DPM Metals Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Dundee Precious Metals 3rd Quarter 2021 Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask your question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today. Jennifer Cameron, please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. I'm Jennifer Cameron, Director in Best Relations, and I'd like to welcome you to our third quarter conference call. Joining me today are David Ray, President and CEO, Hume Kyle, Chief Financial Officer, and Michael Dworkman, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development. After the close of business yesterday, we released our third quarter results, and I hope you've had an opportunity to review our materials. All forward-looking information provided during this call is subject to the forward-looking qualification which is detailed in our news release and incorporated in full for the purposes of today's call. Certain financial measures referred to during this call are not measures recognized under IFRS and are referred to as non-GAAP measures. These measures have no standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to the similar measures presented by other companies. The definitions established and calculations performed by DPM are based on management's reasonable judgment and are consistently applied. These measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures prepared in accordance with IFRS. Please refer to the non-GAAP financial measures section of our most recent MD&A for reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures. Please note, that unless otherwise stated, operational and financial information communicated during this call are related to continuing operations and have generally been rounded, references to 2020 pertain to the comparable periods in 2020, and references to averages are based on midpoints of our outlook or guidance. I'll now turn the call over to David Ray.

Thanks, Jennifer. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us. As you've seen from our news release circulated last night, I'm pleased to report that DPM delivered another strong quarter, with gold production and cost performance driving our financial results. Highlights from our results include production of approximately 72,000 ounces of gold and 8.3 million pounds of copper, a continued focus on cost performance at all operations, which realized an oil and sustaining cost for the quarter of $701 per gold ounce, Strong financial results, including free cash flow of $69 million and adjusted net earnings of $53 million for the quarter. And continued growth in our financial strength, exiting the quarter with cash and short-term investments of $270 million. With the strength of our results year-to-date, I am pleased to say that we are on track to meet our guidance for metals production and all in sustaining cost. Turning now to the highlights for our operations, I'll start with Chalifetch. At Chalapetch, we continue to deliver steady results, producing 38,434 ounces of gold and 8.3 million pounds of copper at an all-in sustaining cost of $752 per ounce. We continue to focus on extending the mine life through our in-mine and brown fuels exploration programs. And just this week at Spedepetka, the contract has been signed for a one-year extension to the exploration license, allowing us to move forward with commercial discovery phase work. We anticipate commencing a drill program in the first quarter of next year with 5,000 meters of drilling planned for Q1. During the quarter, significant effort was dedicated to testing conceptual targets within the Breveni Exploration License, as well as the completion of scout drilling at several near-mine prospects, including Bosdell, Petrosden, and Charlotte Erie. With mineral resources that now extend to 2029, an updated mineral resource base and increased in-mine and brownfield exploration drilling, we believe there's strong potential to continue our track record of mine life extension at Chelefench. Adatepe has continued to deliver impressive performance, producing approximately 33,000 ounces of gold in the third quarter at an all-in sustaining cost of $648 per ounce. We are continuing our exploration efforts around Adatepe with 23,000 meters of drilling planned for the year, including 9,000 meters of additional resorts and conceptual target extension on the mine concession, as well as advancing the Chapel Caia and other prospects on regional licenses. During the quarter, exploration activities at Atatepe were focused on an extensive target delineation campaign that encompassed CERNAC, SCALAC, SINAP, and COCLITSA, as well as regional licenses, including Chirite and the newly granted Krimovica exploration license. And for those of you who don't know about Crimobitsa, it's an exploration license immediately around our concession of just over 18,000 hectares. Turning to SUMEB, this melter processed approximately 50,100 tons of complex concentrate during the third quarter, which was below our expectations as a result of a water leak in the off-gas system of the off-smelt. Despite lower than expected throughput, cash cost performance was strong with a cost of complex concentrates melted of $393 per ton. Reflecting the unplanned maintenance, we now expect complex concentrates melted to be approximately 195,000 to 200,000 tons, down from our previous guidance for the year of 200,000 to 220,000 tons. Moving to our outlook and growth, in terms of future growth, we made a significant addition to our project development pipeline this quarter with the acquisition of the high-quality Loma Laga project in Ecuador. We believe this project fits extremely well with our core strengths and our proven track record as an environmentally and socially responsible mining company. Based on the feasibility study completed by the previous owner, in its first five years of operation, Loma Laga has the potential to produce 200,000 ounces of gold, adding meaningful low-cost production growth to our portfolio. Following closing of the acquisition at the end of July, we have been focused on integration activities, stakeholder engagement, reviewing the technical studies and permitting schedule, as well as progressing discussions in respect of an investor protection agreement with the government. We are targeting completion of a revised feasibility study for Loma Laga and receipt of major environmental permits towards the end of 2022, which we expect to be followed by finalization of the exploitation agreement with the government and receipt of construction permits. We're also developing a strategy for the exploration concessions we hold in Ecuador. An exploration program consisting of geophysical surveys, prospecting, mapping, and sampling will be completed in the coming months and will be used to determine precise drilling targets and to plan further exploration activities. Turning to TMOC in Serbia, we completed the pre-feasibility study earlier this year, outlining potential production of approximately 80,000 gold ounces per year at a low-cost production over its first six years, and subsequently initiated a feasibility study As we advance the feasibility study, we have several initiatives underway that are directed at reducing the initial capital estimate, which is currently estimated to be $211 million, and to optimize overall economics. In parallel to that feasibility study, we're also evaluating the upside potential from the sulfide portion of the ore body. Completion of the feasibility study is on track at this point for the second quarter of 2022. In closing, to wrap up on the quarter, our strong gold production profile and significant free cash flow generation, combined with our operating track record and unique skills in innovation and building strong partnerships with local communities, positions us well to continue delivering value for all of our stakeholders. We are committed to deploying our capital in a disciplined manner, as we have demonstrated with the addition of a high-quality gold project to our development pipeline in the quarter. We also continue to pay a sustainable quarterly dividend and more recently used our NCIB to repurchase 1.6 million shares in the quarter. We firmly believe that DPM's strong fundamentals continue to represent the compelling value opportunity for investors. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Hume for a review of our financial results, following which we'll open the call to questions.