Iamgold (TSX:IMG) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Wednesday. Read the complete transcript below.

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Summary

Iamgold reported strong financial performance in Q1 2026, with revenue exceeding $1 billion and mine site free cash flow of $525 million, allowing the company to return $260 million to shareholders and repay $100 million in debt.

The company produced 183,600 attributable ounces of gold in Q1, aligning with its full-year guidance of 720,000 to 820,000 ounces, and expects to maintain or increase production across its operations in the second half of the year.

Iamgold plans to release updated technical reports for its assets, including Cote Gold, Westwood, Essakan, and the Nelligan Mining Complex, over the next 12 to 18 months, aiming to outline larger, longer-life production profiles and potentially redefine market perceptions.

Operational highlights include robust performances at Essakan and Westwood, with Essakan generating $302.7 million in mine site free cash flow in Q1 and Westwood achieving significant underground mining productivity.

Management expressed optimism about Iamgold's position, citing a strengthening balance sheet, increased production profile, and upcoming catalysts to create significant value in 2026 and beyond.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the IAM Gold First Quarter 2026 Operating and Financial results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing Star then zero. At this time I would like to turn the conference over to Graham Jennings, VP Business Development and Investor Relations for IAMGOLD. Please go ahead, Mr. Jennings. Thank you, Operator.

Graham Jennings (VP Business Development and Investor Relations)

And welcome everyone to our conference call this morning. Joining us on the call are Renaud Adams, President Chief Executive Officer Martin Denison, Chief Financial Officer Bruno Lemelin, Chief Operating Officer Ankit Shah, Chief Strategy Officer and Annie Tatia, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Legal Officer. We are calling today from Iamgold's Toronto office which is located on Treaty 13 territory on the traditional land of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg and the Chippewa, and the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. At High End Gold, we believe respecting and upholding indigenous rights is founded upon relationships that foster trust, transparency and mutual respect. Please note that our remarks on today's call will include forward looking statements and refer to non IFRS measures. We encourage you to refer to the cautionary statements and disclosures on non IFRS measures included in the presentation and the reconciliations of these measures in our most recent mda, each under the heading Non GAAP Financial Measures. With respect to the technical information to be discussed, please refer to the information in the presentation under the heading Qualified Person and Technical Information. The slides referenced on this call can be viewed on our website. I'll now turn the call over to our President and CEO Renaud Adams.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you Graham and good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today. Before I start, I'd like to welcome Ankit Shah who joined IM Gold on Monday as our Chief Strategy Officer. Ankit, who many of you on the call are familiar with, brings to our team nearly 20 years of strategy, corporate development and capital markets experience at a very exciting time for this company. So welcome Ankit. IAMGOLD is off to a strong start to 2026. In the first quarter we produced 183,600 attributable ounces of gold, positioning us well to achieve our full year guidance of 720,000 to 820,000 ounces. The quarter was marked by robust financial results. With revenue exceeding $1 billion and mine side free cash flow of 525 million, the cash flow we are generating is allowing us to execute on all fronts as in the first quarter alone we returned 260 million to shareholders through our share buyback program and repaid 100 millions of debt on our credit facility while increasing our cash position. These results reflect the significant leverage of our business as to the current gold price environment and more importantly the quality of the assets we have built and the teams that operate them. But what excites me most is where IM Gold is headed. I believe we are entering one of the most catalyst rich periods of company's history. Over the next 12 to 18 months we expect to deliver updated technical reports across each of our assets. Cody Gold, Westwood, Essakan and the Nelligan Mining Complex. These studies are expected to outline a larger longer life production profile that we believe will redefine how the market views iron gold at Cote. The year end technical report is expected to contemplate a significantly larger scale operations incorporating both the Cote and Gossa supported by an updated mineral resource estimate coming this quarter. At Nelligan we are advancing one of the largest pre production gold camps in Canada towards a preliminary economic assessment next year and at Westwood and Essakan we see meaningful potential of mine life extension and production growth. We will get into the detail on each of these through the presentation today. When I look at IM Gold today, with $2 billion of EBITDA generated over the last 12 months, a strengthening balance sheet and increasing production profile, catalyst ahead of every asset and meaningful capital being returned to shareholders, I see a company that is delivering on its promises and building something very exceptional. We are well positioned to create significant value in 2026 and beyond and I look forward to walking you through the details. And with that let's get into the quarter starting with health and safety in the quarter our total recordable injury rate was 0.44 measurable improvement from the prior year period. I would like to highlight two big achievements in the quarter as the Asakana mine achieved a milestone of triple zero in the first quarter and Westwood achieved its first full quarter at the zero triper, a goal every mine site strives to reach. I want to thank our teams across our operation and in the field for the continued commitment to safe and responsible mining as safety is where it starts for us. Looking at operation and As I noted, IM Gold produced 183,600 ounces to our account in the first quarter at Cote attributable production of 52,300 ounces was impacted by reduced throughput due to unplanned downtime associated with wear and tear on a conveyor belt as crushed door volume significantly increased following the commissioning of the second corn crusher. This belt will be replaced in May, after which we expect to operate at full capacity with an improving cost profile through the year as the bottlenecking of the secondary crusher allows us to phase out the aggregate crusher. Meanwhile, Essakan and Westwood both has very strong start to the year demonstrating the value of having a diversified portfolio of producing assets. Cash costs including royalties were 1,301 per ounce in a quarter, tracking well within our full year guidance range. Including royalties, cash costs were 1,608 per ounce and all in sustaining costs were $2,124 an ounce. It is worth highlighting that both Cote and Issacam carry significant royalty structure which are directly linked to the gold price and a quarter where the gold price realized was nearly $4,900 an ounce. The royalty component is naturally higher than what our guidance assume at $4,000. As a reference this work out to around $115 per ounce increase in cash costs for a $1,000 per ounce increase in the gold price from royalty alone. Meanwhile, on input cost, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle east has introduced additional volatility to energy market and we did see oil prices move higher towards the end of the quarter. Essakana in particular has meaningful exposure given its reliance on diesel and heavy fuel oil to power both the processing and the mining fleet. On a consolidated basis, a $10 per barrel increase translates to approximately $12 per ounce increase in cash costs. We are actively monitoring energy price movement and potential supply chains impacts across all of our operations. With that I will pass the call over to our CFO to walk us through our financials matters.

