K92 Mining Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the K92 mining third quarter 2021 financial 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 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 David Medlick, Vice President, Business Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator, and thanks everyone for attending K92 Mining's third quarter 2021 conference call. We hope you and your families are doing well. In addition to myself, we have on the line John Lewins, Chief Executive Officer and Director, and Justin Blanchett, Chief Financial Officer. I would also like to remind everyone that after the remarks from management, the call will be followed by Q&A session. As we will be making forward-looking statements during the call, please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosure in our MD&A and slide two of the webcast presentation. Also, please bear in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned in the conference call are in United States dollars unless otherwise noted. Now, I'll turn it over to John to provide you with an overview.

Thank you, David, and welcome, everyone. So, the third quarter saw Kenentu Goldmine take a number of major steps forward. These included achieving Stage 2 extension run rate throughput in September, reporting extensive high-grade mineralization along the second sub-level at Judd, expanding Judd with more high-grade drill results, delivering some of the highest-grade reported intersections at Cora, exceeding budget on the twin-incline development meters, deeper drilling progressing at Blue Lake, and then soon after the quarter ended, announcing board approval for the Stage 2 expansion. which increases existing plant throughput and mine production a further 25% to 500,000 tons per annum for an estimated cost of just a capex of just 2.5 million. On the safety front, the third quarter, we're pleased to report that there was zero lost time injuries as K92 continues to operate with one of the best safety records in the Australasia region, something which we've done since the start of operations. We believe that we are relentless in our focus in occupational health and safety and continuously seeking to improve our safety systems. I'm pleased to report that K92 released its 2020 sustainability report. For the report, we completed a materiality assessment, listening to our various internal and external stakeholders to better appreciate what matters to them. This report incorporates our feedback and more importantly, will influence our efforts going forward. The report has also upgraded our disclosure reporting to SASB metals and mining standard. For the 2021 report, we're planning to have a major focus on carbon emissions. A greenhouse gas emission audit is currently underway, and this will enhance our ESG reporting. Our understanding of areas of improvement and provide important information for developing corporate missions, goals, and strategies. I think before moving to the next slide, I'd like to say that we're extremely proud of the positive impact that the operation has had on our communities. And we encourage you to read the report, which can be found on our website in the responsible mining section. So during the quarter, we produced 24,122 gold equivalent answers with the operation delivering a record mill throughput of 87,621 tons processed at a head grade of 9.82 grand per ton gold equivalent. Compared to second quarter 2020, mill throughput increased 35%. Gold grades once again delivered a positive reconciliation versus the resource model and partially offset below budget mine grades, which were due to the impact of COVID-19 and P&G, which we will discuss further in the presentation. A major positive for the quarter was achieving stage two expansion run rate throughput in the month of September. And in September, for 20 days, we actually processed more than 1,100 tons per day with a single day record of 1,408 tons processed on September 22nd. While delivering a strong throughput, the mill also produced a notably finer grind than is required. highlighting the potential for further throughput upside. We're pleased to report that in October, a new daily record was then set of 1,537 tons processed on October the 24th. In terms of the key operation quarterly physicals, record material movements were achieved at both the process plant and the mine, increasing by 16 and 26% respectively. Development increased over 50% from the previous quarter. Despite record material movements achieved during the quarter, COVID-19 was certainly a major factor. In the first half of 2021, Papua New Guinea has experienced record levels of COVID-19 cases, resulting for us in significant short staffing due to COVID-related absenteeism. in addition to requiring an increase in the quarantine control measures which we apply. In addition, from mid-March through to mid-May, expatriate travel was suspended between Australia and Papua New Guinea. And this obviously had a notable impact on our underground development, the first half of 2021, as shown in the middle chart, with delayed access to higher-grade stoping then flowing through to Q3 for Cora. All these challenges have been significantly addressed via a 50% improvement in development meters in the third quarter versus the second quarter, increasing access to stopping areas at Cora, plus mining ramping up at the new major front at Judd. We expect the fourth quarter to be the strongest quarter of the year. So the impact of COVID without question has been significantly greater than we expected when we reported our guidance at the beginning of the year. We responded to COVID this year with even stronger mitigation measures driven by extensive quarantining and testing. which directly increased cash costs by between 60 and $80 an ounce and all in sustaining costs by between 70 and $90 an ounce. The impact of short staffing has impacted production by an estimated 25 to 30,000 ounces in 2021. COVID-19 is still a factor in the fourth quarter and the country is going through a record surge due to the Delta variant since the second half of September. The mine has continuously operated and our COVID-19 mitigation systems on site are working. However, as a result of these impacts during the year, we are updating our operational guidance to 96 to 102,000 ounces gold equivalent production at a cash cost of between 670 and $720 an ounce and an all-in sustaining cost between 920 and $970 an ounce. Growth capital. 20 to 25 million and exploration expenditure of 10 to 13 million in terms of investment bank research and analysts average estimates the updated guidance in line for production and cash costs and k92 all in sustaining cost guidance is moderately better than the research consensus average as noted earlier in the presentation despite these challenges 2021 has featured many major operational exploration accomplishments and we also see several positive developments for 2022 first parts of australia have already opened up for quarantine free expatriate travel with our workforce from new south wales and victoria no longer required to go through quarantine Importantly, this means that many of our specialist Australian contractors are now available to travel the site, better supporting the operation and the near-term commencing work on several highly accretive projects such as commissioning the Stage 2 gravity circuit. The COVID-19 vaccination rollout on site is progressing, with some 55% of our workforce having received at least one dose. As COVID-19 cases improve in Papua New Guinea and our vaccination rates increase, we plan to progressively relax our quarantine and mitigation measures. In Q4, mine operations will receive a major short and long-term boost from Judd's doping coming online. The process plans will be bigger in 2022 with the Stage 2A commissioning planned for third quarter. In exploration, our focus is shifting from infill drilling at Cora to resource growth initiatives at Cora Scythe, Judd, Blue Lake, and eventually Cora Deeps as we advance the twin inclines. I will now turn over to our Chief Financial Officer, Justin Banchet, to discuss the financial results for the third quarter.