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Yamana Gold Inc
TSX:YRI

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Yamana Gold Inc Logo
Yamana Gold Inc
TSX:YRI
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Price: 7.89 CAD 0.13% Market Closed
Updated: May 11, 2024

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2020-Q1

from 0
Operator

All participants please standby, your conference is ready to begin. Thank you all for joining us this morning. Before I turn the call over, I need to advise that certain statements made during this call today may contain forward-looking information and actual results could differ from the conclusions or projections in that forward-looking information, which include but are not limited to statements with respect from the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, cost of production, capital expenditures, future metal prices and the cost and timing of the development of new projects for a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties and factors, which may lead to actual financial results and performance being different from the estimates contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Yamana's press release issued earlier this morning announcing first quarter 2020 results as well as the management's discussion and analysis for the same period, and other regulatory filings in Canada and the United States. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay today at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. Replay information and the presentation slides accompanying this conference call and webcast are available on Yamana's website at yamana.com. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Daniel Racine, President and CEO.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Thank you, operator. Good morning everyone and welcome to our first quarter conference call. With me today is Jason LeBlanc, our CFO. These are challenging times for everyone and I hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe. Here at Yamana, we are doing everything we can to protect our employees and their families and working closely with our host communities to support their needs during this challenging period. On this slide, you are seeing some example of the efforts that the company's operation are making to support our host communities. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been allocated to setting up support funds for communities in the coming weeks and months. You can find more details in our MD&A. There are currently no confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 at any of our operation, but the pandemic has impacted our business. Two of our mines, Canadian Malartic and Cerro Moro were temporarily impacted late in the first quarter due to government restrictions related to COVID-19. The suspensions and the gradual ramp-up of mining post suspension have impacted our 2020 outlook. We are now forecasting gold production for the year at 786,000 ounces. Silver production has been revised to 10.25 million ounces and GEO ounces are projected at 890,000 ounces. On a mine-by-mine basis, our 50% share of gold production at Canadian Malartic is now expected to be 275,000 ounces. We are projecting 2020 gold and silver production at Cerro Moro of 96, 000 and 6.2 million ounces of silver. With GEO production now seen at 160,000 ounces, I'll explain in the next slide. I would like to know that we are taking a conservative approach to our revised guidance for Cerro Moro and Canadian Malartic and believe there is potential upside.I'm pleased to report that we are increasing our 2020 production forecast for Jacobina to 168,000 ounces of gold. The increase came after the Mine posted yet another record for quarterly production due to higher grade and increased throughput. El Penon is forecasting to produce 162,000 ounces of gold and 4.3 million ounces of silver.GEO production is forecast at 202,000 ounces. The change is entirely attributable to our revised GEO guidance ratio, which is due to the relative outperformance of gold price to silver Price. Production guidance for Minera Florida has been revised slightly to 85,000 ounces of gold.The revision reflects a temporary workforce reduction that was implemented in March in conjunction with local authorities and unions related to workers who are not from the region to enhance social distancing and reduce the possibility of community infection.Please note that our revised guidance is being provided based on what is currently known. There continues to be uncertainties that may impact our operation and effect production and costs.Like El Penon, our updated GEO ratio impacted GEO guidance for Cerro Moro reducing our GEO production forecast by 11,000 ounces. Government restriction introduced on March 20 resulted in periods when production at Cerro Moro was limited or nil.This restriction included a travel ban and a mandatory social isolation order. Even after restrictions on mining was lifted, production was limited due to the consultation with government around reinstating travel to Cerro Moro. The implementation of precautionary measure and the overall workforce remobilization.The ramp up of operations began late this month and will continue through early May with the gradual increase in production. The suspension and subsequent ramp-up required a change in mine plan as expected to extend into mid-June. As part of this, the stockpile will be accumulated and for certain period, this will limit the processing of ore. While the stockpile is not immediately needed, it will enable future processing flexibility. Due to the suspension of and gradual resumption of operation, higher grade ore that we had planned to mine and process late in 2020 will be deferred to future period as part of normal mine sequencing. As mentioned, production guidance is being conservatively estimated and we believe with strong execution and an efficient ramp-up that may do better. Canadian Malartic was temporarily suspended