Eldorado Gold Corporation (TSX:ELD)
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Apr 24, 2026, 4:00 PM EST
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Earnings Call: Q4 2021

Feb 25, 2022

Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Eldorado Gold Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2021 Results and the Lamaque Technical Study Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lisa Wilkinson, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Ms. Wilkinson.

Lisa Wilkinson
VP of Investor Relations, Eldorado Gold

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to our Q4 and full year 2021 results and Lamaque Technical Study conference call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements during the call. Please refer to the cautionary statements included in the presentation as well as the risk factors set out in our annual information form. Joining me on the call today, we have George Burns, President and Chief Executive Officer, Phil Yee, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Joe Dick, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Other members of the senior leadership team will also be available for the Q&A session. Our release yesterday detailed our 2021 fourth quarter financial and operating results. This should be read in conjunction with our fourth quarter financial statements and management's discussion and analysis.

We also released highlights of the new Lamaque technical study. These documents are available on our website and have been filed on SEDAR and EDGAR. All dollar figures discussed today are U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. We will be speaking to the slides that accompany this webcast. You can download a copy of these slides from our website. After the prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A. At this time, we will invite analysts to queue for questions. I will now turn the call over to George.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Thanks, Lisa, and good morning, everyone. Here's the outline for today's call. I'll provide a brief overview of 2021 highlights before passing it to Phil to go through the financials. Then Joe will discuss operational performance and provide some additional color on the new Lamaque technical study before we open it up for questions from our analysts. I am very proud of our team for achieving several key milestones in 2021. Specifically, we delivered full-year production of over 475,000 ounces, which was at the high end of our increased guidance range. In January, we released our five-year production outlook that shows continued growth at our current operating mines.

The key highlight is the midpoint of annual gold production has increased on average by approximately 4% or 21,250 ounces per year for the period between 2022 and 2025 compared to the guidance provided last year for the same period. In 2022, we expect first half production to be lower than second half due to the construction and ramp-up of the HPGR at Kisladag, year-to-date weather challenges in Turkey and Greece and the impact of COVID-19 Omicron variant across our operations, which has resulted in increased absenteeism. We are still confident that we will deliver our 2022 production guidance range of 460,000-490,000 ounces. We continue to evaluate opportunities at our operations with a goal of providing potential upside to our future production outlook. Our Skouries financing discussions continue to advance.

We're evaluating all available options, including joint venture equity partners, project and debt financing, and lastly, streams. Our focus on selecting a financial package will continue to be driven by value optimization and de-risking for the future. Yesterday, we released the results of the new Lamaque technical study, which showcases the growing value at the asset and a significant upside potential from Lower Triangle and our Lamaque deposits. The Lamaque property has been an outstanding acquisition for us. We quickly developed the project and brought it into commercial production. We have been replacing reserves year-over-year, and we have even exceeded peak production levels beyond the 2018 pre-feasibility study. Now, the new study shows robust economics. Specifically, the Upper Triangle reserve NPV is $459 million at a 5% discount rate and using a $1,500 gold price assumption.

In addition, the Lower Triangle and our Lamaque inferred resource deposits have incremental NPV of $162 million and $197 million, respectively. Joe will speak more about the study later in the call. With the Triangle Sigma Decline project now complete, we are focused on an exploration drift and resource conversion at Lamaque. Our 2022 exploration strategy is focused on new targets within our expanded license area to support continued growth at Lamaque. We are also strategically positioned in the Abitibi region, providing us additional exposure to the potential upside in this world-class mining jurisdiction. Switching gears, we have noted in previous quarters we continue to have faced pervasive inflationary pressures similar to the wider market. In the fourth quarter, we have seen increased volatility with inflation in Turkey.

However, we continue to benefit from the weakening lira, which offset the majority of these inflationary pressures in 2021. In the Abitibi region, mining work has picked up, which is impacting the availability of contractors and labor. We continue to successfully mitigate this challenge. We have reviewed our major spend categories to ensure resilience in our supply chain, and we'll continue to monitor the inflationary risk going forward. Finally, I'd like to highlight another significant step forward in our sustainability strategy. We recently published our inaugural climate change and greenhouse gas emissions report. In this report, we target mitigating greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 on a business as usual basis. In other words, we intend to remove approximately 65,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.

