Aya Gold & Silver Inc.

Good morning. I will now turn the call over to Elizabeth Hamawi. I am Gold and Silver's Director of Corporate and Financial Communication. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and welcome everyone to IELTS Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Here with me today are Benoit Lassalle, President and CEO, Hugo Landry-Tolschuk, Chief Financial Officer, Elias Elias, Chief Legal and Sustainability Officer, Raphael Beaudoin, Vice President of Operations, and David Lalonde, Vice President of Exploration. We will be referring to a presentation on this conference call, which will be available via the webcast and is also posted on our website. We will be making forward-looking statements during the call. Please refer to the cautionary notes included in the presentation, news release and MD&A, as well as the risk factors included in our annual information form. Technical information in this presentation has been reviewed and approved by Raphael Beaudoin, IAL's Vice President of Operations, and David Lalonde, IAL's Vice President of Exploration, both of whom are IAS qualified persons as defined under National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Minimal Projects. I would also like to remind everyone that our presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. With that, I will turn the call over to Benoit Lassane. Benoit?

Thank you, Elizabeth. Welcome, everybody, to our Q2 2025 earnings call. Before I start the presentation, I would like to tell you and announce that we have reached the 10 million ounce of silver production last week and since we took over as management in April of 2020. So we did produce, now we are over 10 million ounces of pure native silver in the last five years. I thought it's worth mentioning. There is a presentation that you, where you can follow my comments. You have the forward-looking statement on page two and three, and then we will start on page four. The Q2 highlights, it is a very strong quarter, a very good quarter. We've delivered across all the key pillars of our strategy. First, the production. 1,042,000 ounces in Q2, very similar to Q1. Gold and silver, but in our case it's silver revenue of 38.6 million U.S. dollars, we report in U.S. dollars. Cash flow from operation in Q2, 8 million. And I'd like to point that we are now at 15 million after Q1 and Q2 of cash flow from operation. remembering that this is a ramp-up period. We commissioned the plant at the end of December last year. We started the ramp-up in January of 2025. We are now completing the ramp-up as we will see while we're evaluating our KPIs at the end of Q2. So during ramp-up, during the first six months of ramp-up, we did produce 15 million of cash flow from operation. At the end of the quarter, our balance sheet is strong. We have $114 million in cash in our bank. We have a line of credit of $25 million, and we have a very strong working capital position. So reviewing some of the key milestones on production, you know, we've had a very good quarter. solid operational KPIs that I will review with you and we did reach a million ounces of production. On the exploration front, drilling programs are on track. We are, you know, we have many drills starting both at Gounder and Boumadine and we are continuously giving you results that are positive. We've also have been acquiring new permits at Secondaire and at Boumadzine, which is part of our strategy. We really do take advantage of the fact that, you know, we're first in country, and we add a lot of ground every quarter at Secondaire and at Boumadzine. On the development of our second asset, which is Boumadzine, the work supporting the upcoming Boumadzine PEA is going extremely well and according to plan. on the ESG front in the quarter we published our 2024 sustainability report we are always focusing on health and safety and we had a clean quarter in Q2 2025 no incidents nothing and we always strengthen our community engagement. We actually, in Q2, have accepted 26 new initiatives that were presented to us by local communities. They actually presented 18 initiatives. We selected in Q2 26 that we will be implementing. So strengthening our community engagement is part of our core value. Financing position, cash from operation, as I mentioned, $8 million. 