Coeur Mining, Inc.

Good day, and welcome to the Core Mining Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a 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. 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 would now like to turn the conference over to Mitch Kreps, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Good day, everyone, and thanks for joining our third quarter 2023 earnings call. Before getting underway, 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 off with a quick overview on slide three before turning the call over to Mick, Aoife, and Tom. While silver is set to take a larger role with the Rochester expansion project now behind us, it was the gold side of the business that drove stronger third quarter results. Gold production increased 15 percent and costs per gold ounce declined 13 percent, which drove a material increase in our adjusted EBITDA. These results were primarily due to a bounce-back quarter at Kensington, as well as a strong gold quarter at Palmareo. In total, quarterly revenue increased 10 percent to $195 million on total production of approximately 78,000 ounces of gold and 2.3 million ounces of silver. Obviously, the key headline is the completion of the expansion at Rochester. The first ounces were produced from the new leach pad and process plant during the quarter, and the focus is now on handing off the new three-stage crushing circuit to the operating team to ramp it up as safely and quickly as possible, which Mick will talk more about in a couple of minutes. In the meantime, Rochester is delivering a significant step up in production levels. They recovered over 500,000 ounces of silver and 8,000 ounces of gold in October alone. roughly two to three times higher than in prior months so far this year. Some of you were able to witness firsthand the size and scale of this operation in September, but some recent photos starting on slide 10 of today's presentation also do a good job of showing the newly expanded infrastructure. With crusher commissioning now underway, work has already started to remove the legacy crusher which allows us to access higher grade ore located beneath it that we plan to mine beginning early next year. Once at the 32 million ton per year processing rate, Rochester is expected to be North America's largest open pit heat bleach operation. And here in the U.S., it's expected to become the country's largest source of domestically produced and refined silver at a time when silver demand for electronic applications and renewable power sources is rapidly climbing. Finally, and most importantly, it is poised to be a truly transformational operation for CORE with lower cost silver and gold ounces at two and a half times higher production levels with several near mine opportunities to expand and enhance the life of mine through exploration, which Aoife will touch on shortly. With Rochester's free cash flow as a key driver, A top priority in 2024 will be to start reducing our leverage levels now that the recent period of elevated investment is starting to fall away. Tom will provide a balance sheet update in a few minutes. One other comment on exploration. Drilling at Kensington accelerated during the quarter, with the latest results continuing to demonstrate the near-mine potential to add to its mine life. IFO will provide some additional details shortly. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mick.

Thanks and good day, everyone. As Mitch mentioned, the team delivered solid quarterly results capped off by improvements at Kensington and the good news regarding the end of construction at the Rochester expansion project. Beginning with Rochester, the third quarter was characterized by the full-scale effort to integrate the newly expanded infrastructure into our Nevada operations. located in what is widely recognized as the world's number one mining jurisdiction. Our progress on those fronts has been truly impressive, with first production from the new leach pad and process plant taking place in September. The great October silver and gold results that Mitch mentioned earlier position us for a very strong fourth quarter, and we remain on track to achieve 2023 production guidance. Commissioning of the new crusher is underway with full ramp-up set to take place during the first half of 2024. Looking at slide nine, the majority of the extensive systems testing has now been completed, which is verifying that mining capacity can support the planned ramp-up to the full 155,000 tons per day needed by the end of 2024. Rochester's strong reputation in Northern Nevada is helping Tensure that we have the best possible workforce in place to deliver on our goals. The expansion to increase throughput two and a half times required a modest 20% increase in headcount, which highlights the economies of scale we expect to enjoy going forward. We are fully staffed and trained for the job ahead. Aside from the inherent positive attributes of Rochester, the true differentiator for CORE is the expansion offers us all the growth benefits of a large new main, but with a degree of familiarity and extensive learnings gained that cannot be matched from the standalone new mine. Our people, our facilities, and infrastructure, and the deep well of technical expertise that we are drawing from is a key competitive advantage. Looking back at the build, CORE's culture of safety and accountability served as a rock solid foundation for a truly excellent safety result at this construction project over 2.5 million hours with just a single lost time incident. Turning to slide four and looking at Palmarejo, tons milled increased with a strong contribution from Guadalupe, leading to higher recoveries, especially on the gold side, where production increased by 16% to nearly 27,000 ounces. Palmarejo also took a big step forward in the quarter through the completion of the high compression tailings and the open pit backfill project on budget and ahead of schedule. Its completion secures tailings and waste rock storage capacity for the remainder of Palma Rejo's mine life. More importantly, we estimate that it will reduce overall water utilization needed for the tailings process by 16% while backfilling the legacy open pit there and providing a head start on our future reclamation efforts. Moving on to Kensington, which delivered a significantly improved quarter as excess water flows have abated and paste placement continues to exceed targets. The fourth quarter is expected to be similarly improved, but the paste issues from earlier this year have impacted full year results, leading us to refine Kensington's production guidance to between 81,000 and 85,000 ounces. Finishing up with wharf, Third quarter production was as expected, and the operation is well-positioned for a good finish to the year. As a result, the low end of wharf's gold production guidance has been revised upwards by 3,000 ounces to 88,000 ounces, with the high end remaining at 95,000 ounces. With that, I'll pass the call over to Aoife for a review of exploration.