Resolute Mining Limited

Good morning and welcome to Resolute Mining's Q2 operation results. I'm Chris Egger, your CEO, and today I'm welcomed on the call by Dave Jackson, our CFO, and Bruce Mallott, our Head of Exploration, who is available for Q&A at the end of the presentation. And starting with slide three in our presentation, we believe Resolute Mining had a very strong quarter again with very healthy production of 75,962 ounces, which is similar to what we performed in Q1. at a cost of $1,668. The business continues to perform very strongly on cash flow, and we ended out the quarter with a net cash position of just above $110 million. What was really exciting in Q2, though, is that we acquired the Duropo and ABT projects from Anglico to Shanti, and we announced and closed that transaction on May 1st. And then most recently, we also appointed Gavin Harris as the new chief operating officer, who's made a real immediate impact into the business. So moving to slide four, I wanted to recap where Resu operates today. We have two producing mines, one in Mali, the Syama mine, and another in Senegal, the Mako operation. And we also have two exploration countries, both in Guinea and in Côte d'Ivoire. As just highlighted on the previous page, we've made a very exciting entrance in Côte d'Ivoire to the acquisitions of Europa and ABC. But let's not forget that we also have the Davo, which is a very exciting project of 400,000 ounces at 1.2 grams per tonne. But what this means for the business is that whilst today we're on track to produce 275,000 to 300,000 ounces in 2025, the business has set itself up so that by 2028 we'll be on track to produce well over 500,000 ounces. So we're really forming the basis of being a very attractive, diversified gold producer in West Africa with over 16 million ounces of gold. So look, I'm very excited about what we've been building and the trajectory of the business in what will be, though, a complicated geopolitical environment in which we operate today. So let's turn to slide five. As mentioned on the previous slides, we acquired the Duropo project from Anglico de Chanty and announced this deal on May 1st. I have to say, I believe this is one of the most exciting projects in West Africa today, and which will really transform Resolute to being a well-established premier mining business in Africa. The project remains well on track, and the activities in Q2 were robust, We, for the most part, have been hiring a team in order to start the advancement of the Durable project. The key activities for the rest of the year, though, will be to update the DFS and also to hire the engineering firms to start carrying out the feed work. But most importantly, we are well into the process of optimizing the pit shells at a higher gold price. And you can see in the second bullet on the left that, preliminarily, we see substantial increase in gold at the higher pit shell levels. But when we update the JOR tables in the next month or two, you'll understand exactly what that means. So again, for the second half of the year, the activities will be to optimize the DFS, which we anticipate will be issued in Q4. We will also be looking to update the reserve tables in the next quarter. And then finally, we expect to complete our permitting process. The permitting process is probably the one area that we have the most concerns on because it's outside of our control. At this stage, all applications have been made. We're at this stage waiting for a final sign from the ministerial decree, which we expect by the end of the month. Once that's completed, the final stage will be to convene an inter-ministerial committee to approve the exploitation permit, which we hope will happen in September or October. Once the exploitation permit is received, though, we will have approximately 90 days to negotiate with the Minister of Mines Office on the exact full mining convention that we will follow. And the one complication that we see in Ivory Coast is that today there's an election in October planned. As you know, when there's elections, timelines can slip, and so we're staying very close to the situation. The other key, very exciting activity on Zeropo is that we've hired a project director. His name is Rob Ticini. He's got a wealth of experience. He's spent 30 years in the mining sector. Most recently, he was the project director at the Azuma Resources Project of Black Volta in Ghana. And then before that, he was the successful project director for the Thunderbird project, which was a project built in the Kimberley Mineral Sands area of Western Australia, which he built well under budget and on schedule. And that was a project that was over $300 million. In addition, Rob has 23 years with Lycopodium, obviously a well-known engineering firm that will likely be used in this project. So again, I think we're at the process today of putting together the right pieces in order to develop the ROPO properly. We get a question often about financing, and look, the financing initiatives for Duropo will be kicked off towards the end of this year once we have finalized the DFS and have visibility on the permitting process. It's too premature to start anything at this point in time. But as explained in the past, we anticipate that we will fund Duropo through a mixture of debt and our cash. So turning to page six, let's talk about our Mali operation specifically around Siyama. In Q2, Siyama... poured 41,000 ounces of gold at an ASIC of $2,134. Unfortunately, this is below our expectations as it regards to the fact that in Q2 and still today, Siam is impacted by explosive supply chain