We have made tremendous progress to better understand and address climate change risks and opportunities facing our business, which will help us achieve our greenhouse gas emissions target and support our journey to decarbonization. I will stop there and turn things over to Phil for a review of our financial results.

Phil Yee
EVP and CFO, Eldorado Gold

Thank you, George. Good morning, everyone. We had a strong year of operation results in 2021. As George mentioned, full year production of over 475,000 ounces was at the high end of our increased guidance range. Our full year 2021 cash operating costs was $626 per ounce sold, and all-in sustaining costs for 2021 were $1,069 per ounce sold, both within our guidance ranges. Full year 2021 free cash flow was $62 million, which was in line with our expectations, despite lower free cash flow in Q2 2021 related to increased growth capital spending, increased tax cash payments, and the timing of annual royalty and interest payments.

Eldorado reported net loss of $43 million or -$0.24 per share in Q4 2021, and net earnings of $11 million or $0.06 per share in full year 2021. This is down compared to full year 2020 net earnings of $131 million or $0.77 per share, driven mainly by lower production and higher taxes in 2021. After adjusting for one-time non-recurring items, including a $31 million expense related to moving Stratoni into care and maintenance, $31 million expense related to debt refinancing, and $55 million in net loss on foreign exchange due to translation of deferred tax balances, which increased because of the weakening Turkish lira, adjusted net earnings increased to $25 million or $0.14 per share in Q4, and $119 million or $0.66 per share in full year 2021.

Adjusted net earnings in the fourth quarter were impacted by a $14 million impairment at Stratoni and the significant weakening of the Turkish lira in the quarter, resulting in high tax expense on unrealized foreign exchange gains in Turkey. Cash operating costs averaged $571 per ounce sold in Q4, and $626 per ounce sold for the full year 2021. Cash operating costs in Q4 benefited from larger volumes of base metal sales at Olympias. All-in sustaining cost per ounce sold averaged $1,077 per ounce sold in Q4, and $1,069 per ounce sold for the full year 2021. Capital expenditures were $81 million in Q4 and $294 million for the full year.

This reflects a planned increase in growth capital spending at Kisladag with the new HPGR project and at Lamaque with the underground decline project. Current tax expense was $38 million in Q4 and $90 million for the full year. Current tax expense in the fourth quarter was driven by higher unrealized foreign exchange gains due to the weakening Turkish lira, which was partially offset by the investment tax credits received in Turkey related to the Kisladag heap leach capital improvements. Deferred tax expense was $57 million in Q4 and $50 million for the full year. As I mentioned earlier, deferred tax expense in the fourth quarter was primarily due to the weakening lira, as well as $13 million related to the closure of Stratoni. Depreciation expense was $47 million in Q4 and $201 million for the full year.

Depreciation expense for 2021 was at the low end of our guidance range. At year-end, we had unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of $481 million. We continue to focus on maintaining a solid financial position, which provides flexibility to unlock value for our Kassandra assets in Greece. I will now turn it over to Joe to go through the operational highlights.

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

Thanks, Phil, and good morning. I will start with an important health and safety highlight from our operations. The teams at our mine sites are truly engaged in building our safety culture, and we are proud of the success we have seen in focusing on leading indicators to improve safety outcomes.

Typically, we have enhanced preventative health and safety engagements in the field, and our corrective action closeout rate is 82%. This demonstrates the proactive nature of health and safety at our operations and builds a culture of care. Now moving to our operating results. We produced 122,582 ounces of gold in the fourth quarter and full year 2021 production of 475,850 ounces, which was at the upper end of our increased production guidance range of 460,000-480,000 ounces. This was driven by stronger than planned performance at Kisladag and Lamaque. Starting in Turkey, Kisladag production in the fourth quarter was 33,136 ounces, and cash operating costs were $737 per ounce.

