Agnico Eagle Mines Limited

Good morning. My name is Dani and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Agnico Eagle Minds Limited Q3 2025 conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. Thank you. Mr. Ammar Al-Jundi, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Agnico Eagle third quarter conference call. I'd like to remind everyone that we'll be making a number of forward-looking statements, so please keep that in mind and refer to the disclaimers at the beginning of this presentation. Once again, we are pleased to be sharing a good news story with you. In a nutshell, with record gold prices, With strong and, importantly, safe production, along with continued solid cost control, we are once again delighted to be reporting record financial results. Across all metrics, our business is running well, and beyond the record financial results, we continue to invest in the best pipeline we've ever had, and we continue to invest in the most ambitious exploration program we've ever had, which continues to deliver exceptional results. With almost 70 years of history behind us, we have never been stronger than we are now, and we have never had a better future than we have today. Before I turn this call over to my colleagues, who will go through our business in more detail, I'd like to spend a few minutes to summarize the key takeaways. One, we're reporting record financial results driven by, of course, record gold prices, but coupled with strong and consistent operational performance. We delivered another exceptional quarter of strong production at 867,000 ounces, putting us year-to-date at 77% of our full-year guidance range. We sold that gold at an average price of $3,476 per ounce, another record, and a full $20 per ounce higher than the spot average in the quarter. Well done to the Treasury team. At the same time, we continue to work hard to control costs, which means we continue to deliver benefits of these record gold prices to our owners through record margins. While our reported Q3 cash costs of $994 an ounce are higher than the previous quarter, the majority of this cost increase is due to higher royalty costs, which are a direct result of the higher gold prices. If we back out the impact of these higher royalties which again are the direct result of higher gold prices, our Q3 cash costs would have been $933 an ounce, well below the midpoint of our cost guidance range. Year-to-date, our average cash costs are $943 an ounce. Again, if we back out the impact of higher royalties, our year-to-date average cash costs would be $909 an ounce, well below the bottom end of our cash cost guidance range for the year. All of this, the record gold prices, the solid production, the continued good cost control, has led to another quarter of record financial results for our owners. Record EBITDA, record adjusted net income, and record returns to our shareholders. Two, we continue to strengthen the company, to strengthen the balance sheet, and to return record amounts of cash to our owners. We repaid $400 million of debt this quarter, We returned $350 million directly to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, and we increased our net cash position to $2.2 billion, while at the same time receiving an upgrade in our credit rating. Three, we continue to invest heavily in building the foundations of our future growth, advancing construction, development, and studies of our five key pipeline projects, and investing heavily in an exceptional exploration program. At Mallardic, we are ahead of schedule on the underground development, ahead of schedule on the shaft, and progressing studies for Marban, Wassamak, and a potential second shaft. At Detour, the ramp portal is built. We have begun building the ramp to access the underground, and we continue to optimize the mill. At Upper Beaver, I was there just on Monday, We are on budget and we are ahead of schedule. The team is doing an exceptional job. At Hope Bay we continue to get great drill results and we are accelerating on-site activity. We've upgraded the port, we're upgrading the camp, we've emptied the mill building, we're progressing the Madrid ramp, and we have completed the box cut for a ramp at Patch 7. At San Nicolas, We continue to progress engineering on this high-grade, high-quality copper project in the best mining jurisdiction in Mexico. These projects cumulatively represent about 1.3 to 1.5 million ounces of potential production, all from assets we already own in regions we've been operating for decades, and in most cases, leveraging off existing infrastructure in place. At the same time, we're investing more than we ever have by a wide margin in our exploration program, and as Guy will illustrate at the end of this call, we continue to get truly exceptional results that will position Agnico Eagle well for decades to come. These three key messages are consistent with our story last quarter and are consistent with our focus over the past couple of years. But on this call, I've asked the team to spend some time on a fourth key message. I've asked the team to spend some time to talk about our continued focus on productivity. Dom and Natasha will go through a few examples to convey the message that, even with gold at $4,000 an ounce, even with record financial results, our teams continue to be absolutely laser focused on improving productivity at every opportunity, at every mine. We are proud of our teams and how hard they continue to work to deliver not only great and consistent results, which, by the way, make my job a lot easier, but to also focus every day on pushing themselves to operate even better and even safer. With that introduction, I will now turn over the presentation to our CFO, Jamie Porter, to review our third quarter financial results.

