Hello and welcome to Hochschild Mining's Q2 results conference call. There will be a brief statement today followed by Q&A. If you would like to ask a question during today's call, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the call over to Eduardo Landin, Hochschild CEO. Please go ahead. Hello and welcome to our conference call to discuss our second quarter production results. I am here in Lima with Eduardo Noriega, our CFO, and in London is Charlie Gordon, our Head of Industrial Relations Group. Production in the quarter was almost 82,000 gold equivalent ounces. Production was higher than the first quarter as San Jose in Argentina normalized after its shorter period early in the year. We also had a solid performance at Immaculada in Peru. Clearly our main focus during the period has been our Mara Rosa operation in Brazil as we outlined in updates. Processing operation at the plant occurred with the plant's filter manufacturers, Andritz, currently on site improving the filtering process. We are also carrying out general maintenance as well as considering if we require any additional equipment such as a tailings thickener to improve feeding to the filtering plant. Mining has continued and before the plant stopped we were able to produce 12,400 ounces of gold in the quarter, which brings the first half total to around 28,500 ounces. We're aiming to be able to give you a full update at H1 results and we expect this will include our revised forecast for Mara Rosa and for the company as a whole. Immaculada has continued a solid year with just over 54,000 gold equivalent ounces produced in the quarter. This brings the first half to 106,000 ounces and well on track to meet our forecast of between around 200,000 ounces for the year as a whole. In Argentina, production increased from the first quarter, which was, as you know, impacted by seasonal vacation. In February, production was 30,000 gold equivalent ounces, which makes almost 53,000 ounces for the first half. We expect a slightly stronger production in the second half according to our mine plan. Our exploration site, our brownfield program, has delivered its first drill results of the year from Immaculada, San Jose, Mara Rosa, and Monte do Carmo. We have a comprehensive program for the second half which we will report back on in the third quarter. Despite the situation at Mara Rosa, our balance sheet remains strong. We have been generating good cash flows with a cash balance of $110 million of cash, which means net debt has been reduced to $103 million and the net debt/EBITDA ratio is around 0.4 times. This figure also includes the payment in June of a full-year dividend of $10 million and our recent buyback of $13 million of streaming agreement that we have at Monte do Carmo, which we have inherited from Cerrado. With that, I would like to open for questions. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We will now take our first question from Marina Tolero of RBC Capital Markets. The line is open, please. Hi, Marina. Marina, you might want to check on your mute button, please. Sorry. Sorry. Can you hear me now? Yes, very well. Hi, good morning. Thanks for the call. Just a couple of questions on my side. The first one, based on the work that you have done so far, can you explain to us why you think the filter practices are not working as expected? The second question, my understanding is that you have permits to deposit tailings as dry stack. Given the ongoing issues you've been having with the filter plant, can you confirm that the material that's currently depositing is the required specifications for dry stack tailings? Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you, Marina. Basically, the reason why the filtering plant was not working is because we have used, when we acquired Amarillo, we received a feasibility study and basic engineering from them. We developed a detailed engineering based on those studies, and those studies did not include a thickener for the tails. Those studies said that with the actual pre-leaching thickener, it was enough to reach the percentage of solids that you would need in order to use the filters. We've been using the filters for many months now. We have seen that, and we have realized that those documents that we received from Amarillo were not correct. The reality is that we are going to need a thickener. We are talking with different manufacturers of thickeners, and we are including those in the documents that we are presenting to the authorities. We expect to have the thickener in place between six to nine months and reach that 50% of solids that we would need in order to make sure that the filtering plant is working. Remember that the nameplate capacity of the filters, and we have four, is like 2,500 tons per filter. We believe that including that thickener, we will reach that capacity. The second question, Marina, is that we have been working with, as you know, you were at the visit, with different alternative systems to the filters. They have been working but not reaching exactly, like let's say 25% of humidity instead of 18%. The stability of the tails are not compromised. What we're doing at the moment is just reposition those tailings, taking into account that we are in a dry season, and putting back those tails and compacting them to make sure that we come back to a dry pack situation that is the one that is approved in our permit. All this has been fully coordinated with the authority, and we are in the best possible situation. Thank you. Thank you. That's right here. We will now take our next question from Richard Hatch of Berenberg. The line is open. Please go right ahead. Thanks. Hello, Eduardo, how are you? Thanks so much for the time. I guess the question is going on Mara Rosa, which is firstly, how confident are you that these fixes are the fixes you need to put in place to actually get this mine back up and running? That's the first one. Okay. We have been working with different consultants. We have been working with Andritz. We have been working with