DPM Metals Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Dundee Precious Metals Third Quarter 2022 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 a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jennifer Cameron, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. I'm Jennifer Cameron, Director of Investor Relations, and I'd like to welcome you to Dundee Precious Metals' third quarter conference call. Joining us today are David Ray, President and CEO, and Hume Kyle, Chief Financial Officer. 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 or ratios. These measures have no standardized meaning under IFRS, and may not be comparable to 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. Also, 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 2021 pertain to the possible periods in 2021 and references to averages are based on midpoints of our outlook or guidance. I'll now turn the call over to David Ray.

Good morning and thank you all for joining us. I'm pleased to provide you with an overview of our third quarter and year-to-date results and to provide some insight into our achievements over this period. Overall, we delivered strong performance, effectively managed our costs, and improved performance at the smelter during the third quarter. We continue to generate strong free cash flow and maintain our financial strength and flexibility, as well as focus on advancing our development projects and exploration activities. This morning, I'll briefly review our third quarter results, operational performance, and other growth activities, before handing the call over to Hume to discuss our financial results and outlook. Highlights from our third quarter include strong production of approximately 64,000 ounces of gold and 7 million pounds of copper, all in sustaining cost performance of $991 per ounce of gold, solid free cash flow generation of $43 million, and continued financial strength, exiting the quarter with a cash balance of $420 million. With strong gold and copper production and a year-to-date oil and sustaining cost of $839 per ounce of gold sold, we are well positioned to achieve our guidance targets for 2022. Notably, we achieved these results while maintaining an impressive safety record, and I'm pleased to share that our Bulgarian operations recently achieved 5 million hours without a lost time incident. This is a significant accomplishment that speaks to our strong culture of prioritizing the safety and well-being of our people first. Turning now to the highlights from our operations, I'll start with Chalapetch. Chalapetch delivered gold production in line with our expectations, producing approximately 43,000 ounces with an all-in sustaining cost of just over $1,090 per ounce sold and 7 million pounds of copper. Chalapetch remains on track to achieve its 2022 production and cost guidance for the year. Chalapetch's results for the third quarter reflect all concentrate shipments going to Sumet, where the treatment costs are higher compared with other third-party smelters that treat its concentrate. During the first quarter of this year, Chalapetch produced a lower-grade copper-gold concentrate suitable for third-party smelters. And this resulted in improved copper and gold recoveries and lower treatment charges during those periods. In the second and third quarters of the year, we produced a grade suitable for SUMA. And in Q4, we have returned to producing the lower grade concentrate suitable for processing by third-party smelters in the fourth quarter. We continue to focus on extending Chalapetch's mine life through our successful in-mine exploration program and the growing brownfield exploration program. During the third quarter, we drilled over 23,000 meters, which were focused on testing the mineralization potential of the Charlotte Deary prospect, which is located within the mine concession, as well as continuing the intensive drilling campaign focused on Sveta Petka. The drill campaign, which is intended to support an application for a commercial discovery of Sveta Petka in 2023, is planned to continue for the balance of the year. With a mine life that extends to 2030, an updated mineral resource base, an increase in mine and brownfield exploration drilling, we believe there's strong potential to continue our track record of mine life extensions at Chalapetch. During the third quarter, Atatepe produced approximately 20,800 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $800 per ounce sold. Further mine plan, we've been focusing on completing pushback two in the first three quarters of the year, with grades expected to increase in the fourth quarter as we come out of that work. With production in line with our expectations year-to-date, Atatepe is on track to achieve its 2022 guidance. We do continue our exploration efforts around Atatepe, and at the moment we're drilling approximately 6,200 meters of exploration and completing 6,200 meters of exploration in the third quarter, largely focused on the Chirite and Dalpacar de Reca exploration licenses. SWMM has achieved a significant improvement in performance during the third quarter, following the completion of the Ostsmelt maintenance shutdown at the end of the second quarter. The smelters ramped up to full production after six days in the third quarter and processed approximately 64,000 tons. of complex concentrate. If you calculate back the ratio, that comes to what is a near-record level of quarterly production, which is a confidence-building activity for the smelter, given our efforts towards P300. SUMED is on track to meet its 2022 guidance, although we expect to come in towards the lower end of the range due to additional maintenance activities currently underway. In the quarter, we recorded an $85 million non-cash impairment charge at SUMED. This is largely a result of lower forecast toll revenue as a result of an expected reduction in third-party concentrate feed being received by the smelter starting in 2024, concurrent with when the smelter will not be processing Chalepetch concentrate. Processing Chalepetch concentrate at third-party smelters allows us to realize better commercial terms, lower treatment charges, and improved gold recoveries at Chalepetch, as I mentioned earlier. While this is expected to generate additional overall value for the company, it will be realized through lower treatment charges and higher margins at Chalapetch, rather than higher throughput and higher margins at Sumed. This also contributed to an increase in our Chalapetch mineral reserve, which we announced in the first quarter of this year. As we decrease the amount of Chalapetch concentrate we process at Sumed, we remain confident that third-party supply is available to fill these smelters' existing capacity going forward. Sumabh's third quarter cash cost of $297 per tonne represents a significant decrease compared to the prior quarter, reflecting in part the benefits of the cost optimisation initiative which commenced earlier this year. This was directed at enhancing the smelter's ability to compete for additional third party supply of concentrate and improve the overall profitability of the business. In terms of future growth, we continue to advance the Loma Laga project with work on the revised feasibility study progressing well. We expected to complete the feasibility study by year end. We expect to complete the feasibility study by year end, sorry, and to share the results in the first quarter of 2023. We also progressed discussion in respect of an investor protection agreement with the government, and we expect significant capital to the project. Our drilling activities at Loma Laga remain paused pending the outcome of the appeals process related to the decision on the constitutional protective action. This appeal was heard by the court in mid-October and we're currently awaiting a decision on the matter. As we advance the project, our team is proactively working with stakeholders to obtain the project's social license. We have increased our dialogue with local stakeholders to provide more visibility to certain aspects of the project that are of high interest in the local community. And we're maintaining a constructive dialogue with all government institutions involved in the development of the project. Turning to the TMOP project in Serbia, we continue to progress the feasibility study. While we've seen inflationary pressures on the capital and operating budgets consistent with general industry trends, we've continued to optimize capital expenditures in the mine plant. As a result, we now expect to reduce the feasibility study in the first quarter of next year. In terms of exploration, we received the exploration permit for the prospective Choca Raquita target, which is located southeast of the TMOC deposit, and we initiated a 30-year program in late October. Once we complete the feasibility study for TMOC, we expect to focus on exploration at Choca Raquita prior to any further advancements of the project. To wrap up on the quarter, our strong production profile and significant pre-cash flow generations combined with our operating track record and strong ESG performance, position us well to continue delivering value for all of our stakeholders. We are committed to deploying our capital in a disciplined manner, as we've demonstrated with our investment in optimizing our assets and advancing our organic pipeline. We also continue to pay a sustainable quarterly dividend and repurchased approximately 2.5 million shares in 2022 year-to-date. We are confident that DPM's strong fundamentals continue to represent a compelling value opportunity for investors, particularly at current share price levels. I'll now turn the call over to Hume for a review of our financial results and outlook, following which we will open the call to questions.