Q3 2026 Operating and Financial Results Conference Call - IAMGOLD CORP

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the IAMGOLD 3rd 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 1 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 vice president business development and investor relations for im gold please go ahead mr jenings thank you operator and welcome everyone to our conference call this morning joining us on the call are bruno adams president chief executive officer martin tennyson chief financial officer bruno lemlen chief operating officer ankit shah chief strategy officer and annie tortilla legacy chief legal officer we are calling today for mine gold's toronto office which is located on 313 territory on the traditional lands of many nations including the mississaugas of the credit the anishinaabek the chippewa hudna shoni and the wendat peoples at iron 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 this 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 ND&A, 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 will now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Rinalds. Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. The third quarter was another safe and static quarter for IMGAL. We produced 186,900 attributable ounces, bringing year-to-date productions to 558,600 ounces. We are on track to meet full year guidance and expect the Forkwater to be our strongest, led by Cote. A year ago, IM Gold carried more than $800 million of net debt. Today, we are in a net cash position with more than 1.6 billion of liquidity. Over the last 12 months, we've generated $2.4 billion of adjusted EBITDA. And since launching our buyback program last December, we have repurchased over 32 million shares of nearly $600 million. Yesterday, we notified Franco Nevada that we have exercising our right to repurchase half of its gross margin royalty on COTI for approximately $525 million. IMGO will fund the full amount and keep the full benefit lowering COTI's cash costs, including royalties, by roughly $150 an ounce starting in 2027. Put simply, we are using our balance sheet to retain more of value of our largest, longest life Canadian asset. Operationally, the third quarter was a turning point at Cote, its first full quarter without contractor crushing. In September, the plant averaged 37,100 tons per day above nameplate, and processing costs fell to $15.36 per day, per ton. September showed what the operation can deliver, and we expect a strong finish to the year. Meanwhile, Issa Khan remains the engine behind our buyback, and Westwood is tracking toward the upper end of its guidance. Looking ahead, every asset has a meaningful catalyst through 2027. It started this quarter with the updated COTI mine plan, which will combine Cody and Gosselin for the first time, followed by studies across Isakana, Nelligan, and Westwood through 2027. This is where IAM Gold stands today. A strong balance sheet, significant capital return to shareholder, and a portfolio of long-life Canadian-focused assets with real growth ahead. With that, let's get into the quarter. Starting with health and safety, our total recordable injury frequency rate is tracking at 0.57 for the year, with no significant environmental incident reported. Our health and Safety and Environment teams continue to redefine what responsible mining is today, and I thank them for their commitment to each other and our community. On productions, we have produced nearly 559,000 ounces attributable year-to-date. We need about 161,000 attributable ounces in the fourth quarter to reach the low end of our consolidated guidance, well below what we've produced in each of the first three quarters of the year. On cost, year- to-date cash costs, including royalties, are $1,251 per ounce, and all in sustaining costs, including royalties, are $1,821 per ounce. We expect both to finish in the upper range of the manual guidance. Both Cote and Issa Khan carries royalties that are directly linked to the gold price. With our realized gold price year-to-date averaging more than $500 above our 4,000 guidance assumptions, royalties average $370 per ounce this year, or $45 per ounce above guidance. On inputs, we saw inflations of about 3% on certain commodities input in the first nine months within our expectation. Labor rates and retention continue to be a significant priority for IMBEL, particularly in Canada. On energy, as noted here, a $10 per barrel mold in oil represents about $12 per ounce on our consolidated cost, including indirect inflation equating to an approximate $25 per ounce cost increase above our guidance. With that, I will pass the call over to our CFO to walk us through our financial results. Martin? Thank you, Renaud, and good morning, everyone. Operating results and support of gold price environment again translated into significant cash flow. Mindset free cash flow was $404.3 million in the order, bringing year-to-date mindset free cash flow to $1.3 billion. Operating cash flow before working capital and taxes for the first nine months was $1,7 billion. Working capital adjustments included $65.3 million of VAT refunds that ISACAN received this year. The operating cash flow funded capital expenditures of $320.3 million, $542.6 million of share repurchases, the net repayment of $200 million on a credit