Orla Mining - Q4 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Orla Mining's conference call for the fourth quarter and year-end 2023 results. My name is Sarah, and I will be your conference operator today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the meeting over to Andrew Bradbury, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead, Mr. Bradbury.

Andrew Bradbury (VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development)

Thank you, Operator, and welcome to Orla's fourth quarter and year-end 2023 results conference call. We will be making forward-looking statements during today's call, and I direct you to the first and second slide of this presentation, which contains important cautionary notes regarding these forward-looking statements. All the other amounts discussed today will refer to U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. The Orla executive team is on the call this morning, and I will now pass the call to Jason Simpson, President and CEO, who will walk you through our fourth quarter and 2023 highlights.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Thanks, Andrew. Our fourth quarter highlights include continued strong performance at Camino Rojo on safety, environmental management, operations, and costs. As a result, we exceeded our increased production guidance and achieved the reduced annual all-in sustaining cost guidance. The low cost and consistent operation of Camino Rojo generated industry-leading margins, and cash flows strengthened our balance sheet, and Orla is now in a net cash position. We are actively advancing our exploration and development portfolio in Mexico and Nevada, and you will have seen positive drill results released throughout the first quarter from our 2023 campaign. Exploration is a key component of our growth, and Sylvain Guerard, our Senior Vice President, Exploration, will walk you through some of the team's results. Andrew Cormier, our Chief Operating Officer, will update you on the permitting work in Nevada.

We recently announced the acquisition of Contact Gold, the owner of the Pony Creek property neighboring our land package in Nevada. This strategic transaction strengthens our land position, immediately adds gold ounces to our resource inventory, and illustrates our conviction in Nevada. South Railroad will be a tremendous next project for Orla. We are disappointed with the recent events in Panama as it relates to mining and investment. Despite making progress earlier in the year with the receipt of our environmental permits at Cerro Quema, in November 2023, the Panamanian government passed Law 407 imposing a moratorium on granting, renewing, or extending concessions for metal mining in Panama, which they applied to our concession renewals for the Cerro Quema project. We are exploring legal remedies to protect our historical investments as we monitor the upcoming elections in Panama.

Etienne Morin, Orla's Chief Financial Officer, will describe the accounting treatment applied to 2023 for this matter. We have the executive team on the call to provide specific updates, and now I'll hand it over to Andrew Cormier, our Chief Operating Officer, for a fourth quarter operational update.

Andrew Cormier (COO)

Thank you, Jason. The fourth quarter was marked by continued strong mining and processing performances at Camino Rojo. We did this while maintaining the health and safety of our team. We mined nearly 1.9 million tons of ore at a strip ratio of 0.43. The average gold grade of ore processed during the fourth quarter was 0.73 grams of gold per ton. We also achieved an average stacking rate of 18,998 tons per day. The mined ore tons and grade are reconciling well to the block model, and process recoveries remain in line with the metallurgical recovery model. During the second half of 2023, we initiated a program to test the impact of reducing the crusher product size from a P80 mm to 23 mm. The initial results of this test program are positive, and we are seeing higher gold recoveries from the heap leach.

The testing will continue in 2024 to quantify the positive impact that reduced crusher size has on the various ore types. Gold production in the fourth quarter was another record, with 34,484 ounces of gold poured. As a result, we exceeded the increased 2023 production guidance range of 110,000-120,000 ounces of gold, with a total of 121,877 ounces of gold poured for the year. We are curating the strong momentum from 2023 into the first quarter of 2024, and the operations continue to perform consistently and to plan. In terms of permitting, we are continuing to work through permitting delays in Mexico. Our operating team continued to adjust our mine plan and are maintaining the tons and grade feeding the operation. We are hopeful that the new administration, which takes office mid-year, will be more encouraging of mining and investment.

In Nevada, our South Railroad project development and permitting continue to advance. Under the prescribed Bureau of Land Management approach, we have submitted 17 of 19 supplemental environmental reports, of which 14 have been reviewed. These supplemental environmental reports will be used in the environmental impact study process that we expect to continue through 2025. Additionally, we have advanced our strategies for sage-grouse habitat restoration and water rights, which BLM requires as part of the EIS process. We will continue this work through permitting in 2025, ideally allowing construction through 2026 and production in 2027. Based on this timeline, we expect to begin engineering and optimization and updating estimates in 2025. Etienne Morin, our Chief Financial Officer, will now discuss the financial results for the quarter.

