Capstone Copper Corp.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Capstone Copper's 4th 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 TAR 0 for the operator. This call is being recorded on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel Sampieri. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. I'd like to welcome everyone to Capstone Copper's Q4 2024 conference call. Please note that the news release and regulatory filings announcing Capstone Copper's 2024 fourth 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 am joined today by our CEO, John McKenzie. our President and Chief Operating Officer, Kashil Mar, our SVP and Chief Financial Officer, Raman Randhawa, and our SVP Risk, ESG, and General Counsel, Wendy King. Our Head of Chile, Jim Whitaker, and our Head of Technical Services, Peter Emelungsen, are also available at the end of the call 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, Daniel. And hello to all of you dialing in from the Americas, Europe, Australia, and all around the globe. We're pleased to present our fourth quarter 2024 results and achievements. 2024 was a big year for us as we commissioned and ramped up Monteverde and achieved design throughput rates at Montes Blancos. This coming year represents an inflection point with our recently released 2025 guidance demonstrating increased cash flow generation, strong copper production growth, and lower costs. We'll be focused on operational execution across our portfolio and further deleveraging of our balance sheet while continuing to advance our pipeline of organic growth opportunities. Starting with slide five. In Q4, our operations delivered record consolidated copper production of 53.9 thousand tons at consolidated C1 cash costs of $2.56 per pound. It was our strongest quarter of the year with respect to production and costs, and that translated into our best quarter of the year from a financial perspective. For the full year 2024, we produced a record 184.5,000 tons of copper at consolidated C1 cash costs of $2.77 per pound, representing a 12% increase in output compared to 2023. Last year was marked by several major achievements at our mines in Chile. After producing first copper concentrates in June at our flagship Montevideo development project, we achieved commercial production levels in September, and the mill ramped up to full rates by year end within the previously announced $870 million capital budget. This is a significant accomplishment, and I would like to thank our team for their commitment and dedication during the past three years in delivering this milestone. To start the year, I'm pleased to announce that in January, we averaged above our nameplate throughput capacity at Monteverde, with a mill throughput of 33,409 tons per day. I know that our team is eager to demonstrate what the new Monteverde sulfide concentrator is capable of. and that the team remains hard at work preparing to execute on our Monteverde-optimized project. Meanwhile, at Montes Blancos, we unlocked the design mill capacity of the operation through a successful de-bottlenecking of the back end of the plant, ending the year above design mill throughput in November and December. This continued in January, with a third consecutive month achieving above targeted mill capacity of 20,000 tons per day. Our finish to the year at Pinto Valley was sub-par, but we're laser focused on progressing our asset integrity program to ensure we consistently achieve the design capacity of the operation. Whilst delivering our near-term growth, we've also advanced our future phases of growth by releasing attractive and executable feasibility studies for the Monteverde Optimized and the neighboring Santo Domingo projects in the second half of 2024. On the corporate side, during 2024, we took steps to improve our balance sheet strength and flexibility, marked by a reduction in our net debt by $185 million compared to 2023. Our balance sheet is in excellent shape, and we're committed to deleveraging further through internally generated cash flows prior to our next major phase of growth. Turning to slide six, as I noted, This year represents an inflection point for Capstone. In 2025, we're targeting 220 to 255,000 tons of copper production at cash costs between $2.20 to $2.50 per pound. As we focus on operational execution across the portfolio, we will advance our pipeline of organic growth opportunities to continue the transformation of our business. And with that, I'll pause over to Robin for our financial results.