Iamgold Corporation Ordinary Shares

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the I Am Gold fourth quarter 2025 operating and financial results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode. The conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star and then one on your telephone keypads. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing star and zero. At this time, I would like to turn the conference call over to Graham Jennings, Investor Relations for IAM Gold. Please go ahead, Mr. Jennings.

Thank you, Operator, and welcome everyone to our conference call this morning. Joining us on the call are Renaud Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, Martin Penusen, Chief Financial Officer, Bruno Lemelin, Chief Operating Officer, Annie Torquay-Legacy, Chief Legal and Strategy Officer, and Doreena Quinn, Chief People Officer. We are calling today for Mayan Gold's Toronto office, which is located on Treaty 13 territory, on the traditional lands of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. At Mayan Gold, we believe respecting and upholding Indigenous rights is founded upon relationships that foster trust, transparency, and mutual respect. Please note that our remarks on this call will include forward-looking statements and refer to non-IFRS measures. We encourage you to refer to the cautionary statements and disclosures on non-IFRS measures, including the presentation and the reconciliations of these measures in our most recent MD&A, each under the heading Non-GAAP Financial Measures. With respect to the technical information to be discussed, please refer to the information in the presentation under the heading Qualified Person and Technical Information. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our website. I will now turn the call over to our President's CEO, Renaud Adams.

Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Last year was a monumental year for IMGO. It is a year in which the company reported records revenues of nearly $3 billion, enjoying gross margin of over 40% and generating operating cash flow of over $1 billion, which is notable, $702 million generated in the fourth quarter alone. Now, everyone on this call is aware that this is a historic time in the gold market, as the gold price increased nearly $1,700 per ounce over 2025 and exiting the year at just over $4,300 an ounce, but which is still more than 600 an ounce lower than where we are today. So while we're not alone in realizing this gold market, we believe IAM Gold is particularly well-positioned to capitalize on this market for the benefit of our shareholders, stakeholders, and partners. In 2025, IAM Gold achieved significant milestones, including record quarterly productions across all sites, the first full year of productions at Cote d'Ivoire, the establishment of a framework at its account that enables cash movements to be made at any time of the year, and the consolidation of assets in Chibouga-Moshepe, Quebec, to position the Nelligan Mining Complex as among the largest pre-production assets in Canada. On the financial side, we closed out the legacy gold prepay obligation mid-year, delivered the balance sheet through the repayment of the $400 million high-cost term loan, and established a share buyback program that purchased 50 million in IAM Gold shares in December and an additional 50 million so far in 2026. And we will continue to do so, driving up our per share valuations, all things being equal. This is a company that is taking a leadership position in the industry. IAM Gold is a modern gold mining company that is proudly Canadian with strong cash flow and significant long-term growth opportunities ahead. We mine with the mining redefined purpose in mind, putting safety, responsibility, and people first. We hold ourselves accountable and embrace change, and drive innovations at every level, from smarter systems to better ways of working. Now, there are many highlights to discuss for IAMGOLD today, so let's get into it. Looking at the highlights from the year and the fourth quarter, we start with our safety record. Over the course of the year, our total recordable injury rates was 0.60, which was down from the year prior. We are focused on advancing our critical risk management program, including an important integration of contractor into the IAM goal way of safety management with a goal to reduce high potential incidents On production, IM Gold closed out the year with a very strong fourth quarter in which all our mines reported record gold production. On a consolidated basis, attributable gold productions for the fourth quarter was 242,400 ounces, a 28 percent improvement quarter over quarter, driving total production for the year to 765,900 ounces. achieving the midpoint of the company's 2025 production guidance. The strong fourth quarter operating result helped to drive down costs on a per-ounce basis. All in sustaining costs per ounce sold was $1,750 for the fourth quarter and $1,900 for the year within the guidance range of 1830 to 1930. As discussed last year, last quarter, costs this year have faced upward pressure due to the record gold prices directly translating to higher royalties. The impact of these royalties on cash costs continue to increase through the year to where they accounted for an average of approximately $330 per ounce or 24% of cash costs in the fourth quarter of 2025. As we look ahead, Through this year, where we will uncover opportunities to grow the value of our assets, we will stay diligent on our commitment to operational excellence and discipline. While we may not be able to control the gold price, we can control our cost structure and ensure that cost improvement and opportunity compound with our production. At Cote, we will continue to fine-tune our mining, milling, and maintenance practices to position the project well for the upcoming expansion phase. With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO to walk us through our financial highlights.

