Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
7 Aug 2013resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
The neighboring, not-yet-built El Gallo 2 project also grew its resource sharply - Measured & Indicated silver up 20% to 63.9 million oz and gold up 215% to about 202,000 oz - as McEwen converted Inferred material ahead of updating the project's mine plan.
McEwen's El Gallo 1 mine in Mexico, which had just reached commercial production in January 2013, saw its gold resource grow 38% to about 691,500 ounces, and the company began a 50% mill expansion (to 4,500 tonnes/day, ~$5 million) meant to ramp output from 27,300 oz this year toward 75,000 oz by 2016.
The Los Azules resource grew again - Indicated copper up 17% to 5.4 billion lbs and Inferred up 32% to 14.3 billion lbs - capping the most successful drill season yet, with a new economic study due in the third quarter to evaluate higher throughput and producing cathode copper instead of concentrate.
New Los Azules drill results extended high-grade copper mineralization both along a new western trend and more than 300 meters deeper than previously tested, including 0.51% copper over 618.5 meters in one hole - results that will feed into a resource update due by the end of May.
McEwen settled the British Columbia lawsuit brought by TNR Gold and Solitario Argentina over mineral claims in and around Los Azules, agreeing to issue 1 million shares to TNR. TNR will transfer the contested Escorpio IV claim to McEwen but keeps its back-in right to up to 25% of certain northern claims.
A further Los Azules resource update pushed Inferred copper up another 29% to 13.95 billion lbs, though Indicated copper slipped slightly to 4.45 billion lbs as deeper drilling opened up a new parallel mineralized trend; an updated economic study was slated for later in 2013.
At the NYSE's request, McEwen amended Rob McEwen's backstop agreement to strip out a provision reimbursing his expenses - a minor cleanup to the October rights-offering backstop, not a change in his underlying commitment.
Chairman and Chief Owner Rob McEwen agreed in a backstop agreement to buy all shares left unsubscribed in the company's roughly US$60.4 million rights offerings, after taking up his own basic entitlement but not over-subscribing.
A feasibility study for Phase II of McEwen's El Gallo silver-gold project in Sinaloa, Mexico came back positive: about 5.2 million oz of silver and 6,100 oz of gold a year for the first six years, a 26% after-tax IRR at $25 silver, and roughly $178 million of initial capital needed.
McEwen Mining raised its resource estimate for the 100%-owned Los Azules copper project in Argentina - Indicated copper up 109% to 4.6 billion lbs and Inferred copper up 4% to 10.8 billion lbs - as one of the world's largest undeveloped copper deposits kept growing on the drill bit.