Pan American Silver Corp. ($PAAS)

Earnings Call Transcript · March 25, 2026

TSX CA Materials Metals and Mining Special Calls 44 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

Operator
#1

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Pan American Silver conference call to discuss the Revised PEA for the La Colorada Skarn project. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Siren Fisekci, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Ms. Fisekci.

Siren Fisekci

Executives
#2

Thank you for joining us today for Pan American Silver's webcast and conference call to discuss the revised preliminary economic assessment for our La Colorada Skarn project. Please note this call includes forward-looking statements and information, and you are advised to see the cautionary statements to the slides that accompany this call and in our news release issued on March 24, 2026, announcing the results of the revised PEA. A copy of an updated technical report on Pan American's La Colorada property, including the Revised PEA on the La Colorada Skarn project will be filed with Canadian securities regulators. The report will be available under the company's profile on SEDAR+ and on our website within 45 days of today. I'll now turn the call over to Michael Steinmann, President and CEO of Pan American Silver.

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#3

Thanks, Siren, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. We are very pleased to share the results of our revised preliminary economic assessment, or PEA, for the La Colorada Skarn project. Since issuing the original PEA in early 2024, we have continued to advance an active exploration program across the La Colorada property. Over the past 2 years, we have reported a series of high-grade drill results, most recently in our March 5, 2026 news release. Those results include exceptional intercepts and have led to the discovery of multiple new high-grade silver zones along with replacement-style mineralization to the east and southeast of the current defined mineral resource at La Colorada. In September 2025, we also announced the addition of 52.7 million ounces of silver to inferred mineral resources located in veins northeast of the current operation. With the benefit of those exploration results, we have taken a fresh look at the development plan for La Colorada. Yesterday, we shared that updated vision to our Revised PEA. The Revised PEA outlines a new development plan for the La Colorada property. While we continue production from the existing La Colorada mine using current facilities and infrastructure, we plan to begin developing the higher-grade portion of the Skarn deposit simultaneously with the newly identified high-grade silver veins. The first step in that plan is the construction of a decline from the 588 level of the existing mine to access the Skarn deposit. We expect preliminary work on that to begin in 2026. Also in 2026, we plan to start the engineering work for 2 shafts, a production shaft and a ventilation shaft, both of which will be conventionally sunk from surface. These shafts are expected to be completed by 2030 and would provide access hoisting capacity and ventilation for both the Skarn and the newly discovered vein zones. As this initial infrastructure is built and underground mine development advances, the Revised PEA contemplates the construction of a new 15,000 tonnes per day processing plant. The timing of that plant is intended to align with the start of initial production from the Skarn deposit in 2032. The new plant is expected to process all production from La Colorada, including mineral reserves and mineral resources from the vein system as well as the high-grade portion of the Skarn mineralization. Total capital investment for that project is estimated at $1.9 billion. We expect that spending to occur over approximately 6 years with the heaviest spending in the final 3 years as the plant is constructed. Importantly, we currently expect to fund this capital through cash flow generated by Pan American's operating mines. We do not require additional permitting for the 588 level ramp decline that will provide initial access to the Skarn deposit. Permit applications would, however, need to be submitted for other components of the proposed expansion project, including the mine shafts, the new processing plant and tailings facility expansion. Taken together, this overall development plan, which we are referring to as the expanded La Colorada mine has the potential to position La Colorada as one of the largest and lowest cost silver mines in the world. During the peak 5 years following construction and ramp-up, silver production from the expanded La Colorada mine is expected to average 19.1 million ounces annually. Silver production would then average 11 million ounces per year for another 10 years after this peak period before declining for the remainder of the 37 year of life. There is substantial exploration upside at La Colorada, highlighted by the discovery of 4 new high-grade veins to the southeast of the current mine. Additional mineralized material from those and other new structures could further extend the peak silver production levels. We expect to use conventional