Yeah, I think we're gonna start now. Dear stakeholders, today, 31st of May, 2022, Auriant Mining presents the Q1 interim results, January to March. My name is Danilo Lange. I'm the CEO. I'm accompanied by my colleagues, CFO Vladimir Vorushkin and Petr Kustikov, our COO. Quickly we are going the normal technical Zoom information. As you know, we keep you muted, and you have the possibilities to question through the chat facility. Before I say two words about our agenda today and we go to businesses as not as usual, as we all understand, we live in very uncertain times, and we are managing, at the moment, business from day- to- day, rather than from month- to- month or quarter- to- quarter. I apologize already if there is not a lot of information about our day-to-day business in this presentation today. We try to keep it as much as focused to business and to information concerning our business rather than any other components of the situation happening right now in the world. Let's go to the agenda right now. Petr Kustikov will present the production KPIs followed by the sales update and the financials from Vladimir, and I will then at the end give a short outlook on where we stand today and what we can expect for the other months of that year. Petr, please, go on and present our rather good numbers of first quarter. Thank you, Danilo. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Let me present Tardan's Q1 gold production results of year 2022. During the Q1, 96,000 tons of ore were processed through the CIL plant. As you can see, the amount is the same as we processed in Q1 of 2021. The ability to keep the achieved capacity over the long period confirms properly maintained by our team high technical availability of the plant equipment, which allowed us to get the throughput as high as 51 tons per hour, which we consider as a good result. The gold grade in the processed ore was estimated at 2.44 g per ton, compared to 2.04 g per ton in the previous year. As you also can see on the slide, the recovery rates in the Q1 amounted to 91.2%. This means that the actual recovery was high again, and despite different types of ore we faced at the deep levels of Pravoberezhny, we managed to achieve and even exceed the plant's designed recovery. The high capacity coupling with the higher recovery resulted to 217 kg of gold produced in Q1 of 2022. Please note that the 217 kg reported is the gold amount which was smelted at Tardan. Talking about refined gold, we did 207 kg in this quarter, and both mentioned indicators were in line with our production plan. Now, in regards to our set KPIs, I would like to emphasize again that we tend to catch up with the waste stripping at Tardan deposit, providing an access to the ore bodies which then will be our main source for further feeding of the CIL plant. The reason of postponing the waste stripping at Tardan was reported before. For those who are not aware of it, let me repeat it again. There was the license restriction imposed on Tardan deposit in 2020, which was successfully cleared by end of the year. This gave us the possibility to start stripping in 2021. The fact that we didn't mine waste at Tardan in 2020, of course, affected our waste stripping activity to be more intensive from 2021 till 2024. The stripping volume in the three months of 2022 amounted to 528,000 m³. That is 28% higher than in 2021, but exactly in line with our production plan. As you can see on the slide, the ore mined in Q1 of 2022 amounted to 51,000 tons at the average grade of 2.63 g per ton. As I mentioned, despite we faced some different types of ore at deep levels of Pravoberezhny, we did manage well our processing side of things to be able to exceed the plant's designed recovery rate we targeted. In general, about our CIL plant output, 96,000 tons of ore were processed through the CIL plant at the higher recovery rate of 91.2%. As a result, we fully achieved our production targets with the total poured raw gold production in Q1 of 2022 amounted to 217 kg. Due to seasonality of alluvial gold mining, there was no gold production in the Q1 of 2022 at Staroverinskaya. While 44,000-47,000 m³ of topsoil were moved, aiming to prepare an access to the gold sands for the following months of 2022. Concluding the production results, I'm glad to say that during Q1 of 2022, we managed to produce 217 kg or almost 7,000 oz of gold, which achieved or even slightly exceed our production plan. The average cash cost per ounce decreased by 2% from $705 per oz in Q1 of 2021 to $688 per oz in Q1 of 2022. This was mainly driven by slightly higher grades in the processed ore and deferring in financial reporting of waste stripping cost at Pravoberezhny and Ore body 26. That's about it for KPIs and, yeah. Thank you, Petr. Vladimir, for you to go on. Okay. Thank you, Danilo. Dear stakeholders, I'm glad to say a few words about first quarter financial results. I will start with sales. The slide illustrates both the effect of the sales volume and selling price on Tardan sales. Tardan sales volume for the first quarter of 2022 was 288 kg, which is 108 kg or 60% higher than last year. The sales volume exceeded the refined production by 80 kg. As far