Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Andean Precious Metals webcast for the 3 and 6 months ended June 30th, 2023. As a reminder, this webcast is being recorded. I am Patricia Moran, Andean's VP of Investor Relations. Before we get started, I'd 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 MD&A, financial statements, and relevant filings are available both on SEDAR+ and on our corporate website, andeanpm.com. With us on today's webcast is Alberto Morales, Andean's Executive Chairman and CEO, Juan Carlos Sandoval, our CFO, and Segun Odunuga, our EVP Finance. Now over to Alberto.
Thank you. Thank you, Trish, and welcome everyone. As expected, year-over-year, this quarter showed an improving trend for production and operational efficiencies, and we sustained recovery rates well in excess of what we saw last year. Moreover, I am pleased to report the upward trends and momentum continued into July. Additionally, we continue to make progress against our 2023 strategic growth objectives, namely, to extend the life of San Bartolomé and to grow through M&A. We've signed several new contracts for third-party material, which contributed to the 1.2 million ounces produced during the quarter. While we have contracts with more than 30 suppliers across the Department of Potosí, the map on slide 6 reflects the most important ones in terms of volume and grade. I would like to highlight our newest addition, Alta Vista.
At the end of June, we signed a contract with Bedrock, the owner of Alta Vista, for 170,000 metric tons of material with an expected head grade of approximately 350 grams per ton. Based on our preliminary analysis of tonnage and head grade, approximately 1.7 million contained ounces of silver. There are other potential contracts of size and grades in the pipeline. We will keep you appraised of our progress. As you may recall, late last year, we brought in a new management team and moved the corporate head office from Toronto to Monterrey, Mexico. With six months behind us, we are starting to see the fruits of our efforts. As mentioned, we've signed new material contracts. The recovery rate has increased to 79% from 76%.
G&A has decreased, our capital allocation is more strategic and proactive. First, we are expediting the tailings silver recovery project, and secondly, we implemented a conservative investment strategy for our large cash balance. Year to date, we've earned interest of $1.1 million. This is 10 times more than for the first 6 months of 2022. In essence, the interest income that we're earning is essentially funding our share buyback program. With respect to the tailings project, work is progressing as planned. We have started assessing engineering and construction options, and our focus is on bringing the tailings into production in the first half of 2024. In parallel to the construction work, consultants from SRK are completing an update of the Material Resource Estimate, incorporating the silver ounces contained in the tailings stockpiles. The Mineral Resource Estimate is expected to be announced shortly.
This will be followed by the filing of an NI 43-101 technical report. Strategic growth through acquisition is our second key objective for this year. We're well positioned to now execute against this goal. Our balance sheet is liquid, and our assets remain strong. The high interest rate environment with low market liquidity, it's giving rise to M&A opportunities at attractive valuation. We have analyzed a significant number of opportunities at different development stages and in various jurisdictions, and are now down to a handful of alternatives that we're evaluating. We are not happy with our share price, and thus our buyback program continues. Since inception of our Normal Course Issuer Bid late last fall, we have repurchased and canceled nearly 2.4 million shares at an average price of approximately CAD 0.80.
Before I hand over to Juan Carlos, I would like to update you on our full year 2023 guidance. Based on where we stand mid-year, together with the new Alta Vista contract, we are reaffirming our 2023 production guidance. With respect to all-in sustaining costs, although we continue to successfully address last year recovery issues and other challenges, further works remains. While we are anticipating production to increase and cost to improve in the second half of the year, we believe the results may not be sufficient to offset the impact of the first two quarters. We are increasing our full year 2023 all-in sustaining cost guidance to a range between $20.9 and $21.95 per ounce. We are also adjusting our CapEx guidance, lowering it to between $6.5 million and $8.5 million.
This adjustment is due to revised engineering designs and procurement plans relating to the tailings project. Overall, the quarter yield a solid quarter, and based on July's numbers, momentum is building. I would now like to hand things over to Juan Carlos, who will review our financials in more detail.
