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Transcript
OP
Operator
Operator
Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Equinox Gold Third Quarter 2020 Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the conference over to Rhylin Bailie, Vice President, Investor Relations for Equinox Gold. Please go ahead.
RB
Rhylin Bailie
Analyst
Thank you very much, and thank you very much, everybody, for joining us on the call this morning. We will, of course, be making a number of forward-looking statements today. So please do take the time to visit our continuous disclosure documents on our website, on SEDAR and on EDGAR. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Christian Milau, for opening remarks.
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Thanks, Rhylin, and welcome, everyone, today to our third quarter results webcast. Heck of a day Friday and today. And certainly, the world is not a dull place, so stay tuned. We had a very solid quarter overall in quarter three and pleased to present that to you today starting on Slide 3 here. And our health and safety record, again, for the quarter was very good and strong. We had two lost-time injuries in over 3 million hours worked, so good performance again by the team. In terms of COVID impacts, there were no COVID-related restrictions during the quarter, so all the mines did operate. Quarter 2 is when we had our disruptions. Los Filos was ramping up during the first part of this quarter, quarter three. And we've really put in place a strong protocol. We've been proactively testing in each of our sites or even instituting labs where needed or accessing private labs, so we can make sure that we're proactively testing our workforce. And we've seen the case load come down very significantly. Both Ross, Doug and I had a chance to visit most of the operating mines, actually, in the last few weeks here. So we were very pleased with the protocols we saw in place. And the teams have really stepped up and operate in a very safe and positive manner during this difficult operating environment. And in terms of the operating results, we sold 128,000 ounces and produced just under 125,000 ounces, a very respectable quarter, considering we didn't have any production from Los Filos in September. And as alluded to in the press release, all the mines were operating in line with guidance, except for Los Filos. Los Filos was temporarily suspended due to a community blockade, which we announced in early…
PH
Peter Hardie
Analyst
Thanks, Christian. So we're moving to Slide 4, where we highlight our Q3 financial results. Despite the issues at Los Filos, Equinox had a strong financial quarter, saw it exceed its Q2 results on virtually every financial metric, including revenue, earnings from mine operations, profitability and cash flow. Revenue for the quarter was $244 million on the sale of 128,000 ounces of gold, which is an increase of almost $30 million over Q2 revenues, and the key driver for the company's financial performance, gold price. We had an average realized price per ounce in Q3 of about $1,900, an increase of almost $190 over Q2's $1,712 an ounce. Earnings from mine operations for the quarter were $98 million. EBITDA, $71 million and, on an adjusted basis, $99 million. We improved our profitability. We had income of $12 million and, on an adjusted basis, $39 million. This translates to earnings per share of $0.05 and $0.16 on an adjusted basis. We also had good cash flow. Cash flow from operations before changes in working capital was $90 million. That's $1 million a day. In Q2, it was $61 million. So that's a strong performance by the company for the quarter. And those strong financial operating results for Q3 further strengthened our balance sheet. As of September 30, we had $311 million in cash, and that's after paying down $200 million on the revolving credit facility. It leaves the company with over $500 million in liquidity. Net debt was $232 million at the end of the quarter, and that includes convertible notes that are well in-the-money, with an average exercise price of $6.50 a share. If you assume those notes are converted to shares, as of September 30, we actually have a net cash position of $22 million. Our investments are also…
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. Thanks, Peter. I just want to walk everyone through each of the mines briefly here and give you a flavor for what we've seen and what we plan to See in upcoming near term here. So starting with Los Filos on Slide 6. We suspended for quarter 2 due to the government restrictions and COVID. It was ramping up in July and August. And then we obviously went on to suspension on September 3. So it's been down for almost maybe just over 6 months this year. And I just want to give you a bit of color on the situation at Los Filos here. So as announced on September 4, mining activities have been suspended since the 3rd as a result of a blockade by members of the Carrizalillo community, 1 of the 3 primary communities that we draw our workforce from. We had a land access agreement and social collaboration agreement in place, both of which were signed last year and will run until 2025. But the community is now asking for increase to their benefits under the social collaboration agreement and more control over employment and contracts. We continue to have regular and respectful meetings with the community to understand and discuss the grievances and concerns that they've raised. Unfortunately, to date, the blockade is still in place. We continue to seek a resolution to the blockade, so Los Filos can resume normal operations and continue to provide substantial benefits to all its stakeholders. We really are seeking a long-term solution here, not a quick fix. It does not affect our ability to operate effectively and meet all our health, safety and governance obligations. And as background here, just to remember, Los Filos is a significant employer and economic contributor in the region, employing almost 2,000…
