Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Aveeno Silver and Goldmine's third quarter 2022 financial results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, You may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jennifer North, Manager for Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Avino Silver and Gold Mines Limited Q3 2022 Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast. To join this webcast and conference call, there is a link in our news release dated November the 9th, which can be found on our website under news2022.com. As well, you may find a link under the Investors tab, then click on Events and you will see the link at the top of the page. On the call today, we have the company's President and CEO, David Wolfen, our Chief Financial Officer, Nathan Hart, our Chief Operating Officer, Carlos Rodriguez, and our VP Technical Services, Peter Lalla. Before we get started, please note that certain statements made today on this call by the management team may include forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different than those expressed by or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company does not intend to and does not assume any obligation to update such forward-looking statements or information other than as required by applicable law. For more information, we refer you to our detailed cautionary note and the Q3 presentation associated with this call or on our press release of yesterday's date. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay later today. Replay information and the presentation slides accompanying this conference call and webcast will be available on the website. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Avino's President and CEO, David Wolfen.

Thanks, Jen. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Vino's Q3 2022 financial results conference call and webcast. Thank you for joining us. Before we begin, please note that the full financial statements and MD&A are now available on our website. On today's call, we'll cover the highlights of our third quarter 2022 financial and operating performance and our plans for the fourth quarter, and then we'll open it up for questions. Please note that all figures are stated in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. In the third quarter, we delivered our strongest quarterly production in recent history, producing 778,000 ounces of silver equivalent, which is an increase of 20% over Q2. We also increased mill throughput by 37% compared to the second quarter to 160,000 tons milled, which is also the highest total tonnage in recent history. In addition, the mine optimization work continued in Q3 for the underground mining processes. They're aimed at managing, tracking, and planning underground movements, which helps to increase efficiencies across communication and planning. During the quarter, we also compiled further drill results from phase two of the 2021-2022 exploration program, and at the end of Q3, a total of 11,253 meters have been drilled. Subsequent to the end of Q3, we announced drilling from the Vino Mine Elena Tolosa area, also referred to as ET, below our deepest level 17 mining area. I expand on that in a bit later in the presentation. The installation and commissioning of the dry stack tailings project has been completed and we are currently transitioning to full-time operation of the filter presses with site personnel fine-tuning the process. I was at the mine site in late September and I was very pleased to see that our dry stack tailing project that is using best available environmental technology is coming to fruition. The investment that we have made in this facility demonstrates our commitment to the safety of our people, local communities, and the environment. At La Preciosa, we have been focused on community engagement in the nearby towns adjacent to the property, as well as studies on how to optimally integrate our mine plan to leverage the existing facilities and infrastructure. Aveeno is fully committed to moving this project forward as part of the company's organic growth strategy. The acquisition was a major milestone for Aveeno and factored prominently into Aveeno's five-year growth strategy and sets us on the path of achieving our goals of intermediate producer status. The property hosts one of the largest undeveloped primary silver resources in Mexico and is located adjacent to our existing operations at the Aveeno mine. Our financial performance in the third quarter was slightly lower than expected, with marginally lower revenue compared to the second quarter. Our strong operational achievements helped to generate revenue of $9.1 million, $2.1 million in mine operating income. Nathan Hart, Vino's CFO, will expand on our financial results later in the call. The third quarter production marks the fourth full quarter following the restart of operations in August 2021, and as I mentioned previously, record quarterly production of 778,000 ounces of silver equivalent. The production came from the Aveeno mine only and is compared to Q2 2022 as it's the most recent quarter of consolidated production. The Q3 production highlights are as follows. Silver equivalent increased 20% to 778,000 ounces. Silver production increased by 27% to 285,400 ounces. Copper production increased by 28% to 2.1 million pounds. Gold production decreased by 11% to 1,201 ounces. Mill throughput increased by 37% to 162,100 tons. The recoveries for silver increased by 1% and copper decreased by 3% and gold recovery decreased by 5%. On a