Good morning. My name is John, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the i-80 Gold Corp. Q3 2024 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Thank you. Mr. Young, you may begin your conference.

Well, thank you, John, and welcome, everyone. Turning to Slide 2. I'd like to draw everyone's attention to our Safe Harbor language as we will be making forward-looking statements through the course of today's presentation. Joining me on the call is our President and COO, Matt Gili; our CFO, Ryan Snow; and two new hires, Dave Savarie, our Senior Vice President, General Counsel; and Leily Omoumi who is our new Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy. Turning to Slide 3. Before we begin our formal remarks, I'd like to address today's share reaction -- share price reaction to our announcement and the team internally we expected the stock could trade down for a period of time as the market absorbed the new plan and the strategy moving forward. I think we would say internally that the market's overreacted. I think when you look at any company there are three things that you look at. The first is the quality of the people. And I'll tell you that this is a great team that I'm joining. As the press release indicated, we've added further bench strength that will address some of the issues that we'll talk about today mainly the balance sheet. The quality of the asset base and the location are perfect. And we have a new development plan that would see this company move to a mid-tier gold producer with Nevada production of 400,000 to 500,000 ounces per year. And the capital intensity for these five projects is very low. And there's a lot of organic growth within the gold portfolio as well as base metal. In terms of the balance sheet, the balance sheet is fixable. It's something that we'll work on with our current lenders and we've been in discussion with additional sources of capital and we…

Slide 5. Thank you, Richard. The new development plan is focused on near-term cash flow generation, advancing a pipeline of growth. We are now focused on the ramp up permitting and development of five gold deposits through the balance of the decade, including three underground mines, and accelerating the permitting and development of two large oxide open pit deposits, Granite Creek and Mineral Point. The Lone Tree Autoclave remains the centralized refractory ore processing facility in the new development plan and management intends to continue its work towards completion of the refurbishment feasibility study next year. Following the completion of the study, a series of trade-off scenarios will be considered comparing full autoclave refurbishment to alternate toll milling and ore purchase agreement options that could potentially be available. Slide 6, Granite Creek is comprised of an underground mine, which is currently ramping up and expected to be in commercial production in 2026, an open pit project that is in the permitting process. Slide 7, as mentioned, Granite Creek Underground is currently ramping up to commercial production. Mining rates and gold production for the quarter and nine months of 2024 were lower than planned due to an increase in ground water ingress into the underground working areas, which negatively impacted productivity and development advancement rates. To address the higher water rates, the mine is adding additional pumping capacity, deepening an existing de-watering well and reworking the de-watering system to allow for additional flow capacity in the water treatment facility on site. We expect that production and costs will continue to be negatively impacted until these measures are completed and groundwater flows return to easily manageable levels, which is expected to occur by the end of the third quarter 2025. On a positive note, the ore control reconciliation on the bench level…

Thanks, Matt, and good morning to our listeners. Yesterday, after the market, the company reported our financial and operating results and the company's financial statements and MD&A for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2024, can be found on SEDAR+, EDGAR and our website. Highlights of our results include revenues in the quarter totaling $11.5 million, compared to $13.2 million in the comparative prior year period. This difference is due to lower volumes sold partially offset by higher gold price. Third quarter gold sales totaled 3,063 ounces at an average realized gold price of $2,422 per ounce, resulting in revenue of $7.4 million, compared to gold sales of 4,585 ounces at an average realized gold price of $1,895 per ounce resulting in $8.7 million of revenue in the third quarter of 2023. In addition, during the third quarter, the company recorded mineralized material sales totaling 14,696 tons for revenue of $4.1 million, compared to mineralized material sales totaling 16,059 tons for revenue of $4.5 million in the comparative prior year period. The company recorded a loss per share of $0.10 for the quarter, a decrease from the $0.01 loss recorded in the comparative period a year ago. This change is primarily due to expense recognized in the period of $10.3 million related to losses on derivative instruments and warrant revaluation compared to an income of $21.5 million for the same instruments in the comparative period. Cost of sales increased by $3.2 million compared to the third quarter of last year primarily due to an inventory write-down at Granite Creek related to the increased costs for the water issues Matt described earlier. We ended the quarter with $21.8 million in cash, representing a decrease of $26 million from the end of the second quarter primarily due to cash…