Martin Denison (Chief Financial Officer)

Martin thank you Renaud and good morning everyone. The current gold market and our operating results have resulted in good financial results and considerable free cash flow being generated which allows us to continue to execute on our capital allocation strategy to maximize value. We produced 524.6 million of mine site's free cash flow that is operating cash flows minus capital expenditure from each operation. 228.4 million of the funds was used to strengthen our balance sheet by repaying $100 million of the credit facility and we also increased cash by 128.3 million for the shareholder return component. We purchased 260 million or 12.9 million of iron gold shares as part of the share buyback program. Subsequent to quarter end, we purchased an additional 2.1 million shares for 40 million, which brings the total shares repurchased by Iamgold since the start of the program last December to 350 million or 18 million shares. In addition, we completed the debt repayment component of our plan and paid down the remaining 100 million balance of the credit facility, making the full facility available. The Company intends to continue to use cash flow from Essakan to fund its share buyback program at approximately the same rate that cash is generated and repatriated from Essakan over the course of 2026. Naturally, the actual number of common shares that may be purchased, if any, and the timing of such purchases will be determined by the Company based on a number of factors including the gold price, the Company's financial performance, the availability of cash flows, consideration of uses of cash and our strategic allocation. In terms of the financial position at the end of the quarter, I AM Gold at 550.2 million in cash and cash equivalents with 100 million drawn on the credit facility resulting in liquidity at the end of March of approximately $1.1 billion with the 400 million term loan we paid at the end of last year and the repayment of our credit facility. Iamgold today is in a net cash position, a significant milestone for a company that a year ago was carrying over 800 million in net debt within cash and cash equivalent. We note that 281.9 million was held by a second at the end of the quarter. The cash balance at Essakan increased during the quarter and will be used to fund tax payments in April and the Government of Burkina Faso's portion of the 2026 dividend payable in June. The Company uses dividends and shareholder account structure to repatriate funds in excess of working capital requirements from ESSECAP. Turning to our financial results, revenues from operations total $1 billion from sales of 211 ounces on a 100% basis at an average realized price of $485 per ounce. The record gold price and operating results resulted in adjusted EBITDA of 666 million in the first quarter of the year, which brings the trailing twelve month EBITDA to a total of approximately $2 billion. At the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share the quarter was $0.67. Looking at the cash flow reconciliation for the quarter offers a good visualization of the major drivers in the quarter, we see good conversion of EBITDA into operating cash flow with 629.5 million of operating cash flow before working capital changes. As stated earlier, the significant operating cash flow allowed for the funding of our capital expenditure of 101.6 million 260 million. Under the share buyback program, we pay 100 million of the credit facility while still resulting in an increase in cash of 1,28.3 million. As we look ahead with our debt repayment gull achieve, we will continue to share buyback program using cashflow from Essakan and the remaining cash going to our balance sheet to further strengthen it. As we evaluate the best use of the funds to increase value of the business, we are evaluating an appropriate time to induce a dividend that would likely be at the end of the year or early next year. It is worth reinforcing on how we think about our capital allocation framework today. The Canadian platform consisting of Protegold and Westwood is generating sufficient cash flow to fund the company's Canadian operations and corporate activities as well as our internal growth plans over the next three years. This is important because it means that the cash work mistaken can be directed to fund our capital returned to shareholders that currently consist of the share buyback program and we believe there is compelling logic to that. The market has historically applied the discounted cash flows generated in Burkina Faso. By repatriating those funds to Canada and using it to repurchase our shares at current market value, we are effectively converting cash that the market discounts into full value equity for our shareholders. We continue to evaluate the program and believe that this is currently the most prudent use of capital. And with that I will pass the call to Bruno Lebanen, our Chief Operations Officer to discuss our operating results and outlook.

