Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. (Operator Instructions). And your first question comes from Andy Schopick from Nutmeg Securities.
Andrew Schopick - Nutmeg Securities
Tony, hi. I have a couple of question I'd like to ask you. If you could first just give any additional color on the situation in Taparko beyond what you've communicated in the press release, is there anything new that you could add on that?
Tony Jensen
Andy, the operation has been performing better. The vibrations are going down, and I think they very seem to be manageable at this point. I don't know that we could ever expect the mill to probably achieve availability, somewhere to what we'd expect in North America. But nonetheless, we understand that the finances, of Samira, the holding company at Taparko are sound and the operation continues do improve ever since when you give about gearbox one in November.
So we're pretty pleased with it. I think $5 million with only, $5 million in royalty revenue with only 68% availability, kind of shows you the power of that royalty in the early years on that project. So, we're pleased with what's happening there. And I think they are just making some steady progress start towards resolving issues.
Andrew Schopick - Nutmeg Securities
Okay. Let me ask you couple of more general type questions. I'm just curious to get your comment on these. How does the current conditions in the credit markets affect the prospects for doing any new royalty deals?
And secondly, how does the current low interest rate environment impact your rate of return analysis or expectations on any new royalty type negotiations?
Tony Jensen
Well. The first that I think, when you talk about the current macroeconomic financial conditions, I think this is really the stage that set us up well to be able to the Andacollo transaction, while base metals kind of came off, some of those companies became stressed with leverage. At the same time, we were pretty much capable and able to exercise new opportunities.
So, I don't know if there is additional time in a window, we're still open to do additional gold string with base metal companies that might need to restructure their balance sheet. But that certainly has been a focus of hours during this macroeconomic condition. So, I think there is -- it's a wonderful time. We see a lot of good deal flow. There is companies that are in the gold only sector that aren't able to excess capital. Our capital is to expensive for them. And so we see us been able to really compete nicely at this time.
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