20.Commitments and Contingencies

Leases and Purchase Commitments —The Company has non-cancelable operating lease commitments as follows:

	2015		2016		2017		2018		2019		Thereafter

El Quevar mining concessions (estimated)	$	110	$	110	$	110	$	110	$	110	$	—
Velardeña mining consessions (estimated)	$	12	$	12	$	12	$	12	$	12	$	—
Office space	$	270	$	242	$	248	$	255	$	239	$	—
Dedicated communications link	$	70	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—
Purchase option agreement	$	550	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—

The Company is required to make payments to the Argentinean government to maintain its rights to the El Quevar mining concessions. The Company has made such payments totaling approximately $35,000 and $34,000 for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

The Company is required to pay concession holding fees to the Mexican government to maintain its rights to the Velardeña Properties mining concessions. During the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013 the Company made such payments totaling approximately $12,000 and $9,000, respectively. The payments include payments made related to adjacent exploration concessions on which there is no current mining.

The Company has office leases for its corporate headquarters in Golden, Colorado, as well as for its Velardeña Properties in Mexico, and exploration offices in Mexico and Argentina. The lease for the corporate headquarters office space was renegotiated and extended during the first quarter 2014. The new lease reflects an approximately 46% reduction in space and an approximately 44% reduction in cost beginning March 1, 2014. The new lease expires November 30, 2019. Payments associated with the corporate headquarters lease were recorded to rent expense by the Company in the amounts of $259,000 and $405,000 for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

The dedicated communications link provides high band width communications to our Velardeña Properties in Mexico. The Company has entered into an agreement with communications services provider that requires monthly payments of $7,000 through October of 2015.

The purchase option agreement is a required payment to a current El Quevar concession owner in order to retain title to the property. The concession is not deemed material to future development at El Quevar and the Company has the right to terminate the payment obligation and release the concession at any time.

The Company cannot currently estimate the life of the Velardeña Properties or El Quevar project. This table assumes that no annual maintenance payments will be made more than five years after December 31, 2014. If the Company continues mining and processing at the Velardeña Properties beyond five years, the Company expects that it would make annual maintenance payments of approximately $12,000 per year for the life of the Velardeña mine. If the Company continues to evaluate development opportunities at the El Quevar project, the Company expects that it would make annual maintenance payments of approximately $110,000 per year for the life of the El Quevar mine. The increase in 2015 and subsequent years is the result of a January 2015 amendment to the National Mining Code, increasing the annual canon payment by approximately four times.

Payments associated with other exploration concessions the Company owns are not included because the Company has not completed exploration work on these concessions. Exploration success is historically low and the Company has the right to terminate the payments and release the concessions at any time.

Contingencies — The Company has recorded loss contingencies of approximately $2.6 million and $4.4 million at December 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively as discussed in Note 12. In addition to the amounts recorded, the Company could be liable for up to an additional $0.7 million stemming from a tax audit of the Argentina equity tax for years 2009 through 2012 subject to the Argentina tax authorities’ acceptance of VAT credits to partially offset the tax liability (see Note 12).