5/7/2026

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to McEwen's First Quarter 2026 Operating and Financial Results Conference Call. Present from the company today are Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, Ian Ball, Executive Vice Chairman, William Shaver, Chief Operating Officer, Perry Ng, Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Chan, Vice President, Finance, Stefan Spears, Vice President, Corporate Development, Kevin Bromfield, Project Director, Gray Fox, Michael Medding, Managing Director of McEwen Copper, Carmen Diaz, General Counsel and Secretary. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Rob McEwen, Chief Owner. Please go ahead, sir.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

Thank you, Operator. Hello everyone and thank you for joining us today for McEwen Inc.' 's first quarter 2026 results conference call. Our vision is clear and ambitious. McEwen Inc. offers investors a unique and powerful combination, direct exposure to growing gold and silver production, proven hard money assets that have served as stores of value for millennia, along with large optionality to copper, a foundation metal of modern civilization, essential for electrification, renewable energy, electric vehicles, data centers, and the infrastructure of the future. We are scaling the company to 250,000 to 300,000 gold equivalent ounces, geos, per year by 2030, while maintaining a strong balance sheet. We've just released our Q1 results and I'm very pleased to report that we delivered a strong quarter. We generated net income of $33.4 million or 56 cents per share. This compares to a net loss of 6.3 million or 12 cents a share in the same period last year. This is a significant turnaround and reflects our improving operational performance higher gold and silver prices, and a more disciplined execution. We are advancing our multi-asset growth strategy with internal funding, positioning the company to nearly double production while minimizing dilution. Just like to talk about our operational and project highlights in Canada at our Fox Complex in Timmins, Ontario. We're making good progress. At the stock mine, underground development remained on budget in Q1. Initial production is expected in late 26, and commercial production starting next year. Gray Fox, we're finalizing a pre-feasibility study expected in the next coming month. And so combined stock and Gray Fox are targeted to deliver $75,000 to 90,000 gold equivalent ounces annually by 2030. We are also advancing the Tartan Mine Project in Manitoba with an updated resource of 309,000 indicated ounces and 303,000 inferred gold ounces. We're targeting initial production of 30,000 ounces per year with the potential to reach 45 to 55,000 ounces per annum. Overall in Canada, we expect production to grow from 16,000 to 19,000 ounces this year to 105,000, stretching to 120,000 by 2030. At Gold Barn Nevada, operational optimization and exploration success are driving increased outputs and extended mine life with gold production expected to reach 90 to 100,000 ounces by 2030. And in Mexico at El Gallo, ongoing improvements, we expect to boost production up to 20,000 ounces again by 2030. Together, Canada is scaling to 105,000 to 120,000 geos plus continued growth at Gold Bar, El Gallo, and our Argentine assets, San Juan, positions us to achieve our company-wide target of 250,000 to 300,000 gold equivalent ounces by 2030. I'd like to talk about our investment in McEwen Copper. As shareholders, we benefit from our 46.3% interest in McEwen Copper. Based on the most recent financing of McEwen Copper, this stake is valued at approximately $456 million, or roughly US$7.67 per McEwen Inc. share. Los Azules is on track to become one of the world's first regenerative copper mines and carbon neutral by 2038. Coming into production, we're looking at 2030. It's delivering significant embedded value and upside to McEwen Inc. Gold prices remain supportive. Our operations are cash flow positive, and we have a strong project pipeline. Our strategy is straightforward. Execute development projects safely and on budget. Aggressively explore to grow resources and reserves. self-fund growth to protect shareholder value, deliver consistent production increases, and rising cash flow. I'd like now to turn the conversation over to Perry, our CFO. And before that, I'd just like to thank the entire McEwen Inc. team for their work this year. We're excited about what lies ahead. and remain committed to disciplined growth and long-term value creation. Perry.

