Fortuna Mining Corp

and welcome to the first quarter 2024 financial and operational results call for Fortuna Silver. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode, and a question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Carlos Vaca, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Ali. Thank you, Ali. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to welcome you to Fortuna Silvermine's first quarter 2024 financial and operational results conference call. Hosting the call today on behalf of the company will be Jorge Alberto Ganosa, President and Chief Executive Officer, Luis Darío Ganosa, Chief Financial Officer, Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer, Latin America, and David Whittle, Chief Operating Officer, West Africa. Today's earnings call presentation is available on our website. As a reminder, statements made during this call are subject to the reader advisories included in yesterday's news release, the earnings call presentation, MD&A, and the risk factors in our annual information form. Financial figures contained in the presentation and discussed in today's call are presented in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated. Technical information in the presentation has been reviewed and approved by Eric Chapman, Fortuna's Senior Vice President of Technical Services and qualified person. I would now like to turn the call over to Jorge Alberto Ganosa, President, Chief Executive Officer, and co-founder of Fortuna.

Good morning to to all. We continue to report strong operational and financial performance, and according to our plans and guidance, expect an even stronger second half of the year for production and costs. Of our $225 million in sales, gold contributed 81% and silver 10%, with the balance being by product think and let. We realized an average gold price in the quarter of $2,087 per ounce compared to $1,990 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Silver stayed flat at $23 quarter over quarter. For achievable net income, an adjusted net income for the quarter were both $26 million or 9 cents per share. Cash flow from operations before changes in working capital was $84 million or $0.28 per share. Both earnings and cash flow were well ahead of analyst consensus figures of $0.06 and $0.25 per share respectively. All our mines delivered gold and silver production in line with our plans and within guidance range projections for the year. At 112,000 gold equivalent ounces, production was softer when compared to the previous two quarters where we had consecutive record production of 129,000 and 136,000 gold equivalent ounces in Q3 and Q4 of 2023 respectively. The reduction against previous quarters is largely explained by lower grades and ounces produced at Ceguera but well according to plan. Quarterly production during 2024 is planned to pick up throughout the year, with Q1 having the lowest planned production. All our mines reported consistent ASIC tracking well to be within our annual guidance range. Consolidated cash cost per gold equivalent ounce was $879. And if we adjust for San Jose mine, which is mining on its last year of reserves, the cash cost is a low $744 per ounce. Consolidated ASIC at $1,495 per gold equivalent ounce is on the very low end of our guidance range for the year, which is between $1,485 and $1,640. And slightly lower than the $1,509 we reported in Q4, 2023. The low ASIC is largely explained by Seguela higher goal production and lower cost per ton against your budgets and timing of capital expenses at the Lindero Mine leach fat expansion. The largest short-term opportunity in the portfolio today is the throughput optimization at the Seguela mine, which continues to render fruit. After relining of the mill and other minor works in April, the plant is expected to reach a process rate of 220 dry metric tons per hour, or 42% above main plate capacity, and 25% above our 2024 budget. Looking forward, there is an emerging situation in April in Cote d'Ivoire. Technical failures at two gas plants sourcing power into the national grid has resulted in outages at national level. It is expected power will be restored at normal levels in July. With the information available at this moment, we believe guidance for the year at Seguela is still achievable with no corresponding impact on consolidated guidance. With respect to capital allocation, management continued during the quarter to focus on three priorities. One, provide maximum flexibility to our balance sheet. During the period, we paid an additional $40 million on our revolving credit facility, totaling $123 million since we started repayment in the third quarter of 2023. we brought net debt down to $83 million, and our total net debt to EBITDA ratio stands at a low 0.2 to 1. Our liquidity position stands at $212 million at the end of the quarter, essentially flat with respect to the previous quarter. Second is opportunistic return to shareholders. Management reinitiated its normal course issuer bid program in the quarter with the repurchase of 1 million shares for cancellation at an average price of $3.42 in the New York Stock Exchange. The normal course issuer bid has been renewed in April for an additional year for up to 5% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company. funding organic growth opportunities in our portfolio. Our priority exploration programs at Seguela, Tiambasut, San Jose, and Yaramoco continue to yield positive results. At the Seguela mine in Cote d'Ivoire, the exploration team is planning to have new resources this year at the deposits of Badiour, Kestrel, Gabro North, and Kingfisher. Of note is the newly discovered Kingfisher deposit, where drilling continues to return consistent results over the two-kilometer strike length of the identified mineralization. A fourth drill rig has now been mobilized to Segela to further capitalize on these opportunities, as well as examining the underground potential at deposits where we currently hold reserves in Kula and Siena and Sandburg. At Yaramoku in Burkina Faso, we continue to make marginal gains of high-grade mineralization at the immediate boundaries of resources on Zone 55. These gains are potentially helping to reduce the rate of depletion in the life of mine by providing opportunities to sustain 2025 at above 100,000 ounces of gold production. At San Jose in Mexico, we continue advancing the Yesi vein exploration with three dedicated drill rigs and planning to add a fourth one in May. Results to date have defined potential economic mineralization within a 350 by 450 meter area which remains open to the southeast. Step-out drilling holes are being prioritized currently. For the second quarter, management is planning to drive a 150-meter drift to reach the core of the identified higher-grade zone. And at Yambasud in Senegal, exploration and geotechnical drilling continues to advance according to plan, along with environmental studies. Hydrologic drilling is set to begin in the second quarter. And last but not least, we had a difficult start of the year on safety indicators. Our total recordable lost time and lost time injury rates have been impacted by four lost time accidents in the quarter. We have now been operating for 50 days without any recordable incidents and are doubling down on active leadership and multiple other initiatives. that Cesar and David will touch on with the objective of still achieving a third year of continued improvement on key safety metrics. I'll now ask David to provide an update on West African operations. David.