facility, $74 million paid to the government of Kinafaso for each portion of the ISACan dividend, and $27 million of withholding taxes on our gold portion of the evident. The net result is an increase in our cash balance of $344.7 million since the start of the year. In August, we also completed the sale of our 35% interest in the Bambadji joint venture in Senegal for $69.7 billion, or $48 million near of taxes and transaction costs. As a result, at September 30th, IAMGOLD had $766.6 million in cash and cash equivalents with our $850 million credit facility undrawn for total liquidity of approximately $1.6 billion. Our only remaining debt is the $450 million of senior notes due October 2028, redeemable at par since October 15th. We will continue to evaluate the most efficient use of a balance sheet with respect to the loans. Of our cash at quarter end, $321 million was held at Issa Khan. Cash at Isssa Khan built up between distributions and after quarter end. A further $135.8 million was repatriated to Canada. Turning to our financial results, Revenues for the third quarter was $856.5 million, from sales of 199,900 ounces, at an average realized gold price of $4,277 per ounce, slightly above the market price of$4,263 per ounce for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in the third corner was $503.9 million. Adjusted net earnings attributable to equity holders were $237 million or $0.42 per share compared with $170.9 million or 30 cents per share in the prior period. Earnings were primarily adjusted for the gain on sale of the Bombardier assets. Incurred capital expenditures were $109.7 million in the third quarter and $329.4 million year-to-date. Our full-year total capital expenditure guidance of $500 million, plus or minus 5%, is unchanged, which implies a step-up in spending in the fourth quarter. Within that total, we have reduced sustaining capital at Cote to $130 million on an attributable basis from $160 million, Due to the reprioritization of resources and defer of less credit projects of 2027, this is an offset by increases in funding capital at Issa Khan to $105 million from $165 million due to the change in the mining sequence that resulted in additional capitalized waste stripping. Turning to capital returns, during the third quarter, we repurchased and canceled approximately 7.6 million shares for $134.7 million, at an average price of $17.58 per share. Since the program began in December 25, we have repurchased 32.1 million shares for $592.6 billion, at a average price $18.47 per share, Our current normal course issuer bid runs to December 11, 2026, and subsequent quarter end, our board authorised the company to seek TSX approval for a new normal course issuer bid for further 12 months for up to approximately 10% of our outstanding shares. The buyback continues to be funded by cash repaid traded from ISACAN. In June, ISACAM declared a dividend of approximately $500 million from its 2025 earnings. IAM Gold's portion, net of the government's share in unfolding taxes, is approximately $400 million. Of this amount, we have received a total of approximately $225 million in student, with the balance expected to be distributed through the rest of 26 and early 2027, as ESSA can generate cash in excess of its working capital needs. On the Franco-Nevada royalty, as you know mentioned, We have delivered an irrevocable notice to repurchase 50% of the Franco-Nevada 7.5% gross margin royalty on Cote. Sumitomo elected not to participate, so Iron Gold will fund the full price of approximately $525 million from available liquidity and retain the full economic benefit, reducing our effective gross margin royalty from 7.5% to 2.14%. We expect the transaction to close in December with economic effect from January 1, 2027. This is an important transaction as it allows us a greater share of the cash flow from our largest asset. This fits squarely within our capital allocation framework. Cash flows from our Canadian operations fund our Canadian growth of Cote, Westwood, and Ellicott, as well as the Franco-Nevada royalty repurchase, further strengthening of the balance sheet, and a possible introduction of a dividend, which we are contemplating initiating in 2027. CAST from SACAN continues to fund the share buybacks, an approach we continue to evaluate for 2027, and with that, I will pass the call to Bruno Lemelin, our Chief Operating Officer, to discuss our operating results and outlook. Bruno? Thank you, Martin. Starting with Cote Gold. Cote produced 92,000 ounces on the 100-person basis in the third quarter, or 64,400 ounces to our account. This brings production for the year to 262,900 ounces on a 100-percent basis. On the mining side, we moved the quarterly record of 12.4 million tons of total material. This included 3.8 million tons more at a strip ratio of 2.3 to 1. Grain mine was 0.93 grand per ton in line with the mine plan as we continue to open up the pit through the pushback. We expect good mining rates in the fourth quarter as the fleet that supported the contractor crusher is back in the pit. The pioneering on the pushback is mostly complete and three new oil trucks come into service. In the plant, we milled 2.9 million tons, which averaged below nameplates for the quarter due to the extended annual shutdown in August. and the plant's first quarter running on owner-only