Coeur Mining - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Strong beat versus consensus: revenue $360.1M vs $296.8M consensus and adjusted EPS $0.11 vs -$0.01 consensus; GAAP EPS $0.06. Reaffirmed full-year 2025 guidance; net leverage fell to 0.9x after $85M RCF paydown and $42M prepay repayments. Consensus values retrieved from S&P Global.*
• Silver output inflected: 3.7Moz (+17% QoQ, +44% YoY) on higher realized prices ($32.05/oz), aided by Las Chispas partial-quarter and Rochester ramp; adjusted EBITDA climbed to $148.9M (+28% QoQ; >3x YoY).
• Free cash flow positive at $17.6M despite ~$130M one-time outflows (taxes, transaction costs, prepay repayments, property taxes); management guides to $75–$100M average quarterly FCF for the remainder of 2025 on higher commodity prices and portfolio mix.
• Post-quarter catalyst: Board authorized a $75M share repurchase program effective through May 31, 2026, signaling confidence in sustained FCF and balance sheet deleveraging.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Las Chispas integration contributed 714k oz silver and 7,175 oz gold at exceptionally low adjusted CAS of $8.38/Ag-oz and $744/Au-oz; discovery of the high-grade Augusta vein in the Gap zone supports resource growth and margin durability. “We expect to generate average quarterly free cash flow of $75 to $100 million during the remainder of the year…” — CEO Mitchell Krebs.
• Rochester throughput and crusher optimization progressed; 7.0M tons placed (5.5M through crushing), recoveries tracking model with continued crush-size improvement, keeping full-year guidance on track.
• Balance sheet strengthened: RCF reduced by 44% to $110M; quarter-end cash $77.6M; net debt $420.7M; LTM adjusted EBITDA $443.7M; leverage ratio to 0.9x.

What Went Wrong

• Rochester segment FCF was -$21.9M on higher maintenance, capitalized stripping, and royalties from elevated silver prices; adjusted CAS rose to $18.41/Ag-oz and $1,670/Au-oz.
• Kensington adjusted CAS increased to $1,882/oz with lower grade sequencing and higher site spending; segment FCF remained negative (-$9.6M) though management expects positive FCF mid-year.
• Heavy Q1 outflows depressed FCF: ~$42M prepay repayments, ~$50M Mexican taxes (including mining EBITDA tax/royalty), ~$15M transaction costs, ~$15M incentive payments, ~$8M Rochester property taxes.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day and welcome to the Coeur Mining First Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference call. All participants will be in the listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mitchell Krebs, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call today to discuss our first quarter results. Joining me are Mick Routledge, Aoife McGrath, and Tom Whelan, and we'll all be available to answer questions at the end of the call. Before we start, please note our cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements and refer to our SEC filings on our website. The first quarter highlights shown on slide three summarize our solid start to the year, which led to the fourth consecutive quarter of positive EPS and another quarter of positive free cash flow. These were great outcomes considering the first quarter is expected to be our lightest quarter of the year, and we had several one-time and quarter-specific items that we had previously telegraphed.

The combination of higher prices, the addition of SilverCrest liquidity, and a partial quarter from Las Chispas, along with Rochester's progress toward achieving steady state and consistent performance from our other operations, drove these strong results, which allowed us to eliminate nearly $130 million of debt and metal prepay facilities in the quarter and leave us well positioned to achieve our full-year guidance ranges. We're now set to accelerate the pace of further debt reductions based on strong anticipated silver and gold production growth from our balanced portfolio of five North American operations. This growth is expected to drive full-year adjusted EBITDA to over $700 million and free cash flow to more than $300 million, which should leave us with a year-end leverage ratio close to zero.

It was only a few quarters ago when annualized adjusted EBITDA was only about $100 million, free cash flow was negative $300 million, and our leverage ratio was over four times, which highlights the degree of change now underway at the company. Just a couple of other points before turning the call over to Mick. First, on Las Chispas, the integration is proceeding smoothly. The operation delivered very strong, high-grade production at extremely low costs during the portion of the quarter that we owned it. As we anticipated, the teams have gelled exceptionally well. On the exploration front, recent emphasis on near-mine drilling resulted in a significant discovery in the gap zone between the Babicanora and Las Chispas zones. In addition, several high-grade results have been received in and adjacent to the Las Chispas zone. Aoife will share some additional details on these developments in a few minutes.

