Golden Minerals Company

Greetings and welcome to the Golden Minerals Company first quarter 2022 earnings conference call and 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. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Karen Winkler, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to today's earnings call, during which we'll be discussing operating and financial results for the first quarter of 2022. 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 results or performance to 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 today's call are Golden Minerals President and CEO, Warren Rang, and our Chief Financial Officer, Julie Weidman. Following their prepared remarks, they will be available to answer questions. This webcast will also be available for replay on the company's website tomorrow, where it will remain posted for approximately 30 days. I will now turn the call over to Warren.

Thank you, Karen. Our radio mine continues to operate as anticipated and continues to generate significant cash flow for the company. From inception in January 2021 through the end of March 2022, We have produced around 18,000 ounces of gold and 65,000 ounces of silver from Rodeo, with cash costs averaging $982 per payable gold ounce net of silver credits. In the first quarter of 2022, we produced about 3,600 ounces of gold and 14,000 ounces of silver. Our 2022 guidance for Rodeo remains unchanged. And we estimate processing 175,000 to 185,000 tons of material through our oxide plants at an average rate of about 500 tons per day. Payable production for 2022 is estimated at approximately 12,000 to 14,000 ounces of gold and 42,000 to 47,000 ounces of silver. We estimate average grades during 2022 will be 2.9 grams per ton gold and 9.4 grams per ton silver. These grades are lower than what we recorded in 2021 since we are now working into a lower grade area of the resource. However, they are as expected in the mine plan. Mill recoveries are projected to average about 80% for both gold and silver. We anticipate higher total plant throughput in 2022 compared to 2021 that will help offset the lower gold grades for 2022 with similar total payable gold production this year, although at a higher unit cost. Cash costs per payable gold ounce net of silver byproduct credits are expected to be between $1,100 and $1,200 during 2022. We continue to advance our Velardeña underground silver gold mines ahead of making a production restart decision. The bio-oxidation or BIOX testing of pyrite concentrates in South Africa has now been completed. We are assessing the results and incorporating them into the final plan for the proposed BIOX plant at Velardeña. We have nearly completed the flotation optimization test work, also in South Africa, and expect to have results soon to incorporate into the final production plans. We began underground test mining last month to determine that with our chosen subcontractor, we can control mining dilution, which is critical to the success of the project. Testing is anticipated to run into next month. We intend to make the formal decision on resumption of mining activities within the next few months. As previously communicated, if we make the decision to restart mining activities at Velardeña, we estimate construction of the biox plant would take roughly one year, running into mid-year 2023. It is possible, depending in part on metals price, that we could begin mining with a three to four month wrap-up period and begin selling silver lead and zinc concentrates while stockpiling the pyrite concentrates, in which most of the gold is contained, until the BIOX facility is complete. Moving on to our exploration properties, in April we began a third drill program at the Yoquivo Gold-Silver Project in Chihuahua, Mexico. This program was designed to further delineate the previously encountered vein-hosted mineralized intervals. Two earlier drill programs identified multiple potentially economic-grade areas of mineralization at Yoquivo. The newly recognized southern high-grade zone is open to the south on the Pertinencia vein. Most other high-grade zones have also not been closed off. We expect this third round of drilling will give us sufficient information to estimate an initial gold-silver resource. In January, we reported results from the first drill program ever conducted at our Cerita Este project in Salta, Argentina. That drilling identified shallow oxide gold with widths and grades that are potentially economic. We have submitted new permits for trenching and additional drilling that we plan to complete during a 2022 field campaign. Last week, we announced that John Galassini has joined Gold Minerals as Chief Operating Officer, effective May 9th. John has more than 30 years of mining operations experience and has successfully managed numerous underground operations as well as some of the world's largest open pit mines. He will be responsible for leading our mining operations as Gold Minerals continues to grow. Additionally, I'm pleased to introduce Julie Weidman, who joined the company earlier this year and stepped into the Chief Financial Officer role upon Bob Vogel's retirement at the end of March. Julie joins us with over 30 years of accounting and finance experience, including 10 years of mining industry work at Phelps Dodge, a number of years at smaller domestic and international mining companies, and time at Deloitte and Touche. I will now hand the call over to Julie to present the financial results for the first quarter.