Coeur Mining Inc (CDE) 2004 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the third quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session; instructions will be given at that time. If you should require assistance during the call, please press star, then zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Tony Ebersole. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Greg. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Ebersole, Director of Investor Relations for Coeur. This is our third quarter and first nine months 2004 results conference call. The call is also being broadcast live on the Internet through our website, www.coeur.com. We're in the Investor Relations section. You can both hear the presentation and manually scroll through slides highlighting third quarter information. The slides and audio replay of the call will be available for two weeks afterwards on our website.

On the call today from Coeur today are Dennis Wheeler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Bob Martinez, President, Chief Operating Officer; Jim Sabala, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Don Birak, Senior Vice President, Exploration. There will be a question-and-answer period following a brief presentation by management. Any forward-looking statements made today by management come under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a number of risks that could cause annual results to differ from projections. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Dennis.

Thank you, Tony, and welcome to everyone today for joining Coeur's third quarter and first nine months conference call. I'm pleased to report today that in the recently completed third quarter, we accomplished most of the benchmarks we set forth to you in our last conference call, with strengthening trends on many fronts. Our goal production rate in the third quarter began increasing from the rate earlier in the year, with a resulting growth in revenues, income, EBITDA, and operating cash flow before predevelopment expenses and the impact of proposed merger expenses.

Exclusive of these extraordinary expenses, net income was approximately break-even, compared to a loss of $11.4 million a year ago; EBITDA was $5.5 million compared to a negative $1.4 million a year ago, and these improved financial results were due, in large part, to growing gold production in the third quarter at both Cerro Bayo and Rochester. While our operating results continued to improve, we maintained our investments in the Company's future reserve and production growth with excellent results. We spent $3.1 million in completing additional work on our two major growth projects, Kensington and San Bartolome. We stepped up our exploration program in and around our operating properties in South America and Idaho, a program which has expanded at nearly 300% times the level of a year ago, meaningfully adding to our resource base.

Exploration drilling around Cerro Bayo has already replaced the production to be mined there this year, and at Martha, the drilling program through just the first nine months has increased the mine life there, now, to mid 2006 with significant exploration upside remaining. And at Silver Valley, our operations are continuing to generate sufficient cash flow to fund the long-term optimization plan we announced there in August of 2003. This past quarter also saw the permitting and feasibility progress at our two major development projects, Kensington, and San Bartolome. And I can now tell that you I expect that the board of directors will consider the question of the construction decision at San Bartolome in its December meeting with the final feasibility study having been completed.

We also expect final permits will be received by Kensington now in the first quarter of 2005. Coeur's cash position remains very strong and at September 30th, stood at $218 million, which allows us comfortably to fund our growth projects leading to robust silver production and gold production cash flow and earnings growth in 2006. In short, the plan we unveiled to you in late 2003 is working.

As has been our policy, we have not hedged any of our silver or gold production. As evidenced in recent months, Coeur stock has demonstrated significant price appreciation, having risen more than 50% in the last 12 months. According to a recent analyst research report, Coeur provides our investors and you shareholders with the greatest leverage to silver price, in terms of price movement in relation to the underlying silver price, not only year-to- date but from the period of 1998 to 2004, than any other silver company.

Both silver and gold markets are strong, with underlying positive fundamentals supporting these increases in market prices. We think that particularly in silver, Coeur remains the investment of choice because of our strong silver production base, cost profile, growing ore reserve base, and with a solid major development project at San Bartolome having finished its final feasibility study. We are looking forward to the remainder of this year and we do expect a continuation of the positive trends that exhibited themselves in the most recently-completed quarter.

Our gold production should continue to accelerate through year-end, and we now expect full-year gold production to be 132,000 ounces, a 10% increase above last year's levels. 2004 silver production is now estimated to be consistent with last year, at an estimated 13.7 million ounces. And we expect our cash cost for the full year to be $3.41 per ounce, clearly the leader in the primary silver producing sector. And we expect that our production will rank number one again as well.

We saw growth improved revenues and cash flow this quarter and we expect that trend to continue through the remainder of the year as well. Our expanded exploration program is producing excellent results. At Silver Valley, our exploration cost this year is averaging a very low 13 cents per ounce of silver discovered, clearly delivering value for our shareholders by adding low cost future ounces. Our exploration strategy will remain to continue our investment in exploration and development while maintaining positive operating cash flow at Silver Valley, and we are doing that.

