Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Dundee Precious Metals Third Quarter and Year to date 2019 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today. Tanya Chaudhry. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Tanya Chaudhry, Legal Counsel, and welcome to Bendy Precious Plennel's third quarter conference call. With me today are Rick Howe, President and CEO and Hugh Kyle, Chief Financial Officer, who will each comment on the quarter as well as David Rae, Chief Operating Officer, who is here today to assist with answering questions, following our formal remarks. After close of business yesterday, we were released our third quarter results and hope you have had an opportunity to review our material. All forward looking information provided during this call is subject the forward looking qualification, which is detailed in our news release and incorporated in full for purposes of today's call.
Certain financial measures referred to during this call are not measures recognized under IFRS and are referred to as non GAAP measures. These measures have no standardized meetings under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The definitions established and calculations performed by DPM are based on management's reasonable judgment and are consistently applied. These measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as substitute for measures prepared in accordance with IFRS. Please refer to the non GAAP financial measures section of our most recent MD and A for reconciliations of these non GAAP measures.
Please note that unless otherwise stated operational and financial information communicated during this call has generally been rounded and any references to 2018, pertaining to the comparable period in 2018. On this morning's call, Rick will comment on our 3rd quarter and year to operating results as well as the progress being made on our exploration programs for the quarter. Hugh will then provide brief overview of our third quarter and year to date financial results as well as our guidance for 2019. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick.
Thanks, Tanya, and hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for our third quarter 2019 conference call. I'm pleased to provide you with an update on quarter 3rd quarter results and progress on our key projects and initiatives. We achieved record quarterly gold production at Chelopech and added ethane. However, the adjusted earnings per share of $0.03 in cash flow per share of $0.12 in the 3rd quarter, did not fully reflect the solid performance.
Timing of the concentrate deliveries at Chelopech and finalization of commercial sales agreements out out of Tepe, resulted in a build in metal inventory and lower copper and gold sales that produced. As a result, we expect a very strong 4th quarter with sales being every penny higher, reflecting the drawdown in this inventory. We have now successfully completed the ramp up to full production at out of FA in mid September, following achievement of commercial production in June. The temporary constraint at NSFA due to the integrated mine waste facility was successfully resolved by the end of August. Both operations performed in line with 3rd quarter operating plans and remain on track to achieve their 2019 production guidance.
The record gold production of 65,642 ounces in the 3rd quarter was produced at a cash cost $5.28 per ounce and an all in sustaining cost of $7.28 per ounce. Which has started to come down further now that that out of tepe has reached full production capacity at the end of Q3. Tsumeb copper concentrates melted at 42,186 tons was lower than planned due to an incident which occurred in early September and caused injuries to 2 employees and some damage to the furnace and off gas systems. This resulted in a 14 day outage to carry out 3 pairs. On restart, following this outage, there was a failure in a section of the Ausmelt furnace lining, which resulted in having to keep the plant down to do a furnace re line advance the other annual maintenance shutdown work that was originally planned for the fourth quarter of 2019.
The plan resumed operation on October 25th, 2019 and is now operating well, and we expect to be within the guidance for the year. With autocept based capital spending now complete, our balance sheet remains strong.
At the
end of the quarter, we had cash of $15,000,000 investments of $45,000,000 debt of $27,000,000, down $14,000,000 from the last quarter and an undrawn revolving credit facility of $148,000,000. Expect to quickly pay off the remaining debt and start building a cash position in the next quarter. We saw a quarter on quarter move up in the gold price to an average realized price 1461 from 13.21 in Q3. Copper prices came lower with an average realized price of 2.6 $4 from $2.77 in Q3. The recent strong move up in gold price in June to the $1500 level seems to have held aided by the double 10 sentiment of both the Fed and European Central Banks and low interest rates aided by the economic concerns over the U.
S. Chartered trade disputes and other geopolitical stability and global economic concerns. Chelopech produced 40,308 ounces of gold at 10,100,000 tons of copper at a cash cost per ounce net of byproduct credits of $4.53 an ounce. Decrease of gold production compared to the 1st 2 quarters was due primarily to slightly lower grades and recoveries. Gold and copper grades in Q4 are expected to be similar to Q3.
