Operator: Hello, everyone, and welcome to SSR Mining's First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Alex Hunchak from SSR Mining. Please go ahead.
Alex Hunchak: Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining today's conference call to discuss SSR Mining's first quarter 2026 financial results. Our consolidated financial statements have been presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. These financial statements have been filed on EDGAR and SEDAR, and they are also available on our website. There is an online webcast accompanying this call, and you will find the information to access the webcast in this afternoon's news release and on our corporate website. Please note that all figures discussed during the call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. Today's discussion will include forward-looking statements, so please read the disclosures in the relevant documents. Additionally, we refer to non-GAAP financial measures during our discussion and in the accompanying slides. Please see our press release for information about the comparable GAAP measures. Rod Antal, Executive Chairman, will be joined by Michael Sparks, Chief Financial Officer; and Bill MacNevin, EVP, Operations and Sustainability on today's call. I will now turn the line over to Rod.
Rodney Antal: Great. Thank you, Alex, and good afternoon to you all. It's been a strong and productive start to the year, and I'm proud of the outstanding work delivered across the company in the recent months. Most notably, in March, we announced in advance a definitive agreement to sell our interest in the Copler mine for $1.5 billion in cash. This transaction is progressing well, and we expect it to close before the end of the third quarter of 2026. The divestment of Copler provides a strategic repositioning for SSR Mining as a focused Americas-based gold and silver producer with a clear emphasis on free cash flow generation. Our portfolio is now anchored by the Marigold and Cripple Creek and Victor operations, 2 high-quality, long-lived assets that together form the third largest gold production platform in the United States. Both operations offer meaningful runway for future growth and mine life extensions. Operationally, it was a solid quarter with our results tracking well against our internal plans and full-year guidance. Financially, the business generated an impressive free cash flow of more than $210 million in the first quarter of the year. As a result, and following the settlement of our convertible notes at the end of March, we finished the quarter with more than $630 million in cash and 0 debt. Our substantial cash position provides us with a robust balance sheet and flexibility to continue to invest in the organic growth opportunities across the portfolio and consideration for further capital returns to shareholders in the future. On that note, we completed the $300 million in share repurchases, acquiring more than 9 million shares subsequent to the quarter in April just passed. Since 2021, we have repurchased over 29 million shares at an average price of $21 per share, underscoring our disciplined capital allocation strategy and delivering meaningful per share value accretion to our shareholders. I'm sure you will agree that after a busy and successful first quarter, we have created a very strong position for SSR moving forward. We expect our low-risk Americas-focused platform and track record of disciplined capital allocation will position SSR Mining as an attractive vehicle for investors seeking exposure both to gold and silver in the Americas. Before I move on to the next slide, I want to highlight some of the catalysts ahead for our business. First, we expect to provide an updated Life of Mine plan for Marigold in the coming 12 months, incorporating growth opportunities like Buffalo Valley as we push to optimize and extend mine life at Marigold. Next, we are continuing to advance various brownfield growth opportunities across the business, including both Puna and Seabee and Bill is going to speak more on these in the coming slides. Further, we anticipate providing an update on our strategic review of Hot Maden in the coming months. Lastly, as noted, we expect the Copler transaction to close before the end of the third quarter, which will add a further $1.5 billion in cash to our balance sheet. These catalysts in and of themselves present an opportunity to create additional value for our shareholders and will be further bolstered by the ongoing free cash flow from our Americas operations. Let's move on to Slide 4 and talk more about our track record of value creation. The figures on this slide illustrate a powerful picture of discipline and value creation. Over the past few years, we have clearly demonstrated a track record of value creation in per share metrics, capital returns and M&A. I've spoken to our commitment to capital returns and particularly share buybacks, but separately, we also have a clear track record of value-accretive M&A. This was most recently illustrated by the remarkable returns being generated from the acquisition of Cripple Creek and Victor in 2025. This is further supported across the portfolio where we have consistently demonstrated our ability to add value through mine life extensions and optimizations. These successes, combined with a supportive gold price environment have driven a more than 300% increase in our consolidated consensus net asset value per share since 2024 and a better than 400% increase in consensus cash flow per share over the same period, a fantastic outcome that differentiates SSR amongst its peers. I'm going to turn over to Michael on Slide 5 to discuss the quarterly results.
