Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. Aktie

Greetings. Welcome to the Fortuna Mining Q2 2026 Financial and Operational Results Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Carlos Baca, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, Holly. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Fortuna Mining's Second Quarter 2026 Financial and Operational Results Conference Call. Joining today's call on behalf of Fortuna are Jorge Alberto Ganoza, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder; Luis Dario Ganoza, Chief Financial Officer; David Whittle, Chief Operating Officer, West Africa; and Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer, Latin America.

Today's webcast presentation and Q2 2026 results materials are available on our website at forortunamining.com. Before we begin, please note that statements made during today's call are subject to the reader advisories included in yesterday's news release, the webcast presentation, our management discussion and analysis and the risk factors outlined in our annual information form. All financial figures discussed today are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

The technical information discussed on this call has been reviewed and approved by Eric Chapman, Fortuna's Senior Vice President of Technical Services and a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101.

Today's remarks will provide a concise overview of our second quarter results and our priorities guiding the business through the balance of the year. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jorge Ganoza.

Thank you, Carlos, and good morning to all. Thanks for joining us.

The second quarter was another strong quarter for Fortuna. We delivered solid operating performance, generated significant free cash flow, maintained a very strong balance sheet and advanced the two principal value drivers for next phase of growth, the Séguéla plant expansion and the Diamba Sud Gold project, which together are key to delivering approximately 60% growth in annual production by mid-2028. Operationally, we produced 72,217 gold equivalent ounces in the quarter and 145,089 gold equivalent ounces year-to-date keeping us on track to achieve annual production guidance.

We experienced a fatal accident at our Séguéla mine involving a contractor truck operator. Our thoughts remain with his family, colleagues and all those affected. Safety remains our highest priority with a renewed focus on heavy mobile equipment controls, contractor management and field verification of critical controls. For the quarter, our total recordable injury frequency rate was 121 and Caylloma and Lindero ended the quarter with 1,154 and 990 days, respectively, free of lost time injuries, commendable performance for these two mines.

Financially, the second quarter was a strong quarter across all key metrics, even with realized gold and silver prices lower than the exceptionally strong first quarter. Sales were $318 million, adjusted attributable net income of $75 million or $0.25 per share and adjusted EBITDA of $200 million, representing a strong EBITDA margin of 63%. Free cash flow from ongoing operations was $85 million, bringing free cash flow from ongoing operations for the first half of the year to $260 million.

At midyear, the business has generated $661 million in sales, $420 million in adjusted EBITDA and $186 million in adjusted attributable net income or $0.62 per share. This performance is translating directly into shareholder returns. During the second quarter, we returned $82 million through share buybacks. And year-to-date, we have returned $106 million or approximately 41% of free cash flow from ongoing operations through the repurchase of 10.8 million shares. We believe this demonstrates the quality of the portfolio and the focus of our capital allocation priorities.

We're funding growth sustaining a strong balance sheet and returning meaningful capital to shareholders all at the same time. While free cash flow was lower quarter-over-quarter, this was primarily due to the timing of income tax payments and higher sustaining capital, partially offset by favorable working capital movements.

With that as context, the bigger story for Fortuna is that we have moved from defining our next phase of growth to executing it, anchored by Diamba Sud and Séguéla plant expansion and supported by strong cash generation and net cash balance sheet. During the quarter, both projects reached important milestones. At Diamba Sud, the feasibility study confirmed a robust development project in Senegal. At Séguéla, the Board approved the 30% plant expansion in Côte d’Ivoire.

I will leave the detailed execution plans, timelines and operating details to our Chief Operating Officer for West Africa, David Whittle. Together, these projects provide the production foundation for Fortuna's next step change in scale and supports our path to exceed 0.5 million ounces of annual gold production by mid-2028. Importantly, this growth is within our control. It is driven by assets already in our portfolio in jurisdictions where we have operating experience, technical capability and established teams, not by acquisitions or external opportunities.

At Diamba Sud, our focus is on advancing the projects through the remaining permitting and the stabilization of tax regime. At Séguéla, the approved expansion builds on an asset that continues to demonstrate strong operating performance, geological potential and scalability within our established West African platform.

Our balance sheet remains a major strategic advantage. At quarter end, we had cash and short-term investments of $606 million, total liquidity of approximately $756 million and a net cash position of approximately $435 million. This financial strength allow us to fund the concurrent development of the Séguéla plant expansion and the Diamba Sud project while preserving flexibility for exploration, business development and opportunistic shareholder returns via the buyback.

Our buyback program remains a preferred means of returning capital to shareholders, particularly at times when we believe our share price does not fully reflect the strength of our current performance, balance sheet and growth pipeline. We will continue to evaluate repurchases with discipline, balancing the opportunity to buy back shares against our liquidity requirements, project funding needs and overall market conditions.

On costs, consolidated AISC was $2,157 per gold equivalent ounce in the quarter. We expect second quarter to represent a peak in AISC for the year with ASIC trending down to the second half of the year as key operational items normalize. Importantly, the cost drivers within our control support ASIC remaining within our annual guidance range. The factors that we need to monitor closely are external royalties linked to metal prices, Argentina macroeconomic conditions, diesel, consumables and contractor indexation, all of which could affect our full year ASIC guidance.

With that now, I will now turn the call over to the operating team to review the quarter in more detail. We can start with David Whittle, Chief Operating Officer for West Africa.

Thanks, Jorge. Before discussing the quarter, I'd like to highlight the progress we are making on the key growth initiatives that strengthen our West Africa platform. These being the publication of the Diamba Sud feasibility study, which demonstrates robust project economics and supports a potential final investment decision in the second half of the year and Board approval of the 30% plant capacity expansion at Séguéla following the progress and further expansion of the Sunbird underground project.

At Diamba Sud, the ESIA has been approved and discussions with the government are progressing well with final permitting expected soon. The feasibility study outlines average annual gold production of 158,000 ounces over the first four years and a 9.4-year mine life. A robust project that will only continue to strengthen from further exploration and regional opportunities.

At Séguéla, the $109 million process plant expansion together with the Sunbird underground project is expected to support average annual gold production of more than 200,000 ounces over the next decade, reinforcing Séguéla's position as a cornerstone asset in our West Africa platform. Together, Diamba Sud and Séguéla, underpinned by the mineral reserve and resource base, establish the production foundation for our West African operations and support Fortuna's path to producing at a rate of 500,000 ounces of gold per year by 2028.

Turning now to the quarter. Ségéla delivered another solid operating performance, producing 41,683 ounces of gold, in line with the mine plan. First half mine production now stands at 83,699 ounces and remains firmly on track to meet guidance. Mining and processing activities performed as expected with 433,000 tons of ore mined at an average grade of 3.6 grams per ton and 421,000 tons processed at an average grade of 3.46 grams per ton.

Production was sourced primarily from the Antenna, Ancien, and Koula pits, while waste stripping advanced at Sunbird with first ore also being delivered to the ramp during the quarter. In addition, 111,000 BCM of waste mining was undertaken at the Sunbird South pit to provide access for the underground [indiscernible].

From a cost perspective, Séguéla delivered a cash cost of $676 per ounce and an all-in sustaining cost of $1,765 per ounce, broadly consistent with the previous quarter. While diesel prices were impacted by recent global events, the effect at Séguéla was partially mitigated by the regulated fuel pricing in Côte d'Ivoire and regional supply sources in West Africa.

Turning to key projects at Ségéla, we made good progress across power infrastructure, the process plant expansion and the Sunbird underground project during the quarter. The six megawatt solar plant has been commissioned to -- and is performing in line with expectations. As part of the process plant expansion the Sunbird underground project, we are advancing plans to expand solar capacity to 10 megawatt, a project that will have 0 capital cost implications for Fortuna with further studies also evaluating potential additional capacity.

We also strengthened site power reliability by commissioning purchased backup diesel generators, replacing the temporary higher units that have been in place since 2024. At Sunbird underground, permitting and operational readiness continue to advance. The ESIA was submitted to the Ivorian government during the quarter with favorable feedback received to date, and we expect to submit the safety management plan and update environmental study in the third quarter as we work toward final permitting by year-end.

Execution planning is also progressing with build allocation secured for long lead underground mining equipment and infrastructure and mobilization of the project and operations team now underway. Project remains on track for underground development to begin in the second quarter of 2027. Exploration remains active across the Séguéla district with seven drill rigs focused on expanding the resource base and supporting the mine’s long-term production profile. Back to you, Jorge.

Now we'll move to a review for Latin American business. Cesar, please.

Thank you, Jorge, and good morning, everyone. In Latin America, both Lindero and Caylloma performed broadly in line with plan during the second quarter and remain on track to achieve annual production guidance. At Lindero in Argentina, production for the quarter was 20,829 ounces of gold, broadly in line with Q1.

Key operating indicators improved during the quarter with higher ore placement, improved average gold grade and a 5% increase in contained gold ounces placed on the leach pad compared to the first quarter. First half production was 42,374 ounces of gold. Quarterly production also reflected the normal timing lag associated with heap leach operations with higher contained ounces placed on the pad during the second quarter, expected to be recovered over the coming quarters.

Cash cost were $1,459 per ounce compared with $1,208 per ounce in the first quarter. The increase was driven primarily by temporary crusher-related costs, including equipment rentals and alternative crushing arrangements as well as inflationary pressures in Argentina and the impact of a stronger-than-anticipated peso on U.S. dollar-denominated costs. These factors were partially offset by operational efficiencies and disciplined cost management.

The operation also continues to benefit from the on-site solar facility, which supplied approximately 26% of Lindero's power requirements during the first half of the year, reducing diesel use by approximately 2.2 million liters and contributing an estimated $3.2 million in energy savings at average cost incurred. AISC was $2,265 per ounce in the second quarter compared with $1,783 per ounce in Q1. As mentioned before, the increase reflected the concentration of temporary crusher-related costs in Q2, together with macroeconomic impacts and elevated transportation and supply chain expenses.

Q2 represented the expected peak AISC quarter for Lindero. With the majority reliability work now complete and operating indicators aligned with the mine plan, we expect unit cost to trend lower through the remainder of the year. Looking ahead, completed reliability initiatives, improved crushing availability, higher stacking rates and higher scheduled rates are expected to support increased production and improved cost performance in the second half.

At Caylloma in Peru, production for the quarter was 9,700 gold equivalent ounces, increasing from Q1 as throughput improved. First half production was 19,000 gold equivalent ounces, keeping Caylloma on track to achieve annual production guidance. Silver grades were lower than in Q1 while zinc grades improved as anticipated. Together with stable metallurgical recoveries, these factors supported the quarter-over-quarter increase in gold equivalent ounces production.

Cash cost were $27.8 per silver equivalent ounce compared with $30.3 per ounce in the first quarter. AISC was $44.9 per silver equivalent ounce, similar to Q1. Reported unit costs were affected by higher commodity prices and their impact on the silver equivalent conversion methodology. Excluding this conversion impact, underlying operating costs remain largely in line with plan.

Caylloma continues to benefit from strong mining execution, reliable plant performance and ongoing efficiency initiatives. Production and costs remain in line with our full year expectations. And as of June 30, the tailings storage facility expansion project is 28% complete and progressing according to plan. Back to you, Jorge.

Thank you. Luis, our CFO, will do a review of the highlights of the financial results.