speaker
Perry Ng
Chief Financial Officer

Good morning. Thank you, Rob. I think I'll just touch on a few highlights from our first quarter earnings and then talk a bit about the financing of the growth plan that Rob just outlined for us. Starting with the quarter, as Rob said, we had a great quarter. We earned 56 cents a share. basic and 47 cents a share fully diluted. Our revenues from our 100% owned operations more than doubled from a year ago, given high gold and silver prices. We also noted the benefits in this quarter of the capitalization of our equity recorded investment in McEwen Copper. Having published a feasibility study last year, we now capitalize those costs on a US GAAP reporting basis. So we only record a small net loss compared to having to expense our share of all of their exploration costs in the past. I'll note that we did receive an $8.8 million dividend during the quarter from our MSC mine from Minera Santa Cruz from the San Jose mine in Argentina. We expect on the balance of the year to receive an additional $30 to $40 million in dividends given strong silver and gold prices. I'll note our cash increased during the quarter despite our continued spend to complete the stock ramp. Our cash balance at the end of the first quarter was $57 million versus $51 million at the beginning of the year. And I'll note that our cash cost and all infestating cost guidance, we believe, were well on track to meet our full-year targets, as we expect to increase ounce production for the balance of the year on a quarterly basis. And as well, we expect the costs, our development costs at the fruit mine to decrease as we finish ramp development towards the end of mine life, which contributed this quarter about $800 to the all in sustaining costs at the box complex. So just taking a look and kind of expanding on Rod's point in terms of how we're going to build our operations to 250 to 300,000 ounces from our current basis. So in terms of projects we have on the go right now for 2026, we see total capex, project capex this year of approximately $50 million remaining to be spent from Q2 to Q4. We have approximately $35 million remaining for the stock mine to complete development and other related costs there and we expect uh in the second half of this year to begin construction uh on mexico um for algaia we're currently budgeting about 15 million dollars so all of that will be funded by our existing cash flows as well as the dividends we expect to receive from the san jose mine Looking forward to next year, 2027, we see the CapEx profile approximately double to about $100 million as we finish Mexico, as well as begin work on the Gray Fox, as well as expansion projects in Nevada. We expect free cash flow from our operations, as well as dividends from MSC to exceed $200 million at current gold prices. have a significant buffer even at lower gold prices, say to the $4,000 level, at which we can still sufficiently fund easily from free cash flow. In 2028 and 2029, we see those costs subject to permitting timelines increasing to approximately $150 million, but at the same time, we'll have the benefit of production from Mexico, as well as increased production from the Fox Complex, providing additional cash flow of over $250 million annually, which will provide more than sufficient cash flow to achieve the growth stated. So with that, you know, I think that provides kind of a high-level overview of how we can achieve this growth without additional dilution to our shareholders. And with that, I'll turn the presentation to Michael Meding in Argentina.

speaker
Michael Medding
Managing Director of McEwen Copper

Thank you, Barry. Good morning, everybody. I will keep my remarks focused on Los Azules and specifically on the question that matters most to the project at this scale. How we finance the path from where we are today through to construction. A quick word on Q1 execution before I turn to financing. Q1 was about putting the building blocks for FIDs. the final investment decision stage case in place. Our Integrated Owners Team is up and running. With Selling Engineering, the engineering firm that has supported us over the last four and a half years, very successfully to P&M feasibility. And now their personnel are embedded alongside with a couple of staff. Jim Sollenson, who served as study director from the feasibility study, has stepped in as project director. Jim brings with him a 45 years of experience in mining, including significant roles building large-scale, multi-billion-dollar mining projects like Quibana Blanca, Zaldiva, Stafford, Morenti, and Florence, together with more than 10 years of mine operating experience, including vice-president role in New York Mining Corporation. Detailed engineering is advancing across every major work stream, drilling, access roads, heat, HPEP, stockpiles, major equipment packages, trade-off studies, and our EPCM power selection process. On the regulatory side, the RIGI, the large infrastructure investment incentive regime in Argentina, the V&E section was fully operational during Q1 and is already delivering a meaningful cash flow benefit. We also had a productive international finance cooperation, part of the worldwide site visits, with our collaboration bouncing on the lineage to the IFC, the International Finance Corporation, performance standards. The technical and regulatory foundation for FID and place. Now towards financing. The total financing part from FID to full operation is approximately $4 billion. That number gives you the scale of what we are building. To date, we have raised over $450 million in private financing between 2021 and 2025. The capital came from a strong group of McEwen, Rio Pinto, Stellantis, McEwen Inc., and others. Together with McEwen Inc.' 's early exploration investment, this funding carried the project to PEA feasibility study and into the core engineering phase. Our shareholders have already invested substantially behind their conviction in this project. The next step is bridging to FID. In January 2026, we established a $240 million secured loan facility, structured with an accordion feature so additional participants can join. Rob McEwen, McEwen Inc., and Bill Shaver have committed approximately one quarter of the facility, and the last three quarters remain open, and we are having several conversations with potential investors to close the remaining parts. The facility comfortably covers our pre-FID budget of about $197 million, with a cash need of approximately $161 million. In short, this funding takes us cleanly through to FID. Post-FID, the construction and REMBA package is approximately $4 billion. We are working with a target capital sector of 40% equity and 60% debt. We see that as a realistic and bankable structure for a project of this scale in Argentina. On the debt side, we are in the final stages of approaching debt financing needs, primarily focused on export credit agency financing, alongside other debt financing components. The IFC has expressed interest in serving as a lead arranger for project debt financing, and we are progressing the steps required to formalize that role. We expect the debt side to be anchored by an ECA vaccine attempt, complemented by traditional project financing. On the equity side, we have active conversations with several potential strategic partners. Our preference is to bring in a senior main partner, together with an industrial or trading counterparty for optic alignments, and to round out the structure with other equity participants. These discussions are daunting well. Pulling it together, the technical work is on-plan, the regulatory framework is delivering, the bridge to FID is in place and partially subscribed, As opposed, FID financing is taking shape with high-quality counterparties on both sides of the capital structure. Our objective is to reach final investment decision by the year end of 2026, with construction commencing in early 2027, obviously subject to project financing and customary improvements. We are advancing well toward FID. Thank you so much, and now I hand it back over to you, Rob.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