Michael Sparks: Thank you, Rod, and good afternoon, everyone. In the first quarter, we produced 110,000 gold equivalent ounces at all-in sustaining costs of $2,433 per ounce, well aligned with our expectations. As highlighted in our guidance release, we continue to expect 55% to 60% of full-year production in the second half with higher sustaining capital spend in the second and third quarters. Bill will speak in more depth about each operation in the coming slides, but I wanted to call out 2 notable milestones from the Q1 results. First, Puna delivered more than $120 million in site level free cash flow in the quarter, an excellent result that reinforces Puna's position as one of the highest margin primary silver mines globally. We are excited about the opportunities for meaningful mine life extensions in Argentina and are advancing these programs through 2026. Second, following another strong quarter from CC&V, the operation has now generated approximately $325 million in mine site free cash flow since its acquisition in 2025. This is a phenomenal result given the $275 million acquisition cost and the long mine life ahead for the operation. Overall, a strong and solid start to the year operationally, and we look forward to building on this momentum through the rest of the year. Now let's move to Slide 6 for a brief review of our financial results. Our solid operational results translated into strong first quarter financials, including nearly $600 million in revenue from 113,000 ounces of gold equivalent sales. With the sale of our ownership in Copler announced in March, the asset is now classified as a discontinued operation in our financial reporting. The results from discontinued operations largely reflect a onetime non-cash adjustment to fair book value on the announcement of the sale of Copler. Looking at the rest of the business, net income from continuing operations in the first quarter of 2026 was $1.16 per diluted share, while adjusted net income per diluted share was $1.15. Free cash flow from continuing operations in the quarter was $211 million. This strong free cash flow increased our cash position to $634 million at the end of Q1, inclusive of the $87.5 million contingent payment made to Newmont during the quarter as part of the CC&V transaction. Also during the quarter, we fully redeemed our outstanding convertible notes, leaving the balance sheet debt-free at the end of March and with total liquidity of $1.1 billion. As Rod mentioned, subsequent to quarter end, we completed $300 million of share repurchases under our buyback program, reflecting our continued commitment to shareholder returns. Looking ahead, we expect our ongoing free cash flow, combined with proceeds from the sale of Copler before the end of the third quarter of 2026, will further strengthen the balance sheet and enhance our ability to continue to allocate capital with discipline while prioritizing high-return growth opportunities and long-term value creation. Before turning the call over to Bill, I'll briefly touch on global cost pressures with a focus on fuel. At Marigold and CC&V, nearly 70% of our diesel exposure is currently mitigated through 0 cost collars executed in late 2025, which extends through the end of 2026. At Seabee, diesel is secured through annual winter road deliveries and at Puna, we are not currently seeing meaningful impact given domestic supply conditions. As a guide for the remainder of 2026, for every $10 per barrel increase in oil prices, it translates to approximately $7 to $10 per ounce increase in our consolidated AISC. We will continue to monitor fuel markets closely as we continue to maintain a disciplined focus on cost control and operation efficiency across the portfolio. Now over to Bill on Slide 7.
