Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.

Good morning. Welcome to Wisdom Goldmine's conference call to discuss the company's financial and operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Your host for today is Trish Morin, Wisdom's Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Morin, please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I'd like to point out that during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements as defined under Canadian securities law. I ask that you view our slide presentation for cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements and the risk factors pertaining to these statements. Please note that all figures discussed on this call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. Our press release, MD&A, and financial statements are available both on CDAR Plus and on our website, westome.com. With us on today's call and webcast is Antje Ba, Westome's President and CEO, Guy Ballou, our Chief Operating Officer, Jonah Lawrence, our Senior Vice President, Exploration, and Raj Gill, our Interim Chief Financial Officer, as well as Kevin Lonergan, SVP Technical Services. Following management's formal remarks, we will then open the call to questions. And now over to Anthea.

Thank you, Trish. Good morning, everyone. As we move past the halfway point of 2025, one thing is clear. Western has made significant strides over the last two years. We've delivered consistent sequential improvements in both operational and financial performance, culminating in record results across several key metrics for the quarter and the first half of the year. At the consolidated level, Westone is effectively executing its strategy, shifting from a short-term, just-in-time approach to one that is focused on building long-term, sustainable value. That said, while our financial performance here to date has been strong, we are updating our guidance to reflect Eagle River's excellent performance and the challenges are keener. At Eagle River, the past 12 months have marked the start of a multi-year turnaround. While there's still much to do, we've seen vast improvements in safety, increases in production, and decreasing costs. As demonstrated again this quarter, Eagle River continues to deliver strong results. This is due to good performance against our plans, compliance to our sequence, and improved dilution. Given performance to date, we are raising production guidance, increasing the top end to 115,000 ounces, and tightening the grade guidance to between 14 and 15 grams per ton. All in sustaining cost per ounce are expected to improve, benefiting from ongoing cost optimization initiatives. Whilst Eagle River is training upward, Kina has fallen slightly behind. Kina's challenges in the second quarter were largely a continuation of existing issues. Equipment availability challenges impacting our plan sequence, accentuated by our reliance on a single mining horizon. This dependency limits operational flexibility and heightens our risk. When you're mining just three to five strokes per month, under or over performance in just one stroke can have a significant impact. We've consistently highlighted the importance of operation, of improving our operational flexibility, which is why since the mid 2023 timeline, nearly every major initiative at KINA has been aimed at unlocking operational agility. As a result, KEEN has undertaken a number of significant and important projects, many of which will be completed by the end of this year. These include the tripling of the number of active mining zones, doubling of our development meters year on year, developing an exploration ramp, which allows us a second material movement access as well, which completely unlocks our material movement in the mine, freeing up shaft capacity by 50%, rehabilitating our 33-level drift, allowing us access to the upper sections of the mine, adding 10 to 15 neutral platforms underground, as well as increasing our ventilation by 100% at Kina Deeps in 2026. There's a lot going on at Kina. The breadth and the pace of these initiatives represents a very deliberate and strategic investment in Kina's long-term value creation. The team's ability to simultaneously ramp up, de-risk, and expand operational flexibility while maintaining active mining and development is a notable achievement. This mine at a fundamental level is incredibly strong and its future is taking shape. However, in hindsight, our higher risk tolerance may have been warranted given the scope and the complexity of the work underway. As we noted in our Q2 production release in mid-July, Kina has been pacing at or just below the lower end of guidance. While we have a mid-year forecast indicating that Kina can still meet the lower end of its original production range, we believe it'd be prudent to revise guidance to reflect inherent risk in the plan. We're now targeting 80,000 to 90,000 ounces in 2025 with the corresponding increase in costs. We have indicated up to 10,000 ounces from Preskill. If you take the average of the last five quarters, which is between 20 and 21,000 ounces, you can see we can get there. There's also obviously additional grade and development coming from peanut deets, which adds to this and helps us get to the numbers, which makes it very sensible. Over the past 18 months, the block model has reconciled extremely well. We remain confident in the Kinoor body, and the team continues to prove that they can mine this extremely well, which is the most important thing personally for me. We have a multifaceted program in place to deliver on this revised guidance, which includes an integrated action plan, short interval controls to track our performance and to quickly course correct. And we've added more resources, which helps us increase our redundancy As well, the lower grade ore for Preskill is set to be processed in the second half of this year. As mentioned, we expect this to produce up to 10,000 ounces from what is the first near-surface zone accessed via this new exploration ramp. Each of these critical steps is aimed at securing the second half of the year and building for the future, enabling a more efficient, predictable execution and building a solid foundation for more consistent performance. On a consolidated basis, with the increase at Eagle River largely offsetting the short for Akina, we expect to remain around the midpoint of our original production guidance for the year, albeit at higher costs. With respect to investment, the increment of $30 million is mostly due to increasing growth capital Akina, which is well spent. The change reflects a redesign of the ventilation infrastructure because we have a larger ore body relative to the original design. as well as the capital to accelerate this development and to extend the footprint of this larger Preskill zone to a deeper level. This will establish an additional mining front, giving us much more flexibility as Preskill gears up for future growth. No changes have been made to our 2026 guidance. The second quarter was a strategically important one for Westrome, one that showcased our discipline, our focus, and our ability to pursue the right opportunities for long-term growth. In June, we closed the acquisition of Angus Gold, a move that contributed our land position in Eagle River to 400 square kilometres. With the acquisition of Angus, we've inherited more than 40,000 metres of drilling, plus a rich data set of geological information. We've now consolidated a highly prospective land package around Eagle River, and we've added top-tier exploration targets that directly support our full-demol strategy. During the quarter, we also amended and upsized our revolving credit facility. Financial housekeeping, as the previous one was maturing, we took advantage of this opportunity and increased the facility to $250 million and locked in more favorable terms. With over $500 million in total liquidity, we strengthened our financial position, giving us the runway to balance strategic growth with returning capital to our shareholders. Let's look ahead at what's coming down the pipe that could drive the next phase of value for Western. Exploration is central to our future, and this year we're investing up to $50 million to unlock that potential. We are on track to release an Eagle River update this month and follow up with additional results from both sites later in the fall. At Eagle River, work on the updated global resource model is advancing well. Our intensive drilling program is aimed at maximizing our resource QAQC with the goal of delivering a technical report that more accurately reflects the full potential and the intrinsic value of this asset. We've set a drilling cut-off date of December 31st this year. Therefore, we'll update our minimum reserve and mineral resource estimates when we publish the results of our updated technical reports in June next year. At KINA, the upfront technical report work is centered on cost optimization, near-surface opportunities along 33 level, and a full review of mine design and mining methods. Different approaches at each month, but the goal is the same, to show the potential of each asset and to unlock this long-term value. There's a lot of foundational work ahead of us as we move both Tukunga reports forward. And as always, we'll keep you informed every step of the way. Now over to Guy.