Martin? Thank you, Renaud, and good morning, everyone. It was indeed a transformational year for Arm Gold, as our solid operating results, coupled with record gold prices, helped to fast-track our strategy to unwind financial leverage put in place to build Cote and allowed us to also start returning capital to shareholders in December. In the fourth quarter, the company generated record mine site free cash flow of $626.6 million, bringing the year total to $1.2 billion. On an asset basis, in the fourth quarter, SACAM contributed $340.4 million and Cotech contributed 197.0 million of attributable mine site pre-cash flow. The record mine site pre-cash flow was used to improve our financial position, as the company's net debt was reduced by 468.8 million to 344.4 million at the end of the year, while also returning 50 million to shareholders. On the balance sheet, we completed the repayment of the 400 million term loan and also paid $50 million on our credit facility, reducing the balance to $200 million as of the end of December. I'm gold at $422 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year and approximately $446 million available on the credit facility, resulting in total liquidity at the end of the fourth quarter of approximately $868 million. Excess cash at SACAN is repatriated through dividend and shareholder account payments, of which the company receives its share on its ownership, need of withholding taxes. The shareholder account structure was introduced in 2025 and functions like an intercompany loan and allows for the company's portion of the dividend to be repaid monthly using cash generated in excess of working capital requirements. The new structure allowed for cash flow in the fourth quarter, resulting from strong operating results and record gold prices to be repatriated in record time. And IMGold received $291 million of payments from ISACAN through the fourth quarter. Approximately $197.5 million of our consolidated cash balance was out by ISACAN at the end of the year. And subsequent to year, these funds, combined with free cash flow generated in January, was used to make further payments against the shareholder account by SECAN, and IAM Gold receives $171 million so far this year. The other notable event was the establishment of the share buyback program. In December, the company repurchased and canceled approximately 3 million shares for approximately $50 million at an average price of $16.87 per share through its share buyback program, subsequent to quarter end. After the timing of a results release, IAMGOLD has purchased an additional 2.6 million shares for 50 million. For the remainder of the year, we are planning to use the cash repatriated from SACAN in 2026 to fund our buyback program. And at a gold price of 4,000 per ounce, we estimate that this could be between 400 and 500 million during the year. The NCIB allows for the purchase of approximately 10% of IAMGOLD's public flow that was outstanding as of November 2025. All common shares purchased under the NCIB will be either canceled or placed under trust to satisfy future obligations under the company's Share Incentive Plan. This initiative reflects management's confidence in the company's long-term value and its commitment to disciplined capital allocation. We believe the alignment of strong cash regeneration from SACAM and our share buyback program represents a clear value of creative opportunity for the company and our shareholders. The company intends to use the free cash flow generated by the SACAN as a base level to repurchase shares under the share buyback program as the cash is generated and repatriated over the course of 2026. Naturally, the actual amount of common shares that may be purchased, if any, and the timing of such purchases will be determined by the company based on a number of factors, including the gold price. the company's financial performance, the availability of cash flows, and the consideration of other uses of cash, including capital investment opportunities, return to stakeholders, and debt reduction. Turning to our financial results, on a full-year basis, revenues from operations totaled $2.9 billion from sales of 817,800,000 ounces on a 100% basis. At an average realized price of $3. excluding the impact of the gold prepay arrangement. The strong operating results and record gold price resulted in adjusted EBITDA of approximately 1.6 billion in 2025, compared to 790.6 million in 2024 and 338.5 million in 2023. At the bottom line, adjusted earnings were shared for the year total $1.23. up from $0.55 the prior year. Looking at the cash flow reconciliation for the year, it is a good visualization of the major drivers of our financial position to end 2025. The significant operating cash flow allowed for the delivery and conclusion of the gold paper arrangements met year, funding all capital programs at operation, significant delivering of the balance sheet, payment of a record dividend of Burkina Faso, that allowed us to set up the shelter account that we used to repatriate funds into Canada and the start of the NCIB program in December. As we look into this year, our priorities from a financial and capital allocation perspective are to deploy funds to areas where we see the most value add to our company, which includes the continuation of the Share Buy Back program, utilizing cash flows from Mr. Kahn, becoming net cash positive following the repayment of the remaining balance of the credit facility, fund our operations as outlined in our guidance, ensure that our position while exiting the year, and ensuring that we have the financial capacity to support opportunities to improve our business. And with that, I will pass the call to Bruno Leblanc, our Chief Operating Officer, to discuss our operating results.

