liquid asset at the end of the year, which includes cash and cash equivalents of $54.3 million including distributed cost of $6.3 million, investments in short term investment -- investment in short term pressure be cash equivalent of $1.8 million and precious metal inventory of $1 million. We have $63.9 million as of 30 of 2021. In 2021 we completed three financing transactions, which including a $40 million -- $40 million private replacement for the advancement of project.
At the Fox complex here in Ontario in Canada, before obtain commercial production during 2021 ahead of schedule. We are expecting that the nine will continue to deliver as plan during 2022. Also in 2022 we are primarily we'll continue to monitor operating margin by reviewing capital expeditions, materials contract, improving to our management systems, and also bring synergies to our procurement of recurring between operations through the year started, as we all are aware and know what is starting in the global arena right now, we started the year with a very high cost, which already impacting our cash for half of about $25,000.
We expect to see offset with the increasing gold price life at current gold price averaging $1900. This is something that we are expecting that the impact would be -- will especially impact us, even though the diesel price is increasing, but we expect to see offset with the gold price.
We'll be working in those in 2022 to advance the project. So this study will be accounted in our income statement our financials. So we expect to see our in statement in 2022 be impacted by spending that we are doing at Los Azules. Subsequent to the year hand at March 5, we raised $15.1 million through a flow through financing that will be used exclusively for our qualifying calendar exploration expenditure on building, on the business case applied in the PA for the Fox complex and these are all the costly things that we will be working towards in 2022.
Peter Mah
Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Segun. The three highlights for 2021 were improved production, lowering costs and advancing our pipeline of growth projects. I'll just take a moment to go through some of those highlights. For Q4 2021, consolidated production was 31,300 gold ounces and 683,000 silver ounces. So 40,150 GEOs or 33% higher than Q4 2020.
Our consolidated production for 2021 was 154,410 GEOs above the midpoint of our guidance for the year and about 34% higher than 2020. Production cost per ounce for '21 decreased compared to 2020 an additional reduction remain for the focus for this year. Cash cost for yield sold from our one mine in 2021 were 1453 representing an 18% decrease over last year and all-in sustaining costs were 1635 or 21% below 2020.
For 2020, we are forecasting production between 153,000 to 172,000 GEO of the shift into each region quickly here, Fox Complex production from in Q4 2021 was 9460 GEOs, 18% higher compared to mining out a Black Fox since Q4 2020. Fox Complex production 2021 was 30,060 GEOs or 23% higher in production 2020. Production guidance in 2022 at the complex based on a full year production firm, were flowing into the production and commercial past commercial and whole production there. We'll be wrapping up to around 44,000 to 49,000 GEO.
2021 cash costs all on GEO were 11 and 1461 or a 1% down from same period last year. For 2022, we'll just keep continuing little downward trend efforts and working improved efficiency as we advance our firm project. We also came up with a Fox PA [ph]. It adds another 80,800 ounces of gold. So again, growing our scale, helping spread our fixed costs that will add on after the firm is completed. We have about another 2.5 years of firm left. We added a year of resources in 2021.
The IRR on that project is 21% and it's got some nice low cost ounces, cash cost being up 770 and all in sustaining being around 1246. Exploration Fox well there -- exploration continues through 2022. Steve will touch on that more, a bit later. Gold bar in Nevada, our production for Q4 2021 was 9950 GEO or 66% higher compared to Q4 2020. Operations in Nevada produced 43,850 deals for 20 representing 57% increase over 2020. This was the improved production was mainly due to improved operating efficiencies and lesser material impact or sorry, no material impacts on COVID-19, no suspension of operations.
2021 cash cost and all-in sustaining for GEO for Gold Bar where 1,687 instead 1,753 deal down in 2020. Production guidance for Gold Bar in 2022 is 38,000 to 44,000 GEO. We'll continue addressing reduced costs in 2022. We anticipate placing more on the leach pad, which will reduce our glomeration costs and increasing the rom placement to about 80% from a historical 50%.
Other highlights we've changed mining contractors to new fixed unit rate contract and start proving out to help lower cost compared to last year. San Jose moving South Argentina 49% interest. The San Jose contributor production for Q4 2021 was 20,200 GEOs, 38% higher than Q4 2020, and as well for the full year per year production of [indiscernible] higher compared to a 2020. Gold ounce per production increased the lessening COVID restrictions that impacted operations in 2020.
That's it. And I'll now turn over the presentation to Steve, who'll talk about our exploration plans and results.
Steve McGibbon
Thank you, Peter, and good afternoon, everyone. During 2021, we invested $20.9 million in exploration at Fox Complex in Nevada and delivered solid results in three important projects. Those being increasing the mine life of room, completing our initial resource estimate at South West and completed initial assessments of Tonkin Rooster and Atlas in Nevada.
We remain focused on our principle goal in 2022 of one, cost effectively discovering and extending gold deposits adjacent to our existing operations. Two, drill testing, very attractive exploration targets at stock, and three, seeking to expand through still further to depth in other areas. During 2021, we completed over 250,000 feet or 77,000 meters in drilling focused on Stock and Grey Fox properties. 2021 delineation drilling at Peru has expanded the deposit further to the West. The best 2021 results from drilling was a 20 meter true width interceptive 7.43 grams per ton gold in whole 200F 08514.
2022 Diamond drilling will focus on extending mine life through resource expansion of depth. In 2021, 24,300 GEOs were produced from through [ph] and as that year end, 2021 indicated resource additions at firm and Gray Fox of some 317,000 ounces having discovery cost of less than $55 per ounce. And in addition, we released an initial resource estimate of Stock West that includes 144,000 ounces indicated and 111,000 ounces of incurred material.
The stock exploration area is adjacent to our stock mill, which currently processes from through. Drilling plans for 2022 will follow up on the 2021 drilling in plus 21202, which encountered 21 meters two width of 4.29 per ton material at Stock West and Maine. This connects to mineralization at Stock West, it will materially enlarge the boundaries of the Stock West utilization system.
Visible gold has been noted in several drills from our exploration on Stock Maine and historic stock mine. Shallow drill intercepts include 9.1 meters of 7.43 gram per ton gold including 2.6 meters of more than 23 grams per ton gold within 25 meters of surface from gold SM21024. The expiration budget for 2022 at Fox is about $10 million.
Now at Gold Bar in 2021, we completed 17,500 or 5,300 meters of drilling, which included some 8,620 feet, 2,630 meters of metallurgical geotechnical and drilling programs at Ridge and Tonkin Rooster. Delineation programs were conducted at Atlas pit Southwest pit extension and Cabin North.
The Gold Bar exploration budget for 2022 is $2.5 million and will be targeting replacement of mining depletion and growth of mineral resources and reserves. Modelling of delineation drilling at Cabin North and at Southwest pit extension is ongoing. We will focus on near mine exploration that can offset mining depletion and grow mineral resources over time.
San Jose, our 49% interest in Argentina, the San Jose mine mining is funding a pro rata portion of a $3.5 million exploration program for 2022. The San Jose property surrounds nuances Cerro Negro mine, and is host to high grade epithermal gold and silver deposits. Important areas of exploration in 2021 where San Jose and Saavedra located in the center of the property. Exploration drilling in the mine area at San Jose returned several encouraging results in 86.3 meters of 44.4 grams per ton gold in the Betania vein 1.9 meters of 14.5 grams per ton, and 342 grams per ton silver in Jimena vein and 4.3 meters of 14.9 grams per ton in gold and nearly 1400 grams per silver in the Amelia vein.
[indiscernible] is a new nearly acquired property, 70 kilometers south of San Jose. It represents a bulk mineralization target, six initial holes and 1800 meters of plant drilling for 2022 is to demonstrate continuity of high grade silver results that have been recognized on surface.
This concludes the exploration portion of the presentation. And I will pass that back to Rob.
Rob McEwen
Thank you, Steve. I'd like to now introduce the newest member of our team Michael Meding. He is looking after our material and copper. He has spent seven years working for Barrack in San Juan province, Argentina both at Veladero mine and [indiscernible]. He has extensive experience in San Juan. He lived there for seven years and two or three daughters were born there. So he has strong connections there politically and commercially. So, we just returned from a trip down to the property.
And I asked Michael to speak about that, Michael?
Michael Meding
Thank you so much, Rob. As Rob said, the senior management just came back from San Juan Argentina. There, we visited our Los [ph] properties and had the opportunity to meet key stakeholders, including South Juan Governor Minister of Mines, [indiscernible] and the [indiscernible] were all positive about our project and advance it to advance as quickly as possible.
We visited the site and also had the opportunity to drive a new access road that we are currently developing that is significantly lower than our current exploration road, which will almost allow for year round access to the sites and should help us to develop the properties quicker. We also had the opportunities to see our drill program advancing and this is an exciting opportunity as we have heard by all stakeholders that we met during that visit.
Rob McEwen
Very good. Thank you, Michael. Before starting question answers, I want to make a couple of comments; for those of you unfamiliar with the term GEO which you heard, it's not that we're employing a lot more are geologists, but the GEOs are gold equivalent ounces and in that is converting the silver ounces have come out of our operations in Argentina and some in Nevada are converted to a gold equivalent and that's what is referred to as GEOs.
Michael just mentioned the new access road we're looking at is lower. That's lower elevation and it lacks the high, our current route in there as two high mountain passes that we have to pass that are prone to getting closed because of snow loads and this new route is quite an important development for that project.
I want to say that looking forward our production for 2022 we expected the trend of lowering cost per ounce to continue and there will be a slight increase in production, but I want to alert everybody to the fact that in the first quarter, we're going to experience higher cost of COVID and was a large contributor to that, but it's contributed to a lot of companies having higher costs, but we have, it was higher costs, both in Siemens and in Nevada.
So Q1, there'll be a hiccup and cost are projected to be lower going forward for the balance for the year. There are a number of questions that have been asked and I wanted to speak to them before opening up for further questions. Cost guidance was given by Peter just now and Segun for the year. There is the commodity prices. There is some sensitivity given by Segun on oil and the offset of a higher gold price. It's a big issue, we're trading below a $1 and the New York Stock Exchange as many as you know, has given us notice that they don't like stocks below a dollar. And if within a six month period, it isn't trading above a dollar, then you face two decisions. One to accept delisting or you go and think about a consolidation.
We've had some experience with this before and each time we've entered into this danger zone, we've been able to escape it and think that we will be able to do that again. There are a number of reasons for that one, the exploration that Steve spoke about, we believe it will allow us to reduce the payback period in the preliminary economic assessment for the Fox Complex which would be quite positive because that is projected to be a nine year mine life as we know it. We have annual production of about 80,000 ounces a year or about almost 60% higher than what we're currently doing and a significantly lower cost, but it's important to get the payback done.
Two, we'll be coming out later this year with our progress at Los Azules where we'll be updating the preliminary economic assessment. We've been looking at the project going through a number of simulations optimization simulations, and believe there is a larger deposit there and a more deposit -- profitable deposit using a $3 proper price and copper is now above $4.5, so 50% higher.
We decided to the best way to develop this project or to fund the development of Los Azules was to put it into a separate company and some people have questioned that decision. It was largely driven by a desire not to issue a lot of shares in mining to fund it and it was also so we wanted to reduce the potential for significant solution in order that would be required to fund the project within the mining.
But also there is a very distinct preference by most investors for specific plays like a pure copper play or a pure precious metal play and that's why we put it out. A question relating to the McEwen Mining copper is when do we expect to close the $60 million to $80 million financing we announced last year. And we hope to conclude that -- we expect to conclude that in the first quarter of this year.
Still relevant to McEwen Mining and McEwen copper with this financing that we expect to close by the end of the first quarter, McEwen which have 69% interest in McEwen copper. There's been some people asking, well, what would the percentage ownership be following the IPO? The IPO is still sometime away, but I do believe that Los Azules represent a very valuable asset for us that we will enhance its value in its form as a separate company and it would be appear very attractive to copper investors.
As you heard earlier on, or may have, the Canadian Mining Journal ranked it as the 10th or the ninth largest undeveloped copper deposit in the world. We also at the McEwen level and McEwen mining level, we had $50 million of debt that we were to start the retirement of it in August of this year. Now we will be moving that we expect to have that pushed out by a year, taking that immediate need off our balance sheet and there's also some people saying why hasn't management been buying? Well there long blackout periods that we have to observe when we're releasing financials or any significant news of the company such as preliminary economic assessment. So that's largely been why people haven't been adding to their positions.
In terms of profitability, you should know that since McEwen copper will be a subsidiary of McEwen mining and McEwen mining being a large shareholder, the money we spend at Los Azules, a large portion of it will be reflected on our income statement as an expense. So the question of profitability will be up in the air for quite a while as we're spending money there. Operationally, our mines are generating positive cash flow.
And with that, I'd like to open it up for question and answers.
