Q4 2024 SSR Mining Inc Earnings Call
Speaker Change: Hello everyone and welcome to SSR Mining's fourth quarter and year-end 2024 conference call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and then zero.
Speaker Change: At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Alex Hunchak from SSR Mining. Please go ahead.
Speaker Change: Thank you, Operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining today's conference call to discuss SSR Mining's fourth quarter and full-year financial results. Our consolidated financial statements have been presented in accordance with US GAAP. These financial statements have been filed on EDGAR, CDAR, the ASX, and are also available on our website.
Speaker Change: There is an online webcast accompanying this call, and you will find the information to access the webcast in this afternoon's news release and on our corporate website.
Speaker Change: Please note that all figures discussed during the call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated.
Speaker Change: Today's discussion will include four looking statements, so please read the disclosures in the relevant documents.
Speaker Change: Additionally, we refer to non-GAAP financial measures during our discussion and in the accompanying slides. Please see our press release for information about the comparable GAAP measures.
Speaker Change: Rod Antal, Executive Chairman, will be joined by Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer, and Bill MacNevin, EVP, Operations and Sustainability on today's call. I will now turn the line over to Rod.
Speaker Change: Pardon me. This is the conference operator. Rod, your line may be muted.
Thanks for watching!
All right. Thanks, Alex.
Speaker Change: I want to start today's call by acknowledging that February 13 marked the one-year anniversary of the tragic incident at Cherblo.
Speaker Change: An emotional memorial service was held at site to reflect on the nine lost colleagues.
Speaker Change: This incident has left an indelible mark on all of us here at SSR and I want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication demonstrated by everyone across this entire organisation in 2024.
Speaker Change: We have made good progress at Sherpa, especially in recent months.
Speaker Change: Constructive discussions continue with the relevant Turkish authorities on a pathway to advance the restart of the operations.
Speaker Change: Bill will provide a further update on the current activities at Sherpa later in the call.
Now looking at our results for 2024.
Speaker Change: I'm pleased to report that we close the year on a strong note with solid operating results.
Speaker Change: A year-over-year increase to our consolidated reserves, and a major strategic announcement with the acquisition of Cripple Creek and Victor Mine from Newmont.
Speaker Change: As a result, CCNV will increase our scale, free cash flow, and portfolio diversification, and we have made excellent progress on the integration planning since announcing the transaction in December.
Speaker Change: Our consolidated 2025 cost and production guidance, including CCMV, will be released shortly after the transaction closes in the coming weeks.
Speaker Change: Looking forward, and as we progress our effort to CERBLA, we have several important priorities and catalysts on the horizon in 2025.
Speaker Change: These include the delivery of a technical report and updated life of mind plan to CCMV.
Advancing Hot Madden towards a construction decision.
Speaker Change: Continued progress on an updated and extended life of mine for Puna, including potential laybacks in Chiches and evaluation of a longer-term potential of Cordaderas.
Speaker Change: Advancing the Buffalo Valley deposit at Marigold, which now hosts more than 500,000 ounces in its maiden reserve.
Speaker Change: Ongoing exploration activities across the portfolio as we evaluate other opportunities for mine life extension at each one of the operations, and most importantly, continuing to advance Chirpla to Arista.
Speaker Change: I also want to highlight two significant milestones achieved by the SSR team in 2024.
Speaker Change: At Marigold, we celebrated 5 million ounces of life and mine gold production from the asset on December 30.
Speaker Change: A huge accomplishment and a testament to the quality of the mind and the team.
Speaker Change: Additionally, Puna produced 10.5 million ounces of silver in 2024, which was a record for the operation's 15 years life and hitting the top end of its previously increased production guidance.
Speaker Change: We are proud of our team in Argentina for their efforts in building Puna into one of the previous silver mines.
Speaker Change: So let's turn to slide four for discussion on the MR-MR update.
Speaker Change: Our consolidated reserves total 8 million gold equivalent ounces at the end of 2024, excluding any contributions from CCNV or Hot Madam.
Speaker Change: This was a 3% increase over 2023 after mine depletion, which is a strong result that showcases the success of our resource development drilling.
Speaker Change: Notably, Marigold's reserves increased 14% year-over-year driven by the declaration of a 523,000 ounce maiden reserve for Buffalo Valley, which will be a key life and mine extension opportunity for Marigold going forward.
Speaker Change: It is also worth noting that metal price changes were not a material driver in this reserve growth.
