Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Eldorado Gold Corporation Q4 and 2020 Year End Financial and Operational Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Jeff Wilhoit, Interim Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator and thanks everyone for taking the time to dial into our conference call today. On the line with me are George Burns, President and CEO; Phil Yee, Executive Vice President and CFO; Joe Dick, Executive Vice President and COO; Jason Cho, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer; and Peter Lewis, Vice President, Exploration. Our release yesterday details our 2020 fourth quarter and year-end financial and operating results. This should be read in conjunction with our fourth quarter and year-end financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis both of which are available on our website. They have also been filed on SEDAR and EDGAR. All dollar figures discussed today are U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated. We will be speaking to the slides that accompany this webcast. You can download a copy of these slides from our website. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that any projections included in our discussion today are likely to involve risks, which are detailed in our 2019 AIF and in the cautionary note on Slide 1. I will now turn the call over to George.

Thanks, Jeff and good morning everyone. Here is the outline for today’s call. I will provide a brief overview of Q4 and 2020 before touching on some of the milestone developments that have taken place since the end of the year that have positively altered the outlook for Eldorado in this young year. Then I will pass it to Phil to go through the financials, Joe will follow by reviewing operational performance, then we will open it up for questions. I am very pleased with the strong operational and financial results in Q4 and over 2020. We delivered on many fronts, including maintaining and achieving our original 2020 guidance and achieving our highest quarterly production in nearly 5 years. Production totaled almost 529,000 ounces for the year amid an improving cost profile. We finished the year in a solid capital position with over $500 million in cash and equivalents, which increases our financial flexibility to fund our growth. And we did this all amid a historically challenging year. I am extremely proud of our teams as they continue to show courage in the face of adversity while working together to deliver on our key catalysts and drive value for stakeholders. Speaking of catalysts, we have had a tremendous start to the year with a major milestone of signing the amended investment agreement in Greece, the pending acquisition of QMX in Quebec and this week’s announcement of a maiden resource at Ormaque that demonstrates our continued exploration success in the region. Our strategy of prudent reinvestment in high-quality opportunities within our portfolio continues to take shape. Chief among these is the advancing the world-class cures project in Greece and our Lamaque operations in Quebec. I’ll talk more on both of these in a moment. Over to Slide 4, many of you…

Thank you, George. Good day, everyone. Before getting into our Q4 2020 performance, I would like to highlight the operational and financial turnaround for the company over the last year. Slide 8 exhibits the improved quarterly financial performance in 2020, with adjusted net earnings of $170.9 million and free cash flow generation of $236.2 million for the year. Over to our Q4 and full year financial results on Slide 9. Eldorado’s strong finish in the fourth quarter caps a dramatic year-over-year improvement in virtually every key area of our business in 2020. Gold production totaled 138, 220 ounces in Q4 2020, a sizable increase compared to 118, 955 ounces in Q4 2019. The annual production totaled 528,874 ounces in 2020, a 34% increase from 395,331 ounces in 2019. Despite impacts related to COVID during the year, annual guidance was maintained throughout the year and achieved. Compared to the prior quarter, Q4 saw increased gold production, partially offset by lower realized metal prices. Eldorado generated $278.5 million in total metal revenue in the quarter compared to $191.9 million in Q4 2019. For the year, Eldorado’s metal revenue exceeded $1 billion for the first time since 2014. Gold revenue in Q4 2020 totaled $253.7 million, an increase of 44% over Q4 2019. Gold revenue comprised over 91% of the total metal revenue in 2020, increasing 77% to $938.3 million versus $530.9 million in 2019. This increase resulted from higher gold sales volumes of 137,523 ounces sold in Q4 2020 compared to 118,902 ounces sold in the fourth quarter of 2019. The increase in revenue was also the result of a higher average realized gold price in Q4 2020 of $1,845 per ounce as compared to $1,475 per ounce in the comparative quarter in 2019. The company reported net earnings to shareholders in…

