Latest / Kitco MINING / Pan American Silver Plans 19M Oz Expansion | Michael Steinmann

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Pan American Silver Plans 19M Oz Expansion | Michael Steinmann · Kitco MINING

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Kitco Mining on-site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and Streaming.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Leading the Silver Space.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Mining Forum Americas in Colorado Springs.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Joining me now is Michael Steiman, president and CEO of Pan American Silver.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Michael, welcome back to Kitco.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for coming.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a long while since we last spoke.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was all the way back in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh in January at the Future Metals Forum.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: What a year.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're nine months through.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: A lot happened, has happened.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: It seems to have been a very long year, but it's also seems to have gone very quickly.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and a very good year, obviously, for you know most mining companies, I think, especially Pan American, you know, big run, not only on the gold side, but on the silver side as well.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: And a typical silver run, I will call, right?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Way up quick and fast to over$120.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh fast down again, a little bit, but look, we are still over$60.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: We stayed as an average probably around$75 or more for the year.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: So amazing, right?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: When you think that the highest or average price for the last few years was somewhere in the 30s, and you know, the former high that I've seen in my career was like$49.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing year.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people forget that the silver price today, even though it's half of what it was in January, is still twice what it was a year or two ago.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And in your view, Michael, do you see this as a as a as a pullback?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um preparing for another leg upwards, another move upwards?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, look, silver is different than gold, obviously, it reacts differently.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: Silver is used, about 60 to 65% of the silver is used up in industrial applications.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: This will increase, of course, because it goes with electrification, with electronics, uh data centers, fast networks, etc.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: So you need the silver you can't get around, and of course, clean energy production.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: So when you put it all together, this is obviously clear that the demand will increase.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: We can't increase really supply very easy, remember.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Most of the silver comes from copper and gold as a byproduct.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: There's not a lot of primary silver miners like Pan American.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: So everybody's at full production on the gold side for obvious reasons, a full production on the copper side.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: There's no more silver coming on, and uh and and the demand is increasing.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: So that price will climb and it's always doing these step climbs.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Now we are around, as I said, sixty to seventy dollars, mostly supported, largely supported by industrial demand.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when investors come in, you see these peaks because it's a very small market, those peaks go way fast, too fast, uh for many people, but it always sets a new high.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think we will see the same again and again.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've seen this all the way from five or six dollars up to now this price, and it will continue the same pattern.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I had a very interesting conversation last week at the Precious Metal Summit with Florian Grammis of MIT's Consulting.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: He was one of the keynote speakers there.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things he was talking about, which he says, and I quote, it was the mother of all cup and handles, which is the silver price chart.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: He said that tells him that the silver price is heading to 250 to 500 US dollars per ounce over the next three to five years.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um is that how you see things?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I hope it's right.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm uh you know, I'm I I did not expect really to see over a hundred dollars that quickly, uh, neither.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And as I said, sure we all remember it actually moved the last$20 or$22 while I had dinner one evening, uh, which shows you that it's such a small market.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: And and a lot of people, I'm sure you saw that.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: I looked on my social media feed and suddenly everybody was talking about silver.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: It was very short-lived, obviously.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what makes this this big jump.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I wouldn't be surprised, you know, if we see a jump like that to$150 or$200 over the next few years.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I will also not be surprised that it retracts and establishes a new floor.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: But I think in general that's what we see, right?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: We can maybe see a new floor later on at$80,$90, maybe later at$100.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not not so sure yet how quickly we can go to$500.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, eventually, I guess, with the with the issues in the world and with the strong demand uh we have and the inflation that's going on, uh I guess we will see everywhere higher metal price, and we could get there.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how quick.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: We are at an investor conference, Michael.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: In your meetings, what are what do investors want to know?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: What are they demanding of you?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, look, Pan Am has quite changed a bit over the last few years.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: We did a few very large transactions, uh, likely and and very timely before this run started.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so now we're really seeing the benefit of that, right?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Very large production, obviously very large cash flow, which brings us into a position where we sit on nearly$2 billion cash.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: We built the biggest project ever, like Lorados Carn, that you know requires about$2 billion to build.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, at the same time, we actually decided to return a billion dollars this year to shareholders between dividend and share buyback.