Greetings, welcome to the Fortuna Silver Mines second quarter 2023 financial and operational results call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode, and a question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Carlos Baca, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Ali . Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to welcome you to Fortuna Silver Mines' second quarter 2023 financial and operational results conference call. Hosting the call today on behalf of Fortuna will be Jorge A. Ganoza, President and Chief Executive Officer, Luis D. Ganoza, Chief Financial Officer, Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer, Latin America, David Whittle, Chief Operating Officer, West Africa, and Julien Baudrand, Senior Vice President of Sustainability. Today's earnings call presentation will be available on our website, fortunasilver.com. As a reminder, statements made during this call are subject to the reader advisories included in yesterday's news release and in the earnings call presentation. Financial figures contained in the presentation and discussed in today's call are presented in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated.
Before I turn over the call to Jorge, I would like to indicate that this earnings call contains forward-looking information that is based on the company's current expectations, estimates, and beliefs, and is subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from a conclusion, forecast, or projection made in the forward-looking information. A description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors is set out in the company's annual information form for the financial year ended December 31st, 2022. The annual MD&A for the financial year ended December 31st, 2022, and the interim MD&A for the second quarter of 2023, which are all publicly available on SEDAR+ website.
Certain material factors or assumptions were applied by the company in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection as reflected in the forward-looking information made in this call. These material factors or assumptions are also described in the company's annual information form for the financial year ended December 31st, 2022, the annual MD&A for the financial year ended December 31st, 2022, and the interim MD&A for the second quarter of 2023. The company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking information in the future, except as required by law. I would now like to turn the call over to Jorge A. Ganoza, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of Fortuna.
Thank you, Carlos. The highlights of the quarter is our first gold pour at the newly built Séguéla Mine for sure. This took place on May 24th, as we pre-released. Séguéla was delivered on budget and slightly ahead of schedule. Séguéla is a flagship asset for the company, adding high-margin gold ounces for over a decade of mining to our portfolio. David Whittle, our Chief Operating Officer for West Africa, is here with us, and he will share with you our progress on the ramp-up activities later in this call. I can advance that beyond the normal startup hiccup, here and there, things are advancing according to plan. After a little over two years since the Roxgold acquisition and subsequent capital deployment towards the delivery of Séguéla, we're ready to start harvesting the cash flows and benefits of the transaction.
Our strategic expansion of the business into West Africa is going to start paying off. We now have two operating mines in the region. Starting in Q3, West Africa becomes our largest contributor to free cash flow. Our recent agreement to acquire Chesser Resources and the advanced exploration stage Diamba Sud project in Senegal, which is set to close in September, adds to our exciting regional exploration and growth pipeline. During the quarter, we had to contend with a couple of events that weighed on the operational and financial resource of the company for the period, which were pre-released and discussed in our Q1 MD&A at subsequent events.
At the San Jose mine in Mexico, demands by the workers union for higher profit sharing beyond what is mandated by law and/or standing collective agreements with the union, led to a 15-day legal blockade, generating corresponding loss of production, expenses, and standby charges. Across Mexico, there have been generalized worker union demands for higher profit sharing, which have affected several mines. The more notable one probably being Newmont Peñasquito, which, unfortunately, has been on standby for two months now, trying to resolve the issue. At our Yaramoko mine in Burkina Faso, we had to repair the Armtec tunnel at the entrance portal of the mine, closing access to the mine entrance for 27 days. Although this event at Yaramoko did not impact production, which is tracking on the upper end of guidance for the year, it did generate standby charges of approximately $1.5 million.
At the Lindero mine in Argentina, our pit operations reached a peak in the movement of waste material during the quarter, reaching a stripping ratio of 2.7 to one, which we expect to revert back to 1.1 to one for Q3, and 0.7 to one for Q4. Also, bear in mind that over the next 18 months, we will be carrying out the first and final planned expansion of the leach pad at the Lindero mine. This is a $34 million project and the single largest in our sustainability CapEx portfolio. At Séguéla, we produced 4,023 gold ounces in the quarter, but those ounces were sold in July. So our Q3 sales will benefit from that bump in when we report Q3 results.