Thank you, Amar, and good morning, everyone. Our operating teams delivered another excellent quarter with strong cost control, particularly on a per-ton basis. By delivering on our production targets and managing costs, our investors continue to benefit from margin expansion in a record gold price environment, a dramatically strengthened balance sheet, and increased direct shareholder returns. We are in the strongest financial position in the company's history. The strong operational performance and cost control paired with higher gold prices to drive record financial results, including record revenue of $3.1 billion, record adjusted earnings of $1.1 billion, or $2.16 per share, and record adjusted EBITDA of $2.1 billion. These are excellent financial results, delivering the leverage to higher gold prices you would expect. At current spot gold prices, key financial return metrics such as return on equity could be as high as 20% for the full 2025 year. Gold production in the third quarter was approximately 867,000 ounces, a total cash cost of $9.94 per ounce, and all in sustaining costs of $13.73 per ounce. We have achieved 77% of our full-year production guidance to the end of September. Though we have budgeted lower gold production in the fourth quarter, we are confident in achieving the midpoint of our full-year production guidance range of 3.4 million ounces. We are benefiting from record gold prices. However, the higher gold prices do result in increased royalty expense. In the third quarter, cash costs were approximately $60 per ounce higher than what we had budgeted, largely as a result of the increased royalty expense. Despite this, I'm pleased to report that our cash costs remained within our guidance range on a year-to-date basis, and we still expect to be at or near the top end of our cash cost guidance range of $9.65 per ounce for the full year. Our teams have done an excellent job managing costs, the costs that are within our control, and continue to work on ongoing optimization initiatives that Dom and Natasha will talk about later in this presentation. All-in sustaining cost per ounce were higher than the prior quarter, primarily due to the increase in cash costs and the timing of sustaining capital spending. We also expect to be close to the top end of our all-in sustaining cost guidance range of $1,300 per ounce on a full year basis. Our all-in sustaining costs continue to be hundreds of dollars per ounce below those of our peers. Again, this is the result of continued efforts by our teams to control costs and continuously improve, while maximizing the cost synergies and benefits resulting from our regional strategy. We move on to the next slide. We had another strong quarter of free cash flow generation that directly and indirectly benefited our shareholders through direct shareholder returns to the dividend and share buyback and indirectly through the strengthening of our balance sheet. We generated $1.2 billion of free cash flow this quarter and added another $400 million through the sale of equity investments, which allowed us to continue to strengthen our balance sheet. Our net cash balance more than doubled in the third quarter, increasing to $2.2 billion. Given our strong financial position, we decided to redeem an additional $350 million of long-term debt in addition to the $50 million of debt that matured during the quarter. Over the past 18 months, we have significantly delevered the balance sheet, reducing our gross debt in that period by over $1.6 billion. Reflecting this strength in credit profile and financial position, I'm also pleased to report that during the quarter, Moody's upgraded us from BAA1 to A3 with a stable outlook. We are, again, in the strongest financial position in the company's history, giving us the flexibility to take a balanced, disciplined approach to capital allocation. We move to the next slide. We continue to deliver record shareholder returns this quarter, totaling approximately $350 million in dividends and share buybacks, and totaling $900 million on a year-to-date basis. This brings the cumulative shareholder returns in Agnico's history to over $5 billion, the majority of which has been returned in the last several years. Our capital allocation strategy remains unchanged, and we are well positioned in this gold price environment. We expect to continue to increase shareholder returns through increased share buyback activity and potentially through higher dividends. We also expect to continue strengthening our financial position and flexibility by increasing our net cash position. Given our profitability, we are expecting a significantly higher cash tax payment relating to the 2025 fiscal year in the first quarter of 2026. This is estimated at approximately $1.2 billion. We are allocating cash to fund that obligation. Lastly and importantly, we will continue to reinvest in our business in order to bring our high-return organic growth projects online. We have our five key value driver projects, Detour Underground, Filling the Mill at Canadian Mallardic, Upper Beaver, Hope Bay, and San Nicolas, all of which generate solid returns at gold prices significantly below the current spot price. At current spot prices, these projects have the potential to generate phenomenal returns. Detour, for example, once ramped up to 1 million ounces of annual production, has the potential to generate over $2 billion of annual after-tax-free cash flow at that mine alone at these gold prices. We will continue looking for opportunities to accelerate reinvestment in the business to drive long-term shareholder value. At current gold prices, we're generating a lot of cash, but we will remain disciplined and continue to take a measured approach to capital allocation, with a focus on increasing returns to our shareholders over the long term. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dom, who will provide an overview of our Quebec, Nunavut, and Finland operations.

Thank you, Jimmy, and good morning, everyone. Our Q3 results for Quebec, Nunavut, and Finland continue to show strong and consistent operational performance, just as we saw in Q1 and Q2. We are on track to meet year-end guidance, and we're positioning ourselves on good foundation for 2026. The production costs remain well controlled, and as shown in the bottom right table here, we are seeing record profit margin, thanks to the gold price. I'm very happy of our team's leadership and mindset. Even with a higher gold price, the focus remains on deburr-linking the operation and improved productivity. As for example, this quarter, we have three mills that beat records, quarterly records, at Middlebank, Meliadeen, and GoldEx. For the next two slides, Ammar asked Natasha and myself to explain more and give example about what we're doing at the site and regional level to control our costs, to manage our business. You will hear not about cutting, cutting, and cutting. What you're going to hear is going to be more about productivity improvement, integrating technology, leveraging skill sets, and leveraging our people. The first example is going to be Aquitela, led by the team that you could see here on that picture, celebrating the 3 million ounces pour. And the second one is going to be about new technology implementation in underground.

