8/14/2025

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

And almost all of the people will be transferred to endomines, and we are also recruiting more people as we speak. The main reasons here were that we want to grow aggressively, and the company's strategies were not in line in that respect. So we saw that we can grow the operations faster by having everything in-house. We estimate that this will have a positive effect on our cash cost from 26, so the cash cost will be lowered by 90 to 120 euros per ounce. We expect that there could be some minor effect during Q3 when the transition is done. Usually when this kind of transformation is done, then when people move to different organizations, we recruit new people. We start new procedures, so there could be a temporary effect during Q3, but we expect, if there is any effect, we expect that to be minor and temporary. So on a long term, this really supports our growth strategy. If you look at the gold market, the gold market has been very favourable. And it's mainly driven by the geopolitical uncertainty and then the central bank buying. China has been very aggressively buying gold for months and there is a suspicion that they actually do not report all the buying. So they actually buy more what is officially reported. Then the geopolitical uncertainty, the wars are still going on. There is a lot of uncertainty in the USA, what will happen with the trade tariffs and so on. So that has supported gold during 2025. And then also Fed interest rate cuts. Historically, if you look last 25 years, when Fed starts to cut the interest rates, then that affects the gold price positively. And that's something that is yet to come in full scale. The gold price exceeded $3,000 per ounce first time in March 25, and then the average during January June, where the results are based on, was $3,072. Currently, the gold is trading at $3,350, around $3,350, so it's on a higher level than during the January June time period. If you look at the exploration and a little bit history, we have been very successfully increasing the resource base. So this means how much gold we know there is in the ground in the Karelian gold line. And currently the resource base is approximately half a million ounces. It has increased by 148% in the last two years. And looking at this H125, by far the biggest item in exploration was the Ukko discovery. And the history here is that early this year we published a release that we analyzed some outcrop samples in the area, like there is this big iron formation, and we went to the outcrops and took some samples and found out that there is gold. What makes this unique in the Karelian gold line is the fact that it's a banded iron formation type of deposit. These are very common in the world. So a lot of the big gold deposits in the world are similar beef deposits. However, we have never found anything like this in the Karelian gold line. And after we received the data from the salt crop samples, we made a decision that we will start drilling in the area immediately in April when the exploration activities were started. And the results were fantastic. So we got really excellent results from the drilling. And therefore, this has become our number one target for 2025. And what's really worth noting here is the fact that when you look at the picture in the slide, you can actually see, as this gold is connected with the iron formation, and iron you can see in magnetic measurements or electromagnetic measurements, and in this map you can see that the... uh the iron formation seems to be extremely large like this scale is actually seven kilometers long and it's a it's a v shape so there is two two different sections and currently we are just drilling at the northern tip of this formation and the results have been excellent so there is a lot of potential this to be significant deposit in a finland scale but also world scale and this is something that we we plan to define define in the coming months and and years still would like to emphasize it's early days we only started like the first result got out on on the 27th of may So currently we are just looking at different options, what is the deposit like, and we are also looking at the boundaries, where it could be, and trying to understand what we have actually found. But every day we are learning more and more, and our geological team is extremely excited that this is something that we really want to pursue and find out what we have found. Currently, we are taking more outcrop samples because this is a very significant area. So we are taking more outcrop samples. We are doing base of till sampling. We are doing electromagnetic measurements to further define how the formation is underground. And then we are doing exploration drilling. So we are continuously doing drilling in the area. So it's very exciting times. USA is not part of our strategy, and we still have the seven deposits in the USA, five in Idaho, two in Montana, and we are negotiating. We have been negotiating for a long time, but there is no solution as yet. What has become evident during the negotiations is that we want to find a solution for Idaho. That's the primary target, just mainly because our current operating expenditure in the USA is approximately 0.7 million euros, and 85-90% of that expenditure comes from Idaho. So we want to find a solution for Idaho so that it improves our financial result on a long term. Sustainability, that's the backbone of the business and that's the way we improve the company as a whole. We have ambitious sustainability program. It has six main points. Climate. We want to have fossil-free coal production by 2035 in Finland. And for Finnish people, Finnish people love nature. They love lakes and saunas and things like that. And the most important thing is the water. So if there is any discharge waters, we want to ensure that those are clean. Biodiversity, very important that we know what kind of species there is in the area. We do continuous restoration of sites that we are not using. Personnel, it all starts from the personnel. So we want to ensure that the personnel are safe and they are also happy so that they like where they work, because that makes the difference of well performing companies. Community support. We want to be open and explain what we do. Have a lot of information sessions. For example, tomorrow we have an open house at Pampalo mine. So we have people coming with buses and meeting myself and the team at Pampalo. So anybody who has free time tomorrow, welcome to join. And then the governance, that we work in an ethical way and then all the employees know that what is the way, what is the ethical way that if you have to choose or choose between different options in some kind of situations, then you know what's the right way to go. But now we are entering a new phase and we have updated the strategy. And the reasons why we are entering a new phase is that we have built the foundation. We have built the foundation. We have increased the production significantly. We have increased the resource base. And now it's time to focus more to take those resources into production. So it It means that we are focusing on permitting, we are focusing on technical and financial planning and ensuring that on a long term we will increase the production volumes, revenue, profitability significantly. We also want to incorporate critical mineral tungsten and then molybdenum into our strategic plans. And then the sustainability program implementation. It's good to have a program, but the key is to have an efficient execution and to ensure that that gets done, what we have in the program. So basically, we are using the experience that we have gained in the past three years to deliver results during the next phase. And our new strategy includes five key points. Pampalo is the center for production. We want to grow the production volumes and we grow it through higher amount of gold resources, so through exploration. So we perform exploration, increase the resource base, and that enables us to grow the production volumes. Then critical minerals, they are part of the, as there are critical minerals in the Karelian Gold Line with the gold. So