Speaker Change: Gold price assumptions at Chirplow and Seabee was unchanged for 2023, while Marigold and Pooner increased their metal price assumptions by just 3% over the prior year.
Speaker Change: Gold-only M&I resources increased 9% over 2023, driven in part by continued resource additions at CB.
Speaker Change: and we will continue advancing resource development activities across the portfolio as we strive to extend mine lives at each one of the producing assets.
Speaker Change: This includes the progress at Marigold's New Millennium and Buffalo Valley deposits.
CB's Porky's Target and Atpuna the Korda Deris Project.
Michael Sparks: So now I'm going to hand the call over to Michael to discuss the quarter on slide number five.
Michael Sparks: Thanks, Rod, and good afternoon, everyone. The fourth quarter of 2024 was our strongest of the year, with 124,000 gold equivalent ounces produced at all and sustaining costs of $18.57 per ounce.
Michael Sparks: For the full year, we produced 399,000 gold equivalent ounces at AISC of 1,878 per ounce.
Michael Sparks: Production of Marigold, Seabee, and Puna combined to produce 371,000 gold equivalent ounces in 2024 at an AISC of 1542 per ounce.
Michael Sparks: As a reminder, under U.S. GAAP, we do not adjust for care and maintenance costs incurred during the year, and the cash impact of these expenses are reflected in our AISC numbers.
Michael Sparks: excluding the approximately $178 per ounce of cash care and maintenance costs incurred at Chirpler and Seabee in Q4, AISC for the quarter was $1,679 per ounce.
Michael Sparks: For the full year, excluding care and maintenance costs, AISC was $16.99 per ounce.
Michael Sparks: At Chirpler, full year reclamation and remediation spend was $128 million. We also spent approximately $14 million advancing Hod Madden in the fourth quarter, bringing full year spend at the project to $42 million as we progressed engineering and preliminary site development activities.
Michael Sparks: Lastly, as Rod mentioned, we had a good year at the drill bit in 2024 and look forward to continued advancement of these brownfield opportunities in 2025.
Michael Sparks: We recorded a tributable net income of $0.03 per diluted share in the fourth quarter and adjusted net income of $0.10 per diluted share. Care and maintenance costs at Chirpler and Seabee, which totaled $36 million in the fourth quarter, accounts for $0.18 per diluted share.
Michael Sparks: Fourth quarter operating cash flow was $95 million, and free cash flow was $56 million, a very strong result to close out 2024.
Michael Sparks: We finished the year with $388 million in total cash, a net cash position of $158 million, and total liquidity of approximately $890 million.
Michael Sparks: With this existing liquidity and an outlook for continued free cash flow generation in 2025, we have closed the year in a strong position financially, and we are well positioned to manage remediation costs at Chirpler, as well as our reinvestment needs across the business.
Bill MacNevin: Furthermore, we expect CCMB will contribute immediate free cash flow to our business upon integration, enabling a rapid payback of the transaction's $100 million upfront consideration, particularly at these gold prices. Now over to Bill for Slide 8.
Thanks Michael. I'll start with a brief update on Chirpa.
Bill MacNevin: In the fourth quarter of 2024, we continued to advance reclamation and remediation activities at site. And we have now removed all of the displaced heap leach material from the Suburley Valley.
Bill MacNevin: We are continuing discussions with Turkish government officials around the final remediation plan at CHRPA.
Bill MacNevin: Positively, we continue to note public commentary from Turkish officials affirming that there was no recordable contamination to local soil, water or air in the location sampled.
Bill MacNevin: Following the incident, we commissioned Coole & Nicholas Inc. or C&I, an international mining consultant firm, to conduct an independent review of the Cherbler heap leach failure.
Bill MacNevin: This was an important body of work for us as we sought to determine the cause of the chirpal incident.
Bill MacNevin: C&I determined the most likely cause of the Churchill incident was a deep-rooted flaw in the third-party engineering design of the heat bleach pad.
Bill MacNevin: namely an overestimation of the shear strength properties of the liner system at the base of e-pleat.
Bill MacNevin: This error inflated the calculated factor of safety and resulted in insufficient shear strength along the liner interface to support the as-designed heap leach facility.
Sinai also determined that in all material aspects
Bill MacNevin: The heat bleach pad construction and operation was carried out in conformance with the issued for construction engineer design parameters and that there was no substantiation that excess water, ground vibrations from blasting or stacking beyond the design caused the event.
