Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to 2022's annual meeting of shareholders of McEwen Mining. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, we'll have question and answer sessions. You can submit questions or comments at any time by clicking the QA icon. To enter a question or comment, compose your question or comment at the bottom of the screen, and then click Send to submit. During the presentation, you will be able to follow the slides on the left-hand side of the screen. To extend the slides to the full browser view, click the Broadcast icon at the top right of the screen. To return to reduced view, click any icon at the top right corner of the screen. We will begin with the formal part of the meeting that will be followed by a company presentation.
It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief owner of McEwen Mining. Mr. McEwen, the floor is yours.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. Our agenda for the day will start with the formalities of an annual general meeting, and this will be led by our General Counsel, Carmen Diges. There are several special matters to vote on that Carmen will lead you through. After Carmen concludes the meeting, we'll move to a corporate presentation. It will begin with our Director and Interim Chief Operating Officer, Bill Shaver, who will provide an update on our operations. He'll be followed by our Senior Vice President of Exploration, Stephen McGibbon, who will review our exploration activities and the areas that we believe will grow our resource base and future production.
Next will be Michael Meding, our VP, Argentina, and general manager of our subsidiary, McEwen Copper, who will talk about our large copper asset and the advances we have made in enhancing its value. After which, Perry Ing, our interim CFO, will review our financials of 2021 and the year- to- date. I will conclude the presentation with a summary and then open the meeting for questions. Carmen.
Thank you, Rob, and good morning. I am Carmen Diges, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary for McEwen Mining. It's my pleasure to welcome all shareholders to our audio webcast this morning. At Rob's request and in accordance with our bylaws, I'll act as chairman for the meeting, and Mihaela Iancu, Investor Relations Manager of our corporation, will act as secretary for this meeting. A representative from Computershare is the inspector of election for our meeting and is also in attendance today. Today's virtual only meeting is really here for you so that we can engage with our shareholders as much as possible wherever they are located.
This technology enables us to reach you and safely hold our meeting, as I know a number of people are still in areas where health concerns due to COVID may be rampant. Today, we'll consider the election of directors for the ensuing year, proposed amendments to our second amended and restated articles of incorporation, proposed amendments to our incentive plan, and the ratification of our independent accountants. For convenience, certain persons have been asked to propose and second the resolutions. You do not need to vote if you've already voted by proxy, unless of course you wish to change your vote. All owners of record as of the close of business on April 28, 2022 are entitled to vote at this meeting.
Those wishing to vote received ballot when they registered with the scrutineers and will need to sign in using the link provided online, as well as your 15-digit control number provided on the proxy card or notice of availability of proxy materials previously received by you. If you would like to post a question or comment, you will need to click on the messages icon that you can see on your screen. Our Vice President of Corporate Development, Stefan Spears, will be managing questions for this meeting. A complete list of the owners of McEwen Mining as of the record date for the meeting of April 28, 2022, has been on file as required by law at McEwen Mining's office and was open to inspection by any owner at our office and upon request by email since April 28, 2022.
The list is also available online for inspection by any owner during this meeting. I have an affidavit from Computershare Trust Company, our stock transfer agent, attesting that the notice of this meeting, proxy statement, and report on Form 10-K and proxy were mailed and made available to shareholders of record as of April 28, 2022, in the manner prescribed by law on June 16, 2022. Copies of these documents are available today to any owner who would like them. If you'd like a copy of our annual report or our proxy statement, the links are provided online for you. There are a total of 474,275,626 shares outstanding and entitled to vote today. I received the interim inspector's report on attendance.
Our articles require 1/3 of the outstanding shares entitled to vote at this meeting for a quorum. On that basis, I declare that a quorum is present. I also declare that this meeting is duly convened. The first item of business is the appointment of our election judge. I have appointed Computershare Trust Company of Canada to act as election judge and inspector of election for the purposes of tabulating votes at this meeting. The next item of business is the approval of the minutes of our last meeting held on June 29, 2021. Copies are available for inspection by any interested owner. With your consent, I propose we dispense with the reading of these minutes. Is there any objection? You may submit objections or questions online by clicking on the messages icon on your screen.
No questions or objections have been raised.
Thank you, Stefan. The polls have been open for voting since April 28, 2022, and will remain open until 5:00 P.M. today, as declared on our proxy statement regarding this meeting. We will vote on these matters by online ballot and provide an interim result of voting on each item of business today. Management believes it has sufficient proxies to carry each of these proposals, and as such, the outcome is expected in favor of management's recommendation. If you did not vote by proxy and intend on voting at the meeting and you have not yet been informed of the procedure for online voting, please read the online voting instructions available to shareholders in the Files section on your screen. The first item of business is the election of directors to serve until the next annual meeting of owners and until their successors are duly elected and qualified.
Mr. McEwen Mining's Chairman and CEO, will now recognize the eight persons nominated for election to the board of directors.
Thank you, Carmen. The board has nominated the following persons to serve as directors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting of McEwen Mining and until their successors are duly elected. Allen Ambrose, Ian Ball, Richard Brissenden, Robin Dunbar, Dr. Donald Quick, Dr. Maryse Bélanger, William Shaver, and myself, Robert McEwen.
Is there a second to the nominations?
I second the nominations.
