Paul Benson
Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead
Thank you, Stacey. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’m pleased to welcome you to our call to discuss our third quarter 2019 operating and financial results. Q3 was another strong quarter, as we produced over 100,000 gold equivalent ounces at our three operations, delivering improved margins and maintaining a strong financial position. All three mines achieved solid results. Seabee delivered a record quarterly production with over 32,000 ounces of gold, while achieving quarterly records in recovery and gold grade under our ownership. At Marigold, we produced nearly 53,000 ounces of gold, while stacking 6.4 million tons of ore at a higher quarterly gold grade of 0.51 grams per ton, setting us up well for the remainder of the year. At Puna operations, where we consolidated 100% of our ownership in September, we produced 1.7 million ounces of silver during the quarter. This improved production was coupled with an increased amount of ore mined in advance of the rainy season. The strong operating performance and production results at each site positioned us well to meet or exceed our consolidated production guidance for the eighth consecutive year. From an exploration perspective, 2019 programs at Marigold, Seabee and Puna are continuing, and Carl will provide an update on each shortly. It’s pleasing to see positive exploration results to-date at Marigold and Seabee, which we are expected to add to reserves and resources at year-end 2019. At the recently acquired Trenton Canyon property, immediately south at Marigold, we have focused on confirmatory work that we expect will allow us to bring some of the resources Newmont had identified during its ownership of the property into our inferred resources at year end. Next year, we expect to fund the diamond drilling campaign looking at the deeper high-grade sulfide targets. We’re also pleased with our financial performance during the quarter, as we reported $28 million of adjusted attributable net income and generated $53 million of cash from operating activities. We increased our cash balance to $474 million at the end of the third quarter, as we generated $22 million of free cash flow. Notably, our cash and $51 million in marketable securities amount to over $0.5 billion, which provides us with significant flexibility. With that, I will turn the call over to Kevin, who will discuss our operational performance in more detail.
Kevin O’Kane: Thank you, Paul. As you heard, our operational performance in Q3 and year-to-date continues to track well against our consolidated production guidance, which we improved at mid-year. We produced more than 100,000 gold equivalent ounces during Q3 at consolidated cash costs of $759 per gold equivalent ounce. At Marigold, we produced 52,968 ounces of gold, 4% less than the second quarter, mainly due to stacking of ore on to higher locations on the leach pads, which means it takes longer for the solution to reach the collection system. 19 million tons of material were mined, in line with the second quarter. Approximately 6.4 million tons of ore were delivered to the heap leach pads at a grade of 0.51 grams per ton gold, an increase in stack gold compared to Q2. The gold grade to the leach pads was 34% higher quarter-on-quarter, consistent with plan, as we mined higher-grade ore in the current phase of the Mackay pit. The strip ratio was 2:1 for the third quarter. Cash costs were $822 per ounce, 2% lower than the second quarter. Higher fuel and tire costs due to longer hauls and timing of change-outs were offset by lower labor and mine maintenance costs. Cash costs were impacted by increased royalty cost with the higher gold price and lower deferred stripping, offset by higher recoverable ounces stacked during the quarter. Sustaining capital expenditure guidance has been increased by $10 million to $45 million, reflecting the delivery of a replacement hydraulic loading unit in the fourth quarter. The loader was anticipated to be acquired in 2020, but due to favorable lead times, Marigold is advancing replacement before year-end. Subsequent to the quarter end, Marigold received the positive record of decision on its Marigold Mine Mackay optimization EIS. Moving on to Seabee. The mine produced a record 32,345 ounces of gold in the third quarter of 2019, a 22% increase compared to the second quarter, due to higher mill feed grade which more than offset lower throughput. Cash costs were $373 per ounce, compared to $526 per ounce in Q2 2019, 20% lower – 29% lower due to – due mainly to higher production from the higher feed grade. The mill processed 842 tons per day over the third quarter, 13% lower than the previous quarter, mostly due to electrical transformer damage resulting from lightning strikes. Nearly a full week of production was lost from this weather-related power outage. Gold mill feed grade was 12.39 grams per ton, 26% higher than the previous quarter due to the mining of higher-grade stopes. Gold recovery for the quarter was 98.8%, slightly higher than the second quarter and a record quarterly result during our ownership. The new underground equipment commission during the second quarter continues to operate well. Underground development rates were flat for the quarter, mainly due to the power outages. We still expect to reach our mining rate and hence a processing rate of 1,050 tons per day by year-end 2019. As we indicated during previous calls, we are expanding the capacity of our tailing storage facility to accommodate the increase in reserves added during the past two years. We will complete 100% of the 2019 scope for the tailings expansion project during the first half of Q4 2019. The project remains on time in this tracking well to budget. Puna operations produced 1.7 million ounces of silver during the third quarter, 12% higher than the second quarter of 2019, mainly due to higher mill throughput and silver grade. Silver sales totaled 1.5 million ounces. Cash costs were $14.22 per ounce of silver for the third quarter compared to $9.80 per ounce of silver in the second quarter, mainly due to the lower byproduct revenues and higher operating costs. During the third quarter, ore was milled at an average of 3,648 tons per day, a 7% increase compared to the previous quarter, mainly due to improved performance of the new tailings pumping system. During the month of September 2019, ore was milled at an average of 4,539 tons per day. Processed ore in the third quarter contained an average grade of 165 grams per ton silver, a 3% increase compared to the second quarter, consistent with the mine plan and average silver reserve grade. The strip ratio during the quarter was 4.3:1, significantly lower compared to the previous quarter as we indicated during our second quarter conference call. In summary, the operations again delivered solid results during the quarter, setting us up well for a record full year gold equivalent production with higher throughput at Seabee and the head grade at Seabee and Marigold near the reserve averages in the fourth quarter. I will now hand over to Carl, who will take you through our exploration activities.