AngloGold Ashanti Plc

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Anglo-Gold Ashanti Q4 2025 earnings release. All participants will be in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If you should require operator assistance during the conference, please key in 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 welcome everybody to our full year and Q4 results call. As always, Alberta and Gillian will walk through the presentation, but you do have other members of our senior leadership team that'll be on hand for the Q&A afterwards as needed. I direct you all to the safe harbour statement at the beginning of the presentation, which has got important information regarding forward-looking statements. Without any further ado, I'll hand over to Albert.

Thank you, Stuart, and welcome everyone. Let's start, as always, with safety. We achieved our lowest ever lowest total recordable injury frequent rate at 0.97. 0.97 injuries per million hours worked. This was the first of a number of records set last year, and by far the most important. It is another key milestone on our safety journey. Again, outperforming. by far the ACM member average. Our main aim remains to ensure complacency doesn't creep in, that we never stop learning from our mistakes, and that we are diligent in applying these lessons. This morning, I heard a podcast on our results on AI. It did a great job, but one thing that caught my attention, they talked about safety, but then they did tie it to the next part of the presentation. Such lowers of levels of safety lead to operational excellence. It means you have more plant maintenance. It means your processing plants are working like they should. You could never achieve the level of operating excellence without operation, the safety statistics that we have. So it is for us our highest priority, but it also leads the way to operational excellence. I'm proud to report a strong set of numbers for Q4 and the full year. We set new records in cash flow earnings and dividend declarations. In the final quarter, we generated free cash flow of more than a billion dollars. That's the most ever and more than three times what we generated in the same quarter last year. As a result, we've declared $875 million to shareholders as a dividend in Q4 alone. What we can't control, we continue to control very well. That's clear, especially when you look at our managed operations with higher contributions from Sukari, Oboasi, Sigiri, Gaita, Terra Vanguardia. It's worth highlighting that we also produced 3.7 million ounces of silver at CVSA in Argentina. On the other side of the ledger, we saw lower production from Induprim and Sunrise Dam. Oboasi delivered a steady on-plan performance, with improvements in recoveries and tons treated. Total costs for managed operations were only up 5% on year. This is the fourth year in a row where our cash costs are lower than inflation and royalties. So, basically, we have had, in real terms, flat cash costs since 2021. The only company in the sector to have been able to achieve that. The cash flow of almost 3 billion was up 204% year-on-year, adjusted EBITDA growth 129%, and headline earnings were up 186%. The balance sheet is in excellent shape. Even after record dividend payments, we were able to turn 567 million of net debt at the end of 2024 to 879 million of net cash at the end of 2025. We have ample liquidity and no material near short-term maturities. We've been clear that shareholders who have patient, have been patient through the commodity cycle must see direct benefit from this improved performance that requires the guardrails of a clear capital allocation framework and a competitive dividend policy as a reminder we are one year into a new dividend policy it provides for a set of quarterly payouts of 12 and a half cents per share or around 63 million dollars It also provides for an annual true-up payment, bringing the payout to 50% of free cash flow. In Q2, we took the decision to make an additional payment of $350 million. That takes our Q4 dividend to $875 million and our total payout for 2025 to almost $2 billion. That approach takes us to a net cash zero at the end of 2025. It speaks to the strength of the cash flows from our business and to our confidence in the outlook as we pay out substantially all of the cash we generate this year. want to emphasize this point because that's always in the questions what are you going to do are you going to be too net cash positive and i think this is a statement of our confidence in the future but the fact that we bring net cash to zero at the end of 25 we will see what happens this year we will see what we do at the end of the next year but i think that we have set significant precedence in terms of how we deal with quarterly dividends. And I think this is another milestone for us. With Oboassi continuing to wrap up our tier one assets, now account for more than 70% of production and 80% of reserves. The 2025 results reflect the first full year consolidation of Sukari's operation with a significant impact on both our financial and operating performance. At the same time, our tier two assets continue to deliver strong results with margins well ahead of where our tier one mines were a year ago. A healthy margin and exceptional cash flow leverage are visible across the portfolio, reflecting an active management approach. Completion of the Cerro Grande sale on December 1st, 2025 will ensure we can further sharpen our focus on the core business. At Aboasi, we delivered what we said we would. producing 266 000 ounces up 20 year on year the result was supported by investment in ventilation material handling and better equipment availability that were working hard to sustain it also showed meaningful progress on our technical proof of concept underhand drift and field is working in the high grade zones and lateral development which is key to underhand drift and fill is advancing We were up actually 34% between Q1 of 2025 and Q4 of 2025 in lateral development. And that sets us in very good stage for our forecast and guidance for 2026. We aim to grow production again in 2026 to over 300,000 ounces, alongside a commensurate increase in cash flow contribution Just on the side, this Oboassi produced about $1,300 of free cash flow per ounce in 2025, which was double, for example, what Kibali, our non-managed operation, produced in 2025. It's quite a turn of events from what was happening four years ago. Sukari is a Tier 1 operation by every measure. Record delivery, strong margins, and exceptional operational stability. It also has a world-class operating team that has shown itself to be hungry to improve the asset and to benefit from being part of a larger business. They are thriving in a more competitive and supportive environment. 