Thank you, Anthea. Good morning, everyone. Let's move to slide nine and review operational performance. Igor, where were I? ounces in Q2, a year-over-year increase of 33%. Head grade of 16.9 gram per ton in Q2 was above the high end of guidance. This year's strong grade profile reflects continued high grade contribution from the 300 and 720 falcon zones and improved grade reconciliation and dilution controls. Importantly, performance year to date reflects disciplined execution, not opportunistic rate chasing. Sequencing remains fully aligned with our 2025 plan and your body is reconciling well. The team at Eagle River has been advancing new mining fronts to strengthen flexibility and drive more predictable performance. With the inclusion of the global model, we expect to increase from three to four zones to between five and seven zones in the next two years. In the 300 zone, development is now almost a full year ahead of production, reducing risk and supporting stronger execution. We've spoken before about the Conscious Improvement Program at Eagle River, and I'm pleased to report that it is starting to deliver measurable results. For both the second quarter and the first half of 2025, cost of sales, cash costs, and all in sustaining cost per ounce of gold sold each decline year over year. We're targeting up to 4 million in annualized savings in 2025 from several areas, including improved maintenance enabled by our new surface workshop opening in September, and more integrated planning across the mine and mill. We're aligning the best practices and it's paying off. This is just the start. We expect to deliver meaningful long-term cost reductions as we shift from contractor-led to owner-operated activities. A near-term example is surface ore haulage. With new trucks arriving and our team ramping up this month, we're transitioning away from contractors. Underground, we're doing the same. Since late 2024, we've been steadily bringing development work in-house. This year, over half of the development meters are being completed by Eagle River crews. We're also making targeted infrastructure investment to boost surface efficiency and strengthen long-term reliability, all aligned with the mine's risk profile. During an 18-day shutdown in May and June, we completed several major upgrades, including replacing the feed end trunnion gear on the primary ball mill, swapping out the gear set on the secondary ball mill, and completing other plant maintenance. These enhancements were done to improve mill availability and throughput, and to ensure long-term reliability as we work to achieve our fill-the-mill strategy. I am pleased to report that the mill was safely restarted on schedule and has been running steadily ever since. In July, we averaged nearly 900 tons per day, a 50% increase over the 2024 average. Mining did not stop while the mill was being upgraded. We focused our efforts on strategically building up the ore stockpile, which allows us to blend materials and maintain a more stable mill feed. Due to the length of the plant shutdown, Quality mill throughput declined by 7% year over year, which is why the year-to-date numbers are directionally more accurate. Mill performance in the first half of 2025 was up 4%, thanks to the initiative to increase drill and develop inventory that are starting to deliver results. Since mid-2024, Eagle River has been undergoing a disciplined transformation, and we're now seeing those efforts deliver real results. There is still much more work to do. However, the changes to date are laying the groundwork for improved future performance. Building on a strong first half, Eagle River is well positioned to sustain its momentum and continue delivering value in the second half. Our appreciation goes out to our Northern Ontario team. Their focus, execution, and commitment are driving a successful turnaround and positioning Eagle River for continued success. Turning now to slide 10. With delivery and execution falling below expectation at KINA, our focus is on clear, actionable priorities to drive performance. First, we're taking definitive actions to secure strong second app production and meet revised guidance. Second, we're rapidly advancing several critical initiatives to enhance operational flexibility and unlock future value. I'll come back to each of these important priorities shortly, but first, let's take a quick look at Q2 performance. KINA delivered approximately 7,200 ounces in the second quarter, bringing year-to-date production to nearly 34,000 ounces. Q2 was slightly ahead of Q1, but down 31% compared to Q2 last year. Grade averaged 10.7 gram per tonne, in line with Q1, but was lower than the 13.5 gram per ton we achieved in Q2 2024. Q2's dip in production and grade came down to two key issues. Ongoing equipment availability challenges that constrain access to several planned high-grade stoves, which have been deferred, and one high-grade stove underperformed due to limited delineation. To compensate for the shortfall, the team mined some lower-grade, previously caved stoves that were stable to re-enter and recover ore. We are pursuing several key initiatives that give us confidence in our ability to deliver stronger production in the second half of the year. First, we must maintain the mining sequence, which is a function of planning, and ensure people and machinery availability. Mining from a single front has underscored just how crucial it is to maintain the mining sequence and success hinges on resources being reliable and available. The maintenance challenge experience this year is multilayered. So let me break down the steps we've taken. Since the end of Q1, we've acted decisively to align our maintenance practices with KINA's deep current risk profile. This means bringing more people to critical areas and building redundancy. We've optimized shift schedule to ensure full round-the-clock maintenance coverage. We're building staffing redundancy to support continuous operation. We've reopened an additional maintenance workshop on the ground and increase bay availability. Several new machines were purchased, which will be redeployed to Presqu'ile and other zones once their support is no longer required in Kina Beach. Rental equipment has also been brought in to strengthen our fleet and reduce the downtime risk. And we're increasing our spare parts inventory to properly reflect Kina's risk profile and have secured supplier partnerships to ensure timely access to major long-lead components. To top things off, we have implemented a strict set of critical controls to provide better assurance going forward. Importantly, several of the high-grade stoves deferred in Q2 are now scheduled for mining in the second half of the year. The balance will be accessed in 2026 once our initiatives to enhance operational flexibility are fully realized. Although our plan involves some risk, the steps we've taken are already showing positive results. Together with safety, strengthening production and meeting guidance is our top priority. Turning now to slide 11, as mentioned, one of KINA's key priorities in the coming months is to enhance operational flexibility, which will lower our risk profile. The current reality at KINA is that we operate in a single mining horizon, providing little to no flexibility. Operational flexibility is essential to unlocking the full value of KINA, which is why we're expanding from one to three active mining horizons. Progress at the second front with Preskill Zone is well underway, with ore currently being stockpiled for processing, starting in Q3. Preskill will be a key contributor to our fill-the-mill strategy, augmenting production from Kina Deep. At the same time, development of the third horizon is advancing steadily. The main ramp has reached level 136 and lateral development is in progress, opening up a new production front with the high-grade Kina Deep zone. Both new horizons, Preskill and 136, will be ready by year end. We're also making strong progress on the exploration ramp, which will provide direct access to surface. This project is also on track for completion in 2025. The ramp development is enabling a major ventilation upgrade at Kennedy, serving as a return airway and leading to a planned 100% increase in ventilation capacity in the second half of 2026. Project scope has also been expanded at the Presque Isle body, We're now allocating additional capital to position it for long-term mining success by optimizing the ventilation system in this area to ensure long-term capacity while lowering opening costs and accelerating development and extending the footprint to a deeper level, establishing an additional mining front. Supporting infrastructure for Preskill is now coming online. The surface crusher is now operational and similar works for the first surface ventilation fan are underway. It goes without saying that the new mining horizons, surface ramp access and upgraded ventilation system are crucial to KINA's future success. Once complete, they will transform KINA into a more flexible and resilient operation. The importance of the new ramp was reinforced in July when the longer-than-planned OIST shutdown highlighted the need for alternative access. Once complete, the ramp will provide a second option for transporting people and material, a key element of our broader strategy to strengthen operational redundancy and resilience. As mentioned at the outset, KINA's focus for the second half of the year is clear. It is to strengthen production and meet revised guidance. It is also to complete the initiatives underway to improve operational flexibility. I'm confident that the exceptional team at KINA is well positioned to deliver. Leading the effort is Jean Bastien, who joined as general manager in June. Jean brings deep experience and a fresh perspective to the operation. We welcome him to the new team. And now, over to Jono to discuss exploration.

