Fresnillo plc

Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Welcome to the interim results presentation in what was an outstanding period for the company. My name is Octavio Alvidrez, CEO of Fresnillo, and this morning I'm joined by Mario Arreguin, our CFO, and Daniel Diez, Chief Operating Officer of the Northern Region. As always, I need to point out to a disclaimer before I begin, but let's move on to set what we will cover in our presentation. I will take you through the key operating and financial highlights. Daniel and I then provide an operational update, followed by Mario that will provide us a financial update. I will then conclude and provide some comments on the outlook. We then look forward to receiving your questions. So turning to the highlight for the first half. We delivered a strong operating performance in the first half, driven by consistent execution across our asset portfolio. Gold production showed strong sequential momentum, increasing 13.8% against the first quarter. However, as anticipated in our 2026 guidance, first half gold production decreased 7.3% year-on-year due to lower volume of ore process and recovery rate at Herradura. Our first half silver production reflects an anticipated year-on-year reduction primarily due to the planned end of the silver stream agreement alongside expected grade variability at Saucito and Juanisipio. We remain fully focused on managing costs in the face of continued inflation and moderation in the high price environment and the ongoing strength of the Mexican peso. Controllable costs rose by only 3.5% in first half 2026. Lastly, we continue to progress safety improvements, the priority of the group. We continue to see key injury and accident metrics trending downward with an ongoing commitment to zero fatalities. Some of the financial highlights. The first half of 26 was another record financial performance for the company and I have set the key highlights out here. In particular, we saw revenues up sharply driven by higher precious metal prices with gross profit and EBITDA more than doubling alongside a strong increase in margins. This financial strength has allowed us to more than double the interim dividends versus the prior year. Again, paying out in line with our long-standing dividend policy. We have returned over $2 billion to shareholders over the past five years, a record of which we are very proud. We have also used this balance sheet strength to selectively and strategically advance our business with the acquisition of probe gold at the beginning of the year, and more recently, an investment and the project CINDA. Like PROVE, CINDA meets our disciplined, strict and targeted criteria, giving us additional exposure to geological silver districts that complement our portfolio.

Turning to precious metal

In addition to our production, controlling of the cost, These pet metal prices give us further confidence in our strategy. Now turning to the performance of our mines. As you know, Tomasi Turriaga has stepped down from his role as COO of the central region, and so I will present the operational overview for the central mines. Gabriel Duran, a seasoned and experienced professional mining engineer who has been with the company for more than 30 years and he's been coordinating the tree for the central district for three years will temporarily assume responsibility for the region in addition reporting directly to me. Fresnillo saw A solid first half in line with expectations. In fact, we raised guidance on expected gold grade from the Fresnillo mine, as seen on the slide, where gold production increased 47.6% versus first half 25. It is worth noting the mine development rates increased 13.3% versus first half 25, supported by improved equipment availability. We are also closely managing costs. I would like to note here that the higher cost is primarily an arithmetic effect of our silver equivalent reporting under higher silver prices. But costs are a focus for us in the second half of the year. Turning on to Saucito was also in line with expectations. with both silver and gold slightly below last year. The key factor remains the ongoing Harillas-Chaft connection, which reduced ore volumes and increased haulage costs. This will be completed in the third quarter, improving operating efficiency and the cost profile going forward. While we optimize the mine sequence, we are reviewing the medium-term production outlook, although our 2026 guidance remains unchanged. Juan Ecipio continues to perform in line with our expectations with lower silver production, reflecting the planned mine sequence and expected ore grade. Gold production was in particular highlight increasing 19.1% year on year as a result of higher grades. Overall, Juan Ecipio continues to demonstrate his strong operational performance. I will now hand over to Daniel for him to give a short review on the rest of the operating assets, Herradura, Cienega, San Julian, but also the brownfield and greenfield development projects.