Next slide, please.

So, at Kittila, following the new shaft commissioning and ramp-up, the team were struggling to meet their operational targets at underground. And from there, I need to recognize the leadership of Yanny, Mikko, and Kiyosti for taking action leveraging learning from similar initiatives done at Meliadeen in 2023 to drive meaningful change. So in June 2024, they've launched an underground productivity improvement program. And as at Meliadeen, their approach was built on ownership, focused on what matters, and on problem solving. They work in collaboration with the employees. They did benchmarks to define what a perfect shift could look like, and to be more productive. At the end, what they did, they worked with the guys driving the equipment, as you could see there, a scoop, to find how they could help them to be more productive. And some example, like just being at the equipment faster than it was before, it's an easy one, but it's a thing that they kind of implemented to be more efficient. I will just show you some results of that if I take the two graphs or bars on the left. The bottom one, you could see the ton mined per day improved by 13% year over year, so the first nine months of 2024 compared to the first nine months of 2025, 13% more tons moved or mined from underground. This is with the same equipment, same fleet, same people, more efficient. That allows them also to do more by themselves and less relying on contractors, which helps to reduce the cost. And on the cost side, if you take the top one on the left, you could see that euro per ton mine side cost decreased by 4%. And this is despite inflation and higher royalty. So very good job to the Ketela team. Thanks for that. Next slide. The second example is about implementing new technology of remote operation. The gains we are doing with those remote operations are not just helping us to control our costs and manage the business. It is more than just the current operation performance. It is also unlocking future growth projects, enabling future growth projects. All of our projects, if we could improve what we use into our studies in terms of tons moved, tons mined, as well as we're going to see at Odyssey, if we could improve the RAM development speed, this is significant improvement. So I will start with the example of SS5 in 2016, where they implemented the first LTE system in the world underground. Since that time, they really, really did very good progress. You could see with the yellow here, through the time, we are now approximately over 20% of the tons are done through remote operation. And how this is the gain, where is the gain, is there were some area, some time that we were not operating the equipment because we need to be out of the mine for ventilation purpose, for example. So the same skill set and the same thinking have been applied to Odyssey Ramp. And you could see the jump done in the year, in the 2023, when we started to do remote mucking and remote drilling at Odyssey. So we've increased the productivity by 20%. Again, same people, same team, just using the technology. This is significant improvement. How it works, so you could see the people here sitting on the on the front of a screen in a seat, which is the same as the one in a scoop. So they are able to operate three to four equipment each. And we're collaborating very closely with Sandvik at LZ5, with APROC at Odyssey to push those technologies to do more and more. So this is helping us to control our costs. This is also enabling future projects. It is also an aspect on the workforce. Natacha's going to talk about opportunities and action on the workforce, but those type of things are in the balance to help the workforce. So we are in Quebec, approximately 5% of turnover, which is fantastic, and those type of initiatives are helping us to have better conditions for the workers, or giving them great challenges to our professionals, This is helping for the retention, this is helping for the recruitment, and this is helping for the stability of our operation. Next step, stay tuned, we're moving into the fleet management system. So the blue that you see on the graph there, this is still conventional hauling. Now, to be better in that area, we're implementing fleet management system underground. We're going to be in the first of the world to implement such a software advance like we're thinking about. In the coming years, you're going to hear about that. Next slide. Moving to the project pipeline. As Amor mentioned, both projects are on track and evolving very positively. As Guy will talk later, the drilling results keep adding value to the project. Very, very interesting. Canadian Malartic. In terms of shaft sinking, where we start more conventional shaft sinking in Q3, we did a record in terms of speed, and we are about two months in advance of what we were planning initially when we updated the study in 2023. I would like also to highlight the construction team in Q3 did triple zero for 70,000 hours. What is triple zero is no lost time, no modified work, No medical aid. In 70,000 hours, this is equivalent of one guy working in a construction for 30 years. Congratulations to the team. It's fantastic doing those type of achievements. So, to close on Canadian Malartic, the study is progressing for division to 1 million ounces with a second shaft, more bands, with AMAC, everything is on track. And the construction team keeps delivering what's needed. For example, the administration building is going to be delivered in Q1. It's going to be a good thing for the team to be in a better position. At Hope Bay, potential 400,000 ounces annual production. From the good drilling I see, I think it's going to be slightly more than that. Let's see where the study is going to end. But in the meantime, the key thing is to advance engineering. So we are currently around 25% achieved on the engineering, and we are progressing between 3% and 4% per month, which brings us to the 40%, 50% we were looking before greenlighting the project next year. Everything is in good position for that. And also, the construction team are preparing the field to be able to do that heavy construction time. So you could see here on the picture, there's two new wings. Both of them are approximately 133 people per wing. We're building capacity. We're going to have six of them ready to go for construction, operation, and keeping exploration. On that, I will pass the microphone to Natasha.

