Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Lundin Mining First Quarter 2023 results call and webcast. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, May 4th, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to CEO Peter Rockandel. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, operator. Thank you everyone for joining us today. I will draw your attention to the cautionary statements on slide two, as we will be making several forward-looking statements during the prepared remarks and likely during the Q&A. On the call to assist with the presentation and answer questions are Teitur Poulsen, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Juan Andrés Morel, our Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Before we discuss our results, I would like to compliment our team on an exceptional start to the year with health and safety. Our efforts across the company with visible self-leadership and the implementation of FRM, Fatal Risk Management, has brought a discipline that is already impacting our teams.
Health and safety has always been a key value at Lundin Mining. While we have made good progress, we will continue to strive for even greater results. Moving to our quarter. We delivered solid operating results across the portfolio, producing nearly 103,000 tons of copper equivalent metal. Copper production increased by approximately 10% over the fourth quarter of last year, with particularly strong performance from Candelaria and Chapada operating as per plan during the rainy season. Zinc production also increased 10% quarter over quarter, with the Zinc Expansion Project at Neves-Corvo continuing its ramp up and achieving record quarterly production in addition to Zinkgruvan performing well. With the strong operating performance, we generated attributable net earnings for our shareholders of over $145 million and adjusted EBITDA of over $335 million.
Operating cash flow, adjusting for the working capital draw, was $235 million. Free cash flow from our operations was over $70 million. Our balance sheet remains very strong with $1.7 billion of liquidity. As Teitur Poulsen will speak to, we are realizing the benefits from the foreign exchange hedging program entered into late last year. In April, we initiated a diesel hedging program to protect the operating cost structure at Candelaria. Our focus continues to be on growth. However, we will also continue to be very disciplined in how we allocate our capital. With yesterday's financial results, our board of directors has maintained our peer-leading regular dividend of CAD 0.09 per quarter, or CAD 0.36 on an annualized basis. On the growth front, we're very excited about our recent acquisition of Caserones.
I was in Chile last month with a number of my colleagues, and much of the integration work has begun. Both our Candelaria and Caserones teams are looking forward to working together to create even further value. It was evident after spending time with numerous government and regulatory officials that the transaction has been very well-received in country. Caserones complements our existing operations, and we believe will enable us to unlock synergies in the future as we integrate our teams and resources. In particular, Caserones' proximity to Candelaria will allow us to leverage our knowledge, experience, relationships, supply chains, and potentially existing infrastructure in the region. The transaction has immediately accreted among key cash flow and other financial metrics, and we will continue to maintain low financial leverage post the acquisition. We also continue to advance our large-scale Josemaria copper- gold project. Detailed engineering currently stands at 40%.
As I'm sure most on this call are aware, much has occurred in the Vicuña District since our acquisition of Josemaria, including our most recent purchase of Caserones. We will continue to progress our Josemaria project in a prudent manner and take into consideration many of our learnings over the last year with respect to the region. We announced the first mineral resource estimate for the Saúva deposit in February. The maiden estimate is nearly 180 million tons of indicated resource containing 1.3 billion lbs of copper and 1.1 million ounces of gold. We expect the estimate to increase with ongoing exploration efforts. At Candelaria, study work evaluating expansion of the underground mines to add roughly 20,000 tons of copper per year to the production profile has been completed.
With potential changes to mining royalties and taxation in Chile moderating from earlier proposals, we're looking forward to updating the study within any new information and making an investment decision upon receipt of our 2040 EIA. In summary, Lundin Mining delivered a strong first quarter and is well-positioned to deliver on our strategy of operating, upgrading, and growing a base metal portfolio that provides leading returns to our shareholders. I will now turn the call over to Juan Andrés to provide a summary of our production results.
