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Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS)

Q2 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 1, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Yamana Gold's 2013 Second Quarter Release Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. And following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time. I’ll like to turn the meeting over to Ms. Lisa Doddridge, Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations.

Lisa Doddridge

Management

Thank you all for joining us this morning. Before I turn the call over, I need to advise that certain statements made during this call today may contain forward-looking information and actual results could differ from the conclusions or projections in that forward-looking information, which include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, cost of production, capital expenditures, future metal prices and the cost and timing of the development of new projects. For a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties and factors which may lead to our actual financial results and performance being different from the estimates contained in our forward-looking statements, please refer to our press release issued yesterday announcing our second quarter 2013 results, as well as our management’s discussion and analysis for the same period and other regulatory filings in the Canada and United States. Throughout the presentation, when speakers use the term ounces, they will be referring to gold equivalent ounces unless otherwise stated. Gold equivalent ounces include silver production at a ratio of 50:1. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay today at 2 pm Eastern Time. Replay information and the presentation slides accompanying this conference call and webcast are available on our website at yamana.com. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Peter Marrone, Chairman and CEO.

Peter Marrone

Management

Lisa, thank you very much and good morning and thank you to all of you for joining us. With me this morning are the other members of senior management, and after some introductory comments, I’ll turn the call to those members of management. I would like to begin by addressing how we’re adapting to the new metal prices environment that we find ourselves in. Over the second quarter, we saw significant precious metal volatility. There have also been signs of lower costs. As you’ll hear me say throughout this presentation, I believe that we are in a transition period with this metal price environment to lower costs. But in response to this, and is introduced on our first quarter conference call several months ago, we initiated a series of cost-containment initiatives, through which we committed to reducing our all-in sustaining co-product cash costs. We have begun to achieve a measure of that with $150 million of savings already. And that's only in the last several months we also took the opportunity to increase the urgency in timetable on some existing efficiency programs that were already underway. The cost reduction involves reductions in operating costs our G&A exploration costs and a reduction in deferrals of certain capital expenditure amounts. On deferrals, it allows us to critically evaluate opportunities after look-see at what will happen to costs. I'm not going to go into all of the detail, but I do want to make the point that development capital deferrals and the reductions are not captured in all-in sustaining costs measure, they are in addition to these savings and will improve our ability to generate over time free cash flow. I will let Chuck provide more insight into the specifics of the program and the measured successes to-date. I do want to make…

Ludovico Costa

Management

Thank you, Peter. Production in the second quarter was comparable to that of the first quarter at 295.504 ounces, this was within our expectations. El Penon (inaudible) performance better than expect, while the Jacobina had a challenging quarter. In addition 257,608 ounces of gold and the 1.9 million ounces (inaudible) produced in the quarter. We also had a production of 30.1 million pounds of copper from Chapada. Bi-product cash costs for the quarter were 476 pounds. Ore product costs were 577 pounds. At Chapada we expect lower grades and (inaudible) continue which it was according to the mining plan. Production was also impacted by our linear changes (inaudible) in the quarter. We do expect production to be strong in the second half of the year, which is vital improvement of mining rates and to good grades and recovery. (inaudible) Suruca was respect. We expect Suruca to contribute to some production at Chapada in 2014. Work also continued at the Corpo Sul which is expected to provide greater flexibility to Chapada with the potential to increase production levels. Production at El Penon increased by 16% from last year this include 35% increasing gold production quarterly offset by the 18% decline in silver. For the first half of 2013 El Penon has significantly out performed our expectations. This has been helpful to offset the underperformance of other operation. El Penon is very well positioned to the legal as expected this year. Gold degrees are expected to be (inaudible) silver grades improve over the second half. El Penon continues to be a stronger performing portfolio. Production at the Gualcamayo was again primary source from the lower grades spot priced in the period as transition from Phase II to Phase III continued. Productions were impacted by lower grades and continued inflationary pressures. The development…