Thank you, Keir. And good morning, everyone. Let's start things off on slide 13, a snapshot of what's happening at Eagle River, both underground and at surface. Underground at the sixth central zone, drilling is doing exactly what we had hoped, confirming the continuation of down-plunge mineralisation at consistent thickness and grade, and highlighting potential new sub-parallel structures. In the 300 fold zone, drilling supports the continuity of higher grades down plunge on a separate sub-parallel structure from the 300 zone. Over at 311 Falcon and 720, it's early days, just a few assays in, but the data so far is suggesting both ore bodies continue down plunge. The 720 also has indication that the mineralization remains open to the west. On surface, Q2 drilling focused on the upper extension of the falcon zone, testing the mineralisation further up plunge. We intersected great quartz veining with visible gold in multiple holes, a strong sign and more drilling is scheduled to evaluate continuity. We also tested a parallel trend to the sixth zone from surface, drilling seven holes across 300 metres of strike. We intersected quartz veining with sulphides and we're now awaiting assays. Since quarter end, we've kicked off new drill programs at Michy, with Magnicon set to follow later this quarter. In total, we've got 10,000 metres of drilling planned, about 68 holes, focused on testing gaps west of the current drilling at Michy, assessing the down-plunge continuity of the Michy deposit below the open pit, and twinning historic intercepts at both Michy and Magnicon. Now, a quick update on the Angus property on slide 14. Our top priority here is to complete the resource work at Dorset, which the Angus team commenced earlier this year. By mid-July, we had drilled about 1,300 metres on the main A and B zones, with another 2,000 metres to go, targeting both Dorset A, B, as well as Dorset West. Our goal is to update the historic Dorset resource and define the continuity of the recent high-grade hits at Dorset West. Once the resource drilling program at Dorset is wrapped up, we'll shift focus to other high priority targets, including the River Slave and the Cameron Lake Iron Formation. And just a quick note from the global model before we move to Kina. Four underground rigs are currently tasked with infill drilling global model targets. Between now and November, approximately 40,000 meters will be completed. Two other rigs are focused on delineation drilling for grade control and continued infill and exploration drilling on the Falcon 311 and six central parallel zones. The global model drill program will support category conversion of target material and feed into next year's updated technical report. There's a lot to be excited about at Eagle River, and we are targeting a release with a full exploration update in the coming weeks. Now let's turn to Kina on slide 15. The completion of new underground drilling platforms is opening up some exciting opportunities. In the deep part of the mine, two platforms on level 134 are now complete and drilling is underway from the first bay. Three more platforms are on track for completion by year end. These platforms are a game changer. They're giving us much better angles to test Kina Deep, the football zone and the down plunge extension of the B zone. They also significantly reduce drill hole lengths, meaning faster, more cost-effective exploration drilling. As highlighted in our June news release, we remain encouraged by results of Kina Deep, especially with compelling intercepts from both the foot wall zone and the north limb of Kina Deep A. In the B zone, Historically a low-grade area, recent drilling has led to a major reinterpretation. What was thought to be a single lens is now stood to be multiple stack lenses, all open down plunge. This matters because B-Zone sits right next to existing infrastructure. It is now being actively assessed as part of our broader field and mill strategy. With Keenan mineralisation highlighting a broad trend that grade increases at depth, the down-plunge continuity of B Zone presents an exciting exploration target, which we'll evaluate in the near future. Moving up to level 33, our new platform is already producing results. As shown on slide 16, drilling southeast of the Wish Zone has intersected two high-grade areas, one of which lies just northwest of the historic Shorkey Mine. This intercept is especially interesting. The mineralization style resembles and matches the original Schalke ore body, more than six grams per ton, suggesting a possible northwest continuation of the mineralization. This area is strategically important due to its proximity to existing development at the old Schalke mine. We're now drilling from further east along level 33 with holes testing the northwest extension of the Shorkey mineralisation. Three holes have been completed so far. Early results are promising and further drilling is planned. Looking ahead, we're excited to complete the extension of the level 109 exploration drift, which will allow us to resume drilling the down plunge extension of the BC zone. We're targeting a restart before the end of the year. Beyond underground, surface exploration at Keener is also progressing well. We currently have three barge drills active, targeting extensions of the Presqu'Ile zone and exploring at Northwest, West Dome, Dubuisson and the 134 zone. And finally, we've launched our planned high resolution drone magnetic survey across the entire Keenah property. This will give us a valuable new layer of geophysical data to help guide future exploration and uncover new targets across the land package. To wrap up, it's been a strong and productive first half with momentum continuing to build across the portfolio. We're also pleased to welcome the Angus exploration team, bringing valuable expertise to the Angus program while contributing to our broader exploration efforts. Company-wide, our drilling programs remain tightly focused and efficient, aimed at driving resource growth, enhancing operational flexibility, and delivering long-term value. Our exploration teams have worked hard at building a pipeline of drill targets, surface and underground, ground fields and green fields. We have fertile real estate with exciting upside potential. We look forward to sharing continued progress as we advance this work through the second half of the year. Now, over to Raj, who will take you through this quarter's financial results.

GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE. TURNING TO SLIDE 18, SECOND QUARTER SET SEVERAL NEW RECORDS ACROSS REVENUE, EBITDA, CASH MARGIN, NET INCOME AND FREE CASH FLOW. NOTABLY WEST HOME GENERATED 53 MILLION IN FREE CASH FLOW THIS QUARTER MORE THAN THE ENTIRE FIRST HALF OF 2024. PER SHARE METRICS LIKE ADJUSTED NET INCOME OF 52 CENTS AND CASH FLOW OF 67 CENTS SHOWED STRONG SEQUENTIAL IMPROVEMENT OVER THE FIRST QUARTER AS WELL AS Q2 2024. I would note that headline earnings was adjusted to reflect executive departure costs as well as a consideration receivable accrued for royalty buyback. Turning to slide 19, gold production in the second quarter was approximately 43,000 ounces at cash costs of 929 US per ounce and all in sustaining costs of 1528 US per ounce. As an unhedged producer with most of our costs in Canadian dollars, we captured over 1750 US per ounce or 53% ASIC margin per ounce compared to a realized gold price of $3,279 US per ounce. We're seeing the benefits of having multiple producing assets in the portfolio, with Eagle River's strong performance on grade partially offsetting lower production and keynote due to equipment availability challenges. Looking at the ASIC profile for the second half, we're forecasting Q3 to be similar to Q2, while Q4 is expected to be materially lower. Even with record margins this quarter, there's clearly room for improvement. By tightening cost controls, enhancing our planning and tracking processes, and upgrading our internal reporting, we can unlock more value empowering real-time tactical and strategic decision-making. Turning to slide 20, our balance sheet continues to strengthen with about $188 million in cash and zero debt. With a stronger second half and fourth quarter plan, we expect our financial position to continue improving at an accelerated clip as we work hard to deliver more consistently reduced costs and capture the operating leverage inherent in the business. As a reminder, we closed the Angus Gold transaction on June 27th, which required a cash outlay of about $39 million. As Anthea mentioned, during the quarter, we also amended our revolving credit facility to extend its maturity to 2028, increase capacity of $250 million U.S. from Canadian $150 million previously. The debt facility also includes an accordion feature, which now stands at U.S. $50 million. With liquidity of more than half a billion Canadian dollars, Westom enters the second half of 2025 in its strongest financial position to date. We're now at the point where we're building a disciplined capital allocation framework, anchored on maintaining financial flexibility while balancing the execution of our strategic objectives and delivering long-term returns for shareholders. Our first priority always remains fully funding high potential exploration and advancing the fill-the-mill strategies of both Eagle River and Quina. Organic growth has historically yielded the highest returns for our shareholders. In parallel, we'll maintain a rigorous approach to evaluating strategic opportunities that complement our operating strengths and support our vision of building a resilient, growing, value-driven gold producer. With that operator, you can open the line for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from the line of Andrew Mitychuk with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Well, thanks for taking my question. There's quite a bit of detail on the work that you're doing at But maybe I could just ask someone to contrast what we see at Eagle in terms of fairly well impressive preparation and reliability and a year of forward development and all kinds of metrics like that. How long or is it possible to get to that kind of a situation at Kiena? Is that the goal or am I misunderstanding the vision?