we want to also incorporate those into the plans. Financial stability. We want to separate us from junior mining companies who continuously look for funding. So we want to have a stable funding foundation. And sustainability, that's the way we improve our company as a whole. And we have new long-term targets, and the targets are that we have 1.5 to 2 million ounces of gold defined by 2030. If you compare today's situation, it's half a million ounces, so it's three to four times more. Annual gold production to 70,000 to 100,000 ounces by around 2030. And if you compare that to last year figures, that was 14,300, so it's five to seven times higher. And then tungsten and molybdenum take those into production at the same time with the higher gold production and fossil-free gold production by 2035. And how do we achieve these targets? They are ambitious targets, but how do we achieve it? We want to scale like the production. It's always these two are linked. So when we increase the gold resource, then we can make investment decision that there is, for example, one million ounces here. We can increase the production to 100,000 ounces and we have 10 years production. And then during those 10 years, we can increase the resource base further, get more years or increase the production levels even further. So they go hand in hand so that we make exploration to increase the resource base and then increase the production to use those resources that we have defined. And if we look at the same graph that what has happened last two years, we have used this as a base and made an assumption that when we drill 10,000 meters, we get approximately 100,000 ounces more gold resources. And that's based on the data on the last year's work that we have done in the exploration. And we don't see that there is a significant risk that this wouldn't continue for the next 10 years. We have so many targets in the Karelian Gold Line, and these targets are open to many directions. So we are confident we can increase the resource. And it's good to have a long-term target, then there could be different years. Some year the effect in the resources could be higher, next year a little bit lower, but on a long term we will achieve the target. And if we compare the current situation, half a million ounces, then our plan is to simply drill 120,000 meters in the next five years. And based on this, the 10,000 meters, 100,000 ounces, that will result that we have a resource base of 1.5 to 2 million ounces by 2030. And investment-wise, it means 4 to 6 million euros per year for exploration. And then at the same time, we also want to investigate the tungsten and molybdenum option because they are very, very potential. In the first phase, these actions are focused on the Southern Gold Line area, but then we also have other areas that we are investigating. And larger resource enables us to increase the production volume. So that's the link between these two items. And currently over half of our existing resources is in the Southern Gold Line. And that's the place that we are permitting and we are taking to production around 2030. And that will take the production to 70,000-100,000 ounces. And how we see the long-term development is that last year, the 14,300 ounces, then we continuously increased the volumes and around 2029, we will be at 25,000, which is the current capacity of the mill without any significant investments. And then the Southern Gold Line will come to production and we increase it to 70,000, 100,000 ounces. And that's a nice increase, but our long-term goals are much further. So we want to also take other areas into production after the Southern Gold Line and increase it further from the 70,000, 100,000 level. The development plan, what we have is we started the permitting in January 24. So we did the nature values and we started to do the environmental impact assessment programme. The program is almost done. However, now with the Ukkolanvaara, we made a decision that we will finalize it so that all the items of Ukkolanvaara are included. So we will launch it late this year. So there is a few month delay. but then the Ukkula-Vaara area will be included. In the original plans, there was only the northern section of Ukkula-Vaara included, but now we have extended the area so that it includes the whole V-shape, because there is a lot of potential in the area. And then after the program, then it continues. We will continue with the pre-feasibility study, then the environmental impact assessment report, environmental permit, and we estimate to get the permit during the second half of 28, followed with the investment decision and financing negotiations, and then take the area into production around 2030. And that will bring the significant change five to seven times compared to last year's figures. But we shouldn't forget the Northern Gold Line because there is a very potential deposit that we found last year called Kartitsa. We got fantastic results. There is no resources yet. And that's something that we will drill also late this year to have resources at Kartitsa, because there is a lot of potential. And on a wider scale, there is kilometers and kilometers of potential area that we see that there is high gold potential. And critical minerals, they are part of the strategy. Tungsten is very important. It's currently 80% of world's tungsten comes from China. It's one of the 14 critical minerals defined by European Union. And it's something that is used in the defense industry. It's used in the drilling, for example, in applications where you need extreme hardness. And this we can also find in the southern gold line. And it's near Kuittila in the same area that we are permitting. So Kuittila and Ukkolanvar, they are part of the same permitting area. And it's very interesting. We estimate that the Kuitila area could supply 0.5 to 2.5% of global supply. And we have only drilled a small area, but we have done base of till sampling. And those results, they indicate that there is a tungsten in a wider area. And previously, if you think about one year ago, two years ago, When we hit the tungsten or molybdenum, we sort of moved away because we were only looking for gold. But now when we also have tungsten and molybdenum in our radar, then if we hit significant areas with tungsten, then we will continue in the area and also define how much tungsten there is in the area. So it's very interesting. very interesting and we are thinking about applying for the critical mineral producer status we haven't done it yet currently the application window is not existing but it will open open soon and then we will launch the application but it doesn't matter if we get the approval or not we will proceed with tungsten we see that as a potential way to to add revenue, also financing options, and it's very important for the European Union to have tungsten and molybdenum supplies. Exploration activities during H2. There has been some changes and those are mainly due to the Ukko discovery. As we started in April and we started with Ukko and our initial plan was only to do drilling for 3-4 weeks but as we got so excellent results we are still there and we haven't done other areas at all so we are now updating the plan and We are scaling up, and we are happy to do so. We are doubling the drilling volume. It will start in five weeks' time. So one of the machines will stay in Tukkulavaara, and the other one will continue with the other deposits. And what makes it really interesting now, when we have first time discovered that there is gold associated with these kind of iron formations, We have other significant size iron formations within Karelian Gold Line within our exploration permit area. So we want to also test if there is gold also associated with the other beef deposits. But time will tell, it will take some time. Now we have to first start with resource drilling and the other one will stay in Ukko and let's see what happens. But that's exciting times. And the second drill rig will stay at least until end of 2025. And then we will review what we do next year. And of course, it depends also on the results that we get. But exciting times ahead. And now I will pass the floor to Minni.

