FINAL TRANSCRIPT. Capstone Mining Corp. First Quarter Results Conference Call April 26, 2017

Transcription

1 FINAL TRANSCRIPT Capstone Mining Corp. First Quarter Results Conference Call April 26,

2 CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS Cindy Burnett Capstone Mining Corp. Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications Capstone Mining Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Slattery Capstone Mining Corp. Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Gregg Bush Capstone Mining Corp. Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS Scotiabank Analyst Yan Truong Credit Suisse Analyst 2

3 PRESENTATION Cindy Burnett Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications, Capstone Mining Corp. Thank you. I d like to welcome everyone on the call today. The news releasing announcing our 2017 first quarter financial results is available on Capstone s website, along with an updated corporate presentation with summary information on the Company and our financial and operating results. Also on the website are webcast slides to accompany our commentary today. With me today are, Capstone s President and Chief Executive Officer; Jim Slattery, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Gregg Bush, Capstone s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. I would like to advise you that this call is being recorded for replay through our conference call provider and is being broadcast live through an Internet webcast system. Following our brief remarks, there will be an opportunity for questions. Comments made on the call today will contain forward-looking information. This information by its nature is subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today. For further information on these risks and uncertainties, please see Capstone s relevant filings on SEDAR. And finally, I ll just note that all amounts we will discuss today will be in US dollars, unless otherwise specified. I ll now turn the call over to Darren. President and Chief Executive Officer, Capstone Mining Corp. Thank you, Cindy, and good morning, everybody. Welcome to our Q1 call. As always, Jim will start by reviewing the financial performance for the quarter, followed by Gregg, who will give you an update on operations, and then back to me for an update on our corporate activities, following then with your questions. So to begin, we ll hand it over to Jim. Jim Slattery Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Capstone Mining Corp. Thank you, Darren. So our results for the first quarter was a net loss of $7.4 million. This included a commodity derivative loss of $13.9 million, of which $11.6 million was realized and $2.3 million was unrealized. We also had a $1.1 million non-cash charge related to the write-down of inventory at Pinto Valley (PV), and a $2 million charge for exploration, which was paid in shares. So the Q1 adjusted net loss was $2 million after removing the effect of these non-cash and non-recurring items. Operating cash flow before changes in working capital was $24.2 million. And it s worth noting that all three sites, notwithstanding the operational challenges that we had at two of them this quarter, generated net earnings from operations despite these challenges. 3

4 We also repaid debt of an additional $10 million on our revolving credit facility (RCF) subsequent to the quarter-end, and this reduces our drawn debt to under $300 million and our net debt to under $200 million. At the same time, we achieved a major milestone last week, which was a two-year extension of our revolving credit facility to April of At the same time, we rightsized the facility to meet our current requirements. This entailed a step-down to $350 million initially, and it then reduces annually by $25 million until it reaches $275 million. For reference, we re now drawing less than $300 million. We maintain the current pricing grid for the current term of the RCF, which starts at LIBOR plus 2.5 percent, and we re currently at LIBOR plus And then it bumps up 50 basis points for the last two years of the term, therefore, starting at LIBOR plus 3 percent. As we said before, we intend to use all of our free cash flow from operations to reduce debt to a sustainable level at the bottom of the cycle for commodity prices. In terms of costs, our cost per pound was high in the first quarter. And this was largely attributable to the production challenges that Gregg will speak to in a few minutes and most significantly obviously at PV. We expect this to come down over the course of the year as Pinto Valley and Minto return to full production, and Cozamin realizes the benefit from the return of the silver stream to Capstone which took place on the 5th of April of this year. I d now like to turn the call over to Gregg for our operational update. Gregg Bush Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Capstone Mining Corp. Thank you, Jim. Okay. At Pinto Valley, operational and maintenance issues dominated the quarter. We started the quarter with a major scheduled maintenance program which required the plant to be shut down for six days. The work that necessitated this general shutdown involved repairs to the tailings thickener feed distribution system and repairs to the coffin liners beneath the fine ore bins, although many other maintenance activities were completed concurrently with these repairs. The repair activities were completed without incident; however, during the start-up following the shutdown, Pinto Valley received five inches of rain over a two-day period, ultimately resulting in partial flooding of the pit bottom, with this rainfall coming at the end of a relatively wet winter at Pinto Valley. This prevented shipping of the high-graded ore planned from the pit bottom during a twoweek period. Additionally, during this start-up period, the long-anticipated failure of the lower primary crusher mainframe occurred, likely precipitated by the wet and sticky nature of the ore being fed during that period. The mainframe replacement was completed over a two-week period beginning February 25th. During the mainframe replacement, three portable crushers were brought in, which allowed us to operate at about 30,000 tonnes per day during this time. 4

