Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Pan American Silver Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Siren Fisekci, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Ms. Fisekci.

Thank you for joining us today for Pan American Silver's conference call and webcast to discuss our third quarter 2026 results. This call includes forward-looking statements and information and references non-GAAP measures. Please see the cautionary statements in our MD&A, Q3 news release and presentation slides for the period ended September 30, 2026, all of which are available on our website. I'll now turn the call over to Michael Steinmann, Pan American's President and CEO.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. Pan American delivered strong financial results in the quarter, generating $377 million in attributable free cash flow and returning $300 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Our financial position is very strong with $1.9 billion in cash and equivalents, including cash at Juanicipio and $3.4 billion in total available liquidity. Our silver business continues to perform well. Silver segment all-in sustaining costs were $11.21 per ounce for the quarter, below our quarterly outlook range. Year-to-date, silver costs have been better than expected and production tracks on guidance. We have revised our outlook for gold segment operations based on results achieved to date and expectations for the remainder of the year. Net earnings were $357 million or $0.86 per share. The result includes a gain on the sale of the larger exploration property and the mark-to-market gain on our interest in New Pacific Metals. Adjusted earnings were $287 million or $0.69 per share. Cash flow from operations was $462 million, including our share of cash flow generated at Juanicipio. Over the first 9 months of 2026, we have generated $1.2 billion of attributable free cash flow and returned $701 million to shareholders. This included approximately 9.6 million shares repurchased and canceled and $228 million paid in dividends. The reduction in share count has resulted in a higher per share dividend as we execute on our enhanced shareholder return program. For the third quarter, the Board has declared a dividend of $0.185 per common share. Our capital returns are supported by a strong balance sheet and healthy cash flow generation and we are well positioned to invest in our operations, advance high-quality growth opportunities and maintain the enhanced shareholder return framework introduced for 2026. Turning to operations. Attributable silver production was 6.1 million ounces in the third quarter, below our quarterly outlook range. La Colorada, Huaron and San Vicente provided strong quarterly silver production while Juanicipio and Cerro Moro were responsible for the slide shortfall. At Juanicipio, higher-than-planned silver grades were realized in the first half of the year, resulting in production outperforming expectations and benefiting from the robust metal price environment over that period. The mine is now sequencing into lower silver grade ores for the second half of the year, but remains on track to achieve its annual production guidance. At Cerro Moro production reflected mine sequencing into lower silver grade and higher gold grades. Heavy-than-normal rainfall as a result of a strong El Nino affecting South America also affected ore transported from the Naty Condor pit processing plant and made the oversaturated or more difficult to process. Our full year silver production outlook remains at 25 million to 27 million ounces with production expected at the low end of the range. This is due to unplanned downtime at Huaron in Q4 to repair the primary grinding mill foundation, and a higher ratio of gold to silver production at Cerro Moro. The repairs on Huaron are expected to be completed in November. We expect full year silver segment all-in sustaining costs to come in towards the lower end of the 2026 guidance range of $15.75 to $18.25 per silver ounce. Attributable gold production was 168,000 ounces in the third quarter, with production at Timmins impacted by delay in accessing higher grade stopes and great underperformance, while Shahuindo recovered ounces have been delayed by increased leach pad inventories. Full year gold production is now expected to be between 660,000 to 680,000 ounces, reflecting lower production for the remainder of the year at Jacobina Shahuindo and Timmins. Gold segment all-in sustaining costs were $ 2,281 per ounce in Q3, above our quarterly outlook range. Guidance for full year gold segment all-in sustaining cost is now $2,000 to $2,150 per ounce, reflecting lower-than-expected production, increased development at Jacobina and El Penon, higher labor and consumable costs and weather-related impacts associated with El Nino. At Jacobina, we have reduced our full year production forecast to reflect measures being implemented during Q4 2026 to address the deficiencies noted during a technical inspection from the National Mining Agency, mainly related to primary ventilation redundancies and completion of secondary egress in certain areas of the mine. We have modified mine sequencing to allow the remediation work to occur, resulting in lower-than-planned production from affected areas, and substitution of