AngloGold Ashanti Plc

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Anglicold Ashanti Q2 2025 earnings release. All participants are in listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If you should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star and then zero on your telephone keypad. Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now hand you over to Mr. Stuart Bailey. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks, Judith. And good morning, good afternoon to everybody. Thank you for joining us for this Q2 2025 results call. We have Alberto and Gillian in the room and then also other members of our executive team available. Before we start, I would ask you just to look at our safe harbour statement at the beginning of the presentation. which requires important information, including regarding forward-looking statements. It is important and we urge you to read it. I'll hand over to Alberto.

Thank you, Stuart. I'm pleased to report another excellent quarter showing continued momentum in the business. The result, which is very good by any measure, is underpinned by steady delivery to plan A STRONG FINANCIAL RESULT WITH GROWTH IN FREE CASH FLOW AND EARNINGS. PRODUCTION FROM OUR MANAGED OPERATIONS WAS UP 25% YEAR ON YEAR. EARNINGS AND CASH FLOW WERE THE STRONGEST IN RECENT MEMORY DUE TO A BIT THAT DOUBLED YEAR ON YEAR AND FREE CASH FLOW WAS ALMOST UP 150%. WITH ALMOST A BILLION DOLLARS OF FREE CASH FLOW IN THE FIRST HALF AND LEVERAGE CLOSE TO ZERO, the balance sheet is at its strongest level ever. Costs were again well controlled despite inflationary pressures and importantly higher royalties. Our performance blocks the long-term industry trend of costs rising in tandem with the gold price. Since 2021, our cash costs and all in sustaining costs have remained remarkably stable in real terms of just 2% and 1% respectively. and operational excellence. Safety remains our highest priority, and we're committed to eliminating injuries from our sites. We're proud of the strides we've made, but always mindful that we're only ever as good as our last injury-free day. We work hard to mitigate risk and to learn from our mistakes and near misses. Our TRIFRA improved 17% year-on-year to 0.8 injuries per million hours worked. That's the lowest ever, and it remains well below the 2024 ICMM member average. What we can control, we need to control very well. That's clear when you look at our managed operations. Production benefited from Sukari's inclusion and higher contributions from Keita, Oboasi, Siquiri, and Cuyabá. Sukari has established itself as one of our top GATA delivered another strong performance with increases in port tons and higher grades from the open pit. OASI continued its ramp-up. Total cash costs for managed operations were only 6% higher, driven predominantly by inflation and higher royalties. And by the way, higher royalties is what we believe is the only good cause. Free cash flow was $535 million, more than double last year's result. You see, too, in our overall profitability, EBITDA also more than doubled to $1.44 billion. Headline earnings were up 151% to $639 million. We have ample liquidity, no material, near-term maturities, and leverage of zero. Our dividend policy provides for a 12.5% payout each quarter of around $63 million. It also provides for a annual true-up of up to 50% of free cash flow. We've used discretion to make that true-up at the half-year, which reflects not only the extraordinary cash flow generation of the first six months, but also our confidence in the outlook of the business. That takes the dividend declaration to 80 cents a share for approximately $406 million. And it brings the total dividends declared for the first half of the year to approximately $469 million, clearly more than double at least what we've done in the past 15 years. that provides one of the most generous yields in the sector and all things being equal we expect more of the same in the second half we will continue to evaluate further capital allocation options over the remainder of the year with a particular focus on buybacks of shares or debt our tier one assets account for around two-thirds of production and 80 percent of reserves We expect to see that production share rise at Oboassi ramp-ups as Oboassi ramps up. Our tier two assets are also making a big contribution. What you see here are healthy margins and exceptionally cash flow leverage. We remain active managers of our portfolio. The sale of Serra Grande ensures we properly allocate management time and further sharpen our focus on the core of the business. During this extraordinary turnaround journey we've been on since 2021, we've continually assessed where we can generate the most value. And the answer is clear, the best opportunities remain within. First, we are committed to lifting performance from our core assets, driving margin growth through cost discipline. Full asset potential has been invaluable in this regard, keeping cost flats in real terms. has improved our position on the cost curve and helps us to reliably deliver on our guidance. This is now embedded in how we work, and we see more opportunity to drive value. The insights from this program have helped us to unearth a pipeline of organic growth options that are beginning to reveal themselves. This pipeline extends well beyond Ubuasi, which itself is starting to develop a consistent operating cadence as it ramps up. There are other equally exciting projects to build scale and extend life at Cuyabá, Sigüidi, Gaita and Idubrim. These are relatively low risk, low capital intensive opportunities that allow us to leverage our existing footprint, infrastructure and knowledge. The returns are, as you can imagine, more than competitive. We'll flesh out in the coming quarters, helping the daylight more value in this extraordinary portfolio of ours. In November, we will be talking about, start talking about GATA in more detail. And third, we're laying the foundations for the next stage of growth in Nevada, a world-class gold camp where we're building scale, size, and optionality. We continue to uncover value in the US where the overall quality of our discovery in Southern Nevada will deliver value to shareholders and a house of other local stakeholders for decades to come. The proposed acquisition of Augusta Gold consolidates this important district and improves our ability to unlock significant synergies across permitting infrastructure, across permitting infrastructure and development sequence. It improves our ability to optimize capital, reduce execution risk, and streamline stakeholder engagement. I will now hand over to Gillian to go over the financial results.