Bruno Lemelin (Chief Operating Officer)

Thank you Martin. Starting with Cote Gold looking at the quarter. Cote produced 74,700 ounces on a 100 person basis. Mining activities total 9.3 million tonnes of material mined with 3.6 million tonnes more representing a strict ratio of 1.6 to 1. Total tons mined were lower in January and February. The operation completed overburden removal activity required to open up the pit while managing seasonal winter conditions. Mining activity increased in March as drilling and blasting command in the pushback area grade mine in the quarter was 0.99 grams per tonne in line with the mine plan. Mill throughput in the quarter was 2.3 million tons. As we know that in our results throughput was limited due to some time on the CD10 conveyor which feeds material from the primary and secondary crushers to the screened building. This downtime was primarily due to the increased load on the conveyor following the installation of the secondary crusher, putting additional stress on areas of the conveyor belt that had private wear and slicer. We were able to refine our repairs in early April. We then saw improved performance of the belt when the plant averaged 32,000 tons per day over the month. Later this month we are installing a new heavier gauge belt which will allow for the circuit to resume full operation above. In summary, the CV10 belt situation is not structural in nature but an isolated non recurring early life item. We are seeing fewer of these as the operations stabilize, marking an important step forward. Just as the past 12 to 24 months Cote is transitioning into a phase focused on operating discipline and consistent execution. Head grades for the first quarter was 1.07 gram per tonne in line with the guidance for the year of 1 to 1.1 gram with recovery of 93%. We continue to be very pleased with the reconciliation between reserve model grade model to mill feed and production. Production is expected to increase quarter over quarter as food increases in Q2 and on higher grades in the second half of the year. We remain on track with code based production guidance of 390 to 440,000 ounces for the year. Looking at cost, COTI reported first quarter cash costs excluding royalties of $1369 per ounce and all in sustained cost of $2,109 per ounce. We have been clear with our plan to lower our cost this year and that plan is still in place. Our goal is to exit the year at sub 4 value, farm, mining class and processing costs in the mid teens. The primary drivers to lower cost this year are fourfold. First is to increase tons through the mill and iron production. Second is to significantly reduce and remove the reliance on the compacted aggregate crusher. Third is with improved maintenance cycle needs to receive performance improvement and fourth is to realize the operational efficiency as the kit is opened up. The second compressor is operating well which has removed the bottleneck on this area of the secondary crushing circuit. Later this quarter the increased capacity will allow us to phase out the usage of the aggregate crusher which we contracted last year to allow the plan to hit its 2025 goals. We have already realized benefits beyond the additional volume capacity, with the High-Pressure Grinding Rollers seeing a unitif reduction on wear of its rollers which will translate to less roller replacement over the course of a year. As Renaud pointed out, costs at copay gold are impacted by higher gold prices. In the first quarter royalties accounted for $335 per ounce or 20% of cash cost. Further, and this is something that we've been asked about frequently of late is the impact of rising oil prices. The benefit at COTY is that the plant in our shovels are connected to the low cost hydro grid so effectively only our mining fleet is directly impacted by fuel prices. Based on our estimates this Translates to about $7 per ounce Increase in cost per $10 Increase in the price of oil. With a path forward this year to a higher production and lower cost, all eyes turn to what is next to CO base or CO C. The first step is the upcoming updated Mineral Resources estimate which will combine both the Cotay and Gosling zone into a single block model. The goal is to seek additional upgrading of ounces into measured and indicated. The resource base will form the foundation of the Cote Garthlin Expansion Mine plan which is still on track to be announced in the fourth quarter of this year. The report will envision a near term expansion of the cote plant to 50 to 55,000 tonnes per day targeting a significantly larger reserve base. From the updated resource estimate we expect the expansion to be highly accretive on a NAV basis as the near term capital required for the plant expansion is relatively modest. The permitting and larger capital requirements for additional tailings management and opening of GasLink will likely be staged out many years in the mine time. Turning to Westworm, the mine continued its strong production producing 36,300 ounce Silas at the quarter as underground activities performed fairly well with excellent mucking and foresting performance. Underground mining total 106,000 tons in the quarter with an average head rate from underground of 9.85 gram per ton. The Gnajico can fit a lower ore ton mine of 60,000 tons. Operations prioritize waste dripping to open up access to additional ore with opportunities to further extension. Netruple in the third quarter was in line at 303,000 tonnes at the blended average grade of 404 gram per tonne in recoveries of 92%. Together Westwood produced $110 million of mine type free cash flow in the first quarter bringing the last 12 months of cash flow generation to $242 million. Westwood demonstrates what disciplined execution and incremental optimization can deliver safe operations, stable production, expanding optionality and strong free cash flows without step change capital. As a result of the strong quarter cash cost average $1,230 per ounce and ovens sustained costs averaging $1,733 per ounce well below the guidance ranges for the year we have seen the modest mining cost increases on a per unit basis associated with increased dry drilling activities and higher explosive