Equinox Gold Corp. Aktie

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Ingrid Rico, SVP, Capital Markets for Equinox Gold. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join the call this morning. Before we begin, I would like to direct everyone to the forward-looking statements on Slide #2. Our remarks today, including responses during the question-and-answer session, may include forward-looking information regarding the company's future performance. Although management believes the statements are based on reasonable assumptions, actual results may differ materially. Please refer to today's cautionary statements and our most recent regulatory filings available on SEDAR+, EDGAR and our website. Today's presentation also includes certain non-IFRS financial measures. Please refer to our MD&A for reconciliations and additional information. Unless otherwise stated, all figures discussed today are in U.S. dollars.

Joining me on the call today are Darren Hall, our Chief Executive Officer; Jason Simpson, President; Peter Hardie, Chief Financial Officer; and our operating team, David Schummer and Andrew Cormier. Today, Darren will discuss the quarter and our operational progress. Jason will review our updated outlook and priorities for the second half of the year, and then we'll open the call for questions. The presentation is available on our website, and a replay of today's webcast will be available in the presentation archive.

With that, I'll pass the call over to Darren.

Turning to Slide 3, and thanks, Ingrid. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. With the completion of the business combination with Orla Mining, we entered the second half of 2026 as North America's new senior gold producer with meaningfully greater production, stronger cash flow and one of the industry's strongest organic growth pipelines. The financial benefits of the combination will begin to be reflected in our third quarter results. In this call we'll also highlight the continued operational progress we've made across the portfolio, particularly at Greenstone and Valentine. Our focus is now straight forward: disciplined integration, operational execution, and delivering the long-term value this transformational combination has created. Before I discuss the quarter, I'd like to thank our employees across both Equinox and Orla, completing a transaction of this scale while continuing to operate safely is a tremendous accomplishment and appreciate everyone's commitment throughout the process.

The combined company is built around a portfolio of high-quality, long-life assets anchored by 3 cornerstone Canadian mines: Greenstone, Musselwhite, and Valentine, supported by one of the strongest organic growth pipelines in the industry. Importantly, this isn't simply about becoming larger. It's about creating a stronger company with greater financial capacity, operating resilience and maintaining a disciplined capital outlook to unlock long-term value creation. That confidence is also reflected in the actions we've taken today. The Board approved a 50% increase to our annual dividend to $0.09 per share. As a larger, more cash-generative business, we believe it is important that our shareholders participate directly in the value we're creating while maintaining the financial flexibility to invest in our growth pipeline and preserve a strong balance sheet.

Turning to Slide 4. The second quarter reflected continued improvement across our Canadian operations and increased confidence in our outlook for the balance of the year. Greenstone continued to perform well with the mill effectively achieving nameplate through the second quarter. The team's focus is now on building on that performance while continuing to improve mining rates and grade delivery.

At Valentine, we also saw another meaningful step forward. The process plant continued to perform exceptionally well, consistently delivering above nameplate capacity during the quarter. At the same time, improvements in mining performance, ore control and grade reconciliation resulted in significantly better performance compared to the first quarter, and that positive trend has continued into July. July mill feed grades averaged more than 1.8 grams per tonne, providing further evidence that the operational improvement initiatives are delivering the expected results. These improvements reinforce our confidence that the operating initiatives are working, and we expect to see that reflected in stronger production and lower unit costs through the balance of the year.

Together with Greenstone's continued ramp-up and the addition of Musselwhite, we expect our Canadian portfolio to deliver higher production, lower unit costs and stronger cash flow through the second half of the year. The transaction also leaves us in a strong financial position. We finished July with approximately $650 million of cash, a net cash position of approximately $214 million and approximately $1.2 billion of available liquidity. That balance sheet gives us the flexibility to execute our growth strategy while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation. Today's 50% dividend increase reflects our confidence in the cash-generating capability of the combined company and our commitment to return value to shareholders.

With that, I'll pass the call over to Jason.

Thank you, Darren, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 5. It's a pleasure to be joining you all on today's call. Since the transaction was announced, I've spent considerable time with our operating teams reviewing each asset, the operating plans and the assumptions supporting our outlook for the balance of the year. Based on that work, I'm confident in the assumptions underpinning our updated guidance and comfortable with our ability to deliver it.

Our updated guidance reflects 12 months of production from the legacy Equinox Gold operations and 5 months of contribution from Musselwhite and Camino Rojo following the completion of the transaction on July 31. For 2026, we now expect consolidated production of between 870,000 ounces and 920,000 ounces. On a pro forma basis, the combined company would produce approximately 1.1 million ounces of gold. The guidance reflects stronger second half performance from Greenstone and Valentine, together with the 5 months of production from Musselwhite and Camino Rojo.

As production increases through the second half, we expect improved fixed cost absorption and lower unit costs. Combined with the addition of Musselwhite and Camino Rojo, that supports our expectation for consolidated total cash costs of $1,600 to $1,700 per ounce and all-in sustaining costs of $1,900 to $2,000 per ounce, with stronger cash generation through the balance of the year. From my perspective, the opportunity over the second half is really about execution.

The operating plans are in place. The teams understand the priorities at each site, and our focus is on safely delivering against those plans while maintaining discipline around costs and capital allocation. As Darren mentioned, at Valentine, the process plant continues to perform exceptionally well and has consistently demonstrated throughput above nameplate capacity. The opportunity now is continuing to improve mining performance and grade delivery. The initiatives the team has implemented around selective mining, ore control, grade definition, dilution management and blending are beginning to deliver the expected results. We saw meaningful high-grade reconciliation during the second quarter compared to the first, and that positive trend, as Darren mentioned, continued into July.

In July, as indicated earlier, mill feed averaged approximately 1.8 grams per tonne gold, providing further evidence that the operational improvements are transitioning and translating into a stronger mill feed and positioning us well for the second half. There is still work ahead of us, but we are encouraged by the progress we have been seeing. As we continue executing those initiatives, we have been increasing our confidence in our ability to deliver full year guidance and continue realizing the full potential at Valentine. Overall, I'm confident with the operating plans across the combined portfolio and confident in our ability to deliver a stronger second half.

Turning to Slide 6. The completion of the Orla transaction fundamentally changes the scale and quality of Equinox Gold. We now have a stronger operating platform, greater financial capability and one of the industry's strongest organic growth pipelines. Our immediate focus needs to be execution. That means delivering on our second half operating plans, achieving our full year production and cost guidance and successfully integrating the combined organization while maintaining the operational momentum we have built.

Looking beyond 2026, we have a portfolio of high-quality assets and a pipeline of organic growth opportunities that provides a clear path for long-term value creation. We'll continue advancing those opportunities in a disciplined and measured way, prioritizing the projects that generate the strongest returns while maintaining financial flexibility. We have the assets, the balance sheet and most importantly, the people to deliver on that strategy. Now it's about consistent execution and delivering on our commitments.

With that, we'll pass it over to the operator, and we'd be pleased to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Wayne Lam with TD Securities.

Yes. Maybe just starting with downtime. The grades were normally nominally higher this quarter, but the mine plan that was released in March calls for average process grades of 2.5 gram through 2028. So just was wondering if you could outline a bit more detail on steps being taken here on the selectivity and the dilution front? And just wondering if that's still a reasonable target or does there need to be a bit of a reset in the reserve grade or expectation at some point as we think ahead to the coming quarters in 2027?

Yes. Wayne, and thanks for the questions, and thanks for TD's support. I'll start with the last part of that question first. From a reserve grade perspective, we're comfortable in the contained metal within the deposit. And that's what we've said quarter-on-quarter for the last couple of quarters. Our challenges have been about reflecting the selectivity that was intimated in the feasibility study or the technical report that we released. And we've made significant improvements quarter-on-quarter to deliver a higher grade above our cutoffs. So the ability to deliver an average rate above an all waste cutoff is solid. We're comfortable with that. And what we saw Q2 over Q1 was a market improvement in our high-grade reconciliation above an elevated cutoff. We improved reconciliation by close to 20% in the quarter, and that was reflected in a stronger grade in the quarter, but more importantly, in July, we saw a 1.8 gram grade. That has continued into August, and it's only early, but we're approaching around a 2-gram grade disc in August month today.

If we talk about some of the operating initiatives that we're focused on, I'll throw it over to Dave and just, Dave, do you want to give a little bit of an outline of some of the things we've been focusing on over the last quarter or 2?

Yes. For sure. Thanks, Darren. So we've been applying the software called OREPro 3D, which helps us understand as we've lost the material, how much is displaced and helps us better outline the polygon. And we're also focused intently on improving the Polygon Mining compliance. And that compliance was up in the high 90s this last month, which is a significant improvement over previous. We're focused on dilution across the board, operator training, training our technical people, et cetera. And I believe the results we're seeing are consistent with what I'd expect and expect that to continue through the rest of the year, as Darren mentioned.

And when you start thinking about the longer term, right? I see no need to reset expectations in that space. I mean, we've revised guidance for this year and the revised guidance reflects the performance that we have seen, carried forward for the balance of the year. And I don't think it fully represents the improvements that we have seen and we'll see. We've kind of arguably set the -- arguably a little conservatively as we want to kind of increase the level of confidence in our ability to deliver into expectations for that asset. And the production profile in the back end of the year is 80,000 to 90,000 ounces. So when you annualize that, you're still towards the midpoint of guidance of what would have been a full year guidance.

So as we roll into 2027, we're going to continue to see those benefits improve. The realized grade increase will maintain throughput and importantly, the Board just yesterday approved full funds for Valentine, which we -- for the Phase 2, which we disclosed in the release as well. And as we implement or build that expansion, that will take a lot of the issues out of the selectivity issues that we see in the short term until we have that 5 million tonne plant in play.

So I think that what we're seeing is typical and normal sort of ramp-up related issues. We were overly aggressive in terms of our selectivity for the start of the year. We're working through those issues. We're improving. We'll continue to, and we're very comfortable and confident with the estimates we've put out there.

Jason, anything you'd layer on that, mate?

Yes. I think -- and David, Andrew and I will be down in Newfoundland very shortly to oversee and confirm our confidence in the work that's already been initiated in terms of grade control and selectivity to preferentially feed that high grade. But in my experience with these ramp-ups, this kind of stabilization of the operation, everything from grade control to operating efficiencies of the equipment and so on is normal course in ramping up any project, and that's represented here in Valentine.

And both in the production and the cost. We've basically taken a run rate that we have seen for the year projected it for. So the gains that we've seen, the efficiencies we've seen in the reduction in spend and we have not been factored into and we'll be transparent here is -- the point estimate of our internal estimates going forward is lower than our low end of guidance for costs, right? So we're really trying to set the asset up for delivering to expectations and not disappoint.

Wayne, did we cover your question? Is there anything else outstanding in your head?

Yes, thanks. No, that's great. That's a lot of detail. Maybe moving to Greenstone, Nice to see the improvement in the process grades quarter-over-quarter alongside the tonnage getting towards design. Just wondering if you had any commentary on the lag in the recoveries? And then would you be able to give us some color on the timing of the installation of the trommel and expected impact that might have operationally on throughput or recoveries?

Yes, for sure. And I'll start with -- I'll start at the end of the question because I can remember that part, right, and then go backwards. The trommel is still in play here for the end of the year, and we will see the benefit of that before the end of the year. And what that will do, it will take out a lot of the tramp that we're feeding into the plant, which creates unnecessary downtime and also remove and reduces efficiencies within the plant. And that was always envisaged to get us to nameplate. But pleasingly, where we see today, I mean, for the average throughput for Q2, we were just a smidgen under nameplate capacity, were 26,000 tonnes for the quarter.

Now for the third quarter, so through -- actually yesterday morning, through the fourth of August, or fifth of August, we were just over nameplate at 28 -- just over 28,000 tonnes a day. So we are -- what we are seeing is all of the activities that Brian and the team have been leading over the last year at Greenstone are truly paying dividends. So we're comfortable that we can deliver into nameplate or exceeding the nameplate without the trommel. So the trommel then positions us well as we head into 2027 to start challenging that installed capacity to maybe 30 or 300,000 tonnes a day. So we're very comfortable with where that sits. We're seeing grades consistent with our expectations in terms of reconciliation with the model. We are still seeing some kind of a -- bit of an overhang here from a recovery perspective. Recoveries in the quarter, around 80% thereabouts. And we are seeing higher levels of arsenopyrite.

Dave, do you want to -- or Matt, do you want to give a little bit of color on?

Sure. Yes. On the arsenopyrite, we are seeing -- we're learning more as we mine through the ore body, and we're trying to model better. We're undertaking some efforts to do a sampling campaign to understand the distribution of that arsenopyrite within the ore body, and we'll know more as we go through that in the remainder of '26 and into '27.

So yes, comfortable with where we sit and looking forward. I think that the technical report kind of holistically reasonably represents what we expect to get out of the assets. So there will be some unders and overs as always. But I think with the improved throughput above the nameplate with grade reconciling well, we'll work through the recovery issues. I think we're setting ourselves up to be able to comfortably deliver into those long-term expectations for Greenstone.

Okay. Great. And then maybe just last 1 for Jason. Just curious when the merger was announced, I had posed a question about whether you were coming in to run a larger entity. And you had said, "Let me be clear about the leadership. Darren and I are partnered in this combined company." So just wondering now with Darren stepping aside pretty shortly and some kinks still to be worked out with some of the Equinox assets, I mean you have a pretty successful track record getting back to Torex and with Orla, but just wondering if something had prompted a change in the management structure since our last discussion? And just curious where you're prioritizing your focus as you get into the seat? It just seems like a pretty big portfolio to take over in a very short period of time.

Yes, Wayne, thanks for remembering our last conversation, and I stand by it. Darren and I are absolutely and remain partners in this business. What prompted the change is 2 things. One, internally, as we combine the companies and Ed Chan is working on integration, Dave and Andrew working on operations. At the corporate level, the clarity of who's making the decisions needed to be enhanced. And so Darren and I spoke about this, and we felt that internally for us, it was best to clarify that. Externally, making sure that we understood who is representing the company outside Ed Chan again in Capital Markets and his team as well as myself, will do that. But Darren isn't going anywhere. He's sitting right next to me right now. He will continue to be an adviser to the company. He and I speak every day about the combined company. And frankly, I will be relying upon his support to run this bigger entity, the likes of which is going to be daunting as we operate all these mines and build all these projects. So I will seek his counsel and continue to receive it. We've got a great team at Equinox. The folks out in Newfoundland, our combined operations in Ontario, and that's just speaking about our Canadian operations. So I look forward to the work ahead to run what is a strong company. And I'll need the counsel of people like Darren, like our new Board of Directors that met for the first time yesterday. And so now it's about getting to work and delivering on expectations, and that starts with hitting our numbers.