5 Since the crusher repairs were completed on March 9th, the plant has operated at aboveplan throughputs, averaging just over 59,000 tonnes per day. Property costs at Pinto Valley were also negatively impacted by the contractor requirements during these shutdown periods. These included maintenance support and the contract crushing activities during the extended shutdown, and the spares involved in the mainframe replacement in the mine. Contract mining for the pioneering of the Jewel Hill pushback had been scheduled to be completed in December of last year, but was delayed in starting. This resulted in expenditures being pushed into the first quarter of And finally, low production impacted our unit costs. On the PV3 expansion, we reached a few major milestones on scheduling and on permitting the pushbacks onto Forest Service land. The Forest Service published a notice of intent to conduct the EIS, which kicked off a 30-day comment period which ends tomorrow and public meetings were held in Miami and Superior during March. Everything with EIS is moving ahead on normal course. And in addition, state permit applications relative to the PV3 expansion were submitted and deemed complete during the period. Moving on to Cozamin, production and costs were on or slightly above plan. We completed 800 metres of development above what we had planned to complete. However, while the additional development pulled some costs forward from later in the year into the first quarter, improved dilution controls and higher copper production offset these expenditures. Costs are expected to fall going forward as the full revenue stream from the silver starts in April. Met work and drilling for the zinc zones also continued during the quarter. At Minto, operation scheduling changes got slightly out of sync with our guidance on a quarterly basis. Some of these changes included the development to the Minto East ore body, which was not originally planned. These costs were all expensed, and pre-stripping cost in the Area 2 Stage 3 pit were all expensed, but produced little ore during the period. And also there was a delay in start-up of ore production in the Area 2 lower lens, which resulted in lower grades milled and forced a higher proportion of partially oxidized stockpile materials into the feed bin. Stockpile valuation was also higher at the start of the first quarter due to the makeup of the materials in the stock. All of these things will even out over the year. We expect to be back on line on an annual basis with no change to full year production and cost guidance. On Minto mine life, as I previously mentioned, we ve already begun development to the Minto East ore body. At current copper prices, we anticipate operating at least until mid This will entail mining the Minto East and Copper Keel underground deposits which are currently in our reserve base. The extended mine plan also considers an extension Minto East underground zone, and an underground project to extract a portion of the Minto North ore body that did not ultimately optimize into the open pit. These may require some additional permitting. 5

6 We are also evaluating bringing the Ridgetop and Area 2 Stage 4 pits back into reserves. Given our lower cost structure and anticipation of better metal prices, these would extend the mine life into With that, I ll turn the call back over to Darren. Thanks, Gregg. Well, there s no question that hearing from Gregg and Jim that Q1 was definitely a challenging quarter operationally. However, we re maintaining our consolidated production and cost guidance due to the following. As we heard, all the planned maintenance and known maintenance at Pinto Valley is now completed for basically the entire year, and we expect throughput to remain above plan at current levels for the rest of the year, with all the major repairs to the crusher now completed and the crusher is operating as per plan. Secondly, at Cozamin, we plan to continue to operate above budget and plan, and expect similar performance as we had in Q1 over the balance of the year. And as Gregg mentioned, Minto mine plan is on plan for the year as well with throughput and grade, and we ll have additional areas of mining that we previously thought we d be going into care and maintenance in early December will now obviously be running through to the end of the year and beyond. So that gives us some extra production at Minto. So those three factors give us the confidence that we will be able to come in within guidance on production, and obviously if we do the pounds we will be our costs will come in line as well. Some of the key points I ll reiterate; as Jim mentioned, significant positive financing action by extending our credit facility out two more years to give us the runway and the cash flow to repay the facility in full, based on current commodity prices and consensus commodity prices going forward. We did pay down an additional $10 million, taking our net debt down to below $200 million, so continuing to generate free cash flow and pay off debt at current commodity prices. We made solid progress on expansions and growth. At Pinto Valley, we ve advanced through the public comment stage on our permit application for PV3. As we mentioned, our Minto extension mine life is now at least out to And as Gregg mentioned, we ll evaluate mine plans that include Ridgetop and Area 2 Stage 4 that are not currently in our reserves, and would extend mine life beyond the We continued at Cozamin, we continued our zinc drilling and metallurgical work, and that s advancing as planned. As Jim mentioned, in early April we now retain all the silver starting April; revenue that we were previously giving to Silver Wheaton in the silver stream agreement, that s all coming back to Cozamin, so costs will drop from April going forward. 6

