Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for stand by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Pan American Silver Annual General and Special Meeting Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Written questions may be submitted through the webcast platform. The company will endeavor to address these following the meeting as detailed in its information circular. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ross Beaty, Chair of Pan American Silver Corp. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, operator, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. I will now call the annual 2021 Annual General Special Meeting to order. I will start by saying it's a kind of a sad day for me, but also a happy one. It's sad because this is the last time I have the honor of being Chair of Pan American Silver. We had our Board meeting prior to this, and we appointed a new chair, Gillian Winckler, which is following my decision to retire effective today. So after 27 years of working hard with a very large team of wonderful people to build this company into one of the world's leading silver producers and one of the most respected companies in the mining industry, it's time to turn over a page and succeed me by Gill's appointment, which, of course, brings new life, new energy and new blood into the senior chair position of the company. Managed succession is always better than chaotic succession, which happens when a chair is either too old or too [ dotardly ] or too infirm or perhaps even died. And to take the company into some kind of urgent need to do -- to have a succession, it isn't always easy to do. In our case, we did a very good search. We did a very detailed review of who would be best to follow me and I'm more than happy that Gill Winckler, who's been on our Board for the last 6 years has been requested to join and she's agreed. So I'm very pleased with that, and I'm going to do the formal business of the meeting today. And then I will make a final statement and then turn it over to Gill for a few comments; following Gill, Michael Steinmann, our Chief Executive Officer, will provide a presentation of Pan American as it is today, and that will conclude the meeting of the general and annual -- and special annual meeting. Well, the other strange thing today is it's another year of pandemic, and we've had to do this twice in a row like all Canadian public companies and do this meeting virtually. This is very unsatisfactory because, of course, it's a really great opportunity for the Board and many of the senior management to meet the shareowners who take the time and trouble to come to the annual meeting. And so we're going to miss you again today, and it really is unfortunate because it's the nicest thing for me to do always to meet our share owners, to meet our owners and to tell them in over the table in person, what we're doing what our plans are, where we're going and share with them the excitement I have as we've built our company, and we will continue to do so. So we can't do that today. We're doing this all virtually. But I'm very, very sure that next year, same time, same place, we will be able to meet in person, and I really hope that as many shareholders as possible come to Vancouver, come to the meeting. I will be there, I promise. I'm not quite anywhere. The Board in its wisdom has given me the great honor of the title of Chairman Emeritus, and I will honor that by nodding off at the right moment in the meetings that I'm attending from time to time and drooling a little bit and otherwise providing my own experience and accumulated sort of knowledge of how these companies work to Gill and Michael and to the Board as requested. But otherwise, I'll have no formal connection with the company, and I will no longer be an insider. However, I will not be selling my shares. I want to make that perfectly clear. My shares will not be sold. I don't actually own more shares today, 27 years later, than when I started the company in 1994. So that's not going to change for a long time. So due to the current state of the global pandemic, we have therefore asked all shareholders to vote by proxy in advance of the meeting and do not attend this meeting. We thank all shareholders who are listening to the proceedings of this meeting live -- via a live conference call or audio webcast and we look forward to future shareholder meetings where we may host you in person. Today's meeting will be, as I said, in 3 parts. The first will be the formal business, then Gill will say a few words. Michael Steinmann will then cover a presentation of the company's affairs. We will then have a brief Q&A period, and shareholders who wish to ask questions should submit them via the live webcast. Pursuant to the articles of the company, I will act as Chair of the meeting. Delaney Fisher, VP, Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the company will act as Secretary for the meeting. Anita Basi of Computershare Investor Services Inc. will act as scrutineer of the meeting. Will the Secretary please assure us that the annual general and special meeting has been properly called?

Thank you. I have before me an affidavit of a representative of Computershare Investor Services, Inc., attesting that the notice calling this Annual General and Special Meeting together with the information circular, formal proxy and audited financial statements were delivered in accordance with the Business Corporations Act and applicable securities laws. Therefore, Mr. Chair, this Annual General and Special Meeting has been properly called.