2025 was a record for Sukali, delivering its best-ever production and enormous cash flow. In fact, when you look at the net acquisition cost for sentiment after stripping out the sale proceeds for ABC and Oropo and the cash on the balance sheet, we generated almost a third of the purchase in our first year as owners. And the best is yet to come. The integration is fully complete. The full asset potential team has completed its first pass. We have identified a raft of opportunities to increase value from almost every perspective. We see opportunities, the most significant expanding the underground from 1.2 million tons moved to 2.3 on higher grade ore. We just need to develop a new portal and expand the fleet and we will talk about this in another asset, the impact of the most important idea that was uncovered in the full asset potential. But there were others, a small heap leach project, improved feed efficiencies, and better recoveries in the plan, just to name a few. From a geological perspective, the ore body is still open with potential to add ounces, and we will be increasing our budget for exploration, brownfield exploration, during 2026. Essentially, there's opportunity wherever we look. While we generated record cash flow, we are aggressively drilling to secure tomorrow. It is worth remembering that we have the industry's top exploration team. They continue to deliver exceptional exploration results across our portfolio, replacing depletion and upgrading resource confidence. This slide breaks down our mineral reserve numbers. We had another very strong return from our brownfield exploration program across a range of facets. We added 10 million new ounces of reserves, more than three times our depletion. And yes, Nevada added 4.9 with the first time reserve from Alpher, but it wasn't the only one. We also showed a good spread from our operating assets, about two more million after depletion, with net additions at Geita, Oboassi, Iduprim, Cuyaba, and Kibali. At Geita, which has been a particular focus for us, most of the 1.3 million ounces are in the open pit. Mining is a long-term game, and it's important to zoom out to look at the returns over time. Over the past few years, we've added almost 23 million ounces at an average cost of about $47 an ounce. That value is hard to beat. The holy grail for any gold company is a Tier 1 discovery in a low-risk jurisdiction with long life and strong growth potential. Our Arthur Gold Project is just that. What started only a few years ago A few years ago, as an ambitious exploration thesis in the BT district has now evolved into one of the largest and most significant greenfield is gold discoveries of this century in the US. Today, it transitions from a discovery into a major high return project. The first time mineral reserve of 4.9 million ounces is just the top of the iceberg, given the much bigger resource in the project area. I probably remind everyone that we complemented our original land position with three acquisitions that were very timely from Corvus, Coor and Augusta. And that really allowed us to consolidate what is probably the most important discovery and land position in Nevada in decades. Let's take a step back and look at the project. Arthur is a fully consolidated district scale opportunity comprising the Merlin and Silicon deposits. It's a large-scale continuous gold system. It features broadly disseminated mineralization alongside high-grade vein system with thickness reaching about 150 meters. The mineralized footprint is extensive, measuring approximately 2.7 kilometers by 1.3 kilometers. The deposit, which is largely oxide, is highly amenable to both mining methods and conventional processing. We see a clear geological connection between Merlin and Silicon. There's significant room for continued mineral resource expansion to the west of Merlin and down deep and to the north at Silicon. In fact, Merlin remains completely open to the west and south, and we have a drilling program underway to support further resource exploration. The study envisages a conventional oxide gold mill with carbon and leach. It features a three-stage crushing circuit with high-pressure grinding roll, along with a heat leach circuit for lower-grade material. It is as simple as it gets. No autoclaves, no double refractory ore, and so many of the others that is common in Nevada. So I'm sorry to say it's just a very simple project. This will be a conventional open pit operation using large-scale equipment. The fleet will include electric rope shovels with 60 cubic meter buckets and ultra class old trucks. Our pit facing is designed to target higher value near surface material early in the mine life to accelerate payback. The width of the ore zones and simple pit geometry will allow for wide mining benches and highly efficient straightforward mining layouts. Let's look at some of the main highlights of the study, noting that a lot more detail will be available on March 26 when we release our technical report summary. We start with the initial probable mineral reserve of 4.9 million ounces for Merlin, calculated at $1,950 an ounce. That's 88 million tons at 1.75 grams per ton. We expect to produce roughly 4.5 million ounces over an initial nine-year life of mine. Average production is around half a million ounces low, with this edging up towards 800,000 ounces in the early years. We estimate cash cost of around $780 an ounce, all-in sustaining at $950 an ounce. Initial project capital is estimated to be around $3.6 billion. noting that normal margin of error for a PFS stage study. Even using only these initial reserves and at long-term prices, which allows us to make an economic case and to move ahead with permitting, returns at this stage are well north of 20%. Obviously, as we will see in the next slides, the total returns of the project will be much, much higher. When you factory spot prices, okay, well, obviously, the returns are higher. When you consider the full resource potential, they're higher again. This project has, by almost any measure, the potential to be a defining asset for us and for Southern Nevada because the Merlin Reserve is mainly oxide. It avoids the technical complexity and the risk of refractory processing. Crucially, visibility-level environment, hydrological and community baseline studies are already underway. This would be highly competitive asset even with only the initial reserve in my life. But while the 4.9 of reserve is impressive on its own, there's an additional 6.5 million of mineral reserves at Merlin, and we are actively exploring the potential conversion in additional reserves. Actually, we plan for this year to target an additional 1.4 million ounces in line with the online drilling program. And there's significantly more in the years ahead, both from our defined resource base and from the ongoing exploration campaign in the area, which remains incredibly prospective. And by the way, all of these bubble charts that you see, we wouldn't envision at this stage additional CapEx required. We are essentially drawing from our current record cash flows to invest in a marquee asset to anchor our portfolio well into the 2050s. With that, I will hand over to Gillian to work through a record financial results and how a robust balance sheet supports this growth.