Second, in our interactions with current and prospective shareholders, one of the most popular topics is our thought process for deploying the accelerating cash flows we anticipate generating in the coming quarters. It's a great conversation to have given the years of heavy investment that's been made to position the company like it is right when gold and silver prices are rising. Our board is committed to pursuing ways to generate per-share value for our shareholders, and we're actively engaged with them about how best to accomplish that while continuing to strengthen the balance sheet and reinvest in the business given the number of attractive opportunities that exist within the company. We look forward to continuing the conversations with our shareholders and with our board as we deliver on what should be a record year for the company, and we'll provide more details as we have them.

Finally, we published our 2024 responsibility report today, which is summarized on slide 20. Being responsible stewards and acting with integrity and respect are central to our mission of pursuing a higher standard, and I encourage you to have a look and read about everything we have accomplished over the past year. Mick, over to you.

Mick Routledge (SVP and COO)

Thanks, Mitch. The addition of Las Chispas, Rochester's ramp-up, and consistent contributions from the rest of the mines were the main headlines during first quarter. Before getting into the details of our good start to 2025, I'm happy to report that based on MSHA data, Coeur finished 2024 as the safest mining company amongst our peers in the U.S., marking our third consecutive year of doing so. We take a lot of pride in our deeply entrenched safety culture, and we will continue to set the bar high in this critical area. Mitch mentioned the word balanced in describing our portfolio of mines, and it bears noting that with the additions of Las Chispas and the expanded Rochester, Coeur's asset base has never been more balanced, with no single operation contributing more than roughly a quarter of total revenue.

That is quite a departure from past years, when revenue from Palmarejo approached 50% of the total in some periods. The importance of having all mines making meaningful contributions spreads operating risk and lends consistency and predictability to our overall portfolio. Going through the sites and starting with our newest, Las Chispas, partial first quarter production of 714,000 ounces of silver and over 7,000 ounces of gold was right down the fairway versus SilverCrest's budget. Daily average mine production exceeding 1,300 tons per day was better than planned, bringing in higher margin ounces with CAS per ounce for gold and silver coming to $744 and $8.38 respectively for the period. Slide seven provides a great reminder of how special Las Chispas is in terms of grade, cost, and margin profile. Starting with Mexico, the Palmarejo team delivered another solid quarter.

Gold production was up two percent and silver production up nine percent compared to the fourth quarter, driven by good productivity in Guadalupe to finish the quarter strongly. The Palmarejo and Las Chispas teams are engaging, with sharing of best practices and new perspectives taking place in both directions, with lots of opportunities to realize efficiencies and productivity enhancements in Coeur's expanded Mexico operations footprint, as well as sharing and working with our teams at Kensington and Silvertip. Turning to Rochester, crusher performance continued to improve with optimization of the Metso three-stage crushing circuit, and this remains job number one. The team placed 7 million tons during the quarter, relying less on direct-to-pad tons than in the prior quarter as more material goes through the crusher. The team continues to work down the line to identify and implement adjustments and modifications to progress improvements in availability.

Recovery rates continue to track to predicted levels and are expected to trend higher as the average crush size trends down throughout the year towards an expected average of 7/8 of an inch, which is what our budget and reaffirmed full-year guidance assumes. One other note on Rochester, the team commenced the eight million ton stripping campaign for the partial removal of the stage one and two reclaimed leach pads to allow for infill drilling later in the year as we look to bring forward higher-grade material into Rochester's main plan. Moving to Kensington, gold production increased by six percent compared to the first quarter a year ago, with the operation well positioned to reap the benefits of the multi-year investment in underground and main development and exploration and a return to positive free cash flow this year.

Finishing up with Wharf, first quarter production came in slightly higher compared to the first quarter of last year as weather tends to pose challenges there during the winter months, but Wharf is well positioned to deliver another strong year in 2025. With that, I will pass the call over to Aoife.