Even after capital expenditures and exploration spending on our optimization plan, we are projecting cash flow at two and a quarter million dollars this year. In South America, our mines there and through their exploration program are adding to mine lives by not only continuing to replace production, but we are approaching our goal of having an estimated five-year resource and reserve base at Cerro Bayo. We're moving closer to our goal of developing our South American operations as stand-alone profit centers for Coeur based upon the management additions that we have made to South America.

Our balance sheet strength continues to allow us to robustly increase our expenditures for exploration, promising good future growth at Coeur. I will return with additional comments in a few minutes, but now I would like to turn the call over to Bobby Martinez, our Chief Operator Officer, who will give you the overview of our third quarter operations results, and then Don Birak is going to highlight our exploration progress this year. And finally, Jim Sabala will give an overview of the third quarter and first nine months financials, at which time I will return for closing remarks. Bob?

Thank you, Dennis. Operations through the third quarter and first nine months continued to demonstrate improvements, in particular, with increasing gold production in Cerro Bayo and Rochester. Gold production increased at Cerro Bayo and Martha by 25% from the second quarter of this year due to increased gold grades process from the Cerro Bayo mine. Gold production was a total of 14,885 ounces in the quarter, with silver production of 923,789 ounces.

Cash operating costs were $2.95 per ounce of silver, a decline of 21% from the second quarter of this year, a result of higher gold production. First nine months production at Cerro Bayo and Martha was 3.2 million ounces of silver and 37,365 ounces of gold at an average cash cost of $2.87 per ounce silver. Our exploration work at both Cerro Bayo and Martha is progressing well, which Don will talk on in a few minutes. Exploration through the third quarter has resulted in new, higher grade veins and ore bodies that have already replaced the expected production from Cerro Bayo and added another year and a half of mine life at Martha with the exploration continuing at sites around both mines.

Work also continued developing extensions of the Javiera vein at Cerro Bayo, which was a contributor during the third quarter and should continue adding higher grade gold ounces through the fourth quarter. Both gold and silver production are expected to pick up through the remainder of the year, at these, with silver production expected to come in at 4.7 million ounces and gold production of 56,000 ounces. Consolidated full-year cash costs at Cerro Bayo are anticipated at approximately $2.10 per ounce silver. This is on plan with our earlier production and cost projections at the two mines.

At Silver Valley, on the next slide, production is progressing as expected for the year, in which we have focused on the execution of our long-term expansion plan. The exploration and development work remains on-track for increases in future productions with lower cash costs. Third quarter production was 785,296 ounces of silver at a cash cost of $6.16 per ounce. Our costs in the recent quarter reflected higher-than-budgeted labor costs, due to some narrower veins being mined. Through the first nine months, production has totaled 2.6 million ounces of silver at a cash operating cost of $5.30 an ounce.

We have continued to focus our exploration and development work on a number of drilling targets in the quarter, which Don will elaborate on later. For the full year, silver production at Silver Valley is expected to come in at 3.5 million ounces of silver at an average cash cost of $5.26 an ounce. Our operations at Silver Valley are continuing to generate strong cash flow, which enables us to fund the exploration and development work which should result in future production increases at lower cash costs.

At Rochester, we said in our last conference call that the higher grade gold ores placed on the pad earlier in the year would begin to be realized during the course of the year, and this was demonstrated in the recent third quarter. While the rates of gold recovery have not accelerated at the rate we previously anticipated, the third quarter production increases resulted in lower operating costs. Our objective there is to continue to drive improvement in operating results. Third quarter production totaled 17,432 ounces of gold, a 9% increase from the second quarter, and 1.3 million ounces of silver at a cash cost of $4.23 per ounce, a 7% decrease in costs from the second quarter.

First nine months production was 4 million ounces of silver and 44,912 ounces of gold, at a cash cost of $4.78 per ounce silver. By September, monthly gold recovery at Rochester had increased to approximately 7,000 ounces per month, a 60% increase compared to the first six months. Approximately 30,000 ounces are expected to be produced through the remainder of the year. This is the result of the leeching of higher grade gold ores placed on the pad earlier this year and the completion of the new, stage four leech areas, which allows for higher-than-normal recovery rates. For the full year, Rochester is expected to produce a total of approximately 5.5 million ounces of silver and 75,500 ounces of gold at an average, full-year cash operating cost of $3.36 per ounce silver.

