Jason Attew
Analyst · Eight Capital
Thanks, Heather. We'll now pivot to the company's financial performance for Q1. Quarterly revenues effectively tracked higher year-over-year commodity prices when comparing to Q1 2023, which was also partially offset by less gold equivalent ounces versus the same period last year. The decrease in Q1 2024 is due to the stoppage of operations of Renard Diamond Mine at the end of 2023. Net earnings of CAD0.08 per basic common share for the period representing a modest decline versus the first quarter of 2023. However, this delta largely reflects a noncash share of loss of associates, more specifically, the fiscal development and to a lesser extent a modest noncash foreign exchange loss during the period. Most importantly though, Q1 2024 saw a year-over-year improvement to both cash flow per share as well as quarterly adjusted earnings of CAD0.16 per basic common share. During the first quarter of 2024, the company had 19 producing assets. Our GEOs earned come predominantly from Canada, and we derive over 95% of our gold equivalent ounces from precious metals, gold just under 71% and silver at 25% with the remainder coming from other metals. As I noted previously, the recent shutdown of Renard diamonds will no longer be a contributor to Osisko's GEO's earnings going forward, putting the company in position to effectively be 100% precious metal until some of the company's base metal exposure begins to expand with the 1st material contributions coming from the CSA copper stream and the effective date of that copper stream is June 15th this year. Some comments on specific mine performances during the quarter before speaking about a couple of the more material assets in greater detail. The Canadian Malartic had yet another impressive start to the year with the Eagle booking record quarterly production from the mine. The asset remains the Osisko's most important contributor to our GEOs earned by a solid, solid margin. Performance from Osisko Gold's Eagle Mine during the first quarter of 2024 fell somewhat short of above its expectations. Victoria noted, however, the gold production in Q1 2024 was lower year-over-year due to lower grades related to mine sequencing of the Eagle ore body, the timing of placing stacked tons under leach and lower planned stacking rates in Q4 2023. Despite the slower start, the company still expects to achieve 2024 gold production guidance of 165,000 to 185,000 ounces, with summer and fall season typically being the mine's strongest operating periods. Performance from Capstone's Mantos Blancos operation or milling rates continue to lag Phase 1 expansion sign levels and was effectively flat versus the prior period in Q4 2023. Osisko will continue to monitor Mantos' performance through 2024. We remain optimistic that Capstone continues to point to a mid-2024 resolution of the plant issues following the deliveries in June 2024 installation of new pumping infrastructure related to the fine tailings and water management. As things go well from there, Capstone is able to consistently achieve its Mantos throughput capacity of 20,000 tons per day and Osisko will reap the benefits of this achievement in its 2025 year, with Mantos Blancos representing the biggest driver of the Osisko's step change and gold equivalent ounce growth in 2025 versus 2024. As I mentioned earlier, the number of currently producing assets in our portfolio stands at '19. We anticipate this number to increase by two production assets in the second half as we expect both Namdini and Tocantinzinho projects to be pouring gold before the end of the year, in addition to the start of the CSA copper stream. Moving to the next slide. While we have spoken this slide an enumerate number of times, I think it remains as relevant today as ever. As our company continues to distinguish itself from the rest of its relevant peers in the subsector as it relates to jurisdictional exposure, Osisko is the leader when it comes to both net asset value and gold equivalent ounces earned from what Osisko defines as Tier 1 mining jurisdictions, which include Canada, United States and Australia. Of note, that if we were to add Chile to that list country, we would be by over 95%. In terms of Canadian Malartic, the mine realized record quarterly gold production driven by higher tonnage and gold grades, thanks to contributions from the Odyssey underground. More specifically, ramp development continues to exceed target, reaching the first production levels of East Gouldie in February 2024 and at a depth of 765 meters at the end of March. Shaft sinking improved during the quarter with an average sinking rate of 2.4 meters per day. The temporary loading pocket previously planned at level 102 will now be built at level 64, which is expected to provide hoisting capacity by mid-2025. Six months earlier than previously planned and will provide added development and production flexibility. We were obviously also delighted to hear our operating partner continues to make reference to plans around a potential second shaft of the Odyssey underground. A story to stay tuned to. Within the next slide on CSA, just a few weeks ago, our operating partners at Metals Acquisition Corp announced an updated mineral reserve and resource statement based on drilling completed at CSA only up to the end of August 2023. Highlights included a 67% increase in mine life to 