Galiano Gold Inc Aktie

Hello, and welcome to the Galiano Gold Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the conference over to Matt Badylak, Galliano's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking time to join us on the call today. to review Galiano Gold's third quarter 2026 financial and operating results, which we released yesterday after market close.

During today's call, we'll be making forward-looking statements and referring to non-IFRS performance measures. Please refer to the cautionary notes on Slide 2 of the webcast presentation and to the risk disclosures in our most recent MD&A. Yesterday's news release should be read together with our third quarter financial statements and MD&A which are available on our website and filed on SEDAR plus and EDGAR. Unless otherwise noted, all dollar amounts discussed on this call are in U.S. dollars.

Joining me today are Michael Cardinaels, our Chief Operating Officer; Matt Freeman, our Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Pettman, our Vice President, Exploration. I will begin with an overview of the quarter Michael will discuss mining and processing. [indiscernible] I'll then return to discuss near-term priorities and outlook before we open the call for questions.

Turning to Slide 4. Q3 demonstrated clear progress across the business. Production increased, cost performance improved and operating cash flow strengthened. Most importantly, we achieved this performance with no recordable injuries. I want to recognize and thank our team and business partners for their discipline and commitment during that quarter. These results show that we are executing the plan and leave us well positioned to deliver our full year guidance.

Our balance sheet remains healthy with no debt, providing the capacity to continue investing in the San Kong Gold Mine. We also continue advancing our long-term priorities. Subsequent to the quarter, we secured extensions to the brim and Meridali mining leases. This important milestone provides greater operating certainty and supports the execution of our current life of mine plan.

We appreciate the support of the government of Ghana and [indiscernible] . During the quarter, we also advanced key initiatives at Nkran Cut 3, Assai and Abore. The key message from Q3 is that the operating performance is strengthening, while our longer-term initiatives continue to advance. We entered the final quarter with confidence in our ability to deliver our 2026 plan.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Michael to review operating performance.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Q3 marked a step forward operationally. As Matt noted, we delivered these results while maintaining our strong safety record. At September 30, our team had worked approximately 13.4 million hours without a lost time injury and achieved 548 consecutive injury-free days. Following another safe production quarter, both our lost time injury frequency rate and total recordable injury frequency rate now stands at 0, which is an achievement worth celebrating.

Here on Slide 5, Mining activity advanced in line with our 2026 plan. We mined 1.7 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1 gram per tonne, with a strip ratio of 4.4:1. Abore remained our primary ore source, accounting for roughly 82% of the Q3 total mined ore, contributing 1.4 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.1 grams per tonne. Grades rose 9% from Q2 as mining moved into deeper elevations consistent with our mine plan. RC supplemented this supply with 0.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.8 grams per tonne.

Development at Nkran Cut 3 also accelerated -- additional equipment mobilized in Q3 helped lift development waste movement by a further 40% to 8.5 million tonnes. We invested $24.6 million in pre-stripping bringing the year-to-date total to $60.2 million. We expect mining rates to remain over production growth availability reached 93%, enabling us to mill 1.4 million tonnes, 11% more than in Q2. Mill feed grade rose 11% to an average of 1 gram per tonne reflecting the planned benefit of higher Abore grades in the second half of the year.

Recovery held steady at 90%, and the combination of greater throughput higher feed grade and stable recovery resulted in production of 40,922 ounces, up 19% from Q2 with just over 110,000 ounces produced through the first 9 months of the year, we entered Q4 with solid operating momentum from an improved Q3 and remain confident in achieving our full year production guidance. Our focus is to sustain safe, reliable execution across the mine and the processing plant and close out the year strongly.

I will now hand the call over to Matt Freeman to review financial results.

Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 7. stronger production and gold sales in the third quarter translated into a meaningful improvement in our financial performance and cash generation. Revenue for the quarter was $172 million on sales of just over 40,000 ounces of gold an average realized price of $4,247 per ounce before the impact of hedges. This translated into strong financial results with adjusted EBITDA of GBP 93.3 million, basic EPS of $0.15 and adjusted EPS of $0.09.

The business also generated $57 million of operating cash flow during the quarter compared with $40 million in Q3 of 2025. The increase was driven by higher gold prices and more ounces sold, partly offset by higher royalties and the income taxes we have to pay. The most significant change from a year ago was net income. We reported net income attributable to our shareholders of $40 million compared to the net loss last year of 39 million, representing a positive swing of 79 million. The improvement was mainly driven by higher revenues, again, reflecting more ounces sold and the higher gold prices, offset, as I mentioned before, by royalties.

Also, as we have discussed previously, we're now very close to the end of our hedge program. We settled 22,500 ounces during the quarter, leaving only 15,000 ounces to be settled in Q4. Once those remaining ounces are delivered, the hedge program will be complete enabling our financial results to fully participate in the gold price beginning in 2027. Our financial position at September 30 remains very strong with $87 million of cash with the $75 million revolving credit facility remaining undrawn.

The key point is that our balance sheet remains very healthy, maintaining substantial liquidity to fund EnCap3, our exploration programs and other growth priorities. Turning to Slide 8. We're also pleased to see all-in sustaining costs improved to $2,346 per ounce for the quarter, a 5% improvement from Q2. The primary driver of this improvement was the higher gold ounces sold, partly offset by increasing sustaining capital related to the expansion of the tailings storage facility.

Year-to-date, ASIC was $2,391 per ounce within the bottom half of our annual guidance range, such that our 2026 ASIC guidance remains unchanged at between $2,300 and $2,600 per ounce. This disciplined approach to cost management allows us to continue directing capital towards value-enhancing projects, including Engen Cut 3 and our exploration programs at Sino which will support future production and the potential for mine life extension.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Chris to discuss the exploration progress.

Thanks, Matt. Turning to Slide 9. Our exploration [indiscernible] with both programs supporting our planned mineral resource and mineral reserve update in the first quarter of 2077. At SAS, we achieved an important milestone by completing the expanded infill drilling program during the quarter. We drilled 16,732 meters in Q3 bringing the total program to 32,982 meters completed. The program was designed to convert existing open pit mineral resources from the inferred to the indicated category and has the potential to significantly increase the assassin mineral reserve and support planning for a potential future open pit expansion.

Data review and modeling are now underway. At Bore, drilling resumed in late Q3 after the program was paused to prioritize the completion of the Assasi campaign. We drilled 4,445 meters during the quarter, bringing year-to-date drilling to approximately 20,600 meters of the planned 32,000-meter program. This work is designed to expand the underground mineral resource through step-out drilling outside of the existing resource. We expect to complete this work in the remainder of the program in Q4.

We also achieved a significant milestone by receiving all regulatory approvals required for construction of the planned Nobori exploration at -- this is an exciting moment for us as the edit will provide a more efficient platform for underground drilling and support further evaluation of bore's longer-term undergrown potential. This is the culmination of 3 years of successful surface exploration programs at Abore and marks what may be a defining moment for the AGM and the deposits of the Asanko belt. I'd like to personally thank and congratulate all of the members of the AGM site exploration team for their hard work and technical excellence that has brought us to this point.

Back to you Matt to discuss our priorities and outlook.

Thank you, Chris. Before we turn to questions, let me leave you with 1 clear takeaway showed that this team can deliver. We strengthened our operational and financial performance, advanced our long-term plan and maintained a strong safety record. Through the first 9 months, we have positioned the business to finish the year safely and deliver our full year production and cost guidance. That is our immediate priority. Beyond the year-end, the opportunity is equally clear. The completion of the hedge book, together with higher production should drive strong operating cash flow in 2027. We will remain disciplined in allocating capital, continuing to invest in the business and advancing growth opportunities that can create long-term value for shareholders.

We have the team, the assets and the financial strength to deliver our plan, and we remain confident in our path ahead. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question today comes from the line of Jeremy Hoy from Canaccord Genuity.

I guess first question for me is on 2027. Any color you guys can provide on the various cost components heading into the new year might be helpful as we look at our estimates for the following year.

Yes. Jeremy, thanks for your question. Yes. So obviously, we're working through all of those numbers at the moment internally, and we will be looking to provide the market with clarity on what 2027 looks like a normal cadence earlier in 2027. So yes, I'll just request some patience on that at the moment as the team works through that. But obviously, we have previously suggested that we are expecting slightly higher production in 2027 on the back of high grades, et cetera. And we're looking forward to, as we said, those mineral reserves and resource updates that the team is working through at the moment, which will help drive those numbers and solidify those numbers in due course.

Okay. And with costs and upward pressure on fuel prices being topical through the sector. Could you remind us the hedging strategy for fuel and other inputs?

Jeremy, it's Matt Freeman here. Yes, we're looking at those things. I mean obviously at the moment with diesel price being elevated because of the conflict in the Middle East, we're kind of being careful on that. But we keep an eye on it quarter-by-quarter, and we'll react if we need to -- if we feel the need. At the moment, I mean, although there's an increase in diesel price, it's -- we still feel comfortable with our cost structure. And as we said, we're coming at the lower end of our production or cost guidance range for the year. So we're comfortable with where we are at the moment.

Okay. Great. Much appreciate it. Last 1 for me is, I guess, on the underground opportunity -- great to see you get the approvals for the adit and will we get to see drills get in there and attack that ground from a better vantage point. in of how that underground opportunity progresses. It's exciting because it's upside potential to what we're modeling on an open pit basis only. So -- anything that you could provide with these are [indiscernible]?

Like Chris and the teams work on advancing that expeditiously in the last quarter. We have advanced quite healthily through the tender process during the quarter. And -- we are looking to kind of finalize that process, which would include selection of a mining contractor within the quarter. And that will then allow that selected contract to get going with equipment mobilization, et cetera, and start to look to break ground as soon as possible, right? So I think we've previously discussed that we're looking to try and do that by Q1 or late Q1, early Q2 next year in terms of the groundbreaking. But obviously, that will depend on the contractor selection, et cetera, which that process is currently underway.

And then the audit itself is we're looking at about a 2-kilometer at it as well and drilling will obviously take place as we progress that added forward Chris, I'm not sure if you want to add anything to that?

No, I think that's a pretty good overall overview, Matt. I think that in terms of when we can actually get drills underground I guess the 1 thing I would add is that we're not going to wait until we get to the bottom to do all the drilling, we will be able to drill some of our areas as we progress the ramp. So it won't be the full sort of 1.5 years of construction before we start to see some drill results come out of that.

That's great. And any idea when you might look at an initial underground study? Or is it just too early to say?

Yes. I mean I think, obviously, we're going to have to do a fair bit of drilling from underground and do some conversion from them. Obviously, we have last year -- or sorry, earlier this year, we've updated the market with a maiden underground mill resource at both Bore and Nkran. There's a bit of drilling, obviously, that needs to be done before we can get going on a comprehensive study -- so that's still some time away at this stage. But obviously, we've got the cash Jeremy to be able to advance this project as quickly as possible, and that's the intention and then to define what it is that an underground ultimately looks like as soon as we possibly can.

Okay. Understood. Great to see a steady quarter. I'll step back in the queue.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Barrick Hedberg from Beacon Securities.

