Aya Gold & Silver Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to AYA Gold and Silver's first quarter 2024 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the CEO's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Ruth Hanna, Manager of Investor Relations and Communications of AYA. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to AYA's first quarter 2024 results conference call. My name is Ruth Hanna, and I'm dialing in with the IR team from Montreal and Marrakesh this morning. On the call today, we have Bruno Lassalle, President and CEO, Hugo Landre-Tolzuc, CFO, Raphael Beaudoin, Vice President Operations, and David Lalande, Head of Exploration. We will finish today's event with a Q&A session with the team. Please contact our IR team directly with any follow-up questions that are not addressed during the call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind listeners that today's event will contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Details of the forward-looking statements are contained in our May 15th news release, as well as on CEDAR Plus and on www.aya.goldsilver.com. With that, I would like to turn the conference over to AYA's President and CEO, Benoit Lassalle. Benoit, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Thank you, Ruth. Thank you, everyone, for being on the call this morning. As we indicated last time, 2024 is a transition year into a new AYA with a new production profile. So let me take you through some of the highlights of the quarter. So I will be on slide number three of the presentation that you have. So as the first milestone of the quarter, which I think is probably one of the most important ones, we've continued advancing the secondaire mine expansion to plan. We are on time and we are on budget for commissioning in Q2 2024, which means in June of 2024. An important element we had indicated previously that we were aiming for a stockpile of 260,000 tons of ore to start the commissioning. And I'm pleased to say that at the end of the quarter, we are at 275,000 tons of ore for commissioning of the new mill. Another milestone, we've delivered a steady quarter that provides runway for delivering objectives and guidance. We are maintaining guidance. In the quarter, we produced 366,000 ounces, which is lower than what some of you expected, but is in line with our planning because we knew that we were getting into lower-grade material. In the benches of the open pit mine, we had to strip the first two benches, which we knew were lower-grade and were oxidized. We also were getting into the underground stope extension. And in the stope extension, we had seen that there was lower grade material, but we wanted to get that material out before we start backfilling those stoves. So, and in addition, there's always some, you know, sequencing. The revenue for the quarter stand at 5.1 million. clearly lower than anticipated, but we know that we took 157,000 ounces of silver that we have now in inventory, and this is why we say that there's a temporary increase in silver concentrate, and we pushed those over to Q2, where we were able to get $4 an ounce improvement on the selling price. Hence, there's a net loss for the quarter of 2.5 million, and which also has directly affected our cash costs because of the lower production and the lower sale. It has directly affected our cash costs, which is at 20.31, which is not representative of the cash costs of this company going forward, nor it's a question of denominator in the quarter. As well, we end the quarter with improved liquidity. We closed the quarter with $111 million in cash and cash equivalent. You know we're reporting in U.S. dollars. So $111 million, which is a major improvement from the previous quarters. We threw down an additional $25 million on our EBRD loan for a total of $85 million. We won last yesterday a prize on the EBRD loan for Africa as one of the top natural resource loans in our industry. We finished the quarter with a strengthened portfolio. We delivered an updated Bumadid mineral resource on April 15th of this year. and which is a very strong baseline for continued development and expansion. Furthermore, we've also increased the land package at Boumadine. Currently, we've increased our land package by 346%. Moving on to slide number four, it's extremely important for us to tell you and to reiterate that we are maintaining guidance for the year. Though the production for Q1 is at 366,000 ounces, we're maintaining guidance between 2.6 and 3.2. We're maintaining our cash cost guidance between 13 and 14.5 and the average grade process between 215 and 240, regardless of the fact that in Q1 we were lower because we knew And I explained why we are lower and it was planned accordingly. The mill recoveries were at 81.8 in this quarter, lower than what we normally see. And this is because of oxidized material coming from the open pit. The oxidized material with our current two plants doesn't get the same recovery. In the new plant, it will get the same recovery of the high 80s or low 90s, but in the current two plants, it doesn't. So this is why this quarter we have a lower recovery. On the other hand, we have a very good availability KPI. The two plants were available at 96%, therefore extremely high KPIs on availability. Moving on to slide number five, just a quick chart. on tracking the last five quarters. So you see that the silver production is lower this quarter, but as we indicated 2024 is a transition year into a very strong 2025 year where the new plant will be in production. Same thing when you look at the bottom left, when you look at grade at 173, this is where, you know, this is the reality of what we mine in this quarter, but it