Good morning, everyone, and welcome to SSR Mining’s First Quarter 2020 Conference Call. This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Michael McDonald, Investor Relations for SSR Mining.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to SSR Mining’s first quarter 2020 conference call, during which we will provide an update on our business and a review of our financial performance. Our Financial Statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis have been filed on SEDAR and EDGAR and are also available on our website. To accompany 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 the call are in US dollars unless otherwise indicated. All references to cash costs and all-in sustaining costs are per payable ounce of metals sold. We will be making forward-looking statements today, so please read the disclosures in the relevant documents. Joining us on the call this morning are Paul Benson, President and CEO; Greg Martin, our CFO; Kevin O’Kane, COO; and Carl Edmunds, Vice President-Exploration. Also present is John DeCooman, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Strategy. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Paul for opening remarks.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very pleased to welcome you to our call to discuss our first quarter 2020 operating and financial results. Firstly, I hope everyone on this call is safely navigating the brave new world of COVID-19. Later in the call, Kevin will explain the impacts on each of our sites and the status of our planning to Seabee and Puna. Obviously COVID is impacting the communities where our people work and live. And last month, we announced we’re donating $350,000 to help assist the communities around our mines and projects get through this difficult period. Looking back on the first quarter, we got off to a very strong start for the year, as we produced over 107,000 gold equivalent ounces. And all three operations delivered a solid performance. At Marigold, we produced over 58,000 ounces of gold, setting the mine out well for what we’ll, hopefully, be another year of record annual gold production. At Seabee, we delivered quarterly production of over 29,000 ounces of gold. Importantly, mill throughput averaged over 1,050 tonnes per day in the first two months of the quarter. The Puna silver production was 1.8 million ounces, as we continue to achieve steady state operating metrics, with mill throughput consistently above the rates assumed in the PFS. So overall, I'm pleased with the solid results delivered by each operation. From an exploration perspective, as Carl will speak to shortly, we've had some exciting drill results at both Marigold and Seabee. We're also pleased with our financial performance during the quarter. In March, we repaid the remaining outstanding portion of our 2013 convertible notes and still ended the quarter with an enviable cash balance of just under $400 million. With that repayment, we now have no debt maturities until 2026. As we disclosed…

Thank you, Kevin. For 2020, our objectives at Marigold are to discover additional mineral resources south of the currently producing Mackay Pit, Trenton Canyon, Valmy, East Basalt and Crossfire. The goal at CDR to increase mineral resources and reserves at Santoy Gap Hanging Wall, Santoy 8A and Santoy 9A through 9C zones. We also plan aggressive greenfield activity at Fisher and select areas close to existing mine infrastructure at Santoy and Seabee. Given the health and travel restrictions presently in place, it is unlikely that we will be able to complete all of our planned exploration activities in Saskatchewan. At Marigold, 2020 work include 64,000 meters of RC and core drilling. And during the first quarter we completed over 18,700 meters of drilling in 55 hole on Trenton Canyon, Mackay and Valmy. Trenton Canyon received most of the drill meters where we are confirming historical results and exploring for extensions to known mineralization. We also initiated a limited core drilling program to explore for high grade sulfide ore potential at depth. Yesterday we released exciting results from exploration drilling at Trenton Canyon with one hole demonstrating high-grade, broad-width sulfide mineralization in proximity to three additional mineralized holes. In particular, MRA7178 intercepted a 94.5 meter interval of 5.2 grams per tonne gold that includes 7.6 meters of 44.7 grams per tonne gold. The news zone is located 300 meters north of Trenton Canyon South Pit and has a dip length of at least 150 meters and an orthogonal thickness of 50 meter to 70 meters. Importantly, all four drill holes have ended in the mineralization which is open on dip and to the north and to the south. Our experience indicates that these results have grade and witdh characteristics consistent with underground mines successfully operating in Nevada today and we look…

Thanks, Carl, and good morning to everyone. I hope you're keeping work through these interesting times. We will all remember Q1 of 2020 for both personal and family reasons, but also for the extreme economic and market sell-off late in the quarter. We are fortunate that while our business like most has been impacted by the COVID pandemic, our business model has only been strengthened and we see that through our strong first quarter results. We generated revenues of $164.5 million from the sale of 105,000 gold equivalent ounces. Revenues were a 30% increase from the comparative quarter. Revenue growth would have been even more significant if not due to the $8.7 million negative mark-to-market impact on provisionally price concentrate sales caused by the drop in silver and base metal prices coinciding with quarter-end. With the bounce in silver prices off the quarter-end lows, we have already clawed back some of that impact. Income from mine operations was $44.8 million, an almost 50% increase from that comparative period. Income from mine operations were impacted by both the $8.7 million mark-to-market adjustment referenced, and an $8.5 million noncash fair value adjustment on Puna ore stockpiles both due to the drop in silver and base metal prices at March 31. Operating income was strong at $34.8 million aided by lower G&A due to share-based compensation reversals. You will note on the income statement a $1.3 million expense for care and maintenance activities. These costs relate to Puna operations where operations were suspended before quarter end. We did not record any care and maintenance costs for Seabee. For the quarter, we reported net income of $24 million or $0.19 per share almost 4 times the comparative quarter and 19% above the fourth quarter. Adjusted income totaled $39 million or $0.31 per share, a…

