Champion Iron Limited

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. My name is Mel, and I will be your moderator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Champions Quarter 1 results of the financial year 2027. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press Par 0 for the operator. and please be advised that this call is being recorded today, Thursday, July 30, 2026. I will now turn the call over to our first speaker today, Michael Marcotte, CFO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on this call today. Before I'll turn it over to our CEO, David Cataford, I'd just like to remind people that throughout this call we'll be making forward-looking statements. If you want to read more about these and our risk and assumptions, you can visit our MD&A at our website on championiron.com. We'll also be using a presentation throughout this webcast, which is also available on our website under the events and presentation section. In addition to our CEO, many other executives are attending here for this call, including our COO, Alexandre Belleau. With that, I'll pass it over to David for the presentation.

Thanks, Michael. Thanks, everyone, for being on the call. So, if we run through the results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, we produced roughly about 4 million tons during the quarter, combining Bloom Lake and Renegroober, and sold roughly about 3.3 million tons. Revenues of about $356 million during the quarter, and an EVDA of about $32 million during the quarter. If you removed A little bit of noise and single time elements on the EBITDA, we would have been closer to 60 million. If we remove also the volume effect, and we'll be able to run through this in terms of the sales, we would have been closer to about 70 million, which would have been in line with the expectation. If we look in terms of the industry, and more specifically the iron ore industry, P65 index averaged about US$122 per ton, so pretty much flat quarter on quarter. Same with the premium of the P65 or the P61, close to US$17 per ton. Where there was a pretty significant increase was on the C3 freight index. This rose by about 37% quarter over quarter and reached about 34 US dollars per ton. So obviously this has had some impacts for us and this is mainly due to the shipping disruptions that we've seen in the Middle East and also higher fuel costs again resulting from the conflict in the Middle East. If we look at operational and sales highlights, So, as we mentioned, produced about 3.9 million tonnes of high-grade iron ore during the quarter. Sales of about 3.3, of which 3.1 million tonnes of Bloom Lake and 200,000 tonnes at Rana Gruber. and one of the, I think the most positive highlights during the quarter is working in the ramp up of the DRPF project. So we finalized the flotation plant and we're now working to be able to produce 69% material to get a significant premium for our material. If we turn to community governance and sustainability, a few highlights during the quarter. So one, this is the quarter that we closed the transaction with Granite Gruber, so we went down met with all the employees to be able to start the integration process and also met with quite a lot of politicians in Norway and also in the town of Moerane to be able to start explaining our vision and the next steps of the combination of this company. We also had quite a lot of traction here in Quebec where we had Federal Minister Joly and also Deputy Cote-Gay that were at our offices alongside the Minister of Economy and Minister of Natural Resources of Quebec to be able to announce the flotation plant finalization and the first contracts of our new product. So very happy of the support that we've been getting from the federal and provincial governments and the partnership that we've developed with these various groups. In terms of results, so if we dive into each operation, if I look at Bloom Lake, as we mentioned, produced about 3.5 million tons at Bloom Lake, but only sold about 3.1 million tons. This is mainly due to the fact that one, there was some maintenance on the rail and port operations. And also we produced roughly about 600,000 tons out of our flotation plant. Thank you very much. Loading in the next few weeks. So sales were a little bit under what you've seen in the past, but we do see that reversing quite quickly to be able to start selling our two products, the 69% material and also our typical concentrate. One of the highlights when you look at the commissioning of the plant is if you look at our iron recovery, we average about 79% during the quarter. So very small impact. with the commissioning of the flotation plant. So I think it's very positive news and telling of the type of circuit that we've implemented and very reassuring for the future as well. We were in ramp up period and we're still at 79% iron recovery. In terms of our financial results, so if you look at the actual mining and processing costs at site, pretty much flat year over year. So I think what we control, we've done a fantastic job in being able to navigate through the current situation. Where we were impacted, well obviously when you look at the sales that were 3.1 million tonnes, most of our port costs are fixed. so that has had an impact during the quarter but that should reverse as we're able to sell more tons through the next quarters. In terms of the sustaining capex also seems a little bit high but this is also due to the fact that we only divided that by 3.1 million tons during the quarter and also due to the fact that we've got seasonal tailings work that is being completed at Bloom Lake. So when you combine both, obviously our all-in sustainment looks a little bit higher, but that should reverse in the coming quarters. In terms of Rana Gruber, they got a little bit of a similar impact, but for different reasons. Produced about 400,000 tons during the quarter, only sold about 200,000 tons. It's mainly due to the fact that they had vessels that were supposed to go to the Middle East, and due to the conflict, we're not able to ship them out. So we reallocated those tons, but timing, we were not able to sell them in this quarter. It will be sold in the next quarter. So that's why you've seen such a small sales