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spk02: Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to SSR Mining's third quarter 2022 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Alex Hunschuk from SSR Mining. Please go ahead.
spk04: Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining SSR Mining's third quarter 2022 conference call, during which we'll provide an update on our business and a review of our financial performance. Our third quarter 2022 consultative financial statements have been presented in accordance with U.S. CAP. 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 Stuart Beckman, COO. Now, I will turn the call over to Rod for his opening remarks.
spk05: Great. Thanks, Alex, and hello to you all, and thanks for joining us. In the third quarter, our business was clearly impacted by the suspension of the Chirpler mine. I'm pleased to report that operations restarted at the end of September and ramped up smoothly. Despite the bump in the road at Chirpler, our business remains in an incredibly strong position with a robust balance sheet that has enabled us a capital returns yield of more than 5% over two consecutive years. Looking forward, we're in excellent shape with all four of our assets poised for a strong quarter fall where we expect to return to significant free cash flow generation. Some key points from the quarter. Reflecting on the negligible contribution from Chirpler and the delayed ounces from Marigold, we produced 107,000 gold equivalent ounces. Year-to-date production is now 441,000 gold equivalent ounces. Our third quarter all-in sustaining costs were $1,901 per gold equivalent ounce after absorbing more than $30 million in cash costs incurred to CHPR during the quarter. Year-to-date, our all-in sustaining costs is $1,331 per gold equivalent ounce. I'm going to speak a little bit more about guidance later on in the presentations. Financially, our balance sheet and free cash flow outlook supported the repurchase of $100 million in shares under our NCIB year to date. Our aggressive execution on the NCIB, which was only announced in June, has the company on track for nearly $160 million in capital returns in 2022, a plus 5% capital return yield. On the growth front, We received the EIA for the first stage for the Chakmak Tepe extension project at Chirpilla in the quarter. With the infrastructure construction underway, it keeps us on track for first production in 2023. As a reminder, the project will add more than 1.2 million ounces to the Chirpilla life of mine plan for an incremental capex of around $70 million. The results from the C2 PFS are expected next year an updated technical report for Chirpler and we are planning to publish a new technical report for Marigold that will incorporate exploration success and potential production growth. And to close off the year, we are planning to release exploration updates for Marigold, Seabee and Copper Hill. This is in addition to the positive drill results we just released for the Chakmakdo Bay extension. Lastly, we continue to execute on our strategy of redeploying proceeds from non-core asset sales in our core jurisdictions with the announcement of the Kalka Tepe transaction in October. So that's moving on to the next slide on ESG. And I want to highlight our core values in the relation to some of the initiatives that we have. In 2022, we have continued to deliver against the goals outlined in our annual sustainability report. And as an example, we continue to roll out our integrated management systems where full implementation is expected by year end. Furthermore, we are progressing the development of a water stewardship strategy as we seek to continually reduce our environmental footprint going forward. There'll be more to come in our update early next year. On slide number five, as we advance into 23, it's worth highlighting our long-term stable platform of 700,000 ounces of annual gold production. With all operations returning to steady state in the fourth quarter, we remain confident in our ability to maintain and grow on this production baseline through 2030 and possibly beyond. The solid foundation, coupled with the abundant growth targets being progressed across the portfolio, means that this production graph is just the baseline for us to continue to build on. On the slide six, as a company, we've established a proven history of discipline and accretive M&A, as well as project development. This includes the sale of Pitoria, which closed in the third quarter and was another piece in our non-core asset sales that have generated $245 million in sale value since early 2021, more than two times the street consensus ascribed to those assets. As I noted, we have successfully redeployed those proceeds into our core jurisdictions, first with the Tiger acquisition, expanding our CB land package earlier this year, and most recently, With the Calcutta Bay transaction that expands our ownership is the entire triple district to 80 percent. This more recent transaction provides material, operational, financial and exploration synergies, including the elimination of further of sorry, future or purchases payments to account for the previously existing ownership differential. Circular is our cornerstone asset and we are pleased to increase our exposure to the district's longer term growth and excellent exploration potential. Given our strong track records of operations and project execution, as well as our robust balance sheet, we continue to thoughtfully evaluate strategic opportunities across the sector, but will remain disciplined in our approach. On to slide seven. Over the last two years, we returned our strong free cash flow generation, which is reflected in our capital returns programs. To that effect, so far this year, we returned $144 million to shareholders through the base dividend and share buyback program. And more impressive, since the beginning of 2021, we have returned more than 90% of