Bruno? Thank you, Martin. Starting with Cote Gold, as Renaud noted, it was a very strong end to the year for Cote with fourth quarter attributable gold production of 87,200 ounces or 124,600 ounces on a 100% basis. The success of Cote goes beyond just the fourth quarter. In its first four years of operation, Cote's produced 399,800 ounces on a 100-person basis, achieving the top hand of our guidance estimates. During the year, our Cote teams achieved success after success every day on many fronts, operational stability, maintenance, environmental monitoring, or workforce engagement. Cote Gold completed the ramp-up and demonstrated mainplate throughput 36,000 tons per day over a period of 30 consecutive days ahead of schedule in June. It was a very strong 2025, with Cote now having a strong three consecutive quarter in a row of the mine hitting its target and its tribe. Focusing back to the quarter, mining activity totaled 11.1 million tons. or tons mined, were a record of 4.5 million tons in the quarter, with a strip ratio of 1.5 to 1. Mere throughput in Q4 totaled 2.9 million tons. Head grade for the fourth quarter was a record of 1.44 gram per ton as a result of the combination of higher grade direct feed ore, a low strip ratio over the quarter, and subpiling of lower grade ore. The installation of the additional secondary crusher was completed in November and commissioned in December with both cone crusher tested and operating in parallel. As we discussed later last quarter, we elected earlier in the year to bring in a temporary contractor aggregate crusher to supplement Cote's crushing capacity to improve the availability of the secondary crushing circuit. This allowed the plant to achieve its throughput milestone, but at a higher cost as we will discuss on the next slide. With the two secondary cone crushers now operating, the company plans to phase out the temporary crushing circuit over the first half of 2026. Looking at cost, COTI reported fourth quarter cash costs of $1,265 per ounce, and all in sustained costs of $1,688 per ounce. We continue to see mining and processing unit costs above where we would like them to be. A major driver of cost this year has been associated with the temporary crusher. The decision to move ahead main plate by five, six months allow for maximizing tons versus waiting for the installation and ramp up of the second cone crusher. in an important time for the project in the market. Looking at mining costs on an annual basis, they average $4.20 per ton in 2025. We expect to see cost improvement through 2026 as further operational improvements are made, including the elimination of the compacted aggregate plant and reduction of contractors. Milling unit costs on an annual basis average $20 per ton. There is a direct relationship with the amount of ore crushed with the temporary crusher in our processing costs. We expect that the removal of the aggregate plant will reduce processing costs by $4 to $5 per ton. Additional savings are expected as we improve the lifecycle of the HPGR rollers and fine-tune our maintenance cycles. Looking ahead, 2026 is the year in which our operations team is focusing on fine-tuning COTI at 36,000 tons per day. This year, the operations team will be focusing on unit cost improvement to stable and efficient mining and milling practices. It is important for our team to be able to operate COTI with the expected specification before we expand the operation further. On costs, audience-sustained costs are expected to be in the range of $1,775 to $1,925 per ounce sold, which reflects an additional $50 million, or about $185 an ounce, of non-recurring sustaining capital investments to improve the operating efficiency and the long-term operating cost structure. These include the implementation of a refeed system for the course or dome, additional maintenance facilities, and improved dust mitigation measures. Expansion capital this year is estimated at $85 million for IMGO. As we look to grow Cote, it is clear we can accelerate basic expansion projects. This includes a strategic pushback that will provide both operational flexibility in the near term and optionality for the expansion, as well as the acceleration of certain expansion-related improvement to the processing plant, including an additional vertinil in early 2027. This leads us to what is next for Cote, the Cote-Gasne expansion mine plan. In the fourth quarter of this year, we will release the details of the updated mine plan that envision a near-term expansion of the Cote plant targeting a significantly larger ore base from both Cote and Gosselin. Alongside our financial results last night, IAMGOLD announced its updated mineral resources and reserves estimates. In the estimate, we saw a significant upgrading of ounces from inferred to measured and indicated at Gosselin. which now is estimated to have 6.9 million ounces of indicated ounces and a million ounces of inferred resources. Combining Cote and Gosling, the Cote Gold Project currently is estimated to have MNI resources, inclusive of mineral reserves, and on a 100-person basis of 18.2 million ounces, and additional inferred mineral resources of 2.2 million ounces. Work will be ongoing this year to incorporate the end-of-year drilling and then combine the mineral resources estimate and pit shells into a single model. As currently designed, Cote has the mining capacity to average an annual ore mining rate of 50,000 tons per day, versus our current main plate processing rate of 36,000 tons per day. As part of the 2026 technical report, we will look to find the right balance between an increased processing rate, with mining rates targeting the combined Cote-Gazlain super. Turning to Quebec, in the fourth quarter, we saw Westwood produce a record 37,900 ounces since mine restart, as the underground return High grades coupled with strong throughput in the plant. Underground mining activities in the fourth quarter averaged 1,139 tons per day, translating to 105,000 tons in the quarter, a record volume from underground since the miners' start, with an average underground mine grade of 9.87 grams per ton. During the first three quarters of the year, mining activities on the ground operated through lower-grade stoves and adjusted blasting techniques. In the fourth quarter, Westwood refined stove design, sequencing, and blasting, while returning to higher-grade stoves as per mine plan. Mining of the Graduc satellite open pit continued in the quarter, with 174,000 tons mined. with a head grade from the open pit averaging 1.19 gram per ton. The Yerantric open pit life has been extended into 2027. We expect Yerantric to contribute a similar amount of ore to the plan this year with a slightly lower grade of between 1.1 to 1.2 gram per ton. Build throughput in the third quarter was 299,000 tons at an average grade of 4.21 gram per ton, and average recoveries of 93%. Plant utilization was 92% in the quarter, up from 75% in Q3, and in line with the average expected for 2026. As a result of the strong fourth quarter, costs on a per ounce basis declined notably. Cash costs in the fourth quarter averaged $1,288 per ounce, and orange sustained costs averaged $1,719 per ounce, well below the average of the year of around $2,100 per ounce. The cost improvement was also assisted by lower unit costs, with mining costs and mining unit costs declining due to the high volume of ore mined in mill. Looking ahead to this year, Westwood production is expected to be in the range of 110,000 to 113,000 ounces. Mill throughput is expected to average 1.2 million tons in 2026, with blended head rate expected to average 3.44 grams per ton over the course of the year, with a fairly flat production profile quarter over quarter through the year. Cash costs at Westwood are expected to be in the range of $1,500 to $1,650 per ounce sold, and all insisting costs in the range of $1,950 to $2,100 per ounce sold. Sustaining capital expenditures guidance is $55 million, primarily consisting of underground development, renewal of the mobile fleet, upgrades in the mill, and general maintenance. Expansion capital is expected to increase this year to $30 million, which is primarily associated with development works and risks to support the study of options to extend the mine in the eastern parts of Westwood underground that could potentially be amenable to bulk mining. Looking at our mineral resources and reserve update, Westwood more than replaced depletion over 2025 with 1.1 million ounces of mineral reserves to date. Further, M&I resource inclusive of mineral reserves increased by 682,000 ounces of 40% to 2.4 million ounces as of December 31st, 2025. With an additional 1.5 million ounces of inferred ounces We are looking forward to conducting additional drilling underground at Westwood this year, as we believe there's still significant potential to the east and west of our current underground operation. Turning to SACAN and considering with the Q14, the mine reported record production of 138,100 ounces on a 100-person basis, equating to 117,300 ounces or 85% mining. Interesting. Mining in the fourth quarter totaled 9.4 million tons, an increase from the prior quarter with higher ore tons, mine of 4.1 million tons for a strip ratio of 1.3 to one in the quarter. The average grade of mine ore in the fourth quarter was the highest grade mine in the year as the mine sequence deeper into phase seven. The mill reported strong throughput in the fourth quarter of 3.2 million tons at an average head rate of 1.5 grams per ton, considering the quarter-over-quarter step-up we have seen this year. The plant achieved recoveries of 88% of the quarter, which was below the 90% average for the year, as the second typically sees higher graphitic carbon in the higher-grade zones, though this is mitigated with blending. Similar to Westwood, SACAN saw an improvement in cost per ounce and unit cost per ton under higher volumes. For the fourth quarters, SACAN reported cash costs of $1,471 per ounce and all in sustained costs of $1,674 per ounce. As Renaud noted in his earlier remarks, royalties in the current gold market are having a measured impact on the industry cost structure. And this is even more pronounced in Burkina Faso, where the new royalty decree was implemented in 2025 with royalties now uncapped and tied to the gold price. In the fourth quarter, royalties accounted for $460 per ounce, or approximately 36% of SACAM's cash cost. Accordingly, when we look at this year, we have guided to cash costs excluding royalties and cash costs including royalties at the gold price assumption of $4,000 per ounce. Cash costs excluding royalties are expected to be in the range of $1,150 to $1,300 per ounce sold and including royalties in the range of $1,600 to $1,750. All in sustained costs is expected to be in the range of $2,000 to $2,150 per ounce sold. On the production side, a second attributable production is expected to be in the range of 340,000 to 380,000 ounces or 400,000 to 440,000 ounces on a 100-person basis, similar to production in 2025. With a production profile expected to be fairly flat quarter over quarter this year, Mining activity will target phase six and seven in the level pit that is adjacent to the second main zone. On mineral resources and reserves, a second reserve decreased by 640,000 ounces due to depletion in geologic model adjustment for a total of 1.7 million ounces. However, measured and indicated mineral resources reported a 50% increase in tons offsetting a 26% decrease in grades for a total of 4.4 million ounces in measured and indicated and an additional 853,000 ounces of inferred. We are currently studying the block three project, which would add an additional five years of life on mine, extending as I can until at least 2032. With that, I will pass it back to Renaud.

