Perseus Mining Limited

Good morning and welcome to the Perseus Mining investor webinar and conference call. All attendees are in a listen-only mode. If you would like to ask a question directly to the company, please use the raise hand function within Zoom. I'll now hand over to Perseus Mining Managing Director and CEO, Craig Jones. Thank you, Craig.

Thanks, Nathan, and welcome to the Perseus Mining quarterly webinar to discuss our March 2026 quarter report. and I'm joined on the call today by our Chief Financial Officer, Leander Broome. It was a good quarter for Perseus, and looking at our operating performance for the quarter, we produced 107,000 ounces of gold, which was up 18,000 ounces on the December quarter, and the higher production was achieved from all three of our operating lines. The weighted average oil in site cost was US$1,748 per ounce, which was lower than the previous quarter of US$1,800 per ounce, and that's mainly due to the higher production. And we achieved a realised gold sale price of US$4,143 an ounce, which was US$706 an ounce more than the previous quarter. Our average cash margin for the quarter was US$2,394 per ounce, and that gave us a national operating cash flow of US$252 million from all of the operations. And we finished the quarter with US$817 million of net cash and bullion. And Leanne will speak to that later on in the call. Before starting. Given the current global market situation, I just want to address the diesel situation. We acknowledge the fuel supply uncertainty globally at the moment, and we continue to closely monitor our fuel supply availability, our consumption levels and our inventory positions to mitigate the risk of operational disruption in the short to medium term. We have fuel supply contracts with reputable fuel suppliers who provide us regular updates regarding our fuel stock levels and broader supply chain conditions. And at this stage, we don't have any foreseeable fuel restrictions. In terms of cost, diesel is approximately 10% of our group's all-in-site costs. So if we see sustained higher diesel costs, there may be some limited impact on our cost base. The quarter, we made some important changes to our portfolio. Firstly, at our Nianzaga project, our drilling program enabled us to deliver an updated ore reserve, which increased our ore reserve by 73% to 4 million ounces of gold since the Nianzaga feasibility study was completed in April 2025. And that increase is underpinned by 83,000 metres of drilling that was completed since May 24th. The increased ore reserve has extended Neonsaga's mine life to 16 years from 11, including 14 years of production at greater than 200,000 ounces of gold per atom. In terms of the project itself, there's been good progress at site and during the quarter, and it remains on track for first gold in January 2027. In another development last month, we announced our decision to sell our 70% interest in the Myers Sand Gold project in Sudan and this followed a lengthy review of the project and consideration of both development and divestment options. We decided that divestment of the project was the best option for Perseus and it allows us to reallocate internal resources to existing internal development opportunities and that transaction was completed yesterday and all funds have been received. We also made an investment of 23.7 million Australian dollars in Gold Explorer Aurum resources. We participated in Aurum's recent strategic share placement, taking a 9.9% interest in the issued shares of the company. Aurum is an emerging ASX-listed explorer with their key asset being the Bundali Gold Project, which is a 3 million ounce pre-development and pre-study project in Cote d'Ivoire. and is located to the south and just along the strike of our Susindi gold mine and processing hub. And the northernmost tenements are adjacent to the company's current active mining area at Bagway. At Yare, we achieved a strong quarter with increased gold production and notional cash flow. Overall gold production for the Yare Open Pit and CMA Underground was 36,000 ounces of gold at an all-in-site cost of US$2,049 per ounce. A key milestone for our CMA Underground development at Yarra was achieved in January with first ore coming from the Bleeker Portal and 1,600 ounces of gold has been produced from the CMA Underground during the quarter. Yarra produced US$68 million of national cash flow during the quarter. So the underground is making great progress and we'll commence scoping operations early in this quarter that we're in now. For Edican, we produced 45,000 ounces of gold at a northern site cost of $1,539 per ounce. And whilst our AISC was stable for the quarter, the government of Ghana has implemented a new royalty regime that came into effect in early March, introducing a sliding scale structure. And under this framework, Royalty rates increased progressively in line with rising gold prices and are capped at a maximum of 12% when the gold price exceeds $4,500 per ounce. Some of the increase in royalty will be offset or has been offset by reductions in other levies. So the growth and sustainability levy rate was reduced from 3% down to 1% of gross revenue. and this was implemented at the end of March, and a 6% levy on the supply of goods and services has also been removed, providing some relief. Etican produced a national cash flow of $124 million for the quarter, and notably the Fetish and Aswaja North pit cutbacks made progress during the quarter with approvals being received by the government, and mining has commenced at Fetish early in quarter four. Our Sasingi operation saw production increase with the ramp-up of the Bagway Antoinette deposit and associated increasing grade and tonnes milled. The complex produced 25,000 ounces of gold during the quarter at a weighted average cost of, ball-in-site cost of $1,708 per ounce. Production cost decreased by about 20% and that was... These are the higher proportions of the oxide material that's being mined at the Bagway deposit. The national cash flows generated by the complex for the quarter was $60 million compared with $25 million last quarter. So overall it was a very good quarter for Sasingi. Looking ahead, we remain on track to deliver our FY26 production and cost guidance with goal production between 400 and 440,000 ounces and all in-site costs between $1,600 and $1,760 per ounce. So I think now I'll hold it. I'll hand over to Leanne and she can talk to the financial aspects of our