Thanks, Phil and good morning everyone. Amid an unprecedented operating environment over the last year, I’m very pleased that our mines achieved 2020 production and cost guidance. It’s important to point out that our guidance remained unchanged throughout 2020, even as global commercial activity slowed to a crawl last spring as the extent of the pandemic became more fully known. We produced 138,220 ounces of gold in the quarter at cash operating costs of $536 per ounce sold and all-in sustaining costs of $959 per ounce sold. I am proud of our team’s accomplishments across our mines and projects. The team at Lamaque deserves particular recognition for outperforming against plan in what was essentially a 49-week year due to government-mandated shutdown of operations in Quebec last spring. Reviewing the 5-year outlook we released in January 14, the midpoint of our new production guidance for 2021 increased by 10,000 ounces compared to the guidance we issued a year ago, due primarily to higher production expectations at Lamaque as minings continues in C4. Looking over the five-year guidance horizon, a substantial period of outperformance at Lamaque, coupled with an improved operating outlook at Kisladag has enhanced our overall five year production profile compared to a year ago. Skouries, Perama Hill and Ormaque represent potential upside. Turning to current operations, Kisladag ended the year, better positioned to deliver on our planned project work going forward. The team on site has progressed on a number of critical initiatives, including the completion of the process pond that will allow us to store more pregnant solution. The installation of two additional CIC trains is on track for the end of the current quarter, which is expected to increase our solution processing capacity from 3,250 to 3,750 cubic meters per hour. The installation of a new carbon…

Thanks, Joe. Before wrapping up, I’d like to again recognize the contributions of George Albino, who stepped down as our Chair of the Board at the beginning of this year, and welcome, Steve Reid to the role. George remains on the Board of Directors. I’d also like to mention the following new appointments to our leadership team. We have a lot of project work ahead of us and I am excited to leverage the skill set of these individuals to deliver our growth plans. Simon Hille joined Eldorado as Vice President, Technical Services in November 2020. He is responsible for technical projects and fostering innovation throughout the company. Sylvain Lehoux was promoted to Vice President and General Manager of Quebec in early December. He will continue to oversee all mine operations in Quebec, while also taking on increased responsibilities as an ambassador for Eldorado in the region. Brock Gill will join as Senior Vice President, Projects & Transformation in March. Previously with BHP, Brock will oversee development engineering activities, project delivery of major capital projects and transformation through business improvement initiatives at Eldorado. With several key catalysts already delivered or under way in this year, 2021 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for Eldorado. We expect this positive momentum to continue as we deliver on our guidance and growth plans. Our focus in 2021 is unlocking the compelling value at Skouries and throughout our portfolio, while continuing to put safety, sustainability and good governance at the core of our business. I’m excited for the dynamic year ahead and look forward to updating the market with all of our exciting progress. Thank you everyone. I will now turn it over to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Cosmos Chiu from CIBC. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks, George. Phil, Joe and team. Thanks for the conference call. Great to see the revised agreement in Greece and also the resource update at Ormaque. Maybe my first question is on Ormaque. Could you remind me what kind of drill spacing you needed to get Ormaque into inferred and then eventually what kind of drill spacing would you need to get it into M&A and then eventually into reserves?

Yes. Thanks, Cosmos. It’s Peter here. I’ll answer that question. Yes. Given that this is a – it’s a blind deposit that we can’t directly observe at surface, we are fairly aggressive in our initial drill spacing before we are comfortable going to inferred. So the inferred resource that we announced is based on an average spacing of the mineralized lenses, it’s around 70, 80 meters through most of the deposit. And it’s a bit tighter in areas where we wanted some additional confidence. In addition to that, we trimmed the mineralized shapes so that we don’t include anything that’s more than 50 meters from a drill intercept. So we are pretty conservative on our approach at the inferred level. In terms of next steps and converting to indicated resources we are still working on that. And the program that we are initiating right now actually is to go back into the inferred, tighten up the drill spacing and just give us a little bit more – basically verify the geological model that the inferred resource is based on. And then in addition to that, with our haulage decline, we will actually have direct underground exposure part – the upper part of Ormaque, probably early 2022, possibly even late 2021. And that in addition will help us define our strategy going forward. So, we haven’t defined the drill spacing for conversion yet. We need that additional information before we are comfortable doing it and then of course that would be true for defining reserves as well.

