SSR Mining Inc.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to SSR Mining's second quarter 2023 conference call. This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I'd like to turn the call over to Alex Hunchuk with SSR Mining.

Thank you, Operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining SSR Mining's second quarter 2023 conference call, during which we'll provide an update on our business and a review of our financial performance. Our second quarter 2023 consultative 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, Executive Chairman, Alison White, Chief Financial Officer, and Bill McNiven, Executive Vice President, Operations and Sustainability. Now I will turn the call over to Rod for his opening remarks.

Great. Thanks, Alex, and hello to you all, and thanks for joining us. Before I get started, I wanted to introduce Bill McNiven, who is joining us for his first quarterly earnings call. It's a pleasure to have him finally join us he's been in the field for the last six months and uh welcome to the call bill as we close out the first half of 2023 is pleasing to report that our consolidated operational results today have been generally well aligned to our expectations production from chirpler marigold and poona have been solid partially offsetting the slower start to the year at cb looking forward and as we guided at the beginning of the year we expect the second half to provide the majority of our ounce production and free cash flow generation our portfolio is expected to deliver strong production of approximately 400 000 geos split relatively evenly between the third and fourth quarters at reduced costs generating positive free cash flow given our outlook for a strong second half of the year and our recent share price, we repurchased over $45 million of shares in the first half of the year. Combined with our base dividend, we are on track to exceed $100 million in capital returns in 2023, or a 3.4% yield. This is a strong message that should confirm our free cash flow outlook for the second half of the year. It was a busy quarter, advancing our organic production growth and announcing a strategic acquisition. At Chirpa's Chakmatepe extension, we began pre-stripping that will allow access to the first oxide oil this year and is aligned to our original timetable. For our team, this progress is obviously very exciting. Also during the quarter, we announced a highly accretive acquisition of the world-class Hot Madden project in Turkey, which provides us operatorship and an up to 40% interest in the project. We've been busy completing the handover from our partner, Lydia Mines, who has been doing a tremendous job advancing the project and establishing sustainable relationships with all the key stakeholders, including the local communities. We've been focused on recruiting the project team to complement the team already on the ground and progressing the initial site works which are underway. Finally, we anticipate the release of an updated technical report and subsequent construction decision for the project during 2024. We also have a number of key value driving catalysts on the horizon. This includes the first production from the Chakma Tepe extension and the technical report updates that showcase the future of Marigold, Chirpler and again Hot Madden. These technical reports are the next step in our continued de-risking of the long-term 700,000 ounce production platform that forms the foundation of SSR. We have a proud history as explorers, mine builders and operators, as well as a long track record of prudent value additive M&A. Our business is in a strong position, supported by our solemn balance sheet, including the more than $700 million in total liquidity. We're going to move on to slide number four, and I'll talk about ESG. ESG is and has long been a core value and focus for the company, as it firmly underpins our success. We continue to prioritise the health and safety of our employees and business partners. And on the 14th of April this year, we published our fifth annual ESG and sustainability report, marking another step in SSR mining's continued efforts to operate responsibly and sustainably while maximising the benefits to our stakeholders. In 2023, And as an important improvement opportunity, we reinvigorated a focused informal leadership in the field initiative to drive engagement and improve safety performance across the operations, which has been met with enthusiasm from our teams. Additional key initiatives this year include continued development of an action plan on our journey towards decarbonisation, including evaluating options to incorporate renewable energy and technologies into our operating platforms. We are progressing water management plans for each of our assets and finally progressing our efforts on integrated mine closure plans to ensure that we leave a positive and lasting legacy for our local communities. As we've done previously, we will work hard to advance our ESG initiatives and look forward to sharing continued updates on that journey throughout the year. Moving on to slide number five. As I mentioned, we have established a pathway to maintaining a stable production platform of at least 700,000 ounces over the remainder of the decade. That platform was further supported by the acquisition of the Hod Madden project, adding one of the highest return development projects in the world to our near-term growth profile. We continue to advance drilling and technical work ahead of the updated technical reports for Marigold, Sherpa and Hod Madden. Additionally, exploration continues at CB and Puna with the goal of building reserves and extending mine lives at each one of those assets. We intend to convert these efforts into updated life and mine plans, providing a full refresh of each asset's long-term production profile, as well as highlighting opportunities for future growth. We're in a good position to build on the existing production profile demonstrated on this slide. By delivering low capital intensity high return organic growth we aim to continue demonstrating our position as a strong and consistent operator with a commitment to free cash flow generation as moving on to slide six and just to talk a little bit about hod madden as i mentioned in the second quarter we announced and closed a transaction that provided ssr mining operatorship and up to a 40% interest in the world-class Hod Madden project in Northeastern Tokyo. Hod Madden perfectly complements our portfolio with best-in-class gold equivalent grades of over 11 grams per tonne and an average life of mine co-product or its sustaining cost of less than $600 an ounce. We have a proven track record of success in the country and are advancing site preparation activities at the project as we speak. Our technical teams are hard at work optimising the design, project execution and production plans developed by our partner while also evaluating additional upside opportunities. This year we're spending a total of $21 million and are working to arrange financing for the construction decision. Next year we expect to issue an updated technical report for the project which will inform the construction decision for our board. This first quarter costs, Hot Madden is expected to generate in excess of $160 million in free cash flow annually or more than $65 million in attributable free cash flow using the $1,600 per ounce base case gold price. The unstructured transaction limited our upfront capital outlay and we expect it will help preserve a better than a 15% all-in acquisition internal rate of return for our shareholders by the time the project is in production. Overall, the transaction was a material positive for our business, our existing partnership with Lydia Mines and our new partners, Horizon, and we look forward to updating you on the progress as we continue along that journey. So it's moving on to slide 7. We are confident in our ability to deliver shareholder value with the Hot Madden transaction because, as you can see, it is something we have done before. The same project development team and strategies that successfully delivered the Chirpilis sulphide plant project on time and under budget is currently being redeployed to the Hot Madden project, further de-risking the project build. In addition to that experience as mine builders, we have a clear track record of adding value through M&A and continue to see further upside across the portfolio that delivers additional values to our shareholders. Our approach to M&A remains unchanged. we will continue to actively consider and evaluate opportunities to add value to our business through transactions that fit our strategy of discipline growth in core jurisdictions and that complement our focus on free cash flow. So with that, I'm going to turn over to slide number eight and hand the presentation over to Alison.