William MacNevin: Thanks, Michael. I'll first start with EHSS. Getting our people home safe and healthy each and every day is foundational for our business. This is highlighted in one of SSR Mining's 3 core values being safety first always. This year, as part of our ongoing improvement focus, we're commencing implementation of I Care, We Care across SSR. This is a safety leadership and culture program, prioritizing people and how we each own and take responsibility for ourselves, our workplace and our teams. I'm very encouraged by the energy and input coming through from this early work and look forward to this making a difference on both people safety and overall business performance. Now on to Slide 8 to start with Marigold. Marigold had a solid start to the year with production results well aligned with expectations. We continue to expect full-year production at Marigold will be 55% to 60% weighted to the second half of the year, driven largely by higher grades stacked midyear. AISC at Marigold are expected to peak in the second quarter of 2026, driven by timing of spend on fleet replacements and upgrades. Full-year AISC remains on track against the original guidance range, though we are seeing cost pressures stemming largely from higher royalty costs driven by gold prices. Nearly 3/4 of our diesel fuel usage at Marigold and CCV is hedged for this year, which has helped to insulate us against the current elevated fuel prices globally. Our focus remains on equipment productivities, maintenance quality and efficiency with consumables to manage current and potential future inflationary pressures. Work continues on growth initiatives across Marigold, particularly at Buffalo Valley as we work to include the project into an updated Life of Mine plan at Marigold within the next 12 months. We've also had some great results from near-mine drilling across the property, including some high-grade intercepts to DG80 target to the southwest of the current Mackay pit. Our teams are also continuing to evaluate longer-term open pit expansions at New Millennium. These initiatives, combined with additional near-mine drilling campaigns and project evaluation work point to significant potential for mine life extensions at Marigold in the future. We're excited by what's ahead and look forward to providing more details in the new technical report. Now on to Slide 9 for an update on CC&V. CC&V had another great quarter with better-than-expected recoveries driving strong production and delivering more than $120 million in mine site free cash flow. Since acquisition at the end of last February, CC&V has now generated $325 million in free cash flow, an excellent result that now exceeds the total transaction consideration in just 12 months. CC&V remains well on track against its full-year production and cost guidance targets with higher sustaining capital expected in the second and third quarters. We are continuing to evaluate opportunities to improve the longer-term production cost profile of CC&V through trade-off studies and potential for future mineral reserve conversion. CC&V has an exciting future ahead, and we look forward to continuing to deliver value at that operation going forward. On to Slide 10 to discuss operations at Seabee. First quarter at Seabee saw our continued focus on underground development as we aim to deliver stronger grades and production in the second half of the year. Production was also impacted by extreme cold in the quarter, which caused some temporary downtime in the processing plant. ASIC reflected costs incurred with the winter road season and overall, Seabee remains on track for its full-year guidance ranges. Exploration and resource development activities at both Santoy and Porky continued in the quarter with both programs targeting potential mineral reserve growth. At Santoy, near-mine drilling is focused on higher grades at depth, while our teams continue to evaluate Porky as a potential new mining front to support future mine life extension. Now on to Puna on Slide 11. Puna continued its recent run of excellent operating results with a strong first quarter. Average daily processing plant throughput set another record. The fifth consecutive quarter Puna has delivered improvements in process plant efficiency. As planned, mining was focused on waste stripping in the quarter, and Puna remains well on track for full-year production and cost guidance. Average realized silver prices in the first quarter of 2026 exceeded $90 per ounce, enabling Puna to deliver more than $120 million in mine site free cash flow in Q1. Puna has been an excellent contributor for the business over the last few years and continues to clearly demonstrate its exceptional margins and free cash flow in the current silver price environment. We're advancing a number of opportunities to extend the current life at Puna, including additional laybacks at the existing Chinchillas pit, evaluation of the Melina target adjacent to Chinchillas for open pit potential in the medium term and continued advancement of the Cortaderas underground project. With multiple avenues for growth at Puna, we're very excited for the future of this operation and see potential to meaningfully extend the mine life well beyond our initial current reserve base. On to growth on Slide 12. I've touched on the majority of these projects and targets worked through each asset, but it's still worth highlighting the wealth of potentially meaningful growth opportunities that currently exist across our portfolio. These projects that we have identified through successful exploration and development work completed at each asset in recent years, in my view, there is no better way to serve value for our shareholders than through the advancement of organic growth opportunities. It's also important to note these projects are compelling at current mineral reserve prices of $1,700 per ounce of gold and $20.50 per ounce silver. We do certainly see future upside on each of these assets when spot prices are considered, but we will be diligent in ensuring we advance the highest returning growth opportunities. I'm excited about the growth potential of this portfolio and look forward to executing on the opportunity to deliver value for our shareholders. Now I'll turn it back to Rod for closing remarks.
Rodney Antal: Great. Thanks, everyone. With such an important and transformational quarter behind us, our focus is now building on this momentum during the remainder of the year. We are in excellent position and have a number of meaningful catalysts ahead of us, as I mentioned in the introduction to this call. With the low-risk Americas-based business, continued delivery of strong operating results, organic growth initiatives and the potential for further capital returns, we are well positioned to benefit from the ongoing rerate of SSR Mining. With that, I'm going to turn the call over to the operator for any questions. Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Our first question is from George Eadie with UBS.