Great. Thanks Peter. And to follow-up, I guess, looking at the geometry of Ormaque here, it looks to be a fairly flat lying structure. I seem to remember previously, you explored Minrail as a potential method of mining it. It didn’t really work out. I think there were some technical challenges. Since then, have you given us some more thought in terms of how you might tackle and mine this deposit?

Cosmos, this is Joe. We are in early days of that and we will need a bit more information. But we have looked at it more of a conventional drift infill or a room and pillar. And so at this point, it’s too flat for Minrail. And so I just say at this time, it’s hard to determine, but as we get a little more understanding of great continuity and that kind of thing, we’ll begin method selection. But those are two things that we’ve done the preliminaries on.

Great. And then talking about the decline here, as you mentioned, it’s going to get fairly close to Ormaque by Q3 2021. Do you anticipate doing any kind of work, any kind of development on it at this point in time or is it still too early?

Well, we’ll get a bit more information before we make that decision from the current drill program. And we will get an engineer started on potential options, and we’ll make that decision as soon as practical, but it’s a bit early just yet, Cosmos.

And then, Joe, could you remind me what’s the potential capacity of this decline is?

In what respect, in haulage capacity?

In terms of throughput, yes, haulage capacity.

Yes, I’d have difficulty giving you that right now. I think we’re well in excess of 3,000, 3,500 tons per day, perhaps a bit more than that. But right now, it depending on what we ultimately do, I think that capacity still remains to be determined.

Okay. And then maybe one last question here. Just wrapping it all together, George, as you mentioned, Lamaque previously, there is capacity potential to get it up to 5,000 tons per day. Given what you have today at Ormaque, given that on top of Ormaque, there is actually a lot of inferred ounces, at this point in time, do you think there’s enough to potentially support 5,000 tons per day or do you really have to see what you have at QMX and wait for that to close and then kind of see more regional bases what you have?

Thanks, Cosmos. Well, it’s completely dependent on our exploration success. And you can see we’ve got a number of targets at Lamaque and with QMX potentially closing at the end of the quarter, just going to open up the field for Peter and our team at Lamaque to find additional feed for that plant. So we don’t currently have that in front of us, but when you contemplate the current exploration targets and the direction we’re headed to expand those, over the longer haul, I’m confident we’re going to be pushing that throughput level up. It’s just right now we are not far enough advanced to be able to identify exactly where it’s going to come from.

Great. And those are the questions I have. Looking forward to the rest of 2021 and have a good weekend.

Thanks.

The next question is from Fahad Tariq from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Maybe first for Phil, in the quarter, in Q4, can you talk about – it looks like cash taxes were quite a bit higher in the quarter. Is there anything of note there?

Well, the cash – hi Fahad, the cash taxes are really tied to Turkey and to the federal tax in Turkey and the Quebec mining duties at Lamaque. And in Turkey, in Q4, the taxes were offset by the receipt of almost – I think it was $27.1 million in investment tax credit. So that offsets the cash taxes. And also, there was an adjustment from a foreign exchange tax as well that we got a refund. So that reduced the effective tax rate in Turkey. In – related to Lamaque, it’s all tied to the Quebec mining duties. And because of the higher production in Q4, our Quebec mining duties increased in Q4.

Got it. Okay. That’s clear. And then just on the investment agreement in Greece. Is there any risk that it does not pass the parliamentary ratification? Is that something we should even be thinking about at this stage?

I would say no. We’ve been working really hard with the Greek government on putting together this mutually beneficial agreement. And as I stated, three key ministers signed the agreement with us. New democracy has a majority in parliament. They wouldn’t have signed the agreement if their party wasn’t intent on passing the agreement into law. So have very high confidence that’s going to happen shortly.

