Perseus Mining Aktie

Good morning, and welcome to the Perseus Mining Investor Webinar and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I'll now hand over to Perseus Mining Managing Director and CEO, Craig Jones. Thank you, Craig.

Thanks very much, Nathan, and welcome to Perseus Mining's webinar to discuss our annual report for the financial year ended 30 June 2026.

I'm joined today on the call by our Chief Financial Officer, Lee-Anne de Bruin. Lee-Anne and her team have been working very hard to produce the large number of financial documents that have been released today. So a big thank you to her and the team members and the people across Australia and Africa that have helped pull these results together. And also I want to thank Mel Pollard, our Chief Sustainability Officer and her team for the work that they've done on preparing our inaugural climate report, which is part of our annual report and our sustainable development report, which was also released today.

In just a moment, I'll ask Lee-Anne to take you through the details of the financial report. And -- but I'll share a few thoughts with you first, and then we'll conclude and go to questions and answers.

So today, we've released a number of important announcements that continues to demonstrate the strength of our business and the commitments to our stakeholders. Firstly, with sustainability, our continued and relentless focus on safety of our people is reflected in our industry-leading safety performance. And this extends to our Nyanzaga project, which just passed 9 million work hours, lost-time injury free, which is a fantastic outcome. So those statistics aside, we're ever conscious that we must continue to improve our safety programs across the business to make sure that our people go home safely every day.

Today, we released our first publication of our climate report under the new AASB S2 standard, which is an important step in how we continue to manage climate-related risks and further build resilience in our business. We delivered against our production cost guidance again this year and had a very strong year in financial performance with operating cash flow up 24% and earnings per share up 17%. Along with our financial results, we released our annual mineral resource and reserve update, which contains an increase of our mineral resources by 37% and our ore reserves up by 40%. We achieved first production at the CMA Underground, which commenced in April and the Nyanzaga Gold Project remains on track for first gold production in January 2027. This consistent performance, along with strong gold prices has enabled us to update our capital management framework, which was released today and this includes increased sustainable dividend and upsized buyback and a proposed special dividend to shareholders.

Our final dividend was declared at $0.09 per share, bringing the full year dividend to $0.14 per share which, along with our buyback program, brings the total returns to shareholders for the year to $218 million. And Lee-Anne will talk to the details of what is a significant increase in shareholder returns shortly. Looking at our operational performance for the 2026 financial year. As reported last month, we produced 405,000 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of $1,750 per ounce. The average realized gold price across the year was $3,693 per ounce, which was $1,150 per ounce more than last financial year. Our average cash margin for the year was $1,943 an ounce, which was $635 an ounce higher than the last year and a record notional cash flow of $769 million announced from our operations, which is $119 million higher than the financial year 2025.

We closed the year with a net cash and bullion of just over $1 billion, up $270 million, and we remain debt free with $400 million of undrawn debt capacity available to us.

So I'll hand over now to Lee-Anne and she'll take us through the financial results for FY '26.

Thanks, Craig, and good morning, everybody. Our financial results for FY '26 was the culmination of the effort of all our teams and contractors across the globe. To be able to sit here as CFO and speak to such strong results is a great measure, and it's not without the team effort of everyone that these are achieved.

Turning to reflect on our key financial metrics. Revenue for the group was up 19% on financial year '25 at USD 1.5 billion. This was a result of higher gold prices, offset by a decrease in gold production arising at Yaouré and Edikan due to planned transition from ore sources at both those operations. Cost of sales were higher primarily driven by the higher royalty prices -- sorry, royalties, which was impacted by the higher gold prices.

In addition, as previously reported to you, we had a 2% increase in royalty rates in Côte d'Ivoire ad the scaled royalty regime implemented by the government of Ghana, which was effective on the 10th of March '26. Further, the primary ore sources for Yaouré and Edikan transitioned during the year to the Yaouré open pit and Kossou open pit, respectively, both of which have higher concentrations of waste and lower overall grades, which increased the total cost to produce each ounce at the Edikan and Yaouré operations.

Despite this increase in cost of sales, EBITDA was up 16% at USD 860 million. Overall, the group delivered a profit before tax of USD 716 million, up 27% on FY '25. Profit after tax was up 14%, with a year-on-year increase in taxes paid in our host countries due to increased profitability and in addition, Yaouré's tax holiday, which was a benefit we had for 5 years ended in December '25. There was a 24% decrease in depreciation amortization compared to last year, and this was due to the decrease in deferred stripping. The increase in profit after tax delivered at basic earnings per share of USD 0.3173 for the group, up 17% on FY '25 and delivering an earnings per ounce of USD 1,204, up 41%.

Importantly, the group delivered a strong operating cash flow of USD 666 million, up 24% on FY '25 and this have allowed the Board to today declare a FY '26 final dividend of AUD 0.09 per share, up AUD 0.04 on the FY '25 final dividend. The Perseus culture of ensuring continued operational and financial performance has further strengthened our balance sheet, well positioning Perseus for growth. We ended the financial year with a net cash and bullion of over USD 1 billion, up $207 million on FY '25. This increase was on top of significant investment in our growth projects at Nyanzaga and the CMA Underground during the year. Total liquidity now sits at $1.4 billion using -- that's taking into account our $400 million of undrawn debt, which was refinanced in December '25.

We will continue to hold our listed investments in Predictive and Aurum, which were valued at $233 million at 30 June '26. And one of our key focus as a team is our actual operating cash flow per ounce was up 54% at USD 1,070 per ounce. The financial strength and resilient balance sheet have allowed the board to declare record returns to shareholders in FY '26. This is being delivered via an increased dividend per share through the declaration of a final dividend of AUD 0.09 per share, totaling AUD 119 million. This takes the FY '26 dividend to $0.14 or a total of AUD 187 million, up 87% on FY '25.

In addition, the Perseus Board has also approved to upscale the buyback to AUD 315 million -- sorry, AUD 350 million. This follows the completion of the buyback in FY '26, where we put away AUD 126 million as part of that buyback program.

The Perseus Board is also considering an additional distribution of AUD $100 million out of the excess proceeds received from the recent sale of the Meyas Sand Gold Project in Sudan. This may include a further special dividend and/or return of capital. The split between the capital reduction and special dividend is still to be determined and will be confirmed through our consultations with the Australian Tax Office. Any capital reduction will be subject to any required shareholder approval, and the company will update shareholders on the proposed distribution together with the split between capital reduction and/or special dividend when finally determined.

Taking into account the record returns to shareholders, it's important to reflect on the disciplined capital allocation of Perseus in FY '26. As mentioned, Perseus generated $666 million in operating cash flow in FY '26. To support the safe, sustainable operations and asset integrity, we invested nearly $30 million in sustaining capital across the group. A further USD 360 million was invested in our growth projects in Nyanzaga and CMA Underground with a further USD 41 million allocated to growth exploration. USD 129 million have been returned to shareholders through our dividend, which I have mentioned including the $0.09 final dividend declared and USD 89 million equivalent through the share buyback. Overall, we have returned USD 218 million to shareholders in FY '26. And this excludes the AUD 100 million proposed dividend I just spoke to.

Beyond our shareholders, we continue to ensure we met our obligations to all our stakeholders who are critical to our social license to operate and our desire to make meaningful contributions in the countries in which we are fortunate to be working. We distributed $1.2 billion in economic contributions more broadly, which included local procurement, employee wages and benefits, taxes, royalties and community contributions.

Having spoken now to our strong financial performance, resilient balance sheet and ongoing commitment to returning sustainable returns to shareholders, Perseus has enhanced its capital allocation framework going into FY '27. The framework sets out 5 key priorities. Firstly, as always, reliable operating cash flow underpinned by disciplined operational performance across our asset base and maintaining our commitment to our employees, our governments, communities, suppliers and lenders. Secondly, investing adequate sustaining capital to protect the integrity and safety of our existing operations, underpinning our reliable operating cash flow generation.

Then balance sheet resilience. Perseus strives to maintain strong balance sheet capacity into the cycle to ensure we're able to position ourselves well for strategic growth opportunities. We have set a target of maintaining a minimum liquidity position of USD 500 million with the current liquidity sitting at just over $1.4 billion.

Another key pillar is funding our growth. We want to continue to grow production at our existing sites, extend the life of our existing mines through resource and reserve growth and to position ourselves to execute capital investment, which delivers high yield returns. For FY '27, we are guiding around USD 530 million to be allocated to growth capital funding, the final stages of the Nyanzaga development as we go towards first gold pour, continued ramp-up of the CMA underground at Yaouré and the strategic cutbacks at Edikan. Between USD 70 million and USD 80 million is allocated to various exploration programs focused on extending mine life through brownfields and greenfields exploration.

The final key pillar to our enhanced capital allocation framework is allocating capital to sustainable returns to our shareholders. The Board has approved a revised dividend policy, which commits to a sustainable dividend of a minimum of 20% of net cash flow from operating activities and this is after however dividends paid to our noncontrolling interest, which is our government shareholders. In addition, where the balance sheet has capacity beyond the growth objectives, the Board retains discretion to declare supplemental returns through additional dividends, buybacks or capital returns. Our framework looks to fund the business safely and sustainably first, keep the balance sheet resilient, invest in growth that extends mine life and return capital to shareholders in a way that is meaningful and yet sustainable to a longer-term growth strategy.

Thanks very much for your time and listening today. It's been a year of change and addition at all our assets and all made possible by hard work and dedication of our Perseus team.

I'll now hand back to Craig to discuss our other announcements today and an update on our Nyanzaga project.

Thank you, Lee-Anne. So as I mentioned earlier, we're also pleased to announce today our updated annual -- updated mineral resources and ore reserves as of 30 June 2026. Our group measured and indicated resources increased 37%, which is about 2.9 million ounces from our June '25 release to 10.6 million ounces, and our proved and profitable ore reserves increased 40%, which is 2 million ounces to 7 million ounces. So importantly, alongside the increases in Nyanzaga, which we announced in February, we have increased ore reserves at the Yaouré open pit. And at Edikan and Sissingué, we've successfully replaced mining depletion maintaining reserve life at both operations. Nyanzaga alone now accounts for around 4.1 million ounces of proved and probable reserves and 4.7 million ounces of measured and indicated resources which is a reminder of the scale of that asset as we continue to advance towards first gold in January 2027.

Our mineral resources also increased significantly at both Yaouré and Edikan as we focus on life extension of those assets. And we've given guidance for our exploration spend this coming year, which doubles the exploration spend from last year targeting further growth at all our mines, including significant drill programs at Yaouré and Edikan, which aim to further increase mineral resources and to complete test work and studies to demonstrate the organic growth that exists within our current portfolio. Nyanzaga remains on budget and schedule for first gold in January 2027. There's significant activity at site with progress at the end of June at 67% with materials and equipment deliveries at its peak. And as it stands today, we have over 3,800 people on site delivering this project for us.

We're continuing with our pre-stripping of the Kilimani and Tusker deposits with 1.2 million BCMs moved as of the end of June. We expect to move around over 7 million BCMs before first gold production, which is higher than the original plan of 4.6 million BCMs and as a result, we expect to spend an additional $20 million to $30 million on preproduction mining. So you'll see that in the way we've presented the cost numbers for Nyanzaga but to be clear, the capital development of the mine is within the original budgeted amount. Once Nyanzaga reaches commercial production, it adds a fourth cash-generating asset to our diversified portfolio significantly expanding group production and cash-generating capacity.

So we're looking forward to bringing the project to conclusion and into operations. To that end, the operations team at Nyanzaga are well established and preparing to transition from a development project into a stable operation.

Turning to our FY '27 group guidance. Production and cost guidance is unchanged from what we've previously told to market. We're guiding to 420,000 to 480,000 ounces at an all-in site cost of $1,835 per ounce to $2,070 per ounce. This guidance is based on a $4,000 gold price, which sets government royalty rates of 8% in Côte d'Ivoire and 11% in Ghana at that gold price. And at this stage, the cost guidance covers our 3 operating mines only, excluding Nyanzaga, which we'll update once commercial production is reached. We've also, for the first time, included sustaining capital and exploration cost guidance to enhance the information that we provide, and these are detailed in the appendix of this presentation.

I spoke earlier of our safety performance. And whilst we have exceptional statistics, we are constantly aware that we need to work every day to make sure that our people go home safely each day. We continue to build our economic value to our host communities and countries. We distributed $1.2 billion in economic value this year, including $714 million in local procurement and close to $385 million in government payments. We also contributed over $5 million directly to community initiatives and livelihood development programs. The improvements of community roads, health and education infrastructure around the Nyanzaga Gold project also reflects our commitment to establishing ourselves as a long-term partner in the country.

And finally, this year, we published our first climate report, which I mentioned earlier under the new Australian accounting standards and this includes a climate risk and opportunity assessment incorporating climate scenario analysis to better understand the potential physical and transitional impacts of climate change on our business. Together, these results reflect on our priorities to our people and our communities and our long-term resilience.

I'll close by why we believe Perseus represents a compelling investment proposition. We have a diversified African asset portfolio backed by a proven track record of delivering on development and operating execution capability, which we're demonstrating again right now through Nyanzaga as it moves through construction. We delivered clear leading return on capital employed, driven by our cost-focused culture and a genuine track record of growing our ore reserve inventory, both organically and through M&A.

Our growth prospects are underpinned by $1.4 billion of liquidity, and above all, we've built a reputation on proven execution and doing what we say we're going to do. So putting this together, this is a company set for solid growth and stable returns to shareholders and a solid balance sheet and a track record of discipline to deliver it. So before we move to questions, just one more item, we welcome Tommy McKeith to our Board as Non-Executive Director in July 2026, and we're looking forward to his contribution. And we also welcome Wade Bickley to the organization as Chief Operating Officer. So again, we're excited to have Wade on board. So thank you all for your time this morning. And Lee-Anne and I are happy to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Levi Spry at UBS.