Thank you. So for Q2 2026, as Jorge has stressed, we reported attributable net income from continuing operations of $75.5 million or $0.25 per share on an adjusted basis. Attributable net income was also $75.5 million. This represents a strong 77% increase over the $42.6 million reported in Q2 2025, but was sequentially lower than the record $111 million or $0.36 per share achieved in Q1 2026. The quarter-over-quarter change was primarily driven by lower realized gold prices, a higher effective tax rate and an 8% increase in cash cost per gold equivalent ounce.

Our financial results continue to be supported by strong metal prices. Our average realized gold price for the quarter was $4,447 per ounce, up 34% year-over-year, but down from the record $4,884 per ounce realized in Q1 2026. Consolidated cash cost per gold equivalent ounce was $1,034 an increase from the $951 per ounce recorded in Q1 of 2026. Consolidated AISC from continuing operations for Q2 2026 was $2,157 per ounce, up $50 per ounce sequentially from Q1 2026. AISC or all-in sustaining costs for the quarter included one-time expense items of around $115 per ounce related to the primary crusher refurbishment work at Lindero and mobilization costs for an added contractor at Séguéla.

As disclosed, External factors added a net $49 per ounce versus our underlying guidance assumptions, partly offset by a reduction in share-based compensation in the quarter. Excluding royalties, the largest individual impact was the real peso appreciation in Argentina, which added around $41 per ounce to consolidated AISC. We estimate diesel and other inflationary trends had an impact of close to $25 per ounce.

Moving -- continue with the income statement. General and administrative expenses, we recorded $18.7 million in Q2, down sequentially from $27.8 million in Q1 2026. The decrease was largely due to lower share-based compensation, reflecting the decline in the company's share price and the resulting change in the value of share units expected to settle in cash.

We recorded a foreign exchange loss of $6.3 million for the quarter compared to $2.1 million in Q1 2026. Approximately 2/3 of the loss was driven by the purchase of U.S. dollars in Argentina to repatriate funds as well as a devaluation of the peso impacting our cash and VAT balances. Our 2026 repatriations in Argentina continue to be through the open market, which involves a 4% to 5% spread depending on market conditions versus the official rate. Starting in 2027, we expect to be able to access the official rate to repatriate funds via dividends.

Our effective tax rate for the second quarter was 46%, resulting in income tax expense of $71 million. This was higher than the 33% effective tax rate recorded in Q1 of 2026, primarily due to higher deferred tax expense at the Lindero mine in Argentina. We expect to start incurring current income taxes in Argentina late in 2027. As we approach this inflection point, we expect these deferred tax charges to continue for the remainder of 2026.

Moving on to cash flow. Moving -- we generated $85.7 million of free cash flow from ongoing operations. As has been discussed, this was down sequentially from $174 million in Q1 2026, largely as expected due to the concentration of cash tax payments in the second quarter. Specifically, we paid $79.3 million in income taxes during the quarter.

Capital expenditures totaled $67.9 million for the quarter, up from $45.3 million in Q1 2026. The increase is as expected based on our capital budget. Out of the total spend in the quarter, $36.6 million was dedicated to sustaining capital and $31.3 million to growth initiatives.

Moving on to liquidity and the balance sheet. After these investments and capital returns, we ended the quarter with $606.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, down from -- $665.9 million at the end of Q1 2026. We also continue to maintain a strong net cash position of $434.2 million after financial debt. The sequential decrease in cash was primarily driven by our disciplined capital allocation approach, including $82 million in share buybacks under our normal course issuer bid.

And importantly, also, as Jorge has stressed, our balance sheet continues to provide significant flexibility to fund growth, sustaining operations and return capital to shareholders. Thank you, and back to you, Jorge.

Thank you. That's management's report. We can open the call for investor analyst questions.

That concludes the prepared remarks. We hope today's discussion has provided helpful context on the quarter and the priorities for the balance of the year. We will now open the call to your questions. Holly, please proceed with the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question for today is from Kevin O'Halloran with BMO.

Maybe just starting on the cost guidance. You flagged a few internal factors pressuring the cost. I think it was the mobilizing the contractor at Séguéla and some crusher work at Lindero. Is there any continuation of these costs into Q3? Or were those fully completed in Q2? And then for the contractor at Séguéla, was that the underground contractor being mobilized?

Yes. Kevin, those are one-time charges that we do not expect to carry on into the third quarter. And no, with respect to the Séguéla contractor, that's an earthmoving contractor, which has been assigned one of the pits in operation at the Séguéla mine, the Sunbird pit.

Okay. Got it. That's helpful. And then just on the cadence of cost improvements, you mentioned Q2 is the peak in terms of ASIC. H2 should be lower. Is that a sort of a sequential decrease so that Q4 is better than Q3? Or is it pretty similar across Q3 and Q4 in terms of the ASIC?

No. Looking at our projections, first, with internal factors, we expect to see a decline in ASIC more pronounced at the Lindero mine in particular, in the third quarter and leveling off into the fourth quarter. So we expect looking at our internal factors and internal aspects that drive our cost on AISC to be within guidance. A bit of a wildcard here is external factors, what diesel will do and macroeconomics in Argentina and things like that, that might vary as externalities against what we budgeted at the beginning of the year. But looking at the performance of the business, we expect lower costs, particularly in the third quarter and then carrying on into the fourth quarter.

Okay. Great. That's helpful. Just on the Séguéla expansion, you're increasing the throughput by about 30% to around 6,300 tons per day and adding some production from underground. How much of that production increase is driven by the underground expansion? Or I guess to put it maybe a better way, what's the split you expect between open pit and underground mining in terms of the tonnage?

Yes. The expansion is to -- from the current 1.75 million tons per annum to 2.3 million tons per annum per year. And the underground once in full production will contribute about -- at this initial stage, about 0.5 million tons per year.

Okay. Got it. That's helpful. Last question for me, just on the share repurchases. You've been accelerating those over the past few quarters, which is great to see. What should we expect as the run rate going forward for those capital returns? Is that Q2 level sort of a good number to be at in future quarters? Or should we expect that to keep growing or maybe it even declines a bit as you start spending more on those growth projects? How do we think about that?

Our first quarter purchases were in the range of $20 million. The second quarter, as stated, more in the range of $80 million. That's the highest level of repurchases that we have historically executed in a quarter.

I would say that that looks like a peak right now to us. What we look is to have a sustained repurchases looking at the markets and the opportunities we see with respect to our perceived valuation. But I think I can say right now that you should expect to see sustained repurchases. $80 million has been a historic peak for us in terms of repurchases. And probably a lower figure right now is something more measured.

Your next question is from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank.

Maybe just a follow-up on the cost guidance and the performance into the second half of the year. Is it fair to assume that the $115 per ounce external factor or one-time operational items impact you highlight in your AISC in Q2 will likely all be removed in the second half of the year so that we could be trending closer to that, call it, $2,000 per ounce on the AISC level? Or how should we think about effectively the cadence of that improvement?

Yes. Yes. Considering what we see today in terms of the external factors and making some projections, the $2,000 range seems something possible. If we adjust for those external factors, we're tracking to go deliver performance below $2,000. But again, external factors are out of our control and macroeconomics in Argentina.

The one-timers that we've seen are coming from Lindero largely associated with the higher rentals and ancillary activities in support of the refurbishment for the primary crusher foundation. All of those works are complete. So those are one-timers that do not carry into the third or fourth quarter. And the same with Séguéla contractor mobilization is behind and we don't expect any of those one-timers moving forward. So we expect this cost to trend down. If we use today's environment on diesel price, what we see in Argentina macro, the $2,000 level is reasonable, yes.

That's helpful. And maybe as it relates to your Séguéla plant expansion, you just approved a capital budget of $109 million. Can you help us understand over which period you will be spending that capital? Is this something over the next six quarters? Is it over the next eight quarters effectively as you get to 2028? And similarly, for the $48 million budget that you approved for your underground development, if you could just help from a modeling standpoint to delineate like over how many quarters we should think of that spend to be spread out?

The $48 million that has been approved is to build and develop the start-up of the underground. That's preparation of the portal that is purchases of the mining fleet, building the underground team. And so a lot of that is being spent and will be spent this year and into early 2027. That budget does not include development. We will see actual development budgets presented in our 2027 budget cycle for 2027.

So the $48 million is, again, this will be an owner-operator -- operated underground mine, and it's just the purchases of equipment and ancillary facilities and services that need to be in place. And that's what the $48 million budget covers and preparation of the portal.

With respect to the $100 million, we're currently working on the actual development plan. And -- but you should expect to see that capital spent throughout 2020. I don't have right now -- we don't have right now the actual quarter-over-quarter spend. We're developing that, but it will come with the actual plan. But we expect -- this is a project that can be delivered in mid-2028, second, third quarter of 2028. You should see $100 million spent throughout now until then, right?

Your next question is from Eric Winmill with Scotiabank.

Congratulations to Luis and Kevin on the new appointments. Just a quick question for me on the Awalé. You obviously increased your stake there. Any updates or anything you can share in terms of Awalé and how you're viewing that investment?

No. I mean -- we had a top-up option in our initial agreement that we have taken. We continue to see positively their development. It's geology that we feel very comfortable with, an extension of geology belt that we believe we understand. We like the work they are doing. So we are basically looking to maintain our stake. Yes. So we're maintaining our 14%, 15% stake Eric.

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And just quickly on Guyana as well. I know you announced the investment a short while ago. Have you had a chance to get in there or any early thoughts or impressions on what you're seeing in country and how you're finding operating there?

We're very excited about the opportunities that Quartzstone presents to us. Guyana is a country that views natural resources as strategic for their development. We all know about the oil and gas industry there and what's doing -- what's that doing for the nation. And they are very positive and constructive on their mining industry as well. So we like the geology where we are at Quartzstone very much.

We believe there is tremendous opportunity there for discovery in a place that sees mining as a strategic lever for development. So we are setting up. We are setting up our presence. We are in the later stages of building our local team setting up. And we expect -- it is our expectation or plan that we can be drilling probably towards the fourth quarter. Start of the fourth quarter, we can be doing our initial drilling and testing some of our initial ideas there at Quartzstone.

Okay. Great. Yes, it certainly sounds like an exciting new jurisdiction and lots of stuff happening in country.

Your next question for today is from John Pereira, a private investor.

Just as a follow-up to some of the previous questions regarding cash and use of cash. With $435 million in net cash and $600 million of, I guess, gross in terms -- with the cash and investments on hand and identified we'll say, around $400 million for Diamba Sud, $100 million for Séguéla and another $100 million in Argentina. Do you still believe that the development projects can -- and then you also mentioned a controlled buyback of stock. Do you still believe that you can accomplish all of these initiatives without going back to the market?

Yes. The short answer is definitely yes. We believe we are -- our cash position, our liquidity position and the cash flows generated by the business at different price scenarios support and give us confidence that we can fund all of our capital projects. And that's our priority, right?

We are in a position where we can deliver 60% growth over the next 18 to 24 months in annual production, and that's growth that we can deliver without issuing one share. It's all organic right now. So that's a top priority for us. Second is funding our continued exploration. We have expanded our exploration budget for 2026, that budget has moved from around $50 million as budgeted at the beginning of the year to equivalent to about $60 million, $65 million. So it's an expanding exploration budget.

