Contango Ore - Earnings Call - Q1 2025
May 15, 2025
Transcript
Moderator (participant)
With me, Contango Ore's CFO, Mike Clark, and CEO, Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, over at Contango's Q1 financials. Mike got top billing because today is about financials, so he'll be the star of today's show. The way today is going to go is he's going to give a brief presentation summarizing yesterday's release. Then I've got a few questions, but this is absolutely an interactive event, so please do use the chat button in the bottom right-hand of your screen to ask questions for the Contango executives at any time during today's event. We'll try to get to all of them. I imagine we will, actually, during today's event, so please do make sure you get in the chat. I'll try to ask them in roughly sequential order. I'll also say today's event is being recorded. It'll probably be in your inbox mid-afternoon Eastern time.
It'll also be available on events.six.com and on our YouTube channel. Without further ado, I'm going to go off screen and hand it over to Mike just to summarize yesterday's press release.
Mike Clark (CFO)
Thanks, Romeo. Good morning and good afternoon. I'm just going to spend a few minutes just highlighting the quarter ended March 31st, 2025, and just talk on the statement of operations and balance sheet. On the statement of operations, we recorded $19 million in income from operations, which includes $22.3 million in equity income from the Peak Gold JV, which is our 30% ownership in Manh Choh. We recorded a net loss of $22.5 million for the quarter, which includes an unrealized loss of $40.5 million related to the hedge contracts. Now, this is primarily driven because gold started the year at $2,600 and ended the quarter around $3,100. We also recorded $2.7 million in interest and finance charges related to debt. At the Manh Choh operations, we sold a little over 17,000 ounces of gold with another 3,800 ounces in recoverable inventory.
Our cash costs were about $1,334 per ounce gold sold, and our AISC was $1,374 per ounce of gold sold. Our 2025 guidance remains at 60,000 ounces of gold with an AISC of about $1,625, as we do expect the AISC will increase in later quarters due to sustaining capital going up related to replacing tractors on the Warhol route, as well as a $5.7 million exploration drill program. On the balance sheet, we completed the quarter with $35 million in cash. We have marketable securities of about $900,000. Those subsequent to quarter end have increased to about $4 million U.S., and that is on our Onyx Gold Corp investment. Our trade payables were $9 million at the end of the quarter, and this really related to a gold shipment that happened on March 31st, as we had to pay the Peak Gold subsequent to quarter end.
During the quarter, we made principal repayments of $13.8 million on the facility, and then subsequent to quarter end, we paid another $8.2 million, bringing the facility balance down to $30 million as of today. On the derivative liability, the hedge balance technically did not change during the quarter. We had 86,000 ounces to start the quarter, and we also finished with that as a balance at the end of the quarter. Now, because gold went up, the liability did increase, but I will highlight that we did do what is called a carry trade, and we effectively locked in the April hedge price during the quarter. We ended up settling that on April 30st. Finally, we have started delivering into the July hedges, and we have about 2,800 ounces delivered onto those so far. Now I will just hand it over to Rick.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, thanks, Mike. I think it's been a good quarter, and we'll actually start the second campaign. It actually started yesterday, so that'll be our May campaign. It'll run roughly 30 days, and we'll be looking to report on the total anticipated production from that once the campaign ends towards probably mid-June is roughly when it'll end. We'll have a bit of an update at that time on our—it won't be the gold sales, but it'll be an estimate of gold produced. Our Q2 results will probably be—what in—Mike, I'll let you comment on that, probably what, in July or August?
Mike Clark (CFO)
Yep, yep, early August.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Things are going well. I think basically I can safely say that things are going a little better than planned. I think the total amount of gold produced was more than planned, roughly 30% through Q1. We do have that gold held in inventory. The campaign processed the gold basically in the middle month of a quarter. It's not exactly in the middle month, so it'll run over. The gold sales obviously trail that by about 30 days, roughly. You'll have to just kind of keep that in mind when you're reading our financials. You'll see there's always probably a gold in inventory that's been produced but not sold necessarily. With that, maybe, Romeo, I'll turn it back to you, and we can start with Q&A.
