Pan American Silver (PAAS) Q3 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Pan American Silver (PAAS 0.26%)
Q3 2020 Earnings Call
Nov 05, 2020, 11:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Pan American Silver third-quarter 2020 results conference call. [Operator instructions] The conference is being recorded.

[Operator instructions]. I would now like to turn the conference over to Siren Fisekci, vice president, investor relations. Please go ahead, Ms. Fisekci.

Siren Fisekci -- Vice President, Investor Relations

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone, to Pan American Silver's third-quarter 2020 conference call. [Operator instructions] We released our results after yesterday's market close and a copy of the news release, MD&A and presentation slides for today's call are available on our website. That material in today's call contains certain statements and information that constitute forward-looking statements and information. Please review the cautionary statements included in our news release and presentation as well as the risk factors described in our most recent Form 40-F and annual information form.

I will now turn the call over to Pan American's president and CEO, Michael Steinmann, who will provide a brief review of our results. We will then open the call to questions and answers.

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today to discuss our third quarter results. Net earnings in Q3 were $65.3 million or $0.31 per share, reflecting revenue in the period of approximately $300 million. Revenue was impacted by lower quantities of metals sold, partially offset by strong realized prices for gold and silver. In Q3, we produced 4.1 million ounces of silver and 116,900 ounces of gold.

As expected, we experienced the $79.6 million increase in inventories during Q3, of which approximately $25 million was in the form of dore and finished inventories. Revenue associated with this dore inventories were not recorded in Q3 due to timing of shipments and will be reflected in revenue in the normal course. The additional increases in inventories largely resulted from the replenishment of the heap leach operations at Dolores, Shahuindo and La Arena. As we indicated previously, inventories were drawn down during the mine suspensions earlier in the year, equivalent to about 30,000 ounces of gold and 0.5 million ounce of silver, which have been replenished during Q3.

Additionally, silver production was impacted by COVID-related delays of the ventilation work at La Colorada. The first of two ventilation raises at La Colorada is complete and commissioning is now in progress, which will enable us to regain access to the high-grade areas of the mine. Earnings benefited from low costs in Q3. Silver segment cash costs were $7.14, and all-in sustaining costs were $6.01 per silver ounce sold.

Net realizable value inventory adjustments reduced all-in sustaining costs by $5.96 per ounce, mainly from increased precious metal prices for the heap leach pad inventory at the Dolores mine. Gold segment cash costs were $793, and all-in sustaining costs were $1,057 per gold ounce sold. The $65.3 million of net earnings included $27.1 million of mine care and maintenance costs and $13.1 million of investment income primarily related to the fair value adjustment for our interest in New Pacific Metals. Adjusted earnings of $72.1 million or $0.34 per share excludes $20.5 million of care and maintenance costs associated primarily to the COVID-19-related suspensions of Huaron and Morococha during Q3.

Cash generated from operations was $114.9 million, which was more than sufficient to fund sustaining capital, dividends, taxes and to make repayments on our line of credit. In line with our capital allocation priorities, we continue to reduce bank debt. During Q3, we repaid $110 million on our credit facility and an additional $30 million in October. As of today, we have only $60 million drawn on the credit facility and aim to have it fully repaid by the end of this year.

Cash and short-term investment at September 30 was $231.6 million. Our other priorities for free cash flow are investing in high-return projects and return cash through dividends. Yesterday, the board approved a 40% increase to the quarterly dividend to $0.07 per common share. This is the second dividend increase in 2020, supported by the strong cash flow of -- our operations have generated.

Operations in Q3 reflect the impact of COVID-19. However, the situation has improved significantly from earlier in the year when most of our operations were suspended for periods of time. During Q3, all of our mines, with the exception of Huaron and Morococha, were operating at reduced capacities to accommodate COVID-19-related protocols. Huaron and Morococha were brought back into operation by the end of Q3.

The operations in Argentina were particularly impacted by COVID-19 and harsh winter weather, but we were able to complete final development of the COSE project and began processing high-grade ore from COSE, together with ore from the Joaquin mine at our Manantial Espejo plant. We have an intensive COVID-19 screening process and measures in place to protect the health and safety of our workforce during this pandemic. In addition, vulnerable individuals are not permitted to return to work at this time. That means we are operating with a reduced workforce, and operations are running below full capacities.