George Eadie: Nice update today. On the Hod Maden strategic review, can you just remind me what are the goals and what does it look like? I guess my question is, if the sale is concluded as the outcome, do we have to wait another 2 or so quarters for that process to run and then another couple of quarters to close? I guess, could we be 12 months away from that deal closing if a sale is the decided outcome?
Rodney Antal: George, look, we haven't really given much guidance on the process that we're going through other than to obviously announce it with the sale of Copler back in March. I think the objective of the review was to consider all of the options from actually building the project all the way through to sale. Then within sale or other strategic options to remove ourselves from Hod Maden, what does that mean because there are sort of multiple ways that that can be achieved. Other than we're still in the process of doing that and going through those different trade-offs. There's really not much else to update you on. I think some of the details that you're looking for here will come once we set a clear picture for the direction.
George Eadie: Then just 2 payment questions. Can you remind me what the Carlton Tunnel payment is at CC&V? Then secondly, just with the buyback, $300 million bought back 9.2 million shares. That says USD 32.6 a share average, but the shares were only really in that range for sort of 5 days at the start of April. Is that right? Or am I missing anything there? Or you just bought sort of at that little peak in early April?
Michael Sparks: Yes, George, this is Michael. I'll take the second one first and then circle back to the Carlton Tunnel. With the share buyback program that we announced towards in the middle of the quarter, we did put an NCIB in place, which allows us to give directions to the banks to exercise that outside of us having material information. That process did move very quickly, and it ranged anywhere from $21 up to $32, but with the volatility of the price during that, it did come in around that $32 a share average as we go through. Then circling back to Carlton Tunnel. The $87.5 million that we paid for Newmont during the quarter was for the Carlton Tunnel. That leaves one more payment, $87.5 million additional payment, which would come in connection with amendment 14 and the updated closure plans at that site as we look at that deal structure.
George Eadie: If amendment 14 closes, say, 12 months, whenever it is, that payment is straight after you get that approval. Is that right?
Michael Sparks: Yes, it's right. Amendment 14 remains on track anywhere from 12 to 18 months is kind of what we're penciling in. Then that payment will be due once that work is completed and that permit is issued.
Rodney Antal: I'll just chime in here a little bit, George. It's all going to plan. We're leading that work now. Bill and the team have taken that over and the work that we've done to want to establish our presence with -- in the community in Colorado and also locally down at Cripple Creek has gone really well. That's all tracking to plan.
Operator: The next question is from Lawson Winder with BoA Merrill Lynch.
Lawson Winder: Could I ask about the buyback and just thinking about your situation today, the balance sheet is very strong. The outlook for free cash flow generation is quite robust. I mean you mentioned an intention to look at the buyback again. Now the buyback authorization is totally exhausted. I mean, why not go to the Board prior -- along with the results and ask for the renewal then? When is your thinking on timing around a renewal?
Rodney Antal: Yes. I think it's important to take a step back to take a step forward. Obviously, the -- and Michael can talk more around the work that's going on, but the share buyback that we just executed for us was particularly on the announcement of the Copler sale made a lot of sense to do, and it was executed very quickly given the parameters that we had put in place to the prior questions. The step back that I'm talking about now is now to post the -- remember when we suspended our capital allocation strategy with the Copler incident a few years ago, when we said once we have clarity on the outcome of -- post that, that we would then go back and have a look at our capital allocations and reimplementing and reinstituting it. That's what we're doing at the moment, the work around more holistically, how do we manage our capital allocation and then looking at the requirements, obviously, for the business in the future with all the various growth opportunities we have in front of us the balance sheet and other things before we go and make our mind up on the actual mechanisms we use for returns to shareholders. That work is underway with Michael and the team.
Lawson Winder: Part of it is just a discussion between whether it's going to be increased dividend or increased buyback rather than just whether you're going to do it.
Rodney Antal: I wouldn't say increase because we haven't got a dividend in place at the moment because we suspended it, and that's the point. It is a question of whether we reinstitute our yields that we had in place before it became a vote more recently in the market. We actually had that way back in 2021 and as well as supplementing that through the share buyback program. That was really how we had managed it before with the 3 pillars, balance sheet strength, growth and returns. It's really just pulling all that work together with the emerging growth opportunities we have as well to ensure that we're making sound decisions.
