Note 4 - Properties, Plants, Equipment and Mineral Interests, and Lease Commitments

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Notes to Financial Statements

Property, Plant and Equipment Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 4: Properties, Plants, Equipment and Mineral Interests, and Lease Commitments

Properties, Plants, Equipment and Mineral Interests

Our major components of properties, plants, equipment, and mineral interests are (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2020		2019
Mining properties, including asset retirement obligations	$	818,819	$	762,355
Development costs		526,714		503,111
Plants and equipment		1,129,200		1,056,512
Land		32,983		32,909
Mineral interests		969,589		1,018,380
Construction in progress		347,099		360,827
		3,824,404		3,734,094
Less accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization		1,479,185		1,310,396
Net carrying value	$	2,345,219	$	2,423,698

During 2020, we incurred total capital expenditures of approximately $91.0 million. This excludes non-cash items for equipment acquired under finance leases and adjustments for asset retirement obligations. The expenditures included $25.7 million at the Lucky Friday unit, $19.7 million at the Greens Creek unit, $40.9 million at the Casa Berardi unit, $0.5 million at the San Sebastian unit, and $4.0 million at the Nevada Operations unit.

Mineral interests include amounts for value beyond proven and probable reserves ("VBPP") related to mines and exploration or pre-development interests acquired by us which are not depleted until the mineralized material they relate to is converted to proven and probable reserves. As of December 31, 2020, mineral interests included VBPP assets of $321.1 million, $382.2 million and $132.6 million, respectively, at our Casa Berardi, Nevada Operations and Greens Creek units, along with various other properties.

A review of our Nevada operations, including the relevant carrying value of our long-term assets there, was conducted during the second quarter of 2019 to address poor operational performance since acquisition. The review led to a plan to limit near-term mining at Fire Creek and temporarily suspend production and development of the Hatter Graben project adjacent to Hollister and resulted in lower subsequent production and capitalized development costs. Production at the Midas mine and Aurora mill was also suspended in late 2019. Suspension-related costs totaling $13.5 million in 2020, including non-cash depreciation expense of $5.6 million, at Hollister, Midas and Aurora are reported in a separate line item on our consolidated statements of operations and excluded from cost of sales and other direct production costs and depreciation, depletion and amortization.

There were no subsequent events or changes in circumstances during the latter half of 2019 or 2020 that indicated the carrying value of our long-term assets in Nevada were not recoverable as of December 31, 2020. We have entered into a third-party ore processing arrangement for a bulk sample of refractory ore. Mining of the bulk sample material commenced in the second quarter of 2020, with costs for mining the material totaling $7.7 million, along with $11.5 million for costs related to mining non-refractory ore, included in stockpiled ore inventory as of December 31, 2020. The bulk test demonstrated that larger scale, more productive mining methods could be applied successfully to this material. The bulk test refractory ore is being processed by a third party through a tolling agreement. While the processing is not yet complete, the recovery information to date is following the grade-recovery curve established through bench testing. Metal prices increased significantly since the tolling agreement was signed, and it is no longer attractive for the third party to displace their own feed to toll.  Discussions are underway with another processor. The carrying value of our properties, plants, equipment and mineral interests in Nevada as of December 31, 2020 was $474.3 million.

Finance and Capital Leases

We periodically enter into lease agreements, primarily for equipment at our operating units, which we have determined to be finance leases under accounting guidance that became effective on January 1, 2019, and capital leases prior to that date.  As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, we have recorded $74.0 million and $64.9 million, respectively, for the gross amount of assets acquired under the finance and capital leases and $51.7 million and $44.3 million, respectively, in accumulated depreciation on those assets, classified as plants and equipment in Properties, plants, equipment and mineral interests.  See Note 7 for information on future obligations related to our finance and capital leases.