Congratulations. It looks like we have approached or we are at the inflection point here. And hopefully, this is the only the beginning of the good start. One quick question for me, maybe 2. What would the 2-kilometer added cost? And what would that entail? And how long will that cost be distributed in like basically what I'm asking is how much would it cost? And how long would it take to finish building that added? And my second question is I noticed that you guys mined 1.4 million tonnes from Abore at 1.1 gram per tonne. And that looks like that you can fill them out with those had higher grade material. -- you may not need as unless mining slows down for whatever reason, what would your thinking be around that?

Okay. I'll start off with your first question, and then I'll pass on to Nick for the second Yes, as I mentioned before, Burke, we are close to finalizing the tender process at the moment. So I don't want to step ahead of that at the moment with regards to giving you guidance on cost. But just suffice to say that once we do have that process behind us, we will be able to update the market on the costs around that added which isn't too far away in and provide you with clarity on that.

So again, just requesting a slight amount of patients from your end on that side, but we will provide you with details as soon as we have finalized numbers available to us.

Go ahead, Nick. in terms of the production and the milled strategy, as everyone is the material that we get from Abore is extremely hard. It's harder than the rest of our deposits. So there is a fine line between throughput and grade that we manage on a daily basis on a ship-by-ship basis. So the feed blending strategy will continue around 80 to 85% from a bore based on available material and grade. So we do throughout the month and the quarter, adjust that accordingly based on what grades are available. So I would imagine that we'll continue our same strategy of optimizing throughput and grade to maximize our production in Q4 and then into 2027.

And if I can add a question, what would the visible grade profile of our borrower look from here to, say, Q1 and Q2?

The grade, as we indicated earlier in the year, we did expect the grades to improve in a bore in the back half of 2026, and we're seeing the results of that at the moment. We expect these grades to continue in Q4 and into 2027 as well.

So just remain where it is right now and not improve any further.

There is definitely potential for us to be improving and see improving grades as we still go deeper in Avoro yet and into 2027. That's part of what drives our production increase in 2027.

I think maybe if I could just add to that, Barrick, I think the Q4 grades probably be similar to what we've seen in Q3 now. And then as I mentioned earlier, the full year guidance is probably what you're really looking for and that's going to come out in early February in Q1 there. So we'll be able to provide you with that color there for the full year in February.

Your next question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle from H.C. Wainwright.

Can you give a bit of color on what you see with labor costs for next year? Maybe you can just bits like head count and cost per worker, obviously with Enron.

It's Matt. I think Matt Freeman here. As Matt said, we're still working through the numbers as a consistent answer here. But -- but what we're seeing in Ghana, there's naturally some pressure on labor costs and stuff as we go through, nothing probably out of the ordinary, but we're still working through that. We'll see a slight probably increase there. With respect to head count numbers, I don't think we're expecting to see a particular change at the site we're fully equipped, fully staffed and ready to go.

The can cuts, as you know, it's contract mines, that's all on contract rates and contract volumes. So again, I don't think you should see any surprises there as we move into next year, really volume a volume-based exercise at Nat.

How many people are on the payroll right now at site?

Well, I think, as you know, we have a modest employee base, and then we have a large number of contractors on site who with our 2 main mining contractors at Rabitecinit -- so abate at Assai and Rockshore at Nkran, who actually make more -- there's more of those employees, their employees than our own. We're around 450 of the Asanko employees and then the rest of the cohort add up to more than a couple of thousand people in total.

Yes. Okay. And then just 1 final one. With Engine Cut 3, the mining costs, obviously decreased -- can you give a bit of color on not even just like short term, but intermediate and longer-term factors that we should use to analyze our estimates for mining costs in the out years?

Yes, I think the best way to look at that is the good thing is we're locked into long-term mining contracts here. So we're not expecting any particular change to the cost structure. What you're seeing the benefit with Nkran Cut 3 as we start to increase the volumes, our fixed management charges obviously come down on a unit basis. So the more tonnes we can move each month, the lower cost per tonne effectively comes in. So from that perspective, that's why you started to see it drop in Q3. And as Nick has alluded to, we're sort of increasing to add a bit more equipment to sites. So as we accelerate through the Nkran strip.

So we should see hopefully, flat or positive trends in those costs. Obviously, there's some underlying inflation of diesel and other things, but broadly, the contracts are fairly well set for the next number of years. So I think you can be very confident modeling consistent run rate what we've seen Perfect.

[Operator Instructions] And as there appears to be no further questions, I will now turn the call back over to Matt Badylak for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you again for everyone who've joined today, and we look forward to your continued interest and updating you further as we progress through our execution of our plan. Thank you, everyone.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Second Quarter 2026 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.

[Operator Instructions]

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Matt Badylak, CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking time to join us today to review Galiano Gold's Second Quarter 2026 Financial and Operating results we released yesterday after market closed. During today's call, we'll be making forward-looking statements and referring to non-IFRS performance measures. Please refer to the cautionary notes on Slide 2 of the webcast presentation and to the risk disclosures in our most recent MD&A.

Yesterday's news release should be read together with our second quarter financial statements and MD&A, which are available on our website and filed on SEDAR+ and EDGAR. Unless otherwise noted, all dollar amounts discussed on the call today are in U.S. dollars.

Joining me today are Michael Cardinaels, our Chief Operating Officer; Matt Freeman, our Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Pettman, our Vice President, Exploration. I will begin with an overview of the quarter. Michael will then discuss mining and processing, Matt will review the financial performance, and Chris will update you on exploration. I'll then return to provide some perspective on our near-term catalysts and close the prepared remarks before we open up the call up for questions.

Turning to Slide 4. Our first half performance has put us in a solid position to deliver our 2026 plan. We produced 34,400 ounces of gold in the second quarter, bringing the first half production to just over 69,000 ounces near the upper end of our previously communicated indicated range of 60,000 to 70,000 ounces. This provides a solid foundation as we enter the higher production portion of the mine plan, which generated -- with grades expected to improve as mining advances at Abore.

Our full year production guidance remains unchanged at 140,000 to 160,000 ounces, and our all-in sustaining cash cost guidance remains unchanged at $2,300 to $2,600 per ounce. Safety remains our highest priority. We recorded no lost time injuries and no total recordable injuries during the quarter. At June 30, our teams worked approximately 11 million hours without a lost time injury and achieved 456 consecutive incident-free days. These are meaningful milestones, and I'd like to recognize our employees and business partners for the discipline and care that made this possible.

We also maintained a strong financial position and in the quarter with total cash of $105.9 million. This includes approximately $26 million of restricted cash that we will expand on shortly. Importantly, the company remains debt free, and we continue to invest in the future of Asanko Gold Mine. This includes waste stripping at Nkran and exploration activities at Esaase and Abore.

Overall, Q2 was a quarter of both delivery and preparation. We delivered against our current mine plan, while putting the building blocks in place for the next phase of growth.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Michael to review our operating performance.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Here on Slide 5, mining performance in the second quarter remained aligned with our plan and continues to support our full year guidance. During the quarter, we mined approximately 1.8 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.9 grams per tonne. Ore tonnes increased approximately 15% from the first quarter, while grades remained consistent with expectations. This increase in ore availability keeps us on track for the planned production growth in the second half of the year. Abore remained our primary source of mill feed, contributing approximately 77% of total ore mined during the quarter. Mining advanced into deeper phases of the pit, where we expect to access higher grades as the year progresses.

This mining sequence is a key driver of our anticipated second half production profile. Mining at Esaase also continued as planned and provided supplemental feed to the mill. At Nkran Cut 3, we continue to make strong progress on development activities. The team mined 6.1 million tonnes of waste during the quarter, representing a 30% increase from Q1. We invested $22.1 million pre-stripping during Q2, bringing year-to-date investment to $35.6 million. Additional equipment is scheduled to arrive during the third quarter to support the planned ramp-up in mining rates. The work underway today is critical to unlocking access to the higher-grade Nkran ore that supports our future production profile.

Importantly, this progress was all achieved while maintaining our strong safety performance, which Matt highlighted earlier.

Turning to Slide 6. Processing performance remained solid during the quarter despite some unplanned maintenance activities. Average feed grade was approximately 0.9 grams per tonne, metallurgical recovery was 90% and gold production totaled 34,391 ounces. Mill availability was impacted by maintenance on the ball mill gearbox in June. While work on the primary crush equipment continued throughout the quarter. Despite these interruptions, the processing team maintained strong recovery rates and delivered production in line with expectations, demonstrating the resilience and stability of the operation.

The remaining crusher work is expected to be completed during the third quarter. So, looking ahead, our priorities for the second half of the year are straightforward. Complete the remaining repairs of the critical spares for the primary crusher, continue advancing the mining sequence at Abore and deliver the higher-grade ore planned for the balance of the year. With more than 69,000 ounces produced in the first half, we are well positioned to achieve our full year production guidance.

I will now hand the call over to Matt Freeman to review the financial results.

Thanks, Michael, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 7. The second quarter again demonstrated the earnings and cash generation capacity of the business, even as we continue to fund significant development activity. Revenue for the second quarter was $156.6 million on sales of just over 35,000 ounces of gold and a realized gold price, before the impact of the hedging losses, of $4,432 per ounce. This translated into strong earnings with adjusted EBITDA of $78.5 million and adjusted earnings per share of $0.09.

Also, as we have discussed previously, we're getting close to the end of our hedge book such that from 2027, our financial results will be able to fully participate in the gold price, leading to a natural inflection point in our cash flows. I must note that at the end of the quarter, approximately $26 million of our cash became restricted following court order relating to a long-standing contractual dispute with a former service provider.

This is in direct contravention of an existing court order, and as such, we are confident the restriction will be lifted in a timely manner. Excluding the IFRS presentation of the restricted cash in our cash flow statement, the mine generated cash flows from operations of $31.9 million, which shows that the operation continues to generate meaningful cash flows. The key point here is that our balance sheet remains very healthy. We've maintained substantial liquidity while funding the investment in our growth projects, such as the significant infill drilling campaign at Esaase and accelerating the pre-strip program at Nkran Cut 3.

Turning to Slide 8. We're pleased that despite elevated diesel prices since the start of the Iran conflict, all-in sustaining costs were $2,473 per ounce for the quarter and $2,418 per ounce for the first half of the year. And as production increases and grades improved in the second half of 2026, we expect better unit cost leverage, and therefore, our 2026 guidance remains unchanged at $2,300 to $2,600 per ounce. Through this disciplined cost management that we continue to be able to direct capital towards value-enhancing projects, such as the Nkran strip and exploration work, which expected to provide the foundation for mine life extension of the asset.

I'll now turn the call back to Chris to discuss the progress made on these exploration priorities.

Thanks, Matt. Exploration work through Q2 was primarily focused on executing our aggressive drilling campaign at Esaase and Abore in order to deliver results and time for the addition in the 2027 MRMR update. The exploration budget for 2026 has been expanded to a very healthy $25 million from the previous $17 million, meaning we are well resourced to deliver on our objectives.

Following Q1 drilling success in the first phase of the Esaase infill and conversion drilling program, the full expanded program consisting of approximately 32,000 meters was approved, and drilling was immediately ramped up with a total of 7 drill rigs turning at Esaase by June. The program was approximately 50% complete by the end of Q2 with the team achieving a total of 13,748 meters in the quarter, and drilling remains on schedule for completion in Q3.

