Coeur Mining, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Core Mining First Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a 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 telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mitchell Krebs, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our first quarter 2022 earnings call. Joining me here are Mick Routledge and Tom Whelan, along with other members of our team. Before I begin, please note our cautionary language on forward-looking statements in our slide deck and refer to our SEC filings, which are available on our website. Our first quarter results were in line with expectations and position us to achieve our full year production and cost guidance ranges as we look to deliver sequential production growth over the remainder of 2022. Palmareo and Wharf led the way with solid starts to the year, offset by slower starts at Kensington and Rochester. As those who follow the sector are keenly aware, lingering effects from COVID and inflationary pressures were two key themes during the quarter. However, COVID-related disruptions appear to be dissipating and we're managing our way through the supply chain shortages, disruptions, and higher cost environment through our commitment to continuous business improvement initiatives at each of our operations. Both Mick and Tom will go into more detail on operating costs. We provided an update on several important steps we've taken to materially bolster our liquidity levels to support the ongoing Rochester expansion, which Tom will detail shortly. The expansion is gaining momentum and advancing according to plan. You can see from the photos on slides 10 and 11 that the key elements of the project are quickly coming together. Mick will provide a more detailed update in a couple of minutes. On the exploration front, we provided another update last week, this time highlighting new high-grade intercepts at our Kensington and Palmareo operations that point to future potential mine life additions. Meanwhile, the exploration team at Silvertip hit the ground running this year after delivering strong double-digit resource growth last year with several additional high-grade intercepts, including a new discovery called Camp Creek West that is opening up even greater possibilities at this emerging world-class deposit. Another first-quarter highlight that flew a bit under the radar was the receipt of the final record of decision from the United States Forest Service to increase the tailings and waste rock storage capacity at Kensington. As our recent exploration success at Kensington indicates, we think the mine may have a much longer life than the current reserve suggests, and receiving this record of decision provides us room to accommodate another decade of future growth. Finishing up with the highlights, we released our 2021 ESG report last week, which detailed our efforts to extend our leadership position in these critical areas of our business. We have substantially increased our commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions net intensity, raising our goal to a 35% reduction by 2024 compared to last year's goal of a 25% reduction by 2025. A summary of highlights from the ESG report can be found in the deck beginning on slide 17. I'll now pass the call over to Mick.

Thanks, Mitch. Slide six includes the details of our first quarter operating results and how we're tracking versus the balance of the year. As Mitch mentioned, the first quarter is expected to be our weakest, but we are pleased with the overall start to 2022. Starting with Palmarejo, gold production ticked up slightly compared to the prior quarter, while silver production remained consistent. Turning to costs and what will be a common theme as I go through operations, Higher consumable costs led to increases in unit costs for both gold and silver. Completion of the Mexican peso hedging program we had in place last year also contributed to higher costs compared to prior periods. As expected, Palma Rejo's first quarter cash flows were impacted by the annual Mexican EBITDA tax payment. In short, a solid start to the year ahead of production for Palma Rejo. Switching over to Rochester, lower ore placement at the end of last year and into January led to a slower start to 2022 production, compounded by lower average silver grade on Pad 4. On the plus side, tons placed increased 14% this quarter, driven by better fleet availability and supplemented by 1.5 million tons of run-of-mine material during the quarter. The team is making solid progress dialing in the optimum crush size with some excellent work in the pit at the current XPIT crusher and out on Pad 4. You'll recall that we're incorporating pre-screens into both the existing crusher and the new Limerick crusher that has been constructed to maximise our flexibility to process or mind with varying hardness and provide control of fines which if too high can affect solution floors through the heap leach and potentially negatively impact recoveries. An important next step in this process will be the installation of prescreens on the existing XPIT crusher, where work is already underway with concrete now being poured for the foundation. It's important to point out that prescreen construction is expected to inhibit our ability to crush material for up to 30 days during the second quarter. We look forward to measuring the impact of the screens at Rochester's second half operating performance and, of course, applying these learnings to further de-risk the POA 11 project and incorporating them into our post-expansion operating plan. Before covering the other operations, I want to provide a brief update on the progress taking place at the Rochester expansion project, starting on slide nine. The pace of activity is entering a new phase. with the majority of essential materials and components now at site. Approximately $283 million has now been spent towards the project, and a total of $477 million of the estimated capital has now been committed, representing about 80% of the total capital. With the majority of the Stage 6 leach pad now complete, structural steel for the Merrill Crow processing facility is being erected, and concrete at the new Crusher Corridor is being poured. We look forward to sharing our progress as this important year unfolds. Turning to Kensington, fantastic news as Mitch shared earlier that Kensington received the permits required to extend the tailings and waste rock capacity by up to 10 years. COVID-19 related workforce availability impacted mine sequencing and led to lower than anticipated production during the quarter. Thankfully, the excellent controls we have in place developed over the last two years led to a quick resolution. Workforce availability has since resumed to normal levels and the team is working to catch up on delayed stoke development. Lastly, at Wharf, Gold production was delivered slightly ahead of plan due to solid production rates as mining takes place in a lower-grade area of the pit throughout 2022. On the cost side, the team did a great job with fleet efficiency improvements, helping offset increased prices for consumables. With that, I'll pass the call over to Tom.