Lawson Winder: Fully acknowledging those growth opportunities, I think it would be interesting to hear your views on M&A, particularly in light of your strong free cash flow and balance sheet position. I mean that must compete with options within the portfolio, I assume, but what is SSR's appetite right now for growth through M&A?
Rodney Antal: Look, I think that's why in the intro slides, if you go back to the start of the call, Lawson, the reason we go to the pains of setting out our track record around M&A is to actually highlight we've been really good stewards of capital for a long time. All of the deals that we have brought to market, and we look at a lot of stuff, and we've never made a secret of the fact that we're active always looking at different trade-offs and different opportunities around the market. When we do bring deals to the table and to our shareholders, there is usually a multiple of upside, and that's what we've been able to achieve and the results speak for themselves, I think. That is part of who we are. I think we're particularly good at it. We have a number of filters that we look at for M&A through any cycle. It doesn't matter what cycle we're in, but it has to align to our business strategy. It has to compete for capital, and it has to be -- make sense for us in terms of what we want to build. We've actually got a particular focus now, obviously, with the reset of the business on the Americas. That is a bit of a nuance to what we had before, but beyond that, we are staying active in that space.
Operator: The next question is from Joshua Wolfson with RBC.
Joshua Wolfson: Following up Lawson's question, just on the buyback and capital allocation. I mean, I can appreciate the company's desire to be measured here, but pro forma net cash over $2 billion, $200 million generated in free cash flow this quarter. Why not continue a little bit of the buyback in the interim before closing of Copler? Or is there another way that we should be thinking about this in terms of maybe capital needs being higher for some of the development projects?
Rodney Antal: Josh, look, I think it's pretty simple. I think the first thing first is we want to close the deal, and get the cash into the bank. That's really important through any transaction. As we said, that will take place and achieve that within the third quarter. I think that's really the most important catalyst. It doesn't mean we can't do share buybacks or do more share buybacks. I think as we noodle through the various options and have the discussions with the Board, the work that Michael and the team are doing really does need to be as holistic as possible and predictable as possible, and that's really the work that we're doing. It's not because we have an a version of doing any more share buybacks. I think it's really around just let's get the deal closed, let's get the cash in the bank and then the rest will come.
Joshua Wolfson: Then on Hod Maden, you had signaled minimal costs. You did spend $31 million in the first quarter. How should we think about what minimal costs are going forward?
Michael Sparks: Yes, Josh. A lot of the work, as you remember, under Hod Maden right now is around early site works. A lot of that was advanced during that first part of the Q1, and that's where you're seeing that majority of that $31 million coming in. We anticipate that as we go through the strategic review in the coming months that, that will be much lower. It won't be 0, but it will be towards the lower end of that range.
Joshua Wolfson: Then there was some commentary earlier on the call about fuel price sensitivity, I think, of $7 to $10. Just clarifying what does that number incorporate? Does it reflect the hedging program as well that's in place? Then does that include secondary impacts and other items that may not be just direct fuel usage?
Michael Sparks: Yes, you bet. The hedge program goes through the end of this year. That $10 increase in the $10 AISC is really tied to this year with the hedge programs in place. Just to give you a guide that without the hedge programs, if we don't have anything in place going into '27, that goes up to about double that, which is $20, so we only have about 10% of our fuel costs that our operating costs, only about 10% of that is fuel. As Bill mentioned, we really are focused on operational efficiency and controlling those costs. It's a bit early to look at what the knock-on effects would be. We are monitoring it, but we're not seeing anything that's tangible at this point, but it is something that we are continuing to monitor and we'll continue to update on in this quarter as progress in the year.
Operator: The next question is from Ovais Habib with Deutsche Bank.
Ovais Habib: Congrats on the Q1 beat and great to see CC&V outperforming. I mean, the amount of free cash flow this operation is generating is really impressive. Just a couple of questions from me. Again, sticking with the CC&V, just a follow-up question from George regarding the Carlton Tunnel payment. Is there a read-through or a positive read-through on the fact that you've made this payment on the fact that you are looking for this amendment 14 permit? Is that kind of a read-through that is coming imminently?