Thanks, Octavio. Good morning, everybody. With respect to the northern region operations, starting with Herradura, as you know, one of our most relevant assets, we have a slight decrease in gold production, as expected, during the first half of this year. This is compared to an extraordinary first semester during last year in terms of production, but also the normal decrease in head grades that we were expecting, and that is not affecting our ability to deliver on on our guidance during the year in gold production. In second half, we expect, compared to the production of the first half, a slight decrease. Slightly on production, however, again, the guidance that we have for the year in gold production and in production for Aradura is not at risk at all. I would say the most relevant part in the Herradura mine and district is the evolution of the structural projects that we are developing in there. As mentioned in the slide, the leaching part 15 and the CIC plant that you can see on the pictures were completely built last year and are at full production now. and the ADR plan, the sulfide crushing circuit and some other structural projects that we're progressing in there are advancing in the engineering phase. So we're preparing the infrastructure in Rauda for the next 20 years coming and for the development of the district. The average grades that we expect, you can see in there, Thank you very much. In Senegal, the news are quite positive. What we have been mentioning about the plan of reshuffling the operation, expanding more on exploration, given that we still have potential, is starting to deliver. The gold production increased 15% compared to the first half of previous year, and that is because the team was able to accelerate the development of the Discovery, the Victoria area, that is the new high grade goal area that we have in Cienega. And it's gonna be the support of the next three years of production in La Cienega, which has which are very good news. Silver production as expected. We are increasing gold rates, but silver is decreasing. So the decreasing silver production is the consequence of that. No surprises there, which is good news. And in terms of the ranges of grades expected moving forward, we increased slightly the range for gold rate this year to something close to 1.7, and silver remains at the same levels. In terms of cost containment and efficiency also Cienega has delivered very good results decreasing the cost base and sustaining the overall expenditure and increasing production hence the results that you can see on the screen. and finally, San Julian. San Julian, as you probably remember, has been transitioning during the last two years, moving to just one operating plant, the veins facility. Cost structure is sustainable right now. We are very confident about the long term and the results support that. Production are slightly lower compared to last year. Grades decreased somehow, however, what we're foreseeing for the future are these are the levels of production that we can sustain in in San Julián moving forward with costs under control and hence we have a cash flow generating operation for the next for what we see now four to five years but exploration is still providing good results so we expect to have a long-term operation there as well That's on the operations side. And to give a quick brief on the project side for Fresnillo, let's start with the brownfields. As we mentioned in the last couple of meetings, we are putting in the company a strong effort both in cost containment, efficiencies, and also putting some production forward from brownfield opportunities, marginal increases in production in our operations. and in particular from two of our brownfield projects that are Valles and Nochebuena. Happy to mention that those projects already started. In the case of Valle, the engineering was completed. We finalized the operational model for the mine and the final mine plan now is showing us a life of mine of 10 years compared to the original seven that we had original, so that's good news. We already have the contractor in place. We're starting development right now and production we expect to start in Q3 of this year actually. The production range, it's important to have a range in there. It's between, it's gonna be in the long run between 50 and 90,000 ounces of gold per year with an average of 65. The good thing is about the grades that we have in Valles, it's a low capital intensity. The ore will be processed at the Arradura plant and the grades are very good so the cost of production will be lower and will complement the delivery from the Arradura district in gold production. In Nochebuena, as you remember, is a mine that was in care and maintenance, planning to be closed. We reassessed with the new gold prices and the evaluation was quite positive, so we're reopening the operation. We continue re-leaching the old heaps. However, the restart of operations is going to be during the last quarter of this year with pre-stripping of the new faces that we will have in Nochebuena. Delivery of fresh ore will start next year in Q2 and fresh production we expect in the second half of next year coming from Nochebuena. Also complementing the gold production profile from the district in Arrauda that we'll see and we will start communicating moving forward the profile that we expect from the district moving forward in the next coming years. Herradura Underground, it's the deepest part of the main Herradura open pit. It's a longer term project. However, we expect larger production from there, ranging 120 to 160 additional thousand ounces when it starts production. We are assessing what is the right timing for the transition with the open pit and with valles as well. But for what we're seeing right now, we expect that to be in 2032, complementing production as well. In the case of Tajitos, Tajitos is a satellite pit 30 kilometers away from Herradura. We are progressing with metallurgical information. We needed to have some better information there to move forward, and we are scheduling the PAA for the first quarter of next year. However, in that area also, what we're thinking in the Arradura district is that 40 kilometers corridor in total. We have good exploration potential and some of that exploration potential we see reflected on the latest campaign in Tajitos. We're finding a new gold high grade veins area. It's different to what we had before, so good possibilities in there under development. and in the case of Greenfield projects, Rodeo is the first one. We mentioned this before, we were reassessing the quality of the asset and the engineering. We just completed the revised PEA and the results are quite positive. The new PEA is showing us that we have a possibility to increase the production levels from the previous ranges between 75 and 90 to an average between 90 and 110,000 ounces from that project. Good news, the critical path in here will be driven by the permitting process, for sure, and we're starting that as we speak, actually. And according to the schedule, and of course subject to permitting, we expect to have the new operation up and running by the end of 29, early 2030. Guanajuato Sur, we have mentioned this project for some time now. Now we have a very grasp of what it is in terms of production potential. It's a high quality silver asset for the company. It will take some time to be developed, given its depth. however the most relevant thing is that we are progressing with the pre-visibility study and now we can confirm that the production range that we expect in average in the long term is going to be between 15 and 17 million ounces of silver per year starting according to our current plan in 2033 however we are assessing a few alternatives in order to bring that production forward at least a year we are assessing that again permitting subject to permits we expect to start early works main shaft and the main ramp for the project during somewhere in the second half of next year Oriseo continues its development. Metallurgy, as we have mentioned before, it's one of the critical things. Good results so far. So Previsibility B stage continues advancing during the rest of this year. And we expect early next year. Most efforts right now in Odiseo are around land acquisition and government and community engagement. That is an important part for the development of Odiseo. It's a large project, significant production, around 200,000 ounces of gold. However, large capital, so we are optimizing right now, that's part of the review, optimizing the capital expenditure in the project. and finally Novador, our latest project in the portfolio, the acquisition with Pro Gold. The updated PFS is ongoing. We expect to have that completed before the end of this year. Condemnation drilling started this year. Good progress in there. You can see a picture of the harsh winter. However, during the first half of this year, the condemnation drilling continued for the engineering efforts. Project activities are continued today. However, we have some delays about the possibility of obtaining the permits in order to continue drilling. We expect a solution on that relatively soon. However, we have to wait and see. And coming from Novalor, again, production potentially starting in 2033, according to the current plan. To the current plan, production that we expect is around 200,000 ounces per year. So what you can see is a summary of our portfolio of projects, sizable portfolio, mostly gold. However, we have a very high quality asset in Guanajuato in terms of silver production. So a lot of activity moving forward. Handing over to Mario for the financials.