The corporation has received no other nominations for directors in the manner prescribed by the corporation's bylaws. I therefore declare that the nominations for directors are closed. Is there any discussion regarding this matter? If so, again, please communicate using the messages icon on your screen.
No questions or points of discussion have been raised.
Thank you again. We will now move on to the next item of business, which is the proposed say on pay compensation. The frequency with which shareholders of our company shall be entitled to vote on the compensation of our named executive officers receiving the highest number of votes will be approved. Robert McEwen will make the necessary motion to approve the amendments.
I move that the following resolution be adopted. Resolves that the proposed amendments to the frequency with which shareholders of our company shall be entitled to vote on the compensation of our named executive officers be approved.
Thank you very much, Rob. Is there a second to the motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you. You've heard the motion. Is there any discussion regarding this matter?
No questions or points of discussion have been raised.
Thank you. We'll now move on to the appointment of auditors. This is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as auditors and independent registered public accountants of the corporation for the year ended December 31, 2022. The audit committee of the board of directors has approved the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP and recommends ratification of their appointment. Robert McEwen will make the necessary motion.
I move that the following resolution be adopted. Resolve that the proposal to grant the board the discretion to amend the second amended and the restated articles.
Not quite there yet, Rob. I know, I know everyone's chomping at the bit to get through the exciting part of business here.
I move that the following resolution be adopted. Resolved that the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the corporation's independent registered public accountants for the year ending December 31, 2022 be ratified and approved.
Thank you, Rob. I'm sure Ernst & Young appreciates that resolution. Is there a second to the motion?
Let's skip over it.
I second the motion.
You've now heard the motion. Is there any discussion regarding this matter?
No questions or discussion.
Thank you. The next item of business is the proposal that would grant the board the discretion to amend our second amended and restated articles of incorporation to effect a reverse split of our outstanding common stock on a ratio of not less than 1-for-5 and not more than 1-for-10.
I move that the following resolution be adopted. Resolve that the proposal to grant the board the discretion to amend the second amended and restated articles of incorporation to effect a reverse split be ratified and approved.
Thank you, Rob. Is there a second?
I second the motion.
Thank you, Mihaela. You've heard the motion. Is there any discussion?
No questions or points of discussion have been raised.
Thank you, Stefan. The last item of business before this meeting formally is the ratification of amendment to our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation to reduce the number of shares of common stock that we are authorized to issue from 675 million- 200 million.
You want me again?
Thank you again, Rob. Thanks.
All right. I move that the following resolution be adopted. Resolve that the amendment to the Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation that would reduce the number of shares of common stock from 675 million- 200 million be ratified and approved.
Thank you very much, Rob. Is there a second?
I second the motion.
Thank you, Mihaela. You've heard the motion. Any discussion?
No questions or points of discussion have been raised.
Thanks again, Stefan. If you've not voted or wish to change your vote, you may do so by clicking on the link provided online. Any shareholder who has already voted and does not want to change their vote need take no further action. As I said earlier, the online voting will remain open until 5:00 P.M. today. The final tally of the vote and report on ballot of the election judge will be published on the SEC website and on SEDAR within four business days of the meeting and in the minutes of the meeting as well. Based on the preliminary review of the votes cast, the election judge has informed me that all nominees for the board of directors have been elected.
The amendments to the second amended and restated articles of incorporation have been approved, and the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's auditors has been ratified. We will safeguard any ballots, proxies, affidavit of mailing oath and certificate and report of inspector and save them with the records of this meeting. On the basis of the election judge's preliminary report, I'm pleased to announce that Robert McEwen, Allen Ambrose, Ian Ball, Richard Brissenden, Robin Dunbar, Dr. Donald Quick, Maryse Bélanger, and William Shaver have all been elected as the corporation's directors. The amendments to the named executive officer compensation have been adopted.
The amendments to the frequency with which shareholders vote on executive compensation have been adopted. The ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the corporation's independent registered public accountants for the year ended or ending December 31, 2022 is approved.
The proposal of the reverse stock split is approved. Finally, the ratification to reduce the authorized number of shares is approved as well. Thank you. Are there any other items to be considered at this owner's meeting? If not, I would entertain a motion to terminate the meeting of McEwen Mining.
Before terminating the meeting, I would like to recognize contributions of two long-standing directors that are no longer with us, Michael Stein and Michele Ashby, who have been with us for this long journey, and we will miss them immensely. I hereby move that the meeting be terminated.
I second that motion.
Unless anyone is opposed, and I think that would be a precedent for any meeting, the formal portion of this meeting is now terminated. Stefan, just if you could confirm there are no oppositions.
Confirmed.
Thank you. I declare the formal part of the meeting terminated, but don't go anywhere. I know you're all gonna be excited to hear from my colleagues about the updates and their anticipated plans and guidance for the coming year.
Thank you, Carmen. I'd now like to turn the meeting over to our director and Interim Chief Operating Officer, Bill Shaver.
Thanks, Rob. Good morning, shareholders. The first part of this presentation has to do with the 2022 production and guidance. For the Fox Complex in Timmins, the gold equivalent oz for the year- to- date is 19,600 oz, and you will note that the production of gold in the second quarter was significantly higher than the first quarter, that being 11,900 oz versus the 7,700 oz in the first quarter. We anticipate that this production, higher production rate will continue in the third and fourth quarter, which will lead us to a position where the Fox Complex will meet guidance for the year. The cash costs. Well, maybe I'll go to the Gold Bar Mine first.