A couple of questions just around the guidance, please. So just in terms of the CapEx at Edikan, can you just talk us through -- and I haven't -- sorry, I haven't been through the reserve and resource statement yet, but just talk us through what that cutback buys us in terms of mine life.

Thanks, Levi. Yes. So I think initially, when we -- Edikan as a life of mine was ending in about financial year '28. What we've done through the optimization of the pits and through the ongoing drilling program and now the cutbacks that we're doing is Edikan will run out to 2031. So it's basically added on an additional 4 years to the life of mine on the current cutback and the current development capital included in the guidance.

Perfect. I'll go through that later. And then just a reminder on the royalty piece. So the scaled royalties at Ghana and the extra 2% at Côte d'Ivoire, can you just remind us how we should be thinking about them going forward, please?

Yes. So I mean, Côte d'Ivoire has got -- has increased its royalty above $2,000 an ounce to -- so I took it from a little bit below $2,000 at 6% and now above $2,000 at 8%. So that's how you should be thinking about it in the context of Côte d'Ivoire. And then the Ghana scaled royalty is slightly more complicated, but it starts at 5% and goes all the way up to 12%, I think, above $4,000 an ounce. So I can give you -- I can send you that scale. Yes. It's going up every $500 per ounce.

Perfect. And last one, just on Nyanzaga. So just understanding the piece around the capital bring forward. Is that how I should think about it? Maybe you could just...

Yes, that's exactly how you should think about it. It's not additional capital. It's just we're bringing mining forward.

Okay. And just in terms of physically what's happening on the ground, can you just give us a quick picture of how things are going as we work towards commissioning?

Yes. I think -- well, physically on the ground, I was there 2 weeks ago. There's a lot of activity, obviously, construction in the mill area. Getting that ready for production is well advanced around the infrastructure. The tailings dams progressing well. The line is going down now as we speak. The water line from the lake for water is nearly completed. The main power lines are well and truly underway with all the substations and those sorts of things. So it's just bulk construction at this point in time, deliveries to site are really at their peak, and it's just down to putting everything together. But it's an impressive facility and a lot of people working very hard to create a fantastic outcome for the business.

Yes. Great. Maybe just one special one on the -- sorry, on the extra $100 million proceeds. When do you expect to get resolution on that from the ATO or just working out how [indiscernible]?

Yes. We're already in consultation with the ATO. But as you know, their process can take between 3 to 4 months. I mean ideally, we're hoping to have clarity before we send out all the AGM papers. So that's the intent. But I'm sort of governed by how long it takes the ATO. So it's in progress and so hopefully in the next couple of months and then hopefully before the next AGM.

Your next question comes from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey.

Just one on capital returns. Obviously, a big final dividend, but no news of continuing buyback. Just wondering how you're thinking about the sort of mix between dividends and buybacks going forward. Obviously, your dividends aren't going to be franked. But now with the new capital gains tax regime, potentially investors are getting penalized for capital gains as well. So I was just wondering how you're thinking about the sort of mix there going forward?

Yes. I mean, I think -- well, we obviously have announced the upsizing to the AUD 350 million and I think -- so in terms of our share buyback, we'll continue to consider that, but that's always going to be giving consideration to our growth agenda. But I think the Board and the management have sat down as I said over the next 12 months, we can have a look at AUD 350 million, and we'll just give a consideration to that each year in terms of what's available. And that will be, as you say, always balancing as much as we possibly can to be a tax effective for shareholders as we can within the constraints that are available.

Yes, sure, sure. Okay. And then maybe -- I mean, I know you get asked this pretty much every result. But just -- I mean, it's interesting that you've now got a minimum liquidity position that you're seeking to keep your sort of cash and available facilities above. Just wondering how you think about your maximum liquidity position?

Yes. Well, I mean, we'll address that next time. And I suppose the important thing from us, Richard, we have got a lot of capital going into Nyanzaga this year. We've got the underground. I think the minimum liquidity is there just to demonstrate to the market that we are sort of taking a very balanced approach. And I think going forward, in terms of maximum liquidity, we'll just continue to look at our supplemental funds, but it's a changing world, and we've got lots of growth objectives in front of us that we want to allocate capital to as well.

So we obviously don't have a maximum liquidity position, but that's looked at every time we meet as a Board and we make decisions appropriately.

Your next question comes from Regan Burrows at Macquarie.

Congratulations on the results. Just on Nyanzaga, the -- you mentioned obviously quite a lot of supply chain issues that you're experiencing there. Can you just elaborate on that? And of that, I guess, 33% of the project remaining yet to be completed, and how exposed to that is changing conditions in the supply chain?

Yes. On the -- in terms of supply chain, I think we're in pretty good shape. We've got basically equipment coming to site constantly now. And so it's feeding the construction teams, the way you'd expect it to. So there's no real major concerns there. Supply chains are always things that you have to manage. And it's been a little bit more complicated than normally in the last probably 3 to 6 months, as everyone is aware. But I think we're navigating that okay. So as we stand today, no major issues.

Great. And just in terms of those increase in the preproduction mining cost, just sort of elaborating on that a bit more, bringing forward that development capital. I mean does that, I guess, allow you to tap different parts or potentially better parts of the ore body earlier on? Is there any sort of impact to production or grade or anything that you can talk to?

Look, not at this stage. I think it's really like all mining you mine as quickly as you can to get to the grade, and that's what we're doing. So no material changes in terms of the guidance that we've given the market around production for next year. But certainly, it just sets us up for -- to be in the best position we can possibly be in.

Your next question comes from David Radclyffe at Global Mining Research.

Just one last one then on Nyanzaga. Do these additional costs here, do they cover also the period to commercial production? And then should we assume that some of the $50 million to $60 million of sustaining capital will be applied to Nyanzaga for the year? And if so, what's the quantum?

Yes. So if you think about it, those costs don't only cover up to first gold, but some of those costs in terms of those material movements are brought forward from that period moving into commercial production. So we haven't provided any guidance on costs at this point in time for operations, and we'll do that as we move closer to commercial production. In terms of the sustaining capital, you'll see in the appendices of this release, we've offered guidance of $2 million to $4 million of sustaining capital for Nyanzaga.

Perfect. I haven't quite got there yet.

There's a lot of information we put out there. It's understandable.

There certainly is. And maybe if I could have a follow-up. And it's really a question about the thought process of returning a portion of the Meyas Sand proceeds here in addition to the buyback or the renewed buyback and the new dividend policy, which is great to see a really clear policy, by the way. How are you thinking about the balance here of cash return relative to growth opportunities within the portfolio or inorganic opportunities overall? For example, I didn't see any additional growth capital for Sissingué or anything additional at Yaouré apart from the CMA, which had already been sort of announced. So the next round of organic opportunities, are they relatively scarce, and that's why we're not actually seeing capital applied to it when there's so much capital this year -- sorry, so much cash generation?

On the contrary, I think we've doubled our exploration budget. And what's in that exploration budget is significant drilling programs at Yaouré, Edikan and Sissingué and along with the studies and the test work required to bring additional material into the production profile. So that's very much a strong focus for our organic profile. And you'll see that we have increased our resource base at both Edikan and Yaouré this year. There's more work we're doing to further increase that position or hopefully increase that position. And that's the focus for our inorganic -- sorry, our organic growth plan. So it's quite an exciting piece of work that we're undertaking there, which should go to increasing the life of those assets.

Okay. So you just need some more time to obviously do some drilling and then get these studies done and then you'll come back to us?

Precisely. Yes. So I mean it's probably 2 years of drilling, but we'll be releasing results as we go. But this year, with the first sort of real big focused drilling, particularly around the Yaouré pit, and we see opportunity there. And then there's certainly opportunity around the AG pit at Edikan and beyond. So there's plenty left to work through there. We are limited somewhat by data, and that's what we're firming up this year.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Craig for closing remarks.

Okay. Great. Thanks, Nathan. And look, a lot of information went out this morning. So I appreciate that will take some time to go through. But it also took a lot of effort from the team here at Perseus and -- not only in preparing the documents but producing the fantastic results that sit within the documents, and I really do want to thank the Perseus team for their hard work and dedication to producing the outcomes that they have and being able to support us in being able to make record returns to our shareholders and also contribute meaningfully to the countries in which we operate, the communities with which we operate. So thank you all, and thank you very much for your attendance on the call today.

Good morning, and welcome to the Perseus Mining Investor Webinar and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I'll now hand over to Perseus Mining, Managing Director and CEO, Craig Jones. Thank you, Craig.

Thanks, Nathan, and welcome to Perseus Mining's quarterly webinar to discuss the June 2026 quarter report. I'm joined here today with our Chief Financial Officer, Lee-Anne de Bruin. And this quarter marks the close of the 2026 financial year, and it's been another period of solid operating performance from our 3 operating gold mines with strong cash generation, along with continued progress on our organic growth projects.

Looking at our operating performance. So we produced 109,000 ounces of gold which was up 1,869 ounces on the March quarter and the higher production was achieved across 2 of the 3 operating gold mines. The weighted average production cost was USD 1,340 per ounce and the all-in site cost was USD 1,941 per ounce. The comparable all-in sustaining cost for the quarter was $1,865 an ounce. Gold sales from the 3 operations totaled 114,567 ounces, which was 18,000 ounces more than the quarter 3 of the financial year. The realized gold price was USD 4,086 per ounce, and our average cash margin for the quarter was USD 2,145 per ounce, resulting in a notional cash flow of $216 million. And we finished the quarter notably with over $1 billion in cash and bullion.

For -- looking at our performance across the FY -- the 2026 financial year, we produced 405,000 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of USD 1,750 per ounce. Gold sales from all 3 operations totaled 399,000 ounces with an average realized gold price of USD 3,693 per ounce, which is $1,150 per ounce more than the financial year 2025. Our average cash margin for the year was USD 1,943 per ounce, which was $635 per ounce higher than the '25 financial year, resulting in a record notional operating cash flow of $769 million from all operations, $119 million higher than financial year 2025.

If we turn now to Yaoure overall gold production from the open pit and the CMA underground was 38,900 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of $2,277 per ounce. The Yaoure open pit produced 30,440 ounces, and the CMA underground produced 8,472 ounces. Overall, processed head grade was lower than planned at 1.13 grams a tonne down from 1.29 grams a tonne last quarter, and this is for 2 reasons: firstly, access to the higher-grade Yaoure Stage 1 area was limited as a result of high rainfall. And secondly, we mine the oxide section of the Zone 2 deposit in June, which returned grade that was lower than planned. Sustaining capital was higher, reflecting timing of works on the new community road, which is part of the waste dump extension and the replacement of the tailings pipeline.

As I mentioned earlier, the quarterly production for the CMA underground was 8,472 ounces, which was up 1,600 ounces in Q3. And the overall gold sales total for the site totaled 39,000 ounces at USD 3,920 per ounce, including 7,252 ounces sold from production at the CMA underground and Yaoure are produced a notional cash flow for the quarter of $50 million.

On the CMA underground, this was Landmark quarter for the CMA underground. We have advanced 3,604 meters of lateral development across the 4 declines to date. And critically, we commenced stoping in April with 3 states completed delivering 33,606 tonnes of ore. Preparations commenced for the installation of the primary ventilation fans and the expansion of the generator farm with contractor engagement for civil structural steel works. Project development progressed well with USD 89.6 million spent by 30 June 2026.

So whilst CMA underground started later than we initially planned due to the permitting delays, the team has been able to recover some of the lost production through a good performance throughout the year, and I really look forward to seeing my underground project adding considerable value to Perseus as we ramp up to commercial production, positioning CMA underground as a long-term key value driver for Yaoure.

For Edikan, we produced 41,940 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of $1,959 per ounce. Head grade process was 0.79 grams a tonne, down from 0.84 grams a tonne in the previous quarter as a result of pit sequencing and mining in lower grade areas of the Nkosuo pit. Quarter-on-quarter, Edikan produced -- production costs increased by 17% to USD 1,155 per ounce. The increase was primarily attributable to higher mining costs driven by increased diesel prices and increased blasting volumes associated with higher volumes of fresh ore and increased rehandle costs. In addition, grade control drilling at Nkosuo was increased during the June quarter following weather-related delays in the previous quarter. The increased costs were compounded by lower production volumes, which negatively impact the fixed cost absorption. The weighted average all-in site cost increased to $1,959 per ounce from $1,539 per ounce in the previous quarter attributable to the increased production costs, along with increase in royalties and timing of sustaining capital spend associated with the new cyanide tailings storage facility construction and perimeter dewatering wells. The royalties increased by $216 per ounce as a result of the new scaled royalty implemented by the government of Ghana that was effective from the 10th of March 2026. Gold sales from Edikan were 43,868 ounces at USD 4,347 per ounce. We also commenced the cutbacks in dewatering at the Fetish and Esuajah North pit, which are the future ore sources for Edikan once post completion of the Nkosuo pit. So Edikan produced a notional cash flow of $100 million for the quarter.

Sissingue was a standout performer for the quarter, our Sissingue complex produced 28,161 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of USD 1,550 per ounce, representing an 11% increase in production and a 3% reduction in all-in site costs compared to the previous quarter. This improved performance was mainly attributable to the higher proportion of high-grade ore from the Antoinette pit at Bagoe. Gold sales were 31,453 ounces at a realized gold price of $3,890 per ounce. Notional cash flow generated from the complex during the quarter was $66 million and taking into account the March quarter, the notional cash flow of $60 million. Sissingue has made a meaningful contribution to the performance of the business.