lower grade material for the remainder of 2026. We are evaluating the potential impact on 2027 production. In addition, we continue to manage risk associated with seismicity as previously reported. These measures require increased pillar size, resulting in decreased mining rates in some higher-grade areas, partially offset by increased production from lower grade areas in the mine and increased development rates to open new mining zones. Meanwhile, we also continue to advance Jacobina's broader optimization plan. Two new carbon in pulp tanks were commissioned during the quarter and engineering and permitting work is progressing on paste backfill, tailings filtration and power supply upgrades. We're also evaluating options for a new processing facility to address the constraints of the existing plant. These initiatives are intended to improve operating efficiency, strengthen flexibility and support the asset's long-term potential. As previously reported, production at El Penon has been impacted by underperformance in certain high-grade stopes, resulting in lower gold grades. The company is advancing plans for additional infill drilling in areas scheduled for production in 2027, while continuing resource definition drilling and devaluation additional exploration targets with potential to define high-grade mineralization. At Shahuindo, some production is being deferred due to an accumulation in leach pad inventory. Our outlook also incorporates the potential impact on Shahuindo's operation in the fourth quarter from a heavier than normal rainfall related to very strong El Nino weather systems, which has impacted many of our operations over the past month. Turning to growth initiatives. We continue to advance the expansion of our La Colorada mine in Mexico, a significant opportunity for material long-term growth in silver production at Pan American. Work on the 12.4 kilometer, 588 decline began in mid-August, following mobilization of the contractor and equipment to site. The 588 decline is making good progress and has completed 168 meters of advance on the ramp and 56 meters of secondary development to the end of October 2026. During the third quarter, we also advanced engineering work and contractor selection for the hoisting and ventilation shafts. We plan to submit this component of the project for Board approval very early in 2027. At Timmins, we completed the exploration drift to the Samsung deposit from the active Tenants fast working during the quarter, enabling further underground exploration drilling. The exploration drift to the Vogel deposit from the active Bell Creek working is progressing and surface drilling has started at Gold River. We plan to complete the preliminary economic assessment for the Timmins camp project in the first half of 2027. The study will help define the potential phased approach to developing adjacent mineral resources extending mine life and potentially growing production by leveraging access plant capacity. We have revised our estimate for project capital to $195 million to $210 million for 2026, down from the previous guidance range of $240 million to $255 million due to timing of spending. In the third quarter, we also completed the sale of our larger exploration property in Ontario, resulting in Pan American taking approximately 6% ownership stake in Cadillac Mines Corporation. This provides continued exposure to the prospective Florida Lake Cadillac break to our equity interest. At Juanicipio, the transfer conveyor project was completed during the third quarter, with commissioning expected to be completed by year-end. The project will improve efficiencies and reduce the cost of haulage to surface. Regarding Escobal in Guatemala, the government has provided an update on progress achieved during 2026 in the ILO 169 consultation process with the Xinka representatives. The process continues but there is currently no time line for the conclusion and no date for restart of the operation. To conclude, we are on track to achieve our silver segment outlook for 2026 expect silver all-in sustaining cost to be at the lower end of our guidance range, and we adjusted our gold guidance and gold all-in sustaining costs. The underlying strength and quality of our portfolio continued to generate substantial free cash flow and create long-term value. We are advancing opportunities at La Colorada and Timmins, and pursuing initiatives to improve the performance and flexibility of our existing operations. With a strong financial position, a diversified operating portfolio and a disciplined approach to capital allocation, we believe Pan American is well positioned to invest for the future while continuing to return meaningful capital to shareholders. Before we move to the Q&A portion of this call, I would like to take a moment to congratulate the La Colorada exploration team for receiving the Thayer Lindsley Award from PDAC for the discovery of the Skarn deposit. The discovery of La Colorada Skarn is certainly deserving of that award given it has transformed the future of our La Colorada asset, and we are progressing with our plans to make it one of the world's largest silver and zinc mining operation. And with that, I'll turn it over for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Matthew Murphy with BMO Capital Markets.