our free cash flow generation to shareholders, which is delivering on one of the key promises post the merger. I just want to move on to slide eight and discuss the quarter. A few points that are relevant to consider at the end of the third quarter. Traveller restarted, as I mentioned, at the end of the quarter and ramp up of the sulphide plant has gone extremely well, which was a significant achievement for our team. The year to date production of 441,000 ounces and Norland's sustaining cost of $1,331 reflects the suspension of Chirpler and the delays of recovering gold at Maragon. With our operations back to steady state, we expect to return to strong free cash flow in quarter four and beyond. We're definitely excited by the stable of low capital intensity growth opportunities and continue to advance each one of these where a number of updates are expected before year ends. Moving on to slide nine. I just want to make a few comments on guidance. We are on track for a strong quarter four, but have been unable to claw back the lost production and are now revising our full year production guidance to 620,000 to 655,000 ounces. This reflects the slower than expected leaching of the stacked high grade ounces of marigold, which Stu will elaborate on further, as well as to shut down the Chirp line. At Puna, they have done a great job in meeting the original guidance, but unfavourable metal prices have impacted the gold to silver ratio, meaning less GEOs on a conversion as compared to our original guidance. And finally, CB remains on track for the previously announced improved production guidance that was announced last quarter, which is a great result for that team. Our rule in sustaining cost guidance has increased to $1,315 to $1,345 per gold equivalent ounce to reflect this new production guidance. This implies a quarter four production of around 200,000 ounces and thus far in quarter four, we're on track to meet that target. As I mentioned, we have a number of exploration updates due before year end and moving into next year, we plan on releasing the PFS for C2 and a new technical report for Marigold. Internally, we're encouraged about the future for each one of the assets, and the exploration results issue continues to support this view. So with that, I'm going to now turn the call over to Alison, who will then discuss our financial performance starting on slide number 10.
spk00: Thank you, Rod, and good afternoon or good day to everyone on the call. This quarter, we produced nearly 107,000 gold equivalent ounces, bringing year-to-date production to 444,000 gold equivalent ounces. Gold equivalent sales of 97,000 ounces in the quarter drove revenue of $167 million. Attributable net loss for the quarter was 26 million or a 12 cent loss per diluted share and adjusted attributable net loss was negative 14 million dollars or a 7 cent loss per diluted share. It is worth highlighting that attributable and adjusted attributable losses include more than 40 million dollars in care and maintenance costs incurred at Sherpa during the suspension of operations that occurred for almost the entire quarter. On the right side of the slide, I will touch on the reported 7 cent loss per diluted share that is calculated based on the company's definition of adjusted attributable net income or loss per share. Attributable net loss of 12 cents per share was adjusted for transaction costs associated with the sale of piaterias, tax adjustments, and minor adjustments for foreign exchange fluctuations during the quarter. Turning to slide 11, we can talk about SSR's financial position. At the end of the quarter, The company maintained a cash and cash equivalent balance of nearly $800 million, with net cash of more than $450 million. The strong cash balance reflects $100 million in share repurchases, $44 million in dividend payments to shareholders, $53 million in debt repayment, and $35 million in dividends to joint venture partners thus far during 2022. With our existing net cash position and the expectation of a strong fourth quarter of free cash flow, I would like to reiterate our three priorities with respect to capital allocation within the business. First and foremost, we will continue to reinvest in growth within the business, including our exceptionally high return C2 and Chacmec Tepe extension projects, which will account for approximately $300 million in total growth capital through 2025. Second, we are committed to maintaining a robust balance sheet to weather volatility in the commodity price environment and to ensure all of our capital commitments, debt servicing requirements, and base dividend payments are fully funded, even in the event of a potential downturn in the gold price cycle. Our base dividend at 7 cents a share can also weather gold price downturns as it is payable to a gold reserve price of $1,350 per ounce. We expect $88 million remaining on the term loan to be repaid in full by the end of 2023. Overall, we have generated $371 million in free cash flow or $300 per gold equivalent ounce produced since the start of 2021. Finally, we remain committed to capital returns to our shareholders as the third pillar of our allocation program. This year, we have repurchased $100 million in shares year to date. Coupled with our 40% dividend increase that was announced earlier this year, we have returned nearly $150 million to shareholders, marking our second consecutive year with a capital returns yield above 5%. Since the start of 2021, we have returned approximately $335 million to shareholders and produced 1.2 million ounces during the same period, returning $270 to shareholders per cold equivalent ounce produced in that period of time. Considered an aggregate, we have a clear capital allocation framework in place that we routinely execute on, and we will continue to be disciplined in our approach to capital returns well into the future. And with that, I'll turn it over to Stu for an operational update.