Looking ahead to our FY '27 production and cost guidance. We expect production to be in the range of 420,000 to 480,000 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of USD 1,835 to USD 2,070 per ounce. Our cost guidance is based on gold price assumption of $4,000 per ounce and government royalty rates of 8% in Cote d'Ivoire and 11% in Ghana. This guidance reflects the commencement of production at Nyanzaga, with our guidance, including 55,000 ounces of gold based on the FID as released in April 2025. All operating costs at Nyanzaga are capitalized into commercial production, which is planned for Q4 of FY '27.

I'll hand over now to Lee-Anne, who will talk through the financial aspects of the quarter.

Thanks, Craig. The performance of our sites during this transitional year is not disappointed and allowed us to further strengthen our balance sheet. Our net cash and bullion position, as Craig pointed out, it ended the year at just over $1 billion. And this is after continued investment in our growth projects across the business. The liquidity position of the business sits at $1.4 billion with our undrawn debt facility of USD 400 million. And this liquidity excludes the USD 230 million of liquid investments in relation to our investments in predictive discovery and aurum.

Giving consideration to the strong position of our balance sheet, we continued to purchase shares under the share buyback program announced in September '25. The AUD 100 million was reached in June '26, and the Board resolved to further increase the share buyback to AUD 115 million on the 15th of June 2026. At the end of June '26, we had purchased back 24.1 million shares at an average price of AUD 5.24 for a total cash outflow and a return of AUD 126.6 million. In FY '26, Perseus has returned AUD 194 million to shareholders via its interim dividend declared in February of $0.05 per share, totaling AUD 67.5 million. And the share buyback, as I just mentioned, of AUD 126.6 million. The shareholder returns has continued to grow since our maiden distribution in September '22, as you can see from the graphs. And further capital allocation will be under consideration by our Board as part of the financial statements released in August '26, in line with our capital management framework and dividend policy.

The strong financial vision of Perseus has been built over years of strong sustainable cash flow generation through disciplined execution by our dedicated teams across the globe. As CFO of [ formal ] nearly 6 years as part of Perseus, I've had the privilege of sharing these results with everyone on these calls, but it's a team effort of every individual across the Perseus team that contributes to these outcomes. The strong gold price, coupled with a focus on cost and capital discipline, produced an average Q4 cash margin of $2,145 per ounce and delivered a notional cash flow for Q4 of USD 216 million. And as Craig pointed out earlier on, this has delivered a record full year notional cash flow of USD 769 million for the financial year, and that's a milestone for Perseus.

We shift our focus now to the cash flows and capital allocation for the June '26 quarter specifically. The increase in cash and bullion to $1 billion was after operational cash flows of USD 276 million, continued capital investment in our growth projects in the quarter of about $142 million, with $108 million spent in progressing the Nyanzaga growth project, which Craig will speak to later, a further $26 million in progress in the development of the CMA underground. The start of the Edikan cutbacks, ongoing exploration drilling at our assets of $8 million with exploration now a key focus going forward on our capital allocation program. Continued contributions to our host countries of $77 million paid in corporate and other income and other taxes. Noting that we received the proceeds from the sale of the Sudan project in this quarter of USD 260 million. And we continue to return to our shareholders with AUD 77 million executed on the share buyback in the June quarter. I'll pause very quickly on this, and this is just a reconciliation of our all-in site cost cash-based metric to the all-in sustaining cost metric, showing that the all-in site cost of $1,941 reconciles down to $1,845 -- sorry, $1,848 on the all-in sustaining caustic metric.

I'll now hand back to Craig to take everyone through the update on the Nyanzaga gold project.

Thanks, Lee-Anne, and some pretty impressive numbers there. Moving on to our organic growth projects and starting with Nyanzaga. So the Nyanzaga Gold project remains on budget and schedule for first gold in January 2027. The overall project progress achieved was 67% at the end of the quarter, and total costs incurred and committed to date are $424 million being 81% of the budget of $523 million. The Nyanzaga Gold project achieved a major safety milestone during the quarter, recording more than 8 million worked hours and 532 days of lost time injury-free time demonstrated Perseus' uncompromising commitment to safe project delivery. The key work fronts achieved significant progress over the period. So we've got all major procurement for the process plant is completed with equipment and material deliveries now at the peak. All-site installation contracts have been awarded and mobilized, the tailing storage facility construction is ahead of schedule with the North and South-East embankment is complete, and the South-West embankment is more than 60% complete, and the basin is being prepared for liner installation. The resettlement action plan was successfully completed with the handover of the final community infrastructure, including 2 schools, a dispensary, a granary on the Village office in the church. The pre-strip of the mining resource continued at Tusker Hill with 1.8 million BCMs moved to date. So Nyanzaga continues to build momentum as we move into the final phase of construction, and I look forward to providing more updates on its construction as it nears completion. Just a couple of photos there.

Moving on to sustainability. So Perseus maintained a stable sustainability performance throughout the June quarter and finished as we said, FY '26 LTI free. Our total recordable injury frequency rate was 0.87 with 3 medical treatment injuries during the quarter, and all sites exceeded their leading safety indicator targets helping to stabilize that performance. Our contribution to our local economies was $388 million, including $226 million to local suppliers, $10.6 million in local wages and $126 million in taxes and royalties and $0.5 million in social investment. The local and national employment remained at 94% and our female participation increased slightly to 12.8%.

In terms of the environment, our rehabilitation at assay progressed well. Our emissions intense reduced to 0.66 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per ounce produced and lower water drills at Edikan and Sissingue reduced our overall group water intensity.

So overall, we achieved a disciplined and consistent sustainability performance to close out FY '26.

So in closing, Perseus delivered another strong quarter of operational performance and strong financial returns and meaningful progress on our strategic growth projects. We strengthened our balance sheet -- with a strengthened balance sheet, high-margin operations and a clear pathway to growth through Nyanzaga and CMA underground, Perseus is exceptionally well positioned heading into FY '27.

So thank you for joining us today, and I'll now open the floor to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Reg Spencer at Canaccord.

Just a quick question on guidance and congrats on a very solid quarter, not much to really dive into. But I note that you provided some detail around what you expect to spend at Nyanzaga. But just group CapEx guidance for FY '27. Can we expect something with your full year results? Or can you give us some help on that front, please?

We haven't provided any specific CapEx guidance other than our capital projects, both the CMA underground and the Nyanzaga projects is really the key capital projects for us and obviously, our sustaining capital is included in our all-in site cost guidance.

Your next question comes from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey.

Just a quick 1 on Yaoure. You've had a couple of tough quarters there. I just wanted to get a feeling as to how the CMA underground is ramping up. What sort of proportion of the June quarter production was underground versus open pit? And in terms of the guidance for next year, what does that look like in terms of underground open pit and I suppose your level of confidence with how CMA is progressing?

Yes. Thanks, Richard. I think in terms of CMA, it's been a very, very good ramp-up for that project. And if you recall, at the start of the year, the approvals to start that project were delayed by about 3 months. So that set us back at the start of the year in terms of the CMA underground. We've been able to ramp that mine up quicker than what we initially had in our budget. So we've actually recovered some of that lost time throughout the course of the year. So that's been a pretty solid performance from the CMA underground. And it's a result of a couple of things. I think that the team at site are doing an exceptional job of building the first and operating the first underground mine in Cote d’Ivoire and the Ivorians are really taking to that well. But it's also a very good ground conditions. So it's meant for good development and good stoping performance. So we're pretty confident in the ongoing ramp-up. Obviously, we continue to ramp that up through the course of this financial year with a bigger second half than first half from the CMA underground. And so we're feeling pretty confident with its performance.

Yes. And can I just push you a little bit in terms of how you -- how much of the FY '27 guidance you think the CMA underground is going to contribute? Just trying to get a feel for how our model ramp-up and grades.

Yes. I mean we haven't provided any specific guidance on the proportion of underground versus open pit other than to say that we expect to be in commercial production sort of later this year -- this calendar year, but it's...

Yes. I think Rich, just the 1 thing that ultimately I want to remind is running -- we've mentioned this is that once it's running a commercial reduction, you get a 70% feed from the open pit and 30% feed from the underground through the mill, and that gives you a sort of a 50-50 outcome in terms of ounces out of the RF on the 2 resources.

But I think if you go back to the initial sort of FID release for the underground, that's a pretty good guide. Hopefully, we do better than that, but that's kind of the sort of we're tracking a little bit ahead of that now. But yes, that would be a good source of information in terms of how to think about the underground.

Yes. Okay. And just with the open pits at Yaoure, I mean, in terms of the sort of grade reconciliation issues and pit access, I mean, are you sort of confident in the mine plan for FY '27?

Yes, we are. So as you take the last quarter, it was actually quite a wet work season across Africa, both in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. So we did have some issues that kept us out of Stage 1 a little bit. So that was kind of part of the grade issue for the last quarter. And then the other thing we brought in some cyan oxide material, which -- it was only being mined during June, and that didn't perform the way we expected it to. So those are the 2 sort of mining challenges that we faced during the quarter, both short-term issues.

Your next question comes from Branko Skocic at JPMorgan.

Good to see Nyanzaga on track for Jan '27. I guess I was hoping you could step through I guess, critical path between now and then and just confirm if the mining contractor has been awarded? I might have missed that 1 in the release.

Yes. I think if you talk to critical path, it's really through the mills, all the infrastructure is progressing pretty much ahead of schedule, and it's really through getting the mills up and running and the commission, of course, into operation. So that's the key for the ongoing project.

In terms of mining, we've moved as I said before, 1.8 million BCMs project to date, and so well on track for our ore delivery. We're using local contractors to do that work.

In terms of the longer-term mining contract, we're still working through that, and we've got plenty of time to get that contract awarded.

My understanding was that contracted -- that contract needed to be awarded by call at September, October of this year. Is that still the time line? Or could we potentially push that out a little bit and still...

We've got plenty of time there. We can push that out.

That's good to hear. And then I guess the final question for me was, obviously, balance sheet is in a very strong position. I just really want to unpack the capital management outlook a little bit more and how the Board is potentially thinking about [ sizing ] any additional capital management and whether there's a preference for like a one-off special or a sustained period of elevated returns over the next couple of years?

Yes. We'll talk about that more in August. So we've got obviously in the year Board meeting where we'll discuss all of those sorts of elements of capital returns and be able to talk to you more about that post that meeting.

Your next question comes from Regan Burrows at Macquarie.

A lot of them have been answered already, but potentially just around the all-in sustaining cost guidance. And then how sensitive is that to, I guess, the current fuel issues that we're seeing across all miners?

Yes. Look, it's not highly sensitive. It's about a 10% sort of proportion is the fuel cost. So it's not massively sensitive.

No. And we did when we put the all-in site cost together use sort of quite current fuel prices in these assumptions.

So a lot of the inflation impact then is really just that Ghana sort of royalty regime and additional sort of costs coming through. Is that -- and I guess, sustaining capital up? Is that sort of how we think about it?

Yes, for next year, yes.

Correct.

Okay. Great. And you sort of touched on the weather impacts before just confirming, I guess there's sort of hangover into Q1 FY '27 in terms of the weather impacts across I think it was Yaoure and Edikan?

No. Not at Sissingue as well. I mean all the sites got a lot of rain this year. But no, there's no ongoing impact from that.

Your next question comes from Ben wood at UBS.

Just a quick one, I guess, on the changing royalty landscapes. Have there been further discussions that you can sort of let us know about what's sort of going on in Ghana, sort of the risk of -- sort of what you're seeing in Tanzania as you ramp up Nyanzaga sort of later this financial year, just broadly, I guess, the jurisdictional risk that you're seeing across the portfolio at the moment?

Yes. I think -- well, if you take Tanzania, I think that there's really no conversations about royalties and so forth at this point in time. So that's pretty stable. I think Ghana's really gone through its changing sort of approach to how it thinks about taxation. So again, the conversations there are pretty stable. There is always ongoing conversations as you know, in these areas. But at this point in time, they're relatively benign. We still are in dialogue with the Ivorian government around their mining code. So that's not a finalized discussion at this point in time, but we'll update if there's any change to that.

All right. There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Craig for closing remarks.

Thanks, Nathan. And I suppose, as I said before, we've had a good quarter and a good year. We're looking forward to providing further updates throughout the course of the next financial year, particularly around Nyanzaga as this progresses closer to production. But none of this happens without the hard work and dedication of the Perseus team, and I really do thank them for the exceptional results that they're producing. And thank you all for attending.

Good morning, and welcome to the Perseus Mining Investor Webinar and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I'll now hand over to Perseus Mining Managing Director and CEO, Craig Jones. Thank you, Craig.

Yes. Thanks, Nathan, and welcome to the Perseus Mining quarterly webinar to discuss our March 2026 quarter report, and I'm joined on the call today by our Chief Financial Officer, Lee-Anne de Bruin. It was a good quarter for Perseus. And looking at our operating performance for the quarter, we produced 107,000 ounces of gold, which was up 18,000 ounces on the December quarter and the higher production was achieved from all 3 of our operating mines.

The weighted average all-in site cost was USD 1,748 per ounce, which was lower than the previous quarter of USD 1,800 per ounce, and that's mainly due to the higher production. And we achieved a realized gold sale price of $4,143 an ounce, which was $706 an ounce more than the previous quarter. Our average cash margin for the quarter was USD 2,394 per ounce, and that gave us a notional cash flow of -- operating cash flow of USD 252 million from all of the operations, and we finished the quarter with $817 million of net cash and bullion and Lee-Anne will speak to that later on in the call.

Given the current global market situation, I just want to address the diesel situation. We acknowledge there's a fuel supply uncertainty globally at the moment, and we continue to closely monitor our fuel supply availability and our consumption levels and our inventory positions to mitigate the risk of operational disruption in the short to medium term. We have fuel supply contracts with reputable fuel suppliers who provide us regular updates regarding our fuel stock levels and broader supply chain conditions. And at this stage, we don't have any foreseeable fuel restrictions.