Taking into account the issues described before, our business managed to generate $9.5 million of free cash flow from operations, $44 million in net cash flow from operating activities, $44 million in adjusted EBITDA, and a net operating income of $3.5 million, or $0.01 per share. Our consolidated all-in sustaining cost is expected to have peaked in Q2 at $1,799, and to come down during Q3 and Q4 as the operational issues at San Jose and Yaramoko were successfully resolved in the second quarter. Waste stripping at Lindero comes down in the second half of the year, as I previously mentioned, and more importantly, we start benefiting from the Séguéla mine sales in the third quarter. Luis, CFO, will expand on this.
There is a general theme of margin compression over the last, years across the mining industry, and we, of course, have not been immune to this. Again, that is why assets like Séguéla are pivotal to our portfolio. We expect Séguéla to operate at an all-in sustaining cost in the vicinity of $1,000 per ounce moving forward. On the exploration side of the business, we continue to report positive results from coming from Séguéla infill drilling at Sunbird, and new prospects like Barana, where we reported earlier this week, a drill hole intersect of 90 grams of gold over a true width of 1.8 meters.
On a positive note, our exploration at the Yaramoko mine continues extending mineralization and the producing Zone 55 ore body to a point where we're planning for an interim research update before the end of the year. David Whittle will also be expanding on this as well. In June, we had a fatal accident at the Caylloma mine, involving one of our mine contractors conducting activities related to work at height. This tragic accident comes as a blow at a time when the Caylloma mine has been operating without any lost-time injuries for 23 consecutive months and has robust management systems and practices in place. All identified improvement measures coming from the investigation and analysis of the accident have been implemented at the mine site, and a corporate action plan is in place to expand learnings across the organization, so something like this does not ever repeat again.
Subsequent to the quarter end, we published our 2022 sustainability report. Communicating adequately on the topical issues of environmental and social governance with our stakeholders and meeting expectations sensibly is something we take very seriously. To this end, we carry out a thorough materiality assessment to identify which of the many expectations placed on the sector are reasonable to us and our moment. Julien Baudrand , our Senior Vice President of Sustainability, is here with us and can expand on the highlights of the report. Julien, you want to touch on the report, please?
Yes, thank you, Jorge. For this report, this fifth report, sustainability report for the company, it includes an updated format to ease the access to ESG data, such as SASB, TCFD, and GRI being our main ESG reporting framework. We also present this year standalone mini sustainability reports for each of our operation. You will be able to find our key performance per site. The report present also a strong ESG governance system with a dedicated sustainability report, sustainability committee, and also short-term incentives based on ESG performance. The report give also the detail of our 2022 performance on all the material ESG factors, such as safety, environment, biodiversity, water, human rights, waste management, and human capital.
You will find also commitments of the company to implement industry standard to manage sustainability-related risk and opportunities, mainly climate change, our climate change position statement based on TCFD, with the objective to disclose 2030 GHG reduction target in the coming 6 months. We will have also some news from Cesar on this climate change matter. Other big commitment this year or last year was GIST and tailings management, where we target a full compliance by 2027. This standard will warranty to minimize risk from tailings management and ensure the long-term value of the company. Finally, the report present the contribution to our host countries and local community.
Financial contribution, but also you will see other information about how we impact positively the life of our, our people. We encourage you to explore this other key aspect of the business. The sustainability report is definitely a good way to assess our long-term growth strategy and also how mining can help building a better world. Thank you. Back to you, Jorge.
Thank you, Julien. We'll have our Chief Operating Officers take us through a review of the highlights for the region. We can start with West Africa. David, you want to go ahead?
