Sierra Metals Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Sierra Medals Inc. First Quarter 2024 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then 0. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jean-Pierre Cortelville, Manager of Business Development and Investor Relations for Sierra Medals. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. 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. Please review this slide and other forward-looking information contained in the company's annual information form, which is publicly available on CDAR Plus and the company's website. The accompanying presentation for today's call is available for download from the company's website at sierramedals.com. Today's press release, the financial statements, and the MDNA are posted on our website and on CDAR Plus. Please note that all dollar amounts mentioned on today's call are in US dollars, unless otherwise noted. And lastly, I'll remind everyone that starting in 2024, the company modified its definition of cash cost to include treatment and refining charges, selling costs, and on-site GNA. We think that this is a more accurate and more transparent way of reporting to the market. Now we can clearly identify the sustaining capital portion of the total costs. Following management's prepared remarks, a Q&A period will follow. Speakers on today's call are Ernesto Valarezo, our CEO, and Jose Hernandez-Baca, our CFO. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Ernesto.

Thank

you,

Jean-Pierre, and good morning, everyone. Let me begin, as we always do, by discussing our company's number one priority, safety. As seen on slide three, our focus is to continuously ensure we provide a workplace environment where all our employees and contractors are safe. This includes a continuous improvement approach to safety where we conduct regularly safety programs, safety inspections, and safety audits for all employees and contractors. This has been very well received by everyone throughout the company, as we all recognize that being safe leads to a productive work environment. We released our first quarter 2024 production results on April 18th and our financial results earlier today. I will assume everyone has had a chance to review them, so I will not be going into detail, but we will instead provide highlights as seen on slide four. On a consolidated basis, in the first quarter of 2024, our two operating mines, Yalicocha and Boliva, produced almost 20 million copper equivalent pounds, which is a 21% increase from Q1 2023. This was from processing almost 640,000 tons of ore in the first quarter, which was 23% higher than in the same quarter a year ago. Breaking this down by metals, copper, silver, gold, and lead, were respectively 36, 10, 19, and 10% higher in Q1 when compared to the same quarter in 2023. At Boliva, the mine achieved record metal production, while at Yalicocha, the mine continues to maximize production above the 1120 level. As a reminder, we obtained our permit to mine a massive ore body below the 1120 level on February 21st of this year. Development is on track to achieve full production by Q4 2024, which will allow Yalicocha to achieve full processing capacity of 3,600 tons per day, approximately 40% increase from current run rates. As a result of our strong Q1 production, we are reaffirming our 2024 guidance, and we continue to generate strong cash flows from our operations, further improving our financial position. More of this later from Pepe when he discusses our financial results. All in all, it was another strong quarter. Moving on to slide 5, as previously mentioned, it was a record quarter of metal production at Boliva as the mine continued its of -over-quarter production increases. During Q1 2024, Boliva produced 11.4 million copper equivalent pounds from nearly 8 million pounds of copper, more than 200 ounces of silver, and over 4,000 ounces of gold. All metals produced in Q1 were significantly higher than in Q1 2023. The improved production from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024 was mainly driven by higher metal grades mined from the advancements in the mine development, which allowed for access to higher-grade mineralized zones, including the Dulce zone. To date, exploration results in the Q1 2024 were $2.44 and $3.12 respectively for copper equivalent payable times. The increase in all sustaining costs in Q1 when compared to Q1 2023 is mainly driven by the increased development at the mine to access higher-grade zones. Some of the initiatives undertaken in the last quarter that helped boost productivity included starting a new tailings dam project with dam number two under construction and engineering for dam number three currently underway, definition drilling, which was enhanced operational predictability, and resumed construction of the integration tunnel, which will reduce haulage costs. We remain on track to meet guidance for 2024 at Boliva. Turning to the auricocha on slide six, Q1 operating results were better than Q1 2023, which is a direct reflection of the team's effort over the last 12 months to maximize output above the 1120 level. Now, having obtained a permit to mine below the 1120 level in February, the mine has started the development process to access this large ore body. I'm pleased to report that we are on budget and on track to achieve capacity of 3,600 tons per day by the fourth quarter of this year, a 40% increase from current run rates. For Q1 2024, copper and lead grades remain aligned with Q1 2023, but gold, silver, and zinc grades were lower. As anticipated, mining was primarily in the lower grade ore bodies. However, copper equivalent production remains in line with Q1 2023. We're expecting throughput rates, grades, and metal production volumes to improve as development below the 1120 level progresses. In the first quarter of 2024, auricocha had a cash cost per copper equivalent payable pound of $3.27 and an all-in sustaining cost of $3.69. The higher all-in sustaining costs in Q1 when compared to Q1 2023 is primarily a result of costs associated with development below the 1120 level. I will take you through all the significant productivity and cost reduction initiatives that we undertook at the auricocha during the quarter, or to highlight the following. Development below the 1120 level has started with a new mining contractor focused exclusively on the underground development. New mining equipment is on site and improved main ventilation and pumping infrastructure has been installed. All you know that team at Auricocha did a great job maximizing production and reducing costs where possible. We remain on track to meet guidance for 2024. As many of you have seen, on May 7th, we announced an updated NI 43-101 compliant mineral reserve and resource estimate for both Boliva and Auricocha. This estimate is the first one in over three years and as shown on slide seven, highlights the significant amount of mineral reserves and resources we have at both our mines. The key here is the five plus years of proven and probable reserves, life of mine at the auricocha and the three plus years at Boliva. Also, I'd like to highlight the eight and ten years respectively, life of mine of measure and indicated resources. These are very compelling for the future of our mines as we continue to deliver long-term value for our stakeholders. Now over to Pepe to discuss our financial results.