At La Colorada, we experienced delays in upgrading ventilation circuits in the high-grade, deep Candelaria East area of the mine. In Q3, we completed the underground ventilation raise from the 345 to 528 level, and the underground booster fan shall be installed early next week. That should enable us to increase production from this high-grade area of the mine. The larger ventilation raise from surface to address ventilation needs in the long term is expected to be completed and fully functioning in mid-2021.

Because of the delays in completing this ventilation work and associated restrictions to the higher-grade ores at La Colorada and reduced underground mining rates in our Argentina operations, we reduced our full-year consolidated silver production estimate to a range of 18 million to 19 million ounces with production being pushed forward. We are maintaining our forecast for gold production of 525,000 to 575,000 ounces in 2020. We are expecting increased gold production in Q4 as replenishment of inventories on our heaps was complete in Q3. We do expect similar gold production from our Timmins operation in Q4 as we continue to address geotechnical conditions at the Bell Creek mine, where we have discovered wide zones of new resources adjacent to reserves.

This will require modifications to the mining method and ground support standards to adapt for this wider ore extensions. We are also maintaining our forecast for operating costs. Silver segment cash costs are expected to be between $6.2 to $7.7 per ounce and all-in sustaining costs between $10.5 to $12.50 per ounce. Gold segment cash costs are expected to be between $800 to $860 per ounce and all-in sustaining costs between $1,050 to $1,125 per ounce.

We have reduced our forecast for annual capital expenditures by approximately $15 million. The revised forecast estimates $175 million to $180 million of sustaining capital and $20 million to $21 million of project capital in 2020. These reductions reflect the deferrals of certain capital investments. Turning now to an update on our growth catalysts.

We are currently exploring with three surface drill rigs at our La Colorada skarn discovery and expect to complete about 33,000 meters for the year. Roughly 75% of the originally 44,000 meters we had budgeted for 2020 before the COVID-19 disruptions. Meanwhile, we are continuing to advance the project baseline, engineering and metallurgical studies. Our Escobal mine remains in care and maintenance, pending the ILO 169 consultation process, which is led by Guatemala's Ministry of Energy and Mines.

The government has been contending with the COVID-19 pandemic, and we have not been informed of a start date for the consultation. As we enter the final month of 2020, operations have stabilized with inventories replenished at our heap leach mines and the first of two ventilation raises at La Colorada nearing completion. Our financial position has further strengthened with a substantial reduction in that. This sets Pan American up well for the remainder of 2020 and going into 2021.

And with that, I would like to open the call for questions.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our first question is from Cosmos Chiu with CIBC. Please go ahead.

Cosmos Chiu -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst

Hi. Thanks, Michael and team. And thanks for taking my questions here. Maybe first off on La Colorada.

Good to see that the first ventilation raise shaft is almost complete. Could you maybe remind us the higher-grade zone at Candelaria East, like what kind of grade are we talking about? And once you get back into that higher-grade zone -- clearly, you did about 300 gram per tonne on the silver side. Could you get back to where you were at, say, last year? If I remember correctly, you did about 370 gram per tonne from La Colorada. What kind of grade are we talking about?

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

Yeah. Hi, Cosmos. This is Steve.

Cosmos Chiu -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst

Hi, Steve.

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, yeah. First off, I'd like to clarify that the raise bore itself. The physical raise bore is complete. It is shotcreted.

It is completely supported. We're just now finishing up the installation of the fan on the lower level. And in fact, they started the fan a couple of days ago. They're just commissioning that fan.

So we're literally moments from getting some substantial increase in air flow to that area. You probably recall, as many of us have walked down through that lower Candelaria East sulfide ore zone, we always go down on the drifts. We always paint the grades on the side of the wall. And if you recall back in our tour, you see these multi-kilo intercepts across the faces of those areas.