Thanks, Dom, and good morning, everyone. So I'll cover the operational highlights for Ontario, Mexico, and Australia. The regions delivered good safety operating and cost performance this quarter, and along with the higher gold price, This led to record operating margins at both McCassa and at Detour. Now at Detour, as we continue to stabilize the mill at the higher throughput, the team achieved another quarterly record mill throughput. The open pit mining rate in the quarter, however, was affected by slower progress around the historical underground workings. But grade is still expected to improve in the fourth quarter as we move into the higher grade domain in the pit. Over at Mikasa, we had a really good quarter there too. The team continued to see some overperformance with higher than expected grades in localized areas. And then at Fosterville, production this quarter was on target following a very strong first half of the year. Now in terms of business improvement, similar to what Dom discussed, the teams, they continue to push hard to optimize our business. There is a constant effort to keep all of our operations at a state of optimal performance. It's just part of their DNA. And the optimization of the ore haulage system at Detour is a really good example of that. It's a good example of the many initiatives that are going on. It's a good example of how the team is looking at ways to sustainably lower costs and improve efficiency. And this particular journey started 10 years ago. with incremental slow enhancements made over time and significant progress made, as you can see from the utilization and payload improvements, as noted on the graph. And the team, they continue to look for ways of optimizing our unit costs by involving external experts to review their performance and help identify possible efficiency gains, similar to what Dom was talking about at Catilla, not just as it relates to haul optimization, but really the entire mining cycle. Another hot topic, and Dom touched on this, is related to the skills labor shortage that the entire industry faces. Labor is a large portion of our overall cost, and our focus is to not just maintain our operational needs, but also secure the workforce to grow our business and at the same time manage the costs. So we're taking a very proactive approach to workforce planning as we grow in Ontario by leveraging our regional strategy, by leveraging our competitive advantage, specifically when it comes to people. So our strategy to address the short- and long-term workforce needs is multilayered. Of course, the first one is to ensure we continue to be a great place to work for our employees. By continuously investing in our people, by continuously leveraging the culture that IGNICO has built, we have increased the engagement levels of our teams. And MACASA is a really great example of how powerful this combination can be. Since 2022, we have significantly increased production at MACASA, and at the same time, we've significantly improved safety performance. They say that a safe mind is a productive mind. In our experience, it's also a highly engaged mind. In addition to that, we're investing in local workforce training. This quarter, we started the Underground School of Mines for Macassar. Our plan is to, over a period of time, train local candidates to meet the increased demand for Macassar, for Upper Beaver, for Detour Underground. And while we remain focused on hiring First Nations and local employees, we're also seeing success in filling roles through our immigration program for skills that are generally hard to recruit for in Canada. I'm very proud of the teams because even at these gold prices, like Amara was saying, their foot is still on the gas. They continue to safely and responsibly make our mines more efficient and more productive and ultimately reduce our costs. Now moving to the next slide, I'll give you a quick update on the three projects for Ontario and Mexico. As you're aware, the Detour Underground project plays a big part in the plans for the complex to be a 1 million ounce producer annually. It's still early days, but as Ammar mentioned, this quarter we commenced the exploration ramp and have advanced just over 250 meters laterally. We're also continuing with the infill and expansion drilling and continuing to see positive results, and Guy will talk about that later on in the presentation. As for Upper Beaver, during the quarter, There's been a lot of progress made in a short period of time. We did have the pleasure of hosting our board and our senior management team this week at Upper Beaver, but also Macasa. And they were complimentary, not just about the progress, but also the strong teams that we have on the ground, and I completely agree. In terms of the project, with respect to the shaft head frame, the structural steel and the cladding is completed. The winches have been roped up and the service hoist is ready for commissioning, so shaft sinking is still expected to commence in the fourth quarter. And over at the portal, the excavation of the exploration ramp began at the end of July and has advanced over 250 meters. Finally, with respect to San Nicolas, we continue to engage with government and authorities and our stakeholders related to the key permits that are needed. In the meantime, we're continuing to advance the engineering of some critical infrastructures, which will just help us further de-risk and build confidence in the execution strategy. So all in all, good progress being made on the projects, and I just wanted to end by thanking the operations team and the projects team for another solid quarter. And so with that, I'll pass it over to Guy.