Thank you.
Bill MacNevin: These outcomes provide clarity and understanding for our team on the ground as we seek to restart the Chirp Lamar and we continue to work closely with relevant authorities on this front.
Bill MacNevin: As a reminder, we expect Chirplet could be restarted within 20 days from the receipt of the necessary permits, with initial operations consisting of processing a combination of stockpiled ore and ore mined from Shuck MacTepe whilst the remediation work continues.
Bill MacNevin: Now, let's move on to slide eight for some commentary on Marigold.
Bill MacNevin: Marigold produced 60,000 ounces in the fourth quarter, its strongest period of the year and marking 5 million ounces of total production over the mine's 35 year operating life.
Bill MacNevin: This is a significant milestone for any gold mine and is a clear testament to the quality of the people we have on the ground in Nevada.
Bill MacNevin: For the full year, Marigold produced 160,000 ounces at an ASIC of $1,711 per ounce, with costs reflecting increased royalty expenses given the current gold price, and also continued cost pressures with respect to OEM components.
We expect these costs to remain elevated in 2025.
Bill MacNevin: As Rod noted in the MR update, we made some great progress with brownfill exploration and studies at Buffalo Valley.
Bill MacNevin: enabling the declaration of a 523,000 ounce made in mineral reserve at the deposit.
Bill MacNevin: We also delivered mineral resource growth at New Millennium and will continue to advance brownfield drilling activity at Marigold in 2025 to build on these positive outcomes.
Now on to CB on slide 9.
Operations restarted CB on October 11.
Bill MacNevin: and the mine closed the year with its strongest quarter of 2024 with production in 28,000 ounces.
Bill MacNevin: at an ASIC of 1214 per ounce. This strong production was driven by a higher than expected head grow, which averaged 9.7 grams per tonne in the quarter.
Bill MacNevin: Thanks to the strong fourth quarter CB finished the year above its previously revised production guidance.
Bill MacNevin: with 79,000 ounces ASIC and an ASIC of $1,515 per ounce.
Bill MacNevin: The team continued evaluating the drilling at the Porky and Porky West targets in 2024, which helped deliver an 88% increase in measured and indicated mineral resources for CVE.
Bill MacNevin: We are advancing further drilling and technical studies to better delineate the opportunity to potentially extend the operating life at Seabee through both additional mineralisation at Santoy and a potential new development pathway at the Bulky Targets.
Now, on to Puna.
Bill MacNevin: Boone produced 3 million ounces of silver in the fourth quarter, driving record full-year production of 10.5 million ounces of silver.
Bill MacNevin: This production meant the top end of Perna's previously increased guidance.
Bill MacNevin: bringing a strong close to a truly exceptional year for the operation.
Bill MacNevin: Fullier AC Coperna was $15.56 per ounce, delivering significant free cash flow margins in the current silver price environment.
Bill MacNevin: We made good progress evaluating life extension opportunities at Poona in 2014, including at both Chinchillas Pit and Kordadaris Target.
Bill MacNevin: We expect to be in a position to provide further updates on these initiatives within 2025 and are excited to be in a position to build on Perna's recent success by delivering a longer mine life and continued economic benefits for our local stakeholders.
Bill MacNevin: Before I turn back to Rod, I would quickly speak to the Cripple Creek and Victor acquisition.
Bill MacNevin: I've personally overseen the integration process since we announced the transaction in December and I'm confident we're positioned to realize significant value from CCV right out of the gate.
Bill MacNevin: Our due diligence identified meaningful opportunities to build on the sizable mineral reserves and resources that already exist at the asset.
Bill MacNevin: and we look forward to demonstrating other opportunities to deliver additional value from the asset in an updated life and mind plan for CCNB within 2025.
Speaker Change: I'm thrilled to bring an asset and team of this calibre into our portfolio and look forward to discussing our long-term plans for the mine in the near future.
I'll turn back to Rod for closing remarks.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Bill, and thanks, Michael.
Speaker Change: When I closed this call at the end of the third quarter, I noted that we were looking forward to a strong close in 2024.
Speaker Change: I'm happy to say that we delivered on those expectations and we look forward to continuing this positive momentum by delivering a number of catalysts in 2025.
Speaker Change: With the CCNV transaction closing in the coming weeks, we have added another long-lived and free cash flow generative asset to our portfolio and we look forward to sharing our consolidated production and cost outlook for the company before the end of the quarter.