Thank you, Alberto. Turning now to our operating and financial highlights for the 3 and 6 months ended June 30th, 2023, starting on slide 13. Production increased by 22% to 1.2 million silver equivalent ounces in Q2 relative to the first quarter, taking us to 2.2 million ounces year to date. As was always the plan, the second half of the year is expected to be stronger, representing 54% of 2023 production. Accordingly, we are reaffirming our full year 2023 production guidance. With our recovery rate stable at 79%, Q2 production benefited from a 3% increase in tons milled versus Q1, and a 12% improvement in the average head grade. Approximately 60% of ounces produced in the second quarter came from purchased material with an average head grade of 186 grams per ton.
We are continuing to look for new feed contracts, focusing on volume, grade, and profitability. Our average realized price, silver price in Q2 was $24.65. To maximize silver prices, we closely monitor the market to mitigate price volatility risk and defend against steep volatility. Accordingly, in April, we entered into forward and silver collar contracts. In May, based on high volatility and short-term swings, we sold the forward contracts for a realized gain of $2.3 million. We maintained the silver collar contracts, which have an average put strike price of $23 per ounce and call strike price of $30 per ounce. The contracts are for 200,000 ounces per month, which is less than half of our forecast monthly production. The contracts begin this month and carry through to the end of 2023.
To mitigate our exposure in May and June, when prices fell, we deferred the sale of approximately 540,000 ounces of silver. Given the deferral, our revenue declined by 34% to $15.3 million, despite quarter-over-quarter increases in both production and the average realized cost of silver per ounce. The deferred ounces, which were valued as inventory at $11.3 million, were subsequently sold in July at an average price of $24.7 per ounce for a total revenue of $13.3 million. Moving to the cost side, let's look at it on a per-ton basis. Mining and haulage costs were, as well as material purchasing costs, improved in Q2 when compared quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.
That said, we still have some work to do to improving milling and processing costs, which were hit particularly hard by cost inflation. We are reviewing our purchases of high-value consumables, such as cyanide and mill balls, and considering options such as long-term fixed pricing and/or implementing a min-max inventory management system. Our Q2 cost per ounce sold metrics improved compared to Q1. We achieved these improvements despite the sale deferral of nearly half of our Q2 production. We continue to successfully address issues and challenges that began last year and that negatively impacted us in 2023. We anticipate costs will improve as production increases in the second half of the year. Moving to our profitability metrics on the next slide. Quarter-over-quarter income from mining operations increased sixfold to $2.5 million.
Gross cash profit rose to $3.5 million from $1.7 million. EBITDA more than doubled to $3.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA more than tripled to $4.9 million. With higher production expected, together with the silver collar contracts put in place, we expect our production and profitability metrics to improve in the second half of 2023. Moving on to our capital structure as of June thirtieth. Our cash position was $70 million, $70.4 million. We had no debt. Working capital was $90.3 million, and we had close to $90 million in liquid assets. With respect to our cash balance, the decline from year-end was primarily due to the net cash used in operating activities of $9.6 million, the majority of which is attributable to deferring the sale of bullion in Q2.
As mentioned, the bullion inventory was sold for revenue of $13.3 million. Our inventory returned to more normal levels. Overall, it was a good quarter. We continue to preserve the strength of our strong balance sheet. This concludes our formal remarks. Now back to you, Trish.
Thank you, JC. We'll now start the Q&A section. If you have any questions, please type them in the question chat window. Alternatively, you can raise your hand, and we will open a line for you to ask your question. If you are joining us by phone, you can submit your questions via email to ir@andeanpm.com. If we're not able to answer you here, I will get back to you after the webcast. We have a question from the chat line, and that is: Why have you stopped mentioning tin in the tailings?