Aoife McGrath (SVP of Exploration)

Thanks, Mick. Exploration got off to a very strong start in 2025 with as many as 21 rigs active in the quarter, with encouraging results across the board. As a recap, the company's exploration investment in 2025 is expected to total $77-$93 million, of which approximately 85% is focused on expansion and scout drilling. At Las Chispas, the key aims were to complete the integration of the team and reorient exploration programs from the wider region to a greater focus on the main asset. This integration has now been completed, and programs aimed at maintaining a steady mine life are in place. You can see on slide nine more details about a notable new discovery that was made during the quarter of a new vein called Augusta, which to date has been defined over 200 meters along strike and 150 meters down dip.

It is running multi-kilo silver, very high-grade gold, and remains open in every direction. In addition to the highly encouraging discovery in the gap zone, drilling on multiple veins on and adjacent to the Las Chispas block have returned high-grade intercepts that show increasing strike length on each vein. Early days at Las Chispas, but very encouraging results from the outset. At Palmarejo, ongoing programs encompass the full spectrum of exploration from district-scale target generation through to expansion drilling. A pilot program of high-resolution geophysics was flown in late 2024 and is proving highly impactful. Exploration can now more accurately identify the subsurface locations of favorable host rocks and structures, meaning scout drilling should assess targets more efficiently.

An exciting structural study and mineralization review was also undertaken during the quarter, which shows consistent styles of mineralization across the district, indicating very high prospectivity in all four major belts, three of which are still underexplored and are shown on slide 10. The recently signed agreement gives us full access to the entire Guazapares Zahido area that covers Independencia Sur and the historic San Miguel and La Union resources, along with many other targets in the Guazapares trend in the northeast of the claim block. Also of note during the quarter is the validation drilling that commenced at Independencia Sur. Drilling testing the historic Fresnillo resources and their continuity from established veins and mines on Coeur ground is proving highly encouraging, with high-grade results in the corridor. At Silvertip, a brand new geological model was completed, which is proving an exciting tool for targeting and exploration program planning.

In addition, we more than tripled the land package at Silvertip in the first quarter by staking over 60 km of strike length of prospective ground that has the same geologic setting as Silvertip. With that, I'll pass the call over to Tom.

Tom Whelan (SVP and CFO)

Thanks, Aoife. I'll begin with a brief review of our Q1 financial results, our first quarter with the inclusion of Las Chispas, albeit for only 45 days. Despite our lightest production quarter, we are proud to be able to report a fourth consecutive quarter of net income and a third straight quarter of free cash flow. With the previously telegraphed messy first quarter behind us, we look forward to a series of boringly predictable quarters as we embark on the final steps on our journey of achieving our deleveraging goal of net debt to EBITDA of nil. As noted on slide 11, with just under 90,000 ounces of gold and four million ounces of silver sold during the quarter, we got a serious sneak peek at what the consolidated core portfolio can generate in terms of financial results.

Key financial headlines for the quarter included revenue of $360 million, quarterly adjusted EBITDA of $149 million, net income of $33 million, and free cash flow of $18 million. We were pleased to see our adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 41% during Q1, essentially doubling from the prior year. As we had flagged during the year-end conference call, there were several one-timers and first quarter specific matters totaling $130 million, which impacted our Q1 free cash flow. Slide 13 provides a clean snapshot of these five items, helping to offset these outflows with the monetization of $72 million from SilverCrest finished goods and bullion balances we inherited on the closing of the transaction. The monetization did not flow through the revenue line but did positively impact the Las Chispas operating segment free cash flow.

Excluding the monetization, Las Chispas Q1 free cash flow was $20 million, not too shabby for six weeks. It is important to highlight that absent these one-timers and first quarter specific items, first quarter free cash flow would have been approximately $76 million. Based on our updated forecast pricing of $2,900 and $32 for gold and silver respectively, we expect to generate on average $75-$100 million of free cash flow per quarter for the rest of 2025. Note three of the interim financial statements in the 10-Q provides the details of our preliminary purchase price allocation of SilverCrest. Three important accounting nuances that we wanted to highlight include first, the inventory acquired in the approximately 150,000-ton stockpile at Las Chispas was recorded at fair value, which will lead to higher costs applicable to sales as we monetize the inventory from the stockpile.

