Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Equinox Gold First Quarter 2021 Financial Results and Corporate Update Conference Call and Webcast. Defense on a listen only mode. And the conference is being recorded.
After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask If you are participating through the webcast, you can submit a question in writing by using the text box in the lower left corner of the webcast frame. I would now like to hand the conference over to Rylin Bailey, Vice President, Relations for Equinox Gold. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Amanda, and thank you everybody for joining us today. Today. So please do take the time to visit our website and to visit our continuous disclosure documents that are available on SEDAR and on EDGAR. I'm now going to turn the call over to Chairman, Ross Beatty, for opening remarks.
Thank you very much, Relyn, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. As Relyn said, we just wrapped up our AGM. And the very first slide I'm going to show you here in our presentation that's on our website is our wonderful Board of Directors. All of the motions before the meeting were passed, and I, of course, appreciate all the support we have from our shareholders.
All of the director nominees were voted in as well to serve on the Board for another year. And I want to thank all of the Board members who you see here today for their service to the company. Obviously, the Board runs our governance and major strategy. We spent almost all day yesterday in committee meetings. We had A board dinner where we talk strategy and cybersecurity and various issues like that that come up.
And I have to say Every single Board member made a significant contribution and we certainly are well led on that front. And shareholders As you all know, this is the 3rd year really that we have done this, and I'd like to kind of give a bit of a report card on what we've achieved in the 3 years we've been in existence since we began right at the beginning of 2018. And this kind of says it all. 2018, we didn't Any operations at the start of the year, we decided to build the one mine we had under development. We had a pre feasibility study on the Castle The Mountain Mine as well, which we did.
We spun out and sold some of our non core assets. We spun out Solaris Copper to Equinox shareholders, and we acquired the Mesquite mine late in the year, which gave us production of 25,000 ounces in 2018. In 2019, on our mission to have increased scale and diversification and production, we completed construction of Aurizona started producing there. We had a full year from Mesquite, produced 200,000 ounces of gold. And at the end of the year, we announced that we were going to merge with Leagold.
We also listed on the New York Stock Exchange and graduated to the TSX and the TSX V, another great year of growth. And in 2020, the year just passed, we also had a quite extraordinary year. We added 4 Felicia Mines and the development project with the Leagold deal, increased trading liquidity from what was less than $1,000,000 a day to about $40,000,000 a day on average And our liquidity and scale attracted new institutional investors. We were added to the big indexes. We extended the Aurizona Mesquite mine lives, commenced production at Castle Mountain, started Santa Luz construction in Brazil, and at the end of the year, we announced the acquisition of Premier Gold.
As well, Solaris Resources listed on the TSX. And in 2020, We ended with production of 477,000 ounces. Not bad for 3 years of growth. So what's ahead? If you look at us today, here's what we look like.
We have 7 producing mines, 4 growth projects, those 4 being the Santa Luz mine development in Brazil, Santa Luz, expansion of Los Filos, expansion of Castle Mountain and finally underground work at Aurizona as well as of course the Greenstone mine in Ontario. We have tripled our reserves. We were at 5,800,000 ounces of reserves in December 2017. Today, we have 16,100,000 ounces. Again, not bad.
That's our capital resource base, don't forget. That's what's going to drive our continuing production In the future. And included in that, we are including those reserves, we have 29,400,000 ounces of total gold resources, Reserves Resources, which is really to be an extraordinary endowment for future production. We produced 470,000 ounces, as I said, in 2020, and we're on target right now. We're guiding for 6 130,000 ounces this year and we are very much on the path to produce more than 1,000,000 ounces in just the next couple of years.
We have a target of $12.30 an ounce for all in sustaining costs and our liquidity is quite incredible. We've We got nearly $1,000,000,000 of liquidity when you combine our cash, our credit facilities and our investments. So just an amazingly powerful financial base to add to this growing production base and this tremendous story that I think is just in the middle of being executed. So these are some examples. It's not just growth for growth sake.
What we're trying to do is also create real value. And yes, we get real value through growth, but we also get real value through just good execution of a fairly simple business plan to provide investors fantastic leverage to the gold price and build a really significant in scale, a world class Company really. And our motto right now is to build the premier America's gold producer. And we mean premier in the biggest sense. We mean premier in not just size, but in quality.
Something where in the short time we've been going, we have already built up a tremendous reputation for quality. And that's what we want to have, quality in engineering, in exploration, in management generally, financial management, but also in environmental management and environmental and governance and social matters. We want to be a complete company and really give value in all of these things, because each one of those boxes of value gives things to our shareholders. And we're going to just these three examples here are just examples of what we've already done that can be kind of quantified. We bought the Mesquite mine in late 2018.
We paid $158,000,000 for it. We've already produced 316,000 ounces of gold and we've generated $139,000,000 of free cash flow. We've also added 670,000 ounces of gold in discoveries. So we've extended the mine life. We're going to really have fundamental value there that's being created.
We then built the Aurizona mine. This is a mine that had actually gone bankrupt with prior operators. Well, it cost us about $160,000,000 to build. We've already generated $175,000,000 in free cash flow from this asset, while at the same time producing 238,000 ounces of gold and discovering another 820,000 ounces. We've also got the underground preliminary feasibility study in progress because we think we're actually going to extend this mine life literally by decades.
That's real value creation. Another example is Solaris. We spun out Solaris back in 2018 to our shareholders for about a $33,000,000 Equinox capped at 40%, and we spud out 60% to all of our then shareholders. Well, under the Sterling management of Richard Wark and his team, Who's taken off taken our management of Solaris. They've developed the warrants of deposit in Equinor into a really world class discovery and Copper Development.
So even though it's not gold for us, our shareholders are benefiting from that in 2 ways, from the shares they got on the spin out And from the now 30% or so, or now it's being diluted because we raised US66 $1,000,000 on the sale of a partial interest just a month or so ago, and we still have $200,000,000 in value from that asset. So that's real wealth creation through to me, it's almost like financial engineering where we did the spin out, but we so we didn't have any additional costs or exposure or liabilities that we've had this wonderful windfall of value, thanks to the successful efforts of RichardWorks' team in Solaris. And we've got a whole abundance of opportunities yet to deliver in terms of wealth creation. Santa Luz, that's going to come at the end of this year. Castle Mountain, that's a couple of years out.
