Hello, everyone, and welcome to SSR Mining’s Second Quarter 2022 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.

Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining SSR Mining’s second quarter 2022 conference call, during which we will provide an update on our business and a review of our financial performance. Our second 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 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 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; Alison White, CFO; and Stew Beckman, COO. Now, I will turn the call over to Rod for his opening remarks.

Thanks, Alex, and hello to you all, and thanks for joining us. I’d like to start by providing a brief summary of our positive first half results. The first half of 2022 demonstrated the continued resilience of our business in the face of supply chain constraints and inflation pressures as our consolidated production and cost metrics track well against our year-to-date targets. Our four operating assets produced 333,000 ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of $11.77 per ounce, with solid margins and attributable net income of $126 million. Our financial strength drive us to continue our peer-leading capital return program. During the quarter, we announced a buyback program that enables us to repurchase up to 10.6 million shares. This, together with our 40% dividend increase earlier this year resulted in year-to-date returns to nearly $100 million to shareholders or equivalent to a 2.8% yield and growing. Despite the positive performance in the first half of the year and numerous strategic milestones, we are continuing to face increased cost pressures across the portfolio, especially in fuel, electricity, reagents and labor costs. While we have been successfully bucking the cost inflation trend over the past 18 months, we have seen costs now outpace our mitigation efforts. As a result, we are reaffirming our production guidance, albeit at the bottom end of the guidance range, and we are revising our cost guidance higher for the first -- for the year to reflect the macroeconomic pressures and the temporary suspension of Çöpler, which we’ll discuss during the presentation. So just moving on to Slide 4. And on this next slide, I want to highlight our core values in relation to our ESG initiatives. ESG is, and has long been a core value and focus for the company as it underpins the success of…

Thanks, Rod. Good evening and afternoon, everyone. This quarter we produced over 159,000 gold equivalent ounces and over 333,000 gold equivalent ounces in the first half of the year, in line with our expectations for back half weighted production profile. As mentioned earlier, we revised our guidance for all-in sustaining costs to $1,230 to $1,290 per gold equivalent ounce and are targeting the lower end of our existing production guidance range. We are aggressively pursuing continuous improvement and cost management initiatives aiming to mitigate inflationary pressures where possible while also diligently working to ensure higher costs do not remain a permanent feature of the business moving forward. Gold equivalent sales of 167,000 ounces in the quarter drove revenue of $320 million. Attributable net income for the quarter was $58 million or $0.27 per diluted share and adjusted attributable net income was $57 million or $0.30 per diluted share. Second quarter operating cash flow was $33 million, and first half operating cash flow was $95 million. First half free cash flow of $19 million was impacted by the timing of tax and royalty payments, capital expenditures and working capital outlays as previously guided. Looking to the back half of the year, we expect a strong Q4 to influence free cash flow distribution with 80% to 90% of the forecasted second half free cash flow expected during Q4. On the right side of Slide 9, I’d like to provide some commentary on our reported $0.30 in diluted earnings per share that is calculated based on the company’s definitions of adjusted attributable net income per share. Attributable net income of $0.27 per share with adjusted for foreign currency fluctuations during the quarter as the Argentinian peso and Turkish lira devalued against the U.S. dollar along with minor adjustments for tax impact and adjustments…

Thanks, Alison. And as always, I’ll start with EHSS. [ph] We saw an improvement in our injury rate in the quarter, but it remains above where we want it to be and as always, an area of considerable effort and focus. We were disappointed by the incident, which caused the suspension at Çöpler and are working to review and reinforce our underlying systems and practices across the business. I’ll talk a little more on Çöpler mine. Safety and the care for our teams, communities in the environment are core values, and we believe also found foundational to business performance. Moving on to Slide 13 and we’ll talk about Çöpler. As I noted on the Q1 call, we completed our first scheduled major autoclave shutdown with re-bricking of the five courses of autoclave number 2 in early Q2. This is impressive performance from the autoclaves given we started them back in 2018. The planned maintenance shutdown took about three weeks to complete, which along with lower mine grades resulted in a slightly softer in higher-cost quarter. We delivered production of over 51,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,253 an ounce. We also continue to ramp up the flotation plant in the quarter. Our overall performance is good, though we are still presenting more carbonate to the order plays than we had hoped, meaning we are using more asset in line. We are working to improve this carbonate split including a collaboration with one of the Turkish [ph] universities. Obviously, the restart of operations is an overhang for the business, but I’m pleased to report that all of the improvement initiatives required by the Türkiye Ministry of Environment have been completed, and we are awaiting verification and approval by the relevant authorities. Today, we had a visit from a local…