speaker
Minni Virtanen
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks. Financial stability is one of the long-term targets, so let's move on and see how we did in H1. Here we can see the group financials for H1, 25. The revenue increased by 64% compared to last year and was 21.5 million euros. Group's EBITDA was 7.7 million euros and the net result 2.3 million euros. Increase in production and the high gold price are the main reasons behind the increase in revenue. Operating expenses have remained moderate. The mining mineral tax was around 0.2 million euros in H1. And I have to say that we are working together with the Finnish Mining Association and other companies to prevent the tax increase that is planned for the mining mineral tax and the electricity tax. In H1, we had one-time costs related to the new financing advisory and legal fees, especially in the USA, around 0.5 million euros. In addition, losses related to USD-euro translation for the USA balance sheet affected the net result by 1.8 million euros. EBITDA, operating result and net result, all positive and significantly higher than last year. Here we can see the financials divided into reporting segments. Pampalos EBITDA, amazing, 47% and operating result, 40% of the revenue. The cash cost has remained at a low level, and at the same time, the gold price has been 38% higher than last year on average. And we estimate that the gold price is staying high also in H2. The new financing arrangement was agreed in April. It includes a loan up to 8 million euros, an account limit up to 3 million euros, and other guarantees up to 1 million euros that can be used for hedging, for example. And at the end of June, the cash balance was 5.5 million euros, and the drawdown of the loan was 3 million euros. I think we did great. Do you agree?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