long-hole open stoping with paste backfill, a mining method we already apply across our underground operations, which would lower the technical risk for this large project. By contrast, the original PEA contemplated developing only the Skarn deposits using a sublevel caving method. Cave mining would only be considered as part of an additional potential expansion in the distant future. Let me now turn to the economics of the Revised PEA, which are specific to the development of the vein mineral resource and Skarn mineral resource. While the existing La Colorada mine is expected to continue operating during construction, commissioning and well into the future operation of the La Colorada Skarn project, the mineral reserves associated with the current operation that are scheduled to be mined over its life are excluded from the Revised PEA mine plan and economics. As a result, they do not contribute to the economics of the La Colorada Skarn project presented here as required by NI 43-101 reporting standards. On a stand-alone basis, the La Colorada Skarn project offers attractive returns. The Revised PEA estimates an incremental after-tax net present value discounted at 5% of approximately $2.6 billion with an after-tax internal rate of return of 17%. These estimates are based on our long-term base case metal prices of $45 per ounce of silver, $2,800 per tonne of zinc and $2,000 per tonne of lead. At higher metal prices, specifically $75 per ounce of silver, $3,400 per tonne of zinc and $2,000 per tonne of lead, the incremental after-tax NPV discounted at 5% increases to approximately $5.2 billion and the after-tax IRR rises to 25%. Additional sensitivities for NPV and IRR across the range of silver and zinc prices are included in the news release we issued yesterday. Based on our base case metal price assumptions, the payback period of the initial $1.9 billion investment is estimated at 4 years. Under the higher metal price scenario, that payback period improves to approximately 3 years. The La Colorada Skarn project is expected to generate strong free cash flow, averaging $653 million annually over the initial 5 years following construction and planned ramp-up at the base case metal prices. Under the upside price scenario, annual free cash flow increases to $988 million. Again, this is incremental to the free cash flow generated by the La Colorada mine reserve during those periods. Those strong free cash flow expectations are supported by strong operating margins. Silver all-in sustaining costs are expected to average negative $22.67 per ounce over the initial 5-year period, reflecting significant zinc and lead byproduct credits. At the base case prices, the initial 5-year period revenue contributions is approximately 42% silver, 39% zinc and 19% lead, while at the upside price scenario, the silver revenue increases to 51%. We are very pleased to present this development concept, which could meaningfully expand low-cost silver production at La Colorada while also derisking the project through lower capital intensity and the use of a conventional mining method. As mentioned, we are anticipating beginning some preliminary work on the development of the ramp from the 588 level in the coming months. We will also continue exploration and definition diamond drilling in both the Skarn and the eastern portion of the vein mine as we believe there is significant potential for further mineral resource growth. Also in 2026, we plan to begin detailed engineering work for the production and ventilation shafts. And finally, we are preparing the scope and schedule required to advance towards a pre-feasibility study. We are excited to be advancing this large-scale silver project, which we believe offers investors exceptional long-term exposure to silver, a metal that will remain increasingly critical in the future. The expanded La Colorada mine has the potential to become one of the largest and lowest cost silver producing mines in the world. And with that, together with the rest of our management team, I'd be happy to take your questions.

Operator

Operator
#4

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Fahad Tariq with Jefferies.

Fahad Tariq

Analysts
#5

Just on the change in the development approach, how much of that was driven by maybe technical factors or even financial factors versus not being able to find a suitable partner for the larger bulk caving operation?

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#6

Fahad, not a reason about partners. There was plenty of interest to look at this project. But when you look at this time the risk to develop a 50,000 tonne underground block or sublevel cave mine compared to the higher grade part in the first step, as we indicated in the call, there is still a possibility in the future to go to a way bigger mine if we would decide to do so. But that was really the reason. I mean, a higher grade, lower capital, way lower risk way forward here that actually produces quite a bit of more silver for us than we had anticipated in the original PEA. So as a combination, obviously, a way more attractive project for us. And as I said, with the higher silver production, a project that is way more in line with Pan American's goals here.

