Hecla Mining Company (HL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Hello, and welcome to Orezone acquisition of Hecla Quebec conference call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to our President and CEO, Patrick Downey. Mr. Downey, please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the Orezone Hecla-Quebec acquisition webinar. I am very pleased and excited to announce this transformational transaction as we witnessed record gold prices. This is a very strategic expansion into Canada for Orezone with the acquisition of Casa Berardi Mine and other exploration assets within the Hecla Quebec portfolio. I'd like to draw your attention to the important notices and disclaimer and they're on the website, so please take time to read these at your leisure. So, I'd like to walk through the acquisition highlights. This really positions Orezone as a diversified multi-asset producer. It's in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction in Quebec, one of the best in the world. It establishes Orezone now as a diversified multi-asset gold producer, adding material scale, production and free cash flow. Casa Berardi has a long operating history, its well-established resource and reserve base and substantial exploration upside will provide a foundation for future asset growth for Orezone. And it's well aligned with our technical expertise with several of our team having spent many years of operational experience both in underground and open pits. The transaction is accretive on key operating and financial per share metrics, which I'll show you later on, and it benefits all existing shareholders. The transaction is funded by an attractive financing sponsorship from Franco-Nevada, whose team worked very closely with us throughout this process and has excellent value creation potential through multiple expansion and enhanced capital markets profile as evidenced by the recent market transaction involving noncore Canadian operations recently. A brief overview of the transaction. We will require Hecla Quebec Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Hecla Mining. It includes 100% ownership of the operating Casa Berardi gold mine and a portfolio of exploration assets in Quebec, including the advanced stage, exploration stage Heva-Hosco project. It's got an upfront consideration of $272 million. Initial cash is $160 million, which is funded by $60 million of our treasury and $100 million from the Franco streaming financing, an equity issuance of 9.9% for a value of USD 112 million, and we really want to welcome Hecla as a cornerstone investor who will go along with us throughout this acquisition. There's a deferred consideration of $80 million, which is cash payments from closing of $30 million at 18 months and $50 million at 30 months post-closing. There's also contingent consideration of up to $240 million. There's a gold price contingent consideration of $10 million, a $5 million this year and $5 million next year, which at current gold prices will be paid. And there's also production payments of up to $231 million linked to permitting and future production from two open pits at the Casa Berardi project termed the WMCP pit and the Principal pit, which are currently undergoing permitting. The $100 million stream financing from Franco-Nevada is based on a five-year fixed delivery of 1,625 ounces of gold per quarter, thereafter a 5% of gold production. And Franco-Nevada production payments also get 20% of spot per ounce delivered, and the other $60 million is cash on hand from Orezone. It's subject to standard regulatory approvals, and we expect to close in Q1 of 2026. So, a snapshot. What do we become? Well, immediately, we've become an emerging diversified mid-tier producer. We've got our operating mine in Bomboré mine in Burkina Faso. 2026 production will be between 170,000 and 185,000 ounces for that year, reserves there of 2.4 million ounces, additional resources of 2.1 million ounces and a land package of 13,000 hectares. With the acquisition of Hecla Quebec, production guidance for 2026 is 83,000 to 91,000 ounces of gold, reserves of 1.3 million ounces. The package includes a further 2.1 million ounces of M&I resources and a large land package of 56,000 hectares. So it's a clear entrance into a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction in Quebec, significant increase in our production and cash flow. We'll now be established as a multi-asset producer. We will retain a strong balance sheet going forward and the financial sponsorship of the preeminent streamer in the business, Franco-Nevada and a clear path to unlock future value where our P/NAV was currently 0.47x, EV/EBITDA 1.55x, and we'll walk through that later in the presentation. And obviously, significant exploration potential, which we're very excited about. So those of you who don't know where is Casa Berardi. It's in Quebec, just north of Val-d'Or. It's a Tier 1 jurisdiction where you've got Agnico, IAMGOLD, Gold Fields, Alamos, Eldorado, a very, very large land package of 19,500 hectares, covers a 37 kilometers of strike along the Casa Berardi fault, which is underpinned by the Casa Berardi operation. 