15 after two quarters, extremely pleased with this number. We've completed an equity raise in June of $140 million Canadian, so let's say $100 million U.S., hence giving us a very, very strong balance sheet. Taking you to slide number five, we're going to go through the KPIs. You recall I always say in the ramp-up we have five KPIs that we need to manage. The first three, ore process and milling rate, well, as you can see, in Q1 2025, we were at 2.8 tons per day. In Q2 2025, we're at 3,000 tons per day. So we are moving up the ladder. Remember that the main plate capacity when we build the plant was 2,700 tons per day. By the end of Q1, we're at 2,800. By the end of Q2, we're at 3,000, and we are now approaching, for Q3, 3,500 tons per day. So this KPI is well managed, well under control, and exceeds nameplate capacity by more than 20%. Recovery rate has always been something extremely delicate. We know that metallurgy is an important element of a good mine. And currently in Q2, the average was 86.5%. We have reached 92% recovery in June. You recall that at the beginning of the ramp-up, the oxygen plant was creating the main issue. That's been solved and working according to plan. And we are now above 90% recovery, which is better than what we had in the feasibility study. The availability of the plant, this is another key KPI. And for Q2 2025, we were at 98%. We wrote exceeding industry standard. I've been in this business more than 30 years, and I've rarely seen plant availability better than 95, sometimes 96%. And here we are at 98%. The operational KPIs are sustainable into H2. We expect that the ramp-up is near completion. We're going to be at cruising speed at 3,500 ton a day, good recovery, and good availability. Moving on to slide number six, the Gounder ramp-up phase. on ore mine well so when you look at the ore mine the tonnage is there in q1 we did 195 000 ton which is 2 100 ton a day and and our you recall we started at 900 10 a day when we had the two smaller plants we our goal is to go to 3 500 10 a day we were at 2100 in q1 we're at 2600 now in q2 And this is increasing as we're ramping up the open pit in Q3. In Q2, we were preparing the open pit. We did a lot of stripping. We'll continue to do that in Q3 for our objective to go to 3,500, which is equal. So the mining will be equal to the processing. So another KPI that is green that we manage very well and is according to plan. The only KPI where, you know, we've talked about in the previous quarter that we're still, you know, working on and that we need to improve is the average grade. And the issue here in the ramp up as we move from 900 ton a day to 3,000 ton a day and 3,500 ton a day, It's not a metallurgical or a metal issue. It's not a metal issue. The metal is there. What we need to address is dilution. So it's the way we mine it, the way we mine the underground and the way we mine the open pit. I mean, historically, we were doing a lot of selective mining and we had the time because we were mining originally 200 ton a day, then 500 ton a day, 900 ton a day. So, the dilution was not a big problem, but currently with the speed of execution, the dilution is becoming our number one enemy. We know this. We are all focusing on improving or reducing, should I say, the dilution. We're improving mining selectivity. We're improving operational control. We have hired more people. We have hired more senior underground managers. So the last KPI of the five that we need to address in the ramp-up is really the dilution of the grade from the mining. uh on the open pit we need to monitor better blast movement because we see where the grade is we blast it then it moves and then we dilute it again too much and the ground is definitely even more difficult so all of that is something we understand it's something we we is our it's our key priority right now is you know we to stabilize the mining rate reduce the dilution, control the ore, and send all the ore to the plant and all the waste to the waste dump. Going to slide number seven, which is the financial highlights. Of course, on the revenue side, it's a record quarter, $38.6 million of revenue. obviously driven by the ramp up and the higher silver price. So we've moved from 33 million in Q1 to 38 million in Q2. The average selling price is excellent, and that is even getting better now in Q3. On the left side of the slide, you see the average net realized silver price, and when you compare that to the cash cost, just to show you the margin, we do have a $12 margin. we had a $12 margin in Q1 as well. And we expect that margin to increase in the coming quarters as the selling price is higher than what it is right now. And really, as we're completing the ramp-up phase and as we're improving the grade or reducing the dilution of the grade, you can expect the cost to come down, the selling price to go up, and the margin, therefore, to increase. Slide number eight shows that we have a very strong balance sheet, and that's something extremely