Thank you, Alberto. The gold price maintained its upward trend with the average price during the quarter, $3,287 an ounce, a 41% increase year on year. The stronger gold price was influenced by sustained central bank buying, heightened geopolitical tensions, interest rate expectations, and uncertainty around U.S. fiscal policy. U.S. CPI eased to 2.7% from 3% in 2024, with oil prices 27% lower than Q2 of the last year. Inflation moderated across most of our jurisdictions, with significant disinflation in Argentina down to 39% from 272% a year ago. Inflation in Brazil moderated to 5.4% from 4.2% a year earlier. Our realized inflation rate, which represents CPI changes in the jurisdictions that we operate, was around 4.6%, maintaining upward pressure on costs. We continue to look for opportunities to offset cost impacts from the macro factors we are exposed to. Our managed operations drove the production out performance for Q2 with gold production up 25% year on year to 729,000 ounces compared to 529,000 ounces in Q2 of last year. This reflects the contribution from Sukari and improved performances at key assets, including Abuasi up 31%, Yata up 20%, CBSA up 7%, Cuiabá up 6%, and Seguri up 6%. The increase was partially offset by the 9% lower production from Kibale due mainly to lower tons in grade. Sukari contributed 129,000 ounces in its second full quarter, firmly establishing its role as one of the top producers. Abuasi delivered strong 71,000 ounces in Q2 of 2025, a 31% year-on-year increase as grade improved and production ramped up steadily. Siguri continued its strong operating performance from Q1, achieving 85,000 ounces in Q2, 5,000 higher year-on-year. supported by improved throughput and recoveries. Idiopreme experienced a challenging quarter with production down due to lower grades at a Joppa and processing of lower grade stockpiles. Total cash costs for managed ops increased by 6%, stemming from continued inflation and a higher gold price linked royalties. These cost pressures were partially offset by full asset potential, operational excellence, and the addition of Sukari to the portfolio. All in sustaining costs at managed operations remained more or less flat in real terms. On a nominal basis, ASIC increased by 4%, reflecting inflationary pressures and higher royalties. We remain focused on strong cost discipline, driving operational efficiencies, and prudent capital allocations. These results reflect another strong performance from the business. Earnings and free cash flow more than doubled, driven by continued cost discipline, a 21% increase in gold production and the higher average gold price. Adjusted EBITDA rose 111% year on year to 1.44 billion. The jump in both gold price and sales volumes drove this increase. This was partly offset by higher total cash costs, which reflects higher volumes, inflation, and those royalty costs linked to gold price. In addition, adjusted EBITDA was also impacted by planned costs to manage legacy tailings facilities in Brazil in line with our ICMM commitments and the care and maintenance costs at our CDS operation. Basic earnings rose to 669 million from 253 million a year earlier. Net cash flow from operating activities was up 142% to just over a billion dollars, reflecting improved operating fundamentals and cash conversion. Free cash flow of 535 million was more than double last year's number. Adjusted net debt fell 92% versus June 2024, reducing net debt to EBITDA to almost zero. significantly increasing our financial flexibility. Our aim remains to close the valuation gap with our North American peers by sustaining operational improvements, maximizing cash conversion, extending mine life and maintaining disciplined capital allocation. Our cash cost performance continues to highlight the progress we are making to strengthen our position on the cost curve. Group total cash costs were $1,266 an ounce in Q2, 8% higher year on year due to the macro factors I described earlier. You can see from the chart on the controllables that Kibale's performance affected our overall cash cost position by around $18 an ounce. And we managed to claw back most of this through a strong performance from our managed operations. If we pause for a moment to talk about royalties, again, as Alberto mentioned, we view as a good cost. We continue to see royalties move in lockstep with the gold price, which in turn ensures that our host governments and communities feel the direct benefit from our improved operations and the stronger gold price. A useful rule of thumb as you work through your models is that for every $100 per ounce move in the gold price causes roughly just around $5 an ounce corresponding move in cash costs linked to royalties. Full asset potential continues to play an important role for us in mitigating the ongoing pressure on our costs. Group ASIC rose 7%. while ASIC for managed operations increased by just 4%, demonstrating continued strength in delivery of our sustaining capital program. We remain focused on converting higher gold prices into stronger earnings and free cash flow, which rose to 535 million in Q2 2025, up from 215 million in the prior year. The stronger gold price gave us a $700 million impact. Higher gold sales driven by Gaeta and Seguri and the contribution from Sicari added another $353 million to free cash flow. Operating cost increases of $216 million reflect targeted investments in asset integrity and inflation linked inputs. The $140 million working capital outflow reflects a combination of normal operating cycle effects, seasonal timing issues, and a few one-off items. Receivables absorbed $145 million, driven by the timing of gold sales, particularly at Sukari, VAT claims at Gaeta, Idiprem, and Abuasi, tax-related prepayments in Australia. Inventories released 19 million mainly driven, mainly related to inventory and process and payables absorbed 14 million with the biggest component being the payment of our landholder duties in Australia linked to our 2023 redomicile. Capital expenditure rose in line with plan and reflects the integration of Sukari reinforcing our commitment to sustaining and growing our asset base. You'll see the 150 million in dividends to non-controlling interests reflecting the strong performance from Sukari and the consequent payments to our partner, Emra in Egypt. The second graph illustrates free cash flow margin over time. It has our free cash flow return as a percentage of revenue with the profile demonstrating improvement in returns as the gold price has increased over the last 18. This strong year-on-year expansion reflects improved operating cash flow and disciplined capital allocation across the portfolio. We maintained a strong liquidity position and a robust balance sheet during the quarter, underpinned by continued financial discipline. Adjusted net debt decreased to 92 million at the 30th of June 2025, with the adjusted net debt to EBITDA ratio improving to 0.02 times from 0.21 times at the 31st of December 2024, reflecting strong cash generation and a more efficient capital structure. Liquidity remains substantial at approximately 3.4 billion, including 2 billion in cash and cash equivalents, allowing us to fund our pipeline, return capital to shareholders and navigate commodity price cycles with confidence. We are pleased to reaffirm our 2025 guidance on all metrics. Production is slightly second half weighted. And with that, I'll now hand back over to Alberto to wrap up.