portion at the Rana Gruber site. It's also, if you look at Rana Gruber, it's a site that has one major shutdown per year instead of two major shutdowns like we have at Bloom Lake. So they got one major and one minor shutdown. and the shutdown was also during this quarter. So when you combine all of those elements and also due to the fact that we only closed the transaction on the 10th of April, so we lost 10 days of essential production and sales at the asset. So when you combine all those different elements, that's why we've seen such small sales. That also has a big impact in terms of the all in sustaining costs because you're dividing all these costs on only 200,000 tons, but again, that should be able to reverse in the coming quarter and corpus. In terms of consolidated results, if we look at the average realized selling price, we realized around 115 US dollars per ton below the 121 US average for the quarter. That's mainly due to the fact that we had about 2 million tons that were on the water and that an expected price of about 110 US dollars per ton. So that lowered are gross realized price for the quarter. We'll see what the price is when the material reaches the clients during this quarter. We also had a pretty big impact in terms of freight, where the cost increased to about 36 US dollars per ton in this quarter. In terms of the consolidated financial highlights, as we mentioned, quarterly revenues are about 360 million and NBDA just over 30 million. which was under the expectation but mainly due to the one-time elements during the quarter and also the volume impact of selling only 3.1 million tons of Blue Lake material and 200,000 tons at Rannig Ruber. But the impact on our cash, so that has reduced our cash during the quarter from 300 million to 200 million but we did finalize the DRPF CapEx and also closed the transaction for Rana Gruber. So when you look at those two elements, they explain the most of the cash position during the quarter. In terms of the financial health of the company in our balance sheet, we still have close to a billion dollars of available liquidity. So the company is still in very good shape to be able to go through this current conflict. And as we talk about our growth initiatives, to be how we're able to get back into cash positive territory. If we look at our DRPF project, I think this is the main highlight during the quarter. So we managed to finalize the project on time and on budget, so within the $500 million envelope. Very happy with the way that things are progressing. All major equipment has delivered as per plan, so we don't see any major hiccups on the commissioning part. We still have some ramp-up elements, so some small, minor elements to fix. One of which being our screens. The screens work well, but it's the screen panels that were installed that were currently in the process of changing. We had that same issue when we started Bloom Phase 1 and Bloom Phase 2. So that's one element that until we dial in the right type of material that we need for the screens, we do have some bypass material in terms of the flotation plan. That being said, we still managed to hit a 69% material. So we know that the plant is able to deliver in terms of the specs. We also have been able to push the plants to its full capacity. So we know that the plant can deliver on the volume side. Now it's just to remove all those small startup and ramp up elements to make sure that we can do that consistently. In terms of sales, so we're happy to say that we've signed our first contracts and the first one or the first vessel is going to be loaded in the next few weeks. So a vessel of about 160,000 tons of DR quality material that will leave our in our that will leave our port in the next few weeks. So very happy with the way that this is progressing. We still feel that we'll be able to materialize significant premiums for this material. The first contract that we've signed do have premiums over and above the P65 index. But as we had mentioned in the past, these are test cargoes, so we're not getting the full benefit of our material, but still, I think that's going to reposition our costs in the future as we ramp this up and we're able to deliver to markets that are closer to home. If we look at our potential clients, we're still in the same territory as we mentioned before with North Africa, Europe, and Middle East as potential first targets. We've included also the Americas, so we are in discussion with some clients also in the Americas, so that's another positive. If you look at the Middle East situation, so obviously there's a conflict that restricts a portion of our clients. but not all of our clients. We can still deliver to a portion to the Middle East. So that market has not been closed. It's still open in various areas. So we'll still be able to sell some tons into that region even with the current conflict. So I think a very positive transition for us. I mean, obviously a lot of noise during the quarter, not fantastic when you're closing a transaction, starting to integrate a project, delivering a major flotation project like we're doing at the same time as the conflict started in the Middle East impacting our freight costs, impacting fuel. But all that being said, I think we've positioned the company very well to be able to benefit from better premiums in the future and be able to generate significant returns for our shareholders. I'd like to thank all of our employees that have made this possible. I mean, obviously in this challenging time to be able to keep the focus to continue working on our costs, to continue working on our projects and making sure that we can deliver that safely and with no environmental issues. I think it's something that we can be very proud of our teams and we'll continue to work very in the right direction to be able to make sure that we deliver on what we've mentioned in the past in terms of our growth initiatives, including the flotation plan. So with that being said, I'll turn it over to the Q&A portion of the call.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the number one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. We have the first question comes on the line of Alexander Pierce. From VMO Capital Markets, your line is now open.