Results received to date continue to indicate the program will meet objectives of converting a high percentage of the targeted inferred resource to the indicated category ahead of the 2027 MRMR update. This work is specifically designed to dramatically increase the open pit mineral reserve at Esaase, which will anchor the future life of mine transformation. Drilling also continued at Abore as we work to expand the underground resource, which was first released last quarter. 4,565 meters were drilled through Q2, bringing the full year program of 30,000 meters to 54% complete. We remain excited by the growth we are seeing in Abore and are anticipating completion of the remainder of the drilling at Abore by early Q4.

That excitement is reflected in our ongoing planning efforts for potential construction of underground exploration at Abore. Permitting and planning efforts advanced well through Q2, and we are on track to make an investment decision for a potential construction start in 2027. This project will be a significant milestone for exploration and the AGM as it would represent the first steps to transitioning the Asankrangwa Gold Belt deposits towards underground operations as has been done very successfully at both the Sefwi and the Ashanti Belt that lie immediately adjacent to us.

Back to you, Matt, to discuss our near-term catalysts.

Thank you, Chris. Turning to Slide 10. Here, I'll point out that Chris' update is important because exploration is an integral part of our strategy to extend mine life and strengthen the future production profile. Our immediate priority remains a safe delivery of our 2026 guidance. Looking beyond this year, however, we expect the operating and financial profile of the business to change meaningfully. Production is expected to increase in 2027 and once the hedge program rolls off, we expect to benefit from higher production and full exposure to the gold price supporting stronger free cash flow.

This combination represents the key financial inflection point we see ahead. Beyond that near-term inflection Nkran Cut3 is a key driver of a production profile of more than 200,000 ounces per year. Esaase and Abore also contribute to that scale and provide opportunities to sustain and extend the production profile through reserve conversion and underground resource growth. Together, Nkran, Esaase and Abore support both scale and the longevity of this Asanko gold mine.

The chart on the left shows that Galiano trades at a discount to many of our peers on an enterprise value per reserve ounce basis. We believe this discount does not reflect the value of our existing operations, the strength of our balance sheet, the visibility of the expected cash flow inflection or the organic growth opportunities across Nkran, Esaase and Abore. In our view, the current valuation understates, both the strength of our business today and its long-term growth potential.

Let me close by bringing the quarter back to our broader strategy. In the near term, our task is clear: operate safely and deliver our 2026 plan. Our first half production of 69,000 ounces near the upper end of our indicated range provides a solid foundation for the balance of the year. Our full year production and all-in sustaining cash guidance remains unchanged. At the same time, we are using our debt-free balance sheet to fund Nkran Cut 3, progress reserve conversion at Esaase and advance underground growth at Abore while maintaining substantial liquidity. We are, therefore, able to invest in the future of the mine while continuing to execute the current plan.

The result is a clear path to improved operating and financial profile beginning in 2027. And higher production, stronger free cash flow, greater participation in gold price and multiple opportunities to expand reserves, resources and mine life. That combination gives us confidence in Galiano's ability to create meaningful long-term shareholder value. Thank you to our employees and our business partners for their continued commitment and thank you to our shareholders and analysts for your interest in Galiano Gold.

Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle with HCW.

It's Heiko Ihle with H.C. Wainwright. Let's talk about the general and administrative costs on a dollar mill basis. You went from -- you went from $7 essentially $8.50. And I get that that's a small number overall, but on a percentage basis, the change is quite pronounced. Can you maybe give a bit of color on where we should model that out going forward? And what exactly happened? I assume some of that is just labor costs.

It's Matt Freeman here. I think simplistically, the large part of it is just the denominator there. The tonnes milled was a bit lower this quarter given some of the issues that Mick alluded to. Otherwise, nothing really substantial in there. We had a few other maintenance costs that maybe flow through that a little bit on some sort of not kind of plant-related ones. But really, it's just the denominator so your tonnes milled. So modeling going forward, I would think this was a bit of an anomaly. I would think you can look back at the previous couple of quarters, and that would be a much better way of looking at it going forward.

We're certainly not seeing any major unexpected movements in our general cost base at all across the operations.

That's what I would have expected and hoped you guys would say, okay. So that makes a lot of sense. And then also, you mentioned the diesel prices in the release, you discussed it briefly earlier on this call. Can you just give a bit of color on how much you actually spent nonfuel per quarter? And what you've been seeing with this figure throughout the first half of Q3? Is that something where the analysts can just -- once we have the total, we can just essentially take it and then take like global diesel prices and sort of like model it like that.

Yes, Heiko. I think on average, we're about 3 to 4 million liters a month. And obviously, as we increase the profile of stripping at Nkran over the next, I guess, 18 months or so, we would expect that to increase a little bit over time. Honestly, we're not seeing it being particularly material to the business. Obviously, we've seen the spike through the summer. And obviously, it's been hugely volatile, particularly what we're seeing in the pumps in Ghana. But I think we're guiding -- we're comfortable in our guidance range. we're certainly comfortable where the costs are sitting. Hopefully, the Middle East situation will calm down a bit, and we'll see the reversion in prices. But say, at the moment, it's not that material to us. We're keeping an eye on things and managing where we can.

Fair enough. And essentially, on a usage basis, flat for the rest of the year, is the way to go.

Yes. I mean we're modeling it within our expectations as being kind of around where it is now slightly elevated and hopefully say things could come off lower than that, and we might have a slight benefit there. But say, as of now, we're very comfortable with our cost guidance. So you can kind of expect us to fall in that range comfortably.

Your next question comes from the line of Frederic Bolton with BMO Capital Markets.

So I've got a few questions here. You reduced your development guidance this year. Can you just talk us through the primary drivers of that reduction? So notice that you're guidance for the Nkran Cut 3 hasn't changed at all. I don't mind just going through the questions bundled. So If you start with that, please.

Fred, it's Matt Freeman here. Yes, we've -- as we said in the MD&A, we expect development costs to be slightly down on what we'd originally said. There's a bit of a delay in some of our relocation projects in terms of the timing. But no, no change in sort of overall cost structure for the life of mine. It's just a timing shift between probably rendition and next year.

Okay. And with respect to this legal dispute -- this [ garnishee ]. What's the current status on the appeal process and what sort of gating factors or milestones are needed before you can unlock some of that restricted cash?

Yes. As I said, this is actually a very recent thing. So as we've said, we believe it to be a contravention of an existing order out there. So -- we're working with local counsel going through a legal process in Ghana to get that rescinded. Difficult to give a indication of exact timing, obviously because of these legal processes and through the summer, there's various court delays and holidays and things. So we're expecting, hopefully, something to be resolved in the short term. I can't give you precise timings, but certainly, we're working as diligently as we can with councel to get it resolved.

Okay. Great. And -- and so I think kind of one more question on the -- on your Q3 mobilization of the Nkran fleet in Q3 or is the additional fleet. Can you just give us a bit more color on what was driving that particular timing for this additional fleet? And when there's a chance to expedite some of that fleet sooner than later.

Fred, it's Michael here. I can provide a little color on that. Our mining business partner, Rocksure have actually mobilized the full complement of trucks to site at this point in time. And there's 2 additional excavators, which are currently sitting on the ground on site and going through commissioning phases. So those will be completed in Q3 and then put into operations. So it was just primarily a timing delay for acquisition of those new excavators from the manufacturer.

Okay. And so, therefore, Q4 is when we should start to see -- really see the ramp up of the [indiscernible].

That's correct. We'll see an increase in Q3 as we put those new units to work, and then they should be full complement by Q4 as well, as you say, a further increase.

Okay. Okay. Great. Sorry, I didn't mean to hog the line. But can I just ask one more question on the prioritization of drilling. Esaase -- I read in the release that Esaase drilling has been prioritized against ahead of Abore. What was driving that? Is that because you were trying to prioritize resource reserve conversion there as opposed to the completed drilling that's been done at Abore and so on. So if you can add a bit color to that, please?

Sure, Fred. It's Chris. Yes, you're absolutely right. So we moved the rigs to Esaase. We wanted to make sure we could get that drilling done in a timely manner for modeling ahead of the 2027 MRMR update as it is a significant increase in our potential reserve base there. So we wanted to make sure we could get that done. Obviously, Abore is still important to us. We've gotten over half of that program finished already, and we still feel like given our time lines, we have all the time to be able to finish that drilling Abore. We are seeing good growth in the resource there to be able to get that in by the end of the year as well.

Yes. So I mean, that's our -- at Abore that's our underground resource, right? And so we released that last quarter. So it was really about getting the open pit reserve prioritized growth there over the underground resource growth we think we'll still see at Abore as well.

Your next question comes from Bereket Berhe with Beacon Securities.

Congratulations guys, on another solid quarter. I'm noticing that production is actually stabilizing. The last 3 quarters have been really good. And obviously, that's been helped by the grade stabilizing as well, closer to the 0.9 grams per tonne. But I was wondering when do we start to see with Abore's contribution those grades start to pick up. Closer to the reserve grade of Abore, let's say, I understand that Abore is only contributing about 75% at the moment of the ore.

I also want to add -- basically, I want to ask the same question that the guys have been asking about in a different way. And Nkran Cut 3, if I remember correctly, started somewhere early in the year 2025, February, I believe it was and we're still at it and it's ramping up. When do we expect Nkran to sort of start to complete the pushback and start to contribute decently to the mine to the processing plant. Those are my questions for today.

Bereket, it's Michael here. I can answer that for you. So we are seeing increases in the Abore grades coming into Q3 and then further into Q4. We made a slight modification to our Abore pit design, which has increased the reserve's ounces included in that. And as we push into Q3 and Q4, we will be starting to see an increase in those grades and Abore will contribute approximately 80% mill feed in the last half of the year. So we should be expecting that as I said, H2.

And as far as Nkran goes, we will be ramping up our production profile over the balance of 2026 to be a full complement of fleet and increase at the end of the year. So 2027 should be a full complement of fleet. And as we've previously indicated, Nkran will start to produce ore at the back end of 2028 and into 2029, meaningful contribution to the grade for the production profile.

Our next question is from the line of Medina Abdullina with Freedom Broker.

Hello. Thank you for your presentation. So I have several questions. You reduced development capital guidance by approximately $15 million due to delays in village relocation. Can you clarify whether these relocations are now expected in early 2027 and whether the delay has any impact on first ore timing from Nkran or simply shift cash spending between years.

It's Matt here. Again. Yes, it's purely a timing difference, a little bit of a delay getting some of the organization together with the communities and we'd expect that to slide into 2027. But that won't have any impact on our production profile at all. So just the cash timing difference.

Okay. And also mining unit costs increased 27% year-over-year due to lower tonnes mined and higher fresh exposure. And as Abore transition further into lower strip phases during the remainder of the year, should we expect mining cost per ton to decline meaningfully? Or does fresh rock mining might offset most of that benefit?

I think, as you highlighted, we were slightly elevated on a cost per tonne basis this period, which was driven, say, largely by slightly lower tonnes and also the diesel price increase has an impact on that as well. But going forward, we should expect it to kind of be fairly stable. Hopefully, if mining rates ramp up a bit, we could see a bit of a reduction there. But obviously, as you go deep in pits, haul cycles increased. So there's a few offsets up and down, maybe slightly better, but we're not expecting anything too dramatic to change.