Speaker Change: At the same time, we continue to diligently advance towards a potential restart of operations at Sherpa.
Speaker Change: CHIRPLA is a meaningful contributor to the local and national economies in Turkey and we are keen to return to operations while we continue the remediation and reclamation efforts in 25 and beyond.
are proud of the tremendous resilience of our teams.
and the business demonstrated in 2024.
Speaker Change: We have entered a new year with renewed optimism and while we have a busy year ahead, we look forward to surfacing value across all of our assets in 2025.
Speaker Change: So with that, I'm going to turn the call over to operator for questions. Thank you.
Speaker Change: Thank you Mr. Antal. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys.
Speaker Change: And to withdraw your question, please press star and then 2. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue.
Speaker Change: And your first question today will come from Oveis Habib with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Oveis Habib: Thanks operator. Hi Rod and SSR team. Just a couple of questions for me. Just starting off with CB, obviously had a great quarter Q4. Should we expect any sort of performance like this to continue into 2025?
Oveis Habib: Thanks for the question. It was a great quarter. We obviously hit some very, very special grade. We continue to...
Oveis Habib: search and do further exploration in Santoy. Cannot expect those grades to continue each and every quarter, but we do expect to continue along that same vein.
Oveis Habib: year in, year out. But we, as you know, if you've been tracking CB, there's times where we hit some of that better grade and this quarter was definitely one of them.
Speaker Change: Okay, thanks for that, Bill. And just then moving to Chopra, Rod, just in terms of...
Oveis Habib: Is there any sort of information or study the regulators are waiting for before they make any sort of decision on moving forward with the restart of operations?
Speaker Change: Or, was the recent findings of C&I enough for the regulators to make their decision to move forward?
Speaker Change: Yeah, look, I think the simple way to think about it, my advice, it's a package of work.
If you think about...
Speaker Change: in the year that we've had since the incident we've made.
Speaker Change: tremendous progress as we've been continually reporting all through 2024 and obviously now with our four-year financials and the priorities that we set ourselves
Speaker Change: and the aggressive timetable that we set ourselves to achieve what we've actually done in terms of control the site.
ensure we didn't have any environmental contamination.
Speaker Change: to remediate and clear the Suburley Valley to make this site safe.
are all sort of precursors to...
to a race start as you would expect.
Speaker Change: Similarly, the C&I report itself obviously isn't a precursor, but it's important to understand.
as we're talking and working with the regulators.
Speaker Change: A few pieces are really around locking down and agreeing on what the closure
Bill MacNevin: plans will be and that is in respect to the storage facility that Bill mentioned.
So that's concluding now.
as well as the final heap leach.
Bill MacNevin: closure itself so so it's all it's all been a it's all been a package if you like as a progression to where we are today to get to get us into to this place
as we're looking forward to a restart.
Bill MacNevin: We've still got work to do, as similarly as we always will. You know, remediation efforts will continue.
Bill MacNevin: beyond even when Scherpler restarts as we've talked about before etc etc so restart doesn't necessarily mean there's not more work to be done but you know I think as as I think back to where we were this time last year where you know clearly we're all shocked.
Bill MacNevin: about what happened and to where we are now. We've come a long ways and obviously we're working confidently with the regulators to seek a permission and permits to get restarted at Chirplow.
Bill MacNevin: Thanks for that color Rod. And then just kind of number three on my end, you know, again in terms of moving on to Hot Madden, does the commencement of the development of Hot Madden hinge any way on the restart of operations at Chopra?
We did.
to talk about the fact that we wanted to take...
Bill MacNevin: the time to develop a plan, and when I say a plan, a technical study that represents
Bill MacNevin: technical detail, particularly in the sort of, you know, years 1, 2, 3, after you start the asset up to get a higher level of fidelity around.
Bill MacNevin: what we expect in the asset in the initial years because that's clearly where the payback is.
etc. etc. etc. So that work's been working...
Bill MacNevin: going on in the background and we're studiously working on all those components.
Bill MacNevin: to basically redo the technical reports and then start the project financing discussions.
Bill MacNevin: externally with the banks to bring Hot Matter into construction. So it's not hinged on Chirpla and in fact the work we've been doing and the way we've separated the teams and the efforts around the teams is has set it up to be mutually exclusive.
Bill MacNevin: Perfect. Thanks for that. And thanks for taking my questions, Rodney. Looking forward to the guidance after the closing of CCNV.