DR
Douglas Reddy
Analyst
Thank you, Christian. If we can go to Page 11. Santa Luz has a construction period of 14 months, with first gold scheduled for Q1 of 2022. The project will involve mining 1.3 million ounces in reserves at a grade of just over 1.3 grams per tonne. That will be mined by open pit using contractor mining. The strip ratio is 4.7:1, and we'll be mining at 7,400 tonnes a day. That's about 15.5 million tonnes per year for total of ore and waste. Looking at the base case of $1,500 per ounce, average gold production for the first 5 years is just over 110,000 ounces per year and average annual gold production of 95,000 ounces per year. Gold recovery is net - is 84% and the initial mine life 9.5 years, initial CapEx $103 million. And our cash cost will be $776 per ounce and an all-in-sustaining cost life of mine of $877 per ounce. The after-tax NPV at 5% discount is $305 million. And at $1,800 per ounce, it would be $475 million. And the IRR after tax is 58% or 85% at $1,800 per ounce. And the payback period is 1.6 years. Going to Slide 12. This is a brownfields project, therefore, we do have a low initial capital, with the majority of infrastructure already in place. So that includes grid power, there's 138kv power line coming into site. And we have tailings storage facility and water storage facility already in existence at the site as well as a CIL plant. So the plant alterations and the CapEx total $37.5 million to convert the plant from CIL to resin-in-leach. We will be doing a tailings and water storage facility raise this year. So at $7.5 million and pre-stripping of $20 million, it totals up to $103 million…
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. Thanks, Doug. Just concluding on Slide 16, focusing on our near-term catalysts. So obviously, a number of things have been achieved this year, and are really looking to see the gold pour at Castle, getting the construction started at Santa Luz. And this is a really low CapEx intensity project, so really in our sweet spot to complete over the next sort of 15 months here. And also commence the Aurizona underground pre-feasibility study, which we're very excited about the underground potential there at Aurizona. The upcoming catalysts and things we want to focus on the near-term here, obviously, get Los Filos back and restarted after we resolve things, but we'll certainly take our time to do that right. The expansion study for Los Filos is another thing to follow on in the new year. And as well the Castle Mountain Phase 2 feasibility study should be out early in the new year as well. On the exploration front, again, we're sort of building momentum right now. We've had a focus on Mesquite and Aurizona over the last sort of year or so, but we're certainly building up our multiyear sort of midterm plans. And we'll focus on the shorter life mines to continue to extend the mine lives. We think most of the mines that we have are actually quite prospective, so they need some attention starting in 2021. And corporately, we've achieved a lot this year. The Leogold merger and integration has gone well despite the COVID situation. We're included in a number of indices. We started to get our ESG reporting disclose more publicly. We started to harmonize and combine the actual reporting that we have, and you'll see more and more information on our website as we move forward. And we continue to look at accretive M&A on a sort of disciplined basis. We've got a lot of internal growth that we're focusing on a moment, but we'll certainly keep our eyes open for good opportunities in the market, whether it be producing mines or whether it be development projects that are - fill our pipeline as we continue to deliver on building and putting mines into operation sort of on an annual basis. Assets that we'd be interested in, obviously, would add diversity and diversification to our portfolio, fit our pipeline of development, enhance the portfolio quality of assets. So eyes are open on that front, but we certainly got a lot of growth internally that we can focus on as well. So overall, I'd say we had a strong operating performance in Q3. We've got a rock-solid balance sheet coming out of the quarter, as Peter outlined earlier. And we'll continue to focus on our disciplined growth as we continue to deliver on our strategy of becoming the premier Americas gold producer. Now with that, I'd like to thank you for your time and open the floor to questions.
RB
Rhylin Bailie
Analyst
Thank you. Operator, can you please remind people how to ask a question?
OP
Operator
Operator
[Operator Instructions].
RB
Rhylin Bailie
Analyst
Thank you. We do have a few questions from people online. And one thing I've been getting a lot of over the last couple of months is people wondering why we haven't been providing more regular updates about Los Filos and also responding to some of the things that have been said in the press.
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. Thanks, Rhylin. Certainly, we'll update the market when there's any material changes, both positive or negative. But we do believe and believe pretty strongly that we don't want to be negotiating the press or media. It's not part of our strategy. We much prefer respectful dialogue, face-to-face discussions with the community as we work through this challenge at Los Filos and certainly believe that's been the most effective method so far. And we continue to be optimistic and work on those discussions locally, and we won't be negotiating the press. So you'll see things as they change materially, both positive and negative.