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of this year where you get it all.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, shareholders want to see obviously if this can continue.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you know, if if if the if the growth continues, you know, obviously everything is hanging a bit on the metal price, but not only, because our costs are actually still in a very manageable level.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, we would make still very, very strong cash flows at way lower metal prices.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: By the way, I don't see way lower metal, way lower metal prices to happen actually.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, I feel fill in a very good spot here.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And Charles just want to make sure that this is, you know, continuing over the next years.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a time where miners provide real return in in form of dividend share buys to to their investors.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: This is the first time really in my career where where you see that, and I think everybody wants to make sure that that continues.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Pan American, in addition to producing silver, you also produce gold.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Gold was hit record prices this year, albeit it's come off a bit.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: You also produce a number of uh base metals which are also experiencing record price prices.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Copper,$6.70 a pound.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh lead and zinc have been very strong prices as well.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of your overall financial performance, um uh the byproduct credits reduce your all-in sustaining cost per ounce of silver or per ounce of gold.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, can you sort of talk a little bit about the the scale of the impact the byproducts are having on your business?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: And you've seen that very clearly in Q.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: When you go back to Q1 this year, where our all-in cost for the silver production was below$7, obviously way lower than it normally was.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: And that was really the impact of the high byproducts, as you mentioned.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: We don't find silver on its own, it comes with base metal, with gold sometimes, with all of it.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we have a few of those mines.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, if you had gold as a byproduct and gold hit$5,400, our cost is greatly reduced, and that's the effect you see there.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think you know, as an average, for the year our cost should be somewhere in the$16 to$17 range.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think we are in a very good spot right now, so let's see where those byproducts go for the rest of the year.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if you can uh come in lower than that, uh I don't I I don't know yet, but it definitely has a big impact.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh just want to remind also everybody beside the buy products, it's also exchange rates that have a big impact.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: As we have one operation in Canada, but we report everything in US dollars.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so every operation we have, because we don't have any operation in the US, uh, is in a foreign currency for us.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: So these are eight different jurisdictions, so exchange rates can have a very big impact, positive or negative to our cost as well.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: High metals prices um generate high or good financial performance, and that can often mask things at the operational level.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe we can take a moment to talk about uh you know the performance of the operations so far this year.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: How are they?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: How are efforts at cost control?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because of course with the Iran conflict, uh fuel costs have increased.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's been a key concern for a lot of miners.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: How uh is your performance in terms of production, cost control, things of that nature?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and you're right, look, high costs can mask some issues, but obviously it can't mask your production.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's it's a hard fact, and you count your ounces, you count your tons of zinc and lead and copper you produce.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: And look, I'm I'm really happy where we stand.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think as a you know, few impacts on the on the gold side, uh, large impacts from weather that that that we've seen in in South America with a very strong El Nino um yeah, and you know, we've seen the impact to the copper producers.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in Chile, we are in similar situations or similar locations.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh not impacted that hard, but but but still you see those effects actually with snowfall going into Bolivia and then going on the other side into Argentina.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: So definitely some impacts there.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: But uh in in in general, look, I'm I'm really happy uh where it stands.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really impressed with the with the cost control, even though, as we as you mentioned, the high oil price is definitely putting a lot of pressure on cost, right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I look at I look at our cost structure and I see about 5% of our cost is only a direct fuel cost.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's all diesel, obviously, but we only have one open mine, so everything is underground, there's a lot is electrified.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: So we don't spend that much uh on on fuel, so it's only five percent.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end, obviously when oil prices are high, it impacts everything.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just my fuel bill, but every invoice I receive comes from food to any transportation to anything that goes higher, and that's really what we see worldwide in this higher inflation number.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, Michael, how confident are you that you're gonna achieve your full-year guidance?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm confident for sure.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, parallel, if there's really a big weather event when the El Nino moves up to Peru, which we see normally in November and December.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm not I can't forecast the weather, especially not such a strong El Nino.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: But if everything stays the same, uh, you know, well we're we're still on track for our guidance.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's talk a bit about balance sheet.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you mentioned the strong cash flows, you mentioned the the shareholder returns.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um you've got what, as he's mentioned, uh almost$2 billion in cash.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: You renewed your evolving credit facilities, so your total liquidity is more than$3 billion US dollars.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Your debt is what?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Just around$800 million.