Los Filos, that's in progress. Aurizona Underground, very much in progress as well. And I-eighty, which is this new company that was spun out from Premier, which Equinox Gold owns 30% of, and it's doing great things in Nevada under the leadership of you and Downey. We expect good things to come from that, Great returns for the Equinox shareholders as well. And we're very, very pleased with all of this real wealth creation that we've achieved that is so tangible in such a short period
of our growth. Well, with all
of that, we've had shareholder sorry, share price performance, which has generally speaking been pretty good, although we've had a rather rough quarter in the last quarter with the decline in gold. If you look, however, at our share price appreciation since we started the company at the end of December 2017, we've outperformed gold, and Investors Holding Equinox Gold Shares in August 2018 when we spun on Solaris I've also enjoyed this great trajectory of that copper focused company. So I think the last quarter, We are in all the indices now. We are with ETFs, of course. And as the gold price goes up, there's natural buying coming from those.
As the gold price goes down, there's And we've had some of that. I think we've had some overhangs, quite frankly, from the Premier deal, which just closed a few weeks ago. And we, I think, have yet to prove to shareholders that we that this great growth we've got in front of us has It's not yet been delivered. In other words, it's right in the middle of execution right now. We're a bit of a show me story right now with even though we're producing Over 600,000 ounces of gold, we're making lots of money.
We've got a great balance sheet. We've got excellent exploration upside. We've got all of this stuff built in. But I think to some degree, investors are also saying, you know what, I'm just going to wait until we actually entered some of these projects. My point would be, you can wait if you want, but by the time we've done it, it's going to be too late.
I mean, the stock is going to run, and we're going to get To a great price to net asset value, the more multiples, more like our peers. And this next page shows that on Page 8. This is why we are building a major gold company. Why we're so focused on growth because the markets reward scale today. As you get bigger, your multiple goes up.
It is wealth creation Simply by getting bigger. You have less risk, you have broader investor appetite, overhead costs are lower on a per ounce basis, you have a reduced cost of capital and more funds available for shareholder returns. So it's just good business to get big. The other thing you do, of course, is you have even more leverage to the gold price. And with a big company, you have leverage in 2 ways.
You have leverage on the income statement. With every ounce you produce, if you got $100 more per ounce with a gold price run, that's real wealth creation to the bottom line for instant value leverage to the gold price. You also have what I call balance sheet leverage with the gold reserves and resources. So right now, we have 29,000,000 ounces of gold Reserves and Resources. Every time the gold price goes up, every dollar it goes up, that's fundamentally an increase in real value to our shareholders because those are going to be long term returns to us.
And we have such a huge resource base now, we can really think long term and build this long term store of value that I think always creates value for shareholders. So I'm expecting that over the next year or 2, We will outperform the market because we now have this large scale. We have diversity. The Premier deal gave us a really nice stool, the 4th leg to the stool. We have one leg in Brazil, one leg in Mexico, one leg in California, And now we have this big lag in Canada.
We have all of these catalyst rich investment plans. Year on year growth, we're going to produce over 600,000 this year. We'll be well over that next year, well over that the following year. We're going to blow through 1,000,000 ounces in the next 2 or 3 years, and I can see going to 1,300,000, 1,400,000 ounces without too much difficulty based on the Los Filos expansion, The Sandaluz expansion or the Sandaluz Mine Development, the Greenstone Project in Ontario and of course Castle Mountain and eventually Aurizona as well. We've got all of this built in growth, which is going to deliver fabulous returns to shareholders.
And all of this is going to be self financed with our strong balance sheet. We don't need to raise any more equity money at all.
So all
of this begs the question, what about gold? Gold's had a kind of a rocky start to this year. It came off its high from last August. Is the party over? Well, I just to me, There is nothing that is different in the gold equation than it was that existed a year ago, absolutely nothing.
There is a natural tendency for markets to be they don't go straight up. There's a natural up and down. There's bear market There's bear rallies inside bull markets and vice versa. So I just think currently we are in a secular bull market that started in 2016 And it remains intact today. If anything, I think it's even more powerful today than it was even a year ago.
We've had all this stimulus. We've had this explosion in sovereign debt debasing all global currencies, negative interest rates still exist. We have even greater prospects for higher inflation and higher inflation always drives the gold price up. The U. S.
Dollar is beginning to crack and it should continue to weaken. That's always good for gold. And of course, you have so little global assets held in gold. And I think any change in this allocation is going to be very salivious for the price of gold. On the supply side, there are bullish factors.
Exploration funding is constrained. Reserve replacement is slow. New gold mine development is Slower and more difficult than ever. Just look at what's going on all over the world. Governments are getting more demanding, Environmental activism, social activism is making more difficulties for mine developments.
And it's just a tough, Tougher business takes a lot longer for gold mines to be developed. And actually, you saw that in 2019 2020, The global gold mine supply actually decreased. So there's not just some demand these powerful demand factors for higher gold prices. There's also all sorts of supply reasons why I think gold is going to continue to go higher. So I expect gold will shoot through its previous high sometime later this year, maybe 2022, but the party is certainly not over.
If anything, it's still going in a very solid and substantial weight and Equinox Gold will benefit from that every single step of the way. Not only are we building a great gold company in terms of production and sort of people and finances, But part and parcel of every responsible company today, be it a mining company or really any company, Is that companies look after their environment, their social aspects of their business and general governance, diversity, equality, those kind of principles. I'm very proud to say that today we published our first ESG report. We just published it this morning. You can find it on our website.
Christian is going to talk a little bit more about it. But I just want to tell Every one of our shareholders and interested parties on this call, how very important this stuff is to me personally. I feel you can't have a successful mine if your workers are unhealthy, if your workers don't have good safety records, If you can't deliver good quality employment to them, if you can't look after diversity on your workforce, You've got to do this sort of stuff. If you can do that, then you're more successful. You can't have a successful mining company unless you look after your environment as much as possible.
We all know that mining is tough on the environment, generally speaking, but it can be minimized. And at the end of the mine life, you can reclaim a mine. And once reclaimed many mines such as for example the Castle Mountain mine in California before we took it on and rebuilt it or redeveloped it. You can do reclamation these days where you hardly even know there was a mine there in the first place. So this is the nature of mining today.
It's Not like it was done 20 years ago. And today's responsible mine is one that where you really try to minimize your impact as much as possible on the environment. And then finally, of course, You have to look after your communities. We strive very hard to look after our communities. We put a lot of effort into this, a lot of money, a lot of time.
We've got to work with your communities. After all, they're the ones who are creating your social license and creating your ability to work in these Far Flunk Places of the World. So it means a lot to us. We spend a lot of effort on this. We just spent half of yesterday with our Full Board actually going through our environmental and social governance reporting.
And I think every one of our Board members is signed on to this and every one of our management team as well. It's very important stuff and I look forward to Good dialogue with our shareholders about how well we're doing and some places where we could do better. We certainly had a hiccup In late last year at the Los Filos mine with what I think was a legacy issue that came out of the Leagold and the prior operators of that And we've really tried to spend the time there to fix the problem for the long term. Hopefully, that won't happen again, and hopefully, we won't have that kind of situation anywhere else. So with all of that, I'm going to end this preamble about the company and just finish off by saying how proud I am of what we're doing, how I'm very appreciative item of our management team, our senior management team right down to the people of the face working underground and at our open pit operations, our administration team, our exploration team, our whole team, our ESG team and so on, our whole 6000 strong management team that are building this company for great results in the future for all stockholders and all interested parties, all people who are affected by our operations.
