SilverCrest Metals Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Silvercrest Report's second quarter 2023 results conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, the 10th of August, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Eric Fierre. CEO and Director. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining. Today we'll be providing commentary on our robust Q2 2023 results and H2 guidance, after which we'll be happy to take questions. The slide deck we'll be referring to in this presentation is available on our website at silvercrestmetals.com under the Investors tab. Before I get started, I'd like to direct you to the forward-looking statements on slide two. All figures discussed this morning are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated, and any references to the report are in relationship to the recently released updated technical report. All of the ounces, all of the ounce comments on ounce and per ounce references discussed will be based on silver equivalent ounces unless otherwise specified. On the call with me today is Chris Ritchie, President, and Pierre Boudoin, Chief Operating Officer. Starting on slide three, Q2 marked another successful quarter for production. We have continued to generate free cash flow after eliminating our debt with $25 million repayment in the quarter. also adding approximately $4 million in bullion and $8 million of cash to our treasury assets, while spending about $10 million in sustaining capital. Our balance sheet continues to be a differentiator among our peers. The Las Chispas operation continues to perform well, with 13,400 ounces of gold and 1.45 million ounces of silver sold in the quarter In line with estimates in the report and quarterly levels outlined in our guidance almost all operating parameters showed improvement over Q1 2023 including underground mine ramp up which continued to progress well with an average mining rate of 818 tons per day for the quarter. a 16% increase from Q1 and in line with the updated technical report estimates. Last week we released the results of the updated technical report, which will be filed within 45 days. The data used to compile the report was generated from actual underground operations resulting in a production and cost profile that we are confident in. The change in the broader economy and our project from the last three years warranted an updated study that is more in line with current operating environment. We hope the release of these Q2 results will continue to highlight our strong margins and balance sheet as well as our unique position to opportunistically allocate our capital. We continue to advance our ESG initiatives including a strong focus on health and safety, as well as managing the risks and opportunities within the communities which we operate. During the quarter, we've delivered our inaugural ESG report, an important de-risking event to align our disclosures with the meaningful work that has been completed to date. We are very proud to have been recognized in Mexico with the ESR socially responsible company distinction for 2023. I will now pass it to Chris to discuss financial results for the quarter.

Thanks, Eric. Moving to slide four. The operational performance of the List Las Chispas asset was highlighted by our strong free cash flow and growth on our balance sheet while increasing our sustaining capital spend and repaying $25 million of debt. In the quarter, we generated revenue of $62 million. Our cost of sales was $23.7 million, reflecting a strong mine operating margin of 62%. As costs tend to track prices in our industry, these margins can be a significant differentiator relative to other assets. Net income in the quarter was $23.7 million, or 16 cents per share. This is inclusive of an $8.6 million or $0.06 per share unrealized foreign currency loss, which compares to a $1.1 million unrealized foreign currency gain or $0.01 per share in Q1 2023. Net free cash flow was $43.7 million for $0.30 per share, which compares to $21.8 million in Q1. Our net free cash flow in the quarter benefited from financial items like the return of value added taxes, and deferral of payables and taxes, which are scheduled to be paid in Q1 2024. We ended the quarter with $59 million of Treasury assets, which included approximately $53 million in cash and $6 million of bullion. An undrawn $70 million revolving credit facility remains available. Now on to slide five. Capital allocation is critical to the success of any business, and given our strong margins and free cash flow, we find ourselves in a unique position to have choices. A single asset company, our first allocation priority is to maintain a defensive balance sheet that allows us to weather the uncertainties of this business, but also to be well-positioned to be opportunistic. Equally as important is our focus on growth. Our infrastructure has been built and adding more ounces to the production profile through exploration success has the potential to benefit our valuation. Another priority is to add bullion to our balance sheet as another currency to be managed. We believe ounces above the ground are worth more than ounces in the ground, given that the risk of producing them has been incurred, and we believe that these ounces are a better store of value than fiat currency. While we look for new projects to develop, we believe that bullion on our balance sheet will enhance our multiple relative to cash while providing healthier leverage for our investors and a hedge against inflation. We are also happy to have announced a share buyback or normal course issuer bid yesterday, supporting a capital allocation priority to return capital to shareholders. We are in a healthy operational and financial position because of the support of our shareholders And despite our risk being significantly reduced, approximately one-third of the shares issued were done so at higher levels than the share price today. We are well aware of the challenges to discover, permit, finance, build, and operate a mine. And as a result, we see the NCIB as an opportunity to both reinvest in our own asset at a much lower risk level and recognize our supporters. With that, I will now pass it on to Pierre to discuss operations at Las Chispas. Thanks, Chris.