Thank you, Mike. We're going to move to Ian Ball to talk about one aspect of Los Azules, another value we have there.

speaker
Ian Ball
Executive Vice Chairman

Yeah, thank you, Rob. Yeah, one of the assets inside of McEwen Mining, which I think is often overlooked, is the 1.25% royalty that we have on the asset. And in the quarter release we put out yesterday, we wanted to highlight some of the cash flow possibilities there once Los Azules is in production. If you look at the royalty based on the spot price of copper, you're looking at total cash flows well in excess of half a billion dollars in the US. And that's based on the 22-year mine life that was outlined. There's also a scenario using the Newton technology that would add an additional 33 years of mine life on top of the 22, getting you to 55 years of life that we don't factor into that half a billion dollars. And then there's resources. Beyond that, we've also excluded all the gold and silver because currently there's no plans to extract that, but it is an additional possible revenue stream. And we bring these numbers up because if you look at the biggest royalty company in the world was based with Franco Nevada based on the gold strike royalty. And if you look at the revenue they generated from gold strike from 1985 to when they were acquired by Newmont, it was approximately a billion dollars in cash flow. And if you look at Los Azules, we have a profile that, although it would be over a longer period of time, could generate something similar. And when you look at the world today, there's not many world-class royalties available. If you look at Franco and Wheaton River and the price they're paying to acquire these royalties, the valuations of these have been going up. So we want to highlight this because we do think it's going to be a very meaningful asset for the company going forward. I also want to touch upon our exploration as we put out results at all of our sites. And I just want to highlight a few items for you. We put out a new resource for our windfall deposit in Nevada. So if you look at reserves, resources right now, the Gold Bar Complex, we're about a million and a quarter ounces now with one more resource to come out from Trinity Ridge. So we think that number is going to go up. We put out some good exploration holes today at windfall. And with the recent acquisition of Golden Lake, we think that that deposit is going to continue to grow in size. And that's going to be important because we have a run rate of about 100,000 ounces per year we're going to have to be able to sustain. And we think the exploration is going to be able to achieve that. We're also looking to drill south of Barrick's Four Mile and Gold Rush discovery. That's a 15 million ounce deposit, probably one of the most exciting discoveries out there today where we have the fault, the Cortez fault that goes directly south of that. So we're looking to drill there for lower plate rock. We have put out some good results at Gray Fox, approximately 90 meters below where we're going to be looking at our pre-feasibility study for mining, showing that once we put the infrastructure in place, there's additional high grade that we think we can access that will be well in excess of what we're putting in our pre-feas. And I just want to touch upon just two things quickly. We put out a number of drill results today. And I think what's interesting at Tartan, we're seeing now four or five drill holes at depth that are somewhere between 15 and 50 meters wide at four to five grams per ton. It's starting at approximately 1,000 meters depth. And if those drill results could continue and we were able to find some strike length to that, we go from being a small operation to something potentially of a much larger size. We've hit on all five holes that we put down at depth. and we are drilling down there currently. So we have pretty meaningful expectations of what could come there. And then lastly, I just want to update on future resources. We have our Stroud deposit, which is part of the Gray Fox complex or the Fox complex. An initial resource is coming out there with the pre-feasibility study. We're going to be putting out an updated resource for Algaia, which I think is going to show a resource base there that would support a mill for a considerable period of time. We have our Trinity Ridge resource coming out in early 2027, which will support the bull bar complex. And lastly, although a non-core asset, we're going to be putting out a resource on our Buffalo anchorite deposit, also in Timmins. And previously, that resource was approximately a million ounces at a lower bull price. And we're going to be updating that just to highlight some of the value that has currently not been updated in quite some time. So based on that, I will turn the call back over to Rob.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

