Good morning. Welcome to Andean Precious Metals' conference call to discuss the company's financial and operating results for the three months ended March 31st, 2024. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Your host for today is Amanda Mallough, Andean's new Director of Investor Relations. Ms. Mallough, please go ahead.
Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I would like to point out that during today's call we may make forward-looking statements as defined under Canadian securities law. I ask that you view our slide presentation for cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements and the risk factors pertaining to these statements. Our press release, MD&A, and financial statements are available both on SEDAR+ and our corporate website, andeanpm.com. With us today is Alberto Morales, Andean's Executive Chairman and CEO; Juan Carlos Sandoval, our Chief Financial Officer; and Segun Odunuga, our Executive Vice President of Finance. Following management's formal remarks, we will open the call to questions. With that, over to Alberto.
Thank you, Amanda, and welcome, everyone. This quarter is our first quarter since the acquisition of Golden Queen. Our team has taken full control of the operations, and with the hire of our new COO, Marcos Holanda, we have gained a better understanding of the assets and have begun to implement strategic initiatives to optimize the operations and support future growth opportunities for the company. Despite the fire incident setback at Golden Queen and unusual weather conditions in Bolivia, our consolidated production for Q1 2024 reached 1.8 million silver equivalent ounces, displaying resilience and adaptability. Golden Queen performance exceeded our expectations with 11,490 gold equivalent ounces, while San Bartolomé experienced lower production due largely to a historical rainfall season and thunderstorms that affected road transportation. However, we anticipate significant production increase, revenue growth, and margin improvement in the upcoming quarters, reaffirming our guidance in accordance with our 2024 year plan.
Turning to slide six to discuss our vision for our operation in Bolivia. As we have expressed, the country has an exceptional mineral endowment that remains underexplored. Bolivia has attracted and is continuing to attract a wide variety of mining and resource companies, and it relies heavily on the mining industry's positive economic impact and capacity to generate foreign revenue. We know the country very well and believe it remains a jurisdiction in which we can do business and create further value towards stakeholders. Going forward, we see a strong potential for further growth for San Bartolomé and, in particular, on expanding our ore purchase programs. As mentioned, this was our first full-quarter operating Golden Queen after the acquisition in late November. As a reminder, it offers a fully permitted open-pit heap leach operation in a Tier 1 jurisdiction, advancing our goal of being a mid-tier producer in the Americas.
Considering the fire incident at Golden Queen, this quarter showcased better-than-expected performance and revenue growth, with a slight increase in operating costs, which Juan Carlos will touch on later in this presentation. As mentioned before, Golden Queen performance exceeded 11,490 gold equivalent ounces. However, as mentioned, we do anticipate significant production, revenue growth, and margin improvement in the coming quarters, reaffirming our guidance in accordance with our year plan. Most importantly, Golden Queen comes with the opportunity to enable our team to do what we have been doing best, which is to create value out of an undervalued asset. Earlier this quarter, we released a new technical report, an updated mineral resources and reserves estimate for Golden Queen that fully met our base case expectations.
We continue to focus on the opportunities ahead, namely optimizing the mine plan, improving ore recovery and production, and increasing cash flow and optimizing operating costs per ounce. We're also defining and prioritizing exploration targets to help realize the potential upside of Golden Queen and extend the operational life of mine with an exploration drilling program kicking off this month. Following the Golden Queen acquisition, Andean is now a very different company than it was 12 months ago. Our acquisition of Golden Queen represents a significant transformation, effectively doubling our company size across metrics such as revenue, production, reserves, and workforce. As we integrate Golden Queen into our operations this quarter, our team has been focused on streamlining processes to enhance efficiencies and performance in alignment with our annual plan for 2024. We have anticipated the upcoming quarters will reflect this integration and improve production and enhance operational efficiencies.
We have also developed a strong platform to support our ambition of becoming a mid-tier precious metal producer in the Americas. We have years of available reserves in both of our assets, as well as identified assets based on gold and silver production that is expected to drive growth in cash flow and profitability going forward. Further, our operational expertise and strong financial position enable us to identify and act on future opportunities for growth through acquisitions. In short, we are in a strong position to grow both organically and through M&A. With that, I'll hand over the reins to Juan Carlos, who will review our financials in more detail.
Thank you, Alberto. Good morning. Moving on to Slide 10, Golden Queen operational and financial highlights. As already mentioned by Alberto, Golden Queen exceeded our expectations by producing 11,490 gold equivalent ounces. This increase was driven by higher ore ton mined and stacked ore on the leach pad that are yielding better-than-expected production. Our total operating cash cost per gold equivalent ounce produced stood at $2,140, primarily impacted by elevated fuel and mineral crude consumable prices. On the other hand, operating cash cost per ounce sold totaled $1,627, which reflects the adjustment of production not sold. All-in sustaining cost per ounce sold amounted to $1,936, reflecting heightened total operating cash cost per ounce sold, site corporate admin, corporate G&A allocation, and sustaining capital expenditures. In summary, this inaugural operational quarter under Andean's management showcased robust production achievements and revenue expansion, accompanied by minor increase in operating expenses.
Nonetheless, we remain confident in our ability to meet our previously announced guidance. Turning to slide 11, San Bartolomé operational and financial highlights. In Q1 2024, we made a strategic shift in our purchasing strategy, resulting in a 102% increase in tonnage purchased compared to Q1 2023. This shift focused on acquiring oxide material, which led to a decrease in average head grade of 179 grams per ton due to the composition of materials purchased. Our total plant throughput experienced an important reduction compared to Q1 2023. This decline can be attributed to heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms around the Potosí area, which adversely affected our operations during the quarter and delays in third-party material deliveries. Beginning January 1st, 2024, we adopted new metrics to measure our performance, including cash gross operating margin per equivalent ounces sold and gross margin ratio.
