Sierra Metals Inc.

Okay, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Sierra Metals First Quarter 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you should require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today, Mr. Mike McAllister, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Sierra Metals' first quarter 2021 results conference call. On today's call, we are joined by Luis Marchese, our CEO, Ed DeMaris, our CFO, We are assuming that all published materials have been read, and as such, today's presentation highlights the key issues of the quarter. However, I would like to highlight that, as always, we are open for questions at the end of the presentation, which can expand upon other issues that might be of interest to those listening. The accompanying presentation for today's call is available for download through the webcast or from the company's website at sierrametals.com. Yesterday's press release, the financial statements, and the management discussion and analysis are also posted on the company's website. Before I turn the call over to Luis, I would like to indicate that this earnings call contains forward-looking information that is based on the company's current expectations, estimates, and beliefs. This forward-looking information is subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors. Actual results could differ materially from our conclusions, forecasts, or projections as reflected in the forward-looking information. Additional information about the material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from conclusions, forecasts, or projections in the forward-looking information and the material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection as reflected in the forward-looking information is contained in the company's annual information form, which is publicly available on CDAR or EDGAR via Form 40F or on the company's website. Please note that all dollar amounts mentioned on today's call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. I would now like to turn the call over to Luis Marchese, our CEO, for the first quarter highlights and the company outlook, and then to Edgar Maris, to our CFO, for the financial highlights. Please go ahead, Luis.

Thanks, Mike. Good morning, everyone. Turning now to slide four. Well, I would like to start by stating that, above all, the safety of our workers and the communities in which we operate remains paramount to the company. COVID-19 has imposed various direct and indirect challenges to the company and management, which have affected our ability to operate as effectively as expected in 2020 and continuing into 2021. Impacts have included delays in mine development and preparation of areas for mining, and consequently, lower head grades as we focus on larger and with lower grade ore bodies as we strive to meet that. This has resulted in lower metal cells resulting from lower grades. Costs were also affected mainly due to indirect fixed costs, which still must be incurred despite lower metals production. That said, we continue to take proactive measures to mitigate potential impacts that COVID-19 may have on our employees, communities, operations, supply chains, and our finance. We continue to test and quarantine employees before they can join the active workforce and continue to monitor all employees daily. Further, we're also deferring time exploration and capital projects due to ongoing and carry forward difficulties for 2020. Additionally, our Cusi mine was also affected by a large-scale power outage that affected Texas and parts of northern Mexico, which caused lost production during an approximately 10-day period and continued instability in the power grid of northern Mexico, which has also brought some other production difficulties for the next few months. However, despite the challenges we faced, the company still had solid revenue and adjusted EBITDA and maintained positive free cash flow. Furthermore, while we are facing challenges from COVID-19 currently, the midterm plans remain in place. Looking ahead to 2021, in 2021, please turn to slide five. Despite the challenges we're currently facing, we continue to see strong growth opportunities for the company as the operations in Mexico are on their way to running at their increased capacities of 5,000 tons per day at Bolívar and 1,100 tons per day at Cusi. Furthermore, we recently received an ITS environmental permit for the agriculture. I expect to receive the final ITM permit which is the operational permit by the end of Q2 2021. This will see Yaburicocha increase permitted throughput by 20% to 3,600 tons per day. This will allow us to make better use of the already installed capacity and Yaburicocha. At Yaburicocha, we continue to complete drilling to grow our mineral reserves and resources and complete the development work requiring operations to increase throughput in the future. We expect these capital expenditure projects will result in future increased cash flows and lower cash costs. Additionally, we expect to fund these capital expenditure programs through the innovation of operating cash flows. At Bolívar and Cusi, like Yabricocha, we are continuing with mineral exploration programs and completing infrastructure and operational improvements to double throughput in the future. These improvements include an expanded tailings facility at both mines and driving an underground tunnel that will connect the mines with the concentrator plant at Bolívar to improve efficiencies and reduce haulage costs. Additionally, at Bolívar, we expect to commence construction of an iron ore processing plant in June, which is expected to produce approximately 500,000 tons per year of 62% iron ore This is expected to enhance Bolivar's profitability while also lowering our transportation and tailings development costs. This is a project that was approved recently by our board. We continue to work on the completion of the previous stability studies for the three mines, which build upon the previous preliminary economic assessments completed at all three mines. They study the expansion of the Yabicocha mines throughput to 5,500 tons per day and a doubling of throughput capacity at the Bolivar and Cusi mines to 10,000 and 2,400 tons per day respectively. In conclusion, on slide seven, the company has had a relatively decent first quarter Despite the direct and indirect, I would say, receivable challenges we face from the COVID-19 pandemic, we were still able to emerge with a stronger balance sheet and cash position. While we continue to operate in a vulnerable environment due to COVID-19, we remain hopeful. We expect further cash flow and liquidity improvements in 2021, a benefit of improving production and metal prices. The company has made the necessary capital investments and infrastructure improvements to continue growing, production, and improving costs. We remain committed to the company's prudent and sustainable growth, and more importantly, to improving the per share value benefiting all shareholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to Ed for the first quarter financial highlights. Ed.