Thank you, Alberto. Strong cash conversion was a feature in 2025, ensuring the stronger gold price translated to record free cash flow of 2.9 billion, almost three times the 956 million generated in 2024. This increase underscores both our improved quality of earnings and stronger operating leverage where the business is converting the better price and operating performance into cash at a significantly higher rate. It also reflects a sustained deliberate focus on cost discipline, working capital management, capital allocation, reinforcing our ability to generate cash through the cycle. In 2025, our cost profile remained under pressure. The tailwind offered by lower energy prices with oil down around 14% year on year was offset by realized inflation across our operating footprint. The standout feature of the year, of course, was the step change in gold price, which averaged $3,468 an ounce, a 45% surge over the 2024 average. This change represents a fundamental upward shift from the 1800 to 2400 announced range we've seen over the last number of years. Production increased 16% year on year to 3.1 million ounces in 2025, reflecting solid execution across our core assets. Managed operations were up 19% to 2.8 million ounces, driven mainly by the addition of Sukkari and a 20% increase from Aboassi. Gaeta, CBSA and Seguri also contributed, and this was partially offset by Idiprem, Sunrise Dam and the removal of MSG from the portfolio. Cash costs from our managed operations were 5% higher at $1,252 an ounce, mainly due to higher royalties and inflation, both market-driven factors outside of our control. Nonetheless, costs were well contained through disciplined cost management, the benefit from Sukari and the continued delivery of full asset potential initiatives. ASIC for managed operations rose 5% to $1,751 an ounce, reflecting planned reinvestment in sustaining capital, partially offset by higher goal sales. 2025 was a record year, delivering a step change in performance and translating operational execution into record cash generation. Earnings and free cash flow more than doubled, reflecting the 16% increase in production and a 45% increase in gold price. Adjusted EBITDA was up 129% to 6.3 billion and basic earnings of 2.6 billion were up from 1 billion in 2024. We saw a 143% increase in net cash from operating activities, 4.8 billion, even after accounting for higher taxes flowing from increased profitability. And as previously mentioned, free cash flow was up almost three times to 2.9 billion, even after funding all capex and distributions to our JV partners. Our balance sheet has been well and truly transformed. We entered 2026 with almost a billion dollars in net cash, a big turnaround from the 567 million of net debt a year earlier. Our focus is unchanged. Maintain discipline, drive operational improvements, maximize cash conversion and ensure high quality returns through the cycle. Let's have a quick look at our guidance scorecard for 2025. This performance demonstrates the consistency and discipline of our operating model across our 10 assets. We again delivered within guidance on the two core benchmarks of reliability, gold production, and sustaining capital. While ASIC and total cash costs were marginally above the guided range, the variance was driven by higher royalties linked to higher gold price. We successfully managed controllable inputs maintaining operational delivery and protecting our competitive position despite industry-wide headwinds. Message is straightforward. We delivered on our commitments, stayed disciplined on capital, and further strengthened the resilience of our business. We are clear about isolating the controllable elements of our cost base. This transparency allows us to drive better cost performance. In 2025, cash costs were 7% higher at $1,242 an ounce. That increase was driven mainly by market factors outside of our direct control. Inflation, higher gold price linked royalties, fuel and exchange rates collectively added around $86 an ounce or 7% to that cost base. In addition, the $12 an ounce added by the plant stoppage during Q3 at Seguri was partially offset by better productivity at Tropicana following the 2024 rainfall event. Our managed operations worked really hard to improve the controllable areas of their cost base. Disciplined execution, operational excellence, and the full asset potential program helped to deliver a roughly 1% productivity benefit. This was achieved through higher throughput, better utilization and stronger operating routines. Volumes from Sicari provided another positive tailwind. We remained focused on converting a higher gold price into free cash flow. And in 2025, we did exactly that. We see in the green bars, the