Good evening, everyone, welcome to Andean Precious Metals webcast for the first quarter of 2023. I am Trish Moran, Andean's VP of Investor Relations. 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 precautionary 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. I'd also like to remind you that this webcast is being recorded. With us today is Alberto Morales, Andean's Executive Chairman and CEO, Juan Carlos Sandoval, our Chief Financial Officer, and Segun Odunuga, our EVP Finance. Following management's formal remarks, we will then open the call to questions. Now over to Alberto.
Thank you, Trish, and welcome everyone. While our first quarter results reflect the fact that we are still focusing on correcting some of our operational challenges that arose last year, our priorities for 2023 are clear. First and foremost, we are focused on maximizing the value of our core asset in Bolivia. As you know, San Bartolome's business model is unique in that we don't just rely on our own material to fit the mill, we obtain fill- feed from multiple sources. This business model has been proven as it has provided us with a strong financial platform, it continues to provide unique levers that allow us to better adjust to volatile market condition, and advantage that traditional mining models does not have. We get a significant portion of our feed from third-party suppliers, such factors such as production, grade, metallurgy, and recovery require our utmost attention.
San Bartolome does not run on automatic pilot. To further optimize our plant and maximize output, with the help of industry-leading consultants, we are concentrating on the core principles of our operations and logistics, reviewing each and every stage of the production process, analyzing the metallurgy of feed material, and taking corrective measures where required. Enterprise Resource Planning is being implemented that should help our team to manage processes and supply chains, as well as analyze material composition data. Phase one of the platform has been deployed. Already we're seeing an improvement in waste separation process. Phase two of the project is underway, targeting feed to the mill. Our goal is to achieve better grades and recoveries in the second half of the year. Equally important to optimizing processing at San Bartolome is extending its mine life.
To achieve this, we are looking into securing additional third-party materials, as well as converting our FDF resources into reserves. SRK, the consultants assisting us to better understand the metallurgy of our tailings, has just completed a gap analysis and will be commencing a reserve estimation shortly. We have also tasked our Bolivian team to cast a wide net and scout for higher grade feedstock. Transportation of material over longer distances can be economically feasible in Bolivia, as long as the high grade is there. In Bolivia, there are a large number of deposits, some of which have grades of more than 300 g/t . The team is actively looking for steady supplies of such deposits to feed the mill. We have much to do in Bolivia, but I am confident to have a team that is focused on this priority and on delivering results.
Our second key metric objective in this year is to announce an acquisition. While we have been talking about M&A for some time, the interest yield curve continues to be inverted, creating a credit crunch that extends the window of opportunity for us to continue to look for assets to buy. Although there are no deep discounts on the sale price of assets, we are beginning to see more attractive valuations. Without a doubt, having our strong balance sheet in times like this is a big advantage that we are seeing, and that liquidity challenge assets are having difficulties to secure financing because the cost of debt or equity is getting too high, and owners of privately held assets are now looking for an exit, seeking some liquidity in the form of a cash component.
We have analyzed a significant number of opportunities at different development stages, which are located in various jurisdictions. The list is down to a handful of names that we believe would be most accretive to Andean shareholders and would be a good first asset to acquire. I would now like to hand over things to Juan Carlos, who will review our first quarter financials in more detail.
T hank you, Alberto. While our flagship San Bartolomé mine got off to a slower than expected start of the year, we are reaffirming our full year 2023 guidance. Our independent consultants are making headway on further optimizing production and increasing operational efficiencies at San Bartolomé. We are seeing some improvements in material sourcing and plant recoveries. Now, let's look at the details of our first quarter financials, starting on slide 11. We produced 1 million silver equivalent ounces this quarter, compared to 1.2 million oz in Q1 2022. While recoveries improved slightly to 79%, the production shortfall is due to an 8% decrease in tons milled and 9% lower grade. More than half of the ounces produced in the first three months of the year came from purchased material, with an average grade of 214 g/t .
However, the volume purchased from third parties during the quarter was negatively impacted by the extended Bolivian holidays recognized in January, resulting in 10 lost days of production and some road blockages by protesting public service workers. Tons milled at Pallacos and Cachi Laguna were down slightly. However, the main issue was grade due to the depletion of ore. The grade of our mine material was nearly half of what it was in the prior year. It is for the reason that we are increasingly focused on securing new contracts for material purchases. Our year-over-year revenue declined to $23 million from $29.9 million, mostly driven by a lower production, a little over a little more than 200,000 oz, which affected revenues by $5.5 million, and a decline in average realized price of silver per ounce, negatively impacting revenues by $1.3 million.
We had 68,000 silver oz bullion Doré in inventory as of March 31st, as we continue to opportunistically withhold sales of our bullion during periods of soft pricing. These ounces were subsequently sold at a much higher price last month, when the silver price touched a high of about $26 per oz. To further preserve our average realized price and subsequent quarter end, we entered into silver collar contracts with an average put strike price of $23 per oz and an average call strike price of $30 per oz for 200,000 oz per month, beginning in August and through the end of 2023. The next slide shows our cost per ounce metrics, which were affected by the negative impact of high inflation on our costs, and an 18% reduction in silver equivalent ounces sold.