Thank you, Natasha, and good morning, everyone. First of all, I would like to start by taking a moment to thank the team at all sites for another excellent quarter, both safety and productivity and cost control went extremely well. With an excess of 120 drill rig in action, we've completed north of 370,000 meters of drilling in the quarter, now exceeding a million meters year-to-date. That is ahead of our schedule by about 9% year-to-date in terms of meters, and our unit costs are approximately 8% below budget year-to-date as a result of our strong involvement at controlling costs. Our Drilling Excellence Program continues to deliver. We're improving safety by introducing more mechanized features, such as robotic arm technology to reduce weight lifting and repetitive motion. And we are ramping up our unattended drilling capacity that allows for drilling between shifts, which is very beneficial. for our underground mining sites. Heading towards year-end, we continue to focus on key value driver, expanding a little bit the drill program on several sites, such as Marban, Detour Underground, Oak Bay, and Canyon Margic, Odyssey, where we have good exploration results that continue to blaze the trail to support studies that will support studies to deliver on our vision of growth for these assets. From a result standpoint, I would like to comment on a few projects, starting on slide 15 with Canadian Monarchic. We currently have 29 drill rigs in action at Monarchic, both on the ground and on surface at Odyssey, in the extension of the deposit around the mine, including the recently acquired Marvan project. And once again, this quarter, I've seen some very exciting results. In the upper eastern portion of East Gouldie, Results are 4.8 over 25 meters at 800 meters depth in the area we anticipate can get to millimetre reserve by year-end. That could provide additional flexibility to accelerate ramp-up of production in the upper portion of the East Goldie deposit. Then also in the lower extension of the East Goldie with results up to 2.3 over 30 meters at 2,000 meters below surface. which is also kind of aligned with our decision to extend the depth of the first shaft down to 1,870 meters. And the deposit remains open at depth and laterally. And on the adjacent Marban project, we've so far completed 96 drills on the property for 30 in excess of 30,000 meters since the drilling started in May following the acquisition, mostly to test the eastern extension of the deposit, on ground that belonged to Agnico prior to the consolidation. And the results have the potential to increase the ultimate pit design, with results up to 3.3 over a 7 meter, 4.6 over a 10 meter, approximately 2,200 meters east of the current open pit being considered. Now on slide 16, a detour, as mentioned by Natasha. The exploration ramp is now progressing well. with just over 250, almost 260 metres developed in a quarter, reaching a depth of 43 metres below surface. 62 kilometres of drilling were safely completed in the quarter, with nine drill rigs that continue to infill and expand the deposit from surface in areas that are targeted for the underground mine project, both below the saddle portion of the deposit, which results up to three grams over 40 metres, 2.7 over 55 meter, and to the west of the pit, where the planned exploration ramp would result pretty significant, up to 7.4 over 27 meter. The results so far should lead to growth in the underground mineral resources system at the key ramp, and based on these results, we've added an additional 55,000 meter of drilling in the fourth quarter, expecting to achieve almost 220,000 meter. by the end of the year. Now, on slide 17, as discussed by Dominic, again, some very good results in exploration. We have six drill rigs in operation. We've completed in excess of 100,000 meters year-to-date, expecting to achieve north of 120,000 meters by year-end, and we continue to see very strong results in the patch event area. First of all, in the southern extension of patch, with results up to 6.7 over 10 meters 10.7 over 3.8 at shallow depth, 350 meter below surface, showing that the deposit remains open to the south on the right-hand side of that graph. And two, at depth in patch 7, with very strong results, up to 12.7 gram over 9.3 meter and 16.9 gram over 4.6 meter, both at around 880 meter depth in the strong new discovery at patch 7. That shows that the deposit remains open at depth and laterally. So, we anticipate that all of the good results we've seen at OPE this year will have a very positive impact on the mineral resources at year-end, and as mentioned by Dominic, that all of that will be integrated in our potential project development scenario to be communicated in 2026. Then, on Site 16, I would like to add a little bit more color on Meadowbank. As you are aware, We're looking in a current gold price environment to look at opportunity to continue to operate middle bank. So we've been, since 2024, validating some option for pushback in the IVR area, but also continue to de-risk the underground extension of the deposit that is known to be still open at depth. And all of those good results that we are displaying will be integrated in our scenario analysis to evaluate the pushback scenario and eventually to continue to mine from underground only with mill operation at the lower throughput once the open pits are fully depleted. Finally, at slide 19 at Fosterville, not mentioned in our press release because it came out right after the cutoff of our press release yesterday, we're pleased to announce that we've reached an agreement with these two resources to acquire their 39,000 hectares exploration license that surrounds our mining leagues at Fosterville. This will consolidate in total more than 260,000 hectares stretching over more than 100 kilometers along the break at Fosterville to allow the continuation of the full investigation of those structures without any property boundary constraints And the transaction obviously is subject to the Victorian government approval. And the closing is expected to close within about two months. So on that, I will return the microphone to Omar for some closing remarks. Thank you, Guy.