important as we are really stepping up now the boom ads in development. So this quarter, we discussed this, we had $8 million of cash from operation, 15 after two quarters. CAPEX and exploration in line with our budget of $13 million. We spent about $3.5 to $4 million per quarter on exploration. As you know, we have two large drill programs. The cash position is extremely important at $114 million as we plan to increase the drilling at Boumadine and really get into a more detailed feasibility study next year. So that cash position is instrumental. And when we raised the money in June, it was clearly identified that it was for the boom in development. So strong cash flow, you know, capex completely under control. And a recent development, some of you saw that, that we did receive two weeks ago now or a week and a half ago, $8 million payment in compensation for the EPC contractual breach. You recall that, you know, last October, the plant was delivered to us with a delay. And you recall that, you know, we had a fixed date for plant delivery. We had obtained in the EPC contract some contractual obligation, which there was a breach. And because of this breach, we were able and have received $8 million in compensation. So that, of course, is not accounted for right now in the cash position because that came after the quarter end. But it just now tells us that we've built this new plant at Zgoundan. We've built it. It was already on budget, but now it's $8 million below budget. And the on-time of delivery was late. And you recall we explained that in Q3 of last year. But the commissioning was very quick, much quicker than expected, and we did the commissioning in three weeks. So the commercial production was declared in December, and that was aligned with the plan. So to conclude, the balance sheet portion, strong balance sheet, enough balance sheet to really develop Boumaddin and continue with the exploration at Gounder and at Boumaddin. On page nine, just we gave you a few pictures. I know many of you have been to site. It's beautiful. There's no more snow on the top of the mountains as last week. It was 48 degrees, so a little bit warmer than Canada, but not that much. And so you can see all of those pictures. Now, talking about exploration, because as you know, we are a producing company. We have a beautiful, pure silver mine at Zgoundan. But the exploration portion of Aya is extremely important. The exploration at Gunder at the mine and the exploration at Gunder regional. So at Gunder at the mine, we've drilled 4,700 meter. And that drill is in the structure. You remember our structure is 1.4 kilometer long, about 700 meter deep, 20 meter thick. And we've been drilling the bottom left of the structure. I mean, we've been drilling everywhere. But, you know, in the bottom left, the drill results, you know, outline significant down plunge extension there. which we show you when we put out a press release, with good thickness, very good grade, and it confirmed the continuity of the high-grade mineralization beyond the current resource boundary. Extremely important because it is a major system. It's very well understood, but we're seeing extension. To the west, at depth, we've also seen extension to the east in the open pit because we've shown you new results in the open pit over time. So the Zgounder main zone is still growing. Zgounder regional, which I'll show you a slide in one minute, we've drilled 1,000 meters there. It's more exploration drilling. So we have an area called Far East permits that we've obtained and that we've done the work in Q2. We have identified many very interesting targets through, you know, geochemistry, through satellite imaging and spectral imaging. And we are drilling some of those targets now. The drills are turning. We're drilling some of those targets. So, as I said, detailed geology is being done, and it's being carried at Tushkan, at Gunder, Far East, and we'll see this on the next slide. So, you see, the next slide is showing you where the mine is, which is the permit right in the middle. And then you have the 10 kilometer, 20 kilometer, 30 kilometer, and we are focusing on finding a new structure which is you know a distance that we can truck to the plant to either increase plant capacity to maybe depending what we find to use you know we have three plants a small leaching plant a flotation plant and the bigger plant that we just completed so we're looking at different things we have identified structures that are goal bearing we've identified structures that are silver copper and enhanced We're really working to find that other structure, which we believe is there, and