We have disclosed Las Chispas' adjusted CAS in the earnings to give you a sense of the accounting impact. Secondly, with just over $1 billion allocated to the mineral property and plant property and equipment of Las Chispas, expect higher amortization expense. Third, there are nearly $300 million of deferred tax liabilities which arose as a result of the purchase price accounting. These deferred tax liabilities will unwind as we amortize the mineral property and plant property and equipment balances, which will impact future income tax expense every quarter. It is important to note that none of the above items impact free cash flow, but they will impact net income. Slide 15 tells the story of Coeur's rapidly strengthening balance sheet.

With the help of SilverCrest's pristine balance sheet, not only did we use their finished goods and bullion balances to help offset an otherwise messy first quarter, we used the closing cash acquired of approximately $100 million to begin building our cash balances up to $78 million at the end of March, and we repaid another $85 million on our revolving credit facility, which at quarter end stood at only $110 million drawn. We expect that the remaining revolver balance should be repaid by the third quarter of this year and maybe sooner if prices can remain at these elevated levels. A significant benefit of this debt reduction is that we expect to cut our interest expense in half versus the 2024 level of $51 million. I'll now pass the call back to Mitch.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Thanks, Tom. Before moving to the Q&A, I want to quickly highlight slide 17 that summarizes our top priorities over the remainder of 2025. With several key company catalysts now converging at the same time that prices are reaching much higher levels, we offer investors peer-leading leverage to both silver and gold and provide our shareholders with exposure to a rapidly strengthening profile as 2025 unfolds. We look forward to updating you as we deliver what should be a record year for Coeur Mining. With that, let's go ahead and open it up for questions.

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Wayne Lam with TD Securities. Please go ahead.

Wayne Lam (Director of Mining Research)

Yeah, thanks. Morning, guys.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Hey, Wayne.

Wayne Lam (Director of Mining Research)

Maybe just at Rochester, good to see the increase in tonnage through the crushing circuit. Just wondering when you would expect to see the benefit of that roll through the silver recoveries. Just curious on the direct-to-pad material, is this quarter representative of the percentage of DTP material that you would expect on a run rate basis, or would you expect that percentage through the crusher to increase as well over the coming quarters?

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks, Wayne. I'll start, and then Mick, you can add to my answer. Look, the team out there is doing a great job stepping up to this much higher mining and processing rate, two and a half times increase over prior years, whether it's at the mining, crushing, processing, refining, recoveries, or tracking model. Grades are nicely ahead. We produced what we expected in the first quarter. We've kind of repeatedly proven to ourselves the crusher can do what we need it to do, both from a throughput and a crush size standpoint. We are pleased with how things are going. I think the budget and guidance are built off a seven-eighths inch target. I think to the first quarter, that was at about 0.925 inch for the material that went through all three stages of crushing.

As we see that crush size continue to trend down, we'll see those recoveries continue to go up. Confident that we can hit our full year guidance like we suggested in our release this morning. As far as DTP, that will likely decline as we go forward and as crusher availability continues to improve. Mick, do you want to go ahead and answer Wayne's question further?

Mick Routledge (SVP and COO)

Yeah. Just to see it going forward year on year, that will decline on the DTP profile. As we reported previously, we expected to put about six million tons of DTP through the pipe this year. At 1.5 in Q1, we're around about the run rate that we thought we would be at. On the crusher itself, as Mitch said, the recoveries are tracking the model. As we see softer rows, it's great to have the flexibility in the crushing circuit that we didn't have previously so that we can bypass that tertiary part of the crushing circuit and still provide the right tons to the pad. Overall, when I see the crusher working and the material going through all three stages of the crusher, we're delivering about 70% of that material at 5/8 of an inch.

The overall blend and the target for this year at 7/8 of an inch is within reach, not quite there yet, but very typical challenges on a startup on equipment this kind and this type. We are dealing with all of those things, and I'm really happy about where we are today.

Wayne Lam (Director of Mining Research)

Okay, great. Thanks. Maybe just at Wharf, just curious on the stronger output this quarter versus the prior quarterly guide being significantly lower for Q1. Just wondering what was driving the stronger performance versus the expectations and if you might expect to see any bit of an offset to that performance over the coming quarters.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Mick, do you want to cover Wharf?