Thanks, Craig. As Craig alluded to, the strong operational performance from our three sites and with our dedicated teams has delivered a solid financial quarter, assisted by our increased exposure to the gold price upside with the hedge book being rolled off. This has allowed for continued delivery against our stated capital management objectives. As Craig said earlier, we ended the quarter with... Cash and bullion of $817 million, which was up $62 million on the last quarter. And this is despite our strong investments in our growth projects in the Anzaga, CMA Underground, and ongoing exploration. Purchase and liquidity is growing and is sitting at $1.2 billion, and this includes a $400 million undrawn debt facility that was secured in December 25. Importantly, this number of $1.2 billion excludes our $245 million of liquid investment in relation to Predictive Discovery and Aurum, and excludes the $260 million that we received in April in relation to the May Sam Gold Project. During the quarter, Percy's Board also then approved a $0.05 per share interim dividend, equating to $46 million. So this is up 100% on the prior year period, interim period last year. Where available, trading opportunities existed. We continue to execute our buyback in the market. Our share buyback program has hit a total of $26 million in the quarter at an average price of $5.39. And as mentioned earlier, we continue to wind down our committed hedge resistance during the quarter with a further reduction from 11% to 9% of the three-year full-cost production. The increase in cash and bullion to $800 million gives consideration to the operational cash flow of $217 million that we delivered from our operations. Capital investment in our growth project. It was $63 million in the quarter invested in progressing the Lanzardo growth project or gold project. We then had $18.6 million invested in the development of the CMA underground. Exploration drilling at all of our assets. created to $8 million, and there was ongoing sustaining capital included in numerous TSF works across all three of our sites. We purchased a 9.9% share in Aurum for $24 million. And importantly, we continued contributions to our host countries with $42 million in corporate and other taxes being paid. We also then returned, as you can see, and I mentioned earlier, we returned to our shareholders $64 million, which included the interim dividend pay and $26 million on the share buyback. I'll just flag this to show that we, you know, tracking the all-inside costs that we always track versus the all-inside standing metric, which the World Gold Council reports on. And the key differences here is really the produce versus sold metric that we use as the denominator. And then we had an accumulation of inventory movements, which was largely inventory build-ups at Yare, with increased mining and building up of stockpiles, and in addition, a small impact as a result of a shift in timing at the same year. With that, I'll hand back to Craig to talk about our growth projects.