Renaud. Thank you, Renaud. I just want to take a moment to highlight the exciting development from the fourth quarter in which IAMGOLD acquired a Norton Superior and mines Dorbeck. Consolidating their assets and properties with our assets in the Chibougamouchepe region of Quebec to form the Nelligan Mining Complex, which is now composed of the following deposit and high-value target, Nelligan, Monster Lake, Philibert, Chevrier, Lac Surprise, Croteau, Enmont. The Nelligan Mining Complex already has a significant mineral inventory of over 4.3 million measured in gated ounces and 7.5 million inferred ounces, positioning the project among the largest pre-production stage gold project in Canada. The close proximity of the primary deposit to each other supports a conceptual vision of a central processing facility being fed from multiple ore sources within a 17-kilometer radius. This year, we are substantially increasing our budget to allow for a comprehensive exploration program, which will look to expand the mineralized footprint of both Nelligan and Philibert while testing Munster Lake at depth, in addition to a regional exploration program on high-priority targets to further grow the potential of the project. Our teams are very excited for this project, and we will be putting the pedal to the metal, you know, to have a preliminary economic assessment on the Nelligan Complex in 2027. With that, I want to thank our shareholders for your great support. We truly believe it will be an exciting year for IMGO with significant value growth opportunities ahead and many catalysts ahead. And now, I would like to pass the call back to the operator for the Q&A.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin that question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then 1 on a touch-tone telephone. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please pick up the handset prior to pressing the keys. To withdraw your questions, you may press star. We'll pause a moment as callers join the question queue. And our first question today comes from Mohamed Sidibe from National Bank. Please go ahead with your question.