And with no further questions in queue. I will now hand the call back to Matt Badylak for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thanks again to everybody who joined the call today and for your continued interest in Galiano Gold. We certainly look forward to providing you with further updates throughout the course of the year as we progress this year. Thank you very much.

Thank you again for joining us today. This does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Hello, and welcome to the Galiano Gold First Quarter Results Call. [Operator Instructions]

I'll now turn the conference over to Matt Badylak, Galiano's CEO.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking time to join us on this call today to review Galiano Gold's first quarter 2026 results we released yesterday after market close.

We will be making forward-looking statements and referring to non-IFRS measures during the call. Please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosures in our most recent MD&A as well as this slide of the webcast presentation. Yesterday's release details our first quarter 2026 financial and operating results. They should be read in conjunction with our first quarter financial statements and MD&A available on our website and filed on SEDAR+ and EDGAR. Also, please bear in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned in the conference call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

With me on the call today, I have Michael Cardinaels, our Chief Operating Officer; Matt Freeman, our Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Pettman, our Vice President, Exploration. For this presentation, I will initially provide a brief overview of the quarter, Michael will discuss operations, Matt will discuss financials, and then Chris will highlight the exciting growth potential at Esaase and our ongoing exploration success at Abore. I'll then provide some closing remarks and open the call for Q&A.

Turning to Slide 5. Here, we can see the team delivered another solid operational quarter in line with our expectations for the period. Let me walk you through some of the key highlights. Safety continues to be our top priority, and I am pleased to report that we recorded no lost time injuries in Q1, extending our LTI-free period to more than 12 months. This milestone reflects the team's ongoing focus and commitment to maintaining a strong safety culture across the operation.

Turning to production. The Asanko Gold Mine reached an important milestone during the quarter, marking its 10th year of continuous operations. Over that period, the mine has produced more than 1.9 million ounces of gold or just over 190,000 ounces per year on average. In Q1, we produced 34,500 ounces of gold, slightly above the midpoint of our first half forecast. Our full year production guidance remains unchanged at between 140,000 and 160,000 ounces.

During the quarter, we executed a 4-year extension to our mining contract, Rabotec, who have been actively mining at Esaase and at Abore since 2024. This strengthens an existing relationship with a highly qualified domestic service provider and highlights our commitment to local content requirements in Ghana. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we ended the quarter with $115 million in cash despite increased stripping activities at Nkran and an impact of higher royalties.

Including the $75 million revolving credit facility added in Q4, total liquidity now stands at approximately $190 million, positioning the company well moving forward. Exploration activities also progressed well during the quarter with the team advancing work streams focused on expanding mineral reserves at Esaase and growing underground mineral resources at Abore.

With that, I'll now pass it over to Mick to discuss production in more detail.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Starting with safety, our improvement from last quarter continued into 2026. We recorded no lost time injuries and no recordable injuries, and I'm pleased to report that at the end of March, we reached 12 months lost time injury free. That milestone brought our lost time injury frequency rate down to 0 and our total recordable injury frequency rate to 0.11 per million hours worked.

Turning to mining. Esaase ramped up production in Q1 as planned. And together with Abore, we increased total tonnes mined by 9%. Mill feed in 2026 is planned from these 2 pits, Abore and Esaase and ore tonnes mined increased 6% compared to the previous quarter. As the year progresses, strip ratios, especially at Abore are forecast to decrease. That gives us access to more ore and allows us to preferentially feed high-grade material to the mill, supporting higher gold production in the second half of 2026. At Nkran, Cut 3 stripping continued. Volumes mined increased modestly by 8% in the quarter, and we expect material movement to build through the year as additional equipment is mobilized to site.

Now if we move to the next slide, I'll walk you through our processing performance for the quarter. Overall, the year has started well. In Q1, we completed a substantial planned maintenance program, including relines for both mills and replacement of the primary crusher pitman. As a result, tonnes treated were lower, but as expected. Importantly, with the circuit optimizations we've implemented, throughput is now performing in line with expectations. Grades and recovery met plan or were better during the quarter. That translated into gold production of 34,747 ounces and sales of just over 34,000 ounces.

We are well positioned to achieve the upper end of our previously communicated production range of 60,000 to 70,000 ounces for the first half of the year, and we remain on track to meet our full year guidance. So in summary, both mining and processing areas are performing as expected, and we're tracking well against our 2026 guidance.

I will now hand over to Matt Freeman to discuss the Q1 financial results.

Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. As Michael outlined, we're pleased with the first quarter delivered in line with our plan. The continued strong gold price environment enabled us to generate record revenues of $166 million and cash flows from operations of $47 million. Our headline earnings numbers continue to be impacted by the losses on the hedges, but we now have only about 45,000 ounces left to settle. And as production ramps up, these ounces will present a lower percentage of production, allowing us to more fully participate in gold prices going forward. Adjusting for the unrealized losses on hedges to be settled in the future, we recognized adjusted net income of $0.11 per share. From a treasury perspective, the balance sheet remains very healthy with approximately $115 million in cash and the $75 million credit facility remains undrawn.

This Slide 9 illustrates our operating costs remain consistent period-on-period and have generally been well controlled by the site. As Matt mentioned, we're pleased to sign the extension to our mining contract with Rabotec in April, which provides some cost certainty over the next 4 years, while we're being able to ensure strict compliance with local content requirements in the country. We have seen some inflation in recent months following the situation in the Middle East, notably on diesel. From the general assumption that this will be short term in nature, we're not expecting material impact on the overall cost structure of the mine in 2026. Thus far, we've also not experienced any supply issues for consumables needed to operate the mine.

CapEx remains focused on critical projects such as the tailings dam raise. We're also starting to invest in some of the village relocations that are required. So we expect growth capital to increase through the year in line with guidance. With respect to our AISC guidance, we are in line with where we expected to be. Back in February, we guided AISC for 2026 as being between $2,000 and $2,300 per ounce, but noted that should the Ghanian government implement the new royalty regime, it could add an additional $375 to the cost structure.

As I think everyone is aware, the new sliding scale royalty regime was enacted in March. Where we sit currently with prices, the royalty rate is 12%. We were pleased, however, that the government did provide a margin offset by reducing the growth in sustainability levy from 3% to 1%. Now we have certainty over the legislation, we have clarified the expectations, reiterating guidance to between $2,300 and $2,600 per ounce, fundamentally no change to what we previously outlined.

The chart on Slide 10 clearly demonstrates the increasing royalty burden we have seen over the past 5 quarters as a result of the significant increase in gold prices. And then in Q1 '26 where we started to recognize the impact of the new regime. But it also demonstrates that the unit costs we can control have been consistently maintained and very much levered to production such that as production improves over the next several quarters, we expect this to reduce. We're pleased that our cash balance has grown to $115 million with AISC margin growing to $1,760 per ounce.

As we look forward, the end of this year marks a real inflection point in cash generation. 2027 and beyond should see another ramp-up in production and will be part of the current hedge program, and therefore, fully exposed to the price of gold. The company expects to generate significant cash flows to shareholders from this point going forward.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Chris to run through the excellent exploration results we saw in Q1.

Thanks, Matt. The year got off to a fast start for us in exploration. We started the 2026 Abore step-out and infill drilling program in the first week of January in order to maintain resource expansion momentum on the back of a very successful 2025 campaign and the release of the maiden underground resource at the end of January. Drilling has progressed well with 11,570 of a planned 30,000 meters completed in the quarter with another 3,000 meters completed in April as discussed in the company's press release issued earlier this week. Some of the headline results are shown here at the bottom of Slide 12, and I'll discuss these further in a few minutes.

The Esaase resource conversion drilling program was brought forward in the exploration schedule and was kicked off in the first week of February. This program is a critical pillar in the Galiano organic growth strategy. And on the back of initial positive results from the first 2,500 meters drilled in Q1, we have significantly increased the program to its full scope and budget in order to aggressively grow the open pit reserve base ahead of the 2027 MRMR update. With the support of senior leadership and the Board of Directors, the 2026 exploration budget has been increased from $17 million to $25 million.

Esaase is the AGM's largest deposit with over 1.7 million ounces of inferred and indicated resource and a reserve of 532,000 ounces, and through an aggressive campaign to maximize near-term reserve growth will underpin Galiano's strategic organic growth plan for the AGM. Because of the amount and density of historic drilling below the current reserve shell, Esaase is uniquely positioned to quickly leverage elevated gold prices and deliver significant near-term value to the company. Multiple pit optimization studies have been completed using this data across a range of gold prices. These have demonstrated that the deposit is highly sensitive to higher gold prices and that the reserve can grow substantially while maintaining strip ratios in line with the current reserve pit.

As shown here on Slide 13, a long section through Esaase shows the potential impact that successful conversion of inferred resources can have on the reserve shell at gold prices up to $3,000. The amount of historic drilling also means that we expect to see very high conversion rates from this program as a large portion of the inferred resource is spatially bound by indicated material. I'll show an example of this in a moment. As I mentioned on the last slide, drilling is underway at Esaase at the beginning of February with 2,500 meters of the first phase of the program completed in Q1. On the back of positive results from this initial drilling, the program has now been expanded to its full scope of 33,400 meters. Production has accelerated at site, and we now have 5 drill rigs active at Esaase.

On this Slide 14, we're showing an example of a cross-sectional view of a conversion drilling target zone in the central portion of Esaase main pit, where inferred resources shown in red are spatially bound above and below by indicated resources shown in green. In areas such as this, we have high confidence in the model and our ability to convert a high percentage of these inferred ounces to indicated with a small amount of new drilling. This section also shows the impact converting these ounces can have in terms of the scope of potential pit expansions at higher gold prices.

Increasing the open pit reserve at Esaase will not only provide near-term value by unlocking quality ounces and tonnage that are currently undervalued, but is also a critical first pillar that will underpin Galiano's long-term vision for a transformational life of mine plan that includes a future transition to underground mining. An expanded Esaase has the potential to be large enough to supply quality open pit tonnes to co-feed with higher-grade underground material from Abore and/or Nkran well beyond the current life of mine. To that end, while we are growing the Esaase open pit reserve, we are aggressively working to expand the underground resource at Abore, which I'll discuss in the next couple of slides.

At Abore, we continue to be excited about the results we are seeing as we have now completed approximately half of the planned 30,000 meters of drilling for 2026. The maiden underground resource released by the company in Q1 provides a baseline from which we are now focused on growing the underground opportunity at Abore. Q1 drilling was focused on infilling areas adjacent to but outside the current mineral resource, while also continuing to step out at depth to expand the known extent of the Abore mineralizing system.

The image here on Slide 15 outlines the primary areas of drilling so far this year and where results to date are likely to drive resource growth. Current step-out drilling has intersected mineralization up to 180 meters below the existing underground mineral resource, while infill drilling has significantly improved continuity across key mineralized zones that also sit outside the resource. Drilling below the main and south pit areas continues to confirm robust extensions of mineralization, both down plunge and along strike of existing ore zones and a new high-grade zone has been identified under the northern end of Abore main pit, which is open along strike and at depth, representing a compelling new target area for follow-up drilling throughout 2026. A more detailed discussion of these results are available in the company's press release issued on Monday of this week.