19,150 hectares of exploration claims, as I said, and 570 hectares of mining leases. Easily accessible. It's 95 kilometers north of the town of La Sarre where most of the staff live and the workforce live. Accessible by paved highway. It's essentially the same travel time if you're leaving Val-d'Or and going to LaRonde, La Sarre to Casa Berardi would be the same travel time. Paved highway and 38 kilometers of mine access road. The employees commute daily to site, established skilled local workforce. We were very impressed with the local workforce when we did our due diligence, a very, very knowledgeable project, very well-run operation, well maintained, very safe operation. Paved airstrip, 70 kilometers from site at La Sarre, if need be, and grid power on the Hydro-Quebec system, which is obviously a very, very low cost of power. Quick operations overview on Casa Berardi. It has produced 3.2 million ounces of gold over 30 years of operations, still relatively underexplored. Production over the last five years has averaged just over 106,000 ounces per year, proven and probable reserves of 1.3 million ounces, a further 900,000 ounces of measured and indicated and 0.5 million ounces of inferred, and we'll show you those later on in the presentation. Mining is currently via underground and open pit, and that will continue as such. Current mill feed is from the West Mine underground and from the F160 open pit. Standard processing facility, jaw crusher, SAG and ball, gravity, CIL, large capacity of almost 400,000 tonnes per day. So lots of room to expand should we have exploration success, which we very much hope we will. Average recovery of 88%, which will also be a focus of our operations going forward. So, operating history. 30 years of production at Casa Berardi, mainly underground. It was originally run by Inco and TVX, shutdown in the $250 gold price era, which maybe some of you remember, I certainly do. 2006 to 2016, sustained production of approximately 141,000 ounces a year with an average head grade of over 7 grams per tonne of gold, and that was from one underground zone in the mine. Since 2017, the operations have shifted to open pit, which in recent years has really resulted in reduced focus in underground exploration and development. And we plan to actively renew this focus. And we've seen that upside at the operation. So, where is our path forward? The recent disclosures at 2024 was done at $1,900 an ounce gold. Open pit mining was to end in 2026 with operations -- underground operations and stockpile continuing to 2027 and then permitting of the Principal and WMCP pits, which have over 1 million ounces of contained reserves commencing in 2033. Obviously, a greater than $2,500 gold price. The stated underground M&I is almost 900,000 ounces, grading 6.13 grams per tonne, which provides us with significant scope to maintain and extend ongoing underground operations. We will continue to operate the F160 pit, and we will look to expand that at current gold prices and obviously, at $2,500. I think at $2,100, it had three more years of operation at that pit. So lots of runway to continue to produce and expand and explore. So, an overview of the mine and the exploration upside, which obviously we're very excited about. The near-term underground mine plan is underpinned by a substantial resource base and established infrastructure. There's a shaft and a ramp at the WMCP, the Western area. which accesses the Principal area. There's an underground ramp at the East Mine area as well and the mill itself is over by the F160 pit. Current underground operations are really focused at the Western area and the Principal area and the mining -- open pit mining at the F160 pit. As you can see, the measured and indicated where it's located and the inferred. So we've got excellent access to develop and mine those zones. There's multiple well-defined ore shoots at this operation. They're wide open on several fronts, as you can see, and some of them relatively shallow, particularly under the F160 underground, underneath a small pit called the F134 just to the east of the Principal pit, just under the West Mine Crown Pillar pit and this conversion zone and significant exploration in the gap zone between the East and the West, which remains very, very much relatively underexplored. So lots of exploration to do. We will plan to ramp up exploration over the next six months to a rate of around 80,000 to 100,000 meters a year. And we will be targeting the higher grades. As you can see, the Casa Berardi deposits host multiple plunging zones at significantly higher grade. And I want you to focus on those greater than 15 gram per tonne shoots. As you can see, they're not spotty. They're very continuous. This is something that we will focus on in our exploration going forward. You can see some of them are still relatively shallow here. So this will become a big exploration focus for us as we move forward in the coming years. And if you look at Casa Berardi compared to other deposits in the Canadian shield, several of those underground mines and some of them in the vicinity of this operation extend to depths of over 3 kilometers. We're really down around 1 kilometer. Red Lake at 3.5 kilometers, La Ronde, Agnico at 3.75 kilometers, Westwood, IAMGOLD just down the road at 2 kilometers. Macassa. Agnico 2.25 kilometers and Casa Berardi, the greatest depth is 1.5 kilometers. But on average, we would be below 1 kilometer. So, again, significant exploration for us, and it will be a key focus of us expanding and delivering better grade to the mill. A big land package. We cover 37 kilometers