Thank you, Leanne, and a great set of financial results as well for the quarter. So, the Nyanzaga gold project, as I mentioned earlier, remains on budget and schedule with first gold anticipated in January 2027. Overall, the project progress has reached 48% complete by the end of the quarter and the total cost incurred to date is $220 million. As of the 31st of March, the project recorded over 5.4 million hours worked with no lost time injuries and the workforce has increased to more than 3,162 personnel and continues to ramp up in line with construction activity. Significant progress was made over the period on all major procurement associated with the project. So all major procurement is associated with process plan is complete. The fabrication of the mills, the directory crusher and the thicknesses have been completed and are in transit to site. Structural steel fabrication has reached 78% completion and progressive site deliveries are underway. The TSF construction has commenced and is ahead of schedule. The pre-strip mining activities have commenced. The carbon-enleached tanks installation is ongoing with the first four tanks nearing their full strike height. and the non-process infrastructure is also progressing well. So I look forward to continuing to provide more updates on this transformation project over the coming months. Head to the next slide. The CMA underground project at Yarra is also progressing well. As mentioned earlier, we had our first ore mine out of the Bleecker portal in January, paving the way for production from the first stove, which will be early in the June quarter. At the end of the March quarter, nearly 1,600 metres of lateral development had been achieved and the high-voltage electrical power supply to the underground portals was also completed. So the project is making great progress. We've spent around US$63 million and the stoping ore which is coming out this quarter is an important fee for the RA mill. And from a sustainability perspective, we've had a strong focus on vehicles and driving across the business with the implementation of a number of key initiatives, including a review of our vehicle and driving standards, delivering defensive driver training and progressive installation of vehicle and driver monitoring systems. And this effort reflects the reality that Vehicles associated with mining and particularly remote operation remains our highest safety risk. So very key and very important focus for the business at the moment from a safety perspective. Our safety indicators remain strong with a TRIFR of 0.75. But as I've said before, our statistics only tell part of the story. The true safety performance is measured in human outcomes and we continue to drive ongoing safety improvements across our business. In terms of our economic contributions in the countries that we operate, our total economic contribution for the quarter was $282 million including $179 million in local procurement, $91 million in taxes and royalties and $1.3 million in direct community contributions. And we maintain about 95% of our workforce coming from the host countries from which we operate, which really does reflect a genuine commitment to building local capability, just not for operations today, but for our future great opportunities as well. So this was a great quarter for Perseus. We delivered a strong operating performance and continued to build on our cash position whilst making meaningful progress on our strategic growth projects. We made some significant portfolio improvements and all whilst maintaining high sustainability standards. So with a strong balance sheet, high margin operations and a clear growth path, we believe we're well positioned to continue to deliver strong long-term values for our shareholders. So thank you and I'll now open the floor up to questions.

Thank you. If you would like to ask your question directly to the company, please use the raise hand function within Zoom. Your first question comes from Richard Knight at Baron Joey. Please go ahead, Richard.

Hi, Craig Leanne. Thanks for the call. Just a couple of cost questions to start with. Firstly, you mentioned that 10% of the all-inside cost was diesel. Is that an average over the past quarter or is that using current spot prices? Just trying to get a feel for where that sits.

Yeah, so that would have been in our average for the financial year and it would have been with spot prices probably in about February.

Okay, and what are spot prices, what do they look like now relative to February?

It's slightly different for all the jurisdictions, which is hard to say. So, for example, Kosovo is extremely regulated, so we're not seeing the massive increases. But, you know, for example, in Ghana, which is slightly less regulated, we are sort of seeing the roll-on of the spot effects there. So we're seeing sort of, you know, similar to what you're seeing in the Australian market in Ghana, where prices are going up probably, you know, 50%. Got it.

Got it. Okay. Okay. Okay, fine. And in terms of procurement, I think you mentioned that you've finalized everything's been procured, basically. But is there any scope for cost escalation there? Or is that pretty much complete now?