In terms of costs, diesel is approximately 10% of our group's all-in site cost. So if we see sustained higher diesel costs, there may be some limited impact on our cost base. This quarter, we made some important changes to our portfolio. But firstly, at our Nyanzaga project, our drilling program enabled us to deliver an updated ore reserve, which increased our ore reserve by 73% to 4 million ounces of gold since the Nyanzaga feasibility study was completed in April 2025. And that increase is underpinned by 83,000 meters of drilling that was completed since May '24.

The increased ore reserve has extended Nyanzaga's mine life to 16 years from 11 years, including 14 years of production at greater than 200,000 ounces of gold per annum. In terms of the project itself, there's been good progress at site and the quarter -- and during the quarter, and it remains on track for first gold in January 2027. In another development last month, we announced our decision to sell our 70% interest in the Meyas Sand Gold Project in Sudan. And this followed a lengthy review of the project and consideration of both development and divestment options. We decided that divestment of the project was the best option for Perseus, and it allows us to reallocate internal resources to our existing internal development opportunities. And that transaction was completed yesterday and all funds have been received.

We also made an investment of AUD 23.7 million in gold explorer, Aurum Resources. We participated in Aurum's recent strategic share placement, taking a 9.9% interest in the issued shares of the company. And Aurum is an emerging ASX-listed explorer with their key asset being the Boundiali Gold project, which is a 3 million-ounce predevelopment and prestudy project in Côte d'Ivoire and it's located to the south and just along the strike of our Sissingué gold mine and processing hub. And the northernmost tenements are adjacent to the company's current active mining area at Bagoé.

At Yaouré, we achieved a strong quarter with increased gold production and notional cash flow. Overall, gold production for the Yaouré open pit and CMA underground was 36,000 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of USD 2,049 per ounce. A key milestone for our CMA underground development at Yaouré was achieved in January with first ore coming from the Blika portal and 1,600 ounces of gold has been produced from the CMA underground during the quarter. Yaouré produced USD 68 million of notional cash flow during the quarter. So the underground is making great progress, and we'll commence stoping operations early in this coming -- in this quarter that we're in now.

For Edikan, we've produced 45,000 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of $1,539 per ounce. And whilst our AISC was stable for the quarter, the Government of Ghana has implemented a new royalty regime that came into effect in early March, introducing a sliding scale structure. And under this framework, royalty rates increased progressively in line with rising gold prices and are capped at a maximum of 12% when the gold price exceeds $4,500 per ounce. Some of the increase in royalty will be offset or has been offset by reductions in other levies. So the growth in sustainability levy rate was reduced from 3% down to 1% of gross revenue and this was implemented at the end of March, and a 6% levy on the supply of goods and services has also been removed, providing some relief.

Edikan produced a notional cash flow of $124 million for the quarter, and notably, the Fetish and Esuajah North pit cutbacks made progress during the quarter with the approvals being received by the government, and mining has commenced at Fetish early in quarter 4.

Our Sissingué operation saw a production increase with the ramp-up of the Bagoé Antoinette deposit and associated increasing grade and tonnes milled. The complex produced 25,000 ounces of gold during the quarter at a weighted average cost of -- all-in site cost of $1,708 per ounce. Production cost decreased by about 20%. And that was due to the higher proportion of the oxide material that's being mined at the Bagoé deposit.

The notional cash flow generated by the complex for the quarter was $60 million compared with $25 million last quarter. So overall, it was a very good quarter for Sissingué.

Looking ahead, we remain on track to deliver our FY '26 production and cost guidance with gold production between 400,000 and 440,000 ounces and all-in site cost between $1,600 and $1,760 per ounce.

So I think now I'll hold it -- I'll hand over to Lee-Anne and she can talk to the financial aspects of our quarter.

Thanks, Craig. As Craig alluded to, the strong operational performance from our 3 sites and with our dedicated teams has delivered a solid financial quarter, assisted by our increased exposure to the gold price upside with the hedge book being rolled off. This has allowed for continued delivery against our stated capital management objectives.

As Craig said earlier, we ended the quarter with cash and bullion of $817 million, which was up $62 million on the last quarter. And this is despite our strong investments in our growth projects, Nyanzaga, CMA Underground and ongoing exploration. Perseus' liquidity is growing and is sitting at USD 1.2 billion, and this includes a USD 400 million undrawn debt facility that was secured in December '25. And Importantly, this number of USD 1.2 billion excludes our USD 245 million of liquid investments in relation to Predictive Discovery and Aurum and excludes the $260 million that we will -- we've received in April in relation to the Meyas Sand Growth Project -- Gold Project, should I say.

During the quarter, Perseus Board also then approved a $0.05 per share interim dividend equating to $46 million. So this is up 100% on the prior year period and interim period last year. Where available, trading opportunities existed. We continue to execute our buyback in the market. Our share buyback program did a total of $26 million in the quarter at an average price of $5.39. And as mentioned earlier, we continue to wind down our committed hedge position during the quarter with a further reduction from 11% to 9% of the 3-year forecast production.

The increase in cash and bullion to $800 million gives consideration to the operational cash flows of $217 million that we delivered from our operations, capital investment in our growth projects. There was $63 million in the quarter invested in progressing in the Nyanzaga growth project -- or Gold Project. We then had $18.6 million invested in the development of the CMA underground. Exploration drilling at all of our assets equated to $8 million, and there was ongoing sustaining capital including numerous TSF works across all 3 of our sites. We purchased a 9.9% share in Aurum for AUD 24 million. And, importantly, we continued contributions to our host countries with $42 million in corporate and other taxes being paid.

We also then returned, as you can see, and I mentioned earlier, we returned to our shareholders $64 million, which included the interim dividend paid and $26 million on the share buyback. We just flagged this to show that we're tracking the all-in site cost that we present, we always track to at Perseus versus the all-in sustaining metric, which the World Gold Council reports on. And the key difference here is really the produced versus sold metric that we use as the denominator. And then we had an accumulation of inventory movements, which was largely inventory buildups at Yaouré with increased mining and building up of stockpiles and an additional small impact as a result of a shipment timing at Sissingué.

With that, I'll hand back to Craig to talk about our growth projects.

Thank you, Lee-Anne, and a great set of financial results as well for the quarter. So Nyanzaga Gold Project, as I mentioned earlier, remains on budget and schedule with first gold anticipated in January 2027. Overall, the project progress has reached 48% complete by the end of the quarter, and the total cost incurred to date is $220 million. As of the 31st of March, the project recorded over 5.4 million hours worked with no lost time injuries, and the workforce has increased to more than 3,162 personnel and continues to ramp up in line with construction activity.

Significant progress was made over the period on all major procurement associated with the project -- so all major procurement is associated with the process plant is complete. The fabrication of the mills, the gyratory crusher and the thickeners have been completed and are in transit to site. Structural steel fabrication has reached 78% completion and progressive site deliveries are underway. The TSF construction has commenced, and it's ahead of schedule. The pre-strip mining activities have commenced, the carbon in leach tanks installation is ongoing with the first 4 tanks nearing their full strake height and the non-process infrastructure is also progressing well.

So I look forward to continuing to provide more updates on this transformation project over the coming months.

The CMA underground project at Yaouré is also progressing well. As mentioned earlier, we had our first ore mined out of the Blika portal in January, paving the way for production from the first stope, which will be early in the June quarter. At the end of the March quarter, nearly 1,600 meters of lateral development had been achieved and the high-voltage electrical power supply to the underground portals was also completed. So the project is making great progress. We've spent around USD 63 million and the stoping ore, which is coming out this quarter is an important feed for the Yaouré mill. And from a sustainability perspective, we've had a strong focus on vehicles and driving across the business with the implementation of a number of key initiatives. including a review of our vehicle and driving standards, delivering defensive driver training and progressive installation of vehicle and driver monitoring systems. And this effort reflects the reality that vehicles associated with mining and particularly remote operation remains our highest safety risk.

So very key and very important focus for the business at the moment from a safety perspective. Our safety indicators remain strong with a TRIFR of 0.75. But as I've said before, our statistics only tell part of the story that true safety performance is measured in human outcomes, and we continue to drive ongoing safety improvements across our business.

In terms of our economic contributions in the countries that we operate, our total economic contribution for the quarter was $282 million, including $179 million in local procurement, $91 million in taxes and royalties and $1.3 million in direct community contributions. And we maintain about 95% of our workforce coming from the host countries from which we operate, which really does reflect a genuine commitment to building local capability, just not for our operations today but for our future great opportunities as well. So this was a great quarter for Perseus. We delivered a strong operating performance and continued to build on our cash position whilst making meaningful progress on our strategic growth projects. We made some significant portfolio improvements and all whilst maintaining high sustainability standards. So with a strong balance sheet, high-margin operations and a clear growth path, we believe we are well positioned to continue to deliver strong long-term value for all our shareholders.

So thank you, and I'll now open the floor up to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Richard Knights with Barrenjoey.

Just a couple of cost questions maybe to start with. Firstly, you mentioned that 10% of the all-in site cost was diesel. Is that an average over the past quarter? Or is that using current spot prices? Just trying to get a feel for where that sits.

Yes. So that would have been in our average for the financial year. So -- and it would have been with spot prices probably in about February.

Okay. And what are spot prices? What do they look like now relative to February?

It's slightly different for all the jurisdictions, which is hard to say. So for example, Côte d’'Ivoire is extremely regulated. So we're not seeing the massive increases. But for example, in Ghana, which is slightly less regulated, we are sort of seeing the roll-on of the spot effects there. So we're seeing sort of similar to what you're seeing in the Australian market in Ghana, where prices are going up probably 50%.

Got it. Got it. Okay. Okay, fine. And then Nyanzaga just in terms of procurement, I mean, I think you mentioned that you've finalized your -- everything is being procured basically. But is there any scope for cost escalation there? Or is that all -- is that pretty much complete now?

I think if you look at the -- what we've spent and committed, we're, I think, roughly 60-something-percent of the projects committed.

Yes. Correct.

So all the major items are covered there. So the short answer is we think it's manageable. We're running through kind of all of our definitive estimate work at the moment. And we'll obviously update the market when that's completed. But we're not seeing anything at this point in time that's giving us any concern.

Nothing material. I mean a large amount of our procurement was contracted and secured last year. So I'm not going to see -- I'm not seeing the major material items.

Yes. Okay. Great. And finally, just on Aurum, I mean I know you're limited in what you can say, but there's obviously some proximity to Sissingué. At a high level, do you see this as a sort of interesting stand-alone opportunity? Or is there potentially some synergy there with Sissingué coming to the end of its mine life?

Potentially. I think if you look at Aurum and they were running a placement in which we chose to participate in, I think it's a strategic investment on our behalf. I think that the -- as I said before, some of those northern tenements are nearby to where we're currently mining at Bagoé, but also Caigen and the team have done a great job of the exploration there, and we were keen to support that and see where things take this. But at this stage, it's really just a strategic investment.

Your next question comes from Adam Baker at Macquarie.

Just firstly, maybe on -- I understand, pretty good outcome there, $260 million from the sale of that project, a valuation significantly above what market expectations were. So just flagging, is there any use for the cash here? Like have you given any consideration to further shareholder returns through a special dividend or whatnot or are you just going to bank the cash at this stage?

We'll consider all that. I think, obviously, as we come towards the end of the year and we start talking about dividends and make decisions on what we're going to pay as a dividend this year. Obviously, it all contributes to our cash position and contributes to that conversation, but no decisions have been made at this point in time.

Yes. Okay. And secondly, at Sissingué, just the difference between sales and production. Was this just a timing issue? Or could you just touch on the difference there?

Yes. It's just a shipping timing difference. That's all, Adam.

Okay. And then thirdly, just on the fuel supply situation. I mean you mentioned that you've got contracts with all the major suppliers. You're not seeing impacts at the moment from a supply point of view. Could you just maybe talk to what sort of inventories you generally tend to store on site? How many weeks of fuel supply that you have there? And you mentioned you're not seeing any angst, I guess, all okay from that perspective. But yes, maybe you could touch on that.

Yes, sure. So we generally have between 1 to 2 weeks of fuel on site for all of our sites. I think just stepping back towards the supply issue, the supply issue for us is slightly different to your Australian mines because a lot of the fuel is sourced out of Nigeria in those areas and Côte d'Ivoire specifically has its own refineries. So that said, we are continually looking at whether there's opportunity to increase our stock levels.

In Ghana, we've got a long-standing relationship with Zen Fuel and they have got large quantums of fuel on -- actually in Ghana that they have set their stock up for just their mining companies. So we continue to manage the risk and looking at it. But all the work we've done in the last couple of weeks doesn't indicate anything around the supply issue. It's more just looking at the pricing issue. So -- but we will continue to monitor that on an ongoing basis.

The next question is from David Radclyffe at Global Mining Research. He's -- I'll just read it out for David. He's asked for Yaouré specifically, can you provide some expectations for this quarter? And also if the guidance includes the CMA pre-commercial ounces or not?

The guidance for the quarter is that we remain within the guidance range that we have published. And as we mentioned in the last quarterly report at the lower half of that guidance, so that remains. And yes, the CMA underground ounces are an important part of that production for the final quarter.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Craig for closing remarks.

Okay. Thanks, Nathan, and thanks, everyone, for your participation and interest. I really just want to make a call out to the great people that create the results that we presented today. Perseus has a dedicated team of people across the globe, and they show up every day and live the values of teamwork, integrity, commitment and achievement. And I just want to thank them all for their contributions and thank you for your attendance.

Good morning, and welcome to the Perseus Mining Investor Webinar and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I'll now hand over to Perseus Mining Managing Director and CEO, Craig Jones. Thank you, Craig.

Yes. Thanks, Nathan, and welcome to Perseus Mining's December 2026 (sic) [ 2025 ] Interim Financial Report. I'm joined today on the call by Lee-Anne de Bruin, our Chief Financial Officer. and I'll hand over to her shortly. But before I do, Perseus produced a strong operating result during the half.