Could I ask on Jacobina? So just to clarify, the regulator comments are unrelated to the seismic issues disclosed last quarter, it's a separate issue? And then anything you can provide around 2027, how you think about, how long lower grades could persist?

Yes. Matthew, Scott Campbell here. I can address your question. So Brazil's National Mining Authority inspected the mine early in October and noticed some deficiencies related to the primary ventilation redundancies and completion of secondary egress in certain areas of the mine. There are certain aspects of the Brazilian mining code that can be interpreted differently. We have guidelines developed based on our best practices across various jurisdictions where we operate. Nevertheless, we experienced some delays to vertical developments and expediting our remediation plans in coordination with the mining inspector. Work is expected to continue throughout the remainder of this year, and we are assessing the impact on 2027 production. And your first question is no, it's a separate issue. It's not related to the seismicity issue that we explained earlier in the year.

Yes. Okay. And then maybe just one on looking at production trends and you've got Juanicipio moving into lower silver, higher base metal zones. You've got Cerro Moro, a little more gold weighted. Is this -- is there anything structural here or it's just kind of particular to those mine plans where you're getting into more byproducts than silver?

It's Michael. Definitely, obviously, these deposits across the globe with their geology, have [ zonifications ] to see that we are mining actually more gold or gold richer ore at Cerro Moro than silver. Not a bad by-product to have, obviously. As you know, this is a silver gold deposit and depending where you're mining and which part of the veins and the pit that we have at Naty Condor, you have more gold and more silver at any time. So at the moment, more gold-rich ore that comes into production from there. When you look at the Juanicipio, and I think we talked about it several times, it's the same geology, a very similar geology than we see at La Colorada where you have a clear [ zonification ] into more base metals, deeper down in the mine. So while we still have high-grade areas and depending how much of the tonnage you mine on higher parts of the structure mix with lower part of the veins, you have more silver or more base metal rates or that you produce. So very similar to La Colorada, you can obviously kind of mitigate that by mining parts higher up in the system in new veins to bring in more silver, and that's what we're working on, and that's exactly the same that we're doing at La Colorada to maintain those higher grades. But if you go deeper down, obviously, you maintain dollar value by mining more base metal or byproducts in those kind of deposits. But definitely, when you go deeper down in this Mexican silver deposits on any given structure, you're going to higher base metal and less silver grades.

Next question comes from Wayne Lam with TD.

Okay. Maybe, I guess, as a follow-up, was just wondering at Penon maybe if you could give us a bit more detail on the reconciliation issues with the higher-grade stopes and with the depletion of the stockpiles, kind of how we should think about the processing rates and I guess, production profile of the '27?

Yes, nothing has changed what we disclosed on Penon in Q2. I think we alluded there that we cut out about 10,000 ounces of of gold for the year. And those are really some high-grade stopes that didn't have sufficient drilling from the way past in a bit more narrow structure. So there's less continuity there than we have expected. And so we have increased drilling on those structures. But for the meantime, we moved some from the reserves and move them into resources. You would have seen that in our reserve update that came out late in summer. So nothing really has changed there. Obviously, the exploration team is actively drilling those structures. And as soon as we identify more continuity in certain veins, we will move them back into the reserves and into the mine plan. When you look at the stockpiles, in fact very interesting, there are a lot of, I would say, got a few open pit opportunities at El Penon. As you probably recall before, at the very beginning of El Penon way back, way before PanAm had it, it was a combination of open pit mining and underground high-grade veins. Those stockpiles still are apart from that open pit mining time. Now fast forward to today and very elevated metal price, we definitely have a very hard look for additional open pit material although low grade as we have capacity in the plant. Obviously, that would not displace the high grade from the veins, and that will be a very welcome addition to our mine plan. So that's really what our focus on the exploration side is going on right now.

Okay. Great. And then I'm not sure if I missed it, but were you able to provide a quantum of the total downtime anticipated at Huaron for the repair of the foundation? And then maybe just more broadly, just on cost pressures. If you could provide a bit more detail on what you're seeing on labor in general, including any -- whether there's been any additional strikes at Colorada as well as inflation in Argentina.