And Jason, just let me layer on that. It's -- we thought long and hard about this over the last couple of weeks. I mean, this is something that's emerged pretty quickly, but it was through the report and the relationship we developed over the last 6 months as we've been working through this process. And when I looked at what was in front of this organization and the amount of change we've seen within the business, we needed someone who could turn up and say that I'm committed to be here for the next 5 years. And Jason is in that position, and I remain a significant shareholder in that -- in this business. And even though I may not be an executive employee, I'll be with Jason for whatever we need for, whatever period of time, unless I find myself in a position where I'm conflicted to do so. And I don't have any plans to be conflicted. So no, I think that we're -- externally, it probably creates a little bit of discomfort, but we've done it for what we believe is best for the business to ensure there's clarity internal to the business so that all people who deliver the results to you all can be absolutely certain about their future and what the business looks like.

And so I think we're having our cake and eat too. So no, I'm very comfortable with the change. And Jason is well positioned, too. He's got a great team around him, and he's got lots of support from folks like myself. So I think we're in a good position, Wayne.

Okay. Great. Best of luck in the months ahead. And Darren, thank you for the partnership over the years and best of luck in retirement.

Yes. Thanks, buddy.

The next question is from Anita Soni with CIBC.

I just had a few more questions on Valentine. I wanted to understand what the assumptions are for -- just from a throughput and grade -- mill feed grade perspective for the guidance at Valentine for this year. So you delivered like 7.7% on the mill throughput. Is that the kind of back half assumption above nameplate and lower grades or whatever the implied grades would be? Or are you still assuming 6,500 tonne per day in the back half?

No. It's reflecting the buoyancy we see in throughput, and it's reflecting a lower grade than anticipated. Now I'll ask Matt to comment on the specifics of, but from memory, I think for the balance of the year, we're probably anticipating a rate about 1.8, 1.85 grams per tonne?

Correct.

And recoveries in that 93%, 94%, which we've seen. And encouragingly, Anita, what we have seen is that we've seen recoveries maintained with significantly higher throughputs, which is fantastic. And so you back into the tonnes to get those ounces. That's kind of the math.

Matt, have I missed anything?

No, that's correct. .

Yes. So it truly reflects throughput performance without any further improvements, which we still anticipate there will be as we work through and the team continue to optimize that plant. But it reflects arguably, a somewhat conservative view on metal in terms of being able to deliver into that high-grade cutoff. Again, it's only a -- we're only 6 weeks into the quarter, but we are seeing grades consistent or better than what was fundamentally assumed within the forecast. So I think we're well positioned in that space, Anita.

Okay. So then -- so the 1.8 gram, 1.85 gram, that's not that much above the actual head grade you should be seeing out of the pit, which I believe was about 1.7 gram for the year. So my question, I guess, relates now to the mining rates. The average over the year should have been about 1 point -- sorry, 154,000 tonnes per day, and you're doing about 110,000 right now. So with the -- I guess, with the more I guess, what am I trying to say, less segregation involved and getting to just -- from getting the 1.7 gram to be upgraded to 1.8 gram, 1.85 gram, is that a fair assumption that you'll be basically doing like less segregation than the original mine plan, because I think it called for about 50 million tonnes -- sorry, like almost 5.5 million tonnes of ore versus a mill feed of about 2.5 million tonnes of ore?

Yes, Anita, we'll -- yes, happy to have kind of a real fulsome discussion offline as well. But I guess as I will kind of for the general audience to separate out 2 things, is that what we have seen, we have seen a slower ramp-up in absolute mining, but that's unrelated to the selectivity issues. Regardless of how many tonnes you mine, you want to be as selective as you possibly can. So we're not compromising selectivity for volume, right? Volume will always want to deliver the best possible grade. So no, the grade assumption reflects basically backward-looking performance with some moderate increases in quality around the segregation, but I don't think it really reflects where we will get to.

In terms of the absolute volumes, Dave, I mean we're not winding 110,000 tonnes a day now?

No. No, the number is accurate earlier in the year, but now we're in the 140,000, 145,000 tonnes per day range.

Yes. We've had some significant improvements.

All right. Okay. And yes, I guess I was using the word selectivity and meaning, or segregation where your -- you have a certain number of high grade, right, that you can put into the mill. And if your mining rates are behind, then you don't have as much of the higher grade ore to put into the mill, right?

Yes. The biggest bucket you mine, the more you can select from. Absolutely. Yes.

Okay. And then just a similar question on Greenstone for the back half of the year. Can you -- are you assuming throughput rates that are around 27,000 tonne per day and grade similar to what you saw in the first -- sorry, in Q2 and then also in terms of recovery rate? Because I think the recovery rate is probably the big question in correlation to the grade with obviously the higher grade material having a bit more arsenopyrite content to them.

Yes. The short answer is yes. And it's throughputs consistent with the 27,000. It's grades consistent with basically the 1 gram and its recoveries that are consistent with as well. So it's basically taken the last quarter and said, okay, let's just project that forward and any benefits that come from improvements are not reflected in those estimates. And that's what we did, what we did is we kept the floor the same and just lowered the top end range at Greenstone and the worst thing we can do is do a little better than what we said.

Okay. And then last question, I'll get back in the queue. So Los Filos, you made some progress with the communities and got a 3-way agreement there. Could I ask perhaps, Jason, how are we thinking about Los Filos going forward? And what the next -- I mean, obviously, you guys are doing a study, but where does that fit in your capital allocation priorities at this stage?

Yes. Thanks, Anita. And as most of the audience probably knows, I spend a lot of time there building Torex, and I would offer that there's 3 components of your question that we need to focus on. The first component is the agreement that the Equinox team just achieved with the 3 communities there. And obviously, I've been aware and involved in the discussions throughout and feel that, that is absolutely the right approach for working there going forward. So now that the agreements are in place and you have social stability, we can then focus on resuming operations through the heap leach process. But in parallel with that, we need to be planning for the big opportunity at Filos, which is the ounces that we have in resources there. And so we will be updating the study and planning our construction in Guerrero based upon what is available in terms of gold resources.

While we're doing that, our technical teams are preparing for that decision point at the Board, we need to resume operations at Los Filos and have it again producing gold. We got approval from the Board yesterday to do exactly that. So we'll begin leaching and in parallel preparing for the future conversation with the Board. And as we recall, in our capital allocation going forward, that Los Filos increase in production out of the heap leach and into a CIL process will occur after the construction of self railroad, the construction of Castle Mountain and our expansions in Mexico will follow in the years to come.

Yes. And the 1 thing I'd layer on that, Jason, it was a good summary, is that with the funds to commence the restart are included in the guidance now because that was not budgeted, and that's in the project pipeline space. There likely will be some metal that falls out before now and the end of the year that's not reflected in any of the production numbers. It's a de minimis level given the 1.1 million ounces of annualized rate that we're producing.

Okay. Actually, I had 1 last question on Valentine and the CapEx. So now includes $50 million to $60 million for the Phase 2 in the back half of the year. But the CapEx guide went up, I think a little bit more than that, I'd say, about $25 million to $35 million by my rough math here. Can you let me know what that extra growth capital at Valentine is going to be attributed to?

Peter will pick that 1 up. Pete, dive.

Yes. I mean essentially, that's the -- we made a change from a jaw crusher to gyratory crusher. And that's the balance that we're in.

Phase 2. I think that was a quick question, Anita?

No. The question was the -- your capital went from -- I believe it was $95 million to $115 million, up to $180 million to $200 million and $50 million to $60 million of that is for the Phase 2. So that still leaves a differential of about $30 million. And I was wondering what that growth capital in 2026 was associated with?

Yes. We'll get back to you on that 1 offline, Anita.

The next question is from Josh Wolfson with RBC.

Continuing along the question that Anita had on CapEx. I noticed that there was some additional spend included for some of the development projects, less core opportunities right now. But $35 million to $40 million at Los Filos for half of the year effectively, and then $30 million to $35 million at Camino Rojo, presumably that's on the sulfides. Should we assume a similar run rate maybe on an annualized basis into 2027, despite some of these development opportunities being longer dated?

Yes. So I'll take the Los Filos part first. It's Peter. The additional capital for Los Filos for the year, keeping in mind that we were on care and maintenance, the -- what we told you about for the year was concerning in the mine on care maintenance. The additional capital that we have there is for the gradual restart of operations. And then we'll inform for next year as we firm up our plan to go forward and then do our 2027 budget.

And then sorry, what was the second part of your question?

The Camino Rojo, Peter. I'll take that one. So the Camino Rojo an update we did not include in the original guidance, the portal to hit underground on the sulfides as you recall, Josh. So it includes the last finalization of the heap leach pad expansion. But frankly, there's not a lot of spend left there, but it does include that. And then the $25 million for the portal collar and development underground. So that's what represents the Camino Rojo share. We did not include that in the original Orla guidance, we're now including it in our company at Equinox.

And for clarification on that as well. It's the prudent step forward to get in and start getting a higher level of knowledge with respect to the metallurgy, you get some bulk samples, do that sort of work as part of it. It doesn't preempt a full funds commitment for the project, as Jason alluded to in terms of we've got a clearly defined growth capital project schedule in the next couple of years. This is the continuing and learning of, just like we'll have it at Los Filos, right? There's work that will be spent to be able to progress the understanding, so we can understand what the right size of the facility is. This is exactly the same level of work that's been done at Camino Rojo.

And again, as a larger, bolder, stronger organization allows us to be able to take a very methodical and thoughtful approach to those development projects and spend a little bit more money upfront to understand exactly what we're dealing with, so that when we make commitments, we're very, very clear on what we're committing to and can do it with the significantly higher degree of confidence. And that's what those funding's for. So it's a very good move.

And back to Valentine, I understand things are a little bit in flux with the ramp-up. On the grade outlook, I guess, more so as it skews into 2027. Is it fair to assume the disclosures the company has made on mining selectivity challenges and looking to increase throughput to offset that? Is it fair to say that the grades are likely to remain in line with the second half of the year? Or should we still expect an improvement?

And then similarly on the unit costs, is there any sort of perspective that could be provided on what our steady-state unit cost and especially given that throughput rates are already very high, why would they decline going forward?

Yes. I guess there's 2 parts. Let's just tackle the grade issue. If we think about grade, in the back half of the year, we will have a higher grade than we did in the front half of the year. That's going to be reflective of improved performance, which will continue into 2027 and to '28. By the end of '28, you've got a doubling of the size of the plant. So the exposure on selectivity becomes less.

In terms of the unit costs, ubiquitously across the portfolio, we're seeing tension from a -- just like everyone else has, on fuel prices. It's about $100 an ounce of increase in spend cost across our business with respect to WTI and related costs. At Valentine, it's a little higher. It's probably in the order of closer to probably $200 between volume and price this year. We have seen additional resources that we've added to work through the effectiveness so we can become more efficient. We will see those -- that spend start to trail off through the back end of the year and into 2027. So I think we'll see that those unit costs will come down as a function of efficiency. It will obviously be positively impacted by a denominator increase in terms of more metal, but you'll also see less spend for any volume as a consequence of the team getting better and working at the [ team spend ].

Part of the normal kind of ramp-up process. And arguably, we were probably overly aggressive about the rate at which we would get to that kind of steady state, if you will, when we foresee the 2026 guidance.

I mean, Jason, you've been through this before, buddy?

Yes. Very typical ramp-up process where we are trying to resolve various issues and spending a bit more to get through them just to deliver the results. So absolutely consistent as part of the ramp-up process. And as you've articulated clearly and Josh, you know this well, you need to do both, start to reduce the numerator spending, which you will do as your teams get organized, as they get a flow of what they need to be doing, everything from geologists to truck operators. And then once they get better at that, the cost drop and the ounces then follow. In the case of Valentine, of course, achieving a greater grade introduced to the mill before it gets expanded and simultaneously with doing that, we're expanding the mill so that we'll be at that 5 million tonne per year.

The next question is from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank.

Maybe continuing on Valentine, specifically on the unit costs. And as it relates to the G&A there, I think that's also slightly higher than what we expected in the technical report there. Is that just as a result of more labor hours or more manpower required versus your tech report? And how do you expect that to call it advance over the next, call it, 6 to 12 months outside there?

Yes. Okay, Mohamed, Assalamu Alaikum. Just a -- I think it tails onto the last part of the conversation that Jason and I were having here is that it's a reflection of the on costs associated with supporting the activity that we've seen increasing in terms of mining and those sort of things, it's a direct relationship to. So as those efficiencies come on, you will see the G&A costs go down. Because it's not really G&A, it's site services and support, its camping, it's messing, it's those sort of things that go into it, which is the majority of that tension on that "G&A space." And full disclosure, it's in the order of $10 million for the full year is what it is above what we saw, and that will probably come down to single digits over the course of -- yes, at an annualized rate between now and the end of the year. .

Great. And then maybe at the consolidated level, when I'm looking at your revised all-in sustaining cost guidance there. So could you share what the assumptions on gold price, fuel price you're now using versus what the Equinox stand-alone was, in order to just better understand what that delta is. So that when fuel prices started to pay off, we could see maybe how that can improve?

Yes, on fuel price. Fuel price -- it's Peter, and thanks for the question, Mohamed. Fuel prices, we have assumed about 50% higher across the board, consolidated fuel prices from our original plan and guidance overall. And so as we see -- hopefully, as we think -- we hopefully see things modulate here in the near future. We expect that to return down back to what the original plan was.

And so in short, it's basically reflecting average price year-to-date going forward. And that's probably our best crystal ball, and we will be wrong, right? And hopefully that like everyone that we're wrong to the conservative.

And is that the same for gold? So is that assuming about $4,500 per ounce gold or...

Well, and I guess there's 2 parts to that, right? Gold price, the effect on gold price is only in royalties and those related costs, right? So just to be clear that there's very little of our business that's impacted by gold price, and there's very few decisions we make on a day-to-day basis that are impacted by the gold price, because we're spending capital like it's our own, and we're making the right decisions for the long term. But in terms of the gold price assumption used...

It's very close actually at the current gold price. So you shouldn't see too much tension there.

Yes. So if we see gold go to $6,000 an ounce between now and the end of the year, you will see some additional tension from the royalties and related cost of the [ employment ]. But that will be an easy discussion to have. .

The next question is from Adrian Day with Adrian Day Asset Management.

Yes. I'm sorry, I didn't put myself in queue, so I don't know how that happened. I apologize.

Okay. Adrian. Well, thank you very much for your support anyway, and have a nice day.

And our last question is from Jeremy Hoy with Canaccord Genuity.

With the leadership transition, can we expect to see any other management changes in the near future?