I think if you look at what we've spent and committed, we're, I think, roughly 60-something percent of the project's committed. Yeah, correct. So all the major items are covered. So the short answer is we think it's manageable. We're running through kind of all our definitive estimate work at the moment. We'll obviously update the market when that's completed, but we're not seeing anything at this point in time that's giving us any concern.

Yeah, nothing material. I mean, a large amount of our procurement was contracted and secured last year. So, you know, I'm not going to see a listing on some major material items.

Yeah. Okay. Great. Thanks. And finally, just on Aurum, I mean, I know you're limited in what you can say, but there's obviously some proximity to Syngo there at a high level. Do you see this as a sort of interesting standalone opportunity or is there potentially some synergy there with Shingi coming to the end of this fine line?

Potentially. I think if you look at Aurum and, you know, they were running a placement in which we chose to participate in, I think it's a strategic investment on our behalf. I think that, you know, as I said before, some of those northern tenements are in the nearby to where we're currently mining at Bagway. But also, you know, Kagan and the team are doing a great job of the exploration there and we were keen to support that and see where things take us at this stage. It's really just a strategic investment. Yep. Okay, great. Thanks very much. Thanks, Richard.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Adam Baker at Macquarie. Thank you.

Hi, Garth, can you hear me? Yes, sir. Yeah, cool. Thanks, Greg. Thanks, Leanne. Just firstly, maybe on MSN, pretty good outcome there, $260 million for the sale of that project. You know, and the valuation seems to be above what market expectations were. So just flagging, is there any use for the cash here? Like, have you given any consideration for further shareholder returns for a special dividend or whatnot, or are you just going to bank the cash at this stage?

We'll consider all that, I think, you know, as we come towards the end of the year and we start talking about dividends and make decisions on what we're going to pay as a dividend this year. Obviously, it all contributes to our cash position and contributes to that conversation, but no decisions have been made at this point in time.

Yeah, okay. And secondly, actually, just the difference between sales and production, was this just a timing issue or, you know, can you just touch on the difference there? Yeah, it's just the shipping timing difference, that's all, Adam. Okay. Yeah. And then thirdly, just on the fuel supply situation, I mean, you mentioned that, you know, you've got contracts with all the major suppliers. You're not seeing impacts at the moment from a supplier point of view. Could you just maybe talk to, you know, what sort of inventories you generally tend to store on site, how many weeks of fuel supply that you have there? And, you know, you mentioned you're not seeing impacts, so I guess, you know, for all our Yeah, sure.

So, we generally have between one to two weeks of fuel on site for all of our sites. I think just stepping back from the supply issue, the supply issue for us is slightly different to your Australian mind because a lot of this fuel is sourced out of Nigeria and Liberia and Coast of Wales specifically has its own refineries. So that said, we are continually looking at whether there's opportunity for, I think, our stock levels. In Ghana, we've got a long-standing relationship with Ben Fuel and they have got large quantums of fuel actually in Ghana that they stock up for, just their mining companies. You know, we continue to manage the risk and then looking at it, but, you know, all the work we've done in the last couple of weeks doesn't indicate anything around the supply issue. It's more just, you know, looking at the pricing issue. But we will continue to monitor that on an ongoing basis.

Cool. Thanks very much for talking about that.

Thank you. The next question is from David Radcliffe. Global Mining Research. I'll just read it out for David. He's asked for, at Yayori specifically, can you provide some expectations for this quarter? And also if the guidance includes the CMA pre-commercial ounces or not.

The guidance for the quarter is that we remain within the guidance range that we have published. And as we mentioned in the last quarterly report, the lower half of that guidance. So that remains. And yes, the CMA underground ounces are an important part of that production for the final quarter.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, so I'll now hand back to Craig for closing remarks.

Okay. Well, thanks, Nathan, and thanks, everyone, for your participation and interest. I really just want to make a call out to the great people that create the results that we presented today. Perseus has a dedicated team of people across the globe, and they show up every day and live the Perseus values of teamwork, integrity, commitment, and achievement. And I just want to thank them all for their contributions, and thank you for your attendance.