Andrew, that's a great question. And thank you for asking the question. So, yeah, I mean, I think Eagle's side has been a program that's been going for the last 18 to 24 months to move it towards being much more flexible. And there's a wonderful strategy to keep growing Eagle and to build it out. And hopefully next year we can show you then the technical reports as well. For Kina, the first thing was to make sure we build out our operational flexibility in the mine, which will then allow us to unlock it further. Kina is a little bit different from Eagle in that you have a different ground situation where you can't just open up slopes across this entire operation. You have to go very carefully. So the more mining fronts we open up, the more flexibility we create. The big thing was moving from level 129 down to level 136 and then continuing that ramp down to level 142, which is what we continue to do, and then unlocking opportunities near surface as well. All of these programs are currently taking effect. In terms of not having that flexibility, you see the impact of issues going wrong in the mind. So in this case, we had a situation where our material equipment didn't perform to the utilization levels we wanted it to be. And with that, you then affect your sequence, which means you rely on the single phase and then it just slows things down. However, the one thing I want to assure you is that we have a very systematic and step-by-step process to get that unlocked through the flexibility discussion we just mentioned. But similarly, when we do things at Kina right now, we're doing them really right. So when we do mine, we're mining really, really well, which is what I love. The next thing to do now is to make sure we get these levels open, we unrock it, and then the flexibility naturally happens. In the meantime, what we've done at Kina is we've opened up redundancy to allow us to actually manage those little errors a little bit differently. So if they do happen and we have an issue where people aren't available for a machine at the right time, we've got redundancy now built in that we can assure the utilization rates we need to keep our sequence strong. So I don't know if that helps at all, Andrew.