RB
Rhylin Bailie
Analyst
We've also had lots of questions about the allegation that there's water contamination at Los Filos. Can you address that?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes, sure. I mean, historically here, there's a water source that was moved for the local community. It's about 3 kilometers away from the mine site. It's, I think, 150 meters above our current elevation and ascent. Originally, I think Goldcorp put in place the actual system to access that water. Probably need some updating right now, and certainly, we've agreed to do that. And actually that was in the social collaboration agreement last year to upgrade the system. So basically, once we're able to get back to work here, we'll continue on with that process. The community has grown quite significantly, and we plan to be putting in place any upgrades that allow that community to access the water for years to come. And there's been a couple of allegations, I guess, in the press as well related to arsenic in the water. It's obviously not something that we're involved in. We do not use arsenic in any of our processes. And as we process the ores as well, it's naturally occurring in, call it, trace amounts in the local rock and area. So there is probably naturally a little bit of arsenic in the water. It's safe to drink. So we're pleased with all the standards we've put in place. And obviously, with our operating permits and health and safety requirements, we have regular reporting to the regulators. We monitor it on a very regular basis. And obviously, we want to make sure that all our communities are accessing good, clean and healthy water. So we'll make sure that we continue to work with them on upgrading that system, but the water sources in place right now are safe.
RB
Rhylin Bailie
Analyst
Thank you. Operator, we'll take some questions from the phone lines, please.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Dalton Baretto of Canaccord.
DB
Dalton Baretto
Analyst
A question, I'm sure you're not going to be surprised, but I'm going to start with the Los Filos blockade as well. And I appreciate the commentary you provided in the scripted comments there. But there's a number of things that are still unclear to me. But maybe my first question can be, what triggered this?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Well, it's always hard to know exactly. Certainly, with the change in ownership and there is a change in senior leadership down there and maybe it disrupted some of the communication channels. I can't speak on behalf of the community and what their desires are. Certainly, they're looking for enhanced social collaboration benefits, and maybe it's an opportunity with the change in the environment here with COVID and change in management down there that this has been triggered. And certainly, we want to make sure that we have a dialogue here to resolve it in a long-term manner. And we have members of our team from up here in Vancouver as well as senior leadership down there working on it right now as we speak. That's probably the flavor of it.
DB
Dalton Baretto
Analyst
Okay. And then you mentioned some of their ask, and it sounds like they're incremental to the current contract. But it sounds like their stance is that you're not living up to the current contract. Is this just posturing?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. I think there's some pretty standard grievance mechanism that's in all the contracts as well as the communities, and it's pretty normal across the world really. But certainly, I know it's in place there and a regular sort of monthly review. There could be different views and opinions on whether certain clauses are being met to managed, things like number of scholarships or amount of medicines, et cetera, being provided. But I believe there's a very strong mechanism for resolving that. So it's a bit disappointing to see this go to the point of asking for incremental benefits and taking it outside of that grievance mechanism for resolution. But we'll work with them on that. We believe in supporting the communities as well. So we do think it's good to see people get education, to get extra benefits if it makes sense.
DB
Dalton Baretto
Analyst
Okay. Then maybe just one last one from me on this topic here. On the assumption that you're still meeting with them regularly, what needs to happen to move forward? Are they fairly entrenched or is there kind of give on both sides?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
I'd say there's a lot more give on our side. And there's regular meetings, I'd call them quite intense and ongoing as we speak. There are certain areas like I sort of alluded to that we can't give in on that have any impact on health and safety or certain governance policies. We have to make sure people are vetted before they're employed. When they're operating big equipment or they're underground, it has to be a health and safety first focus. And we have to do background checks, et cetera. So those kind of areas we can't compromise on to a certain level. And also just around sourcing of contracts and that we certainly need to be very careful around how we source contracts, and we need to have full control of the operation. Some of the other social collaboration benefits, obviously, there's more flexibility on. They tend to be some good things that we provide to the community.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Arun Lamba of TD Securities.
AL
Arun Lamba
Analyst
Congratulations on the quarter. Mine is, obviously, the Los Filos stuff. Just 2 quick ones from me. You talked about M&A and what you guys might look for. Just wondering how you're thinking about the portfolio otherwise in the sense that would you look to potentially divest maybe some of the smaller assets, because they might take the same amount of time of the larger asset? Or at these prices, are you kind of just happy with the free cash flow generation that they all generate?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes, thanks, Arun. I guess in this environment, there's a bit of that luxury, as all the assets are performing pretty well here, even the small ones. So we're pretty happy to see that cash flow generation and contribution to the portfolio. Certainly, over time, as the portfolio diversifies, grows, enhances, we could look to disposal of an asset or two. But at this stage, certainly, we are pretty happy with the performance of all of them, all of them, even the smaller ones. But over time, I think you could see that happen.
