Greetings, and welcome to the Fortuna Silver Mines Q3 2023 Financial and Operational Results Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode and the floor will be open for questions after the presentation. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host Jorge Alberto Ganoza, CEO of Fortuna Silver Mines. Jorge over to you.

Thank you, Jenny, and good morning to all and welcome again. In addition to myself, we have on the line Luis Dario Ganoza, Chief Financial Officer; Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer of Latin America; and David Whittle, our Chief Operating Officer for West Africa. For your reference during the conference call, we have provided a third quarter results presentation available on the landing page of our website under Featured Presentations. As we will be making forward-looking statements during the call, please refer to our cautionary statements included in the presentation, news release, MD&A and the risk factors in our Annual Information Form. Technical information in the presentation has been reviewed and approved by Eric Chapman, our Senior Vice President, Technical Services and qualified person. Financial figures contained in the presentation and discussed in today's call are presented in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. Yesterday before market opened, we reported record production and financial results. Our noteworthy results are the successful outcome of 2 years of hard work and focused execution on our strategic plan. We have placed ourselves in a strong position to deliver shareholder value today and into the future. Since the Roxgold acquisition in mid-2021, we have successfully expanded and consolidated our presence in two of the most exciting mining regions in the world, West Africa and Latin America. We have a balanced mine asset portfolio that offers multiple value enhancing opportunities. Now, let me tell you why the achievements of this quarter are so important. I see this as an inaugural quarter due to the start of contribution of our feed and flagship mine Séguéla. So I will be comparing performance versus the previous second quarter, which I believe helps better see the impact and the change in the business. Production and financial results are highlighted by…

Yes, thanks, Jorge. Operations in West Africa performed strongly during the third quarter of 2023. All sites demonstrated excellent safety performance with no significant instance and zero LTIs. At Séguéla, the mine's first full quarter of production resulted in 31,498 ounces of gold, which followed the successful completion of the processing plant performance test in August. The operation is now exceeding nameplate capacity. At Yaramoko, guidance was increased by approximately 14% to 110,000 to 120,000 ounces, and the mine also achieved a milestone of operating 3 years without an LT time. In the third quarter, Séguéla mined 502,326 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 3.48 grams per tonne and 1,156,540 tonnes of waste with a strip ratio of 2.3. Ore processed was 310,387 tonnes at 3.83 grams per tonne. Mining operations focused on the Antenna Pit in order to access the higher grade areas and to source sufficient fresh rock for the completion of the processing plant's performance test. At the Ancien Pit, the first program of grade control drilling took place, topsoil stripping and storage commenced and the haul road construction continued as planned. At the Koula Pit, initial grade controlling started and should be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. Process plant operations wrapped up beyond the nameplate capacity of 154 tonnes per hour during the quarter, achieving an average rate of 3 point of 162 tonnes per hour. In September, an average 3 point of 174 tonnes per hour was reached. Process plant improvements are currently allowing for a feed blend of approximately 40% transitional and oxide ore, which enables the processing of additional quantities of some of the higher grade oxide ore mined earlier in the year. Long-term oxide transitional feed will be in the order of 10% to 15%. Séguéla's strong…

Thank you, David. Cesar?

Thank you, Jorge, and good morning to everyone. On a consolidated basis, the Latin American operations delivered solid gold and silver production, with good safety performance in the quarter. We also continued to advance several key sustaining capital projects at both the Lindero and Caylloma mines. Regarding costs, we are starting to see some reduction tendencies on main supplies and consumables, like diesel, cement, sulfuric acid, cyanide and other reagents. In Mexico, we're experiencing some pressure from the strengthening of the Mexican peso versus the U.S. dollar of roughly 20% when compared to 2022 levels. Now I will discuss our operational performance during the third quarter. In Argentina, Lindero mined 1.9 million tonnes of ore with a stripping ratio of 1.1 to 1. And looking forward, the stripping ratio is expected to continue its positive trend through to the end of the year to approximately 0.7 to 1. A total of 1.5 million tonnes of ore were placed on the leach pad at an average gold grade of 0.62 grams per tonne containing an estimated 29,068 ounces of gold. Lindero's gold production in the quarter was 20,933 ounces, in line with the mining sequence and the mineral reserves. In accordance with our mine plan, the higher stripping ratios seen in the first 9 months of the year positioned us for improved access to higher grade material to be mined during the upcoming fourth quarter. As a result, Lindero anticipates placing about 1.6 million tonnes of ore on the leach pad, at a higher average grade of 0.67 grams per tonne. One of the most relevant capital projects for Lindero in 2023 and 2024 is the leach pad expansion, which will serve for the next several years of production. As of September 30th, this project is 13% complete. Mobilization of the…

Thank you, Cesar. Luis, review for financials.