Moderator (participant)
Awesome. I do have a number of questions, some of them already reflected in the chat, so I'll meld them together where possible. Mike, I'm going to start with you as the star of today's show. I was curious if you could give me a little more color around the carry trade and hedge delivery schedule. This reflects a comment in the chat. Wesley asks, "Hedges remaining, when are you liberated?
Mike Clark (CFO)
Yeah, that's a good question, and I get it a lot. It's quite complicated, but we've kind of changed our approach. We have been changing our approach since starting. I guess I'll kind of start from the beginning, but the main challenge we have is you have your hedge delivery schedule, which is kind of once a quarter. We have a maturity date, and that was kind of designed off the feasibility plan or study. What actually happens, though, is you end up having shipments every week, pretty much for the whole year, but chunkier ones in the middle of campaigns. To better manage cash, what we ended up moving towards is called a carry trade so that we could effectively sell the gold at spot price as the shipments occur and use those proceeds to basically pay the JV.
For the gold and then wait for the distribution a month or so later and then use those extra proceeds to settle that hedge in cash with our lenders. It is a better cash management tool for us with a relatively low cost, and it is basically a cheap form of financing. What actually happened in the quarter is, as you may recall, we ended up cash settling our January 31 hedge in December. We effectively had no hedges mature during the quarter, but we did start producing in February. What we did is we ended up delivering—we basically delivered 100% of the April hedge into these carry trades during the quarter. That was about 12,000 ounces of gold. We started the quarter at 86,000 ounces of hedges.
We finished the quarter with technically 86,000, but when you consider the carry trade, the hedge balance is just below 75,000. As of today, we're probably closer to 71,000 as we continue to deliver into July. Does that kind of answer your question?
Moderator (participant)
Yeah, no, that's great. I think that's useful extra color, so appreciate it. One question I got just for folks who do not know, and it has popped up in the chat a bit too, where did the Onyx shares come from that are now worth that $5 million?
Mike Clark (CFO)
Yeah, so when we acquired Highgold, they owned 5 million shares of Onyx, which was a spun out of Highgold about maybe a year and a half ago. And so we had those on the books. I think when we acquired them, they were probably valued around $500,000 or $600,000. We finished the quarter at $900,000, and as of today, the shares are at about CAD 1.05. So those shares are now worth about CAD 5 million. So we thought we would just put it in the press release to highlight that there's another source of capital for us.
Moderator (participant)
Great. Somebody in the chat asked.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
I'll just add in, Romeo. I think Darwin and the team over at Onyx are, yeah, they've got an interesting project, so we'll keep an eye on that. They just raised some more money to do some more drilling, so I think it's definitely an asset on the books for us.
Moderator (participant)
Yeah, there you go. Somebody in the chat asked, just for clarity, is that stake now available for sale as security for Contango?
Mike Clark (CFO)
There's some hooks on it with lockups, but I think anything's possible if we really wanted to. We're not in any rush.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
I think Onyx should consider it in friendly hands.
Mike Clark (CFO)
Yeah.
Moderator (participant)
Yeah, I appreciate that. One question I got is, so on the PR, can you discuss that dismissed lawsuit and what it means for both Montreal, but generally for Contango?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, I'll weigh in here. Yeah, we've had, as you may have known, or we've certainly reported on the Citizens for Safe Communities, a local anti-development group, anti-mining group in Fairbanks, launched a lawsuit to try and shut down the truck haul program. This has been pending for, I think, well over a year. I think it's been almost two years now. They had originally four arguments that were before the court. The court dismissed three of the four, and this was the last one that the court had not dismissed. There had been not really any sort of follow-through on the side of Citizens for Safe Communities. We learned a little bit ago that they were considering dropping the lawsuit, and apparently you can't just drop a lawsuit. You have to come to a settlement.
That took, I don't know, a little over a month, maybe two months, somewhere in that timeframe for them to settle without prejudice. It is gone. I think this is obviously a good thing for the project and for the Manh Choh project. It is also, I think, a good thing for mining in general because if you cannot have people who are anti-mining groups that do not want trucking of ore, that means you cannot truck concentrates, and maybe you cannot truck this or that that is servicing the mine. I think it is good that this has gone away, and I think it is good not just for our project, but also for mining in general in Alaska.