I will now turn the call over to Don, who will discuss what we're seeing on the exploration front. Don?

Thanks, Bob. The focus of Coeur's exploration program in the third quarter was a continuation of the accelerated drilling near three of our operating properties: Cerro Bayo and Martha in South America, and the Silver Valley in Idaho. The program is at 2.5 times the expenditure level of last year, and we're seeing some very positive results because of this accelerated program. Through the first 9 months of this year, we have completed over 243,500 feet of drilling at Cerro Bayo and Martha out of a total 2004 program of 314,000 feet on various target sites at or near the two mines.

As Bob mentioned, the drilling program at Cerro Bayo and Martha has so far enabled us to replace production and Cerro Bayo and extend mine life at Martha to at least mid-2006. We are continuing our drilling program in South America at the same rate through the fourth quarter. Our objectives are to increase mine life by at least three years at both operations at low discovery costs to generate maximum returns for shareholders. Also, at Silver Valley, our exploration drilling continued to test existing targets and successfully discovered new silver utilization on several targets.

We expect to add reserves there by year-end as part of the long-term development plan, which will eventually lead to increased production levels. When our expanded 2004 program is completed in December, we expect to add to company-wide reserve levels. The first slide shows a planned view of the Cerro Bayo district, which spans over 10 miles in an east/west direction and over five miles north and south. The next slide is a close-up of the area around the area at Cerro Bayo mine infrastructure, where most of our drilling has focused this year.

Reserve development drilling accelerated at Cerro Bayo in the third quarter, ahead of planned drilling footage for the year. So far in 2004, over 77,000 feet of drilling has taken place at sites near and around current mining areas. Drilling is expected to continue through the remainder of the year to expand on year-to-date results, and assess impact on Cerro Bayo's reserves. Also in Cerro Bayo district, which includes the Cerro Bayo mine, exploration to discover new, mineralized structures returned positive values from Lourdes Norte, Mercedes and Rosario at the east side of the holdings and at Cristal 1000 near the Company's processing facilities at Laguna Verde to the west. Lourdes Norte, Mercedes, and Rosario are shown on the slide. The first hole at Rosario hit 9.8 feet of 0.13 ounces per ton gold and 8.04 ounces per ton silver. Follow-up drilling is planned for the fourth quarter on this and the other targets.

The next slide is a long session of the third quarter results for Mercedes. So far, we have had very good success in discovering additional mineralized material in areas at or near existing mining operations at both mines. This is important because it can be brought into future production very efficiently. It is important to note that since production commenced at Cerro Bayo, reserves have more than doubled. The next slide shows Martha, where since our acquisition in 2002, reserves have increased more than 300% through focused exploration.

At the Martha mine and surrounding properties in Argentina, exploration continued in the third quarter to define new reserves and govern new mineralization. Over 69,200 feet of drilling has been completed through the third quarter of 2004 on all of the Company's properties in Argentina, about 85% of which was devoted to the area around the current Martha mine. As Dennis mentioned earlier, exploration at Martha through the first nine months of this year has already increased mine life through mid-2006 with significant exploration potential remaining.

The next slide shows the drilling results from Catalina and the direction in which exploration will proceed on this important new and high grade vein. Focus of the recent quarter's exploration was to define new mineralization discovered this year in the new Francisca and Catalina veins in the R4 Deep area. Select and fill drilling in the nearby Del Medio vein has also returned positive values. These new discoveries remain open at strike and depth. So we're very excited about the exploration results and additional opportunities we're seeing at and around our South American properties.

At Silver Valley, under the long-term development plan, drilling in the third quarter continued to test targets identified in the long-range plan and to identify new targets for later testing. Overall results-to-date have discovered new silver mineralization in several targets. In the third quarter, initial drilling at Deep Coeur target intersected an extension to the 483 vein in five of eight holes with thin, but high grade silver, 0.9 feet at 51.3 ounces per ton silver in one intersect. Definition drilling commenced in the 4,000 to 46 -- excuse me -- 4300 to 4600 silver vein target in the recent quarter with the goal of defining over one million ounces of new reserves on this target by year-end alone.

