Sierra Metals Inc.

Hello everyone and a warm welcome to the Sierra Metals first quarter 2022 financial results call. My name is Bethany and I will be your operator today. If you would like to ask a question after the speaker's prepared remarks, you may do this by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now hand the floor over to Christiana Papadopoulos, Manager of Investor Relations at Sierra Metals. Christiana, over to you.

thank you and good morning everyone welcome to sierra's first quarter 2022 results conference call on today's call we are joined by luis marchese our ceo and ed jamirez our cfo today's call will be followed by a question and answer period the accompanying presentation for today's call is available to download through the webcast or from the company's website at sierra metals.com yesterday's press release the financial uh statements and the management's discussion and analysis are also posted on the company's website i'd like to note that this earnings call contains forward-looking information that is based on the company's current expectations estimates and beliefs the 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 the conclusions, forecasts, or projections in the forward-looking information in the material factors or assumptions that are applied in drawing a conclusion on making a forecast or projective as reflected in the forward-looking information is contained in the company's annual information form, which is publicly available on CDAR, EDGAR, via Form 40F, or the company's website. Please note that our full dollar amounts mentioned on today's call are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted. I'd now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Luis Marchesi, for an overview of the quarter's highlights, as well as a summary of what's ahead for the remainder of 2022.

Luis Marchesi Thank you, Christiana, and good morning, everyone. Looking at slide four, During the first quarter, there were related issues. In particular, at Jaricocha, we had a significant reduction in mine and service personnel, which prompted further delays in mine development and affected preparation of areas to be mined. These restrictions, coupled with the expected reduced ore grade and duty limitations on accessing high-grade ore areas, made a 38% decrease in copper equivalent production during the course. It continued effort to say that they have seen a significant improvement in consistent staffing. Vaccination efforts continue with 100%. Most personnel are vaccinated with at least two doses.