We did. Yes, absolutely. Very happy about it. Now it's time for questions and answers, I think.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

Yes, it's time for questions and answers. We have had, again, a lot of questions here in the chat. Let's start with a question concerning our impressive business results during the first half of this year. What is the secret behind Endomind's development? How has such a turnaround been possible, actually?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

Yeah, that's a good question. I think it always starts with people and strategy that we have. Like when in 22, when we started to do the change, we redefined the strategy so that there are clear targets and then you need good people to execute and deliver the targets. So we have been very successful in recruiting new people in the company and I'm very pleased with the team that we have, and they have really delivered the results that we can now present with a smile. But then also, I think I have to thank our owners, because if you think about the situation where we started in 22, I was just looking today, before I came here, I was looking that in H1-22, our EBIT was minus 10 million euros. Now it's 5.4 million positive euros. and the revenue has increased by more than three times. And this kind of change would have never been possible without our owners and their support, because they have supported the growth journey, and we have had financing available. Now we don't need it anymore, but to make the turnaround, it was critical that, especially in 2022, 2023, even 2024, that we had... we had the financing available and we could do the change because it's not very common that companies making a lot of loss start to invest and that was the turnaround.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

Okay, then we have questions related to Ukkolaavaara. Can you provide more details about the plans for exploring the Ukko deposit during the rest of the year?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

Yeah, that's very interesting and it has been very fascinating to watch our exploration team to work with this Ukko deposit. And when we drilled the first hole and we got these magnificent results, first we thought, well, Now we just drill anywhere and it's going to be magnificent everywhere. But it was more complicated. So then we started to take more samples to electromagnetic measurements and so on. And now we are starting to understand what we have found. And the electromagnetic measurements, they play a key role because now we have a theory that we can see the areas where there is gold using certain technologies, and then we can aim the drilling in those areas, and that's something that we are now working on. During H2, we will take more outcrop samples, so we will simply go to the places where you can see the iron formation and take samples and analyze those, because that was the way we found it initially. Then we will do a base of till sampling. So we will go with the machine, we will go through the soil, take samples from the top of the bedrock and analyze those. We have now taken, I think, 400 samples approximately, and the machine is still there. So we will get results fairly soon. And then there is also, of course, the drilling. And so the drilling is, once we identify that these locations are the most potential, then we will target the drilling there. I think the key here is, like, we are very excited about the Ukko and the potential it can offer. And it's based on these maps that I was showing earlier, that the iron formation is several kilometers long. And that's something that if the gold is associated, it's yet to be proven. But if it's associated, then there is a lot of answers.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

We have a question about the drill holes. First drill hole from Ukkola Vaara showed great potential. Were you happy with the results from the other drill holes?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

I was happy with that. There were some drill holes that had lower results, but I think in the first two releases we published results from nine drill holes, and I think there were four or five that had really good results. Some of them did not. But that's normal. That's normal. When you go to a new area, you also test the boundaries. So we were drilling from different locations just to see where the formation is. We can see it in the magnetic maps, but just to know exactly. And usually what happens here is that the gold is associated with the iron formation in a shear zone. So we were sort of testing the different theories. And... We are learning every day how we should plan our drilling campaigns, and we believe there is great potential here.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