Our new discovery costs this year at Silver Valley is averaging a very low 13 cents per ounce of silver, which is one of the exploration goals in delivering shareholder value. 2004 program is part of a three-year effort to discover and define new reserves to support a potential mine production increase and cost reduction. A total of 11 areas were identified for testing this year. Since our exploration program commenced, drilling has encountered new, high-grade silver mineralization in three of those new targets.

I will now turn the presentation back to Bob, who will give an update on our development projects.

Thank you, Don. The next slide shows San Bartolome, where our feasibility study was recently completed. Based on the updated feasibility study, the Company now estimates construction capital to be 135 million, with cash operating costs to be $3.65 per silver ounce produced. The increase in capital and operating costs is due to a number of factors including increases in commodity prices, such as fuel, concrete and steel; revised prices and contractor quotes from previous bids; higher labor costs, and some changes to the scope of the project since the estimates were first developed.

In the current metals price environment, the estimated 6 million ounces of silver produced in the initial year of production would generate an estimated $20 million in annual operating cash flow. In other developments favorable to the project, the government of Bolivia recently finalized regulation extending tax benefits to new investments in mining projects in the Potosi region where San Bartolome is located, which will have a positive impact on the construction and eventual operation of the mine. These benefits include the exemption of import duties and value-added taxes for imported capital goods used for the processing and related facilities during the construction phase at San Bartolome. All our environmental permits are now in hand and with the final feasibility study complete, we're anticipating a construction decision in the fourth quarter. We still anticipate 2006 production startup and a 15-year mine life.

At Kensington, we're expecting that the U.S. Forest Service will issue its Final Supplemental EIS and Record of Decision on the project in the first quarter of next year. This would be followed by the remaining auxiliary federal and state permits. During the third quarter, the Juneau Planning Commission approved the final viable use permit for the mine. With initial production anticipated in 2006, the annualized 100,000 ounces of gold production would yield an estimated 20 million of average annual operating cash flow at current gold prices.

Initial capital costs remains at 81.5 million, with estimated cash operating costs of $220 per ounce of gold. There is also the potential there for extending mine life beyond the initial 10-year estimate. Don and his team are continuing to evaluate an exploration program to upgrade a portion of the mineralized material through reserves at Kensington. We have recently identified an opportunity to add 350 to 400,000 gold ounces through a drilling program expected to cost between $2 and $3 million, and estimated to take six months to complete. All of this work would be done from existing workings.

I will hand things over now to Jim for the financial update.

Thank you, Bob. In the third quarter and the first nine months of 2004, the Company reported increased revenues, cash flow, and improvement in the Company's operating earnings. For the recent quarter, silver production was 3 million ounces, compared to 3.3 million ounces in last year's third quarter. Third quarter gold production was 32,317 ounces, an increase of 16% from the second quarter of this year and 6% higher than last year's third quarter. Average gold price realized in the recent third quarter was $410 per ounce, per ounce of gold sold, versus $341 per ounce in last year's third quarter.

Silver prices realized in the recent quarter were $6.74 per ounce, compared to $4.94 an ounce a year ago. As a result, revenue increased to 31.3 million, which was an increase of 30% from the third quarter a year ago. The net loss, excluding merger and predevelopment expenses, were reduced to a mere $100,000, compared with the loss, excluding debt restructuring costs and predevelopment expenses, of 11.4 million in the third quarter of 2003.

It is important to note that the results were also impacted by a delay in concentrate shipments from the Cerro Bayo mine resulting from a temporary shut down at a third-party smelter. Consequently, 7.7 million of sales under contract and $2.1 million of operating profit associated with the delivery of silver and gold was deferred and will be realized in the fourth quarter of 2004. EBITDA, excluding merger costs from predevelopment expenses, was 5.5 million, compared to a negative 1.4 million, excluding restructuring costs and predevelopment a year ago. And at September 30, cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled a healthy $218 million.

The recent third quarter also contained investments to achieve our growth objectives consisting of the predevelopment costs and expenses for increased exploration programs; these include 3.1 million in predevelopment costs associated with the work at our two major growth projects, Kensington and San Bartolome. In addition, our accelerated exploration program both in Idaho and South America resulted in increased exploration expenditures in the quarter, 3.3 million compared to 1.2 million in last year's third quarter, which, as Don mentioned, continued to return positive results, extending mine lives, and increasing reserves and resources.