Thank you, Trish. We have taken a decision in connection with our tailings programs, as we have expressed in the past. We had an option to look into the recuperation of both tin and silver. Based on current market conditions, and in order to expedite the strengthening the length of the life of San Bartolomé, we're primarily focusing now on the recuperation of silver and deferring the decision of the recuperation of tin when there would be better market conditions for it.
All right. Our next question comes from John Aiello from Desjardins. John, go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, guys. Morning. Could you comment on the driver of the lag in sales? I don't think we've seen it quite to this extent before.
Thank you, John. Are you referring to the deferral of the roughly half of our production from the second quarter to July?
Yeah. Yes, correct.
We have, as we have mentioned, we monitor on a, you know, constant basis the price of silver. During that second quarter, there's been, as you know, a lot of volatility, and it was a strategic decision at that point in time, to defer, based on the outlook that, you know, to postpone, to defer the sale of around 50, 540,000 ounces, which were sold in, you know, the following month at a higher, at a higher price. It was a strategic decision taken at that, at that moment, and based on what we were seeing on the volatility on silver prices.
Okay. Understood. Another question for me. Mine grades at the Pallacos have really kind of fallen off this year. When I look at the Pallacos grades at the year-end resource statement, it's around maybe 80 grams per ton. Where should we kind of expect these mine grades to go? Are they gonna stay low until the Pallacos are depleted or kind of come back to levels closer to resource grade?
Thank you, John. As you know, we are getting closer to the end of life of Pallacos. What we are seeing right now is pretty still consistent with what we estimated it going to look like, and we, we believe that right now it's averaging around 80, 80 grams per ton.
Right now, it's averaging around 80 grams, but unless I'm mistaken, if I look at the mine grades disclosed, I think it was Q2 this year was 43, Q1 this year was 53. We're expecting it to get back up to 80?
Look, okay, from what we see, for the production in Q2, I mean, that was a little bit surprising to us too, but because, but what we saw, what we see, what we saw from the production was 88 grams per ton. We are trending towards-- I mean, we know right now that what remain in Pallacos, within the next few months, things will be fully depleted. We are assessing our options right now on what to do.
Okay. Last one from me. You disclosed the new resource estimates coming on the FDF and dry stack. I guess, what work has been going on that you can discuss, or maybe we could expect the new resource to come in directionally? Like, presumably, the FDF isn't getting bigger, so is this kind of new MRE just more so confirming the grades, increasing confidence, or like, directionally, I guess, what are you kind of looking for in this new resource?
... we've, as discussed in the MD&A, we are expecting to get the technical report shortly. We will disclose the information in the technical report in 53-101. From what we see right now, we are confident of what we are going to, what the operation will look like from the FDF. We, I will just say that we get back to you once we get more understanding. We don't want to speculate here, but once we have the draft of that report, technical report, then we, we analyze it more and then get better understanding of what the grade will look like.
From the initial analysis that we, we, we perform, we believe that FDF project will be, will, will be more positive to us.
All right. That's it for me. Thanks, guys.
Our next questions are from Justin Chan at Sprott Capital Partners. Justin, go ahead.
Thanks, Trish. Can you guys hear me?
We can.
Yes.
Okay.
Yes, we do. Hello, Justin.
Hi. Hey, Alberto. How are you?
Good, good, Justin.
Just, maybe the first question, just as a follow-up to Jonathan's. Is that, is to, to clarify the grades on the Pallacos, I think the, the number in the MD&A is 43, but, Segun was mentioning 80. Is that, is that after ore sorting? You, you, you get rid of the fines fraction, you get better grade, and that's the 80 number that, that gets fed in. Is that, can you just confirm that interpretation so we can model it going forward?
Yeah, you, what you said is true based on what we published in the on our resource estimate. Like, during the Q2, and as you know, last year, we had some issues with our recovery. We, we increased on our blending, and that gave us some higher grade from from Pallacos. It, like, what you said is also true, that we blended from other sources, and that's helped us with a better better grade that we realized.