of the Casa Berardi fault. There's been limited regional drilling. It has identified multiple mineralized zones. I would like to point out that in a lot of the Abitibi fault, you do not have a lot of cover. You can see the rocks right on the ground. It's not the case here. You have between 30 to 40 meters of till cover. So you have to look for these things. So it's something that we will focus on. So regional exploration will become a big part of our program, but you can see that there has been discoveries. And in particular, I'd like to point out the Lac Germain one, again, relatively shallow drilled, but we will look to identify these within trucking distance to this mill, which has approximately 4,000 tonne a day capacity under current configuration. So lots of exploration upside in that regard. How do we create further value here? We're obviously going to focus on near-term mine planning, as I've talked about, to improve the grades from underground to the mill and increase the tonnage. We will be targeting a multiyear underground life of mines and the F160 pit extensions. Again, as I said, currently, it's at $1,900 reserve, so we will relook at that. We will focus on open pit grade control and blast monitoring, immediate underground investments. I can say, though, this is a very, very well-maintained mine. It's a dry mine. The equipment is in excellent condition. Hecla have done a fantastic job in regards to safety, housekeeping, maintenance. We were very, very impressed by that. So -- but we will add more equipment to allow us to get access to drill cubbies and get the drill program going fast. We look to restart the East Mine underground and access that area, very high grades down there. So it's one of the key focuses. On the mill, very well-maintained mill, but we will look at some process automation upgrades, look at potentially the addition of a flash flotation. There is some preg-robbing graphite near the main Casa Berardi fault. We look at potentially flash floating that off to improve recoveries, and that will be test work that we will continue to focus on over the coming months. And obviously, the key focus will be to recommence exploration drilling. We want to rapidly ramp up to 80,000 to 100,000 meters a year, both surface and underground, establish a high-grade stope inventory. Historically, this was a plus 7 gram -- in recent times, a plus 7-gram mill feed. And that would really, really rapidly improve the production and the economics. So reestablish that high-grade stope inventory and increase the head grade. Lots of targets to go after and lots of regional targets to go after. So also included in our acquisition of Hecla Quebec is a number of exploration properties. Heva-Hosco is the main one. It's located 20 kilometers east of Rouyn-Noranda, 3,850 hectare property, 8-kilometers strike along the prolific Cadillac-Larder lake break, established about 1.2 million ounces of M&I and 0.6 million ounces of inferred and 400,000 meters of drilling. We will start relooking at that, obviously reinvigorating the exploration over the coming years and see if we can develop that as our next pipeline of operations in the region. Two other explorations. One is Wildcat/Opinaca in the James Bay Area, 24 kilometers southeast of the Eléonore mine. combined property package of almost 30,000 hectares and Duverny in near -- just north of Val-d'Or, and again, another early-stage exploration project that becomes part of the package. So, what does this do for us again? We are now a new emerging mid-tier producer. 2026 consolidated gold production between 230,000 to 250,000 ounces. Our medium-term target is 350,000 ounces a year. We expect to do that very quickly. We obviously got our Stage 2 expansion at Bomboré, which will put Bomboré in the 230,000 to 250,000 ounces a year. We will look at upgrading Casa and getting the higher grades to the mill. And our target in the coming years and the next two to three years is to be a 350,000 ounce a year producer with two very, very well-established operations in the Casa Berardi mine and the Bomboré mine and look to grow from there. Excellent re-rate potential in our global peer comparisons. 2026 production, as I said, around 240,000 ounces in the mid of guidance there. That would put us in the upper end of our peers. We're at the lower end pro forma in terms of market cap. Obviously, we expect to re-rate in terms of EV/EBITDA and P/NAV multiple. So lots of opportunity for a re-rate here in the very near term. One quick thing that I'd like investors to pay attention to here is the re-rate of acquisition of noncore Canadian mines. You can see what happened to Discovery when they acquired the Porcupine complex. It's been a great success for them. Again, they were backed by Franco, Orla when they acquired the Musselwhite mine, and they were, I would say, fairly well valued at the time and look where they've gone to since 352% return. The Coffee development asset up in the Yukon, which was divested by Newmont, so the recent Canadian noncore acquisitions have generated significant returns outperforming gold and the GDXJ, and we expect and hope the same with this acquisition of the Casa Berardi and Hecla Quebec assets. That's the end of the presentation. I'll now hand back to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And we will take our first question from Jeremy Hoy from Canaccord Genuity.