Thank you, Peter. Well, as Peter mentioned before, we produced approximately 103,000 tons of copper equivalent metal in the first quarter. Copper production of 61,500 tons increased 9% over the fourth quarter of last year. Candelaria had a strong first quarter, processing over 7.2 million tons of ore. Chapada copper production declined quarter-over-quarter as expected with lower head grades and recovery rates as the operation managed the first quarter rainy season well, as Peter mentioned before. Copper production at Neves-Corvo, Eagle, and Zinkgruvan all increased over the fourth quarter of the last year.
Copper production is tracking well to annual guidance of 236,000-260,000 tons. Zinc-copper production increased 10% quarter-over-quarter to over 48,500 tons. Ramp-up of the zinc expansion project at Neves-Corvo progressed in line with plans, delivering its fifth quarter of sequential production improvement, with production increasing 13% over the fourth quarter of last year. Zinc production throughput increased 10% over the last quarter, processing 510,000 tons of ore and recovery improvements to 79%. Zinkgruvan has had a good start of the year, producing nearly 20,800 tons of zinc.
Zinc production is tracking well to annual guidance of 180,000-195,000 tons as production is expected to increase over the course of the year with initiatives to enable ZEP to consistently achieve nameplate capacity and recovery improvement. Nickel production of 3,700 tons was lower quarter-over-quarter as expected, with planned grade profile at Eagle. Both copper and nickel production at Eagle were impacted in the first quarter by unplanned downtime of one of the ball mills, which has been rectified, and rehabilitation work on the main ramp that limited ore production from Eagle East, as well as winter weather conditions in the upper peninsula to a lesser extent. Even with a slower-than-planned start of the year at Eagle, nickel production is tracking to our annual guidance of 13,000-16,000 tons.
Gold production was 36,000 ounces for the first quarter, with Candelaria having a strong start of the year and Chapada having operated through the rainy season as planned. Gold production continues to track well to our annual guidance of 140,000-150,000 ounces. All in all, an operationally strong start of the year. I will now turn the call over to Teitur to provide a summary of our financial results.
Okay. Thank you, Juan Andrés , and good morning, everybody. Moving to slide six, as Peter mentioned, we generated meaningful adjusted EBITDA, operating cash flow, and free cash flow from operations in the first quarter. Starting with the top line, we generated over $750 million in revenue. Our sales remain leveraged to copper, with the metal generating 70% of the quarter's revenue. Zinc and gold contributed 13% and 8% respectively, while nickel contributed 6%. Other revenues include sales of lead, cobalt, PGMs, iron, and other byproduct metals. With the price of copper and several of the other metals we produce increasing during the quarter, revenue was positively impacted by $40 million of prior period price adjustments. A summary of the realized copper, zinc, and nickel prices for the quarter are presented in the charts on this slide.
Ultimately, we realized prices of $4.49 per lbs of copper, $1.39 per lbs of zinc, $7.36 per lbs of nickel, and $2,074 per ounce of gold for the first quarter, including the adjustments. At the end of the first quarter, approximately 89,000 tons of copper were provisionally priced at $4.08 per lbs and remained open for final pricing adjustments, as did over 41,000 tons of zinc at $1.33 per lbs and over 2,000 tons of nickel at $10.75 per lbs. On slide 7, production costs totaled nearly $420 million in the first quarter, an improvement of 7% compared to the fourth quarter of last year.
The decrease is largely a result of improving prices of consumables, primarily at Candelaria and Neves-Corvo, and particularly diesel and electricity compared to those of 2022. The chart on this slide presents the relative impact of the key drivers on the total operating and capital costs by operation for the quarter. Candelaria's production cost improved 9% compared to the fourth quarter of last year, benefiting from the lower-rate electricity contract that commenced at the beginning of this year, which more than halved the per kWh cost quarter-over-quarter. The new PPA with our existing provider also ensures a minimum of 80% renewables in the energy mix, prioritizing wind and solar. The new three-year labor agreements with the two remaining unions were reached in the first quarter, impacting Candelaria's production costs and cash flow.