And with that, I think I'll turn the call over to Christian now to talk about our Q1 results and give you an update on the projects. Over to you, Christian.
Great. Thanks, Ross. And it's a good segue into our Q1 operating results and we'll start there with health and safety on Page 12. And I do want to recognize and congratulate Tom, Doug and the team in California with Getting Castle Mountain built in that first phase with a 0 or nil total recordable injury frequency rates and that's a heck of an achievement for a brand new mine build, so well done to the team there. We did have 3 LTIs in the Q1 during our 4,000,000 work hours, A little bit higher than our average.
So obviously, we'll be working to bring that down over the year, but still a decent performance. And one event that's worth just noting, we did have very heavy rains. As People know it rains pretty heavily at Aurizona in the Northeast of Brazil. And we had a 1 in 10000 year rain event, so quite an event at the End of March there, there was regional flooding of rivers and freshwater lagoons. And we've seen that there before when we were constructing the mine and it's a I think of the future where there will be sort of ongoing events that we need to manage, but I'm really pleased with the team and how they performed during that.
The tailings down, the plants and the mine were basically unaffected and managed through that rain. And the team also stepped in to help the community when the water treatment plant We'll be making investments to continue to improve that infrastructure locally. So really pleased to see that reaction to Things that do happen at mine sites in the environmental world. Then in terms of COVID-nineteen, I don't want to dwell on this one. I We've seen a drop in cases across all the countries we've been in, being Brazil, Mexico and the U.
S. And even though Brazil obviously been a hotspot in the news over the last little while. We've seen the caseloads drop very significantly around our mine sites and even with people at the mine sites. We've done 18,000 tests. So we've done a lot of testing and really pleased to see the workforce really abide by some of our strict protocols around this.
It makes a big difference going to work and feeling safe in this kind of environment. Sort of hope that we're starting to turn the corner with the vaccine rollouts across the world and it is in Sort of levels of rollout, but very positive developments happening in all these countries now. In terms of the operating results, We produced 129,000 ounces, a little bit weaker than Q4 at the end of last year. And we do expect the 1st couple of quarters this year to be a little weaker than The average for the rest of the year where we expect a nice uptick. The all in sustaining cost was $14.80 I do want to highlight that includes about $12,000,000 in a net realizable value write down of inventory at Los Filos and Pilar.
So if You were to take those two numbers out, you'd be below $1400 an ounce and I think pretty much in line with consensus expectations there for the quarter. We did guide towards a higher cost for the first half of this year. When you turn on to the next slide, it's just a plethora of things that have happened in terms of Q1 and also recent corporate highlights and a lot has happened even since quarter end.
Good positive DURE results at depth at Aurizona. We'll be seeing Sort of
the fruits of that when that underground study comes out around Q3 this year. So looking forward to that, the updated feasibility study for Phase 2 came out. Santa Luz construction is advancing very nicely and Doug will probably talk about that a little bit more in-depth later. Los Filos optimization Studies are ongoing and we hope to release that study give or take around midyear. And then corporately, a lot of activity in quarter 1.
We closed the acquisition of Premier. We helped you and spin out IED Gold and supported them in terms of investing in the company just like we did with Solaris. We acquired the additional 10% in the Greenstone project for just over $50,000,000 Now we'll have a 60% stake going forward. So I'm really pleased to be sort of the major partner in that alongside Orion. We also sold the Pilar mine for $38,000,000 plus a royalty and an equity interest.
We commenced the Los Filos Spermahol underground development, which Obviously, it's been on hiatus or pause for the past year or so. So really pleased to be getting going there again. And I think we're expecting 1st blast this month. So that's underway. And then as Ross said, we published the SG report, which I'll comment on in a second here.
In terms of the Q1 2021 financial highlights, Slightly weaker quarter as I mentioned. Adjusted EBITDA was about $60,000,000 down slightly from maybe expectation. Most of that difference is related to that NRV write down on those 2 inventory items at Los Filos and Pilar. Net income was a healthy $50,000,000 although Did include a large noncash gain on the change in fair value of the warrants and also the gold collars and swaps that we inherited from Leagold Had a gain on them as well. In terms of liquidity and capital position, ended the quarter was $320,000,000 almost in the bank.
Our net debt was about $230,000,000 but if you were to take out the heavily in the money convertible notes, it would be a net cash position. Net liquidity is offset at the end of April, dollars 200,000,000 of revolver available plus $350,000,000 of cash, A nice low net debt to EBITDA ratio and so the balance sheet is in a great place right now. And Ross alluded to the investments and a little bit more detail on them. We obviously own About 30% in I-eighty Gold. We invested CAD24 1,000,000 and retained and maintained our position.
Really pleased with that and the launch of that into the market. The market value is about US100 $1,000,000 to us currently. And also we sold the 10,000,000 shares in Solaris for about CAD82 1,000,000 And also some warrants as well that may turn into $50,000,000 of proceeds over the next 12 months. But the market value of the remaining There overall is still US200 $1,000,000 So we have US300 $1,000,000 in investments there. Turning over to the guidance Just a quick update.
This page looks a lot like we issued earlier in the year. But we swapped in Mercedes in Mexico, which we acquired with Premier, and we've taken out Pilar, which We sold and closed on that right after quarter end. So the main change ultimately then is we've added in early works construction of of about $40,000,000 at Greenstone, which is our 60% share. They've already started clearing trees in Ontario. They're looking to do some equipment procurement, Finish off detailed engineering, get a camp set up, build a water effluent treatment plant and ramp up the project team here.
That will be happening in the second half of this year. And that's the main change here. As you see in the capital, we've added that $40,000,000 But overall, from a production and all in sustaining cost basis, really there's very little change. It's just really a tale of 2 halves here. First half of the year, we have Slightly higher costs and lower production at Mesquite Castle and Los Filos.
And in the second half of the year, we expect to see that reverse and see those mines hitting nice ore and better grades and you'll see lower costs and higher production as a result of that. And we'll talk about those Mines in a little bit more detail on the more detailed slides later on. But really what we're looking for here is second half of this year, you'll see a real uptick overall and we're just When you look at the ESG slide and as Ross said, I go into a little bit more detail here, really Pleased and congratulations to the team for getting that out. It's been a busy year since the Leagold acquisition and just gathering data and being able to increase our public disclosure. We started with quarterly data that was available on the websites a couple of quarters ago, so that provided the baseline data.
