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McEwen says "bad news is behind us" as company enters Q4

Oct 30, 2020


McEwen Mining Chairman Rob McEwen doesn't mince words.  “I am feeling much better this year than I did last year at this time because the bad news is behind us," said McEwen in a quarterly report to shareholders. 

"Our operations are starting to turn around and improve; the financial pressure on our balance sheet has been alleviated; and our future growth is becoming much brighter. Investment capital is still in the early stages of moving into precious metals. There are a number of companies that are still being largely ignored but appear to have considerable upside potential. I believe McEwen Mining is one of those companies whose share price has a lot of catching up to do. Yes, last year was a nightmare and as shareholders we all suffered great frustration and confusion over the large loss of share value at a time when the price of gold was climbing ever higher. Our problems were many, some were due to non-recurring events and others were operational. Our senior management at both head office and at our mines are focused on improving operating efficiencies and profit margins. Over the next several quarters we expect to deliver better operating results along with exploration news that we hope will start to close the price performance gap,” commented McEwen, Chairman & Chief Owner.

Production from Black Fox was 5,800 GEOs in Q3, at cash costs and AISC of $1,581 and $1,644 per GEO, respectively. The operation is benefitting from the additional development work completed during Q2, which increased mining flexibility. We expect production to continue to trend higher during Q4, and mining from Black Fox to continue into Q1 2021, while we transition to mining the Froome deposit.

Development of the underground access to the Froome deposit, located a half mile (800 m) west of the Black Fox mine, is on track, having advanced 47% by the end of the quarter. We plan to reach the main deposit in Q2 2021 and expect to achieve commercial production from Froome in Q4 2021. Froome offers several benefits compared to Black Fox such as a straighter, more efficient haulage route and wider, more consistent mineralization that is amenable to lower cost bulk mining methods. We are targeting an average annualized production rate of 40-45,000 GEOs from Froome over a period of approximately 2.5 years.

Fox Complex Expansion – Economic Study

We have engaged an independent engineering group to complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Fox Complex that includes Grey Fox, Black Fox, Stock and Lexam resources all utilizing our existing or potentially expanded central milling capacity. The PEA results are expected to be available in Q4 2020 and will suggest the optimal business case on which to complete a feasibility study in 2021. Combined, the Fox Complex deposits host nearly 3.0 million gold ounces in Measured and Indicated resources, and an additional 1.0 million gold ounces in Inferred resources(6). The objective of the upcoming PEA is to develop a plan for the Fox Complex to grow to an annual production of 100-150,000 ounces of gold, at a cash cost of $800/oz and an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1,100/oz, over a 10-year life, with production envisioned to start ramping up from 2022.

Grey Fox and Stock – 2020 Exploration

On September 10th we completed a flow-through financing, which provides US$10 million for exploration activities in the Timmins region over the next 12 to 24 months. The initial focus is on two high-potential targets within 2 miles (3.2 km) of our existing operations at the Fox Complex: Stock West and Whiskey Jack. Both of these targets returned very encouraging results during the 2018-2019 drilling campaigns, and we are looking forward to continued exploration programs at these exciting discoveries, with the objective of defining additional resources.

Whiskey Jack – Surface Drilling

Exploration drilling at Whiskey Jack continued to generate encouraging high grade results since our last update, from October 16th, 2020 (for press release click here). Visible gold was observed in 8 of the 15 shallow holes drilled to date. 



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