Charles B. Main

Management

Thank you, Ludovico. In general the second quarter of 2013 was in line with our plan. Revenues were $430 million in the quarter, which is lower than the second quarter of 2012 with higher sales offset by lower metal prices. The average realized price for our all metals were considerably lower than in the second quarter of 2012. Gold was down 13.7%, silver was down 16.3% and copper down 15.3%. We had adjusted earnings of $50 million or $0.07 per share. The decline in metal price accounts for an estimated decline in earnings on adjusted earnings of approximately $0.12 per share. Operating cash flow before changes in non-cash working capital was $150 million or $0.20 per share. In the quarter, our financial position was maintained, cash and available credit at the end of the quarter were approximately $1.1 billion. This includes cash and equivalents of approximately $380 million. G&A for the quarter was $38 million which is comparable in the second quarter of 2012 and is expected to decrease in the third quarter due to cost-containment initiatives. Depreciation and amortization was $94 million, exploration expense for the quarter was $8 million compared to $14 million in the second quarter of 2012. Total capital spent in the quarter was $300 million. During the quarter to maintain our financial flexibility and take advantage of extremely low borrowing costs we issued $300 million in senior debt notes with an average duration of 9.4 years and an average all-in yield of 4.65%. We also repaid the $100 million on our credit line, which we drill down in the first quarter. I’d like to spend a few minutes on cash costs, because understanding the impact of copper credit in our cost structure is important when looking at longer term trends. As you are aware, in…

Darcy Marud

Management

Thank you, Chuck. Exploration spending for 2013 has been reduced by approximately $10 million to $105 million. This is inline with our corporative objective to reducing spending more possible as previously discussed by Chuck. The reduction in the exploration investment will not affect our ability to enhance values at our mines development project, as we intend to increase resources and reserves year-over-year. We continue to do exploration as the cornerstone to building our pipeline to reach our annual goal – excuse me our annual goal of future production of 1.7 million ounces. At this time, it is my pleasure to pass the call over to Mr. William Wulftange, our newly appointed Vice President of Resources and Reserves to discuss some specifics of exploration during quarter two, which we think will have important impact for our resources and reserves going forward at 2013 and beyond.

William Wulftange

Management

Thank you, Darcy. Yesterday, we released the second quarter exploration results that cover most of the Yamana mines with a notable exception of El Penon. The exploration program at El Penon kicked off late at the end of March this year and we’re now beginning to see positive results with the – inflow report on Q3, at the end of Q3. I’ll request that you for further detail review and use this second quarter exploration results press release for a detailed follow-up to discuss. I have chosen to discuss the second quarter exploration highlights for mines and projects listed on the slide, as we saw significant and new positive information that will add to the resource phase and widely improved and extend like mine profile. At Chapada the second quarter in-field drill program at Corpo Sul has identified broad intercepts of gold and copper grade at higher grade than currently being mined and higher than the mine’s initial average grades. This is exemplified by CS 213 that cut nearly 168 meters of 0.69 grams of gold and 0.5% copper from hole depth of 22.3 meters. Based on this and other holes our geologist have identified the high grade core that the Corpo Sul ore bodies that they are not testing for extensions outside of the current pit outline. At Gualcamayo underground exploration drilling of the QDD Lower West and Rodado targets have developed important extensions to these targets that are opened to depth in a long strike. Our geologists believe that this new mineral body beneath QDD Lower West could grow to the size and rival what we currently as the QDD Lower West. Ore bodies it will help provide additional ounces to make the proposed (inaudible) ore processing samples to success. Key intercepts for this work include a 133…