Got it. Regardless of what you're mining, you're probably mining around 40-50 and feeding 70-80, call it.
We're feeding more than 80, we're feeding more than 80.
I, I just mean from Pallacos, and then blending with, call it 170 grams from purchase, or, or 190 grams-
Yeah, from Pallacos, the... Yeah, the, okay, from Pallacos specific in certain area, they are averaging around 53 grams per tons. There are some other area, you know, like, Pallacos included about 3, 3 other source, 3 other pits that we are mining from. There are some, based on the improvement of the geology information that we perform on that area, and that's why we see some slight in increase, and then we are doing some better, other blending of materials from other sources that we purchased.
Right. Got it. Then just, for, for the second half, production's gonna be higher. Is that gonna be grade or volume or both? Can you give us some detail on do you think that's from ore that you're purchasing or, or, or that you're sourcing from your own, from your own, own deposits?
We, as we discussed in the MD&A, one of the things that we will be producing from is the Alta Vista, which is a very high grade-
Yeah
... materials. Also, too, we, we have improved on our ore, materials purchases right now, and that we, we having the confidence that that will help us to achieve our production guidance.
Okay. It sounds like it'll be more so grade?
Yeah, more of grade, yes. Also, the recovery, as you can see that, we are improving our recovery. We, we expect that we, I think, consistent with what we saw in Q2, or if not slightly above that. It's a combination of recovery and also on the grade. Also, materials for that we are sourcing.
I see. Thanks. In terms of, in terms of your CapEx budget, you revised it to $6.5 million-$8.5 million. You spent approximately $1 million in the first half. Just confirming, that means $5.5 million-$7.5 million in the second half, is what you expect for projects?
Okay, based on our guidelines that we put out right now, that's $6.5-$8.5, we, based on the, the various engineering and also on procurement, we are confident that the, our CapEx will be lower. That's what we are expecting to see right now, based on the, we, we, we've definitely seen a lot of savings on, from procurement side. We have seen some equipments from other, from other operators that we, we are able to source from them to, to augment what we are trying to do. Also from the local, local fabricators, we, it is cheaper for us to fabricate the equipments locally than importing. That save us a lot of money.
Okay. Got it. You do expect that to be spent in the second half of this year? There will be-
Yes.
Materially more CapEx in the second half?
Yes. Yes.
Okay, great.
No, we already disclosed this in our, our financial, our commitments that we already committed to that EPCM program.
Yeah. Okay.
Yeah.
Okay, thanks. That's, that's helpful on that. Then just, I guess, going forward to, to the upcoming resource update, I know it's kind of hard to, to speak too much on it before we see it, but, I guess, high level, how, how much more production from the Pallacos do you expect? Or, I guess, when, when do you think you'll need to switch your ore sourcing to either pri- predominantly purchased or bring the FDF online? How, how many more years of Pallacos ore do you, do you have?
Yes, Justin, let me address that one. As we begin to do our preliminary analysis of the FDF project, and as we have seen Pallacos grade trending into lowering its, its grade going forward, we have had some preliminary analysis that actually showed that it would be more beneficial for the company to now replace that blending source of the clayish Pallacos, so mix with the hard rock, higher grade materials. It would be our intention to start replacing Pallacos, and deferring the utilization of Pallacos, when we see when the market give us a better spot prices for the silver, and in the interim, try to replace them as soon as possible with the FDF materials.
Okay. I guess, do you have kind of a year or a date that you can give us in terms of roughly when that might, you know, the FDF will start to replace the Pallacos? I guess, is that-
Uh-
preliminary?
Yes.
Right now.
Right now, we're basically. Yeah, no, yeah, no, I, and it's a good question. Right now, what we've been referring to is we have expressed that it would be in the first half of next year, 2024. Obviously, there are sometimes construction and procurements and delivery terms and accessibility of equipment that sometimes are not within our control. To the extent that our team can expedite all those things, we're hoping that it'll be in the earlier part of next year, as opposed, as, in the earlier part of the first half, as opposed to the later part of the first half. But we just have to be cognizant that there are variables that are outside of our control.