Fahad Tariq

Analysts
#7

Okay. And then just maybe a housekeeping item. But on the plant CapEx specifically, I think it's $277 million in the Revised PEA. Do you know what it was in the 2023 PEA, just so we can compare because the plant size is quite a bit smaller now, obviously.

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#8

Yes, we'll have to get back to you on that. I don't have that at my fingertip.

Operator

Operator
#9

The next question comes from Ovais Habib with Scotiabank.

Ovais Habib

Analysts
#10

Congrats on releasing the really robust PEA. Just a couple of questions from me. And number one question that I've been getting since last night when you released the PEA has been on the potential partner. Based on the CapEx as well as the size of the project now, it certainly feels like you don't need a partner. Are you still looking to bring in a partner? And if so, is there a stage that you would consider bringing in a partner?

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#11

Thanks, Ovais. Look, I think this is a great outcome right now. We continue to work and bring this project forward. As you pointed out, we can easily do this project on our own. So at the moment, there's still some discussions going on and maybe a smaller piece of it. We're looking at potential to deal with the zinc offtake and things like that. But this is a project well in our reach to build from the capital side, from the size, from the technical requirement from the team that we have in place, both here in Vancouver and in Mexico. So this is now moving forward as it is, and we'll see how it advances in the future. But at the moment, I'm very comfortable doing it alone.

Ovais Habib

Analysts
#12

Sounds good. And just moving on to the exploration upside. And I believe about 90,000 meters of drilling has been completed but not included in the PEA. Could these additional zones that have been discovered improve the front end of the mine plan? Or are you looking to maintain the production profile kind of around that peak levels that will be reached around that 2036 level?

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#13

Yes, you're absolutely right. And there's a lot of drilling not included. And just I refer again to the press release, I think we put it out about 2.5 or 3 weeks ago, where we discovered another at least 4 major structures at La Colorada, really high-grade silver. So that, you're right, will probably come in and extend at the front or after the peak years, can extend those peak years on the silver production, so making that period of way higher silver production longer. Just to remind everyone, this is like any deposits in the silver belt of Mexico, when you go deeper, you have a summation. So you go deeper down in the deposit, you go from high-grade silver and some gold in higher levels down to more lead and then more zinc. And if you will continue deeper down, you will get into higher grades of copper. That's just the normal geology and this kind of structure. So when we discover new veins higher up closer to surface, we find this incredible high bonanza grade silver and gold grades that we published, as I said, 2.5 weeks ago. And looking for more of those, we're already drilling a lot on those. We're finding more and there's more and more success. And yes, that, by all means, will extend that peak production -- silver production period by more years.

Ovais Habib

Analysts
#14

And just one last question. So again, just on that -- on the exploration side, the PEA seems to be kind of a base case based on the exploration upside. Are there any other optimization work we can keep an eye on to further improve the production or cost profile?

Steven Busby

Executives
#15

Yes. This is Steve. And that gets back to your earlier question, as Michael alluded to, as we expand those vein resources, that does offer some interesting opportunities for us to look at taking even more advantage of the infrastructure we need for the Skarn. It's quite large infrastructure necessary for the Skarn. It might allow us to look at increasing production on those veins. That's one of the areas we want to target as we move into PFS pretty clearly. And then, of course, the longer term is that, that optionality of the cave mine. There is still a very attractive low-grade component to the deep Skarn mineralization. So that cave mine does offer additional upside opportunities, albeit more favorable to the zinc production than the silver per se. But those are 2 key ones that I think will be interesting to watch as this develops.

Operator

Operator
#16

The next question comes from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research.

John Tumazos

Analysts
#17

Congratulations on a plan to build 2 mines, the high-grade gold, silver and the Skarn for $1.9 billion down from $2.8 billion. I'm pinching myself it's so good. Trying to understand the lower CapEx -- in the lower grade deeper zones that you're bypassing or delaying or deferring, are those the higher rock temperature areas that require more ventilation? And is that part of the contribution to a lower CapEx?