issues throughout the country. Just to give a backdrop, today as we know, Mali is facing security challenges, predominantly in the north and the west. What this means though is that the importation of explosives and also the transportation of explosives internally is becoming very difficult as it's due to very cumbersome and complicated permitting procedures. So we've been working tirelessly with the government in order to make sure that our explosives are getting the right permits and then we're getting the right transportation with those permits that is proving to be difficult and frankly outside our control. So in Q2 there were times where we were short of explosives which impacted the activities in the underground of the mine, predominantly in the development side. So we'll continue to work tirelessly with the government in trying to manage these explosive supply issues, but at this point in time, I see that the sulfide activities will be at the lower end of the guidance from a production perspective for the remainder of the year. When looking at the oxide production, we had a fairly strong quarter on oxides, but we have to remember that the amount of oxides in Siam is diminishing. So moving forward, and as we look into next year, the oxide production will continue to drop as we transfer to fully sulfide operation activities. And finally, look, I wanted to have a word on continued sort of dialogue with the government. As we know, things in Mali are complicated, but I have to say for Resolute, it's progressing. We continue to engage with the government on moving forward. We are still waiting to hear, though, from the government a number of documents around specific terms of the mining convention that we'll be using moving forward. But the discussions, like I said, are productive and constructive, and we're keeping an open dialogue with the government at this stage. So look, all in all, in Mali, I'm still very excited about the potential that SIAMA has. I'm also disappointed in some of the supply chain disruptions that we're facing because it just is impacting the potential of that operation. But as I look to the future, I think this asset has tremendous potential for our business and our shareholders. Moving to page 7, I wanted to give you an update on our SAC project at SIAMA, or another way you call it, the SIAMA Sulfide Conversion Project. But the SACP project, for folks that remember, is a project whereby we are converting our oxide line to process sulfides. Today at SIAMA, we roughly have 4 million tons of processing capacity, 2.6 million tons is for sulfides, and 1.4 million tons are for oxides. we are converting the oxide line to process sulfides. In doing so, there are basically four key pieces of equipment that needed to be built and installed. It's a new CCIL circuit, a flotation circuit, a pebble crusher, and then a ball mill. So that's where we're on track, and what I'm pleased to say is that in the second half of this year, the CCIL circuit and flotation circuits, pebble crushers will start to be commissioned, with the ball mill being commissioned in the first half of next year What this allows for the business is that at SIAMA, we'll be able to start processing sulfides to the existing off-site circuit this year, increasing the flexibility. So the project is well on track. It's on budget. It's on schedule. This year, we anticipate to spend around $30 million on the SACP, with the last $35 million being spent in 2026. So very pleased with the progress of the SSCP in Mali. And like I said, this will create greater flexibility for the SAML operation, creating a lot more value for our shareholders. And now moving to page eight, let's talk a little bit about our operations in Senegal. So starting first with Mako. Mako had a very strong quarter with production of just about 35,000 ounces at an ASIC of $972. So again, very pleased with the success at Mali. It's exceeding all of our expectations. We had a milestone in June whereby the main mining operations in the original pit ended and now we are in the process of processing stockpiles. We are fortunate that the end of the mining operations in Mako, we encountered some higher grade ore than expected, which drove to better than expected results and therefore lower ASIC costs. So as we look at Mako for the remainder of the year, It's performing very well, and we expect MACO to produce at the upper end of guidance for 2025. However, activities in Senegal are not just about the existing operations at MACO, but more importantly, in the life extension opportunities. So moving to page nine, let's talk about the first satellite deposit, which is Tombou and Koto. As we know, Tombou is a site that's been identified for many years, and we are progressing nicely on the development of Tombou with anticipated ore processing in 2028. Tombo is complicated because it has, as we know, a village that needs to be relocated, but we believe that there is well over 400,000 ounces from Tombo that can be processed in the plant. So in Q2, we made good progress at Tombo. We've kicked off the environmental impact studies in the village with the key delivery of an ESIA to the Minister of Mines at the end of this year in order to kick off the permitting process which will allow for an exploitation permit to be received in the second half of 2026, allowing for the village to be moved, as well as additional activities to happen in the surrounding areas. So again, good progress in the Q2 of 2025, and this project remains well on track to start operations in 2028. So very pleased with how Tombo is performing. And now moving to page 