Coeur Mining, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to Core Mining 4th Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. If 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. Please note that this event is being recorded. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Paul DePartout, Director of Investor Relations.

Please go ahead. Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Core Mining's fourth quarter and full year 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 2020 10-K. Now, I'll turn it over to Mitch, Mick, and Tom.

Thanks, Paul, and good morning, everyone. 2020 was quite the year. Obviously, COVID-19 was the main headline for everyone, and of course, we were no exception. COVID had a big impact on the first half of our year by sharply driving down prices and forcing a government-mandated shutdown in Mexico, which impacted us at our Palmoreo mine. Of course prices have strengthened considerably since their April lows and Mexico allowed mining to resume in the second quarter and together with solid production and effective cost and balance sheet management we delivered a strong second half of 2020 which Mick and Tom will talk more about shortly. I first want to take a minute to recognize our people for how they've risen to the occasion over the past 12 months. We've asked a lot of everyone and our entire organization has responded incredibly well to the challenges. I can't help but have immense pride for how well our culture has served us, the talent we've attracted, the ESG leadership we've established and the overall performance we delivered during such an unprecedented year. So thank you to everyone. Now starting off on slides three and four, there were a lot of highlights and accomplishments last year that led to adjusted EBITDA jumping over 50% to $263 million and free cash flow climbing to $49 million. For starters, we achieved production guidance at all of our sites, and unit costs were at or below full-year guidance ranges at each of our primary gold operations. Palmareo's results were truly remarkable, the way they ramped back up mid-year and really never looked back. and Kensington and Wharf also had fantastic years with both operations breaking their previous free cash flow records. Rochester finished the year much stronger than it started with fourth quarter silver production increasing nearly 40% and gold production up almost 50% quarter over quarter. And just to add a bit more color on Rochester, the big highlight last year was kicking off the expansion and providing the details of this project late in the year. The updated mine plan reflects a reserves-only 18-year mine life with an NPV of $634 million and an anticipated IRR of 31%. Production rates are also expected to double, driving average free cash flow to over $100 million per year. Until this expansion is completed late next year, Rochester will remain in a state of transition while we balance near-term performance with gathering and applying key learnings to ensure Rochester's long-term success. During this time, we'll also remain focused on further expanding Rochester's silver and gold reserves beyond the 58% and 65% growth we saw last year. That's a good segue to the highlights from our $50 million exploration investment that we made last year, which are summarized on slides 10 and 11. and were included in our press release we issued yesterday morning. It was the largest drilling program in our history and it was wildly successful. Gold reserves grew by over 20% and silver reserves increased by over 40% to the highest levels in company history. We've now dramatically increased our overall average mine life from just over seven years in 2015 to well over 12 years currently. and with over $65 million allocated to exploration this year, we expect to see this number extend out even further. These investments in exploration rank among our most attractive capital allocation priorities and should help drive higher returns on invested capital going forward. On top of our reserve success, we made a new discovery in Southern Nevada called Seahorse, located in the Crown District, which has the potential to become a significant asset for the company We included several recent drill holes in yesterday's release from Seahorse, including one that was over 216 meters, averaging just about a gram per ton of oxide gold. An aggressive drilling program has already begun at Seahorse this year, and we plan to invest approximately $10 million to continue growing this new discovery. Another big success from last year's exploration program was the substantial resource growth at Silvertip in British Columbia. With only around half of the assays back at the end of the year, total resource tons increased over 40%, and we more than tripled the strike length of the high-grade deposit to over 3.5 kilometers. We plan to invest roughly $14 million in exploration at Silver Tip this year, aimed at further expanding the resource and beginning to convert some of this material to reserves. Sticking with Silver Tip for a minute, We ended 2020 feeling confident in the resource and in our ability to continue expanding Silvertip's mine life with further drilling. We also have identified and expect to lock down the flow sheet for a straightforward 1,750 ton a day process plant that can reliably deliver consistent recoveries and generate high quality concentrates. The team is now focused on optimizing capital costs, the mine plan, and operating costs to incorporate everything we learned from last year's PFS. We're also working through how best to slot in a potential expansion and restart to maximize the likelihood of success without distracting us from our Rochester expansion. Our goal is to end the year with a solid, compelling business case to justify a decision to move forward at Silver Tip. Our three-year outlook reflects strong returns and a step change in production and cash flow. If you didn't get a chance to listen to our Investor Day in December, I encourage you to go to our website, look at the materials, or watch the replay to find out more about our culture, strategy, and outlook. Before passing the call to Mick, I want to quickly highlight slides 18 and 19, which provide a good high-level overview of our deep-rooted community relationships. We strive to maintain strong relations with all of our partner communities and other local stakeholders with the goal of attaining mutual long-term prosperity. With that, I'll turn it over to Mick.