In the release, Jason -- sorry, Jeremy. I was looking at Jason, when I did it. We -- actually, in the highlights of the subsequent events, we talked about the team going forward. And no, I mean, we've set the team, we know who it is, and that was part of again, day 1, and I guess that's a little bit unique in this compared to a lot of transactions. We've come out and we've spent the last 3 months working out who's who in the zoo, if you will. And now we're building out those teams from that down. So no, we're clear on those senior leaders for positions. There's some decisions that need to be made below that. But as we've foreshadowed, we have more than enough work to do to accommodate everyone on both sides of the business. So retention of human capital is really our challenge rather than necessarily working out who shouldn't be here. We see it across the industry. We're blessed by having great teams on both sides and utilizing and those people to the betterment of the product is what our focus is. So no, I'm very comfortable with where we're at, where we're headed. And I think the team is gelling very, very nicely at this point.

Yes, since the beginning, Darren and I've been talking about the combination of these companies and frankly, the combination of that human capital that is so sought after in our industry, what we're -- have been announcing in the recent days and what we'll need to sort through in the future is how we can keep everybody within Equinox Gold and make sure everybody understands what they need to do to contribute to our combined success. And that's the work ahead of us. It's about understanding who's doing what and hopefully, we can retain the majority of that human capital.

Great. The other question I have is a bit of a follow-up on Anita's regarding Los Filos. Post announcement of the merger, you guys secured those community agreements and are moving ahead with restart of operations and studies. When the deal was announced, I asked what the time line was to get to 1.9 million ounces. I believe Jason, the answer was about 5 years. I'm just wondering, with more time examining the portfolio and the opportunities ahead of you, is that still the time line you envision? And I guess what's the level of confidence in that? Can we expect to see some of these projects shifted in terms of where they fit in the pipeline?

Maybe I'll kick it off and then Jason and I can do a Bert and Ernie on this. But the short-term organic growth, as Jason has already talked to, is well defined. We've got Valentine South Railroad and then we'll be in a position middle of next year to make a decision in and around Castle Mountain. In the background, we'll be progressing and doing the work that we need to do in Mexico to be able to surface value from that. And that comes from Camino Rojo underground, right? Or a potential open pit expansion. And that's why we're continuing with the underground portal to get bulk samples to understand metallurgy, which is obviously key to that asset. Los Filos, we're doing the work in the background on scoping level studies to understand the benefit that can come from a larger process plant and what that means.

So over the next year or 2, those things will flesh out. But we're very, very comfortable with what we see in terms of that organic growth profile. And if you look at the leverage that we have from the asset base without even considering the Mexico opportunity. It's significant going forward. So no, I think that what we've been talking about for the last couple of months remains. There will be, as always, timing changes as we work through understand. And could there be Sophie's Choices in the future? Yes, absolutely. But it's not going to come from a liquidity or ability to pay. It's going to be from what makes sense from the organization to be able to bolt these things on and realize the full potential of our existing assets.

We haven't talked at all about Musselwhite. We haven't talked about the fact that we have 1.5 million tonne a year facility that we're only using 1 million tonne of. And if you look at the opportunity that can be surfaced there, we're not talking about $150 million to $200 million annually of exploration burn and what that will generate in terms of optionality at our existing assets. So there's going to be -- we're going to be spoiled for choices and I think that what we have foreshadowed in the business and position going forward, I think, is a fair representation. But it will change, and I think it will only change for the positive.

Yes. Darren, I'll layer on. Frankly, the business needs to focus on the next 6 months of execution and delivery, but a business this size has to look across the entire portfolio and make sure that we have work progressing everything from exploration, finding more ounces for the future, the projects that you asked the question about -- projects in Mexico that you asked a question about making sure that we're doing the data collection and study work to those assets up in the years to come, which is what we're doing this year and next, so that we're doing the study work. And then, of course, more near term, the 6 months that I talked about, but also advancing the construction starts in Nevada followed by Castle Mountain, the expansion that we just got approved yesterday in Newfoundland. So we, as a larger business, need to focus on all ends of our pipeline to make sure that we are, as Darren likes to say, laying track in front of the train and then making sure that the trains arrive on time. So that this bigger business is now stronger because we have all of those choices that Darren talked about. And in the future, we have to acknowledge that our choices of capital allocation will not be governed by our ability to fund them and will be governed by making sure that we're methodical in our selection of what we build, when to deliver the best value return for investors, as approved by the Board in the years to come.

Yes. It's keeping in mind that the reason we exist is, we're a financial instrument to create shareholder value through share price appreciation. All of our capital allocation decisions were made in that mindset. It won't be growth in growth's sake. It will be about value creation for the people that own the business, which is you all. So no, I appreciate the questions, and I appreciate the support that we have seen in both companies and look forward to that continued support going forward.

I'd like to pass the floor back over to Ingrid Rico.

Thank you, operator. We're almost at the hour. So Etienne and myself will be available and will be answering the questions that came on the webcast. And I'll pass over the call to Darren for his closing remarks.

Yes. Thanks, Ingrid, and thanks again, everyone, on the call. I'd like to thank all of our shareholders for their continued support. Over the coming months, I'll be working closely with Jason who will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer of upon my retirement from Equinox. Leading Equinox has been 1 of the greatest privileges of my career. I'm incredibly proud of the team we have around the table and throughout the business and what we've accomplished in all precursor companies to get us to that point. Every decision that's been made throughout all of those businesses has positioned us with the privilege to be able to build on that basis going forward. So I'm very, very proud of what we've all been able to do and where we're at. And Jason is exceptionally well positioned to lead Equinox through its next phase of growth and value creation. I have complete confidence in Jason and his ability to guide the company forward. And as we foreshadowed, I'll be around and available too, and supporting the initiative as a very interested shareholder, right?

So as always, the leadership team are available if you have any further questions. And again, thank you very much for your participation today, and take care and be well. Back to the operator.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

Hello, and welcome to the Special Meeting of Shareholders of Equinox Gold Corp. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. Shareholders who are attending the meeting in person can ask a question by raising their hand. Shareholders who are attending online can ask a question by clicking the Ask a Question button in the lower right corner of the screen.

It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Mr. Ross Beaty, Chair of the Board of Equinox Gold. Ross, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Ingrid, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the special meeting of the shareholders of Equinox Gold. I thank you for joining us today. And specifically, thank you to the shareholder who came in person and also to those who are listening online. And after the formal portion of today's meeting, we'll have some questions and answers to the extent that we have.

Since this is an in-person meeting, the following process will apply for the conduct of the meeting. For those registered shareholders or proxy holders attending the meeting in person, when asking a question, please raise your hand and once the turn indicate your name, which entity you represent and if you are a registered shareholder or proxy holder. Unless questions are procedural or directly related to motions before the meeting, they will be answered after the formal business of the meeting is concluded. We will also answer -- sorry, address any nonprocedural meeting related questions that were submitted through the website at that time. [ Ingrid Rico ], Equinox Gold's Senior Vice President of Capital Markets, will act as a question moderator for the meeting and will read aloud any questions that we get from our online participants.

I will now outline the voting procedures. Voting will be conducted by ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders will be asked to vote on each business item. Shareholders who are attending online, while we're glad you chose to join us. I'm afraid you won't be able to vote your shares through the webcast. We'll only accept votes that were submitted before the proxy deadline of 9 am on July 20 or that were submitted in person today at the meeting. If you've already voted by proxy, it's important that you do not vote again here at the meeting unless you intend to change your initial vote.

The final voting results will be included with the minutes of the meeting and will be announced in a press release later today in accordance with Canadian securities laws and the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Because we have this special meeting today, we don't have any members of our Board in attendance other than myself and Darren Hall, Chief Executive Officer. The rest of our Board is listening in, but not here in person. In addition to Ingrid, other executives and management incentives are Peter Hardie, our Chief Financial Officer; Daniella Dimitrov, Chief Strategy and Risk Officer; and Jacqlin Anthony, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.

We will now proceed with the formal business portion of today's meeting. To expedite matters, I'll move and second all motions. The meeting will now come to order, and I will act as Chair. And I will say actually that in a very bittersweet moment, this is my last Chair role. The vote is resoundly in favor. This will be a combination. Upon the conclusion of the combination, I will be stepping down as Chair and Board member after a very exciting run with the company from the very beginning. And Charles "Chuck" Jeannes will become Chair.

So this is my swan song day-to-day, and it's very -- I'm on one hand, very pleased with how the company has grown and developed, very excited about the Orla combination, but very sad as well having to exit as an official member of the Board. But I'm not going anywhere, particularly, I'm not selling a single share because I'm staying as Chair of Emeritus and special adviser to the Board, and I will be attending Board meetings and providing my input to the extent it's I'm able to.

So that's my little feel. I appoint Jacqlin Anthony, Equinox Gold's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary as Secretary of the meeting. For the purposes of this meeting, I appoint Computershare Investor Services, Inc. as scrutineer to compute the votes of any polls taken at this meeting and to report the results to me.

The objective of today's meeting are set out in the company's information circular dated June 19, 2026. I confirm that the notice for this meeting, information circular in the form of proxy were mailed to shareholders on June 22, 2026. The company has received an affidavit confirming proof of mailing from our transfer agent, Computershare Investor Services Inc. A copy of the affidavit will be attached as a schedule to the minutes of this meeting. Unless there's any objection, I'll dispense with the reading of the notice of meeting. Copies of the information circular and other meeting materials are available on Equinox Gold's website and under the company's profile on SEDAR+ and on EDGAR.

The quorum for the transaction of business at the meeting of shareholders is at least 2 people present or represented by proxy holding 33% or more of the shares entitled to vote at the meeting of shareholders. The scrutineer has advised that proxies were received from the holders of a sufficient number of common shares to constitute a quorum. I declare the meeting to be regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. The formal report of the scrutineer will be attached as a schedule to the minutes of this meeting.

As most of you are aware, at shareholder meetings, most shares are typically represented by proxies given to management. The scrutineers advised that a significant majority of the proxies received by management have been voted in favor of the share issuance resolution. We appreciate and thank shareholders for their continued confidence and support. For those of you attending today, the voting will be conducted by ballot. And I think we just have one shareholder in person -- 2 -- just a second. Okay. If you're a registered shareholder or proxyholder, you should have received a ballot for the item of business to be voted on, when you checked in for this meeting.

If you are a registered shareholder or proxy holder and did not receive a ballot, please raise your hand now and representative of the scrutineer will bring one to you. If you've already voted by proxy, it's important that you do not vote again here at the meeting unless you intend to change your vote. Management's proxy nominees will vote all proxies in favor of all matters before this meeting, notwithstanding any ballots being taken.

I now present to the meeting to consider and to approve with or without variation, an ordinary resolution authorizing and approving the issuance of Equinox Gold shares in connection with the proposed acquisition by Equinox Gold of all the outstanding common shares of Orla Mining Ltd. by way of a plan of arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act, as more particularly set out in the information circular.

I want to make a few comments about this resolution. And some of these are forward-looking, so please refer to the cautionary language on forward-looking statements in the information circular for the meeting. We announced this proposed merger with Orla on May 13. We see many benefits from combining the 2 companies, all of which are laid out in the information circular. But the underlying logic of the merger was to combine 2 North America-focused gold producers, creating a highly complementary portfolio of operating mines in 4 countries, anchored by 3 high-quality long-life, low-cost Canadian gold mines.

Our Greenstone and Valentine mines are expected to produce 450,000 ounces of gold annually with Orla's Musselwhite mine in Ontario, contributing another 235,000 ounces of production annually. So at nearly 700,000 ounces of expected annual gold production from Canada, the combined company will be the second largest producer of Canadian gold. In addition, the combined company has a clear path to increase annual production by more than 800,000 ounces from a pipeline of advanced exploration and development projects with the expectation of delivering another 350,000 ounces from Castle Mountain South Railroad in the U.S. and nearly 500,000 ounces in Mexico from Los Filos and an expansion at Camino Rojo.

At current bright gold prices, we expect this organic growth will be funded with -- from operating cash flow and available liquidity. Importantly, all growth projects have established the mineral reserves. Combined, Equinox Gold will have 22.7 million ounces of proven and probable mineral reserves, 25.1 million ounces of measured and indicated mineral resources exclusive of mineral reserves and 13 million ounces of inferred mineral resources. Each of Orla and Equinox Gold could have carried on as a mid-tier producer. But combining these 2 companies will catapult us into that elite group of global senior producers, maximize our production and cash flow and deliver the market premium of having these 3 big mines in Canada.

So we feel this is one of those rare situations when 1 plus 1 really does add up to 3. Together, we'll be a stronger, more valuable company and create more shareholder value than either of us could have done individually. We're thrilled that Equinox Gold will benefit from the expertise and successful track record of well-respected industry leaders led by Chuck Jeannes as Chair of the Board of Directors with my anditimous support as Chair of Emeritus and special adviser to the Board. We're also excited that Jason Simpson, Orla's President and CEO, will join the combined team as President. Are there any questions at this time?

Ingrid, do we have any questions from shareholders online?

So we do have a question, but it's not directly related to the business of the meeting, so we can wait and answer then once the meeting has concluded.

Okay. Thank you very much. In that case, I will now move and second a motion to approve the share issuance ordinary resolution of the company, the full text of which is set in Schedule A of the information circular pursuant to the terms and the conditions of the arrangement agreement dated May 12, 2026, between Equinox Gold and Orla. For those shareholders and proxy holders attending today, please record your vote on the ballot. Okay. These are all the resolutions before the meeting. We will provide a few moments for shareholders and proxy holders to complete your paper ballots.

[Voting]

Okay. These are all the resolutions before the meeting. We will provide a few moments for our shareholders and proxy holders to complete your paper ballots.

On behalf of Computershare, I can confirm that the poll has closed.

Great. Thank you, Ingrid. As a sufficient number of the proxies received by management have been voted in favor of the resolution, I declare the resolution carried. Do we need to say exactly the number?

No, at this point we don't [indiscernible]

It's 99 point something percent [indiscernible] resounded, I think. So I declare the resolution carried. Rather than delay the business of this meeting to wait for the final tabulation of the votes cast, the results of the ballot will be included with the minutes of this meeting and will be announced in a press release later today in accordance with the Canadian securities laws and the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Is there any further business? I'm so glad you all came. There being no...

There are no outstanding questions related to the business of the meeting.

Great. Since there are no further business, I move and second that this meeting now terminate and declare the formal part of this meeting to be concluded. So let's go to the questions from the investor, shareholder related to Los Filos.

There is a question, Ross, related to Los Filos, and it's basically asking about the latest update given the recent update that we provided.

What do we say Darren, just...

Yes. So I think we recently finalized the agreements, long-term 20-year land access agreements with 3 communities and put social and supply chain agreements or policies in place with 3. We're very pleased with the progress that we've made at Los Filos over the last -- for a number of years, but in particularly the last 12 months. And that positions us well to be able to restart operations at Los Filos, and we're currently working through an organized and thoughtful restart of those activities, which will start in the latter part of Q3 and roll into Q4 of this year.

There might be some production later in the year. It's relatively de minimis in the bigger scheme of things. We look forward to updating on progress of that through the balance of the year and a more fulsome update as we head into 2027.

Thank you very much, Darren.

