Gatos Silver, Inc. (NYSE:GATO) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 7, 2024 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Dale Andres - Chief Executive Officer
Andre van Niekerk - Chief Financial Officer
Tony Scott - Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Technical Services
Conference Call Participants
Cosmos Chiu - CIBC World Markets
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Gatos Silver's First Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. Presenting today will be Dale Andres, CEO of Gatos Silver; and Andre Van Niekerk, Chief Financial Officer. We will conclude today's session with a question-and-answer period for other members of the Gatos Silver management team will be available. [Operator Instructions] At this time, all participants' lines have been placed on mute for the duration of the presentation to prevent any background noise.
Turning your attention to Slide 2. Please note today's call contains forward-looking statements. Various risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to vary. Gatos Silver does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
I would now like to turn the call over to Dale Andres. Please go ahead.
Dale Andres
Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 3. Our strong operating performance and cash flow generation continued in the first quarter of 2024. The Los Gatos joint venture set yet another record mill throughput rate. During the quarter, we averaged a mill throughput rate of over 3,200 tons per day, and we are well on our way to our medium-term target of sustainable production at 3,500 tons per day.
Our first quarter production puts us in a strong position for the remainder of the year and the Cerro Los Gatos production is expected in the top half of our guidance range. As a result of the strong operating performance this quarter, our all-in sustaining cost metrics for the full-year are expected to remain in the lower half of the guidance range despite the strengthening peso and inflationary pressures.
Gatos Silver continues to receive regular cash distributions from the joint venture. Andre will talk about this in more detail, but I do want to highlight the Los Gatos joint venture's free cash flow of over $25 million in the first quarter of 2024 and continuing distributions received in April of this year. Gatos Silver had a cash balance of over $85 million at the end of April. We are on track to update our life of mine plan in the third quarter this year and are aiming to increase throughput and also extend the mine lives. Importantly, we have now started to ramp up exploration efforts on both near mine and other targets in the highly prospective Los Gatos district.