Mitch Krebs
Analyst · Vertical Research Partners. Please go ahead
Thanks, Paul. Joining me on the line are Tom Whelan and Terry Smith, along with several other members of the management team. Before discussing the quarter, I'd like to provide a brief COVID-19 update. Since early March, our two objectives for navigating through the impacts of this global pandemic have been to protect the health and well-being of our fellow employees, their families, our contractors, and our communities where we operate and to ensure the continuity of our business operations as best we can. To date, we have had no positive COVID 19 cases anywhere in the company. Early last month we put a series of controls and procedures in place, focused on controlling and limiting access to our operations, thoroughly screening employees and visitors and reducing exposure and transmission risk through a range of social distancing protocols and sanitizing and cleaning procedures. Office employees are all working from home and nonessential travel has been eliminated. We are continually reassessing these procedures as the situation evolves, and as we gain additional information. The level of engagement, support and outreach by our employees to the communities in Western South Dakota, Northern Nevada, Southeast Alaska, Chihuahua Mexico and British Columbia, has been truly inspiring. Slides 15 through 17 highlights several of the efforts being made by our employees. In terms of business continuity our three U. S. assets remain in operation with minimal adjustments or disruptions. Our Palmarejo mine suspended operating and exploration activities in accordance with the decree issued by Mexico in late March. Our Silvertip operation in British Columbia safety suspended mining and processing activities just ahead of the COVID-19 outbreak, and all ongoing site activities along with our drilling program are continuing there. We remain in close contact with our suppliers and with our smelter and refinery customers, and we have not experienced any significant disruptions to-date. Like many companies, we've taken steps to increase our frequency and methods of communication, bolster our liquidity levels and be as prepared as possible for a wide range of potential scenarios going forward. Overall, I think our strategy is serving us well during these unprecedented times. Our focus on operating a balanced portfolio of assets located in North America with a particular focus on the U. S. is helping us reduce our overall risk profile. Our shift over the past several years towards more gold and less silver has removed a significant amount of volatility and has us well positioned for the current environment. Our collection of organic growth projects offers investors compelling near, medium and long-term growth and our commitment to a higher sustained level of exploration, particularly near our existing assets, provides our stock holders with exposure to the upside potential associated with new discoveries and to opportunities for high return mine life extensions from successful reserve and resource growth. And finally, our U. S. listing and location as well as our liquidity and access to capital are key differentiators, especially during times like this. Now turning to our results. Overall, the quarter was in line with our expectations, mostly due to strong performances from Palmarejo and our Kensington gold mine in Alaska. Those two operations offset a lighter quarter from both Wharf and Rochester as anticipated, both of which are expected to deliver stronger results during the remainder of the year. I mentioned our collection of growth projects, the two most impactful near term opportunities are the expansion of Rochester and a potential restart of Silvertip. At Rochester, we achieved a major milestone on schedule for the POA 11 expansion project when we received the record of decision from the Bureau of Land Management last month. We plan to accelerate work later this year and complete this important project by late 2022. We are also on track the issue an updated technical report in the fourth quarter, incorporating an updated capital estimate, optimized mine plan and economic analysis. And at Silvertip, a pre-feasibility study for a potential mill expansion is now underway and we expect to have some results in mid year. The drilling program at Silvertip kicked off last month and we remain optimistic about what this program will deliver. And finally, speaking of exploration other key elements of our 2020 exploration program the largest in our company’s 92 year history are off to good starts. The bulk of our near mine exploration investment during the first quarter went to Palmarejo and Kensington, while our single largest allocation of resource expansion drilling went to the Sterling and Crown deposits in Southern Nevada. We plan to provide a mid year exploration update later this year, given the size and importance of these programs for the company. And with that, I’ll go ahead and turn it over to Terry.