Orla Mining Ltd

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Orla Mining's conference call for the first quarter 2024 results. My name is Ian, 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, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. 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 first quarter 2024 results conference call. We will be making forward-looking statements during today's call, and I would direct you to the first and second slides of the 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 oral executive team is on the call this morning, and I'll now pass the call to Jason Simpson, President and CEO. Thanks, Andrew. Our first quarter highlights include continued strong performance at Camino Rojo on safety, environmental management, operations, and costs. We have maintained consistent low-cost gold production, which coupled with an increase in gold price has led to margin expansion and strong cash flow generation. Exploration ramped up in Mexico in the first quarter, and we look forward to providing updates on the exciting Camino Rojo extensions. We recently completed the acquisition of Contact Gold and we are integrating the Pony Creek property into our portfolio and expanding our exploration efforts in Nevada. With respect to our interests in Panama through our Cerro Cayma project, we have suspended investment and are pursuing legal remedies with our preference being a constructive resolution with the Government of Panama that results in a positive outcome for all stakeholders. We have the entire executive team on the call to provide specific updates. So first, I'll pass it over to Andrew Cornier, our Chief Operating Officer, for a first quarter operational update.

Thank you, Jason. We are pleased to carry out the positive operational performance from 2023 into 2024. This was demonstrated by the strong Q1 mining and processing performance at Camino Rojo while maintaining the health and safety of our team. We mined over 1.9 million tons of ore at a strip ratio of 0.45. The average gold rate of ore processed during the first quarter was 0.82 grams per ton. We also achieved an average stacking rate of 19,597 tons per day. The mine door tons and grade continue to reconcile well to the block 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're seeing higher gold recovery from the heat bleach as a result. The testing will continue in 2024 to quantify the positive impact that the crush size will have on the various types of ore going forward. We produced 33,223 ounces of gold during the first quarter, setting us up well to deliver on our 2024 production guidance of 110 to 120,000 ounces of gold. In terms of permitting, we're continuing to work through permitting delays in Mexico. Our operating team have adjusted our mine plan to not only maintain the tons and grade feeding goal production, but also stripping approximately 90% of our plant waste for the year. In Nevada, we are continuing our baseline environmental data collection and studies required to develop the environmental impact study and overall permitting process. We are currently in the federal NEPA process working with BLM and expect permitting to continue through 2024 and 2025, ideally allowing construction through 2026 and production in 2027. Based on this timeline, we expect to begin engineering optimization, updating estimates and procurement in 2025. As you can see from this chart, Camino Rojo has been a consistent role producer quarter over quarter. It is our objective to maintain predictable operational results as a foundation for our business. And with that, I'll pass the call to Etienne Morin, our Chief Financial Officer, who will now discuss the financial results for the quarter.