Under Mexican law, employees are entitled to receive statutory profit sharing (Participación a los Trabajadores de las Utilidades or “PTU”) payments. The required cash payment to employees in the aggregate is equal to 10% of their employer’s profit subject to PTU, which differs from profit determined under U.S. GAAP. Please see Note 9—Accrued Expenses and Other Liabilities in Item 1—Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements and Notes (unaudited) for additional information.
16. Stock-Based Compensation
The Company’s compensation program comprises three main elements: base salary, an annual short-term incentive plan (“STIP”) cash award, and long-term equity-based incentive compensation (“LTIP”) in the form of deferred stock units (“DSUs”), restricted stock units (“RSUs”), stock options, and performance share units (“PSUs”).
The Gold Resource Corporation 2016 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Incentive Plan”) allows for the issuance of up to 5 million shares of common stock in the form of incentive and non-qualified stock options, stock appreciation rights, RSUs, stock grants, stock units, performance shares, PSUs, and performance cash. Additionally, pursuant to the terms of the Incentive Plan, any award outstanding under the prior plan that is terminated, expired, forfeited, or canceled for any reason, will be available for grant under the Incentive Plan.
DSUs of nil and 278,663, respectively, were granted to the Board of Directors during the three and six months ended June 30, 2023. DSUs of nil and 214,357 were granted to the Board of Directors during the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, respectively. DSUs are vested immediately and redeemable in cash or shares at the earlier of 10 years or upon the eligible directors’ termination. Termination is deemed to occur on the earliest of: (1) the date of voluntary resignation or retirement of the director from the Board; (2) the date of death of the director; or (3) the date of removal of the director from the Board whether by shareholder resolution, failure to achieve re-election, or otherwise; and on which date the director is not a director or employee of the Company or any of its affiliates. These awards contain a cash settlement feature and are therefore classified as a liability and are marked to market each reporting period.
The Company may also issue DSUs for directors in lieu of board fees at their request. During the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, respectively, there were 17,652 and 31,301 DSUs granted in lieu of board fees that are also subject to mark-to-market adjustment. During the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, respectively, there were 3,352 and 6,708 DSUs granted in lieu of board fees that are also subject to mark-to-market adjustment. Additionally, during the first quarter of 2023, executives were granted 212,407 DSUs in lieu of half of their STIP cash bonus for 2022.
During both the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, there were 323,900 DSUs redeemed for the cash value of $0.3 million. There were no DSU redemptions during the same periods in 2022.
As of June 30, 2023 and 2022, the non-current liability balances related to DSUs were $0.4 million and $0.6 million, respectively. For the three months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively, the changes in liabilities related to DSUs resulted in $0.3M million and $0.2 million credit to stock-based compensation expense. For the six months ended June 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively, the changes in liabilities related to DSUs resulted in $0.1 million and $0.4 million stock-based compensation expense, respectively.
RSUs of 167,133 and 779,192 were granted during the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, respectively. RSUs of 377,076 and 611,681 were granted during the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, respectively. During the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, respectively, a total of nil and 195,525 RSUs vested. Both during the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, a total of 77,801 RSUs vested. For the RSUs vesting in 2023, 70,433 common shares were issued with an intrinsic value and a fair value of $61,981, RSUs of 18,137 were withheld for taxes due to net settlement, and 106,955 RSUs were deferred.
No stock options were granted nor exercised during the three and six months ended June 30, 2023. Stock options of nil and 320,816 were granted during the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, respectively. Stock options of nil and 355,000, respectively, were exercised during the three and six months ended June 30, 2022. The exercises in 2022 were settled in cash.