Yes. Sure, Wayne. This is Scott here. I'll answer your question regarding Huaron. The Huaron plant should be fully operational again by the middle of this month. Total downtime would be about 40 days is what we are calculated.

Just to add that, obviously, the mine is at full production, stockpiling material, and we will have capacity to produce a lot of that ore and proceed to the plant when the plant is back up running for the rest of the year and very early next year. So just a mechanical issue, obviously, that we have to deal with, which was unforeseen. Regarding cost pressures, for sure, I mean, we see cost pressures like everyone, not only in the mining industry but across the globe, with very elevated inflation numbers largely driven by high energy costs, fuel costs, but not only, but for sure, that pushes up all the costs. As you know, have only one open pit left. So our fuel consumption direct cost is only about 5% of our total cost. So that's on its own, obviously, would not be a big cost driver for PanAm. But when fuel costs go up, I don't need to explain that in detail because we all see it in our daily lives. When fuel costs go up, everything is getting more expensive. And we see wide increased inflation across the globe, and that's really what we are experiencing. So it's really that in combination in a very tight labor market. Now the labor market situation is really depending on location. Very tight in some places in Canada, quite tight in some places in Latin America than others where we have actually access to a lot of really, really highly qualified people for the mining, engineering, geology, et cetera. We obviously take advantage of that, and we are a large company, and we can move people around to different operations to kind of make sure that we have the right labor force in the right place. So that's an advantage that PanAm has with having operations across the Americas. But definitely, tight labor market. I think we have seen over the last few days, oil prices coming down. Hopefully, that will continue, and that will have immediately an impact to our cost. But as I always explain in the cost, it's not only that direct cost that you see increase in labor cost and fuel and energy prices, but exchange rates have a very big impact to our cost as well. Some of them, actually, we have we haven't had a tailwind on that, especially in Brazil after the elections. Others we have headwinds. So that can move our cost quite a bit. And then lastly, of course, by-product credits which have a big impact to our costs. And you can see that, especially in our silver segment side, where we actually came in with costs substantially under the expectation. And part of that is, of course, driven by higher zinc prices, base metal prices, so higher byproduct credits that drive those costs down.

The next question comes from Lawson Winder with Bank of America Securities.

Can I revisit Jacobina? And then just regarding the deficiencies identified by the National Mining Agencies. I mean I think it is a bit of a surprise, just given like Pan's history of being an industry leader in safety culture and that. And I guess I would acknowledge that it's a relatively new assets in the portfolio. But I mean, is it possible that there's more work that needs to be done at Jacobina to ensure the Pan American safety culture is more fully adopted there?

There's definitely a lot of work ongoing. As you mentioned, this is one of our newest operation that we have and some work ongoing to bring everything to exactly the levels and the systems that we have installed in every other operation. As Scott mentioned, we have been a bit behind on some of our vertical development and that obviously impacted some of the work on the [indiscernible] and apart some of the ventilation. But ventilation, I think, is a bit a different issue there, actually the discussion on redundancies and ventilation and power systems. Actually a requirement that, to my knowledge, doesn't really exist in other jurisdictions we are working in. But of course, we are working with the regulators to remediate all that as quickly as we can and yes, bring it really full up to the kind of the Pan American way of work. But as you imagine, it's a big mine, and it takes a while to get that all done. Obviously, all hands on deck to continue that work that we started about a couple of years ago, and we took over the operation.

Okay. That's helpful. And then in terms of the considerations for 2027 guidance at Jacobina. So the original was $181 million to $191 million last quarter, you guided to 10 -- well, the implication was you guided to 10% below that. Just looking at 2027 and thinking of the moving parts with the 2026 guided at Jacobina evidently still lower. I mean is flat now versus the current 2026 level reasonable? Or should we be thinking of 2027 as flat versus whatever the Q4 run rate is?

Well, it's a little bit early to answer the question just for the reason that especially on the ventilation side to find all the independent power source and ventilators takes a while, but we have been successful sourcing some and get them installed. So I don't have really details exactly how long it will take. It will definitely drag into the early part of '27. But I would refer to our forecast in early January when we have really the final details on that. But there will be definitely an impact at the beginning of the year, but I would expect that everything else later on in the year will be remediated and back on working.