Thank you, Ian. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Perry. Just before moving into Q&A, I always like, since I started in the gold industry, I always like looking at other assets and saying, what's the gold equivalent? And it changes. So looking at Los Azules, just to give you a sense of its size, and Ian was talking a little bit about how Franco Nevada was formed on the back of gold strikes. Our Los Azules property has estimated resources of 35.7 billion pounds of copper. If you take the current gold price, which is right now about $4,753 an ounce, and the copper price right now at $6.02, you end up, there's 790 pounds of copper equivalent to one ounce, the value of one ounce of gold. You divide that into the 35.7 billion pounds, you're looking at the equivalent of a 45 million ounce gold deposit. And based on the feasibility study of cash and all-in sustaining, you would get numbers of below $1,400 cash cost and below $1,700 all-in sustaining. and you'd be producing, at least in the first five years, an excess of 500,000 ounces a year. That, in anyone's book, is a terrific gold asset. But we're looking at a long-life asset here, and I just wanted to point that out, that we're very fortunate to own, control a world-class copper asset. I'd now like to open the session to questions and answers.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, again, press star one. Your first question comes from the line of Jake Sikelski from Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open.

speaker
Jake Sikelski
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

Hi, Rob and team. Thanks for taking my question. Hi, Jake. So starting with stock, how should we be thinking about the ramp up there as we head into the second half of the year? Do you have a throughput target in mind that you'd like to be at by, let's say, the first quarter of next year?

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

Okay. I'll ask Bill to answer that question. Jake?

speaker
William Shaver
Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, Jake, thanks very much for the question. Yeah, what we see is that the transition from the prune mine uh will continue until the end of the year and the ramp up of the stock east mine will start uh relatively early in the second half of the year and and hopefully by the end of the year be ramped up to its full production so we see the continuity of the gold production to be relatively the same in 2027. And I think the important aspects of that are the kind of the optionality that we have with regard to the ongoing development at Prome. which has performed very, very well in the first quarter of this year. And we see that continuing to the end of this year at relatively the same gold production as we had in the first quarter. So that will make that transition kind of very smooth. And I think that's the critical part of the whole story. you know, with the Fox complex.

speaker
Jake Sikelski
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

Does that answer the question? It does. Thank you. That's helpful. And then just switching gears to Tartan, I mean, you mentioned the possibility of expanding capacity there. I'm just curious, what does the permitting process look like for that, and wouldn't expansion happen prior to a restart decision, or would that come after?

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

Kevin?

speaker
Kevin Bromfield
Project Director, Gray Fox

yeah thanks for the question Kevin brownfield here we're currently embarking upon a notice of alteration for permits so that we can do some site cleanup and continue with our activities we've got a lot of excitement coming out of the out of the drills there and so we're currently evaluating the path forward does it consist of an advanced x program and also challenging Patrick O' aspects of the validity of past permits and so we're understanding that landscape, right now, and making sure that we have the baseline data to support a decision that we're going to be making as as the exploration activities go on.

speaker
Ian Ball
Executive Vice Chairman

Patrick O' I do want to add a little bit to that. So the reason why we're looking at it from the 500 tons per day and then looking to expand to the 1,000 is that we do believe that we can utilize the existing 500 ton per day permit that was put in place in the mid-80s. So we want to get the mine up and running at that run rate. And then if we were to expand to 1,000 tons per day, that might require a major alteration to the permit, which obviously has more time inherited to it. We want to be able to phase it to go from the 500 to the 1,000, but if we use the existing permit, we think we can get there a lot faster than trying to expand it all in one go. Okay.

speaker
Jake Sikelski
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

That makes sense. That's all on my end. Thanks again. Thank you, Jake.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Kozak from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

speaker
Mike Kozak
Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald

Yeah, good afternoon, Rob and team. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on the solid quarter. A few questions from me, if I could. First, I think the CapEx for Elgayo Phase 1, it's in the MD&A. I think it's at $25 million, if I'm right on that. My question is, what is the expected CapEx on Phase 2? Have you refreshed that recently at all? I know it will be over a longer time period, but I'm just curious what that number might be.

