Earnings Transcript for SSRM - Q4 Fiscal Year 2023

Operator: Hello, everyone, and welcome to SSR Mining's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Alex Hunchak from SSR Mining. Please go ahead.

Alex Hunchak: Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining today's conference call, during which we'll provide an update on the COPLER incident as well as a brief review of our fourth quarter and full year financial results. Our 2023 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 accompany our call, there is an online webcast. You will find the information to access the webcast in our news release relating to this call. Please note that all figures discussed during the 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. Additionally, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures during our discussion and in the accompanying slides. Please see our press release for information about the comparable GAAP measure. Rod Antal, Executive Chairman, will lead today's call. I will now turn the line over to Rod for his opening remarks.

Rodney Antal: Thank you, Alex. I'm going to speak to the ongoing situation at COPLER. Firstly, I want to pass on our deepest sympathies and condolences to the families, friends, colleagues and communities of the nine personnel who remain missing. It is an incredibly difficult time for everyone who has been impacted by the incident, and we are still processing this tragic loss and will be for some time. In a sign of respect, I would like to take a moment of silence. Thank you. I'm sure you can appreciate that the situation at COPLER is dynamic. And while I will provide some detail today, there are many more questions you may have that I'm not able to answer at this time. I would appreciate your understanding during the Q&A. The focus of the discussion today will be on the incident itself, in the activities and priorities of COPLER at this time. So let's walk through the facts as they currently stand. At approximately 6

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial.

Don DeMarco: First of all, my condolences to everyone with the company and in particular, the missing personnel and their families and colleagues. Now Rod, I don't want to overstep what your intentions were for this call. But maybe if you could just clarify, did you want no questions on the COPLER incident? Or am I able to ask a few questions to get additional color on some of the points that you made?

Rodney Antal: Yes, Don, you can ask questions. Just be respectful to the fact that the incident is only two weeks old. And clearly, we're focused on those areas that I mentioned in the call, but I'll do my best to answer anything else.

Don DeMarco: Is there any chance that the slip -- could you talk about your insurance? Is it that the potential that the slip might be insured?

Rodney Antal: As normal course, we have notified our insurers of the slip and we'll continue to work with them in the ordinary course as the final investigations and facts come to hand. But at this stage, they're being notified.

Don DeMarco: Okay. And so as you described, there's -- one of the big efforts right now is in containing the extent of the contamination is a big earthworks process underway. Do you have any sense about the cost per tonne to move the material? And is the material accessible? Or is there parts where some of the slipped heap might be difficult to reach given steep slopes and other factors?

Rodney Antal: Yes. At this stage, Don, there's really no fidelity around the numbers. I'll just tell you what the areas of focus are for us is, we continue to work actively on the heap leach pad stabilization. That's really the key priority so we can continue with those efforts to recover the missing people to return to their families. The containment area around the Sabirli Valley and particularly is well advanced, as I mentioned, and will continue until we finished that work. And then really, the last piece around the discussions with the various governmental authorities around the final area for the material to be placed is really on just -- haven't really just gone underway. So too early to put any more color on that.

Don DeMarco: Okay. Fair enough. And then maybe just as a final question. In the release this afternoon, it mentioned that there's a potential impairment charge in Q1 and it stated $73 million, and it referenced that, that makes up of the 19% of COPLER total gold inventory. I just want to clarify, does that represent 19% of the heap leach gold inventory or the total heap leach and sulfide gold inventory?

Rodney Antal: It is the total of both the oxides and sulphides, Don. It's all the [ imagery ] at COPLER and the amount that we're referring to is the sites.

Operator: This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Antal for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Rodney Antal: Great. Thank you, operator. And again, thank you all for joining us, and goodbye for now.

Operator: This concludes the conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.