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so a very strong balance sheet, very strong position.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're you increased or you're increasing your returns to shareholders, you've recorded returns so far this year.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: What's the plan for driving your shareholder returns and how is that evolving?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Look, the the question is really where from here, because uh, you know, these are facts uh that you just mentioned, and we are in a very good shape.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Balance sheet has always been strong for Pan Am.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: We always try to have very little or no debt uh going uh in this business.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's very important because it's a very cyclical business, of course.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: But the question is really where it goes from here and how do you improve that kind of number even more and you know continue to provide that return to shareholders even at lower prices because that's really the only way, I think, at the end, how we can attract generalist investors to this business.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: They don't want to wait every time five or six years until we see, you know, a return and a boom in the metal price.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: There has to be a good reason for them to stick around.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that shareholder return has to, you know, be provided at any part of the cycle.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's maybe a smaller number, of course, but it has to be there.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, the mining industry historically hasn't been very good in paying dividend and share buybacks, and so that's really something I'm trying to help as many companies around me as well to change that and you know get get that attention.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: This is uh I'm sure mining is one, especially precious metal and base metal production, one of the best businesses uh on the globe right now.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it doesn't get the attention yet uh that it deserves, and uh and and that's how I think it's the only way to go to go forward with that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Michael, you mentioned that uh in the not too distant parts, you did a couple of really good MA transactions uh at a at a great time before the metals prices really started moving up.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um I understand that uh shareholders like getting dividends, they like buybacks.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: At what moment in time do they say, okay, this is great, but you know, you need to do something.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: We we want you to do some more growth, more inorganic growth.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Right, and it doesn't preclude me not to do that.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's enough, as I just mentioned, we have over three billion or three and a half billion dollar liquidity right now.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh there is room for everything right now.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's obviously uh uh an incredible situation that we never had uh in in the mining space.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh let's take advantage of that to provide those returns and still look around what there is.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: I said we have a big, big organic gr organic growth in the company.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh obviously, first and foremost, the La Colorada scar and that big expansion.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: It will take a number of years and we'll make La Clarada into the biggest silver mine in the world.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's very exciting, obviously, as we found that on our ground, that deposit.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we didn't have to buy it, we didn't have to issue any paper or using any of our cash.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: And now use our cash and balance sheet to build it.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's the biggest value creation we can obviously provide in our business.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm, you know, I I like inorganic growth as well.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: As I said, we are where we are because we did this transactions at the right time and now can you know take advantage of this strong production.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: So this is this our depleting resources.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: So we obviously try to replace, we just replaced our reserves again and we report mid-year.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I, you know, I always like to look forward and kind of upgrade and find even better assets that we can replace some of our smaller assets or assets you know that come to the end of its life.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: So inorganic growth is uh really important in this business.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be very careful with that.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: The market is getting quite fickle around that, obviously.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be very careful uh how you do that, when you do it, and and and opposite for what price you you do that, you can't pay just big premiums and get it done like it was probably 20 years ago.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's an interesting moment in time from that point of view, Michael, because uh the last couple of years we've seen that the financing window for the sector's been open.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: So the explorers and the developers have been able to raise substantial amount of money, and so they've been able to advance their projects significantly.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And today we sit here with you know, there's a good handful of companies that have development stage or almost development stage projects that could sustain production of 10 million ounces a year or more, which is a substantial size in the silver business.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it does seem there's some interesting potential targets for company of the statue of Pan American to be reviewing and uh you know scratching your chin about.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh absolutely, and look at the end it comes all down to the asset, right?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's all really with the asset quality.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, some are outstanding, some are maybe not the right size for Pan American.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: Some produce, you know, not not the amount of answers that actually would make a big impact to us.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: So probably something for a smaller company to take on.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then some of the smaller companies uh, you know, will build those assets themselves because, as you said, they have access to capital to do that.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think the limiting factor we're gonna see here in the mining space is gonna be people.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh there's enough capital available right now to build a lot of assets.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you go to the presentations and you hear a lot of companies that have a you know, a shovel-ready gold project, a shovel-ready silver project, or base metal project.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if they're really shovel-ready, I don't think that everybody actually has the management teams and the people to actually build large-scale operations uh across the globe.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that will be you know one of the main reasons why Yamaday has to happen and consolidation has to happen.