To put the inflationary pressures into perspective, the price of cyanide is up by 30% year-over-year, driving milling costs up by $600,000. Inflation has also had an impact on fixed costs, like salaries. An additional factor this quarter was the impact of processing harder than anticipated material. We saw more than $800,000 in incremental costs due to the increased consumption of materials such as diametrous, air, and grinding balls. We also used more water from regulated sources outside our concession area due to the less anticipated rainfall in Q1. G&A in the first quarter decreased to $2.5 million, an improvement of $400,000 over the first quarter of 2022, primarily due to a reduction in share-based compensation expenses. Our focus is on achieving operational efficiencies and improving cost reductions in 2023.
Moving to our profitability metrics on the next slide, as a result of the factors just discussed, during Q1 2023, we realized income from mine operations of $400,000, gross cash profit of $1.8 million, and EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 million and $1.4 million, respectively. With the initiatives we have underway to improve production and costs at site, together with the silver contracts recently put in place, we expect our production and profitability metrics to improve over the remainder of the year. As of March 31st, our balance sheet remains debt-free, and our working capital of $90.5 million marked a small increase from the end of 2022.
We had more than $84 million in liquid assets, including $75.8 million in cash, $6.1 million in marketable investments, and $2.5 million in VAT certificates. With respect to our cash balance, the year-over-year decline was primarily due to a net cash flow used in operating activities of $4.3 million, and impacted by the timing of certain vendor payments and settlement of accrued liabilities, including $1.7 million in payments of previously accrued severance and bonuses. During the quarter, we also used CAD 400,000 to repurchase our shares at an average price of CAD 0.86 under the previously announced NCIB programs.
I would like to highlight one final point. Until now, we did not have a formal investment strategy for our large cash balance. Recently, we opened two new custodial accounts, one with a Canadian wealth management firm and the other one with an international investment group. The investment strategy is very conservative. The focus is on capital preservation, and only a portion of our cash is invested. The investments are mostly in U.S. Treasuries, generating around 4% interest per annum. By formalizing our cash management, our capital is yielding higher and more, with more steady returns. This concludes our formal remarks. Now, back to you, Trish.
Thank you, Juan Carlos. We'll now start our Q&A session. If you have any questions, please type them in the chat window. Alternatively, you can raise your hand, and we will open a line for you to ask your questions. 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. Our first question is from Justin Chan at Sprott Securities. Justin?
Hi. Hi there, hi, Trish. thanks for taking my question. just to show we're SCP Resource Finance now, but, small detail. thanks, everyone. I was just wondering, first on the Pallacos, what you think, grade will look like, for the remainder of the year? do you expect them to revert more upwards towards where you were before? You mentioned depletion, so I'm just wondering what to expect for the rest of the year there.
Hello, Chan. Hello, John. This is Alberto, Justin.
Hi, Alberto.
Yes, on this particular matter, we are assuming that Pallacos will still be gathering lower grade material. What we're intending to do, and this is part of our FDF analysis, is we're getting into the specifics, details of actually replacing the Pallacos with the FDF materials. The economics of which should be more beneficial to us, literally, because we would not have mining costs involved with it, other than actually incurring in some capital expenditures, of which that would reduce significantly the operating expense of actually taking those deposit, those materials back to the mill. We're assuming Pallacos will be lower grade, as it has been showing for now. That is a conservative approach that we're keeping in mind.
However, we would like the strategy behind getting the FDF up and running, it's mostly because of that, to try to replace the Pallacos and use it as a blending source for the other harder materials that we're using into the mill and feeding the mill with.
Gotcha. Just working back towards your guidance, which is 4.8-5.2, does that assume then a significant pickup in either purchased material volumes or grades or both?
Yes. We are now, and I'll expand a bit further on this point, we are now actually focusing very, on a very detailed basis, and are actually securing a purchasing team in Bolivia with the specific priority of securing higher grade ore. That is just for starting points. Secondly, we are also focusing on recoveries. We've retained some industry expert consultants on this, and are reviewing the metallurgy of all the different ore sources towards achieving the best blend composition that it's actually feeding the mill, to try to cut on consumable expenses, such as cyanide, flocculant, et cetera. At the same time, try to increase that recovery. The combination of both will certainly be helping us to achieve our guidance.
If you take a look at our historical track record, production for San Bartolome has always been loaded on the back end of the year, because usually, some years, while we anticipate always a slower beginning of the year due to holiday seasons, local and in general, we have always had that back-ended heavier load in the production. Mostly impacted as well by the purchases that people on the back end of the year, actually, we get more willing sellers to actually send those stuff, the supplied materials.
Okay, understood. Just on the FDF, so your current thinking is what? Just slurry the material to the plant. Any circuit additions or it sounds like the gravity circuit's probably not in the plans, so just slurry the material and put it through the circuit or any changes?
Thank you, Justin. As you mentioned, that's what we are planning with the FDF project. Mostly pumping the materials from the tailing dams and then through gravity goes to the storage tank that we are building as part of the FDF project, and then we go directly to the plant. We expect some high increase into the recovery and also on the grades that we'll be pumping out.