spk07: Thank you, Alison. As always, I'll start with EHS&S. We were pleased to restart operations at Chirpler at the end of the quarter following the completion of improvement initiatives required by the Turkish authorities. The suspension was disappointing, but did allow us to revisit a number of our processes and systems to improve our performance. The smooth start-up of operations is a testament to the work by the team. Positively and separately, we received a number of outstanding permits in Turkey during the quarter. We will continue to work hard to maintain and build upon these relationships, ensuring positive contributions to our stakeholders and host communities. Safety and the care of our teams, communities and the environment are core values and we believe are also foundational to the business performance. Moving on to slide 13 and I'll talk about Chirpler. At Chirpler, the operation ramped up smoothly in the third quarter, an impressive accomplishment by our team given the length of the suspension. As discussed on the Q2 call, we were able to accelerate maintenance on the autoclave one during the suspension, including the completion of partial relining of the face bricks. As a result, there is no scheduled major planned maintenance in the sulphide plan for the remainder of the year, allowing us to operate the order closed without major interruption throughout the fourth quarter. Operating time and production was very limited in the third quarter, so per ounce costs are not really meaningful. For the full year, we expect to produce 180,000 to 190,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,345 to $1,375 per ounce. The reduced production guidance reflects how careful and measured restart of the operations as well as later than expected access to oxide ounces. With respect to the growth initiatives, we've received the EIA for the first phase of the operation at Chukmak Tepe Extension and construction on infrastructure is well underway and we remain on track to deliver first production in 2023. We're also progressing the C2 project through a PFS and expect to release the results of this more optimised project to the market next year. We're excited by the potential of both these high return, low capital intensity growth projects. The previously discussed Kapiltepe transaction will also help us to drive long term costs and operational synergies, while allowing the exploration team to sink their teeth into a number of highly potential exploration targets across the district. without the extra complexity of mixed ownership proportions. For example, at Chukmak Tepe extension, half of the holes drilled in the October exploration release were on capital Tepe ground, growing the deposit across the lease boundary and further reinforcing our rationale for the transaction. Moving on to slide 14 and we'll update on Merigold. Merigold again delivered quarter on quarter improvement, though production timing continues to be impacted by the stacking of finer material from the north pits. Production of 52,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,44 per ounce was behind expectations, though we are starting to see a positive trend with respect to leaching in the fourth quarter. A couple of the drivers for the slower than previously predicted leach rate were that we ended up with more tonnes of fine material presenting in the north pits than scheduled. This is a good thing. and it was coincidental with less durable material coming from the Mackie pit and drove the proportional fines in the heap leach up. Also, on advice from some subject matter experts based on experience at other sites, we've started slowing the application of the leach solution when leaching is first started with an aim to improve overall performance of the heap leach. As a result, reflecting on the year-to-date leach cycle delays due to the stacking of finer wool, as well as the lingering challenges with shovel availability, we now expect full-year production of 195 to 205 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,410 to $1,440 per ounce. The very poor performance of the Komatsu PC 7000 shovels has been compensated for by delayed retirement of older dig units and we expect to stack at about the budgeted ounces by the end of the year. Stacking of high grade material continued in the quarter with more than 135,000 ounces, recoverable ounces stacked at a grade of 0.63 grams per tonne, which is very high for over the second and third quarters. In addition, October was a monster month with 48,000 recoverable ounces stacked to the pad in just one month. As a result, we are forecasting a strong production in late Q4, which will carry into the first half of 2023. Just as a comment, another comment, We have had a number of internal and external reviews of the heat glitch performance across the year and are confident that the gold will be recovered and that it is just timing. Permitting continue to advance that Volme and the EA is expected of the expanded Volme pit remains on track for 2024. We have an expiration release coming in the next few weeks, which aims to bring more mineralisation and ultimately reserve within the Boulmy EA areas. We will build as much of