we're also using AI. Probably in the next quarter, we'll be able to tell you what a massive AI program has done in reviewing all the data that we have, all the data, geophysics, geochem, satellite, spectral, stream sediment, and we're using AI now to do the work of many, many geos that would do in a number of years, and that's being done in a couple of months. The next project, as we all know, is Boumadzine. Boumadzine is our Tier 1 asset. We've completed 33,000 meters of drilling in Q2. You know that 33,000 meters, for most companies is they don't even do that in one year. This is what we've done in one quarter. We are at 79,000 meters after two quarters and there's more coming. There's more coming because we're finding new structures. So this time we've done a lot of drilling on the main trend. on the TZ trend and on the Imari-Rennes trend, which are all parallel. So those are the parallel structure to the main trend. And we've confirmed continuity and extension. The PEA is only on these three structures, the TZ, Imari-Rennes, and the main trend. Everything else that we're looking at is not going to be included in the PEA. It's going to come in a second step, as we are developing, you know, other satellite deposits at Boumadine. But the main trend, TZ and Imari-Rennes have enough quantity of ore N-grade to become a Tier 1 producing asset. In addition to the surface work, we have identified a new zone, which you're going to hear over the next couple of weeks and months, called ACIREM. which is a permit that we knew because we had done the geophysics that we were able to acquire because, as I say, we do acquire permits every quarter. David and his team are picking up additional ground based on additional information. So we have acquired this permit. It has a nine-kilometer traceable structure. where we discovered gold and copper. So gold at three gram per ton, copper at 4%, and we can see it on nine kilometers. So this is the, you can see the color, you can see the anomaly. This is what you see on the northwest corner. You see this elongated structure. We are covering it on nine kilometer. We're also buying additional ground to the north. but that is a geochem and a geophysics anomaly, and where we are very positive about the grab sample, what we're seeing, and we will be drilling that in the coming few weeks. So, Boumadzine is, again, a world-class asset. You've seen that slide many times. We have done a lot of work on the main trend, on the parallel trend. We are doing work now on the west structure and over the next few quarters, we're also going to be doing work to the south on these very long geochem and geophysics anomalies. That completes the geology. David will be on the call with us if you have questions. Also, on the outlook, we're confirming what we've put out in the past. We're, you know, really motivated to meet all of this guidance. The production guidance is between 5 and 5.3 million ounces, and we are committed to meet this production number. So, as a summary, and before we get into the question period, you know, the catalyst for 2025 were and are commenced the drill program and of course we have done that. We have commenced and are way into 140,000 meters of drilling at Boumadzin and 25-30,000 meters of drilling at Zgunde. Our second catalyst was to commence the Boumadzin PA, that was for 2025. We are way into this boom as in PEA. As indicated, we expect that this will be released in Q4 of 2025. We wanted to reach 3,000 ton per day of processing at the new plant. It was part of the ramp-up plan. We have reached that throughout the quarter of Q2. And we are 15% above this already in Q3. So the ramp up is following a steady state on the plant. I would say the ramp up is complete. On the infrastructure, it's complete. And the only KPI left, and we're fully aware of this, is the dilution at the mine. And that's something that we're addressing. Provide update on Bumazin, metallurgy, and PEA. And it's mainly metallurgy because that's been kind of a question mark for many shareholders. And there will be a complete update on the metallurgy. The studies are coming to an end, and we will have a full update for you in Q4 of 2025. And publishing the updated Gounder Technical Report, we are working on this. The beauty of it is we keep adding beautiful structures and beautiful grade and new extension, but we are on it right now and want to have that done before year end or in Q4 of 2025. So this completes the official presentation. We are open for business and for questions. So this concludes my formal remarks. I would like to now hand the call back to the operators for a Q&A session. Thank you.