These metrics better reflect our transition to exclusively processing activities during Q4 2023. Total cash operating cost per silver equivalent ounce sold, which consists of total cost of sales allocated corporate administrative costs and site and general administrative costs during Q1 2024, were $20.1 million, or $24.38 per silver equivalent ounce sold, compared to $23.4 million, or $23.37 per silver equivalent ounce sold in Q1 2023. This resulted in the cash gross operating margin per silver equivalent ounce sold of -$0.72 for Q1 2024, compared to -$0.33 in Q1 2023. The increase was largely impacted by lower silver equivalent ounces sold and higher cost of material purchased due to the increase in the volume purchased during Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023.
The other second new metric, gross margin ratio, for the Q1 2024, which is calculated by subtracting the cost of sale, excluding depreciation, depletion, and amortization as reported in the income statements from the net revenue from sales of silver equivalent ounces divided by net revenue from sales, was 6.47% in Q1 2024 compared to 7.9% in Q1 2023. The 18% decrease in gross margin ratio was due to lower volumes of silver equivalent ounces sold and an increase in average cost of sale per ounce sold in Q1 2024 of $22.13 compared to $21.21 in Q1 2023. The increase in average cost of sales per ounce sold of $0.92 was due to the increase in materials ore purchasing costs. In terms of capital expenditure, sustaining capital decreased to $0.3 million in Q1 2024, while nonsustaining capital expenditures amounted to $2 million.
The majority of this expenditure was associated with the development of the FDF project in Bolivia. Moving on to slide 12, financial performance. We achieved a milestone with a record production of 1.8 million silver equivalent ounces and quarterly revenues of sales reaching $43.1 million, reflecting an increase of 82% and 87%, respectively, from Q1 2023. This surge was fueled by incremental revenue from Golden Queen, partly mitigated the decrease from San Bartolomé operations. Total cost of sales saw an uptick to $37.3 million, largely attributed to incremental costs from Golden Queen. Our general and administrative expenses rose to $4.5 million, including incremental costs from Golden Queen and other strategic growth initiatives. Finance cost was $1.7 million, primarily linked to the interest payment on Golden Queen's debt.
We realized other income of $2.3 million, arising from a foreign exchange gain of $1.7 million, primarily due to premiums realized on the selling of the U.S. dollars to Bolivianos and interest income from short-term investments. Total income tax recovery increased to $2.6 million, driven by tax loss and deferred tax timing difference benefits realized for Bolivia and Golden Queen. To conclude, Q1 2024 showed our first full quarter of combined operations. While we faced challenges during Q1 2024, we reiterated our guidance based on positive trends up to date in accordance with our 2024 year plan. Moving on to our capital structure on slide 13. As of March 31, 2024, we had liquid assets of nearly $73 million of cash and cash equivalents, a negative net debt, and $108 million of working capital.
Our mandate is and will continue to be on maintaining our balance sheet, our strong balance sheet to support our future growth. Turning now to our 2024 guidance on page 14. As mentioned, we are reaffirming our full-year consolidated guidance that was provided to the market back in March. With that, I conclude my remarks, and back to you, Alberto.
Thank you, Juan Carlos. Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we have many key catalysts, milestones, and opportunities on the horizon. At San Bartolomé, we will be working towards signing additional agreements to close high-margin third-party ore and on commissioning the FDF silver recovery project before the end of this second quarter. At Golden Queen, we will continue to leverage our expertise and experience to stay focused on the implementation of the identified strategies to optimize operation, production, and efficiencies. And finally, we will continue to focus on growth and M&A prospects. Our board and management team are firm believers in the Andean story. And finally, during this quarter, we repurchased 5.3 million common shares for $2.8 million through the normal course issuer bid programs. This now concludes our formal remarks, and I would like to open the line for questions. Operator?
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. We'll pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one now. There are no questions from the phone lines at the moment.
We received a couple of questions yesterday after the news release went out that we would like to address on the call. So the first one being, on March 29th, $0.9 million was still available for the NCIB. Six weeks later, the budget will have run out. Does Andean have plans to start a new NCIB this year?
With respect to that question, I would like to clarify that we still have a little bit more than 1 million shares pending to be purchased under the current program, and we intend to continue purchasing that amount of shares. Once the full allotment of shares that has been authorized by the TSX-V has been exhausted, then we will be reassessing if we were to ask for a new NCIB program.
Next question is, is SRK already done with their recommendations for Golden Queen? Will they start with the new mine plan this month?
Yeah. Thank you, Amanda. Yes. What we can say at this point, we are still working with SRK, and we're making progress, and I think announcements will be made in due course.
Great. Finally, has the bad weather in Bolivia delayed the start of the FDF project, and when is the first production estimated?
Yes. There were certain delays, but like Alberto mentioned, we are very close from commissioning the FDF, which should be ready during this second quarter.
That's everything.
Thank you. Operator, back to you.
This concludes the question. This concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Alberto Morales for any closing remarks.
Thank you, Operator. Well, I just wanted to thank everyone for joining us, and we'll certainly be, as we expressed, looking forward for next quarter's financials, and certainly we'll be making announcements as we make progress and due course with respect to these questions that we have been addressing. So thank you very much, everyone, for attending.
This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.