Calibre Mining Corp.

Good morning and thank you for taking the time to join us this morning. Firstly, I would like to thank our employees and business partners for their continued commitment to safe and responsible operations. This commitment is demonstrated not only by a 20% reduction in our lost time injury frequency rate year over year, but delivering record production of 76,000 ounces in Q4 and 242,000 ounces for the full year, exceeding the upper end of our production guidance. This strong operating performance has continued into 2025 with consolidated production 15% of budget and cash increase 23% to $161 million as of mid-February. Additionally, Dave Schumer and the Nicaraguan team continue to identify operational efficiencies to drive further improvements in Nicaragua. The Valentine feasibility study forecasted an average of 195,000 ounces per year for the first 12 years. With the build-on budget and first build expected in Q2, I anticipate 2025 production to be between 50,000 to 100,000 ounces. This would be in addition to our pre-Valentine production guidance of 230,000 to 280,000 ounces. In addition to delivering Atlantic Canada's largest goldmine, 2025 will be a noteworthy year for exploration, with a 200,000-metre company-wide drilling program the largest in calibre's history. In particular, the exciting discovery drilling at Valentine's Frank Zone and El Limon's Vitam Gold Corridor have the potential to meaningfully increase our mineral resources. Moving to slide four and Valentine. During 2024, we attracted a very capable operating team at Valentine, which has considerable commissioning experience. who are working with Reliable Controls Corporation to oversee pre-commissioning and commissioning to ensure a seamless transition from construction to operations. Valentine Construction is on track with notable progress including the primary crusher is ahead of schedule and ready for commissioning, mill margins to be set within the week and substantively complete by month end, structural steel installation is at 91%, CIL tank piping on target for completion early March, Cable installation is set for completion in March. Reclaimed tunnel, steel and apron feeders are progressing and on track for commissioning in April. And finally, the ADR plant and gravity circuit are nearing mechanical completion and ready for turnover. We have made substantial progress on technical studies to increase Valentine's throughput in a Phase 2 expansion, while the feasibility envisaged an increase in throughput from 2.5 million tonnes per year to 4 million tonnes per year starting in 2029, we are now actively advancing plans to accelerate the timeline for scaling up production to an excess of 5 million tonnes per year. We have commenced program management activities and are on track to award detailed engineering in March with the intent of committing to long lead times before year end. Given the strong exploration upside of balance line, our approach positions us well for long-term growth and value creation. Turning to slide five, Ballantyne offers an impressive 5 million ounce resource base from which to grow both near mine and the numerous exploration opportunities which exist across the property. Oil control drilling has confirmed grade and added 29% more tonnes at the Leprechaun pit, resulting in a 30% increase in gold compared to the 2022 mineral reserve. Importantly, the grade distribution indicates that applying a higher cutoff will result in the potential to process higher grades material for longer. Similarly, oil control drilling at the Marathon Pit yielded 47% higher gold grades, resulting in 44% additional ounces over the 2022 middle reserve for the same tonnage. Discovery drilling at the Frank Zone, located one kilometre southwest of reported mineral resources continues to return significant broad intervals of gold mineralisation. Importantly, recent drilling has now traced mineralisation to surface, highlighting the potential for another open PIRP. Initial drill intercepts include 172 metres grading 2.4 grams, 2.12 grams over 95 metres, 2.26 grams over 78 metres and 3.08 grams over 48 metres. These new intercepts geologically align with or from the Marathon, Berry and Leprechaun open pits. While exploration of the Franks zone is still in its early stages, current data indicates that the zone remains open to the southwest and to the north and now has been traced for over a thousand metres along the strike into a depth of approximately 500 metres. Historically, drilling at Valentine is mainly focused on a small portion of the 32 kilometre Valentine Lake shear zone. This structure remains highly prospective for discovering additional gold resources and represents only a small fraction of the broader 250 square kilometre land package. Moving to slide six, with record gold prices, consistent operating performance, exciting exploration results and Valentine on track to deliver first gold in Q2, which will diversify our production profile and unlock peer leading production growth, I am confident that we will continue delivering superior value and provide a compelling re-rate opportunity for all shareholders. With that, we're happy to take questions. I'll now pass it back to the operator.

Yes, thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw it, please press star, then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. And the first question comes from Francisco Costanzo with Scotiabank.

Hi there. This is Francesco calling on behalf of Ove Sabib. Morning, Darren and team. I just want to start by saying congrats on the earnings beat this quarter. Maybe I'll start with the Valentine project. Darren, could you just reiterate briefly that sort of production outlook you gave for Valentine for this year?

Yeah, Francesco, thanks for joining the call this morning and your continued support. Yeah, if we look at Valentine, in the feasibility study, it had been foreshadowed for 195,000 ounces a year for the first 12 years of production. Given where we're looking to first gold in Q2 and we think of it as a ramp-up year, it's reasonable to expect that 50,000 to 100,000 ounces of production in 2025 is a reasonable place to start to create expectations around.

For sure. And so given that production outlook, when do you think that implies that you'd be reaching commercial production and then nameplate capacity at the mine?