And third, looking at our cash position, our liquidity projections, we participate in the market on the share buybacks, right? But those are the priorities, funding growth, funding our exploration, maintaining a strong balance sheet and return to shareholders via the buyback. So over the next 18, 24 months, that's how we will prioritize capital allocation. And what will expand and shrink is right now the share buybacks according to how we see our position on the other priorities.

You mentioned exploration budget. And Fortuna spent over $10 million on exploration during the quarter. You mentioned $65 million just now. So you're expecting to continue that to continue to add ounces and extend the life of your various projects and you believe that you will continue to at least spend that or grow your explore budget?

If I understood your question well, yes. Our budget has expanded to about $60 million, $65 million. We continue -- that includes greenfields like Quartzstone in Guyana, which we were just talking about our participation in Awalé that comes out of our exploration funding, business development funding and expansive budgets, exploration budgets at Diamba Sud, Séguéla, Lindero.

So we plan to maintain aggressive exploration throughout the year. And again, the priorities, as I said, I reiterate funding the organic growth we have in the pipeline. It's the most -- the highest value lever we currently have and continue funding exploration and looking at the state of our balance sheet time and calibrate shareholder returns via the buyback.

That's great. And then my last question is just could you just give a little bit more color on Diamba Sud? I know what you're waiting for is your mining permit, development permit. And then just in terms of the work that you've been doing in Diamba Sud, do you believe this to be the first mine in a much larger mining district in Senegal? Or can you just give a little bit of color to that?

That's a very good question because Diamba Sud sits at the core of one of the most prolific gold districts in West Africa. We are on the Senegal side of a major structure, which along that structure, we have the Falémé River, which is divide -- a border divide between Senegal to the West and Mali to the East and five kilometers from our camp site on the Mali side across the river, you have the Loulo-Gounkoto complex from Barrick, where you have historically over 20 million ounces of gold produced.

And in inventory, a bit further south, you have Fekola, which is in the B2Gold portfolio also on the Malian side. And on the Senegalese side, some 50 kilometers south on the same geologic belt on the same structures, you have Managem's new mine Boto, which they purchased from IAMGOLD.

So it's a very prolific belt for us. This is a district scale opportunity. We're looking actively to expand our land holding in the area. And I think of Diamba Sud as a beachhead in one of the most productive gold belts in West Africa, absolutely. And we are actively looking to expand our land holdings or concession holdings in that area.

[Operator Instructions] We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and I will now turn the call over to Carlos for closing remarks.

If there are no further questions, thank you for joining us today and for your continued interest in Fortuna Mining. We appreciate the engagement from our shareholders, analysts and broader investment community, and we look forward to updating you again next quarter. Have a great day.

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Greetings. Welcome to the Fortuna Mining Q1 2026 Financial and Operational Results Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Carlos Baca, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, Holly. Good morning to all, and welcome to Fortuna Mining's conference call to discuss our financial and first quarter of 2026. Hosting today's call on behalf of Fortuna are Jorge Alberto Ganoza, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder; Luis Dario Ganoza, Chief Financial Officer; David Whittle, Chief Operating Officer, West Africa; and Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer, Latin America.

Today's earnings call presentation is available on our website at fortunamining.com. Statements made during this call are subject to the reader advisories included in yesterday's news release, the webcast presentation, our management discussion and analysis and the risk factors outlined in our annual information form.

All financial figures discussed today are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated. Technical information presented has been reviewed and approved by Eric Chapman, Fortuna's Senior Vice President of Technical Services and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 23-101.

I will now turn the call over to Alberto Ganoza, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Fortuna Mining.

Thank you, Carlos, and good morning, and thank you for joining us today. The first quarter of 2026 marked an exceptionally strong start to the year for Fortuna. We delivered strong operational and financial performance. And importantly, we achieved these results with 0 recorded lost time injuries during the period. This extends our safety performance to 5 consecutive quarters free of lost time injuries.

Financially, the quarter delivered record results across our key metrics. Sales reached record $342 million, reflecting higher realized gold and silver prices. Adjusted net income was $111 million or $0.36 per share, a quarterly record for the company. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $219 million, also a record. And free cash flow from ongoing operations reached $174 million, representing our strongest quarterly cash generation to date.

These results underscore the quality of our asset base, disciplined operating execution and strong leverage to the gold price environment. Operationally, this financial performance was supported by solid execution across our portfolio. We produced 72,900 gold equivalent ounces in the quarter. And based on performance year-to-date and current operating conditions, we remain well positioned to meet our full year 2026 guidance.

With that as context, let me step back and focus on the bigger story for Fortuna. We're working to deliver approximately 60% growth in annual gold production over the next 24 months, taking us to approximately 0.5 million ounces of annual gold production. By expanding our Séguéla mine in Côte d'Ivoire and by bringing our Diamba Sud project in Senegal into production.

The key message I want to emphasize is that we control this growth. This growth is driven by 2 projects already within our portfolio, not dependent on acquisitions or exploration success. Both Séguéla and Diamba Sud are technically straightforward, benefit from strong social acceptance and are financially derisked. These are executable growth projects supported by our strong balance sheet and our operating track record in West Africa and both demonstrate robust economics at long-term gold prices below $3,000 per ounce.

As these projects advance over the next 24 months, we expect this growth to translate into meaningful increases in production and free cash flow per share, while maintaining discipline in execution, cost and capital allocation. Our growth plans are also underpinned by the recently published update to mineral reserves and mineral resources on April 23, which shows growth across all categories of resources and reserves.

Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves increased by 15% year-over-year after depletion to 3 million gold ounces. Indicated Mineral Resources increased by 56% to 2.1 million gold ounces and Inferred Mineral resources increased by 4% to 2.2 million gold ounces. This growth speaks to the mineral potential of our assets and our potential not only to expand production, but also to support decade-plus mine lives across our operations.

Looking ahead, there are several near-term milestones that we believe are important for investors to watch. Both the Diamba Sud feasibility study and Séguéla Expansion study are expected to be completed in this month of May, providing greater technical and economic visibility on our growth plans. In parallel, we're expecting environmental approval for Diamba Sud imminently, followed by the final mining permit shortly thereafter.

All this, while we continue to advance Diamba early works with a 2026 budget of $100 million. Our strong cash generation continues to strengthen the balance sheet. At quarter end, we had approximately $816 million of total liquidity, including $493 million in net cash, positioning Fortuna among the stronger balance sheets in our peer group.

This financial strength allows us to comfortably fund approximately $330 million of total exploration, sustaining and nonsustaining capital in 2026, entirely from internal cash flow. Of this $330 million figure, 56% is allocated to growth and exploration. At the same time, we are returning capital to shareholders. Year-to-date, we returned $40 million via the repurchase of 4.2 million shares. For the quarter, we repurchased $20 million, which represents 11% of our free cash flow from operations.

Before handing over for more detailed operational commentary, I want to briefly address cost. All-in sustaining cost fee in the first quarter was $2,107 per gold equivalent ounce. Of that amount, approximately $122 per ounce is attributable to external factors, primarily the impact of higher gold prices on royalties and higher share-based compensation associated with our share price performance during the period. These factors are not reflective of underlying operating execution, which remains solid across the portfolio.

With that, I will now turn the call over to the operating quarter in more detail. David? David, give us your review.

Thanks, Jorge.

Séguéla delivered a successful first quarter with strong production results and importantly, 0 LTIs reported. During the quarter, Séguéla produced 42,016 ounces of gold, representing a 14% improvement over the previous quarter and finishing ahead of the mine plan. A total of 393,000 tonnes of ore were mined at an average gold grade of 3.69 grams per tonne, together with 5.46 million tonnes of additional material, resulting in a strip ratio of 13.9:1.

The processing plant treated 430,000 tonnes of ore at an average gold grade of 3.21 grams per tonne with throughput averaging 212 tonnes per hour.

Production was sourced primarily from the Antenna, Ancien and Kula pits, while waste mining progressed well at the Sunbird pit, positioning the operation for future ore contribution from that area. Séguéla's strong operating performance resulted in a cash cost of $679 per ounce and an all-in sustaining cost of $1,760 per ounce of gold.

In terms of projects underway at Séguéla, substantial progress was achieved in the first quarter. The 6-megawatt solar power plant project is nearing completion and is expected to be commissioned this quarter with power sourced from the solar power plant, providing approximately a 35% per unit cost saving on power provided from the grid.

In April, we announced a 34% increase in mineral reserves and a 55% increase in inferred resources from the Sunbird project. Based on drilling completed through to the end of the first quarter. This further enhances the Sunbird underground project and reinforces its importance as a future source of ore for Séguéla.

A joint permitting committee has been established with Côte d'Ivoire's Ministry of Mines with the goal of permitting the underground mine by the end of 2026. Initial development is then targeted for the first half of 2027. We also decided to develop and operate the Sunbird underground mine on an owner-operator basis with an incremental increase in budgeted CapEx of $25 million to undertake this project.

Orders for primary mining equipment are expected to be placed during the second quarter. Access to the underground mine will be established from the southern section of the Sunbird pit rather than through the originally contemplated dedicated Boxcut excavation.

This section of the Sunbird pit was not scheduled to be mined until 2027. Whilst accelerating this mining has the effect of increasing Séguéla's forecast AISC towards the upper end of guidance, this decision provides a cost improvement of more than $7 million on the project by reducing underground development requirements and avoiding additional waste volumes associated with the Boxcut option. Mining of the Sunbird South pit has now commenced.

Studies for the proposed processing plant expansion continued throughout the first quarter. Lycopodium, which designed and constructed the current processing plant presented several expansion options and is now progressing detailed studies on the selected option, which includes the addition of the ball mill as well as increased thickening, leaching and gravity circuit capacity.

The current primary crushing capacity is expected to be sufficient to support the planned throughput increase. Exploration drilling at Séguéla is ongoing with additional drill rigs being mobilized to site, bringing the exploration drilling fleet to 7 rigs. The drilling program is focused on further conversion and expansion of the Sunbird and Kingfisher resources as well as testing below the southern extent of the Antenna pit and the newly discovered near-surface footwall opportunity at Sunbird.

At Diamba Sud, early works, programs and exploration activities continued to advance successfully during the quarter. Approval of the ESIA is expected imminently and the feasibility study remains on track for completion, including the first time reporting mineral reserves in support for the construction decision by mid of this year.

Thank you. Back to you, Jorge.

Thank you, David. Now we'll move on to LatAm. Cesar, please?

Thank you, Jorge, and good morning, everyone. In the first quarter, our Latin American operations delivered a strong and stable performance, underpinned by disciplined execution, solid safety performance and clear progress on key operational priorities.

At Lindero in Argentina, the quarter was defined by strong operating delivery and the successful execution of a critical maintenance milestone, which positions the operation well for the rest of the year. We mined 1.7 million tonnes of ore at a favorable strip ratio of 1.35:1 and placed 1.5 million tonnes on the leach pad at an average head grade of 0.62 grams per tonne of gold, containing an estimated 30,538 ounces of gold, in line with our mine plan.

As a result, gold production reached 21,545 ounces, representing a 12% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. So overall, from an operational standpoint, the mine performed as expected with improving momentum. But the most important development in the quarter was the completion of the primary crusher foundation replacement. I want to highlight 3 things. We delivered it on time, we stayed within budget, and we executed it with strong safety performance. Crucially, crushing operations resumed on May 1 as planned and the plant returned immediately to stable operating conditions, supporting throughput going forward.

