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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Orbit Garant Drilling Fiscal 2020 First Quarter Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Note that the call is being recorded on Thursday, November 14, 2019. And I would like to turn the conference over to Éric Alexandre. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Sylvie, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. With me on the call today is Alain Laplante, CFO. Please be aware that certain information discussed today may be forward-looking and that actual results could differ materially. We'll also be discussing certain non-IFRS measures. Please refer to our SEDAR filings for additional information on both our risk factors and non-IFRS matters. This call is being recorded and a replay will be available shortly. Instructions for accessing the replay can be found on our news release. Following opening remarks, Alain will review our financial results and I will conclude with comments on our outlook and growth strategy. We will then welcome questions. Our financial results were significantly stronger in Q1 this year compared to last year. We reported the highest Q1 revenue in the company history as well as growth in margins and earnings. Our performance was attributable to improved customer demand in Canada. Our meters drilled increased by approximately 23% in the quarter compared to Q1 last year. Our international drilling revenue was down slightly in the quarter due to the completion of a multiyear drilling project in Chile during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. However, our current projects in Burkina Faso, Guyana and Argentina nearly offset this impact. While we remain positive about the long-term outlook for our international markets, there has been recent political volatility and violence in Chile and Burkina Faso. Since mid-October, there have been large-scale civil protests in Chile. This has led the Chilean government to pull out of hosting international conferences. We believe this situation may have a short-term impact on our mining customer project plans. We are monitoring this situation daily. In Burkina Faso, there has been a recent surge of violence in the eastern part of the country. Many of you may have heard of the recent tragic incident involving an [ intermittent ] mining company in that region. We continue to monitor our operations in Burkina Faso closely. To date, none of our operations have been affected. Since entering Burkina Faso, we have avoided projects in the more volatile regions of the country. Our current drilling projects are in regions that have historically been less prone to incidents. Orbit Garant's policy is to only work in areas where the security of its own employees can be appropriately protected. We believe the increase in customer demand we are now experiencing in Canada is supported by the increase in the gold price this calendar year. Gold is currently trading at approximately USD 1,462 per ounce. And we saw the price exceed USD 1,550 per ounce in August and September. This is the strongest gold market our customers have experienced in more than 6 years. We generate approximately 70% of our revenue from gold-related projects and are well positioned to capitalize on the stronger market conditions. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Alain to review our Q1 2020 financial results in more detail. Alain?
Thank you, Éric, and good morning, everyone. Revenue totaled $43.3 million, an increase of 16.1% from the $37.3 million in Q1 last year. Drilling Canada revenue increased 21.7% to $35.4 million, reflecting increased meters drilled. International revenue was $7.9 million, a small decline of approximately 4% compared to Q1 last year. The decrease was primarily attributable to lower revenue in Chile due to the completion of a multiyear drilling contract at the beginning of the fourth quarter last fiscal year. As Éric noted, this decline was nearly offset by our current projects in Burkina Faso, Guyana and Argentina. We drilled approximately 387,000 meters in the quarter, a 22.6% increase from 316,000 meters in Q1 a year ago. Our drilling utilization rate was 62% in the quarter, up from 55% in Q1 a year ago and slightly ahead of our 61% utilization in Q1 fiscal 2018. Average revenue per meter drilled in the quarter was $110, down from $118 in Q1 last year. This decrease in average revenue per meter drilled was attributable to a lower proportion of higher-priced specialized drilling activity in the international drilling segment primarily as a result of the completed contract in Chile noted earlier. This also partially reflects the reverse circulation drilling we are doing in Burkina Faso, which is charged at a lower rate. Our adjusted gross margin, excluding depreciation expenses, increased to 21.3% in the quarter compared to 20.4% in Q1 last year primarily reflecting higher drilling volumes in Canada. G&A expenses were $4.4 million or 10.1% of revenue in the quarter compared to $3.9 million or 10.4% of revenue in Q1 last year. The increase was attributable to our strategic growth in Canada in our international operations. EBITDA totaled $5.1 million, an increase of 46.8% from $3.4 million in Q1 last year. Net earnings increased to $1.1 million or $0.03 a share from $0.4 million or $0.01 per share in Q1 last year. Turning to our balance sheet. We withdrew a net amount of $2.8 million during the first quarter on our credit facility compared to a withdrawal of $1.9 million in Q1 last year. As at September 30, 2019, we had $28.1 million drawn under the credit facility compared to $25.3 million as of June 30, 2019, which was our fiscal 2019 year-end. Our working capital position was $59.4 million at September 30, up from $55.1 million at June 30. I'll now turn the call back to Éric for closing comments. Eric?
Thanks, Alain. We are encouraged by the strengthening outlook for our industry, particularly in the gold sector. The rally in the gold price has materially improved the economics of the gold mining, so miners have a strong motivation to ramp up their exploration and development spending. With access to capital improving in the gold mining sector and the price remaining strong, we expect that exploration budgets for calendar 2020 will be stronger. Gold miners recognize that they need to replace depleting reserves to remain viable in the long term. With our strong presence in Canada and other leading gold-producing jurisdictions, we are well positioned to benefit from increased customer spending on gold projects. We have seen an increase in demand from our Canadian customer over the last 2 quarters and it's not slowing down. We believe that fiscal 2020 will be an active year for our domestic business. S&P Global forecasts that Canada will have the strongest growth in gold production over the next 5 years. We remain positive about the long-term opportunities for growth in our international business. We have established a strong operating platform in Chile, where we have worked with a few of the world's largest mining companies. Chile remains the world's largest copper producer and one of the largest producers of nonferrous metals. In West Africa, we are active in Ghana and Burkina Faso, ranked first and fifth in terms of gold production in Africa. Our long-term strategy when we embark on our international expansion strategy was to generate approximately 25% of our revenue from international markets. We have essentially achieved that goal. This provides us with diversification both geographically and by commodity. It also positions us to be a global supplier to some of our larger customers. That concludes our formal remarks. Alain and I will now be pleased to answer any questions. Sylvie, please begin the question period.
[Operator Instructions] And at this time, Mr. Alexandre, we have no questions. Please proceed.
Okay. So if there's no question, we'll terminate the call. Thank you for participating, and see you next quarter.
Thank you, everyone. Have a nice day.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines. Enjoy the rest of your day.