Earnings Labs

Aris Mining Corporation (ARIS)

Q1 2022 Earnings Call· Fri, May 13, 2022

$17.89

-4.64%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the GCM Mining Corp. First Quarter 2022 Results Webcast. My name is Brandon and I’ll be your operator for today. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Mike Davies. Mike, you may begin.

Mike Davies

Operator

Great. Thanks, Brandon. And good morning. And thank you for joining us this morning for our first quarter 2022 results webcast. Joining me on the call this morning is our CEO, Lombardo Paredes and as is customary I’ll first go through our prepared remarks regarding the first quarter and then Lombardo will join in through the Q&A session. Before, we begin let me remind you of our cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements that may be made by us in this morning’s webcast. Last night we released our first quarter results. The financial markets have been very volatile so far in 2022 and this past week has been no exception. In times like this we find our best course of action is to focus on what we can control. Our cash, our cost and our execution. We are pleased with our first quarter 2022 results which highlight our commitment to stay focused and what we can control. Production, cost, adjusted EBITDA, earnings and cash flow results expectations in the first quarter of 2022. From a capital structure perspective, we have used our normal course issuer bid over the first four months of 2022 to repurchase and cancel approximately 400,000 shares keeping us at 98 million shares issued note standing at the present time. At current market prices, we expect to be active starting again next week using our normal course issuer bid to purchase additional shares for cancellation once the quarter end blackout is lifted on Monday. We maintained our dividend policy through the first quarter of 2022, continuing to pay C$1.05 per share on a monthly basis. This resulted in total dividends paid of US$3.5 million from our free cash flow in the first quarter. Since we implemented our dividend policy in the second half of 2020, we have paid…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And on the line we have Carey MacRury. Please go ahead.

Carey MacRury

Analyst

Hey good morning, guys. Maybe first, do you see any potential impact on the upcoming election in Colombia on the mining industry?

Lombardo Paredes Arenas

Analyst

Alright, okay, so let me answer that. But so far the elections in Colombia, it's a tie race between the when the central, the central, right, and the left. The -- we're going to have two rounds, the third around where Petro is going to be the winner and the second round, we strongly believe that Gregory is going to is going to win, probably with a margin of one no more than 1 million votes. So far, Gustavo Petro the left it, I'd say is that he will forbid exploration and in the oil industry. So the attack has been addressed against the oil industry. And he says thinking that he can replace the revenues coming from the oil industry with the revenues coming from tourist. And to that he's planning to bring 50 million people per year, coming into Colombia for that. In the mining industry, so far we have not been a strong announcing, Trump measure or, or that kind of things. On top of that remember that our title in Colombia is not a concession. It’s a property. We own the land and the underground, on perpetuity. So, more, the majority of the scenes that he can apply in an eventful case to the mining industry -- we're applied to company we have concessions, we don't have concession we have we have property we are all -- have private property on our type. Yes, I think that's but that can that can reflect the situation in Colombia now with the election.

Carey MacRury

Analyst

Okay, and then just moving on to Toroparu. And I know, we talked a little bit on the last call around, capital, obviously we're seeing capital inflation there any update on the PFS, either in terms of capital or operating costs or any other sort of moving parts?

Lombardo Paredes Arenas

Analyst

Yes, that PFS remains to be delivered, in July. And that will allow us to have a much better estimate. But I would like to talk a little bit more about that, where our cost estimate for the Toroparu project based on the PEA is $355 million. But remember that our PEA is not a typical PEA. A typical PEA is a document with according with the American Association of is a class three, class four estimate. So when 90% or believe it to be between to be with plus or minus 30%. In our case, the PEA because that project has been on the table since, well 2001, 2002. That project has a lot of information, much more information than a typical PEA. So our estimate is not a class three estimate. It's more than that. It's close to a class two estimate. Class two estimate is an estimate which is with 90% probability to be within plus or minus 20%. When a strategy that we use in our project is to for example in the PEA estimate, we are supposed to our own mining, we are we are supposed to generate our own electricity. We are going, we are supposed we are supposed to storage and distribute the fuel, but I work with our own resources. We decided to use a mining contractor and we decided to use to half -- B operate power plant and we decided to use BO we own and operate fuel plant which we will storage and the . And in those process for a second – with a mining contractor we are in the final stage to award the contract, we have, we have decided with two contenders out of the four that initially the initial bid was five reduced to four…

Operator

Operator

And from Marathon we have Chris Dechiario. Please go ahead.

Chris Dechiario

Analyst

Yes, hi. Thanks for the call. Just wondering also on Toroparu, you said, the finalization of the formal mining license was in process completion expected by mid-2022 What are the risks around that and around that getting delayed or for some reason not receiving it at all?