Etienne Morin (CFO)

Thanks, Andrew. During the quarter, we sold 31,000 ounces of gold at a realized price of $1,974 per ounce, resulting in $63 million in revenue for the period. As Jason mentioned, as a result of the passing of Law 407 and subsequent cancellation of the mining concession at our Cerro Quema project in Panama, we recognized an impairment charge of $72.4 million in our financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2023. The remaining carrying value of the asset relates to land ownership that we own in Panama. As a result of the impairment, our net loss for the period was $58.4 million, but after adjusting for the impairment, realized foreign exchange loss and other small items, adjusted net earnings was $15.7 million or $0.05 per share.

It should be noted that during the quarter, we expense about $9 million in exploration and project costs as we continue to advance our growth pipeline in Mexico and in Nevada. All-in sustaining costs for the fourth quarter was $802 per ounce, resulting in a full-year 2023 all-in sustaining cost of $736 per ounce, well within our annual guidance range of $700-$800 per ounce, and retaining our position as one of the lowest-cost gold mines globally. Total capital expenditures in the fourth quarter were $6.7 million, of which key capital items included the work on the stockpile dome and costs related to the phase two extension of the heap leach pad. Of that $6.9 million, $3.3 million are nearly half related to capitalized exploration. Total capital expenditures for the full year added up to $20.9 million, of which $12.7 million or approximately 60% related to capitalized exploration.

Cash flow from operating activities before changes in non-cash working capital was $24.7 million or $0.08 per share for the quarter. During the quarter, we made the final payment of $22.8 million to Fresnillo as part of the layback agreement. As this payment is treated as an investment, it had an impact on free cash flow for the quarter, which was negative $8.2 million. As outlined on this chart, we've continued to pay down our debt, increase our financial flexibility, and strengthen our balance sheet. In 2023, we repaid nearly $60 million in debt, including the final payment to Fresnillo and $25 million towards repayment of our credit facility. We also amended our credit facility to a $150 million revolving facility, which now extends to 2027 and provides increased flexibility as well as lower cost of capital.

Our current outstanding debt balance at year-end was $88 million, resulting in becoming net cash positive by year-end. While we no longer have mandatory quarterly repayments, we'll look to further repay our debt outstanding in 2024. The last point to note is that in 2023, we began making monthly tax installments in Mexico. In total, we paid $29 million throughout 2023, and therefore won't have a large tax payment due at the end of this month related to income tax as we did last year. However, the Special Mining Duty and the Extraordinary Mining Duty in Mexico is only payable once a year, and we expect that amount to be approximately $10.5 million, which will be paid at the end of this month, so within Q1. And with that, I'll pass the call back to Jason.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Thank you, Etienne. As a recap for 2023, we exceeded our increased 2023 production guidance at industry-leading all-in sustaining costs. Our strong cash margins allowed us to repay nearly $60 million in debt, increasing our cash and liquidity while investing extensively in exploration and growth projects across our portfolio. We will carry that momentum into 2024. We are consistently guiding to 110,000-120,000 ounces of production at all-in sustaining costs of $875-$975 per ounce of gold sold. The increased all-in sustaining cost over 2023 was due primarily to increased waste movement, sustaining CapEx and maintenance costs, and some price inflation. Sustaining capital expenditures included the planned heap leach expansion for the first half of the year, pit wall expansion, and some capitalized exploration. In 2023, we also ramped up our exploration efforts, which we are continuing this year.

Sylvain Guerard, our Senior Vice President of Exploration, will walk you through an update.

Sylvain Guerard (SVP of Exploration)

Thank you, Jason. In the fourth quarter, we advanced the Camino Rojo sulfide deposit and exploration at South Railroad in Nevada. 2023 exploration was highly positive at both sites. In early 2024, we issued 5 press releases related to Camino Rojo oxide, sulfide infill, and extension programs, along with 2 releases on the South Railroad project and its extension onto Pony Creek through the acquisition of Contact Gold. Additional results from South Railroad will be released shortly. At Camino Rojo, we confirmed mineralization extending to the north over the layback area and on the edge of the open pit. Guided by the positive drill results from 2023, follow-up drilling will occur in the first part of 2024 to assess the shallow oxide potential on the southeast extension of the open pit with the intentions to increase ounces at the high-margin Camino Rojo oxide mine.