Well, thank you, Ryan. To support our new development plan, as the company evolves into a developer and producer, the organizational structure and skillsets needed need to evolve. We envision becoming a mid-tier gold producer of between 400,000 and 500,000 ounces of gold per year by the early 2030s. The three most significant changes facing i-80 Gold today are: one, the increased emphasis on tactical skills to ramp up, permit, and construct five projects through the balance of the decade; two, the requirement to restructure and recapitalize the balance sheet in a manner that aligns to the new development plan; and three, the additional legal and reporting requirements of becoming a U.S. domestic issuer. To meet our growing and changing demands, the company has promoted four senior technical personnel and hired four new senior positions. We believe these organizational changes include the promotion and new hires add the necessary experience and bench strength to further de-risk the execution of the development plan. The cost of these changes is expected to be partially offset by lower third-party consulting costs. On the operational front, the promotion of four senior technical personnel is a reflection of the importance of these four individuals in reducing our execution risks as we ramp up, permits, and construct five mines through the balance of the decade. On the legal front, the hiring of Dave Savarie as our new Senior Vice President, General Counsel, will bring in-house industry specific legal experience, while improve our approach to our compliance with our governance and contractual commitments while allowing third-party legal costs. Further, this addition will immediately reduce the burden on existing management to manage the legal process in an increasingly complex environment while adding additional strength as we execute on our new development plan. On the finance front, the company…

Yes, sir. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. We'll now take the first question. This comes from the line of Kent Whitaker from KP7 Investors. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thank you. A couple of questions. Well, first off, congratulations on instilling some discipline in the company there and actually developing a development plan. So I first of all appreciate that. It seems like the market has some questions on survivability and I know you addressed your reaction to the market's reaction to your development plan. But could I just ask, as you come in and you looked over the balance sheet, what do you see as the key risks on not just the balance sheet, but also the other obligations that you've got and how over the next few months or quarters or years will you address those issues? Thank you.

Well, that's a great question. I guess, first of all, it's Richard Young speaking. Myself and a number of people that have now joined today have worked in West Africa in much more challenging conditions in terms of fundraising. Coming in, looking at the balance sheet, these are Nevada projects. They're much easier, and there's a bigger pool of capital available than there was in West Africa. And I think at the time that we sold Teranga, for those who aren't aware, I think we might have $600 million in debt. So I think the consensus of our team was that this is a fixable issue, that when you look at the asset base and you compare it to the balance sheet as it currently stands, the debt levels are actually modest. They just don't match the cash flow generation of the assets today. And the additional capital required for this new development plan, frankly is modest in the big scheme of things, when you compare it to other projects globally. And I think that when you look at Orion, they've been a valued partner. They've got the biggest balance sheet. They're throughout our capital structure. And they've got the longest view on value. And we will work with them, as well as some other partners that the company had been talking to before our arrival. And we do, we are very comfortable that we will be able to put a recapitalization plan together over the next three months to six months that will address the mismatch that we currently have between our current obligations and the cash flow generation of the business.

Do you feel that, so Orion is part of the solution here or are they part of the problem?

They're part of the solution. I don't think they're part of the problem. I think that in everyone's defense, these projects took a little bit longer to develop than everyone initially expected. But the company has a very good handle on the processes and the timing. And then part of the issue is the base metal success, like, there was so much exploration success through this portfolio, it did cause some strategic direction changes through the course of the last few years. But it just really goes to the quality of the asset base and the fact that you have a pipeline of development not for the next five years, but potentially for the next 15 years to 20 years that probably few other companies can match. But what we've had to do is decide on which projects to focus on so that we allocate capital in the most effective manner. And that's what this plan does. So no criticism of the prior strategy or how the balance sheet was constructed. The focus really is now working with our current proposed debt providers on what this plan entails and working with them to reschedule this debt to allow us to be able to generate the value for shareholders that all i-80 shareholders expected with the formation of i-80 and with all the drill success that the company's had over the last few years.

Just one more follow-up and I'll pass the line. You got a tremendous portfolio of projects obviously, and that is a testament to the exploration successes there. And I've heard you talk about your excitement about these -- the quality of these assets. Is one option asset sales, I mean, you obviously have five or more projects that have significant value. Is that part of the strategic thinking, an asset sale or two to alleviate some of the financial strains that you're going through now? Are you going to try to get through this without asset sales? Thank you. I'll pass it.

Well, thank you. And I think that's a fair question. And look, I think that the Board and management are open to anything that creates shareholder value. But -- and part of the issue for us is the Street, whether it's the buy or sell-side doesn't have a clear view on value of each of these assets. By the end of the first quarter, when we've got PAs out for each of them, it'll become clear what the value of these assets are. And each one individually has a value much higher than our current market cap today. But there are tremendous synergies between three underground mines. And Matt could talk about that if you like. And then these two open pit mines create so much value and we see so much opportunity with the group of five gold projects together. And we do believe that the recapitalization and the additional capital required are quite modest. And we don't at this point believe that a buyer could give us fair value that would make sense for shareholders over the medium and long-term. We are taking a longer-term perspective with this plan, not focused on the short-term. And we do believe that we can solve the balance sheet issue. I hope that answers your question. We'll open up to the next question if there are any.

