Orla Mining Ltd

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Orla Mining's conference call for the fourth quarter and year-end 2023 results. My name is Sarah, and I will be your conference operator today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the meeting over to Andrew Bradbury, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead, Mr. Bradbury.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to Orla's fourth quarter and year end 2023 results conference call. We will be making forward looking statements during today's call, and I direct you to the first and second slide of this presentation, which contains important cautionary notes regarding these forward looking statements. All dollar amounts discussed today will refer to U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. The Orla executive team is on the call this morning, and I will now pass the call to Jason Simpson, President and CEO, who will walk me through our fourth quarter and 2023 highlights. Thanks, Andrew. Our fourth quarter highlights include continued strong performance at Camino Rojo on safety, environmental management, operations, and costs. As a result, we exceeded our increased production guidance and achieved the reduced annual all-in sustaining cost guidance. The low cost and consistent operation of Communo Rojo generated industry-leading margins and cash flows strengthened our balance sheet and Orla is now in a net cash position. We are actively advancing our exploration and development portfolio in Mexico and Nevada, and you will have seen positive drill results released throughout the first quarter from our 2023 campaign. Exploration is a key component of our growth, and Sylvain Garrard, our Senior Vice President Exploration, will walk you through some of the team's results. Andrew Cormier, our Chief Operating Officer, will update you on the permitting work in Nevada. We recently announced the acquisition of Contact Gold, the owner of the Pony Creek property neighboring our land package in Nevada. This strategic transaction strengthens our land position, immediately adds gold ounces to our resource inventory, and illustrates our conviction in Nevada. south railroad will be a tremendous next project for orla we are disappointed with the recent events in panama as it relates to mining and investment despite making progress earlier in the year with the receipt of our environmental permits at sarokama in november 2023 the Panamanian government passed law 407, imposing a moratorium on granting, renewing or extending concessions for metal mining in Panama, which they applied to our concession renewals for the Cerro Quema project. We are exploring legal remedies to protect our historical investments as we monitor the upcoming elections in Panama at Chan Morin, Orla's chief financial officer will describe the accounting treatment applied to 2023 for this matter. We have the executive team on the call to provide specific updates, and now I'll hand it over to Andrew Cormier, our chief operating officer, for a fourth quarter operational update.

Thank you, Jason. The fourth quarter was marked by continued strong mining and processing performances at Chimita Rojo. We did this while maintaining the health and safety of our team. We mined nearly 1.9 million tons of ore at a strip ratio of 0.43. The average gold grade of ore processed during the fourth quarter was 0.73 grams of gold per ton. We also achieved an average stacking rate of 18,998 tons per day. The mined ore tons and grade are reconciling well to the block model, and process recoveries remain in line with the metallurgical recovery model. During the second half of 2023, we initiated a program to test the impact of reducing the crusher product size from a PAD of 28 millimeters to 23 millimeters. The initial results of this test program are positive, and we are seeing higher gold recoveries from the heat bleach. The testing will continue in 2024 to quantify the positive impact that reduced crusher size has on the various ore types. Gold production in the fourth quarter was another record with 34,484 ounces of gold poured. As a result, we exceeded the increased 2023 production guidance range of 110 to 120,000 ounces of gold with a total of 121, 877 ounces of gold poured for the year. We are carrying the strong momentum from 2023 into the first quarter of 2024, and the operations continue to perform consistently and to plan. In terms of permitting, we are continuing to work through permitting delays in Mexico. Our operating team continue to adjust our My Plan and are maintaining the tons and grade feeding the operation. We are hopeful that the new administration, which takes office mid-year, will be more encouraging of mining and investment. In Nevada, our South Railroad project development and permitting continue to advance. Under the prescribed Bureau of Land Management approach, we have submitted 17 of 19 supplemental environmental reports, of which 14 have been reviewed. The supplemental environmental reports will be used in the environmental impact study process that we expect to continue through 2025. Additionally, we have advanced our strategies for sage-grouse habitat restoration and water rights, which BLM requires as part of the EIS process. We will continue this work through permitting in 2025, ideally allowing construction through 2026 and production in 2027. Based on this timeline, we expect to begin engineering and optimization and updating estimates in 2025. Etienne Morin, our Chief Financial Officer, will now discuss the financial results for the quarter.