Allied Gold Corporation

Please stand by, your meeting is about 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 could 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 reserves and 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 the forward-looking statements, please refer to Allied Gold's press release issued yesterday announcing third 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 Gold's website at alliedgold.com. I will now turn the call over to Peter Maroney, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Operator, thank you very much. Joining us This morning are Johan Stultz, Daniel Racine, Jason LeBlanc as speakers. We have other members of management here to answer questions. I will provide a preview, an update on corporate matters, and then I'll pass the call over to management. Let's dig right in, beginning with production. Production compares well to the comparable quarter, and for the nine months, Sadiola, Bonicro, and Agbao production were above the comparable period, and they're trending up. Kerali Sud, what we were referring to historically as the Diba area, provided nominal contribution to Sadiola in the quarter. There were no meaningful operational issues. It was entirely timing of the introduction of a new mining code in Mali and the timeframe for the production coming from Kerali Sud to contribute to the Sadiola production. Kerali Sud production is consistent with plan. It will contribute meaningfully in Q4 and into 2025. And it's doing what it's supposed to do, which is to bridge production while we engage in the expansion for phase one at Sadiola while that is completed. As you read in our public disclosure, phase one is now in progress. We expect to have it implemented by late 2025. And there will be an overlap with Kerala-Isud. So the production increases are expected next year and into 2026. Timing of sales plus corral de sud, the nominal contribution coming from that, they did contribute to costs. The costs were higher than we wanted them to be for the quarter. We deliver costs based on ounces sold rather than ounces produced. And so with that timing of sales and with a lessened production in the third quarter, as the new mining law was introduced and we were going through the permitting process, it did contribute to costs. But once again, In terms of what we're seeing on production more generally, we're seeing costs in line with what are our expectations. And with an increase in production in the fourth quarter, we expect that the unit costs, the cost per ounce will decline. We began mining at Kerali Sud. We did incur costs. We stopped with the introduction of the new mining code pending permitting. And the result of all of that contributed to the costs for the third quarter. That will not be true going forward. So going forward then, in the fourth quarter, we expect a production platform, as Johan will more fully speak to, of 98,000 ounces to 102,000 ounces. That will represent a 17% increase over Q3, and it rounds out the year. It will establish Sadiola plus our Cote d'Ivoire complex, the two mines in Cote d'Ivoire, at a sustainable rate, production platform of 375,000 to 400,000 ounces per year. A lot of effort has been made on improvements to mining, to processing, exploration, and in-country relationships and relations. And also in managing our financial position with cash flow, tax management, advancing financing plans. We continued with the advancement of the Cromoca project And as I mentioned a few moments ago, starting the Sadiola first phase expansion. They're on schedule. They're on budget. And with better outflows management, with commercial capital expenses this year now well below forecast, we expect that we will be delivering a year with less capital spent, but projects remaining on schedule. Upfront costs, including deposits, were less than we anticipated. and certain mobilization costs us less than we expected. So the good news is that the projects that are on schedule on the capital for this year will be less than what we had forecast at the beginning of the year. We completed an orderly succession plan to our chief operations officer. Johan is now fully in the seat, but he has been implementing mining improvements for the last several quarters from the beginning of the year. He will give his take on what those mining improvements have been and what that does to strengthen our production for the fourth quarter and for the years to follow. We've strengthened our board of directors with a West African mining executive with experience in countries in West Africa, but of course, most prominently in Mali, so that we can improve our in-country presence. And this coincides with updated, more conservative block models and mine plans. And all of this coincides with execution on our financing plans, that with improved production and cash flows from that production will fully fund our growth. And it allows us to pursue other projects and plans to improve and increase value per share. And moving to slide four, there are several in-country initiatives that were advanced in the third quarter. They include a long-term power purchase agreement in Ethiopia and awarding the construction of the power line. We have introduced backup power in Côte d'Ivoire so that we are not dependent on variabilities relating to the grid. Our protocol agreement in Mali secures its transition, secures the Sadioula transition to a world-class mine. And that's an important part to discuss. But that protocol agreement in Mali conforms with the new mining code, and while While we are advancing our expansion plans, we're continuing with production, and we're establishing essentially goodwill in the country. I want to make sure that this is clear. It should be obvious. Saudi oil has proven improbable reserves of 7.4 million ounces. It will have close to 400,000 ounces of production per year. Over several decades, and with upside that is not yet fully realized, that includes higher recoveries, mine life extension, and all at well below worldwide all-in sustaining costs. It will soon become a world-class mine. And our protocol agreement secures the transition of that mine into that world-class status. And then when it reaches that status, it will continue to secure its future. But it also affords us, as I said a few moments ago, goodwill to pursue other opportunities in the country with the state's support and encouragement. that includes in relation to nearby deposits in areas like Diba, like Kerali Sud, that can supplement or feed to Satiola. And we are advancing those opportunities with the cooperation from the various ministries in the country and the state-run mining company which owns some of those deposits. So with that as a preview, an update on corporate matters, Let me pass the call now to Johan for more insights into our mining and operational efforts, results, expectations, and opportunities.

