Capstone Copper Corp.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Capstone Copper Q3 2023 results conference call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded today on Friday, 3rd of November, 2023. I would now like to turn over the conference to Gerald Annet. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to Capstone Copper's Q3 2023 conference call. Please note that the news release and regulatory filings announcing Capstone Copper's 2023 third quarter financial and operational results are available on our website and on CDAR. If you are logged into the webcast, we will advance the slides of today's presentation, which are also available in the Investors section of our website. I'm joined today by our CEO, John McKenzie, our President and COO, Kashil Maher, our Chief Financial Officer, Raman Randhawa, and our Senior Vice President, Risk, ESG, and General Counsel, Wendy King. Following our brief remarks, there will be an opportunity for questions. Please note that 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 John McKenzie.

Thanks, Gerald, and good morning, everyone. We're pleased to present our third quarter 2023 results and achievements, starting with slide five. I was in Chile last week, and I was thrilled to see how close we now are to finishing construction at our Monteverde development project. This project is the culmination of many years of dedicated effort by our team from the permitting and engineering to the mine build, and now we're approaching commissioning and first production. MVDP is transformational for capstone copper and will drive a step change improvement in our consolidated unit costs and a pathway to record operating cash flow generation. During the quarter, we progressed the project in line with our schedule, As at September 30th, we'd stockpiled approximately 5 million tons of sulphide ore, which positions us extremely well for the project ramp-up. We also commenced commissioning of the primary crusher and performed the first rotations of the sag and wall mills. Meanwhile, at our tailing storage facility, mass excavation was completed and both the starter wall and the cut-off trench are nearing completion. The project remains on time. with construction completion to occur by year-end. After that, we expect a six-month commissioning and ramp-up to the MVDP's nameplate capacity of 32,000 tons of oil per day. As we approach completion, we've updated our total capital cost estimate for the project to $870 million. This reflects an increase of 5% from our initial estimate in March 2022 of $825 million, and is largely driven by three factors. Firstly, inflationary impacts, mostly related to higher diesel prices on pre-stripping and tailings earthworks, corresponded to $20 million of the increase. Secondly, we've made several project improvements, including the purchase of additional retainers for best practice in concentrate transport and storage, a water reservoir, as well as additional camp and warehouse infrastructure. These project improvements contributed to another $20 million of the increase. The balance corresponds to additional forecast ramp-up and commissioning costs. We have provided a link with our news release and presentation materials to a video update of the project from early October. We're excited to be in the final stages of construction. Turning to slide six. We produced 40.3 thousand tons of copper. at consolidated C1 cash costs of $2.88 per pound in Q3. Production and costs were impacted by eight days of unplanned downtime in the crushing circuits at our Pinza Valley operation in Arizona, along with our continued debottlenecking efforts at Montes Blancos in Chile. Kozerman delivered another solid quarter, as the mine has now ramped up to full production levels using the new cut-and-fill mining method. production slightly improved on Q2, and we believe we are well positioned heading into Q4. Turning to slide seven, we are reiterating our consolidated guidance. Specifically, we continue to forecast second half production of 83 to 93,000 tons of copper. In terms of our C1 cash costs, we've noted that they are trending towards the upper end of our second half guidance range, of $2.55 to $2.75 per payable pound of copper produced. We've also reiterated our consolidated capital expenditure guidance for 2023, although we've reclassified certain expenditures by operation as displayed on the slide. I believe that we are well set up to have our strongest quarter of the year in Q4. Now I'll pass over to Raman for our financial results.