The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Raymond James analyst Tara Hassan says though 2018 looks better at Alio Gold's San Francisco mine, near-term challenges remain. The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Ms. Hassan says in a note: "Although many of the concerns which resulted in a challenging 3Q17 at San Francisco have been addressed, we look for 4Q17 to be another weak quarter and have made revisions to our 2018 production estimates to better reflect our expectation for a ramp-up on grades, recovery, throughput and costs tied to the completion of some capital projects which are underway, but delayed from our previous expectations. Two weeks ago, the highest profile company in the Guerrero district, Torex Gold announced the closure of its El Limon mine due to threats of violence. Although these threats are related to some union issues, making the issues driving the mine closure specific to Torex, we think the negative headlines from the region are likely to weigh on Alio, particularly if the closure period is extended." Ms. Hassan cut her rating for Alio to "underperform" from "outperform." She cut her share target to $7.25 from $9.50, 98 cents below the consensus.