And please read this scrutineer's report.

The scrutineers report reads as follows: 1 shareholder in person representing 289 shares, 861 shareholders by proxy, representing 136,373,722 shares and 862 total shareholders holding 136,373,011 shares. The total issued and outstanding as at the record date was 210,262,345 shares, and so the percentage of outstanding shares represented at the meeting is 64.86%.

I note the scrutineer's report and declare a quorum is present, I now declare that the Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders is [ regularly ] called and properly constituted for the conduct of business. The first item of business is the reading of the minutes of last year's annual meeting. I will request the motion to take the minutes as read and confirmed.

So moved.

I declare the motion carried. The next item of business is presentation of the annual financial report of the company and the report of the auditors thereon for the years ended -- the year ended December 31, 2020. The audited financial statements and auditors' report were mailed to each shareholder who had requested a copy. I should consider the audited financial statements and auditors' report received by the shareholders as submitted to this Annual General and Special Meeting. It's now in order to proceed with the election of directors for the upcoming year. There are 8 positions to be filled, each to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I now declare the meeting open for nominations for directors.

I nominate Michael Carroll, Neil de Gelder, Charles Jeannes, Jennifer Maki, Walter Segsworth, Kathleen Sendall, Michael Steinmann and Gillian Winckler, all to be directors of the company and to hold office in accordance with the articles of the company.

Each of the nominees has previously consented and ready to act as a director, I ask for a motion that validations be closed.

So moved.

All in favor of the motion, please signify by raising your right hand. [Voting]

Against, if any? Carried. [Voting]

We will now proceed with the election of directors. Each director will be elected separately by a show of hands. It's proposed that separate ordinary resolutions be passed electing those members that were described by Delaney Fisher, the Secretary of the meeting, as directors of the company for the ensuing year to hold office until the next annual meeting. I would ask that each shareholder signify their vote on the following appointments by raising their right hand. All those in favor of the appointment of Michael Carroll? Against? Carried. All those in favor of the appointment of Neil de Gelder? Against? Carried. All those in favor of the appointment of Charles Jeannes? Against? Carried. All those in favor of the appointment of Jennifer Maki? Against? Carried. All those in favor of the appointment of Walter Segsworth? Against? Carried. All those in favor of the appointment of Kathleen Sendall? Against? Carried. All those in favor of the appointment of Michael Steinmann? Against? Carried. All those in favor of the appointment of Gillian Winckler? Against? Carried. I declare that Mssrs. Carroll, de Gelder, Segsworth, Steinmann, Jeannes, and Ms. Maki, Sendall and Winckler have been elected as directors of the company for the ensuing year to hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders of the company or until their successors are elected or appointed. And I want to particularly welcome Jennifer Maki and Kathy Sendall to the Board. They are our most recent directors appointed in the last few months. And I'm really looking forward to their contributions. We've had a couple of meetings with them, and I can tell our shareholders that they will be wonderful, wonderful new directors. Not only do they add diversity, they add talent and skill. And I will -- I'm going to be very interested to see in the next years how much they're going to be able to contribute to the affairs of the company. They certainly have tremendous potential. And we are lucky to have them. The next item of business is the appointment of auditors. It is proposed that the company reappoints Deloitte LLP as auditors of the company. Accordingly, I ask for a motion that Deloitte LLP be appointed as auditors of the company for the ensuing year.

So moved.