There was also in the quarter 14.9 million of nonrecurring merger expenses related to the proposed tender offer for Wheaton River. Metals production remained unhedged during the third quarter. For the first nine months of 2004, silver production was 9.8 million ounces, compared to 10.7 million ounces in the first month of 2003, and gold production totaled 82,277 ounces, compared to 93,410 ounces in the first nine months of 2003.

For the first nine months of 2004, the Company realized an average silver price of $6.67 per ounce, compared to an average realized price of $4.77 during the same period of last year. Our average gold price realized was $401 per ounce, compared to $339 per ounce during the same period last year. As a a result, our revenue was up 10% from the same period a year ago, to 87.4 million, due to increases in the average metals prices.

First nine-month period showed a loss of 1.5 million, excluding 23.7 million in predevelopment costs and merger expenses, which compared to a loss of 18.2 million, excluding 35.2 million of predevelopment costs and debt restructuring in the first nine months of the previous year. The increases in average silver and gold prices have had a very positive impact on our EBITDA, which remains leveraged to these price movements. During the first nine months of this year, silver prices have averaged $6.49 per ounce, an increase of 36% compared to last year's nine-month average of $4.78.

Gold prices have averaged approximately $401 so far this year, an increase of 13% over last year's nine months average of $354. And today, silver and gold prices were reported at $7.52 and $433, respectively. In terms of Coeur's EBITDA, every 10-cent annualized move in silver price continues to impact EBITDA by approximately 1.4million, and a $10 move in gold prices impacts EBITDA by a like amount. Our policy of not having metals production has allowed for increased stock price leverage, directly correlating to metals price movements. With the recovery of gold and silver prices, particularly silver, of course, market capitalization has returned again to above the $1 billion level as silver has again reached $7 per ounce.

Since last year, shown on the next chart, Coeur's stock price has performed extremely well on a relative basis against both the metals markets and the major indices. Since January of last year, Coeur's shares have increased 151%, versus an increase of 24% for gold and 51% for silver. And in the same time frame, the S&P 500 has increased 24%, and the XAU gold and silver index is up 33%, versus Coeur's 151% increase. So as Dennis mentioned earlier, research indicates that Coeur's share price movement has provided the greatest leverage to silver price movements since 1998.

Now, I would like to turn the call back to Dennis for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Jim. We are looking forward to finishing the year at Coeur strong, with ongoing gold production growth and lower costs. The improvements in gold production we began to see in the third quarter at Rochester and Cerro Bayo should continue through the remainder of the year, raising our overall production levels and lowering operating costs. We do expect that the prevailing metals markets for both silver and gold will remain strong, having a positive impact on revenues, cash flow, and EBITDA.

Later today, the Silver Institute, of which we are a leading member, will be releasing an update on the silver market through research by Goldfields Mineral Services, which will be posted on our website. And I believe you will see a continued pickup in the U.S. and global economy as the demand for silver, being the world's most widely-used and essential metal, continues to remain very strong. In other words, there are reasons for these robust silver prices as new uses for our metal continue to evolve.

These strong markets also bode well for our growth projects, both of which will generate strong production and cash flows at prevailing metal prices, and we look forward to being in a position to make a construction decision on San Bartolome before the year-end. With anticipated silver production in 2006 of initially 6 million ounces of silver a year, ramping up to 8 million ounces, San Bartolome would have a significant impact on Coeur's share prices. And we're very excited by the expanded exploration program which continues to result in significant additional additions to reserves and resources under Don's stewardship and leadership.

We believe we do control some of the world's best silver assets in South America and Idaho's Silver Valley, where we are the dominant producer and land holder in these historically rich silver regions. And we control more than 570 square miles around our operating mine sites in South America. Where much of our new growth is anticipated at San Bartolome and Cerro Bayo and Martha, we have added to our management team to give us the strength and the ability to develop these new and existing projects in an appropriate fashion.

Finally, it is our firm expectation to remain the world's leading primary silver producer, expecting to produce 2.2 million ounces more of silver this year than our nearest competitor. So with that, operator, we'll be pleased to open up the call for questions of our listeners.

[Operator instructions.] Our first question comes from the line of Pierre Vaillancourt from Orion Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi there. Just a quick question with respect to your revised targets here for the year. It looks, you know, based on performance for the first nine months that you're going to have to bring down costs quite significantly to meet your target for the year. Where are you going to get those improved costs, physically?

