Eldorado Gold Corp To Discuss Skouries Project Update and Guidance Conference Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Cosmos Chiu - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Thanks, George and team, maybe my first question is on the CapEx increase. As you mentioned, the CapEx overall increased by 15.5%. That's preproduction CapEx. Is there any kind of read through into operating cost, life of mine? If you're seeing inflation now, how should we look at operating costs on a go-forward basis? And on that, how can we use the technical report -- or how can we update the cost from the numbers that were put out from the technical report back in 2022 for OpEx?

Question: Cosmos Chiu - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Okay. And then, George, as a follow-up, I guess my question is, is the increase in CapEx 15.5%? Or is it more than that, given that now there's additional $154 million that you call accelerated operational capital. My question is, is it -- the $154 million, is it CapEx that would have been spent later on anyway that has been pulled forward? Or it doesn't seem that way because in the table one, I think you compared it, total CapEx, it went from $920 million to $1.217 billion. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 06, 2025 / 4:30PM, ELD.TO - Eldorado Gold Corp To Discuss Skouries Project Update and Guidance So I'm just wondering what's the actual increase here? Was it -- was some of it being pulled forward or just if you can help me understand the different components of that one.

Question: Cosmos Chiu - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Great. And then maybe one last question, George. I noticed that your workforce went from 1,050 at the end of 2024 to 1,150 at the end of January, which is -- I have to say, it seems to me a fairly good increase. As you mentioned, it seems like the Greek labor force, the biggest shortages are in skilled trades and technical trades or technical roles. So maybe if you can, number one, comment on was that a good increase from 1,050 to 1,150 in just one month? Who made up that additional 100 in headcount? What kind of positions? And then could you talk about what you still need in the remaining sort of 150? Is it more the technical roles that are harder to fill? If you can comment on that, that would be great.

Question: Cosmos Chiu - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Great. Thanks, George and team and thanks for answering all my questions. That's all I have.

Question: Michael Siperco - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. I guess piggybacking on the last question there. Could you maybe provide a little bit more context. When you talk about needing to maintain the workforce at 1,300 during peak construction, does that mean for all of 2025 or more of a specific period? And would that be the same 1,300? Or is there a consistent turnover as contractors come in and out as construction moves from one phase to another?

Question: Michael Siperco - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : And maybe just a follow-up on that. Are you thinking about -- or how can you mitigate the risk that we end up in late Q3, Q4 and a particular contract or a particular trade or skill isn't available, are you able to secure that ahead of time? Are you looking more outside of Greece for stuff that might be particularly sensitive in terms of timing?

Question: Michael Siperco - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. Thanks. And maybe one more, and I'll pass it on. I think one of the other questions was read-through into operating costs going forward. But maybe a little bit more specifically at Skouries. You mentioned the ramp down in '26 once you're in commercial production. Could you quantify that? And could you comment on whether or not the shortages you're seeing now could also stress operations? Or is it more construction-specific, installation-specific that you're really seeing the tightness?

Question: Michael Siperco - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Great. Thanks very much. I'll pass it on.

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : Great. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for doing this call. I really appreciate it. I just wanted to circle back, George, if I could. Just so I understand that there's $150 million more of accelerated capital. The first question I have on that, was that originally in your technical report that you published? Was that $154 million already embedded in there?

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : Okay. So they were in there in either OpEx or CapEx somewhere -- you had embedded at $154 million. And was that over life of mine? Or was that like in the earlier years? Because I'm just trying to understand from where you're pulling it from.

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : Okay. So if I was to think about it, that $154 million could have been over 10 years at $15 million a year. I could think about it as that being all into like $154 million like now.

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : Okay. That's helpful. And then I just want to come back to just this workforce. So good job on getting these additional people and getting to 1,300. And then obviously, as you go into commercial production, you start to see a decline of these people. So I'm just trying to understand you're also at the same time going to be moving from contract mining to your own in-house mining. Can you just remind me like where that is going to occur? Is occurring in 2026 that you leave the contractor and go to self-mining? Or when does that happen exactly? And I'm trying to understand that just from a perspective of the training and ultimately, how many people you need for your own mining, from your own self-employed within that workforce that's obviously not 1,300, it will be another number, but what is it that you need of your own self-employed? And when -- REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 06, 2025 / 4:30PM, ELD.TO - Eldorado Gold Corp To Discuss Skouries Project Update and Guidance

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : Yeah. And just maybe just -- would it be safe to assume you've got a blended rate -- so you're starting now for a blended sort of contractor and

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : 150 of employed people, Eldorado employed people?