Jake Sekelsky, Alliance Global Partners
Hey Rob. Thanks for taking my questions. I think you mentioned that cost guidance was given on the call. I might have missed it. My apologies for that Rob. Would you mind just walking us through that again?
Segun Odunuga
Sure. First quarter is going to be quite expensive. I'll do it on a consolidative basis first. Cash of $1900, all-in sustaining 24.50, second quarter $1400 cash, $1850, all in sustaining, third quarter $1,230 and $1,550 and in the fourth quarter $1,200 cash and $1,350 all in sustaining. It was COVID and weather that affected both Black Fox and Gold Bar during the first quarter. And that caused that bump up and a problem in the mill with a piece of equipment also at Black Fox. But you can see the trend aside from that ugly bump in the first quarter is progressively lower.
Jake Sekelsky
Yeah, no, that's helpful and it's good to see the trend in the second half. Okay. And then just quickly at Gold Bar you mentioned in the release potentially bringing on the Gold Bar South satellite deposit in the second half of the year. Any color on development costs that you expect to incur there during the first quarter to kind of bring that comment into the mine's life.
Rob McEwen
I'll ask Peter to shed some light on that.
Peter Mah
Yeah. Thank Rob. Hi Jake. Yeah, Gold Bar the CapEx for the year is around $10 million. We're expecting to be able to bring that project on in the second half of this year. So we moved it forward from the feasibility spend, if you will. Most of that spend is to expand the heat leach pad, build the Gold Bar South road and construction and pay some big growth credit.
Jake Sekelsky
Got it. Okay. That's all on my end. Thanks guys.
Joseph Reagor, Roth Capital Partners
Hey Rob and team. How you guys doing? So you mentioned weather impacting Q1 like Gold Bar, but looking back to Q4 the grade, was you quite a bit below the first three quarters? Was that planned or was that something where the resource didn't match expectations,
Rob McEwen
Peter, please.
Peter Mah
Yeah. In Q4 we changed out the mining contractor and transitioned to core unit rates. So we didn't quite get the strip we had hoped for and ore release so things have gone well now. All the contractors fully transitioned and we expect to get back on track this year.
Joseph Reagor
Okay. And then looking at the guide for this year particularly at Gold Bar I think when we've talked about this, maybe even over a year ago, there was kind of an expectation at sometime around 2022, 2023, there'd be an uptick grade. As you guys completed some pre-stripping activities and got to a higher grade part of the resource. Has that been pushed out? Is it just not as high as maybe we'd anticipated. Any additional color you can give as far as like going forward expectations on grade?
Rob McEwen
Yeah. I'm not sure which timeframe you're referring to, but so we're still in West and obviously that mining's extended out longer than the feasibility by adding in some other opportunity or as we call it. So we've been mining some waste or, and this year we continue to do that. The higher grades will actually come with Gold Bar South in the mine plan. And we're advancing that ahead of the feasibility quicker into this half of the year on the permit is progressing well. We're expecting approval in the next month caveat though that although the Gold Bar South grades are expect to be hotter the recoveries are slightly lower.
Joseph Reagor
Okay. And then looking at MSC and I realize guidance there is provided by your partner. But, there was a pretty decent jump in both cash costs and on sustaining costs in Q4. What do you guys attribute that to? And do we expect that to continue into 2022?
Rob McEwen
Large part of that cost came from COVID? The mine was largely evacuated for a period of several weeks. There were a number of people that were infected with COVID and they came in and shut down the mine. They didn't have the product, had the expenses,
Peter Mah
The San Jose pandemic I expected that where were tally up to be, I believe $11.4 million in 2020. So significant pandemic loss delays, as Rob mentioned
Joseph Reagor
And no issues in Q1 so far.
Peter Mah
They started opening their board. We heard we've gone down. So it's improving. I guess stay guarded. We didn't see that going but things seemed to be getting back to normal when we were there.
Joseph Reagor
Okay. All right. I'll turn it over. Thanks guys.
John Tumazos, Very Independent Research
So with all these great metals prices, maybe there's a shot of selling Al or the 49% of Marina San Jose, or eventually McEwen Copper. Do you have enough confidence to borrow $25 million, maybe buy 25 million shares. If you were to sell Marina San Jose, the proceeds would be a lot more than that for example, even Al GaIo might be that much or more, might also address your NYSE issues too.
Rob McEwen
Yes, yes. We have been gathering into move some of our assets. We just haven't been able to conclude a transaction on that, but definitely that would be I think high on list would be reducing the debt or eliminating it. And with the extra funds using it on some of the area issues suggested there.
John Tumazos
If I can ask a second question, looking at the MD&A beginning around page five, it mentions reserves at San Jose. I'm looking at the resources for Ontario, it were about the same as the end of 2020, but more at Grey Fox and Stock West and less at four and what you call others or other than the first five zones.
Could you explain in the progress where the Ontario reserves the resources, excuse me, stayed the same And the documentation that Peter, Steve and the team need to do to classify reserves at 100% projects. And I'm assuming that the absence of much gross profit or net profit in current periods is not relevant because if you doubled Ontario production, the costs would fall and the results would improve if more, tons, grade, more zones, but correct me if that impression is wrong and then current results have an impact. I'm just trying to understand the reserve and resource accounts better.
Rob McEwen
Sure. I'll ask Peter and Steve to weigh in on that question.
Peter Mah
Steve, do you want to go first on re resource or I can lead out.
Steve McGibbon
Yeah, go ahead Peter.
Peter Mah
Okay. yeah. Thanks John. Lots of moving pieces there in Ontario. As I mentioned room, you know, remind a year and we kept drilling with mine X and, and added a year's resource, which really is in our mind plan. So it added to our mind planning inventory. So we, we stayed flat there on a resource reserve basis by mining a year out and by adding another year so very positive. We're and tried to do the same this year, maybe slightly less maybe 30,000 40,000 ounces targeted to add at, from Great Box and went up with some drilling around there. More focus was on stock west. And we came out with the made in resource of about 200,000 ounces and about a hundred and 85,000, if my memory's correct was in the mine plan which made the PA so although it might seem that some of the PA resources decrease they're there, they just need more drilling and, and what we've added in was what we believe were the more sure mind plan constrained ounces into the PA.
So that's why there's a bit of difference between PA mine planning and the financial models you see in there and the resource numbers and why we decided to raise some more flow through funds. They both unlock Great Box and room fuller. A full look hadn't been done I know, unintended in the past and so when we started putting mining shapes on that again, for the same reason, we thought some of the drilling or areas would require more drilling. So that might be part of the reason for some of the reductions you saw it fuller. That's really all I have there, Steve overview. Maybe,
Steve McGibbon
Maybe Peter, what I'll add to that for our 2022 plan, as I had mentioned we believe there's still an opportunity to increase further the resources that firm most notably from our drilling at the bottom of the deposit, also our near surface drilling at Stock West where we believe there's an opportunity to ultimately improve the payback period that was in the PPA and that would come by adding some additional ounces near surface approximate to the stock mine.
There's further delineation to be undertaken at Stock West over time and from an exploration standpoint, while it may not show up in resources this year, any success we have following up the 4.3 gram per ton intercept with 21 meters is going to certainly signal probably a meaningful increase in the reserve over time. A little further at depth and at San Jose, what I can at least best speak to now is the new property at San Jose proper that has veins on surface that is a very attractive bulk mineralization opportunity. And that's really the focus of a good portion of the exploration program there this year.
John Tumazos
Thank you, Steven and Peter, if I ask a little more. There's 235,000 measured indicated inferred ounces called others. And I think that might be Black Fox or Stock Central or Buffalo Anchorite or Davis and Tisdale. Do any of those four projects have resources? And could you tell us kind of which one is the biggest one in others?
Rob McEwen
Steve. Peter,
Steve McGibbon
Yeah, I'd say the biggest one in the other category would likely be Stock East which was around 95,000.
John Tumazos
The Stock East is broken out Steven.
Steve McGibbon
Oh, I'm sorry.
John Tumazos
It's approaching Stock Central.
Steve McGibbon
I'd have to go back and, and kind of do a tabulation on that, John. And certainly I could put that back to you.
Rob McEwen
In ancient times before Steven, before Peter, when Lexam VG gold stood alone or was brought into the McEwen mining, my recollection is that there are three deposits, Fuller, Davis and Tisdale and Buffalo Ankerite, were much larger resources. I'm assuming the drilling wasn't was too widely spaced in the current [indiscernible] and management just interpret the resources, smaller, pending more info drilling. Is that fair?
Rob McEwen
That'd be a fair state.
Steve McGibbon
Thank you very much. Thank you for putting up with all my questions.
Heiko Ihle, H.C. Wainwright
At that moment too, Can you guys -- can you guys hear me okay?
Thanks for taking my question for the second, right. And thanks for taking the first time too. Hey, Hey Rob do geo -- most of my questions been answered, but geopolitical rates are all over the news right now. I mean, obvious reason in, in your conversations with investors or potential business partners, do you feel you're getting enough credit for the geo politically state jurisdictions they have to have? I mean I'm thinking of Russian oil versus non Russian oil. I'm thinking about North American source uranium versus every other source of uranium. Do, do we, that he do enough credit for that? And if no, what can the analyst community and, and your Company do to maybe lead up to that?
Rob McEwen
I don't think political risk has come into the consideration for North of America -- for Canadian and American assets. There was questions and it remains about Mexico, but Mexico is a small, small part of our portfolio today. And Argentina has dominated the area of concern. I'd say about our asset.
With the recent development in Chile and Peru, in terms of the political leaning at the parties elected and the amount of Copper produced by those nations, there's been a decided shift to Argentina And it's looking better, but I think they have to do a better job of convincing investors. It's a good place.
But we have, Glennco talking about it and developing their mine. That's close to Los Zulu. You have for making a very large statement about working to develop the hydrogen green energy of Argentina. They're also exploring near us. You have London working to develop a copper mine and the same problem. So I think you need to see more of that and you're seeing some good copper drill holes that I'd say Argentina is better than the Congo, or Go ahead. Sorry.
Heiko Ihle
I, I said I would, so it's probably just about everybody else?
Rob McEwen
So I guess right now the political conflicts are just illustrating the short supply of metals in face of the demand profiles that are being constructed.
Heiko Ihle
But I guess I, I guess I -- I agree with every single word you said, but, but probably on just a little bit more, I mean, do you think that investors give you full? I mean, most fear assets are in places where you could walk alone and at night and, and be just fun. And do you think you get enough credit for them being in that state already in the marketplace? And if, no, how do you think we might be able to achieve this?
Rob McEwen
As I said, I don't think there's any concern about the location of our Canadian and American assets. There's more concern about the operation results coming out of them. And then Argentina, I think people -- Argentina should do a better job of grant and we should be doing a better job of just highlighting the types of capital investments moving into the country. But Argentina needs to be changing a few of the rules to make it look like an even more attractive time. So I would say the, Argentinian asset is receiving the largest discount.
Heiko Ihle
Got it. Okay. And then just a quick clarification in your entire model, what figure do you guys use for salary inflation for the remaining year? And, and I assume all of that is baked into the guys, correct?
Rob McEwen
Salary inflation across the board?
Heiko Ihle
Yes. Rob McEwen
Hmm. I'll have to ask Steven and Peter for that one
Steve McGibbon
Question. Great
Peter Mah
Consolidated.
Rob McEwen
It was, it was just about what inflation factor did we factor into compensation levels for this year?
Peter Mah
Yeah, I'm just. I think we were around in Nevada. And [indiscernible]do you have the, the exact numbers?
Unidentified Company Participant
Yes. Our U.S operation, we factor in 4.5% inflation rate and at current operations, we factor in 3.5% inflation rate.
Rob McEwen
Okay. Thank you, Heiko?
Heiko Ihle
Yeah, that was it on my end. Thank you all so much. And, and sorry about being muted there. Well not sure what happened.
Rob McEwen
Oh, you don't need to apologize. Thank you.
Hi Ronnie.
Unidentified Analyst
Hi, Rob. Rob. I've been a long-term shareholder and I watched the McEwen share price, five years ago in March. It was trading at $4 a share and gold was trade -- gold was trading at between $1,200 and $1,300 an ounce. Fast forward today. We're less than 90 cents -- 90 cents per share and gold is trading for $2,000 an ounce, which is very, very disappointing. I'd like for you to give some color on that.
And my, my next, my question is if you cannot improve your cash flow and profitability in the near future, would you be, would you be willing to sell the whole Company to a large or minor?
Rob McEwen
Oh, Well, depends. If you had a bid, you'd look at it, right?. I'd have to say we, we encountered some, some natural problems that were unanticipated and we experienced some Serious operational issues.
And I share your disappointment in a very large way. I think we have some interesting assets in particular, and it might sound different because you bought it as a precious metal Company, but we happen to have a very large copper resource that makes every other asset look very small right now.