Peter Marrone

Management

Rich, thank you very much. And so before we open this call up for questions, let me make a few other clean up and broad comments. The first is Pilar, this is the last of our current development projects, it poured first goals in July. That means at all three of our development projects are now in ramp up. At this point, I can say that the ramp ups are following ordinary course. These projects that are in commissioning are fully permitted, we have available water, power, equipment, parts and supplies. With the ramp ups in progress, construction development risk has significantly declined. And there is one final comment I’d like to make, and that is about jurisdiction. And we’ve referred to these mining friendly jurisdictions in which we operate. I don’t want to lead you with the false impression that these jurisdiction are immune to any changes with respect to mining royalties’ and taxes. Brazil has introduced a new mining law. Mexico has attempted to introduce the change to royalties. Both of these governments recognize the importance of mining in their jurisdictions. And so we don’t foresee that there will be anything will be up horned in these new developments. Indeed it was foreseen in plant for many years in Brazil that a new mining law would be introduced with an increase in royalties and we still believe that that royalty structure that it introduced for gold production will be consistent with. Our expectations consistent with, what’s been telegraphed and at the low end of what one expects for royalties worldwide. Argentina has been stable on the fiscal approach to mining enterprises and has recently made efforts to improve its currency exchanges issues and ultimately we believe to tame its inflation. There is strong support for mining what we operate ladies and gentlemen, and we continue to be confident that any changes would be as expected as telegraphed, as planned in the case of the some jurisdiction such as Brazil for several years and be consistent with what we’ve been saying and within our tolerance. And so with that I will now open it up to question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Marrone. Question will now be taken from the telephone lines. (Operator Instructions). There will be a brief pause while our participants register. Thank you for your patience. The first question is from Don MacLean with Paradigm. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Good morning guys. A couple of questions, Peter you did a bit of a run down on where the difference to guidance is liable to take place. Could you please review that again and may be if you could quantify it a little bit.

Peter Marrone

Management

Happy to do that at least some broad brush Don, but I think the one that is obvious is Jacobina, we are confident with the exploration success at Cerro Moro and (inaudible) Maria Lazarus. Sorry Canavieiras and Morro do Vento, we are confident that with those grades in those areas we are confident with a higher production level. We have contemplated that Jacobina should be at a sustainable production level of 130,000 to 140,000 ounces per year. We’re indicating that this year we’re expecting to get 80,000 ounces. That accounts for the lion share of the production changes to what was planned in 2014 and 2015. We will remain confident that we’ll get there, but as I said several months ago on our first-quarter conference call, it will take us a bit of time to do the development work and so the shift has been to focus on development at the expense of mining. Now we didn’t see the benefit of our cost improvement in Q2, but we didn’t anticipate that we would. As you can appreciate it would be difficult to get that within a month, to several months. But we do anticipate that we will be able to get some cost improvements at Jacobina, into the second half of the year and as importantly in 2014 and 2015 as we focus on development. Jacobina then accounts for something in the range of 50,000 ounces to 60,000 ounces there is the shortfall between what we had anticipated in 2014 and 2015 to what we are currently participating, but it will we believed ultimately get there. The other one would be Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique, we had planned Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique to be at a production level of 100,000 ounces in the first two years perhaps 110,000 ounces. We’re not getting the benefit of that…

Peter Marrone

Management

I’ll turn it to Ludovico on that, but what I will say is as a general comment is remember that the underground is higher grade, but much less ore feed. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Okay.

Peter Marrone

Management

So most of the ounces Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique will come from Ernesto, will come from the open pit. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Right.

Peter Marrone

Management

So with that lower grade reconciliation, the tonnage being reduced. We have had less success than wanted to have in that open pit to percentage. We have decided that the better course would be to expect a production of about 70,000 ounces. Ludovico perhaps if you can supplement some of that.

Ludovico Costa

Management

Yes. Don, (inaudible) at the Pau-a-Pique, we have experienced very good reconciliation degrees there, just ramping up that’s been very good. At the open pits what experienced there because some variation on the where really the ore body is located, we have experienced a lower mining coal factor there and not so good reconciliation there. As we have diverse open pit, we expected to have a better reconciliation. We are improving that, the drilling space in order to get a better view beforehand. In the order of terms that. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Yes it just that it's more complicated the ore is more complicated to mine than the pit?

Ludovico Costa

Management

Yeah. I would say yes, but we have to experience, as it is a new mine, we have to go through the experience to really identify the best way to mine that, and I think throughout the months we're going to see a better reconciliation and we introduced new (inaudible) drilling, we expect that to improve. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Right. Okay and can I just go back to Jacobina and maybe Chuck can sort of fill in what the book value for Jacobina is at this point, because it still got a long way to go to get back to the kind of costs that you want and what would you be looking for a target operating costs for that mine and maybe now that we're getting into things like the all-in costs maybe you could touch on what that would be?

