McEwen Inc.

It has fundamentally changed the investment framework for mining in Argentina, and we were among the first to secure these benefits. In October 2025, we released the results of our feasibility study, and I want to walk you through the headline numbers because they tell a compelling story. The base case at $4.35 per pound of copper gives us an after-tax NPV at an 8% discount of 1%. $2.9 billion, a 19.8% RR and a payback of 3.9 years. The project is designed for a 22-year life of project with an average copper cathode production of 205,000 tons per annum in the first five years and 148,000 tons per annum of the full life. Our C1 cash cost comes in at $1.71 per pound and all in sustaining costs at $2.11 per pound. placing Los Azules firmly in the lower half of the global cost curve. But here is what really excites me. At today's copper price of around $5.80 per pound, the economics are dramatically stronger. The NPV more than doubles to $6.3 billion. The IRR jumps to 30%, and the payback shortens to just 2.7 years. The NPV to CapEx ratio moves from just under 1 to 2. Every dollar increase in the copper price adds roughly $2.3 billion to the project NPV. For Max shareholders, that translates to approximately $18 per share of additional value for every dollar move in copper. Importantly, the feasibility study also identified significant upside beyond the base case. There is potential for an additional 33 years' life of mine, adding another 141,000 tons per annum of copper production through either Rio Tinto's Newton technology or a commercial concentrator. When you consider that full potential, you are looking at one of the largest and longest-lived copper assets globally. I want to emphasize something that makes Los Azules stand apart. This project has been designed from the ground up as low-impact operation. Compared to a conventional mine of similar scale, Los Azules is expected to use one-quarter of the water, produce one-tenth of the carbon emissions, and has the potential to operate on 100% renewable power. There are no conventional tanning stems. We produce a finished copper cathode on site, which can be delivered directly to industry. This matters enormously in the current environment. Off-takers, financiers, and governments are all increasingly focused on the sustainability credentials of their copper supply. Los Azules is positioned to be a supplier of choice in a world that demands responsibly produced copper. We've also been building the institutional framework around the project. The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, has signed a collaboration agreement with McEwen Copper to align Los Azules with IFC's environmental standards, social and government standards. This agreement also provides IFC with customary rights to act as a lender or arranger for prospective project financing going forward. Having the IFC at the table is a strong signal of the caliber of project we are building. Looking ahead, Our team is continuing detailed engineering work and we are targeting a final investment decision by the end of 2026, with construction targeted to begin in early 2027, obviously subject to project financing. We are well on track. On the financing front, we are seeing strong interest from multiple categories of capital providers, export credit agencies and development finance organizations in particular, have shown meaningful appetite to support a project of this profile, large-scale, long-life, responsibly designed, and located in a region-qualifying jurisdiction. We are advancing conversations with the IFC and other institutions, and we are actively preparing optionality for full financing packages that gives us flexibility in how we fund construction. At the same time, we are currently evaluating the ideal timeframe for an IPO of McEwen Copper in connection with these ongoing financing discussions. The combination of a completed feasibility study, secured regulatory framework, strong copper fundamentals, and interest from institutional capital providers give us the right conditions to consider a public listing that would unlock value for shareholders and provide additional avenue to fund the project's developments. Let me step back for a moment and talk about why the timing for Los Azules could not be better. We are building this project into what I believe is the strongest structural backdrop for copper that we have seen in a generation. Copper is trading above $5.80 per pound today, near record highs. LME prices surged past $14,500 per metric ton earlier this year. Major banks are forecasting prices to remain elevated. JP Morgan expects an average of around 12,000 tons per ton for 2026. Goldman Sachs has raised its forecast to approximately $11,400 per ton. There is structural deficit forecasted going forward on significant growth and overall worldwide declining rates. What is driving this? Three converging megatrends. First, the explosives built out of AI data centers. JP Morgan estimates data centers' copper demand alone will reach approximately 475,000 tons in 2026, growing rapidly year over year. A single large AI data center can require up to 50,000 tons of copper. Second, the electrification of transport, electric vehicles, use nearly three times the copper of a commercial car, and EV adoption continues to accelerate. Third, the massive investment needed in grid infrastructure and renewable energy to power all of that. Power grids worldwide need to be expanded and modernized to support all this demand. On the supply side, we have real constraints. Mine disruptions have tightened significantly. Declining ore grades, permitting timelines averaging 15 to 17 years from discovery to production, and a weakening discovery pipeline all point to sustained structural deficits. S&P Global projects that copper supply could fall 10 million tons short of demand by 2040. This is precisely the environment in which large-scale, shovel-ready copper projects like Los Azules become extraordinarily valuable. The world needs new copper supply. And there are very few projects of our scale and quality anywhere in the development pipeline. Investor sentiment toward copper equities has shifted meaningfully over the past year, and rightly so. The market is recognizing that we are at the beginning of a multi-year super cycle driven by electrification and AI infrastructure. Copper is no longer just industrial metal. It is a critical enabler of the energy transition and the AI revolution. Now consider this. Of the 20 largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world, nearly all are either controlled by major mining houses or effectively stranded by permitting and political roadblocks, some for decades. Los Azules, to our knowledge, is the only that is independently held, fully permitted, has a completed feasibility study with costs in the lower half of the global cost curve, has its regulatory framework locked in, and is advancing toward a final investment decision this year. For investors looking for direct exposure to a world-class copper asset before construction begins, there's simply nothing else like it in the public markets. For those of you evaluating McEwen Copper's value within Max, I would point to you the most recent private financing, October 2024, which valued McEwen Copper at $30 per share, implying an overall market value of $987. But since then, we have secured the environmental permit for construction and operations. We have secured the REGIE and we have secured the feasibility study with strong economics, significantly de-risking and increasing the value for the project. Let me close by bringing this all together. Los Azules is one of the world's largest undeveloped copper deposits. In 2025, we de-risk it through REGIE approval and a strong feasibility. We have a clear path to the final investment decision. The project's environmental design positions it as a next-generation mine. and we are building it into the strongest copper market in decades. Los Azules has the potential to become a generational copper asset, one that will deliver value for shareholders for decades to come. Thank you. I hand it over back to Rob. Thank you, Mike.