on March 24 and will resume operation on April 15, after the Quebec government lifted the restriction on mining. Processing operation resume within a few days and remobilizing work crew. The ramp-up is expected to take 2 to 4 weeks, with the full attention to health and safety protocols, including temperature check and enhanced screening for anyone seeking entry to the mine.Mandatory social distancing and enhanced screening and disinfecting. Our revised guidance assume a conservative ramp-up. Due to the temporary suspension and gradual ramp-up, we will be deferring the processing of high-grade ore that has originally been planned for Q4 as part of the updated plan. In addition, a scheduled maintenance shutdown is expected to require more than the typical for the period to complete to accommodate social distancing protocol. To the extent that maintenance can be performed more efficiently, it will benefit production.Despite the impact in challenges caused by COVID-19 pandemic, we had a very strong quarter. Our total recordable injury frequency rate was 0.39 at quarter-end and after one year of measurement on our social license to operate index result shows strong trust and acceptance across our operations.During the quarter, we continued to monetize our non-producing assets to improve our financial flexibility and provide optionality. We entered into a definitive purchase agreement to sell our portfolio of royalty, interest and the contingent payment to be received upon declaration of commercial production at the Deep Carbonates project at Gualcamayo mine for a total consideration of $65 million.Following the completion at the market merger between Leagold and Equinox a subsequent at the quarter-end, we closed the sale of $12 million unit of Equinox for $120 million CAD. Each unit include one common share and one-half of a common share warrants of Equinox. If all the warrants are exercised, total gross proceed to Yamana would be $201 million CAD. As you may have seen, we have announced an agreement earlier this week to option up to 40% interest Suyai Gold project to a very highly respected Argentina portfolio management and capital market company based in Argentina. We're excited about this agreement and the potential to advance of the project.During the quarter, we have decreased net debt by a further 20 million due to positive cash flow from operation. At quarter-end, net debt was 869.1 million. Taking into a calendar receipt of funds from aforementioned Equinox unit sale, our net debt balance at quarter end would have been approximately 786 million on a pro forma basis.This time last year, our net debt was 0.77 billion. And with our significant improved financial flexibility, we have increased our dividend for the third time in the past year competitively increasing it by 213%. Net increase during the quarter were $45 million or $0.05 per share.Adjusted net earning was 47.2 million also $0.05 per share. Cash flow continued to be very robust with cash flow before net change in net working capital of 164.6 million. Normalized cash flows from operating activities before net change in working capital of 168.1 million and free cash flow before dividend debt repayment of 38.9 million. We produced 192 238 or during the quarter notwithstanding the temporary suspension at Canadian Malartic and Cerro Moro. Jacobina, El Penon and Minera Florida all add exceptional quarters exceeding their production target.Silver production was 2.73 million ounces following a strong performance from El Penon while GEO production of 221,746 ounces was in line with plan. Cash costs of 694 per GEO and all in sustaining costs of 1,032 per GEO were better than plan. Despite the GEO ratio being higher at 94.23 than original guidance of 86.10. Costs were positively impacted by foreign exchange movement as a result of the Canadian dollar, Brazilian real Argentinian peso and Chilean pesos all weakening against the US dollar.Jacobina achieved its objective for the Phase 1 expansion of 6500 tons per day, a full quarter ahead of schedule and it did so without the benefit from the installation of further plan modification scheduled for completion in mid-2020. Phase one in short has gone better than planned and we are currently evaluating whether there is an opportunity to further optimize daily throughput above 6500 tons per day as part of this phase. With respect to Phase 2, the pre-feasibility study, which evaluates an increase in throughput to 7500 to 8500 tons per day is now complete. Preliminary results indicate that total capital cost of 57 million with 35 million related to the processing plant, 14 million for underground mining and $8 million for infrastructure. The Phase 2 expansion would increase Jacobina's annual production to 230,000 ounces and reduce operating costs with a positive impact on cash flow. More comprehensive and detailed information relating to Phase 2 pre-feasibility study will follow in a separate announcement early next month and the 43-101 report will also be published in May. Should also note that additional production from Phase 2 is not included in our guidance.As mentioned, our Q1 results were very strong. Despite the temporary suspension at Cerro Moro and Canadian Malartic, if they were not impacted in total, we would have finished Q1 on track to be ahead of our original guidance sent at the beginning of the year. We are encouraged by the 32,000 performance of our mines. We have decided to provide you with our urgent internal budget numbers for the quarter so you can see how each operation tracked. For production as you can see only Canadian Malartic and Cerro Moro were below budget, where Jacobina, El Penon, and Minera Florida all exceeded our budget. Production of 222,000 GEO ounces was exactly in line with budget. On cost, we actually tracked better than our Q1 budget. Only Cerro Moro saw costs higher than our budget and again this was due to the government restriction during the quarter.I will now turn it over to Jason to discuss the financial.