Thanks, Greg. In summary, this was an important quarter for SSR Mining. The zero premium merger with Alacer is an important strategic step and will position SSR mining as a leading free cash flow-focused, diversified gold producer. Upon closing, SSR would have annual gold equivalent production in the order of 780,000 ounces and a market capitalization around $4.3 billion at today's equity prizes. The company will have a peer-leading balance sheet and cash generation. The closing of the deal requires positive votes by the shareholders of SSR mining and Alacer at meetings we expect to be held in July. Pleasingly, we've had very strong support during our marketing of the transaction this week and are encouraged by the market reaction to-date. Looking forward, we have a lot of work -- hard work ahead of us over the coming quarters with the reopening of Seabee and Puna and the integration of the two companies. The inclusion of the world-class Copler operation into our portfolio is just the next chapter in our company's evolution. With our enviable financial position, we'll be able to continue doing what we do well creating value for shareholders by maximizing the value of our own assets and looking externally for new opportunities. This concludes the formal remarks of our earnings call. I’ll now pass the line to the operator to take any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Benson. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] We will pause for a moment for callers join the queue. Your first question comes from Mike Parkin with National Bank. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Lots of interesting stuff this morning. I'd like to start with the Batman zone. It looks like the one intercept that looks really interesting is very close to the surface. You've got a couple where assays are pending. Is there any thoughts towards that being a potential open pit ore source?

I'll go -- my general comment, most of these tend to be relatively narrow and you end up with some -- you'd end up with a fairly steep or the strip ratio would increase relatively quickly. I think it's something that we've talked about with a few different sort of outcropping mineralization out there, but nothing has ever worked. But, Carl, your view?

It’s a narrow vein. It’s unsuitable really for any open pit, and plus, there’s surface water around there.

That always is a bit of a downer up at Seabee if you come near those ways. So, it can really make the open pit difficult.

Okay. And then, in terms of moving down the Marigold, on the new win packages of Trenton Canyon and Buffalo Valley, are the royalty rates different there than what you're paying for -- at the oxide mine?

Yes, significantly lower. I'm just going to ask John DeCooman to give an update on what they have done there.

Yeah. Mike, they differ anywhere from call it 2% to 4% sort of depends on some of the different sections that are there, but they are, they're probably close to a third of what you see in general at the Marigold Macky area.

Great. So, that's great news. All right. That's it for me. I'll let some others ask some question. Thanks very much, guys.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Chris Thompson with PI Financial. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Paul, just quick notes. All the best for your future endeavors there. It's been great having you at the helm. Congratulations on the announcement, obviously, with Alacer earlier this week. Just a couple of quick questions I guess as far as these results. You do mention, obviously, high grades are going to be stacked at Marigold in the second half of this year. Can you put a number to that?

No. I mean, we haven't changed guidance at Marigold so I just run off what we’ve got there at the moment. Obviously, the only thing that you probably can think about is that if gold price keeps on going that impacts our forecast on cash costs because that includes the royalty but otherwise we're comfortable with the guidance we've been given for Marigold at the beginning of the year.

Sure. All right. Thanks for that. And, Carl, maybe this is a question for you. I mean great results from Trenton Canyon. And you make reference to that in the news release of similarities with Turquoise Ridge. I wonder if you can just expand upon that and maybe comment on the mineralization that you see and possible sort of metallurgical similarities with Turquoise.

Well, what we -- what we think we know from the core drilling work that we did just near Relay Ridge is that approximately 300 meters down we think we get into the Comus Formation with the lower plate rocks that host Turquoise Ridge. And up at this area here, albeit we only have RC information on it, we're seeing a lithological change just above where these intercepts are occurring. So we come out of more -- what I understand as more Valmy-looking rock types which are the units that are above the Comus. And then going into what are carbonaceous mud stones, the nature of the mineralization that we're seeing is very fine-grained pyrite in variably solidified rock and now this is all being pulled from RC chips. But that's what we're seeing. So the similarities at present are that it's -- we've got some pretty interesting-looking high grades and it's sulfide. Some of the differences would be that we're not seeing the realgar, orpiment and in some of the other -- those other more exotic minerals in it. We're not seeing any of that. I would say yet we may see that in future but at least we're seeing the grade which is the part that we're interested in. And as soon as we can follow up with some core holes we'll be able to provide some detail as to where we think it really fits in in the stratigraphy.

Just a couple of other points on that. When we’ve got the package of land we were restricted on where we could drill. So a lot of the drilling in the first half was on disturbed land. We now have the permits to go and drill where we want to. So, that will be great. The first core hall was a long hole, 1.5 kilometers. We haven't got all the assays back. Think of that as sort of like a Rosetta stone of trying to understand the lithology. We're going to do seismic down there. And really, what then you’re looking for is trying to interpret the structures and extrapolating lithology. So yeah, this is going to be a long-term game. We've always said we want to -- the initial budget this year is $2 million. We’d expect to be spending that sort of money four or five years. But with success you can always allocate more capital to it. So it's a good story down there.

