David Wolfin: We got the most important piece of equipment, the new jumbo, driving the ramp.
Nathan Harte: Yes. We have gotten equipment ahead of time, stuff that can be used at Avino in the meantime, but can be transferred over to La Preciosa as soon as we get the green light.
Operator: The next question is from Matthew O’Keefe with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.
Matthew O’Keefe: Just a couple of operational questions for you. First up on the — you mentioned you hauled out 207,000 tons to surface, about 3% more than you milled. What’s the nature of those tons? Are they low grade, going to a low grade stockpile? Are you building out a stockpile? Is it reflecting increased efficiency from the mining side? Could you talk about that a little bit?
Carlos Rodriguez: Yes. Thanks so much, Matt. That’s a great question. We have — so if you remember last quarter, we improved our ramp conditions, and that’s dramatically improved the ability to haul from underground. So, we have been hauling — the mine has been outperforming the mill, so to speak. And that’s building a stockpile and that would be actually high grade stockpiles. The issue with some of this material — I shouldn’t say the issue, or the challenge with it, some of those boulders are quite large, so we needed a rock breaker that is now on-site, to break some of that material. So in Q4, we look to be slowing haulage a little bit to draw down on those stockpiles, which will help improve our costs certainly, as well I see some very good grade that go through the mill is what we’re seeing right now.
Matthew O’Keefe: And then, just another question on the mill itself. I know you’ve made some modifications, but in the last couple of quarters, we’ve seen recoveries trend down both for silver and copper. Can you discuss that a little bit and can we expect to see that — those recoveries move back up?
Carlos Rodriguez: Yes. I think the simple answer is yes. I think we can expect those recoveries and grades to move back up. And the reasoning for the decrease in grade is, we didn’t have a piece of equipment, the rock breaker on-site to break some of the larger un-oxidized material and as a result, we had a higher percentage of the fine material was oxidized. So that has a twofold effect. One, the grades a little bit lower and then the recovery rates are a little bit lower. When you’re starting with the lower grade, even if you have the same tailings grade, your recovery ends up getting hit a little bit. So it’s kind of the double whammy. The nice — or the fact is that we are now through that material, we have the rock breaker. We’re now breaking those larger boulders that have the higher grade material and we’re already seeing the higher recovery and grades in the mill.
David Wolfin: Yes. And the automation has worked well. It’s just a few key pieces of equipment were delayed in arriving that affected certain circuits.
Matthew O’Keefe: And is that oversized material common that you’ve had, or is that a function of different ore, or you need to work a bit more on some of your blasting…?
Carlos Rodriguez: No, that’s a fair question. No, as far as blasting, you know, we have a lot of rock mechanics consultants come in, and we’ve kind of optimized the blasting. It’s kind of the nature of the ETR body is that sometimes you get some relatively large boulders, in different sections. And so you just — you need a rock breaker on surface to send some of that through.
David Wolfin: The stockwork systems, when they blast, the shock goes down where the fractures are and it just happens. We’ve had experts on-site, as you said and we’ve optimized it as best we can.
Carlos Rodriguez: So we just get some slabs, to David’s point.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is from Richard Mangan, [ph] a private investor.
Unidentified Analyst: I have a quick question in reference to wanting more color on the third Tahito [ph] group. And what happens if they choose not to sign? Does it go to arbitration, or what actually happens?
David Wolfin: Well, we’re in the final stages of negotiations with them.
Operator: Pardon me. Mr. Mangan, could you please mute your phone? We’re getting your feedback.
Unidentified Analyst: Is that better?
David Wolfin: Yes. So, we’re in the latter stages of negotiation. They want the agreement in place. So, it’s just fine-tuning it. So, it’s imminent.
Unidentified Analyst: But I guess my point is if they choose not to sign, what happens?
David Wolfin: They want to sign, they want the economic benefit. So, it’s happening. It’s moving forward.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Thank you.
Operator: This concludes the question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to David Wolfin for any closing remarks.
David Wolfin: Thank you everyone for joining us on this call today. We’re looking forward to a better, healthy Q4. So, stay tuned for some news from us. We’ll have the prefeasibility study completed in Q4. So, hopefully, we can get that news out to you before year end. If not, it will be early in January. So, thanks again, and have a great day.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.