costs. Looking ahead, our teams are quite excited for the future of West Europe. This year we are spending about $30 million on expansion capital that is being used to explore and test the eastern extension of the mine which you can see circled here on slide 13. We are seeing a thickening of mineralization in this area. Our project teams are currently drifting into this area to conduct ball testing. The company plans to publish an updated technical report for Westwood in the second half of 2027 which is expected to extend the life of mine and highlight the potential for bull mining in this eastern zone. This approach would potentially support higher overall underground throughput and this conceptually would allow for increased gold production and improved mining costs allowing the mill to be filled with higher margin material. Turning to Esakam, the mine reported record production of 111,900 ounces on a 100% basis as grades continue to benefit from from the positive reconciliation as mining progresses deeper into Phase seven. As a result of the strong performance mine site, free cash flow from Esakan was $302.7 million in the quarter, bringing the total cash generated by Essakan over the last 12 months to $803.6 million. On operation mining total 11.9 million tonnes versus ore tonnes of 2.2 million tonnes translating to a strip ratio of 4.4 to 1. The higher proportion of waste was a result of the initial pushback of the dip extension in the Lau pit. The mill reported in line throughput of 3.1 million tons which was a good achievement at as the plant completed its annual shutdown. Head grades averaged 1.24 gram per tonne coming off the record grade last quarter. Despite the positive reconciliation impact in phase seven, we are maintaining our guidance for the year of 1.1 gram per tonne as additional ore from LAO is brought into the mine plan. A second cost came within guidance ranges with cash costs excluding quarrel fees of $1,083 per ounce and on sustaining cost of $2,125 per ounce. Mining costs benefited in the quarter due to free digging of the initial sapralite benches of the ladle pit resulting in reduced explosives consumption while on a project basis these savings were offset by by higher energy and consumable costs and the replacement of the liners. Esacant costs also have exposure to the gold price in the first quarter. The strong gold price translated to royalties accounting for $597 per ounce or 35% of cash cost. Further, Esakant is heavily reliant on oil and bison. Based on the usage between milling and mining, it is estimated that a ten dollar increase in the price of oil per barrel would equate to about $20 per ounce increase in cash cost and in all unsustained costs respectively. At this time our fuel supply has not been affected by the conflict in the Middle east, though risk to price and supply have increased. The company is actively monitoring the situation and implementing measures that are within its control. This account continues to be a highly cash generative asset, delivering strong free cash flow while offering optionality to an updated mine plan targeting a potential five year extension of its current life of mine. In the first half of 2027, Iambolt expects to release this updated plan which would extend Essakan's life to 2033. This work will also support discussion with the government of Burkina Faso ahead of license renewal in 2028. Today, Essakanes boasts 4.4 million ounces of measured and indicated resources with further upside supported by ongoing drilling. With that I will pass it back to Renaud.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you Bruno this brings us to the Nelligan Mining complex. The first quarter was the first full quarter that we controlled the consolidated district and our exploration teams have been drilling to expand mineralization at Philbert Milligan and Monster Lake while prioritizing targets for further discovery. This year we will be drilling over 60,000 meters to advance the project so we can release our initial PEA study to the market in the first half of next year. The Nelligan Mining complex already has a significant minerals inventory of over 4.3 million ounces of measured and 7.5 million ounces of inferred resources and we believe there is meaningful upsides to those numbers. Many of these deposits and targets have not had a sustained or well funded exploration program behind them. That is changing now and we expect the mineral inventory to continue to grow as we put capital to work across the district. We expect the study to outline a project with a central processing facility being fed from multiple ore sources within the 17 kilometer radius. Considering the mineral's wealth and potential for growth and the fact that iron Gold owns 100%, the Nelligan Mining complex has the potential to be among IM Gold's largest mines. The Nelligan Mining complex is already positioned as one of the largest pre production gold projects in Canada. What makes it truly compelling is the combination of district scale consolidation across multiple million ounces deposit, the ease of access, the combine of underground and open pit mining and the fact that it is located in Quebec, one of the premier mining top premier mining jurisdictions in the world. Taken together, we believe these attributes positions Nelligan as a premium asset in our portfolio and one where we expect to unlock significant value as we advance the project through the study process. So with that I want to thank our shareholders for your support. We truly believe it will be an exciting year for IM go with significant value growth opportunities ahead, including the upcoming resource update at Cote, the Cody expansion study later this year, followed by next year where we outline a mine life extension in the second in the first half of the year, an initial study wrapping economics around Nelligan Mining complex also in the first half of next year and a mine life extension expansion underground at Westwood in the second half next year. So altogether we have significant value accretion catalysts ahead. With that I would like to pass the call back to the operator for the Q and A portion of the call operator thank you.