Thank you. And if you don't mind, I'll just stay here. It's very pleasant to be here in London with this unusual hot and sunny weather. But it's nicer to be here and to be able to share with you what I believe are truly exceptional financial numbers. As a matter of fact, the record high setting for a first half since we did the IPO 18 years ago. And of course, this goes along with the fact that the price of silver reached almost $120 per ounce in the first half of this year, and the price of gold reached above $5,000, which Thank you very much. which are the different profit levels, you will be able to appreciate that gross profit was 131% above last year, operating profit was 149% above last year, profit for the period was almost tripled compared to last year, and EBITDA was almost doubled compared to last year. So let's just briefly go back to the gross profit, which was $1.3 billion above last year. And if you move up that same column, the second from right to left, You will see that the main reason clearly was the increased level of adjusted revenues of $1.4 billion. And if we move very briefly to the next slide and we look at what was behind that increase of $1.4 billion, you will see that price was, and not surprisingly, price was the main reason. In particular, silver, where we had a benefit of almost $1 billion. The price of silver, the average realized price of silver for us during the first half of the year was $76.3 per ounce versus 33 that we saw in the first half of 2025. That's a 126% increase. So this was the main factor behind the increase in revenues. Of course, gold. The average realized price for us was $4,647 versus $3,169. That's a 47% increase. So that was also a very important reason behind the increase in revenues. did very well, 27% above last year. So prices in general, as you can see, had a very important impact. In terms of sales volume, as we knew it was going to happen, we had a lower sales volume in both gold and silver, but I do want to emphasize that we were above our budget, so this was perfectly predictable. If we go back to the income statement very briefly, I think it's worthwhile commenting on adjusted production costs. And as you can see there, we had an increase of almost 21% or $138 million. And I believe the best way to look at this is if we go to what we call the rainbow analysis, which is on page four. So on the right hand side, in the green bar, you have the total variation of 138. And I want to draw your attention to the first two bars in yellow. which represent firstly the behavior of the Mexican peso and here we're talking about the average exchange rate for the first half compared to the previous year and we had a 12.5 percent revaluation. Just to make it clear, the average exchange rate in the first half of last year was 20 pesos per dollar, and what we saw this year was only 17.5, which is, as a matter of fact, the current spot price or exchange rate. And on the second column, you can see the impact of what we call cost inflation. And this is based on our own basket of consumables. And we're talking here about the increase in the unit price of the different items that conform our basket. and that wasn't actually too bad. It was only 3.25%, but that had an impact or a negative impact of $33 million. So when you add these two factors, that's how you get to what we call our cost inflation. Do we have that slide here? No. In the appendix, okay. So I think the main message here is to convey to you that 66% of the total variation in the cost of production was due to the combination of the revaluation of the Mexican peso and what we call the cost inflation. Now, of course, we had some operating issues that we would like to talk about. If you look at column number five, for example, You will see that we had an increase in our operating cost at Saucito. And as you probably know, we are currently deepening the shaft there. It's a very important project, which obviously will generate very important benefits when we conclude it later on this year. But for the time being, what we're doing is we're extracting the mineral using contractors and using mobile equipment to take it all the way up to surface. and we're no longer crushing a mineral below the ground where we typically do it before we hoist it up to the surface. So we're doing that also at the surface and using contractors. So temporarily our cost of contractors has gone up and it's obviously at a higher cost compared to when you operate normally your shaft. So this is a one time. Hopefully, like I said, we will see the benefits of the new deepened shaft when we conclude that project. But this had a temporarily negative effect of $10.5 million. Now in bar number four, what we show there is the effect of the higher stripping that we recognized in our income statement related to Herradura. So as you know, every year, once reserves and resources are calculated and reviewed and the new mine plan is also defined, We calculate or estimate the stripping that will take on in the future. And what came out of that is that this year we're not capitalizing any stripping at all. 100% of the stripping is taken directly to the income statement, which was not the case in the first half of last year where we did capitalize. So as you can see, it's just an allocation when you look at, when you sum what is capitalized and what is taken to the income statement, it's basically the same one year versus the other. but it's the way that we accounted for that change to applying this criteria that I just described to you. And also the fact that we have longer haulage distances now at Herradura, those two factors had a negative impact of $11.4 million. and lastly on bar number three we had higher maintenance independently of exchange rates or you know inflation we just used more maintenance if you will at several of our mines and that had an impact of 15.2 million dollars so in conclusion two-thirds outside factors 10 million a temporary factor one time and column or bar three and four those look like they're going to stick around for a while if we go back very briefly to the income statement just to comment on some of the lines perhaps um so we already already spoke about gross profit right and we saw that the main reason for that was the increase in the prices now if we move to the operating profit I think the item to comment on is the exploration expenses. For me, it's an investment more than a cost, but anyhow, it was $109 million, which was $32 million higher compared to last year, but well within the budget. As a matter of fact, below our budget, and you already have the guidance that we have given for the full year. but when compared to the previous year, we are seeing an important increase. If we move further down the income statement, one important item perhaps just because of the significance in the variation is the finance income. So in 2025, you see a negative number of almost $180 million. And I'm sure you remember that back then we simply canceled the silver stream that we had. and we had that negative impact. This year, we are only recognizing $25 million which is basically the difference between the interest that we received on our cash balance and the interest that we pay on our long-term debt of $850 million which is due in 25 years from now. Moving on down, of course, you will see higher income tax and mining rights. Remember, the mining rights that we recognize here is what we call the special mining right, which is 8% of a base that is very similar to EBITDA. So with the better prices, obviously, that mining right increases. And obviously, income tax expense with a higher price and higher profit before taxes, it's natural to see higher taxes. I think now we can move on to the cash flow statement. And I would like to start with the very, very first line, because this is the cash generated by our operations, which was almost $2.36 billion. Again, record high. And we more than doubled what we saw last year. So pretty good cash generated by our operations.