The Gold Bar Mine, in the second quarter, had a lower oz production of 5,300 oz opposite the 6,300 oz, and I'll make some comments with regard to that later in the presentation. The total production for year-to- date is 11,600 oz, and we anticipate higher production in Q2 or Q3 and Q4, which will again put us in a position to meet probably the lower end of guidance. The two operations in North America have cash costs between $1,310 and $1,410 per gold equivalent oz, and all-in sustaining costs of $1,570-$1,690 per oz.
The San José Mine in Argentina, which is a 49% joint venture with Hochschild Mining, had a very good second quarter relative to the first quarter, with a total production for the half year being 18,550 oz of gold and 971,000 oz of silver for a total gold equivalent of 30,500 oz. You'll note the production was significantly almost double the second quarter relative to the first quarter. We expect production in the third and fourth quarter to follow the second quarter, and this will allow us to meet guidance for the year. The all-in sustaining cost at San José will be between $1,330 and $1,370 per oz.
The total production for the organization, this will be our share, is for the half year 61,535 oz. With improvements at Fox, Gold Bar, and San Jos é in the second half of the year, the guidance will stay between 153,000 gold equivalent oz and 172,000 gold equivalent oz. Next, thank you. In Timmins at the Fox Complex, which includes the Froome Mine, Froome production is ahead of schedule, both in terms of tons and oz, and mine development is on target. Total mill recovery is slightly higher than budget. We also have, because of the better production from the mining operation, we have approximately 60,000 tons of ore sitting on surface ahead of the mill.
We are in fact in a process of improving the productivity of the mill by de-bottlenecking some of the processes within the mill, and we anticipate completing that work in the third quarter, which should improve the number of tons that we're able to put through the mill. This will help us through to year-end and allow us to meet guidance for the year. We also are having reasonable success with our exploration program at Froome, and we anticipate that this will allow us to produce into 2025. Stephen McGibbon, our VP of Exploration, will bring you up to date on our exploration program. On the right of this slide, you can see the mining operations that we are involved in. The present operations are the ones that are noted primarily above the 225 level.
The ones that will help extend the mine life are those between the 225 level and the 260 meter level. As you can see from the size of that pink area above 260 level, we anticipate being able to follow some of that ore lower into the mining operations. On this next slide, we have the gold production opposite the guidance for the Fox Complex. As you can see, early in the year, we were not meeting our production guidance, and we weren't meeting our schedules. The last two months have been significantly better, and we anticipate that this trend will continue through to year-end, again, allowing us to meet guidance for the year.
At the San José operation, which as you know is a large property position that we have adjacent to the Cerro Negro mine, we are on track to meet annual guidance. The reserves at the present time are silver at 342 g per tonne, and the gold grade is 5.7 g per tonne. As you can probably see, these are significantly higher grades, say, than our operation in Timmins. Also, the mine life in Argentina will extend for at least 6 more years. The 2022 estimate of production is 2.5 million oz-2.8 million oz of silver and 34,500 oz-38,500 oz of gold, with costs for silver at between $18.50 and $19, and gold between $13.30 and $13.70 equivalent oz.
Moving on to the Gold Bar operation. We have included a picture of the principal elements of the mining operation at Gold Bar. To the left of the picture, you can see the snow in the far hills, but directly in front of that is the heap leach operation, and that's where the gold is extracted from the material that we bring out of the pit. In the middle of the page is the office and warehouse complex. To the right of the page is the processing plant and the mechanical maintenance shop. You can see it's a very well laid out and organized site. To the right of the picture is the mining operations in general, in terms of their location in Nevada, and also to give you some notion of all of the faults that are involved.
Again, Stephen McGibbon will give us a very good update later in the presentation. In the first half of 2022, the mining contractor was troubled with manpower recruitment, which is an issue in all parts of Nevada and also, as you know, in other parts of the world. The manpower recruitment is being addressed by the contractor with help from the Gold Bar staff, and we're doing that both in terms of financial support and also in terms of human effort support. In Q2, the production was less than scheduled due to some carbonaceous ore that we encountered in one of the open pits, which required a drilling program to identify the location of this carbonaceous material.
We've also taken some opportunities to start mining in the second half of the year in some areas where we are pretty confident that we will not hit any of this carbonaceous material. We are also organizing in the fourth quarter to start mining in the Gold Bar South pit operation. This ore has no carbonaceous material, and the ore in this pit will be significantly higher than the grades in the operations that we have been running up to this point. Again, we anticipate that this will improve production in the third and fourth quarter and allow us to meet guidance for the year. On this slide, we see the actual production in the orange columns versus the budget.
You can see that in the months of April, May, June, we've fallen short of meeting our guidance in those particular months. We anticipate that production in the last six months of the year, both from the Gold Bar operation and from Gold Bar South will be higher than anticipated, and therefore we will meet guidance for the year. With that, I will turn it over to Stephen McGibbon, who will give us some insight into our exploration activities.