7 And finally at Santo Domingo, the current environment in Chile has improved considerably since the feasibility study was done. The current environment for power is 20 to 30 percent lower than the assumptions we made in the study. There are now opportunities to share infrastructure, such as ports and water, which could reduce both CapEx and OpEx. So we ll continue to have discussions with third parties around these initiatives, and we ll also complete some trade-off studies within the year to give us a more accurate description of the project in the current market conditions. And this is all really done to increase our option value on the project without any material spending. And I want to be clear that no development decisions will be made until we see a further recovery in copper prices. We re well-positioned to take advantage of the improved copper prices this year, and also we have obviously large leverage to copper prices. We ll enter the second half of the year with approximately 50 percent of our production not subject to either hedging or any price collars. So in closing, we re confident that we will be within our 2017 guidance based upon how our operations are currently operating. We ve reduced debt by $10 million, and expect further debt reductions throughout this year. We ve eliminated any short-term financing risk by extending our credit facility out to And we re looking forward to an increased mine life at Minto, which increases the asset value of the Company beyond this year, obviously, with operating. So the two things I want to leave you with to make sure you have clear in your minds today on the call is, one, maintenance is completed at Pinto Valley. Pinto Valley is running according to plan. And the crusher was really a one-off incident, and we re confident we ll be able to run as per plan for the rest of the year. And two, Minto is not shutting down, or going on care and maintenance any time in the near future. Operator, thank you. That concludes our prepared remarks, and we re now prepared to take questions from the floor. Q&A Scotiabank Hi. Good morning, everybody. Couple of questions; first of all, Jim, in terms of the new credit facility, are there any required prepayments on this? Or is it just that the maximum steps down every year? Jim Slattery Just the maximum steps down. Basically it s the exact same agreement as we currently have just with two years tacked on and the reduction in the facility and the change in the rates in the last two years. 7

8 Okay. And then you can With excess cash flow you can just pay this down early? Jim Slattery Yeah. If we like. Okay. Jim Slattery And we ll have the option of permanently reducing and saving on the standby fees or not, depending on what our requirements are going to be. Okay. That s perfect. And then in terms of Minto, it sounds like you re leaning towards keeping it open beyond this year. Can you give us an idea of what the production profile would look like beyond this year at Minto? And kind of what sort of sustaining capital or kind of what the economics look like beyond 2017? Gregg Bush Well, I think the production profile for at least for the next two years would look very similar to this year and the cost as well. The all-in costs that we anticipate from each of the underground ore bodies that I mentioned is all kind of in the same high $1.80 to mid-$1.90 range. The open pit pieces, if we bring those in, would obviously be higher cost. Jim Slattery Orest, to be clear, that that s all-in costs; includes all sustaining capital. Okay. So that s all-in; would be similar production, similar costs. And just so I m clear, have you like are you formally saying you re keeping it open now? Or is that still just an option at this point? No, Orest. We re formally saying that we re keeping it We re going to keep running beyond this year. And the reason why we get a bit tricky not tricky, but a bit unclear is because there s some deposits that need permitting and some deposits that don t, and we need to understand how to sequence the mine plan. But we have enough reserves based on obviously commodity prices, as everything is, that we will operate through to And if we bring in additional reserves that we d previously taken out due to low copper prices, we d be going for potentially a couple more years beyond that. So yes, we re clearly operating beyond 17 as of now. Okay. And any ore for next year, is that already permitted? Where does the permitting issue kick in for the time line? 8

9 Gregg Bush Yeah. It s all I mentioned two ore bodies: the Minto East extension and an underground extension on the Minto North ore body. And I want to clarify they may require additional permitting. I don t necessarily think they do require permitting. And certainly we have a precedent, if you recall the M-Zone in Area 2 we think all it will require is an operating amendment to our quartz mining licence. But until we get through all the evaluation and comment from stakeholders, we won t know for sure. Okay. Thank you very much. But to be clear, Orest, the stuff we re going to be mining next year is not subject to permitting. There s nothing holding us back in 18 from mining, or 19 for that matter. Great. Gregg Bush Yeah. That s correct. Thank you. Yan Truong Credit Suisse Thank you for taking my questions. Just two quick questions on Minto again, if I may. Firstly, what is the up-front incremental capital that s required in 17, whether that s expensed or capitalized in preparation of production in 18 and 19? And my second question is, given the higher all-in cost nature at Minto, would you ever consider hedging out that production at today s prices? Or are you comfortable with the full exposure? Thank you. Gregg Bush Yeah. Well, so 2017 we would expect to see some additional development costs. We hadn t really our current mine plan would have us actually producing some ore from the Minto East zone before the end of the year; we re just expensing those costs. So we don t expect it to have any impact on the cash costs for the year. There ll be enough additional production coming from that zone to offset the additional development costs that are incurred during the year. And those costs are, I would say, under $5 million all together, the the lateral development and the raises to get the area into production. Yan Truong Perfect. And just the second part of your question, Yan, is currently we re not contemplating any hedging around Minto. We like the we feel good about the copper market, the environment going 9

10 forward over the next short to medium term. So we re not currently looking at hedging any more copper that s not already out there and booked for this year. Yan Truong Understood. Thank you. Very helpful. Operator Thank you. And at this time we have no further questions. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Pylot. Thank you. And thank you, everybody, for joining us today. And as always, please don t hesitate to contact us for any additional questions or comments that you may have. Thank you. 10