All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand? Against? Carried. [Voting]

And again, we'll give a shout out to Deloitte. This is, again, their 27th year auditing us, moving into the 28th year. They have given us sterling service. This is, I think, the third set of senior auditors that have come out of the Deloitte system. They have a natural periodicity within the company in terms of their audit team. And we just have had an excellent relationship with Deloitte. And I think we've gone literally 27 years without a single significant issue that we've got a disagreement on and along with it, I hope that maintains so for many more years to come. And I will also give a shout out to our legal counsel, [indiscernible]. Also, they've been our general counsel since -- or generally -- they've been our independent legal advisers since the beginning. I want to specifically thank Freddie Fletcher for his services. He has been a wonderful supporter. His whole team here at BOG has been outstanding and again long live them as our providers of independent legal advice to us in the years to come. Next item of the business is the fixing of the auditor's remuneration. It is proposed that the Board of Directors be authorized to determine the remuneration to be paid to Deloitte LLP for the ensuing year. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. If against? Carried. The next item of business is to consider and approve an ordinary advisory resolution, approving the company's approach to executive compensation. The full text of the advisory resolutions contained on Page 14 of the information circular for this meeting. I ask for a motion of the advisory resolution approving the company's approach to executive compensation be approved.

So moved.

All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand? Against? Carried. [Voting]

I now call for a motion to conclude the formal portion of the Annual General and Special Meeting of the company.

I move that this meeting be concluded. All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand? Against? [Voting]