Now pleased to get out that first report. Investors that are really focused and interested in this area and really pleased with the feedback we're getting. We've been very straightforward with what is this is a program in its infancy, But it's also that ambitious goal of being a leader in ESG. And we continue to advance our governance, as Ross said. We've addressed some matters that were brought up in Shareholders Gold Council letter over the last year.
We really do focus on disclosing our pay practices, our KPIs a year in advance, so you know what we're measuring ourselves against. We have more diversity on the Board and you see ESG as a bigger percentage of our compensation overall as a senior management team. So I think making great strides there. And we've also added a couple of members to the team here in Vancouver to strengthen it. So we've achieved our 2020 targets.
We outperformed some of our Safety targets for last year. We've had multiple levels of testing and focus on COVID, and I think we've done a good job in a challenging environment over the last year. We had lots of planning and training and really getting set up for the future with over 500 hours of senior team dedicated strategy and planning. GHG or greenhouse gases has become a really important focus and we're going to be setting a benchmark for that for this year. And also in terms of adoption of standards and principles.
We've adopted the TSM, International Sinai Code, responsible gold mining principles. We've joined the Mining Association of Canada, the World Gold Council and the Mining Safety Roundtable. So it's been an active, active year on the ESG front and we set it as a priority ending off last year and coming into this year, and I think all these results are actually bearing fruit and showing how seriously we do take this. And flipping over into the operational update here on Slide number 18, I'm going to turn it over to Doug and let Doug walk through these next few slides.
Okay. Thanks, Christian. So as Christian mentioned, in the first half of the year, we do have lower production in California and Mexico, and That's due to focus on waste, which ultimately will benefit our second half production. Mesquite, Especially had a significant stripping campaign and that was to access higher grade oxide ore at the Brownie pit. We also are doing ongoing exploration, which is focused on mine life extension at Mesquite, and I'll talk about that later.
Mesquite produced just over 23,000 ounces in the quarter and the all in sustaining cost at $19.52 an Essentially, a large part of that reflects the stripping campaign. There was $22,000,000 of sustaining capital spent in the quarter. At Castle Mountain, we are doing investment in leach pad expansion. We've been doing the work that was Phase 2 feasibility study that was announced in the quarter, and we've now gone to transitioning towards entering the permitting for Castle Mountain, which will happen later on this year. Production was just under 3,000 ounces And all in sustaining cost was $18.11 an ounce.
We will continue to optimize the leach pad and the flows to the leach pad daily production of ounces has improved as we came into April. At Los Filos, our significant investments in 2021 are focused on advancing the expansion projects, Which access higher grade ore at Guadalupe, which we should be well into ore in Q3 And also Bermejal Underground, which has development was restarted in April. We will start the 1st blast in May and we get into the ore later on this year. We produced just under 30,000 ounces at Los Filos for the quarter at an all in sustaining cost of $2,230 an ounce and spent $6,000,000 on sustaining capital. We were ramping up operations following the December restart.
So essentially, Getting all the flows in the pad and all the reagents back into the pad and dealing with waste movement. And We also took a $9,000,000 inventory write down in the quarter. At Mercedes, This is a new one for us. We have guidance of 30,000 to 35,000 ounces for the year at an all in sustaining cost of 11 $40 to $11.90 per ounce and the mine is currently operating at 1200 tonnes a day. Campaign milling in a mill that's designed for 2,000 tons a day.
It does have an annualized production of about 50,000 ounces And it has the opportunity to be able to increase production towards 80,000 to 90,000 ounces a year if we utilize the coal plant capacity and new development into some of the higher grade zones that exist at Mercedes. So it was acquired April 7, And that guidance that I mentioned reflects the remainder of the year production from Mercedes to our benefit. On to the next page, we have a strong quarter at Aurizona and Fazenda benefiting from good mining performance and good plant performance of both operations as well as a strong ForEx in Brazil. Aurizona, We moved more tons in the rainy season than we had originally planned, and we had a very good stockpile amassed As we entered into the rainy season, so that really worked to our benefit. We also have been advancing the potential underground, excellent exploration effort done below the Piaba open pit and it's moved into the pre feasibility study.
There'll be a reserve update that comes along with it And that will come out in the second half of the year. We produced over 32,000 ounces for the quarter and the all in Sustaining cost was $8.79 an ounce and we had $5,200,000 of sustaining capital at Aurizona. For Fazenda, A big focus continues to be reserve replacement. It's always a reserve replacement story, but we've We expanded our sites there. We're doing regional exploration as well in the Fazenda Santa Luz district.
It's a 70 kilometer long greenstone belt between the two operations. And essentially, we have an opportunity to be able to explore numerous targets that have been identified that could benefit either Santa Luz or Fazenda. Production at Fazenda was over 17,000 ounces in the quarter and the all in sustaining cost was $9.19 an ounce. RDM had a major pit expansion ongoing so far this year and it will ultimately provide a lower strip access to the ore body, Very good performance on the mining and some really good process plant improvements have been done as well. Production was 15,500 ounces at an all in sustaining cost of $11.37 an ounce.
And again, we utilize stockpiles as we were hit with a lot of rain, which is abnormal for RDM. It's usually short on water in the year. And now RDM has a full water dam, which means that we can see continuous production right through this year and probably through most or all of next Sure, without any additional rain. So, very good result at RDM. And Pilar, well, we sold it.
So we got 8,765 ounces from Pilar up to for the quarter. And on April 19, we announced that we were selling it for $30,000,000 plus an NSR and an equity interest in Pilar Gold, the acquiring entity. So on Page 20, we'll look at the growth and development projects and Ross stepped through these earlier. We have Santa Luz. It's in construction.
Santa Luz, when it's operating, will produce 110,000 over 110,000 ounces Annually for the 1st 5 years. It has a 9.5 year mine life, but lots of exploration potential, Both on surface and with underground opportunities. I'll talk a bit more about the Santa Luz later. Los Filos expansion is focused on the various projects that will help achieve an overall 350,000 ounce per year target production. And it will be through development of the additional open pit at Guadalupe, which is currently ongoing, and also bringing the Bermejal Underground Mine on stream.
We have been finalizing the study for a 8,000 ton per day carbon leach plant, which will process the higher grade ore and that's due in mid year. At Greenstone, it's a fully permitted construction ready project, very large reserve base of 5,500,000 ounces and an additional 2,600,000 ounces of measured and indicated resources. The production for the 1st 5 years It is 414,000 ounces per year and the project has a 14 year mine life. We do see additional opportunities at that site as well. Construction is targeted to commence in the second half.