On a cash cost basis, the impact was $0.08 per lbs of copper in the first quarter. Candelaria's cash cost guidance of $1.80-$1.95 per lbs of copper in 2023 remains unchanged. Chapada production costs decreased roughly 20% compared to the fourth quarter of last year. While electricity and realized diesel prices did improve modestly, much of the quarter-over-quarter change owes to how the operation is managed during the rainy season, with a greater proportion of the mill feed being from previously stockpiled ores. Chapada's cash cost guidance of $2.55-$2.75 per lbs of copper in 2023 remains unchanged. Neves-Corvo production costs increased 9% compared to the fourth quarter of last year, primarily due to the higher zinc production volumes. Production costs benefited from the easing of inflationary pressure on consumable prices.
In particular, electricity, where the realized rate in the first quarter was less than half of that experienced for much of last year. Cash cost guidance is $2.10-$2.30 per lbs of copper in 2023, with improvement expected as zinc and lead production volumes increase with the continued ramp-up of ZEP towards nameplate. Eagle's production costs improved 10% quarter-over-quarter, though cash costs were impacted by lower nickel sales volumes. Cash cost guidance is for $1.50-$1.65 per lbs of nickel in 2023 and is currently trending higher with the expected year-on-year increase, primarily a reflection of the planned lower production volumes. Zinkgruvan production costs were consistent with those of the fourth quarter of last year.
Cash cost guidance is for $0.60-$0.65 per lbs of zinc in 2023, net of the lead and copper by-product credits. Capital expenditure are tracking well to our guidance with sustaining CapEx of nearly $160 million in the quarter compared to our full-year guidance of $700 million. Expansionary capital expenditure on the Rosmarinha project during the quarter were approximately $90 million in support of advancing the project, including the continuation of detailed engineering, procurement of long-lead equipment, and pre-construction activities such as road upgrades and geotechnical work. Lastly, on this slide, we continue to realize the benefits of our foreign exchange hedging program intended to provide better visibility on our USD requirements of future operating costs and CapEx. In the first quarter, we realized a gain of $14 million.
Additional unrealized gains bring the fair value of the unsettled contracts to $85 million at the quarter end. As Peter mentioned, in early April, we initiated a diesel hedging program to protect the operating cost structure at Candelaria, where we operate our largest open-pit mine. We have initiated diesel swaps representing approximately 75% and 50% of the attributable purchases we forecast for the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024, respectively. Our key financial metrics are presented here on slide eight. First quarter revenue, as I said, was over $750 million, which was a slight decline quarter-over-quarter, with $35 million less of positive pricing adjustments in the current quarter. We generated adjusted EBITDA of over $335 million, and adjusted earnings were over $125 million.
Adjusted operating cash flow was $235 million. Free cash flow from operation over $70 million. Details of the adjustments are broken down in our MD&A disclosure. We remain in a strong financial position. We finished the quarter in a very modest net debt position of $35 million, and today have a net debt position of approximately $93 million. We have significant liquidity of approximately $1.7 billion, and I think it's fair to say that the strength of our balance sheet and our funding capacity are two of the levers that enabled us to acquire Caserones. Upon closing of the acquisition, our leverage will remain conservative given our overall net debt ratio and the additional contribution of EBITDA from Caserones.
We will remain well on side with our debt covenants after closing of the Caserones transaction, and our liquidity headroom will also remain at a robust level. Based on our latest disclosed net debt position of $93 million, and coupled with the further drawing of $800 million upon closing of the Caserones transaction, would leave a net debt position of approximately $890 million before accounting for the likely net cash position that will exist within the Caserones locked box transaction mechanism. The transaction structure is centered on the locked box principle, with the locked box date being December 31st, 2023, with a zero debt and zero cash balance as at that date.