Thank you very much.
Great. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it.
Speaker Change: And your next question today will come from Cosmos Chu with CIBC, please go ahead
Hi, thanks for having me.
Maybe my first question is on Marigold.
Speaker Change: Good to see that you have declared an initial reserve at Buffalo Valley. Could you remind me in terms of how that slots into the production profile of Marigold?
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker Change: What's important, I think for most people to take away from the year, there could have been a period where we may have forgotten about the rest of the business, but the fact that
Speaker Change: were able to achieve what we achieved with the challenge of Chirpler in respect to...
the operations performing.
as well as continuing to evolve in daylight.
Speaker Change: the efforts in the background to bring a Buffalo Valley now into a reserve.
Speaker Change: shouldn't go unnoticed because it is important for the future of marigold and
Speaker Change: And again, another really good indication of the focus that we've had.
and energy that we've got in the business.
Speaker Change: Bill, why don't you answer the question around this sort of timing. Yep. So, Cosmo said we're very excited about it. It's a...
It's like a satellite.
of that main area.
Speaker Change: There was a lot of good work done already, working it through. This year, we're taking that further into feasibility study type work with a lot of engineering.
Speaker Change: and we'll be updating our lifeline plans as typically throughout this year so in terms of the timing it'll be driven by two things the net value which is we believe is going to be high for Buffalo value but we've also got to still go through the permitting processes
Speaker Change: So, it's still several years off, but it's definitely something that we're excited about progressing through the pipeline, and we'll be able to give more colour to that later in the year after we've worked through our life and mind scheduling processes.
Speaker Change: Great. Thanks, Bill. And echoing your comments, Rod, and that's why I wanted to ask that question in terms of, you know, pleasantly surprised as well that we were able to see
Speaker Change: progress at some of these different assets, including Buffalo Valley. So I agree with what you said, Rod.
Speaker Change: describe for Buffalo Valley, which is important, will be people putting holes into the new Millennium Target, which is another one that's progressed, just not not as far advanced as what Buffalo Valley is.
Speaker Change: And then, as you mentioned, you put out your updated mineral resource estimate today as well for the year, and as you mentioned, you used very conservative commodity price assumptions.
1,500.
Speaker Change: for some of the assets, even lower for the other ones. Could you maybe talk about the decision to use these conservative commodity price assumptions?
Speaker Change: And what would have happened, you know, some of the, like Marigold, for example, I would imagine there's some absence that could come in.
Speaker Change: into the pit if you were to have used a higher commodity price assumption. So, two parts. Why did you, you know, continue to use a commodity price much lower than spot prices today? And what could have happened?
Speaker Change: Yeah, look, I'm not going to speculate on what could happen because they're all sensitive in their own right, but what I'll say is
Speaker Change: The simple reason for where we ended up is if you look at Chirpler, given the asset is on care and maintenance.
Speaker Change: We left the metal prices unchanged, it just made sense to.
Speaker Change: until we get a restart. That was really key. CB, as you remember, is already at ...
Speaker Change: $1,650 because of its relatively short mine life, so we didn't see a reason to change it.
increased, you know, slightly obviously.
Speaker Change: as well. So that was the decision made as we were going through our assumptions. We also, you know, take a sort of view of consensus. We look at what our peers are doing.
Speaker Change: and that's how we ended up with the reserve and resource statements as they were.
Speaker Change: We'll continue to review that. We only do one sort of strategic mind plan review a year because otherwise it just becomes unwieldy. And we'll review that during 2025. Remember we've also got to take into account now the acquisition of CCNB.
Historically, Newmont have been fairly conservative in their
Speaker Change: resource and reserve statements. We'll have to wait and see what they do with their new resource and reserve statements here in the next little while.
Speaker Change: And we'll take that into account as we look at this sort of full portfolio.
Speaker Change: review strategically through our mine plan process in 2025. So there could be some updates to it.
Speaker Change: as we progress into this year or later in the year, how they impact, how the commodity prices impact
Speaker Change: you know, the pitch shells, the optimal pitch shells, etc. They're all very differently...
Speaker Change: position in terms of their sensitivity so again I'm not going to sort of go into wax lyrical about each one of them but they will obviously have the benefit of a higher commodity price over the years so more to come you know later this year.
Of course. And maybe one last question.
As you mentioned, sorry to bring it.
