Capstone Copper Corp.

Good morning. My name is Colin, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Capstone Mining Q2 2021 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there'll 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'd like to withdraw your question, please press star, followed by two. Thank you. Mr. Annette, you may begin your conference. Good morning.

I'd like to welcome everyone on the call today. Please note that the news release and regulatory filings announcing Capstone's 2021 second quarter financial and operational results are available on our website and on CDAR. If you're logged into the webcast, we will be advancing slides of today's presentation, which is also available on our website. Joining me on the call today are our President and CEO, Darren Pilot, our Chief Financial Officer, Raman Randhawa, and our Chief Operating Officer, Brad Mercer. Following our brief remarks, there will be an opportunity for questions. Please note that the comments made on the call today will contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This information, by its nature, is subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today. For further information on the risks and uncertainties pertaining to our business, please see Capstone's most recent filings, which are available on our website and on CDAR. And finally, I'll just note that all amounts we will discuss today are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise specified. Now I'll turn the call over to Darren Pilot.

Thank you, Gerald, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start on the cover page of this presentation showing our tailings thickeners at Pinto Valley. The focus over the past several months has been to complete phase two of our PV3 optimization project, with the majority of this year's work at the back end of our operation. These upgrades will improve reliable throughput and water recovery capability, thereby decreasing water consumption. Turning now to slide number six, I'd like to mention our 2020 sustainability report, which we published recently and is available to download from the responsibility section of our website. This is Capstone's fifth annual sustainability report, and it follows on the summary report for the period of 2018 to June 2020, which we published last year. The report was prepared in accordance with the core option of the Global Reporting Initiative standards and discusses how our approach and long-standing commitment to sustainable mining practices continue to guide our vision of a responsible copper-focused mining company capable of generating value for all of our stakeholders. Our cross-functional ESG committee is currently developing our long-term ESG strategy to formalize our contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and we expect to incorporate this strategy into our 2021 sustainability report to be published next year. We're very proud of this achievement and commend our ESG team for their diligent work. We look forward to seeing their work reflected in our future results and ESG reporting initiatives going forward. Moving now to slide seven. During Q2 of this year, we produced 43.3 million pounds of copper at cash costs of $1.91 per pound, thanks to a record production quarter at our Cozum and mine and a strong quarter at Pinto Valley. in the context of a significant scheduled downtime as we focused on phase two PV3 optimization work. As of now, though, all the major work has been completed, and with that, we expect a strong second half to the year. I'm very pleased with Cozumel's performance as it was the first full quarter at expanded production rates of 3,800 tons per day, and the mine achieved the highest quarterly production in its history of 13.8 million pounds of copper in the quarter at a dollar per pound cash cost, which is at the low end of our cost guidance. Over now to slide number eight. Q2 financial performance was another record-setting quarter in Capstone's history, with 128 million in adjusted EBITDA and 110 million in adjusted after-tax operating cash flow. Our cash balance has significantly increased to $172 million at quarter end, and it's incredible to look back a year ago and see what a difference a year makes. We have added $336 million of cash onto our balance sheet over the past 12 months, or $1.03 per share. Slide number nine now, and as I mentioned, this was a record quarter for Capstone, and this wouldn't have been possible if we hadn't invested into our future during the tough years of 2019 and 20. Both our mines are now operating at optimized levels and well-timed in this $4 copper environment. At Santa Domingo, we are making great progress on infrastructure sharing, capital reduction, and financing discussions, and we expect to have an announcement on this during the third quarter. Over now to slide number 10. Q2 EBITDA of $128 million, Beat Street Consensus of $100 million, and first half tax operating cash flow of $205 million demonstrates our cash generation capability as we approach a permitted transformational growth phase with San Domingo Construction next year. On slide 11, to put things into perspective, This chart shows this year's operating cash flow performance on June 30th compared to our historical quarterly results.