And I don't think that's getting value, but as we've in the past two years, you've seen copper more than double and recently seen a lot of other commodities trying to do the same thing. And it has, it's very big size. So we're trying to bring the costs down. We're going along nicely. And then a couple of operational missteps, big missteps happened that shouldn't have, but that's water under the bridge right now. I pretty confident we're going to rebuild that, That it's testing everyone's patience.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay.
Rob McEwen
Yeah, I, to get copper going, I put in $40 million, my total investment in the Company is now $200 million. So, and trading at about half the value I paid. So not happy about that at all. And we're working to resolve that and we spoke about the cost. There's a bump in the first four order, but we're heading down and the margins will be increasing, Hopefully.
Unidentified Analyst
Yeah, I guess the share process, what really I'm looking at when a lot of the other minors they thought doubled tripled in the last four years and here we are 75% less in,
Rob McEwen
We went the wrong way.
Unidentified Analyst
Yep.
Rob McEwen
So well I think better times are coming. I see them, but It's been hard on everyone. I don't have anything further to add to that.
Unidentified Analyst
Thank you.
Bill Powers, a private investor
Yes. Hi, Ron. Thanks for taking my question here today. Just a quick question on I guess the cost going and forward what is going to be, is it the big drop into Q3 versus a slight uptick into Q4 or about a 20% uptick in 20 in Q4? What is kind of the surrounding factors for that?
Rob McEwen
Improved production at fruit in terms of number of ounces and getting through some of the a large waste removal at gold bar.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. And how quickly could we see a decision? I know improved metals prices at at stock west. I know, or going forward there. I know you're there's, you're actively drilling. What is the, I, I guess, do you need another six months, another year? Could you give us some idea onwhat the timeframe's looking like on that front?
Rob McEwen
We're exploring and very encouraged by what's going on with stock mine. We put out our initial for a preliminary economic assessment and it projected a nine year life average production of 80,000 ounces a year, which would be about 60% higher than what we're projecting for this year. It, however, had a payback period that was not attractive, that this was a six years. I think we were using 1750 on it, or what a higher gold price, I assume, shorter period, but we're, we expect that the exploration work we're doing will expand the resource space and have a positive impact on the pay period.
Unidentified Analyst
So I mean, I guess the question is you have near surface material at stock and stock west as far as looking for ways to bring that forward. Is that something, I guess, how much more before I know it's been it's been up to two years before you would go forward with a decision on construction there. I guess, is there ways to do a, a smaller initial investment to get that would, those to me would seem to be pretty profitable ounces given the proximity to the, to the mill as well as not having a, a royalty on it?
Rob McEwen
Yes, that's true. That's true. Peter, would you like to give a little more flavor there?
Peter Mah
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're very encouraged and a very astute to question. I think that's an exciting project. We have enough resources you see in the PEA to go after it now. What Robin and Steve have been talking about is drilling up higher in and around the old workings. And the host unit that stock left is, in the foot wall of stock main, the historical working.
So we're busy grilling around the old workings and around near around the new stock West ramp to try and find around a hundred thousand ounces in the upper part of the mind that we could easily access and, and, and start mining while we developed the ramp all the way down to stock west. So that's, that's the strategy. Drilling's been, been encouraging as, as Rob says, we're, very excited about that.
We've started of preparing the baseline work and the, and the work to submit a permit application. So if things work out in the drilling and on the back of that, we see that resulting in, in much less dilution of the shareholders. It's about a year to get down to the top of stock west and about a $10 -- $10 million estimate on the, on the cap to do that.
So it's, it's something we could do quickly and we're working on and hoping to bring something in the second half of this year for, for decision for maybe next steps and further advancement.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. Now that's, that sounds, I mean, I that's I mean, with prices, I think your, your base case was 1650 at today plus or minus 2000 and a way to move that forward would be, I think very welcomed by pretty much all shareholders, just given it the impact it could have and in moving things forward.
I guess the other thing I I'm blasting is Mexico. I saw that you put out some, a little news on that. Is that something that is in the cards as far as selling or potentially developing at know there is fairly there's some options that involve relatively low initial capital. Is that something that you guys are looking actively looking at right now?
Peter Mah
Yep. We're -- Hi, Rob absolutely. We're looking at each of those strategic options. There are still some folks in the data room looking at purchasing the asset. We haven't remained idle ourselves on other options.
We've identified a low capital option for about $29 million for phase one. And Stephan and team have been coordinating with ASA on a potential gold loan option to finance and build phase one. The permitting has been advancing as you may all know the, the input tailing disposal permitted, but we've also been advancing the power permits per compressed natural gas.
So we have the team there. We have two potential mills that we could achieve that low CapEx cost board. We're working on getting locations for those mills and the, and the final detailed engineering designs and all the steps that go with that that would be something like a 12 to 18 month construction period from the time we take the decision hit the go button.
So the, at the price of gold at, at these levels, you look at the robust upside case, if you will, in the feasibility, it's quite attractive. I think payback at, at, around the 1900 gold reduced to just around a year on the $29 million. So it's looking to be a really good and, and averaging 30,000 ounces of gold for the first six or seven years at a, at a cost of 7,000 bucks. So it could be a really gas generator for essentially [indiscernible] mining or, or an employer?
Unidentified Analyst
No, I, and I mean, especially if it can be done partially through a debt financing, I mean, that's a that sounds like you've put some more work on that. I mean, certainly that's a would imagine very attractive with the payback of a year. So anyway, I hope P keep us updated on all of that. And anyway, thank you for all your time today.
Mark Ellot
Thank you. Hi, Rob. We spoke a few months ago, believe or not about the Copper IPO, but quick question. Since I work for international data corporation our job is to really put names out there. And I think with your Company, do you have any ideas or plan to get more analysts or coverage on wall street? Because I think that would help with your visibility quite a bit?
Rob McEwen
Yes. Well we wanted to move the copper project forward to a degree and then communicate with the street COVID was restricting that at first, but no, that's in the plan you had ways to do that effectively?
Unidentified Analyst
Yes, we do, but that's a whole another conversation. I just wanted to see if you had plan, because I don't think a lot of big banks or Wall Street or there's not enough coverage. And I know that the future is bright with your Company. So that was my purpose of the question.
Rob McEwen
Well, there, there was some work. We were, we're working to update the preliminary economic assessment that was done in 2017 and included in that would be some of, some of the results coming from the optimization and work that's being done by Australian Company called Whittle consulting.
And they're envisioning through all the simulations they've done What appears would be larger and more profitable than what the PEA suggested. So we, we want to fine tune that and granted it's a, it's a preliminary economic assessment, but it, It shows that working at a $3 copper price, you can improve the economic by considerable degree in when you, if you were to plug in today price,
Unidentified Analyst
It's
Rob McEwen
A very attractive
Unidentified Analyst
Definitely. That's all I have. Thank you so much.
Rob McEwen
You're welcome, Mark. Thank you.
Jeffrey, a shareholder
Hey I like your thoughts since the announcement of McEwen Copper, we've talked about this that was I believe July 6th, 2021, the price of McEwenmineand may was a $35. And since that announcement has gone down a black diamond slope To the price we see today I'd like your thoughts on why the market And investors have given that a thumb down.
And Secondly, you've created the McEwen Copper and you said have stayed in the past to show the value of between mining. Why not why not sell your golden silver properties? Cause they they're just not, it seems like they're hemorrhaging money and just go full forced into the McEwen Copper and. Also You give an update on the CFO's condition And finally, what would be the de delisting date from the new, the New York stock exchange? I know those were like three questions at you, but you anyway Sure. Give some sure. Yeah?
Rob McEwen
Yeah. Well, let's start with the CFO. She had a stroke in December mid-December that led to a brain aneurysm and some brain surgery. She's been recovering well and expects to report back to work next week. Okay. You be on a, on a part-time basis.
Okay. And we're all ha very happy about that. We learned that when they went into the operating, when she went into the operating theater, the doctors gave her a 30% chance of living. So it was very sudden and very sad and but were delighted to see her recovering. She was an athletic individual and that contributed to that recovery.
So as a retired anesthesiologist, that's great to hear my question was just because anytime the, when the market or when the Company reports CFO leaving or whatever, temporary leave that always gives investors a sensible alarm. But anyway, that's good news.
With respect to selling gold, I mean, are our other assets and just concentrating on the copper if you were to look at the potential of the assets that we hold, certainly today, it would appear that the largest potential return and the longest life asset would be Los Azules. And that's never escaped me. It's always been one of my favorite assets in our portfolio because of its size and its economic power once developed.
What was important though, there were, we did a PEA some time ago and a number of majors looked at it and there were some, they said, well, there are a couple of things that we would've liked to have seen you done before to convince this, that this is a great deposit. And so they were looking at us and saying our finances were weak. We had this big deposit, let's put some low ball in there and see what we can get it.
Since then proper price has gone from $2 to now better than four and a half. And we look at well, could we finance it by just financing the McEwen mining? And I'm really not happy with the number of shares we have outstanding in McEwen mining. And John Tumazos was saying, well, let's, let's buy some back. But we didn't have the financial strength to advance our gold and silver assets at the same time as advancing the copper. So I know some people have wondered, well, why didn't I just put the $40 million into McEwen and right.
And, and you look at it and say, we're going to have to issue a ton of shares. So I thought if we could advance and I didn't want you a ton of shares in McEwen. I said, alright, if investors prefer a pure play over an [indiscernible] gold copper built let's create a separate Company and that we can get should create value.
Once we get it fully financed for a McEwen mining and it retains a large interest, it retains a royalty The suggests a 36 year life and copper 50% high and what it was, but the project was all remote.
Unidentified Analyst
Hey, Rob can with, with Moses joys from the day from day one, I guess, how were you going to develop that originally your plan before you, went into the Smith McEwen copper.
Rob McEwen
Oh,
Unidentified Analyst
You follow me on that? I mean, what,
Rob McEwen
Yeah, yes, yeah, no, it's a good question. I looked at it at first, I thought, okay, we're supposed to have gold bar and it was going to be up and running. We had a positive cash flow, surplus cash flow that it would allow us to develop.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay.
Rob McEwen
Gold bar flew into a wall, right. And we had to scramble for the last two, the years to try to repair the damage of a wrong geological model that sucked enormous amounts of cash out of our system.
So, and okay. I took on debt, believing in the projections on gold bar and said, well, I'd rather have debt and we can repay it. But in hindsight, it would've been better to do equity and not have that amount of debt on. And it's not a lot of debt, but it's, it's certainly weighing heavily on the Company right now,
Unidentified Analyst
Rob. So on those projections who made those projections with Gold Bar way off as apparently
Rob McEwen
We used this from a firm recognized geologic consultant SRK[ph] and they looked at our resources, came up with a geological interpretation,
Unidentified Analyst
Okay.
Rob McEwen
That our geologists compared with and the year after we went into production and we weren't getting the grade or the tonnage that had been projected, they came back in and said, oh the interpretation of the deposits is different. And rather, rather than being laterally distributed, it's more concentrated vertically. And that wiped out a large part of the, to we had and the resources.
Unidentified Analyst
Well, is that a screw on their part then?
Rob McEwen
I, I won't put it exclusively on it. Okay. I'd have to say we were part of the party.
Unidentified Analyst
I see. Okay. because you have wow. Yeah.
Rob McEwen
Okay. Now that, that, that just slammed us in the head and you spent all of 2020 and, a large part of 2021 trying to say, well, where'd the goal go? Is there more of it? And all of a sudden it was like, we looked at a, at a rather continuous or body and what the reinterpretation said, it wasn't, didn't extend the full distance. In fact, there's a big chunk right. In the middle.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. Cause I'm kind of learning as I go to. I mean, I've been investing with your Company since 2016, when you had no debt, you paid a, a dividend. I mean, it was only a penny, but anyway well, do you still use that Company then?
Unidentified Analyst
For projections or...
Rob McEwen
It's an excellent question. I, I believe in some cases we do, they're different areas. They're international.
Unidentified Analyst
I oh, I see. Okay. and then I know I threw something about the de-listing date got, I mean, I hope you don't have to do that and I hope you don't do a reverse split cuz as I've told you on my emails, I, I know they've been kind of harsh at times, but well, I think that'll be the, I think that'll be the last mail in the coffin. I hope. But anyway, so what, what date do we look at where, I mean, you have to get this price above a dollar?
Rob McEwen
Yeah. You have to be above a dollar for 30 days trading days,
Unidentified Analyst
Right. To?
Rob McEwen
Avoid that happens.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. So this depends on what's what, from the date, date of the announcement, what's the cutoff date and they say, well,
Rob McEwen
You know, it it's a six month period Jeff.