I'm going to bring this back to Tripler here.
As you mentioned, the remediation and containment costs overall, $250.
Speaker Change: to $300 million. You've spent $127-ish million dollars so far. Could you remind us in terms of the timing of the remainder of that spend?
Yeah, I'm going to let Michael take that call, but...
Thanks a thousand dollars.
Speaker Change: As you look at what Rod mentioned earlier in this call, a lot of the focus in 2024 was the Suburban Valley.
and that work has been completed.
Speaker Change: As we work for the engineering and the timeline for the e-storage facility, the material movement will be subdued throughout 2025.
Speaker Change: Once that facility is constructed, then the material movement will pick back up. So I would expect that remediation and reclamation span to be lower than it was in 2024. And as we get that permitting and other things done for the e-storage facility, we'll ramp up that material movement again.
Speaker Change: And we'll put that out with guidance as best we can.
Speaker Change: the numbers correctly in terms of the liability that we're carrying because I think it's important that people understand it. The $250 to $300 million is still our estimate. That hasn't changed. I mean, that's sound.
Speaker Change: and we're obviously you know already churned through quite a lot of that with the 24 efforts so the expectation is the rest of the spin will will take place over over a number of years beyond 2025
Speaker Change: as we progressively build the e-storage facility and the remediation efforts on the pad, as Michael said.
Speaker Change: Taking away from that if you think about Overlaying that on our liquidity position. We're in we're obviously in a you know, extremely strong position
Speaker Change: Great. Thanks, Rod, Mike, William, Bill. Those are all the questions.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Your next question today will come from Lawson Winter with Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.
Lawson Winter: Yes, thank you very much, Operator. Good morning, or good evening, Rod and team. I wanted to ask about Marigold in advance of your guidance. I mean, I'm...
I'm not, I'm not going to ask you.
Speaker Change: for a preview of the guidance, which is conceptually Marigold a year ago.
was
Speaker Change: to be going through a period of investments of 2025, would have as a result experienced lower gold production and then a rebound in 26 and then still higher in 27. Just generally, is that still the concept or could there be a push out of the investment that was considered a year ago?
Sorry, Lawson, I had you on mute.
Speaker Change: I think if you use the tech report we put out this time last year...
Speaker Change: as the placeholder for guidance. I think that still sounds so until we do it I think that's the best reference point.
Okay, fantastic.
Speaker Change: To what extent can you provide us some additional color in terms of what...
is considering as conditions for reinstatement of the operating
Speaker Change: approvals for Turpler. So, for example, you know, is there any consideration to some increase in local ownership of part of the mine? Is there consideration for a resubmission of a completely new EIA or...
Speaker Change: you know, what are some kind of the moving parts, or if you have some stage gates that you can share with us, you know, just to help us kind of think about potential timelines, anything you could share would be very helpful.
Speaker Change: Yeah look I think sort of I'll repeat what I sort of said a moment ago but
Speaker Change: If you think about the incident itself, it was unprecedented. There is no playbook to this in terms of what needs to be done for a restart. However, the efforts that we made and have made in themselves is
Speaker Change: entirely in alignment to seeking a restart. So we've made terrific progress on those fronts and we continue to make progress on those fronts.
Thank you.
the engineering for the storage facility.
Speaker Change: and the engineering around the heat bleach pad remediation which we're...
We're closing in fast to complete.
Speaker Change: and obviously those discussions are going on in parallel with the regulators to ensure that we're doing all the things that we need to do before we seek approval for the reinstatement of the Temporary Operating Certificate. So there's no...
Speaker Change: There's no condition precedent, there's no determinant around, you know, you have to do a new EIA.
Speaker Change: be operating under the 2014 EIA and as I mentioned I think probably on the last call no matter what we actually had to do a new EIA for Chirpler anyway which we fully expect to
Speaker Change: complete this year for submittal of what we'll call the Chirplow 2025 EIA that will take into account
Speaker Change: in the last tech report this time last year. And that's sort of normal course. It's obviously more important now because we want to get the higher throughput rates back up at Chirplet, but nonetheless, it was sort of more in the ordinary course for us than having to be done.
Speaker Change: because of anything the regulators want. So I think, again, as we're moving forward, we're doing all the things we need to do, and we've got to just continue to deliver those and continue with that dialogue with the regulators.
Speaker Change: Okay, thank you. Look forward to further updates on that. Appreciate it.
Good stuff. Thank you, Lawson.