Now turning to financial performance. Lindero delivered a very strong quarter financially, generating $101.5 million in sales with a strong EBITDA margin of 69% of sales, increasing by 28.5% and 9.5%, respectively, when compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, reflecting higher gold prices, strong cost discipline and solid operational execution.

On costs, we reported cash cost of $1,208 per ounce and an AISC of $1,783 per ounce. As expected, these costs were slightly affected primarily due to temporary and nonrecurring factors such as equipment rentals and temporary crushing solutions associated with the primary crusher project, maintenance interventions and macroeconomic pressures in Argentina, particularly high inflation and a stronger-than-expected peso, which increases dollar-denominated costs.

However, these pressures were partially offset by higher production volumes, a lower stripping ratio and ongoing operational efficiencies. Looking ahead, we expect a clear and steady cost reduction throughout the year as the temporary measures are removed, capital work is completed and efficiency gains are fully realized. And as a result, we continue to expect AISC to move toward the $1,300 per ounce by the fourth quarter.

Finally, on growth, we continue to advance both near mine and regional exploration. As Lindero has previously indicated, we have initiated drilling below the current pit limits, targeting conversion of 400,000 ounces of inferred resources to higher confidence categories. These resources are located beyond the limits of the current final pit design.

In parallel, we have multiple regional exploration programs underway, including Cerro Lindo, where activities started in March with construction completed and drilling now underway. During the second half of April, we also began our first phase of our 2026 drilling program at Arizaro. This 11,400 meter program is designed to test for deeper, fertile, intrusions and proximal magnetic anomalies, followed by resource expansion. And finally, as of today, exploration work has started at the Rio Negro properties in Southern Argentina, where surface mapping and sampling is underway. Drilling is planned for September after the winter break.

Let me now turn to Caylloma in Peru. Caylloma continued to stand out as a very consistent and reliable operation, delivering predictable performance quarter after quarter. In the first quarter, mining and processing volumes were fully in line with plan, and we benefited from higher head grades, particularly in silver and base metals. This translated into higher silver production of 258,000 ounces, up 3.5% quarter-over-quarter and strong and stable base metals output of 11.5 million pounds and 8.2 million pounds of zinc and lead, respectively.

Mine production totaled 136,700 tonnes of ore in the first quarter, which continues to come from well-established mining zones from the Animas vein, Simoide vein and Ramal Carolina vein, which supports operational stability and predictability. From a financial perspective, Caylloma also delivered a strong quarter, generating sales of $34.6 million and maintaining a solid EBITDA margin of 62% of sales. This reflected the combination of higher realized metal prices and disciplined cost management.

On costs, we reported cash cost of $30.26 per ounce and AISC of $44.36 per ounce of silver equivalent, similar to the fourth quarter of 2025. This was mainly explained by the increased impact of higher prices on the silver equivalent conversion, while production costs remained in line with plan for the quarter. So the underlying operating cost base remained stable and well controlled.

Finally, on exploration. The 2026 campaign commenced in February, targeting extensions to ore shoot 3 and 4 at the Animas Zone where mineralization remains open at depth. Thank you, and back to you, Jorge.

Thank you. We'll now go over the financial highlights with our CFO, Luis?

Yes. Thank you. I will provide a brief review of our consolidated financials. Attributable net income, as highlighted by Jorge was -- for the quarter was $111 million or $0.36 per share. That's up 64% versus the prior quarter and up 200% versus the prior year. Our strong performance was driven by record metal prices with cost per ounce in line with our full year guidance.

Our average realized gold price was $4,884 per ounce compared with $4,166 per ounce in Q4 of 2025 and $2,884 per ounce in Q1 of 2025. Cash cost per gold equivalent ounce was $951, broadly consistent with the prior quarter and slightly above Q1 of 2025.

A brief comment on inflationary trends and indicators. We have not seen any material impact on our cost structure to date. In Q1, we saw higher input costs for certain materials, though not consistently across all regions. For fuel, specifically, we have seen rising prices at our Peruvian operations, while in Argentina and at Ivory Coast, we have not yet seen any meaningful pass-through from higher oil prices. We will continue to monitor the situation.

A few comments on the financial statements. General and administration expenses were $27.8 million, up $3.9 million year-over-year, primarily due to higher year-end bonuses and the timing of corporate and subsidiary expenses. We recorded a foreign exchange loss of $2.1 million, driven primarily by modest depreciation of the euro and the West African franc against the U.S. dollar from January through March, together with our net monetary asset position, including cash balances and VAT receivables.

Our effective tax rate was 33% for the quarter compared with 28% in Q1 of 2025. The increase reflects an inflection point in our deferred tax position at Lindero in Argentina. In the current metal price environment, we are utilizing existing tax shields at a faster pace and transitioning from a deferred tax asset to a deferred tax liability position.

As a result, we expect to begin recording deferred income tax expense for Lindero in 2026. This is an accounting charge only as we do not expect to incur current income taxes in Argentina until 2027 with first cash tax payments likely in 2028. At the consolidated level, we expect the effective tax rate to step up in the remaining quarters of 2026, such that the full year rate ends up in the high 30% range. This compares with a roughly 28% to 30% level we've reported over the past few quarters.

Moving to the cash flow statement. We generated $174 million of free cash flow from ongoing operations, which excludes new development projects and growth initiatives. We also expect to pay approximately $140 million of taxes in 2026 with the majority paid in Q2 and Q3, about 50% in Q2 and 35% in Q3. As a result of this timing and all else being equal, we should expect somewhat lower free cash flow over the next 2 quarters.

In the investing section, additions to property, plant and equipment were $45.3 million, including approximately $28 million of sustaining capital and $17 million of nonsustaining spend. The nonsustaining total included $8.8 million at the Diamba Sud project and $8.6 million in brownfields and greenfields exploration.

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $665.9 million of cash and net cash of $493 million after financial debt. Net cash increased by $111 million versus year-end, reflecting strong free cash flow from operations, partially offset by $17.4 million of growth capital and $24.5 million of share buybacks. Total liquidity was $816 million, including the full $150 million undrawn amount under our revolving credit facility.

Thank you, and back to you, Jorge.

Thank you, Carlos.

We would now like to open the call to questions. Holly, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question for today is from Mohamed Sidibe with National Bank.

Maybe if I can start with Séguéla. During the quarter, you reported a cash cost around $678, which is below the guidance of $735 and $815. Would you be able to give us a little bit of color on what's leading to that cost outperformance like understanding that you produced 42,000 ounces, but is there any improvement in the unit mining costs or unit processing costs that you're seeing with -- and any commentary as well as impact on fuel in country would be very useful.

David, do you want to tackle Mohamed's question?

I can touch on a couple of the factors there. There's probably 3 main drivers being cash cost for the first quarter. The first one, obviously, which you've already mentioned is that we increased our gold output compared to previous quarters, moving to 42,000 ounces, so probably about 14%, 15% higher on previous quarters. The other drivers would be an accounting aspect depending on the schedule. The stripping either falls into the OpEx component or is part of the sustaining CapEx, which obviously doesn't form part of the cash cost per ounce.

The other component was just with regard to the scheduling within the mine plan. Our stripping ratio within the quarter was 13.9 (sic) [ 13.9:1 ], which was probably a little bit lower than our forecast over the year stripping ratio, which at the moment is scheduled to be around a little bit over 16 for the year. So those are the 3 components of simple accounting one in terms of which property calls into a lower strip ratio for that particular quarter and then the additional ounces produced.

That's very helpful. And maybe on the unit cost pressure in country, are you seeing anything on the fuel, diesel side or anything impacting your mining or processing cost?

Not materially at this stage. We're starting to see some increases in grinding media, but nothing that's material. In terms of power costs, power costs are controlled by the Côte d'Ivoire government. And at this point in time, we haven't been informed of any significant increases in gazetted power costs.

Great. And maybe the second question on the Diamba Sud, I know that the technical report for that is likely due -- or an update due by the end of -- what's the status of the permit with the [ Senegal ] government? And do you have any update on that front?

Well, with regard to the permitting of Diamba Sud, so the ESIA was submitted towards the end of last year. As we said in the commentary, we are expecting to receive the approval on that potentially within the next week or so, certainly very imminently. The exploitation permit we would expect to be sort of in the middle of this year. So everything seems to be progressing pretty much in line with what we have outlined.

Your next question is from [ Sidney Beckman ] with Sternella.

I had a question around the cash and acquisition mandate. Specifically, when you're evaluating a West Africa acquisition, particularly an asset with existing processing infrastructure that you might toll mill or integrate with Séguéla, how deep does your operational technology due diligence go on the target control systems, specifically under the SEC 2023 cyber disclosure rules?

Any material incident as an acquisition asset becomes your disclosure obligation under Form 8-K within 4 business days of determining materiality. So here's the question. If you're buying someone else's mill, their SCADA system, their plant control and their operational network come with it?

Have you built a formal cyber due diligence framework into your M&A process that specifically assesses whether a target has undisclosed incidents or legacy vulnerabilities in their operational technology stack that could become your problem and your disclosure obligation at the moment the deal closes?

The short answer, I think, is no. We have not been looking at targets that are at that level of development. Our latest acquisitions have focused more on predevelopment stage type opportunities like we have done with Chesser -- with the acquisition of Chesser Resources, which brought the Diamba Sud project to our portfolio back in 2023. That was a predevelopment stage opportunity. We have made other investments.

For example, we expanded our presence to Guyana that was announced a few weeks ago through an option agreement to form a joint venture, but that's pre-resource type opportunities. So our acquisition M&A mandate right now is focused more on predevelopment stage opportunities. And I will have to refer to my lawyer to answer your question in more detail.

Your next question for today is from Eric Winmill with Scotiabank.

Congrats on a good quarter. Just maybe on Guyana, if you don't mind, just walking through a bit about what attracted you to the region. Obviously, huge perspective. Do you see an opportunity potentially to accelerate your investments there or maybe give more in country in Guyana?

Yes. Absolutely, we've been monitoring the Guyana Shield in general for some time for over a year. It's been in our watch list. As you well know, the geologic setting is very familiar to what we have in West Africa. So we've been monitoring and searching for opportunity. And this recently announced Quartzstone auction agreement, I believe, is a very exciting entry point into the Guyana Shield.

I was in Guyana only a few weeks ago, had the opportunity to meet with the Director of Mines, the Director of the Secretary or Minister of Natural Resources and Environment and the President of the country. There was a very consistent pro-business message from state authorities.

And the Quartzstone is on its own, a very exciting opportunity. If we want to look at it from the proximology lens, it's some 30, 35 kilometers away from where [ G Stone ] G2 sit with their exciting discovery. And we are in a very similar geologic setting, met the sediments, met the volcanics around against an intrusive through a big structure that hosts gold over a 26-kilometer stretch within the property.

So lots of exciting geology there, lots of gold, and we have an exciting program there for us. And right now, we're very much focused not only on Quartzone, but expanding our presence in Guyana. We're looking at opportunities in Suriname as well. So I would say that those 2 places are where we find a bit more of opportunity and areas of focus for us right now.