Sure. Thank you. So I'll be focusing my commentary on the comparable quarter of 2022. Sales of $243.1 million in the third quarter of this year were $77 million above Q2 -- Q3 of 2022. This is a 46% increase explained primarily by the contribution of 35,500 ounces of gold from Séguéla in the quarter as well as higher metal prices. Year-over-year realized gold and silver prices were up 12% and 23%, respectively. Our cash cost of sales per gold equivalent ounce was $814. This is 8% or $67 per ounce below the prior year. Cash cost of sales at Séguéla was $397 per ounce and slightly below $500 per ounce when including capital leases related to the mining contractor, which are reported as part of AISC, but excluded from cash cost per ounce. At Yaramoko, we have also reported a significant reduction in cash cost per ounce of approximately $180 related to the effect of higher grades, a trend that has remained constant throughout the year as David pointed out. These positive impacts were partially offset by a higher cash cost per gold equivalent ounce at Lindero and San Jose. In the case of Lindero, this is mostly aligned with the expected reduction in head grades consistent with the mine plan. In the case of San Jose, this is mainly due to higher mining costs to make up for the shortfall of production in the second quarter of this year related to the illegal blockade and higher maintenance and indirect costs. As a result of the higher volumes sold, lower cost per ounce and higher metal prices, mine operating income increased 166% year-over-year, while our general and administration expenses remained for the most part constant. This strong operating leverage effect has resulted in an increase in operating income of…

Thank you. That concludes management's discussion of results. Jenny, back to you.

Thank you very much, Jorge. At this time, we will be conducting our question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Your first question is coming from Eric Winmill of Scotiabank.

Hi, Jorge and team. Nice to see the free cash flow in Q3 and the stock responding well. Just a few quick questions for me, if you don't mind. At Lindero, on the Phase 2 leach pad expansion, can you just remind me what the critical path items are? And I guess how much additional tonnages will get you?

Sure. Critical path and -- Cesar, do you want to expand?

Sure, Jorge. Well, critical paths were in fact the geomembrane and geosynthetic clay liners. Those were properly purchased in time and are on their way to site. First shipments have already arrived, almost 30% to 40% of those, the remaining ones in the first quarter of 2024, and now the civil contractor mobilization, which is one of the main packages and activities who is mobilizing as we speak. So that should cover those critical paths and be in line with logic.

With respect to the second part of the question, this expansion of the leach pad was contemplated in the original design, and it serves basically the -- supports the [loan]. It does not provide for an expansion of throughput. It was a scheduled expansion in the original design to support the 19,000, 20,000 tonnes per day of ore that we run through process.

And in terms of exploration at Lindero, any comments there? As you recall, was Arizaro one of the targets there?

At Lindero, we have focused our exploration funding in 2023 with priorities in Séguéla as high value opportunities. And then on life of mine replacement, the funding has been prioritized for the Yaramoko Mine and the San Jose Mine, right? So Lindero and Caylloma have not received any significant funding in 2023 and we would expect to see some funding allocated towards Arizaro in 2024, right? Remember that 2023 still has been a capital-intensive year for us on the Séguéla build. So we rationalize a bit our exploration funding.

Maybe just one more for me if you don't mind. San Jose obviously some pretty great exploration results recently. I know it's still early days, but any comments on what you think that could mean for the mine plan?

Yessi is an exciting discovery, very exciting, high grade, close to existing infrastructure. But as is the case, now we have to migrate from an exciting discovery to see how does this contribute to our production, right? And that's the phase we are currently in and we need time, right? What I can say is that its high grade. It's -- structurally, it's making sense to us. But how meaningful it is or it becomes to the production? It's something that we still need to answer. And that's why we are conducting exploration work here with a high sense of priority and we'll look forward to reporting on this as we advance.

[Operator Instructions] There don't appear to have any further questions. I will now hand back over to the management team for any closing comments.

That's all on our part. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

Thank you very much, everybody. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time and have a wonderful rest of the day. Thank you for your participation.