If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Bryce Adams with Desjardins.

Thank you, Benoit, and I appreciate the presentation. A couple of weeks ago, you put out July month-to-date production numbers. When we extrapolate those data points, well, the full month of July gets to over 400,000 ounces produced. Can you talk to those July results, and if it cleared that 400 level, maybe got closer to 450?

Yeah, Bryce, thank you. We did give you two-thirds of July, and yes, for July, we have surpassed the 400. As we indicated, you know, we will stop giving monthly production numbers because it does create some turbulence sometimes when you were in the ramp up. The ramp up is pretty much done. Now you saw the steady state in Q2 at the plant. So, yes, so July is above 400. It's really, you know, it's on our goal to go towards the 500. And we had a good July. The grade was better. The throughput was excellent. And, yeah, no, so July is a good month.

Okay, yeah, sounds like it. I'll mark that down more than 400. For the full second half results, in the open pit, what's the key factors to managing the grade there? It looks like open pit grade is more of a problem than underground. You know, when we were on site a few months ago, the upper benches were a little bit constrained, a little bit tight for space. I mean, that could be normal course when you're opening up the bigger pit, but operational flexibility was maybe not that great a few months ago. How has that improved, and is that the big factor in managing the OpenPIT grade profile through the rest of the year?

Yeah, so look, you're absolutely right. I mean, you know, there's no grade issue at Gounder. So let's be very clear about this. There's no grade issue. There's a mining learning curve, and the mining learning curve was slower than what we had anticipated. And at the beginning, and we were in kind of a honeymoon with the open pit, we were hitting all the structures that was pretty straightforward. It was lower tonnage, and the open pit was quite steady. And the underground, as we were really pushing up the underground, it created dilution that we didn't expect. So we changed the focus. We pushed more the open pit. We reduced the underground. By doing that, we did not solve the dilution of the underground but we kind of got that under control a bit more and are getting good grades from the underground but the open pit then we realized we need a bigger open pit so we started doing some stripping moving some of the infrastructure that you saw the ventilation and and and getting our contractor to bring in more trucks in order to prepare for the better structure. So that was part, that was Q2. So the open pit execution in Q2 was excellent. The dilution was not, and we therefore had lower grade than expected in the open pit. So we know that in Q3 this is getting better, but you're right, the open pit preparation to go on a much bigger pit is definitely the issue why the grade was a little bit lower. But we expect that to correct itself in Q3 and definitely getting even better in Q4.

Okay, so expand that footprint gives you more flexibility.

It does, it does.

The last one from me, Ben, was on exploration. In your newsroom, on your website, the last drill results from Zagunda were back in June. Should we be expecting another batch of drilling results in the near term? And how have assay lab times been? Is that a factor in the timing of drilling updates?

Yes, so you're absolutely right that the exploration results have lagged a little bit. It's because we gave the focus to the development drilling and the drilling at the mine site. So at the lab, there's so much capacity and we've told the lab, look, we want to have a priority on all the samples coming from production because then you know with better definition we have better grade we have less dilution so we gave priority to that but now that look the team is back uh you know august is is is is the the month on holiday in in uh in in africa and mainly also in morocco but we were we're working at capacity and david will have press releases both on Zgunder and on Boumadzine, I would say at the very, very beginning of September, as we are, you know, getting, we're drilling. You see the meters that we've done. We've done like almost 45,000 meters in Q2. So, yes, there'll be more results coming out. The reason we're a little bit behind is because we gave priority to the production samples than the exploration samples.

Okay, I get it. Thanks so much for all of that. I'll jump back in the queue.

Thank you for your questions and thank you very much for your support.

Our next question comes from Justin Chan with SCP Resource Finance.

Hi Benoit and hi team. Congratulations on the progress in the quarter. I was just curious maybe to get an update at where the plant is now because it was making steady improvements and thanks to Alex and the team for hosting us a couple months ago. where the oxygen plant is at, if that's a nameplate now. And I think recoveries were trending up associated with better oxygen performance. And as you mentioned, tons were getting above 3,000. I was just wondering if you could give us a snapshot now of what the plant performance is like.

Yeah, thanks, Justin.

Rafael came back from the plant to Montreal for the call. So he's here still wearing his working boots. So he can give you a very fresh, a summary of where we are right now.

So in July, we had a two-day shutdown during which we did some improvement. So recovery stands above 90% now for the last two months, and that's continuing around at 92. Throughput would be around 3,400, and we have days above that. But on average, we stand about 3,400. And yeah, availability is good. And we continue to test the limit. But right now, this is where we stand. The oxygen plant, the question is back to normal? Yeah, the oxygen plant is no longer a limiting factor in recovery. We fixed what had to be fixed. There's still tune-ups to do, but it's no longer a limiting factor for recovery, and that has been the case for the last three months now. And yeah, like I said, we stand around 92% recovery, and we are in excess of oxygen in our reactors.

Okay, excellent. No, that sounds like there's been really great progress on that side of things. And I know you have a healthy stock, Paul, but I suppose that will put some pressure on the mining side of things. I guess just curious where you see mining rates in Q3 and Q4 this year. Do you think you can match the processing rates or will that still be ramping up over that period of time?

