Earnings Labs

Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (ASM)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 3, 2016

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Transcript

Charles Daley

Management

Thank you operator, good morning everyone, and welcome to the Avino Silver & Gold Mines Limited year-end and fourth quarter 2015 financial results conference call. On the call today, we have the company’s President and CEO, David Wolfin; as well as our Chief Financial Officer, Malcolm Davidson; and one of our Directors, Mr. Jasman Yee. Before we get started, I’m required to remind you that certain statements on this call will include forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These may include statements regarding Avino’s anticipated performance in 2016 and future years, including revenue and cost forecast, silver and gold production, grades and recoveries, and the timing of expenditures required to develop new mines in mineralized zones. The company does not intend to, and does not assume any obligation to update such forward-looking statements or information other than as required by applicable law. Thank you. With that, I’ll now turn the call over to Avino’s President and CEO, Mr. David Wolfin.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Thanks Charles, and welcome everybody. I’d like to thank you all for joining us here today. During this call, I will cover the highlights of this morning news release and our financial and operating performance in 2015 compared to 2014, then I'll open up the call for Q&A to address any questions you may have. I’m pleased to report that 2015 was another profitable year for Avino despite a challenging year for precious metal markets. During the year, we brought the Avino mine online after completing our expansion in late 2014, which resulted in a 116% increase in silver equivalent production. We also identified new areas for mining around the San Gonzalo mine close to our term facility agreement with Samsung and heightened the embankment dam for the tailings storage facility at Bralorne. We also acquired key pieces of mining and production equipment for operations in Mexico and Canada. Revenue for the year was 19.1 million compared to 19.3 million the prior year. Mine operating income was 8.1 million in 2015 compared to the 7.9 million in 2014. Results were consistent year-on-year due to additional silver equivalent produced and sold from the San Gonzalo mine, which was offset by lower metal prices. Both Mill Circuit 1 and 2 were used to process San Gonzalo mill feed for five months during the first half of the year and then again during September and October effectively doubling throughput during those months. Our realized sliver price decreased by 19% from $19.04 US to $15.46 per ounce sold and our realized gold price decreased by 9% from $12.56 to $11.48 per ounce sold compared to the prior year. Our earnings for the year before income taxes was 2.9 million, compared to $4.9 million in 2014. Earnings before taxes decreased as a result of lower…

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Heiko Ihle of H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Heiko Ihle

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Hey, guys, congratulations on the quarter.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Thank you, Heiko.

Heiko Ihle

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Thanks. I was going through the numbers, the actual realized sale prices that you got. And gold is right now 15% higher and silver is 6% higher. So, it got me to thinking, given those metal price developments and knowing the realized prices were just a lot below where they are in Q1, anything we should see with cash costs, I mean there are some cost pressures starting to come back or we still - should we still model out cash cost improvements? You see where I'm coming from, like I said, you're talking about 15% and 6% increases quarter-over-quarter, what does that do to actual incurred costs?

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Heiko, its Malcolm here. Good question. We except our cash cost to be remaining fairly stable; I mean we're still reporting in Canadian dollars, so we do see some fluctuations due to foreign exchange. But just from a true cost, we expect our cost models to be very consistent with where they were in 2015.

Heiko Ihle

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

And what point in time should one expect increasing commodity prices and it just feels really good to see and talk about increasing commodity prices to actually have an impact on costs.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

A pretty good question, I have to give that some thought. Thanks, Heiko. I’ve to get back to him.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Bhakti Pavani of Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead.

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Good morning guys.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Good morning.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Good morning.

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Just for - regarding processing the mill feed for 2016, do you guys intend to process any mill feed from the stock piles or just going to be exclusive San Gonzalo and Avino?

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Yeah, just San Gonzalo and Avino.

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Also I know you guys are holding back, taking or making decision or an announcement on commercial production of because you still see the fluctuation in the grade. Just kind of curious how do you see for 2016, I mean do you see the grade stabilizing or do you still expect some kind of fluctuations?

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Well as you developing on the thing that, that’s when you are learning the exact great continuity so on the upper levels that where the development has been completed we understand the grade and we have got good control on that now. We are waiting for a new jumbo from Sandvik so once we are get that this year, we can start long haul sub level caving on the upper levels which is a form of mining so. We are hoping that we get that jumbo before the middle of the year and will commence some mining operations.

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Okay with regards to the capital expenditure. Have you guys made a decision or have you guys budgeted on how much do you intend to spend in 2016, would you mind giving some kind of color there?

David Wolfin

President and CEO

As far as CapEx for just in general or for Avino mine?

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

I mean for both, you know general I mean I was curious to know how much would be spent on the equipment versus exploration and evaluation?

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Okay a good question, we do have an exploration budget in place where we are looking at ways to actually increase that budget which we are currently working on, but with respect go general CapEx we have spent and we have acquired most of the equipment that we needed. We do have some pieces coming later this year, such as another production jumbo for ET. But in general we've acquired most of the capital that we need for operations. Next big capital item will be the new tailings facility, which we plan to commence later in 2016 and probably complete in 2017, Jas?