Moderator (participant)
Great. No, appreciate that extra flavor. One question I had is, what will the balance be on the facility by the end of the year?
Mike Clark (CFO)
The facility will finish the year around $15 million, just under.
Moderator (participant)
Great. No, appreciate that. One thing I want to say, obviously, congratulations on beating quarterly guidance. I think that's really impressive. You mentioned the PR incremental improvements in ore transportation and processing at Fort Knox. I know, Mike, you alluded to it for sure, but what helped get that significantly lower AISC of $1,374 versus the target of $1,625?
Mike Clark (CFO)
You want me to start on this? And then Rick, you can.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, yeah, you go ahead, Mike, and then I'll weigh in with my technical comment.
Mike Clark (CFO)
I'll let you talk about the incremental improvements. I'll just comment on our guidance remaining at $1,625 for AISC. The main driver is that there is going to be more sustaining capital during the quarter. There was not a lot in Q1, and there is also going to be an exploration drill program. The cost, the AISC, will go up as a result of that. That is what is kind of driving the increase. We did produce more gold in Q1, and I do expect you will have strong Q1, Q2, and Q3. In Q4, I think there is a little less production in that period. When you smash those all together, you are going to end up with around $1,600. We still hope to beat that, but we still think that is a reasonable estimate.
Moderator (participant)
Great.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, so on the incremental improvements, I think starting with the bridge weight restrictions are still in place, so that's still part of the day-to-day truck hauling. The improvements are really all about water and whether it's frozen water in the wintertime. Obviously, Q1 reflects wintertime operations, and they were basically just knocking the snow and ice off the trucks. When they come down the hill from where the Manh Choh mine is, Manh Choh is up on top of a hill, and then basically there's a 20 mi road that connects it to the Alaska Highway. That's where most of the snow and ice is picked up is along that. It's a mine access road, basically, not a paved highway.
At the end of that, they had some cattle guards put in there that was knocking some of the ice and snow off, and then they literally would just run around with a big sledgehammer and knock it off before they got onto the highway. Once you're on the highway, you don't pick up a lot of ice and snow unless it happens to be snowing, but it's interior Alaska, so you just really don't get a lot of snow. That has been one incremental improvement. The moisture content of the ore is another one. Obviously, in the wintertime, things are frozen, so you don't pick up a lot of moisture. In the summertime, which we're obviously operating now, it's mud that you pick up. They have established some wash plants, truck wash stations, basically just before they get on the highway as well.
Those are all the incremental things. I guess the other one that will come into effect for the summertime is that in the pit, I think there is just more water management in the pit to keep the water away from where you are mining and to keep the water away from where you are stockpiling it. Last year was a startup year, and I think people sometimes forget that this was not your normal mine sequencing of feeding stuff right into the mill right away. It goes into a stockpile, and then it gets transported and stockpiled at the Fort Knox facility. It was kind of a long, in that sense, it was a bit of a long startup from sort of turning on a mill and figuring out how that works. Even a mill typically has a three to six-month startup plan.
Anyways, long story short is you learn from as you're operating, you learn where things are going right, and you learn where things are going wrong, and then you put in, make changes to make incremental improvements. That is exactly what's happened. It obviously reflects in producing more gold and at lower cost and guidance. I think it's all been very positive.
Moderator (participant)
Great. I got one more on just general strategy before I jump into a quick Johnson Tract question. I'm curious, with gold prices obviously significantly increasing during Q1, how does Contango balance the benefits of spot prices against hedge obligations? Are there any potential adjustments to the hedging strategy or where are your heads at?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
That's definitely a Mike question.
Mike Clark (CFO)
It's not one I really want to, you know, we look at this obviously a lot. We're currently selling 30% of the gold at effectively spot price for the year, 70% into the hedges. You can try to get cute and look at swapping out hedges for gold prepays. At the end of the day, you're kind of getting to the same result with just a different look. I guess my focus right now, and I won't speak for Rick, but I think just continuing to deliver into these hedges, get ahead of them as much as we can, try to just manage the carry trades and just trying to keep that 70/30 ratio as we deliver this year and make sure that we're ahead of schedule by the time we get to the end of the year.