Peter Marrone

Management

Yeah. Let me address the second point, because we said I believe on our second quarter call last – few months ago, we expect the Jacobina cost structure to be in the range of $850 per ounces. That is the operating costs sustaining capital and the other items that going to all-in costs would be higher than that, but that is our expectation for – by the end of this year and into 2014, we should be getting a better cost structure as we complete this development working get into these higher grade areas and are producing 130,000 ounces to 140,000 ounces, which is our objective with these higher grade areas rather than the 80,000 ounces that were currently contemplating. On the book value perhaps if its okay with you Don may be Chuck can get back to you on that. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Okay, because I guess that mine has been problematic for the company in terms of the often coming in a very high cost as compared to expectation, so in the review of cost or the book of costs, I was actually a bit surprise that it didn’t end up having to take a haircut.

Peter Marrone

Management

Well there is a lot of exploration success in a lot of ounces, with more than 2 million ounces in a grade of having gone from – grade having gone from 2 grams per ton to over 3 gram per ton, which means it we have areas that are well in excess of 3 grams per ton 3.75 grams per tone to 4 grams per ton. I think that it would be fair to say that there is a tremendous amount of optionality. What is the problem with Jacobina, the problem with Jacobina is that while there is a legacy issue because its been around well before we owned it and for many, many, many decades and so part of it is just a systemic issue with the mine in the operation, but what we’ve been doing for the past several years is focusing on exploration in an higher grade, what we are doing for the next several years is focusing on development of higher grade areas to get to a higher production level. So we should be able to with that higher production level get the value of –support the value of that asset as it currently stands. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Right. Okay, thanks, I appreciate the feedback.

Peter Marrone

Management

Thanks Don.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Dan Rollins with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Dan Rollins – RBC Capital Markets: Yeah thanks very much. Peter, previous quarters you’ve mention that you’re sort of sustaining camp on an annual basis would be about 400 million. Could you give us an update on where do you expect that to be going forward after your cost studies?

Peter Marrone

Management

Yeah I think we indicated 420 million. In our current contemplation, we’re still assuming of 400 million to 420 million. But what we’re looking at is opportunities to further reduce that. Most of that reduction would come from contractor rates, efficiencies of contractors, so many meters for a period of time and the cost per meter, which we anticipate being able to improve over the course of the next year to several years. Dan Rollins – RBC Capital Markets: Okay. And then just on the all-in sustaining costs you using the current definition provided by the World Gold Council?

Peter Marrone

Management

Well we’re including in all-in sustaining costs and perhaps we do highlight in our disclosure. But may be I can answer the question this way. We including operating costs, we include sustaining capital, we include expensed exploration, we include G&A and that includes corporate G&A into that number. I don’t recollect that the World Gold Council includes all of those things, but those are the things that we include in our view of all-in sustaining cash costs. But we then do Dan is that we say, well we’ll show that on a co-product basis, and then we believe as you probably say for a long time that I think it is fare to look at as Chuck said, copper as a by-product credit, as an offset to some of the risk to inflation, to cost structure within a buyback credit to that all-in sustaining costs on a co-product basis to determine the all-in sustaining cash cost on a by-product basis. Dan Rollins – RBC Capital Markets: Okay perfect. May be on some of the development stage projects, I think I'm on the road so I don’t have full access to your MD&A, but I see that you produced I think about 7,500 of ounces being on the commissioning stage. You’re seeing certainly low for both C1 and Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique area obviously you’re now expecting commercial brush in late Q4 on those assets?

