Copper Mountain Mining Corporation

Morning, my name is Kelsey and I'll be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Copper Mountain Mining Corporation third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to avoid any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by the two. Please note that comments made today that are not of a historical factual nature may contain forward-looking statements. This information by its nature is subject to risk and uncertainties that may cause the stated outcome to differ materially from actual outcomes. Please refer to slide two of today's presentation in Copper Mountain's third quarter 2021 management's discussion and analysts for more information. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Gil Claussen, President and CEO of Copper Mountain. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. We are starting on slide three. With me presenting are Rod Shire, our Chief Financial Officer, and Eric Dell, our Senior Vice President of Operations. Also joining us today is Don Strickland, Executive Vice President of Sustainability. I'll begin by providing a brief summary of the quarter. Eric will give a more detailed discussion on our operation and Rod will speak to our financial results. I'll conclude with an expiration update and our outlook, then we'll open up the call to questions. Turning to slide four. We continue to have a solid quarter with production increase relative to the third quarter of last year. Production was marginally lower than the second quarter of 2021 due to lower grade ore coming from phase two of the main pit. We expect a higher proportion of phase two ore in Q4 with the commissioning ramp up of ball mill number three. Eric will get into more details on the mine sequencing plan. Year to date, we've had a strong production year and we're on track to achieve our production guidance of 90 to 100 million pounds of copper which was revised upward last quarter. C1 cash costs increased this quarter due to higher haulage costs. Last year's mining costs were lower as we revised our mine plan in response to the lower metal prices associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This quarter, sustaining capital was higher due to new contact water management systems being installed. In addition, we advanced the development of the phase four pushback of the main pit, which increased some deferred stripping in the quarter. As a result, all-in cost per pound was slightly higher in the quarter at US $2.17. Year-to-date, all-in cost is $1.97 due to the inflationary impacts basically of fuel and steel grinding media. And for the year, we expect to be at the very top of our 2021 AIC guidance range of $1.80 US to $2 a pound US. Notably, in the quarter, we successfully installed and commissioned and, you know, commenced commissioning of ball mill number three, rather. We will now begin to increase throughput to 45,000 tons per day and improve grind size and recovery. We also continued exploration drilling and announced some significant results at New Ingerbell and Cameron Copper in Australia. I'll go into that a little later in the call. I'll now turn the call over to Eric who will detail our operating results and development plan.

Thanks Gil. I want to first start with an update on safety. To begin, we had no lost time injuries in the third quarter. Our total injury frequency rate this year continues to trend lower and our leading indicators are trending positively. I'll now move on to production. Turning to slide 5. The mine continued to perform in line with expectations. Production remained strong and was more moderate compared to the first half of the year as ore supply transitioned out of the higher grade portion of the main pit. Mill feed grade in Q3 was 0.37% copper. Phase 2 ore supply will increase in this quarter. This will result in a lower mill feed grade and production in Q4, while we continue to commission and ramp up production on Ball Mill 3. Seven million tons of waste was moved from Phase 4 during the quarter, accounting for 62% of the total waste movement. Phase 4 mining is continuing to progress, and it will be the primary source of higher grade ore for 2022 and 2023. The one-kilometer trolley ramp construction is complete. with 0.4 million tons of material moved during the quarter. The installation of trolley power poles and electrical power supply lines continued in the quarter, with completion expected in early 2022. The project is on schedule for commissioning in the first half of 2022.