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : Can I ask then, George, how did you risk adjust your changeover for 2026 as you put out your 2026 guidance that you wanted to maintain the same production that you had in the original study, yet you're going -- you're starting up in Q1 and going sort of commercial there midyear that you still keep the same production level? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 06, 2025 / 4:30PM, ELD.TO - Eldorado Gold Corp To Discuss Skouries Project Update and Guidance I understand bigger machinery, I understand all that. I'm just trying to understand how you've risk-adjusted for productivity and just smoothness of getting all of this workforce to work and be productive. So I just -- I'm trying to understand just how you risk adjusted it for us.

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : So if we were to put any risk, George, you would put it in 2025 in terms of this 1,300 -- maintaining the 1,300 workforce with the appropriate skill set as we get through construction. Would that be fair?

Question: Tanya Jakusconek - Scotia Capital - Analyst : Thank you so much in taking my questions. I really appreciate that.

Question: Michael Parkin - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Hi, guys. Not to beat a dead horse on the labor. But can you just remind us where your baseline assumptions are in terms of your staffing of Skouries with respect to shift? Are you -- is this all budgeted around 8 hours shift work crews or 12 hours?

Question: Michael Parkin - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay. And can you remind me again in terms of staffing at Olympias. Is there still plans to transition some of that workforce over to Skouries? Or is the staffing situation at Olympias steady state and staffing of Skouries will be completely new hire?

Question: Michael Parkin - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay. And can you remind me on the feasibility study, does that assume 12-hour shift work crews or 8 hours?

Question: Michael Parkin - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay. And then just on your comments around the availability of skilled trades being tight, you're comfortable with going with self-employed maintenance periods for your heavy mobile equipment versus like a contract maintenance program initially at least?

Question: Michael Parkin - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay. That's it for me guys. Thanks so much.

Question: Carey MacRury - Canaccord Genuity Group Inc - Analyst : Hey. Good morning, guys. Maybe you could just switch to talking about the schedule a bit, if you can give us some more granularity. I recall that the critical path were the filter plants and the tailings facility. Is that still the case? Or have those critical path items moved?

Question: Carey MacRury - Canaccord Genuity Group Inc - Analyst : Okay. And what about working the plant itself and then maybe just how underground development is going? Are those unaffected so far?

Question: Carey MacRury - Canaccord Genuity Group Inc - Analyst : And from a regulatory standpoint, do you have any restrictions on bringing in the workers elsewhere in the EU? Or is it you're pretty open to do what you need to do?

Question: Carey MacRury - Canaccord Genuity Group Inc - Analyst : Okay. Maybe just one last one for me. Just switching to Kilada. Where are you with the recoveries there? And I guess, you mentioned that there's an engineering study underway. So just incrementally, what are you looking to do at Kilada?

Question: Carey MacRury - Canaccord Genuity Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Thanks, guys.

Question: Michael Parkin - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Hey. One follow-up on Kilada. You've been doing some kind of extra work there, ripping up the pad or like ripping of the ore on the pad, site-specific kind of injection variation. Is that going to continue through this like permanently? Or is that short term in nature, the guidance -- what is the guidance assuming with respect to that? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 06, 2025 / 4:30PM, ELD.TO - Eldorado Gold Corp To Discuss Skouries Project Update and Guidance

Question: Michael Parkin - National Bank Financial - Analyst : And can I ask a follow-up to that. Is that program expected to kind of be long-lasting or like a temporary boost to recoveries, as you kind of mentioned, drawing down impact to inventory how should we kind of think about that? So the profile production this year be more front half weighted benefiting from that program, which might be diminishing as the year goes on?

Question: Michael Parkin - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay. Thanks very much, guys.

Question: Lawson Winder - BofA Securities, Inc - Analyst : Thank you, operator. And hi, George and team. Thank you for doing this call today. It's very helpful. I wanted to actually ask about Lamaque. So if we just look at the total cash cost there it's about an 11% to 12% increase. It would be a little helpful just when you think about modeling, you could break down the components of that between the grade and then you highlighted the higher mining costs as a result of being deeper in the triangle zone and labor? And then just on labor, what type of labor in particular driving that? Or is it just general labor inflation? And what rate are you assuming in that guidance for '25? Thank you.

Question: Lawson Winder - BofA Securities, Inc - Analyst : Okay. Great. And then just on Lamaque and Ormaque and the exploration plans for 2025, what can we expect in terms of updates through 2025, on regional exploration, if any, at all?

Question: Lawson Winder - BofA Securities, Inc - Analyst : Okay. Thanks very much. And if I could ask one other question. I mean, there's been a number of headlines about seismic activity in Santorini. Obviously, you guys are very, very far from Santorini and those islands. But are you detecting any seismic activity as a result of that? And the only reason I'm asking is because it seems like there's been many like isolated events that seem to be continuing and just wanted to check that box, if there aren't any issues to Skouries from that.

Question: Lawson Winder - BofA Securities, Inc - Analyst : Okay. Thank you very much. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 06, 2025 / 4:30PM, ELD.TO - Eldorado Gold Corp To Discuss Skouries Project Update and Guidance