crushing. By September, the improvement was clear. The plant averaged 37,100 tons per day, or 1.1 million tons in the month, above nameplate of 36,000 tons per week, with record crusher and HPGR throughput. head grades in the quarter average 1.1 grams per ton with recoveries of 90 percent recoveries were lower than in prior quarters due to downtime on one of our two verticals early in the quarter with both verticals both in operations recoveries have improved and we continue to optimize grind size through the circuit reconciliation of the reserve model through to mill feed and production continues to be excellent looking at the fourth quarter we expect the plan to average name plate of about 36 000 tons per day with higher grades as mining moves into higher grade zones of the mine plan with that we expect cote to finish at the lower end of its guidance range of 390 to 440,000 ounces on a 100% basis. Turning to costs, Cote reported third-quarter cash costs excluding royalties of $1,243 per ounce, cash costs of $1544 per ounce, and non-sustained costs of 2,056 dollars per ounce. In dollar terms, production costs were down 5% from last year as we began to see the benefit of owner-only crushing. On a unit basis, mining costs were $4.77 per ton, which remained above target due to contractor support for pioneering work on the pit pushback, plus our exclusive costs and diesel prices. We expect mining costs to decline in the fourth quarter on higher volumes and as pushback-related activities wind down. Mining costs were $18.92 per ton for the quarter, down from $20.85 in the second quarter. The best data point is September, in which mining averaged $15.36 per ton. Our targets are unchanged. We plan to exit 2026 at about $4 per tonne for mining and about $15 per ton for milling. For the full year, we now expect cash costs, excluding royalties at Cote, to be above the top end of our guiding range of $900 to $1,050 per ounce, and all in sustaining costs, including royalties, at the top end, of the $1 475 to $1625 range. We expect four-quarter costs to be lower, with more ounces, more tons, and better unit costs. Royalties at Cote were $301 per ounce in the quarter, or 19% of cash costs. With the repurchase of half of the Franco Nevada royalty, this will reduce the royalty impact on cash costs by approximately $150 per ounce. Now back to what comes next to cottage. We remain on track to release the updated Côté mine plan and mineral reserves estimate this quarter, followed by the technical report shortly after. For the first time, this plan will bring Côtés and Gosselin together into a single pit and one mine plan. With a consolidated pit, we expect the plan to show an increase in reserves and mine life. It will also set out a near-term path to take the plant from 36,000 tons per day to 40,000 tons per week. This comes from the development and targeted improvements to the existing plant. The second cone crusher is already in place and work has started on the third birdy mill, which we expect to install early in 2027. The remaining elements include improvements to their refeed systems, additional final dome capacity, and likely additional leach tanks. In parallel, we are considering trade-off studies on a larger expansion. Given the size of the combined Cote and Gosney resource, we see meaningful long-term potential, and our focus is on determining the right scale and the right path to unlock it. The phase two pushback underway today also gave us more flexibility in the pit as we evaluate those options. Turning to Westwood, the mine produced 28,500 ounces in the third quarter and 97,100 ounces year-to-date. We now expect Westwood to finish at the upper end of its guiding range of 110,000 to 130,000 ounces. Underground, we mined 99,000 tons of ore at 8.09 grams per ton. Tons were 10% higher than the prior year period on favorable stope sequencing and improved mining recovery, and grade benefited from sequencing and lower dilution. The mill processed 309,000 tons at a blended grade of 3.0 g per ton, with recoveries of 94%. Most importantly, Westwood generated $51.7 million of mine site free cash flow in the quarter and $218.2 million year to date. I also want to expand on the goal-bearing sludge-type material, or MIL-TEAM, identified at the bottom of the pregnant solution tank during a review of the edicto-winning circuit. The material is believed to have accumulated over a number of years. It has been recovered and placed in drums with a total combined weight of 14,700 kilograms. samples indicated solids content of 19% to 27% and gold content in the solids of 6% to 47%. For illustrative purposes only, using the average of those ranges, the material could contain approximately 30,000 ounces of gold. I want to be very clear, this is not an estimate of a recoverable or payable gold of production or of the financial benefit. We do not have a representative sample of the material. The illustration is subject to significant uncertainty and should not be regarded as a reliable estimate, and the actual gold recovered may differ materials. The material will be processed by an external refinery, and subject to completion of refining an assay, we expect the gold recovered to be reflected in our fourth quarter production results, although there can be no assurance as to the quantity or timing. Any gold recovered