Peter Marrone

Management

Well, it’s low, but it’s consistent with what we had anticipated. Remember, Pilar (inaudible) is only in July. Most of that production is from Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique. So we’re still confident in being able to deliver commercial production at C1 in the third quarter. Likely the end of the third quarter, if we miss it, we’ll miss it by a little bit, maybe the early fourth quarter, but in that band, the narrowband and in the case of Pilar by the fourth quarter within the end of the year. We had indicated in the past that we expected commerciality within a period of about four months. And that’s still realistic for C1 Santa Luz and for Pilar; as Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique is taking us a little bit longer than that to get the commerciality. Dan Rollins – RBC Capital Markets: Okay. And then maybe just moving within our exploration, Gualcamayo you seem to have quite a bit of success there. I guess the two newer deposits you sort of discovered. How that change your view with respect that operation going forward? Would you be looking at potentially just mine extension with those assets or there is any recourses or would you be looking at potentially increasing capacity of the heap leach facility or even are you still concentrating a milling option there?

Peter Marrone

Management

We’re contemplating a different treatment for those. That’s mostly sulphide material. So we’re contemplating a different treatment of that. We’d indicated previously that we expect it to have a study on that sometime this year and we’re still expecting within the third quarter we will deliver the initial view on that study. So as you recollect QDD Lower West, which was the initial ore body that was discovered in that shallow underground, the near to surface underground. The intention was to treat that ore through the heap leaching facilities that we already have. As it continue to get bigger and then the discovery of Rodado and then the sub-paralleled structures our view is that we are getting – increasingly Gualcamayo is becoming an underground opportunity. And so what we are now doing is we are going through that evaluation process of alternative methods for the recovery of what will be mostly sulphide ore. Dan Rollins – RBC Capital Markets: Okay, great. Thanks very much.

Peter Marrone

Management

Thank you. Gentlemen and ladies expect to get that study, we are expecting to get at least an initial view on that sometime in the third quarter. So we will likely be indicating that just as we doc the eyes in core expertise perhaps in our third quarter results, but certainly by the end of the year.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Alec Kodatsky, with CIBC. Your line is now open sir. Please go ahead. Alec Kodatsky – CIBC World Markets: Thanks, and good morning. I just wanted to focus a bit on the cost side with respect to your original target, you are trying to get all-in sustaining costs down by $100 per GEO and that appeared to be tracking reasonably well and then the incremental target of $50 per ounce, are you still viewing that number as being achievable and where you are actually seeing the opportunities to continue to cut costs?

Peter Marrone

Management

Well, we have – I’ll turn it to Chuck in a moment, but we have a $115 million of cost improvement that is already in the briefcase here, that's important, so if you looked at it from the point of view of when we undertook this task in the second – at the end of our first quarter on our first quarter conference call, we had indicated that what $100 costs per ounce and the incremental $50 initially would be applied to the mines that were then in production. So if you look at the production for the second half of the year and divide that into the $115 million of improvements that we are already have in costs, it will be well in excess of $100 per ounce. Now what we’re doing is, we’re saying well in 2014 and 2015 we’re still going to get that $115 million, but it’s over a larger base of production with the new mines coming into production. Now how can we improve those, as we get these into production what efficiencies, what cost improvements can we make, that allow us to create a sustainability to that plus $100 per ounce across all our ounces. That’s what we’re in progress on right now. So we refer to it Alec as $100 per ounce and then $50 per ounce, but may be the better way to look at it is, what’s the aggregate, And then we’ll leave it to us and to individuals to determine how you determine that on a per ounce basis. But the aggregate is $115 million and those savings have occurred literally within the course of a few months. And so while I’m a big believer that we’re into a transition on costs, you heard me say that. So I think we’re going to get substantially better, more improvements to cost structure as time passes. But $150 million and roughly $24 million in G&A alone should demonstrate to everyone that we have been very aggressive at making sure that we’ve gone leaner than we were. Alec Kodatsky – CIBC World Markets: Great, and I guess just the components of that, I mean, the – I guess the underlining question is how much can you actually start to squeeze from the operations themselves. I mean the numbers on the corporate side and the sustaining side, are those sort of the incremental steps and now it’s getting back to mine plans and the renegotiations with suppliers and you would expect to see that filter through in the back half of the year. Is that’s I guess that timeframe where you could expect that to come through or is it a longer sort of a time frame where we may be into next year before some of these cost benefits come in? I’m just sort of curious how you’re seeing the response with regard to your whether it’s labor or your discussions with the suppliers?