There are no further questions from shareholders or proxy holders.

Okay. Well, thank you all for coming and thank you all online as well. And very happy to proceed with this and I expect the oral meeting will have a similarly resounding shareholder vote in favor. So we look forward to concluding this. We've got the Mexican approval to the transaction. Thanks to some amazing work that Darren has achieved in Mexico and Washington. This is really probably a record speed of getting a deal like this done of the size in certainly recent years is [indiscernible] my experience. So well done everybody, I'm [indiscernible]. We look forward to closing this transaction at some point end of July, early August. When is the quarter?

28th.

28th of July. So it's conceivable we could have a close by the end of July. That's our current target. Thank you all.

Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Equinox Gold Corp. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. If you participate in today's meeting and disclose personal information, you will be deemed to consent to the recording, transfer and use of same. If you disclose personal information of another person in today's meeting, you will be deemed to represent and warrant to Computershare and the company that you first obtained all required consents for the disclosure, recording, transfer and use of such personal information from all appropriate persons before your disclosure. [Operator Instructions]

It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Mr. Ross Beaty, Chair of the Board of Equinox Gold. Mr. Beaty, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and online and in person here, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Equinox Gold. On behalf of our directors, management and employees, I thank you for joining us today. Thank you to the shareholder who came in person and the other shareholders amongst our management team and our distinguished auditors, KPMG, and our legal advisory firm, Blakes. And I want to also thank Jamie Kariya for the hospitality of Blakes in allowing us to use this room. Thank you very much.

I'm pleased to offer an online option so that all shareholders can join the meeting. Since this is a hybrid meeting with some shareholders here in person and others joining us online, the following process will apply for the conduct of the meeting. Firstly, questions about a motion can be submitted online by any registered shareholder or proxy holder using the Q&A icon on your screen. If you're not sure how to navigate the online system, please refer to the AGM user guide that was mailed to you and that is also available for download in the Shareholder Events section of Equinox Gold's website. Two, for those registered shareholders or proxy holders attending the meeting in person when asking a question, please indicate your name, which entity you represent, if any, and if you are a registered shareholder or proxy holder. Three, we will only be taking questions that are procedural or directly related to motions before the meeting. If you have questions related to Equinox Gold's financial statements, properties or business strategy, please get in touch with Ryan King, Equinox Gold's Executive Vice President, Capital Markets. And Ryan wherever you are -- there you are. His contact details are on the website.

So yes, normally, we do, do a kind of a full corporate presentation at these meetings and have time for Q&A, but we're not going to do that today in the interest of time. Four, Rhylin Bailie, VP, Investor Relations, will act as question moderator for the meeting.

I will now outline the voting procedures. For those attending the meeting today online, voting on all matters will be conducted by electronic ballot using the virtual interface. To give registered holders and proxy holders sufficient time to vote, we've opened the ballots, and we'll keep them open while I present each item of business to be conducted at the meeting. For those attending the meeting in person, voting will be conducted by ballot. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders will be asked to vote on each business item. If you've already voted by proxy, it's important that you do not vote again here at the meeting unless you intend to change your initial vote.

We don't have any directors here today in person other than Darren and myself, Darren, our CEO; and myself, but we have most of our -- if not all of our directors online. And I'm just going to read out their names: Len Boggio, Maryse Bélanger, Trudy Curran, Omaya Elguindi, Doug Forster, Blayne Johnson, Marshall Koval and Mike Vint. Other executives and management in attendance, I think in person, do we have Peter? Peter Hardie. There you go, CFO. Dave Schummer. Dave Schummer is our COO. He's hard at work in the office. Daniella Dimitrov, Chief Strategy and Risk Officer. Tom Gallo, EVP Growth. I think Tom is also working today in the office, good. Ryan King, we've already introduced Ryan, EVP, Capital Markets; Jacqlin Anthony, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Thank you very much. And of course, Rhylin Bailie, VP, Investor Relations.

We'll now proceed with the formal portion of today's meeting, which should take about 10 minutes. To expedite matters, I will move and second all motions. The meeting will now come to order, and I will act as Chair. I appoint Jacqlin Anthony Equinox Gold's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary as Secretary of this meeting. For the purposes of this meeting, I appoint Computershare Investor Services as scrutineer to compute the votes of any polls taken at this meeting and to report the results to me as Chair. The objectives of today's meeting are set out in the company's management information circular dated March 23, 2026. I confirm that the notice for this meeting, the management information circular and the form of proxy were mailed to shareholders on March 25, 2026. The company has received an affidavit confirming proof of mailing from our transfer agent Computershare Investor Services Inc. A copy of the affidavit will be attached as a schedule to the minutes of this meeting. Unless there's any objection, I will dispense with the reading of the notice of meeting.

Copies of the management information circular and other meeting materials are available on Equinox Gold's website and under the company's profile on SEDAR+ and on EDGAR. The scrutineer has advised that proxies were received from the holders of a sufficient number of common shares to constitute a quorum. I declare the meeting to be regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. The formal report of the scrutineer will be attached as a schedule to the minutes of this meeting. As most of you are aware, at annual meetings, most shares are represented by proxies given to management. The scrutineer has advised that a significant majority of the proxies received by management have been voted in favor of each of the director nominees and in favor of each of the other items of business. We thank you for your confidence.

All registered shareholders and proxy holders who have joined online and properly logged in with their control number or invite code and wish to vote will be able to see on their screen all items of business to be voted on at this meeting. Please remember that if you have previously recorded your vote by proxy, you should not vote again unless you wish to revoke and change your initial vote. As a reminder to those online, the polls are currently open for all items of business to be voted on at today's meeting. This means that you can vote on each item immediately or you can wait until the conclusion of discussion on each item before casting your vote.

The items of business to be voted on and your availability -- your available voting options will be visible on the voting panel on your screen. Please register your votes by selecting the for, withhold or against buttons next to the name of each proposed director and next to each of the other resolutions. Once discussion is concluded on all items of business, we will provide a few additional moments for you to enter your votes. For those of you attending in person today, voting for each item will be conducted by ballot. If you are a registered shareholder or proxy holder, you should have received a combined ballot for all items of business to be voted on when you check in for this meeting. If you are a registered shareholder or proxy holder and did not receive a ballot, please raise your hand now and a representative of the scrutineer will come by and deal with you. If you have already voted by proxy, it's important that you do not vote again here at the meeting unless you intend to change your initial vote. Management's proxy nominees will vote all proxies in favor of matters put before this meeting, notwithstanding the ballots being taken.

I now present to the meeting the audited financial statements of Equinox Gold for the year ended December 31, 2025, together with the auditor's report on the financial statements. Copies of these documents have been mailed to the shareholders who requested such statements, and I don't intend to read them at this meeting.

The next item of business is the Board size. The company's articles require that its Board consists of the greater of 3 directors or the numbers set by ordinary resolution. I move and second a motion to increase the number of directors of the company from 9 to 10. Unless there are any questions, I will move on.

We have not received any questions.

Thank you. The next item of business is the election of directors. Management nominates the following 10 individuals to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are elected or appointed: Ross Beaty, Lenard Boggio, Maryse Bélanger, Trudy Curran, Omaya Elguindi, Doug Forster, Darren Hall, Blayne Johnson, Marshall Koval and Mike Vint. Each nominee has confirmed that they are prepared to serve as a director of Equinox Gold. Equinox Gold has adopted an advanced notice policy that requires shareholders to give the company advanced notice of proposed director nominations at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Equinox Gold did not receive notice of any such nominations for this meeting. As a result, I declare the nominations closed, and I move and second the motion to elect each of the directors. Unless there are any questions, I'll move on.

We have not received any questions.

Thank you, Rhylin. The vote to approve this resolution is required to be taken by ballot. I direct that a poll be taken. Again, as a reminder to those online, the polls are currently open for all items of business to be voted on at today's meeting. For those shareholders and proxy holders attending in person today, please record your vote for each nominee on your ballot. Am I supposed to wait a few minutes or can I carry on?

You can carry on.

The next item of business is the appointment of Equinox Gold's auditor. I move and second a motion to appoint KPMG LLP as auditor of the company to hold office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders and that the Board be authorized to fix KPMG's remuneration. Unless there are any questions, I'll move on.

We have not received any questions.

The last item of business, thank you, is the say-on-pay advisory vote. I move and second a motion that on an advisory basis and not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the Board, Equinox Gold's shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in the company's management information circular dated March 23, 2026, delivered in advance of the meeting. Unless there are any questions, I'll move on.

We have not received any questions.

Thank you. For those shareholders and proxy holders attending in person today, please record your vote and ensure that you have signed and printed your name on the ballot. Once you have completed your ballot, please raise your hand and the scrutineer will collect it from you. These are all the resolutions before the meeting. We'll provide a few moments for shareholders and proxy holders to complete your electronic and paper ballots.

[Voting]

And I'm told I should tell a joke, but I'm not going to. What I'm going to do is tell you what happened to me at 3:30 this morning. There was a noise outside my bedroom. I have an apartment in Vancouver. I live in Bowen Island. And with somebody hollering with a different noise, woke me up. I woke up, took a while to fall back to sleep. It took quite a long time. And during that period, when I was sort of half awake, I reflected on coming to this annual meeting today and my own career in the public company business. This is my sort of 15th or 16th company that I've been very privileged to chair. And some companies lasted 3 years and some companies lasted now 30, 32 years is the longest, but I've had plenty of others. Equinox, this is its, I think, eighth annual meeting or maybe ninth. In any case, I reflected all these companies and how many times I've been in the privileged position of being Chair reading this stuff. And I think it's like 140. Now you would think after 140 times reading pretty much the same thing, you'd commit it to memory. But you just can't do this stuff, committed to memory. I tried to think what have I memorized duly constituted and ready for the proper transaction of business more or less. I can't do it.

I'm surprised that thinking about that didn't put you immediately back to sleep.

It actually woke me up. I can't possibly because it's 140 times, but it's been a long time, and I'm close to the sunset of my career, but I just will say it has been such a great privilege of knowing not only management teams like the wonderful team we have in Equinox, but also the support team we have in our ecosystem, right? The lawyers who are so good in Vancouver who are such experts in helping companies like ours grow and do all the good stuff that we have to do under the Company Act. Also the accountants, the engineers here, the consulting firms, the whole ecosystem we have, just how very fortunate we are to have this great history and talent in Vancouver. So have I finished my 30 seconds?

Yes, I think that's a good time. Thank you. On behalf of Computershare, I can confirm that the polls have closed.

Great. Thank you, Rhylin. I ask that the scrutineer compile the report regarding the results of voting on all business matters. The results of voting will be included with the minutes of this meeting as well in accordance with the company's majority voting policy and requirements of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Individual results for each Board nominee will be announced in a press release later today, along with other results from the meeting. Is there any further business for the formal portion of this meeting?

There are no outstanding questions related to the business of the meeting.

Thank you. If there's no further business, I move and second that this meeting now terminate and declare Equinox Gold's Annual Meeting of Shareholders for 2026 be concluded. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. If you have any questions about Equinox Gold's properties or business strategy, please get in touch with Darren or Ryan or me or Rhylin or really any of us. And I'd like to ask all people who are on our management team to put up your hands. And if anyone has questions about anything, you can also ask any of them. And thank you all for joining us today very much, and we'll see you a year from now, if not sooner.

Thank you, Ross. Thank you, everybody, for coming. Operator, you can now conclude the call.

Thank you for attending today's meeting. This meeting has concluded, and you may now disconnect.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Equinox Gold First Quarter 2026 Results and Corporate Update. [Operator Instructions]

The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Ryan King, Executive Vice President, Capital Markets for Equinox Gold. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join the call this morning. Before we begin, I'd like to direct everyone to our forward-looking statements on Slide 2. So, our remarks and answers to your questions today may contain forward-looking information about the company's future performance. Although management believes our forward-looking statements are based on fair and reasonable assumptions, actual results may turn out to be different from these forward-looking statements.

For a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties and factors that may lead to actual operating and financial results being different from the estimates contained in our forward-looking statements, please refer to risks identified in the section titled Risks Related to the Business in Equinox Gold's most recently filed annual information form, which is available on SEDAR+ on EDGAR and on our website.

And finally, I should mention that all figures in today's presentation are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. With me on the call today are Darren Hall, Chief Executive Officer; Pete Hardie, Chief Financial Officer; David Schummer, Chief Operating Officer; Daniella Demitroff, Chief Strategy and Risk Officer; and Matt MacPhail, SVP of Technical Services.

Today, we will be discussing our first quarter 2026 financial and operating results and provide an update on Greenstone and Valentine ramp-up progress, and then we'll take questions. The slide deck we are referencing is available for download on our website at equinoxgold.com. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Darren.

Yes. Turning to Slide 3, and thanks, Ryan. Good morning and thank you for joining us today on the call. Firstly, I'd like to thank the entire Equinox Gold team, including all of our business partners across the Americas, for their commitment to safety, operational excellence and disciplined execution, which delivered another strong quarter.

There is no better demonstration of the team's capability and commitment than responsibly delivering more than 197,000 ounces of production with no material environmental events and a 25% reduction in our reportable injury frequency rate. Well, done, and thanks to the entire team for a great quarter. We continue building on the positive momentum established in 2025, which reset the foundation of the business, strengthened the balance sheet and established a clear path to a long-term value creation.

Today, we are executing against that foundation with a focus on operational excellence, cost discipline and delivering on our organic growth profile. We delivered a solid start to 2026, producing 197,000 ounces of gold with cash costs of $1,633 an ounce and AISC of $1,950 per ounce. Importantly, our Canadian platform continues to ramp up, contributing over 87,000 ounces during the quarter.

While the quarter reflected a level of variability, not unusual with ramp-ups and winter conditions, based on performance to date and expected improvements through the year, we remain on track to achieve our full year production and cost guidance.

Turning to Slide 4. During the quarter, we sold more than 199,000 ounces of gold at a realized price of just over $4,600 an ounce, generating $527 million in adjusted EBITDA. We reported net income from all operations of $310 million or $0.39 per share and adjusted net income of $234 million or $0.30 per share. We ended the quarter with $363 million in cash and net debt of approximately $80 million, excluding our in-the-money convertible debentures.

Additionally, we completed the sale of our Brazilian assets. repaid $990 million of debt, initiated a share buyback and paid our inaugural dividend. Subsequent to quarter end, following meaningful deleveraging and improved financial strength, we refinanced our revolving credit facility on improved terms, which enhances liquidity, flexibility and our overall cost of capital. As of April 30, the company has nearly $1 billion in available liquidity, providing significant financial flexibility. We also declared our second quarterly dividend of $0.015 per share, reinforcing our commitment to disciplined capital returns.

