Russell Lawlar : I agree with what you’ve said. There’s really nothing that we have coming at us, that we would say we could point to, that would say this is going to change our cost profile dramatically, especially at the Lucky Friday and the Greens Creek. And I’m thinking about it from the kind of just as-produced production costs, the costs we’re going to spend on a monthly or a yearly basis. Keno Hill’s cost structure has quite a bit of fixed costs within it. And so as we are able to scale that up and see more throughput, there will be additional variable costs. But we should see on a per-unit basis, those should come off. And then Phil mentioned the treatments earlier, the byproduct credits, but we also have the treatment charges in there as well. Right now, I think the outlook for the treatment charges should be relatively stable, but we’ll see those things can fluctuate and actually have an impact on our cost profile as well.
Phillips Baker: Pretty dramatic treatment charges over time.
Don DeMarco : Okay. And just as a final question, Phil, you mentioned Keno Hill, they are ramping up to a throughput rate of around 550 short tons per year. And what should we think about? You see 2024 production at 2.7 million to 3 million ounces silver. And what should we pair up in terms of throughput rate for that? Rather than 550 tons per day, I would imagine. So what should we think about in terms of tons per day in 2024?
Phillips Baker: That’s certainly what we’re still working through, because we do have higher grade areas, but generally speaking, somewhere between 300 tons and 400 tons per day. But again, we’re not going to push it. If we’re at the lower end of the range of ounces, then we’re at the lower end of the tons per day. If we’re at the higher end of the range, then it’s just more tons that we’ve been able to process, so 2.4 million tons.
Don DeMarco : Okay. Thank you very much for your answers. That’s all for me. And good luck with the rest of the quarter.
Phillips Baker: Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Your next question comes from a line of John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Your line is open.
John Tumazos: Thank you. Was the $21 million inventory adjustment solely related to falling zinc prices and zinc concentrates in transit?
Phillips Baker: John, I think the short answer to that is it’s the Lucky Friday.
Russell Lawlar: So John, you’re looking at the cash flow statement, correct? The non-cash, the add back?
John Tumazos: Correct.
Russell Lawlar: On the cash flow? Yeah, that’s a couple of things. First, that’s related to Casa Berardi, I would say is the largest part of it, where the cost per ounce, especially when you take into account the non-cash charges, the depreciation that goes into the inventory, there was a net realizable value right down there. And that was accelerated, because when we stopped development of some new resources or new reserves at the West Mine Underground. We accelerated the depreciation because we anticipate that will mine out mid-2024. So, we see the non-cash charges at Casa Berardi have gone up. And I think that detail, if you go into the 10-K, you’ll see that detail as the non-cash charges have gone up. So, that’s the biggest driver of that.
There is then some changes as well at Greens Creek, where you ship concentrate and you get – you have to true up estimates of what the inventory is that you have in the concentrate barn, so those will flow through there as well, but it’s primarily Casa. What I would say is, you mentioned the change in the price of zinc, and we have seen a big change in the price of zinc has come off. A couple of things though, if you look at the realized price of zinc, it’s actually pretty healthy, because we had hedges in place that caused us to not have to take that lower price, right, so it’s above $1.30 for the quarter. But also, even at $1 or $1.10 zinc, both Greens Creek and Lucky Friday, have strong positive margins. So there’s really no NRV write-downs at either of those mines.
John Tumazos: Second question if I may. The $76 million in idle facilities cost, does that largely disappear after the January restart at Lucky Friday and then say mid-year when Keno Hill starts to produce revenue?
Phillips Baker: Short answer is, yes. Yeah, that’s correct. In 2023 it was primarily driven by Lucky Friday, and then also there’s a chunk of it that was Keno Hill as well, right. That’s ramped up at Keno Hill, where we essentially have our cost of goods sold match our revenue, and then the rest of the costs go through that. So as we see Keno Hill produce more, that should shrink as well. And a little bit – yeah, a little bit of Casa and some of Nevada is in there as well.