Thanks a lot for the detailed run through there. You actually answered a lot of my questions. With Casa Berardi, Hecla's plan had been to pause processing after 2027 for five years, while the pits were permitted. Am I right in -- it sounds as though you guys don't think that you need to pause processing that you can extend the underground mine life and really sustain existing production levels throughout that period. Is that the case?

Yes, that is the case. Obviously, we've got an M&I inventory, a big, large inventory there that's near existing infrastructure. We will also have the open pit extending -- we plan to extend the F160. The reserves were done at $1,900. And we're in the process of -- with Hecla, actually, they started looking at expanding the F160. So we will look to do that. That would add at $2,100, I think it adds another two to three years of production there as well. So that's the other part of it. And obviously, we're going to really start our exploration program concurrently with that. We've gone through all of this with the Franco technical team. That was a big part of our due diligence, how we would do this so that we could have that 6-, 7-year runway from today to continue to explore, develop and produce. So we've rebuilt most of that underground mine inventory within our system.

Okay. Great. You mentioned that you would be putting out a new mine plan. Are we going to see an official FS or something along those lines? And when might we see that? And can you give us an idea of the CapEx that would be involved? You had mentioned some new equipment, some plant upgrades, Presumably, there'll be some more development as well.

Yes. We're working on that right now. We'll probably advise the market in the near future in that regard. So it's something that we will be actively -- we also want to put our arms around the team on site. I mean we've done our due diligence. We really like this team. They're very enthusiastic. And again, as I said, Hecla has done a great job on safety, housekeeping, maintenance. But we want to put our arms around them and get them to buy in what we're doing and make sure that we hear back from them. What are their thoughts on this to make sure that we've got a complete buy-in before we start telling them what we're doing with the mine that they have been running.

Yes, that's great to hear, Paddy. There's a lot of exploration potential at Bomboré as well as we saw when we went there last summer. How will the exploration spend be distributed between the two operations?

Well, with the current gold price, Casa will be self-funding. So we -- one of the key things we wanted to do is really ensure that we had that sort of runway and leeway to do that. So the cash flow that Casa will generate will self-fund that exploration. So if you look at it in rough terms, it's about $125 a meter there for drilling, diamond drilling. Obviously, we've got to set up some infrastructure and stuff like that in terms of a core Shack and a few other things to get that independently set up. But if you're doing, say, 100,000 meters a year, you're sort of looking at, at the outside, $15 million, and that's easily funded out of the operations cash flow.

This doesn't impact the pace of drilling at Bomboré at all.

No, not at all. Bomboré was always self-funding next year anyway. Lots of -- if you're looking at current spot prices, Bomboré after taxes, after royalties after the government takes a dividend and whatever will be well north of $200 million free cash flow in Bomboré alone.

Yes. Understood. Okay. Great. I guess last one for me. You talked about the opportunity you see with the rest of the portfolio that you got in this transaction. I'm just thinking about a couple of years out. I mean, it's -- the Bomboré build is very manageable. You're going to be through to some pretty impressive cash flow there. This is immediately cash flowing. I mean, presumably, you're going to have -- be able to look at other opportunities, external opportunities in the not-too-distant future. Does this mark a shift in the overall strategy in terms of jurisdiction? Or is this a one-off opportunity?

No, no. So we still -- our strength, particularly in West Africa, is obviously building and operating mines. We're still very good at that. We know how to do it. We've got a proven track record in that regard. And that will still remain one of our hunting grounds in terms of looking for acquisitions in that area. This one is really a strength that we bring in terms of operations, again, exploration. It's where we can feel that we can bring value to the table here without overstretching our resources and ensuring that we can add value for all shareholders and stakeholders. So we're not overstretching ourselves here. It gives us a base in Quebec to look for other operations, but we will continue to look. I mean, mining is a worldwide operation. We don't want to start going all over the world, but we certainly still are very comfortable in Canada. We're very comfortable in West Africa. Lots of opportunities in both areas. So, we will continue to focus there.

[Operator Instructions] And Mr. Downey, seeing as there are no more questions in the queue, I'll hand it over to our President and CEO, Patrick Downey, for closing remarks.

Thank you. Well, we're very excited to announce this transaction. I want to thank everybody who's helped us along the way to get here. We look forward to closing it. We look forward to welcoming Hecla as a significant cornerstone shareholder in our company, and we will ensure that we will do them pride going forward. We also want to welcome the Casa team. I'm looking forward to getting up there this week and really making sure that everybody is on board for a successful 2026 and beyond. Thank you.

The meeting has now concluded. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.