So this is truly -- we -- internally, we call it our jewel box, but this is truly remarkable grades. I mean, it's literally one, two, three, sometimes even higher kilos with significant lead and zinc in it. So it is a very important zone for us for averaging out the overall grade. So relative to last year's grade, the 370 type, we also have to keep in mind that as we look at our reserves, the new reserves in June, I think when you look at the sulfides of that are a bit lower.

I don't think we'll see those kind of grades. We're seeing, in our planning, going forward, a little more tonnes, a little lower grade, maybe 340, 350 type of grades. And that's what we expect to get back into as we open up that area.

Cosmos Chiu -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst

For sure. And then, Steve, maybe a follow-up here. Certainly, there is this bigger ventilation shaft that you'll be putting in for the longer-term benefit. Given what you've learned with COVID-19 and some of the delays that caused the first ventilation shaft, any concerns about potential delays and that -- the delivery of the second ventilation shaft? And on that as well, you have your first one in place, even if the second one is a bit delayed, would it impact your continued access to some of these higher-grade portions or no?

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

So the second raise that we're describing is a surface to the 345-meter level beneath surface raise, and that's progressing now in the midst of our COVID protocols. So we did incur some delays there, similar to what we saw in the lower raise bore, but that's going full scale now. We're actually doing the pilot hole for the raise bore now, so the ground has been completely grouted. The foundation has been completely cemented for the raise bore machine.

The raise bore machine is set up and is actually boring the pilot hole. And knock on wood, so far so good. That ground looks very solid, and that raise bore -- actually this morning, I can tell you, we're already down 100 meters on that 345-meter raise. So we're going really well on that.

We're pretty excited about it. When that -- that's scheduled to complete, again, we'll shotcrete that once we're done. We'll see how the ground looks and shotcrete that and get the ventilation system all connected and running and sealed. And that will occur the first part of next year.

So that's on track. We don't anticipate any further delays there. All of the crews are going through our COVID protocols as they enter the sites. And we don't -- everything is going great on that one.

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

But I think just to follow up there, Cosmos, on the question, on the last part of your question, if that raise is really one part of our long-term ventilation circuit until this one is finished. As you know, we use the internal raise plus the ramp, so it doesn't really -- it's not critical for next year if the main raise is in a little bit earlier or later. But it's obviously going to be important if you look at the long-term large development at La Colorada, including the skarn.

Cosmos Chiu -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst

Of course. Maybe switching gears a little bit and since we're on the topic of rock -- I don't want to say competency, but rock conditions here. Bell Creek, you mentioned that you might need some additional ground support, looking at some alternative methods as you go deeper into the mine. Could you remind me what kind of throughput were you targeting? What kind of throughput at Bell Creek are you getting to right now? And then with the -- it seems like bigger stopes down the -- down at depth, where can you get to? And where would you like to be at?

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

Yeah. I mean, that's -- the good news of this is that the lower areas of Bell Creek -- and we're down about 1,120 meters beneath the surface. So over one kilometer down, and we're seeing the ore bodies kind of open up a little bit and widen out. We're seeing some areas potentially like 20 meters plus with some of the stopes, which is substantially greater than anything we saw up in the upper areas.

As we open that ground up, and again, we're pretty deep in the deposit, we are seeing some stress there that we hadn't seen up higher in the deposit. And given the higher width, we do need to modify our ground support systems, maybe modify our mining system to go more transverse-type entries into these things. And we actually were looking very closely at the sublevel situations because as the ground stress has increased, the critical areas occur at the sublevels when you reach those sublevel sills. So we're kind of looking at all that, evaluating kind of what the best approach is given the changes in the deposit itself relative to the ground and the stresses we're seeing.

As we drill long holes, we're seeing some shifting, squeezing of the holes that's causing delays of some of the long-haul production in that area. And it's a good -- great area, good, thick, wide zone. But keep in mind, I mean, Bell Creek is about 40% of our total capacity of the Timmins area. The other 60% comes from Timmins West and quite a bit of that 40% of the production rate comes from above this 1,120 zone.

So it's probably representing something, I would guess, around 20% of the total throughput. So next year, we'll have our forecast that will factor all this stuff in, but we're feeling pretty good about it. I mean, overall, it's really good news. We're seeing more reserves there.

