Orezone Gold Corporation

Thank you for standing by. My name is Dee, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to our zone Q3 2024 results webcast and conference call. 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 star 1 again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Patrick Toney, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you and welcome to the Q3 Orzone webcast and conference call. With me today will be Peter Tam, EVP and Chief Financial Officer who will run through most of the financial and operation metrics. Standard disclaimer, so please read this as you go through this presentation or afterwards. Quick summary of where we're at today. Obviously, we built our oxide plant. It was designed for 5.2 currently running at a run rate of 5.9 million tons per annum, expected to run up to around 6 million tons per annum, so running extremely well. We're in the next stage of our expansion, which will bring us up to over 170,000 ounces a year. which is a 2.5 million tonne hard rock plant. The project financing is secured. Our construction has commenced, and I'll update you on that, with first gold expected in late 2025. And very excitingly, we really believe we're on a Tier 1 potential here. It's a very large orogenic system, 14 kilometres strike extent. Drilling has started on a multi-year programme. The first results were extremely robust and we'll walk through that a little later on in the presentation of what next steps are in that regard as we continue to expand this operation. So Q3 highlights, very good quarter in terms of health and safety. Zero LTIs, 1.31 million hours worked during the quarter and 3.68 million hours worked year to date. Again, a testament to the system and the team down there in Bomboré. Our production was 26,851 ounces, a record throughput through the mill of 1.5 million tonnes, which is at a run rate of 6 million tonnes per annum. Even though we had a four-day mill shutdown, including a full-bore mill reline in late September, the All in sustaining costs were affected somewhat by heavy rainfall events, really, this time, which restricted access to the higher grades in the south, which meant that we had to process some lower grade stockpiles during the quarter, and also impacted by the higher royalties due to the higher gold price. Very robust in terms of the balance sheet, $67 million in cash at the end of the quarter, $68 million of senior debt, In that quarter, we also advanced all of our capital projects, including the hard rock expansion, and we'll walk you through what we spent during the quarter later on. We paid down an additional $5 million in senior debt, and we did add significant cash to the balance sheet during the quarter. Our hard rock expansion, as I stated, is well underway. Project financing announced on July the 10th. Our first goal is expected in Q4 of 2025. And that will increase our throughput by approximately 50%. And our exploration program, first two holes were up to 240 meters below the life of mine reserve pit. There were big swings, and we'll walk you through that. But we're very excited about our exploration potential as we continue to expand the reserves and resources on the project. Our three-year production forecast, our full-year guidance remains at 110,000 to 125,000 ounces, slightly revised all-in sustaining costs of 1,400 to 1,475, and then strong production growth into 2025-2026 of 170,000 ounces a year run rate, and then continue beyond that. into stage two. Hopefully, we can bring that forward in the timeline to 225,000 to 250,000 ounces. And our focus will be on delivering the balance sheet, continuing to build a strong treasury, and a renewed focus on exploration. I'll now hand you over to Peter Tam, who will go through the operational financial highlights. All right.

Thanks, Patrick. On financial and operating highlights, gold production in Q3 rose slightly quarter over quarter. to 26,581 ounces as mining progress south into SIGA East and SIGA South. Mining is projected to ramp up in Q4 with more ore from the SIGA pits, which should help drive better fourth quarter gold production, as evidenced by the 12,096 gold ounces produced in October. All unsustaining costs per ounce remain elevated in Q3 at $1,655 per ounce, driven by a higher strip ratio due to mine sequencing and from the drawdown of lower-grade stockpiles in August, as heavy rainfall events and pre-stripping at Siga South temporarily affected the volume of ore mined from the pits. Furthermore, government royalties, which are calculated on a sliding scale, rose in tandem with record gold prices. The company's board officially approved the Bonboré mine's Phase II hard rock expansion in early July, leading to $6.2 million in expansion expenditures in the third quarter, Additional expenditures are expected in the fourth quarter as the company rapidly moves forward with engineering and procurement towards achieving first goal by Q4 of next year. With the help of strong goal prices, the company was able to generate free cash flow of 14.1 million in Q3. The company exited the quarter with a healthy cash balance of 66.9 million, and it's expected to continue to generate free cash flow for the remainder of the year. The phase two expansion, as mentioned earlier, remains fully funded. Next slide. On production and unit costs, notable highlights. Mining, as noted earlier, commenced at both SIGA East and SIGA South in Q3 and began to only contribute meaningful ore volumes in September. The mining contractors struggled to keep up with the mine plan in Q3 due to low equipment availabilities and wet ground conditions from heavy rainfall events, resulting in a mining of only 4.1 million tons for the quarter. Mining rates are expected to jump in Q4 as new heavy-duty excavators and haul trucks are placed in service by the mining contractor at the beginning of November. Mining costs per ore ton process rose in Q3 to $9.58 per ore ton from the higher strip ratio and unit mining costs, both of which are expected to fall in Q4 as the strip ratio normalizes and less drill and blast and higher mining volumes help lower mining costs on a per ton mine basis. For processing, mill throughput is expected to reach another record in Q4 as no major maintenance is planned and grid availability is forecasted to remain stable. Head grades will see an improvement as higher grade ore from the TIGA pits make up a greater percentage of the mill feed in Q4. Processing cost per ton process saw an expected decline in power costs as grid utilization improved significantly in Q3 to 92%. However, processing costs and throughput were impacted and accorded by the mill reline and other maintenance activities. Unit processing costs are expected to be lower in Q4 as well from less estimated plant downtime and maintenance. And with that, I'll hand it back to you, Patrick.