Thank you. Good morning, Renaud and Tim, and thanks for taking my question. Maybe I'll start with S&K and with the M&I increase their year-over-year and the potential extension of the mine left of that asset. How should we think about S&K within your broader portfolio and specifically as the license is potentially expiring into 2029? Please, yeah, thank you.

I'll give some first comment and I'll ask Bruno to complete more, you know, on the potential we have here. But, you know, we've been going really on the step-by-step. I thought, you know, we had a wonderful 24-25. The team is working hard. You've seen the increase in the resources. We see more and more possibility of extension. The most important thing is what I would call the acceptance of all of it, right? So we understand, you know, the geographic and, you know, geopolitics and so forth. But the reality is we've been operating this mine pretty steady state, no interruptions for nearly three years now. We've found, and congrats, you know, to Martin and his team and Bruno's and found, you know, a very creative way, you know, to allow for cash flow. At those prices, we see a good opportunity of using this cash flow to reward our shareholders. So I think over the next few quarters, you know, we just need to continue to beat the drum and execute on our plans and continue to repatriate, you know, and reward our shareholders. And as we advance in 26, Bruno and his teams will complete some work. We'll definitely see an expansion, you know, potential. which we need to continue to work and prove. But we're not there yet, but I think we've come a long way, you know, to make ESACAN a very strategic element of our portfolio. Bruno, if you want to add anything.