Mick Routledge (SVP and COO)

Yeah. Wharf, it's really just it's all about timing and where we are in the pit at any time. At the moment, we expect to deliver on the guidance at Wharf for the full year. We've seen some grade profile tweaks and some tonnage tweaks. Overall, because that's an on-off heap leach pad type system, we are constrained on throughput. Overall, then it's all about managing grade and hitting the plan. Wharf is very predictable. I'm really happy about how it's performing. We expect it to continue performing at that level.

Wayne Lam (Director of Mining Research)

Okay, perfect. Thanks. Maybe just last one on the cost front. You guys had cited maybe a bit lower costs on consumables. Are you seeing any impact of maybe lower labor costs as well in Mexico? Just maybe as an offset to that, can you comment on some of the cost pressures you might be seeing at Rochester and Kensington?

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Yeah, I'll start, and then Tom, Mick, feel free to chime in. I think with Las Chispas only having been part of the company for six weeks, that labor cost differential is still to be seen. But given the employment increase that we'll see from Las Chispas going forward, that overall labor cost, we should see an overall benefit there. In terms of any real cost pressures, I mean, we've really not seen much at all. There's a good slide in the deck. You might have seen it, Wayne. I think it's slide 16 that just shows quarter over quarter, whether it's looking back 12 months or back over 24 months. The declines have been pretty significant. We are in really this nice sweet spot here where we're not seeing the cost pressures on the cost side, and we're seeing the margin expansion with the higher prices.

In fact, if you look quarter over quarter, our average realized gold price this quarter was 41% higher than a year ago quarter. Silver average realized price was, I think, 36% higher than first quarter of last year. Our costs per ounce were essentially flat, right? We are seeing that margin expansion big time that Tom alluded to in his comments. Tom, anything else you want to add?

Tom Whelan (SVP and CFO)

Labor, again, for the most part, across our asset base, we do annual raises in that first quarter. Those kind of held in, especially across the U.S. sites in that 2%-3%. We have not experienced any particularly concerning trends at all around turnover. That kind of has locked in for the year. We are watching diesel and cyanide and power costs. For the most part, they are trending the right way. Pretty happy with the cost guidance and nice to see us in the lower end of the range through the first quarter.

Wayne Lam (Director of Mining Research)

Okay, perfect. Thanks for taking my questions and looking forward to the improvement through the year.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks a lot, Wayne. Appreciate it.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Joseph Reagor with Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Hey, Mitch and team, thanks for taking the questions and congrats on the strong start to the year.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks, Joe.

Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

I guess first thing, on the inventory accounting, how long do you think it's going to take to work through the extra stockpile to order inventory at Las Chispas to bring? And what level do you expect that inventory number on the balance sheet to get back down to? Because traditionally, it's been more in the high 70s versus the 220 it is now.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Tom's smiling that he got an accounting question. Tom, do you want to take that?

Tom Whelan (SVP and CFO)

Yeah. Again, the big increase in the inventory relates to the stockpile out in front of the process plant at Las Chispas. It is 150,000 tons, which if you think about it, that is roughly five months of production. That balance will gradually go down as Mick continues to mine and will put new tons on that stockpile at a lower cost, and then we will deplete the existing stockpile. We will process all that material. You will see that number come down. For accounting purposes, we have estimated that will happen over the next year. In terms of materials and supplies, though, I mean, we have added a prudent level of inventory. The team at Las Chispas had done a great job of making sure they had the right amount of spare parts, etc., etc.

You will see an increase on the balance sheet as it relates to their materials and supplies, but we're not worried about that whatsoever.

Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay. Is there a rough targeted number you'd like to see that inventory be at year-end, total dollar number value?

Tom Whelan (SVP and CFO)

No, I think we'll have to wait and see in terms of exactly how the material comes off that stockpile. I don't think we have a particular target. What we have guided the team down at Las Chispas, who've done a terrific job, the integration's going super well, by the way, is to just deliver the budget that the SilverCrest board had approved back in December for the year. Again, no real specific target. The value that's on that stockpile is mainly driven by the accounting requirement to fair value it. While it's going to have an impact on our earnings as we deplete, it's not going to have an impact on our free cash flow.

Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay. Fair enough. Bigger picture question for Mitch. Now that you're in the process of digesting the SilverCrest acquisition, how do you think about M&A going forward? Is the next thing on the list to start reviewing potentially a sale of something, say, Wharf or Kensington, or is it to look for more acquisitions, or is there a temporary pause here for a period of time?

