Fortuna Mining Corp

Greetings. Welcome to the Fortuna Mining Q1 2026 Financial and Operational Results Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Carlos Baca, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, Holly. Good morning to all and welcome to Fortuna Mining's conference call to discuss our financial and... ...first quarter of 2026. Hosting today's call on behalf of Fortuna are Jorge Alberto Ganosa, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Luis Darío Ganosa, Chief Financial Officer... David Whittle, Chief Operating Officer, West Africa, and Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer, Latin America. Today's earnings call presentation is available on our website at fortunamining.com. Statements made during this call are subject to the reader advisories included in yesterday's news release, the webcast presentation or management discussion and analysis, and the risk factors outlined in our annual information form. All financial figures discussed today are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. Technical information presented has been reviewed and approved by Eric Chapman, Fortuna Senior Vice President of Technical Services, and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. I will now turn the call over to Fernando Alonso, President, Chief Executive Officer, and co-founder of Fortuna Mining.

Thank you, Carlos, and good morning, and thank you for joining us today. The first quarter of 2026 marked an exceptionally strong start to the year for Fortuna. We delivered strong operational and financial performance, and importantly, we achieved these results with zero recorded lost time injuries during the period. This extends our safety performance to five consecutive quarters free of lost time injuries. Financially, the quarter delivered record results across our key metrics. Sales reached record $342 million, reflecting higher realized gold and silver prices. Adjusted net income was $111 million, or 36 cents per share, a quarterly record for the company. Adjusted EBITDA, total $219 million, also a record. And free cash flow from ongoing operations reached $174 million, representing our strongest quarterly cash generation to date. These results underscore the quality of our asset base, discipline operation execution, and strong leverage to the gold price environment. Operationally, this financial performance was supported by solid execution across our portfolio. We produced 72,900 gold equivalent ounces in the quarter, And based on performance year to date and current operating conditions, we remain well positioned to meet our full year 2026 guidance. With that as context, let me step back and focus on the bigger story for Fortuna. We're working to deliver approximately 60% growth in annual gold production over the next 24 months, taking us to approximately half a million ounces of annual gold production by expanding our Seguela mine in Cote d'Ivoire and by bringing our Diambasut project in Senegal into production. The key message I want to emphasize is that we control this growth. This growth is driven by two projects already within our portfolio, not dependent on acquisitions or exploration success. Both Seguela and Diambasut are technically straightforward benefit from strong social acceptance and are financially de-risked. These are executable growth projects supported by our strong balance sheet and our operating track record in West Africa, and both demonstrate robust economics at long-term gold prices below $3,000 per ounce. As these projects advance over the next 24 months, we expect this growth to translate into meaningful increases in production and free cash flow per share, while maintaining discipline in execution, cost, and capital allocation. Our growth plans are also underpinned by the recently published update to mineral reserves and mineral resources on April 23rd, which shows growth across all categories of resources and reserves. Proven and probable mineral reserves increased by 15% year over year after depletion to 3 million gold ounces. Indicated mineral resources increased by 56% to 2.1 million gold ounces. And inferred mineral resources increased by 4% to 2.2 million gold ounces. This growth speaks to the mineral potential of our assets and our potential not only to expand production, but also to support decade-plus mine lives across our operations. Looking ahead, there are several near-term milestones that we believe are important for investors to watch. Both the Diambasud feasibility study and Seguel expansion study are expected to be completed in this month of May, providing greater technical and economic visibility on our growth plans. In parallel, we're expecting environmental approval for the AMBA suit imminently, followed by the final mining permit shortly thereafter. All this while we continue to advance the AMBA early works with a 2026 budget of $100 million. Our strong cash generation continues to strengthen the balance sheet. At quarter end, we had approximately $816 million of total liquidity, including $493 million in net cash, positioning Fortuna among the stronger balance sheets in our peer group. This financial strength allows us to comfortably fund approximately $330 million of total exploration, sustaining and non-sustaining capital in 2026. entirely from internal cash flow. Of this $330 million figure, 56% is allocated to growth and exploration. At the same time, we are returning capital to shareholders. Year to date, we returned $40 million via the repurchase of 4.2 million shares. For the quarter, we repurchased $20 million which represents 11% of our free cash flow from operations. Before handing over for more detail operational commentary, I want to briefly address costs.