Great Panther Silver Ltd (GPL) Q3 2012 Earnings Call November 15, 2012 10:00 AM ET

Operator

Good morning Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Great Panther Silver Limited Third Quarter 2012 financial results conference call. As a reminder all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. (Operator instructions)

I would now like to turn the call over to Rhonda Bennetto, Vice President Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Denise. Good morning. And thank you for taking the time to join our call today. Mr. Bob Archer, Great Panther’s CEO and Jim Zadra, our Chief Financial Officer will be reviewing our Q3 operational and financial results and answering any questions at the conclusion of the prepared remarks.

Before we begin, I’d like to mention that some of the commentary on today’s call will contain forward-looking statements. Although we will make every effort, you should be cautioned that there can be no assurance that those statements will prove to be accurate and that actual results and future events might differ materially from those noted today in the forward-looking statements.

After some remarks from Mr. Archer, there will be a question-and-answer session and a replay of this call will be available a little later today. The details to access the replay were noted in the press release announcing this call and will be available also on our website.

I’ll turn the call over to Bob Archer, Great Panther’s CEO.

Thank you, Rhonda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I apologize for the slight delay in our reporting schedule. But we felt that we needed a little extra time to complete our comparative analysis for the previous quarters.

Before I speak to the actual financial results for the quarter, I’d like to review a few operational highlights from the third quarter in order to provide some context. Processed ore from our two operations increased 9% to 58,307 tons compared to the third quarter of 2011, and increased 10% over the second quarter of 2012 due to a concerted effort to increase production.

Metal production increased 22% to 592,586 silver equivalent ounces compared to the third quarter of 2011, an increase 7% over the second quarter of 2012.

Gold production increased 102% to 3,015 ounces compared to the third quarter of 2011. Silver production was up 8% to 371, 857 ounces compared to the third quarter of 2011.

At Guanajuato, processed ore increased 6% over the third quarter of 2011 due in part to the move to a seven-day work week for Guanajuato Mine operation. Guanajuato ore grades of 188 grams per ton silver and 2.22 grams per ton gold or 321 grams per ton silver, excuse me, silver equivalent were up 32% over the third quarter of 2011.

Guanajuato achieved strong metallurgical recoveries of 90.9% and 91.9% for silver and gold respectively due largely to the addition of a re-grind mill earlier in the year. At Guanajuato the Rayas shaft [ph] was closed for maintenance during the later part of the third quarter primarily to enhance the overall safety conditions. A thorough assessment has been completed; and determined the cost of the shaft rehabilitation to be approximately $760,000 US and taking about five to six months to complete.

In the interim, workers are accessing the mine via the main Guanajuato ramp. While this has had a minor impact on productivity due to the travel times, steps are being taken to mitigate the situation until such time the Rayas shaft [ph] is back in operation.

A new tertiary crusher was not installed at Guanajuato as planned in the third quarter of 2012 due to delays by the supplier. But it is expected that installation will be completed in the fourth quarter or early in the first quarter of 2013.