does not represent the long-term grade of this project. Mill recoveries, I just explained it to you. The reason we lost five points is because of the oxidized material, something that will not happen again as we have taken off the two benches, the top benches of the open pit, and now we're into fresh rock. And the ton process, that is very, very good, and that's an extremely good point. The two plants are running extremely well, and we were running almost at 900 ton a day. You remember that when we took over four years ago, we were running at 200, 300 ton a day, and now we're running above main plate capacity, even above 15% main plate capacity. So this is a very strong KPI. Moving to page six, cash flow from operation, clearly because of the fact that we've delayed revenue and that we produce a little bit less than anticipated. We have a negative cash flow. However, the 10 million is overstated as we also reduce the payable by 9 million. So the operating cash flow from activity, if you remove the payable, is more like negative 1 million. The gross margin is affected because of the low revenue, which is a function of the fact that we pushed over 157,000 ounces of silver to Q2. Cost of sale is in line with the revenue that we've recognized. And the cash cost, as indicated, is a function of the denominator and does not represent the cash cost going forward. Moving to slide number eight, the Gounder expansion. We've been showing you monthly videos of the expansion. You can track it. You can see it. The expansion is moving smoothly. Very happy to say again at the end of this quarter that, you know, we are on budget and that we will be completing the planned expansion by the end of June before we get into commissioning and that we will be on budget as all the items have been secured. All the equipment is on site, and now it's really a matter of construction. The underground development is on track as well. 94% of the lateral development is done, and 83% of the vertical development is completed, though the vertical development is not the one that's needed for the commissioning. It's really more the lateral development. The important items that can always affect your timing, the power line, Merrill Crow, silver room, all of that is on time and on budget. It will all, you know, be completed in the next few weeks. The haulage and the open pit road, you've seen those on the videos. They're really looking very good. They're well done. and are functional at the moment. And the garage, you will see that hopefully in the next video. We have a beautiful underground garage that is complete and has been completed and is very well built. So all the civil and the concrete work is completed. The cyanidation tanks are there. the electrical substation you will see warehouse and workshop have been completed. So we are coming to the end of the construction in the next few weeks and getting into commissioning. Another element is we've been through a fourth audit by EBRD on all of our ESG for the loan, the $100 million loan that we have. So you see this on page 9. You see one of the water reservoir. You see the 87% completion of the plant, the electrical substation. And we have, therefore, completed the audit with EBRD. And for a fourth time, we are in compliance with all the requirements. Moving to slide 10 in the presentation, it's about exploration. AYA in 2024 will be drilling 145,000 meters on Boumadzine and on Secondaire, mainly obviously on Boumadzine, and at the end of the quarter, of a program of 15,000 meters at Gunder Main Zone, we have 8,700 meters completed. We have five drills, between five and six drills turning at Gunder at all time. And on this Gunder Regional, we've completed 3,000 meters out of 10,000 meters. There, we're working with the team on identifying targets and testing some targets on this Gunder Regional. Whereas on the secondaire mine, we're drilling the main structure, which we are mining now, and some very close structures that are to the east and to the south of the current mine. At Boumadine, where we're drilling, we have a program of 120,000 meters. At the end of the quarter, we were 11,332 meters done. That 120,000 meters, you recall, is divided into 60,000 meters to expand the 4.2 kilometer strike that was part of the resource update that we published on April 15. That is ongoing. And there's 60,000 meters on new targets. That is also ongoing. Furthermore, the mobile MT geophysics is probably 80% completed at Boumadine, and it just been completed at Tirzit. Moving to page 11, just in the quarter, we had some, again, very strong drill results at the main zone at Secondaire. We are 50% completed, as I just said, and some of the results, especially the ones getting closer to the granite at the bottom of the structure, we are hitting some very, very nice zone of 1,000 gram per ton over 13 meters and 322 gram per ton over 17 meters. So again, this is ongoing. There'll be more results. The drilling's going well. We have four underground drills that are turning 24-7, and we intend to have all of this drilled in the coming months. On page 12 is a review of the Boumadine permit. That's the first permit. That's the original permit. that you see on page 12. That's the one that we acquired in 2012, way before our time. And that's the one we did the geophysics 18 months ago and understood that there was a mineralized zone, which we've drilled. And that's on that mineralized zone that we've put out a resource of So as we indicated, it's 120,000 meter drill program. As of now, year to date, we're 27,000 meter done. At the end of the quarter, we were 15,000 meter done. And just recently this week, we put out some results. So it's post the end of the quarter, but