Thank you, Ernesto. I will now provide some financial highlights of the third quarter of 2024. Also, the various revenues from measures payable of $63 million in Q1 was an increase of 18% from the third quarter of 2023. This is mainly a result of higher production at Boliva. Cash flow generated from operations before movements in working capital was over $16 million for Q1 2024, resulting in another positive quarter of cash flows from our mines. Adjusted area of Q1 was 13% higher on the same quarter a year ago. The company's cash position as at March 31st was over $11.2 million. Overall, our robust operating performance has improved our financial position. As noted on this slide, our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio has steadily improved with our strong operations. On a trailing 12-month basis, we have quickly improved our net debt to adjusted EBITDA coverage to 1.3 times in Q1 2024, which is very manageable for us. A quick update on the ongoing and very productive talks with our lenders on our refinancing package. We expect the refinancing package will offer the company relief on its repayment schedule and financial governance and help fund future growth initiatives. Our lenders have been very strong partners in showing a tremendous amount of support for our achievements today and for our growth plans. With two important lights coming in hand, which are the updated mineral reserves and resource estimates and the payments obtained to mine below the $11.20 level, we expect to announce a refinancing agreement in the coming weeks. Back with you now,

Ernesto. Thanks, Pepe. Shifting now to another very integral part of our business, which is to partner with our local communities on important initiatives that benefit everyone. Shown on this slide are some images of the events and important initiatives undertaking this quarter in Mexico and Peru. We remain committed to ensuring safety, wellness and environment, which are our top priorities. In closing, we see 2024 as a year to consolidate the optimization efforts that started in 2023 and to establish a platform for growth and long-term value creation. Amongst the many initiatives identified by the team to create value, let me highlight six of them. As already discussed, we have already achieved one key initiative for 2024 with the publication of an updated national instrument 43-101, compliant mineral reserve and resource estimate for both our Yaldecocha and Bolívar mines. Overall, our operations have a very significant amount of mineral reserves and resources that will provide the foundation for ambitious growth plans at each mine. We already announced the receipt of the permit to mine below the 1120 level at Yaldecocha on February 21, 2024. Our focus is to mine efficiently all we can above the 1120 level and safely develop access below the 1120 level. We anticipate our production will increase to full capacity by Q4, thereby increasing our production rates by 40% from today's rates. At Bolívar, we will continue our project to phase in the expansion of our daily facilities with the goal of having them up and running within three years. That expansion should increase production by 50% to 7,500 tons per day throughput from current rates. Comfortably, our two 2024 priorities include refinancing our debt to be better aligned with our growth plans and to seek partners to help us uncover value from our large and prospective greenfield land packages in Mexico and Peru. So we expect 2024 will be another safe, busy and productive year while creating value for all our stakeholders. With that, I'll hand a call back to the operator to start the Q&A session. Operator?

Thank you. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any key. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2.

We will pause a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Bryce Adams with CIBC. Please go

ahead.

Thank you, operator, and thanks, Sierra, for the presentation. We got the new cost metric reporting underway. So this morning was my first chance to reconcile the new cost structure against our model and we did okay. But I was wondering if you could please discuss unit costs at Bolivar and Yorikulture for Q1. That would be appreciated. I'm thinking of the mining milling G&A costs, dollars per tonne, not dollars per pound. So if you had some of those metrics available, it would be very useful.

Hello, Bryce. If understood correctly, you want a little explanation on costs on Bolivar and Yorikulture, Q1 costs.