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

Thank you, Daniel. And good morning, everyone. Turning now to our financial performance. Revenue in the first quarter was $356.5 million compared to $407.1 million in the same period of 2019. The decrease reflects the company's current portfolio of 5 mines this quarter compared to the first quarter of 2019, which included contributions from 6 mines, including Chapada. However, this was partly offset by higher gold and silver prices as well as increases in sales volumes from Jacobina, El Penon, and Minera Florida. And despite the year-over-year decrease in revenue, gross margin G&A increased slightly to $202.2 million. G&A expenses decreased by $5.7 million or 27% compared to the same period in 2019 due to corporate overhead reductions as we scaled our cost structure to our current portfolio of assets following the sale of Chapada. Net earnings were $45 million or $0.05 per share. The net effect of adjusting items was neutral in the quarter. So we also had adjusted earnings of $0.05 per share as well. Quarterly cash flow performance reflected the impact of both strong production and gold prices as well as the positive impact of foreign movements on cost structure.Cash flows from operating activities during the quarter were $129.4 million in cash flows from operating activities before net change and working capital were $164.6 million. Free cash flow before dividends and debt repayments during the quarter is $38.9 million and we reduced net debt during the quarter by a further $20 million to just under $870 million. With the recent proceeds of Equinox sale, pro forma net debt was $786 million at March 31.If we go back one year to the end of Q1 2019, our net debt was sitting at about $1.77 billion, so we've been able to reduce net debt by about $1 billion in 12 months. The majority of that follows the proceeds from the sale but more recently that has been from the free cash flow generation of the company. Given the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic, we drew down $200 million of our $750 million revolving credit facility as a precautionary measure in March, but we do not expect to utilize any of these funds.Before I get into our revised outlook, it is important to note the impact of how the gold equivalent ratio has moved since earlier this year. Gold has performed exceptionally well year-to-date relative to silver, which has significantly increased the GEO ratio observed in the market compared to the ratio assumed in initial 2020 guidance. With our revised 2020 guidance, we have updated the assumed ratio to better reflect that movement. In our original guidance, we assumed a ratio of 86.1. We are now assuming a ratio of 98.85 for the full year.The result is that silver production accounts for less and less ounces in gold equivalent terms following that change. The impact to our 2020 production guidance from our new ratio assumption is approximately 17,000 GEO from this change in the GEO ratio only from our mines that produced silver. The remainder of the reconciliation of the change in our guidance is from the COVID impacts at Cerro Moro and Malartic and the guidance increase at Jacobina. Turning to additional items in our guidance, we are continuing to assess the impact of COVID-19 on costs in relation to guidance assumptions previously provided in February. So for now, we wanted to provide a directional update on costs in the say, costs are expected to be higher, but we will provide a further update, a more detailed update at a later date. For now, we are providing some indications of the impacts we are experiencing and anticipating ahead of that further update. As a result of the GEO ratio assumed, we estimate an increase of approximately $20 per GEO on our ASIC. A larger GEO ratio results in total costs being divided over last GEO ounces increasing the overall cost per unit reported. The second impact of the positive tailwinds from foreign -- weaker foreign exchange rates than those assumed in our original guidance, which represents about $35 per GEO at current FX rates.Finally in association with COVID-19, costs are also expected to be impacted primarily by the lower GEO levels and unit cost impacts from the re-guided production but also the demobilization ramp ups and workforce safety measures put in place. The costs will be most significantly impacted during Q2. We expect consolidated ASIC for the full year may be in the range of 5% higher than previously guided. We also expect capital to be scaled to the new guidance level as we will have natural deferrals and capital spend in association with delays related to COVID-19 both from a sustaining and expansionary capital perspective.The expected reduction in capital spend for the year is between $15 and $20 million. Lastly, total DD&A is being re-guided to $470 million for 2020 in association with the reduction in quantities sold. Overall, when thinking about our 2020 outlook, despite the impact of production and costs from COVID, the company's margins and cash flow generation will benefit from the positive response to gold prices during this unprecedented uncertainty, so cash flows remain healthy this year despite the COVID impacts. As we look out to next year and beyond our cash flow platform has improved meaningfully due to the higher gold price and the weaker operating currencies and reductions in other cost inputs we're seeing over the longer term. And with that, I will hand the call back over to Daniel.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Thank you, Jason. While these are unprecedented times for everyone, we believe our business may be in a better position that it has ever been. Our cash flow and financial flexibility continue to rise against the backdrop of a favorable gold price environment. Our balance sheet and liquidity is strong and getting stronger while net debt continues to decline. In our growing financial strength is underpinned by a strong asset portfolio that is performing exceptionally well. The testament to our people with despite the uncertainty and the challenge posed by COVID-19 has risen to the occasion and done a remarkable job. And with that we'll be happy to take your questions. Operator?