Construction and wet commissioning of the HPGR circuit were completed in December, and we are now ramping up production and metallurgical adjustments. We are currently balancing agglomeration and tons placed with leach kinetics and permeability to obtain optimal performance. The HPGR circuit is expected to increase heap leach life of mine recovery by an estimated 4% to approximately 56%. So far, the performance of the HPGR circuit is meeting our expectations, and we believe there is potential to further enhance recovery with additional optimization. At Efemcukuru, fourth quarter gold production was 22,631 ounces at cash operating costs of $606 per ounce. Gold production throughput and average gold grade at Efemcukuru were in line with expectations. Now moving to our Canadian operations.

Fourth quarter gold production at Lamaque was 51,354 ounces, a 37% increase over last quarter, driven by higher than planned gold grades in the C4 zone. Cash operating costs were $482 per ounce. Finally, let's move to Greece. At Olympias, fourth quarter gold production was 15,461 ounces, a 12% increase over last quarter. Cash operating costs were $441 per ounce as a result of stronger base metal revenue in the quarter. Olympias performed better in the fourth quarter, delivering the strongest quarter of the year. This was driven mainly by efficiency initiatives started earlier in 2001 related to the transformation program at the Kassandra assets and positive grade reconciliation versus plan.

We continue to be optimistic that we can achieve the productivity targets outlined in the Kassandra transformation plan in the coming year. Switching gears, I'm excited to announce the positive results of the new Lamaque technical study, which includes an update to the current operation regarding mineral reserves in the Upper Triangle deposit, Zone C1 through C5, and updates to the inferred resources on the Lower Triangle, Zone C6 through C10, and the Ormaque deposits. The Upper Triangle reserves case has an NPV of $459 million at a 5% discount rate and a gold price assumption of $1,500 per ounce. Separately, there is an incremental NPV of $162 million for the Lower Triangle inferred resource and $197 million for the Ormaque inferred resource.

This value creation positions Lamaque as a cornerstone asset and a significant opportunity that Lower Triangle and Ormaque deposits provide. We're well positioned in the Abitibi region. Our recent acquisition of QMX has expanded our land package and properties near our core operations at Lamaque by over 500%, and we have many exploration targets to provide further opportunity to continue to grow the resources and reserves. Lamaque has been an outstanding acquisition for us. Not only have we been able to continuously replace reserves year over year with additional growth, we have also exceeded the 2018 PFS metrics in terms of tonnage and gold production. In 2021, Lamaque gold production from Upper Triangle was 153,201 ounces, 13% higher than expected production in the PFS.

The Upper Triangle reserves case also shows increased production to over 190,000 ounces per year, which exceeds the PFS. Our study shows an extended mine life with about 5.5 years of production from Upper Triangle reserves and potential for additional 8.5 years of mine life from Lower Triangle and Ormaque inferred resources. Overall, this study continues the Eldorado growth story and our focus on value creation and builds on our recent work at Skouries. We have an outstanding team and robust surface infrastructure already in place at the Lamaque mine to support current operations and continue mining Upper Triangle reserves. Additional infrastructure is required on the Sigma tailings and the mine dewatering systems. We have completed a significant amount of work so far, and I'm really proud of the team. Over the last few years.

Over the next few years, we plan to complete studies on the Sigma tailings north basin, water treatment, resource conversion, tailings thickener, and paste backfill, as well as Lower Triangle materials handling options. We remain focused on resource conversion at Lamaque and exploring new targets within our expanded land package to support additional growth opportunities at Lamaque. I'll stop there and turn it back to George for closing remarks.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Thanks, team. 2021 was a successful year for Eldorado, with strong operational performance, beating production and cost guidance, and the completion of the Kisladag HPGR and the Lamaque decline growth projects. Looking ahead, we see 2022 as another pivotal year as we advance work on Skouries and explore growth opportunities at our current operations while continuing to put safety and sustainability at the core of our business. Thank you for your time. I will now turn it over to the operator for questions from our analysts.