Yeah, mining costs per tonne, same for processing costs per tonne. That would be very useful.

Okay. Okay, the costs that I'm going to talk about are all in sustaining costs. In Yorikulture, you can see that we didn't do great, but we did okay considering that we were on top of the 1120 level where we have very little mineral and it's expensive to access it. On top of that, in Yorikulture, we are developing below the 1120 level, which is considered sustaining capex, so it's also included in the only sustaining costs. Breaking it down to mining and you have the breakout of mining and mill costs?

No, but we can share it with you, Brian, after the call. Bryce. So

we'll send you something, Bryce, after the call to see that breakout. In Bolivar, on the other hand, we did very good. You can see on the slide that it was a quarter of record production, so our costs, we continue to bring them down and we see Bolivar with great expectations.

We'll send you a detail

on mining and mill costs as well. I don't have my numbers with

me right now.

That's all right. Do you have those numbers for the reserve update? Because I was hoping to get the actual results from Q1 and then compare it to the inputs that were used in the reserve update, but I actually didn't see the cost assumptions that were used for the mineral reserves to calculate cutoff grades, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't see them in the press release, but would those inputs be available in the full filing that's going to come within the next five or six weeks?

Absolutely, they will. We just published a summary of the results of the Q9 43.101. The full reports, which are probably 100 to 200 pages long each, will bring all that data and they will be available for all of you guys.

Okay, and it will include the capex and taxes and a full economic analysis?

Yes, and the cutoff grades and yes.

All right, so we're looking forward to that one. Maybe changing gears to the below 11, 20 levels. Your highlighted development is on track. Can we dig into that a little bit more? If you're developing drives down there, are you developing in ore right now or you're still trying to access the ore zones? How's the ventilation down there? Is there vent work that needs to be done? What about ore loading? Is it all set up to load ore once you get into production? When would you be looking to take the first blast in the cave to be at full run rate for Q4?

Okay, good question. I thank you for that question because this is going to clarify a lot of uncertainty. We already started the development below the 11, 20 level. We started that February 22nd of this year, one day after we got the permit. We have brought a new contractor not to mess with the operation side of the mine but to develop below the 11, 20 level. So it's like a new mine for us. We for sure are going to be mining at full capacity at 3,600 by Q4. In Q3, we'll probably start getting funds out of there. We are going to invest around $2 million this year to get up and running our Yaulicocha shaft, which is a world-class shaft that was built two years ago. And all it needs is a couple of million dollars to get it up and running. All the mineral that we're going to take out of the below the 11, 20 level is coming out through this shaft that is going to be available in Q3, up and running I mean. I don't know if that answers your question.

Yeah, I mean it sounds quite advanced on all fronts. Ventilation is strong at those lower levels? No.

Ventilation is good. We have the raised borders in place. We're getting better every day at ventilation and pumping as well. Infrastructure, it's being developed also. I mean electrical works below the 11, 20 level. So we have a very detailed plan. We are saying it out loud. By Q4, we will be at full production, 3,600 tonnes. Coming most of it, 80% of those 3,600 are going to be from below the 11, 20 level.

Yeah, and I mean if we go back a little while ago, maybe it wasn't on your clock Ernesto, but some of the previous management had talked about throughput at 5,000 or 5,500 tonnes a day. Is there still some thinking around achieving that or is that sort of just being car parked for now?

Yeah, I wouldn't go into that. I have never said that. I know it was the previous management. Look, this is a new mine. Let us, during 2025, let us understand, operate safely this new mine below the 11, 20 level and probably I can tell you something in a year or so. But right now, 3,600 is going to be our throughput for the next year, year and a half for sure. I'm not planning on using that.

Understood. Maybe I've got one last one for Pepe. So you've got the permit now and reserves have been stated for the first time in a couple of years, three or four years. Are those the two big enablers for the balance sheet refinancing and what's the timeline on a potential market update on that topic?

Yes, as we mentioned, banks have been very supportive in all these past months and they are very supportive of the 11, 20 level. We have also got the 11, 20 level, which is something that we already did. In one way or another, they were very expecting to have the permit of the 11, 20 that we also got. Now we are finishing the discussions and we are pleased to say that quite soon, I would say in the following weeks, we will be announcing the refinancing.

Okay, that's great to hear. Congratulations and thanks for taking my questions.

Sure. Thank you, Bryce.

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one.

The next question comes from Jonathan Lee with Areas Resource Capital. Please go ahead.

