Calibre Mining Corp.

Good day and welcome to the Caliber Mining Corp Q1 2025 conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ryan King. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join the call this morning. Before we commence, I'd like to direct everyone to the forward-looking statements on slide 2. Our remarks and answers to your questions today may contain forward looking information about the company's future performance. Although management believes that our forward looking statements are based on fair and reasonable assumptions, actual results may turn out to be different from these forward looking statements. For a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties and factors which may lead to actual operating and financial results being different from the estimates contained in our forward looking statements, please refer to our first quarter and year-end MD&A and consolidated financial statements available on our website as well as on CDAR+. And finally, all figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. Present today with me on the call are Darren Hall, President and Chief Executive Officer, David Schumer, SVP and Chief Operating Officer, Daniela Dimitrov, SVP and Chief Financial Officer, and Tom Gallo, Senior Vice President Grove. We will be providing comments on our first quarter 2025 production and cost results and an update on the Valentine Goldmine, after which we will take questions. The slide deck we will be referencing is available on our website at calibremining.com under the events section. You can also click on the webcast to join the live presentation. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Darren.

Thanks, Ryan. Moving to slide three. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. I'd like to thank our employees and business partners for their continued commitment to quality performance, which was demonstrated by another quarter with no significant community issues, no material environmental events, and a lost time injury frequency rate of less than 0.65 events per million exposure hours. Before getting into the quarter, I would like to thank Calibis shareholders for approving the merger with Equinox Gold. Through an enhanced scale, a diversified asset base and new high quality Canadian production, this merger is well positioned to deliver greater value than either company could have achieved independently. I value the confidence you placed in the team and we remain committed to operational excellence and execution as we take this next strategic step in value creation. Q1 marked a strong start to the year, delivering 71,000 ounces of gold at below budget costs, positioning the company well to achieve the upper end of 2025 production guidance of 230,000 to 280,000 ounces before any production from Valentine. In addition to delivering Valentine, Atlantic Canada's largest gold mine, this year will be noteworthy for exploration with a 200,000 meter company-wide drilling program underway, the largest in Calibus history. We're excited about the recent discovery drilling at Valentine's Frank Zone, and continued success at Le Mans VTM Corridor, which both have the potential to meaningfully increase mineral resources. Moving to slide four and Valentine. I appreciate the efforts and dedication of the entire team in responsibly progressing Valentine as it enters its final stages of construction. However, it hasn't been without challenges, with first gold now expected by the end of Q3. The delay was due to lower than planned productivity and minus scope growth, which has resulted in a $110 million Canadian increase to the initial project capital since our October 2024 update of $744 million. Approximately 75% of the capital increase is attributable to the scheduled extension and 25% related to scope, growth and quantity. It is important to note that at the end of April, initial project capital remains fully funded with $280 million Canadian in cash and $101 million Canadian remaining to be incurred. Accommodation of factors, which can be simplified to lower than planned productivity, is the reason for the delay and resulting increase. Firstly, approximately 75% of the increase is related to labour and indirect costs associated with performance of our two primary contractors resulting in schedule slip. Our commitment to our provincial benefits agreements obligates a company to develop local partnerships and employ locally. While this has long-term benefits for the region and for Calibre as we move into operations, it has been problematic in completing specialised mechanical and electrical aspects of the build, which require specific skills for relatively short durations. Our commitment to the local benefits agreements and not firing off island required us to provide additional oversight and more critically training. This has been particularly evident where teams transitioned from what were traditional scopes, such as high voltage power line work to more complex industrial systems. This resulted in lower than planned productivity factors and therefore increased numbers which were not adequately reflected in our October estimates. The balance of the increase relates to unidentified scope items and incomplete design packages For example, scope growth occurred in small bore piping, electrical caving, and some instrumentation, all of which added time and cost. However, without the productivity issues, I believe the scope changes would have been adequately covered within the previously allowed contingency. To ensure we deliver our Q3 commitments, we have taken specific actions, not the least of including productivity factors, revised productivity factors into the schedule and timing and costs, but importantly, strengthened contractor oversight and embedded experienced personnel directly into critical scopes, and increased capacity within our owner's team, including the addition of Pierre Lagarde, a seasoned construction professional as project director, specifically focused on the process part to contract manage the final scopes of work. With mass construction materially complete, The focus is on final electrical, piping and instrumentation activities within the plant. The primary crusher has been commissioned with the core source stockpile building well underway and ready to receive material by the end of May. The revised timeline allows additional time for completion of critical system installations and delivery of efficient commissioning process which positions us well for a successful ramp-up and long-term strong operational performance. We've successfully completed balance high and minor mill staffing in preparation for commissioning and ramp-up activities. Importantly, key roles all have commissioning experience, which is critical to a smooth ramp-up and long-term performance. Commissioning activities are progressing well, including no-load motor runs and control system validations, All conveyors have been belted and ready for operation. The system is ready for water introduction to commence plant commissioning. The control room team is working through finalized control narratives and conducting phantom simulations to enhance confidence in proper plant sequencing. Preliminary testing indicates that all systems are communicating effectively with vendor-supplied control. Fallen sag mills and motors have been turned over to the commissioning team for start-up activities, and the primary crusher that has been commissioned is ready to crush and deliver rock to the core store stockpile, which we anticipate in the next month. Moving to slide six. While mining has specifically focused on delivering waste for construction, we have over 400,000 tonnes of mill ore stockpile, which will grow materially through the next quarter. These final steps position us well for safe and efficient transition to first-door and full operations. Moving to slide seven. With a vote in favor, Calibre and Equinox will merge to create Canada's second largest gold-producing company with a diversified Americas portfolio anchored by two high-quality and long-life Canadian gold mines. This strategic consolidation of companies will focus on operational excellence and execution generating greater shareholder value collectively than either company could have independently delivered. New Equinox Gold has the potential to produce over 1.2 million ounces of gold annually when the Greenstone Mine and Valentine Mine operating at capacity. This merger presents significant opportunities to unlock the value of the combined asset base, potentially leading to a substantial equity re-rating. I look forward to working with the combined team to continue our track record of superior execution and delivering on our commitments. With that, we're happy to take questions.