Now over to Raman. Thanks, Darren. We are now on slide 12. Our cash balance has increased quarter over quarter by $127 million to $172 million as of June 30th. We have an undrawn $225 million corporate revolver, which gives us just under $400 million of current liquidity and growing in this $4 copper price environment. I'm very proud of how efficient we are turning cash flow from operations into cash bills onto the balance sheet. This has come as a result of keeping our corporate G&A low and not having to deal with interest on debt, given we have been debt-free since early Q1. Our year-to-date EBITDA of $247 million, if you annualize that as approximately $500 million, is a good indicator of our financing capacity as we look forward to Santo Domingo. In addition, we are benefiting from input cost hedges we put in place during COVID-19 back in 2020. For example, at Pinto Valley, we fixed diesel prices for the majority of our planned consumption for 2021 and 2022, resulting in approximately $2 million of rely savings in the first half of 2021, and we expect rely savings at current prices of approximately $5 million through the end of 2022. We hedged fuel at $1.76 per gallon for this year, and current spot is around $2.35 per gallon. just for reference. In addition, we hedged the Mexican peso at 23 pesos to US dollar, which is providing additional gains of $3 million for 2021. Turning to slide 13, our initial 2021 total capital guidance of 128 million issued in January was based on a 275 copper price environment. It also assumed we own 70% of Santo Domingo versus our current 100% ownership. The 100% ownership resulted in an increase of 9 million, And another $11 million related to a few carryover items, commencement of brownfields exploration drilling, plus the decision to greenlight the cobalt pre-feasibility study, which has now entered phase two. An increase of $22 million will be spent this year at Pindle Valley with one-time optimization investments in water management and tailings and accelerated stripping, which you've seen in Q2, and additional expansionary capital related to advancing the PV4 study, and a booster station for jetty-assisted dump leach production. Overall, the increased spend is from a position of strength as we look forward to further investing in our business for growth and sustainability. Our previous capital investments during a period of sub-$3 copper prices in PB3 optimization and the Cozumel ramp are now paying significant dividends and align well with our focus on low-capital and high-return projects. Now we're on slide 14. In anticipation of a financing deal and construction decision on San Domingo, we had the project team update the initial capital estimate. You may recall the initial capital estimate is tied to the original 2018 feasibility study, which was further updated in 22 for capital certainty. The reduced capital estimate has increased by only $35 million. The increase primarily relates to labor materials, including increased steel prices and cost inflation, including updated process plan and line equipment quotations as well. Overall, the capital increase is approximately 10%, as one may expect, but largely offset by a change in the assumed U.S. dollar to Chilean peso exchange rate from 600 to 700. Spot Chilean peso is currently around 760, and we could hedge this in our favor once a construction decision has been made. Updating the capital estimate provides additional assurance prior to a construction decision. Now I'll turn it over to Brad to provide a review of the operations.

Thank you, Roman. Good morning, everyone. For our listeners, we are now on slide 15. It was a very busy quarter of Pentel Valley with phase two of PV3 optimization work leading to a significant planned downtime. Mill throughput averaged just under 50,000 tons per day, which was similar to Q3 of 2020, where most of the phase one optimization work took place. We did see some minor production impacts due to workforce workforce shortages as there were road closures and evacuations due to several wildfires in the area. High recoveries of nearly 89% copper and improved head grades in the quarter of 0.33 helped deliver an overall strong result in light of the lower on-line time in the mill. PV4 study work is making good progress with the jetty catalytic column leach test kicking off and underway over the next 9 to 12 months. An internal feasibility study for Ares Hydrofloat continues as further engineering work is needed to dovetail this technology with a tailings management strategy that we intend to incorporate within the PV4 expansion. Another project, pyrite agglomeration and low capex, potentially high impact project with strong environmental benefits as it would divert a stream of acid generating minerals away from the tailings storage facilities. A tailings stream from flotation containing pyrite and chalcopyrite will be agglomerated with dumped leach feed, and the result would lower sulfuric acid purchases and increase copper cathode production, recovering extra copper from the tailings. Turning to slide 16, ball mill number three was safely replaced at Pinto Valley in 30% less time this year than ball mill four's replacement last year. which was an incredible feat and clearly shows the operation's focus on continuous improvement. The major focus for phase two optimization has been upgrades to tailings thickeners and related tailings infrastructure. The upgrades will allow for higher recycled water rates and higher throughputs. We have also commenced the restart of our molybdenum flotation circuit during July and expect to ramp up production over the second half of 21. MOLLE prices have increased $8 per pound to over $18 per pound this year, which makes this an attractive byproduct at this time. Moving on to slide 17, Cozumel ramp up is complete with the mill averaging over 3,800 tons per day. You'll recall that was the target in the tech report in Q2. Graves average 1.86% during the quarter. And with the higher grades, we saw slightly improved copper recovery at 96.3. The mine realized record cash flow of 46 million during the quarter, which was an outstanding performance. We're very proud of this team. Construction of dry stack tailings and paste backfill facilities are in progress and on schedule. The purchase of long lead items is complete. The first full year of the operation will be in 2023. 23, construction ending in 22. And we are excited about getting this plant installed as it will maximize the extraction of high-grade ore from this world-class asset. Excuse me. Exploration at Cozumel has been focused on the west end of the Malinoche footwall zone with two surface rigs. And we are developing two west exploration drifts and cross cuts, and they are progressing well as well. Once they are completed, they will allow for easier infill drilling from underground in early 2022. Now on to slide 18. We believe the Santo Domingo cobalt project could result in one of the lowest cost cobalt producers outside of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 20 million cobalt pre-feasibility study announced in Q1 is progressing according to schedule and has entered phase two. A geochemical model is being developed to quantify pyrotiferous cobalt distribution throughout the ore body, which guided the location of drill holes for the current drill program, from which more samples will be obtained for further plant optimization testing. The drilling campaign started in May of 21, and from samples we will use to develop a 3D geometallurgical pyrite cobalt flotation model And in parallel, engineering activities will continue to bring cobalt plant design, the current PEA, to a full FS study in 2022. Capstone expects to provide an update to the market on metallurgical work, process flow sheet design, updated cobalt reserves and resources in Q1 of 2022. Now with that, I'll pass it back to Derek.