price uplift of 3 billion and the higher gold sales volumes of 1 billion. This was primarily from Sicari's inclusion. and strong cash flows from Kibale and the ongoing focus on managing our working capital. The result is clear when you look at the improvements in free cash flows. This came despite higher operating costs driven by a combination of higher volumes, inflation, royalties, some higher contractor rates, and also higher taxes from higher profits. In addition, capital spend stepped up as planned, driven by Sukari's inclusion in the portfolio. Dividends paid to non-controlling interests were also $517 million higher year on year. Again, a feature of Sukari's full year inclusion. The net of these factors was a record free cash flow of 2.9 billion in 2025. In 2025, we generated cash flows from operating activities of 4.9 billion. This cash enabled us to reinvest in the business, strengthen the balance sheet, meet obligations to our JV partners and return value to our shareholders. We invested in sustaining capital, 1.1 billion and 459 million in future growth opportunities. 588 million was returned to our non-controlling joint venture partners and 953 million was used to strengthen the balance sheet as we moved into a net cash position. As Alberto mentioned, we declared an interim dividend of 875 million or 173 US cents per share for the Q4 2025 period. This payout comprises 50% of free cash flow and an additional amount of 350 million, providing additional direct returns to shareholders and highlighting the continued confidence in the outlook for our operating performance and free cash flow generation in 2026. This takes the total dividends for 2025 to a record 1.8 billion or 357 US cents per share. At year end, we had 4.4 billion in liquidity, comprising of 2.9 billion of cash and cash equivalents and the balance of under on facilities in our bank accounts. This balance sheet strength has been achieved while investing in safe, stable, uh production confidently driving projects through our growth pipeline and providing record returns to shareholders let me now take you through our 2026 outlook which is anchored in a portfolio that is performing supported by a clear operating plan and disciplined value-led investment for 2026 we are guiding group gold production of between 2.8 million ounces to 3.17 million ounces. Total cash costs for managed operations are estimated to be between $1,335 an ounce to $1,455 an ounce. This reflects a realistic view of the operating and macro economic environment with the increase for next year comprising around half in royalties and half from expected inflation and foreign currency exchange movements. The guidance comes in a year characterised by higher material movement across both underground and open pit operations. At the same time, we're investing to further strengthen the business and unlock value. Sustaining capital for the group is guided at 1 billion to 1.14 billion. Our continued enhancements of and investments in the Sicari operations are anticipated to maintain the sustaining capital expenditure and managed operations broadly in line with 2025 levels. This is deliberate and valuable, creative, supporting reliability, improving operational flexibility and advancing for less potential program initiatives that are expected to drive productivity gains late from late 26 into 27. We are guiding group non-sustaining capital of 785 million to 835 million. In 2026, the key areas are Nevada, additional waste stripping at Sikari and tailing storage facilities at Abuasi and Seguri. all focused on safeguarding the operating base, creating the flexibility to unlock future production and manage our risks responsibly. Looking into 2027, the continued ramp up out of Boise underpins the uplift in production ounces, while unit costs remain flat in real terms, reflecting the benefits of our cost leadership and productivity programs. We are not relying on the gold price to carry performance. We are building structural competitiveness. Capital allocation remains disciplined. We expect sustaining capital to remain broadly consistent with 2025 and 2026 to support safe, stable operations, while non-sustaining capital increases as we begin the construction of the North Balfour Project. This is exactly how we allocate capital, protect and sustain the base, then invest selectively in the highest return growth opportunities, phased prudently, executed rigorously, and aligned to long-term value creation. Overall, this guidance reflects a business with strong operational momentum, clear investment priority and continued commitment to cash generation, competitiveness and discipline growth. I will now pass back to Alberto to dive deeper on our 2026 focus.