So I'll talk a bit more about that later. Castle Mountain, the Phase 2 study came out in the Q1. It has 218,000 ounces a year, and that's on the base of a 4,200,000 ounce proven and probable reserve, plus 1,500,000 ounces of measured and indicated resources. Total production over a 21 year mine life is 3,400,000 ounces. And as I mentioned earlier, that now moves over towards getting prepared for permitting.
So moving on to Page 21. Santa Luz full construction underway. First gold pour is targeted for Q1 of 2022. It is a past producing mine, so we benefit by having existing infrastructure and facilities in many parts of the process plant. We are in the midst of retrofitting aspects of the process plant, but I'll ask you to look at the left hand side of the page.
The upper slide shows the resin and leach tanks that are in construction. That's a new set of tanks. And then on the lower slide, it is the secondary grinding area where a new ball mill is going into place. So it's $103,000,000 initial CapEx. We have we view it as being on time, on budget.
It will be done by the end of this year and then 1st gold pour in Q1 2022. There is also excellent exploration potential on surface and at depth. So moving on to Page 22. Greenstone is one of the most attractive development assets in Canada. It's got a great reserve at 5,500,000 ounces, very nice NPV, dollars 1,100,000,000 at 14 dollars an ounce or $1.8 at $1800 an ounce.
And I've mentioned the production for the 1st 5 years at 414 1,000 ounces per year, we would get 60% of that being 60% owners. A 14 year mine life, it will be the 3rd largest Gold Mine in Canada when in production. All in sustaining cost of $6.18 per ounce is very attractive for us and This project benefits from an excellent infrastructure located adjacent to Geraldton in Ontario and on the TransCanada Highway. And it comes with the team that's been working on this project since 2013. So a very experienced team that's very aware of All aspects of this project, and they're ready to go.
We're looking at the early works construction spend from our share being $40,000,000 for this year. But we're looking at a construction decision in the second half. And as Christian mentioned, there's already tree clearing happening at the site. On Page 23, just a few notes on exploration and the support of the operating mines. Mesquite.
In October, we had a news release that described the increase in reserves by 28% and the resources by 94%. We have an additional exploration budget for 2021 looking at resource and reserve growth and that's focused on the Brownie, Vista East and Rainbow deposits at Mesquite. We've already spent $2,600,000 in Q1, so it's a very fast and active program being executed on-site and through the exploration team, Describing the drill program done at Piaba Deep and also the near mine targets that all support the underground pre feasibility study that's underway and will be delivered in the second half. A $4,000,000 exploration budget is slated for this year And it's focused on continuing resource and reserve growth as well as developing near mine and regional exploration targets On this large property, it's essentially, it's 1,000 kilometers squared, so lots of opportunities there. And then Fazenda in Santa Luz, I mentioned earlier, It's a 70 kilometer long Greenstone Belt.
It's quite underexplored. It's got local areas of geochem, Geophysics, but it's got lots of targets and prospects, about 1,000 square kilometers. Let's say, it's just bookended by Fazenda and Santeluz and it provides us opportunity to feed either mines ultimately. So going on to Page 24, a couple of new exploration projects for us. Through the Premier acquisition, we also acquired the Hasaga and Rejo Bonanza projects in the Red Lake area.
So it's a great address to be in. The historic mining district, Saga also has 1,100,000 ounces of M and I Resources at 0.83 grams per tonne, but it also has 23,000 meters that were drilled in 2020 That are confirming a substantial underground potential. So Scott Heffernan, the exploration team is doing a full review of that at the moment and looking at how this potentially could be a mine one day. Rayhill Bonanza is a JV with Evolution. It's right on the Red Lake trend and it's essentially has a mine to the east and the west.
So it's a great address to have. With that, I'm going to hand it back to Christian to come out.
Yes. Thanks, Doug. And I'm just going to conclude with a couple of slides here. But just finishing off on For the 2 investments, IED and Solaris, we're obviously very pleased with those and value creation so far. Together, they're worth about $300,000,000 and we still see lots of upside opportunity there.
And when you add in these new projects in Red Lake, I'm going to dare to say that our goal here would be a $500,000,000 of value or more. And as we've seen the growth in Solaris, we're Starting to see an I-eighty and we really are pretty excited about Mississauga as well. We really see the upside opportunity here is excellent. Looking at 25% and stepping back out to look at the portfolio as a whole, as Ross highlighted, we are now a nicely diversified and 4 legged Cool. We've got 2 mines in the U.
S, 2 in Mexico, a large mine in Canada, which will be the 34th largest. We've got 2 districts in Brazil plus another mine. This is a portfolio full of growth and opportunity in each one of these districts. Each one alone has in itself got an ability to add 100 of thousands of ounces of production. So we've got the scale and diversification that we were shooting for and so really pleased to see that coming together.
When I look at the next slide here, Stepping back out and how we're positioned, the 3 right hand graphs here, we've highlighted this before. We're working towards 1,000,000 ounces. We've got the highest growth in the sector by far, And we've got a 16,000,000 ounce resource base to back that up. So our multiple is low, which is the left hand bar. It's just about 0.55.
But I just want to when you think about it, we need to earn our rerating here. We've got a 12 to 18 month program here over the next sort of a couple of cycles here to earn our way and execute and earn our way up through developing projects, getting our reserves and resources growing again. And we really do believe we're going to add to those and continuing some of that grassroots exploration. And when you really step out on the next slide and look at this bubble chart here, As we move to the right towards that 1,000,000 ounces of annual production, our multiple is currently, as I said, between 0.5 and 0.6. And Just think of this, a move from 0.5 to 1x, which is pretty common for some of our larger peers around 1,000,000 ounces is a C3 billion dollars market cap increase.
So we've got our sights set on really improving the market value of this company and We are shareholders and our target is actually delivering on this value and doing it in a very responsible way. And on the next slide, Just to give you a little more detail on the balance sheet, I think I've hit it a few times, so I won't dwell on it, but it gives you a little more flavor. The cash is solid right now, Got $200,000,000 available in the revolver and probably lots of flexibility in our balance sheet. We haven't increased our debt facility over the last couple of years and our business has pretty much doubled. We've got good operating cash flow and I tell you when we start to turn the quarter and quarter 3 this year, you'll see that And we've got the $300,000,000 in market value investments, so very strong balance sheet at the moment.
And then on Slide 30, just the last page I want to comment on and give you a chance to ask some questions is, As I said, we've got to execute on delivering this year on our operations. We've got to get our projects and studies done, Make sure construction is on time, on budget, and we're tracking really well so far this year. Explore, we've really put Explore back into our portfolio growth. And Scott's got a budget and I think he's going to struggle to spend it, but he's not being held back. So we're really pushing to extend the mine life Shorter Life Mines and I really think he's going to achieve that.