OPERATOR

We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue you May press start then 1. On your telephone keypad you will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press Star then do. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Satish Kashinathan with Bank of America.

Satish Kashinathan

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first question is on Essakan. Are you seeing any risks in terms of potential supply disruptions for diesel or fuel oil over there? How much inventory do you currently have on site? You also talked about the direct cost impact from higher oil prices, but how should we think about the indirect inflationary pressures maybe?

Martin Denison (Chief Financial Officer)

Martin, you take that one please. Morning Satish. We are de risking the fuel supply at Issacan. We have supply at site that's five to six weeks and we try to maintain that at a maximum capacity. But then what we've also done is we continue to secure additional fuel up the supply chain so we have secured that fuel. So for the next two to three months Issacane has already secured sufficient fuel. The impact as we stated for the direct impact on the actual cost per fuel that is linked to the market price is about $20 per ounce for every $10 per barrel. There is other cost at Essakan as well. There's taxes on fuel and those impacts, but we have not seen other inflationary pressures at Essakan or the other mines at this point and it's hard to estimate those. If you look at our energy cost as a company, it's about 20% of our operating cost and our consumables is about 15 to 16%. So that's kind of like the level of our cost structure that could be impacted by by inflationary pressures. But it's hard to I think for anyone to predict at this point what exactly that would look like.

Satish Kashinathan

Okay, thanks for the color. My second question is on, is on Cote. How should we look at the quarterly guidance of production costs, especially for the second quarter? With the reduced operating capacity and the scheduled maintenance shutdown in May, should we expect the average milling rates and cost to improve versus the first quarter? Or is it more like a second half story you want to have?

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

Good morning. We expect that once we have completed the shutdown in middle of May, like it's meant to be on May 20, we're going to be replacing the conveyor belt and we're going to be replacing also the HPGR tires that were supposed to be change earlier in the year. And we are going to make some adjustments in certain areas. But after that we're going to resume to full operation and even going beyond the nameplate capacity. So what it will entail is after that the expectation is both on the mining side and milling side, the unit costs are expected to decrease and to have a sharp improvement in terms of gold production. Water over water. This is Graham and you'll note in

Graham Jennings (VP Business Development and Investor Relations)

our news release that we refined our throughput guidance for Cote Gold to 12 to 13 million tons for the year.

Satish Kashinathan

Okay, thank you. Thank you for the additional color and congrats on a strong year to date buybacks. Thank you.

OPERATOR

The next question comes from Anita Soni with cibc.

Anita Soni

Hi, good morning guys. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to ask a little bit about Westwood. So this quarter a little bit lower production from the Grand Duc deposit or from the open pit. I'm not sure if it's still Grand Duc, but how long does that, how long do you expect to have that or I think it said into Q into 2027, but I was just trying to figure out when it ends in sort of the ramp up in 2026 in terms of the tonnage over the course of the year.

Bruno Lemelin (Chief Operating Officer)

Good morning Anita, this is Bruno. Good question. We are seeing from Grand Duc to be extended even beyond 2027. We have also options phase five that could go even beyond 2029. That's what we're doing right now. We're currently evaluating those options. So Grand Duc has been like a great support for Westwood and the moment that it will be fading off it would be also a great moment for the Eastern zone that I'm referring to the thicker part of the underground at Westwood to replace that material,

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

If I may add, Anita. So what I really like about the work that's been done and the drilling that took place in the last two years, our effort has always been, you know, to protect the production profile on an upside basis. The potential Phase 5 of the Grand Duke, you know, should we be able to maintain this up to 20, 29, 30, followed after that, you know, by an increase of the underground and the east room. So this is the focus right now. So you don't see any gap and if anything, you know, continue the increase profile. It's a bit of about the same thinking and I appreciate Burkina Faso, the different situations we monitor and so forth. But the best of course would be to completely offset the gap and fit the Nelligan camp, you know, also being capable to maintain the production profile. So that's really the focus at this stage, understanding that we would be continuing to monitor the situation in West Africa.

Anita Soni

Yeah, and I guess what I was driving at with on the Westwood was, you know, this quarter you had very good cost and very, you know, a lot of mining from the underground. And with the Grand Duke ramping up, you know, I'm just curious to see how the like the theoretically the overall mining cost per ton should actually drive down more with, with more underground, sorry, more of the open pit ore coming in. So I'm just trying to get a handle on. You had a significant cost beat in the, in the, in the first quarter at Westwood relative to your guidance. So I'm just trying to figure out how those, like how I should be thinking about cost for the rest of the year.