But this first half, we had important uses too.

I'm going to mention the most important ones. income tax, and special mining rights and profit sharing. So here we have three main items. Provisional tax payments that are made from January to June, which are related to this fiscal year, and you simply apply a factor over sales, and that's what you have to pay monthly, and let's say that that is a tax paid in advance. and many more. Also, we presented our tax returns in March And after taking out the provisional payments that we paid last year, we still had to pay around $300 million just for the 2025 fiscal year. And of course, mining rights, which were much higher compared to last year. So that pretty much describes the $890 million that you see there. Another very important use, and that I'm sure you're very happy about, are dividends. If you look at dividends paid, we paid almost $800 million, and that's only what we paid in May, which was related to the final dividend for 2025. but we also paid dividend to our minority shareholders. Here we're talking about Pan American Silver who owns 44% of Juanisipio. So we paid them almost $200 million. So in total dividends between what we paid to our own shareholders and to minority shareholders, we're talking about $1 billion in dividends. Of course, another important use that you see there is the purchase of probe gold, almost $550 million. And my peers here have already talked about that important investment and very important project for us. And five and last, I would say, important use of funds is the purchase of property, plant, and equipment, CAPEX, which for this first half of the year we used $236 million, which is higher compared to last year. So all in all, it's just five uses that I just described to you. If you add them up, it's $2.7 billion. And that's why you see a small reduction in the cash balance compared to what we began the year with, which was $2.76 billion. And we closed in June with $2.5 billion, which is a very healthy cash balance. And with that, I think I will leave it at that. But before I pass it on to Octavio, I would like to make an important announcement here. who has been here in London for the last 14 years as head of the London office and also head of investor relations is finally returning back to Mexico for different responsibilities now. She will now be the vice president of financial planning. And I would like to introduce to you Juan Pablo Rojas, if you want to stand up please. Juan Pablo Rojas will be now, as of Monday, as of yesterday, your new investor relations person and the head of the London office. So I want to thank Abby for a great job during those 14 years great effort and I would like to ask your support as analysts and as investors for Juan Pablo who has been with the company now for 18 years and he he was until yesterday the vice president of financial planning so we're basically switching so people get new experiences so that's the announcement