Continued drilling success at Abore provides increasing confidence in the ability of the underground resource to become a key pillar of an expanded life of mine in conjunction with reserve growth at Esaase. In order to most efficiently delineate an eventual underground mineral reserve and test deeper targets, the company is progressing the early stages of permitting and underground exploration at Abore. Permit applications have now been submitted to the relevant regulatory bodies in Ghana and dependent on both external and internal approvals, our goal is to begin construction of the Portland Drive in 2027.

And with that, I'll hand it back to Matt.

Thanks, Chris. In closing, I'd like to highlight the position of strength the company is operating from today and the deliberate steps we are taking in 2026 to drive additional shareholder value. Firstly, I'm pleased with another solid operational quarter and encouraged by the momentum we are building, keeping us on track to meet our full year guidance. As production levels continue to improve, hedges roll off and the deferred payment is settled in December, we expect a meaningful cash flow inflection beginning in January 2027.

Secondly, as Chris outlined, the reserve expansion potential at Esaase is meaningful. The company has committed the required capital to execute the drilling program, positioning us to deliver a reserve update in early 2027. We believe these results have the potential to extend mine life well beyond the current 8 years. Lastly, drilling at Abore continues to return encouraging results and support resource growth. In parallel, we are advancing permitting efforts for an underground adit to test mineralization continuity at depth, which represents additional upside.

With these near-term catalysts in mind, a brief comment on valuation. As shown in this image, when comparing our African peers on an enterprise value versus mineral reserve ounce basis, Galiano trades at a discount despite operating in one of Africa's premier mining jurisdictions. When we layer in the reserve growth potential discussed today, this valuation disconnect becomes even more compelling. Benefiting from being highly leveraged to gold price, a visible near-term cash flow inflection point and a clear line of sight to expanding mine life, Galiano is well positioned to deliver meaningful shareholder value in the near term.

With that, I'll hand it back to the operator and open the call up for any questions. Thanks.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Heiko Ihle of H.C. Wainwright.

I assume you guys can hear me all right. I'm traveling. So there's a little bit of background noise, my apologies.

Yes, we can hear you, Heiko. No problem. Go ahead.

Excellent. Cut 3 at Nkran, I mean, obviously, almost 5 million tonnes of waste, big, big operation. You mentioned that there is additional mining equipment that's coming. I mean we're halfway through Q2 tomorrow. What kind of equipment has already shown up? What else is coming? And will you just maybe give a bit of an overview on what you see with efficiency gains at site given that this thing is getting bigger and bigger?

Heiko, it's Michael here. Thanks for the question. Of course, -- we had a third fleet arrived in April, which was obviously after the end of Q1. So additional PC2000 and 6 777s have been delivered to site. We still expect 2 additional fleets sometime this year. So we're expecting significant ramp-up. We'll see ramp-up, obviously, from the third fleet that arrived in April in Q2 and then Q3 and Q4, we'll see subsequent increase in production along with -- along the lines of our expectations for the budget.

That's helpful. Again, as I mentioned, we're going to be halfway through Q2 tomorrow. And building on that last question a little bit, anything at site that should surprise us, or even better phrase, anything that has surprised you in the last 45 days that may or may not be incorporated in our models quite yet?

No, Heiko. I mean, obviously, production certainly over the last few quarters has delivered to expectations. And as Mick just pointed out, the strip at Nkran, which is critical for us to deliver high-grade ore in late 2028 is going to ramp up during the quarter as well. I mean, obviously, I spoke a little bit about the royalties, and that was kind of forecast to potentially occur in our previous disclosures as well throughout the quarter, and we've kind of updated the market on that one. Maybe there's -- obviously, the diesel price situation at the moment is something that's affecting everyone globally. We're pleased that supply in Ghana at this point in time hasn't been negatively impacted on that front.

With regards to costs, I mean, we're probably paying upwards of about $1.90 at the moment in terms of diesel costs at the moment. But again, hoping that in due course, that will come down. And the costs that we are currently paying have been reflected in our cash cost guidance update as well. So there shouldn't be any surprises from the diesel front with respect to costs.

Got it. And then just one quick clarification on the press release, you said there was 4 rigs operational at the end of Q1 '26. Did I hear you guys correctly that you guys have 5 rigs operational right now, so one was added between the end of the quarter and today?

Yes. Heiko, it's Chris. Yes, that's right. So when -- at the end of Q1, we had 4 rigs at Esaase and we actually had 3 operating at Abore, and we've since moved one of those rigs from Abore to Esaase. So we have 5 running at Esaase and 2 at Abore.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference back over to Matt Badylak for closing remarks.

Thanks again to everyone who dialed in today and your continued interest at Galiano, and we look forward to updating you on our progress in subsequent quarters. Thank you.

This concludes your conference call. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Galiano Gold Full Year 2025 Results Release Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].

This call is being recorded on Friday, February 13, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Badylak, President and CEO of Galiano Gold. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking time to join us on the call today to review Galiano Gold's Fourth Quarter 2025 results that we released yesterday after market close.

We will be making forward-looking statements and referring to non-IFRS measures during the call. Please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosures in our most recent MD&A as well as this slide of the webcast presentation. Yesterday's release details our fourth quarter 2025 financial operating results. They should be read in conjunction with our fourth quarter financial statements and MD&A available on our website and filed on SEDAR+ and EDGAR. Please also bear in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned on the conference call today are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

With me on the call today, I have Michael Cardinaels, our Chief Operating Officer; Matt Freeman, our Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Pettman, our Vice President of Exploration.

This presentation, I'll initially provide a brief overview of the quarter. Mike will discuss operations and touch on our updated mineral reserve and resource statement, Matt will discuss the financials, and then Chris will review the recent exploration success his team has had at the AGM. I'll then provide some closing remarks and open the call for Q&A.

Here on Slide 5, we can see the team continue to build momentum during the fourth quarter towards an improved operational outlook in 2026. Let me walk you through some highlights on this slide. Safety remains our top priority, and I'm proud to report that, again, no lost time injuries were reported for Q4, maintaining a strong safety record and demonstrating our unwavering commitment to our workforce.

Turning to production. We produced 37,500 ounces of gold in Q4, up 15% from the 32,000 ounces produced in Q3. As you can see from the chart, this marks the fourth consecutive quarter of improved gold production at the AGM with Q4 production 80% higher than Q1 and full year production totaling 121,000 ounces, in line with our revised production guidance. Importantly, mill feed growth improved quarter-over-quarter and throughput in December exceeded the targeted 5.8 million tonne per annum run rate.

From a financial perspective, cost control remains robust on site with all-in sustaining cash costs reducing quarter-on-quarter to $2,033 per ounce and ending the year in line with the guidance range. Revenue came in at a record $160 million, up 40% quarter-over-quarter from $114 million. This was driven by higher production and improved gold prices. Our balance sheet remains solid with cash balance remaining stable despite increasing our rate of spend on stripping at Nkran and making a $25 million deferred payment Gold Fields. During the quarter, we also established a $75 million revolving credit facility providing us with further financial flexibility to continue to invest in our operations, particularly as we advise stripping at Nkran and invest heavily in exploration activities in 2026.

The inclusion of a Maiden Underground mineral resource reshapes the future potential resource growth at the asset. We have planned an aggressive exploration program for 2026, targeting the expansion of these underground resources and reserve growth at Esaase through conversion drilling of inferred ounces. The momentum we have built throughout the year positions us strongly to meet our production guidance target of between 140,000 to 160,000 ounces this year, which is a 25% increase from 2025 levels. Mick will provide more color on this later. And with that, I'll hand it back -- I'll hand it over to Mick to discuss operations in more detail.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Turning with safety. The previous quarter's improvement continued without any lost time or recordable injuries in Q4. We finished the year with a lost time injury frequency rate of 0.24 and a total recordable injury frequency rate from 0.48, both per million hours worked.

In terms of mining and production, Esaase mining restarted in the early November and is currently ramping back up production in Q1 2026. Late wet season rains had a slight impact on mining movement but the necessary switch to concentrate on production from Abore in 2025, provided positive movements in terms of mined ore tonnes and the average grade of ore mine increased 9% compared with the previous quarter.

Nkran pre-stripping continued ahead of buying with 23% more material moves compared with Q3 including some small quantities of oxide ore, which are being identified during the mining process and opportunistically blended with Abore fresh ore to supplement the plant feed.

An additional excavated fleet is expected to be operational before the end of Q1 2026 to continue the expansion of Cut 3. We plan to mine in excess of 30 million tonnes this year, which is 3x the movement of 2025 for an approximate spend of between $100 million and $120 million of development capital. This maintains a Nkran Cut 3 is scheduled to deliver steady state ore production from early 2021.

On Slide 8, we can see the processing performance. Ongoing modifications in the circuit to fully optimize the performance after the commissioning of the secondary crusher continued in Q4 and yielded further positive results. Milling rates increased approximately 7% compared to Q3 with December production achieving an annualized rate at the target 5.8 million tonnes per annum. Mill feed grade also improved approximately 9% compared to Q3, with an average of 1 gram per tonne for the quarter. The increased grade and feed plant also had a positive impact on plant recovery with Q4 achieving an average of just about 91%.

The increased grade, throughput and recovery all culminated in an increase in gold production for Q4, up 15% versus Q3's production of 32,500 ounces to 37,500 ounces. We finished the year producing just over 121,000 ounces, which was in line with our revised forecast. Overall, you can see a production increase for each of the last 4 quarters, showing a strong positive trend of performance across all of our metrics.

On Slide 9, we are providing information on the guidance. Looking forward to 2026, we once again expect the majority of all supplier to come from the Abore pit, where we have made modifications to our reserve pit design to take advantage of higher gold prices. This will result in a slightly slower ramp up of gold production in 2026, but enables us to further increase the recovery of our resource.

Ratings will continue to increase with depth in Abore as we've seen in the last quarter of 2025. Production will be somewhat weighted towards the latter half of the year and continue into 2027 as we recover the higher-grade material at depth. We expect a range of between 60,000 to 70,000 ounces in the first half of the year and 80,000 to 90,000 ounces in the second half of the year. We are providing production guidance for the full year in the range of 140,000 to 160,000 ounces at an all-in sustained cost of between $2,000 and $2,300 per ounce.

I will now hand over to Matt Freeman to discuss Q4 financial results.

Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. As Michael has outlined in the fourth quarter was the strongest operation in 2025 and assisted by the very strong price of gold, we generated record revenues of $160 million and generated cash flows from operations of $56 million. Our headline earnings numbers continue to be impacted by the losses on hedges, but we now have only 60,000 ounces left to settle, which represents a lower percentage production in '26, therefore, allows us to more fully participate in the price of gold going forward.

Adjusting the unrealized losses on hedges to be settled in 2026, we recognized adjusted net income of $0.15 per share. From a treasury perspective, the balance sheet remains very healthy with over $100 million in cash even after paying the first deferred payment to Gold Fields. Additionally, we're pleased to close a $75 million credit facility, which remains undrawn but will provide us with additional liquidity should the need arise.

This Slide 11 illustrates that our operating costs remain consistent period-on-period and has generally been well controlled by the site. In particular, you can see processing costs have consistently fallen in a unit basis through 2025 as the throughput has improved. CapEx remains focused on critical projects such as the tailings dam raise.