Okay, gotcha. The actual plant itself, is it the same circuit, or were you saying you will have a gravity circuit on the front end first?
Gravity circuit.
Okay. I got it. Thanks. I think that's it for me. Thank you very much, and look forward to the rest of the year and seeing production tick up. Thanks.
Thank you, Justin.
Thank you, Justin.
Our next question from Nick Forty of Desjardins Securities.
Hey, guys, it's actually John, Ava the analyst. I think I just used my associate's login for the call. Hey, the past two quarters in a row, we've seen kinda gold production dip below historic levels. I guess, what's causing that? Do you expect that to kinda reverse in the upcoming quarters, specifically gold instead of silver?
Yeah. Hello, John. As you know, most of our gold recoveries comes from Cachi Laguna. While we're scouting and mining some of the areas of the Cachi Laguna have more gold than others. Depending upon, we're looking into it, we're scouting and mapping the Cachi Laguna's deposits to try to get the best fit. We're assuming that the gold may be lower around the average that we've got in Q1 together. Should we begin to scout a better section on the Cachi Laguna, rest assured that we will be looking towards those deposits. As of now, we're assuming that they will stay in the in the lower end as we saw them in Q1.
Okay. Yeah, understood. Can you guys give a bit more context to the road blockages that happened in March? Maybe commentary on if any of that has spilled into April or May to affect Q2.
I can address that. During the early part of the Q1, there were some protests made by public workers related in connection with the regulatory environment, primarily applied to the lithium industry. There has been some discrepancies, tensions, and positions taken, that it literally boils down to the, how deep the government regulatory environment would be, either warranted or desired for the industry going forward in the lithium side. You know, the community in Potosí, it's very sensitive about that industry, mostly because it's being viewed as probably one of the largest and most prominent prospects that the country has. It's picking up significant attention. It did not spill through Q2, as we have not seen those anything about that in Q2.
Although I cannot assure you that it's not gonna happen again, something like that, but so far, things are being steady in Q2.
Okay, great. Thanks. I guess, when kind of specifically this year, should we expect the final results of the feasibility work on the fines disposal facility and the go-forward decision? Is that coming very soon, Q3, Q4? Just wondering what the timing of that is.
Thank you, John. We are addressing the work on the FDF, and based on what is being planned right now, hopefully by first quarter of 2024, we should see some production coming out from the FDF.
Okay. Is there any work being done on the dry stack facility right now? Thinking about processing those, any kind of network, or is everything looking at the FDF?
Yeah, we are focusing on the FDF. Right, that's where we are focusing on right now.
Okay. Any kind of thoughts or plans as to why not looking at the, at the dry stack as well, or is it just manpower systematically looking at one thing and then moving on to the next? I think the FDF was maybe a little bit higher grade, but dry stack was bigger.
Yeah. Right now, based on our the business plan and also on the price relating to be, we believe that at this period of time, we should focus on the FDF . While in the later on, as soon as we bring out the FDF to production, then we will assess the situation at that time on the PSF. We have a plan as part of the overall business strategy to do something with the PSF. At this period of time, we just want to focus on the FDF .
Great. Sounds good. That's all my questions. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, John. We have a couple of questions that have come in online. The first one is: Are there any plans for tin recovery, and is this being included in the tailings review?
Right now, we are focusing on our priority, which is silver recoveries and extending the life of mine of San Bartolome. Therefore, we're prioritizing the silver recoveries as opposed to doing a combined tin and silver recovery. We're also intending to defer this decision when we take a look at the PSF, and hoping that better spot prices for tin may be showing up as we go along into next year. For now, our priority is clear, extending San Bart life of mine and increasing the reserves of silver into our NI 43-101 technical report. That's the focus.
Thank you, Alberto. What is the reason for choosing silver collar contracts?
Thank you, Trish. It's really to protect our revenues in accordance with our internal budget and to protect against the volatility of silver prices.
JC, could you explain the M&A process a little more, and are you hopeful about the acquisition opportunities that you've narrowed down?
Yeah. Thanks, Trish. Well, as Alberto mentioned, and as you know, this is something that we have been focused on for the last few months and continue to make progress. We have identified a number of potential targets that we believe are the most or would be the most accretive to our shareholders. We feel confident about the process.
What happened between the end of the year and now in terms of adding mine life at San Bartolomé?
Well, as we have mentioned, we are engaged in the negotiation of a specific number of contracts with third parties, you know, to purchase higher grade material to feed the mill. We are looking forward to completing our FDF analysis to include these resources and resourcing to our NI 43-101.
Okay, our last one is, All-in sustaining costs per ounce for Q1 were well above guidance. How are you going to make sure that All-in sustaining costs go down for the rest of the year, and that we don't have to revise guidance?
I thank you, Trish. Like we've said, we are focusing on higher ore grade as a starting point. Secondly, we are focused on improving our recoveries. Last but not least, we are very focused on our cost control measures.
Great. Thank you, Juan Carlos. If there are no further questions, that wraps up today's webcast. As always, please feel free to reach out to me at ir@mpm.com if you have any follow-up questions. That now completes our call for this today.