Fortitude Gold Corp

Greetings. Welcome to the Fortitude Gold 2024 third quarter conference call. 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 will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Jason Reed, CEO of Fortitude Gold You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Fortitude Gold Corp's 2024 third quarter conference call. Following my brief comments and associated presentation for those who joined online, we will have a brief Q&A period. Joining me on the call today for the Q&A portion will be Ms. Janet Turner, our Chief Financial Officer. Let me remind everyone that certain statements made on this call are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties as described in our annual report on Form 10-K and other SEC filings, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments. Forward-looking statements in the earnings release that we issued yesterday, along with the comments on this call, are made only as of today, November 6, 2024, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any of these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold. You can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures referred to in our remarks in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC for the year ended December 31, 2023. The third quarter was another good quarter for the company, especially in the context of the ongoing challenges with permitting. We achieved 10.2 million net sales, 30.3 million cash balance, 4,220 gold ounces produced, 41.5 million working capital, 4.8 million mining gross profit, 2.7 million exploration expenditures, 906 total cash cost after byproduct credits per gold ounce sold, and 990 per ounce total all-in sustaining cost, 2.9 million dividends paid, and 2 million gold and silver bullion. We achieved this while adjusting to the ongoing permit delays and understaffing of the Bureau of Land Management by the Biden and Harris administration. With the federal election results last night and early this morning, my optimism and excitement for Fortitude Gold is now launching back to what it was during the first Trump administration, back when we received our original Isabella Pearl mine permit during Trump's first term. There are numerous reasons I'm excited, but three stand out, with the first being the gold price. Over the last 12 months, it has gone from sub 2000 to hitting record highs around $2,700 gold. Second, With one hand tied behind our back from the Biden and Harris administration's slow-walking permits, we are still producing gold at reasonable cost. And third, we have the best property portfolio in the Walker Lane Mineral Belt of Nevada, and we are both well-positioned and eager to build additional mines. Last night's election results bring a much brighter future for Fortitude Gold with a president that has proven in the past to be far more business-friendly. I spoke yesterday with a longtime shareholder of Fortitude Gold. I'll call him Bob G. And we shared in this optimism and excitement for Fortitude under another Trump administration. It's shareholders like Bob who understand the company can only control so much, and permits are in large part driven by agencies overseen by governments. And those agencies and governments really do make a difference in outcomes of businesses. We are now moving back to a pro-business government, and that's terrific for Fortitude shareholders. Exploration spending for the quarter was $2.7 million, which resulted in great drill results like those released from Scarlet North, including 9.14 meters grading 2.33 grams per ton gold, within 16.76 meters grading 1.58 grams per ton gold. During the quarter, we cut back on exploration drilling to conserve cash and plan to continue to do so until we receive more permits as a means to best adjust to permit delays. We remain in the permit phase of both County Line and Golden Mile, and we are optimistically moving scarlet north toward that direction as well. Among the new federal administration's many issues it needs to address to turn this country back around and toward prosperity again, We eagerly look forward to it fully funding its Federal Bureau of Land Management, and we hope to capitalize on that by trying to permit everything we can under the incoming administration. Imagine any attendees on this call are as sleep deprived as me today, having watched the election results in the early morning hours and waking early to watch additional results. So let's conclude this Q3 2024 conference call. The quarter was another good quarter, and we look forward to getting back on track with mine permits and towards some semblance of our original business plan, building multiple mines and operating under a business-friendly president. With that, I would like to thank everyone for their continued support and your time today on this conference call. Operator, please open up the lines for a possible Q&A.

Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions.