Vale S.A.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Vale's first quarter 2026 earnings call. This conference is being recorded and the replay will be available on our website at vale.com. The presentation is also available for download in English and Portuguese from our website. To listen to the call in Portuguese, please press the globe icon on the lower right side of your Zoom screen and then choose to enter the Portuguese room. then select Mute Original Audio so they won't hear the English version in the background. We would like to inform that all participants are currently in a listen-only mode for the presentations. Further instructions will be provided before we begin the question and answer section of our call. We would like to advise that forward-looking statements may be provided in this presentation, including values expectations about future events or results. encompassing those matters listed in the respective presentation. We caution you that forward-looking statements are not guaranteed of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties. To obtain information on factors that may lead to results different from those forecast by Vale, please consult the report Vale Files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Brazilian Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, and in particular, the factors discussed under forward-looking statements and risk factors in Vale's annual report on Form 20-F. With us today are Mr. Gustavo Pimenta, CEO, Mr. Marcelo Bacci, Executive Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations, Mr. Rogério Nogueira, Executive Vice President, Commercial and Development, Mr. Carlos Medeiros, Executive Vice President of Operations, and Mr. Sean Osmar, CEO of Valley Base Metals. Now, I will turn the conference over to Mr. Gustavo Pimenta. Sir, you may now begin.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Vale's first quarter 2026 conference call. I would like to start by briefly reinforcing our strategy and our ambition to create superior value for our shareholders. This strategy is grounded in a relentless focus on operational excellence, combined with disciplined capital location and the development of highly accretive growth opportunities, particularly in copper and iron ore. leveraging Vale's unique asset base and endowment. Recent geopolitical events and the volatility they have introduced to the markets only reinforce the importance of building a resilient and competitive business that can perform across a wide range of market conditions. This is exactly what we are doing at Vale. Despite near-term uncertainties, I am very excited about our Q1 performance and very optimistic about delivering another great year. I'm highly confident about Vale's future and in our ability to navigate the current environment while delivering robust, very creative growth over the long run. With that in mind, I'd like to now turn to the highlights of our first quarter performance. Safety is a core value at Vale and remains at the center of everything we do. In the first three months of the year, we safely removed two additional structures from any emergency level, reaching an 80% reduction since 2020. These achievements reflect disciplined governance, continuous investment in monitoring and engineering solutions, and a strong safety mindset across the organization. This journey goes beyond procedures and systems. It is fundamentally about culture, accountability, and leadership at every level of the organization. By consistently advancing safety, we not only protect our people and communities, but also reinforce Vale's position as a trusted partner. Now let me turn to our operational performance. In Ironore, our focus on operational excellence, combined with the flexibility of our product portfolio, once again translated into solid performance this quarter. Production grew 3% year-on-year, supported by record output at SLMD and Bruku II, as well as the successful ramp-up of the Capanema and Vargem Grande projects. At the same time, we continue to make solid progress on the Serra Sul Plus 20 project. It has now reached 86% physical completion and remains on track to start up in the second half of the year. Once delivered, SerraSul Plus 20 will further strengthen our operational flexibility and add incremental volumes to one of the most competitive iron ore assets in the world. Sales volumes increased by 4% year-on-year, reflecting higher production and supported by healthy global demand. Importantly, this volume growth leveraged our flexible product portfolio, allowing us to improve price realization with all lean premiums increasing by $2.6 per ton quarter on quarter. This translates into around $800 million in annualized revenue, reinforcing the value of our commercial strategy. Let me now turn to valley-based metals. At Valley-based metals, we continue to deliver strong operational performance, with double-digit production growth in both copper and nickel. In copper, production reached 102,000 tons in the first quarter, the highest level since 2017 and 13% higher year-on-year. This performance was supported by record output at Salubo and Sossego, as well as solid contribution from our Canadian polymetallic operations, especially at Voices Bay. In nickel, production also grew strongly, increasing 12% year-on-year, the best first quarter performance since 2020. This reflects the stable production from the Voices Bay mining expansion project, along with the successful commissioning of the second furnace at Onsepuma, bringing total production to 49,000 tons. During the quarter, we also announced an agreement to form a consortium for the Thompson operations. This transaction is part of our strategic review of assets and supports our broader objective of strengthening the competitiveness of VBM's global mining portfolio, while positioning these operations for long-term value creation. To that end, I'd like to also highlight the release of new standalone asset reports post our VBM day held in March. This initiative reinforced our commitment to transparency and to providing the market with greater visibility into the quality, scale, and potential of our base metals portfolio. we firmly believe that this increased transparency will support a better understanding of the strategic importance and value creation potential of valley-based metals. Finally, I would like to highlight a pioneering initiative that reinforces valleys' leadership in innovation and decarbonization. In April, we announced an unprecedented agreement to introduce the world's first ethanol-powered ocean-going vessels with operations expected to begin in 2029. These next-generation Guaiba MAX vessels have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by up to 90%, marking a major milestone for decarbonization in global maritime transportation. Combined with advanced efficiency technologies and wind-assisted rotor sales, this approach delivers environmental impact, operational flexibility and energy security. This initiative reinforces our commitment to reducing scope 3 emissions and positions Vale as a leader in shaping a more sustainable and competitive future for the industry. Now I'll turn to Marcelo Bacci to talk about our financial performance. I'll be back for closing remarks before the Q&A session.