Thanks, Moriel. So, David, you flagged there was a big step up in capex, or sustaining capex, this quarter. I think you said that you'd expect this to trend lower going forward. Does that mean that we should assume a normalization of sustaining capex in Q2, or do you think it's likely to stay elevated over the next quarter or so going forward?

Well, in terms of dollar amounts, I'd expect it to stay similar in the next quarter, maybe slightly lower, but in the same territory, where I think it's going to have an impact on our actual all-in-sustaining cost, because we had to divide that by only 3.1 million tons during the quarter. If we look at next quarter, we should be back to a normal sales territory, so that should allow us to have an all-in-sustaining cost that's lower. and then when we go to Q3, Q4, well in the past we've always seen sustaining capex be significantly lower in those two quarters.

Great, thanks. And then maybe I can ask a question on the DRPS project. So just to confirm, you spent essentially all of the capex now, correct? Correct. Okay, great. And then you mentioned the first vessel will be leaving the port in a few weeks. Are you able to share, you know, which direction That is heading?

It's going to go east. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of horrors. Your line is now open. You may ask your question.

Hi, good morning. And I wanted to congratulate Michael, actually, on his promotion to CFO. But in terms of my question, your inventory levels This quarter, we're very elevated. There was a significant jump at both assets. Do you think this is peak inventory levels, and can we anticipate now that with vessels scheduled to go this quarter that we should see that inventory start to destock? And if you could give us any kind of idea by how much, because I'm not clear whether there's more inventory impacts expected here with the DPRF ramping.

Yeah, when we look at a lot of the inventory, I mean, we now report the combined inventory at the port and at the mine, and we've got quite a lot of material that's actually at the Bloom Lake port. But we had to stockpile some material mainly due to the flotation plant. So the first sales is going to start loading. The first vessel of this material is going to start loading in the next few weeks. So that's why we've had to stockpile that portion. But when I look at Bloom Lake going forward, I wouldn't expect the stockpiles to increase. We're really in the territory of being able to bring down the stockpiles.

Okay. And then from a balance sheet perspective, Your net debt obviously significantly increased this quarter, largely due to the acquisition, but also because of just the inventory. Do you see this as peak net debt? Because I'm getting a little bit concerned just in terms of the one direction your debt's been rising here.

Yeah, when we look at the next steps within our company, so obviously most of the CapEx is behind us. I mean, all the CapEx of the DRPF is behind us. There's a very small sustaining capex at the Renegroober site. And we're in a territory now when you look at this quarter, there's probably 600,000 to 700,000 tons less sales that should have happened mainly due to the ramp up of the flotation plant in this new product. So when I look at the next steps, obviously for us it's going to be to work on deleveraging the company. So we just finished quite a big capex run. but I don't see areas where we want to increase the debt in the future.