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm glad you mentioned that, Michael, because that goes next goes very well into our next question, uh, which was you know, it's one thing for a company to say we've got a project that can sustain 10 million ounces a year of production, but um, as you say, do you have the people, do you have the technology?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Many silver deposits are polymetallic, which presents uh processing and recovery challenges.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so my question was you know, how difficult is it to build and operate a big silver mine?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, look, it's not easy.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, gold in many places is easier.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's obviously easier to leach gold than silver.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, as you mentioned, uh many times it's together with a lot of polymetallic, so it's not that simple always to separate uh the minerals out.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you produce concentrates, it takes longer to bring them to the market and and export them and get paid for it.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's way easier to produce a gold doré bar, obviously, and sell that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it's more challenging.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: And the silver metallurgy can be incredibly complicated, you know.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we are very lucky.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: We have a metallurgical team uh in Pan Am for many, many years that we work together that are outstanding.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and and the mind building team does this outstanding.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, we build many of the operations, most of them we build or we expand it ourselves.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I don't think that there's that many companies that that that can say that.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I think in the future that's gonna get harder and harder to do, right?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: As we all get older and people will retire.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: And for a long time, mining or going to mining hasn't been a really attractive career for young people.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's changing now, I really believe so.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of people now away from the industry understand and see how important this metal's gonna be in the future.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: So important that, you know, presidents of big countries are talking about trying to attract projects and capital to build them in their country.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that will accelerate over the next few years and it will make it attractive again for young people to come into the industry.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: But there's this big gap, uh, you know, maybe a few, ten years behind me or so that will be hard to fill.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of very, very smart, uh very fast and very well-educated young people.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: But there's a little gap there that, you know, probably we have to stick around a little bit longer and make sure that we can hand on that experience that is needed to build these operations.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Given that there's an interesting confluence of things here, Michael, you know, high metals prices, a lot of demand for the metals and the products, not many management teams that are experienced and skilled at building mines.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: So are there the potential situations where there's a a developer with a very big project, they're perhaps asking too much or being irreasable on deal terms, which would cause you to step back, but you see that they perhaps don't have the technical or management experience to develop a mine, and you think, well, if they go ahead, they're gonna ruin it.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: So what do we do?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, look, I mean that's I think that's not not just this time.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have seen that historically many times.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's uh I I don't think that the asset gets ruined.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh sometimes money is spent in the wrong place, but uh it's always fixable uh uh afterwards in most of the cases.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes it's just not the right time for a company like Pan American to step in.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you have to wait a bit longer.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes, you know, operations are beautifully built, but people want to go on to the next thing and don't want to continue after.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, we take it over and and run it.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: So they're all different kinds of situations, and we just have to wait for the right time.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to be very patient on the M and A side, very strategic as well.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, uh, Pan American Silver, you've got a lot going on.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: So let's end by perhaps recapping some of the key catches that our viewers can expect to see from you over the next 12 to 18 months.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and and some are a bit longer out there, obviously.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we can we're gonna uh release a PA on our Timmen's assets, that's gonna happen in the next six to eight months.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: So people will see what we have in in store on that one.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like uh, you know, assets that were not really uh key big cornerstone assets for Pan Am.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: And now with all the exploration and the success, they're growing, and you know, we'll be able to survey with the world how that's gonna look like.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: But of course, the biggest one is La Colorado's car, and it is one of the biggest discoveries in the world, and that will obviously take a few more years to put in production.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: As I said, we started the ramp going down.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we'll build two large shafts to access, that's gone, and then build a very big plant, increase the production.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the throughput from currently 2,200 tons a day to the 15,000 ton a day range.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna, you know, make La Colorada a 19 to 20 million ounce silver producer.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be the biggest silver mine in the world.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just phase one, and that's gonna run for 37 years.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a very exciting project, it's gonna go way beyond my time as a CEO, and for sure way beyond my lifetime as well.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: And and as I said, those exciting projects that you find in your own backyard, it's just it's the biggest value creation you can provide.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that's in Zacatecas, Mexico, of course.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Michael, it's been an absolute pleasure to catch up with you.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for joining me today.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a lot more to come from the 2026 Mining Forum Americas here in Colorado Springs, so stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Kitco Mining on site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and streaming.