Okay. Fantastic. Maybe just one more, if you don't mind. So you're now planning to access Sunbird underground here from the open pit right instead of the Boxcut. That's going to start probably next year. And is it fair to say you'll be drilling from underground there starting next year? Or what are some of the critical path items you're looking for on the development path of Sunbird underground...

There was a bit of interference on the line. But if I understand -- you're referring to drilling -- the exploration drilling or you're referring to the start of development, underground development?

Yes. Just wondering about sequencing there, some of the critical path items and whether we should expect drilling from underground there as well.

Drilling will continue to take place from surface all through 2026 and very likely well into 2027. We're drilling deep holes right now. It would certainly be more efficient to drill from underground, but it will be some time until we can develop that infrastructure, probably late into 2027 is when we will be in a position like that.

For now, we are enjoying a lot of success with our drilling at Sunbird Deep, where we're planning the underground mining. And we'll continue to pursue that over the next at least 18 months, perhaps 24 months from surface.

Your next question for today is from Adrian Day with Adrian Day Asset Management.

A couple of questions, general questions, if I may, and I'll ask them together because they kind of are connected. So first of all, I don't know if you could give us a sort of overview of current exploration activities, particularly greenfields exploration, not the stuff of Séguéla, you've already talked about, but mostly greenfields.

And how do you view greenfields exploration versus taking equity stakes in existing companies because you've got a couple of those that you've done recently. And then that brings us to Guyana. And in your minds, how do you view taking on an additional -- if you were to take on a mine in an additional country, would you look at that as an opportunity to diversify your risk? Or would you be more cautious on just adding one more country with its own needs and requirements, et cetera? I'm just trying to see how you view all these different activities.

Yes. And good questions, and I will start from the end, replying Adrian, from your last -- the last question on diversifying risk. We are quite clear that Fortuna has a business model where we play in -- sometimes in the frontier. For us, mining has always been a frontier business, and we're happy to play in the frontier. We're designed for that. Everybody here is experienced with that.

And what do we ask in exchange for taking the higher perceived geopolitical risk. We must be asking for something in exchange when we take on that higher geopolitical risk. And what we ask in exchange, for example, is what we are enjoying right now in Senegal. Our time to cash flow is very short. As David pointed out during his intervention, David Whittle, we submitted our environmental impact and social assessment to the government in the month of September and we are expecting the approval of the environmental study imminently.

So that's going to be 7, 8 months to get full environmental and social approval from authorities to move ahead into construction, right? So those are the type of things we ask in exchange for that higher perceived in my mind, geopolitical risk. But we are not blind to the fact that there is geopolitical risk, right?

So we have -- if you see our NAV, the NAV of the company does not sit in one large asset. Our mines are not concentrated in one country. So I believe we have a good diversification of our mines, our projects, and therefore, our NAV is not if you will, at risk in just in any one jurisdiction, right? So that also brings the -- I believe what was your point, managing that geographic dispersion.

As you know, we are centered in West Africa and in Latin America. And we manage the business from hubs, West Africa is managed from Abidjan, where David Whittle is our Chief Operating Officer, looking after the business there. And then on LatAm from the Lima office, where Cesar Velasco looks after the business there.

So we believe we can provide efficient cover to the regions from these management hubs and manage the complexities and demands of the different jurisdictions. With respect to Guyana, just some facts about doing business there. In Guyana, for example, once you are granted an exploration permit, the drilling permits, once you're granted an exploration license, the drilling permits come already granted with that. There is no additional permitting required to carry on with exploration.

So again, once again, it's a new jurisdiction. It's not necessarily a proven mining jurisdiction. But again, it offers tremendous opportunities, not only on the geologic endowment, but also on the East to do business. We will likely be reducing dramatically our presence in Mexico. We are not seeing a significant change in business climate in Mexico and our work to date has not yield anything that meets our investment criteria.

So you will likely see us transferring resources from what we have been doing in Mexico into the Guyana Shield, basically Guyana, Surinam right now. Quartzstone is a good anchor project, and we would certainly look to expand our presence through new opportunities in those 2 countries for now, right? And then you asked about greenfields versus equity stakes. We do not have a set budget or to make equity investments.

Our assessment of equity investments is more like, I would say, by appointment. If there is something a geology we like and a team we like, that's very important. We spend a lot of time not only knowing the geology, but also the people behind the programs.

We would be willing to make an equity investment, just like we did with Awalé in Côte d'Ivoire. We are the largest shareholder of Awalé Resources. We own 15% of the company. And Awalé has a very exciting discovery and continues expanding in geology that is of a lot of interest to us, right? They continue to have a success there.

So our greenfields are focused within the regions. We are active in Côte d'Ivoire. We're active in Guinea. We're active in Senegal. We are retreating from Mexico, moving resources into Guyana, and we're active in Argentina. We're always looking for opportunities in Peru. So those are the areas where we're playing, and we'll make investments more by appointment rather as a specific strategy and budget to make capital or equity investments. That was a long-winded answer. I don't know, if that addressed your...

No, that was really great.

[Operator Instructions] We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and I will now turn the call over to Carlos for closing remarks.

Thank you, Holly. If there are no further questions, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support and interest in Fortuna Mining. Have a great day.

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Fortuna Mining Corp. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial and Operational Results Call. [Operator Instructions]

It is now my pleasure to hand the floor over to your host, Carlos Baca, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Fortuna Mining's conference call to discuss our financial and operational results for fourth quarter and full year 2025. Hosting today's call on behalf of Fortuna are Jorge Alberto Ganoza, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder; Luis Dario Ganoza, Chief Financial Officer; Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer, Latin America; David Whittle, Chief Operating Officer, West Africa. Today's earnings call presentation is available on our website at fortunamining.com.

Statements made during this call are subject to the reader advisories included in yesterday's news release, in the webcast presentation or management discussion and analysis and the risk factors outlined in our annual information form. All financial figures discussed today are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

Technical information presented has been reviewed and approved by Eric Chapman, Fortuna's Senior Vice President of Technical Services and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

I will now turn the call over to Jorge Alberto Ganoza, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Fortuna Mining.

Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I'll start very briefly with the quarter before moving to our growth outlook.

In the quarter, we delivered record adjusted net income of $0.23 per share, generally in line with analysts' consensus. Net cash from operations before working capital adjustments was a strong $0.48 per share, exceeding consensus estimates of $0.43. We also generated record free cash flow of $132 million for the quarter and again, record $330 million for the full year, highlighting the strength of our operations and balance sheet, which ranks amongst the strongest in our peer group, with over $700 million in liquidity and a net cash position of approximately $380 million.

With that context, let me turn to the more important part of the story now, which is growth and value creation. As we have stated, our objective is clear: to grow Fortuna to more than 0.5 million ounces of annual gold production from long-life assets, achieving this over the next 24 months. This will represent approximately 65% growth from current production levels. Importantly, this is growth that we control. The ounces are already contained within our mineral inventory across advanced projects in our portfolio. As this production comes online, we expect it to translate into meaningful growth in free cash flow per share, supported by scale, asset quality, good geographic distribution and capital discipline. The delivery of this growth is driven by 2 core assets: Diamba Sud in Senegal and Seguela in the Ivory Coast. Starting with Diamba Sud, the project continues to advance on a fast track approach towards a formal construction decision in midyear, aligned with the publication of the feasibility study. This morning, we released an updated mineral resource estimate, showing a 73% increase in indicated resources to 1.25 million ounces of gold, which will form the key foundation for the study. For 2026, we have approved a $100 million budget at Diamba Sud, with $67 million of that allocated to early works, which include the camp facilities, major excavations and other enabling infrastructure. We began breaking ground this week and we filed our exploitation permit application earlier this month, marking important execution milestones. Mineralization at Diamba remains wide open, and we continue to carry out aggressive drilling in parallel with project development activities as we pursue further resource growth while growing, continuing and derisking project time line.

Turning to Seguela. We're preparing for the next phase of growth through a plant upgrade study currently underway, evaluating throughput expansion options that potentially take the mine to 200,000 ounces of annual production. This work builds on recent reserve growth and position Seguela to deliver higher production and cash flow from an already high-quality long-life asset.

In summary, Fortuna's growth to over 0.5 million ounces is visible, controlled and executable, supported by a strong balance sheet, a sound base of mineral resources and reserves and a clear focus on per share value creation.

With that, I'll turn the call over to the operating team. David, do you want to share your update?

Thank you, Jorge. Seguela delivered another strong quarter and for the second consecutive year, exceeded the upper end of production guidence. This consistent outperformance reflects the strength of the operation and the quality of the asset. Encouragingly, recent exploration drilling results providing further momentum, presenting opportunities to increase production levels beyond the current mine plan assumptions. At Diamba Sud in Senegal, the project continues to advance on schedule, early works programs have been approved, key contracts have been tendered and awarded and the project team is mobilizing in preparation for the next development phase. Importantly, during the fourth quarter, no significant incidents were recorded across our West African operations, underscoring our commitment to maintaining a safe and healthy workplace for all personnel.

At Seguela, we produced 36,942 ounces of gold in the fourth quarter, consistent with prior quarters and ahead of the mine plan. For the full year, production totaled 152,420 ounces, exceeding the upper end of guidance by 4%.

Mining during the quarter totaled 340,000 tonnes of ore, at an average grade of 3.71 grams per tonne gold, along with 3.92 million tonnes of waste, resulting in a strip ratio of 11.5:1. The processing plant created 410,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 3.01 grams per tonne gold, with throughput averaging 214 tons per hour. Ore was primarily sourced from the Antenna Ancien and Koula pits with waste mining also commencing for the Sunbird pit. The Sunbird underground project continues to advance strongly. Based on drilling completed through to the end of June 2025, we declared a reserve of just over 400,000 ounces.

During the second half of 2025, 5 diamond drill rigs were allocated to Sunbird, delivering excellent results that support further resource growth. Given the strength of the Sunbird underground and the incorporation of Kingfisher Open pit into the life of mine plan, we've identified an opportunity to increase plant capacity. Like a [ podium ], the original plant builder has been engaged to evaluate expansion options, targeting throughput of between 2 million and 2.5 million tonnes per year. Early indications are positive and we expect to complete the study early this year.

So again a strong operational performance translated into a cash cost of $710 per ounce of gold for the quarter and $679 per ounce for the year. AISC was $1,576 per ounce of gold for the quarter and $1,560 per ounce for the year, at the midpoint of guidance, despite an $86 per ounce impact from higher royalties lead to increased gold prices. Cost discipline remains a clear strength of the operation. In 2026, exploration drilling will continue at pace, with increased focus on infill drilling and step-out testing along [ stopes ] and at depth at Kingfisher as well as continued evaluation of additional targets across the 35 kilometers strike length from the Seguela [ land ] package. Drilling at Sunbird underground will also continue as we advance technical studies and progress permitting activities. Capital has already been allocated for long-lead underground mining equipment.

Turning to Diamba Sud, exploration, environment permitting and feasibility work advanced meaningfully during the quarter. Government approvals were received for early works programs the ESIA during its final stages of approval. Following the rainy season, drill rigs were remobilized at SEMARNAT and other deposits with continued positive results, further strengthening our confidence in this already robust package.

Thank you. Back to yourself Jorge.

thank you, David. Now sure, Cesar will share the update on Lat Am operations. Cesar, please?

