Thank you for standing by. Good afternoon. My name is Sylvie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Silvercorp First Quarter Fiscal 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] And I would like to turn the conference over to Lon Shaver, Vice President, for opening remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sylvie. On behalf of Silvercorp, I'd like to welcome everyone for joining our call today to discuss our first quarter fiscal 2024 financial results, which were released yesterday after market. A copy of the news release, the MD&A and the financial statements for today's call are available on our website and SEDAR. Before we get started, I'm required to remind you that certain statements on today's call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Please review the cautionary statements included in our news release and presentation, as well as the risk factors described in our most recent 10-Q and Form 40-F and Annual Information Form. So we kicked off fiscal 2024 with a solid first quarter, with our mines delivering a strong performance in line with expectations. Revenue in the quarter was $60 million, that was down 6% compared to the prior year quarter due to a number of factors, notably a decrease of $3.4 million in silver and lead sales, a decrease of $3.9 million from lower realized lead and zinc prices. But those were offset by an increase of $2.6 million from a higher realized silver price and increase of $700,000 from gold sales. Based on production levels and realized prices this quarter, silver was 59% of our revenues on a net basis. That was up from 54% in the first quarter of last year. Our Q1 net earnings attributable to equity shareholders were $9.2 million or $0.05 per share. This compared to $10.2 million or $0.06 a share for the same period last year. The main contributors to the slight decrease were a 5% and 9% decrease in silver and lead sold, respectively; and a 6% and 33% decrease in realized lead and zinc prices. Also, we had a foreign exchange…

[Operator Instructions] One moment for your first question, which will come from Felix Shafigullin at Eight Capital.

Lon. Congrats on a good quarter. Just a very quick question from me. The year-over-year increase in the cash costs and all-in sustaining costs at the GC mine was -- it says that it was driven by additional cost to run the XRT Sorting System. Could you just give a little bit more color on that? Is there some issues with it? Or just any additional information on that will be great.

Yes, Felix, thanks for your question. I wouldn't say necessarily issues, but bringing in something new into the flow sheet, getting everybody aligned and understanding how it works and how to incorporate it into the flow obviously takes some time and some extra effort. So I wouldn't say there's issues, but just some additional costs that we've incurred. From an observation standpoint, it looks like it may have made a contribution, though, given that the grade did pick up.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question will be from Justin Stevens at PI Financial.

Good presentation, I think you answered a few of the things I was going to ask anyways. But the one sort of left over here, Ying, particularly the mining cost on a per tonne basis dropped, obviously [ it leaves ] pretty considerably. Is this the sort of thing -- obviously, the RMB devaluation has had an impact there, but even this is a bit more beyond that. Is this the kind of thing that we're seeing the benefit of that sort of focus on lateral development as opposed to development of depth? And if so, do you think that, that's maybe not quite sustainable at these low levels? But is that going to potentially come in at the lower end of the guidance in the upper tonne range?

Yes, good question. Obviously, we're not in the business of forecasting the exchange rates here. I mean, I think I would go back because there's a lot of factors that come into play from year-over-year and quarter-to-quarter in terms of different elements. I can't speak specifically to that being a component of going shallower or following laterally as you indicated. I think that may have been part of the contribution to the change. But I mean, I would stick really with what we put out in terms of guidance, like for the quarters going forward and the year. And if there truly is what I would say a shift in thinking, we'll update the numbers and give you more granularity on that.

Got it. And I know that [ there's been talk ] before, but is there a plan for the timing on a reserve resource update, broadly speaking, for -- at least for the Ying district?

We haven't discussed that internally. Obviously, we just did one based off of that, the big drilling we did starting in 2020, and that got published last fall. So -- and obviously, we put some new news out since then. There haven't been plans from a timing standpoint. And typically, we've rotated between doing a formal update on Ying one year, and then GC in the next, and going back and forth. I think we'll have to have some conversations here to determine if the drilling that's been done that did not make it into the last report, as well as any of these other changes, warrants an update. But at this time, I don't have any set time and target, and we've not started currently to do an updated 43-101 on Ying.

Got it. And then just, obviously, once Mill 3 does come in, is the plan just to, I guess, accelerate the previous mine plan, pull from a few more stoping faces, to sort of meet the increased capacity there?

Yes. Well, and obviously, with #3 coming on, #1 gets shut down. So we do lose that contribution. But it's definitely a portfolio mix. I mentioned Kuanping with what's progressing there. I mean I'm hopeful, I'm optimistic that we'll have an amount of disclosure relative to what we think that can contribute in terms of tonnage and grade to the centralized milling facility some time later this year or early next year. So that will be a contributor. And yes, we're working through plans with respect to what we can add or increase or update for the existing 7 mines across the 4 mining permits. And again, it's 7 mines across roughly 70 square kilometers. So there's, I think, opportunities to increase production at some of these existing ones and potentially looking at bringing on new areas. But a lot of the work has to be done, and we put out the disclosure that this work has to get wrapped up into, not necessarily the 43-101 you're referring to, but more the Chinese resource development plans that have to get filed to get permit approvals for that.

Next question will be from Gabriel Gonzalez at Echelon Capital Markets.

Lon. Just a question regarding the OreCorp announcement and the end of the Celsius exclusivity period. And I apologize if this was already addressed earlier in the call, I did jump in a few minutes late. But I wanted to ask if the company will continue to look for acquisitions? Or does the end of the Celsius exclusivity period and acquisition with OreCorp mean that, for now, it's OreCorp sort of a one and done type situation on the acquisition front for now?

Yes. I mean I think, obviously, OreCorp had the benefit of seeing what we had disclosed on the Celsius transaction, and they were aware of our activities there. They also know that we have ambitious growth plans for the company, and that's part of the excitement and part of the reason to roll into the Silvercorp story with the transaction that we've announced. But certainly, from a near-term standpoint, getting the OreCorp transaction closed and being in a position to also, post closing of that deal, provide a bit more updates as to the development of Nyanzaga, is the key priority.

Thank you. And this concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Lon Shaver for any closing remarks.

Well, that's great. Thank you, Sylvie. And thanks, everyone, for tuning in today and for the questions. Please, if you have any additional questions, we'd be happy to address them at that time. And we look forward to updating you again on our next call for a second quarter results. Have a good day, everyone. Thank you.