Earnings Labs

i-80 Gold Corp. (IAUX)

Q4 2023 Earnings Call· Wed, Mar 13, 2024

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Ludi [ph] and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the i-80 Gold Corp. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Mr. Downie, you may begin your conference.

Ewan Downie

Analyst

Hi and thank you for attending today's Q4 and year-end 2023 financial and operating results presentation. We -- on the second slide of the presentation, the people who are attending on behalf of the company are: myself, the CEO; Matt Gili, the President and Chief Operating Officer; Ryan Snow, our CFO; and Matt Gollat, Executive Vice President. At the end of the presentation, we will take a few questions. We've got another commitment shortly after it ends, so we will only be taking 2 or 3 but as always, people can contact the company if they have any further questions. Slide 3 is our standard disclaimer statement. I urge everybody to read it prior to or in conjunction with this presentation today. On Slide 4, 2023, despite the challenging market conditions was a year that we realized numerous achievements. The Ruby Hill property was consolidated through the acquisition of Paycore that secured 100% of the high-grade FAD deposit. That is expected to be one of the highest grade polymetallic deposits, if not the highest grade polymetallic deposit in our portfolio once we bring it to 43-101 resource. We completed more than 60,000 meters of drilling to increase the quality of our mineral resources and also to expand mineralization and we realize significant success in those exploration and expansion programs. We also completed nearly 4,000 meters of underground development as we continued to do the test mining program at Granite Creek and we also secured a long-term dewatering strategy that included the installation of a new deeper well to enhance our dewatering capabilities there. That will allow us to progress to develop the South Pacific zone that is expected to become the primary deposit in that -- at that project. We also were able to secure in the difficult market, sufficient…

Ryan Snow

Analyst

Thanks, Ewan. Yesterday after market close, the company reported our financial statements and MD&A for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. They can be found on SEDAR, EDGAR and our website. On Slide 5 of the presentation, we provide a graph of our production and sales by quarter for the year. This production is from residual leaching activities at both Ruby Hill and Lone Tree and the oxide material on leach from Granite Creek that we have produced and sold. In addition, in the fourth quarter, we sold 29,512 tons of sulfide mineralized material from Granite Creek, containing approximately 7,700 ounces. Sales were 11,049 ounces for the quarter and 22,312 ounces for the year, including the sulfide mineralized material. As discussed in the Q3 update, the company saw a significant increase in gold sales in Q4 related to the sale of the sulfide material. In addition to the gold ounces sold, the company sold 31,711 tons of mineralized material under the ore purchase agreement in the quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to 54,421 tons of mineralized materials sold. These sales generated revenue of $6.5 million and $13.8 million, respectively. Additional highlights on Slide 6 of the presentation show our revenue for the quarter of $25.8 million, bringing year-to-date revenue to $54.9 million. The company generated mine operating income of $2.6 million for the fourth quarter, reducing the year-to-date mine operating loss to $5.1 million. The mine operating losses year-to-date were primarily the result of write-downs of leach pad inventory at both Ruby Hill and Lone Tree, totaling $9.9 million. The company reported a net loss for the quarter of $31.9 million or $0.11 per share. When adjusted for the impact of mark-to-market losses on the company's convertible debt, outstanding warrants, gold prepaid and silver purchase and sale agreements,…