Thank you, Bill. Good morning, all. I think the Fox Complex is not just a good address, but a great address. Our Fox Complex properties have more than 3.3 million oz of historic and recent gold production and enjoy consistent exploration success that includes growth of mineral resources that offset mining depletion. The map above shows our property locations well situated along the prolific Destor-Porcupine fault zone just south of Timmins, east of Matheson, and at the Stock Property midway between the two. The Destor-Porcupine fault zone and Timiskaming sediments are recognized as key geological elements associated with most of the 70 million oz of gold that have been historically mined in this camp. These key geological elements reside on all three of our properties.
Gold mineralization is structurally controlled in primary faults and secondary splays in this region, and we have more than 30 km of such structures on our properties. Mineral resources on the Fox Complex properties include nearly 2 million oz of gold in the measured and indicated categories, and a further 500,000 oz in inferred. At the beginning of the year, we earmarked some $7.5 million for exploration in 2022 at the Fox Complex. Next slide. On surface, we again highlight the location of key fault structures that have influenced creation of three mineral deposits, including Froome, Grey Fox, and Black Fox.
At the southeast end of the property, Grey Fox is our largest and highest grade mineral resource, comprised of nearly 1.2 million oz of gold grading 4.8 g per ton in the indicated category, and 236,000 oz of inferred material at 4.35 g per ton. Despite the size of the resource at Grey Fox, we still see real opportunities to grow it further. Two holes drilled in 2021 are profiled on the western edge of the deposit. They include 21GF-1350 and 21GF-1333, having returned 7.29 g per ton over 15.4 m and 5.33 g per ton over 21.2 m respectively. This target area will be further drill tested during the current Q3 period.
I also want to draw your attention to the elongated ellipse, which highlights the Froome Mine and the Gibson-Couloir fault that continues to the southeast. Exploration along this trend toward Grey Fox remains attractive. The Froome Mine is hosted in sedimentary rocks, and we believe similar conditions can exist along the Gibson-Couloir fault zone generally. Gold mineralization is also hosted proximal to the A1 and Destor faults to the east. Part of our flow-through funds raised early this year will support additional exploration at Grey Fox. The Froome Mine has been producing gold for just over a year now on our easternmost property. In 2021, we successfully extended the mine life by a year and have a goal to replace mining depletion in 2022 as well. We believe the greatest opportunity to do that is to drill at depth.
Results have been trending positively in 2022, and the mineralization remains open. When compared to Black Fox, mineralization at Froome is shallower, more consistent, and overall, a little wider. The image shown is a longitudinal section of the mine profiling a heat map of grades times thickness. Warmer colors highlight higher values. The heat map is a simple way to show the distribution and nature of gold mineralization at Froome, and is a very good backdrop to profile selected drill intercepts that we are showing on our longitudinal section drilled during Q1 and Q2. Our budget for the Froome exploration program in 2022 is $3.6 million and includes more than 37,000 m of drilling. The Stock Property resides midway between Timmins and Matheson and has 8 km of the Destor-Porcupine fault zone tracing through it.
In addition, a splay or fault known as the Nighthawk fault also tracks through the property for an additional 5 km. Again, heat maps are used to portray the location of gold mineralization that includes 137,000 oz of past production at the historic Stock mine and initial mineral resource estimate at the Stock West deposit of 144,000 oz of indicated resources at 3.83 g per ton and 111,000 oz of inferred mineralization at 3.3 g per ton, supported by the preliminary economic assessment reported on in Q1. The Stock property is the location of our Fox Complex mill and is not encumbered by gold streaming agreements.
If we now change from plan view to a longitudinal view looking to the north, you can see several areas with attractive drilling results that warrant more exploration. We see potential for the Stock West deposit to grow further. In the center of the image to the left, the cluster of holes located below old mine workings dominated by S21-202, S18-31, and S19-095, are currently poorly understood and remain highly attractive. This area will see additional drilling before the end of the year, and that drilling will target trend lines shown by two red lines, along the trend of the Stock West deposit and down plunge of the Stock mine that we use as a guide to search for areas, that may be our next discovery, be it along the trend or at intersections of multiple trends. Next slide.
Let's now leave Canada and review our exploration program underway in Nevada at our Gold Bar property. As with the Fox Complex properties, our Carlin deposit properties in Nevada are influenced by important structural controls. Nevada is, of course, a tier one gold jurisdiction with large world-class deposits occurring in both the Carlin and Cortez trends. South of Nevada Gold Mines' Cortez cluster of deposits are two property holdings of McEwen Mining, Tonkin and Gold Bar. Tonkin hosts an indicated mineral resource of 1.45 million oz, grading 1.41 g per ton gold. Gold Bar's indicated resource of 452,000 oz of gold at 0.19 g per ton augments historic and recent production of 575,000 oz.
These deposits are on trend with the Cortez Complex to the north and have similar rocks, alteration, and mineralization styles. As well as major faults and structural traps recognized as important to the elements of those world-class deposits. This schematic plan view of the Gold Bar property profiles the many faults that have been traced through it, where our geologists have identified and ranked multiple attractive exploration targets that will see work in 2022. I want to now focus on the Atlas target shown to the left of the image, as it is at a more advanced stage of understanding than both Pot Canyon and Cabin South, and is currently being drilled to test a number of attractive sets. Next slide.
