Lucas Pipes: That’s helpful. When would you expect to demobilize some of the contractors and workforce there?
Phillips Baker: Some of it is happening as we speak, but primarily in December.
Lucas Pipes: Okay. That’s helpful. Really appreciate the color. Thank you, and best of luck.
Phillips Baker: Thanks a lot.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Steven Green with TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Steven Green: Hi, everyone. Just a quick one on the Greens Creek. Yes, you upped the guidance a bit this year. You also beat guidance a bit last year. It appears to be grade driven. Can you confirm that and is this positive grade reconciliation you’re getting or just in some higher grade stopes?
Phillips Baker: It is grade-driven and it is slightly higher. Realize it doesn’t take much additional grade to have a pretty material impact. Gold in particular has been – the grade reconciliation’s been higher and that’s something that we have had to deal with for the life of the mine. It’s a fairly nuggety gold distribution. And of course, we’ve had lower grade metals. And so as a result of that, we’ve had lower – it is kind of an odd thing. You produce more gold, produce more silver, but because you have less lead and zinc per ounce and gold per ounce, you end up having higher cost per ounce. But because you got more ounces for it to be applied again. But yes, it is a slightly positive grade reconciliation. Anything to add, Lauren?
Lauren Roberts: No. That’s accurate.
Steven Green: Okay. And we’re a couple of months away from 2024 now, and I think your previous kind of long-term guidance suggested a slightly lower grades, silver grades at least in 2024. How is that looking now and is this recent performance, do you expect that to bleed into next year as well?
Phillips Baker: Yes. Look, I think generally speaking, you will see over the course of the next decade, slightly decreased grades at Greens Creek, and it’s just a function of trying to maximize the NPV of the asset. So yes, expect lower grades, part of what the way we’re trying to offset that is increased throughput. And so that’s why you’ve seen us move to try to get to this 2,600 tons a day. To put that in a context, when we took over operatorship of Greens Creek, when we purchased the portion we didn’t own in 2008, the throughput was roughly 2,100, maybe a little less tons per day. So we’re now at 2,600 and we’ve gone from maybe a quarter of the tons being long hold to very, very little of it. So it is a huge accomplishment within the mine.
And then in the mill, it’s much more than anyone ever thought that that mill would be able to do. So it’s been quite an accomplishment that these guys have done it at Greens Creek. I would – they’re always looking for a way to improve the operation, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t find ways for improvement. But generally speaking, we should see somewhat lower production as the grade declines. Okay. Just remember on recoveries, recoveries have gone up dramatically. I’m trying to remember the numbers, but it’s 5, 6 percentage points.
Lauren Roberts: Yes. It’s a lot. And even the move from 2,300 to 2,600 tons a day, we saw no meaningful degradation in recovery.
Phillips Baker: And so just – don’t get too enthusiastic over what these guys can do. Let’s start with what the grade and the numbers would suggest. But this is a great team that works up at Greens Creek.
Steven Green: Okay. Fair enough. That’s helpful. Thanks.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Phil Baker for closing remarks.
Phillips Baker: Okay. Well thanks for the questions. We really enjoy the engagement that we have with you. And so I’ll remind you that we have the opportunity, if anybody wants to have a one-on-one call with one of us. We have time set up to do that. So please take advantage of that. I also want to just thank the teams of people that Hecla has, that it’s really made Hecla a unique silver producer. And again, I want to thank Lauren for his service to us. And with that, have a great day.
Operator: I would like to thank our speakers’ for today’s presentation, and thank you all for joining us. This now concludes today’s call and you may now disconnect.