We have a number of key improvement projects underway this year that will enhance revenues and reduce costs, including drill and blast optimizations, and the transition from the use of ampoule to emulsion explosives. Autonomous drone survey further meal optimization moved to integration dynamic mine planning and Cution with MineRP and the introduction of a digital smart center for prudent decision making. We are continuing with our successful in my resource development drilling program, which totaled 15,800 Meters in the quarter, concentrating on the upper level of target 700 blocks 15152510. Further to this, the area's down plunge of Block 144 and extensional drilling towards Block 151 to explore a prominent trend of mineralization on the upper levels of Block 151. The result of this program has been the of the existing ore body and the northwest tree direction between the 4803 50 elevations.
In Q4, addition to these areas, we will carry out a short program to define the mineralized contours of Block 153, which is still open at depth. In the regional exploration program around Chelopech, 2 thousand two hundred and eighty three meters of diamond drilling were completed at the wedge target on the Speeditepec bed and Revite exploration licenses. Along the Southern And Central Part of the West zone, a deep directional drill program to test the Northern extension of blocks 147 and 149 is in progress. Exploration plans for the fourth quarter of 2019 include 2200 meters of drilling near the grass to gross 18. The added ethane mine first production was in March of this year.
We reached commercial production in June, received final operating permits in August and reached full production in September while coming in under budget and within 1 quarter of the original schedule. This was an impressive feat in today's mining industry, and we recognized a great effort by both our project build team and our operating teams to achieve this. We have been running at 100 percent of design throughput of 105 tons per hour since mid September and active ag recovery since June. 581,000 tons of waste and 158,000 tons of ore was mined in the 3rd quarter and 154,000 tons of ore was treated through the male at an average grade of 5.9 grams per tonne. Head grades were purposely raised in August in September following stabilization of the mill performance, by legging from the high grade stockpiles.
Gold mill recovery was 87.1% for the quarter, reflecting the higher grades fit to the mill. Despite the lower mill throughput, as we ramped up production in the quarter, gold production was 25,314 ounces. Payable gold and metal sold was 10,094 ounces as a result of a build up and concentrate inventory on-site. This was because only test blocks were sent out to a number of potential smelters for the purpose of selecting and finalizing the contract's concentrate sales agreement. The sales agreements are now complete and the inventory buildup will be drawn down to normal levels in the 4th quarter.
The temporary constraints related to the integrated mine waste facility due to the longer than expected tailings settlement time was resolved in August. Allowing the ramp up to full production to proceed in September. This was solved by redesigning the subsequent sales to improve consolidation drainage rates and by adding additional resources to speed up self construction time. In addition, we are testing different reagents to Aden faster consolidation and building 2 contingency cells with the first one now completed in October. The second one is expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2020.
But it's also helping the size of the I and WF South, which are increasing as we move up the valley allowing for longer settling the construction time when switching between the two valves. We are continuing with our exploration efforts around Atatepe, Drilling commenced in the third quarter of 2019 on the Sure Red Day exploration license, which is approximately 25 Kilometers Northeast about a decade. With encouraging early results. During the fourth quarter, exploration work will continue on terrific and commence at the Elobo license the Southwest of Antelope. At the Tsumeb smelter, complex concentrate smelted during the third quarter of 2019 was 42,108 6 tons, which was lower than expected due primarily to the previously reported pressurization effect in the Osmell on gas system that occurred on September 3, 2019, during a restart after routine maintenance.
Repairs to the damaged off gas system components were completed over a 14 day period And during the restart of the facility, it was determined that the initial pressurization event had also caused damage to the lining of the furnace. Has resulted in advancing the Osmell furnace tree line and broader smelter sheets, shutdown work that we're planning for the fourth quarter. These was completed over the 38 day period. The plan resumed operation on October 25, 2019 and is operating well. With the improved temperature stability of the furnace operations, we anticipate achieving 18 to 24 month mining life between the rebuilds, which would mean the next major maintenance shutdown would occur until 2021, allowing for increased complex concentrate smelter throughputed in 2020.
With good process stability reached and the continuing efforts on performance and cost improvements, we are seeing improving financial results of the smelter. Sumeb generated EBITDA of $3,300,000 in the quarter and a record year to date EBITDA of $25,300,000. The cash cost per ton of complex concentrate smelted net of byproducts credits this quarter of $5.16 per ton was higher than the previous quarter, due to the lower termination amount. Cash cut off per ton during the 1st 9 months was $408 per ton, which is in line with the guidance. We've continued to advance the smelter expansion project to increase the throughput of complex concentrate to as much as 370,000 ton per annum.