Okay. Great. And then just the last question kind of related to that. I know you said it previously that you’re looking for a funding partner for Skouries, but with an improving balance sheet, it is possible that you could do the project alone. Maybe give us your latest thoughts on how you’re thinking about moving forward with the project.

Well, for sure, our balance sheet is much better positioned. We’ve made tremendous progress over the last 1.5 years in that vein. And from our perspective, it puts us in more of a driver’s seat to come up with an optimum financing for Skouries. Our strategy still remains to look to put in place a joint venture partnership and partly for funding, partly to have another voice to have influence over the multi-decade life of these assets. So at the end of the day, it’s going to be a balance between the various options we have from a joint venture perspective as well as other funding alternatives that we continue to evaluate. And it will boil down to certainty of getting the return on investment, derisking the project however we can and at the same time, getting the best returns for Eldorado shareholders. It’s tough for us at this point to be pretty clear about where we will land on that. And from my perspective, the catalyst that we’ve outlined, which is ratification, approval of dry stack, permitting and advancing the engineering to feasibility level by Q3, all that’s going to underpin certainty on the investment and position Phil and Jason to optimize the financing strategy for it. So in summary, I’d tell you, we’re in a better position from a flexibility perspective, but we’re pursuing all alternatives.

Okay, got it. That's it from me. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next question is from Kerry Smith from Haywood Securities. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Phil, for the 25% royalty increase in Turkey, was that all cash? Because it was retroactive to January 1 of last year. Was that all cash settled in Q4 then?

Hi, Kerry, that was all cash settled in Q3 because it was announced in Q3, and it was retroactive to the start of the year. So you would have seen a higher royalty impact for the full year come through our Q3 numbers. And Q4 would just reflect the incremental amount for Q4.

Okay, got it. Okay. And can you just – for my – just to make sure I’ve got the right numbers, what is the actual royalty now? And is it a sliding scale royalty? Just remind me what the rate is and how it works.

It’s a sliding scale. I’m just – do we have the actual – I don’t have the actual scale in front of me, Kerry, but it is a sliding scale.

Okay. Okay. Well, maybe you can just – I’ll just get it later offline. Okay.

Sure.

And if the decline at Lamaque is completed by year-end, how much equipping is there to do and other work to do before that decline would actually be functional and be able to move mock-up to the plant?

Can you repeat that, Kerry? I missed the end of the question. This is Joe.

Hi, Joe, I was just wondering if you finished the decline by the end of the year, is that – at that point in time, is it fully ready to lay the goal and ready to be utilized for muck haulage? Or is there incremental work to be done? And if so, when would it be ready for ore transport?

Okay. There will be a little bit of incremental work to be completed. I think we could use it, but we make connection by year-end and then we work out the road surfaces and all of that prior to utilization. But it’s not a very long time period. A month, 6 weeks post connection, we’re ready to haul.

Okay. And George, perhaps could you just remind me again, your rough estimate as to what it would cost for capital to expand the Sigma Mill up to, say, 4,000 or 5,000 tons a day, I’d say 5,000 tons a day?

Yes. I mean, we’ve been public with about $50 million, and that capital level envisions putting in a SAG mill, which was in the circuit originally but was sold by a predecessor company. So it’s – I mean, physically, what has to happen, we need additional grinding capacity, and we’d have to upgrade the remaining leach tanks. And we were doing further engineering on that and looking at incremental analysis and depending on how our exploration success unfolds, we’ll make the appropriate decision for the next level of expansion.

Okay, okay. So $50 million and based on what you see today at Ormaque, with those flat-lying, you’ve got, I think it’s 18 separate lenses there, would that geometric configuration support, say, 1,600 tons a day? Would that be a reasonable expectation for the kind of tons that you may be able to pull from that operation?

Kerry, this is Joe. I’ll answer. Based on current knowledge and the inferred resource and the very preliminary work that we have done, we’re more in that 700, 800 tons per day sustained. However, given the step-out capacity, we don’t see that as unrealistic based on how exploration proceeds.