Hey gentlemen, thanks for taking my call. Good morning, everyone. Just a quick question. If I look at year over year between the private placement, the issuance of RSCs and DSUs, looks like it's roughly 29 to 30% increase in share count on a fully diluted basis year over year. Can you clarify how much of that, call it 30% issuance on a fully diluted basis has been issued, whether it be from two management insiders?

Okay, we did issue that private placement. 10% of that private placement came from management. I don't know if that's what you mean by insiders. Yeah,

just on an aggregate basis between the private placement, the RSCs, the DSUs, etc. You know, of the 30% of the issuance of shares in RSCs and DSUs, how much of it was total? How much of it was issued? Okay, JP's management board.

Okay, Jean-Pierre, can you help me with these? You have the numbers?

Or Rash? Yes, Ernesto, not on the top of my mind at this point.

Okay, can we get back to you,

please,

with those numbers? JP? Yeah,

everything is publicly available in Cedar, but definitely we can help.

All right, thank you very much.

There are no more questions from the phone

lines. I would now like

to turn the conference back over to management to take questions

received via email.

Please go ahead. Please go ahead.

Sorry, yeah, we received a couple of questions. The first one was focused on the refinancing term. I believe Pepe already answered that one. And then we received another one, which is as follows. Given that, Ernesto, given that you now have a new mineral reserve and resource estimate, will you be publishing guidance beyond 2024?

Sure. Yeah, thanks for the question. We won't be publishing guidance beyond 2024 at this point. We are happy with what we have accomplished right now. We want to understand below the 2020 level much better. We just finished up with our NI 43.101. So I'm not too eager to go and publish guidance beyond 2024. What I can tell you is that our guidance for 2024

looks solid. Any more questions?

There is

one more question from the phone line. The next question comes from Hector earlier with Rainbow Fund LP. Please go ahead.

Yes, hi, good morning. Thank you so much for taking my call. First off, congratulations on all of the developments over the last couple of quarters. With regards to our question specifically, I kind of wanted to get an idea in terms of how you're going to prioritize these new cash flows that you'll be generating. You'll be getting the additional up flow from Yerikocha. You in the past had talked about potentially looking for a third mine. And then on top of that, you have the loan from the subsidiary, approximately $85 million from Minera Corona up to Sierra Metal. So if you can help me better understand how you're going to prioritize either potentially doing some M&A activity, paying back the loan, can you help me understand how management is thinking about that? Thank you.

Sure. Excuse me, I didn't get your name. Is it Alberto? Hector Arelis. Hector Arelis. Okay. Thanks for the question, Hector. Absolutely. Look, the best dollar spent in mining and the most profitable dollar spent in mining is in your own operations. So this company needs to work on its capex because it was on a sale process the last year, some capex was reduced that is necessary. So what we are going to do is focus on our two main mines, Yerikocha and Bolívar, and we are going to try to catch up. And this is going to take us a few years, two, three years with a capex that we need to invest in our operations. Regarding the M&A, there are two ways of growing and you know in this business size matters. One is organically and the other one is inorganically. Organically, we already, I think we've been very clear that we are going to prioritize our two main operations, Yerikocha and Bolívar. On the inorganic side of the growth, it's very hard to get something, to buy something that is value accreted for us. So we're looking, we're looking, we always receive calls that I think we have been proven over the last quarter that we are good turnarounds, we are very good operators. So we are looking for opportunities and hopefully we'll find something in the next year, two years, three years that is value accreted for us. And we want to be ready. In order to find something, we have to look, look and look a lot. You know how this business is. It has to be value accreted for us. So that's what I've been saying in the M&A front. And there the third leg of growth comes from our Greenfield projects and we need partners. We need big brothers. We have a porphyry in our hands in Yerikocha. You know a lot of money is needed to develop a porphyry. So we are in the process of finding a big brother. Hopefully in the next month we can tell the market good news about it. And also in Mexico we have more than 80,000 hectares of land of Greenfield projects that we also need big brothers to develop them. We're not going to use our funds to develop those. We need partners, JVs. On the portion of the debt, with this refinancing that is coming, some of this debt will be repaid to the Yerikocha company. So in the press release when we announce that the refinance has been done, we'll explain how much of that debt will be reduced. And we are comfortable that we are going to give good results and good news to the market. I cannot go ahead and tell you anything more at this point, but it's coming in the next couple of weeks. Few weeks.

Yes, fantastic. Thank you so much for all the clarification. Really appreciate it.

Thanks. Thank you, Hector.

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ernesto Valerezo for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking the time to join us today. And have a good day everyone and wait for more good news from Sierra Medell. Thank you all.

This

concludes today's conference call.

You may disconnect your line.

Thank you for participating. And have a pleasant day.