Orezone Gold Corporation

Thank you for standing by. My name is John and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Our Zone Q3 2023 conference call and webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker 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, please press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Patrick Downey, CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the Ozone Q3 webcast and call. I also have today with me Peter Tam, CFO, who will be going through the financial and operational details. We will be making forward-looking statements today, and I encourage you to read these in your own time. I'll just go through a quick summary, and then we'll hand over to Peter. to go through the operational and financial details. But during Q3, we produced 30,726 ounces. Our gold sales were 29,167,000 at an all-in sustaining cost of US $1,306 per ounce sold. Our plant operated well, 13% above nameplate design, which for the rainy season, we were very pleased with. And our cash at the end of the quarter was $27.7 million. We also continue to have a very strong safety record during the quarter with zero LTIs and another 1.13 million hours worked without an LTI. We advanced in all our growth initiatives and I will walk through these in more detail later in the presentation. I'll now hand over to Peter to go through the financial and operating details.

Thanks Patrick. Q3 marked another quarter of profitable performance for the company. During Q3, we produced 30,726 gold ounces and sold 29,167 ounces at a realized gold price of $1,910 per ounce. Cash cost was $1,152 per ounce, and all in sustaining cost was $1,306 per ounce, for a cash margin per ounce of $604, or 32%. Revenue was $55.8 million with earnings from mine operations of $13.9 million after deducting the cost of sale of $41.9 million, which included $8.3 million in non-cash depreciation and depletion. Pre-tax income was $8.9 million and income tax expense was $2.7 million, resulting in net income of $6.2 million for the quarter. Net income attributable to ozone shareholders was $5.2 million after deduction for non-controlling interest of $1 million, Basic and diluted earnings per share was $0.01 for the quarter. With respect to cash flows, operating cash flows before changes in working capital was $16.5 million and after working capital was $7 million. Cash flow used in investing activities was $11.3 million and included spending on our two main growth projects for the grid power connection and resettlement construction and compensation. This reinvestment resulted in negative free cash flow of $4 million for the quarter. For the first nine months of 2023, gold production was 107,509 ounces, with gold sales trailing slightly below at 105,914 ounces. The average realized price was $1,922 per ounce, and cash costs was $936 per ounce, and all the sustaining costs was $1,088 per ounce. Earnings from mine operations was $81 million, and net income was $44.8 million. Basic and diluted earnings attributable to ore zone shareholders were 11 cents per share. Cash stood at 27.7 million at September 30th after quarterly debt interest payments of $2 million. Next slide, production and unit costs. On the mining front, 4.9 million tons were mined in the third quarter at a waste to ore strip ratio of 1.19. Mine volumes in Q3 were slightly below Q2 volumes as Q3 is the wettest quarter of the year. which affects productivity during rainfall events. To improve mining rates, we mobilized a second mining contractor to site on a temporary basis beginning in late July. The benefits of this decision are now being realized as Q3 volumes were ahead of budget and Q4 is shaping up to be a record quarter. In October, over 1.9 million tons removed, while November is on pace to exceed 2 million tons. On processing, quarterly ore tons processed was 1.45 million tons, which was a 4% improvement from Q2. The process plan continues to operate consistently above main plate design, and we expect this performance to continue into Q4. We continue to investigate for opportunities to make further incremental improvements in plan throughput, which in October included placing into service the mobile crushing system to treat ball mill scat stockpile in earlier months. We will also apply learnings from this past rainy season to enhance operating practices in future periods. On cost, mine site unit cash cost was $21.57 per ore ton process, which was a 3% increase quarter over quarter from Q2 cost of $20.91 per ton. Higher cost for those quarters was driven mainly on the mining front as unit mining costs increased in Q3 to reflect higher contractor management fees from the addition of a second mining contractor, higher pit dewatering costs, more drill and blast as the quantity of transition material increases, and greater grade control costs as more expensive contractor drills are utilized to keep pace with grade control requirements. Next slide. In terms of our 2023 guidance, our guidance remains unchanged in the quarter except for a reduction in our forecasted RAP spending. Specifically, we reaffirm goal production as tracking slightly above the low end of our production guidance of 140,000 ounces. We expect Q3 to be the lowest production quarter as head grades are expected to be better in Q4 for mine sequencing and greater ore release and reduced influence of artisanal depletion. All unsustaining cost is expected to fall within the midpoint of the guidance range of $1,100 to $1,180 per ounce. However, growth capital spending has been revised downwards from a previous range of $33 to $38 million to a lower and narrow range of $28 to $31 million. This revision is attributable to lower RAP spending as RAP construction is both below budget and behind plan, with certain 2023 construction spending shifting into 2024. With that, I'll pass the call back to Patrick.