In the sulfide deposit, our third phase of infield drilling, totaling about 35,000 meters, aimed to refine the geological model, including the distribution of vein sets controlling higher-grade zones of mineralization. Underground resources estimation work is ongoing, with completion targeted by the second half of 2024. Historical and recent drilling beneath the resource limit has intersected polymetallic semi-massive to massive sulfide replacement mineralization, which differs from the sulfide vein in the current resource area. This discovery motivated us to execute a drill section nearly 500-meter downplunge from the resource limit. Encouraging drill intersections from this drilling indicates that the large Camino Rojo deposit is still open, offering significant upside potential. In addition, initial metallurgical studies on two representative samples of the new mineralization style have returned positive results. 30,000 meters drilling in 2024 is dedicated to the Camino Rojo extension.

The regional exploration program will also continue, with new targets defined in 2023 expected to be explored starting in early Q2. In Nevada, 2023 drilling at South Railroad outside our projected oxide open pit at Pinion and Dark Star both intersected significant mineralization, indicating the potential to add oxide mineralization and potentially grow the resources. At Dark Star, high-grade oxide mineralization representing potential feeder-type structure was intersected, including 20-meter at 5.2 grams per ton gold, part of a 37-meter intersection grading 3.5 grams per ton gold. At North Bullion, Carlin-type sulfide deposit, infield drilling was completed with the objectives of providing material for metallurgical testing, refining geological model, and supporting the upgrade of the Inferred mineral resources. Results from drilling at North Bullion and other targets will be released shortly.

We are also expanding our land position to the south with the announced acquisition of Contact Gold, the owner of the Pony Creek property. The geology and soil geochemical and mineral trends extended to Pony Creek, which also hosts three mineralized zones contributing to a mixed resource containing oxide transition and sulfide material, totaling close to 400,000 inferred gold ounces. In 2024, 15,000 meters of drilling was initially planned at South Railroad, with focus on extending the mineralization outside projected open pits, following up on 2023 results at satellite deposit, and testing new targets for discoveries. Assuming a successful closing of the Contact Gold acquisition in the second quarter, we will anticipate drilling an additional 7,000 meters at Pony Creek property. This drilling will result in an additional $3 million in 2024 Nevada exploration.

This will also bring the global plan program for the extended South Railroad property to over 22,000 meters of drilling. Overall, 2023 was an excellent year with highly positive results supporting resource growth potential and defining the path to new discoveries at our sites. We have an exciting exploration program well underway in early 2024. This work will further advance our exploration and project initiatives in Mexico and Nevada. I will now pass the call to Chafika Eddine.

Chafika Eddine (VP of Sustainability)

Thank you, Sylvain. 2023 was a productive year for our sustainability efforts. We maintain an impeccable record of zero community-related and labor-related incidents throughout 2023. Our flagship asset, Camino Rojo, notably cemented our engaging relationship with our employees by successfully negotiating a new agreement with the employee union and delivering on our commitment to fostering positive relations with our workforce. We take pride in being the preferred choice for talented individuals, including in the regions where we operate. Nearly half of our direct employees are sourced from our local communities, and approximately 30% of our contractors are recruited from areas directly influenced by our operations. In an industry where the average percentage of female representation is from 8%-17%, we celebrate the fact that overall, among our four locations, women make 31% of our direct workforce.

Furthermore, our voluntary turnover ratio continues to improve year-over-year, a testament to our positive work environment, something we will keep monitoring closely. In 2023, we launched Orla's inaugural sustainability report, and we are currently in the process of compiling our ESG performance data for our next report. Through the assessment, evaluation, and disclosure of our ESG performance, we reaffirm our dedication to our guiding principle of transforming resources into a net positive benefit for all stakeholders. In 2023, we also established three initiatives for sustainable community development with multi-stakeholder partnerships in Mexico, including one for fauna and flora conservation and land regeneration. In 2024, we are committed to enhancing our reporting on environmental, social, and governance performance as we further integrate sustainability principles across our sites and communities.