Rodney Antal: No, I think they're mutually exclusive, think of it the other way. Amendment 14 was, as you recall, when we put out the technical report for Cripple Creek as the first update from SSR, it was constrained around the already in process Amendment 14. It's an expansion permit that Newmont had already begun when we acquired the asset. The Carlton Tunnel discussions and considerations was another unique piece of work that was going on with the regulators around the long-term management of the water discharge. It's entirely separate from the amendment 14.
Ovais Habib: Just moving on to the new mine plan expected at Marigold, That's, I believe, including Buffalo Valley. Are you expecting any significant improvement in the production profile? Or you're looking at more like an increase in mine life? Any color on that?
Rodney Antal: Look, I think the first thing first, it was to include some of the growth options that we have to understand the requirements for those growth options. What I mean by that is the permitting requirements, where we might need more infrastructure, where we might need to develop a new area, where we might need to do more technical work to ensure that we're in good shape for that growth profile. Some of those growth options will more feature sort of later in the life of Marigold, not so much initially because of those reasons, permitting or whatever it happens to be. Some of it was to do the trade-offs that we can look at for various parts of the property, the southern part of the property around New Millennium, Buffalo Valley and some of the extensions that we've got down there to see whether we could share an infrastructure down there rather than having long haulage. There's those optimization opportunities as we're going through the mine plans as well. Then in the initial years, the key focus is to show and demonstrate that we actually have a production profile that now accounts for the blending requirements that we talked about last year that I think folks were getting a little bit concerned about. The importance of having to have different faces open, so we're allowing for the blending requirement of those final rules up on the heap leach pad. The next 5 years, as we sort of said at the end of last year, will probably stay about the same overall, but it's really then the growth options beyond it to bring in ounces where we can along the way and extend, obviously, the Life of Mine at Marigold with a substantial amount of resources that we have.
Operator: The next question is from Cosmos Chiu with CIBC.
Cosmos Chiu: My question is on the contingent payment. Sorry for going back to the Carlton Tunnel, $87.5 million. If I go back to your original agreement, it was due when there is regulatory relief relating to flow-related permitting requirements, achieving highest feasibility allocation or alternative to water flow. I guess you've achieved that point. After saying all that, could you maybe explain to me what that means and where we are today in terms of that water flow?
Rodney Antal: I was surprised, Cos, you weren't calling #1, but look, on the Carlton Tunnel discharge, this is -- remember, this is a Newmont -- remains a Newmont led piece of work. I'll say that. They did achieve some of the permitting requirements from the regulators in Colorado that necessitated us having a requirement to pay them that milestone of the $87.5 million. In layman terms, they achieved what they set out to achieve, but there will also -- there will always -- there is ongoing dialogue for -- on Newmont's behalf with the regulators to consider again the overall requirements for what is going to be ultimately the plan for the Carlton Tunnel discharge. Whether it needs intervention through some sort of water treatment facility in the long term, etc. Remember, the way that we carved that out through the deal was that was always going to be on Newmont's account. It's important that they take the lead on that, and they continue with that dialogue. Obviously, we're a stakeholder, but not a stakeholder who is leading the discussions on this.
Cosmos Chiu: Maybe a question on Copler as you had mentioned in your guidance, there was about $80 million to $100 million in care and maintenance costs budgeted for the full-year. If I were to take the difference of your free cash flow in Q1, $210 million and $175 million, difference is about $35.6 million. Is that the part that's kind of related to care and maintenance for the quarter, which seems a bit high because you had guided to about $20 million to $25 million. I guess what I'm trying to get to is, is that the number related to care maintenance? What should we expect in Q2? When would it stop? Would it stop? Is it only going to stop when you, I guess, close the deal?
Rodney Antal: I'll pass that one to Michael.
Michael Sparks: Just a couple of points on that. In the Q1, you'll remember, there are a number of taxes and license renewals. Our Q1 costs, care and maintenance and otherwise are always a little bit higher than Q1. That original guidance that we had of $20 million to $25 million would be what I would use for Q2. The answer to your second part is we will maintain that care and maintenance and ongoing support through the closing with the transaction. As you're doing your modeling, you can use that $20 million to $25 million rough estimate, and then that would continue on until we announce the close of the deal.