Thank you, Jorge, and good afternoon, everyone. Our Latin Africa operation delivered resilient performance in 2025 with no reportable safety incident, supported by strong production execution during the first 3 quarters of Lindero and consistent results at Caylloma throughout the year, where base metal production exceeded the upper end of guidance.

Fourth quarter results at Lindero by impacted by mechanical downtime in the crushing circuit, which affected full year production. At Lindero, full year gold production totaled 87,489 ounces, approximately 6% below the lower end of guidance, affected entirely by the fourth quarter production, which totaled 19,201 ounces of gold, driven by 2 independent mechanical interruptions during the same period. An engineering review identified the structural fatigue risk in the primary crusher foundations. To address the root cause, we have approved a 35-day foundation replacement schedule for late March 2026 at an estimated cost of $2.2 million. Ore is being pre-stockpiled to maintain stacking continuity during the repair. This has been fully considered within our production plan and guidance for the year. From a financial perspective, Lindero generated $294.2 million in annual gold sales and EBITDA margin remained strong at 57% to sales.

Cash cost of $1,117 per ounce of gold for Q4 and $1,132 for the year, well within guidance range. Q4 all-in sustaining cost improved to $1,639 per ounce of gold due to lower sustaining capital and reduced stripping, offset by the impact of maintenance interventions and temporary crushing solutions. AISC for the full year of $1,716 per ounce within guidance range. We are currently conducting approximately 6,500 meters of diamond drilling below the pit bottom, where mineralization remains open at depth. The objective of this program is to upgrade and estimated 40,000 ounces of inferred resources to the indicated and measured categories. These resources are located beyond the limits of the current final pit design and the resources pit shell. Lindero remains a high-margin, long-life mine with strong fundamentals.

Now turning to Caylloma, the operation continued to deliver consistent and disciplined performance throughout 2025. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Caylloma produced 250,000 ounces of silver at an average head grade of 65 grams per tonne, maintaining production levels in line with the previous quarter. Zinc and lead production totaled 12.1 million and 8.4 million, respectively, at an average head grades of 4.32% zinc and 2.95% lead. Production remained steady quarter-over-quarter as mining continued from the same levels and stopes, supporting predictable milled feed and recoveries. For the full year production of [Technical Difficulty]

Ladies and gentlemen, please remain on the line while we reconnect the speaker to the conference room. Thank you for your patience. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please remain on the line while we reconnect the speaker to the conference room.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please remain on the line while we reconnect the speaker to your conference. And Carlos your line is connected. Your line is live.

Yes. We're back. Okay.

I think we can move on to the financial summary with the CFO. Luis, please go ahead.

Thank you. So attributable net income for the quarter was $68.1 million or $0.22 per share. On an adjusted basis, excluding noncash charges, net income was $71.3 million or $0.23 per share. This represents a significant increase over the $0.06 reported in Q4 of 2024 and the $0.17 in Q3 of 2025. Year-over-year, that increase was primarily driven by higher gold prices. We realized an average price of 4,166 per ounce, an increase of over $1,500 per ounce, while consolidated cash costs rose only marginally by 5% to $971 per ounce. This pricing benefit was partially offset by lower production volumes stemming from the HPGR downtime at Lindero in December, as referenced by Cesar.

Compared to Q3 of 2025, the $0.06 increase in EPS was similarly driven by a $700 per ounce rise in realized gold prices. I will take a couple of minutes to make a few other comments pertaining to certain items of our annual results. We recorded $26 million in general and administration expenses for Q4, which includes $6.9 million in stock-based compensation. This total is $9.5 million higher than Q4 of 2024. This increase was driven by 2 main factors: $5.3 million related to higher stock-based compensation due to our year-over-year share price appreciation; and $3.5 million in higher site level G&A, primarily due to timing of expenses. A full breakdown is available on Page 10 of our MD&A. Looking ahead, we expect quarterly G&A, excluding stock-based compensation to range between $14 million and $16 million across our corporate and site operations.

Continuing with G&A, full year expenses totaled $97.7 million, an increase of $29 million over 2024. About 2/3 of this variance, approximately $20 million stems from stock-based compensation, driven once again by the year-over-year appreciation of our share price. We recorded a foreign exchange loss of $2.9 million for the quarter and $7.8 million for the full year. The annual figure includes a $13.8 million realized foreign exchange loss, primarily driven by our operations in Argentina. Notably, over $6 million of this realized loss stemmed from cash balances held [ in country ] during the first half of the year. However, this was fully offset by hedging strategies we implemented to protect the U.S. dollar value of our local currency.

Interest and finance costs for the quarter were $2.6 million, which is $3 million lower than Q4 of 2024. And for the full year, interest costs totaled $12.3 million. This is a $12 million decrease from the previous year. This improvement was driven primarily by a significant increase in interest income which rose to $14.5 million in 2025 compared to $3.7 million in 2024, reflecting our growing cash balances.

Finally, on the income statement, our effective tax rate for the fourth quarter was 33%, while the full year 2025 rate was 26%. These figures reflect the statutory tax rates in our operating jurisdictions as well as withholding taxes associated with the repatriation of profits. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect our effective tax rates to average between 30% and 33%.

Moving to cash flow and liquidity. Our total capital expenditures was $44.5 million for the quarter and $178.1 million for the full year. Of the annual total, $109 million was dedicated to sustaining capital and $69 million to growth initiatives. This growth spend included $48 million for exploration across Diamba Sud, our operating sites and greenfield initiatives, along with $14 million to advance the Diamba Sud project.

Free cash flow from ongoing operations, which accounts for sustaining capital reached $132 million for Q4 and $330 million for the full year. This represents an EBITDA conversion rate of 84% and 60%, respectively. We ended 2025 with $704 million in total liquidity, a $327 million increase over 2024, driven by our strong operating results and the sale of Yaramoko earlier this year. Back to you, Jorge.

Carlos. That's all for management, and we can open the floor for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is coming from Mohamed Sidibe from National Bank.

Maybe my first question, I can start with Diamba Sud and the positive resource update that you provided this morning. How should we think about the upcoming technical report? Will the increased resource be geared towards extending the mine life there? Or should we think about an improvement of the production profile in the first 2 to 5 years with maybe a little bit tonnage than previously expected. Any color would be great there.

Yes. No, we do not anticipate this will lead to a change in throughput against what we presented in the PEA, which was released in October. So this will, I believe, have 2 impacts this new update Mohamed, one will lead to an extension of life of mine, right? And second, the new resources coming in come at a higher grade. So the new deposit in the inventory is Southern Arc, which today is the largest deposit at the Diamba Sud camp. And it is also the highest grade one. So at 1.9 grams, I do would expect that annual production -- the annual production profile benefits to some degree from that uplift as well.

That's clear on that front. And then so I guess a little bit more high grade in the front and then the lower grade material from the other assets can be used to extend the mine life there. If I can maybe ask yourself or David, maybe on the gold price assumption. So Diamba, you took it from about $2,600 to $3,300 per ounce. What was -- what are the key drivers behind that assumption? And if you can walk us through any reasoning behind that, using that price for the resource, please?

Yes. That is the resource that we have used. Right now, everybody is adjusting their price decks and we are using the methodology we use, the number we derived is $3,300 for the resource. So you should anticipate that for the reserve estimate, we use a lower gold price. Just as a reference, for our budgets and reserves for 2026, it's something we estimate with a cutoff date of -- in the second half of the year. And we use $2,600 gold for the resources and $2,300 gold for the reserve. So you should anticipate we use for reserves a lower number, a lower gold price compared to the 3,300 in the resource.

That's great. And then maybe my final question on just the broader portfolio. I know you already guided to 2026, but how should we think about the cadence of production in the first half versus second half, specifically as with shipping at Seguela and production at Lindero? Just any color there would be appreciated.

Production through the year should be, in general, steady. The only one is Lindero, where production in Q1 should be -- Q1, Q2 should be expected to be a bit on the softer side as -- that's part of our plans. As Cesar described, we are engaged in improvements, changes to the foundations of the primary crusher and then gradually picking up a bit better in the second half of the year once all of those works are complete. Where do -- we do see an more variation is in AISC through the year. We do expect a bit of a higher AISC in the beginning of the year, smoothing out, lowering throughout midyear into the second half to be where we guided, right? And that is just a function of capital expenditures being a bit more heavier in the first half of the year compared to the second half.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question is coming from John Pereira.

Sorry, I -- my line got disconnect. I'm not sure if there's any duplication from the previous caller. My questions are -- 1 of my questions is similar and really in terms of -- you talk about your plan to get to 500,000 ounces. And I'm just wondering if we could hear a little bit more color around that when you look at Seguela at current running rate of, we'll say, 160,000 ounces annually, if you can indeed achieve a 40% increase through your studies, that takes you to 225,000. And then obviously, Diamba Sud, if that goes forward, would contribute. So I'd just like to understand a little bit more color on from the various projects, how you equate to 500,000 when you expect or how does that ramp over '26, '27 and '28? Answer whatever you can. I know I'm asking a lot here.

And then in terms of cost for the various projects for example, in Seguela, if we want to move that from 160 to 225, do you have a sense of what the CapEx cost would be for that? Diamba Sud talked about in terms of previous news releases and in terms of capital costs. But can you just give a little bit more flavor and then maybe if there's any increase in production expected from Lindero as well?

Yes, absolutely. Let's start with Seguela. Seguela is a mine that was originally designed to operate at a throughput rate of 1.25 million tonnes per year. That was the nameplate capacity of what we built and commissioned in mid-2023. Today, the mine is operating. For 2026, we have budgeted and guided for 1,750,000 ounces of throughput in the year, right? Our aim is to take it to 2.2 million, 2.3 million tons per year. That is a brownfields expansion of the processing plant. We're well advanced with the studies, and we have confidence right now that technically, it's a very straightforward project. Most of the work will reside on the wet portion of the circuit, be it that thinners, pumping capacity, leach tanks. And we will certainly have to add a regrind ball mill. But as we understand it today, very little work will likely take place on the combination. So I can give you a broad range of the figure, we believe, will be required to materialize this expansion right now as the study is not complete, but the order of magnitude is in the range of probably $50 million, $60 million to $100 million on the high end. And by midyear, we will have a trade-off between the different options that we have and certainly final numbers for that. But in terms of order of magnitude, those are the magnitude we're talking about, right? In -- but of course, the processing capacity is just a portion of this project because the foundation for this resides in the resource and in the reserve. And we just published a few weeks ago, an updated reserve and resource estimate for this mine. And what we're showing is that we have 1.5 million ounces of gold in reserves and 400,000 ounces in the indicated category and 700,000 ounces in the inferred. And we continue drilling and finding more. So you should expect that before midyear, probably April, May, we will be updating again the resources and reserves for this mine. And it will be a constant deterioration for the next foreseeable future because we are having -- enjoying a lot of success with our drilling. So that is the foundation really for the expansion. And we are targeting 2.2 million tonnes per year, 2.3 million in that range. That range still needs to be well defined in the study. And that, with the grades we have in the reserve and in the resources that we do our modeling, should lead to a production in the range of 200,000 ounces of gold annually. So that is our target based on the work we're delivering. When can we achieve this? If we have a study completed by mid-2026, I think a project of this nature, advancing it at a fast pace, we're not subject to any financial limitations on this one, we can advance it quickly and expectation would be that 12 to 18 months, I think, would be -- probably the limiting factor is delivery times on key equipment, for example, a rig or a mill, right? Right now, delivery times are around 12 months. So 12 to 18 months, I believe, is what should be expected from the gold decision. We might a long way decide to derisk the time line, advancing with some early purchases. That's something that we can consider. But we are not there yet. We're still in the study phase. Moving on to the Diamba Sud, the same. Diamba Sud has a robust rich resource. We just updated it. We are very confident on the technical viability and economics of this project. We have a very strong PEA published in October that using $2,750 gold yields, an internal rate of return of 72% for our investment. So -- and that was with a smaller resource. So now with the figures we just updated, those -- this new resource, 1.25 million ounces indicated are going to inform the feasibility study that we aim to publish in May, June. But we are confident and the best use of our funds right now is advance the project in a way that we derisk the time line for first gold. So we have decided to commit this year $100 million for the Diamba Sud project and $67 million of that $100 million figure are allocated for early works. What does that entail? We're building the camp. We are initiating excavations. We plan to initiate excavations on the water storage facility and other ancillary infrastructure. We are planning to purchase -- place early purchase orders for critical equipment packages, power generators, SAG mill and other equipment packages. Placing those early orders will not only help secure our budget through the construction but also safeguard or time line to first gold. Everybody is happy right now about $4,000, $5,000 gold, but no one is thinking that everybody now wants to build a gold mine and the delivery times on the critical equipment that we use, the consumables or mines require, the people needed to execute all of these are quickly going to come in high demand and shortage, right? So how are we mitigating that risk? Putting our capital to work and advancing as much as we can, placing early -- getting ourselves early in the queues for critical equipment, securing the best people and the best teams from the engineering firm. So we're doing a lot of that right now.