This means that by the time the transaction closes later this year, the company that we are acquiring a 51% stake in is likely to have accumulated a net cash position at the point of the transaction closing. Slide presents greater detail as to sources and uses of cash in the first quarter. Before changes in working capital, the direction of and timing of which is heavily swayed by provisional pricing, our operations generated $235 million in the first quarter, net of $40 million of cash taxes paid. Cash and cash equivalents at quarter end were approximately $185 million, a decrease of roughly $7 million, with cash flow from operation primarily used to fund sustaining and expansionary investments in our assets. With that, I will now turn the call back to Peter.
Thank you, Teitur. Slide 10 highlights the meaningful scale and material growth of our copper portfolio. As mentioned, we're very excited about the Caserones acquisition. Caserones complements our existing portfolio with large scale and long life copper and molybdenum production in a jurisdiction which we already operate in and know well. Over the last five years, Caserones has produced approximately 130,000 tons of copper concentrate and copper cathode plus moly. On a pro forma basis, Caserones would have increased our consolidated copper production by over 50% last year.
Closing the acquisition remains on track for the third quarter of this year, and our technical team is working hard to be in a position to publish an updated NI 43-101 technical report on or prior to closing. As Peter mentioned, we also have the option to purchase another 19% of Caserones for $350 million, and the effective date of the ownership is at the beginning of this year. We continue to make good progress advancing our world-class Josemaria copper gold project and continue discussions with potential partnership groups. We will continue to advance the project in a deliberate and disciplined manner. Candelaria's life of mine has been extended to 2046 with the mineral reserve estimate announced in February.
The base case plan of the corresponding technical report does not yet include the Candelaria underground expansion project, which has the potential to add roughly 20,000 tons of copper production per year, nor does it include the potential restart of the Alcaparrosa mine. Lastly on this slide, in February, we announced the maiden indicated resource estimate for the Saúva discovery and view it as the first of many iterations of increasing mineral estimates to come. I also want to take this opportunity to highlight the significant exploration potential within the emerging Vicuña district on our existing land package. At the top of the figure on slide 11, with Caserones, we will be acquiring a large package of over 58,000 hectares in Chile of highly prospective and underexplored land with several near mine targets ready for drilling.
The Caserones claims abut the land package of NGEx Minerals' large Los Palos copper-gold deposit, in addition to some of NGEx's more recent positive exploration results. The light green and pink shading on the map indicates our Josemaria land package and claims. Also illustrated is the planned Josemaria infrastructure, including the process plant, tailings facility, and the Batidero camp. We believe Josemaria is well positioned to be the center of future development and expansion for this emerging world-class district. Some of the top exploration targets on the Josemaria property are outlined on the map, including Potro Cliffs, Orcones, Los Palos, and Josemaria at depth. We will begin drilling on many of these targets this year. In conclusion, on slide 12, we have a very desirable portfolio of long-life quality mines and are advancing meaningful growth projects in a disciplined manner.
We delivered solid performance in the first quarter, leading to strong operating cash flows and a strong financial position from which to grow. We remain well positioned both operationally and financially to continue to deliver consistent results for the balance of the year and beyond. With that, operator, I would like to open the lines for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. If you would like to withdraw your request, please press star followed by two. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Ioannis Masvoulas from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Peter and team. Thanks for the presentation. Starting with Josemaria, it seems to me that the messaging has changed a bit. You haven't reiterated explicitly the timeline for a CapEx update in the second half of this year. You now refer to an updated EIA submission by Q2 2024, you show the slide on the Vicuña District optionality. What's your latest thinking here on the best way forward for Josemaria, what are the associated timelines? Maybe if you can share latest views around the optimal configuration and potential CapEx, that would be great. I'll stop here. Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks for the question. You know, we continue to progress the technical work, as mentioned in the presentation, but arguably, it's a good observation, probably at a bit of a slower rate. The reason it's a bit of a slower rate is really the findings that we've had over the course of the last year and then also taking into consideration the Caserones acquisition. We're trying to do a series of trade-off studies, which take time and whether or not we can benefit with some of the infrastructure that we now have in place. We just thought that would be a prudent approach given the materiality of some of that infrastructure.
