James Anderson, CEO of Guanajuato Silver (TSX.V:GSVR – OTCQX:GSVRF), joins us to provide a comprehensive Q2 financial and operational update from their 4 producing silver-gold mines and 3 processing facilities in central Mexico, where the company saw record revenues. We expand on some of the equipment and personnel changes the company has invested in to continue optimizing future production. We also get into the dual focus of both production growth initiatives as well as lowering costs to generate larger revenues.
The Company produces silver and gold concentrates from the El Cubo Mine Complex, Valenciana Mines Complex, and the San Ignacio mine; all three mines are located within the state of Guanajuato, which has an established 480-year mining history. In addition, the Company produces silver, gold, lead, and zinc concentrates from the Topia mine in northwestern Durango. The operations team is also augmenting material at the Cata processing facility in Guanajuato with ore from both the historic Horcon Mine project, located in the state of Jalisco, and from stockpiles at the Pinguico mine. This effectively means they are seeing production from 6 of their mines, even though only the 4 primary mines have active ongoing underground mining.
Q2 2024 (Three Month Period) Highlights:
- Record revenue for the quarter of $20.5M representing a 16% increase over the previous quarter, and a 22% increaseover Q2 2023. Consolidated revenue for the quarter was generated by a realized average price of $28.78 per silver ounce, $2,334 per gold ounce, $0.98 per pound of lead, and $1.29 per pound of zinc.
- Positive mine operating income of $947,433. During the quarter, the Company posted its first ever positive income from mining operations.
- Positive EBITDA* of $2,007,907 represents the first positive EBITDA* reported by the Company and demonstrates improving cash flow from mining operations.
- EBITDA showed a notable $6.5M improvement from the previous quarter. Adjusted EBITDA* was also positive at $1,916,933 for the quarter.
- Production for the quarter of 823,679 silver-equivalent ounces (“AgEq”) derived from 398,685 ounces of silver, 4,255 ounces of gold, 806,295 pounds of lead and 1,067,538 pounds of zinc. (See note to table below for details regarding the Company’s AgEq calculations). Guanajuato Silver remains a primary silver and gold producer with over 90% of revenues being derived from the sale of precious metals. All lead and zinc production comes exclusively from the Company’s Topia mine located in northwest Durango.
At the Topia Mine, the commissioning of a new filter system for silver-gold-lead concentrates has been successfully completed. This new filter system is one of two that will be installed at the mine site; the second concentrator will be for silver-zinc concentrate production. At the San Ignacio Mine, located approximately 20km from the Company’s Cata Processing facility, a new ore sorter, which arrived on site in July, is rapidly approaching the commissioning phase. The NUCTECH MC2000NF Intelligent Mineral Sorting System provides high-tech sorting accuracy, large processing capacity, environmental friendliness, and high reliability through a system that utilizes X-ray and structured light imaging technology to intelligently identify and then separate high-grade silver and gold material. The ore sorter is expected to improve overall efficiencies at San Ignacio, raising the grade of transported material to the Cata mill. The San Ignacio mine accounted for approximately 15% of total silver-equivalent production during Q2, 2024.
We reviewed that in Q1 that there was a fair bit of material processed at their El Cubo mill from 3rd party sources, and while there was a pause on those contracts in Q2 and Q3, that they are encouraged about adding in more contracted 3rd-party material into the mill later in the year and moving forward, but don’t have a definitive start date at this time.
Wrapping up, James discusses how important to the growth initiatives that the addition of Carlos Silva, as the new Chief Operating Officer in 2024 has been, and mentions that the company is still considering other bolt on operations or stockpiles in the greater Guanajuato area of Mexico to process at their facilities. He also points out that in addition to investing in growth that the Company is making significant strides in paying down outstanding debt, and that they will continue to do so in the quarters to come.*
If you have any follow up questions for James on Guanajuato Silver, then please email me at Shad@kereport.com and we’ll get those addressed by management or in future interviews.
* In full disclosure, Shad has a position in Guanajuato Silver at the time of this recording.
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