We'll finish the year with about 43,000 ounces in the hedges. Our debt will be down to $15 million. I think this will be less of a concern by the time we get to the end of the year and demonstrate another solid year of production. They just won't be as significant on our balance sheet. Rick, anything you want to add to that?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, I'll just say, you know, we're a junior producer. I don't think we want to get cute with betting on gold. I don't think that's what I don't think that would be good for our shareholders. I don't think that's what our shareholders want us to do. I think they want us to look, the hedges are in place because that's the only way you could raise money 2-3 years ago, and equity markets were pretty much dead. It's part of the DNA of the company. As Mike says, we'll just keep paying down the debt and keep delivering into the hedges. Let's not be cute here and make a big bet on gold going up and it goes down, and then you're in a worse spot. Just kind of business as usual, and I think we'll be in a good spot.
I think we're already in a good spot, but I think we'll be obviously in a better spot when we're unhedged. That'll come soon enough.
Moderator (participant)
Liberated, as they say in the comments.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Liberated.
Moderator (participant)
Liberated.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Our own liberation day.
Moderator (participant)
Yeah. I want to pivot to Johnson Tract for a quick second because I know we talked about it recently, but I really do want to emphasize really impressive MPV of over $400 million in current gold prices. I'm curious, as your folks in the room, what are the next key milestones in developing Johnson Tract? More specifically, what's the timeline for permitting that underground access tunnel?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, so permitting is not the sexy part of the story for sure, but that is the next stage for Johnson Tract. That's why we wanted to get the initial assessment out. I still keep wanting to call it a PEA, but the assessment out to let people know that this is a pretty valuable asset. As you said, the next stage is permitting the tunnel. It is a state of Alaska mine operating permit. It is technically a mine when you're starting to drive tunnel. You're not producing ore necessarily, but you are mining. You're under OSHA and MSHA and all those things. We think that'll take about a year. It's a state permit. There's no specific federal permitting involved. We already have the access road between camp and the proposed tunnel site permitted.
We could build that any time, but it doesn't really make sense to spend money building a road unless having it sit there. We'll get the permits. We think that'll take about a year. At the same time, we're permitting the easement and barge landing site that have been granted to CIRI by the federal government. When you grant an easement, typically that means you're already permitted. It's just the special arrangement that CIRI has with the federal government that they were granted the easements. We have to figure out exactly what the road alignment is. You go through sort of the normal permitting parameters. In this case, one of the driving ones is wetlands for your wetlands 404 permit. The edict there is to minimize impacts to wetlands.
The other things that you're paying attention to just as a responsible miner and constructing roads is to minimize impacts to wildlife and fish specifically. Fish passages and making sure that any stream that has fish-bearing fish or fish-bearing stream, that the fish can go back and forth across the river or across the water underneath the road. Barge landing site, I think in general, we've selected the best area for that. We've got to do more work specifically on where that's going to go and the specific design there. We'll be doing work in Tuckson Channel specifically to study where the beluga whales are, where they hang out, and do they use the channel? Are they north of it? Are they south of it? We know they're generally in the area, and they aren't endangered species. That's obviously a very important thing for us to understand more.
We'll be doing work on that this summer as well. This year's focus in terms of the road access down to the barging site, and just to cover it up, it's about a 20 mi road length, which is almost exactly what Manh Choh is. It's just very similar scale. We'll gather all the information this year, and then we can start permitting those formally next year.
Moderator (participant)
Awesome. No, appreciate the JT update, of course. I got one last question that I know you've kind of answered, but I just want to keep it clear before we jump into the million questions from the audience. With you got strengthened cash position, reduced debt. What are the capital allocation priorities for the remainder of this year?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
I think Mike kind of covered it. Keep paying the debt down, keep delivering into the hedges. We're going to review our budget here shortly. Next week, Mike and I will be sitting across the room from each other, and we can take a look at do we have money enough to look at drill program at Lucky Shot this year. I'd like to, but I also want to be prudent and make sure we've got plenty of cash in the bank to do what the main business is here, get Johnson Tract permitted, and deliver into the hedges and pay the debt down. There are a few other things that we can look at, but I think those are the main order, main business for right now.