AISC, as expected, fell significantly compared to the previous preceding quarters in 2025. This is primarily due to the higher production levels that demonstrate to leverage our margins up to high production. We've guided AISC for 2026 to between $2,000 and $2,300 per ounce that period, much of the elevation compared with Q4 2025 due to the growing royalty burden with the consistently high gold prices being forecast in '26. Ultimately, this is good for the business, but it does increase AISC in a manner which is beyond our control.

The chart demonstrate the increasing royalty burden we've seen through 2025 as a result of a significant increase in gold prices, but it also demonstrates the unit cost we can control and continue to fall as production improves. As many of you know, a new royalty regime has been proposed by the Ghanian government. So we'll assess that impact on AISC if it finally becomes enacted.

As noted in my opening remarks, we have been able to maintain a strong cash position at around $100 million. We're very happy with this given -- we've now settled the first deferred payment to Gold Fields, continue to ramp up stripping activity at Nkran having invested approximately $35 million in 2025 and have made our first annual income tax payments in Ghana.

As we look forward, we do expect 2026 to be another year of investment in the mine with further acceleration of stripping at Nkran and the final deferred payment to Gold Fields. From this year, it's a real inflection point because the 2027, we'll be past the fixed payment of Gold Fields and fully exposed to the gold price. This means even assuming the new royalty regime comes into play as proposed where there's a significant reversion in gold prices, the company will be well positioned to generate significant cash flows for shareholders.

And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Mick to run through our updated mineral reserve and resource statements.

Slide 14. The key highlights for this year is the declaration of our Maiden Underground resource. Resources for Nkran and Abore have been limited to the current reserve pit shells to allow us to target higher-value underground ounces in our underground maiden resource definition. As we look to the future for both pits transitioning to underground operations. Chris will outline the potential for reserve expansion that we see at Esaase over the next 12 months. In the table shown is a summary of our MRMR as at December 31, 2025. For detailed tables, please refer to the appendices and the recent news releases.

Here on Slide 15. This section through the Nkran deposit shows the current reserve shell and the newly defined underground resource stopes. As you can see, we have a strong correlation between drilling density and stope generation, which gives us a great deal of confidence that this resource will likely expand with additional drilling.

On Slide 16, we show a comparable long-section view for the Abore deposit. And again, it shows a similar story that stopes are able to be generated where we have drilling data. And because like Nkran, these mineralized systems are open in multiple directions. There is a likelihood that additional drilling will also yield additional underground resources here at Abore.

And with that, I will turn the call over to Chris to outline the recent exploration successes at the mine and future exploration finance.

Thanks, Michael. Q4 was another busy quarter in exploration as we ended the year making a concerted effort to maximize the amount of infill and step-out drilling at Abore completed by the end of December in order for results to be included in the Maiden Underground resource outlined by Michael. I'm very pleased with the team's ability to safely and cost effectively deliver an additional 10,950 meters of Abore in partnership with our drilling contractors in Q4.

As we've discussed in prior quarters, drilling results in Abore were excellent in 2025, leading to the expansion of the program to include a total of over 33,000 meters by the end of the year. Q4 drilling continues to deliver excellent results, including expanding the high-grade zones at Abore Main, Abore North, further proven continuity of high-grade mineralization of Abore South and expanding the footprint of mineralization up to 200 meters below previous drilling as outlined in our January 22 press release. Some of the highlights of intercepts of this drilling are shown here on Slide 17.

Slide 18 shows a gram-meter long section of Abore with Q4 drilling locations and intercepts along with areas where high-grade mineralization has been expanded and continuity improved at Abore South, Main and North pits. This image also shows the location of 4 step-out holes drilled between 100 and 200 meters below existing drilling. These holes were designed to test for continuations of the Abore granite and further high-grade mineralization. All 4 successfully intercepted mineralized Abore granite showing once again that the Abore system has significant growth potential.

Particularly encouraging is Hole 448, which intercepted 87 meters of granite containing 3 zones of mineralization at grades of 2.5, 3 and 3.4 grams a tonne over 27, 11 and 15 meters, respectively, in an area that is 200 meters below Esaase drilling and open in all directions. That Hole 448 is shown in cross-section here on Slide 19, along with Hole 444 which intercepted a wide high-grade zone consisting of 30 meters at 4.4 grams a tonne and 18 meters of 2 grams a tonne immediately below the previous open-pit resource. This is a really good example of the room we have to grow the mineral resource in 2026, while we have confidence in Abore of the driver of future value at the AGM.

Exploration work in 2026 will focus on continuing to build on momentum generated by the success of the 2025 program. With an initial budget of $17 million, work will focus on the 3 primary growth objectives as we look to support a potentially transformational life of mine update in 2027. We see significant opportunities to grow the underground resources and reserves at Abore where we're planning for a minimum of 30,000 meters of drilling in 2026.

At Esaase, we will be focused on growing the open-pit reserves and higher gold prices with up to 35,000 meters of conversion drilling. We will also continue to advance our portfolio of greenfield targets where our focus will remain on early-stage work and drill testing of targets in the Nsoroma area located approximately 6 kilometers southwest of Nkran. First pass drilling in 2025 confirmed the extension of the Nkran shear through this area, along with favorable host rocks, quartz veining and alteration patterns, and we remain enthusiastic with the potential discovery of new open pit resource in this area.

At Abore, we will continue to aggressively test for continuations of mineralization through step-out and infill drilling designed to increase the underground mineral resource while also conducting targeted conversion drilling to increase the indicated resource available for inclusion in a potential Maiden Underground reserves in 2027.

Slide 21 here shows a long section through Abore with the locations of Q4 drilling and the new underground resource showing all grades greater than 2 grams a tonne. High priority targets for '26 are shown by these yellow stars. As part of our short to medium-term exploration strategy, we will also be working in conjunction with the mining team to advance the necessary studies and workflows for potential development of an underground portal and exploration drilling at it, that will be used to conduct future underground delineation drilling and deeper exploration target testing.

Due to the density of existing drilling below the current mineral reserve for Esaase, we are uniquely positioned to realize immediate reserve growth at higher gold prices without additional drilling, allowing us to add value to the AGM quickly in the current gold price environment.

In order to maximize that value, exploration will be returning to Esaase in 2026 with a campaign of conversion drilling designed to convert additional inferred resources to indicated category at a gold price of $2,500 ahead of the 2027 of MRMR and LOM.

Here on Slide 22, we're showing the cross-section through Esaase with an example of a target area for conversion drilling in 2026 and is indicative of our targets across the entire deposit where drill density limits the extent of the indicated resource. Our 2026 program is well underway with rigs active at both Abore and Esaase, and we anticipate 2026 will be even busier than 2025 for our exploration team. But we are well resourced and well positioned to deliver significant value to the AGM to resource reserve growth this year. Back to you, Matt.

Thank you, Chris. In closing, I'd like to reiterate that -- I would like to reiterate that the positive momentum built through 2025 places us in good steps to realize meaningful production growth in 2026 and to execute our medium- and long-term organic growth plans. Our steadily growing production profile, execution of the final deferred payment to Gold Fields and expiry of hedges late this year, resulting in a near-term inflection point in cash flow generation, which should subsequently drive shareholder value.

Beyond this, we have developed a robust exploration strategy and clearly understand where further expansion of mineral reserves and resources will come from. I'm excited about the potential for mine life extension beyond the 8 years as we look to include underground mining and target expansion of open pit reserves. Our strong cash balance access to the revolving credit facility allows us to aggressively invest in exploration while comfortably funding waste stripping activities at Nkran.

Also, a reminder that Galiano has highly leveraged the gold price and remains Ghana's largest single-asset gold producer, with production increasing by approximately 25% in 2026, line of sight to reserve expansion and high gold and record gold prices, the potential for value creation for our shareholders remains high.

With that, I'd like to turn it back to the operator, and open up for questions.

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from Vitaly Kononov with Freedom Brokers.

Yes. I have several questions for the production heavily weighted towards the second half of 2026, whether the key execution risk we should monitor and how confident are you achieving the ramp up profile?

Well, I think the key risks that we see obviously is we're aware of the fact that throughput has an important role to play here. And we're really pleased in terms of the way that the crusher has ramped up over the second half of 2025 and are comfortable that crushing circuit will help deliver nameplate production in the range of 5.8 million tonnes per annum.

The other thing, I think that we -- Mick touched on here is the fact that we are expecting grades to increase steadily as we continue to mine through lower elevations of Abore. And those 2 factors will be driving that production higher in 2026, and as we said, slightly weighted to the tail end of the year as well.

Thank you. Well, given the downward revision to the guidance that was provided earlier in 2025, it was lower down. How does that impact your 5-year outlook from now on?

Well, we expect to, as I said, have a slightly lower production profile than 2026, but we expect to ramp up further in 2027, more in line with previous guidance in terms of production levels.

Just the last one. Following the Maiden Underground resources at Abore and Nkran, what should we expect initial -- when should we expect the initial economic studies published for those mines?

We'll be working on, as Chris mentioned, additional drilling to supplement the underground resource that was just released, and we will be working through the studies this year with the aim of having something available in 2027.

So that will be early -- well, released with the annual results of the next year, right?

That's correct. That's the plan this point in time, depending on the...

[Operator Instructions]. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to management for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you for everyone who dialed in and took questions or asked questions. Thank you for your time today. I wish you a happy Friday and a good weekend. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating in ask that you please disconnect your lines.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Galiano Gold, Inc. Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded on Friday, November 7, 2025.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Badylak, President and CEO of Galiano Gold. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking time to join us on the call today to review Galiano Gold's third quarter results that we released yesterday after market close. On Slide 2, we'll be making forward-looking statements and referring to non-IFRS measures during the call. Please refer to the cautionary notes and risk disclosures in our most recent MD&A as well as this slide of the webcast presentation. Yesterday's release details our third quarter financial and operating results. They should be read in conjunction with our third quarter financial statements and MD&A available on our website and filed on SEDAR+ and EDGAR. Also, please bear in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned in the conference call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

On Slide 4, with me on the call today, I have Michael Cardinaels, our Chief Operating Officer; Matt Freeman, our Chief Financial Officer; and Chris Pettman, our Vice President, Exploration. For this presentation, I will initially provide a brief overview of the quarter, Michael will give an operations update. Matt will discuss the financials, and then Chris will review the ongoing exploration success his team is having at Abore. I'll then provide some closing remarks and open the call for Q&A.

Here on Slide 5, we can see the team continued the momentum during the third quarter towards an improved overall operational outlook. Let me walk you through the highlights on this slide. Safety remains a top priority. I am proud to report that, again, no lost time injuries were reported for Q3, maintaining a strong safety record and demonstrating our unwavering commitment to our workforce. Turning to production. We produced just over 32,000 ounces of gold in Q3, up 7% from 30,000 ounces produced in Q2. This increase was driven by higher grades and increased throughput quarter-on-quarter following the commissioning of the secondary crusher in late July.

From a financial perspective, Revenue came in at $114 million, up 17% quarter-over-quarter from $97 million. This was driven by higher production and improved gold prices. Our balance sheet remains solid. We ended the quarter with $116 million in cash and cash equivalents, a slight improvement on Q2 despite stripping at Nkran increasing during the period. This strong cash position provides us with the financial flexibility to continue to invest in our operations, particularly as we accelerate stripping at Nkran in 2026. Exploration remains a key focus area. At Abore, we drilled just over 11,000 meters during the third quarter focused on infill and step-out drilling around the high-grade zones identified earlier this year.