Feasibility study was completed in the fourth quarter of 2016 and confirmed the robust project economics with an estimated implementation capital cost of $52,000,000. Scope of the project included the rotary holding furnace, additional cooling and other upgrades to the hospital furnace. As well as upgrades to the Slag Mill area. We're to secure the necessary permits to support this planned increase when production is progressing. We submitted an updated ESIA for approval in July 2019 and are waiting to review an approval from the environment industry.
Discussions are ongoing for potential new sources of complex concentrate feeds to fill its expanded capacity. On July 25, on July 15, 2019, we announced the results of the preliminary economic assessment for our Timok Gold Project for the Board District in Serbia. VA is up is based on the updated Mineral Resource estimate completed in September of 2018 and prior to base case, considering primary oxide and and transition material types upon which Approach will now be authorized for mining and processing strategies, including an economic evaluation of the largest sulfide resource. The study is based on open pit mining and heap leaching of the oxide and transition material followed by later construction of a conventional mill facility to produce a flotation gold concentrate. The summary highlights of the project are an after tax NAV of $405,000,000, and after tax IRR of 18.6 percent at 12.50 pool and all in sustaining costs of $7.17 per ounce.
And peak annual gold production of approximately 132,000 ounces. The initial capital cost is $136,000,000 with a mine life of 9 years. Based on the results of the PEA, we are conducting geotechnical and heidrick geological study as well as doing further optimization work to target additional sulfide material prior to commencing a preliminary feasibility study. We have completed a permitting and approvals plan, corporating the environmental and social impact assessment process and approvals as well as all additional licensing. And we are currently developing our stakeholder engagement plant.
Our Serbian reintegration activity focused on Timok and the Tilray project continues. Applications to extend the potash Tuka and Bigari stock exploration licenses for an additional 2 years were approved on July 19. 2 exploration drill holes on the northern plank of the Bigar Hill deposit demonstrated potential for previously unknown mineralized trends outside the existing resource as a PMA gold project and further drill testing is planned for the fourth quarter. At Salari, a revised geological interpretation was used to generate drill targets for higher grade gold copper mineralization at depth. Drilled testing of a number of priority targets was planned for the 4th quarter.
We see great potential for investment in MineRP as a unique new enterprise digital platform for the mining industry. We are starting to see strong interest in sales growth with the large mining industry clients looking to digitally transform their business. We have seen significant growth in revenues in Q3's and expect this revenue growth trend to continue as mining company interest to this new platform continues to grow. We ourselves are adopting minor fees as well as many other digital technologies to transform our business. The intent we have with MineRP is to introduce new planning enhancements, enable the intelligent use of data, key benefits from this initiative, our data and unification to a single platform, ability to dynamically plan, schedule and execute our plan with real time monitoring of performance versus plan and much faster response planning a better decision making through the use of data.
On October 28, 2019, we invested $10,000,000 pursuant to a private placement resulting in approximately 19.5 equity interest in INB Medical. This investment is in line with our disciplined capital allocation framework that provides us reinvesting capital in the business in an accretive manner with building financial strength and returning capital to shareholders. The Loma Largo project and deposit has strong similarities to our Chelopech mine and our technical and operating skills as well as our skills and commitment to sustainability are expected to be valuable to the RMD during the next phase of permitting. In summary, with a strong result from Chelopex and Tsumeb and the ramp up of production at ATCETM complete, We are positioned to start generating significant free cash flow from the business starting this quarter. This reflects the exceptional progress our team has made over the last several years improve the performance of our operations and advance our key growth projects like added ethane, which is now in full production.
Suma continues to improve and contribute to the free cash flow of our business with further upside if possible by increasing throughput and reducing costs further. And Chelopech continues to perform exceptionally well and continues to extend its life through exploration success. Our Timok Gold Project in Serbia currently in early stage development stage is advancing well as a potential next stage growth for the company. We are looking for growth prospects that will generate strong returns and enhanced value. We're looking for other growth prospects that will generate strong returns and enhanced value of the company.