Excellent. I'd just like to say, one, we have some questions I'd like to answer. And we, through these presentations, covered off some of the questions. One, Terry... was asking to provide more information on the IPO for McEwen Copper, which we're looking at later this year when we, as Mike said, complete several other tasks. Steve was asking also about Los Azules and about the milestones, and I think that was well covered off by Mike. He also had a question about Goliath Resources, which we purchased an interest in. The rationale, it's a rich gold deposit in British Columbia. It's had a high success level in its drilling. It looks like a resource that would grow. And buying into juniors was a strategy I used when building Gold Corp. I used that as a... It served as a listening post and also one day could be a member of a farm team. but it also provided us with capital growth that allowed us to fund our expansion of production. We have John from Minnesota, and he's asking about our silver production, and I'll ask Ian to talk about that.

Yes, so regarding John's question, he was asking what is our current attributable silver production. Right now we have silver just coming from our San Jose mine with with Hochschild, and our portion of that is approximately 3.6 million ounces of silver. Oh, sorry. That's the total production. Ours is half. And we then convert that to gold equivalent when we report our production. And we're doing that right now based on a silver to gold ratio of 77 to 1. So that's a good question because it's not quite clear when you look at our news release. So if you take half of the 3.6, that's currently what we're producing in terms of silver. You know, how does that evolve over the years where our next source of silver production comes from what we're calling El Gallo Phase 2? So that is obviously after El Gallo Phase 1, and we're looking at approximately 3 to 4 million ounces of silver production there, which is 100% owned. In terms of how we look at rationalizing these, obviously we do it based on, you know, gross profit margins, but also in terms of where things are practically in terms of capex and permitting. So the one things we are currently looking at is if the silver price environment was to remain as strong as what it was and the margins as robust, we are looking at ways that somehow you could accelerate these phase two silver production closer to today and deferring some of the gold production coming from at El Gallo. So, we are working on that to try to maximize the profitability of the operations, but a lot of that obviously is driven by the silver price. Just looking at the last question here. The last question that came from John was whether the company has considered a silver dividend. Right now, just based on the optics of that, no, it probably would be logistically be very difficult for us to issue a dividend in silver. I think, you know, first and foremost, if we were to implement a dividend policy, it would start with cash and then proceed from there. I know when Rob was running Goldcorp, when I was running Avid Tibia, I'm not saying I copied his strategy, but we did copy his. That was to pay a monthly dividend. And I think that's something that, you know, here we're looking to eventually strive towards while balancing our growth needs.