And then you look corporately, we've knocked off a whole bunch of these items this year in closing deals and optimizing the portfolio. We're supporting our investee companies and it's continually providing returns on investment. And again, M and A is the last point on this But we're not actively necessarily looking for M and A right now. We got our place pretty full with our current assets. And I just want to thank, as Ross said earlier, thank all shareholders We're really backing us in our long term vision here and it's easy to be swayed quarter to quarter on making shorter term decisions, but we really do have a bigger prize in mind and We're willing to like we're experiencing the first half of this year, make the investments and go through periods of slightly lower production, higher cost, We'll continue to invest the capital because we actually see that huge prize at the end of this and really appreciate the patience and the support of shareholders who've told us to keep doing what we're doing.
And So with that, I'll just end the formal part and open it up to questions.
Thank you, Christian.
Thank you.
Operator, can you
please remind people how to ask Did you want to say something, Ross, while they're queuing up?
No. I just wanted
to just do exactly what you just did, so.
Perfect. Go ahead please, operator. Certainly.
You can submit a question in writing by using the text box in the lower corner of your webcast frame. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue.
Thank you. So while we're waiting for our phone callers to line up, I'm going to take a question from online. It says you will need about $300,000,000 for CapEx Tier. Is that funded by operations? And how much are you going what gold price do you need to cover non sustaining CapEx?
Yes. Basically, That amount would be funded by our operating cash flow, but obviously we have a very strong balance sheet in addition to that. So through both those sources we have more than available funds to fund that. And in terms of gold price, I mean, it depends. We still got some decisions to make on the timing of announcing construction and layering in our capital, but Certainly feel pretty comfortable, dollars 1500 per ounce gold is to be a bit below, but we've also got the ability to stagger these construction Over the next 3, 4, 5 years, which is really what the plan is because they sequence really nicely almost one after another.
Perfect. Please go ahead and take some questions from the phone lines.
Your first question comes from Mike Parkin from National Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just one question on the Santa Luz project. You do mention that it's tracking on schedule. You give the budget there of $103,000,000 Can you just give a comment there on the actual budget?
Is it tracking In line with budget, we're hearing inflationary pressures on steel and some other items. Just wondering if you can kind of confirm that, that budget is still good or if you're seeing a little bit of pressure on
it? No, it's tracking Fine. Our update was done late last year. And as we came into this new year, we've been very on top of making Sure that we kept track of costs for materials and we've been able to deal with everything. So we're doing Very well.
We've locked in a number of contracts obviously and the commitments are a long way there. And also take a little bit of an advantage of The FX rate does help offset if there is any kind of sneak and creep there in inflation.
Right. What about and Greenstone and some of the plans at Los Filos, obviously, are going to involve some significant capital. Are you Getting a sense that there's a bit of pressure on those budgets or the numbers you've kind of been speaking to you feel good?
Yes, I think I'll take that one just as a general comment. Please Doug jump in if there's anything I missed. But I think overall, I think there is a little bit of Inflation or call it creep coming along, probably nothing outside the ordinary so far. But I do believe over the next few years, there will be a little bit of inflationary pressure. We'll do things to as much as possible.
We're updating the CapEx before we obviously launch into construction here right now. We'll try and lock in as much of the cost as possible, and we'll do our best to also protect the currencies
as well. There will be
a number of currencies that will be Feeding into the Greenstone, obviously, Canadian dollar is number 1, but we've also got a few other currencies too.
Okay. And that just kind of brings me to the last question. In terms of the cash on hand, is any of that sitting in CAD, given that you're looking at starting a fairly significant spend there with Greenstone?
Hi, Mark. It's Peter Hardy here. It is in fact the funds that we've just received and the Solar sale are all in Canadian dollars, and we'll continue to start to build that Canadian dollar stockpile as we move forward here.
All right, very good. That's it for me guys. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Wayne.
Your next question comes from Anita Soni from CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.
Good evening, Erwin. My question, I guess, follows up with similarly on Hard Rock spending. So you've provided guidance for the remainder of this year, but can you give us an idea what next year would look like? And I presume 2023 is where you would start spending in terms of your preproduction capital.
Yes. I mean, it's probably a little bit early to give you too much specific guidance until we make that kind of full decision in the second Half of this year because it could have a 3 to 6 month differential there. But roughly our percentage of the capital is probably 60% of the $1,000,000,000 so $600,000,000 And I would say broadly speaking, I think of it sort of half in 2022 and half in 2023 and maybe it's a little bit back ended towards the later part of that, but that's probably the best way to think of it right now Until we make
something formal. All right. So you would actually start construction on this in 2022 then?
Yes, Correct. I mean, we would probably our goal is to launch into formal construction in the second half of twenty twenty one.
Okay. And then second question with regards to some of your sorry, with regards to C1 Santa Luz. As we look towards the project completion and think about the mine starting up, How do we like is there considerations in terms of COVID with stripping and making sure that the mill basically has oil feed that will fill it for, like hitting the ground running at the point at which the mill is ready to go.
I'll take the first comment on that, but Doug, please jump in. I mean, we are I think we may have just signed or we're just about to sign a contract with a major mining contractor who Does support 2 of our other mines and is well placed and operating very effectively. Actually, we had our best quarter ever last quarter at Aurizona with contractor. And we expect them to kind of ramp up and be ready to go. And we're also with Fazenda, obviously, just down the road.
So we do feel pretty comfortable in that region. And I think we've had a good performance on COVID there, and we've seen contractors ramping up as well. And it's been pretty good results so far. And I think being outside of Major cities has been a real advantage, obviously, with controlling the environment and the camp and the protocols. Vaccines are rolling out and there's Large number rolling out, but obviously, it's a huge country.
So, it may just work out perfect in terms of timing. I don't know if Doug is
And then
sorry, go ahead.
No, we've had we have standard protocols at each one of our sites. So we continue using that. And Santa Luz It's also quite close to Fazenda, so it gets a lot of support from Fazenda. And we would just continue on with our protocols that we have. I mean, we've done over, I think, it's over 15,000 tests in total.
18,000. 15,000 tests now. So It is very much part of daily standard operating procedures.
I guess I was just thinking more in terms of getting contractors, if that's the case at the beginning, just to help with stripping and overburden and is there any pressure on getting that kind of labor given COVID concerns?
Anita, it's Peter, how are you here? Generally speaking, no. When we do our planning for construction projects, we actually plan right through to commercial production. And then as we get closer towards the tail end of the construction period, of course, we look forward through the 1st year of commercial production. So everything we're doing now is in anticipation of having a successful start up of that project.
And UNM is mobilizing, looking at Doug, but I think it's Kind of starting in May.
It's mobilized in May, starting mining in June, scheduled Through the remainder of the year, but we're not just doing it for the preproduction period. It carries on.