Thank you, Gillian. 2026 is about discipline execution. In a strong gold price environment, discipline matters more, not less. Our focus is simple, protect margins, allocate capital rigorously, and strengthen the portfolio. We remain focused on cost discipline and operational excellence across the portfolio. Through full asset potential, we are systematically looking for ways to offset inflationary pressures, and royalty increases particularly labor energy and consumables we are increasing the production contribution for our tier one assets which structurally lower our cost base and improves margin resilience active portfolio management remains core we've been active in this area and will continue to optimize capital allocation towards assets that generate superior risk adjusted returns Sustaining capital is about protecting safety, reliability, and asset longevity. We are appropriately capitalizing our assets to ensure safe, stable, and sustainable operations. We continue to invest in mineral reserve development to increase operational flexibility, particularly in complex ore bodies. Reserve replacement remains fundamental. Sustained reserve growth underpins long-term value creation. Growth capital is focused on high-quality, long-life projects, particularly in Nevada. These projects enhance jurisdictional quality and portfolio resilience. We are creating flexibility for life extension and brownfield growth across the portfolio by building new tailings and opening land to extend our mining operations. We are prioritizing short-cycle, high-return organic projects that strengthen free cash flow generation. Operational excellence alone is not enough. Social and regulatory stability are equally critical. We remain deeply committed to our host communities and governments where we're providing real time benefit from the higher gold price through taxes, royalties and meaningful participation in the value chain. In this slide, we highlight an emerging picture of low risk, capital efficient and very high return opportunities in our current operation footprint. It underscores what I've said repeatedly, that the best opportunities for us lie within. The capital we're deploying today is funding low risk, high return projects at our current mines. These options have the potential to add between 10 and 15% of our current production profile during the next three years. We'll talk much more about this in detail in the second half of the year. As previously mentioned, at GATA, we're advancing a project to lift through, put in the middle and increase production by around 20%. At Sukari, the capital we're spending on accelerated waste stripping and fleet upgrades will underpin a potentially significant mining expansion, coupled with processing improvements like a new gravity circuit and an absorption tank to boost recoveries. This will provide a healthy step up in production. We're seeing similar organic growth across the rest of the portfolio. At Sigwili, we're evaluating the potential to combine some of our existing dormant pits in Block 1 with the ramp-up of production from Block 3 to bring this asset with its exceptional geology into the Tier 1 category. And at Kujaba, accessing the high-grade Vienna ore body is a relatively straightforward opportunity to appreciably improve production. This is what discipline capital allocation looks like, taking part of a record free cash flow and reinvest in low risk, high return opportunities that will optimize the value we can deliver from our world class or bodies. All of these growth projects will have a project management office and a VP growth dedicated to these organic projects for the next three years. We are pre-funding the health and expansion of these assets today, ensuring they remain highly profitable cash generators well into the 2030s. We made steady progress narrowing the rating gap relative to our North American peers. This hasn't been about addressing a single issue, but rather a comprehensive plan over a number of years to strengthen every aspect of the business. Our fundamentals are robust, the portfolio is performing, and the outlook is bright. We're delivering on our commitments, achieving consistent operational improvements, enhancing returns, and positioning the company for sustainable growth. And importantly, the higher gold price has flowed on to the bottom line. This has generated probably the highest free cash flow yields in the industry, or one of the highest. As you access our valuation metrics, we believe Anglo Gold Ashanti represents a compelling investment proposition, as you can see clearly in the graph. Strong cash generation, disciplined shareholder focus, capital allocation, market leading deal and evaluation that offers clear upside potential. 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'd like to ask a question please key in star and then one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation turn will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may key in 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 question box provided on your screen. Our first question from the lines comes from Adrian Hammond of SBG Securities.