Okay. That's helpful. We're expecting another exploration update. Should we still expect it later this year? And then would it be sensible to anticipate any sort of resource level update at La Colorada or any of the other assets for that matter?

Definitely, there will be an exploration update here pretty soon. As you can imagine, our exploration teams have been incredibly active this year. I think we are looking at over close to 700,000 meters of drilling or 650,000 meters of drilling. Some very exciting results, and we'll obviously share them with you. We just released the reserve and resource update in September. So we're not going to come out with a new update on that. Maybe did you refer just to the Skarn with that or in general Lawson? Because there will be an update, I think, on the Skarn, let me just, in Q1. There will be an update on the Skarn, but only the Skarn resource. So the rest of our reserve and resources obviously get updated every year and midyear and we normally release that in September.

Okay. Yes, that's very helpful. If I could just ask one final question maybe on capital return. So it looks like you've done about roughly 58% of free cash flow to equity holders versus the framework, which is a bit I mean, I guess you're targeting up to $1 billion. But I mean, I think originally, you had talked about 35% to 40%. So 50% is quite material and quite materially different from what you had originally talked about at the beginning of the year. How should we think about that percent of free cash flow return going forward? I mean can you sustain something in the higher than 58% approaching 60% rate?

Look, that obviously came together when you look at our cash flow moves, our share price moves during the year, that return we announced of up to $1 billion. I think was 35% to 40% of our cash flow we announced in May based on share prices and metal prices at that time and cash flow. Right now, we are a little bit ahead with the spending. I think there has been great opportunities for us to repurchase shares. We can obviously [indiscernible] that a little bit and adjust a little bit in Q4. But in general, of course, it doesn't really matter how much money you spend on the share buyback. It matters how many shares you are able to buy back. And I think when you look at those prices in May and that the kind of equivalent share count we wanted to buy back at that time was about 11.6 million shares. And of course, with lower metal prices, share prices came down as well. And so we don't need to spend $1 billion to buy back those 11.6 million shares, which is obviously our target.

Next question comes from Cosmo Chiu with CIBC.

Maybe my first question is on Timmins. Good to see that you're putting some money to work at Timmins. I have the PEA. And as you mentioned, there's been exploration at the Samson deposit, Vogel and I think you also mentioned Gold River. Would all that be included potentially in the PEA or we're not too sure yet. And as a follow-up, I also saw that the number of consumer now could end up owning 27.3% on a partially diluted basis on Galleon gold. Maybe Michael, could you also touch on how that potentially fits into your Timmins strategy?

Yes, Cosmo. Let me just answer the first part, and then I hand you over to Ignacio, who has the numbers from Galleon gold, our investment there. Look, in general, what we're achieving here, and I think we do is surfacing value and additional value that we see in the Timmins district. It's a very large historical district in Canada. We are now there for a number of years. And we found all these satellite deposits that have very interesting, great, very interesting location to our current operation. And as you saw there, we have access and access the second one right from our current operations. So they're in very close proximity and can add additional production to our profile here. So yes, all these satellites will be included in our updated PEA, that's come out in the first 6 months of next year. And we'll make Timmins a very interesting district. So Galleon gold, how much could you?

Ignacio here. So it's 15.6%. And on the fully diluted, it is around 27% partially diluted.

Yes. So the idea that really that deposit is right next to Timmins West, obviously, makes a lot of sense to give a hand there to our neighbors, looking at potential or quality and contributions. And so it made a lot of sense for us to make that investment in, again, in a district that is growing and a very interesting production profile in Canada.

Great. And then, Michael, maybe more near term, and you kind of touched on it on silver production, 6 million ounces was below your expectations for the quarter, in part due to mine sequencing at Juanicipio and Cerro Moro. But could we potentially expect a bit of catch-up in Q4? Or is it really beyond Q4 where the catching up is going to happen?