What about investments? Should we expect exploration investments to grow from previously indicated 4 to 6 million euros per year level due to Ukkolanvaara's results?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

Yes, now just I think my last slide was saying that we are now doubling the exploration capacity or the drilling capacity. And we are also doubling the team. So we are currently recruiting a lot of people and very happy to see that we get a lot of applications. There are other people are excited about that. our results as well. And yes, it is possible. We have so exciting targets and it is like a snowball. I have said it before, but it's like a snowball that when you start doing the exploration and you do the sampling and you start to get results, there are more and more targets and it's a snowball. And the main difficulty is to choose where you focus your activities. And one option is not to make so much choice, just double the activities. And that's what we are doing now during this autumn and winter.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

Then we have a question about U.S. deposits. Have the talks regarding our U.S. deposits been more active during this year compared to last year?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

They have, yes. And we have also learned a lot during this process when we have had these discussions. Currently, I would say that, like I was mentioning, that the main focus is to get a solution on Idaho. We have been discussing that we would like to look at the Montana deposits a little bit further, like in a way that just have a look at all the historical information and how that relates to the current gold market. Because there is, for example, this Kersaerts deposit in Montana. At the current gold price, it's very, very potential. So that's something that we are now looking at. What does it mean and what are the best options? But with Idaho, our goal is to find a solution and most likely it could be divestment, for example. But let's see where we end up. But they have accelerated. But with these kind of processes, it's always you negotiate with somebody for a few months and then you get to the end or you don't. And if you don't, then you have to start again with somebody else. So it's a complicated process. A lot of work is done to get it to the finish line.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

Then we have questions concerning financials. Which factors affected Pampalo's cash cost negatively compared to H2 of last year?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

I think there is – I would still say that it's a very slight increase in the cash cost. Like if you look at this year's cash cost, it's almost on the same level as before. But, of course, you could argue that with higher volume, shouldn't we get like – lower gas cost with the volume, I think the factor that comes into the play is the high gold price. And what happens with the high gold price, then you can also mine lower grade ore, which is a little bit more expensive per ounce. So for example, if you have been mining ore, which is three grams per tonne, but then you also mine ore, which is two grams per ton, then it's to get one ounce of gold, you have to mine a little bit more tons and you see it in a cash course, but I think we have been very successful in keeping the unit cost in a good level.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

Then we have a question about production at Hosko. How much of the production growth came from the Hosko deposit?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

I think it came somewhere like 10 to 15%. I don't have the exact figure, but it was still smaller. A lot of the HOSCO production has come from the development tunnels. So the main mining areas, we still haven't accessed them. Initially, we thought that we will be there already, but we are not there yet because we have been going to the little bit lower levels and it has taken a little bit of time. So the ore has come from the development tunnels and the stoves will follow later this year.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

Why not invest into Pampalo refining capacity already before, or would the ore production from current deposits be bottleneck?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

That's a good point. It's something that we will for sure review when the capacity is full. But currently we still have a spare capacity and it's not applicable. But if we can increase the mining volumes and if we have potential to increase it further and the milk capacity is full, then it's definitely something that we will investigate.

speaker
Laura Korhonen
Head of Investor Relations

Next question is actually the last one, and it's about power mining, buying power mining. Regarding power mining acquisition, you anticipate cash costs without investments to decrease by 90 to 220 euros per ounce. But how do you see the cash costs, including investments, developing going forward?

speaker
Heikki Nurminen
President & CEO

Well, currently we haven't seen a big need to increase the amount of investments. I think on a long term, yes, because we want to increase the production volumes and mining has been the bottleneck, so most likely we will also invest in the mining machines. We don't have any figure as yet, yes, but that's something that when we... It now officially starts on the 1st of September. So once it's started, it's something that when we get more experience that how much tonnage we can get with the existing machines and with the existing personnel, then after that we can review that what if we add another machine. And I think that kind of plans will be included in the next year's budget. And then after that on a long-term plan that we have. But currently we still do not have a figure. If that was the last question, then I really want to thank all the listeners, but also our team for delivering these excellent results and also exciting exploration targets. So thank you, everybody.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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