Lauren Roberts
Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Your line is now open
Thanks, Lindsay. First and most gratifying is that our safety performance continues to be exemplary despite the distractions caused by the pandemic. As you can see on Slide 9, we have a year-to-date all-injury frequency rate of 1.02, which is a 78% reduction over the past six years and a 14% reduction compared to the same metrics last quarter. I am very appreciative of the hard work and focus from our operations teams that delivers these results. At the Greens Creek mine, we saw silver production of 2.6 million ounces and 13,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of 784 per ounce. As shown on Slide 10, that generates a margin of 223% when compared to the realized price of 25.32. As Phil mentioned earlier, we partnered with a COVID lab to provide real-time testing services for our employees. We expect this service to shorten the quarantine period, save money and reduce the burden on our employees. We envisioned this being a short-term solution until local testing capacity increases. This will be the first commercial laboratory established in Juneau, while the capacity is dedicated to Hecla, there is room in the agreement to work with local authorities to address community needs as well. I am pleased to announce that ramp up activities at the Lucky Friday continue to be ahead of schedule and we anticipate hitting our full production rate in the fourth quarter. At this pace, we expect production in excess of 3 million ounces of silver in 2021. Grade is expected to improve as we mine deeper, increasing the projected production to around 5 million ounces annually over the next three to five years. The best part is that no significant planned capital outlay is required to achieve this goal. In addition, we are looking at various mining method changes and other initiatives to improve safety while increasing the productivity of the mine. At the Casa Berardi Mine, we saw a production of 26,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,868. Lower gold production and higher cost in the quarter were due to planned mill maintenance activities and delayed access to two high grade underground stopes. Work to improve the reliability of the mill was in full swing throughout the quarter. In July, we took about 12 days to conduct planned heavy maintenance on both of the grinding mills. The work was scheduled for about nine days, but ran long primarily due to some complications with the in-situ machine work and night shift coverage from some of the support contractors. As you can see on Slide 12, the work was extensive. It included machining to feed in trunnion flange and replacing the trunnion on the Sag Mill, replacing Babbitt bearing and seals by both mills, maintaining the gear shaft or related work best conducted while the mills aren't operating. Work was conducted in parallel on the crushing and conveying systems, the CIL train and the detox system. As we said before, this is not a short-term exercise, but it's an important one to set ourselves up for the future. We are through the biggest jobs and we are starting to realize the fruits of our labor. In October, the mill delivered 90% availability, including scheduled maintenance outages. Gold production also was impacted by geotechnical challenges that delayed several high-grade stopes in the West Mine, which now will be produced in the fourth quarter. To mitigate this risk in Q4, we redirected development resources to focus on stope development to have more stopes available to secure the underground production. High-grades also are anticipated from the East Mine for the balance of the year. Stripping is underway and progressing well at the new 160 pit. Initial ore production is expected from the pit late in 2021. Unfortunately, the permits necessary to start were received about a month later than expected. We utilized the contractor to strip the extension of EMCP pit during this time, which resulted in higher operating expenses compared to budget. At San Sebastian mining concluded in the third quarter and we anticipate the milling to be complete in the fourth quarter. San Sebastian with its very low capital demand has been a successful operation for Hecla, and I want to take this opportunity to thank the San Sebastian team for a job well done. In Nevada, we have substantially completed mining of the developed oxide ore, and currently are mining the refractory ore bulk sample, which we anticipate delivering to a third-party for processing. I'm happy to report that the mining has progressed well with the ground conditions, water inflow, productivity and cost all being better than planned. The ore is more structurally controlled and less disseminated the model which we view as positive. We anticipate recognizing this mine to ores produced in 2021 once it is processed. Both San Sebastian and Nevada provide rich exploration opportunities. I'll now turn the call over to Phil to give more detail on how these exploration programs are progressing.