Martin Denison (Chief Financial Officer)

Good morning, Anita, it's Martin. So I agree we had a great quarter. If you look at the dollar per ton for the underground mine, we do expect it to maybe increase just above the 300 level again for the rest of the year, that it may not be sustained at that level. So closer to that 325 for the full year again as we saw in the past. So yeah, we don't expect Q1 to be the norm for the rest of the year.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

We wish so. But we do understand that there are some zones, some areas in the mine that requires maybe more support and so forth. So you cannot really just. It really depends where the guys would be, where the team would be would be mining. But our focus is to remain at the lower cost. But what I appreciate that we'll be mining other sector as well, at higher cost.

Anita Soni

Okay. And my other question on Cote, on throughput was answered in one of the other questions, going above nameplate. So I'll leave it there and get back in the queue if I have any follow up. Thank you.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you so much.

OPERATOR

Thank you. The next question comes from Tanya Jakisconek. It's Koshia Bank.

Tanya Jakisconek

Oh, great. Morning everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. Maybe I'll do the financial one first. Martin, over to you to maybe talk about the 400 million dividend after tax that you're getting in Q2 from Essakan, do you think that all of that now could be going to share buyback in like Q2 or Q3? How should I be thinking the payment of this 400 million over for the share buyback from a quarterly perspective?

Martin Denison (Chief Financial Officer)

Good morning, Tanya. So we have about 200 million left on the shareholder account for last year's dividend. We expect that cash to be repatriated by June or July of this year. And then the reason why there's a bit of a slowdown is because of the tax payments we have to make in Q2 as well as the government is getting the 100 million portion of the dividend. So the cash that we bring in, we expect for the remainder of this quarter to spend 40 to 50 million a month. We already did 40 million in April, so kind of like getting to that 400 million for the year likely on the share buyback. Then we'll continue to evaluate. But that 400 million that we then declare in June is then a new shareholder account of 400 million. And then as we then repatriate cash from Issacan, we would then continue to use that to potentially fund share buybacks for the second half of the year into next year. Gold price dependent is the exact sequence of that. But we have good vision on the next quarter taking us through the middle of the year.

Tanya Jakisconek

Okay, great, that's very helpful. And then my other financial question is just on the taxes, we're Quite low in Q1. When I look at your guidance and what you paid significantly lower, maybe just a little bit about what's happening there and how you see the rest of the year coming out in terms of taxes.

Martin Denison (Chief Financial Officer)

So from a cash tax perspective, we've paid about 14%. If you take our guidance, cash taxes, we still think our cash tax guidance is exact. And maybe if you look at it for how it's spread over the course of the year, like 14 to 15% in Q1 and Q4 and then the remainder is spread over Q2 and Q3 and that's again driven by is the canned cash tax payment in Q2 and the withholding tax payment on the dividend that's normally either end of Q2 or beginning of Q3. Okay, so should see that. So 70% in Q2 and Q3.

Tanya Jakisconek

Yeah. Okay, perfect. Thank you for that clarification. And then just moving to some of the technical questions. Maybe Rena, over to you to. You know, as I think about this updated resource that is coming out on Cote Gold at the end of. I think it's this quarter, end of Q2 or in Q2, should I be thinking, and I think I heard that we're upgrading the measured and indicated category. So should I be thinking that 20 million ounces that you have outlined, should I be thinking that 2 million of inferred gets moved into measured and indicated and there would be no increase to the reserves that you reported of 7 million ounces or should I also be thinking that that 20 million overall should get bigger? Just trying to understand what to expect.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

No, thanks for the questions. And you know, we've been socializing this quite a bit. If you look at our year end mineral resource, we were sitting below the 19 million and the 18.5 plus million of measured and indicated there were still some holes to be integrated in the database. We've done some work in the saddle as well. So in short, our confidence remain as you say that it would be additional conversion to Measured and Indicated to our objective of 20 million ounces of measure indicated that. And as you drill as you continue to improve your inferred as well. So we would all clarify this. But the most important thing is Our objective remains 20 million of measure indicated and that will form the basis for the reserves. We will not disclose the reserve obviously because we'll trigger the need for the report right away. So we're going to clarify in Q2 our resource and the reserve then will be a measure of a factor of conversion of the 20 million. Obviously we're expecting a significant increase in reserve out of the 20 out of the 20 million. But that will be clarified in the study as it come out at the end of the year.