Our proactive and transparent approach is reflected in our dedication to continually improving our positive environmental and social influence, aligning with evolving industry standards and ensuring an open communication with our stakeholders. I'll pass the call back to Jason.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Thank you, Chafika. Our business continues to get stronger quarter-over-quarter, with the operations exceeding targets and our exploration and project development outlining pathways to growth. 2023 was a successful year for Orla, and 2024 is off to a strong start. I would like to thank our team who remains steadfast in their commitment to Orla's strategic objectives of creating value for our shareholders. It is my great pleasure to share this call with my executive team who've outlined our great results of the past and our plans for the future. At this point, I'd like to open the call to questions and hand the call back to the operator.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you have a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Your first question comes from the line of Ovais Habib with Scotiabank. Your line is open.

Ovais Habib (Precious Metals Analyst)

Hi, Jason, and Orla team. Congrats to you and your team on a strong 2023. Just a couple of questions from me, Jason. Starting off with Camino Rojo, obviously, I'm sure you are disappointed that the permits have not been received for the pit pushbacks, but also good to hear that 2024 guidance does not get impacted. Jason, what's the cutoff point that you think you need to have the permits by so not to impact the 2025 production?

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Yeah. So ideally, the permits will be approved early in this next administration, enabling us to eliminate any gold impact, not only in 2024, but we predict the impact could be very modest in 2025 as well, Ovais. Backing up a bit, I think for the benefit of the call, I'll mention that we've been pursuing these permits since we achieved the layback agreement in 2021. Yes, we're disappointed that the permitting timelines for all companies in Mexico have exceeded the historical norms under this administration. These permits will maximize the benefit produced from Camino Rojo over the long term, and we need to receive them in the short term to enable the necessary waste delivery.

Ovais Habib (Precious Metals Analyst)

Thanks for the color, Jason. And then just follow up on that. I mean, I'm glad you have that confidence in terms of the next administration coming through with these permits. But is there some sort of a backup plan, Jason, just in case these permits get delayed into 2025, or is that not a worry right now on your end?

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

No, there is. I would offer backup plans, which we're implementing now to make sure that there's no impact to production in 2024 and 2025. And that's through a function of sequencing the benches differently and sinking deeper into what we would call the constrained pit. So we can do that over the coming years. But as you can appreciate, in order to get the fully expanded Camino Rojo oxide pit that we envisioned via the layback agreement towards the end of mine life, we need the permits to expand to that larger envelope. And we'd like to be able to do a consistent stripping over the years leading towards the end of mine life so that there's no cash impact year over year.

Ovais Habib (Precious Metals Analyst)

Then, Jason, just thanks for that. But Jason, my last question to you is in regards to the 2024 all-in sustaining cost number or guidance, obviously, there were plans for these pit pushbacks to take place. Now, since things are getting delayed, are you, I mean, is there a chance that the AISC guidance gets revised downwards based on how much you can spend this year, or will you still stick with that AISC guidance?

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Yeah, I think there is some cost reduction if we strip less than 100% of the waste that we have budgeted. But through that resequencing that I just described, Ovais, we believe that we're going to be able to strip over 80% of the rock that we had planned. It won't come necessarily from the unpermitted layback area, but it will come from other sources. So as I mentioned earlier, certainly for the gold production, but also the rock production, we'd resequence things via establishing an unplanned ramp within the pit to enable us to still move the rock ahead of time as well as maintain gold production. So we're going to be striving to achieve our budgeted and guided waste and/or movement levels throughout 2024. And the waste movement levels throughout 2024 is what enables us to be confident that we can mitigate impacts to 2025.

Ovais Habib (Precious Metals Analyst)

Got it. That's it for me, Jason. Thanks for taking my questions and great color. Thank you.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Thanks, Ovais.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Mikitchook, my apologies, BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Andrew Mikitchook (Precious Metals Analyst)

Hi, Jason. Congrats to you and the team for a great quarter. It was always a very comprehensive presentation here. So just kind of one question. Can we revisit this reduced crusher size or crushing size effort that you're doing in terms of exactly what's happening and conceptually, what would that mean to either costs and/or throughputs if this actually occurs?

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks, Andrew. I'll introduce the response, but I've got Andrew Cormier here across from me that can give some additional color to the great work that his team has been doing there. He's explained to me that it is, in fact, a change in sizing through screen replacement rather than adjustments to the crusher. But I'll let him get into that detail. One of the things that he and I discussed when we were pursuing this was the ability to maintain the production performance that we've seen over the past two years at Camino Rojo exceeding nameplate and that 19,000-ton per day stacking rate that we've been able to maintain. And what he's demonstrated since starting that pilot project is that not only has he been able to increase recoveries through the lower sizing, but also maintain the throughput.