As you can see, we continue to work hard for all our stakeholders and we'll continue to build off the same foundational strategic pillars that have served us well over the past 68 years. We will focus on the best mining jurisdictions based on geologic potential and political stability. We will be disciplined with our owners' money, making investment decisions based on technical and regional knowledge, creating value through the drill bit and through smart, disciplined acquisitions when it makes sense. We are uniquely well positioned with a quality project pipeline leveraging existing assets in the best regions in the world where we believe we have a strong competitive advantage. And we will continue to be focused on creating value on a per share basis and on being leaders in our industry and returning capital to shareholders, as evidenced by over 42 years of consecutive dividend payments and increasing share buybacks. And finally, before we open up for questions, I'd like to comment briefly on the current exciting gold environment, both the gold price and the sector more broadly, including our recent investment in Perpetua. On the gold price, of course, nobody has a crystal ball and nobody can predict near-term moves, but it is very common that when a market moves up quickly, there is often a measured retracement in a period of consolidation before the next leg up. I think that is where we are on the gold price. Long-term, we remain very constructive on gold, and as all the factors that have pushed gold to outperform over the last 25 years remain in place, and in many cases, have become more prevalent. On the M&A front, while we do have the best organic growth in our history, while we continue to have great success in our exploration programs, and while we feel absolutely no pressure to do anything, of course we will continue to look at opportunities to create more value for our owners through smart and disciplined opportunities on the M&A side. Our owners want us to look at these opportunities Our owners expect us to look at these opportunities. It is, frankly, part of our job. Our investment in Perpetua is a good example of this. Perpetua is one of the largest, highest-grade, undeveloped open-pit gold mines in the United States. To paraphrase one of our senior exploration people, it is the most exciting U.S.-based gold exploration project she has seen in many, many years. Perpetua is also an investment in gold. Yes, there are valuable byproducts that will reduce cash costs, but that's a good thing. This is what we do. We focus on geologic potential and safe jurisdictions, and we try to get in early to gain a knowledge advantage. Thank you again for joining us on this call. Operator, may I ask now that we open up the call for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, remember please press 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 key 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. Your first question comes from Fahad Tariq of Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Amar, can you talk a little bit about the non-core investments in critical minerals? It sounds like it's a new subsidiary. I'm just trying to understand what type of investments will be vended in or spun out in there. It sounds like it would be things like Canada Nickel and maybe some other equity investments. And what is the future strategy of that subsidiary? Would it invest in, like make equity investments or actual project development?

Hi, Fahad. Thank you for that question. You're absolutely right. For example, Canada Nickel will be in that subsidiary. I think as most of you know, there's been a lot of interest globally on critical metals. We are a gold company, but we're also, in my opinion, the best miners in the regions we operate and we're the largest by far mining company in Canada. We get asked about critical metals all the time. We want to remain a gold company. And so the approach we've taken, which is consistent with being disciplined and consistent with our philosophy on capital allocation, which is that it should be based on knowledge. For the last three years, we've had a small team, as again, most of you know, looking at opportunities on the critical metals side. With everything that we've got going on, with the great pipeline we've got, with our continued focus on gold, we felt now was the time to let that small group of people have a little bit more independence and look at opportunities on their own. So we've contributed small investments that are non-gold, non-copper, into that subsidiary. We've given a little bit of seed capital And frankly, Fahad, it's their job to look at opportunities. We are not obliged to invest more money. We'll be supportive, but we'll also have a first shot at looking at what they're doing.

Got it. And then maybe just switching gears, can you talk a little bit about how just government relations are going with the new federal government in Canada? Have you noticed changes in terms of the level of access to the government, dialogue, and any opportunities in particular for Nunavut infrastructure? Thanks.

That's, again, an excellent question. We have been very pleased with the new government. I'll give you an example. You know, while we are the biggest mining company in Canada, we really... didn't get a lot of attention from the previous government. The weekend after the election, I got a text from Tim Hodgson. I'd never met Tim Hodgson. He went out of his way to find out who I was, and I guess who other, and I know he's talked to a lot of other mining executives. And so, you know, you've got to give a government credit when the minister, in the very first weekend, reaches out to people on their cell phones via text. We know the teams there well. We've probably had more discussion with the new government on the importance of mining and the opportunity of mining to contribute to Canada than we'd had with the previous government over several years. So we're very pleased. They are very smart. They're very engaged. they really are interested in leveraging off of what mining, for example, can do for the average Canadian.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Your next question comes from Anita Soni of CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Ammar and team. Thanks for taking my question. First question is with respect to Hope Bay. What are you expecting to deliver by year-end in terms of a resource update? And then what are you targeting for the 2027 study?