The Atlas Mine has past production of 286,400 oz of gold, and was the highest grade producer of all previous mining sites on the Gold Bar property. Its production grade of 2.5 g per ton gold is more than three times higher than the current mining at the Gold Bar Mine. Hole DH5-303 at the southeast end of the pit is the highest grade historic drill intercept of the Atlas ore body and highlights the attractiveness of potentially making a similar discovery in the current campaign. Four areas shown on the map are being tested in 2022 and include Atlas East, which is following up on a 2021 drilling intercept of 3.1 g per ton gold over 27.4 m.
The footwall fault target that hosts mineralization sporadically drilled in the past. Atlas South, where a 2021 gravity survey suggests potential may still exist in that direction. We have also conducted an initial sonic drill program on the west dump to the southwest of the Atlas mine. The mine had a cut-off grade that was much higher than typical cut-off grades at Gold Bar today, and it is possible the waste material from the past could be an opportunity for McEwen Mining today. Assay results on this are pending. Next slide. I mentioned the 2021 gravity survey on the previous slide. The warmer yellow and red colors shown here are interpreted to highlight a shallower bedrock depth and thus potential for open pit mining.
The historic open pit is shown in the black outline, along with a series of faults to the west, east, and south as shown on the image in red circles, and suggests the mineral potential at Atlas remains attractive. We rank this target area very highly and will continue to work here in the second half of the year. Finally, Bill mentioned our San José mine. Our San José property, which is a joint venture with Hochschild Mining, our 49% interest, will have total exploration of $8.8 million in 2022 on a 100% basis. San José Mine proper and Saavedra are the two target areas that have been drilled during the course of the first half of the year, and we plan up to 12,000 m of drilling overall this year.
In Q1, a little over 2,000 m of exploration drilling was conducted, and we show at the bottom left some of the better results that came from that program. That concludes the exploration portion of the presentation. Thank you.
Thank you, Stepen. Continuing with Argentina. My name is Michael Meding. I'm the VP for McEwen Copper, an upcoming copper developer, majority owned by McEwen Mining. I'm also the general manager for the huge Los Azules copper project in San Juan in the highly prolific copper gold belt in the Andes between Argentina and Chile, where a significant part of the world's copper is produced. I'm happy to present Los Azules, which is located in the province of San Juan, where I worked in executive positions for Barrick Gold Corporation in the past, and that I know quite well, as my family and I have lived there for about 10 years. What you see in this slide is the picture of the body where the currently discovered mineralization is located.
What is additionally important to see is there are no white glaciers surrounding our project, and it is at low altitude. We are showing you now a short video about the project and our thinking related to it before I continue with the presentation.
I think mining can be really good for Argentina. Here in Canada, mining is continually either the top paying industry or the second highest paying industry in the country. If you look at Argentina in terms of wages paid, mining is number one.
I think that the Los Azules project has great potential to be a very important bridge between Argentina and Canada.
San Juan, year after year, ranks very highly in the Fraser Institute report of the attractiveness of mining jurisdictions worldwide. In the last report, it ranked number one, not only number one compared to the other provinces in Argentina, but number one in Latin America.
I hope you like the impression. Mining Intelligence has ranked Los Azules as a top ten undeveloped copper project by resource. Some of the other projects in very challenging environments, either geographically or jurisdictionally. Los Azules is located at relatively low altitudes between 3,200 and 3,600 m above sea level in the mining-friendly jurisdiction of San Juan that has seen mining with major companies for more than 15 years. San Juan in Argentina being rated consistently highly for investment attractiveness as rated by the well-known Canadian Fraser Institute. The latest rating of San Juan was number one in Latin America, above that of countries such as Chile or Peru. This slide compares different mining projects by cost. Incentive price versus payback cumulative production that was done by Goldman Sachs based on information from each company at their respective times.
The circle number compared to the prior slide's ranking of mining projects by resource, as was done by Mining Intelligence. As you can see, Los Azules is in the lowest cost quartile and is very attractive even at lower copper prices. This is mainly due to its low altitude location and low stripping ratio, initial higher grade for quick payback of up to 0.9% copper. El Pachón and Josemaría, both projects in the same province boxed on the right side in red, sit on the highest quartile in terms of cost for comparison. Josemaría was just acquired by Lundin Mining for about $485 million with less life of mine and lower grade. What is our vision? Our vision is to create a mine with a net positive impact that is mindful of the ecological and social environment.
For us, this means to be a regenerative mine and that will bring copper, a critical mineral for the future of our energy transition towards more sustainable living for all. Chile and Peru, countries that have added significant uncertainty over the last years, combined produce about 40% of the annual copper production, which is around 20 million tons. As I mentioned before, San Juan is in a mining-friendly jurisdiction with several important projects operating and developing. This is where we are located. Copper, as per Goldman Sachs, is the new oil, and CRU Group, you know, business intelligence company for mining and metals, expects world copper demand to rise 2.1% year- over- year to about 28.5 million metric tons by 2030 in a recent publication. They have strong copper fundamentals for demand going forward.
With worldwide falling rates of operating mines, falling productivities and ever more difficult permitting in the top producing countries for expansions of new projects. We believe this will support positive copper price developments going forward. At the same time, Argentina has become more attractive and now sees mining as key for economic development also on national level. We are currently in process of updating our preliminary economic assessment from 2017 to be finished beginning of 2023, which will be forming the technical document compliance with NI 43-101 and S-K 1300 standards and will be used in our IPO in the first half of 2023. We are incorporating new drill results as well as our learnings from our hyperspectral scanning of all historic and new core.