from this material is not included in our 2026 guidance. Turning to costs. Cash costs at Westwood were $1,794 per ounce in the quarter, and audience sustained costs were $2,118 per ounce. Year-to-date cash costs are $1.529 per ounce, and audience sustaining costs are$1,980 per ounce both within our guidance ranges. Costs per were higher this quarter compared with the first half of the year, reflecting fewer ounces sold and more drilling installed preparation on the ground, with underground mining costs of $322 per ton. Looking ahead, we have invested $12 million of expansion capital so far this year on development into the eastern zone of the mine to support the study of bulk mining options. The updated technical report, planned for the second half of 2027, is expected to highlight that potential. Bulk mining could potentially support higher underground throughput at a lower mining cost, replacing the lower-grade feed from Gansuq with higher-grade feeds from underground. We see this as a meaningful opportunity for Westwood, and we look forward to advancing that work. Turning to ESSACAN, the mine produced 94,000 attributable ounces in the third quarter, or 110,500 ounces on a 100% basis. Year-to-date, ESSATAN has produced 277,500 attributable answers, and we are on track for our guidance of 340,000 to 380,000 ounces. Mining totaled 11 million tons, including 3 million tons of oil. The mill processed 3.3 million tons at a head rate of 1.18 grams per ton. Both mining and milling rates were in line with the plan, which reflects the continued strong management of our supply chain by the team at ESSACAN. Most importantly, SACAN continues to generate strong cash flows. Mine site free cash flows was $271.1 million in the quarter and $735 million year-to-date on a 100-person basis. Looking further ahead, we plan to publish an updated technical report for SACAM in mid-2027, which is expected to outline the potential to extend the mine line up to 2035 through additional phases in the Essakan pit and adjacent areas. Turning to costs, Essakan had a strong quarter. Cash costs excluding royalties were $1,122 per ounce, 21% lower than the prior year period. Cash costs were $1,603 per ounce, and all in sustained costs were 2,063 dollars per ounce. Mining costs were 5.44 dollars per ton, down from 7.13 a year ago, as the seprolite and the transition material in the lava pit requires less drilling and blasting. Royalties were $481 per ounce or 30% of cash costs. Our average royalty rate was 11% in the quarter compared with 9% a year ago. On energy, our fuel supply and costs have not been materially impacted by the conflict in the Middle East to date, although fuel prices increased by about 3.5% in September, and we continue to monitor the risk closely. For the year, we expect cash costs, excluding royalties, to be within the guidance range of $1,150 to $1.300 per ounce, and all in sustained costs, including royalties at the top end of $1550 to $1700 range. Finally, on the matter of the government decree requiring companies to use local refiners in Brooklyn at Basel, As we noted, we have received a temporary exemption from this requirement. Meanwhile, we are working closely with the government and related stakeholders to ensure there is no interruption in the refining process. With that, I will pass it back to Renaud. Thank you, Bruno. And beyond our three operating mines, the Nelligan Mining Complex in Quebec is where we see the next chapter of IAMGOL. The complex holds 4.3 million ounces of indicated and 7.5 million ounces of inferred mineral resources across a dominant land position of approximately 134,000 hectares, making one of the largest pre-production gold camps in Canada. This year is about drilling, and we have extended our programs, milling in from 18,000 to up to 30,000 meters, focused on upgrading ounces and testing extensions along Stripe and ADEPT. And at Monster Lake, from 15,000 to at least 20,000 meters following high-grade hits deeper in the Megan Zone. In total, we have completed more than 70,000 meters across Nelligan, Monster Lake and Philibert so far this year. All of the primary deposits is within the 17-kilometer radius, which support our vision of the central processing facility fed by multiple ore sources. On October 27, we released our latest drill results from the complex, and we continue to build our confidence in what we have in the Shibugamu region. What stands out to me is that all three primary deposits are moving in the right direction. At Milligan's, mineralizations continue to plunge, with several intersections grading well above the current resource average. Hull NE26272 is a good example. It intersected 77 meters at 2.23 grams per ton, well below the current mineralized envelope, at more than twice the average resource rate. At Monster Lake, we have extended the high-grade Megan zone to a depth of 600 meters, and the grays are holding. All ML25293 returns 7.7 meters at 24.5 grams per ton, starting 760 meters down the hole. And at Philly Bear, our first drilling program comes from the previously defined zones and grays and points to further potential depth. Given these results, we intend to run a substantially larger drill program at the complex in 2027. We expect to publish a preliminary economics assessment for the complex in mid-2027, which will bring the larger 