Yeah, for sure. Understood. Thanks. That's, that's a very helpful answer. Then, sorry, just my last one. I realize I've been on the line for quite a long time. The Alta Vista purchase agreement is 170,000 tons over 24 months. Do you expect that to be a fairly even, kind of fairly even feed over the course of that time? Or, or will we see more in the early period? Just, how should we expect that?
We're expecting it to be even, depending upon availability of trucking materials, transportation, some things we could probably expedite it a bit more, but, we're looking into it. For the time being, we're considering to have it more evenly. As I said, subject to availability and, and the possibility of expediting and front, and front-loading it, we would consider that if the circumstances allow us to do that.
Gotcha. Roughly, it's about, I would say probably it'll be about 20%, roughly of your ... maybe 10%-20% of your, your purchased material per, per quarter, roughly that?
I would say, yeah, 70,000, 170,000, and yeah, that's, that's roughly the number. Correct. Yes.
Oh, okay. And basically, we should just assume then that will be higher grade at 350, and then the rest of your purchased material will be similar to what you're purchasing now?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes, depending upon the sources, and you'll have a, a blended average. Yes, Justin.
Okay. Okay, great. Thanks. That's, that's very helpful. I'll free up the line. Thanks, Alberto, Trish, Segun, everyone, really appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Thanks, Justin. All right, we have another question. Can you share more on the revised design and procurement plans for the FDF, which served to lower CapEx guidance?
I think that has already been addressed by the previous question on our reduced CapEx, Trish.
It, it was basically Segun expressed that it was basically coming from the procurement side-
Right.
as we are now, in order to shorten delivery terms, we're having the opportunity to probably source some of the equipment from previous operators.
Yeah.
Okay. What steps will you take to lower the all-in sustaining costs in the second half of the year to meet the revised guidance?
Thank you, Trish. We during the first half of this year, we saw some some increase in some of our consumables, and we already are looking at the option of what we can do to to improve on those costs or what to minimize, sorry, to minimize those costs. One of the things that we...
evaluating right now, we trying to put in place is on, putting some better control over our, our consumables inventory management, and also, assessing the opportunity of having a kind of long-term fixed contract that will help us to achieve a better pricing, that will lower the price of our consumables, especially as mentioned previously, in Batos remark, we, sorry, with Jesse remarks about the other cause of cyanide that we are seeing, being impacted by inflation and also on the grinding balls. All these that are, have been grinding balls, these are things that, we are looking at that, will help us to, lower the all-in sustaining costs.
Also too, with the expected increase in our production in the second half of this year, that will also lower the all-in sustaining costs. The management are strongly focusing on our cost profile.
Thanks again. The last question is about M&A. I've got several people asking if we could just provide any more color on where we are. For instance, are the possible acquisition targets leaning more towards copper or gold and silver producers? What's the timeline?
Well, Trish, what we can say at this point is that we have narrowed our search, and we're looking into that. That's all we can disclose at this point.
All right. Well, there are no further questions, we'll hand things over to Alberto for some final comments.
Well, thank you, Trish, and thank you everyone for participating. As expressed during our year-end earnings call in March, I shared with you that as the major shareholder of Andean, I was not pleased with our 2022 year-end results. Today, I can now say that the results that we have seen for Q2, combined with our July results, are showing a corrective trend. While there are still some challenges to overcome, we are committing to improving our future results and are encouraged by the achievements that we've made so far this quarter. I want to thank you again for joining us today, and just as a reminder, our annual and special meetings of shareholders is scheduled for August 31st in Toronto. Hope to see you there. Thank you, all.
Thank you, Alberto. This concludes our webcast. If you have any follow-up questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at tmoran@andeanpm.com. Thanks, and have a great day.