Our mining ramp-up plan is through the year and as we discussed a bit earlier on this call, we need to make more room in the open pit, which we're doing. that our super pit progress is a project is doing well. So we will continue to ramp this up through the year. And of course, ultimately the target is to have the same mining rate as the milling rate.

Gotcha. Thanks. And maybe just the last one, Raf, when we were outside, you mentioned, you know, improvements on blast monitoring as part of the open pit improvements. Just curious, like what the timeline for that is and Well, that starts coming to the numbers this year also.

Well, we're putting in place a team. We have the software. We have the procedure. Now this is going to be a continuous improvement journey that we're putting in place for the second half of the year. So I would say Q3 is... the implementation and and and by q4 by q4 will be in place and we expect to see good results from that okay great uh thank you thanks a lot guys i'll um i'll free up the line for other people and and jump back in if there's any more thanks so much thanks justin our next question comes from don demarco with national bank thank you operator and good morning ben juan team

Congratulations on these improvements and recoveries and throughput on a quarter-by-quarter basis. But maybe I'll return to grades just to see if I can get a little more color. Where do you see the most opportunity, whether open pit or underground, both in terms of addressing dilution or also in terms of mine sequencing? Do you have any higher grade zones that you might be geared up for the second half of the year?

Yeah, thank you, Don. Of course, your question is right on. This is something that we manage. I looked in doing the review, because we do review this on a weekly basis with the team. I looked at the original budget that we approved. And our average grade in the ramp up for Q1, Q2 in our original budget was 155 gram per ton. That was the original budget that we had. So we were very clear on what needed to be done. And finally, the average grade for H1 or for Q1, Q2 is 151. So yes, we're a bit lower, but because we knew as of last year that the dilution was something that we needed to manage. Now, when we look at what we will be mining in Q3, Q4, it's between 180 to 200 gram per ton. So that's what's out there in the mine plan. So we know it's there. Now, we also know that we still, you know, have dilution issue, which, you know, about blast control on the open pit and reducing the dilution, which we're addressing. We're now using new software where we have hired new people to be with us because that's something we've realized is we just need more bench strength. because our learning curve was slower than what we wanted so we have hired bench strength we have more people we are mining in q3 q4 180 to 200 gram per ton July was already better we know that and you know because of the nature of the deposit we can go into some high-grade zone and that's your that's you know your question sequencing so we do have in the sequencing a better grade than Q1 and Q2. Q1 and Q2, knowing it was a ramp up. And again, you know, when you compare yourself, you see that finally our ramp up, we still made 15 million of cash flow in the ramp up in Q1, Q2. So we want to get into better grade in Q3, Q4, we are going into better grade, but we also absolutely need to reduce the dilution. And that's going to come in the open pit with, you know, better blast control and in the underground, which is just, you know, better geological control. We do have, you know, three by three spacing, drill spacing in the open pit. We cannot do that in the underground. but we are improving. We are improving, not where we want to be, but we are improving. And that's the last KPI of the five KPIs that we're managing in the ramp up. So we are mining in the mine plan 180 to 200 in the Q3, Q4 period. And for us to meet guidance, all we need is to be in the mid 160. So we are very comfortable with our guidance because we need 160. We're going to be mining 180 to 200. So we're quite comfortable.

Okay. Thank you very much. That's helpful. Well, we've got a catalyst later in the year with the Boumediene PEA. And I know you've considered a range of different processing options. So with the PEA, have you sort of made your decision? I know you've talked about a roaster at some point. So will you go with that method in the PEA? And also, will there be perhaps options presented that show what the economics might look like if you were to just sell the concentrate and not roast it?

The answer is yes, exactly that. We will have a two-step project, one with the concentrate, step one, Two with the roaster, step two. We indicated that last year that the roaster was ahead of the game on the others, and it's clearly coming out that way. So Ralf and his team are working on this. We've actually even this week started to work on the org chart of how many people we need to recruit to fast-track this project. So that's where we are. We're very happy with what we're seeing right now. We'll have something in Q4 available, but you're absolutely right. Step one, do a concentrate. See the economics of that. Step one, much lower capex, lower or easy OPEX, easy to build. It's about a logistic game. Step two, talk about the roaster, which we've always said would be done with you know, the state with a partner. That's becoming a very important project in the country, and that's something that is a step two. But, yeah, it will be part of the PEA.

