Polymetal International plc

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the traditional quarterly production results call. I will first briefly walk you through the operational results, provide you with an update on our corporate initiatives, and then we'll conclude with the traditional Q&A session. Overall, in the third quarter of 2022, Polymetal International started to catch up with the decline in production experience in the first half of the year. In the third quarter, the gold equivalent production year-on-year increased by 7%. mostly the function of our new mine at Nashta, ramping up and first production generated at the new Kutyn Hiplich project within the Albazino hub. We expect that the fourth quarter production will continue on the uptrend, and we are cautiously optimistic about our ability to meet the original production guidance of 1.7 million ounces in 2022, despite significant challenges through the year. In terms of our development projects, they progress in line. And specifically, POCS2 is successfully overcoming challenges related to the supply chain issues. Particularly, we note that logistical hurdles presented by the COVID restrictions in China are starting to relax, which obviously helps our strategy of changing the sources of some of the materials and spares to China and other Asian countries. As you well know, the key challenge in the first half of the year has been the accumulation of unsold finished goods inventory, specifically bullion and dore. September marked the first month when we really started to draw down that inventory. And in October, we already witnessed a significant decrease in bullion inventory, pushing down our net debt compared with the peak number by about $150 million. So by the end of the October, already are actually below $2.7 billion mark. And we expect that November and December to be particularly strong in terms of free cash flow generation, thanks both to the seasonal cash inflows, but also to the continued unwinding of very significant metal stockpile that we accumulated since the beginning of the year. Clearly, this bodes well for deleveraging, and we remain cautiously optimistic that the continued strong free cash flow generation will enable us to seriously consider the resumption of dividend payments in 2023. In general, we reiterate our full year production guidance and maintain our cost guidance for the year. We also provide formal initial guidance for 2023 and 2024. In each of those years, expect stable production of 1.7 million ounces of gold equivalent. We know that supply chain risks, although continuing to mitigate, still are present, and management is applying our best efforts to ensure that they are well-contained and addressed. We will provide cost guidance for 2023 in late January 2023 together with 2022 full year production results. In terms of the corporate update, in October, we have completed shareholder votes on the share exchange offer for shares held through the National Securities Depository in Russia, and the shareholders overwhelmingly supported the share exchange. So far, about 10.5% of all companies' shares have been submitted for the share exchange and we are continuing to work with our share depository to successfully close the offer. The board also continues its search to recruit the new board members to replace the two board members that have left the board earlier in the month. In terms of our other strategic initiatives, we are continuing with our analysis of strategic options, including the option to re-domicile the company to another jurisdiction, and also the options related to the shares that will continue to be held in NSD following the completion of the share exchange offer. We will update the market as we progress our analysis of those options. And we definitely expect to have a full final understanding of where and how we are moving by the time we present full year production results in the second half of January. And I guess with this, I conclude my brief introductory remarks and would be happy to answer any questions.

We will now take our first question from Leonard Lawson. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Thank you. So in the previous call, you mentioned that you expect by today's call to provide some information on the impact of departure mobilization in Russia. Would you be able to comment on that?