Hello, everyone, and welcome to SSR Mining's Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2022 Conference Call. This call is being recorded. At this time for opening remarks and introduction, I would like to turn the call over to Alex Hunchak from SSR Mining. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining SSR Mining's fourth quarter 2022 conference call, during which we will provide an update on our business and a review of our financial performance. Our fourth quarter 2022 consolidated financial statements have been presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. These financial statements have been filed on EDGAR, SEDAR, the ASX and are also available on our website. To accompanying our call, there is an online webcast and you will find the information to access the webcast in our news release relating to this call. Please note that all figures discussed during this call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. Today's discussion will include forward-looking statements. So please read the disclosures in the relevant documents. Joining us on the call today are Rod Antal, President and CEO; and Alison White, CFO. Now, I will turn the call over to Rod for his opening remarks.

Great. Thanks, Alex, and hello to you all, and thanks for joining us. We closed 2022 on a positive note by meeting our revised production and cost guidance. Thanks to a solid fourth quarter where all four operating assets were running at a steady state. We started this year with an improved outlook. And earlier this month, we reconfirmed and confirmed our expectations for a strong year of production and free cash flow with the release of the three-year guidance. To reinforce the point on cash flow, we have assumed an $1,800 gold price and with our 2023 production guidance of 700,000 to 790,000 ounces, we would expect approximately $140 million of free cash flow this year. The other positive to begin this year is the arrival of Bill MacNevin, who joined the SSR team as EVP Ops and Sustainability. We are fortunate to have someone with Bill's global experience and successful track record joined the company from Barrick. The introduction of a fresh set of experience size will be beneficial to the business. Bill has been busy visiting each one of our sites to establish priorities and looking for opportunities to improve our business, and you will hear from him later in the year. So now back to the numbers. With our 2023 headline costs, are elevated year-over-year, it is not just inflation. We are also executing on a number of expansion efforts to improve the outlook for SSR in the future, and I'll discuss these further during the call. Before we move on, some key highlights from the fourth quarter and full-year 2022. The business delivered strong fourth quarter production of 183,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,358 per ounce. Full-year production of 624,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,339 per ounce were within…

Thank you, Rod, and hello, everyone. I'll first focus on our capital returns program and track record, which we are well aligned to the three pillars of our capital allocation strategy; reinvestment in growth, balance sheet strength and returning capital to our shareholders. During 2022, we returned nearly $160 million to shareholders through the base dividend and share buyback program. This builds on our 2021 returns with total returns of $350 million to shareholders. Together, these programs provided two consecutive years with a 5% capital return field or approximately $250 per gold equivalent ounce produced over that same period of time. Currently, our base dividend is yielding approximately 2%. We maintain the ability to supplement that dividend with share repurchases under our share buyback program. Slide 7 will provide a review of 2022, so let's take a look at our results. A few of the key points that are relevant to consider at the end of the fourth quarter and are worth highlighting today. Full-year production of 624,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,339 an ounce was in line with revised guidance. Fourth quarter production of 183,000 ounces at all-in sustaining costs of $1,352 an ounce was a solid finish to the year and included the delivery of nearly $100 million in quarterly free cash flow. During the quarter, we issued press releases that detailed additional exploration success at Çakmaktepe Extension, Marigold and Seabee. We are excited by these results and have expanded our exploration budget in 2023 in an effort to continue advancing these brownfield opportunities. We closed the acquisition of an additional 30% of Kartaltepe again, successfully redeploying proceeds from non-core asset sales into our core jurisdiction. At each of the operations, we had the following highlights. At Çöpler, we accelerated maintenance during the suspension to…

Great. Thank you very much, Alison. As I highlighted when we kick the call off, we are pleased to be starting 2023 with all our assets running at steady state, and we expect to deliver a very strong year of production and cash flow. I want to point out that given the mine schedule and growth profiles for each asset, we expect our consolidated production will be more weighted to the second half with 55% to 60% of our planned production coming in H2. One more point of granularity. We expect quarter one will be our lowest production quarter and the second half will be the strongest cost and cash flow performance. Now let's go through each one of the assets, starting with Çöpler on Slide 13. It's actually Slide number 12. At Çöpler, we successfully restarted operations and closed the year with a strong finish, delivering quarterly record throughput of more than 8,000 tons per day in the sulfide plant. This strong sulfide plant performance meant that the mine actually exceeded its revised 2022 production guidance with full-year production of 191,000 ounces, setting us up well for Çöpler to deliver production guidance of 240,000 to 270,000 ounces in 2023. During 2023, we expect to deliver the first gold production from Çakmaktepe Extension. Recall that the Çakmaktepe Extension is expected to add 1.2 million ounces to Çöpler's life of mine. The project is a major contributor to SSR's long-term production profile, and this is an incredibly quick transition from discovery just six years ago. Our total conversion cost is peer-leading at only $6 for discovery plus $58 per ounce for development. Further, at the end of last year, we announced a number of positive exploration results that could potentially drive further growth. Of course, with the start-up of new mine…

Thank you, Mr. Antal. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Ovais Habib from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator. Hi, Rod and SSR team. Just a couple of questions from me. Number one, Rod, looking at three-year guidance, and this is specifically at Marigold versus the last Marigold tech report. You mentioned that you've brought forward Red Dot stripping, which I believe was supposed to take place in 2026. Now based on this, we see production dipping to approximately 150,000 ounces in 2025. And based on the last tech report, production was supposed to kind of rebound back all the way up to 300,000 ounces after the dip in production. How should we be looking at this production kind of going beyond 2025? Is that mine plan still intact? Or should we see a difference when you come out with your tech report?