Turning to Slide 5. Let me take a moment to focus on our Canadian operations, which are central to our long-term value proposition. At Greenstone, we produced just over 60,000 ounces in the quarter. Mining rates averaged 180,000 tonnes per day, marginally lower than Q4, primarily due to heavier-than-normal snowfall, while mill throughput averaged 24,600 tonnes per day, a 6% increase over Q4. Plant performance continues to improve quarter-over-quarter with 51% of the days exceeding nameplate capacity in the quarter compared to 36% in Q4.

With April mining rates increasing to approximately 200,000 tonnes per day and the underlying productivity metrics continuing to improve, the mill -- mine is well positioned to deliver on 2026 material movement expectations, which will result in increasing grades through the balance of the year. At Valentine, we completed our first full quarter of operations, producing over 27,000 ounces. The plant performed well. And despite some significant weather challenges, the team delivered 90% of nameplate capacity for the full quarter.

Importantly, we actually exceeded nameplate capacity over the combined period of February and March. Mining performance was impacted by a severe winter in Newfoundland, which hampered material movement and delayed access to planned ore zones. In addition, early-stage mining practices and sequences impacted mill feed grades. We have identified a number of opportunities to improve performance, including enhancements to blasting practices, better utilization of mine control systems and tighter control around declines to positively impact dilution.

We are seeing progress in April with improving grades supported by continued exceptional process plant performance. To highlight this progress, following a planned 7-day total shutdown at the start of April, the mill has averaged 8,488 tonnes per day or 124% of nameplate since coming out of the shut. Looking ahead, we expect steady quarter-over-quarter improvements through 2026 as mining productivity increases at our Canadian operations ramp up to steady-state performance, underpinning our robust outlook of over 500,000 ounces of annual production for the next decade.

Turning to Slide 6. Beyond our current operations, we continue to advance a strong organic growth profile that underpins our long-term production profile. At Valentine, we announced details of our plan -- planned Phase 2 expansion as part of the updated technical report published at the end of the quarter. We are currently committing funds to long lead time items and progressing detailed engineering to secure schedule. We expect to initiate early site works in the second half of the year following full funds approval anticipated in the coming months.

At Castle Mountain, we continue to advance engineering and permitting activities with the project on track to receive a federal record of decision before year-end. In anticipation, we have hired an experienced project director to lead all aspects of the project and have engaged Worley, an engineering professional services firm, to progress the detailed engineering. I anticipate committing at risk funds to secure long lead time items in early Q3. At Los Filos, we have made important progress strengthening relationships with our host communities and government stakeholders.

With fully ratified new long-term access agreements in place with 2 of the 3 communities and continued constructive dialogue with the third, I am convinced that all stakeholders are aligned on identifying a path forward to a restart of operations and realizing the full potential of the world-class mineral endowment, which exists at Los Filos.

Turning to Slide 7. I am confident that Equinox Gold is well positioned to deliver top quartile valuation based on our portfolio of long-life assets in Tier 1 jurisdictions, a clear and executable organic growth pipeline, strong and growing free cash flow generation, a disciplined approach to capital allocation and shareholder returns and importantly, with the right team in place to deliver on those commitments. In closing, our priorities for 2026 are clear: ramp Greenstone and Valentine to nameplate capacity, maintain cost discipline and operational consistency, advance our growth pipeline, continue strengthening the balance sheet and return capital to shareholders.

With a stronger portfolio, improving operations and a clear path forward, we are entering 2026 from a position of strength. Before passing to the operator, I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the team's efforts in Nicaragua, which delivered a record 81,000 ounces of production for the quarter, which is a testament not only to the team, but the prolific and enduring nature of those assets. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions]

The first question is from Wayne Lam with TD Securities.

One question is kind of tough. Let's go with Valentine. Grade in the early years of the mine plan is well above 2 gram a tonne, I guess, supported by the Berry Pit. Just wondering how the grades have reconciled to plan to date. And should we be expecting a big step change on the grade half profile into Q2? Or is that more weighted to the back half of the year?

No, Wayne, thanks for the support. Thanks for the question. If I step back, I look at our reconciliation above an all-waste cutoff, and we're very comfortable with what we see out of Valentine, and we've articulated that over the last couple of years of infill drilling.

Q1 was really our first quarter of how do we reconcile against the selectivity. And we saw some challenges, right? Because we didn't have that reconcilability with respect to the mill because it was the first quarter of taking that run-of-mine material in. And we've seen some deficiencies in that we need to focus on, and that's in and around mining control, utilizing the high precision. And again, that was impacted further by the weather. So no, we'll see improvements into Q2, and we'll see improvements as we work through the balance of the year.

But as we sit today, comfortable with how we've guided the year, and we'll continue to see improvements through the year. And medium, longer term, I think we're comfortable with where we positioned ourselves. And I think that the importance of the Phase 2 of the process to get us to 5 million tonnes is critical in that value proposition as well. I mean we have a significant resource here with great opportunity to expand as we've highlighted with Frank drilling.

This property will continue to deliver for a long, long time, and it will evolve as it goes. I think it's going to evolve to the positive, and that kind of highlights the criticality of Phase 2 and why we're committing today to get those funds in place so we can ensure a schedule to get us into a build as soon as we possibly can, which will take out the variances you see in trying to predict to a grade in the quarter and take out some of the lumpiness. But long-winded answer, Wayne, but no, comfortable with. It's an evolution of, and there's nothing that concerns me at this point.

The next question is from Anita Soni with CIBC Markets.

I just wanted to ask actually about grade reconciliation at Greenstone as well. So, I think the -- so I just wanted to first clarify that in the technical report that the new MRE already includes the reduction as a result of the voids and all that.

Yes. Anita. And I guess there's 2 questions in that. From a technical report perspective.

Sorry, was the follow-up go ahead.

Sorry, it reflects -- the technical report reflects the model update going forward. And if we think about -- so again, the question in and around voids and the experiences that we've had to date is reflected in that model revision. In terms of the quarter, we saw some turnover issues in and around the glory hole, which is that shrink stope in the center of the pit and maintaining focus, but that's where Dave and the crew have brought in some additional resources so we can get that bench turnover rate, which negatively impacts our performance of grade against plan. But from a reconciliation perspective, if we take the last couple of quarters, the model is actually reconciling very well above a cutoff against the model that we've used to predict the longer term. I mean, Matt, is there anything you'd add to that, Bud?

No, that's correct.

And I'll just add one item, if I might. And we included all that information with respect to our guidance for the year as well.

So does that cover the grade issue there?

Almost. The question was just in terms of the technical report, it does also talk about sort of a negative ounces and tonnes and also on the grade a little bit but combined a slight negative on the ounces. And I'm just wondering if the reserve estimate already includes that as well or the commentary in the technical report says basically that it's typical for this early stage, and it's not necessarily included in the reserve estimate yet.

No. Again, the technical report is congruent with the reserves, and they all exactly tie together.

That's right. Yes, best available information was utilized in that technical report, the most up-to-date void model is included. So, the reserve and resource are depleted for that void model. And as Pete and Darren alluded to, Q1, we're reconciling nicely to that model.

Yes. But I think the underlying question there, Anita, is that is the reserve reflected of what's in the forward-looking plan? And yes, the same model is used for the forward-looking plan as used in the reserve. So, there's -- all those things are congruent.

The next question is from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank.

So maybe going back to Valentine on your grade, tonnage, and recovery there. I know that production was probably impacted by inventory in circuit. Is there more inventory in circuit left that could potentially impact Q2? Or how should we think about that going into the next quarters?

No. I mean the inventory; we're not managing inventory. It's kind of like an AP sort of issue. I mean there's pinches and swells in inventory depending on grades going through. But no, there was no drawdown of inventory at the end of the quarter. We play a straight bat at it. We actually saw a little bit of inventory buildup in the April period as grades improved, but no. There's no noise in there associated with inventory.

Yes. No, I was just asking because trying to get back to your produced results with the tonnage grade and recovery, I'm slightly off, but maybe I can take that offline, if that's fair. On the cost at Valentine, I think the tech report highlighted lower processing costs, mining costs versus what you delivered in Q1. Understanding that you were impacted by the severe weather, but what's the plan to get back to costs that were highlighted in the tech report there? And what are some of the initiatives that you guys will be working on to get us back to that?

Yes. No, Mohamed, it's a good question. And I'll pass it over to Pete, and we can talk specifically about some of the nuances in Valentine. But I will take a step back and look at the business holistically. And I know we don't guide quarter-on-quarter against budget, but I'll use that as a basis of because keeping in mind that all of our guidance it's prefaced off or based in the budget. And of course, you take a budget, you lower it a little bit and that becomes the guidance.

But if we look at Q1 spend, we were within 1% on, kind of, capital costs. And when I say capital, I'm talking about the capital that was -- capitalized inventory and those sorts of things are all in that total spend number. We were within 1% of spend. So, from an outgoing perspective, we're very, very consistent with where we see. We're actually underspent on some of the capital during the quarter, which we'll work on over the balance of the year, but that's the typical of people being a little bit more aggressive about what they can get done at the outset of the year. But now specifically into Valentine, do you want to give a bit of color, Pete?

Yes. Thanks, Darren. Thanks, Mohamed, for the question. Yes, as Darren mentioned, across the board, we're within 1%, very pleased with the control that the team and operators are showing overspend. At Valentine itself, we're a little above expectation, but not in a way that we're concerned about, largely any spend that's above expectation is due to the severe winter and mitigating and mitigations we put in place going forward, and that's on the numerator side.

So, we're pretty happy with what's happening total spend side. It's the denominator, as Darren has already highlighted, on bringing unit costs back into line with expectations, we have to focus on the denominator side, and that's the mining and the processing and grade management that Darren already alluded to.

The next question is from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Independent Research.

Congratulations on net cash today, which every day that's going to be this week or last week or next week. Could you elaborate on your definition of gold production versus inventory versus in circuit. We know you're generating cash, and we know you're really selling gold, but it's kind of amazing that 20,000 ounces fell out of the circuits extra in Nicaragua this quarter.

And it's also equally amazing that Greenstone only had a 12,000 ounce drop from the December quarter when the grade fell by 1/3 and the recovery fell by 1/4 and the recovery fell by 3%. So it seems like the gold and solution is somewhat extraordinary.

No, John, and thanks for your question. Thanks for the support. I'll start with the definition of what we use as gold production. Gold production is bullion, right, is poured. Then we'll have a recovered gold, which represents the kind of the in-circuit changes. There's not a lot of noise between gold poured and gold recovered for the better part.

If we think about Nicaragua, the drawdown in inventory was all not in process. It was stockpiles, right? We ended up the year -- at the end of the year with a significant inventory that we then got into the process plant in Q4 -- sorry, in Q1, that was built in Q4 because we ran out of capacity.

So that was the inventory change in Nicaragua. It's just a build-in inventory outside of the process plant. So yes, it's not an in-process inventory per se. In talking about inventories on Q4 -- or Q1 to Q4 at Greenstone. I'll ask Matt. But from my recollection, I don't think there was a significant change in in-process inventories in circuit Q1 over Q4.

Yes. There's a little bit of variation Q-on-Q, but it's nothing planned. It's just based upon timing of pour at the month end, and it's a natural ebb and flow. But yes, to what Darren said, I didn't think there was a huge change of in-process inventory Q-on-Q.

But we'd be happy to.

So you might have had an extra pour at Greenstone like having an extra ship go off for a copper mine shipping concentrate or something?

Yes. I mean, because what we'll typically do is that we won't kind of pour on the last day of the month, right? We'll just pour on a specific day every week or 2 days a week and wherever they happen to fall, you might see some inventory ups and inventory downs. But no, happy to get on a chat and walk through the specifics of Greenstone as well to make sure, you're comfortable that...

Congratulations on all the cash. Thank you.

I appreciate it. Thanks for your support. It's been a journey, and you've been a supporter of the product for a long time. So, thank you very much.

The next question is from Jeremy Hoy with Canaccord Genuity.

I'm going to talk about Los Filos. Could you give us any detail on, I guess, what's pending or needs to be negotiated on with the third community? And then any update on how you're thinking about that operation? I know you guys internally have been going through some iterations of what that operation could look like if it restarts and just a refresh on your thinking there would be helpful.

Yes. No, thanks, Jeremy, and thanks for your and Canaccord's support over the years. No, Los Filos is -- we're very, how do you say, optimistic about what we see at Los Filos and partly because the 16 million ounces in all categories, it's clearly a world-class asset. It has demonstrated ability to be able to produce -- our view of Filos is really looking to what the long term looks like. We're not in any hurry to restart operations in what was the previous form. It's really about the value proposition of birthing something that's in that potentially 300,000 to 400,000 ounces a year with a 20- to 30-year life within the current resource base.

I mean, it's an outstanding asset. So, what we're working very constructively with all of our stakeholders, including the third community is getting comfortable with a commercial arrangement that's going to ensure that, that product is durable and resilient in all gold price environments and can maximize value for all stakeholders. So, we're working with that third community. The dialogue is suffice to say, it has been very constructive.

It's clear in my mind that everyone is aligned behind wanting that to work. And we're going to make sure that what we put in place ensures that people can have a level of confidence about our ability and our -- I mean, us and the stakeholders working together over the long term to ensure that, that investment we put into a CIL plant and reinvest back in that property is secure. That's our value proposition.

And again, the dialogue has definitely changed over the last year. And again, we're very comfortable with the discussions we're having. And the time -- the agreements will be had in the time they had and whether it's in 2 weeks' time or 2 months' time or 3 months' time, I mean, again, I would anticipate something this year. But it's not important as to whether it happens this year.

It's about making sure we get the right agreements because in the background, we're actually working with an EPC company to look at scale and scope in and around what could this asset look like and what that capital size relationship is. So, our ability to be able to restart this asset is not impacted by the timing in which we have an agreement with the communities. So again, it's -- they're all happening concurrently and the community is aware of it. They're happy that we're doing that work. They see the value. So no, I think this is a win-win, and we'll end up with a world-class asset that delivers for a long, long time.

[Operator Instructions]

The next question is a follow-up from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets (sic) [ CIBC Capital Markets ].

So I just wanted to follow up on the tailings CapEx, like the remediation that you're going to be doing there with the Shear Keys. Can you just give me an idea of the capital budget for that over the life of mine?

Sure. This is a Greenstone, right, Anita.

Yes. Greenstone.

Yes. Yes, Matt is probably best poised to be able to talk about that. So Matt?

Yes. I don't know if I classify as remediation. It's kind of initial construction of the Shear Key, and it's baked into our CapEx profile for 2026. So yes, I wouldn't call it remediation per se. I think some maybe bleeds into 2027 as well, but it's all baked into our estimates and our guidance figures. And we can dive into more detail on the call if you want to go through dollars and cents.

Yes, I was going to add, Anita, that I think working off memory, we've got $80 million in there for the year 2026, but we'll take offline maybe the life of mine costs, if that's all right.

Anita. And yes, reach out and we'll fill in any blanks that need to be filled in.

This concludes the Q&A session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Darren Hall for any closing remarks.