What do you consider long life? So you took a long life mine. You talked about 8 to 10 years is what you may be comfortable with?

The target for us is a decade. We need to see not solely on reserves, but also considering at least our resources, we need to see a decade, a decade plus. Yes.

So that tells me that we say within the next 2 or 3 years, you want to ramp to 500,000, 0.5 million ounces per year, then you are obviously in aggregate, going to target a resource of close to 5 million ounces through the various projects. So I guess you're well underway, certainly with Seguela, right? And Diamba Sud at 1.5 million [ ounces ] already, right?

Let me help you there. if I do something in -- currently today in our aggregate or consolidated reserves, if you look at our website, what you will see is that we have 3 million ounces in reserves today on a consolidated basis, 2.2 million ounces in indicated resources, which are of good quality and it's just a function of timing until we start converting a big chunk of that into the reserve. And we have 2 million ounces of gold in inferred categories, plus $50 million in drilling being spent this year in exploration, not just drilling, but exploration. So the aggregate number, if I aggregate, which the regulators don't like, but if I -- just for the sake of conversation, the aggregate is over 7 million ounces. So we feel comfortable we have the resource base and reserve base to achieve our ambition.

Right. Do you still have anything -- any exploration going on in Mexico?

Yes. We do have some early stage exploration at 2 projects. One is being currently drilled. We don't talk much about those because those are early stage exploration. But yes, we still do some work. It's not a significant portion of the overall budget, but we're still there.

Okay. Great. And then just lastly on Lindero. Where do you see that the production for Lindero going? Is there any growth or expansion plans planned for Lindero?

Today, Lindero enjoys a decade in reserves, right? Reserves and resources, we clearly have a -- we're comfortable with 19 years there, right now as it sits. And Cesar touched on this during his intervention. We currently have a drill program because at the pit -- at the bottom of -- below the bottom of the pit, we have a open mineralization and we are targeting -- this is a target of 400,000 ounces of gold that we're currently drilling at the bottom of the pit. How much of that are we going to capture? Let me get back to you once the drilling is complete, but that is the target. And we're drilling -- we're set to start drilling in March, I believe, and so before year -- midyear, that program should be completed, and I expect we'll see a big portion of those ounces coming into the inventory mid in the second half of the year. Our budget there for exploration is about $5 million this year. Yes.

Your next question is coming from Mohamed Sidibe from National Bank.

Just Seguela, maybe as you relate to the underground, could you share some color on when -- about the underground development plans you have there for Sunbird and when we could start to see ore from the underground within your plan? I'm not sure if you can give any color on that front.

Yes. We have, Mohamed, a budget this year of around $14 million that will likely grow some. This year, we want to start the box cut and some purchases of underground equipment. The idea is that we are doing excavations in 2027, so probably late 2027, early 2028 is when we can start seeing production. Remember that we're still permitting. We're still permitting underground. So we expect we can achieve our permits late this year. I was at Indaba with the team, David and the team, we had a good meeting with the Director of Mines. For Sene -- Ivory Coast, and he was very keen to advance with the permitting and with the aim of having it permitted this year. So if we take his word, if we're permitted this year, we can initiate mining next, right? This will require ramps and crosscuts and ancillary infrastructure that will likely be developed throughout 2027 and first production in 2028.

[Operator Instructions] That concludes our Q&A session. I will now hand the conference back to Carlos Baca, Vice President of Investor Relations, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Matthew. If there are no further questions, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support and interest in Fortuna Mining. Have a great day.

Thank you, everyone. This concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

Greetings, and welcome to the Fortuna Mining Corp. Q3 2025 Financial and Operational Results Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Carlos Baca, VP of Investor Relations at Fortuna Mining Corp. You may begin.

Thank you, Paul. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Fortuna Mining's conference call to discuss our financial and operational results for the third quarter of 2025.

Hosting today's call on behalf of Fortuna are Jorge Alberto Ganoza, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder; Luis Dario Ganoza, Chief Financial Officer; Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer, Latin America; and David Whittle, Chief Operating Officer, West Africa.

Today's earnings call presentation is available on our website at fortunamining.com.

Statements made during this call are subject to the reader advisories included in yesterday's news release, the webcast presentation or management discussion and analysis and the risk factors outlined in our annual information form.

All financial figures discussed today are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

Technical information presented has been reviewed and approved by Eric Chapman, Fortuna's Senior Vice President of Technical Services and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

I will now turn the call over to Jorge Alberto Ganoza, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Fortuna Mining.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. The third quarter was a strong one for Fortuna, not only in terms of operational delivery, financial results and continued buildup of Fortuna's balance sheet, but also in the meaningful progress we have made in positioning the company for the next stage of growth.

But let's start with safety. By the end of October, we achieved 318 days or 9.7 million work hours without a lost time injury, our longest streak yet. Our total recordable injury frequency rate improved to 0.86, down from 1.6 a year ago. These results demonstrate our collective commitment to ensuring everyone returns home safe and sound.

Turning to the numbers. We realized an average gold price of $3,467 per ounce, up 5% from the second quarter and up 20% from the first quarter of the year.

Attributable net income reached $123.6 million or $0.40 per share, driven by a $69 million impairment reversal at our Lindero mine.

Adjusted net income was $0.17 per share, impacted by higher share-based compensation due to a rising share price and a $7.4 million foreign exchange loss in Argentina, which both together account to approximately $0.04 per share.

Our strong free cash flow from operations was $73 million with net cash from operating activities before working capital changes at $114 million or $0.37 per share, surpassing analyst consensus of $0.36.

During the quarter, we recorded $13.5 million in withholding taxes related to the repatriation of $118 million from Argentina and Côte d’Ivoire. We expect regular repatriations moving forward.

Overall, our business benefits from higher realized gold prices, improving margins and strong cash generation. As a result, our liquidity position at the end of the quarter stands at a solid $588 million with a growing net cash position of $266 million. This enables us to accelerate our pursuit of multiple high-value opportunities in the asset portfolio across different stages of the project life cycle.

In Côte d’Ivoire, at Séguéla, our flagship mine, we are expanding the life of mine and boosting annual gold output through exploration success at Sunbird and Kingfisher deposits.

In Senegal, our predevelopment stage Diamba Sud project boasts strong economics, advancing towards a construction decision in the first half of next year.

In Salta, Argentina, we're excited to drill for gold at one of the largest untested high-level epithermal anomalies in the north of the country.

The Cerro Lindo project, held privately for years, now offers us an exciting exploration opportunity.

Our strategic investments announced this year in Awalé Resources and JV with DeSoto Resources position us with exciting gold prospects on both the Ivorian and Guinean sites of the prolific Siguiri Basin, which straddles these 2 countries.

And we continue advancing a pipeline of early-stage projects in Mexico, Peru and Côte d’Ivoire.

Our consolidated cash costs remained below $1,000 per ounce.

And all-in sustaining cost at our mines is tracking within guidance. Lindero's all-in sustaining cost has been trending lower every quarter to the current $1,500 per ounce range, where we expect it will stabilize.

At Séguéla, the story is inverse. We expect to complete the year on the upper end of guidance but we're coming from a low all-in sustaining cost of $1,290 in first quarter of the year to the current $1,738 in the third quarter. This is driven mainly by timing of capital investments and the impact of higher gold price on royalty payments.

As key investments at Séguéla are completed in Q3 and into Q4 to support our 2026 expanded production of 160,000 to 180,000 ounces of gold, we expect to see all-in sustaining cost in the range of $1,600 to $1,700 per ounce range.

Caylloma will finish just outside its guidance range due to relative metal prices used in gold equivalents. As you know, Caylloma has a significant base metal lead/zinc component to its production.

Now turning to growth. For Diamba Sud project in Senegal continues to advance at pace on a fast-track approach. In mid-October, we released the Preliminary Economic Assessment for an open pit and conventional carbon-in-leach plant, confirming strong economics that support our goal of reaching a Definitive Feasibility Study and a construction decision in the first half of 2026.

Using a gold price of $2,750, the after-tax internal rate of return of the project is 72%, and the net present value at a 5% discount is $563 million.

The mineralization at Diamba Sud remains wide open, and we are drilling nonstop with 5 rigs, expecting to add resources by the time the DFS is published.

On October 7, we filed the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, expecting the certificate of acceptance in the first half of next year.

Site camp early works are progressing with an approved $17 million Phase 1 budget, and the government is being very supportive, and we have received consent to move ahead with a Phase 2 early works, including the water dam excavations and excavations for other key infrastructure.

We plan to fast track front-end engineering design activities during the feasibility work to shorten and derisk the development time line by securing long-lead equipment early.

Diamba is a project that can bring additional 150,000 ounces of gold of annual production on average for the first 3 years of operations.

Regarding the business environment in key jurisdictions for us, both Côte d’Ivoire and Argentina held national elections in late October. In Argentina, the government's electoral victory in Congress and Senate strengthened its mandate for advancing structural economic reforms. Argentina's business climate has improved significantly and we remain optimistic about the country's trajectory.

In Côte d’Ivoire, President Alassane Ouattara was reelected for a fourth term with a decisive majority. We anticipate the continuation of pro-business and pro-investment policies that have made Côte d’Ivoire one of the fastest-growing and most resilient economies in West Africa.

In summary, Q3 was a strong quarter for Fortuna. Our safety record continues to set new benchmarks. Our operations remain resilient and our growth projects are advancing according to plan. We entered the final quarter of the year with a solid balance sheet, strong cash generation and a clear path of near- to mid-term organic growth driven by Diamba Sud and Séguéla expanded gold output.