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#18

Yes. John, let's -- I have Martin, I think, out of -- he's traveling on the call. Martin, can you take the ventilation question, please?

Martin Wafforn

Executives
#19

Yes, absolutely. John, I think the biggest component in the lower capital is the smaller plant size. There was a question before about what the capital was for the 50,000 tonne a day plant that was there before, which was around the $1 billion mark. I can't remember exactly, but it was around that. And that plant cost has come down a lot. Now it's about $270-something million. And on top of that, you have to add 25% indirect and then you add another 25% contingency on top of that. So I think the biggest component on the capital is just the size. Now in terms of the ventilation, we're still going to be faced with some hot areas in the mine that there's a fairly high geothermal gradient. So as we get deeper, it certainly gets hotter. We've done a lot of work on that and the capital includes a lot of ventilation actually, it's 905 cubic meters per second of ventilation that we need, and we need an additional 21 megawatts of refrigeration power. So we've done a lot of calculation and simulation to make sure we're going to keep working temperatures in a good range for our people there. But the lower production rate does reduce it a bit for sure.

John Tumazos

Analysts
#20

In the old plan, there were zones with 104-degree Fahrenheit rock temperature. What are the typical rock temperatures that you expect to encounter in this PEA?

Martin Wafforn

Executives
#21

The actual rock temperatures, I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, John. Yes, our key is that we control the working environment to keep it below 30 degrees C wet-bulb temperature. I think 28.5 degrees C wet-bulb temperature is our control and that we're pretty happy with having people working full shifts underground. We'll also make sure that the equipment that we buy has air conditioning and those types of things to make it more comfortable -- as comfortable as we can for the people there. And we're also doing a lot of work looking at remote operation to take people away from the actual working environment and have them operating machinery from surface. That's another thing we're doing, although not totally needed because of the ventilation we're providing.

Operator

Operator
#22

The next question comes from Cosmos Chiu with CIBC.

Cosmos Chiu

Analysts
#23

Maybe my first question is on the mining cost. As you mentioned, with the new PEA, you're changing the mining method from what was previously more bulk mining sublevel caving to now long-hole stoping. So what's the difference in terms of cost per tonne in terms of mining? And how does that compare to the current mining cost for the vein mine?

Steven Busby

Executives
#24

Yes, Cosmos, this is Steve. We did report a combined Skarn and the additional mineral resources of the vein of $54.50 per tonne mining cost, direct mining cost. That compares to closer to $160 to $180 a tonne today. Now again, because the Skarn has such larger stopes, we're getting a big benefit from that bulkiness of those stopes. So if you looked only at the vein, you'd be close to the vein cost and then it's diluted down with the lower cost from the Skarn for an overall $54.50.

Cosmos Chiu

Analysts
#25

Yes, that was my next question, Steve. I guess with the new resources that you're now mining for the vein deposit, you're not changing the mining method compared to...

Steven Busby

Executives
#26

Today, we're not. No.

Cosmos Chiu

Analysts
#27

Okay. Is there an opportunity to do so or no?

Steven Busby

Executives
#28

Well, it gets back to Ovais' question. If we could somehow expand the production of those high-grade silver veins, that could lead to some benefits on the cost side depending on what that infrastructure may or may not look like. So we're excited to look at that opportunity as we move into the trade-off studies for the PFS. But as of today, we're kind of keeping it all steady state, similar mining to what we're doing on the veins today.

Cosmos Chiu

Analysts
#29

Yes. And then I guess my next question is, as you mentioned, the $2.6 billion is incremental NAV, which includes your additional vein and additional -- and the Skarn deposit. So I guess my question is, when we get the full study, will we be able to kind of separate out how much of that is related to the vein deposit, additional vein deposit versus the Skarn? Or does that really not matter? I guess my question is, would those additional vein ounces be mined even without the 15,000 tonne per day mill that's being built?