Lombardo Paredes Arenas

Analyst

Okay, yes, we should meet all the documentation with the government to get the final mining permit. And we are in the process and we are working on that on the bureaucratic procedures and that kind of things. And we are expecting that we will have that for July, but the advantage in our mining permit is that we will not meet that until we are in the stripping phase of the project, which will start in the first quarter 2023 That is a moment when we are going to need to define and mine impairment. So, we have some spare time in case that we have some unexpected delays because for the for the roads, time contraction, internal roads stuck in the civil war related with a tailing with the tailing facility, we will not need the mining plant according we will do generalization. So, we I don't see any risk that we are not going to have our mining permit on time to your two star there. You know they real mining work in the outside.

Chris Dechiario

Analyst

Right understood Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we have a follow up from Carey MacRury. Please go ahead.

Carey MacRury

Analyst

I just wanted to follow up on the previous question, but obviously a lot of moving parts in the macro picture, get interest rates supply chain challenges COVID fill in during, is there any scenario where you potentially delay the project and let things calm down on the macro front? Or is it pretty much a go in your mind?

Lombardo Paredes Arenas

Analyst

I think with the -- with my previous explanation related with the cost. We have enough money to continue with the project because even if the project is going to cost even if the project is going to go 350 or something like that, we have enough money to do that. So we do not foresee any problem, to go ahead with the project.

Carey MacRury

Analyst

Right, thank you.

Operator

Operator

We have no further questions at this time.

Mike Davies

Operator

All right, I've got a couple of here from viewers through the webcast. One is probably a bit more color on our G&A expenditure expenses for the quarter and the trajectory going forward. Should we expect it to stay elevated or return closer? As I said my upfront remarks, Q1 was a very unusual quarter. We have been involved in this free trade arbitration with Colombia the last couple of years, and we've typically had around $4 million a year over the last couple of years of expenses related to this matter, as it was moving along with the tribunal. However, this first quarter was a very heavy quarter, probably the most heavy quarter we've had so far and effort from the legal and other advisors. As mentioned making the final submission ahead of the hearings will take place later this year. So the cost was much more elevated in this quarter than any other quarter we've seen. With that Q2 should be much more sedate, Q3 will probably pick up with a little bit higher level of activity of cost again, for that matter, as we get to the preparation, and then the hearings themselves and then again, should die down after that for going forward. So there will be some volatility in G&A. And certainly the first and third quarters this year, I would expect ABS excluding the free trade arbitration costs that our quarterly G&A should be about $4 million to $4.5 million based on our structure and run rates that we're seeing in the business outside of the expenses for the free trade arbitration. Another question that's here, can I confirm guidance for CapEx for 2022? And how much is sustaining and how much we'll spend at Toroparu. As we had outlined in our year end MD&A, we've got sustaining CapEx guidance for Segovia of $50 million to $55 million this year. We were maintaining that guidance. No, no change there. We had also guided up to $10 million of non-sustaining CapEx at Segovia that did include some expenditures on the solar project, which we just announced where we're going to cancel based on some changes in the project scope and costs that are unacceptable to us, we're going to look for a replacement for that project, because we still believe that having a contribution of solar energy in our operations is fundamental to our ESG strategy around climate change. So we'll look for a replacement for that. But at this point, we don't have a full answer on that. As far as Toroparu goes, I mentioned we spend about 7 million this quarter. It'll start to ramp up in the second quarter, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million in the second quarter, and then the second half of the year. Lombardo, how much do you think we'll spend in the second half of the year based on your work you're doing right now?

Lombardo Paredes Arenas

Analyst

Yes, in the second half of the year. Yes, saying that we will be a little bit above $70 million.

Mike Davies

Operator

$70 million. And some of that will be funded by installments from the Wheaton stream which we are sorting out with Wheaton. And we'll finalize the installment schedule once we deliver the PFS to them in the third quarter. So as Lombardo said, we're fully funded for Toroparu. We’re fully funded, certainly through cash flow and cash on hand for Segovia. So we were very comfortable with our CapEx exploration and development plans that both of our major projects this year.

Operator

Operator

Yes. We do have a question on the phone from Robert . Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yes hi Mike. Things look very interesting. I think it's actually pretty good quarter and I've most particularly picked up on the operating cash flow before the taxes except. I thought that was a really great figure. And does that look like it'll be continued with the operations of Segovia into the future?

Mike Davies

Operator

Yes, so that's always depending on where gold price is, but certainly the gold price is over $1,800. Our, our cost structure is, I think fairly predictable. The peso is also a little volatile, but certainly in our favor today at 4100 pesos per U.S. dollar. But now I think, as we move forward, the operating cash flow should continue to bode well in the second quarter, as I mentioned, we'll pick up some additional inflow from the VAT and we'll make use that to make further tax installments. But all-in-all, I think, from a cash flow perspective, they should continue to function well for us.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Well, looks good to me, and good to talk to you again. Thanks.

Mike Davies

Operator

Great. Thanks, Robert.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions at the moment.

Mike Davies

Operator

All right. Well, we'd like to thank all of you for taking your time this morning to join us. Obviously, we're available if there's additional questions that come up. Thank you. Sorry. Yes, that's its good. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's webcast. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.