Largo Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Largo's first quarter 2023 webcast and 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. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Alex Guthrie, Senior Manager of External Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our first quarter earnings conference webcast and call. As with previous calls, we've uploaded the supplemental webcast presentation, which is available on our website at largoinc.com. Our Q1 2023 financial statements related to MT&A and most recent AIF are also all available on the website, as well as on CDAR and EDGAR. Before continuing the call today, I would like to remind you all that some of the information you'll hear during today's discussion will consist of forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding future business outlook. Please refer to slide two for a full description of the company's cautionary notes. On the call today is Danielle Talachia, Largo's interim chief executive officer and director, Ernest Cleave, Largo's chief financial officer, and Paul Vallon, Largo's chief commercial officer. Following the delivery of our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for questions. We ask that participants restrict their questions to two and then re-queue if there are additional questions to allow the others the opportunity to participate. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Daniel.

Thank you, Alex, and good day to everyone joining us today. Since taking over the role of interim CEO of Largo in February, I have been committed to improving operating efficiencies, and Demarra has mentioned mine, including initiating cost reduction initiatives and conducting productivity assessments. During the first quarter, the company produced 2,111 tons of B2O5 in accordance with its production guidance. And to our delight, we sold 2,849 tons of equivalent B2O5, which exceeded our quarterly sales guidance for the first quarter of 2023. In addition, we produce a significant amount of high-purity material in the first quarter, representing approximately half of the quarter's production. While we are pleased with this performance, we continue to navigate the effects caused by the heavy rainfall in December, which not only caused flooding in the Campbell Pit and impacted operations but also delay the company infield drilling campaign necessary to develop the company's short-term mine model, planning for years 2023 and 2024. Infield drilling is performed inside the Largo Camel Pit for further defying the ore body prior to mining. As a result of this process, a short-term mine model is developed which sets the stage for the ensuing year mining plant. In light of the heavy rains in late fourth quarter of 2022 and early first quarter of 23, this process was postponed. And as a result, we have to adjust our annual 23 production sales and cost guidance. An updated table referencing the updated guidance on a quarterly basis is provided on the current slide. I would like to emphasize that returning to a more normalized production and cost scenario remains the top priority for all of us at Largo, and we work through this period of adjustment in our mining operation. In my first update to shareholders last quarter, I make clear that I have been tasking our team with identifying cost reduction initiatives during this period of sustained inflationary pressures, which have resulted in cost increases for our operations. I would like to discuss some of those initiatives on the call today. First, the cost of sodium carbonate, which is used in great quantities in operation process, has increased almost 270% since year 2021. As part of our production process, our team is exploring ways to reduce the amount of silica inside the kiln, which in turn will be reducing the amount of sodium carbonate required in our operational process. Second, by making certain changes and upgrade to our crushing process, including the installation of a new drive magnetic separator and a crushing circuit, we hope to reduce operational maintenance costs and provide more flexibility in the blending of different ores to stabilize the production of B205. We expect to complete this installation by mid-June of this year. And finally, we continue to analyze the productivity of certain processes at the mine site and have identified some opportunities for cost reduction associated with the re-handling of the material on site. Towards the third quarter of this year, we hope to begin seeing some of the benefits from these initiatives. Prior to handing the call over to Ernest, I would like to highlight a few catalysts expected during the year. in addition to improving operational and cost performance at the mine site. During the first quarter, we continued to make progress with the construction of our Ilmenai concentration plant. Construction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023, with commissioning and wrap-up following shortly thereafter. On the clean energy front, Installation of our 6.1 megawatt hour vanadium battery in Spain continued during the first quarter of this year with final provisional acceptance scheduled for the third quarter of this year. We have also completed all improvements to our manufacturing facility in Wilmot, Massachusetts this quarter and we have begun the process of restarting the stock production to reach a capacity of 12.5 megawatts per annum by the end of the year, with the goal of reaching 100 megawatts per annum by the end of 2025. Now, I will turn the call over to Ernest to provide an overview on our financial performance for the first quarter. Ernest?