Moderator (participant)
Awesome. Going to jump into the chat. We covered some of it, but there's a lot of questions, so bear with me. I'm going to run through as many as I can. We've covered this a bit, but Yann asks, where is the next likely drilling for Contango going to be?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
I'd say probably definitely Lucky Shot. I think if we don't get a drill program going this year, I'm very confident we'll be drilling next year. We're all set up. The underground's permitted there. So it is technically a mine. We have it currently on care and maintenance, but we are carrying and maintaining it. So that's my best guess. I mean, I'm saying this separate from Manh Choh, we've got a, I think it's a $5.7 million joint venture program at Manh Choh, and the focus of that drilling is to evaluate targets in and around the current pit. They'll be doing a bit of work further afield, but I think the lion's share of the exploration program is in and around the pit there. Obviously, the pit feasibility level pit was done at, I think, $1,400 or $1,450 gold. Gold is almost $2,000 more.
I do not think it, I mean, it will be very unusual to me to see that that pit does not get a little bit bigger, go a little deeper and a little bit more, just go after some of the stuff that obviously did not make it into the pit at a $1,400 gold price. I think we will not have results until later in the year. I do not believe we will be in a position with that $5.7 million budget to upgrade a resource. If we find some interesting things, I think we will more than likely continue to focus the effort there going forward.
Moderator (participant)
Great. On that exact same topic from the chat, Tate from the Max Group asks, of that $5.7 million, is it taken out of your share of sales in the JV or do you write a separate check?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
I'll have Mike answer too, but it's all part of an annual budget that's approved. The cash sweeps, basically, that's included in before we get a dividend, I guess, is the way I would put it.
Mike Clark (CFO)
Yeah. Right now, we're guided to getting about $80 million in cash distributions from the JV this year for our 30%. That's done at about $2,800 gold. That includes kind of our 30% of that $5.7 million program.
Moderator (participant)
Great. Thanks. T. Decker from the chat asks a turnout question. Why is the increase in shorts? Who are these guys? It's an interesting question.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
The shorts. We love the shorts. We want to see them hang, but that's another topic. Short answer is, I mean, look, I mean, I think this is all speculation on my part. And Mike, if I were across from him, he might be kicking me. But look, we got hammered last November with the reduced amount of gold production and the increased cost from what the feasibility said. Again, the feasibility is three years old now. I think that's where these things started. I think there was an effort to, once we were down lower, I think there was an effort to boot us off the Russell. I think that's been some downward continued shorting the stock to boot us off the Russell. And then that's a million shares that the Russell has to sell.
I think that's gone away from them in the sense that our share price has gone up because we've performed better than guidance. We've continued to deliver more gold than planned and at lower costs. I think the other direction is I think the Trump tariff discussions have gone against the Russell valuation and the Russell's gone down. While the Russell's gone down, we've gone up on a relative basis, which means that lower threshold on the Russell is lower than us being on the cusp sort of thing. I think the shorts are in trouble. I think today's a good demonstration of that.
Moderator (participant)
There you go. Somebody in the chat said a short squeeze would be lovely. Wouldn't we all agree? There you go.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Squeeze them.
Moderator (participant)
There you go. Bevin in the chat says, "Congratulations on a fantastic quarter. Looking for a small bit of clarification on something from the last call. I suggested that you'd finance Johnson Tract with bank debt and free cash flow so long as gold prices remain robust." Just making sure that that's accurate.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
I'm sorry, you just came in a bit broken there, Romeo. Can you repeat that?
Moderator (participant)
All good. They're just curious on Johnson Tract. Mentioned that last event, you suggested you'd finance the project with bank debt and free cash flow so long as gold prices remained high. Just making sure that that's accurate.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, I think so. I mean, look, we're a couple of years away from that decision. Just to go through it, this year permitting the tunnel, hopefully next year starting to think about building the tunnel. It's a year to build the tunnel, a year to get the underground drilling in place and completed and a mine plan around. Just straight up, it's at least three years away. We've got time. When I sort of fast forward three years from now, we will no longer be hedged. We will have zero debt, which means we could take on more debt and we'll be producing in the neighborhood of 60,000 ounces of gold a year out of Manh Choh.