AL
Arun Lamba
Analyst
Great. And just a quick one. You guys mentioned Solaris has kind of ran up a little bit. It's now worth over $100 million to you guys on your position. Just comment if the plan is still to hold that longer term? I know the balance sheet is kind of net debt-free. Would you look to stay a shareholder? Or would you look to kind of divest at these prices?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
We're a pretty happy shareholder right now. Richard and Dan are doing a great job with it. And we were really pleased in the last 6 months or whenever they took over. So to see it going to hands that could focus on it, and certainly, we believe it could turn into what it already has. But we still have a lot of belief in the upside to that single asset there in Ecuador being Warintza, but also, it's got 4 more assets in the portfolio. We're really excited about a couple of the other ones as well. So we have no plans to be divesting. We've also committed our shares to escrow, I think, for a couple of years at least. So we're certainly very committed to them right now.
AL
Arun Lamba
Analyst
Great. That's it from me. And hope to get the Los Filos blockade results soon, but congrats anyway.
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. Thanks, Arun.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question comes from Kerry Smith of Haywood Securities.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
A question for the underground at Santa Luz. Did you only just update the gold price assumption in that PEA and you didn't update the costs?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Doug, do you want to take that one?
DR
Douglas Reddy
Analyst
Sure. It was updated with the economics on the project, so yes, gold price and costs. But it's something that we'll need to do more work on. Essentially, we were updating the rest of the study, so we asked RPA to go back and do an update on that as well. And we know we have to do more work. We want to do a drill program there and then revamp the whole thing in light of the opportunity that it can add while we're operating the open pit.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. And Doug, just maybe on that underground PEA, the 511,000 ounces of recoverable gold, what percent of that would have been inferred? Is it all inferred or is there any indicators at all?
DR
Douglas Reddy
Analyst
I'd have to go back and check. I will check, Kerry, and I'll get back to you.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. Okay. And so, I guess, my second question was, what is the plan going forward? And are you planning to complete an infill drill program to try and convert a bunch of the inferred and then complete some sort of further economic study, a PEA or a PFS, let's say?
DR
Douglas Reddy
Analyst
Yes. I think when we're not interfering with the construction, we would look at doing an infill drill program. One was designed a while back. I've handed all that over to Scott Heffernan. So Scott and his team will have to review that for how to logically do the follow-on drill program so that we can move it towards doing a PFS. But at the moment, we'll wait while they're in the midst of construction, so we don't interfere with the site.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. Okay. Okay. Because I guess, the timing, you said there was a couple of years of development to get into the orebody, so it sounds like there'd be another maybe 18 months of drilling and engineering work before you could even make that decision to start that decline then. Would that be fair, Doug?
DR
Douglas Reddy
Analyst
Yes, that would be fair. But there's also lots of additional opportunities for open pit targets on the site as well. So while it would be nice to bring the underground on and have it dovetail for the 9.5 years with the open pit, there are other low-hanging fruit in nearby to the process facility that we would look for open pit opportunities as well.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. Okay, great. And then just maybe, Peter or Christian, what is the holding cost per quarter for Los Filos while you're on this blockade?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Peter, do you want to take that one?
PH
Peter Hardie
Analyst
Yes, it's Peter here. It's about $750,000 a week, Kerry.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. And that's for just the asset protection? I think you're still paying the salaries, I guess, or the wages to the employees as well. Is that correct?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
We've actually...
PH
Peter Hardie
Analyst
Yes, go ahead.
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Sorry, Peter, go ahead.
PH
Peter Hardie
Analyst
No, go ahead.
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Okay. I was going to say, Kerry, we've actually suspended payroll to certain people that obviously can't access site, can't work, et cetera. So we've slowly started to reduce that payment. And obviously, over time, we'd reduce that further, if necessary. So there is some flexibility in that number that Pete gave as well. We could eventually reduce it a bit more, but that's kind of a reasonable carrying cost.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. So that's $750,000 a week then, what - how much of that would actually be payroll then, if I can ask it that way?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
I don't know, Pete, if you remember that number off the top of your head?