Thanks, Jorge. Operations in West Africa continued their solid performance during the course second quarter of 2023. The highlight being the completion of construction and the pouring of first gold at the Séguéla Mine on May 24th, with 4,023 ounces of gold being produced in the quarter, which was shipped in July. As we commenced processing operations, we encountered some initial commissioning issues and altered mining plans to provide a more competent feed material to the processing plant. Initial processing plant feed for commissioning was predominantly oxide ore from the upper ten meters of mining at the Antenna Pit. This section of the Antenna Pit appeared to have been heavily depleted due to artisanal mining activities. Therefore, not providing the initially expected grade.
The nature of this oxide also caused issues within the first stages of the processing circuit, leading to reduced throughputs. These issues have been addressed. Mill feed is now a combination of fresh, transitional and oxide ore, and nameplate capacity of 150 to four tons per hour is currently being met or exceeded. Whilst the above early issues mean that we now expect production from Séguéla will be at the lower end of the guidance range, current mill throughputs are exceeding nameplate capacity, and our long-term view of Séguéla's potential remains unchanged. The initial grade control drilling at Antenna showed a 15% increase in contained ounces compared to the geological model, driven by a 2% increase in tons and 13% increase in grade when discounting the upper ten meters of oxide ore.
Initial grade control drilling is now complete at Ancien Pit, with stage two Antenna Pit grade control drilling underway. In the second quarter, Séguéla mined 383,100 tons of ore at an average grade of 2.35 grams per ton, and 877,143 tons of waste for a strip ratio of 2.3. Ore process was 109,605 tons at 1.56 grams per ton, with 4,023 ounces being poured. On July 18th, the transformer feeding the SAG mill variable speed drive failed. A repair with overview of the original equipment manufacturer was successfully undertaken. Unfortunately, eight days of production from the processing plant were lost, with normal operations recommencing on July 26.
In other activities, infill drilling at the Sunbird Pit was completed in the beginning of the second quarter, which will allow for the conversion of inferred material to reserve status and allow the Sunbird Pit to be brought into the life of mine plans. As operations progress, the focus will turn to debottlenecking the current process plant, increasing throughput, and examining expansion options as the mine plan develops. At the Yaramoko mine, strong production performance enabled the operation to pour 29,002 ounces of gold. Mine tons at Yaramoko were 64,779 tons at 6.35 grams per ton. The reduced mine output was due to the 27-day stoppage caused by the loss of access to the main Zone 55 mine, due to the Armtec tunnel failure at the portal.
Normal operations were resumed in early May, and the mine has been operating as planned with no further interruptions. During the mine stoppage, processing operations were able to continue with the processing of surface stockpiles. As such, 144,202 tons of ore were processed at an average grade of 6.51 grams per ton. Mining development continued to encounter higher grades than planned, as well as extend the mining boundaries to the western side of the ore body. Diamond drilling is currently focusing on the lower eastern side of the Zone 55 ore body, but will switch back to the western side in the third quarter. A second diamond drill to further explore the western boundaries of the Zone 55 is expected to be mobilized also in the third quarter.
Due to the increased grades encountered and the increase in minable tons, it's now expected that Yaramoko will exceed the upper end of current guidance. Gold production for the first half year was 55,439 ounces. AISC for the second quarter was $1,626 an ounce, and $1,564 an ounce for the first half of 2023, both at the lower end of guidance range. Safety and health of our employees is a key focus of our operations. Unfortunately, at Séguéla, we incurred an LTI in April due to a processing plant employee incurring chemical burns. At Yaramoko, safety performance was, remains strong, with no injuries occurring at the mine in the second quarter. Thank you, and back to you, Jorge.
Thank you, David. We can move on to LatAm. Cesar?
Thank you, Jorge. Good morning to everyone. In the second quarter of 2023, consolidated silver and gold production at our Latin American operations was 1.26 million ounces and 31,323 ounces, respectively, representing a decrease of 23.6% and 16.7% when compared to the comparable period in 2022. This decrease in production was mainly driven by the 15-day illegal blockade at the San Jose mine, as referenced to by Jorge, which concluded on May 11th, and also lower head grades at the Lindero mine. In Argentina, at the Lindero mine, mine production for the second quarter was 0.8 million tons of mineralized material, with a stripping ratio of 2.69 to 1, which is aligned with the operations plan for the year of 1.17 to 1.