Great. Thanks, Stew, and thanks Alison. Certainly, as an industry, we're facing significant external challenges in 2022, for which we remain vigilant and proactive to mitigate the impacts. We remain on track to deliver our full year production guidance and have a number of potentially positive catalysts ahead from the asset base. We look forward to the restart of operations at Çöpler and we'll keep the market updated with any further developments regarding the required approvals. Finally, I do want to welcome John Ebbett to the executive team at Stewart's continued contribution to the business while we go through this planned transition of the senior leadership. So with that, Ariel, I'm going to hand it over to you for Q&A.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Cosmos Chiu of CIBC. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Rod, Alison, Stew and team for the presentation. Maybe my first questions are around Çöpler to confirm or to clarify, Stew or Rod, it sounds like the inspector has now been on site. And is it hazy or is she? And are you now just awaiting the receipt of the regulatory approvals?

So today, we finished the work over the weekend. And today, we have the local inspector come out. There's a series of approvals that have to happen. And we'll also receive visits from the – inspector as well. And it's a bit of a process that we'll go through it.

Got it. And after you've received all your approvals, could you maybe outline or kind of give us a bit more detail in terms of how long it would take to get the autoclaves and everything else sort of restarted again?

All up will take it, about four days to restart the close on coal [ph] start.

Great. And then in terms of the plant maintenance, a bit of a silver lining, I guess, that you are able to push forward some of the scheduled maintenance from the second half into the shutdown period. So to confirm, I guess, previously, you had scheduled about three weeks in terms of a planned shutdown in the second half. So those three weeks will no longer be necessary, and that will help you in terms of making up for lost time, when we talk about second half production. Is that correct?

Yes. So we've done all the mechanical work on the autoclaves, and we'll be able to push it out into next year to do the phased courses on the bricks.

And on that, Stew I guess, as you said, you're re-breaking the one autoclave next year. How long is that going to take in 2023? Are we talking about one week or 1.5 weeks? Or is it going to take the full through the...

It'll be the critical part. So it'll be about two or three weeks.

Okay.

We don't do the whole autoclave, just part of it.

Okay, you're going to open it up and see if everything is sort of okay and then go from there, I guess.

Yes. There are certain regions that get more aware than others, and those are the ones that that we've been redoing phase course of it, was the same in the other…

Great. And then maybe switching gears a little bit on Seabee here. Good to see that I think you've brought up the guidance for the year as you talked about production guidance. You kind of mentioned that on the call in your prepared remarks as well. But the increase is that based on the fact that you've outperformed in Q1 and Q2? Or is there some element to it whereby you're also depending on some kind of out performance in the second half as well to hit those – the updated guidance, production guidance for Seabee.

Yes, there’s a little – we pulled forward a little bit of high rate, but it's within the reserves. So it's part of the mine lease scheduling. I wouldn't say it's high risk, those – our normal plan.

Of course. And then one last question just to wrap things up. As you mentioned, you've had to up your cost guidance for the year a bit. I know you've kind of talked about that in your prepared remarks, but could you maybe talk about what had been factored in, in terms of inflation in the previous guidance? What is now that you're factoring in? I only ask, given that, as we talked about, the composition for guidance, it's now a bit different. Çöpler guidance has come down in terms of production. Seabee production has increased. So far, Seabee, Santoy the cost is a bit lower. So I would imagine that helped in terms of offsetting some of the inflationary pressure, but indeed, inflation still caused your guidance to go up. So did you put quite a bit of conservatism into your cost guidance? Maybe just some comments on that.

Hi, Cosmos, I'll take that one.

Hi, Alison.

Hi, good to hear from you today. So we did not put an additional factor into the inflation, we've seen a steady run rate through the course of the year where inflation has certainly outpaced what we had initially budgeted. And so we said our remainder of the year and our cost guidance based on what we've already seen come through this year. And some of the – to elaborate a little bit further as well, you – the number of ounces that are increasing at Seabee are driving down some of the costs there. But overall, we're certainly seeing a track record of inflation increasing the cost base across the organization.

Great. Thanks again, Alison, Stew and Rod. Of course and those are all the questions I have.

Thanks, Cosmos.

Our next question comes from Michael Siperco of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much for taking my questions. And if I can try to push a little bit more on Çöpler. Is there a schedule and planned visits in place? Should we be thinking days, weeks? Or is it possible that the operation could be off-line through the end of September, just depending on the government's schedule.

Yes. Look, Michael, I think we outlined it well in all the written documents as well as our opening remarks and Stew just elaborate a bit more in terms of just more physical activities on site. Here in the sort of last 72 hours. At this stage, we've built into our planning a start-up in quarter three. And based on what we know today, that's our best estimate.