Peter Marrone

Management

I don’t know operational level, Alec we cut roughly 10% of our workforce within the past few months and that represents a significant savings on that up costs. If we looked that our cost structure, if we look at consumables, fuel, power, labor and then added labor would be contractor rates. And if you looked at labor and contractor rates, that’s approximately 46%. In some operations, this is high as 50% of our cost structure. So my experience is the best way to improve cost is to go to these at the bulk, to go you have got the greatest item to cut. So cutting some of the other items, I think is going to be incremental. But I think the best improvement comes to those two items. And I think the one in that is roughly 40% to 50% of that is contractor rate. And so I think the level of efficiency with contractors and the costs for contractor should be expected to come down as this reality in such as gold price. It’s across the Board in every commodity, it’s what’s happening with capital programs. As that all seat itself into the marketplace, as we go through this transition, I believe that that’s what we’re going to get our next best cost saving. We have a plan in place now. We’re not disclosing it yet, but we have a plan in place to further cut our operating costs and our sustaining capital. We expect that that will take us into the end of this year and likely into early next year. But we’ll get the benefit of it starting in 2014. Alec Kodatsky – CIBC World Markets: Okay, great. Thank you very much

Peter Marrone

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Anita Soni with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Anita Soni – Credit Suisse: Good morning, Peter. I just have sort of a strategic question. As you look at the mines that are having all-in sustaining cash costs higher than average and I look at the one into Jacobina, Gualcamayo, and Minera Florida. How do you look at I guess optimizing operations and sustaining capital at some of those assets versus maintain a portfolio approach like you don’t want a cut rate to the sort of may be take a hit on Minera Florida, but if it’s got a longer term potential but how are you thinking about these things as you go forward in to your end.

Peter Marrone

Management

Yeah I think some of the – its interesting that you mentioned those three in particular, because I think that in those three in my view our corporate view is that the improvement to cost structure that will bring it the closer to our average cost structure that we indicated in our public disclosure last night and on this call will be through efficiencies in operations and through increase in production. Jacobina should be not be producing 80,000 ounces per year should not be producing 100,000 ounces per year, it should be producing 130,000 ounces per year plus, equally Gualcamayo the challenge of Gualcamayo is as we transition we are going to transition into the underground at the expense of the open. Gualcamayo cost structure should improved as we increase the volume of ore coming from that under ground. We have to look at Gualcamayo from another perspective which is the inflation rate in Argentina has been higher then in other countries. As that inflation rate is changed then I think that that customers should will come down as well. They will create further opportunities whereas there may have been a few contractors that we would higher for development work, we know have the option of bring other contractors in, I think as you appreciate Anita, in a jurisdiction that is has had certain fiscal issue that is strength that had challenged and its trying to deal with, with high inflation many foreign contractors may not be as interested, foreign workers may not be as interested and coming in. That pressure will elevated itself as that fiscal huss comes in order and as that’s inflation rate comes down. So we are seeing improvement in efficiencies and in production at those operations in the case of Gualcamayo also the inflation rate. Anita Soni – Credit Suisse: On Minera Florida I’m just wondering what would the sustain – what was the all-in cost or the cost fee if you were not using – didn’t continue with the tailing side of the equation?

Charles B. Main

Management

We’re estimating approximately a $1100, $1150 per ounce all-in. Anita Soni – Credit Suisse: Sorry with the tailings or without the tailings?

Charles B. Main

Management

Without the tailings it would be that number. The tailings presently is not giving us a huge benefit on cost, we’re experiencing the mining project and this is probably you’re getting that. Anita Soni – Credit Suisse: Yeah.