Thank you, Gillian. Before we close, I want to take a moment to reflect on the broader picture. The business is in good health. We've made tangible progress on every one of our strategic priorities. More importantly, we're operating safely, and that's a credit to every person across our business. We're delivering consistent growth from a portfolio anchored by high margin tier one assets backed by a strong pipeline of options. One, our cash costs and all the sustaining costs in real terms have risen by just under 2%, while our year average is significantly higher than 15%. That gap matters, especially in a strong gold price environment, and it speaks to the resilience we've built into this business. Financially, we're in an exceptionally strong position, no leverage, strong liquidity, long-dated maturities. While we've rebuilt the business between end 2021 and Q1 of this year, we paid $1.2 billion in dividends, and at the same time, we've ensured our assets and growth projects are properly capitalized. Our new dividend policy will ensure shareholders see the fruits of the improved operating cadence, a higher gold price, and much higher cash flow we're seeing now. We've been included in the Russell indexes, increasing visibility and relevance amongst US institutional investors. For as long as this company has been in existence, we've struggled with the disconnect of our production size and relative size to our North American peers. We know that this isn't the result of a single thing, but rather the cumulative effect of a number of factors. we've gone about systematically addressing the issues over the past three years. Today, the fundamentals of the business are strong and the outlook even better. We're doing what we promised and we're taking meaningful strides to achieve and reach our full potential. And as you screen the valuation metrics, We believe Anglo Gold Ashanti continues to offer an attractive investment proposition, strong cash flows, a shareholder centric approach to returns, market leading yield and evaluation that is far from demanding. With that, I'll take your questions.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star and then two to leave the question queue. To the participants who have joined via the webcast, you're welcome to submit your questions in the text box provided on your screen. While we wait for the question queue to build, I will hand over for a question from the webcast.