You know, there has been a lot of exploration success in the region, and we just want to make sure that some of the decisions we've made with respect to positioning of the mill, et cetera, are still 100% the best decisions given the development in the region. You know, nothing major than just making sure we're making all the right decisions on that front. We're still pushing to make those decisions towards the end of this year. In parallel, we've been very busy on a lot of the partnership discussions, that hasn't slowed down. I've been on the road for the better part of the last few weeks in a few different jurisdictions. We are looking to maintain that kind of structure, if you will, of a partnership.
The other area maybe I would add is, you know, there has been information kind of coming out of Argentina with a few potential changes on how they deal with blue-chip swaps, currency controls, et cetera. Many of these things would have a pretty material positive impact on the project. You know, we're trying to get that information and take it into consideration. It's also difficult because it's an election year. You know, we're starting off with a provincial election, then moving to federal. Getting that information kind of finalized is arguably a bit slow at this timeline.
Understood. Thanks very much, Peter. That's very clear. I guess, to your last point, would you expect any major update on the fiscal front before the elections, or is it more of a 2024 story as things stand?
Yeah, I would be surprised if it comes out, you know, prior to the election. It could be a late, 2023 arguably, if not early 2024.
Perfect. Thank you. I'll join the queue again. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Ralph Profiti from Eight Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, team. Thanks for taking my questions. Peter, the MD&A at Josemaria talked about procurement of some long lead equipment. Just wondering, you know, what specifically those items are. Where have you needed to get into the queue, you know, even though this, you know, you're now going at a slower rate, is it sag, is it shovels, trucks? A little bit more specific on that would be helpful.
Thanks, Ralph. Yeah, it's more, we don't need to get in the queue. We were in the queue quite a long period of time ago, so it's mainly on the milling and crushing side. Most of those items, quite frankly, have been complete. Arguably, I would say at the end of the next quarter, there probably wouldn't really be any outstanding items in the long lead items, if you will, in the queue. It's just the ones that were ordered quite a period of time ago that are being completed as we speak. Those are the two areas in particular of focus.
Okay, great. Yep. You also talked a little bit about the Josemaria regional exploration on those three targets. Just wondering when we could get a little bit more of a concise strategy on regional exploration at Caserones, right? Does that sort of fall behind Josemaria in terms of its, you know, in terms of its priority? Or are you waiting just more until you get sort of integration of the asset to look at exploration?
I would say our exploration teams are already talking. I was just down in Chile for a pretty extended period of time and having meetings both with Caserones and Candelaria. The teams have really hit it off, which is great. I think this is going to be a pretty quick integration, if you will. We focus kind of phase two on the local synergies and then expanded synergies. We've got a fairly extensive process in place, and we have someone that actually is leading that process. From an exploration perspective, we've already come with a proposal for a budget at Caserones. Keeping in mind that there's about 58,000 hectares at Caserones, so it's a huge footprint, arguably double the size of Candelaria.
We have maybe eight or nine specific targets, and one of the ones that's of particular interest, if you recall, some of the most recent drill results that came out from Los Filados, were about 50 meters from the Caserones border. I think we have a pretty good understanding of the geology of that area, and that was, is gonna be a focus. You know, we are getting into the winter stretch right now, so we'll see what we can get done. I mean, there's no question that both Caserones and Josemaria are gonna be a huge focus for us this year and next year. We spent fair bit of time actually yesterday in our board meetings outlining the plan to our board.
That's good to hear. Thanks for that update.
Yeah.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Major from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Yeah, thanks for questions. First, just a question on the operational side. It was a good performance in Q1. If I look at the run rate of certain metrics, you look very well positioned versus the guidance for this year, particularly, if I look at the ramp up of the ZEP, Neves-Corvo. I mean, you previously indicated a sort of a sequential improvement in zinc production through the year, but the current sort of Q1 run rate would, you know, would certainly be achieving or above guidance. I guess, is there some upside risk or conservatism built in, particularly the Neves-Corvo guidance for this year? You could probably say something similar around the sort of run rates in terms of throughput at Candelaria. Yeah, if you could just give us a little bit more color there.
