Coeur Mining, Inc.

Hello and welcome to Core Mining's second quarter 2023 financial results conference call. All participants will be in 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 from the question queue, you may press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to CEO Mitch Krebs. Please go ahead.

Good day, everyone, and thanks for joining our second quarter 2023 earnings call. Before we start, 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 kick things off with a review of the main quarterly highlights on slide three before turning the call over to Mick, Tom, and Aoife. Quarterly revenue totaled $177 million with production of approximately 68,000 ounces of gold and 2.4 million ounces of silver. The quarter was underpinned by strong performances at our Rochester and Wharf operations offset by a weaker than planned quarter at our Kensington mine in Alaska. Through the first six months, we produced about 42% of our full year gold production guidance and about 45% of our full year silver production guidance, which highlights our expectations for a strong second half. The company's two key drivers for the second six months of the year are expected to be the ramp up of Rochester as construction and commissioning activities wrap up and a stronger second half from Kensington. Water and weather impacted both Rochester and Kensington during the second quarter. Out in Nevada at Rochester, We're very pleased to report that the expansion was approximately 97% complete as of July 31st and is moving quickly toward completion. However, downtime from lightning and rain in Northern Nevada combined with an ongoing shortage of skilled labor and related productivity challenges is driving an increase in the number of contractor hours required to finish up the project this quarter. Meanwhile, heavy spring snow melt and runoff in southeast Alaska, along with some paced backfill challenges, led to a poor quarter at Kensington, which negatively impacted our company-wide gold production and financial results. The team has largely addressed these challenges, and we look forward to a stronger back half of the year there. Both Mick and Tom will provide some additional color on these two operations in a few minutes. At Rochester, the focus is quickly shifting to commissioning and ramp-up efforts now that construction activities are beginning to wind down. We are now just weeks away from delivering initial silver and gold production from the new Stage 6 leach pad and Merrill Crow facility, which will be quickly followed by construction completion of the new three-stage crushing circuit. The site photo on slide 10 of today's presentation shows the tremendous progress made to date. The team managing this project has done an incredible job under challenging circumstances over the past three years. After visiting there a couple of weeks ago, I was impressed once again by the sheer scale of this operation. Once ramped up, Rochester will be one of the largest open pit heap leach mines in the world, projected to deliver lower cost silver and gold ounces at production levels two and a half times higher than recent rates for many years to come. While Rochester is our clear near-term catalyst, we see the development and drilling at Kensington as the next leg of lower-cost production growth for the company. Drilling results there point to a continuation of key mineralized zones and the potential for a longer mine life in Alaska. And just earlier this week, we issued an update on the excellent exploration results from Palmareo in Mexico, with recent assays returning the highest gold grades that we've ever had there. IFA will provide some additional details in a few minutes. Through significant multi-year investments in expansions and exploration at our North American assets, we're rapidly nearing the point where we expect to see the benefits of these investments accrue to our stockholders. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Mick.

Thanks, Mitch. Across our whole asset portfolio, we see a great track record of excellence, including long-term trusted relationships with our key stakeholders that allow us to continue to develop our mains and secure key permits like the recent Boston expansion success at Wharf, providing great opportunities for further growth within our operating footprints. Getting into quarterly operating details on slide six and starting with Palmer Ehall. Good silver and gold grades led to solid production for the quarter. with the team overcoming a four-day power outage due to wildfires. On the cost side, the strengthening PSO continued to create pressure, resulting in approximately $5 million of additional costs. Moving on to Rochester, better than anticipated production was driven by continued positive residual ounce production from legacy leach pads. With the majority of ore placement now occurring on the new Pad 6, Gold and silver production decreased as expected compared to the first quarter. Production rates will remain depressed during this transition period until first solution through the Merrill Crow plant is processed next month. Looking ahead, we expect the cushion we've built up during Rochester's strong first half performance to sustain the main over the course of pre-commissioning, commissioning and ramp up activities during the second half. helping to keep Rochester production on track for 2023 guidance. Getting into a bit more detail with a summary of recent milestones and what remains ahead of Rochester. Following on-schedule first quarter mechanical completion of Pad 6 and the Merrill Crow Process Plant, we are currently finishing up wet commissioning and getting ready to start. Work on the Mayallong Crusher Corridor is progressing well. Prescreen equipment and piping construction is well advanced. The stacker and feed conveyors have been erected, including coarse ore, secondary, and tertiary stockpile stackers, as well as the secondary feed conveyor. The 63 kV power transmission lines to the crusher substation have been energized. Secondary and tertiary crushers are in the final stages of electrical construction, and programming of the crusher process control systems is also complete. On the mining side of the project, looking at slide nine, mining rates are scheduled to increase from 65,000 tons per day to 155,000 tons per day. Capacity for drilling and loading is already in place and no additional equipment is needed. The whole truck fleet will go from 14 trucks to 29 trucks and we are currently right on plan to be at 22 trucks by the end of 2023 and a full complement by the end of 2024. Headcount for the expansion is less than a 20% increase, and all additional people for the processing plant are already on board. Much like the first quarter, poor weather continued to affect overall project progress during the second quarter. The frequent periods of lightning creating a particular safety challenge, considering the numerous work streams involving steel erection at heights and crane operations on the Crusher Corridor. Taken together with ongoing inflationary pressures and skilled labour availability and productivity challenges, we expect the total project capital to come in between $710 to $730 million, or about 6% to 9% above the previously estimated $670 million discussed in last quarter's call. Capital pressures notwithstanding, the pace of project development continues to advance. with mechanical completion of the crusher circuit expected in the current quarter and ramp up to take place over the remainder of this year and into early 2024. In the near term, we expect second half production at Rochester to fall more evenly between the third and fourth quarters. Additionally, we anticipate costs in the second half of the year to be similar to the first half of the year as we complete the project and begin ramping up. Turning to Kensington, A slow start to the year persisted in the second quarter with higher than expected water flows in key production areas, further impacting a planned return to optimal stoke sequencing. We have worked with the team at the site to develop a solid main plan for the second half and recent performance indicators are looking more favorable. But improved performance is not expected to meet the original 2023 production guidance. As a result, Full year guidance has been revised to between 84,000 and 95,000 ounces. Lastly, at Wharf, results were slightly ahead of plan, with the second quarter benefiting from high-grade material and tons placed earlier in the year. We're very proud to mark two big milestones at Wharf. Firstly, on July 20th, the state of South Dakota approved the permit allowing for mining of the Boston expansion. a nearly 50-acre parcel immediately to the south of Wharfe's current permitted operations, giving us more flexibility and providing additional opportunities for main life growth going forward. Another milestone, the team at Wharfe produced its 3 millionth ounce of gold on June 23. Since CORE acquired Wharfe back in 2015, the main has generated free cash flow for the company of approximately $360 million and continues to play a key role as a cornerstone of stable gold production in the heart of the United States. Looking to the balance of the year, the ounces deferred at Kensington have resulted in overall gold production guidance decreasing slightly to between 304,000 and 352,500 ounces of gold, while silver production guidance remains unchanged at between 10 to 12 million ounces. Kerr remains in a strong position midway through this critical year for the company. With that, I'll pass the call over to Tom.