Charles B. Main

Management

We’re not experiencing a mining cost with it but we’re getting less ounces than what was anticipated and so the result of all of that is that that plant is not running as efficient where it should. So what we’ve done over the course of the last several quarters to a year is mentioned is we have been focusing on exploration successes. The idea being finding new ounces in new deposits, increasing the number of mine faces that allows us to feed that supplemental plants with new ore. Anita Soni – Credit Suisse: And then a last technical question on Gualcamayo, should we be thinking still about an expansion of production there into 2014 originally with QDD Lower West as opposed to be started – starting up I think year end this year and then ramping up throughout 2014 is that still on the cards or…

Charles B. Main

Management

Yeah QDD Lower West is we’re progressing with the completion of Lower West and we’re expecting to be in production third quarter to fourth quarter this year. Most of that production will come in fourth quarter for this year and then what we’re doing is we are evaluating what the production expectation is, given that to be fair we are a few months behind where we wanted to be on the start up of that operation, what that it has is an impact for 2014. So when we given this guidance expectation for 2014, we’ve also taken a little bit of liberty on Gualcamayo’s ultimate potential by bringing down its production expectations in 2014, because of its later ramp up in 2013. Anita Soni – Credit Suisse: Okay and then lastly the cash cost increase that you saw at Gualcamayo is that due to the – the ramp up into Lower West I mean that is commercial – you have got to basically take that start up cost on that side of the equation into the bottom line is that what comes in?

Charles B. Main

Management

No we were not getting any ounces from Lower West at the end of Q2, most of it was coming through lower grade material, I mentioned the transition some open-pit to under ground. So you’re slowing down the open-pit at the expense of increasing the development level at the under ground and portion of that was also result of the inflationary pressures in the country. Ludovico, I don’t know if you wanted to supplement that with anything else.

Ludovico Costa

Management

No that was exactly the specific growth. We are now in the transition there and we are seeing the lower grade material that was spot price, we state the underground (inaudible) ramp on from now onwards. Anita Soni – Credit Suisse: Okay. All right, thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Neils Christensen with Kitco News. Please go ahead. Neils Christensen – Kitco News: Yes, I am sorry I just wanted to from at the beginning you’re talking about adapting to a new price environment. And talking about lower prices steepening in and creating lower cost for yourself and you are not waiting for those prices to those cost sort of – that is why you are aggressively cutting cost where you can. So going forward, I guess do you see gold prices at these levels are lower.

Charles B. Main

Management

Neils I will give you, I can only give you what is my personal view. Neils Christensen – Kitco News: Okay.

Charles B. Main

Management

I think that we are – we would be foolish to believe the gold prices are at these levels and will not go higher than these levels. I don’t believe that the thesis for gold price going to higher levels has changed. I think you are aware that the World Gold Council published a report, which I think is a fair analysis and that’s the belief that when real interest rates in the United States go up and gold price comes down is just not true. And so I think in that context we have to look at it and say well let’s be prudent, we’ve got an opportunity right now to compress costs, we did that in 2009 when gold price appear to fallen off of a cliff and so we’re taking the same approach, but ultimately my view is that gold price will go to substantially higher levels, and so we have to look at it and say well imagine what the consequence will be when you compress your costs, you can get the benefit of that for several years, when you’re back into a rising gold price environment. So be able to deliver good margins that is very good margins in the current gold price environment, which will only improve when gold price goes up. Neils Christensen – Kitco News: Okay. So I guess you are just preparing now for cutting cost now to reflect today’s prices and then prepare – and then be situated for when prices do go up, you will be able to take off running I guess is the expression that I'm sort of looking for.

Peter Marrone

Management

That’s correct and then – I like the point about taking off running, but I think the important thing here is if we’re not running then we’re at the very fast walk anyway, because I think the way to look at this is that gold price is still $1300 per ounce, it appears that sustainability in that range of 1250 per ounce to 1350 per ounce and so the way to look at this is look I like my safety, if I’m wrong of where gold price will go and it will likely stay within this range of $1250 to $1350 then what we’ve done is we prepare the company to be profitable and to generate very decent cash flow even in that gold price environment. Neils Christensen – Kitco News: Okay. Perfect. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions). The next question is a follow-up question from Don MacLean with Paradigm. Please go ahead. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Peter maybe I could just chat a bit about the dividend, because we’ve seen Barrick and Kinross both cut back theirs and as you say hopefully the gold price will go higher but in the mean time we have to live prudently with the gold price we have, can you sort of – you maintained your dividend if you look ahead for the next few quarters, what do you think the situation looks like?

