Lundin Mining Corporation

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the London Mining Third Quarter 2023 Results Call. At this time, all lines are in 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 zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on today, November 2, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to President and CEO Peter Rockendale. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining today. I'll 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 as well. On the call to assist with the presentation and answer questions are Jacqueline Dean, current president and incoming CEO, Tedder Poulsen, SVP and CFO, and Juan Andres Morel, SVP and COO. As we announced in October, I will be stepping down at the end of the year, so this will be my last conference call. On a personal note, I would like to thank the Board of Directors for the opportunity to lead LendingMining, our employees and partners for their dedication and hard work, and the analyst community for their engagement and support. I've very much enjoyed the journey and I'm extremely proud of what the team has been able to accomplish during my tenure, and I believe the company is well positioned for continued success as we transition to Jack's leadership. With respect to our office relocation, the move to Vancouver has been completed. This transition began at the start of the year and all senior leadership positions are now in place. We're very fortunate to have Peter Brady join us as our new General Counsel. Peter was previously the General Counsel for Valley-based Metals. We have also added Ricardo Chikura as Vice President of Health and Safety and Nathan Monash as Vice President of Sustainability. Throughout the year, Jack and I have been working closely, and more recently, we've spent considerable time at our assets and with our major shareholders. While we will continue working together for the balance of the year, our joint efforts to date will ensure a smooth and successful transition. Moving to our quarterly highlights. Beginning with the key highlights for the third quarter, we delivered record quarterly production for the company, producing nearly 206,000 tons of copper equivalent metal in the third quarter, which includes Casseronis. This is a major milestone for the company and is in line with our growth strategy. Production for the year continues to track at or above the midpoint of our guidance for copper, gold, and nickel. Tessaroni's has been operating very well and produced 34,000 tons of copper during the full quarter and 30,000 tons since the close of the acquisition, which puts us on track to exceed guidance. Exploration drilling will kick off shortly and focus on some of the high priority exploration targets within this newly acquired land package. With the third quarter results, we are in a position to tighten our production guidance while increasing our guidance at Kasseronis and Eagle. We're also lowering our cash cost guidance for Kasseronis and Eagle from higher metal volumes and byproduct credits. We generated revenue of over $990 million and adjusted EBITDA of $415 million with adjusted operating cash flow of $316 million. Our balance sheet remains very strong with approximately $1.4 billion of liquidity today. With yesterday's financial results, our board of directors maintained our pure leading regular dividend of Canadian $0.09 per share for the quarter, or $0.36 on an annualized basis, which is roughly a 4.2% yield. We closed the Castroni's acquisition early in the third quarter, and the integration has gone very well. The team has outlined initial synergies that have the potential to contribute annual savings of $20 to $30 million per year. Candelaria also received their EIA for the extension of operations. The Candelaria EIA considers several enhancements to the current operation that will enable the extension of the mine life from 2030 to 2040. The approval represents a key milestone towards successfully extending the operational life, including the development of the last Banoa open pit. Together with our strong production results, we are having a strong year with respect to safety. We have been progressing our fatal risk management program, and to date, over 10,000 employees have been trained, or 75% of our workforce. Our measurements for safety, which include LPF, TRIF, and AAF, are the lowest levels we've experienced in the last 10 years. We attribute these results to the implementation of FRM, having more leaders in the field, and also better operational discipline in general. And on that positive note, I would like to pass it over to Juan Andres to speak more specifically about our operations.

Thank you, Peter. As planned, our production continues to be slightly weighted to the second half of the year. Overall, we produce approximately 206,000 tons of copper equivalent in the third quarter, which represents a record production for the company. Copper production of 89,942 tons has grown almost 50% from the previous quarter, with the inclusion of Cacerones. Candelaria had a good quarter, processing 7.2 million tons of ore. Copper production was in line with expectations and tracking to the midpoint of guidance. The fourth quarter should see higher grades from underground and the phase 11, which will increase production quarter over quarter. Cacerones has performed extremely well and is tracking to the upper end of the guidance. During the full quarter, the mine produced 34,000 tons of copper and 1,400 tons of molybdenum. We're pleased with how operations are going and have revised guidance upward to reflect the performance of the asset to 65,000 to 69,000 tons for the full second half of the year. Molybdenum will be on the upper end of the guidance at 2,000 tons for the full half. I would also like to highlight that Cacerones has achieved the copper mark, a designation that highlights our commitment with sustainable mining practices. As mentioned earlier, production at Chapada is second half weighted. During this quarter, we saw an increase in grades and ore mill that resulted in higher copper production. During the quarter, 5.8 million tons of ore were processed for 12,300 tons of copper. No material and scheduled downtime were experienced. Copper production is tracking well to the annual guidance. We have tightened the range of copper production to 305,000 to 325,000 tons. This is including Cacedones production. In gold, production totaled 35,000 ounces for the third quarter. As mentioned earlier, throughput at Chapada was strong, which contributed to the overall gold production. We have tightened guidance and continue to track to the midpoint of annual goal guidance of $142,000 to $152,000. We move to the next slide. Zinc production was higher quarter over quarter at 49,774 tons, the highest level of production in the last several quarters. The sequential flotation at Zinc Reuben is processing higher grades for the quarter. with average grades at 8.2 and recoveries at 90%. Run-pop is continuing as operators get accustomed to handling the new circuit, and we're targeting expected recoveries in the mid to low 90s by the end of Q4. Production at Neves Gorbo has increased from Q2, but was still impacted by unplanned downtimes at the sag mill and equipment availability in the mine together with higher grade variabilities. RAMPAP at the Zinc Expansion Project, also known as ZEPP, is continuing and progressing in line with plans. Zinc production is tracking to the midpoint of the revised annual guidance of 181 to 192,000 tons. Finally, nickel production was 4,290 tons, which was in line with the previous quarter. Eagle experienced slightly lower grades and recoveries, offset by higher throughput. With a slower than planned start in Q1, but a strong second and third quarter, nickel production is striking to the upper end of the annual guidance of 13 to 16,000 tons. We have moved our guidance up to 15 to 17,000 tons of nickel for the year. We're in a good position for the remainder of the year. The efforts that we have been putting into operations are paying off and we will look at continue this momentum in 2024. As Peter mentioned, we're tracking well to meet guidance at all metals. I will now turn the call to Tyler to provide summary in our financial results.