Moving to Slide 6, please. Here on this slide, I'll provide a few words about the events that occurred at Esaase during the quarter. As previously disclosed, on September 9, an incident occurred when a group of illegal miners attacked military camp, housing members of the Ghana Armed Forces and damaging our contractors' mining equipment at the Esaase deposit. Regrettably, the incident also resulted in the death of a community member. Due to the scale of damage sustained to the fleet, mining operations at Esaase were paused. However, haulage from low-grade stockpiles resumed shortly after the incident. Since early September, we have worked closely with our mining contractor to remobilize the fleet to Esaase. This process continued into early November, and I'm pleased to report that mining operations at Esaase now recommenced and will continue to ramp up over the balance of the year.

With that, I'll turn it over to Michael and Matt to discuss production and financial performance in more details in the coming slides. Over to you, Michael, and Slide 7, please.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. As Matt just highlighted, we continue to see an upward trend in performance during the third quarter of the year. We had a significant increase in personnel hours worked on site during Q3 with the ramp-up of Nkran mining staff and contractors involved in the secondary crusher project and the TSF Stage 8 construction. Our safety statistics continue to improve, with over 4.2 million man hours worked since the last lost time injury. On a 12-month rolling basis, our lost time injury and total recordable injury frequency rates up 0.39 and 0.9, respectively per million hours worked at the end of September.

In terms of mining production, Esaase mining was impacted by the incident mentioned earlier by Matt. But production from Abore increased significantly, including a 57% increase in ore mined compared to the previous quarter. As Abore development has progressed with increasing depth and the pit is opened up to a steady state. We now have a better understanding of the ore body and our ability to recover the resource. We find ourselves mining more ore tonnes at lower grade, resulting in approximately the same number of ounces. And Abore currently provides the majority of the mill feed and will continue to do so for the balance of the year. Despite the Esaase mining interruption, production from both Abore and Nkran pits increased, and the total material mined increased 26% in Q3 compared with Q2.

On to Slide 8, please. As you can see from the images on this slide, Cut 3 of Nkran pit is progressing well, including the development to support infrastructure in the form of an overhead power line extension and relocation and the drilling of additional deepwatering bars around the perimeter of the pit. Nkran stripping also increased 111% compared to Q2, primarily as a result of an additional excavator being mobilized to site as part of our ramp-up plan. Development capital costs for pre-stripping at Nkran totaled $12 million in Q3 and $22.1 million year-to-date. The contractor is on track to deliver additional equipment in Q4 2025 and the remainder of the planned fleet to ramp up to full capacity in 2026, putting us in good stead to continue stripping as per our schedule with steady-state ore production still due in the early 2029.

On to Slide 9, please. On the processing performance, with the successful commissioning of the secondary crusher circuit at the end of July, we saw an increase in the plant performance for Q3. Milling rates since commissioning of the secondary crusher have increased approximately 13% compared to Q2. There remains some modifications in the circuit to fully optimize the performance, and as such, we expect to see further increases in production in Q4. Mill feed grade also improved compared to Q2 as we are getting deeper into the Abore pit and have access to better grade at depth, which in turn helped increase the recovery.

On the back of the improved plant throughput and grade, we increased gold production to 32,533 ounces for the quarter compared to just over 30,000 ounces in Q2. The incident and subsequent interruption at Esaase have unfortunately had an impact on our plan for 2025. Despite having now restarted mining in Esaase, we will continue to see an impact as we ramp back up production over the balance of the quarter. Our forecast takes this into consideration, along with our improved understanding of the Abore deposit and the recent performance of the plant following the commissioning of the secondary crushing circuit. We estimate a revised production guidance of between 120,000 and 125,000 ounces for the year.

And with that, I would like to turn over to Matt Freeman to discuss the company's financial results.

Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. Here on Slide 10, we've outlined some of the key financial metrics for the quarter. We recognized revenues of $114 million, at a record average price of just over $3,500 per ounce for the impact of hedges. We earned income from mine operations of $48.2 million, while net earnings continue to be negatively affected by the fair value adjustments to our hedge book, following the continued run-up in gold prices such that we recorded a net loss before taxes of $5 million. This quarter, we also recognized a tax expense for the first time now that we have exhausted previous tax losses and a forecast to be taxable this year. Indeed, we've already paid $12 million in tax installments to the Ghanaian government.

We generated $40 million of cash flows from operations in the quarter and ended the period with a strong cash balance of approximately $116 million. This included, as mentioned before, payments of additional $6 million in income taxes. In addition, as previously advised, given these strong operating cash flows, we have continued to allocate capital to accelerating the waste to the Nkran, incurring $12 million in the quarter as Michael noted, we expect the Nkran mining volumes ramp up further as more equipment is mobilized.

All-in sustaining costs were consistent with the second quarter at $2,283 per ounce, we expect AISC to start to reduce in Q4 as production volumes increase compared with Q3. Despite our expectation that all-in sustaining costs will be lower in Q4 than Q3, given the overall shortfall in production ounces that Michael mentioned, we have increased our all-in sustaining cost guidance for the year to between $2,200 million and $2,300 per ounce. And this includes all the impacts of the royalties under the higher gold prices that we previously mentioned.

On to Slide 11. Despite the headline increase in AISC that really is primarily production-driven. We continue to focus on the cost structure of the mine and are pleased that fixed operating costs such as processing and G&A in aggregate remain consistent with previous quarters. Of note, pricing costs per tonne have continued to reduce quarter-on-quarter, seeing a 13% decline in unit costs since Q1, and we expect further decreases on a unit basis as the full impact of the secondary crusher is realized in the fourth quarter.

Mining costs at our producing deposits, namely Abore and Esaase declined on a per tonne mined basis by approximately 8% as mining volumes increased. Additionally, Nkran mining costs are also subject to a fixed unit mining contract, and we expect to see those unit costs continue to decrease as volumes increase over the next 12 months as management costs, which affects a shared over more tonnes. We also remain disciplined with capital allocation with regards to capital. The largest project ongoing currently is the Raise 8 at the tailings facility, which is expected to be completed in 2026.

So overall, costs are being well managed, and we should see an improvement in unit rates as the year progresses. Now that the secondary crusher is online, and we expect to produce more tonnes and subsequently produce more ounces. This will generate higher operating margins and cash flows for the business.

On to the next slide, please. Our cash margins have improved with the run-up in gold prices, which has meant that despite investments in the development capital for the secondary crusher project and stripping Nkran, we continue to maintain a very strong balance sheet with approximately $116 million of cash and no debt. We're also pleased to have progressed discussions to implement a $75 million revolving credit facility to further enhance the balance sheet to be earmarked for general working capital.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Chris to discuss the exploration progress we've seen at Abore.

Thanks, Matt. Q3 was another excellent quarter for us in exploration and was highlighted by exceptional results from drilling at Abore. Our press release dated August 20 detailed the first results from the Abore Phase 2 drilling program, which commenced in Q2 and led to the discovery of multiple new high-grade ore shoots across the Abore South and main zones as well as a significant new high-grade discovery at the northern end of the deposit. Some of the highlighted intercepts from this stage of drilling are shown here on Slide 13.

Following these results, drilling at Abore remained the focus of exploration activities at the AGM through Q3 as we began infill drilling to prove continuity of these new high-grade zones while also continuing to test for further extensions of mineralization below the mineral resource. Drilling activity was ramped up through the quarter from a total of 5,040 meters drilled at Abore in Q2 to an additional 11,554 meters drilled in Q3. Based on the continued success of Abore drilling, the program has been further expanded with an additional 10,000 meters now planned for completion by the end of this year. This drilling is currently underway and the next round of results is expected to be released shortly.

In addition to our work at Abore, we continue to advance our regional greenfield portfolio targets through the quarter. Most notably, the ground IP survey at the Nsoroma target area, which is located approximately 8 kilometers southwest of the processing plant was completed on schedule in Q3. The survey was successful in identifying chargeability and resistivity targets coincident with previously identified gold and soil anomalies along the interpreted extension of the Nkran shear zone. Drilling is now underway, and approximately 2,000 meters of RC drilling is planned for completion in Q4. The Nsoroma target area lies within a 5-kilometer long gold and soil anomaly located on the Nkran shear southwest of the Nkran deposit and is one of the several high-priority regional targets being evaluated by the AGM exploration team.

Next slide. This image on Slide 14 is a long section through Abore showing the location of highlighted assay results received in Q3. Drilling has identified 2 primary ore shoots plunging to the north at low angles under the south and main pits. Additionally, high-grade mineralization has been intercepted below the saddle zone between the 2 pits along the conjugate south plunging structure as well as in the new high-grade zone under the North pit. We are particularly encouraged to see wide intercepts of mineralization at significantly higher grade than the current Abore reserve grade of 1.27 grams a tonne over long strike length as we continue to evaluate the potential for an eventual transition to underground mining.

Next slide. Slide 15 shows the locations of the drilling I've been discussing in plan view to further illustrate the fact that mineralization intercepted in this round of drilling spans the entire 1.8-kilometer strike length of the Abore deposit.

Next slide. This cross-section here shows one of the holes drilled below the south pit hole 368 which intercepted 45 meters at 2 grams a tonne, including 17 meters at 3.3 grams a ton. This image is reflective of how strong mineralization is being intercepted below the mineral resource across the deposits and the potential growth upside as the system remains open.

Next slide. As mentioned earlier, based on the success of Q2 results and what we've been seeing through Q3, the Abore drill program has been further expanded with an additional 10,000 meters now scheduled for completion in Q4. Drilling will continue to focus on conversion of mineral resources and testing for further continuations of mineralization down plunge and beneath the current drilling. We're very pleased with the Q3 results and are very optimistic about continued exploration success at Abore and across the AGM portfolio targets. With the support of Matt and the Board, we have been giving access to additional resources to capitalize quickly on these positive results and have secured our drills through 2026 to ensure we can continue the Abore program unabated.

And with that, I'll hand it back to you, Matt.

Thank you, Chris. In closing, I'd like to highlight that although the quarter fell slightly below expectations and the incident at Esaase necessitated a review of full year guidance Q3 showed continued positive momentum. We saw quarter-over-quarter improvements across key operation metrics, including total ore tonnes mined, mill grades, mill throughput, gold production and cash balances, all moving in the right direction. As we continue to optimize the secondary crushing circuit, we expect further throughput enhancements in the quarters ahead.

On the exploration front, I'm particularly pleased with our progress. The upside we are seeing at Abore reinforces my confidence in the organic growth potential of the AGM, and I remain excited about what lies ahead. This quarter also marked an important shift in our shareholder base. Following Goldfield's divestiture of the 19.5% stake, we have strengthened our register and improved our trading liquidity. I want to remind everyone that Galiano is well positioned as Ghana's largest single-asset gold producer with compelling fundamentals across many key areas. We maintain a robust production outlook supported by strong financial discipline, including a solid $116 million cash position, which provides flexibility to execute our mine plans.

