Hello and welcome to Hochschild Mining's Q1 2025 production results call. There will be a brief statement today followed by a 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's CEO. Please take a seat. Good afternoon. Hello and welcome to our conference call to discuss our first quarter production results. I am here in Lima with Eduardo Noriega, our CFO, and in London with Charlie Gordon, our Head of Investor Relations. Good production in the quarter was almost 80,000 gold equivalent ounces. Production was lower than the fourth quarter and reflects the impact of a very heavy seasonal rain in Brazil and the shorter quarter at San José in Argentina due to the scheduled two-week holidays the team takes in February. However, Inmaculada has had a very solid start to the year despite it also being a rainy season. Output in the quarter: almost 35,000 ounces of gold and 1.4 million ounces of silver, which is in gold equivalent ounces of 52,000 ounces equivalent. Rates were slightly lower, but this was offset by the higher-than-expected tonnage. In Argentina, I mentioned that San José is always impacted by the seasonal vacation in February. You should also remember that we increased the capacity of the plant last year up to 2,000 tons per day to process lower grades. Tonnage, in this case, is higher than this time last year, and grades are lower. Production was almost 23,000 gold equivalent ounces, and we should see output increase for the rest of the year. Turning into our Mara Rosa operation in Brazil, as you may have seen from this morning's announcement, we have had heavier-than-usual seasonal rains starting in December and continuing into this month of April. Alongside carry-over delays in waste removal from last year, additionally, we have encountered operational challenges related to our mining contractor in an environment of increasing pressure on the availability of skilled labor due to the gold prices. This has, of course, been partially driven by elevated metal prices. This factor has affected mining activities and the operation with production just over 15,000 gold equivalent ounces in the period. In response, we have implemented a series of measures since the start of the year. This includes the expansion of our waste removal fleet, doubling the capacity from 1.5 million tons per month up to 3 million tons per month. This new fleet includes an additional six Cat 777 trucks and a Hitachi 2600 excavator. I should add that this measure adds not an extra CapEx to the company. This equipment has been provided by the mining contractor. During the second quarter, we remained focused on accelerating waste removal from this delayed stope production. In future, it's expected to remain broadly in line with Q1, but we remain confident in the global recovery in production during the second half of the year. In terms of our annual forecast, we are sticking to our existing guidance in terms of production and cost, but naturally, we will update you at the half-year result in August when we will have almost eight months of production. On the exploration side, our Brownfield program has just got going, so we will have results in, I mean, the starting result will be available in Q2. Our balance sheet remains strong. We have approximately $83 million in cash and the net debt figure of $248 million. The ratio of net debt to EBITDA is 0.6. This figure reflects a series of negative cash movements in the first quarter, including the LTIP performance bonus, agreement with communities, trade payable deferred from 2024, and inventories. I would expect that the cash figure to recover over the next few quarters with these high metal prices and some better cash generation from our operation. With that, I would like to open to questions. Thank you very much. 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'll pause for a brief moment. Thank you. We'll now take our first question from Marina Calero of RBC Capital Markets. The line is open. Please say, "Hi. Good morning. Thanks for the call. I have a couple of questions on Mara Rosa. The first one is, what throughput levels do you think the plant can achieve in the second half of the year, considering what you've learned in the first quarter? The second is, your release mentioned some issues with the performance of contractors. Would you consider moving from a contractor to a mine-owned model now that you are potentially building Monte do Carmo? Thank you. Let me go to the first question, Marina. We have proved that the plant can reach 8,000 tons per day, but that really depends today on the mine and the quality of the ore that we are able to bring to the plant. I would say that we have demonstrated that the plant could be at 8,000 tons without any problem, depending on the material that's coming from the mine. Remember that the nominal capacity is 7,000 tons, but I mean, we have proved that at 8,000 tons, we get very good recoveries. At the end of the day, that is the key, I mean, the key performance that we measured once we increased the capacity above the nominal capacity. The second question was that if we are thinking to move to own mining operation, I would say that, I mean, the answer is no. That would need a very important increase in CapEx. We believe that we come with very professional contractors. Probably it's one of the best contractors in Brazil. The thing is that we need to, I mean, get used to each other and coordinate between the team, the mine, the planning team, and the contractor, and ensure that without rain and in better conditions, I mean, the contractor with the new equipment, I mean, they will be able to reach these 3 million tons per month and recover the waste removal rate that we need to reach our expectations. Okay. That's great to hear. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Richard Hatch of Berenberg. The line is open. Please say, "Hi. Thanks very much. Yeah, I've got a few follow-ups on Mara Rosa. The first one is just on the grade. So the grades moved down 50%, 1.42 to 0.89. Obviously, recoveries have picked up, but I'm just intrigued as to what is driving that significant drop in grade. Is it access to high-grade areas in the pit as you talked to in the release, or is there anything else there, dilution or grade rec or anything like that? Yes. I mean, as you have seen, exactly, I mean, the grades for the Q1 is like 0.88, and the grades last quarter last year, it was 1.4. Remember that we did an effort last year, the last quarter, to try to reach as much production as possible because we want to get as close as possible to the guidance. I mean, in that effort, the operation concentrates on getting that grade, but the waste removal rate, it was very low. The consequence of doing that is not to have the ore available. I mean, you have to go to, I mean, you have to mix low ore with the one that you get from the mine, and the result is to get 0.88. Yeah? If we are able to open the mine and get those 2.5 million tons per month of waste removal, we will be able to open the mine and to leave, I mean, to let the high-grade ore available to go to the plant. I don't see, I mean, any problems. It's no dilution. I mean, it's a very simple operation in terms of taking out, I mean, mining the ore from the mine is not that difficult because it's a good rock quality. The good thing, yeah, I have to say, is that even with 0.88 grams of gold, recovery shows a very good level. Okay. Understood. Thank you. I think when you had your site visit last year, you mentioned that the strip ratio of the mine was about 6 to 1. Yes. Would I be right in saying that the strip ratio in Q1 has been a lot lower than that, and the strip ratio, as we move into the back end of the year and into Q2, will start to pick up as you start to move more waste? That's exactly right. I mean, if you take the year as a total, we will finish in 1 to 6. If you compare Q1 with Q4, I mean, we are going to have a Q1 that is 1 to 3 and a Q4 that is 1 to 10. That's true. I mean, the totals for the year, it should be 1 to 6 because, I mean, we have the objective to be at the same places that we designed through the planning of the mine at the beginning of the year in our budget. Okay. That's really helpful. Okay. I mean, is there a consideration here that if you can't get things right with this contractor, that you just have to move contractors? Of course. I mean, the contractors have some flaws at the contracts. If they do not perform, I mean, we can, of course, change the contractors. We believe that we have a very good contractor. I mean, remember that the heavy rains affect a lot, and we have rain performance. That is even if you have the fleet. I mean, during the day, there is a lot of storms, and you have to stop the operation just for safety reasons. That is the reason, I mean, they have not been able to work, let's say, 24 hours a day. They have been working like 12 or 13. Yeah? I mean, it is not their fault. It is basically the weather. I'm sure that once the rainy season stops, that I believe it will be at the end of April, we will have like seven, eight months of dry season, and the contractor will perform. I have to say and remember to everyone that we pay the contractor per ton extracted. At the end of the day, it's in their interest to get the tons out of the mine to reach their financial objectives. Okay. Just on you've mentioned that you think your Q2 production for gold at Mara Rosa will be about the same as Q1. That kind of works to about 32,000 ounces of gold. I mean, that would imply that your H2 is about 70% of your annual guidance, right? It has to be really strong. What kind of grades should we be thinking about for H2 then? Is it kind of more like 1.6 grams, or is that? Yeah. Exactly. I mean, if you go back to our results in October, November, and December, where we reached between 9,000 and 10,000 ounces, the grade should be 1.6. I mean, there is available grade at the mine at certain levels that they have even 2 or 2.2. The thing is that you need to open the mine to be able to reach those areas and be able to mine. It's true that, I mean, it's going to be a very disciplined exercise the second semester, but I believe that if we are able to remove the waste, I think we will be able to achieve, I mean, at least the lower level of our guidance in Mara Rosa that remember is 94,000 ounces. Okay. That's helpful. I just got a couple