this as possible into the updated Nerigold technical report that we expect to release to the market in 2023. Move on to slide 15, please. CBQ3 was generally in line with PAN. Following the record first half production, the mine continued to improve its underlying performance, but grades will lower. As a result of Q3, we expect to hit the lower end of our previously upgraded full year production of 150,000 to 160,000 ounces, an extremely impressive outcome for the operation. All in sustaining costs of $715 to $745 an ounce is also in line with prior expectations. We are slightly ahead of schedule to mine a reserve area of very high grade later in Q4. Also we were advancing exploration of the extension of that very high grade zone that delivered the out of reserve spectacular first half production. This zone pinched out just below the last stope but appears to open back up a couple of levels down and we expect that we'll be able to mine this area in 2023. We just need to do a bit more drilling and prove up the zone before we can commit it to the mine plan. The plant has been operating at record throughputs and we has a good sized run of mine stockpile in front of it. Just as a reminder that the CB plant typically has capacity beyond that of the mine and so usually operates with little to no ROM stockpile. There are many highly prospective targets for the future development of CB. We have continued to advance drilling and modelling at the Porky West target, which is potentially open pit option for Seabee. If successful, Porky, along with extensions to the resource now being exploited, could potentially provide an exciting pathway to reframe Seabee. Most importantly, we continue to push hard on extending our understanding of the resources and reserves around the current mining areas, such as the testing of the very high grade area that I mentioned earlier. Supporting the longer term vision for CB, we are also judiciously exploring the many targets within the very large and CB and recently acquired Tiger tenements, aiming to bring more into our medium and long term resource pipeline. Move on to slide 16 and I'll briefly discuss Puna. continued its steady production and remains well on track for guidance of 825 to 8.75 million ounces of silver at an improved or in sustaining cost guidance of 1550 an ounce. Q4 has been another strong quarter so far for the asset and we're really pleased with the team and their success in Argentina despite a number of local headwinds. This jumps to slide 17 to highlight some of the exploration initiatives that we progressed through the quarter. We progressed exploration programs across the business in the third quarter and are preparing to release results from these efforts in the coming months. As you saw, resource development and extension drilling yielded a number of exciting results at Chukmotepe Extension as we eye additional growth of the ore body to complement the production profile already outlined in the last technical report back in Q1. Also in Turkey we have been having some great success drilling at the Copper Hill target, which is our copper prospect, surprisingly, in the Black Sea region. An update on that project is expected by the end of the year. I've already discussed CB exploration. In Nevada, exploration progress both near mine and regionally drilling at continues at Trenton Canyon and Buffalo Valley and near pit drilling at New Millennium is showing encouraging results. We have six rigs on site and are undertaking geophysical studies to grow our understanding of the opportunities. An update of these exploration winds is expected imminently and some proportion of the new millennium drilling should be included on that next update of reserves and resources. Lastly, at Pooner we kicked off drilling for the first time since 2018. We're currently focusing on in-pit and near mine targets and the team are really energised by some of the intercepts and grades that we've seen so far. The aim is obviously to grow the mine reserve and extend the current known life of the Chinchillas mine and so Pooner Concurrently, we are exploring the distal and regional targets that show promise delivering a much longer life at Puna. Drilling of some of the more regional targets around Chichias and Periquitas will begin in the coming month. So, in summary, we plan to release exploration updates for Copper Hill, Seabee and Merigold in the next few months with the release of Puna next year. These exploration programs all aim to deliver a high return build out of our medium and longer term production profiles. Before I hand it over to Q&A, a goodbye. It's been very gratifying being part of the team building up and transforming Alistair and then subsequently SSR. I leave the business in great hands with a fantastic management team, bolstered by my role being split into EVP growth role, which John Ebert is leading, and the new EVP operations in ESG role. We have a fantastic business with huge potential. Both John and the new EVP ops are very accomplished and capable, and I'm sure that they'll leverage off our successes so far and lead the business to bigger and broader achievements in the future. Thank you very much. Back to you, Rob.