Operator

The first question is from Ralph Profiti with Eight Capital.

R
Ralph M. Profiti
Principal

Daniel, I have 2 on Jacobina, please.Firstly, the presentation talks about moving this to feasibility study stage in the middle of 2021, and I don't mean to get ahead too far, but can you tell us a little bit about what studies you're looking at and maybe what gets you most excited. Is exploration side and things like reserve grade most of the optionality going forward or is there a processing optimization as well.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Well, like we said, you're going to see next -- thank you for the question, Ralph. But you're going to see -- next week, we're going to release a lot more detail on the pre-feasibility study. So the pre-feasibility study is completed. We're going to wait before releasing anything really special about it. We want to stabilize the operation at the end of June, as you know, Phase-1 will be completed by then. We want to know what's the base case at Jacobina, stabilize the operation, and after that put that in our study and complete a feasibility study. So right now the pre-feasibility study show, it's a no-brainer to go ahead with this. What we want to continue there -- you mentioned a good point. We had many successes in exploration that Jacobina. Right now, all the drilling is stopped. But we're slowly restarting, we have, as you all know, we have very good grade going deeper at Jacobina, the zone extend. So, we want to make sure that we capture all the potential to put in the study. So, more drilling transferring more inferred into reserve will help right now. With this study, we don't really obtain our 16 years of mine life, we want that to happen before we go ahead with the project. Anyway, there was no capital spend this year. So that's a good thing and then nothing has to be spent before mid next year. So that gave us plenty of time to complete the fee study before that.

R
Ralph M. Profiti
Principal

Okay. And when it comes to the paste backfill plant, it sounds like this is a separate study going on outside of any pre-feasibility study or feasibility study. Can you just maybe touch on the process and the timing on when we could see an update on that? And by my estimates, if you get approved for 2000 tons per day. That would take the TSF above twenty years is that the right way to think about it at the 8500 tonne per day scenario?

