SilverCrest Metals Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to this Silvercrest Metals second quarter 2024 results conference call. A reminder that all participants are in a listen-only mode, but later you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. You may register to ask a question at any time by pressing the star and one on your touchtone phone. Please note this call may be recorded. I will be standing by should you need any assistance, and it is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to CEO and Director, Mr. Eric Fehr. Welcome, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thanks, everybody, for joining. Today, we'll be providing commentary on Q2 2024 results, after which we'll be happy to take questions. The slide deck we'll be referring to is available on our website, silvercrestmetals.com, under the Investor tab. Before we 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. All of the ounce and per ounce references discussed will be based on silver equivalent ounces sold, unless otherwise indicated. Our silver equivalent references are based on a gold to silver ratio of 79.5 to one. On the call with me today is Rob Doyle, recently announced interim CFO, Chris Ritchie, president, and Cliff LaFleur, vice president of operations. Starting on slide three, Q2 was another strong quarter for us, both operationally and financially. Given our strong performance in the first half of the year and to the start of H2, we have announced positive revisions to our annual sales, cash cost, and all-in sustaining cost guidance. These changes were all made under the same silver equivalent assumptions as our original guidance. Silver equivalent sales of 2.6 million ounces in Q2 and 5.2 million ounces in H1 provided us with the comfort to increase our annual sales guidance to 10 to 10.3 million ounces from our original guidance of 9.8 to 10.2 million ounces. With cash costs and all in sustaining costs in the first half of the year becoming Dave Kuntz, Coming below the bottom end of our original guidance, we have the confidence to revise our 2024 guidance from book for both. Dave Kuntz, We now expect cash costs to be $9 and 25 cents to $7 and 75 cents and all in sustaining costs to be $14 and 90 cents to $15 and 75 cents to $15 and 75 cents per ounce. Our balance sheet continues to demonstrate strength and flexibility with both cash and bullion holdings increasing notably in the quarter. On to slide four. We are now pleased to be going into H2 with continued confidence in our execution. As I mentioned, we have improved our guidance for total silver equivalent ounces sold, cash costs, and corporate all-in sustaining costs, our exploration and sustaining capital remain unchanged. Before I pass the call to Rob to discuss our financial results in the quarter, I'd like to take a moment to officially welcome him to the team. We're thrilled to have Rob join as an interim CFO, bringing with him a wealth of experience. Welcome, Rob.

Thank you, Eric, and good morning, everyone. I am delighted to be joining such a high-quality company with an incredible asset and a talented management team. I'm very much looking forward to rolling up my sleeves in my new role. Moving to slide five, in the quarter, we generated record revenue of $72.7 million and record mine operating earnings of $41.5 million. Cash flow generation in the quarter was robust. with operating cash flow of 39.6 million or 27 cents per share. We also recorded strong free cash flow of 24.3 million or 16 cents per share, which came after investing 15.3 million in sustaining capital. Net earnings in the quarter of 6.5 million or 4 cents per share were impacted by weakened pesos following the results of the Mexican general election. It is important to note that we report earnings per share on a non-adjusted basis, which can result in some noise quarterly, particularly when we observe more notable exchange rate movements. The depreciation of the peso at the end of the quarter resulted in unrealized foreign exchange losses of $2.8 million and largely drove the non-cash deferred tax expense of $14.3 million. This aspect of our tax is reflected in Note 18 of our financial statements, but in simple terms reflects the change in our anticipated tax attributes over the life of the mine due to changes in the FX. If the recent volatility in the Mexican peso persists, we would expect that these non-cash mark-to-market items will continue to be a feature of future earnings. both positive and negative. Current taxes of $11.8 million were higher than the prior period as a result of the utilization of all of our Mexican tax loss carry forwards in 2023, following strong operating performance since commercial production was achieved in Q4 2022. Our net earnings for the quarter added to the retained earnings on our balance sheet something that we are very proud of as a young company. As students of the industry will know, retained earnings is a very rare achievement in our business. I'm now going to pass the call to Chris to speak to the treasury assets on our pristine balance sheet.