spk05: Great, thanks, Stu, and thanks, Alison. I also just want to take the opportunity to recognise the significant contribution Stu has made to the business. as he leaves all four operations in excellent shape and poised for a strong fourth quarter and beyond. We all wish him nothing but success for the future and note that Stu's replacement will be announced very shortly. Our business is in a very strong position and we are moving forward at full stride into the last quarter. With all assets back to steady state, we expect a return to strong free cash flow and have a number of potentially positive catalysts ahead. We look forward to sharing these updates in a steady flow of news releases over the coming months and presenting a much stronger result when we speak again early next year. So with that, I'm now going to turn the call over to the operator for questions. Thank you very much.
spk02: Thank you, Mr. Antle. We'll now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. you'll hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Our first question is from Ovej Habib with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
spk03: Thanks, Operator. Hi, Rod and SSR team. Just a couple of questions from me. So at Marigold, Stu touched upon the fines that's at Marigold. I believe these are towards the north pits. The question is, do you have enough MET tests were completed around and in the north pits to be comfortable going forward in dealing with the fines? And also, is the high grade mostly located around the north pits as well?
spk07: Yes, so the So yes to all of all of your questions so yes the higher grade came out of the north pits we have done the test work and as I said in my talk we've had a number of different people review those and we don't believe that we have any problem with the heap leach and based on their experience from other sites we expect that we'll eventually see this the gold. And as you can see, we've stacked quite a lot of gold. We did stack it quite late as well. So we're expecting this wave of gold to come out over this quarter and into the next quarter. We have practically finished mining the fine material as well.
spk03: And the mining of the fine material was ended in Kewpore?
spk07: So was that at the end of the year? It's ending imminently. We're almost at the end.
spk03: Got it. And do you have other high-grade areas within these pits that you're going to be targeting going into 2023?
spk07: Not in the north pits. We've finished those pits. They were only other small pits. It's as per the mine schedule of us.
spk03: Perfect. Okay. Thanks, Stu, for that. And this is at Chopler. So, in terms of Chopler, are you now back, you know, at name-place capacity at the cell site plant, you know, in terms of, or is there a wrap-up that we should expect in Q4?
spk07: No, the software plan came up very well and came up quite quickly. In fact, I was extremely pleased and given my experience of starting these types of things up after a long shutdown and I think that reflected the work that we did. I think you just need to remember we shut everything down, so unfortunately we had to shut down the mining of the oxide mining works exploration and we even shut down the infrastructure work in the district. So as we restarted, the sulphide paint came up well and really quickly. It's very stable and it's running very well. I couldn't expect better. We also had to restart mine operations. So that took a bit longer because we had to rally the troops for obvious reasons. We didn't keep an idle, very large mining workforce on site. So getting them back to site and getting the mine ramp back up meant that took a little bit of time and that impacted the grade that we're feeding the plant and also delayed us getting a bit of access up to Chuck Martepe to bring down some ounces there that we were planning to bring in. And we also added back in waiting for goal grade towards the end of the year. So that's given that we were delayed for that period that's pushed out as well. So we are mining in the pits. We are mining from the Chukmak Tepe area and hauling that down. The other thing that we did was we brought the sulphide plant back online, given that's where we'd had the issue very carefully. We first started recirculating it and stacking and then once we were comfortable with it, we then brought the cyanide back on just to make sure that we didn't have any little hiccups as we were doing that. And as a result, that's delayed some of the leaching out of the oxide plant as well. And just to give you a bit of perspective, we still haven't seen the cyanide and gold coming out since we started the leaching there. So that leaching cycle just takes a little while to restart. So again, we're very confident that we're in a very solid position and the place is running really well. It's just going to take a little bit of time for us to get the oxide oil coming out and get the grades back up in the sulphide.
spk03: So, Stu, then, and thanks for that update as well, but on Chakmak Tepe, in terms of accessing the oxide material, do we see you guys start processing that material in Q1 of next year, or this is kind of moving towards, as you wrap up, going towards the second half of the year?
spk05: I think just to remember, and I'll let you talk about it in detail, there's two parts of Chakmak Tepe. There's the old residual mine that we had up there that we produced gold from a couple of years ago that has some residual ounces that we had expected to bring into this quarter. And then there's the new Chacomactepe extension. So just not to confuse people because I think they're two different things. And one's a new project, which is EMARC for next year. One is a residual ounces that we've gone up there to mine the last piece of this quarter.
