Orezone Gold Corporation

Good day and welcome to the ORAZONE Gold Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. If you need assistance, please signal Conference Specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please also note this event has been recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Patrick Downey, President and CEO. Mr. Downey, the floor is yours, sir.

Thank you very much and welcome everybody to the ORAZONE Q3 webcast and conference call updating you on progress through Q3 and next steps through 2022 into 2023. So with me today will be Peter Tam, CFO of Orzo Gold, and Vanessa Pickering, manager of IR. Obviously, forward-looking statements, just take note of those as we move forward here. I'm going to hand it over to Peter now just to walk through quickly on the operating highlights and financial highlights.

Thanks, Patrick. So in Q3 2022, the company processed 212,590 tons of ore at an average head grade of 0.89, with a recovery rate of just under 92%, resulting in a recovery goal of 5,572 ounces. Those ounces were not sold in the quarter, but were sold subsequently in October. Please note, Q3, the tonnages process started with hot commissioning at the end of August. On the next slide, I'll speak here about the company's cash liquidity. The company's cash position at September 30th stood at $7.4 million, along with 4,923 ounces of gold, bullion, and ending inventory. Working capital at quarter end was negatively impacted by the Gensler power plan issues, which led to a later than planned start of hot commissioning in August and a shortfall in gold sales in September. Working capital was further affected by the temporary stoppage of gold production in October. Fortunately, we were able to resume gold production in late October and have operated continuously since then. With cash being replenished by gold sales, we have been able to meet our trade obligations as they have come due without issue. In addition, it should be noted that a significant portion of the trade payables and accruals at September 30th do not fall due until 2023. These payables include the power plant, construction retention, employee bonuses and retirement liabilities, and certain costs to the mining contractor. However, we did recognize that the longer than anticipated commissioning period would strain our cash resources. We proactively entered into discussions with Chorus Bank about deferring interest payments to provide the company with the extra time needed to reach commercial production, which would bring about meaningful cash flow generation on a sustained basis. In October, Chorus Bank agreed to defer $3.2 million in interest payments and have given a favorable indication that they are open to providing additional assistance if required. It is important to note that the short-term loan with Chorus Bank shown under current liabilities at September 30th do not have scheduled principal repayments until 2023. Chorus Bank has been an incredibly supportive lender for us and we thank them for their continued support. With that, I'll hand it back to Patrick.