Page 30 Page 28 By Gregory Reynolds When releasing solid fnancial and operating results for the fourth quar ter and twelve months ended Dec31 2017 T ahoe Resources Inc revealed its balan ce sheet remains strong with cash and cash equivalents of 1257 million and very little debt As a new leader in precious metals it operates the Escobal silver mine in Guatemala the La Arena and Sha huindo gold mines in Peru and the T immins W est and Bell Creek gold mines in Canada Ron Clayton president and CEO commented T ahoe achieved record gold production of 445900 ounces in 2017 realizing the high end of its an nual gold production guidance range of 400000 to 450000 ounces The strong gold production for the year was driven primarily by La Arena The outstandin g performanc e from the gold business in 2017 under scores the increasingly meaningful contribution of the gold segment to the overall fnancial performance of the company W e are executing on our strategy to complete our two near term devel opment project s in Canada and Peru by late summer which will position us to achieve our tar get of 500000 ounces of gold production in 2019 Q4 2017 earnings were negatively impacted by the cessation of mining activities at the Escobal mine which resulted in no material revenue for the quarter from the mine and care and maintenance costs of 1 11 mil lion 004 per share and a onetime pretax 1 1 million cumulative ad justment 004 per share during the quarter to trueup the depletio n related to the purchase price on the acquisition of the Peruvian mines in 2015 Except for these items reported earnings for the quarter would have been positive on the strength of the gold segment alone The T immins W est Mine is an under ground gold mine located approxi mately 19 kilometres west of the centre of T imm ins Ontario and is comprised of the T immin s Thunder Creek and 144 Gap Deposits Production comes from a combination of ore developm ent and transverse and longitudinal longhole stoping In 2017 the average mining rate at the T immins W est Mine was approximately 2800 tonnes of ore per day Ore from T immins W est is trucked to the company s Bell Creek Mill for pro cessing The Whitney gold property is located in the township of Whitney within the city limits of T immins The property is held in joint venture by T ahoe 79 and Goldcorp 21 with T ahoe as operator Gold mineralization at Whitney is broadly classifed as mesothermal quartzcarbonate vein deposits within the Archeanage Abitibi Greenstone Belt Both major expansion projects the Shahuindo crushing and agglomera tion expansion and the Bell Creek shaft project rema ined on track during the quarter and within their respective es timated total project spend of 80 mil lion each The Bell Creek shaft project in T im mins Ontario remains on track for commissioning in midyear Excavation of the third and fnal pilot raise from the shaft bottom is com plete and slashing of this raise to the fnal dimensions has begun Pilot rais es for the under ground ore and waste bins are compl ete and slashing of the raises is underway Surface construc tion is focused primarily on the hoist room and headframe Mechanical in stallation of the hoists started in early February and the headframe civil work was progressing with a project ed start of steel installation by the end of Q1 2018 Of the 80 million guidance for the Bell Creek shaft project approxi mately 516 million had been spent to Dec 31 2017 The project remains on schedule and within guidance At the Shahuindo mine construction of leach Pad 2B continued in Q4 2017 as planned and is scheduled to be placed into production in Q3 2018 Commissioning of the 12000 tpd crushing and agglomeration circuit was substantially completed in early February 2018 and the production rampup was initiated Construction of the 24000 tpd circuit has begun with commissionin g of the full 36000 tpd plant scheduled for midyear 2018 Of the 80 million guidance for the crushing and agglomeration circuit approximately 488 millio n had been spent through Dec 31 2017 The project remains on schedule and within guidance The company also has release d three year guidance which includes achiev ing at least a half million ounces of gold production in 2019 at allin sus taining costs below 1000 per ounce of gold produced