Unidentified Analyst
Right. Okay. So that puts
Rob McEwen
Six months from the date of notice.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. So I'll figure that. Okay. I'll figure that out.
Rob McEwen
It's into June. Unidentified Analyst
Okay. but you kind of, so you can address that.
Rob McEwen
Sure. Tell her to try.
Unidentified Analyst
Yeah. Okay. And I think, I think that's it for me. Yeah, yeah, we did get a nice, of course Gold's down 50,
Unidentified Analyst
About $50 today. I think it's under under 2000, but
Steve McGibbon
But I guess oils down. I...
Unidentified Analyst
I hear I land's going to release some oil and anyway, but...
Steve McGibbon
Hey Rob, I think that's it. Thanks for bearing with me and get this puppy going.
Rob McEwen
That's right.
Unidentified Analyst
All right. We,
Rob McEwen
What Jeff, we just came back from, as Michael said, came back from Argentina and there's a lot of excitement down there right now and we'll be putting out a PEA an updated PEA on the project. Okay. When you start doing some of the math, it starts looking very interesting.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. I just say you, we've been hearing this for a long time from yeah know.
Rob McEwen
I Know.
Unidentified Analyst
It's it's all right. Hey alright. Be safe and thanks a lot for taking my
Rob McEwen
You're welcome. Thank you.
Thank you everyone for attending. A friend of mine, Ted Rogers used to say- “The best is yet to come. I know it's been a long way”, but the metal prices are moving in the direction that are a function of the huge amounts of liquidity. That's been pumped into the system by governments around the world, the large levels of debt and low interest rates.
And that's an environment in which hard assets appreciate and value and goal being one of the most valuable of those. But copper is also moving as we electrify the world. And I think we have the right assets and the trends despite bumps and hurdles we've had. The trend is lower production costs and an opening of the margins profit margins. So thank you very much for joining us today. |
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Mar 11, 2022 6:29:15 GMT -5
 McEwen Mining Provides 2022 GuidanceMcEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to provide production and cost guidance for 2022. We are estimating production of 153,000 to172,000 gold equivalent ounces (GEOs) in 2022. Cash costs and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) per GEO sold for 2022 from our 100%-owned mines (Gold Bar and Fox) are expected to be in the range $1,310-1,410 and $1,570-1,690, respectively. At San José, production is estimated to be 69,500 to 77,500 GEOs at an AISC per GEO sold of $1,330-1,370.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Mar 23, 2022 8:41:04 GMT -5
"McEwen Mining has been a gold producer struggling with poor mine performance and high costs in recent years. With its performance starting to improve, the company is ramping up exploration while also resuming work at its Los Azules copper project in San Juan, Argentina in a new vehicle called McEwen Copper..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Mar 30, 2022 5:34:41 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Apr 6, 2022 5:46:36 GMT -5
McEwen Mining Amends Term Loan Facility and Raises Additional $15 Million from Rob McEwen
McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX)(“McEwen” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has amended its $50 million senior secured term loan facility (the “Term Loan”) to gain financial flexibility and entered into a new $15 million unsecured subordinated promissory note (the “Promissory Note”).
“Reduced cash flow from operations in Q1 has placed McEwen Mining in a challenging position which we needed to overcome. I have invested a further $15 million by way of an unsecured Promissory Note so that we can implement corrective action. It was also beneficial to extend the maturity of our Term Loan to enable us to invest in production growth and mine life extensions before debt retirement. Results from operations are expected to improve starting with the current quarter and resume the positive trend we experienced during 2021. Gold Bar achieved our production target in Q1 and Los Azules has made some important advances,” said Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner . “The deviation from our financial forecast for Q1 was caused by lower production at the Fox Complex and at San José. Loss of manpower due to COVID-19 was a significant factor at both mines. Very cold weather and equipment failures also occurred at the Fox mill.”
The maturity of the Term Loan was extended to March 31, 2025, the amortization period and certain covenants were also amended, and any security interest over McEwen Copper Inc. and the Los Azules copper project was removed. The principal amount of the loan and reference rate remain unchanged. The amendment will eliminate the need to repay $10 million of principal in 2022 and $40 million in 2023 and allow McEwen Copper to raise additional financing as well as pursue its IPO.
In consideration for the extension of the Term Loan and other amendments, Sprott Private Resource Lending II (Collector), LP will be paid bonus interest in the form of 588,235 restricted common shares of the Company. Evanachan Limited, an entity wholly-owned by Rob McEwen, and a lender of half the principal outstanding under the Term Loan, has waived any right to receive bonus interest.
In addition, the Company has entered into a $15 million Promissory Note with Evanachan Limited maturing on September 30, 2025, and bearing interest of 8% payable monthly in arrears. The Promissory Note will be used for working capital purposes and can be repaid by the Company at any time without penalty.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Apr 12, 2022 4:46:42 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Apr 25, 2022 5:43:26 GMT -5
April 25, 2022 McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to provide an update on its 2022 exploration program at the Fox Complex properties near Timmins, Canada, and at the Gold Bar properties in Nevada. The programs are focused on expanding known mineral resources. At the Fox Complex, the objective is to shorten the payback period outlined in the Fox Complex PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment). At Gold Bar, drilling is following up on mineralized trends in and around the Pick Pit, and on exploration opportunities around the nearby Atlas property that was acquired in 2020.
Fox Complex - Stock
Our Stock Property covers 4-miles (7 km) of one of Canada’s best mining addresses, the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone, which is home to a number of world class Archean gold deposits. Our 2019 discovery of the Stock West deposit and our recent exploration success in the area adjacent to the former Stock Mine have opened the potential to source relatively, near term production from a shallow depth and very close to our existing mill. The Stock property currently hosts a mineral resource estimate of 239,000 gold ounces in the Indicated category and 113,000 ounces of Inferred category, in addition to the 137,000 ounces of past production. These resources are largely within 1,650 feet (500 m) of surface. Stock is an Archean gold system, and the hallmark of world-class Archean gold systems is persistent vertical continuity measured in kilometres, allowing the very best of such deposits to remain in production for decades.
Based on previous high-grade drill intercepts, we have several deeper targets (see circled letter “A” in Figure 1). Mineralization measured by ounces per vertical metre is not a constant in Archean deposits, commonly varying by multiples as grade or volume of mineralization increase and decrease over lateral and vertical extents.
Stock Targets
Figure 1 below highlights our four priority target areas that are proximal to our operating Stock Mill. These targets have excellent potential to grow our mineral resources and impact positively the future development of the property.
Stock West and Stock East resource areas have not been fully tested. The “A” target area represented by hole S21-202 (4.29 g/t gold over 21 m) appears to be on trend with both the shallow east-plunge of mineralization coming from Stock West and steeper west-plunging mineralization observed in the Stock Mine mineralization. The Heat Map contouring shown 820 feet (250 m) below hole S21-202 remains an isolated but highly attractive target anchored by hole S19-95 (27.20 g/t gold over 7 m).
The “B” target area is located immediately below the base of the Stock West resource represented by hole S21-178A that includes 9.36 g/t gold over 3 m and 2.48 g/t over 15 m (core lengths) respectively. A further 500 feet (150 m) west, hole S21-203 intercepted 2.61 g/t gold over 6 m and 6.69 g/t gold over 2.9 m (core lengths). Precise structural controls on the Stock West deposit are yet to be determined.
The Target “C” area is at Stock East, where limited drilling has been conducted beneath a porphyry sill, the current base of mineralization. Drilling will test to determine if the gold mineralization continues at depth, as our geologists see possible.
The Target “D” area has shallow exploration targets that represent an opportunity to develop mineral resources proximal to potential Stock West development. Some 45 holes have been completed on this area since December 2021. These holes have been successfully expanding the known lateral extent of the green carbonate (CGR) unit located in the footwall to the former Stock Mine and which is also host to the Stock West deposit. Hole SM21-029 intersected 7.98 g/t gold over an estimated true width of 6.2 m within 100 metres from surface. Drilling is also returning encouraging results within the bleached mafic volcanic (BMV) unit that is host to Stock Mine mineralization.
Table 1 and Figure 2 below, summarize key results from shallow drilling in Target “D” area.
 
For a complete list of drilling results at Stock since December 20, 2021, click here:mcewenmining.com/files/doc_news/archive/2022/20220400/Dec2021-April2022_holes.xlsxOpportunity to Stock’s Western BoundaryThe 2-mile (3-km) strike length between the Stock Mine and the west property boundary appears to be a prospective trend. Holes S37 and S39, both drilled in 1964, host intercepts of 1.50 g/t gold over 7.3 m and 16.46 g/t gold over 1.5 m respectively that occur 1-mile (1.5 km) west of the Stock West deposit. This area warrants further work and will be tested this year.
Fox Complex - Grey Fox
Grey Fox hosts the largest and highest-grade mineral resources within the Fox Complex. Exploration prospectivity remains very good, with improved understanding of the deposit. The presence of the Gibson-Kelore and A1 fault zones created the conditions for the formation of the Black Fox, Froome and Grey Fox deposits. Continued exploration along these faults will remain a priority. Figure 3 shows a simplified geological plan view of the Grey Fox area.
Figure 3 – Geology of the Grey Fox Deposit Area  Exploration targets at Grey Fox planned for 2022 follows up on two exciting intersections drilled last year.
Hole 21GF-1350 returned 7.29 g/t gold over 15.35 m (from 267 m), 100 m west of Whiskey Jack. Determining the potential extension or repetition of the Whiskey Jack mineralization into the sediments or northwest along the A-1 fault zone is a priority. Other examples of some sediment-hosted deposits in the Timmins area include the Pamour and Dome Mines. For those deposits the gold is preferentially found in the more clastic-rich sediments, while the more recent discoveries of gold are found in more greywacke-rich sediments found at Grey Fox and Froome.
Hole 21GF-1333 returned 4.75 g/t gold over 25.20 m (from 378.4 m) proximal to the Goldpost Ramp (shown above in the upper left half of Figure 3). Limited drilling in 2021 also demonstrated the potential for mineralization to be hosted with sedimentary rocks at Gibson North.
Exploration @ Gold Bar
The goal of exploration at the Gold Bar property near Eureka, Nevada is the same as at the Fox Complex, which is to replace what has been mined and expand the gold resource base. There are two areas on the property where we see this opportunity, at the Pick Pit and at the Atlas Pit. At the Pick Pit, a strong northeast structural control of mineralization has been observed. As a result, several areas of open mineralization have been identified extending beyond the current pit margins (see the target extension areas marked by ovals on Figure 4). Evaluation of these targets is in progress starting with the SW Pick Extension. Core drilling conducted at the SW Pick Extension has yielded multiple significant intercepts including GBS002, which returned 1.93 g/t gold over 38.6 m (126.5 feet) from drill depths of 51.2 m (168 feet)(see Figure 5). Cyanide solubility assays averaged attractive 80.1% recovery, suggesting mineralization could be heap leachable. Assay results are listed in Table 2.  
Figure 6 - Plan View of Atlas Pit Showing Historic Gold in Blast Holes and Target Areas Two other target areas have been identified for additional drilling, including the South Pit margin to identify the Gold Bar fault extension, and the Footwall fault zone to identify outcropping mineralization indicated in legacy drilling. Systematic rock chip sampling supports the potential of the Footwall fault zone, whose possible southern extension has also not been adequately drill-tested. Rock chip samples analyzed for cyanide solubility at the Gold Bar laboratory indicate the presence of anomalous mineralization.
Figure 7 –Cross-section through Atlas pit (looking west) 
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Technical information pertaining to the Fox Complex exploration contained in this news release has been prepared under the supervision of Sean Farrell, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects." Technical information pertaining to the Gold Bar geology and exploration contained in this release has been prepared under the supervision of Kevin Kunkel, P. Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian Securities national Instrument 43-101 “Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects”.
Fox Complex drilling (including the Stock Property) was supervised by McEwen’s Geology Department. All exploration drill core samples at the Stock Property were submitted as 1/2 core. Analyses reported herein were usually performed by the fire assay method by the independent laboratories: Pangea Laboratorio (NMX-EC-17025-IMNC-2018, ISO /IEC 17025:2017), Activation Labs (ISO 9001/ISO 17025) and AGAT Labs (ISO 9001/IEC17025 certified). In Nevada, McEwen’s Exploration supervises drilling. All exploration RC samples are split and submitted to Paragon Geochemical (ISO/IEC 17025) in Reno, Nevada for fire assay and geochemical analysis. McEwen’s quality control program includes systematic insertion of blanks, standard reference material and duplicates to ensure laboratory accuracy.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on May 5, 2022 2:17:30 GMT -5
TORONTO, May 04, 2022 -- McEwen Copper Inc., a subsidiary of McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX), is pleased to provide a progress report on recent successes and future work planned at the Los Azules copper project in San Juan, Argentina.