more to go. The first one is just on the production of gold versus the sales volumes. Sales of gold were lower than produced at Mara Rosa. Is that just a pure timing issue and something that should catch up in Q2? Yeah. It was a timing issue where we were not able to sell the direct production. Eduardo, I don't know if you want to mention anything else. No, Eduardo. I just want to confirm that it was a timing situation. Yeah. Okay. Clear. My last one is just on. The last one is just on San José and a very big drop-off in grades in Q1 versus Q4. What's the reason for that, and how should we think about grade progression into the remainder of the year? Eduardo, do you have that figure? Yes, Richard, thank you for your question. Yes, in San José, we had remember that in Q1, we had as low production quarter in San José mainly due to the holiday vacation`s, the two-week vacations that we have at the mine. Typically, we take that opportunity to process low-grade material that we have in our stockpile. The grades expected for the coming months are certainly going to be higher to the level that we saw in 2024. Okay. That's really clear. Thank you, Eduardo. Eduardo, have a nice rest of your day. Thanks. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. We'll take our n ext question from Felicia Watson of Bank of America. The line is open. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my question. Could you provide an update on how your cost efficiency program is progressing and maybe what we can expect to see in H2? Eduardo? Yes. Thank you. Thank you Thank you very much. The program is progressing well. Certainly, we had to pay more focus than expected in Q1 in Mara Rosa to resolve the situation generated by the strong rainy season. We are including to the plan that we had, the solar plan to resolve Mara Rosa's challenges. I have to say that the progress of the plan, the general plan, is moving along well. We expect to have more information in H2. We have projects like the ones that we had in our corporate presentation, including the use of artificial intelligence, mapping all the supply chain or the value chain of the business to identify opportunities there, as well as operating opportunities in terms of accelerating the mine cycle, as well as increasing efficiencies at the plant level. We have more color to provide now during H2. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Ian Rossouw of Barclays. The line is open. Please go ahead. Thank you. Hi, team. Just a question on Inmaculada. I mean, if you look at previous years, I mean, you've always been able to push a little bit harder at Inmaculada to make up for some of the lost volumes at some of the other operations. I'm just trying to get a sense within the guidance of 199-209, how much ability is there to push a bit harder to get towards the upper end or maybe above that to offset some of the production problems you've had at Mara Rosa. Maybe tie to that if you can give us a sense of. Let me say that based on the fact that we brought last year like a million ounces of internal resources, I mean, we have new areas at Inmaculada, and we could do some push and get some ounces additional to our budget. I mean, the idea of Hochschild this year is to try to get 200,000 ounces from Inmaculada, I mean, reach the guidance at Mara Rosa, and we will work very hard for that. Okay. Could you give us a sense of just the grade expectations at Inmaculada for the remainder of the year? Of course. Eduardo, of course. Sure. The grade that we have will be between 3.3-3.5 grams per ton for gold and between 130-140 grams per ton of silver. That's the average grade that we expect for Inmaculada. Thanks. On the throughput, I mean, I suspect a slightly better year than last year, which is around 1.2 million tons. Yes, slightly better than that. Okay. Yeah. Remember that we did this program with the team and a consultant, and we increased the throughput, and that measure is still in Inmaculada. Okay. All right. Thanks. Yeah, that's all from my side. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We will now take our next question from Tim Huff of Canaccord. The line is open. Please go ahead. Yes. Thanks very much. Just a few from me, follow-on questions on some of the questions that have already been asked. I guess firstly on Mara Rosa, I mean, I hear what you've got to say regarding this year's first half versus second half seasonality and a bit like Richard was saying. I mean, you're going to have, it looks to us like you're going to have like 30-35% of your volumes in the first half, a lot in the second half. I mean, if you're going to be going for the higher grade in the second half of the year, are you going to be maybe putting at risk the first half of 2026 production again, where you're probably going to have to, I mean, you're going to be again in another rainy season, and you may have to go lower grade throughput, higher recovery just to get where you are right now because that guidance for the second quarter leaves it a very lopsided profile with a pretty tough sort of second half to hit. It's not that you can't. You've got the increased throughput, and you'll have the grade recovery