We've seen it expand at depth, so we see the ability to get more out of Bell Creek. Maybe take some of the pressure off of Timmins West and some of that Gap 144 zone. So next year, we'll have good forecast that shows that. And it's just getting through this hump of changing the mining method and the ground support system at this point.

It's not a big impact, but it is a little bit of an impact from where we thought we'd be.

Cosmos Chiu -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst

For sure. And maybe one last question. Maybe for you, Michael. Certainly great to see that you've increased your dividends.

But in terms of dividend yield, if I compare you today to the previous dividend you paid, we're not to the same level yet. Clearly, you've talked about sustainability of the dividend. Is there a target you're trying to get up to? And how does that kind of fit into your sort of capital allocation strategy?

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Sure, Cosmos. Look, I think I've been very clear during the last two years in our capital allocation strategy, number one was always to pay back our debt; invest in very high-accretive, high-quality projects; and return dividend to shareholders. So these are kind of the three buckets we're looking at.

As you've seen in Q3, we paid back a substantial amount of our debt on our line of credit. As of today, we are down to $60 million. We expect, if everything stays the same, to pay that back by the end of the year. So that's kind of fulfilled one bucket that we had there in our capital allocation.

Just because we -- as you know, we like and I like very much to have a strong balance sheet as strong as possible as it gives us a lot of flexibility and keeps -- keeping our line of credit untapped gives us a lot of flexibility on whatever comes later in the next coming year, including the development of La Colorada skarn, which brings me to the next bucket, which is high-quality, high-accretive projects. And we'll see from next year on more money spent at La Colorada. Obviously, as we're working now on the infill drilling and started to do much, much more work on metallurgy, engineering, work to decide where we're going to go with that deposit. And it was time to increase our dividend for our shareholders because we had a very strong year on the financial side, of course, impacted by COVID, like everybody in this world, but very strong financial results.

And so this is the second increase this year. I think the increase in February was somewhere around 43% or 47%, now another 40% increase. And if everything stays the same, we will continue with the same capital-allocation strategy. And the board will look quarter by quarter at our free cash flow and make decisions where to put the money at work.

Obviously, next year, there won't be anything to pay in the line of credit. So the two big buckets will be accretive projects and return to shareholders.

Cosmos Chiu -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst

Of course. Thanks, Michael, Steve and Siren. Thanks again.

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

No problem. Thanks.

Operator

[Operator instructions] The next question is from Mark Mihaljevic with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Mark Mihaljevic -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

Hi. Thanks, and good morning, guys.

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

Good morning, Mark.

Mark Mihaljevic -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

I guess Cosmos covered a few of these, but circling back on La Colorada. Just wanted to figure out kind of what type of time line should we expect for you to really get back into those higher grades? Do you have all that development in place, and it's just a matter of really just putting the tools back in and getting people back in there? Or should we expect a bit of a longer ramp-up as you need to do some more development?

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, Mark, Steve here. There is development to do there. We do have a bit of development to catch up, but it will see a fairly market increase as soon as we get back in there and start mining, and then it will ramp up from there. But I think we're talking within the -- a quarter or two, it's going to ramp up fairly quickly because it is a small area.

It is a very high-grade area. It doesn't require a significant amount of development, but we do have something to do there. So Q4 will be an improvement. Q1 into Q2 will be back to normal.

Mark Mihaljevic -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

OK. Perfect. And then just kind of a little more color, if you can provide, on exactly the causes of the delays. Was it kind of limitations in terms of getting people in? Was it challenges getting some of the skilled labor that you needed? Or was it something with -- or did you also have some ground condition issues? Obviously, it's always a concern at La Colorada to make sure everything holds together, right? So kind of a little more color on really the root causes of the delay beyond just, call it, COVID impact?

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

Sure, sure, Mark. And first, I'd like to say, from the ground condition standpoint, no issues there. We actually had pulled through the raise toward the very early part of this quarter, and it held up through the whole time. The real impact was just not getting enough workforce deployed to do the work, passing through the protocols, passing our screening to get to the site.

Those were our biggest hang-ups. Now we did also have a little bit of hang-ups on delivery of some of the materials we needed. We needed some cable to run down to the lower level to power up the fan. There were some delays in the shipment of that cable as well.

