Kinross Gold Corporation

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Kinross Gold second quarter 2026 results conference call and webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one in your telephone keypad. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to David Shaver, Executive Vice President. You may begin.

Thank you and good morning. In the room with us today on the call, we have Paul Rowlinson, CEO, and from the Kinross Senior Leadership Team, Andrea Freeborough, Claude Schimper, Will Dunford, Jeff Gold, and Bernard Zassels, our incoming Chief Operating Officer. For a complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties which may lead to actual results differing from estimates contained in our forward-looking information, Please refer to page 3 of this presentation, our news release dated July 29, 2026, the MD&A for the period ending June 30, 2026, and our most recently filed AIF, all of which are available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Thanks, David, and thank you all for joining us. This morning, I will discuss our second quarter results, provide high level updates from across our portfolio, comment on sustainability achievements, and confirm our outlook. I will then hand the call back over to the team to provide further details. Before we begin discussing the quarter, I would like to highlight some changes to our senior leadership team. I'm pleased to announce the appointment of Bernard Vessels as Chief Operating Officer, succeeding Claude Schemper, who will be retiring later this year. Claude has been an integral part of KidROS for more than 16 years, including the past five years on our senior leadership team and four years as COO. During his tenure, He has led our operations with a steadfast commitment to safety, operational excellence, and continuous improvement, helping to deliver meaningful and lasting benefits across the business. To ensure a seamless transition, Claude will remain with the company for a period of time, working closely with Bernard. On behalf of the board and the entire Kinross team, I would like to thank Claude for his outstanding leadership and many contributions to the company and wish him all the best in his retirement. Bernard brings more than 25 years of mining experience, having held increasing senior operational and leadership roles at Sabanier Stillwater, Harmony Gold, Anglo-American Platinum JV, and most recently, Newmont. We are excited to welcome Bernard to Kinross and look forward to leveraging his extensive operational leadership. Turning now to our second quarter results. Following a strong Q1, we delivered a strong Q2, establishing an excellent first half and positioning as well to achieve our four-year guidance. We continue to hold the line on costs and delivered strong operating margins. As a result, we delivered free cash flow of over $725 million in Q2 and over $1.5 billion in the first half of this year. Our business is in excellent shape and our pipeline of growth projects, including Great Bear and Lobo Marte continue to advance well. Our financial position and cash flow outlook remains excellent. And in Q2, we continue to return additional capital to our shareholders through both buybacks and our quarterly dividend in keeping with our target to return 40% of our free cash flow. In terms of operations, Q2 is another strong quarter with production of 492,000 ounces. Both Tassius and Pericatea were key contributors, together accounted for more than half of our production, driving significant free cash flow. With regards to our projects, we continue to make strong progress across the portfolio. In the US, the team continues to advance our three new high-quality projects at Phase X, Redbird, and Curley. At Great Bear, both the advanced exploration and the main project are progressing well. In terms of AEX, with the remaining permits in place, we recently completed the first blast of the exploration decline. And with respect to the main project, both detailed engineering and permitting are advancing well. We continue to work with the authorities as they progress their review of the impact statement. We also continue to engage with local stakeholders and indigenous partners through regular community meetings, ongoing collaboration, and transparent communication. Moving across to Chile, as a reminder, we submitted the Lobo Marte Environmental Impact Assessment in March. marking an all-important milestone and formally launching the permitting process. Subsequently, in May, we welcomed the newly elected President of Chile, President Kast, to our local offices in Copiapó. During his visit, he acknowledged Kinross' longstanding commitment to the Atacama region and declared his support for our development plans in the region, including our world-class project, Lobo Marte. We appreciate President Cass' support for the responsible operation and the development of our assets in the region. And last night, we announced an update on Lobo Marte, an excellent, high-quality asset in our portfolio with a strong production profile, low cost structure, and excellent economics. Will is going to elaborate on this later in the call. Turning now to sustainability. We published our annual sustainability report in the second quarter. This report provides a comprehensive update on our achievements and plans going forward. A key highlight for me was in Mauritania. In June, we delivered humanitarian support to remote farming communities facing food insecurity due to drought and rising transportation costs. Turning now to our outlook, following a strong first half, we remain on track to meet our full year production costs and capital guidance. As we highlighted last quarter, we continue to benefit from an attractive relative cost position supported by our disciplined approach to managing cost pressures through input cost hedging, productivity initiatives, and our great enhancement strategy. Looking ahead, we remain focused on continued operational execution Thank you all for joining us.