First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

Welcome to the first Quantum Minerals first quarter 2023 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Benita Till, Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us to discuss our first quarter results. During the call, we will be making forward-looking statements. As such, I encourage you to read the cautionary notes that accompany this presentation, our MD&A, and the related news release. As a reminder, the presentation is available on our website and that all dollar amounts are U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. On today's call will be Tristan Pascoe, our Chief Executive Officer, with opening remarks, followed by Rudy Battenhorst, our Chief Operating Officer, who will provide an overview of our operations. Ryan McWilliam our Chief Financial Officer will review our financial results and Tristan will then wrap things up after which we will open up the lines to Q&A. And with that I will now turn it over to Tristan.

Thank you Benita and thank you everybody for joining us on our conference call today. On our call today we will discuss our first quarter results and provide an update on the business. In terms of production, 2023 did get off to a relatively slow start and was certainly lower than normal. Rudy will provide more details on the challenges we faced during the quarter. However, thus far in April, whilst it's still early days, we are back on track. The temporary shutdown of Cobra Panama was a one-off event and the operation was able to reach full capacity within two days of restarting. The rainy season in Zambia is substantially behind us. With the pumping capacity that was increased at Sentinel across the rainy season, we are already accessing higher grade ore in stage one, and by mid-May we expect there will be water only in the sumps at the bottom of the pit. Overall, despite the low first quarter production numbers across the three main operating sites, production will improve in the second quarter and over the course of the year, particularly in the second half, and we remain comfortable with the guidance provided in January. Before we go on to the operations, there were several important achievements in the quarter that I don't want to be overlooked. I am pleased to update the market that commissioning work for the CP100 expansion was completed seven weeks ahead of schedule. We achieved first oar through the new facilities during the quarter and throughput benefits from ball mill six were realised within that week. Similarly, the screening plant is achieving results ahead of plan. Although the optimization to integrate this system into the overall plant will be ongoing over the year, I'm very confident we remain on track to achieve 100 million tons per annum run rate by the end of this year. In Zambia, we fed first ore through the enterprise nickel plant, and we are on track for first nickel production in the second quarter of this year. This operation, along with our Ravensport mine in Australia, will place first quantum as one of the top nickel producers in the world. which complements our position as a leading copper producer and further increases our exposure to energy transition metals. I'm also pleased that during the quarter we signed a new partnership with Rio Tinto to move forward the La Granja project, one of the world's largest undeveloped copper ore bodies. Adding this major project to our portfolio as the operator will give First Quantum one of the leading copper growth profiles in the industry. We look forward to working with Rio Tinto on this exciting development and also potentially on future base metal opportunities and sharing of know-how and technical knowledge. We also formed a technology partnership with Hitachi Construction Machinery for the development of Hitachi's first battery mining trucks, which we expect to be deployed at the Kansanshi mine by December this year. As many of you are aware, we have made a commitment to significantly expand the trolley assist networks at our mines over the coming years. When our trucks are connected to trolley assist and powered by electricity, our diesel consumption is reduced by up to 90%, which reduces costs and emissions and at the same time delivers operational efficiency benefits. This initiative with Atashi represents an important milestone towards the future commercialisation of battery technology and the ongoing decarbonisation of our mining operations. We look forward to sharing similar initiatives with you at our virtual ESG Day on 13 June. Last but not least, at Cobra Panama, after many years of negotiations, an agreement with the Government of Panama was reached in March. In my meeting with the President, while acknowledging that the negotiations were both rigorous and intense, we both agreed that the outcome and terms are mutually beneficial to both parties and provide clarity and stability to Cobra Panama, our stakeholders, and the people of Panama for the next 20 to 40 years. It has been pleasing to see the collaborative efforts of the Cobra Panama team and the government's team working together since that announcement. And with that, I will hand it over to Rudy to review the operations.