Yes. Thanks, Ovais. So look, I think the point here is we're always looking at ways to optimize mine plans across the business. And as we looked at the opportunity at Marigold, there was a really, the focus, if you remember, was trying to smooth it as much as we could. And when we ran those optimization schedules, it was clear to us that by bringing forward the purchase of the three haul trucks this year, there was definitely an incremental NPV value to be had by accessing Red Dot in an earlier time frame. It also helps with the resequencing that we also were able to improve the production profile along the way while we access the Red Dot later on. But 2025 will still be the lower year, I guess, if you want to look at it like that and then we rebound up as we get into those high grades at Red Dot. So it's a really bit of shifting around compared to where we were, and we'll continue to look at it and advance those optimization efforts, as this year progresses as well.

Okay. Thanks for that Rod. And just a second part of this question is regarding the drilling completed at Marigold in 2022. Obviously, that was not incorporated in the reserve update that you released today and the last tech report, obviously. Can you provide us some color as to whether or not this drilling could impact the front end of the mine life? Essentially, what I'm trying to get to is can we smooth out production at the dip in 2025 with incorporating some of that ounces into 2025?

Yes. It's obviously an interesting question, Ovais, and we didn't incorporate it. It is definitely the old reserves that we're being optimizing. Some of the drill results around New Millennium are encouraging. And again, it was targeted specifically for the potential for near-term opportunity. We're still going to complete that work and complete some of the drilling program which will form the basis of the new reserve updates that we'll do for Marigold and does still have some potential to fill that valley for us moving forward. But we're still a work in progress.

Okay. Sounds good, Rod. I'll stop there and maybe jump back in the queue. Thank you.

Thanks, Ovais.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Lawson Winder from Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you operator, and good evening Rob and Alison and team, nice to hear from you all. I was hoping to just ask a few questions. So first on the 2022 guidance from Seabee and kind of like how it's moved around and then where you guys ended up for the year a little bit below the revised guidance. You started the year at 115 to 120 went to 150 to 160 and then came in kind of in the middle of that. I would love your help in trying to understand what was driving the lower-than-expected gold production for example, I mean, with the geological interpretation different than what you had thought. Was it dilution or continuity? And then as a follow-up to that, why weren't those grades just pushed into 2023? Thanks.

Yes. It's a good question, Lawson. So we originally hit the year running with the access to that high-grade portion in quarter one, if you remember. And that obviously gave us a big lift. And we were able to get almost another 20,000 ounces, I think, overall. The expectation towards the end of the year was there was another area that we had targeted for the same potential for an uplift over the actual reserve through some drilling. But as it turned out, when we were in the actual scope itself that underperformed. So it was as simple as that. It was more nuggety and more confined than we actually had anticipated. So that's why it didn't carry over into this year.

Okay. That's very helpful. And then I wanted to ask about just the general cost inflation in the business, which of your operations are seeing the most significant impact from costs? And then what in particular would be driving that?

Yes. I'll – overall, it's across the business, I'll let Alison actually provide a much better explanation. I think it depends on which asset you're talking about because they're all different. Across the board, the fuel input pricing is definitely under pressure. Labor costs in some locations are under more pressure because of higher inflation. And then in other locations where we would normally get the relief from exchange rates, we're not seeing it particularly in Türkiye at the moment, but we do expect that to sort of turn around as the year progresses. But it really is – it is across the board, Lawson, and I don't think we're on an island here. I think it's an industry issue. We have done actually quite a lot of good things to mitigate the costs that don't come through where we've been able to take savings through our supply chain efforts, where we've looked for efficiencies in the mining and processing to do things with the same resources but get a better result. But clearly, that sort of 10% to 15% headline of inflation has outpaced that. So a clear focus for us in this year as we move into 2024 to keep on going. Alison, do you want to add anything else?

I was just going to offer up the 10% to 15% that we've seen across the board from an inflationary perspective and just reiterate what Rod did mention previously, which is, historically, we've seen inflation in devaluation really be in lockstep with each other. And we're seeing a divergence, especially in Türkiye between the two. We do anticipate that through the year, especially with the upcoming elections that we will see a change in that. But for now, that's sort of the landscape of what we're looking at, but does contribute to the overall change in the cost profile at Çöpler.

And maybe just a follow-up. So at Marigold, where you don't have the benefit of FX depreciation to offset that? Are you saying that inflation at that same 10% to 15% rate?

We are seeing this 10% to 15% pretty equally across the portfolio.

Okay. Fantastic. And then just maybe one more question on the buyback. Just to perhaps help us understand how you think about that and in the context of – even with higher CapEx in 2023, I mean, SSR should generate quite a substantial amount of free cash flow. And in light of that, I perhaps would have expected maybe a bit more specificity around your buyback and your intentions around share repurchases. So when you say you'll be optimistic, how would you define an optimistic opportunity in order to buyback shares and maybe in terms of what metrics you look at and how free cash flow and net cash factor in? Thank you.

Yes. So thanks for that question Lawson. So in terms of our general approach to the buyback program, we're going to remain consistent in 2023 with what you've historically seen. We still do have some room on our existing buyback program that expires in June of 2023. And so we have the opportunity that's out there if we want to consider repurchases. We also want to be comprehensive in our look at how we're returning capital to our shareholders. And so we really do want to evaluate if there is a different deployment strategy or if that is the appropriate deployment strategy given some other concepts that we're looking at and evaluating through the business.

Sorry, when you say concepts, are you referring to growth CapEx?

Yes, growth CapEx.

Okay. Got it. Thank you very much.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Antal.

Great. Thank you. And again, thank you all for joining us today, and I appreciate taking the time. Have a good day. Thank you.

This concludes the conference call. Please feel free to disconnect.