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Yes, you're right. The backfill plant is a separate study. It's not big capital but we wanted to keep it separate from the expansion, it will be roughly a 2000 tonne per day backfill plant and you're absolutely right that will extend the mine life of the tailing facilities quite longer. So we had already over 16 years of mine life putting 2000 tonne per day back into the underground will expand the mine life. So basically, the backfill will help to expand the mine life of the tailing facilities.

Operator

The next question is from Josh Wilson with RBC.

J
Joshua Mark Wolfson
Analyst

I just wanted to ask a question on the dividend policy going forward. I recognize there has been a significant increase over the last year. But just thinking going forward with the level of net debt, where it is and also the gold prices where they are? How do you see the dividend policy change in going forward and what is it sort of based on?

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Good question. So, yes last year, when we first increased the dividend, we said is that we have targets to where we wanted to bring the dividend at the end of last year was about $50 million per year in total now it's going to be $60 million per year in total. We said we want to be between 50 and 100. So that's the first step to be to go towards the 100 as we generate more free cash flow this year with our interest going down, that's what we're seeing. We want to give it back to our shareholders that have been patient in the past few years and then, nothing has changed. We announced that we want it to be between $50 and $100 million per year. We're getting towards the target.

J
Joshua Mark Wolfson
Analyst

Okay. So when you're stress testing, I guess downside risks for the company, what sort of price assumptions are you using within that sort of base case, where the dividend can still fully be covered?

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

That's only a 10 million increase but Jason can give you the detail.

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

Yes, Josh, I guess the way to look at it is we are definitely not basing decisions on current spot prices in the market today. We've, we budget that much lower gold prices sensitize it to the downside. I think the further complement to that is the that dividend reserve fund that will build up over time. I think the recent disposition of the Equinox shares is another step towards just backstopping that approach with the dividend as well.

Operator

The next question is from Fahad Tariq from Credit Suisse.

F
Fahad Tariq
Research Analyst

Just one from me. In the release, you mentioned you're still targeting leverage in the low one times net debt to EBITDA. And part of that will be monetization of non-producing assets. Maybe tell us does Agua Rica fit into that?

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

You know we're going to reach to one without Agua Rica, what we have done so far and then the free cash flow generated from the company the mines the operation we'll reach that target of one we said before that the end of 2021 we think we're going to reach the net debt below one by the end of this year. So, we bring Agua Rica or some money from Agua Rica will then bring that leverage ratio lower than one. We don't need Agua Rica to reach to one.

Operator

The next question is from Anita Soni with CIBC.

A
Anita Soni
Research Analyst

So first, thanks for all the detail in this presentation really helps with the guidance going forward. Secondly, Josh asked my questions about dividend so I'm going to address debt. Are there any plans to potentially re-finance your debt given the favorable terms that are out there at this point.

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

No, I think what we've said is that in the short term, it's going to be a, with the net debt story, we don't have any debt of significant due until 2022. So, I think the things we'd be doing between now and that would be building that cash balance, building that cash reserve fund and seeing net debt levels reduced and then ultimately reducing gross debt as we get out there as well. So no, we don't, we don't see this in the refinance story we want to see the gross debt to be reduced.

A
Anita Soni
Research Analyst

Okay. And then second question, I guess, tying in what I think are sort of the big picture themes that people are going to be looking at, which is if gold prices stay where they are, there is generally a lot of free cash flow coming the way of the senior producers in the intermediates and what allocation priorities. So we've addressed dividends debt. And then in terms of the projects after Jacobina, could you remind us what the highest priority projects are for you.