No, it kind of makes sense. And staying with Kina, this 10, 11, 12 days of shaft maintenance, unplanned issues, how should that impact Q3 versus, say, Q2? We're looking for a similar outcome that... you know, hopefully some improvements in the balance of the quarter offset those issues, or is there risk that Q3 is weaker than Q2?

No, no, no. I think, okay, definitely what we had here was a planned maintenance shut that extended, right, by four or five days. I've got four days there. But it does, your quarter three does see an improvement, definitely. So, Guy, do you want to comment further? No.

Yeah, so it was a four days planned shutdown and the shutdown has been extended to fix some key components around the hoist. Now it's all behind us and we're moving ahead into the quarter. We've seen some pretty impressive results recently. the team has been working very hard and fixing fixing issues and uh we've seen recently uh 20 grams a ton in the mill so over expenses the team is doing a very good job over there okay last uh question um and i think you alluded to this earlier in the call but just to be clear if you're going to deliver 40 of your gold in q4 yes

That would require both tons and grades to come up in Q4, or is it really mostly tons or any guidance on the split so that people can have an idea of what to expect?

Okay, so I'll just try and say it again. So it definitely has a bit of a great impact on Kina Deep. But if you think about it, it really is Preskill coming in in Q4, as well as Kina Deep almost executing at a similar run rate than it would have done over a period. So it's very achievable. We just need to make sure we keep delivering as we are at the moment.

Okay, last question because I don't Christopher McConkey- monopolizing the time here. Christopher McConkey- Any further explanation of what you're considering when you say return of capital to shareholders.

Yeah, I mean, we're busy working with our board on capital allocation framework at the moment, Andrew, and we'll be sharing in the second half of the year, as we said before. So at this stage, you know, yeah, that's the key focus within the team. And obviously, you know, we keep focusing strongly on our organic initiatives and then remain very prudent.

Well, thank you very much for humoring my many questions, and I'll pass the microphone to somebody else.

The next question comes from the line of Wayne Long with TD Securities. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good morning, guys. Maybe a follow-up question, Akina. Have you seen any difficulties in terms of the mineability of the Keenan Deep, and is that also driving some of the changes to the mine design? Just wondering, going forward, what would be the targeted run rate expected from Kina Deep on a ton per day basis? Would that still be something in the range of 650 tons per day, and then maybe adding in 350 from Presque Isle to get to 1,000 ton per day run rate?

So mineability, and I'll make a key comment afterwards, but mineability is going really well. We can definitely mine it. We mine it really, really well. So that's really good relative to the parameters. We'd like it to be mined. We're doing a great job, something we've really focused on. Run rate-wise, we're currently togging, what, 750 tonnes per day from Kina Deeps at the moment, right, Pete? 750. And then if you add Griskell on top of that, you get another 350 or so. It's getting a little bit higher than that, Wayne. 350, 400, we're about to.

Okay, great, thanks. And then maybe within the additional growth CapEx budget at Kina, how much of that is related to accelerated development and the 136 level, and has completion of access to the 136 been slightly delayed?

Sorry, Wayne, you said, sorry, can you repeat your question?

Yeah, just... Within the additional growth capital now budgeted at Kena, I was just wondering how much of that is related to accelerated development of Kena Deep and the 136 level and whether the completion of access to 136 had been slightly delayed.

No, I mean, the completion, we weren't planning on mining 136 this year at all. So that's pretty much on track and it's per plan. The additional capital there is really actually more in Preskill, on the development side of Preskill, and also unlocking the ventilation circuit even more. So we've done some work on optimising the ventilation circuit, which requires a bit more development too. So this is largely around flexibility, both at Preskill level and creating another horizon there, as well as, enhancing our future flexibility in the mine going forward so it's not to do with 136 136 is going really well it was never planned to be minding 2025 at all and it will be ready to be mine in 2026. okay great thanks and then uh maybe this last one at eagle river obviously um uh some significant improvements being made operationally just wondering if you might be able to provide a bit more detail on um

some of the improvements being made on the dilution front and whether you see that as sustainable. And just wondering how much of that improvement is also being driven by the new global model.

Okay, I'm going to let Guy comment.

