McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE:MUX) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Joseph Reagor : Okay. That sounds good. And one final thing, Rob, do you have any thoughts on the potential repeal of the new mining exploration law in Mexico and how it might impact you guys if it does get repealed.

Rob McEwen : We’re just watching it. We’ve had some permits there. But politics is a little difficult to predict, Joe. So we’re moving ahead on the assumption that the in-pit tailings disposal, we gotten approval for will continue. It might — if it were to go in — it would impact six years later because the first six years of reprocessing the tailings or not the tailings the heap leach.

William Shaver : That’s correct.

Rob McEwen : Yeah. So near term we’ve got time to see if it’s repealed.

Joseph Reagor : Okay, thanks for comments. I’ll turn it over.

Rob McEwen : Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from the line of John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Please go ahead.

Rob McEwen : Good morning, John.

John Tumazos : Good morning. Thank you. Well, I’m looking ahead a year or so to after the definitive fees is completed in hand.

Rob McEwen : Okay.

John Tumazos : What will be the path forward for McEwen Copper or I guess the consensus of the Board is McEwen Mining, Rio Tinto, Stellantis, et cetera. Would the next step be to apply for permits or do early works for construction, the access road that was built to facilitate the detailed drilling campaign, I guess, is one of those early works already done? Just give us a flavor for what the path forward is going to be when the definitive fees as it had.

Rob McEwen : It’s the feasibility study Q1 of next year and after which we’ll have — there will be about a year of engineering required before we make a decision to put a shovel in the ground. In terms of — Mike has assembled a team, a very confident team of nationals that have a lot of experience building in San Juan province where Los Azules is located. And moving ahead on the basis that we — they’ve built substantially large mines, gold mines down there. And they — there’s a team that could build it. We do have some large shareholders that might want to have — would prefer to operate. But at the moment, we’re moving ahead as though we could build it. Mike, do you want to add anything on that?

Michael Meding : Hi, John. Hey, glad to speak to you. We filed our environmental permit for construction and operation in April last year. We are currently going through the different meetings with the different ambulatory commission members. We expect our environmental permit in the second half of 2024. And then as Rob said, after having gone through the detailed engineering and at the same time, obtaining remaining permits alongside we go that would be the path forward. We haven’t made any kind of decision yet on how we are going to construct, as Rob said before. But we think that Los Azules overall, when you compare it to other projects in the region has high constructability with low CapEx. I think that should help us with financing and the construction going forward.

John Tumazos : Thank you.

Rob McEwen : You’re welcome.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] and there are no further questions at this time. Mr. Rob McEwen, I will turn the call back over to you.

Rob McEwen : Thank you, operator. I’d like to thank everyone for being on the line. I think that our future is looking much brighter than it looked several years ago. Hold on, we’re going higher. Thank you.

Operator: And everyone that will conclude our call for today. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

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