Thanks, operator. Good day, Albert and Gillian. I have a few questions. I'll list them in order. Firstly, the payout ratio is obviously welcome, certainly exceeded your current base policy by a margin. Given where gold prices are, I get the sense that higher payouts are of the order of the day. But the question is, where does this stop? Because, you know, at spot prices, you're going to generate significant amounts of money that you may not have a use for. So should gold prices stay where they are, well, what should we be modeling in terms of payouts? Is 60% sort of the new benchmark for yourselves at spots, or should we expect even higher payouts? Secondly, on slide 28, the organic growth options, I wonder if you can unpick that a bit more clearly, just to confirm, you're saying 10% growth on your base, so 300,000 ounces, And then correct me if I'm wrong, 100 from Gator, assume that's from 2028. 100 from Seguri, when do you expect that? And then I guess the balance for Cuiaba and Seguri. Thanks.

Thank you, Adrian. As always, very good questions, and I probably can answer half of them. Look, the payout ratio is one step at a time. We've done it. This is just an indication of how we think about things. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. Again, we don't know the gold price, where it's going to be. So this is just a commitment that if we have very good prices, we will do something and we will explain what we're doing with it. So in the end, this is more symbolic. The 300 additional million was just okay. We're going to get down to net zero at the end of 25. And yeah, we'll see what happens. As you know, we have several options in how to deal with capital. So we'll be considering them and you will know of it. What we won't do is tell you every quarter what we're doing with the money. But I don't want to anticipate if at this stage, I would just leave it there. On organic growth, we struggled a bit with saying, because we were significantly increasing investment and growth capital, so we wanted to say that, but really, we will come up with a very detailed, as I said, asset by asset, and it's going to be those four plus Oboassi. The 10% to 15%, I would calculate it over the 3 million ounces. So, yeah, that's between 300 and 450,000 ounces by the third year. so we will give you lots of detail in in this year i think in the august that's what we're planning but we're very excited by this and i said it's going to be obawasi it's going to be sikari it's going to be gaeta it's going to be sigwiri and it's going to be kuyaba relatively uh low sort of investments uh you take sukari for example which is a wonderful job that they did we're increasing underground sort of movements from 1.2 to 2.3 million higher grade ore and hence we we're just planning on this to build an additional platform uh and obviously additional mining equipment but we could do it through the same processing plant and it has an impact of about 100,000 ounces. So I'll give you much more detail as we go through the year. But this is probably the most exciting project we have for 2026. Thanks.

That's clear. Good job.

Thanks. Next question. The next question comes from Josh Olson of RBC. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks very much. First, to focus just on some of the Nevada exploration drilling here. I noted this year, obviously, very positive initial reserve declaration. Resources will stay stable. With some of the disclosures earlier on the call about reserve conversion of an additional 1.4 million ounces, how are you thinking about further expansion? How are you allocating exploration spending according to that? Thank you.

Okay, well, I'll answer something, and then we have Marcelo Godoy on the call, and he'll ask me to help me. But look, there's always a trade-off. You don't want to go too far advanced. Again, on resource, we already have resources for the next... 30 years or something like that. So there's always a Goldilocks point and the same with reserves. You needed to find a limit, say, okay, this is where we're going to start. But it's obvious. And when you see the chart that when we talk about nine years, it's not going to happen like that. We're going to obviously go very quick. We're going to hike to about 800,000 ounces in the second or third year of production. And by then, we will be bringing other ore bodies into reserves and all of that. We do plan to add between 1 and 1.4 million ounces in 2026. But Marcelo, what else?

Yeah, thanks, Alberto. When you think about Arthur, you should be thinking about a 12 million tons per year project. and and and that's what came out of the pre-feasibility stud as an optimal size for the project so any additional addition to the project you should be using the additional life mind to in your models because that's what the the the the project is really about is continuing increasing the life of the project but continuing to produce 12 million tons per annum and obviously there are there are constraints that are made us arrive to that number as you can see we have lots of resources to to to to produce at that production rate for multiple decades And exploration keeps just on giving. And every time we drill, we find more resources, which from our focus now is to get the project going and as soon as possible. And that's what the exploration team is focused on. Thank you.

Thank you. And then a question on, I guess, the 2027 guidance. I noticed the company included or disclosed the capital associated with North Bullfrog in 2026. I'm wondering for the 2027 numbers, you know, what's the proportion of capital at North Bullfrog, and then, you know, what's the company assuming in terms of the Ghanaian royalty outlook? Is there a change incorporated, or is it the existing rate?

We're incorporating in North Bullfrog, I think, about 14 million. or 2026. I'll get Gillian will help me with the rest. We haven't incorporated anything on the Ghanaian royalty. Again, we're we're having constructive conversation with the government. But at this stage, we will be premature. So Gillian.

Yeah, so thanks, Josh. 27 North Bullfrog is 320 million. And then we've got about 90 million for Arthur Gold in the guidance as well.

Great, thank you. And if I can tuck in one more, just on the topic of M&A, on the disposition side of things, is CVSA still something that's under consideration? Maybe how are you thinking about that with significantly higher silver prices today? And then on the acquisition side, what's the current thinking? Thank you very much.

Thank you. Look, CVSA, it wasn't a secret that we were trying to have a sale process, but with gold prices between we started the process and then six months later, like everything can change and silver, everything can change. And so it just didn't make any sense for anybody, nor for the buyer, nor for us. The value of the asset, what it's going to produce, the cash flow in the next three years is extraordinary. I have to say the guys over there, it's an extraordinarily good team. There's a standard joke that they're so far away from corporate that they're even better because nobody bothers them. So they are very, very good. And they have extended the mine life. We haven't declared it, so I know, but they even managed to extend it to the 2030. So we're happy owners with them. They do a very good job. and uh yeah this silver price and gold price for the next time has changed uh our mission so we're happy to keep it at this stage by the way the government has done an extraordinary job that was also the issue in the past that we couldn't get the cash flows now it's like we're getting the cash flows out looks like a developed country hopefully melee will stay there for a while um and then on mna what you just heard us on our organic growth, we have such good opportunities. Obviously, the B team always looks at things, but I've said it in the past, it's hard to pay a premium and still add value. Our criteria is always the same, add value, net asset value to the company. And so, yes, they still do the job, but I would say 99.9% of the companies focus on that organic growth.