Hyperspectral generates significant amounts of data, is big data technology that will help with AI and machine learning to optimize our understanding of the mine. With the drilling and the hyperspectral data, we update our mineral resource estimates, expect to upgrade our resources, improve on our mine and processing plan, and from the beginning, work with Whittle Consulting from Australia to design a mine that suggests to be significantly bigger than what was outlined before. Next slide, please. As you know, Los Azules is among the largest copper deposits in the world. What is presented on this slide on the left is what are the steps that have been taken in the past to 2021, what have we done in the first half of the year, and what are we going to do forward technically on the ground?
Up to 2021, this deposit has seen 66,000 m of drilling, 202 holes, with S-26 of them stopping in mineralization. In 2022, we drilled 13.5 km in 29 mostly inclined holes to better understand the structure of the deposit, six of them ending in mineralization. We have incorporated high-tech big data analyzers for core scanning to improve geological and mining and metallurgical knowledge for more efficient PEA and subsequent technical study work. On the right side, you see the pit shell, and in green, you can visualize the inferred resources that we aim to upgrade. Almost 2.7 billion tons at copper estimated grade of 0.33%. 3.8 million oz of gold and 135 million oz of silver.
In orange, you see our indicated tonnage, almost 1 billion tons, 962 million at a rate of 0.48 estimate, with 1.7 million oz of gold and 55.7 million oz of silver. To give you an idea about the size of the inferred resource extent north to south, it's about 4.3 km or 43 football fields and extend 1.2 km wide or 12 football fields. You see across the deposit four sections, 30, 36, 40, and 48, which I'm going to talk about in the next slides as there you can see our encouraging drilling results. The distances between the section lines, those are the red lines on the right sides, are from 30 to 36, is about 300 m or 3 football fields.
36-40 is about 200 m or two football fields. 46, 40-48 is 400 m or four football fields. Let's talk about the section number 48. This slide represents a cut through the deposit from overburden to leached to enriched to primary and shows the different drill holes and the assay results. The blue line is the 30-year pit shell. This is important because you can see that there's significant mineralization below that pit shell. Our drill hole, AZ-22-149, shows 298 m or about three football fields of 0.55% copper, including 54 m of 1.38% of copper and ends in mineralization below the 30-year pit shell you can see in blue. This is the next section, 48.
In light blue on the left side, you see the results from the prior section, approximately 400 m from this section, and you can observe that drill hole AZ-22-146 has corresponding results with 330 m or 3.3 football fields of 0.83% copper, including 103.4 m of 1.31% copper, and ends in mineralization below the 30-year pit outline, suggesting high grade continuity between those sections. On this section, approximately 200 m or two football fields south of the prior section, we show drill hole AZ-22-142, which resulted in 419 m of 0.79% copper, including 46 m of 1.59% copper with a significant part of the drill hole below the 30-year pit line with high grade mineralization.
On this slide, we show drill hole results from hole AZ-22-158, which resulted in 220 m of 0.95% copper, including 44 m of 1.38% copper, suggesting again a continuity of high grades in this zone. As on prior slides, you also see deeper holes with mineralization, some of them touching interesting anomalies that I'm now going to talk about. In this slide, you see on the right a 3D outline in gray of the topography and of the pit outline in green. The cross-cut section represents Titan geophysical survey results from south to north that I'm going to talk about in the next slides, and that suggests interesting further exploration targets going forward. Next slide, please.
What we see here in this slide are drill holes touching certain parts of geophysical anomalies in the southern part of the deposit. Some of them touching anomalies showing higher grades. Therefore, we believe that on the lower left-hand side, where we see a significant anomaly, this could be an interesting deeper exploration target. With further information from our current drilling campaign, compared with the significant data that we get from our hyperspectral drill, hyperspectral analysis of our drilling core, those can be better defined as priority for further exploration work. Slide, please. As mentioned, we have a significant amount of anomalies as future exploration targets. Beyond having already one of the top 10 mines measured by resource according to Mining Intelligence, as I said before.
First priority anomalies are generally larger targets at least 200 m across and are consistent with classic porphyry and near-porphyry mineralization and alteration models seen elsewhere. Four of the priority anomalies are generally deeper and larger. To recap, at the southern end of the deposit, two deep anomalies represent significant targets consistent with mineralization models seen at other porphyry copper deposit in the prolific Andean , comparable to El Teniente and Chuquicamata. Our upcoming drilling campaign is focused on resource delineation, geotechnical, hydrogeology, and hydrology.
We have now a second road access established, and we are doing metallurgical test work to increase the robustness of our PEA, as well as to evaluate different flow sheets to further optimize our business case with the aim of being more economic, producing better products. So far, we have raised $55 million in the first two tranches and are adequately funded to complete the updated preliminary economic assessment to NI 43-101 and S-K 1300 standards. Have a strong team in place for this work, the upcoming drilling season, and the planned IPO in the first half of next year. I'm handing over to my colleague, Perry, our CFO. Thank you.
