Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.

Good morning. Welcome to Wisdom Goldmine's conference call to discuss the company's financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2024. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Your host for today is Trish Moran, Wisdom Vice President of Investillations. Ms. Moran, please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I'd like to point out that during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements as defined under Canadian security laws. I ask that you view our slide presentation for cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements and the risk factors pertaining to these statements. Please note that all figures discussed on this call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted. Our press release, MD&A, and financial statements are available both on CDAR Plus and on our corporate website, westdome.com. With us on today's webcast is Anthea Bass, West Dome's President and CEO, Fred Langevin, our COO, Fernando Ragone, our CFO, Mike Michaud, SVP Exploration and Resources, and Raj Gill, SVP Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Following management's formal remarks, we will then open the call to questions. And now, over to Anthea.

Thank you, Trish, and good morning to everyone. The first quarter was solid. Eagle River up-performed in terms of its production and cost, and Keenest operating performance was among the high expectations. Importantly, I'm pleased to report that subsequent to the quarter, we have started to process higher-grade Kennedy ore. Since mid-April, we have consistently seen daily average grade in the double-digit grams per tonne. We are on track to meet our full-year production guidance of between 160,000 and 180,000 ounces. However, I would highlight that between 55% and 60% of our production is expected in the second half of the year. In January, we also launched one of the largest self-funded exploration program in the company's history. We originally budgeted $30 million for exploration this year, but given what we are seeing at Kena, we plan to add another $2 to $3 million to drill up to another 10,000-up meters. For those still early in the year, exploration results are known to be positive, with a new discovery at Kena, the Wish area, and continued growth at both Falcon 311 and six central zones. The first quarter also marked a turning point. We hit a free cash flow inflection point, generating more than $90 million, a $39 million difference over the prior year period. Underscoring our commitment to maximize shareholder value, we've established three year-term strategic imperatives. The first is to optimize our assets and address the underutilized capacity at our most. As part of our process, we're completing a full asset review of our mines, and undertaking initiatives to improve our planning methodologies and review the geological model to optimize mine planning. Next, we're going to de-risk our plan and importantly control costs. Planning is underway for royal life in the second half of the year, namely to establish and prioritize initiatives based on rate of return and minimize risk and implement continuous improvement initiatives in areas such as maintenance to improve our efficiency and increase our margins. Our third near-term objective is to strengthen our balance sheet. With this quarter's strong free cash flow, our cash balance increased to $48 million, while still reducing our debt by 25%. The plan is to fully repay our revolver later this year and to continue to improve our liquidity. And now over to Fred to review the quarter's operating highlights.