Yes. I'd just like to thank all our shareholders for their continued support and everyone's participation and questions this morning. It is appreciated, is valued. And as always, Ryan and I and the entire executive team are always available if you have any further questions. So, with that, take care, be well, and back to you, operator.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator, and welcome to the Equinox Gold Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results and Corporate Update. [Operator Instructions] And the conference call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ryan King, EVP of Capital Markets for Equinox Gold. Please go ahead.

Well, thank you, operator. Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join the call this morning. Before we commence, I'd like to direct everyone to our forward-looking statements on Slide 2. Our remarks and answers to your questions today may contain forward-looking information about the company's future performance. Although management believes our forward-looking statements are based on fair and reasonable assumptions, actual results may turn out to be different from these forward-looking statements.

For a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties and factors that may lead actual operating and financial results being different from the estimates contained in our forward-looking statements, please refer to the risks identified in the section titled Risks related to the business in Equinox Gold's most recently filed annual information form, which is available on SEDAR+, on EDGAR and on our website.

Due to the Calibre merger, asset sales and classifying Brazil as discontinuing operations, the audit is taking a bit longer. We do not expect any changes compared to the unaudited results we have released, and we will issue a news release once the final audited results are filed in the coming days.

Finally, I should mention that all figures in today's presentation are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. And with me on the call today are Darren Hall, Chief Executive Officer; Peter Hardie, Chief Financial Officer; and David Schummer, Chief Operating Officer. Today, we will be discussing our fourth quarter and full year 2025 production and cost results, provide an update on ramp-up progress at our Greenstone and Valentine Gold Mines. Darren will also discuss the improvements of our balance sheet that allowed us to announce capital return initiatives, and then we will take questions. The slide deck we're referencing is available for download on our website at equinoxgold.com.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Darren.

Turning to Slide 3. And thanks, Ryan. Good morning, and thank you for joining the call today. Firstly, I would like to thank the entire Equinox Gold team, including all of our business partners across the Americas for their commitment to safety, operational excellence and disciplined execution. There is no better demonstration of their commitment than delivering a year with no material environmental events and a 30% reduction in our all injury frequency rate. Well done, and thank you to the entire team.

2025 was a transformational year for Equinox Gold, one that not only reset the foundation of the business, but marked the beginning of a new chapter. The team delivered record gold production, streamline the portfolio and dramatically strengthened the balance sheet positioning the company to deliver meaningful value as we look to the future. The entire organization is aligned on creating shareholder value by consistently delivering on their commitments, which are focused on demonstrating operational excellence, maintaining strict cost discipline and advancing higher-return organic growth. We have made material progress on all fronts, including delivering 922,000 ounces in 2025 with cash and all-in -- within cash and all-in cost items. This strong finish to the year reflects continued progress at Greenstone and Valentine, alongside reliable performance from the balance of the portfolio.

Greenstone ramped steadily throughout the year, with Q4 gold production 60% higher than Q1. Valentine commissioning progressed exceeded expectations with first gold achieved in September and commercial production declared in November. The result of the team's focus and commitment to deliver is also measured in the significant transformation of our balance sheet.

In June 2025, our net debt was approximately $1.4 billion. And at the end of January, we had reduced it to $75 million, all while completing construction and commissioning of Valentine. With a stronger balance sheet and consistent robust cash flow, we are well positioned to take the next step in returning capital to our shareholders. Given the strong position, I am pleased to announce the company's inaugural quarterly cash dividend of $0.015 per share. Additionally, we are filing our notice of intent to initiate a share buyback of up to 5% of the issued and outstanding shares. Together, these actions mark the start of a disciplined capital return strategy and reinforce our commitment to delivering long-term per share value.

Turning to Slide 4. Touching briefly on the financial results, and Pete can provide additional color as required. Equinox had a strong finish to the year with 247,000 ounces produced in Q4. We sold over 242,000 ounces at a realized price of $4,060 per ounce, generating $579 million in adjusted EBITDA and $272 million in adjusted net income or $0.35 per share. Importantly, we exited 2025 with over $400 million in cash and minimal net debt, giving us financial flexibility heading into 2026.

Looking forward, we are encouraged by the strength of the gold price. However, the organization's focus is clear: cost control, disciplined capital allocation, and delivering consistent performance across the portfolio. As our cornerstone assets ramp up to nameplate, we see a clear path to expanding margins and strengthening free cash flow generation.

Turning to Slide 5. Greenstone finished with a strong fourth quarter, producing over 72,000 ounces, a 29% increase over Q3. We saw meaningful improvements in mining rates, mill throughputs and grade, with the plant achieving nameplate capacity for 30 consecutive days during December.

For 2026, we anticipate production of 250,000 to 300,000 ounces at all-in sustaining costs of between $1,750 and $1,850 per ounce. To support continued performance gains, we are making targeted investments in the operations including the purchase of a trommel and other mobile equipment designed to optimize mine and process plant performance.

Our long-term objective remains clear at Greenstone, to establish life of mine production around 300,000 ounces annually. We've demonstrated that the mill can process 30,000 tonnes a day. With the team we now have in place, I'm confident that we'll continue to build on the demonstrating meaningful operational improvements.

Consider the progress on the key metric of daily tonnes processed greater than nameplate over the last year. In H1 2025, we delivered 17% of the days greater than nameplate. In Q3, we increased to 28%, in Q4 to 36%. Looking at Q1 to date through yesterday, we're at 50%. So we're demonstrating continued and demonstrated steady ramp-up of the assets, which sets up well for the future.

At Valentine, we poured over 23,000 ounces of gold in Q4, its first quarter, with the plant averaging 90% of nameplate capacity. We expect to achieve constant or consistent nameplate throughput during Q2 2026, as we anticipate Valentine to contribute 150,000 to 200,000 ounces of gold this year. We are working on the feasibility study for the Phase 2 expansion that would increase throughput to 4.5 to 5 million tonnes per year and result in production of greater than 200,000 ounces a year for more than the next decade. I anticipate completing the feasibility study over the next couple of months, which will then go to the Board for investment approval in Q2 with work anticipated to commence in the second half of the year.

Valentine continues to show strong exploration upside. Our 2025 drill results confirm consistent high-grade mineralization over broad widths at the Frank Zone, supporting the potential for a fourth open pit. In 2026, we have 25,000 meters of drilling planned to advance the Frank Zone. We also announced a new discovery, the Minotaur Zone located 8 kilometers north of the mill with a 20,000-meter drill program set to begin this spring, the zone remains open for expansion. Importantly, the Minotaur discovery confirms that significant gold mineralization exists well outside of the main Valentine Lake Shear Zone, opening the broader property and reinforcing the long-term growth potential of the Valentine District beyond the current mine plan.

Turning to Slide 6. As we close, I want to underscore the momentum across the business. We have the key ingredients in place to deliver top quartile valuation, new high-quality, long-life assets in Tier 1 jurisdictions, and organic growth pipeline a team focused on delivering into expectations, which deliver strong free cash flow and return capital to shareholders.

In 2026, our priorities are clear. Ramp up Greenstone and Valentine to nameplate capacity, allocate capital in a disciplined and balanced manner across the portfolio, sustaining investment and shareholder returns while maintaining a strong balance sheet. Our inaugural dividend and application for a share buyback are key steps in this strategy. Consistent with our focus on disciplined growth, we are investing in the long-term value creation. This year, we will advance Phase 2 at Valentine, refresh Castle Mountain studies and progress Los Filos both technically and socially.

At Los Filos, I'm encouraged by the continued engagement with our host communities and support from the state and national governments as we remain focused on realizing the assets full potential and unlocking significant long-term value for all stakeholders. With a stronger portfolio, solid cash flow and clear execution priorities, we are entering into 2026 from a position of strength. Our focus remains on disciplined growth, operational delivery and creating long-term value responsibly and consistently for our shareholders and all stakeholders.

With that, we'll turn it over to the operator for any questions.

[Operator Instructions] And the first call for today will come from Francesco Costanzo with Scotiabank. .

I'll start with my first one here. It's great to see the announcement of an inaugural dividend alongside NCIB and with production and free cash flow growth on the horizon. Can you speak to the potential for this dividend to grow in the future and maybe your approach to fixed versus variable dividends? And then on the buyback program, can you explain your strategy for how you plan to deploy those funds?

Yes. Francesco, thanks for the comments. And I'll pass it across to Pete to talk about some capital allocation and specifically address the questions in around dividends and buybacks.

Yes. Thanks, Darren. Yes, we're really excited to be in a position to announce the inaugural dividend. It's been a long-term goal for the company, something we have talked about it over the past years. So we're really pleased to be able to do that now. And it underscores the confidence we have in our forward production profile and in our forward cash flow.

We started small with our inaugural dividend. We started with a fixed dividend. You can expect it to stay there for the coming future, probably the next 12, 24 months. As we firm up the development pipeline, the peer-leading development pipeline that we have, starting with our Valentine Phase 2 that Darren already mentioned and then looking forward to Castle Mountain heading into 2027.

So with that development in front of us, you can expect we'll stay on a fixed dividend, and we will be looking to increase that over time. And that will be a bit of a stay-tuned story with respect to those plans. But again, we're just really excited to have been able to announce the inaugural dividend.

With respect to the share buyback, we still feel there's a lot of opportunity in our stock price, and at these levels, again, being conservative in our approach. We want to be in a position to when we felt like we -- the shares were not trading as we think they should to be able to buy some of those back and also return capital to shareholders in that manner. And you can expect us to continue to do that. But again, with the peer-leading pipe development pipeline we have in the dollars, we're going to devote to that over the coming years for it to remain somewhat conservative.

Yes. Thanks, Pete. And just kind of layer there Francesco is that we will take a somewhat conservative view. But as we work through 2026, and we have a fulsome understanding about our capital requirements in '27 in lighter Valentine Phase 2, importantly, Castle Mountain with a record decision anticipated at the end of the year, and the positivity we see in and around the dialogue in Mexico, we will have some demands in 2027. We feel very comfortable in being able to fund those organically, but we want to make sure we don't put ourselves in a position where we overcommit to a return on capital through dividends and find ourselves compromised to fund the organic growth, which we don't anticipate, but I think that we've got an outstandingly positive look forward on our organic growth. So thanks for the question. .

Yes, great. Maybe just one more, switching gears here. The sale of the Brazilian assets definitely simplified the portfolio and accelerated deleveraging with the transaction closing in late January and the $900 million check already cleared. Although post close, there was a bit of news out of a certain Brazilian regulator. So I'm just wondering, Darren, if you can just explain the situation from your side of the table and tell us if there's anything to be concerned about here?

Yes. No. Thanks, Francesco. No, it's an interesting situation there. I mean we're confident the sale of the Brazilian operations fully comply with all laws and contractual obligations. And I'll provide a little context and bear with me as I do. And in Brazil, mineral resources are constitutionally owned by the federal government, and mining titles are granted and administrated by the National Mining Agency. Mining titles such as those for Aurizona, Bahia, and RDM are administered through the federal framework. At group Bahia, CBPM has made claim that their was required regarding the sale of the Santa Luz operation. However, the transaction took effect through the sale of the outstanding shares of 2 non-Brazilian wholly-owned subsidiaries that then indirectly own all of the Brazilian operations.

So we're kind of arms length away from that claim. But again, we, as Equinox and the pads on the other side of the transaction are confident that the sale of the Brazilian operations fully complied with the Brazilian law and all contractual obligations were met, and we remain committed to constructive dialogue with any party who wants to raise an issue. And as you mentioned, as a sale closed on January 23, we deployed proceeds towards debt reduction, strengthening the balance sheet. And along with cash flow from operations, resulted in ending cash with net debt of around $75 million, which has positioned the company to commence the capital return programs, which we just discussed.

The next question will come from Jeremy Hoy with Canaccord Genuity.

I'd just like to revisit something that was asked about a month ago when some of the team was through Toronto. And that's with -- if there was to be a positive development at low CLOs, it seems like the timing of that could go inside with Castle Mountain. Could you give us an update and a refresh on your thinking about how you would approach the development of both of those opportunities if it were both available at the same time?

Yes. Jeremy, I mean to be great to be in that Sophie's Choice first world sort of situation. But we are encouraged by the dialogue we're having in Mexico. We've got still a lot of work to do to establish robust 20-year land access agreement, which sets us up for most reliable production over the long term. But fuels is a significant asset. If we think about 16 million ounces in ore resource category. The opportunity that sits there is significant.

So our focus this year is really about understanding scope and scale and the early works that were done there in -- back in '21, 2022 with the feasibility study, we're all conceived at a $1,350 gold price in terms of the designs and around the open pits and the underground, not suggesting we would plan around $4,500 metal price. But if we consider something at $2,000 to $3,000 an ounce, the scope and scale of that asset changes materially. And so we'll work diligently through that this year. which will allow us to be in a much more intelligent position at the end of the year to make a decision if we're presented with the opportunities to develop.

But we are comfortable in. We see great opportunity in and to my earlier comments in and around the rate at which we increase dividends and buybacks will be somewhat foreshadowed by the rate at which we see these organic growth opportunities presented. But to make a decision between those 2 properties, we're a long way from that right now. We're confident in what we're seeing at Los Filos Filos. But we do have a guaranteed record of decision decision at Castle Mountain here in December of this year. So that is a known entity. We are working on that feasibility be able to firm up those estimates. So we're well positioned to be able to make a commitment decision in there in H1 in 2027. So let's see how the year progresses. But yes, spoiled for choices is kind of the way I would characterize it and fund it as well for whatever choices we make, which will be great.

Yes. We'll watch for developments at Los Filos and Castle eagerly. You did mention that we're going to see a refreshed study for Castle Mountain. Also, we would see the same for Los Filos if positive developments come there. Are you planning to release anything on Greenstone as we've spoken often about expectations for that operation be somewhat different from what was presented in the last feasibility study. Just wondering what we might see in terms of an updated like mine plan, will it come in the form of a study, what the timing might be, et cetera?

Yes. No, absolutely, Jeremy. To remove any ambiguity, we will provide updated technical reports for both Greenstone and Valentine right around the end of this quarter associated with our annual filings. So we get everything current nice enticed tied with the AIF and the AIF will also include a refresh and clarity on our reserves and resources as at December 31 as well. So that's the time for those properties for Castle. We're continuing to work in the background on the feasibility study and no surprises from what we've articulated over the last 6 months. We're just going through crossing tea starting eyes firming things up so that we have a high level of confidence in and around the scope of work so we can go out there and have constructive discussions with EPCM contractors and the like in the back half of this year.

