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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2020
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES  
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

NOTE 18 COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Commitments

The following are minimum commitments of the Company as at December 31, 2020, and related payments due over the following five years:

Payments due by period

2021

2022

2023

2024

Thereafter

Total

Mining and surface rights

$

2,233

$

492

$

488

$

470

$

443

$

4,126

Reclamation costs(1)

2,819

5,363

5,510

564

27,428

41,684

Long-term debt (Note 12)

4,875

14,712

42,139

61,726

Lease obligations (Note 11)

2,695

2,416

508

180

5,799

Total

$

12,622

$

22,983

$

48,645

$

1,214

$

27,871

$

113,335

(1)Amounts presented represent the undiscounted uninflated future payments.

Reclamation Bonds

As part of its ongoing business and operations, the Company is required to provide bonding for its environmental reclamation obligations in the United States and Canada. These bonding obligations are satisfied by surety bonds, as discussed below. Pursuant to the requirements imposed by the United States Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”), the Company has Nevada obligations of $20.1 million which primarily pertains to the Tonkin and Gold Bar properties. Under Canadian regulations, the Company has bonding obligations of $11.7 million (C$15.0 million) with respect to the Fox Complex. Furthermore, under Canadian regulations, the Company was required to deposit approximately $0.1 million with respect to its Timmins properties acquired from Lexam; the $0.1 million is recorded as restricted cash (Note 19).

Surety Bonds

As at December 31, 2020, the Company has a surety facility in place to cover substantially all of its bonding obligations, which include $20.1 million of bonding in Nevada and $11.7 million (C$15.0 million) of bonding in Canada. The terms of the facility carry an annual financing fee of 2.3% and require a deposit of 12%. The surety bonds are available for draw down by the beneficiary in the event the Company does not perform its reclamation obligations. If the specific reclamation requirements are met, the beneficiary of the surety bonds will release the instrument to the issuing entity. The Company believes it is in compliance with all applicable bonding obligations and will be able to satisfy future bonding requirements, through existing or alternative means, as they arise. As at December 31, 2020, the Company held $3.6 million in restricted cash as deposit against the surety facility (Note 19).

Streaming Agreement

As part of the acquisition of the Fox Complex in 2017, the Company assumed a gold purchase agreement (streaming contract) related to production, if any, from certain claims. Under the streaming contract, the Company is obligated to sell 8% of gold production from the Black Fox mine and 6.3% from the adjoining Pike River property (Black Fox Extension) to Sandstorm Gold Ltd. at the lesser of market price or $561 per ounce (with inflation adjustments of up to 2% per year) until 2090.  

The Company records revenue on these shipments based on the contract price at the time of delivery to the customer.  During the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company recorded revenue of $1.2 million (2019 – $1.5 million) related to the gold stream sales.

Flow-through Eligible Expenses

As of December 31, 2020, the Company completed two rounds of flow-through share issuance’s (Note 14) closing on September 10, 2020 and December 31, 2020. As a result, the Company is committed to spend $18.3 million on CEE at its Timmins operations in Canada by the end of 2022. Through December 31, 2020, the Company has incurred $1.9 million in eligible expenses of required flow-through spend.

Other potential contingencies

The Company’s mining and exploration activities are subject to various laws and regulations governing the protection of the environment.  These laws and regulations are continually changing and generally becoming more restrictive.  The Company conducts its operations so as to protect public health and the environment, and believes its operations are materially in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. The Company has made, and expects to make in the future, expenditures to comply with such laws and regulations.

The Company and its predecessors have transferred their interest in several mining properties to third parties throughout its history.  The Company could remain potentially liable for environmental enforcement actions related to its prior

ownership of such properties.  However, the Company has no reasonable belief that any violation of relevant environmental laws or regulations has occurred regarding these transferred properties.