Coeur Mining, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the Core Mining First Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode for the duration of the call. And should you need any assistance today, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero on your telephone keypad. 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. And to withdraw a question, please press star, then 2. Please also note that today this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to the President and Chief Executive Officer, Mitch Krebs. Please go ahead, sir.

Good day, everyone. Before I begin, please note our cautionary language on forward-looking statements in today's slide deck and refer to our SEC filings on our website. I'll start with the main highlights on slide three before turning the call over to Mick and Tom. Our results were slightly ahead of expectations, driven by strong starts to the year at our Palmareo, Rochester, and Wharf operations, which offset a weaker quarter from our Kensington mine. As we've said, the first quarter is typically our softest quarter of the year due to weather and one-time payments. Overall, we remain on track to deliver on our full year guidance, which reflects a much stronger second half. That stronger expected second half is mostly driven by the post expansion ramp up of a Rochester mine out in Nevada, which remains on track for a mid year construction completion. We're currently in the middle of the final quarter of elevated capital spending as we make the final push to wrap it up and the balance sheet remains well positioned to deliver what remains to be spent. Seeing the goal line at Rochester just ahead represents a key inflection point for the company as we anticipate capital outflows to decline, silver and gold production levels to rise, and cash flow to begin increasing. The Rochester expansion has represented a significant investment for the company and will result in one of the world's largest open pit heap leach operations. The team has done an amazing job, especially considering everything they've managed through. The project kicked off in May of 2020, was advanced throughout COVID-related restrictions, faced constant logistical and supply chain disruptions, battled decades high levels of inflation and labor shortages, and most recently experienced one of the most extreme winters in recent years in Northern Nevada. Despite all of that, the team achieved mechanical completion of the Merrill Crow processing facility ahead of schedule during the first quarter. And even more impressively, the project is now approaching 2 million hours without a lost time incident. Turning to exploration for a few minutes, at Kensington, our development and drilling program that kicked off mid last year is still in its early days, but is having the intended results of adding near-term mine life, accelerating the amount of underground development, and identifying new targets for future drilling. Following an impressive 56% increase in gold reserves in 2022 that added a year and a half of mine life, recent drilling is indicating further extensions of several new zones in Upper Kensington, which bodes well for further mine life extensions. At Silver Tip, The team completed the longest ever drill hole at the site during the first quarter, measuring about one kilometer. Results, particularly in the final 250 meters or so, have shown an increase in the occurrence of intrusive porphyry, suggesting the proximity of a heat source. It's also notable that we're seeing signs of other critical minerals, including indium, germanium, and gallium, as we continue enhancing our overall geologic understanding of the deposit. We believe the ultimate scale and nature of the Silver Tip deposit is very exciting and represents significant potential value. However, our near-term priorities are to successfully commission and ramp up Rochester, generate free cash flow, and de-lever the balance sheet. We believe this is the right sequencing of priorities and will give the Silver Tip team time to further grow and better understand this world-class ore body. The ongoing exploration success at Kensington and Silvertip underscores the effectiveness of our multi-year drilling programs in which we've invested approximately $245 million over the past five years to extend mine lives and build the pipeline for future growth. That investment added roughly 2 million gold equivalent ounces of reserves and just over 4 million gold equivalent ounces of resources. Those ounce additions delivered during a time much of the industry was under investing in exploration, represent increases of 34% in reserves and 60% in resources. Before passing the call to Mick, I want to briefly touch on the recently enacted changes to the Mexican mining law. We're still assessing the full impact. It's obviously drawn strong opposition and is likely to face legal challenges. It appears the changes relate to new concessions as opposed to existing concessions like those at Palmareo. We will obviously continue to engage in discussions with the government as the regulations supporting these changes are developed in the coming months. Finally, I want to briefly mention our recently published ESG report, which outlines the results we're achieving to maintain CORE's reputation as a leader in advancing environmental, social, and governance practices. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Mick.

Thanks, Mitch. Before discussing the operational results, I want to quickly add to Mitch's comments on ESG. Always mindful of our mission to pursue a higher standard, we're committed to operating safely, maintaining best in class governance practices, being responsible stewards of the environment, and fostering strong relationships in the communities where we operate. The numbers in the latest ESG report back up that dedication. CORE's three-year trailing average in total reportable injury frequency rate decreased by 18% in 2022 to a record low. We achieved an 8.5% reduction in GHG emissions intensity compared to the baseline, on track to meet our stated goal of a 35% GHG emissions net intensity reduction by the end of next year. These milestones and many others we achieved this year reflect not only our commitment to core ESG principles, but highlight the overall improvement in every facet of our business. Turning over to our quarterly results, we're pleased with the start to the year and expect the company's 2023 production to be significantly weighted towards the second half, consistent with our production guidance we provided earlier this year. We guided towards a seasonally weaker first half in 2023 for the reasons Mitch mentioned earlier. Getting into more detail of the quarter on slide six and starting with Palmarejo. Production was ahead of expectations for the quarter thanks to higher silver grades and a very strong contribution from La Nacion. Easing diesel prices coupled with mill feed optimization efforts that led to reduced consumable consumption drove lower operating costs for the quarter. Affirming PSO led to some upward pressure on costs in the latter part of the quarter. Overall operating costs decreased 10% on gold and 2% on silver. Palmorejo continues to focus on mining and plant efficiency programs aimed at further reducing costs and increasing recoveries while maximizing mining rates. Moving on to Rochester, better than anticipated production was driven by continued positive residual effects of the solution breakthrough experienced in the last quarter, as well as continued benefit of side slope irrigation on Pad 4. As Mitch mentioned, the story of Rochester's first quarter was weather. Rain, snow and massive temperature swings throughout the western US fought the team from start to finish. Looking ahead, we anticipate continued strength in metals recoveries to offset lower weather-related ore placement in the first quarter, helping to keep Rochester on track for 2023 guidance. Despite the weather, we continued placing more ore on new Pad 6 with an expectation to place over 2 million tonnes on Pad 6 before starting the pre-leaching process towards the end of the second quarter, setting the main up for a strong third quarter as previously discussed. As seen in the latest photos showing POA 11 construction, the project is currently at peak levels of activity. With mechanical completion of the new Merrill Crow facility, our focus is now on ramping up the system, culminating in first solution through the Merrill Crow expected around the end of the current quarter. Advancing the new crusher circuit remains the critical path item. steel erection and equipment setting for the pre-screen is now well underway and good progress continues to be made on conveyor erection as well as piping and electrical installation along the entire mile-long crusher corridor poor weather affected nearly every aspect of the project during the quarter hampering the team's ability to move equipment material and personnel these issues have placed some pressure on our total expected capital cost and we anticipate the project to be up at the high end of our guidance range, around $670 million. All parts and material for the crusher assembly are on site, and we do not anticipate changes to the overall project construction completion. Turning over to Kensington, where we experienced a slow start to the year, reduced availability of drills, boulders, and in the paste plant created main sequencing issues, leading to lower gold production in the quarter. The team is working successfully to catch up on paste placement, which is improving heading availability. We anticipate bridging most of the shortfall over the next two quarters. Lastly, at Wharf, results were slightly ahead of plan with first quarter benefiting from higher grade material placed earlier in the year. The site team is doing a great job on controlling costs. Along with a decline in diesel prices, per ounce costs were lower than anticipated. With three mines performing well and Kensington working hard to catch up over the next couple of quarters, we remain comfortable with 2023 production guidance of between 320 and 370,000 ounces of gold and 10 to 12 million ounces of silver. With that, I'll pass the call over to Tom.