spk03: Thanks for the clarity on that, Rod. So, yeah, I'm talking about the new Checkmate Tepe. So can you give us a little bit more colour on how things are progressing there?
spk07: Yeah, so they're progressing well. We've been doing the infrastructure work, so we have to move some public roads. So we've constructed some overpasses so that we can separate our mine fleet from our haul fleet from the public roads. We've been building some separate roads. We're in the process of doing the preliminary work for relocating. We have to remove a telecommunications power. We have to move some power lines and some water lines. And so we're busy doing that work at the moment and that's progressing quite well. And our expectation has always been late in 23 for the start of it.
spk03: Perfect. That's it for me, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Thanks, guys.
spk02: Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. The next question is from Cosmos Chu with CIBC. Please go ahead.
spk06: Mr. Chu, your line is open.
spk01: Oh, sorry. I was muted. Hi, Rod. Thanks, Alison, and all the best, Stu. Maybe my first question is on Marigold. I was going to ask about the sustainability of the higher grade being stacked, the 0.63 gram per ton versus your 0.48 gram per ton reserves. But it sounds like it's positively correlated, the grade with, you know, the fines and the North Pit. So, Stu, as you mentioned, you know, as you come to an end in terms of mining out the north pit, should we see sort of the grave revert back to the mean fairly soon?
spk07: Yeah, Cosmos, you're exactly right. We will revert to the mean. Yeah, that's why it's the mean. So we will go back there. But we actually had a windfall in the oxide, sorry, in those north pits, and they reconciled high. So we ended up with more material coming out of those pits than was in the reserves. So we were pretty happy with that. But yeah, those areas have finished now and we had expected to have higher grades through this period while we were treating them.
spk01: Great. And then I might have missed it, but Stu, did you mention how much longer these vines are taking in terms of the leach cycle for the gold to come out? I know you're expecting it to come out in Q4 into 2023, but how much longer is it?
spk07: I don't think we've actually quantified it in months because it doesn't come out necessarily in a step, so it sort of drags on with a relatively long tail. I did also mention one of the directives we got from, I think it came from John Marsden, the experience from some of the other sites when they have the fine material was when you initially start the leaching, to start at a much lower rate and saturate the pile first so it doesn't mobilise the finer material within that and then cause stratification and then sort of make it take even longer to leach out. And so we've got two impacts in this quarter. We've got the impact of us stacking more fine material plus we've also started the leach cycle slower so we're putting less leach liquor on it for the first couple of weeks and then stepping it up. So it's a bit of a, it's a bit hard in exact weeks. And as you know, it depends. Given that we're coming towards the end of the year, we try to stack in the, you know, the narrowest parts of the heap leach so that we can get it out by year end. But it's also a function of where on the pile it stacks. So it is a pretty difficult question. We have been doing work with forte dynamics as well. and doing quite a, which is work that's been going over the whole year, to put together three-dimensional leach plans and a much higher fidelity of what was placed where exactly on the heaps to get a better prediction of what is coming off the heap.
spk05: I think the other thing I'd just say, Cos, the work that Stu's talked about just gives us a high level of confidence moving into this sort of next phase. Having the answers stacked is a great position to be in. But, you know, having back-end loaded plans, when things like this happen, it really doesn't give you any time to recover. And so I think we're a little bit of a consequence of that as well. So I just wanted to alleviate anyone's fears out there that the goal's not going to come.
spk01: um you know we backed ourselves to the end of the year we got the gold up on the pads the lead cycle has been slower than we had anticipated in our models and we don't have time to catch it is really simply what's happened got it um maybe you know moving on to chirpler here um you might have answered this question as well but as i work through the math it's great to hear that you did 18 000 ounces in the month of october but it sounds like uh you know for my math you still need to increased that on average of about 16% in November and December. Is that a function of tonnage and grade from, you know, Stu and Rod, your comments? It sounds like it is both, but I just want to confirm.
spk07: Sorry, can you repeat that? We didn't quite understand the question.
spk01: So you did 18,000 ounces. I think you need, in October, you need 60,000 ounces to hit your guidance for Chirpler for the year, 60,000 ounces in Q4. So if I work out the math, you need to improve by about 16% from the 18,000 ounces in October. I'm just wondering if that improvement in November and December on average is based on tonnage, grade, or both. I think, Stu, you know, I think you did kind of mention that it might be both, but I just want to confirm.