2026 drills program into the study and bring these deposits together into one development concept for the first time, and we see the potential for the complex to continue to grow well beyond it stepping back nelligan monster lake and filibur are each 100 owned by imgo so our shareholders return the full benefit of the value we create with continued success we see the potential for an elegant mining complex to become one of the largest assets in imgo's portfolio over time and we are excited about the works ahead With that, we will progress to questions. I want to congratulate our teams for another quarter of safe and consistent execution. IAMGOLD is on track for our production guidance. We have generated nearly $1.3 billion of our mine site free cash flow so far this year, and we have returned close to $600 million to shareholders through our buyback since December 25. All while building a net cash position and a strong balance sheet. At the same time, we are investing in our future. And through 2027, every one of our assets has a clear catalyst which will demonstrate the potential of our portfolio from a position of financial strength. Thank you for your continued support. Operator, you can now open the line for questions. Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star 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 any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star than 2. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. the first question comes from anita sony with cibc world markets please go ahead good morning guys thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on a solid quarter firstly at cote it's good to see the reduction in processing costs in september it looks like you got down to that 15 ish mark that you were targeting would that be sustained into q4 in 2027 Yes, that's the plan. Actually, the goal for Q4 is to sustain the momentum that we have at operating at main plate capacity for the whole quarter. So, this is the goal, and we believe that with that current production level, it should be in line with that target. Okay, and then would that also, that $36,000 per day, is that the goal and the $15 a ton for 2027, or are there other shutdowns or maintenance that we should be thinking about? No major shutdowns until the end of the year, and for 2037. Okay. And then on mining costs, I just wanted to go over what you need to do in Q4 in 2027 to drive that closer to the sub-$4 per ton mark. And is that ultimately what you see as the target still? Or are you still targeting something closer tothe mid-threes on mining cost per ton? So what do you need? I'm assuming it's a pushback and opening up the pit. what i recall from the monitor but now now that we have some numbers around it i just wanted to get a little bit more color on on what you need to do to drive those costs down yes in q4 uh we're going to rely less on rehandling and taking uh refeed from the low grade stockpile so we're gonna try to maximize uh most of the exception directly to the mill so you will increase the efficiency of the whole fleet after that also as we extend a bit you're going to be able to have better packet definition larger blast also working on fragmentation loading efficiency as well so we have a very good plan ahead to decrease the cost from where we are now toward the four dollars and even like mid in the mid threes like later on that's that's our goal okay the last one I'm going to ask and I'll jump back in the queue and let other people ask questions Martin this one's for Martin can you just walk me through how that royalty would be modeled I just want to make sure that I I've got it correct but I would just assume the revenue times two point one four percent and that would be the royalty portion of your cash cost is that correct it would be revenue less cash cost so your gross margin times with the 2.14 okay and then that is for iron gold if you model iron gold at 70 percent the asset on its own is yeah 3.75 percent the 30 percent that we now own from that was previously owned by Sumitomo is what is reducing our portion at 70% further from 3.75% to 2.14%. Yeah, that's where the complexity comes in. I might need a follow-up call. So, yeah, I was just trying to figure out exactly how you would report these cash costs versus what the effective benefit. So I'd be modeling the gross margin at 3. 75% if I model this at 100% basis and then applies. Anyway, we'll take it offline. I think I'm running myself in circles on this one. Okay, thank you. Good, thank You. Thank you for your question, Andy. Appreciate it. Thank You. The next question comes from Fahad Tariq with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Hi, thanks for taking my question. On the Cote royalty buyback, can you just confirm that you're using cash on the balance sheet to fund the $525 5 million and not adding debt. And then second, just any thoughts around how you came to the decision on the buyback now, any internal models on the payback period, IRR, et cetera, would be helpful. Thanks. Good morning. So for the royalty, sorry, I missed part of your question. But Basically, for us, we will be using cash from the balance sheet. We're going to continue to use cash as it comes in from Instacamp to buy back shares as well. If there is a need, we might have to draw on a credit facility, but