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

Yes, we have Canadian Malartic but it's not before 3 or 4 years from now, we might start to ramp later this year, but it's small capital. We might increase -- we might, will probably increase drilling at East Gouldie as we have success we release our resources and reserve the resources there in February, but the close was in November. So we drill November, December, January, February and March and we had very good result. The resources have continued to increase there. We're doing an internal PA. So that's one priority with Jacobina for us. Agua Rica is the other one. We're advancing the feasibility study. It's been delayed a bit because of COVID-19 so will now the fee study will be completed more early next year. So first quarter or second quarter. First, I'll first half of next year. But it's also a priority. As you all know, I like the project, we like the project. We are 56% owner of it, we will develop it probably no. We would like to be involved in development, so on capital allocation basically, there is no big capital extent if we go ahead with Jacobina and that you saw that amount is $57 million, nothing before mid next year, it was basically end of next year and then in 2021. After that, the next one will be Malartic 3 to 4 years from now. So this is why free cash flow is going up and with gold price going up, all that free cash flow will reduce the net debt and the debt and then give more to shareholders with the dividend.

Operator

The next question is from Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank.

T
Tanya M. Jakusconek
Analyst

Just maybe circling back just the Jason on, you talked about, they all-in sustaining cost moving up about 5 % or there about. Can you just talk a little bit about your hedging philosophy. Have you done any hedging and currency and or fuel that can help offset some of that.

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

Sure. Tanya Yes, thanks, thanks again at the, we have done some Canadian dollar hedging, I guess, we announced that when we put out our prelim production results a little while ago go through, I think we put out in about $90 million of hedges at a caller from 138 to 145 that just protects that Canadian dollar cash flow exposure. Canadian dollars are our largest exposure. We didn't have any hedges on, we thought that was a good idea. We do have existing hedges in place for both the Brazilian Real and was in the Chilean peso stretching through this year as well.So I think it's always been an important part of our philosophy to try to -- lock-in those cash flows and we continue to do that. And by doing that. I think with the rising gold price, we're seeing the margins improve as well.

T
Tanya M. Jakusconek
Analyst

Okay, since announcing that $90 million on the Canadian dollar, nothing else has been done and you that has done anything.

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

No, I guess you did ask about fuel as well. We haven't done anything there. I would say we are obviously seeing a benefit from fuel at the larger open pit operation in Malartic little bit at Cerro Moro because of the diesel generated power down there probably $5 million to $10 million of total savings that would be embedded in the comments on the caution.

T
Tanya M. Jakusconek
Analyst

Okay. So maybe just your hedging philosophy. How do you look at it right now.

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

Well, definitely nothing on the topline, I think, no, no interest to hedge of the precious metals, we're comfortable in our cost structure. We will continue to manage our costs. This year is more challenging, you saw we had a good start to Q1, COVID kicks in and the story from COVID is really more story of per unit effect not because there is a big dollar cost as well, but it's mainly the units that have gone down, and the costs in total dollars haven't gone down.And so I think that's the way to think about it. There will be some incremental costs for us to deal with at the operations as we deal with demode, remode, and ramp ups, and employee safety, but this is going to be a 2020 story as we get out 2021, there may be some marginal impacts.But we would see our cost structure improved from next year so margins look good and less need even think about hedging the top line. We will continue to hedge operating currencies when we see the opportunity to lock in the cash flow. I think we've been very consistent in that for the last number of years. So I would say that is still the philosophy.

T
Tanya M. Jakusconek
Analyst

Okay. And maybe just on, Daniel continuing on the cost side. I appreciate the impacts with the lockdown on the operations as you bring up the operations to their full capacity, but can you talk about whether you are seeing any inherent costs that are going to be in place going forward from the COVID-19 impact, maybe this social distancing comes with additional cost. Do you see may be loss in productivity. Can you comment on what in the cost structure do you see longer term from all of this, if any.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Yes, good morning. Tanya, thanks for the question. We saw in Q1, we reported in our MD&A that the impact of COVID was $3.5 million in Q1, so we lost what 8 to 9 days at Malartic and about the same at Cerro Moro. Q2 will be the most impacted as you all know we started both operation late in this month. Malartic will take 2 to 4 weeks to be fully ramp up, it's going it's going fairly well. The mill is at full capacity, it just a mine to bring it back to full operation will take some time. At Cerro Moro, the challenge is bringing the people to the site 35% to 40% of our employees are outside from Santa Cruz, so it's challenging to bring people from other provinces. So there is cost associated with that. They're all embedded in the guidance we have said before this year on COVID. So yes, there are costs, I don't remember. Jason, maybe you can help me what's the amount we've put. I think it's $10 to $15 million impact.