We expect a strong performance in 2020 from all three assets, enhanced by the fact that we do not anticipate having an annual maintenance shutdown in 2020 at Soumit. In discussion with our shareholders and board, we have adopted a disciplined capital allocation framework that will balance reinvestment in growth in the business and returning capital to shareholders once we are in position to do so. With significant growth of free cash flow now underway and organic growth potential, along with a very strong management team, we represent a real growth and value investment opportunity for investors. Thanks. And I'll now return the call to Hume, who will review the financial results and 2019 guidance following which we will open the floor to
Thanks, Rick. Good morning, everybody. Overall, as Rick noted in the quarter, we saw weaker operating results, assume that due to the downtime taken in September, that has the effect of reducing our bottom line by approximately $8,000,000. We saw a strong operating performance at both Chelopech and Atatepay that contributed to the record gold production in the quarter. From a financial perspective, however, the record gold production is not reflective in 3rd quarter results due to the timing that Rick highlighted earlier, and combined these two factors contributed to in excess of 20,000 ounces of gold, representing roughly $30,000,000 in gross revenue, that was produced, but not sold in the quarter.
This will fully reverse in Q4 and should result in a strong 4th quarter sales and earnings. Having said that, Q3 adjusted earnings were $0.03 per share, slightly above consensus estimates compared with $0.10 in 20.18, adjusted EBITDA was $33,000,000, down from $36,000,000 in 2018. In addition to timing of metal deliveries, and student downtime, which were the dominant factors impacting the quarter. 3rd quarter earnings did benefit from the startup and commencement of shipping concentrate from our Atateping Wine well as higher realized gold prices, which averaged $14.61 per ounce in Q3, stronger U. S.
Dollar, lower treatment charges at Chelopech and higher estimated recoveries at Tsumeb. For the 1st 9 months, adjusted net earnings were $0.10 per share compared to $0.18 per share in 2018, and adjusted EBITDA was $83,000,000 compared to 87 $1,000,000 in 2018. For the period over period, year to date performance, was impacted by the same factors I noted Q3 as well as higher local currency operating expenses, principally around labor and fuel, lower toll rates and reduce reductions for stockpile interest at Tsumeb and with the startup of Atatide, higher depreciation, From a cash flow perspective, Q3 and year to date cash flow was $21,000,000 $55,000,000, respectively. These results were slightly lower than the comparable periods in 2018 and were impacted by the same factors that impacted adjusted EBITDA. As well as by cash outlays for sustaining capital expenditures that were up for the quarter, mainly due to timing comparable on a year to date basis, which is consistent with our planned 2019 sustaining CapEx spend.
Turning to the key cash cost measures, our all in sustaining cost per ounce for Q3 was $7.28, up $108. On a year to date basis, it was $7.51, up $144, and these increases were primarily due to the impact associated with slower than anticipated ramp up, to full production at ethane, which had the result of lower grade materials initially is being delivered in the quarter, as well as lower grades at Chelopech, higher cash outlays for sustaining CapEx, partially offset by a stronger U. S. Dollar and lower treatment charges at Chelopech. At Simmons, Q3 cash cost per $5.16, up $154 from 2018.
This was primarily due to the lower throughput stemming from both the planned and unplanned downtime partially offset by the favorable impact of a stronger dollar. Year to date cash cost was $408, down to $49 from 2018 due primarily to the favorable impact of a weaker czar and higher by product credits from higher asset prices. Partially offset by higher OpEx, again principally related to higher labor and fuel rates and then lower volume. From a capital standpoint, sustaining and growth capital expenditures for the third quarter were $11,000,002,000,000, respectively, for an aggregate of $13,000,000, down from $27,000,000 in 20.18. Sustaining in growth capital expenditures for the 1st 19, 9 months were $9,000,000, $19,000,000, I should say, and $35,000,000, respectively, for an aggregate spend of $54,000,000, down from $84,000,000 in 20 18.
These decreases were primarily due to the reduced known ways in connection with the construction of the Additives Feet line, which was completed earlier this year, partially offset by higher sustaining capital expenditures, all of which were in line with our guidance for the year. At September 30, our financial position remains strong with minimal debt and episodic resources. From a risk management perspective, during the quarter, we reduced or increased our 2020 hedge position to reduce 2 months of $1,000,000 operating cost exposure. As a result of September 30, approximately 82%, of Q4 twenty nineteen operating costs were hedged, using a 0 cost option strategy that provides or on average, minimum and maximum exchange rates of 14091555. And approximately 77% of our 2020 exposure was hedges in a similar strategy that provides for, on average, a minimum and maximum exchange rate of $14.63 16.13.