Thank you, Mario. Thank you very much, Gaby, for all these years serving our London office. I think it was an outstanding time for you, but also for the company, of course. And we are very glad to have you back in Mexico with additional responsibilities, of course. So, thank you, Mario. Now, turning to the outlook. Expected production, as we have already confirmed, will remain on track to meet our guidance for 2026. Expected production for 27 and 28 expressed in silver equivalent ounces remains unchanged. However, we expect slightly higher production of gold, as we have seen from the trends in Herradura, and importantly in Fresnillo, and a slightly lower production of silver from Saucito. As usual, a more detailed update regarding individual metal production expectations for 2027 and 2028 is expected to be issued in Q4 production report. In terms of CAPEX, a good and continued experience on rationalizing and optimizing our CAPEX numbers, coming down to the range of 500 to 550 million. is through a very disciplined approach and exercise that we run across all of our operations as we go on the year, operating year. Just a brief comments on the timeline on the different projects. Daniel mentioned already that we expect some production out of Valles this year. First on the brownfields, Nochebuena, very good news as well, extending the life of the mine and seeing some production coming out next year. and then the rest of the projects that Daniel already mentioned, Rodeo, Tajitos, Cerradura Underground, Novador, Oricibo, importantly on the silver side, Guanajuato that continues to give us very good exploration surprises. So just to conclude, this has been an excellent first half 2026 for Fresnillo. We have delivered another solid operational performance which has resulted in a record financial performance. We have remained committed to foster a strong safety culture protecting the environment and maintaining open engagement with our communities. While there is always more to do, I'm delighted by the way our people have embraced these priorities. coming and this is important from two years 2024 and 2025 in which we had the We continue to invest across the portfolio and as set out today we are advancing fantastic new projects to production over the coming years. Finally, we are delivering significant returns for our shareholders in line with our dividend policy while preserving our capital for disciplined future growth. With that, we are happy to take your questions.

Jason Faircloth, Bank of America. Just a couple questions on the growth projects. So could you talk a little bit about the Canadian assets? It seems like there's many, many years between now and when we might see production, and you paid a lot of money for this. Why is it taking so long to bring these things into production, Octavio?

This is a strategic move of course. Number one, the quality of the project. Number two, that goes along the lines that we try to develop all the time. Number two, Novador Project, which is the centerpiece of the acquisition with 8 million ounces of gold already in resources, comes along with a large land package as well for exploration. So, we believe this will come as another mining district in the future, having a center piece as Novador, with 110,000, 120,000 hectares of exploration, yeah, ground. So with that, we will have the Fresnillo district, of course, the Herradura district, as Daniel explained, in which we have several operating assets, Guanajuato goes along the lines of a district in the future. We not only have Guanajuato Sur already with sizable resources, but also another four or five different exploration targets for the future, and then Novador. So all in all it complements our strategy for Fresno PLC.

Okay, I'm just going to push you a little bit. Why does it take so long to bring it into production?

Well, it's a combination in which we are right now at the stage of pre-visibility. We're reviewing that pre-visibility as well. We're going through some of the permitting process, as Daniel mentioned, some of the combination drilling. And then it's just the time that we believe is good to bring that kind of project in the future.

So to follow up on a similar note, one of the other projects you're still talking about is Orcivio. And I feel like that's been in your project pyramid since the time of the IPO. It's certainly been more than 10 years. Help me out here, Mario. Maybe even 15.

Since the IPO.

Since the IPO. So it's taking a long time. So could you maybe just talk a little bit about why that is taking so long?

Yes, it was a special case, but you're right. I mean, in the first 10 years, as you very well know, of Fresnillo, we had our hands full with different projects. Almost one project, greenfield project or expansion, I just went up for operating assets. from 2008 to 2018. Oricebo at that time was a sizable project with sizable resources, almost 10 million ounces in resources. We thought about that as an open pit future operation, complex metallurgical process and recoveries. It took us long to really go and nail down the metallurgy there, refractory ore as well. Now we are in a way strengthening the project that has ahead of us additional challenges, indigenous consultation, high infrastructure investment, roads. It's on top of that Raramuri Mountains Range in Chihuahua. So it takes time. But I mean, we like to go about developing our projects once we have everything in place so that we improve drastically the probabilities of success for these kind of projects. Okay, thank you. Yes. Thanks, Jerry.