Okay, and one more if I could just squeeze it in. In terms of the premium on the DPRF, you mentioned that you've now priced some of the test cargos. When do you think, as you look ahead the next couple quarters, when do you think we could actually see that premium start to make an impact on your average realized price?

I think we're going to start to see it next quarter, but... Really Q3, Q4 is when we're going to see a bigger boost as we get more and more tons out of this flotation plant.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Craig Hutchinson from TD Cohen. Your line is now open. You may ask your question.

Thanks. Good morning, guys. Just made a follow-up on Oris's question on the DR premiums. The fact that you're selling test material now Is there a mechanism if it meets spec where you get a higher price? And I guess my kind of follow-up question to that is how long, how many like cargoes would it take for them to establish a comfort level that you could realize a much higher price over and above the P65?

Yeah, we're going to get a premium even in the test cargo. So just the fact even of the iron units and the fact that we're going to sell closer to home. So I mean, even in the test cargoes, we are going to see a premium, not to the level as what we had in our feasibility study, and that's where the negotiations come for the next cargoes. Depending on the clients, most clients, once they've used up material from one cargo, it's enough to have a view on how well this functions in their plants. So I don't expect it to be multi-cargoes to be able to get that comfort. and then it's more a question of making sure that we're able to sign the right contracts at the right level for this material. But I wouldn't expect the test cargos to be more than about one per client. Okay.

And then just on Rana Gruber, I know you guys don't provide guidance, but can you give us any comfort in terms of where you kind of see the steady state C1 cash costs going and all-in-sustaining costs? Obviously, all-in-sustaining costs are very high this quarter, but just kind of get a sense of Where do you see this asset sort of settling out at once you guys kind of get back to full throughput?

Yeah, so when we look at the round of Uber sites, the fact that they only sold 200,000 tons was really the biggest impact during this quarter. So this should normalize even this current quarter. So I don't think that there's going to be significant impact like what you see now. In terms of their costs, I mean, they've been hit a little bit in terms of the fuel price, like a lot of people have. But realistically, I do feel that we'll be able to get in the more normal, in a more normal all in sustaining costs, similar to what you've seen in the past with the running Uber site.

So the asset should be, would you say it'd be free cash regenerative in the second half this year?

I don't have a crystal ball, but realistically, when I look at them... At spot prices, I guess. Yeah, at spot prices, yes.

Okay. And this is maybe one last question for you, just an accounting question. When you guys report your adjusted EBITDA, I was curious why you kind of include some of these derivative adjustments, or why you don't back them out in terms of what you report. Thanks.

We've never done it in the past, so that's why just to do it now would have been a little bit odd, yeah.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Dalton Barreto of Conocory Genuity. Your line is now open. You may answer questions.

Yeah, thanks, operator. Good morning, guys. I'm just trying to get a little bit more granularity in terms of this inventory build and sort of the blending strategy. So if I understand correctly, so you're just stockpiling the DRPF product, Thank you for your time.

in the view that what's very good for us is to build a high credibility in terms of the quality of the material that we produce. So we did the same when we did phase one, when we brought in phase two as well. So what we're doing right now, if the material's on spec, we're stockpiling it as a DRPF material. If it's a little bit below spec because we're doing tests, we blend that material with our concentrate. So it's not really a blending strategy as per se, it's more a ramp up strategy to make sure that Everything that we sell, especially the test cargos, the last thing that we want is to send material that's not as per spec. The plant's been functioning pretty well, so we've produced more of this on-spec material than we initially expected. But when we look at the strategy, it's really everything that's P69 or that's high-grade DR quality material is being stockpiled to be able to set apart so that we can sell it as a separate product.

That's much more clear. Thank you for that, David. And then there's some language in your disclosure that suggests that, you know, there will continue to be disruptions of those. Let's call it the next six months or so as the DRPF plant ramps up. Can you give us any sense at all in terms of sort of the cadence and level of those disruptions? Are these material or just minor disruptions?