PH
Peter Hardie
Analyst
I don't, Kerry. I'll have to get back to you on that one. I'm going to venture, I guess, 50% to 60% of that, but yes, we should verify it.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. Okay. How did you decide which half of - which - how many people are not on the payroll? Is it half of the employees are now off the payroll? Or what is that number?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Well, certainly, most of the actual people who work in the operations can't access site at the moment. So those would not be working and not paid at this stage. There are certain groups that have to keep the site safe, which are obviously key to having them on site, security, certain other management numbers, obviously involved in the process, that's ongoing at the moment as well.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. So the only - the people that are being paid are people that are able to access the site every day actually?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. And that have a meaningful job to do right now, yes.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Right. Right. I got you. Okay. And what is the timing on the PFS for the underground Aurizona? You mentioned 2021. But is that a second half or Q4, Q3? Like can you sort of be a bit more specific there?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
The drill programs are just being finished up right now. And so we will be digging into it with the new drill data in the coming months. PFS-wise, probably in Q2, but that - and I would say I'm not 100% certain on that. I think that's the target date at the moment, but we've got a lot of work to do on it now that we've gotten the drill program results rolling in. By the way, Kerry, your question about percent inferred on Santa Luz and the underground, if you look at the exclusive resources, the indicated underground is about 484,000 ounces, the inferred underground resource is 461,000 ounces. So I'll say a big chunk of it's inferred, but also it could be as much as 50-50 between the 2. But I'd have to go back and check. But just noting that there is essentially over 950,000 ounces of indicated and inferred in the underground at Santa Luz.
RB
Rhylin Bailie
Analyst
Again, I'm going to take a question online from an investor in the United States. It's great to see Santa Luz moving ahead. How do you expect to sequence all of the growth projects in your portfolio? How many active projects do you have the bandwidth to manage?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. I think the way we're managing them is, there is a project team and a country head that's in each country. So we certainly have a lot of bandwidth in each country to manage almost a project at each time. But we certainly like the idea of sequencing them like we've done. So Castle Mountain gets done Phase 1, Santa Luz gets going and then will be done and wrapping up towards the end of next year. Potential Los Filos expansion may overlap a bit with that, but obviously a different country, a different project team that could happen with some overlap, but kind of will happen a lot, it will happen at the end of the Santa Luz build. So it's been really nicely sequenced over time here, and obviously, that's helpful on the capital management front as well as just people management front.
RB
Rhylin Bailie
Analyst
Great. Operator, we can take Dalton's call.
OP
Operator
Operator
Certainly, our next question is a follow-up from Dalton Baretto of Canaccord Genuity.
DB
Dalton Baretto
Analyst
Christian, I wanted to ask a little bit about Castle Mountain, just really two questions. So it sounds like you're putting the final touches on the study there. What's the latest on the water situation? And has your permitting situation changed in the context of the [indiscernible]?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Now let me start with the water. We continue to drill various water sources as we were doing the study. So we've been drilling on our property on the claims that we have, the closest to the plant site as possible. We've had good results from that. The hydrogeologists are actually doing some of the pump tests and recharge rates there. They're checking on that. But we've had water in every hole. So that's along the southern end of our property. So we've got some really positive indications coming out of that. So we believe some of the water will certainly come from there, maybe even up to 1,000 gallons per minute. And then we've also been testing a few other locations. One Key 1 is obviously off-site, some private lands, say about 38 miles away, I believe it is. And we'd be able to pipe that water in along the sort of right of way, where the power line would go as well. So we're pretty confident that amongst various water sources, including the existing well field and as well the west well field, which is a historical well field, between those sort of four areas that there's multiple sources of water, and we want as much flexibility as possible. So we're feeling pretty good about that so far. We've not completed all the test work, so that will come with the study. And in terms of permitting, well, I don't know for sure what the change will be like. But one thing I do know is that this is an operating mine now. It's got existing permits, and it's been in operation now twice. And it makes a huge difference to have a brownfield site when it goes to amending permits. We're not looking for brand new permits. We plan to stay within our sort of EIS boundaries that already exist. So we'll be looking to amend those. And remember that Mesquite had on and off operations for 30 years, Castle was producing for about 10 or 12 years in the '90s and early 2000s and now producing again. And I don't remember all the governments during that period, but there was certainly a mix of Democrats and Republicans. And we can work with both sides and both parties. And again, we bring good jobs to Eastern California there, and we've had great support from San Bernardino County as well as Imperial County, where Mesquite is. So maybe it will change slightly, but I actually don't expect a ton of change in terms of permitting process. You tend to deal with the BLM and the local regulators more than the federal government. So I expect sort of almost business as usual really.