Okay. Great. Well, thank you for that. That's all I've got. So thanks again, and good luck with the rest of the quarter.

Thanks, Don. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Charles Edieman with Scotiabank.

thank you for taking my question so i'm asking you on behalf of always and maybe i can just start from um i just wanted to be clear on the um the pa here so the expectation is that you'll be putting out the pa in q4 of this year yes yes if the question is paq4 this year the answer is absolutely q4 this year yes Okay, thank you. I guess my next question is just going to be on the mind grid, and I think there's a comment in the output that talks about targeted initiatives. Are you able to speak to some of that? Sorry if I missed that already.

I'm sorry. I didn't get the question precisely. What's your question?

So in the outlook section of the press release, you talked about targeted initiatives to strengthen mine grids as operations maintain a steady state. And I was asking if you could .

Yes, yes, yes. You want to, what kind of initiatives we have? Absolutely. So we, first initiative was stronger bench strength. So that was number one. is bring more people in that have underground or open pit expertise and just bring senior management that can support the operating team. So that, we've done that. Two, in the open pit, we're using software on blast control. We're using better definition. We're using, we have a contractor with whom we work closely There's a change of equipment as well. The contractor has purchased new trucks that have bigger capacity, more trucks. So for the preparation of the open pit so that we can have access to better benches. So that is being done as we speak. And in the underground, it's similar, you know, mining bench strength, better definition, more geologists, more mine production geologists so that we have a better planning of what is out there and compare that to execution. We were doing this, but we're now going to

increase the bench strength uh on the uh on the underground mining i don't know anything from what i just said that you you would add that to make us better open pit and underground yeah we also continue the underground development and we're sinking the ramp which will give us access to new always new levels in the open pit um the the blast movement we we know we know the blast movement is a big contributor to the evolution, and this is what we're tackling head on. And as we go down the pit, we also refine our understanding of the deposit, which will also contribute to help us out. So in a nutshell, I would say BLAST movement for open pit, underground, as we open new levels, we learn from the levels above, and we have a bit more manpower, especially on the geology,

uh for for mapping um on the ground all right thank you and just on exploration i i mean when could we expect um results from the regional exploration project i know you have talked about um the gunda and the modern exploration results coming soon but like the original um beat of it like when could we expect results

Yeah, thanks for the question.

So, exploration results, especially for what's regional, it really depends on what we hit. A lot of it is greenfield. And right now, as Benoit was mentioning before, we're putting priority to what was near mine. For Esgunde specifically, what was near mine and what's development. And so, regional, it really depends. But on Boumadzine, as Benoit mentioned, There's some interesting things that we've seen, and so those I would think is more back half of the year in terms of results from that.

But we will be putting out results on the drilling in September, October, on a regular basis because we're doing a lot of drilling, and so we'll keep you informed.

Thank you very much.

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1-1 on your touchtone phone. Our next question comes from Justin Chan with SCP Resource Finance.

Hi, guys. Thanks. Just a small one maybe for Ugo. You now have some income taxes built up on your payables. I'm just curious if there's any guidance you can give us about the schedule for tax payments this year.

Yeah, so tax payments in Morocco are a little bit different than in Canada. Our provisional accounts or taxes that we have to pay are based only on last year's numbers. And so we don't have to make provisional accounts based on expectations as we would in Canada, for example. And a lot of our taxes payable are derived from unrealized foreign exchange gains because our debts by our local company are in USD and the functional currency there is the Moroccan dirham and the Moroccan dirham is appreciated quite a bit compared to the USD. So we'll see how the end of the year ends and then a determination will be made or a calculation will be made at the end of the year and then we have to pay taxes kind of in the end of March, early April timeframe if taxes are payable.

Okay, gotcha. So I guess maybe for the rest of this year, should we just model that as you accrue taxes but don't pay them or just maybe model them as matching like what's accrued?