Timing is everything and now appears to be a time for copper to shine. According to Goldman Sachs’ (GS) research1, copper is the new oil. A growth sector with supply constraints, GS forecasts that copper has only two years of supply growth left, 2022 and 2023, and an open-ended supply decline starting from 2024. They see copper playing a big, critical role as an essential component in the global push to electrify transportation and to contain/reverse global warming. They are not alone in thinking about copper this way. McKinsey’s research2 is estimating that by 2030 copper demand will be outstripping supply by five to eight million tons per year.
Executive SummaryAn Attractive Copper Development Story
As you have seen above, Los Azules compares very well to many other copper development stories, given its size, life, location and economics.
Designing for Positive Impact
Working to create a net positive impact on the world over the life of the project - McLennan Design, architects at the forefront of the green sustainable buildings movement, are assisting our team in designing systems and selecting innovative technologies and approaches for making our project regenerative. mclennan-design.com
Los Azules Is No Longer Remote!
The critical issue of road access to the site has been resolved! We have developed a second road at a lower altitude that will allow us year-round access to the site. Our access will be extended, making it safer, less expensive and faster to advance and complete our fieldwork.
Drilling Confirming Size and Grade
Additional drilling is confirming the mineralization size and grade compared to historic intercepts used to estimate the 2017 PEA mineral resource estimate. To date, the results from core logging and sample analysis are very encouraging. In many holes, drilling was allowed to continue beyond the planned length where visible copper mineralization was observed. Often, primary mineralization in the hole was still apparent when drilling was stopped due to drill equipment limitations. Hole AZ22142 intersected 419.1 meters of 0.79% copper including an interval 104.0 m of 1.00% copper in the supergene enriched zone and 46 m of 1.59% copper in the primary copper zone. Importantly, our updated geological model will reflect the sub-vertical structures and rock types that are thought to be key features controlling the distribution of mineralization. This points directly to the potential for significant mineralization to be discovered with additional drilling to depth.
Community EngagementOur sustainability efforts are currently focused on systems relating to local procurement and employment, environment, health, education, training and security. We employ a local workforce and invest in projects such as the construction of medical outposts, sponsoring education, and installing low-energy street lighting.
Bigger & BetterWhittle Consulting’s Enterprise Optimization work, which will be outlined in our forthcoming updated PEA expected in Q1 2023, suggests that both the size and value of the Los Azules project have the potential to be significantly larger than was described in the 2017 PEA. Their analysis has provided important focus and direction for the detailed work underway, including guidance for drilling programs, metallurgical test work and trade-off studies for mining, processing and infrastructure.
Link to Whittle Consulting:www.whittleconsulting.com.auLink to the Whittle Enterprise Optimization Methodology: mcewenmining.com/files/doc_news/archive/2022/20220500_copper/20220500_whittle_methodology.pdfPEA to be Updated – 2017 HighlightsThe Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) base case assumed a $3/lb copper price, and the economics were robust. Today copper is above $4/lb. Summary results of the 2017 PEA available on the Company’s website:
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen McGibbon, P.Geo, SVP Exploration of McEwen Mining and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.
All samples were collected in accordance with generally accepted industry standards. Drill core samples usually taken at 2m intervals are split and submitted to Alex Stewart International laboratory in Mendoza, Argentina for the following assays: gold determination using fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption spectroscopy finish (Au4-30); a 39 multi-element suite using ICP-OES analysis (ICP-AR 39); copper content was determined using a sequential copper analysis (Cu-Sequential). An additional 19-element analysis (ICP-ORE) was performed for samples with high sulfide content.
The Company carries out a Quality Assurance / Quality Control program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices utilising a combination of standards and blanks approximately one in every 25 samples. Results are monitored as the final certificates are received and any re-assay requests are sent back immediately. Pulp and prep duplicate sample analyses are also taken as part of the QAQC process. Approximately 5% of sample pulps are sent to a secondary laboratory for check assays. In addition, the assay lab performs its own internal QAQC checks with results available in the certificates for review by the Company.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on May 5, 2022 7:03:32 GMT -5
 MCEWEN MINING:
Q1 2022 Results Webcast
TORONTO, May 5th, 2022 - McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) invites you to join our conference call on Friday, May 13th, 2022, from 12:00 pm EDT, where management will discuss our Q1 2022 financial results and project developments and follow with a question‑and‑answer session. Questions can be asked directly by participants over the phone during the webcast.
The webcast will be archived on McEwen Mining’s website at www.mcewenmining.com/media following the call.
Friday,
May 13th, 2022
at 12:00 pm EDT
To call into the conference call over the phone, please register here:
www.directeventreg.com/registration/event/1556038
Audience URL:
event.on24.com/wcc/r/3731513/8B1AF5DA6C7E1C2409D5EB4DDF445357
ABOUT MCEWEN MINING
McEwen Mining is a diversified gold and silver producer and explorer focused in the Americas with operating mines in Nevada, Canada and Argentina. It also has a large exposure to copper through its McEwen Copper subsidiary, owner of the Los Azules copper deposit in Argentina.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on May 11, 2022 3:33:24 GMT -5
McEwen Mining: Q1 2022 Results
McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) reported its first quarter (Q1) results for the period ended March 31st, 2022.
Production was 20,850 gold ounces and 336,500 silver ounces, or 25,100 gold equivalent ounces(1) (GEOs)(see Table 1), compared to 30,600 GEOs during Q1 2021.
Average cash costs(2) per GEO sold from our 100%-owned mines in Q1 was $1,696, below our guidance of $1,940 to 2,100 per GEO. Average all-in sustaining costs ("AISC")(2) per GEO sold from our 100%-owned mines was $2,146, below our guidance of $2,340 to 2,560 per GEO.
Management continues to work diligently to address operational challenges and reduce costs, while continuing to invest in exploration and the advancement of McEwen Copper’s Los Azules project.
Our consolidated net loss in Q1 was $19.3 million, or $0.04 per share, which relates primarily to $14.4 million invested in exploration and advanced projects and a gross loss of $6.0 million from our operations.
Our 100%-owned mines generated a cash gross loss of $2.3 million(2) in Q1 and a gross loss of $6.0 million. Cash gross profit (loss) is calculated by adding back depletion and depreciation to gross profit (loss).
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at March 31, 2022 was $70.4 million, of which $35.6 million is attributable to McEwen Copper.
We completed a flow-through equity financing on March 2nd for gross proceeds of $15.1 million, and a debt financing by way of an unsecured subordinate promissory note for $15 million (please see news releases dated March 2nd and April 5th).
Dr. Merri Sanchez has been appointed to the Board of Directors. Dr. Sanchez has over 40 years of spaceflight engineering and operations experience, and previously served as the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force Space Command.
A webcast will be held on Friday, May 13th at 12:00 pm EDT. Please see the details further below.
Operations Update
Fox Complex, Canada (100% interest)
Fox produced 7,700 GEOs in Q1 at total cash costs and AISC of $1,193 and $1,729 per GEO sold, respectively. This compares to 5,200 GEOs at total cash costs and AISC of $1,262 and $1,560 per GEO sold, respectively, in Q1 2021.
The higher production level and lower cash costs quarter over quarter were primarily due to mining at the new Froome mine versus the Black Fox mine in Q1 2021. During Q1, the solid performance in the mine was offset by a labour shortage due to COVID-19, coupled with equipment failures at the Stock mill. Approximately 11,700 oz of gold was mined during the quarter from the Froome deposit, which would have resulted in production of 10,500 oz of gold if the mill had been able to process all the material as planned. Our team is in the process of implementing long-term solutions such as replacing aging equipment and de-bottlenecking to improve reliability going forward.
We announced the results of our Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Fox Complex. The PEA presents estimates for a positive business case for the Fox Complex expansion project, with potential average gold production of 80,800 gold ounces per year over nine (9) years, after the depletion of the current resources at Froome. The economic analysis estimates an after-tax IRR of 21% at a gold price of $1,650 per oz, and average cash costs and AISC per ounce of gold of $769 and $1,246, respectively. Additional exploration work on the Fox Complex properties will be conducted throughout 2022 to support the ongoing studies necessary to advance the expansion project.
In Q1, we incurred $1.7 million for exploration. Our exploration spend at Fox for 2022 & 2023 is forecasted to be $10.0 million and $15.0 million, respectively. During the remainder of 2022, exploration will focus on:
Stock property, where we expect to improve the business case for development of an underground ramp access to the Stock West and Stock East deposits; and
Grey Fox property, where the Whiskey Jack exploration target area returned high-grade intercepts in 2021, including 7.29 g/t gold over 15.35 m (hole 21GF-1350) and 4.75 g/t gold over 25.20m (hole 21GF-1333) (please see news release dated April 25th, 2022).
Gold Bar Mine, USA (100% interest)
Gold Bar produced 6,300 GEOs in Q1 at total cash costs and AISC of $2,284 and $2,633 per GEO sold, respectively. This compares to 7,400 GEOs at total cash costs and AISC of $1,865 and $1,934 per GEO sold, respectively, in Q1 2021.
Mining from the Pick open pit was 44% below target in Q1 due to mining contractor employee turnover, lower blasting productivity, and the segregation of potentially preg-robbing carbon in mineralized material which could not be heap leached; further metallurgical testing is underway. Heap leach and process plant operations partially offset the deficit of ore mined by achieving 13% higher gold recovery and 8% higher gold grade than the corresponding targets for the quarter. We are evaluating if carbon will remain an issue during the current and future phases of mining at Pick.
Near-mine exploration drilling is underway around the Pick pit with encouraging oxide drill results, including: 1.93 g/t gold over 38.6 m (126.5 ft) in hole GBSW002, and 0.93 g/t gold over 19.5 m (64 ft) in hole GBSW006. This mineralization remains open along a trend to the southwest (please see news release dated April 25th, 2022).
We received regulatory approval to amend the plan of operations to include the Gold Bar South (GBS) deposit on April 1st, 2022. We are planning to start construction of the access road and heap leach pad expansion to accommodate the expected gold production starting in Q4 2022.
In Q1, we spent $1.5 million on exploration activities. One drill rig is currently operating at targets designed to extend the Pick deposit. Drilling is also planned at the Atlas pit, where drilling in 2021 returned 3.10 g/t gold over 27.4 m (90 ft) (please see news release dated April 25th, 2022).
San José Mine, Argentina (49% interest)
San José attributable production for Q1 was 6,450 gold ounces and 335,500 silver ounces, for a total of 10,700 GEOs. Total cash costs(2) and all-in sustaining costs (AISC)(2) for the quarter were $1,589 and $2,103 per GEO sold, respectively. This compares to 16,700 GEOs at total cash costs and AISC of $1,088 and $1,328 per GEO sold, respectively, in Q1 2021.
San José production was impacted by COVID-19-related employee absences, which resulted in fewer tonnes of ore processed during the quarter. Despite the slow start to the year, the San José mine is expected to meet production guidance of 69,500 to 77,500 GEOs (49%).
In Q1, 2,050 m (6,720 ft) of exploration drilling was completed around the mine area and the Saavedra vein. Drilling highlights include 6.0 g/t gold and 236 g/t silver over 1.5 m (hole SJD-2451) and 8.3 g/t gold and 561 g/t silver over 1.2 m (hole SJD-2453) in the Celina vein; and 2.8 g/t gold and 546 g/t silver over 1.1 m (also hole SJD-2453) in the Celina Piso vein. An additional 2,000 m of resource delineation drilling is planned in Q2.
McEwen Copper (81% interest)
The Los Azules project, located in San Juan, Argentina, is one of the world's largest undeveloped open-pit copper porphyry deposits.
During Q1 2022, approximately 5,340 m (17,500 ft) of drilling was completed in ten holes, and by the 10th of May 2022 approximately 10,780 m (35,360 ft) had been drilled. Drilling rates were impacted by equipment availability, productivity and reliability of drills assigned to the project. Drill contractor mobilization of crews, equipment, and parts supply were adversely affected by COVID-19 and industry-wide shortages of labor. Steps to remedy these challenges are resulting in improved performance during April and May. Seven drills are currently active, and good turnaround time for results is currently being maintained by the assay lab. The drill program will continue in Q2, weather permitting, followed by a winter break during the months of June to August. Drilling is expected to re-start in October.
Additional drilling is confirming the mineralization size and grade compared to historic intercepts used to estimate the 2017 PEA mineral resource estimate. To date, the results from core logging and sample analysis are very encouraging. In many holes, drilling was allowed to continue beyond the planned length where visible copper mineralization was observed. Often, primary mineralization in the hole was still apparent when drilling was stopped. Hole AZ22142 intersected 419.1 m of 0.79% copper, including an interval comprising 104.0 m of 1.00% copper in the supergene enriched zone and 46 m of 1.59% copper in the hypogene copper zone. Importantly, our updated geological model will reflect the sub-vertical structures and rock types that are thought to be key features controlling the distribution of mineralization. This points directly to the potential for significant mineralization to be discovered with additional drilling to depth (please see news release dated May 4th, 2022).