as the selling price is concerned, it increased by 2% from $1,830 in the first quarter of 2021, up to $1,861 per oz in the first quarter of 2022. As a result of the current geopolitical situation in the first quarter of 2022, Tardan diversified its gold sales channels by signing three new gold sales contracts with refineries and applying for an export license to be able to sell gold abroad. A week ago, we have received the gold export license. As far as the income statement is concerned, once again, I would like to stress the fact that our first quarter sales reached $17.2 million in the first quarter, which is 63% rise versus comparative period in the last year. As noted in the previous slide, 60% of that rise was driven by the increase in the sales volume, the rest by the average gold price increase. In the first quarter of 2022, the group's cost of sales increased to $8.5 million, up 28% from the first quarter of the last year. Please note that the major driver behind this rise was a non-cash change in stocks of finished goods, which was $1.96 million. The change in finished goods in the first quarter of 2022 resulted from the decrease in the refined but unsold gold by 80 kg or 66%. On the 31st of March, 2022, our stocks of finished goods were 42.4 kg, while on the 31st of December, they amounted to 123 kg. As far as cash operating expenses are concerned, they increased by 12%. The increase is mainly driven by higher volumes of stripping works and rise in prices for mining contractors, materials, spare parts, and fuel. The high stripping volumes at Pravoberezhny and Ore body 26 resulted in the increase in the stripping assets, which had a positive effect of $1.2 million in the income statement. In the reporting period, a 15% devaluation of the Russian ruble against the dollar had a positive effect on group's margin by decreasing the U.S. dollar value of its ruble-denominated costs. As far as EBITDA is concerned, it has doubled and amounted to almost $10 million, up from $5 million for the previous period. The major drivers behind EBITDA growth will be later addressed. Before moving to the net profit, I would like to say that the company's financial expenses, represented by interest on loans and lease liabilities, amounted to $800,000 in the first quarter, which is a 13% decrease compared to the previous period. Interest expenses reduced primarily due to two factors, due to the repayments of bank loans and the reduction in the average interest rate on the bank loans from 4.9% to 4% in the first quarter. In the group recognized net profit of $4.7 million, which is almost three times as much as compared to $1.7 million in the first quarter last year. If we move to the next slide, it clearly demonstrates major drivers that have already been set out. The volume effect accounts for $6.4 million because of higher selling volumes. The change in work in progress, which was $1.9 million. It was offset by the increase in stripping assets as a result of a larger volume of stripping works. The change in work in progress was primarily driven by the decrease in refined but unsold gold by 80 kg. As far as the consolidated cash flow statement is concerned, as a result of higher sales, our net cash flow generated from operating activities increased by $4.6 million or 100% versus the previous period and amounted $9.1 million, while in the previous year it was twice as less $4.5 million. As already noted, the driving factor was increase in selling volumes. Our positive cash flows and strong financial position enabled us to decrease our debt even further. We repaid $3.1 million principal in our bank loans. We also repaid $1.1 million in principal amount and interest to KFM, and we also reduced our interest payments by $200,000 and lease payments by the same amount, $200,000. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Vladimir. I would like to add a few words that this was, of course, an exceptional first quarter, and it's very unlikely that we will have a second quarter like this because the situation stays as uncertain as it is, and risk management is very difficult to predict where we're gonna go. We're gonna focus definitely on doing business as usual, as much as this is possible, yeah, and stay flexible and responsive at the same time to daily changes and make appropriate business decisions. These outlooks here are under this premise of what I just mentioned. Let me quickly go through them that we stated in our production forecast, if nothing else hinders us to do that. Technically, that is what we aim for in between 800 kg and 830 kg over the year. We also will continue to strip in Tardan. We are actually inside the plan and also continue to be so. That is actually quite good, working together with a outsource company as well as with our own resources, very soon after we will stop [audio distortion] deposit. We will of course also continue to increase the quality of the life of mine and extending life of mine in Tardan. That's why we continue to do exploring this year. I think we're gonna start approximately next month, once the soil has dried enough for us to go to Bai-Syut area, all inside the plan as well. Concerning Kara-Beldyr, nothing