Peter Marrone

Management

We pay $195 million per year in dividends, if we look at $0.26 per share given the share count that is outstanding. So approximately $195 million in dividends per year. I think if we look at the financial model for this company its $1250 per ounce, $1200 per ounce, $1350 per ounce particularly looking at it from this point of view Don which is that the capital expenditure of this company after this year is significantly reduced. Now we have to make a decision about Cerro Moro about and I think it will be a positive decision but our CapEx in 2014 and 2015 will be significantly below the level that it has had 2013. Our exploration budget is expected to be significantly below the current level, because of the huge exploration successes that we’ve already had over the course of the last several years for a period of time we will be on a maintanence approach for that exploration, we will be concentrating on where we can get many more ounces from what we’ve already gotten as a platform. So when we look at it from that point of view, this company has significant amount of longevity and the ability to pay that dividend of $0.26 per share. We will continue to evaluate it, and clearly metal prices will have an impact, but certainly within the context of what I’ve just described as that a range of metal price, we are not seeing a risk to the dividend and we think that we can take further actions for the improvement to cost to continue to manage that dividend. Don MacLean – Paradigm Securities: Great, okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Doug Dyer with Heartland Advisors. Please go ahead. Doug Dyer – Heartland Advisors Research: Good morning everyone. In your press release, you indicated that you have done a thorough review of the properties to see if you needed to charge any of them off and unfortunately you didn’t have to. But did you find any properties that are now and not meeting some of your investment hurdles and therefore maybe that would be candidates for sales?

Peter Marrone

Management

Doug you have asked an excellent question and I think that the only way that I can answer that without more disclosure than is possible is to say that we will critically evaluate everything that has a high cost structure where we don’t believe that we can aim that cost structure everything that has a production level where we do not believe that we can create a sustainably higher production level that maybe better in someone’s hand. So we will continue to look at that at the present time I don’t think that there is anything that fits that criteria of our producing mines. But we will continue to critically evaluate that and see where the opportunity is not just the present day opportunity but over the course of the next few years to determine what the production is, what the cost is, what the return on our investment is and to see if it is better to try to sell it. I don’t think we are in a market where things are where it is easy to sell something, but I think it is always prudent to look at things and to be governed by a dictate that says when something is not performing to your standards and to your averages and your expectations then it should be up for sale. Doug Dyer – Heartland Advisors Research: All right. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Steve Parsons with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead. Steve Parsons – National Bank Financial: Thank you. Good morning everybody. I would you like to follow-up on the subject of contractor cost cutting, which of your mines have a higher proportion of mine contractors, whether for operations or development and of those operations essentially which have scope for cuts whether because the contract expires near term and or is availability in the country with contractors?

Ludovico Costa

Management

Steve it is Ludovico here. The mine that you have the highest proportion of contract is really Chapada where we had the open pit mine there, this part of the mine there is contract (inaudible) but we do have contracts in other mines for the underground that Jacobina, Pilar, Penon and a little bit Florida, we would normally use these contractors for supply the development that we need to have a plan. And as in this new environment that we have with the falling prices, we are ready to start other negotiations with the contracts to revising their rates and I think we have been successful in this. Steve Parsons – National Bank Financial: That is fair. I will leave at there. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting back over to Marrone.

Peter Marrone

Management

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for making the time. I know that many several companies reported last night and I know that there are several things to discuss with what those companies reported and so I know that there are – this is a busy time for everyone, but I would like to conclude with a few thoughts. We will continue to provide production growth over the next few years and this growth will be delivered at the lower cost regimen which means efficient growth and efficient growth will continue to build shareholder value. We have various opportunities within the existing assets, Butch highlighted only a few but these are very important because of the near-term to bring those ounces, those results to ounces and ounces to production, so those opportunities exist within the existing assets and that should enhance our growth profile. These opportunities allow us to achieve the original targets of production overtime, but as I say and I emphasize more efficiently exploration continues to find more ounces and operations then will continue to unlock the value in our operating assets. So I’d like to thank you for joining the call and with that, we will look forward to our Q3 call in several months.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The conference call has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.