The critical issue of road access to the site has been resolved. We have developed a second road at a lower altitude that will allow for year-round access to the site. Our access will be extended, making it safer, less expensive and faster to advance and complete our fieldwork.
Whittle Consulting's Enterprise Optimization work, which will be outlined in our forthcoming updated PEA expected in Q1 2023. Their analysis has provided important focus and direction for the detailed work underway, including guidance for drilling programs, metallurgical test work and trade-off studies for mining, processing and infrastructure.
McEwen Copper spent $9.8 million in Q1 to advance the Los Azules project.
Director Appointment
Dr. Merri Sanchez was appointed to the Board of Directors effective February 25, 2022. She is a Technical Fellow with The Aerospace Corporation where she provides technical and strategic advice on matters concerning civil, commercial, and government spaceflight programs. She has more than 40 years of spaceflight engineering and operations experience. She previously served as the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, as a senior executive for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and as Senior Director of a commercial space company. She received a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University, a Master of Science in Physical Sciences (Planetary Geology) from the University of Houston — Clear Lake, a Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Engineering (Human Factors) from the University of Houston. Our Board believes that Ms. Sanchez’s expertise in cutting edge science and technology as well as her experience in operations, engineering, safety, risk management and decision making for both human and robotic spaceflight makes her an asset to our Board.
NYSE Listing
On January 5th, the Company was notified by the NYSE that the average price of its common stock for the previous 30 trading days was below $1.00 per share. Under NYSE regulations we had six months to bring the share price and 30-day average closing share price back above $1.00. The Board of Directors have not approved a reverse share split and will therefore seek other means of remaining on the NYSE. Should the Company become delisted it will continue to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX"). Additionally, the Company is exploring transitioning to an alternate exchange or quotation system in the United States.
Table 1 here provides production and cost results for Q1 2022 with comparative results for Q1 2021 and our guidance range for 2022.
Conference Call and Webcast
Management will discuss our Q1 financial results and project developments and follow with a question-and-answer session. Questions can be asked directly by participants over the phone during the webcast.
Friday,
May 13 th , 2022
at 12:00 pm EDT
To call into the conference call over the phone, please register here:
www.directeventreg.com/registration/event/1556038
Audience URL:
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on May 14, 2022 3:19:01 GMT -5
McEwen Mining (NYSE:MUX) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call May 13, 2022
Company Participants
Rob McEwen - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Anna Ladd-Kruger - Chief Financial Officer
Rory Greyvensteyn - Director of Operations, Canada
Adrian Blanco - Director of Operations USA & Mexico
Stephen McGibbon - Executive Vice President of Exploration
Michael Meding - Vice President, Copper and General Manager
Bill Shaver - Director
Rob McEwen
Thank you, operator. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our first quarter 2022 conference call. Last year we saw signs of our turnaround in progress. The trends look good as we closed on 2021 with higher gold production and lower production cost per ounce relative to 2020. This year, our results have been mixed. The Fox Complex started strong and then was slowed down by manpower shortages induced by COVID and that was followed by an equipment failure in the mill. But despite these issues, Fox produced more gold at lower cost than it did in the first quarter of 2020.
An important development in Q1 was our Preliminary Economic Assessment that outlines the future growth prospects of the Fox Complex. It details a bright future for Fox with a nine-year mine life, significantly longer than what we have right now and attractive mining costs. We are confident that our exploration will result in a shortening of the payback period and an improvement in the economics. Our Director of Canadian operations Rory Greyvensteyn will be expanding on the activities later on this call.
Mining at Gold Bar, the costs were very high, and we expected that, because we are in a transitory stage of our mining cycle where there is an extensive period of stripping to remove over burden in order to reach the ore zone. Adrian Blanco, our Director of Operations for America and Mexico will elaborate on both these operation. At the San Jose mine, which is operated by our joint venture partner Hochschild Mining, COVID induced manpower absences resulted in a temporary mine shutdown that adversely impacted gold and silver production and the costs associated with that production.
Looking ahead, our partner believes that they'll be able to make up what was lost in the first quarter over the balance of the year and deliver on guidance. At our Los Azules project, we have made much progress that I believe is significantly increasing the value for McEwen Mining of this large asset. Michael Meding, our Vice President, McEwen Copper will provide you with an update.
We encountered a cash squeeze during Q1 as a result of our revenue shortfall. Then, however, I feel confident enough that the future value -- in the future value of the company to personally step up and provide the company with $15 million. We own a portfolio of assets, the majority of which are located in well-known prolific gold producing districts in areas considered exploration rich real estate and that is why we continue to invest in exploration with the belief that we will be able to extend the life and size of our mine.
We also own a huge copper project that is looking increasingly more valuable as a result of our investment, as a result of the surging demand for copper, as a result of the higher copper price and the changing geopolitical environment in the largest copper producing area in the world.
At this point, I would like to ask Anna Ladd-Kruger, our Chief Financial Officer to provide an overview on McEwen Mining's financial results for the first quarter of this year.
Anna Ladd-Kruger
Thank you, Rob, and good day everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact our operations in Q1 in areas of supply chain, labor shortages and inflationary pressures. We continue to monitor the impact of these factors on our financial condition, liquidity, operations, suppliers and our workforce.
Our consolidated net loss in Q1 was $19.3 million or $0.04 loss per share. It relates primarily to $14.4 million invested in exploration and advancing our Los Azules project. Our operations had a total gross loss of $6 million. Contributing to this was $4.1 million loss from our Mexico operations as we wind down residual completion. We expect to make strategic decisions on our Mexican business units in the second half of this year.
We benefited from higher average realized gold price of $1,895 per gold equivalent ounce in Q1 versus $1,763 per gold equivalent ounce in the same quarter of last year. Consolidated production in Q1 was 25,100 gold equivalent ounces, this included 14,400 gold equivalent ounces from our 100% owned operations, which was 4% higher than the same period last year.
Average cost per gold equivalent ounces sold in Q1 from our 100% owned lines were $1,696 per cash costand $2,146 for all in sustaining cost. These are expected to be higher this quarter. However, they did come in lower than we guided to the market in March. Liquid assets at the end of the first quarter, which includes cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash was $70.4 million, of which, $35.6 million is attributable to McEwen Copper to advance Los Azules project. A few transactions this quarter to bolster our treasury, include a flow-through of $15.1 or $1.04 per share and an unsecured promissory note of %15 million.
We also amended repayment terms on our senior debt facility, deferring principal payment to August 2023 and the ultimate maturity to March 2025 given that further liquidity this year. We also ended the quarter with the stockpile of 36,000 tons of ore at an average gold grade at 2.6 grams per ton, ahead of the mill at our Fox Complex operations. We are continuing to manage our operating margins by reviewing capital expenditure, production costs, material contracts, management systems and procurement synergies between operations.
And lastly, as most of you know, I suffer from brain aneurysm in December and through all odds, a lot of support from family, friends, McEwen Mining and the mining community in general. I'm thankful to be here speaking and I just got 100% recovered. On the back of this health scare, I've decided to retire from the Executive role and focus my time with my family and nonprofit work as well.
Thank you. And I will now turn the call to Rory from operations review at the Fox Complex.
Rory Greyvensteyn
Thank you Anna. The Fox Complex produced 7,700 gold equivalent ounces in Q1, with total cash costs and all in sustaining cost of $1,193 dividend and $1,729 per gold equivalent ounces sold respectively. [indiscernible] and a solid performance in Q1 in line with our budget. Challenges at the mill reduced our gold production in Q1, but as a consequence we not have considerable stockpile [indiscernible] that provides variety of flexibility to reduce costs in future quarters.
Our team is implementing needed upgrades to the mote to insure it is capable of processing higher are production right from the Froome mine. Moving forward, in the remainder of 2022 in relation to additional screening at the mall we'll reduce crushing requirements. This will ensure the Fox Complex meet it’s guidance for 2022. Thank you. Adrian will further speak about operations at Gold Bar.
Adrian Blanco
Thank you, Rory. Gold Bar achieved the production target for gold in Q1 at 6,300 ounces. The heap leached recovery was higher as compared to the 2021 feasibility study and the gold grade at the mine was also 8% better than expected. On the other hand we anticipated to have a high cash cost in Q1 as we began mining the Phase 2 of the Pick pit this year. These transition involved a high stripping ratio of almost six to one in the first quarter as compared to the four to one expected for the full year. In addition, we anticipated to lose a few days of production due to weather conditions in the early months of the year.
We are finding presence of carbonaceous our since we began mining the Phase 2 off Pick. Preg-robbing carbon is not suitable for heap leaching. However, we have been successful to isolate such ore in order not to affect the gold recovery. In addition, the environmental permit approval for the Gold Bar South deposit was received in April and we are planning to begin the whole road construction this quarter and be ready for mining in the second half of 2022.
We are anticipating a negative impact to production in Q2 from the ore losses to carbon. But we are planning to maintain our gold recovery high as seen in Q1 and we are also defining potential new sources of ore for the 2022 mine plan from the Atlas pit and old waste dumps, as well as advancing that readiness of the Gold Bar South deposit to begin mining in Q3. In addition, Gold Bar is implementing many actions to reduce cost and CapEx, for instance, the CapEx for the whole road construction and the heap leach expansion will be less than anticipated and our mining contractor is improving the product PBT of drilling and blasting since two months ago, which will certainly improve our cash per ounce going forward.
I will now turn the presentation to Steve, who will talk about our exploration program.
Stephen McGibbon
Thank you, Adrian. Our Q1 exploration investments in Ontario and Nevada totaled $3.2 million. The goal at each is to extend the life of our mines. At the Fox Complex near Timmins our stock property covers eight kilometers of the Destor-Porcupine Fault and includes three gold deposits that occur within a three kilometer if length that our open for expansion. For 2022 we have four key target areas near our Stock mill with excellent potential to materially grow mineral resources based on poorly tested vertical and lateral trends. At Stock we targeted near surface delineation of mineralization during the first quarter, believing a successful outcome could shorten the payback period for the Fox PPA delivered earlier this year.
The remaining five kilometers at Stock is under explored, both to the east and west of the Stock Mine. Another target is based on historic drilling that intercepted multiple mineralized zone structures with graded of up to 16.5 grams per tonne located 1.5 kilometers west of the Stock West deposits. At Grey Fox post to our largest and highest grade mineral resources, attractive exploration targets include multiple intersections, drilled West of Whiskey Jack that we reported on in our April 25 press release, that included 7.29 grams per ton gold over 15.35 meters and 4.75grams per ton gold over 25.2 meters.
At Gold Bar in Nevada, Q1 exploration activities focused on several areas. In the mine on Southwest Pick extension and Cabin North testing for extensions of the mineralization continued. The best of these oxide assays, included 1.93 grams per ton gold over 38.6 meters. Drilling is continuing at Pick. At the Atlas pit located three miles west of the Gold Bar Mine. We are following up on a hole that contained 3.1 grams per ton gold over 27 meters of oxide mineralization down dip to the east below the pit bottom. At our San Jose joint venture in Argentina, $1.7 million were spent in Q1 on a 100% basis of a $7 million exploration program for 2022.
Typical intercepts of high-grade gold and silver were encountered in multiple holes at the Celina and Celina Piso vein, and include 8.3 grams per ton gold over -- and 561 grams per tonne silver over 1.2 meters. A further 2,000 meters of resource delineation drilling will be conducted in Q2. The San Jose property surrounds Iman’s Cerro Negro mine and is host to high grade epithermal gold and silver deposits. At Los Azules in San Juan province Argentina, our exploration program has completed 11,500 meters year to date, weather permitting the drill program will continue until mid-June and then resume again in early October. This is drilling is confirming the mineralization of historic intercepts used for the 2017 PEA mineral resource estimate.
In many instances persistent copper mineralogy incurred encouraged us to continue drilling beyond the planned hole depth and is often still apparent when the hole is stopped. Hole AZ22142 intersected 419.1 meters of 0.79% copper and included an interval comprising 104 meters of 1% copper in the supergene enriched zone and 46 meters of 1.59% copper in the hydrogen primary copper zone. Importantly, our updated geological model will reflect to some vertical structures and rock types that are key features controlling the distribution of mineralization. New to our program this year geologic modeling is being augmented and with the hyperspectral scanning program of all current and available historic core allowing for a level of refinement not captured in previous work.
I will now turn the presentation to Michael, who will tell you more about our developments at Los Azules.