Thank you, Brad. We added this slide, number 19, because the mining tax in Chile has been top of mind for many investors and our shareholders. Santa Domingo is fortunate to have a 15-year tax stability agreement that commences following commercial production. This is clearly a significant attribute and it's being recognized as such by the numerous partners and potential partners we are engaging with. We view Chile as a top mining jurisdiction to invest in and expect it to stay this way. On now to slide 20. We've been executing on our plan to become a 200 million pound producer of copper by next year. And with San Domingo under construction, we will have over 100% production growth by 2024 with lower costs in the future to look forward to. The PV3 optimization investments we have made at Pinto Valley to increase production, improve metallurgical and environmental performance, and decrease costs have been delivering great results with the project wrapped up we expect to see sustainable operations moving forward. I'm excited about the true potential for Pinto Valley being unlocked in the upcoming PV4 study due to be released next year. Slide 21. Innovation is key to unlocking incredible value for us at Capstone, and we look to apply a number of technologies, including the jetty catalytic leaching to boost copper cathode production from low-grade material and Aries coarse particle flotation to boost copper recovery by 6% or higher. At Cozumel, I'm pleased that our paste backfill plant and dry stack tailings plant is on schedule and on budget. This project will give the mine optionality as we look to extend the mine life well into the 2030s. I'm also pleased that our paste backfill and dry stack tailings plant is on schedule as it will also ensure strong operational performance and extend the mine life. At Santo Domingo, the project is advancing at a fast pace right now, and along with the port deal, we are focused on rail and other infrastructure sharing agreements to reduce the capital outlay as well as lower risk. Over the coming months, we expect to have both the strategic partnership and financing announced for Santo Domingo and that will keep us on track to delivering transformational growth for our shareholders. We're in a strong position to execute this project as our cash balance is building. Before we open the call for questions, and on slide 22, we would like to acknowledge and thank all the emergency response crews and volunteers who worked tirelessly to control the wildfires that broke out in Arizona last month, and in particular, the Telegraph and Mezcal incidents, which prompted evacuations in neighboring communities and briefly disrupted communications and supplies to our Pinto Valley mine. Pinto Valley's infrastructure and personnel were always safe, and we are always very grateful for that. We are proud of the key role that our team plays in disaster prevention and emergency response efforts, and we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to support the communities in which we operate to preserve their well-being and the integrity of the environments around us, because we're all in this together. So with that, we'll open the floor to any questions anybody may have.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star, followed by one on your touchtone phone. You'll hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be polled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star, followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment for your first question. Okay, so your first question comes from Oris Walkada from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. On the Santo Domingo process, I mean, your release talks about decision with respect to partnership and financing in the third quarter. So clearly we're pretty close to the finish line on that. I'm just curious at this stage, have you determined what the ultimate structure will look like? I remember when we talked three months ago, there were multiple tracks in terms of ownership for Capstone, 50%, 70%, 100% options. I realize things are not finalized, but can you give us an idea of which track is the most likely outcome at this point?

Yeah, thanks, Horst. It's Darren here. Yeah, you know, as you can imagine, it's been a little frustrating with COVID and then with Chile coming out with some, you know, noise around taxes and royalties. And so having to just understand how that's going to play forward and understanding our strong position with our DL-600 and our tax stability agreement is create a little bit of extra work for us in this process. But I guess I can't say a lot about the structure, obviously, but I can say that Capstone's desire is to own as much of the project as we can with our balance sheet and financing capabilities growing at this $4 copper environment. And we view this project as a tier one asset. So we'd like to own as much as we can. So on that dual track process, that'll give you a bit of guidance.

Is there a scenario where Capstone could proceed on its own at 100%?