No. Good stuff, guys. Congratulations.

I just throw one thing in there. Obviously if we do come across that sort of material and it's refractory, that's the technology that Alacer would just build successfully over in Turkey.

Absolutely. That's exactly what I was thinking.

Okay. Next question.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Michael Gray with Agentis Capital. Please go ahead.

Hey. Thanks for taking my call. I couldn’t resist calling in here on the results. And I wish you well, Paul and your team, going for it. Congratulations on the deal. My question is on Trenton Canyon. And I'm sure Carl and Jim Carver really wish they had core holes right now. But just asking, mineralization and cross section looks like it's kind of got a lozenge shape. And I'm just wondering, is it discordant or strata form or can you tell right now? And the rest of my questions have really been answered in terms of it actually being the Comus. So I think this is a really great breakthrough. And I’m really excited for you, guys.

We can’t tell too much from the chips obviously. But in the near surface, it's looking like it's following the general orientation of the rock package. The Valmy rocks that are at surface, Mike, they’re -- they’ve got -- there’s fold packets that are in there. So it's chevron to a little tighter hold it. But in general, the packages is off to the east. So we've either got a structure that's bounding. We're thinking this is interpretive now. A structure that's sitting in the hanging wall of these intercepts that’s between what might be the Valmy package and the Comus lower plate package or it's that major thrust, so -- or if stratigraphic contact.

Okay. And I missed whether you had actually imaged it already with geophysics…

Yeah. We had that planned for the second quarter and with the some of the COVID-19 travel restrictions for contractors out of state and so on, we decided to delay that until we can really get a picture on when we can initiate it. So it's sometime in the near future and hopefully the -- when the area starts to get over that -- those travel restrictions, we can mobilize the contractors. We have approvals to do the work. We're all set for it.

Okay. Fantastic congratulations and congratulations again on the deal. Thanks very much.

You'll have to start covering large cap companies so that you can keep on top of us.

Next question.

Our next question comes from John Tomaso with John Tomaso Very Independent Research. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Congratulations on so many things.

Thank you.

With -- if I'm adding this up right, there's about $870 million of gross cash across the two companies pro forma. The SilverCrest sale and the merger and the results. Should we assume that just the merger and the SilverCrest divestiture is enough corporate activity to keep you busy for a good six months and nothing more is going to happen? And should we assume that you just sit there with this nice cash position and don't retire any of the various liabilities, leases, short term, etcetera, although you do have a few liabilities you could repay?

Just looking at the pro forma in the table that we put out on -- when we put the announcement out, page 9. The cash of marketable securities was $707 million and that included -- the marketable securities included the SilverCrest stake.so it's just moving it for marketable securities across the cash. In terms of debt, ours isn’t -- ours is the convertible note, the $230 million. That’s not repayable until 2026. So, we’d see no reason for doing that. And Alacer has a project loan which they can pay back early without penalty. I understand if I want to, but that's something to be discussed later. I still think cash is a strategic asset. It has been for us. So, we've found that we've been -- we've done well by keeping a significant proportion of cash on the balance sheet. I think both companies leading into the announcement of the deal were certainly giving significant consideration to the capital return. I'd say that down at the BMO conference early this year that once we go through 2019, we were holding off because we weren't sure whether we needed extra capital of Marigold to bring in the Red Dot deposit into reserves. Once we got through that decision, pleasingly, we didn't need the extra capital. I said, midway through this year is obviously something that the board would have to consider -- would pleasingly enjoy considering potential capital return. I think realistically we put that on hold until we get out of COVID. It would be -- I think it would be not -- it wouldn't be prudent to do anything in advance of understanding the full impacts of COVID, but certainly, with our balance sheet and our forecast cash generation then yes, I think that will be a key attribute of the company going forward.

Do you think that four mines on three continents is an expandable platform? Some companies manage growth better than others. A few years ago BHP divested all their smaller mines into South32. There’s different philosophies as to how many moving pieces, how far apart are manageable.

Both Rod and I have come -- have spent some time -- career in majors here at Rio; me at BHP. And I started off my career with an intermediate back in Australia, Rennison Goldfields, which had I think about eight or nine operations. To me, the sweet spot, somewhere between five to eight mines. I think above that you probably start to get diseconomies, head office becomes too bureaucratic. But I think you can really leverage the head office if you're in that sweet spot. So we absolutely have room to grow. And at some point, I think Rio, back in its heyday, if you go back in 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, they were brilliant at sort of winnowing out -- as they added a new higher-quality asset, they would sell something lower down the portfolio. So I think that's a discipline that you need. To me, one of the other great benefits of building the portfolio, adding more assets, is how you can help develop people in a career, is you can move them around between mines which is something that we haven't got to that point yet and very much looking forward to that. So absolutely, there's no way that SSR after bringing Copler has reached the end of its growth potential. I’d say we’re just on that evolution and hopefully we continue to add more.

Thank you.

Excellent. Okay. I understand that.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I will turn the call back to Mr. Benson.

Thanks, operator. Thanks to everyone for listening today. I hope you have a good day.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.