With that sort of as a leader and an assumption, we'd be in a good place to debt finance the balance of building the road and the barge landing facility in that. Again, using the DSO model, you're not building a mill and a tailings facility and all that. Now, as I mentioned, we may go buy one. That's something we'll continue to take a look at. We'll look at opportunities to do a DSO direct shipping ore model to Asia. That might be an alternative. It is an alternative for us to evaluate. There are at least three or four other mills to have discussions with. Those discussions are taking place. We're not in a hurry here. We want to make the right decisions.
I kind of like the idea of owning a mill and applying the DSO model with a sort of a hub and spoke twist, if you will, delivering our own ore to that mill, but maybe finding some other advanced stage projects that might supplement that and extend the mine life or grade always will displace grade. If we can find something better out there, we'll certainly go with that. I don't expect to find a lot of things that are much better than Johnson Tract. It is an awesomely good project from a mining standpoint, simple and good grade.
Moderator (participant)
There you go. One question from the chat. What gives you personally confidence that Manh Choh's life of mine can be extended beyond 2029?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, I think just kind of repeating what I said before, but again, the feasibility study pit, and I can't remember if it was $1,400 or $1,450, but it was one of those two numbers that the bottom of the pit was run on. Our costs have not gone up dramatically. I think our life of mine cost is going to remain $1,400. This year is going to be a bit of a high year. As Mike said, we're buying some more tractors, the trucks, they call them tractors, is the pulling part of the truck and trailer assemblage. We'll be buying some more of those this year. We also have a, this is a higher stripping year than average. This year and next year are much higher than average. They go down.
I think we'll continue to see very strong cash flows out of Manh Choh for the next four years. If gold prices are in the neighborhood of where they are, we're going to make a hell of a lot of free cash flow. We're in a very strong position.
Moderator (participant)
Great.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Again, we only have 12 million shares outstanding. So when you do this on a cash flow per share basis, I don't see anybody else that's our near neighbor.
Moderator (participant)
That's healthy. Now, as I promised, I'm only going to do one bridge question for webinars. I'm going to combine a few bridge questions into one. Because you mentioned that it's already, there is still the restriction. Is there any chance the weight restriction will be resolved with the states in a timeframe you can comment on?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, I think what I can say is that the current plan, now that the annual or the Department of Transportation budget has been approved by the federal government with the matching funds and all that, as I understand it, it's scheduled to be repaired. I shouldn't say repaired because it's not really broken, but just updated. The bridge updates that were planned can now be taken place. They take place a year later than the original plan, but that would be in 2026.
Moderator (participant)
Great. One question is when the bank debt's paid off, is Contango able to authorize a small, let's say, $10 million repurchase?
Mike Clark (CFO)
Yeah.
Moderator (participant)
Great.
Mike Clark (CFO)
He's talking about a buyback program, right?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Oh, yeah, sorry. Yeah.
Moderator (participant)
Great. One question just about company marketing. Is there anything to look forward to in regards to sell-side coverage, road shows, etc., in the near future?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, so next week, we're actually headed to Las Vegas for the Canaccord Genuity Conference. I think we've got over 20 meetings already set up. And that's largely an institutional investors are attending that. So that'll be a good one. It goes quiet in most of June and July are quiet and then on August. And then we'll start with Beaver Creek. That's sort of the start of the road show season, if you will, between now and the end of the year. It starts with the Beaver Creek Conference. We'll be at the Denver Gold Show in Colorado Springs, sorry. And then I think we've got a few other things. And I think we end the year. We've got some marketing in Europe that we're doing. And then we end the year, I think, with the New Orleans Conference.
Yeah, we'll be on the road quite a bit starting in September. There'll be definitely the summer hiatus for sure.
Moderator (participant)
Racking up miles from Beaver Creek through to the end of the year. There you go.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, exactly.
Moderator (participant)
Jared Broffin.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Road warriors.
