Capstone Copper Corp.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the capstone copper first quarter 2024 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 on Thursday May 2, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gerald Annette. Please go ahead.

Hello. I'd like to welcome everyone to Capstone Copper's Q1 2024 conference call. Please note that the news release and regulatory filings announcing Capstone Copper's 2024 first 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 meeting 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. Good afternoon, everyone in North America and Europe, and good morning to those dialing in from Australia. We're pleased to present our first quarter 2024 results and achievements. Starting with slide five, we produced just over 42,000 tons of copper at consolidated C1 cash costs, of $2.88 per pound in Q1, and we're reiterating our 2024 guidance. We've started off the year strongly, with production close to the midpoint of our first half guidance range. Our sulfide cash costs of $2.55 per pound were also at the midpoint of our guidance, while costs in our smaller cathode business were higher than planned. As a reminder, with our transformational Monteverde development project ramping up this year, Sulfites will make up a significantly larger proportion of our production base, contributing to a reduction in our consolidated cash costs. The MVDP remains on track and on budget. We're on the cusp of producing first saleable concentrate, and our team is focused on ramping up production to the design run rate levels. I was in Chile a couple of weeks ago, and I spent some time at site reviewing our progress and meeting with our team. I'm very pleased with the work done to date and believe the future of Montevade looks extremely positive. As part of my meetings in Chile, I attended a SESCO dinner where President Gabriel Boric reiterated the government's desire to continue to develop an investor-friendly environment for copper miners with the objective of increasing foreign private investments in copper mining. This bodes well for capstone copper as we progress our feasibility studies for MVDP-optimized and our Santo Domingo project in the Atacama region, which we plan to release by the middle of the year. On the corporate side, our net debt decreased substantially from $927 million at year-end 2023 to $740 million at the conclusion of the first quarter. Our balance sheet is in excellent shape as we ramp up Monteverde ahead of our next leg of growth. Also of note in the quarter, Orion Mine Finance, which was previously our largest shareholder, reduced their ownership position from 24% to 12%, following two secondary placements of shares. Orion's second sell-down of the quarter was placed directly into Australia via our secondary listing, which trades on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol CSC. We're encouraged by the success of our CDIs to date. and we believe we're on track to be considered for the ASX 300 index rebalance in September. The ASX is a premium market with a long track record as a platform for mining companies, and we're excited to continue growing our investor base in the Asia-Pacific region. And with that, I'll pass over to Raman for our financial results.