I think with the mill repair at Huaron, will be probably hard to catch up a lot. I think we're probably going to stay more closer to flat, while we pretty much guided that we're going to come in at the lower end of our guidance. But within our original guidance range and that should give you pretty much the number where we're going to end up. And as we try to catch up as much as we can when the mill is back up running at Huaron, but it will definitely drag into Q1 and Q2 to treat and recover all those ounces from the accumulated stockpile that we are accumulating right now.

Of course. Maybe one last question, and we talked about a lot of the weather-related issues according to or in relation to El Nino or they call the Super El Nino. And you kind of factor that into your Q4 guidance. I think you mentioned that anticipating some weather-related issues at Shahuindo in Peru. But I guess, holistically, taking a step back, Michael, have you seen it? Have you seen the impact so far in terms of hitting LatAm? Or are you still anticipating? Is it still to come?

No, huge impacts that we've seen during this quarter in some of our operations in Cerro Moro even got a lot of rain. I think I alluded to that in the conference call here that roads get difficult to pass very wet or it's very difficult to push through the through the crossing circuit, as you can imagine, huge rainfalls around Antofagasta and El Penon an area, which is probably one of the most arid places on the planet that suddenly got in 1 day, not only a 100-year rain event, but actually the accumulated rain of 100 years. I think it was in 1 day or half a day. And I would refer to listeners to look at some of the YouTube videos. Luckily, nobody got injured in Antofagasta, but huge mud flows coming down through the city. And of course, that has impacted El Penon, big rainfalls and storms that we see around Santiago and no surprise then neither. I'm sure people have seen the mud flows that actually went right through downtown Santiago in some places, and we see impacts of that at our operation in La Florida. So definitely -- and you see -- I'm sure you noticed all the copper producers that have been hugely impacted by those big events as well. So it's definitely a big El Nino, a climate event that we normally have every 5 to 7 years. But definitely not as strong as it is right now. And the impact that we accounted for, and we obviously, we are not predicting -- trying to predict the weather here, but rainfall or no rainfall in our -- on the heap leach operation now, Shahuindo has a big impact, and we tried to account a little bit in there. Of course, those El Nino events are now moving further from further south up to the north and will normally impact Peru in November and December. Maybe this is a bit stronger and will last into January. So we'll see how that goes and what the impact will be. But yes, definitely large impacts to all our [indiscernible] even San Vicente think a lot of snowfalls. And while those weather systems move over the ends and further east.

The next question comes from Charles Ehidiamhen with Jeffries.

I'm asking on behalf of [indiscernible] . So my first question would be on Escobal. So it would suggest that the updates suggest like meaningful progress with the in people. Would you be able to just clarify what is required from this point to bring the consultation to conclusion and sort of reopen the mine?

Yes. As we alluded during the call, a lot of activity, lots of meetings, you can actually check that out and read the updated state of state of the union, if you want to call it like that, of the consultation process and the government website that we refer to in our materials. That gets normally updated every few months and gives you details what kind of meetings have happened. And those meetings are still continuing. So I don't have really a data when the consultation comes to a conclusion, definitely has been a long time, a lot of activity there over the last few quarters, and I would expect that, that continues. There is no -- the clear finalization of the dialogue process. And I think I don't, as I said, I don't have a date. It has really will be decided at the end by the court again when all the material from the consultation goes back to the court in Guatemala, and they will make a decision that this consultation has been fulfilled, and that will be the time when hopefully, we'll get the go ahead to restart demand.

Okay. Just maybe just a follow-up on that. So I know you guys have previously guided about $80 million to $100 million in working capital and about 4 to 6 months to restart production. I just wanted to confirm that, that's still the case at the moment.

I think so. Of course, capital costs are increasing, but the mine is in good shape. We maintain the plant and the underground in good shape. And we could restart, I will probably say in about 6 months' time, first stop for sure, stopes at Escobal are very large stopes. Structure in some parts is up to 45 meters wide. And that will provide meaningful production in that kind of time frame. Normally, we guided that it will probably take after that about a full year to come back to our full production levels, which in the past when it was running last time was around 21 million ounces of production. So that's correct. It's obviously a lot of training. We need some underground equipment to be replaced and the rest will be mostly training and rehiring of a workforce.