I'd say these are minor. When I look at the fundamentals of the plant, I think it's delivered on all the major equipment. We still have some elements to work through in terms of the ramp-up, but they're smaller elements. They do have impacts in terms of our production, but it's not a major failure where we have to change one of our main equipment and we have to wait on lead times and so what installation. So it's more just ramping it up, making sure, as we mentioned, let's say for the screens, There's going to be some downtime to change them. We're going to test them. Is this the right one or is it going to be a small modification on the one that we're testing now? So there's going to be some elements, but it's really more on the stability side that there's going to be some impacts and not so much on major downtimes.

Great. Thank you. Maybe one last one on the premiums to follow up on the previous questions there. You know, if we assume that now you're shipping on-site product under long-term contracts, what is the quantum of that premium that you think you'll get?

It'll be the best premium that we can for our shareholders. I mean, obviously, we can't disclose the number now because we're in negotiation with many clients. But I do, when I look at the market right now, I do feel that there's a lot of demand for this type of material, even if there's a lot of noise right now. And when you look at the premium for the high-grade, I mean, You look at the Chinese steel mills, you look at the profitability, you look at the price for coal, you look at a lot of direction seems to be showing that high grade is maybe not as favored. But realistically, when you look at the DR pellet premium, it's up. When you look at the quality of what's being produced by a lot of the majors, it's going down. So the fundamentals are there for us to be able to make this significant premium for our material, and I think the timing is very good for us to be able to deliver this into the market now.

Thanks, David, and congrats to Michael. That's all from me.

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Thedery Chevalin from View Valley Securities. Your line is now open. You may ask your question.

Thank you very much, operator, and good morning, everyone. First of all, I just want to join my colleagues and congratulate Michael Marcotte with this appointment. And my first question, can you quantify how much of fiscal Q1 output were deferred into fiscal Q2 because of DRPF commissioning and shipment timing? And should we expect substantially all of that deferred balance to be recognized in the September quarter, assuming normal shipping schedule.

Yeah, we don't really give any guidance, but when you look at the last quarter, I mean, we produced 3.5 million tons, sold only 3.1. When you look at the stockpile, most of the material is at the port, so I do feel that we should be in a position to have higher sales in the Q2. I don't know if you guys all spoke together to be able to congratulate Michael so much, but I've never heard so many congratulations.

Yeah, and my second one is about DRPF. If you can just frame what portion of Bloom Lake's near-term production is covered under the commercial agreement and what percentage of, approximately, of total DRPF output does that represent versus the volumes still open for discussion with prospective customers?

When we look at Bloom Lake, about half of our times are committed in terms of the concentrate production. So that's for the typical concentrate. In terms of the flotation plan, so obviously we're still in the ramp-up phase and we're signing contracts right now. We have two contracts in place. and we're working with other clients to be able to finalize that portion. But essentially when we, let's say we look at this a year from now, we'll probably have about 75% of the tons of the flotation plant allocated and most of the tons of the concentrate that is allocated as well.

Thank you very much. And my last one is about macroenvironment. With the conflict in the Middle East, do you see any opportunity in capturing the extra portion of the Middle East market?

Right now, there's still a portion of the market that's open for business. When we look at everybody's ready in the, I'd say, the restricted areas, But as soon as vessels are able to go in that region, I do feel there's going to be appetite also for our materials. So it's still, I think, one of the major areas for us to be able to sell our tons. But that being said, we're not just waiting to see what's going to happen. We're also in discussions with other clients in North Africa and Europe and also in the Americas to be able to allocate these tons.

Thank you very much, David. That's crystal clear. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We have the next question. It comes from the line of Stefan Ioannou. Your line is now open. You may ask your question.

Yeah, great. Thanks very much. I'm just curious. We've already sort of asked this question a few times, but maybe just another way of asking it. You mentioned that you produce 600,000 tons of concentrate through the DRPF plant. Obviously not all that's the spec, but you are looking to make your first shipment at spec at $160,000 this quarter. Can I read through the lines there and sort of assume that, you know, about sort of a quarter of what you did in the quarter of the production last quarter was on spec and the rest wasn't on spec?

