Earnings Labs

Gold Resource Corporation (GORO)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Wed, Apr 2, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Thank you for joining Gold Resource Corporation’s Fourth Quarter and Year End Conference Call. Mr. Jason Reid, CEO, will be hosting today’s call. Following Mr. Reed’s opening remarks there will be a question-and-answer period. As a reminder, today’s call is being recorded and will be posted to the Company’s website within 3 to 5 business days. Please go ahead, Mr. Reid.

Jason Reid

CEO

Thank you. Good morning and thank you for joining Gold Resource Corporation’s 2013 year-end and fourth quarter conference call. We have a lot of ground to cover this morning on the difficult but successful 2013 year so let’s begin. First, I want to apologize for the delayed filing. We needed more time to finish the report which I will explain in detail in a few moments. It has been great to see gold and silver prices strengthen in 2014 though still very volatile given the dramatic precious metal bare market over the last two years. As a Company, we plan to emerge from this market volatility as a much leaner, stronger, efficient and more profitable Company well positioned to generate cash at these current metal prices and an even stronger position to generate more when the metal market resumes their longer term bull market trend. And as a Company, we remain focused on building shareholder value, return on capital, and return on investment to include dividends as we grow the Company not growth for growth sake but smart growth for value creation. Today’s call will include a 2013 fourth quarter and year-end performance review past and future mine development and past and future exploration. I am pleased with our 2013 operating performance especially in light of all the construction that took place last year and in the context of the very difficult year for mining equities, but for those investors whose thesis to own gold remains intact, the metals market correction over the last year provides a opportunity. We are seeing new funds and investors take advantage of this opportunity in Gold Resource Corporation. Joining me on the call today for the Q&A portion will be Mr. Joe Rodriguez, our Chief Financial Officer. Before going any further, let me remind…

Joe Rodriguez

Chief Financial Officer

Good morning Jason.

Jason Reid

CEO

Operator, please take our first caller and question.

Question

Management

and:

Operator

Operator

Yes. (Operator Instructions) We will take our first question.

Josh Elving

Analyst

Hi. Good morning guys. Can you hear me? Dougherty & Company: Hi. Good morning guys. Can you hear me?

Jason Reid

CEO

Yes.

Josh Elving

Analyst

This is Josh Elving calling from Dougherty. So couple of questions, first regarding your cash position cash has come down significantly over the past few years and we’re now down to 15 million. I guess you’ve tried to reduce your cash burn by reducing the dividend and cutting exploration at Arista and I’m not sure if you’re doing much as far as some of the other targets on trend. I guess just kind of looking into 2014 do you feel comfortable with the cash at the current level and what is your kind of view towards building that treasury throughout the year? Dougherty & Company: This is Josh Elving calling from Dougherty. So couple of questions, first regarding your cash position cash has come down significantly over the past few years and we’re now down to 15 million. I guess you’ve tried to reduce your cash burn by reducing the dividend and cutting exploration at Arista and I’m not sure if you’re doing much as far as some of the other targets on trend. I guess just kind of looking into 2014 do you feel comfortable with the cash at the current level and what is your kind of view towards building that treasury throughout the year?

Jason Reid

CEO

Sure. No, it’s a great question it’s something we watch very closely obviously being a dividend payor we watch it I think even closer than most others. Keep in mind and to put in the context we went through a pretty major mill expansion and we did that with cash flow. We knew that was going to deplete our cash much faster than usual we’re done with that now. So that’s a big portion of this. The second part of this is the fact that we became a much higher cost producer than we needed to and we went in and took a really hard look at our cost and we made some pretty dramatic cost cutting measures of which I believe we’ve already seen some of the turn where cash is stabilizing and we are optimistic it will start increasing, but believe me we watch it very closely and it’s always balancing act -- you have CapEx, you have OpEx, you have dividends, I think we do pretty good balancing act given our track record over the last three years. It’s a good question.

Josh Elving

Analyst

So you think you can return to your cash generation in ’14? Dougherty & Company: So you think you can return to your cash generation in ’14?