Filos is a little earlier in the process. We're in the process of kind of doing an order of magnitude study to understand scope and scale associated with that property, and I anticipate that, that will probably lead into a, I'll call it, a pre-fees, if you will, early in Q2 as we have a bit of an appreciation for scope and scale. Hopefully, we're in a situation where we've debottleneck some of the land access agreements, which allow us then to actively explore across all portions of the deposit and then allow us to appropriately scope and scale. So a little bit of what might sound like confusion there in Los Filos, but it's actually very positive. And again, we see -- again, I think the stat is probably somewhere in the fourth or fifth largest not operating gold assets in the Americas right now. So the talk there is significant. The opportunity is real, and we're definitely seeing a change in narrative out of Mexico, which is great.

The next question will come from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets.

Just a few on Greenstone. So I was just wondering the recovery rate declined a little bit from third quarter to fourth quarter. Can you give us some color on why that was?

Yes. Anita, thank you absolutely did. I think we've discussed previously that there is an association with arsenic and grade. We did see a much higher grades in the fourth quarter and a consequence saw lower recoveries associated with the arsenic lockup. So not an issue per se. It's kind of all anticipated and expected as part of the metallurgy of the deposit, so.

And then just a similar question, just on the unit costs. The G&A was a little bit higher this quarter. Was there anything specific that was happening this quarter that would be alleviated in the go forward?

Yes, there is. I'll pass it to Pete.

Yes. Anita, sorry, I don't have the G&A details at hand. Can I reach out to you or one of your associates after the call? I'll pull that together. Yes.

And then I had one more on just a question that I noticed for both Valentine and Greenstone. I wanted you to explain to me how are you -- how you guys are calculating the the recovery rates as they come out because when I put the tonnes the grade and the output of production, I'm getting to recovery rates that are a little bit different. I've said differently, I would have got about 75,000 ounces of gold by the 3 numbers there, and you reported 72 and Valentine is a similar issue. So I'm just wondering, like are you calculating it as it exits the mill? Or is there a certain different point at what you're saying, this is production?

No. I think we'll find that the small differences we may see there is that the numbers we quote as production are poured and bullion and some of the tonnes grade recovery will be metallurgical as well. So there will be a minor change there based on inventory changes. And to your point, I think you'll probably end up with a marginally higher recovery at Greenstone in Q4 than maybe what we reported, if you back into the metal content because we actually did see an inventory build at Greenstone in fourth quarter. But we can -- we're happy to sit down and walk through that in a model discussion, happy to do that. But I think we'll find it's kind of the metallurgical production versus the pure production differences. .

Your next question will come from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank.

Maybe staying on Greenstone. And given your comments on the throughput and the ability to achieve over the nameplate capacity. How should we think about the throughput levels in 2026? And call it, in the medium term at Greenstone, should we still be thinking about 27,000 tonnes per day of work towards increasing it towards that 30,000 tonnes per day to maybe offset some of the autopista maybe coming to the tech report.

Yes. No, thanks, Mohamed. And I say here that have a good Ramadan, right, day 1. So -- if we think about throughput, we've guided 250,000 to 300,000 ounces at Greenstone this year, and we hold firm on that. We will see opportunities over the course of the year to continue to improve throughput. Some of that is already baked into our numbers. We've demonstrated the ability to do more than 30,000 tonnes a day, which will be more longer term. But through this year, I think that the big round numbers are, if you think about 9.5 million tonnes of around 1.1 grams per tonne at feasibility recoveries you get into that midpoint of guidance. So I think that's a good place to hang our hat.

So I think of recoveries average over the year in that 25,000, 26,000 tonnes a day. There will be days we do better. And as we're demonstrating as we -- when we operate the plant, as I mentioned earlier, I mean month or quarter to date, we've got 40 -- 50% of the days greater than nameplate. So -- and we are seeing sustained and improved performance on a daily basis. Our focus now is reducing downtime and getting the operations guys more time to be able to run the plant. And that's our focus. And it's going to be a journey through this year, and there will be dips and waves along the way. The grades will be higher and lower, depending on where we're mining. The recoveries as a need of for shadow will be different based on different metallurgical types. So there will be some peaks and valleys through the year, but the trends on a quarter-by-quarter basis will remain positive. And I would like us to see see us coming out of 2027, looking to be talking more intelligently to those 30,000 tonne a day rates going forward. As we -- the HPGRs and store capacity are probably mid-30, 30,000, 35,000 tonnes a day, but we've got to get the reliable performance through the plant before we can start to talk about those sort of numbers openly and public given I am now, but to be able to commit to those is we've got some work to do this year.

Maybe if I could switch quickly to Valentine. And given the asset is in ramp-up phase, can you give us some color on the cadence in terms of quarter-over-quarter production should we expect higher production in the second half? And what magnitude should we be modeling for 2026?

Yes. No, absolutely. I mean, we're in the second quarter of ramp-up. And Newfoundland through some surprises that is in January. Full disclosure. We think about -- we had 90% throughput in a percentage of nameplate in Q4. And we think about January and January was 70%, right? It got cold, it got better. There were some learnings associated with the winter and we've worked through those. I mean -- in February, we're now at 110% of nameplate. So there's peaks and troughs and valleys as we work through. But the team are systematically addressing those things, we will continue to see quarter-on-quarter improvement in reliability in the plant, which will lead to higher tonnes, which will lead to improved confidence in feeding higher-grade material. So we'll say that grades will be manifested that way as well.

So we're still comfortable with our guidance of 150,000 to 200,000 ounces, but it's definitely H2 weighted as a function of throughput and also greater making progress in developing the very pit. So -- but we're happy to sit down and walk through a model and fill in some blanks for you as well quarter-on-quarter, not fill in, but -- that's just with that math.

The next question will come from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research.

Looking at the big picture, the current gold price is $5,000 neighborhood and say $800 million of CapEx. You generate something like $600 million more cash paying off all the debt. It looks like your -- you had a couple of extra dollars buying around. Are you planning the business on $400 gold plus success at all 5 locations where all the capital calls come in because you've got more gold produced as opposed to building a war chest for acquisitions.

Yes, John. No, it's a first-world predict we're in, I guess, is that our focus is given the opportunities we see with organic growth is ensuring that we exit this year well funded to be able to do that organic growth. M&A is not on our radar. If something passes our screen that makes sense, we will do something. But I can assure you, as of today, we do not have a CA signed with anyone. So our focus is absolutely optimizing what we've got. We spent a lot of time and effort putting all of these assets together over the last 6 or 7 years and now is our time to be able to start to realize that from that growth.

With 400,000 to 500,000 ounces of organic growth in our portfolio that we can see over the next 5 years, I mean, that's where our focus is. So -- there's been a positive confusion in our story right now as we've significantly delevered from $1.5 billion worth of net debt to 0. We're generating cash. We see the opportunities that present in 2027 and beyond. And let's make sure that we do the intelligent thing for the long term in 2026, which is to remain absolutely focused on operational performance, and don't lose sight of the fact that we produce widgets at a cost. So let's keep that business focused on that so we can maximize our margin of whatever gold price there is and then use that capture to be able to fund our organic growth.

I don't know, Pete, anything you'd layer on that, but.

We're -- you've highlighted, John, really well that we're in a great position to fund this future growth. And we're really focused on ensuring that we retained a very solid and build on the various solid foundation that we've laid in place here over the last several months. As Darren said, to build out these world-class assets that we are very fortunate to have in our pipeline. .

I can ask one more.

Sorry, go on, John.

No, you go ahead.

No, no, no, no. You guys we work for you, right? So the investors, our focus is we're aligned with you, and we...

In Nicaragua, you projected $1,800 cash costs up 40% or a little more on 225,000 ounces of output. The second half came in better than that. Could you give us some color on how the costs are going up so much in Nicaragua?

Yes. No. Thanks, John. It's a bit of a first well problem. What we're seeing here is the majority of the cost increase is not cost inflation per se, but it's volume driven. As we develop some newer pits and an underground that are going to basically fund or fuel a level of production at that 200,000 to 250,000 ounces a year over the next 5 years, there's some increased capital that results in those higher strip ratio and reflects in a higher all-in sustaining cost. So that's really where that comes from. It's not a driving that kind of cost per tonne mined or a cost per tonne process. It's volume-driven as we go from arguably what I'll call smaller pitlets to larger pits, highest refracs this year, and that's manifested itself in higher all-in sustaining costs. So which lays us up well for the next 5 years, which is kind of our story has been over the last 5 years in Nicaragua is to take some assets that were headed towards closure and we produced what 1 billion -- 1.2 million, 1.3 million ounces from those properties in the last 5 years, and we've taken reserves from extensively 100,000 ounces to an excess of 1 million ounces. So 5 -- let's say, 5 years, 40,000 ounces a year of organic growth. Now we're starting to see track in front of the train. We're investing in that from developing these larger pits, which will continue that momentum for the next 5 years. So that's really what it is, John.

With the cash cost, the second year out 2027 drop, say, the $1,500 in Nicaragua after this surge.

I mean I think we'll see that the strip ratio go down, and that will have a positive impact on all-in sustaining costs. Yes.

Congratulations.

Appreciate it, John. Thanks for your support. I know you've been a shareholder for a long time and persistent through the doing. Thank you.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Darren Hall for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you, operator. And I'd like to thank all of our shareholders for their continued support and your participation and the questions today. It is appreciated and valued. As always, Ryan, Dave, Pete and I are always available if you have any further questions, and take care, be well, and I'll pass it back to the operator.

This brings a close to today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for your participation, and have a pleasant day.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Equinox Gold Third Quarter 2025 Results and Corporate Update. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Ryan King, EVP, Capital Markets for Equinox Gold. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join the call with us this morning. Before we commence, I'd like to direct everyone to our forward-looking statements on Slide 2. Our remarks and answers to your questions today may contain forward-looking information about the company's future performance. Although management believes our forward-looking statements are based on fair and reasonable assumptions, actual results may turn out to be different from these forward-looking statements. For a complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties and factors that may lead to actual operating and financial results being different from the estimates contained in our forward-looking statements, please refer to the risks identified in the section titled risks related to the business in Equinox Gold's most recently filed annual information form, which is available on SEDAR+, on EDGAR and on our website.

And finally, I should mention that all figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. With me on the call today are Darren Hall, Chief Executive Officer; Pete Hardie, Chief Financial Officer; and David Schummer, Chief Operating Officer. We will be discussing our third quarter 2025 production and cost results and providing an update on ramp-up progress at our Greenstone and Valentine mines after which we will take questions. The slide deck we are referencing is available for download on our website at equinoxgold.com, under the Shareholder Events section. You can also click on the webcast link to join the live presentation. And with that, I will turn the call over to Darren.

Thanks, Ryan, and turning to Slide 3. Good morning, everyone, and I appreciate you taking the time to join us on the call today. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of all of Equinox's employees and business partners for their continued focus to responsibly deliver over 236,000 ounces during our first full quarter, including Calibre assets. Well done to the entire team. It is truly an exciting time for Equinox as we begin to realize the value of our expanded Americas-focused gold portfolio anchored by 2 new cornerstone gold mines in Greenstone and Valentine. As I've mentioned previously, the leadership team, supported by the entire organization is focused on creating shareholder returns by consistently delivering on its commitments, which are focused on demonstrated operational excellence, advancing high-return organic growth, rationalizing the portfolio and disciplined capital allocation.

These are more than just words. Over the last quarter, we have made material progress on each of these commitments. Just a few examples: operational excellence. Production and costs were in line or favorable compared to consensus expectations and we remain on track to deliver into our full year consolidated production guidance. Importantly, we have made meaningful progress at Greenstone, which I'll talk to shortly. Advancing high-return organic growth. We poured force gold at Valentine where the ramp-up is progressing extremely well, a game, which I'll provide color on shortly.

Additionally, Castle Mountain was accepted into the U.S. Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council's FAST-41 permitting program, which defines an anticipated record of decision in December of 2026. Rationalizing the portfolio. Post quarter end, we closed the sale of our Nevada assets for $115 million, including $88 million in cash. Disciplined capital allocation. We retired $139 million of debt during Q3 and have commenced Q4 with an additional $25 million in October. Turning to Slide 4. During Q3, we sold 239,000 ounces at an average cost of $1,434 per ounce at an all-in sustaining cost of just over $1,800 per ounce which underscores the enhanced scale and earnings power of the new company.

Our adjusted net income was $147 million or $0.19 per share with adjusted EBITDA of $420 million. We ended the quarter with $348 million in cash, not including the $88 million from the sale of our Nevada assets, which closed post quarter end. With year-to-date production of 634,000 ounces, we are well positioned to deliver the midpoint of our 2025 production guidance of 785,000 to 915,000 ounces after divesting Nevada and prior to considering any production from Valentine. Equinox has entered a pivotal phase with increasing Canadian production driven by asset optimization and the addition of Valentine, positioning us for stronger cash flow and earnings in the quarters ahead.

Turning to Slide 5. Greenstone's performance improved meaningfully in Q3, and we remain on track to deliver into the low end of our production guidance at Greenstone. Importantly, Q3 mining rates exceeded 185,000 tonnes per day, which was a 10% increase over Q2 and a 21% increase over Q1. Importantly, process grades improved 13% in Q3 to 1.05 grams per tonnes. Improvements to pit floors, haul roads and dumps, along with implementation of double-side loading have led to lower cycle times and increased productivity. Our focus on equipment maintenance practices, more efficient shift changes and the use of hot seating during shifts is also contributing to improved equipment utilization, which is resulting in increased daily mining performance.

Since July, we have implemented additional dilution management measures, including enhanced grade control protocols and improved tracking systems, which is positively contributing to increased grades quarter-over-quarter. In the mill, despite 10 days of downtime due to planned maintenance events, including a 7-day shut to replace HPGR grinding rolls, total tonnes processed in Q3 were consistent with Q2 as we saw a 6% improvement in tonnes per hour processed. Further process improvements are underway, including commissioning of additional final refeed and core source stockpile conveyors that will enable consistent delivery material to the grinding circuit during periods of downs by providing additional redundancy.

The positive momentum has continued into Q4 with October mining rates exceeding 205,000 tonnes per day, a 10% increase over Q3. In the process plant, we have seen mill grades improve to 1.34 grams per tonne, a 27% increase over Q3 and a 15% improvement in tonnes milled per day versus the Q3 average. The strategy being made across the board, coupled with increasing grades underscores our confidence that Greenstone will deliver a strong Q4 and continue that momentum into 2026. Turning to Slide 6. Valentine commissioning continues ahead of expectations with ore introduced into the circuit on August 27 and first gold was poured on September 14. The plant averaged nearly 5,000 tonnes per day or 73% of nameplate for the first 66 days of operation.

Performance in October continues to demonstrate strong progress with throughput averaging over 6,200 tonnes per day or 91% of nameplate. Importantly, 18 days or 58% of the days during October were greater than nameplate. Recoveries exceeded 93% for the month from lower grade commissioning ores, which again, are consistent with feasibility level recoveries, albeit a lower grade. Performance at this level is truly a testament to the robustness of the design and disciplined execution by our construction, commissioning and operations teams over the last 18 months. While we're still early in the journey, based on what I have seen, I fully expect Valentine to deliver into the upper end of the Q4 production range of 15,000 to 30,000 ounces.