Metso. We have been working also with a signal manufacturer from the U.S. and with different consultants. They believe that including that thickener, the filters are going to work at the end of the day. We are today commissioning the filters. We are going to be able to test the filters without the thickener, considering a percentage of solids, like around 40%. We will see the performance in the next, let's say, two, three weeks. I will be able to give you more color on H1 results, you know, on the performance of the filters. I believe that we are using the best possible technicians, technical experts, to make sure that we will reach a good solution for Mara Rosa. Remember that the plant has been producing up to 8,000 tons. The only problem that we have at the moment at Mara Rosa is filtering. I have to say that filtering is, in general in the world, a difficult one, you know. I believe that with those measures that we have taken, also the incorporation of very good professional people like Elina as a Country Manager. Today we have Thiago as a Unit Manager. We are also hiring a new Filtering Manager that we hire from a place that is working with filters. We are doing everything in our possibilities to make sure that the plant reach its nameplate capacity. Okay, thank you. Will your H1 results presentation be a point where you can give the market more color on the long-term cost impact of this on the mine and the CapEx costs to address it? Yes, I believe so. I mean we are working on that for sure. We will have the, I mean in a month's time we will have the cost of implementing the thickener, and also we will be able, I mean we are working at the moment on cost, and I believe that I see what results will be able to give color and will give a projection of at least some cost and production for sure for the company. Okay, do you expect at this point the revisions you're making to make much of a step change on the cost profile of the mine? I would say that the cost profile of the mine for year 2025 is going to be very high because we have been stopped, we are doing some maintenance and so on. I would say that the cost that we will be able to present will not reflect what will be the ongoing cost for Mara Rosa in the future because we are doing everything in our hands to make sure that we will go back to the original situation where we could reach a cost, let's say close to $1,300, $1,400. That should be the cost that an open pit operation should have. My expectation is to solve all the problems that we have at the moment. We are doing that and for sure for next year to have a review and all the measures to make sure they go back, go back to a normal cost. Should we? I mean, we've got a five-week plant shutdown booked in for Q3. Is that sensible, or should we be even more conservative than that? I cannot tell you that. I mean, we have been stopped for four weeks now. Today we are starting production at a very low rate to make sure that we can test the filters with tails. I don't know if I'm going to need more stock because, for example, we are planning to introduce a new feed well, which is part of a thickener in our pre-leaching thickener, and I know that it's going to take between 10 and 15 days to do so. For sure, in the second half we'll have some stoppages, but we will try to make sure that it will be less, and the second half will be like a ramp up to make sure that we reach the best possible situation, taking into account that we are not going to have the signal until H1 2026. Okay. Sorry, last couple, one is just how is this informing your thoughts around Monte do Carmo, just in terms of the rigor that you're considering into the technical aspect of building a new project? Monte do Carmo, we continue doing engineering studies, as you know, we were doing. We are doing detail engineering, the plan. Detail engineering at the moment, we are doing some geotechnical studies, hydrogeology studies also at Monte do Carmo. We expect to finish those, I would say, between Q4 and Q1 2026. At the end of the day, I believe that we'll be ready to present new numbers, you know, a financial analysis of the Monte do Carmo project, close to the end of the year. The decision to go ahead with the construction could be during Q1 2026. At the end of the day, we cannot start construction during the rainy season, which is Q1 2026, and any construction activity will start in Q2 2026. Monte do Carmo looks like a very attractive project, especially with current prices. We have checked the geological model. The resources are there. We continue doing some exploration to make sure that we try to bring as many new resources to improve those numbers, you know, the even numbers. And the last one, I assume you've got no legal recourse against the previous operators or owners of the project, just based on the fact that, as you say, the technical work that was undertaken was wrong. I assume there's no legal recourse or damages that you can claim against it. What I can say at this point is that Rodrigo and Edson Del Moro left the company, and Rodrigo is working in a new company. He resigned from his role as COO. We are carrying a full investigation of the situation, but I don't have any conclusions that I can give you at this point. Okay, helpful. Thank you so much for your part. You're very welcome. Thank you. We will now take our next question from Dominic Guerney of Consilium Investment Management. The line is open. Please go ahead. Thank you. Great, great. Thank you. Can you all hear me? Yes, very well, thank you. Okay, awesome, awesome. Thank you very much for the time. I just have a quick question. Do you expect any impacts to your d ividend policy or to dividends due to the slowdown of the Mara Rosa mine? Thank you. Eduardo Noriega will answer that question. Go ahead. Thank you, Dominic, for your question. No, actually, the dividend policy that we have allows us to accommodate different circumstances of the business so that the payout ratio is the appropriate one. No impact to our dividend policy. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question from Tim Hoff of Canaccord. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Yes, thank you very much. Hi, I just had three follow-ups all on Mara Rosa, operationally focused. The first one, just on something that Hatchie brought up and that you touched on. I was thinking about the ramp up. I mean, obviously you stated that you're going to do a stage recommissioning in the second half, which tends to imply that you hope to be at or near run rate by the end of the year. That puts you smack in the middle of another rainy season. On top of it, you've got probably more like an eight-week periodic shutdown, including the retesting of the filtering equipment. You also don't have the thickener on board until 1Q26. Just, I mean, the way I'm thinking about it, is that the best way to look about this is that the earliest you'll hit run rate or produce a full quarter of production is the second quarter of 2026. Is that sort of the same way you're thinking about it from a more conservative perspective? Tim, it's difficult to say today because, I mean, as I said, I am commissioning the filters at this moment in time today, and it will depend on the capacity of the filters without the thickener. I mean, as you probably know, we will be able to manage a certain increase of solids on the tails without the thickener. That's the conversations that we are having with Andritz at the moment. At a certain point, we have been able to reach close to 50% solids without a thickener. In the past operation, we have been able to reach that level. When we acquired the filters, the specifications of the filters state that with 50% solids, they will reach 2,500 tonnes. That's theoretically what we have in place. I need to make sure that that percentage of solid is going to be present along with the life of mine. That's the reason we are thinking to implement that thickener. Let's see what is the performance of the filters in the next month. For sure, we will be able to give you some color on H1 results. Of course, we will try to produce as much as possible with the equipment that we will have. I have to say that it's very important to say that today we are completing a very qualified team, full of technical people that have been working, that is coming from Chapada. Chapada is a few kilometers from Mara Rosa, and he is bringing a lot of expertise to know how to work even during rainy season. Let's see the combination. With all the technical knowledge that we are bringing, plus the consultants, plus the suppliers, let's see what is going to be the future for Mara Rosa. Okay, that's great. Thank you. Second one, short, short, shorter, related to the seasonality, which is, I mean, you've been operating Mara Rosa for, you know, five to six quarters at this point in time. The three quarters that you operated in 2024, you were ranging grades in between 1.32 to 1.42 for the quarters, probably a little bit higher at some points in time, a little bit lower. Obviously that's above even the life of mine reserve grade, even in the proven category. I'm just wondering going forward, you know, obviously the subsequent two quarter, which is the two quarters in 2025, you drop down to an average of below 1 gram a ton, which probably isn't the best sort of seasonality or volatility that you want. I'm just wondering, given the experience that you've had with the problems with the thickeners, I know you've got the tail up with the thickener coming in, but with the filter problems that you run into, are you guys going to, are you even thinking about running a more seasonal life of mine plan i.e. higher grade, lower throughput in the winter rainy months and maybe lower grade, higher throughput in the summer months? That way you address the rainy season, the filter problems, without having to fully depend on a tailings thickener all the time. Yes, that could be a possibility. It's part of the ongoing plans that we are developing. At this point, I cannot assure that that will be the way. Let me finish the work with the filters and see. The other piece of information I can give you is that we are building a sort of ceiling around the filter plant. It's a light sealing to make sure that we can deposit tailings during the rainy season and not affect the humidity of the tails. That's also one measure that we are taking. Of course, we can always lower down production during the rainy season and try to increase the output during the dry season. That's a possibility. Let me finish the work and I will come back to you on H1 results. Okay, that's fair enough. The last one is sort of a longer term question. On Mara Rosa, which is at the end of 2024, you reported about 5 million tonnes at 1.22 in terms of reserve grade, the higher grade bit of it, and I don't know on my sort of numbers, if you're going to be running that through earlier years, that is 2026, 2027, you're going to get pretty much through that higher grade portion of it by 2027. You'll be back down to the 1.13 if there's no change to the resource or the reserves. At that sort of run rate, you're back down closer to, at least on my numbers, closer to about 80,000 ounces per annum, which I think is sort of in line with what you guys stated originally. Are you guys thinking about trying to run this at a higher rate in the next two years, the same old plan, or are you thinking maybe take it a little bit more conservatively and run it steady state from here on out and keep the higher grade as a nice option to have should you run into a really wet rainy season? No, it's a complex one, that question. Let me try. The original plan was to try to treat the best possible grade during the first three or four years of the operation. Basically, that means trying what we call a differentiated mining method, where you mine only high grade, send that grade to the plant, and the low grade you send to deposit to wait for future years. We believe that would be the best possible way, even though that means that for the first three or four years we are going to have a higher production, and then from year five, production will be lower. That's the plan, because we believe that's the way to increase the NPV. Our bet is that through brownfield exploration, you will bring new resources to complement that production from year five or year four onwards. No, that's fair enough. You're sticking to the old plan as well? You're going to run the high grade? I mean, the old plan was like that, and we believe that is the way it should be. Okay, fair enough. Now it's very clear. Excellent. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you Tim. Thank you. We will now move on to our next question from Felicity Watson of Bank of America. The line is open. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my question. The Immaculada grades and recoveries were slightly better. Can we think about a similar progression for the rest of the year here? I would think so. Yes, that would be the case. Great. Thank you. Welcome. We will take our next question from Ian Russo of Barclays. The line is open, please go ahead. Thanks. Hi, team. Just a few follow-ups on Mara Rosa on the tailings thickener. I mean, you said you'll give us a bit more details on timing and CapEx at the results end of August, but can you give us some sense? Are we talking tens of millions of dollars? When you do install that thickener in H1 next year, do you need to shut the plant down for some period as well? Can you install that while running and then switch across? To give you some sense of it, a thickener could cost between $2 million and $6 million installed. That's a ballpark for the thickener, but we don't have yet final quotations and definite engineering to know exactly the number. In terms of stoppage, we'll try to reduce that stoppage as small as possible. Of course, to connect the thickener to the rest of the plant, it will take a few days, but our plan is to make sure that those days will be the least possible ones. Okay, great. Maybe just following up on Felicity's question on the grade profile. I think on the Q1 call, you sort of gave some expectations that grades at Immaculada should fall across the year. Can I just confirm you said no? They probably stay at similar levels because at the moment the run rate is quite a bit above. Yes, I believe that it will stay as Q2 for the rest of the year. Okay, we're sort of tracking quite a bit above half of the full-year guidance. That bodes well for production for the year above the 200,000 ounces you mentioned. We would like to stay at the range that we published at the beginning of the year, between 198,000 to 200,009 ounces. That range, you know, we don't want to produce more than that from Immaculada to make sure that we do not affect future years of production. Okay, and then maybe just the same for San Jose. I think you were saying at the time grades should improve. It seems like that has happened, but it's probably not to the same extent you indicated it should do. We expect a bit more of an improvement in grade in the second half. I guess you said production should be higher. Should we take it as higher grade and higher throughput? Yeah, go ahead. Typically our second half of the year in San Jose is stronger than the first one. We do expect to see a recovery on grade in San Jose. Yes, to achieve the guidance that we gave to Amarillo, it's just a timing effect based on our mine plan. Nothing relevant in terms of a pickup in overall rate. Okay. That bottom end of that range, 112,127, is still realistic, you think? Okay. All right, that's all for my question. Thanks. Thank you very much. We will now take our next question from Alfredo Schmutzer of Equinox Partners. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Hi, how are you? Thank you for the question. It's basically to have an update on t he mining part at Mara Rosa. How has your contractor been doing if you're still mining, and if you have been able to access this higher grade zone? I cannot hear you. Can you get closer to the microphone? How about now? Perfect. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. My question was on Mara Rosa and more specifically the mining part. Just to have an update on your contractor, how he has been performing lately and if he has been able to reach this higher grade zone. I think that's basically my question. The constructor is performing quite well. We have been able to reach between 70,000 tons per day to 80,000 tons per day, which is an improvement from two months ago. The stoppage and the run rate of the plant from now until the end of the year is going to help to make sure that we open the mine and take the enrich the material that will be needed for the future. I don't see a problem with contractor from now on. They need to improve some of the mechanical availability of the equipment at this point in time, but we are working with them. Perfect. Maybe just a follow up. This plan that you just were talking about of mining for the first t hree, four years, higher grade. Are you basically the reconciliation of that grade is according to plan? Are you expecting to produce a t the grades that your original plan was expecting? I mean, we haven't finished a reconciliation exercise for a whole year yet. What we have done is to do some infiltrating on the areas that we will be producing on 2025 and 2026. The grades do not based on the original plan and confirmed. Okay. Yeah, that's all for. Thank you very much. Thank you, Alfredo. Thank you. There are no further questions in que. I will now hand it back to Eduardo Landin for closing remarks. Thank you very much for being here. I believe that we have a good service. I mean, based on the situation of Mara Rosa, we have very good results on Q2 for Immaculada and San Jose. I have to say that we'll continue working on Mara Rosa to make sure that we solve all the problems and make sure that that operation reaches its capacity as we plan at the beginning of the investment. Thank you very much. Thank you. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Thank you.