Allied Gold Corporation

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All participants, please stand by. Your conference is now ready to begin. Thank you all for joining us this morning. Before I turn the call over, I need to advise that certain statements made during this call today may contain forward-looking information and actual results differ from the conclusions or projections in that forward-looking information, which include but are not limited to statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserve resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, cost of production, capital expenditures, future metal prices, and the cost and timing of the development of new projects. For a complete discussion of the risks uncertainties and factors which may lead to actual financial results and performance being different from the estimates contained in this forward-looking statement, please refer to Allied Goals press release issued yesterday announcing second quarter 2024 results, as well as the management's discussion and analysis for the same period and other regulatory filings in Canada. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay later on today. Replay information and the presentation slides accompanying this conference call and webcast are available on Allied Goals webcast at alliedgoals.com. I will now turn the call over to Peter Maroney, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, and thank you to everyone for participating on our call this morning. With me are the following executives of the company, Jason LeBlanc, Greg Winch, Daniel Racine, and Gwenelle Guillen. And I'd like to introduce Johan Stolz. Johan is our Senior Vice President of Operations. Operations has been reporting to him. He is working with BASI, and he has assumed the role of Operations Management and Oversight. And while Bazzi could not be here with us in person due to his travel plans, he is on the line. But he wanted me to say that we have considerable bench strength, including with Johan. And while Bazzi has worked on improving our plans, Johan, as a mining engineer, along with Bazzi, has been focused on improving our mine plans, mine optimization, and management. We improved production in the second quarter. The second quarter production is just over 88,000 ounces. That's 2.5% higher than the comparative period. It is consistent with our guidance and what we said at the beginning of the year, which is an expectation of first half to second half of the year of 45% to 55%. As Jason will note, we are positioned to be in guidance, in the guidance range for the year. But let me also comment that this production level is not truly representative of the true production platform of our mines. It does not reflect the full potential of DEBA plus the other higher grade oxide areas at Satiola. As we began processing those ores late in the second quarter, nor does it reflect the CDI complex where we mined far more ounces that are now in stockpile than we processed as we sorted out temporary power situations in the country. We were processing at partial capacity in Cote d'Ivoire given load shedding until backup generators were installed, which are now in place in the company. And we advanced stripping at Bonnecrow to get to higher grade ores. And all in all, our mine showed that the total production capacity was closer to 100,000 ounces, which really sets us up nicely for the second half of the year. Our costs improved. So cost of sales, cash costs, and all the sustaining costs sequentially decreased since the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, all as we anticipated and as we guided. Diesel generation at Cote d'Ivoire for the partial periods when there is low shedding is for backup only as thermal generators that defaulted in the second quarter in the country come back online. We don't see that as a cost pressure. given increasing production and low levels of reliance on that backup power. Operating cash flows increased. So operating cash flows before income taxes paid and movements in working capital were strong inflows of just under $57 million in the second quarter and significantly higher than the first quarter and the comparative period last year. Some of these issues in the second quarter did result in a buildup of working capital. Jason will speak more to that. Mostly, that is in stockpile and inventory buildup, which reverses in the third quarter and the fourth quarter this year. We had a strong second quarter gold, realized gold price of just over $2,300. Now, gold price is just about $120 higher than that. And again, that positions us comfortably for where we expect to be in the second half of the year, starting in this quarter, with a stronger second half beginning in this quarter, higher gold prices that will allow us to get to higher levels of cash flow as we had anticipated. We're investing in the future. So we have additional oxide ore feeds at Sadiola. DBA proves its potential in the second quarter, and we have many other sources of oxide feed at Sariola that we're now continuing to advance into mine. We discussed investing in self-reliance and operational flexibility. We created self-reliance with better mine plans, better performance management and evaluation of mine contractors and that backup power at the Cote d'Ivoire complex. We already have this backup at Sariola and we plan for it at Kermuk. We want to be on the grid, but we don't want to be overly reliant on it, and we should always have backup power available to us. We've progressed our exploration and growth projects. Kermoke advanced exploration points to growth in resources and mine life, and Greg will speak more to that. And we began executing on a financing plan during the quarter. So let me deal a little bit with the financing plan and the financing strategy of the company. The streaming deal with Triple Flag finances the Cote d'Ivoire complex, remembering that we have a $16 million per year exploration budget. So we can repurpose that $16 million per year as a result of this transaction that brings that money into our treasury. We can repurpose the cash flows that would otherwise be allocated to that exploration program. We are advancing plans to modify the Agbao plant so that it can take on more fresh ore rather than only oxides. We can process that fresh ore. That will also allow us to be able to bring into inventory more ounces. We're advancing on our plans to develop Ume and to optimize the plant at Bonacro as well. This is at an attractive cost of capital based on reserves. And even with a meaningful increase in mine life and overall production, the cost of capital is still very competitive, and indeed, I would say that it is modest. But this is part of a broader financing plan for the company. We are well advanced on a package of stream and prepay on Kermuk. We are bringing forward what we previously had said that we would do a prepay in the first quarter of next year. That will fully finance the project. I am asked the question, why are we pursuing this approach? And I want to make sure that this is clear. This is a should-have. It is not a must-have. But the cost of capital is modest. The transactions allow us to capture the optionality of the mines and projects that are best captured when they're actually in production. We de-risk the projects, certainly on the financing side. And by taking these actions, we can repurpose our cash flows. As an example, we can now look toward bringing forward the Sadiola expansion. and other uses for our cash flow. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, let me pass the call now to Johan on our operations.