Gold production in the quarter was 25,456 ounces. This is 12% lower when compared to the second quarter of 2022. As mentioned, this decrease is explained by lower head grades of mineralized material placed on the leach pad, albeit fully aligned with the mineral reserves and mining sequence for the period. Gold production for the first six months of 2023 totaled 50,714 ounces, well in line to meet annual guidance. AISC is expected to be at the high end of annual guidance range, mainly due to higher sustaining CapEx, driven by the leach pad expansion, high capitalized stripping cost, higher inflationary pressures on key consumables and services, and the lag on the depreciation of the Argentine peso.
The mine continues capturing savings, focus remains on cost control and value generation by concentrating on constantly pursuing efficiencies and delivering strategic capital projects on time and on budget. I am also pleased to report that the contract for the construction and operation of the solar plant at Lindero has been awarded. The solar plant will supply about 40% of the total annual energy requirement of 15 megawatts peak, generating fuel savings and contributing to the reduction of the operations carbon footprint by approximately 4,252 tons per year of CO2. That's good news. This was an important step, engineering and permitting works have commenced. The solar plant is expected to begin generating power by the fourth quarter of 2022, everything is on track.
Moving to Mexico, the San Jose mine produced 0.96 million ounces of silver at an average head grade of 168 grams per ton, and 5,778 ounces of gold at an average head grade of 1.02 grams per ton, reflecting a 31% and 30% decrease in production, respectively, when compared to the second quarter of 2022. The decrease in production is explained by the 15-day full shutdown of operations due to the illegal blockade by the workers' union, which impacted plant production for the quarter by 47,200 tons.
This also had an impact on the mine's preparation plan, delaying access to higher grade stopes scheduled for the period, as well as high absenteeism during the quarter. The operation has adjusted the mining plan, and higher-grade stopes are expected to be mined in the upcoming months. Management has implemented a revised mining and processing plan to recover the lost production in the quarter. At this stage, though, it is anticipated that silver production will achieve the lower end of annual guidance range, while gold production will come below. The effect on costs derived from the agreements reached with the union, as well as the blockage impact on production, has been significant and are being partially offset by reducing non-essential expenditures and capturing further efficiency initiatives for the remaining of the year.
Additionally, costs have also been affected by a stronger Mexican peso, which has appreciated approximately 20% year-to-date, coupled with higher inflation on supplies and services. It is anticipated that AISC for the year will be slightly above guidance, mainly due to the impact of the blockade and the standby charges derived from it. Moving down to Peru, in the second quarter of 2023, the Caylloma mine produced 305,296 ounces of silver at an average head grade of 84 grams per ton, a 14% increase in the comparable period in 2022. Production has benefited from higher head grade stocks at the lower levels of the Animas vein. Silver production for the first six months totaled 0.59 million ounces, on track to achieve the upper end of annual guidance range.
Zinc and lead production was 14 and 10.2 million pounds at an average head grade of 5.18% and 3.72%, respectively. That's a 29 and 34% increase when compared to the second quarter of 2022. As mentioned before, the increase in production is the result of higher head grade source from the lower levels at the Animas vein. Zinc and lead production for the first six months totaled 27.1 million pounds and 19.7 million pounds, respectively. AISC is tracking well to meet annual guidance range, as the operation continues to deliver strong production at a lower cost. Back to you, Jorge.
Thank you, Cesar. Luis, please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Sales were $158.4 million in the quarter. That's a decrease of $9.5 million compared to the prior year. The decrease was driven mainly by the lower metal sold at San Jose, as explained, due to the illegal blockade reported in the month of April. Silver and gold metal sold at San Jose were 31% and 30% below the prior year. As a result, both of the 15-day stoppage, and as Cesar explained, the lower average production rates over effective dates, days of production. Silver and gold prices were up 7% and 6% compared to Q2 of 2022, this positive effect was offset by a sharp drop in zinc prices of 31%.