In that case, I declare this Annual General and Special Meeting of the company concluded. And thank you again for joining us today. And so it is time for me to pass the baton. That is my last formal function with the company that I founded along with John Wright back in March of 1994. And I can say it's been a heck of a journey. We started with a great mission with no assets, no cash, no properties, no management. Nobody. Nothing. It was a shell company. But with the vision to build the world's best silver mining company, a company that gave investors the best leverage to higher silver prices. So when the silver went up $1 or went up say 10%, our stock would go up 20% or 30%, and it would be the best way for investors to play the silver price as an equity investment. Well, when you have a big mission like that, it's rather more easy to say it than to do it. And I also have the temerity to predict the silver price by the end of that decade, by the end of the millennium. 6 years later from 1994, when we served Pan American, I predicted -- it was then $5 a share -- $5 an ounce I mean, and I predicted it would be over $10 an ounce by the end of the decade. And therefore, we bought all sorts of silver properties all over Latin America that were noneconomic is $5 an ounce, but needed more like $7 or $8 an ounce to be economic. Well, I have no problem, completely with great confidence saying that silver price will be over $10 an ounce. And these properties would have tremendous value, and people should buy us. It's a great option on a higher silver price and a great way to play the silver price. Well, needless to say, by 1999 or 2000, inside even 2001, the silver price hit an all-time low in real terms. It hit -- it went down, not up. It went to $4.03 an ounce, and so much for that prediction. And it's because the more I learned about silver, the more I knew I didn't know. And this is actually what happens when you get to be kind of an expert at something. You realize just how complicated things are and how much -- it's easy to make predictions when you're sort of naïve, but not so easy when you know that. But what we did in the meantime is we backfilled the value. We acquired some properties that actually had value even at $5 an ounce. And we had some great investments. We bought a mine in Peru, the [indiscernible] mine. We bought a mine in Mexico that was a small producer, produced like 100 tonnes a day, a couple of hundred thousand ounces over a year, called La Colorada, back in 1996, I think it was. We acquired San Vicente in Bolivia in 1997 or 1998. That was also run in the small silver mine. We spent -- I spent the most difficult and most frustrating time of my entire career on for 4 years in Russia trying to build what would have become the world's third largest silver mine the Dukat mine. Well, some things work and some things don't work. And whilst our projects in Mexico worked and Peru worked and Bolivia worked and Argentina worked, the Russian adventure was an absolute disaster. We ended up being attacked by a Russian company. We lost everything we have there. We got our money back, but we lost big. We lost 4 years of hard work, and it was a tremendous amount of work. So that was a flop. But despite all of those comings and goings and wins and losses in the 1990s, by the late 2001, just as silver hit the bottom, and at the same time as silver hit the bottom so did lead and zinc because we also produced quite a bit of by-product lead and zinc, mostly at our main mine in -- 2 mines in Peru is the Huaron and [indiscernible]. And they were also hitting record lows. So zinc by now, I think $0.36 a pound, lead is $0.18 a pound. These were possible ways to make money. And we were hemorrhaging like crazy. We were squeezing about $500,000 a month. And we had 3 months of money left in our bank. And otherwise, we would have been bankrupt. We would have been done. Well, luckily, Bill Gates was a shareholder at the time, and we had some tremendous support of shareowners. Bill Gates, his fund manager, Michael Larson, was on our Board. Bill Fleckenstein, who's a great fund management and [indiscernible] was on our Board. And they did what we did in financing. We managed about, I think, about 6 months or so of working capital or maybe 10 months working capital at a $3 share price, and we were saved for another year. And lo and behold during that year, a few months after we did that financing in 2002, the silver price bottomed, started to go up. And literally, we haven't looked back since. We have had -- we had a tremendous run in our share price from 2002 to 2008 went from $3 a share to almost $50 a share. It was hammered down with the financial crisis, and then it went right back up. And then it came down a bit, and it's back up again today. We're trading at tremendous prices today because the silver and the gold prices are high. It just shows the vagaries of how these companies are built. But I wanted to give a little history of Pan American today for anybody who's interested in that along the way, in the 2000s, we acquired Morococha. We got Manantial Espejo in Argentina. We looked at a whole bunch of other projects. We ended up getting Dolores in a deal in about 1911 -- sorry, 2011. In Mexico, La Colorada has turned from being a very marginal small in. We actually had to write it off, not once, but twice because we lost the value of our reserves and [indiscernible] went down, we didn't think we were going to make any money there. It's turned out to be a massive win for our shareholders [indiscernible] they've all done well. So it's been a real -- for me, a very happy kind of for me an ending today. After 27 years, I can tell you that our company is in the best shape it's ever been in now. We have a long-term future. It's all about the people, too. The team we've put in place that has come into our company, has just been such a joy to work with so skilled, just so impressive. Most of these are latinos. We have a very small percentage of people that are based in Vancouver, less than 5%. Less than 5% of our company speaks English as the mother tongue, by the way. Most of our staff are Latinos or indigenous people at our different operations, particularly in Peru and Bolivia and Mexico. So we have a lot of diversity. We have a wonderful work force, and it's that work force that's built the company that we are today. More than anything, though, I'm turning this chair position to Gill, and I'm saying goodbye at a moment that I feel we've also got this fantastic reputation, and it's a reputation for excellence. Not only in the engineering of mines, and building of mines, the discovery of mines, exploration or the financing, we've always been very conservative, financially conservative. We don't have a lot of depth and never have. We've never had a financial credit. It's our reputation and the other things, things that are important today. They've always been important, but they're being valued more today than ever before. Environment, social governance. Those are the big things that shareholders are valuing more today than ever. And I can say we've lived that. It doesn't matter what you call it, you could call it CSR, corporate social responsibility. You can call it social license, you can call it, environmental best practice, sustainability principles. Whatever you call it, they all mean the same thing. And what that is, is doing the right thing. In this day and age where it's so easy for a blogger or somebody who wants to push an agenda forward that they are anti-mining or anti-capital or anti-foreign or anti-anything, they have a podium. They have the Internet. And people who are anti these sort of things, they have a platform. But at the end of the day, if your actions and your real-world events that happen that build reputations and build value. And I can say, turning this company over now to Gill and the team that I am so happy and so comfortable in our record of excellence in our environmental, social governance aspects. And I think, if anything, we're going to do even a better job in the future so that our workers go home every day safely. Our communities are happy with what we're doing and feel proud of what we're doing. And of course, that we have good governance built into the fabric of everything we do. We have about 13,500 employees now, I think, at our operations, our 10 operations in Latin America and Canada. We have every combination of nationalities really and ethnic groups in these operations. And around the operations, our communities, whether it's Peru or Bolivia or Argentina or Mexico or Canada now, where there is literally 100,000 to 150,000 people who are living off the value that's generated from our mines. Every year now, we're generating about $2 billion of value, of which about 11% comes back to our shareholders in the form of capital payback, dividends and so forth. And the rest, almost all of the rest stays in the country where we're generating this value, and it goes to support community services, infrastructure, all sorts of things, wages, spin-off benefits, multiplier benefits for communities. That's what the engine of a good mine creates in terms of community value and tax revenue and local spending. And that's something that year after year, that's what we're generating for these communities that rely on our mines. Well, nobody's perfect. Obviously, from time to time, we have issues that we would rather didn't happen, and we are working so hard to prevent that. Sometimes things happen, but we are certainly doing every bit that we can to minimize those kind of things and become just the great -- to me, the great corporate citizens that I think, we have the reputation of being. So those are the things that I'm proud of, building a company, generating employment for people, all that economic activity and also building a company that investors can buy as a really great way to put in silver price with long-term silver production. We also have a lot of gold production and giant silver reserves and resources, which offer the fabric of value for the long term. So for me, it's -- this is a little bit of a soapbox right now for me to say thank you to our management team. Thank you to our workers. Thank you to the communities that support us in all the places we work. Thank you to the national -- the countries that we work in for their fair policies, their strong support, and it's a partnership really with what they're trying to achieve, what we're trying to achieve. We work well with those countries. We don't have issues of significance. And it's a chance for me to thank our shareholders as well for their steadfast support over the years. Many of our shareholders I know are actually shareholders who started working with us when I started back in 1994, and a lot of them are new. So I'm going over the history of the company a little bit right now to remind everybody that we have this good record. We have this long -- well, the long period that I've been involved in the company. It's now time to turn over a page to open up a new chapter in Pan American's life with Gill as our new chair, and me gone from the company, pretty well gone. I'm not going to be forgotten, though. And I'm not even going to be that [ sad ] because I've been given this honor being Chair Emeritus, and so I will be around to help advise, if I can, to ask questions and have some feedback if I'm asked to give my views on things, but there will be no formal role. And so with that, it's been a great run. I'm very sure we can't do this in person, but that's the way it goes. And my thanks to each and everyone who have made it a lot of fun and a big success. And now I'm going to let Gill take up the torch, and I'm going to hand over the baton. Gill. Gill Winckler, the new Chair of Pan American Silver.