And with our low cost and favorable gold prices, we're pleased to increase our interim dividend to $0.05 per share. And the other news that we released today is a substantial increase in the ore reserves and mineral resource estimate for Nyanzaga, which extends the life of that mine by 5 years and really highlights the quality of that asset. So I'll pass over to Lee-Anne now to take you through the details of our report. However, before I do, I'd like to acknowledge Lee-Anne and her team for the tireless work to produce this financial report, and thanks go to her and her team for the excellent work.

Thanks, Craig. And hi, everyone. Welcome to our call. The 6 months to December delivered a very strong solid operational performance as our mines transitioned into new mining areas and we made significant progress with our capital growth projects. Perseus produced 188,841 ounces in the 6 months with an all-in site cost of $1,649 per ounce.

The average gold price achieved was up 38% at $3,241 an ounce. And our cash margin per ounce was up at $1,592 per ounce for the 6 months, generating notional cash flow of $301 million and ending the half year with $755 million in cash and bullion on the balance sheet. The operational performance delivered by our Perseus sites has translated into a great financial performance for the 6 months ended December '26 (sic) [ '25 ].

As CFO, I have the privilege of being able to share these results with you, which represent the efforts of all the Perseus team over the last 6 months. Thanks to each member who has contributed to this result. We couldn't do it without you. Revenue for the 6 months increased by 5% against the 2024 comparative period to $608 million. And this was largely due to the 38% increase in the average gold price realized, as I've mentioned, offset by our anticipated reduction in gold produced during the 6 months.

Just quickly focusing on cost of sales, which plays into the EBITDA number. This increased on the comparative period, and this is largely attributable to the higher royalties during the period, culminating with higher gold prices. In addition, as we've mentioned in our quarterly, we had a 2% increase in royalty rates in Côte d'Ivoire, totaling $20 million, which was included in this period, of which $9 million related to the 6 months ended June '25.

Further, the primary ore resources for Yaouré have transitioned to the Yaouré open pits and Edikan has transitioned to the Nkosuo open pit, both of which have higher concentrations of waste and lower overall grades.

This obviously would increase the total cost to produce each ounce compared to December 2024. The slight increase in revenue was offset by the increase in cost of sales and delivered an EBITDA of $316 million for the 6 months.

Moving to profit after tax. This was -- this achieved was USD 186 million, 8% lower than the comparative period. Key items to note were that the depreciation and amortization decreased by 46% on the comparative period, mainly driven by lower ore tonnes mined, resulting in lower mine property and deferred stripping amortization. And this was also as a result of the completion of the Edikan, AG and Fetish pits and the Yaouré Stage 1 and the CMA Stage 3 pits by June '25.

We also incurred a foreign exchange loss of about USD 27 million, which was due to the impact of the weaker U.S. dollar against the euro on a certain balance sheet transactions such as bank balances. Overall, the group has maintained stable profits during the period and generated net cash from operating activities for the half year of USD 194 million. EPS for the period was at $0.1210 per share. And as Craig mentioned earlier on, Perseus Board of Directors approved an interim dividend of $0.05 per share, which is up 100% on the December '25 interim dividend, and I'll speak a little bit back to that shortly.

Importantly and always has been a focus of Perseus as we pivot to the balance sheet, the financial performance in the 6 months has positioned Perseus well to deliver on our future growth opportunities. As mentioned earlier, we ended the year with USD 755 million of cash and bullion on our balance sheet, and this is after investing USD 175 million in our growth projects and exploration.

In December '25, Perseus successfully refinanced and upsized its existing USD 300 million facility to USD 400 million. This also includes a $100 million accordion option and has a 3-year term with options to extend for a further 2 years. The cash and bullion, coupled with the newly upsized and undrawn facility, give Perseus just under $1.2 billion in liquidity to deploy in further opportunities.

In addition to this, Perseus also had listed securing investments of about USD 230 million, which, as you'd be aware, include our 17.8% investment in Predictive. And capital returns to shareholders, in line with our dividend policy, which aims always to reward shareholders, while maintaining balanced capital structure to fund our corporate growth objectives.

The Perseus Board resolved to declare an interim dividend of $0.05 per share, up 100% on the FY '25 interim dividend. This dividend was declared by the Board, giving consideration to the balance sheet position and upcoming forecast cash flows from our 3 existing operations and the development of the project in Tanzania, Nyanzaga.

In addition, during the 6 months, Perseus renewed the share buyback program at AUD 100 million in August last year. And as of today, Perseus has repurchased AUD 9 million worth of those shares of the renewed share buyback program. Perseus has maintained a disciplined commitment to its articulated capital management framework during the 6 months, and we've ensured operational discipline to deliver reliable and strong operating cash flows, while obviously ensuring we meet our commitments to all our stakeholders.

As I mentioned, the 6 months delivered $301 million in notional cash flow. Importantly, we paid $144 million to our host governments in corporate income taxes, withholding taxes and royalties. And we made further economic contributions of $340 million, which includes local procurement and community contributions.

We've then also focused on our balance sheet resilience, which I've spoken to earlier on with a liquidity of $1.2 billion. And then we have then invested ongoing discretionary investment, and this is evidenced through USD 175 million we've invested in our projects, of which $150 million went to growth capital at Nyanzaga, CMA underground and Bagway and about USD 25 million in exploration, some of which has delivered the increase in the Nyanzaga reserve that was released this morning. This brings me to the end of the financial presentation, and I'll now hand back to Craig.

Yes. Thanks, Lee-Anne. And looking ahead, so for FY '26 and as outlined in our December quarterly release, our production guidance remains unchanged. So group gold production in the range of 400,000 to 440,000 ounces and with production obviously weighted to the second half of the year.

Our group all-in site cost guidance range has increased as we outlined in our quarterly from a range of $1,460 to $1,620 per ounce to a new range of $1,600 to $1,750 or $1,760 an ounce. And that really has been -- the guidance has been updated to reflect the increase in gold price assumptions and the resulting increase in royalty costs. We've also allowed for the 2% royalty increase in Côte d'Ivoire for Yaouré and Sissingué, whilst we discuss the fiscal arrangements with the Ivorian government to result in a fair and equitable distribution of mining proceeds through these unprecedented gold prices.

Our gold price -- our gold production is weighted to the second half and with the inclusion of the new higher-grade ore sources at Edikan and Sissingué and as per our mine plan. And it's also expected that Yaouré will produce in the lower half of its cost guidance -- sorry, our production guidance.

Nyanzaga, so during the quarter, we progressed our organic growth work, which focuses on resource to reserve conversion at our existing mines. It is also focused on brownfield exploration and the development of a greenfield's exploration portfolio. And along with our half 1 '26 results this morning, we're pleased to release the updated ore reserve for the Nyanzaga Gold project in Tanzania to 4 million ounces. This represents a 73% increase from 2.3 million ounce ore reserve reported in April 2025 and as part of the updated Nyanzaga project feasibility study.

The mine life is extended to 16 years, and that includes 14 years of production at greater than 200,000 ounces per annum, which cements Nyanzaga as a long-life, low-cost mine and a cornerstone asset for Perseus for many years to come. The ore reserve increase at Nyanzaga is based on further cutback to a large-scale open pit mining operation as outlined in the feasibility study.

The total gold production over a 16-year period is currently estimated to be 3.5 million ounces based on JORC 2012 probable ore reserve of 90.9 million tonnes at 1.38 grams a tonne for 4 million ounces of gold production. And gold production exceeds 200,000 ounces per annum from FY '28 to FY '41.

Applying Perseus's assumed long-term gold price assumption of $3,000 an ounce, the Nyanzaga AISC metric updated to $1,621 an ounce over the life of mine. I recently got back from my second trip to Tanzania and the progress we're making on the ground in Nyanzaga is fantastic.

The steel erection has commenced in the milling facility and pre-stripping of the Tusker deposit has also commenced. So the project is well on track to enable first gold pour in January 2027. We're also progressing with updated mineral reserve estimates for our other existing mines with an update to Yaouré expected towards the end of this financial year, and Edikan will follow in December 2026.

So those 2 updated estimates are focused on extension of the mine life of our existing assets. This slide really highlights the diversified nature of our portfolio. Operating across 3 African countries, we have ore reserves of 6.69 million ounces and an additional 2.85 ounces in foreign estimates at Sudan.

The release of our update to the Nyanzaga reserves and resources is the first step of our work to highlight the potential of our existing portfolio through resource conversion, and we look forward to updating the market on Yaouré and Edikan later on this year. Alongside our financial and operating performance, Perseus continues to deliver tangible value to our host communities and governments. This slide captures the breadth of our contributions.

In the first half of 2026, our economic contribution reached $484 million across our host countries, and this includes $308 million in local procurement, which directly supports national supply chains and local business development. We also contributed $144 million in taxes and royalties and $3.37 million in community contributions as we continue to support our local development funds and key community initiatives.

Our workforce is overwhelmingly comes from the regions in which we operate with 95% of our workforce coming from our host countries, and this is a reflection of our commitment to building local capability and building the skills base that our future growth depends on. For our safety indicators reflect a strong safety performance, but the reality is that true safety performance is ultimately reflected in human outcomes, not statistics and the recent fatalities at Sissingué are a testament to that.

Sustainability is at the core of our purpose and guides how we deliver results, creating value and building resilience. And that's what makes Perseus a trusted partner in achieving its mission of creating material benefits for all stakeholders in fair and equitable proportions. During the half, we continued to deliver solid operating performance, generate strong financial returns and progress our strategic growth objectives, all while maintaining high sustainability standards.

With a strong balance sheet, high-margin operations and clear growth path, we believe we're well positioned to continue delivering long-term value for all of our shareholders and stakeholders. So thank you, and I'll hand over to the floor for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Ben Wood.

I was just going to ask one on the government negotiations with the Côte d'Ivoire government on royalties sort of moving forward, what sort of impacts? Do we know the granularity of what to expect moving forward? Or are they still sort of taking place?

Thanks, Ben. Yes, I mean we sort of have a little bit of understanding, okay, but we're not in a position to sort of put that out there. But I think the important thing is we don't see any radical change from what we've got today and Ivorian government are being very open and very pragmatic around the impact of wholesale royalty changes. So the point of the whole thing is that they will be releasing a new mining code sometime this year, and they want to make sure that any changes are ratified into the new mining code.

And so they're sort of consulting various companies and engaging strongly, are they...

Yes, they...

Then [indiscernible] a hard line on it. No, very highly engaged, very open. We had meetings. The industry are very unified together in this. So it's actually probably one of the best I've actually seen in my history of working where the industry has mobilized and working very collaboratively with the government...

There are no further questions at this time. So I'll hand back to Craig for closing remarks.

Thanks, Nathan. I think we're pretty pleased with our results and the performance of the company in the first half, and it really sort of bodes well for our delivery of the second half. I'm very pleased to be able to release the $0.05 per share dividend. I think that's a positive indication of how things are going and also the upgrade in the resource and reserves at Nyanzaga, which really shows that Nyanzaga is a cornerstone asset for Perseus for many, many years to come and will be a long-life, low-cost asset.

So some fantastic work going on the business. I really want to thank everyone within the organization for their support and their efforts to create the results that we have created and look forward to presenting the next round of updates in the next quarter.

Good morning, and welcome to the Perseus Mining Investor Webinar and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I'll now hand over to Perseus Mining, Managing Director and CEO, Craig Jones. Thank you, Craig.

Yes. Thanks, Nathan, and welcome to the Perseus Mining quarterly webinar to discuss our December quarterly report. And I'm joined here today with Lee-Anne, our CFO.

Let me start by acknowledging the tragic loss of two employees of our haulage contractor, Binkadi, who work at our Bagoé mine, and they are involved in a tragic off-site vehicle accident 2 weeks ago. These deaths have been incredibly sad for the team at Perseus and particularly our Sissingué operations, and we've been supporting the families of both individuals, as well as the entire team at Sissingué since the accident incurred and will continue to do so in this very difficult time.

We've commenced an internal investigation into the accident and cooperating fully with the relevant Ivorian authorities to ensure appropriate processes a following. Nothing is more important to Perseus than the safety and well-being of the people that work for us and with us. And this remains our highest priority across the group.

We are committed to the rigorous application and oversight of our safety systems and to ensuring that all employees and contractors carry their work in a safe and responsible manner. This tragic loss reinforces the need for constant vigilance in all aspects of our work, including travel associated with remote operations.

As we turn to our operations through the December quarter, our performance reflected a period where all of our sites transitioned into new mining areas, transitioning to new mining fronts introduced as new complexities to mining operations. And despite this, we delivered a strong operational result and continue to generate robust cash flows at the same time as making meaningful progress on our growth initiatives.

Our gold production for the quarter was 88,888 ounces at an all-in site cost of USD 1,800 per ounce. The increase in our all-in site cost to USD 1,800 per ounce, versus Q1 FY '26 is primarily driven by higher royalties linked to the increased gold price achieved during the period and an additional 2% royalty paid on revenue at Côte d’Ivoire. The payment of the additional 2% was done in good faith as part of ongoing negotiations between the mining industry and the government of Côte d’Ivoire in relation to formalizing a revised fiscal arrangement, which takes into account their inequitable distribution of profits in the current high gold price environment.

A total of $20 million was paid in FY '26 Q2 in relation to the additional royalty of which $4 million related to the current December quarter, $5 million related to September quarter and $11 million related to half 2 of FY '25. So just to reiterate, the Q2 FY '26 all-in site cost in this report only includes the additional royalty paid in this quarter. Combined gold sales from all three operations totaled 86,607 ounces sold at an average sale price of USD 3,437 per ounce, delivering a robust cash margin of USD 1,637 per ounce, capitalizing on strong market conditions.