has been changed from last year's positive support from the government side. Of course, this may also be reconsidered and changed, but at the moment we have no other such news, so we continue to be positive about that funding of electricity line, which we need over there. The company diversifying gold sales channels, I think it was one of the reactions we have taken immediately and some immediate measures and steps in regards to the macroeconomic changes and the happenings end of February, beginning of March. At the same time to receive a gold export license, as Vladimir already mentioned, we have received it, so we are now officially allowed to do that. We will explore that further and also give you more information about that, how this is working, since we are also stepping onto new land there. Last but not least, these new three signed sales contract with refinery plants gives us just the possibility to accurately measure where we get the best price of gold sales as at the moment we are selling gold approximately between 2%-3% below London fix as we are basically cut off the market. Dear stakeholders, I hope we gave you a good overview of the first quarter and also some good outlook for the next quarters to come. If you have any questions, please write them down in the chat facility, and we'll be able to answer them to you, I hope. Here's the first question. Why did you feel the need for the possible loan from the GoMobile considering current good results? Actually, this is more of a technical issue. We need to make sure that we stay in Sweden float since we had a bank closure. We were with Swedish AB at Sberbank Austria, which was closed because of sanctions by the Austrian government. We are in the process of having a new bank account being opened for Swedish AB. Meanwhile, we just wanted to give the comfort and the possibility to show to everyone that we have also a possibility to pay all the necessary costs for Swedish AB. Yeah. It's the end of May now, can you tell how things are going at Solcocon Staroverinskaya to plan or above or below plan? Actually, in Staroverinskaya, we have, as Petr mentioned, started well in time to take off the overburden and to reach the sands. I think we are well making progress. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For now, let's say we can update that we reached the gold sands last week. We expect to get the first gold, let's say in June, something like that. In general, yes, we are in line with our targets. No, we are definitely confident that we are in line with the target there. Yeah. Yeah. I have been myself in Chita just four weeks ago and discussing with the local team. I think it seems rather all in line. There's a third question here. Are you expecting the gold trade to stay higher than previously thought? Well, if I would have a crystal ball, I could tell you. Honestly, we don't want to make such predictions. Gold price and ruble exchange rate with the dollar go hand in hand. It's at the moment, it seems like it's all a rollercoaster. We try to manage the in-betweens. Can you tell us a bit about how things are different now given the geopolitical situations? Are you able to operate more or less as normal and or are there notable differences? At the moment, we try to operate as much as possible in the normal boundaries as we have done before. There is, of course, changes in the supply chain for our technical equipment. Yes, this has impacted, but it hasn't negatively impacted. We are sourcing through different channels, and at the moment, we haven't seen any hindrance in our production, yeah. This might change any day, yeah, because sanctions and sanction packages of different sizes and value are imposed every week right now. Is the power line process for KB ongoing? Are you in the discussions with the government? No, we are in the discussions with the government and also the local government, where we have our factory in the Tuva Region, is also waiting for this electricity line. As I mentioned earlier, it is not just our needs and our electricity need, it's the need of the whole region and the whole city, capital of this region. We strongly believe that there is a completely different need. Therefore also an incentive that we can really influence their decisions, but we hope that everything is fine. Last meeting was two weeks ago with the government. Yes. It was a video conference, and we were involved and, yeah, we discussed. The answer, we didn't get any negative answer. The government is still working on the financing side of things and, yeah, we are still hopeful. Yeah. I see no more questions coming in the chat. Dear ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for participating today. I know it is a very difficult time for everybody. Thank you also for your stakeholder support in these dire times. We try to fulfill our responsibilities over here and manage as best as possible. Also, yeah, reply towards the appropriately towards our employees and partners correctly and take those responsibilities very seriously. Yeah. Thank you very much and we're looking forward to present you Q2 report very soon. All the best. Thank you. Thank you.
Loading workspace