11 years, in other words to the end of 2034 based on mineral reserves only compared to a six-year reserve mine life outlined previously. The updated mineral reserves only extends 95 meters vertically below the current decline position and metals acquisition focused continue to drill beyond the August 2023 cutoff date. So we clearly expect that there is more to come from this team in relative near-term. Recall that the CSA copper mine has been producing for almost 60 years with very limited exploration away from the known deposits and there is clear potential to further optimize metal acquisition for April of 2024 life of mine production plant. Exploration in the top 850 meters of the deposit is just starting and initial results highlight strong potential to open additional mining projects. Moving to the next slide, Island Magino. In late March 2024, Alamos announced the friendly acquisition of Argonaut Gold and its Magino gold mine and mill located immediately adjacent to Island Gold. This transaction is expected to close in Q3 2024. The previously planned Phase 3 mill expansion construction work at Island will no longer be required following the announced acquisition of the 10,000 ton per day Magino mill, which is located approximately 2 kilometers from the Island Gold Shaft. The larger mill and tailwinds infrastructure at Magino will now accommodate the rapidly growing mineral reserves and rope resource base at Island Gold. The expanded and accelerated mine plan is also anticipated to transition a greater proportion of production towards Osisko 2% and 3% NSR royalty boundaries earlier in the mine plan as opposed to the mineral inventory covered by Osisko's 1.38% NSR royalty. In addition, a small fraction of the eastern limits of the Magino pit is covered by a 3% NSR royalty, with production expected later this decade. The underground exploration potential previously highlighted by Argonaut Gold on this claim is located less than 300 meters from the existing Island Gold underground infrastructure. Moving to our guidance and growth. After the first quarter and as previously noted, the company remains on solid footing with respect to being able to achieve its previously published 2024 GEO delivery guidance, especially with three material contributors expected to deliver new gold equivalent ounces to Osisko in the second half of 2024 being the CSA Copper Stream, Tocantinzinho and Namdini. While this year's guidance number was always going to represent a modest step down versus last year's, it is worth reminding everyone that Renard no longer in the picture, cash margins have increased. And given the write downs that have already taken place in the asset, tax pools have been created, the fiscal is not expecting to be cash taxable in Canada for 2024. Unsurprisingly, at this point in time, the company's five-year outlook for 2028 published in mid-February remains unchanged, as we remain very confident that both the expansion and our development assets will fuel the 30% plus purely in growth with no continued capital or any capital calls required. Moving to our catalyst slide. Underpinning this updated growth profile is a long list of near-term catalysts that we provided on Slides 14 and 15. We've already discussed many of these already on previous slides on this presentation, so no need for me to add anything further to today. That said, I would still suggest you take the time to go through this impressive list yourself. And if you have any questions or would like to discuss further any of the remaining line items highlighted on these two pages, I encourage you to reach out to my colleagues here at Osisko for more information. Turning to the balance sheet. Finally, we'll end the formal part of the presentation on Slide 16, which outlines the current state of Osisko's balance sheet. At quarter end, we had a total debt of just over CAD150 million and net debt of only approximately CAD80 million. As we stated previously, the covenant performance was exceptionally strong with a 97% cash margin experienced in the first quarter of 2024 expected to continue throughout the year. As noted previously on this call and noted as a subsequent event, event in our MD&A, we've now also repaid an additional CAD18.6 million against our revolver credit facility, further strengthening our financial position, which by the way, frankly extended the facility for another four years. In addition, if commodity prices, specifically gold and silver sit above US$2,300 and US$2,700 respectively, sorry, US$2,500, respectively, we forecast to end up in a net cash position at the beginning of fourth quarter of 2024 with no significant deals are closed by that time. This is important as Osisko doesn't expect to sit in its hands in 2024. And our much improved balance sheet provides the company with financial capacity and flexibility to continue its strategy of disciplined allocation in the pursuit of high quality accretive precious metal streams and royalties that will bolster the company's current near-term geo deliveries and cash flow that should accrue to our shareholders' benefit. And with that, I'd like to thank everyone for listening today. We'll now open up the line for questions as well as questions posted on the webcast. If we don't get to all the questions on the line, we will make sure to respond offline to those that we don't cover on this webcast. Operator?