Moderator (participant)
Yeah, road warriors. Jared Broffin asked from the chat, any plans to initiate a dividend?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Not right now. Again, the main order of business is paying off the debt and delivering the hedges. I think that's got to be our, got to stick to our knitting and that basic plan. Share buybacks are interesting. It's another form of compensating shareholders. Those are things that we'll be thinking about.
Moderator (participant)
Great. I got two tough questions to answer. So answer to the best of your ability. One is the eternal. What do you think the stock is worth?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
I don't think we're supposed to say that. Can we?
Moderator (participant)
I don't either.
Mike Clark (CFO)
You're going to do what you want to do, so.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
More than $15. How's that?
Moderator (participant)
There you go. Good answer. Jan asked another, I think impossible to answer question. Are there any active takeover bids for Contango right now?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, short answer is not aware of any.
Moderator (participant)
Great. What's CIRI's stake in Johnson Tract?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Sorry, I didn't understand the question.
Moderator (participant)
What's CIRI's stake in Johnson?
Mike Clark (CFO)
CIRI.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
So CIRI, they are the landowner. They own the mineral and the surface rights on the tract that the deposit is located, the current resource is located on. They have these special rights with the federal government with regards to access, which is why they've already been granted the easement for the road access to the coast and for a barge facility or port facility is actually technically what it's described as. Those are the basic arrangement that we have with CIRI. They do have a right to participate as an equity owner in the project. I'm sure we'll be having that discussion at some point. I think that's probably a year away, probably.
Mike Clark (CFO)
They have royalties.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, sorry, the royalties. As a landowner, they have royalties. Yeah.
Moderator (participant)
Great. One really specific question about Johnson Tract. What happens if you come across archaeological sites while you're exploring the project?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
It's actually a big part of what I'll call permitting. It is an assessment of the archaeological or cultural sites. Obviously, that's something that we work closely with CIRI on. Again, it's their land. It's their traditional land. Basically, there's a set protocol for evaluating the access route, the easement, if you will. It's managed, overseen by what we refer to as SHPO, which is a state historical, I can't remember what the P and the O stand for, office. That's the group that sort of manages historical and cultural things of importance. More important than SHPO, frankly, is CIRI. It's their land and it's their traditional and cultural heritage. That's a driver for us. That'll be the driver for the evaluation of where the best place to put that road is.
Short answer is if you find, and you have to kind of realize where this area is. It's not on a main trading route or anything for, and CIRI's told us this. The coastal areas are probably where most people would have been. Certainly up at the mine site, it's definitely out of the way. You're right up next to the very, very steep mountains. You're not going to find an old village up there for something like that. It's a big part of the permitting effort for sure.
Moderator (participant)
Yeah, no, appreciate that. That's useful info. I know we're not just over time, but coming up on our hard stop. I got two more questions that I'll throw at you. One person from the chat asked, will the derivative liability be declining by approximately $20 million a quarter for the rest of the year?
Mike Clark (CFO)
I think that's a little higher. I think when I looked at the April 30th hedge, I think that represents about $13 million. And that was about 12,000 ounces. I think if gold stays where it is, our hedge liability should be cut in half by the end of the year. That's about $50 million for the year. It will gradually go down from there.
Moderator (participant)
Great, thanks. One last one from Roger. He notes, no public options are available for Contango. Do you expect to have options available in the near term?
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
I mean, the option market, it's an independent thing, right? It's not something we control. And we don't issue options to employees. So yeah, that's why there aren't any options. We have some warrants, but they, and I don't know, do you know, Mike, if they trade?
Mike Clark (CFO)
No, I don't believe they do at all.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Yeah, there aren't that many of them. So it's probably one reason why they don't.
Mike Clark (CFO)
There's about 700,000 of them. They're all pretty far out of the money. And they have about two years left.
Moderator (participant)
Great. I'm just going to point to a couple of comments in the chat. People said, what a balance sheet transformation. Keep up the good work. Appreciate your time, Rick and Mike. Thanks so much for joining us and talking to folks and answering our questions. I really appreciate it very much and hope to talk to you soon as we have more updates.
Mike Clark (CFO)
Thank you.
Rick Nieuwenhuyse (CEO)
Thanks, Romeo. Good to talk to you. Take care.
Moderator (participant)
Have a great afternoon, guys.