I'll now hand the call over to David Whittle, our Chief Operating Officer for West Africa, and Cesar Velasco, Chief Operating Officer for LatAm, who will review their respective operational results. We can start with you, David.

Thank you, Jorge. Séguéla achieved another impressive quarter, delivering excellent results in both production and safety. This positions Séguéla well to exceed upper production guidance for 2025. We have gold output now projected to surpass 150,000 ounces.

Our dedication to safety and environmental excellence remains steadfast, and we are making steady progress toward our goal of zero harm across all our operations. I'm pleased to report that no injuries occurred at any of our West African locations during the quarter.

At Séguéla, we produced 38,799 ounces of gold, maintaining consistency with prior quarters and surpassing the mine plan. Mining during the quarter totaled 272,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 3.66 grams per tonne gold, along with 4.43 million tonnes of waste, resulting in a strip ratio of 16.3:1.

The processing plant treated 435,000 tonnes at an average grade of 3.01 grams per tonne gold, with throughput averaging 208 tonnes per hour for the quarter. Ore was primarily sourced from the Antenna, Ancien and Koula pits.

During the quarter, we received permitting approvals for 5 satellite pits, including the Sunbird, Kingfisher and Badior open pits. Several major projects also advanced successfully over the third quarter. The 8.5 million TSF lift was completed, providing tailings storage at current throughputs until late 2029. The replacement of the transmission tower at the Sunbird pit, a $9 million project, progressed well, and we are now prepared to commence pre-mining operations for the Sunbird pit in Q4.

The rock breaker and the primary crusher was commissioned and is operating effectively, further debottlenecking the processing circuit and the 6-megawatt solar plant project is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2026, which will help to reduce power costs.

Séguéla performance resulted in a cash cost of $698 per ounce and an all-in sustaining cost of $1,738 per ounce, both aligning with our budget. Site costs continue to be managed efficiently with the increased all-in sustaining costs primarily attributed to royalties on the higher gold price.

Exploration drilling at the Sunbird underground project continued in the third quarter with encouraging results. The ongoing success of this drilling, combined with the results from the Kingfisher Deposit provides us with a resource base that offers further opportunities to optimize production from Séguéla.

Whilst current process plant throughputs are focused on maximizing available capacity with minimal investment, we're now investigating in options to further enhance process plant throughput.

Drilling is continuing with 5 drill rigs at the Sunbird underground deposit in Q4, aiming to further expand the underground resource. Engineering studies and permitting activities will continue in Q4 and 2026, with the expectation of commencing underground mining operations in 2027.

The Kingfisher Deposit remains open in all directions and further drilling will be undertaken in 2026 to convert inferred resources to indicated status and further expand the resource.

At our Diamba Sud project in Senegal, exploration, environmental permitting and feasibility activities made significant progress during the quarter, government approvals were received for early works programs, ESIA was submitted for approval and the PEA was published.

Following the rainy season, drill rigs have been remobilized for further drilling at the Southern Arc deposit at Diamba with the aim of enhancing the resource base and building on the strong PEA results.

Thank you, and back to you, Jorge.

Thank you, David. Cesar?

Thank you, Jorge, and good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to report that both Lindero and Caylloma ongoing multiple safety initiatives are driving continuous improvement and reinforcing a culture of accountability and care across all of our operations, delivering excellent safety performance.

At Lindero in Argentina, we had a strong quarter, achieving our highest gold production this year. Gold output reached 24,417 ounces, a 4% rise from 23,550 ounces in the second quarter, driven by a 5% increase in gold grade and effective inventory recovery from the leach pad.

We placed 1.7 million tonnes of ore on the leach pad at an average head grade of 0.60 grams per tonne containing about 32,775 ounces of gold. With 1.5 million tonnes of ore mined and a favorable strip ratio of 1.9:1, we are well aligned with our mining plan. Processing performance was robust with continued optimization of the crushing circuit achieving an average throughput of 1,061 tonnes per hour, about 8% above the 2024 average, demonstrating progress in our operational efficiency initiatives.

However, on September 27, we experienced an unexpected shutdown of the primary crusher due to mechanical issues involving high amperage and overheating of the pitman shaft, specifically traced to the premature wear of the primary wear parts such as the bushings and bearings.

Replacement parts have been secured and corrective actions are underway to resolve the structural misalignment. We anticipate the crusher will be fully operational by mid-November. Meanwhile, we have implemented effective mitigation strategies such as using a portable jaw crusher and direct Run-of-Mine ore screening to ensure uninterrupted operations. Consequently, we do not foresee any impact on our annual production target.

Regarding costs, the cash cost in Q3 was $1,117 per ounce of gold compared to $1,148 per ounce in Q2, marking a 3% improvement due to higher ounces sold and stable operating conditions. The all-in sustaining cost decreased significantly to $1,570 per ounce from $1,783 per ounce in the second quarter, a notable 12% reduction, supported by lower costs, reduced sustaining capital, higher by-product credit and a 7.7% increase in ounces sold.

Overall, Lindero delivered strong performance this quarter, supported by disciplined cost management, resilient production and solid margins of approximately $2,500 per ounce to our ASIC based on current gold prices.

At Caylloma in Peru, we delivered another steady and reliable quarter of production, meeting operational expectations. The Caylloma mine continues to exceed all of its physical and cost targets for the year, reflecting strong operational execution. However, our reported metal equivalents are being impacted by the silver and base metal conversion factor, which affect the calculation of both the gold and silver equivalent production.

In terms of costs, the cash cost per silver equivalent ounce was $17.92 compared to for $15.16 in Q2, mainly due to slightly lower silver production and higher realized silver prices.

The all-in sustaining cost increased modestly to $25.17 for silver equivalent tonnes from $21.73 in Q2, primarily due to the same factors and fewer silver equivalent ounces sold.

Despite these cost movements, Caylloma maintained healthy margins, supported by strong base metal prices and disciplined operational control. With the current strength in silver prices, we're looking to access some of the highest grade silver zones that Caylloma is known for. These areas, which are better suited to conventional mining methods are becoming economically attractive and once again, under the present price environment.

In summary, the third quarter highlighted strong production growth at Lindero, steady performance at Caylloma and lower unit cost across the region. Our teams in Argentina and Peru continue to execute with discipline and focus, maintaining momentum in operational reliability, cost efficiency and safety as we move into the year's final quarter.

Back to you, Jorge.

Thank you. I'll now hand the call over to Luis, our CFO, who will review financial results.

Thank you. So we have reported net income attributable to Fortuna of $123.6 million or $0.40 per share. This result includes a $70 million noncash impairment reversal at the Lindero mine, which includes $17 million of low-grade stockpiles.

After adjusting for noncash nonrecurring items, attributable net income was $51 million or $0.17 per share. This represents a strong 56% increase year-over-year and a 14% sequential increase over Q2. The growth was driven mainly by higher metal prices.

The cash cost per ounce for the quarter was $942, broadly aligned with the prior quarter and slightly above Q3 of 2024 as a result of higher mine stripping ratios at Lindero and Séguéla after our mine plans.

We have reported 2 nonoperational items impacting our results this quarter. The effect of our stock-based compensation of the increase in our share base during the period, representing a one-time increase to share-based expense of $6.3 million and a foreign exchange loss of $7.4 million. The foreign exchange loss was mostly attributable to our Lindero operations in Argentina as the peso experienced a sharp 14% devaluation in Q3.

For the first 9 months of the year, our FX loss related to the Argentinian operations amounts to $10 million, of which over half is related to the accumulation of local currency cash balances. However, I want to emphasize that we implemented structures to preserve the value of these funds and the FX loss on local cash balances for the full year is fully offset in our income statement through the interest income, investment gains and derivative line items.

We were able to restart repatriation in the month of July from Argentina, and under current conditions, we expect to maintain local cash balances at a minimum. In Q3, a total of $62 million were repatriated, net of withholding taxes.

Our general and administration expenses for the quarter were $26.3 million. This represents an increase over the prior year of $12.6 million. This was due mainly to higher stock-based compensation as explained, plus an increase in corporate G&A of $4 million related mostly to timing of expenses. Our annual corporate G&A remains relatively stable at around $28 million to $30 million, and the breakdown is provided in Page 11 of our MD&A.

Moving to our cash flow statement. Our capital expenditures for the quarter totaled $48.5 million. Of this, we classified $17 million of growth CapEx, which primarily consists of investments in the Diamba Sud project of $6.8 million and exploration activities of around $10 million.

Our anticipated capital expenditures for the full year have adjusted upwards slightly from the $180 million previously disclosed to approximately $190 million. This increase primarily reflects added exploration allocations due to continued exploration success at Séguéla and Diamba.

In terms of free cash flow, we generated $73.4 million from ongoing operations, up from $57.4 million in the prior quarter, reflecting the effect, again, of a higher gold price. And our net cash position increased by $51 million after growth CapEx and other items.

All of this brings our total liquidity to $588 million, and our net cash position to $266 million. This represents an increase of over $200 million year-to-date. In the current price environment, we expect this trend to accelerate.

That's it for me. Back to you, Jorge.

We would now like to open the call to questions. Paul, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] And the first question today is coming from Mohamed Sidibe from National Bank.

Maybe just starting with your strong balance sheet, strong free cash flow that you're printing and the elevated gold and silver prices. How are you thinking about your capital allocation priorities. I know you have Diamba coming up. But specifically as it relates to capital return to shareholders as you're looking into next year.

As you pointed out, we have a pipeline of near-term growth. So that is the first priority we have with respect to capital allocation. We expect we'll be making a construction decision on Diamba Sud next year in the first half of the year. We're advancing early works that are trying to derisk the time line and shorten the time line also for first gold at Diamba by advancing these early works.

We are also scoping right now the potential to expand our Séguéla process infrastructure. As you recall, Séguéla was originally designed at 1.25 million tonnes per annum. We're currently running the plant at 1.75 million tonnes per annum, and we're currently doing scoping -- starting scoping work to expand it to the range of 2.2 million, 2.3 million tonnes per annum.

Additional to that, as you have seen, we're expanding exploration work across the 2 regions, LatAm and West Africa. We just expanded into Guinea through a JV with DeSoto. We are expanding our exploration in Argentina. We're currently drilling in Mexico. We're currently drilling in Peru. So that is our first priority and where we believe we can add most value right now.

Second, we have our share buyback program in place. We were quite active with the share buyback program at the beginning of the year, end of last year. We repurchased approximately $30 million worth of stock. The share buyback program remains in place, and today is our preferred way to return to -- capital to shareholders. And we have made a pause in the last 2 quarters with the share buyback program, but we could be active in the market again anytime.

Great. And then maybe if I could shift to operations. So Lindero, the unexpected shutdown and mindful that this has no impact on your annual production target, given the mitigation measures. But how should we think about this for cost into Q4? Should we -- could we see any potential impacts on that front? And any color would be appreciated there.

Yes. I'll let Cesar address the question.

Sure. Well, in particular to cost, we have been able to compensate some of those cost in specifically with regards to the portable rental jaw crusher. So we're offsetting that cost with other noncritical initiatives that we had in Lindero. So we don't expect our cost to be significantly impacted in Q4. That should address.

[Operator Instructions] There were no other questions from the lines at this time. I will now hand the call back to Carlos Baca for closing remarks.

Thank you, Paul. If there are no further questions, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support and interest in Fortuna Mining. Have a great day.

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.