Gold Resource Corporation
Q4 2016 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 1 Mar 2017

[Operator:]

Thank you for joining Gold Resource Corporation’s 2016 Year-End Conference Call. Mr. Jason Reid, CEO, will be hosting today’s call. Following Mr. Reid’s opening remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. As a reminder, today’s call is being recorded. Please go ahead, Mr. Reid.

[Jason Reid:]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining Gold Resource Corporation’s 2016 fourth quarter and year-end conference call. I expect my comments to run approximately 25 minutes followed by a question-and-answer period. Joining me on the call today for the Q&A portion will be Mr. John Labate, our Chief Financial Officer. Let me remind everyone that certain statements made on this call are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties as described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other SEC filings, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments. Forward-looking statements in the earnings release that we issued yesterday, along with the comments on this call are made only as of today, March 1, 2017, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold. You can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures referred to in our remarks in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC for the year-ended December 31, 2016. 2016 was a good year for Gold Resource Corporation. I’m very proud that the company delivered its 6th consecutive year of profitability. In addition to being profitable, we succeeded on numerous fronts, including the following. We exceeded our annual gold production outlook range. We achieved our annual silver production outlook range. We dramatically expanded the strike length of Oaxaca Mining Units Arista Mine’s Switchback vein system. Arista Mine development reached a Switchback vein system with a second access ramp and we received the final mining permit for our Alta Gracia’s projects Mirador Mine. At our Nevada Mining Unit, we acquired two high-grade gold properties adding critical mass to this unit with Isabella pearl representing near-term gold production potential and Mina Gold adding to our pipeline of potential projects. Our total cash cost per precious metal gold equivalent ounce sold was $548 and our total all-in sustaining cost per precious metal gold equivalent ounce was sub $1,970. We posted annual net income of $4.4 million, or $0.08 per share. We remain committed to shareholder dividends returning $1.7 million back to the owners of the company, our shareholders. We continue to invest in the company’s future growth in Mexico and Nevada, while growing our year-end cash balance to $14.2 million. In addition, to this list of 2016 accomplishments, we recently announced the company’s best and strongest proven and probable reserve report to-date. We accomplished all of this along with other successes without raising money, without diluting shareholders through equity sales, and without going into debt. 2016 was a good year for the company. Before I walk you through the fourth quarter and year-end narratives, let’s breakdown our production numbers. Fourth quarter production for the Arista Mine totaled 5,088 gold ounces, 419,683 silver ounces, 258 tonnes of copper, 1,202 tonnes of lead, and 3,996 tonnes of zinc before payable metal deductions. Calculating the gold and silver as precious metal gold equivalent, we produced 10,818 ounces at a realized 73

[Operator:]

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And we do have a question in queue. Caller please go ahead.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Hi, Jason, this is Paul [indiscernible] longtime investor.

[Jason Reid:]

Hi, Paul, how are you doing?

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Pretty good. It sounds like you have a really good year and…

[Jason Reid:]

A great year. Thank you.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Yes, good to see that. Just curious about the Nevada properties and the high-grade ore there. At what point does it make sense to mill that ore rather than heap leach where you have the higher losses?

[Jason Reid:]

No, it’s a great question, and we’ll be looking at that as a potential. But for us with Isabella Pearl and how advanced Isabella Pearl is, we want to stay on track to create an open pit heap leach situation there. With some of our other properties with much higher grade, yes, we will be evaluating that. But I can’t really give you an exact grade in which that makes sense. But obviously, some of the grades that you can see on our corporate presentation are phenomenal especially…

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Yes, that’s why I thought why heap leach where you’re going have substantial losses, I would think…

[Jason Reid:]

Well…

[Unidentified Analyst:]

It’s just not true on heap leaching, 70% recovery is pretty good?

[Jason Reid:]

Yes. That you’re not going to recover at all that you’re absolutely right. But again, we’re going to stay focused and really push to get Isabella Pearl into production as soon as possible with its current game plan. But again, the other properties and some of the grades we’re seeing, we’ll take a look at that optionality and see what makes sense. But I think, we’re really well positioned with these four properties and we now have district scale exploration, which is very important to us and that’s why we picked up this very exciting East Camp Douglas to add to our property portfolio. So I mean, like I said in the call, I think we’ve gone from zero to 60 miles an hour. We’re going to be probably the next producer in Nevada with a nice pipeline of projects and we did it during the bear market. So we’re feeling really good about that.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Yes, that’s really exciting. Thanks for your answer on it.

[Jason Reid:]

Hey, Paul, good to talk to you. Thank you for your question.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

All right.

[Operator:]

[Operator Instructions]

[Jason Reid:]

It sounds like we don’t have any more questions. So that being the case, I’ll go ahead and just conclude this call. Again, thank you guys very much for listening and we’ll talk to you next quarter.

[Operator:]

That does conclude today’s conference. We thank you for your participation.