Thanks, Michael. I'll finish the presentation with a brief review of our prior operating and financial results. Production in 2021 of 154,400 gold equivalent oz was towards the high end of our guidance range of 141,000 oz-160,000 oz, and up 34% for the year compared to 2020, despite continued challenges from COVID-19. On a financial basis, this translated into a consolidated net loss of $56.7 million or $0.12 a share, primarily related to $35 million spent on exploration expenditures at the Fox and Gold Bar properties, as well as expenditures to advance the Los Azules copper project.
From the company's 100% owned operations, we reported a gross loss of $5.6 million in Mexico and $3.3 million in Nevada, offset by $2.4 million in operating gross profits at Fox. At our San Jos é mine, we reported a $7.5 million loss on the operations in connection with our 49% ownership. I would note, despite the GAAP loss reported, the company received total dividends of $9.8 million during 2021 from San Jos é . D&A expenses totaled $11.4 million for the year, and partially offsetting these amounts, was $3.7 million of other income, including COVID-19 relief amounts received of $3.5 million. Flipping forward to 2022 first quarter. The first quarter of the year was a challenging quarter. Yeah. Thanks, Casper.
A challenging quarter from the production standpoint due to COVID-19 and other operating issues encountered, which Bill Shaver noted earlier and is reflected in our lower-than-planned oz produced, elevated cash costs and all-in sustaining costs for the quarter. Since then, Q2 production has recovered well, and production is up approximately 50% compared to the first quarter, attributable to strong operating performance at both Fox and San José. As Bill noted, Gold Bar is expected to have a much stronger second half of 2022. Turning to our final slide, in terms of presenting our balance sheets. In the first half of 2022, we were busy from a capital raise perspective as the company successfully raised a total of $45 million.
$15 million was raised as flow-through financing for the Fox Complex to fund exploration through the end of 2023. $15 million was raised from Rob as unsecured debt to augment the company's working capital position, and a $15 million tranche was raised from our McEwen Copper subsidiary to advance Los Azules as Michael just described. Thus, the company has a strong balance sheet going into the second half of the year. With that, I'll now turn the presentation back to Rob.
Thank you, Perry. Last year, we made a strategic decision. We reviewed our portfolio of mines and properties to identify which one had the potential to be world-class and producing the most powerful positive impact for all of us shareholders in the intermediate term. The decision was easy. It was Los Azules, because the copper price had more than doubled to over $4 a pound in the past two years, and Los Azules preliminary economic assessment, calculated at $3 a pound copper, had robust economics and a 36-year mine life. To realize this potential, we needed a substantial amount of money, $60 million-$80 million, to advance the project, money that McEwen Mining didn't have and would be expensive for McEwen Mining to raise.
We decided to create a copper development company in order to raise the funds necessary to showcase and build the value of our giant Los Azules copper project. I personally provided the lead order of $40 million, and to date, we've raised $55 million. We were convinced that by addressing the areas for further improvements pointed out by the majors who looked at Los Azules, that we would be able to increase Los Azules' value. In doing so, significantly strengthen McEwen Mining's balance sheet since McEwen Mining would be the majority shareholder and retain a royalty on the property. As you heard from Michael, based on the preliminary economic assessment, Los Azules is considered one of the world's largest undeveloped copper projects and would be in the lowest quartile of the cost curve for such projects. What could it be worth?
To try to answer that question, let me compare Los Azules to another copper project located in the same mining-friendly province of Argentina as Los Azules. The Josemaría deposit was purchased for $485 million earlier this year. Now, when compared to Los Azules, Los Azules total resources are 116% larger. Its copper grade is 13% higher. Its projected CapEx is 23% lower. Its after-tax NPV is 46% higher. Its internal rate of return is 31% higher than Josemaría. Los Azules also has the benefit of being located at a lower altitude, both for its man camp, 600 m lower, and the open pit, 900 m lower. This is much better for the health of the workforce, the efficiency of equipment being used, and it's important to note it is below the important Glacier Law limits.
Los Azules is also closer to highways and the provincial power grid. Los Azules is advancing to a pre-feasibility, while Josemaría is at a feasibility stage of development. If you said Los Azules, in its present stage of development, was worth at least Josemaria's $485 million, or given its attributes, it might be even 50% more valuable, representing a value of $728 million. McEwen Mining's current interest of 76% would be worth anywhere from $370 million- $553 million, versus McEwen Mining's current market cap of $200 million. I believe the operational challenges of the past several years has severely obscured the underlying value of our assets. Let me do some calculations for you to show you the value that I see McEwen Mining having.
Our turnaround is progressing, although it's a little bumpy. I'll start with the value of Los Azules, $370 million-$553 million. I'll add that to the value of our other assets, our gold and silver assets. While none of these assets at the moment have a projected 36-year mine life like that of Los Azules. However, our continuing investment in exploration is delivering the prospect of longer mine lives. At Fox, we have a 9-year-plus mine life projected from relatively shallow depths in a prolific gold district known for its deep-rooted gold systems. As Steve illustrated, in the Fox Complex, we have gold resources of over 3 million oz in one of the great gold districts of the world.
What could this large resource, plus a producing mine that is turning around and possessing some interesting exploration properties, what could be its potential worth? If you valued it at, say, $50 an oz, you'd have a $150 million value. In Q2, Fox had a strong performance and recovered from the challenges it experienced in Q1. The mine is operating well and looking good to hit our guidance for the year. At Gold Bar, the first half was definitely a disappointment. However, as Bill said, we're planning to start development of our Gold Bar South property this quarter, with production beginning in Q4. This production from Gold Bar South should allow us to hit our production guidance for the year. Our exploration efforts there are focused on increasing our near mine oz.