So we pay our provisional accounts as per what we had last year. And so we do pay taxes on a quarterly basis, but based on last year's results. And then if there's additional income tax, then right now we accrue them on our balance sheet and we show them as liability.

Okay, gotcha. All right. Thanks, Hugo. I appreciate it.

Yeah, that was my question for this one. Thanks very much, guys.

That concludes today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to Benoit Lassalle for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone, for being on the call today. Thank you for all the questions. I'd like to close in saying and coming back to the fact that we've already produced 10 million ounces of silver production from Zgounder. in the last five years. There's much, much more coming as we will present the new mine plan before the end of the year. I also would like to comment that due to the fact that we have a strong balance sheet, we can be very selective on how we sell the silver. We're never in any rush to sell and this week we were able to sell 100,000 ounces at 38.5 and kept 130 for a better price, and we also have 100,000 ounces delivery next Monday in Geneva. So we do have a very smart selling strategy, and that pays off. We always get a very good selling price. And as well, we did talk about new hires, but let me tell you that Aya is a very good name in country. It's a very well-recognized name. and we are bringing in some new senior managers at the mine level, which will be complement to the existing team, which will allow us to correct that last KPI that has been an issue. So this Gounder ramp up, it's six months, it's done at the plant, as Raphael said, consistently between 3,400, 3,500. even some little peaks above this. So with this kind of throughput, with an improving grade and strong recoveries, you can expect a very strong H2 coming. Focus is 100% on underground and open pit operation. This is the last KPI, and we are focusing on this on a daily basis, and we are fully committed to our production guidance. Boumadzine PEA, true question on it. It is a transformational PEA. As we all know, it's a multi-million ounce silver equivalent or gold equivalent. It's a tier one asset and it's staged for massive growth of our production profile and also growth in other structures that are in this portfolio in Boumadine, which, as you know, we have now over 700 square kilometers of land. So from that, we're heading into a very exciting time on exploration and resource growth. We have ongoing success at Gounder, you see the results. We have also ongoing success at Boumadine on the main structure. We will continue to drill and have a very extensive drill program. We are also looking next year at a larger drill program at Boumadzin than what we have this year because we will be heading into resource conversion from inferred to MNI and to reserves. So you can expect a very large drill program next year. And Boumadzine, it's a district scale project and there'll be also regional drilling at Boumadzine where we have some very, very strong anomalies that we need to drill. And we will continue to add ground at Gounder and Boumadzine. The fact that we were the first one in, what is referred as first mover advantage is absolutely true. and we keep adding ground at Gounder and at Boumediene. So very exciting time next year for exploration. Cash flow is continuing. We expect a stronger cash flow for HQ. Of course, we don't control the silver price, but assuming that it's constant, we expect a very strong cash flow position for the rest of the year. We are cash flow positive now, and we will continue to be in the next few quarters. Margin are expanding, throughput is stable, and recovery is strong. In our strategic positioning in Morocco, we are continuing to be focused exclusively on Morocco. We're looking at additional ground on default. There are some families that have good assets, good projects that are dormant. We always continue to review those and bring them in under the AYA name and under the AYA portfolio. And to close on cost, because we did talk about grade, grade has a direct effect on cost. And we looked at that very, very precisely. But I just want to also tell you that when we look at the team here and how they manage the Zgounder mine, when we looked at the cost per ounce, it's a certain amount, but we manage cost per ton, which is the cost of each ton that we move. In our budget, open pit and underground, we add $56 a ton. The actual for the first two quarters is 46. We are almost 20% below our budgeted cost. In processing, the budget was 31 and a half. The actual is 32. The difference is additional cyanide that was needed. So you see that the costs are very well managed. The plant's doing extremely well. There's one element. We need to reduce dilution. By reducing dilution, we will reduce cash costs, we will reduce ASIC, we will improve cash flow, and we will come back to where we want this project to be so that we can focus on developing and building Boumeddine in the next few years. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for being there and supporting us. And we will talk to you over the coming months and we will be together in November for the Q3 conference call. Thank you so much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.