Morning, Dan. This is Juan Andrés . Thanks for the question. I think we put together a very strong and robust budget for the year, and Q1 is tracking according to the budget. At this time, we don't see a need to change any of the guidances in either Neves-Corvo or Candelaria.
Okay, thanks. The second question, at the time of presentation, when you announced the Caserones acquisition, you made some commentary around, I think it was a 45-day timeline before publishing, technical report or updated guidance on the asset. Can we get an update there, and should we expect that before the deal closes?
Thanks, Dan. It's Peter. Back to Peter here. Sorry. No, I think when we made the announcement, if you've made forward-looking statements, that then triggers a timeline for which you have to get the technical report out. Our thought is, you know, I think it's best to put the technical report out, if we can, exactly at closing. Therefore, we're gonna continue to maintain avoiding, you know, the forward-looking statements. Right now, from a closing perspective, we are tracking extremely well to probably the very early part of Q3. Yes.
Okay, thanks. One more if I could, just on the bigger picture around Josemaria and et cetera. I mean, you've mentioned in the past looking at multiple scenarios, you know, one stream being a sort of offtake type silent partner and the other selling, yeah, a larger stake to one of the big mining companies. Can you give us any color in your recent discussions as to which pathway is looking like the more likely option?
Yeah. I mean, I've been on the road a fair bit over the last few weeks and meeting with many of these different counterparties. I would say that the proposal that we said from the very beginning, which would be like many of the other South American big projects where perhaps you have a major in there and then maybe even a smaller trading house, that would be the most likely structure we would try to accomplish. The discussions we've had to date seem to be supporting that.
Just to be clear on that's more than one counterparty but with a major as an operator. Is that what we should be thinking?
Well, I would start off with probably one larger partner, as you said. Then it just does give you the opportunity to bring in someone smaller, but that would be a second stage approach.
Excellent. Thanks.
Okay. Hope that answers your question, sir.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Bryce Adams from CIBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks, Peter. Good morning. On the back of the Caserones announcement, I was gonna ask on, around potential upcoming changes to taxes and royalties in Chile. Can we get your updated thoughts on changes to the royalty bill and, when you think that we're likely to see a final outcome? Thank you very much.
Sure. Well, as I said, I was just down in Chile, and I found the tone was quite positive in this area. We had a great meeting with the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel. Myself and Juan Andrés spent a fair bit of time with him as well as the Minister of Mines. I would argue that their tone is being every time we meet with them, it's more and more moderated. In fact, when we were there was a proposal put forward for a cap at 47%, sorry, and, you know, that was rejected. The trend continues to go in the positive. It is a positive trend, so we're quite happy with that. Juan Andrés , I don't know if you want.
We were both in the same meeting. I think, you know, from where they first started talking way back when on some pretty high numbers, every time we have a meeting, it keeps getting better and better.
When was the 47%-48% cap rejected? I recall a 50% proposal, but that was going back to earlier in April.
Yeah. Three weeks ago approximately. It was a modification presented by the government to the bill.
All right. Perfect. Thanks for the updates. Appreciate it.
No problem, Bryce.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Greg Barnes from TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Peter, I just wanna go back to your answer to Ralph's question about the long lead items. Am I correct in understanding that all of the milling and crushing equipment, all the major components have been ordered or are in fabrication?
Yes.
Okay. I guess that's good news.
Yeah.
Um, secondarily-
I would say more than fabrication, they're basically complete.
They're complete. Okay. yeah. Secondarily, on Josemaria and the discussions with the government around the stability agreement, are you having sit down face-to-face concentrated discussions with them at this point? If not, when do you think you actually get to that point where you're sitting down with them and you're hammering out an agreement?