The notional cash flow for the quarter was USD 145 million with the quarter ending with a net cash and bullion of USD 755 million. For the December half, the group produced 188,841 ounces of gold at an all-in site cost of USD 1,649 per ounce and an average sale gold sale price of USD 3,241 per ounce, generating notional cash flow of USD 301 million.

Yaouré produced just over 32,000 ounces of gold for the quarter, which was down 42% on the previous quarter. The quarter-on-quarter decrease in production is primarily due to lower mill head grade resulting from a higher reliance on lower-grade stockpile material than planned, along with the planned transition in all sources from the CMA open pit to the Yaouré open pit. The implementation of improved grade control practices at Yaouré along with higher strip ratios during the period resulted in lower direct mill feed from the Yaouré pit, and the need to supplement lower grade stockpiles in greater proportions.

The grade control process is now well established at Yaouré and mining rates have substantially improved, resulting in increased direct fee of the Yaouré open pit ore. This, along with the addition of higher grade -- the higher-grade CMA underground in half two is expected to result in higher grade mill feed. Production cost for the quarter was USD 1,574 per ounce at an all-in site cost of USD 2,092 per ounce. The jump in all-in site costs versus Q1 was driven primarily or predominantly by lower gold production, resulting in higher fixed cost per ounce, as well as higher royalties and timing related increase in sustaining capital as a result of the timing of the life of mine tailings pipeline relocation.

We sold 34,000 ounces of gold from Yaouré at a weighted average sale price of USD 3,243 per ounce, which delivered an average cash margin of USD 1,151 per ounce. National operating cash generated by Yaouré for the quarter was USD 37 million. Reconciliation between the block model and the mill for the last 3 months is 20% positive on tonnes and 11% negative on grade for a 13% increase in contained gold ounces. This continues to trend from the previous quarter with higher mine tonnage offsetting lower grades through the -- though the overall metal reconciliation has slightly improved. The upper levels of the Yaouré open pit is continuing to yield more gold as grade control drilling extend mineralized structures.

Edikan delivered a strong quarter with 38,000 ounces of gold produced at an increase of nearly 17% on the previous quarter. Production cost for the quarter was USD 1,097 per ounce and the all-in site cost of USD 1,535 per ounce, which was down 4% on the previous quarter. We sold 37,000 ounces of gold from Edikan at a weighted average sale price of USD 3,700 per ounce, resulting in an average cash margin of USD 2,165 per ounce, and national operating cash generation of USD 83 million.

Mill time and recovery were 89% and 87%, respectively, largely in line with the targeted key performance indicators. Reconciliation between the block model and the mill for the last 3 months is 9% positive on tonnes and 3% negative on grade for a 5% increase in contained ounces, which is a substantial improvement on the last quarter.

This improvement in operating outcomes for the quarter is largely due to full mining access being available at the Nkosuo pit, allowing the mining sequence to be restored and improving mining conditions. Edikan's gold production is expected to continue to increase over the next 2 quarters as grade from Nkosuo continues to climb. Plan to mine cutbacks of Fetish and Esuajah North pits are currently progressing with applications submitted to the relevant regulators for approval to commence mining in both areas.

During the quarter, the Sissingué complex produced 18,000 ounces of gold, which was up nearly 60% on the September quarter. This Sissingué complex results are attributed to mining and processing operations at Sissingué Gold mine, together with satellite mining operations comprising of the Fimbiasso gold mine located approximately 65 kilometers from Sissingué processing facilities and the newly developed Bagoé gold project located approximately 137 kilometers from Sissingué processing facilities.

Both the Fimbiasso and Airport West pits were completed during the quarter, and ore is now being sourced from the Sissingué Main Pit and the Bagoé Antoinette deposit. Mining at Bagoé commenced during the quarter at the Antoinette deposit following the completion of the Fimbiasso operations. Production cost was USD 1,545 per ounce, and an all-in site cost was USD 1,044 per ounce.

The improvement in the all-in site cost is largely driven by -- driven following the introduction of the high-grade ore from the Bagoé Gold project, partially offset by higher royalties resulting from higher realized gold prices and the additional royalty payment to the government of Côte d’Ivoire described earlier. We sold 14,000 ounces of gold from Sissingué at a weighted average sale price of USD 3,227 per ounce, resulting in an average cash margin of USD 1,383 per ounce and a national operating cash of USD 25 million for the quarter.

Mill run time improved to 97% from the previous quarter, 91% the previous quarter is 91%, and gold recovery was steady at 89.5%. A reconciliation between the block model and the mill for the last 3 months is 18% positive on tonnes and 17% negative on grade for a 2% reduction in contained ounces. The lower grade performance is the result of mining narrow variably mineralized structures at Sissingué Main, Fimbiasso West and Airport West Pits with higher-than-anticipated dilution in several benches.

Operational controls, including blast design and refinement and improvement -- improved ore mining control initiatives remain in place to minimize dilution and maintain alignment between the model and mill outcomes going forward. As mining is now focused on the Antoinette peak at Bagoé and the Sissingué Main pit as the primary mill feed sources, mill feed grade is expected to increase for the remainder of the year with the introduction of the higher grade ore from Antoinette.

Looking ahead for FY '26, our production guidance remains unchanged. Group gold production in the range of 400,000 to 440,000 ounces with production weighted to the second half of the year. The group all-in site cost guidance range has increased from USD 14.60 and USD 16.20 per ounce to USD 1,600 and USD 1,760 per ounce. The group all-in site cost increase in guidance has been updated to reflect increased gold price assumptions and the result in increase in royalty costs.

We've also allowed for the 2% royalty increase in Côte d’Ivoire for Yaouré and Sissingué, whilst we discuss fiscal arrangements with the Ivorian government that result in fair and equitable distribution and mining proceeds at these unprecedented gold prices. As we've discussed previously, our gold production is weighted to half 2 of FY '26 with the inclusion of the new high-grade ore sources at Edikan and Sissingué that are included as part of our mine plan. However, due to the performance of Yaouré in Q2 FY '26, it is expected that Yaouré will produce in the lower half of its guidance.

Before I hand over to Lee-Anne, I just want to briefly discuss growth. During the quarter, we progressed our organic growth strategy, which focuses on resource to reserve conversion at our existing mines, brownfields exploration and development of greenfields exploration portfolio. We're progressing our update to our mineral reserve estimates for our existing mines with an update -- updated estimate for Nyanzaga anticipated in quarter 3 of FY '26 in the March quarter, followed by an update to Yaouré towards the end of the financial year. Edikan will follow towards December 2026. These updated estimates are focused on extension of mine life of our existing assets.

From an inorganic growth perspective, Perseus progressed an offer to acquire the remaining shares of predictive discovery during the quarter. Perseus first acquired a stake in predictive in August 2024 for a total investment of just under AUD 90 million, initially securing a 19.9% stake in the gold explorer and were later diluted down to 17.9%, whilst we remain as predictive largest shareholders.

This has been a great investment. And at our current share prices, the investment is now valued at more than AUD 400 million, more than 4x what we paid for it. Our decision to make an offer to acquire the remaining shares of predictive was supported by our knowledge of the asset and Perseus' strategy to build a superior portfolio of African gold assets.

At the end of the day, Robex revised matching offer full predictive was ultimately deemed superior by Predictive forward and resulted in the rejection of our offer. While at this stage, we have no plans to revise our position on Predictive, we will continue to monitor the market conditions. In terms of inorganic growth, we're constantly assessing the best ways to execute our growth strategy and provide best value outcomes for our shareholders.

Now I'll pass over to Lee-Anne to speak on some of the financial aspects.

Thanks very much, Craig, and hello, everyone, and happy New Year. I just thought it's too late to be doing that. The quarter delivered a very strong closing cash and bullion balance of USD 755 million, which was down $82 million on the previous quarter. And this is built up as a result of the contribution from our operating margin of USD 132 million.

We continue to invest strongly in our capital investment programs, about $60 million went into that, which included development capital for the Nyanzaga Gold project of about $28 million and the CMA underground of about $14 million during the quarter. We will continue to make contributions to our host governments with $30 million paid in taxes during the quarter.

Perseus balance sheet remains strong with increased liquidity, we're looking forward to further strong forecast cash flows through the fiscal year. We also, as you would have seen in December announced that we refinanced and upsized the debt facility, replacing the existing $300 million facility. The amended facility has been increased to USD 400 million plus a USD 100 million accordion option. It has a 3-year term plus an option to extend for 2 years. So this takes it out to 2031.

We achieved very competitive pricing through strong demand, resulting in a total margin reduction of 125 basis points from the existing facility. Amendments were made to provide Perseus with more flexibility across a range of terms, including our financial covenants, and this really reflected the continued enhancement of Perseus' credit profile. And I'd like to thank Nedbank and Citi for their assistance and all the banks that have come on board through the process and our continued support of our financiers.

Shifting our head to hedging. In this current rising gold price environment, Perseus has continued to ensure the hedging strategy evolves, ensuring we remain focused on measured downside protection, whilst always maintaining as much upside opportunity as possible. During the quarter, we further reduced the committed hedging position from 14% to 11% of our 3-year production rolling off a large number of the fixed forward contracts. We continue to protect against the downside -- downside with -- and this is obviously to ensure that as we make investment decisions for all life of mine extensions across all our operations, had some level of downside protection, and we have about 215,000 put options, which are all uncommitted in place at an average price of $2,619 per ounce.

As always, to provide for clarity reconciliation between the all-in site costs used by Perseus to the all-in sustaining cost metric with the key variances relating to produce versus gold sold as the denominator and corporate administration costs. The average all-in site cost for the quarter, as Craig has mentioned, was USD 1,800 per ounce, which is higher than the Q1 FY '26 restated all-in site cost of USD 1,516.

This increase in the -- in this quarter-on-quarter is largely attributable, as Craig spoke to, is to the higher royalties driven by increased gold price achieved during the quarter and the additional 2% royalties paid on revenue in Côte d’Ivoire. The additional 2% was paid to the government of Côte d’Ivoire despite how our stability afforded to Yaouré and Sissingué, and the Sissingué conventions. Agreement was reached with the government to pay an additional 2% for FY '25 in a good phase as part of our ongoing negotiations between the mining industry and the government of Côte d’Ivoire and in relation to formalizing a revised fiscal arrangement, which takes into account fair and equitable distribution of profits in the current high gold price environment.

We'll update you as we go through that, but we are appreciative of the nature and the style in which we're engaging with the Ivorian government and which the industry is working collectively together to get an outcome that is -- that works for both industry and the Ivorian government.

I'll now hand over to Craig.

Thanks, Lee-Anne. And then we'll move on to our organic growth projects. We'll start with Nyanzaga. So Nyanzaga remains on budget and schedule with first gold anticipated in January 2027. Construction activities on site continued during the quarter with several key workfronts achieving significant progress. A total of $262 million has been committed up to the end of December, which is half of the approved budget, and of the USD 262 million $161 million has been incurred.

The resettlement housing project is closing in on completion with the final 10 homes expected to be delivered before the end of January. Fabrication of the SAG and Ball mill continued during the quarter, the construction and installation of which are on the current project schedule, critical path and are progressing well ahead of schedule. The camp construction progressed to 70% complete with 32 senior rooms occupied and a further 30 rooms expected to be handed over by the end of January. And the tailings storage facility remains ahead of schedule with clearing and topsoil removal. Detailed design is complete and procurement is well advanced. Importantly, the pre-strip activities for the Tusker deposit have commenced.

At our CMA underground development at Yaouré, Q2 FY '26 saw strong progress with all four declines under development and a total of 800 meters of development achieved to date. We achieved a major milestone this month with -- this is in January with the first ore mine from the Blika portal. First ore was achieved through development mining and the stoping operations are anticipated to commence in Q4 of FY '26.

Project development is progressing to plan with USD 44.8 million incurred up until the end of December 2025, and commercial production remains scheduled to be reached in Q3 FY '27. The CMA underground total development capital has increased by $9 million from the approved $172 million to $181 million due to the requirement for remediation of the eastern wall in the CMA pit to medicate access risks from ground instability.

Alongside our financial and operating performance, Perseus continues to deliver tangible value to our host communities and governments and this slide captures the breadth of our contribution. In the quarter, our total economic contribution reached USD 269 million across our host countries, and this included $167 million in local procurement, which directly supports national supply chains and local business development.

We also contributed $85 million in taxes and royalties and $1.5 million in community contributions as we continue to support local development funds and key community initiatives. Our workforce is overwhelmingly comes from the regions in which we operate with 95% of employees coming from our host countries. This is a reflection of our commitment to building local capability and building the skills base that our future growth depends on.

Although our safety indicators reflect very strong safety performance with a TRIFR of 0.83 and an LTIFR 0.00 up until the end of December. The reality is that the true safety performance is ultimately reflected in human outcomes not statistics, and our recent fatalities at Sissingué are a testament to this. Sustainability is at the core of our purpose and guides how we deliver results, creating value and building resilience, and that's what makes Perseus as a trusted partner in achieving its mission of creating material benefits for all stakeholders in fair and equitable proportions.

Before I hand over to any questions, I want to acknowledge the hard work and commitment from our teams across the business. The quarter reflected a challenging period as all of our sites transition to new primary ore sources. The teams completed this challenge at the same time as continuing to improve operating practices and discipline. Despite this, we continued to deliver solid operating performance, generate strong financial returns and progress our strategic growth projects. or while maintaining high sustainability standards. With a strong balance sheet, high-margin operations and a clear growth path, we believe we're well positioned to continue delivering long-term value for our stakeholders and shareholders.

Thank you. Now I'll open the floor up to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey.

Just on Yaouré, can you give us a feeling as if -- are you still feeding the plant with stockpiled ore? Or are you now getting all the ore from the Yaouré pit? How should we think about the grade going forward over the next sort of 6 months to end the year?