Yes. So thank you, Mohamed, for your question. You know, I've been at TESACAN, like I started with TESACAN in 2014. Since then, the life on mine has not stopped getting extended. So should not come so much of a surprise. What is really good is we were able to find those additional resources within the fence north of phase seven. So we have now phase eight and phase nine and 10 north of where we are currently mining. And south, we have the Lao pit that is also getting, we're seeing an extension of the current Lao pit that also tried to connect south of the second main zone. So there's a saddle zone and now we believe that those two connects together. So it gives us confidence that we could be targeting at another five years of life on mine. That's what we're going to be coming with when we're going to start engaging with the government. shouldn't be like too much of a problem when we first met with the officials in terms of having the license to be extended by another five years which would bring us closer to 2032 2032. so we're not again the season to be made probably later as we advance in a year in preparations for a 27 plan but meanwhile uh we expect another great year and

maximum pre-cash flow out of the asset, repatriate it, and apply towards the shareholder program, share buyback. So, more to come.

Thanks a lot for that, Collar. Maybe else we should quote a goal specifically on the unit cost. I think, Bruno, you touched on the milling cost potentially improving $45 by the second half of 2026. Could you give us a little bit more color in mining costs and where you expect to exit maybe 2026 and what we should be thinking in terms of modeling there for Cote d'Ivoire? Thank you.

Yeah. So the mining costs for 2026, we are making adjustments. Some adjustments are taking time. So now we're implementing a new emotion plan. There will be some testing. We should be at around 370, 380. Dollars a ton as we're getting where we brought new equipment new drills We are also doing the pushback Mohammed and By doing this pushback. There's several infrastructure that needs to be Relocated like the towers for the autonomous fleet and everything so there's a lot of activities surrounding the mining activities, that's the reason why like we see we see a an embellishment in unit costs. However, it's going to take some time to see the long-term mining costs, not for this year.

So what I could add to this is, you know, like at the early stage, we've seen some, yeah, we've seen some deficiencies, some areas, you know, that need some improvement. We put more capital this year addressing some Like Bruno just mentioned, you know, if you want to maximize your mining costs, well, you need to optimize your OEE, your overall performance. To do that, you need, you know, a larger PIP. You need, like, maintaining your – this has all been taken into account. That may not be all achieved in 26, as Bruno mentioned, but as we file and as we present our long-term plan – we will, if needed, you know, integrate some additional improvement in 2027-2028. But the objective is over the next, with a big chunk in 2026, but over the next two to three years, we really see a path forward with the possibility of reducing the cost and bringing COTE into one of the best unit costs for this large-scale Canadian And then when you combine with the average grade and the possibility to uplift, as we've seen the grade this year, and the low strip ratio of Cote, everything is in place at Cote as we optimize the cost to make it a very attractive overall island sustaining cost. We've discussed the royalty.

Yeah.

There's not much we could do more than we do have a provisions of buyback, which we would really pay attention to, you know, as we unlock our full potential of the scenario. So we're in a good position. We appreciate that there's a lot of work to do, Bruno and his team this year. But we feel very confident that we have a path forward and we'll try to make it as much as possible this year. But it may extend a bit in 7-28.

Great, thank you. I'll get back in the queue and ask for my last question later.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Satish Kesanathan from Bank of America. Please go ahead with your question. Satish, your line is open. Is it possible your phone is on mute?

Yeah, hi, sorry I was on mute. Yeah, hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first question is on Cote. On slide 11, you mentioned that the mine plan for Cote is likely to include stage capital. Can you maybe provide a bit more color on what it means? Are you still targeting the 50,000 tons per day run rate or maybe even more? How should we think about it? Thank you.

I think the reference to the stage capital here is to being capable, you know, to focus from expansion to tailings down the road to opening Gosselin. So what we're saying is that there is not a need to do everything on the day one, you know, to make an expansion at Cote d'Ivoire. As a matter of fact, the Cote itself is enough to justify the expansions and eventually Gosselin. So when we see stages, we see now six, seven, and eight. Bruno and his team is accelerating some expansion aspect in the pit and opening the pit and so forth. So that's going to be in place by the time. And we say 29 is a focus on the expansion, 2930. And we have enough tailing capacity in place. So there would be a stage. In fact, so we just want to clarify that it's not like you need to build everything and have everything in place on day one. The capital will be staged, capable to be fully funded through the free cash flow of the assets.