We are not contemplating that scenario right now, no. We would like to have a partner. Yeah, no, we would like to have and feel very strongly that we will have a partner there.

Okay, I'll leave it there. Thank you, Darren.

Your next question comes from Dalton Barreto from Canaccord. Dalton, please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, Darren and team. I just kind of want to pick up where Oris left off there. So Darren, you said you do want to own as much of this project as you can. But I mean, how much you can own of the project is probably a function of who the partner is, right? And whether it's a mining company or, you know, like an offtake partner, as we've talked about. And so I'm curious as to whether having another mining company build a project is completely off the table now, given that you want to own as much of the project as possible.

Well, at this point, until we get it finalized, Dalton, then nothing is off the table, right, because we haven't finalized it. But I will say, again, what I said to Oris was we would like to own as much of the project as we can, but also including a minority partner in there at least.

Okay. And then as you move forward on the financing side of things, given where copper prices are, are you considering hedging over the construction period?

Are we considering hedging copper during the construction period? Is that what your question is? That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. Well, everything is up for consideration. And obviously, we look at the copper price and understand how that affects the project going forward. And depending on the capital contribution to Capstone and the risk to the balance sheet, it is on the table for sure. Not 100% there yet, depending on, again, how much of the capital contribution we do have to commit. based on who our partners. But yeah, absolutely, it will be up for consideration to insulate the balance sheet and keep it strong.

Got it. Okay. And then just maybe switching gears, we've talked in the past about some of these regional opportunities around the Pinto Valley. Just curious as to where you're at on that and how you're thinking about those in the context of PB4, or how you're thinking about PB4 in the context of these opportunities.

Yeah, no, that's a great question. So PV4, as Brad mentioned on the call, the technical report is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of next year. And that's due mostly to the length of time needed for the jetty call and leach testing. You need nine to 12 months of testing before you can call anything a reserve there. And we expect to get at least half of the waste that we would strip from PV4 would hopefully come back as as ore through this process, allowing our stripping costs to be significantly lower than what you'd normally get at a mine. So that's the PV4 tech report, and that tech report will encompass everything on our property and only with us, only with our infrastructure and resources and reserves. And then, of course, there's, as you mentioned, the regional opportunity that's on top of that, and we continue to make extremely good processes progress, excuse me, discussing synergies with our neighbors around us. So we feel good about potential partnerships with our neighbors, and that's advancing month by month, week by week, and feel good about significantly consolidating the district in kind of the near-term future.

Got it. And then just maybe one last one from me. Any concerns around water rights as you think about the PV4 expansion?

Any concerns around – well, water is always a concern where we operate in air climates, being Arizona, Mexico, and Chile. It's top of mind. And also from an ESG perspective, us conserving and recycling as much water as we can is extremely important. So it'll always be one of our top risks and top – things that we focus on, but we currently have a situation where we do have the water to operate where we are currently and also at the rates we're thinking of around PV4.

Perfect. That was my question. Thanks very much, Darren.

Thank you, Don. Your next question comes from Stefan Aionu from Cormark Securities. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much, guys. Just kind of curious, with sort of the transition of the whole Jetty idea from sort of PV3 into, of course, I guess more sort of fully detailed in PV4, I think there was some talk about a PV3 study coming out late this year just to sort of update the market as to exactly what that's looking like. Is that still the plan, or should we just sort of look to the PV4 study in late 2022 as the next big tech report at Pinto Valley?

Yeah, you're right, Stefan. We were... Originally planning on the end of this year to incorporate some of these PV3 optimization projects that we've completed into the report, but decided because we hadn't put out a report for so long to update it earlier, which is the one that just came out. And so, yeah, we won't put one out now until the end of next year, which will incorporate the PV3 optimized projects that are done and then also include... the jetty and other things into the PV4 study and do one report at the end of next year.

Okay, okay, great. And then just on Cozum and obviously the whole, you know, the dry stack tailings work is going ahead. Is the other Impact 23 initiatives, are they continuing as sort of previously detailed as well?

Yeah, and Stefan, what I'll do is I'll pass that one to Brad to answer because he's got more of the detail on that one, but good question.

Yes, absolutely. We are, you know, we're continuing to explore for extensions to the zone out to the west. We brought in Sandvik to help us train on getting better drill blast procedures, higher tons per meter. That's going well. The other one is we are testing a number of ore sorting technologies. Bench scale testing looks very, very promising. Because if you'll recall, there's about 7 million tons of resources that are not in reserves. We think the best chance to get those in reserves are to target through ore sorting. So we wouldn't sort everything that would all be in the body. We would select the more problematic higher dilution areas that are not currently in reserves, send them to the bottom of the mine near the shaft, sort them there, and bring them up the shaft. That's the concept. We are well into testing the two technologies and will be making a decision probably in the next budget year. Okay, great, great.