Morning, Richard Hatch from Berenberg. A few questions. Firstly, just on the CapEx, it's a pretty big cut, $200 million in your CapEx. So can you just help us to know where that $200 million has come from? Just because I also know you haven't increased $27 or $28. So where is that $200 gone?

In general terms, across various areas of investment, we make sure that those investments that our operations need are deployed. The connection of the Jarrillas shaft, that is going to be concluded. the conveyor belt at Juan Ecipio as well. Mining works, importantly, I mean that's number one. Mobile equipment, some of the sustaining capex, we review it through the year and if we can we extend it and cut the capex numbers. Tailings storage facilities as well. We reviewed the original design, the engineering and everything and if we can regrow some of the operating design for the tailings storage facility, we do and postpone that investment. What else, Daniel?

I think you covered most of the relevant factors. It's a combination between the ability to execute in some of the projects, the ability to actually purchase some equipment that was not available for this year, and the other is the continuous effort on reducing and reviewing what we expand on.

But some of the important cap is our priority that is deployed.

But you're confident that we're not going to see a creep in 27 and 28 as some of that comes back in? Mario, just on the costs, can you help us with a bit of a steer for what you're thinking in the second half? You've been pretty good at controlling costs. Peso's been against you, but recently it's been a bit more stable. So what are you thinking on costs into the second half?

Right. You know, we haven't yet seen the most important impact of the increase of the price in oil. Diesel, as you know, is one very important consumable for us. Fortunately, it's become a, I would say, a political issue in Mexico, so the president has tried to keep the diesel price more or less stable in peso terms. And she's been lucky because, you know, given the fact that the peso revaluated, when you look at the average price expressed in dollars of diesel, even though in Mexico it remained constant, In dollar terms, it went up, but not nearly the percentage that worldwide price has experienced. So in that regard, I think we're going to be able to maintain that. But it all depends how long and how much more the price of oil could go up, and it's very uncertain. I'm sure you know a lot more about that than I do. In terms of wages, we have already negotiated with the union so we're not going to, you know, you don't have any risk there. In terms of other materials, you know, like explosives and operating materials in general, again, they're more or less linked to oil prices directly or indirectly. We only saw a 3.1% increase in the first half, maybe just a lag effect there that we might see in the second half of the year.

but you know at least from our side what we're budgeting is something pretty much like what we saw i mean budgeting for the next six months uh pretty much what we saw in the first half okay helpful thanks and then just a couple more if i may just the first one is um just on cash tax second half should we should we expect any how are you thinking about cash taxes in the second half of the year cash taxes And also, you mentioned that you pay some of your tax ahead of time, right? So with the gold and silver price coming lower, does that mean that you perhaps pay slightly less in the second half or no?

Yes, look, provisional taxes are basically paid as a percentage, a small percentage, a factor that is defined at the beginning of the year. You've seen a formula that is defined by the Mexican tax authority. It's the same formula every year. So if you did very well in the previous year, that factor certainly will go up, which is what actually happened. And you simply apply that factor to yourselves. And when you do your tax return on the following year in March, You do your actual calculations and you compare that to whatever provisional taxes were paid. So if the price of silver and gold go down and revenues come down and you apply exactly the same factor that you applied in the first half, that should come down as a use of cash for the second half of the year.

And then last one, I was just curious, on Salcito, seemed to be that you sold quite a lot less than you produced. Was there any reason for that? You sold 4.4 million ounces of silver versus 6.2 produced 26,000 ounces of gold, 29 produced.

Any reason for that? I think that's just... Probably some of the, I'm guessing a bit. Sometimes it takes time to settle the assays exchange with the med mix, so that may be the case. Nothing that I remember importantly.

We'll probably recuperate that in the second half. Okay, helpful, thanks. Yes.

Thank you. This is Alan Gabriel at Morgan Stanley. A couple of questions. Firstly, on capital returns, the first half dividend came in slightly below what the market was expecting, and your dividend policy is a bit formulaic. How should we think about the framework of the year-end distribution to shareholders? How are we thinking about it? How should the market think about it? That's the first question.