Jasman Yee

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Yes, further about yeah.

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

My last question is with regards to Bralorne mine, I know you guys are making quite a bit of improvement there, any kind of time line as to when do you expect to start processing or start mining there?

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Currently our target date is middle of the year. But it all depends on the permitting [ph], getting the premise to reopen and the Ministry of Mines is pretty slow right now. So, we're targeting middle of the year.

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Oh, okay. So with regards to the permitting, is there anything that you guys need to provide from your end or it is just delays from their and.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Delays from their end, we have submitted all the filing that they have requested, mine closure plans, updates, all the information they’ve requested have been submitted and they’ve apologized that they’re lean on staff, so we're in the hands of their staff waiting for them.

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Just one more, could you please remind us when you start processing the Bralorne mine, I mean what kind of production or tones per day production we are looking at?

Jasman Yee

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

It’s Jasman here, Bhakti. Yeah, basically we were looking at anywhere from about 600 to 800 ounces per month or thereabouts, this is the current throughput but we are basically looking at expanding the operation this is part of our ongoing engineering work that we're currently doing. We're looking at a larger operation and serve along the mine life based on the resources that we have on site right now.

Bhakti Pavani

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Okay, thank you very much guys. That’s it from my side.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Thank you.

Jasman Yee

Analyst · Euro Pacific Capital. Please go ahead

Thanks Bhakti.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Rob [Indiscernible]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi David, I wanted to know in terms of your future growth of your resources, what can we expect to see in the next few years, if you can ball park some numbers and I know you have Bralorne and Avino property. Can you just ball park some numbers of what we could see in the next few years in terms of your -

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Well at Avino we're operating at two mines, you Avino and San Gonzalo, there is dozens of targets on our property. It is hard to ball park what we're going to find next door, [Indiscernible] the couple of hundred million ounces as same geological settings, so there's tremendous upside potential to Avino and so Carlos, our Chief Operating Officer will spend whatever money we want to give him, testing targets, so there's no shortage of targets there and at Bralorne the potential is fantastic. It produces 4.5 million ounces of the gold out of three mines. We consolidated the camp, we have got the gap zones in-between the mines. We have great potential and we had geologist spend some time and he said the potential is similar to what they produced in the past. So it is world class area. Does that answer your question?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yeah, that answered, I just - yeah, I guess you said what you think could be there. What is your aggressiveness in exploration here?

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

It all depends on cash flow. So as the metal prices go up and there's more cash, we’ll deploy more cash in exploration but right now are focused on operations and improving our cost structures if we can and generating as much cash flows as possible.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, that’s all I had, thank you.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Okay, thank you.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Thanks Rob.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Lauren Scheibe of Bard Associates. Please go ahead.

Lauren Scheibe

Analyst · Bard Associates. Please go ahead

Good morning how are you guys.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

We are good Lauren.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · Bard Associates. Please go ahead

Hi, Lauren.

Lauren Scheibe

Analyst · Bard Associates. Please go ahead

Most of my questions have been answered. I just - one quick one, so do you have a number, how much you going to spend on Bralorne this year.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · Bard Associates. Please go ahead

Well, as David mentioned we’re looking at different mine plans, it depends on when we can actually resume operations, but probably about 5 million.

Lauren Scheibe

Analyst · Bard Associates. Please go ahead

5 million, okay, good results, thank so much.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · Bard Associates. Please go ahead

Thanks, Lauren.

Operator

Operator

We have a follow up question from Heiko Ihle of H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Heiko Ihle

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

I am not really sure what happened somehow it muted me or something. Can you walk me through, sorry - can you walk me through capital expenditure estimates for the remainder of the year, ideally little bit quarter by quarter. When should we expect to see how much?

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Okay good question.

Heiko Ihle

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

You say that about all my questions, I'll take that as a complement.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

They are great questions.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

The tailing in Mexico is unknown because we're still waiting for a major permit there. So I think the CapEx on the new tailings facility for Avino is about 5 million. Maybe a little bit less, but we'll probably spend I would say half of that in Q3 and Q4 and perhaps the remaining amount in the first two quarters of 2017.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Well, let me just mention that we've talked to the engineering firm and they can do it in phases so we may not have to spend it all up in the beginning part.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Great, so, that's probably more a conservative estimate than and with Bralorne, really depends on when we complete on getting all the permits and when we can really ramp up the operation. So, I would say probably Q2 and Q3, perhaps three and four but for the first quarter it's been fairly low and as I mentioned earlier we've already acquired most of the capital equipment we need for our existing operations.

Heiko Ihle

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Thank you guys very much.

Malcolm Davidson

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Thanks, Heiko.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

There are no more questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call back over to Mr. David Wolfin for closing remarks.

David Wolfin

President and CEO

Okay. Well, thank you everybody, it’s been a pleasure and you guys are all in the call today and we look forward to another solid year, this year and let’s hope for higher metal prices. Take care.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.