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 will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Cosmos Chiu with CIBC. Please go ahead.

Cosmos Chiu
Executive Director, Institutional Equity Research - Precious Metals, CIBC World Markets

Thanks, George, Phil, Joe, for the presentation. Maybe my first question is on Lamaque, the technical report. Just to confirm, the grades that you've given for Lower Triangle and on Lamaque, those are diluted grades, right?

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

That's correct, Cosmos.

Cosmos Chiu
Executive Director, Institutional Equity Research - Precious Metals, CIBC World Markets

Great. You know, for Lower Triangle here, I noticed that the mining cost is a bit lower compared to Upper Triangle. The grade is also a bit lower. Is that, you know, due to a different sort of mining method? Are you using bigger stopes, or is it really potentially just slightly lower grade?

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

The difference in mining method between upper and lower triangle is primarily paste backfill in Lower Triangle, which does help mining costs a bit. We do have some latitude to potentially pull that forward. As far as the grade comparison, I don't have it directly in front of me, Cosmos. Maybe there's someone on the phone who does. Certainly tonnage plays into it as we have higher tonnage.

Cosmos Chiu
Executive Director, Institutional Equity Research - Precious Metals, CIBC World Markets

It's not huge. One is slightly over seven. I think one has a six handle on it, so it's not huge.

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

Yeah.

Cosmos Chiu
Executive Director, Institutional Equity Research - Precious Metals, CIBC World Markets

I'm just wondering if there's. I guess the question is: Is there upside potential in terms of C6 to C10 later on? Because I believe there's some cross structures when I was on site, at least in the Upper Triangle. I'm wondering if that's been factored in. I'm just wondering, you know, if this is the grade eventually for Lower Triangle or is there, you know, potentially some upside to it?

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

It's George.

Cosmos Chiu
Executive Director, Institutional Equity Research - Precious Metals, CIBC World Markets

Hi, George.

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

Go ahead, George.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Jump in here for a minute. Yeah, Joe, I'll start. Maybe you can fill in any gaps. I mean, the way I look at Lower Triangle, so far it's been drilled exclusively from surface. Obviously, the deeper we go, the more challenging the drilling is to target the appropriate drill density, and obviously, the costs are much higher. If you contrast it to Upper Triangle, we're gonna be reliant on underground drilling. If you look at Upper Triangle C1 through C5, with time, we've been successfully increasing, not only converting from inferred resources to reserves, but we've also been growing the inferred resource.

I think the upside on Lower Triangle is simply getting the development further down, getting the infill drilling from C6 down to C, C10. I think just based on the history of C1 to C5, you'll see continued growth in the size of the resource, and obviously with that drill density, we'll have a better idea on the grade.

Cosmos Chiu
Executive Director, Institutional Equity Research - Precious Metals, CIBC World Markets

Mm-hmm.

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

George, I'll just add, you know, Cosmos, from a mining perspective, you know, we think there's likely upside in materials handling system, as I mentioned, that we'll do continued study work on, but our base case is trucking at this point.

Cosmos Chiu
Executive Director, Institutional Equity Research - Precious Metals, CIBC World Markets

Maybe moving to Lamaque. You know, my understanding is that this is a flatter lying structure. Also notice in your costs for Lamaque that is also slightly higher. Could you maybe comment on the mining method, stope sizes, you know, the mining costs, and therefore?

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

Maybe I'll open it and if Brock's in the room, he can add to it. Cosmos, you're correct. It is flat lying and, you know, we're at a mining height of about two and a half meters in that, in the majority of Lamaque as we see it today. We think, you know, through additional drilling that may change a bit. You know, it's a low profile drift and field type method. Brock, anything you wanna add to that?

Brock Gill
VP of Projects and Transformation, Eldorado Gold

No, nothing from my end. Joe.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Great. Thanks. Then, you know, in terms of Sigma tailings, as you mentioned, you know, there's expansion plans. Eventually, you know, could that be expanded to include all the different years that you've highlighted, including Triangle, Upper Triangle, Lower Triangle, and also Lamaque? Could there be, you know, could it actually be extended further beyond what you've outlined yesterday as well?