Sure. In relation to the interim dividend, what we actually did is very, very simple. We simply applied our dividend policy. And as you know, our dividend policy has been for the last 18 years since we did the IPO is paying out basically 50% of our net income. So what we do is we project our net income for the end of the year. We apply 50% on that. And since we consider this to be an advanced dividend payment, we simply apply 30% on that number that we are estimating, and that is the interim dividend. So it's just pure math applied over a policy. Now, I don't know what the market is thinking about the second half. But as we are using conservative prices, very much close to the spot price. So for the next six months, we're projecting around $55 the price of silver and around $4,000 the price of gold. So that's what we're projecting for the next six months. And based on that, like I said, we just simply applied the math.

Thank you. That's very clear. And the second question is on your greenfield projects. You have four major greenfield projects. How do the spending on these projects feed into your CAPEX project for 27 and 28? What's included and what's excluded from the outlook slide that you have laid out?

27 and 28 is not including the growth projects CAPEX there. And whenever we have a project approved, then we include it in the expected cap.

Any initial budgets that we can think of? Any ceiling of spending that you are thinking of, including the projects for 27, 28?

In 27, we don't see significant expenditure. As we mentioned on the presentation, The larger capital, but we're talking about something between $40 and $50 million will be the start of the decline and the shaft in Guanajuato. For the rest of the greenfield projects, we don't see construction work actually starting. So next year, nothing significant. 2018 is something that we will start reviewing. Thank you.

Patrick Jones, JP Morgan. Maybe just a quick one on Rodeo, given, obviously it's similar to Orecibo, it's one that's been in the portfolio for a long time. It looks like the timeline's moved out just a little bit, again, closer to 2030, but the production has changed a little bit. So are you kind of building a little bit more confidence this is going to be happening? And also, how long do you envision the permitting process to be if you think this could be online by late 29, early 2030?

I think permitting process, as you're aware, has been relatively complex in Mexico during the last few years. Things are improving. The reception from authorities in terms of work out with the companies, the relevant permits, it's improving. However, there is some uncertainty there. In terms of the confidence, let me call it the technical confidence of the project, the work we conducted last year and we're just finishing now, it's very solid. and many more. There's no simple project, but it's a relatively simple project to build. That's why the execution time, once we have the permits, it's well under control. We think something between 18 and 20 months for construction. So that allow us to be in the time frame that we're mentioning. However, it's going to be permit depending.

And maybe just follow up on that. Anything from an environmental community relations issue that is particularly outstanding as part of that permitting process?

One of the most complex permits are around water management in Mexico. The area around the project, we have one water stream that is probably what we will have to deal with in more detail. We started already conversations with the relevant authorities, but we don't see communities being an issue. We have a very good relationship with the closed communities. Part of the investment is about water management in the area, building treatment plants for the existing community. So we don't foresee The last federal administration was not really supporting mining. This administration is being different.

They started first approving some of the permits, environmental permits for the current operations. And we saw some of the long-standing permits from the previous one being approved for San Julian, for Fresnillo, for Herradura as well. and now they moved into approving some green fields, even open pit mining already, or open pit future mining projects. And just recently a large one which is San Nicolas, an investment by Tech and Agnico. So I think they are getting a good pace in terms of understanding the importance of mining and therefore approving Thank you for that.

Maybe just on another topic. It's been about a year or so since the magsilver deal closed for Pan American. Could you just talk a little bit about the working relationship with Pan American?

It's been working well. We have regular meetings and they are being supportive for mining plans and investments as well. We may in this kind of relationship improve or increase the exploration or budget for exploration among some other things. So all in all it's working very, very well.

Do you see any other areas to cooperate, either in the Guancipio area or outside of the concession or potentially internationally with Pan American?

Well, I think that will come. We have visited them and they have visited with a larger group of mining professionals. They will also get a conveyor belt in some of the operations, something that we are doing right now. So those kind of technical exchanges we are doing. They have some of the projects, but for the time being, I mean, we are not going in that scope yet.

And maybe just lastly then, also on Novador, given this would be your first project outside of Mexico, how do you feel about doing that either Do you think that would be one that maybe down the road you'd look at potentially bringing in a partner?

Which one, sorry? For Novador in Canada. Novador. I think it's manageable. I think it's manageable. We have the experience. We did, since the due diligence, a very good review of what Probe had done in terms of the first stage of the pre-feasibility study. We modified some of their assumptions there. We reviewed even the future underground operation. Initially, we didn't see it with that much of something that we would do. But now, I mean, we believe it's something that we will do as well. The prize also has helped growing the resources along the lines of some of the initial operations we've done. So I think that is something that can be managed by yourself. As I mentioned, the large land package may present opportunities to do something with another mining company, probably.

If we can just shift online, we've just got two questions online, then we'll come back to the room to wrap up. So Gavin, can you go for our first question, please?