Yes, sir. Thank you. And the next question comes from the line of Bryce Adams from CIBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Richard and team, thanks for taking my questions. First one is five mines by 2030, that's a pretty strong goal to set. Was there a consideration to simplifying the development plan and focus on less projects and reduce the finance needs?

So what I'll do is I'll turn over to Matt because while we talk about developing five mines, four of these are very low technically and financial commitments. So Matt, can you just talk a little bit about what's required for the first four before we get to middle point in terms of work to be done and maybe allude to the cost of that.

Absolutely. All right. So thanks for the call -- for the question, Bryce. So when I look at the three underground mines that we're talking about, the Granite Creek, the Archimedes and the Cove, I really think of them, Bryce is one, mine in summation. There are three portal mines coming out of existing open pits. And if you're coming from the Nevada background, all of our open pits have at least one portal mine coming out of them. In the simplicity of the construction and the ramp up of each of those three underground portal mines, pretty simple. I'm not understating the challenges that every mine will incur, but the development of three underground portal mines in Nevada is a pretty normal process and has been done, as I said, in virtually every open pit mine in Nevada already. So it sounds like a big number, but I'm really seeing that as one task. The next task is, of course, the Granite Creek open pit. This was a -- this was already an open pit heap leach facility. We're in the process now of permitting for the next stage, essentially a pushback of the existing open pit facility and a new heap leach plant in big task, but in the context of where we are in Nevada, this is a pretty normal occurrence. So those are the three -- pardon me, the three underground mines and Granite Creek open pit. Mineral Point is a big chunk and I do -- we do appreciate that internally, we see a long process there for completing the technical studies for the permitting and for the construction of that. That's our last asset on the development chain. So by the time we get to the stage where we are looking at the construction of Mineral Point, we will already have the three underground mines into the production and development stage and the open pit at Granite Creek will be well advanced. So that's the way we stage it out, Bryce, is that addressing your question? I know. Ryan, you want to touch on the cost?

I guess, I do. Thanks, Matt. This is Ryan. So Bryce, just to add to Matt's comments there, as you mentioned, the three underground mines are portals out of existing pits and the open pit at Granite Creek is on a brownfield site as well. So really what we're looking at there is low capital intensity for all four of those projects to bring them into production in our new plan.

Got it. Thanks. Yes, that's helpful. Maybe a follow-on to that, it's a little hard to see from the slides and from my recollection from visiting site two years ago, but do you foresee any interaction between those open pit heap leach projects and then the undergrounds, or are they all distinctly independent of each other?

All right, another brilliant question, Bryce. At Cove and at Archimedes, there is no interaction between the portals and any plans for open pit mining. At Granite Creek, have you been to Granite Creek? Those portals at Granite Creek will need to be reconstructed as part of the open pit mine at Granite Creek. There's a staging of the two pits such that when you finish the first pit and then you develop new underground portals out of that pit to intersect your existing underground development. That's all worked into the PEA and it adds a little bit level of complexity, but all very easily managed.

Okay. Thanks. I'll look forward to the PEAs next year. All the best. Thanks for taking the questions.

Thanks, Bryce.

Thank you. And the next question comes from the line of John Tumazos. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Richard, it's good to be acquainted again. Thank you for taking my question. It's more traditional to build mines or reopen mines one by one and harvest the cash flow from the first project and move on to the second. The term in mathematics is linearly sequential, one by one. If the market gives you less cash than you want or insists on some simplification, would it be the Granite Creek oxide pit or one particular of the three underground gold refractory mines that would be the ones to resume first. And I think that people might be misunderstanding your presentation, Richard that the company wants to do all six things at once and get all the cash capital borrowed upfront and all the cash to come later. And maybe that's frightening people.