With that, I'll turn it back to the operator and open the line up for any questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Heiko Ihle from H.C. Wainwright.

Decent quarter overall, I guess, even given the guidance. You obviously had great recoveries in the period, and that really matters given the current pricing environment. And it seems like additional improvements are made to the circuit. Walk us through what you see as the longer-term impact of all of this? And if you were in my shoes, how would you model this out? I mean these were the best recoveries in over 4 -- I think, 4 quarters it was.

Yes. Thank you, Heiko. I appreciate the question. I think best if I just pass it across to Mick for an initial adds up, and then I can add anything if needed.

Yes. I think we've benefited from the increasing grade that was seen quarter-on-quarter over the year. And with that improved grade comes an improvement in our recoveries as well. And we expect those to be maintained into next year. And obviously, hopeful that the grades improve further with depth as well. We do have a number of things that we are finalizing in the secondary crushing circuit, as I mentioned, we're upgrading a number of conveyor drives. We're trying different configurations with our screen panels and a few other things to further optimize that circuit. We think that there's additional throughput enhancements that we can achieve. So we expect to trend upwards and obviously targeting that 5.8 million tonnes per annum. if that answers.

It does. Matthew, do you want to add anything or do you want to move on?

No, no. I think mix answered your question, ultimately, there's only one other thing, I guess, that we didn't touch on is that the SAG mill discharge grades are also going to be reduced in size as well, and we feel that that's going to improve our throughput and also potentially recoveries as well. So yes.

So yes. Fair enough. On Slide 13 in the presentation, you talked about some of those high-grade ore shoots. You also discussed this in the press release with the earnings and then also back in August. These intercepts, some of which you see 3 grams per tonne are obviously very economic, especially right now. With this transition to underground mining, I mean, I know it's quite early to ask this question, but I assume at least some thinking has been done on this. What exactly would be needed to start underground mining related to costs, permitting, duration to get a decline, all that good stuff?

Yes. Good question, Heiko. Well, obviously, we're really, really excited about the grades that we're seeing just below our current reserve pit, right, as highlighted in the slide that you mentioned. I think the first step that we need to tick off, and this is quite imminent for us at the moment, too, is to define what the underground resource looks like there at Abore. And as I said, I mean, that's not too far away, and there will be some work internally and also with external consultants that is currently going on. We do expect to have a view on that in the early next year, Heiko. So that's the first stage. And on the back of that resource or the maiden resource, we will be able to provide a little bit more color in terms of what we're seeing with regards to the cost time lines, permitting, et cetera, on that front as well.

But again, I will highlight that the upside for underground at the Asanko Gold Mine is not within the next 12 months, right? It's probably a year or 2 away. We have to continue to mine through the bottom of Abore at the moment. And then once we do that, it will come on the back of the depletion of this under open pit resource. That doesn't mean that we can't start the work concurrently, but the ounces delivered to the mill are some time away at this stage.

Your next question comes from Raj Ray from BMO Capital Markets.

The first one is more a clarification on, I think, Michael's prepared remarks, and my apologies if I got it wrong. Michael, you're saying that with Abore, you're getting more tonnage at the lower grade and then the overall ounces is still the same? Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. A function of basically being deeper into the pit has allowed us to open up and we're mining full width across the granite ore body now. And with the reduction in material that has come out of Esaase, we're basically relying heavily on Abore to feed the mill. So we -- we're seeing with our mining methodology to keep tonnes to that mill, we can basically mine such that we're limiting how much material is being stockpiled. So we're less selective in terms of high grading that material, knowing that it's all going to the process plant to keep ourselves fed at the moment.

Yes. Maybe I'll just add to that. This is kind of quite specific to the last quarter, as Mick was saying, and we do know that the mineralization at Abore, you don't want to lose any of the high grade that may be lost if you tighten up your [indiscernible] too much, right? So we had the opportunity in Q3 to maybe step out a little bit and accept a little bit more dilution in Q3, and that's kind of driving the commentary as well.

Okay. Got it. And the second question I had was, I noticed that part of the CapEx has been -- the development CapEx has been deferred into next year and you've lowered your number. Is there any potential for any impact early in '26 as a result of Esaase being out for 2 months? And then if you can comment on what your stockpile levels were at the end of Q3 in terms of tonnage and grade?

Yes, sure. Listen, in terms of guidance and outlook for 2026, obviously, that will come in due time. We're working through that at the moment internally. And once we have clarity on where the numbers lie on '26, we'll obviously provide the market with an update in early 2026 on that. But at this stage, as we were saying, we do expect that the material movement from Esaase will ramp up and be in a position where this impact of the shutdown that we had that we saw in Q3 and early into Q4 is probably going to be addressed by that stage as well. So we don't expect it to be extending into the new year. And then in terms of stockpile grades and balances, guys, do we have that at hand? Or should we get back to Raj on that one?

I think we can get back with specifics. So I don't have the actual numbers to hand. I think we obviously don't have a particularly big stockpile at this point. I think, as Mick alluded to, given the pause in mining at Esaase we won't be able to mine excess material. So we build up maybe 0.5 million tonnes or a bit less than that, but no more on keeping it fairly small. And the grades of that will be similar to what we've been seeing going through the mill. So maybe slightly lower where we could have got some slightly better grades through the mill, but pretty consistent with what you've seen from the mining...

And if I may, one last question. On the Ghana audit, is it possible for you to give any color in terms of what they are specifically asking from the companies?

Yes. I think you're referring to the MinCOM audit. This was not that was received by all large-scale mining companies earlier in the quarter. So it's not specific to Galiano. We are of the understanding that our site audit will take place in January next year. It's been staggered monthly between all the large-scale mining companies. There's been no additional information provided to us at this point in time in terms of what's being specifically audited or any request for pre-documentation before that. So -- that's all I can provide on that at the moment, Raj.

Your next question comes from Fred Schmutzer from Equinox Partners.

Matt, first, I just wanted to have maybe an update on the community relations. How has that evolved since the incident?

Yes. I mean, again, it's a very good question. Like we worked hard Alfredo to ensure that the community relations across all of our tenements, which are quite large, are maintained. I'm pleased to report that shortly after that incident the relationships there were brought back into check and we've been able to haul, as I mentioned earlier, we've restarted haulage operations from Esaase stockpiles very shortly after that incident occurred. So from that point until now, everything has remain calm and has returned to normal. But these kind of things do flare up. And we're keeping close relationships with all of our community members across all our tenements. So nothing to be concerned about at this point in time on that front, Alfredo.

Okay. That's great. And then on unit costs. So you mentioned that they're going to keep decreasing as you increase the volumes. But how can we maybe model that reduction of unit cost in terms of dollar per tonne? Like how much can it go down?

Alfredo, it's Matt Freeman here. I think from a sort of a G&A and processing standpoint, the easiest way to model it is to see that our absolute costs are pretty fixed on a month-by-month, quarter-by-quarter basis. So therefore, as we increase those in the milling and increase the throughput, that will actually bring your unit cost down. So if you make some assumptions, as Mick said, hopefully getting back towards the 5.8 million tonne run rate through -- an annual basis throughput, fixed costs will therefore come down on a unit cost basis.

Mining cost is a little bit harder. I think the reduction is modest as we increase the mining volumes because really, that the mining contracts are largely variable cost, but we do have a management -- a fixed monthly management cost component, and that's a bit where you start to benefit in those unit rates. So as we move forward, certainly through Q4, we're seeing those rates come down a little bit. But then again, as we move into future years as you get deeper in some of the pits, then you start to maybe as things start to creep back up again a little bit or get back to where they are now as you have longer haul cycles and you're in deeper parts of the pit. So it's a little bit hard for me to guide you exactly on that, but I think the mining costs are sort of where we are now is a good point and it's not going to get higher in the short term, and it should drive down a little bit in Q4, if that makes sense.

Yes, yes, very helpful. And then my last question is on taxes. So you mentioned you have already paid $12 million this year. And I know this year is especially more difficult to model because you just finished, I guess, using all those losses. So do you have a kind of a range of how much you're going to pay for this year? Let's assume spot prices until the end of the year, like just to have a range of how much would you pay? And then going forward, how should we calculate that? It's just like a 35% effective tax rate?

Yes, you're right. It is a bit complicated and it's a little bit hard to guide clearly. But yes, I think we're -- this year, we're probably in the -- depending on if prices stay where they are now, we could be in that $20 million to $30 million range, hopefully, more towards the low end, but we'll see. We certainly paid more than -- we probably paid a good half of it in installments so far for the year. And there's a few nuances in the final tax returns that we're looking at where we can maximize and optimize our positions.

And then from a go-forward basis, yes, I think the Ghanaian tax rate is 35%, we will start seeing a bit of noise with deferred taxes coming through. But on a base sort of current income tax expense basis, 35% would be a good number for you to use.

Okay. Okay. And if I may, very quickly, sorry, maybe the revolver credit facility, any specific reason why you decided to take that this year or I mean this quarter?

No. Obviously, this is a process that takes a period of time. We're very much looking at it. It's just prudent balance sheet management. We've got an opportunity to put it in place just to reinforce things and get ourselves flexibility. But that's the reason we felt it's prudent at this point to do that for risk management.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Vitaly Kononov from Freedom broker.

First one relates to Esaase. So as it was paused temporarily in September, those bottleneck, let's say, lasted for 2 months. Can you elaborate on the measures taken to prevent any further disruptions that could take place in the operations?

Yes. Sure. I mean, I think our first defense in all of this is making sure that we've got strong relationships with the host communities in which we operate. And we do that on a day-to-day basis, right? So that's our first priority. I mean, the fact is that with gold prices doing what they're doing at record levels. And if you have any knowledge of West Africa as a region, illegal mining is prevalent in those parts of the world. And with those factors considered, there is an acceleration or an increase of illegal mining in our tenement. So the first thing that we need to do is make sure that the communities and the key community leaders that we have good relationships with as those relationships are maintained.

And then the other thing that I will say is that we do mention about the military presence on site. I will point out that -- Asanko is the only the second large-scale mining company in the country that has access to military full-time 24-hour military presence on site. And with that as well, we feel that we're in a strong position to ensure that something like this doesn't occur in the future.

That covers my question. Perfect. And then second one relates to the secondary crushing unit that was recently installed. Can you elaborate on what would be the nameplate capacity going forward with this new equipment on hand, would you expect to raise full year guidance from the 5.8 million tonnes of...

No. I mean, listen, we've stated before that the purpose of the installation of that secondary crusher is to get us back up to the 5.8 million tonnes per annum. We were obviously a little bit shy of that because of the hardness of the ore that we were processing during the course of this year. We'll continue to process into 2026. So that's the target. The nameplate target will be 5.8 million tonnes per annum.

Wonderful. And the last quick one. So you've had a lot of exploration results that you're probably longing to share. Shall we expect to see a mineral resource update provided with the end year results?

Yes, we're expecting to provide an update to the mineral reserves and resources early in 2026 and most likely accompanying our full year financial and operating results at that time point.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Matt Badylak for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you, operator. And I just want to say that I appreciate everyone's time who dialed into the call and asked questions. And as a management team, we're looking forward to execute to our revised guidance for the balance of the year and continue to provide the market with some exploration results as we continue drilling at Abore. So thank you very much and have a good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.