Thanks, Gustavo, and good morning, everyone. In the first quarter of 2026, our pro forma EBITDA reached $3.9 billion, representing a 21% increase year-on-year. This strong performance was primarily driven by another very solid operation of execution in our three commodities, benefiting from higher volumes and improved price realization. Valley-based metals' EBITDA more than doubled compared to last year, reaching $1.2 billion in the quarter. This is yet another demonstration of the significant value being unlocked in this business. VBM's EBITDA would have been even higher absent the approximately $140 million negative impact of provisional price adjustments made at the end of the quarter. Based on today's forward curves, this impact would have been positive, implying a potential reversal in Q2. In Arnor, EBITDA reached $2.9 billion with a flat but solid performance year-on-year, supported by higher sales volumes and better all-in premiums, more than offsetting the appreciation of the Brazilian Real during the quarter. Now let's take a closer look at our cost performance. In the quarter, our C1 cash cost, excluding third-party purchases, reached $23.6 per ton, an increase of 12% year-on-year. As expected, this increase was mainly driven by the BRL's appreciation, combined with the effect of inventory's consumption carried from the previous quarters at higher costs. The all-in cash cost, in turn, increased by 8%, with stronger all-in premiums and a solid performance in freight, helping to partially mitigate cost pressures. While external variables such as exchange rates and oil prices can introduce volatility to our cost structure, they further reinforce the importance of our ongoing focus on efficiency, productivity, and operational excellence. Assuming market consensus estimates for 2026 of an average BRL of $5.25 and average oil prices of $90 per barrel, we are working to achieve the top end of our original guidances on a 61% FE basis. In this slide, you can see the different sensitivities for our C1 and all-in costs for our NOR. Through disciplined execution and a strong focus on controllable cost drivers, we remain confident in our ability to progressively and structurally reduce our cost base, supporting competitiveness and value creation across the cycle. Turning now to value-based metals, both copper and nickel once again delivered solid and consistent reduction in all-in costs. Starting with copper, hauling costs once again reached negative territory, declining by $1,800 per ton year-on-year, reaching minus $0.6,000 per ton. This very strong result was mainly driven by robust by-product revenues, supported by higher prices and increased gold volumes. In nickel, hauling costs declined by 48% year-on-year, reaching $8,200 per ton. This improvement reflects stronger by-product revenues from our polymetallic assets, benefiting from favorable pricing, as well as cost optimization initiatives at Voices Bay. Fixed cost dilution, driven by a 12% increase in production volumes, also further supported results. Looking ahead, we expect Valley-based metals to continue delivering operational improvements, beyond the contribution from by-product price. In NICRO, our focus is now on maximizing cash flow generation, leveraging on continued cost efficiency and on the polymetallic nature of our assets. Now let's talk about our cash generation. Our recurring free cash flow generation reached $813 million in the quarter, representing a 61% increase year-on-year. This stronger performance was primarily driven by solid EBITDA combined with the settlement of currency swap and oil hedging programs. The more negative working capital variation reflected higher inventory levels and an increase in accounts receivable with collections expected over the coming quarters. Despite the volatility that oil prices can introduce to the cost structures, we remain well positioned thanks to our risk management strategy. which helps protect and stabilize our cash flow. Our oil hedge program was designed to limit exposure to tail scenarios through the use of zero-cost collar instruments. These hedges provide Brent crude oil price protection above $80 per barrel for around 70% of our bunker oil demand in 2026, supporting greater visibility and stability in cash generations. Finally, I would like to highlight the strength of our cash position and our continued commitment to shareholder returns. In the first quarter, we distributed $2.7 billion in dividends and interest on capital, while we also repurchased nearly 5 million shares under the current share buyback program. As you can see on the next slide, these distributions resulted in a seasonally expected increase in extended net debt, which reached $17.8 billion in the quarter. Our target range remains unchanged at $10 to $20 billion, with a clear objective of operating around the midpoint of this range. Important to say that under the current price environment for Aronor, Copper and Nickel, we are increasingly confident on the possibility of paying extraordinary dividends and on further executing on our buyback program throughout the year. Before passing the floor back to Gustavo for his closing remarks, I would like to reinforce that we are building a company designed to be resilient through the cycle. Our flexibility, cost discipline, and capital allocation approach are key pillars of this strategy. With these elements in place, we expect to continue benefiting from the strength of our R&R portfolio while fully unlocking the potential of our base metals business, consistently delivering value to all stakeholders. Gustavo, please.