Tanya Jakisconek

Okay, thank you for that. That's what I thought was going to happen, but I just wanted to make sure and then just maybe. I know we talked a little bit about these costs coming down at Cote on both the mining and the processing. As we think about this new study that's coming out in Q4 for this complex, should I be thinking that the New study should have costs under $4 a ton for mining and processing in that 12 to $14 a ton as a combined entity. I mean they were quite high this quarter as we know for various reasons. But I'm trying to understand if I am going to be benchmarking on that. You know under $4 a ton and 12 to 14 on the processing.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

The. You're absolutely right. Appreciate you know that in the short term our cost has been hired, you know and as we highlighted in Q2 last year the use of the aggregate plan is a big portion of it not having the capacity of the dry and short. All this have been tested. We've been using as well some external review as well to revalidate all this. We're talking about feasibility, you know, level type of studies. So we remain extremely confident. We understand and appreciate our costs are higher. But I think we have good visibility about what has to be done. So this is the focus as we park the aggregate and focus on reducing. It's not going to be all in one year. It's going to be spread over a couple of years to three years. How well are highlighted heading to the. To the. To the expansion. So maybe Bruno just quickly what you see as the main focus in the second half of the year in terms of cost reduction.

Bruno Lemelin (Chief Operating Officer)

Yeah like for the mining costs you will see those mining cost effects. Big eclipse in the second and for the rest of the year means you first of all it was a volume early. The thing for Q1 as we expect volume to increase our unit costs are going to go down. Second is we have also made like great improvement in drilling blast increasing our performance by 65% of late. We're also going to receive four additional 793 puts increasing volume. So we're putting everything in place to be successful to be below the $4 a ton before the end of the year. Same thing happened for the mining cost. The moment that you take out remove the aggregate crusher, the contractor, the demobilization of other contractors, you'll see also a sharp reduction in cost. We are also making improvements here and there as it should. It's part of the optimization phase. And as Renaud pointed out that optimization phase is going to take a good two years to make sure that we keep putting a downward pressure for the cost. So we're quite confident that the 43101 is going to be well supported by assumptions that are realistic.

Tanya Jakisconek

Okay, understood. So a basis set to go forward on that. And maybe just my final question as I thought about the rest of the year. And I know in the previous in February the guidance had been that Essakan production would be relatively stable through the year, as was well Westwood and then Cote would see quarter on quarter improvement and we saw a stronger second half. So how are we looking at the overall company for production profile for first half? Second half?

Bruno Lemelin (Chief Operating Officer)

Go ahead, Bruno. Yes, it's going to be much stronger as we mentioned for copay. The grades are going to be over in the and 1.2, so we have to expect a stronger H2 for ETCAM. It's going to be quite stable. We need to. And we mentioned that we plan to remain within guidance as we start implementing the Lao ore into the mine plant. Westward is just like the only thing that we need for Westward is just being a stable operation. Stable and safe operation. 1,000 ounces a month on average and more recently optimistic. So overall you will see a much stronger H2 as opposed to H1. And I think this is what we also disclosed last quarter, that H1 would be softer to take into account the winter conditions and softened changes for the hvgr, changes that can come here. So I think right now everything falls in plan.

Tanya Jakisconek

Yeah, no, that's what you had, lad. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you.

Mohammed Siddebe

The next question comes from Mohammed Siddebe with National Bank. Hi Renault and team and thanks for taking my question. And across the good Ford, maybe at Westwood, if I could maybe ask a question. On the underground, we've now seen 2/4 of mining rates above that 1.1 thousand tons per day and grades over that 9.8 grams per ton mine. So could you maybe help me understand how to think about the next few quarters in terms of mining productivity and the grade over the coming quarters? Thank you, Renault.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

Yes, the hoisting, the mucking is going very well. Our targets are close to 1000 tons per day and in fact we're exceeding those metrics every day now. It's done through sensation and better engineering, better preparation, hoisting. You know, we have a 4000 ton per week capacity at Westwood, so we have plenty of capacity at the hoist. So it's not constrained. Therefore that's the reason why it gives us great hope that whatever improvement that will be done at Westwood will become immediate catalyst into the coal production of the Mask. But overall what we plan is we plan what we do and we do what we plan. So trying to make sure that we have stabilized the operation and we improve in an inclement manner the Westward operation on our metrics meter of advance per day, meter per main shift. The drilling is going very well also and we have a new simba drills coming in. So the drilling performance is also improving very well. The ability of our mining crews to rehab new zones are improving also with the algorithm that we have developed over time. So overall it's going well and I appreciate that you've seen you know like quite a significance increase. I mean again it's a little bit as a questions on the cost side depending on depends a bit where you mine as well. What we want is reliable and safe operation. Are we going to see a continued increase? The focus is really to deliver, you know, sustainable and safe operations. So we're very comfortable really like the last quarter but. But I think like being in the zone of the thousand to the 1200 is a good zone and we're going to always prioritize the safe operations. Mohamed, but I appreciate your question. Thanks for that, that's very helpful. And maybe if I can ask a second question at cotegold on the improvement on the process cost and sorry if I missed this, but is the improvement of the maintenance timeline for the High-Pressure Grinding Rollers already reflected in that expected cost improvement you have for the end of the year or is that a positive surprise following the installation of the Kundra? Thank you. No, I wouldn't call a positive surprise. I would say a validation of what has been our belief since the start. Again with the short of capacity and the dry, we knew we were feeding the High-Pressure Grinding Rollers slightly outside of his design criteria with the coarser or which was accelerating the wear on the machine. So since we've commissioned the second cone and we've been in capacity to return to the design criteria, we've seen an automatic and overnight change and we expect the change of the tire now to get back to the lifespan that we're expecting. So yes, we're not expecting another change of tire this year and therefore it is built in the reductions of cost post change. Great, thanks for taking my questions.