We also have our prepaid forward gold sales arrangement, which, as you may recall, was entered into in 2016 as part of our strategy to reduce the risk ocean with proceeding with the funding and construction of Atatepay. This arrangement requires that we deliver aggregate of 46,000 ounces over a period of 15 months commencing on November 2019, running through to April 2020 and satisfaction of the upfront $50,000,000 cash repayment we received in September 2016 and represents approximately 14% of the expected gold deliveries during this period with approximately 75% of the deliveries occurring in 2020. Looking forward over the balance of the year, full year production guidance remains unchanged from the guidance provided on our October 9th news release that contained our Q3 production results and updated guidance. For the year, we remain well on track to achieve both our current and the original guidance that we issued earlier this year. And all cash cost guidance remains unchanged with the exception of that attempted cash cost per tonne which will be lowered to $50 to $55 per ton from $55 to $65 to reflect the year to date performance.
In closing, without stepping now at full production and expected to draw down the elevated Q3 inventories containing an excess of 20,000 ounces, And Tsumeb now backed up and running and running well, Q4 is shaping up to be a strong quarter with 2019 gold production on track achieve a new annual record. This should translate into strong free cash flow generation for the quarter, which will be used to eliminate all remaining drawdown under the revolver, and the building of a modest cash position by year end. With that, I turn the call back to the operator.
Thank And our first question will come from the line of Cosmos Chiu from Civic. You may begin.
I guess I changed jobs. I'm still at CIBC. How do I humor and David? Thanks for the call here. Maybe my first question is on Sumit.
Glad to hear that all the issues that you've had that caused the downtime has now been resolved. I guess my question is more on CapEx. I see that you spent about $5,600,000 in CapEx assume that versus a full year guidance of 14% to 18%. I would have thought that you would have had to spend more money given all the unplanned sort of maintenance all that work that you might have had to do in Q3. Could you maybe walk me through in terms of how I should reconcile that number to a full year guidance?
Hi, Cosmos. It's Dave. So we are expecting that we're going to spend on the low side of the capital guidance, some potential limits on the low side, which would be a nice problem there. However, the reason why we've left it the way it is that a lot of that's capital that we expected is in fact associated with the shutdown. So we're talking about around $7,000,000 just associated with the shutdown alone.
Not all of that, of course, is spent after the fact. We are going to see an accelerated spend in Q4.
I would definitely get that to that as well, but, for the September downtime, most of the costs incurred in that month is really in connection with repairing the damage from the pressurization event. That actually wasn't a lot of money, call it like a $1,000,000 And then the costs associated with the maintenance, any additional costs that hadn't already been incurred just in terms of, pre purchase they'll be incurring enough to work.
Okay, for sure. And maybe the same sort of question for Chelopech and atatepe. I see that you're sort of running below guidance at Chelopech and slightly above guidance at attepe. Could you maybe comment on that as well in terms of CapEx
That is going to be more associated with the I and WS than the efforts that we have to put into, basically get ahead of argues with capacity. So at Chelopech's the dominant factor for them has been the construction of the the TMS, the rate of the TNF, and that is expected to be completed in December. So that's slightly ahead of the original schedule. I think that I'm anticipating that was going to be Q1 and therefore correctly. And so at this point, I think we are expecting that, permanent gradual continue to be trending a little high Chelopech.
I think the costs are pretty well set at the moment. So there is a variance it's likely to be towards the low end of guidance. I would expect, do you have any comment on that?
Yes. So it's like year to date, it's all timing. We do expect to see a pickup in Q4. And fully expect that our sustaining CapEx guidance for the year will fall within the range that we provided.
For sure.
And maybe more specifically on the Tepe here. I don't know how much you can share with us, but I just trying to I want, hopefully, a bit more detail in terms of the stockpiles in terms of tonnage and grade and what you have so far in those stockpiles. And how did the stockpiles kind of fit into your overall strategy in terms of mine plan, short term, long term, going to continue utilizing some of those higher grades off that stockpile in 2019? And then is that going to last into 2020?
So Kosmos, we've consumed the higher grade stockpile and we're back to something more typical of the resource grade in Q4. So we utilize that to get a little ahead at the reduced tonnage period and benefited from an early response on recovery. So I would say that going forward, we have roughly 150,000 tons of normal material sitting on. So if there's some low grade material that is forecast to be sort of at the end of the life of mine, not during the sort of next 6 months, a year, 2 years, that type So overall, what you can expect to go through the funds, I think, is really what you're aiming to get out is going to be at resource grade over the next 18 months.
Okay. And then on that, kind of related to it as well in terms of recovery, I think, your technical reports have pointed to both 85% recovery. It was certainly good to see that you're over that 87%. And, but we expect that to come down then. If you're looking at grades that could be coming back down sort of to reserve resource sort of level in terms of grade?