Steven Busby

Executives
#30

Yes. If I could answer that, Cosmos. We do rely heavily on the infrastructure we'll be putting in for the Skarn to mine those veins. We're a fair distance away from those veins with our current operation, those newly discovered veins. And so that's why we've rolled that into this overall project is because we're sharing that infrastructure. So without those investments, it just doesn't -- we don't see it as robust an opportunity, and that's why we roll it together. And the technical report, I think you'll be able to dissect what portion of production is coming from the veins and what portion is coming from the Skarn. Dissecting that economically is a lot more difficult because of that shared infrastructure.

Cosmos Chiu

Analysts
#31

Understood. Maybe switching gears a little bit in terms of the time line. As you mentioned, the Revised PEA was reported -- summary of it was reported yesterday night. There is -- it seems like a pre-feasibility study that's underway. So when would we expect sort of that pre-feasibility study? And when could we potentially expect a formal go-ahead decision on this project here? And then also maybe permitting. As you mentioned, the 588 level decline doesn't need any permits, but you need to file permits for the shaft, the new mill, the tailings expansion. And so maybe you can walk us through the additional permitting that's needed? And would you need to like apply for some kind of amended MIA? Or is this not that in-depth in terms of needing a kind of revised permit given how brownfield it is? So time line, also permitting.

Steven Busby

Executives
#32

Yes. I think the important thing is as we move into the PFS, and we're working today on defining in detail what the scope of the PFS is and what the schedule of that PFS is. We don't know exactly when, we're not targeting the date to produce that yet. It likely will come in or after 2027, depending on exactly what we need. So because of the long lead time to do these access developments, we want to get those started sooner. And so this 588 decline extension provides that opportunity if we can get started right away to get down and access into the Skarn as we start to develop some of the shafts and things like that. Relative to the permitting, we need to provide kind of the detailed designs as we move into PFS, kind of the basic engineering designs. We're in discussion with the regulators now. We haven't really formulated exactly whether we need to update an EIA or not. That's not been decided yet. We anticipate all these permits, we can probably get done in a timely basis according to the schedule that we need for the overall project. But that's a discussion that we're having with the authorities at this moment and don't have a time line on those.

Operator

Operator
#33

Our next question comes from Lawson Winder with Bank of America Securities.

Lawson Winder

Analysts
#34

If I could just ask a few questions on the CapEx. The release notes that the existing plant will be decommissioned. I was just curious, is the decommissioning cost included in the $1.9 billion? And how much is that deconditioning cost? Yes, so I'll leave it there. And then a couple of more questions on CapEx.

Steven Busby

Executives
#35

Yes, Lawson, this is Steve. The actual decommissioning of that plant is really negligible cost. It doesn't cost as much to shut it down. The real question is what do we do with the equipment and the facility. We think there's opportunities to sell that. That's typically what we do when we shut down one of our plants is we'll select the best equipment to use at our other plants, and we'll look to sell some of the other equipment. And then we typically bring in a scrap dealer, if you will, to tear the rest down and basically do that for nothing. So overall, that's a very negligible cost.

Lawson Winder

Analysts
#36

Okay. Fantastic. And then with the CapEx, you included a contingency. How did you arrive at that contingency? And what are kind of the key items that are creating that uncertainty? And then there's a note about an additional contingency contained within the underground access and development. What is that number within the $622 million?

Steven Busby

Executives
#37

Yes. Maybe I can address the first part of that, and then I'll let Martin talk specifically on the contingency for the underground access. The contingency, that's a debate that's gone on with all the engineers involved. We've got a third-party engineering firm that's helped put this PEA together [ Worley ]. So we go through that debate. and it's appropriate for a PEA level estimate, which is what this is. So that's where we come up with that kind of overall 20% contingency. Specifically to those underground developments, which are less contingency, I'll let Martin address that.