I'm now on slide six. Ramp-up of underground mining rate increased during the quarter, averaging over 800 tons per day, in line with the report. The underground mining rate is set to stabilize at this level in H2 as we prepare to ramp up in 2024. During Q2, the lateral development rate increased to 33 meters per day. This is a significant improvement over Q1, and a level similar to the expectation to the report. During the quarter, the third portal was also established to access the Las Chispas area. Once progressed enough, this area is expected to provide more front and ease the transition to an increase to development rate of 42 meter per day. In Q3, we plan to resume contract negotiation with mining contractors, including our current contractors, and we're still targeting to complete this discussion in H2 of 23. As highlighted in our release last week, we've made allocation to reflect the potential impact of these negotiations. The Las Chispas processing plant averaged daily throughput of 1186 tons per day, a number that is in line with expectation in the recently released technical report. The plant recovered 2.84 million silver equivalent ounces in Q2 as a result of much improved silver recovery and an increase in feed grade. As outlined in the report, the company continues to benefit from strategic stockpile use to supplement processing plant feed as the mine is gradually developed and tonnage ramped up. Still on slide six. Our corporate level ASIC, which align with World Gold Council definition, was $12.70 per ounce silver equivalent, and the mine level ASIC was $11.41, an increase over Q1 due to a planned increase in mine development and an increase in mine output. Over the next few quarters, one important measure of success will be our ability to execute on the development plan, And as a result, we expect the sustaining part of our ASIC to increase accordingly. We should note that we've adjusted Q123 results to align with our new silver equivalent ratio from the technical report of 79.521 and to align better with the costing in the report. It's important to highlight that making this ratio change impacts silver equivalent parameters by about 5%. I will now pass it back to Eric to present the H2 2023 guidance and conclude the presentation.

Thanks, Pierre. Moving on to slide 7, with the release of the updated technical report, we are now in a position to release guidance for the remainder of the year. For H2 2023, the company expects to produce 4.8 to 5.2 million ounces at Cash cost of between seven to eight dollars and fifty cents per ounce sold also for h2 mine level all in sustaining costs are expected to be eleven point seven five to thirteen point five per ounce sold and all in sustaining cost as defined by the World Gold Council are expected to to range from $13.75 to $15.50 per ounce sold. Please note that our guidance is based on 20 to one Mexican peso to US dollar exchange rate, and we've had a notable move in the rate to levels of 17.7 to one. We estimate about 40 to 50% of our costs are peso denominated. Full year 2023 guidance is 9.8 to 10.2 million ounces at all-in sustaining cost between $12.75 to $13.75 per ounce sold. Costs for H2 are projected to be higher based on increased sustaining costs related to underground development. Moving on to slide 8, what's next? Exploration efforts will continue with a newly approved $10 million drilling budget through Q1 2024. Phase one of the program will target 10 million ounces, 10 million higher grade ounces silver in silver resources in proximity to current and planned operations for potential reserve replacement. Phase two will focus on another inferred ounces in H2 2024 when underground access for these areas become available. The program will also target earlier stage opportunities with over 23 kilometers of underexplored veins at Las Chispas that we are looking forward to start exploring. That wraps up our formal commentary for today. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star followed by the number 1 on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you would like to cancel your request, please press star 2. Please ensure you leave the handset if you are using a speakerphone before pressing any keys. Once again, it is star 1 to ask a question. Your first question comes from the line of Stephen Suk from Stifel. Your line is now open.

Hi, guys. Congrats on a good quarter. I mean, extinguishing that debt and building a balance sheet quickly is an impressive feat. I just had a question around the stockpile accounting. You know, the use of some higher cost stockpiles look like in the quarter kind of drove up a little bit of the unit cost a little bit. Can you just maybe provide some color on that and then how we should think about that going forward compared to, I believe it was a credit from the stockpiles in Q1? Thanks.

So I think the high level answer for you there, Stephen, thanks for the question, is we did a lot of pre-development. We had a lot of stockpiles available. As time progresses, we need to ramp up the mine and make sure we're delivering more tons from the mine relative to the tons we're delivering from the stockpiles. So the costs we're going to be incurring should go up as the tons coming from the mine increase in the ratio.

Okay, thanks. So that's what we saw this quarter was a higher proportion of primary mine tons hitting the mill versus versus material source from the stockpile. Or I thought there was some commentary about the cost allocation within the stockpiles actually used this quarter versus previous quarter.

Yeah, the average time coming from the underground is going to increase. Sorry, from the stockpile. Sorry, from the stockpile. Apologies.

Okay. Got it. No, that's helpful. I appreciate that. And then I guess just one other one from the accounting on taxes. I mean, no cash taxes paid this quarter. You mentioned that'll probably continue until it's trued up in Q1. And then from that point forward, will it be regular cash tax payments or we would expect to see this kind of build through the year and then big cash outflow in the first quarter of each year as you kind of file your taxes?

Yeah, correct. We expect to start paying cash taxes in Q1, and that'll be sort of an ongoing quarterly event from that time on.

Perfect. Thanks. That's it for me. I'll free up the line for anyone else here. Thanks a lot, guys.

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1. Your next question comes from the line of John Sklodnik from the Jardin. Your line is now open.

Thanks for taking my question, guys. Great quarter there and very impressive. I echo Stephen's comments there on how quickly you paid off the debt and obviously shows free cash flows ramping up here. My question is just on the exploration budget of $10 million and just wondering how much of that will be capitalized and how much of that is going to be expensed And I guess related to that, if you're going to look at El Picacho or if it's going to be really kind of more near mine exploration.

Yeah, most of it will be focused on the near mine exploration. We have no planned budget right now for Picacho. We're waiting for some permits there. So from a split of non-sustaining to sustaining, a majority is going to

uh reserve replacement which would be in the sustaining side so okay so we shouldn't expect to see much of that exploration budget expense then is that fair sorry that was unsustaining side there you go not the sustaining capital side okay okay great um yeah no that that's it for me and uh yeah great quarter and looks very straightforward thanks a lot

There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand over to Eric for closing remarks.

Great. Thanks, everybody, for attending the Silvercrest Metals Q2 2023 results call. Have a great day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.