And maybe just one last housekeeping question for me. Just, you know, given the rise in copper price, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's some payables due on the Minto sale, just given that copper price has done so well. Is that something that's going to be coming through in the next quarter or so, or where are we at on that?

Yeah, no, based on copper price and where we're at, we would expect by year end to get the remaining payments. I believe it's $15 million based on the copper price. So looking forward to having that additional capital on the balance sheet and happy that the Minto mine is continuing to flourish under these strong copper prices.

Okay, great to hear. Thanks very much, guys. Appreciate it.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star, followed by one. Your next question comes from Craig Hutchinson from TD Securities. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys. My question is on Pinto Valley. At the start of the year, you guys were targeting 56,000 or 57,000 tons per day for the year. And then going into next year, serving the range of 60 to 63,000 tons per day. Is that still the case? Do you guys think you're going to be above 60,000 tons per day starting and getting next year?

Hey, Craig. Yeah, it's Darren. Yeah, exactly. You know, you saw us put, you know, Q4, Q1 of this year. We did run Q4 last year, Q1 this year. We did run it 56, 57. And and can operate the mine and operation up at 60 or even higher. And then, of course, getting into the PV3, most of the optimization work occurred over this last quarter. Our rates dropped down, but with most of the maintenance behind us, we were back up at that 56,000. Expect to do that for the balance of this year. And with some more work on our back end and tailings, We expect to be up at six-year higher next year, as we said.

Okay, great. And in terms of the spend in the areas hydro flow, should we assume no spend this year and next, and that the spend would come more likely in 2023?

Yeah, that's correct. We will do some more engineering as part of our PV4 study, but we're going to put it The bulk of that would come after that study comes out with the capital, with PV4. We realize that the Yaries works extremely well at Pinot Valley. It boosts recovery, but we do need to solve the rest of it to tie it all in together. It doesn't work as a standalone, so it does have to be part of the PV4 capital and study. You won't see that spend come in until post-2022. Okay, great.

And you mentioned earlier in comments, you know, discussing synergies with your neighbors around Pinto Valley. Are you guys looking at a possible partnership to pick up some of the additional resources in and around Pinto?

Well, there's a lot of synergies. There's excess water that is around the area that needs to be treated by our neighbors that we could potentially take on and use on our dump leeches and recover that copper responsibly. There's additional copper resources that Some of our neighbors would never mind themselves. So there's lots of synergies, and it makes sense for all of us to be helping each other out to produce a sustainable, environmentally friendly operation going forward. And we do have the willingness of our neighbors to engage in that. So there's a lot of synergies from water to copper to brownfield infrastructure as well.

One last question for me. Just on Santo Domingo, should we assume you'll have offtake agreements in place in Q3 here with the financing and partnership discussions?

I wouldn't assume that. I mean, we're very fortunate that not only Santo Domingo, but all of our concentrate is currently unencumbered to long-term offtake agreements. And all of our concentrate is extremely clean with no deleterious... So that's a strong asset to have when you're acquiring a potential partnership. So it's on the table for sure, but I wouldn't assume that that is definitely a part of any agreement necessarily. Okay.

Understood. Thanks, guys.

Your next question comes from John Tomazov from John Tomazov Independent Research. John, please go ahead.

Thank you very much. In terms of shareholder dividends, is that something that we should think about three to five years from now when Santa Domingo is built through the commissioning stage, hitting the tons per day metrics in the feasibility study? Or is it something that could develop sooner?

Thanks, John. That's a very good question, this strong copper environment. And, you know, we think about that a lot. And, you know, the short answer is you're right. As long as we're turning $1 into $3 or $4 with these high-return projects initially around Pino Valley and Cozumel, but as you mentioned, the big transformational asset is San Domingo in the future. So we would like to see that asset built, and our capital will be dedicated to that until we understand – how much needs to be allocated. And then we have this tier one asset producing extremely strong cash flows in all parts of the copper price cycle. And we would then look, as you mentioned, to put in a dividend policy and be able to return meaningful cash to our patient shareholders. So yeah, that is the current thinking exactly as you've outlined it.

Thank you and good luck.

There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn it back to Darren for closing remarks.

Okay. Well, thank you, operator, and thank you all of you for joining us on the call today. We will release our Q3 results in October, and I look forward to updating you on progress then. In the meantime, don't hesitate to contact us with any additional questions you may have, and keep observing your local health officials' directive to stay healthy and safe. Have a great day, everybody.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.