Our operating income was down $5.4 million, primarily as a result of lower sales and the $7.1 million of non-recurring expenses that we've mentioned, consisting of $3.5 million of standby charges, $2.8 million related to a new agreement with the workers union at San Jose, and a $1 million fine at Yaramoko. Consolidated cash cost of sales per gold equivalent ounce was approximately $970. This is $80 above the prior year. The increase was a result of higher costs per ounce sold at San Jose, related to lower productivity rates and lower head grades as a result of a ramp-up process after the stoppage, and higher costs per ounce at Lindero, related to lower volume produced and higher input costs.
This was partially offset by lower costs per ounce sold at Yaramoko. Our lower income tax in the quarter, compared to Q2 of 2022, reflects lower income before income taxes and a tax credit in the quarter at our Mexican operations. In addition, the prior year effective tax rate was impacted by timing of withholding taxes. After the aforementioned impacts and one-time charges, we recorded net income of $3.4 million, or $0.01 per share. With respect to our all-in sustaining costs, we have disclosed $1,799 per gold equivalent ounce sold, which represents an increase of $366 year-over-year.
The increase is explained by the effect of the stoppage at San Jose, as described before, and higher AISC at Lindero, driven primarily by higher sustained CapEx associated to phase two of the leach pad expansion, and a peak in the planned stripping ratio for the year, as well as higher costs per ounce, as mentioned before. In terms of free cash flow, net cash from operating activities in the quarter was $44.2 million, compared to $47.4 million in Q2 of 2022. Changes in working capital, as per the cash flow statement, were positive $2.7 million. It is worth noting, this includes $4.4 million of negative changes in working capital from Séguéla, consisting of inventory and payables, which we have excluded from our reported $9.5 million of free cash flow from operations.
This free cash flow from operations figure is after sustaining CapEx, brownfield exploration, and corporate expenses. Cash used in investing activities, as per the cash flow statement, is $73.2 million. This consists of $35.6 million of sustaining CapEx, including brownfields, $19.5 million in construction and pre-production activities at Séguéla, a $10 million payment associated to first gold at Séguéla, $3.4 million of capitalized interest, and $4.5 million in costs related to the Chesser Resources transaction. At the end of the quarter, we still had approximately $9.4 million of construction payables outstanding. Moving on to the balance sheet, we closed the quarter with a liquidity position of $98 million.
Our revolving credit facility of $250 million was almost fully drawn at the end of the quarter, and we expect to start reverting this in the second half of the year as we start paying down debt after the end of the Séguéla construction. We maintain a strong liquidity position going into the second half of the year. Finally, our total net debt, including the outstanding convertible debenture, is $198 million, resulting in a leverage ratio of total net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 0.9. Thank you. Back to you, Jorge.
Thank you, Carlos, for Q&A.
Thank you, Jorge. We would now like to open the call to any questions that you may have.
Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue, and you may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question is coming from Eric Winmill with Bank of Nova Scotia. Your line is live.
Great. Thanks for taking my question to the Fortuna team. Obviously, great to see Séguéla ramping up well. I know it's still early days, but just wondering if you had any additional detail in terms of what you're seeing in terms of, you know, where the grade's tracking, in terms of reconciliation and tons, and, you know, when you think you might get to steady state there, I mean, notwithstanding, you know, the transformer issue. That'd be great. Thanks.
David, do you want to expand on that one?
Yeah, no problem. Yeah, initially, as we touched on in the, in the discussion earlier, our grade control drilling at the Antenna Pit indicated an increase in overall ounces, predominantly grade driven as well. You know, and in our recent reconciliations through the plant, that would now imply that we are seeing those grades as expected from our mining, mining plans actually in the mill as well. We've still got to do the reconciliation of the grade control drilling at Ancien, which is now being completed. That will probably still be a couple of weeks away. The grade control drilling at the stage two of Antenna Pit is currently underway.