Well, John, I appreciate that and I'm sure that this was a lot to absorb, but you're right. So when you step back, we're currently ramping up Granite Creek and expect, as Ryan mentioned it to be free cash flowing at some point in the second half of next year. We will begin construction of Archimedes Underground, formerly Ruby Hill Deeps. So we'll be building those in sequence. And then we'll have both of those underground mines ramped up, generating free cash flow before we start construction of Cove and the Granite Creek open pit. And as Ryan mentioned, the capital requirements for those are actually very modest. And so based on our current recapitalization plan, we don't believe we need a lot of additional capital be able to execute on this plan. We've been conservative internally in terms of the capital and operating parameters, the gold price, and we believe we have cushion. We believe that a lot of the capital required as part of this plan could come from some sort of debt instrument, so that we minimize dilution to shareholders and maximize share NAV. But we'll consider as we move forward. But we believe that over the next three months to six months, as we put out the five PAs and the market gets a clear understanding of the timing and the cost and the value of these assets, because we're not looking to raise equity today, we'll complete the refinancing plan in the first quarter. And our objective as a management group is to have the refinancing the balance sheet in place and then be able to go to shareholders with a holistic plan that basically solves our cash flow requirements to allow us to move forward and build essentially all five mines.

Thank you for that explanation, Richard, and good luck.

Thank you, John.

Thank you. And the next question comes from the line of José Cánovas from Global Income. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. José Cánovas: Hi, many thanks for the presentation, and for taking my questions. I have three questions. So first of all, you have consumed something in the range of $26 million during the third quarter. What should you expect in terms of cash consumption for the fourth quarter?

So José, thank you. First of all, as you can see from our financial statements, Granite Creek Underground, because of the de-watering issue is generating negative cash flow. So we do expect that we will continue to assume capital through the fourth quarter. We have put all discretionary expenditures on hold until we complete the refinancing. And we are working with Ryan to defer the upcoming deliveries, as Ryan mentioned, under both the gold pre-pay and the silver stream that are due in December and January. And with that, we do expect to have sufficient cash flow to move through the first quarter to allow us a timely and orderly recapitalization of the balance sheet. José Cánovas: Perfect. My second question is actually regarding the recapitalization plan. Could you be a bit more specific or what would be the ideal structure for you to be able to announce during the first quarter of 2025?

It's too early, José, to comment on what that will look like, but what we've laid out in the press release in MD&A is just looking to match our debt obligations with our ability to meet those. And so we have a clear understanding of what we think that should look like. But we've got to work with Orion and others to determine what those instruments will look like and how we will recast that capitalization. But we haven't -- we're not specific at this point. We're just -- we just got it in various pots. That makes any sense buckets? José Cánovas: Got it. Thank you. My final question is regarding your current debt structure. Is currently debt correlates like [ph] with the assets?

Yes. Yes, it is, Ryan or David who would like to address that.

Yes, certain of our debt commitments, so the gold pre-pay arrangement with Orion is -- has security attached to it, as does the silver stream. And the convertible debentures outstanding has security attached to Ruby Hill project.

José, did that answer your question? José Cánovas: Yes, yes, it does. So the final one would be just to confirm, you were saying you're quite confident you will be able to reach a deal and recapitalize this by first quarter 2025, just to confirm this point.

That's correct. And our rationale for that, as we pointed out is the quality of this asset base, the location of the asset base and the low capital required to be able to execute on this plan. So between our current lenders and potential new lenders, there is support to assist us with this recapitalization as well as providing the additional financing required to be able to execute on the plan. José Cánovas: Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. And the next question comes from the line of Jonathan [indiscernible]. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hello, I am very happy to hear there is a plan in place, but unfortunately a lot of damage has been done to shareholders. So I just have two questions. Why did the team have a pending joint venture for a year? It was in finalization, but ending up, there is nothing. And my other question is, did you have any potential M&A deals that you declined throughout 2023 and 2024?

So Jonathan, thank you. And I'm sorry for all shareholders on where the share price is today. All we can do is look, it's a great asset base that's been put together and we've laid out a plan that will we believe, take our share price, even with dilution, with the refinancing, the levels above where it's traded at in the past. But we'll need time to execute on that. I turn it over to Matt or Ryan to make a comment on M&A, and…

Okay. So regarding M&A deals that we could potentially have declined, I mean, as part of the team, we always looked at proposals and suggestions for M&A activity. We've engaged with those teams, but decided through the course of the year that none of them met our objectives for delivery and realized the value of the assets. Specifically, Ryan's covered the discussion on the JV and this was not a decision that we took lightly. We looked at the focus on the JV. We looked at the potential free cash flow generation coming from base metals in the near-term as opposed to the generation of free cash flow from the gold assets in the near-term and have made a corporate decision on the direction of that joint venture. Ryan, is there anything else you want to add?

The only thing I'd add to that is I think it's important to remember that over the course of the last year that the joint venture has been potentially active, the gold price environment has changed pretty dramatically. And looking at that and the economics of the property in light of that changing gold price environment had us take a slightly different view when it comes to the property in general and then JV specifically.