Thanks, Judith. And at the moment, there is only one, but I'll start with that, which is, as you look at further options for capital returns, how do you think about share buybacks versus debt buybacks? And is there a risk buying back shares at the current price?

Thanks, Stuart. We've just declared the highest dividend in memory uh we went it as an exception to the policy the policy is that the 50 is at the end of the year because of the strong results it was uh agreed with the board that we would anticipate this and that's where the we have the 465 million dollars of dividends for the h1 uh we've said already that we will again contemplate uh options end of the year, but we'll analyze that when the time comes. Right now, we're again happy to be able to provide this massive dividend, and at the end of the year, we'll see where we land.

Thanks, Alberto. There's one more that's just popped up, which is could you just talk a little bit to your view on when that value gap with the North American peers will close?

It has already closed with probably the largest of the peers. And so we'll just, I think it has closed in some of them 100%, in others two-thirds. So we just, at this stage, I think that that is more not an issue anymore. You're seeing Look at the returns and you compare it with others that we provided, and they're probably as high as anybody else. Look at the cash flows. So I think we're really in a very solid position right now. But we won't stop. I think that we are very excited by the full asset potential program, and it's the potential to keep improving the business. So we will just keep going. And with the same momentum, and the same inertia that we have been doing in the past years. Let me probably just say we are very excited about what we'll see in Sukari. I won't talk about numbers because we prefer to talk about what we deliver them. I'm just saying we're very excited. So, yeah, keep tuned.

Great. Thanks, Alberto. I think, Judith, let's go to the phone lines and then we'll come back to the webcast afterwards.

Lovely. Thank you. Our next question comes from Adrian Hammond of SPG Securities. Please go ahead.

Good day, Alberto and Gillian. Thanks for the presentation. Firstly for Alberto, just to get a better understanding of the benefits of these indices, you've included yourself into three new indices for Russell. Do you have a sense of the capital that attracts the quantum, and how does it yet float?

I know it's about indices, so the expert is Stuart and Yatish, so I will hand it over to them. I didn't understand the last part, but maybe you did, Stuart.

Thanks, Alberto, and thanks, Adrian. I think, you know, obviously the June 27th was the day that we entered those indices. And if you go and look at the volume charts on the AU line in the stock, you will have seen we did about 30 million shares that day. Actually, your teacher is saying closer to 40 million. So there was a big sort of entry into the stock. And from what we understand by the people who know these things is that the real sort of gain will come in the months that follow as that, you know, the passives are in and that as the actives, you know, who benchmark against us, Russell indices started start to come in. So a really good start and, but we hope it's just the beginning.

Thanks.

And if I could ask another question for Julia and just to get, sense of how we should think about working capital in two age certainly in one edge it was quite a draw um should we be thinking some of this reverses out and there was also quite a few ones of costs relating to tax and uh restructuring um is that now a largely done or should we expect to see some more in 2h and then if you could just remind us about the kabali shareholder loan how are all the monies from the assets split in between that loan and dividends and where does that balance stand with the low fees thanks so i think and thanks adrian for your question your line is a little um fuzzy so um i'll address the first part of your question which i think was in relation to