Martin Wafforn

Executives
#38

Yes. We've got some different contingencies on the underground. There's some additional allowance in the number of measures that we've sort of included in the design because we have to allow for some things that aren't foreseen as well as all the typical things that we don't exactly design in right away, and these include safety bays and refuge stations and bypasses, electrical substations, all that kind of thing. That's all sort of lumped in. I think there's about $25 million of that, that's included in there. And then there's different amounts of contingency on the shafts because they were done by a different consulting group. And we did quite a bit more work on that, and we've got a lot of experience, recent experience of how much it costs to sink shafts there. We just completed the Guadalupe shaft. So we pretty much know how we think that's going to go. And there's a contingency as well on the dewatering, which is more difficult to predict what that overall cost of dewatering is going to be. So overall, I think if you take the whole project in that sort of $323 million and some of it that's in the mine, it's just over 20%, the total contingency percentage.

Lawson Winder

Analysts
#39

Okay. And so if we are thinking of the underground contingency, it would just be 20% of the $622 million. Is that correct?

Martin Wafforn

Executives
#40

Yes, roughly speaking. I think because some of it is actually included in the $323 million. It's possibly a bit misspoken. And then some of it is included in the $622 because we had different people do the mining infrastructure. [indiscernible] was involved in the mine infrastructure. So that was included in their contingency.

Lawson Winder

Analysts
#41

Okay. Understood. Maybe just 2 more for me. Just the recoveries for the Skarn/high-grade vein area are slightly different than the current and historical recoveries for the reserve in the vein deposit. Would you expect any material difference in the payabilities with the Skarn going forward?

Steven Busby

Executives
#42

Yes, Lawson, this is Steve. And we've done quite some extensive metallurgical work in the laboratory looking at co-mingling of the veins with the Skarn, and we don't see any detriment to either of those sources to commingle it, and both of them are producing high-quality zinc and lead concentrates. In general, you're seeing a little bit different recovery because it's a weighted average basically recovery of the 2 sources. And there is a grade relationship to recovery that's applied in the models. So that's where you get a little bit of difference. But generally speaking, the concentrate qualities and payabilities look very favorable and similar to what we're seeing today.

Lawson Winder

Analysts
#43

Okay. Fantastic. And then just finally, could you confirm that there are, in fact, no third-party nongovernmental royalties or streams attached to the Skarn or the new resource-based vein deposits?

Steven Busby

Executives
#44

There's no royalties -- third-party royalties on the Skarn or the veins. There are some of the veins that cross over into an adjacent concession that we do have an agreement to mine and share the profits that come off of that mining of those veins. That forms part of these mineral resources of the veins, but there are no additional royalties.

Lawson Winder

Analysts
#45

Okay. And do you have a sense of the proportion? Like if you look at the total Skarn plus vein resource, do you have a sense of what proportion would be applicable to that profit sharing?

Steven Busby

Executives
#46

Yes. It's not a large source when you look at the overall economics of the project. It doesn't have that big of impact to the project economics. It's really a matter of accessibility. It gives us a lot cleaner access to our concessions to move through this third-party concession.

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#47

And Lawson, if I may to add, this has a bigger impact right now this year and next year while we're mining through those structures. So it's a more shorter term than a long-term effect.

Operator

Operator
#48

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank.

Don DeMarco

Analysts
#49

So first question just has to do with the mine plan. I see that in 2036, silver production just touches above 20 million ounces a year. That's just silver. And does the exploration upside as you see it -- as you understand it now, does it show potential for this mine, La Colorada, that's both the existing mill plus the 15,000 skarn addition to be a consistent 20 million ounce a year mine?