Okay. Okay. That’s helpful. Thank you, Joe. And just for my interest’s sake, what was the $40 million that you had spent at Olympias? What was that for that you canceled?

Kerry, it’s Phil here. So you’re referring to the write-down?

Right.

That was part of the original agreement and plan that was in place. That was related to tunnel that was being developed.

Maybe I can jump in. In the original business plan that’s – I think it’s like more than 10 years old now, the idea was to run Olympias for a phase and then to build a new flotation circuit in the next valley. And so this decline would have been put in place to deliver the ore from the underground Olympias into the next valley into what was perceived to be the Madem Lakkos flotation facility. And that plant was going to be, as I recall, around 900,000 ton capacity. So with our new business plan or public disclosure, the plan is to expand the Olympias plant and then run that plant through the life of mine. So it has better return on investment, which is good for Eldorado and our investors. It’s also maximizes value to the Greek state. So Kerry, essentially by getting the agreement signed, that tunnel longer has a potential future use and as a result, was written down.

Got it. Okay. Okay. That’s helpful. And I guess, Phil, just last question for me. The realized price was $30 an ounce below the LME average. I guess that was just timing of sales, was it?

That’s one of the opportunities and challenges of having concentrate in the portfolio is depending on the timing of the shipments and from the time we market shipped and when we get the final closing from the smelter, the process is that you see ups and downs. And this quarter happened to be a down in comparative price to the quarter.

Alright. Okay, that’s great. That’s all my questions. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Kerry.

The next question is from Josh Wolfson from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thanks. As it relates to the funding aspect for Skouries, what I recall historically is the streaming option had been a low priority. But just kind of looking again at where the commodity prices are and understanding there is a large base metals component, is there any sort of higher consideration for that option now versus the past?

Yes. Josh, it’s Jason. I’d say streaming has a place in terms of how we’re looking at all the alternatives related to funding Skouries. I think we’re trying to keep an open mind to it and understanding that relative cost of capital on precious maybe versus base metal streaming may have its advantages as well. But short answer to your question, yes, we’d be keeping an open mind generally to funding alternatives, including streaming.

Great, thank you. And then I may have missed this earlier. There’s a number of questions on our market sense. Like in terms of time lines for when that ore will be able to be mined and incorporated in the plan, with the decline, I guess, meeting that by the third quarter, what sort of time frame could you look at for that?

It’s a bit preliminary to put a time frame on it. I think we have to first kind of complete the exploration program in place now gain access to the ore body to get reach out and touch it, understand that it’s what we think it is and all the while, while we’re doing that, working on kind of extraction options. So I hate to put a time frame on it, but it’s a year later, perhaps somewhere in that general range. But I think it’s too preliminary just yet.

Yes. Josh, it’s Peter. If I can jump in quickly, just in terms of our plans, we are going to be hitting Ormaque pretty hard. We’re quite excited about the potential there. But we are still at the resource definition and expansion stage, and we’re not even planning – we’re not even to the point yet where we can plan our resource conversion program in detail. So the emphasis over the next 6 months is going to be to get a better sense for the overall resource potential there and what that conversion program looks like. So that will be the next news from us is once we have a better understanding of that.

And to supplement all – this is George. I’d just supplement all that. I mean, as Joe said, we’ll be able to touch the deposit and break some rock, and that’s going to give us a lot of information. Peter outlined, for a portion of the deposit, we’re going to do some more detailed drilling. That will give us another indication. And after touching it and seeing it, they’ll be able to nail down the appropriate drill spacing. And depending on that, that will impact how long it will take to get the confidence we need to put it into production. So it’s still fairly early days to put a definitive time line on it. But it took us a year from discovery to this inferred resource, and I remain optimistic with the capability of our team that it won’t be – it won’t take that long. This looks pretty good to us.

Yes. And one final comment is the bulk of the resource has been defined. It’s relatively shallow. It’s within the upper 400 meters. So we have the option of doing the delineation drilling, the conversion drilling from surface or from underground once we get access there. So it’s something we can advance quite rapidly.

