Eldorado Gold Corporation

for standing by this is the conference operator welcome to the Eldorado Gold Corporation second quarter 2020 conference call as a reminder all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded after the presentation there'll be an opportunity to ask questions to join the question queue you may press star then one on your telephone keypad should you need assistance during the conference call you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Peter Lekic, Manager, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for taking the time to dial into our conference call today. On the line today are George Burns, President and CEO, Bill Yee, Executive Vice President and CFO, Joe Dick, Executive Vice President and COO, and Jason Cho, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. Our release yesterday details our 2020 second quarter financial and operating results. This should be read in conjunction with our second quarter financial statements and management discussion and analysis, both of which are available on our website. They have also been filed on CDAR and EDGAR. All dollar figures discussed today are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. We will be speaking to the slides that accompany this webcast. You can download a copy of these slides from our website. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that any projections included in our discussion today are likely to involve risks, which are detailed in our 2019 AIF and in the cautionary note on slide one. I will now turn the call over to George.

Thanks, Peter, and good morning, everyone. Here's the outline for today's call. I'll give an overview of Q2 along with some comments, then I'll pass it to Phil to go through the financials. Joe will follow by reviewing operational performance and then we'll open it up for questions. I'm excited to be reporting an outstanding second quarter both operationally and financially. We continue to make progress in delivering value for our stakeholders as demonstrated by our strong quarterly production and maintaining guidance despite COVID-19 operational challenges. The operations performed exceptionally, and I'm proud of the agility of our teams to adapt to our new normal. I'm especially pleased to report we delivered a significant increase in cash flow this quarter and improved our financial position. We've elected to issue a redemption notice of $58.6 million under the equity clawback provision of our senior secured notes. Repayment of these notes will help lower interest expense and average cost of capital. Another highlight this quarter includes beginning construction of the decline at Lamoc. As a reminder, this will connect the Triangle underground mine to the Sigma mill via three kilometer tunnel. This gives us a number of benefits, including eliminating surface ore haulage, reduced road traffic and lower carbon footprint, enabling lower cost underground exploration for our mock plug for and parallel deposits and increase safety by providing a secondary means of egress. Over to Greece, where we've resumed negotiations with the Greek government on an updated investment agreement. As mentioned last quarter, COVID-19 had diverted both our own and the Greek government's attention However, we are back now in discussion. Perhaps a little background may be helpful here. Eldorado's existing agreement is nearly 15 years old and is no longer fit for purpose. It was negotiated back in 2006 by a previous owner under vastly different economic and technological conditions. A modernized investment agreement with appropriate investor protections will offer significant economic and environmental benefits to Greece. Our investment in Greece will not only benefit El Dorado shareholders, but also the Greek state and local communities through providing jobs in construction and operations, increasing foreign direct investment in Greece, using best available technologies like dry stack tailings, and other CSR projects. Greece's prosperity was once built on mining. Mining could again become a key sustainable industry and source of wealth for Greece while using best available technologies to protect the environment. We remain committed to acting in good faith in discussions with the Greek government to find a mutually agreeable path forward. Also in Greece, we saw movement on drilling permits for Mavis Petros during the quarter. which we see as another positive indicator. And lastly, we completed a purchase of 5% of Hellas Gold shares that were owned by Elactor. Eldorado is now 100% shareholder of Hellas Gold. This gives us full ownership of the Cassandra assets and more flexibility for joint venture partnerships. Greece continues to represent a fantastic growth opportunity for Eldorado, that we believe is not currently reflected in our evaluation. Scurries and Paramahill are world class assets that will add significant value for our investors, local communities and the Greek state. I'll stop there. Over to you, Phil.