Cosmos Chiu: I guess my last question is, what else needs to be completed for closing of the deal? As you mentioned, due diligence period was -- has now been completed. What else needs to happen in terms of closing of the deal?
Rodney Antal: Yes. Look, the work going on the ground there has actually been excellent with the discussions around the transition requirements, etc., with Genus Holdings. All of the cooperation you would expect through a transaction like this has been very good. We're very pleased with that. The only thing that is required, I think we actually set it out with the announcement is the regulatory approvals, and so we'll wait on those that we -- that Genus actually require when we require through the Ministry of Mining and Energy in particular. Then once they're achieved, we can close the deal. We expect that by the end of quarter 3.
Operator: The next question is from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial.
Don DeMarco: First on Seabee. Rod, I heard that guidance is on track, and so can you provide any incremental color on the costs on Q1 beyond what you already mentioned about the cold weather? Should we model -- if we take it face value, should we then model a step change lower cost in Q2?
Rodney Antal: No. Look, I think the feature for this, Don, let me take a step back and then I'll try to play it forward for you, so you can try to model it out. At the end of last year, and we said early into this year and through pretty much the first half, the real focus there is on development at Seabee, which is ongoing, and that will continue through this quarter as well. We'll start to see incrementally better production profile coming out of Seabee, but it's really fourth quarter heavy in terms of the production coming out of that through the development work that we began in the second half of last year and will continue in the first half of this year. That's how to think about it. It will progressively start to get better, but the real big quarter will be fourth quarter this year. Really the cost or the all-in sustaining costs will average themselves out over the year as we get the ounces production back into that sort of guidance range. It's just because we're still incurring costs while we're doing the development, but obviously, the ounce production is much lower in Q1, Q2, moving up into Q3 and then obviously, a great quarter 4.
Don DeMarco: In other words, like Q1, Q2, you might be above the top end of the guidance range and then Q3, Q4, you could be below the lower end of the guidance range. Is that fair to say?
Michael Sparks: Yes, I think that's right, Don. Just remember, a good chunk of our costs for Seabee come across on that ice road. Q1 is always going to be a little higher for us, but as we increase the production, as Rod said, throughout the year and as we get out of that Q1, early Q2, which is the ice road spend, that will normalize.
Don DeMarco: Then on Hod Madden, I look forward to your update in the strategic review, but can you remind us what your book value is for this asset?
Rodney Antal: I actually don't have that on my head.
Michael Sparks: I'll get that for you. I don't have it. I'd like here with this. We'll get back to you, Don, on that one.
Don DeMarco: Then finally, on M&A, you had mentioned the Americas and some, but I'm just wondering, do you have a bias and preference in terms of stage or jurisdiction? I mean, given your cash balance, would you then have a favor toward development projects? With the Americas that you mentioned, does that imply North and South America and you equally weigh all the jurisdictions -- all the countries within those jurisdictions?
Rodney Antal: I think we look at the full life cycle of assets, everything from greenfields type of opportunities, which we do over time, quietly acquire, particularly around our current assets. We're fairly active in that space anyway, all the way through brownfield development and then producing assets. We don't have a strong preference either way. I think the most important thing for us is, is it fit on strategy? Does it fit and align with our long-term vision of building from the platforms we have and then obviously, the value-add that we can add to them. Each one of those will be unique in their own circumstances for various reasons. It really just depends, Don, but remember, I think we've got a reputation of being good discoverers all the way through to mine builders and operators. I think there really isn't anything that we wouldn't look at would tackle. It's more around is it on strategy. Do I have a bias from North to South America? I certainly think right now, our focus is on North for sure to continue to build out the lower risk ounce base that we now enjoy with Marigold, Cripple Creek and Seabee, that would be a preference, not forgetting the fact that we have a platform in Argentina. More recently, over the last few years, we've seen a much better environment down there for foreign investors. That's another thing that we'll keep on looking at given it's fairly underexplored because we've already got a presence there. It's not like marching into a brand-new jurisdiction. Yes, look, I think our focus at the moment is really North America and then trying to build around the platform we've got down in Argentina.
Operator: This concludes the question-and-answer session and today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.