T
Tanya M. Jakusconek
Analyst

Yes.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

We don't see that impact being there for next year. For sure, we will revise when we do our budget for 2021 in 2022. Right now our guidance has not changed for both years. As we have mentioned, we see now some of the Q4 production that will be pushed to Q1 next year and then Q4 is always our best quarter in a year. It's still going to be a very good quarter. But some of the, the good grade is going to be pushed of 2021, so that will help our cost that way so, Yes, we have included in our, in our actual forecast costs generated related to COVID, Malartic is a big example, There are 2000 people working there, so you can imagine inspecting the 2 is a challenge. Each day, one thousand people go to the site. They have to go to trailers before they even get to site, to have temperatures checked, questionnaires, and it's even more for the people delivering goods to the site. We're lucky at all our mines without exception, there are no cases, so Malartic has 99% of our employees coming from, there are no cases. Same at Jacobina 80,000 people living in town, no cases so that helps to maintain our sites free and our local communities, but there is a cost to do that. We're lucky by nature, you know, mining you go underground. The jumbo operator is alone, a scoop operator is alone, same with big open pit. There is only one person to draw and other is to drill. So we reduce cost there. We don't increase cost there is mostly to transport the people or bring our employees to their job and then accessing the site where we see some inefficiency.But we think with time and we're seeing that at Malartic right now. People are getting more used to being in check and the process is going faster.

T
Tanya M. Jakusconek
Analyst

Yes, I guess, maybe I wasn't clear I understand what's happening in Q2 with all the ramp up, it was more, do you believe that longer-term beyond Q2, do we have costs that are going to have to stay within the cost structure because of social distancing and/or lower productivity that we're going to have to forecast in 2021 and beyond. Let's say.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

No.

T
Tanya M. Jakusconek
Analyst

No. Okay. That's what I was asking.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Go ahead. Jason.

J
Jason LeBlanc
Senior VP of Finance & CFO

Yes, no, I was just going to mention that this is, I think we've got a better line of sight on the shorter-term impacts, I think we're still going to continue to define that as time goes, I was on and further out, we do think these costs are temporary, to the extent there is any marginal impacts, I think one of the things that we're observing as we work differently is finding opportunities for the cost savings that perhaps weren't recognized previously with the different perspective working like we do.So I don't know that, we can't define it precisely. But I think directionally, I think we can say, to the extent there are marginal costs, I think we've seen opportunities to take those costs out of the system or to at least net them out, but we don't have an answer for that yet, but that's going to be the approach.

T
Tanya M. Jakusconek
Analyst

Okay. Great.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Yes, one good example is traveling. We're not traveling at all right now, all our offices are closed. People are working from home. We closed this quarter without adding any one in our office since early March. So that shows that this saving maybe we won't, we don't need the full space we have here, we don't need to travel as much. And we found out that we can do a lot with the Internet same at each our site almost everyone that's working in admin job or Finance job, they're all working from home, so that helps distancing. So the employees from offices are working from home and you have only the mine people, there is some saving to that. So like Jason said, yes there is extra cost to that but we have not put that in our saving yet, but we see some saving coming from opportunities with this.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time, so I will turn the meeting back over to Mr. Racine.

D
Daniel Racine
President & CEO

Well, thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. We hope you are able to join us for our AGM at 11 this morning Eastern time and we look forward to updating you on our second quarter results in July. Please take care and stay safe.

Operator

Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time and we thank you for your participation.