To add a bit of color to that, with the, the infill drilling at Antenna, which is the anchor for production this year and into the next one, the, the infill grid is at a 10-meter drill spacing, pretty much. You know, giving higher confidence for ore control. And we expect to report our, our, you know, consideration of production to to reserves at the end of the third quarter, you know, with the results for this third quarter. For the second quarter, you know, it was just a few initial weeks of, of production and getting the mill balanced, a process that went on in, in the first month of, of the third quarter in July.
You can expect, you know, the team is dealing with the balancing weightometers, belt weighers, and stuff like that, which, you know, is normal with any commissioning process. We expect that by the end of Q3, we can probably provide our first reconciliation. So far, everything suggests, David, that we're tracking along expectations, right?
Yep, after those, initial, initial issues with the, predominantly oxide ore. Yes.
Would be great to know. Super helpful. Thank you very much. I'll hop back in the queue. Appreciate.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial. Your line is live.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, Jorge and team. Guys, just following along the line of questioning the previous call on Séguéla. Jorge, you mentioned you're expecting AISC on the order of about $1,000 an ounce going forward. Just wondering if you're gonna be reporting AISC for Q3, and how should we model costs during this ramp up, say, over the next two or three quarters?
Yes. We will be reporting all-in sustaining cost for the quarter. I mean, I think, it will be reasonable to expect that those all-in sustaining figures for the initial months of production are gonna be a bit distorted. We, we plan to report. We're making some adjustments, or some adjustments have been made also to the original mine plan, as David described. We, we have had to expose more fresh ore than the original plan contemplated. We had to move faster into two shifts in the pit rather than just one. Those things will have some, some bearing on the all-in sustaining in the short term, for sure.
You know, long term, and long term, I'm talking about, you know, at this stage, the next two quarters, I would expect we are tracking within our, our guidance expectations. Yeah. Luis, perhaps you wanna expand, anything on that?
Just, just to provide a bit more visibility. I mean, that involves a cash cost per ounce in the range of $600-$650 on average over the next couple of quarters, depending, as Jorge just described, on some of the, of the variability we might see as the mine plans continue to adapt, and basic, yes, it's, we stick to our guidance of around $1,000-$1,050 per ounce for the second half of the year on average.
Okay, thank you for that. Just a second question, looking at the Chesser acquisition. Clearly, this provides an opportunity in your pipeline. We're looking ahead to the, the close of the transaction in September, but beyond that, could you give us a sense of the timing on some milestones you might expect, a resource update, PEA? I don't know, maybe it's too early to talk about, you know, potential first poor or something, but, but what is the runway of, of, catalysts and milestones that you envision for this?
Yes. For us, Diamba Sud remains an exploration project. Chesser had advanced with a PEA and was trying to move beyond the PEA, building on engineering towards a pre-feasibility study. We are analyzing, reviewing all of that work. There might some, there might be some engineering work we wanna continue pursuing. Largely for us, Chesser remains an exploration project. Diamba Sud is today a submillion-ounce deposit, and as it sits today, doesn't meet our criteria for developing a mine. We, having said that, we have, we are of a strong view that there are clear opportunities to take that submillion-ounce deposit, as it sits today, well beyond the million ounces.
Diamba Sud sits at the core or of one of the most productive gold belts in the West African region, just kilometers away from, you know, Gounkoto and Loulo and B2Gold . We are quite excited about the exploration opportunity this presents, but it is an exploration project for us. We still have to show success with the drill bit and move Diamba Sud beyond the 1 million ounces before we contemplate a development stage project. It's an advanced exploration project for us, one we're very excited about. We are currently developing an exploration budget. We wanna be drilling Diamba Sud before the end of the year. First things first, we need to close the transaction. That will take place in September. That's our best estimate right now.
Our exploration team, Paul Weedon, Patrick Manoogian , are, are working already on, on a exploration budget for the second half of 2023.
Okay. Thank you for that. That's helpful. That's all for me. Good luck with the continued ramp up at Séguéla.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, please press Star one on your telephone keypad at this time. Okay, we appear to have no questions on the line at this time, so I will hand it back for any closing comments.
Thank you, Ali. If there are no further questions, I would like to thank everyone for listening to today's earnings call. Have a great day!
Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.