Thank you very much. Thanks, Josh.

The next question comes from Patrick Jones of JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my question. I appreciate your comments earlier on the predictability of the dividend policy, but as said, there's no buybacks this time. But it did make an appearance again in the shareholder return slide. So I guess what my question is, of the institution but constitutes the comment you gave was around, you will consider buybacks under supportive market conditions there on the slide, and what we're going to get the board to shift is thinking from dividends to buybacks.

Okay. Look, we... This is something that we reassess. It's part of the book of buybacks, dividends. debt reduction. This is part of the book. We always contemplated at this stage, in this case, it was like we have a very good dividend. It's the most generous dividend policy. We're very flattered that several of our competitors have copied it exactly. That's a sign of flattery. At this stage, we're happy where we are, so we'll just take it, as I said, one step at a time. It didn't make any sense for $300 million to do a buyback, so it was clearly a supplementary dividend. We will take it one step at a time, and we will be explaining what we do with the cash in every quarter.

Thank you. And maybe just a follow-up question then on Arthur. Obviously, it's shaping up to be an incredibly impressive project, but can you talk through what's kind of the eventual permitting and development timelines, the first output, particularly in light of the comments around North Bullfrog CapEx coming up?

So the permitting for Arthur, it's always, a lot of it is under our control. What we can say is we will see this fast track 41 process and there is incredible support both from the national government and from the state government uh so we have made for the mpo it's a a lot of good progress and um but we don't want to give you time less because it's always so many things out of our control but we're we're quite encouraged as i said by the support marcelo anything you can add please

Yeah, look, we don't have exact times at the moment, but what we can tell you is that we want to have the rod before the end of this decade and we will be producing in the beginning of the next decade. So that's the rough timelines we have at the moment, capitalizing on this fast track process for the NEPA process.

The next question comes from Tanya of Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everybody. Can you hear me?

We can.

Thank you. Thank you for taking my three questions. Just wanted to start, Gillian, with you, if I could. Just to make sure I understand, so this dividend, still the base of 12.5 cents and the top up to 50% of cash flow, is that now still going to be done quarterly, or is that top up still going to happen at the end of the year? It's just we had it quarterly before, and I'm just confused when this top up happens.

So I'll start on that one. Look, the policy is that we pay at the end of the year. Because the spot price was so high last year, well, those were the decisions to just say, okay, well, there's a lot of cash accumulated and let's do it by quarter. So I would assume in the spot price, it stays where it is. Probably the board will consider that again, but the policy is still that we only pay the 50% at the end. So, we will take it quarter by quarter, Tanya.

Okay. Fair enough. And coming back, if I could, to Gillian again on the capital. Still on the guidance, you mentioned some big project to capital. Nevada, I think Sequoia, Boise. Can you just go through the growth capital, the big chunk for 26 and 27?

Yeah, sure. I think so. I think it's easier to maybe cover 27 first, given I've already talked about the Nevada element. So there's just over 400 between North Bullfrog and Arthur. We then always have the sort of need to continue to invest in tailings facilities. That takes up an amount across the portfolios. We've got tailings management at Cabali, Securies, Oboasi. Idioprim, Gaeta. So absolutely across the portfolio. And then there's some other capitalized open pit waste at Sukari that you're aware of. We talked about it last year. There's a sort of a three year stripping campaign for Sukari. I think then if you think about, well, what does that look like for 26? We have lower than that spend for Nevada, of course, just given where the project phase is. And then you've got the same stripping campaign at Sukari and some investment in tailings and relocation. I think one thing to just mention on that set of spend, particularly in 2026, it really is required to unlock that reserve growth. and the volumes that Alberto spoke about a little earlier on. So maintaining safe tailings facilities and making sure we are relocating communities, et cetera, to be able to unlock that value is sort of a focus for 26 and beyond.

I'd just add quickly There's 70 million on growth on Kibale, which I think is welcome. I think they're finally facing the proof of facts, and it's good that they're investing in the growth of Kibale. So that is significant. And then, yeah, the rough numbers in my memory is like 120 for all these trainings and different projects. It's about 45 on Cuyabá. That's for the growth project that we talked about before. Nevada is about 145 million. So you're up on that.

close at that level explain a lot of the growth yeah okay great thank you for that and um i'm gonna have my uh next question come to arthur if i could and i don't know who would um want to maybe alberto you or marcello um maybe one of you can just walk us through what you can control which is the next steps are drilling um then maybe when the feasibility study is coming out and then obviously you're you know when you do you expect to hand in your EIA so that we can understand what you can control. And over this period, Marcello, do you think we can move the overall resource to 20 million ounces from close to 16?

