...Today, I'm delighted to be joined by Sébastien de Montessus, the President and CEO of Endeavour Mining, to talk about the COVID-19 response from the company. Sébastien, good morning.
Good morning, Scott. Thank you for taking me.
Sébastien, we're seeing unprecedented times with COVID-19 and its impact around the world, touching every aspect of our lives. Now, with regards to Endeavour, what are you doing to manage COVID-19?
Thanks, Scott. As you said, I mean, this is, you know, completely unprecedented. Although in the case of, of West Africa, we've been in the past through a, you know, similar crisis type, in particular with, Ebola. I think it's fair to say today that, you know, health and safety of our employees is, is paramount. We've set up a crisis management team at Endeavour, at the outbreak of COVID-19, which is about, you know, three weeks ago.
We've also got a very well-regarded epidemiologist acting as special advisor to us, and we've deployed last weekend an eleven-person medical team from a leading U.S. NGO, who will be deployed as and when the need arises, in order to have the right support in terms of medical assistance, you know, to all the sites and our staff, you know, across West Africa. So health and safety is really, you know, the primary focus of this response team. The second part, obviously, is having a business continuity program in place in order to continue to manage operations during an outbreak like that. For this, we've identified about three level of response that depends on how the virus spreads where we operate. I would say, if I may, you know, describe quickly those levels.
I would say that we are currently at level one of this crisis, which is where we can still operate at relatively normal levels, but with some extra precautions, and those measures are working well so far. It's obviously health screening, temperature for all staff, strictly monitoring access to sites, mandatory fourteen-day quarantine for all travelers which are arriving in West Africa, working from home for all our office staff, and of course, regular communication updates. This level one is basically a phase where the virus doesn't spread yet in the countries where we operate, but it's mainly trying to protect our operations from getting infected by, you know, someone bringing the virus to site.
There is also what we call the level two response is where the virus starts to be significantly more prevalent in our operating countries, and where we therefore apply much more restricted, much more restrictions to our operation, but we can still mostly keep things working as normal. In preparation, as an example, for a possible level two in Côte d'Ivoire and in Burkina Faso, where the virus would start spreading across the country, we've been trying to anticipate, you know, possible restrictions on travel, and ensure that we had all the key people who were on break back in country before the borders closed. Both Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire did close last weekend all commercial flights and borders.
So fortunately, we've been able to manage and anticipate that, so that they all are, you know, back to country, but in a fourteen-day quarantine before being able to be released to go to sites. In this environment, we anticipate that we might have to lock down the mine and isolate the mine, you know, from the communities, villages, and so on, in order to protect the operations themselves from a prevalent, you know, virus spreading across the country. But during this level two, we would also, you know, be into production, and we would expect limited impact on our operations.
The level three, which would be obviously the most serious, is where we might expect to see severe restrictions on our operations, and we might need to consider suspending or curtailing, you know, the operations. To be clear, we are currently at level one, but obviously we are monitoring things very closely, as we might enter into the level two in the next few days or weeks.
So it sounds as if you're very well-prepared with regards to the different levels there, and obviously, important with regards to the health and safety of your employees being paramount. But with regards to your supply chain, what impact are you seeing there, and how are you mitigating the risks?
Sure, Scott. I think that, you know, the supply chain is obviously one of the critical aspect of ensuring business continuity. I think that, you know, over the past year, Endeavour has focused on, you know, sourcing more and more, you know, its key supplies from either in country or broader regional West African countries, which has proved to be the right strategy. Since the outbreak, we've done a full analysis on the supply chain to ensure that we have all the necessary stocks, spare parts, reagents, et cetera, including what's in country, what is not yet...
In fact, we've done analysis on what's on stock on the sites, what's in country, and what's not yet in country, to ensure that we have sufficient supplies to enable us to operate till end of July. So what we've asked the team is, work under the assumption that, you know, this crisis may impact our operations and our standard way to operate till the end of July. And obviously, if it goes beyond, then, you know, we'll adapt and adjust our plans. So we've been working directly with our suppliers in order to secure sufficient stock until the end of July. And all our key contractors on site, whether, you know, drilling, explosives or transport, cyanide, have confirmed, you know, stockholding for, you know, essential spares for at least, you know, 3-4 months.
The other aspect which, you know, sometimes we forget, is the end of the chain, which is basically the gold shipments. As commercial flights have been suspended, and so far, you know, we've been shipping all our gold through commercial flights. We have to put in place an alternative plan, and I've worked with other gold miners, either in Côte d'Ivoire or in Burkina Faso, and Brink’s, who's in charge of our security for gold shipments, to get special authorizations to use private charter planes to ensure the safe, you know, shipments of our gold to refineries.
So Sébastien, moving on to the government's response in West Africa, what are you able to tell us about that?
I think that, you know, what's so far, you know, when you look from, you know, seeing from Western countries, you know, and that's the fear that we all have, is if this type of virus, you know, spreads into Africa generally, and West Africa, the biggest issue is the ability for the health system to contain and to respond to such, you know, a virus spreading in the country, so what has been very, very positive is the fact that the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso, where we have our main operations, are managing so far this crisis, you know, pretty well.
I think they have learned from, you know, both their experience with Ebola, so they know the importance of being quick to contain the spread, and they've closed very early on, you know, the borders to all but essential supplies. They've done this, you know, very fast, much faster than some Western countries, if I take the example of you know, France, the UK, and others. So I hope that you know, this will be better to contain the disease. You know, as an example, they've been already shutting the you know, the borders last weekend, but they've also shut down the schools.
In Côte d'Ivoire last Tuesday, a state of emergency has been declared to limit the movement of people, although key industries like gold mining are still allowed. We've obviously been working very closely with the Ministry of Mines in both countries, who are very keen to ensure gold mining operations continue as long as the right measures are in place. So from that perspective, it is obviously important to the economies of these countries that we continue our operations, but we will do it, of course, not at any cost, you know, provided that, you know, the safety of our people is well protected, as well, the safety of, you know, villages and communities where we operate. We don't want to put any of those, you know, at risk.
But so far, I must say that, you know, I've been impressed by the quality of the response that has been put in place by, you know, both governments in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso, to try as early as possible to contain the spread of the virus.
So it sounds as if you have got very good plans that are in place and looking after your employees, which is obviously critical. One question that investors may be looking for is, how financially robust is Endeavour if you get to that level three stage and can't ship the gold that you produce?
Sure. Well, I think that, you know, currently, Endeavour benefits from a pretty strong balance sheet. We have total liquidity available at the end of two thousand and nineteen of over $300 million, which mean that if we're not able to ship the gold, but continue to produce, I would say that we have a monthly burn cash of about, you know, $70 million continuing to produce without selling any gold. Which means that, you know, we can do that for the next, you know, four to five months without any issues. And obviously, if we were to put the operations into care and maintenance, our burn monthly cash, you know, would be probably in the range of $25-$30 million, in order to continue to pay salaries for all our staff.
And in that case, you know, would be over 10 months in this environment without any issues. So I would say that, you know, we have currently a strong financial situation and a strong balance sheet to go through this crisis.
Sébastien, thank you for your time today. We are in unprecedented times, and thank you for being so open with us today.
Thank you very much, Scott, for your time.