Yes --

If I'm not correct here, you've got guidance of 3.40 for the year, and nine months, it's 4.30 an ounce. So that's -- you're going to have to -- to average that out, it is going to take quite an effort in Q4, is it not?

Yes, Pierre, this is Bob Martinez. Basically, that's basically gold related and grade related. We're basically, according to the plan down at Cerro Bayo, we have high-grade gold coming from our underground mines. That started increasing this month and we will continue to year-end. And the same thing applies at Rochester, with the expansion area on Stage Four Plan and all the high-grade gold that has been placed on the pad earlier this year, which takes about six months to work its way through the pad.

Okay. So it hooks like you will have to get well under two -- under $3 to get to your cash cost targets. So that's -- it's going to be -- you're saying it sounds like it's going to be grade-driven, for the most part.

That's correct.

Okay. Speaking of which, your additions at Cerro Bayo, Bob, can you quantify what that is, in terms of grade and ounces?

I'm sorry, come again on that?

The additions for Cerro Bayo Martha, can you quantify what it is that's extended life to beyond mid-2006? In terms of grade and ounces?

At Martha?

Yeah.

Yeah. We'll be reporting the reserve information here in the first quarter, and at that time we'll be able to release the tons and grades that we've added this year.

Okay. But, I mean, when I'm looking forward to more production, is it more or less at the current rate, assuming that the current grade? Is that an assumption I should make or is it going to be improving?

At Martha, it would be basically be about the same with a little bit higher grade, but once again, we will release those numbers in the first quarter.

Okay. Now, I'm just interested -- with respect to Kensington -- you're looking for the the permits in Q1. And so does that follow on with the construction decision shortly thereafter?

We would expect to make a construction decision, Pierre, at Kensington, very soon after the last of the ancillary permits is in hand. And we should see the publication of the draft soon of the major final permit.

Okay. So in other words, "soon" meaning sometime in Q1 is when you will get the decision back?

That's what we are presently anticipating, yes.

Okay. So if you get into a construction decision shortly after that, I mean how realistic --

A construction decision in the first quarter of 2005 will still allow us to commence production in 2006.

Okay. I'm guessing now it's late '06 that you would be talking about production, right?

No, I believe we're still staying with mid-2006.

Mid '06, okay.

That's right.

And then --

We were always anticipating a planning cycle and completion of mobilization before we actually started, before we actually started on-site construction work, and we are still looking at an 18-month cycle.

Okay. And then with respect to San Bartolome, you've had -- again, there, is that --

The same basic -- the same basic situation exists there.

Okay. Now, one thing, just to clarify on San Bart, you've gone from original cost of 125 down to 105; it's back up to 135. But the 135, that doesn't include a tin circuit, right? I mean, it's the same thing as you -- what you last reported on, except that costs have gone up; correct?

I'm sorry, could you give me the end of that again?

Well, you know, when you started citing costs for San Bartolome, my understanding was that there was a tin circuit involved. When you first quoted the cost, I think it was 125 million, and then now it's -- it went down to 105 and now it is back up to 135.

Yes, Bobby explained the reason for those changes. Basically, increases in fuel, concrete, and steel costs, frankly, commonly being experienced throughout the industry now in recently discussed projects --

No, I understand that. Yup.

-- but we've also had, as we've gone to the end of the feasibility study, Pierre, and the numbers have been tightened down to reliable estimates, contractor quotes have also changed as have labor costs. Having said all of that, we still are on target to start our construction work immediately following the board decision in December, and we do believe we have a number of opportunities at San Bartolome.

Right. Yeah. I guess the question comes down to: will you be producing any tin out of that operation?

Yes. I can tell you -- I can tell you that we will continue to pursue the question of mining tin but that that work will not be completed likely until year three --

Okay.

--of the mine.

Okay. Thanks, Dennis.

Yes.

And there are no further questions. Please continue.

We'd like to thank all of our shareholders, analysts, and investors for joining us on Coeur's third quarter conference call results, and we continue to look forward to keeping you timely advised of developments within the Company. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Ladies and gentlemen, this conference will be available for replay after 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time today, through November 15. You may access the AT&T Teleconference Replay System at any time by dialing 1-800-475-6701, and entering the access code 753992. Those numbers again are 1-800-475-6701, with the access code 753992. That does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Executive Teleconference. You may now disconnect.