gram per ton basis, The feed grades for silver decreased by 9%. For gold, the decrease was 33%, and for copper, the feed grade decreased by 4%. During the third quarter, 3,559 meters were drilled exclusively at the vino ET area below level 17. For 2022, the company budgeted 15,000 meters, which was focused on the Aveeno ET area below level 17 and the Oxide Tailings Project and La Podestina. And at the end of Q3 2022, a total of 11,253 meters have been drilled. Subsequent to the end of Q3, in October, we announced the results from phase two of the 2021-22 exploration program. These results represent six holes totaling 3,269 meters drilled below the current level 17 mining area of the ET area of the Aveeno mine. Selected intercepts include hole ET 2208.95 silver equivalent grams per ton over 43.8 meters, including 673 silver equivalent grams per ton over 0.66 meters. Whole ET 2209, 150 silver equivalent grams per ton over 26.77 meters, including 1,037 silver equivalent grams over 0.46 meters, and 1,800 silver equivalent grams per ton over 0.28 meters. The recent deeper drilling confirms that the mineralization persists down dip significantly past lowest developed mining level and may prove to add significant mineral resources subject to the completion of an updated mineral resource estimate currently scheduled for Q1 2023. During the second quarter, we also released drill results from the Vino ET area that intercepted high-grade silver and copper in multiple holes. As this area of focus, we encourage you to view the interactive 3D model on our website, which is linked to the June press release and shows the location of the drill results and proximity to the current mining area. Please also take a virtual tour of the mine site, which you can find on the homepage of the website for an informative and in-depth look at operations. The full drill results, including images for the 2021 and 2022 drill programs, are available on the website. During Q3, we continued moving forward on the capital projects that we outlined for the year. As previously mentioned, the dry stack tailings facility installation and commissioning has been completed. The project is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year and leads the company towards achieving the guidelines with the global industry standards on tailings management along with community stewardship. Our ESG initiatives continue to move forward as we incorporate principles of sustainability and social responsibility. Following the restart of operations has been the company's directive to train and hire local workforce. By providing jobs to those in the surrounding communities, we aim to foster generations of enthusiastic and dedicated ambassadors of Aveeno. After receiving the ESR award in August for the first time, which is granted by the Mexican Center of Philanthropy and the Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility, we continue to provide support to the local communities where it is needed. As well, something that I believe strongly about is to provide information to the school-aged children, teach them about the mine, what we do there, and how minerals are important to our daily lives in hopes to sparking their interest in someday working at the mine. The ESG initiatives completed during the third quarter were water irrigation work at Panuco de Coronado, conducting mining talks in the schools in Panuco, also San Jose de Avino and Graal, hosted the first parent-child visit to work event for the employees and families. During the visit, the workers were able to share their knowledge with their children by showing them the areas in which they carry out their work, giving them an overview of their daily activities and participating in safety awareness talks. Reforestation campaign of native species of the region where 10,000 plants, including mesquite, hizash and magway were planted. rock removal from local roads after heavy rainfall, creek restoration work at Labrador Rivera Community, providing school supplies to students in the surrounding communities, construction rubble removal from Guillermo Prieto Elementary School, cleaning and maintaining the landfills at Zaragoza, roadside gutter maintenance and cleaning, Aveeno rescue team training. During the quarter, we continued to see volatility in the markets with rising interest rates, inflation, and a strong US dollar, which put pressure on precious metals. The silver price was in the range of $17.77 an ounce near the beginning of September and a high of $20.54 an ounce on August 11th. During the second quarter call, I mentioned that we were living in an interesting time. and this should probably brace for continued volatility and higher interest rates. I have to repeat that now. On the third quarter call, interest rates have just risen again for the fourth time in a row. Even in times of economic pressure, the world still needs a steady supply of precious metals. There have been a lot of focus lately on copper being one of the most important metals that the world is running low on. We all know that silver, copper, gold and a variety of other precious and base metals will be needed in the push for green energy. We continue to believe that the outlook for silver is positive and that the silver demand should see solid growth from 2022 onwards and will be driven by record silver industrial fabrication, increase in green technology and investment demand for physical silver. I will now ask Nathan Hart, Aveeno's Chief Financial Officer, to present the financial results for Q3 2022. Nathan.