Okay, that is clear. Maybe one question on SKN. So you received $171 million of cash this year at the start of the year, of which $50 million was already used for buybacks, and you still have $219 million left from the last year's dividend declaration. So for the full year, is it fair to assume like a minimum of 390 million of share buybacks could be achieved in 2026? And depending on how much dividend is declared for this year, we could see potential upside to that number.

Good morning. So we had $408 million of the shareholder account. outstanding at the beginning of the year and as you mentioned we already received 171 million against that back we expect that remaining balance to be repaid by the end of the second quarter during the third quarter but then when we get into that period we will be declaring the 2025 dividend where the shelter account will be reloaded again so based on our projection there would be more than enough shareholder accounts available this year to continue with the program where we can move money out of Burkina Faso every month as the asset generates free cash flow above its excess working capital. And then, so the free cash flow attributable to ARM Gold this year, we should be able to match that to buy back shares in the program.

Okay, thank you. Congrats on a strong quarter.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Anita Soni from CIBC. Please go ahead with your question.

Hi. Good morning, guys. Congratulations on a strong quarter and a strong year. I just wanted to ask a little bit more about Cote and Gosselin. I think you noted in the MD&A that there would be another update on the reserves and resources for Gosselin in Q2. And my apologies if you addressed it in the opening comments. I was hopping between questions.

Thank you for asking, Anita, on this. I was just going to say, what were you expecting to provide with the Q2 update? No, thank you for asking this. As Bruno showed in his portions, talking about the mineral reserve, mineral resources, so not a surprise on the reserve side. It was just a deflation, as you know, like the big consolidating boats, Gosselin and Cote. On the resources side, we've come quite a bit a long way you know and have delineated some but this is a kind of an ongoing work so to your point we expect to complete probably late Q1 and maybe you know like we're talking about Q2 potentially but you know the target is by the end of Q1 somewhere there we would complete the resource update if you call like the final one that would serve for the plant We're comfortably sitting in more than $18 million, but there is more drilling to be incorporated. There is the merge of the block models as well. We're still discussing, you know, the final price to be used and so forth. But we had this objective of the saddle zone as well, as Renaud just pointed out to me. So as you combine the block models, so you create that saddle zone that will drill as well. So it's not the final, not to look at the resource update at Cote. It has the final word to what our objective of 20 million, and we're still planning to discuss those results late Q1, early Q2.

Okay. And how much more drilling would that have incorporated versus what you just did? I think you converted two out of the 3 million ounces. of inferred into M&I category, but how much more would that bring on stream? If you could just tell me, like, as a percentage of the drilling update. Or if you want to tell me the number of ounces, that would be great, too.

We still have 25 holes to be included, and we have also the campaign on the saddle zone that needs to be included as well.

Okay, I'll take a look at that. So enough? Yeah. And again, like the merge of the block model as well, you know, like technically should also create some. So we feel very, very strong, Anita, without giving a final number because we haven't seen it, but we feel very comfortable towards objective of 20 million in my class.

Yeah. And then I just wanted to follow up on the ethocane reserves and resources as well. I noticed the grade declined. Is that... Have you, I mean, I'm just, I guess, you know, you've had positive grade reconciliation at the asset. How are you basically calculating your depletion at the asset? I'm just, like, are you just basically saying, okay, well, you know, we ended up, we thought this ore body would be 1.2 and it ended up being 1.5, so we're deducting the 1.5 off of the average. Is that the way you're doing it? Or did you include the positive grade reconciliation in the calculations?

Yeah, so we changed the block model, and the block model that we'll be using this year, we have to do some adjustments. But moving forward, the block model is going to be cool to be a little bit more conservative with this. Therefore, that's the reason why you see the rate going down. It does not exclude the possibility that we will see positive reconciliation, specifically when you hit those higher grade zone like we were doing in phase seven. What we're trying to cap a bit is that kind of positive reconciliation in our future resources estimate. So we have something more about this and consult, et cetera.

All right, thank you, that's it for my questions.

Thank you, appreciate it, thanks. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one. Our next question comes from Sam Overwater from Scotiabank. Please go ahead with your question.