We've had those discussions, face-to-face, both at the provincial and federal level. In some cases, we've had, you know, actual agreement. I would say just last week there was further discussion, but it was not face-to-face. I have just my own personal view with the elections coming up, I suspect some of those face-to-face discussions in the near term may get a bit more challenging just to be able to hold.
Is there a structured process around this? Is there a set schedule about meetings and discussions and a working document that you're putting together to pull together a final agreement? I just wanna understand what the process is and, you know, how concentrated and how focused the discussions are.
Well, there's a working document, but as far as having it on a timeline, it's not quite that formalized. I think, again, it's just because, I mean, the reality is, you know, you could have a new governor in short order, right? That's why we're just taking a bit more of a cautionary approach on the timing, and some of that is actually spilling into, you know, the broader Josemaria timeline, if you will.
Okay.
'Cause you need to get those things out of the way.
Which things out of the way? Sorry.
Just the, you know, the elections.
Right. Obviously. Okay. Okay. Good enough. Thank you.
No problem.
Okay. Your next question comes from the line of Stefan Ioannou from Cormark. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks very much, guys. Just maybe just to follow up on Ralph's question as well, just on the exploration. Outside of Caserones on that slide you show on slide 11, do you think we'll actually see some drilling then at the Potro Cliffs and Portones and Las Perlas this year just, you know, given the success NGEx has had right there as well?
I think that is a very much a priority for us. You know, we've already started discussions on whether we can get a couple rigs over there. You have to just keep in mind that it is shifting into winter season, so that gets a bit challenging. I would say, from the Josemaria side, it is a very much a priority, and we have a view on which ones we should start with first, and we already have some locations in mind, and there's a budget with that would be allocated for it.
Okay, great. You guys have, like, permits or whatever required to go in and actually put a rig up on all those right now? Is that still in the works as well?
There's some areas where we have permits, some that are still awaiting.
Okay. Okay, great. Thanks very much, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Gordon Lawson from Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. I just have one easy one for you here. With respect to synergies, at Caserones, would that include a possible expansion of the SFPW plant through the Josemaria oxides?
No, we haven't taken that into consideration at this stage. I mean, perhaps it's something down the road, but, it hasn't been factored in. Most of the synergies that we're talking about right now will begin on the Chilean side and are focused with Candelaria and also, you know, heading all the way down towards Caldera with our pipeline, port desalination plant, things of that nature. The low-hanging fruit will be G&A, procurement and just sharing of knowledge and certain skill sets that are best achieved at Caserones or at Candelaria.
Okay, thank you very much.
My pleasure.
Okay. Your next question comes from the line of Jackie Przybylowski from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Actually, the question that Gordon just asked was basically what I was going to ask. Can you talk maybe about what we're going to see in the technical report that comes out? Are those synergies with Candelaria going to be included in that tech report, or would that be some future upside?
No, they wouldn't be included in the tech report. The tech report would be a standalone document. Our team's well advanced in that document. I wouldn't anticipate there would be any, you know, large surprises in it from previous years of operation. We already do, separate to that, have a formal strategy that we can, you know, perhaps, Jackie, go through, off the call, on how we plan to approach the different phases of potential synergies.
Okay, that sounds great. Thanks, Peter. If I can maybe ask, and I know you've sort of answered this already, but if I can just ask again because I just wanna be totally clear. On the elections that are coming up in Argentina, can you just talk a little bit about what news flow or what disclosures you might be releasing prior to the elections, or should we be expecting to wait on essentially, any kind of news flow from Josemaria until after those elections are finished? Can you just sort of spell that out for me?
Well, I guess I would say if we have material news, and it's pre any election results, we would put that news out.
Okay.
hold anything back. There are certain aspects of bilateral agreements or negotiations of that nature that are gonna be extremely hard to proceed, you know, as we get into the finale here on elections. Anything of that nature is probably arguably gonna come out on the backside.
Does that include the feasibility study? Updated feasibility study?
They're not linked. No, I don't think it'll have an impact.
Okay. Okay, thanks very much.