Thank you very much, Ross. And I must say, obviously, following on from Ross and after 27 years in the chair role, and after the speech he's given, the talks it's very, very challenging, very big shoes to fill. And I still don't know what I was going to say. Ross, you just sort of said everything. But for me, it's a privilege and an honor or to be taking over as the Chair of Pan American. I mean, as you know, Ross, as Chair of the company and his AGMs for the past 27 years. And it's going to be very different having me sitting here in the chair. And Ross earlier today in our Board meeting said today was a very poignant day for him. And I think it is too for many employees. I think a lot have been on the journey from the staff and there's a lot of loyalty that people feel towards you. It's -- as you also said, there's a huge shame, we can't be in person for this AGM. Normally at this time of year, key management from around Pan American all come to Vancouver's management for several days of meetings. We have a board meeting. We have the AGM, and then we have a get together with employees, directors, advisers, shareholders. And it's really a time when everyone sort of shares what has happened and excitedly talks about the year that's coming up. And you just basically rebuild the friendship that exists in Pan American. So fairly, obviously, with that, we're not able to have that this year, but that time will come, and we'll have a chance to say a proper thank you and proper goodbye although not to say they're not goodbyes they're just in this role and goodbye. So and some good -- a virtual thank you and hand over for now. I think as you all know, Ross served the company 27 years ago with a single mine in Peru. Today, we have 10 operations in 6 countries, There was 13,500 employees. I think what's most important and for me, especially, and I'm very pleased to say for everyone on the -- in the company is that we have this incredibly deep commitment to ESG. It's not just words. Everyone really feels and cares about the organization. And the culture of working together, and that's also important because it's a company where you feel everyone drives together for the same goal. So much of what Pan American has achieved is attributable to Ross. He is as passionate about the environment and is about geology and business. And his passions basically have helped -- in my view helped make Pan American what it is today, and it's a company that every single one of us is proud to be associated with. So I would like formally to express thanks to Ross on behalf of current Board members, past Board members, not that I speak for them, but I'm sure they would also -- on behalf of the shareholders who have seen their value grow as the company grow. On behalf of all employees whose enthusiasm and love for the company stems from the culture that you instilled in Pan American all those years ago. And I can assure you everyone will miss you in your role as chair, but we all know you aren't disappearing. And for those who don't know me, Board today unanimously voted to confer the title of Chair Emeritus to Ross in recognition of forming the company and being chair for 27 years. And with his time, Ross, [indiscernible] will always be associated to Pan American. And even if he is gone, he's always welcome in the Pan American family. And I speak for myself and the current Board, when I say Ross, we will do what we can to keep growing the company to keep those values to grow strength to strength. And I'm confident that the value and the culture that are so deeply embedded in the company will continue to make this company that everyone is proud to be associated with. And we just wish you all the best in your Chair Emeritus and in your semi-retirement role, Ross.