Got it. And then one last question, which I’m sure you’re not going to like because it’s on time lines again. But as it relates to the updated PEE – PEA, sorry, for Lamaque, is there any sort of idea when we could see that and obviously incorporating Ormaque? And maybe to simplify this, is that something that we would expect in 2021 or is this going to be still the ways off?

The preliminary view is toward the end of the year. And I think as we learn more, we are certainly going to want to be as inclusive as we can with that PEA. So we will update on a quarterly basis, but our present thinking is at or near year end.

Okay, that’s great. Thank you very much.

The next question is from Mike Parkin from National Bank. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Most of them answered. But in terms of Ormaque, is there – what’s the timeline in terms of metallurgical work on that or do you feel confident that the existing milling setup is suitable for it?

You can start.

Yes, I will start. I will just comment on the geological aspects of it. And just in terms of mineralogy, it’s very similar to what we already have at Triangle, so we don’t foresee any significant metallurgical issues. In terms of more detailed test work, just to confirm that that’s not currently scheduled. And certainly, once we get access underground, we will have the opportunity to do a more comprehensive program as well.

And I think the other thing that gives us confidence is that these flat-lying veins were very similar to or that was mined at Mine 2 and part of the Sigma. So between historical mining of similar flat-lying veins and the geology that Peter described, we have pretty high confidence that’s going to be very similar metallurgy to what we have seen in the camp.

Okay. That’s it for me, guys.

Thanks Mike.

The next question is from Mike Jalonen of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hey, George and Phil. I just had a bigger picture question, gold, 1,725, down 45 today, probably a question I get next week at some dealers conference I’ve heard about. Just wondering, capital allocation, like I got you guys now into negative free cash flow this year. Maybe Phil’s numbers disagree with mine. But when do you start – if gold stays down, are you going to push out projects or slow down spending or anything like that or you are just happy to follow the plan you have now if gold price stayed depressed? Thanks.

So maybe I will just start out and then Phil can follow-up. So I’d say the answer is no. I mean, our growth is focused on high-quality, high-return investment opportunities. So, even at vastly lower metal prices, these projects make sense. And from my perspective, particularly when you looked at Skouries, it’s going to change the baseline of our company. Our ASIC is going to drop dramatically. Skouries can be a cash flow generating machine at current spot prices, but even at depressed metal prices, it’s a fantastic asset. So I can’t see in my view of any downside potential in metal prices that our growth opportunities wouldn’t make sense. And obviously, all those comments are tied to successful financing that we will have clarity around before the end of the year. And maybe, Phil, on the cash flow question?

Yes, hi, Mike. So we prepared our budget with a 1,750 gold price. And we are expecting to generate positive free cash flow in 2021. It’s not going to be at the level that we have reported for 2020, because our capital has increased as I outlined earlier. But obviously, there is priorities, we are in growth mode and it’s important for the company to continue to grow our assets and then generate value. If gold was to take a significant nosedive, obviously, there is other things that we would have to reconsider. But I think given where market forecast consensus are it looks to remain in this area, in this range at this point. And where it is right now, like I said, we are – we still expect to be in a good financial position.

Okay.

Yes. Mike.

Sorry, George.

Yes. I was just going to add on that obviously the drop yesterday and today is not great news. But I think when you look at the impacts that COVID has had across the planet and all the challenges that countries are going to be dealing with to get economies back in track, in our way of thinking, we are going to be seeing a pretty solid gold price and there will be volatility around it, but our outlook remains positive.

Okay, thanks for that. And I will see you next week at the [indiscernible] Hotel. I will buy you a beer in the lobby bar. Thanks.

Thanks Mike.

Thanks Mike.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. George Burns for any closing remarks.

Thanks everybody for dialing in. It’s been – the last 2 years at Eldorado have been pretty darn successful in terms of return to our shareholders. I think this will be another breakout year for us. We are excited about the opportunities in front of us and look forward to keeping you updated. Thank you.

This concludes today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.