Ewan Downie

Analyst

Thank you, Ryan. So I'm going to talk a bit about what we've done as a company during '23 and what we're looking to achieve here in 2024. I think we've seen a pretty significant -- we've seen a pretty significant increase in gold price early this year and that's starting to translate into some additional interest in the gold sector; interest that we didn't see very much in 2023 as most gold investors and gold mining companies can attest to. However, I think there's the platform for gold here to move significantly higher, has a perfect setup with the debt of various countries, including the United States, I think, underpins the value of gold and assuming that there is going to be some reduction in the interest rate levels, I would expect that, that will be a perfect storm for gold to appreciate significantly higher. So I'm looking forward to a very strong year for the gold sector for the gold price. And with that, we should see improved interest for gold companies. So looking at Slide 8 of our presentation, i-80 Gold is a pure-play gold producer focused entirely on the United States. 100% of our projects are in Nevada. Nevada is currently ranked as one of the world's most favorable mining jurisdictions and is currently ranked number 1 by the Fraser Institute. We are currently one of the largest holders of gold and silver resources in all of the United States and we're looking to transition those resources into production over the next several years to become the second largest gold producer in the United States on a gold equivalent basis. We've been very successful at building a very strong management team and operations team in Nevada and that's headed by Matt Gili, who's our President and…

Operator

Operator

Yes. Your first question comes from the line of Justin Chan from SCP Finance.

Justin Chan

Analyst

I was just wondering, on the terms of the -- on basically the ore selling agreement, I kind of backed out roughly about 5.3 grams, implied. But I'm sure there's a whole processing fee on that. I'm just trying to get a better sense of how to model the -- either grade and/or payability for the coming quarters. So maybe just to regather my question, I guess, on a per ton basis, what, if any, guidance would you have on how to model that? Either should we assume a grade and then a payability? Or maybe just if you give guidance on maybe similar dollar per ton, that would be quite helpful.

Ewan Downie

Analyst

I would say that the oxide mineralization that we are mining other than development ore which would be more lower grade material. But when we're stoping that mineralization, it would be at about the resource grade, as we show as our resource. It's a difficult one to answer because we sell it as whole ore and there is a charge, obviously. So we don't get paid for 100% of the ounces under that arrangement. But with the party that we have that contract with, they would prefer us not to release who they are and what the terms of that are. But maybe Ryan or Matt Gili can give a bit better clarity on that mineralization.

Matt Gili

Analyst

I can jump in on there. As Ewan pointed out, we're close lipped with the terms. But I understand your question, Justin. It's very justified. So think of it this way, think of the grade -- model the grade as the resource grade, as Ewan pointed out. And then know on top of that, that we are getting a recovery loss. And assume that the total milling charge, so to speak, is essentially kind of the same as that recovery loss.

Justin Chan

Analyst

And then, just in terms of -- I guess maybe a follow-on on that. Just in terms of your tonnage this year, it was a pretty good tons sold number in Q4. I'm just curious how you see this year. I know, the second half you are at -- in the South Pacific zone. I guess, so for the first half and the second half, how you see tons evolving?

Matt Gili

Analyst

I'll touch on that from the tons mined, the ounces mined standpoint and then hand over to Ryan. So we are continuing to ramp up. We have tough months and we have some quarters that are better than other quarters but we're continuing to ramp up as we develop more phases [ph]. If we were giving you mined guidance throughout the year, you would see a very steady ramp up in production. And you would see that essentially 1/3 of our production for the year came out of the fourth quarter from the mined ounces standpoint. We're continuing with that trend of ramping up. And as we develop into the South Pacific, that's when you're going to see the real inflection and that entry into the South Pacific is happening around -- right around the middle of these. Ryan, did you have anything you want to add on regards to the way that we're doing that? Where did that big spike come in Q4?

Ryan Snow

Analyst

No, Matt, I think you covered it.

Matt Gili

Analyst

Okay.

Ewan Downie

Analyst

Yes. And Justin, please feel free to call Matt Gili afterwards if you have any further questions.

Justin Chan

Analyst

For sure. All right. That's a good plan. I'll clear up the line.

Ewan Downie

Analyst

Okay. So I think that was our only question we have lined up. So if anybody wants additional clarity on some of the items that were presented today, please feel free to either call the Nevada or the Canadian office. And we'll be available most of the day or at least one of us should be available at all times and we can take you through any additional detail you'd like to have on the company. Thanks everybody for attending today, and we look forward to talking to you again soon.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, presenters. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.