SSR Mining Inc.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to SSR Mining's second quarter 2022 conference call. This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Alex Huncheck from SSR Mining. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining SSR Mining's second quarter 2022 conference call, during which we'll provide an update on our business and a review of our financial performance. Our second quarter 2022 consolidated financial statements have been presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. These financial statements have been filed on EDGAR, CDAR, the ASX, and are also available on our website. To accompany our call, there is an online webcast, and you will find the information to access the webcast in our news release relating to this call. Please note that all figures discussed during the call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. Today's discussion will include forward-looking statements, so please read the disclosures in the relevant documents. Joining us on the call today are Rod Antle, President and CEO, Alison White, CFO, and Stu Beckman, COO. Now I will turn the call over to Rod for his opening remarks.

Thanks, Alex, and hello to you all, and thanks for joining us. I'd like to start by providing a brief summary of our positive first half results. The first half of 2022 demonstrated the continued resilience of our business in the face of supply chain constraints and inflationary pressures. as our consolidated production and cost metrics track well against our year-to-date targets. Our four operating assets produce 333,000 ounces of gold at an only sustaining cost of $11.77 per ounce, with solid margins and attributable net income of $126 million. Our financial strength drove us to continue our peer-leading capital return program. During the quarter, we announced a buyback program that enables us to repurchase up to 10.6 million shares. This together with our 40% dividend increase earlier this year resulted in year-to-date returns of nearly $100 million to shareholders, or equivalent to a 2.8% yield and growing. Despite the positive performance in the first half of the year and numerous strategic milestones, we are continuing to face increased cost pressures across the portfolio, especially in fuel, electricity, reagents and labour costs. While we have been successful in bucking the cost inflation trend over the past 18 months, we are seeing costs now outpace our mitigation efforts. As a result, we are reaffirming our production guidance, albeit at the bottom end of the guidance range, and we are revising our cost guidance higher for the year to reflect these macroeconomic pressures and the temporary suspension of CHIRPLA which we'll discuss during the presentation. So let's move on to slide four. And on this next slide I want to highlight our core values in relation to our ESG initiatives. The ESG is and has long been a core value and focus for the company as it underpins the success of our business. We released our fourth annual sustainability report in April which highlighted a number of achievements during 2021 and some of the new initiatives for the company During 2021, amongst other things, we progressed our efforts to establish a science-based action plan to support our commitment on net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In 2022, we'll continue to roll out our Integrated Safety Management System with full implementation expected this year. Furthermore, we'll complete third-party closure reviews across all our operating assets to ensure a positive post-mining future for our stakeholders and are also developing a water stewardship strategy, as we see, to continue to reduce our environmental footprint going forward. On to the next slide, which is number five. As we continue through 22, it is worth highlighting our impressive track record of execution. While the suspension of Sherpa has impacted our full-year projections, we're advancing opportunities to ensure the business exceeds the low end of production guidance. Looking towards the future, the key message is that we have established a baseline production platform where we see clear opportunity to deliver plus 700,000 ounces of gold production annually through 2030. The solid foundation coupled with the abundant growth targets being progressed across the portfolio means that this is just the baseline for the company to continue to build from. Moving on to slide six. On top of our track record of operational delivery, we've also established a proven history of discipline and accretive M&A, as well as project development. This includes the acquisition of Tiger Gold, which closed in the second quarter and expands our exploration platform in Saskatchewan. We also closed the sale of Pitoria in July And our non-core asset sale has now generated $245 million in proceeds over the last four quarters, more than two times the street consensus value ascribed to those assets. Given our track record of strong operations and project execution, as well as a robust balance sheet, we continue to thoughtfully evaluate strategic opportunities across the sector and will remain disciplined with respect to any future transactions. Over the last 18 months we have ensured our strong free cash flow generation is reflected in our capital returns program. To that effect we returned $191 million to shareholders in 2021, an effective 5% capital returns yield. Earlier this year we increased our base dividend by 40% which by itself is yielding 1.8% annually. Subsequently to the second quarter we announced a share buyback That permits the repurchase of 10.6 million shares and over the year-to-date period we've already returned nearly $70 million through that program. Combined with the two quarterly dividend payments year-to-date, our capital returns are already $100 million or a 2.8% yield. Overall, a combination of our strong operating results, the creative and strategic M&A initiatives of peer-leading capital return programs has driven significant outperformance for our shareholders, a trend we expect to continue with a multitude of catalysts over the coming six to 12 months. So on to the next slide to discuss the quarter. Just a few of the key points to consider relevant for the quarter. First half production of 333,000 ounces of gold at all interstating costs of $11.77 per ounce was in line with our internal budgets and guidance. However, on June 21st we had an incident at Chirple Heapleach resulting in a suspension of operations pending the completion of improvement initiatives. We have now completed these initiatives pending verification and inspection work by the regulators. After inspection and verification we will move towards the required approvals to restart the operations which is anticipated during the third quarter of 2022. will remain closely aligned with the regulators and will provide further updates as required. So with that, I'm going to turn the call over to Alison, who's going to discuss the financial performance in updated 2022 outlook on slide number nine.