Phillips S. Baker, Jr.
Analyst · J.P. Morgan. Your line is now open
Thank you. Hello everyone. When I think about the first quarter, I see the strategy of our past few years is paying off. We have focused on growing reserves that will allow us to grow production. So we've not been under-investing and sustaining capital or delaying investing in projects that are going to generate high returns or extend the mine lives. So we began 2016 with the 10th consecutive increase in silver reserves, 175 million ounces, the most in our 125 year history. On this growing reserve base, we've been growing production over the last three years, and last year we had the most metals production in our history and in the first quarter of this year we had the most silver and silver equivalent production out of the 500 quarters Hecla has been in existence. And we're now on track for about a 10% higher silver production than last year's record. And silver production growth is not coming at the expense of gold, whose quarterly gold production was sixth highest in our history. This production growth is improving our financial results. In the first quarter, we had our highest revenue in about five years, and despite relatively low first quarter prices, we had our best adjusted EBITDA since 2012 when the silver price was $20 an ounce and gold was $1,600 an ounce. With the silver price up about $3 from the first quarter to the second, second quarter is on a path of significant growth in our cash flow, but I'm getting ahead of myself. To have these results, we have maintained investment in all of our properties. At Casa Berardi, we invested in automation and improving operations and in development and saw the lowest mining cost per ton since we acquired the project. And we're moving forward rapidly to bring into operation the surface pits at the East Mine Crown Pillar, often referred to as EMCP, which should increase gold production and decrease the per ounce cash cost. Greens Creek had solid performance again, showing lower cash cost after by-product credits per ounce and higher production on the back of very high grades. The recovery gains that we've made over the last 18 months have made a great asset even better enabling Greens Creek to generate additional cash flow through the rest of its life. And last week we reached the bottom of the #4 Shaft at the Lucky Friday. The focus now shifts to equipping the shaft, installing electrical equipment and we expect it to be operational this year, and we have a 20 to 30 year mine life ahead of us. And San Sebastian has started smoothly, allowing us to strengthen our balance sheet with its significant cash flow in the short-term. With its low cash cost, this project should be a major cash flow provider this year. Dean will talk about some of the exploration advances there which could extend the mine life. Finally, a project you're going to hear more about, Rock Creek, has taken another step forward in the permitting process with the completion of the public comment period of the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. We're very pleased to note that the public comments were overwhelmingly positive. We're hopeful that the project will get all the necessary permits within a year or so to allow us to move under the underground phase of exploration. With the first quarter performance, we're increasing our silver production guidance, as found on Slide 4, to 15 million ounces in 2016 at a cash cost after by-product credits of $5 per ounce, with 8.1 million from Greens Creek, 3.1 million from Lucky Friday and 3.8 million ounces from our newest mine in San Sebastian. Now this 25% increase in expectations for San Sebastian is really because of the great job our team did in starting this mine up. Now, Jim Sabala, our CFO and my partner and friend, plans on retiring after the May AGM. So this is going to be his last quarterly conference call. He's had a very strong role in fashioning our success over the last eight years. He and I went through the 2008 financial crisis, settlement in the environmental litigation, a white knight bid and a hostile situation, and the development of the #4 Shaft at the Lucky Friday where Jim started his career as a miner when he was 18, fitting that he ends his career with the completion of the #4 Shaft excavation. Those of you who know Jim know we will surely miss his guidance, leadership and of course his sense of humor. And so, Jim, for one last time, with a smile, would you please review our financial performance this quarter?