Thank you. Just a reminder, should you have a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. We have a follow-up question coming from the line of Ioannis Masvoulas from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you. Yeah, just a couple follow-ups from my side. First, Peter, to your point on the mining royalty bill in Chile, this 47% that was rejected, is that the all-in tax rate or is the actual tax rate higher than 45% as per that proposal? Just trying to figure out whether we are comparing apples to apples.
Yeah, it is the all-encompassing rate.
Perfect. Okay, that's clear. And then the other question I had is around the Alcaparrosa. How is the remediation work progressing there, and what's the timing for a regulatory decision about the possible restart?
I think myself and Juan Andrés will both answer that one. When we were down in Chile, about 10 days ago, I just wanted to mention that our meetings with, you know, the Minister of Finance, as I said earlier, a couple times with the Minister of Mines, Marcela Hernando, and other government officials, was really, really strong. I think the transaction with Caserones has put us in good standing with the government, especially given some of the headlines of other companies that have been a bit pushing back on the government. So we're getting extremely good support. That being said, it still does require permits to move the remediation process forward. We are out for bid right now with about five different companies that are gonna be part of that remediation process.
Once we get those permits, once we can determine, the, you know, the most appropriate, bid, that will begin, and it should move in pretty quick order, but I'll pass it on to Juan Andrés to add.
I don't think I have much to add to what you said, Peter, yes, we're working on different phases of the remediation and of course the potential reopening of Alcaparrosa in the second half of the year. As Peter said, Right now, all the studies or most of the studies have been completed. We're just waiting for the final permits from the different government agencies to proceed with the actual works.
I would just add, unfortunately, you know, from a permitting perspective, those are extremely hard for us to determine how long that takes.
Yes.
That's fair. Thank you both for the answers. Thank you.
Thanks for y.o.ur question.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Jones from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. It's just regarding a follow-up on Josemaria. Obviously, given the timeline is looking like it's taking a little while longer and, you know, formal approval is looking like it'd be some time post Q1, Q2 next year. You know, I just wanted to kind of inquire as to what kind of CapEx spend you could have on an ongoing basis prior to an FID decision. Obviously, the guidance this year is about $400 million. Is sort of $100 million per quarter a good rough estimate for what you'd spend pre-FID into next year? Also, is there sort of a limit that you would spend on a total aggregate basis prior to FID?
Yeah, I think there... I think first of all that the spend this quarter has come in a little bit below anticipated the original number. I think that trend will probably be similar for the back half of this year. I don't think until we actually have a definitive go-ahead decision that, you know, moving out into 2024, I think the number will be fairly moderated down until we make that actual decision. Because a lot of the bigger items were these some of these long lead items, and those will be complete this quarter.
Great. Thank you.
No problem.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Dalton Baretto from Canaccord. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, Peter and team. Just one question from me. With the center of gravity kind of coalescing now around copper and gold in the, you know, on the Chilean-Argentinian border, how should we think about your European businesses now? Are they still core to you given that, you know, they're geographically removed and, you know, big zinc component there?
I think they're still assets that we're very happy that are within our portfolio, in particular for starters, if you look at Neves-Corvo. You know, they've just had a great first quarter on health and safety, which we're very proud of them on. We've also seen the production ramp up. Obviously, it's been a challenging project, but we're now starting to get into that gradual ramp-up mode. I think there's going to be huge demand for zinc in Europe. You know, and Zinkgruvan has been an amazing asset within the portfolio for a long period of time. Happy to have both assets in our portfolio. If something changes, you know, one day down the future, we'll look at it differently, but right now they're a core part of our team.
Thanks, Peter. That's all for me.
No problem.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Rockandel for any closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. Thank you everyone for joining in today. I think Lundin Mining had a very good first quarter, in particular, as mentioned at the start, on health and safety, but also seeing the operational stability within the company. We're gonna be pretty vigilant going forward to ensure those two areas continue, and look forward to updating everyone on our Q2 conference call. Thank you for joining.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a lovely day.