Yes. So we're predominantly feeding expert or moving forward for the rest of the year. So a lot of that's dependent on stockpile is behind us.

Okay. Any -- can you perhaps be a little bit more explicit with that in terms of a grade range or...

So if you look at -- I mean, the Yaouré grade, I think, is in our mineral reserve estimates. So that will give you an indication on grade from Yaouré. And then obviously, in the second half, we're starting to bring in the CMA underground ore and with the stoping, so the bulk of the ore really in that fourth quarter is when you'd expect to see the bulk of the underground ore starting to be delivered.

Okay. And maybe just one on the new fiscal regime in Côte d’Ivoire. Can you give us an indication about the kinds of things being discussed? Is it just an increase in royalty rates? Or are there other elements being discussed as well?

So I think -- I mean with gold prices the way they are. Obviously, governments are looking to maximize their sort of recovery of revenues as a result of high gold prices. So we're discussing just general taxation and how governments take their share of proceeds from the operations.

So basically, we're having broad conversations at this point in time on that.

The reason we decided to pay the royalty in good faith is we wanted to be having a productive conversation on how to best achieve the desired outcomes of both ourselves and the government. And we didn't want to be talking about penalties and all these other things. So that's why we took the decision to do what we did. But the conversation is productive and proactive between industry more broadly and the government, and we're continuing about those conversations.

Yes. And do you have a feeling in terms of the sort of time frame to finalizing the new fiscal region?

No, not really. I think these things are -- they're complex conversations and could take a little while.

Yes. I mean the Ivorian government is obviously formalizing the new mining code, which is understood. So they're wanting to finalize it before they release the new mining code so that they can capture it in that. I think just importantly, it is important for you just to emphasize, we do have stability agreements. But we are -- we do understand the government's position that in these high gold prices, they don't necessarily have the structures in place that they feel can give them an equitable share.

To answer your original question, just in terms of are we only talking about royalty, I think we're trying to steer the government to other mechanisms like increases in corporate income tax and other things that we think are sort of more effective in distribution of profits.

But it's been a very collaborative engagement, and I probably in my history in mining, I don't think I've ever seen the industry working so well together as we have been in Côte d’Ivoire, so we are looking forward to getting an outcome that's supportive for both the government and industry and ongoing investment in Ivory Coast.

Yes. Okay. Is there any risk that it could be retrospective in nature?

No. I mean, I think just as a bit of background, remember, last year, the Ivorian government implemented this 2% additional royalty into the Finance Act, which doesn't apply to companies that have stability agreements. So that's -- so effectively, the only way it's going to be applicable is in that we've paid the FY '25 with them in good faith and as part of negotiations given that the average gold price for the year was about $3,500 an ounce last year, spot price, remembering that in Ivory Coast, you pay royalty on spot price, not on sales price.

And so no, so there's very low likelihood that it's going to be retrospective. The Ivorian government are, in my experience, very -- they do understand investments and they have got a lot of projects ongoing and being developed in Ivory Coast that any sort of retrospective change would be pretty detrimental to those projects.

Your next question comes from Levi Spry at UBS.

Maybe can we just follow up on the royalty piece. So maybe just a refresher or around the grounds on what rate is included in your cost guidance across the 3 sites and the development site?

So hopefully, I'll answer your question correctly. So just to backtrack. So the royalty that was included in the $1,800 that's been reported, for example, includes only the 2% relative to that quarter.

So if you talk about the December quarter, yes, we've got -- we've included that. In terms of the guidance, similarly, we have guided conservatively because we don't actually know the outcome of this, but we've included the 2% royalty in the guidance that would apply to the period. So it would apply for -- from 1st of July 2025 to 30 June 2026. We have included a 2% royalty assumption for that period. We have not included in that what we paid for Q3 and Q4 of FY '25. Does that makes sense?

I think so. But can I just confirm the absolute number that you're budgeting to pay in Ghana, in Côte d’Ivoire and then...

So the Ghana royalty is the 5% that we -- plus the 3% GSL. So we've got -- so they've got a 5% royalty and then something that they call a global sustainability levy, which is 3%. So we're paying a total of 8% in Ghana. And then in Ivory Coast, now Ivory Coast has got a scaled royalty, but at current gold prices, you're going to be paying -- we've assumed 6% plus a 2% additional royalty across all of the sites in Ivory Coast.

Yes. Got it. And maybe just moving to PDI. So like can you just flesh out intentions now and the potential to recycle that capital going forward?

We have no plans at this point in time with PDI. So we'll just continue to watch and monitor how that develops. In terms of our position in PDI, there's been no decision on any changes to that position. So I mean, we've -- it's been a pretty good investment for us. So we'll continue to sit on that at this stage.

Okay. And then just Nyanzaga, obviously, big value driver, a key project. Just a bit more detail around next steps as we think about first production only 12 months away?

Yes. I think we've obviously continue to work through the construction phase. So it's really moving into tank erection now. Steel erection will be starting shortly. The concrete is progressing well. We have -- the bulk earthworks are predominantly done, and it's really now start to pre-strip and get ready for all presentation and commissioning in the back end of the year.

And just -- you probably mentioned it, but just confirming critical path sort of type items.

Yes, mainly through the mills.

Your next question comes from David Radclyffe at Global Mining Research.

Okay. Looks like there's some mic issues there. There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Craig for closing remarks.

Okay. Thanks, Nathan. Well, as I said, at the end of my presentation, it's -- I really do want to acknowledge the hard work and effort by the teams in Perseus.

I think they're what make the business tick. And it was a challenging quarter as we went through quite a lot of change in the business, and they performed well and to get through that process, and we're really looking forward to delivering the second half of this year and continue to build on the value that we've created as an organization and progress our growth projects towards commissioning and ultimately production.

Good morning and welcome to the Perseus Mining Investor Webinar and Conference Call. I'll now hand over to Perseus Mining Managing Director and Chief Executive, Craig Jones. Thank you, Craig.

Yes. Thanks, Nathan, and welcome to the Perseus Mining quarterly webinar to discuss our September quarter results. Firstly, it's an honor to assume the role of CEO of Perseus Mining following Jeff Quartermaine's retirement, and he's left a lasting legacy at Perseus. And I'm joined here on the call today by our CFO, Lee-Anne de Bruin. So thanks, Lee-Anne. And also, let me just start by acknowledging the exceptional efforts of our teams across the globe who worked tirelessly to deliver another strong quarter of performance for Perseus.

So the September quarter marked another solid performance for Perseus in a year where all of our sites are transitioning into new mining areas. Amongst the change, we delivered strong operational results and continue to generate robust cash flows at the same time as marking meaningful progress on our growth initiatives.

Firstly, our 12-month rolling average TRIFR is currently sitting at 0.6, which is a very credible performance. From a safety perspective, we're continuing to focus on our fatal risk management process and our Safely Home each day engagement program as the key pillars for our safety approach.

Our gold production for the quarter was just under 100,000 ounces at an all-in site cost of $1,463 per ounce. So whilst our production is lower than the previous quarter, it's in line with our expectations and in line with our full year guidance.

Combined gold sales from all 3 operations totaled 102,000 ounces sold at an average sales price of $3,075 per ounce, delivering a robust cash margin of $1,612 an ounce, capitalizing on strong market conditions.

The notional cash flow for the quarter was $161 million, and we continue to build on our cash position with the quarter ending with a net cash and bullion of $837 million.

The September quarter marked significant transitions for mining locations at Yaouré and Edikan. Yaouré transitioned from the CMA open pit to the lower grade Yaouré open pit, and Edikan's focus moved to the higher-grade Nkosuo pit following the completion of mining at the AG and Fetish pits. And I'll provide further details on this as we progress through each site's performance for the quarter.

Starting with Yaouré. As mentioned, Yaouré gold mine operations have transitioned from the CMA open pit to the Yaouré open pit during the quarter. Yaouré open pit is geologically more complicated than CMA open pit, and there's been a strong focus on improving grade control practices to improve reconciliation to account for the shift in geology. We saw a significant improvement in reconciliation over the quarter with September's reconciliation being in line with normal tolerances.

For the quarter, Yaouré produced just over 55,000 ounces of gold, which was 21% down on the previous quarter, but in line with our expectations. This reduction reflects the lower grade Yaouré ore consistent with the mine plan, and we can expect to see lower grades associated with the Yaouré pit for the remainder of the year.

Production cost for the quarter was $829 an ounce with an all-in site cost of $1,110 per ounce. The all-in site cost decreased by 6% compared to the previous quarter, notably due to a decrease in sustaining capital associated with the timing of ongoing works on the tail storage facility, which was higher in the June '25 quarter -- FY '25 quarter.

57,000 ounces of gold was sold at a weighted average sale price of $2,959 per ounce, which delivered an average cash margin of $1,829 per ounce. Notional operating cash generated by Yaouré during the quarter was $102 million, so continuing to generate strong cash flows at Yaouré.

Mill run time was steady at 94% with gold recovery remaining stable as per the previous quarter at 94%.

Reconciliation between the block model and the mill for the last 3 months is 17% positive tonnes and 10% negative on grade for a 5% overall increase in contained ounces.

A final goodbye cut was taken in the CMA open pit with the pit now being used as the access for the CMA underground development, which began during the quarter. The CMA underground will be the first mechanized underground mine in Côte d'Ivoire. And I'll speak further to the CMA progress later on in the presentation.

At Edikan, during the quarter, Edikan produced 33,000 ounces of gold. Majority of the mining during the quarter was conducted at the Nkosuo pit following the completion of the AG and the Fetish pits. The land access of Nkosuo pit was mostly resolved during the quarter with mining of the footprint progressing. There were some challenging wet conditions from sustained rainfall that impacted the ore handling and dilution, resulting in processing of some of the lower-grade stockpiles during the quarter.

Stripping was higher due to face positions and access sequencing of the pit as mining areas became available.

Production cost for the quarter was $1,232 per ounce and an all-in site cost of $1,603 per ounce, which is $121 per ounce higher than the previous quarter, and the increase is mainly due to mining costs resulted from higher stripping waste stripping at Nkosuo.

31,000 ounces of gold was sold at a weighted average price of $3,337 an ounce, resulting in an average cash margin of $1,734 per ounce and a notional operating cash generation of $57 million.

Mill run time and recovery were 94% and 87.7%, respectively, largely in line with the targeted key performance indicators.

Reconciliation between the block model and the mill for the last 3 months is 11% negative on tonnes and 6% negative on grade for a 16% reduction in contained ounces. And this is mainly associated with the commencement of the Nkosuo pit and some of the challenging conditions that were experienced during the quarter.

Plans are progressing to commence further cutbacks at the Fetish and Esuajah North pits in the next calendar year, consistent with the plans that we articulated in the 5-year outlook in June.

During the quarter, Sissingué complex produced 12,000 ounces of gold and the Sissingué complex results were attributed to mining and processing operations at the Sissingué Gold mine and mining operations at the Fimbiasso pits located 65 kilometers from the Sissingué processing facilities.

Production cost for the quarter was $2,458 per ounce and an all-in site cost of $2,745 per ounce. The increase in all-in site cost was a combination of increased royalties linked to gold price and higher production costs resulting from scheduled mill reline and surge bin apron feeder maintenance and an increase in waste stripping at Fimbiasso West, Sissingué Stage 4 and Airport West to access high-grade ore.

13,000 ounces of gold was sold at a weighted average sale price of $2,953 per ounce, resulting in an average cash margin of $208 per ounce and a notional operating cash flow of $2 million for the quarter.

Mill run time was 91%, which was down from the previous quarter's 96% due to maintenance activities and gold recovery improved marginally to 90.9% from 88.3% in the previous quarter.

Reconciliation between the block model and the mill for the last 3 months is 4% negative on tonnes and 14% negative on grade for an 18% reduction in contained ounces. The lower gold grade performance reflects the continuation of higher dilution than anticipated when mining the narrow variably mineralized structures of Sissingué Main, Fimbiasso West and Airport West pits.

The 6- to 12-month trends demonstrate improving correlation with gold contained now tracking within 7% of the block model over an annual period and work is ongoing to -- on operational controls to minimize dilution.

Ore grade is expected to increase with the mining of the Antoinette deposit at Bagoé, which is scheduled to commence in Q2 of FY '26. Construction of the site infrastructure is progressing well and remains on schedule. All major contracts have been awarded, and key contractor mobilization is proceeding as planned.

So looking ahead for FY '26, our guidance remains unchanged. Gold production will be in the range of 400,000 to 440,000 ounces with production weighted to the second half of the year. Our all-in site costs will be between $1,460 and $1,620 per ounce. So our guidance includes Yaouré production reducing from this quarter, as we mentioned before, with all of the ore now coming out of the Yaouré pit. And Sissingué will increase production with access to the higher-grade material at Bagoé. Edikan also increasing production with the main source of the ore from the higher grade Nkosuo pit.

So now I'll pass over to Lee-Anne, and she can talk about the financial aspects of the quarter.

Thanks, Craig, and hi, everyone, on the call again. As mentioned by Craig, we have ended this quarter strongly with $837 million of cash and bullion on the balance sheet, slightly up on the June '25 quarter. The balance is after operating margin generated by our sites of USD 170 million. We've also spent on continued investment in organic growth at the sites about $14 million.

Capital expenditure was in the region of $67 million for the period, which included $48 million that's been spent on the progression of the Nyanzaga development project, and about $12 million on the CMA underground at Yaouré.

There's been continued investments in our host countries through the payment of a USD 29 million dividend payment, which was made to our government partner in Ivory Coast in relation to Yaouré and their 10% shareholding and ongoing payment of taxes in the country.