Yeah, what's tough when you look at it is that obviously if we're only producing for a few hours and then we had to stop, well, even if the material was on spec, it was blended with all the rest of the material. So, I mean, I wouldn't see it exactly like that. I think that the plant has been delivering very well in terms of quality, but when we look at the various runs, Why we say that there's roughly about 160,000 tons for the next vessel, it's just because that's actually material that we've stockpiled in specific areas to be able to sell this. But I wouldn't say that our plant is performing at 25%. I mean, obviously, the first day that we started, it was just to test the equipment. So even if material passed through the plant, we didn't really even check. Well, we did check the quality, but the intent was not to stockpile that. to be able to have a separate product. So I'd say the plant is performing much better than that 25% ratio. It's really just what we've stockpiled specifically to be able to sell as DR quality material. Okay, okay, got it, got it.

And then maybe just from a bigger point of view, obviously still just the looming stockpiles at Bloom Lake in general, should we still anticipate it's going to take several quarters from now to really draw that down to sort of a quote unquote normalized level, just given port and rail as well?

Well, when I look at Bloom Lake, in terms of the stockpiles, there's quite a lot of material that's already at the port, so it's just a question of getting it on the vessels. When we look at the strategy to bring down the material, I do think that there's some spare capacity on the rail right now, so I wouldn't expect the holdup to be on the logistics side, at least not in the short term. So I do expect that we'll be able to ramp down the tons of the stockpiles pretty quickly. In terms of Rana Gruber, the strategy is to pretty much have no stockpiles, so that's not the intent. There was a bit of a timing issue now because some vessels were supposed to go to the Middle East and we had to redirect them, but apart from that, going forward, there shouldn't be stockpiles or material stockpiles at Rana either.

Okay, great. Thanks very much, guys, and congratulations again to Michael.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press power 1. Your next question comes from the line of Brian MacArthur from Raymond James. Your line is now open. You may ask your question.

Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions, and I'll pass along my congratulations to Michael as well. I just want to go back to the question about the test cargo. I think you said, obviously, you're not getting the premium of the feasibility study, but you're still getting a premium. and then you said you get the benefit of the freight. I just want to make sure the premium, obviously freight's changed since that feasibility too. Are you still getting, you know, a premium high enough to cover the cost without the freight or are you sort of saying with the freight it all still works on the test cargoes? I don't know how much color you can give me on that but that's what I'm trying to figure out.

Yeah, thanks, Brian. So even for the test cargoes, we'll be able to make more money than the operating costs of the of the flotation plant.

Without any benefit from freight, because that's changed too, right? So the premium is higher than the cost. And then the freight differential is the freight differential, right?

The only thing that's difficult to answer specifically on that is sort of a package in terms of the contract, the way that we sell it. So if a client prefers to have a bigger discount on the actual freight, but then less on, I mean, for us, it's really a package deal. So it's tough to break it down.

Great.

Thanks very much for that help.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to David Cataford, CEO. Please continue.

Hi, thanks everyone for being on the call. I just want to take a few seconds to congratulate Michael for his new position and thank everyone for your support. I know it's been a quarter that's had a bit of noise, but I just want everyone on the call to know that we're working extremely hard to be able to navigate through these challenging times with the conflict in the Middle East. but at the same time we've got quite a lot of upside within our company having delivered this flotation plant. It'd be tough to start that project today but now that it's been built I think we're going to be able to separate ourselves from a lot of the material out there and we'll be able to still get benefits even if the decarbonization agenda has slowed down. I think when I look at the quality of the material that's being produced worldwide, I do think that's where we have the best potential to be able to materialize premiums for our material. And as you know, we've always got the potential strategy of blending all of our material together and being able to have 100% of Bloom Lake material that's still DR grade to be able to sell to potential clients closer to home. So I think we've got a lot of flexibility built into our company. and we're going to continue working to make sure that we get back into cash positive territories obviously and start working on deleveraging your company. So again, I'd like to thank everyone for being on the call and looking forward to be able to present the next quarter results.

Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.