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Yeah, I think Tom's words of, was it boringly predictable or predictably boring? Either way, that's what we want to do.

Mick Routledge (SVP and COO)

Absolutely predictable.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Yeah, that's what we're going to be the next, at least for the foreseeable future. Our investors have waited a long time to see the benefits of all this investment that we're now starting to be able to generate and point to. Delivering on that is our focus. Of course, we'll always look at things that come across or that we identify as opportunities that fit through our filters of North America and make us better, not necessarily just bigger, and all those things, which really makes for a pretty short list. In the meantime, what we have out in front of us here at the company is pretty spectacular, and we've worked a long time to get to this point.

We look forward on just delivering on that and showing the kind of cash flows here in the coming quarters that we alluded to in our comments.

Joseph Reagor (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay. That's fair enough. I'll turn it over. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Yep. The next question comes from Mike Cycle with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Mike Siperco (Director of Global Mining Research)

Yeah. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I'd like to go back to Rochester, but maybe just to segue from the last question, could you go into a little bit more detail on how you're thinking about Silvertip? I know you've said accelerate resource growth and potentially invest some more cash into Silvertip. Prices have moved quickly in the last three or six months. Does that change your thinking? Maybe conceptually, what sort of milestones should we be looking for at Silvertip over the next couple of years?

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Yeah. Hi, Mike. Thanks for the question. Look, we remain confident in the scale of the district there at Silvertip and that we're on the edges of a very large system. That is why we tripled the land package there in the first quarter that Aoife mentioned. We've been targeting and been, I think, talking over the last few months about sort of a five-year time frame to have Silvertip in a position to be a go, no-go construction decision. We all want Silvertip to turn into a cash contributor versus a cash consumer, but we also do not want to cut any corners. We need to go through the project stage gates. We need to keep drilling to keep improving our understanding of the deposit, keep building critical mass of the resource, support the study work that we're going to be doing.

We'll be kicking off an initial assessment here in the middle part of the year, probably third quarter, and that should be completed later next year. That'll give us some good sort of concrete information to consider next steps, where we go from there. We have kind of built up our organizational capabilities to support the advancement of Silvertip, whether it's on Aoife's exploration team, Mick and the projects team, overall leadership there. We can devote some time and energy to better understanding what sorts of funding or permitting assistance might exist to potentially enhance the economics or shorten that timetable at Silvertip. We are going to take some time and make sure we do it right, go through the project stage gates, keep drilling.

While we do all that, we can continue to generate the free cash flow and do everything that we've got set up in front of us here from our other operations. Yeah, it's an interesting time to have a large and growing critical minerals project in Canada, for sure. We'll start turning our focus a bit more to that than we have been now that we're in a better position to do so. Does that give you what you're looking for, Mike?

Mike Siperco (Director of Global Mining Research)

Yeah, that's good color. Thanks. Just to be clear, the initial assessment you were talking about, that would be internal only, right? Not a public document?

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

That's right.

Mike Siperco (Director of Global Mining Research)

Okay. Okay. If we could flip back to Rochester, I just want to make sure that I understand it. I know this has been a topic of conversation. What should we really be watching there in Q2 and beyond in terms of optimizing recoveries in the leach cycle and getting the operation to where you want it to be? Is it total tonnage, crushed tons, the ratio between the two, or is it really getting as much material down to 5/8? I mean, I know it's a blend of all of the above, but if there's a metric that someone could look at and say, "Okay, we're on the right track," or maybe we're taking a pause here, what would that be?

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

I think it's crusher runtime, just availability. As we do that, we'll see the other pieces fall into place. I think that's, for me, the key metric. Mick, do you?

Mick Routledge (SVP and COO)

Yeah. I mean, overall, in the long run, what target is to get to about eight million tons placed on the pile on a quarterly basis. As you saw, we're placing about eight million this time around, and that's improving. That balance between DTP and crushed material, we'll, of course, want to crush as much as we can. That DTP product is valuable, and we'll continue to deliver that throughout this year, probably a little bit more through the middle part of the year and less so at the back end. Just seeing the performance stay on the recovery curve as we see the size fraction come down, which we've seen so far, but we're tracking that. You should see us continue to improve on that predictability and delivery of lower size fraction tons to the pad.

