Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2023

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments

5. Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments

Cash and Cash Equivalents

Of the $2.0 million reported as “Cash and cash equivalents” on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet at March 31, 2023, the Company had approximately $153,000 that was unavailable for use due to a court order freezing the bank accounts of one of the Company’s subsidiaries in Mexico related to a lawsuit, as further described in Note 20. The restrictions imposed on the subsidiary’s bank accounts do not impact the Company’s ability to operate the Rodeo mine, which is held through a different Mexico subsidiary, or to continue with the Company’s evaluation plans for a potential Velardeña mine restart or move forward with any of the Company’s other exploration programs in Mexico.

The Company considers all highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents.

Short-Term Investments

Short-term investments include investments with maturities greater than three months, but not exceeding 12 months, or highly liquid investments with maturities greater than 12 months that the Company intends to liquidate during the next 12 months for working capital needs.

The following tables summarize the Company's short-term investments:

			Estimated		Carrying
March 31, 2023	Cost		Fair Value		Value
		(in thousands)
Short-term investments:
Trading securities	$	59	$	12	$	12
Total trading securities		59		12		12
Total short-term investments	$	59	$	12	$	12
December 31, 2022
Short-term investments:
Trading securities	$	59	$	20	$	20
Total trading securities		59		20		20
Total short-term investments	$	59	$	20	$	20

Investment in Fabled

The short-term investments at March 31, 2023, and December 31, 2022 consist of 1,000,000 common shares of Fabled Silver Gold Corp. (“Fabled”) and 200,000 common shares of Fabled Copper Corp. Fabled is a junior mining company that entered into an option agreement with the Company to acquire the Company’s option to earn a 100% interest in the Santa Maria mining claims located in Chihuahua, Mexico (see Note 9). The common shares were issued to the Company as partial consideration per the terms of the option agreement. The Fabled Copper Corp. shares were received

in a spin-off of assets from Fabled that occurred on December 21, 2020, to which all existing shareholders of Fabled were entitled.

Long-Term Investments

Investments in equity securities are generally measured at fair value. Gains and losses for equity securities resulting from changes in fair value are recognized in current earnings. If an equity security does not have a readily determinable fair value, the Company may elect to measure the security at its cost minus impairment, if any, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for an identical or similar investment in the same issuer. At the end of each reporting period, the Company reassesses whether an equity investment security without a readily determinable fair value qualifies to be measured at cost less impairment, considers whether impairment indicators exist to evaluate if an equity investment security is impaired and, if so, records an impairment loss.

Investment in Golden Gryphon Explorations Inc.

Long-term investments at March 31, 2023, consist of approximately 1,500,000 shares of Golden Gryphon Explorations Inc. (“GGE”). In 2019, the Company entered into an earn-in agreement with GGE for the Sand Canyon project located in northwestern Nevada. In August 2022, pursuant to the second amendment to the earn-in agreement by which the earn-in period was extended an additional year, the Company purchased approximately 1,500,000 shares of GGE’s common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $225,000.

For a description of the earn-in agreement, see “Exploration Properties - Sand Canyon” in our Annual Report Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The GGE investment is accounted for at cost less impairment pursuant to ASC topic 321 as there is no ready market for the shares and it is recorded as non-current investments on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Company concluded it was impractical to estimate fair value due to the absence of a public market for the stock. The Company identified no events or changes in circumstances that might have had a significant adverse effect on the carrying value of the investment and have therefore not recorded any impairment against the asset.

Credit Risk

The Company invests substantially all of its excess cash with high credit-quality financial institutions or in U.S. government or debt securities. Credit risk is the risk that a third party might fail to fulfill its performance obligations under the terms of a financial instrument. For cash and equivalents and investments, credit risk represents the carrying amount on the balance sheet. The Company mitigates credit risk for cash and equivalents and investments by placing its funds and investments with high credit-quality financial institutions, limiting the amount of exposure to each of the financial institutions, monitoring the financial condition of the financial institutions and investing only in government and corporate securities rated “investment grade” or better. The Company invests with financial institutions that maintain a net worth of no less than $1 billion and are members in good standing with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.