PH
Peter Hardie
Analyst
Okay. Great. And then maybe just one last one from me. The gold collars and swaps, they're looking pretty punitive right now. Any way in terms of offsetting that?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
You mean more punitive than yesterday?
DB
Dalton Baretto
Analyst
That's fair.
PH
Peter Hardie
Analyst
At the moment, those have - they run until I think it's mid-2022. It's only like 10% or 12% of production. So I think we'll just let those run out, deliver into them on a quarterly basis. They're historically from Leagold merger and were put in place related to the financing they did. So it's something I have to live with, and we'll just deliver into. It may become smaller and smaller every quarter in terms of impact. And there was a big run up, obviously, in the gold price in the last 6 to 8 months where we did have quite a negative impact in the P&L. But obviously, when these current oil price environment seems more sort of stable or around these sort of higher $1,700 to $2,000 levels, there's less and less of an impact on a quarterly basis. And we'll just let those run out to termination in 2022.
OP
Operator
Operator
Our next question is a follow-up from Kerry Smith of Haywood Securities.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Christian, just on the blockade again, are you actually currently meeting regularly with the community? And if you are, what is the frequency of those discussions? Are they weekly or quarterly? Or how do you schedule this?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Again, I don't want to give out too much detail, but over the last week, I think we've been meeting almost every day and continue to do so, including today.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. Okay. So it's pretty frequent then. Okay. And you had talked about - you were committed to a new fleet at Mesquite in 2021. When you say new fleet, is that haul trucks and loading gear or just the truck fleet?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
No, there's an old Terex fleet there for those that have visited that sort of coming towards the end of their life, and you're starting to look at big engine rebuilds and quite a lot of investment to keep them going. And they always were planned to run right through to the end of the mine life when we acquired it. But now this mine life seems to be double what it originally was, and we still see some upside beyond that. It's certainly time to be looking at investing in the trucks at the moment. So the CAT - our CAT fleet instead of the old Terexes.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
And the rough CapEx next year for that equipment upgrade? Can you give me a rough number?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. We'll put that out in our guidance, but probably more in that sort of $30 million to $40 million range. But we'll give you more exact numbers in the guidance.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Okay. Okay. And then you had also talked about an exploration budget for Scott at Santa Luz or along the greenstone belt too from there to Fazenda. What might that number be that just so I can sort of quantify? Is it $5 million a year or less?
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
I might let maybe Scott comment on that. I mean, how much will we give them?
SH
Scott Heffernan
Analyst
We're right now in the middle of budgeting and planning process for 2021. But as Christian mentioned, we have started with the regional program. There's 1,000 square kilometers to explore there and lots of good work to do. So we've got a lot of compilations to synthesis work underway. Crews are doing the surface work sampling, mapping, prospecting, pseudo-sampling, target - drill target definition work that we'll follow up with next year. So I hope it would be a significant program, several millions of dollars in the least. There's lots of low-hanging fruit to chase both near mine, Santa Luz and Fazenda as well as the district. So we're going to put a big emphasis on it, and the team is really digging into the data right now.
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Scott, it's fair to say - I was going to say, is it fair to say there's probably good $5 million to $10 million worth of exploration we could do there and just a matter of how much we're going to allocate next year, we haven't decided that quite yet.
KS
Kerry Smith
Analyst
Right. Okay. But it's likely that 2021 would not be a drill program that would be more recognizance and prospecting and target generation then?
SH
Scott Heffernan
Analyst
No, we're moving as fast as we can to drilling. We will have some modest amount of drilling going on this year, and we expect to drill as aggressively as we can next year. It's a matter of building up the pipeline of drill targets in advance of some drills chasing the field crews. But there's sufficient drill-ready targets already that we can start on and pretty comfortable that we'll be able to keep a significant number of drills turning throughout the year, moving through the 45, 50 exporting permits.
RB
Rhylin Bailie
Analyst
Okay. Thank you, Christian. We're nearly of time, so I'm going to turn it back to you for closing remarks.
CM
Christian Milau
Analyst
Yes. Thanks, Rhylin. And thanks, everyone, for your time, lots of good questions today and exciting future here. Lots of catalysts coming, so please keep an eye on this space. We've got a number of projects on the way. There are lots of exploration ongoing. And we hope to get to a resolution here on Los Filos. So please keep it on the space and look forward to speaking to you at the year-end. Thank you.
OP
Operator
Operator
This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.