Yeah, and I kind of stay away from terms like nameplate and commercial production because I find them as the cool, neat things that people refer to. But, you know, what our focus is this year is, you know, safely delivering the asset and then ramping up production to be at an annualized rate of around 2.5 million tonnes. by the end of the year. And if we want to call that nameplate, let's call it nameplate at 2.5 million tonnes. But I think as we've discussed before, the rate determining step in the current design is milling capacity. And the milling capacity, given the power studies we've done, has an implicit through rate of about 3 million tonnes a year. So, you know, again, at 2.5 million tonnes, we still see opportunity for growth beyond that. but we're targeting to be at 2.5 million tons by the end of the year.

Yeah, that's great. I think that's helpful. Maybe just on the planned mill expansion. So given that you're progressing detailed engineering for, you know, an expansion over the prior feasibility studies expansion, when do you think you would be looking to release a new technical report that could outline the costs and timeline associated with that?

No, and we've commenced the work this year to do the detailed engineering to get us to a more definitive estimate in terms of timelines and costs for that. You know, I think we'll be in a position around that July timeframe to make commitments into the next stage of work. But in terms of a technical report, you know, the next formal technical report would be after the end of this year. But I think that for Valentine as a whole, but in terms of being able to provide more clarity, I'd say it's in kind of late Q2, so maybe associated with our Q2 results.

Okay, thank you. And then I just want to ask one final question on the Sprott loan facility, given that it's almost fully drawn. Could you speak to what the best available options for refinancing that facility are and maybe when you would explore refinancing, if it would be at the next available opportunity or maybe later on, perhaps in 26, when you get to a point where you can refinance penalty-free?

Yeah, no, I'll pass over to Daniella for any kind of more granularity in around the Sprott facility, but You know, under the ARCA, we have the ability at the end of this year to refinance that facility. As we progress through this year, we'll investigate what our best structure is around balance sheet and how best to be able to use funds that are available to us. So, no, I think it's early to be able to commit to, you know, how we were to go about that. But I think that, you know, given our balance sheet strength, given our our production growth and the cash flow that we're going to see from our combined assets over the next couple of years. I think we're going to have a plethora of opportunities and choices in and around, you know, strengthening the balance sheet and looking at, you know, how best to position ourselves with that debt. I mean, Daniela, is there anything you'd like to offer?

That's exactly what I was going to say, Darren. We'll be – you know, there's certainly – available capital for us. And as we get into the second half, we'll be looking and balancing flexibility in the balance sheet, cost of capital, and the capital allocation to Phase 2. And one other comment around the Sprott debt, the debt was fully drawn in 2022. And the reason why you're seeing continued increases in that balance is because 75% of the interest gets capitalized to the loan quarterly until middle of this year, and that's when our payments start. So that loan is fully drawn. We've got $25 million remaining in our escrow account. We'll see that come out in the first quarter, and our payments will start in the second half of the year.

Yeah, I know that's helpful. I guess I should have said from the debt person's account. But, yeah, thanks very much for your answer.

Thanks, Francisco.

Thank you. And the next question comes from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, Darren and team. So, Darren, my first question is on Phase 2, and, you know, great to hear that work is advancing. We'll look forward to details on costs and so on. I'm just wondering, though, about is it contingent on, you know, any assumptions on a ramp-up of mining rates or perhaps exploration success in order to provide a bigger resource to sustain that higher throughput that you envision? Any call on that would be appreciated. Thank you.

Yeah, no, thanks, Tom. And again, it's, you know, without just sort of getting into a lot of detail around the feasibility study, it is important to note that within the feasibility study, because it was a bankable document that Marathon had put in place to be able to raise funding, it could only value 2P or their end reserves. And within that, there's 2.7 million ounces of reserves within a 5.1 million ounce So it's just a little bit over 50% of the metal was considered in that plan. So within that plan, it defined, I think it was a 14-year life. And within that life, it had actually built stockpiles early in life. When we look at that incremental capacity associated with phase two, all we've done to be able to substantiate it is actually to draw those stockpiles sooner. We haven't yet looked at the opportunities to accelerate mining, resequencing pits, not only with what's in the reserve, but also to include the material that's resourced because we won't need a bankable document per se. We can value resources and look at how that would contribute to the mine plan. So we see great opportunity to improve on the existing resource base without adding to resources from what we've seen from the Leprechaun infill drilling, from the extensions to the southwest, and now for the material discovery we see there at the Frankston.

Okay, that's helpful. And on mining rates, what's your projection for ramp-up of mining rates to be able to accommodate a higher throughput, perhaps a couple of years down the road?

I think that in part is part of that question. Is there an opportunity to be able to mine faster to be able to further improve the economics associated with that. And that's something we can look at. But what we saw was from the initial phase, to go from what was the original defined phase two, so from two and a half to four million tonne, to increase that to five plus, we saw a payback in less than a year from going from four to five. So mining rates can be flexed and we'll continue to see significant opportunity to substantially improve the economics associated with that expansion.

Okay, thank you. And final question, it's encouraging to see the recent drill results from the Frank zone. Could you walk us through, I recognize it's still early, but provide some timelines for your continued exploration plans there and when we might see something on the order of a technical report or to get some idea of a resource or technical report or other milestones?