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

Well, Cosmos, it certainly contains the entire reserves case. Then, you know, I think basically goes to about 2028, 2029 in total. We're looking at a couple of other alternatives to increase tailings storage beyond that, one of them being in pit as well as the historic Lamaque tailings. You know, we have what we believe is a path to all of the reserves and improved resources noted, and then have options as to how we do that with a good amount of runway in front of us through Sigma.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Maybe one last question here. You know, you kinda mentioned in the MD&A changes to existing permits. Could you talk about, you know, the permits and any additional permits that are needed for the inferred to get to the inferred resources, to eventually mine the inferred resources at Lower Triangle and Lamaque?

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

There's no additional permits required on Upper or Lower Triangle. At Lamaque, below an elevation, you know, someone will have to correct me, but I think it's 435 meters below surface, then production from below there would require a permit adjustment.

Brock Gill
VP of Projects and Transformation, Eldorado Gold

I think, Cosmos, it's Brock. I can-

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Yeah. Hi, Brock.

Brock Gill
VP of Projects and Transformation, Eldorado Gold

I can add maybe a bit of color to that. I think, as Joe correctly said, it's minimal permitting for the future. We need a permit for the tailings raise, so not a significant one, and it's already in plan. On the certificate of authorization, we need an expansion of the lease just for one zone, so very minimal and already in train. Not really on permitting, but we're also watching legislative changes in Quebec on water quality with regard to Directive 019. Those are the three main areas we're looking at.

Cosmos Chiu
Executive Director, Institutional Equity Research - Precious Metals, CIBC World Markets

Great. Thanks again. Those are the questions I have, and have a good weekend.

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

Thanks, Cosmos.

Operator

The next question is from Mike Parkin with National Bank. Please go ahead.

Mike Parkin
Head of Mining Research - Precious Metals Analyst, National Bank Financial

Hi, guys. Congrats on the quarter. A couple questions from me. Are we still looking at the same timing on the Perama Hill update?

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

Yeah. Same timing.

Mike Parkin
Head of Mining Research - Precious Metals Analyst, National Bank Financial

Over to Lamaque. In terms of what depth do you guys see being possible, in terms of ramp access versus when you'd have to consider switching to a shaft?

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

I'll start that and

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Well, I mean, we continue to.

Joe Dick
EVP and COO, Eldorado Gold

Sorry, Joe, go ahead. Look, essentially, it's an economic trade-off that will be ongoing. That's what will drive it, and we have a bit of time to complete that work. George, I didn't mean to cut in on you, so maybe go ahead.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Yeah. I was just gonna say from a capital allocation perspective, it really. It's a trade-off between capital versus operations and obviously, the impact that has on value. The sort of scenarios we've considered for deep mining on Triangle are the current base case, just continue to haul it out. That's the lowest capital option. From a profitability perspective, we continue to study material handling options. The current thinking would be use the just completed decline for the top portion, and then from there down, we've looked at a vertical conveyor. It's a pretty low cost, capital option for hoisting. It would just be ore, not people movement or not supply movement.

We've looked at Railveyor, and all these make some sense, but from a capital allocation perspective, we need to grow the tons and the return on investment for that to be the chosen solution. As I was trying to explain earlier in the call, there's still a lot of drilling to be done on Lower Triangle. I think there's significant upside in terms of, you know, discovering additional inferred resources. You know, we don't have any inferred resources yet on a bulk mining opportunity in Lower Triangle, but we have a stockwork zone that was successfully mined in the historical Lamaque mine. We just don't have the ability to drill that from surface to the degree to have confidence in any kind of economic scenario.

You know, as we continue to push the mine vertically, we'll get the drilling required. I think there's significant upside on Lower Triangle. As that unfolds, it'll give us better clarity on, you know, the right infrastructure to maximize value to our shareholders.