as well. I am just wondering if you're going to be taking anything away from the first half of 2026. No. Let me say something. I mean, we are finishing our life of mine exercise this year to try to see 2026 how it's going to be. I think for 2025, the key is the waste removal rate. If we are able, I mean, not to be in the same situation of Q1 2025 in Q1 2026, we have to be able to remove all the waste during 2025, even part of the one that you're supposed to remove in 2026 Q1, and leave the mine ready only to extract the ore during 2026, or just, let's say, 50%, yeah, to make sure that the rainy season does not affect you as much as has been affected in Q1 2025. We have the capacity with the new equipment. We have the capacity, I mean, to the budget level of waste removal is like 2 million per month, yeah? With this new equipment, we have up to 3 million per month. In the next six, seven months, we can increase the waste removal and open the mine as much as possible. Okay. That's good news. I was sorry. I was understanding that that additional waste equipment, the additional fleet, will be there for just the second quarter, but it sounds like they will be there permanently to address these issues in the fourth quarter of 2025. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, we have decided to have bigger size, I mean, and more flexibility on the mine equipment in order not to have these kind of problems. Okay. Okay. That's helpful. Thanks. Another follow-up question on Inmaculada. Ian was asking about the grade profile. I mean, it sounds to me like you guys are going to be able to, like he was saying, with the higher throughput or maybe even just more consistent throughput because you didn't see a drop-off going into the first quarter. If you have that lower grade profile than you did in the first half of 2024 and you've got the higher throughput, are you looking at Inmaculada being a pretty consistent producer throughout the year, meaning quarter by quarter, instead of that very lopsided production profile that you're going to have for Mara Rosa this year? Look, our intention is that Inmaculada to be, I mean, a very stable operation. It's an underground mine, yeah, and it's much easier, and the rainy season does not affect you as much as affects you in an open field. Saying that, it really depends on the rainy season because if there is a lot of snow, yeah, sometimes could affect the performance of the plant, the performance of the, I mean, the speed of the truck. I mean, there are many factors that can affect you. Remember that Inmaculada is at 4,700 meters above sea level, yeah? Yeah, our intention is to try to be as stable as possible quarter by quarter, yeah, and try to produce these 200,000 ounces as stable as possible. Okay. All right. That's helpful. Thank you. The last question I had was more financial. Just on your net debt, obviously a little bit higher than what I was expecting. You've got divvy payments coming out. You obviously have another weak quarter at Mara Rosa. Do you think you're going to be able to deleverage much in the first half? I mean, we've got much higher metals prices, so you've got that going in your favor. I mean, usually with the working cap outflow and so forth, I was just wondering what the outlook is for achieving much deleveraging from the end of 2024 to mid-year, or do you think it's going to, again, whether it's going to be a very sort of back half-weighted deleveraging year for Hochschild? Thank you, Tim. This is Eduardo Noriega. Yes. So it's actually the same. We're expecting to have a stronger deleveraging of the company in H2. The first quarter was typically slow, and in this case, in particular, in this year in particular, it was slow. In Q2, it's going to be a recovery in Mara Rosa, and H2 is when we will see the strong cash generation to elevate the company. It's also important to say that in Q1, we have temporary payments that have to do more with working capital needs. We had to pay for workers' compensation bonus, but also taxes from 2024. There were also payments that had to do with projects that were finalized in December and were transferred to 2025 Q1. That is not expected to happen in H2 or in Q2, Q3, and Q4. Therefore, we should improve our cash generation profile in those quarters. Okay. That's great. It's all from me. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tim. Thank you. There are no further questions in queue. I will now hand it back to Eduardo Landin for closing remarks. Thank you. No, I guess I would like to say thank you to all of you to be here at the conference. I would like to remark something. As you see on my comments on the press release, what we are trying is to be total transparent, yeah, with information, to be able to tell you the good news, also the problems, also the solutions that we want to implement, and for you to be with as much information as possible. What we are looking for is your trust as an investor, as an analyst, that the company is going to be going to give you all the information and, of course, is going to tell you all the solutions that we will be able to implement it. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Thank you.