speaker
Ian Ball
Executive Vice Chairman

Yeah, so we've been looking at that as well. You know, it's a number that's well into the future. You know, right now we have it planned at 10 years into the future, but we're doing approximately 40 million is what we've been looking at. And that would be consisting of a haul road connecting the two sites from El Gallo to the mill, converting it from a CIL to a Merrill Crow, and obviously switching parts of the plant from gold to silver. So right now, that's kind of what we're thinking. But we can move that ahead if we wanted to, or we can keep it where it is. But the $40 million is generally what we've been thinking about.

speaker
Mike Kozak
Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald

Okay, great. So it's not in the hundreds. It's a manageable number. That's kind of what I was getting at.

speaker
Ian Ball
Executive Vice Chairman

We do believe it's a very manageable number.

speaker
Mike Kozak
Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald

Okay, perfect. And then second, I just noticed quarter over quarter, the cash is really starting to build up in the San Jose JV area. And I got your guidance for dividends from the JV this year, you know, 40 to 50 million on the year, 30 or 40 remaining. My question is, based on your discussions with your partner there, can I assume that run rate of dividends will continue in 27 and 28 if we were to hold gold and silver prices around these levels? Or have you not had those discussions yet?

speaker
Perry Ng
Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Mike. It's Perry. We are having ongoing discussions. So I think the first thing is, you know, full satisfaction of the reclamation obligations, which will take, you know, a significant portion of kind of the existing cash balance and, you know, kind of move that to sort of a restricted cash balance, if you call it that. But I would say on balance, you know, we can expect similar levels going into 27, 28, If you just look at kind of the proven and probable reserves, they only extend into 27, but given where silver and gold prices are, we think this mine can go into 2029 and hopefully beyond. So I think that's a reasonable assumption to make, Mike.

speaker
Mike Kozak
Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald

Okay, thanks, Perry. And then third, if I can, And, Michael, I appreciate all the detail you provide on the funding strategy for Los Azules, the pre-FID bridge loan, the export credit agencies, OEMs on the debt side, et cetera. And you spent a bit of time talking about a new potential large-cap partner on the equity side, if I heard that right. What I didn't hear, and maybe I missed it, was mention of the potential IPO of the copper subsidiary. Is that less likely of an outcome now, or how should I think about that? Or has nothing changed? Nothing's changed. No, what you wanted to do...

speaker
Michael Medding
Managing Director of McEwen Copper

Go ahead, Mike. No, nothing has changed as Rob said. I mean, we are going full steam ahead with the separation of everything required to be able to do the IPO and the second half.

speaker
Mike Kozak
Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald

Okay, very good. Thanks, everyone. Congrats again on the great quarter.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from a line of Jeremy Hoy from Kenacord Genuity. Your line is open.

speaker
Jeremy Hoy
Analyst, Kenacord Genuity

Hello, Jeremy. Thanks. Thanks very much for taking my questions. So for me, I'd just like to touch on Gold Bar. There's a lot of pieces coming together there with the acquisitions you've done. We're looking at initial resource estimates for Windfall and Trinity Ridge later this year, if I recall correctly. Can we expect some sort of study that provides visibility on how that's all going to come together? Or could you provide an update on your thinking on how those different pieces come together at that complex and ultimately what our production rate could end up being there?

speaker
William Shaver
Chief Operating Officer

Thanks very much for the question. So we see the permitting of that project taking perhaps a couple of years so from that perspective what we're trying to do at the present time is to do the drilling that's required to bring those resources up to the proper status in terms of being able to put together a mine plan and then you know creating the Ricks, This study, if you like, of of how we're going to approach that, but basically this the strategy that we have at this point is to. Ricks, Create a heap leaching operation that really would only be a leach pad with the. Ricks, With the carbon recovery of the goal and and and. and then bringing that carbon to our present day plant out at the gold bar operation for recovery of the gold. So that would keep the capital cost relatively low in terms of a significant leach pad that's capable of holding ore for a couple of years is somewhere in the $10 to $15 million range. Rains so that that kind of is the initial strategy and you know. There is a lot of potential. Roll to understand where it is in in those properties and. And I guess you know they. Proceeding with the permitting. And. That permitting, as you know, permitting in the U.S. has schedules that are not definitive, but we see that as building optionality in the whole organization. Also, on the drilling that we're doing at Gold Bar itself, we see that as extending so that we won't have a gap in between those two. Well, it's all good at this point. We're seeing that production coming out of Gold Bar, which I suppose was your original question, as carrying on at the rate that we're, at the level that we're at at this point.

