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TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – In the wake of a change of scenery which saw precious metals miner Coeur Mining last year relocate its head office from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to Chicago, Illinois, very little else about the 75-year-old company remained the same, senior VP and chief development officer Joe Phillips tells Mining Weekly Online.
The NYSE-listed company, under the leadership of president and CEO Mitchell Krebs, embarked on a company-wide metamorphosis to survive the persistent low-price environment, that had sparked industry-wide cost-cutting initiatives and significant asset value write-downs.
This included changing the company’s name from Coeur d’Alene to Coeur Mining and attracting new staff, with new perspectives.
“Coeur has evolved over its 75-year existence. It now is a new company, aggressive, focused and bursting with young blood – ready to take on a new chapter in its history,” Phillips said during the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s international convention.
He noted that while Krebs had already been with the company for some 19 years, all other senior management underwent a sea change. Only about 15 personnel out of 65 moved with the company to Chicago, where Coeur is the only notable miner in the financial and industrial hub.
A new slate of young, experienced professionals had filled the rest of the positions, while the company had also replaced one-third of its board of directors and the leadership at its mines.
“The results are starting to permeate. Despite the low-price environment, our business profile is starting to look leaner and meaner,” he said.
Phillips said that the company had managed to cut about $25-million of costs from its operating budget at its four mines in recent months, with further sustaining capital saving expected.
Despite having cut back on its exploration budget as part of its cost rationalisation, Coeur last month reported a significant increase in Canadian National Instrument 43-101-compliant mineral reserves totalling about 255.4-million ounces of silver and 2.2-million ounces of gold – a 15.9% year-on-year increase for silver and a 12.3% rise for gold. These gains were net of the 17-million ounces of silver and 262 217 oz of gold produced during 2013.
In the last quarter alone, capital expenditures declined 14% when compared with the third quarter to $28.1-million, while all-in sustaining costs per silver equivalent ounce were $16.92/oz, which was a 12% lower quarter-on-quarter.
Coeur produces precious metals from the Palmarejo silver/gold mine, in Mexico; the San Bartolomé silver mine, in Bolivia; the Rochester silver/gold mine, in Nevada; and the Kensington gold mine, in Alaska.
The company also has a non-operating interest in the Endeavor mine, in Australia, and net smelter royalties on the Cerro Bayo mine, in Chile; the El Gallo complex, in Mexico and the Zaruma mine, in Ecuador. Coeur further has two silver/gold feasibility stage projects, including the La Preciosa project, in Mexico and the Joaquin project, in Argentina.
Meanwhile, Coeur had also embraced a new way of reporting its cash costs, in light of the mix of precious metals it produces. The firm moved to a silver-equivalent cash-cost reporting method, instead of reporting cash costs for silver, including by-products.
Another exciting aspect to the company’s step change, Phillips pointed out, was the creation of its own royalty and streaming business segment.
Last November, Coeur acquired Vancouver-based Global Royalty for $23.8-million, and created a subsidiary, Coeur Capital, to hold existing and future royalty and streaming interests.
Global Royalty owns a tiered royalty agreement with McEwen Mining on its El Gallo mine, in Mexico, which entails a 3.5% net smelter royalty (NSR). It also said that it had an agreement with Dynasty Metals & Mining, which entails a 1.5% NSR on the Zaruma gold project, in Ecuador.
“This new business arm provides us with new facets to talk about when we engage juniors,” Phillips said.
He noted that Coeur would target juniors requiring between $3-million to $30-million to complete projects, providing Coeur with a higher-margin revenue stream.
The company realised a net loss of $581.5-million, or $5.77 a share, in the fourth quarter of 2013.