working capital build in the first half and what we're anticipating for the second half. It really is just a timing impact. It's largely driven by our receivables, as you will have seen in the financials. It's predominantly receivables at Sukari, actually. So, of course, they're just embedding into our systems and processes, and we effectively didn't get the funds for the last shipments yet. out of that asset. And so that's the timing impact. And then there's some increased VAT, as I mentioned. You'll look and you'll see that inventories and payables are actually relatively flat. We would want to see that unwind of receivables in the second half and maintain that sort of pressure and tension on the other elements of working capital as well. So not anticipating any sort of further drawdowns I think your second question was related to Kibale loan. Yes. Okay. So I suppose the key message there is we received 18 million in dividend and 77 million loan repayment for the first half. When we think about those contributions, they're effectively the return on the EAU. So the structure of whether it's a loan or a dividend is kind of irrelevant to us in the context of cash receivable. And then there's no more taxes expected from any restructuring. The landholder duty that we paid in Australia was the last outflow that we're expecting from restructuring.

That's clear. Thanks so much.

Thank you. The next question comes from Josh Wolfson of RBC. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. A couple questions. First off on the capital, spending was light in the first quarter. It was an improvement in the second quarter. yeah it's still the overall spending in the first half of the year is uh relatively light versus the full year guide just wondering what we should be thinking about there in the second half and if the full year numbers still are applicable um would you like me to answer well i'll i'll just start and then i'll uh there is

I think we are keeping the guidance. We expect a much higher number in the third quarter, just from we're acquiring capital equipment in several of the assets, and you'll see that in the third quarter. So I think we're keeping the guidance as is. Gillian, any more?

Yeah, that's exactly right. So I think there's a little bit of lumpy spend in quarter three for fleet replacements. As Alberto mentioned, we're maintaining guidance at this point in time very nicely. Yeah, that's on track.

Thanks. Second question, you know, I commend the company on cleaning up some of the portfolio with the non-core assets. You know, there's been some articles in the press and views out there, you know, potentially about, you know, either consolidation or the divestiture of some of the company's non-core assets. 100% owned assets, specifically Tropicana and maybe Kibali. Any views there on how the company sees those assets in their portfolio today?

I haven't seen anything about Kibali, funny enough, but obviously it's a tier one fabulous asset. Why would we? And Tropicana, look, we don't comment on market speculation. I can say that we routinely receive inquiries about many of our assets. But I'll probably repeat what I've said in the past. Tropicana, Sunrise play a very important part in our portfolio in balancing between developed and developing countries. And at this stage, nothing is changing in that regard.

Go ahead. And then, you know, last question on Arthur. You know, there's been a couple of transactions on the royalty side, you know, that from my perspective would support some very, you know, constructive views on what the outlook is for the assets. You know, information so far is pretty light here. I'm just wondering if you know, there's any kind of indications on, you know, what the thoughts are for the, you know, for the production rate, you know, and similarly, you know, when can we expect to see maybe some more official numbers for the assets? Is that something late this year or earlier next year? Thank you.

Okay, so thank you for that. We did notice, I did read, and by the way, I asked Chad GPT to, try to calculate the value of what they were thinking. And I'm very excited by that, because that is a quarter of the GDPR and obviously in the tens of billions. So we're very excited by their views, but obviously they don't have our views, but our views are also very exciting. Working on the pre-feasibility study, we will finish it this year. I don't know if we will have time for the November results, but if not, we will discuss them in the February results, where we are with the pre-visibility study. I can tell you that the more we see about Arthur, the more we are excited by it. I just saw a picture of results of 50 meters and 50 grams a ton and other sort of results. So this will definitely, without any doubt, will be the preeminent asset in the portfolio in the 30s of Anglo Gold Ashanti. And the production numbers will be very surprising. But let me leave it at that for now.

Great. I'm very much looking forward to that February update. I hope your chat GPT is calibrated correctly. Thank you.

Well, the perplexity did the same.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Joseph Rigor of Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Hi, Abhilter and team. Thanks for taking the questions. So, most of my stuff was already answered, but just kind of following up on the extra capital spending in Q3 with the recession, you know, refresh the fleet. Should we see any benefit in Q4 and onwards from that reinvestment on the cash cost side?

