Orezone Gold Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Desiree, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Our Zone Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call and Webcast. 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 again, press the star one. I would now like to turn the conference over to Patrick Downey, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the Orozone Gold Q2 Results Conference Call. With me today, I have Peter Tam, Chief Financial Officer, who will run through the detailed financial and operating data later in the presentation. First off is our forward-looking statement, and I encourage you to read them. Health and safety, we had a very, very solid safety record and we continue to do so. 10.1 million, sorry, 9 million hours worked without an LTI. Q2 of this year, we had zero LTIs with over a million person hours worked during the quarter. This is a fantastic achievement for a young team and a well-deserved milestone for the group. Into the quarter. So the operational financial highlights, we had gold production of 35,482 ounces, gold sales of 33,608 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,109 per ounce. Our plant operated at 7% above nameplate. Our cash at quarter end was 32.3 million, and we also paid back over 19 million of principal senior loans. We also advance in all growth initiatives, including our expansion study, our grid power connection, and our next stages of our resettlement action plan. I will review these in more detail later in the presentation. I'll now hand you over to Peter Tam. Peter.

Thank you, Patrick. On to financial and operating highlights. We had another profitable quarter in the second quarter following a strong first quarter of the year. In the second quarter, we produced 35,482 gold ounces and sold 33,608 gold ounces at a realized gold price of $1,970 per ounce. Cash cost was $924 per ounce, and all-in sustaining cost was $1,109 per ounce for a cash margin per ounce sold of $861, or 44%. the company's gold sales remain unhedged. Revenue was $66.4 million with earnings from mine operations of $27.5 million after deducting cost of sales of $38.9 million. Pre-tax income was $19.7 million and income tax expense was $6.7 million, resulting in net income of $13 million. Net income attributable to ore zone shareholders was $11.4 million after deduction for non-controlling interest of $1.6 million. Basic and diluted earnings per share attributable to or zone shareholders were $0.03 per share. With respect to cash flows, operating cash flow before working capital changes was $25.2 million and after working capital was $20.2 million. Cash flow used in investing activities included our growth projects for the grid power connection and resettlement construction and compensation, totaled $12.4 million. This resulted in free cash flow of $8 million for the quarter. For the first six months of the year, gold production was 76,783 gold ounces, while gold sales were only a few ounces lower at 76,747 ounces. The average realized gold price was $1,926 per ounce. and cash cost was $854 per ounce, and all its sustaining cost was $1,006 per ounce. Earnings from mine operations was $67.2 million, and net income was $38.6 million. Basic earnings per share attributable to Orezone shareholders was $0.10 per share. Cash stood at $32.3 million at June 30th, after a $19.1 million of principal repayments on the course bank senior loans in the second quarter. Onto side six, I'll be talking about production and unit costs. On the mining front, we mined 5.1 million tons in the second quarter at a waste to ore ratio of 1.64. Ore tons process was 1.4 million tons, which continued to exceed the end plate performance, but down slightly from the first quarter as maintenance for the mill re-line and sizer shaft change-outs were undertaken. Average head grade was 0.87 grams per ton gold and process recovery was 91.1%, resulting again in 35,482 ounces of gold production. Head grades were down mostly from Q1 as the company depleted its stockpile of higher grade ore accumulated during construction, while recovery was marginally lower as the Beaumarie mine begins to encounter a greater quantity of transition ore as mining deepens in certain pits. Mine site unit cash cost was $20.91 per ton, which was a 10% increase quarter over quarter from Q1, cost of $18.95 per ton. Higher costs were driven mainly by more maintenance costs and lower throughput, and greater unit consumption of lime, grinding media, and power from the processing of more transition ore in the current quarter. With that, I'll hand this back to Patrick.