No, thank you. Very good question. The team has worked very hard on improving drilling and blasting techniques. And since the beginning of the year, we have seen continuous improvement In the dilution, doing an exceptional job controlling better the drilling accuracy and vibrations during blasting, so translating into very, very good results, and we see it in the grate as well.

I think just to add to that, Wayne, we expect that to continue. I mean, I think if you were in Guy's head now, he's not saying it well enough. He's got a plan to go beyond that. So that's been a substantial difference in how they are improving on those parameters there. The global model is not the reason for that. The global model's got other benefits, and I think it's quite exciting to see what's happening there. So that's going to add more to my life and more to filling up our mills. So another good thing that Guy and his team have been working on is in making sure we ramp up and get the mill ready, you know, and the whole operation ready for a ramp up there. So lots and lots of good work going on at Eagle in terms of opening operational flexibility, but also preparing Eagle River for its next phase.

Okay, perfect. Thanks for taking my questions and look forward to the improvements in the month ahead. Thank you.

The next question comes from the line of Ralph Perfetti with Phil. Your line is open.

Thanks, operator. Good morning. I appreciate the added color on Keena Deep's, the goal being to double ventilation infrastructure in 2026. Just wondering if you can give us a sort of capex on that work order. understanding that's part of a broader scope and may be included as part of the comprehensive technical review.

Okay, so from a CapEx perspective on the ventilation, so let's just maybe just make it clear, we build in ventilation. We don't need ventilation for whether you're mining right now in 129. We need ventilation. We want to grow the mine and create more flexibility, right? And if we want to create more redundancy, ventilation helps because we are limited on ventilation in terms of what we can what we can add on so we can't just easily add more machines into the mine right now if we needed them at this point in time so so this was always part of the plan um to do this well so this is nothing new what we're doing now is we're just enhancing that because we're realizing that this mine you know it has got more right so we've seen more on level 33 we've seen more We see more things. You just heard Jonah speak about the scale of what's in Kena. So a lot of what WestJones team is doing is preparing Kena for the long term as well. So when we stand back from the operation, we want to make sure that any decision we make allows us to have success, not just for the next three years, but for beyond three years. So some of this investment that you might have seen, which was an increase, I think it was about four million or so, if I'm not mistaken. Kevin, I'm just looking at you. uh it took it's about four million or so i could have a number not exactly right but i can get kevin to get that number to us exactly but it was a bit more to help enhance that that program um it's it's it's it's it's not something that we've learned today it's something that we've brought into great more growth and more flexibility in kina yes that's helpful thank you and and

Just as a second question, I want to delve a little bit more into the equipment availability constraints. It wasn't clear whether or not this is related to fixed infrastructure or mobile equipment. And either or, is this more related to design issues, maintenance issues, or operator issues?

Sorry, just one moment. Sorry, Ralph, I didn't hear you properly. Can you just say that again?

My apologies, yes, I wanted to get an expand a little bit more on the equipment availability constraints and whether or not this was mobile equipment or fixed infrastructure and whether or not these are more related to design maintenance or operator.

Okay, great question. The mobile, it's mostly related to fleet at this stage. And the reason why is because our fleet availability needs to be at an extremely high level from a utilizer. Well, it needs to be at a level on a utilization level, which is well planned. The problem is it's a people issue as well as a equipment issue, right? So it's both sides. The risk profile of our equipment needs to be fully aligned with the risk profile in the mind. So if you look at things like our spare parts strategy, we probably need it to be a bit more stronger on the hegi to make sure we had you know you can't wait that you don't have time to wait when you require a very tight execution program so it's it's this is not an equipment you know uh specific issue this is a matter of a planning issue more than anything else The equipment's there. We've got great equipment. It's about making sure that the planning procedures and how we assure that our redundancy and our risk profile aligns better to the requirements of the mine. There's nothing inherent about this, Rob. This is a fantastic mining operation. This is just about getting these things to fit. the risk profile appropriately. And that's why I say we probably should have applied a bit more risk at the beginning of the plan. What we've really focused on here is to make sure we do things systematically extremely well. So if we do extract, we extract well. We need to make sure that our people strategy fits that really, really well. If you don't have a person to run a machine, you don't have a machine that can work. If you've got a sequence that requires you to have a machine ready and the person isn't there, you can't run the machine when you need it. If you've got no flexibility, well, then guess what? You can't keep with your sequence. So what I tell the team is, I don't care. You mine well. You keep mining this mine well, because that's what we care about, because you'll see those strokes will come in. They are beautiful. This is a beautiful mine. The mine reconciles really well. The things this mine has done, and I really want to say this to the keynote team, They've done a phenomenal job of developing infrastructure to grow this operation with the future. They're drilling all over the place. They've built exploration ramps. I mean, they keep working so well to create a future that I'm telling you and be so proud of because you'll see it come through. There's such great geological potential in this mine, it's scary. What we now need to do is just systematically keep delivering, get the risk profile down, which is coming down, which is really coming down. You have a second ramp coming in, it's unlocking the mine. You've got the people strategy well supporting the execution strategy. You've got more controls in. I mean, our short-term interval controls are now so tight that we're watching them, I think, shift by shift in Guy's desk. So it's... We shouldn't have had this issue. We did have it. We apologize to all of our market for that, but we'll fix it.