Okay. Copy and then maybe following up as well on the previous question about cost and maybe cost beyond 2022, can you elaborate on how you're seeing trends across your business? Are you seeing costs starting to stabilize? Are you seeing some stabilized others continuing to trend higher? Any kind of visibility into what you're seeing?

Michael, we are definitely starting to see a little bit of, I would say, is the peak on fuel, but we are not necessarily looking to – into, sorry. So, we’re definitely just past the peak on fuel. And as we look to the future, we are definitely seeing that there will be some sticky costs that we’re experiencing now that will continue into next year. But with the rapid pace that we’ve seen the rate of inflation change over the past few months, we aren’t necessarily positive of what that exact rate is going to be going forward, but we do expect that we will have some going into early next year.

Okay. Great. And then in terms of mitigation and future mitigation, are you considering changes to your plans with respect to stockpiling, hedging, supply chains, I imagine you’re looking at these things on an ongoing basis, but have you come to any conclusions about changing strategies going forward?

Michael, I think we bet to undertake our normal planning cycle, as a business. We always look to improve our cost base, either through supply chain opportunities. It could be – there could be continuous improvement, some operational effectiveness initiatives that we have, that’s just normal cause for us. So, we will build those into our planning cycle. But as Alison sort of mentioned, some of those costs sort of have definitely outpaced the work that we already anticipated for 2022. So, we’ll wrap that up in the next few months, and that will tell us where we netted out.

Okay. And maybe last one, just back to and the Çöpler and the Ardich start-up next year, should be improving costs. Can you expand a little bit about how you see costs at Çöpler trending going forward with the addition of Ardich in 2023?

I think the best guide to what our expectations with Ardich [ph] is the CDMP21 that we issued the technical report earlier in the year.

Okay. Great. Thanks, very much. Appreciated the responses.

Thanks Michael.

Our next question comes from Ovais Habib of Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Just a couple of questions for me. Maybe some of the questions I had regarding restart as well as cost inflation, I guess, have been answered. So just maybe a follow-up on Ardich. Are there any permits or anything pending regarding any regulatory requirements to advance Ardich production in 2023?

Yes. The permits have always been the credit for hard for having [ph] for us. So from a technical perspective, it’s relatively easy. So far, all of the permits have been and the progress towards those because as with all mining projects, there’s multiple permits required have been moving in line or a little bit faster than our schedule. So, we’re still on track for what we thought on the issue of the technical report.

Perfect. And just then moving on to exploration front, I mean, you mentioned, obviously, there’s a lot of deprogram play all across. Are you looking out with some exploration update and then kind of research updates and then kind of moving into these mine plans or these master plans that you’re looking to come out with in early 2023. Maybe if you can give a little bit color on that?

Yes. So we’ll issue exploration updates later this year for the projects and where we will be a typical exploration updates of the world provide details of the holes and the steps that we’ve received to those. We will then build those depending on how quickly it evolves and what drill density, which deposit is in, whether it’s part of the existing resource or a new resource. Some of those will be incorporated in our normal updates. And then we build as much as we can into when we do the next technical reports. But as has happened, for example, with Ardich over the years, we’re continuing to explore Ardich. So, we’ll get as many holes into this next generation as we can. And we’ll continue to drill that to our prospect going forward.

Okay, perfect. That’s it for me. Again thanks for taking my questions.

Thanks, Ovais.

Our next question comes from Lawson Winder of Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi good evening, Rod, Alison and Steve. Nice to hear from you both. Thanks for the update. Could I maybe ask about Çöpler one more time. And just I was curious, why not finished the maintenance at the Çöpler now instead of pushing it into 2023. So, I’m referring to the relining of the second autoplay. Is that a function of your expectation that the restart could come kind of any moment? Or is there something else?

It has to do with we scheduled for November and the bricks are just arriving. So, we don’t have enough bricks to do all the work. They are arriving over the next week. And if we’re not up and running, we will at that time, we will do some work. If not, we’ll carry the cost for next year.

Okay. Excellent. And then just in light of the cost inflation, have you given any thought to potentially increasing the reserve gold price assumption for Marigold and perhaps other assets?

We’ll do that as normal course when we come to the technical reports and the resource and reserve calculations by in the year.

Okay. Do you guys...

As we normally would do.

You guys normally do that in November. Is that right?

Yes. We do it at the end of the year. Look, I don’t think we haven’t anticipated anything to answer your question at this stage, Lawson. We’ll review it. We do a sort of market review and consensus pricing anyway. So it won’t be driven arbitrarily by us just to raise the reserve price of that your question. It will be just part of our over course reserve reviews.