Michael Meding
Thank you, Stephen. The Los Azules Copper project is located in San Jose province of Argentina, an mining province ranked highest for investment attractiveness in Latin America by the [indiscernible] Institute. According to Mining Intelligence, Los Azules is one of the top 10 largest undeveloped copper project by results. With GBP10.2 billion in the indicated category and GBP19.3 billion in the first category, assessment by the 2017 PA.
Since that time expensive enterprise optimization work has been completed on potential [indiscernible] scale, lower costs and our footprint options reviewing opportunities to guide to drilling and technical workflows. In Q1 2022, McEwen Copper spent $9.8 million to advance the Los Azules Copper project, actively progressing drilling, road construction, technical studies and community engagements. Year to date 11,500 meters of drilling has been completed and approximately 13,000 meters of drilling is targeted to be completed by the end of June.
The critical issue of road access to the site has been resolved. Los Azules is no longer remote and cut off from the world for six to seven months of the year, we have developed a second road that will allow us year-round access to the site. Is the significant advance because it will allow us to advance and complete our field work faster and at lower cost. Another exciting development is the completion of the enterprise optimization study conducted by Whittle Consulting of Australia who specialize in optimizing mine design by generating and evaluating a large number of different operating scenarios. Their work focused on the following objectives. Improved value, optimize scale, minimize risk and enable fast trade off analyzes of environmentally friendly green regenerative solutions. The analyzes indicated that there is potential to significantly increase the project value. The results as their work will be included in the updated PA to be completed in Q1 of 2023.
I will now turn over to Rob. Thank you.
Rob McEwen
Thank you, Mike. We have two executive searches underway as a result of some departures, and I wanted to note that, we're saying goodbye and thank you to two senior members of our team. As you've heard, Anna is retiring and Peter Mah, our Chief Operating Officer is stepping down to concentrate on family issues and other opportunities.
In the interim we have engaged the services of Perry Ing, who is a former CFO of the company to step in during this period as we search for a new CFO. And to cover off on our Chief Operating Officer, we have a very good fortunate of having a Director, Bill Shaver, who has said that he would serve in that interim capacity and when I say we're fortunate, Bill has had 50 years in the mining industry, he was the Co-Founder of Dynetek, a very successful mining contracting firm. And so we have that covered off as we're searching for a new CFO -- CEO -- COO, sorry. There's is a lot of changes going on here. So -- and we feel very comfortable with that set up.
This concludes our presentation. But before that, I'd like to ask Bill to make a comment or two about the operation.
Bill Shaver
Yeah. Thanks very much, Rob and good morning everyone. For many of you on the call, you’ve probably heard about me at some point in your career and I'm happy to step in and help out over this interim period. Most of my background is in mining construction business and in running operations of the sites that McEwen has. So I'm really looking forward to being part of the process of engaging a new COO and also for helping the rest of the operations in any way I can. And to that extent I have now made a visit to Timmins a couple of times, also to Los Azules and actually just before the end of the year made a trip down to Gold Bar. So there'll be some visits to Gold Bar and Los Azules in the next month or so. But anyway, I'm looking forward to doing what I can to help out. Thank you.
Rob McEwen
Thank you very much, Bill. Happy to have the onboard.
Joseph Reagor, ROTH Capital Partners
Hey, Rob and team. Thanks for taking the questions. So first thing on Los Azules, obviously, it's a big part of the future value of the company, especially from your perspective, but what's the spending going to be like there for the rest of the year? It was pretty decent sized number in Q1. And I'm just trying to model out the rest of 2022.
Rob McEwen
We're entering the winter season in Argentina right now. So a lot of that expenditure we've done to date has been associated with drilling and maintaining a large camp up there. I would expect that to be less and the money that we have in the treasury to take us through this year.
Joseph Reagor
Okay.
Rob McEwen
Drilling will resume expected in October.
Joseph Reagor
Okay. So a little later in the middle two quarters and a little heavier at the end of the year?
Rob McEwen
That's correct.
Joseph Reagor
Okay. And then at Gold Bar with this carbon issue encountered, do you have an idea of what percentage of the Pick deposit might have this carbon in it so far?
Rob McEwen
It's early. Adrain, do you want to jump in there?
Adrian Blanco
Yes. Thank you, Rob. It's early to determine that number, certainly the presence of carbonaceous ore represents a concern to achieve the production for the second quarter. However, we are looking at ways to bring new sources of ore to the mine plan in 2022 from the [indiscernible] deposit and old waste dumps, so should be able to partially overcome this carbon issue.
Joseph Reagor
Okay. Thanks for the color on those things, guys. I'll turn it over.
Rob McEwen
Thank you.
John Moran, South
Yeah. Hi miss in the Q1. I've been a shareholder for about 10 years, I have 400,000 shares, I have a series of questions, I'd like to ask short one at a time. First is, are there any institutional investors buying or selling recently? I'm asking that because I'm wondering if they are taking advantage of the low stock price to get a larger position.
Rob McEwen
It's a good question. I don't have an answer for you. I can put it, there hasn't been conversation with the institutional investors recently that are saying they're buying. But you raised a good point, it's an attractive price to come in.
John Moran, South
The next one. In a prior conference you mentioned that the Q1 copper might be worth about $3 and I know there is 69% that McEwen Mining has in it. And why do you think that's not factored into the stock price now.
Rob McEwen
There are a couple of reasons. One, we just completed the second access to it. The drilling there has been some information coming out, but not a lot. And I guess more recently, there is some nervousness in the marketplace. It has been secured by some of the operating issues that we have in the gold and silver production area. [Multiple Speakers] the copper price is going up, Los Azules is getting it, the profile is growing a bit larger, it's Mining Intelligence. As you heard from Michael, it is viewed at the ninth largest undeveloped copper project in the world, not owned by a major Argentina. They're changing their tone and encouraging Mining, while their neighbors in Chile and Peru, the governments there are making it more difficult to want to invest there. Higher taxes, more regulations. It's emerging and I'm -- but I can’t explain why it's not trading and where we want it to.
John Moran, South
Next one. Now that the prices dropped precipitously, how will be the delisting affect the company?
Rob McEwen
Never having gone through a delisting. I don't know. I have to -- will be able to speculate. There are many exchanges that it could be traded on and it has the volume -- on currently has on New York. So we'll have to see. And that will depend on what the state of the equity markets are.
John Moran, South
All right. Next one, not that you are, but if the company was sold today to some another company, what do you think it would approximately sold for. I'm asking that because, I'm wondering whether since my average basis is like $1.60. $1.70 it would be worth buying more.
Rob McEwen
An excellent question. I wish I could see into the future. I don't have an answer for you. I'm sorry, John. Not that [indiscernible]
John Moran, South
Okay. And the last one is, is there any chance that the company might become insolvent or go into bankruptcy?
Rob McEwen
I guess there is always a possibility, but at the moment our liquidity is strong enough, we have assets that have value. I don't see that as a real possibility. Otherwise, we wouldn't have put in another $15 million.
John Moran, South
Okay. All right, thank you so much. I really appreciate you're trying to answer these. I wish all the best.
Rob McEwen
Thank you very much. Thank you for your question.
Marcus
Hi. This is Marcus calling in. Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. First one, you're expecting meaningful exploration spend at Fox for this year given that you've spent $1.7 million in Q1. Can you break out the remaining $8.3 by quarter for the remainder of the year? And then since we're halfway through Q2, what is the spend year-to-date, if possible?
Rob McEwen
All right. I'll ask Stephen McGibbon, our Executive VP, Exploration.
Stephen McGibbon
I'll answer that question with fairly broad strokes. So the $1.7 million spent in the first quarter is generally consistent with what would have been anticipated or what is anticipated based on our 2022 budget, which more or less [indiscernible] throughout the year with the flow through financing that was completed in March, we're now reviewing our program with the view of our plans through to the end of 2023 and that may impact planned spending in 2022 versus the original budget. And we're working through that process now and should have a clear answer on that before the end of the second quarter. I would anticipate likely looking to accelerate to some level our planned spending in 2022 versus the original budget.
Marcus
Okay. And then for 2023, the $15 million, should we just sort of break that out in terms of divided by four for quarterly spend.
Stephen McGibbon
At this point, I think that's probably the most reasonable view to take. Clearly spending is results dependent and we'll try to be nimble and be in a position to adjustments and accelerate if the opportunity presents themselves. For now I think it is [indiscernible]. Thank you.
Marcus
Yeah. And then last question. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Rob.
Rob McEwen
No, no, I didn't mean to interrupt your question.
Marcus
Okay. Yeah, one more in. Just sort of speaking about exploration spending and given all the talk around inflation, how you're drilling costs doing? Have you seen any sort of price movements given recent fuel increases? And how is that reflected in these drilling expenditures.
Rob McEwen
Drilling contracts were entered into late -- in the fall of 2021 and our overall costs in Q1 on a unit basis were in line with that. And just to throw a number out there, it would have impacted our costs less than 10% versus what we experienced in 2021. I think the greater challenge has been in our contractors being able to secure experienced personnel and manpower related, materials related issues that possibly represent of risk. But from a cost standpoint, they've been very much in line with our expectations.
Marcus
Okay, fantastic. That's it from me. Thanks for taking my questions guys.
Rob McEwen
Thank you.
Bill Powers, a private investor
Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call today. This is very informative today. A few questions, I guess as far as the closing of the second tranche of the financing philosophy, I know you had previously mentioned that you were fairly close with, I guess, into one or more parties and I was wondering what you -- where that stands and what your thoughts are toward getting that closed or I guess opening it up at a later date?
Rob McEwen
We may get to a point where we close it soon and open it up at a later date, and based on what we've done going forward. We've had a number of conversations, they seem very serious and it looked like they were about to close, but there is always another question and another question. So your suggestion or comment about closing it and saying, well, the next time we come back to the market, given the money we have will take us around for next year that -- we've advanced the projects significantly. So the price of entry will be higher.
Bill Powers
Yeah, I mean -- just as a -- an observer of this, It seems as though -- substantially more drilling results between now and it's a little unfair to -- I don't know how to get to -- to lock in the same prices, what was previously offered when -- before the spend was done. But anyway that's -- I hope you can move that forward. It sounds like, given the results of some of your neighbors, it sounds like there should be sufficient interest in that I would think.
Rob McEwen
I agree. There is some -- there have been some big drill results coming out of the province we're in.
Bill Powers
Yes. And speaking with Anna, as far as I felt [indiscernible] put out results today that were off the chart as far as grade goes. When you are -- not that you could read into the future, but are there -- how similar -- what you're doing compared to what they had done or are you guys -- familiar with what the comparison goes as far as that goes.
Rob McEwen
Well, we're not -- we're probably about 200 kilometers away from them, but with a long spine and in terms of what they're hitting. Steve, do you have knowledge of –
Stephen McGibbon
Not of the press release today, but in general terms, higher [indiscernible] lower grade, but certainly there will be significant deep results from their drilling this year.
Bill Powers
Okay. That's great, thank you for that. The second question I had is, how -- I know you recently put out some results as far as at Stock goes and how many -- and I think though it's trending in a positive direction. I guess how much more drilling is going to be needed before you could decide that these are going to be -- where you're drilling is going to be economic, is that, I guess, another six months or sometime next year or sooner.
Rob McEwen
Our PDA was before starting the Stock West deposit. It was 144,000 ounces indicated and I believe that 111,000 inferred. So we do need to do drilling, which is part of our plan for this year to upgrade and to further just derisks the resource. So we want to try to move many of those inferred ounces indicated, but outside of that, the deposits are still open. The nature of these deposits are that you typically expect there to be vertical continuation or continuity to the mineralization that we haven’t fully tested. And as I alluded to, there are a significant number of kilometers on the Stock [indiscernible] what I characterize as quite underexplored. So, to me the -- and this is just my personal feeling is that, the PEA is the first step in the journey that I believe is going to ultimately realize a long term and meaningful material opportunity for the company after the Stock property. We've got three deposits, all of them open to depth. I believe there is a very good opportunity for a fourth to potentially be identified in drilling this year, but for now the drilling that we’ve planned for Stock West deposit in 2022 should significantly derisk that opportunity for us in a position to make to decisions about the future.
Bill Powers
Okay, that's very helpful. One last question, as far as I noticed in the press release that the Gold Bar South is been permitted and it sounds like you're moving forward with the access or with the haul road. Is this going -- is the plan to have Gold Bar South produce along with Pick and some of the other pits that are already in production and/or is it going to be for production that solely come from Gold Bar South once it's up and running.
Rob McEwen
It would be for all of the areas for mining, Bill. So Gold Bar South would be working in combination with the others.
Bill Powers
Okay. And would that be additive to your current rate of production or would those be depleted down -- the others will be depleted down as Gold Bar South comes up.
Rob McEwen
As you said, we are just compensating as the other ones are going down, Gold Bar is coming up.
Bill Powers
Okay, that's all I had today.