Thank you, Anthea. Those are very helpful answers.

The next question comes from the line of Don DeMarco with National Bank. Your line is open.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, Tina and team. or sorry at the end team my first question is on kina um so so you'll be getting into level 136 by the end of the year can you give us a sense of the grades and the tonnage that you might expect to mine from this zone and how long you'll be mining it okay so i can just i'll just revert to my do you have the the actual long section for keenity for 136 level what is the grade profile yeah the grade is very much similar to what we're using

129.

12 to 14 grams a tonne. I mean, in 136, yeah.

If I'm not mistaken, it's about a year to two years of mining.

Yeah, so we develop 136 horizon, as we say, which is four levels. It's in the 12 to 14 grams a tonne. Once that's developed, it sustains production from those levels up to 2020, I think late 2028. So once we develop these horizons, we have, you know, we've got two, two and a half years of mining in those horizons, which is, you know, that's sort of coincides with what Auntie is saying about the flexibility. Once they're developed, we tend to have consistent sustainable mining for long term in them.

Two years of mining.

Okay, great. And so how many levels will you be mining in Kina Deep? After level, after you're into 136.

Then we keep going to 142. And then after 142, we get to 146. I can't remember the exact.

Yeah, currently in the current reserves you're talking about.

But in terms of currently mining, will you be mining from multiple levels concurrently?

In the year we're going to have three that we're going to mine from.

So right now we have one.

Okay. In the year we have three.

Okay. So I guess this leads into my next question. I'm looking at the throughput in Q2, and it's 500-something tons per day, and you've certainly got a lot of spare capacity at the mill. By way of getting into level 136 plus per scale, where do you think that mill throughput might move up to over the coming quarters or after you get into these zones?

As I just, I mean, if you look at this year, we should be getting, for the end of this year, second half, you'll see the increase lying purely in 129 level plus per skill, heading to the 1,000 plus level. It goes up to 1,200 tons per day plus, more or less, for that moment. when you get to 136 that allows you the next horizon as well and i think i mentioned earlier that even the hoist capacity has been unblocked with the work that um he and his team have done so we even got more capability to we can hoist right upwards i think of 1800 17 1800 tons a day so We're unlocking material movement. It's then going to come down to how many levels we can get into to create the flexibility correctly. And also the design. So Kevin's team is busy working on the design to make sure we create multiple fronts coming into a level, which is the change in design to allow us even more flexibility per level. So there's a lot of work going on to unlock and to reduce risk in this mine.

Okay, great. So, and I think earlier at some point you talked about coming out with updated technical reports for both Kena and Eagle. Is that still on track for sometime maybe early next year? Is that the schedule that you had expected?

We'll be planning on putting out the press release in June next year, Tom. So the thing we needed to do, as I mentioned in the last call, was we needed to understand the amount of conversion or confirmation drilling that Jonah's team needed to do to get the QAQC correct. And that was, we got those plans back and we need to do about $40,000, I think, of drilling to do that just to confirm. And then obviously that gets us to the end of the year and then we'll have it ready by June in our release.

Okay. And that will include a mine plan then that will give us an idea of the trajectory of these throughputs increasing as you get into the different zones and optimize things.

That's correct. And then you can add your own logic into how, you know, as we also do conversion or depletion side as well, because this is what's in the current available, in the current available model. So you can imagine what we'll talk a bit more about that later, but it's going to have a marked impact.

Okay. And then just finally, just to wrap it all up, just so, So we will be expecting kind of a material increase in throughput at some point into 2026 or thereafter versus what we saw in Q2.

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, Q2 is affected by challenges, not affected by, you know, so your tonnage was lower because of these challenges we spoke about.

Okay. Okay, great. Well, we look forward to that. And well, maybe just one final question. I see that you're... You're actively sourcing different open positions and so on. How would you characterize the labor market right now? And is that a potential bottleneck on the horizon?

Labour is a major challenge, and I think every mining company probably has the same, but it is a major challenge. It's something that we probably spend, hey, gee, how much of our time on this every day? It's a significant amount of our time to make sure we keep assuring that the people strategy is strong. And, yeah, so it's the single biggest challenge, I think, today for all of us.

Okay. Okay. Thanks for that, and good luck with the rest of the quarter.

Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. This concludes this morning's call. If you have any further questions, please contact Trish Morin at trish.morinatwisdom.com. Thank you for participating today.