But again, as I mentioned, we did get the cable in. We did start the fan a couple of days ago, so everything is on track. So the biggest holdup was just mobilization of people, and now we're on a pretty good schedule. We're watching it very closely.

But for these projects, we're getting pretty good mobilization each shift at this point.

Mark Mihaljevic -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

OK. Perfect. That's really helpful. And I guess just kind of sticking with some of the COVID impacts, kind of are you confident in the protocols you have in place now that you'll be able to avoid the challenges that you've now had -- you had in Q3 in Peru? Do you think you've made enough changes? I mean, obviously, nothing is going to be perfect, and everyone is still dealing with it.

But do you think -- or kind of -- have you made any changes to the protocols? And kind of how confident -- or kind of what type of impact do you expect to see from them?

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

Yeah. That's a great question, Mark. I'll say, first and foremost, our protocols, we're very confident that we're able to screen. And as we look at it, break the chain and transmission.

We can stop -- confidently stop having any kind of major outbreaks at our site. We're very confident of that. The uncertainty comes in how many of our workforce actually pass through the screen, and that depends on the outbreaks in the region in and around our mine sites. We monitor that very closely.

But if there's an epidemic outbreak occurring in and around our mine site, we'll see a significant drop-off of individuals who don't pass our screening systems, and we won't be able to deploy to the site. In those cases where there's contagion occurring, we have very low predictability of how many people will arrive for every shift. That's where our uncertainty lies. I will say, today, what we generally see in South America is we're kind of over the hump of the curve and the regions around our mines.

And we're seeing the caseloads, for the most part, starting to back off a little bit. So we're optimistic, as we look forward, that we're over the worst part of that curve and things will get better, but that's where the uncertainty lies for us is really just workforce mobilization. It's not of uncertainty about a concern of an outbreak at the site.

Mark Mihaljevic -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

OK. Perfect. That's very helpful. And then, I guess the question -- or actually, we don't ask too much about, but that of Manantial.

Can you give us a little color on kind of how you're thinking about that going forward? Now with three mining areas and obviously, pretty different grades between the different deposits, can you kind of give us the -- a sense of where we should expect that to shake out for the next 12 to 24 months?

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

I can -- yes, I can address that, Mark. First, I'd like to say, grade-wise, we're very, very pleased with what we're seeing at both the COSE Joaquin and even the Manantial underground mining faces. COSE in Q3, we were seeing silver grades at over 1,200 grams and golds in the 20-, 23gram per tonne range, very nice grades. At Joaquin, we were seeing silver's above 550 grams so definitely seeing the grades we want.

The issue there, like we talked about in Peru, is how much of the workforce can we get deployed. And here, specifically, we're looking at underground miners. And as we've talked in the past, our underground miners largely comes from the northern part of the country. And with the epidemic in the country, the pandemic of the country, there's a lot of restrictions on people passing between provinces, and they have to go through some extensive quarantining and travel restrictions that really impact our logistics of getting people in and out to the site.

So our biggest bottleneck today is workforce deployment, as I say. And Manantial, by far, is our most severely impacted by this because of the complications of the logistics of getting people in. Again, I think generally, although Argentina has seen significant numbers of outbreaks today, generally, we feel optimistic that things will improve as they move into the summer months ahead, but that is our most challenging area. We're kind of suspecting we'll see the kind of production rates, 50%, 60%, 70% underground production rates.

We'll keep the mill running at full capacity because we supplement with low-grade stockpiles from the old open-pit operations. So we really want to upgrade the tonnes coming out of the underground to get the grades up. And that's really our limitation is based on that workforce deployment, and it does seem like it will be hindered for probably the next couple of quarters anyway.

Mark Mihaljevic -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

OK.

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

I'll just add, too, that, that has been factored into our revised forecast and did contribute to one of the reasons we reduced the silver.

Operator

[Operator instructions] Our next question is from Dalton Baretto with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Dalton Baretto -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst

Thanks. Good morning, guys. A couple of questions from me on Guatemala. Michael, can you tell us what your team is doing on the ground there around Escobal in terms of helping the communities out with the COVID-19 situation?