Rob McEwen
On your comments about Cerro. I mean I just saw their results, they are quite exceptional high gold values, copper and long intercepts. I don't know, Steve, could you just comment on some of the intercepts we've been getting at -- they've been more copper than gold in that.
Stephen McGibbon
Yeah. As mentioned in the year in the presentation and in our press release last week, the majority of the holes that we're drilling and I'll characterize as in the core of the deposit. We've been drilling those holes 500 meters, 600 meters length and typically we're making a decision to start the hole, not on the absence of mineralization, but more on the kind of the progress, the drilling productivity of the driller that the progress slows too much and we decide we will start the hole for now and move on to another hole. So the nature of gold deposits are form that we expect mineralization will likely go much deeper and we will have exploration programs in the future to test that, but we've had drill intercepts of 400 meters to 500 meters approaching one gram per tonne at least in one of our holes -- I'm sorry 1% copper, I think it was 0.79% copper. So with intervals within those intercepts that are double that kind of grade, 1%, 1.5% copper or more.
So the drill program we've conducted so far this year has demonstrated to us not just that the results from the past are being validated with the current drill program, but also that our understanding and expectations for the resource in time to be able to grow much more are supported by our understanding it and the work we've been doing on refining our [indiscernible].
Rob McEwen
And there is some big differences between the locations between Cerro and our ourselves. And starting with elevation, we're probably 800 meters lower. We're not impacting glaciers, and easier to get into than some of the other copper deposits in the area, including Cerro.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Wishing you well. Goodbye.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on May 25, 2022 2:08:26 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on May 31, 2022 13:20:38 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Jul 6, 2022 7:16:42 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Jul 13, 2022 0:07:47 GMT -5
McEwen Mining Announces AGM Voting Results and Reverse Split
July 12, 2022
TORONTO, July 12, 2022 -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) ("MUX" or the "Company”) announces that it is proceeding with a 1-for-10 reverse split of the common shares of the Company ("the Reverse Split") with an effective date on or about July 26th, 2022. Notice has been provided to the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"), and MUX's common shares are expected to begin trading on the NYSE and the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX"), on a consolidated basis, on or about July 26th, 2022.
At the MUX Annual Meeting of Shareholders, held on July 7th, 2022, the Company's shareholders approved the proposal to grant the Board of Directors the discretion to amend the articles of incorporation to effect a reverse split of the outstanding common stock on a ratio of not less than 1-for-5 and not more than 1-for-10. Additionally, the shareholders approved the proposal to amend the articles of incorporation to reduce the number of common stock authorized to be issued from 675 million shares to 200 million shares.
Following the Reverse Split, the number of outstanding common shares of the Company will be reduced from approximately 474 million outstanding common shares to approximately 47 million outstanding common shares. MUX's common shares will continue to trade on the NYSE and the TSX under the existing ticker symbols. Following the Reverse Split, the new CUSIP number for the Company's common shares will be 58039P305, and the new ISIN for the Company's common shares will be US58039P3055.
MUX's transfer agent, Computershare Investor Services ("Computershare"), will act as the exchange agent for the Reverse Split. On the effective date of the Reverse Split, Computershare will send instructions (a “Letter of Transmittal”) to shareholders who hold stock certificates regarding the exchange of old certificates for new certificates. Shareholders who hold their shares in brokerage accounts or "street name" are not required to take any action to effect the exchange of their shares. No fractional common shares will be issued in connection with the Reverse Split; any fractional shares will be canceled.
Election of New Director
Mr. Ian Ball had been newly elected to the Company's Board of Directors. Ian has spent the majority of his professional career in the mining and natural resource sector. In executive roles he has been involved in companies focused on gold and silver exploration and development in North and South America as well as royalty businesses. He most recently served as the President and CEO of Abitibi Royalties, Inc., a Toronto-listed gold royalty company. He joined Abitibi in 2014 and served as an officer and director until 2021, when the company was acquired for $250 million. Prior to his tenure at Abitibi, Ian served as McEwen Mining's President.
AGM Voting Results
At the annual meeting of shareholders held on July 7th, 2022, MUX shareowners voted to:
Elect as directors: Robert McEwen, Allen Ambrose, Ian Ball, Richard Brissenden, Robin Dunbar, Dr. Donald Quick, Dr. Merri Sanchez, and William Shaver.
Ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2022.
Approve the named executive officer compensation (on an advisory basis), and set the frequency with which shareholders are entitled to vote on compensation at every three years.
Approve the proposal to grant the Board of Directors the discretion to amend the articles of incorporation to effect a reverse split of the outstanding common stock on a ratio of not less than 1-for-5 and not more than 1-for-10.
Approve the proposal to amend the articles of incorporation to reduce the number of common stock authorized to be issued from 675 million shares to 200 million shares. |
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Jul 28, 2022 3:28:16 GMT -5
McEwen Mining: Reverse Split To Be Effective July 28th
July 27, 2022
TORONTO, July 27, 2022 -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) announces that starting tomorrow the Company’s common shares are expected to begin trading on the NYSE and TSX after giving effect to the 1-for-10 reverse split previously announced on July 12th, 2022 (the “Reverse Split”). Following effectiveness of the Reverse Split the Company expects to regain compliance with NYSE continued listing requirements and remain listed on the NYSE.
Pursuant to the approval by the shareholders at the annual meeting of shareholders held on July 7th, 2022, the Company filed an Amendment to its Articles of Incorporation that served to:
(i) effect a 1-for-10 Reverse Split of the Company’s issued and outstanding common stock on July 27, 2022 at 11:59 p.m., and
(ii) effect the decrease in authorized capital from 675 million to 200 million shares of common stock.
As previously reported, no fractional shares will be issued in connection with the Reverse Split. Shareholders of record otherwise entitled to receive fractional shares of common stock will receive cash (without interest or deduction) in lieu of such fractional share interests. The Reverse Split will not alter the par value of the common stock or modify any voting rights or other rights or terms of the common stock. Except for any shareholders who receive cash in lieu of a fractional share as a result of the Reverse Split, the Reverse Split will affect all shareholders uniformly. Computershare Trust Company, N.A., the Company’s transfer agent, is acting as the exchange agent for the Reverse Split.
Computershare will send instructions (a “Letter of Transmittal”) to shareholders who hold stock certificates regarding the exchange of old certificates for new certificates. To exchange your stock certificates, you must follow the instructions contained in the Letter of Transmittal. Shareholders who hold their shares in brokerage accounts or "street name" are not required to take any action to effect the exchange of their shares.
Following the Reverse Split, the number of outstanding common shares of the Company will be reduced from approximately 474 million outstanding common shares to approximately 47 million outstanding common shares. MUX's common shares will continue to trade on the NYSE and the TSX under the existing ticker symbols subject to on-going satisfaction of continued listing requirements. Following the Reverse Split, the new CUSIP number for the Company's common shares will be 58039P305, and the new ISIN for the Company's common shares will be US58039P3055.
|
|
|
|
Post by Entendance on Aug 4, 2022 7:44:33 GMT -5
McEwen Copper
Los Azules Progress Report #4
Long intercepts with good grades
222.0 m of 0.95% Cu including 44.0 m of 1.38% Cu (AZ22158)
238.0 m of 0.58% Cu including 10.0 m of 1.10% Cu (AZ22161)
194.0 m of 0.56% Cu including 8.0 m of 1.04% Cu (AZ22163)
TORONTO, August 4, 2022 - McEwen Copper Inc., a subsidiary of McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX), is pleased to report the latest assay results from its Los Azules project, which continues to deliver long intercepts of good grades.
The drill program underway has three important objectives:
Improve confidence in the resource by converting Inferred mineral resources to the Indicated category;
Accelerate project advancement with metallurgical, hydrological and geotechnical drilling and
Test the limits of the depth extension of the higher-grade mineralization.
Results from this drilling program will be used to update the 2017 Los Azules PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment). The updated version will be released in Q1, 2023.
The 2017 PEA was calculated using prices of $3/lb copper, $1,300/oz gold and $17/oz silver price. It projected robust economics, driven by large operating margins, large annual production, a short payback period and long mine life (link to the report: www.mcewenmining.com/files/technical_reports/los_azules/LosAzulesPEA_Rev0_20171016.pdf). Drilling has halted for the winter and will resume in October when spring arrives in Argentina.
Earlier this year, Mining Intelligence ranked Los Azules as one of the world’s top five largest undeveloped porphyry copper deposits that is not already owned by a major mining company.
The opportunity to expand the deposit at depth remains open for further testing. While the median depth of drill holes within the Los Azules resource database is 175 meters (m), it is not uncommon for porphyry copper mineralization to extend well beyond a kilometer or more of depth. Numerous drill holes have encountered strong copper grades below the 2017 PEA pit bottom. Only three holes have been drilled to a depth of a kilometer and all encountered mineralization.
The highest-grade mineral domains at Los Azules are clearly the hydrothermal and magmatic breccias and late‑stage quartz veins which can extend kilometres to depth. There are numerous examples of such deposits in Argentina and Chile. The most recent is Filo Mining’s spectacular assay results of earlier this year. The Filo deposit is 300 kilometres north of Los Azules, also in the San Juan province, Argentina.
The deepest occurrence of a breccia at Los Azules is at a hole depth of some 810 m in drill hole AZ1299 and deepest occurrence of late-stage quartz veins is found at 990 m down the same hole.
A dedicated exploration program associated with higher grade domains at Los Azules has not yet been conducted. Most holes drilled to date are vertical and intersect the breccias at very low angles. Improving our understanding of the nature and distribution of the highest-grade mineral zones at Los Azules is a priority for the upcoming drilling seasons.
The most recent drill results are presented below in the cross-section Figures 1 to 4. These display the current inclined and historic vertical holes, with histograms of total copper content along their length, overlayed on a simplified interpretation of overburden, leached, enriched and primary mineral zones, and the 30-year pit shell (shown by green line), as defined by the 2017 PEA.
Section 30-30', shown in Figure 1, includes hole AZ22158, with an attractive intercept of 222.0 m grading 0.95% Cu, and including an interval of 44.0 m grading 1.38% Cu. Partial results were reported in the Los Azules Progress Report #3 published on June 23, 2022. Hole AZ22166 was stopped at the arrival of winter and will be completed in spring.
Figure 1 – Cross-section 30-30’
Section 36-36’, shown in Figure 2, received eight new drill holes during the recent campaign. The final intercept reported was hole AZ22162, which targeted the gap between hole AZ22138 (522.1 m grading 0.42% Cu) and AZ22139.
Hole AZ22162 returned 348.0 m grading 0.28% Cu, while also ending in enriched mineralization. It appears to correlate well with historic hole AZ0838 (188.3 m grading 0.27% Cu).
Figure 2 – Cross-section 36-36’
Cross Section 44-44' shown in Figure 3 presents hole AZ22163 (194.0 m grading 0.56% Cu). AZ22163 includes 8.0 m of high-grade 1.04% Cu and supports 146.0 m of high-grade 1.10% Cu reported in historic hole AZ0620. Hole AZ22167 (80.4 m grading 0.21% Cu) results are as expected and similar to the historic hole LA0402.
Figure 3 - Cross-section 44-44’
Cross-section 48-48' shown in Figure 4, profiles three new holes. Hole AZ22149 (296.4 m grading 0.55% Cu including 54 m of 1.38% Cu), drilled just west of the center of the section, was released in our June 23 exploration update. Hole AZ22161, drilled east of the center of the section, with 238.0 m grading 0.58% Cu and including 10 m of 1.10% Cu, supports historic intercepts in adjacent holes AZ1060A (221.0 m grading 0.53% Cu) and AZ18136 (194.0 m grading 0.43% Cu), all below the 30-year pit shell, indicating significant potential for mineralization at depth.
Holes AZ22147 and AZ22165 were drilled off the west and east flanks to delimit margins of the deposit and did not encounter significant mineralization.
Figure 4 - Cross-section 48-48’
Figure 5 - Locations of the cross-sections on the plan of the deposit
The Los Azules deposit is sequentially sub-divided into 50 m cross sections beginning at the southeast end of the deposit and progressing to the northwest. Section 36-36’ is approximately the mid-section of the deposit. As a matter of cross-referencing results presented in the Los Azules Progress Report #3 published on June 23, 2022, note that Section 36-36’ was previously identified as Section A-A’ and Section 48-48’ as Section C-C’. Section 40‑40’ identifies with Section B-B’ and was not included in this release as no new results have been added there.
Drilling resumes in October, and the plan is to complete 45,500 m.
Link to Drilling Results and Hole Collar Locations and Lengths for January to May 2022 at Los Azules:
www.mcewenmining.com/files/doc_news/archive/2022/202208_LosAzules/2022_08_Los_Azules_Update_4.xlsx
(alternatively see Tables 1 and 2 at the end of this press release).
|
|
E. 
