Lithium Americas Corp.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kate and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Lithium Argentina AG first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All lights have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Kelly O'Brien, Vice President, Investor Relations and ESG. Please go ahead.

Kelly O' Thank you for the introduction. I want to welcome everyone to our earnings conference call this morning. Joining me on the call today to discuss our first quarter results is Sam Pigott, President and CEO. Alex Shola, VP, and CFO will also be available during the Q&A session. Before we begin, I would like to cover a few items. Our first quarter 2025 earnings press release was issued last evening, and the corresponding documents are available on our company website. I remind you that some of the statements made during this call, including any production guidance, expected company performance, update on the regional development plan, The timing of our projects and market conditions may be considered forward-looking statements. Please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements in our presentation, MD&A, and news release. I will now turn the call over to Sam.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We will start on slide three, where we highlight several key achievements this quarter that reflect our strategy and our ongoing commitment to long-term value creation. Overall, the operation delivered production in line with expectations. As previously noted, planned maintenance and optimization efforts to improve reliability and drive lower unit costs resulted in a slight decline in production volumes. This was reflected in our 2025 guidance, and we are already seeing the benefits from these changes with April production back over 85% capacity. On the cost side, the operation maintained low production costs in an even more challenging pricing environment. Our disciplined approach to cost management and process efficiency remains a cornerstone of our competitive advantage. Strategically, we've taken important steps to unlock value and define our growth plans. We executed a letter of intent with our partner, Ganfeng, to jointly develop new regional projects targeting a combined capacity of 150,000 tons per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent. This represents a significant opportunity to advance our long-term development plans while increasing our strategic and financial flexibility in the near term without any substantial capital commitment. Finally, we published our 2024 Sustainability Report, which provides a transparent view of our current environmental and social performance. It highlights the progress we are making in areas like water use, environmental monitoring, community engagement, and governance practices. This report helps keep us accountable to both our operational goals and stakeholder expectations. We entered the year with clear operational targets and are delivering according to our plans. As a result of the maintenance and optimization efforts mentioned, lithium carbonate production was slightly lower in the first quarter. These plan shutdowns focused on optimization and lowering costs and were largely completed in Q1. By April, production returned to over 85% of nameplate capacity. Cash operating costs remained low, reflecting our focus on cost discipline. We continue to advance targeted cost reduction initiatives that aim to lower operating costs by an additional 5% to 10% in 2025 without compromising performance or quality. We continue to anticipate higher production volumes in the second half and reaffirm the operation remains on track to meet full-year guidance of 30,000 to 35,000 tons. This slide outlines the financial highlights at Kachari Overrod. Cash operating costs remain competitive at $6,600 per ton, with costs slightly lower than expected. We note a portion of our maintenance-related costs were deferred to the second quarter. We remain diligent on costs, especially in the current pricing environment, and are taking continued efforts to reduce these costs further. On the balance sheet, we have made significant progress here in recent quarters. At the project level, we continue to work with Ganfeng and expect to have over $200 million in additional liquidity from low-cost, unsecured debt facilities. This excess debt capacity should provide a buffer to support ongoing operations and refinance existing debt, extending maturities into 2027 and 2028, enhancing our financial flexibility. We also continue to work closely with Ganfeng to advance and define our long-term growth plans. This continues to be a priority, even in this more challenging pricing environment, given the limited capital requirements and the strategic and financial opportunities we see from advancing these efforts. In April, we executed an LOI to jointly develop and consolidate our regional growth in Pizuelos and Pasos Grandes Basins with Ganfeng. We are finalizing the development plan now that integrates Ganfeng's DLA processing technology with our conventional solar evaporation pond process, and expect the results to support attractive large-scale and low-cost development. We are working with GANFAG to assess the best options to unlock value here, including collaboration with potential customers and strategic partners. You will also notice we mentioned the plan has flexibility to produce lithium chloride or lithium carbonate. This is based on customer interest to support emerging cathode chemistries at the lowest cost. As we look beyond the first quarter, our focus remains on further lowering costs to reinforce our position as a low cost producer. Second, with optimization activities now complete, we are increasing production volumes into the second half of the year and remain on track with full year guidance. Third, with the completion of the previously announced letter of intent with GenFang, we plan to continue to prudently advance our growth plans and use these initiatives to increase our strategic and financial flexibility. Finally, we continue to strengthen the balance sheet at Kachari Oloraz, extending maturities and ensuring we remain well capitalized through the current price cycle. Across all fronts, we're proud of the progress we're making in Argentina. From scaling up at Kachari Oloraz to defining our growth pipeline, we're building a platform for long-term growth. Thank you, and now we'll turn it over for questions.