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. And it's -- obviously, one part is the same protocols that we apply across the globe. Guatemala, like many other countries, have been hit hard with that. There's a few things.

For example, we have an approved environmental management plan, which is part of our care and maintenance. And of course, we complete that plan that has been -- it's proofed. It's part of our care and maintenance. It is part of what we have to do, and that's ongoing.

We have also existing community commitments that we are fulfilling there. And in addition to that, we obviously got a lot of requests for some help and support on the COVID side from communities around the mine that we are attending. And that's not only in Guatemala, but that's, of course, worldwide, as you can imagine. You saw there, in the press release, what we are doing in many places around our operations.

And so that's the same everywhere, and it's not -- definitely in Guatemala. So people come to us, they send us requests and we review them and attend them accordingly.

Dalton Baretto -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst

OK. And given what you've been doing down there, have you noticed a change in the way your team is being received or perceived by the communities compared to pre-pandemic?

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

The pre-pandemic?

Dalton Baretto -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst

Compared to your reception pre-pandemic, have you noticed a difference in the way your company or your team's being viewed by the community?

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I don't think so. I mean -- I think the change was more from -- since we obviously took over after the transaction has closed, the pandemic, of course, has been a very big impact to everyone in Guatemala and everywhere in the world. And as I said, the most important part was to react to requests and, obviously, comply with all the rules and restrictions that countries bring up to -- with quarantines and transportation and restrictions on mobilization, etc. So that's what we are following, of course.

So I think, right now, everybody is still very focused on the pandemic. As you can see, Latin America has been hit very hard, including Guatemala. And we see, as Steve said, many countries coming off on that first wave. I'm not sure yet what that means.

Obviously, I'm not a pandemic specialist. We see waves coming back in the winter time here in North America and Europe. So I'm not sure if the same is going to happen in Latin America or if there's going to be vaccines available before that. Time will tell.

But I think at the moment, a lot of people are really preoccupied and busy with the pandemic, are worried about economic impact to their lives, not only in Latin America but across the globe.

Dalton Baretto -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst

OK. And on that note, there's a number of countries in Latin America, like Peru, for example, that are looking at doing this ILO 169 process or this consulta previa process virtually as opposed to in person for obvious reasons. Is that something Guatemala is even contemplating? Or is that just completely in the back burner for now?

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, the ILO 169 is run by the government. It's actually run by the Ministry of Mines of Guatemala, not by Pan American, so I can't tell you exactly how it's going to happen. That's not our decision. We will obviously attend and provide information when adequate and requested.

So I don't really have an answer for you. And I know that people still have meetings, like you have meetings probably and we. And some are in person, some are virtual, so it really depends on how each government wants to deal with the pandemic and with the ILO 169 consultation, particularly.

Dalton Baretto -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst

OK. And then last one for me, Argentina, just given the current situation, the fiscal situation of the country and then, as you said, the economic impact of COVID-19, any movement in Chubut?

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So what we see in Argentina, I think, which is really the biggest focus, and it's probably, as Steve alluded to, the hardest-impacted country right now that we see, caseload is still growing, and there's a lot of restrictions between interprovincial movement. So at the moment, each province is really kind of closed. There is some ways to move people.

As Steve said, it makes it complicated for us to move -- or more complicated for us to move people from north to south and vice versa because of restrictions and quarantines and the same applies to Chubut. So I think the -- at least to my knowledge, that there is a lot of restrictions there. The legislature is not sitting right now, I don't know when they start doing that again. But of course, like Argentina entirely and, as I said, the entire region has been impacted economically very strongly by this pandemic.

Dalton Baretto -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst

Great. Thank you. That's all from me, guys.

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I'll now turn the call back over to Michael Steinmann for any closing remarks.

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for calling in to this Q3 update. Looking forward to give you an update for the full year in February. Until then, stay safe and all the best.

Thank you.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 38 minutes

Call participants:

Siren Fisekci -- Vice President, Investor Relations

Michael Steinmann -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Cosmos Chiu -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst

Steve Busby -- Chief Operating Officer

Mark Mihaljevic -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

Dalton Baretto -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst

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