Golden Minerals Company

Greetings. Welcome to the Golden Minerals Company second quarter 2021 earnings webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. 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'll now turn the conference over to your host, Karen Winkler. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. On behalf of the Gold and Mineral team, I'd like to welcome you all to the company's inaugural earnings call, during which we'll be discussing operating and financial results for the second quarter 2021. Before we get started, please note that certain statements made by management today will be forward-looking within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual events or performance be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Please refer to our most recently filed Form 10-Q for details of risks and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements. On the call today are Gold and Minerals President and CEO Warren Wenz and our Chief Financial Officer Bob Vogel. Following their prepared remarks, they will be available to answer questions. The event will also be available for replay on the company's website tomorrow. I will now turn the call over to Warren.

Thank you, Karen. As we predicted, we essentially broke even as a company based on our Rodeo Goldmine income in the second quarter of 2021. Our projections show strong positive earnings through the remainder of this year. Rodeo has been operating very well since startup, We commissioned the new ball mill at our oxide plant in the last days of April, about a month later than we had planned. However, our process plant throughput has exceeded expectations by nearly 100 tons per day since that time, and we expect the higher throughput to continue. We are now planning for an average throughput of at least 500 tons per day. This means we should be able to easily meet our forecasts for gold production of between 12,000 and 14,000 ounces this year and profitability for the year. Our work at Velardeña is progressing well toward a possible restart near the end of 2021. We have completed our bulk sampling and precision mining tests successfully and are now preparing the material to be sent to South Africa for the final metallurgical studies to complete the design criteria for the bio-oxidation plant and to optimize the flotation separation, maximizing gold reporting to the pyrite concentrate that will be treated in the bio-oxidation circuit. We should have results of this test work to report early in Q4 this year. I anticipate a positive decision on the restart of the mine in Q4. Exploration at Rodeo has continued to return positive results on two additional structures not currently in the mine plan. The structures are both east and west of the current pit and potentially within easy expansion access. We have just added a second drill rig to speed up the drill program to delineate gold mineralization on these two structures and to test additional targets. The reverse circulation rig that just started the last day of July is expected to drill about five or more times faster than the core drill. This means we should have the information we need to evaluate the potential extension of the mine life within the next few months. We are also drilling a project in Argentina that I'm quite enthusiastic about. The property is the Cerita Este property. which is immediately adjacent to the giant Takataka copper deposit in western Salta Province. We are drilling both a very interesting copper target and a compelling high-sulfidation gold-silver target. Initial results from the copper target should be available in the next few weeks. Our plans to drill at the Yokivo District in Chihuahua have been pushed back a few more months to accommodate our drilling at these other projects. not necessarily because the other projects are better exploration targets, all are quite good, but because of operational needs at Rodeo and based on a commitment to drill at Cerrito Este. Yoquivo remains a very attractive gold-silver district with excellent potential. We expect to start drilling at Yoquivo in Q4 this year as soon as the core rig at Rodeo is freed up. Our plans for production growth and sustainable profitability are in place, and advancing well. With Velardeña producing hopefully late this year, we will have accelerated our production growth over our initial plan and potentially be producing about 1 million ounces of silver with lead and zinc byproducts in 2022 while we are constructing the bio-oxidation facility. Once the bio-oxidation plant is complete, our projections show an additional 1 million silver equivalent ounces produced per year from the gold in pyrite. Our production from Velardeña once in full swing should be about twice the equivalent gold production from Rodeo and with a projected mine life of a decade and possibly more with exploration success. I will now hand the call over to Bob Vogels, our Chief Financial Officer, to present the financial results for the second quarter 2021. Thank you, Warren.