So maybe I'll quick if you if you like, Alberto, I'll take it. I think the fleet replacement strategy is obviously kind of fairly well thought through and long dated in advance. So that's really to support the 2026 plan. The good thing is in the last 18 months, we've been able to build out a sort of a group fleet management strategy that our CTO takes a lead on. And so we're managing the fleet management replacement strategy really, really well. And we're happy with that. But that spend in Q3 is related to 2026 production volumes.

Okay. And then... go ahead yeah go ahead please uh yeah just just following on that so so but we could see some benefit in 26 then we've guided 26 volumes for now earlier in the year so yes look uh if you want to cash cost and upsides apart from full asset potential

So what hit us particularly hard this semester was Hibali. They were 20,000 ounces below 2024, and their cash costs were up 40%. And so at some point, we hope that they will return to sort of the better production days that they had in the past, and that will certainly help a big hit, a 40% increase. So I would expect, again, as they do better, and hopefully they will, that should be a benefit. The other one where I would expect a better improvement is edubrine. Eduprim, we talked about last time, had issues around the JV, too protracted, the uncertainty that that implies. We've now taken control. There's new management coming in. We've rearranged technical support. And I'm excited. It's not in six months, but probably in a year to 18 months, you'll also see the benefits from that. So there's still a lot of the impacts on the cash costs that will allow us to continue this trend of basically flat in real terms or even slightly below.

Okay. All right. Thanks. I'll turn it over and congrats on a great quarter. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Raj Ray of BMO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, Alberto, Julian and team. I've got a couple of questions. First, great production results. Good to see the consistency continue. Comparing costs for Q2 over Q1, and Jillian, if I use your metric, gold price was up around $400 an ounce. That's $20 an ounce increasing costs just driven by gold price. But your production was up almost 9%, so 68,000 ounces. Q2 over Q1. So I'm wondering why the total, if I look at the total cash costs, I was expecting it to be lower than Q1, but it's slightly higher. Anything else other than royalties that impacting that?

No. Well, I'll let Gillian go, but I first talk about managed operations. Uh, so on all in sustaining, they were up 4%. I, I, I think it's, uh, obviously we got the benefits of Sukari increase and everything, but 11% of increase in inflation and royalties, it's just, it's just difficult to compensate. Oh, I, I actually think it's, it's, uh, it's, it is a good result giving those two, uh, forces. Now there's other countervailing, but, uh, It's just massive, just the $60 an ounce in royalties. It's a good cost, but it's still significant. But what else would you have, Julia?

I think it's well covered, Alberto. They're actually very close in terms of like for like. Of course, there's the production impact, and that's offset by those macro factors and a little bit of Caballi's challenged performance in the quarter. That's it.

Okay, that's good. And then Alberto, with respect to the Augusta acquisition, does it help in your permitting, given that you already have a permitted project there? You've got the old bullfrog mine. I mean, are you expecting any benefits with respect to getting not bullfrog permitted sooner? And then Um, do you see further consolidation opportunities in Southern Nevada? Uh, after this, I think you had now have the landmass that he needed.

I'm here with Marcelo, so I'll let him. Thanks, Alberto. Uh, in case of Nevada, our projects continue to evolve. We are increasingly viewing them as a cohesive region rather than individual operations. In this context, the acquisition of Augusta represents a logical next step in consolidating our strategic position in the region. And more specifically, Mark Bullfrog can potentially be considered a satellite deposit of North Bullfrog, while still in proximity to reward makes a compelling case for the two to be developed and mined intended. Obviously, the big prize in the region, as you know, is hardware, and all those projects will be scheduling time as values shows. Furthermore, this is an opportunity to further consolidate the region with unfettered access across the footprint. The acquisition allows us to revisit our plans for the surface infrastructure layout, which can be further optimized. Yeah, I think that was a very good deal, and it's going to help us move the project forward and having a commanding presence in the district.

Thanks, Alberto. That's great, Marcelo. If I may, Marcelo, a quick follow-up with respect to the whole permitting situation in the country right now. With the current administration, are you seeing things Differently, are things progressing faster than what you've seen over the last three years?

Look, they are not progressing quite fast quite yet. But look, based on the latest information we have available, we anticipate that the record of decision from BLM will be at the end of 2026 for North Bullfrog. We are working collaboratively with BLM and the administration is involved and we really look forward to progressing this opportunity because the administration does recognize that it will bring significant investment and good paying jobs that can benefit the region. We haven't seen any process changes at this point that we can confirm that has changed those timelines for permit, but we'll surely let you know as soon as you have new information.