Yes. Okay. And then my final question is just sort of a More of a broad based sort of bigger picture. As you look at the number of assets that you have, I mean, you've just recently sold Polaris. Is there anything else that may or may not meet
I mean, I'll take that, Ross, unless you want to comment. We will continue to look at our asset portfolio mix. And I think We made it pretty clear. We were potentially willing to look at creating some value from a few of the kind of smaller assets that we had, and We'll continue to look at that. Very happy to see Fort Fargo is a small contributor to the overall profitability.
It does take quite a bit of management time. And I think we'll look at other assets The portfolio as well, but I think it's a little bit early days to commit to any active sale.
Thank you very
much. Thanks, Matt.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Terry Smith from Haywood Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Doug, could you remind me what the timing is on the pre feasibility for the underground at Aurizona?
For Aurizona, it's probably like Q3. We say H2, 2, but Q3 is
Probably the end of Q3.
End of Q3, yes.
And then once that pre feas is done, I'm presuming you wouldn't need a Whole feasibility to make a go ahead decision on that. How might that project fit into the timetable in terms of that mashing in with the other projects that you have.
With the other projects or with On-site at Aurizona.
Sorry, I'm thinking of the sequence of how you might sequence that. You've got Hard Rock. You've got Los Filos. You've You got a bunch of things going on. I'm just wondering how that might be sequenced into the schedule or could they be concurrent?
I think the scale of it, they could be concurrent because it's a linear project and doing the development on the first stage of the underground. So I think it would mesh in quite well.
Okay.
Yes. And I think it will take time, obviously, through both permitting and actually underground development. And Scott's been working hard to add ounces on surface as well. We're just keeping an eye out for that study, but we'll keep adding both underground and open pit, and that will just allow us that flexibility and time line, and It will run concurrently.
Okay. Got you. And just on the $9,000,000 write down that you took on at Steloz, is that Was that because you're not confident or you don't expect to recover those ounces in the pad now? Is that what's happened? And if that's the case, I'm just wondering what's changed?
Carrie, it's Peter. That's not the case. There's 2 things really that contribute to the write down. The first thing is and it's an accounting thing, but you have to keep in mind that those the ounces on the pad Are there effectively at fair value? We acquired the mine and it's been it was effectively on care and maintenance from the time of acquisition Through the end of the
year. So
heading into the beginning of the quarter, you basically have the ounces that they're at fair value. And then, of course, we're Doing some development stripping work, sustaining capital work at the mine, not stacking a ton for the quarter. That's not the technical term, but stacking activity was less than a normal run quarter that also contributes extra cost for the quarter, which led to the write down. But that's not an expectation go forward and during a normal quarter, not something we would otherwise see.
I got you. Okay. So could you could we see a reversal then in a subsequent quarter then?
There is the potential for that, yes.
Okay. I see. I see. And then just on maybe Christian Just on the COVID situation in Brazil. I know Brazil is obviously having a tough time generally.
But are you able To sort of manage and control the incidence of COVID because your operations are relatively remote, The towns that your employees live in are also relatively remote, which kind of helps to limit The incidence of COVID because obviously these people go home to their communities every night or after their shift change and then they're gone for a week or a day or whatever and then they come back. But you've done a good job. I'm just wondering how that's how you've been able to do that?
I mean, really straight up with you, Kerry, When you read the headlines, it feels like a very different world in a way, but we've been able to keep it, I'm going to say, sick of it and echo there a little bit, but under it's been single digits Each site at most and that's way down from where it was, I'll call it, a year ago. And I think it's just the rigorous protocol. We've got various different shifts in people coming in and out that are more amenable to allowing testing and periods of, call it, quarantine or anything beforehand. We're very quick to Trace and have people isolate if they have any inkling or symptoms or positive tests. And I think, the local communities have really got on board with this too because Lot of our workers really make up a lot of that population and families there.
And kudos to them. When I was down there with Ross and others Not too long ago like mask wearing is very common and our distancing and protocols I think are very strict. I've been just really pleased with how they really jumped on that.
Okay. And maybe just the last question for Doug, just on Castle Mountain. In the quarter, obviously, the production was quite a bit lower, but the tons to the pad and the grades were pretty much in line with Q4. I'm just wondering What the issue was with the gold production?
It's teething pump problems on the heap leach Just figuring out the techniques to get the best solution percolation. So the guys at site are working on it and it takes time For the to try each thing in sequence so you know which things are working best and for it to flow through essentially to the results to see what's Actually working out well.
And are you kind of thinking you figured out the right formula here now? You had talked in the disclosure that the production was quite a bit better in March, I think you said. Do you think you kind of saw
In April. In April.
In April. So they're figuring it out. So it's coming.
Okay.
Yes, we've seen a doubling of daily ounces in April, which I think we put in the disclosure, very specifically.
Right, right. Okay. Okay, great. That's all my questions.
Thanks a lot, guys.
Thanks, Carrie.
Thanks, Carrie. Another question for Scott, when can we expect results from your Quezon de Santa Luz exploration and also from your Aurizona regional exploration?
Scott, afternoon here. A little bit of Bahia first. Regional work is underway now, Probably be looking into Q3. One of the challenges we faced is that pandemic related closures in Brazil, the labs. The labs were locked down for Now upwards of 2 months, they are reopening now, but with limited capacity.
So this has definitely stymied the flow of our results. So, recently anticipated news imminently, probably pushed to Q3. With respect to Aurizona, Exploration in Aurizona is just starting in earnest. The overall exploration plan in Brazil was to focus in Bahia for the first half of the year, Which includes us having to battle the reins that you've heard mentioned of in the North at Aurizona for the first half. Now we're at this turning point.
We're starting to mobilize and move some of the rigs from Bahia to Aurizona to start that work. So those results will be backloaded
I'll take that to start. I mean, we've been spending the last number of months getting up to speed on the project, the CapEx, The team, etcetera. I'm really pleased with what we've seen and they've done a heck of a lot of work over the last few years. And At the moment, we're just really getting up to speed with sort of, call it, CapEx updates and getting key team members in place and getting some of the early works Plans and schedule sort of debottlenecked, and I think we should be in a good place. And I think we've been in a pretty good indication that we're willing to spend The balance sheet is in a good place and we'll be finishing off Santa Luz, which I think is an important milestone to kind of sort of say we're moving forward now on the next project.
So those kind of sequence nicely. There may be a small amount of overlap, but we'll have high level of confidence in Santa Luz being done sort of on time, on budget by some
On the all in sustaining costs were quite high this quarter at some of your projects. What are your plans to reduce those costs and make these mines profitable?
I mean, maybe I'll take that at a high level and Pete and Doug please jump We said in the first half of this year that really we would be stacking, I mean, I'm going to say almost no ore at Mesquite. So you're really just pulling off those residual ounces that are up there. And opening up Brownie will really start to open up that ore source. They're starting to hit it in the next few weeks here, but really in Q3, Sure, you'll see the impacts of that and there's a leach lag to it. So we knew the investment was worthwhile.