Hello, can you hear me? Yeah. Oh, it's Tanya, yeah. Thank you for taking my question, first of all. I just had a hard time getting on and hearing the little beep that says that my question is in queue. I have a few questions, if I could. I just wanted to follow up on Anita's question on the reserves and resources that's coming out on COTE in Q2. So just so that I understand, so we're still targeting that 20 million ounce overall number.

what the reserves and resources another will show is just more of a conversion or an upgrade into the m i and reserve category with those additional 25 holes is that a proper way to think about it the way to look about it is we feel strong that when the exercise is done we will we will achieve our objective of 20 million of mi and from which bruno and the team will put the mine plan to it and convert as much as we can within an economic plan to reserve.

Okay.

So obviously the reserve that we have released at the end of the year is only reflecting the old plan depleted. So we're moving from this to the new plan consolidated from which new economic plan. So we're definitely going to see and expect a significant increase in reserve. We just need to complete the work, but the starting point will be hopefully a $20 million plus MI resource base, and we feel very strong about the economics of those fits. So more to come, but we feel strong about a significant increase in reserve.

Okay. Okay, thank you for that. And then how should I be thinking about this capital, because, you know, you talked about a lot of this capital now being spent with $85 million or thereabout at Cote this year. How should I be thinking of the, you know, the study? And I think at one point we were thinking of $100 to $200 million in capital. How should I be thinking about the capital for all of this?

I guess if I would have all the detail, Tanya, we would have probably been a little marked because we're still in trade-off. So the way to look at it is I think, you know, the gross capital that we're going to be deploying over the next few years should normally bring the fit to a point of expanded, capable to provide, you know, for the... Now, the mail itself, which will be the main capital of 2930, we're still in the trade-off and so forth. No, I do not believe you build an extension today for $100 million to $200 million total capital, but we believe that it could probably be achieved below the $500 million, but we still have to do the work.

Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. I'll take a look further into it. Just on two other things, Bruno, I think you gave some guidance for how the year is panning out for a quarter-on-quarter table for both ESSECAM and Westwood. What about COTE?

Okay, fair question. COTE is going to be lower for the first half of the year. because we have a maintenance plan for the HPGR tidal change in March or April. That's going to be a five-day shutdown. We will have supplement finds or material to feed the mill, but we're going to be running at a slower pace. We also have, we did a very good end of the year, 2025, and we took advantage of Q1 to take a lot of other maintenances. So overall, we need to expect Q1 and Q2 to be lower than Q3 and Q4. And generally, summertime at Cote is very good. Like last year, Q2, Q3, Q4, we produced 36,000 tons per day, almost like a year. 36,000 ounces a month in average. So that gives you a bit like the kind of seasonality that we have. Like we have a seasonality due to winter conditions in Q1. In Q2, we do some planned maintenance on the HPGR. And after that, like we are rolling until the end of the year.

Okay. So should I be thinking like a 45-55 or is that?

Yeah, I guess anywhere between like the zone of around the 40, 45, as you say, definitely H2 will be much stronger season-wise, second crusher fully up and running, HPGR relying, and plus any others optimization that's going to come. So yes, I think it's fair to think that our second half could be at the 55% of the year.

Okay, thank you. And Renaud, I have you on for my one final question. Dividends. I mean, we had talked on one of the previous conference calls that you were potentially thinking that once all this is done, a dividend plan could be implemented. Where are you on that?

I think we feel very strong on the step-by-step. I mean, as Martin discussed, I think the first thing first is on the share buyback. There is no doubt that let's call the Canadian platform would most likely be in excess cash as well in those prices, something we're going to revisit with our board at the end of Q2, see how the share buyback goes. Is there an opportunity to increase the share buyback using a bit of the Canadian excess? Do we start incorporating dividends? So I think we're going to have these conversations post Q2 for the second half. as we realize that the free cash flow on the Canadian side as well. So we feel very strong that ISACAN should normally go towards share buyback. The question is after, what is the next in the row? And I think we're going to postpone these decisions for the second half of the year.

Okay. Thank you so much for taking my questions.

Thank you. And this will conclude today's question and answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor back over to Graham Jennings for closing remarks.

Thank you very much, operator, and thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. As always, should you have any additional questions, please reach out to Manohar and myself. Thank you all. Be safe and have a great day.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.