With the ramp-up progressing extremely well, I anticipate Valentine will reach nameplate capacity by Q2 2026. On this basis, 2026 should be a strong year with production anticipated to be between 150,000 to 200,000 ounces. In parallel, we're advancing our Phase II expansion studies and see a clear path to increasing throughput to between 4.5 million to 5 million tonnes per year. I will provide a fulsome update when we announce full funds approval which I anticipate in early Q2 2026. Concurrently exploration drilling has accelerated across the property with 4 drills in operation, the team is following up on several new discoveries, including the previously released Frank Zone. Assays are pending for a number of significant intercepts, which could meaningfully add to the resource base in the coming years.

Needless to say, we are very optimistic on Valentine's exploration potential. Turning to Slide 7. Looking to 2026, I expect continued improvement in production and cash flow, supported by increasing contributions from both Greenstone and Valentine. We have seen a lift in our share price over the past few months, supported by a stronger gold price and steady operational delivery. That being said, I believe there is still a disconnect between our intrinsic value and how we are currently trading. Since 2022, our peers have seen significantly higher equity performance and while I recognize we've got work to do as we continue to build confidence by delivering our commitments. I believe there's a meaningful upside potential in our share price.

The opportunity ahead is significant, and our strategy is solid. By demonstrating operational excellence, advancing our high-return organic growth assets, rationalizing the portfolio with a disciplined capital allocation strategy, I'm confident that we will become a reliable top quartile value to diversify gold producer. With that, operator, we are ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Francesco Costanzo with Scotiabank.

Congrats on a good quarter. Maybe I'll start with Valentine. With the first of gold poured that was completed in September. Can you discuss some of the key performance milestones that you're tracking during the mine and mill ramp up? And then maybe after that, could you give us an update on the Phase II expansion study to increase the throughput to 5 million tonnes per annum?

Yes. Francisco, thanks and appreciate yours and Scotia's continued support. When we think about the milestones of Valentine, I guess, is that there's a lot of moving parts as you birth a new asset like Valentine. But I guess as the headline number here is that if we think of the first 66 days of performance of the entire facility since introducing ore in August 27, we've exceeded 70% of nameplate. And if we think about October in isolation, it's over 90% of nameplate. So all of the things that the team are focused on are clearly delivering in a great product.

And as we look forward, they're now thinking about what's happening next, which is a good segue into Phase 2. We've tried purposely not to distract the team with Phase 2. But in the background, we have been doing work and over the last quarter, we've continued on our, we'll call it, options study analysis. And we now have good clarity on what the preferred option is going forward. And it's really a much simpler view than what we'd ever seen before. It doesn't include the addition of flotation. It specifically includes the addition of a twin ball mill, which provides additional redundancy in the circuit, which we see will comfortably deliver close to 5 million tonnes.

So in this month, we'll actually commence the feasibility study and as I foresee earlier, I would anticipate going to the board in early Q2 for full funds approval so I would anticipate providing a fairly fulsome update here in the latter part of Q1 or early Q2.

Yes, that's great. Maybe if I could just 1 more on deleveraging. So net debt currently sitting around $1.3 billion. Can you outline your strategy for deleveraging and how that might relate to portfolio rationalization work that's underway. And with the Pan sale now closed, can you maybe highlight when we might expect to see the next transactions?

Sure. I guess there are 2 things that are running in parallel that we can kind of put a ring fence, if you will, around portfolio optimization. But if we think about -- I think you mentioned a $1.3 billion net debt. And if we look forward for the next 12 months and we think about our production portfolio, we call it 1 million ounces given the buoyancy and the privilege we see with buoyancy and gold price right now, and we look at our total cost, it's easy to see over $1 billion that we can put against delevering the balance sheet. So ignoring any asset sales, by the end of next year, we're going to be in a very, very solid liquidity position with a significant portion, if not the majority of our debt extinguished.

So as we start to think about Valentine coming online, I would anticipate that we'll definitely be fully funded on Valentine before we make a go commitment. And we think about the additional organic growth that comes post that with Castle Mountain, we're going to be in a very solid position with that as well. Now specifically as it relates to our assets, well, if I think of assets as children, I love them all, but for the right price, I'll gladly part with one. So we have seen interest in some of our assets. And to that end, there are people when we encourage people, if you're interested in having a discussion come to us and we'll gladly entertain and we'll see how it makes sense.

And if those assets and that offer would make more sense and value to our shareholders in someone else's hand versus ours. But we're not desperate to transact. But for the right price, if it makes sense for our shareholders, we'll gladly entertain and progress any opportunities. But this is very clearly a path for us to realize some additional value and look at how we could use cash from any sales in terms of funding our organic growth portfolio. But to reinforce also, this is looking at disposal of, not acquisitions.

The next question comes from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets.

Darren, I just wanted to ask about your calculation of mine site free cash flow. I think there are some items in there that relate to basically nonoperating mines, so Los Filos, Castle Mountain and Valentine. Can you give a breakout of percentages or even millions of dollars like which ones I would allocate it to?

Yes, Anita. Again, I don't have that information in front of me, but I'll ask Peter. Pete, you're in a position to...

Unfortunately, no, not at this moment, Anita. I'm happy to -- we'll have that for you after the call.

Okay. Then I'll ask on Valentine, a follow-up question, I guess. On Valentine, the grades that you're introducing right now, it was like 0.77 grams per tonne, I think. And then I'm just -- not that this is the time to be concerned, but I was just curious, was that just a deliberate decision right now until you get the recovery rates where you want them to be, not to waste or is that something where you are in the mining sequence at lower grades initially? And how will that evolve over the next couple of quarters?

No. Thanks, Anita. And I appreciate the question, and it's a really, really good question. No, we're seeing very solid and actually positive reconciliation from our ore control to our resource and reserve models at Valentine. So very comfortable with what we see there, as we've talked about previously. As we talk about being in the first 2 months, we've specifically commissioned the plant on lower-grade materials. And the reason being is this that we want to practice on material is less important. But in hindsight, Jason and the team have done such a fantastic job that we probably should have just commissioned on the highest grade material because we're seeing recoveries in excess of feasibility out of the gate.

So no, the team has done a great. But no, it's been a purposeful decision to process lower-grade materials and ramp up as we get comfortable with getting to the point where we can declare commercial production, which we would anticipate probably in the next month or so, right, definitely in the quarter.

Okay. So I'm going to ask 1 more since the first one didn't get answered, if that's okay. But it's similar on the grades going into Greenstone. So I think it said in October, you're at 1.34 gram per tonne material. I'm not sure if it was being fed to the mill or if that was what was being mined. But if it's 1.34, are you starting to see higher grades coming out of the pit specifically the underground areas where you were wondering if sort of the remnants around the old workings were there or not? Like have we seen -- is there any progress or update on the profile of the skin?

Yes. No, absolutely. And thanks again for the great question. Is that if we think about quarter-on-quarter, we saw a significant improvement at grades milled at Greenstone. It did go to 1.05 and they are milled grades, not mine grades. We have seen an improvement in mine grades as well in the quarter. I mean average mine grade in Q3 was 0.91 grams per tonne compared to $0.78 in Q2 and as you're aware, we're mining more material than what we're processing. We're purposefully processing the higher grade material. And from the material we are seeing, we are seeing a higher grade because of where we position ourselves geographically.

But secondly, I think that the concerted focus we've had on getting reliable tonnes mined, which is allowing the team to focus on quality which is minimizing dilution and then also being very purposeful in and around how we treat material in and around the voids is definitely having a very positive impact on grade. And I think I mentioned on the earlier part of this call that there's been a focus for quite some time. But I'll suffice to say, in July, things got pretty serious with respect to grade, and we saw a step change in September with the average grade in September process to 1.38 and we've been able to maintain a 1.34 in October.

So I think what we're seeing is a combination of the performance in the mine, allowing for focus on quality, which is allowing for a consistency in grade fed, which was always the model, but I think that we've got the right people focused on the right things, and we're starting to see the benefit from. So that, coupled with the continued improvements we see in mill throughput on a tonnes per hour or tonnes per day basis will definitely lead to a much stronger Q4 with growth momentum into 2026.

The next question comes from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank Capital Markets.

Maybe I could start with Greenstone. Just wondering if you could maybe give us a little bit of color on your current stockpile in terms of tonnage and grade at Greenstone currently, if possible?

Yes. No, sure. At the end of month October, again, this is from memory, but I guess is that the important part of the stockpile is the highest grade material and we have the better part of a month of high-grade material in front of us and the grades in excess of 1.5 grams. Then there's the other material, which is a little lower grade material, but we're talking 2 million or 3 million tonnes at around 0.7 grams per tonne and then we've got the lower grade material as well. But in total, we've got in excess of 8 million tonnes of stockpile in front of the plant as it stands today.

That's great. And maybe if I could just move in terms of capital allocation priorities. I think back in Q2, you talked about, of course, deleveraging your balance sheet, paying down debt and reinvesting within your growth projects. But in terms of capital return, you had talked about potentially mid-2026. Since then, I think gold has moved over $500 per ounce. Have your thoughts changed around your capital return program at all? Or should we still target mid 2026 for a potential update on that front?

Well, I guess, is kind of foreshadowed earlier, if we kind of ignore any potential cash that can come in from an asset divestment, I think we're going to find ourselves significantly delevered by the end of 2026 and at that point, we'll be having some pretty material conversations about vehicles to be able to return additional capital to shareholders. I mean, Pete, what would you layer on this one.

Yes. I think, Mohamed, if you're -- as you said, if you're looking at 2026, that will be a 2026 discussion. So for purposes of modeling, if you will, just assume no capital returns for next year. We are really very entirely focused, as Darren just said a couple of times now on delevering.

Yes. And if we think about capital allocation holistically. Aside from exploration, the most accretive investment we can make is to ensure that we deliver into our production commitments at a responsible price. From that, with cash it's delevering the balance sheet, but it's positioning ourselves for our significant organic growth as we see through Valentine Phase 2, Castle Mountain. And then the additional benefit we'll see from Los Filos in the next couple of years as well. So I think our strategy on capital allocation is very clear.

And if we find ourselves with a cash inflow vis-a-vis an asset disposal that could then provide additional talk to return capital to shareholders through a dividend or a share buyback or some other form. But the organic growth opportunity within the portfolio, exploration and the assets are mentioned Valentine, Castle, Los Filos will provide significant returns to our shareholders.

The next question comes from John Tumazos with Very Independent Research.

Could you elaborate on the Phase 2 expansion to 5 million tonnes potentially for Valentine. Would the 15,000 tonnes a day, be it the same grade to suggest the 2029 output as much as 400,000 ounces?

Yes, John -- and thanks for the question. I appreciate your support. If we think about the feasibility study that was put out at the end of 2022 for Valentine, it had a 2.5 million tonne base plant, expanded to 4 million tonnes. And what that did is that delivered into the feasibility study, which generated a 175,000 to 200,000 ounces a year over a reserve life of 14 years. So now what we've been looking at is what's that optimal increment that we could add to the base facility. And what we've been looking at is that optionality. So where we see right now is this that we see a path to something that's comfortably in that, call it, 5 million tonnes because it makes the math easy so would it be a 20% increment in throughput over what was included in the feasibility study.

So I think then you make some assumptions on what would the incremental grade be. So if we be -- let's be -- let's assume that the grade is consistent with the average. It would then demonstrate a proportional increment of 25% improvement in production. Stepping back, I think that if we look at this -- the exploration success we've seen from Frank and the other potential along the property that will all come together around the same time. I think over the next year, we'll be sitting back and saying, clearly, we'll have an optimal incremental throughput, the material that feeds into that will be significantly impacted by our exploration success, and we look at optimizing the plants. Everything we've done to date has assumed the same relatively conservative mine plan, resource base and pit designs that we used in the 2022 feasibility study.

So I think that we have a very favorable view on the increment at Valentine. But I think that will become more favorable as we optimize the plant 4 or 5 million tonne plant, and we start to see the benefits from the reconciliation that we anticipate going forward. Early days, but given the nature of the deposit, I would anticipate we're likely to see some positivity in terms of reconciliation above a cutoff. So no, I think that it's -- it's too early to say absolutely what the numbers are, John. But if I was sitting on your side of the table, trying to fill in a model, I would probably replace the $4 million with $5 million and then use something that was just proportional on throughput accordingly. Throughput beg your pardon on ounces.

If I can ask another, what is the best way to manage the benches at Greenstone when you have waste benches, 0.7 gram stockpile benches. And then highs as nice as 1.5 grams. Do you have all the same size shovels and trucks? Or do you have a few half size to quarter size shovels and trucks to go in and get those sweet spots without waste.

It's a good question. It leads to really a selectivity issue, John, in terms of how selective can you be. And I think that we're seeing that with the level of control, we can be more selective. But to take the situation where you're running from, say, a 10 or a 12-meter bench. You're making the benches smaller. Do we think there's going to be a material improvement inability to be able to deliver higher grade as a function of selectivity -- and I think in short, it's early days, but I don't believe from what I see, there's going to be a significant opportunity. There's going to be interesting areas where maybe it's more relevant than others.

But generally speaking, I consider as it stands today, a Greenstone is more of a bulk mining, want to have a level of quality. But for the equipment size is rightsized for the operation we have, and it's really going to be about lowering our unit cost of production vis-a-vis mining processing and spending G&A as efficiently as we possibly can to have the most positive impact we can on all-in sustaining costs and maintaining margins given whatever gold price. And I'll maybe ask Tom. Tom, is there any layer in there from a selectivity perspective in terms of what we see from a resource reserve perspective.

No, Darren, I think you covered it. I think the again, John, some of the things mentioned in the commentary of the conference call with respect to some of the ore control practices and things we're putting in with some of the automated systems and paying close attention to the geology as we go bench to bench is helping manage dilution. And we definitely are looking at some of these selectivity studies in the background. But to Darren's point, on mass, there doesn't appear to be a benefit. There can be selective areas where we can go in and be very in certain areas pick cherries out. But on mass, John, this isn't going to be a flitched -- several fetched benches as we go down.

Again, if we think about the contrary here at Valentine, we see good opportunity, and we have 2 specific mining fleets, a larger fleet, the smaller fleet and specifically to use a smaller fleet where there's a good opportunity to be more selective, and therefore, preferentially mine at a lower grade, not only just use the stockpiles. So yes. No, I think we have a good plan at Greenstone and we'll continue to look for those opportunities to positively impact grade.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Darren Hall for any closing remarks.

Yes. Thank you, operator. I'd just like to close by thanking all of our stakeholders for their continued support and everyone's participation and questions on the call this morning. It is appreciated and valued. And as always, Ryan, I and the entire leadership team are always available if you have any further questions. So with that, take care. Be well and back to the operator.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.