Thank you, Ian. Operator, do you have any other questions?

We do. And as a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one, followed by the number, sorry, press star, followed by the number one in your telephone keypad. Your first question we have comes from the line of Jake Sikelski from Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open.

Hello, Jake. Hey, Robinson. Thanks for taking my question. Please do. So just looking at the 2026 guide, you mentioned in the release that no contributions from stock were included there. I guess I'm just wondering, is that something that you expect to revisit in the second half of this year from a guidance standpoint? I'm just wondering how we should be thinking about the ramp up there as it relates to consolidated production.

Yeah, thanks very much for the question, Jake. Yeah, basically, The project development at stock is going very well. We're more or less on schedule. We broke through into the second level a couple of weeks ago. We'll break into the fourth level before the end of this month. The headings heading over towards where the mining is going to start are advancing at the right pace. In the two headings, about 14 meters a day. Uh, so we, you know, we, we will see production, uh, from there in the second half of this year. And what we're hoping is that, uh, or what we're planning, I guess, is that the fruit mine is going to kind of fade out. And then at the same time as we're ramping up, uh, uh, at stop. So, so we're in the midst of, uh, acquiring the equipment for the operation and, uh,

know so that once we get out to the ore we'll be ready to start the mining operation okay that's that's helpful um and then just on the m a front i mean rob you just mentioned you've been fairly active investing in juniors and picking up land packages surrounding some of your mines um Do you feel you have your plate full with the internal growth that you've laid out, or are you seeing any attractive, larger producing bolt-on type acquisition opportunities out there in this type of environment?

That's a good question, Jake. When you look at the performance of juniors relative to the producers and relative to gold, they're still lagging far behind in terms of performance. We've been concentrating on companies that have properties either adjacent or in close proximity to our existing operations that would allow us to extend the life that we believe have potential to grow and aren't expensive to acquire. So we're open to other opportunities. You never want to issue a lot of stock and dilute your position, but we're building our production. And right now, we can see more than doubling by 2030, assuming all the projects go ahead as planned. But I don't think I want to stop there. The metal markets, I see the gold price, the silver price, the copper price, those commodities are getting in short supply and demand is increasing. So I see higher prices as we go forward. We want to position McEwen to benefit from that.

Got it. Okay. That's all for me. Thanks again, guys.

Thanks, Jay. Your next question comes from a line of Joseph Rieger from Roth Capital Partners. Your line is open.

Hey, Rob. I'm looking forward to seeing you in a week or so. I got this. Just following up on Jay's question about stock, will you guys still report the production from there? It just won't be considered part of your ounces that are commercial, so therefore it's not in the guide. Is that the rationale there?

Yeah. So this is Jeff, Vice President of Finance here. So yeah, I think that would be the expectation that we would start to report pre-production, pre-commercial production ounces from stock partway through the year when we start expecting to see that come through. But at this time, because it is pre-commercial production, we're not giving production or cost guidance on those amounts.

Okay. Yeah, that's helpful. And then over at Gold Bar, the new, saw the new lookout resource, but can you remind us like where Gold Bar is at as far as the remaining mine life at this point?

My life at Gold Bar, as we know it, goes into the 1930s or 2030s. And I would say, you know, we're doing an extensive amount of diamond drilling, exploration drilling on, you know, ground, you know, all around the Gold Bar site. And at the same time, we're doing an extensive amount of drilling on the timberline, and that is basically in progress right now on an exploration basis. We're also doing some mine planning, and we're also doing some permitting work on those sites. And as soon as we get all of the permits, there are areas there that are amenable to open pit mining, And, you know, what our intention is at this point is we would build a small or small to medium sized leach pad on those sites and leach the material at the site. But meanwhile, the plant will be very, very small because all we'll do is circulate cyanide solution and then we'll take the carbon back out the gold bar. So we won't have to build a plant there. all we'll have is a leach pad and a circulation system. There will also be some sumps and so on for storm events and that kind of thing. But basically, it'll be an operating line without much infrastructure.

Okay. That makes sense. And then kind of one final thing. Go ahead.

I was just going to ask Ian to comment on the resources.

Yeah, the one thing I'll take into account is what we refer to as Trinity Ridge. It's actually below the existing pits at Gold Bar. So when Bill talks about the current mine life into the 2030s, we then see it expanding much beyond that as Trinity Ridge is taking into account mineralization that we know it exists, does not have a resource, but it's directly below where we're mining today.