One of the risks that we had to consider was as we process a smaller size, would that negatively impact our throughput abilities? That hasn't been the case. This is early days, but tremendously good news. I'll ask Andrew Cormier to give you some specifics on what the project is and the results it's delivering.

Andrew Mikitchook (Precious Metals Analyst)

Good morning, Andrew. Yeah, so as Jason referred, we were modifying the circuit starting in August of last year, which reduced the screen size to the crushing circuit. And in doing that, we had a finer crusher size. And that's all been achieved without reducing nameplate capacity or above nameplate capacity of 19,000 tons per day. What we've been seeing in the heap leach, as you can appreciate, it's a 90-day leach cycle. So it takes some time to be able to confirm these plant trials for improvements. But we are seeing positive gold and silver recoveries. And we would expect that later in the first half of this year, that we'd be able to quantify that. And if there's any revision to guidance, we would provide that at that time.

But all indications now is that this initiative has been very positive on gold and silver recoveries without reducing the throughput capacity of 19,000 tons a day.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Just because I wasn't writing as quickly as I might have been, what was the change in screen size? It was like 23-26 or 26-23. I didn't write that down.

Andrew Mikitchook (Precious Metals Analyst)

Yeah, it was 27-23 mm. So reducing the size of the particles that pass through that size.

Okay. Thank you very much. I'll sign off and let others ask questions.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Thanks, Andrew.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Arun Lamba with TD Securities. Your line is open.

Arun Lamba (VP, Equity Research)

Morning, guys. Just a couple small ones from me. Just in terms of 2024 guidance and production, I know last year, you kind of had every quarter was better than the last, with Q4 kind of being the highest. What should we think about in terms of 2024? Is it kind of expect equally weighted, second-half weighted, just in terms of somewhat quarterly production guidance, if you can give some color?

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Yeah, we'll provide a bit of color. Clearly, Arun don't provide quarterly production guidance. But yes, we recognize the sequence of production last year. I'll have Andrew pull up sort of some quarterly color on grade. Clearly, recovery would be the same. But I would offer that we have a pretty consistent grade profile throughout the year. We would expect a consistent now improved recovery above the feasibility expected levels. And what we have to weave into that in our guidance is consideration of bench sequencing, consideration of the seasons, and so on. And we try to consider all of that in a way that has us achieve guidance to the expectations of market. If we have more positive things happen throughout the year than negative, then we'll increase the guidance as we've done over the past two years.

But if there are a balance of positive and negative things throughout the year, we would still expect to achieve our guidance. That's how we model our guidance. Any color, Andrew, on the quarterly without giving quarterly guidance, the quarterly sort of expectations for the broader market?

Andrew Cormier (COO)

Morning, Arun. Yeah, so what we can say about our expected quarterly performance is that it will be flat and consistent with our annual guidance that we've provided.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Yeah, I think in some operations, Arun, certainly, you'd cover, and I've been familiar with there is a clear distinction based on grade or otherwise sequencing in those operations where they may have to guide that second half could be stronger than the first. In our case, I would expect a reasonably consistent production profile across Camino Rojo. It is one of those types of ore bodies where we can just consistently produce at the low cost that we've indicated and harvest the expected amount of cash.

Arun Lamba (VP, Equity Research)

Great. That's very helpful. And then let's just move to Nevada quickly. Expectations are the BLM to file the notice of intent in 2024, and then hopefully, the Record of Decision, final permits for construction in 2025. Just wondering, when should we expect kind of an updated study to kind of reflect the EIS to build SRP? I'm thinking it'd probably be in 2025, but maybe some color on the timing of when you guys would put out kind of a new feasibility study for SRP.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Yeah, you're exactly right in the timing, Arun. So we would look to gauge where we are in the permitting process and everything. If everything remains on schedule and we can see sort of within 6 months of record of decision, that's when we would make sure that we're ramping up our construction engineering and optimization effort because, as we've communicated, we would make some changes to the 2021 feasibility study—actually, sorry, 2022 feasibility study done by GSV, including consideration of crushing and a variety of other optimizations that we've identified that we would likely embed in our engineering process. So yes, we currently, based on the permitting timelines that we're striving for, anticipate that mid-year 2025 will be when we get to optimizing and updating the construction engineering. That will go hand in hand with updated estimates and quotes from suppliers and contractors.