it's within this week where we've announced that we've extended the mineralized zone from 4.2 kilometers up to 5 kilometers. You recall that this is a geophysics anomaly that we see at surface on 6 kilometers. We're also seeing it on surface, but not with the geophysics, to go all the way to the north of the border and going south as well. So this is our boom at the end project. And it's continuing, we're drilling on it, and we've added many, many new permits to increase the footprint of this district that we're currently developing. The MET tests were announced last year. Nothing new except that we're continuing the test and we're continuing the work to identify what method will be used in the processing, but that's going to come much later in the year. On page 13, you have just some recent highlights. of the drill results. Again, seeing some very good grade at Boumadine, a very good goal grade, you know, 6 gram per ton, 116 gram per ton silver, zinc, lead, and copper. This project is polymetallic, and the results that we showed you at the beginning of the week are, you know, extremely strong results. Moving to page 14 and 15, just a quick update of the resource that we put out on April 15. We had indicated an inferred resource. The summary is on page 15. What we were showing is in silver equivalent, it's 352 million ounces in silver equivalent and gold equivalent. it's 4.1 million ounces of gold equivalent. But at the end of the day, if you look at the metal per se, it's 72 million ounces of silver, and it's 2 million ounces of gold in the actual metal, all of that at very good grades. So it's a strong project. We will be reporting more results as we keep drilling. But that, on April 15th, we put out the first resource from our team, which is the beginning of many more updates to come in the months and years to come. Closing on the ESG and on page 16. As you all know, we're extremely involved locally. The ESG values are really within our values at AYA. and hence the reason where we were able to obtain that $100 million funding with EBRD. So we have, on health and safety, we have, you know, four small incidents this quarter. We had none last quarter. Four small incidents this quarter with subcontractors that, you know, where we had a few lost days. On the training, though, we've increased the number of hours by 150%. to almost 3,000 hours of health and safety training in the quarter. If you are part of our LinkedIn group, you will see pictures of the health and safety and all the programs that we have in place because we do post regularly what is being done on site. On the EBRD CTF, Milestones were 90% completed for the second milestone. You recall that this gives us a rate reduction, an interest rate reduction on our CTF funding. So we're almost there. We should be there in the next quarter. On community development, we have launched classrooms for children and for some of the villages on literacy classes, on math classes. And we have very good participation from the local communities. We also organize health clinics. So we had audiology clinics, mobile clinics in two of the villages around the mine. And we also have agriculture, which you know is a key value to AYA. And we do help the local population with agriculture. In the region where we are, it is saffron that is being cultivated and we are helping the local families and small farms with new technology and we're really helping them in getting better yield from their small farms to conclude um and and the takeaway and is that we uh is is is really moving on all cylinders uh with 120 thousand meters of drilling, seven drills are turning 24-7, results are coming in and this is a key asset to AYA and we are on track with the program and we are waiting for the geophysics because you see the picture on page 17, the helicopter with doing the geophysics. And we are on track to get the geophysics in June and the inversion of the geophysics in June in order to identify additional targets on all of the new permits that we have obtained and on our original permit as well. The second takeaway is 25,000 meters of drilling at Zgundea and Zgundea Regional. That is On tract, there's a team on this as well, and we're looking at many new targets. On the construction, the 2024 milestone for the plant expansion, as we indicated, commissioning will start. We will communicate when we start and what section of the plant is being commissioned, and you can expect that in the coming few weeks. We expect commercial production in Q4 of 2024. We're maintaining, again, guidance. We're maintaining cost and production guidance. So that is a fact, and we're saying it again. And we're also maintaining our ESG milestones and values. It's part of our values. It's part of our team. And that's something that we have completely integrated from top to bottom of the organization. And on page 18, I'd like to show you our power line. We're very proud of our power line. It is 340 pylons. It is beautiful power line high voltage that is coming from the bottom of the valley all the way up to 2200 meters where the plant is we have started commissioning it slowly or we with the government and it's it's where we're almost done we're almost done it's high voltage you remember it's green energy and It's a PPA. It's a 20-year PPA signed with the local company. It's green energy. It's high voltage. And it's less expensive than the current energy that we're receiving, which is you know, the regular grid. So this is almost done. It's an important project for the mine and it will be ready and commissioned for the beginning of commissioning of the other parts of the plant. So operator, that completes the official presentation of Q1. We are ready for questions.