Mohammed Siddebe

Thank you.

OPERATOR

The next question comes from Josh Wilson with rbc.

Josh Wilson

Yeah, thank you very much. I apologize. I just want to clarify a couple things. I'm having trouble hearing some of the data points. Just going back to some of the details on Cote, you know this comment about the plant operating above nameplate in the second half of the year and some of the tonnage numbers that was provided, you know the numbers look to imply about maybe 10 to 15% above nameplate in the second half. I just want to clarify, does that sound correct? And then is it reasonable to assume that Those throughput levels can be sustained beyond 2026, even before the expansion takes hold.

Bruno Lemelin (Chief Operating Officer)

Yeah, when we say that we can produce above main plate as we have more than many days above 36,000 tons per day, even 42,000 tons per day many times with the addition of the second cone crushers and also allowing the granularity of the ore protecting now the HPGR which is going to be running very efficiently, we expect to remain into that long between the 36 and 42 in average. So that's very promising for us. With the shutdowns that we have in August and other shutdown that we have in certain areas, we are still evaluating and planning an overall average throughput of 36. But overall like when you have a very well run rate, it goes well beyond

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

what we've experienced. Josh, with the second con is, you know, for only a few weeks unfortunately before we started to have the issues on the, on the conveyor. So the objective has always been to stabilize at the 36. So what we've seen is effectively of course if you want to reach 36 when you upgrade, you need to be the above. But you also heard Bruno earlier talking about slightly better grade as well. So it's not just a matter of throughput, it's a matter that we should access as well. Better grade in the second half. But the priority at this stage is to demonstrate that minimum 36 average all time in the dry in the wet, as you crush finer, you will unlock more potential in the wet as well. So for the first stage, first is as soon as we change a tire, we change the bell, we park the aggregate plan. The focus in June is to demonstrate that we actually could operate at an end play. Then we'll come the optimizations on a step by step basis. But so far so good for what we've seen with the crusher. Okay, got it. And then your comment about the better grade, the number was mentioned on the crush. Again I apologize for not being able to hear it was said it was 1.1 to 1.2 in the second half. Is that correct?

Bruno Lemelin (Chief Operating Officer)

Between 1 and 1.2, yeah.

Josh Wilson

So we did 107 the first quarter and you know where you should, you could see a quarter above the 107. So we say 1 to 1.2 and hopefully we'll see quarters, you know, above the 1 1. Okay, and then last question. I know it's sort of been mentioned by some of the other participants just on mining costs for Cote. I mean I wouldn't necessarily extrapolate the current quarter and obviously there's a lot of volatility on the energy side of things. But you know, what is a reasonable sort of mining cost for us to assume in the second half of the year, when you factor in maybe, I'm not sure what sort of energy price to use. I'll let you guys figure that out. But maybe just at these higher throughput levels, what would be the target? Steady state. Thank you, Martin. You can get some details, but I can say that at this stage the focus is absolutely to bring those mining costs below the four as we exit the year. Martin.

Martin Denison (Chief Financial Officer)

Josh, one thing we didn't mention earlier was that we've actually put in some price protection for oil at Cote. So for June as well as for all of Q3, 90% of Cote Oil is hedged at a price of about $80 per barrel. So if the price goes above $80 per barrel, it doesn't impact our cost further during that period and we still participate if the price goes, goes below that. So that will help offset some of that cost as well to get us close to that four.

Renaud Adams (President Chief Executive Officer)

So as we exit the year, as we, as we achieve our objective to drop our mining below the 4 and get the mailing more towards the 15 as we exit, that is the main focus at this stage, knowing that there would be some more optimization to continue to take place. So great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Josh.

OPERATOR

Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Graham Jennings for any closing remarks. Thank you very much, Operator. Thanks to everyone for joining us this morning.

Graham Jennings (VP Business Development and Investor Relations)

As always, should you have any additional questions, please reach out to Renaud or myself. Thank you all. Be safe and have a great day.

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