Let me add this. There is no doubt that the conversation we've had at higher levels with the administration are extremely constructive, and they are determined to accelerate things. that need to be appointed and all of that. But we're quite confident that this will definitely boost our development in the region.

Okay, that's great, Alberto. Thank you. That's it from me.

Thank you, Rosh. Our next question comes from Tania Jokoskoic of Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Oh, great. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for taking my three questions. I'm going to start still with Nevada. Just looking at your slides with the planned view of the property, understand that there's a lot of drill rigs drilling the Arthur Gold Project. When that pre-feasibility comes out late this year or early next, Should I be thinking of a bigger deposit than the 16 million ounces of all resources that you're going to model off, or should I be thinking that it's going to be portion of that 16 million ounces that goes into that study?

Okay, Marcelo, yeah. Thanks for the question. In the case of Arthur, We expect that the reserves or the farm is going to be less than that number. In general, we have the resource and the reserves will consume part of that. This is a normal process. It's going to be a really big number. We are now doing field drilling there so that we can get to reserves at the end of the year. So the team is really pushing really hard to get to the end of the year, finish the feasibility study, and be able to declare reserves. It's only then that we're going to have an idea of how large that pit's going to be. But we anticipate that in time, we are going to be able to consume great part of those ounces that we have identified so far.

I probably would add that with Everything that we have and we've really consolidated the district for many decades, four decades or more, and we haven't explored it all. So I would just say we are focusing on Arthur, let's say, in the first 15 or 20 years. And it's as I said, what we see is quite extraordinary. But this will be around for decades at very high numbers.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that we will have a reserve, which is obviously going to be smaller than the 16 million ounces overall. I just wondered if we were going to have an increase in that resource as well, plus a declared reserve. So just trying to clarify that.

Yeah, we're going to have to wait to let you know when the drilling finishes, but we expect increases for sure. I would expect increases, yes.

Yeah, okay, perfect. And just on the acquisition of Augusta, just so that I understand, you're viewing the Bullfrog project as a satellite for North Bullfrog. So you'll be using the infrastructure at North Bullfrog. Is that what I understood?

We don't have that definition right now, right? The acquisition, we just made the acquisition. As was mentioned, we have optionality and we can choose to put that project before, you know, sequence the way you see better. But, you know, we are very focused on getting the permit for North Bullfrog at the moment. And that's the next step for the region, why we continue to develop ARPU. If Bullfrog comes, which will be at later stage at the end of the North Bullfrog life, because we also have all the time for permits and things like that. But it is something that gives us optionality for North Bullfrog. And we are going to be sequencing as required.

Okay. Thank you for that. I just want to move to... the financial side, if I could, maybe for Jillian. Just wanted to ask on the capital allocation so that I understand it correctly. So you've got this 50% of your cash flow, free cash flow being paid back as a top-up at the end of the year. You've done it a bit earlier. As we go into 2026, I think you mentioned that we'd be reviewing maybe share buybacks, buying back some of your debt. Should I be thinking that this would be in addition to the 50% of the free cash flow, or should it be part of that as a total overall capital return?

I'll start there, Tania. It's in addition, obviously. We would expect that if the gold price continues where it is and operational performance continues where it is, we would end up the year after the 50% payout with positive cash. And so then we will contemplate options of what to do with that. That's what we are referring to.

Okay. Thank you for the clarification. And if I could squeeze in one technical question. I really like the performance at GATA. Could someone just maybe explain to me what exactly is happening at that operation? I'm just trying to understand if it's grade related, if it's less dilution, but it's doing quite well and just wanted to have a little bit more on that one if possible.

Yeah, well, it was, yeah, if you look at the comparison H1 to H1, I think Kata was 30,000 ounces more and Obawasi was 35,000 ounces more. There was, I think it's just, all the four sources of ore are performing very well. And we expect it to be sustainable. But I think it's just better operational performance. a full asset potential also has a role.