And we'll have resources.

Yeah, and we're currently doing a drill program right now. There are 150 drill holes approximately. We're about a third of the way through. And once we finish that program and have the assays, we're going to be calculating the Trinity Ridge resource while we're doing metallurgical test work on that as well. So we see that bull bar dovetailing into a much larger pit.

Oh, that makes sense. And then last thing, just on MSC, now that there's actually dividends coming out of it, is there an opportunity to reopen discussions with Posh Child for one of you to buy the other one out there and consolidate that asset?

Well, there's been rumors they wanted to sell it from time to time, but I think as the price has gone up, that desire to sell has sort of faded away. They were gathering lots of cash to cover off the closure costs, and they've now exceeded what they thought they needed. And they still have an active exploration program going. It's a prolific area and right next to Cerro Negro.

On your end, Rob, would you consider monetizing that and redeploying the capital elsewhere?

Is that the right price, Joe? Okay, fair enough. I'll turn it over. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from a line of Jeremy Hoy from Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

Hello, Jeremy. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I guess I'll start with there's a lot of growth projects on the go. It's rapidly evolving, and it strikes me there's a lot of catalysts coming up this year. Could you walk us through the capital expenditures in 2026 and how those are divided across the assets? And if you can comment on 27 or 28, that would be helpful as well on the model in front.

Certainly. I'll ask Jeff to address that.

Sure, we expect the bulk of our capital expenditures this year to really be focused on the Fox complex. So really looking at the stock mine. I think in terms of remaining capex through 2026 to complete, I think we're looking at sort of mid 50 to $60 million to finish, possibly less. We are also looking at a heap leach expansion at Gold Bar, which will take about $12 million this year. And we're also looking at Mexico in terms of the plant refurbishment and bringing that back online, about $25 million there.

Okay, great. That's very helpful. 100 million and I think what you'll see is as we move forward with Tartan and Gray Fox, you know, the next few years will be around 100, you know, that same $100 million a year.

Okay. And to be clear, that 100 million, you know, I can, we can calculate the, you know, what sustaining is expected to be based on the ASIC numbers provided, but what's the approximate split between sustaining and non-sustaining?

In terms of those capital expenditures, I think the only amounts that we expect to report as sustaining are the gold bar figures. Given stock is a growth project and we don't expect to bring that into commercial production until 2027, that capital has not been included in our ASIC estimates at this time.

Okay, great. That's really helpful. I guess just staying on the same vein of discussion here, again, a lot going on, pretty exciting for the precious metals portfolio. Does this require augmentations to the team? Are you guys building up on the technical side, the exploration side? Just thinking about management's capacity to deliver on all these goals.

Perhaps I can answer that. Yeah, I mean, we're building up our capabilities in terms of our technical capabilities and our bench strength, you know, as we speak. And that has been going on for, you know, not more than six months. And you might even say it started a year ago. So yeah, we have, you know, we have a study group that's centered in Sudbury. The reason we put that there was because, you know, we had some, I guess, some people that worked with us in the past. And, you know, so we set it up so that they'd be home and we have really had no more room for them here in Toronto and they didn't want to drive down here anyway. And, you know, we're also adding, key people at all the projects. So it's, you know, it's for sure a work in progress, but recently we appointed a person in charge of permitting environment and social responsibility. We're building a substantial HR team. You know, we're working with a couple of consultants to help us put more rigor around our internal reporting requirements and so on. So, yeah, I mean, we recognize the hurdles that we have if we're going to build these projects.

Understood. Okay. Well, thank you very much for the caller, and I'll step back in the queue. Thank you, Jim. Thanks.

Your next question comes from a line of Don DeMarco from National Bank. Your line is open.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, Rob and team. Maybe a question on the tartan mine. You've got the resource update that's pending. With this update, maybe just in terms of managing expectations, do you plan to start by de-risking the existing resource, or could we also see maybe some resource accretion at this early stage?

