Gatos Silver, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Gatosilver's first quarter 2024 results conference call. Presenting today will be Dale Andres, CEO of Gatosilver and Andre van Niekerk, Chief Financial Officer. We will conclude today's session with a question and answer period where other members of the Gatosilver management team will be available. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the found key. At this time, all participant lines have been placed on mute for the duration of the presentation to prevent any background noise. Turning your attention to slide two, please note today's call contains forward-looking statements. Various risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to vary. Gatosilver does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statements. I would now like to turn the call over to Dale Andres. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide three, our strong operating performance and cash flow generation continued in the first quarter of 2024. The Los Gatos joint venture set yet another record mill throughput rate, During the quarter, we averaged a mill throughput rate of over 3,200 tons per day, and we are well on our way to our medium-term target of sustainable production at 3,500 tons per day. Our first quarter production puts us in a strong position for the remainder of the year, and the Cerro Los Gatos production is expected in the top half of our guidance range. As a result of the strong operating performance this quarter, Our all-in sustaining cost metrics for the full year are expected to remain in the lower half of the guidance range, despite the strengthening peso and inflationary pressures. Gatos Silver continues to receive regular cash distributions from the joint venture. André will talk about this in more detail, but I do want to highlight the Los Gatos joint venture's free cash flow of over $25 million in the first quarter of 2024. and continuing distributions received in April of this year. Gatos Silver had a cash balance of over $85 million at the end of April. We are on track to update our life of mine plan in the third quarter this year and are aiming to increase throughput and also extend the mine life. Importantly, we have now started to ramp up exploration efforts on both near mine and other targets in the highly prospective Los Gatos district. Turning to slide four, as mentioned before, mill throughput in the quarter was over 3,200 tons per day, with the higher throughput offset by lower silver grades as expected in the mine plan. Production was similar compared to the comparable quarter in 2023, with silver at 2.4 million ounces and silver equivalent production, which includes zinc, lead, and gold, and now starting copper soon, at 3.7 million ounces for the quarter. In March, we achieved an average mill throughput rate of over 3,300 tons per day, which was the best monthly performance on record. With the minor modifications to the mill made this year, we believe the current mill capacity is already at the 3,500 ton per day rate on a calendar day basis. However, to achieve these levels through the mill, we need to first show that we can sustain and then increase mining rates. which continue to be the bottleneck. We have various initiatives underway to increase those mining rates, including rebuilding the core mining fleet, other maintenance improvement projects, optimizing mine plans and schedules to support the higher rates, and a major focus on operational execution, including short interval control. Cost of sales for the first quarter increased by 18% compared to the comparable quarter last year, but this was primarily due to the 12% increase in tons processed and a 17% increase in the concentrate tons sold. Cost of sales were also impacted by the continued strengthening of the Mexican peso during the quarter. All in sustaining costs per payable ounce of silver, and that's after byproduct credits, were just over $10 an ounce compared to just over $6 an ounce in the first quarter of 2023. And that is in the lower half of our guidance range for 2024. We now expect full year production to be in the upper half of our guidance range for 2024. And I'm speaking to slide five now. As you can see in the table, silver and silver equivalent production are at 27% and 26% respectively. compared to the midpoint of guidance, and our unit cost metrics are tracking 4% below midpoint in the first quarter. Based on the strong performance in the first quarter, we now expect throughput rates at the Cerro Los Gatos mine to average in the top half of our 3,000 to 3,300 ton per day guidance range in 2024 for the full year. We still expect exploration and definition drilling spend to be at 18 million for 2024, and our sustaining capital expenditures to be approximately $45 million. And that's with the majority of that spend on underground development with a continued focus on opening up the southeast area and some of those mine equipment rebuilds and other infrastructure projects, as I mentioned. I'll now turn the call over to Andre to present our financial results.

Thank you, Dale.