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#50

Well, right now, we show the plan with what we have available to us from that combination of high-grade Skarn and high-grade veins. As you know, we have a lot of drilling going on there. We have constantly a lot of drill meters that are not public yet, and we indicated that in the press release. And of course, from time to time, we'll put our press release with updated results from both continuous and extended Skarn drilling and high-grade vein drilling closer to surface. So absolutely, there's a lot of potential there. There's a lot to continue here and to come in over the coming years. And as I mentioned, that will continue -- that will expand that high production profile until we have all these results out and finish the drilling there. I can't give you obviously an exact number of years that we could extend potentially that pretty large silver production, but there's definitely a huge amount of geology potential that we are tapping into right as we speak. And as I said, when you look at the press release we put out 2.5 weeks ago, there are very impressive results that we hit on those new structures, brand-new structures further to the South and Southeast that we just discovered, and we'll continue to drill on those as well.

Don DeMarco

Analysts
#51

Okay. And then just shifting over to the funding of Skarn. With the Skarn considered as internally funded, how does this impact your capital allocation priorities across the company versus other growth buckets -- growth projects or competing buckets over the development period?

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#52

Well, really not a lot of competing issues here, if you want to call it at this kind of prices, as you can imagine, just for everybody to remember, we generated $553 million free cash flow in Q4 alone, and that was at substantial lower metal prices than what we see as an average for Q3 or what we see today over the number of years that we produce, hopefully, similar cash flows if metal prices stay, obviously, a lot of cash flow coming in into the company, while we finished the year with about $1.4 billion in cash. We increased the dividend 3x in 3 quarters. So 3 increases over the last 3 quarters. And there will be continued focus on returning capital to shareholders as well. There is obviously enough cash flow available for us to continue looking at our optimization at Jacobina to continue looking at whatever other potential expansion or addition to mine life we have in our other operation to continue all our really big exploration program. I think we spent about $130 million in exploration lots of it in brownfield this year and still build internally this project to finance it with internal cash flow. So I don't see any -- really any competing issues here. There's enough cash flow generation to do all of it together.

Don DeMarco

Analysts
#53

Okay. And then just last question. I see the base case IRR is estimated at 17%. So this is an improvement over the prior PEA in '23, which is 10%. Of course, that was with different metal prices. But does this new estimate, 17%, does that comfortably clear your hurdle rate threshold?

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#54

Yes, absolutely. And don't just focus only on the IRR. Of course, it's a very long life project here. We showed like a 37-year life. I have no doubt that this will be longer than that at the end, as I explained when we look at the exploration potential. So that's -- obviously, when you look at the capital and you look at the calculation of those numbers, those later years don't have a big impact anymore to the numbers, but I'm very comfortable with the 17% at those lower metal prices. Just to remind, don't just look only at the IRR, look at the derisked project as way less technical risk. It's a smaller project to build at least in the first very long-term stage here. And so smaller tonnage, different mining method, way less technical risk. And obviously, don't forget that the original PEA, we are already 2, 2.5 years later. So there has been, of course, inflation to that capital estimate there as well. So a markable improvement for sure on many, many fronts on this project now.

Operator

Operator
#55

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Michael Steinmann for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Michael Steinmann

Executives
#56

Thanks, operator, and thanks, everybody, for calling in. This is a great step forward on our La Colorada project or mine, really showing the way forward here to develop one of the largest and lowest cost silver producer or silver mine in the world. It's just right down our alley. It's a great fit for Pan American to establish us as the go silver company in the world here, adding a lot of really low-cost production. Keep in mind, just what I mentioned before, way less capital intensity, way less technical risk, more silver production and the long life. Just a great solid project that we continue to work on here over the coming years. I mentioned the huge exploration potential and for sure, Chris and his team will share his results on a regular basis with you, so you can keep kind of track how we advance those exploration projects. And the last point, really looking forward to share with you way more details on our Investor Day that will happen on June 1. We'll have way more time and also more 3D models and technical opportunity here to show you exactly what our idea is for this great project and how we're going to intend to move forward. So thanks, everybody, for calling in, and looking forward to give you an update soon.

Operator

Operator
#57

This brings to a close of today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

For developers and AI pipelines

Programmatic access to Pan American Silver Corp. earnings transcripts and 32,000+ others is available through the EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments, full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.