Jason Reid

CEO

Yes. I mean, that’s the goal. Now, I am sure, I recognized your name. You’ve been around while I’m sure you follow me at the mining companies. I think we did quite well given the year that was handed to us last year and yes given the fact we did all the cost cutting measures and what not I think we’re going to see where the turn in and the cash treasure increases.

Josh Elving

Analyst

Just one additional question regarding the guidance you did provide for ’14. So I guess I was a little surprised that we weren’t planning on ramping to 1,500 tonnes per day in ’14. With the 85 to 100 gold equivalent ounces for guidance, can you give us a sense for what kind of average throughput we might expect for the year? I recognized it will probably ramp throughout the year but maybe an average for the year. Dougherty & Company: Just one additional question regarding the guidance you did provide for ’14. So I guess I was a little surprised that we weren’t planning on ramping to 1,500 tonnes per day in ’14. With the 85 to 100 gold equivalent ounces for guidance, can you give us a sense for what kind of average throughput we might expect for the year? I recognized it will probably ramp throughout the year but maybe an average for the year.

Jason Reid

CEO

Generally speaking it will be around 1,200 to 1,300 more or less. Obviously we’re going potentially try to push more but given the mine plan that’s in place that’s what we’re looking at.

Josh Elving

Analyst

Jeff that seeing to me we have to work through some lower grade or before… Dougherty & Company: Jeff that seeing to me we have to work through some lower grade or before…

Jason Reid

CEO

The grade always varies depending on the exact the range you on where you’re on the deposit in the long run, it’s, we’re showing this is a high-grade deposit and that’s the most important this. But yes one of the things -- one of the approaches were taking here is, after the fallout of the last two years and nobody knows where the metal prices are going. Like I said in the conference call, we’re trying to prepare for the worse and hope for the best and so we’re not going to get too aggressive on trying to push more through that strains us and so we think that’s a good range to be at and we’re obviously going to push toward the high end of that range. We will see if we can get it done. Yes, that’s the more or less the tonnage we’ll be looking at.

Josh Elving

Analyst

Thank you for taking my questions. Dougherty & Company: Thank you for taking my questions.

Jason Reid

CEO

Good talking with you Josh. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll our take next question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, my name is Jonathan Meagher. I am a private investor and I have two questions for you. The first has to do with an updated resource statement what the mine life is? And when we’ll be getting an updated resource statement? And how many meters of drilling will be incorporated in that report?

Jason Reid

CEO

Okay, as I mentioned in the call, we are going to be pursuing proven and probable reserves under industry guide 7 with the SEC. This year, I don’t want to give any exact time but we’re pushing to get that done as soon as possible. And as for the specifics of that, you have to wait for that to actually come out. But I can tell you it will be the bulk of the least deposit as we know at now, but there is still a lot that won’t be included just out of drill spacing. And it won’t include the switch back and things like that. So that’s all I can tell you on that.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great, thank you, and next question is. Can we assume that the Q4 tax rate will be the tax rate to be expected going forward or will that change?

Jason Reid

CEO

I’ll turn that question over to Joe.

Joe Rodriguez

Chief Financial Officer

I think that’s going to change. We had some unusual circumstances going through this year and you can go back and look at the reconciliation in the – now it reconciles the statutory toward tax rate back to the tax provision. We don’t anticipate having some of these temporary and primary difference going through hopefully going forward, so I’m looking for the tax rate to come down to the reasonable rates.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay great thanks guys.

Jason Reid

CEO

Thanks Jonathan.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time.

Jason Reid

CEO

There, we do have an email question I want to get to and then we’ll close the call out. This one is from Joe Nordgaard. He asked, is the Switchback still open at the strike at the both? Yes, it is. He also asked, is it being drilled from the surface? No, everything is being underground at this point, being drilled from underground. And then he asked about, estimate on tonnage? We’re working on that as we speak, so I don’t have any specifics for you on that. But with that we’ll and we’re pretty much of time, we will disclose the callout.

Joe Rodriguez

Chief Financial Officer

I would like to thank everybody for joining the call. And we appreciate your support.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today’s conference. Thank you for your participation.