This is the exact same playbook that we followed in constructing Camino Rojo so that we can update the market in 2025 of what Orla is going to build, how much it's going to cost to build it, how long we expect it to take to build it, and hence establish our report card for the construction program through 2026. So that's when you can expect all of those updates.

Arun Lamba (VP, Equity Research)

Great. Just the last one really quickly. It's probably more high-level, but recently noticed in the market, obviously, Fairfax increased their position. They appear to be your largest shareholder now. Maybe any relationship that you kind of have with them and anything you could provide on that, obviously, high-level in general.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Yes, certainly. We're very grateful to have Prem Watsa as now our largest shareholder. And he has been a fantastic supporter of the company. As he described in a recent meeting with him, he's interested in finding companies that have good assets, run by strong management teams, that want to grow value. And he's in it for the long term. So that's exactly how he characterized his investment thesis. So we're grateful for that. The relationship was established through Pierre Lassonde and Kirill Sokoloff. So as we know, Pierre Lassonde is one of the founders of the company and has been supportive of the company throughout the past six years. So ORLA was introduced to Kirill Sokoloff and Prem Watsa, strong investors across a variety of investments. I think everybody's familiar with Fairfax. And they have a point of view about gold.

I think what we can all appreciate, the decoupling of gold equities in relation to the gold price. They see tremendous value in gold equities if they select the right companies. Fortunately for us, Prem believes that ORLA is the right company.

Arun Lamba (VP, Equity Research)

Great. Thanks so much, Jason. Congrats on the clean quarter. I'll end my questions there.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Thank you. Thanks, Arun.

Operator (participant)

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question, it is star one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Soock with Stifel. Your line is open.

Stephen Soock (Equity Research Associate)

Hi, Jason and team. Again, congrats on another very solid quarter, very profitable quarter. I was just wondering if you could provide a little color on how you're able to control costs so well. Looks like unit costs kind of beat expectations here when so many of your peers in Mexico are struggling with both FX headwinds and inflation in-country. If you could give us a little insight into what your magic sauce is there. Thanks.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Sure. Once again, I'll start the answer and then hand it over to the guy who is controlling the costs, Andrew Cormier. First thing I'd like to acknowledge is the particular mine characteristics of Camino Rojo, very low strip ratio, open pit, heap leach in very flat terrain, frankly, is the type of mine that is going to have low costs. So all we can take credit for there is we knew that and elected to build this high-margin mine first as the foundation for the company. Now, of course, as we built it through the pandemic and saw the inflationary pressures post-pandemic, we've had to walk the same roads that other companies have had to do as well. We did increase our salaries for our employees in Mexico. So we have, if we want to call it, some inflation in labor costs through our CBA negotiation.

They are seeing higher costs in their household. Hence, the company is helping to provide better payments to aid families in Mexico. But in terms of the other operating costs outside of labor, things like the reagent supplies and services, Andrew and his team have done a good job in working with our suppliers and contractors that, frankly, the inflation cost has been de minimis. Andrew, any other color on your cost containment in Mexico?

Andrew Cormier (COO)

Sure. Morning, Stephen. Yeah, as Jason said, we have the same inflationary costs on labor as everyone else. However, on the reagents and commodities, being a fairly new mining entity, when we first started our supply contracts, we were unknown. So the pricing might not have been as good as, say, some of our peers at the time. And as we've demonstrated our capabilities, not only operationally but financially with those vendors, we've actually been seeing our pricing hold or dropping through the last two years of operation. So what that's resulted in is some of those upward cost pressures that others might have been seeing in these commodities, we're actually seeing a hold or slightly lower unit costs on those. And that's a testament to the negotiating of our procurement department and our site.

Stephen Soock (Equity Research Associate)

Great. Thanks for answering that. Well, appreciate it. That's it for me. I'll open the line to someone else.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Thanks very much for the question.

Operator (participant)

This concludes the question and answer session. I'll turn the call to Jason Simpson for closing remarks.

Jason Simpson (President and CEO)

Thank you, operator. Since there are no further questions, I would like to thank you for your time. Never hesitate to reach out to ORLA should you have any follow-up questions. We're available.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference call. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.