Coeur Mining, Inc. (NYSE:CDE) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 22, 2024 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Mitchell Krebs – President and Chief Executive Officer
Mick Routledge – Chief Operating Officer
Aoife McGrath – Senior Vice President-Exploration
Tom Whelan – Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Operator
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Coeur Mining Fourth Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please also note, today's event is being recorded.
At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Mitchell Krebs, President and CEO. Sir, please go ahead.
Mitchell Krebs
Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining our call. Before we begin, please note our cautionary language on forward-looking statements in today's slide deck and refer to our SEC filings on our website. I'll kick off with a quick overview on Slide 3 before turning the call over to some of the team who are here with me.
By nearly every metric, Coeur’s fourth quarter represented our strongest quarter of 2023. In fact, it was our strongest quarter in over three years. Revenues jumped 35% based on 29% higher gold production and 34% higher silver production. This led to a more than doubling of adjusted EBITDA and fourth quarter operating cash flow, which reached its highest level since late 2020. These results were driven largely by the stepped-up production levels at the expanded Rochester operation and by a strong finish to the year at Wharf. Kensington and Palmarejo also delivered consistent results to end the year, which enabled the company to achieve its full year production guidance.
Rochester's fourth quarter provided a glimpse of what the expanded mine is capable of delivering once operating at full strength. Based on expected throughput rates of over 32 million tonnes per year, Rochester will be one of the world's largest operations of its kind and will be the largest source of American produced and refined silver. Mick will provide an update on Rochester in a few minutes.
A year ago, I spoke on this call about our expectations for a strong bounce back year at Wharf in 2023, and I'm happy to say that's exactly what the team delivered. Free cash flow reached $27 million in the fourth quarter and $82 million for the year from 94,000 ounces of gold production. As you can see on Slide 12, cumulative free cash flow since we purchased Wharf nine years ago has now topped the $400 million mark, which is over four times our acquisition price.