Yeah, no, I'll make some comment and then pass it over to Tom to see if there's anything additional he would layer. But from a technical report perspective, I mean, we're in no great rush to put out a revised technical report. I mean, our focus at Valentine this year is to safely and responsibly deliver the product in parallel, run the detailed engineering on Phase 2 and continued exploration. And the focus for the exploration is less about converting resources to reserves or extensional drilling to existing resources, even though we see great upside for that. It's really about understanding, having a better understanding of what the scope is for Valentine as a whole. As I kind of alluded to, we've only touched a small portion of what is a highly prospective 250 square kilometre land package. And within that, with the Valentine Lake Shear Zone, which is a subset of that, we've only touched, you know, six to eight kilometres of the 32-kilometre shear zone. So I think, you know, what we're doing right now is getting our kind of hands around the tail of the beast in terms of what this is likely to look like as a generational asset as we discover, as we uncover the kind of the next, you know, mining camp. So, yeah, probably... avoided the question specifically in terms of timing of tech reports. But, you know, I don't think we'll see anything in the next 12 months. I mean, Tom, is there anything you want to layer on that?

Yeah, no, I would echo that, Darren. We're just in the process, Don, of really kind of getting our hands around what's going on with Frank. And we only spoke about Frank. We're also drilling in a couple of other areas. You know, if you look at Frank and its footprint right now, Darren talked about a kilometer greater than a kilometer. I mean, if you go from the true sort of corner of where it's been drilled at surface to the corner of the leprechaun pit, you're talking about a kilometer and a half. And if you look at leprechaun itself, mineralogically identical, leprechaun's about a 700-meter strike length, and it contains about 800,000 ounces in reserves. You guys can, you know, check my math in the background. But if you kind of look at what leprechaun is, at 800,000 ounces of reserve, you're looking at effectively double the strike length potential at Frank. Now, you know, I'm not saying that that's entirely mineralized, but that's kind of what we're looking to identify here. So, you know, to echo Darren, we would be pretty remiss to put out something from a technical report perspective until we've fully captured what we see to be the potential at Frank to the southwest. Also, Sprite to the northeast of Leprechaun, those who follow the story for a while may recall that There's a small inferred resource in and around Sprite, very tight to the Valentine Lake share. We're doing some exploration drilling in and around there to the northeast of Leprechaun, and we'll hopefully be able to update the market soon with some interesting visual results that we've seen waiting for assays. But you're starting to talk about, you know, meaningfully expanding that mineralized footprint just in the southwest corner of the property, let alone further afield. So I'd echo Darren and say I wouldn't expect a technical report in the next 12 months, if we can, you know, appropriately capture what we view to be the potential at Frank, then we'd start to look at incorporating that in a new resource reserve update, which would capture some of the stuff from Phase 2 as well.

Okay, great. Thank you. That's all for me. Good luck with Q1.

Thanks, Tom. Thank you. And the next question comes out from Venton Financial.

Hi, good morning, everyone. Just a couple questions for me. First, just on Nicaragua, this is kind of a multi-party one here. Do you expect there to be any sort of seasonality with production from that unit this year? And then also, your comments and your press release about production being 15% higher year to date, is that, you know, grades or tons driven? And I'm just trying to get a sense of, you know, how sustainable is that? I mean, your guidance for the year is 200 to 250,000 ounces for Nicaragua. kind of a wide range. I'm just trying to narrow that down a bit.

Yeah. Hi, Alex, and thanks for the questions. From a seasonality perspective, the production this year is not driven from those impacts. There are no seasonal variations we see in production forecasting. You know, what we are seeing is a very favourable start to the year from a productivity and performance perspective, which manifests itself both in tonnes and in grade, primarily from Limon, which is processed at Limon and Libertad. No, we're confident in our provided guidance range of, you know, 230 to 280 for the full year. I think it was as much as anything to be able to foreshadow that, You know, we had a strong finish to 2024, and that's continuing into 2025. And as we progress through the year, we'll provide updates as reasonable.

Okay, and that's good to hear. The second question, just on the financial side, your cash went up $30 million since year end. You know, I guess it's a little bit surprising, given you're still in the build phase and you have got some spending still left on Valentine. But I'm guessing or wondering that that bump in cash, is that really just more a timing of spending and maybe some adjustments on the working capital front?

Yeah, I think in simple terms, I think it is. I mean, again, there's a number of things that happen during the quarter, but it's not reflective of spend per se. This is more just to highlight the strength of the financial position we're in. and that Calibre is well positioned to fully fund the initial project capital at Ballantyne. Yeah. And again, we are seeing a buoyant metal crisis, which everyone's participating in at this point as well, which is nice.

Yes, those are definitely helping. Yeah, for sure, bud. Yeah, for me, thanks.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. And if there are no more questions, I would like to turn the floor to Darren Hall for any closing comments.

Thank you, Operator. I'd just like to thank all our shareholders for their continued support and everyone's participation on the call this morning and questions. As always, Ryan and I and the leadership team are available if you have any further questions. And at that point, take care, be well, and have a great day. Back to you, Operator. Thank you.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. May now disconnect your lines.