A quarter or two quarters later, you're going to see the metal coming from that performance improvement.

Mike Siperco (Director of Global Mining Research)

Okay. If we watch the, you've reported 5.1 million tons crushed in Q4, 5.5 in Q1, should we be really watching that number? If that number continues to move higher, that's how you see at a high level, at least, that the crushing circuit is on the right track to deliver as much of that 7-8 million tons as possible. Is that a fair way to put it?

Mick Routledge (SVP and COO)

Exactly. Yep.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

If there was one number to watch, Mike, that would be the one.

Mike Siperco (Director of Global Mining Research)

Okay. Very good. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I'll pass it on.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Not at all. Thanks, Mike.

Thank you. Again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. Our next question comes from Brian McArthur with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Brian MacArthur (Managing Director)

Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. I apologize. I had sort of the same ones that we've sort of asked, but maybe if I can do it differently. First, Tom, on the accounting, I assume at Las Chispas, what you've done is you've written up the gold and silver inventory to value it like at $3,000 gold or something and whatever it was, $31 silver. Is that the way I think about it from an accounting basis? That's basically what you're going to run through the income statement, but obviously, the cash has already been consumed. Is that kind of what's going on there when I sort of calculate what the difference is between to get up to that 218 million tons? There's, I think, $60 million of gold and whatever it is of silver. Is that the right way to think about it?

Tom Whelan (SVP and CFO)

Yeah, you got it. Most of the tons on that, or all of the tons on that stockpile, will flow through our income statement, but we will not make net income from them. If that makes sense. You got it. We had to mark to market with a small estimate for it. It is great, all these accounting questions. I am excited. The small estimate for the cost to complete. Again, from a free cash flow perspective, there is no change, and it just has an impact on net income. We just wanted to highlight that.

Brian MacArthur (Managing Director)

Right. I think you were clear, too, on the deferred taxes. There is nothing in there that you have to catch up on. It is all book accounting the way things were allocated. Is that right? It is just going to affect the consolidated tax rate, but not the cash tax rate.

Tom Whelan (SVP and CFO)

Exactly. Exactly. Perversely, it'll have a positive impact to our net income as that deferred tax liability gets smaller. When you take a credit off the balance sheet, it hits your earnings. That'll make the tax rate a little wonky. Happy to work through that with anyone separately as you try and estimate out the deferred tax liability reversal in due course.

Brian MacArthur (Managing Director)

Okay. Maybe just to put this to bed, I think what we're really after is make sure, obviously, there's been prepays and a lot of other cash things on the balance sheet that have had to be paid. Is it fair to say now, pretty well that's all gone, and what we see is what we get going forward as far as cash flow? There's no other catch-ups or cleanups or anything from a cash basis. Is that a fair comment?

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

That's very fair. Yeah. Kind of cleared the decks here in the first quarter. What you have now is what we have left is what you see.

Brian MacArthur (Managing Director)

Okay. Maybe just following up on the other question on Silvertip, as you said, you talked about it five years, but the world's changed a lot. You're also presumably going to have most of the debt done by the end of this year. Would it be fair to guess that you'd be more likely to pay a dividend or return capital through a buyback before big investments in Silvertip? Would that be kind of the thinking still going forward, assuming we stay at commodity prices where we are today?

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Yeah, I think that's fair. Obviously, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves or our board, but I think five years would be a long time to wait, especially after our investors have waited a long time already. I think obviously, we ended the quarter with $78 million of cash and $110 million on the revolver. Those things will change quite rapidly as we go forward here. As long as we're continuing to reinvest in the business the way we plan to at these prices, the free cash flow we anticipate generating should leave some room to consider a potential return to our shareholders in the near term rather than waiting down the road to decide what we're going to do about Silvertip.

Brian MacArthur (Managing Director)

Great. Thanks very much for those clarifications. Very helpful.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Nope. Thanks for the questions, Brian.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mitchell Krebs for any closing remarks.

Mitchell Krebs (President and CEO)

Okay. Thanks, everybody, for taking the time to talk with us today. We look forward to speaking again following the release of our second quarter results in early August. Thanks, and have a good day.

Operator (participant)

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.