Lundin Mining Corporation

good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the london mining of first quarter 2023 results call and webcast at this time all lines are in a listen only mode following the presentation we will conduct a question and answer session if at any time during this call you require immediate assistance please press star 0 for the operator this call is being recorded on thursday may 4th 2023 I would now like to turn the conference over to CEO, Peter Rockendale. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I will draw your attention to the cautionary statements on slide two, as we will be making several forward-looking statements during the prepared remarks and likely during the Q&A. On the call to assist with the presentation and answer questions are Tyler Polson, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Juan Andres Morrell, our Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Before we discuss our results, I would like to compliment our team on an exceptional start to the year with health and safety. Our efforts across the company with visible felt leadership and the implementation of FRM fatal risk management has brought a discipline that is already impacting our team. Health and safety has always been a key value at Lundin Mining, and while we have made good progress, we will continue to strive for even greater results. Moving to our quarter. We delivered solid operating results across the portfolio, producing nearly 103,000 tons of copper-equivalent metal. Copper production increased by approximately 10% over the fourth quarter of last year, with particularly strong performance from Candelaria and Shipada operating as per plan during the rainy season. Zinc production also increased 10% quarter-over-quarter, with the zinc expansion project at Nevis Coral Grove continuing its ramp-up and achieving record quarterly production in addition to zinc-driven performing well. With a strong operating performance, we generated a tributary net earnings for our shareholders of over $145 million and adjusted EBITDA of over $335 million. Operating cash flow, adjusting for the working capital draw was $235 million and free cash flow from our operations was over $70 million. Our balance sheet remains very strong with $1.7 billion of liquidity. As Tyler will speak to, we are realizing the benefits from the foreign exchange hedging program entered into late last year, and in April we initiated a diesel hedging program to protect the operating cost structure at Candelaria. Our focus continues to be on growth. However, we will also continue to be very disciplined in how we allocate our capital. With yesterday's financial results, our board of directors has maintained our peer-leading regular dividend of Canadian 9 cents per quarter, or 36 cents on an annualized basis. On the growth front, We're very excited about our recent acquisition of Casaronis. I was in Chile last month with a number of my colleagues, and much of the integration work has begun. Both our Candelaria and Casaroni teams are looking forward to working together to create even further value. Also, it was evident after spending time with numerous government and regulatory officials that the transaction has been very well received in-country. Casaronis complements our existing operations, and we believe will enable us to unlock synergies in the future as we integrate our teams and resources. In particular, Casarone's proximity to Candelaria will allow us to leverage our knowledge, experience, relationships, supply chains, and potentially existing infrastructure in the region. The transaction is immediately accreted by key cash flow and other financial metrics, and we will continue to maintain low financial leverage post the acquisition. We also continue to advance our large-scale Jose Maria Copper Gold project. Detailed engineering currently stands at 40%. As I'm sure most on this call are aware, much has occurred in the Vicuna District since our acquisition of Jose Maria, including our most recent purchase of Castorones. We will continue to progress our Jose Maria project in a prudent manner and take into consideration many of our learnings over the last year with respect to the region. We announced the first mineral resource estimate for the Saúba deposit in February. The maiden estimate is nearly 180 million tons of indicated resource containing 1.3 billion pounds of copper and 1.1 million ounces of gold. We expect the estimate to increase with ongoing exploration efforts. At Candelaria, study work evaluating expansion of the underground mines to add roughly 20,000 tons of copper per year to the production profile has been completed. With potential changes to mining royalties and taxation in Chile moderating from earlier proposals, We are looking forward to updating the study with any new information and making an investment decision upon receipt of our 2040 EIA. In summary, Blending Mining delivered a strong first quarter and is well-positioned to deliver on our strategy of operating, upgrading, and growing a base metals portfolio that provides leading returns to our shareholders. I will now turn the call over to Juan Andres to provide a summary of our production results. Thank you, Peter.

Well, as Peter mentioned before, we produced approximately 103,000 tons of copper equivalent metal in the first quarter. Copper production of 61,500 tons increased 9% over the fourth quarter of the last year. Candelaria had a strong first quarter, processing over 7.2 million tons of ore. Chapada copper production declined quarter over quarter as expected with lower head grades and recovery rate. as the operation managed the first quarter rainy season well, as Peter mentioned before. Copper production at Nevers Corvo, Eagle, and Zingruban all increased over the fourth quarter of the last year. Copper production is tracking well to annual guidance of 236,000 tons to 260,000 tons. Zing copper production increased 10% quarter over quarter to over 48,500 tons. Run path of the zinc expansion project at Neves-Corvo progressed in line with plans, delivering its fifth quarter of sequential production improvement, with production increasing 13% over the fourth quarter of last year. Zinc production throughput increased 10% over the last quarter, processing 510,000 tons of ore, and recovery improvements to 79%. Zinc grubin has had a good start of the year, producing nearly 20,800 tons of zinc. Zinc production is tracking well to annual guidance of 180,000 to 195,000 tons as production is expected to increase over the course of the year with initiatives to enable ZEPP to consistently achieve nameplate capacity and recover improvement. 3,700 tons was lower quarter over quarter as expected with plant grade profile at Eagle. Both copper and nickel production at Eagle were impacted in the first quarter by end plant downtime of one of the ball mills, which has been rectified. And rehabilitation work on the main ground that limited oil production from Eagle East, as well as winter weather conditions in the Upper Peninsula to a lesser extent. Even with the slower than planned start of the year at Eagle, nickel production is tracking to our annual guidance of 13,000 to 16,000 tons. Gold production was 36,000 ounces for the first quarter, with Candelaria having a strong start of the year and Chabada having operated through the rainy season as planned. Gold production continues to track well to our annual guidance of 140,000 to 150,000 ounces. All in all, an operationally strong start of the year. I will now turn the call over to Titor to provide a summary of our financial results.