Thank you. Thank you.

Everyone. Thank you, Ross.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

And I'll hand over to my CEO.

[indiscernible]

Okay. It was a standing ovation [indiscernible]. So thank you.

Thank you, Gill. Thanks, Ross. and I'm sure everybody agrees with me for wishing Ross all the best for his retirement, and I'm looking very much forward to keep working this company with Gill. This is my 18th year now with the company, so has a long history for me as well, going back. But I would like to give you an update on the year that just past that happened, which was a very strange year for all of us and this world. Probably for sure the first time in my life that something happened that impacted everyone, every person on the globe with this COVID pandemic, and it still does. It still impacts our operations very strongly, depending a bit on the countries. We just published our Q1 results, maybe an hour ago, and you will see Q1 was a challenging quarter with still a lot of issues with the pandemic and some issues that we're working through a lot, the ventilation. But they're all transitory issues that we're going to work through this year, and we're very much looking forward to start improving the year here, improving on operations and production and hopefully roll out some vaccines that will make life for all of us on the globe easier with the ongoing 2021. But let's focus on that very strange year 2020, which, obviously, will be one for the history books. Please keep in mind that I will use forward-looking statements in my presentation. If you're interested, you can read everything about the risk factors in our public statements. I think Board and Ross has explained very well the history, and that's the result. You see it on this slide here with our 9 operations across the Americas depending how you want to count but 9 operating plants and a few locations where we use several mines to produce the [ ore ] for those plants. But very diversified production, gold, silver, base metals. That's just the fact how silver occurs when Ross was looking for silver mines, but silver does not occur by itself. You find silver with gold, refined silver with base metals. That's why we have a mix of all these metals in our production profile. We have the largest silver reserves now in the world, and that's very, very important to us, the reserve and the resources, but especially proven up resources are a base of your business. And we have been very careful on that with our brownfield exploration to constantly replace when we mine and grow our reserves to now a record of 550 million ounces. So very strong silver reserves and as well over 5 million ounce of gold reserve. But beside that steady and strong business, we have 3 very large catalysts in our portfolio catalysts for growth. And first on Escobal in Guatemala, of course, the mine is on care and maintenance, but we all know that. And it's already since we purchased [indiscernible] before that. It's awaiting consultation with an indigenous group in Guatemala. The process is run by the Ministry of Mines. The preconsultation meetings actually had been postponed by a month due to very large COVID outbreak in Guatemala, but it's now set for later this month of May. We are looking very much forward to an inclusive consultation process with very broad participation and respecting the Xinka people rights to consultation under the principles of good faith, mutual respect, transparency without any pressure on conditioning from the parties. And hopefully, that process, as I said, will start later on this month. And it's one that is set by the government of Guatemala, by the Ministry of Mines. So it's timing-wise, of course, not in our hands. The next 3 large catalyst is La Colorada. Ross mentioned it. We had tremendous success in exploration over the last probably nearly a decade now at La Colorada. We're finding more and more of high-grade veins that we are mining, high-grade silver veins. And just about 3 years ago, we made the first big discovery there, big drill holes, finding a very wide mineralized zone below the veins, which is the feeder zone for that mine. Hundreds of meters of wide intercepts, high-grade polymetallic with silver. And by the way, we put the press release out as well today with some of the just exceptional drill results again and working over to PA for that tremendous project at the end of the year. The resource estimate last year was over 100 million tonnes sitting just in that deposit. And I'm sure it's going to grow on all sides because we did not find any to this deposit. Yes. And then the last one is Navidad in Argentina. We have that asset already a long time with us. We can't go forward right now as the mining line in Chubut, in the province of Chubut, would need to be amended to actually allow open pit mining and the use of cyanide. While we don't need cyanide, but it's a ban on both of this. We would not need cyanide at this asset. It's a sulfide deposit would produce concentrate, but it's an open pit deposit. And so the law would have to be amended for that and then we could -- that would have and apply for permits. But we really believe that the properly permit and regulated mining activity with sustainable mining practices, both on the environmental and social side will be a huge importance for the development of the province of Chubut. Of course, that will go together with the investment in many other sectors to sustain support and improve the economy of the province. So those are our large catalysts. So let's keep on here. What we do here, Ross mentioned it, a very strong company. We have a very strong financial position. No -- we have no debt. No bank debt. Our line of credit has been fully repaid last year. As I said, it was an interesting year, difficult with COVID, but actually very rewarding on the financial side at the end, allowing us to actually twice increase the dividend, double our dividend and pay back all our debt and be debt-free at the end of the year. Just a few words on ESG. Please have a look at -- we just published our 11th ESG report or at the beginning we called it CSR report, there's a lot of details in the report on our website. But what we are doing many, many projects without [ discussed ] in great detail, but there's a few changes this year, and we're still reporting under the TRI standards, but we are also aligning with the disclosures on TCFD and FASB for this year, and you see a lot of other initiatives and obviously, following the TSM framework from Canada, from the Mining Association of Canada that we apply to all our operations across the globe. So when you look back to 2020, record operating cash flow of $462 million. As I said, we repaid back all our debt. We nearly replaced our silver reserves, more than replaced our gold. And as I said, have just made a large resource at La Colorada for over 100 million ounces. And that's obviously that strong cash flow. When you look at it, and I think the slide I have up right now is very interesting because it gives you the cash flow per share and free cash flow per share. It's basically double nearly every year from 2018 to '19 and in 2020. Very important because we did not issue actually any shares. The last public offering we did to raise money for our business was in 2009. So that's now 12 years ago. So our share count is pretty stable. And therefore, when our business is improving, our operational free cash flow per share is improving as well. And so what do we do with that money? Well, if we look back, we generated about $1.5 billion free cash flow since 2010. We returned actually about 24% in dividends to our shareholders, about 9% went into share purchase -- repurchases early on. So over 30% was returned to shareholders, and we are very happy to pay dividend and return to our shareholders at any time, any part of the metal price cycle. I mean we paid all our debt, as I mentioned. And just a reminder, as sustaining capital and new project capital to build and expand great projects like La Colorada and Dolores. Just a few words to the silver supply and demand. There's great reports. If you need a resource, please go to The Silver Institute website. There's a lot of information available there. On the silver market, there's the silver annual silver report that you can read all kind of details, on silver market, silver mines as supply and demand. You see actually quite strong demand last year, still, even though with COVID, but it wasn't that much on the industrial side and on the jewelry reside, as you can imagine. That was actually reduced demand, but very strong demand on the investment side, where we saw a record inflow into ETFs, a very strong demand for small podium as well. And I think it's really fair to say that silver is green metal. It's the money of the future because nearly 55% of the current silver production is used for electronics, for industrial applications to make electric cars, to build your 5G networks. You need silver. You need obviously silver to build solar panels, which is the largest single-use of silver right now on the industrial side. So very, very important metal for the world to actually bring us where we want and where we need to be on a low-carbon economy, and you need absolutely silver to get there. So please have a look on the website of The Silver Institute if you look for further details. So that's my last slide here. They are very simple points really. It's what makes a great mining company. Beside to care and have strong ESG programs, you need long and large silver reserves. You need a strong treasury. We need a very strong management team. And I think we combine all that in Pan American Silver and really looking forward to the advancement of this year, 2021 and see how we get out of this pandemic and with strong metal prices return very strong free cash flow to our shareholders. With that, I would like to hand it over to Siren ask if she has any questions for me.