it would be very short term if we have to do that. The timing for us makes sense now because then it is effective on the 1st of January next year and it's keen for the next year. If you look at the valuation that Franco Nevada did on the asset a year and a half ago when they bought the royalty from a third party, we are buying it at that same valuation effectively, but the gold price environment is a lot higher. So that is what is having the impact for us. And the additional $150 per ounce is also a big contributing factor for our decision to do this. So it gives a good return. It's all dependent on gold prices. And I think having the full study later this year will help people understand that better. Okay. And then on that study, can you just talk about how we should be thinking about the reserve price assumption? And then also, just to confirm, will that study only show the 40,000 tons per day base case, or is there some sort of upside case that will also show higher expansion? No, the – as we know here, so to make it short and also the study, somewhat a bit of an update, kind of a new base case of 2022 where the asset was moving from 36 towards 42 with additional equipment that are currently being installed. So, it's going to highlight the full resource potential, as we've discussed, Cote-Goslin, which will be turned into the reserve. We're going to use $2,100 an ounce for the reserve price for the study. And it does not highlight beyond, but would highlight a production profile that gave us the time to rethink and execute on time, should we decide down the road to have an expansion without losing the production profile. That is the objective. And on the reserve price? $2,100 in that. Thank you. Thank you, the next question comes from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead. Good morning, Ronell and Tim, and thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to ask a question on the book, you know, refining order and that November 1st requirement. I think you noted that you do have a temporary exemption on that requirement. First, how long does that last? And secondly, is this requirement impacted in any way, shape, or form, the cash repatriation or settlement timing that you currently have and the benefit that you have of basically taking cash out of SACAIN? yeah so less less here is that there's kind of nothing really new here i mean this this refinery uh the government announced like it wasn't more than a year ago the constructions of refining with the view to uh to give them a chance as well to uh to refine in-house from the small scales up to the commercial uh there is quite a bit of a ramp up and so forth. So there is no date on the exemption. So business as usual for the time being and eventually down the road there would be discussions with the refiner and our view in this is when everything and everyone is ready and there could be a potential for us to refine in the in-country a portion of all. But there's quite a bit of work to be done before we get there. In terms up any change or or things like that you know and and uh in the process so martin if you want to add anything but uh but for the execution per se there is no thanks good morning mohammed so the the real risk of the impact here is really working capital and if it delays the gold sales process but there's very good alignment with the government in these discussions because Because once the gold gets exported, that's when it triggers the royalty payments to the government as well. So, everybody wants to, of course, make sure that we can convert the gold into cash as quickly as we can, and that would then allow us to not have that working capital impact. If it is a bit slower, there would be some working capital, but it doesn't affect our ability to repatriate cash. It might just slow it down slightly. Great. Thanks a lot for that, Collar. And then for my second question, just on the Westwood sludge, I know that, you know, in the MDNA, there is a potential mention of the gold coming in or landing in Q4. But could you maybe give us a little bit more color on the refining, the asset timelines, and how you're working through this? Thank you. Martin? um so the material is being shipped in batches to the external refiner and processing has just started this week so we expect over the course of november and um first half of december to finish that process so that we should at least have the assays because we're doing batches we'll be able to then convert it into sales as well so when we get to the end of the year we should have a good understanding. Great. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on a good quarter. Thank you. Thank you, the next question comes from Harrison Reynolds with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. I'm Gold Team, and congratulations on a great quarter, and appreciate all the detail provided so far. I wanted to follow up on the sludge there. Do you have any indication, early days still, but on the payabilities you might receive on the gold? And also, is there an opportunity to recover this material from the circuit on a go-forward basis? Bruno, you want to give some follow-up to that? Yeah. So, in terms of moving forward, we have modified our standard operating procedures, so this type of event don't occur again and all future particles that could evade like the electrical winning uh cell would be captured and uh taking into account that uh in every month so it's uh it's mostly the uh the process has been improved with the the team that when investigated the this area we're able to uh measure area well as to how we could improve the the system so Yes, the answer is yes, it's going to be managed on a monthly basis, but no. The most important thing I think here is to know that we do not feel that there's been loss of gold over those years. I think, you know, for those of you that know the installation, so while the processing facilities recover at a very high rate and function extremely well, but it's not necessarily the most modern. so that there is always a golden circuit that you expect to recover a force of a year at the end of the facilities. But in this specific case, there were gold being accumulated in one specific area that we had not noticed before. This is done now, and moving forward, you should not expect any adjustment. Got it. Thank you. And on the payabilities of that material, what are your early discussions with the refiner like as it relates to how much you might get paid for the gold? So it's commercially sensitive information, so I can't give you the exact rate, but it is the same as when companies would send carbon fines or material involved with more liners. So it is, it's the same that you would get in one of those prices. was meant to vary a high 90%. Got it. Thank you. And just one last one. Good to see the metrics reached at COTA in September, and I appreciate the detail you gave so far. But anything you can provide on how operations trended in October, were you able to be near nameplate throughput and how costs were tracking on a month-to-month basis? We do not have visibility yet on the cost for October, but operationally speaking, I could say that our trends continue. We're very, very pleased to how since September it's been operating, and the tendency and the return has continued in October. Got it. Thank you so much for taking my questions, and congrats on the quarter again. thank you thank you once again if you have a question please press star than one the next question comes from delvin jeep with scotiabank please go ahead hello everybody good morning and uh congrats on the strong quarter thank you for taking my questions so first we'll be on the q4 just based on your guidance and your two days so like this will be a bit stronger on production and do you have any directional color on the uni costs uh if you refer to uh to colite per se uh as as a as a on of course you've seen the productions true but all or 400 bases to date definitions we we you know we say we remain very very confident to hit so by definition there has to be a strong water and we're very confident that the team can pool uh we've achieved 1536 in mailing costs in september and we think that we could achieve uh towards the 15 for the full quarter this is the objective we still have as bruno has mentioned earlier uh mentioned that you know our mining cost remains a little higher but but we feel strong that while we may not totally achieve our objective but we think you'll see an improvement and the Q4 on the mining costs and entered 27 well positions to continue. So that's what I could say so far for Cote. We definitely need a strong quarter to meet. We are fully aware of it, but as we mentioned on the throughput and so forth, so it's going well. right right absolutely thank you and uh turning on to 2027 what kind of inflation assumptions shall we like assume and what kind of inflation have you seen like among the costs 27 over 26 yeah yeah good morning dalvin um we're going through the budget process If we look at the impact of inflation based on the current inputs, not the impact of drivers, we are seeing 3%, maybe 4%, depending on the operations. So in that range of 3% to 4% would be the inflation assumption for next year, excluding the impact on diesel. So diesel has an impact, mainly at Cota and in Sakan. I would say about 12% of the total operating cost is for diesel and energy, so it does not have a significant impact, but it does have an impact, and we continue to look at putting in additional gold hedges at Cote in Burkina Faso. The price is less predictable, but the price is lower. it also doesn't change that often because of the way that it's purchased in Burkina. So that's kind of our main assumptions that we've seen thus far. Right, absolutely, yeah. Turning to the Nelligan, the PEA coming next year, so you have a cut of grade, a cut-off date for the drilling and will you be incorporating like combined economics of Nelligan, Monster Lake, and Philibert? Yeah, the PEA is going to give us a preliminary idea of the economic nature of Nelligen. The plan will have to look at if we can combine Monster Lake as an underground operation, and the Milligan pit and also Philly all together and see how long of a life we have and kind of a cost structure that we can have in the area. We're working also on the general arrangement plan to locate infrastructure and how big they are going to be and like a preliminary cost of all those items. So, yeah, mid-2027, we will have a pretty first glance of what mitigating could look like. All right. I see a thing here in the cut-off grade. Can we start cut-of-date of drilling? Would it be end of year or early next year? Sorry, could you repeat that one? For the PEA, the cutoff date for the drilling, when you, like, can update your economics and your resources? Yeah, a year in, correct. Okay, right. And you would understand that every other aspect has advanced extremely. The most important was ready to complete as much as possible the filibur, and we confirmed, you know, from what we had acquired back in 25 to incorporate it. But, of course, when it comes to overall cost and capital and so forth and infrastructure, we've advanced enormously. And as we complete the drilling, do the cutoff, and complete the resource, we'll just incorporate the work and be on time for mid-27th. All right. That's all from me. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. The next question comes from Magina Abdelina with Freedom Burger. Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. So with 2026 sustaining capital of SFCAN increased from $165 to around like $200 million, should we expect stripping expenditures to remain at similar levels in 2027? Martin? Good morning, Nijina. So we are working through our budgeting process and we are looking at that. But for SFCAN for next year, we will be spending additional capital to advance the Block 3 and mine life extension. So the capital would be slightly higher, but we are just working through those numbers as part of our planning process at this point. Thank you. And at Westwoods, underground mining costs increased back to $520 per ton in Q3, partly due to additional store preparation. So as underground development progresses, should we expect these costs to normalize in the next year? On the underground side, you refer obviously to the Westwood. I think, and we have discussed that one largely. Like, if you look at 26, 27, 28, they should be somewhat, you know, pretty similar years as we continue to work on the eastern and incorporation of the eastern corridor. While they would never be perfectly copy-paste, but you should expect 27 to be somewhat in the range of 26. Thank you. Yeah, and the all guidance for 27, of course, will come early in 27, for the plan of 27. And with the plan, of code, they, of cause, would highlight somewhat, you know, a little more than a one year. Thank you. And the next question is a follow-up from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead. Hi, just a couple more questions. Firstly, can I go back to the Cote-Gosselin study? Are you still targeting around 70% to 75% conversion of the 20 million ounces that you have in global mineral inventory at this point? Well, you know, we have received – we released our resource update, which has, I like, the $20 million. And, of course, you have to go through some sort of the depletions of the year. So if you do all the math, yes, we continue to be very confident that we could convert that to my 70% plus. Yeah. And then now that you're, you know, I guess, I mean, like if I'm trying to anticipate how to model Gosselin within the profile, would it be fair to say that it goes near the end of the mine life if you're going to try to sequence the tailings dam into an empty cote pit. I'm just trying to get an understanding of that in light of the royalty, right? I think part of the economics of that buyback of the loyalty is that you're buying it ahead of the Goughlin update. So the sequence that favors the 40,000 ton per day scenario is more sequential, more linear. So we focus much more on Cote for the beginning of the life of mine and subsequently Gosling comes last. And we're actually at the, yeah. Yeah, so which would create some opportunities, of course. But again, this is the new, this has kind of been updated, what we call like really new base case, And we highlighted a pretty interesting productions profile for the next years to come. But eventually down the road, we maintain the door open, of course, to eventually go towards an expansion. But this is not for this time. Yeah, I was just trying to figure out a way to, you know, quickly model this because I'm currently just using the Cote and then have some in situ value for Gosselin. but to try to show the economics on that royalty buyback, I'd have to start to model Gosselin ahead of your update. Okay, thanks. And then just on the Burkina, the requirement to refine in-country, how long does that exemption last? And how do you see these early days, but what kind of things should we be thinking about if you do have to refine In-Country in terms of the cost and the cost impact? Okay. On term of exemption, there is no date. I mean, they literally just inaugurated the refinery, and as I mentioned, there's also all the scale, the small-scale mining as well. We'll see. There is no-date exemption, so we continue, as a matter of fact, I think we were like shipping this week and so forth, and business as usual. In term of cost per se, as mentioned, Martin has mentioned, it's not so much about cost more than making sure we don't create further delays. Okay, all right, thank you. That's it for my question. Thank you. 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. And thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. As always, if you have any additional questions, please reach out to Manohar and myself. Thank you all, be safe, have a great day. This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.