Mike Parkin
Head of Mining Research - Precious Metals Analyst, National Bank Financial

Okay. That was actually gonna be one of my follow-ups there, was the Stockwork zone. You've also done the QMX acquisition, where you've got that kind of hub and spoke potential with the Sigma Mill. Can you just remind us what kind of work you're doing regionally in the next year to advance that? You know, there's a number of kind of targets there.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Yeah. On what we call Bourlamaque, which is the QMX land acquisition, we've got a number of high-grade targets would be underground mining. Some of those have advanced to drilling. We did some drilling in 2021. Kind of a ramp-up in that activity this year. We also have earlier stage targets where we're trying to find discovery. As we stated, we're really excited about the Bourlamaque area. We have a number of targets. It is a longer term growth opportunity than obviously the things we've talked about at Triangle and Lamaque. You know, we're really confident with this land package and the district we're in, that we're gonna have future discoveries to support further value creation with the outstanding infrastructure we have and, you know, the fantastic workforce we have.

Mike Parkin
Head of Mining Research - Precious Metals Analyst, National Bank Financial

Great. Thank you, guys. That's it for me. Have a good weekend.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Thank you.

Operator

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Kerry Smith with Haywood Securities. Please go ahead.

Kerry Smith
VP and Senior Mining Analyst, Haywood Securities

Thanks, operator. George or Joe, on the slide nine that you have in the slides that you used for this presentation, you show kind of a timeline for tons and where they're coming from for the project. You kinda have Lower Triangle and the Ormaque inferred resources kinda coming out over the same length of time. Would it be fair to assume that that would likely come out 50/50 in terms of tons to the mill, so, you know, 1,100-1,200 tons from each of those operations over the course of that chart, that Gantt chart?

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

That's not unreasonable, Kerry.

Kerry Smith
VP and Senior Mining Analyst, Haywood Securities

Okay. Okay, perfect. That's good. Thank you. In your opening comments, George, you did talk about different financing discussions that are ongoing. You know, the JV, bringing in an equity partner, debt and equity, and then you talked about a stream. I know in the past, stream has kind of been the lowest priority option, but you did mention it. I'm just wondering if it's now becoming more of a viable option, or you just mentioned it because it is something that you're still considering but is still low priority.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Yeah. I mean, it's a comprehensive review to look at all alternatives. You know, historically, streams have a long-lasting impact, particularly if there's a tail on future discovery. It's been on the lower end of our alternatives, but I do have to say the economics from streamers has been improving. To answer your question, nothing's really changed. We have the same strategies. We're hoping to have a great equity partner that can help us with successful execution and influence. We're looking at pretty favorable project financing opportunities and also engage with streamers. Our whole strategy is to get all the information in, do a financial analysis around it, looking at value and risk, and make the optimum decision for our shareholders. Kerry, really nothing's changed.

We're advancing and look forward to coming to a conclusion.

Kerry Smith
VP and Senior Mining Analyst, Haywood Securities

Okay. You're still expecting to make that decision sort of late this year, I guess. Ah, well, second half, let's say.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Yeah. I mean, we're hopeful to get all the information around mid-year and go through an evaluation process and make a decision, hopefully in third quarter.

Kerry Smith
VP and Senior Mining Analyst, Haywood Securities

Okay. Okay, that's great. Thank you, George. Appreciate it.

Operator

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Tanya Jakusconek
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Scotiabank

Yes. Great. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking my questions. I just wanted to follow up on Kerry's question. We had talked about, you know, other options such as, you know, the Greek banks, Greek financial institutions. Are they still involved and interested? I just wanted to see if that was still ongoing.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Yeah. Greek banks and COVID relief funding out of EU is one of the project financing alternatives we continue to progress and evaluate.

Tanya Jakusconek
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Scotiabank

Okay. That's good. When you talked about streaming option, streaming as an option, just wanna review. When you're talking about streaming, George, are you talking about streaming the copper or you're talking about streaming your principal commodity?