Our total resources at Gold Bar and the adjacent Tonkin properties exceed 1.9 million oz. If you went out to buy oz in Nevada, what would you pay for those oz when you had a defined resource on one of the major gold trends of the world? Recent purchases would suggest $50-$80 an oz. Based on these numbers, Gold Bar could have a value of $80 million-$150 million. We have that. Now we look at our 49% interest in San Jos é . It's located in an important emerging gold district in Southern Argentina. It's a high-grade silver gold mine that started production 15 years ago. It's been a consistent performer. It's located on a large property holding that, as you saw, encircles Newmont Cerro Negro gold mine. What's it worth?
We've approached our joint venture partner and operator of the mine, Hochschild, and they're not a seller below $150. Why don't we say it's worth $80 million-$100 million? Putting those values together, losses, let's list between $370 million-$553 million. Fox, $100 million-$150 million. Gold Bar, $95 million-$100 million. San Jos é , $80 million-$100 million. Come to a total of $645 million-$953 million. Based on our current 475 million shares outstanding, that represents a value of $1.36-$2 a share. I look at this and I say. I've invested, just invested another $15 million in the company in the form of an unsecured promissory note.
This cash injection brings my total financial commitment to McEwen Mining and McEwen Copper to over $220 million, greater than our current market cap. I think the consolidation we're going to do, despite my initial hesitation to endorse such, the board and I believe that the benefits of this decision outweigh my earlier concerns. It will allow us to remain on the New York Stock Exchange, where our highest trading volume occurs. Our higher share price, post consolidation, will likely expand our investor appeal and audience. Now I'd like to take your questions and comments.
We currently have two questions. I'll direct both of those to Michael as they are concerning Los Azules. The first question was about the source of funding for Los Azules, and specifically whether income from San Jos é Mine is being used for Los Azules expenditures.
Okay. The funding, as Rob McEwen had mentioned before, was a Series B financing. Rob McEwen put in the lead order of $40 million. In the meantime, we have secured another $15 million from different investors. That is used as financing for the Los Azules project going forward. Which should bring us to the IPO next year and to our drilling. Monies from San José are not used for financing at Los Azules. That goes through different channels.
Thank you. The second question relates to interest in Los Azules from automotive OEMs, and whether you've seen any increased interest as a result of, you know, promising environmentally conscious approach to copper mining.
Yeah. What we have seen after and during PDAC was that there was a very broad interest in this specific project. We had several conversations from automotive companies towards big copper producers and smelters. There is an increased awareness that copper is a critical mineral for the upcoming energy transition. We had conversations with Asian automakers, and we are continuing on those bases. We just need to decide who would be an ideal partner for this project to go forward.
Thank you. There are no other questions at this time. If you have a question, please type it in to the platform, which we'll direct to Bill Shaver with regard to the company's all-in sustaining costs and how we propose to reduce the all-in sustaining costs, and what reduction do you think is achievable?
Thank you very much for your question. Yes, the long-term objective of the company is to reduce the all-in sustaining cost. You know, from the presentation, you can see that as we go forward, the critical changes that are required are the increase in mill capacity at the Fox Complex, and the higher grade from the Gold Bar operation in Nevada. If we can increase those production oz, you know, in the latter part of 2022 and going into the future years, that will be the key to lowering the operating cost down into the range of, I guess what in the mining business, which I think is getting our all-in sustaining cost closer to our cash cost that we're seeing today, which is a change of a couple of hundred dollars per oz.
Thank you. Next question, Director Rob , it's concerning the July 6th cutoff date for the McEwen Copper funding and whether that's a hard cutoff date or whether you consider extending that for the right investor?
Good question. For the right investor, we'll cut a deal, go to the end of the month. We expect to complete an updated preliminary economic assessment by Q1 of next year and do an IPO, initial public offering, in the first half of next year.
There's a question with regard to drilling, although it doesn't specify which project. The question is whether we are reporting a true width or drill hole length. In the case of Los Azules, those values are core length, irregardless of whether it's a vertical hole or an angle hole. In the case of the results from Ontario, those would be true widths. In the case of the results in Nevada, those would be down hole widths. There's another question about Timmins, which I'll direct to Bill. What is the capacity that's being added to the mill in Timmins? Do you think the will replace our production at Froome this year?
Thanks for the question. Yeah. The bottlenecking of the process plant and some of the other changes we are in the midst of making are intended to raise the daily production to a range between 1,400 and 1,500 tons a day. We anticipate that this will, you know, happen in kind of the fourth quarter or third to fourth quarter, as there are a number of steps in the process of increasing the tonnage. The operation, you know, now has the capability of running at that rate into 2025. We anticipate that we will have some exploration success in the lower part of Froome, which will extend that again.
I guess there's the opportunity also to, between now and the time we would, say, notionally run out of ore, if we don't find significantly more ore at Froome, to bring some of the operation either at Stock West or at Grey Fox into the picture, between now and 2025.
Thank you. There are no other questions at this time.
All right. Since there are no other questions, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us, and wish you well. Thank you for your confidence.