Included in this cash flow was also $11 million on the previous share buyback program, where we purchased back AUD 84 million in total of the AUD 100 million share buyback commenced in September '24. The share buyback was renewed in September '25 for another AUD 100 million. We remain debt-free with the USD 100 million facility undrawn in place.

Looking at our hedge position. As previously advised, Perseus continues to evaluate its hedging strategy in the current gold price environment. Our hedging program focuses on maintaining downside protection whilst retaining as much upside opportunity as possible while still observing as we do, prudent cash management practices.

Giving consideration to the rising gold price environment we're in, during the year and particularly during the quarter, we have continued to roll off existing forward contracts, reducing our committed hedge position. Since the end of March '25, we have reduced our committed hedge position from 24% to 14% of our 3-year forecast production.

In addition, during the quarter, we spent USD 1.7 million purchasing uncommitted put options at about -- at a strike price of about $2,600 per ounce as part of our capital allocation strategy, which seeks to maintain balance sheet resilience under a range of trading conditions.

With that, I'll hand back to Craig to now talk about our organic growth across the group.

Thanks, Lee-Anne. So moving on to the organic growth now, and there's been some fantastic development of our Nyanzaga project and CMA projects over the quarter, but we'll start off with Nyanzaga.

So during the quarter, there were several important milestones achieved at our Nyanzaga project in Tanzania. We announced the signing of the critical elements of -- the critical agreements between the Tanzanian government and Perseus, mining subsidiary, Nyanzaga Mining Company Limited, locking in the key fiscal arrangements related to the project.

We've been very active with our drilling program. And during the quarter, activities consisted of resource definition drilling on the Nyanzaga's Tusker and Kilimani deposits, along with sterilization and exploration drilling within the Nyanzaga mining license. Reconnaissance drilling on a cluster of exploration targets within the exploration tenements surrounding the Nyanzaga mining lease was also undertaken. This drilling continues with encouraging results that could support the potential for a resource and reserve update later this financial year.

In terms of construction activities on the ground, you can see from the photos that we've been very busy. There's blinding, formwork and steel fixing commenced on the primary crushing, milling and CIL circuits and a second contract -- concrete contractor has been mobilized to site to provide additional capacity.

Fabrication of the SAG and Ball mills are progressing well and are ahead of schedule. Both of which are on the project critical path.

We've completed the bulk earthworks at both camp accommodation and treatment plant work areas and the roofing has been installed on the first accommodation blocks. The other buildings are progressing well as we work towards occupancy later this quarter or this coming quarter.

Contracts have been awarded for the installation of the transmission line and transformers for the tie-in of the permanent power supply. We also continue to make great progress on the resettlement housing project with 163 of the total 262 houses have been delivered to project affected families. And as of the end of 19th of October, the number has risen to [ 181 ] homes. So overall, the Nyanzaga project remains on budget and on schedule with first gold anticipated in January 2027.

As we announced during the quarter, a Presidential Decree Was granted authorizing the development of the -- and operation of the CMA underground at Yaouré. The first cuts of the Pauline decline were taken on Monday, the 29th of September, marking a significant milestone for the CMA underground project. You can see from the photos it's starting to look like a mine. And as of today, the Pauline decline has progressed to 69 meters.

Phase support of the remaining 3 portals continued and mining of all 3 will commence early in quarter 2 of this current quarter.

The administration building and fit out of the support buildings is complete. Other surface infrastructure, including camp facilities, electrical and maintenance areas to support the underground operations also continued during the quarter.

With the commencement of mining of the decline, the next major milestone for the CMA underground project will be first ore production scheduled for Q3 of FY '26 with commercial production scheduled for Q3 of financial year '27. So great progress at CMA.

So with sustainability. So alongside our financial and operating performance, Perseus continues to deliver tangible value to our host communities and governments, and this slide captures the breadth of our contributions.

In the first quarter of FY '26, our total economic contribution reached $215 million across our host countries. This includes $141 million in local procurement, which directly supports national supply chains and local business development. We also contributed $58 million in taxes and royalties and $1.87 million in community contributions as we continue to support local development funds and key community initiatives.

Our workforce overwhelmingly comes from the regions in which we operate with 95% of our employees from our host countries, and this is a reflection of our commitment to build local capability and building the skill base that we need for our future growth.

Safety remains at the core of how we operated and achieving a TRIFR of 0.6 and an LTIFR of 0, making the full year without a lost time injury. That's a significant milestone and a testament to the safety culture that's embedded within our organization.

We've also published our FY '25 Sustainable Development Report, which includes a refreshed sustainability strategy and a double materiality assessment. This ensures that our ESG priorities reflect both our business risks and the issues that matter most to our stakeholders, and I encourage you to read that on our website.

Sustainability is at the core of our purpose and guides how we deliver results, creating value and building resilience. This is what makes Perseus a trusted partner in achieving its mission of creating material benefits for all stakeholders in fair and equitable proportions.

So we continued -- so the September quarter capped off another successful quarter for Perseus. We continue to deliver solid operating performance, generate strong financial returns and progress our strategic growth projects, all while maintaining high safety and ESG standards.

With a strong balance sheet, high-margin operations and clear growth path, we deliver -- we believe that we're well positioned to continue delivering long-term value for our shareholders.

So thank you, and I'll now open the floor to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Reg Spencer at Canaccord.

Congrats on another good quarter. My first question is just in relation to Sissingué. Those -- that delay that you mentioned with respect to the mining conventions, is that got more -- does that delay more to do with the elections or the changes that were recently made to the mining code? Just trying to get a handle on the overall environment in Côte d'Ivoire.

I mean the elections were held on Saturday in Côte d'Ivoire. And while accounts seems to have progressed pretty well, we obviously keep watching that over the next couple of days. In terms of the mining convention, that's -- we're just working through the process of obtaining those. It takes a little bit of time.

Yes. I think, Reg, to your question, I think, no, it's unrelated to the mining code. But it's just -- as you know, during election time, it's hard to get people to put pen to paper. That said, we're quite progressed, and it's likely we'll get it sorted out. The mining convention, however, is not relevant to us commencing mining, however. It's just a matter of making sure we've signed up to all the fiscal arrangements that are agreed.

Understood. And last one, feel free, Lee-Anne or Craig to answer this, but I'd be interested to get your views on hedging. Gold price clearly very high at the moment. You've got a relatively low percentage of hedging, and I suppose that's good for cash flow at this point in time. But the outlook, is there an argument to put more hedges in place to lock in gold prices?

Yes. I mean if I had a crystal ball and I knew where gold price was going, I'd be much richer than I am now, Reg. That said, as you know, we're always focused on disciplined cash management, and that's why we've shifted to the structure of paying some of our capital towards buying puts, which are relatively cheap at the moment.

So although our committed hedging has come down, which is our forward book and our calls, the shift to puts allows us to protect the downside. So we still have -- we're still maintaining that downside protection through putting the puts in place. But those puts are not committed hedging. So we don't have to deliver them, but they are then allowing us to make sure that if gold price drops below $2,600 that we're relatively protected there.

Your next question comes from Richard Knights at Barrenjoey.

Just a quick one on Edikan. Obviously, production was down a little bit quarter-on-quarter. Just wondering about the access issues at Nkosuo. And I think you mentioned they're largely resolved. What is remaining? And is that going to have any impact over the rest of the year? And I suppose how should we think about the run rate at Edikan over the rest of the year?

I think the way to think about the run rate for Edikan at the end of the year is, as we've said, it will increase to -- continue to increase in production as we get deeper into the Nkosuo pit. We've -- when I say largely complete, we've got the majority of access to the entire footprint now and continuing to mine down, which we do get a little bit out of sequence with the access issues we were having. So hence, the stripping that we talked about being a little bit more. And so we're just getting back into sequence now in the pit and don't expect to see any constraints for us moving forward.

Your next question comes from Levi Spry at UBS.

Maybe just at Yaouré, can you just maybe talk us through the profile over the remainder of the year as the underground ramps up?

Yes. So obviously, we talked last quarter about the delays we were having in getting our Presidential Decree. So that's now resolved and behind us, and we're basically ramping up our mining progress for the CMA underground. And as I mentioned before, we're quite a way down the Pauline decline now, and we'll continue to get our rhythm and cycle times refined as we move forward.

We're pretty confident that, that's going to progress well, and we should recover some of that time. But obviously, we need a little bit more time of mining before we can really go out and say that we are going to do that. So that's our primary focus at the moment is to get the mining operations efficient and turning over the heading so that we can recover that time.

And Levy, I mean, just high level, as you know, as we happily mentioned it is because we're entering the Yaouré pit, your production that will come off slightly for Yaouré over the next 2 or 3 quarters given that you're in the lower-grade Yaouré pit and ramping up the underground.

So we're essentially -- the majority of the gold for the year comes out of the CMA pit. There's only a small contribution from the underground.

Yes, from the Yaouré pit.

Sorry, the Yaouré pit. So that's our primary focus now is continuing, but the grades are lower.

Yes. Okay. And if I can just ask one about Nyanzaga. So I think you mentioned the reserve and resource update coming this year. How do we think about the materiality of that, I guess, given the stage it's at, potential upside and then even the pricing assumptions that were used in the last cut?

I think we'll have to wait and see for that work to be completed before we can give you any sort of indication on the materiality of that. But as we continue to do the drilling, we'll continue to update our models. We'll look at our assumptions around prices and so forth. And -- but everything seems to be going in the right direction at the moment.

Yes. Okay. Maybe just on that. So the updates we get on the grade reconciliation across the operations, is there anything that has caught your eye in the time you've been in the seat when it comes to that?

Look, I mean, that's obviously a core focus for us. I talked about Sissingué, trying to close the gap on that. There's been some good progress in terms of Yaouré, closing the gap on the reconciliation and tightening up our processes and mining practices, and we've seen some positive movements in that regard. So it's something that we'll be continuing to focus on. I mean there's a reason we put it in the report so that we can demonstrate that we are -- we have reliability in our ore bodies, and we have to mine them reliably as well. So very much a key focus for us.

Your next question comes from Andrew Bowler at Macquarie.

Just following on from the hedging questions. I'm not sure if you mentioned it earlier, Lee-Anne, but just the cost of those puts. I'm assuming that's caught up in the working capital and other line on the waterfall chart and just [indiscernible] that and how much you're willing to spend, I guess, every quarter from now?

Yes. I mean we spent about, as I said, USD 1.7 million in the quarter. We've got a mandate from the Board to spend -- to not overspend on it, and we're continually looking at the cost of it, but puts at the moment are relatively cheap. I think we're paying between $40 and $70 an ounce or something is what we've been paying.

No worries. And just another one, interesting comments on Sudan just talking about gradual improvement in security recently. I'm just wondering if that's going to affect the rate of spend for that project. Will we see an uptick for the remainder of the year? Or is the budget and it doesn't really matter if security improves, that's all we'll see -- excuse my voice, I should say?

Well, I mean, look, the reports coming out of Sudan are positive, which is a good thing. Obviously, there's a little way to go before we see how all that pans out. But we'll keep watching that.

In terms of our current plans, our current plans are as per our budget. And if things change to the point where we think that, that would change, then we'll let the market know. But at this point in time, we're continuing to progress towards our budget.

Yes. And remember, Andrew, we've always said the security issues are quite minor for us given where we're located. The thing for us to make a decision there is to make sure the supply chain and logistics pieces are working because that's the most critical part probably to the project over and above security of our people.

Your next question comes from David Radclyffe at Global Mining Research.

So it's early days for the question, maybe a little bit premature. But look, any thoughts on the opportunities you might have identified in the business so far? And then when you think to the overall strategy, are you sticking to this? Or have you thought of any way you might sort of think to tweak this in the future?

Yes. Thanks for the question, David. Look, the plan is still the plan. So there's a solid platform that Jeff and the team have built over the years, and the company has enormous optionality in it. I think for us moving forward, we'll be focusing on delivering the 5-year outlook that's been presented to the market. And that means we need to continue to deliver on our operating performance. We need to focus on the delivery of the Nyanzaga project and ramp that up in the March quarter of 2027.

We need to build and operate the CMA project. So that's a shift, the first underground mine in Côte d'Ivoire. But we'll also be focusing on extending the life of our existing assets and doing more exploration in the exploration space. So a lot of focus on near-mine exploration. We're also doing some greenfield work as well.

And then beyond that, if any other options come our way, then we'll assess them on their relative merits. But the plan is to continue to run safe and efficient operations to continue to generate strong cash flows, continue to return capital to shareholders and continue our growth options at the same time. And we think that we're in a position that we can do that. So that's how we're thinking -- well, I say that's how I'm thinking about it, and we're thinking about it at the moment.

Great. That was very clear. Then maybe a follow-up on Edikan. So Nkosuo is ramping up a lot of volume of low-grade stocks processed this quarter. So is that going to be -- is that going to flow through to next quarter? And then when do the other cutbacks start to deliver ore?

Yes. So the -- let's start with Nkosuo. A lot of the reason for the low-grade stocks at Nkosuo was the wet season, obviously, in Côte d'Ivoire at the moment, and that finishes pretty much this month. So we're expecting conditions to improve substantially for the rest of the year, and that will just really get us into the rhythm in Nkosuo and starts to deliver the higher grade that we're expecting. So you should see that grade improve throughout the year.

With the other 2 pits, we'll start that stripping activities in the next half. And there's a fair bit of stripping before we get into the ore there. So it's more focused on next year's grade than this current year.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. So I'll now hand back to Craig for closing remarks.

Thanks, everyone. We're very pleased with the quarter that we've delivered. We're pleased that we're continuing to deliver strong operating performance and create strong financial returns. And really thankful for the hard work of our people across the globe who do put a lot of effort in, and that's one thing I've noticed about this company is there's a huge amount of personal ownership and discretional effort that sits within the organization, and that's what helps create the kinds of results that Perseus is known for.

So thanks very much for your time, and have a good day.