Yes. So we do think that the particular recovery performance that we had in Q3 was associated to the high grade. Typically, we're ranging between 83% 87 percentage of sort of range that we see. And we feel 85% is the right number to be guiding on at the moment. Having said that, of course, we will be starting bring in Argentina's improvement practices.
We have a few ideas on how we can improve this. So now the 85% is the right number to keep in mind that you're projecting forward.
For sure. Maybe switching gears a little bit here and maybe a question for Rick. I haven't really had a chance to talk to you, Rick, since the investment into INV. Maybe I know you touched on it earlier on during the conference call, but maybe could you maybe elaborate a little bit more in terms of what do you see in IMV? I know it's not the biggest investment, but are there any concerns in terms of the geopolitical situation in Ecuador?
And what's a longer term sort of thinking behind this investment here? And maybe a bit more comment into the overall strategy for DPM as we generate all that cash in Q4 twenty nineteen also into 2020 in terms of capital allocation?
Sure, Gottfredo. So the investment in IND at this stage is purely a strategic investment. It's not that we made any decision really, what we want to do in terms of that going forward beyond the strategic investment amount that we've invested at this stage We do think obviously there's some great similarities in terms of the mine itself and it's type of ore body that it is. It's a high sulfidation of ore body. It looks very similar to Chelopech in terms of terms of the mineralization in terms of the, type of mining that's being proposed, processing, And then, of course, it's a high arsenic concentrate as well.
So it, produce a high arsenic copper concentrate, which again, would fit very nicely with our strengths around the smelting side of the business. So So based on that, we certainly can help with that project in many ways on our skills and we can enhance that project value, we think, with those skills and knowledge. So that's really the I'll say the near term focus for us is to help this project along, perhaps help it through a permitting phase. And of course, we're now part of the technical advisory group on the project and and we have a board seat on IND. So, it's, I'll call it an optionality thing throughout December.
Stand at this stage. It's too early to say what we would really do long term. And there are some permitting difficulties I think that they'll be faced with In terms of the environment that's there, they haven't advanced through the permitting phase yet. And there are, of course, a bit of, geopolitical and social concerns associated with, the project and the mining in that region So that's all got to be addressed first. And so obviously, we're not interested in taking a high risk on that.
On that aspect. So hence the, I'll call it, the total investment that we've made. Beyond that, I'd say, over focus around our organic growth. And our capital allocation framework obviously is all about balancing investment and growth of the business with the return of money to shareholders. So we spent a fair bit of time with both our shareholders and our board to essentially aligned around the strategy around capital allocation.
That makes sense given our situation in terms of a strong free cash flow growth that's coming. So, it's a balanced approach that we'll be taking. And in terms of the investment in growth. Obviously, we're looking for accretive investments or investments that generate substantial returns for our shareholders. And so that will be the way in which we look at it.
And then with the organic growth, we have a CMark. That's going to be the primary focus to keep advancing that project forward, optimizing it to generate again strong returns and strong outcomes for our shareholders and stakeholders, all stakeholders, really and continue to look around for other growth prospects. We will be doing that as well. But again, using our very disciplined approach to generating strong returns for those projects. So, we are going to hold, I would say, focus around using some of the free cash flow generation for growth, as well as returning money to shareholders.
Rick on that, should we expect or could we expect DPM to make more of these strategic investment toll hold investments in company in other companies in the future?
Possibility, is one of the things there, the ones that really we can demonstrate really attractive returns on in all the universe of those is limited and given strengthen our share price. And so on currency to do them, we must be careful about the ones that we choose. But, I would say if they fit the profile and they there are a way of approaching, getting a toehold, if they're the right projects, certainly sooner.
Yes. And Rick, I don't know if you can share with us, but did you and had you looked at IMV for a long time? Was this like are we talking years or months? How did it come together?
Yes. No, we were we've been aware of this project for quite a few years, even when it was called whimsicocha under Iron Gold. But, I'm just probably peaked in the last couple of years and we've spent a bit more time looking at it and determining what what the projects look like and so on. So, yeah, it's not been a short term thing. This is something we've been keeping an eye on for a while.
For sure. Thanks Rick and team. Those are the questions I have. Have a good weekend.
Thank you.
And I'm not showing any questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Rick Alice for any closing remarks.
Thank you for joining us on our call today. And I wish everyone a great weekend. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.