10, to complement Tombo, You will have seen last week that we announced an initial maiden resource for Bentaco, which is a satellite deposit just adjacent to the Tombow deposit. Bentaco is a less complicated area to develop in the sense that we have very limited community involvement in Bentaco, and as per previous slides and information that you may have seen, we have multiple areas of possibilities of ore with regards to Bentaco. We issued a maiden resource on two areas specifically, Bentaco West and South, which totaled 266,000 ounces. And as we continue into 2025, we will continue to develop and explore these areas. We'll focus on infill drilling. But as both of these areas are still open at depth and on strike, we'll be looking to expand the resource. We've anticipated updated MRE for Bentaco probably in the beginning of next year, if not sooner. Since the Bentaco project has a lot less community dynamics than Tombo, we believe that we can get Bentaco into operations right in 2027 ahead of Tombo. But at the end of the day, between Bentaco, Tombo, and our stockpiles, we're creating effectively the flexibility in order to pick and choose what we'll be able to mine in order to extend the operations at MACO for years to come. So look, in the press release, we've highlighted at least five years. I think it will be greater than that, but we're seeing really good activity in Senegal and very pleased with the operations to date. So moving to page 11, I want to talk a little bit about our exploration activities in the quarter because we find this, again, to be very exciting for the business, and it creates flexibility and optionality for the future. So really a core strategy for Resolute moving forward. Let's start first with Mali. So Mali, look, we spent a bit of money, just over a million dollars, but that money was really focused on focusing on additional oxides that can add to the mining production mix in the future. In Mali, at Siam, since we have such a large footprint, we have lots of different opportunities to mine different areas, and it's important that we gain as much knowledge in what will maximize value to ourselves and shareholders in looking for additional oxides. In Senegal, Obviously, the focus continues to remain on Tombo and Bentaco, and that's what we'll continue to do in the second half of this year. But probably most importantly, when we look at our exploration license footprint in Cote d'Ivoire, today we have two other exciting projects aside from Duropo. It's the ABC project, which today has 2.1 million ounces at 0.9 grams per ton, and the Ladabo project, which has 400,000 ounces at 1.3 grams per ton. So look, at ABC, this is a well-known project that has actually created a lot of interest. It's been partially explored, and so our focus will be to actually do some RC drilling at the Farako and Nafana Permit, which is the northern side of the exploration permits at ABC. And I think that will create quite a bit of value for us, and we'll look to announce those results probably sometime next year. And then Redabo, with all the drilling that we've done, we're in the process of updating the resource for the DABO and initiating an MRE in the second half of this year. So again, I think across the spectrum, we're doing very well in exploration. It's core to our strategy. I think it's where you actually create the most value for shareholders, and that's something that will be continued to do for many years to come. So with that, I will turn it over to Dave for a few comments on financials. Thank you, Chris. Today, I'll be walking you through the quarter's headline financial results. highlighting the key performance metrics we're pleased to share with you. Overall, we had a very strong quarter. We exceeded expectations across our core financial metrics for the group. Operating cash flow for Q2 reached $85 million. This was driven by $263 million in revenue and supported by 80,000 ounces of gold sales at an all-time high gold price of just over $3,400 per ounce. Quarterly operating cash flow was approximately $10 million more than Q1. This Q2 figure also includes $46 million in corporate income tax payments in Mali and Senegal. These payments are related to taxable income realized in 2024. Net cash for quarter ends stood at $110 million, marking a $10 million increase from Q1. This includes the impact of the $46 million in corporate income tax payments just mentioned. as well as the $25 million outlay for the acquisition of Durapo and ABC projects at the start of May. We had $47 million drawn on overdraft facilities at quarter end. These continued to be used locally to optimize working capital. You will remember, these facilities were increased to $85 million of availability in Q1 as we continued to maintain financial flexibility for the group. including the net cash figure at $62 million, representing nearly 19,000 ounces of gold that were sold after the quarter closed. Importantly, all gold is being sold at spot prices as we remain unhedged. The group all-insustaining cost was $1,668 per ounce sold. This represents a $40 per ounce improvement from Q1. This reduction was primarily driven by the strong performance at MACO. where higher-than-expected production and lower operating costs contributed positively. At SIAMA, all unsustaining costs was higher than Q1 due to lower production volumes. We expect this to normalize over the remainder of the year. Importantly, top-line operating expenses at SIAMA have been trending down, thanks to the team's continued focus on cost discipline. These benefits will become increasingly evident in H2 as production