spk07: Yeah.
spk01: Just tripling.
spk07: Yeah, so it's surplus. So we're seeing the oxide coming down a bit later and we're seeing the grades a bit lower as a result of the mine ramping up and some work we've had to do to try and rearrange the mine plan. It won't be tonnage that drives it. It'll be timing and a bit of grade.
spk05: Yeah, and I think, Cos, you probably, I don't know, I think you came in a little bit later, but in Stu's discussion... That's OK. Just again, just to clarify, in Stu's discussion, we talked about, you know, getting the mining contractor back on site, getting the mining going was a little bit slower than we anticipated, and... getting that ramp up to access the high grade, which we expect to sort of now start to come for the sulfides I'm talking about, we're moving down that direction. So all things are pointing to us meeting that restarted guidance.
spk01: Got it. Thanks, Rod. I did come in a bit late. It took me 10 minutes to sign on. Maybe something on the financial front. Hopefully I'm not shooting myself in the foot again. I read something in the MD&A. I don't think it's a big deal, but you did mention that as a result of what happened at Chirpillar, not in compliance with the term loan covenants. You don't have a lot due on that, but just want to confirm, should we be concerned?
spk00: No, I wouldn't be concerned, Cosmos, but the fact of the matter is that's where we were at the end of the quarter, and so we felt that from a disclosure perspective, it was important to inform everybody. We have continued to make payments on the loan as they've come due even during the closure. And as I mentioned in my comments too, and I'm sorry if you missed this as well, but we do anticipate actually being able to close out that loan by the end of next year.
spk01: Great. And then, Allison, since I have you here, you know, Cash costs and the unsustaining costs in the quarter was impacted by a $31.1 million sort of cost related to the Tripler suspension. I just want to make sure, you know, are there any costs that we should be aware of that's bleeding into Q4? Are these, you know, I would imagine these are one-time costs. I just want to make sure that none of these one-time costs are bleeding into Q4. It doesn't sound like it since it's already restarted, but I just want to confirm.
spk00: So your assumption is correct. None of those costs are going to bleed into Q4 COSMOS. Those were all one-time costs specifically related to the closure and standby type costs for labor and other things so that we could ramp up as quickly as possible once we got the okay to reopen.
spk01: Great. And then maybe one last question. This might be a difficult question, but I might ask it anyways. Rod, when you restarted, when you got the permits back on September 22nd, restarted Chirpler, at that point in time, did you consider updating guidance? And if you did, what has changed between then and now?
spk05: That's a good question, Cos. Look, I think when we did the quarter two results call, we said we're going to do everything we can to claw back the lost time and lost production. And we had a plan, as we always do, you know, there's a few levers that we had in the business to help us to try to chase that as a goal. As it transpired, you know, with then the clarity around the slower leaching at Marigold, the impacts of the gold to silver ratio at Puna, And then some of the other initiatives that we had around, you know, chasing those residual lances at Chakamak Tepe, we just don't have the time to be able to do it. Unfortunately, we did a lot of things to try to capture it, but chasing the high-graded Seabee that Stu mentioned, we just haven't been able to catch it. No, it wasn't considered. We wanted them to see how the operations were travelling so we could have a more accurate representation. If we're going to recut guidance, obviously we want to be able to hit it, so it wasn't the appropriate timing. But look, we did everything we could. It's disappointing to us all that we couldn't capture it. If, for instance, Marigold hadn't underperformed in his last quarter in terms of the gold production, then we'd probably have been in good position, but we're not. That's where we are. But look, I think the business fundamentally is very strong. Coming out of this into the fourth quarter, which is going to be around a 200,000 ounce consolidated view of the business, moving into a really good 2023 and all the good things that come with that with free cash flow and other things, we're in good shape. But we've had a bump in the road and now we're looking forward
spk01: Great. Thanks, Rod, and I perfectly understand. And once again, thanks for answering my questions and all the best, Stu.
spk05: Thanks. Good on you, Cos. Thank you.
spk02: This concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Amtel for any closing remarks.
spk05: Great. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. And as we mentioned, we're looking forward to a much more positive full year results in early next year and closing this year off in a very strong position to set us up for what will be a great 2023. So with that, good day to you all and thanks for joining us.
spk02: This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.
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