I could start maybe with the study, and I will let Guy for the resource. On the study, we're expecting in the first half of next year to deliver a PEA study with the engineering at over 40%. And again, as we did at Mediadean, we really have a good view on the schedule and on the cost. We like to give information when we have enough of that engineering done. I'm very happy to see the progress with the team. And mid-year, before mid-year next year, we're going to give you more detail on all those KPIs, Anita. And that, I will pass it to Guy.

Yeah, so as a follow-up, so for year-end, I would say reserve will remain as last year. We're going to be updating indicated and inferred resources, obviously integrating all of the new results we've been getting, expanding patch 7. And along with what Dominique described, our study in 2026 with the new development scenario, new costs. So our desire would be to update OB with a brand new PFS supported reserve and resources filing by the end of 2026. Okay.

Thank you. And then just a question with respect to costs. I know you talked about tariffs a little bit, and it seemed like it was the standard, customary, cautionary language, but is there any other, I guess, I'm just trying to get an idea of what kind of inflation expectations you're seeing going into next year. Is it the typical 3% to 5% or... And you obviously talk about optimizations where you're trying to defray some of those 3% to 5%. You've done an excellent job this year of maintaining costs within the original range despite a more than $1,000 gold price move. But what should we be thinking about going into 2026 and other moving parts like changes in grade and things like that?

Yeah, Anita, it's Jamie here. We're obviously working through the budgeting process now. I think 3% to 5% is where we've seen labor inflation over the past several years, but across all of our costs, it's been closer to 6% to 7%. If you go back over the last three years, the average cost inflation we've seen has been 6% to 7%. Our guidance has been up on average by about 3%, so we've been able to do a bit better than the rate of inflation over the last few years. Going into 2026, I think we're seeing a similar level of inflation in around 6% to 7%. across all of our various cost components, and obviously we're seeing the pressure on royalty costs as a result of the higher gold price. So we would expect costs will be higher next year just based on the impact of higher gold prices, but as we've talked about through the call today, we're always looking at opportunities to do better than inflation.

Okay, thanks, and that's it for my questions.

Your next question comes from John Tumazos of John Tumazos Very Independent Research.

Please go ahead.

Thank you very much.

Could you review the rigs operating across the company? I think I heard there were 29 rigs at Millardic and the meters were being increased 55,000 to 220,000 for the year. Could you give us that review across the portfolio, please?

John, I'm going to thank you for the question, John. I'm going to ask Guy to comment on that.

Yeah, so basically the 120 rig, as reported, are spread over the operating mine, advanced project. I can go through maybe with you offline if you want to see, but basically, yeah, we have those 29 rigs, the 220,000 meters and additional 55,000 meters you're referring to pertaining to detour, where we have those nine rigs operating. So we haven't seen a quarter over quarter. We have the exact same number of rigs. We've just seen an increase in productivity, and we're trying, wherever we've been getting some good results, especially in the pipeline, to keep drilling at the same pace during the fourth quarter. Therefore, we're expecting that we will be in a position to go all the way to around 1.25, 1.3 million meters by year end, without spending much more because of the lower unit costs we've been getting with those productivity improvements, such as the unattended drilling. Basically, what it means on a day-to-day is when the driller with the new rig that we are currently revamping on each of the sites with collaboration with our drill entrepreneurs. We're basically adding the function that when the guy lifts the rig at the end of the shift for the blasting and gas clear up, you can just press the button. The drill continues to drill in between shifts. So if you look at it, if you can drill three more meters at the end of the shift, three more meters at the end. So for an underground mine, it is quite significant. So those are the things that with the same fleet of rig, we can get more done. And we're going to continue to drill at the same pace because we have some good results. And overall, we are expecting our global exploration budget for the company of 525, including an exploration project, to be about right on that $525 million for the year based on our three forecasts we just done.

Could you just run through the several sites where the most rigs are running? I don't remember how many rigs were at each site.

Yeah, well, maybe I can provide you with those details offline, but we have those 29 in Monarchic. We have nine at Detour. We have 12 in Macatha. We have six at Oak Bay. So maybe I can provide you with the detailed list of the spread of our rig offline, John.

Thank you. Merci beaucoup.

Hey, your next question comes from Tanya Yakuskonek from Scotiabank.

Please go ahead.

Oh, great. Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Morning, everybody. Dee, I just wanted to come and talk to you about the reserve and resource replacement this year, year-end 2025. I think if I go through what you mentioned, we're going to see increase in reserves at East Goldie. That was really the only mine, the only deposit I've heard. And then resource growth at Detour and Hope Bay. Is that correct?

