Cosmos Chiu: Great. Thanks Michael, Sean and Steve and Siren. Those are all the questions I have. Thanks again.
Michael Steinmann: Thanks Cosmos.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ovais Habib from Scotiabank. Your line is open.
Ovais Habib: Hi Michael and Sean McAleer and team
Michael Steinmann: Good morning.
Sean McAleer: Hi. Good morning.
Ovais Habib: Hi. Some of my questions have already been answered and thanks for the color on El Penon. But I did have two more questions. Just number one post the amount of transactions obviously one of the priorities was to sell non-core assets. It was really great to see the sale of MARA as well. Are you expecting to continue to monetize non-core assets? And are we expecting any sort of release or any sort of update on asset sales by the end of this year?
Michael Steinmann: As you know this is — selling assets is a very dynamic process and doing deals. So I can’t give you exact timing, but we’re definitely working as I mentioned in preamble to this call that we are working on further optimization of our portfolio. So that’s continuing. There is quite a few more assets from — that we have in our portfolio that really impact our operations or our production profile right now. And we got some inbounds and interest. So we definitely will continue that process. I’m really very pleased what the team has been able to achieve in the really short like — I think we announced, in summer after only three months. If you look at the big numbers that really allowed us to repay for the full year or the last, but is it now 10 months.
Just about below — just quick number $398 million in debt also for the full year paid about $130.5 million in dividend including the dividend payment that just has been announced yesterday. So huge change obviously to our already strong balance sheet before which was really supported by these asset sales and just let me mention again that, I put it here in the press release we’re looking at about a $90 million annual saving in care maintenance costs, project development costs from MARA and Morococha and then plus as you saw we repaid our line of credit fully. So there is savings — substantial savings on interest payment there as well, so these three things together amount to about $90 million. Now you have to add on top of this synergies.
We talked in the past, we always guided somewhere around $40 million to $60 million synergies. I think we are pretty confident here that we’re going to be at the upper end of that range. On the synergy side, I think there’s still a bit more to do on the optimization we’re working on. And further synergies that are coming in. And we have to wait for the really end of the year, we have all the final tally and numbers and early, I guess, early next year we’ll have the final number there on the synergies. So big changes from those disposition of assets and that theme will continue — do we have something ready to share with you this year still or early next year as I said look that’s a very dynamic process side. I can’t really pin the team down on one month or more or less, but we’ll for sure try the best here to advance that theme and continue that theme that we started this year on the disposition.
Ovais Habib: Thanks for the color on that, Michael. And just in regards to the committee, obviously, you mentioned $40 million to $60 million. Have you already started seeing those synergies kind of going into Q3? Or I’m guessing, we are expecting more kind of going into Q4 and more into 2024.
Michael Steinmann: Yeah. Some is in Q3, but very little. On the synergy side for sure, not on the current maintenance cost, as you remember the closing of those deals happened really especially MARA Morococha which are the bigger biggest ones on the car maintenance close like later in and I think like just a week before the end Q3, so no advantage really in Q3 on that. But from Q4 on we will see the full effect of those savings. And then of course, that will go into the next year 2024 together, as I said with some additional synergies that we will be able to harvest there as well.
Ovais Habib: Okay. Sounds good. And just switching gears a little bit last question from me, we saw that you had increased your stake in New Pacific this quarter. How do we think about Pan American’s position on the silver signs project and on Bolivia as well?
Michael Steinmann: Yes. Look, we are in Bolivia since 1997 a long time it’s time with San Vicente, it has been a very successful place for us. And also this quarter, San Vicente did very, very well. So that’s to continue and it’s a place that we are very happy doing business. Now, you look at New Pacific, and there are big discoveries that are exploration discoveries. It’s still earlier stage, but they are all up the size that are absolutely would be of interest for Pan American, and if they come through as a mine. And with our experience in Bolivia and as I said, and combined with that large size on the silver side of course that’s of interest for us. And that’s really the reason why we continue — we have been in New Pacific from the beginning on.
We liked the projects very early stage and we did some of the first financing to help bring in that exploration and drilling forward. And when New Pacific look for financing we were happy to increase slightly our stake and continue to advance and help to advance those projects in Bolivia.
Ovais Habib: Perfect. And that’s it from me in terms of questions. So thanks for my questions, Michael.
Michael Steinmann: Thanks, Ovais.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Carey MacRury from Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open.
Carey MacRury: Hi. Good morning, guys. Just a question on Cerro Moro. There was a big jump in the on-site direct operating cost this quarter versus last quarter. Just wondering if you can give any color on what drove that increase.
Steve Busby: Yeah. So I think it’s — hi, Carey this is Steve. Overall, I think the cost at Cerro Moro, it’s reflecting the development we have to do to get to some of these really high-grade variable ore deposits. So our development rates increased, the mining widths have kind of decreased according to schedule. So it was pretty much on plan relative to what we anticipated for overall spending there. And then I think financially, we had some impacts on the cost.
Ignacio Couturier: Yeah. This is Ignacio. In addition to what Steve just mentioned, it’s worth mentioning that there was a buildup of inventory at the end of Q2, the production in Cerro Moro was backloaded into Q2, the last couple of weeks of June and that inventory flushed out during Q3. So that was another factor contributing to the higher costs for Cerro Moro Q3 relative to Q2.