Yeah, we, thanks Alberto, we did work quite a lot at GATA in the processing side. So we are getting pretty good recovers right now. So changes we are making in the plant, improvements we are making in the processing plant as a result of full asset quotation have been showing really, really, really strong results. As well as mine productivity, we have improved quite a lot our development rates and the general performance at GATA. So we are really pretty happy with the performance

I think that also better grades just in the semester. But look, it's, I think, grade improved from 2.6 to 3.2. But it's a combination of everything. We were actually Yeah, everything, this way that was really constructed when Richard was there, Jordanson, of having four sources of ore and having optionalities paying off.

Well, perfect. It's a real Ferrari. Congratulations.

Yeah. Thank you. At this stage, I will hand back for questions from the webcast. Thank you.

Thanks, Judith. Alberto, maybe I'll just take these in no particular order, but could you give your current long-term goal price in evaluating projects and M&A activity? And are there any assets that you'd be interested in that could form part of your core assets?

Look, we're currently using the same that we have, I think, for research, which is $1,900. So we want to make sure that any project that we pursue makes decent returns at 1900. Obviously, if the price is higher, much the better. So that's probably the answer there. The second part is what on M&A? What is the second part of the question?

I think just generally, have you got your eye on any assets that could form part of your core assets?

Probably, as I said before, we're focused mainly internally. There is a BD team whose job is to look at things. It's always very difficult. As I've said, it took us a long time to do 18 months to get to Sudari. We're very happy with it, but that's always a difficult process. So people always look, but the main focus of the company is internally, and we have wonderful opportunities.

Alberto, I'm going to combine a few here, but just generally, can you give an update on Oboasi, how the underhand drift and fill is going, how the sluss is going?

So, as you saw, the 70,000, more than 70 in the quarter, we did well. If you look at underhand, it was about 9% higher quarter-on-quarter. Very important development. That is crucial for the future of Oboasi development, quarter-on-quarter up 21%. So it's just what does that mean that the big investment in the KMS and the whole project is beginning to pay the dividends. The other interesting probably development, we have two pieces of equipment. They're called ECL. We've got one, and then we have now a second one. And they are having a lot of success in the Schloss methods, mining method in areas that would be sort of gray between Underhand and Schloss, and they're performing very well. So we are happy with the development. It's still like a work in progress. Oboassi, we are confident that we will be within the range for this year, and more importantly, that we'll be able to make the additional jump in 26 to go within the guided ranges that we did for 26.

Great. Thanks, Alberto. The next one is, given the top-up or the true-up on the dividend for the half-year, would you anticipate moving now to half-yearly payments on the dividend, or are you going to sort of retain the policy of annual subject to discretionary changes along the way?

The latter. Yeah, we have a policy. I think it's working. We don't like to change them. This was just But yeah, the plan is to keep the ladder, to keep the policy as is.

Great. Alberto, final question is just on decarbonization, given the strength of the balance sheet, given the strong cash flow, are you tempted at all to accelerate or do more decarbs than the target that you've published? Or are you happy with the pipeline of projects and the pace that you've got going forward?

We're happy with the pace that we are in the pipeline of projects. You can see that, for example, the Tropicana is just an incredible sort of what we did over there. But let me repeat one thing that I, how we view this. I say, well, we do well by doing good. All of the projects are NPV positive. And so, yes, they combine the two purposes and we will keep with that optic going with the plan. There's no need to accelerate it at this stage.

Got it. Alberto, I think that's it. Would you like to just make a couple of closing comments?

Yes, thank you. Look, the momentum is good and it's always something that you are keen to maintain. We're happy with the leadership across all the regions of the world. We didn't talk much about Americas, but Americas performed very well. Cuiabá, at some point, we talked about that it's a tier one. It's a truly tier one. It's probably, it's not in the half year. It is the highest free cash flow per ounce around, we expect around $1,400 per ounce of free cash flow after taxes in Cuiabá. So they're performing well. Australia's performing well. And well, we talked about the other assets in Africa. So it's about keeping the momentum, full asset potential still remains the main game. And there is a lot of additional potential in the portfolio. And that's it. Keep the momentum safely and effectively and efficiently. And that's what we intend to do. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's event. Thank you for joining us. Anyone now disconnect your line.