We do have this following question from a shareholder. Does the futures market suppress the price of silver?

Yes. I get this question quite often actually or once in a while. The silver prices like any commodity in the world, it's really a question of supply and demand. And maybe I can go back one slide where I talked about -- or 2 slides, sorry, about -- silver supply and demand that the difference for silver is just that there are 2 different supply and demand stories in the silver market, one is the industrial side and one is the investment side. So it depends a bit how they work together. Right now, we're coming out of this pandemic and of big financial crisis. There will be big growth, and there will be a lot of demand on the industrial side coming. People will go out to buy jewelry again, people will buy electronics. Plus we've done work on important advances on our clean energy production in the world and build electric cars. So the industrial side will grow. At the same time, a lot of people right now are worried about inflation. [indiscernible] value of our major currencies, et cetera. And use silver as that as an inflation hedge or as a store of valve -- or store of value. And that's the other side of the silver story of price, supply and demand. So when we look back, as I said last year, very strong demand on the investment side, less so on the industrial side because of COVID. The investment side is still very, very strong. And I'm looking forward to a very strong demand and growth on the industrial side for the examples I just gave, and I think that bodes very well for a very strong silver price here going here in the short or near-term future.

Thank you. We have another question. Are you concerned that a less business-friendly political administration in Peru could be detrimental to the company?

No, I'm not. First of all, elections will happen in Peru, the second round in June. It's a political process. In any countries, we list there are elections. We've got too many, many events. I went through -- any of us in our careers. And these are process, and Peruvian population will decide who should be their next president. So we are very happy in Peru. It's a great place to be and do business in Peru. And when the new administration comes in,whoever that will be elected by the population of Peru, we'll work with that administration and looking forward to do so.

Thank you. Could you also provide an update to the Tahoe Resources acquisition? How that acquisition has been for Pan American?

Sure. I mean, it's now over 2 years already. So it's going quite a bit back. But as you know, we become not only the Escobal mine, which I explained at the beginning, is on repair and maintenance right now, but we also received to the acquisition the 2 mines the Timmins in Canada and 2 in Peru, La Arena and Shahuindo, which mostly produce gold and have been fabulous assets for us for the last 2 years, of course, helped by higher gold prices, but also helped by a lot of exploration success on our side. I just want to recall that in last August, we announced that we already found another 400,000 ounces of new gold reserves at Shahuindo, we have been able to replace our production at [ Lareda ], still drilling and still finding more. And the same, I can say on Timmins as well. So there have been great assets for us to go on in production for a long time, some of them longer than the others, but are great assets. While we're, as I said, preparing for this consultation process, on the Escobal mine. So I think overall, it worked out very well, worked out well for both us and for shareholders as our share price increased substantially since the transaction. And I'm really looking forward to keep working with those assets.

Thank you, Michael. Those are all the questions pertinent to the business of the meeting that we've received from shareholders.

Okay.

Should we proceed concluding the meeting?

I think we conclude the meeting, and I will -- as I said, my last act will be to adjourn the meeting, and thank, again, everybody, for joining us today. And I look forward to being here as a shareholder next year and listening to how great the company's done in 2021 from Gill and Michael again. Thank you. Thank you, all. Good day.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.