Thank you, Peter, and good morning to everyone. As Peter mentioned, we've undertaken several initiatives to de-risk and advance our production profile. The operational side, we focused on the mining, processing, and exploration, and then faced the improvements to support this strong fourth quarter and beyond. key advancements, including the ramping up of mining ore and waste movement into the higher grade areas that will ensure that we produce at lower cost alongside substantial gains in our processing plants. In Cote d'Ivoire, these efforts already delivered results. And we've seen in the processing plant upgrades have increased the milling rates with 15 and 39% respectively from ACBO and PONICRO from the first quarter to the third quarter. We anticipate these throughput rates will continue into the fourth quarter and substantially into the 2025 business year. If we move on to the operational performance on slide five, I've implemented the safety initiatives and embedded the safety culture that will drive and empower employees to think safety and work safe. I have also reviewed and improved the mine planning, our grade control models, as well as our grade control strategy. Over the last quarter, we've seen that the mine planning improved from sub 80% beyond 90% on spatial compliance, which will enable us to access higher grade ore and sustain the production profiles required through the fourth quarter. I've also appointed a competent local mine technical team that will monitor, enhance, and also ensure that we sustain the business profile through the fourth quarter and into 2025. We've reviewed the operational cost base and developed an improvement plan that will optimize future production costs in Cote d'Ivoire, and that'll move over to Mali in early Q1 2025. We've implemented the preparation plan for success production in 2025. That'll ensure that we de-risk the business, set ourselves up for early development great control hydrology and geotechnical preparation within the business profile of 2025 and beyond. If we go to the production profiles, looking ahead of the expected production continues to improve as we advance the stripping at pushback five in Borneo throughout 2024. This is expected to expose higher-grade material for the processing plant in 2025 and 2026, further supporting the long-term production goals at Bonnie Crow. At Aqbao, we produced 18,640 ounces of gold in the third quarter in 2024, and that's up from 17,320 ounces the same time last year. While the increase is modest, Compared to the previous year, it represents a more significant improvement from the second quarter as in-country grid power issues were mitigated. We've also improved quarter-on-quarter mine profiles to ensure that we access the higher-grade ores within ACWAO. During the third quarter, total tons mined continued to increase, enabling us to expose all planned ore for 2024 and demonstrate mine that mines full potential. I've managed to fast-track the higher-grade oxide ore from Agbali, and this will be fed into the Agpal plant and ensure higher throughputs as well as higher grades, increasing the improvements spoke about earlier in the note. If we look at the fleet performances, implementation of short-term interval controls This includes ready to reverse the early hour targets, and this will ensure that we are more efficient with our mining fleets. In terms of the plant processing and mine achievements, records through the third quarter driven successful fragmentation strategies and throughout the mine planning capabilities. This increase in process capacity has been further supported by ahead-of-schedule oxide feed from Chappelle. In addition, improvements were observed in the stripping ratios or mined and grade with expectations for continued enhancements in the upcoming quarters as we build, refine our operational plans. Looking forward into the final quarters of the year, the company estimates the fourth quarter production to be in the range of 98,000 to 202,000, making the highest quarter output of the year, supporting the company's previously disclosed production platform of 375,000 to 400,000 ounces from the current operations. This increase is largely attributed to the more substantial contribution from Kurali Suite, which has provided only a nominal contribution to the production here to date. This estimate fourth quarter production also considers a reduced throughput due to a clay content in Kerala soot ores, which are currently processed separately from the seriola or under the tolling agreement. The company actively seeking approval from the mining authorities to blend these ores from both deposits, optimizing the throughput and enhancing production efficiency. This production profile reflects current operations and excludes the anticipated step in increase expected from capital programs, notably Kermuk and also the Seriola plant expansion. I will now pass over to Jason Blanc to discuss the finance performance.