speaker
Jeremy Hoy
Analyst, Kenacord Genuity

Okay, well, thank you. I really appreciate the color, and we're looking forward to seeing things develop there. Yep, very good. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Your next question comes from a line of John Tomasos from John Tomasos Ferry Independent Research. Your line is open.

speaker
John Tomasos
Analyst, J. Tomasos Ferry Independent Research

Hello, John. Congratulations on all the earnings.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

It was nice to have them.

speaker
John Tomasos
Analyst, J. Tomasos Ferry Independent Research

Could you review the human resources development as you've added assets in the past year? Who are some of the key managers or technical people that came on board or stayed on board issue consolidated assets in central Nevada and consolidated assets in Manitoba or anywhere else in Canada. Could you elaborate on the challenge of coordinating several small or medium-sized properties in Canada and Nevada and Western Mexico, assuming that McEwen Copper and the Hoth Child Partnership manages themselves. Just give us confidence as to the human resources development as you grow and they're a little more complicated.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

Well, I'll ask Kevin to speak to that point. He brought in to deal with the Gray Fox expansion and is overseeing the Tartan development. But, Heavenly.

speaker
Kevin Bromfield
Project Director, Gray Fox

Oh, thanks, John. It's a great question. You know, competing for talent in the current mining market is a challenge. One of the things, I guess one of the people added would be myself. And I'm located in Sudbury. We're in the process of building a Sudbury projects team that's going to support Canadian projects and beyond. So we're a growing group. We've also added government relations support we've added to our human resources capabilities here at headquarters in Toronto. And so we are putting some pieces into place and so far we've been able to assemble what I think is a very good team. And I would say that the growth needs to be ongoing as we get toward execution and as we ramp up our capital spend.

speaker
William Shaver
Chief Operating Officer

And I might just add that we've also added resources in terms of our permitting group and our technical group overseeing all of the projects. And we've been fortunate enough to bring on people like Kevin. Kevin and I have a history. I haven't worked together for about 10 years. You know, I think we're building the foundation of a really good group going into the future. And, you know, we see northern Manitoba as being an opportunity in part because around Plin Plon, there's a big mine that has closed there. But there's still a significant number of mining people who live there and are traveling now to work at other places. So they'll come back home. It won't be easy, but I think we have the rudiments of a really good team that we're building. That's the fundamental part of it at this stage.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

John, I'd say we've been centralizing a number of the skills such as procurement, IT, looking at how do we incorporate more of that technology into our future operations and AI as well.

speaker
John Tomasos
Analyst, J. Tomasos Ferry Independent Research

Thank you. And it's impressive that you manage costs while you're metamorphosizing the organization. Thank you.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

You're welcome. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from a line of Sydney Beckman from Sternella. Your line is open.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

Hello, Sydney.

speaker
Sydney Beckman
Analyst, Sternella

Wonderful. Thanks. Hello. Wonderful. Thank you for taking my call. The McEwen Copper IPO has been on the roadmap for a while. Given that the feasibility study is done, the RACI approval is secured, and the FID is targeted for a year end, the DA risk scheme work appears largely complete. My question is, has a bank been mandated for the IPO? And if so, which exchange is being targeted? If a bank has not yet been mandated, what is the specific remaining gate item before that happens? Is it the FID itself, a copper price threshold, or something else? And what should investors treat as the single most important milestone to watch between now and year end that tells us whether the IPO is on track or slipping? Thank you.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

All right, Sydney. We haven't chosen a banker. We've had discussions with many. And in terms of listing, we're still debating that. It appears that you can get to market faster by doing a Canadian listing. It's considered faster and cheaper than doing a listing in America, although my preference is to go to America first, just because of the size of the market and the pricing tension that would probably appear in the IPO. But those two have to be decided. In terms of Catalyst, it's completing the financing to fund the FID, and we're getting close to having that funded. So I guess we announced that, and then moving on to getting all the engineering done to start construction in 2017. Does that cover off your question?

speaker
Sydney Beckman
Analyst, Sternella

Yes, thank you so much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Again, if you'd like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment. And there are no further questions at this time. Mr. Rob McEwen, I turn the call back over to you.

speaker
Rob McEwen
Chairman and Chief Owner

Well, that's very nice of you, operator. I'd just like to... closed by saying we're excited about what lies ahead and committed to pushing the company forward and building long-term value.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

This concludes today's conference call. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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