Yeah, so we're taking into account all the drilling that's been done post the 2017 resource. So we do expect it to be larger as the vertical extent of tartan was expanded by about 90%. But it's not going to be an apples to apples comparison for a few reasons. The 2017 resource did not use a stope optimization as it was really not a a requirement or seen as a requirement back in 2017. So we are going to be putting some preliminary stopes around the resource. And then the second factor that makes it hard to compare is the resource cutoff grade. 2017 used a three gram per ton cutoff. At today's gold price, we're using $3,000 for this resource. You could theoretically use a much lower cutoff rate, which will increase your ounces as well. So, again, the comparison's hard, but we do expect an increase in number over the previous resource, you know, by, you know, I'd say by a reasonable amount.

Okay. Okay, we'll look forward to that. And maybe just some comments on your strategy for M&A. I mean, obviously you've been somewhat active. I mean, Tartan's an example. That was the Paragon looking at these, you know, tactical high ROI opportunities. is it should we maybe expect more of these to come um or or uh or what is your kind of uh you know your vision on m a or in the gold sector over the next uh you know year or two to come having greater exposure to precious metals i think is very positive development if you can buy find it on an accretive basis we i mean we spend

We have a large expenditure on exploration, and we've been meeting success there on our own properties, but we'd like to augment that growth if we see... Okay.

And jurisdiction-wise, do you continue to focus on the Americas, I would presume, then, or Ontario? Is there any considerations on where you might be focused?

We've largely focused, well, we have focused almost exclusively on areas in close proximity to our existing operations so we have the talent in place and don't have to spread ourselves too thinly. So what comes up in our neighborhood, that's a natural fit where you have an opportunity to extend the life, increase your production. But there are other situations that might catch your eye and where you can see considerable growth. So we call it opportunistic.

Okay. Okay. Well, thanks so much. That's all for me and good luck with the rest of the quarter.

Thank you, Don.

Your next question comes from the line of Jay Goldsmith, a shareholder. Your line is open.

Hi, Rob. Good afternoon. Joined a little late, so I hope this question wasn't asked. Congrats to you and the team on the solid quarter and congratulations Nice to see the profitability turn around and stronger balance sheet and progress on Azuas. Can you update McEwen's stake in Paragon? I think it's like 31% in Paragon laboratories and the photo photon assay technology.

Love to hear how the adoption is going. I'll ask Ian to speak on Paragon.

Yeah, so just for your background, I did join the board of Paragon when McEwen made its investment The ownership is slightly below 30%. It's about 28%. McEwen was using Paragon for its assay needs before we made the investment. So we did see how it was working there. And as an industry, it is gaining widespread acceptance. Right now, another supplier of the photon machines is supplying Barrick. And I believe the number is about 18 machines that Barrick is now using worldwide. You are seeing turnaround times for assaying for gold and silver down as low as six days, high as 10 days versus traditional fire assay you're seeing right now in the industries running three to four weeks. The cost between the two is approximately the same. A couple of the key advantages with the photon technology is that the sample that you're able to analyze is much larger. By that, it should be more representative of of the actual assay. It's also non-destructive, so you're able to use that material for metallurgical test purposes later, if you so choose, versus having to drill a second hole or another hole. The turnaround time is much faster, obviously, than fire assays. There are many advantages, but you're still seeing the industry You know, it's still being adopted, but, you know, it's going to take probably a couple of more years, the more people are turning towards it. And he said Barrick is using it now for the majority of their needs, and we're using it for all of our current needs.

Okay, exciting to hear. So financial impact for McEwen still a couple of years down the road, you suspect?

Well, there's no real financial impact. We do include Paragon as an equity investment into our financial statements. very similar to what we do with McEwen Copper. But there's no real, we're not adding any more capital out of our treasury to it, nor receiving any current dividends. So the impact right now is purely as a capital gain or loss. And right now we made the investment at $1.75 Canadian. They're trading approximately $3.50 per share. And we've been trying to help them realize what a customer wants to see. Because I think you are in a commodities business when you're doing things such as ad saying. So what we're trying to stress and work with Paragon is how do you make a very customer-oriented business so you go above and beyond to get the level of service that your competitors are not to win over that business. Okay.

I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jay.

And there are no further questions at this time. Mr. Rob McEwen, I turn the call back over to you.

Thank you, operator, and thank you for everyone on the line. We're looking to build a company that provides our share owners with growing exposure to hard money, gold and silver, and to a critical mineral, copper, a metal critical to modern society. And we're moving ahead on that front, and I think once we take McEwen Copper public, there'll be a very positive impact on our balance sheet. So thank you for joining us today.

This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.