Coeur Mining, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Core Mining First Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be on listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Paul Departu, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to CoreMining's first quarter earnings conference call. Our results were released after yesterday's market close, and a copy of the press release and slides are available on our website. I would like to remind everyone that our press release, slides, and some of our comments today include forward-looking statements from which actual results may differ. Please review the cautionary statements included in our press release and presentation, as well as the risk factors described in our first quarter 10Q and 2019 10K. Now, I'll turn it over to Mitch.

Thanks, Paul. Joining me on the line are Tom Whalen and Terry Smith, along with several other members of the management team. Before discussing the quarter, I'd like to provide a brief COVID-19 update. Since early March, our two objectives for navigating through the impacts of this global pandemic have been to protect the health and well-being of our fellow employees, their families, our contractors, and our communities where we operate, and to ensure the continuity of our business operations as best we can. To date, we have had no positive COVID-19 cases anywhere in the company. Early last month, we put a series of controls and procedures in place focus on controlling and limiting access to our operations, thoroughly screening employees and visitors, and reducing exposure and transmission risk through a range of social distancing protocols and sanitizing and cleaning procedures. Office employees are all working from home and non-essential travel has been eliminated. We are continually reassessing these procedures as the situation evolves and as we gain additional information. The level of engagement, support, and outreach by our employees to the communities in western South Dakota, northern Nevada, southeast Alaska, Chihuahua, Mexico, and British Columbia has been truly inspiring. Slides 15 through 17 highlight several of the efforts being made by our employees. In terms of business continuity, our three US assets remain in operation with minimal adjustments or disruptions. Our Palmoreo mine suspended operating and exploration activities in accordance with the decree issued by Mexico in late March. Our Silvertip operation in British Columbia safely suspended mining and processing activities just ahead of the COVID-19 outbreak, and all ongoing site activities along with our drilling program are continuing there. We remain in close contact with our suppliers and with our smelter and refinery customers, and we have not experienced any significant disruptions to date. Like many companies, we have taken steps to increase our frequency and methods of communication, bolster our liquidity levels, and be as prepared as possible for a wide range of potential scenarios going forward. Overall, I think our strategy is serving us well during these unprecedented times. Our focus on operating a balanced portfolio of assets located in North America with a particular focus on the U.S. is helping us reduce our overall risk profile. Our shift over the past several years toward more gold and less silver has removed a significant amount of volatility and has us well positioned for the current environment. Our collection of organic growth projects offers investors compelling year, medium, and long-term growth. And our commitment to a higher sustained level of exploration, particularly near our existing assets, provides our stockholders with exposure to the upside potential associated with new discoveries and to opportunities for high return mine life extensions from successful reserve and resource growth. And finally, our U.S. listing and location, as well as our liquidity and access to capital, are key differentiators, especially during times like this. Now turning to our results. Overall, the quarter was in line with our expectations, mostly due to strong performances from Palmareo and our Kensington Goldmine in Alaska. Those two operations offset a lighter quarter from both Wharf and Rochester as anticipated, both of which are expected to deliver stronger results during the remainder of the year. I mentioned our collection of growth projects. The two most impactful near-term opportunities are the expansion of Rochester and a potential restart of Silvertip. At Rochester, we achieved a major milestone on schedule for the POA 11 expansion project when we received the record of decision from the Bureau of Land Management last month. We plan to accelerate work later this year and complete this important project by late 2022. We are also on track to issue an updated technical report in the fourth quarter, incorporating an updated capital estimate, optimized mine plan and economic analysis. And at Silvertip, A pre-feasibility study for a potential mill expansion is now underway, and we expect to have some results mid-year. The drilling program at Silver Tip kicked off last month, and we remain optimistic about what this program will deliver. And finally, speaking of exploration, other key elements of our 2020 exploration program, the largest in our company's 92-year history, are off to good starts. The bulk of our near-mine exploration investment during the first quarter went to Palmareo and Kensington, while our single largest allocation of resource expansion drilling went to the Sterling and Crown deposits in southern Nevada. We plan to provide a mid-year exploration update later this year, given the size and importance of these programs for the company. And with that, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Terry.