Speaker 11

Hi, Tanya. It's Jason. I think it would be fair to assume that we would be looking at both.

Tanya Jakusconek
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Scotiabank

Thank you for that. I wanted to come back onto the Lamaque release yesterday on Lower Triangle and Ormaque, and appreciate there's a lot of moving parts, but maybe if we can just, you know, looking at, like, just simplify it as you come towards 2026 when, you know, we commence mining from now until 2026. Can you just review the critical paths of what needs to be done to start on both of those from both the underground and surface? Thank you.

George Burns
President and CEO, Eldorado Gold

Maybe I can start just from a drilling and conversion perspective, and then Joe and Brock can jump in on infrastructure and other important factors. From an exploration perspective, with the just completed decline, we're about 100 meters into a new drift that will sit right over the top of the Ormaque lenses. By sometime this summer, we will be underground drilling on Ormaque to progress the drill density we need to be able to convert Ormaque from an inferred resource to a reserve. We've advanced studies, so we're in pretty good shape on that side of it. Then for Lower Triangle, it's really just pushing the ramp down each year as we have to date to allow underground drill access to drill the next portion of the deposit off.

The way I see it, you know, we'll get enough drilling on Ormaque to do the appropriate technical analysis to hopefully convert it to a reserve. It, you know, it'll come in a big chunk as it always needs to cover the infrastructure and the new mining fleet that we'll need. Then for Lower Triangle, it's just simply getting the drill density we need to have confidence to call it a reserve, you know, and then it's just pushing the infrastructure down. Over the long term, it's trying to get enough confidence in Lower Triangle that we select the optimum infrastructure.

Brock Gill
VP of Projects and Transformation, Eldorado Gold

Yeah. Thanks, George. Tanya, it's Brock. I would kind of break it into two categories. The first would be the studies that Joe had referenced in his remarks. On the north basin, on the tailings facility for Sigma, water treatment, and then as George mentioned, resource conversion. There's a tailings thickener and backfill study we wish to do. Kind of those are the basic ones. Sorry, would also add to the question that was asked earlier. We've got a number of materials handling options in Lower Triangle. Kind of those are. There's a study phase that is based. How I would look at that is more confidence in the reserve case, obviously, and then a little more work done on the two inferred cases. That's number one.

Two, to the comments on infrastructure, the first thing up is a raise of tailings, as we've already mentioned. After that, it's kind of we've got a sequenced set of, I'll call it capital decisions that we'll allocate on. The reserve case does not have a lot of capital inside of it. There's further kind of layered out. As we get through that study phase, you've got a paced backfill decision, if we wanna get to it, and so on. Does that help you?

Tanya Jakusconek
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Scotiabank

Yeah, no. I was hoping to get just a bit more clarity on, you know, when all of these would be done in the timeframe of 2022 to 2025 or 2026.

Brock Gill
VP of Projects and Transformation, Eldorado Gold

Okay.

Tanya Jakusconek
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Scotiabank

The studies, like, when are they gonna be available for us, like the infrastructure and then all of the drilling? I was just trying to fit it, look at your timeline on page nine and try and put it into a schedule there for me to understand the progress.

Brock Gill
VP of Projects and Transformation, Eldorado Gold

Apologies for not getting that. The studies are ongoing now. Some of them will be distributed, I guess, as they would end up in a further technical report. The tailings raise is Q3 of 2022. Look at the North Basin, which I referenced on that in kind of the second half of 2023. Resource conversion happens throughout, starting this year. I mean, I think George had referenced that, so resource conversion being one of our key areas. You know, back end of 2023, early 2024 is when we'd look to have a PFS.

Tanya Jakusconek
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Scotiabank

PFS. Okay. Yeah, that's helpful. It's just, you know, my understanding on how the progression will look, because there's a lot of studies, right? You're trying to understand how they're all gonna fit together and what's gonna be done where. So I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Brock Gill
VP of Projects and Transformation, Eldorado Gold

Thanks, Tanya.

Operator

That is all the time we have for today, and this does conclude the question and answer session and today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

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