The next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank.

At your reserve and resource update in September, do you have a refreshed list of priority divestment candidates or if any? Or conversely, maybe some mines that have reestablished the position within the portfolio? Like I think we saw sizable reserve increases at Cerro Moro, San Vicente and Huaron, some declines on the gold side. So just interested in your thoughts there.

Yes. When you look at the reserve, I mean, it has been very successful, especially on the silver side. Don't forget large part from our gold or the reduction comes from the reduction at Shahuindo. Obviously, when you mine given shell and an open pit, you cannot just simply replace the reserve and additions, unless you would have a big pushback, which is at the moment not in the cards, reserve addition would simply come from higher metal prices or lower cost, if that will be the case and kind of marginal material that would move from resources into -- or sorry, from base into production. So you should assume that in most of the open pit situation, you would deplete reserves, and that's what we've seen, and that's mostly happened to gold. When you look at our underground operations, as said, the exploration has been incredibly successful replacing all of the silver mine that they even be more. And as I said, we will put out a press release later on probably this month with some of those results which have been pretty impressive and continue to be very impressive on the exploration side. Then your second question on the portfolio optimization, look, we always work on that. We just sold the larger deposit. There will be more activity coming. Obviously, I don't want to give you a list here exactly what is ongoing there because this is our confidential still. But there's always a lot of work, as you can imagine, has been in the past. We have sold a lot of assets. We covered a lot of cash through those, and we'll continue looking at our portfolio and optimize while we go.

Okay. That's helpful. So for my second question, back to the quarter, at Timmins and building on Cosmos' question, on Q3, can you separate the impact of delayed access to the higher-grade stopes from grade underperformance? And when should we expect these grades to recover what would be a reasonable normalized production cost level? And then separate to that is how much of the cost impact in Q3 was related to labor pressures?

Well, let's -- I don't know if Ignacio, do you have any details on the labor pressure, maybe we can send that to Don later on to go and dig a bit deeper into those cost details. I think across the board, we probably see like 8% kind of increase, but probably a bit different in Canada. So we can provide you with those numbers and done for sure. Really, a longer-term project, I think, in Timmins, when you look at the overall, we just approved a shaft extension at Bell Creek last quarter, that's ongoing with the work and brings us deeper into that deposit, which absolutely continues. I mean all the exploration shows that we have a similar kind of structure, similar kind of grade going deeper in the asset, and we just need better access right now. At the moment, the shaft is not deep enough, and we're tracking quite a bit of a distance, which adds to our cost. And once the shaft is in place, obviously we'll see lower transportation cost for that kind of ore. I'm just sorry, can you remind me when the shaft will be finalized? 2029 completion, Don. And that will obviously help on our extraction cost for the ore. But in general, you really have to look Timmins, I think, in a more holistic way to explain to Cosmos and that will be very interesting when we put out that PA and including all those satellites around. I think there's way more to do in Timmins than just Timmins West and Bell Creek. And really looking forward to share more holistic Timmins with you, everybody in the next 6 months.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Michael Steinmann for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator, and thank you, everyone, for calling in. It's still a very, very interesting and strong quarter, credible strong cash flow, even though metal prices came off quite a bit. Generated our $377 million of attributable free cash flow during the quarter. Of course, that continues allowing us to provide meaningful returns to shareholders in dividends that actually increased slightly, a dividend of $0.185 per share for this quarter as we buying back shares that fixed dollar amount dividend is increasing every time a little bit as anticipated and strong share buyback. So we returned up to now over $700 million this year to shareholders while we increased our cash and short-term investment holdings to over $1.9 billion and built as we just heard, not only in Timmins, but also at La Colorada and working on the study at Jacobina. So very good position to be in, a lot of value to be created here in the future, a lot of interesting and exciting projects ongoing. And looking forward to give you an update in [indiscernible] in February for the full year, already until then, enjoy the rest of the year and talk at the beginning of 2027. Thank you, everyone.

This brings to a close this conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.