Michael Siperco: Okay. That was going to be my follow-up question on that. So the escapeway is the critical path, and you’re comfortable with say, I suppose we have what two months or so to get that done and to get Lucky back into production by say it, February? Is that a fair way to look at it?
Phillips Baker: January.
Michael Siperco: Back in production in January.
Phillips Baker: If it’s February, something unexpected has happened.
Michael Siperco: Understood. Okay. And then just on the insurance, can you share if or when you think you’ll have visibility into what will be covered? Do you anticipate that entire $25 million you outlined in terms of costs that Lucky being covered plus business continuity? Is that the right way to look at it?
Phillips Baker: Well, what we’ll say is it, we will certainly be no more than $50 million. And like anytime you have a claim with an insurance company, there’s a process that you go through and we’re in that process and what the outcome is going to be, I’m not able to predict, but we’re very confident that we will get a large portion of costs and business interruption up to $50 million. Russell, anything to add?
Russell Lawlar: Yes. It’s a work in progress obviously as we work through getting the Lucky Friday back in, we’re engaged with the insurance company and we’re just working through the process at the moment. And as more info comes to light or as that comes clear, then we can tell the market.
Michael Siperco: Should we be thinking about this as a six-month kind of process or would this be something that would be wrapped up sort of in line with when Lucky comes back into production?
Phillips Baker: It depends on who you ask within Hecla is to the answer to that question. Look, I think Michael, just to be safe, think more in terms of six months than immediately, but I think they should pay us immediately. So I would agree with that. I think that you from a conservativity standpoint should push it out into the future a little bit, but that could change at any time right as we’re working through the process.
Michael Siperco: Okay. Understood. Thanks very much. I’ll pass it on.
Phillips Baker: Okay.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Lucas Pipes with B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.
Lucas Pipes: Thank you very much, operator. Lauren, I would like to add my congratulations. I wanted to start my questions with Phil, what you mentioned on the silver solar side, what would be a substitute for silver in a PV solar panel?
Phillips Baker: Ultimately it would be copper is the substitute for it. The problem is the processes for building the solar is you got to use our buildings, yes, solar, you got to use silver given those processes. And then secondly, the performance and the durability of the solar panels is substantially less with copper. So is there a price in which the industry would change? Yes, I’m sure there is. But at the same time you’re seeing copper prices increase and the availability of copper. So it certainly nothing that anyone is projecting to occur in the next decade. The other thing to mention is that there are new processes – on the new plants that are being built, they’re all being built with processes that require even more silver.
And they require that because it’s not only cheaper to build, but it’s also has greater efficiency and realize these solar panels are somewhere around 25% to 30% efficiency using silver. And so with these new processes, it gets to the upper end of that.
Lucas Pipes: That’s helpful. Phil, from your vantage point as a silver supplier, does it make any difference to you whether these solar panels are built in Asia or nearshore to the U.S. for example?
Phillips Baker: I guess practically speaking, it doesn’t matter from just thinking about supply chain, it would be great to see it built in U.S. or countries friendly to the U.S. friendlier maybe is a better way of saying that. Without the potential disruption in the cells coming from China, because China does, I don’t know, 80%, 90% of all the solar panels.
Lucas Pipes: Yes. Would you have conversations about offtake agreements or supply agreements with potential customers?
Phillips Baker: Yes. Remember what we produce is a concentrate that goes to the smelters and unfortunately, there are no smelters that can – remember there are not very many smelters in the U.S. and there’s none that can really process our material. In Canada, there’s a few smelters that can process it, but frankly, we have to ship the material really to Korea and Japan to get it processed. And so we’re a step away from that ultimate customer. It goes into the smelter. We don’t receive the metal back. We pay a fee, treatment charge for processing that material.
Lucas Pipes: Yes. Okay. No, that’s helpful. Certainly keep my eyes on that. To go back to Keno, can you remind us what exactly caused the slowdown in the infrastructure developments?
Phillips Baker: I mean, I think the cause of the slowdown is in part, where we’re located, the Yukon getting people and materials there. That’s probably been the biggest, biggest challenge that we’ve had. Having camp space, getting – you got to get things sort of aligned where you got the camp space expanded. So you are going to have the room to bring the people in to do the work. Lauren?
Lauren Roberts: Carlos?
Carlos Aguiar: Well, we bring the contractors in almost 25% of our total workforce at the same time, so that causes some delays on the execution of the projects.
Phillips Baker: But the good news, Lucas, as we’re essentially done with those infrastructure projects, there’s some cleanup that we’ll be doing during the course of November on some of the projects. The rockfill plant will be completed at the end of this month. We’re done with the crusher with the exception of some electrical work that will happen during the course of November. So all of that is behind us, and when we look at capital for next year, it’s substantially less than what we have. And while we’re not done with the budget and we’re not prepared to give guidance as to what capital will be, it is a lot less.