Marcello will help us with this, but we can't pinpoint. We don't want to commit on timing because it's not under control. The rest, I think Marcello can help you.

Yeah, look, we are going to start the feasibility study in the Q2 of this year. So that's where we plan to do that. And the federal permitting is something that we are going to be starting in Q1 2027. We have control over those dates. Now, the end of those processes is something that we don't necessarily have control. That's why Alberta is not giving more information on that.

Yeah, no, no, that's fair enough. I mean, you control your feasibility study, you control your drilling. I'm just trying to understand what you control, what the timeline that you have in place, and when you submit your EIA.

Right. Yeah, the feasibility study is starting in Q2 2026. We intend to be finalizing with that in Q4 2027. It's, you know, a normal timeline for a feasibility study of that size.

and then you would hand in your EIA at the end of 2027 as well?

Well, the EIA can start at the beginning of 2027 because it depends on the mine plan of operations, which is right now under development. So yeah, we should be able to start that process in Q1 2027. Okay.

Thank you. And anything on the resource drilling over this period?

Look, I think at the end of the day, we want to convert as much as possible, Tania, and 20 million would be great. But what we need to do now is just to get through the processing because we already have excellent grade and tonnage planning for the first 10 years of the mine. So everything that comes after that, we know it's there, but it's not our highest priority right now.

I appreciate it, Marcello. Just as a geologist, I look at the sections and the plan view and go, there's a lot more gold. When are we going to get it? Anyway, you know, I guess one has to dream. Second, and my last question is actually for Alberto, if I could. Alberto, in sort of your exploration and M&A outlook, we noticed that you, you know, are keep investing in juniors. Your latest one was in TESA Gold here in Canada. Maybe talk a little bit about how you're viewing that sort of approach to part of your M&A focus. Thank you.

Well, we have Terry here who leads all of that.

So I'll let Terry help us. Hi, Tanya, and thank you for picking up the investment in thesis. We're really excited to work with you and the team there to say advance the Lawler's Ranch project. But really, it's quite simple. You know, we take a, you know, multi-pronged approach to growth, Alberto laid out. a lot of the organic opportunities within our brownfields sites. We also have greenfields exploration, which led to, you know, the ARFA deposit, which is getting a lot of discussion. And we take strategic stakes in interesting projects, as well as, as Alberto said, we continue to assess inorganic opportunities too. So it's just a

another tool in our ability to maintain that we can have the most optimal portfolio in the future thank you our next question comes from renee of noah capital please go ahead hello alberto and julian um well done very good results thank you just a quick question um what was the reason for the negative geological model conversion at gator And is it likely to be a problem in the future?

There was still a negative improvement. Again, I lost our COO because he's taking a plane. So we'll get back to you on that one. But it was still a net improvement. We include 1.3 million ounces of net addition.

all right and we'll come back to you on the specific ones there in there thanks thanks very much that's all thank you our next question comes from joseph rigo of ross capital partners please come ahead hey guys um thanks for taking the questions um most might have been answered but just wanted to touch on arthur um there's been some

Local opposition from a water standpoint in Nevada to projects lately. Do you guys think that that might have any impact on the decisions you make there? Or is it something you think you can easily mitigate by time to go into production?

Look, there's been very constructive discussion that we've had, and actually from the original project that we had at North Bulford, we reformulated significantly, and we have much less use of water. So we've heard and we've dealt with it. There's the whole project, and Marcelo, again, I'll ask him again, but there's all sorts of designs to minimize the use of water, but we're quite comfortable at this stage that we're going to be able to deal with all of these issues. But Marcelo,

Look, it is a desert and we know that water is always going to be an issue, but we have been managing, we have a multi-tier process to manage those risks related to water in the project. And we, as Alberto said, we have very constructive uh relationship and collaboration right now with the ngos to get to a common understanding of the water situation in the region we have very sophisticated hydrogeological models for the region and and we believe that we will be able to overcome those issues okay thanks i just figured i'd touch on it i'll pass it on thanks joe

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I will now head back for closing remarks.

Well, thank you again, as always, for accompanying us. But we may become a little bit boring. We are predictable. We want to meet guidance. We keep with full asset potential. We don't have a program of the month every year. We'll keep doing that. For us, it's about safe, stable, consistent operations. And now we have a very exciting organic growth project that we'll be sharing with you. And yeah, that's about it. We're just going to continue to do what we have been doing for the past years. So thank you all again.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this afternoon's event. Thank you for joining us. Anyone else, connect your lines.