You have a question for the line of Marina Calero from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for the call. I just have a couple of follow-up questions. First, on your capital returns, can you share with us the gold and silver prices that you've used to estimate your net income for the full year?

Yes, of course. The price of silver that we're using for the six remaining months is $55 per ounce. Price of gold, $4,000 per ounce.

That's very clear. And my second question is on Guanajuato. I think you mentioned the possibility of perhaps bringing these projects earlier. What will need to happen for these to materialize? And you gave us today a production guidance range. Can you comment on the potential capex and cost profile for these projects?

Sure. If I understood correctly, the possibility of bringing forward some months, eventually a year, the project will depend strongly of the ability of develop at higher rates the main shaft and also the ramp. We are assessing that. The average rates that we're using now are Let me call it average. We are trying to think of different ways to accelerate that, but we will be able to confirm once the detailed engineering is completed. Your next question was about the production range. That's fine. And in terms of capital, in terms of capital intensity, we are still at pre-visibility level, but what we can comment is that we expect this project to be in the between seven and $900 million capital in total. That is the range that I can give you for now, but again, we are finalizing the engineers and we will be able to confirm final numbers when we're finished.

Okay, thank you.

You have a question from the line of Daniel Major from UBS. Your line is open.

Hi, can you hear me okay?

Yes.

Great, thanks for the questions. The first one is a clarification. You've provided the same three-year gold and silver production guidance that you provided at the interim results in February. Two parts to the question. Is the Valets underground and the Noche Buena gold incremental volumes that are essentially going to happen at the end of this year and next year included in that? Gold Production Guidance is the first part of the question. And in the second part, if you were to think about the risks to the up and the downside around the gold versus the silver. In recent years, silver has undershot and gold has outperformed. Is it fair to say the same risks sit around that future guidance going forward?

To your first question, the production from Valles is included in that forecast. The production that is not included, it's Nochebuena. Nochebuena was confirmed after we provided those figures, and we haven't modified that. You can think about that additional production. It's not going to be significant on 27. In 27, we expect from Nochebuena something in the range between 15 and 20,000 ounces. But for 28, we expect a full year of production. So if these numbers help.

OK, thanks. And then in terms of the kind of cadence and the risks, the up and the downside to those numbers, gold versus silver?

Octavio mentioned during the presentation what we are seeing right now is stable in terms of silver equivalent homes. We see not a risk, we see a possibility of increasing the production of gold that we're working out as we speak. And as a risk, Octavio also mentioned that we see a risk of a slightly lower production, particularly from Saucito moving forward. However, the details and how much is something that we're working out right now. We expect to provide more color before the end of the year.

That is something very well identified, Daniel. which is we've had some issues with ventilation and the development to the west in Saucito. A bit on ground control that made us change at least for the mining sequence for 27 and slightly for 28. So that's something that we are assessing and therefore that's why we will update you in Q4 production report.

Okay, thank you.

There are no further questions online. I'd like to hand back to management for closing comments.

Hi, it's Amos Fletcher from Barclays. A couple of other follow-ups. I just wanted to ask, Daniel, regarding your comments around not spending money on equipment because it's unavailable. What equipment is that? What areas are you seeing that in?

That's mostly on long-term items. We are renewing our fleet in Herradura. We purchased in December four new tracks. We are shooting for six new this year, but we also will have to start renewing the loading fleet, and we expected to have some of that available during this year, but it's not coming online this year, so we are postponing that for next one. That's one example.

Okay, thanks. And then I just wanted to follow up, could you just update on your sort of preliminary thoughts on the CAPEX for Tejitos and Rodeo projects, please?

we have the numbers worked out as part of this study in Rodeo we expect a capital this is still a PEA we need to refine the PFS that we are studying in the next few months but we expect a capex around 500 millions, roughly speaking. In Tajitos, it's more uncertain. However, the configuration of Tajitos as a project is very similar to Rodeo, simpler in terms of topography and layouts in general. Rodeo is a bit more complex. So in Tajitos, I would think, and to give you just an idea of something in the 400 to 450, potentially, but very early stage and we have to work out those details.

Thanks. And then last question was just around your investment in Cinder, the recent US IPO. Could you just talk about the potential benefits of that and what might come from it? Thanks.

That goes along the lines of consolidating on districts as well. The mining claims, this company finishes where ours start. and that's further south to Guanajuato Sur. If we were to see the Guanajuato Sur mining district, We will have, as I mentioned, three, four additional targets, exploration targets, Guanajuato Sur, one more to South Naranjillas, and then Isinda. So that goes along the line as an investment of just to see possibilities in the near future in the same area. Great. Thank you.