Guy, can you comment on that? Thanks. Yep, yep, I can take it. So we are in a good position to fully replace what we mine at Ketela, at Makassar, and several of our sites will see some partial replacement. We will also have Marban that will get into the mix, adding a first iteration of Marban. So net, bottom line, we're expecting to see a net growth, net of mining depletion by year-end, by maybe, I don't know, I guess we should be up by a quarter or half a million ounces year over year, despite the fact that we've mined, we've extracted 3.8 and we'll produce 3.45 this year. So all in all, the drilling has fully replaced what we've mined out with a slight growth year over year.

Okay. And should I be thinking, as you have done historically, that you take your reserve and resource pricing and you look at inflation and adjust accordingly? So I know your reserves are at about $14.50, your resources at $17.50. If I put that 5%, 6% or thereabout inflation, I guess $15.50 and $18.50 respectively. Should I be thinking that that's how you're going to approach your pricing for your reserves and resources at year-end?

Well, that's a very good question. Obviously, with the current gold price environment, we are at that question and we're working on it. But our desire remains to deliver the margin ounces up front. Therefore, we don't want to lower the cut-off grade that will change our mining sequence in the upcoming couple of years. So, we are looking at it on a mine-by-mine basis if there is some excess milling capacity, if we can mine some. So, we're going to be having that in mind, flexing maybe our full price assumption on some project where it's a life-of-mine extension scenario or where there is additional milling capacity. But our firm intention remains to keep the cutoff rate stable by, as you described, offsetting inflation, moving the gold price up in line with that inflation we see overall on the market.

So then it's really what you talk about is real actual replacement of ounces rather than any movement in gold price for what you're seeing for year-end? Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you for that. Maybe over to you, Amara, if I could, about just the strategy on the overall portfolio, both from an investment equity standpoint and then also on your portfolio, your assets, overall assets. There are some smaller ones that you have in there as well. So I'm just interested in how you're approaching this. Let's start with the equity portfolio. Should I be thinking you're you know, investing and, you know, perpetual was one investment, but should I be thinking that, you know, whatever sales or sales you make from that investment portfolio, it just gets reinvested into other equities rather than being thought about this gain as, you know, allocated to shareholder returns. Should I be thinking about it in that way?

Thank you, Tanya, for the question. No, The money belongs to our owners. We make strategic investments in things that we have looked at and think might have an opportunity to create value for our owners. We don't do it as a trading position. We do it really, again, in line with our philosophy on being disciplined with capital. It's an opportunity to make an early investment to learn about a project that we might be interested in. And so if you take a look at something like Orla, and there's a long history there, eventually Orla did a fantastic job. They didn't really need us anymore. There was a lot of money tied up. We liquidated that position, but that does not go into a pool that goes back into equity. That is our owner's money, and that money, everything competes for that money. Investments into our mines, technology, everything has to have a business case. So we do not simply take that gain and allocate it to future equity investments. It's our owner's money, and it gets treated like the rest of our owner's money.

Okay, so it just goes part of your cash flow and then gets allocated accordingly.

Correct.

Okay. Thank you for that. And then in the portfolio itself, as you, you know, higher gold prices, everyone's looking at their portfolio and, you know, some, you know, you have a lot of big assets that you're focusing on coming up, these five assets that you talk about. Anything that you see as anything within the portfolio for non-core?

Yeah. I mean, I just looked at it this morning. You know, John and I talk about this all the time. You're right, Tanya, there are some things that transition well and we continue to be interested in. And as you would expect, and as in the history of our company, there are some projects that while we invest in early, we end up concluding don't make the criteria for our owners and we will be disposing of them. And frankly, again, you're right at these current gold prices, it's not a bad time to, in some cases, sell those assets.

Yeah, so when we're talking about assets, we're talking about assets, not investments.

Correct. Well, no, no. In this case, I'm talking about the equity investments.

Equity investments. How about just, you know, overall within the portfolio, just some smaller, you know, within the portfolio, anything in Mexico? You know, you've got some smaller stuff.

Yeah, I mean, you know, you asked about Mexico. There are some things that are now pretty small and non-strategic. We always look at opportunities to get the most value from any asset, whether that means we operate it or we sell it. I can assure you we do that with all of our assets, including ones that are small. And so if there are some that you might wonder, well, why haven't you sold them? The simple answer is you can assume that we've looked at all the different opportunities and have concluded on the ones that still make the most money for our shareholders, even if it's a small asset.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for taking my questions.

I'll let someone else ask.

There are no further questions at this time.

I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Amar Al-Jundi. Please continue.

Well, thank you, everyone, once again for joining us this morning. More importantly, thank you for being our friends and supporters over many decades in many cases. Everybody, one day early, have a nice weekend. Thank you.

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