Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.

Good morning and welcome to West Dome's Goldmine's conference call to discuss the company's financial and operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30th of 2024. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Your host for today is Trish Moran, West Dome's Vice President of Investor Relations. Miss Moran, please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I would like to point out that during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements as defined under Canadian securities law. 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 Bath, West Dome's President and CEO, Guy Ballou, our COO, Fernando Ragone, our Chief Financial Officer, Raj Gill, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations, and Neil deBran, our Director of Geology. Following management's formal remarks, we will then open the call to questions. And now over to Anthea. Thank you, Trish.

Good morning, everyone. The third quarter was a successful one. with solid quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year improvements in production, ASIC, and cash flow. I'd like to acknowledge how the team came together, enabling us to achieve these results. Eagle River continues to be a strong contributor to the bottom and top line. The team's achievements to date are due to consistent execution to plan and rapid implementation of processes and procedures at site. There's a heightened focus on health and safety, eliminating waste, and capitalizing on efficiencies. We expect much the same in quarter four as we build on our momentum, reinforce this culture, and empower our team to make changes required to improve productivity and to reduce costs. Kena delivered an impressive reduction in oil and sustaining costs compared to the second quarter and last year. At US$1,119 per ounce, they were in the bottom quartile of the gold mining industry. At current gold prices, this supports record margins for the asset and the company overall. Just as impressive as the financial performance in the quarter, from a health and safety perspective, our supervisory team at KINA was recognized for its efforts during a banquet organized by the Kuwait Mining Association. This achievement is also reflected in KINA's combined incident frequency rate, which remains at zero year to date. The focus at KINA this year was to maintain safety standards, to reach the high-grade 129 level horizon, and to execute against the ramp-up plan. To date, we've checked most of these boxes. After a progressive ramp up in the 129 level horizon since April, we're consolidating what we've learned to identify areas for improvement. The fourth quarter will emphasize closely managed operations with a focus on predictability and efficiency. Reflecting learnings to date, we are now adjusting our 2024 guidance slightly for KINA. As of the end of October, our internal forecasts indicate production at the lower end of our initial guidance range. To account for this, we've reduced the lower end of the range by 3,000 ounces while retaining overlap with our regional targets. This adjustment supports a more deliberate approach as we refine our processes and set up for an even stronger 2025. As an offset and reflecting our performance at Eagle today, we're increasing the upper end of Eagle River's 2024 production guidance by the same amount of 3,000 ounces. On a consolidated basis, we're benefiting from the portfolio effects as the midpoint of our consolidated production guidance remains essentially unchanged. we're still targeting the midpoint of approximately 170,000 ounces for the full year. Furthermore, we are reaffirming our 2025 production guidance for 175,000 to 210,000 ounces. That said, when we updated our 2020 full form costs for this shift in production from Kena to Eagle and certain tactical investment decisions, we determined an adjustment to cost guidance was required. Given our focus today to Kena has been on wrap-up execution and not specifically on cost control, The upside for the asset from a value perspective is tremendous. Next year, we expect to advocate more attention towards the cost structure of the mine with potential to incorporate some of the recent improvements we've seen at Eagle River. I'll be remiss not to mention our efforts on the exploration front at both assets during this quarter. At Eagle River, we're seeing promising results from various near-mine zones which should support a positive update to reserves next year. At Kena, we're also seeing significant brownfields upside. with various zones showing extensive potential. We're looking forward to providing the market with updates on both exploration programs in the coming weeks. Now over to Guy Ballou for his first quarterly operating review as our Chief Operating Officer. Welcome to our team.