There's some really good ounces in oxide right there and Lots of exploration upside in and around that area. So that will bring those costs down naturally. You take that denominator of ounces up and your costs will come down. And at Castle Mountain, like I said, doubling the ounces in April will automatically bring those costs down. And As we just get more efficient with solution flow pad management and running the ADR plants, you're going to see those costs come down.
And Los Filos is more complex. And It was a challenging year last year. We had those 2 hiatuses with the COVID shutdown in Q2 and then obviously the blockade in part of Q3 and Q4. And It's a big engine to get rev back up and I think the team have done a great job and we're kind of well underway now and just freeing up the Bermejal Underground Development The last missing piece for that future high grade ore source in Guadalupe, starting to see some better grades right now. And I think come Early Q3, you'll start to see the benefits of that and that grade again will show more ounces.
And instead of reprocessing ounces that are, Call it low grade right now, which we're doing to make up during this interim period while we're investing. We're allocating out fixed costs and overhead essentially to A lot less ounces that we're putting up on the pad or reprocessing on the pad. Once you start putting that primary ore up at much better grades in the second half of this year, you're going to see those costs come down too. So I hate to have to say it, but it's a little bit give us a couple of quarters here. We're sort of already getting partway through quarter 2 and Q3, it should start getting pretty exciting around here, I think, and you'll start to see that come down.
And this is the beauty of having a portfolio. I mean, if you look across the Brazil assets, they just had a wonderful Q1 and actually finished off last year really well. And that's the benefit. It gives us the confidence to invest in some assets and ultimately we will bring those costs down and Those other ones are outperforming by 100 of dollars an ounce. And so all in all, had a pretty decent performance.
I think also if I can step in here, Christian, it really shows the importance of looking longer term than just quarter by quarter. Shareholders have to look at us as an evolving business where we are victims of our mine plan, we are victims of recovery changes in the natural variation in an ore body and your example of Bessegate is a perfect example of that. So shareholders really want to be looking at 1 year or even a 2 year time line in terms of growth and in terms of development and variation. We can't really look at a specific quarter Because a lot of things change from quarter to quarter. But as you said, we're going to have a progressively better year as the year goes on and hopefully The corporate value will increase accordingly.
Thank you, Ross. You talked about your ESG strategies and that you're going to be setting greenhouse gas emission targets for this year. Are you looking at options, green power sources, natural gas, things like that at your properties?
I think the short answer is absolutely yes. And I'm going to name Ross on this, but Ross is Chairman who obviously founded a green energy renewable source company. It does put a slight different angle. And every time we look at a project or an opportunity in each of these countries, we look at those sources. I mean California, Obviously, solar power is an option, renewable sort of hydropower in Brazil is obviously an option.
We will look across the spectrum, particularly as we build projects, but also as these projects move on Because they're becoming a lot more competitive in terms of pricing and sourcing and ability to access these types of sources as well. So absolutely.
Thank you. If gold continues to go higher, as we all hope it will, what could go wrong in your countries with things like law, legislation, confiscation, employees wanting higher wages, securities, how do you deal with those things?
Well, one
of the best ways to deal with it is through having a diversified So if things go upside down in one place, you're it's offset by good things happening somewhere else. And it's very hard to predict the future of what can happen from country to country. And that's why I take great strength in having a diversified asset base, not just in terms of country, But even in terms of location and specific assets. So with 7 operating mines right now and with Santa Luz would be going 8. We have the strength in diversity.
And right now, I mean, Canada is in pretty good shape, I think. California is in pretty good shape. I don't And there are any great rumblings of big changes in the U. S. From the standpoint of mining taxation.
Brazil is quiet. The country that It has from time to time made a bit of noise recently about higher taxes as Mexico, but those have recently died down. So there's nothing on the real immediate horizon. Farther away, there's lots of noise about Peru and Chile right now. We don't have operations there.
But countries have to be very careful To deal with their taxation, making sure it's competitive because otherwise companies simply move their capital elsewhere and these countries often lose the benefit of anything when they increase taxes, they often receive less in tax revenue over the long term. So nothing is really on the horizon right now, but We take great strength and have a diversified asset base.
Thank you, Ross. Another one and Company. Are there any plans for dividends or share buybacks?
Do you want to take that, Ross?
Yes. We talk about this every Board meeting and we can't wait until the day that we'll pay a big dividend. But currently, the focus is on taking our capital and putting it in the ground where it creates additional value for shareholders over the medium term. Right now, we have such a plethora of great investment opportunities This will add to the capital value of the company that should reflect itself in income gain and in capital gains, which We'll more than offset any shareholder value that comes from dividends. When we find we have surplus free cash flow, We'll give it back to the shareholders as soon as we can and they cannot come soon enough.
Thank you. Somebody wants to know what our exit strategy is for our Solaris investment.
I'll take that one too, Christian. So what we've done right now is we've been very cooperative with Solaris and we've they had an interest in finding a block of stock. We were able to provide that for them. We have no further plans to divest any more of our shares for the foreseeable future. We are Very supportive of what Richard Wark and Dan Arol and their team are doing in Solaris.
They're doing a marvelous job. We are coming along for the ride and enjoying the run. The business plan with Solaris is to explore and sell. This is not a company that's planning to build a big copper mine in Equinor. They're trying to do what Richard Mark has done so very well with other companies in his fold in the last 10 years.
We're finding large companies to take on these assets. The Warrinsa mine or the Warrinsa copper deposit in Ecuador is of a grade and size that would be of interest to any major copper mining company on the planet. So I fully expect not too far away, Maybe this year, maybe next year, but not in 3 years that he'll get an offer he can't refuse and he will head to the exit And we will be more than happy to go to the accident along with them. And he knows that and we are going to hang on for the medium term expecting that's going to be a happy ending for all shareholders not too far away.
Thank you, Ross. We are well over time. So if there's questions that we didn't get to, my apologies, we will get back to you by phone or by email. I'm going to hand the call back now
Well, I only have one thing to say, which is a big thank you. Thank you to all of our shareholders and interested parties, people who are on this line, for your support. We are a young, very dynamic company. We've had a wonderful run, I think, so far. I hope you're feeling as proud as I am about how we've built into a real World Class Company in a very short amount of time.
And also, I hope you recognize that it takes a lot of effort by a lot of people in our management team to get there. So it's my thanks to the shareholders. It's also my big thanks to our Board of Directors and management team for getting us there. And I really look forward to reporting to you next year and the same time, same place on what a wonderful year we have in 2021 and what great promises we have in store for 2022. Thank you again.
Thank you. This concludes the conference for today. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.