Okay. That’s clear. And then maybe just a bit of a broader question. You mentioned M&A and definitely valuations are quite historically low. Maybe you could just update us on your thinking in terms of geography, target metal mix and development stage?

Look, nothing has really changed, Lawson, in terms of where we are and the types of opportunities that we would consider appropriate for SSR. And so I think the previous discussions that we’ve been very open about with the market about the jurisdictional mix. The rationale, the strategic drivers haven’t changed in the current environment. But we’re obviously going to be very cautious like I’ve mentioned in terms of anything that we look at or anything that comes in across the desk to ensure it sort of fits. So we haven’t changed any of the drivers, the market hasn’t driven us to pick up speed or to slow down. Again, we do this as a matter of course, and always sort of assessing different opportunities and permutations to ensure we don’t miss something, but to this stage, that’s it.

Okay. Sure. Great. Thank you for your comment today.

Good. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Levi Spry of UBS Australia. Please go ahead.

Hi guys. Thanks for call. Maybe just an exploration question. I might have missed it, but is there an exploration update due and can you, this Porky [indiscernible] how important is that? Can you take us through what you found there?

So Porky had been drilled previously. There has been, I guess when we’ve been exploring around area, a real focus on looking at sort of underground and our senior geologists had a look at it and had a thesis that perhaps would work as pit, and we’ve been exploring that. So we’ve had some relatively wide, but lower grade intercepts, relatively close to surface. It seems that it has reasonable extent. So we are pretty excited about it. We will dialogue with all of that we’ve got when we do a release before the end of this year.

Okay, thanks Stew. So that’s on all of the exploration, is it? I didn’t notice much in today.

Yes. We’re going to do them for each of the sites. So in Çöpler [indiscernible] Ardich and some other drilling that we’ve done within Çöpler, Seabee. A number of the targets that Seabee, Marigold which has the Buffalo Valley, Trenton Canyon and the work around the New Millennium. I don’t think we’ll get anything in from our units. We’ve literally just started poking holes on the ground there now.

Rod, Okay. Thank you. Thanks very much.

Good. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Mike Parkin of National Bank. Please go ahead.

Hey guys. I may have missed this, but for Seabee, the talk about potentially back into high grades, higher than normal, is that kind of in the same area that you pulled that high grade pocketed earlier this year that had the really drove the really good Q1?

Yes, so that high grade of Çöpler, so we stepped out and we’ve been drilling that because we were hoping to get back into it straight away. It looks like it pinches out directly below where we are now, but then opens up a couple of level, a level or so down. And we’re pretty excited about what it looks like below that. However, when – this year, so my expectation is that we’ll get that in 2023. But we need to work out while we’ve actually got first. And the other area that we’re going to is another area that’s in reserve and we’ve juggled the mine plan a bit to get us back there.

Is it kind of the same thing where just some infill work kind of highlights that little sweet spot in the mine plans?

The one that we’re going to that we’ve got planned in this is since within the reserve that very high grade Çöpler exploring extending it’s outside the resource reserve and we’re chasing it down.

Okay. And can you remind maybe this is better for that exploration update, but as you move South into like the Fisher property, I recall that the vein structure is kind of prevalent at surface discovery through a force fire or something like that. Are you kind of allocating to the South versus up near the hanging wall area? Do you have a lot of rigs evenly distributed or do you still see kind of low hanging fruit more to the North and putting more of your focus there?

No, we’ve been drilling both here. Obviously, the work that we’ve got the exploration within the mine is about pulling things in that at Çöpler. And then, the quantum of work we do, so most of the work Çöpler to convert to make sure that we can feed the plant, the medium term targets get a bit more work and then we still testing these other areas. We’re still pretty excited about Fisher. And we think that there’s a good probability. We’re going to get something out of that immediately to the South of Çöpler. The thing that we find at Santo is that, it seems to develop grade and volume at depth and gets better at depth. So we’ve decided not to advance Çöpler into sort of resource development until where we get some deeper holes and test a hypothesis that will probably develop at depth.

Okay. And just with respect to Turkey region, there’s obviously it’s pretty going through Europe, or can you comment on any impact of regional force fires or are you guys kind of far away from anything that’s active right now?

Look, there’s been no impact for us Mike. We’re in and around the mine. So that’s a good news.

All right. Excellent. Looking forward to that exploration update guys. Thanks very much.

Good. Thank you. This concludes the question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Antal.

Great. Well, thanks everyone. Thanks for joining us. And look forward to next quarter and continue updates around Çöpler, until then goodbye.

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