I'll pass it back to the operator.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster.

Again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. Okay, our first question comes from Ingrid Rico of Stiefel.

Go ahead, please.

Hi, good morning, Darren and team. Darren, I wanted to, you know, touch on the CapEx increase. And perhaps I know that guidance for operating costs and additional capital post first gold is going to be announced in Q3. But just, you know, to put some context on the additional CapEx and whether this is already capturing some of the capital that would be expected post-first gold. And if anything, just some indication of what that additional capital post-first gold could be for Valentine.

Thanks, Ingrid, and appreciate the support and the questions. If we look at this revised estimate, we're confident in this estimate. I mean, we've worked through The issues over the last quarter, you know, we provided the update in October, and it was in October we had made the changes that we had identified at the time, but we had failed to recognize the significance of the productivity factors associated with the local hire with respect to the construction team. That has been recognized, has been addressed, and over the last month or so we've worked through with unions, the vendors, the suppliers, and more importantly, the regulators and the community staff to get to a solution we feel comfortable in between now and the end of the quarter. As a consequence of that schedule delay, a lot of the costs that would have been in post-initial capital are now within the period because all of the majority of the spend in terms of operating folks, the camps, and those sort of things are now all captured and moved with that. So vicariously, we actually have a smaller period of post-initial capital pre-end of year. And as we get close to production at the end of the quarter, we'll come out and we'll provide guidance on production and the balance of the fourth quarter costs. But the work that we've done doesn't negatively impact forward-looking in terms of costs. And importantly, I mean, I'll just drill down a little bit on some of the productivity and people-related issues. You know, the learning process. over the last quarter as we've taken a higher level of direct control over management of the tasks is that we've got a group of people from local hires who we're converting from construction activities but not really related in the business we're doing to being able to perform the tasks, which will be great as we go forward because we're increasing the capability within the communities as we start to look forward to phase two, for example. But importantly is that because we're locally hiring from the communities, we've got good support. And an interesting stat is that we have 390 operating employees right now. And over the last 12 months, we've seen less than 3% turnover. So some of the issues that we see on the construction side, because of the short duration and specialised skills, are actually very favourable in the longer term.

So if that makes sense, or does it address your question, or is there something that you'd like more clarity on?

Yeah, no, that helps. And maybe just on the training and operational readiness, right? Given that you're talking about the productivity of contractors, how should we think about then that operational readiness and the productivity on the ramp up?

Yeah, no, thanks. And, you know, again, if we look at the team we've got in place, you know, we've Absolutely filled our management leadership down through the superintendents and supervisory levels through both the mind and the process. The additional time has given us additional time to be able to fill that first fill, if you will, of employees. But we've had a great team in place materially since April of last year. It gives them more time to work together, more time to develop and ensure we've filled any gaps and closed any gaps with respect to capabilities both within the management department the supervisors and the operators as well. It gives us more time for the pre-commissioning, commissioning activities. As you mentioned, the phantom testing of all of the components to be able to establish the right narrative in and around the process control logic and then drill down with ABB through to make sure that everything's talking to one another. You know, the guys are absolute and gals are absolutely ready to go. And, you know, I'm confident that that this will be as smooth as ramp up as you can possibly imagine, given the preparation we have, the simplicity of the plant and the quality of the people we have. So it's a little bit of a double-edged sword, but never let a crisis go to waste. And the additional time has provided us with even more time to be able to prepare ourselves for a smooth ramp up and setting ourselves up for what will be a successful 2026 and a long-term value creation asset.

I appreciate that. And I'll ask you the final one. And I know you've kind of made comments about this before on commercial production and how to define that, but just in terms of that timeline of kind of hitting that ramp up and steady state, are we thinking now sort of towards the end of this year to be at that sort of steady state ramped up stage?

Yeah, again, the, Again, so I don't have to over-promise and under-deliver. I would anticipate that we will be at nameplate in Q1 of 2026.

And confident in that.

Perfect. Thank you. That's all my questions. And we look forward to see that first roll from Valentine.

Yeah, no, appreciate it. And thanks for the support, Ingrid. And I appreciate your patience as we work through it. But, you know, again, I think we are building a quality asset with a long-term future. And we're making the right decisions, as painful as they are. But the decisions we make today are setting ourselves up for a long-term success and ensuring that, you know, we have great local support within the communities.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Darren Hall for any closing remarks.

Yeah, thank you, Operator.

I'd like to take a moment and thank all of our shareholders for their continued support and not least being the approval of the merger with Equinox Gold and everyone's participation and questions on the call this morning. As always, Ryan, I, and the entire leadership team are available. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. And, you know, we look forward to talking to you soon.

And take care. Be well. And back to you, operator.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.