improves. Despite site-level variances, we remain firmly on track to meet our full-year group all-in sustaining cost guidance of $1,650 to $1,750 per ounce. Let me now walk you through the key components of our financial results that led to the cash and volume position of $157 million at the end of H1. We generated a solid $160 million operating cash flow during H1, approximately $30 million higher than the comparable period in 2024. This uplift reflects a favorable gold price environment and the continued success of our cost reduction initiatives across the portfolio. CapEx for the half-year totaled $57 million, including approximately $12 million allocated to exploration. This comprised $19 million in sustaining capital across SIAM and MACO and $22 million in non-sustaining capital at SIAMA, of which around $14 million was directed toward the SIAMA sulfide conversion project. Overall, CAFNIC's aspirations stand within line of expectations, and we remain on track to deliver within our 2025 guidance range of $109 to $126 million. As previously noted, we made the initial $25 million payment for the acquisition of the Doroppo and ABC projects during Q2. These projects represent exciting growth opportunities for the company and are expected to deliver meaningful long-term value to our stakeholders. VAT upvotes for the first half totaled $32 million across both Mali and Senegal. VAT remains a source of cash leakage, but we continue to engage actively with local governments to recover these amounts. Our recent discussions have been positive and we remain encouraged by the progress being made. We recorded $11 million of working capital inflow for H1, primarily driven by reduction in stockpile balances. In addition, we made solid progress in lowering consumable inventory levels as a part of our ongoing efforts to optimize working capital. Our ending cash and bullion of $157 million marked the $56 million increase from the beginning of the year. This leaves us with ample available liquidity of over $212 million at the end of H1. In summary, we're in a very solid financial position given the strong H1 results and are excited about the growth potential of the business. With that, I'll hand it back to Chris. So thank you, Dave. Now moving to slide 14. So look, in summary, very pleased with how we are progressing across the board, albeit with some challenges in Mali and supply chain. So look, we are very much on track for full year group guidance on both production and cost. We continue to generate very strong cash flow and we have net cash position over $110 million at the end of Q2, but I expect strong free cash flow to continue to build throughout the rest of this year and frankly to next year the business continues to execute on its strategy of geographic diversification and becoming a mid-tier african gold producer generating well over 500 000 ounces and we're well on track to do that by 2028 with the portfolio that we have today we will continue to evaluate mna opportunities that we've done in the past although today i will say we believe that pipeline is very limited But that being said, we have fantastic opportunities internally to create a lot more value for our shareholders, and we're very excited about delivering on those targets. So thank you very much. And with that, I will now turn it over to Q&A. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Please also ensure that your mute function is activated in order to register your equipment. Our very first question this morning, or today, is coming from Richard Hatch, Harker Barenburg.

Please go ahead. Yeah, thanks, Chris. Yeah, morning, team. I've got a few questions for you. Firstly, just on the explosives situation. So... Is it the case that you need to increase your inventory levels of explosives so that you've got a bit more of a buffer, or is it simply that it's, as you say, like a permitting situation, which is just because of the security backdrop, and that's just creating issues? I'm just kind of trying to understand what the risks are as we go into Q3 and Q4.

Thanks. Morning, Richard. Thanks for the question. So, look, it's partially both points. Look, the first one is what happened at the end of last year is our main explosive supplier pulled out of Mali and other Western African regions. So we swapped to a new supplier and we were able to get explosives in effectively during March, April. And then we were in the process of trying to get more explosives in. And then as a result of permitting disruptions, we were blocked and frustrated. So we are now working to try and get another three months applying and also focusing on the next three months thereafter that. But as I mentioned previously, the issue that we were facing was the fact that the security challenges that are happening in the country, there's a heightened level of rigidity and bureaucracy around explosives. And it's just finding people to sign documents is becoming very difficult. And then once you actually have all the permits in place, the explosive needs to be escorted from wherever they're located, the border or in the capital, the site. And that means you have to find the gendarmes and also present the right documentation. So all of this is creating a lot more work and effort. And because we had to swap suppliers, it was a bit of an unfortunate situation. So look where... We think we're getting it resolved now as we speak so that we don't have disruptions for the rest of the year. But like I know now, we're going to have at least another three months of availability, but we're working on the next three to six months thereafter that.