Okay. Okay. Well, I wish you the best of luck. Thank you.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Thank you. And we have a follow-up question from Bryce Adams. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks, again. One bonus question from me. The comments around the carrying value and the going concern is that simply a continuation of the language used by previous management or is there anything new in that?

I'm sorry. Can I go ahead?

Yes.

No. There's nothing new. But Bryce, when you look at our balance sheet, we are ramping up an asset that is consuming capital and we finished the quarter with $20 million. So we do need to restructure the balance sheet. We're very confident that we can do that and we're well advanced. But it's just a requirement under both Canadian and U.S. regulations that we make it clear to investors that we do need to do something that a status quo just doesn't work.

Okay. Yes, understood. Just wanted to see if anything had changed.

Thank you. And also a follow-up question from José Cánovas. Your lines now open. Please go ahead. José Cánovas: Yes. Thank you for the follow-up question. Just wondering, I know it's early to talk about the recapitalization plan, but is a debt to equity conversion on the table? Is that an option or would that be like a last resort for you?

I'm sorry, what was the question? José Cánovas: A debt to equity conversion, is that on the table?

So look, our preference is to and ultimately the Board will make the decision. But you have an asset base located in Nevada that we believe has significant debt potential capacity, which we believe will limit, and we will work to limit any dilution. As a shareholder, we would like to issue as little stock as possible moving forward. We want to minimize dilution and by leveraging the balance sheet, but again, putting a debt structure in place that works for the asset base we have and executing as we expect we can. And one of the things that Matt talked about that just want to highlight is that the development of these five assets is frankly low risk. These are historic operating sites. We understand the geology, the metallurgy and the mining. And so we don't see a lot of risk within this portfolio. We believe that we'll be able to execute and we do believe that ultimately we'll be able to put a restructuring plan in place that minimizes dilution to shareholders as much as possible. So converting debt to equity is not something we would want to consider. José Cánovas: Great. Many thanks.

Thank you. And the next question comes from the line of William Siegel. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Yes. This is Bill Siegel. The question I have relates to the toll milling agreement. I was under the impression that the toll milling agreement for 1,000 tons a day didn't expire until the new autoclave or the existing autoclave had been refurbished. Can you comment on that?

Yes. Thank you, Bill. So there's language in the existing toll milling agreement for the autoclave. And I'll be very specific to make sure there's no misunderstandings. We have a toll milling agreement for the autoclave that is at 1,000 tons per day that had an initial period of three years, which expired in October. There is language in the toll milling agreement regarding the ability to extend that agreement. There is also some other scenarios that could be a better and more favorable path for us to process autoclave material in Northern Nevada. So we are currently pursuing all of those options and looking at the different scenarios in which is going to make more sense for both ourselves and any potential business partners with regards to that toll milling. The toll milling agreement for the roaster is a 10-year term. That is -- and so we are in approximately the fourth year of that 10-year term. So that's not affected by any of the discussions we've had today.

So then in summary, the expiration of the toll milling agreement, do you see that as being or adding a lot of risk to the equation for i-80?

I believe that through discussions and working with potential partners, we will very much come to a solution that will be best value for everyone. So it is a risk, of course, everything is a risk. But I am very confident that we'll be able to reach a solution where both parties are favorable.

Bill, could I just add to that that when you look at production for Granite Creek today, about 25% of production is affected by the toll milling. 75% is addressed through other streams, whether it's heap leaching, where we produce gold bars, or an oxide agreement. So it's about a quarter of production that's impacted over the next 12 months. But as Matt mentioned, we are well underway in discussions for a solution for that.

Yes. Thanks for that, Richard. I failed to mention that the current oxide processing agreement is still very much in effect, and both parties seem very pleased with the results from that agreement.

And in the meantime, when you encounter sulfide material, you're just going to probably throw it in a storage area waiting for the agreement to kick in again with whatever party.

Yes, Bill. We put it into a line storage facility as per our permits, and that storage facility is on site.

Thank you. And no further questions that came through. I would now like to hand back the call over to Richard Young for closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Well, thank you, John. In closing, I would just really like to reiterate that, please, we look for patience from our current shareholders, give us an opportunity to complete these five PAs and demonstrate to the market the value of these assets. We'll move forward with the recapitalization to minimize dilution. But we believe that we've got the right team in place, particularly with the new hires with a lot of deep experience in debt restructuring that we're going to face. And we've got a great asset base and a great location. We've got a great technical team. And we believe that we will be creating the next mid-tier gold producer here in North America. So I hope investors will show some patience and support over the next six months as we lay that out for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. This concludes our conference call for today. Thank you, everyone, for participating. You may now disconnect.